{"question_id": "20220722_0", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:11", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/07/speaker-nancy-pelosi-positive-covid-19/9496374002/", "title": "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Susan Collins test positive for ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined a growing list of Washington officials testing positive for COVID-19.\n\nVilsack announced Saturday on Twitter he tested positive for COVID-19. Vilsack is the latest of several vaccinated and boosted administration officials to test positive. He was scheduled to travel to Denver this week with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.\n\nVilsack's announcement came two days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, and President Joe Biden's sister tested positive for COVID-19 A day earlier, two cabinet officials and others tested positive the day before.\n\nPelosi, who is asymptomatic, tested positive on Thursday. She will quarantine, her spokesman announced.\n\n“The speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided,” said spokesman Drew Hammill.\n\nPelosi attended crowded events at the White House Tuesday and Wednesday at which Biden spoke.\n\nThe White House said Biden's interactions with Pelosi do not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's definition of being in close contact.\n\nLate Thursday evening another White House official said they too had tested positive for COVID-19. Michael LaRosa, press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, tested positive for the virus, LaRosa confirmed to USA TODAY.\n\nGet the news in your inbox:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here\n\nCollins tests positive after Supreme Court vote; DeFazio experiencing 'mild cold-like symptoms and fatigue'\n\nCollins, one of three Republicans who broke from her party to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, tested positive late Thursday afternoon.\n\nHer office said the senator is experiencing mild symptoms and will isolate and work remotely following the diagnosis.\n\nCollins' positive test came just hours after she voted for Jackson's historic nomination. Last week, Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., warned reporters that the confirmation wasn't a done deal until after the vote, because something like a senator testing positive for COVID and being unable to vote could disrupt the process.\n\nThe senator attended the annual Gridiron Dinner on Saturday, as did Vilsack and two other cabinet members who have since tested positive. LaRossa also attended the dinner, which attracts a wide swath of government officials and journalists. Some lawmakers and reporters who were at the dinner have also tested positive.\n\nHistory in the making:Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed by Senate as first Black woman on Supreme Court\n\nMeanwhile, DeFazio announced on Twitter late Thursday that he tested positive for COVID-19, adding: \"Thanks to being fully vaccinated, I am only experiencing mild cold-like symptoms and fatigue. I will follow CDC guidance and quarantine. I encourage everyone to get vaccinated!\"\n\nDemocratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia announced Thursday evening that he too has the virus, tweeting \"Late this afternoon after a routine test, I tested positive for COVID-19. I’m so thankful to be both vaccinated & boosted, and at the advice of the Attending Physician I plan to isolate.\"\n\nBiden tests negative\n\nBiden was last tested Wednesday, as part of his regular testing regime of a couple times a week, and tested negative, according to the White House.\n\nHis doctor does not believe it's necessary for Biden to test daily, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. \"COVID will continue to be with us,\" she said. \"We will see cases rise and fall.\"\n\nPelosi was one of nine House members to test positive this week. Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota tested positive later Thursday afternoon. All of the members are fully vaccinated and boosted.\n\nFollowing Pelosi's diagnosis, a planned trip by lawmakers to Asia that the speaker was to lead has been postponed.\n\nBiden's sister also tests COVID positive\n\nValerie Biden Owens tested positive on Wednesday after experiencing mild symptoms, her publisher said in a statement.\n\nOwens had not been in close contact with the president or first lady, the publisher said.\n\nOwens' memoir, \"Growing up Biden,\" comes out Tuesday.\n\nThe Biden family:A look at who's who in Joe Biden's close-knit family tree\n\n`Growing up Biden':Valerie Biden Owens, Joe's sister who ran his campaigns, writing memoir\n\nOn Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said they had tested positive, as did Vice President Kamala Harris' communications director Jamal Simmons.\n\nAll three had attended the annual Gridiron Dinner Saturday night.\n\nPelosi was not at the dinner but her spokesman, Hammill, was.\n\nBiden did not attend the dinner but spoke Wednesday at an event in a hotel ballroom packed with more than 2,000 union leaders and members, most of whom were not wearing masks.\n\nHe also held a crowded health care event at the White House on Tuesday and hosted lawmakers and others for a bill signing Wednesday.\n\nBiden, 79, has been vaccinated, and he received his first booster shot in September and a second at the end of March.\n\nIn addition, the White House had gone beyond CDC's recommended protocols to protect Biden from the virus. Anyone who meets with the president or is traveling with him is tested first. When possible, Biden is also kept socially distanced from others, according to Psaki.\n\n\"We are living with COVID-19,\" Psaki said Wednesday. \"We are continuing to fight it.\"\n\nMore:AG Garland, Commerce Sec Gina Raimondo latest attendees of Washington dinner to test positive for COVID", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/09/politics/susan-rice-positive-covid/index.html", "title": "Susan Rice tests positive for Covid-19 | CNN Politics", "text": "(CNN) White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice has tested positive for Covid-19, she announced Monday, becoming the latest high-ranking Biden administration official to contract the coronavirus.\n\nRice said she last saw President Joe Biden f ive days before her diagnosis but was masked and is not considered a close contact. She is fully vaccinated and has had two booster shots.\n\n\"This morning I tested positive for COVID-19. I'm feeling fine and grateful to be vaccinated and double boosted. I last saw the President in person on Wednesday—masked—and under CDC guidance he is not considered a close contact,\" Rice tweeted.\n\nSeveral top Biden officials -- who are all fully vaccinated and boosted -- have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.\n\nBlinken tested positive shortly after attending the White House Correspondent's Dinner in Washington, which was also attended by President Joe Biden. In the days after the event , reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico and other participating news organizations also tested positive for the virus.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Betsy Klein", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/05/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politics/kate-bedingfield-covid-19-positive-test/index.html", "title": "White House's Kate Bedingfield tests positive for Covid-19 ...", "text": "(CNN) White House communications director Kate Bedingfield has tested positive for Covid-19, becoming the latest high-level Biden official to test positive for the virus. President Joe Biden, she said in a statement, is not a close contact.\n\n\"This morning, I tested positive for COVID-19. I last saw the President Wednesday in a socially-distanced meeting while wearing an N-95 mask, and he is not considered a close contact as defined by the CDC,\" she said in a tweet\n\nBedingfield said she is experiencing mild symptoms and is \"fully vaccinated and boosted,\" in a subsequent tweet , adding that she would work from home and return to in-person work after a five-day isolation period and negative test.\n\nHarris, who is fully vaccinated and not experiencing symptoms, tested positive on Tuesday after returning from a weeklong trip to California. Her spokesperson Kirsten Allen saidthat the President was not a close contact and that Harris would work from the vice president's residence until she tests negative.\n\nHarris has been taking the antiviral coronavirus treatment Paxlovid after consulting her physicians, according to Allen. Paxlovid is available via emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in people 12 and older who are at high risk of severe illness. It requires a doctor's prescription.\n\nCovid-19 has been spreading among White House officials over the past couple of months. In late March, White House press secretary Jen Psaki canceled her plans to travel with the President to Belgium and Poland after testing positive for Covid-19 for the second time. Her replacement on the Europe trip, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, tested positive shortly after returning from the trip. Harris' husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for Covid-19 earlier in March.\n\nWhite House officials have acknowledged that it is \"possible\" the President will at some point contract Covid-19 but have emphasized the precautions being taken to prevent infection.\n\n\"The bottom line is he is vaccinated and boosted. He is very well protected. He's got very good protocols around him to protect him from getting infected. But there is no 100% anything,\" White House Covid-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said on Tuesday.\n\nThe President is scheduled to attend two high-profile events this weekend -- the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington and a memorial for former Vice President Walter Mondale in Minneapolis.\n\nWhite House officials argue the nation is in a much better position than it was at the beginning of the pandemic because of the availability of vaccines, boosters, at-home tests, treatments and masks. The US has largely lifted most of its Covid-19 mitigation measures after the Omicron variant spike over the winter.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional information.", "authors": ["Betsy Klein", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html", "title": "Omicron variant will 'find just about everybody,' Fauci says, but ...", "text": "(CNN) As the Omicron variant spreads like wildfire across the United States , it's likely just about everybody will be exposed to the strain, but vaccinated people will still fare better, the nation's leading infectious disease expert said Tuesday.\n\n\"Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody,\" Dr. Anthony Fauci told J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \"Those who have been vaccinated ... and boosted would get exposed. Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.\"\n\nIn contrast, those who are not vaccinated are \"going to get the brunt of the severe aspect of this,\" he added.\n\nAcross the United States, at least one in five eligible Americans -- roughly 65 million people-- are not vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 62% of the country has been fully vaccinated, but only 23% are fully vaccinated and boosted, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nFauci's comments came in response to a question about whether the pandemic has entered a new phase. That will come when there's enough protection in the community and drugs to easily treat severe Covid-19, he said, adding, \"We may be on the threshold of that right now.\"\n\nAlso Tuesday, US Food and Drug Administration acting commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said that while most people could catch the virus, the focus now should be on making sure hospitals and essential services function.\n\nWoodcock was responding to a question from Sen. Mike Braun about whether it's time for the United States to change its Covid-19 strategy. Her statement was not a new assessment of Covid-19, but rather an attempt to make clear the need to prioritize essential services as the Omicron variant surges.\n\n\"I think it's hard to process what's actually happening right now, which is: Most people are going to get Covid,\" Woodcock said Tuesday at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. \"And what we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function, transportation, you know, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, the number of US patients hospitalized with Covid-19 hit a record high, adding strain to health care networks and pushing states toward emergency staffing and other measures as they struggle to cope.\n\nMore than 145,900 people were in US hospitals with Covid-19 as of Tuesday -- a number that surpasses the previous peak from mid-January 2021 (142,246), and is almost twice what it was two weeks ago, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services\n\nThe hospitalization record comes amid a surge in cases fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant\n\nThe United States averaged more than 754,200 new Covid-19 cases daily over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That's about three times last winter's peak average (251,987 on January 11, 2021), and 4.5 times the peak from the Delta-driven surge (166,347 on September 1), according to JHU.\n\nThe country has averaged 1,646 Covid-19 deaths a day over the past week -- 33% higher than a week ago, according to JHU. The peak average was 3,402 daily on January 13, 2021, JHU data shows.\n\nThe Omicron variant caused 98.3% of new coronavirus cases in the United States last week, according to estimates posted Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nA technician administers a Covid-19 test Monday at a drive-thru location at Churchill Downs, Kentucky.\n\nLeaders activate new measures to combat surging numbers\n\nHospitals are increasingly juggling staffing issues -- not just because of the increased demand, but also because their employees, who are at a high risk of infection, have to isolate and recover after testing positive.\n\nIn Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a limited state of emergency Monday after the number of intensive care unit hospitalizations more than doubled since December 1. The order allows hospitals to expand bed capacity and gives more flexibility in staffing, he said, adding that it also expands the use of telehealth as well as expanding which medical professionals can give vaccines.\n\nIn Texas, at least 2,700 medical staffers are being hired, trained and deployed to assist with the surge, joining more than 1,300 personnel already sent across the state, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement to CNN.\n\nKentucky has mobilized the National Guard to provide support, with 445 members sent to 30 health care facilities, the state announced.\n\n\"Omicron continues to burn through the commonwealth, growing at levels we have never seen before. Omicron is significantly more contagious than even the Delta variant,\" said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, noting the earlier variant that spurred a surge of cases in the summer and fall.\n\n\"If it spreads at the rate we are seeing, it is certainly going to fill up our hospitals,\" he said, and Kentucky is \"down to 134 adult ICU beds available.\"\n\nAnd New Jersey reinstated a public health emergency, Gov. Phil Murphy announced, saying the state needed to \"commit every resource available to beating back the wave\" caused by Omicron. In the past two weeks alone, the state saw more than 10,000 people requiring hospitalization due to Covid-19, the governor said in a video announcement.\n\nMitigation measures such as mandatory masking are also being revived in some areas.\n\nDelaware Gov. John Carney signed a universal indoor mask mandate Monday because of hospitalization increases, with some hospitals \"over 100% inpatient bed capacity amid crippling staffing shortages,\" he said. Churches and places of worship are exempt, while businesses should provide masks to customers and have signage about indoor mask requirements.\n\n\"It's time for everyone to pitch in and do what works. Wear your mask indoors. Avoid gatherings or expect to get and spread Covid. Get your vaccine and, if eligible, get boosted. That's how we'll get through this surge without endangering more lives,\" Carney said.\n\nShare of hospitalizations from breakthrough infections is growing, but risks for unvaccinated are higher\n\nThe HHS data on Covid-19 hospitalizations includes both those patients who are hospitalized because of Covid-19 complications and those who may have been admitted for something else but test positive for Covid-19. This has been true throughout the pandemic, though the share of patients who fall into each category may have changed over time.\n\nFully vaccinated people are accounting for a growing share of people hospitalized with Covid-19 -- but hospitalizations among people who received a booster shot are still rare, and the gap in risk by vaccination status has been wide.\n\nBetween April and July 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron variant, more than 90% of Covid-19 hospitalizations were among people who were either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, according to a study published by the CDC.\n\nBut a sampling of data collected by CNN suggests that figure has dropped to somewhere between 60% and 75% in recent days and months:\n\n• In Pennsylvania, about 75% of Covid-19 hospitalizations between September and early December 2021 were among people who were not fully vaccinated, according to data from the state health department.\n\n• In New York, about 61% of Covid-19 hospitalizations during the week ending January 2, 2022 were among people who were not fully vaccinated, according to data from the state health department.\n\n• Beaumont Health, the largest health care system in Michigan, reported on Thursday that 62% of Covid-19 patients in its eight hospitals were unvaccinated.\n\nIn some hospitals, up to 40% of patients with Covid-19 \"are coming in not because they're sick with Covid, but because they're coming in with something else and have had Covid or the Omicron variant detected,\" CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Fox News on Sunday.\n\nBut Covid-19 cases in hospitals strain resources, regardless of whether a patient was hospitalized because of Covid-19, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said.\n\n\"If they get (incidentally) diagnosed with Covid in the hospital, they still need to go into infection protocol -- personal protective equipment, all of that still needs to be utilized. So it's a huge drain on the system overall,\" Gupta said Tuesday.\n\nWhile fully vaccinated people are accounting for a larger share of Covid-19 hospitalizations, multiple accounts suggest that those who are fully vaccinated and boosted account for a small share.\n\nIn the University of Maryland Medical System, less than 5% of hospitalized patients were fully vaccinated and boosted, President and CEO Dr. Mohan Suntha said Thursday. Beaumont Health reported Thursday that only 8% of Covid-19 patients were fully vaccinated and boosted.\n\nThe CDC did not respond to CNN's multiple requests for data on the share of Covid-19 hospitalizations by vaccination status.\n\nThe agency publishes data on its website regarding the relative risk by vaccination status. Cumulatively, the risk of hospitalization has been eight times higher for unvaccinated people than for fully vaccinated people. But in the last week of November, CDC data showed that hospitalization rates were about 17 times higher for unvaccinated people than for fully vaccinated people.\n\nSchools and industries face Omicron issues\n\nThe debate over safety in schools from Covid-19 continues to play out as only about one in six children ages 5 to 11 is fully vaccinated, according to data from the CDC.\n\nAs Los Angeles prepared to return to school on Tuesday, approximately 62,000 students and staff had tested positive for Covid-19 and will have to stay home, data from the Los Angeles Unified School District showed Monday, equating to a 14.99% positivity rate. The positivity rate of Los Angeles County at large, by comparison, has spiked to 22%.\n\nIn Chicago, educators returned to school Tuesday and students are expected to resume in-person learning Wednesday following a nearly weeklong dispute. The Chicago Teachers Union had voted to teach remotely last week, and the school district responded by canceling classes for four days.\n\nThe agreement, announced late Monday , included metrics for when a classroom would need to go remote due to Covid-19 levels.\n\nIn areas where schools have returned to in-person learning after the holiday break, the time needed for those with Covid-19 to recover has impacted some essential services.\n\nOther sectors also are struggling due to high infection rates.\n\nSome municipalities have seen nearly a quarter of their trash collection workforce call in sick in recent weeks due to Covid-19, leading to delays, according to the Solid Waste Association of North America.\n\n\"This coincided, unfortunately, with increased trash and recycling volumes associated with the holidays. However, we hope that as volumes decline and sanitation workers return to work, these delays will prove temporary,\" executive director and CEO David Biderman said in a statement Monday.\n\nIn travel, US airlines canceled thousands of additional flights over the weekend due to Covid-19 callouts and winter storms, and cruise line Royal Caribbean International announced it has canceled voyages on four ships because of \"ongoing Covid-related circumstances around the world.\" Last week, Norwegian Cruise Line canceled the voyages of eight ships.\n\nPublic transit systems in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Washington, DC, have had to scale back service with employees ill from Covid-19. In Detroit, 20-25% of SMART bus service is canceled or delayed, the agency said in a statement Saturday.", "authors": ["Travis Caldwell", "Jason Hanna", "Deidre Mcphillips", "Christina Maxouris"], "publish_date": "2022/01/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2021/12/30/december-30-arizona-covid-19-update-5-687-new-cases-41-new-deaths/9047373002/", "title": "Dec. 30 Arizona COVID-19 update: 5,687 new cases, 41 new deaths", "text": "Arizona surpassed 24,000 known COVID-19 deaths this week, and while hospitals remain strained, patient levels dropped slightly this week compared with last.\n\nOn Thursday, Arizona reported 5,687 new COVID-19 cases and 41 new known deaths.\n\nCOVID-19 and other hospitalizations have remained high in recent weeks, with some hospitals operating near or over capacity.\n\nEmergency room visits from patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 spiked to 1,939 visits statewide on Tuesday and remained at a relatively high 1,892 visits on Wednesday.\n\nAn increase in emergency room visits from patients with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 could be an early sign that the extremely contagious omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is taking hold in Arizona, though it's too early to know for certain.\n\nArizona is one of six states getting a federal emergency response team to help support overwhelmed rural hospitals. On Wednesday, 2,323 patients were hospitalized across Arizona for known or suspected COVID-19, and just 110 ICU beds were available across the state. While the level of patients remained relatively high in hospitals this week, the numbers were down slightly from last week, state data shows.\n\nThe total of known deaths in the state was 24,212 as of Thursday. The state surpassed 24,000 deaths on Tuesday, 17 days after it reached 23,000 deaths.\n\nArizona's seven-day COVID-19 death rate per 100,000 people ranked fourth in the nation out of all states and territories as of Wednesday, behind only the Northern Mariana Islands, New Mexico and Tennessee, after ranking first and second last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nState data released on breakthrough infections\n\nThe state this month began publicly posting data on breakthrough COVID-19 infections, and state officials say the data so far underscores the effectiveness of the vaccine.\n\nAbout 22% of reported COVID-19 cases in Arizona in October were breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people, according to state health officials.\n\nThe vast majority of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are among people not fully vaccinated.\n\nState data shows that unvaccinated people in Arizona had a 3.9 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 15.2 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 in October compared with fully vaccinated people.\n\nAs of Dec. 6, the state had reported 608 breakthrough COVID-19 deaths, which works out to a breakthrough death rate among fully vaccinated people of 0.02%.\n\nCase rates and death reports\n\nPrevious days this past week saw the following new case reports: 3,495 on Dec. 25; 344 on Dec. 26; 7,641 on Dec. 27; 1,976 on Dec. 28; and 3,411 on Dec. 29. No cases were processed on Dec. 25, which led to low reported numbers on Dec. 26 and a high number on Dec. 27, state officials said.\n\nDeath reports for the past week were: 70 on Dec. 25; zero on Dec. 26; zero on Dec. 27; 162 on Dec. 28; and 27 on Dec. 29.\n\nThe Arizona Republic generally recaps the state's daily numbers online in a COVID-19 updates blog and in a weekly recap story online on Thursdays or Fridays and in the newspaper on Sundays.\n\nArizona's seven-day case rate per 100,000 people ranked among the lowest in the among all states and territories on Wednesday — 43rd — after ranking first and second for much of January and then lower since, according to the CDC's COVID-19 Data Tracker. Last week, it ranked 31st.\n\nWhile other parts of the country are experiencing soaring cases due to the omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, the omicron variant is not dominant in Arizona. Public health and hospital leaders in Arizona have said they expect the extremely contagious omicron variant to increase in prevalence here during the next few weeks.\n\nThe state's seven-day average for new reported COVID-19 cases was at 3,327 on Thursday, compared with 2,928 a week ago and 3,093 two weeks ago. The average had reached as high as 9,800 in January, according to state data.\n\nPercent positivity, which refers to the percentage of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that are positive, varies somewhat based on how it's measured. It's been higher in recent weeks, a sign of more community spread.\n\nFor most of May and June, Arizona's percent positivity for COVID-19 testing was at 4% to 5%, before rising over the course of July, August, September and October. It was 12% for the week of Nov. 7, 13% for the week of Nov. 14, 13% for the week of Nov. 21, 13% for the week of Nov. 28, 11% for the week of Dec. 5 , 11% for the week of Dec. 12, 13% for the week of Dec. 19, and so far 20% for the week of Dec. 26. The percentages are now for all diagnostic tests conducted, rather than for unique individuals tested, after a change to the state dashboard.\n\nJohns Hopkins University calculates Arizona's seven-day moving average of percent positives at 9.8% as of Thursday. It shows the state's percent positivity peaked at 24.2% in December.\n\nA positivity rate of 5% or less is considered a good benchmark that the disease's spread is under control.\n\nThe state's overall COVID-19 death and case rates since Jan. 21, 2020, still remain among the worst in the country.\n\nThe COVID-19 death rate in Arizona since the pandemic began is 331 deaths per 100,000 people as of Wednesday, according to the CDC, putting it fourth in the country in a state ranking that separates New York City from New York state. The U.S. average is 246 deaths per 100,000 people as of Wednesday, according to the CDC.\n\nNew York City has the highest death rate, at 420 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Mississippi and Alabama.\n\nArizona surpassed 24,000 known deaths on Dec. 28 after passing 23,000 deaths on Dec. 11, 22,000 deaths on Nov. 23, 21,000 deaths on Oct. 27, and 20,000 deaths on Oct. 1.\n\nThe state exceeded 10,000 known deaths on Jan. 9. Arizona's first known death from the disease occurred in mid-March 2020.\n\nMany of the reported deaths occurred days or weeks before because of reporting delays and death certificate matching.\n\nA total of 1,373,767 COVID-19 cases had been identified across the state as of Thursday.\n\nHospitals remain stretched\n\nThe Arizona data dashboard shows 93% of all ICU beds and 94% of all inpatient beds in the state were in use on Wednesday, with 38% of ICU beds and 26% of non-ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. Statewide, 110 ICU beds and 544 non-ICU beds were available, a slightly higher number of available beds than last week, when just 94 ICU beds were unoccupied.\n\nThe number of patients hospitalized in Arizona for known or suspected COVID-19 cases was at 2,323 on Wednesday, a drop from last week and from metrics earlier in the month. Two weeks ago that number was at 2,789. The record was 5,082 inpatients on Jan. 11. The highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in a single day during the summer 2020 surge was 3,517 on July 13.\n\nThe number of patients with suspected or known COVID-19 in ICUs across Arizona was at 628 on Wednesday, compared with 669 last week and 704 three weeks prior, still far below the record high of 1,183 on Jan. 11. During the summer surge in mid-July 2020, ICU beds in use for COVID-19 peaked at 970.\n\nArizonans with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 on ventilators was at 391 on Wednesday. The record-high 821 was reached on Jan. 13. During the summer 2020 surge, July 16 was the peak day for ventilator use, with 687 patients.\n\nWednesday saw 1,892 patients in Arizona emergency rooms for COVID-19, which is relatively high yet still below the Dec. 29, 2020, single-day record of 2,341 positive or suspected COVID-19 patients seen in emergency departments across the state.\n\nVaccination update\n\nArizonans aged 5 and older are eligible to get the Pfizer vaccine, while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are approved for those 18 and older. Many individuals are eligible for booster doses, too.\n\nThe state reported more than 4.6 million people in Arizona — about 65.2% of the total state population — had received at least one vaccine dose as of Thursday, with more than 3.9 million residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The state’s data dashboard now separates out doses administered to Arizona residents versus all doses administered in the state.\n\nArizona's rate of fully vaccinated people out of the total population is 56.9%, which is behind the national rate of 61.9%, according to the CDC as of Wednesday.\n\nOut of the vaccine-eligible population, people ages 5 and older, 60.5% of those in Arizona are fully vaccinated, compared with 65.9% at the national level, CDC data shows.\n\nHealth experts strongly recommend booster shots, especially with the omicron variant spreading. About 32% of fully vaccinated Arizonans over the age of 18 had received a booster shot as of Wednesday, slightly below the national rate of 35.9% for that same age group.\n\nThe CDC recommends booster doses for fully vaccinated individuals ages 16 and older as long as it's six months or longer after they became fully vaccinated.\n\nWhat to know about Thursday's numbers\n\nReported cases in Arizona: 1,373,767.\n\nDaily cases are grouped by the date they are reported to the state health department, not by the date the tests were administered.\n\nCases by county: 866,014 in Maricopa; 172,153 in Pima; 88,597 in Pinal; 44,260 in Yuma; 38,967 in Mohave; 36,284 in Yavapai; 27,717 in Coconino; 26,905 in Navajo; 19,985 in Cochise; 16,196 in Apache; 12,172 in Gila; 10,441 in Santa Cruz; 8,955 in Graham; 3,638 in La Paz; and 1,483 in Greenlee, according to state numbers.\n\nThe rate of cases per 100,000 people since the pandemic began is highest in Navajo County, followed by Graham, Apache, Gila and Maricopa counties, per state data. The rate in Navajo County is 23,847 cases per 100,000 people. By comparison, the U.S. average rate since the pandemic began is 16,047 cases per 100,000 people as of Wednesday, according to the CDC.\n\nThe Navajo Nation reported 41,262 cases and 1,588 confirmed deaths as of Wednesday. The Navajo Nation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.\n\nThe Arizona Department of Corrections reported 12,708 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, including 2,284 in Tucson, 2,091 in Eyman, 2,014 in Yuma, 1,342 in Lewis and 1,163 in Douglas; 52,099 inmates statewide have been tested. A total of 3,433 prison staff members have self-reported testing positive, the department said. Fifty-six incarcerated people in Arizona have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19, with nine additional deaths under investigation.\n\nRace/ethnicity is unknown for 16% of all COVID-19 cases statewide, but of positive cases during the past six months, the breakdown is 42% white, 26% Hispanic or Latino, 4% Native American, 4% Black and 2% Asian/Pacific Islander.\n\nThe race/ethnic breakdown of cases since the start of the pandemic in 2020 has been 39% white, 29% Hispanic or Latino, 5% American Indian, 4% Black and 2% Asian/Pacific Islander. Race/ethnicity of positive cases since the onset of the pandemic is unknown in 16% of cases, and listed as other race in 6% of cases.\n\nOf those who have tested positive in Arizona since the start of the pandemic, about 20% were younger than 20, 43% were 20-44, 14% were 45-54, 11% were 55-64 and 12% were age 65 or older.\n\nLaboratories had completed 15,579,213 total diagnostic tests for COVID-19 as of Thursday, 10% of which have come back positive. That number includes both PCR and antigen testing. Percent positivity is at 20% so far for the week of Dec. 19. The state numbers leave out data from labs that do not report electronically.\n\nThe state Health Department includes probable cases as anyone with a positive antigen test, another type of test to determine infection. Antigen tests (not related to antibody tests) use a nasal swab or another fluid sample to test for current infection. Results are typically produced within 15 minutes.\n\nA positive antigen test result is considered very accurate, but there's an increased chance of false-negative results, Mayo Clinic officials said. They say a doctor may recommend a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test to confirm a negative antigen test result.\n\nArizona as of Wednesday had the ninth highest overall case rate in the country since Jan. 21, 2020. Ahead of Arizona in cases per 100,000 people since the pandemic began are Rhode Island, Alaska, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Kentucky and Wisconsin, according to the CDC.\n\nArizona's infection rate is 18,749 cases per 100,000 people, according to the CDC. The national average is 16,047 cases per 100,000 people, although the rates in states hard hit early in the pandemic may be an undercount because of a lack of available testing in March and April 2020.\n\nReported deaths in Arizona: 24,212\n\nDeaths by county: 13,670 in Maricopa; 3,153 in Pima; 1,306 in Pinal; 1,176 in Mohave; 982 in Yuma; 951 in Yavapai; 745 in Navajo; 542 in Apache; 466 in Cochise; 416 in Coconino; 308 in Gila; 206 in Santa Cruz; 157 in Graham; 107 in La Paz; and 27 in Greenlee.\n\nPeople age 65 and older make up 17,121 of the 24,212 deaths, or 71%. About 16% of deaths were among people 55-64 years old, 8% were 45-54 and 5% were 20-44 years old.\n\nWhile race/ethnicity was unknown for 7% of deaths, 52% of those who died were white, 27% were Hispanic or Latino, 7% were Native American, 3% were Black and 1% were Asian/Pacific Islander, the state data shows.\n\nThe global death toll as of Thursday was 5,425,516. The U.S. had the highest death count of any country in the world, at 823,115, followed by Brazil at 619,095 and India at 480,860, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nArizona's 24,212 deaths represent about 2.9% of COVID-19 deaths in the United States.\n\nRepublic reporter Alison Steinbach contributed to this article.\n\nReach the reporter at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes\n\nSupport local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/12/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html", "title": "Officials across the US enact emergency procedures to help ...", "text": "More than 151,000 Americans were in the hospital with Covid-19 nationwide on Wednesday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nThe agency's data on Covid-19 hospitalizations include both patients who are hospitalized because of Covid-19 complications and patients who may have been admitted for something else but test positive for Covid-19. This has been true throughout the pandemic, though the share of patients who fall into each category may have changed over time.\n\nWhile experts say Omicron appears to cause less severe disease than the Delta variant -- especially in people who are vaccinated and boosted -- its high transmissibility has sent infection numbers shooting up nationwide, followed by hospitalizations.\n\nThe US averaged more than 747,260 new Covid-19 cases daily over the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That's about three times last winter's peak average (251,987 on January 11, 2021), and about 4.5 times the peak from the Delta-driven surge (166,347 on September 1), according to JHU.\n\n\"The sudden and steep rise in cases due to Omicron is resulting in unprecedented daily case counts, sickness, absenteeism, and strains on our health care system,\" Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Wednesday briefing.\n\n\"The risk of hospitalization remains low, especially among people who are up to date on their COVID vaccines. However, the staggering rise in cases ... has led to a high number of total hospitalizations,\" she added.\n\nTo combat the massive strain on health care services that comes as more staff members call out sick with the virus, state leaders are enacting emergency procedures to help hospitals cope.\n\nOregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday she was deploying another 700 National Guard members to hospitals statewide. Mississippi health officials directed hospitals to transfer some critically ill patients to different hospitals on a rotating basis, based on location and resource availability. The state's targeted order applies to patients including those who are being treated for heart attacks, strokes and transplant patients with complications.\n\nMinnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced new efforts to support hospital staffing, including funding that will cover the costs for health care professionals -- mostly nurses -- to work for 60 hours a week for 60 days.\n\nAnd in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice -- who himself is sick with Covid-19 -- directed a team of local leaders to review and approve requests from hospitals for staffing support.\n\nIn Kansas, doctors warned they're not just short on staff, but on ventilators and monoclonal antibodies as well.\n\n\"The issue with the ventilators is we have many ventilators in-house but not all of them are able to handle the high oxygen requirements that our Covid patients require and the high pressures that they require to maintain oxygenation and ventilation,\" said Dr. Lisa Hays, chief medical officer for AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, said.\n\nShe added: \"I had to learn how many bodies our morgue could hold yesterday and determine whether that was going to be adequate for what our needs are.\"\n\nDeaths are also rising -- but CDC director says this could be because of Delta variant\n\nThe country has averaged 1,715 Covid-19 deaths a day over the last week -- 40% higher than a week ago. The peak average was 3,402 daily on January 13, 2021, JHU data shows.\n\nWalensky said Wednesday she thinks the recent rise in Covid-19 deaths is still due to the Delta variant. Delta was the country's predominant variant for months until Omicron overtook it in the week ending December 25 , according to the CDC.\n\nChanges in death rates usually lag behind case rates by a factor of weeks. \"We will need to follow those deaths over the next couple of weeks to see the impact of Omicron on mortality,\" Walensky said Wednesday during a White House Covid-19 response team briefing.\n\npreprint study of data from California hospitals found that people infected with Omicron were less likely to be hospitalized -- and for a shorter time -- than those infected with Delta, and their risk of death was also lower.\n\nThe study, which was posted Tuesday and has not yet been peer-reviewed, analyzed data from people in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health care system in December who tested positive for Covid-19, including about 52,000 infected with Omicron and 17,000 infected with Delta.\n\nOf those people, 235 with Omicron and 222 with Delta were hospitalized. No patients with Omicron needed to be put on a ventilator, while 11 patients with Delta did.\n\nRates of admission to the ICU were four times less for those with Omicron compared with Delta, and rates of death for those with Omicron were about a tenth of those with Delta, according to the study.\n\nMore than 62,000 people could die of Covid-19 in the next four weeks, an ensemble forecast from the CDC published Wednesday predicts. Covid-19 has killed more than 842,300 people in the US , according to JHU.\n\nStudents return to Olive Vista Middle School on Tuesday in Sylmar, California.\n\nThe return-to-school debate rages on\n\nAs Omicron rages on, people working in education services have debated whether in-person learning is currently feasible -- and school districts across the country have taken different approaches after the holiday break.\n\nHealth experts are urging more vaccination, with only 17% of children ages 5-11 and 54% of ages 12-17 immunized so far, according to the CDC.\n\nDr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that children are being infected at a much higher rate than in 2020.\n\nMore than 580,000 US pediatric Covid-19 cases were reported last week alone, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association said Wednesday. That's a 78% increase over the 325,000 new cases reported the prior week.\n\n\"Of the children who have been hospitalized or go to the intensive care unit or die, about a third of them have no comorbidities. Therefore, it can occur in anyone,\" Offit said Tuesday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Covid-19 pushes the US health care system to the brink Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Covid-19 pushes the US health care system to the brink 02:05\n\n\"This is not a virus to fool around with,\" he said. \"This virus can cause you to make an immune response to your own blood vessels, which means that you can have heart disease, brain disease, kidney disease, lung disease as well as liver disease.\"\n\nBut Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday that data shows risks to children are very low and it's time to talk about easing measures such as mandatory masking.\n\nExperts, including Allen, have said in-person learning should move forward, citing the eligibility of K-12 students for vaccines and that adult teachers and staff have had plenty of time to get inoculated and boosted.\n\n\"We are coming up on two years of disrupted school, kids in masks, to think there is no harm there or no loss in socialization, no impact, I think is incorrect,\" Allen said. \"The risk to kids is low and adults have had time to protect themselves with the vaccine.\"\n\nPediatric Covid-19 hospitalizations across the country recently hit a pandemic high -- at 5,018 children on Saturday, well beyond the peak of a Delta-variant-driven wave, which was 2,544 on September 10, according to HHS.\n\nAs some schools return to class, others head home\n\nSeveral of the nation's largest school districts are returning to in-person learning while others are shifting to remote.\n\nDistricts in Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta moved forward with returns to classrooms this week.\n\nWhile other districts, such as Cincinnati, Santa Fe and Las Vegas -- where the Clark County school district is the fourth largest in the country -- are temporarily moving back to remote learning as they deal with teacher absences.\n\nIn Louisiana, a group of teachers was planning a \"sickout\" Wednesday to protest Covid-19 protocols and severe staff shortages, demanding virtual learning return in their district and for school officials to extend isolation times for those infected from five days to 10 days.\n\n\"Entire departments are out, buses and classrooms are being combined, ancillary staff, teachers, office staff, and other school employees are covering classes to keep the school afloat,\" said Valencea Johnson, president of the East Baton Rouge Parish branch of the Louisiana Association of Educators. \"We cannot continue to do this. Our staff is experiencing burnout and our students are not getting the education they need and deserve.\"\n\nCNN reached out to the superintendent of the district for response.\n\nThe Biden administration is set to give K-12 schools an additional 10 million Covid-19 tests per month, according to a government fact sheet -- but that would cover just a fraction of students. Approximately 53 million students were in grades K-12 as of 2019, according to the US Census Bureau.\n\nAnd according to the CDC, Covid-19 screening should be offered for students at least once per week when community transmission is at moderate, substantial, or high levels.", "authors": ["Travis Caldwell", "Jason Hanna", "Christina Maxouris"], "publish_date": "2022/01/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/beijing/2022/02/06/olympics-2022-live-updates-monday-medal-evants/6683642001/", "title": "Olympics 2022 recap: US skier hurt in crash; no medals for US men ...", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nNOTE: Here's a look back at Monday's results in Beijing. For updates from everything going on Tuesday, check out our live blog.\n\nTeam USA earned its first figure skating medal of the 2022 Beijing Olympics thanks to a clutch performance from its ice dancers.\n\nThe U.S. took home the silver in the team figure skating competition after Madison Chock and Evan Bates turned in a season-best score in the ice dancing free program.\n\nThe news was not so good for skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin. The defending Olympic champion will not repeat in the women's giant slalom.\n\nShiffrin's first of five potential events in Beijing ended in disappointment Monday when she wiped out on her opening run.\n\n(Looking for coverage from Sunday's events? Here's everything you need to know.)\n\nTV SCHEDULE: How and what to watch each day of the Beijing Olympics\n\nEXCLUSIVE OLYMPIC UPDATES: Sign up for texts to get the latest news and behind-the-scenes coverage from Beijing.\n\nOLYMPICS NEWSLETTER:The best Olympic stories straight to your inbox\n\nWINTER OLYMPICS 2022: Answering 10 major questions for the Beijing Games\n\nStar US figure skater out individual event after testing positive for COVID-19\n\nVincent Zhou, 21, the nation's No. 2 male figure skater behind Nathan Chen, tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday and will be unable to compete in Tuesday's individual event. Zhou skated for the U.S. in the team event, winning silver, and was scheduled to compete individually on Tuesday, in the short program.\n\n\"It seems pretty unreal that of all the people, it would happen to myself,\" Zhou said in an emotional, 5-minute long video shared on social media Monday announcing that he will not be competing Tuesday. \"That's not just because I am still processing this turn of events, but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic. I have taken all the precautions I can and I have isolated myself so much that the loneliness can be crushing at times.\"\n\n-- Analis Bailey\n\nDisappointing night at short track for US\n\nAndrew Heo emerged as the best chance for an American medal in short track speed skating in the two events at Capital Indoor Stadium on Monday.\n\nBut the 20-year-old didn’t have enough juice to make the “A” final, despite putting together a pair of consistent times to make the “B” final in the men’s 1,000 meter. Heo went 1:24.03 to go into semifinal after a slower 1:24.6 quarterfinal time. He then bursted too early and came in last of the final (1:36.14).\n\nOn the women’s side (500 meters), neither of the United States’ two skaters made it out of the quarterfinals. Maame Biney came in third in the second heat with a time of 46.009. Meanwhile, teammate Kristen Santos was penalized in the fourth quarterfinal as she fell and took an opposing skater with her into the wall.\n\nThe men’s “A” final was not without drama, as the race was called halfway through due to metal parts on the track. After a brief cleanup and ice manicure, the race restarted, with China’s Rei Ziewei and Hungary’s Shaolin Sandor Liu battling it out for gold. Liu appeared to eke out the photo finish, but after a replay, Liu was assessed a yellow card for committing two penalties. That disqualified him and gave Rei gold in front of a delighted home crowd.\n\nItaly’s Arianna Fontana won the women’s 500 prior to that.\n\n-- Chris Bumbaca\n\nWhile you were sleeping\n\nFrom a historic moment to a devastating crash, the Beijing Games have not lacked excitement since it began.\n\nHere are the top stories you missed while you were asleep:\n\n17-year-old Chinese snowboarder claims slopestyle silver, shares podium with his idol\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China – Mark McMorris remembered the little kid he would see on his visits to China, the one who idolized him and who clearly loved snowboarding.\n\nAfter the Olympic slopestyle final, McMorris just had to look across the podium to find him.\n\nChina’s Su Yiming fulfilled a dream and drew the attention of throngs of media, fans, workers and volunteers at Genting Snow Park. The 17-year-old phenom claimed silver, beating his idol in an Olympic final.\n\nMcMorris won bronze for a third consecutive Games, while his Canadian teammate Max Parrot won gold.\n\n“I’m seeing this little kid, he’s always around, and he loves snowboarding more than anything and idolized me and then boom, this fall he’s just like so damn good,” said McMorris, who has been making trips to China to compete for Burton, one of his sponsors, since 2010.\n\n“He became a man, and he definitely has some height now and he’s strong and he’s riding at an incredible level. I’m super proud of him because he is a true snowboarder. He loves the sport. I’m honored to share the podium with him, and his future’s really bright.”\n\nSu finished first in qualifying and drew the most attention here. His massive second run included two triple corks, including one on the final jump with three off-axis flips and five spins that he had never done before.\n\nBy the time he lined up on the podium with his idol, dozens of workers stood atop the jump where he made his mark to watch.\n\n“This moment is indeed amazing for me because when I was very young I had this dream to compete in my hometown, in my country, to attend the Olympic Games,” Su said. “I'm extremely happy to achieve this medal in my hometown and also compete and stand on the podium with my idol from my childhood. I really felt overwhelmed.”\n\n— Rachel Axon\n\nUS speedskater and flag-bearer Brittany Bowe comes up empty in women's 1500 meters\n\nBEIJING — It was a disappointing day for the Americans at the National Speed Skating Oval, but a historic one for an Olympic speedskating legend.\n\nIreen Wüst of the Netherlands won gold at 1500 meters Monday, claiming an individual medal at the Winter Games for a whopping fifth consecutive time. Her first medal of the streak came at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.\n\nWüst also broke the Olympic record, to boot. She crossed the line in 1:53.28.\n\nAmerican Brittany Bowe, who carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony alongside curler John Shuster, had been expected to contend for a medal at this distance but finished well off the pace. She finished nearly a full second off the podium, in 10th place, with a time of 1:55.81.\n\nBowe will next race in the 500 on Sunday and the 1000, her signature event, on Feb. 17.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nUS skier Nina O'Brien hurt in scary crash in giant slalom\n\nBEIJING — Nina O’Brien, the top U.S. woman in the giant slalom after Mikaela Shiffrin went out, crashed just ahead of the finish line Monday and appeared to seriously injure her left leg.\n\nO’Brien was taken off the course on a stretcher, but U.S. Ski & Snowboard said on Twitter that she was “alert and responsive.”\n\n“She was worried about delaying the race,” the organization said. “And also she wanted to know how fast she was skiing.”\n\nO’Brien had one gate left in the second run and was going at top speed when she lost her balance. Her legs flew wide and she tumbled past the last gate and into the finish area. O’Brien immediately clutched at her left leg, and still photographs showed her ankle going the opposite direction of how it should.\n\n— Nancy Armour\n\nAmerican men fail to medal in snowboard slopestyle\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China — There would be no repeat gold for Team USA's men’s snowboard slopestyle team. There would be no medal, even.\n\nFour years after Red Gerard pulled off a surprising Olympic win, the 21-year-old finished just off the podium here at the Beijing Olympics.\n\nGerard, 21, was a surprise gold medalist in Pyeongchang four years ago – even to himself. He has since embraced the competition scene and came to Beijing gunning for a medal.\n\nHe sat in third until Canadian Mark McMorris landed a big run to bump Gerard and take bronze himself. Canadian Max Parrot, who won silver in slopestyle four years ago, claimed gold, while 17-year-old Chinese phenom Su Yiming took silver.\n\nAmericans had won the gold in both previous contests since slopestyle was added in 2014, with Sage Kotsenburg claiming it in the debut and Gerard winning in 2018.\n\n“Fourth never feels good. One off from being cool,” Gerard said. “I haven’t really fully put it together yet. I’m just happy that I landed a run, and I was really happy with the run, probably the best run I’ve ever done.”\n\nGerard used a unique line to put himself in contention.\n\nOn his first run, he landed 1620s on the first and third jumps. But in the rail section, he did a trick off the roof of the guard tower feature and on the second jump he used the quarter pipe to launch himself into double cork 1080.\n\nHe flubbed a trick in the rail section on his third run, leaving him to wait to see if his score would hold. But McMorris put down a run with three triple corks on the jumps to give himself a bronze medal for a third consecutive Games.\n\nAmericans Chris Corning and Sean Fitzsimons finished sixth and 12th, respectively.\n\n— Rachel Axon\n\nOlympic downhill skiing drought continues for US men\n\nBEIJING — The U.S. men’s drought in the Olympic downhill continues.\n\nRyan Cochran-Siegle was the top American finisher Monday, finishing in 14th place, 82 seconds behind Olympic gold medalist Beat Feuz of Switzerland. Bryce Bennett, the top U.S. man in the downhill this season, was 19th while Travis Ganong was 20th.\n\nIt’s the second consecutive Olympics that the U.S. men have failed to have anyone finish in the top 10.\n\nJohan Clarey of France won the silver and Matthias Mayer, the 2014 Olympic champion, took the bronze in the race, which was rescheduled from Sunday because of high winds.\n\n“I can’t think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck,” said Feuz, who four years ago was the bronze medalist in the downhill and silver medalist in the super-G.\n\nOnly two American men have won the Olympic downhill, and Tommy Moe was the last to do it, at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer. Bode Miller was the last U.S. man to win a medal in downhill, a bronze in 2006.\n\n-- Nancy Armour\n\nPlayers wear masks for Canada vs. ROC women's hockey game\n\nEven during an Olympics with extreme COVID-19 protocols, it was a bizarre look for Canadian and Russian women’s hockey players. Both teams took the ice Monday wearing KN95 masks underneath their hockey masks.\n\nThe start of the preliminary group game was delayed by more than an hour because the Canadian team did not receive a report on Russia’s COVID testing status and didn’t want to take the ice until that happened, according to Toronto Sun reporter Rob Longley.\n\nThe Associated Press reported that the IOC told the IIHF, the international hockey federation, that players were required to wear masks due to “safety and security reasons.”\n\nThe Russians returned for the third period without their masks, however. The Canadians kept theirs on.\n\n-- Roxanna Scott\n\nUS figure skating silver medalist tests positive for COVID-19\n\nBEIJING — A prominent U.S. figure skater has tested positive for COVID-19, and at the worst possible time.\n\nU.S. Figure Skating announced Monday that Vincent Zhou, who is scheduled to skate the men's short program Tuesday, tested positive on Sunday. It is now unclear whether he will be able to compete.\n\n\"Under the guidance of the USOPC medical staff, Zhou is undergoing additional testing to confirm his status,\" the national governing body said in a statement. \"If the results are negative, Zhou will be able to compete in the men’s short program, which begins Tuesday. At this time, we ask you respect his privacy as we await the results.\"\n\nThe news of the positive test comes at a devastating time for Zhou, who skated the long program for Team USA in the team competition on Sunday morning.\n\nWith the draw already having been completed, it is unlikely that the U.S. would be able to have an alternate skate in Zhou's place. Nathan Chen and Jason Brown are the other American men in the field.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nRussian woman makes figure skating history\n\nBEIJING — In the final event of the team figure skating competition, Russian skater Kamila Valieva landed a trick that no woman had ever achieved on Olympic ice.\n\nThen she did it again in the same program.\n\nValieva, 15, became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Winter Games, making four rotations in mid-air. She also became the first woman to land two of them in the same program, kicking off her program with a quad salchow before later landing a quad toe.\n\nThat she fell on a third quad attempt later in the program proved to be a mere footnote.\n\nValieva's performance capped a dominant gold-medal-winning performance by the Russian Olympic Committee in the team event. Valieva is also one of three Russian wunderkinds who will be vying for podium spots in the women's individual competition, and there is a chance they could sweep the podium.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nUSA wins silver in team figure skating event behind stellar ice dance\n\nBEIJING — After the first day of the team figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Team USA was dreaming of gold.\n\nInstead, it squeaked out a silver.\n\nBuoyed by a strong final performance from the ice dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates on Monday, the Americans edged Japan to win their first silver medal in the team figure skating event. They won bronze in both 2018 and 2014.\n\nThe Russian Olympic Committee, which entered as the favorite, won gold in dominant fashion.\n\n\"We're celebrating silver,\" Bates said. \"Winning a silver medal at the Olympic Games is an incredible achievement, and the fact that we all get a silver medal, the whole team -- I'm so happy. I'm so happy.\"\n\nThe U.S. and Japan were tied in the standings with 48 team points entering the final two events of the competition -- the free dance and women's long program. But Chock and Bates, the captains of the U.S. team, turned in a stellar performance to finish first in their event, and Karen Chen did enough in a redemptive long program to hang on.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nChinese American sensation makes Olympic debut\n\nBEIJING – There is no bigger star in China at these Olympics than Eileen Gu, the 18-year old freestyle skier from San Francisco who is headed to Stanford after these Olympics.\n\nDespite her American roots, Gu chose in 2019 to compete for China, the country where her mother grew up and where she has become a fashion model and a breakthrough star.\n\nGiven the hype surrounding her debut at the Beijing Games, Gu admitted there was some pressure to perform well Monday in the first Big Air competition for skiing ever at the Olympics. After two of her three runs, though, Gu’s place in the final was uncertain. After her ski fell off on the second jump, her only choice was to produce a clean run or be eliminated from the competition.\n\n“I would not feel satisfied if I didn’t make finals,” she said. “I was just focusing on the trick itself. I wasn’t thinking about there are people who want to watch me or that there was this pressure on me. It’s a right 9 (or jump with 2 ½ rotations). I’ve been doing right 9s since I was 14, and I know I can do that trick so I was just kind of talking to myself in that way.”\n\nGu pulled it off, securing her place in what will be a widely-watched final here on Tuesday at the Big Air Shougang.\n\nAmong the four-woman American contingent, only Darian Stevens qualified for the final after landing a left 900-degree trick on her third try after finding trouble on her second jump.\n\n“I was obviously feeling the heat,” said Stevens, a native of Missoula, Mont. “I had a really good first jump I was very happy with and had a little bit of a speed issue on the second one so there was a lot of pressure riding on that third jump but I was really happy to land it.\n\n— Dan Wolken\n\nNBC's Mike Tirico to depart Beijing early\n\nNBC prime-time Olympic host Mike Tirico will have a shorter stay in Beijing than originally planned.\n\nTirico's final show from Beijing will be Monday night. He will fly from China to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to host Wednesday's and Thursday's shows before heading to Los Angeles on Friday to anchor Olympic and Super Bowl coverage through Sunday.\n\nTirico will then head back to Stamford for the final week of Olympic coverage. The Games conclude on Feb. 20.\n\nMaria Taylor, who signed with NBC on the eve of last summer's Tokyo Olympics, will host Tuesday night's show while Tirico is flying back.\n\nTirico was originally scheduled to stay in Beijing through Thursday before going to Los Angeles. NBC officials, though, have reiterated that his schedule was subject to change based on COVID-19 and other factors.\n\nThis is the first year that the Olympics and Super Bowl are taking place at the same time. Four years ago, Tirico missed the Super Bowl as he was preparing for his first Olympics as prime-time host in Pyeongchang.\n\nNBC has its announcers and hosts working out of its Connecticut headquarters. It has a limited group of reporters on the ground in China. NBC News' Craig Melvin is still in Beijing and will host “prime plus coverage” (which is late night in New York but prime time in Los Angeles) over the weekend.\n\n— Associated Press\n\nIce dancers score season best to put U.S. in silver medal position\n\nBEIJING —The U.S. is all but assured of winning silver in the team figure skating competition after a clutch performance from Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the free dance.\n\nChock and Bates won their event with a season-best score of 129.07, widening the gap between the Americans (58) and Japan (54), which is in third place. There is one event remaining, with Karen Chen set to skate in the women's free skate.\n\nTeams are awarded points based on their finish in each event, with 10 points to the winner, nine to the runner-up and so on.\n\nThe U.S. had been squarely in silver-medal position entering Monday, but a last-place finish from Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier in the pairs' long program allowed Japan to knot the score.\n\nThe Russian Olympic Committee has all but locked up the gold, while the other two finalists, Canada and China, only had remote chances of medaling entering Monday.\n\nThe Americans have won bronze medals in the team event at each of the past two Olympics.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nShiffrin wipes out in first run of giant slalom\n\nYANQING, China — Mikaela Shiffrin's first chance for a gold medal was over almost as soon as it began.\n\nExpected to contend for multiple medals at the Beijing Olympics, several of them gold, Shiffrin lost an edge on the fifth gate of the first run of the women’s giant slalom and skied out. It’s the first time she’s failed to finish a GS race since January 2018.\n\n\"It's a huge disappointment. Not even counting the medals,\" Shiffrin said afterward. \"The easiest thing to say is I skied a couple of good turns and skied one turn a bit wrong and really paid the hardest of consequences for that.\"\n\nShiffrin has said she hopes to do all five individual events at the Beijing Olympics. Her next race will come Wednesday, in the slalom. She won gold there in 2018, making her the youngest champion in that event.\n\n-- Nancy Armour\n\nReport: Peng Shuai meets with IOC president, says she 'never disappeared'\n\nBEIJING – Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai told a French newspaper that her long-planned dinner with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has already occurred.\n\nIn a story published Monday by L'Equipe, Peng said the two met for dinner Saturday. She also once again denied having accused anyone of sexual assault, after alleging in a social-media post in November that she had been assaulted by Zhang Gaoli, a former high-ranking Chinese government official.\n\nPeng's post was later scrubbed from Chinese social media, and she disappeared from public view for several weeks. She also disagreed with that characterization.\n\n\"I never disappeared, everyone could see me,\" Peng told L'Equipe.\n\nActivists have expressed concern that Peng's movements and statements have been monitored or influenced by the Chinese government in the wake of her allegation.\n\nIOC spokesperson Mark Adams confirmed that Bach and Peng had dinner Saturday night. When asked Sunday about the dinner, he said he had no update.\n\n-- Tom Schad\n\nMoguls skier Kai Owens couldn't see out of one eye after crash in practice\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China – Cupping, dry needling, ice, pressure and some kind of brush for her face -- all day, every day, every hour, for the last several days. This was Kai Owens’ entire existence.\n\nWith a lot of persistence and medical treatment, the Chinese-born, American raised freeskier was able to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics Sunday night, finishing in 10th place in the women's moguls. Australia’s Jakara Anthony led the field with a gold medal performance of 83.09. American Jaelin Kauf won the silver with a score of 80.28, and Anastasiia Smirnova of Russia took bronze.\n\nHer ability to get to this night came down to the wire. Owens, 17, missed the opening qualifying round several days earlier, last Tuesday night, when her eye was swollen shut from a crash during a practice run on the same day. Owens, who also had a concussion earlier in the season, was held out by coaches.\n\n“The first day I couldn’t even move my arm,” said Owens. “I was in a sling because of my rotator cuff. And then I couldn’t see out of my eye.”\n\nBy Sunday night, her eye was still visibly injured, but remarkably healed given how bad it was a few days earlier.\n\n“I’m just so thankful to be here,” said Owens. “I owe a huge ‘thanks’ to our Team USA staff, U.S. ski and snowboard staff. They helped get me out here tonight.”\n\n-- Lori Nickel\n\nMikaela Shiffrin to make her debut at 2022 Beijing Games in giant slalom\n\nBEIJING — In what could be the first of five races at the Beijing Olympics, and perhaps as many medals, Mikaela Shiffrin competes Monday in the giant slalom. She is the reigning Olympic champion in GS and is currently third in the World Cup standings, with two wins and a second-place finish in five races this season.\n\nThe GS will be followed Wednesday by the slalom, where she became the youngest Olympic champion in the event in 2014. Shiffrin also has a silver, from the Alpine combined in Pyeongchang.\n\nShiffrin won the season-opening GS race in October in Soelden, Austria. But she didn’t race GS again until December – she won one race and finished second in the other – and her training time throughout the season has been limited.\n\nIn fact, she said Friday that she has spent more time training GS since coming to Beijing than she has the rest of the season.\n\n\"That’s not ideal,\" she said.\n\nDespite that, Shiffrin said she feels she’s in a \"pretty good place,\" both in GS and overall.\n\n\"There’s a lot of potential there,\" she said. \"What are the odds on a day where all the variables are controlled? My odds aren’t bad. I’m just going to have to see where the chips fall.\"\n\n— Nancy Armour\n\nOpinion: Are Olympic uniforms tainted by forced labor?\n\nBEIJING – Everywhere you turn at these Olympic Games, friendly staff members and volunteers are impeccably dressed in uniforms depicting white snow peaks and blue Chinese skies. As the competitions get underway in full force, we will see hundreds of technical officials wearing similarly attractive grey and white gear with red accents on their sleeves.\n\nBut it’s the logo over the right breast that your eyes should be drawn to.\n\nThe nondescript symbol, which looks vaguely like the silhouette of an impala’s head or perhaps a pickaxe, represents Anta Sports, a Chinese sporting goods giant that endorses several NBA players, including Klay Thompson and Gordon Hayward. It is also the parent company of a subsidiary that owns legacy American brands like Wilson and Louisville Slugger. The founder of Lululemon, Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson, is heavily invested in the company.\n\nIn China, the world’s second-largest economy, Anta is a very big deal. It’s also at the center of arguably the biggest political controversy surrounding these Olympics involving alleged genocide and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China.\n\n— Dan Wolken\n\nThe unlikely pipeline at the heart of the U.S. speedskating team\n\nOcala, Florida, is a town of about 60,000 people located between Gainesville and Orlando. Palm trees dot downtown. Temperatures last week touched 80 degrees.\n\nIt's not the kind of place you'd expect to produce Winter Olympians.\n\nBut in a strange twist – and with the almost inadvertent help of a Florida grandmother – that is exactly what's happened.\n\nThree of the top U.S. speedskaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Brittany Bowe, Erin Jackson and Joey Mantia – all hail from Ocala, which does not even have a year-round ice rink. All three are legitimate medal contenders. And all three started out as inline skaters on a team that is now called Ocala Speed, coached by the same woman, Renee Hildebrand.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nOpinion: US figure skaters falter on jumps, but still guaranteed a medal at Winter Olympics\n\nBEIJING – After Day 1 of the Olympic figure skating team competition, U.S. athletes talked about skating with intensity and building momentum for an improbable gold-medal run against the Russians.\n\nOn Day 2, the conversation turned, sharply. Thoughts of momentum were replaced by concerns about “picking each other up.” High-fives and fist bumps were gone. Hugs and kind words showed up in their place.\n\nThat’s because, given the chance to rise to the occasion, both Karen Chen and Vincent Zhou turned in flat, lackluster performances, leaving the United States likely settling for the team silver medal and wondering what might have been had Chen and Zhou been able to skate cleanly – or how things would have been different had U.S. Figure Skating officials chosen other skaters in their place.\n\n— Christine Brennan", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2020/03/15/louisville-coronavirus-cases-museum-speed-ball-guest-tests-positive/5054435002/", "title": "Louisville coronavirus: Rand Paul at event where guest tested positive", "text": "Two attendees of the Speed Art Museum's March 7 \"Speed Ball\" have tested positive for COVID-19, potentially exposing a swath of high-ranking Kentucky and Louisville officials and local power players to the virus.\n\nGuests at the event — held the day after the governor announced Kentucky's first confirmed case of coronavirus — included Gov. Andy Beshear, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, Metro Council President David James, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth.\n\nThe museum did not release the identity of the patients, but an attorney for Christy Brown, one of Louisville's most influential philanthropists and environmental advocates, confirmed to The Courier Journal she had attended the event and received positive test results Friday.\n\nMary Moss Greenebaum, the leader of the Kentucky Author Forum who also attended the Speed Ball fundraiser, confirmed Sunday afternoon she has tested positive for COVID-19.\n\nThe producer and founder of the popular roundtable conversation with newsmakers, authors and influencers said an initial test at University of Louisville Hospital on Thursday came back negative for the coronavirus.\n\nBut “one wise doctor was skeptical enough — given my symptoms — to insist that the test be done again and it turned out positive.”\n\n“I’m a scared cookie,” Greenebaum said.\n\nGovernor, mayor, congressman get tested for virus\n\nSeveral prominent Louisville and Kentucky officials said they had been tested in the wake of learning they had possibly been exposed and some still awaiting results said they planned to self-quarantine for 14 days after the date of the exposure.\n\nThe governor said Sunday he'd been tested over the weekend and received negative results.\n\nYarmuth, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives' Budget Committee, said in a news release that he was staying home for the rest of the week and was awaiting test results.\n\nFischer also said he had been tested but had not gotten results back and has placed himself in self-quarantine for 14 days. He said in a conference call with reporters that he feels \"great.\"\n\nFischer was able to get a test upon recommendations from the local health department, he said, because of the nature of the March 7 contact and the nature of his job.\n\n\"The two categories right now for getting tested are symptoms of COVID-19 in the hospital and, then, close contacts with cases. Mayor Fischer fell into that second category,\" Louisville's health director, Dr. Sarah Moyer, said on the conference call.\n\nKentucky coronavirus live updates: Get the latest information here\n\nAssuming Fischer's results come back negative, he said he would resume normal work activities March 24. If he becomes symptomatic, he would work with the health department to identify and notify people who may have been exposed.\n\nSpeed director sends word of Speed Ball's connection to case\n\nSpeed Director Stephen Reily notified museum employees that one Speed Ball attendee had tested positive for COVID-19 in an email Sunday morning, which noted that the individual was asymptomatic at the time.\n\nMoyer said Sunday that most of the people at the Speed Ball were at \"very minimal risk\" but her team was working with those who had close contact with confirmed cases to get them tested and self-quarantined.\n\nBrown's attorney said she began to feel ill Sunday, the day after the fundraiser. In an emailed statement, she said she feels better \"each day\" but is taking it easy as \"there's always a possibility of new symptoms.\"\n\nIn a later statement, the Speed Art Museum said Reily learned Sunday afternoon that another guest had tested positive for COVID-19. Both were asymptomatic at the time, it said, adding that health officials and affected individuals are notifying those considered at \"higher risk from possible exposure.\"\n\n\"This does not include either guests at the Ball generally or Speed staff members,\" the release said, adding that nonessential workers are permitted to work from home during the 14 days following the Speed Ball.\n\nThe Speed Ball is the museum's most significant fundraiser, according to its website. It was held at the museum, with dinner in the 1927 galleries, then dessert, dancing and cocktails.\n\n[ This story is being provided for free to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to The Couirer Journal at courier-journal.com/specialoffer/. ]\n\nThe Speed Art Museum was closed beginning Saturday for the rest of the month, part of a larger effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.\n\nReily advised in his Sunday morning email that museum employees \"stay vigilant\" in social distancing and in self-quarantining practices. He told The Courier Journal he hasn't begun exhibiting symptoms and that he would be working from home for the next week.\n\nAlong with several elected officials, attendees of the event, according to a photo gallery on The Voice-Tribune's website, included: University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi; Kent Oyler, the former president of Greater Louisville Inc.; and the Rev. Kevin Cosby of St. Stephen Church and Simmons College of Kentucky, as well as other area dignitaries and officials.\n\nOther guests, including U of L president, weigh options\n\nBendapudi said she will also self-quaratine and does not have any symptoms. She has not been tested and U of L spokesman John Karman said he doesn't know if she has plans to.\n\nBendapudi's husband, Venkat, and her chief of staff, Michael Wade Smith, also attended the event. They both show no symptoms but will also self-quarantine, a U of L spokesman said.\n\n\"It is always an honor to lead U of L and for now I will be doing so remotely,\" Bendapudi tweeted Sunday.\n\nYarmuth's son, Aaron Yarmuth, said he isn't self-quarantining after attending the ball, but is avoiding physical contact and being \"extra diligent\" about hygiene. He also doesn't have any symptoms and isn't opposed to being tested if needed.\n\nCosby told The Courier Journal he feels fine and didn't speak to Brown or Greenebaum at the event.\n\nWhat to do:9 steps to take if you might have COVID-19\n\nJames, the Metro Council president, confirmed he attended the event and said he is displaying no symptoms. Asked if he planned to self-quarantine, he said he wasn't sure because he'd just found out.\n\nIf testing opportunities become more widely available, he would get tested for the virus, he said.\n\nMoyer told James in a text, shared with The Courier Journal, that her team would call if someone is at risk, adding that usually included being within 6 feet of a patient for 20 minutes, \"or kissed, coughed or sneezed on.\"\n\nOther attendees did not immediately respond to emails and voicemails left by The Courier Journal.\n\nGreenebaum, Brown among 6 Jefferson County cases\n\nThere are 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Kentucky, as of Sunday afternoon. Of those, there are six in Jefferson County. Two of the cases are Greenebaum and Brown, both local influencers.\n\nOn March 9, the nonprofit Kentucky Author Forum affiliated with Greenebaum held a truncated event. The original speaker, author Amaryllis Fox, could not travel from California to Louisville because of virus-related travel concerns.\n\nIn her place, Malcolm Nance, an MSNBC contributor, analyst and author who was to interview Fox at the forum, stepped in and spoke to an audience of about 450 at The Kentucky Center in downtown Louisville.\n\nAfter his presentation, Greenebaum hosted a small dinner for forum sponsors and supporters on the 25th floor of downtown’s Humana Building.\n\nGreenebaum said she was not experiencing symptoms at the Speed Ball or at the forum event and follow-up dinner.\n\nSymptoms, including a high temperature and a hacking cough, started to hit midweek, she said. They led to the decision to get tested.\n\nBrown is a major philanthropic and political force in Kentucky, regularly showering various liberal causes, organizations and candidates with her wealth.\n\nIn the past decade, she has given nearly $2 million to Democratic candidates and political committees. Most recently, Brown gave millions toward a super PAC that supported former State Auditor Adam Edelen for governor.\n\nEdelen, who came in third last May, was running with Brown's son-in-law, Louisville developer Gill Holland, as his running mate.\n\nMuch of Brown's money also has been spent on environmental causes, such as in 2018, when she pledged $5 million to establish an environmental health institute at the University of Louisville.\n\nThe gift was her family's largest ever to the school and represented one of the first major donations of Bendapudi's tenure.\n\nBrown said in a statement that \"this moment reminds us so directly that physical health is interrelated with all other forms of health (economic, psychological, spiritual, etc.).\"\n\n\"I'm going to try to make use of this time to close the social distance — at least in our hearts and minds — and have a conversation about these things online, even while I am physically isolated,\" she said.\n\nDarcy Costello: 502-398-0201; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/politics/merrick-garland-covid-19/index.html", "title": "Two Biden Cabinet members among dozens of positive Covid-19 ...", "text": "(CNN) Two members of President Joe Biden's Cabinet tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, becoming some of the latest high-profile Washington figures to contract the virus in recent days.\n\nAttorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced their positive diagnoses after having attended the elite Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington on Saturday. Other attendees, including first lady Jill Biden's press secretary, Michael LaRosa; Vice President Kamala Harris' communication director, Jamal Simmons; Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro; California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff; Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins; and the President's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, have also announced positive tests.\n\nThe string of positive cases has turned attention in Washington to the Gridiron dinner, an event that brings together some of the city's most prominent journalists, including from CNN, and the government officials they cover. Attendees had their vaccination status checked, but negative Covid-19 tests were not required to enter.\n\nAs of Thursday evening, 37 positive Covid-19 cases had been reported following Saturday's dinner, according to a letter from the club to its members.\n\nTom DeFrank, the president of the Gridiron Club, said in a statement Wednesday that \"there is no way of being certain about when they first contracted Covid,\" DeFrank said.\n\n\"But they did interact with other guests during the night and we have to be realistic and expect some more cases,\" he continued. \"Except in cases of public officials who have on their own disclosed their status, we will protect the privacy of guests who test positive.\"\n\nGarland is not experiencing symptoms but asked to be tested after learning he may have been exposed to the virus, the Justice Department said. Earlier Wednesday, Garland had attended a news conference with other officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, to announce sanctions against Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.\n\nRaimondo, meanwhile, is \"experiencing mild symptoms\" but is \"confident that the vaccine has prevented her from experiencing more significant symptoms,\" according to a statement from the Commerce Department Wednesday. Schiff said in a Tuesday tweet that he was \"feeling fine,\" and Castro reported in his own of \"experiencing mild symptoms.\" Owens did not have close contact with Biden or the first lady prior to her test, according to a statement from Celadon Books.\n\nLaRosa, who had tested negative earlier this week after attending the Gridiron dinner, confirmed to CNN on Thursday that he was experiencing mild symptoms and isolating at home.\n\nThough typically in close contact with the first lady, LaRosa only saw her briefly Thursday at the White House. He told CNN his interaction with Jill Biden had lasted less than 15 minutes and that they were several feet apart, which under CDC guidance means the first lady was not considered a close contact.\n\nVice president a close contact\n\nHarris had been in close contact with Simmons, who tested positive on Wednesday, press secretary Kirsten Allen said.\n\n\"The Vice President will follow CDC guidance for those that have been in close contact with a positive individual and will continue to consult with her physician. The Vice President plans to continue with her public schedule,\" Allen said in a written statement.\n\nIn addition to having attended the dinner over the weekend, Simmons was also pictured in the East Room of the White House during the Affordable Care Act event with President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama.\n\nBiden is not considered to have been a close contact of Simmons, a White House official told CNN.\n\nInside the White House, in accordance with federal public health guidelines, officials and visitors have not been required to wear masks or social distance. Visitors are expected to be tested for Covid-19 before attending official White House events.\n\nSimmons' case isn't the first to touch the White House.\n\nLast month, second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for the virus, marking the first known case of Covid-19 among the first or second families since Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021. And White House press secretary Jen Psaki and White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have also tested positive in recent weeks.\n\nCovid-19 cases in Washington, DC, have declined since their peak in early January, when the country was facing a wave of Omicron variant cases. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden's chief medical adviser, said Wednesday that he thinks there will be an uptick in cases of Covid-19 in the US over the next few weeks, and that it is likely that there could be a surge in the fall.\n\n\"I think we should expect ... that over the next couple of weeks, we are going to see an uptick in cases. And hopefully there is enough background immunity so that we don't wind up with a lot of hospitalizations,\" said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, when asked by Bloomberg TV's David Westin about the prospect of another wave of Covid-19 from BA.2 or another variant, given the level of immunity believed to exist in the US today.\n\nThis headline and story have been updated with additional developments Thursday.", "authors": ["Paul Leblanc", "Jasmine Wright", "Sam Fossum"], "publish_date": "2022/04/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/27/robert-obrien-trumps-top-security-aide-tests-positive-covid/5517038002/", "title": "Robert O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, tests positive for ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, has tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Monday, becoming the highest-ranking administration official to contract the disease.\n\nThe news came days after the announcement that a Marine assigned to the military unit that flies Marine One tested positive for coronavirus but did not have direct contact with Trump or his presidential helicopter.\n\nO'Brien, who was named national security adviser in September, \"has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site,\" the White House said in a statement, asserting that there was no risk to the president or the vice president of exposure.\n\n\"The work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted,\" the statement read.\n\nTrump could not recall the last time he met with O'Brien and did know exactly when his top security adviser tested positive.\n\n\"I haven’t seen him lately,\" Trump told reporters at the White House.\n\nTrump and O'Brien were last seen in public together during a July 10 visit to the U.S. Southern Command in South Florida. The next week, O'Brien traveled to Paris for meetings with counterparts from France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.\n\nThe White House also conducted contact tracing last week after an employee for a cafeteria vendor at the two eateries inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building tested positive for the coronavirus.\n\nKatie Miller, a top spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, tested positive in early May and has since returned to work.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/27"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_1", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:11", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/weather/europe-uk-heatwave-wildfires-france-spain-intl/index.html", "title": "Extreme heat sears parts of Europe, with UK seeing third-hottest day ...", "text": "Paris (CNN) Extreme heat has engulfed parts of western Europe, with wildfires raging in France and Spain, a worsening drought in Portugal, and the third hottest day on record in the UK on Monday.\n\nFire has spread across 27,000 acres in the Gironde department of southwest France, forcing 32,000 people to evacuate, the local prefecture said Monday night.\n\nThe nearby town of Cazaux recorded 42.4 degrees Celsius (108.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the hottest it has seen since its weather station first opened more than 100 years ago in 1921, according to French national meteorological service Météo France.\n\nMajor cities in Western France, such as Nantes and Brest, also hit new heat records, it said.\n\nIn Finistère, on the country's Atlantic coast, fires had first been reported on Monday afternoon; less than eight hours later, the flames had decimated more than 700 acres of land, prompting the evacuation of several villages.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Joseph Ataman", "Jimmy Hutcheon", "Xiaofei Xu", "Zahid Mahmood", "Sana Noor Haq", "Jorge Engels"], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/world/coronavirus-newsletter-intl-06-22-22/index.html", "title": "Summer starts in Europe with new Covid wave - 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) European countries are seeing a significant increase in Covid-19 cases spurred by highly infectious subvariants of Omicron, raising fears of a new global wave of the disease as immunity declines and the summer travel season gets underway.\n\nThe European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned last week that \"the growth advantage reported for BA.4 and BA.5 suggest that these variants will become dominant\" throughout the European Union, and probably result in a surge in cases.\n\nInfections are rising in multiple countries, including Portugal, Germany, France, Greece, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, according to the Our World in Data (OWID) project at the University of Oxford, which tracks the pandemic.\n\nNew studies have shown that Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have a growth advantage compared with earlier variants and appear to be good at evading the immune system. In other words, neither previous infections nor vaccines provide particularly strong protection against the subvariants, which is why they're becoming the dominant strains. BA.4 and BA.5 do not appear to lead to more severe illness, but, as with previous waves, the increase in cases could result in an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths, the ECDC has said.\n\nTourists wearing face masks walk in Athens on June 1, when Greece dropped most of its Covid-19 restrictions.\n\nThe potential impact of one of the subvariants, BA.5, is most apparent in Portugal, where it has fueled a significant rise in Covid-19 infections. That surge now appears to have plateaued, but is still higher than rates elsewhere. On Tuesday, the country registered a daily average of 1,332 new cases per million people over the previous seven days — the fifth-highest new case rate in the world. That compares with Germany's 760 and France's 747, according to OWID.\n\nThe number of people in hospital in Portugal, at 1,896, is nearly as high as it was during the original Omicron wave in January. BA.5 became the dominant strain in the country in May, not long after it was first detected in late March, according to Portugal's National Institute of Health (INSA). By June 5, it accounted for 84% of all Covid infections there.\n\nIn France, the number of new cases per million people has nearly tripled since the beginning of the month, and hospitalizations are rising for the first time since the beginning of April. According to the public health agency Santé Publique France , in its most recent update, BA.5 rose to 24% of sequenced cases in the week of June 6, compared with 18% the week before.\n\nFrench vaccination chief Alain Fischer said on Wednesday that the question wasn't whether the country was facing a new wave of the virus, but what intensity it might have, saying he was personally in favor of reinstating some restrictions to limit the spread.\n\n\"The epidemic is accelerating again and it is completely unexpected in this season,\" Dr. Benjamin Davido , an infectious disease specialist at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital outside Paris, told French radio on Sunday.\n\n\"With the new Omicron subvariants (BA.4 and BA.5), which are 10% to 15% more contagious, the epidemic has found new energy, even though we have passed through the winter,\" Davido said, adding that the lifting of almost all restrictions — like wearing masks on public transportation and airplanes — combined with unraveling immunity, posed a real threat.\n\nDavido and other health experts have warned that hospitals in France could fill up over the summer, unless vulnerable people and those over 60 get booster shots as soon as possible. But while hospital admissions in the country are on the rise, it's not yet clear whether that's down to the BA.5 subvariant being more transmissible or because it is escaping dwindling immunity.\n\nIn the UK, where cases and hospitalizations are rising sharply, the start of a new wave also appears to be driven by BA.4 and BA.5, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The latest data from the ONS, released on June 17, showed that Covid infections were up 43% week on week, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), a peer-reviewed medical trade journal.\n\nWriting in the BMJ, Christina Pagel , professor of operational research at University College London, said, \"We will be the first (but not the last) major country to have a BA.4.5 wave after having had two previous Omicron waves. This means that we might get some additional protection from the high number of infections we had in March which will reduce the size of this coming wave. Nonetheless, a significant proportion of the country will get sick, especially as boosters are waning.\"\n\nIt looks like the United States might not be far behind. The latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows BA.4 and BA.5 caused more than one in three Covid-19 infections in America last week. The subvariants are also expected to dominate transmissions in the US within the next few weeks.\n\nYOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.\n\nQ: What are the Covid-19 vaccine side effects in young kids?\n\nA: Covid-19 vaccinations for children younger than 5 were rolled out this week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC signed off on the shots' safety and efficacy. Like with any vaccine, though, it's possible kids may experience a Covid-19 vaccinations for children younger than 5 were rolled out this week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC signed off on the shots' safety and efficacy. Like with any vaccine, though, it's possible kids may experience a few side effects\n\n\"The most common side effects from either of the vaccines are still the most common side effects we see from pretty much any child that gets any vaccine,\" said Dr. Grant Paulsen, the principal site investigator for the Pfizer and the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials for kids from 6 months to 11 years old at Cincinnati Children's hospital.\n\nThese include pain, swelling and/or redness at the injection site and fever. During the trials on the youngest children, myocarditis was not found to be a problem, but Dr. Claudia Hoyen, director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, assures that they will \"have all the mechanisms in place once we start vaccinating kids\" just in case.\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\nCovid-19 vaccinations begin for US children under 5\n\nCovid-19 vaccinations for children younger than 5 began Tuesday across the United States, marking a milestone in the nation's fight against the disease and making it the first country in the world to offer the shots for children as young as six months old. About 17 million kids under 5 are now eligible for vaccination.\n\nDr. Sarah Schaffer DeRoo described in one word how she felt after getting her 7-month-old son vaccinated against Covid-19: thrilled.\n\nHer active baby boy sat in her lap at a vaccine clinic hosted by Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, while receiving his first dose. The shot was administered in his thigh. He cried for a few seconds but then his attention turned to a golden retriever that was on site as a comfort dog provided by the hospital.\n\nThese children lost their young parents to Covid-19\n\nMore than 202,000 US children have lost one or both parents to Covid-19, according to estimates from Imperial College London, Holly Yan reports.\n\nLaila Dominguez, 13, has suffered from anxiety since her father's death in January. When Covid-19 struck both her parents last winter and her father was hospitalized, she helped watch her two younger siblings and take care of her mother, who was severely sick.\n\nAt times, \"it will get really, really dark. And sometimes it's way too much for me,\" Laila said. Her last experience taking care of her traumatized siblings led to a panic attack.\n\nLaila hopes more kids will learn from her story and take Covid-19 seriously, saying that to bullies who taunt her for still wearing a face mask, she bluntly answers: \"My dad died.\"\n\n\"What I wish they knew about Covid is how dangerous it is ... and be more aware of what they say.\"\n\nMacao shuts most businesses as Covid cases surge, but casinos remain open\n\nThe world's biggest gambling district began its second day of mass Covid-19 testing on Monday after dozens of cases were detected over the weekend.\n\nCity officials have begun closing schools, tourist attractions, cultural venues and all non-essential businesses. Restaurants have been ordered to suspend dine-in services.\n\nBut for casinos, it's business as usual.\n\nMacao's government relies on casinos for more than 80% of its income, with most of the population employed directly or indirectly by the industry. While they remain open, analysts expect them to be hit as the government urges residents not to visit entertainment venues.\n\nThe testing of Macao's roughly 600,000 residents is expected to end on Tuesday. The Chinese-ruled former Portuguese colony adheres to China's strict zero-Covid policy that aims to eradicate all outbreaks at just about any cost.\n\nSurviving 70 days in Shanghai -- the 'world's strictest lockdown'\n\nWhen CNN producer Serenitie Wang left Covid-stricken Hong Kong in March, she was hoping to escape to safer pastures. Instead, she was just swapping the world's biggest outbreak for the \"world's strictest lockdown\" in Shanghai -- and 70 days of enforced confinement.\n\n\"Covid could seemingly pass between the floors and walls and the realization even the strongest measures couldn't stop it was terrifying and shocking,\" she writes about the spread of the virus in her parents' 21-story residential housing compound, where she was staying.\n\nWhen she tested positive, she was taken to a \"fangcang\" -- a public venue repurposed for people with Covid, where she was given a cot and a bag containing bedding, a basin and cup for washing, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a towel and slippers.\n\nShe was in a room with 3,000 strangers, each hoping for the negative test results that would secure their release -- some remaining positive long after their symptoms disappeared. Everyone was trying to remain optimistic; meals were even delivered with encouraging fortune-cookie style messages attached.\n\nTOP TIP\n\nBottom line: Get vaccinated\n\nSince the CDC recommended two Covid-19 vaccine options for children under 5 -- one from Pfizer/BioNTech and another from Moderna -- parents and caregivers may be wondering which one is right for their child.\n\nBut pediatricians CNN spoke with around the country suggest either is a good option. Their advice? Just get the vaccine that's available\n\n\"I do not think it's clear that one is any better than the other. They are different,\" said Dr. Paulsen of Cincinnati Children's. \"It is very much what the parents prefer. Balancing those differences as well as, honestly, what's available and what their pediatrician has or what the local hospital has.\"\n\nDoctors also suggest looking online or calling to find out what the local site is offering. Not every location will offer both shots. Some clinics may also not be offering vaccinations for small children or may have restrictions on the ages they serve. Vaccines.gov may be helpful. The website provides some information on clinics listed by category.\n\nLISTEN TO OUR PODCAST", "authors": ["Eliza Mackintosh", "Hafsa Khalil"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/11/08/us-travel-ban-requirements-international-tourists/6303811001/", "title": "US lifts international travel ban: Changes affect most travelers", "text": "A rush of international travelers headed into the United States Monday as the COVID-19 travel ban ended and people from dozens of countries begin flooding in, more than 600 days since they were barred from entry.\n\nThat's more than 86 weeks. Nearly 20 months. Enough time for grandchildren to be born, or for couples to lose track of the number of nights they fell asleep to FaceTime calls with their partner. Long enough to lose hope in a U.S. vacation or honeymoon after having to delay plans over and over.\n\nLines began forming at the Canada and Mexico borders well before daybreak, and eager travelers boarded flights from Europe, including dueling departures from London's Heathrow airport. The U.S.-Mexico border is typically the world's busiest border crossing, with about 350 million people crossing annually.\n\n► US drops travel ban Nov. 8:Expect bottlenecks at airports under strict entry rules\n\n►Vacation travel:Hawaii opening for fully vaccinated international travelers, but some virus restrictions linger\n\nThe new U.S. entry requirements require foreign air passengers to test negative for the coronavirus before boarding a plane to the country and, if they are 18 or older, show proof of full vaccination. Travelers entering the U.S. on land or by ferry for nonessential reasons must show proof of vaccination. Although federal officials had warned of the potential for long lines at entry points, there seemed to be few delays as visitors arrived by land and air.\n\nIt's a long-awaited moment for travelers from more than 30 countries. The U.S. initiated its first COVID-19-related travel ban on China in February 2020. By the end of March, it had added travel bans on the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iran and 26 countries in the European Schengen Area. Brazil, India and South Africa were later added to the list.\n\nWant more? Sign up for USA TODAY's Travel newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and follow us on Twitter.\n\nFederal officials warned of delays: 'No staff around to help'\n\nThe smooth sailing for international travelers at JFK Airport ended Monday afternoon as arrivals ramped up after a relatively quiet morning. Passengers arriving from England on Virgin Atlantic reported lines of up to two hours to clear Customs and Border Protection processing due to the arrival of multiple flights from the United Kingdom. CBP officials had warned lines would grow from recent levels given the return of international passengers.\n\nPaul Richards, the 58-year-old head of safeguarding for Stoke City F.C., arrived on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London at 3:35 p.m. ET for vacation and to celebrate his son's 21st birthday. He ultimately waited about two hours before being cleared into the country.\n\n\"No point in getting irate, the queue will still be there,'' he said as he waited.\n\nMarc Evans, a 42-year-old police officer, flew from Manchester, England, with his wife and two children to visit family for the first time in 20 months, ultimately waiting more than an hour.\n\n\"It was apparently a PR stunt to show the USA was back open but seems they weren't concerned about the queues at customs,\" Evans said via Twitter message, noting that they have a friend waiting to pick them up at the airport.\n\nEvans said he was frustrated as his family has been told to wait as other families with children have been able to jump the queue. There are \"no staff around to help,\" he said.\n\nBut the problem extends beyond a pesky wait, according to Evans. \"Other people were getting connecting flights and told to stay in line,\" he said.\n\n— Morgan Hines, Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY\n\n'What happens here, only happens here': McCarran welcomes tourists\n\nWhen the first U.K. passengers arrived in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon, McCarran International Airport made sure to give them a \"fabulous Las Vegas welcome,\" complete with waving showgirls as the plane taxied to its gate and free T-shirts and hats promoting the city's new slogan, \"What happens here, only happens here.\"\n\nKarl Watson, 37, of London plans to spend his week in Nevada visiting national parks and watching a Bryan Adams performance. But his first stop? A bar.\n\n\"First of all, I'm going to get really drunk,\" he said.\n\nWatson said getting through customs and security was a long process, with the lines taking more than an hour to get through, but the Las Vegas airport was still \"buzzing\" with excitement when the plane landed.\n\n\"Everyone on the plane was cheering when the plane landed,\" Watson said. \"Usually when people clap I'm like, shut up, you don't do that when a bus parks. But this time, it was exciting. It was really cool.\"\n\n\"It's just such a fun place. Vegas never stops,\" added Ann Kirk, 64 of Birmingham, England who landed in Las Vegas with her husband Mark.\n\nThe two plan to spend five weeks in the U.S., but that's nothing compared to two- or three-month vacations they used to take before the travel ban. The couple usually spends most of their time at a home they own in Lake Havasu City in Arizona, and already have their next visit planned for February.\n\n\"It's the warmth. The heat. The sunshine,\" Mark Kirk, 62, said.\n\n\"We've really missed it,\" Ann Kirk added.\n\n— Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY\n\nChanges affect most air travelers\n\nArriving at Hartsfield-Jackson's Atlanta International Airport from Korea, Seongbin Woo, 26, said his travel experience for his first U.S. visit was \"not that smooth,\" largely because he had to rush to get test results back before departing Seoul. Although Korean nationals were not banned from travel to the U.S., anyone arriving as of Monday must follow new protocols, including showing proof of vaccination.\n\n\"I heard that everyone here is not wearing masks, so it's good for me because I am tired of masks,\" he said. He added he is still concerned about getting sick.\n\nIvana Pedroso, 30, tearily reunited with her parents as they arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pedroso lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she's a graduate student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She had been able to visit Brazil several times, but this is the first time her parents will see the house she bought.\n\n\"It's great. Exciting. I have been waiting for this moment for two years because she doesn't know my house,\" Pedroso said. \"They don't know where I live. So I've been waiting for this moment for two years.\"\n\nPedroso said her parents will stay for her graduation in December, on a trip they've been rescheduling for two frustrating years. Her parents said the flights and border control checks went smoothly, and they were confident they would be safe.\n\n\"She was a little bit nervous, but since they followed the protocols and all the companies, Delta Airlines and the airport followed the protocols with COVID, everything was OK,\" Pedroso said of her mom. \"Sanitizers and masks all the time. They're good.\"\n\nWaiting for \"my guy,\" Deb Halleck, 61, wore a Manchester United jersey waiting for Stephen Donnelly to arrive in Atlanta from England via Amsterdam. Wearing a similar jersey, Donnelly strode through the terminal and swept her into a hug that seemed to make time stop. The two had been friends for years but this summer realized they wanted more.\n\n\"We've just been friends and recently, more than that, so just excited,\" Halleck said moments before he arrived. \"I can't wait.\"\n\nSince July, they've talked on the phone every day and FaceTimed. Every week they make dinner together, long distance, and share a meal. Donnelly also buys her flowers and takes a picture and sends them to her weekly. Donnelly, 62, said the mood was apprehensive on the plane due to the new rules, but was happy to finally be in the U.S. with Halleck.\n\nWhat are their plans now? \"She's in charge. I just go with the flow,\" Donnelly said.\n\nBy late afternoon the arrivals terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport began filling with loved ones awaiting passengers on a string of flights from cities like Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London, along with other places not previously banned.\n\nAll eyes were either staring down the corridor at the sliding doors coming from customs or glued to their phones. Locals eagerly checked to see how much longer it would take for their family, friends and significant others to make it through customs.\n\nOne woman remained dedicated to holding up a sign that said #HappyMama while another family, whose kids had been holding up \"Welcome Home\" signs set them down, sitting in the floor to wait. They had waited this long. What's a little longer?\n\n— Eve Chen, USA TODAY\n\nRomance reignited and 'already have Disneyland booked'\n\nAt LAX, the happy emotions ran the gamut — hugs and kisses, laughter and tears — when Damia Suuck, 20, of Claremont, California, saw her German boyfriend, Eric Reuschel, 19, for the first time in almost a year as he came off the plane from Frankfurt.\n\n\"We were waiting, waiting. We booked so many tickets,\" said Suuck, who was waiting at LAX with her mother, Fadia Suuck.\n\nDamia Suuck, who has German and American citizenship, was able to visit her boyfriend in Germany last Christmas, but Monday was the first day he could visit the U.S. They began dating about two years ago when she was living briefly in Germany.\n\n\"We haven't seen each other in almost 12 months, so to meet again, I can't explain it. It's crazy,\" said Reuschel.\n\nTheir plans for Reuschel's one-month visit?\n\n\"We already have Disneyland booked. That was No. 1,\" Damia Suuck said.\n\n— Bill Keveney, USA TODAY\n\nScattered delays create a 'stressful' experience\n\nJulien Yomtov of Paris said he faced several frustrating delays leaving France – first at security and then again when the plane's departure was delayed an hour. He said he's excited to get back to Las Vegas, traveling via Los Angeles, to play in the World Series of Poker, which he normally does annually with his brother.\n\n\"The experience was stressful because the employees are (not) ready to welcome so many travelers,\" he told USA TODAY via Whatsapp. \"Hope in LAX it will be easier.\"\n\nAlthough Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, the international terminal's arrival hall on Monday, which was almost tranquil and relatively empty through early afternoon. Many fellow passengers made connections to other cities, and those who made Atlanta their final destination described their trips as smooth and even \"better than before.\"\n\n— Bailey Schulz, Eve Chen, USA TODAY\n\nTrip delayed four times\n\nIn Los Angeles, Jan Hutten tiptoed up to his sister-in-law Jeannette Gross for a surprise hug, kicking off a family reunion three years in the waiting. His wife Henny followed with a hug of her own, grasping her sister as the Huttens arrived from Amsterdam for a three-week visit. The two had tried to visit four times previously, but had to keep rescheduling due to the ongoing travel ban.\n\nGross and her son, Gary Loth live in Valencia, north of Los Angeles, and will be taking the Huttens for sushi and Mexican food in sunny Los Angeles — a welcome change from the rainy weather they left behind.\n\n\"Fantastic! Finally,\" Henny Hutten said in Dutch, her native language, when asked how it felt to get together with her sister after having to settle for Skype calls in the three years since they last saw each other.\n\n\"I'm very happy to see her,\" Gross said, adding they usually get together once a year. The separation \"was very painful, not being able to hug her. We Skyped, but it's not the same.\"\n\nHenny Hutten offered a one-word response when asked about the sibling separation: \"Terrible!\"\n\nThe Huttens were supposed to visit in April 2020 to celebrate Gross's retirement. That was the first COVID-related postponement. After more reservations and cancellations, Gross quickly texted her sister when the Nov. 8 opening was announced.\n\n\"I said, ‘Change your flight. We're opening up.' She did. She got right on the ball,\" Gross said.\n\n— Bill Keveney, USA TODAY\n\nFamilies begin to reunite: 'Everything is so exciting'\n\nSimone Thies of Cologne, Germany, is flying in to see her fiancé, who she has seen just twice since the ban began-- once during a trip to Aruba in June, and again when he visited her in Germany in August. Before those trips, they had been separated a year. Thies stayed overnight in a Düsseldorf hotel near the airport before catching her Delta flight, headed ultimately to Lincoln, Nebraska.\n\n\"I want to avoid stress because everything is so exciting,\" she said.\n\nGetting through the line at the Düsseldorf airport was quick — \"5 minutes at most,\" she said — but she had one more stop in Paris before crossing the Atlantic.\n\nThere, she had to show her passport, proof of vaccination and results of her negative coronavirus test. Even as the first person in line, the wait took about 20 minutes because one employee was still learning which documents to check, she said.\n\n\"The line is very long, but (I'm) done for now,\" she said before departing.\n\nAlan Marques said the border closure for tourists nearly ended his relationship with his boyfriend, who is a flight attendant. They've been together four years, but hadn't seen each other in four months, until Marques, 33, flew in from Sao Paulo to Atlanta on Monday. He said the separation has been \"very difficult and distressing,\" because his boyfriend's visits to Brazil have only been for a few hours, instead of the days they are used to.\n\nHow does it feel to be properly reunited? \"So good,\" he said.\n\n— Bailey Schulz, Eve Chen, USA TODAY\n\nMexico border busy ... then quiet\n\nAfter a busy few hours after midnight ET at the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border crossing in Texas, the normally bustling border crossing fell quiet. Traffic was minimal at crossings between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez and passenger vehicles zipped up the El Paso's Bridge of the Americas freely, no line to stop them.\n\n\"I've sold hardly anything,\" said newspaper salesman José Fierro, whose rack was still filled with El Diario newspapers and PM tabloids at 8 a.m. He had been there on the curb since 3 a.m., he said. There was 6 a.m. traffic, then nothing. \"Everyone crossed yesterday, panicked about how the lines were going to be today.\"\n\nConstantino Castellanos, 68, and his wife, Lizbeth, 62, bought quesadillas at the foot of the Bridge of the Americas, a street vendor handing over a Styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.\n\nThey could take their time. The bridge – usually a wall of slow-moving cars and trucks – was an empty ribbon of asphalt. The border had been closed to tourists or people visiting family, although a wide variety of essential workers had been permitted to cross during the closure. During that time, Mexican nationals holding tourist cards were banned from traveling over the land border; air travel between points in the interior of both countries never ceased.\n\n\"It's been two years,\" said Lizbeth Castellanos. \"We're going to Marshalls and Walmart.\"\n\nThe crossing reopened at just after midnight Eastern time. At 6 a.m. Eastern, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported no significant crossing delays at either the Mexico or Canada borders.\n\nSusana Hernández of Juárez was crossing for the first time since the pandemic restrictions to buy clothes in El Paso for her business. She smiled and flashed her vaccine card.\n\n\"We're happy,\" she said. \"We're home, we feel like we're back home.\"\n\nCross-border traffic of essential travelers between El Paso and Juárez reached nearly 800,000 crossings of passenger vehicles in August, according to the Border Region Modeling Project at the University of Texas at El Paso.\n\n\"Nobody anticipated that this pandemic would last as long as it has, in terms of travel restrictions,\" said Hector Mancha, U.S. Customs and Border Protection director of field operations in El Paso. \"People have not crossed over and visited with family in going on two years... Unfortunately, the pandemic has kept us from (reopening). I think it's overdue.\"\n\n— Lauren Villagran, Martha Pskowski, El Paso Times\n\n'Welcome back world'\n\nTimes Square was relatively quiet Monday morning as the city that never sleeps prepared to welcome vaccinated international tourists back to the U.S.\n\nAround 8:45 a.m., the Times Square Alliance unfurled a \"Welcome Back World\" sign on the Red Steps in Times Square.\n\nThe Steps, considered an iconic New York landmark for tourists, had about 190,000 people walk by them each day before the pandemic, according to the Times Square Alliance, the not-for-profit group that maintains it. At the pandemic's worst, that number dropped to 30,000, and New York businesses hope the flood of tourists will boost their finances.\n\nTJ Witham, the vice president of communications for the Times Square Alliance, told USA TODAY the alliance chose the red steps as it is an \"iconic meeting place\" for people visiting the Big Apple.\n\nChris Dickson, a 41-year-old bus scheduler from Newcastle, England, flew to New York City on Monday for 48 hours, using credit from a British Airways trip he'd had to cancel seven months ago.\n\nDickson planned to drop his bag at his Brooklyn hotel and start exploring the city he last visited more than two years ago.\n\n\"I just wanted to come to America at the first opportunity,'' he said. \"I'm going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, I'm going to go through Central Park, I'm going to do some running, some jogging in that area. I'm just going to enjoy the weather and enjoy being back in America.''\n\nMainda Kiwelu, 45, arrived in New York on the second British Airways flight of the day. She said this was her first trip to the U.S. in about five or six years, and was hoping to visit the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park later this week, after work meetings.\n\n\"The flight was ok,\" Kiwelu said. \"It was just a bit nerve-wracking sort of doing all the logistics for the travel and making sure the vaccination certificate, app, everything works.\"\n\n— Morgan Hines, Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY\n\nDueling takeoffs from London to New York\n\nA pair of simultaneous flights left London's Heathrow airport early Monday morning, taking off on parallel runways and following similar flight paths for New York's JFK International Airport. British Airways Flight 1 and Virgin Atlantic Flight 3 took off at 3:51 a.m. ET and landed within minutes of each other. The airlines are rivals but teamed up to commemorate the reopening of foreign travel to the U.S., and British Airways' CEO was aboard his company's flight, which touched down about 11 a.m. ET\n\nAmerican Airlines, which is a BA travel partner, saw bookings from London to US surge 70 percent in the past week, with a lot of the travel for remainder of 2021, said Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja.\n\nClive Wartten, who runs a business-travel group in the UK, arrived on the British Airways flight and was headed for a run in Central Park before meetings with colleagues. Wartten planned to fly home Tuesday night.\n\n\"It just feels good to be back on an airplane,\" he said. \"There was a real buzz at the airport and aboard the aircraft, lots of cheering when we took off. It was a bit of a holiday party flight.\"\n\nWartten, who is the CEO of the Business Travel Association, later tweeted that he made it from the plane to one of New York's famed yellow taxis in just seven minutes.\n\n\"This is a big step for us to come back and open business travel with our US friends,\" he told USA TODAY while passing through the terminal.\n\nBritish Airways CEO Sean Doyle has been pushing the Biden administration to ease travel restrictions between the UK and the US for months because it is one of the busiest travel corridors in the world. At one point during the spring, he said, the second runway at Heathrow was closed because the airport hadn't seen such a limited number of flights since World War II.\n\n\"This has been a crisis like no other,'' he said Monday after arriving in New York.\n\nDoyle believes the border reopening took too long – the UK and European Union started welcoming US tourists back over the summer – but on Monday said he didn't want to dwell on the past. Instead, he gushed about what the reopening means to British Airways and its passengers.\n\n\"The North Atlantic is very important to British Airways and today's a very, very important turning point and milestone in the future of the country,'' he said.\n\nIs he worried travel restrictions could return if COVID cases spike on either side of the Atlantic?\n\n\"You always have to keep an eye on things,'' he said. \"But I do think that we're seeing a sort of pragmatic framework emerge across a number of jurisdictions.''\n\nHe said he hopes that that framework – basing entry requirements on vaccination and testing – remains despite any COVID trends going forward.\n\n— Dawn Gilbertson, Morgan Hines, USA TODAY\n\nAnticipation at airports\n\nAhead of the British Airways first flight arrival, family members waited in the Terminal 7 arrivals area at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is decked out with balloons and New York symbols including the back half of a taxicab filled with a floral arrangement and NYC-themed cookies.\n\nLouise Erebara, from Danbury, Connecticut, arrived at the airport with her family early to welcome her sister and her sister's husband after 730 days apart.\n\n\"It's everything, we can't thank British Airways enough,\" a choked-up Erebara said, noting the airline paid for her relatives' flight. \"They want to reunite ex-pats and they're doing it.\"\n\nIn Atlanta, Ari Bell, waited anxiously for her fiancé to arrive from the UK after 21 months apart. They've bridged the distance with Snapchat, video calls and texts, and she was waiting to surprise him at the airport as he starts a three-week visit that will include his first-ever Thanksgiving.\n\n\"He actually came over for a quick job interview in February, right before the shutdown, got back to London and then that March, everything closed up. So we've just kind of been hanging on a string,\" Bell said. \"It was a little bit confusing to get him here, just because he didn't know he needed a negative (test) so that three days prior we actually had to make that last minute. And he came back negative. He's already fully vaccinated. I'm vaccinated. I got my booster yesterday, just in case — I'm just excited to see him.\"\n\nBell said she's excited to just watch a movie together — for months, they've been watching movies simultaneously but separated by the Atlantic Ocean.\n\n\"We're homebodies. We like to game together. But yeah, that's mostly what we're looking forward to — just being in the same space together,\" she said. \"This is going to be our first Thanksgiving together, his first Thanksgiving period. He's never celebrated. So we're actually gonna make the big meal and have all my family come over. He's a little nervous. But you know, he loves my dad. They're both ex-army. So they get along great.\"\n\nAnd Rosa Chorra, 37, eagerly awaited her parents' arrival from Spain, waiting with her 10-month-old Aurora for their plane to land in Atland. Chorra's parents missed her pregnancy and granddaughter's birth, although Chorra was able to take Aurora to visit them three months ago. She said she missed having the help they could have provided with a newborn.\n\n\"It was absolutely horrible. I think it's been the hardest time of my life. I mean, when she was born, the first months that are the hardest, and it's been tough,\" Chorra said.\n\n— Dawn Gilbertson, Morgan Hines, Eve Chen, USA TODAY\n\nHeaded to Disney World\n\nFor UK resident Emma Barbour and her family, the border reopening means one thing: Florida's Disney World with their 10-year-old daughter.\n\nThey usually come annually, but put those plans on hold after 2019, and rescheduled this trip three times as they waited for the Biden administration to lift the ban. Barbour, 41, said the airports were busy but staff seemed cheerful despite long lines.\n\n\"We honestly wouldn't travel if we felt unsafe or nervous, we are fully vaccinated and will wear our masks. I definitely won't let it tarnish our time there by worrying about it,\" she said from Paris as they waited to board their Atlanta-bound flight.\n\n— Eve Chen, USA TODAY\n\nThe British are coming\n\nSam Nagy and his family are headed to Florida, to the Universal Orlando Resort, their first trip to the U.S. since 2018. He said lines at the Manchester, England, airport were smooth, raising his hopes for the family vacation they've rescheduled four times already.\n\n\"That once-a-year trip is so much more to us than just a vacation, it honestly feels like it's ‘home' as cliché as that may be to say,\" said Nagy.\n\nPaul Richards is flying from London to New York on Virgin Atlantic and described the airport scene as chaotic, with long check-in lines this morning. He is headed to New York City for vacation to celebrate his son's 21st birthday.\n\n\"They are working really hard to get people through, however, some passengers hadn't completed the attestation forms or just stood in the wrong queue,'' he said. \"Once through check in, security was pretty slick.''\n\n— Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY\n\nLines at the Canada-US border\n\nAt th Sweetgrass, Montana, border crossing, wait times climbed to 240 minutes -- four hours — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Normal wait time is about 45 minutes.\n\nWindsor, Ontario, Mayor Drew Dilkens said a Canadian travel requirement – having negative polymerase chain reaction test that can cost $200 – is likely to prevent many who want to drive from Ontario to Michigan from doing so.\n\nHe explained the testing provision doesn't make sense for day-trippers nor does it provide the kind of health assurance the government thinks it does because someone could easily contract the virus during their visit.\n\nHe wants to see that requirement lifted.\n\n— Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press\n\nHow did the international travel ban start?\n\nThe travel ban barred most foreign nationals who had been in the listed countries in the past 14 days from entering the U.S., regardless of vaccination status. The country also cut off nonessential travel across the U.S. land borders with Mexico and Canada in March 2020.\n\nIt wasn't until September that the White House announced that it would end the travel ban for fully vaccinated travelers – months after many other nations reopened to U.S. tourists.\n\nThe new U.S. entry requirements, which went into effect Monday, require foreign air passengers to test negative for the virus before boarding a plane to the country and, if they are 18 or older, show proof of full vaccination. Travelers entering the U.S. on land or by ferry for nonessential reasons also need to show proof of vaccination.\n\nAs airports and border crossings get adjusted to the new travel rules, international travelers should prepare for lines.\n\nThe first flight from a country listed the travel ban is set to fly into Chicago from Dublin just before 7 a.m. CT, according to flight tracker Flight Aware and flight-data firm OAG.\n\nPlenty more will follow; there are more than 2 million international flights scheduled to arrive in the U.S. next month, compared to just 728,820 in December of 2020, according to OAG and Flight Aware.\n\n— Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY\n\n► US drops travel ban:Expect bottlenecks at airports under strict entry rules", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/08"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/953574/worlds-most-extreme-weather-events-2021", "title": "The most extreme weather events in 2021 | The Week UK", "text": "This year was regarded by scientists, politicians and environmentalists as pivotal in the global effort to take action on climate change.\n\nStark warnings and alarming forecasts were issued, as regions that were previously not considered to be on the frontline of climate change saw unprecedented weather events destroy homes and claim lives. As mercury levels in Moscow hit record-breaking highs in June, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the world was reaching a “point of no return”\n\nIn August, Boris Johnson described the latest global assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a “wake-up call to the world”. The “most comprehensive” climate report from the panel issued a “code red for humanity”, said The Independent, and stated the link between global warming and the increased rate and severity of extreme weather events.\n\nClimate scientist Professor Hannah Cloke said that this year’s extreme weather events “ought to serve as a canary in the coal mine to spur faster action to adapt society to the reality of a changing climate”.\n\nHere are some of the most costly weather incidents recorded so far this year.\n\nRecord-breaking snowfall, Madrid In the first weeks of 2021, Storm Filomena brought record-breaking levels of snow for Madrid and elderly Spanish citizens were warned to stay at home as temperatures plummeted. The heaviest snow for 50 years brought transport in and out of the city to a “standstill”, Euronews reported. The snowstorm caused around €1.4bn (£1.2bn) of damage, The New York Times said.\n\nStorm Christoph, UK The period from 18 to 20 January 2021 was “one of the wettest three-day periods on record” for North Wales and North-West England, according to the Met Office. Homes in Cheshire were flooded, and residents were evacuated from homes in Manchester and Merseyside. Once Storm Christoph cleared, significant snowfall also led to travel disruption with icy conditions and road closures. Liberal Democrat councillor Richard Kilpatrick told the Manchester Evening News the atmosphere was one of “anxiety and disbelief”.\n\nCyclone Ana, Fiji Cyclone Ana “pummelled” Fiji towards the end of January, “just a month after category 5 Cyclone Yasa tore through the country’s northern islands”, The Guardian said. Satyendra Prasad, Fiji’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the cyclone – which caused more than 10,000 people to take refuge in 318 evacuation centres across the country – had left behind “a difficult recovery”.\n\nWinter storms, Texas The Week US reported that 3.5 million businesses and homes were left without power in February as temperatures dropped to -13℃ in some areas of Texas. Power went out across the state, leaving many vulnerable people in extremely cold conditions. The total death toll rose from 151 to 210 in July, after a decision was made to include deaths caused by the collapse of the state electric power grid in the final count, The Guardian reported.\n\nDust storm, China Flights were grounded and schools shut in what the South China Morning post reported as the worst sandstorm in a decade. But what was widely reported as a sandstorm in China was, in fact, a dust storm - “and that’s much worse”, said The Conversation. The miniscule particles can travel “much, much further” than sand, and can cause health risks if they are “drawn deep into the lungs”. In Beijing, the sky became orange as dust and pollution caused hazardous air quality.\n\nFlooding, New South Wales In March, Sydney and New South Wales (NSW) residents felt the effects of extreme flooding. The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) urged residents to take care of both their physical and mental health as heavy downpours lead to rivers and dams overflowing, with thousands evacuated from their homes.\n\nCyclone Seroja In April 160 people died in Indonesia after a tropical cyclone “hit a remote cluster of islands”, Climate Home News reported. Landslides and flash floods displaced at least 22,000 people, the news site adds. Reaching Western Australia days after it made landfall in Indonesia, residents in the town of Kalbarri, north of Perth, said the storm was “absolutely terrifying”, the BBC reported. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said Cyclone Seroja was \"like nothing we have seen before in decades”.\n\nRecord temperatures, Moscow As temperatures reached 34.8℃ in Moscow, “the absolute record for any day in June was hit”, The Moscow Times reported. The “abnormal temperatures” of the “record-breaking heatwave” weren’t just recorded in the capital; Penza, Vologda and Petrozavodsk also broke heat records during the month.\n\nHeat dome, Pacific Northwest Soaring temperatures across the Northwest United States “rewrote the record books” this year, National Geographic reported. The “heat dome” was the “most dramatic example” of an extreme weather event, said The Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts, and the meteorological phenomenon led to evacuations across states that weren’t “remotely prepared for the heat”. Lytton, a village in Canada’s British Columbia, was “engulfed and largely destroyed by a wildfire” as a result of the temperatures, National Geographic continued. Blistering Pacific Northwest temperatures should act as a wake-up call", "authors": ["Julia O"], "publish_date": "2021/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/world/coronavirus-newsletter-intl-01-19-22/index.html", "title": "Covid pandemic 'nowhere near over,' WHO says - CNN", "text": "(CNN) How will the pandemic end? Nearly two years since it was officially declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), we're still no closer to knowing the answer.\n\nThe highly transmissible Omicron variant has swept the globe since it was first detected in South Africa in November. But the fact that it is less likely to cause severe disease than previous coronavirus variants has led to heavy speculation over whether it might mark a turning point, or a conclusion, to the pandemic.\n\nOmicron is continuing to infect the world at a startling speed, with more than 18 million cases reported last week alone, according to WHO. The number of Covid patients in the United States is at a record high and continues to climb, overwhelming hospitals. From Australia to Germany, infections are leaping to never-before-seen levels, putting a significant strain on health care systems.\n\n\"Omicron may be less severe -- on average, of course -- but the narrative that it is mild disease is misleading, hurts the overall response, and costs more lives,\" Tedros said. \"Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities. The virus is circulating far too intensely with many still vulnerable.\"\n\nThe same message was echoed a day earlier by Dr. Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden's top medical adviser. Fauci was asked at the online World Economic Forum if the coronavirus may this year transition from pandemic to endemic level, when a disease has a constant presence in a population but is not affecting an alarmingly large number of people. He replied: \"I would hope that that's the case, but that would only be the case if we don't get another variant that eludes the immune response.\"\n\nFauci added that the world is still in the first of what he described as five pandemic phases: \"the truly pandemic phase,\" where the world is \"very negatively impacted,\" which is followed by deceleration, control, elimination and eradication.\n\nAnd yet some governments seem to be ignoring such phased steps, resigning themselves to the virus ripping through their populations indefinitely. According to their logic, \"We need to learn to live with this virus.\" But what exactly does that look like, and how long will it last?\n\nIn some European countries, pandemic strategy continues to down-shift toward fewer mitigation measures, reduced quarantine periods and fewer restrictions on travel. In fact, in places such as Spain, the thinking is to treat Omicron more like the flu — despite public health officials, including WHO, cautioning against that approach. \"I think we have to evaluate the evolution of Covid to an endemic illness, from the pandemic we have faced up until now,\" Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last week.\n\nIn Britain, which flirted with a controversial \"herd immunity\" strategy at the start of the pandemic and has continued to raise eyebrows with its \"keep calm and carry on\" attitude to the virus, an Omicron spike threatened to put the country's health service on a \"war footing.\" But now that the wave seems to have crested — 93,890 new cases were reported on Tuesday compared to 129,544 on the same day last week — the limited \"Plan B\" restrictions imposed in December, which included masks on public transport, will be eased next week.\n\n\"Decisions on the next steps remain finely balanced,\" Downing Street said in a statement, which emphasized that \"the Omicron variant continues to pose a significant threat and the pandemic is not over.\"\n\nGovernment workers investigate a pet shop that closed after some pet hamsters tested positive for the coronavirus in Hong Kong on January 18.\n\nIn other news:\n\nAustralia, New Zealand and the WHO are working on contactless ways to deliver aid to tsunami-hit Tonga, which is one of the few places in the world to have remained almost entirely Covid free.\n\nTwo of Pope Francis' top aides have tested positive for Covid-19, Reuters reports.\n\nThere are calls for France's education minister to resign after he announced stringent new Covid rules for schools from an Ibiza beach holiday. Here's what he had to say for himself: \"In winter it's not at all like in summer.\"\n\nHong Kong plans to cull 2,000 hamsters over coronavirus fears. Pet owners are outraged.\n\nYOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED\n\nQ: How can I tell if my mask is authentic?\n\nA: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said Americans should wear the most protective masks they can, but there are The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said Americans should wear the most protective masks they can, but there are counterfeit respirators (specialized filtering masks such as KN95s and N95s) everywhere. Roughly 60% of the KN95 respirators evaluated during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a US federal agency that evaluates safety equipment, didn't meet the requirements.\n\nProperly fitted KN95 and N95 respirators are designed to filter up to 95% of particles in the air, but only the latter are approved for health-care use in the US. KN95s are certified in China, which makes them trickier to vet, and it's a good idea to check whether the manufacturer has a valid lab report.\n\nHere are a few signs that a respirator could be counterfeit, according to NIOSH\n\nNo markings at all on the filtering facepiece respirator\n\nNo approval (TC) number on filtering facepiece respirator or headband\n\nNo NIOSH markings, or NIOSH spelled incorrectly\n\nPresence of decorative fabric or other decorative add-ons (e.g. sequins)\n\nFiltering facepiece respirator has ear loops instead of headbands\n\nYou can look for further NIOSH approved products on the CDC website , as well as guidelines and example images detailing how to spot counterfeit masks.\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\nA fourth vaccine dose may not protect you from Omicron\n\nEarly data out of Israel suggests that a fourth dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine can bring an increase in antibodies -- more than what's been seen after a third dose -- but it still might not be enough to protect against breakthrough infections caused by the Omicron variant, Jacqueline Howard reports.\n\n\"These are very preliminary results. This is before any publication, but we're giving it out since we understand the urgency of the public to get any information possible about the fourth dose,\" Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center, told reporters during a virtual news conference Monday about the data. She added that she supported giving fourth shots to vulnerable people who may see some benefit from it, but that the research probably was not enough to support a decision to dole it out to the wider population.\n\nIn December, Sheba Medical Center started trialing a fourth dose of the vaccines for healthy people ahead of the rollout of the additional booster shot to at-risk people, making it the first study of its kind. The research in Israel, an early leader in Covid vaccines, was being closely watched around the world as governments grapple with surging cases driven by Omicron.\n\nA protester wears a mask depicting syringes during a rally against coronavirus measures in Geneva on October 9, 2021.\n\nEurope's rule-breaking unvaccinated are falling out of society\n\nBefore Covid-19, Nicolas Rimoldi had never attended a protest. But somewhere along the pandemic's long and tortuous road, which saw his native Switzerland imposing first one lockdown, then another, and finally introducing vaccination certificates, Rimoldi decided he had had enough. Now he leads Mass-Voll, one of Europe's largest youth-orientated anti-vaccine passport groups.\n\nBecause he has chosen not to get vaccinated, student and part-time supermarket cashier Rimoldi is -- for now, at least -- locked out of much of public life. Without a vaccine certificate, he can no longer complete his degree or work in a grocery store. He is barred from eating in restaurants, attending concerts or going to the gym. \"People without a certificate like me, we're not a part of society anymore,\" he said.\n\nFaced with lingering pockets of vaccine hesitancy, or outright refusal, many nations are imposing ever stricter rules and restrictions on unvaccinated people, effectively making their lives more difficult in an effort to convince them to get their shots. In doing so, they are testing the boundary between public health and civil liberties -- and heightening tensions between those who are vaccinated and those who are not, Rob Picheta reports.\n\nChina is risking its economy with zero-Omicron approach\n\nThe Chinese government's unwavering insistence on stamping out any trace of the coronavirus is facing its biggest test yet as authorities grapple with Omicron's quickening spread. And it could cost the world's second-largest economy dearly this year, Laura He reports.\n\nCovid-19 cases have been cropping up across China in recent days, including in major port cities like Dalian and Tianjin, prompting restrictions that could upend business operations in those places. In Beijing , a single Omicron case led to a snap lockdown and mass testing just weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympics. The rest of the world is also dealing with Omicron, but China is different because of how intent authorities are to prevent any widespread outbreak with their zero-Covid approach.\n\nThe strict strategy has so far been effective: China has recorded far fewer Covid-19 cases than many other nations during the pandemic, and its economy was the only major one to grow in 2020. But in the face of a more transmissible variant that is far more difficult to contain, and as the rest of the world learns to live with the virus, economists say China's zero-tolerance strategy is likely to do more harm than good in 2022.\n\nTOP TIP\n\nSchool closures are affecting children worldwide, according to research published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics that looked at children and adolescents from 11 countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the US.\n\nThe research found kids experienced both mental and physical health problems -- anxiety, depression, lower physical activity, food insecurity and school disengagement -- linked to school closures and social lockdowns. Madeline Holcombe spoke with experts who had these tips for families trying to protect their children's mental and physical health amid the turmoil:\n\nFind ways to get children out into the world safely, keep them busy and help build skills with them. Experts suggest activities like walking, outside playdates, meditation and yoga.\n\nCreate a stable routine to help mitigate negative impacts. Experts say that a sense of predictability and control is key to all of our wellbeing.\n\nFocus on building connections and reassuring kids that they are still being taken care of by the adult world. Creating a safe and supportive home environment is the best thing families can do right now.\n\nTHIS WEEK'S PODCAST", "authors": ["Eliza Mackintosh", "Isabelle Jani-Friend"], "publish_date": "2022/01/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/world/omicron-changed-pandemic-intl-cmd/index.html", "title": "Omicron has changed the shape of the pandemic. Will it end it for ...", "text": "(CNN) The world feared the worst when a worrying new coronavirus variant emerged in late November and ripped through South Africa at a pace not seen before in the pandemic.\n\nBut two months later, with Omicron dominant across much of the globe, the narrative has shifted for some.\n\n\"Levels of concern about Omicron tend to be lower than with previous variants,\" Simon Williams, a researcher in public attitudes and behaviors towards Covid-19 at Swansea University, told CNN. For many, \"the 'fear factor of Covid' is lower,\" he said.\n\n5-year-old does all this after school to protect her siblings from Covid-19\n\n5-year-old does all this after school to protect her siblings from Covid-19 04:27\n\n5-year-old does all this after school to protect her siblings from Covid-19\n\nOmicron's reduced severity compared to previous variants, and the perceived likelihood that individuals will eventually be infected, have contributed to that relaxation in people's mindsets, Williams said. This has even caused some people to actively seek out the illness to \"get it over with\" -- a practice experts have strongly warned against.\n\nBut some within the scientific community are cautiously optimistic that Omicron could be the pandemic's last act -- providing huge swathes of the world with \"a layer of immunity,\" and moving us closer to an endemic stage when Covid-19 is comparable to seasonal illnesses like the cold or flu.\n\n\"My own view is that it's becoming endemic, and it will continue to stay endemic for some time -- as has happened with other coronaviruses,\" said David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.\n\n\"All viruses try to become endemic, and to me this one looks like it's succeeding,\" he said.\n\nA sign in the German city of Kassel reminds people to wear a mask.\n\nCovid-19 has evolved with great unpredictability, and the variant that superseded Delta could have been more sinister, experts say; but the world ultimately got a dominant strain that is sweeping through populations with ease, without causing the same degree of hospitalizations, severe illnesses and deaths that previous variants have done.\n\nExperts caution that there may be setbacks along the way -- just as Omicron's make-up was unexpected, the next variant could present a more serious public health risk and delay the end of the pandemic.\n\nAnd many countries, particularly where vaccination coverage is low, could still face overwhelmed hospitals due to the current Omicron wave.\n\nBut a political urgency is appearing in much of the West to return societies to a sense of normality -- with the transmissibility of Omicron forcing leaders to choose between rolling back public health measures or seeing their workforces and economies risk grinding to a standstill.\n\nAnd for the first time since the spread of Covid-19 stunned the world in early 2020, some epidemiologists and leaders are willing to entertain the prospect that the virus might be making steps toward endemic status.\n\n'The rules of the game have changed'\n\nThe question that scientists and wider society will grapple with throughout 2022 is when Covid-19 will leave its current stage and enter endemicity.\n\nA disease that is endemic has a constant presence in a population but does not affect an alarmingly large number of people or disrupt society, as typically seen in a pandemic.\n\nJUST WATCHED Doctor debunks DeSantis' claim about Covid-19 vaccines Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Doctor debunks DeSantis' claim about Covid-19 vaccines 01:16\n\nExperts don't expect Covid to fully disappear in any of our lifetimes. Instead, it will eventually reach a period similar to several other illnesses, where \"most people will be infected as children, possibly multiple times, and as those infections accumulate, they build up an immunity,\" according to Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and the author of a book about the early stages of the pandemic.\n\n\"That's the situation we're heading towards,\" he said. \"Omicron is another dose of virus. We will all be on average less susceptible to disease having had that dose, or having had the vaccine.\"\n\nThat's why Omicron's reduced severity is so key -- it adds an extra layer of immunity, but doesn't come with the same risk of hospitalization that Covid-19 held for most of last year. Omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization compared to Delta, according to a Scottish study. A separate paper from South Africa put the same figure at 80%.\n\n\"Well over half the world has now got some exposure to the virus or the vaccine. The rules of the game have changed from the virus's point of view,\" Woolhouse said.\n\nMasks are required on public transportation in Russia.\n\nAnd underlining experts' confidence is history -- though comparing the current scenario to previous pandemics is not an exact science, there is evidence from the past that viruses can be expected to evolve into less severe versions and eventually disappear into the arsenal of annual colds and influenzas.\n\n\"There are four other coronaviruses that have become endemic,\" Heymann said. \"The natural history of infections\" indicates that Covid-19 will be the fifth, he added.\n\n\"People have reinterpreted 'Russian flu' in the late 19th century as the emergence of a common cold-type coronavirus,\" added Woolhouse, referring to the 1889-90 outbreak that is estimated to have killed around a million people, but which ultimately became a common cold.\n\n\"The 'Spanish Flu' basically gave the whole world a very nasty dose of an H1N1 influenza virus\" in 1918, he said. Now, \"we get a wave of that virus pretty much every year.\"\n\nExperts generally agree that Omicron moves us closer to that stage with Covid-19. But there is a big caveat that determines how fast we'll get there -- and it depends not on the current strain, but the one that comes next.\n\n\"It is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for, because you have such a great deal of variability with new variants emerging,\" Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday.\n\n\"I would hope that that's the case,\" Fauci told the Davos Agenda, a virtual event this week held by the World Economic Forum, mirroring the cautious optimism that many epidemiologists are expressing. He added that the world was \"fortunate\" that Omicron didn't share more of Delta's characteristics.\n\nBut for all the positive indications, it \"doesn't mean a new variant won't come up and force us backwards,\" Woolhouse said.\n\n\"I would not like to call which way the next (variant) would go, he added. \"The next variant has to outcompete Omicron, and the main thing it will have to be able to do is evade natural immunity, and to evade vaccine-induced immunity,\" he said. \"What we can't say in advance is how bad (it) will be.\"\n\nAn arms race towards endemicity\n\nEpidemiologically speaking, Omicron has delivered some cause for optimism -- but much depends on how the virus evolves from here.\n\nPandemics do not move merely with the whims of a virus, however; they are also directed by human behavior and political acts. And as the pandemic's two-year anniversary in March edges closer, signs are emerging of an arms race towards endemicity.\n\nSpain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who presided over one of the West's most effective vaccination rollouts, told radio station Cadena Ser earlier this month that it's time \"to evaluate the evolution of Covid from pandemic to an endemic illness.\" His health minister said she has put that viewpoint to fellow European Union leaders.\n\nBritain's education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, who previously oversaw the UK's vaccine rollout, added to Sky News that he wanted the UK to \"demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic.\"\n\nAnd that move is already well underway in countries such as Denmark, where Covid rules were ditched and then re-introduced last year. Tyra Grove Krause, an official at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) that deals with infectious diseases in the country, told local network TV2 this month that Omicron could \"lift us\" out of the pandemic and return Danes to normalcy within two months.\n\n\"Those governments that have achieved a high degree of population immunity through the privilege of vaccination or the burden of infection now have a wider range of choices than they did at the start of 2021,\" said Thomas Hale, associate professor at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, and the academic lead of its Covid-19 Government Response Tracker\n\nMany countries are starting to act as if Covid is already endemic. England resisted new restrictions despite record-breaking infection figures in recent weeks, and though hospitalizations and deaths have risen, its health care sector appears to have survived the peak of the Omicron wave without recording the high admissions seen during previous variants.\n\nA volunteer paints hearts on the UK's National Covid-19 Memorial Wall.\n\nEarly real-world examples like this could give other nations the confidence to strip back restrictions and, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed this month, \"ride out\" the Omicron wave. \"Many countries have looked to the UK, because they see that the UK has some degree of permissibility\" in restrictions, Heymann said.\n\nThat approach is quickly becoming more commonplace. Covid-related financial aid is soon set to end in France as restrictions are eased; \"We are announcing [to people in France] that the pandemic will perhaps be behind us by mid-February,\" French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday.\n\nDriving this push is the ravaging impact that Omicron is having on essential workforces -- a development that has changed the calculus of governments. Faced with dilemma of tackling transmission or keeping their countries running, leaders have swiftly moved to slash isolation periods.\n\n\"Clearly taking people out of the workforce -- particularly schools and healthcare -- is one costly impact,\" of Omicron, Hale said. \"Of course it is preferable to prevent widespread transmission in the first place, though for many countries now facing Omicron this point is now moot.\"\n\nThat means that an increasing number of countries are looking to \"transfer the risk assessment to their populations,\" Heymann said -- relaxing rules and encouraging self-testing, personal decisions on mask-wearing, and even individual assessments among infected people of how long they need to isolate.\n\nMany experts still encourage restrictions to reduce transmission, at least while the Omicron wave is with us. But Williams noted that populations are increasingly moving away from that view.\n\n\"The way Omicron has been represented in some media reports, and even indirectly by some politicians -- who were a bit too quick to emphasize the 'we need to learn to live with it' message -- have contributed to this now quite widespread view that Omicron is less worrisome,\" he said.\n\nThe problem with that approach, many warn, is that some parts of the world are less able to take on a relaxed approach.\n\n\"By definition a pandemic is not over until it's over, for everyone, everywhere,\" Williams said. \"Our attention now should increasingly focus on getting enough vaccines to those in low- and middle-income countries.\"\n\nVaccination coverage is lower in many poorer regions of the world -- particularly in eastern Europe, central Asia and large parts of Africa -- leaving those places especially susceptible to worrying new variants or more severe waves of hospitalizations.\n\n\"A pandemic has various components to it in various countries,\" Heymann said. \"I think countries will become endemic at different rates.\"\n\nAnd that adds an extra layer of uncertainty to the question of whether Omicron will hasten the end of the pandemic.\n\n\"Health systems around the world will have to be cognizant\" of the risks of Covid even if it soon starts to act and feel more like a seasonal cold, Woolhouse said.\n\n\"The world has changed -- there's a new human pathogen there, and it's going to continue to cause disease for the foreseeable future,\" he concluded. \"We were always going to be living with Covid. it was never going to go away -- we knew this from February 2020.\"\n\n\"What we didn't know, and still don't fully, is exactly what that looks like.\"", "authors": ["Rob Picheta"], "publish_date": "2022/01/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/16/europe/europe-covid-unvaccinated-society-cmd-intl/index.html", "title": "Europe's unvaccinated are going underground as leaders tighten ...", "text": "But somewhere along the pandemic's long and tortuous road, which saw his native Switzerland imposing first one lockdown, then another, and finally introducing vaccination certificates , Rimoldi decided he had had enough.\n\nBecause he has chosen not to get vaccinated, student and part-time supermarket cashier Rimoldi is -- for now, at least -- locked out of much of public life. Without a vaccine certificate, he can no longer complete his degree or work in a grocery store. He is barred from eating in restaurants, attending concerts or going to the gym.\n\n\"People without a certificate like me, we're not a part of society anymore,\" he said. \"We're excluded. We're like less valuable humans.\"\n\nAs the pandemic has moved into its third year, and the Omicron variant has sparked a new wave of cases, governments around the world are still grappling with the challenge of bringing the virus under control. Vaccines, one of the most powerful weapons in their armories, have been available for a year but a small, vocal minority of people -- such as Rimoldi -- will not take them.\n\nFaced with lingering pockets of vaccine hesitancy, or outright refusal, many nations are imposing ever stricter rules and restrictions on unvaccinated people, effectively making their lives more difficult in an effort to convince them to get their shots.\n\nIn doing so, they are testing the boundary between public health and civil liberties -- and heightening tensions between those who are vaccinated and those who are not.\n\nNicolas Rimoldi at a protest this year. He says his movement, which campaigns against vaccine passports, is \"not anti-vax\" and that people who have been vaccinated attend its demonstrations.\n\n\"We will not allow a tiny minority of unhinged extremists to impose its will on our entire society,\" Germany's new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said last month, targeting the violent fringes of the anti-vaccine movement.\n\nVaccine passports have been in place for months to gain entry to hospitality venues in much of the European Union. But as Delta and Omicron infections have surged and inoculation rollouts have stalled, some governments have gone further.\n\nAustria imposed Europe's first lockdown for the unvaccinated and is scheduled to introduce mandatory shots from February 1.\n\nGermany has banned unvaccinated people from most areas of public life, and the country's Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, warned in December that: \"without mandatory vaccination I do not see us managing further waves in the long term.\"\n\nAnd France's President Emmanuel Macron last week told Le Parisien newspaper that he \"really wants to piss off\" the unvaccinated. \"We're going to keep doing it until the end,\" he said. \"This is the strategy.\"\n\nRule-breaking and subterfuge\n\nThe scientific basis for anti-Covid measures is solid: Vaccines have been proven to reduce transmission, substantially slash the likelihood of serious illness and decrease the burden on healthcare systems.\n\nMany of the restrictions also have broad public support -- Switzerland's were recently backed comfortably in a referendum -- as majority-vaccinated populations tire of obstacles blocking their path out of the pandemic.\n\nAnd real-world data shows that impact; European countries with highly vaccinated populations, such as Spain and Portugal, have been less badly affected by more recent waves of infection and have been able to open up their economies, while those with stuttering rollouts have faced severe restrictions and spikes in hospitalizations.\n\nBut the latest rounds of curbs have fueled anger among those unwilling to take a shot, many of whom are now slipping out of society -- or resorting to subterfuge and rule-breaking to create their own communities, citing their right to \"freedom.\"\n\n\"On Monday I was with 50 people eating in a restaurant -- the police wouldn't be happy if they saw us,\" Rimoldi told CNN, boasting of illegal dinners and social events with unvaccinated friends that he likened to Prohibition-era speakeasies -- but which public health experts describe as reckless and dangerous.\n\nThousands of people have attended protests in Paris against France's \"Pass Sanitaire\" vaccine passport.\n\nAttendees will hand in their phones to avoid word of their meetings getting out, and will visit restaurants, cinemas or other venues whose owners were sympathetic to their cause, he said. \"Yes, it's not legal, but in our point of view the certificate is illegal,\" Rimoldi added unapologetically.\n\n\"[Some] people have a very twisted idea of what freedom is,\" said Suzanne Suggs, professor of communication at the University of Lugano's public health institute. \"They're arguing it's their individual right to harm others.\"\n\nMartin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said \"the vast majority of people everywhere\" were supportive of measures to combat Covid.\n\n\"These people are the exceptions,\" he said. \"But what can you do? You don't really want to make martyrs of these people -- if they choose to (gather), they're putting themselves and others at risk.\"\n\n'A two-class society'\n\n\"We live in a two-class society now,\" Rimoldi told CNN. \"It's horrible. It's a nightmare.\"\n\nBut if life as an unvaccinated person in Europe is a nightmare, it is one from which Rimoldi and his followers could easily wake up. Unlike in poorer parts of the world where some are desperate to receive doses, access to Covid-19 vaccines is plentiful in the EU.\n\nThe effects of the shots have been clear for some time; across Europe, regions with lower rates of vaccine uptake have suffered more severe waves of hospitalizations and deaths.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in November that the lives of 470,000 people in Europe aged 60 and over have been saved by vaccines since the rollout began, though it has cautioned against vaccine mandates except as \"an absolute last resort ... only applicable when all other feasible options to improve vaccine uptake have been exhausted.\" WHO's regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, warned in December that: \"What is acceptable in one society and community may not be effective and acceptable in another.\"\n\nRimoldi insists that his group is \"not anti-mask\" and \"not anti-vax\" -- concerned purely with democracy and legality, rather than the science of the vaccine -- though its social media pages have recirculated extreme anti-vaccination websites.\n\n\"At our demonstrations there's many people who are fully vaccinated,\" he claimed, adding: \"They say, 'Hey, the government lied to us'\" about vaccine rollouts meaning the end of Covid restrictions.\n\nHe was unwilling to discuss the vaccine itself, saying only that he refused it as a matter of principle. \"We don't talk much about the vaccine ... that's not one of the topics we discuss,\" he said when asked whether he agreed the shots had done more good than harm.\n\nSeveral campaigners CNN spoke to also expressed concerns that each new set of rules imposed in the name of halting the spread of coronavirus was part of a \"slippery slope\" of never-ending restrictions.\n\nBut vaccine passports or some form of certification -- the measures that Rimoldi and others protest loudly -- appear to have aided rollouts. A study by the University of Oxford, published in December, found that such policies have led more people to take up the shot ​​in France, Israel, Switzerland and Italy.\n\nAlexander Schallenberg, the former Austrian Chancellor who imposed a lockdown on his country's unvaccinated population, said in November that its vaccine uptake was \"shamefully low.\" At the time around 65% of Austria's population was fully inoculated against Covid-19 -- one of the lower rates in the EU -- but recent stricter measures have seen that rate rise to over 70%.\n\nGermany has banned unvaccinated people from some public spaces, and is moving towards imposing mandatory vaccines.\n\nFamilies divided\n\nAs controls have tightened, groups such as Rimoldi's have become increasingly disruptive; few weekends now pass without loud protests in European cities. And anger at restrictive Covid measures has led many who previously considered themselves apolitical to join in.\n\nEven before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy in Europe was strongly correlated to a populist distrust of mainstream parties and governments. One study published in the European Journal of Public Health in 2019 found \"a highly significant positive association between the percentage of people in a country who voted for populist parties and the percentage who believe that vaccines are not important and not effective.\"\n\nBut leaders of anti-restriction movements are presenting their campaigns as more inclusive and representative than those studies would suggest.\n\n\"We have farmers, lawyers, artists, musicians -- the whole range of people you can imagine,\" Rimoldi said. Mass-Voll is aimed specifically at Swiss young people, and boasts that it has amassed more followers on Instagram than the official youth wings of any of the country's major political parties.\n\nChristian Fiala, the vice president of Austria's MFG party, which was formed specifically to oppose lockdowns, mask-wearing and Covid passports, told CNN: \"It's really a movement which comes from the whole population.\"\n\nMFG caused a ballot box shock last September, winning seats in one of Austria's provincial parliaments. \"Most of those who voted for us have never been really politically active in that sense, but they are so upset,\" he said. \"People are really fed up being locked in.\"\n\nIn France, vaccination uptake is higher but those opposed to Covid rules are no quieter. Bruno Courcelle said he was not overly involved in politics before the pandemic -- now the 72-year-old mathematics lecturer is a regular at demonstrations against the vaccine, lockdowns and other Covid control measures.\n\nHis stance has left him at odds with family, friends and colleagues. Speaking to CNN before Christmas, Courcelle was preparing for an uncomfortable festive family dinner.\n\n\"The rest of my family got vaccinated,\" he said, adding that he has had several arguments with relatives who fail to understand why he has joined the ranks of the anti-vaccination protesters.\n\n\"My wife said 'Please, do not say anything [at the table],'\" he said. \"I will not start such a discussion myself ... [but] I will not stay silent letting leftists say their stupid things.\"\n\nCourcelle's own opinions are radical, extremist and, when they purport to rely on scientific claims, are easily debunked.\n\nHe disputes the well-established effectiveness and safety of the vaccines, and claims nations are slipping into a \"totalitarist (sic) world\" distinguishable from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union only in the sense that it is global, rather than nationalistic.\n\nBut Courcelle, who works part-time at the University of Bordeaux, where he has emeritus status, said he was comfortable cutting ties with those who disagree with him.\n\nHis increasingly public opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine, and to restrictions on unvaccinated people, have left him isolated at work. \"This is disappointing,\" he said. \"I've sent emails to my close colleagues [about the vaccine] ... I had only one response, which was negative.\"\n\nWhen he attends protests, though, he says he finds people he understands.\n\nSuggs said this is one of the reasons for the movements' ongoing appeal. \"It's like a fraternity or being a fan of a football club.\" People skeptical of government messaging are \"looking for something social, and these groups have done an excellent job at inviting whoever will come,\" she said.\n\n\"I have met new people who share [my] opinions,\" said Courcelle.\n\nA protester wears a mask depicting syringes during a rally against coronavirus measures, Covid-19 health pass and vaccination in Geneva on October 9, 2021.\n\nFuel on the fire\n\nTwo years on, and with opinions becoming more entrenched by the day, some experts fear it may be too late to bridge the divide between the authorities and those who have become vociferously opposed to vaccination measures.\n\n\"Those people who are against vaccination are going to be even louder whenever they're told: 'You vaccinate, or you die.' That fuels their fire,\" said Suggs.\n\n\"But I think if we continue to communicate in a way that tries to not upset them, then we don't do the rest of the population justice,\" she added. \"They're harming people's health, they're causing deaths, and they are threatening the economy.\"\n\n\"These groups are small, they're very loud, but they're very appealing because they have answers to questions that other people are not answering,\" Suggs said.\n\nAnd they are \"not going away,\" warned McKee. \"We need to make a very strong argument that being vaccinated is a manifestation of social solidarity,\" he said, adding that anti-vaccine protesters \"undermine the solidarity that is so important for any country that is facing a threat.\"\n\nFrance's President Macron appears to have moved on from appealing to the refuseniks' sense of solidarity -- instead he's now hoping to annoy reluctant French citizens into getting their shots by requiring proof of vaccination for access to a range of everyday activities.\n\n\"I'm not going to put them in jail, I'm not going to forcibly vaccinate them, and so, you have to tell them: From January 15, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant, you will no longer be able to have a drink, go for a coffee, to the theater, you will no longer go to the movies,\" Macron told Le Parisien.\n\nBut his plan -- and his choice of words -- have angered opposition politicians and vaccine opponents alike.\n\nAustria, the first EU country to pursue compulsory Covid jabs, has seen several large protests against the plan.\n\nThe small posse of hardcore anti-vaccine protesters in France \"are more visible, more motivated and vocal\" than at earlier points in the pandemic, according to Jeremy Ward, a sociologist and researcher at France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research.\n\n\"They are an issue,\" he said. \"In France, many people don't trust public institutions and public health agencies ... A lot of them end up in hospitals, taking up beds that they could have avoided.\" Ward estimates that between 5 and 10% of France's population is staunchly against the vaccine; a large rally against the vaccine pass, approved by France's lower house last Thursday, took place in Paris on Saturday.\n\nThose who refuse to get inoculated may accuse vaccine passport-wielding politicians of turning them into second-class citizens, but the French President, like many of his European counterparts, is unrepentant.\n\nMacron insists those who do not protect themselves and those around them from Covid-19 by getting vaccinated are \"irresponsible\" and thus deserving of such a fate.\n\n\"When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible,\" he said. \"An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen.\"", "authors": ["Rob Picheta"], "publish_date": "2022/01/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/europe/nato-deployment-eastern-europe-ukraine-intl/index.html", "title": "NATO allies put forces on standby as tensions rise over Ukraine ...", "text": "(CNN) NATO announced on Monday that some member countries are putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe as the United Kingdom and the United States ordered diplomats' families to withdraw from Ukraine amid concerns of a Russian invasion .\n\nThe developments underscore growing fears of a possible Russian incursion, following months of military maneuvering by Moscow that has set off a tit-for-tat series of escalations with NATO, a military alliance of Western powers.\n\nRussia has been building up forces and equipment near its border with Ukraine since last year, and is sending troops into neighboring Belarus for joint exercises next month that Ukrainian officials fear could serve as a \"full-fledged theater of operations\" from which to launch an attack.\n\nUS intelligence officials have said they don't know whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine.\n\nThe Kremlin has repeatedly denied it is planning to do so , but has argued that NATO support for the country constitutes a growing threat on Russia's western flank.\n\nUkrainian soldiers in a front line trench near pro-Russian separatists take shelter from the extreme cold.\n\nAfter high-level talks between Moscow and Washington wrapped earlier this month without any breakthroughs over the tens of thousands of Russian troops amassed on Ukraine's border, prospects of de-escalation and future diplomacy have been cast into doubt. Now the Biden administration is weighing whether to deploy as many as 5,000 US troops, according to a senior defense official , to shore up NATO allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.\n\nOn Monday, both NATO and Russia pointed the finger at each other for the ratcheting tensions.\n\n\"Tensions are escalating due to concrete actions taken by the US and NATO,\" Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to NATO's announcement\n\n\"I mean the informational hysteria that we are witnessing -- it is generously framed by a huge amount of false information, just lies and fakes,\" Peskov added.\n\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a Monday statement that the alliance would continue to take necessary measures \"to protect and defend all Allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the Alliance.\" He added: \"We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defence.\"\n\nThe NATO statement said that in recent days, a flurry of member states had announced deployments to the region. They include Denmark sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania, the Netherlands deploying two F-35 fighter aircraft to Bulgaria, France expressing its readiness to send troops to Romania and the US considering increasing its military presence in the East.\n\nStoltenberg cautioned in a news conference on Monday that the moves were defensive and proportionate -- and that NATO was \"not threatening Russia.\"\n\nThere was no suggestion in the statement that the troops would be used to assist Ukraine, which is not a NATO member.\n\nNATO, Europe and the US have been united in their opposition to any further Russian incursion in Ukraine, promising to lend support to Ukraine and hand down \"massive costs\" for Moscow in the event they make a move. But the shape of that response and what steps they might take are still unclear.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday warned that \"a single additional Russian force\" entering Ukraine \"in an aggressive way\" would result in a severe response by the US and its allies. His comments came after US President Joe Biden muddled the message of severe consequences last week, saying at a news conference that a \"minor incursion\" might not trigger the same response from NATO as an invasion. The President later clarified that any Russian troops crossing Ukraine's border would constitute an invasion.\n\nCNN reported last week that the US military goal would be to \"meet the capability\" NATO allies in the region are asking for, a defense official said . On Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that as many as 8,500 US troops have been put on heightened preparedness to deploy.\n\nLocal residents Marinka, Ukraine, walk past an apartment building destroyed during fighting in 2015 between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists. Fighting is still ongoing.\n\nThe mobilization of Western forces comes amid a significant uptick in Russia's military movements, not only on Ukraine's border -- where the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says there are now 127,000 Russian troops stationed -- but elsewhere in Europe. The Russian Defense Ministry announced last week that 140 ships and 10,000 servicemen would take part in sweeping exercises from the Pacific to the Atlantic, including off Ireland's southwest coast in February. The ministry said the main purpose of the drills is to protect Russia's national interests in the world's oceans, TASS state news agency reported\n\nIreland's Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney told reporters on Monday that he had raised concerns with Moscow about Russia's plans. \"This isn't the time to increase military activity and tension in the context of what's happening with and in Ukraine at the moment,\" Coveney said.\n\nCoveney and other European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss the security situation in Ukraine and what action to take should Russia cross into Ukrainian territory; Blinken joined by video link following talks with Lavrov in Geneva. EU foreign ministers want to send a clear message to Russia that if it decides to invade Ukraine it will be hit by the \"most comprehensive\" package of sanctions and restrictions ever prepared by the EU, Coveney said.\n\nBut while NATO countries ramp up readiness and the EU discusses heightened security concerns, Ukraine's own government has not, at least outwardly, signaled the same sense of urgency. In a call with the President of the European Council Charles Michel on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country will not succumb to provocations, but would \"keep calm.\"\n\nZelensky and his government have previously downplayed the danger of a Russian invasion, noting that the threat has existed for years and has not become greater in recent months. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been rumbling since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and fomented a rebellion in Ukraine's east. Despite a cease fire in 2015, the two sides have not seen a stable peace.\n\nUkraine on Monday criticized the US' decision to withdraw diplomats' families and reduce staff levels at the US Embassy in Kyiv , with Oleg Nikolenko , spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, saying in a tweet: \"We believe such a step to be a premature one & an instance of excessive caution.\"\n\nBut other countries are also taking precautions in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. The UK Foreign Office also announced Monday that some British Embassy staff and dependents were being withdrawn from Kyiv in response to \"growing threats from Russia.\" UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that the intelligence around the situation in Ukraine was \"gloomy\" but that war was not inevitable.\n\nSpeaking to reporters at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, the bloc's chief diplomat Josep Borrell said Europe will seek to simmer tensions between Russia and Ukraine through diplomacy first but warned Moscow it is prepared to take action if necessary. He also urged for calm, stressing the need to avoid \"alarmist reactions that could that could lead to an escalation. We don't want people to have a breakdown on this.\"\n\nBorrell added that the EU had no current plans to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families from Ukraine.", "authors": ["Eliza Mackintosh"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957380/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-17-july-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 17 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Savile judge calls for Westwood probe\n\nThe former judge who led the review of the Jimmy Savile scandal at the BBC has backed an independent investigation into the corporation’s handling of complaints about the DJ Tim Westwood. Dame Janet Smith said an impartial figure must examine complaints after the director-general, Tim Davie, at first insisted that the BBC had seen “no evidence” of Westwood’s alleged wrongdoing. Although Davie’s tenure has been stricken by scandal, this is the first time he finds himself “closely involved,” said The Sunday Times.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/world/gallery/wildfires-in-europe/", "title": "Photos: Wildfires in Europe", "text": "Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images Firefighters try to control a forest fire in Louchats, France, on July 17. In pictures: Wildfires in Europe\n\nThibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images Firefighters try to control a forest fire in Louchats, France, on July 17.\n\nAs Europe sees record-high temperatures, fire services across the continent are fighting to control huge wildfires in various countries.\n\nHundreds of deaths have also been blamed on the soaring heat that scientists say is consistent with climate change.\n\nThe extreme heat is now moving east across the continent, leaving a trail of destruction in many rural areas and exposing a lack of preparedness, even in some of Europe's biggest cities. The European Forest Fire Information System said 19 European countries were at \"extreme danger\" for wildfires on Wednesday, July 20, across an expanse stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_2", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/07/24/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-make-relationship-instagram-official/8083072002/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck make relationship 'Instagram Official'", "text": "Bennifer 2.0 appears to be a go!\n\nJennifer Lopez made her relationship with Ben Affleck Instagram official with a birthday surprise. After rumors milled and paparazzi photos surfaced for months of the two reuniting after her breakup with ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez, Lopez finally sealed her relationship status with a kiss.\n\nThe singer posted a series of photos dressed in a pink and orange stringed bikini, a colorful floral beach coverup and a straw hat on Instagram Saturday to celebrate her 52nd birthday. On the last slide she wore her new-but-old lover Affleck, locked by the lips.\n\n\"5 2 … what it do …..,\" she wrote on the relationship reveal.\n\nThe photo marks the first time either Lopez or Affleck have posted anything about their renewed love.\n\nLopez and Affleck first took pop culture by storm after they started dating in the early 2000s. The Hollywood power couple – who starred together in 2003's \"Gigli\" and 2004's \"Jersey Girl\" – got engaged in November 2002 (remember her pink engagement ring?). But at the time there wasn't a happily ever after – Lopez and Affleck ended their engagement in 2004.\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez says she's 'never been better' amid Ben Affleck romance rumors\n\nLeading up to Saturday's birthday kiss the two made an Instagram debut on behalf of Leah Remini who posted a two-minute video montage Thursday which featured Lopez and Affleck cuddled together in a black-and-white snap.\n\nOver the July 4th holiday weekend, Lopez and Affleck were seen enjoying a day out at Universal Studios Hollywood in California with their kids, according to photos and reports from Page Six and Entertainment Weekly.\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and the pressure to make things 'Instagram official'\n\nCelebrity watchers took to social media to celebrate the early aughts couple's return.\n\n\"jlo doing a boyfriend reveal on her birthday at the end of a photo dump of solo bikini pics ...... it's giving leo season,\" @hunteryharris wrote on Twitter.\n\n@WrittenByHanna wrote: \"Relationship JLO might just take actress JLO’s spot in the JLO hierarchy.\"\n\n\"It's JLO's birthday but she gave US a gift. Selfless queen,\" @shylawhittney wrote.\n\n\"You look super happy,\" \"Today\" show host Hoda Kotb wrote under the Instagram photo.\n\nLopez announced her breakup with Rodriguez on the \"Today\" show in April with a joint statement.\n\n\"We are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,\" the statement read. \"We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects.\"\n\nContributing: Hannah Yasharoff, Cydney Henderson", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/05/10/bennifer-back-jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-relationship-timeline/5028965001/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck married: See their relationship timeline", "text": "Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged again and there is a green diamond ring.\n\nThe Hollywood power couple first got together from 2002 to 2004 and reunited in 2021.\n\nBoth have been gushing in interviews about their \"second chance\" at love.\n\nBennifer is back, and it's real! Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are now married.\n\nThe twice-engaged couple got married over the weekend at the A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Lopez confirmed via her On the JLo fan newsletter that the two had in fact wed, and she shared photos, videos and details from the big night.\n\nWhile the wedding wasn't the glamorous, over-the-top ceremony fans would expect from Bennifer, Lopez said it was \"the best possible wedding we could have imagined.\" The bride and groom made use of \"a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet\" to wear for the ceremony.\n\n\"When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another,\" Lopez wrote. \"We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives.\"\n\nLopez and Affleck were an early 2000s tabloid super-couple, but both moved on to other relationships. Lopez was engaged to Alex Rodriguez before they split in April 2021. Affleck was married to Jennifer Garner before their split in 2018.\n\n\"We did it,\" Lopez wrote of the nuptials Sunday. \"Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.\"\n\nIn honor of the two reuniting, we take a look at how their relationship started, ended, and how it's going again.\n\n'Best night of our lives':Jennifer Lopez shares details from Vegas wedding ceremony to Ben Affleck\n\nJennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck met on the 'Gigli' movie set\n\nLopez and Affleck first met in 2002 on the set of the romantic comedy \"Gigli,\" while Lopez was still married to her second husband, dancer Cris Judd. Although the movie bombed at the box office, sparks were definitely flying between Lopez and Affleck. The pair went public with their relationship shortly after Lopez's divorce from Judd.\n\nThe \"Hustlers\" star told People that when she met Affleck at the time, \"I felt like… 'OK, this is it.'\"\n\nAffleck and Lopez embarked on a high-profile relationship that attracted widespread media coverage. The couple were nicknamed \"Bennifer,\" a legendary combination of Affleck's and Lopez's first names that started the one-name, pop-culture-couple portmanteau trend (think \"Brangelina\" and \"Kimye\").\n\n“We didn’t try to have a public relationship,\" Lopez told People in 2016. \"We just happened to be together at the birth of the tabloids, and it was like 'Oh my God.' It was just a lot of pressure.\"\n\nLopez addressed the invasion of privacy in her 2002 music video \"Jenny from the Block,\" which included a memorable appearance from her actor beau, Affleck. The music video featured surveillance camera footage and paparazzi shots of the couple at home, restaurants, a gas station and even lounging on yachts.\n\nThe couple got engaged in 2002 with the 'magnificent' pink ring\n\nLopez confirmed her engagement to Affleck during a November 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer. She proudly showed off a pink engagement ring, calling it \"the most magnificent thing I've ever seen.\"\n\n\"I still look at it and kind of marvel at it,\" Lopez said during the interview. \"He’s like, 'I just wanted you to have something that no one else would have.'\"\n\nLopez and Affleck were set to tie the knot in September 2003, but they postponed their nuptials over \"the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding.\"\n\n\"When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate 'decoy brides' at three different locations, we realized that something was awry,\" the couple said in a joint statement at the time.\n\nThe statement continued: \"We began to feel that the spirit of what should have been the happiest day of our lives could be compromised. We felt what should have been a joyful and sacred day could be spoiled for us, our families and our friends.\"\n\nBennifer broke up in 2004\n\nThe couple officially split in January 2004.\n\nAt the time, Lopez's rep said, \"Jennifer Lopez has ended her engagement to Ben Affleck. At this difficult time, we ask that you respect her privacy.\"\n\nBoth attributed the demise of their relationship to all the media attention.\n\nIn 2008, Affleck said he and Lopez were \"too accessible\" during their high-profile relationship: \"I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible. I don't think either of us anticipated the degree to which it would take on a world of its own.\"\n\nIn 2014, Lopez called her split from Affleck \"my first big heartbreak.\"\n\n\"I was in the tabloids every other week about how my life was falling apart. It was a tough time,\" she told HuffPost Live. But Lopez added that she would \"do it all over again… even the relationship part.\"\n\nLopez and Affleck both moved on to new relationships\n\nLopez went on to marry singer Marc Anthony in 2004 and welcomed twins Max and Emme (now age 14) in 2008. The couple divorced in 2014.\n\nAffleck married actress Jennifer Garner in 2005; the two divorced in 2018. They share three children together: daughters Violet, 16; Seraphina, 13; and son Samuel, 10.\n\nLopez got engaged to baseball star Alex Rodriguez in March 2019 and scheduled an Italian wedding for June 2020. They later called off their engagement in April after they \"realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so.\"\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez officially call it quits after reversing their breakup announcement\n\nDespite their early aughts breakup, Lopez and Affleck remained friendly. Lopez's May cover of InStyle magazine, published in April, included praise from Affleck.\n\n\"She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I've come across in this business,\" Affleck said at the time.\n\n'She's the original!': Jennifer Lopez's exes Marc Anthony, Ben Affleck praise career\n\nIn addition to praising her talent, Affleck also pointed out her seeming inability to age.\n\n\"Where are you keeping the fountain of youth?\" he joked. \"Why do you look the same as you did in 2003 and it kind of looks like I'm in my 40s…at best?\"\n\nThe feeling was mutual. Lopez replied, \"Ben is funny! He still looks pretty good, too.\"\n\nJLo and Ben start dating again, paparazzi captures them together\n\nA month after Lopez split from Rodriguez, she and Affleck were caught on camera over and over again.\n\nRumors started to churn after it came to light the pair both attended the Vax Live concert in LA in May 2021, at which Lopez performed. They appeared separately, but the coincidence took over social media timelines. A couple of days later, photos obtained and published by the Daily Mail showed Lopez and Affleck driving in a car together in Montana over Mother's Day weekend.\n\nLongtime pal Matt Damon was in on the rumors, telling the \"Today\" show that same month, \"I hope it's true.\"\n\nIn June, Lopez and Affleck were spotted having a steamy PDA dinner at a Nobu restaurant in Malibu, according to photos obtained by Page Six and reports from People.\n\nLeah Remini contributed to the talk after posting a quick clip of the two taking a picture together during her birthday celebration in late June.\n\nOver the July Fourth weekend, Lopez and Affleck were seen enjoying a day at Universal Studios Hollywood in California with their kids, according to photos and reports from Page Six and Entertainment Weekly. The next day, photos obtained by Page Six and People showed Bennifer enjoying a cozy walk together in coordinated beige ensembles.\n\nBennifer goes Instagram and red carpet official\n\nOn Lopez's 52nd birthday in July 2021, she posted a series of bikini-laced Instagram photos that ended with a kiss. On the last slide, she wore her new-but-old lover Affleck, locked by the lips.\n\n\"5 2 … what it do …..,\" she wrote on the relationship reveal.\n\nThe couple went on to hit several high-profile red carpets.\n\nVenice Film Festival 2021::Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck share kiss, go red carpet official\n\nThey walked hand-in-hand at the Venice Film Festival in September, ahead of the premiere of Affleck's film \"The Last Duel.\" The couple shared a sweet kiss for all the world to see.\n\nNot a week later, the two showed more PDA the night of the 2021 Met Gala. Lopez posed on the famed steps of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art alone, but still put on a show with Affleck. After stepping inside the event, the two kissed in front of cameras with their masks still on.\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck show PDA inside the Met Gala, days after their red carpet debut\n\nBen talks rekindled romance with JLo, say he's 'in awe'\n\nIn December, Affleck spoke in a cover story for the Wall Street Journal about reconnecting with Lopez\n\n“I can say that it’s definitely beautiful to me,\" Affleck said. \"And, you know, one of the things I really value across all facets of my life now is that it was handled in a way that reflected that. And it is a good story. It’s a great story. And, you know, maybe one day I’ll tell it. I’ll write it all out. And then I’ll light it on fire.\"\n\nWhen Lopez was honored as AdWeek's 2021 Brand Visionary in September of that year, Affleck praised his once-again girlfriend with inspiring words.\n\n\"I am in awe of what Jennifer’s effect on the world is,\" Affleck said in the interview. \"Jennifer has inspired a massive group of people to feel they have a seat at the table in this country.”\n\nLopez has returned the words of admiration in interviews.\n\n\"I feel so lucky and happy and proud to be with him,\" Lopez told People in February. \"I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of the man he's become that I've watched from afar.\"\n\nShe added: \"To see the person, the human being, the man that he is today, the father that he is today, the partner that he is – he is so everything I always knew he was and wanted to be.\"\n\nThey support each other at movie premieres\n\nLopez and Affleck showed up for each other in late 2021 and early 2022 — including hitting the red carpets of their movie premieres.\n\nThe couple showed up in a warm embrace for the premiere of Lopez's romantic comedy \"Marry Me\" in February..\n\nAffleck and Lopez kissed, smiled and waved for the cameras as they were dressed to the nines ahead of the special screening in Los Angeles. Lopez looked great in her white dress, apropos for the movie's title.\n\nJust a couple of months prior, the couple gushed in front of the cameras for the movie premiere of Affleck's film \"The Tender Bar\" in December. That time, Lopez wore a stunning turquoise gown to match her beau's debonair suit.\n\nJLo announces engagement to Ben, shows off green diamond ring\n\nLopez announced her engagement to Affleck in April via a video in her On the JLo fan newsletter.\n\nIn the video, Lopez looks at her engagement ring – a green diamond with smaller diamonds on each side – and whispers, \"You're perfect.\"\n\nAffleck was likely in on the color green being meaningful to Lopez. She spoke about the hue being her \"lucky color\" in another On the JLo newsletter.\n\n\"Maybe you can remember a certain green dress,\" she wrote, likely referring to the iconic Versace dress she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000 that catapulted her to superstardom. \"I’ve realized there are many moments in my life where amazing things happened when I was wearing green. It may be a coincidence, maybe not. But as I took a better look, I realized there are no coincidences.\"\n\nContributing: Elise Brisco, Edward Segarra", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/04/09/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-engaged-again/5571287001/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck engaged: See the green diamond ring", "text": "What's old is new! Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged to be married, again.\n\nLopez shared a video to her On the JLo fan newsletter late Friday to announce the big news.\n\n\"So I have a really exciting and special story to share,\" Lopez said in a video posted to her social media accounts with the caption \"Major announcement!!!!\" as she pointed fans to onthejlo.com. \"It is my inner circle where I share my more personal things and this one's definitely on the JLo.\"\n\nThe video shows Lopez admiring the ring, whispering, \"You're perfect.\" Affleck proposed with a ring featuring two smaller diamonds on each side of a large green diamond in the middle — a different shade from the pink diamond with which he proposed the first time in 2002.\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to Lopez and Affleck's reps for comment.\n\nAffleck was likely in on the color green being meaningful Lopez. She spoke about the hue being her \"lucky color\" in another On the JLo newsletter.\n\n\"Maybe you can remember a certain green dress,\" she wrote, likely referring to the iconic Versace dress she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000 that catapulted her to superstardom. \"I’ve realized there are many moments in my life where amazing things happened when I was wearing green. It may be a coincidence, maybe not. But as I took a better look, I realized there are no coincidences.\"\n\nLopez and Affleck's appearance at the \"Marry Me\" premiere in February seemingly hinted that the actress was in the bridal headspace once again. Wearing a short white dress, the singer cozied up to Affleck on the red carpet and exchanged a few kisses.\n\nLopez and Affleck first sparked reconciliation rumors after the pair was spotted together on multiple occasions fresh off Lopez's split from former baseball player Alex Rodriguez last April.\n\nThe two seemingly confirmed their relationship by going Instagram official in July, when Lopez posted a photo of her kissing Affleck while celebrating her 52nd birthday.\n\n\"5 2 … what it do …..,\" she wrote on the relationship reveal at the time.\n\nSince then they've been seen hitting the red carpet together at film festivals and at the 2021 Met Gala in September.\n\nLopez and Affleck first met in 2002 on the set of the romantic comedy \"Gigli,\" while Lopez was still married to her second husband, dancer Cris Judd. Although the movie bombed terribly at the box office, sparks were definitely flying between Lopez and Affleck. The pair went public with their relationship shortly after Lopez's divorce from Judd.\n\nThe \"Hustlers\" star told People that when she met Affleck at the time, \"I felt like… 'Okay, this is it.'\"\n\nShould you text your ex? Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have us wondering: When is texting your ex a good idea?\n\nInstagram official:Jennifer Lopez posts lip-locked photo with Ben Affleck after relationship rumors\n\nThe \"Bennifer\" romance first took the pop culture of the early aughts by storm. The Hollywood power couple got engaged in November 2002 with a pink engagement ring but the bended knee didn't end in happily ever after. Lopez and Affleck ended their engagement in 2004, blaming the demise of their relationship to all the media attention.\n\nIn 2008, Affleck said he and Lopez were \"too accessible\" during their high-profile relationship: \"I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible. I don't think either of us anticipated the degree to which it would take on a world of its own.\"\n\nFast forward to 2022 and the engagement is back on.\n\nBetween the two of them, Lopez and Affleck have five children from previous marriages. Lopez shares 14-year-old twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony and Affleck shares Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13 and Samuel, 10 with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.\n\nContributing: Anika Reed, Jenna Ryu, Cydney Henderson, Naledi Ushe", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/07/17/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-obtain-marriage-license-nevada/10082207002/", "title": "Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez's Las Vegas wedding: All the details", "text": "Bennifer finally made it down the aisle! Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are officially husband and wife.\n\nThe twice-engaged couple got married late-night Saturday at the A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lopez confirmed Sunday via her On the JLo fan newsletter that the two had in fact wed, and she shared photos, videos and details from the big night. \"We did it,\" she wrote. \"Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.\"\n\n\"Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world,\" Lopez continued. \"Behind us two men held hands and held each other. In front of us, a young couple who made the three hour drive from Victorville on their daughter’s second birthday — all of us wanting the same thing — for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.\"\n\nLopez adds they \"barely made\" it to the wedding chapel by midnight, but that they \"graciously\" stayed open late and let the couple \"take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed).\"\n\nWhile the wedding wasn't the glamorous, over-the-top ceremony fans would expect from Bennifer, Lopez said it was \"the best possible wedding we could have imagined.\"\n\nThe bride and groom made use of \"a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet\" to wear for the ceremony. Lopez and Affleck also read their vows to each other \"in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives.\"\n\n\"When love is real, the only thing that matters in marriage is one another and the promise we make to love, care, understand, be patient, loving and good to one another,\" Lopez wrote. \"We had that. And so much more. Best night of our lives.\"\n\nCourt documents posted Sunday revealed Lopez, 52, and Affleck, 49, received a license on Saturday in Clark County, Nevada, The Associated Press reported. TMZ was the first to report the news. The filing shows Lopez plans to take the name Jennifer Affleck.\n\n\"They were right when they said, 'all you need is love,' \" Lopez concluded in her newsletter Sunday. \"We are so grateful to have that in abundance, a new wonderful family of five amazing children and a life that we have never had more reason to look forward to. ... Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things — and worth waiting for.\"\n\nThe singer signed off \"with love, Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.\"\n\nLopez announced her engagement to Affleck in April with a video shared to her On the JLo fan newsletter.\n\nThe video showed Lopez admiring the ring, whispering, \"You're perfect.\" Affleck proposed with a ring featuring two smaller diamonds on each side of a large green diamond in the middle – a different shade from the pink diamond with which he proposed to her the first time, nearly 20 years ago.\n\nJennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged! See her 'lucky color' green shine in the ring\n\nLopez opened up about the details of Affleck’s “bubble bath proposal” in another issue of her newsletter the following week.\n\n\"Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed,\" Lopez wrote at the time. \"I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again.\"\n\nShe added, \"I was quite literally speechless and he said, 'Is that a yes?' I said, 'YES of course that's a YES.' ”\n\n'Speechless':Jennifer Lopez describes Ben Affleck's 'bubble bath' proposal\n\nLopez and Affleck sparked reconciliation rumors after the pair was spotted together on multiple occasions, fresh off Lopez's split from former baseball star Alex Rodriguez in April 2021.\n\nThe two seemingly confirmed their relationship by going Instagram official last July, when Lopez posted a photo of her kissing Affleck while celebrating her 52nd birthday. \"5 2 … what it do …..,\" she wrote on the relationship reveal.\n\nThe couple met in 2002 on the set of the romantic comedy \"Gigli,\" while Lopez was still married to her second husband, dancer Cris Judd. Although the movie bombed at the box office, sparks were definitely flying between Lopez and Affleck. The pair went public with their relationship shortly after Lopez's divorce from Judd.\n\nThe \"Hustlers\" star told People when she met Affleck at the time, \"I felt like… 'Okay, this is it.' \"\n\n\"Bennifer\" took pop culture by storm in the early aughts. The Hollywood power couple got engaged in November 2002, but the bended knee didn't end in happily ever after. Lopez and Affleck ended their engagement in 2004, blaming the demise of their relationship to all the media attention.\n\nIn 2008, Affleck suggested he and Lopez were too public with their high-profile relationship.\n\n\"I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible,” Affleck said. “I don't think either of us anticipated the degree to which it would take on a world of its own.\"\n\nContributing: The Associated Press and Kim Willis, Elise Brisco, Pamela Avila, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/06/17/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-rumors-highlight-pressure-go-official/5295736001/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and the pressure to make things ...", "text": "Are they together or not? Let's check social media.\n\nJennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been the subject of recent relationship speculation for several weeks. After Lopez and former MLB star Alex Rodriguez split, rumors about the pop star and her ex-fiancé Affleck bubbled and photos emerged of the two spending time together – and most recently making out at dinner.\n\nBefore the age of social media, this used to be enough to confirm a buzzed-about celebrity romance – at least until the couple eventually walked the red carpet together at the glitzy event of their choosing. But in the digital age, we expect celebrities to declare their status, perhaps with an Instagram shot of their hands linked. (Think Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker or Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox.) And it's not just A-listers. Experts say many couples these days feel pressured make it \"official\" on social media, but they should be mindful about what they share with the world.\n\nCelebrity Split:Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez officially call it quits after reversing their breakup announcement\n\n\"(Social media) can make your partner feel valued and feel seen if you're posting (about) them,\" dating coach and matchmaker Tennesha Wood says. \"That can go the other way with over-posting and setting an expectation that your relationship is for social media.\"\n\nIs Bennifer back?: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's relationship, including reports of dinner PDA\n\nCouples on social media set false expectations\n\nWood says the desire to post a relationship on social media often stems from gratification one may receive. Users are interested in seeing who is dating whom because it feels like they're getting a \"peek behind the curtain\" into others' private lives. But she says it is rarely the full picture.\n\n\"It's unrealistic that every couple that's posting every single day is in love and there's no issues all the time,\" Wood says.\n\nDr. Niloo Dardashti, an adult and couples psychologist of Manhattan Psychology Group, says when people post on social media they are rarely sharing the \"bad things that happen in their relationships,\" which she says can make for a \"dangerous\" perception of perfection.\n\n\"People compare their own lives and their own relationships that are very imperfect, like most people's are, and think that something is wrong,\" Dardashti says.\n\nKeeping up Instagram appearances creates friction\n\nWood says constantly having your relationship on display can create friction.\n\n\"You have to essentially live up to your own brand that you created for your relationship so when things are going bad, times where you aren't happy and things aren't peachy keen and lovey dovey you're thinking this is not normal,\" Wood says.\n\nLopez and Affleck called off their engagement in 2004 (before social media became what it is today), and they previously attributed the split to public pressures.\n\n\"I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible,\" Affleck said at the time.\n\n'It's not like he cheated on me': Cheating is not the only form of betrayal\n\nHow to fix relationship issues that stem from social media\n\nWhen social media starts to create issues within a relationship, Dardashti suggests couples take the online feeds out of the equation.\n\nUnplugging:Megan Thee Stallion is taking a break from social media. 6 signs you may need to\n\n\"I typically advise people to give themselves a time limit to be on social media everyday because it can become somewhat addictive,\" Dardashti says.\n\nShe also recommends couples take what they see on social media with a grain of salt: \"If you're going to be on social media remember to put on that lens of 'this is just one part of their life, this is not their everyday.'\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/09/10/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-red-carpet-venice/8256650002/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck make red carpet debut at Venice Festival", "text": "Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck may have made their relationship Instagram official in July, but they’re now red carpet official too.\n\nThe new couple, who were previously engaged from 2002 to 2004, made their red carpet debut like it was the early aughts at the Venice Film Festival Friday. They sealed their newly-minted reconciliation with a kiss.\n\nThe couple, known to fans as \"Bennifer,\" walked hand-in-hand ahead of the premiere of Affleck's new film \"The Last Duel.\" Lopez wore a daring Georges Hobeika white couture gown with a cascading slit, while Affleck opted for a classic black and white tuxedo with a bow tie.\n\n\"Long Live Bennifer,\" Kim Kardashian West wrote on her Instagram Story over a picture of Lopez and Affleck at the festival.\n\nBennifer is back: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's relationship, including their Instagram debut\n\nLopez, 52, and Affleck, 49, shared a sweet kiss on the carpet.\n\nEarlier in the day, Affleck and Lopez were pictured snuggled up on a water taxi traveling across the Venice basin toward the Cipriani Hotel.\n\nInstagram official:Jennifer Lopez posts lip-locked photo with Ben Affleck after relationship rumors\n\nAfter rumors milled and paparazzi photos surfaced for months of the two reuniting after her breakup with ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez, Lopez finally confirmed their relationship status on her 52nd birthday by sharing a photo on Instagram of her and Affleck lip-locked.\n\nRodriguez and Lopez ended their relationship and ultimately their engagement in April after a public flip-flop the month prior on whether they had broken up or not. Lopez and the former MLB star announced they \"realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,\" according to a statement shared exclusively with the \"Today\" show and confirmed to USA TODAY by a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.\n\nLopez and Affleck first took pop culture by storm after they started dating in the early 2000s. The Hollywood power couple – who starred together in 2003's \"Gigli\" and 2004's \"Jersey Girl\" – got engaged in November 2002 (remember her pink engagement ring?). But at the time there wasn't a happily ever after – Lopez and Affleck ended their engagement in 2004.\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez says she's 'never been better' amid Ben Affleck romance rumors", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/04/12/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-bubble-bath-proposal/7294651001/", "title": "Jennifer Lopez: Why Ben Affleck's proposal left her 'speechless'", "text": "Third time's a charm? More like two, if you're Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.\n\nLast week, Lopez included a video in her On the JLo fan newsletter to share that she and Affleck were engaged once again — nearly two decades after they called off their first engagement in 2004. Now, Lopez is sharing more intimate details from the \"bubble bath\" proposal.\n\nOn Tuesday's installment of her newsletter, the \"Marry Me\" actress began: \"Did you ever imagine your biggest dream could come true?\"\n\n\"Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed,\" she wrote. \"I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again.\"\n\nThis time around, Affleck proposed to Lopez with a ring featuring two smaller diamonds on each side of a large green diamond in the middle — a different shade from the pink diamond with which he popped the question the first time.\n\n\"I was quite literally speechless and he said, 'Is that a yes?' I said, 'YES of course that's a YES,' \" Lopez wrote.\n\nBennifer is back: See J. Lo's 'lucky color' green shine in new engagement ring from Ben Affleck\n\nJennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have us wondering: When is texting your ex a good idea?\n\nLopez added that the proposal made her smile \"so big\" and \"tears were coming down my face.\" She said she was \"feeling so incredibly happy and whole.\"\n\nAffleck also likely was in on the color green being meaningful to Lopez, since she spoke about the hue being her \"lucky color\" in another On the JLo newsletter over the weekend.\n\n\"Maybe you can remember a certain green dress,\" she wrote, likely referring to the iconic Versace dress she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000. \"I’ve realized there are many moments in my life where amazing things happened when I was wearing green. It may be a coincidence, maybe not. But as I took a better look, I realized there are no coincidences.\"\n\nIn Tuesday's newsletter, Lopez wrote that \"green has always been my lucky color and now, for sure, it always will be.\"\n\nRelated:Jennifer Lopez rips off her tuxedo to reveal her iconic Versace dress on 'SNL\n\nRelated:Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck share kiss, go red carpet official at Venice Film Festival\n\nLopez and Affleck first sparked reconciliation rumors after they were spotted together on multiple occasions fresh off the singer's split from former baseball player Alex Rodriguez last April.\n\nThen, Lopez broke the Internet last July when she confirmed her rekindled romance with Affleck by posting a photo on Instagram of the two kissing while celebrating her 52nd birthday.\n\nNow, the two are headed back down the aisle. But Lopez is still basking in her proposal.\n\n\"It was nothing fancy at all,\" Lopez wrote Tuesday. \"But it was the most romantic thing I could've ever imagined… just a quiet Saturday night at home, two people promising to always be there for each other. Two very lucky people. Who got a second chance at true love.\"\n\nBetween the two of them, Lopez and Affleck have five children from previous marriages. Lopez shares 14-year-old twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony and Affleck shares Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10 with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.\n\nJennifer Lopez gets a green engagement ring from Ben Affleck: See their relationship timeline", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/09/14/met-gala-jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-pda-venice-film-festival/8329926002/", "title": "Met Gala: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck show PDA after Venice Film Fest", "text": "The Bennifer 2.0 tour continues.\n\nJennifer Lopez may have posed on the Met Gala steps alone Monday night, but her boyfriend, Ben Affleck, was still in attendance – the two weren't shy with showing off PDA after stepping inside the event, sharing a kiss with their masks still on.\n\nLopez, frequently a Met Gala standout, interpreted the evening's theme, \"In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,\" with a nod to the Wild West with a Ralph Lauren gown, wide-brimmed hat, faux fur cape and a leather belt. It took 15 embroiderers more than 12 days of work to complete the look, according to the designer.\n\nJust days prior, Lopez and Affleck made their relationship red carpet official at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.\n\nMet Gala's 10 best dressed: Rihanna is a mood; Billie Eilish, Megan Fox nail American theme\n\nThe new couple, who were previously engaged from 2002 to 2004, made their red carpet debut like it was the early aughts, sealing their newly-minted reconciliation with a kiss.\n\nThe couple walked hand-in-hand ahead of the premiere of Affleck's new film \"The Last Duel.\" Lopez wore a daring Georges Hobeika white couture gown with a cascading slit, while Affleck opted for a classic black and white tuxedo with a bow tie.\n\nEarlier in the day, Affleck and Lopez were pictured snuggled up on a water taxi traveling across the Venice basin toward the Cipriani Hotel.\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck share kiss, go red carpet official at Venice Film Festival\n\nAfter rumors milled and paparazzi photos surfaced for months of the two reuniting after her breakup with ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez, Lopez finally confirmed their relationship status on her 52nd birthday in July by sharing a photo on Instagram of her and Affleck lip-locked.\n\nRodriguez and Lopez ended their relationship and ultimately their engagement in April after a public flip-flop the month prior on whether they had broken up or not. Lopez and the former MLB star announced they \"realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,\" according to a statement shared exclusively with the \"Today\" show and confirmed to USA TODAY by a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly.\n\nLopez and Affleck first took pop culture by storm after they started dating in the early 2000s. The Hollywood power couple – who starred together in 2003's \"Gigli\" and 2004's \"Jersey Girl\" – got engaged in November 2002 (remember her pink engagement ring?). But at the time there wasn't a happily ever after – Lopez and Affleck ended their engagement in 2004.\n\nContributing: Rasha Ali and Cydney Henderson\n\nMore Met Gala:The most outrageous looks: Kim K sparks 'Harry Potter' memes, Grimes wields a sword, more\n\nPlus:Nicki Minaj says she refused to get vaccinated for the Met Gala, fans respond with research", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/05/25/lindsay-lohan-returns-to-acting-new-netflix-movie-fans-react/7431413002/", "title": "Lindsay Lohan returns to acting with new Netflix movie, fans react", "text": "Lindsay Lohan is getting back into acting and Twitter thinks that is \"so fetch!\"\n\nNetflix announced Lohan will be starring in a new romantic comedy, where she plays a \"newly engaged and spoiled hotel heiress who finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner.\" In a Monday tweet, the streaming service posted a photo of Lohan smiling at the camera and rocking her signature strawberry locks, and Lohan retweeted the post with heart emojis.\n\nThough Netflix has not yet revealed a premiere date, the actresses' fans expressed their excitement for her return.\n\n\"The Lindsay Lohan renaissance is upon us and I feel seriously blessed,\" Liv Marks wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Lindsay Lohan comeback to acting, nature is healing,\" @seanmelia123 wrote.\n\nOther users felt like Lohan starring in a movie again was taking them back in time to the new millennium, also citing rumors of the famous 2000s couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck rekindling their romance.\n\n\"JLo and Ben Affleck are back together, Lindsay Lohan is starring in a new movie, and I'm living in my parents house. Hello 2004,\" one user wrote.\n\nIs Bennifer back? Here's a look at Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's relationship\n\nMore:Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have us wondering: When is texting your ex a good idea?\n\nAnother user wrote: \"Lindsay Lohan back? Screw getting back to normal we in ‘04 y’all.\"\n\nLohan has not appeared in a movie since her 2013 role in the thriller \"The Canyons,\" according to IMDb. Her absence from the industry is a stark comparison to her heyday of 2000s teen dramas like \"Mean Girls,\" \"Freaky Friday\" and Confessions of a \"Teenaged Drama Queen.\"\n\nShe's recently dipped a toe in the reality TV arena with her 2019 MTV show \"Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club,\" which followed the \"Parent Trap\" star as she expanded her nightclub and managed her staff at her luxury beach club.\n\nLohan, who has been living abroad over the past few years, told Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen in a New Years Eve 2019 interview that her resolution for 2020 was to return to the states and star in movies again.\n\n\"(I want to) come back to America and start filming again, which I'm doing something soon,\" Lohan said. \"And you know, taking back the life that I worked so hard for and sharing it with my family and you guys.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/03/20/lindsey-vonn-tiger-woods-dating-liger-nickname/2002731/", "title": "Apparently we're calling Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn 'Liger'", "text": "Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports\n\nSometime in between Monday's relationship announcement/Glamour Shots and now, the media decided that we're going to name the Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn supercoupling \"Liger.\"\n\nNewspapers, golf websites, skiing websites, PTI and SportsCenter have all used the celebrity portmanteau in the past 48 hours, meaning this is happening whether you like it or not. There will be no plural pronouns used to address this coupling, just one inane mishmash of first names.\n\nA liger is an actual thing — a lion crossed with a tiger — made famous by Napoleon Dynamite:\n\nZoo couplings gone wrong shouldn't inspire a celebrity moniker.\n\nWhy do celebrity couples need a name-blend in the first place? Bennifer was sort of funny, but think of how dated it is. The original celebrity name-mash comes from when Ben Affleck was a punch line instead of one of the most respected men in Hollywood and Jennifer Lopez was famous for something other than being Jennifer Lopez. (Brangelina's not bad either, but that's because it flows well and is old enough to be grandfathered into acceptable usage.)\n\nWhat's wrong with \"Tiger and Lindsey?\" Or \"Tiger and Vonn?\" Or \"them\" or \"they\" or \"soon-to-be exes?\"\n\nGranted, of all the possible name combinations, Liger works best. The other options were:\n\nLoods (looks too much like slang for Quaaludes)\n\nTigsey (too cutesy)\n\nTonn (too non-cutesy)\n\nViger\n\nVoods (too Dracula)\n\nVonnderTiger (too Dracula introducing a circus act)\n\nWonn\n\nWindsey (like a 5-year-old saying Lindsey)\n\nBut this presupposes they needed a nickname in the first place. They don't, because it's stupid and because Tiger already has a nickname, TIGER! Now we need to give him a nickname for his nickname? That's like a sportswriter from 1984 trying to figure out what to call Magic Johnson.\n\nSo, please. Stop trying to making Liger happen.\n\nRANKING SPORTS POWER COUPLES", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/03/20"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_3", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2022/01/12/shortage-grocery-store-empty-shelves/9178100002/", "title": "Grocery stores empty shelves 2022: Shortages continue as prices rise", "text": "The new year hasn't stopped ongoing food shortages.\n\nShortages at grocery stores across the country have grown more acute in recent weeks as omicron continues to spread and winter storms have piled on to the supply chain struggles and labor shortages.\n\nThe shortages being reported nationwide are widespread, impacting produce and meat as well as packaged goods such as cereal.\n\nWhile items are harder to find, many also cost more with rising inflation.\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\n►Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\n►Grocery stores are facing a food shortage:Here are 11 online grocery delivery services to shop instead\n\nAlbertsons' CEO Vivek Sankaran spoke about supply chain challenges during the company's earnings call with analysts Tuesday.\n\n\"I think as a business, we've all learned to manage it,” Sankaran said. “We've all learned to make sure that the stores are still very presentable, give the consumers as much choice as we can get.”\n\nCurt Covington, senior director of institutional credit at AgAmerica, told USA TODAY that the trends for specific food shortages are intermittent and varied.\n\n“Shortages depend on the item, store, and region of the country,” Covington said. “Shortages can be driven by supply chain issues, consumer behavior, or environmental factors, so it’s hard to pinpoint what will be affected next.”\n\nCOVID-19, bad weather impact shortages\n\nAs the world reaches the two-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, more items are becoming scarce because of global supply chain disruptions such as congestion at ports and shortages of truck drivers and service workers.\n\nPart of the scarcity consumers are seeing on store shelves is due to pandemic trends that never abated – and are exacerbated by omicron. Americans are eating at home more than they used to, especially since offices and some schools remain closed.\n\nWeather-related events, from snowstorms in the Northeast to wildfires in Colorado, also have impacted product availability and caused some shoppers to stock up more than usual, exacerbating supply problems caused by the pandemic.\n\nU.S. groceries typically have 5% to 10% of their items out of stock at any given time; right now, that unavailability rate is hovering around 15%, according to Consumer Brands Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman.\n\n►New Oreo flavor:Oreo releasing a limited-edition Chocolate Confetti Cake Cookie for its 110th birthday\n\n►Lettuce recall 2022:Dole recalls salad sold at Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, H-E-B for listeria risk\n\nPatrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, recently told USA TODAY that cream cheese and international foods were among the food products in short supply.\n\n“As you walk through a lot of stores you won’t see the quantity and quality of items you are accustomed to seeing,” Penfield said, adding some shortages are regional due to labor and truck shortages.\n\nIn a recent study by business consultancy KPMG, 71% of grocery consumers said they were somewhat or very concerned about shortages or stockouts with 35% switching brands when their favorite items are out of stock.\n\nCostco limits purchases of some items\n\nSome retailers have been limiting purchases of select items, similar to policies implemented at the start of the pandemic. But panic buying, especially of toilet paper, returned this summer as the delta variant spread.\n\nIn August, Costco brought back temporary purchase limits on some items including toilet paper.\n\nAccording to Costco's website, some warehouses may have temporary item limits on select items.\n\n►Arby's spicy sandwich:Arby's new Diablo Dare sandwich is so spicy it comes with a free vanilla shake\n\n►Ground beef recall 2022:Ground beef sold at Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons recalled for possible E. coli contamination\n\nFood shortages 2022\n\nHere are some of the food and supply shortages USA TODAY reporters spotted or that readers from across the country told us about. Know of more? There's a form below where you can share your experiences.\n\nBaby formula shortage\n\nIn-stock levels for baby formula and baby food nationwide are slightly higher than for food products overall, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.\n\nKrishnakumar Davey, president of strategic analytics at IRI, told the Journal the shortages are intermittent and vary based on retailer and location. Davey said some of the nation’s 10 largest retailers had more than 20% of baby formula out of stock the week ended Jan. 2.\n\nSome parents have been taking to social media to ask formula makers where they can buy products.\n\n“We are experiencing obstacles in the production and shipping of some of our products as the pandemic continues to cause issues with the supply chain. We appreciate your patience as we navigate this dynamic situation,” Enfamil said on Twitter Dec. 29 in responding to one parent’s plea for help.\n\nEnfamil also said parents can see real-time product availability at stores on its website.\n\nCream cheese shortage\n\nBagel shops have been struggling with the cream cheese shortage and Junior's Cheesecake had to stop production twice at its New Jersey-based facility because it didn't have enough cream cheese.\n\nBut cream cheese has also been missing at stores, particularly Philadelphia Cream Cheese.\n\nIn December, the Kraft brand offered consumers help paying for a replacement dessert, acknowledging the ongoing supply chain disruption of the key cheesecake ingredient.\n\nAndrew Tobisch, a spokesperson for Schreiber Foods, said every cream cheese provider has struggled to keep up with demand.\n\n\"While that demand has been steady, it’s really world events that are the biggest driver. Things like the pandemic, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions are all hurdles that everyone is having to overcome,\" Tobisch said in an email to USA TODAY.\n\n►Meat shortage:There's a meat shortage in the U.S. right now—here are 10 meat delivery subscription boxes to shop\n\n►Blame inflation:Domino's Pizza reducing number of wings in $7.99 deal orders\n\nAluminum shortage\n\nMore consumers have opted to enjoy their favorite beverages in the comfort of their homes causing a higher demand for canned drinks. But the pandemic is only part of the problem.\n\nThe demand for can products accumulated for years according to a Quartz article. Canned drinks are cheaper to make and transport, and easier to market and design, initiating the highest prices for aluminum the market has seen in the past 10 years, senior analyst Salvator Tiano told Quartz.\n\nCat food, dog food shortages\n\nShipping woes and aluminum shortages have led to a scarcity problem for the pet food industry as stores throughout the country are unable to stock all their traditional brands and products.\n\nConsumers are also feeling the impact. Many USA TODAY readers said canned or wet cat food was one of the top items they have been struggling to find.\n\nThese shortages are impacting the movement of ingredients and finished products, the Pet Food Institute told USA TODAY. Along with labor and transportation shortages, pet owners are spending more time with their pets which can lead to increased feeding and more treating. The high demand has resulted in larger purchases.\n\nMarcie Rivera, a spokesperson for Wegmans told the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Massachusetts, part of the USA TODAY Network, that suppliers around the world \"are being faced with an array of challenges affecting their businesses, causing a domino effect on retailers and customers.\"\n\nChicken tender shortage\n\nChicken tenders may be the next casualty of supply-chain-generated shortages, according to a recent NBC News story. Chicken tenders require more processing and packaging, which makes them harder to find and more costly, the story said.\n\nMeat manufacturers have cited extreme weather, labor shortages and high demand among the reasons consumers are having trouble finding tenders.\n\nA spokesman for the National Chicken Council said products were taking longer than normal to get to their destinations but that does not constitute a \"shortage.\"\n\n\"There is no chicken tender shortage,\" said Tom Super, senior vice president of communications with the trade group. \"Like almost all goods right now, supplies are somewhat tight, but I would say it falls short of any 'shortage.'\"\n\n►Finger lickin' gone:Is a chicken tender shortage underway?\n\nLunchables shortage\n\nFor months, parents have reported trouble finding Kraft Heinz' Lunchables. The company told USA TODAY that it has been seeing double-digit growth for the first time in five years.\n\nHigh demand is one reason why it's harder to find these items.\n\n“Our entire supply chain continues to step up – taking actions that protect our business today, while working hard to not delay critical investments that set us up for the future,” Kraft Heinz said in the statement.\n\nToilet paper shortage\n\nIn spring 2020, demand for toilet paper skyrocketed as Americans were faced with a possibly lengthy stay-at-home future. Panic buying of bath tissue has returned at various times throughout the pandemic. This shortage stems from lumber's raw material, wood pulp, which is used to make toilet paper.\n\nChampagne shortage could impact celebrations for years\n\nThe nation is in the early stages of a Champagne shortage that is expected to last several years, according to Wine Enthusiast.\n\nDrizly, North America's largest alcohol e-commerce and on-demand delivery platform, surveyed 500 alcohol retailers and found 80% said they were at least slightly concerned about the champagne supply running short.\n\nEven with the shortages, Liz Paquette, Drizly head of consumer insights, said champagne and prosecco continue to be the top-selling sparkling wines with 63% and 18% of market share.\n\nBeer shortage\n\nHaving a hard time finding your favorite craft beer? It could be part of the aluminum shortage, but the price of ingredients for beer are also skyrocketing because of supply chain issues throughout the world.\n\nSam Hendler, co-owner of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts, and president of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild, told MetroWest Daily News that the cost increases being felt by breweries are universal and a big topic among colleagues.\n\nIn the past, manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the demand to make cans, but now even when cans are available, getting them to breweries can be difficult.\n\nContributing: Associated Press; Paul Davidson, Naomi Ludlow, Michelle Shen and Taylor Avery, USA TODAY; Norman Miller, MetroWest Daily News\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.\n\nMore shortages?\n\nShare what items you are having a hard time finding and how inflation is hitting your wallet on the form below. If you don't see a form, click here.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/22/us/five-things-july-22-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for July 22: Jan. 6, Covid-19, Extreme heat ...", "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) Before you purchase those items in your Amazon cart, make sure you scan product reviews for anything suspicious. Amazon is trying to weed out thousands of online groups it says is responsible for orchestrating millions of fake reviews on its site. The company this week said it is using \"advanced technology\" and \"expert investigators\" to identify and sue the bad actors , but some of the fraudsters are well-disguised and are actively looking for loopholes to mislead buyers.\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. January 6\n\nThe January 6 committee presented new evidence Thursday highlighting then-President Donald Trump's refusal over three hours to publicly condemn the riot at the US Capitol or to call off the violent mob. During the primetime session, witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on January 6 told the committee that Trump did not place a single call to law enforcement or national security officials as the insurrection was unfolding. Nor did he issue a statement during that time urging rioters to leave the Capitol and go home. The committee used that testimony to make a case that Trump's refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty. The hearing also featured disturbing new video and audio showing how endangered Vice President Mike Pence's security detail felt as they were trying to evacuate him safely from the Capitol. Thursday's session was the committee's final public hearing until September\n\n2. Covid-19\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Thursday that he's tested positive for Covid-19 but will continue to work while in isolation at the White House despite mild symptoms. In a video posted to Twitter , Biden told Americans that he is \"doing well\" and that \"it's gonna be OK,\" adding he has been double vaccinated and double boosted. This is the first time Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Biden, 79, has begun taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid , which is available via emergency use authorization from the FDA for eligible people at high risk of severe illness. The President's infection comes as coronavirus cases are once again on the rise in the US, driven by the most contagious strain of the virus yet: BA.5\n\n3. Extreme heat\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear why officials are urging people to take heat wave seriously Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear why officials are urging people to take heat wave seriously 01:19\n\n4. Immigration\n\nThe Supreme Court on Thursday declined to freeze a lower court order that has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from implementing new immigration enforcement priorities . The court's 5-4 vote is a loss for the Biden administration, which is trying to return to Obama-era policies that limit immigration arrests in order to focus on security risks instead of the more aggressive approach taken by the Trump administration. The vote was also the first for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson since she was sworn in on June 30. Jackson joined the court's three other female justices in dissenting with the ruling. This comes a little more than a week after thousands of migrants from multiple countries descended upon the US-Mexico border in search of asylum, adding to the Biden administration's challenges.\n\n5. Ukraine\n\nRussia's Ukraine war effort is running \"out of steam\" and Russia has lost its ability to spy in Europe \"by half,\" according to the chief of Britain's foreign intelligence service. \"I think our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower material over the next few weeks,\" Richard Moore, the head of MI6, told CNN. \"They will have to pause some way and that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back.\" In addition, the European Council hit Russia with new restrictive measures today , preventing another major Russian bank from conducting transactions outside of the country. Separately, the Russian government today expanded its list of \" unfriendly foreign states ,\" adding Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia.\n\nJUST WATCHED Why MI6 chief thinks Russia is running 'out of steam' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why MI6 chief thinks Russia is running 'out of steam' 01:26\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nCats are going wild over this video game\n\nPeople are posting their cats' reactions to a new feline-friendly video game. Watch the funny moments here\n\n'Nope' premieres in US theaters today\n\nThe reviews are in, and critics are giving a big yes to Jordan Peele's latest movie , the alien-invasion thriller \"Nope.\"\n\nPrince George is 9! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge share a photo of him on the eve of his birthday\n\nAustralia's largest music festival sinks into the mud, forcing first day cancellation\n\nFestivalgoers at Splendour in the Grass 2022 were excited for a lineup of A-list performers like Gorillaz and The Strokes. They got a mud pit instead\n\nOne of Central Park's prettiest places is closing\n\nThis popular boathouse restaurant in New York City will close permanently in October. Get your pictures while you can.\n\nQUIZ TIME\n\nWhich product remains difficult to find in many US stores due to a nationwide shortage?\n\nA. Paper towels\n\nB. Toilet paper\n\nC. Baby formula\n\nD. Toothpaste\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n13\n\nThat's how many people are accused of sending more than 8 billion robocalls about \"auto warranties\" since 2018. The illegal calls typically begin with recorded lines such as, \"We've been trying to reach you concerning your car's extended warranty,\" the Federal Communications Commission said in an order Thursday, requiring voice providers to stop carrying the calls. The people behind the alleged scheme are mostly based in Texas and California but also in places as far away as Hungary. The calls were the single largest source of consumer complaints to the FCC in each of the past two years.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\nMany of you may be too young to remember polio, but when I was growing up, this disease struck fear in families, including my own. The fact that it is still around decades after the vaccine was created shows you just how relentless it is.\n\n-- Ed Day, a county executive in Rockland, New York, urging people to get vaccinated against polio after a person from the county was diagnosed with the first case of polio identified in the US in nearly a decade . The unvaccinated young adult began experiencing weakness and paralysis about a month ago, health officials said. About 1 in 4 infected people have flu-like symptoms, but as many as 1 in 200 develop more serious symptoms that include numbness in the legs, an infection of the brain or spinal cord, and paralysis, the CDC said. There is no cure for polio, and paralysis caused by the disease is permanent.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Record-breaking heat and severe weather threats Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Record-breaking heat and severe weather threats 02:21\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nThe most beautiful fruits and vegetables you've probably never seen", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/10/15/grocery-shortage-toilet-paper-coffee-chicken-hard-find/8455259002/", "title": "Grocery store shelves bare? These products may be hard to find ...", "text": "Correction: A customs dispute at the U.S.-Canada border involving shippers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection is preventing the transportation of fish used in fish sticks and sandwiches.\n\nCan't find what you need at the store again? You're not alone.\n\nAs the world reaches the two-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, more items are becoming scarce because of a supply chain shortage across the globe.\n\nSupply chain concerns are a result of “record-level congestion at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach that has spread to the East Coast, the widespread power outages across China, shortages of truck drivers and service workers, and COVID-19-fueled infections and restrictions,” Tinglong Dai, a business professor at Johns Hopkins University, told USA TODAY in an email.\n\nShipping prices have skyrocketed, and demand for items has outpaced supplies.\n\nCream cheese shortage:Supply chain problem has reached bagels, cheesecakes\n\nImpact on the economy:Food prices are climbing amid worker shortages, supply-chain problems, extreme weather and more\n\nBefore making a grocery list, here is a list of items you might not find:\n\nBen & Jerry flavors\n\nThis frozen treat is usually the perfect dessert, but in an email on Sept. 14, Ben & Jerry's parent company, Unilever, cited labor shortages as the reason for reducing the amount of flavors produced. The company said it will focus on producing its most popular flavors. Phish Food lovers, you have nothing to worry about.\n\nCarbonated drinks\n\nFertilizer plants, which lead to the production of carbon dioxide, had to reduce their output because of rising costs, causing shortages in food and other products, Per Hong, senior partner at consulting firm Kearney, told CNBC. “We almost certainly will be faced with a global shortage of CO2 that is used widely. CO2 is used extensively in the food value chain from inside packaged food to keep it fresher longer, for dry ice to keep frozen food cold during delivery, to giving carbonated beverages their bubbles,” he said.\n\nChicken\n\nPeople have substituted fast food for home-cooked comfort meals, causing chicken to become scarce. In May, suppliers announced a shortage of chicken, which limited some restaurants' menu items and increased the price in stores.\n\nCoffee\n\nBrazil is a supplier of most of the world's coffee, but the country has been experiencing a drought that slowed production and transportation of coffee beans.\n\nDiapers\n\nHouseholds with small children should be aware that diaper prices have increased because of increases in prices of raw materials, shipping delays and container shortages, according to Business Insider. Diaper manufacturers Proctor & Gamble (Pampers and Luvs) and Kimberly-Clark (Huggies) announced price increases in early April.\n\nFish sticks\n\nA customs dispute at the U.S.-Canada border has kept the Alaska pollock, which is used for fish sticks and sandwiches, stored across the border. Cross-border violations have halted transportation of the fish and may cause permanent seafood supply chain problems.\n\nFrozen meals\n\nRodney Holcomb, food economist at Oklahoma State University, told ABC27 News that concerns over the delta coronavirus variant have some customers buying more than usual, as Americans saw at the beginning of the pandemic, in case there is another lockdown.\n\nSeason of giving:Don't wait until Black Friday to start your holiday shopping. Here's why you need to shop now.\n\nHeinz ketchup packets\n\nWith restrictions on indoor dining, most people switched to pickup, takeout and delivery orders, limiting the supply of individual ketchup packets. Kraft Heinz confirmed to USA TODAY in early April that it was working to increase supplies, such as adding manufacturing lines that would increase production by about 25% for a total of more than 12 billion packets a year.\n\nMarie Callender’s pot pies\n\nThe holidays call for comfort foods – even if you aren't the one making it. But expect shortages of Marie Callender's 10-ounce and 15-ounce pot pies. According to parent company Conagra, it would be allocating shipments through Nov. 29 after it \"encountered packing material challenges from our tray and carton supplier resulting in a production interruption,\" CNN Business reports.\n\nRice Krispie Treats\n\nThis lunchbox treat's production has been \"below service expectations,\" as stated in an email sent to suppliers. The shortage persists as Kellogg's workers remain on strike, even though production lines have restarted as replacement workers were brought in.\n\nSour Patch Kids\n\nIn an Oct. 1 email to a grocery distributor, parent company Mondelez says there is \"limited availability\" on some of their items such as Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish candy and Toblerone chocolate \"due to supply chain constraints.\"\n\nToilet paper\n\nThis is something that isn't new to the pandemic shortage list, but the industry has yet to keep up with the demand. The shortage stems from lumber's raw material, wood pulp, which is used to make toilet paper. Fox Business reports only 60% of orders are being shipped out. Some retailers, such as Costco, have reinstated purchasing limits.\n\nBefore the pandemic ketchup squeeze:A year of COVID-19 product shortages and the items we struggled to find\n\nOther shortages?\n\nShare what items you are having a hard time finding, your holiday shopping plans and how inflation is hitting your wallet and your Christmas meal on the form below. If you don't see a form, click here.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/health/infant-formula-shortage-misinformation-wellness/index.html", "title": "What you can and can't do to get through the infant formula shortage ...", "text": "(CNN) Misinformation about how families can get through the infant formula shortage is fueling concern among pediatricians like Dr. Tanya Altmann.\n\nThe California doctor has been getting phone calls, emails and social media messages -- not just from her patients but from families all over the United States -- along with photos of empty store shelves that once held infant formula.\n\nParents say they've been to a dozen stores and looked on a hundred websites and can't find their baby's infant formula, and they want to know what to do and whether some of the so-called alternatives they're hearing about are legit.\n\n\"It's scary for these moms and their babies, and it's becoming a real issue,\" Altmann said.\n\nSupply chain issues and product recalls have sparked the nationwide shortage of infant formulas. As of early April, seven states reported that between 40% and 50% of baby formula products were out of stock. Manufacturers have said they are producing at full capacity to make as much as they can, but this week 43% of baby formulas were out of stock, according to a new report from Datasembly.\n\nThe US Food and Drug Administration is working with Abbott Nutrition, the company involved in the recent recall , to safely resume production and find tools to support the supply of infant formula, according to an FDA spokesperson. But its Michigan facility is likely still about two weeks away from being back online, pending sign off from the FDA, and it will probably be another six to eight weeks until products are back on the shelves, according to a statement from the company.\n\nThe pediatricians said there are ways to get through the shortage for many people, and it is important to work with your pediatrician to address your infant's particular needs. Here are answers to some of your questions about what's safe and what is not.\n\nBaby formula is displayed on the shelves of a grocery store in Carmel, Ind., Tuesday.\n\nCan I make formula at home?\n\nNo.\n\n\"There is a lot of discussion about making your own formula at home and things of that sort, and I really want to discourage that as much as possible,\" Abrams said.\n\nFormulas are complex, and researchers spent years developing the right ratio to give babies the nutrients they need, Altmann said.\n\nInfant formulas must be dense with protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, many of which you can't buy at the grocery store. And the balance must be precise for babies' health and development, she added.\n\n\"You can see how it would be really hard to duplicate in your own kitchen,\" she said.\n\nHomemade formulas can result in a baby not getting the right nutrition or having the ratio of their electrolytes disrupted, which can be dangerous, Altmann said. There have also been cases of bacterial contamination, which can make the infants sick.\n\nCan I stretch out my formula supply?\n\nNo.\n\nAdding in other food sources or adding more water to formula is tempting as you get close to the end of your last container of formula, but pediatricians said it's not a good idea.\n\nFamilies can start introducing solids into an infant's diet when the baby is around 4 to 6 months old, Altmann said. But these foods are not a nutritional substitute for formula at that age.\n\n\"Even when you start solids, breast milk or infant formula is still the major source of nutrition for your baby,\" Altmann said.\n\nAnd adding extra water to stretch the formula you have can dilute the essential nutrient profile and lead to serious health issues and interfere with proper growth and development, she added.\n\n\"We're not irrational. If there is nothing you can put in the baby's mouth except cow's milk, you're going to do that,\" Abrams said. \"But that's not what we want people to do.\"\n\nCan I use toddler formula or cow's milk instead?\n\nMaybe.\n\nIt really depends on how old your baby is and what your pediatrician says.\n\nFor the first six months at least, formula specified for infants is really important, Altmann said. But the closer they are to a year, there may be more flexibility.\n\n\"You can actually choose a toddler formula at that point where normally you'd want to wait until they're exactly a year of age,\" Altmann said. \"Talk to your pediatrician, always, first.\"\n\n\"We discourage the use of cow's milk until a year of age but it's certainly true that as the baby is close to a year of age, especially if it's simply no formula to be found, that you could use either that or a toddler formula,\" Abrams said. \"Neither are ideal, but the closer you are to the year, especially for the short term, those are alternatives.\"\n\nCan I buy international formulas online?\n\nMaybe.\n\nAltmann said there are some high-quality products made in Europe and Australia she likes that are available online. But it is important to make sure you are ordering from reputable retailers.\n\nShe recommended buying from trusted pharmacies of the country the formula is from and checking how the formula's nutrition compares to FDA-approved formula.\n\n\"Not all international formulas are created equally so you may want to make sure you know what you are getting and that it's a high-quality product,\" she said.\n\nBut Abrams cautions against imports, reminding families that imported formulas are not reviewed by the FDA.\n\n\"It's a less-than-ideal alternative but if that's what they have to do, then that's what they have to do,\" he said.\n\nThe FDA recommends against importing formula online because it could potentially be counterfeit, a spokesperson said.\n\nCan I switch formula brands?\n\nYes.\n\n\"What we want people to do if at all possible is to be as flexible as possible and make formula switches,\" Abrams said.\n\nIt may take your baby a few days to get used to a new formula brand, but in most cases, switching is fine, Altmann said. You can find good formula choices for your baby here\n\nIt gets more complicated, however, in cases where a child may be on a certain formula because of an allergy or sensitivity.\n\n\"If your child has an allergy or sensitivity and has had previous reactions to formulas, please consult with your pediatrician before switching off because not all formulas are the same,\" Altmann said. \"But in most cases, there are other options available we can help direct you to.\"\n\nCan I restart my breast milk supply?\n\nIt's complicated.\n\nThere have been instances where parents can induce lactation for the first time or restart lactation after choosing not to breastfeed, Altmann said. The process is complicated, however, and likely requires the help of a lactation specialist.", "authors": ["Madeline Holcombe"], "publish_date": "2022/05/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2022/04/09/baby-formula-shortage-2022-worsens/9525498002/", "title": "Baby formula shortage 2022 worsens after Abbott Similac recall", "text": "Less than two months after a baby formula recall, retailers are reporting shortages with some stores rationing sales.\n\nNearly 30% of popular baby formula brands may be sold out at retailers across the U.S., according to an analysis by Datasembly, which assessed supplies at more than 11,000 stores.\n\nThat's a higher level than other products, said Ben Reich, CEO of the Tysons, Virginia-based research firm.\n\n\"Inflation, supply chain shortages, and product recalls have brought an unprecedented amount of volatility to the category, and we expect to continue to see baby formula as one of the most affected categories in the market,” he said.\n\nBaby formula shortage:5 things you can do to feed your baby during a formula shortage\n\nRecall Database:Check USA TODAY's recall resource for the latest updates\n\nThe shortage comes after Abbott Nutrition voluntarily recalled in mid-February select batches of Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas manufactured in Sturgis, Michigan. The recall was expanded in late February to include one lot of Similac PM 60/40.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration said two weeks ago that the formula maker failed to maintain sanitary conditions and procedures at that plant.\n\nBaby formula supplies limited\n\nBut formula supplies were limited before the recall.\n\nKrishnakumar Davey, president of strategic analytics at IRI, told The Wall Street Journal that formula shortages are intermittent and vary based on retailer and location. Davey said some of the nation’s 10 largest retailers had more than 20% of baby formula out of stock the week ended Jan. 2.\n\n\"Product supply challenges are currently impacting most of the retail industry,\" CVS Health, which owns the pharmacy chain, said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"We’re continuing to work with our national brand baby formula vendors to address this issue and we regret any inconvenience that our customers may be experiencing.\"\n\nWalgreens is limiting shoppers to three infant and toddler formula products per transaction \"to help improve inventory,\" the company said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"Due to increased demand and various supplier issues, infant and toddler formulas are seeing constraint across the country,\" its statement said.\n\nNearly 75% of infants get some formula by the 6-month mark, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.\n\n'Full-time job trying to find Similac'\n\nAfter she visited three different stores in one day, Elyssa Schmier, the vice president of government relations for advocacy group MomsRising, \"all of a sudden realized my formula was nowhere to be found. … It's almost a full-time job trying to find Similac.\"\n\nAfter experiencing the nationwide shortage firsthand, Schmier organized an Instagram Live discussion Friday with Brian Dittmeier, who is the senior director of public policy for the National WIC Association.\n\nManufacturers \"are tuned into this and it is our understanding that across the board, folks are ramping up production,\" Dittmeier said.\n\n\"Now, it's not like flipping a switch,\" he said. \"We will probably continue to see shortages in the next couple of weeks. But our hope is that as production ramps up, that later this spring it should be easier for families across the country.\"\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day\n\nFormula out-of-stock rates increasing\n\nDatasembly's analysis found that during the first seven months of 2021 baby formula supplies were \"relatively stable\" with out-of-stock supplies between 2-8%. But in subsequent months, it has continued to worsen, Reich said, as out-of-stock rates rose into double digits and reached 23% at the end of January.\n\nThe out-of-stock situation started to affect baby formula in July 2021, varying between 2-8% and has continued to worsen into 2022.\n\nAmong the states hit worst with baby formula supply shortages, according to Datasembly: Minnesota had the highest out-of-stock percentage for the week of March 13th at 54%, followed by Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Texas, all at 40% or higher.\n\nCities with the highest out-of-stock rates: San Antonio (56%), Minneapolis (55%), and Des Moines (50%), for the week of March 13. Houston, New Orleans, and Oahu were above 45%.\n\nWalmart truck driver pay:Walmart starting pay range for new truck drivers is between $95,000 and $110,000 after wage increase\n\nEaster eggs price hike?:Bird flu, inflation cause egg prices to rise ahead of Easter and Passover holidays\n\nContributing: Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY\n\nFollow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/10/15/supply-chain-shortages-issues-impact-holiday-shopping/8450237002/", "title": "Supply chain shortages: Why is there a shortage; what is the impact?", "text": "Food prices are going up, gas prices are climbing, and finding that great gift for the holidays might get tougher.\n\nThe reason? Struggles linked to our global supply chain.\n\nLast week, President Joe Biden revealed plans to help tackle bottlenecks within our supply chain, including plans to turn ports into 24/7 operations. Meanwhile, shipping companies FedEx and UPS as well as retailing giant Walmart will expand their efforts to ease the strains on the supply chain.\n\n“This is the first key step for moving on entire freight transportation and logistical supply chain nationwide to a 24/7 system,” said Biden.\n\nSo, what is the supply chain, and why should you care about these issues? Let's explain:\n\nWhat is the supply chain?\n\nThe supply chain is how we get nearly all of the stuff in our lives that we want and need. It's a system that helps make and deliver our favorite products. It involves the manufacturers of these products, the companies that supply materials to create them, the cargo ships, trains and trucks that deliver them, and the stores selling them.\n\n“You can think of this as a pipe that connects supply and demand,\" said Tinglong Dai, a professor of operations management and business analytics at Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIt's also complicated. Take the iPhone, for example. To build one, Apple has supply chains with companies providing materials for its smartphone such as Corning, which makes precision glass for use on the iPhone. Then you have the supply chains Apple uses to distribute iPhones to you.\n\n\"It’s a complex network of various different entities that are working together in order to enable us as consumers to receive our products in the time that we expect,\" said Marko Bastl, the director of the Center for Supply Chain Management at Marquette University.\n\n►Grocery store shelves bare?:These products may be hard to find due to supply chain issues\n\n►Gas prices:Why are they higher?\n\n►Food prices keep rising:3 tips to save on your groceries\n\nWhat is wrong with supply chains?\n\nThe issues affecting supply chains are linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bastl said the pandemic is unique because it has impacted both supply and demand. Some manufacturers still aren't operating at the levels they reached before the pandemic.\n\nThe pandemic also affected companies focused on logistics, such as warehousing to store items that travel overseas and transportation like trucks and trains to deliver them across the country, said Bastl.\n\nAt the same time, due to millions of us staying at home to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we ordered a lot of stuff, from personal computers to sports equipment.\n\n\"It’s almost like a perfect storm of loss of manufacturing capacity as well as loss of logistics capacity, married then with the increase in demand,\" said Bastl.\n\nWhy are cargo ships not docking?\n\nOne of the enduring images of this crisis has been several container ships sitting idle at ports waiting to unload their goods.\n\nBiden has struck a deal with the Port of Los Angeles to turn it into a 24/7 operation to move ships through more quickly.\n\nDai said the process of unloading these ships requires a lot of work and people, including warehouse workers and drivers to ultimately deliver these products to retailers.\n\n“We have increased the number of goods coming here to the U.S., but we do not have more truck drivers, we do not have more warehouse space,\" said Dai. \"So then that’s where those cargo ships are stuck.\"\n\nWhat products are hit hardest?\n\nBastl said it depends on the industry because of the different supply chains they use, but he notes consumer electronics, such as personal computers and video game consoles, as well as toys, have been affected most by supply chain issues.\n\nDai said \"low-end inexpensive products\" across industries will be impacted as well, forcing us to buy a more expensive item to compensate.\n\nHow do supply chain issues affect me?\n\nAll of these issues have a direct impact on what we can buy – on what's available to buy. That's the reason consumers have been advised to start their holiday shopping early. Dai projects we'll see higher prices and fewer available products. And we may see more empty shelves at stores due to shortages and delays, Bastl said.\n\n\"The longer that these delays will last, the more likely it is companies involved in production, distribution and movement of our products will not be able or willing to absorb this cost, and they’ll start pushing them on to consumers,\" Bastl said.\n\nKelly Tyko and Keira Wingate contributed to this report. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2022/05/13/baby-formula-hard-to-find-in-arizona-stores/9748291002/", "title": "Why is there a formula shortage? What to know and why you ...", "text": "A national shortage of baby formula has emptied shelves across the U.S., including in Arizona, where some grocery stores and pharmacies are limiting formula purchases to five items per customer.\n\nKaity Jacobsen, a first-time mom in Tempe, said she's driven around all day looking for formula for her 3-month-old son.\n\nShe found luck using Instacart, the grocery delivery app, but said it was scary worrying how she would feed her son.\n\n\"I wish people would stop comparing this to the toilet paper shortage. It minimizes the severity of this problem that moms are facing. It’s not wiping your booty; it’s feeding your baby. And for most babies under the age of 6 months, it’s the only thing they can have,\" Jacobsen said.\n\nDr. Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician at Phoenix Children's Hospital, says he's been fielding questions about the problem since February, when formula became more difficult to find because of a combination of a voluntary product recall and supply chain problems. So far, the shortage has persisted and supplies in retail outlets remain extremely low.\n\nKirkilas, who is in charge of the mobile health units at Phoenix Children's Hospital, says he can't ever recall a baby formula shortage like the one facing new parents right now.\n\nThe Women, Infants and Children program at the Maricopa County Department of Public Health is getting 150 to 200 calls per day about the formula shortage, program manager Carrie Zavala said.\n\nThe program, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serves low-income women and children. The women it serves are pregnant, breastfeeding or their pregnancy ended in the past six months.\n\n\"It's definitely an all day, every day situation that we're helping families one after another trying to figure out what formula to give them,\" Zavala said.\n\nComplicating the situation for WIC enrollees in Arizona is that the program specifies that families must get formula made by Abbott Laboratories, which is the manufacturer of the Similac formula that was recalled in February.\n\n\"Because Abbott was the (baby) formula for most of the WIC contracts, now we're giving WIC clients formula they've never purchased before,\" Zavala said. \"And now they are competing with the rest of the consumers that aren't on WIC for these other brands.\"\n\nMetro Phoenix moms leverage social media to find formula\n\nHundreds of Valley moms have turned to social media for help in finding formula, joining Facebook groups created to assist parents during the shortage.\n\n\"AZ Moms of formula shortage\" has garnered nearly 500 members since it was created March 28.\n\nMembers posted 256 times in the past month alone, according to the group's \"About\" page.\n\nDozens of mothers in the group \"Arizona Baby Formula BST\" are posting multiple daily updates on where formula is and isn't in stock.\n\nComments on the public group of 430 members show moms sharing stories of mad dashes to stores across the Valley to secure specific brands of formula for their babies. Some say they've spent hours driving to different stores.\n\nIn some cases, moms are buying whatever formula they find in hopes to be able to trade it for the one they need online.\n\nOthers who have extra or old cans they no longer need are selling them.\n\nThe occasional post shows a mom in desperate need, noting how many bottles worth of formula she has and asking if anyone can help.\n\nDani May Cord, a Surprise mom of four, said she couldn't count the number of stores she'd left in tears because she couldn't find formula for her youngest.\n\n\"I’m just going to say if you are able, you should try and BF (breastfeed) as long as possible. This formula shortage is NO joke. It’s absolutely devastating in all honesty,\" she wrote.\n\n\"What am I supposed to do? Can't find milk anywhere this is crazy!\" another person posted.\n\nIt's OK for most babies to switch formulas, but don't make your own\n\nOne common question from families is whether they can switch the type of formula they are giving their infant if their regular brand isn't available. Kirkilas reassures them that in most cases, that's fine.\n\n\"As long as their baby doesn't have any digestive issues where they have to be on a special formula, it is OK to switch formula,\" he said.\n\n\"Let's say you were on Similac and the store only has Enfamil, that's perfectly OK to switch the formula type. The formulas do taste differently, so sometimes we experience kids not liking the new formula. But it's OK for the short term.\"\n\nBut he cautions against families making their own formula at home and also against watering down their existing supply of formula to make it last longer.\n\nAnd if at all possible, he advises individuals who are giving birth now or in the near future to consider breastfeeding, if that's an option for them.\n\n\"Mothers who are just giving birth now, if they haven't considered it, I would strongly consider breastfeeding,\" Kirkilas said. \"We get a lot less issues with fussiness and spit up and constipation with children who are breastfed than we do with formula. So if the parent was open to breastfeeding, I would highly recommend it.\"\n\nHere are answers to common questions about the baby formula shortage in Arizona:\n\nWhy is there a baby formula shortage in the US?\n\nThe shortage is an unfortunate combination of supply chain issues and a voluntary product recall. Hoarding and illegal activity could be at play, too.\n\nOn Feb. 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to use certain powdered infant formula products from Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Michigan, facility, and Abbott initiated a voluntary recall of certain products.\n\nSince then, the agency has been working with Abbott and other manufacturers to bring safe formula products to the U.S. market, the federal agency said in a May 10 release.\n\nBefore the Abbott Nutrition facility recall, the FDA already was working to address supply chain issues associated with the pandemic, including those affecting the infant formula industry, federal officials say.\n\nIn a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan dated Thursday, President Joe Biden asked that the commission consider using all of its available tools and authorities to \"actively monitor the infant formula market\" and \"address any illegal conduct that may be contributing to scarcity and hoarding as well as study whether rural or smaller retailers are being put at a disadvantage.\"\n\nAny price gouging due to the infant formula shortage is \"unacceptable,\" Biden wrote. He asked the commission to thoroughly investigate any complaints of such activity.\n\n\"We know State attorneys general are also examining this issue and may be valuable partners in this effort,\" he wrote.\n\nWhat if I'm a WIC participant and the only formula available is not covered by my benefits?\n\nParticipants in the Arizona Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) can call WIC if they are at a store that has formula not on their benefits. Their benefits can be updated so they are able to buy it right then and there, officials with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health wrote in an email Thursday.\n\nHealth officials advise WIC recipients to call their local WIC program or the Arizona WIC Shoppers Helpline, operated by the state, at 866-927-8390.\n\nZavala, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health WIC manager, said since nearly every Similac product was taken off the shelves after the Abbott recall in February, the WIC program began offering flexibility to purchase other brands.\n\n\"it is difficult because their benefits are so specific,\" Zavala said. \"When they arrive to the store, even if we've changed their benefits to something we think they'll be able to find, if what is on their exact benefit is not present in the store, then they do need to call us.\"\n\nWhen is it not OK for my baby to switch formula?\n\nIn most cases, switching formula is fine.\n\n\"If the child does have a digestive issue where they are on a very specific formula, then it would be best to talk to the pediatrician about maintaining that special formula,\" Kirkilas said. \"Some children have digestive issues like lactose intolerance. ... But in general, kids can switch to a different type of formula.\"\n\nIf the only formula that's available is gluten-free and your baby is not gluten intolerant, the gluten-free formula would be fine for a while, Kirkilas said.\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics says it's OK for most babies to switch formulas unless the baby is on a specific, extensively hydrolyzed or amino acid-based formula such as Elecare.\n\nDo food banks have baby formula available?\n\nFood banks don't typically stock baby formula as a regular item, said Angie Rodgers, president and CEO of the Arizona Food Bank Network, although some may occasionally have a donated supply.\n\n\"There are a couple of locations, such as food banks that are attached to health centers, that tend to stock it more regularly,\" Rodgers said.\n\nBut food banks in Arizona are looking at options for purchasing some baby formula product to address the current formula shortage, she added.\n\n\"We're just mindful of the need that is there, and we're looking at our options,\" she said. \"I'm talking with WIC and our partners that predominantly serve pregnant women and young infants to see what options we have available for them.\"\n\nShould I grab all of the formula that's available if I see it in the store?\n\nIf you find formula, buy what you need and don’t panic buy, officials with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health said. Buying large amounts will make it harder for other families to get what they need.\n\nWhere else can I get formula if it's not at my local store?\n\n\"I've had parents say the place they normally go to doesn't have it,\" said Kirkilas, the Phoenix Children's Hospital pediatrician. \"If parents are savvy with the internet, they can purchase their formula on the internet.\"\n\nOn Thursday, for example, Amazon, Walmart and Fry's all had infant formula for purchase online, according to a search conducted at midday.\n\nArizonans enrolled in SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be known as food stamps — can use those benefits to purchase formula, and they are able to do that online through an authorized retailer, said Rodgers of the Arizona Food Bank Network.\n\nWIC benefits can't be used to purchase formula online.\n\nWhat about homemade baby formula recipes?\n\nThe American Academy of Pediatrics has safety tips that advise against making homemade formula, which could cause electrolyte imbalances and other issues in babies, health experts say.\n\nRecipes for homemade formulas circulating on the internet may seem healthy or less expensive, but they are not safe and do not meet your baby's nutritional needs, according to the group's safety tips, authored by pediatrician Dr. Steven Abrams, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas at Austin.\n\n\"Infant deaths have been reported from use of some homemade formulas,\" he wrote.\n\nKirkilas said, \"It has been done in the past where people would make their own formulas ... the mixing has to be done very precisely. Too much salt, too much protein, would bother the kidneys in an infant.\n\n\"Not enough salt or not enough iron could bother other systems. You see kids who will have seizures if they don't have the right amount of salt in the formula. So it's very risky to make your own.\"\n\nShould I water down my baby's formula to make it last longer?\n\nLike trying to make formula at home, watering it down could dangerously alter the content of important components such as salt, sugars, fats and protein, Kirkilas said.\n\n\"I would definitely recommend continuing mixing the formula as prescribed. Usually it's two ounces of water to put in the bottle first, and then you add the formula afterwards. Adding more water or less formula would disrupt that. ... It could cause problems.\"\n\nCan I give cow's milk to my baby?\n\n\"We only recommend cow's milk after one year of age. You are formula-fed or breastfed until you are one and then after one you switch over to cow's milk,\" Kirkilas said.\n\n\"If you are less than one, we definitely do not recommend cow's milk, but in this sort of situation where we don't have access to formula, if they are six months to one year, they can use cow's milk for a short time. ... But I would not recommend them taking cow's milk before six months.\"\n\nWhat if I have unopened (unexpired) formula that I don't need?\n\nConsider donating it to a food bank. Rodgers, of the Arizona Food Bank Network, suggests going to her organization's website at https://azfoodbanks.org/ to find a food bank near you.\n\nWhat about donated breast milk?\n\nShell Luttrell, a midwife clinic manager in Arizona who founded a global human-to-human breast milk sharing network called Eats on Feet, said she's seen a surge in the demand for breast milk donations.\n\nThe network, which provides education on how to safely store and share breast milk, operates Facebook pages for all 50 U.S. states, as well as other locations across the world. The pages serve as a meeting ground for milk donors and recipients, though the network does not accept or distribute breast milk itself.\n\n\"I would say there's been at least a 35% increase, maybe 40%, on some (Facebook) pages of folks looking for breast milk,\" Luttrell told The Arizona Republic.\n\nThough difficult to pinpoint what's led to the increase in milk sharing since those seeking breast milk don't always share the reason, Luttrell said the increase has coincided with the formula shortage.\n\nLuttrell said she's happy to see people find more ways to feed their children but worries that infants may be at risk if families don't properly educate themselves on best practices.\n\nWant to know all of the latest health news? Download the free azcentral.com app.\n\nFailure to comply with breast milk storage practices can taint the milk and affect a baby's health, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC provides safe breast milk storage guidelines on its website.\n\nMilk-sharing can also pose a risk because it may expose an infant to an infectious disease like HIV. Exposure to hepatitis B and C may be possible if, for example, the expressed milk came from cracked nipples where blood was present, the CDC says.\n\nHowever, \"it is very unlikely that a child would be at risk for hepatitis B or C by receiving another mother’s breast milk,\" the CDC says.\n\nFamilies seeking breast milk for their infants from donors should make an effort to meet person-to-person and learn about the donor's health history and milk storage practices, Luttrell said.\n\nIs the formula shortage ever going to end?\n\nThe FDA says it will continue to dedicate \"all available resources to help ensure that infant formula products remain available for use in the U.S. and will keep the public informed of progress updates.\"\n\nZavala said she's starting to hear from WIC clients who recently noticed Similac formula on the shelves.\n\n“Ensuring the availability of safe, sole-source nutrition products like infant formula is of the utmost importance to the FDA,\" FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement. \"Our teams have been working tirelessly to address and alleviate supply issues and will continue doing everything within our authority to ensure the production of safe infant formula products.”\n\nReach the reporter at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes.\n\nReach the reporter at tseely@arizonarepublic.com or at 480-476-6116. Follow her on Twitter @taylorseely95.\n\nSupport local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/08/business/baby-formula-shortage/index.html", "title": "The baby formula shortage is getting worse - CNN", "text": "New York (CNNBusiness) For months stores nationwide have been struggling to stock enough baby formula. Manufacturers say they're producing at full capacity and making as much formula as they can, but it's still not enough to meet current demand.\n\nThe out-of-stock rate for baby formula hovered between 2% and 8% in the first half of 2021, but began rising sharply last July. Between November 2021 and early April 2022, the out-of-stock rate jumped to 31%, data from Datasembly showed.\n\nThat rate increased another 9 percentage points in just three weeks in April, and now stands at 40%, the statistics show. In six states — Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee — more than half of baby formula was completely sold out during the week starting April 24, Datasembly said.\n\nAnd although seven states had between 40-50% of baby formula products out of stock as of early April, 26 states are now struggling with supply.\n\n\"This issue has been compounded by supply chain issues, product recalls and historic inflation,\" Datasembly CEO Ben Reich said. \"Unfortunately, given the unprecedented amount of volatility to the category, we anticipate baby formula to continue to be one of the most affected products in the market.\"", "authors": ["Parija Kavilanz", "Ramishah Maruf", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/12/17/food-shortage-christmas-2021/8911946002/", "title": "Cream cheese shortage and ham, chicken shortages to impact ...", "text": "Holiday cooks will need to check their shopping list twice because the ongoing shortages of key ingredients aren’t ending anytime soon.\n\nBut it’s not just the ingredients needed to throw together a Christmas feast. It could be the essentials for setting the table like disposable plates, cups and cutlery, and food for your cat and dog that’s hard to find.\n\nAnd of course, gifts, including popular video game consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, also are in high demand along with Christmas trees to put the presents under.\n\nAs the world reaches the two-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, more items are becoming scarce because of global supply chain disruptions such as congestion at ports and shortages of truck drivers and service workers.\n\n►Can't find what you're shopping for?:Navigate Christmas and other supply chain shortages with these tips\n\nPatrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, told USA TODAY that cream cheese, peppermint and international foods are among the food products in short supply.\n\n“As you walk through a lot of stores you won’t see the quantity and quality of items you are accustomed to seeing,” Penfield said. “Unfortunately, as we progress through the holiday season, we are seeing more bare shelves and stockouts of popular items.”\n\nSome of the shortages, could be regional due to labor and truck shortages, Penfield said.\n\nIn a recent study by business consultancy KPMG, 71% of grocery consumers said they were somewhat or very concerned about shortages or stockouts with 35% switching brands when their favorite items are out of stock.\n\n“We see demand surges during the holidays that make replenishment especially difficult, particularly given the transportation and store labor shortages and variant surges that can further reduce available labor,” Matt Kramer, KPMG consumer and retail sector leader, told USA TODAY.\n\n►Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nCostco, Publix stores limit purchases\n\nSome retailers have been limiting purchases of select items, similar to policies implemented at the start of the pandemic. But panic buying, especially of toilet paper, returned this summer as the delta variant spread.\n\nIn August, Costco brought back temporary purchase limits on some items including toilet paper.\n\nPublix, which has more than 1,280 stores in the southern U.S., started limiting purchases of canned cranberry sauce, gravy, canned pie filling ahead of Thanksgiving. It has expanded its list of limited-purchase products ahead of Christmas to include sports drinks, half-and-half creamers, bacon, toilet paper, disposable plates, vegetable oils and cat food.\n\n\"Due to ongoing supply issues and increased holiday demand, we have updated our purchase limits,\" Maria Brous, Publix director of communications, told USA TODAY, adding most products on the list are limited to two of each item including cat food variety packs. For individual cans or pouches of cat food, the limit is 10.\n\n►Last-minute gifts:These are the best last-minute gifts that will arrive in time for Christmas\n\n►Fight inflation with these tips:Inflation rate increase means groceries and Christmas gifts cost more. How to combat higher prices\n\nFood shortages 2021\n\nHere are some of the other food-and-supply shortages USA TODAY reporters spotted or that readers from across the country told us about. Know of more? There's a form below where you can share your experiences.\n\nCream cheese shortage\n\nBagel shops are struggling with the cream cheese shortage and Junior's Cheesecake had to stop production twice at its New Jersey-based facility because it didn't have enough cream cheese.\n\nPhiladelphia Cream Cheese is offering consumers help to pay for a replacement dessert, acknowledging the ongoing supply chain disruption of the key cheesecake ingredient\n\nThe Kraft Heinz brand is offering to reimburse 18,000 consumers $20 for a holiday dessert through its Philadelphia Spread the Feeling offer Friday and Saturday. (Learn more about the offer here.)\n\n►No cream cheese?:Philadelphia Cream Cheese to pay $20 to replace Christmas cheesecake with a different dessert\n\nCandy cane shortage 2021\n\nPeppermint candy canes are in short supply ahead of Christmas. The New York Post reported that a New York candy store has run out of the classic holiday treat and received less than past holiday seasons.\n\n“We only received half of our candy cane order for the holiday season and sold out almost immediately. We currently have zero in stock,” Mitchell Cohen, the owner of Economy Candy on the Lower East Side, told The Post. “Raw material and ingredient shortages globally have had quite an impact.”\n\nAccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, peppermint production has declined nearly 25% over the past decade.\n\nUSA TODAY checked on Amazon Monday afternoon and found several options that would arrive ahead of Christmas.\n\n►Peppermint shortage?:Candy canes, peppermint candy harder to find ahead of Christmas\n\nHam recall could lead to shortage\n\nIn early December, Alexander & Hornung announced a recall of 234,391 pounds of pork products, including ham and pepperoni.\n\nThe Michigan-based meat producer later expanded its recall to 2.3 million pounds.\n\nKPMG’s Kramer said this recall “places further challenges on high demand products.”\n\n►Pork recall 2021:Alexander & Hornung recalls 2.3 million pounds ham, pepperoni for possible listeria\n\nCat food, dog food shortages\n\nShipping woes and aluminum shortages have led to a scarcity problem for the pet food industry as stores throughout the country are unable to stock all their traditional brands and products.\n\nConsumers are also feeling the impact. Many USA TODAY readers listed canned or wet cat food as one of the top items they have been struggling to find.\n\nThese shortages are impacting the movement of ingredients and finished products, the Pet Food Institute told USA TODAY. Along with labor and transportation shortages, pet owners are spending more time with their pets which can lead to increased feeding and more treating. The high demand has resulted in larger purchases.\n\nChicken tender shortage\n\nChicken tenders may be the next casualty of supply-chain-generated shortages, according to a recent NBC News story. Chicken tenders require more processing and packaging, which makes them harder to find and more costly, the story said.\n\nMeat manufacturers have cited extreme weather, labor shortages and high demand among the reasons consumers are having trouble finding tenders.\n\nA spokesman for the National Chicken Council said products were taking longer than normal to get to their destinations but that does not constitute a 'shortage'.\n\n\"There is no chicken tender shortage,\" said Tom Super, senior vice president of communications with the trade group. \"Like almost all goods right now, supplies are somewhat tight, but I would say it falls short of any 'shortage.'\"\n\n►Finger lickin' gone:Is a chicken tender shortage underway?\n\nLunchables shortage\n\nFor months, parents have reported trouble finding Kraft Heinz' Lunchables. The company told USA TODAY that it has been seeing double-digit growth for the first time in five years.\n\nHigh demand is one reason why it's harder to find these items.\n\n“Our entire supply chain continues to step up – taking actions that protect our business today, while working hard to not delay critical investments that set us up for the future,” Kraft Heinz said in the statement.\n\nChampagne shortage could impact New Year’s celebrations\n\nThe nation is in the early stages of a champagne shortage that is expected to last several years, according to Wine Enthusiast. The demand of champagne is also up 20%, Nielsen said.\n\nDrizly, North America's largest alcohol e-commerce and on-demand delivery platform, surveyed 500 alcohol retailers and found 80% said they were at least slightly concerned about the champagne supply running short.\n\nEven with the shortages, Liz Paquette, Drizly head of consumer insights, said champagne and prosecco continue to be the top-selling sparkling wines with 63% and 18% of market share.\n\n“With demand holding strong for champagne and prosecco, we aren’t seeing signs that consumers are seeking alternatives just yet on Drizly but can anticipate impacts due to the supply chain strains as we get deeper into the holiday season,” Paquette said.\n\nCranberry sauce shortage\n\nWhether it tops your turkey or pairs with your dressing, cranberry sauce may be hard to come by.\n\nOcean Spray had some of its own \"supply chain challenges,\" the company said in a statement to USA TODAY. As a result, some consumers might have to opt for whole berry sauce or homemade sauce instead of jellied sauce, for instance.\n\nAluminum shortage\n\nMore consumers have opted to enjoy their favorite beverages in the comfort of their homes causing a higher demand for canned drinks. But the pandemic is only part of the problem.\n\nThe demand for can products accumulated for years according to a Quartz article. Canned drinks are cheaper to make and transport, and easier to market and design, initiating the highest prices for aluminum the market has seen in the last ten years senior analyst Salvator Tiano told Quartz.\n\nBeer shortage\n\nHaving a hard time finding your favorite craft beer? It could be part of the aluminum shortage, but the price of ingredients for beer is also skyrocketing due to supply chain issues throughout the world.\n\nSam Hendler, co-owner of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts and president of the Mass. Brewers Guild, told MetroWest Daily News that the cost increases being felt by breweries are universal and a big topic among colleagues.\n\nIn the past, manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the demand to make cans, but now even when cans are available, getting them to breweries can be difficult.\n\nToilet paper shortage continues\n\nIn spring 2020, demand for toilet paper skyrocketed as Americans were faced with a possibly lengthy stay-at-home future. Panic buying of bath tissue has returned at various times throughout the pandemic. This shortage stems from lumber's raw material, wood pulp, which is used to make toilet paper.\n\nMore shortages?\n\nShare what items you are having a hard time finding, your holiday shopping plans and how inflation is hitting your wallet and your Christmas meal on the form below. If you don't see a form, click here.\n\nContributing: Michelle Shen and Taylor Avery, USA TODAY; Norman Miller, MetroWest Daily News\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporters Kelly Tyko and Naomi Ludlow on Twitter: @KellyTyko and @itsnaomikay. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/reviewed/2022/06/28/sriracha-shortage-where-you-can-still-buy-it-and-other-spicy-options/7757544001/", "title": "Sriracha shortage: Where you can still buy it—and other spicy options", "text": "— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.\n\nHot sauce lovers, buckle up for some bad news: According to Huy Fong Foods, Inc., the manufacturer of the iconic Sriracha hot chili sauce, the company is halting production of its beloved sauces until after Labor Day. Following in the footsteps of other product shortages, including baby formula and tampons, Sriracha is just the latest good with too low inventory to meet demand, and is expected to be difficult to find on shelves this summer.\n\nGet deals and shopping advice delivered straight to your phone. Sign up for text message alerts from the experts at Reviewed.\n\n►More:Sriracha hot sauce maker warns of chili pepper shortage, suspension of summer sales\n\nWhy is there a Sriracha shortage?\n\nIn a letter to customers, Huy Fong explains that \"due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers,\" the California-based company is facing a severe shortage of chilies and is unable to produce its products: Sriracha Hot Chili sauce, Chili Garlic or Sambal Oelek.\n\nHuy Fong sources its red jalapeño chili peppers primarily from Mexico, New Mexico and California—areas that are experiencing a \"megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.\" The extreme weather patterns have led to dry soil and subsequent crop failures in the regions.\n\nHuy Fong states in the letter that any orders submitted after April 19, 2022, would be postponed until after Labor Day in the order they were received, and that new orders will be placed on hold until after September 6, 2022.\n\nWhat other hot sauces should you buy?\n\nIf you can't find Sriracha sauce at your local grocery store, you may have to wait a few months to get your hands on a bottle off the shelves. Ahead, we've compiled a list of retailers where you can find Sriracha sauce online, though inventory may vary by area; we wouldn't recommend buying it from an online marketplace, due to price-gouging by third-party sellers.\n\nAlthough Sriracha is in short supply right now, there are plenty of spicy alternatives with similar flavors worth checking out. Ahead, we've gathered up a few options to tide you over until your favorite chili sauce becomes available again.\n\nWhere you can still buy Sriracha online\n\nAlternative hot sauces to consider\n\nThere’s a lot more where this came from. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get all our reviews, expert advice, deals and more.\n\nThe product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews and more.\n\nPrices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_4", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/09/15/taco-bell-begins-selling-beer-wine-liquor-chicago/72292440/", "title": "Taco Bell begins selling beer, wine and booze at Chicago location", "text": "Aamer Madhani\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nCHICAGO — Taco Bell is ready to pour you a drink.\n\nThe official grand opening of the first booze-selling Taco Bell isn't until Sept. 22, but company officials opened their doors — and liquor cabinet — to customers on Tuesday for a \"soft opening\" of the fast-food chain's new location in the city's Wicker Park neighborhood.\n\nTaco Bell, which has earned a reputation over the years as a good place to get a bite after a night of drinking, announced plans in June to experiment with selling beer, wine, sangria and spiked frozen drinks at the new Chicago location as it looks to gain a foothold in urban markets. A second location that will sell only beer and wine near San Francisco's AT&T Park is slated to open later this month, the company says.\n\nThe fast-food chain, owned by Yum Brands (YUM), boasts more than 6,000 outlets, mostly located in suburban areas. That model has worked well for the company, which gets roughly 70% of its sales from its drive-thru windows.\n\nBut the company knows that its Millennial customers increasingly are attracted to urban areas, where real estate is pricey. Company officials think that selling a stiffer drink might pad the receipts — the typical Taco Bell receipt is in the $7 range — and in turn help make their urbanization push more doable.\n\n\"To put in a drive-thru you need land,\" Neil Borkan, the Taco Bell franchisee who will operate the Chicago test location told USA TODAY. \"Can you imagine buying an acre of land in a neighborhood like Wicker Park? You couldn't afford it. As real estate becomes more and more expensive, this kind of concept makes more sense.\"\n\nTaco Bell is treading carefully into booze. While quick-service rival Starbucks (SBUX) recently announced it would accelerate its push of its beer and wine program and has applied for liquor licenses for hundreds of stores across the USA in recent months, Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch said the company could potentially open 10 locations selling hard drinks next year.\n\nPoetsch said the company currently is only looking at selling alcohol at new stores that will be branded as \"Taco Bell Cantina.\" The cantina locations also will serve dine-in customers their food in plastic baskets (much like fast-casual Mexican restaurant Chipotle) and the menu will include new appetizer items (chicken tenders, rolled chicken tacos, mini quesadillas).\n\nThe featured items on the drinks menu include the Mountain Dew Baja Blast, Cantina Punch and Cantina Margarita freezes, which can be spiked with 1 ounce of Captain Morgan white rum, Ketel One vodka or Don Julio tequila. The rum- and vodka-spiked drinks sell for $6.19 plus tax, while the tequila-laced freeze will set customers back $7.19.\n\n(The Cantina Punch and Cantina Margarita are new flavors. The company opted not to sell some other flavors, such as the Strawberry Starburst Freeze, that are available in most Taco Bell locations to keep marketing of candy items and alcohol separate, Borkan said.)\n\nThe menu also includes beer from Dos Equis and New Belgium Brewing, which will sell for $4 per draft. After much debate, Taco Bell brand manager Katie Gardiner and Borkan picked wines from two California wine makers, Steelhead Vineyards and Stack Wine.\n\nTaco Bell following a well-worn boozy path in fast-food industry\n\n'Evenings' at Starbucks: Coffee shop to sell wine, craft beer, small plates\n\nBoth wineries use innovative packaging that is helpful in a kitchen where space is tight. The Steelhead single-serving bottles of chardonnay and merlot are fitted with a small, plastic cup.\n\nTaco Bell will sell Pinot Grigio and cabernet sauvignon varietals of Stack Wine, which got on Taco Bell officials' radar after being featured on the television show Shark Tank. Stack Wine comes in individually sealed, one-serving containers from which drinkers only need peel off a lid to get to their wine.\n\n\"We just really liked that it has portion control and the stemware is built in, and it feels like something no one else is doing in the wine industry,\" Gardiner said of Stack Wine.\n\nAhead of the opening of the Chicago location, Borkan agreed to hire a security guard for weekend nights to assuage concerns from some neighbors that his Taco Bell will become a center of drunken shenanigans and underage drinkers.\n\nA Chicago Target store could serve liquor when it opens in October\n\nEmployees, who went through a four-hour alcohol training course, have been instructed to card each customer who orders alcohol. The restaurant also agreed to stop selling booze at 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.\n\nIn addition to the hard drinks, Taco Bell wants its urban locations to have a unique feel. The new Chicago restaurant is set in a 100-year-old building and features an open kitchen that gives customers a view of nearly every corner. The company also commissioned a Chicago graffiti artist who goes by the name Revise CMW to paint a giant installation along one of the walls.\n\nThe artist, whose real name is Won Kim, said he initially was apprehensive about doing work for the giant fast-food chain, but was pleasantly surprised when they told him they didn't want his piece to include any overt reference to their brand.\n\n\"At first, I was a little resistant to agreeing to work for this big corporation, but I knew if I didn't do it, they'd find some 21-year-old to take the job,\" said Kim, 35, who also is a chef. \"At the end of the month, I got to pay the rent, too.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/09/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/beijing/2022/02/06/olympics-2022-live-updates-monday-medal-evants/6683642001/", "title": "Olympics 2022 updates, recap: Skier Nina O'Brien hurt in scary crash", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nNOTE: Here's a look back at Monday's results in Beijing. For updates from everything going on Tuesday, check out our live blog.\n\nTeam USA earned its first figure skating medal of the 2022 Beijing Olympics thanks to a clutch performance from its ice dancers.\n\nThe U.S. took home the silver in the team figure skating competition after Madison Chock and Evan Bates turned in a season-best score in the ice dancing free program.\n\nThe news was not so good for skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin. The defending Olympic champion will not repeat in the women's giant slalom.\n\nShiffrin's first of five potential events in Beijing ended in disappointment Monday when she wiped out on her opening run.\n\n(Looking for coverage from Sunday's events? Here's everything you need to know.)\n\nTV SCHEDULE: How and what to watch each day of the Beijing Olympics\n\nEXCLUSIVE OLYMPIC UPDATES: Sign up for texts to get the latest news and behind-the-scenes coverage from Beijing.\n\nOLYMPICS NEWSLETTER:The best Olympic stories straight to your inbox\n\nWINTER OLYMPICS 2022: Answering 10 major questions for the Beijing Games\n\nStar US figure skater out individual event after testing positive for COVID-19\n\nVincent Zhou, 21, the nation's No. 2 male figure skater behind Nathan Chen, tested positive for COVID-19 Sunday and will be unable to compete in Tuesday's individual event. Zhou skated for the U.S. in the team event, winning silver, and was scheduled to compete individually on Tuesday, in the short program.\n\n\"It seems pretty unreal that of all the people, it would happen to myself,\" Zhou said in an emotional, 5-minute long video shared on social media Monday announcing that he will not be competing Tuesday. \"That's not just because I am still processing this turn of events, but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic. I have taken all the precautions I can and I have isolated myself so much that the loneliness can be crushing at times.\"\n\n-- Analis Bailey\n\nDisappointing night at short track for US\n\nAndrew Heo emerged as the best chance for an American medal in short track speed skating in the two events at Capital Indoor Stadium on Monday.\n\nBut the 20-year-old didn’t have enough juice to make the “A” final, despite putting together a pair of consistent times to make the “B” final in the men’s 1,000 meter. Heo went 1:24.03 to go into semifinal after a slower 1:24.6 quarterfinal time. He then bursted too early and came in last of the final (1:36.14).\n\nOn the women’s side (500 meters), neither of the United States’ two skaters made it out of the quarterfinals. Maame Biney came in third in the second heat with a time of 46.009. Meanwhile, teammate Kristen Santos was penalized in the fourth quarterfinal as she fell and took an opposing skater with her into the wall.\n\nThe men’s “A” final was not without drama, as the race was called halfway through due to metal parts on the track. After a brief cleanup and ice manicure, the race restarted, with China’s Rei Ziewei and Hungary’s Shaolin Sandor Liu battling it out for gold. Liu appeared to eke out the photo finish, but after a replay, Liu was assessed a yellow card for committing two penalties. That disqualified him and gave Rei gold in front of a delighted home crowd.\n\nItaly’s Arianna Fontana won the women’s 500 prior to that.\n\n-- Chris Bumbaca\n\nWhile you were sleeping\n\nFrom a historic moment to a devastating crash, the Beijing Games have not lacked excitement since it began.\n\nHere are the top stories you missed while you were asleep:\n\n17-year-old Chinese snowboarder claims slopestyle silver, shares podium with his idol\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China – Mark McMorris remembered the little kid he would see on his visits to China, the one who idolized him and who clearly loved snowboarding.\n\nAfter the Olympic slopestyle final, McMorris just had to look across the podium to find him.\n\nChina’s Su Yiming fulfilled a dream and drew the attention of throngs of media, fans, workers and volunteers at Genting Snow Park. The 17-year-old phenom claimed silver, beating his idol in an Olympic final.\n\nMcMorris won bronze for a third consecutive Games, while his Canadian teammate Max Parrot won gold.\n\n“I’m seeing this little kid, he’s always around, and he loves snowboarding more than anything and idolized me and then boom, this fall he’s just like so damn good,” said McMorris, who has been making trips to China to compete for Burton, one of his sponsors, since 2010.\n\n“He became a man, and he definitely has some height now and he’s strong and he’s riding at an incredible level. I’m super proud of him because he is a true snowboarder. He loves the sport. I’m honored to share the podium with him, and his future’s really bright.”\n\nSu finished first in qualifying and drew the most attention here. His massive second run included two triple corks, including one on the final jump with three off-axis flips and five spins that he had never done before.\n\nBy the time he lined up on the podium with his idol, dozens of workers stood atop the jump where he made his mark to watch.\n\n“This moment is indeed amazing for me because when I was very young I had this dream to compete in my hometown, in my country, to attend the Olympic Games,” Su said. “I'm extremely happy to achieve this medal in my hometown and also compete and stand on the podium with my idol from my childhood. I really felt overwhelmed.”\n\n— Rachel Axon\n\nUS speedskater and flag-bearer Brittany Bowe comes up empty in women's 1500 meters\n\nBEIJING — It was a disappointing day for the Americans at the National Speed Skating Oval, but a historic one for an Olympic speedskating legend.\n\nIreen Wüst of the Netherlands won gold at 1500 meters Monday, claiming an individual medal at the Winter Games for a whopping fifth consecutive time. Her first medal of the streak came at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.\n\nWüst also broke the Olympic record, to boot. She crossed the line in 1:53.28.\n\nAmerican Brittany Bowe, who carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony alongside curler John Shuster, had been expected to contend for a medal at this distance but finished well off the pace. She finished nearly a full second off the podium, in 10th place, with a time of 1:55.81.\n\nBowe will next race in the 500 on Sunday and the 1000, her signature event, on Feb. 17.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nUS skier Nina O'Brien hurt in scary crash in giant slalom\n\nBEIJING — Nina O’Brien, the top U.S. woman in the giant slalom after Mikaela Shiffrin went out, crashed just ahead of the finish line Monday and appeared to seriously injure her left leg.\n\nO’Brien was taken off the course on a stretcher, but U.S. Ski & Snowboard said on Twitter that she was “alert and responsive.”\n\n“She was worried about delaying the race,” the organization said. “And also she wanted to know how fast she was skiing.”\n\nO’Brien had one gate left in the second run and was going at top speed when she lost her balance. Her legs flew wide and she tumbled past the last gate and into the finish area. O’Brien immediately clutched at her left leg, and still photographs showed her ankle going the opposite direction of how it should.\n\n— Nancy Armour\n\nAmerican men fail to medal in snowboard slopestyle\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China — There would be no repeat gold for Team USA's men’s snowboard slopestyle team. There would be no medal, even.\n\nFour years after Red Gerard pulled off a surprising Olympic win, the 21-year-old finished just off the podium here at the Beijing Olympics.\n\nGerard, 21, was a surprise gold medalist in Pyeongchang four years ago – even to himself. He has since embraced the competition scene and came to Beijing gunning for a medal.\n\nHe sat in third until Canadian Mark McMorris landed a big run to bump Gerard and take bronze himself. Canadian Max Parrot, who won silver in slopestyle four years ago, claimed gold, while 17-year-old Chinese phenom Su Yiming took silver.\n\nAmericans had won the gold in both previous contests since slopestyle was added in 2014, with Sage Kotsenburg claiming it in the debut and Gerard winning in 2018.\n\n“Fourth never feels good. One off from being cool,” Gerard said. “I haven’t really fully put it together yet. I’m just happy that I landed a run, and I was really happy with the run, probably the best run I’ve ever done.”\n\nGerard used a unique line to put himself in contention.\n\nOn his first run, he landed 1620s on the first and third jumps. But in the rail section, he did a trick off the roof of the guard tower feature and on the second jump he used the quarter pipe to launch himself into double cork 1080.\n\nHe flubbed a trick in the rail section on his third run, leaving him to wait to see if his score would hold. But McMorris put down a run with three triple corks on the jumps to give himself a bronze medal for a third consecutive Games.\n\nAmericans Chris Corning and Sean Fitzsimons finished sixth and 12th, respectively.\n\n— Rachel Axon\n\nOlympic downhill skiing drought continues for US men\n\nBEIJING — The U.S. men’s drought in the Olympic downhill continues.\n\nRyan Cochran-Siegle was the top American finisher Monday, finishing in 14th place, 82 seconds behind Olympic gold medalist Beat Feuz of Switzerland. Bryce Bennett, the top U.S. man in the downhill this season, was 19th while Travis Ganong was 20th.\n\nIt’s the second consecutive Olympics that the U.S. men have failed to have anyone finish in the top 10.\n\nJohan Clarey of France won the silver and Matthias Mayer, the 2014 Olympic champion, took the bronze in the race, which was rescheduled from Sunday because of high winds.\n\n“I can’t think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck,” said Feuz, who four years ago was the bronze medalist in the downhill and silver medalist in the super-G.\n\nOnly two American men have won the Olympic downhill, and Tommy Moe was the last to do it, at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer. Bode Miller was the last U.S. man to win a medal in downhill, a bronze in 2006.\n\n-- Nancy Armour\n\nPlayers wear masks for Canada vs. ROC women's hockey game\n\nEven during an Olympics with extreme COVID-19 protocols, it was a bizarre look for Canadian and Russian women’s hockey players. Both teams took the ice Monday wearing KN95 masks underneath their hockey masks.\n\nThe start of the preliminary group game was delayed by more than an hour because the Canadian team did not receive a report on Russia’s COVID testing status and didn’t want to take the ice until that happened, according to Toronto Sun reporter Rob Longley.\n\nThe Associated Press reported that the IOC told the IIHF, the international hockey federation, that players were required to wear masks due to “safety and security reasons.”\n\nThe Russians returned for the third period without their masks, however. The Canadians kept theirs on.\n\n-- Roxanna Scott\n\nUS figure skating silver medalist tests positive for COVID-19\n\nBEIJING — A prominent U.S. figure skater has tested positive for COVID-19, and at the worst possible time.\n\nU.S. Figure Skating announced Monday that Vincent Zhou, who is scheduled to skate the men's short program Tuesday, tested positive on Sunday. It is now unclear whether he will be able to compete.\n\n\"Under the guidance of the USOPC medical staff, Zhou is undergoing additional testing to confirm his status,\" the national governing body said in a statement. \"If the results are negative, Zhou will be able to compete in the men’s short program, which begins Tuesday. At this time, we ask you respect his privacy as we await the results.\"\n\nThe news of the positive test comes at a devastating time for Zhou, who skated the long program for Team USA in the team competition on Sunday morning.\n\nWith the draw already having been completed, it is unlikely that the U.S. would be able to have an alternate skate in Zhou's place. Nathan Chen and Jason Brown are the other American men in the field.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nRussian woman makes figure skating history\n\nBEIJING — In the final event of the team figure skating competition, Russian skater Kamila Valieva landed a trick that no woman had ever achieved on Olympic ice.\n\nThen she did it again in the same program.\n\nValieva, 15, became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Winter Games, making four rotations in mid-air. She also became the first woman to land two of them in the same program, kicking off her program with a quad salchow before later landing a quad toe.\n\nThat she fell on a third quad attempt later in the program proved to be a mere footnote.\n\nValieva's performance capped a dominant gold-medal-winning performance by the Russian Olympic Committee in the team event. Valieva is also one of three Russian wunderkinds who will be vying for podium spots in the women's individual competition, and there is a chance they could sweep the podium.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nUSA wins silver in team figure skating event behind stellar ice dance\n\nBEIJING — After the first day of the team figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Team USA was dreaming of gold.\n\nInstead, it squeaked out a silver.\n\nBuoyed by a strong final performance from the ice dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates on Monday, the Americans edged Japan to win their first silver medal in the team figure skating event. They won bronze in both 2018 and 2014.\n\nThe Russian Olympic Committee, which entered as the favorite, won gold in dominant fashion.\n\n\"We're celebrating silver,\" Bates said. \"Winning a silver medal at the Olympic Games is an incredible achievement, and the fact that we all get a silver medal, the whole team -- I'm so happy. I'm so happy.\"\n\nThe U.S. and Japan were tied in the standings with 48 team points entering the final two events of the competition -- the free dance and women's long program. But Chock and Bates, the captains of the U.S. team, turned in a stellar performance to finish first in their event, and Karen Chen did enough in a redemptive long program to hang on.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nChinese American sensation makes Olympic debut\n\nBEIJING – There is no bigger star in China at these Olympics than Eileen Gu, the 18-year old freestyle skier from San Francisco who is headed to Stanford after these Olympics.\n\nDespite her American roots, Gu chose in 2019 to compete for China, the country where her mother grew up and where she has become a fashion model and a breakthrough star.\n\nGiven the hype surrounding her debut at the Beijing Games, Gu admitted there was some pressure to perform well Monday in the first Big Air competition for skiing ever at the Olympics. After two of her three runs, though, Gu’s place in the final was uncertain. After her ski fell off on the second jump, her only choice was to produce a clean run or be eliminated from the competition.\n\n“I would not feel satisfied if I didn’t make finals,” she said. “I was just focusing on the trick itself. I wasn’t thinking about there are people who want to watch me or that there was this pressure on me. It’s a right 9 (or jump with 2 ½ rotations). I’ve been doing right 9s since I was 14, and I know I can do that trick so I was just kind of talking to myself in that way.”\n\nGu pulled it off, securing her place in what will be a widely-watched final here on Tuesday at the Big Air Shougang.\n\nAmong the four-woman American contingent, only Darian Stevens qualified for the final after landing a left 900-degree trick on her third try after finding trouble on her second jump.\n\n“I was obviously feeling the heat,” said Stevens, a native of Missoula, Mont. “I had a really good first jump I was very happy with and had a little bit of a speed issue on the second one so there was a lot of pressure riding on that third jump but I was really happy to land it.\n\n— Dan Wolken\n\nNBC's Mike Tirico to depart Beijing early\n\nNBC prime-time Olympic host Mike Tirico will have a shorter stay in Beijing than originally planned.\n\nTirico's final show from Beijing will be Monday night. He will fly from China to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to host Wednesday's and Thursday's shows before heading to Los Angeles on Friday to anchor Olympic and Super Bowl coverage through Sunday.\n\nTirico will then head back to Stamford for the final week of Olympic coverage. The Games conclude on Feb. 20.\n\nMaria Taylor, who signed with NBC on the eve of last summer's Tokyo Olympics, will host Tuesday night's show while Tirico is flying back.\n\nTirico was originally scheduled to stay in Beijing through Thursday before going to Los Angeles. NBC officials, though, have reiterated that his schedule was subject to change based on COVID-19 and other factors.\n\nThis is the first year that the Olympics and Super Bowl are taking place at the same time. Four years ago, Tirico missed the Super Bowl as he was preparing for his first Olympics as prime-time host in Pyeongchang.\n\nNBC has its announcers and hosts working out of its Connecticut headquarters. It has a limited group of reporters on the ground in China. NBC News' Craig Melvin is still in Beijing and will host “prime plus coverage” (which is late night in New York but prime time in Los Angeles) over the weekend.\n\n— Associated Press\n\nIce dancers score season best to put U.S. in silver medal position\n\nBEIJING —The U.S. is all but assured of winning silver in the team figure skating competition after a clutch performance from Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the free dance.\n\nChock and Bates won their event with a season-best score of 129.07, widening the gap between the Americans (58) and Japan (54), which is in third place. There is one event remaining, with Karen Chen set to skate in the women's free skate.\n\nTeams are awarded points based on their finish in each event, with 10 points to the winner, nine to the runner-up and so on.\n\nThe U.S. had been squarely in silver-medal position entering Monday, but a last-place finish from Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier in the pairs' long program allowed Japan to knot the score.\n\nThe Russian Olympic Committee has all but locked up the gold, while the other two finalists, Canada and China, only had remote chances of medaling entering Monday.\n\nThe Americans have won bronze medals in the team event at each of the past two Olympics.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nShiffrin wipes out in first run of giant slalom\n\nYANQING, China — Mikaela Shiffrin's first chance for a gold medal was over almost as soon as it began.\n\nExpected to contend for multiple medals at the Beijing Olympics, several of them gold, Shiffrin lost an edge on the fifth gate of the first run of the women’s giant slalom and skied out. It’s the first time she’s failed to finish a GS race since January 2018.\n\n\"It's a huge disappointment. Not even counting the medals,\" Shiffrin said afterward. \"The easiest thing to say is I skied a couple of good turns and skied one turn a bit wrong and really paid the hardest of consequences for that.\"\n\nShiffrin has said she hopes to do all five individual events at the Beijing Olympics. Her next race will come Wednesday, in the slalom. She won gold there in 2018, making her the youngest champion in that event.\n\n-- Nancy Armour\n\nReport: Peng Shuai meets with IOC president, says she 'never disappeared'\n\nBEIJING – Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai told a French newspaper that her long-planned dinner with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has already occurred.\n\nIn a story published Monday by L'Equipe, Peng said the two met for dinner Saturday. She also once again denied having accused anyone of sexual assault, after alleging in a social-media post in November that she had been assaulted by Zhang Gaoli, a former high-ranking Chinese government official.\n\nPeng's post was later scrubbed from Chinese social media, and she disappeared from public view for several weeks. She also disagreed with that characterization.\n\n\"I never disappeared, everyone could see me,\" Peng told L'Equipe.\n\nActivists have expressed concern that Peng's movements and statements have been monitored or influenced by the Chinese government in the wake of her allegation.\n\nIOC spokesperson Mark Adams confirmed that Bach and Peng had dinner Saturday night. When asked Sunday about the dinner, he said he had no update.\n\n-- Tom Schad\n\nMoguls skier Kai Owens couldn't see out of one eye after crash in practice\n\nZHANGJIAKOU, China – Cupping, dry needling, ice, pressure and some kind of brush for her face -- all day, every day, every hour, for the last several days. This was Kai Owens’ entire existence.\n\nWith a lot of persistence and medical treatment, the Chinese-born, American raised freeskier was able to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics Sunday night, finishing in 10th place in the women's moguls. Australia’s Jakara Anthony led the field with a gold medal performance of 83.09. American Jaelin Kauf won the silver with a score of 80.28, and Anastasiia Smirnova of Russia took bronze.\n\nHer ability to get to this night came down to the wire. Owens, 17, missed the opening qualifying round several days earlier, last Tuesday night, when her eye was swollen shut from a crash during a practice run on the same day. Owens, who also had a concussion earlier in the season, was held out by coaches.\n\n“The first day I couldn’t even move my arm,” said Owens. “I was in a sling because of my rotator cuff. And then I couldn’t see out of my eye.”\n\nBy Sunday night, her eye was still visibly injured, but remarkably healed given how bad it was a few days earlier.\n\n“I’m just so thankful to be here,” said Owens. “I owe a huge ‘thanks’ to our Team USA staff, U.S. ski and snowboard staff. They helped get me out here tonight.”\n\n-- Lori Nickel\n\nMikaela Shiffrin to make her debut at 2022 Beijing Games in giant slalom\n\nBEIJING — In what could be the first of five races at the Beijing Olympics, and perhaps as many medals, Mikaela Shiffrin competes Monday in the giant slalom. She is the reigning Olympic champion in GS and is currently third in the World Cup standings, with two wins and a second-place finish in five races this season.\n\nThe GS will be followed Wednesday by the slalom, where she became the youngest Olympic champion in the event in 2014. Shiffrin also has a silver, from the Alpine combined in Pyeongchang.\n\nShiffrin won the season-opening GS race in October in Soelden, Austria. But she didn’t race GS again until December – she won one race and finished second in the other – and her training time throughout the season has been limited.\n\nIn fact, she said Friday that she has spent more time training GS since coming to Beijing than she has the rest of the season.\n\n\"That’s not ideal,\" she said.\n\nDespite that, Shiffrin said she feels she’s in a \"pretty good place,\" both in GS and overall.\n\n\"There’s a lot of potential there,\" she said. \"What are the odds on a day where all the variables are controlled? My odds aren’t bad. I’m just going to have to see where the chips fall.\"\n\n— Nancy Armour\n\nOpinion: Are Olympic uniforms tainted by forced labor?\n\nBEIJING – Everywhere you turn at these Olympic Games, friendly staff members and volunteers are impeccably dressed in uniforms depicting white snow peaks and blue Chinese skies. As the competitions get underway in full force, we will see hundreds of technical officials wearing similarly attractive grey and white gear with red accents on their sleeves.\n\nBut it’s the logo over the right breast that your eyes should be drawn to.\n\nThe nondescript symbol, which looks vaguely like the silhouette of an impala’s head or perhaps a pickaxe, represents Anta Sports, a Chinese sporting goods giant that endorses several NBA players, including Klay Thompson and Gordon Hayward. It is also the parent company of a subsidiary that owns legacy American brands like Wilson and Louisville Slugger. The founder of Lululemon, Canadian billionaire Chip Wilson, is heavily invested in the company.\n\nIn China, the world’s second-largest economy, Anta is a very big deal. It’s also at the center of arguably the biggest political controversy surrounding these Olympics involving alleged genocide and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China.\n\n— Dan Wolken\n\nThe unlikely pipeline at the heart of the U.S. speedskating team\n\nOcala, Florida, is a town of about 60,000 people located between Gainesville and Orlando. Palm trees dot downtown. Temperatures last week touched 80 degrees.\n\nIt's not the kind of place you'd expect to produce Winter Olympians.\n\nBut in a strange twist – and with the almost inadvertent help of a Florida grandmother – that is exactly what's happened.\n\nThree of the top U.S. speedskaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Brittany Bowe, Erin Jackson and Joey Mantia – all hail from Ocala, which does not even have a year-round ice rink. All three are legitimate medal contenders. And all three started out as inline skaters on a team that is now called Ocala Speed, coached by the same woman, Renee Hildebrand.\n\n— Tom Schad\n\nOpinion: US figure skaters falter on jumps, but still guaranteed a medal at Winter Olympics\n\nBEIJING – After Day 1 of the Olympic figure skating team competition, U.S. athletes talked about skating with intensity and building momentum for an improbable gold-medal run against the Russians.\n\nOn Day 2, the conversation turned, sharply. Thoughts of momentum were replaced by concerns about “picking each other up.” High-fives and fist bumps were gone. Hugs and kind words showed up in their place.\n\nThat’s because, given the chance to rise to the occasion, both Karen Chen and Vincent Zhou turned in flat, lackluster performances, leaving the United States likely settling for the team silver medal and wondering what might have been had Chen and Zhou been able to skate cleanly – or how things would have been different had U.S. Figure Skating officials chosen other skaters in their place.\n\n— Christine Brennan", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2016/06/01/thriving-iowa-town/85265366/", "title": "Why this Iowa town is thriving when so many aren't", "text": "Kevin Hardy\n\nThe Des Moines Register\n\nFAIRFIELD, Iowa — Take a walk around this town's bustling square and you'll see an array of businesses that would rival some shopping malls.\n\nOn one corner sits a coffee shop that roasts its beans in house. Down the block is a store specializing in sustainable children's clothing and toys. Along another strip is a women's boutique, a Verizon store and a nutrition company.\n\nThe town's retail center also is home to a salon, a consignment store, a furniture store and an art gallery. Just off the square is a pet spa, a natural remedy store and a photography studio.\n\nFor those looking for a bite to eat: a Thai restaurant, an Indian cafe, an Italian spot and a joint peddling pizza and steak.\n\nMore worker-owned businesses are sprouting\n\nIn fact, local officials count only one vacancy in the storefronts that line shady Central Park. It's just one more sign of success in this town of 9,500 in a state where most small cities and rural areas are seeing residents leave.\n\nSince 1969, census data show Iowa's metropolitan areas have gained nearly a half million people while smaller cities and rural places have lost more than 171,000 residents.\n\nBut Fairfield has prospered, particularly in recent years. Between 2010 and 2015, the city saw a 4% population gain — a rate that rivaled the growth of some of Iowa's much larger metro areas.\n\nThis southeast Iowa city is known as a magnet for practitioners of Transcendental Meditation at Maharishi University of Management, who have flocked here since the 1970s. Fairfield was able to capitalize on that unique niche, building a surprisingly metropolitan quality of life.\n\nWhile Fairfield has 1,000 fewer jobs than it had 15 years ago, state figures show employers have rebounded in the past five years, adding nearly 700 jobs between 2010 and 2015.\n\nDuring that time, Fairfield went from 714 employers to 751, according to Iowa Workforce Development.\n\n\"We have a great quality-of-life culture and an entrepreneurial culture,\" Mayor Ed Malloy said. \"And we see it is allowing more young people to put down roots in this community.\"\n\nThe town has no shortage of Iowa small-city staples such as Casey's General Store and Pizza Ranch though Fairfield is better known for its funky coffee houses, shops and restaurants. Locals claim the city is home to more restaurants per capita than San Francisco.\n\nYet the place that Oprah Winfrey dubbed \"America's most unusual town\" is more than just quirky. It's one of the few nonmetropolitan areas in Iowa posting strong population growth, according to U.S. Census figures.\n\nStarting a small business by reimagining your life\n\nAnd around town, evidence abounds that Fairfield has done what so many small cities in the Midwest struggle to achieve: attract and retain people.\n\nMaharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced Transcendental Meditation, or TM, to India in the 1950s.\n\nBut he brought his technique and \"consciousness-based education\" to Iowa in 1974, when Maharishi International University moved from Santa Barbara, Calif., to the 1 million empty square feet vacated by Parsons College here. The university later changed its name to Maharishi University of Management.\n\nWhile some in the community resisted the influx of meditators, locals say most of those tensions were alleviated years ago.\n\n\"As time has gone on, everybody’s meshed seamlessly,\" local designer Linda Pettit said.\n\nPettit, who with her husband owns Finishing Touch interior design, has watched Fairfield thrive in the past 32 years from her storefront on the town square. She ticks off quality-of-life improvements such as a new pool and new recreation center.\n\nShe boasts about the many restaurants. And she tells of all the new and unusual businesses that have opened.\n\n“We have a very vibrant community,\" she said. \"I think a lot of small towns don’t have the diversity that we do.”\n\nPettit hears about layoffs at plants in Ottumwa, 25 miles to the west. She knows how Iowa farmers are struggling with low commodity prices.\n\nLaunch lessons: Advice from a new entrepreneur\n\nBut she said that isn't Fairfield's storyline.\n\nHer business works on residential and commercial projects. But she's noticed a slant toward more commercial projects in recent years, as new businesses pop up and old ones invest in upgrades.\n\n\"It's a great place to have a business,\" she said.\n\nThrough the years, many Transcendental Meditation practitioners and others who visited Fairfield decided to stay.\n\nOnce here, they had to find a way to make a living. Some Fairfield residents drive to Ottumwa or Iowa City for work, but many have started small businesses in Fairfield, which has been called \"Silicorn Valley\" for its mixture of tech startups and entrepreneurial ventures.\n\nThe town's median household income was $34,859 as of the 2010 census, according to the Fairfield Economic Development Association. That's in the bottom third of Iowa municipalities.\n\n\"People moved here, and they had to figure out how to stay here,\" said David Navarrete, spokesman for Sky Factory.\n\nBill Witherspoon, an artist who moved to Fairfield for its TM community, founded the 38-employee company in 2002.\n\nA serial entrepreneur, he formed Sky Factory as a means of supporting his family. It creates window and ceiling panels that recreate outdoor views like those of a blue sky or a beachfront.\n\nIn coffee we trust: Why the honor system works for one small business\n\nSky Factory's biggest clients are health-care providers because research shows even a simulated view of the outdoors can boost moods for those trapped indoors.\n\n\"I think there's definitely an entrepreneurial spirit here, and I think a lot of that comes from the university,\" said Witherspoon's son, Skye Witherspoon, now the company's chief executive.\n\nFairfield also is home to a surprising array of manufacturing.\n\nCreative Edge makes intricate flooring for some of the world's best known hotels, casinos, hospitals and universities. Bovard Studios makes and restores stained glass windows for churches across the country. And a host of businesses manufacture agricultural parts, iron castings, polyethylene piping and laundromat washers and dryers.\n\nSo many things are made in Fairfield that the Iowa Economic Development Authority will host an export conference here in the fall.\n\nFairfield's biggest employers have grown in recent years, too.\n\nCambridge Investment Research now employs about 700 and boasts more than $70 billion in assets under its management.\n\nLike many small cities, some employers in Fairfield report trouble recruiting and hiring, especially with Iowa's unemployment rate remaining below 4%.\n\nLori Schaefer-Wheaton, president of the 170-employee Agri-Industrial Plastics, said hiring is a struggle. She has 20 openings, a number that has held fairly constant in the past two years.\n\nFairfield is an anomaly among small Iowa cities but she thinks its recent population growth is largely related to the university.\n\nBetter economy gives rise to more start-ups\n\n\"That kind of population growth might show up on our census,\" she said. \"But I don’t think it changes the dynamics of the workforce in our town.\"\n\nFairfield out performs many similarly sized cities, said economist Dave Swenson of Iowa State University. But some signals are mixed: While some measures show recent job growth, other data actually point to employment losses.\n\n\"They seem to be demonstrating both demographic and economic growth that stands out,\" he said. \"The big question is this a short term growth or is it sustainable?\"\n\nAmerica's 10 fastest-growing economies\n\nMeghan Dowd came to Fairfield as child when her parents migrated here because of the Transcendental Meditation community. She moved away for college then ended up working in television in California.\n\nThen she visited her mom here and realized it was going through a renaissance with monthly art walks, a new events center and lots of cool coffee shops and restaurants. She moved back in 2009 and started Shaktea, a maker of kombucha, a trendy fermented drink.\n\nIn Fairfield, she said she can do just about anything she could in a metropolitan area. Plus, it's much cheaper to buy a home or start a business.\n\nHer children attend a Waldorf-inspired preschool. And after yearning for a yoga studio, she just opened her own.\n\n\"A lot of people moved here, the kids grew up here, but then the kids wanted to go out into the world and experience different things,\" Dowd said. \"I think that happened and some of that is kind of boomeranging back to Fairfield.\"\n\nJesse Narducci followed a similar path. He returned home to Fairfield a few years ago after living in Colorado and California for more than a decade.\n\nHe opened Jefferson County Ciderworks just outside of town. He brews hard apple cider and runs a taproom featuring hard-to-find craft brews.\n\nNarducci said many of Iowa's smaller towns are undesirable places to live because they lack quality places to grab a meal or a drink out — not Fairfield.\n\n\"You don’t have to drive to Iowa City to have a good ale or a good meal,\" he said. \"I don't really leave that often. … I’m trying to create my own little paradise out here.\"\n\nFollow Kevin Hardy on Twitter: @kevinmhardy", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/09/fact-check-covid-19-surge-overwhelms-hospitals-beyond-bed-capacity/5472960001/", "title": "Fact check: Hospitals staff near max capacity, but COVID-19 isn't ...", "text": "The claim: 'It's not unusual for hospitals to sit at max or near max capacity on any given day'\n\nSpurred by the highly contagious delta variant, coronavirus infections and deaths are increasing across the country. In states like Texas and Florida, which lead the country in daily average hospitalizations, hospitals are swamped with unvaccinated patients.\n\nBut on social media, some say packed hospitals are just business as usual.\n\n\"It's not unusual for hospitals to sit at max or near max capacity on any given day,\" reads text in an Aug. 2 Facebook post. \"The media would like you to think this is a new thing, but it's not. They are lying to you to create fear and uncertainty.\"\n\nThe post, a screenshot of an Aug. 2 tweet, comes from Erin Marie Olszewski, a nurse based in Tampa, Florida. She has previously shared false information about Florida's coronavirus numbers and promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. (In actuality, randomized control studies have found no evidence to suggest hydroxychloroquine saved lives.)\n\nIn this post, which garnered several thousands interactions between the two platforms, Olszewski has somewhat of a point about how hospitals typically coordinate staffing. But the claim misses key context about how the coronavirus pandemic has strained hospitals.\n\nFact check:6 of the most persistent misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines\n\nDoctors, hospital associations and public health experts told USA TODAY it's not uncommon for hospitals to staff beds at or near maximum capacity to conserve resources. However, Olszewski is wrong to make it seem like the recent influx of COVID-19 hospitalizations is typical. The surge has strained hospitals already hard-hit by the pandemic.\n\n\"It is true that hospitals are often overcrowded (in) both ICUs and ERs,\" Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told USA TODAY in an email. \"The difference is that they don’t have patients in the hallways waiting for ICU beds in the volume that we have today because of COVID.\"\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to Olszewski for comment.\n\nHospitalizations rise due to COVID-19\n\nData show that, over the past few weeks, rising COVID-19 infections have put a renewed strain on hospitals. Several states are seeing their highest hospitalization rates since the coronavirus pandemic began.\n\nTake Olszewski's home state of Florida, for example, which has the highest daily average and per capita hospitalization rate in the country.\n\nData from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that, as of Aug. 6, about 84% of inpatient beds in the state were occupied, 23% of which were for COVID-19 patients. Intensive care units were even more full, with 89% of beds in use, 42% of which were COVID-19 patients.\n\nAccording to the Florida Hospital Association, as of Aug. 3, COVID-19 hospitalizations were at 113% of the state's peak in July 2020. Some hospitals are struggling to keep up with the rising demand for beds; 60% expected critical staffing shortages within a week, according to the hospital association.\n\n“Current hospitalizations and the growth rate continue to be extremely troubling,” Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the association, said in a press release.\n\nHospitals across the state are seeing record numbers of COVID-19 patients, despite the fact that vaccines are widely available. About 49% of Floridians have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, in line with the national average.\n\nMore:Hospitals filling with unvaccinated patients in COVID hot spots; California mandates vaccines for healthcare workers: COVID-19 updates\n\nThe situation in Florida is similar to that in other states with rising hospitalization rates, according to federal data and news reports. Arkansas, Nevada and Louisiana have also recently reported record spikes in COVID-19 hospitalizations.\n\nThose spikes put pressure on hospitals.\n\n\"In parts of the country where COVID-19 patients make up a high percentage of the occupancy rate, there are implications for everyone who needs care,\" Thomas Jordan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association, told USA TODAY in an email. \"Caring for COVID-19 patients is resource-intensive.\"\n\nWhat counts as 'max capacity'\n\nDoctors, hospital associations and public health experts say it's not uncommon for hospitals to be running at or near maximum capacity. But before the COVID-19 pandemic, that was by design.\n\nThe reason why has to do with how hospitals allocate their resources.\n\n\"Capacity is measured at least two ways,\" Robert Myrtle, a professor emeritus who studies health services administration at the University of Southern California, said in an email. \"First is how many beds the hospital is licensed to operate. The second is the beds the hospital is staffing based upon their estimated capacity.\"\n\nFederal guidelines stipulate hospitals should report staffed inpatient and ICU beds to the Department of Health and Human Services. That means a hospital may have more physical beds than it's reporting, but those beds aren't available for patients because there aren't health care providers to tend to them.\n\n\"Ventilators don't run themselves – you need respiratory therapists, you need doctors, you need nurses, you need staff,\" Dr. Jahan Fahimi, medical director of the University of California-San Francisco's adult emergency department, said in an interview. \"It takes a huge team in order to make a bed in a hospital functional.\"\n\nFact check:COVID-19 vaccine isn’t advertised on TV due to emergency authorization\n\nHospitals typically adjust staffing to match the demand for services, Fahimi and public health experts told USA TODAY. If demand is low, a hospital may close off some rooms or entire wings to conserve resources. If demand is high, a hospital may reopen those spaces and assign staff to them.\n\n\"They design it that way for budgetary purposes,\" Marc Lotter, senior vice president of communications, marketing and education at the Florida Hospital Association, said in an email. \"It’s very expensive to staff a bed – especially ICU – so hospitals don’t waste resources staffing beds that aren’t likely to be used. As patient cases rise, they expand capacity and staff beds as needed.\"\n\nBased on the reported number of staffed beds, it may seem like hospitals are always running at or close to maximum capacity. But experts say Olszewski's post leaves out important nuance about the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\n\"There have always been long waits in ERs across the country because there's just a lot of demand for emergency care,\" Fahimi said. \"But what we're seeing now is in many ways unlike anything that we've ever seen.\"\n\n'More than simply having enough beds'\n\nThe pressure that rising COVID-19 infections put on hospitals goes beyond bed occupancy, doctors and public health experts say. It has to do with hospitals' capacity to scale up their treatment of COVID-19 patients.\n\n\"These patients are much, much sicker and require much more respiratory support,\" Benjamin said. \"We also don’t, in the normal course of business, have to set up intensive care beds in holding rooms, tents and operating rooms. During the peak of the pandemic, we were doing that, and many hospitals are on the brink of doing this again.\"\n\nFact check:Video misrepresents Biden's words on decades of vaccine research\n\nLast year, some hospitals entered crisis-care mode when the demand for COVID-19 care surpassed available staff. In several states, hospitals paused elective surgeries to keep up with that demand. Others weighed how to allocate a limited number of ventilators to a growing number of COVID-19 patients.\n\nDoctors and public health experts worry that may soon become a reality in the pandemic's fourth wave.\n\n\"In the past, if you showed up with a sprained ankle, you may have had to wait a couple of hours,\" Fahimi said. \"Now you show up with COVID and need oxygen, and you're in line with other people who have COVID and need oxygen.\"\n\nThen there's the question of staffing.\n\n\"During COVID, demand exceeded the number of staffed beds, so to the extent possible we increased the number of staffed beds,\" Myrtle said. \"But certain service areas, such as ICU, have required staffing ratios that are higher than are required by law or labor contract for general patient populations. So the real limiting factor was the availability of nurses, and we have a nursing shortage (and an aging one as well).\"\n\nThat shortage, which also includes primary care and specialty physicians, is partially due to burnout from the pandemic.\n\nIn December, when the U.S. started breaking coronavirus hospitalization records, the nurse-to-patient ratio went from the recommended 1-to-1 to 1-to-4. The stress of juggling multiple COVID-19 patients at once, often for long hours, has driven some to quit the profession. Hospitals across the country have started offering big sign-on bonuses to get more nurses in the door.\n\nMore:Louisiana man regrets not getting vaccinated\n\n\"The limitations on hospital capacity are more than simply having enough beds,\" Jordan said. \"After many months of dealing with the pandemic, our doctors, nurses and other staff are exhausted. Some have chosen to leave direct patient care work in favor of other jobs. This limits hospitals’ ability to open additional beds to care for surges in patients.\"\n\nOur rating: Missing context\n\nBased on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that \"it's not unusual for hospitals to sit at max or near max capacity on any given day.\" It's true that hospitals typically staff at or near their maximum capacity of staffed beds in order to save resources. But prior to the coronavirus pandemic, that was by design – not out of necessity. The post misses key context about how COVID-19 has strained hospitals in terms of bed space, resources and staffing.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-wildfires/2022/04/22/tunnel-fire-near-flagstaff-burns-21-100-acres/7411878001/", "title": "Tunnel Fire near Flagstaff burns over 20,000 acres, is 3% contained", "text": "The Tunnel Fire burning 14 miles northeast of Flagstaff burned just under 21,000 acres as of Friday night as strong and shifting winds remained a major concern, according to fire officials.\n\nThe Coconino National Forest said on Friday that fire crews continued their efforts to build a line around the now 20,924-acre fire, while indulging high winds and welcoming \"unusual precipitation in the form of scattered rain and sporadic snow showers.\"\n\nThe fire, burning across U.S. 89, was reported shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday and has reached 3% containment overnight into Friday, according to Jerolyn Byrne, a fire information officer for the Tunnel Fire.\n\nThe cause is unknown and under investigation.\n\nNorthern Arizona University President José Luis Cruz Rivera announced Friday morning that the university will provide immediate assistance with housing, meals, or emergency funds for all Lumberjacks, according to a tweet by the university.\n\nThe Coconino County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday night that about 109 properties were impacted by the fire, including 30 burned residences and 24 properties with destroyed outbuildings, forest officials said.\n\nWildfire map: Track where fires are burning in Arizona in 2022\n\nSubscriber exclusive: With 90 wildfires already, what can we expect for summer?\n\nOn Thursday, Gov. Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency to assist communities impacted by the fire. More than 750 households have been evacuated, according to a statement released by his office.\n\nThe declaration of emergency will make $200,000 from the general fund available to the Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management Allen Clark.\n\nAbout 371 fire personnel were working the fire as of Friday morning.\n\nThe Coconino County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, which allows them to spend emergency funds and request support from the state of Arizona.\n\nAccording to the Arizona Department of Transportation, U.S. 89 remains closed in both directions between mileposts 425 and 445 north of Flagstaff with no estimated time of reopening.\n\nTunnel Fire live updates: Latest news as explosive fire burns near Flagstaff\n\nWhere is the Tunnel Fire burning?\n\nThe fire is burning northeast of Flagstaff across U.S. 89, to the east of San Francisco Mountain, the northwest of the tourist attraction Hundred Dollar Hill, the west of Black Bottom Crater and south of the Deadman Mesa mountain peak.\n\nTunnel Fire has covered a northwest portion of Black Bill Park and is burning in the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. The fire also has reached Black Mountain.\n\nFleishman said the western portion of the Tunnel Fire is burning through a part of the scar of Schultz Fire, which burned over 15,000 acres of forest and was the largest wildfire in Arizona in 2010. The fuels that the Schultz Fire left are more likely helping to spread new fires.\n\n\"Now it's burning through trees that have been dead for 10 years, and a lot of them have fallen on the ground and it's more open, so there's more grass,\" Fleishman said.\n\nEvacuations for Tunnel Fire\n\nAccording to the Coconino County Situational Awareness Viewer, the following areas have to evacuate:\n\nNorth of Campbell Avenue, west of U.S. 89.\n\nNorth of Campbell Avenue, east of U.S. 89.\n\nMoon Crater.\n\nThe areas that should prepare for possible evacuation orders are:\n\nSouth of Campbell Avenue, west of U.S. 89.\n\nSouth of Campbell Avenue, east of U.S. 89.\n\nAntelope Hills.\n\nAreas east of existing evacuation areas near Moon Crater, north of Leupp Road and south of Stone House Wash.\n\nAreas in a \"GO\" zone will remain in evacuation status until April 24 because of the change in wind direction and the high risk in the area.\n\nThere is a chance that U.S. 89 may reopen before the weekend depending on weather conditions, the U.S. Forest Service said Thursday night.\n\nPeople who have evacuated their homes due to the Tunnel Fire are asked to contact the call center at 928-679-8525. According to Coconino County, they are experiencing a high call volume but will respond to all voicemails.\n\nThose unsure about an evacuation notice or who feel it might be a scam can call law enforcement agencies to confirm evacuation stages. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office asked to call its nonemergency number at 928-774-4523 and the Flagstaff Police Department at 928-774-4114.\n\nShelter information; assistance for NAU students\n\nNAU assistance\n\nNAU President Cruz Rivera announced Friday morning that the university will provide immediate assistance with housing, meals, or emergency funds for all Lumberjacks, according to a tweet by the university.\n\n\"In the last 24 hours alone, I've had direct conversations with three members of our university community whose lives have been deeply affected by the fire and have learned of many others who are living minute-by-minute in fear of what may be in store for them and their loved ones. As we head into the weekend, I want to call all lumberjacks to action,\" Cruz Rivera said.\n\nAll students need to do is email president@nau.edu with information. NAU's leadership team is on standby to assist any students in need.\n\n\"In the past several days, most of us have followed the relentless burning fire of the Tunnel Fire with great interest and much concern, standing by ready to help and jumping in to do so when called upon,\" Cruz Rivera said.\n\nTunnel Fire: Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument burned 'in its entirety'\n\nShelters for Tunnel Fire\n\nA Red Cross Shelter has been opened at Sinagua Middle School at 3950 E. Butler Ave. in Flagstaff for those evacuated from areas affected by the Tunnel Fire, according to Coconino County. Animals are not allowed into the evacuation center.\n\nA community meeting is planned for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Sinagua Middle School to provide updates regarding fire conditions, potential flood risks and evacuation statuses.\n\nRepresentatives from the county, Sheriff's Office, U.S. Forest Service, National Weather Service, and Tunnel Fire Type 1 Incident Management Team will be present to provide information and answer questions.\n\nThe meeting will also be streamed on the Coconino County Facebook page.\n\nHousehold animals can be taken to the Coconino Humane Association at 3501 E. Butler Ave. in Flagstaff, and horses, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens can be taken to the Fort Tuthill County Stables. The stables are self-service, so people are responsible for feeding and watering. Coconino County advised taking cages for smaller livestock.\n\nCoconino County distributed a number of QR codes that, when scanned with the camera application on a smartphone, will lead to resources available regarding evacuations and updates on the fire.\n\nSt. Mary's Food Bank sent a truckload of bottled water and snacks for firefighters from the Tunnel Fire on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Jerry Brown. The food bank is also assisting families impacted by the fire with the help of the Flagstaff Family Food Center and sent 100 emergency food boxes on Thursday.\n\nBrown said they will send more boxes and will be standing by with more resources as needed.\n\nWeather, fire outlook for Tunnel fire\n\nOn Friday morning, rain fell over the greater Flagstaff area. Observations from Doney Park and the Tunnel Fire have indicated that a few hundredths of an inch have fallen, according to a tweet by the National Weather Service in Flagstaff.\n\nThe rain helped douse dry grasses, which kept them from igniting more easily, but precipitation levels were not enough to control large burning logs and large hotpots across the fire. High winds also dried out the precipitation quickly, according to Coconino National Forest.\n\nStrong shifting winds out of the north and east forecast for Saturday and Sunday are posing a major concern for fire managers who are dealing with various spot fires. Due to the wind, they are hesitant to call certain areas \"contained\" until the winds pass. The containment level remains at 3%, the Forest Service said Friday night.\n\nFire crews are working on a spot fire that began about 9 p.m. in the Schultz Fire scar area and grew to 500 acres on Friday night, Byrne said. A spot fire is a fire ignited outside the perimeter of the main fire by flying sparks or embers, according to the USDA Forest Service. Large downed trees from the Schultz Fire helped keep the spot fire alive, and strong winds cultivated dry conditions.\n\nThough spot fires have been popping up in the area, this is the largest spot fire that has been seen so far, Byrne said.\n\n\"Bulldozers and hand crews are building lines around the edge of the fire between O'Leary Peak and Black Mountain and crews continued to patrol and mop up hot spots in the Timberline Estates and Wupatki Trails subdivisions, as well as along the southern flank of the fire along Forest Road 545,\" the Coconino National Forest said on Friday night.\n\nAdditional resources and personnel from the Type 1 Incident Management Team have allowed firefighting efforts to expand to the east of the Tunnel Fire, where firefighters will see if established fire lines will hold up to Friday's critical fire weather and strong winds, according to a Coconino National Forest news release.\n\nLines will be constructed near Black Mountain on Friday, just east of O’Leary Peak and in the Strawberry Crater Wilderness Area, forest officials said.\n\nProtecting homes and property at Timberline Estates and Wupatki Trails subdivisions as well as along Forest Road 420 have remained a top priority since the fire started.\n\nReach breaking news reporter Amaris Encinas at amaris.encinas@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @amarisencinas.\n\nReach breaking news reporter Angela Cordoba Perez at Angela.CordobaPerez@Gannett.com or on Twitter @AngelaCordobaP.\n\nSupport local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/04/best-july-4th-fireworks-shows-us/7694027001/", "title": "Best July 4th fireworks shows include Washington, D.C., St. Louis ...", "text": "As cities and households around the country gear up to celebrate the 246th birthday of the United States of America, some shows promise to put on bigger and better firework displays than ever before.\n\nFor many Americans today, fireworks are often accompanied with a day of other Fourth of July related activities, but the tradition of sending bright flares into the sky has been around since the very first Independence Day in 1776, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA).\n\n“Early U.S. settlers brought their love of fireworks with them … a tradition that continues every 4th of July when we celebrate as John Adams had hoped, ‘with pomp, parade….bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other,’” APA’s website states.\n\nOut of all the dazzling firework displays in the nation, here are 10 of the most spectacular.\n\nAAA predicts:Record number of people expected to take road trips for Fourth of July weekend\n\nSt. Louis, Missouri\n\nFramed by the iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular – dubbed \"America's biggest birthday party\" – boasts a “world-class” display, typically lasting 20 to 30 minutes, over the Mississippi River.\n\nOfficials say this year’s show will be the largest display in the fair’s history. Other activities include concerts, food vendors and more.\n\nWashington D.C.\n\nFireworks launched from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool illuminate the sky behind the Capitol and Washington Monument during one of the most patriotic fireworks displays in the nation, which draws in about 700,000 people each year.\n\nCelebrations occur all day throughout the city, beginning with a parade down Constitution Avenue.\n\nIdaho Falls, Idaho\n\nCelebrating its 29th anniversary, the Melaleuca Freedom Festival is the largest Independence Day fireworks show west of the Mississippi River, according to the event website.\n\nIt’s appeared twice on the American Pyrotechnics Association list of “must-see Independence Day fireworks displays.”\n\nOver 18,000 shells will be launched this year over the banks of the Snake River in honor of America’s Founding Fathers, veterans, and service members.\n\nNew York City\n\nThe 46th annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks celebration in New York City is the country's largest pyrotechnic display.\n\n“Expect a rapid-fire succession of blasts to go off from each of the East River barges, creating a two-hour (spectacle) with round after round of rocking entertainment,” Macy’s website states.\n\nViewers can expect to see unique patterns, including a Whistling Jellyfish, snakes, a blinking smiling face, and swimming chrysanthemums.\n\nSan Francisco\n\nSan Francisco’s firework show can be seen along the waterfront with the city’s dramatic skyline in the background. Fireworks are launched from a barge off of Pier 39 and from the Municipal Pier.\n\nTourist attraction Fisherman’s Wharf hosts a number of local bands ahead of the celebration.\n\nNashville\n\nThe annual Music City July 4th: Let Freedom Sing celebration in Nashville, the region's largest fireworks show, will hold its longest show ever in Nashville this year.\n\nThere will be more than 1,000 floating flares, 40,000 pounds of explosives, and 200 miles of wire used.\n\nSpectators can expect to hear a symphony playing patriotic tunes and new popular music, including hits from Star Wars.\n\nAddison, Texas\n\nKaboom Town, a top-ranked Independence Day festival with food vendors, entertainment, and an air show, host's a dazzling 25-minute fireworks display annually.\n\nAddison is only home to 16,000 residents, but the event brings more than 500,000 guests to the town from across the nation, according to the event website.\n\nAlachua, Florida\n\nDubbed the \"Largest Small Town Fireworks Display in America,” thousands of people will flock to Alachua, Florida, for the 22nd annual Fourth of July celebration. This free event positively impacts local businesses, according to the city’s website.\n\nAmazing fireworks celebrationsin Florida\n\nPhiladelphia\n\nWhat better way is there to celebrate independence than in the birthplace of the United States?\n\nThe Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Pennsylvania provides the perfect backdrop for one of the nation’s greatest fireworks shows as part of the Wawa Welcome America festival.\n\nPasadena, California\n\nThe Rose Bowl Stadium is recognized as home to one of the nation’s largest and longest running Independence Day shows.\n\nThe96th Annual AmericaFest Celebration includes musical performances, a motocross show and other family-friendly activities.\n\nCamille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY's NOW team. She loves monochromatic outfits, making pizza, and spoiling her loving cat Pearl. You can see more of her work at camillefine.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/08/23/disney-store-closings-list-september-2021-liquidation-sale/8244550002/", "title": "Disney Store closing sale 2021: See locations shuttering by Sept. 15", "text": "More Disney Store locations are closing in September.\n\nAs Target plans to open more than 100 new Disney shops inside its stores, the Walt Disney Co. is shuttering nearly 60 of its full-size retail locations across the country. The company updated its store locator tool to identify stores closing \"on or before\" Sept. 15.\n\nDisney announced in March it would close at least 60 Disney stores in North America this year. Nearly 40 stores were included in the first round of closings.\n\nThe company said in March that it was reducing the number of stores to focus on its e-commerce business.\n\n►Disney Store at Target expansion:Target to add more than 100 new Disney Store locations by the end of 2021, releases top toy list\n\n►Pumpkin Spice 2021:Starbucks PSL, Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and fall menu return Tuesday\n\n\"While consumer behavior has shifted toward online shopping, the global pandemic has changed what consumers expect from a retailer,” Stephanie Young, president of consumer products, games and publishing, said in a statement at the time.\n\nAfter the latest round of closures, about two dozen stores will remain. The closings don't affect more than 600 stores inside Disney theme parks and other locations, including small Disney shops inside Target stores.\n\n“Over the past few years, we’ve been focused on meeting consumers where they are already spending their time, such as the expansion of Disney store shop-in-shops around the world,\" Young said. \"We now plan to create a more flexible, interconnected e-commerce experience that gives consumers easy access to unique, high-quality products across all our franchises.”\n\nDisney officials did not provide an official list of the closures or a new statement and directed USA TODAY to use the store locator tool on its website to find the closing stores.\n\n►New toy stores coming to Macy's:Toys R Us to make a comeback with new toy shops inside more than 400 Macy's stores\n\n►Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nDisney Store closings September 2021\n\nThe following stores are slated to close on or before Sept. 15, 2021, according to the store locator.\n\nArizona Disney Store closing locations\n\nTempe: Arizona Mills, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle\n\nTucson: Tucson Premium Outlets, 6401 W. Marana Center Blvd.\n\nCalifornia Disney Store closings\n\nBrea: Brea Mall, 1065 Brea Mall\n\nCarlsbad: Carlsbad Premium Outlets, 5610 Paseo Del Norte\n\nCerritos: Los Cerritos Shopping Center, 163 Los Cerritos Center\n\nConcord: Sunvalley Mall, 1 Sunvalley Mall\n\nDaly City: Serramonte Center, 25 Serramonte Center\n\nFresno: Fashion Fair, 587 E Shaw Ave.\n\nGilroy: Gilroy Premium Outlet, 681 Leavesley Road\n\nLakewood: Lakewood Center, 88 Lakewood Center Mall\n\nLos Angeles: Westfield Century City, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd.\n\nModesto: Vintage Faire, 3401 Dale Road\n\nNational City: Westfield Plaza Bonita, 3030 Plaza Bonita Road\n\nSan Francisco: Stockton Street, 39 Stockton St. (Closing on or before Sept. 8)\n\nSanta Clara: Westfield Valley Fair, 2855 Stevens Creek Boulevard\n\nSherman Oaks: Westfield Fashion Square, 14006 Riverside Drive\n\nThousand Oaks: The Oaks, 350 West Hillcrest Drive\n\nTorrance: Del Amo Fashion Center, 21712 Hawthorne Blvd.\n\nValencia: Valencia Town Center, 24201 West Valencia Blvd.\n\nConnecticut Disney Store closures\n\nDanbury: Danbury Fair, 7 Backus Ave.\n\nFarmington: Westfarms Mall, 500 Westfarms Mall\n\nFlorida Disney Store closing locations\n\nDoral: Miami International Mall, 1455 Northwest 107th Ave.\n\nLutz: Tampa Premium Outlets, 2300 Grand Cypress Drive\n\nMiami: Dadeland Mall, 7527 Dadeland Mall\n\nOrlando: The Florida Mall, 8001 So. Orange Blossom Trail\n\nGeorgia Disney Store closing\n\nBuford: Mall of Georgia, 3333 Buford Drive\n\nIllinois Disney Store closures\n\nAurora: Chicago Premium Outlets, 1650 Premium Outlet Blvd.\n\nChicago: North Michigan Avenue, 717 North Michigan Ave. (Closing on or before Sept. 1)\n\nGurnee: Gurnee Mills, 6170 West Grand Ave.\n\nSchaumburg: Woodfield Mall, 1600 Golf & Meacham Road\n\nMaryland Disney Store closing\n\nClarksburg: Clarksburg Premium Outlets, 22705 Clarksburg Road\n\nMassachusetts Disney Store closings\n\nBurlington: Burlington Mall, 75 Middlesex Turnpike\n\nWrentham: Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, 1 Premium Outlets Blvd.\n\nMichigan Disney Store closure\n\nAuburn: Great Lakes Crossing, 4286 Baldwin Road\n\nMissouri closing Disney Store\n\nChesterfield: St. Louis Premium Outlets, 18521 Outlet Blvd.\n\nNevada Disney Store closure\n\nLas Vegas: Las Vegas South Premium Outlets, 7400 Las Vegas Blvd. South\n\nNew Hampshire Disney Store closure\n\nMerrimack: Merrimack Premium Outlet, 80 Premium Outlets Blvd.\n\nDeptford: Deptford Mall, 1750 Deptford Center Road\n\nEdison: Menlo Park Mall, 55 Parsonage Road\n\nJackson: Jackson Premium Outlets, 537 Monmouth Road\n\nParamus: Garden State Plaza, 1 Garden State Plaza Blvd.\n\nNew York Disney Store closures\n\nCentral Valley: Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, 191 Marigold Court\n\nElmhurst: Queens Center, 90-15 Queens Boulevard\n\nLake Grove: Smith Haven Mall, 313 Smith Haven Mall Road\n\nNiagara Falls: Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls, 1900 Military Road\n\nNorth Carolina closing Disney Store locations\n\nCharlotte: SouthPark Mall, 4400 Sharon Road\n\nConcord: Concord Mills, 8111 Concord Mills Blvd.\n\nPennsylvania Disney Store closings\n\nLimerick: Philadelphia Premium Outlet, 18 West Lightcap Road\n\nWhitehall: Lehigh Valley Mall, 217 Lehigh Valley Mall\n\nTennessee closing Disney Store\n\nNashville: Opry Mills, 433 Opry Mills Drive\n\nTexas Disney Store closings\n\nHouston: Houston Galleria, 5015 Westheimer Road\n\nMcAllen: La Plaza Mall, 2200 South 10th St.\n\nMercedes: Rio Grand Valley Premium Outlets, 5001 East Expressway 83\n\nRound Rock: Round Rock Premium Outlets, 4401 North Interstate Highway 35\n\nUtah Disney Store closure\n\nSalt Lake City: City Creek Center, 51 South Main Street\n\nVirginia Disney Store closing\n\nWoodbridge: Potomac Mills, 2700 Potomac Mills Circle\n\nWashington closing Disney Store\n\nTukwila: Westfield Southcenter, 536 Southcenter Mall\n\nContributing: David P. Willis, Asbury Park Press\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/environment/2020/01/03/solar-surges-california-desert-environment-trump/2665799001/", "title": "Solar surges in California desert. Environmentalists aren't happy", "text": "Alfredo Figueroa, an 85-year-old former miner, can rattle off the name of every major geographic feature rising from the desert floor outside of Blythe, Calif., a town of 19,000 off the Interstate 10 freeway, halfway between Los Angeles and Phoenix.\n\nOn a warm winter day, the descendant of the Chemehuevi and Yaqui tribes hiked along a mesa dotted with petroglyphs, and waved his walking stick at a chunky mountain peak 20 miles in the distance, bathed in orange by sunshine. \"That's Palen,\" he chuckled, pointing at the formation. \"See his chin sticking up?\"\n\nAll of the peaks are part of creation stories, he says, from birth in the Big Maria range to death in the Mule Mountains just behind him. But it's the time-varnished desert floor that concerns him right now.\n\nTwo industrial solar farm projects — called Crimson Solar and Desert Quartzite — are proposed for just below where he's standing. And between here and Desert Center, 20 miles west, another 10 have been built, are under construction or are seeking approvals.\n\nMandated by law in 2018, California is attempting to engineer a monumental shift to zero-emission electricity by 2045. To get there, the state is adopting various measures, including a first-in-the-nation law that went into effect Jan. 1 requiring rooftop solar panels on nearly all new homes.\n\nWhile California recently surpassed 1 million solar rooftops, clean energy advocates and industry officials say that won't be enough to reach the goals. They argue every possible option will be needed — including solar farms in the desert.\n\nThat's re-ignited a battle with longtime activists like Figuroa. He and area environmental groups say while they are 100% in favor of solar power, it should be installed on rooftops, landfills and other disturbed lands in urban areas — not hundreds of miles away on fragile desert landscapes.\n\n\"Along here are the ancient trails our ancestors took between all these sacred places,\" Figueroa says, pointing to the creosote-studded land where the 350-megawatt Crimson Solar project is proposed. \"This is a pristine area that hasn't been destroyed, and they will destroy it.\"\n\nSolar power for 400,000 homes?\n\nBut when others look out at the Southern California desert, they see a different story.\n\n\"There are two places in the world that have this high level of solar radiance: One is the California desert and the other is northern Africa,\" says Shannon Eddy, founding executive director of the Large-Scale Solar Association, based in Sacramento. \"What's unique about the California desert is that ... it's so close to load centers (cities that need power). There's nothing like it in the world.\"\n\nWith carbon emissions from coal and natural gas-powered plants stoking climate change worldwide, Eddy and others say industrial-strength renewables are critical. \"It's time to dispel the myth that rooftop solar alone is enough,\" says Eddy, who represents solar developers in California, Nevada and Arizona. \"I love rooftop, but we need to be doing that, we need to do large-scale utility, and we need to be looking under mattresses for energy efficiency measures. We need it all!\"\n\nAll told, nearly 30,000 acres of photovoltaic solar farms producing up to 4,000 megawatts could come online in the California desert within the next few years, a 30% uptick statewide over 2018, the latest year for which data is available. That's enough to power as many as 400,000 homes for a year.\n\nCurrent solar projects:\n\nDesert Quartzite (First Solar), about 3,800 acres, 450 megawatts, near final approval\n\nCrimson Solar (Recurrent), about 2,500 acres; 350 megawatts, public comment period open until Jan. 30\n\nPalen (EDF Renewables) approx. 3,140 acres; 500 megawatts, under construction\n\nBlythe (NextEra), approx. 4,318 acres; 485 megawatts (235 operational, 250 pending construction)\n\nMcCoy/Arlington (NextEra) approx. 4,282 acres; 750 megawatts (250 operational, 500 pending construction)\n\nDesert Sunlight (NextEra) approx. 4,084 Acres; 550 megawatts cconstructed and operational\n\nGenesis (NextEra) approx. 1,950 acres; 250 megawatts constructed and operational\n\nDesert Harvest (EDF Renewables) approx. 1,412 acres; 150 megawatts under construction\n\nArica (Clearway Energy Group) approx. 2,000 acres; 265 megawatts, application being processed\n\nVictory Pass (Clearway Energy Group) approx. 1,800 acres; 200 megawatts, application being processed\n\nIP Athos (Intersect Power) private land facility, 3,600 acres, 500 megawatts tie-in on public lands, being constructed\n\nTwo companies have applied for a 12th project on the same acreage; both are being reviewed by BLM.\n\nKevin Emmerich, co-founder of the environmental group Basin and Range Watch, based in Beatty, Nev., has methodically opposed every large solar project in the desert. He says the increase \"is just a gigantic assault of these industrial projects on desert habitats and cultural sites.\"\n\n\"We have the ability to get off of fossil fuels in a responsive, ecologically friendly way,\" he says. \"We're not doing that. We're creating new environmental problems by trying to create solutions to old environmental problems.\"\n\nBut Eddy says the new projects are far more environmentally friendly than earlier ones. She says the project boom may seem large, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to state modeling showing an estimated 90,000 to 125,000 megawatts of large-scale solar power needs to be added to the grid in the next 25 years.\n\n\"We have to figure out where we want to build these plants, and we can't fight each other anymore,\" she says. \"The further we stall, the worse shape we're in\" in terms of greenhouse gases.\n\nRooftops versus long-distance\n\nThe wrangling offers a snapshot of the current state of solar energy in California: It's surging, but not quite as planned. Thanks to homeowner rebates, a sharp drop in prices of photovoltaic panels, and consumer jitters over blackouts due to wildfires, rooftop solar installations have climbed to 9 gigawatts of power, closing in on the 12 gigawatts of industrial solar power.\n\nLarge-scale solar farms are growing too, but, some say, not at the pace originally envisioned in the 2016 Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP).\n\nThat plan was signed by federal, state, county, tribal, environmental and industry groups in the last months of the Obama administration. It was supposed to fast-track California's industrial solar, wind and geothermal projects across 388,000 acres (about 600 square miles). At the same time, it outlined a process to preserve six million acres of federal land.\n\nBut U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials have denied 93 proposals, often due to environmental concerns. Trump administration officials have ordered BLM to re-open the plan to all energy development, including oil and gas drilling and mining.\n\nThe initial slow ramp-up of big solar plants was fine with desert environmental and tribal groups.\n\n\"I don't think the average person driving by appreciates how ecologically valuable these desert wash habitats are,\" says Chris Clarke, associate director of the California desert program for the National Parks Conservation Association. He says large-scale power generation tied to a massive grid is \"a 20th-century business plan for a 21st-century problem.\"\n\nBut others say all options need to be considered as officials push to potentially electrify the entire state with enough clean energy to power nearly 36 million cars and trucks and 17 million buildings.\n\n\"2020 is going to be a pivotal year; I would say it's going to set the pace for the next decade of renewables,\" says Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, a Sacramento-based group that represents manufacturers of rooftop solar and other small \"distributed\" systems. \"We really don't have a clear road map for how to meet the zero-carbon mandate.\"\n\nDel Chiaro says current state modeling wrongly assumes rooftop solar will plateau or even decline, and questions the megawattage that Eddy says must come from industrial solar farms.\n\nNevertheless, she says, California can't wait a decade to see if enough rooftop solar can be built. Approvals and construction of utility-scale projects in carefully selected landscapes also need to start now. \"Climate change is doing far worse damage to species than habitat loss,\" she says.\n\nFeds want 'to have the DRECP blown up'\n\nWhile both environmentalists and industry representatives say the aims of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan were noble, neither is totally happy with how things have played out.\n\nIn sun-drenched eastern Riverside and San Bernardino counties, many residents and conservationists say the seeming \"no man's land\" areas were wrongly made a \"development focus areas,\" or as they see it, sacrifice zones.\n\nSolar industry representatives, meanwhile, are not pleased with the fees they have to pay to lease public lands for their projects. The costs have skyrocketed 600% in recent years, said Eddy, via a series of increases. A BLM spokeswoman said they now collect $6 million in rent annually from eastern Riverside County projects.\n\nResponding to rural constituents' anger, San Bernardino County has banned the construction of large solar and wind farms across more than one million acres. Riverside County continues to process projects on private lands.\n\nOne reason more projects have not been approved since the DRECP was adopted is that more endangered or threatened species have been found in areas slated for renewable development than expected. At the same time, species that the plan aimed to protect have not always been found in designated conservation areas.\n\n\"They thought the desert tortoise were going to be in one place, and instead, there were lots of them in an area identified for solar development, and none in the places where they're supposed to be,\" says Eddy of the Large-Scale Solar Association\n\nJeremiah Karuzas, BLM's renewable energy program manager for California, says his agency is drafting an amendment to the DRECP. \"We realized some things we needed to fix or adjust to give additional flexibility, both for project developers and BLM itself.\"\n\nAsked about the Interior Department order to allow all kinds of energy projects — including oil drilling and mining — in the DRECP, Karuzas acknowledged the proposed adjustments \"wouldn't apply just to renewable energy, but to any BLM activity in that area.\"\n\nThat prospect sets off alarm bells for solar developers and environmentalists alike, despite their issues with the current plan.\n\n\"The BLM guys know the ways the regs got written has led to barriers that were unintended,\" says V. John White with the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, a Sacramento partnership of major environmental groups and clean energy companies. \"And changes that could be agreed to by environmentalists,(and) solar and wind industry developers, can't get accomplished because the federal government wants to have the DRECP blown up to do more mining.\"\n\nEddy, the solar industry advocate, agrees the plan needs to be fixed, but says fossil fuels should not be added. \"Oil and gas was never envisioned as part of the desert conservation plan,\" she says.\n\nClarke with the National Parks Conservation Association says: \"People have a diversity of opinions about the DRECP, but the conservation community is unanimous that it needs to be defended in its current form.\"\n\nThere is good news, say some\n\nAlex Daue, the assistant director of energy and climate for The Wilderness Society, a national organization, says the solar farm activity along the 10 freeway near existing transmission lines shows that the plan is beginning to work.\n\nDaue sees it as a model for bipartisan legislation proposed in both houses of Congress to designate areas across the West for utility-scale renewables.\n\nThe Public Land Renewable Energy Development Act would identify lower-value areas for commercial-scale renewable development. But instead of sending all land leasing revenues to the general treasury, as is currently done, millions would go to local communities, states and federal conservation and innovation efforts.\n\nAs big cities and suburbs cut the cord with coal-fired power plants in Utah and elsewhere, they're looking to sign contracts with wind and solar power from rural California. That includes the fully approved Palen project, a 3,100-acre development named for a dry lake below the mountains of the same name, near Joshua Tree National Park.\n\nEDF Renewables North America, the developer, announced last month that it has sold nearly all of the 500 megawatts the facility will create. Its customers include Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Shell Oil, and CleanPowerSF, which serves 300,000 San Francisco customers.\n\nPlants, animals and desert soil\n\nConservationists say the long-distance sales prove the desert is being used as a sacrifice zone. They and developers offer dueling research on the impact of the projects, which average five square miles in size.\n\nClarke with the National Parks Association and Emmerich of Basin and Range Watch say the solar farms are harming myriad plants and animals, like the desert tortoise, Mojave fringe-toed lizard, ironwood tree stands and a suite of desert flowers.\n\nThey point to wildlife mortality counts showing scores of species of birds, along with bats and monarch butterflies, have been injured or killed at solar projects. Thousands of birds have been incinerated or singed mid-air at the Ivanpah desert facility due to its concentrating thermal technology, which creates extreme heat via a series of mirrors.\n\nPilots also have complained about blinding glare produced by its thermal towers, which create a piercing light. BLM and other agencies are conducting \"glint and glare\" and wildlife studies. The thermal technology is not being used in new projects because the price of photovoltaic solar panels has plummeted, notes Eddy.\n\nBut photovoltaic solar can create a phenomenon called the \"lake effect,\" says Clarke, sending birds winging their way into hot panels, mistakenly thinking they are a cool oasis.\n\nPeter Weiner, head of the environment and energy practice at the law firm Paul Hastings in Los Angeles, says there's no research definitively documenting such a problem. \"We don’t think there is evidence of a lake effect,\" says Weiner, who works with solar developers. He said while an early mortality count at the Desert Sunlight facility found dead water birds, there is also a working fish farm nearby that might attract them. Tracking at other PV solar facilities shows \"insignificant\" impacts on birds, he adds.\n\nAnother concern raised by Clarke is that solar installations disturb a type of desert soil called caliche. A 2014 UC Riverside study for the California Energy Commission concluded losses of caliche and organic matter in surface soil layers \"compromise the value of solar energy as an alternative to fossil carbon burning by releasing stored inorganic carbon into the atmosphere and destroying the ability of the deserts to sequester carbon.\"\n\nThe researchers recommended locating solar developments on previously disturbed lands.\n\nWeiner said he is not aware of further studies on caliche, but that solar farm sites are no longer mass graded, with post holes being dug in carefully selected spots. Eddy offered two other studies, funded by solar companies, showing that with proper siting, endangered kit foxes fared better than in raw wilderness at San Luis Obispo County PV farms, possibly even using the panels for protection from predators.\n\nPublic comment period closing soon\n\nAs technology has evolved, developers are proposing smaller solar projects than in the boom days of major federal incentives more than a decade ago. BLM staff now also often ask developers to surgically excise ravines and other watershed areas, to preserve woodlands and other key habitat.\n\nThat's the case with the Crimson Solar project, they note, where Recurrent Energy is seeking a right of way on 2,500 acres of public land to construct a 350-megawatt photovoltaic facility. That's down from nearly 7,000 acres first proposed years ago by another developer.\n\nScott Dawson, director of permitting for Recurrent Energy, said at a recent public hearing that the project would not destroy any petroglyphs or sacred sites, and was being proposed in an environmentally sensitive fashion. Public comment is open until Jan. 30.\n\nBoth Figueroa's cultural resources group, La Cuna de Aztlan, and Basin and Range Watch say while the project is smaller, neither Recurrent nor BLM are presenting the full picture. For instance, says Emmerich, a popular biking and jeep trail would be heavily impacted by chain link fencing, as would vistas from documented historic sites.\n\nThe adjoining 450 megawatt project, Desert Quartzite, by First Solar, could receive final approvals soon. It would connect with Southern California Edison’s Colorado Substation, on about 3,700 acres of federal land and 154 acres of private land.\n\nAs a former Sierra Club staffer, Eddy says tough choices need to be made about where to locate large solar projects.\n\n\"California has set some good and aggressive climate targets, and getting there is going to require breaking ground that hasn't been broken before,\" she says. \"It requires very important conversations about land use, conversations that are deep and profound and difficult. ... The whole world is facing these decisions on a macro-level.\"\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this story misspelled Alex Daue's last name and gave an incorrect title for him. He is assistant director of energy and climate at The Wilderness Society.\n\nJanet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun and writes USA Today's Climate Point newsletter @janetwilson66 janet.wilson@desertsun.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/california-primary-election-da-race/index.html", "title": "California is about to experience a political earthquake. Here's why ...", "text": "In Los Angeles and San Francisco, two of the nation's most liberal large cities, voters are poised to send stinging messages of discontent over mounting public disorder, as measured in both upticks in certain kinds of crime and pervasive homelessness\n\nThat dissatisfaction could translate into the recall of San Francisco's left-leaning district attorney, Chesa Boudin, likely by a resounding margin, and a strong showing in the Los Angeles mayoral primary by Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer and former Republican who has emerged as the leading alternative in the race to Democratic US Rep. Karen Bass , once considered the front-runner.\n\nLinking both these contests -- as well as several Los Angeles City Council races and an ongoing effort to recall George Gascon , Los Angeles County's left-leaning district attorney -- is a widespread sense among voters in both cities that local government is failing at its most basic responsibility: to ensure public safety and order. It's a sentiment similar to the anxiety over urban disarray that inspired the \"broken windows\" policing theory during the 1980s, and contributed to the election of Republican Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Richard Riordan in New York and Los Angeles, respectively, amid the cascading violence of the crack epidemic in the early 1990s.\n\nTuesday's California results will likely send a stark message to the Democrats controlling Congress and the White House. The outcome will again underscore how much danger a party in power can face when voters feel that certainty has been stripped from their lives -- a dynamic that extends beyond crime and homelessness to inflation, soaring gasoline prices and continued disruption from the unending Covid pandemic.\n\n\"In the broadest perspective, the voters and residents are feeling that the governing regime, the liberal Democratic regime that has dominated LA for the last 30 years, and California and San Francisco, is not meeting the moment,\" says Fernando Guerra, a political scientist who directs the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.\n\nZev Yaroslavsky, who served on the LA City Council and then the LA County Board of Supervisors for almost 40 years starting in 1975, says the only time he can remember Los Angeles voters as discontented as they are today was in the late 1970s , an era of high inflation and soaring property tax bills that produced California's Proposition 13 and the tax revolt that helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980.\n\n\"What people used to take for granted they can no longer take for granted -- on your ability to pay your rent, your ability to walk the streets safely, on your ability not to be accosted by a homeless person,\" says Yaroslavsky, now director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles. \"It's a lack of confidence in government's ability to respond.\"\n\nLos Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, who took office in 2013, feels those gusts too. \"I've never seen a more angrier electorate than this particular election,\" she told me. \"I think all of this is just at a boiling point.\"\n\nA flipped agenda\n\nThe dominant role of crime and homelessness in the Los Angeles and San Francisco elections represents an inversion of the political agenda since the summer of 2020. Like dozens of other cities, both places saw protesters for police reform fill the streets following George Floyd's murder . In Los Angeles, that energy helped propel Gascon to a narrow victory over the law enforcement-backed District Attorney Jackie Lacey in November 2020 and also powered voter approval of a ballot initiative to combat racial inequities by shifting county funds toward social services and alternatives to incarceration.\n\nBoudin, the San Francisco district attorney, who was narrowly elected in 2019, and Gascon have pursued largely parallel agendas centered on reducing incarceration through measures such as a virtual prohibition on trying juveniles as adults, the rejection of \"enhancements\" (for such factors as gang involvement or use of a gun) that extend sentence lengths and a policy of not prosecuting \"quality of life\" misdemeanors associated with homelessness, such as trespassing and public urination.\n\nThat agenda quickly faced fierce resistance from other elements in the criminal justice system committed to traditional approaches, including the unions representing police in both cities. Law enforcement interests are backing the recalls against Gascon and Boudin, and in LA the police union is spending heavily against Bass, a leader in the House of Representatives' passage last year of sweeping federal police reform legislation. The recall efforts against Boudin and Gascon, as well as Caruso's mayoral bid in Los Angeles, have also drawn support from big Republican donors, who constitute a distinct minority in both cities.\n\nThe role of both law enforcement insiders and conservative donors and activists has frustrated advocates for police reform, who see the backlash across these many fronts as an attempt to restore hardline approaches before new alternatives are given a chance to demonstrate whether they can succeed.\n\nTake a look at our streets: No matter where you live now, you can walk down the street, you can look out your front window, and you will see ... that what the city and the county have been doing simply is not working. Nury Martinez, Los Angeles City Council president\n\n\"I think to a very large degree that more conservative forces have been very, very adept at framing the issues of homelessness and of crime so that the discussion about ... how to respond to those two issues is very, very narrow,\" says Los Angeles City Council Member Mike Bonin, an outspoken liberal who is not seeking reelection this year after narrowly avoiding a recall drive centered on his resistance to tougher measures against the endemic homelessness across his Westside district.\n\nJUST WATCHED Rep. Bass: 'We really have a humanitarian crisis in Los Angeles' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Rep. Bass: 'We really have a humanitarian crisis in Los Angeles' 17:04\n\nYet the evidence is overwhelming that the unease dominating Tuesday's elections extends far beyond conservative circles. Yaroslavsky points out that in the UCLA Luskin School's annual polling across Los Angeles County, concern about crime has increased substantially not only among Whites, but among Hispanics, Blacks and Asian Americans as well.\n\nBen LaBolt, a San Francisco-based Democratic strategist and former campaign spokesperson for Barack Obama, likewise notes that prominent local Democrats have played leading roles in the effort to recall Boudin. \"The notion that this [recall] is some right-wing misinformation campaign is dangerous for Democrats to say or think, because it's definitely not,\" he says.\n\nIn both cities, anxiety about public safety is rising faster than the actual trends in reported crime. The online dashboard maintained by the San Francisco Police Department shows that through May 29 (the latest week for which figures are available) burglaries and break-ins or thefts of motor vehicles are clearly up from the comparable period in 2019, before Boudin took office. But assaults and homicides are virtually unchanged over that period, and robberies are down, as are the total number of serious offenses.\n\n\"We are not seeing numbers that look anything like some of the worst eras that people have been through,\" says Michelle Parris, California program director at the Vera Institute of Justice, speaking on behalf of Vera Action, a criminal justice advocacy group. Moreover, she points out, California communities with tough-on-crime policies like Sacramento and rural Kern County are experiencing crime upticks that in some cases exceed the increases in Los Angeles and San Francisco. \"We've seen that even tough-on-crime prosecutors in California have not delivered safety,\" she says. \"They are subject to the same exact trends we are seeing around the country.\"\n\nA problem with high visibility\n\nLike many other observers in both cities, Parris points to a different cause than crime per se as the primary driver of rising anxiety over public safety. \"Homelessness and untreated mental illness ... impacts people's perception of safety,\" she says. \"And so I think that's part of why in places like Los Angeles or San Francisco in particular, where [that] is quite visible, that has a great impact of what people are talking about.\"\n\nIn both cities, pervasive homelessness has rekindled the concern about losing control of city streets that inspired advocates of the \"broken windows\" theory to argue 40 years ago for greater enforcement against crimes of \"disorder\" like loitering, panhandling and public intoxication. In San Francisco, concern has centered on the Tenderloin neighborhood , which has been overwhelmed with open drug use among the homeless. In Los Angeles, the mayoral and City Council races have been dominated by concerns about the spread of large homeless encampments across the city. These encampments have proliferated despite the approval of two ballot initiatives in Los Angeles in 2016 authorizing substantial expenditures to build housing and provide services for the homeless -- and t he City Council's passage of an ordinance last fall authorizing the removal of encampments around sensitive areas such as schools, libraries and day care centers.\n\n\"Take a look at our streets: No matter where you live now, you can walk down the street, you can look out your front window, and you will see ... that what the city and the county have been doing simply is not working,\" says Martinez, the LA City Council president.\n\nYaroslavsky, the former city and county official, says the persistence of the homeless encampments has become a viscerally visible symbol of fundamental governmental failure. \"I think homelessness is both a real issue but it's also a metaphor for everything else that's gone wrong in society and government's ability to address something that is so visible and so ubiquitous in the county,\" he says. \"So it's like a billboard that says failure.\"\n\nMy last email to the mayor's office was that, amongst other things, we just had a massacre in Texas, an unstable man who was ignored, but it's not like people didn't know he was unstable. We have a park of mentally unstable people currently slashing and shooting each other. What would make us think this wouldn't turn into something much more tragic? Elizabeth Clay, activist and land use planner\n\nThe neighborhood uproar over a large encampment around the public library in the traditionally liberal oceanfront LA community of Venice encapsulates the discontent that has upended politics in both cities. After the city of Los Angeles finally cleared out a massive homeless encampment along the Venice boardwalk that attracted national attention, a new one developed last fall around the community's public library. It has now engulfed the library on all sides, angering and frightening nearby residents, who have posted viral videos of rampant drug use and violence in the area. Longtime library patrons have publicly lamented that they no longer feel safe using the facility, which was also threatened by a recent fire that started in the camp.\n\n\"There's slashings. There's shootings,\" says Elizabeth Clay, a local activist and land use planner who has been involved in community protests against the encampment. \"My last email to the mayor's office was that, amongst other things, we just had a massacre in Texas, an unstable man who was ignored, but it's not like people didn't know he was unstable. We have a park of mentally unstable people currently slashing and shooting each other. What would make us think this wouldn't turn into something much more tragic?\"\n\nTo frustrated residents, the effective surrender of the library -- the quintessential public service -- to a homeless encampment amounts to a perverse elevation of the interests of those who don't pay taxes over those residents who do. Many, like Clay, express deep disappointment with outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti , who they view as disengaged from his job and the mounting crisis on the streets as he tries to win approval for his nomination as ambassador to India.\n\nBut the principal focus of residents' ire is Bonin, the liberal council member who was one of two to oppose the ordinance barring camping around sensitive facilities. The city's anti-camping ordinance requires that the council vote to approve each individual enforcement action, and Clay and others say that Bonin has repeatedly blocked plans for such efforts around the library.\n\nIn the interview, Bonin denied blocking cleanup plans (except for once, he said, when he asked the city to hold off while he tried to assemble a broader interagency response that never materialized). But he was adamant in insisting that simply dismantling the tent city in the park would only compound the problem unless it was accompanied by permanent housing and services for the homeless now living there. \"If there is a massive enforcement without offering services ... what that's going to do is just move people across the street in front of people's homes and deeper into residential neighborhoods,\" he argues.\n\nVoters feel conflicted\n\nThere is still substantial support in Los Angeles for providing services to homeless people. Even Caruso, who has promised to build much more housing and provide more services to the homeless, sounds very different from Giuliani and other early hardline advocates of the broken windows theory, whose policies were often derided as unfairly increasing police enforcement against young minority men. No mainstream voice in either city is suggesting that policymakers can simply arrest their way out of the homeless crisis or even the uptick in crime.\n\nBut all sides in the debate agree the public appears out of patience, both in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with a set of policies that has surrendered control of public spaces and made it difficult for residents to get through the day without encountering people who appear to be a danger to themselves or others. The same ebbing of patience is visible in the often-expressed belief that Boudin and Gascon, by placing so much priority on reducing incarceration, have encouraged a sense of invulnerability among repeat criminal offenders. \"The voters are conflicted: Karen Bass, Mike Bonin, all these guys, they reflect our values,\" says Guerra, the political scientist. \"But that's not where we are right now. The moment is about homelessness, public safety, and they are not even speaking to that.\"\n\nRick Caruso shakes hands with workers during a tour of Industrial Metal Supply in Sun Valley, California, Monday, June 6, 2022.\n\nCaruso has declared that if elected he will declare emergency powers as mayor that authorize him to clear homeless encampments without approval from the City Council. Bass hasn't gone that far, but she's also pledged to end encampments. \"There are some things you just don't do outside, and sleeping is one of them,\" Bass has repeatedly said\n\nWhoever wins the LA mayoral race, \"the tide is turning, and now I feel that in each district you have an avalanche of people who are just outright pissed off at the state of affairs in our city,\" says Martinez, the City Council president. \"I believe that is what is moving the council to take a harder stance on allowing encampments to remain.\"\n\nThe same trajectory is evident on policing. While activists had hoped to significantly redirect funding away from the LAPD -- an institution with a long history of racial bias -- in the aftermath of the Floyd murder, Caruso is now promising to add 1,500 officers. Even Bass, while not abandoning her calls for reform and accountability, wants to maintain the department's current staffing level and move more officers out from desk jobs to augment its presence on the streets.\n\nIt's still an open question how far this public demand for order will extend. Boudin's recall seems almost inevitable, and it will likely reinforce the message of the recent recalls of three very liberal members of the city's Board of Education : that local residents want their government to focus less on absolutist ideological statements than on delivering basic services. LaBolt predicts that after Boudin, San Francisco won't see a lurch to the right on law enforcement but rather a recalibration toward the center: \"I think what we'll see is a return to the assertion that you don't have to choose between public safety and criminal justice reform.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Smerconish: A political earthquake in San Francisco Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Smerconish: A political earthquake in San Francisco 03:37\n\nThe landscape in LA is complex too. Polls show widespread discontent with Gascon's performance, and the campaign against him claims it is well on its way toward obtaining the signatures it needs by early July to qualify a recall against him on the November ballot. But it is not unusual in California for such efforts to fail after large number of signatures are disqualified. Meanwhile, the county's hardline and scandal-tarred sheriff, Alex Villanueva, who has denounced liberal policies on crime and homelessness, will likely face a runoff after Tuesday with a challenger to his left. Tuesday's City Council primaries could see strong showings for hardline law-and-order candidates -- in particular in Bonin's district, where discontent is peaking -- but in several other districts, left-leaning candidates deeply critical of the LAPD and the anti-encampment laws are mounting serious challenges to more centrist incumbents.\n\nEven the mayoral race shows conflicting currents. The fact that Caruso, a former Republican, is demonstrating so much strength is revealing in itself (even if he's been buoyed by his massive personal spending). But Caruso has endorsed conventionally liberal positions on almost all issues beyond crime and homelessness, and most analysts expect that he and Bass will meet in a November runoff because neither will attract the 50% of the vote needed to win outright on Tuesday.\n\nRep. Karen Bass greets supporters on Sunday, June 5, 2022, in Los Angeles.\n\nCaruso's promises to restore order \"can have great appeal ... in a time that is unsettled and you have $30 million to spend,\" says Manuel Pastor, director of the Dornsife Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California. \"The question is whether or not there's a cap to that [support] similar to the top that there was to the recall campaign\" against California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, which qualified for the ballot but then failed last fall.\n\nYet even if Bass ultimately squeezes past Caruso, Gascon narrowly avoids a recall or San Francisco doesn't swing hard to the right on law enforcement if Boudin is recalled, the evidence suggests Democrats would be wrong to minimize the magnitude of the tremors building in California. In both Los Angeles and San Francisco, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the most progressive forces have opened the door to a right-tilting backlash by failing to adequately respond to, or even acknowledge, the depth of public discontent over the mounting disorder -- even among many voters who lean left in their values. More than even the specific issues of crime and homelessness, \"what's feeding the beast\" of backlash \"is just the general sense of disarray and dysfunction that is permeating everything,\" says veteran Democratic pollster Paul Maslin, who is advising an independent expenditure campaign supporting Bass.", "authors": ["Analysis Ronald Brownstein", "Nury Martinez", "Los Angeles City Council President", "Elizabeth Clay", "Activist", "Land Use Planner"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2022/02/26/lockout-limbo-judge-sale-others-find-fields-to-stay-loose/49865351/", "title": "Lockout Limbo: Judge, Sale, others find fields to stay loose", "text": "AP\n\nTAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Aaron Judge stepped into the batting cage and sent a long, high drive completely out of the park.\n\nFar behind the left-field wall, a couple of University of South Florida students paid no attention. They walked right past the stray ball that glistened in bright sunshine on the lush green grass – they had to get to class.\n\nCampus life carries on. The big league baseball world these days, now that’s a lot different.\n\nCaught in lockout limbo, Judge and his New York Yankees teammates, Boston ace Chris Sale, Atlanta slugger Adam Duvall and others are doing their best to stay loose. Instead of playing on perfect diamonds in spring training games that had been set to start this weekend, they've taken to open fields all over.\n\n“We’ve got to be ready,” Yankees infielder Gio Urshela said after a session with Gleyber Torres at Leto High School in Tampa.\n\n“We can’t wait, just like sitting on the couch. We’ve just got to be working. We enjoy working out, like hitting, all that,\" he said.\n\nThere were players at one spring park — Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole and Francisco Lindor were among those this week at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins, for negotiations with owners.\n\nOtherwise, the complexes are shut for the pros and exhibition games are canceled. So as the Major League Baseball lockout reached its 87th day Saturday, players are finding their own places to break out the bats and balls.\n\nOakland Athletics second baseman Tony Kemp and his former Vanderbilt teammates are holding their own spring camp of sorts in Nashville, Tennessee, along with a handful of big leaguers who didn’t go to school there but are welcomed by longtime Commodores coach Tim Corbin.\n\nAtlanta right-hander Kyle Wright is working out alongside Giants catcher Curt Casali and San Francisco outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, Kemp’s old college roommate. Most of them live within 10 minutes of each other, so there’s a support network off the diamond, too.\n\nDuvall joined the mix Friday. Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings, Seattle second baseman Adam Frazier and free agent Phil Gosselin also have taken part.\n\n“We’ve got a lot of guys up at Vanderbilt that train. It’s a get-ready environment,” Kemp said in a phone interview. “Honestly it’s just a true blessing.\"\n\n“I can’t thank Corbin enough. It’s the best, you have a bunch of guys and it makes for a good working environment because everyone is in there getting after it,\" he said. \"Even right now we’ve been able to stay ready because we have the guys here that train in Nashville, we almost have enough to field a team.”\n\nKemp is a new father to 8-week-old daughter McKenna Catherine, who is now sleeping six-hour stretches at night.\n\n“She’s been an angel baby, to be honest,” the proud pop said.\n\nFrom Judge crushing balls in Tampa to Sale throwing off a mound in Fort Myers at his alma mater of Florida Gulf Coast University, lockout workouts are in full swing.\n\nThe two-hour, on-field sessions at USF have all the ingredients of normal spring training. There is stretching, throwing, defensive work and even pitchers tossing live batting practice with major league balls.\n\nBeyond that it’s a whole different ballgame, with no fans and no stadium music.\n\nTeam rivalries are irrelevant, and major leaguers mix with minor leaguers. Judge’s teammates, DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit, have worked out with ex-Yankee Mike Ford, Baltimore’s Richie Martin, Minnesota’s Tim Beckham and Toronto’s Mallex Smith.\n\nThe South Florida players and staff have lent a hand.\n\n“We have some great people helping us,” LeMahieu said. “They’re awesome. They’re out there grinding with us. It’s been good to work with some other guys from different organizations.”\n\nMost of the normal amenities are nonexistent.\n\nThe big league players occupy most of the parking spots on a small stretch of grass behind the right-field fence. Others park on a nearby side street, bringing along equipment bags with names like Dodgers and Marlins stenciled on them.\n\nThere are no post-workout meals or showers. When the session ends, the players collect their gear and go to their vehicles. A few change shirts in the lot before departing.\n\nThe venues also vary greatly.\n\nThe USF Baseball Stadium opened in 2011 and is considered a facility that could host a NCAA regional or super regional.\n\nUrshela and Torres have been at a high school about 15 minutes away from Steinbrenner Field, the currently empty Yankees’ spring training complex. The park features a quaint set of metal bleachers behind the plate and a small press box above the red-painted, third-base dugout.\n\nTampa Bay Rays pitcher Nick Anderson might have the most unusual location — he's tossing in the parking lot of his physical therapist’s office. The right-hander, expected to start the season on the injured list because of an elbow injury, plays catch there after getting treatment.\n\n“You’re never too big to play some catch in a parking lot,” Anderson told the Tampa Bay Times.\n\nThe labor strife has brought about challenges, but also opportunities.\n\nThe South Florida players get the chance to interact with big leaguers and are displaying extra enthusiasm while shagging batting practice. At Florida Gulf Coast, Sale threw off the mound to some of the players.\n\n“The thing that stands out to me most about these guys is their character,” USF baseball coach Billy Mohl posted on his Twitter account. “They are great ambassadors to the game of baseball and great human beings.”\n\nAnd also, the weather has cooperated. Sunny skies and warm temperatures have prevailed.\n\n“Awesome,” LeMahieu said. “It’s good to be outside.”\n\n___\n\nAP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.\n\n___\n\nMore AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/26"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_5", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/10/gas-prices-state-per-gallon/9447015002/", "title": "Gas prices today: How much is gas in my state? How does it compare?", "text": "How much is gas in my state? How does it compare nationwide?\n\nThe cost for a gallon of gas in the United States continues to reach all-time highs, as the national average jumped nearly 7 cents Thursday morning.\n\nThe nationwide average for regular gas is now $4.32 a gallon, according to AAA. On Wednesday, the cost was $4.25, once again eclipsing the previous all-time record of $4.11 set in July 2008. When adjusted for inflation, that would be around $5.25 today.\n\nDiesel prices are also at record highs, with the average cost at $5.06 a gallon, up nearly 18 cents from Wednesday's average of $4.88. Thursday is the first time diesel has ever been over $5. Before this week, the previous record of $4.84 was also in July 2008, which would be around $6.19 in today's dollars.\n\n(How much are you paying for gas? How is it affecting you and your budget? Share your thoughts with USA TODAY on the form below or use this form if you have photos of your local gas station's prices to share for possible inclusion in future stories, photo galleries and social media posts.)\n\nSAVE MONEY:How to save money at the pump as gas prices hit all-time high with Russian invasion of Ukraine\n\nRISING PRICES:Russia's war in Ukraine has driven up gas prices. Will rising oil costs increase food prices next?\n\nHighest gas prices in California\n\nCalifornia continues to have the most expensive gas in the country at $5.69, and remains the only state to average over $5. California also became the first state to average over $6 for a gallon of diesel at $6.21.\n\nGas still under $4 a gallon in 12 states\n\nAs of Thursday, only 12 states have averages under $4, most of which are located in the Midwest. Kansas has the cheapest cost for gas at $3.82.\n\nWhy are gas prices so high?\n\nRussia's invasion of Ukraine remains a large factor behind rising prices, as sanctions put on Russia include the country's selling of crude oil, which is one of the biggest factors in determining gas prices. Russian crude oil only accounts for 3% of U.S. imports, but it has a pivotal role because it produces crude oil that is valuable to U.S. refineries.\n\nPresident Joe Biden's decision to ban the U.S. import of all Russian energy products on Tuesday is expected to result in prices continuing to climb.\n\n\"Oil prices play a leading role in pushing gas prices higher. Consumers can expect the current trend at the pump to continue as long as crude prices climb,\" AAA said on Monday.\n\nGAS TIPS: Gas prices are soaring – here's what you can do to keep your costs down\n\nGAS QUESTIONS: Why are gas prices rising so quickly? And how high are they expected to get?\n\nWhen will gas prices go down?\n\nIt is unknown when prices will drop, but there is some hope as the cost for oil dropped. As of Wednesday night, U.S. crude oil costs $111.05 a barrel, nearly $15 less than Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. Brent crude, the international standard, costs $111.14 a barrel, $19 less than Tuesday.\n\n\"It doesn't mean lower prices YET- it means a slowdown in the increases. stations won't have to go up quite as much,\" Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy, said in a tweet on Wednesday.\n\nINFLATION RATE:Inflation climbed at fastest pace since 1982 last month as consumer prices rose 7.9%, CPI report shows\n\nDAILY MONEY NEWSLETTER: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nAverage gas prices per state\n\nWondering how much gas costs in your state? Here is how much it is across the country by fuel type:\n\nAlabama gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.13\n\nMid-grade: $4.413\n\nPremium: $4.755\n\nDiesel: $5.024\n\nAlaska gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.68\n\nMid-grade: $4.791\n\nPremium: $4.984\n\nDiesel: $4.933\n\nArizona gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.548\n\nMid-grade: $4.768\n\nPremium: $5.033\n\nDiesel: $5.024\n\nArkansas gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.901\n\nMid-grade: $4.176\n\nPremium: $4.47\n\nDiesel: $4.774\n\nCalifornia gas prices\n\nRegular: $5.694\n\nMid-grade: $5.834\n\nPremium: $5.976\n\nDiesel: $6.212\n\nColorado gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.953\n\nMid-grade: $4.269\n\nPremium: $4.558\n\nDiesel: $4.565\n\nConnecticut gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.475\n\nMid-grade: $4.714\n\nPremium: $4.931\n\nDiesel: $5.219\n\nDC gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.50\n\nMid-grade: $4.864\n\nPremium: $5.056\n\nDiesel: $5.09\n\nDelaware gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.285\n\nMid-grade: $4.594\n\nPremium: $4.829\n\nDiesel: $5.103\n\nFlorida gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.346\n\nMid-grade: $4.644\n\nPremium: $4.959\n\nDiesel: $5.052\n\nGeorgia gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.269\n\nMid-grade: $4.561\n\nPremium: $4.9\n\nDiesel: $5.091\n\nHawaii gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.81\n\nMid-grade: $5.003\n\nPremium: $5.268\n\nDiesel: $5.083\n\nIdaho gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.296\n\nMid-grade: $4.448\n\nPremium: $4.654\n\nDiesel: $4.877\n\nIllinois gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.57\n\nMid-grade: $4.901\n\nPremium: $5.292\n\nDiesel: $4.886\n\nIndiana gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.256\n\nMid-grade: $4.557\n\nPremium: $4.869\n\nDiesel: $4.939\n\nIowa gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.921\n\nMid-grade: $4.044\n\nPremium: $4.474\n\nDiesel: $4.734\n\nKansas gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.817\n\nMid-grade: $4.076\n\nPremium: $4.318\n\nDiesel: $4.606\n\nKentucky gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.042\n\nMid-grade: $4.334\n\nPremium: $4.641\n\nDiesel: $4.892\n\nLouisiana gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.132\n\nMid-grade: $4.405\n\nPremium: $4.721\n\nDiesel: $4.917\n\nMaine gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.319\n\nMid-grade: $4.571\n\nPremium: $4.827\n\nDiesel: $5.22\n\nMaryland gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.302\n\nMid-grade: $4.649\n\nPremium: $4.913\n\nDiesel: $5.187\n\nMassachusetts gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.354\n\nMid-grade: $4.60\n\nPremium: $4.828\n\nDiesel: $5.135\n\nMichigan gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.261\n\nMid-grade: $4.541\n\nPremium: $4.876\n\nDiesel: $4.915\n\nMinnesota gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.954\n\nMid-grade: $4.145\n\nPremium: $4.483\n\nDiesel: $4.765\n\nMississippi gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.997\n\nMid-grade: $4.254\n\nPremium: $4.581\n\nDiesel: $4.876\n\nMissouri gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.85\n\nMid-grade: $4.083\n\nPremium: $4.356\n\nDiesel: $4.648\n\nMontana gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.002\n\nMid-grade: $4.242\n\nPremium: $4.507\n\nDiesel: $4.702\n\nNebraska gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.917\n\nMid-grade: $3.999\n\nPremium: $4.375\n\nDiesel: $4.659\n\nNevada gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.872\n\nMid-grade: $5.054\n\nPremium: $5.247\n\nDiesel: $5.16\n\nNew Hampshire gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.29\n\nMid-grade: $4.56\n\nPremium: $4.824\n\nDiesel: $5.186\n\nNew Jersey gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.379\n\nMid-grade: $4.657\n\nPremium: $4.848\n\nDiesel: $5.222\n\nNew Mexico gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.179\n\nMid-grade: $4.462\n\nPremium: $4.732\n\nDiesel: $4.961\n\nNew York gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.466\n\nMid-grade: $4.722\n\nPremium: $4.957\n\nDiesel: $5.275\n\nNorth Carolina gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.181\n\nMid-grade: $4.486\n\nPremium: $4.825\n\nDiesel: $5.079\n\nNorth Dakota gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.89\n\nMid-grade: $4.113\n\nPremium: $4.347\n\nDiesel: $4.609\n\nOhio gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.091\n\nMid-grade: $4.378\n\nPremium: $4.716\n\nDiesel: $4.967\n\nOklahoma gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.852\n\nMid-grade: $4.111\n\nPremium: $4.342\n\nDiesel: $4.677\n\nOregon gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.722\n\nMid-grade: $4.872\n\nPremium: $5.079\n\nDiesel: $5.291\n\nPennsylvania gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.436\n\nMid-grade: $4.728\n\nPremium: $5.007\n\nDiesel: $5.397\n\nRhode Island gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.352\n\nMid-grade: $4.638\n\nPremium: $4.881\n\nDiesel: $5.111\n\nSouth Carolina gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.076\n\nMid-grade: $4.38\n\nPremium: $4.708\n\nDiesel: $5.004\n\nSouth Dakota gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.946\n\nMid-grade: $4.068\n\nPremium: $4.418\n\nDiesel: $4.601\n\nTennessee gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.112\n\nMid-grade: $4.414\n\nPremium: $4.757\n\nDiesel: $5.03\n\nTexas gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.004\n\nMid-grade: $4.288\n\nPremium: $4.59\n\nDiesel: $4.888\n\nUtah gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.304\n\nMid-grade: $4.467\n\nPremium: $4.652\n\nDiesel: $4.922\n\nVermont gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.311\n\nMid-grade: $4.528\n\nPremium: $4.751\n\nDiesel: $5.14\n\nVirginia gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.241\n\nMid-grade: $4.578\n\nPremium: $4.896\n\nDiesel: $5.06\n\nWashington gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.707\n\nMid-grade: $4.868\n\nPremium: $5.057\n\nDiesel: $5.274\n\nWest Virginia gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.118\n\nMid-grade: $4.367\n\nPremium: $4.657\n\nDiesel: $5.022\n\nWisconsin gas prices\n\nRegular: $4.038\n\nMid-grade: $4.326\n\nPremium: $4.74\n\nDiesel: $4.751\n\nWyoming gas prices\n\nRegular: $3.987\n\nMid-grade: $4.192\n\nPremium: $4.436\n\nDiesel: $4.683\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporters Jordan Mendoza and Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5 and @KellyTyko.\n\nHigh gas prices affecting you? Share your thoughts and photos with USA TODAY\n\nAre you changing your driving habits because of rising gas prices? Share your thoughts with USA TODAY for possible inclusion in future coverage. If you don't see the form below or want to submit photos, please use this form.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/08/gas-most-expensive-us-history/9404939002/", "title": "Gas prices are most expensive they have ever been in US history", "text": "After rising dramatically following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the price of gas reached a record, topping a high that had stood for nearly 14 years.\n\nAs of Tuesday morning, the average national price for a gallon of regular gasoline touched $4.17, according to AAA, the highest price ever, not accounting for inflation. That was up from $4.07 on Monday and $3.61 a week earlier.\n\nThe previous high was $4.11 on July 17, 2008, according to AAA. That would come to around $5.25 today when adjusted for inflation.\n\nThe cost for diesel is nearing the record of $4.84, also set in July 2008. The price for a gallon of diesel is $4.75, more than double what it was in October 2020.\n\nPRICES CONTINUE TO RISE: Latest update shows another record set on March 9\n\nOne of the main components of the rising costs is the invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces. Tom Kloza, chief global analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, told USA TODAY that Russia is the second-largest oil producer in the world, behind the United States.\n\nYour questions answered: Why are gas prices rising so quickly? How high are they expected to get?\n\n'Be prepared for months of high prices': How to save money as gas prices smash records\n\nFor subscribers: Are oil and gas companies price gouging consumers at the pump?\n\nThe Associated Press reported a barrel of U.S. crude oil cost $119.40 per barrel, and Brent crude, the international standard, cost $123.21 per barrel on Monday.\n\nGas prices are likely to keep rising. The fuel-savings app GasBuddy projects prices will probably average $4.25 in May and stay over $4 until November.\n\n“Americans have never seen gasoline prices this high, nor have we seen the pace of increases so fast and furious. That combination makes this situation all the more remarkable and intense, with crippling sanctions on Russia curbing their flow of oil, leading to the massive spike in the price of all fuels: gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and more,\" Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a statement Monday.\n\nDe Haan said in a tweet Sunday the chances of a $5 nationwide average are \"somewhat remote\" but remain a small possibility.\n\nMost expensive gas in the USA\n\nAs is historically the case, California has the most expensive prices in the country, averaging $5.44 a gallon as of Tuesday. The Golden State is the only one to average more than $5 a gallon.\n\nThe most expensive county for gas is Mono County, which borders Nevada and includes the tourist destination Mammoth Mountain. The average price is $6.02.\n\nSome gas locations reported prices about $2 over the state average. Stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco sell regular gas for more than $6 per gallon, some reaching nearly $7. In the city of Gorda, about 140 miles south of San Francisco on the coast, one station charged $7.59, KSBW reported.\n\nAs of Tuesday morning, 28 states have average prices over $4. Only five states – South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas – averaged less than $3.80. The cheapest state to get gas is Oklahoma at $3.71.\n\nHere are the most expensive average costs of gas per gallon in the country, per AAA:\n\nCalifornia ($5.44)\n\nHawaii ($4.71)\n\nNevada ($4.67)\n\nOregon ($4.58)\n\nWashington ($4.54)\n\nAlaska ($4.50)\n\nIllinois ($4.42)\n\nNew York ($4.36)\n\nConnecticut ($4.35)\n\nPennsylvania ($4.31)\n\nContributing: Mike Snider, Brett Molina\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/business/gas-prices-five-dollars-national-june/index.html", "title": "Average US gas price hits $5 for first time | CNN Business", "text": "New York (CNN Business) For the first time ever, a gallon of regular gas now costs $5 on average nationwide, according to AAA's Saturday reading.\n\nThe record is hardly a surprise. Gas prices have been rising steadily for the last eight weeks, and this latest milestone marks the 15th straight day that the AAA reading has hit a record price, and the 32nd time in the last 33 days.\n\nThe national average stood at $4.07 when the current run of price increases began April 15. The current price reading from OPIS represents 23% increase in less than two months.\n\nAnd the rising gasoline prices is doing more than just causing pain at the pump for drivers. They are a major factor in the prices paid by consumers for a full range of goods and services rising at the fastest pace in 40 years, according to the government's inflation report Friday.\n\nInflation caused consumer confidence to hit a record low on Friday, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. Worries about what the Federal Reserve will do to battle inflation has sent US stocks plunging in recent months, wiping out billions in household wealth.\n\nWhile a $5 national average is new, $5 gas has become unpleasantly common in much of the country.\n\nData from OPIS, which collects the readings from 130,000 US gas stations used to compile the AAA averages, showed that 32% of stations nationwide, nearly one of every three, were already were charging more than $5 a gallon in readings Friday. And about 10% of stations across the nation are charging more than $5.75 a gallon.\n\nThe statewide average was $5 a gallon or more in 21 states plus Washington DC in Saturday's reading.\n\n$6 gas could be next\n\nAnd gas prices are unlikely to stop there. With the summer travel season getting underway, demand for gasoline, coupled with Russian oil shipments cut off due to the war in Ukraine, oil prices are soaring on global markets.\n\nThe US national average for gasoline could be close to $6 later this summer, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the OPIS.\n\n\"Anything goes from June 20 to Labor Day,\" Kloza said earlier this week about the demand for gas as people hit the road for long-anticipated getaways. \"Come hell or high gas prices, people are going to take vacations.\"\n\nThe highest statewide average has long been in California, where the average stood at $6.43 a gallon in Saturday's readings. But the pain of higher prices is being felt across the country, not just in California or other high-priced states.\n\nCheap gas hard to find\n\nThat's partly because the cheapest price wasn't all that cheap — the $4.47 a gallon average price in Georgia gives it the cheapest statewide average. Less than 300 gas stations out of 130,000 nationwide were charging $4.25 a gallon or less in Friday's reading from OPIS. For purposes of comparison, before the run-up in prices earlier this year, the record national average for gas had been $4.11, set in July 2008.\n\nAnd even in some states with cheaper gas prices, such as Mississippi, lower average wages mean that drivers there have to work more hours to earn the money needed to fill their tank than drivers in some of the higher priced gas states, such as Washington.\n\nThere are some early signs that people are starting to cut back on their driving in the face of the higher prices, but it's still a modest decline.\n\nThe number of gallons pumped at stations in the last week of May was down about 5% from the same week a year ago, according to OPIS, even though gas prices have risen more than 50% since then. The number of US trips by car has slipped about 5% since early May, according to mobility research firm Inrix, although those trips are still up about 5% since the start of the year.\n\nThe chief concern is that consumers will cut back on other spending to keep driving which could push an economy already showing signs of weakness into recession.\n\nNumerous reasons for record prices\n\nBeyond the strong demand for gasoline, there is also a supply problem that's driving up the price of both oil and gasoline. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions on Russia imposed in the United States and Europe since then is a major factor, since Russia was among the world's leading oil exporters. But it is only part of the cause.\n\nOil is a commodity traded on global markets. The United States has never imported significant amounts of oil from Russia, but Europe has traditionally been dependent on Russian exports. The EU's recent decision to ban oil tanker shipments from Russia sent oil prices soaring globally.\n\nThe price of a barrel of crude closed above $120 a barrel Friday, up from just less than $100 a month ago. Goldman Sachs recently predicted the average price for a barrel of Brent crude, the benchmark used for oil traded in Europe, will be $140 a barrel between July and September, up from its prior call of $125 a barrel.\n\nOther factors beyond Russia's withdrawal from the global market are limiting supply. OPEC and its allies have sharply cut back oil production as demand for oil crashed in the early months of the pandemic, as much of the world's businesses shut down and people stayed close to home. Global oil futures briefly traded in negative territory due to lack of space to store the glut of oil. Some oil producing nations slashed production in an effort to support prices, and some of that production is back online but not all of it.\n\nUS oil production and refining capacity also have not fully recovered to the pre-pandemic levels. And because prices are even higher in Europe, some US and Canadian refineries that would normally supply the US market with gas are exporting gasoline to Europe.\n\nExxonMobi XOM Many oil companies have been slow to increase production, despite the high price that the oil could fetch, instead using those soaring profits to buy back their own stock in an effort to raise their share price.has announced it intends to repurchase $30 billion of its stock, more than its total capital spending budget for the year.\n\n-- CNN's Matt Egan and Michelle Watson contributed to this report.", "authors": ["Chris Isidore", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/06/gas-price-tops-4-dollar-gallon/9402743002/", "title": "National average price of gas tops $4 a gallon", "text": "The national average price for gas has topped $4 a gallon for the first time in over a decade as gas costs continue to soar in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nAs of Sunday afternoon, the national average of a regular gallon of gas was $4.009, according to AAA. That's up 8 cents from Saturday and up 40 cents from last week. The U.S. hit the $4 national average a day earlier than analysts expected.\n\nThe record high for the national average is $4.11, set on July 17, 2008, according to AAA.\n\nPatrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy, said in a tweet Sunday the national average could reach up to $4.10 by Tuesday, adding to the possibility the record could be broken by the end of the week.\n\n►Gas prices and inflation have you down?: Here's how to sell your car to Carvana, Autonation\n\n►Gas prices are up: What can Biden do to lower costs at the pump amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine?\n\nGasBuddy's 2022 gasoline forecast predicts the average price of gas will reach $4.25 by May and will remain over $4 likely until November.\n\n\"GasBuddy expects that gasoline prices will continue to rise in the days ahead, and could be just days away from setting a new all-time record high and continuing to rise through summer,\" the company said.\n\nThe average cost is also the highest since May 2011, when it was $3.90, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.\n\nThe rising cost of gas in recent weeks comes as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has applied pressure on global oil markets. The lifting of coronavirus mask mandates throughout the U.S. could also be a factor as consumer spending and travel ramp up.\n\n\"American and (European Union) sanctions are having a severe impact on Russia's ability to sell crude oil, thus crude prices have skyrocketed,\" De Haan told USA TODAY.\n\nMost expensive gas in the U.S.\n\nCalifornia continues to shatter its record of highest gas prices and the most expensive gas prices in the country, averaging $5.28 per gallon in the Golden State. California is the only state with an average cost over $5.\n\nIn Mono County, which borders Nevada and home of popular tourist destination Mammoth Mountain, the average price of gas is $5.95. But other places are seeing higher cost; A gas station in Los Angeles had prices at $6.99 per gallon. The cheapest average cost of gas is in Missouri and Oklahoma at $3.60.\n\nHere are the most expensive average costs of gas per gallon in the country, per AAA:\n\nCalifornia ($5.28)\n\nHawaii ($4.69)\n\nNevada ($4.52)\n\nOregon ($4.46)\n\nWashington ($4.40)\n\nAlaska ($4.36)\n\nIllinois ($4.26)\n\nConnecticut ($4.21)\n\nNew York ($4.20)\n\nPennsylvania ($4.17)\n\nContributing: Mike Snider\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/07/why-gas-prices-rising/9417091002/", "title": "Gas prices keep going up. How expensive is a gallon expected to get?", "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/2022/03/03/gas-prices-ukraine-russia-war/9358786002/", "title": "Gas prices: Ukraine-Russia war drives fuel to $5 per gallon or more", "text": "Get ready to pay even more at the pump – perhaps as much as $5 per gallon or more.\n\nSome consumers are already paying more than that: The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in San Francisco hit the $5 mark Thursday. That's the first time a U.S. city has hit an average that high, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy.\n\nBut the entire state of California will likely hit that mark in the next week or two, and major cities nationwide will likely follow suit, De Haan told USA TODAY. \"Some large cities could hit $5/gal but not yet immediately,\" he said.\n\nGas prices topping $4 per gallon by Memorial Day had been predicted prior to Russia's attack on Ukraine.\n\nGas prices are rising:What can Biden do to lower costs at the pump amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine?\n\nRussia's attack on Ukraine:Invasion will impact US economy as it pushes gas prices, inflation higher\n\nHighest gas prices in the US\n\nSince Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by 11 cents to $3.72, according to AAA. Prices averaged $3.54 a week ago and $3.41 a month ago, the organization said.\n\nCalifornia is the most expensive market in the U.S., averaging $4.94 per gallon, AAA said, followed by Hawaii ($4.63), Oregon ($4.16), Nevada ($4.13), Washington ($4.11), Alaska ($4.03), Illinois ($4.02), New York ($3.93), Pennsylvania ($3.88), and Connecticut, ($3.85)\n\nThe rise in gas prices nationally is primarily due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict \"and the fact that American and (European Union) sanctions are having a severe impact on Russia's ability to sell crude oil, thus crude prices have skyrocketed,\" said De Haan of Gas Buddy. The tech company's app provides real-time gas price information for more than 150,000 stations nationwide.\n\nDO WE RUN ON RUSSIAN OIL? How much oil does the US buy from Russia?\n\nOPEC+, which includes OPEC members, Russia and other non-cartel members, has agreed to continue to increase oil production. Sanctions against Russia, one of the world's largest energy suppliers, could result in oil buyers losing access to a key oil seller.\n\nThe price of crude oil, a key determiner for gas prices, surpassed $110 a barrel Wednesday.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has warned that sanctions against Russia and other moves to defend Ukraine will cost Americans, and many people began to notice increased prices at the pump last week as the invasion commenced.\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day\n\n\"I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump,\" Biden said last month. \"This is critical to me.\"\n\nThe U.S. and its allies released 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves this week, but a similar move in November 2021 had little lasting effect.\n\nDemand could increase with COVID restrictions loosening and warmer weather prompting road trips, De Haan said in a press release released Thursday. San Francisco's record-setting average price \"is likely just the beginning of a larger trend of price spikes to come to California and the entire country,\" he said.\n\nHighest gas price increases in the US\n\nPlaces where gas price averages have risen the most since last week, AAA said, are Michigan (+39 cents), Indiana (+36 cents), Illinois (+31 cents) and Ohio (+30 cents).\n\nContributing: The Associated Press\n\nFollow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/energy/record-gas-price/index.html", "title": "Why the average gas price is at $4.99 a gallon and how high it'll go ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Next stop, $5.\n\nThe US average for the price of a gallon of regular gas hit $4.99 according to the most recent reading from AAA Friday. It marked the 14th straight day, and the 31st time in the last 32 that gas has set a record in America. Gas prices have climbed 39 cents, or 8%, just in the two weeks since the start of the Memorial Day weekend kicked off the traditional summer driving season.\n\nFor much of the country, $5 gas is already here.\n\nThere are now 20 states plus Washington, DC, with averages of $5 or above. The highest priced state remains California, with a state average of $6.42 a gallon. As of Thursday, 31% of the nation's 130,000 gas stations were already selling gas for more than $5 a gallon.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chris Isidore", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/04/gas-prices-continue-to-rise/9375906002/", "title": "Average gas price up 11 cents per gallon, nears $4 amid Russian war", "text": "Gas prices were already high, but overnight they went up 11 cents, approaching the $4 per-gallon average nationwide.\n\nThe national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $3.84 on Friday, up from $3.73 on Thursday, according to AAA. That comes after another 11-cent increase between Monday and Thursday.\n\nPrices averaged $3.57 a week ago and $3.42 a month ago, the organization said.\n\nConcerns over Russia's invasion Ukraine have put pressure on global oil markets and affected U.S. gas prices, even though the country buys very little oil from Russia.\n\nGas prices topping $4 per gallon by Memorial Day had been predicted prior to Russia's attack on Ukraine. Already, the average price per gallon in California has surpassed $5 at $5.01, the most expensive market in the U.S., AAA said.\n\nThe average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in San Francisco hit the $5 mark Thursday – the first time a U.S. city has hit an average that high, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy.\n\nUnemployment down, hiring up:Economy added 678,000 jobs in February as omicron faded, unemployment at 3.8%\n\nOil prices surge:Hikes continue as US stocks fall with Russian invasion deepening\n\nSeveral other states have already surpassed the average $4 per gallon, according to AAA:\n\nHawaii ($4.66)\n\nOregon ($4.28)\n\nNevada ($4.29)\n\nWashington ($4.22)\n\nAlaska ($4.18)\n\nIllinois ($4.10)\n\nNew York ($4.05)\n\nPennsylvania ($4)\n\nWhat's everyone talking about?Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day\n\nThe last time average national gas prices were this high? July 2008 during the Great Recession when prices hit about $4.10 per gallon – both AAA and GasBuddy say – when economic growth briefly outpaced oil production, which drove oil prices to $145 a barrel in July 2008. Oil prices cratered to $40 a barrel in December 2008.\n\nA national average of $4 per gallon could happen \"in the next week or two,\" De Haan said, during a question-and-answer session on Facebook Live.\n\nGasBuddy, which through its app provides real-time gas price information for more than 150,000 stations nationwide, has the national average a bit lower than AAA, at $3.78 per gallon, De Haan said, but that's up 20 cents from a week ago.\n\nRussian oil and petroleum products accounted for 7% or less of all U.S. oil imports, but the Russia-Ukraine crisis has led to a global effect on oil that's also hitting Americans at the pump.\n\nThat's because oil importers and shippers have issued \"a de facto ban\" on Russian oil, decreasing the overall global supply, even though Russia's oil imports have not yet been sanctioned, Tom Kloza, chief global analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, told USA TODAY.\n\n\"Even though the U.S. and EU did not sanction Russia, the various elements of the supply chain are suppressing Russian departures,\" said Kloza, who expects gas prices to continue to rise. \"I would have argued that this year would see high gasoline prices under any circumstances but the de facto ban is the accelerant at the moment.\"\n\nConsumers may be able to withstand higher gas prices, for while at least, until the national average reaches $4.50 or $5, De Haansaid. \"Because of us coming out of the pandemic, Americans still have pent-up demand for getting out,\" De Haan said. As mask mandates are lifted, \"that may embolden more people to travel,\" he said.\n\nSome good news: De Haan has seen no sign of price gouging on the part of station owners.\n\n\"I can see that wholesale gas prices are up 12 cents a gallon today,\" he said. \"So that is how we can tell you that prices are going to continue to go up. … I would say that probably 99.999% of stations are simply passing along the price increase.\"\n\nContributing: Paul Davidson of USA TODAY and The Associated Press\n\nFollow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/09/gas-prices-diesel-record-high/9433436002/", "title": "Gas prices jump 8 cents, record for diesel prices broken", "text": "One day after the record for the average cost of gas nationwide was broken, prices at the pump continued to climb on Wednesday, jumping an average of 8 cents.\n\nThe national average for a regular gallon of gas is now $4.25, according to AAA. On Tuesday, the cost was $4.17, breaking the July 2008 record of $4.11, which would be around $5.25 today when adjusted for inflation.\n\nAside from inflation and loosened COVID-19 restrictions leading people to venture out more, Russia's invasion of Ukraine remains a large factor behind rising prices. Sanctions put on Russia include the country's selling of crude oil, which is one of the biggest factors in determining gas prices.\n\n(How much are you paying for gas? How is it affecting you and your budget? Share your thoughts with USA TODAY on the form below or use this form if you have photos of your local gas station's prices to share for possible inclusion in future stories, photo galleries and social media posts.)\n\nRussian crude oil only accounts for 3% of U.S. imports, but it has a big role because it produces \"heavier, sour crude\" oil, according to Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor at the University of Houston. He added Russia's oil is also needed because U.S. refineries are not designed to use only light, sweet crude oil.\n\nWill food prices increase?:Russia's war in Ukraine has driven up gas prices. Will rising oil costs increase food prices next?\n\nDealing with high prices:Gas prices are soaring – here's what you can do to keep your costs down\n\nU.S. crude oil costs $125.52 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, costs $130.33 per barrel on Tuesday night, according to Bloomberg. Prices are likely to climb after President Joe Biden announced a ban on the U.S. import of all Russian energy products on Tuesday.\n\n\"Consumers can expect the current trend at the pump to continue as long as crude prices climb,\" AAA said on Monday.\n\nPatrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings app GasBuddy, told CNN on Tuesday \"we could see a national average of $5 a gallon\" based on the situation in Ukraine, days after saying it was a \"somewhat remote\" possibility.\n\nOther factors in the rising gas total include the increased demand while total supply drops.\n\nYour questions answered: Why are gas prices rising so quickly? And how high are they expected to get?\n\n'Be prepared for months of high prices': How to save money as gas prices smash records\n\nDiesel price reaches all-time high\n\nRegular gas price records aren't the only ones being broken.\n\nThe national average price for a gallon of diesel is now $4.88, according to AAA, breaking the record for the most expensive diesel cost, not adjusting for inflation. The previous high was $4.84 on July 17, 2008, which would be around $6.19 in today's dollars.\n\nDiesel prices have seen a more dramatic jump in cost than regular gas, with the national average gallon of diesel at $4.75 on Tuesday, just seven days after it was $4.01.\n\n'Stay home and save money': DoorDash drivers wonder if delivery is worth it as gas prices rise\n\nFor subscribers: Gas prices and inflation have you down? Here's how to sell your car to Carvana, Autonation\n\nMost expensive, least expensive states for gas\n\nCalifornia continues to have the highest average at $5.57 as of Wednesday and remains the only state to have an average over $5. Mono County near the Nevada border continues to have the most expensive gas in the Golden State at $6.14.\n\nOn the other side of the spectrum, Oklahoma and Kansas are tied for the cheapest average at $3.79 per gallon.\n\nHow much is gas in my state?\n\nAs of Wednesday, only 15 states have an average price less than $4. Here is the average price of gas in each state, per AAA data, in alphabetical order:\n\nAlabama: $4.04\n\nAlaska: $4.58\n\nArizona: $4.39\n\nArkansas: $3.84\n\nCalifornia: $5.57\n\nColorado: $3.91\n\nConnecticut: $4.41\n\nDelaware: $4.25\n\nFlorida: $4.21\n\nGeorgia: $4.16\n\nHawaii: $4.77\n\nIdaho: $4.17\n\nIllinois: $4.52\n\nIndiana: $4.23\n\nIowa: $3.89\n\nKansas: $3.79\n\nKentucky: $4.01\n\nLouisiana: $4.03\n\nMaine: $4.25\n\nMaryland: $4.23\n\nMassachusetts: $4.30\n\nMichigan: $4.24\n\nMinnesota: $3.92\n\nMississippi: $3.92\n\nMissouri: $3.80\n\nMontana: $3.95\n\nNebraska: $3.87\n\nNevada: $4.77\n\nNew Hampshire: $4.23\n\nNew Jersey: $4.32\n\nNew Mexico: $4.11\n\nNew York: $4.43\n\nNorth Carolina: $4.12\n\nNorth Dakota: $3.86\n\nOhio: $4.07\n\nOklahoma: $3.79\n\nOregon: $4.66\n\nPennsylvania: $4.39\n\nRhode Island: $4.28\n\nSouth Carolina: $4.02\n\nSouth Dakota: $3.87\n\nTennessee: $4.04\n\nTexas: $3.93\n\nUtah: $4.19\n\nVermont: $4.26\n\nVirginia: $4.18\n\nWashington: $4.63\n\nWest Virginia: $4.06\n\nWisconsin: $3.99\n\nWyoming: $3.92\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.\n\nHigh gas prices affecting you? Share your thoughts and photos with USA TODAY\n\nAre you changing your driving habits because of rising gas prices? Share your thoughts with USA TODAY for possible inclusion in future coverage. If you don't see the form below or want to submit photos, please use this form.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/05/17/why-gas-prices-continue-rise-record/9798086002/", "title": "The average gas price is above $4 in every state. How long will they ...", "text": "The average price of gas in the U.S. is $4.52 as the all-time record continues to be broken.\n\nThe average price of gas is at least $4 in every state, with Kansas having the cheapest gas.\n\nExperts predict gas prices will continue to climb throughout the year and could reach over $5.\n\nThe average U.S. gas price continues to reach record highs, with every state averaging at least $4 a gallon, and experts say it will continue to climb.\n\nThe average for a gallon of gas is $4.58, according to AAA, a 17 cent jump from last week and 41 cent increase from when the national record was broken in March. Diesel prices have remained the same for a week at $5.57.\n\nAlthough the national average has been above $4 since February, some Midwest states where gas is the cheapest, have remained below the benchmark until Tuesday. The cheapest state to get gas is currently Oklahoma, where the average is now $4.03. Following Oklahoma are Kansas ($4.04), Arkansas ($4.12), Missouri (4.13), Georgia ($4.13) and Colorado ($4.13).\n\nWhile the national record has been broken, it has yet to beat the 2008 record when adjusted for inflation, which would be well over $5 today.\n\nBut experts believe that mark could be eventually be surpassed, and the high cost at the pump will remain.\n\n\"We have to accept that the gas prices are probably going to be high for a long time,\" Leo Waldenback, co-founder of the online driver's education program Zutobi, told USA TODAY. \"It's definitely an extremely unique situation.\"\n\n'Excruciating': This working-class California county has the most expensive gas in the nation\n\nWays to save gas: Will driving my car in economy mode really help save money?\n\nWhy are gas prices so high?\n\nThe Russian invasion of Ukraine was the main contributing factor when gas prices reached all-time records in March, and Waldenback said it still is playing a role today as embargoes on Russian oil remain in place.\n\nAs a result, the cost of oil worldwide continues to be over $100. U.S. crude oil costs $109.67 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, costs $110.04 as of Thursday, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.\n\nMatt Smith, an analyst with data analytics firm Kpler, told USA TODAY last week \"gasoline prices will remain high as long as oil prices remain in the triple digits.\"\n\nAnother factor is the transition into summer months, when demand for gas due to traveling is heightened. AAA said on Monday the switch to the summer blend of gas is already underway, which typically adds seven to 10 cents per gallon.\n\n\"Even the annual seasonal demand dip for gasoline during the lull between spring break and Memorial Day, which would normally help lower prices, is having no effect this year,\" said AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross.\n\nHow long will gas prices be so high?\n\nWaldenback said there is no ceiling, but it's certainly possible for the national average to go above $5 at some point this year.\n\n\"If we're saying the situation is like it is now, then I still think we're going to see fairly high prices for possibly the entire year and possibly longer,\" he said.\n\nPatrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said on Monday demand and available inventory of gasoline will also dictate future prices. De Haan also said last week the upcoming hurricane season could hurt oil refinery capacity.\n\n\"Prices later this week could be closer to $5 per gallon than $4, as demand continues to edge higher and inventories of both gasoline and diesel continue to decline, temperatures warm and motorists get back outside and we near the Memorial Day weekend, the start of the summer driving season,\" De Haan said. \"There isn’t much reason to be optimistic that we’ll see a plunge any time soon.\"\n\nRoad trip: Here's how to take a summer road trip without spending a fortune as gas prices reach records\n\nGas relief: Is another stimulus check coming soon? Here's how Americans could get relief from rising gas prices\n\nWhen will gas prices go down?\n\nWaldenback said what will help an eventual drop in gas prices is the response from the Biden Administration and other world leaders in their ability to produce oil on their own and meet market demand.\n\n\"It depends on how quickly we're able to ramp up the production of gas and oil in other places and in other parts of the world, but that's going to take a lot a long time. I think we have to accept that the gas prices are probably going to be high for a long time,\" he said.\n\nWhere is gas the most expensive in the U.S.?\n\nCalifornia continues to have the most expensive gas in the country as of Wednesday, according to AAA, being the only state above $6 at $6.06. In total, there are six states averaging at least $5.\n\nHere are the highest regular gas prices per gallon in the U.S.:\n\nCalifornia: $6.06\n\nHawaii: $5.35\n\nNevada: $5.23\n\nWashington: $5.18\n\nAlaska: $5.14\n\nOregon: $5.13\n\nIllinois: $4.97\n\nNew York: $4.90\n\nWashington, D.C.: $4.87\n\nArizona: $4.84\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/17"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_6", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/08/politics/jill-biden-ukraine-visit/index.html", "title": "First lady Jill Biden makes unannounced trip to Ukraine - CNNPolitics", "text": "Uzhhorod, Ukraine (CNN) First lady Jill Biden spent part of Mother's Day making an unannounced trip to Uzhhorod, Ukraine, a small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine, a country that for the last 10 weeks has been under invasion by Russia.\n\nAt a converted school that now serves as temporary housing for displaced citizens, Biden met with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, who has not been seen in public since the start of the war on February 24.\n\n\"I wanted to come on Mother's Day,\" Biden said to her Ukrainian counterpart, the two women seated at a small table in a classroom of a former school that is now a source of temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children. \"We thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people this war has to stop. And this war has been brutal.\" Biden added, \"The people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.\"\n\nZelenska, who early on in the Russian invasion sent a letter to Biden, has exchanged correspondence with her American counterpart in recent weeks, US officials tell CNN.\n\n\"First of all, I would like to thank you for a very courageous act,\" said Zelenska, speaking through an interpreter to Biden. \"Because we understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today. We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the US President but we would like to note that the Mother's Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/08/jill-biden-ukraine-visit/9697206002/", "title": "Jill Biden makes surprise trip to Ukraine, meets Ukrainian first lady", "text": "WASHINGTON – First lady Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, meeting with the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, as Russia continues to attack the country.\n\nBiden crossed into Ukraine at Uzhhorod, visiting a school that is being used as temporary housing and shelter for 163 displaced Ukrainians, including 47 children.\n\n“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop, and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.\n\nThe visit was among Biden’s last stops of a Mother’s Day weekend trip to the region. She spent time with U.S. troops in Romania and met with displaced Ukrainian refugees in Romania and Slovakia. Biden's trip to Ukraine also comes one day before Russia will celebrate its Victory Day, the anniversary of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany.\n\nLive updates:First lady Jill Biden visits shelter in Ukraine, meets with country's first lady\n\nBiden greeted Zelenska with a bouquet of flowers and a hug. The two first ladies have exchanged correspondence in the past few weeks, according to a pool report. This is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.\n\nBiden spent roughly two hours in Ukraine, where she held an hourlong private meeting with Zelenska and went on to meet with children who were sheltered at the school.\n\nZelenska said Biden’s visit to Ukraine is a “very courageous act.”\n\n“Because we understand what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day even today,” Zelenska said, according to a translation provided to reporters.\n\nPropaganda and war:Russia’s ‘firehose of falsehood’ in Ukraine marks latest use of propaganda to justify war\n\nZelenska said that Ukraine feels supported by the United States and by President Joe Biden.\n\n“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the U.S. president, but we would like to note that the Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day,” Zelenska said.\n\nJill Biden and Zelenska met with about 15 displaced Ukrainian children who were doing arts and crafts projects for Mother’s Day.\n\nAn official with the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration told reporters the projects were recreational and psychosocial, in an effort to promote socialization among children who are now living at the school and dealing with trauma from the war.\n\nThe children used cardboard and tissue paper to make bears, which represent the region around Uzhhorod. Both first ladies crafted their own bears, using white and yellow tissue paper, according to the pool.\n\nThat was Biden’s last stop during her multiday trip to eastern Europe before heading back to Slovakia to depart at Kosice Airport.\n\nMichael LaRosa, press secretary to the first lady, said during a press briefing on the plane that Biden first expressed that she wanted to visit Ukraine in March for her spring break, but the opportunity was not available at the time.\n\n\"Mother’s Day was something she thought would be special for the mothers of Ukraine,” he said.\n\nLaRosa said officials who landed in the region 10 days in advance of Biden's trip began notifying regional government officials of the first lady's travel plans. At that point, Ukrainians offered to arrange a visit with Zelenska.\n\nWhile Biden had always planned to visit the school, the meeting with Zelenska was only confirmed in the last few days, LaRosa said.\n\nLaRosa said that during their meeting, Biden asked Zelenska how she was doing as a mother and handling the war.\n\nZelenska said she was grateful she “is able to hold her children’s hands every night even though she can’t be with her husband,\" LaRosa shared.\n\nMore:Russia's Victory Day on May 9 could mark key deadline in its invasion of Ukraine\n\nBiden was quickly praised for her trip to Ukraine.\n\nLinda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Biden’s visit with Zelenska will bring “so much support and encouragement to the Ukrainian women and children.”\n\n“For her to go there on Mother's Day to meet with the Ukrainian first lady, I think sends a very strong, a very positive message,” Thomas-Greenfield said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”\n\nThomas-Greenfield noted she met with Ukrainian mothers during a trip to Romania and Moldova a few weeks ago and has seen the strength they have.\n\n“Having the first lady there, encouraging them, supporting them, actually in Ukraine, I think sends a strong message of support and commitment that the U.S. government has to supporting Ukrainians moving forward,” she said.\n\nReach Rebecca Morin at Twitter @RebeccaMorin_", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/politics/jill-biden-travel-ukrainian-refugees/index.html", "title": "Jill Biden to travel to Romania and Slovakia on mission to support ...", "text": "(CNN) First lady Jill Biden will travel to Romania and Slovakia this week in a show of support for displaced Ukrainian families forced to flee in the wake of Russia's invasion. Biden will also use the trip to meet with members of the United States military stationed overseas, as well as top-level government officials in both countries, according to a release from the East Wing.\n\nThe first lady will depart Washington for Romania on Thursday, stopping first at Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase on Friday, where she will meet with service members before heading to the capital city of Bucharest on Saturday. In Bucharest, Biden will hold meetings with members of the Romanian government, as well as humanitarian aid workers. Romania has seen the largest influx of Ukrainian refugees as a result of the crisis (after Poland), with hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians crossing the border into the country since the war began three months ago, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees\n\nBiden, a community college professor, will also spend time in Bucharest with educators who are helping teach displaced Ukrainian children and assist in their schooling as they adjust to their new environment.\n\nOn Saturday evening, Biden will travel to Bratislava, Slovakia, where she will meet with United States embassy staff before departing the following day for Kosice and Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, to meet with Ukrainian refugees. Biden will also greet local Slovaks who have opened their homes to families from Ukraine seeking refuge. More than 350,000 Ukrainians have fled to Slovakia, according to UNHCR.\n\nBiden wraps her trip on Monday, May 9, by meeting with members of the Slovak government before departing for the United States.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/05/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/17/politics/jill-biden-latin-america-trip/index.html", "title": "Jill Biden heading to Latin America on three-country tour - CNNPolitics", "text": "(CNN) First lady Jill Biden on Wednesday departs Washington for a six-day Latin American tour, with scheduled stops in Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica, according to a White House release obtained first by CNN.\n\nBiden will be joined on the trip by her daughter, Ashley Biden. The tour will \"emphasize the importance of the US partnership,\" as well as the three countries' commitment to democracy, \"in a region where democratic backsliding is increasingly common,\" says the release.\n\nIn Ecuador, Biden is scheduled to meet with President Guillermo Lasso, and deliver a keynote speech focused on democracy and the challenges of migrating Latin Americans, according to an official. The trip comes as the Biden administration faces several challenges on the immigration front, including a heated debate over Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic restriction that allows migrants to be turned away at the US-Mexico border because of the public health crisis.\n\nBiden will also visit an elementary school that is \"hosting a US-supported accelerated learning program that helps Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, and Colombian teenagers -- who were previously out of school for at least two years -- rejoin the formal school system,\" says the release, a visit she will make with Ecuador first lady Maria de Lourdes Alcivar de Lasso.\n\nIn Panama, Biden will hold joint events with the first lady of that country, Yazmín Colón de Cortizo. She will also visit a health care facility in Panama City that is supported by the United States' PEPFAR program.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/05/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/16/politics/jill-biden-joe-biden-democratic-national-committee-fundraiser/index.html", "title": "Jill Biden on President Joe Biden's hindered progress: 'He had so ...", "text": "(CNN) First lady Jill Biden on Saturday voiced frustration about the stalled progress of President Joe Biden 's tenure in the White House during a private Democratic National Committee fundraiser.\n\nThe first lady said during the event in Nantucket, Massachusetts, that her husband has been consistently challenged by unanticipated crises while in office, placing blame on global woes. Biden's remarks came as the President's job approval rating stands at 33% according to a recent New York Times and Siena College poll , which also noted just 13% of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction\n\n\"[The President] had so many hopes and plans for things he wanted to do, but every time you turned around, he had to address the problems of the moment,\" said Biden, speaking to about two dozen attendees at a private home on the popular vacation island off the coast of Massachusetts.\n\nBiden also announced she expects to meet next week with Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, with whom she last met in May during an unannounced trip into Ukraine. She did not elaborate on the agenda for her upcoming meeting, and CNN has reached out to Biden's office for more details.\n\nOn the domestic front, Biden noted gun violence, the Supreme Court's momentous decision on Roe v. Wade and the war in Ukraine as problems the President did not anticipate.\n\n\"He's just had so many things thrown his way,\" she said. \"Who would have ever thought about what happened [with the Supreme Court overturning] Roe v Wade? Well, maybe we saw it coming, but still we didn't believe it. The gun violence in this country is absolutely appalling. We didn't see the war in Ukraine coming.\"\n\nBiden said she, too, felt hamstrung in her role as first lady, and had been unexpectedly pulled in other directions from the course she initially intended.\n\n\"I was saying to myself, 'Okay, I was second lady. I worked on community colleges. I worked on military families. I've worked on cancer.' They were supposed to be my areas of focus. But then when we got [in the White House,] I had to be, with all that was happening, the first lady of the moment.\"\n\nThe first lady shared her frustration about the overturning last month of Roe v. Wade, which ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion . Biden added that while she supported the right to protest, being angry about the decision, in her opinion, is not enough -- contradicting the President's remarks last week, where he encouraged women to \"keep protesting,\" adding protesting is \"critically important.\"\n\nBiden said she told her own family members they should think about doing more than protesting.\n\n\"So many young girls, my own grandchildren included, went up to the Supreme Court and marched. I say, 'Okay, good for you. But what are you going to do next? You feel good about yourself because you voiced your opinion but what are you going to do next? What is your plan?'\"\n\nThe White House has acknowledged a path forward to reinstate abortion rights is narrow, and at this time, undetermined.\n\nBiden also slammed Congress during her remarks, blaming the administration's stalled agenda on Republicans. Joe Biden's sweeping Build Back Better plan -- which would have expanded the nation's social safety net -- was served its latest blow this week when West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat, dismissed including any climate or tax provisions in the bill. In a narrowly divided Senate, Democrats needed Manchin's support to pass the legislation along party lines in a process called budget reconciliation, which requires all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to agree to advance legislation.\n\n\"I know there are so many nay-sayers who say we'll get slammed in the midterms. Okay. The Republicans are working hard, they stick together, for good or evil. So, we just have to work harder,\" she said.\n\nSaturday's event marked the second DNC fundraiser the first lady has attended during a two-day swing to Massachusetts. On Thursday, she made remarks, predominantly focused on political action, at a private event in Andover.", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/07/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/politics/state-of-the-union-guests/index.html", "title": "First lady Jill Biden includes Ukraine ambassador on her list of State ...", "text": "Markarova in recent weeks has been an outspoken defender of Ukraine in her country's fight against Russian invasion. On Monday, Markarova met with members of Congress to ask for continued sanctions and more weapons, saying, \"We are not asking anyone to fight for us, we are defending our country ourselves. But we need all the support that all civilized world can give us to actually continue effectively fighting.\"\n\nIn addition to Markarova, Biden announced a list of eight other individuals chosen to sit with her and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff to watch President Joe Biden deliver his speech to the nation. A statement released by the White House said the guests were chosen based on their \"resilience, innovation, service, and courage,\" and they will serve as representatives of the themes Biden will touch on in his address, including the pandemic, the military, infrastructure and the American Rescue Plan, healthcare, and education.\n\nThe guests include Joseph \"JoJo\" Burgess, an Army veteran and second-generation steelworker from Pittsburgh, who last month introduced President Biden at an event surrounding manufacturing, infrastructure and the American supply chain.\n\nSeventh-grader Joshua Davis from Midlothian, Virginia, is a student-advocate for diabetes awareness, who with his mother also introduced President Biden at a February event, where the topic was the cost of prescription medication.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/03/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/08/ukraine-russia-invasion-live-updates/9688179002/", "title": "G-7 bans Russian oil imports; US adds sanctions: May 8 recap", "text": "Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Sunday, May 8. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Monday, May 9, as Russia's invasion continues.\n\nThe United States and top allies will ban the import of Russian oil and impose a new round of sanctions, world leaders said Sunday.\n\nThe moves, announced after a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are meant to further pressure Russia to end its war with Ukraine, which started Feb. 24. Only the U.S. had committed previously to a ban on importing Russian oil.\n\nFollowing the G-7's virtual meeting with Zelenskyy, the leaders' released a statement condemning Russia's actions and underscoring their commitment to helping Ukraine.\n\n\"Today, we, the G-7, reassured President Zelenskyy of our continued readiness to undertake further commitments to help Ukraine secure its free and democratic future, such that Ukraine can defend itself now and deter future acts of aggression,\" the leaders said.\n\nThe announcement comes hours after first lady Jill Biden traveled to Ukraine to meet with Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine.\n\nUSA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone\n\nLatest developments:\n\n►Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unexpected visit to Ukraine on Sunday, stopping by the town of Irpin — which was heavily damaged by Russia’s attempt to take Kyiv at the start of the war — before meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.\n\n►Acting ambassador Kristina Kvien, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, has temporarily returned to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.\n\n►Almost 7,000 civilians have been killed or injured since the war in Ukraine started in February, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.\n\n►Ukrainian forces have been making gains against Russian troops and may be able to push them out of artillery range of Kharkiv in the coming days, the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment\n\nStrong condemnation for school airstrike that may have killed 60\n\nThe Russian airstrike that may have killed as many as 60 people sheltering in the basement of a school in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bilohorivka — one of the deadliest assaults against civilians in the war — is drawing widespread condemnation.\n\nUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was \"appalled'' by Saturday's attack, which flattened much of the school and also ignited a fire.\n\nLuhansk province Gov. Serhiy Haidai said emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people. “Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.\n\nThe act is part of a long list of war crimes Russia has committed, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.\n\n\"We have called out the Russians very early on for committing war crimes, and this contributes to that,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”\n\nUNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the organization \"strongly condemns yet another attack on a school in Ukraine'' and reminded that \"targeting civilians and civilian objects, including schools, is a violation of international humanitarian law.''\n\n— Jorge L. Ortiz, Rebecca Morin\n\nNew sanctions on eve of Russia's Victory Day\n\nThe new round of sanctions on Russia imposed by the G-7 nations – a group that comprises the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – came on the eve of Russia's celebration of Victory Day.\n\nThe May 9 holiday commemorates the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could use the Victory Day celebration to announce either a triumph in Ukraine or an escalation of the war.\n\nBesides a commitment by the G-7 nations to boycott Russian oil – only the U.S. had taken that step on one of Russia's top exports – the Biden administration will sanction three Russian TV stations.\n\nRUSSIAN OIL:Russia has earned $66 billion in fuel exports since war began, report says\n\nA senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told reporters that U.S. advertising dollars, broadcast technology and equipment will no longer be available to those stations.\n\nThe U.S. will also impose new export controls and sanctions that will make it difficult for Russia to access wood products, industrial engines, boilers, motors, fans, ventilation equipment, bulldozers and many other items with industrial and commercial applications.\n\nThe White House will also prohibit individuals in the U.S. from providing accounting, trust and corporate formation and management consulting services to any person in Russia. The White House said those services are key to Russian companies and elites building wealth. Officials from several top banks in Russia will also be sanctioned.\n\n— Rebecca Morin\n\nJill Biden makes surprise visit, meets Ukrainian first lady\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden made an unannounced trip into Ukraine on Sunday, entering an active war zone where she met with her Ukrainian counterpart.\n\nBiden met Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, during a visit to a public school in Uzhhorod, which is being used as temporary housing and shelter for 163 displaced Ukrainians, including 47 children.\n\nThis is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.\n\nZelenska thanked Biden for visiting “because we understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today.\"\n\n“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the U.S. president, but we would like to note that the Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day,\" the Ukrainian first lady said.\n\nBiden and Zelenska met privately for an hour. Biden spent a little less than two hours in Ukraine before crossing the border back into Slovakia.\n\n— Rebecca Morin\n\nMembers of U2 perform in Kyiv to show support\n\nBono and The Edge of U2 performed Sunday in a Kyiv subway station at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the band said on Twitter.\n\nZelenskyy \"invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do,\" Bono and The Edge tweeted.\n\nVideo clips on social media show the Irish band members singing \"With or Without You\" and performing a twist on \"Stand by Me\" with Taras Topola, the frontman of a popular Ukrainian band, Antibody.\n\nLater in the day, Bono visited the church grounds in Bucha – site of multiple alleged Russian atrocities – where a mass grave was discovered in March.\n\n— Katie Wadington\n\nUkrainian ambassador: World won't recognize Russian-controlled regions\n\nOksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., said Sunday that her country \"will do everything possible on the battlefield, but also diplomatically, to restore our territorial integrity and sovereignty.\"\n\nAsked on CBS News' \"Face the Nation\" about moves Russia has made to annex parts of eastern Ukraine, Markarova said she was \"positive\" the world would not recognize the Kremlin's efforts to assert control there.\n\n\"We will never recognize it, the whole world will never recognize it,\" she said.\n\nThe interview came the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin may officially announce his country is at war with Ukraine, allowing for the conscription of more troops.\n\n\"Well, that would be the first time when Putin will say the truth, that it is war and that he is in dire need of conscripting soldiers,\" the ambassador said. \"I hope that then it will be evident to all Russians what they are doing in Ukraine. That it’s an aggressive war. They attacked a neighboring country, a peaceful country. And the question is, are they prepared to have more tens of thousands dying in Ukraine for no reason at all?\"\n\n– Katie Wadington\n\nWAR EXPLAINED:Evacuations, accusations and denials: Key events in Russia's war in Ukraine in 5 graphics\n\nRussia's 'firehose of falsehood'\n\nIn its invasion, Russia is invoking World War II and Nazism in an effort to smear Ukrainian leaders, including attacks on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently fanned those flames when he raised the unproven claim that Adolf Hitler had Jewish ancestry. Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, accused Russia of spreading anti-Semitic tropes.\n\n“Right now, at times, Russian propaganda even equates Nazis and Western civilization,” said Anton Shirikov, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in propaganda and misinformation.\n\nRussia’s propaganda machine is a “firehose of falsehood” whose primary target audience is the Russian public, said Christopher Paul, senior social scientist at the RAND Corp., a global policy think tank based in Santa Monica, California.\n\nRead more here about the propaganda being used in war.\n\nZelenskyy hopes to evacuate wounded and military from steel plant next\n\nNow that evacuations have successfully removed all women, children and elderly people from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said another mission will attempt to rescue injured people and medics.\n\nZelenskyy added in his nightly video address to the nation late Saturday that an effort to also evacuate the Ukrainian soldiers still there, the \"heroes who defended Mariupol,\" would be \"difficult.\"\n\nIryna Vereshchuk, a deputy prime minister for Ukraine, announced Saturday that the evacuations of vulnerable citizens had taken place from the steel mill, where civilians and Ukrainian troops were the last holdouts from Russian forces. More than 300 people were evacuated in recent days, Zelenskyy said, after conditions in the underground bunkers increasingly worsened and Russia ramped up its shelling.\n\nRussia rehearses Victory Day parade\n\nRussia held a dress rehearsal Saturday for the military parade to commemorate Victory Day on May 9, when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.\n\nIn Moscow on Saturday, an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile rolled through Red Square as part of the rehearsal, warplanes and helicopters flew overhead, troops marched in formation and self-propelled artillery vehicles rumbled past.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/29/politics/joe-biden-uvalde-texas-visit/index.html", "title": "Biden in Uvalde, Texas: Confronting grief and calls to 'do something ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden on Sunday faced the grimly familiar task of comforting families after another mass shooting, this time at an elementary school in Texas , as a broken community -- and a weary nation -- grappled with an endless spate of gun violence.\n\nHearing anguished calls to \"do something\" as he emerged from a midday Mass in Uvalde, Biden told the crowd, \"We will.\" But after a day of somber remembrance, it remained unclear whether or how a nation's grief would translate to meaningful steps to prevent future massacres.\n\nBiden and first lady Jill Biden bore witness to periodic bursts of anger during their visit to Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers last week. It was their second time in as many weeks mourning alongside families whose loved ones died in a mass shooting.\n\nThe Bidens' visit came amid news from the Justice Department that it's conducting a review of the botched law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting , which Texas officials have described as punctuated with wrong decisions.\n\nTheir armored black limousine arrived to a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School around 11:15 a.m. Central Time, pulling to a stop next to the sea of flowers, stuffed animals and photos that has grown since the day of the massacre.\n\nThe first lady carried a large bouquet of white roses to place in front of the brick Robb Elementary School sign. The Bidens, both dressed in black, stood quietly for a moment in midday sun. The President made a sign of the cross and wiped away a tear.\n\nAfter speaking with the school's principal and local officials, Biden and the first lady walked to a row of memorial wreaths, each marking one of the slain children or teachers. They touched cardboard cutouts of each one, their photos on the front circled by white flower garlands, in quiet observation.\n\nPresident Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday.\n\nThe Bidens attended Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller invited children from the devastated community to sit at the front.\n\n\"Our response must be one of hope and healing,\" he said, urging the community to \"resolve to support one another with respect for our differences.\" The choir sang \"On Eagle's Wings.\"\n\nBiden and the first lady spent the afternoon meeting privately with family members of the victims at Uvalde County Arena, and first responders at Garner Field, before returning to their home in Delaware.\n\nAn adviser traveling with the President said he hoped \"to convey empathy and understanding of what an impossibly horrible moment this is for them\" and \"to offer some small piece of comfort, if that is possible.\"\n\nIt was a solemn task made more grueling by the serious failings of law enforcement who responded to Tuesday's shooting in Uvalde. And it came without promise of major legislative action to prevent further carnage, though a bipartisan group of lawmakers have begun talks to identify areas of potential action.\n\nThe frustrations of an angry public could be felt at the memorial site. Some onlookers awaiting Biden began shouting when Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott arrived to accompany the President.\n\n\"Please Governor Abbott, help Uvalde County,\" one man was shouting. \"We need change. Our children don't deserve this.\"\n\nAs Biden was departing, similar cries for help could be heard before he stepped into his vehicle.\n\nJUST WATCHED Acts of kindness lift up Uvalde community after mass shooting Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Acts of kindness lift up Uvalde community after mass shooting 03:35\n\nA day before his visit, Biden spoke to the agony of the parents he would be meeting Sunday.\n\n\"I'll be heading to Uvalde, Texas, to speak to those families. As I speak, those parents are literally preparing to bury their children, in the United States of America, bury their children. There is too much violence, too much fear, too much grief,\" Biden told graduates Saturday at the University of Delaware commencement ceremony.\n\nFor Biden, the trip represented a somber duty to join grieving families in their darkest moments. He often draws upon his own experience of losing two children -- a young daughter to a car crash and his adult son to brain cancer -- to console fellow parents.\n\n\"To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There's a hollowness in your chest, and you feel like you're being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. It's suffocating. And it's never quite the same,\" Biden said the night of the shooting, speaking from the Roosevelt Room shortly after returning from a two-country visit to Asia.\n\nPresident Joe Biden embraces Mandy Gutierrez, the principal of Robb Elementary School, as he and first lady Jill Biden visit Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday.\n\nIn Uvalde, a community shattered by last week's shooting, many came to watch the President and first lady make their way through the memorial site.\n\n\"I think President Biden making an appearance here is good. It's in order. That's what we need. We need the leader of the free world to be here, and sympathize and empathize with us,\" said Ronald Garza, an Uvalde County Commissioner, on CNN.\n\nThe Bidens' visit to Texas came 12 days after the couple traveled to Buffalo, New York , to visit the site of a racist massacre at a grocery store. That shooting left 10 people dead. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the city on Saturday to attend the funeral for 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim of the attack.\n\n\"This is a moment that requires all good people who are loving people to just say we will not stand for this. Enough is enough,\" Harris said before laying a bouquet at a memorial outside the Tops Friendly Markets store where the shooting occurred May 14. As she left, Harris issued a call to ban assault weapons like the ones used to kill in Uvalde and Buffalo.\n\nThe dual visits by the President and vice president to communities afflicted by mass murder were a striking reminder of the scourge of gun violence consuming the nation. Biden, who has spent much of his career working to enact stricter gun laws, again called for action this week.\n\nBut he stopped short of demanding Congress pass any specific bill; the White House says it is up to Democratic leaders in the Senate to determine how to proceed on potential legislation. And he hasn't named a gun violence task force beyond officials already inside the administration.\n\nBiden and his aides also concede there is little more he can achieve through executive action that could prevent the types of massacres that now occur with gruesome frequency.\n\nOn Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he sensed a \"different feeling,\" among his colleagues in Congress when it comes to the possibility of passing gun control measures in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. But the Illinois Democrat suggested to CNN's Dana Bash on \"State of the Union\" that if anything passed, it would be limited in scope due to the need to compromise with Republicans.\n\nIn Texas, Biden also confronted harrowing accounts of the shooting that even state law enforcement officials said amounted to a failing by police. The decision by responding officers not to enter the classroom where the shooting occurred -- despite 911 calls from students pleading for help -- leaves open the question of whether some lives could have been saved.\n\nThe White House has said it will not prejudge an investigation into the actions of police. But the timeline disclosures, made Friday during a harrowing news conference in Uvalde, only added to the sense of anguish Biden confronted during his visit.\n\nThis story and headline have been updated with additional developments.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Arlette Saenz"], "publish_date": "2022/05/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/politics/jill-biden-latin-america-tour/index.html", "title": "Jill Biden uses her soft diplomacy to make the case for partnering ...", "text": "San Jose, Costa Rica (CNN) First lady Jill Biden on Monday wraps a six-day, three-country tour of Latin America with an agenda that focused -- at times with subtlety and others with direct intent -- on why a partnership with the United States has its benefits.\n\n\"Alone, you can only do so much. Any one of us can only do so much,\" said Biden in remarks at the Ecuadorean presidential palace on Thursday. \"That's what I'd like to talk to you about today: How when we work together, we can make our nations and our world stronger.\"\n\nBiden has -- in the three capital cities of Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica -- made remarks on a similar theme, tackling issues related to democracy, growth and political freedom. Her mission has been to shore-up relations with allies in a region rife with corruption and immigration issues, a topic her husband's administration has found controversial back home.\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden and the first lady of Ecuador Maria de Lourdes Alcivar de Lasso light candles at the Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, May 20, 2022.\n\nA federal judge in Louisiana on Friday blocked the Biden administration from ending a Trump-era pandemic restriction, known as Title 42, at the US-Mexico border, thwarting plans to terminate the controversial public health authority. Since taking office, Biden's administration has continued to rely on Title 42, a public health authority invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that allows border officials to turn migrants away at the US-Mexico border.\n\nYet Jill Biden's message on her South and Central American trip was not \"do not come,\" which Vice President Kamala Harris bluntly communicated during her visit last June to Mexico and Guatemala. Instead, Biden's tone was closer to \"stay where you are and reap the benefits of a US relationship.\"\n\n\"[Biden] understands the fine line she has to walk between serving as a goodwill emissary from the US promoting American values, and being a political actor herself,\" said Kate Andersen Brower, CNN contributor and author of \"First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies.\"\n\nThroughout her travels this week, the first lady has dotted her stops with gifts of funding, announcements of aid and promises of support from America, combining cheery partnership sweet spots with the warning that -- in a world of recent, ongoing and perhaps future challenges -- it is better to have the US in your corner than not.\n\n\"Injustice and corruption, poverty and pollution, disease and despair. They aren't contained by any borders,\" Biden said in Ecuador, standing at a podium just feet from that country's president, Guillermo Lasso, having met privately with him for close to an hour earlier in the day.\n\n\"If we learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic, from these last few years of sickness and sorrow, it's how one deadly virus can move through the world. How hunger and violence are woven together. How a war in Europe can ripple through stock markets and supermarkets. And here, how the loss of trees in your Amazon can take a piece of the future from all of us.\"\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden and the first lady of Ecuador Maria de Lourdes Alcivar de Lasso visit the Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, May 20, 2022.\n\nQuiet diplomacy behind the scenes\n\nBiden left Ecuador the following day, after lighting a candle and touring Quito's largest church with first lady Maria de Lourdes Alcivar de Lasso.\n\nYet what the goodwill photo ops did not reveal were new conversations on the margins between State Department officials and the Ecuadorean government, an opportunity for needed, behind-the-scenes engagement, which the first lady's trip provided.\n\nThere are now ongoing negotiations for a bilateral agreement with Ecuador on migration and protection with countries throughout the region, a US official involved in the discussions told CNN.\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden arrives at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, May 19, 2022.\n\n\"Ecuador hosts large numbers of Venezuelan migrants and refugees,\" said the official. \"We also discussed the importance of protection for this vulnerable group.\"\n\nAccording to an official at the Department of Homeland Security, \"More than 6 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants have fled their homes, making this the second-largest external displacement crisis in the world.\"\n\nSeventeen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean host approximately 80% of this Venezuelan diaspora, including large numbers in Ecuador. Costa Rica, a country of only 5 million people, is hosting approximately 150,000 Nicaraguan migrants, fleeing another country with a tenuous political climate, according to the official.\n\n\"The first lady is the most visible woman in American politics,\" said Brower. \"By showing interest in another region and using the unique soft power of her position to promote American values and democracy she can strengthen and even heal relationships.\"\n\nBrower also noted the position of a first lady, Biden especially, has become increasingly influential in high-stakes diplomatic scenarios.\n\n\"There's a general acceptance that a first lady has the gravitas and clout to make a trip to a region critical to the US,\" said Brower.\n\n'Diplomacy is about relationships'\n\nIn Panama on Saturday, during a visit to an HIV/AIDS shelter home, funded by the US's PEPFAR program, the first lady announced an additional $80.9 million for PEPFAR in the region, including $12.2 million for Panama, which will be dedicated to expanding HIV/AIDS services and treatment, according to Biden's spokesman Michael LaRosa.\n\n\"I see this great community. I see how hard you're all working and, maybe with the additional funding that we will be announcing today, I'm hoping that it makes a difference for you,\" said Biden, who participated in a roundtable discussion at the shelter, listening to the needs of a community which has received little monetary support for HIV/AIDS from its own country's government, according to statistics provided by the East Wing.\n\nThe engagement of the PEPFAR program was done well before Biden's visit, said a White House official, though the announcement at the center was seen as a surprise.\n\n\"Bottom line is that none of this travel is typically done in a vacuum - it's part of a strategic plan - or should be,\" said Anita McBride, director of the First Ladies Initiative at American University and Laura Bush's former chief of staff.\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden receives a pin from a woman at an event for women entrepreneurs at the U.S. Chief of Mission Residence in San José, Costa Rica, Saturday, May 21, 2022. The women in attendance have participated in U.S. State Department-sponsored programs focused on entrepreneurship.\n\nAt her third and final stop on the tour, Costa Rica, Biden on Saturday evening had dinner at the US ambassador's residence with Costa Rica's new president, Rodrigo Chaves, who has been in office for less than two weeks after a run-off election and was recently embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal from his years at the World Bank, and his wife, first lady Signe Zeicate.\n\nZeicate met Biden's plane at the airport that afternoon, welcoming her American counterpart with a hug and joining her for events Saturday and Sunday.\n\nCosta Rican first lady Signe Zeicate, left, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles and first lady Jill Biden pose for a photo at the U.S. Chief of Mission Residence in San José, Costa Rica, Saturday, May 21, 2022.\n\n\"Diplomacy is about relationships. (Biden) builds a rapport with the first spouses and it matters, it helps to break the ice and establish some familiarity with each other, and in private moments share their husband's positions. They build some greater mutual understanding, hopefully,\" said McBride.\n\nAt San José's National Children's Hospital on Sunday, Zeicate seated in the front row of a small room where Biden was speaking. The first lady, in remarks to assembled media and local government officials, dropped the news that country's public health authority had recently entered a memorandum of understanding with the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which, according to LaRosa, will boost research availability and, \"help Costa Rican children access a lifesaving cancer treatment.\"\n\n\"No country can defeat cancer alone,\" said Biden. \"It takes all of us working together.\"\n\nBiden was introduced by US Ambassador to Costa Rica Cynthia Telles.\n\n\"It's important to note that the first lady's visit to Costa Rica was the catalyst for finalizing the agreement,\" said Telles.", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/05/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/19/politics/jill-biden-ecuador/index.html", "title": "First lady Jill Biden touts US commitment to South and Central ...", "text": "Quito, Ecuador (CNN) First lady Jill Biden spent her first full day of a trip through South and Central America on Thursday, using a speech at the Carondelet presidential palace in Quito, Ecuador, to emphasize the importance of global assistance and building alliances.\n\nThe first lady used her remarks, made before a speech by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, to tout America's commitment to this part of the world.\n\n\"You know, Joe and I hope that you know that he cares deeply about you, and I do too. And that's why I'm here today,\" said Biden, who on Friday departs for Panama before going on to Costa Rica. \"The United States is committed to Ecuador.\"\n\nThe first lady's tour is meant to emphasize the role of the US in partnering with each country and those nations' commitment to democracy, according to her office. The trip comes as the Biden administration faces several challenges on the immigration front, including a heated debate over Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic restriction that allows migrants to be turned away at the US-Mexico border because of the public health crisis.\n\nThe visit also serves as a precursor to the Summit of the Americas, being held in June in Los Angeles. The summit convenes every three to four years and brings together leaders of North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. This year will be the first time the United States has hosted the summit since its inception in 1994.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Bennett"], "publish_date": "2022/05/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_7", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/11/07/jobs-baby-boomers-older-workers-may-block-millennials-careers/4170836002/", "title": "Jobs: Baby boomers, older workers may block millennials' careers", "text": "There’s a multigenerational traffic jam on the upper rungs of America’s career ladder.\n\nAs more baby boomers put off retirement, millennials and Gen Xers are finding it harder to move up into middle- and higher-level jobs, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey and interviews with recruiters.\n\nPartly as a result, many younger workers are job-hopping as they seek bigger titles and higher pay. That’s making it tougher for companies to hold onto promising employees and hurting their businesses in some cases, the survey shows.\n\n“This is the first time ever that five different generations are in America’s workforce at the same time, from Gen Zers up to baby boomers,” says LinkedIn career expert Blair Decembrele. “It’s no surprise that there are some growing pains.”\n\nTo be sure, boomers (age 54-74) bring knowledge and experienceto the workplace, and many companies are trying to coax them into staying on as they struggle to find workers amid unemployment that’s at a 50-year low. Yet their prevalence in the labor force is tamping down the economy’s overall productivity, according to a study by Moody's Analytics. That's likely because of their reluctance to adopt new technology, the study says. .\n\nForty-one percent of millennials – and 30% of all adults – said they’ve found it difficult to move up in their fields because boomers are waiting longer to retire, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey of 1,019 working professionals in September.\n\n“That’s what I’m hearing a lot,” says Jeanne Branthover, co-head and managing partner of executive search firm DHR International’s New York office. Job seekers “are happy with the company but they’re being blocked by the person above them.\"\n\nA cure for loneliness?:Alexa as your new bestie: Can an AI robot or voice assistant help you feel less lonely?\n\nCo-living spaces:How millennials, Gen Z create affordable rent situations in big cities\n\nNearly a quarter of workers surveyed by USA TODAY/LinkedIn changed jobs in the last 12 months and 30% are planning to do so in the next year. A survey by Jobvite, a recruiting site, found that 61% of employees rank career growth opportunities as the top factor when seeking a new job.\n\nLauren Jablonski, 36, of Franklin Square, New York, worked as a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide at a Long Island elementary school for a couple of years. Although she has a Master’s in education, she couldn’t get promoted because teachers in their 50s with tenure had no plans to retire.\n\n“It was extremely frustrating when you get to work every day and you’re giving it your all and you still can’t get to that next level,” Jablonski says. She left teaching several years ago and since has worked as a marketing manager, editor and martial arts instructor.\n\nSilvia Fabela, 35, who lives in Washington D.C., loved her two jobs promoting workers’ rights at unions for nine years. She left to work at a nonprofit a couple of years ago to broaden her experience, but also because there was limited opportunity for a promotion at the unions over the longer term, though she’s open to returning to the field at some point. The median age of workers at labor union offices is 51.4, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.\n\nNoting that millennials (ages 24-38) get blamed for not spending more to bolster the economy, she says, “We’re not getting promoted and not making enough money.”\n\nBoomers living, working longer\n\nWorkers age 55 and over have comprised an eye-popping 56% of all job gains so far this year, with those 65 and over making up the lion’s share of that figure, according to BLS. In November, 20.6% of Americans 65 and older were working or looking for jobs, up from 12.4% in November 1999 and the largest portion in that month since 1960. While some of those were returning to the workforce after hanging it up, many simply have put off retirement, says Susan Weinstock, vice president of financial resiliency for AARP, a nonprofit that lobbies for the interests of middle-aged and elderly people.\n\nMore than half of all U.S. workers plan to work past 65 or not retire at all, according to a survey last year by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.\n\nBoomers can toil longer because they’re healthier and need to finance longer lifespans, Weinstock says. Many saw their 401(k) investments hammered by the Great Recession of 2007-09 or had to take lower-paying jobs after getting laid off.\n\nMillennials, meanwhile, “have very high expectations” for how quickly they’ll get promoted,\" says Brad Harrington, head of the Boston College Center for Work and Family. “Those two things are colliding – a short time horizon for millennials and long lives for baby boomers.\"\n\nMarc LeVine, 63, of Freehold, New Jersey, depleted his savings and 401(k) accounts when sales at his staffing business plummeted during the recession. When he finally got a full-time job in 2014, the salary was 36% lower than his prior income.\n\nBesides replenishing his nest egg, “I enjoy what I do. I don’t know what I would do being retired,” says LeVine, who is now a recruiter for Thermo Systems, a company that makes industrial control systems.\n\nLeVine says he plans to work well into his 70s and doesn’t feel guilty about taking up a spot that might otherwise be filled by a millennial or Gen Xer (ages 39-53). “We all have to make a living,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Want our jobs? You’ll have to beat us at our game!”\n\nCompanies such as Brooks Brothers value long-serving employees and are accommodating them with flexible schedules as they struggle to find qualified job candidates.\n\n“Older workers have wisdom to bring to the table,” says Steve Hatfield, global future of work leader for consulting firm Deloitte.\n\nAnd Weinstock of AARP says boomers have the “soft skills” employers are seeking. “They’re calm under pressure. They’re problem solvers. They listen better.”\n\nAre boomers hurting the economy?\n\nYet a Moody’s study this year found that older workers are broadly hurting productivity, or output per labor hour, and thus the economy. Based on data from payroll processor ADP, Moody’s found that from 2013 to 2016, the greater a company’s share of workers 65 and older, the lower its wages and wage growth. Since pay increases are closely correlated with productivity growth, Moody’s concluded that older workforces curtail productivity increases. That’s likely because boomers are more resistant to productivity-enhancing technology, the report said.\n\nSuch technology includes Slack, the work collaboration tool, artificial intelligence and accounting software, says Ian Siegel, CEO of ZipRecruiter, a top job site. The effects may be more pronounced if older workers are managers in charge of ordering technology, says Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi.\n\nA study by Upwork, the online freelancing platform, found that millennial and Gen Z managers are more than twice as likely as boomers to invest in technology to support a remote workforce.\n\n“Boomers are limiting the ability of millennials and Gen Xers to achieve their (and the economy’s) potential,” Zandi says. Noting that productivity has increased an average 1% a year since the recession, down from 2% the prior decade, Zandi estimates the aging workforce can be blamed for about half the decline.\n\nSome experts are skeptical that boomers are blocking the ascent of millennials. A Stanford University study found that increasing the number of older workers doesn’t hurt the employment or wages of younger people. Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist of Glassdoor, says younger workers may be stymied by boomers at their offices but can find opportunities at other firms. And Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School, says only about a third of openings are filled internally anyway, down from about 90% in the 1970s.\n\nBoomers, millennials, side by side\n\nExperts say a multigenerational workforce can boost productivity if properly leveraged. Some companies are splitting C-suite jobs in two, giving younger employees some of the duties in a sort of half-step promotion so they won't leave, Branthover says.\n\nOthers have started mentoring programs that encourage boomers to impart their knowledge to younger workers while millennials show older workers how to use new technology, says Julia Kennedy, executive vice president of the Center for Talent Innovation. Millennials who learn skills from higher-level boomers that enhance their value and help them eventually get promoted are “less likely to resent that person” and more willing to stay on, Kennedy says.\n\nA growing number of firms are also jettisoning or minimizing traditional corporate hierarchies in favor of horizontal tracks that encourage employees to work in teams and rotate through different roles, says Hatfield of Deloitte. Eventually, those workers, armed with more diverse skills, can choose among various career ladders.\n\nVirginia-based Newport News Shipbuilding, which makes nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for the Navy, is using both strategies to get the most out of a workforce of 25,000, 42% of whom are millennials; 25%, boomers; and 24% Gen Xers. A couple of years ago, the company switched from paper blueprints to digital ones on tablets. Some boomers struggled with the new system and started pairing up with tech-savvy millennials.\n\nThe company, a unit of Huntington Ingalls Industries, formalized the mentoring program and encouraged boomers to pass along their decades of knowledge to younger colleagues.\n\n“Older workers have been reinvigorated,” says Susan Jacobs, company vice president of human resources. “And the young people are learning faster.”\n\nThe shipbuilder also plucks some veteran managers from front-line positions to chronicle their know-how for less experienced workers through videos or papers, opening up those jobs for millennials and Gen Xers. And it allows white-collar workers to rotate among departments such as accounting, design and human resources, preparing them for higher-level spots.\n\nThe share of workers leaving the company has fallen from 9.1% in 2018 to an annual rate of 6.3% so far this year.\n\n“We’re going to need (younger workers) to move into leadership roles,” Jacobs says.\n\nUSA TODAY and LinkedIn have collaborated on a survey that has uncovered trends in hiring, managing and promoting U.S. employees. This story is the second in a series. The first published on Oct. 20.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/11/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/26/how-much-money-goes-to-police-departments-in-americas-largest-cities/112004904/", "title": "Police spending: What the biggest US cities spend on law enforcement", "text": "Carl Sullivan and Carla Baranauckas\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nProtesters have taken to the streets across the country in the last month demanding that cities “defund the police” and re-examine use-of-force policies.\n\nThe demonstrations, most of them peaceful, were sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for eight minutes 46 seconds as the African American man pleaded, “I can’t breathe.”\n\nThe protests also invoked the names of other Black people who have been killed by police, among them:\n\nBreonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician who was at home asleep when police carried out a “no knock” warrant and shot her eight times. Atatiana Jefferson, a pre-med graduate student who was shot as she was babysitting her 8-year-old nephew in her mother’s home. Botham Jean, an accountant who was fatally shot as he was eating ice cream in his apartment by an off-duty police officer who said she mistakenly thought it was her apartment. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot in a park after someone reported that he had a gun. It was a BB gun. Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold. Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.”\n\nGeorge Floyd is not alone:'I can’t breathe' uttered by dozens in fatal police holds across U.S.\n\n‘You don’t get over nothing like this’:Mother of Tamir Rice says moving on has been painful\n\nAs discussions and debates center on how much money should be allocated for police departments, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed law-enforcement spending in the 50 most populous U.S. cities.\n\nTotal police budgets range from just over $100 million a year (Virginia Beach, Virginia) to $5 billion a year (New York City).\n\nPolice department appropriations generally account for the largest share of the budget in 35 of the 50 largest cities. But it’s difficult to draw meaningful comparisons between cities because they use wildly different budgeting mechanisms. For example, the huge Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department budget, $656 million, is funded not only by the city of Las Vegas. Clark County also puts in a significant amount. And there’s an allocated property tax exclusively for funding cops.\n\nIn other cities, police departments are funded entirely by the city government. But when comparing the breakdown of city budgets, it’s important to remember that some city governments fund big budget items, like education and health services. In other jurisdictions, those line items are funded outside of the city budget.\n\nIn many cities, the largest portion of the police budget is used to cover salaries, benefits, and overtime for officers and civilian employees. Yet police chiefs and city officials often say police pay is inadequate. In 2019, the median pay for a police officer in the United States was $65,170, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.\n\nOfficials’ response to the protests demanding cuts in police spending have varied. In Tucson, Arizona, the city council has delayed a vote on the 2021 budget so more residents can be heard. In Virginia Beach, Mayor Bobby Dyer wrote an Op-Ed article in The Virginian-Pilot saying: “Defund the police? No way.”\n\nIn Albuquerque, New Mexico, the mayor has announced that the city will create a new community safety department that will use unarmed social workers, housing and homelessness specialists, and violence prevention coordinators to respond to nonemergency situations.\n\nAnd in some cities, like Philadelphia, Dallas, and Long Beach, California, police cutbacks are coming in any case because of budget shortfalls related to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nTo identify the police departments with the largest budgets, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the approved police department budgets in each of the 50 most populous cities in the United States for the latest fiscal year that was available. To compare cities, we ranked each city's police budget as a percentage of its total operating budget. In some cities, like New York and Chicago, the public school system is included in the city budget. In others, like Los Angeles, it is not.\n\nWe excluded capital budgets.\n\nPolice spending in largest US cities\n\nNew Orleans, Louisiana\n\n• Population, 2018: 391,006\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 17.1% (22nd largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $194 million (13th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.13 billion (11th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 373 (31st highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1457 (1,209 officers, 248 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,163 (24th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nProtesters have called for defunding the police department but that would be particularly complicated in New Orleans. In 2013, the New Orleans Police Department and the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a consent decree after an investigation into an alleged pattern of civil rights violations found unconstitutional conduct by the New Orleans Police Department. Operating under a federal monitor, the consent decree forced the police department to do what it was unable to do under local oversight.\n\nThe police department gets the biggest chunk of the city budget – $194 million compared with $56 million for community development. Once ranked the most corrupt in the nation, the NOPD \"has, against all odds, become a pioneer in humanistic policing,\" The Christian Science Monitor wrote last year. The department's Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) peer intervention program has won praise. It allows lower ranking officers to confront high ranking ones about their actions without fear of retaliation.\n\nTampa, Florida\n\n• Population, 2018: 392,905\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.6% (24th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $163 million (9th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.04 billion (7th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 307 (78th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,206 (946 officers, 260 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 407 (239th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nTampa recently put a hold on a plan to buy body cameras for all of Tampa's uniformed police officers up to the rank of corporal because of financial constraints related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the city is refinancing bond obligations and will use a portion of the proceeds to purchase 650 cameras. The aim of the body camera program is to enhance transparency and trust, Mayor Jane Castor said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.\n\nArlington, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 398,122\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 21.4% (10th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $118 million (3rd smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $552.06 million (the smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 219 (210th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 871 (673 officers, 198 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 445 (214th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Arlington Police Department is one of 15 police departments in the country the U.S. Department of Justice recognized for building trust and working with the community. Even in a community where the community-police relations are supposedly good, large protests formed in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. In one instance, the Arlington Police Department was damaged and several stores reported break ins. The chaos in the streets was followed by a gathering of the Arlington Clergy and Police Partnership, where prayers were offered for protesters, police officers, and the family of George Floyd.\n\nThe city is conducting a national search for a new chief of police. Former Chief Will Johnson announced his retirement in April, effective in June. He was on the police force for 23 years, seven of them as chief.\n\nTulsa, Oklahoma\n\n• Population, 2018: 401,112\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 14.8% (21st smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $123 million (4th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $828.50 million (5th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 246 (161st highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 987 (807 officers, 180 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,065 (31st highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Tulsa City Council approved an $876,000 increase in the police budget for 2021, even though the overall city budget is being cut by about 3%. About two dozen members of the public commented about the police budget, with two-thirds urging cuts and one-third favoring an increase, The Tulsa World reported. \"Industry and the economy have been crippled by a pandemic while society continues to struggle against racism,\" Council Chair Ben Kimbro said, according to local TV station KOTV. \"But the budget is not just a seasonal effort, it requires hard work and diligence throughout the year.\" No money was allocated to run a city agency to monitor Police Department activities and policies. Last year, the city budgeted $246,000 for an Office of the Independent Monitor but never spent it.\n\nMinneapolis, Minnesota\n\n• Population, 2018: 425,395\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 12.6% (15th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $193 million (12th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.54 billion (20th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 244 (163rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,037 (849 officers, 188 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 793 (77th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer has put the City of Lakes at the center of the nationwide debate on disbanding or defunding police departments. Nine out of 13 Minneapolis City Council members, a veto-proof majority, have voiced support for dismantling the police department. How that would be implemented has yet to be decided. But the debate on police funding was going on long before the Floyd killing. In November, Mayor Jacob Frey's proposal to add 14 police officers to the force was met with resistance from some council members who wanted the money to be directed to other areas of public safety. Other council members contended that the police force needed to add more officers.\n\nOakland, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 429,114\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 20.0% (13th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $330 million (22nd largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.65 billion (24th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 235 (176th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,010 (731 officers, 279 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,274 (19th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nCity Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas has called for the diversion of $25 million from the $330 million police budget to community programs, like jobs and housing, local news outlet KRON television reported. In a tweet last week she said: \"In the past week, Alameda, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities have proposed or pledged to reduce police resources and invest more in community. It's time, Oakland.\"\n\nInterim Police Chief Susan Manheimer has responded that the department gets 28,000 calls a month and asked where the cuts would be made. She added that many civilian employees who respond to such things as mental health calls will not go to the scene without a police escort.\n\nVirginia Beach, Virginia\n\n• Population, 2018: 450,189\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 8.7% (5th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $107 million (the smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.23 billion (16th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 212 (237th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 953 (778 officers, 175 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 117 (482nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nVirginia Beach spends some 8.7% of its budget on police funds. Following the recent calls for defunding the police, Mayor Bobby Dyer argued in an Op-Ed article in The Virginian-Pilot that, instead of cutting, he'd rather increase police budget to raise officers' pay, fund body cameras, and increase training. He also noted that the city was the site of a mass shooting at the municipal center in which 12 people were killed. Many residents want the city to rethink the role of the police. The Virginia Beach Interdenominational Ministers Conference has been pushing since 2016 for more racial diversity on the police force and for a racially diverse volunteer Citizens Review Board to examine complaints.\n\nLong Beach, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 467,353\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 9.4% (8th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $264 million (21st smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $2.80 billion (15th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 249 (156th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,164 (824 officers, 340 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 698 (106th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nOver the last decade, the budget for the Long Beach Police Department has increased by more than 30%, according to budget documents on the city's website. In the current fiscal year, police department spending accounts for more than 43% of the city's discretionary spending, according to The Long Beach Business Journal. The majority of the police department's budget goes to salaries, benefits, and overtime of about 800 officers and 400 civilians, the Journal said.\n\nThe city's fiscal year begins in October, and protesters have called for cutting police spending in the next budget. City officials say budget cuts are coming – the reason is the coronavirus pandemic – and cuts will not be even across departments. City Manager Tom Modica has asked public safety departments for cuts of 0% to 3.5%, while other departments have been asked for cuts up to 12%, the Long Island Business Journal said.\n\nOmaha, Nebraska\n\n• Population, 2018: 468,267\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 14.3% (19th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $160 million (8th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.12 billion (10th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 217 (221st highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,016 (879 officers, 137 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 560 (153rd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nOmaha city officials say they have been inundated with thousands of emails urging them to divert money from the police department \"to departments which directly benefit the people of Omaha,\" as one message puts it. Councilwoman Aimee Melton told local television station KETV that she had received thousands of emails with the same wording. Councilmember Ben Gray and Anthony Conner, president of the Omaha Police Officers Association, say defunding is unnecessary. Gray pointed to 2019, when the only time officers fired their guns was on Dec. 31, killing a man. Conner told local news outlet KMTV that he and the police chief were already discussing limiting chokeholds.\n\nRaleigh, North Carolina\n\n• Population, 2018: 470,509\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 11.1% (11th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $112 million (2nd smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.01 billion (6th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 182 (321st highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 855 (732 officers, 123 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: No data\n\nBefore the Raleigh City Council approved the 2021 budget, a request was made to increase the proposed appropriation for the police department by $2.8 million. The money would have paid for 28 additional employees in the police department. The request was not approved, although the police budget was not cut. City Councilman Patrick Buffkin said an opportunity had been missed. \"I think it would improve policing by hiring social workers and homeless support specialists, along with animal control units,\" Buffkin said, according to local news outlet WRAL.\n\nMiami, Florida\n\n• Population, 2018: 470,911\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 23.4% (7th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $266 million (22nd smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.14 billion (12th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 370 (36th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,741 (1,309 officers, 432 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 630 (126th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic had already put a strain on most governmental budgets across the country. Then nationwide protests against police brutality following George Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer required local police departments to spend additional money on overtime. The Miami Police Department has spent more than $1.8 million on police overtime because of the protests, a spokesperson tells Axios. Meanwhile, protesters are encouraging county officials to redirect money from the police department to social services.\n\nColorado Springs, Colorado\n\n• Population, 2018: 472,666\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 20.6% (12th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $141 million (5th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $682.07 million (2nd smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 211 (243rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 995 (702 officers, 293 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 555 (155th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nMayor John Suthers set a goal of hiring 120 additional police officers by 2022 when the 2020 budget was proposed in October 2019. Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the city to implement a hiring freeze and cut $20 million from its capital budget. Across-the-board wage cuts may also be a possibility. Despite calls from protesters to \"defund the police\" and the financial challenges, the mayor said, \"I'm still trying pursuant to our goal of adding 120 police officers, 32 firefighters by 2022. I still have every hope in the world of doing that.\"\n\nKansas City, Missouri\n\n• Population, 2018: 491,809\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.4% (25th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $273 million (24th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.77 billion (25th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 370 (34th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,819 (1,299 officers, 520 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,590 (7th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nKansas City officials have asked the police department to cut $10 million from its budget, local news outlet KCTV reports. Acting City Manager Earnest Rouse said in a letter to all city department heads that budget cuts of about 4.5% would be needed from every department because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect reducing city revenue. A $10 million budget cut could result in the loss of 212 positions, the police department said. Meanwhile, protesters in Kansas City have called for defunding the police, saying that money would be better spent on education, safety, and health.\n\nAtlanta, Georgia\n\n• Population, 2018: 498,073\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 9.3% (7th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $205 million (16th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $2.20 billion (20th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 399 (22nd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,987 (1,535 officers, 452 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 769 (80th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAs city officials consider the budget for fiscal year 2021, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says she will not defund the police department. Instead, she said, she will divert money from the Department of Corrections to social services. The mayor intends to reduce the $19 million proposed corrections budget to $4 million, according to local news outlet WABE. The money cut will be redirected to the Office of Constituent Services.\n\nSacramento, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 508,517\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 13.6% (16th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $158 million (6th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.16 billion (13th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 186 (302nd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 948 (651 officers, 297 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 657 (117th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nDebate on police funding in Sacramento centers on how proceeds from the Measure U sales tax are being used. The city's 1-cent sales tax, which took effect on April 1, 2019, was approved in a ballot measure in 2018. Legally, the money can be used for any core city service, but the sales tax was presented to voters as a means to support \"inclusive economic development projects\" and to uplift underserved neighborhoods, according to The Sacramento Bee. Now, because of economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, $45.7 million from the sales tax is slated to go to the police department. Some community activists say the police department's budget should be cut by up to $50 million.\n\nMesa, Arizona\n\n• Population, 2018: 508,979\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 10.6% (10th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $202 million (15th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.91 billion (23rd largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 236 (174th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,202 (779 officers, 423 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 364 (282nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Mesa City Council adopted a 2021 budget in May that raises police spending by $8.5 million, according to budget documents. In June, hundreds of demonstrators marched to police headquarters, demanding de-escalation training and a smaller police budget. Among the protesters was Laney Sweet, the widow of Daniel Shaver, who in 2016 was fatally shot by police while on a business trip to Mesa. His last words were reportedly: \"Please, don't shoot me. Yes, sir.\" Both Shaver and Police Officer Philip Brailsford were white. Brailsford was fired, later reinstated then retired with a $31,000 a year pension. The incident was not the only one in recent years where the Mesa police use of force had been questioned, and the FBI had launched an investigation into these incidents in 2018.\n\nFresno, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 530,073\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 17.0% (23rd largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $202 million (14th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.19 billion (14th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 201 (275th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,063 (811 officers, 252 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 555 (156th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Fresno City Council's budget hearing, held via Zoom, had more than 100 members of the public commenting on the police budget, the Fresno Bee reported. Almost everyone urged the council to cut police spending and redirect money to other city services. Many people asked why the police respond to every 911 call, even ones that do not involve crime. Questions were raised about whether social workers would be more appropriate responders for situations involving people who are homeless or mentally ill. Police Chief Andy Hall said his department receives 1,200 emergency calls per day and 1,500 to 1,700 for non-emergencies.\n\nTucson, Arizona\n\n• Population, 2018: 545,987\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 12.4% (14th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $193 million (11th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.56 billion (22nd smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 186 (303rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,015 (807 officers, 208 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 737 (92nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Tucson City Council has delayed action on its 2021 budget so it can hear more comments from members of the community, particularly related to the proposed police budget, The Arizona Republic reported. Protests in Tucson after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis have raised questions about police policies and tactics. The use of full riot gear and tear gas by Tucson police during protests has sparked criticism among residents. The council has been urged to move money from the police department to social services.\n\n\"It's vital right now for you all, as our representatives, to reflect on the extent to which the militarized and violent culture of law enforcement is directly tied to the exorbitant amount of funding that they receive from bodies like our City Council,\" Paco Cantu, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent, said at a recent live-streamed meeting, according to the newspaper.\n\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico\n\n• Population, 2018: 560,234\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 18.9% (15th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $210 million (17th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.11 billion (9th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: N/A\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: N/A\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,365 (14th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAlbuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced in June that the city is creating a new public safety department that will respond to nonemergency calls, like inebriation, homelessness, addiction, and mental health, The Washington Post reported. The department, called Albuquerque Community Safety, will employ unarmed social workers, housing and homelessness specialists, and violence prevention coordinators.\n\nAlbuquerque spends more than $300 million on public safety, two-thirds of which goes to the police department, The Post said. Police Chief Mike Geier said officers were \"relieved\" that some of their calls would become the responsibility of the new department. A federal monitor has been reviewing police operations since 2014 because of what the Department of Justice called \"a culture of aggression.\"\n\nMilwaukee, Wisconsin\n\n• Population, 2018: 592,002\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 18.5% (17th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $297 million (24th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.61 billion (23rd smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 389 (25th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,305 (1,851 officers, 454 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,413 (11th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Milwaukee Common Council is looking into a 10% reduction in the police budget, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Eleven of the council's 15 members have signed on to legislation directing the city's budget director to create a draft budget for 2021 with the 10% cut. The lead sponsor of the measure, Alderman José Pérez, said the proposal was a response to protesters who have demanded change in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing by a Minneapolis police officer. The 2020 police budget of $297.4 million is by far the largest departmental budget in the city.\n\nBaltimore, Maryland\n\n• Population, 2018: 602,495\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 18.3% (18th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $536 million (11th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $2.93 billion (14th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 487 (8th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,935 (2,488 officers, 447 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,833 (4th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe Baltimore City Council voted to cut $22 million from the police budget in 2021, The Baltimore Sun reported. The mounted unit and the marine unit will be eliminated. The plan also calls for cutting the 2020 overtime spending of $40 million to $26 million in 2021. The police department had proposed a $7 million cut in overtime, but the council increased that to $14 million. Even with the cuts, Baltimore's police budget will be about half a billion dollars.\n\nLouisville/Jefferson County metro government (balance), Kentucky\n\n• Population, 2018: 620,149\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 25.2% (6th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $190 million (10th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $752.48 million (4th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 248 (157th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,538 (1,246 officers, 292 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: No data\n\nThe Louisville Metro Police Department has been the focus of protests calling for officials to defund the police because of the killing of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician who was shot eight times in her apartment as the police carried out a \"no knock\" warrant. Government officials, however, said they will not significantly decrease the amount of money spent on law enforcement, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada\n\n• Population, 2018: 644,664\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 44.9% (the largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $656 million (8th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.46 billion (17th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: N/A\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: N/A\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: No data\n\nConfronting a potential $147 million budget shortfall over the next 16 months, Las Vegas recently cut its general fund budget for the next fiscal year by $124 million. To save money, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department laid off some part-time workers and its mounted patrol unit. The department's long-term goal of providing two officers per every 1,000 residents could be in jeopardy due to the budget crunch.\n\nOklahoma City, Oklahoma\n\n• Population, 2018: 649,410\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 13.6% (17th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $226 million (18th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.66 billion (25th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 213 (236th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,382 (1,102 officers, 280 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 867 (60th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nIn a tale of two cities, Oklahoma City and neighboring Norman responded differently to calls for defunding the police. While smaller Norman voted to cut $865,000 from its police budget in the next fiscal year, Oklahoma City Council approved its new budget without any cuts to police. Still, to save costs in a time of declining revenues, the budget reflects that 34 vacant police positions will go unfilled.\n\nMemphis, Tennessee\n\n• Population, 2018: 650,632\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 38.3% (2nd largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $273 million (23rd smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $711.56 million (3rd smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 400 (21st highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,605 (1,995 officers, 610 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,943 (2nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nMemphis Mayor Jim Strickland supports expansion of education and community programs, but not at the expense of the police department. He recently said law enforcement needs more officers who are better paid and better trained. In mid-June, a group of protesters camped out in front of City Hall. They pushed for the reallocation of some police funds and for the adoption of the \"8 Can't Wait\" policies, which include de-escalation techniques and comprehensive reporting.\n\nPortland, Oregon\n\n• Population, 2018: 652,573\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 4.4% (2nd smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $245 million (19th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $5.52 billion (7th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 180 (329th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,177 (922 officers, 255 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 520 (170th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe city of Portland's new budget slashes its police budget by $15 million, which will result in the loss of about 84 positions. Some activists had been demanding a cut of $50 million. Before protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd, the city's budget had called for a $3 million increase in police funding. Prior to voting on the budget, the city council heard from hundreds of citizens pushing for reallocating some law enforcement funds.\n\nNashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance), Tennessee\n\n• Population, 2018: 665,498\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 11.8% (13th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $289 million (25th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $2.45 billion (18th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 264 (120th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,757 (1,435 officers, 322 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,113 (27th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nTaking effect July 1, Nashville's new budget increases police spending by about $2.6 million. The additional funds will be used to hire 48 new recruits. One city council member's proposal to slash the police budget in half did not get much support. This year's budget includes $2.1 million to buy body cameras for all officers. Advocates say cameras are an essential tool for monitoring police behavior.\n\nDetroit, Michigan\n\n• Population, 2018: 672,681\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.1% (23rd smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $317 million (23rd largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $2.10 billion (21st largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 449 (13th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 3,019 (2,398 officers, 621 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 2,008 (the highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nWhile Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer does not support \"defunding\" the state's police departments, she would like to see more investments in health care, schools, and transportation. In Detroit, Police Chief James Craig is supportive of this idea but not at the expense of cops. He pointed out that his department struggled to do its job during the city's bankruptcy period of 2013-2014 that forced budget cuts.\n\nEl Paso, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 682,686\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.1% (22nd smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $158 million (7th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.05 billion (8th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 196 (280th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,341 (1,103 officers, 238 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 371 (275th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nEl Paso police faced criticism after using tear gas and non-lethal rounds to disperse protesters on May 31. The police said they reacted after some members of the crowd became unruly and threw bottles at officers. A state senator urged the El Paso City Council to conduct an independent investigation into the incident. The city manager has now been tasked with exploring the idea of a civilian review board.\n\nThe police department is the largest line item in El Paso's budget, followed by the fire department and mass transit.\n\nBoston, Massachusetts\n\n• Population, 2018: 695,926\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 10.3% (9th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $375 million (19th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $3.65 billion (11th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 390 (24th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,715 (2,122 officers, 593 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 622 (130th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nBoston is moving forward with plans to cut a specific part of the police department's budget – overtime. The pay of officers working overtime can amount to significant amounts at departments across the country. City officials are looking at a 20% cut (about $12 million). The funds would be diverted to health, addressing homelessness, and business development.\n\nWashington, District of Columbia\n\n• Population, 2018: 702,455\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 3.3% (the smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $544 million (10th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $16.70 billion (2nd largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 643 (2nd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 4,520 (3,841 officers, 679 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 941 (49th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAs the home to the federal government, Washington D.C. has been one of the epicenters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Mayor Muriel Bowser has publicly feuded with President Donald Trump over activities by federal law enforcement in the city. Still, Bowser has confidence that the local Metropolitan Police Department has mostly good relationships with the community. According to police Chief Peter Newsham, his department has been actively reforming its policies since 2002. In recent years, the city has increased the use of officers on foot and bikes, and invested in a neighborhood engagement program.\n\nDenver, Colorado\n\n• Population, 2018: 716,492\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 28.6% (4th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $426 million (16th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.49 billion (18th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 255 (138th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,824 (1,517 officers, 307 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 730 (97th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nDenver Mayor Michael Hancock says his city had changed its use-of-force policies before the current protests. According to 5280 magazine, Denver already meets the \"8 Can't Wait\" measures suggested by a national reform campaign. He acknowledged, though, that more needs to be done. Hancock endorses the police department's program that sometimes deploys social workers along with officers on calls. At least two city council members have said they favor reallocating some law enforcement dollars to social programs.\n\nSeattle, Washington\n\n• Population, 2018: 744,949\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 27.2% (5th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $409 million (17th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.50 billion (19th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 262 (123rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,954 (1,420 officers, 534 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 680 (111th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nSeattle has become a hotspot in the national debate over police tactics as activists established the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). The small so-called \"police free\" area has attracted a great deal of media attention. Some city council members are proposing a 50% reduction in police spending and diverting those funds to community programs. The mayor has opposed such a drastic hit but has pledged to find at least $100 million for new social initiatives.\n\nIndianapolis, Indiana\n\n• Population, 2018: 864,131\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 20.9% (11th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $254 million (20th smallest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.21 billion (15th smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 365 (38th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 3,153 (2,616 officers, 537 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,273 (20th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nThe ACLU is among the organizations lobbying Indianapolis to reduce police spending in its budget. The mayor will present a new financial outline for the city in August. In the meantime, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is revising its use-of-force policy. The city may also create a review board to review allegations of police misconduct.\n\nLast year's budget included funding for policy body cameras, and the department says those will be introduced this summer.\n\nCharlotte, North Carolina\n\n• Population, 2018: 872,506\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 11.4% (12th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $290 million (25th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $2.55 billion (17th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 268 (112th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,342 (1,817 officers, 525 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 00 (536th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nPolice departments in many cities have faced scrutiny over the use of chemical agents to disperse crowds, and Charlotte is no exception. After the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department used tear gas in June, the city council voted to ban the purchase of such substances going forward. The council also instructed the city manager to oversee an effort to align police policies with the \"8 Can't Wait\" movement, which calls for eight concrete police reforms, including banning chokeholds and shooting from moving vehicles as well as comprehensive reporting.\n\nSan Francisco, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 883,305\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 5.8% (3rd smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $696 million (7th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $12.00 billion (3rd largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 330 (62nd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,913 (2,306 officers, 607 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 691 (108th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nSan Francisco Mayor London Breed has consistently supported increases for her city's police department. Now she is proposing major reforms, including a new class of unarmed officers who would respond to non-criminal complaints such as neighborhood disputes and school interventions. The city mayor wants to ban its police department from using military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians, including tear gas, bayonets and tanks.\n\nThe latest projections show San Francisco could see a $1.7 billion budget shortfall during the next two years.\n\nColumbus, Ohio\n\n• Population, 2018: 895,877\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 19.8% (14th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $360 million (20th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.82 billion (24th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 252 (145th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,255 (1,870 officers, 385 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 495 (185th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nCritics say Columbus spends far more on police than other Ohio cities, such as Cleveland and Cincinnati. And following the movement that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis with calls to action on police reform, the city is now responding. In mid-June, Mayor Andrew Ginther said Columbus would adopt the \"8 Can't Wait\" police reform proposals that center on de-escalation techniques that are being pushed nationwide.\n\nFort Worth, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 898,919\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 18.5% (16th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $355 million (21st largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $1.92 billion (22nd largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 237 (173rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,132 (1,694 officers, 438 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 501 (180th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nVoters in Fort Worth will have a unique opportunity in July to directly weigh in on the \"defund the police\" issue. They will be voting on whether to renew the special police fund that has been around since 1995. Raised through a half-cent sales tax, the fund is designed to supplement the city's budget for police. It was expected to bring in $88 million this year. Excluding this special fund, Fort Worth still has a sizable police budget, at $355 million.\n\nJacksonville, Florida\n\n• Population, 2018: 903,896\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 17.6% (20th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $482 million (13th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $2.74 billion (16th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 335 (55th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 3,032 (1,724 officers, 1308 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 596 (139th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nIncoming City Council President Tommy Hazouri says Black Lives Matter protesters' voices are being heard. He has formed a new social justice committee to look at policing and economic development in poor neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Sheriff Mike Williams is arguing against any cuts to his department. He argues that communities of color would be disproportionately affected if his budget is reduced.\n\nAustin, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 964,243\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 8.9% (6th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $376 million (18th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $4.20 billion (9th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 251 (146th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,422 (1,851 officers, 571 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 382 (261st highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nActivists in Austin are pushing for a $100 million cut to the city's police department for the next fiscal year, but Mayor Steve Adler is not yet on board. The city manager is proposing a reallocation of some public safety funds and the creation of advisory working groups that would explore how the city might change its funding priorities. Right now, the Austin police department budget is twice as large as the city's fire department's budget.\n\nSan Jose, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,030,119\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 14.5% (20th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $449 million (15th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $3.09 billion (13th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 150 (418th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 1,550 (1,113 officers, 437 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 424 (229th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nIn approving a new budget in mid-June, the city council voted to create a new Office of Racial Equality. That office will have a budget of $1.5 million. In another small move, the city allocated $15,000 for updating the police auditor's website. The budgeted upgrade should allow citizens to upload photos and videos to the website when they file complaints against the police.\n\nAs San Jose finalizes its budget for the next fiscal year, the police department could see a minimal cut, $10 million, due to a revenue crunch caused by COVID-19.\n\nDallas, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,345,076\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 13.6% (18th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $517 million (12th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $3.79 billion (10th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 266 (118th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 3,581 (3,007 officers, 574 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 765 (82nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nFacing a coronavirus-related budget shortfall of up to $100 million for the next fiscal year, Dallas has some hard choices to make. And the national debate about public safety funding is playing into that. Scheduled to present the next budget in August, the city manager is weighing multiple scenarios. In the end, many city departments, including the police, could see cuts. Public safety (including fire and police) is by far the largest expenditure for the city.\n\nSan Diego, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,425,999\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 36.8% (3rd largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $566 million (9th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $1.54 billion (21st smallest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 164 (379th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,332 (1,731 officers, 601 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 373 (272nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nOver 4,400 city residents called and emailed the San Diego City Council in June, asking that the city divert police funding to rent relief, mental health services, and more. Instead, the council voted to increase the police budget to fund already-approved pay raises for the police as well as expenses related to COVID-19. The council, however, did agree to create a new $3.8 million Office on Race and Equity, and the city recently banned the use of chokeholds by police.\n\nThe police department is the largest expense for the city's general fund, followed by fire/rescue.\n\nSan Antonio, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,532,212\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 21.6% (9th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $479 million (14th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $2.22 billion (19th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 195 (283rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 2,991 (2,352 officers, 639 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 627 (127th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nA familiar scenario is playing out in San Antonio, with some local residents calling for cuts to the police department, and the police chief pushing back. Protesters recently filled San Antonio City Council chambers demanding change, but in the end, the SAPD saw only a small cut of $4.4 million during a mid-year budget adjustment. A new city budget, to be voted on in August, could include additional cuts. The city manager is proposing the elimination of nearly 100 police positions.\n\nPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,584,138\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.2% (24th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $760 million (5th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $5.00 billion (8th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 465 (12th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 7,366 (6,577 officers, 789 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 909 (55th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nProtesters' calls to \"defund the police\" come at a time of huge budget shortfalls due to the coronavirus pandemic, and some cities may be forced to cut police budgets even if they did not intend to. In Philadelphia, tax receipts have plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 economic fallout, and now the city is facing a $749 million budget deficit this year.\n\nA preliminary Philadelphia city budget in June cut $33 million from the police department (about 4% of the police budget and less than 1% of the total city budget). The budget also calls for several reform measures, including body cameras and anti-bias training. In the 2021 budget, the police and pensions are the largest expenditures for Philly.\n\nPhoenix, Arizona\n\n• Population, 2018: 1,660,272\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 22.0% (8th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $721 million (6th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $3.27 billion (12th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 235 (177th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 3,902 (2,919 officers, 983 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 733 (94th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nIn approving its new budget, the Phoenix City Council authorized $3 million for a new police oversight budget. The council narrowly rejected requests to cut the overall police budget, which is currently budgeted at $745 million for the new year. Critics have been pushing for changes after the city saw a record number of police shootings in 2018. Phoenix spends more on police than any other department. The fire department comes in second (about $350 million), followed by parks and recreation (about $100 million).\n\nHouston, Texas\n\n• Population, 2018: 2,326,090\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 17.3% (21st largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $965 million (4th largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $5.56 billion (6th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 269 (110th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 6,258 (5,229 officers, 1029 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,026 (37th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAmid calls to reallocate police resources, Houston leaders raised their police budget from $945 million last year to $965 million this year. The mayor's office said the increase was due to fixed costs such as salaries and pensions. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo recently testified before the U.S. Congress that cutting police budgets is not the best way to address police brutality. The police department is the largest line item in the city's budget, with the fire department budget half as large.\n\nChicago, Illinois\n\n• Population, 2018: 2,705,988\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 15.3% (25th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2020: $2 billion (3rd largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2020: $11.65 billion (4th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 521 (7th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 14,086 (13,138 officers, 948 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 1,006 (39th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nOf all of America's big cities, Chicago has had among the worst problems with gun violence, largely concentrated in poor neighborhoods.\n\nA 2016 task force found systemic racism within the city's police department. The report led to a series of reforms, including new policies on the use of force and equipping all officers with tasers. In June, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new committee to review the police department's use of force policies. Public safety, which includes police and fire departments, is the largest expenditure for the city. Of the 85,663 arrests Chicago police made in 2018, 62,901 or about three quarters were of Black residents. Black Chicagoans make up about 30% of the city's population.\n\nLos Angeles, California\n\n• Population, 2018: 3,990,469\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 17.6% (19th largest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $2 billion (2nd largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $10.53 billion (5th largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 326 (66th highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 13,010 (9,974 officers, 3,036 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 748 (86th highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAmerica's second largest city spends 17.6% of its annual budget on policing, the second largest budget expenditure after retirement and pension funds. Responding to protesters against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police, a city council committee voted in June to cut $150 million from the police budget. As the city's budget is still being negotiated, the Board of Police Commissioners has committed to identifying up to $150 million in cuts.\n\nNew York, New York\n\n• Population, 2018: 8,398,748\n\n• Police dept. funding as % of total budget, fiscal year 2020: 5.9% (4th smallest out of 50 largest cities)\n\n• Total police budget for fiscal 2021: $6 billion (the largest)\n\n• Total city budget for fiscal 2021: $95.30 billion (the largest)\n\n• Law enforcement employees per 100K: 622 (3rd highest out of 634 cities with 65K +)\n\n• Total law enforcement employees: 52,278 (36,134 officers, 16,144 civilian employees)\n\n• Violent crimes reported per 100K in 2018: 541 (162nd highest out of 634 cities of 65K +)\n\nAmerica's largest city has a police budget of over $5.5 billion. Percentage-wise, however, New York City police spending is not that high, at nearly 6% of the city's total budget. The city spends much more on education and social services. Still the \"defund police\" movement has traction with the New York City Council, which is backing a proposal to cut $1 billion from the police budget. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a new law that requires all police agencies to \"reform themselves\" in order to qualify for state funding. While New York City spends more on policing than any other U.S. city, it should also be noted that the Big Apple faces a unique challenge: the city is a potential target for terrorists. Last year, the NYPD spent $187 million on counterterrorism and intelligence activities.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/18/success/pandemic-work-from-home-career-changes/index.html", "title": "Two years later, remote work has changed millions of careers - CNN", "text": "The pandemic thrust the working world into a new reality in March 2020 as offices closed and millions of people were forced to learn how to do their jobs from home.\n\nTwo years later, employers and workers are still adapting to a new normal and trying to figure out what the future of work might look like.\n\nSome companies are determined to return to the way things wereand get everyone back into the office . And some have embraced remote work, allowing employees to work from home full time or part of the time.\n\nBut many workers are deciding to chart their own course. Some have found that they love working from home and never want to step foot in an office again. Others are itching to go back -- missing the in-person collaboration and socializing with peers. And some want a little bit of both worlds.\n\nThat has prompted many workers to rethink or even switch careers and make some other big changes. Here's a look at how the pandemic reshaped people's careers in ways they never expected:\n\nMoving cross country to start a new life\n\nAfter her job went fully remote, Chelsea Pruitt decided to move from California to Alabama.\n\nChelsea Pruitt, 31, has lived in California for nearly her entire life. Now, she's headed to Alabama.\n\nPrior to the pandemic, Pruitt had thought about moving, but it wasn't until she started working remotely that the decision became a lot easier to make.\n\n\"I feel like my chapter in life in San Francisco is changing,\" she said. \"My perspective on things is changing. The things I want out of life are changing.\"\n\nPruitt started working for long-term housing rental company Zeus Living in January 2020, right before the pandemic hit the US. At the time, she was going into the office five days a week. But once the pandemic began to shut things down in March, she started working remotely full time.\n\nThat was just what Pruitt needed to make her decision. She had visited a co-worker in Birmingham, Alabama, a few times and decided that was the place she wanted to live.\n\n\"I love the vibe of the city, the change, and I loved [that] it's more leisurely, slow and less stressful and obviously a lot more affordable [than San Francisco], which I am really excited about.\"\n\nThe high cost of living in San Francisco meant she always had to have roommates. \"In San Francisco, I don't see myself being able to own a home unless I am married and have a dual income,\" she said.\n\nBut since her pay will remain the same after the move to Birmingham and the cost of living will be significantly less, she'll be able to save more, and hopefully buy a home of her own and pay down her student loans.\n\n\"I am looking forward to that mental relief knowing that my cost of living is lower and I can save more,\" she said.\n\nFinally taking the leap\n\nCarlos Ortiz started his own consulting business during the pandemic.\n\nCarlos Ortiz had been working as an inspector with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 19 years before the pandemic hit. He had been considering leaving his job for a few years, but was nervous about making such a big change.\n\nA lot of my friends are entrepreneurs and business people and I've never worked in the private industry ... so I decided, let me give it a shot\" Carlos Ortiz\n\n\"I started re-evaluating life and opportunities,\" Ortiz, 48, said of that time. \"[But] I was very comfortable getting a paycheck every two weeks.\"\n\nBut in April 2020, when businesses were shutting their offices down across the country, he realized he wanted more control over his life -- especially when it came to his work. So he began planning the launch of his own business.\n\n\"A lot of my friends are entrepreneurs and business people and I've never worked in the private industry ... so I decided, let me give it a shot,\" he said.\n\nAt the start of 2021, he quit his full-time job and launched a consulting business to advise companies on how to comply with government regulations.\n\nTo help provide some financial cushion as he launched the new venture, Ortiz had been saving up unused leave, which he got paid out for when he left his job.\n\nAt first, \"it was very scary,\" he said. Now, he's making slightly less than he was at his old job, but he's only working 20 hours a week.\n\nOrtiz said he also has more control over his schedule, and since most of his business is done over the phone and on video calls, he's been able to work from anywhere. So far, he's worked from Geneva, Switzerland, San Antonio and Anchorage, Alaska.\n\n\"I am getting back into my art and reading a lot more ... and exercising a lot more. And I am doing my chores as I've always done, but now I am just not exhausted.\"\n\nEnjoying the hybrid life\n\nAfter working from home for two years, John Pearson missed the collaboration and socialization that happens in the office.\n\nJohn Pearson used to have a hard deadline of 6:00 a.m. in order to be out of his driveway and on his way to work each morning.\n\n\"Otherwise, the commute goes from an hour to something much worse,\" said Pearson, 55, who is a senior vice president at PTC, an industrial software company in Boston.\n\nBut for the past two years, his commute has been a quick walk down the hall to his home office.\n\nI can get through more complex problem solving much faster in a room with two or three people and a whiteboard than I can through Zoom\" John Pearson\n\nAt first, he said he was more productive and less distracted when working from home. But now that he has periodically started going into the office, he realizes there are some advantages to in-person work.\n\n\"I can get through more complex problem solving much faster in a room with two or three people and a whiteboard than I can through Zoom,\" he said.\n\nHe also realized he missed talking to people in the office about simple things, like their kids or what they've been watching on TV. \"When you are jumping from 30-minute call to 30-minute call on video, you just don't do that as much.\"\n\nHis company plans to offer a flexible model to its employees -- something Pearson prefers. His goal is to be in the office two to three days a week.\n\nAnd as much as he didn't like the commute, he started to realize the role it played. \"It really is a firm break in which you walk away and you close your laptop.\"\n\nThe WFH convert\n\nRashmi Bhankhede used to prefer being in the office five days a week. Now she hopes to work remotely full-time.\n\nRashmi Bhankhede never really liked the idea of working from home.\n\n\"Before the pandemic...I definitely preferred working face-to-face in this open-office environment,\" she said. \"I thought it was the most productive way for everyone.\"\n\nAs a senior manager of software engineering at Capital One, she manages two teams. She used to want her teams to come into the office to collaborate, discuss projects, hold feedback sessions and interact on a more social level. But the pandemic has changed her approach.\n\nIt doesn't matter where you are. If you have good processes to connect with your peers and [direct] reports, working remote can be very productive\" Rashmi Bhankhede\n\nAfter two years of working from home, she's hoping to make remote work permanent. Capital One has said it will be on a hybrid schedule when it reopens its offices.\n\n\"It doesn't matter where you are. If you have good processes to connect with your peers and [direct] reports, working remote can be very productive,\" said Bhankhede, 43.\n\nShe added that the flexibility helps her manage her time better and that her team has become closer -- even though they haven't seen each other in person for two years.\n\nTo better define the boundary between work and her personal life, Bhankhede gets dressed in her work clothes every morning and changes at the end of the day, followed by a relaxing activity like a walk.\n\nWorking from home has also meant spending more time with her two sons and learning new hobbies since she no longer has to commute.\n\n\"I started growing peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers ... and got back into sewing,\" she said. \"I am still not good at it.\"\n\nTurning a hobby into a new career\n\nCody Irion went back to school and switched careers during the pandemic.\n\nThe pandemic hit right as Cody Irion's busy season was about to start.\n\nIn 2020, he owned a horse transportation business in North Carolina. Typically, April through August were his most lucrative months, but when stay-at-home orders started sweeping the US, he quickly decided to close his business, sell the equipment and go back to school to get a degree in computer science.\n\n\"I had the choice of going into a massive amount of debt to keep going or change careers,\" said Irion, 35. \"I had started learning software development as a hobby and I really enjoyed it, so I didn't hesitate.\"\n\nHe enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and since the majority of his classes have been virtual, he didn't have to move closer to campus until his final year, saving him a lot of money.\n\nHe also believes he had more internship opportunities last summer since so many companies were still operating remotely.\n\nIrion is set to graduate this May and already has a job lined up at a financial services company.\n\n\"I had never even considered software engineering before I started it as a hobby because I grew up in Southern Illinois with race horses,\" he said. \"I knew nothing about the industry other than I liked computers and I started learning it and realized I was pretty good at it.\"\n\nTurning a side business into a full-time job\n\nMabel Frias (pictured on the left with her sister) left her full-time job during the pandemic to fully commit to her side business, Luna Magic.\n\nMabel Frias had been juggling two jobs at the beginning of the pandemic, but eventually had to make a decision: stay with the security and safety of her full-time job or pursue a riskier life as an entrepreneur.\n\nIn March 2020, Frias was a little more than a year into working what she described as her \"dream job\" as director of digital merchandising at lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty. Meanwhile, she was also trying to grow Luna Magic, a beauty brand she launched with her sister in 2019.\n\nBut as the pandemic forced many workers to do their jobs remotely, Luna Magic started gaining more traction and demanding more of her time.\n\n\"Because we were in a Zoom culture, people still wanted from the face up to look good. You still wanted to have a level of presentation while you are on the screen,\" Frias, 35, said.\n\nWhile working two jobs meant long hours during the week and weekends, Frias was nervous about leaving her full-time job and the financial security it brought. So she set certain benchmarks for Luna Magic to hit, including partnerships and business opportunities, before she could feel comfortable walking away.\n\n\"Part of the challenges a lot of entrepreneurs have is they jump to soon,\" she said. \"I don't like to have economic anxiety. I am also a mother and practical about these things.\"\n\nSoon enough, the company was meeting her goals. In 2020, Walmart.com started selling the company's products, which includes makeup and other cosmetics. And in 2021, Walmart and Target started carrying products in some stores, as well as online.\n\n\"I had to trust myself. I liked the idea of growing something from scratch,\" she said.\n\nIn 2020, Frias applied to be on ABC's Shark Tank and was accepted. The show, which features entrepreneurs pitching their businesses to a panel of investors, aired in January 2021 -- the same day Frias quit her job.\n\n\"I love the magic of creating something out of nothing. I saw our company as we get to bring even more beauty into the world at a moment when people are looking for it,\" Frias said.\n\nJust graduated and can't wait to work in person\n\nRachel Zipfel started her new job working fully remote, but hopes to eventually be in the office five days a week.\n\nRachel Zipfel finished her college courses in the same place she started her first full-time job: in a room at her parents' house.\n\nZipfel, 23, graduated from the University of Missouri, St. Louis in August 2021 with a degree in marketing. But because of the pandemic, her classes were remote for nearly her last two years of college.\n\nShe's now working remotely for a digital marketing agency and has met her colleagues roughly five times in person. She feels like working from home has made it harder to get acclimated to the working world.\n\nWhen she first started, she found it challenging to learn the ropes.\n\n\"If you are trying to ask someone a question, you don't know what they are doing on the other side of the computer, so what could be a five-minute question in person [could turn] into maybe two hours of waiting for an answer,\" she said.\n\nZipfel started going into the office about once a week in January, and said she feels more productive. She hopes to eventually be there five days a week.\n\n\"I've noticed a world of difference,\" she said. \"There are none of the distractions that are at home. It's so much easier to get work done. If the person is there that I need to talk to I can get my question answered in five seconds versus two hours. I love being in the office and I cant wait for it to be back open again.\"\n\nQuit a job that wanted him back in the office\n\nWhen Ryan Bernsten found out his employer wanted him to come back into the office, he found a new job.\n\nRyan Bernsten had only been working at his new job as a copywriter for a few weeks in March 2020 when he was sent home to work remotely.\n\nAt the time, he was worried about how it would work. \"Work from home? What would that even look like? I am going to miss out on all the social interaction -- I am new here,\" he recalled.\n\nIf they aren't going to validate that I enjoy working from home, that I am better at home, and I enjoy my lifestyle at home, I need to find a job that will,\" Ryan Bernsten\n\nBut eventually he adapted. Now two years later, he prefers remote work.\n\nWorking from home, he said, enables him to be more productive and have a better work-life balance. So when he learned he was going to be required to return to the office a few days a week, he started looking for a new job that allowed him to stay remote.\n\n\"If they aren't going to validate that I enjoy working from home, that I am better at home, and I enjoy my lifestyle at home, I need to find a job that will,\" he said.\n\nIt took him less than a month to get a new, fully remote job.\n\n\"I never ever have to go back to the office,\" Bernsten, 29, said. \"You get to see people at their best. If we fly to San Francisco for a meeting, the adrenaline is there, we are excited to see people, we're going to make it count. But you don't have to see people every day ... when they have a cold, are in a bad mood or in a fight with their partner.\"\n\nAnd not only did he get added flexibility, he also got a higher salary.\n\n\"I don't believe everyone needs to work from home,\" he said. \"But some people work better from home. I never wake up dreading work because I am in the comfort of my home.\"\n\nCorrection: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated how long Mabel Frias worked at her previous employer.", "authors": ["Kathryn Vasel", "Carlos Ortiz", "John Pearson", "Rashmi Bhankhede", "Ryan Bernsten"], "publish_date": "2022/03/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/10/bob-ray-obituary-robert-d-ray-iowa-governor-republican-robert-ray-des-moines/405858002/", "title": "Robert Ray and his remarkable life in Iowa, in 10 chapters", "text": "Bob Ray was the Iowan we all want to be.\n\nFor a generation, Ray embodied the ethos of his native state in a way few public servants can imagine.\n\nHe unified the extremes of the Republican Party in a way no one had before or since, bargained compromise with legislatures both friendly and otherwise; he possessed a keen sense for placing the right person in the right job for the benefit of the public, admirers say.\n\nHe continued in public service well after he left the governor’s office and remained one of the most beloved leaders in Iowa history.\n\nAnd it all began in a humble frame house near Drake University in Des Moines.\n\nPROLOGUE: BIRTH OF A LEADER\n\nThe year 1928 was a good one for Iowa leaders.\n\nA Republican from West Branch named Herbert Hoover won relatively easy election to the White House — the only Iowa native to become president of the United States.\n\nHoover’s presidency was a single term, marred by the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing economic stress known as the Great Depression.\n\nBut five weeks before Hoover was elected, another great Iowa leader made his debut.\n\nRobert Dolph Ray was born in Des Moines on Sept. 26, 1928, to accountant Clark Ray and his wife, Mildred. He was the Rays’ second child and only son. The family was of modest means and lived in a frame house on 26th Street near the Drake University campus.\n\nBOB RAY, 1928-2018:\n\nCHAPTER ONE: ICE CREAM AND POLITICS\n\nThe future five-term governor of Iowa spent his childhood playing pickup baseball games at Drake Park. He played basketball and tennis while attending Grant, Callanan and Roosevelt schools.\n\nRay developed a lifelong obsession with ice cream at Reed’s Ice Cream on Forest Avenue, where he often stood in line for nickel ice cream bars several times a day. In high school, he worked part-time at Mrs. Smith Butcher Shop on Cottage Grove.\n\nRay was not a standout student, his mother and former teachers would say. He was bright and had an unusual ability to remember anything he saw or heard, but seldom studied hard.\n\n“I know in high school, the teachers would talk to me and they’d say, ‘If he’d just open his book and work hard, he’d be an A-plus student,’” Mildred Ray told journalist John Bowermaster for the 1986 book “Governor: An Oral Biography of Robert D. Ray.”\n\nClassmates remembered Ray largely as a loner. He was friendly, they told Bowermaster, but introverted and quiet. Yet his political chops first appeared in seventh grade at Callanan Junior High School.\n\nAn early win\n\nClassmate George Lilly, who later owned a Volkswagen dealership in the metro, nominated Ray for seventh-grade class president. Ray made banners and posters and gave speeches. He won the office and the admiration of another Callanan student, a young Marvin Pomerantz.\n\nPomerantz would grow up to become one of the most successful real estate developers and businessmen in Des Moines. A Republican, he served in Ray's inner circle of advisers throughout the governor's career and was a top fundraiser for Republicans and Ray.\n\n“Even in seventh grade, I remember being amazed by his political skills,” Pomerantz, who died in 2007, told Bowermaster.\n\nRay’s father and maternal grandfather were staunch Republicans. The two often groused about President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal.\n\nA young Ray listened to the discussions and asked questions of his elders, but Ray was seldom impressed by their answers. He was a Republican at the time because that’s how he was raised, but he could have easily swayed Democrat or independent.\n\nThe love of his life\n\nRay made another important connection while in high school. The Rays attended University Christian Church, now known as First Christian Church, at 25th Street and University Avenue. So did the Hornberger family.\n\nRay took an interest in their daughter, Billie Lee, during a summer church camp, where the two met and began courting. She was named queen of the camp and Ray was named king.\n\nRay graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1946 at age 17. With the permission of his parents, he joined the U.S. Army and spent two years in Japan as part of the first wave of relief troops after World War II.\n\nRay enjoyed his service to his country, but was awestruck and saddened by the destruction that World War II had brought to Japan. He struggled with seasickness on the long boat trip to Japan, and, while there, homesickness for Iowa. But his experiences there began a lifelong fascination with Japan and Southeast Asia that would later influence the creation of the Iowa Sister States program and other humanitarian efforts.\n\nHe returned to Des Moines and enrolled at Drake with the help of the GI Bill. He started a restaurant with his future brother-in-law in downtown Des Moines. Neither really knew what they were doing and sold it before it drove them into debt.\n\nRay worked as a meat cutter at a Cottage Grove butcher shop to help pay for school. He studied business administration and teaching but did not student teach. He considered becoming a coach. He also worked as a reading clerk in the Iowa Senate, which gave him his first exposure to state politics and how bills are made into laws.\n\nAgain, Ray proved popular among classmates. He pledged the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and was elected student body president at the same time that famed running back Johnny Bright was blazing up and down the turf at Drake Stadium.\n\nRay worked as a newspaper carrier for The Des Moines Register and rose to district circulation manager while attending Drake Law School. He was offered a job in the Register’s circulation department but turned it down to begin practicing law.\n\nRay continued to date Billie Lee Hornberger, and the couple married in 1951 while he was still a law student.\n\nAfter he finished law school, the Rays joined another couple and spent four and a half months touring Europe.\n\nWhile on the trip, Ray developed what became his lifelong interest in photography, which 28 years later would provide Ray and Iowans powerful insights into the suffering of Southeast Asian refugees.\n\nCHAPTER TWO: PRACTICING LAW, EARLY LOSSES\n\nThe Rays returned from Europe nearly broke. Billie Ray went back to teaching school.\n\nBob Ray shopped around for a job practicing law at firms in Des Moines and elsewhere.\n\nHe eventually landed in the offices of Verne and James Lawyer, two high-profile trial lawyers in downtown Des Moines.\n\nVerne Lawyer, who hired Ray, was a colorful character in Des Moines, with wide-ranging connections. He owned a private plane and jetted around the country. Lawyer once arranged for his friend, famed trial lawyer F. Lee Bailey, to marry an airline stewardess at a club on Fleur Drive. Bob and Billie Ray were witnesses.\n\nLawyer immediately saw Ray had political potential and would prove a powerful early ally.\n\nRay defended criminal cases. He once won a sodomy case, which led to him defending more sodomy suspects.\n\n“Once you get a reputation for winning a case like that, they keep coming back to you, even if you don’t want them to,” Ray told Bowermaster.\n\nThough Ray was a talented and fast-learning lawyer, the lure of politics soon enveloped him. He ran for Polk County attorney in 1956 at age 27. Polk County, then as now, leaned heavily Democratic, and Republicans were little more than sacrificial lambs in the county attorney’s race.\n\nHe lost by 10,000 votes. Still, he showed early flair. Billie Ray sewed costumes for several women she and Bob Ray had known at Drake or around town, and they wore the outfits in public appearances for Ray, including the Iowa State Fair parade that fall. They became known as the Ray Girls and would be a feature of Ray campaigns for the rest of his career.\n\nRay also eschewed the traditional red, white and blue color scheme favored by political candidates in favor of cardinal and gold, reminiscent of Iowa State University’s colors.\n\n“It wasn’t that he particularly favored Iowa State, but he wanted something to be different and stand out,” said David Oman, a former Ray chief of staff. “They became his signature colors.”\n\nRay made his second run at public office in 1958, this time, aimed at the Iowa House. This bid, too, ended in defeat.\n\nAgain, Ray learned. He ran his first television ads, which most candidates at the time were not doing. In one spot, a union electrician explained why he favored Ray.\n\nThe Iowa Republican Party was disorganized in the 1958 campaign. To revitalize the party, Ray worked with Leo Oxberger, one of Ray’s law school classmates, whom Ray would appoint as a judge in the Iowa Court of Appeals in 1976.\n\nThey joined social clubs and community charitable organizations: the March of Dimes, Rotary, Eagles, Moose Lodges. The idea was to spread the word about Republicans wherever possible.\n\nRay said he was doing it to help build his law practice, but he also built a network of contacts that would become the backbone of his statewide campaigns for years to come. Through those clubs and early contacts, he cultivated dedicated local campaign leaders who supported him in each of Iowa’s 99 counties.\n\nDefeated in his bids for elective office, Ray ascended the rungs of internal party leadership. He became head of the Polk County Republican Party in 1962. The following year, at age 35, Ray became the youngest man in 100 years to be elected state chairman of the Iowa Republicans.\n\nThe party struggled with its identity. Conservatives and moderates battled for control of the party both in Iowa and nationally.\n\nThe national GOP convention selected conservative Barry Goldwater to challenge President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 election. Johnson, riding on the nation’s sympathies after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a year earlier and pursuing an aggressive domestic agenda, cruised to a landslide victory. Democrats widened their majorities in the U.S. Senate and House.\n\nIn Iowa, popular incumbent Gov. Harold Hughes, a Democrat, easily won re-election to his second two-year term, and Democrats took five of Iowa’s six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats carried heavy majorities in both houses of the Iowa Legislature.\n\nRay had planned to go back to his law practice with the Lawyer brothers after the 1964 elections. But the trouncing was so bad, Ray believed he needed to stay on as party chairman.\n\nCHAPTER THREE: GRITTY CAMPAIGNER\n\nIn 1965, Ray took on more executive responsibilities as state GOP chair. He hired more full-time staff. He held schools for candidates to educate them on the issues and drill them so they could defend their positions when questioned by the press, public or opponents.\n\nUnder Ray’s guidance, Republicans hosted $1 fundraisers called Buck Nights statewide. The cheap events brought in farmers, business people and everyday Iowans who rallied around a cheery new slogan: “It’s fun to be a Republican!”\n\nRay ordered tighter controls on how candidates could spend Republican Central Committee money and increased television advertising.\n\nThe results in 1966 were better-coordinated campaigns and huge gains for Republicans in the Legislature. The GOP won three of the state's then-six congressional seats from Democrats and seated 88 new Republicans in the Iowa Legislature.\n\nHughes again won re-election as governor that year. He also befriended Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of President Kennedy and a former U.S. attorney general. The younger Kennedy convinced Hughes to run for U.S. Senate, clearing the way for a wide-open governor’s race in 1968.\n\nRay decided to run for office again, this time for governor.\n\nConservative opponents\n\nRay faced a three-man race for the Republican nomination, squaring off against Donald Johnson of West Branch, a former national commander of the American Legion, and newspaper publisher Robert Beck of Centerville. Johnson and Beck were more conservative than Ray.\n\nAmong other moderate stances, Ray opposed the death penalty. “No man has a right to play God,” Ray said in a campaign appearance.\n\nRay also favored limited abortion rights for women in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s health. He also opposed a proposal circulating in the Legislature that would have denied state welfare benefits to women with more than one child out of wedlock.\n\n“Heaven help us when we don’t have enough compassion to help those who need us,” Ray said in October 1968.\n\nRay’s views would be considered liberal by GOP standards now, the late Arthur Neu, a former Republican lawmaker and lieutenant governor under Ray, said in a 2012 interview.\n\n“He would be cut to pieces in a primary today,” Neu said.\n\nRay was supported by the Republican inner circle, but he was considered a city man and wasn’t well-known outside Polk County. Residents of smaller cities and rural communities viewed Des Moines, considered the big city, with skepticism.\n\nIn one campaign appearance, a Republican candidate for the U.S. House introduced Ray as “Bob Day.”\n\nBoosted by plane crash\n\nIt took a nearly fatal plane crash to make Ray a statewide name.\n\nOn April 22, 1968, Ray was flying in a small plane with a pilot and campaign staffer when the plane went down near Clear Lake.\n\nAll aboard survived but were badly injured. Ray suffered a broken ankle and leg, which left him laid up in a Mason City hospital. But the campaign marched on.\n\nBefore he ran for governor, Billie Ray made her husband promise she would not have to make speeches on the campaign trail. She would be there with him, but she didn’t want to be out front.\n\nWith her husband injured, the campaign collected Billie Ray from Des Moines. She appeared before crowds and gave an update on her husband’s health. She never talked policy, but Iowans took a liking to the loyal wife and schoolteacher.\n\n“Mrs. Ray was always fantastic with Iowans,” said Oman, the Ray adviser. “She was natural and real. People responded to her like she was one of them, just like they did with Governor Ray.”\n\nWhen Ray returned to the campaign trail on crutches, his grit resonated with Iowans. He won the primary, then took on Democrat Paul Franzenburg, the state treasurer, in the general election.\n\nThe tumultuous 1968 presidential campaign is remembered for the assassination of Robert Kennedy, violence at the Democratic convention in Chicago and the increasing unpopularity of the Vietnam War. It culminated with the landslide election of Republican Richard M. Nixon to the White House.\n\nAnd in Iowa, 40-year-old Robert Ray became governor.\n\nCHAPTER FOUR: FRESHMAN GOVERNOR\n\nThe love affair between Iowans and Ray as their governor did not begin immediately. His first year was marked by a steep learning curve.\n\nHughes, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968, left office early to begin his transition to Washington, D.C. Lt. Gov. Robert Fulton, a Democrat, assumed the governor’s chair for 16 days to finish out Hughes’ term, but there was little focus on the transition to the new governor.\n\nRay came into an empty office without even a pad of paper, he said later, and was immediately confronted with the troubles of the day.\n\nUnder Hughes in the previous session, lawmakers raised taxes statewide. Farmers, in particular, were struggling with a new formula that taxed more of their land at a higher rate. Agriculture industries suffered, too. Hog prices plummeted.\n\nRepublicans controlled both houses of the Legislature, which in theory could have translated into smooth working relationships between the governor and lawmakers.\n\nIn reality, Republicans in the Legislature were more conservative than Ray, and they often found themselves at odds.\n\nLeaders in the Iowa House privately groused that the new governor didn’t understand the legislative process.\n\nRay stood his ground. He vetoed a bill that would have expanded the government’s powers to wiretap citizens. He supported the distribution of birth control pills in mental health institutions. And he fought off an effort to reinstate the state’s death penalty.\n\n“They thought they were going to be able to tell me what to do,” Ray told Bowermaster, his biographer. “They were wrong.”\n\nCalm amid strife\n\nHis first term also was marked by social strife. Students loudly and sometimes violently protested the Vietnam War, racial inequities and other issues on the state’s three university campuses.\n\nBombs exploded at Drake, a private college, and Iowa State University and the University of Iowa in 1970. There were no fatalities, but tensions ran high.\n\nStudents held sit-ins and confronted campus administrators. In one incident at the University of Iowa, several students used profanity in a protest with a university official present. Some lawmakers thought the campuses were out of control and wanted Ray to enforce strict discipline.\n\nRay refused.\n\n“We’re living in a time when young people are restless and do things older people don’t like,” Ray told the Register in 1970. “But I’m not willing to condemn all for a few who do things out of the ordinary to seek attention.”\n\nIn other states, governors used the National Guard to quell student unrest. This proved deadly on the campus of Kent State in Ohio, where in May 1970 troops opened fire on a group of unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine others.\n\nOne night in 1970, a group of University of Iowa students decided to block Interstate Highway 80 by lying across the road. Ray had the National Guard, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa State Patrol at his disposal.\n\nRay quietly sent in state troopers to escort the students off the interstate. The situation was defused without serious incident.\n\n“That was a moment where Ray’s touch was just perfect,” said David Yepsen, a longtime Register political reporter who was then a UI student. “At the time, the Iowa State Patrol was second only to God in the respect of Iowans. Sending them in, instead of the Guard, really calmed things down. It was a classic Bob Ray moment.”\n\nIn the summer of 1970, a Chicago concert promotion company rented ground near Wadena in northeast Iowa. The plan was to host a Woodstock-style concert for as many as 30,000 people. Seven out of 10 people surveyed by the Register’s Iowa Poll thought the event should be stopped. A similar concert near Chicago ended in a riot.\n\nRay decided to visit the rock festival himself. He spoke to the crowd of about 25,000.\n\n“Look, I don’t want what happened in Chicago last night to happen here,” Ray told the crowd on a 100-degree late July day. “You’re here to have a good time, so please, have a good time, but we want you all to leave here knowing you had a good time. Try to stay off the stuff, OK?”\n\nAbout a dozen people were arrested. There was no violence or riot.\n\n“There was something very simple and honest about what Ray did there that resonated with even young people,” Yepsen said. “He wasn’t pretending to be one of them. He just wanted people to be peaceful. It worked.”\n\nCHAPTER FIVE: TOUGH IN TOUGH TIMES\n\nRay survived a tough re-election challenge in the fall of 1970 from Robert Fulton, the former lieutenant governor, who had helped engineer Hughes’ successful U.S. Senate campaign.\n\nFarmers still leaned against Ray because of their property tax burdens. Ray won by 34,000 votes, the narrowest victory in his career.\n\n“Bob Ray had not become Bob Ray yet,” Yepsen said. “He wasn’t always viewed as saintly as he is today.”\n\nIn 1971, the national economy struggled through a recession. The state budget surplus was exhausted, and Iowans of all stripes begged for tax relief.\n\nRay’s approval rating dipped to an all-time low: 41 percent.\n\nRay dug in on tax policy. He pushed for a plan that shifted the state’s revenue stream from property taxes to income taxes. He worked with lawmakers to create an education funding plan that equalized per-pupil funding, putting schools in poorer regions of the state on more equal financial footing with those in better-off areas.\n\nThe school plan shifted much of the burden of paying for schools to the state. This eased local property taxes, which lessened the burden on farmers and improved funding for schools, which pleased many voters statewide.\n\n“School funding was one of the most important pieces of legislation we worked on,” said Neu, the former lawmaker. “It set Iowa schools on the path to being the best in the nation. It’s a plan a lot of other states copied.”\n\n‘For the little guy’\n\nRay seemingly sought to have a personal relationship with every Iowan with whom he had contact. He sent handwritten notes to every person who assisted him during his trips around the state, even if they only greeted him or hung up his coat. He also tried to read every letter that came to his office, and took pleasure in surprising constituents late in the evening by phoning them to respond to their questions or complaints.\n\n\"People often thought they received a crank call, hang up and Governor Ray would have to call back,\" Oman said.\n\nBut the moment that many believe cemented Ray in the hearts and minds of Iowans came in spring 1972.\n\nOn March 5, 1968, a Wisconsin Air Guard plane had crashed into the home of Emma McCarville of Cresco. Her home was destroyed. On Dec. 9 of that same year, an Iowa Air National Guard plane wrecked the farm home of Peter and Marie Tjernagel, near Story City.\n\nPeter Tjernagel died 52 days after the crash, which Marie Tjernagel believed was related to the financial stress brought onto the family.\n\nThen for years, the Iowa attorney general and the U.S. Air Force wrangled over who should pay the families for their losses. The Air Force wanted Iowa to pay; Iowa officials believed it was the federal government’s responsibility.\n\nDes Moines Register reporter Nick Lamberto wrote about the families’ struggles, which came as news to Ray. When President Nixon visited Rathbun Lake for its dedication in early 1972, Ray asked him about the problem. Nixon referred it to a subordinate.\n\nRay wrote a letter to the Nixon aide and also had it published in the Register. A school class in Story City gathered a 15,000-signature petition urging the federal government to settle.\n\nIn April 1972, Ray, as commander in chief of the Iowa Air National Guard, took dramatic action. He grounded all Air Guard planes until the two families were made whole.\n\nThe federal government was furious, but eventually paid the families.\n\n“That was the moment people began to see Bob Ray as somebody who stood up for the little guy,” Yepsen said. “He took on the whole federal government for two Iowans. That was when they knew how tough he was.”\n\nChallenge from right\n\nWhen Ray decided to seek a third term in 1972, he faced a Republican challenger: Lt. Gov. Roger Jepsen.\n\nBefore a 1988 amendment to the Iowa Constitution, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately rather than as a single ticket.\n\nJepsen, who represented the Iowa GOP’s conservative wing, believed it was his time to run the state’s highest office. Many in the Republican legislative caucus supported Jepsen, who had been a legislative colleague in the Iowa Senate before winning the lieutenant governor’s office in 1968.\n\nRay girded for the challenge by building what supporters called the most impressive campaign effort of his career.\n\nHe again used the political machinery he built in the early 1960s, tapping GOP county chairmen and all those friends he had made rebuilding the party, to build a substantial lead in money and support. Ultimately, Jepsen dropped out of the race before the primary.\n\nMeanwhile, Ray continued to be an innovative campaigner. He introduced telephone solicitations and computerized mass mailings. That fall, Ray ran against Franzenburg again, cruising to victory with 58.6 percent of the vote.\n\nCHAPTER SIX: ‘GOVERNORRAY’\n\nThe old saw about Ray goes that by the time he left office in 1983, he had served as governor so long that a generation of schoolchildren thought Governor Ray was one word. Children would ask their teachers who the “Governorray” was of neighboring states.\n\nThough possibly apocryphal, the story is emblematic of Ray’s widespread popularity in Iowa. By the middle 1970s, he polled at a career-high 82 percent approval. Even farmers, who previously believed the governor didn’t understand the relationship of agriculture to the state’s finances, polled 61 percent in favor of Ray.\n\nRay led trade missions to Asia, including promoting Iowa beef in Japan, and he was among the first U.S. governors to visit China after Nixon's historic visit in 1972. Those missions helped farmers, but it also brought the likable Ray and his staff close to the Iowans over the long trips, Oman said.\n\n\"You can't overestimate his likability,\" Oman said. \"You have to like a person to vote for him and he got to know so many Iowans on a first-name basis through these trips.\"\n\nJepsen, the combative lieutenant governor, left politics for a time and returned to the insurance business. Neu, the newly elected lieutenant governor, had a more collegial relationship with Ray and the Legislature.\n\nThe state and national economy improved in Ray’s third term, and Ray and the Legislature began restructuring state government. Together, they created the Iowa Department of Transportation, which merged half-a-dozen separate departments under one umbrella.\n\nThe new agency issued driver’s licenses with photographs. The renewal date for vehicle registrations was matched with the vehicle owner’s birthday rather than having all licenses expire at the end of the year, which had created jams at renewal stations.\n\nRay signed a Democratic-backed bill to remove sales tax from groceries and prescription drugs, which cost the state about $29 million in revenue. He also signed into law a bill that gave public employees collective bargaining rights.\n\nThe governor’s agenda drew criticism from Republicans Terry Branstad and Chuck Grassley, who were both state lawmakers at the time, before Branstad’s promotion to governor and Grassley’s to Congress.\n\nBut Ray was so popular, it was difficult for legislators in either party to oppose him.\n\n“One of the reasons legislators felt more inclined to oppose him in 1969 and 1970, even in 1971 and ’72, was because his popularity was in the 50 to 60 percent range,” Grassley told Bowermaster. “By 1974, it was between 70 to 85. So it wasn’t bad for a legislator to be lined up with him.”\n\nNixon had resigned in disgrace after the Watergate scandal destroyed his administration, and Vice President Gerald Ford succeeded him. Ray became chairman of the National Governors Association in 1975.\n\nFord twice offered Ray the cabinet position of secretary of the interior, but Ray chose to stay home.\n\nMeanwhile, a change in the Iowa Constitution had extended the governor’s term from two years to four. In 1974, Ray easily won re-election against James Schaben to secure the four-year term.\n\nCHAPTER SEVEN: WELCOMING REFUGEES\n\nIn the early 1970s, Ray was greeted outside his office in the Capitol by a woman wearing the traditional garb of the Yankton Sioux tribe.\n\nThe woman’s name was Maria Pearson, also known as Running Moccasins. She had come to Ray to protest the treatment of Native American graves uncovered during a road construction project in Glenwood. Twenty-six graves had been unearthed during the project. Most were reburied, but the remains of a mother and child were sent to a state lab for study.\n\nRay asked what he could do to help.\n\n“You can give me back my people’s bones and you can quit digging them up,” Pearson recalled in her 2000 book, “Give Me Back My People’s Bones: Repatriation and Reburial of American Indian Skeletal Remains in Iowa.”\n\nRay saw to the return of the remains, and he worked with the Legislature to ensure more care was taken with Native American burial grounds.\n\nThe result was the Iowa Burials Protection Act of 1976, long before the 1990 federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.\n\nAs another term unfolded, Ray’s humanitarianism stretched well beyond the borders of Iowa.\n\nThe U.S. failures in Vietnam left deep scars on the American psyche. The nation that had helped defeat Hitler and the Axis in World War II and kept advancing communist forces at bay in Korea had failed in its mission in Southeast Asia.\n\nIn 1975, not long after Ray’s fourth inauguration, 130,000 South Vietnamese refugees fled the country after Saigon fell. Laos, on the border of Vietnam, fell to communist troops later that year.\n\nIn July, Ford appealed to the nation’s governors to help resettle Southeast Asians. He offered $500 to help with the costs for each refugee. Only one governor responded: Ray.\n\n“I didn’t think we could just sit here idly and say, ‘Let those people die,’” Ray told Iowa Public Television for a documentary on refugee resettlement in Iowa.\n\nRay formed the Governor’s Task Force for Indochinese Development. The governor’s office received a specific appeal from the Tai Dam, an ethnic group from Vietnam.\n\nThe Tai Dam were a closely knit group of about 3,500 people. They hoped to keep their community and culture intact, and wanted to resettle in one place together.\n\nThe U.S. State Department resisted settling a large group in one location. Ray pressured federal officials, including Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, to change their minds. They relented. The Tai Dam refugees started arriving in Iowa in October.\n\nOpening state’s door again\n\nAccompanying the refugees was a State Department official named Ken Quinn, a native of the Bronx, N.Y., who had grown up in Dubuque.\n\nWhile Quinn was assigned to the Vietnam-Cambodia border, he had been the first State Department official to report on the massacres of the Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.\n\nQuinn, better than most, knew the terrible conditions faced by refugees. He came to Iowa to give a speech thanking the state for accepting the Tai Dam people.\n\n“After I spoke, I sat down next to Governor Ray, and he tapped me on the leg and said, ‘You would be a good person to have around,’” Quinn said.\n\nJust more than a year later, Quinn returned to Iowa on special assignment to assist Ray’s administration with resettlement efforts.\n\nIn 1979, Ray watched a “60 Minutes” report about the plight of other Southeast Asian refugees from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. They were called “boat people” because they fled persecution on boats made of oil drums. Many drowned. Others starved to death or died of disease in refugee camps.\n\nRay ordered Quinn to use his contacts to see if the governor could again open Iowa’s borders, this time to 1,500 refugees. Quinn worked the system.\n\nThe move was controversial. A September 1979 Register Iowa Poll showed 51 percent opposed resettling more refugees. Ray’s office was flooded with mail.\n\n“It was split right down the middle,” Quinn said. “About half supported it, and half opposed.”\n\nThe letters that irked Ray most came from those who said refugees would take jobs away from needy Iowans. Ray replied to some of those letters with phone calls in the late evening.\n\n“Ray had an aide count up all the help-wanted ads in an edition of the Sunday Register,” Quinn said. “He would call these people at 9:30 or 10 o’clock at night and say, ‘Just go get one of those jobs before they arrive, and everything will be fine.’”\n\nPhotos of suffering\n\nIn October 1979, Ray and the governors of Michigan and New Jersey took a trip to visit refugee camps in Thailand. Quinn accompanied the group.\n\nThe delegation witnessed suffering, starvation and death, and Ray took photos along the way. The conditions left him and the others badly shaken.\n\nAt one point, Tai Dam refugees took Ray into a hut. On the wall was a map of Iowa filled with pins where Tai Dam people had resettled in the state. Ray, Quinn recalled, choked back tears.\n\nRay and Quinn returned to Iowa and were met at the Des Moines airport by Yepsen, the Register political reporter.\n\nYepsen wanted the scoop on what the conditions were like in the refugee camps.\n\n“I saw people die,” Ray told Yepsen, which became the headline of the next morning’s Register. Accompanying the article were Ray’s photos, which Yepsen had convinced the governor to let the Register develop and publish.\n\n“There was no politics in his feelings about that issue,” Yepsen said. “He truly believed it was the right thing to do to help them, and he went about convincing the people of Iowa it was right, too.”\n\nHe met opposition. Some in the governing body of the Disciples of Christ Church, of which Ray was a member, believed they should not get involved with the politically sensitive issue.\n\nRay traveled to St. Louis to speak to the church’s national convention. He delivered what Register religion reporter Bill Simbro described as more of a sermon than a political speech. Ray noted that Missouri’s motto is the “Show Me State.” Ray believed there was a moral imperative in the slogan.\n\n“Don’t tell me of your concerns for human rights, show me,” Ray said. “Don’t tell me of your concerns for these people when you have a chance to save their lives, show me. Don’t tell me how Christian you are. Show me.”\n\nThe speech turned the tide at the convention, and the church supported aid to the refugees.\n\nBack in Iowa, Ray teamed with the Register’s editorial pages for a statewide fundraising campaign that became known as Iowa SHARES. Donations poured in — more than $2.1 million in today’s money — to aid the refugees. The charity sent doctors, nurses, food and supplies to help.\n\n“Governor Ray was a deeply moral man,” Quinn said. “He believed it was our moral duty to help those people. He could not just let them die.”\n\nCHAPTER EIGHT: TERRACE HILL, BOTTLE BILL\n\nDemocrats couldn’t move Ray out of the governor’s chair, but he did make a move in 1976 — to Terrace Hill.\n\nTerrace Hill is a mansion built by millionaire businessman Benjamin Franklin Allen between 1866 and 1869 on land that overlooks downtown Des Moines. After Allen went broke, he sold the mansion to real estate magnate Frederick Hubbell, whose descendants gave the mansion to the state in 1971.\n\nBillie Ray led a massive project starting in 1974 to remodel the mansion into a governor’s residence and a reception hall for visiting dignitaries.\n\nIn 1976, Bob and Billie Ray and their three daughters moved in, leaving a colonial house at 2900 Grand Ave., which had been the Iowa governor’s official residence since 1947.\n\nHis favorite legislation\n\nThe move to the gilded hallways of Terrace Hill was symbolic of Ray’s stature in Iowa. In the middle of his fourth term, he was a confident governor who commanded the executive branch with a calm demeanor admired even by his opponents.\n\nTimes were good in Iowa during the middle ’70s. Farm prices were strong, and unemployment was below 3 percent, half the national average.\n\nIn 1976, Ray’s approval rating stood at 82 percent, according to the Register’s Iowa Poll. Through the remainder of his governorship, it never dipped below 71 percent.\n\nRay was considered a vice presidential candidate in 1976, but Ford picked Bob Dole, a U.S. senator from Kansas who had more international experience. Ford lost the White House to Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.\n\nThe stable times allowed Ray to pursue a pet project, one that he would later say was his favorite piece of legislation during his 14 years as governor.\n\nRay was distressed by the amount of litter along Iowa roads. He pushed for a nickel deposit on beverage cans and bottles sold in Iowa. His aides studied similar bills in Oregon and Vermont. They concluded the bill would not only reduce litter but also increase recycling and ease the burden on landfills.\n\nThe bottle bill, as it came to be known (although it covers cans as well), met opposition from unions, who believed the bill would cost jobs; aluminum manufacturers, who worried about rising costs; and grocers, who would be burdened by collecting and refunding the deposit.\n\nRay, however, refused to bow.\n\nSpecial interests put out “unbelievable” propaganda, Ray told Bowermaster, his biographer.\n\nStill, Ray had the upper hand. Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club joined with the Boy Scouts of America and the powerful Farm Bureau to support the bill. A Register Iowa Poll showed 71 percent of the public favored it.\n\nIt passed both houses, and more than 200 people attended the signing at the Capitol rotunda.\n\n“It was a perfect, if not the perfect, Bob Ray legislation,” Bowermaster wrote. “It wasn’t very sexy, though energy conservation was a hot topic during the 1970s, but it had good, strong public support.”\n\nCHAPTER NINE: THE FINAL TERM\n\nIn 1978, Ray cruised to another easy victory, this time against a three-term legislator, Jerry Fitzgerald, 37, to earn a then-record fifth and ultimately final term.\n\nHis final four years in office would prove memorable. Ray received Pope John Paul II during his historic 1979 visit to Iowa at Living History Farms in front of nearly 300,000 people. Ray took a photograph from the helicopter he rode to the event, which was published in the Register the following morning.\n\nHe greeted Iowa native Kathryn Koob, one of the hostages held by Iran, who was released in early 1981.\n\nMany believed Ray would use the term to position himself as a candidate for national office, either as a vice presidential nominee or a potential presidential candidate.\n\nAs the 1980 Iowa caucuses approached, political campaigns courted him heavily for an endorsement in the first-in-the-nation contest.\n\n“Every day there was either a candidate or somebody from a campaign wanting time with the governor to discuss an endorsement,” said Oman, Ray’s chief of staff. “He listened to them all, and he considered some of them.”\n\nRay no longer had the perceived weakness in foreign affairs that led Ford to pass him over for Dole for the vice presidential nod in 1976.\n\nRay’s work with refugees had made him a national spokesman on the issue, and he had traveled extensively abroad to promote Iowa exports, including stops in China and the Soviet Union in the summer of 1979.\n\nWhile Ray never openly ruled out a White House run, he also never said he wanted national office. And when the 1980 caucuses arrived, he remained neutral, refusing to endorse anyone before the voting.\n\nAfter the caucuses, Ray endorsed U.S. Senate leader Howard Baker, a moderate Republican from Tennessee with a reputation for compromise so renowned that he was known as the “Great Conciliator.”\n\nGeorge H.W. Bush won the Republican Iowa caucuses and ultimately became the vice presidential running mate of future President Ronald Reagan.\n\n“Some people believe Ray could have been Bush’s vice presidential nominee, but I think Bob Ray just liked being governor of Iowa,” said Yepsen, the political reporter. “He was comfortable in that job. He was good at it.”\n\nBudget troubles\n\nRay convinced the Legislature to refund a $50 million surplus to taxpayers, giving back as much as $250 per person. The refund came at a precarious time for state finances. Revenues were leveling off and dropping.\n\nAdvisers suggested using the surplus for a one-time expenditure, such as a prison, but Ray was adamant. His fellow Republicans had rebuffed an idea to repeal the state sales tax on utilities, a move that was popular in other states.\n\nRepealing the utility tax would have been similar to his support for repealing sales taxes on groceries and prescription drugs. Ray believed it was pure tax relief, but he found no support. So instead of letting the Legislature find a way to spend the surplus, Ray pushed for the refund.\n\nThat move would prove costly in 1980 when state revenues plummeted. The state’s cattle industry struggled. Interest rates and inflation climbed to as much as 20 percent. A recession loomed, and Ray found himself needing to cut spending in a hurry.\n\nIn 1980, Ray cut the budget three times for a total of $172 million, almost 10 percent of the state’s total budget. The recession continued through 1981. Ray resisted lawmakers’ pleas for income and sales tax increases, instead lurching forward with minimal budgets.\n\nIt “was a tough year,” Ray said. “Nobody could have predicted the recession would be as deep or as long-lasting as it was.”\n\nPrivate sector beckons\n\nOn Feb. 18, 1982, Ray announced he would not seek a sixth term as governor. He would turn 54 later that year.\n\nAs governor, Ray earned $55,000 a year. Privately, he worried that his prime earning years might be behind him. Turning down federal posts had cost him a higher salary. He doubted he could return to trial law, having been away from the courtroom for nearly 20 years.\n\nLt. Gov. Terry Branstad won the 1982 governor’s race. Branstad, a former Iowa House member from Leland, was more conservative than Ray. At 36, he was the youngest man ever elected to the state’s highest office — four years younger than Ray when he had taken the oath the first time.\n\nThough never as popular as Ray as measured by Iowa Polls, Branstad won four consecutive four-year terms, serving 16 years, two more than Ray. After a stint out of public life, Branstad was re-elected governor again in 2010 and 2014, becoming the longest-serving governor in U.S. history.\n\nRay spent the summer of 1983 as part of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, a position helped by a nod from then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.\n\nThree months after he left office, Ray joined the Cedar Rapids insurance firm Life Investors Inc., now known as AEGON. His salary was reported at $300,000, with bonuses and stock options. The couple kept their home in Des Moines but lived in Cedar Rapids.\n\n“It was a conscious decision on his part to leave Des Moines for a while,” said Oman, Ray’s former chief of staff. “Governor Branstad was new, and it wouldn’t be fair for him to be hanging around looming. The Rays loved their time in Cedar Rapids.”\n\nHe served nearly seven years at Life Investors, then in 1989 took the helm at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. There, Ray oversaw the mergers of IASD Health Service Corp. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Dakota, setting the stage for the company to become Wellmark, Iowa’s largest insurer.\n\nRay, no longer the politician, was a successful businessman. But he was not done being a public leader.\n\nCHAPTER 10: LIFELONG LEADER\n\nIn April 1997, popular Des Moines Mayor A. Arthur Davis resigned when his five-year battle with colon cancer made him too weak to continue.\n\nCity officials set a November election to finish Davis’ term, but needed someone in the interim to officiate over everything from the relocation of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to tax assessment complaints.\n\nThey turned to Ray.\n\nRay, then 68, had recently retired as president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa and appeared headed off to the sunset. He accepted on the condition he not be asked to run for the office on a permanent basis.\n\n“When I was governor, I used to say there is no more difficult job than being mayor of a city,” Ray told the Register in 1997. “You can’t do much of anything without somebody disagreeing with you, and then you’re right there, looking one another in the eye. It’s day-in-and-day-out activity on the street level. So why would I want to do it? Because I might be able to do some good.”\n\nRay held the mayor’s chair until City Councilman Preston Daniels was elected to the job at the end of the year.\n\nAlso in 1997, as a legacy of the 1996 Iowa Sesquicentennial, which Ray chaired, he helped found the Institute for Character Development at Drake University (Character Counts In Iowa), which has blossomed into The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake. The Character Counts program has served over 500,000 Iowa school-age youth. The center also assists Iowans from preschoolers to corporate and community leaders as a state and global resource in the areas of leadership, ethics and civility.\n\nHelping his alma mater\n\nThen another voice from Ray’s past came calling: his alma mater, Drake University.\n\nIn 1998, Drake President Michael Ferrari, who had presided over the school’s financial and academic resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s, had resigned to take the top post at Texas Christian University.\n\nDrake was in the middle of a $100 million fundraising campaign. It would take at least a year to find a new president.\n\nSchool leaders turned to Ray, one of the school’s most prestigious alumni and a longtime member of Drake’s board of trustees.\n\nRay accepted, but with one condition: He did not want to be an interim president. He wanted the full title and responsibility.\n\n“Governor Ray did not believe he could be as effective as he wanted to be if labeled an interim president,” said Don Adams, a longtime Drake vice president who served as Ray’s chief of staff during his yearlong presidency at Drake.\n\nRay became an active leader on campus and beyond. Some faculty members were skeptical about the selection of a trustee to run the school. Ray solved the problem by inviting the president of the faculty senate to join his Cabinet.\n\n“Bob Ray wanted total transparency,” Adams said. “He didn’t want anyone to think he was there on somebody else’s agenda.”\n\nRay held the post until the hiring of David Maxwell, an experienced administrator who was head of the National Foreign Language Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\n\nMaxwell met privately with Ray as they prepared for the leadership change. Ray planned to return to the board of trustees, but he wanted to make sure Maxwell was comfortable with that.\n\nRay “didn’t want me to feel like he was going to be second-guessing me from the board,” Maxwell recalled. “I said to him, ‘The very fact that you would ask that question tells me we’re going to have a good relationship.’ He was always very generous in that way.”\n\nRay continued his service to Iowa through work on dozens of boards and commissions. A speaker and course program for lifelong learners age 50 and above at Drake, called the Ray Society, is named in his and Billie Ray’s honor.\n\nEPILOGUE: LEGACY\n\nBob Ray was Iowa’s most popular politician of the 20th century. The late Washington Post political columnist David Broder once wrote that “among governors of both parties, few men enjoyed greater respect than Ray.”\n\nHe was not without critics. Some called him timid, lukewarm and uninspiring. “A man whose personality had all the zing of his favorite treat — a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream,” noted a 1997 Register profile of Ray.\n\nYet retired Register columnist John Carlson perhaps best assessed Ray’s hold on Iowa:\n\n“Ray’s greatest talent seemed to be correctly assessing the mood of Iowans and having an uncanny sense of what they would and wouldn’t tolerate,” Carlson wrote. “He always, always remembered that Iowans are moderate by nature and never, ever are they extreme.”\n\nOne of the last formal honors Ray received was the Hoover Presidential Library Uncommon Iowan Award, in October 2015.\n\nRay was too ill to attend the ceremony, and Quinn, who worked on refugee issues with Ray while on loan from the State Department, accepted the award on Ray's behalf.\n\nQuinn recounted that Ray was the first governing leader anywhere in the world to offer to accept the Vietnamese boat people, who were drowning at sea. Ray’s Iowa SHARES campaign rushed doctors and nurses, food and medicine to starving Cambodian survivors of the genocidal Khmer Rouge. And he welcomed the Tai Dam people of Laos to be resettled in Iowa together, allowing them to keep their cultural heritage intact.\n\n“Governor Bob Ray displayed the global moral leadership that thrust Iowa to center stage of international humanitarian diplomacy,” Quinn said, “and placed himself in the pantheon of Iowa's greatest historic figures.”\n\nBut Quinn also described a scene that offers perhaps a greater tribute than any award. Thirty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, Ray was walking through a grocery store in Des Moines with his wife, Billie, when they encountered an Asian man pushing a shopping cart. The man recognized the governor, walked over from his cart and extended his hand. He told Ray, “You saved my life. I just want to say, ‘Thank you.’”\n\nBOB RAY TIMELINE\n\n1928: Robert Dolph Ray is born on Sept. 26 to accountant Clark Ray and his wife, Mildred.\n\n1940: Ray wins his first election, as president of his Callanan Junior High School seventh-grade class.\n\n1944: Ray meets Billie Lee Hornberger while attending a youth camp sponsored by University Christian Church.\n\n1946: Ray graduates from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines at age 17. He joins the U.S. Army and spends two years in Japan as part of the first wave of relief troops.\n\n1948: Ray returns to Des Moines and studies business administration and teaching at Drake University.\n\n1951: Ray and Billie Lee Hornberger marry. The couple spends four months traveling Europe as part of an extended honeymoon.\n\n1954: Ray graduates from Drake Law School and eventually joins the firm of Verne and James Lawyer in downtown Des Moines.\n\n1956: Ray runs as a Republican for Polk County attorney. He loses by 10,000 votes in the heavily Democratic county.\n\n1958: Ray runs for the Iowa House and loses, but becomes one of the first Iowa candidates to use television advertising.\n\n1963: Ray, at 35, becomes chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.\n\n1964: In Ray’s first election cycle as chairman, Republicans suffer major state and national defeats as part of the Democratic landslide led by President Lyndon Johnson. In Iowa, popular incumbent Gov. Harold Hughes, a Democrat, wins re-election. Republicans lose all but one of the state’s six seats in the U.S. House. Democrats carry large majorities in both houses of the Iowa Legislature.\n\n1965: Ray orders tighter controls on how Republican committee money is spent.\n\n1966: GOP campaigns are generally better organized, and the party sees substantial gains.\n\n1968: Ray decides to run for governor, facing a three-man primary.\n\n1968: Ray survives an April 22 plane crash, breaking his leg and ankle. He is on crutches for much of the campaign, but his grit impresses voters.\n\n1968: Ray is elected 38th governor of Iowa at age 40.\n\n1970: Ray uses the Iowa State Patrol, rather than the Iowa National Guard, to break up a student protest designed to block traffic on Interstate Highway 80. The use of state troopers is credited with reducing violence.\n\n1970: Ray visits a summer concert attended by nearly 30,000 near Wadena. Hoping to avoid violence, he tells the crowd, “we want you all to leave here knowing you had a good time. Try to stay off the stuff, OK?”\n\n1970: In November, Ray wins his second term as Iowa governor.\n\n1971: Faced with a recession and a tax code that relied heavily on property taxes, Ray’s approval rating dips to a career-low 41 percent, according to a Des Moines Register Iowa Poll.\n\n1972: Ray grounds all Iowa National Guard flights until the federal government pays for the losses of two Iowa families whose homes were wrecked by military airplane crashes.\n\n1972: In November, Ray wins his third term after fending off a possible primary challenge by then-Lt. Gov. Roger Jepsen.\n\n1972: An amendment to the Iowa Constitution changes the term of the governor from two years to four years.\n\n1974: Ray wins his fourth term as governor and first four-year term, despite heavy losses for Republicans nationwide in the wake of the scandals enveloping the administration of President Richard Nixon, in a year when nine other incumbent Republican governors lost nationwide.\n\n1975: Ray opens Iowa’s borders to the first of about 3,500 Tai Dam refugees, an ethnic group who had fled persecution in Vietnam after the end of the war there.\n\n1976: At Ray’s urging, the Iowa Legislature passes the Iowa Burials Protection Act, which protects burial grounds of Native Americans and others.\n\n1976: Ray is considered by President Gerald R. Ford as a potential running mate, but Ford chooses Kansas U.S. Sen. Bob Dole.\n\n1976: Ray becomes the first Iowa governor to occupy Terrace Hill, an 1869 mansion still used as the governor’s residence.\n\n1976: Ray’s approval rating hits a career-high 82 percent, according to the Iowa Poll.\n\n1978: Ray wins his fifth and final term as governor.\n\n1978: Ray signs into law his favorite piece of legislation, the bottle bill, requiring a refundable 5-cent deposit charged on cans and bottles, an effort to reduce roadside litter.\n\n1979: Ray receives Pope John II in Iowa on Oct. 4, 1979.\n\n1979: Despite public opinion polls that oppose accepting more Southeast Asians, Ray successfully argues to reopen the state’s borders to refugee resettlement.\n\n1979: In October, Ray visits Southeast Asia with a group of governors. After seeing the suffering in refugee camps, Ray helps organize Iowa Shares, a massive charity effort that raises nearly $2.1 million in today’s money to aid refugees.\n\n1980: Though heavily courted by many campaigns, Ray remains neutral in the Iowa caucuses, which are eventually won by George H.W. Bush.\n\n1982: Ray announces he will not seek a sixth term.\n\n1983: Three months after leaving office, Ray becomes CEO of Life Investors Inc., a Cedar Rapids insurance firm.\n\n1989: Ray joins IASD Health Service Corp. and oversees the merger into Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, now known as Wellmark.\n\n1997: Ray, 68, who had recently retired, is asked to serve as interim mayor of Des Moines after Mayor A. Arthur Davis resigns while facing terminal cancer.\n\n1997: Ray helps found the Iowa Institute for Character Development.\n\n1998: Ray is chosen to serve as president of Drake University, his alma mater, while the school searches for a new president after the departure of Michael Ferrari.\n\n2005: Ray receives the Iowa Award, the highest civilian honor given by the state.\n\n2013: Ray and his wife, Billie, move from their home to Wesley Acres along Grand Avenue in Des Moines, 10 blocks west of Terrace Hill.\n\n2014: Drake University announces plan for new science, technology and math building that will house the Ray Center, an institute dedicated to promoting civility in public discourse.\n\n2018: Ray dies July 8 at age 89.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/03/12/coronavirus-vermont-live-updates-cases-closures-covid-19/5023835002/", "title": "Coronavirus in Vermont: Latest news and impact", "text": "Free Press Staff\n\nAs the situation surrounding the COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus continues to evolve in Vermont, here are updates and information. The latest news is at the top.\n\nSymptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.\n\nTuesday, July 21, 2020\n\nDespite the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial outlook for the Burlington International Airport is stable, the airport announced Tuesday.\n\nMoody's Investors Service affirmed the airport's Baa2 credit rating with the stable outlook earlier this month. The rating, according to Moody's, means the airport's obligations are medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk, but that it has a strong ability to repay short-term debt obligations.\n\n________________\n\nProperty taxes for Williston residents will be a bit higher than expected this year due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nThe pandemic delayed construction in the town, which impacted property values, the town stated in a news release. As a result, grand list increases were less than initially estimated.\n\nThe new rate is set to $0.2750, meaning that for every $100,000 in property value, municipal taxes will be $275, the town said. The deadline for the first property tax payment has been postponed from Aug. 15 until Sept 15. The other two deadlines will remain the same.\n\n________________\n\nMonday, July 20, 2020\n\nThree full-time staff were laid off at Colchester Parks and Recreation due to diminished demand for camps and recreation programs during the pandemic, Town Manager Aaron Frank announced last week.\n\n\"Please do what you can to help towards positive changes in COVID outcomes that will allow us to bring back these valuable programs and staff that help make Colchester a great place to live, work and play,\" Frank wrote in a newsletter.\n\nOn a more upbeat note, the town announced that rehabilitation work on the Colchester Causeway is moving along ahead of schedule. If the trend holds, the breathtaking walk/bike trail across a portion of Lake Champlain will re-open by early September.\n\n________________\n\nTen new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the state's health department Monday morning, bringing the cumulative state total to 1,360.\n\nThree people are currently hospitalized with the virus, the same number as yesterday. Nineteen other hospitalizations are being investigated.\n\nDeaths have remained at 56 since June 18.\n\nTotal people recovered are 1,139 and a total of 83,868 people have been tested.\n\n_________________\n\nThe lakefront ECHO nature and science center in Burlington has waived its entrance fees to the public through Sept. 14, thanks to a fundraising effort by its members.\n\nAlthough there is no cost for admission, tickets — available online — are required, the center reported in a news release.\n\nECHO is open 10 a.m. - noon, and 1-3 p.m., Friday - Monday.\n\nBeginning July 24, the center will reserve the 10 a.m. - noon slot as a \"member-preferred\" time for visits.\n\n________________\n\nA new drop-off center for recycling and trash will open in Hinesburg on Saturday, according to an update posted today by Chittenden Solid Waste District.\n\nThe new facility at 907 Beecher Hill Road features a more efficient layout and up-to-date compactors that will help reduce truck traffic, wrote CSWD spokesperson Alise Certa.\n\nHours: 8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Saturdays only for now.\n\nSafety: All customers must wear masks and stay six feet apart.\n\nRestrictions: No bulky items (mattresses, furniture, construction material) at this time.\n\nCheck CSWD's website for a locator map, and more guidelines.\n\nThe district's drop-off centers in Richmond and Burlington remain closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.\n\n=================\n\nSunday, July 19, 2020\n\nAn gathering to paint a Black Lives Matter mural on Burlington's Main Street between St. Paul Street and South Winooski Avenue was planned from 2-3 p.m. Sunday. The mural was approved by city councilors and multiple city departments took part in organizing and undertaking the event.\n\n___________\n\nTwelve new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the health department, bringing the cumulative state total to 1,350. Three people are currently hospitalized with the virus, one less than the previous day.\n\n21 other hospitalizations are being investigated.\n\nDeaths remained at 56.\n\nTotal people recovered are 1,137 and a total of 82,500 people have been tested.\n\n___________\n\nThe National Weather Service issued a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday for the Burlington area, with high humidity and temperatures soaring near 100 degrees.\n\nThe forecast calls for a high of 98 degrees, with the heat index — a measure of the combined affect of heat and humidity — topping out at 101.\n\nSaturday, July 18, 2020\n\nThree new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the health department, bringing the cumulative state total to 1,338. Four people are currently hospitalized with the virus, one less than the previous day.\n\n21 other hospitalizations are being investigated.\n\nDeaths remained at 56.\n\nTotal people recovered are 1,125 and a total of 80,446 people have been tested.\n\n___________\n\nFriday, July 17, 2020\n\nNine new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the Health Department. The recovery total is 1,121.\n\nThe cumulative state total of cases is now at 1,334.\n\nThe deaths remain at 56, and the number currently hospitalized is 4.\n\n88,246 people have been tested.\n\nThe state listed the following updates on its dashboard:\n\n\"July 17 The number of people tested is incorrect and will be updated later this afternoon. July 16 The number of people tested displayed in the dashboard dropped by less than 300 people due to a new method being used that improves the quality of the demographic information about people tested and removes duplicates. The change also affects the numbers in the 'Total People Tested' graph and 'People Tested by Day' graph. A new map on the dashboard, 'Percent of Population Tested by County,' shows the percent of residents by county that have been tested.\"\n\n___________\n\nTakeaways from Gov. Scott's Friday news conference include the following:\n\nVermont's Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine gave an update on the Manchester situation (with 59 people who had positive antigen tests): 17 had PCR tests, \"which is recommended to confirm the positive antigen result.\" Of this group, two tested positive .\n\nSchool re-openings: Scott said he expects Vermont will use a hybrid model featuring remote and in-person learning. Dr. William Raszka with the UVM Health Network noted children seem less likely to transmit the virus that causes COVID-19. State Epidemiologist Dr. Patsy Kelso named strategies like: daily screenings; testing symptomatic people; contact tracing; using physical distancing and facial coverings.\n\n\n\n___________\n\nThe Fletcher Free Library announced updated services in a July 16 news release.\n\nThese include allowing scheduled computer time, \"brief visits to collect materials and receive library support\" and outdoor seating (\"when staffing allows\").\n\nThe library has a Kids' Open Air Hours service that will allow youth to pick and chat about books.\n\n\"Weather permitting, the FFL Youth Department will staff a table on the library lawn in front of the historic Carnegie building at 235 College Street on Saturdays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm and Wednesdays from 1 to 3 pm,\" the news release stated. \"FFL requests that participants wear masks and maintain social distance.\"\n\nThe library also has mystery bags with youth books.\n\n\"The bags are available at Open Air Hours and at the front desk and the list of themes is on the Kids’ webpage at fletcherfree.org,\" the news release stated. \"There is no bag limit.\"\n\n___________\n\nThursday, July 16, 2020\n\nNine new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the Health Department. Seven people have recovered, bringing the cumulative recovery total to 1,111.\n\nThe cumulative state total of cases is now at 1,325.\n\nThe deaths remain at 56, and the number currently hospitalized remains at 5.\n\n79,040 have been tested.\n\n___________\n\nWednesday, July 15, 2020\n\nThirteen new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the health department, bringing the cumulative state total to 1,318. Five people are currently hospitalized with the virus, three more than the previous day.\n\nFourteen other hospitalizations are being investigated.\n\nDeaths remained at 56.\n\nTotal people recovered are 1,104 and a total of 78,358 people have been tested.\n\n___________\n\nThose who file a new initial claim for unemployment insurance may receive a call from the Department of Labor to confirm their identity and intent to file.\n\n\"This extra step is being taken to protect Vermonters against fraudulent filers using their personal information,\" a news release from the Department of Labor said. Imposter fraud has been on the rise across the country, according to the labor department.\n\n\"Individuals may ask the Department’s call center representative to provide further information to identify themselves, or if they do not feel comfortable providing information to the representative, the claimant can call the trusted Claimant Assistance Line at 877-214-3332 and select ‘Identity Confirmation’ from the menu options to connect with a call center representative,\" the release states.\n\nThose who do not validate their identity when contacted may see a delay in payments.\n\n__________\n\nThe Burlington city building at 625 Pine St. is open for limited, in-person services.\n\nBurlington residents can do business with Public Works, Permitting & Inspections and Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.\n\nVisitors are required to wear masks, not to exceed four customers in the lobby and sign a log book.\n\n\"While the City still encourages the public to conduct as much business over the phone or internet as possible in the interest of public health, we also recognize the value of serving the public directly,\" the news release says.\n\nHow to contact (online, email and phone):\n\n__________\n\nTuesday, July 14, 2020\n\nGov. Phil Scott announced Tuesday that Vermont's Health Care Provider Stabilization Grant Program will launch on Friday, July 17. The program utilizes up to $275 million from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to provide direct cash grants to eligible health care and human service providers who have lost revenue or incurred increased expenses because of the COVID-19 crisis.\n\nThe Agency of Human Services and the Department of Vermont Health Access will host a webinar on Monday, July 20, to explain the grant application process, eligibility requirements and the documents providers should plan to submit when applying for a grant. Sign up here to receive an email when the application is open.\n\n_________\n\nFour new cases of COVID-19 were reported Tuesday morning by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the cumulative total for the state to 1,305.\n\nTwo people were hospitalized with the virus — the same number as the previous day. Eight hospitalizations are under investigation. Deaths remain at 56.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,099 Vermonters who have recovered from the disease, with a total of 77,624 people have been tested.\n\n_________\n\nA preliminary outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Windham County was announced by state officials Tuesday during Gov. Phil Scott's weekly news conference.\n\nOver 30 \"presumptively positive\" cases have been reported by Manchester Medical Center, said Health Commissioner Mark Levine, after the center's urgent care conducted a series of antigen tests to regional residents.\n\nThose that test positive on antigen tests, which differ from PCR tests, are \"not considered to be a lab-confirmed test\" said Levine. Antigen tests tend to not be included in Vermont's number of cases, and those that were either confirmed positive or \"false negatives\" would need to be tested by the Health Department.\n\nLevine stated that the Health Department has already set up a pop-up site in Londonderry for July 15, and he encouraged those that tested positive, as well as others in the region to attend it.\n\nIn regards to the outbreak, Mike Smith, secretary of the state's Agency of Human Services, cautioned Vermonters against failing to quarantine after traveling to \"hotspots\" outside of the state's designated safe areas. He further went on to recommend residents should not attend social events or gatherings following those trips where they know they are \"bound to have close contacts\" with other people.\n\n\"It is a pattern that I'm starting to get a little concerned about,\" said Smith.\n\n\"We all need to do our part. Risky behavior can lead to outbreaks.\"\n\nBoth Levine and Smith were hesitant to call it \"the Manchester outbreak\", citing that where people were getting tested did not reflect where they had contracted the virus.\n\n_________\n\nGov. Phil Scott announced Tuesday that he would be extending Vermont's state of emergency through August 15. The action will not roll back opening-up procedures, Scott said — but will provide a mechanism through which the administration can update guidelines as necessary.\n\n_________\n\nTwo statewide grant programs — aimed at providing relief to Vermont's dairy industry and health care system — were announced Tuesday.\n\nThe Vermont COVID-19 Agriculture Assistance Program will be offering a total of $25 million in federal funding to dairy producer and processors stating Friday, July 17.\n\nThose eligible include dairy farmers and processors who were operating as of March 1 and were subsequently impacted by the pandemic, either through income loss, additional expenses or market disruption of dairy prices.\n\nAn estimated 25 Vermont dairies have closed operations since March 1, according to Anson Tebbetts, secretary of the sate's Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, during the governor's news conference. Prior to the pandemic, the state saw a loss of 1.5 farms per month.\n\n\"This has been a direct result of what happened when the markets went away for our dairy farmers,\" Tebbetts said.\n\nApplications are available via the Agency's website, and must be completed by Oct. 1.\n\n--------------\n\nThe Health Care Stabilization Grant Program is additionally set to launch this Friday, intended to give $275 million of financial assistance to Vermont health care providers.\n\nApplications must be completed by August 15, and will be evaluated and distributed based on \"demonstrated need\", as opposed to a first come, first serve basis.\n\nThe program is intended to cover a wide variety of providers, organizations and small-scale practices including health centers, dentists, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, physical therapists, and emergency medical service providers.\n\n\"We want to continue to meet the needs of providers during and after this time of crisis,\" said Mike Smith, secretary of the state's Agency of Human Services. \"If providers are not certain if they are eligible, we want them to apply anyway.\"\n\nCash grants for the first round of this program will cover expenses between March 1 and June 15. The second round is expected to launch in October, and will cover between June 16 to Sept. 30.\n\n_________\n\nBurlington School District will host a series of town hall meetings this week, inviting community members to learn about and participate in the district's plans to reopen schools this fall.\n\nThe meetings will be conducted virtually via Zoom and split between two days to allow both families and staff the opportunity to ask questions and hear from school administrators about the reopening.\n\nThe town hall meeting for families will meet 7 p.m. on July 15, whereas a meeting for staff will be conducted the following day, at 7 p.m. on July 16.\n\n“This is a key moment in our planning process,\" said Tom Flanagan, the new superintendent for Burlington School District when began his tenure on July 1st.\n\n\"We need to hear from the community in order to finalize our plans and inform our families so they can start planning their lives.\"\n\nFor more information, those interested can visit the district's website via this link. The meeting will also be aired live through the district's YouTube and Facebook pages. Interpreters will be available to translate the meeting.\n\nMonday, July 13, 2020\n\nSix new cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday by the Vermont Department of Health, which brings the cumulative total for the state to 1,301.\n\nTwo people were hospitalized with the virus — the same number as the previous day. Eight hospitalizations are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained the same at 56. There has not been a COVID-related death in Vermont since June 18.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,096 Vermonters who have recovered from the disease.\n\n76,581 people have been tested for the virus.\n\nNOTE: The Free Press noticed the numbers regarding new and total case counts didn't align from July 11 to July 13 and subsequently reached out to the Health Department. Ben Truman with the department said in an email that this is why there is a notice that this data is preliminary. He provided an example: A person who tested positive might no longer get counted if it is learned that they don't live in Vermont.\n\n_________\n\nSunday, July 12, 2020\n\nFourteen new cases of COVID-19 were reported Sunday by the Vermont Department of Health, which brings the cumulative total for the state to 1,296.\n\nTwo people were hospitalized with the virus — the same number as the previous day. Fifteen hospitalizations are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained the same at 56. There has not been a COVID-related death in Vermont since June 18.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,089 Vermonters who have recovered from the disease.\n\n75,851 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nSaturday, July 11, 2020\n\nSix new cases of COVID-19 were reported Saturday by the Vermont Department of Health, which brings the cumulative total for the state to 1,283.\n\nTwo people were hospitalized with the virus — the same as yesterday. Sixteen hospitalizations are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained the same at 56. There has not been a COVID-related death in Vermont since June 18.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,066 Vermonters who have recovered from the disease.\n\n75,032 people have been tested for the virus.\n\nFriday, July 10, 2020\n\nThe Governor announced $30 million in housing assistance for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nThe money would be allocated Federal CARES Act funding: $25 million for renters and landlords and $5 million for homeowners behind on making payments. Those interested in receiving assistance can begin applying online starting Monday July 13 for the rental assistance program or mortgage assistance program.\n\nRenters' assistance money could be used for rent or security deposits as well as make up for landlord losses from the period starting March 1, 2020. Funding can be re-applied for and is given out on a first-come, first-served basis. Proof of payment delinquency will be required.\n\nThe mortgage assistance program prioritizes the lowest income, highest risk of foreclosure homeowners who have missed at least two payments. Homeowners could apply for up to three missed mortgage payments; funds will be paid directly to the mortgage lender.\n\n__________\n\nKinney Drugs and a Walgreens in Essex will soon begin COVID-19 testing at their pharmacies.\n\nGov. Phil Scott asked other local companies to join the effort. Health Commissioner Mark Levine said having testing locations at local pharmacies takes some of the burden off the health department so they can focus on outbreaks and vulnerable populations.\n\n___________\n\nFive new cases of COVID-19 were reported Friday by the Vermont Department of Health, which brings the cumulative total for the state to 1,277.\n\nTwo people were hospitalized with the virus — down one from yesterday. Nine hospitalizations are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained the same at 56. There has not been a COVID-related death in Vermont since June 18.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,066 Vermonters who have recovered from the disease.\n\n74,098 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nThe ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain will be regularly open starting July 10, Fridays through Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Timed tickets are required for two different time slots, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 3 p.m.\n\n_________\n\nIn a news conference Friday afternoon, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said Vermont is doing well combatting the coronavirus, but emphasized that we are only in the second inning of a nine inning game, using a baseball analogy to make the point that there’s a long way to go before the crisis is over.\n\nWeinberger echoed the same point made during the call by Dr. Stephen Leffler, president and chief operating officer of University of Vermont Medical Center, who said, “There’s a lot of coronavirus in front of us.” Leffler said he understands that people are fatigued by the effort to deal with the virus, but “we have to be in this for the long term.”\n\nLeffler used a different spots analogy, saying we just finished the first quarter of the effort to fight the disease.\n\n_________\n\nAirport Director Gene Richards also joined the mayor’s call to give an update on measures being taken Burlington International Airport against COVID-19. The airport has added thermal imaging that can pick up abnormally high body temperatures, indicating a fever, in groups of up to 20 people. Richards said if someone is “running warm” a red square shows up on her image rather than a green square.\n\nRichards explained that a person who possibly has a fever is notified and advised to check with a physician, but no further steps are taken. “We don’t want to get into people’s personal business at this point,” Richards said. “It’s very voluntary.”\n\nRichards said about 4,000 people are passing through the airport weekly, up from a low of 800 at the start of the pandemic. Normally, Burlington International Airport would be seeing as many as 17,000 people passing through weekly at this time of year, before the coronavirus struck the nation.\n\nThursday, July 9, 2020\n\nThe Vermont Cheesemakers Festival announced it is canceling the 12th annual event planned for Sunday, Aug. 9 at Shelburne Farms.\n\n\"We have been pondering what to do – postpone the festival, offer alternative events, etc. – and found is that there really is no alternative to the festival given the current conditions and our interest in keeping both our vendors’ and attendees’ safety prioritized,\" reads a note on the festival's website.\n\nThe Vermont Cheese Council, which plans the event, has had to focus in recent months \"trying to help cheesemakers keep their doors open, helping them find grant and other emergency funds, redirecting and identifying new sales strategies to try to make up for the 25-75% losses most of them have experienced, helping them navigate the changing regulations related to operating within our industry at this time, and marketing their products as widely as possible,\" according to the website.\n\n_________\n\nVermont Humanities and the Vermont Arts Council have wrapped up their Cultural Relief Grant Program that distributed nearly $750,000 in emergency relief grants to 122 Vermont cultural organizations, including museums, libraries, performing-arts venues and other cultural centers, the council announced in a news release.\n\nThe program, which concluded May 31, supported humanities and arts organizations struggling to survive through resulting economic fallout from the pandemic. The grants are for general operating expenses of $5,000 to $10,000 depending on organization size.\n\nThe program was seeded by more than $700,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.\n\nThe Opera Company of Middlebury canceled its planned June production of Tchaikovkiy's \"Maid of Orleans,\" causing nearly 60 Vermont singers, musicians and staff members to go without a paycheck.\n\n“This grant supports our plan to produce an innovative, socially-distanced video production this fall, putting these talented people back to work, and bringing opera once again to the Vermont audience,” artistic director Douglas Anderson said in a news release.\n\n_________\n\nThe Shelburne Museum will re-open to the public July 30.\n\nFree admission will be offered to patrons visiting by September 6. Online ticket reservations will be required and can be can be obtained at shelburnemuseum.org.\n\nThe museum will be open four days a week — Thursday through Sunday — from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Occupancy limits will be imposed on both outdoor and indoor spaces. Three exhibit buildings will be open to the public. Masks will be required for those ages 5 and up.\n\n_________\n\nEfficiency Vermont is offering grants to schools updating their ventilation systems to lessen airborne viral transmission.\n\nThe School Indoor Air Quality Grant Program was created by the Vermont Legislature and uses federal coronavirus relief funds to help schools improve their indoor air quality in response to national guideline recommendations.\n\n\"The goal is to complete as much work as possible before schools open in September, and all projects must be completed by the end of the year,\" a news release from Efficiency Vermont reads.\n\nThe initiative is seeking contractors, HVAC technicians and other specialists who can help perform the work schools are requesting.\n\nMore info at efficiencyvermont.com/schools.\n\n__________\n\nSixteen new cases of COVID-19 were reported Thursday by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the cumulative total for the state to 1,272.\n\nThree people were hospitalized with the virus — up one from Wednesday. Twelve hospitalizations are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained the same at 56.\n\nThe health department is reporting 1,054 Vermonters have recovered from the disease.\n\nThe total number of tests performed so far were 72,749 (just shy of 1,000 additional tests in the past 24 hours).\n\n__________\n\nWednesday, July 8, 2020\n\nThe City of Burlington is moving the deadline for property tax payments due to delays in other tax deadlines that occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nThe deadline for property tax bills will now be Sept. 14, according to Burlington Chief Administrative Officer Katherine Schad. The original deadline was Aug. 12.\n\nThe city will not penalize residents who wait until the new deadline to pay their bill, Schad said.\n\nTaxpayers who have automatic payments set up through their bank should notify their bank of the change, according to Schad. Taxpayers enrolled in the city's direct debit program do not have to take any action.\n\n___________________\n\nThe City of Burlington is supporting a move by Gov. Phil Scott this week to write letters to bar owners in the state to remind them of COVID-19 compliance rules.\n\nThis comes after four Burlington bars received written warnings accusing them of breaking rules put in place through an executive order signed by Scott. These rules were set to ensure health and safety within bars during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nScott's letter also informs bar owners that the Department of Liquor and Lottery would be conducting compliance checks to ensure they are following the rules, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said during a news conference Wednesday.\n\nWeinberger has expressed concern about these violations, saying that COVID-19 transmission can easily occur in bars. He said the guidelines are restrictive, but they must be followed to ensure patrons' safety.\n\n\"I want to be clear: these are important businesses for Burlington,\" Weinberger said. \"They've been an important part of Burlington's economic successes, they're a part of the vibrancy of Burlington. I take no joy at all in having to have this tougher posture.\"\n\n___________________\n\nTwo new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Wednesday in today's update from the Department of Health.\n\nThere were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported, keeping the total number of deaths in the state at 56.\n\nTwo people remain hospitalized with the disease (the same as Tuesday) and 12 are hospitalized with their diagnosis still under investigation.\n\nThe Health Department says 1,049 Vermonters have recovered from COVID-19, an increase of 10 over Tuesday.\n\nThe state reported 643 more people were tested yesterday, bringing the total number of individuals tested to 71,756.\n\n____________________\n\nA major lacrosse tournament scheduled for July in Stowe has been cancelled, organizers announced on the Bitter Lacrosse website Wednesday.\n\nThe Stowe LAX Classic for high school boys and girls was to have taken place July 18 - 19 and July 25-26.\n\nLocal concerns about the potential spread of COVID-19 prompted the cancellation, according to a story posted Tuesday by VT Digger.\n\n===================\n\nTuesday, July 7, 2020\n\nThere were 3 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Vermont on Tuesday. There were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported, keeping the total number of deaths in the state at 56.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with the virus and 11 are hospitalized under investigation. The health department says 1,039 Vermonters have recovered from COVID-19.\n\nThe state reported 760 new tests, bringing the total number of individuals tested to 71,113.\n\n__________\n\nVermont colleges and universities will be required to adopt strict health and safety protocols moving into the fall 2020 semester in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, according to an announcement Tuesday.\n\nRichard Schneider, former president of Norwich University and a member of Gov. Phil Scott's Re-Start committee, outlined guidance for colleges and universities during a news conference:\n\nMandatory quarantine\n\nHealth screening required for all students, staff and faculty\n\nLimiting visitors (the same 14-day quarantine restrictions apply)\n\nAll students must sign a health-safety contract, to establish personal accountability. There would be ramifications if they threaten the health of others.\n\nTesting of students at least once per year\n\nModifying calendars – everybody home by Thanksgiving; not returning before Christmas.\n\nRestricting travel (specifically, college-funded travel).\n\nReducing density in dining halls, and in classes.\n\nMore:New guidelines: College students will face a COVID-transformed semester in Vermont\n\n__________\n\nFree COVID-19 testing will be available at select locations in Burlington and Winooski this week.\n\nPop-up sites will be running at various hours on these days:\n\nChamplain Elementary School , 800 Pine St., Burlington: (Wednesday, July 8 & Thursday, July 9 between 1 to 7 p.m. , and Friday July 10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.)\n\n, 800 Pine St., Burlington: O'Brien Community Center , 32 Malletts Bay Ave., Winooski: (Tuesday, July 7 between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.)\n\n, 32 Malletts Bay Ave., Winooski: Riverside, 666 Riverside Ave., Burlington: (Wednesday, July 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.)\n\nWalk-ins are welcome, although pre-registration is encouraged. Interpreters are available upon request. To register, individuals can call (802) 828-2828 visit humanresources.vermont.gov/burlington or humanresources.vermont.gov/winooski.\n\nMonday, July 6, 2020\n\nVermont businesses can now apply for an economic-recovery grant through the state of Vermont via federal Coronavirus Relief Funds.\n\nThe grants are intended for businesses that can demonstrate revenue loss in any one-month period from March 1-Aug. 31, 2020, when compared with the same month in 2019.\n\nThe state Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) and Vermont Department of Taxes will work together to administer the more than $150 million available. Businesses that pay rooms and meals or sales and use taxes will go through the Department of Taxes. All others will go through ACCD.\n\n__________\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic means no drivers education this summer for students at South Burlington High School this summer, Principal Patrick Burke tweeted.\n\nThe school district does not have an approved budget for 2020-21, Burke noted. \"COVID relief funds have not been approved to provide summer drivers-education 'make-up' hours for students for whom DE was cut short last semester,\" Burke tweeted. \"As a result, there will be no SBHS summer drivers' education services this summer.\"\n\nMaking up the hours for students enrolled in drivers education last spring \"will be a priority as we reopen the school in late August,\" according to Burke.\n\n__________\n\nThere were 2 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Vermont on Monday. There were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported, keeping the total number of deaths in the state at 56.\n\nOne person is hospitalized with the virus and 23 are hospitalized under investigation. The health department says 1,022 Vermonters have recovered from COVID-19.\n\nThe state reported 329 new tests, bringing the total number of individuals tested to 70,353.\n\n============\n\nSunday, July 5, 2020\n\nThere were 11 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Vermont on Sunday. There were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported, keeping the total number of deaths in the state at 56.\n\nOne person is hospitalized with the virus and 14 are hospitalized under investigation. The health department says 1,007 Vermonters have recovered from COVID-19.\n\nThe state reported 627 new tests, bringing the total number of individuals tested to 70,024.\n\n============\n\nSaturday, July 4, 2020\n\nTwo new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Saturday, one in Chittenden County and another in Lamoille County. There were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported, keeping the total number of deaths in the state at 56.\n\nThere was no change from yesterday when it came to hospitalizations: 1 person is hospitalized with the virus and 15 are hospitalized under investigation. The health department says 999 Vermonters have recovered from COVID-19, a number that jumped by 32 since yesterday.\n\nThe state reported 995 new tests, bringing the total number of individuals tested to 69,397.\n\n============\n\nFriday, July 3, 2020\n\nVermont State Historic Sites are re-opening for the season this week, according to an announcement from the Division for Historic Preservation.\n\nGuests will be required to wear face coverings inside of buildings at historic sites, and outside when in proximity to others. Some spaces will be closed to encourage social distancing.\n\nSome sites, including the President Chester A. Arthur Historic Site, Kents Corner Historic Site, and Eureka Schoolhouse Historic Site will remain closed for the 2020 season. Read more here about which sites are now open: https://historicsites.vermont.gov\n\n__________\n\nNine new cases of COVID-19 — five of them in Chittenden County — were reported in Vermont as of Friday morning.\n\nThe total number of positive cases thus far in the pandemic is 1,236, according to data from the state's health department.\n\nThere were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported; that total remains at 56.\n\nOne person is currently hospitalized with the coronavirus, while 15 people are hospitalized under investigation for COVID-19. The Health Department reports that 967 Vermonters have recovered from the disease, seven more people since yesterday.\n\nA total of 68,395 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nThe Vermont Foodbank Farmers to Families Food box program will continue through July and August.\n\nThe program provides boxes of fresh produce, dairy and chicken, and there are several distribution locations and times each day. To reduce wait times, reservations will be required.\n\nFor information on reservations and the program, read here: https://www.vtfoodbank.org/coronavirus-services-for-individuals\n\n============\n\nThursday, July 2, 2020\n\nECHO, the Burlington science and nature museum, will be reopening to the public this weekend. There will be timed tickets to limit capacity in the building.\n\nFor more information, read here: https://www.echovermont.org/plan-your-visit/reopening-information/\n\n__________\n\nThe 17 new cases reported today are not related to any one outbreak, nor are they unexpected, Public Health Communication Officer Ben Truman said Thursday.\n\nThe new cases are spread out across six counties. Chittenden County leads with eight new cases.\n\nTruman said that one case is related to an outbreak that began in Winooski, and some of them are related to travel.\n\n__________\n\nAn \"intermission\" in performances for the foreseeable future has been announced by Burlington-based Off Center for the Performing Arts.\n\nThe group, which had been planning to throw a celebration of its 10th year, will store its stage, lighting and other equipment and \"wait patiently offstage for the cue to start our next act,\" according to an update posted Wednesday by Laura Roald, its board president.\n\nMeanwhile, Roald adds, the nonprofit will continue its search for a permanent performance space. She encourages anyone wishing to help in that quest, or just to help with the move to a storage space, to contact he group at theoffcenter@gmail.com.\n\n__________\n\nSeventeen new cases of COVID-19 — eight of them in Chittenden County — were reported in Vermont as of Thursday morning.\n\nThe total number of positive cases thus far in the pandemic is 1,227, according to data from the state's health department.\n\nThere were no new deaths related to COVID-19 reported; that total remains at 56.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with the new coronavirus, while 19 people are hospitalized and under investigation for COVID-19. The Health Department reports that 960 Vermonters have recovered from the disease.\n\nA total of 67,341 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n============\n\nWednesday, July 1, 2020\n\nVermont's Economic Recovery Grant Program is set to begin July 6, Gov. Phil Scott announced Wednesday.\n\nThe effort is the product of from a proposal by Scott's administration and amendments from the state legislature. It will disburse funds from the federal CARES Act in the form of cash grants to Vermont businesses that have lost revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release.\n\n“Helping these businesses survive is essential to the future of our state,\" Scott said in a statement. \"These economic recovery grants are a first step to ensuring our economy survives this period, so we can look to thrive in the wake of this pandemic.”\n\nThe first boost of funds will be $50 million for businesses who pay rooms and meals or sales and use tax, to be administered through the Department of Tax.\n\nAnother $20 million will be available to all other private businesses and non-profits through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. The grants will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.\n\nFor further information, visit: https://accd.vermont.gov/content/emergency-recovery-grants-overview-webinar.\n\n__________\n\nEarly voting has begun for the Aug. 11 state primary, and Burlington city officials are encouraging residents to vote via mail to avoid unnecessary contact with others at polling stations during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nThe city has sent postcards to city residents who are registered voters informing them of the vote by mail option. Those postcards have detachable absentee ballot request forms, said Amy Bovee, an assistant city clerk. The request form can be mailed back to the city with postage the city has already paid. Ballots can also be obtained by calling the Burlington City Clerk’s Office at 802-865-7000 or by visiting mvp.vermont.gov.\n\n__________\n\nBurlington’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department is working to make food trucks available to residents in a safe and socially distant way with its “Grazin’ on the Greenway” program this summer.\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic has canceled traditional food truck events like the Leddy Beach Bites program and the ArtsRiot Truck Stop due to health and safety concerns. Through the new program, food trucks will be available at four city parks — Leddy Park, Water Works Park, Waterfront Park, and Oakledge Park — on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., said Cindi Wight, director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. This program begins July 2.\n\nDuring the program, guidelines for health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic will apply. Visitors must wear facial coverings, stay 6 feet apart, wash their hands frequently, and should not attend if they are sick.\n\nWight said the department is looking for more food truck owners to participate in the program. She encouraged them to reach out to the department.\n\nParks officials are also hoping to do something similar in various city neighborhoods, but details on that plan had not been finalized as of Wednesday.\n\n__________\n\nThe Intervale Center announced Wednesday that it will host a \"Spirit of Summervale\" digital event series this summer to take the place of its popular annual food and music festival.\n\nThe new format will take place each Thursday from July 9 through Aug. 27. The weekly concerts will be broadcast at 6:30 p.m. on the Intervale Center's Facebook and Instagram pages.\n\nThe revamped version of Summervale will support local businesses via weekly giveaways announced during the set break each week. Participants will have an opportunity to win a $100 gift card from their favorite Summervale vendors by getting takeout at select locations and sharing on social media.\n\nThe 2020 music lineup will feature Mister Chris & Friends, Zach Nugent, Pete’s Posse, Collin Cope & Friends, Ryan Montbleu, Joe Adler & the Rangers of Danger and Swimmer, according to a news release. Viewers will also have the opportunity to hear words from long-time event partners and guest nonprofit organizations working in climate, food, and social justice.\n\n__________\n\nCity Market employees will continue to receive hazard pay through Aug. 15 after a five-hour negotiation on Tuesday night, according to the workers' union, UE Local 203.\n\nThe amount of the funds, called an \"appreciation bonus,\" will be smaller but union members will continue to earn at least $15 an hour during the pandemic. The union's agreement with store management is scheduled to revisit the situation and possibly bargain further on Aug. 17.\n\nPer the extended agreement, employees will earn an extra $75 per 40-hour work week, prorated\n\n\"\"For the pay periods of June 28 through August 15, 2020 the Appreciation Bonus is $75 per employee per pay period based on a 40-hour work week, prorated to the number of hours the employee worked.\n\n__________\n\nTwo new cases of COVID-19 have been reported, bringing the total of cumulative cases in the state to 1,210.\n\nOne person with the virus remains hospitalized, while 16 others hospitalized are under investigation.\n\nDeaths remained 56. So far, 961 people have recovered and 66, 292 people have been tested.\n\n__________\n\nThe Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival has been postponed until 2021.\n\nCompetitors have an extra year to perfect their trebuchet and guests can look forward to attending the 12th annual event at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa in Stowe on September 26, 2021.\n\n__________\n\nFree Wi-Fi is being offered to the general public on the campuses of Northern Vermont University, Castleton University and Vermont Technical College.\n\nThe Vermont State Colleges System is providing the space and the Vermont Electric Power Company provided and installed equipment to expand the number of people who could log on at a time.\n\nDesignated hot spot spaces will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for 20 to 30 socially-distanced users at a time; locations can be found on the state's public Wi-Fi map.\n\nThe initiative was developed to help remote workers and learners in areas underserved by internet access.\n\n__________\n\nThe Montshire Museum will reopen to the public July 8 with outdoor exhibits and programs.\n\nThe Norwich science museum has created two new outdoor experiences on their forest nature trail land: \"Prehistoric Giants,\" sculptures of animal ancestors visitors can stroll past and observe, and \"The Play Grove,\" a play area with structures and informal science exploration.\n\nIn addition, a bubble exhibit has moved outdoors, where science programming will also take place.\n\nIndoor exhibits will remain closed, however, restrooms will be available. Hours have changed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Visitors must reserve a morning arrival or afternoon arrival ticket in advance up to three days prior (though visitors can stay until closing).\n\nGuests aged three and older are required to wear a mask indoors and when interacting with staff or the public, and are encouraged to wear them outdoors. Some one-way directional traffic patterns will be imposed.\n\nMore information is available at the Montshire Museum of Science website.\n\n__________\n\nTuesday, June 30, 2020\n\nZero new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont as of Tuesday morning, keeping the total number of positive cases at 1,208, according to data from the state's health department.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with the new coronavirus, while 14 people are hospitalized under investigation for COVID-19. The Health Department reports that 953 Vermonters have recovered.\n\nThe number of deaths related to COVID-19 remains 56. A total of 65,764 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nVermont will open up to more states for people who want to visit without quarantining.\n\n“Effective July 1, people from low-risk counties in additional states can travel to Vermont without having to quarantine,” the Health Department wrote in a daily update Tuesday.\n\nThis includes:\n\nDelaware.\n\nMaryland.\n\nNew Jersey.\n\nOhio.\n\nPennsylvania.\n\nVirginia.\n\nWest Virginia.\n\nThis update also includes the District of Columbia.\n\n__________\n\nMonday, June 29, 2020\n\nSix new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont as of Monday morning, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1,208, according to data from the state's Health Department.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with the new coronavirus, while 11 people are hospitalized under investigation for COVID-19. The Health Department reports that 949 Vermonters have recovered.\n\nThe number of deaths related to COVID-19 remains at 56. A total of 64,993 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nFree COVID-19 testing will be available at select locations in Burlington and Winooski this week.\n\nPop-up sites will be running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on these days:\n\nChamplain Elementary School , 800 Pine St., Burlington: (Tues. 6/30, Weds. 7/1, and Thurs. 7/2)\n\n, 800 Pine St., Burlington: O'Brien Community Center , 32 Malletts Bay Ave., Winooski: (Mon. 6/29, Tues. 6/30)\n\n, 32 Malletts Bay Ave., Winooski: VT Department of Health, 108 Cherry St., Burlington: (Tues. 6/30)\n\nPre-registration is required for the Health Department location, otherwise, it is not required. Interpreters are available upon request. To register, individuals can call (802) 828-2828 visit humanresources.vermont.gov/burlington or humanresources.vermont.gov/winooski.\n\n__________\n\nAll patients, visitors and staff at Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin will now have their body temperature scanned by a thermal imaging camera prior to entering the hospital.\n\nPrior to the announcement, since March 21, any person entering the facility was required to pass a individual temperature screening to monitor symptoms of COVID-19. The hospital said those methods were \" time consuming\" and involved a sizeable number of staff members to screen patients, proving inefficient as they returned to normal patient capacity.\n\n“This technology greatly improves the experience and increases the speed and safety of the screening process,” said Robert Patterson, Vice President of Human Resources and Clinical Operations for Central Vermont Medical Center.\n\n“Once people answer a few questions about their health, they simply walk into the facility and their temperature is automatically taken. It greatly decreases the time it takes for them to enter, eliminates the need to remove their mask, and decreases the time they spend in close proximity to our staff, which keeps everyone safer.”\n\n__________\n\nVermont Law School will conduct all of its fall 2020 classes online, according to a news release Monday.\n\nNo on-campus residential courses will offered during the semester, and all on-campus classes will be held virtually in a series of live sessions.\n\n\"We strive to provide a consistent educational experience for all of our students while being sensitive to our community's safety and security,\" said Thomas McHenry, president and dean of Vermont Law School.\n\n\"We want to provide as much notice to our students, facility, and staff, in order to plan appropriately and deliver the high-quality course content and access to faculty that VLS is known for.\"\n\n__________\n\nSunday, June 28, 2020\n\nTwo new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont as of noon on Sunday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1,202, according to Health Department data.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with COVID-19, while 13 people are hospitalized and under investigation for the virus. The Department of Health is reporting that 946 people in Vermont have recovered, the same number as yesterday, Saturday June 27.\n\nThe number of COVID-19-attributed deaths is still 56. A total of 63,865 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nSaturday, June 27, 2020\n\nTwo new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Saturday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1,200, according to Health Department data.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized with COVID-19, while 12 people are hospitalized and under investigation for the virus. The state is reporting that 946 people in Vermont have recovered.\n\nThe number of COVID-19-attributed deaths remained at 56. A total of62,723 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nAs anticipated, sports competitions between Vermont-based teams may resume July 1, according to Friday's updated guidance from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Only no- or low-contact sports (such as tennis) or short-duration sports (such as soccer, softball, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball, hockey) are allowed to play games. High-contact sports remain limited to conditioning and skill-building drills.\n\nMore:Independent league to replace American Legion baseball in Vermont this summer\n\n__________\n\nPlay structures or playgrounds are now open for use to the public, Gov. Phil Scott said in his Friday news conference. Proper signage must be displayed, saying users or anyone in their household cannot be ill. Users must also wash hands before and after use. Organizations responsible for the play structures are encouraged to provide hand sanitizers, according to updated guidance from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.\n\n__________\n\nFriday, June 26, 2020\n\nSeven new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Friday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1,198, according to Health Department data.\n\nFour people are hospitalized with COVID-19, while 10 people are hospitalized and under investigation for the virus. The state is reporting that 941 people in Vermont have recovered.\n\nThe number of COVID-19-attributed deaths remained at 56. A total of 61,589 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nMayor Miro Weinberger offered updates on the city's budget, which he said must be passed next week, as well as COVID-19 during his briefing Friday. Some takeaways include:\n\nAn emergency budget that doesn't implement new voter-approved taxes.\n\nThe Fiscal Year 2021 budget including: A $1 million fund for racial justice. A $250,000 Public Safety Transformation Fund.\n\nBurlington is kicking off its \"Open Streets\" initiative Saturday, temporarily restricting traffic flow downtown for businesses and foot traffic.\n\n__________\n\nStarting July 1, Vermont will allow travel without quarantine from certain counties in six new states and from the District of Columbia, Gov. Phil Scott announced at a press conference Friday. Individuals from counties in these states that have less than 400 cases per million people can travel to Vermont without the 14 day quarantine mandate required of other travelers.\n\nThese states are:\n\nOhio\n\nPennsylvania\n\nDelaware\n\nMaryland\n\nWest Virginia\n\nVirginia\n\nThe District of Columbia\n\nThis accounts for about 19 million people across 216 counties, a population which Scott hopes will support the struggling hospitality industry in the state. Travelers must travel by personal vehicle, and cannot fly or take a bus or train.\n\nVermont has already allowed travel without quarantine from low-risk counties in New York, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.\n\n__________\n\nThursday, June 25, 2020\n\nSeven new cases of COVID-19 reported in Vermont on Thursday brought the total number of positive cases to 1,191, according to Health Department data.\n\nThree people are hospitalized with COVID-19, while 12 people are hospitalized and under investigation for the virus. The state said that 938 people across the state have recovered.\n\nThe number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 remained at 56. A total of 60,709 people have been tested for the virus.\n\n__________\n\nThe Chittenden Solid Waste District's drop-off center in South Burlington will be reopening on Saturday, June 27 after being temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nCustomers will be required to wear facial coverings and vehicles will be metered into the facility, according to the organization's website. The facility will be open on Monday, Friday and Saturday between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.\n\nThe facility is currently not accepting large bulky items such as mattresses, furniture, or construction material. Items that will be accepted and their fees can be found on the Chittenden Solid Waste District's website at cswd.net/facility-locations/south-burlington-drop-center.\n\n__________\n\nWednesday, June 24, 2020\n\nDuring the Governor's meeting Wednesday, Health Commissioner Mark Levine gave updates on outbreaks and clusters of COVID-19 across the state.\n\nWinooski outbreak: The total cases are 114 so far with its peak in early June. According to Levine we are \"clearly on a downward and stable slope.\" He said it takes time for numbers to peter out because of the 7 to 14 day incubation perid.\n\nRutland County cluster: A Rutland County employer in the Fair Haven area has 12 cases within its population. Testing is being performed on employees and community wide testing is expected to be announced soon. Levine would not identify the business but said it was not of the type where consumers would be coming in and out.\n\nWindham County family cluster: one family in Windham County has multiple cases. Testing is being performed today in Brattleboro. Levine said the number of cases there is less than 10 but would not give an exact number as to not inadvertently identify the family.\n\nLevine said a cluster is when cases are confined to one main source such as a family, household or business and not distributed across the population. The term outbreak is used when transmission is beyond one particular source, he said.\n\n__________\n\nThere were 20 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state cumulative total to 1,184. Hospitalizations increased to four (from two) and those hospitalized under investigation decreased from 17 to 9 over the last 24 hours.\n\nDeaths remained at 56. Total people being monitored increased by 20 to 1,230.\n\nThose recovered total 930, while 1,296 completed being monitored and 59,860 tests have been performed so far.\n\n__________\n\nThe University of Vermont Medical Center is scaling back some limitations on visitors to the hospital. Every Vermont hospital began restricting visitation in March to slow the spread of COVID-19.\n\nEffective today, UVM Medical Center is allowing one \"consistent\" family member or support person in inpatient and procedural areas. Outpatient restrictions remain in place, where family and friends are not allowed to accompany patients into their doctors' offices unless patients requires support and assistance to meet with their doctors.\n\nFor pediatric patients, one parent or support person is recommended, but both parents may be permitted to visit when \"necessary and appropriate,\" based on unique care needs and circumstances determined by the care team.\n\nPatients arriving in the emergency department or urgent care may also be accompanied by one consistent family member or support person.\n\n__________\n\nNational Life Group in Montpelier announced it cut 53 jobs in Vermont as a result of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The insurance company also cut 30 jobs in Texas and 12 in \"other remote locations,\" according to a news release.\n\nMehran Assadi, chairman, president and CEO of National Life, said in a statement the company does not anticipate any further job cuts.\n\nNational Life employees have been working remotely since mid-March, with the exception of a few dozen essential workers who continue to report to the office in Montpelier, the news release said. The company is currently planning a phased return to the office, which will not occur before July 20.\n\n__________\n\nTuesday, June 23, 2020\n\nOne new case of COVID-19 brought the state cumulative total to 1,164. Hospitalizations increased to two (from none) and those hospitalized under investigation increased from 8 to 17 over the last 24 hours.\n\nDeaths remained at 56. Total people being monitored are 1,210.\n\nThose recovered total 927, while 1,270 completed being monitored and 59,328 tests have been performed so far.\n\n__________\n\nSmugglers' Notch Resort reopens for travelers and locals June 26. Activities such as pools, water parks, guided hiking, disc golf and 20 miles of mountain biking trails are expected to be open. Food and beverage service will be available on-site. Social distancing and enhanced cleaning protocols will be employed.\n\n__________\n\nEmployees of restaurant and retail shops in downtown Burlington can park for free.\n\nTemporary free parking will be available at the Lakeview/College Street garage. Those who haven't done so previously need to sign up for FlexVal and fill out a sign up form.\n\nEmployees will receive a printed reusable validation parking pass to use until the end of July. The period could be extended.\n\n__________\n\nSome Vermonters who apply for unemployment insurance will see an increase to their weekly benefits.\n\nThe announcement came from Gov. Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Labor Tuesday, as part of a series of changes to the state's Unemployment Insurance (UI) program.\n\nBeginning the first week of July, maximum weekly UI claims will increase from $513 to $531.\n\nIn addition to the benefits increase, Vermont employers will see a lowering of their UI tax rates as of July 1.\n\n“This tax relief will help reduce the burden on employers who’ve had to make difficult decisions to protect the health and safety of their workers and help limit the spread of COVID-19 in Vermont,” said Governor Scott in a news release.\n\n“We know Vermonters made a tremendous economic sacrifice in order to respond to this virus, and we will continue to pull every lever we can to help workers and employers recover from this pandemic.”\n\n__________\n\nChittenden Solid Waste District's South Burlington Drop-Off Center will resume its operations starting June 27.\n\nThe facility will reopen at limited capacity, with new hours (Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and temporary flat fees while precautions are ongoing for the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAll customers and visitors will be required to wear facial coverings when entering the Drop-Off Center. Trailers, wood waste, mattresses, and major electronic appliances (air conditioners, dehumidifiers, refrigerators) are not currently allowed.\n\n__________\n\nMonday, June 22, 2020\n\nFour new cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the cumulative total to 1,163.\n\nNo additional deaths were reported — the total remains at 56.\n\nNo people were reported hospitalized for the disease, although eight are under observation in a hospital.\n\nThe number of people being monitored for symptoms stands at 1,142 and the number who have completed monitoring is 1,241. These numbers include close contacts of confirmed cases and people traveling to Vermont from out-of-state who have enrolled in the state's Sara Alert program.\n\n_____________\n\nDarn Tough Vermont announced on Monday that it had to lay off nearly 50 employees.\n\n\"A few months ago we couldn’t grow fast enough,\" the company wrote on its social media account. \"There are larger problems in the world, and we get that. It’s always about people though, and compassion.\"\n\nDarn Tough falls under Cabot Hosiery Mills, Inc. President Ric Cabot had 330 employees in February, the Free Press reported.\n\nMore:Just socks: How Darn Tough's single-minded focus has fueled growth in good times and bad\n\n_____________\n\nMiddlebury College released a list of expected protocols for the fall semester in light of COVID-19. These include:\n\nA 12-week semester beginning Sept. 8, with no October break. The final day for on-campus class will be Nov. 20; Classes will start up again Nov. 30 remotely.\n\nThe final day for on-campus class will be Nov. 20; Classes will start up again Nov. 30 remotely. Spacing in classroom settings, though \"many classes will be hybrid\" incorporating remote and in-person teaching elements. About 175 of approximately 530 courses are expected to be remote.\n\nare expected to be remote. Students needing to quarantine at home for two weeks . If this isn’t possible before they come to campus, they must quarantine in their dorms.\n\n. If this isn’t possible before they come to campus, they must quarantine in their dorms. Only students being permitted to go into residence halls when they move in (though they can be joined by one other person for the move-in process).\n\nwhen they move in (though they can be joined by one other person for the move-in process). Students testing positive going to the Munford House for isolation. This rule applies to students living on and off campus.\n\nRelated:University of Vermont announces coronavirus precautions for safe fall return to campus\n\n_____________\n\nState officials said Monday that recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in other states came after residents started to be lax in their compliance with guidelines for health and safety from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nVermont’s Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said 12 states recently set records for the number of new cases in a single day. The demographic with the largest growth in positive cases is people aged 18 to 44.\n\nLevine said the spikes in these states have been widely attributed to “a breakdown in the willingness of the public to adhere to the simple precepts of avoiding mass gatherings, hence an inability to physically distance; and to wear facial coverings.”\n\nResidents must still follow these guidelines despite the hot weather and Vermont’s success so far in lowering the number of new cases per day, Levine said. Guidelines also recommend regular hand-washing and staying home when sick.\n\n“We can’t lose track of the fact that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere,” Levine said.\n\n_____________\n\nAn inmate who was being brought into the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington has tested positive for COVID-19.\n\nAgency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said officials believe the inmate had contact with some staff members and some other inmates before the test came back positive on Saturday. It is unclear whether the inmate was in contact with others in the general population. Health Department officials are conducting contact tracing.\n\nCorrections officials have been testing inmates for COVID-19 upon intake to facilities throughout the state, Smith said. All inmates and staff in the South Burlington prison will be tested.\n\nAnother inmate last week tested positive after being brought into the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland. Smith said that testing over the weekend turned up no other positive cases at the facility. A second mass-test of the Rutland facility will be conducted next week.\n\nIn late May and early June, the Department of Corrections had tested all staff and inmates in its facilities and reported no new positive cases. An outbreak in March at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town was the only recorded spread of the virus in a Vermont prison.\n\n___________\n\nThe number of cases associated with an outbreak of COVID-19 in Winooski and Burlington has risen to 110, Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said Monday.\n\nLevine said he believes health officials have been successful in identifying those who could have been affected to try to suppress the outbreak, but the outbreak will not be over until there is no new activity that can be connected back to those involved.\n\n“It’s so common to use the forest fire analogies these days, so I would use the term ‘smoldering,’” Levine said. He added, “We’re doing what we can to contain it, and we’re doing a great job actually, but the bottom line is, to say that it’s fully contained. It’s not quite there yet.”\n\nLevine gave the following breakdown of the cases associated with the Winooski outbreak:\n\nThe median age of those affected is 24.\n\n65% of the cases were adults, and 35% were children.\n\n30% of the 110 cases reported having COVID-19 symptoms.\n\n126 people have been contacted by contact tracers. 19 of those contacts have gone on to be positive cases.\n\n____________\n\nThe VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) is re-opening its outpatient therapy clinic in Manchester, the health group reported Monday.\n\nAppointments physical and occupational therapy will be staggered to minimize coronavirus exposure to patients and staff, according to a news release.\n\nPatients who seek appointments are encouraged to contact their health providers, or call the clinic directly at (802) 362-6509.\n\n============\n\nSunday, June 21, 2020\n\nA dozen new cases of COVID-19 were reported Sunday by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the total cases in Vermont to 1,159. No additional deaths were reported, which keeps the state's total at 56.\n\nThere are no people hospitalized with the disease but 11 are currently under investigation. An additional 817 people have been tested statewide, bringing the total to 57,845.\n\nThe number of people being monitored for symptoms stands at 1,018 and the number who have completed monitoring is 1,209. These numbers include close contacts of confirmed cases and people traveling to Vermont from out-of-state who have enrolled in the state's Sara Alert program.\n\n________\n\nSaturday, June 20, 2020\n\nThree new cases of COVID-19 were reported Saturday by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the total cases in Vermont to 1,147. No additional deaths were reported, keeping the state's total to 56.\n\nThere are no people hospitalized with the disease but nine are currently under investigation . In addition, 1,141 more people were tested statewide, bringing the total to 57,028.\n\n________\n\nFriday, June 19, 2020\n\nAll inmates and staff at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility will be tested for COVID-19 over the next week, Vermont Department of Corrections announced Friday.\n\nThe tests will be conducted on June 20 and 29, following an inmate testing positive for the new coronavirus earlier in the week.\n\nThis will be the second round of facility-wide testing at Marble Valley. On May 28, the Vermont Health Department conducted a series of tests on staff and inmates at the Rutland facility, all of which came back negative.\n\n________\n\nThe city of Burlington will begin its \"Open Streets BTV\" initiative this summer starting June 27, closing off a select number of downtown streets to cars and opening them up for restaurants and pedestrians.\n\nThe announcement came during a press conference held by Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger Friday.\n\nThe initiative will occur every Saturday until August 28, and will run from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., depending on the weather.\n\n\"It could possible be a game changer for some of our small businesses that are in really dire straits right now,\" said Kara Alnasrawi, executive director of Church Street Marketplace.\n\nThe initiative has received positive feedback from business owners, Alnasrawi said, as downtown establishments have seen fewer customers and sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAmong the health and safety measures being undertaken for the \"Open Streets\" initiative to ensure physical distancing will include reservation-only dining, increased security, and limits on crowding.\n\nSome of the participating restaurants and streets include:\n\nCollege Street : Pho Son, Stone Soup, Finnigan's Pub, Bento Japanese Restaurant, The Archives, Sweetwaters, Leunig's, Whiskey Room.\n\n: Pho Son, Stone Soup, Finnigan's Pub, Bento Japanese Restaurant, The Archives, Sweetwaters, Leunig's, Whiskey Room. Bank Street : El Cortijo, Ken's Pizza, Captain Tom's Tiki Bar, Farmhouse, Henry's Diner, A Single Pebble.\n\n: El Cortijo, Ken's Pizza, Captain Tom's Tiki Bar, Farmhouse, Henry's Diner, A Single Pebble. Cherry Street : Penny Cluse, Lucky Next Door, New Moon Cafe, Burlington Paint and Sip.\n\n: Penny Cluse, Lucky Next Door, New Moon Cafe, Burlington Paint and Sip. Center Street: Daily Planet, Revolution Kitchen, Swinging Pinwheel.\n\n________\n\nNine new cases of COVID-19 were reported Friday by the Vermont Department of Health, bringing the total cases in Vermont to 1,144. No additional deaths were reporting, keeping the state's total to 56.\n\nFive new cases of the disease are in Chittenden County. Bennington, Rutland, Lamoille and Orleans counties each have one new case.\n\nOne more person has recovered from the disease. In addition, 1,142 more people were tested statewide, bringing the total to 55,887.\n\n________\n\nVermont's unemployment rate decreased from 16.5% to 12.7% for May, according to a press release from the Vermont Department of Labor.\n\n============\n\nThursday, June 18, 2020\n\nThe state has received a $2 million grant provide support to substance abuse and mental health services during the pandemic. The grant comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. COVID-19 has disrupted many services of support and recovery for Vermonters struggling with mental health issues and substance abuse.\n\n________\n\nStarting tomorrow, June 19, Vermont will begin the opening of long-term care facilities, according to the Vermont Department of Health. These facilities can allow two guests per resident per day, so long as those visits occur outside and follow social distancing protocols.\n\nMore:Coronavirus: Gov. Scott allows limited visits at Vermont nursing and senior homes\n\nVermonters over 65 will no longer be required to stay home. The Health Commissioner suggests that those individuals do continue to take safety precautions if they choose to leave their homes.\n\n________\n\nOne new death related to COVID-19 was reported Thursday by the Vermont Department of Health. The state's total fatalities related to the coronavirus now stand at 56.\n\nSix new cases of the disease were reported in the department's mid-morning update, for a cumulative total of 1,135. Three of the cases are in Chittenden County. Addison, Bennington and Rutland counties each had one new case.\n\nStatewide, about 917 people have recovered from the virus and 54,745 people have been tested.\n\nTwo people are hospitalized for the disease, the department said; nine people are hospitalized and under investigation as possible cases.\n\n________\n\nU.S. and state flags will be lowered to half-staff on Friday at all state facilities as part of a monthly observance of Vermonters who have died due to COVID-19, Governor Phil Scott announced.\n\nVermont's first fatality from the new coronavirus took place March 19, 2020. A month later, after 35 deaths, Scott ordered flags to be lowered on the eighteenth of every month until the end of the year.\n\nFifty-six people in Vermont have died from the disease; the most recent death was reported on June 18.\n\n____________\n\n============\n\nWednesday, June 17, 2020\n\nNo new cases have been reported in Vermont, which currently has 1,129 cases, according to the Vermont Department of Health's dashboard Wednesday.\n\nSo far, about 915 people have recovered from the virus and 53,663 people have been tested.\n\nOne person is in the hospital for COVID-19 and four are hospitalized under investigation.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\n_________\n\nThe Farmers To Families nutrition assistance program has been extended through August, Vermont's congressional delegation announced Wednesday.\n\nA pair of Vermont-based organizations, Willing Hands and the Abbey Group, secured contracts to continue the food box-delivery program for two more months, according to news release from Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch.\n\nThe program will bring an additional $8.5 million in aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Vermont and the Upper Valley with New Hampshire, much of which will go toward buying produce and dairy from local farms, the news release stated.\n\nDetails on how to sign up to receive food boxes can be found on the Vermont Department of Emergency Management’s website: https://vem.vermont.gov.\n\n_________\n\nThe recent decline in new cases of COVID-19 after an oubreak in Winooski and Burlington's Old North End earlier this month is a positive sign, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.\n\nParticularly for Burlington, Weinberger noted, the low number of new cases in the past week bodes well that an influx of college students moving in on June 1 didn't lead to an additional surge in cases.\n\n“If they were bringing the virus with them and infecting others I think we’d be seeing that now reflected in these numbers,\" Weinberger said.\n\nDr. Stephen Leffler, president of the UVM Medical Center, said he was \"sure there were asymptomatic people that came\" to Burlington during that time period but Vermont's efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus — unlike other states —probably limited the impact.\n\n\"Vermont’s still really doing it right,\" Leffler said. \"People are in general all masking, we’re social distancing well. We’re being smart about how we open up our businesses.\n\n“There’s pretty good evidence now that shows each of us wearing a mask helps us prevent spread to someone else,\" he said. \"It’s a relatively small sacrifice that each of us can make and we can keep transmission down.\"\n\n_________\n\nAlso during Wednesday's briefing, Weinberger explained Burlington's plans to allocate resources to \"racial equity and police transformation” effforts.\n\nOn top of an immediate commitment of $300,000 to the city's Fund for Racial Equity and Police Transformation, paid for via cuts to the police department, Weinberger said he's confident similar savings could expand that amount closer to $1 million during the next fiscal year.\n\nAdditionally, the city has another $300,000 in small business relief and rental assistance that it will look into spending \"through the lens of racial justice,\" he said.\n\nAnd the city will explore using an anticipated $1 million in federal funds marked for community investment next year to serve anti-racism efforts, Weinberger said.\n\n“I think there’s some real opportunity looking at all these funds about how to make progress with racial justice,\" the mayor said.\n\n_________\n\nTuesday, June 16, 2020\n\nThe Working Lands Enterprise Board, affiliated with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, has announced that 16 businesses will receive over $250,000 in COVID-19 Response Business Development Grants in agriculture and forestry. The awards will focus on business response, shifting marketing strategies, or other activities that may improve business recovery.\n\nOne grant recipient, The Royal Butcher of Braintree, intends to respond to the surge in demand for slaughter and meat processing. Current bottlenecks in processing will require urgent need to meet the local demand for this butcher’s services.\n\n“These dollars will allow us to expand our business while helping farmers who need our services during the pandemic,” Justin Sauerwein of The Royal Butcher said in a news release. The Royal Butcher, established in 2003, is a USDA inspected slaughterhouse and meat processor, attending to the needs of local livestock and dairy farms.\n\n_________\n\nThe New England Foundation for the Arts announced the launch of the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the nationwide United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.\n\nThe New England Arts Resilience Fund is also supported by federal CARES Act funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Fund was created in response to the impact of COVID-19 on the nation’s arts infrastructure and will support New England nonprofit arts and cultural organizations with recovery and planning capital for a post-pandemic future.\n\nThe New England Arts Resilience Fund will provide approximately 50 non-matching grants, generally in the range of $10,000-$75,000, with potential for a small number of grants up to $100,000. The fund prioritizes organizations, communities, populations and art forms that have historically had less access to major financial resources for sustainability and seeks in particular to support organizations that are led by and deeply engage communities of color.\n\n_________\n\nTravelers looking to make a trip to Canada or Mexico will have to wait at least another month after the Department of Homeland Security extended border closures with both countries due to the coronavirus pandemic, USA Today reported.\n\nThe borders, including Vermont's border with Quebec, will remain closed to nonessential travel until July 21.\n\n\"Based on the success of the existing restrictions and the emergence of additional global COVID-19 hotspots, the Department will continue to limit non-essential travel at our land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico,\" Chad Wolf, acting Secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement. \"This extension protects Americans while keeping essential trade and travel flowing as we reopen the American economy.\"\n\n“This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.\n\n_________\n\nVermont State Treasurer Beth Pearce announced the launch of the Municipal Emergency Statewide Education Property Tax Borrowing Program to assist municipalities as they manage their finances and cash-flow needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nBased on eligibility, the program will cover interest incurred for short-term borrowing meant to manage the effects of statewide education property-tax delays as a direct result of COVID-19. Eligible “short-term borrowing costs” do not include principal payments, fees, or any interest on borrowings not directly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nMunicipalities can learn more, and apply, by visiting https://www.vermonttreasurer.gov/content/local-government.\n\n_________\n\nThree additional positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont, bringing the pandemic total to 1,130, according to Vermont Department of Health data.\n\nAt the same time, about 914 people have recovered from the virus, the data showed, and 52,890 people have been tested.\n\nTwo people are in the hospital for COVID-19, and 10 are hospitalized under investigation — the same numbers as Sunday.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\nMonday, June 15, 2020\n\nGov. Phil Scott extended a state of emergency through July 15. That action does not roll back opening-up procedures, Scott said — but provides a mechanism by which guidelines can be updated (relaxed or tightened, as needed) in an orderly, methodical way.\n\n_________\n\nOutdoor camping facilities may operate at 100% capacity, beginning today, the governor announced. Campground use had been capped at 50% capacity.\n\nQuarantine guidelines from out-of-state campers will remain in place.\n\n_________\n\nOne additional positive case of COVID-19 was reported in Vermont on Sunday, bringing the pandemic total to 1,128, according to Vermont Department of Health data.\n\nAt the same time, about 912 people have recovered from the virus, the data shows, and 52,557 people have been tested, the data showed.\n\nTwo people are in the hospital for COVID-19, and 14 are hospitalized under investigation — the same numbers as Sunday.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\n________\n\nDespite uptick in cases due to a cluster in Winooski in early June, Vermont seems to be back on a reliable path toward containing and tracking the coronavirus (# of cases dipped to just three over the weekend), according to Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine.\n\nStatewide, effective ways of managing outbreaks can take place even as restrictions are relaxed, he said.\n\nSerology tests (that test blood for the presence of, or exposure to, coronavirus) would be of limited utility in Vermont, where the population that has been exposed remains very low by national standards (Levine's best guess is 5%).\n\nLess invasive and more comfortable tests (front-of-nose; saliva) are in development, and will, until a vaccine is developed, make it easier for people to seek out testing, Levine added.. Tests with “real-time” results might conceivably be required for entrance to large sports or entertainment venues.\n\nThe “Sara Alert” app used by the Health Department is a tool for communication between Vermonters and the Department of Health – and is not a “tracking app” that reports the user’s location, Levine said. The state has no plans to implement detailed case-tracking software.\n\n_________\n\nUpcoming governor's news conference topics this week:\n\nWednesday: Long-term health facilities.\n\nFriday: Health guidance on K-12 school re-openings.\n\n============\n\nSunday, June 14, 2020\n\nTwo additional positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Saturday, bringing the pandemic total to 1,127, according to Vermont Department of Health data.\n\nAt the same time, 909 people have recovered from the virus and 50,982 people have been tested, the data showed. Two people are in the hospital for COVID-19, and 14 are hospitalized under investigation, 14 more than Friday.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\n_________\n\nThe vandalism of a Black Lives Matter mural that was painted Saturday on the street in front of Vermont's statehouse is under investigation, police said. The vandalism took place in the early hours of Sunday morning. Read more here.\n\nSaturday, June 13, 2020\n\nSix additional positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Friday, bringing the pandemic total to 1,125, Vermont Department of Health data showed.\n\nAt the same time, 908 people have recovered from the virus, while 49,933 people have been tested, the data showed. One person is in the hospital for COVID-19, and 10 are hospitalized under investigation.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\n_________\n\nThe South Burlington Public Library will resume incremental in-person service beginning Wednesday, June 17.\n\nHere's what the library said it will offer:\n\nMondays 1-3 p.m.: Curbside pickup. Requests must be in by 10 a.m. by email or phone for same day pickup. Requests are put out for a week before being returned to the shelves.\n\nCurbside pickup. Requests must be in by 10 a.m. by email or phone for same day pickup. Requests are put out for a week before being returned to the shelves. Wednesdays 11-6:30 p.m.: Open to the public. No curbside pickup. Come in to browse or use public computers on a first come, first served basis. We can accommodate 10 members of the public at one time, and ask you to follow social distancing guidelines and use hand sanitizer upon entering. Computers will be limited to 20 minutes. Face coverings are required.\n\nOpen to the public. No curbside pickup. Come in to browse or use public computers on a first come, first served basis. We can accommodate 10 members of the public at one time, and ask you to follow social distancing guidelines and use hand sanitizer upon entering. Computers will be limited to 20 minutes. Face coverings are required. Fridays 1-3 p.m.:, Curbside pickup. Requests must be in by 10 a.m. for same day pick up.\n\nIn addition, the book drop is now open 24/7 for returns. For more information, call 802-846-4140 or email sbplinfo@southburlingtonvt.gov.\n\nFriday, June 12, 2020\n\nKat Wright will perform at the Champlain Valley Exposition Sunday, June 21.\n\n\"Higher Ground’s new 'Drive-in Experience,' announced Tuesday, provides a space for concerts and community events in an era of social distancing,\" the Free Press reported. \"Up to 250 vehicles can park six feet from each other, with room for attendees to set up a blanket or lawn chairs in front of their vehicles.\"\n\nDetails on adjustments in light of COVID-19, as well as details on purchasing tickets, can be found in the Free Press story.\n\nMore:Kat Wright to play Champlain Valley Expo in Higher Ground's 1st concert since coronavirus\n\n_________\n\nThe Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival will go virtual this summer. Details on this year's event can be found on the Free Press and Dragonheart Vermont.\n\n_________\n\nNo-lab confirmed cases so far have been associated with protest activity, according to a daily update from the Health Department. The department encouraged testing for anyone taking part in public actions.\n\n\"We support Vermonters engaging in peaceful protests and other civic activities,\" the statement read. \"We remind everyone that it continues to be important to follow universal precautions when you are out – wear a face covering or mask when near others, maintain 6-foot distance, and f you're sick, find actions to make yourself heard from home.\"\n\n_________\n\nThere are a total of 81 cases associated with a recent outbreak in Chittenden County as of Thursday, according to a daily update from the Health Department. A majority are in Winooski. One individual is hospitalized but no deaths have been associated with this outbreak.\n\n\"Only 18% of people associated with the outbreak are reporting symptoms,\" the update stated. \"This indicates that the number of people who were asymptomatic is a contributing factor to the spread of the virus in the community.\"\n\n_________\n\nGov. Phil Scott and members of his cabinet announced a proposed $90 million in economic relief on Friday — phase two of a relief package he has proposed to restart the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nFunds from the first phase are being considered by the Vermont Legislature currently. Scott had proposed $250 million in relief for businesses impacted by the pandemic, but expressed frustration at seeing the Legislature reducing the amount he asked for in his proposal. The Vermont House of Representatives announced Friday that it had fast-tracked a $93 million coronavirus relief package to Scott's desk for his signature.\n\n\"They're only including about a third of the money we recommended,\" Scott said during a news conference Friday. He added, \"While this pandemic has impacted everyone in the state, this crippled small businesses — the folks who provide the jobs that families rely on and generate the revenue we need for the services we provide in state government.\"\n\nThe second phase money, which will also be reviewed by the Legislature, provides assistance for long-term economic recovery, housing and community recovery, broadband expansion, and modernizing Vermont's regulatory programs.\n\nThe money being put toward relief from the pandemic was granted to the state through the federal CARES Act.\n\n__________\n\nNine additional positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on Friday, bringing the pandemic total to 1,119, Vermont Department of Health data showed.\n\nAt the same time, 907 people have recovered from the virus, while 48,634 people have been tested, the data showed. Two people are in the hospital for COVID-19, and 14 are hospitalized under investigation.\n\nNo additional deaths have been reported — that total remains at 55, according to the data.\n\n__________\n\nBurlington City Arts will begin its 2020 summer artist market this weekend on Pine Street.\n\nThe arts organization announced a number of health and safety measures that would be in place due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The market will run each Saturday from June 13 through Oct. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 339 Pine St. in Burlington.\n\nPrecautions being taken include:\n\nRequiring vendors to wear face masks and gloves, and encouraging shoppers to do the same.\n\nDirecting shoppers in one direction, with only one entrance and one exit.\n\nLimiting 10 to 15 shoppers in the market at one time, and relying on extra staff to regulate these numbers.\n\nEstablishing hand sanitizing stations at booths in addition to the market's entrance and exit.\n\nLimiting the number of vendors to 20 each week, with booths spaced at least 6 feet apart.\n\nEncouraging vendors to display merchandise in a way that limits touch.\n\nLimiting two people per booth at a time.\n\nOffering contactless payment.\n\nA full list of vendors participating in the 2020 markets can be found at burlingtoncityarts.org/artistmarket\n\n__________\n\nThursday, June 11, 2020\n\nThe Vermont National Education Association (NEA) expressed its concerns with the Governor and Agency of Education's announcement to reopen Vermont schools by Labor Day.\n\nDon Tinney, Vermont-NEA president, called the announcement “unfortunate” because the hard work required to plan for a safe reopening has not been completed, according to a press release from the Vermont-NEA.\n\nSome of the issues the organization said need to be resolved before setting an opening date are:\n\nEffective and robust testing and contact tracing in areas with in-person schooling.\n\nCollective pre-opening planning.\n\nSufficient time to plan and make facility preparations.\n\nEstablish protocols for social distancing and use of personal protective equipment, cleaning, how to respond if a student or staff member contracts the virus.\n\nAddress learning deficits as a result of remote learning and address student trauma.\n\nPlan for contingency distance learning if schools need to close again.\n\nEstablish regular and effective communication between schools and families.\n\nCreate protocols for how to deal with students and staff at higher risk of contracting the virus or experiencing life-threatening complications as a result.\n\nState should allocate funding to hire nurses, custodians, bus drivers, mental health counselors and to purchase sufficient amounts of personal protective equipment.\n\nGuidance on special education services.\n\nProtection of vulnerable children if schools close again.\n\nResources for families who do not benefit consistently from distance learning.\n\nEstablish which student groups would return first in a gradual return to school.\n\nSolve the internet access issues some families face.\n\nStandardized testing requirements be waived.\n\n__________\n\nNorthern Vermont University will begin its fall semester one week earlier than initially planned to position itself in case there is a resurgence of COVID-19 cases later this year.\n\nThe semester will also end early — residential students will return home for Thanksgiving break and will take final exams remotely, the college announced Thursday.\n\nThe plan will not affect the number of teaching and learning days, the college said in a statement. The accelerated semester includes no breaks, with instruction on Labor Day and throughout October. Students will leave campus on Friday, November 20, and are planned to be welcomed back when the spring semester begins on January 19, 2021.\n\n“We know this is different from our normal semester,” college President Elaine Collins said. “The health of the entire NVU community is our number one priority as we prepare to return to campus for face-to-face instruction.”\n\n__________\n\nVermont reported an additional 16 positive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing its total to 1,110, Health Department statistics show.\n\nAccording to the data, 905 people have recovered from COVID-19 and 47,209 people have been tested for the virus in Vermont.\n\nThe number of people hospitalized with the virus decreased by one on Thursday for a total of three. Nine people are hospitalized under investigation for COVID-19.\n\nNo additional deaths due to COVID-19 have occurred — that total remains at 55.\n\n__________\n\nNo cases of COVID-19 were found at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield following mass testing of inmates and staff, the Vermont Department of Corrections said.\n\nAccording to Corrections officials, 336 inmates and 181 staff at the facility were tested June 8. All tests came back negative for the virus.\n\nThe Springfield-based prison was the sixth and final facility to undergo mass testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town was the only facility to have inmates test positive for the virus since it was first detected among members of the prison population, the Corrections Department said.\n\n__________\n\nWednesday, June 10, 2020\n\nA total of 74 cases of COVID-19 are thought to be associated with the recent outbreak that emerged in Winooski, according to Vermont Department of Health data from Tuesday evening.\n\nAbout 80% of those cases are in Winooski and most of the rest are in Burlington, the Health Department said. Only one in five people associated with the outbreak are reporting symptoms — the number of asymptomatic individuals is thought to be a contributing factor to the spread of the virus in the community.\n\nThere have been no deaths associated with the outbreak, the state reported.\n\n__________\n\nGuidance is underway to prepare Vermont schools across the state to tentatively open by Labor Day, announced Gov. Phil Scott in a press briefing Wednesday.\n\nHealth and safety measures for school districts are being developed by the state's Agency of Education and the Health Department, in collaboration with other Vermont educational organizations and pediatricians, and will be formally announced by next week.\n\n\"it's critical we finalize a plan now so we can reopen in the fall,\" said Scott.\n\nAmong the objectives of the guidance is to decrease the risk of COVID-19 entering school, being transmitted between staff and students, and ensuring students with certain needs are \"addressed in a fair and equitable measure\".\n\nProvisions could include social distancing on busses, daily temperature screenings at bus stops and school entrances, increased testing and tracing capacity, and mandatory dismissals if students or staff display any symptoms.\n\n\"It's likely we'll have to change or amend this guidance in the coming months,\" said Dan French, secretary of the Agency of Education.\n\n\"We're also preparing to improve our ability to provide remote learning as a contingency.\"\n\n__________\n\nRegistration is open for Vermonters seeking meals from distribution sites across the state this month.\n\nPick up sites are scheduled on these days in these areas , with more sites to be added for the remainder of June:\n\nMiddlebury area: June 10\n\nBrattleboro area: June 11\n\nMorristown area: June 12\n\nLyndon area: June 15\n\nGrand Isle County: June 16\n\nRandolph area: June 17\n\nDover area: June 18\n\nChittenden County: June 19\n\nPeople can register online at humanresources.vermont.gov/food-help or over the phone via 2-1-1. Those who register will receive a time window to pick up meals at their designated site, upon which they can receive a\n\n__________\n\nFour people are now hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Vermont Department of Health, double the total from 24 hours earlier.\n\nThe state recorded 11 new cases of the virus, increasing the total to 1,095 since the start of the pandemic. Fifty-seven people are being monitored for the virus. The number of deaths remains 55.\n\nThe total of tests for COVID-19 continues to jump in light of an outbreak in Winooski that has since spread to Burlington. The Health Department reports 45,742 people have been tested, up roughly 1,500 from the previous day's total.\n\n__________\n\nThunder Road Speedbowl announced Tuesday that it would begin its 2020 schedule on June 18, about a month later than originally planned. The event will be held without spectators and will be broadcast pay-per-view on the Northeast Sports Network (www.nsnsports.net).\n\nMore:Thunder Road to open 2020 season with pay-per-view race on June 18\n\n__________\n\nTuesday, June 9, 2020\n\nTwo people are now hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Vermont Department of Health, up one from Monday.\n\nThe department noted 9 new cases of the virus in the past 24 hours, increasing the total to 1,084 since the pandemic began. The number of deaths remains at 55.\n\nThe total of tests for COVID-19 continues to jump in light of an outbreak in Winooski that has since spread to Burlington. The Health Department reports 44,228 people have been tested, up almost 1,500 from the previous day's total.\n\n__________\n\nWith new cases of COVID-19 having cropped up in Winooski and Burlington in recent days, the Community Health Centers of Burlington announced several opportunities for testing in those two cities.\n\nTesting in Burlington is from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. daily through June 12 at the O.N.E. Community Center on Allen Street. Testing in Winooski is offered from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., also through June 12, at the O'Brien Community Center on Malletts Bay Avenue except for June 11, when tests will be conducted at the Winooski Senior Center on Barlow Street.\n\n__________\n\nThree new college presidents, Laura Walker (Bennington College), Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande (Champlain College) and Col. Mark Anarumo (Norwich University), took on new positions in the midst of the coronavirus.\n\nMore:Coronavirus: New college presidents to lead Champlain, Bennington, Norwich schools, communities\n\n__________\n\nGov. Scott's new racial equity task force is taking applications for a public member to be appointed. The force intends to consider a few projects, one of which involves looking at support structures for diverse populations. This includes honing in on \"racial disparities in health outcomes highlighted by COVID-19.\"\n\nMore:Vermont seeking public member for newly created racial equity task force\n\n__________\n\nVermont has been awarded over $4.4 million in Emergency Solutions Grants for its population experiencing and at risk of experiencing homelessness, according to a June 9 news release from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.\n\nThis can go toward a number of uses, like providing hotel vouchers or operating emergency shelters.\n\n“We are proud of the extraordinary efforts being made by our Vermont homeless partners to protect our most vulnerable from the impacts of COVID-19, this funding helps to further their efforts in this fight,” said David Tille, HUD New England Regional Administrator, in the news release.\n\n__________\n\nMonday, June 8, 2020\n\nThe total number of positive COVID-19 cases in Vermont rose by 12 to a total of 1,075, according to data released Monday by the Vermont Department of Health. About 895 people were estimated to have recovered while a total of 42,798 people had been tested for the virus.\n\nOne person is hospitalized with COVID-19, and 12 people are hospitalized under investigation.\n\nNo additional deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Vermont on", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2022/03/02/5-things-you-may-not-know-are-tax-deductible/49872503/", "title": "5 Things You May Not Know Are Tax Deductible", "text": "Maurie Backman\n\nThe Motley Fool\n\nYour goal as a taxpayer should be to hand over as little money as possible to the IRS. And to do that, you need to capitalize on tax deductions.\n\nAs a quick primer, a tax deduction exempts a portion of your earnings from taxes. Your actual tax savings are then a result of the tax bracket you fall into, which is based on your income.\n\nSay you're able to claim a $500 tax deduction, and you fall into the 22% tax bracket. That means you're not paying taxes on $500 of your income and are saving yourself $110 as a result. Tax deductions shouldn't be confused with tax credits, which are a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your tax liability.\n\nTAXES 2022: Should you itemize your taxes or take a standard deduction?\n\nWith that out of the way, here are five tax deductions you may not have known about.\n\n1. Medical expenses\n\nSome people spend a lot of money on medical bills – even those with decent health insurance. For the 2021 tax year, which is the tax year you're submitting a return for in 2022, you're allowed to deduct unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). This means if your AGI is $50,000 (7.5% of $50,000 is $3,750) and you rack up $5,000 in medical bills, you can deduct $1,250 of that ($5,000-$3,750).\n\nSUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: The Daily Money delivers our top personal finance stories to your inbox\n\n2. Educator expenses\n\nIt's common for teachers to spend their own money on classroom materials. As an educator, you're allowed to deduct up to $250 in classroom supplies. And the best part? This is a deduction you can take even if you don't itemize on your tax return.\n\n3. Self-employment taxes\n\nThough there are benefits to being self-employed, one drawback is you have to pay 15.3% of your income toward Social Security and Medicare taxes. Salaried workers only pay half that amount because they split that 15.3% obligation with their employers. But on the positive side, you can deduct half of your Social Security and Medicare tax bill on your return, so you effectively get some of that money back.\n\nDOING YOUR TAXES WHEN YOU'RE YOUR OWN BOSS: 4 tips for the self-employed\n\n4. Donated goods\n\nYou may be aware that if you give money to charity, you can deduct your contributions on your taxes. But you can also claim a deduction for donated goods. All you'll need to do is retain receipts documenting your donations, and deduct the fair market value of those goods – not their original value. If you donate a used furniture piece you bought for $800, that piece may now only be worth $300 due to its age and condition – and so $300 is the write-off you'd take.\n\n5. Home equity loan interest – but only in some cases\n\nYou can take out a home equity loan and use your proceeds for any reason. But if you take out a home equity loan that you use for home improvement purposes, you can deduct the interest you pay on that loan on your taxes. To be clear, though, it's just the interest portion of your payments you can claim as a write-off, the same way you can deduct interest on your mortgage but not your total mortgage payments.\n\nCapitalizing on tax deductions could result in big savings. Keep reading up on tax breaks and deductions so you don't end up paying the IRS a penny more than you need to.\n\nAlert: Highest cash back card we've seen now has 0% intro APR until 2023\n\nOffer from the Motley Fool: If you're using the wrong credit or debit card, it could be costing you serious money. Our expert loves this top pick, which features a 0% intro APR until 2023, an insane cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee.\n\nIn fact, this card is so good that our expert even uses it personally. Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.\n\nRead our free review\n\nWe're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.\n\nThe Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2020/01/14/democratic-debate-transcript-what-the-candidates-said-quotes/4460789002/", "title": "Democratic debate: Read the CNN/Des Moines Register debate ...", "text": "Des Moines Register\n\nTHIS IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THE DEBATE FROM FDCH. THIS COPY MAY BE UPDATED.\n\nWOLF BLITZER: Live from Drake University in Iowa, this is the CNN Democratic presidential debate, in partnership with the Des Moines Register. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, along with CNN's Abby Phillip and the Des Moines Register's chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel.\n\nABBY PHILLIP: The top six Democratic presidential candidates are in place. This is their final debate before the first votes of the 2020 presidential campaign. The Iowa caucuses are 20 days away.\n\nBRIANNE PFANNENSTIEL: Before we begin, a reminder of the ground rules. You'll each receive 75 seconds to answer questions, 45 seconds for responses and rebuttals and 15 seconds for clarifications. Please refrain from interrupting your fellow candidates, as that will count against your time.\n\nBLITZER: All right, so let's begin right now. Just this month, the United States and Iran were on the brink of war, which has reignited the debate over America's role in the world and which of you is best prepared to be commander-in-chief. So let's have the debate right now.\n\nSen. Sanders, why are you best prepared — the best prepared person on this stage to be commander-in-chief?\n\nMore:What were the tense words exchanged between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders after Tuesday's debate? Now we know.\n\nSEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, I think my record speaks to that, Wolf. In 2002, when the Congress was debating whether or not we go into a war in Iraq, invade Iraq, I got up on the floor of the House and I said that would be a disaster, it would lead to unprecedented levels of chaos in the region. And I not only voted against the war, I helped lead the effort against that war.\n\nJust last year, I helped, for the first time in the modern history of this country, pass a War Powers Act resolution, working with a conservative Republican, Mike Lee of Utah, which said that the war in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia, was unconstitutional because Congress had not authorized it. We got a majority vote in the Senate. We got a majority vote in the House. Unfortunately, Bush vetoed that and that horrific war continues.\n\nI am able to work with Republicans. I am able to bring people together to try to create a world where we solve conflicts over the negotiating table, not through military efforts.\n\nBLITZER: Vice President Biden, you talk a lot about your experience, but some of your competitors have taken issue with that experience, questioning your judgment in voting to authorize the Iraq war. Why are you the best prepared person on this stage to be commander-in-chief?\n\nJOE BIDEN: I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn't get inspectors into Iraq to stop what — thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon. It was a mistake, and I acknowledged that.\n\nBut right — the man who also argued against that war, Barack Obama, picked me to be his vice president. And once we — once we were elected president, he turned — and vice president, he turned to me and asked me to end that war.\n\nI know what it's like to send a son or daughter, like our colleague has gone to war in Afghanistan, my son for a year in Iraq, and that's why I do it very, very reluctantly. That's why I led the effort, as you know, Wolf, against surging tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan. We should not send anyone anywhere unless the overwhelming vital interests of the United States are at stake. They were not at stake there. They were not at stake in Iraq. And it was a mistaken vote.\n\nBut I think my record overall on everything we've done has been — I'm — I'm prepared to compare it to anybody on this stage.\n\nDebate guide:\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Sanders, you have been attacking Vice President Biden's vote on the Iraq war, but you recently acknowledged that your vote to authorize the war in Afghanistan was also a mistake. So you both acknowledged mistakes. Why should the American people trust your judgment more?\n\nSANDERS: Well, it's a little bit of a difference. On that particular vote, every single member of the House, including myself, voted for it. Only Barbara Lee voted against it.\n\nBut what I understood right away, in terms of the war in Iraq, the difference here is that the war in Iraq turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country. As Joe well knows, we lost 4,500 brave troops. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. We have spent trillions of dollars on that endless war, money which should go into health care and education and infrastructure in this country.\n\nJoe and I listened to what Dick Cheney and George Bush and Rumsfeld had to say. I thought they were lying. I didn't believe them for a moment. I took to the floor. I did everything I could to prevent that war. Joe saw it differently.\n\nBLITZER: Vice President Biden?\n\nBIDEN: I was asked to bring 156,000 troops home from that war, which I did. I led that effort. It was a mistake to trust that they weren't going to go to war. They said they were not going to go to war. They said they were just going to get inspectors in.\n\nThe world, in fact, voted to send inspectors in and they still went to war. From that point on, I was in the position of making the case that it was a big, big mistake. And from that point on, I've voted to — I moved to bring those troops home.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Klobuchar, you've publicly questioned Mayor Buttigieg's experience when it comes to being commander-in-chief. Why is your time as a U.S. senator more valuable than his time as a U.S. naval intelligence officer in Afghanistan and as mayor?\n\nSEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Wolf. And I have been very clear that I respect the mayor's experience very much in the military. I just have different experience.\n\nI've been in the U.S. Senate for over 12 years. And I think what you want in a president is someone who has dealt with these life-and-death issues and who has made decisions.\n\nI will look at my position on the Iraq war first. I wasn't in the Senate for that vote, but I opposed that war from the very beginning. In my first campaign for Senate, I ran against a Republican who ran ads against me on it, but I stood my ground. When I got to the Senate, I pushed to bring our troops home.\n\nThen I have dealt with every issue, from Afghanistan to keeping our troops with good health care after what we saw with Walter Reed and being part of an effort to improve the situation for our troops in a very big way with our education and with their jobs and also with their health care.\n\nI think right now what we should be talking about, though, Wolf, is what is happening right now with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is taking us pell-mell toward another war. We have a very important resolution. We just found out today that four Republicans are joining Democrats to go to him and say: You must have an authorization of military force if you're going to go to war with Iran.\n\nThat is so important, because we have a situation where he got us out of the Iranian nuclear agreement, something I worked on for a significant period of time. As president, I will get us back into that agreement. I will take an oath...\n\nBLITZER: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... to protect and defend our Constitution.\n\nBLITZER: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: And I will mean it.\n\nBLITZER: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar. We're going to continue talking about who's best prepared to be commander-in-chief. Mayor Buttigieg?\n\nPETE BUTTIGIEG: Well, I bring a different perspective. There are enlisted people that I served with barely old enough to remember those votes on the authorization after 9/11, on the war in Iraq. And there are people now old enough to enlist who were not alive for some of those debates.\n\nThe next president is going to be confronted with national security challenges different in scope and in kind from anything we've seen before, not just conventional military challenges, not just stateless terrorism, but cybersecurity challenges, climate security challenges, foreign interference in our elections. It's going to take a view to the future, as well as the readiness, to learn from the lessons of the past. And for me, those lessons of the past are personal.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Warren, in our new CNN/Des Moines Register poll, almost a third of your supporters say your ability to lead the military is more of a weakness than a strength of yours. Why are you best prepared to be commander-in-chief?\n\nMore from January's Iowa Poll:\n\nSEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: I believe the principal job of the commander-in-chief is to keep America safe. And I think that's about judgment. I think it starts with knowing our military. I sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I work with our generals, with our military leaders, with our intelligence, but I also visit our troops. I visit our troops around the world.\n\nI've been to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to Jordan, to South Korea. I've been to lots of places to talk with our troops. And I fight for our troops, to make sure that they get their pay, that they get the housing and medical benefits that they've been promised, that they don't get cheated by giant financial institutions.\n\nYou know, I have three brothers who were in the military, and I know how much our military families sacrifice. But I also know that we have to think about our defense in very different ways. We have to think about cyber. We have to think about climate. We also have to think about how we spend money.\n\nWe have a problem with a revolving door in Washington between the defense industry and the Department of Defense and the Pentagon. That is corruption, pure and simple. We need to block that revolving door, and we need to cut our defense budget. We need to depend on all of our tools — diplomatic, economic, working with our allies — and not let the defense industry call the shots.\n\nBLITZER: Mr. Steyer, you worked in finance for decades and have never held elected office. Why should voters believe you have the experience or judgment to serve as commander-in-chief?\n\nTOM STEYER: I worked internationally around the world for decades. I traveled, I met with governments, I met with businesses, and I understand how America interacts with other countries.\n\nAnd you asked what is the reason that the — the experience really counts, and to me, I believe that Sen. Warren made a great point. It isn't so much about experience, it's about judgment.\n\nIf you've been listening to this, what we are hearing is 20 years of mistakes by the American government in the Middle East, of failure, of mistakes. So the real question is judgment.\n\nAnd if you look who had the judgment, it was a state senator from Illinois with no experience named Barack Obama who opposed the war. It is a congresswoman, Barbara Lee from Oakland, California, who stood up against the original vote, who was the only person in Congress.\n\nSo I would say to you this: An outside perspective, looking at this and actually dealing with the problems as they are is what we're looking for now. I agree with Sen. Warren. We are spending dramatically too much money on defense. The money that we're spending there, we could spend in the other parts of the budget, and it's time for someone from the outside to have a strategic view about what we're trying to do and how to do it.\n\n►As Tom Steyer's Iowa bus tour ends, some like his outsider resume. Others want more experience.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Sanders, in the wake of the Iran crisis, Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei has again called for all U.S. troops to be pulled out of the Middle East, something you've called for, as well. Yet when American troops last left Iraq, ISIS emerged and spread terror across the Middle East and, indeed, around the world. How would you prevent that from happening again?\n\nSANDERS: O.K., I'm going to tell you, but before I tell you that, let me tell you something else.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nAnd that is — and I don't know if my colleagues here will agree with me or not. Maybe they will. But what we have to face as a nation is that the two great foreign policy disasters of our lifetimes were the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq. Both of those wars were based on lies. And right now, what I fear very much is we have a president who is lying again and could drag us into a war that is even worse than the war in Iraq.\n\nTo answer your question, what we need to do is have an international coalition. We cannot keep acting unilaterally. As you know, the nuclear deal with Iran was worked on with a number of our allies. We have got to undo what Trump did, bring that coalition together, and make sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.\n\nBLITZER: Vice President Biden?\n\nBIDEN: I was part of that deal to get the nuclear agreement with Iran, bringing together the rest of the world, including some of the folks who aren't friendly to us. And it was working. It was working. It was being held tightly. There was no movement on the part of the Iranian government to get closer to a nuclear weapon.\n\nAnd look what's happened. He went ahead — and it was predictable from the day he pulled out of the agreement, Trump, what exactly would happen. We're now isolated. We're in a situation where our allies in Europe are making a comparison between the United States and Iran, saying both ought to stand down, making a moral equivalence.\n\nWe have lost our standing in the region. We have lost the support of our allies. The next president has to be able to pull those folks back together, re-establish our alliances, and insist that Iran go back into the agreement, which I believe with the pressure applied as we put on before we can get done.\n\nBLITZER: So just to be clear, Vice President Biden, would you leave troops in the Middle East or would you pull them out?\n\nBIDEN: I would leave troops in the Middle East in terms of patrolling the Gulf, where we have — where we are now, small numbers of troops, and I think it's a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS.\n\nWhat's happened is, now that he's gone ahead, the president, and started this whole process moving, what's happening? ISIS is going to reconstitute itself. We're in a position where we have to pull our forces out. Americans have to leave the entire region. And quite frankly, I think he's flat-out lied about saying the reason he went after — the reason he made the strike was because our embassies were about to be bombed.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Klobuchar, what's your response?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I would leave some troops there, but not in the level that Donald Trump is taking us right now. Afghanistan, I have long wanted to bring our troops home. I would do that. Some would remain for counterterrorism and training.\n\nIn Syria, I would not have removed the 150 troops from the border with Turkey. I think that was a mistake. I think it made our allies and many others much more vulnerable to ISIS. And then when it comes to Iraq, right now, I would leave our troops there, despite the mess that has been created by Donald Trump.\n\nAt the briefing we had last week, I was the only person on this stage that asked a question of both the secretary of defense and the secretary of state. And I asked them about imminent threat, but I also asked them what their alternatives were. And they gave very vague, vague answers.\n\nI asked them, where is the surge of diplomacy that we would be seeing if I was president? And I asked them where they were going to leave the Iraqi people. Time and time again, you see that this president puts his own interests, his private interests, in front of our country's. I would put our country's interests first as commander-in-chief.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Warren, leave combat troops, at least some combat troops in the Middle East, or bring them home?\n\nWARREN: No, I think we need to get our combat troops out. You know, we have to stop this mindset that we can do everything with combat troops. Our military is the finest military on Earth and they will take any sacrifice we ask them to take. But we should stop asking our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily.\n\nOur keeping combat troops there is not helping. We need to work with our allies. We need to use our economic tools. We need to use our diplomatic tools.\n\nNow, look, I understand, there are people on this stage, when it comes to Afghanistan, for example, who talk about 5 more years, 10 more years. Shoot, Lindsey Graham talks about leaving troops there for a hundred more years. No one has a solution and an endpoint. We need to get our combat troops out. They are not helping create more safety for the United States or the region.\n\nBLITZER: Vice President Biden, is Sen. Warren right?\n\nBIDEN: Well, I tell you what, there's a difference between combat troops and leaving special forces in a position. I was part of the coalition to put together 68 countries to deal with stateless terror as well as failed states. Not us alone, 68 other countries.\n\nThat's how we were able to defeat and end the caliphate for ISIS. They'll come back if we do not deal with them and we do not have someone who can bring together the rest of the world to go with us, with small numbers of special forces we have, to organize the effort to take them down.\n\nBLITZER: Mayor Buttigieg, you served in Afghanistan. Who's right?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: We can continue to remain engaged without having an endless commitment of ground troops. But what's going on right now is the president's actually sending more. The very president who said he was going to end endless war, who pretended to have been against the war in Iraq all along — although we know that's not true — now has more troops going to the Middle East.\n\n►In Iowa, Pete Buttigieg criticizes Joe Biden's 2002 Iraq War vote, calling it the 'worst foreign policy decision' of his lifetime\n\nAnd whenever I see that happen, I think about the day we shipped out and the time that was set aside for saying goodbye to family members. I remember walking with a friend of mine, another lieutenant I trained with, as we walked away, and his one-and-a-half-year-old boy was toddling after him, not understanding why his father wasn't turning back to scoop him up. And it took all the strength he had not to turn around and look at his boy one more time.\n\nThat is happening by the thousands right now, as we see so many more troops sent into harm's way. And my perspective is to ensure that that will never happen when there is an alternative as commander-in-chief.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Sanders?\n\nSANDERS: Wolf, in America today, our infrastructure is crumbling. Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. Eighty-seven million people have no health care or are uninsured or underinsured. We got 500,000 people sleeping out on the streets tonight.\n\nThe American people are sick and tired of endless wars which have cost us trillions of dollars. Our job is to rebuild the United Nations, rebuild the State Department, make sure that we have the capability of bringing the world together to resolve international conflict diplomatically and stop the endless wars that we have experienced.\n\nBLITZER: We're going to get to everyone, but, Vice President Biden, you criticized President Trump's decision to kill the Iranian general, Soleimani, without first going to Congress. Are there any circumstances, other than a direct attack on the United States, where you would take military action without congressional approval?\n\nBIDEN: I ran the first time as a 29-year-old kid against the war in Vietnam on the grounds that the only way to take a nation to war is with the informed consent of the American people. The informed consent of the American people.\n\nAnd with regard to this idea that we can walk away and not have any troops anywhere, including special forces, we — there's no way you negotiate or have been able to negotiate with terrorists. You have to be able to form coalitions to be able to defeat them or contain them. If you don't, we end up being the world's policeman again.\n\nThey're going to come to us. They've come to us before. They'll come to us again. So it's a fundamental difference than negotiating with other countries. It's fundamentally the requirement that we use our special forces in small numbers to coordinate with other countries to bring together coalitions.\n\nBLITZER: Mr. Vice President, just to be clear, the Obama-Biden administration did not ask Congress for permission multiple times when it took military action. So would the Biden doctrine be different?\n\nBIDEN: No, there was the authorization for the use of military force that was passed by the United States Congress, House, and Senate, and signed by the president. That was the authority. It does not give authority to go into Iran. It gave authority to deal with these other issues.\n\nBLITZER: Mayor Buttigieg?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: That authorization needs to be replaced.\n\nBIDEN: Exactly. And we tried to.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: When we lost troops in Niger, there were members of Congress who admitted they didn't even know we had troops there. And it was all pursuant to an authorization that was passed to deal with Al Qaida and 9/11. And often, Congress has been all too happy to leave aside its role. Now, thanks to Democrats in Congress, that's changing. But the reality is, year after year, Congress didn't want to touch this, either, because it was so politically difficult.\n\nFundamental truth is, if our troops can summon the courage to go overseas into harm's way, often on deployment after deployment, then we've got to make sure that Congress has the courage to take tough up-or-down votes on whether they ought to be there. And when I am president, anytime — which I hope will never happen — but anytime I am compelled to use force and seek that authorization, we will have a three-year sunset, so that the American people are included ...\n\nBLITZER: Thank you.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: ... not only in the decision about whether to send troops, but whether to continue.\n\nBLITZER: Thank you. Sen. Warren — we're going to get to everyone — but, Sen. Warren, what about you? Are there any circumstances, other than a direct attack on the United States, where you would take military action without congressional approval?\n\nWARREN: Well, imminent threat. But we need an authorization for the use of military force before we take this nation into combat. That is what the Constitution provides and that is what as commander-in-chief I will do.\n\nBut I just want to be clear. Everyone on this stage talks about nobody wants endless war. But the question is, when and how do you plan to get out of it?\n\nYou know, on the Senate Armed Services Committee, we have one general after another in Afghanistan who comes in and says, you know, we've just turned the corner and now it's all going to be different. And then what happens? It's all the same for another year. Someone new comes in and we've just turned the corner.\n\nWe've turned the corner so many times, we're going in circles in these regions. This has got to stop. It's not enough to say some day we're going to get out. No one on the ground, none of our military can describe what the conditions are for getting out. It's time to get our combat troops home.\n\nBLITZER: Mr. Steyer, would a President Steyer use military force as a deterrent? And if not, under what circumstances would you take military action?\n\nSTEYER: I would take military action to protect the lives and safety of American citizens. But what we can see in the Middle East and what this conversation shows is that there is no real strategy that we're trying to accomplish in what we're doing in the Middle East.\n\nObviously, Mr. Trump has no strategy. He is going from crisis to crisis, from escalation to escalation. But if you look further over the last 20 years, including in the war in Afghanistan, we know from the Washington Post that, in fact, there was no strategy. There was just a series of tactical decisions that made no sense.\n\nSo we really have to ask ourselves in the Middle East, what are we trying to accomplish? I agree with Vice President Biden. To do it, we should definitely be doing it in coalition with other countries. And I want to point out that, as we do that, we're confronted by this issue which everyone is talking about.\n\nBut at the same time, there's a gigantic climate issue in Australia, which also requires the same kind of value-driven coalition-building that we actually should be using in the Middle East. We need to ask ourselves, how are we going to provide a world that is safer for Americans, where we can prosper more? And every single thing we should do should follow into that strategy. And it's just not happening in Washington, D.C.\n\nPHILLIP: Mayor Buttigieg, another critical issue you'd face as president is the threat of nuclear weapons. Last week, President Trump said, quote, \"As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.\" Would a President Buttigieg make that same promise?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: Ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons will, of course, be a priority, because it's such an important part of keeping America safe. But unfortunately, President Trump has made it much harder for the next president to achieve that goal.\n\nBy gutting the Iran nuclear deal — one that, by the way, the Trump administration itself admitted was working, certified that it was preventing progress toward a nuclear Iran — by gutting that, they have made the region more dangerous and set off the chain of events that we are now dealing with as it escalates even closer to the brink of outright war.\n\nNow — yes?\n\nPHILLIP: Continue.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: In order to get that done, we've got to work with our partners. The Iran nuclear deal, the technical term for it was the JCPOA. That first letter \"J\" stood for \"Joint.\" We can't do this alone, even less so now after everything that has happened.\n\nWhich is why it will be so critically important to engage leaders, including a lot of new leaders emerging around the world, and ensure that we have the alliances we need to meet what I believe is not just an American goal, but a widely shared goal around the world to ensure that Iran does not become a nuclear-armed country.\n\nPHILLIP: Mayor Buttigieg, to be clear, would you allow Iran to become a nuclear power, yes or no?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: No. Our security depends on ensuring that Iran does not become nuclear. And by the way, we've got a lot of other challenges with nuclear proliferation around the world.\n\nDespite this president's coziness with Vladimir Putin, we actually seem to be further away from being able to work with Russia on things like the renewal of START. We've got to move toward less, not more nuclear danger, whether it is from states, from stateless potential terrorist actors, or anywhere else around the world.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg. Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg.\n\nSen. Klobuchar, if you become president, it's very possible there won't be an Iran nuclear deal for the United States to rejoin. Given that, how would you prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I would start negotiations again. And I won't take that as a given, given that our European partners are still trying to hold the agreement together. My issue is that, because of the actions of Donald Trump, we are in a situation where they are now starting — Iran is starting to enrich uranium again in violation of the original agreement.\n\nSo what I would do is negotiate. I would bring people together, just as President Obama did years ago, and I think that we can get this done. But you have to have a president that sees this as a number-one goal.\n\nAnd in answer to the original question you asked the mayor, I would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And then you have to get an agreement in place. I think there are changes you can make to the agreement that are sunset, some changes to the inspections, but overall, that is what we should do.\n\nAnd I am the one person on this debate stage, on the first night of the very first debate, when we were asked what we saw as the biggest threat to our world, I said China on the economy, but I said Iran, because of Donald Trump. Because I feared that exactly what happened would happen: enrichment of uranium, escalation of tensions, leaving frayed relations with our allies. We can bring them back, understanding this is a terrorist regime that we cannot allow to have a nuclear weapon.\n\nPHILLIP: Vice President Biden, I want to ask you about North Korea. President Trump has met with Kim Jong-un three times. President Obama once said he would meet with North Korea without any preconditions. Would you meet with North Korea without any preconditions?\n\nBIDEN: No, not now. I wouldn't meet with them without any preconditions. Look, what — we gave him everything he's looking for, legitimacy. The president showed up, met with him, gave him legitimacy, weakened the sanctions we have against him.\n\nNeed to know ahead of the caucuses:\n\nI would be putting what I did as vice president — I met with Xi Jinping more than anyone else. I would be putting pressure on China to put pressure on Korea, to cease and desist from their nuclear power, make — their efforts to deal with nuclear weapons. I would move forward as we did before — and you reported it extensively, Wolf — about moving forward the whole notion of defense against nuclear weapons, that we would — and when China said to me, when Xi Jinping said to me, that's a threat to us, I said, we're going to move and protect our interests unless you get involved and protect it.\n\nI would reignite the relationship between Japan and South Korea, and I would put enormous pressure, enormous pressure on China, because that's also in their interests for them to put pressure on North Korea to cease and desist.\n\nBut I would not, I would not meet with — absent preconditions, I would not meet with the, quote, \"Supreme Leader,\" who said Joe Biden is a rabid dog, he should be beaten to death with a stick. I count that ...\n\nSANDERS: Other than that, you like him?\n\nBIDEN: Other than that, I like him, and he — he ...\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nAnd he got a love letter from Trump right after that.\n\nPHILLIP: Mr. Steyer, would you meet with North Korea without any preconditions?\n\nSTEYER: No. It's very clear that if we're going to do something with North Korea, we're going to have to do it in concert with our allies, that meeting with him without preconditions is not going anywhere, that the staff can meet to try and see how far we can get.\n\nBut this is a classic situation where the United States' idea of going it alone makes no sense. And when you are talking about Iran, let's face it. Iran is under great pressure economically. So every single discussion we've had about Iran has had to do with military power and America versus Iran, whereas, in fact, what worked with President Obama was an alliance of our allies and us putting economic pressure on them for them to give up their military tactic. That, to me, is called strategy. Having a goal to make America safer, by looking more broadly...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you.\n\nSTEYER: ... than just us, as the policeman of the world spending money.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Mr. Steyer. Let's stay with the theme of America's role in the world and talk about trade. Tomorrow, President Trump is expected to sign phase one of a trade agreement with China. And the Senate will likely soon approve a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, Iowa's largest trading partners.\n\n►Iowans applaud deal that clears a path for U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement\n\n►Caught in prolonged trade war, Iowa farmers could finally see a big win with U.S.-China deal\n\nSen. Sanders, you have said that new deal, the USMCA, quote, \"makes some modest improvements,\" yet you are going to vote against it. Aren't modest improvements better than no improvements...\n\nSANDERS: No, we can do much ...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: ... for the farmers and manufacturers who have been devastated here in Iowa?\n\nSANDERS: The answer is we could do much better than a Trump-led trade deal. This deal — and I think the proponents of it acknowledge — will result in the continuation of the loss of hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs as a result of outsourcing.\n\nThe heart and soul of our disastrous trade agreements — and I'm the guy who voted against NAFTA and against permanent normal trade relations with China — is that we have forced American workers to compete against people in Mexico, in China, elsewhere, who earn starvation wages, $1 or $2 an hour.\n\nSecond of all, every major environmental organization has said no to this new trade agreement because it does not even have the phrase \"climate change\" in it. And given the fact that climate change is right now the greatest threat facing this planet, I will not vote for a trade agreement that does not incorporate very, very strong principles to significantly lower fossil fuel emissions in the world.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: But, Sen. Sanders, to be clear, the AFL-CIO supports this deal. Are you unwilling to compromise?\n\nSANDERS: The AFL-CIO does. The Machinists Union does not. And every environmental organization in this country, including the Sunrise Organization, who are supporting my candidacy, opposes it.\n\nSo I happen to believe — and I hope we will talk about climate change in a moment — if we do not get our act together in terms of climate change, the planet that we're going to be leaving our kids and our children — and our grandchildren will be increasingly unlivable and uninhabitable.\n\n►2020 candidates on agriculture: In Iowa, six Democratic presidential candidates vow to help farmers, battered by low prices, trade disputes\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: We're going to get to climate change, but I'd like to stay on trade. Sen. Warren ...\n\nSANDERS: Well, they are the same in this issue.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Warren, you support the USMCA. Why is Sen. Sanders wrong?\n\nWARREN: I do. I wasn't here. I haven't been in Congress long enough to have voted against NAFTA, but I led the fight against the trade deal with Asia and the trade deal with Europe, because I didn't think it was in the interests of the American people, the American workers, or environmental interests.\n\nBut we have farmers here in Iowa who are hurting. And they are hurting because of Donald Trump's initiated trade wars. We have workers who are hurting because the agreements that have already been cut really don't have enforcement on workers' rights.\n\nThis new trade deal is a modest improvement. Sen. Sanders himself has said so. It will give some relief to our farmers. It will give some relief to our workers. I believe we accept that relief, we try to help the people who need help, and we get up the next day and fight for a better trade deal.\n\nWe need a coherent trade policy. We need a policy that actually helps our workers, our farmers. We need them at the table, not just to trade policy written for big, international companies. I'm ready to have that fight, but let's help the people who need help right now.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you. Sen. Sanders, can you please respond to Sen. Warren?\n\nSANDERS: Well, I think that it is not so easy to put together new trade legislation. If this is passed, I think it will set us back a number of years.\n\nSen. Warren is right in saying we need to bring the stakeholders to the table, that — it is the family farmers here in Iowa and in Vermont and around the country. That is the environmental community. That is the workers. Bottom line here is, I am sick and tired of trade agreements negotiated by the CEOs of large corporations behind doors.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Klobuchar, I'd like to bring you in here.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Brianne, I want to hit reality here. I serve on the Agriculture Committee, and I will never forget going to Crawfordsville here in Iowa — and thank you for bringing up Iowa, Brianne, since that is where we are — and I went to this plant and there was one worker left in that plant. That plant had been shut down because of Donald Trump's trade policies and because of what he had done to those workers with giving secret waivers to oil companies and ruining the renewable fuel standard. That worker brought out a coat rack of uniforms and he said, these are my friends, they don't work anymore. And their names were embroidered on those uniforms, Derek, Mark, Salvador. And that guy started to cry.\n\nThese are real people hurt by Donald Trump's trade war. So what we should do, and I support the USMCA, I am glad that these improvements were made that are supported by people like Richard Trumka and Sherrod Brown on labor and environment and on pharma, the sweetheart deal...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... because I think we need a big trading block...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... with North America to take on China. And the way you are stronger...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Klobuchar, your time is up.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... China is with our allies.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mayor Buttigieg, do you support the USMCA, yes or no?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: Yes, it has been improved, it is not perfect. But when you sit down with the people who are most impacted, they share just how much harm has been done to them by things like the trade war and just how much we can benefit, American consumers and workers and farmers, by making sure we have the right kind of labor and enforceability, as Democrats ensured we got in this USMCA.\n\nBut let's acknowledge why there is such fear and frustration. You know, my part of the country, in the industrial Midwest, I remember when they came around in the '90s, selling trade deals, telling us, don't worry about your slice of the pie, the pie will get so much bigger that everyone will be better off. And that promise was broken.\n\nThe part about the pie getting bigger happened. It's just that the part about it getting to most people where I live did not. That is why there is such frustration, the sense that these decisions in boardrooms...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: ... and in committee rooms in Washington are being made not based on what's best for us...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: ... but based on their own gain.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Vice President Biden, Sen. Sanders has said that Donald Trump will, quote, “eat your lunch” for voting yes on what he calls terrible trade agreements. When it comes to trade, why are you the best candidate to take on President Trump?\n\nBIDEN: There will be no trade agreements signed in my administration without environmentalists and labor at the table. And there will be no trade agreement until we invest more in American workers. We should be putting our money and our effort and our time in preparing American workers to compete in the 21st Century on the high-tech side, dealing with all artificial intelligence. We should be focusing on equipping American workers to do that.\n\nAnd by the way, the idea — I don't know that there's any trade agreement that the senator would ever think made any sense, but the problem is that 95 percent of the customers are out there. So we better figure out how we begin to write the rules of the road, not China.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Sanders?\n\nSANDERS: Joe and I have a fundamental disagreement here, in case you haven't noticed. And that is NAFTA, PNTR with China, other trade agreements were written for one reason alone. And that is to increase the profits of large multi-national corporations. And the end result of those two, just PNTR with China, Joe, and NAFTA, cost us some 4 million jobs, as part of the race to the bottom.\n\nI am sick and tired and will not tolerate, and we will use the power of the federal contracting system. If a corporation in America wants to shut down in Iowa or Vermont or any place else, and then they think they're going to get on line for our generous federal contract, they've got another thing going.\n\nWe need some corporate responsibility here and we need to protect good-paying jobs in America, not see them go to China, Mexico, Vietnam, and all these other countries.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mr. Vice president, what's your response?\n\nBIDEN: We need corporate responsibility and I agree with that completely. But we also need to have enforcement mechanisms in the agreements we make. Enforceable agreements. That's one of the things that has been improved with the trade agreement with Mexico. And that's what we should be doing in any agreement we have.\n\nBut let's get back to the basics here. If we don't set the rules of the road by going out to our partners, instead of poking our eye — excuse me, poking our finger in the eye of all of our friends and allies, we make up 25 percent of the world's economy. We've got to bring the other 25 percent of our allies along with us to set the rules of the road so China cannot continue to abuse their power by stealing our intellectual property and doing all the other things, using their corporate state system to our significant disadvantage.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Warren?\n\nWARREN: You know, our problem is not just that we need corporate responsibility. It has been the structure of how these trade deals have been negotiated. The United States has had this strategy for decades. And that strategy has been to have government trade negotiators, a small number, and then surround them with giant multi-national corporation lobbyists and corporate executives, who whisper in the ears of our negotiators and then get deals cut that are great for the giant multi-national corporations, not good for America, not good for American workers, not good for the environment.\n\nWe need a different approach to trade and it starts by calling out the corruption of these giant corporations that have cut our trade deals. Everybody wants to get to the American market. And we need to put some standards in place. You want to be able to sell your goods here, then you've got to meet some environmental standards. You've got to meet labor standards.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Warren.\n\nWARREN: We need a...\n\n(CROSSTALK)\n\nWARREN: ... approach.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: I would like to bring in Mr. Steyer here.\n\nMr. Steyer, even though farmers and manufacturers here in Iowa and around the country could see some relief from the China deal, they've been crushed by the current administration's trade war. What will you do as president to help them get back on their feet?\n\nSTEYER: Look, on the first day, I would undo Mr. Trump's tariffs. On the first day, I would get rid of his waivers that Sen. Klobuchar was referring to, to oil refiners, so that not having to use corn-based ethanol.\n\nIn fact, these trade deals have been exactly what Sen. Sanders and Warren have been saying, which is that they've been designed to grow the American GDP for the corporations of America, not for the working people of America, and not to protect the climate.\n\nSo let me say this. I'm the only person on this stage who says climate is my number one priority. I would not sign this deal, because if climate is your number one priority, you can't sign a deal, even if it's marginally better for working people until climate is also taken into consideration.\n\n►What a difference one degree makes: Iowa is getting hotter, bringing more frequent and intense storms\n\nLook, I've got four kids between the ages of 26 and 31. I cannot allow this country to go down the path of climate destruction. Everybody in their generation knows it. Frankly, Mayor Buttigieg, you're their generation. I think you would be standing up more — look, that's why I'm standing up for it.\n\nWe cannot put climate on the backseat all the time and say we're going to sign this one more deal, we're going to do one more thing without putting climate first. That's why it's my number one priority. We can do it in a way that makes us richer, but we have to do it.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mayor Buttigieg, your response?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: Well, that's right. This issue is personal for me. It's why we're going to tackle climate from day one. It's why we've got to make sure that we have better answers than we do today. Now, what I've noticed is, pretty much all of us propose that we move on from fossil fuels by the middle of the century, starting with actions that we take right now.\n\nThe question is, how are we going to make sure any of this actually gets done? Because people have been saying the right things in these debates for literally decades. The other day in Winterset, there was a kid at one of my events, raised his hand and he pointed out that he expects to be here in his 90s in the year 2100.\n\nHe will sit in judgment over what we do, not just what we on this stage do, anyone old enough to vote right now, whether we actually put together the national project it will require to meet our climate goals, to act aggressively, not just re-joining the Paris Climate Accord, that's table stakes, but to actually move on from the fossil-dependent economy we live in today.\n\n(CROSSTALK)\n\nPHILLIP: Let's now turn to — let's now turn to an issue that's come up in the last 48 hours. Sen. Sanders, CNN reported yesterday that — and Sen. Sanders, Sen. Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?\n\nSANDERS: Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it. And I don't want to waste a whole lot of time on this, because this is what Donald Trump and maybe some of the media want. Anybody knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States.\n\nGo to YouTube today. There's a video of me 30 years ago talking about how a woman could become president of the United States. In 2015, I deferred, in fact, to Sen. Warren. There was a movement to draft Sen. Warren to run for president. And you know what, I said — stayed back. Sen. Warren decided not to run, and I then — I did run afterwards.\n\nHillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes. How could anybody in a million years not believe that a woman could become president of the United States? And let me be very clear. If any of the women on this stage or any of the men on this stage win the nomination, I hope that's not the case, I hope it's me.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nBut if they do, I will do everything in my power to make sure that they are elected in order to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of our country.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nPHILLIP: So Sen. Sanders — Sen. Sanders, I do want to be clear here, you're saying that you never told Sen. Warren that a woman could not win the election?\n\nSANDERS: That is correct.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Warren, what did you think when Sen. Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nWARREN: I disagreed. Bernie is my friend, and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie. But, look, this question about whether or not a woman can be president has been raised, and it's time for us to attack it head-on.\n\nAnd I think the best way to talk about who can win is by looking at people's winning record. So, can a woman beat Donald Trump?\n\nLook at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nThe only people on this stage who have won every single election that they've been in are the women...\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\n... Amy and me.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: So true.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nSo true.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nWARREN: And the only person on this stage who has beaten an incumbent Republican any time in the past 30 years is me.\n\nAnd here's what I know. The real danger that we face as Democrats is picking a candidate who can't pull our party together or someone who takes for granted big parts of the Democratic constituency.\n\nWe need a candidate who will excite all parts of the Democratic Party, bring everyone in and give everyone a Democrat to believe in. That's my plan and that is why I'm going to win.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar...\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Thank you.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar, what do you say to people who don't...\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Elizabeth.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar, what do you say...\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I would like to point out...\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar, let me finish my question.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Oh, OK.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nPHILLIP: What do you say to people who...\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I thought it was such an open-end — I wasn't at the meeting, so I can't comment, but I was going to say...\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nPHILLIP: What do you say to people who say that a woman can't win this election?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I hear that. People have said it. That's why I've addressed it from this stage. I point out that you don't have to be the tallest person in the room. James Madison was 5'4\". You don't have to be the skinniest person in the room. You don't have to be the loudest person. You have to be competent.\n\nAnd when you look at the facts, Michigan has a woman governor right now and she beat a Republican, Gretchen Whitmer. Kansas has a woman governor right now and she beat Kris Kobach. And her name is — I'm very proud to know her, and her name is Governor Kelly. Thank you.\n\nThird, I would add to this, you have to be competent to win and you have to know what you're doing. And when you look at what I have done, I have won every race, every place, every time. I have won in the reddest of districts. I have won in the suburban areas, in the rural areas. I have brought people with me.\n\nThat is why I have the most endorsements of current Iowa legislators and former Iowa legislators in this race.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Because they know I bring people with me.\n\nAnd finally, every single person...\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... that I have beaten, my Republican opponents, have gotten out of politics for good.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nAnd I think — I think that sounds pretty good. I think that sounds pretty good with the guy we have in the White House right now.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Sanders, you can respond.\n\nSANDERS: Well, just to set the record straight, I defeated an incumbent Republican running for Congress.\n\nWARREN: When?\n\nSANDERS: Nineteen-ninety.\n\nThat's how I won, beat a republican congressman.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nNumber two...\n\nWARREN: Thirty years ago.\n\nSANDERS: ... of course, I don't think there's any debate up here...\n\nWARREN: Wasn't it 30 years ago?\n\nSANDERS: I beat an incumbent Republican congressman.\n\nWARREN: And I said I was the only one who's beaten an incumbent Republican in 30 years.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nSANDERS: Well, 30 years ago is 1990, as a matter of fact.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nBut I don't know that that's the major issue of the day. I think what the major issue of the day is — let's — does anybody in their right mind think that a woman cannot be elected president?\n\nThat's — nobody believes that. Of — Hillary Clinton got 3 million votes, more votes than Trump. So who believes that a woman can't win? Of course, a woman can win.\n\nBut the real question is, how do we beat Trump?\n\n►Bernie Sanders says Donald Trump is 'smart fraud' who will be tough to beat, but Sanders claims he can do it\n\nAnd the only way we beat Trump is by a campaign of energy and excitement and a campaign that has, by far, the largest voter turnout in the history of this country. And I believe that our campaign has the strongest grassroots movement...\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you.\n\nSANDERS: We have been endorsed by many grassroots organizations...\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Warren —\n\nSANDERS: That's why...\n\n(CROSSTALK)\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Warren, I want to give you the final word.\n\nWARREN: So I do think it's the right question, \"How do we beat Trump?\"\n\nAnd here's the thing. Since Donald Trump was elected, women candidates have out-performed men candidates in competitive races. And in 2018, we took back the House; we took back statehouses, because of women candidates and women voters.\n\nLook, don't deny that the question is there. Back in the 1960s, people asked, \"Could a Catholic win?\"\n\nBack in 2008, people asked if an African-American could win.\n\nIn both times the Democratic Party stepped up and said yes, got behind their candidate and we changed America. That's who we are.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nPHILLIP: Vice President Biden?\n\nVice President Biden, go ahead.\n\nBIDEN: I agree women can win. And I have went in and campaigned for 27 of them this last — in 2018, the best group I've ever campaigned for, in terms of competence\n\nBut the real issue is who can bring the whole party together, represents all elements of the party, African-American, brown, black, women, men, gay, straight. The fact of the matter is that — I would argue that, in terms of endorsements around the country, endorsements wherever we go, I am the one who has the broadest coalition of anyone running up here in this race.\n\nPHILLIP: All right. We're going to take a short break now. The CNN Democratic presidential debate, live from Drake University, will be back right after this.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\n(COMMERCIAL BREAK)\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nBLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN Democratic presidential debate, live from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nPHILLIP: Let's turn to health care, the top issue for Iowa Democrats.\n\nDonald Trump is trying to repeal Obamacare, including the protections for pre-existing conditions. We all know that each of you vigorously opposes that. Still, there are some questions about what each of you would do.\n\nSen. Sanders, you have consistently refused to say exactly how much your Medicare For All plan is going to cost. Don't voters deserve to see the price tag before you send them a bill that could cost tens of trillions of dollars?\n\nSANDERS: Well, what I will tell you is Medicare For All, which will guarantee comprehensive health care to every man, woman and child, will cost substantially less than the status quo.\n\nMedicare For All will end the absurdity of the United States paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and health care in general, while we have 87 million uninsured — uninsured and underinsured, and while 30,000 people die each year.\n\n►In Iowa, Bernie Sanders calls Pete Buttigieg's health care plan 'a failed idea'\n\nUnder Medicare For All, one of the provisions we have to pay for it is a 4 percent tax on income, exempting the first $29,000. So the average family in America that today makes $60,000 would pay $1,200 a year, compared to that family paying $12,000 a year.\n\nWe save money, comprehensive health care, because we take on the greed and the profiteering and the administrative nightmare that currently exists in our dysfunctional system.\n\nPHILLIP: Vice President Biden, does Sen. Sanders owe voters a price tag on his health care plan?\n\nBIDEN: I think we need to be candid with voters. I think we have to tell them what we're going to do and what it's going to cost. And a 4 percent tax on income over $24,000 doesn't even come close to paying for between $30 trillion, and some estimates as high as $40 trillion over 10 years.\n\nThat's doubling the entire federal budget per year. There's a way to do that. The way to do that is to take Obamacare, reinstate — rebuild it, provide a public option, allow Medicare for those folks who want it, and in fact make sure that we, in the process, reduce the cost of — of drug prices, reduce the cost of being able to buy into the — subsidize it further, and make it everybody — available to everyone.\n\nHere's the deal. That costs a lot of money. That costs $740 billion over 10 years. I lay out how I'd pay for that.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Sanders?\n\nSANDERS: Well, first of all, what Joe forgets to say is, when you leave the current system as it is, what you are talking about are workers paying on average 20 percent of their incomes for health care. That is insane.\n\nYou've got 500,000 people going bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills. We're spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country.\n\nLook, we have talked about health care for all — in this country — for over 100 years. Now is the time to take on the greed and corruption of the health care industry, of the drug companies, and finally provide health care to all through a Medicare For All single-payer program.\n\nIt won't be easy, but that is what we have to do.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nBIDEN: You can do it without that. You can do it without Medicare For All. You can get the same place.\n\nSANDERS: No, you can't.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar, your response?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Yeah. Sen. Sanders and I have worked together on pharmaceuticals for a long, long time. And we agree on this. But what I don't agree with is that we — his position on health care.\n\nThis debate isn't real. I was in Vegas the other day and someone said \"Don't put your chips on a number on the wheel that isn't even on the wheel.\"\n\nThat's the problem. Over two-thirds of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate are not on the bill that you and Sen. Warren on on. You have numerous governors that are Democratic that don't support this. You have numerous House members that put Nancy Pelosi in as speaker.\n\nThe answer is a non-profit public option. The answer is — the real debate we should be having is how do we make it easier for people to get coverage for addiction and mental health. I have a plan for that.\n\nAnd then, finally, what should we do about long-term care? The elephant that doesn't even fit in this room. We need to make it easier for people to get long-term care insurance. We need to make it easier for them to pay for their premiums.\n\nMy own dad, I know when his long-term care insurance ends, and then we have some savings for him. He's in assisted living. He got married three times — whole other story — so there isn't much there.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nBut then we go to Medicaid, and I've already talked to Catholic Elder Care.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: They're willing to take him in. Our story is better than so many other families. We have to make it easier for long-term care.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: It's not just for seniors. It's also for the sandwich generation.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: People trying to help their parents.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Warren?\n\nWARREN: So we need to start with what's happening in America. People are suffering. I'll just pick one: 36 million people last year went to the doctor, got a prescription, this is what they needed to get well, and they couldn't afford to have the prescription filled. They looked at it and said it's either groceries or this prescription.\n\nMy approach to this is we've got to get as much as help to as many people as quickly as possible. I have worked out a plan where we can do that without raising taxes on middle-class families by one thin dime.\n\nWhat I can do are the things I can do as president on the first day. We can cut the cost of prescription drugs. I'll use the power that's already given to the president to reduce the cost of insulin and EpiPens and HIV-AIDS drugs. Let's get some relief to those families. And I will defend the Affordable Care Act.\n\nI've got a plan to expand health care, but let's keep in mind, when we come to a general election, we Democrats may argue among each other about the best way to do health care, but we're going to be up against a Republican incumbent who has cut health care for millions of people and is still trying to do that. I'll take our side of the argument any day. We're going to beat him on this.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Sen. Warren. Vice President Biden?\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nBIDEN: The proposal I lay out does, in fact, limit drug cost. It sets up — it allows all the drug companies — excuse me, it allows you to — Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for the price. It sets a system whereby you cannot raise the price of a drug beyond the cost of medical inflation. And by the way, there's mental health parity that I call for in the Obamacare expanded with the Biden option.\n\nPHILLIP: Mr. Steyer?\n\nSTEYER: Look, we've had this conversation on this stage so many times. Everybody on this stage believes that affordable health care is a right for every single American. Everybody on this stage knows that Americans are paying twice as much for health care as any other advanced country in the world. And it makes no sense and the government has to step in.\n\nI do happen to agree with Vice President Biden that we should move and develop the Affordable Care Act with a public option. But the real question is this. This is not a new problem. Why do we keep having this conversation? We have a broken government. It has been bought by corporations that include the drug companies, the insurance companies, and the private hospitals.\n\nThat's what I'm talking about. How do we get back government of, by, and for the people? How do we actually break...\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you.\n\nSTEYER: ... the corporate stranglehold on our government so that we can get any of these things passed?\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Steyer. Thank you, Mr. Steyer.\n\nSen. Sanders, your campaign proposals would double federal spending over the next decade, an unprecedented level of spending not seen since World War II. How would you keep your plans from bankrupting the country?\n\nSANDERS: No, our plan wouldn't bankrupt the country. And, in fact, it would much improve the well-being of working-class families and the middle class.\n\nLet us be clear what Medicare for all does. It ends all premiums. It ends all copayments. It ends the absurdity of deductibles. It ends out-of-pocket expenses. It takes on the pharmaceutical industry, which in some cases charges us 10 times more for the same prescription drugs sold abroad as sold here.\n\nWhat we will do through a Medicare for all single-payer program is substantially lower the cost of health care for employers and workers, because we end the $100 billion a year that the health care industry makes and the $500 billion a year we spend in administrative — the administrative nightmare of dealing with thousands of separate insurance plans.\n\nHealth care is a human right. Every other major country on Earth is guaranteeing health care for all. The time is long overdue for us to do the same.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Again, I think it is much better to build on the Affordable Care Act. And if you want to be practical and progressive at the same time and have a plan and not a pipedream, you have to show how you're going to pay for it.\n\nAnd I would also note practically that the Affordable Care Act right now is 10 points more popular than the president of the United States. So I think the answer is to build on it.\n\nAnd, yes, I think you should show how you're going to pay for things, Bernie. I do. This president is treating people out there like poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos the way he is adding to our debt.\n\nI am the one person up here who has on her website in her plan a plan to actually start taking on the deficit, by taking part of that money from that corporate tax cut that they put in there and putting it in a fund to pay back the deficit.\n\n►From November's Iowa Poll: Majority of likely Democratic caucusgoers shy away from 'Medicare for All'\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: And I have shown how I'm going to pay for every single plan...\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... capital gains tax going to the personal level, getting rid of oil giveaways.\n\nPHILLIP: Let's move on.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Doing something about the hedge fund loophole. You can go through...\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar, your time is up. Let's move on to the next question.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... and we can get the money to pay for things.\n\nPHILLIP: Mayor Buttigieg, you're selling your plan as Medicare for all who want it, yet your plan would automatically enroll uninsured Americans into a public option, even if they don't want it, and force them to pay for it. How is that truth in advertising?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: Well, it's making sure that there is no such thing as an uninsured American. Look, the individual mandate was an important part of the ACA because the system doesn't work if there are free riders.\n\nWhat I'm offering is a choice. You don't have to be in my plan if there's another plan that you would rather keep. And there's no need to kick Americans off the plans that they want in order to deliver health care for all.\n\nAnd my plan is paid for. Look, our party should no longer hesitate to talk about the issue of the debt and the deficit. Now, we've got a dramatically better track record on it than Republicans do. In my lifetime, it's almost invariably Republican presidents who have added to the deficit, a trillion dollars under this president. And it's why everything I've put forward — from Medicare for all who want it to the historic investments we're going to make in infrastructure to dealing with climate change — is fully paid for.\n\nWhen it comes to health care, you can do it in two moves. Of course, my plan costs $1.5 trillion over a decade. No small sum. But not the $20 trillion, $30 trillion, $40 trillion that we're hearing about from the others. All you've got to do is two things, both of them are commonsense. Allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and roll back the Trump corporate tax cuts that went to corporations and the wealthy that didn't even need it.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Warren?\n\nWARREN: So I started this by talking about 36 million Americans, including Americans with insurance, who just can't even afford to have a prescription filled. We all talk about plans, health care plans that we have, and these plans are paid for.\n\nThe problem is that plans like the mayor's and like the vice president's is that they are an improvement. They are an improvement over where we are right now. But they're a small improvement. And that's why it is that they cost so much less, because by themselves, they're not going to be enough to cover prescriptions for 36 million people who can't afford to get them filled.\n\nWhat we need to do is make the commitment that we know where the money comes from. We can ask those at the very top, the top 1 percent, to pay a little more. Those giant corporations like Chevron and Amazon who paid nothing in taxes, we can have them pay. And we can go after the corporate tax cheats. And when we do that, we have enough money to provide health care for all our people.\n\nYes, we build on the Affordable Care Act, but where we end up is we offer health care to all of our people. And we can offer it at no cost or low cost to all of them.\n\nPHILLIP: Mayor Buttigieg?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: It's just not true that the plan I'm proposing is small. We've got to move past a Washington mentality that suggests that the bigness of plans only consists of how many trillions of dollars they put through the Treasury, that the boldness of a plan only consists of how many Americans it can alienate.\n\nThis would be a game-changer. This would be the biggest thing we've done to American health care in a half-century. Let's measure the effects of our plans based on what they would do in our everyday lives.\n\nAnd, yes, we're taking on cost. On prescription drugs, we'll have an out-of-pocket cap, even if you don't get the subsidies that would make it free, a $250 monthly cap. And here's why it's got to be monthly. You ever been in that situation or known somebody who finds that they've got to defer a procedure or delay filling a prescription to try to have it happen in the right month because of when your out-of-pocket cap hits?\n\nIt makes no sense medically because most of us don't experience the economy on an annual basis. Our bills don't come in every year. They come in every month. Same with our paychecks, biweekly or monthly.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you.\n\nBUTTIGIEG: That's why we set this up in a way to solve the problem without running up $20 trillion, $30 trillion, $40 trillion bills.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg. Sen. Warren, your response?\n\nWARREN: Look, the numbers that the mayor is offering just don't add up. The average family in America last year paid $12,000 in some combination of deductibles and co-pays and uncovered expenses and fees. You can't cover that with the kind of money that the mayor is talking about.\n\nThe way we have to approach this is we've got to build this and we've got to build the alliances to make this happen. I can bring down the cost of prescription drugs like insulin and take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the system immediately in costs. We can get help to families.\n\nBut we have to be willing to work together. We can let people experience what health care is like when it's you and your doctor, your mental health professional, your nurse practitioner, with no insurance company standing in the middle.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Sen. Warren.\n\nWARREN: When people try it and use it, then...\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Klobuchar?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Sen. Warren, you acknowledged that Medicare for all — that you couldn't get there right away. You got on the bill that said on page eight, which is why I didn't get on it, that you would kick 149 million Americans off their current health insurance. Then, a few months ago, you said, no, you're going to wait a while to get there.\n\nAnd I think that was some acknowledgment that maybe what we're talking about is true. And I don't buy that it's not enough. It is a big, big step to say to people making $100,000 that your premiums will be cut in half, which is what the nonprofit public option will do.\n\nAnd as you talk, Mayor Buttigieg, about Medicare and having negotiation, I actually have led that bill for years. I have 34 cosponsors. As president, I can get it done. That would allow Medicare to finally negotiate and lift the ban that big pharma got into law that says they can't negotiate for better prices for our seniors.\n\nPHILLIP: Senator...\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I will get it done.\n\nPHILLIP: Sen. Sanders, coming to you now. CNN reached out to Iowa Democratic voters for their most pressing questions. Edward from here in Des Moines writes, \"Des Moines is an insurance town. What happens to all the insurance industry — the health insurance industry here if there is Medicare for all? What happens to all the jobs and the livelihoods of the people that live in insurance towns like Des Moines?\"\n\nSANDERS: We build in to our Medicare for all program a transition fund of many, many billions of dollars that will provide for up to five years income and health care and job training for those people.\n\nBut here is the issue. Tom Steyer made the point a moment ago. We are now spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of any other country. That is insane. In some cases, 10 times more for prescription drugs. Why is that? Why is that? And the answer is: the greed and corruption of the drug companies and the insurance companies.\n\nAnd if we want to do what every other major country on Earth does and guarantee people health care is a human right, not a privilege, you know what we have to do? We are finally going to have to stand up to the health care industry...\n\nSTEYER: Can I respond to this?\n\nSANDERS: ... and end hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and profiteering.\n\nPHILLIP: Mr. Steyer?\n\nSTEYER: I just want to emphasize what Sen. Sanders said. This is not a complicated problem. Between what Sen. Warren and Sen. Sanders said, it's clear. There are two problems. We're spending way too much because corporations own the system and we're not negotiating against those corporations.\n\nAnd we've given tax cuts to the richest Americans and the biggest corporations for decades. That's all this is. We have corporations who are having their way with the American people and people are suffering.\n\nSen. Warren is right. This is cruelty for money. In order to break this, we're going to have to break the corporate stranglehold and solve both the tax and the negotiating problem. That's why I'm for term limits. We need to redo Washington, D.C., and...\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Steyer.\n\nSTEYER: ... actually take back the government from the corporations who've bought it.\n\nPHILLIP: Thank you, Mr. Steyer. Vice President Biden?\n\nBIDEN: I would argue that the biggest breakthrough in recent time was us being able to do in our administration what five — five Democratic presidents couldn't get done, and that is pass Obamacare. It was a big deal.\n\nSecondly, I would argue that the way you control drug prices is you limit what they can charge for those prices. You don't have to pay the price. Limit what they can charge. If, in fact, they charge more than we set the price for, they can — they can, in fact — we can — people can import from abroad, assuming that it is — it is — it is safe.\n\nWe, in fact — it's only yellow, Wolf, OK? And we can, in fact, do all of this and still provide people the option to stay — the roughly 150 to 160 million Americans who like the negotiated plan they have with their employers. If they don't like it, or the employer gets rid of it, they can buy into a Medicare plan in the Biden plan.\n\nBLITZER: Let's talk a little bit more about prescription drugs right now. Prescription drug prices in 2018, Americans spent $335 billion on prescription drugs alone. That's about $60 billion more than they paid a decade ago.\n\nSen. Warren, you've called for the creation of a government-run drug manufacturer that would step in if there is a drug shortage or a price spike. Why does it make sense for the government — for the government to manufacture drugs, especially when public trust in government is near historic lows?\n\nWARREN: So, let's do this both ways. What I also have said is, I'm just going to use the power that is available and I will do what a president can do all by herself on the very first day, and that is lower the prices of certain prescription drugs. I will lower the price of insulin.\n\nWe already have the legal authority with the president to do that. The president just hasn't picked up and used it. I will lower the price of EpiPens, of HIV-AIDS drugs. That's going to bring a lot of relief to a lot of families immediately.\n\nBut, you know, there are a whole lot of drugs, about 90 percent of drugs, that are not under patent. They're generic drugs. But the drug industry has figured out how to manipulate this industry to keep jerking the prices up and up and up.\n\nSo my view is, let's give them a little competition. The government lets contracts for all kind of things. They let contracts to build buildings. They let contracts to build military weapons. Let's let the contracts out. Put the contracts out so that we can put more generic drugs out there and drive down those prices.\n\nThis is a way to make markets work, not to try to move away from the market. You don't have to even use price controls. The whole idea behind it is get some competition out there so the price of these drugs that are no longer under patent drops where it should be.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Klobuchar, do you believe the government should be manufacturing drugs?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: I am open to looking at it, but I would try these things first. Number one, I mention the Medicare negotiation. Number two, I have a plan, 137 things I've found that a president can do herself in the first 100 days without Congress — that are legal.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nAnd one of those things is that you can start bringing in less expensive drugs from other countries. Bernie and I had an amendment on this. We got 14 Republican votes on it. It was at midnight. They might have not known what they were voting for. But we got that.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nI now have an actual bill with Sen. Grassley that does that. And I have a bill to get at what Elizabeth was talking about, which is to stop generics from taking money from big pharmaceuticals to keep their products off the market.\n\nThe issue here is that there are two pharma lobbyists for every member of the Congress.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Senator.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: They think they own Washington. They don't own me.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: And as president, I will get this done.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: We're going to turn now to childcare, a huge expense for many new families and a problem that's especially acute in rural Iowa. We have another question for an Iowa Democratic voter.\n\nMayor Buttigieg, this is for you. Tiffany from Clive writes, as a young mom, I had to quit a job I love because childcare costs were taking up two-thirds of my income. Many families don't have the option of quitting a job because that little bit of income is needed. That leads to families using whatever care they can find, and sometimes the results are deadly, as we've seen in Iowa over the last few years. How will you prioritize accessing quality, affordable child care in your first 100 days in office?\n\nChild care in Iowa: Iowa's child care crisis worsens its workforce crisis, business leaders say, and they're digging in to help\n\nBUTTIGIEG: It makes no sense for childcare to cost two-thirds of somebody's income. We've to drive it to 7 percent or below, and zero for those families who are living in poverty.\n\nBut this is happening to folks at every level of the income spectrum. I meet professionals who sometimes say that they're working in order to be able to afford childcare in order to be able to be working. It makes no sense, and it must change, and we shouldn't be afraid to put federal dollars into making that a reality.\n\nSubsidizing childcare and making sure that we are building up a workforce of people who are paid at a decent level to offer early childhood education, as well as childcare writ large. We can do that.\n\nAnd until we do, this will be one of the biggest drivers of the gender pay gap. Because when somebody like the voter asking the question has to step out of the workforce because of that reason, she is at a disadvantage when she comes back in, and that can affect her pay for the rest of her career.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Warren, your education plan includes tuition-free public college for all, but you impose an income limit for free childcare. Why do your plans cover everyone for public college, but not childcare and early learning?\n\nWARREN: No, actually, my plan is universal childcare for everyone. It just has some people adding a small payment.\n\nBut understand this about the plan. I've been there. You know, I remember when I was a young mom. I had two little kids, and I had my first real university teaching job. It was hard work. I was excited. But it was childcare that nearly brought me down. We went through one childcare after another, and it just didn't work.\n\nIf I hadn't been saved by my Aunt Bee — I was ready to quit my job. And I think about how many women of my generation just got knocked off the track and never got back on, how many of my daughter's generation get knocked off the track and don't get back on, how many mamas and daddies today are getting knocked off the track and never get back on.\n\nI have a two cent wealth tax so that we can cover childcare for all of our children, and provide universal pre-K for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old in America, and stop exploiting the people who do this valuable work, largely black and brown women. We can raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in America. That's an investment in our babies. That's an investment in their mamas and their daddies. And it's an investment in our teachers and in our economy.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Sanders, will your...\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nWARREN: It's what we need to do.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: ... universal childcare program be free for everyone regardless of income?\n\nSANDERS: Yeah. Let me pick up on this childcare thing. Every psychologist in the world knows zero through 4 are the most important years of human life, intellectually and emotionally. And yet our current childcare system is an embarrassment, it is unaffordable. Childcare workers are making wages lower than McDonald's workers.\n\nWe need to fundamentally change priorities in America. We should not be one of a few countries that does not have universal high-quality affordable childcare. We should not be one of the only major countries not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right. We should not be spending more than the 10 next countries on the military, hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, tax breaks for billionaires, and then tell the moms and dads in this country we cannot have high-quality affordable childcare.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Senator. Vice President Biden, I'm coming to you now.\n\nSANDERS: That is wrong.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Vice President Biden, infant care is more expensive than in-state public college tuition in more than half the country. Do you support free universal infant care?\n\nBIDEN: There should be free universal infant care, but here's the deal. You know, I was a single parent, too. When my wife and daughter were killed, my two boys I had to raise. I was a senator, a young senator. I just hadn't been sworn in yet. And I was making $42,000 a year.\n\nI commuted every single solitary day to Wilmington, Delaware, over 500 miles a day — excuse me, 250 miles a day, because I could not afford but for my family childcare. It was beyond my reach to be able to do it.\n\nAnd that's why there are several things we do. When I triple the amount of money for Title I schools, every child, 3, 4, and 5 years old, will, in fact, have full schooling. They'll go to school and after-school programs, which will release some of the burden.\n\nSecondly, I think we should have an $8,000 tax credit which would put 7 million women back to work that could afford to go to work and still care for their children as an $8,000 tax credit. I also believe that we should, in fact, for people who, in fact, are not able to afford any of the infant care to be able to get that care.\n\nBut Bernie's right. We have to raise the salaries of the people who are doing the care. And I provide for that, as well. My time is up, I know, but I'm not going to go over like everybody.\n\n(LAUGHTER)\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mayor Buttigieg — Mayor Buttigieg, higher education is another huge expense for families. You oppose free public college for all because you don't want to make it, quote, \"free for the kids of millionaires.\" But lots of public services are available to the kids of rich people, like libraries and public schools. Why do you draw the line at public colleges and universities?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: Well, it's simple. We expect and hope for everyone to get through 12th grade. It's not the same for college. Now, again, I don't want cost ever to be a barrier to somebody seeking to attend college. And under my plan, it won't be.\n\nAs a matter of fact, for the first 80 percent of Americans by income, it is free at public colleges. But if you're in that top income bracket, don't get me wrong, I still wish you well. I hope you succeed when you go to college. I just need you to go ahead and pay that tuition, because we could be using those dollars for something else.\n\nThere is a very real choice about what we do with every single taxpayer dollar that we raise, and we need to be using that to support everybody, whether you go to college or not, making sure that Americans can thrive, investing in infrastructure, and something that hasn't come up very much tonight but deserves a lot of attention, poverty.\n\nYou know, the Poor People's Campaign is marching on Iowa right now calling on us to talk about this issue more. They are driven by their faith. I think because even though in politics we're supposed to talk middle class, they know there's no scripture that says as you've done unto the middle class, so you've done unto me.\n\nWe've got to be making sure that we target our tax dollars where they will make the biggest difference. And I don't think subsidizing the children of millionaires and billionaires to pay absolutely zero in tuition at public colleges is the best use of those scarce taxpayer dollars.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Sen. Warren?\n\nWARREN: So, look, the way I think we need to do this is we need a wealth tax in America. We need to ask people with fortunes above $50 million to pay more. And that means that the lowliest millionaire that I would tax under this wealth tax would be paying about $19 million in the first year in taxes.\n\nIf he wants to send his kid to public university, then I'm OK with that, because what we really need to talk about is the bigger economic picture here. We need to be willing to put a wealth tax in place, to ask those giant corporations that are not paying to pay, because that's how we build an economy and, for those who want to talk about it, bring down the national debt.\n\nYou do universal childcare and you've got a lot of mamas who can go to work, a lot of mamas who can finish their education. We make that investment in universal college. We've got a lot of people who...\n\n(CROSSTALK)\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Senator. Sen. Klobuchar?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Yeah, you know, I appreciate your thoughts, Elizabeth, but I want to step back. I actually think that some of our colleagues who want free college for all aren't actually thinking big enough.\n\nI think what we have to look at is how we connect our education system with our economy. Where are our job openings? And what do we need? We are going to have over a million openings for home health care workers that we don't know how to fill in the next 10 years. We are going to have open 100,000 jobs for nursing assistants. We— as my union friends know — we're going to have over 70,000 openings for electricians.\n\nWe're not going to have a shortage of MBAs. We're going to have a shortage of plumbers. So when we look at that, then we step back. Where should our money go? It should go into K through 12. It should go into free one- and two-year degrees, like my dad got, like my sister got.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: And then we should double the Pell grants, because we're going to need four-year degrees...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar. Mr. Steyer...\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... so the money goes where it should go, instead of to rich kids going to college.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mr. Steyer, as a billionaire, should your children have been entitled to free public college?\n\nSTEYER: No. And let me say this. I was one of the people who talked about a wealth tax almost a year-and-a-half ago. I believe that the income inequality in this country is unbearable, unjust, and unsupportable, and the redistribution of wealth to the richest Americans from everyone else has to end. And I proposed a wealth tax almost a year-and-a-half ago to start to address it and to raise some of the money that we need.\n\nBut I want to go beyond this and go back to this question about education, because we're talking a lot about college. But, in fact, if you talk about the Poor People's Campaign, you have to realize that for the youngest kids, they are getting an education that's relative to the taxes in their neighborhoods. We need to redistribute money so every kid has a chance, so we're not legislating inequality for the next generation, and so we actually invest in every single kid, specifically poor kids, specifically black kids, specifically brown kids. We need to start using the money dramatically more for that.\n\nBLITZER: We'll be back with more from CNN's Democratic presidential debate, live from Des Moines, Iowa. Stay right here.\n\n(COMMERCIAL BREAK)\n\nBLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's Democratic presidential debate. We're live in Des Moines, Iowa.\n\nTomorrow, the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will send articles of impeachment against President Trump to the United States Senate, launching the third trial of a U.S. president. The Republican-led Senate has signaled that it is likely to acquit him.\n\nVice President Biden, if you're the nominee, is it going to be harder to run against President Trump if he's been acquitted and able to claim vindication, especially after what he's said about your family?\n\nBIDEN: It's irrelevant. There's no — there's no choice but to — for Nancy Pelosi and the House to move. He has, in fact, committed impeachable offenses. Whether the Senate makes that judgment or not, it's for them to decide.\n\n►Iowa Poll: Iowa voters are split on impeachment\n\nBut — and, by the way, I'm told that, you know, we — that I don't — I say we have to unite the country and it's going to be harder after this trial. It may be. But, look, you know, I understand how these guys are, this Republican Party. They've got gone after — savaged my surviving son, gone after me, told lies that your networks and others won't even carry on television because they're flat-out lies.\n\nAnd I did my job. The question is whether or not he did his job. And he hasn't done his job. And so it doesn't really matter whether or not he's gone after me. I've got to be in a position that I think of the American people. I can't hold a grudge. I have to be able to not only fight, but also heal.\n\nAnd as president of the United States, that's what I will attempt to do, notwithstanding that — we're going to be more division after he's defeated by me this next time.\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Klobuchar, you're going to be a juror in the trial in the Senate that's about to start. Do you worry President Trump will be emboldened by acquittal?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: No. We have a constitutional duty to do — to perform here. And when I look at what the issue is, it's whether or not we're going to be able to have witnesses. We've asked for only four people as witnesses. And if our Republican colleagues won't allow those witnesses, they may as well give the president a crown and a scepter. They may as well make him king. And last time I checked, our country was founded on this idea that we didn't want to be ruled by a king.\n\nAnd I think the best way to think about this is trial and what we're facing in this election is a story of a man from Primghar, Iowa. His name was Joseph Welch. He came from humble beginnings, a son of immigrants. He became the Army counsel. And he was the one that went to the Joseph McCarthy hearings. And when McCarthy was blacklisting people and going after people because of their political beliefs or supposed political beliefs, there was only one man.\n\nEveryone that was afraid, they were afraid of being blacklisted, Joseph Welch, he stood up and looked at McCarthy and said, have you no sense of decency, sir? Have you no sense of decency. This is a decency check on our government. This is a patriotism check. Not only is this trial that...\n\nBLITZER: Thank you.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... but also this election. And no matter if you agree with everyone here on the stage, I say this...\n\nBLITZER: Thank you, Sen. Klobuchar.\n\nKLOBUCHAR: ... to Americans, you know this is a decency check on this president.\n\nBLITZER: Mr. Steyer, you have spent millions and millions of dollars telling the American people that President Trump deserves to be impeached. Will it have been worth if it he has been impeached but not removed from office?\n\n►Who's spending the most on political ads in Iowa? Tom Steyer leads the pack.\n\nSTEYER: Well, Wolf, actually what I have done is to organize a petition drive of 8.5 million Americans to sign and say this president deserves to be impeached and removed from office. And those 8.5 million people have called their congresspeople, have emailed their congresspeople, and have actually dragged Washington, D.C., to see that in fact this is a question of right and wrong and not of political expediency.\n\nSo if you ask me whether standing up for what's right in America, standing up for the American people and our safety, standing up for the Constitution, whether doing that and trying to bring the truth in front of the American people in televised hearings so we can decide what the truth is for ourselves, if you think that that isn't worth it, then you don't share the idea that I do about what America is about.\n\nStanding up for what's right is always worth it, Wolf. And I will never back down from that.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nBLITZER: Sen. Warren, a Senate trial is expected to keep you in Washington in the weeks leading up to the Iowa Caucuses here. How big of a problem is that for you as you're making your closing pitch to voters here?\n\nWARREN: Look, some things are more important than politics. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. It says that no one is above the law. That includes the president of the United States. We have an impeachment trial. I will be there because it is my responsibility.\n\nBut understand this, what that impeachment trial is going to show once again to the American people, and something we should all be talking about, is the corruption of this administration. That is what lies at heart of it. It is about Donald Trump putting Donald Trump first. Not the American people. Not the interests of the United States of America. Not even helping Ukraine defend against Russia.\n\nIt is about him helping himself. That is what we need to do to win this election. We need to draw that distinction and show that as Democrats we're not going to be the people who are just out for the big corporations, people who want to help themselves, that we are going to be the party that is willing to fight on the side of the people. That's why we're here.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Let's turn now to the climate crisis. Here in Iowa parts of the state remain under water after record-breaking flooding began last spring, racking up an estimated $2 billion in damages. Today many Iowans are still displaced from their homes.\n\nMayor Buttigieg, you have talked about helping people move from areas at high risk of flooding. But what do you do about farms and factories that simply can't be moved?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: That's why we have to fight climate change with such urgency. Climate change has come to America from coast to coast. Seeing it in Iowa. We have seen it in historic floods in my community. I had to activate our emergency operation center for a once-in-a-millennium flood. Then two years later had to do the same thing.\n\nIn Australia there are literally tornadoes made of fire taking place. This is no longer theoretical and this is no longer off in the future. We have got to act, yes, to adapt, to make sure communities are more resilient, to make sure our economy is ready for the consequences that are going to happen one way or the other.\n\nBut we also have to ensure that we don't allow this to get any worse. And if we get right, farmers will be a huge part of the solution. We need to reach out to the very people who have sometimes been made to feel that accepting climate science would be a defeat for them, whether we're talking about farmers or industrial workers in my community, and make clear that we need to enlist them...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: But, Mayor Buttigieg...\n\nBUTTIGIEG: ... in the national project to do something about it.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: ... to clarify, what do you do about farms and factories that cannot be relocated?\n\nBUTTIGIEG: We are going to have to use federal funds to make sure that we are supporting those whose lives will inevitably be impacted further by the increased severity and the increased frequency. And by the way, that is happening to farms, that is happening to factories, and that disproportionately happens to black and brown Americans, which is why equity and environmental justice have to be at the core of our climate plan going forward.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Mayor Buttigieg.\n\nMr. Steyer, what's your response?\n\nSTEYER: Look, what you're talking about is what's called managed retreat. It's basically saying we're going to have to move things because this crisis is out of control. And it's unbelievably expensive. And of course we'll come to the rescue of Americans who are in trouble.\n\nBut this is why climate is my number one priority. And I'm still shocked that I'm the only person on this stage who will say this. I would declare a state of emergency on day one on climate.\n\n(APPLAUSE)\n\nI would do it from the standpoint of environmental justice and make sure we go to the black and brown communities where you can't breathe the air or drink the water that comes out of the tap safely. But I also know this, we're going to create millions of good-paying union jobs across this country. It's going to be the biggest job program in American history.\n\nSo I know we have to do it. I know we can do it. And I know that we can do it in a way that makes us healthier, that makes us better paid, and is more just. But the truth of the matter is, we're going to have to do it and we're going to have to make the whole world come along with us. And it's going to have to be...\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mr. Steyer...\n\nSTEYER: ... priority one.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Mr. Steyer, to clarify, you say you're the climate change candidate, but you made your $1.6 billion in part by investing in coal, oil, and gas. So are you the right messenger on this topic?\n\nSTEYER: I absolutely am. Look, we invested in every part of the economy. And over 10 years ago I realized that there was something going on that had to do with fossil fuels, that we had to change. So I divested from fossil fuels. I took the Giving Pledge to give most of my money away while I'm alive. And for 12 years I have been fighting the climate crisis.\n\nI have beat oil companies in terms of clean air laws. I have stopped fossil fuel plants in Oxnard, California. I fought the Keystone pipeline. I have a history of over a decade of leading the climate fight successfully.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Mr. Steyer.\n\nSTEYER: So actually, yes, I am the person here who has the chops and the history that says, I'll make it priority one, because I have been doing it for a long time.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Mr. Steyer.\n\nSen. Warren, President Trump is rolling back major environmental rules to allow pipeline and other major infrastructure projects to be built without strict environmental review. Will you restore those protections and in a way that the next president can't overturn?\n\nWARREN: Yes. Climate change threatens every living thing on this planet. And the urgency of the moment cannot be overstated. I will do everything a president can do all by herself on the first day. I will roll back the environmental changes that Donald Trump is putting in place. I will stop all new drilling and mining on federal lands, and offshore drilling. That will help us get in the right directions. I'll bring in the farmers. Farmers can be part of the climate solution.\n\nWe should see this for the problem it is. Mr. Steyer talks about it being problem number one. Understand this, we have known about this climate crisis for decades. Back in the 1990s we were calling it global warming, but we knew what it was. Democrats and Republicans back then were working together because no one wanted a problem.\n\nBut you know what happened? The industry came in and said, we can make big money if we keep them divided and make no change. Priority number one has to be taking back our government from the corruption. That is the only way we will make progress on climate, on gun safety, on health care, on all of the issues that matter to us.\n\nPFANNENSTIEL: Thank you, Sen. Warren.\n\nSen. Klobuchar, some of your competitors on this stage have called for an all-out ban on fracking. You haven't. Why not?\n\nKLOBUCHAR: Well, first of all, I would note that I have 100 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters. And that is because I have stood tall on every issue that we have talked about up here when it comes to this administration, this Trump administration, trying to reverse environmental protections. I think it is going to lead to so many problems.\n\nAnd one thing that hasn't been raised, by the way, is the rules on methane, which is actually one of the most environmentally dangerous hazards that they have recently embarked on. And I would bring those rules back as well as a number of other ones.\n\nWhen it comes to the issue of fracking,", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/09/23/nuns-donate-home-canines-court-swine-control-news-around-states/118941372/", "title": "Nuns donate home, canines in court: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nFlorence: Archaeologists are analyzing pieces of pottery, nails and glass found at Pope’s Tavern, an inn and stagecoach stop for travelers dating back to the early 1800s before Alabama achieved statehood. A state team funded by a grant recently conducted a dig at the northwest Alabama site, which has a museum that focuses on the history of the city of Florence. Museum curator Brian Murphy told the TimesDaily pottery was the most common item discovered during the work. “They pulled out a bunch of artifacts that are being cleaned and processed right now,” Murphy said. “They will give us a really good image of the types of materials and type of utensils used, and really a glimpse into the daily life of the people who lived there and used that space.” The crew also found the brick remains of an old structure that could have been a hearth or outbuilding, he said. “They are seeing what type of materials are associated with that, using flotation, which brings up microscopic material to a level that can be processed. After they do that, they’re going to get back to us with the larger picture of what it all means and what might be under there still that could be the source of a future excavation,” he said. Pope’s Tavern was built in the the 1830s, he said, and artifacts found on the grounds dated to the 1820s and ’30s.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: Officials are aiming to make the first wave of dividend payments to state residents the week of Oct. 11, a Department of Revenue spokesperson said. Genevieve Wojtusik, the department’s legislative liaison, said in an email Wednesday that the first wave would include those who filed for dividends electronically. She said the second mass payments, which would include those who filed paper applications, would go out about two weeks later. The Legislature last week approved $730.5 million for dividends this year of about $1,100 and for administrative and other related costs. Wojtusik said the final check amount is being calculated and is expected to be announced by Oct. 1. Dividends typically are paid in the early fall, but this year’s payout wasn’t finalized until the third special session of the year, which ended last week. Lawmakers earlier this year proposed a roughly $1,100 dividend, using money from various sources, but failed to win sufficient support for use of some of the funds. What was left at that time was a dividend estimated to be $525, which Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: This year’s wet monsoon is contributing to a record-high season for the West Nile virus, which is spread through mosquito bites, health officials said. Arizona had 123 cases and four deaths through late last week, the state Department of Health Services said Tuesday. Nearly all of the cases were reported in Maricopa County, where the virus has been detected in record numbers of mosquitos studied, the department said. While most people infected with West Nile don’t get symptoms, older people and those with weakened immune systems are more prone to diseases that be fatal. Health officials recommend wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants to help prevent mosquito bites on arms and legs and eliminating standing water where mosquitos lay their eggs.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Two men have been convicted of conspiring to kill a federal witness in 2016. A federal jury deliberated for about 61/ 2 hours before delivering the verdicts Tuesday against Donald Smith, 37, of Malvern, and Samuel Sherman, 38, of Batesville, in the shooting death of 44-year-old Suzen Cooper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Prosecutors alleged Smith, Sherman and Suzen Cooper’s former sister-in-law, Racheal Cooper, conspired to sell methamphetamine and cocaine, and Cooper was a confidential informant who had purchased meth from Sherman. Racheal Cooper was originally charged with capital murder in Hot Spring County but later pleaded guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension, for which she served five years of a 25-year sentence. Smith and Sherman face up to life in prison after being convicted of federal charges of witness tampering resulting in death, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and aiding and abetting the use, carry and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set. Porter led the police to the grave site, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner said. “Suzen Cooper’s body was exactly where Jimmy Porter said it would be,” Gardner said.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Residents failed to significantly cut back their water consumption in July, state officials announced Tuesday, foreshadowing some difficult decisions for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration as a historic drought lingers into the fall. Newsom had asked people in July to voluntarily cut back their water consumption by 15% to help address a severe drought that has left some of the state’s reservoirs at dangerously low levels. But in the three weeks after Newsom’s announcement, residents reduced their water consumption just 1.8%, according to new data released Tuesday and reported by the Sacramento Bee. “On conservation, we’re going to be needing to do more,” board chair Joaquin Esquivel said. Still, Esquivel was hopeful the state’s conservation numbers will improve. Newsom declared a drought emergency in the Russian River watershed along the state’s north coast in April. Data from that region shows people reduced their water consumption by 17% in July compared to 2020. “We see that it takes time for conservation to boot up,” Esquivel said, adding that the 17% figure “shows the responsiveness of communities” to appeals for conservation. Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said the numbers “represent a promising start in reducing water use.”\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Criminal charges have been dropped in connection with the death of a spiritual leader whose mummified body was found in what appeared to be a shrine in a southern Colorado home, according to court officials. The body of Amy Carlson, 45, leader of the Love Has Won group, was found decorated with Christmas lights and glitter in the tiny, rural town of Moffat in April, according to previously released arrest affidavits. Seven people were charged with tampering with or abusing her corpse as well as child abuse, presumably because there were two children living in the home. Charges against six people were dropped during court proceedings, the Saguache County court clerk’s office said in an email Tuesday. It said no case existed for a seventh person who was among those charged with the others in May, though the office did not explain what happened in that case. It’s not known why the charges were dropped. Assistant District Attorney Alex Raines asked a judge to dismiss all the charges during a Sept. 14 hearing, the Valley Courier reports. Defense lawyers also requested that records be sealed, which was approved, it said. A telephone message left for Raines was not returned.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Hundreds of unionized group home workers are threatening to walk off the job next month if settlements aren’t reached on new labor contracts. The New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU, delivered strike notices Tuesday to two private agencies – Whole Life Inc. and Network Inc. – that have about 70 locations across the state that could be affected. The union’s deadline for an agreement is Oct. 5. The threat of a strike, which would involve over 500 workers at group homes and day programs for people with developmental disabilities, comes more than three months after state officials authorized $184 million to increase wages and benefits for group home workers. The union said these remaining two operators have failed to settle on new agreements, despite the added funding. In July, a threatened strike by over 2,100 group home workers at 200 homes was called off after a late-night agreement for higher wages and improved benefits was reached with the Lamont administration’s help. “The State of Connecticut stepped up and provided funding that was adequate,” Rob Baril, the union president, said in a statement. “Now it’s time for these agencies to do the same: to provide people with pensions, affordable health insurance and enough wages that people can take care of their families.”\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: A new law is expected to make it simpler for residents to use solar energy to power their homes through a community-centered program scheduled to start next year. To participate, customers can get credit on their electric bills by subscribing to a centrally located local community solar project, which can be cheaper than paying to install solar panels on their own roofs. Community-owned solar generation facilities have been legal in Delaware since 2010 but included some legal barriers such as requiring the facility to identify all its customers before being built. The bill by Sen. Stephanie Hansen, D-Middletown, removed some of those barriers to make it easier for people to take advantage of the fast-growing industry. Delaware hasn’t had the facilities in the past because the laws weren’t set up to accommodate them, Hansen said. The bill specifically changes regulations for solar facilities that will connect through Delmarva Power, the most prominent energy company in the state. Once facility owners get the green light, Delaware can expect to see the solar panel facilities popping up in open lands like Brownfield sites, undeveloped fields, or on top of parking lots or landfills, according to Hansen.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Artifacts from the racial injustice protests that erupted last year in the wake of George Floyd’s death are being preserved, and their protectors are hoping to find new homes for some of the mementos, WUSA-TV reports. As pro-Trump demonstrators repeatedly targeted a makeshift memorial at the barrier that separated Black Lives Matter Plaza from the White House, “fence guardians” sought to protect artifacts of the movement that shone a spotlight on police brutality against Black people. The Biden administration dismantled the fence earlier this year, but not before Nadine Seiler saved more than 700 mementos. “We were lucky that the Library of Congress took some pieces, and Howard University took some pieces,” Seiler said. “But the vast majority of the collection remained with us.” Hundreds of signs, photographs and pieces of artwork remain in her D.C. storage space. Seiler and fellow “fence guardian Karen Irwin are now finding homes for each item, asking interested businesses, nonprofits and organizations to contact them via Facebook. “Ideally, the Black Lives Matter community would like the pieces to stay in the hands of Black organizations,” Seiler said. “But personally, any organization that would give these treasures a safe home and recognize their value, they should reach out as well.”\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis named a UCLA doctor and health policy researcher who shares his approach to managing the coronavirus pandemic to serve as the state’s surgeon general Tuesday. Like DeSantis, Dr. Joseph Ladapo said he doesn’t believe in school closures, lockdowns or vaccine mandates. “Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies in public health,” Ladapo said. DeSantis said there’s been misinformation spread about COVID-19 to control personal behavior and mentioned monoclonal antibody treatment, claiming that while he’s been advocating it for months, others haven’t been pushing it as vocally. Doctors agree with DeSantis that the treatment, when delivered soon after infection, is effective. Lapado said vaccines aren’t the only way to combat COVID-19. “There’s nothing special about them compared to any other preventive measure,” he said, adding that people should be encouraged to lose weight, exercise more and eat healthier. And Lapado spoke out against lockdowns, saying that “after lockdowns, overall mortality increased ... lots of reasons why they’re bad.” On Wednesday, Ladapo signed new protocols allowing parents to decide whether their children should quarantine or stay in school if they are asymptomatic after being exposed to someone with COVID-19. His new guidelines also tweaked the state’s prohibition against school mask mandates, prompting an administrative law judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the old rule that had been filed by various school boards.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAthens: Some of the people living in a homeless camp known as Cooterville say they’re skeptical of a new, government-sanctioned homeless camp planned for the community. The Cooterville encampment under CSX railroad tracks is set to be cleared by Nov. 12, with city leaders trying to time the ejections with the opening of the new camp where homeless will be allowed to stay legally. City officials are looking for an organization to head the government-sanctioned encampment, which will determine what it eventually looks like. The Athens-Clarke County Commission this summer selected a site for it at the North Athens School. Opponents have said they’re concerned it will attract more homeless people to Athens. But supporters say the new camp will come with services aimed at helping homeless people make the transition to permanent housing. In the Cooterville camp, some have expressed feeling left in the dark about the process are are unsure whether they will be secured a spot in the new camp. Oscar Sutton, who’s lived in Cooterville a couple of months, said he has no plans to move to the government-sanctioned encampment and worries about placing so many random people from the homeless community together. “It’s going to be chaos,” he said. “If I have to stay out here, I’ll just find somewhere to stay.”\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: A man who helped organize a group that opposes COVID-19 vaccines and mandates says he contracted the disease and now has regrets. Chris Wikoff told Hawaii News Now he helped start the Aloha Freedom Coalition last October, believing government shutdowns and mandates were threatening liberties and harming businesses. “They were talking about vaccine passports and vaccine mandates, and it seemed like it was over-the top totalitarianism and control,” Wikoff said. But then he and his wife contracted COVID-19. “We were told the COVID virus was not that deadly. It was nothing more than a little flu. I can tell you it’s more than a little flu,” he said. Wikoff was sent to a hospital on the west side of Oahu but transferred to a facility in Honolulu because hospitals were at or near capacity. “I was in a bed. I can’t move; I can’t breathe,” he recalled. “I was afraid I was going to die.” Wikoff is now considering getting vaccinated because his family and doctors recommend it. “Probably getting COVID again would be more dangerous than getting the reaction from the vaccines,” he said. Wikoff said he asked the Aloha Freedom Coalition to remove his name as a member on state business registration and is warning people not to attend large protests like the ones the group staged in front of Lt. Gov. Josh Green’s home. “Before I thought Josh Green was exaggerating the situation, and after my experience he sounds very rational to me,” he said.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Health care workers are exhausted and angry. COVID-19 vaccines are expiring because they have sat unused for so long. And coronavirus case numbers and deaths continue to climb, putting the state among the worst in the nation for the rate of new diagnoses. Idaho’s public health leaders painted a grim picture – again – during a weekly briefing Tuesday. The state continues to set records with 686 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of Saturday, 180 of them in intensive care beds and 112 on ventilators, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Dave Jeppesen said. At the moment, there is no end in sight to the surge. The entire state entered “crisis standards of care” last week, officially allowing hospitals to ration health care as needed so that scarce resources can be directed to the patients most in need and most likely to survive. Urgent surgeries have been placed on hold, some patients are being treated in lobbies or field hospitals, and hospital administrators and doctors are desperately trying to shuffle the sickest patients to any facility that has enough open beds or ventilators to treat them. Over the weekend, physicians at one hospital nearly had to face “de-allocation,” in which one patient is taken out of an ICU bed to give it to someone with a greater chance of survival, said Dr. Jim Souza with St. Luke’s Health System.\n\nIllinois\n\nBeecher: A fire destroyed a historic church in Chicago’s far southern suburbs that had appeared in the 2002 film “Road to Perdition.” Officials said nearly a dozen fire departments responded, but by the time the flames were doused, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was in ruins. No one was injured, and the cause of the fire is under investigation. Flames swept the church Sunday afternoon as members of the congregation were enjoying an Oktoberfest celebration in the parking lot. The building dates to 1865. “Yeah, it is devastating: The 150 years of the weddings and the funerals and the baptisms and all of that are gone. But the church still stands, the people; we still have our folk and our faith,” said the Rev. Michael Stein. The closest fire hydrant was approximately a mile away, prompting an effort to shuttle roughly 91,000 gallons of water to the rural location to extinguish the flames, officials said. The church appeared in Tom Hanks’s 2002 film “Road to Perdition,” WGN-TV reports. “My grandparents are buried there. It’s really sad seeing the church like this,” Beecher resident Zachery Wehling told the station. Stein said it’s an opportunity to rebuild. “It is a dark chapter, and a sad one, and we mourn it, and we grieve it … but we still look to Christ, and we find that hope to go on,” he said.\n\nIndiana\n\nWest Lafayette: Purdue University said it has nearly 50,000 students this fall, a record fueled by a freshman class of about 10,200. Purdue said it was surprised by an increase in out-of-state students accepted for admission. Families and students told Purdue they were impressed by the school’s response to COVID-19. “Our focuses have been encouraging everyone to be vaccinated,” said Jay Akridge, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity. “We’re up over 83% of the campus (vaccinated). And then if you’re not, get tested,” he said. “And then students have been great about masking inside. … Just as they did last year, students have been very good about following that protocol.” Purdue was expecting 8,450 freshmen but greatly exceeded that number. Total enrollment is pegged at 49,639.\n\nIowa\n\nFort Dodge: Experts say a cyberattack on a northwest Iowa grain cooperative could signal Russian-linked groups are beginning to target smaller farm businesses in rural America as bigger companies tighten their security. The cyberattack on New Cooperative, a farm services business with headquarters in Fort Dodge, comes on the heels of a ransomware attack on the giant meatpacking company JBS in late May. JBS closed at least one Iowa pork processing plant as well as all nine of its U.S. beef plants before paying hackers $11 million in ransom. Cybersecurity experts say Russian-backed ransomware group BlackMatter is demanding a $5.9 million ransom from New Cooperative. New Cooperative acknowledged Monday that it had experienced “a cybersecurity incident” affecting some of the company’s “devices and systems.” The member-owned business said it’s using “every available tool and resource to quickly restore our systems.” The cooperative said it had notified law enforcement and was working with data security experts to “investigate and remediate the situation.” New Cooperative declined to say more about the attack Tuesday. Chad Hart, an Iowa State University agriculture economist, said “size really doesn’t matter” to hackers, who “are looking for any target that they think could be valuable.”\n\nKansas\n\nKansas City: An organization run by rapper Jay-Z has filed a petition seeking records from the city’s police department related to what it calls a history of officer misconduct within the agency. The request was filed Monday in Wyandotte County District Court by Team Roc, the criminal justice division of Jay-Z’s entertainment organization, Roc Nation. The filing said the department has failed for decades to hold officers accountable for misconduct, including planting evidence, fabricating witnesses, and soliciting sex from victims and witnesses, The Kansas City Star reports. “And, thanks to the blue veil of silence and apparent failure to investigate serious allegations, little of it has come to light,” according to the petition. It alleges department officials refused to provide Team Roc with complaints filed against the department’s investigative division, reports or internal investigations against an officer who has a history of abuse allegations and policies relating to supervising detectives. The department responded in a statement that it has given hundreds of pages of documents to Team Roc but that the Kansas Open Records Act does not require the release of personnel records and criminal investigation files.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: A drive-by shooting at a school bus stop Wednesday morning left a 16-year-old student dead and another hospitalized, police said. A third child was injured by unknown means as the youths waited at the bus stop just west of downtown Louisville, authorities said. A person in a car drove by and shot at the waiting students, some of whom were not injured, Louisville Metro Police Maj. Shannon Lauder said during a news conference. No suspects were in custody Wednesday afternoon. Police put a photo of a dark gray Jeep SUV on social media and asked for the public’s help in finding it. The vehicle had Illinois license tags, with the plate number BD91644. Mayor Greg Fischer said the shooting – the city’s 145th homicide this year – violated a “sacred space.” Police were working with the FBI and other agencies in investigating the shooting, Chief Erika Shields said Wednesday morning. The chief suggested the shooting could be gang-related, but she said she did not believe the victim was involved with gangs. The bus stop near the city’s downtown was for students of Eastern High School. Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio called the incident “one of the most difficult mornings of my career.” He said support is being provided to students and teachers at the school.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: Smoke and flames shot up the side of the Superdome’s roof Tuesday after a pressure washer being used to clean the roof of the sports and entertainment arena caught fire. The New Orleans Fire Department confirmed firefighters responded to flames on the building’s roof shortly after 12:30 p.m. The fire appeared under control a short time later. New Orleans Emergency Management Services said on Twitter that it was transporting one person to the hospital for “minor burns.” Emergency officials called on people to stay away from the area. Crews were power-washing the roof to prepare it to be painted, officials said. “The fire was contained to the exterior gutter system surrounding (the) Superdome, and only a small area of the roof suffered minimal damage,” said a statement from the Louisiana Stadium and Expedition District, a state board that governs the dome, and ASM Global, which manages the Superdome. “Initial assessments suggest that damage is superficial and there appears to be no structural damage or impact to the integrity of the roof’s exterior skin. The building’s outer skin and roof remain watertight.” A photo posted on the city’s emergency management Twitter feed showed firefighters in the trench that separates the Superdome roof from an outer wall as they sprayed down the fire-blackened walls.\n\nMaine\n\nLebanon: Residents will vote on whether to recall several town leaders in a flap that grew out of the select board chairman’s decision to take a farmer’s pot plants. Farmer Eric Kelley accused Select Board Chairman Charles Russell Jr. and board member Ernest “Butch” Lizotte Jr. of swiping $100,000 worth of plants, knowing that the farmer was in jail. In addition, local animal control officers took his livestock. District Attorney Kathryn Slattery confirmed there was an investigation that focused on possible theft. But there was not enough evidence to prove the charges “beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said. Anger over the marijuana episode apparently served as a tipping point for a recall effort targeting Russell, Lizotte and another person who went to the farm that night. The recall also targets a third selectman who’s accused of missing half of this year’s meetings. Russell, who grows medicinal marijuana for household use, consulted for a local pot business and helped draft town marijuana ordinances, acknowledged to the Boston Globe that he pilfered Kelley’s marijuana plants. But he said he did it because he didn’t want the plants getting “into the hands of the wrong people” while Kelley was in jail. He called it a “public safety” matter.\n\nMaryland\n\nCollege Park: National Public Radio can air audio recordings from the trial of the gunman who killed five Capital Gazette newspaper employees in 2018, a federal judge has ruled in a case challenging the state’s ban on broadcasting court proceedings. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bennett on Tuesday permanently barred the state of Maryland from enforcing its “broadcast ban” against NPR, which intends to use audio from the trial of Capital Gazette newsroom shooter Jarrod Ramos in an upcoming episode of its “Embedded” podcast. Bennett ruled it would be unconstitutional for Maryland to ban NPR from broadcasting recordings of the jury trial for Ramos’ criminal case. NPR’s challenge to the broadcast ban was limited to its use of recordings of Ramos’ court proceedings. In July, a jury rejected defense attorneys’ mental illness arguments and found Ramos criminally responsible for killing five people at the newspaper’s office in Annapolis. Prosecutors are seeking five life sentences without the possibility of parole when Ramos is sentenced. The judge already had ruled in NPR’s favor after a hearing Sept. 13, issuing a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement against the radio network. Tuesday’s ruling granted NPR’s request for a permanent injunction.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A group of high school students had to ride on a party bus complete with a stripper pole and neon lights during a recent field trip – an experience their teacher said highlights problems with the education system. Jim Mayers, an 11th grade Advanced Placement language and composition teacher at the Brooke Charter School in Boston, said in a since-deleted tweet that the original charter bus had fallen through, Masslive.com reports. “It is a funny story, but there actually is a real bus shortage, and it speaks to major flaws in our education system,” he said, adding that the field trip was a success. He is now using the attention he’s getting because of the original tweet to urge people to better understand educational inequities and other problems facing the nation’s schools. “I’m worried that there is too much attention being paid to the tweet itself, or simply the fact that it went viral, instead of attending to the many systemic issues that are facing not just my students, but students all across the country,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. For example, districts across the nation are struggling to hire enough drivers to shuttle kids to school, and some states have become creative, including Massachusetts, which is enlisting National Guard members to drive school transport vans.\n\nMichigan\n\nPontiac: Plans are underway for the state to construct a first-in-the-nation segment of road that will charge electric vehicles while they’re driving, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Tuesday at the Motor Bella auto show in Pontiac. Michigan’s Department of Transportation and the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification are partnering to make a 1-mile stretch of state roadway in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties to allow public transportation and private vehicles to charge while traveling as a part of the Inductive Vehicle Charging Pilot, according to a news release. “Michigan was home to the first mile of paved road, and now we’re paving the way for the roads of tomorrow with innovative infrastructure that will support the economy and the environment, helping us achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050,” Whitmer said in the release. As electric vehicles advance, charging infrastructure has become a priority for Michigan cities that want to draw residents. The city of Saginaw got its first charging stations in September in the hope that those traveling in the east side of the state toward tourist areas in northern Michigan will stop because there is little electric vehicle infrastructure available at most destinations.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Joseph: A small crowd of local business owners and community members gathered around a gray house near downtown Tuesday morning to kick off a project that would give a house used by the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict a new life. Armed with sledgehammers, Sisters Dorothy Manuel and Karen Streveler posed for photographs outside the house as Habitat for Humanity volunteers in blue hard hats walked around the inside, ready to begin renovating the home that the sisters donated to the organization in December. Next summer a local family will move into the house, addressing a need for affordable housing in the area. “As volunteers and family members begin the kicking out the old to make room for the new and improved, we pray for the safety of all who participate in the renovation project and that everything gets accomplished in a timely manner,” Manuel said as she led a prayer in front of the home. “May this house truly become a home for the family and a blessing for their lives.” The Genesis House was built in 1926 and purchased by the sisters in 1950. It was used to accommodate lay staff from the College of St. Benedict in the past and later to house chaplains, Streveler said. Most recently, some of the sisters lived there for the past seven years.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: The authors of the state’s 1890 constitution had racist intent when they stripped voting rights from people convicted of some felonies because they chose crimes they thought were more likely to be committed by Black people, an attorney argued Wednesday in a federal appeals court. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should overturn most of Mississippi’s felon disenfranchisement plan, attorney Donald B. Verrilli Jr. argued on behalf of people with felony convictions. The case could affect thousands who have lost voting rights. “Because the 1890 provisions were unconstitutional, they were invalid from the moment that they’re enacted,” Verrilli said. Attorneys representing the state said Mississippi dropped burglary from the list of disenfranchising crimes in 1950 and added murder and rape to the list in 1968. They said in written arguments that those changes “cured any discriminatory taint on the original provision.” The Mississippi Constitution strips voting rights from people convicted of 10 felonies, including forgery, arson and bigamy. The state attorney general issued an opinion in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny, carjacking, felony-level shoplifting and felony-level bad check writing.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: The city’s police used force against Black people more than three times as often as on white people, according to a newly released study. The California-based, nonprofit research group Center for Policing Equity examined police report data from 2012 to 2019 and also found that in 9 out of 10 instances in which police pulled out a gun, it was at a Black civilian, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Even as the overall use of force dropped by 18%, police still used it more often against Black people, the report said. “What we typically hear from police officers is that use of force happens predominantly in areas with high crime,” said Hans Menos, vice president of law enforcement initiatives at the center. “So we try to control using neighborhood-level demographics, and even after controlling for that, the number (of Black people who have force used against them) is still higher.” Mayor Tishaura Jones said eliminating racial disparities in policing is key to making St. Louis safer for all of its residents. Outgoing Police Chief John Hayden said this kind of research can bring about scrutiny and questions about policing practices. “However, we embrace the challenge to do better and consider all suggestions from professionals, community stakeholders, and citizens,” Hayden said.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: National Guard soldiers will assist hospitals with their COVID-19 response as the state struggles with a surge in infections, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday. A total of 70 soldiers will assist six different hospitals in Helena, Billings, Butte, Missoula and Bozeman. They will begin helping the hospitals either this weekend or next weekend, according to an announcement from the governor’s office. The Guardsmen will support staffing with nonmedical intensive care assistance, environmental services, patient data entry and coronavirus testing. Gianforte has stopped short of issuing any statewide mask or vaccine requirements even as some communities face record-high COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. “While we will not mandate them, vaccines are safe, they work, and they can save your life,” Gianforte said in a statement. The decision to mobilize the National Guard comes after Gianforte announced last week that 10 Guardsmen would begin assisting Billings Clinic, and seven additional Guardsmen would assist in the state lab. The state anticipates additional requests for Guard resources from several other hospitals, according to the governor’s office.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Lawmakers remained at a stalemate Wednesday over how to draw new congressional and legislative maps despite a looming deadline that could force them to postpone the decision until next year and delay the May primary election. Lawmakers have until Saturday to advance both measures, or else Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers has promised to end their special session, forcing them to resume the debate during their next regular session in January. Delaying the new maps until next year would force state officials to reschedule the primary and create major hassles for county election officials and candidates. At issue with the maps are accusations that Republicans and Democrats are trying to draw political boundaries in ways that benefit their party. Republicans enjoy a majority in the officially nonpartisan, one-house Legislature, but they don’t have enough votes to overcome a filibuster led by Democrats and some moderate Republicans, preventing them from forcing through their preferred map. Hilgers said lawmakers have made good progress toward an agreement, and he hoped to pin down specific concerns about the maps to try to reach a compromise so that lawmakers aren’t “just talking past each other.”\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: In their first public opportunity to voice concerns on a proposal to let tech companies that meet certain requirements create semi-autonomous jurisdictions called Innovation Zones, officials from Storey County dressed down the idea in a line-by-line fashion. They called into question the motives of the company that wants to break away from its control. “While I’m sure many would prefer to have no independent government oversight, we don’t make laws based on what is convenient for just one party,” Storey County Commissioner Clay Mitchell told lawmakers Tuesday. Mitchell and other county representatives oppose a proposal backed by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak that would allow companies that promise a $1.25 billion investment and possess at least 78 square miles of land to apply to form the Innovation Zones. The zones would be governed by three county commission-like board members – two of whom would at first be nominated by the company. They would operate outside the jurisdiction of preexisting local government and eventually could create court systems, impose taxes and make zoning decisions. The company’s proposal has been met with opposition from skeptics of overly powerful tech companies, environmentalists and local officials.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Fall visitors to the Granite State are being asked to keep their tempers in check and their trash off the ground during their leaf peeping trips this year. With interest in outdoor recreation on the rise amid the coronavirus pandemic, state tourism officials last year launched a “Leave No Trace” campaign to remind visitors not to sully the state’s natural resources. This year, they added a new message – “Don’t Take New Hampshire for Granite” – to encourage visitors to be understanding about rules and respectful of other people and property. With foliage season just beginning, officials are again reminding visitors to show courtesy to workers and the environment alike. Fall is New Hampshire’s second-busiest tourism season, and state officials expect 3.2 million visitors to spend $1.4 billion this year, nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. Businesses still are struggling with workforce shortages and supply chain delays, said Mike Somers, president of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association. That, in turn, has led to an increase in rude and abusive customer behavior. “We’re really asking folks to plan ahead and have a little bit of patience and understanding,” he said. “Just call ahead, find out what the hours of operation are, and please don’t get upset if we’re not open until 11 o’clock at night.”\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Liquor stores, bars and restaurants are all having trouble stocking their shelves with enough wines, beers and spirits, thanks to COVID-19’s impact on supplies, along with heat waves and frosts that damaged crops. “It’s not just one thing that’s causing the liquor shortage,” said Joe Ringwood, manager of Super Cellars, a fine wine and spirits shop in Ridgewood. It’s a shortage of truck drivers, a scarcity of aluminum, a shutdown of factories, a dearth of containers, extreme weather, tariffs or a lack thereof, and even the greater demand by consumers for premium liquor. “Some of it is directly related to the pandemic,” Ringwood said. “But not all of it.” And it’s not just one category of liquor that’s gone missing. What is in short supply seems to change from month to month, if not week to week. Last year, liquor store owners said, they had trouble getting canned beers, amid a shortage of aluminum. Today, bottled beers and top-shelf tequilas are in particularly short supply. “Every week it’s something else,” said Kathy Mahon, bar manager for Park West Tavern in Ridgewood. Paul Santelle, executive director of the New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance and owner of Garden State Discount Liquors in Perth Amboy, said he has begun to ration over a hundred items so more people will be able to enjoy them.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: A coalition of Native American communities has unveiled its proposal for redrawing the state’s political map to boost Indigenous voters’ influence in elections. The proposed changes from New Mexico’s 19 Native American pueblos and the Jicarilla Apache Nation, outlined Monday, would reshape a congressional swing district where Republicans regained control in 2020. They would also bolster Native American majorities among eligible voters in six state House and three Senate districts in northwestern New Mexico. The proposals were submitted to a committee that will provide recommendations to the Legislature at the end of October. The Democrat-led Legislature can draw its own lines. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham must approve the redistricting, and court challenges are possible. New Mexico is home to 23 federally recognized tribes, and the share of New Mexicans who identify themselves as Indigenous by race or by combined ancestry is 12.4%. Four Indigenous tribes have joined together for the first time to form a stronger voting bloc within one Senate district that might unite Acoma, Laguna, Isleta and Zuni pueblos. Other proposed changes would split the Mescalero Apache reservation between two congressional districts, in hopes of expanding that tribe’s voice in Congress.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: Four members of Congress from New York demanded the release of inmates and closure of New York City’s troubled Rikers Island jail complex after another inmate was reported dead at the facility. Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman and Nydia Velazquez called conditions at the jail “deplorable and nothing short of a humanitarian crisis,” in a letter Tuesday to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Bill de Blasio. The demand followed the 11th death reported at Rikers Island this year. The city’s Department of Correction said an inmate died Sunday at the jail after reporting he did not feel well and was taken to the infirmary. His death came on the heels of both Hochul and de Blasio announcing plans to try to improve conditions at Rikers Island, where long-standing troubles were exacerbated amid the pandemic. The House members said the jail has failed to provide inmates with basic services and protection against the spread of COVID-19, and lawmakers on a recent visit to the facility found conditions that were “life-threatening and horrific.” They reported overflowing toilets and floors covered in dead cockroaches, feces and rotting food. State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas said inmates told her they felt like they were being treated like slaves and animals.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: People attending the 2021 N.C. State Fair won’t be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but it’s strongly encouraged, officials said. Also, those going to the fair, which begins Oct. 14, will be required to use clear plastic bags upon entering, and officials say there will be no indoor concerts at this year’s event – a decision they said has nothing to do with the pandemic. A statement from fair officials said any size or type of clear bag is acceptable. Wristlets, diaper bags and medical equipment bags will be accepted at the fair even if they are not clear, but they will require additional inspection. In addition, officials said there will be no concerts inside Dorton Arena. That room will be reserved for vendors. “Moving the vendors, displays and cheesemakers into Dorton Arena will offer a larger space to include more vendors and provide more space for consumers to sample featured products and shop for their favorites,” state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The head of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is asking a federal agency overseeing the environmental review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline to cut ties with a contractor conducting the analysis, citing a conflict of interest. Chairman Mike Faith and other tribal leaders fighting the pipeline sent a letter Wednesday to a top U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official, taking issue with Environmental Resources Management, the company doing the review, and its ties to the oil industry, the Bismarck Tribune reports. One of the tribes’ concerns is that the London-based company is a member of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that lobbies for the oil industry and has submitted court briefs supporting Dakota Access. Meanwhile, the company that operates the Dakota Access pipeline has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an appellate ruling ordering additional environmental review, saying it puts the line at risk of being shut down. Texas-based Energy Transfer operates the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline. Faith said in a statement that the request by the pipeline operator “is part of an ongoing attempt to “evade accountability.” The pipeline began operating in 2017, after being the subject of months of protests during its construction.\n\nOhio\n\nDayton: The city plans to demolish the 129-year-old historic building that once was the site of the Wright brothers’ first bike shop because the building has deteriorated to a point where it can no longer be maintained and redeveloped. The shop was first built in 1892 to serve as the Wrights’ first bike shop. Soon thereafter, Gem City Ice Cream Co. bought the property and was housed there until it closed in 1975, when the building was sold to another company, the Dayton Daily News reports. Years after a wide array of owners, the city attempted to sell the rundown property to developers, but it failed inspection tests. The building was deemed structurally damaged and in danger of collapse. City officials also attempted to receive approval to bulldoze the property but did not move forward after hearing community concerns, Daytons Landmark Commission staff report said. But multiple inspections in 2019 concluded the building can’t be saved. City staff and nuisance abatement specialists said the building needs to be removed, the report said. This isn’t the first of the Wright brothers’ bike shops to be torn down in Ohio. Their second and third bike shops were torn down, but the fourth is a national historic site in the Wright Dunbar District, according to the newspaper.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Efforts to control feral swine eating their way across fields might seem as futile as trying to catch a greased pig – the hogs are known to destroy crops and land for farmers, who say the animals aren’t picky eaters and will consume just about anything they find growing. But an influx in federal dollars creating pilot eradication projects across broad areas of the state and a new pesticide introduced this month are making the fight just a little more fair for farmers, ranchers and regulators. The two feral swine control pilot projects, paid for by about $3.6 million in federal dollars allocated through the 2018 Farm Act, have combined tracking efforts with hunting and trapping activities across multiple counties in northern and southwestern Oklahoma to blunt swine activity in those areas. The manufacturer of the new pesticide, called HogStop, claims it can decrease the fertility of male swine and help cut rapid reproduction rates for the animal. It was approved for use by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry this month. Any and all tools to fight the infestation are welcome, as feral swine damage across the state has cost landowners hundreds of thousands of dollars.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: A broken power-sharing deal, the lingering possibility of a Republican walkout and a COVID-19 case are adding greater uncertainty to whether legislators will successfully redraw the state’s political districts ahead of a tight deadline. Stakes are high as Oregon gained a new, sixth U.S. House seat following the latest census. Lawmakers were told the House would reconvene Wednesday following news Tuesday that someone in the building had tested positive for the coronavirus. But House Speaker Tina Kotek now says the chamber won’t convene until Saturday to give time for those potentially exposed to the virus to be tested and receive results. Democrats say their entire caucus in the House has been vaccinated. The number of vaccinated Republican lawmakers was not immediately available. When the House reconvenes Saturday, lawmakers will have just two days to vote on and pass new political boundaries. If congressional maps are not passed by Sept. 27, the task will fall to a panel of five retired judges appointed by the Oregon Supreme Court. House Republicans showed signs of a possible walkout this week after Kotek, a Democrat, rescinded a power-sharing deal to redraw political maps that she made with the House GOP as Republicans used delaying tactics to block bills during the 2021 legislative session.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: The state Supreme Court is saying yes to canines in the courtroom, under certain conditions. A trial witness may be accompanied by a “comfort dog” if the animal will help yield reliable, complete and truthful testimony, the justices ruled Wednesday in a precedent-setting opinion that established a “balancing test” for Pennsylvania judges confronted with such a request. Ruling unanimously in a murder case, the Supreme Court pointed to other states that allow witnesses to testify with the help of emotional support dogs. The justices said it’s permissible, as long as steps are taken to minimize any potential harm to a defendant. “Trial courts have the discretion to permit a witness to testify with the assistance of a comfort dog,” Chief Justice Max Baer wrote for the court. “In exercising that discretion, courts should balance the degree to which the accommodation will assist the witness in testifying in a truthful manner against any possible prejudice to the defendant’s right to a fair trial.” The defendant, Sheron Purnell, was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to up to 47 years in prison. Purnell’s lawyers argued a judge abused his discretion by allowing a comfort dog to accompany a teenage witness who testified against Purnell, with the defense saying that would “generate sympathy” among jurors for the girl.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Health officials are allowing a little leeway to a state mandate that requires health care workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 1. State Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott announced Tuesday that unvaccinated workers will be allowed to continue working beyond that date if their absence would jeopardize quality of care at a facility. “If there is a risk to quality of care and an unvaccinated worker must continue to work beyond October 1 to mitigate that risk, the employer has 30 days to ensure that role is fulfilled by a fully vaccinated health care worker,” she said in a statement. The change was made to “safeguard patients, residents, and staff by holding health professionals and facilities accountable to the October 1 vaccination requirement, while also preventing disruptions to care in Rhode Island as health care facilities work toward full compliance,” she said. According to the latest state survey, 87% of health care workers in Rhode Island are vaccinated. Many of the state’s nursing homes had expressed concern about the Oct. 1 deadline, saying it would put additional strain on facilities already struggling with staffing shortages.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nGreenville: A tent has been pitched at Prisma Health’s Greer Memorial Hospital to provide additional triage and treatment space, according to a spokesperson for the health system. The 40-by-80-foot tent was erected over the weekend by the South Carolina State Guard but has not yet been activated to provide treatment, according to a statement from a representative of the health system. Prisma spokesperson Sandy Dees said the tent is part of efforts at Prisma emergency departments in the Upstate to “proactively ‘surge up’ and create additional space to treat patients as needed.” Prisma did not respond to a question about the occupancy of its hospital in Greer. “We’re here to take care of our communities and that means taking the necessary steps to ensure we’re ready when and if those additional resources are needed,” Dr. Matthew Bitner, chair of emergency medicine at Prisma Health in the Upstate, said in the statement. “From a traditional ‘all-hazards’ approach, we are preparing not only for COVID patients but also the everyday emergencies such as trauma, heart attack, strokes, illness and injuries.”\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: The nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization projects more children will go hungry in South Dakota this year and won’t know where their next meal is coming from. Feeding America said the state’s child food insecurity rate for 2021 will be 16.3%, up from 15.3% in 2019. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as reduced food intake, disruptive eating, and decreased quality and variety in diets. The USDA recently reported a national trend of increasing food insecurity, which rose to 14.8% in 2020. “I think it is really concerning,” said Lisa Davis, senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry campaign, a national initiative to end child hunger. “Children who face hunger generally have worse health impacts on their physical and brain development. … They don’t do well in school, they graduate at lower rates, and those consequences for kids literally last a lifetime.” Before the coronavirus pandemic, food insecurity was at its lowest rate since USDA started tracking it in the late 1990s. But the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on food access to households with young children, households of children headed by single women, and households of color, specifically Black and Hispanic, Davis said.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: State officials are asking the public to pick their favorite of four redesign options for new license plates that will be available starting in January. Gov. Bill Lee’s office said voting began Monday and runs through Sept. 27 at tn.gov/ratetheplates. The new design will replace the current plate that launched in 2006, with modifications in 2011, 2016 and 2017. State law includes a redesign every eight years if lawmakers approve funding for it. Tennessee law also requires the words “Tennessee,” “Volunteer State” and “TNvacation.com” to be on the plate, and it lets Tennesseans pick an “In God We Trust” option. The winning design of the primarily white and deep-blue options will be announced in the fall.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: After serving as interim police chief for the capital city since March, Joseph Chacon was named Wednesday as the permanent choice for the top spot. City Manager Spencer Cronk announced the appointment of Chacon, whose career with Austin police has spanned more than 20 years, after a nationwide search for a new chief. Chacon has been interim police chief since the retirement of former Chief Brian Manley amid a reckoning over racial injustice and use of force in law enforcement. Chacon, who served as assistant chief in Austin for almost five years before being named interim chief, said he was “extremely excited and humbled” by the opportunity. Chacon’s appointment must still be confirmed by the City Council, which is set to place an item on the appointment on next week’s agenda. Manley, chosen to lead the department in 2018, had been at the center of ongoing criticism following a fatal police shooting in April 2020 of a man driving away from officers and controversial uses of force by officers during protests over the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis in May 2020.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday that masks will be required inside temples to limit the spread of COVID-19. Church leaders said in a statement that masks will be required temporarily in an effort to keep temples open. The message was the latest in a series of statements from church leaders encouraging masking and vaccination efforts against COVID-19. “As cases of COVID-19 increase in many areas, we want to do everything possible to allow temples to remain open,” the church said in a statement. “Therefore, effective immediately, all temple patrons and workers are asked to wear face masks at all times while in the temple.” In Utah, where the church is based, a summer surge of the coronavirus among unvaccinated residents has continued to grow, while vaccination rates have slightly increased. Data from the Utah Health Department showed that in the past 28 days, state residents who are unvaccinated have been 5.9 times more likely to die from COVID-19 and 7.2 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who are vaccinated. About 64% of Utah residents ages 12 and older were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, state data shows. Utah reported 25 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 2,829.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The Vermont State Police has its first director of mental health programs to help coordinate and oversee the delivery of mental health services to people who come into contact with state police, officials said. Mourning Fox, who was deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Mental Health for the past four years and has more than 25 years of experience in the field, was named to the position, the Department of Public Safety and state police announced. “This is a crucial position within the Department of Public Safety and for the Vermont public safety community as we pursue short-, medium- and long-term goals with respect to mental health response and reimagining policing and safety services,” DPS Commissioner Michael Schirling said in a statement. Fox, who joined the department Aug. 30, will work with the state police’s 10 barracks and the Department of Mental Health to complete hiring. He will also ensure that each field station has at least one embedded mental health crisis specialist and that training is consistent, officials said. In the long term, he’ll help the Public Safety Department reimagine how police provide services to people who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder crisis or have other unmet social service needs, officials said.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: A year and a half into the coronavirus pandemic, the Virginia Employment Commission is still swamped with backlogged claims, its call centers are underperforming, and serious staffing problems persist, according to a scathing interim report the state’s legislative watchdog agency presented to lawmakers Monday. The agency’s staff undertook its review after the employment commission came under harsh scrutiny from lawmakers and the public for what by some measures is a worst-in-the-nation response to the surge in jobless claims. Thousands of Virginians have faced lengthy delays while waiting for benefits, and many have been unable to reach anyone for help or information about their case. “While operating in the extremely challenging public health environment created by COVID was understandably difficult … meaningful actions could have been taken sooner to respond to the public’s needs,” said Hal Greer, director of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s secretary of labor, Megan Healy, oversees the employment commission and defended its performance. Although she agreed the agency was not prepared for the pandemic, she argued to lawmakers that the root of the problem was a complicated federal funding formula that has long left the agency starved for resources.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Three new buildings with 165 studio apartments that were supposed to be rented at market rates will instead house people leaving homelessness and people at risk of becoming homeless. The nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute will buy the buildings on Capitol Hill for about $50 million, with city and state housing programs sharing the cost equally, The Seattle Times reports. Seattle is using federal COVID-19 relief funds for its part, Mayor Jenny Durkan said. Two of the buildings will be managed by LIHI for adults. The third will be managed by YouthCare for young adults. Each will have a live-in case worker, said Sharon Lee, LIHI’s executive director. The deals will house people quickly and cheaply, relative to the time and cost required to develop low-income projects from scratch, Durkan said. The three buildings should be occupied by the end of the year, according to the city. “This is the fastest we have ever brought housing online,” Lee said. Tent encampments in parks and greenbelts have grown in Seattle during the coronavirus pandemic partly because the city has lacked shelter and housing spots, Durkan said. LIHI will move people into the buildings from tiny house villages it manages for the city, which should open more of those houses for people living on the streets, Lee said.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nLewisburg: Gov. Jim Justice has withdrawn from consideration as the coach of a boys basketball team at a high school where he already is the girls coach and where he’d already faced rejection for the job. In a letter to the Greenbrier Board of Education on Tuesday, Justice asked that a boys coach be named soon at Greenbrier East High School, with practices for the 2021-22 season starting in a month. Last month the board rejected a motion to hire Justice as boys coach. The board is looking to replace former NBA player Bimbo Coles, who resigned in July. “We need to move forward,” Justice said. “Pick a coach. The kids deserve that, and I wish them all the success.” Justice served as the boys coach from 2010 to 2017, his first year as governor. He has coached the girls team since 2000, winning a state championship in 2012. Justice’s second term as governor runs through 2024.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Workers reinstalled two statues Tuesday on the state Capitol grounds that protesters ripped down during a demonstration last year in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Workers reinstalled a 9-foot-6-inch statue of Wisconsin abolitionist Col. Hans Christian Heg as well as a 7-foot statue of a woman symbolizing the state’s “Forward” motto. The statues have no associated racist history, but protesters said they represented a false narrative that Wisconsin supports Black people and racial equity. Demonstrators toppled both statues in June 2020, breaking off Heg’s leg and head. The “Forward” statue was dented and one of its fingers broken off. The demonstration was among several that shook downtown Madison in the days after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Floyd, who was Black and handcuffed, died after white police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Heg, a Norwegian immigrant who became an outspoken abolitionist, served in the 15th Wisconsin Regiment during the Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. His statue, funded by the Norwegian Society of America, had stood outside the Capitol since 1926. The “Forward” statue was a bronze replica of the one that represented Wisconsin at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.\n\nWyoming\n\nYellowstone National Park: Rescue crews recovered the body of a 67-year-old man and searched around a lake Tuesday for his half-brother after the pair failed to return from a backcountry canoe trip. A 10-person ground crew was walking the shoreline of Shoshone Lake looking for Kim Crumbo, a 74-year-old former Navy SEAL from Ogden, Utah, Yellowstone officials said. A helicopter from nearby Grand Teton National Park was helping in the effort. Rescuers found the body of Mark O’Neill of Chimacum, Washington, on Monday along the eastern shore, where a canoe, paddle, flotation device and other items were found Sunday. A vacant campsite was found on the south side of the lake. A family member reported the two experienced boaters and former National Park Service employees overdue from their four-night trip Sunday. Shoshone Lake covers 13 square miles and has an average temperature of about 48 degrees Fahrenheit, with survival time estimated to be only 20 to 30 minutes in such cold water, officials said. The lake also can be subject to high winds and sudden storms. Drowning is one of the top causes of death in Yellowstone, behind car and snowmobile accidents and illness, park historian Lee Whittlesey wrote in his book “Death in Yellowstone.”\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/16/americas-50-best-cities-to-live/40995201/", "title": "America's 50 Best Cities to Live – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Samuel Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nLocal governments bear some degree of responsibility for neighborhood safety, economic vitality, the presence and condition of public spaces, and a wide range of other amenities and services that affect the daily lives of local residents. Across the nearly 30,000 cities, towns, villages and unincorporated places in the United States, these and other factors that are closely tied to quality of life vary considerably.\n\nUsing over two dozen metrics related to affordability, economy, standard of living, and community, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 50 best cities to live in in the United States. In order to ensure geographic diversity, we only considered the highest ranking city in each county. Data came from a number of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nIt is important to note that there is no such thing as a perfect city or town, and that many of the attributes one may look for in a community are subjective and not quantifiable. This list favors areas with conditions that have almost universal appeal, however. These include short commute times, walkability, reliable public transit, affordability, job availability, entertainment options, cultural attractions, low crime, and access to places like grocery stores and hospitals.\n\nLet your voice be heard:Who inspires you? USA TODAY seeks your Women of the Century to commemorate 19th Amendment\n\nWomen in history:These women broke historic barriers. Who stood out the year you were born?\n\nWhile household income was not itself a factor in the index, many of the cities and towns on this list are relatively wealthy. This is likely not a coincidence, however, as income is closely tied to several other measures used to create this list, including low crime and low unemployment. This is the income it takes to be considered rich in every state.\n\nPopulation growth can be a sign that a given area is attractive to new residents and families, and not surprisingly, the majority of cities on this list are home to more people today than five years ago. Just over half of the cities on this list reported greater population growth than the U.S. as a whole between 2013 and 2018. Here is a list of the fastest growing place in each state.\n\n50. Bismarck, North Dakota\n\n• Population: 71,731\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +13.2%\n\n• Median household income: $63,608\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 1.9%\n\nSubstantial population growth is often a sign that a city is a desirable place to live. Bismarck, the second most populous city in North Dakota and also the state capital, has recorded a population increase of more than 13% in the past five years. Steady population growth is often an indication that job opportunities are attracting new residents, and Bismarck's 5-year average unemployment rate of 1.9% is one of the lowest of any U.S. city. The U.S. average unemployment rate over the last five years is 5.9%.\n\nBismarck is also a very affordable place to live for its residents. Goods and services are on average 12% less expensive in the city compared to nationwide prices, and the typical household in Bismarck has an income slightly higher than the national median.\n\n49. Brewer, Maine\n\n• Population: 9,123\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -3.2%\n\n• Median household income: $58,403\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.6%\n\nBrewer is a small city in Maine across the Penobscot River from Bangor. The city has one of the lower 5-year average unemployment rates in the country, at just 2.6%, compared to a national figure of 5.9%.\n\nBrewer compares favorably in a number of quality of life metrics, with a relatively low poverty rate, and good access to food and health care. Brewer also has an extremely low violent crime rate, equivalent to roughly one-third the national rate.\n\n48. West Fargo, North Dakota\n\n• Population: 34,419\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +27.4%\n\n• Median household income: $81,051\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 1.5%\n\nWest Fargo is one of two cities in North Dakota to rank on this list – and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. The number of people living in West Fargo increased by 27.4% in the last five years, well above the 3.6% national population growth. The city is also adding jobs rapidly, with overall employment climbing 17.9% between 2014 and 2018, well above the comparable 6.5% national job growth. The city's five-year average unemployment rate of 1.5% is considerably lower than the 5.9% national rate.\n\nWith a strong job market, people in West Fargo are less likely than most Americans to face serious financial hardship. The city's poverty rate of 7.4% is barely half the 14.1% national rate.\n\n47. Rye, New York\n\n• Population: 15,862\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.4%\n\n• Median household income: $180,958\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.9%\n\nRye is a small city in Westchester County, New York, just north of Manhattan. Due to its proximity to New York City, Rye residents have access to a wide range of public transit options, and only about 60% of commuters in the city rely on a personal vehicle, compared to about 90% of commuters nationwide. While the cost of living in Rye is higher than in most of the rest of the country, incomes are also high. The typical household in the city earns $180,958 a year, about three times the national median of $60,293.\n\nLike other high income areas on this list, Rye is one of the safest places in the country. There were only six violent crimes reported in the city in 2018, or 37.4 per 100,000 people, roughly one-tenth the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\n46. Plover, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 12,686\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.6%\n\n• Median household income: $60,981\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.6%\n\nPlover is a small village in central Wisconsin about 100 miles north of Madison. Over the last five years the number of people living in Plover climbed by 4.6%, slightly faster than the comparable 3.6% national population growth. The area's affordability likely makes it an attractive option for new residents. Goods and services in the village are about 8.3% less expensive than they are nationwide on average. Housing is especially affordable. The typical home in Plover is worth 2.9 times as much as the city's median household income. Meanwhile, the median home value across the country is 3.4 times higher than the median household income.\n\nCrime is also relatively uncommon in Plover. There were 108.9 violent crimes and 1,361.5 property crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2018, each well below the respective national rates of 380.6 per 100,000 and 2,199.5 per 100,000.\n\n45. San Francisco, California\n\n• Population: 870,044\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +6.4%\n\n• Median household income: $104,552\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.7%\n\nHome to over 870,000 people, San Francisco is the most populous city on this list. Though its cost of living is higher than nearly every other city in the United States, incomes in San Francisco are generally high enough to offset the high prices at least somewhat. The majority of households in the city earn over $100,000 a year while the typical American household earns only about $60,000.\n\nPeople living in San Francisco have access to a wide range of entertainment, cultural, and recreation venues. The per capita concentration of places like restaurants, bars, gyms, museums, theater companies, and movie theaters is far higher than average.\n\n44. Lowell, Arkansas\n\n• Population: 8,926\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +18.4%\n\n• Median household income: $66,994\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 1.4%\n\nResidents of Lowell, Arkansas benefit from a relatively low cost of living. Goods and services in the city are about 17% cheaper on average than they are nationwide. Not only does a dollar go further in Lowell, but incomes are also relatively high. The typical household in the city earns $66,994 a year, more than $6,000 more than the typical American household. Lowell residents are also less likely than most American workers to be out of work, as the area's five year average unemployment rate of 1.4% is less than one-quarter of the national 5.9% rate.\n\nAs is the case in many cities with relatively high wages and low unemployment, Lowell's population is growing rapidly. In the last five years, the city's population increased by 15.1%, more than double the comparable 2.8% national population growth rate over the same period.\n\n43. Sandy, Utah\n\n• Population: 95,420\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +7.6%\n\n• Median household income: $91,836\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.1%\n\nResidents of Sandy, a city less than 20 miles south of Salt Lake City, benefit from a healthy job market. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of people working in the city climbed by 9.2%, well above the national employment growth rate of 6.5%. An average of just 3.1% of the local labor force were unemployed in the last five years, well below the comparable 5.9% national rate.\n\nLike many cities and municipalities on this list, Sandy appears to be an attractive place for new residents and families. In the last five years, the city's population increased by 6.6%, more than double the comparable 2.8% national population growth over the same period.\n\n42. Millbrook, Alabama\n\n• Population: 15,160\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3%\n\n• Median household income: $59,443\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.7%\n\nMillbrook is the only city in Alabama to rank on this list. Area residents benefit from low effective property rates as the typical homeowner pays just 0.3% of their home value in taxes each year, a fraction of the 1.2% national average. The area also appears to have plenty of opportunities for gainful employment. According to the Census, an average of just 3.7% of Millbrook's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, a far smaller share than the 5.9% national rate.\n\nViolent crimes like murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault are also less common in Millbrook than they are nationwide. The city's violent crime rate of 285.5 incidents per 100,000 residents is well below the national rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\n41. Atoka, Tennessee\n\n• Population: 9,139\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +6.7%\n\n• Median household income: $91,228\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2%\n\nAtoka is a small town in western Tennessee located just north of Memphis. Atoka reported a 6.7% population growth over the last five years. A strong job market may partially explain the influx of new residents. According to the Census, an average of just 2% of Millbrook's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, about one-third the 5.9% national rate. Atoka's economy also provides relatively high paying jobs. The typical Atoka household earns $91,228 a year, well above the $60,293 national median.\n\nCrime rates are low in Atoka. The city's violent crime rate of 96.7 incidents per 100,000 people and property crime rate of 870.5 incidents per 100,000 are each well below the respective national rates of 380.6 per 100,000 and 2,199.5 per 100,000.\n\n40. Lone Tree, Colorado\n\n• Population: 14,209\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +22.5%\n\n• Median household income: $115,746\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.1%\n\nLone Tree is a small Colorado city located about 20 miles south of downtown Denver. A relatively wealthy area, the typical Lone Tree household earns $115,746 a year, nearly double the national median of $60,293. The high income level is likely due in part to the area's tight labor market. An average of just 3.1% of Lone Tree's labor force was unemployed in the last five years, about one-half the 5.9% national rate.\n\nLike many cities and towns on this list, Lone Tree is growing rapidly. Between 2014 and 2018, the city's population grew by 15.3%, well above the 2.8% national population growth rate.\n\n39. Denver, Colorado\n\n• Population: 693,417\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +12%\n\n• Median household income: $63,793\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4%\n\nWith a population of over 690,000, Denver ranks only second behind San Francisco on this list. Denver residents benefit from a higher than typical concentration of cultural attractions and entertainment options like bars, restaurants, museums, movie theaters, and recreation centers.\n\nMany Denver residents also have options when it comes to the daily commute. Some 14.5% of the commuters in the city use transportation other than a personal vehicle, well above the 9.5% share nationwide.\n\n38. Mahomet, Illinois\n\n• Population: 8,327\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +12.3%\n\n• Median household income: $115,619\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.8%\n\nMahomet is a small village in Illinois, just outside the city of Champaign. Area residents benefit from a healthy job market – between 2014 and 2018, overall employment climbed 24.1% and an average of just 2.8% of the labor force were unemployed in the last five years, compared to the 6.5% national job growth and 5.9% 5-year average unemployment rate nationwide.\n\nThe healthy job market has likely contributed to relative financial security for many area residents. Just 2.2% of Mahomet residents live below the poverty line, compared to 14.1% of the U.S. population. Additionally, the median household income in the area of $115,619 is nearly double the national median of $60,293.\n\n37. Palm Beach, Florida\n\n• Population: 8,667\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +1.7%\n\n• Median household income: $133,026\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.3%\n\nPalm Beach is a small town located on a barrier island along Florida's Atlantic coast. A tourist destination, Palm Beach has a higher than average concentration of marinas, golf courses, and movie theaters than most of the country. Palm Beach's amenities and ocean front real estate contribute to high housing prices. The typical home in the town is worth $1.1 million. Nationwide, the median home value is $204,900.\n\nPalm Beach is also a relatively safe place. The town's violent crime rate of 147.1 incidents per 100,000 people and property crime rate of 1,109 incidents per 100,000 are each well below the respective national rates of 380.6 per 100,000 and 2,199.5 per 100,000.\n\n36. Canandaigua, New York\n\n• Population: 10,348\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.8%\n\n• Median household income: $49,198\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.4%\n\nLocated on the northern end of the New York state Finger Lake with the same name, Canandaigua is a popular regional destination and has a far higher than typical concentration of bars, restaurants, hotels, marinas, golf courses, and museums. Canandaigua is also a relatively safe place. There were just 24 violent crimes committed in the city in 2018, equivalent to 234.1 for every 100,000 people, well below the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\nRetirement readiness:Here's the grade most Americans give themselves\n\nDemocratic candidates:Iowa debate topics included health care, child care and higher education\n\n35. Buda, Texas\n\n• Population: 14,503\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +69.5%\n\n• Median household income: $84,011\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.6%\n\nBuda is a small Texas city located about 15 miles from downtown Austin, the state capital. In commuting distance of a major city, the labor force in Buda has access to a wide range of employment options, and partially as a result, the city's jobless rate is low. An average of just 2.6% of workers in Buda were unemployed in the last five years, less than half the comparable 5.9% national rate.\n\nPeople living in Buda also benefit from a low cost of living, as goods and services are about 3.1% less expensive in the city than they are nationwide. Not only does a dollar go further in Buda than in much of the rest of the country, but the area is also relatively high-income. The typical household in the city earns $84,011, nearly $24,000 more than the national median.\n\n34. Traverse City, Michigan\n\n• Population: 15,474\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3.6%\n\n• Median household income: $53,871\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.9%\n\nTraverse City, located in northwestern Michigan on the south end of the Grand Traverse Bay is one of two cities in the state to rank among the best places to live. The city boasts a far higher than typical concentration of entertainment and recreational venues like restaurants, bars, sports centers, and golf courses. Additionally, it is located in Grand Traverse County, where 87.4% of the population have easy access to places for exercise like parks and recreation centers, a larger share than the 84% of Americans nationwide.\n\nCity residents also benefit from a slightly lower than average cost of living. Goods and services in Traverse City are 6.5% lower than they are on average nationwide.\n\n33. Kendallville, Indiana\n\n• Population: 9,522\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -5%\n\n• Median household income: $42,278\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 5.3%\n\nKendallville is a small city in northeastern Indiana. One reason Kendallville ranks among the best places to live is its affordability. Goods and services in the city are about 14.5% less expensive than they are nationwide on average. Housing is especially affordable. The typical home in Kendallville is worth 2.3 times as much as the city's median household income. Meanwhile, the median home value across the country is 3.4 times higher than the median household income.\n\nWhile Kendalville's median household income of $42,278 is well below the national median of $60,293, area residents are less likely than most Americans to face serious financial hardship. Just 12.1% of Kendallville residents live below the poverty line compared to 14.1% of people nationwide.\n\n32. Beachwood, Ohio\n\n• Population: 11,704\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.5%\n\n• Median household income: $89,706\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.7%\n\nBeachwood, a small city about 10 miles east of downtown Cleveland, is one of three cities in Ohio to rank among the best places to live. Beachwood is located in Cuyahoga County, where 97.2% of the population have easy access to places for physical exercise like parks or recreation centers. Beachwood also has a higher than typical concentration of places like bars, restaurants, museums, and movie theaters for residents to enjoy.\n\nLike other Ohio cities on this list, and many other Midwestern cities, Beachwood has a low cost of living. Goods and services are about 8% less expensive in Beachwood than they are nationwide on average.\n\n31. Wyomissing, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population: 10,452\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.2%\n\n• Median household income: $82,600\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.7%\n\nWyomissing is a small borough in eastern Pennsylvania, just across the Schuylkill River from Reading. Like the other Pennsylvania cities on this list, Wyomissing is relatively affordable. Goods and services are about 7% less expensive in the area than they are on average nationwide. Incomes are also relatively high in Wyomissing. The typical Wyomissing household earns $82,600 a year, about $22,000 more than the typical U.S. household.\n\nHigh incomes are likely due in part to a tight labor market. An average of just 3.7% of the Wyomissing's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, compared to the 5.9% national jobless rate.\n\n30. Dover, Ohio\n\n• Population: 12,811\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.1%\n\n• Median household income: $52,875\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.4%\n\nDover, Ohio is one of the most affordable cities in the country. The typical area home is worth $125,500, well below the national median home value of $204,900 and just 2.4 times more than the $53,875 median household income in the city. By contrast, the median home value across the country is 3.4 times higher than the median household income. On average, goods and services are about 16% less expensive in Dover than they are nationwide.\n\nDover is also a relatively safe place. The city's violent crime rate of 86.3 incidents per 100,000 people and property crime rate of 760.7 incidents per 100,000 are each well below the respective national rates of 380.6 per 100,000 and 2,199.5 per 100,000.\n\n29. Rochester, Minnesota\n\n• Population: 113,913\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +5.3%\n\n• Median household income: $70,749\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.2%\n\nRochester is the only city in Minnesota to rank on this list, and with a population of nearly 114,000, it is also one of the most populous cities on this list. A relatively affordable place to live, the median home value in Rochester is just 2.7 times higher than the median household income, well below the comparable 3.4 national ratio. Overall, goods and services are about 5% less expensive in Rochester than they are nationwide on average.\n\nIncomes are relatively high in Rochester. The typical household in the city earns $70,749 a year, over $10,000 more than the typical American household. Adults who have completed college often have access to a broader range of high paying jobs, and in Rochester, 45.7% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to just 31.5% of adults nationwide.\n\n28. Orinda, California\n\n• Population: 19,431\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +7.3%\n\n• Median household income: $210,288\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.6%\n\nOrinda is one of a number of California cities to rank among the best places to live, and like most of the others, Orinda is a high income area. The typical household in the city, which is located about 17 miles from downtown San Francisco, earns $210,288 a year, about 3.5 times as much as the typical American household. While goods and services are more expensive in Orinda, these high incomes are likely enough to offset the high costs. Wealthier areas typically have highly educated populations, and in Orinda, 83.1% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to just 31.5% of adults nationwide.\n\nOrinda residents benefit not only from cultural and entertainment attractions in the nearby cities of San Francisco and Oakland, but also jobs. An average of just 3.6% of Orinda's labor force was unemployed over the last five years, well below the 5.9% national unemployment rate reported by the Census.\n\n27. Hermitage, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population: 15,812\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -2.8%\n\n• Median household income: $53,378\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 5.2%\n\nHermitage is a small western Pennsylvania city that sits along the Ohio state border. The city ranks on this list partially due to its high concentration of social, recreation, and cultural venues. There are more places like bars, restaurants, libraries, and golf courses on a per capita basis in Hermitage than there are nationwide. Hermitage is also a relatively safe place. There were 19 violent crimes reported in the city in 2018, or 122.3 per 100,000 people, a fraction of the 380.6 per 100,000 national rate.\n\nHermitage residents also benefit from a low cost of living. Goods and services in the city are 19.5% less expensive than they are nationwide on average.\n\n26. Belgrade, Montana\n\n• Population: 8,345\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +11.4%\n\n• Median household income: $58,146\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.5%\n\nBelgrade, the only city in Montana on this list, ranks among the best places to live partially due to the concentration of entertainment and cultural venues in the city. The city boasts a far larger than typical share of places like bars, restaurants, movie theaters, museums, and golf courses on a per capita basis. The concentration of such businesses may also partially explain the city's low unemployment rate. An average of just 2.5% of Belgrade's labor force were out of work in the last five years, less than half the comparable 5.9% national jobless rate.\n\nThose commuting to work in Belgrade, spend far less time every day getting to and from work than the typical American commuter. The average commute time in the city is just 18.7 minutes. Meanwhile, the average commute time nationwide is 26.6 minutes.\n\n25. New Albany, Ohio\n\n• Population: 10,896\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +33.9%\n\n• Median household income: $203,194\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.9%\n\nNew Albany is one of the fastest growing cities in Ohio. In the last five years, the number of people living in New Albany increased by over a third. Located less than 20 miles northeast of Columbus, New Albany residents are in commuting distance to jobs in and around the state capital – and many of those jobs are high paying. The typical New Albany household earns $203,194 a year, more than triple the median income nationwide of $60,293.\n\nNot only are New Albany residents likely to have high incomes, but a dollar also goes further in the city than it does in much of the rest of the country. Goods and services are 13.4% less expensive in New Albany than they are nationwide.\n\n24. Bridgeport, West Virginia\n\n• Population: 8,466\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.5%\n\n• Median household income: $80,666\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.6%\n\nBridgeport is a small city of fewer than 9,000 people located in central West Virginia. A relatively affluent area, Bridgeport's median household income of $80,666 is about $20,000 higher than the median household income nationwide. High incomes are bolstered by a strong job market. An average of just 2.6% of the city's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, well below the comparable 5.9% national unemployment rate.\n\nBridgeport residents have options when it comes to their leisure time. The city has a far higher than typical concentration of bars, restaurants, recreation centers, and golf courses.\n\n23. Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan\n\n• Population: 11,207\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -2.3%\n\n• Median household income: $112,384\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.3%\n\nGrosse Pointe Park is a small city located only about seven miles from downtown Detroit. Unlike it much larger neighbor, Grosse Pointe Park is a relatively affluent city with a strong job market. The typical household in Grosse Pointe Park earns $112,384 a year, nearly double the national median income. Additionally, an average of just 3.3% of the city's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, well below the comparable 5.9% national jobless rate.\n\nLocated along Lake St. Claire, Grosse Pointe Park has two waterfront parks and across the broader county, 93.8% of residents have access to places like recreation centers and parks – a larger share than the 84% of Americans nationwide with similar access.\n\n22. Cambridge, Massachusetts\n\n• Population: 115,665\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +9.4%\n\n• Median household income: $95,404\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.4%\n\nLike several other cities on this list, Cambridge, Massachusetts is in close proximity to a major urban area. Directly across the Charles River from Boston, Cambridge residents have access to jobs and cultural attractions in the Massachusetts state capital and largest city in New England. Partially as a result, an average of just 4.4% of workers Cambridge were unemployed in the last five years, below the comparable 5.9% unemployment rate nationwide.\n\nHome to MIT and Harvard, Cambridge is a college town – and like many college towns, it boasts a high concentration of entertainment and cultural options. The city has a far higher than typical concentration of restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, and museums.\n\n21. Palo Alto, California\n\n• Population: 67,019\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.7%\n\n• Median household income: $157,120\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.5%\n\nPalo Alto is a city in California's Silicon Valley – an area home to numerous high paying tech companies. Though the cost of living in the area is relatively high, the typical household in Palo Alto has an income of $157,120, well more than double the national median of $60,293. Palo Alto residents are also far less likely than the typical American to be out of a job. An average of just 3.5% of the area's workforce was out of work over the last five years, well below the national average of 5.9%.\n\nLike many other cities with good job markets and high incomes, Palo Alto is relatively safe. There were just 106.6 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city in 2018, less than one third the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\n20. Perryville, Missouri\n\n• Population: 8,403\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +1.7%\n\n• Median household income: $42,439\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.1%\n\nPerryville is a small city in southeastern Missouri about 80 miles south of St. Louis. Part of the reason Perryville ranks among the best cities to live in is its affordability. Goods and services in the city are about 11.6% less expensive than they are nationwide on average, and housing in particular is relatively affordable. The typical home in Perryville is worth 2.9 times as much as the city's median household income. Meanwhile, the median home value across the country is 3.4 times higher than the median household income.\n\nPerryville residents are also less likely than most Americans to find themselves out of a job. The city's five year average unemployment rate of 2.1% is less than half the comparable national figure of 5.9%.\n\nScam alert:Cybercrooks are targeting retirement accounts\n\nRoyal division:What Harry and Meghan can teach us about navigating family and money\n\n19. Ladue, Missouri\n\n• Population: 8,586\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.8%\n\n• Median household income: $192,500\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 1.6%\n\nLadue, a suburb of St. Louis, is one of the wealthiest cities on this list. The typical household in Ladue earns $192,500 a year, more than triple the national median income of $60,293. Ladue residents have easy access not only to entertainment and cultural attractions in nearby St. Louis, and also jobs in the city. An average of just 1.6% of area residents were out of work over the last five years, well below the national average of 5.9%.\n\nHigh property values can be indicative of an area's desirability. In Ladue, the typical home is worth $835,300, more than four times the national median home value of $204,900.\n\n18. Monterey, California\n\n• Population: 28,512\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.1%\n\n• Median household income: $77,562\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.7%\n\nMonterey is a coastal city in central California, located about 2 hours south of San Francisco. A popular tourist destination, Monterey has a high concentration of entertainment and recreation venues like restaurants, golf courses, museums, and movie theaters – as well as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, and Old Fisherman's Wharf.\n\nPeople who live in work in Monterey have options and when it comes to commuting, and are less likely than the typical American to have to rely on a car. About one in every four commuters in Monterey get to work by means other than a car, like walking or public transit, compared to fewer than 10% of commuters nationwide who use non-car options. The average commute time in Monterey is also about 10 minutes shorter than the national average.\n\n17. Santa Barbara, California\n\n• Population: 91,325\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.5%\n\n• Median household income: $74,798\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.1%\n\nSanta Barbara is a mid-sized coastal city in Southern California, situated about 100 miles West of Los Angeles. Like other California cities along the Pacific Coast to rank on this list, Santa Barbara is a popular tourist destination. Partially as a result, Santa Barbara boasts a high concentration of entertainment, recreation, and cultural venues like restaurants, bars, hotels, and museums.\n\nThough Santa Barbara has a slightly higher than average cost of living, incomes are also higher than average in the area. The typical Santa Barbara household earns $74,798 a year, nearly $15,000 more than the median income nationwide.\n\n16. Bellaire, Texas\n\n• Population: 18,733\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +8.8%\n\n• Median household income: $201,629\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.4%\n\nBellaire is a small Texas suburb, located about 10 miles from downtown Houston. Within commuting distance of Houston, Bellaire residents have access to the attractions and jobs in the nation's fourth most populous city. An average of just 2.4% of Bellaire's labor force were unemployed in the last five years, less than half the comparable 5.9% national unemployment rate. Bellaire is also an affluent city, with the majority of households earning over $200,000 a year.\n\nLike many of the best cities to live in, Bellaire is growing relatively rapidly. Over the last five years, the city's population grew by 8.8%, more than double the 3.6% U.S. population growth over the same period.\n\n15. Key Biscayne, Florida\n\n• Population: 13,054\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3.9%\n\n• Median household income: $133,958\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.4%\n\nKey Biscayne, a small town on a barrier island just south of Miami ranks as the best place to live in Florida and 15th best nationwide. One of the safest communities in the country, Key Biscayne's violent crime rate of 37.6 incidents for every 100,000 people is only about a tenth of the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\nWhile the area has a high cost of living, with especially high housing costs, incomes are also high in the area. The typical Key Biscayne household earns $133,958 per year, more than double the national median household income of $60,293.\n\n14. Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 14,039\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.5%\n\n• Median household income: $117,300\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.1%\n\nWhitefish Bay, a Milwaukee suburb along the shore of Lake Michigan, is one of two Wisconsin cities to rank among the 50 best places to live. The high quality of life in Whitefish Bay is partially the result of a strong job market. The area's average unemployment rate over the last five years stands at just 2.1% – less than half the comparable nationwide rate of 5.9%.\n\nAccording to the village website, area residents choose to live in the town because of the local school quality, well-maintained public property, and safety. Indeed, Whitefish Bay is one of the safest places in the country. There were 71.8 violent crimes reported in the village for every 100,000 people in 2018, a fraction of the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\n13. Hoboken, New Jersey\n\n• Population: 53,211\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.5%\n\n• Median household income: $136,402\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.4%\n\nHoboken, situated directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, is the only city in New Jersey to rank on this list. Within commuting distance of New York City – one of the largest and most diverse job markets in the country – unemployment in Hoboken is relatively low. An average of just 3.4% of workers in the city were unemployed over the last five years, well below the 5.9% comparable national rate.\n\nWhile the cost of living in Hoboken is relatively high, incomes are also far higher than average. The typical household in the city earns $136,402 a year, more than double the national median income of $60,293.\n\n12. Lake Oswego, Oregon\n\n• Population: 38,705\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.5%\n\n• Median household income: $100,461\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.2%\n\nLake Oswego is the only city in Oregon to rank on this list. Goods and services in Lake Oswego are about 7.4% more expensive than average. Still, the high cost of living is offset by higher incomes as the majority of households in the city earn over $100,000 a year, well above the national median household income of $60,293. Additionally, just 4.5% of Lake Oswego residents live below the poverty line, less than a third the national 14.1% national poverty rate.\n\nLake Oswego is also a relatively safe city, with a violent crime rate of 50.6 incidents per 100,000 people, a fraction of the 380.6 per 100,000 national rate.\n\n11. Burlingame, California\n\n• Population: 30,459\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.2%\n\n• Median household income: $122,999\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 4.8%\n\nLocated less than 20 miles from downtown San Francisco, Burlingame is one of several cities in the Bay Area to rank on this list. A relatively wealthy area, Burlingame's median household income of $122,999 is more than double the national median of $60,293. The city's high incomes correspond with a healthy job market, as an average of just 4.8% of area workers were unemployed in the last five years, well below the 5.9% national unemployment rate.\n\nArea residents have plenty of options for outdoor recreation, as the city boasts 18 separate parks, playgrounds, and sports fields. The city also has a higher than average per capita concentration of restaurants, hotels, gyms, and sports clubs.\n\n10. Greenwood Village, Colorado\n\n• Population: 15,677\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +10.2%\n\n• Median household income: $127,134\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.4%\n\nGreenwood Village is a small Denver suburb about 10 miles south of the city. Like many other municipalities in commuting distance of a major urban area, Greenwood Village residents benefit from easy access to the amenities of the the nearby city, as well as the employment opportunities there. Likely partially as a result, just 3.4% of workers in the Greenwood were unemployed in the last five years, on average, a far lower share than the comparable 5.9% national unemployment rate over that period.\n\nGreenwood Village residents give the city high marks in several measures of quality of life. According to a residential survey conducted in fall 2018, the city's parks, aesthetics, and safety are the primary reasons most residents are very satisfied living in Greenwood Village.\n\n9. Mercer Island, Washington\n\n• Population: 25,492\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +9.4%\n\n• Median household income: $142,413\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.6%\n\nThe only city in Washington state to rank on this list, Mercer Island is a municipality on an island in Lake Washington, in between the cities of Seattle and Bellevue. Though the cost of living on the island, particularly housing, is higher than average, area residents also have relatively high incomes. The typical Mercer Island household earns $142,413 a year, more than double the national median household income of $60,293.\n\nThe island also boasts a range of cultural and entertainment options, with a far greater than average per capita concentration of places like restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, and museums.\n\n8. Newport Beach, California\n\n• Population: 86,280\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.3%\n\n• Median household income: $122,709\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.4%\n\nNewport Beach is a coastal city located about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Like other coastal California cities on this list, Newport Beach is relatively affluent. The typical household in the city earns $122,709 a year, more than double the national median of $60,293. Newport Beach residents are also relatively healthy in that they are far more likely to exercise regularly and less likely to be obese than the typical American. This is likely due in part to residents' access to exercise opportunities, as 99.1% of residents across Orange County – where Newport Beach is located – have easy access to places for physical activity, like parks, recreation centers, and gyms.\n\n7. Solana Beach, California\n\n• Population: 13,370\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.7%\n\n• Median household income: $105,821\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.5%\n\nSolana Beach is a coastal city in southern California. A wealthy area, the majority of households in the city earn over $100,000 a year. Located less than 30 minutes from downtown San Diego, area residents have access to jobs and entertainment located in the major urban area. The city is also home to one of only three train stations in San Diego County, providing commuters more options. For recreation, the city boasts 1.7 miles of beach, and a higher than average per capita concentration of restaurants, gyms, museums, and movie theaters.\n\nSolana Beach is also a relatively safe city. There were 23 violent crimes reported in the city in 2018, or 170.1 for every 100,000 people, less than half the national violent crime rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\n6. Paradise Valley, Arizona\n\n• Population: 14,215\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +8.8%\n\n• Median household income: $204,145\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 1.4%\n\nParadise Valley is a small city located about 15 miles northeast of Phoenix. Area residents benefit from a healthy job market. An average of just 1.4% of the labor force were unemployed over the last five years, compared to the 5.9% national figure. Paradise Valley is also wealthy, with most households earning over $200,000 a year.\n\nLike a number of other cities and towns on this list, Paradise Valley appears to be attracting new residents – the city's population grew by 8.8% in the last five years, more than double the 3.6% national population growth.\n\n5. Piedmont, California\n\n• Population: 11,308\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.2%\n\n• Median household income: $210,889\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3%\n\nLocated less than 15 miles from San Francisco, Piedmont is one of several Bay Area cities to rank as one of the best places to live. Piedmont is a relatively safe city – there were 21 violent crimes reported in the city limits in 2018, resulting in a violent crime rate of 183 per 100,000 people, well below the 380.6 per 100,000 national rate.\n\nCities with relatively low crime often tend to be more affluent places where poverty is relatively uncommon – and Piedmont is no exception. The typical household in Piedmont has an income of $210,889 a year, more than triple the national median household income of $60,293. Just 2.7% of the city's population live below the poverty line compared to the 14.1% national poverty rate.\n\n4. Highland Park, Texas\n\n• Population: 9,145\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +5%\n\n• Median household income: $207,019\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.3%\n\nHighland Park, Texas, is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. The typical household has an income of $207,019 a year, well more than triple the national median household income of $60,293 a year. Just north of downtown Dallas, Highland Park residents have access to employment opportunities in a major city, and just 2.3% of area workers were out of a job in the last five years, on average, well below the 5.9% national rate.\n\nTown residents benefit not only to access to cultural and entertainment options in nearby Dallas. There are also 22 parks in the town, including eight tennis courts, three playgrounds, and a swimming pool.\n\n3. Hanover, New Hampshire\n\n• Population: 8,591\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.5%\n\n• Median household income: $103,558\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 3.4%\n\nHanover, New Hampshire is one of only a few cities in the Northeastern United States to rank on this list, in large part because the cost of living in much of the Northeast is relatively high. While goods and services are more expensive in Hanover than they are nationwide, the high cost of living in the city is largely offset by higher incomes. The majority of households in the city earn over $100,000. The city also has a strong job market, as an annual average of just 3.4% of workers in the city were unemployed over the last five years, well below the comparable national figure of 5.9%.\n\nHanover residents also benefit from a range of entertainment, cultural, and recreation options. There is a higher than typical per capita concentration of places like restaurants, gyms, golf courses, nature parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters in Hanover.\n\n2. Winnetka, Illinois\n\n• Population: 12,481\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +1.7%\n\n• Median household income: $220,577\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 2.4%\n\nWinnetka is a small village along the shore of Lake Michigan about 20 miles north of downtown Chicago. Winnetka residents have easy access to the largest city in the Midwest with a commuter line that goes directly downtown. Partially as a result, over a quarter of commuters in the area use public transit to get to work and do not have to rely on a car. As is often the case in municipalities outside major urban areas, unemployment is low in Winnetka. The village's 5-year average jobless rate of 2.4% is less than half the comparable national figure of 5.9%.\n\nThe village also boasts a high per capita concentration of restaurants, bars, and theater companies as well as a total of 27 parks than span nearly 250 acres.\n\n1. Manhattan Beach, California\n\n• Population: 35,573\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.7%\n\n• Median household income: $150,083\n\n• 5 yr. avg. unemployment: 5.3%\n\nManhattan Beach is one of several California cities to rank on this list. Located on the Pacific Coast about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach residents have access to a major urban area and miles of ocean coast. Due in part to its high desirability as a place to live, real estate in Manhattan Beach is expensive, as is the overall cost of living. People living there tend to be relatively affluent, with over half of all area households reporting incomes over $150,000 a year.\n\nAs is often the case in wealthy areas, serious crimes are relatively uncommon in Manhattan Beach. The city's violent crime rate of 158.2 incidents per 100,000 people is less than half the national rate of 380.6 per 100,000.\n\nBuild-A-Baby-Yoda:The small star from Star Wars series 'The Mandalorian,' is coming to Build-A-Bear stores\n\nHold my wine:Vino is on the decline. So what did you drink in 2019, America?\n\nMethodology\n\nTo identify the best cities to live in, 24/7 Wall St. created a weighted index of 25 measures across four categories: affordability, economy, quality of life, and community.\n\n1. The affordability category consists of three measures:\n\nThe ratio of median home value to median household income at full weight.\n\nMedian property taxes paid as a percentage of median home value at one-fourth weight.\n\nRegional price parity, a measure of cost of living, was included at full weight.\n\n2. The economy category consists of four measures:\n\nMedian home value was included at full weight.\n\nEmployment growth from 2014 to 2018 was included at one-half weight.\n\nThe ratio of the number of employed workers to the total population was included at one-half weight.\n\nThe unemployment rate was included at full weight.\n\n3. The quality of life category consists of six measures:\n\nThe poverty rate was included at full weight.\n\nThe share of the population in urban census tracts at least 1 mile from a grocery store and in rural census tracts at least 10 miles from a grocery store, a measure of poor food access, was included at full weight.\n\nThe distance from the city center to the nearest hospital was included at full weight.\n\nThe percentage of patients discharged from acute care hospitals who are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days was included at full weight.\n\nThe percentage of heart attack, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure, pneumonia, and stroke patients who pass away within 30 days of treatment was included at full weight.\n\nThe number of drug-related fatalities per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\n4. The community category consists of 12 measures:\n\nThe percentage of workers 16 and over commuting by public transit, walking, or other non-car means was included at one-half weight.\n\nThe average travel time to work was included at full weight.\n\nThe number of hospital admissions for conditions that could be treated in an outpatient setting per 1,000 Medicare enrollees • an indication of poor outpatient care and overuse of hospitals • was included at one-half weight.\n\nThe number of violent crimes • homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault • reported per 100,000 residents was included at full weight.\n\nThe number of property crimes • burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson • reported per 100,000 residents was included at full weight.\n\nThe number of movie theaters per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of libraries and archives per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of theater companies and dinner theaters per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of museums per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of nature parks and similar institutions per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of alcoholic drinking places per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nThe number of restaurants and other eating places per 100,000 residents was included at one-fourth weight.\n\nData on population, employment, unemployment, median home value, median household income, median property taxes paid, commuter characteristics, average travel time to work, and poverty came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and are five-year estimates for the period 2014 to 2018. Employment data used to calculate five-year employment growth are five-year estimates for the years 2010 to 2014. Data on cost of living came from real estate analysis company ATTOM Data Solutions and is for the year 2014.\n\nData on the share of the population in urban census tracts or areas at least one mile from a grocery store and in rural census tracts at least 10 miles from a grocery store, a measure of poor food access, came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2017 update to the Food Access Research Atlas and is at the county level.\n\nData on hospital locations came from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Data on 30-day readmission rates and 30-day mortality rates also came from the CMS and are for the period July 2015 to June 2018. Data was aggregated to the city level for cities with at least one hospital, and was aggregated to the county level for cities with no hospitals. Data on the number of drug related deaths per 100,000 residents per year from the period 2015 to 2017 is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is at the county level. Data on preventable hospitalizations per 1,000 Medicare enrollees came from the 2019 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, and is at the county level.\n\nData on the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported per 100,000 residents came from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program and are for the year 2018.\n\nData on the number of movie theaters, libraries and archives, theater companies and dinner theaters, museums, nature parks and other similar institutions, alcoholic beverage drinking places, and restaurants and other eating places came from the Census Bureau’s 2017 County Business Patterns series and is at the county level.\n\nTo avoid geographic clustering, we only took the top-ranking city in a given county. Our list includes cities, towns, villages, boroughs, and Census designated places. We did not include places with fewer than 8,000 residents in our analysis. Additionally, any city or town with a poverty rate or unemployment above the national average was not considered.\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": "2020/01/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/09/10/americas-50-best-cities-to-live/40089949/", "title": "America's 50 Best Cities to Live – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Grant Suneson, Michael B. Sauter and Samuel Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nLiving in the United States by no means guarantees a good life, but in some parts of the country, a vast portion of residents live a highly prosperous lifestyle.\n\nWhile quality of life is subject to a range of factors – close relationships and personal health chief among them – the local community, economy, and environment can also have a meaningful impact.\n\nWhen it comes to choosing a place to call home, everyone has their own priorities and subjective tastes. Still, certain attributes that some communities share are almost universally desirable, including safe streets, a strong economy, affordability, and a range of entertainment options, to name a few.\n\n24/7 Wall St. created a weighted index of over two dozen measures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, and other sources to identify the best city to live in. We considered all boroughs, census designated places, cities, towns, and villages with at least 8,000 residents.\n\nThe best cities to live in tend to have much in common beyond the index components. For one, these communities are often within commuting distance of a major metropolitan area.\n\nThis is no coincidence as close proximity to a major city provides residents with access to more job opportunities, which in turn can help lower unemployment and improve financial security.\n\nSome of the best cities include places just outside of just outside of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston. These metro areas are highly desirable places to live, but the downside is that they also tend to be very expensive.\n\nVolkswagen places massive bet on electric cars:Will consumers buy in?\n\nAnalysis:1-day shipping from Amazon could generate $24 billion in additional revenue\n\n50. Grand Rapids, Minnesota\n\n• Population: 11,099\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.2%\n\n• Median household income: $44,514\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 0.6%\n\nGrand Rapids, located in northern Minnesota, is one of several cities in the state to rank on this list. With a staggeringly low unemployment rate of just 0.6%, virtually anyone in the city who wants a job can get one. Grand Rapids residents also benefit from a low cost of living, as goods and services in the city are about 8% less expensive on average than they are nationwide.\n\nQuality of life in Grand Rapids is also supported by easy access to a wide range of amenities. The city has a far greater than typical concentration of restaurants, bars, hotels, fitness centers, museums, and movie theaters on a per capita basis.\n\n49. Durango, Colorado\n\n• Population: 17,986\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +6.2%\n\n• Median household income: $60,521\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.4%\n\nDurango, a small city in southwestern Colorado, is the only city in the state to rank among the best places to live. A relatively safe place, Durango's 2017 violent crime rate of 234 incidents per 100,000 people is well below the national rate of 383 per 100,000.\n\nDue to its location, Durango offers easy access to places to ski, hiking, and mountain biking. The city also boasts a number of museums and art galleries and far greater than typical concentration of bars and restaurants.\n\n48. Traverse City, Michigan\n\n• Population: 15,550\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +5.8%\n\n• Median household income: $53,237\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.2%\n\nIncomes in Traverse City, Michigan, are slightly below the national median, but due to the area's relatively low cost of living, and after adjusting for inflation, incomes are roughly in line with the national median household income. Traverse City's poverty rate is also below the national figure.\n\nWhile Traverse City does not rank as highly as some of the other best U.S. cities to live in several of the economic factors, it has one of the highest concentrations of community facilities and amenities in the country – such as museums, movie theaters, fitness centers, restaurants and more – relative to most American Cities.\n\n47. Wyomissing, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population: 10,452\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.4%\n\n• Median household income: $78,792\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.8%\n\nWyomissing is a small borough just outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of the state. It is one of the better-educated places in the country, as more than half of the residents over 25 have at least a bachelor's degree. Nationwide, only 30.9% of 25 and older Americans do.\n\nWyomissing residents have many more options for recreational activities than those in the vast majority of other American cities. The city has a far greater that typical concentration of movie theaters, libraries, recreational centers, and restaurants.\n\n46. South Jordan, Utah\n\n• Population: 65,523\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +28.2%\n\n• Median household income: $99,856\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.5%\n\nSouth Jordan, located just south of Salt Lake City, is the only Utah city to rank among the 50 best to live in America. The median annual household income in South Jordan of nearly $100,000 is well beyond the U.S. median of $57,652. The city also has a strong job market, with an unemployment rate of just 1.5%, less than half the overall U.S. unemployment rate.\n\nThe low unemployment rate and high incomes are likely some of the reasons why people are flocking to South Jordan. The city went from having just over 51,000 residents to more than 65,500 in the last five years, an increase of over 28%.\n\n45. Bozeman, Montana\n\n• Population: 43,132\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +14.7%\n\n• Median household income: $49,217\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.8%\n\nBozeman's population is on the rise, increasing by 14.7% in the last five years, compared to the U.S. population growth rate of 3.8% over the same period. Bozeman is the only city in the state where the population has increased by more than 10%. Population growth is often tied to job growth in an improving economy. And Bozeman's employment increased by 21.7% over the same period.\n\nFor those who work in Bozeman, the average commute to work is one of the shortest in the country, and 14.2% of commuters bike or walk to work every day, compared to 3.3% of all American commuters.\n\n44. Monroe, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 10,688\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.4%\n\n• Median household income: $44,857\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.9%\n\nMonroe, which is known regionally as the \"Swiss Cheese Capital of the U.S.A.\" is a relatively small city of just over 10,000 people located in the southern part of Wisconsin, just north of the Illinois Border. Incomes in Monroe are not particularly high – the typical household income of $44,857 is well below the national figure of $57,652. Even adjusting for the relatively low cost of living in the city, the typical household income is worth less than the national figure. But very few people in the city are out of a job. Over the past five years, Monroe has had one of the lowest average unemployment rates in the country, at 1.9%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.\n\n43. Montgomery, Ohio\n\n• Population: 10,587\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3.6%\n\n• Median household income: $115,489\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.7%\n\nMontgomery, Ohio, is a relatively affordable place to live. Goods and services cost, on average, 15 cents less on the dollar compared to the national average. The typical household earns $115,489 a year, which is well above the national figure of $57,652. Accounting for the low cost of living, those high incomes are worth even more.\n\nMontgomery residents are among the least likely in the country to live in poverty. Just 3.5% of the population lives in poverty, compared to a national poverty rate of 14.6%.\n\n42. North Canton, Ohio\n\n• Population: 17,400\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.1%\n\n• Median household income: $57,003\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.2%\n\nNorth Canton ranks among the best cities to live in part because of how affordable it is. In the Ohio city, goods and services cost about 14% less than they would, on average, nationwide. The city's unemployment rate of 2.2% is nearly half of the nation's jobless rate of 4.1%.\n\nNorth Canton also ranks as one of the best cities because it is among the safest. The violent crime rate of just 69 incidents per 100,000 residents is a fraction of the U.S. crime rate of 383 per 100,000.\n\n41. Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 8,917\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -2.6%\n\n• Median household income: $51,332\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.0%\n\nSturgeon Bay residents are less likely to face serious economic challenges than the typical American. The Wisconsin city has an unemployment rate of 3.0%, below the U.S. rate of 4.1%. It also has a poverty rate of 10.6%, 4 percentage points lower than the national poverty rate.\n\nSturgeon Bay also ranks among the safest places in the country. The violent crime rate of 68 incidents per 100,000 residents is a fraction of the U.S. rate. Residents also face relatively little property crime, at 1,059 incidents per 100,000 residents – well below the national rate of 2,362 per 100,000.\n\n40. Edgewood, Kentucky\n\n• Population: 8,688\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.4%\n\n• Median household income: $93,958\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.5%\n\nThe best city to live in in Kentucky, Edgewood, is both wealthy and affordable. The typical household earns $93,958 a year, nearly double the median income of $57,652 across the state as a whole. Additionally, goods and services are about 11% less expensive in Edgewood than they are nationwide, on average.\n\nEdgewood has two large public parks and an easily accessible hospital and medical care center within city limits, factors contributing to quality of life. Located about 7 miles south of Cincinnati across the Ohio River, Edgewood – like many cities on this list – is within commuting distance of a major metropolitan area.\n\n39. Stevens Point, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 26,526\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.6%\n\n• Median household income: $44,333\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.5%\n\nStevens Point, Wisconsin, located in the central part of the state, is within close proximity to a relatively high number of attractions for a city of its size. The city in particular has an above average concentration of fitness and recreation centers, hotels, bars, and restaurants.\n\nStevens Point is also one of the safer communities in the country, with a property crime rate well below the national figure and a violent crime rate less than half the national rate. The relatively safe streets may be one reason so many residents choose to walk to work. Nationally, 2.7% of commuters walk to their places of employment, but in Stevens Point, 14% walk to work.\n\n38. Andover, Kansas\n\n• Population: 12,661\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +8.0%\n\n• Median household income: $85,655\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.3%\n\nAndover is the only Kansas city to rank among America's 50 best places to live. It compares better than the majority of U.S. cities in a number of economic indicators. The city's median annual household income of $85,655 is nearly $28,000 higher than the U.S. median. Andover residents are likely better qualified for high-income jobs because of their high educational attainment rate. More than 48% of residents over 25 have at least a bachelor's degree.\n\nNot only are incomes higher in Andover, but also a dollar goes farther in the city than on average nationwide. The cost of living is more than 10% lower than it is nationwide.\n\n37. Riverton, Wyoming\n\n• Population: 11,113\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.4%\n\n• Median household income: $51,102\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.1%\n\nRiverton, Wyoming, is one of America's most affordable cities. Goods and services cost, on average, 13.5% less than they do on average nationwide. The city also has a strong job market with an unemployment rate below the national figure and total employment growth of 12.2% in the past five years, double the rate of nationwide growth in the same time period.\n\nRiverton ranks as a good city to live in also because residents generally do not have to deal with long commutes as many Americans do. The average commute time for Riverton residents is less than 15 minutes, about half as long as the average American commute time.\n\n36. North Liberty, Iowa\n\n• Population: 17,721\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +32.9%\n\n• Median household income: $80,426\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.0%\n\nNorth Liberty is a small city of about 17,700 people located just south of Cedar Rapids. Over half of all residents have a bachelor's degree, well above the national degree attainment rate of 30.9%. The high share of adults with a college degree may be in part due to the city's close proximity to the University of Iowa, which is just to the south of the city. People with a college education are much more likely to have higher incomes and lead healthier, longer lives.\n\nHighly educated adults are more likely to have steady employment, and in North Liberty, virtually the entire workforce is employed. Over the past five years, the unemployment rate has averaged around 1%, compared to a national average unemployment rate of 4.1%.\n\n35. Aberdeen, South Dakota\n\n• Population: 27,925\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +6.7%\n\n• Median household income: $47,506\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.6%\n\nThough the median annual household income in Aberdeen is around $10,000 lower than the U.S. median, goods and services in the town are relatively inexpensive, at around 15% less than average. Accounting for the cost of living, the typical Aberdeen household has roughly as much purchasing power as the median U.S. household.\n\nAberdeen workers are among the least likely to be out of a job. The city's unemployment rate of just 1.6% is less than half the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.1%.\n\n34. Sartell, Minnesota\n\n• Population: 16,749\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +7.7%\n\n• Median household income: $74,391\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.0%\n\nSartell is a small city of about 17,000 in the St. Cloud, Minnesota, metro area. Sartell is a safe city. There were just 115 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city in 2017, less than a third of the national violent crime rate of 383 per 100,000. A number of amenities – including 28 parks, two golf courses, and 48 miles of trail – also improve quality of life for city residents.\n\nLike many of the best cities to live in, Sartell is growing rapidly. In the last five years, the number of people living in the central Minnesota city increased by 7.7%, more than double the national population growth rate over the same period.\n\n33. Mammoth Lakes, California\n\n• Population: 8,092\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.1%\n\n• Median household income: $62,308\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 0.7%\n\nMammoth Lakes is a small town located in east-central California. Nearly everyone in the town who wants a job can find one as the unemployment rate is a staggeringly low 0.7%. Jobs in the area tend to be relatively well paying, too, as the typical area household earns $62,308 a year, about $5,000 more than the typical American household.\n\nGetting around town is relatively easy, considering that the majority of commuters either walk, bike, or take public transit to work. Additionally, the average commute time for workers in the area is just 12 minutes, less than half the 26 minute average nationwide.\n\n32. Kirkland, Washington\n\n• Population: 86,772\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +76.8%\n\n• Median household income: $104,319\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.3%\n\nKirkland, Washington, is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Over the last five years, the number of people living in the Seattle suburb increased by a staggering 76.8%. Given all that the city has to offer, the population spike is not especially surprising.\n\nKirkland appears to have a reliable and effective public transit system as over 9% of workers commute using public transit, nearly double the 5.1% national share. The area is also safe. There were just 84 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 city residents in 2017, a fraction of the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate. Kirkland also has a higher than typical concentration of restaurants, fitness and recreation centers, and parks.\n\n31. Staunton, Virginia\n\n• Population: 24,273\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +1.5%\n\n• Median household income: $46,435\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.4%\n\nStaunton ranks as the best city to live in Virginia and one of the best places to live in the country. The city has a below average poverty rate and an extremely low food insecurity among area families. Over the past five years, the unemployment rate has been about half the national unemployment figure.\n\nThe city also has a relatively high concentration of regional attractions nearby for a city of its size, including restaurants, theater companies, and museums.\n\n30. Williston, North Dakota\n\n• Population: 25,072\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +61.2%\n\n• Median household income: $91,359\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.6%\n\nWillison, North Dakota, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Over the last five years, the city's population climbed by a staggering 61.2%. Fueled largely by natural gas drilling in the Bakken formation, the city also has a strong job market. Just 1.6% of the area's labor force is unemployed, well below the comparable 4.1% national unemployment rate. Jobs in Williston also tend to be high paying as the typical area household earns over $91,000 a year, nearly $34,000 more than the typical American household.\n\nArea residents also benefit from a greater concentration of bars, restaurants, recreation centers, golf courses, and movie theaters than typical.\n\n29. Lititz, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population: 9,269\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.0%\n\n• Median household income: $58,375\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.5%\n\nLititz is a small town of less than 10,000 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Surrounded by farmland, Lititz has a farmer's market every Thursday evening from the spring through the fall. Residents also benefit from far greater than typical concentration of bars and restaurants.\n\nSupported by a strong job market, city residents tend to be relatively financially secure. Fewer than 5% of area residents live below the poverty line, about one-third the 14.6% national poverty rate. The unemployment rate in the town is just 2.5%, well below the 4.1% national rate.\n\n28. Solana Beach, California\n\n• Population: 13,362\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3.3%\n\n• Median household income: $103,864\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.4%\n\nSolana Beach is a small coastal city in southern California. It is a wealthy area, with the typical Solana Beach household earns over $100,000 a year. Solana Beach is also safe. There were just 96 violent crimes for every 100,000 city residents in 2017, a fraction of the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate.\n\nAs is the case in many communities on this list, city residents have easy access to jobs and cultural and entertainment attractions in a major metropolitan area. Solana Beach is just a 30 minute drive from downtown San Diego.\n\n27. St. Marys, Ohio\n\n• Population: 8,143\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.2%\n\n• Median household income: $48,661\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.0%\n\nSt. Marys is a historic Ohio city that boasts newly renovated walkways along the Erie and Miami Canal in addition to several parks. It is one of several Ohio cities to rank on this list. As in other high ranking Ohio cities, city residents benefit from a low cost of living. Goods and services in the area are about 8% less expensive than they are on average nationwide.\n\nSt. Marys is also a safe city. There were just 37 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city in 2017, a fraction of the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate.\n\n26. Johnston, Iowa\n\n• Population: 20,172\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +16.5%\n\n• Median household income: $94,539\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.8%\n\nJohnston is a small city about 10 miles north of downtown Des Moines. The city boasts a high concentration of attractions like bars, movie theatres, and golf courses, and it has a farmers market every Tuesday afternoon from spring through the fall. Johnston is a safe city with a violent crime rate of 147 incidents per 100,000 people, less than half the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate.\n\nLike many cities on this list, Johnston is growing rapidly. In the last five years, the number of people living in the city increased by 16.5%, more than quadruple the 3.8% national population growth over the same period.\n\n25. Brandon, South Dakota\n\n• Population: 9,731\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +10.0%\n\n• Median household income: $80,727\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.8%\n\nBrandon, South Dakota, is a small city of less than 10,000 located about 10 miles northeast of downtown Sioux Falls. Not only are incomes high in the area, but also Brandon residents benefit from a low cost of living. The typical area household earns $80,727 a year, about $23,000 more than the national median, and goods and services in the city are about 12% less expensive on average than they are nationwide.\n\nThe relatively higher than typical median income is partially because nearly anyone who wants a job in the city can get one. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's unemployment rate stands at just 1.8%, less than half the comparable 4.1% national rate.\n\n24. Carroll, Iowa\n\n• Population: 9,937\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.2%\n\n• Median household income: $44,561\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.5%\n\nCarroll, Iowa, is one of the least expensive parts of the country. Goods and services in the area are about 16% less expensive than they are nationwide, on average. The city is also relatively safe. There were just 20 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in 2017, a fraction of the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate.\n\nCarroll residents have plenty of local amenities to take advantage of. The city boasts an 18-hole municipal golf course, a park with tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts, an aquatic center open to the public, a skate park, and a recreational trial connecting two state parks.\n\n23. St. Joseph, Michigan\n\n• Population: 8,301\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -0.7%\n\n• Median household income: $55,975\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.6%\n\nSt. Joseph is a small city of just over 8,000 in southwestern Michigan along the shore of Lake Michigan. Area residents have access to a far greater than typical concentration of bars, restaurants, recreation centers, and museums. The area's high quality of life is further supported by the relative scarcity of property and violent crimes and a healthy job market. Just 2.6% of the city's labor force is out of a job, well below the 4.1% national unemployment rate.\n\nFor all it has to offer, St. Joseph is also affordable. The typical home in the city is worth about three times the median income. Nationwide, the median home value is 3.4 times greater than the annual median household income.\n\n22. Rochester, Minnesota\n\n• Population: 112,683\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +5.4%\n\n• Median household income: $68,574\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.5%\n\nFollowing a 5.4% five-year population growth, Rochester, Minnesota, is home to nearly 113,000 people – the largest city on this list. The city covers about 54 square miles and boasts 3,500 acres of park land and over 85 miles of paved trails.\n\nRochester is also a safe city. There were just 194 reported violent crimes in the city for every 100,000 people in 2017, roughly half the 383 per 100,000 national violent crime rate.\n\n21. Bismarck, North Dakota\n\n• Population: 70,536\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +13.9%\n\n• Median household income: $61,477\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.2%\n\nOver the last five years, people have poured into North Dakota's capital city of Bismarck. The population grew by 13.9%, compared to a 3.8% nationwide population growth during the same period. People commonly move to find work, and Bismarck's population influx is no exception.\n\nLikely fueled in part by North Dakota's oil boom, the number of people employed in the city grew by 12.9% in the last half decade, more than double the U.S. employment growth rate. Bismarck's workers tend to be well compensated, as the city has a median household income of $61,477. Further, goods and services are also relatively inexpensive in the area, costing nearly 13% less than the average nationwide.\n\n20. Jasper, Indiana\n\n• Population: 15,716\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.9%\n\n• Median household income: $55,878\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.6%\n\nJasper is one of the most affordable places to live in the nation. The cost of goods and services is just 83.6% of the average cost nationwide. The low cost of living gives residents a relatively high amount of purchasing power, even though the median household income in Jasper of $55,878 is lower than the U.S. median.\n\nJasper residents are much less likely to struggle with money than the average American. Nationwide, 14.6% of U.S. residents live in poverty. In Jasper, the poverty rate is 11.0%.\n\n19. New Albany, Ohio\n\n• Population: 10,253\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +28.2%\n\n• Median household income: $187,200\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.0%\n\nNew Albany, Ohio, is one of the most affluent cities in the country. The median annual household income of $187,200 is one of the five highest of U.S. cities. Wealthier areas tend to have a number of advantages over low-income cities, including lower crime rates. There were less than 37 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents in New Albany, less than a 10th of the nationwide crime rate.\n\nThere are a number of factors that can draw people to certain towns, including jobs, schools, and amenities. New Albany ranks highly in many of these aspects, and its population growth rate reflects that. The town's population grew by more than 28% over the past five years, compared to the national growth rate of just 3.8%.\n\n18. Cody, Wyoming\n\n• Population: 9,826\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +3.1%\n\n• Median household income: $56,356\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.0%\n\nCody is one of two Wyoming cities to rank among the best places to live in America, and its residents are among the least likely to face serious financial hardship. The city's poverty rate of just 7.7% is well below the U.S. poverty rate of 14.6%.\n\nOne of the driving factors behind the low poverty rate is the city's low unemployment rate. Just 1.0% of Cody's labor force is unemployed, less than a quarter of the national unemployment rate.\n\n17. Carmel, Indiana\n\n• Population: 88,595\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +10.7%\n\n• Median household income: $109,201\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.1%\n\nPeople with a college degree tend to have higher incomes and better health outcomes than those without a degree. In Carmel, Indiana, 71.0% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor's degree. Nationwide, the college degree attainment rate is 30.9%.\n\nWith such a high educational attainment rate, Carmel adults are more likely to be qualified for high-income jobs. This is likely why the city has a six-figure median household income, one of the highest in the country. Carmel also has a 3.7% poverty rate, a fraction of the 14.6% U.S. rate.\n\n16. Bridgeport, West Virginia\n\n• Population: 8,382\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.5%\n\n• Median household income: $82,359\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.4%\n\nIn Bridgeport, 50.5% of adults 25 and older have graduated from college, compared to 30.9% of American adults in that age group. The high college attainment rate has likely contributed to the town's relatively high median household income of $82,359 a year. Not only is Bridgeport wealthy, but it is also inexpensive. Goods and services are about 15% less expensive than they are nationwide, on average.\n\nWhen it comes to culture and entertainment, Bridgeport residents have options. The city is home to a far higher concentration of restaurants, bars, recreation centers, golf courses, and movie theatres than is typical nationwide.\n\n15. Bentonville, Arkansas\n\n• Population: 44,601\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +25.2%\n\n• Median household income: $79,259\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.7%\n\nBentonville, Arkansas, is perhaps best known as the home of Walmart, America's largest private employer. The massive retail chain provides close to 22,000 jobs in Bentonville, both in its stores and at the corporate level, and is likely part of the reason the city's unemployment rate is so low, at 1.7%.\n\nBentonville's job market has improved dramatically over the last five years. The total number of people with jobs in the city increased by 31.0% from 2012 to 2017 – more than five times the employment growth rate in the U.S. as a whole.\n\n14. Moorhead, Minnesota\n\n• Population: 41,801\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +9.7%\n\n• Median household income: $56,516\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.2%\n\nThe population of Moorhead, a city immediately to the east of Fargo, has increased by nearly 10% in the past five years, roughly three times the national population growth over the same period.\n\nA growing population is often a sign of a healthy economy, and Moorhead's five-year average unemployment rate of 2.2% is about half the national unemployment rate over the same period. Employment in the city has increased by about 10% over that period, compared to a national employment growth of 6.1%.\n\n13. Winnetka, Illinois\n\n• Population: 12,504\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +2.4%\n\n• Median household income: $216,875\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.3%\n\nWinnetka is a small village that sits on the shores of Lake Michigan about 15 miles north of downtown Chicago. One of the wealthiest cities in the country, the typical Winnetka household earns $216,875 a year. Winnetka residents working in Chicago have options when it comes to transit, and over one-quarter of commuters use public transportation – an alternative most Americans do not have.\n\nWinnetka boasts several beaches, a boat launch, parks, a tennis center, a golf course, and an ice rink, all open to the public.\n\n12. Paradise Valley, Arizona\n\n• Population: 13,961\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +7.2%\n\n• Median household income: $175,673\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.4%\n\nMost houses in Paradise Valley, Arizona, are worth over $1.4 million, more than seven times the U.S. median home value. Paradise Valley residents are able to afford such expensive houses because of their relatively high incomes. The typical household in the city earns $175,673 a year, one of the highest median household incomes in the country.\n\nParadise Valley lives up to its name as a popular destination to relax. The town is home to several resorts and a number of golf courses. Located just north of Phoenix and Scottsdale, it is also known for its high-end dining and nightlife.\n\n11. West Fargo, North Dakota\n\n• Population: 33,089\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +28.3%\n\n• Median household income: $76,925\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.2%\n\nWest Fargo, which borders North Dakota's largest city of Fargo, provides residents with access to a wide range of jobs in the city, and many of them are high paying. The median annual household income in West Fargo is nearly $77,000, and after factoring in the area's low cost of living, the median income is equivalent to over $88,000.\n\nLike many other North Dakota cities, the number of jobs available to West Fargo residents is skyrocketing. From 2012 to 2017, the employed population grew by 23.5%, as compared to a 6.1% increase nationwide.\n\n10. Le Mars, Iowa\n\n• Population: 9,861\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +1.0%\n\n• Median household income: $58,063\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.0%\n\nLe Mars, Iowa, is among the most affordable cities in the United States. Goods and services in the city cost about 15% less on average than they do nationwide. So although the median household income that is slightly above the comparable U.S. median, Le Mars residents have more purchasing power than those in most other U.S. cities.\n\nThe city also has its share of attractions. Home to a Blue Bunny ice cream manufacturing plant, Le Mars churns out more ice cream from a single city than any other company, earning the nickname \"The Ice Cream Capital of the World.\"\n\n9. Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin\n\n• Population: 14,099\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.3%\n\n• Median household income: $111,069\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.5%\n\nWhitefish Bay, a village close to Milwaukee along the shore of Lake Michigan, ranks as the best place to live in Wisconsin. The high quality of life in Whitefish Bay is partially the result of a strong job market. The area's average unemployment rate over the last five years is just 1.5% – less than half the comparable nationwide rate of 4.1%.\n\nWhitefish Bay is also one of the safest communities in the country, with a violent crime rate of just 36 incidents per 100,000 people. For reference, there were 383 violent crimes per 100,000 people nationwide in 2017.\n\n8. Hanover, New Hampshire\n\n• Population: 8,495\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.3%\n\n• Median household income: $97,422\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.2%\n\nHanover has numerous advantages over other places in New Hampshire and the country as a whole. Its median household income of $97,422 is nearly $40,000 higher than the U.S. median. Hanover is also the best educated place in the country as 81.7% of adults hold at least a bachelor's degree.\n\nWith a population of 8,495, Hanover is a smaller city. As such, many residents are able to walk to and from work. Walking not only provides numerous health benefits, but it also helps decrease road traffic and reduce pollution. Nearly 38% of Hanover residents commute by walking – one of the highest shares among U.S. cities.\n\n7. Ladue, Missouri\n\n• Population: 8,591\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.8%\n\n• Median household income: $203,250\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 0.7%\n\nOne of the wealthiest cities in Missouri, Ladue's median household income of $203,250 a year is almost quadruple the national median income of $57,652. Not only is Ladue a wealthy city, but it is also inexpensive. Goods and services are 11% cheaper on average in Ladue than they are typically nationwide.\n\nWith easy access to jobs in nearby St. Louis, Ladue residents who want a job generally have no trouble finding one. Over the last five years, unemployment stood at just 1.8% in the city, a fraction of the national rate of 4.1%. In addition to cultural attractions and entertainment venues in St. Louis, Ladue residents enjoy a greater than typical concentration of restaurants, fitness and recreation centers, and movie theaters within their own city limits.\n\n6. University Park, Texas\n\n• Population: 24,692\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +6.2%\n\n• Median household income: $211,741\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.8%\n\nUniversity Park is a college town – home to Southern Methodist University – in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Nearly everyone in the city who wants a job can get one, as the city's 1.8% unemployment rate is less than half the comparable 4.1% national rate. University Park is also a safe city with only 44 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 people in 2017, compared to the U.S. violent crime rate of 383 per 100,000.\n\nLike many other American college towns, University Park boasts a wide range of amenities and cultural and entertainment options. There is a greater than typical concentration of restaurants, gyms, and movie theaters per capita in the city.\n\n5. Grove City, Pennsylvania\n\n• Population: 8,123\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.9%\n\n• Median household income: $46,792\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 0.9%\n\nGrove City, Pennsylvania, is a small borough of roughly 8,100 people in the western part of the state. The borough is one of the most affordable places to live in the country, with goods and services costing about 80% of average prices across the country. Unemployment in the borough is one of the lowest in the country, with a five-year average of 0.9%, compared to the national five-year unemployment rate of 4.1%.\n\n4. Montecito, California\n\n• Population: 8,984\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +5.2%\n\n• Median household income: $146,250\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 4.1%\n\nAmericans with a college degree tend to lead healthier lives, have higher incomes, and be more steadily employed than their peers with less education. In Montecito, 71.8% of adults have a bachelor's degree, compared to 30.9% of adults nationwide. Montecito, an unincorporated community just east of Santa Barbara, has a median household income nearly triple the national figure and a poverty rate of 8.0%, which is just over half the national rate.\n\n3. Pella, Iowa\n\n• Population: 10,243\n\n• 5 yr. population change: -1.2%\n\n• Median household income: $64,527\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 2.4%\n\nPella which can be found southeast of Des Moines near Lake Red Rock, ranks as the best city to live in Iowa and one of the best in the country. The city has an annual violent crime rate of 186 incidents per 100,000 people, less than half the national violent crime rate of 383 incidents per 100,000 people. The property crime rate in Pella is also low.\n\nThe typical household income in Pella is about $6,800 higher than the national median household income, and the cost of living is quite low. Adjusting for the cost of living, the typical household in Pella earns about $20,000 more than the typical American household.\n\n2. Beverly Hills, California\n\n• Population: 34,506\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +0.9%\n\n• Median household income: $103,698\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 3.5%\n\nBeverly Hills is synonymous with glitz, glamour, and wealth. It has inspired movies, TV shows, and songs about what a great place it is, so it should come as no surprise the city ranks as the second best place to live in America. The Southern California city is wealthy and highly educated. More than 62% of residents 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree, and the median annual household income is over $103,000. Nationwide, about half of adults have a bachelor's degree, and the median income is just over $57,000.\n\nThe economy of Beverly Hills caters to people with plenty of disposable income. The city has several times more movie theaters, museums, rec centers, hotels, and restaurants per capita than the typical American city.\n\nOn the decline:Atlantic City, New Jersey among the US cities losing the most jobs\n\n1. West University Place, Texas\n\n• Population: 15,477\n\n• 5 yr. population change: +4.1%\n\n• Median household income: $243,226\n\n• Five-year unemployment rate: 1.4%\n\nA wealthy suburb of Houston, West University Place ranks as the best city to live in Texas and the United States. A wealthy city, the median household income of over $243,000 a year is over four times the national median. A dollar also goes far in the city as goods and services are about 5% less expensive than they are nationwide on average. In addition to entertainment and culture in nearby Houston, West University Place has a far greater concentration of restaurants, bars, fitness centers, museums and theatre companies than is typical nationwide.\n\nWest University is also a safe city with a strong job market. The city's violent crime rate of 64 incidents for every 100,000 people is among the lowest in the nation, as is the five-year average unemployment rate of 2.7%.\n\nMethodology\n\nTo identify the best cities to live in, 24/7 Wall St. created a weighted index of 25 measures that fall into one of four categories: affordability, economy, quality of life, and community.\n\nIn the affordability category, the ratio of the median home value to the median income was given full weight. More affordable cities were ranked higher. Cost of living, as determined by the average cost of goods and services in an area relative to average prices across the nation as a whole, was given a full weight. Property taxes are largely levied at the local level, and cities where residents pay more property taxes as a percentage of their home value were penalized. Property taxes were given a one-quarter weighting.\n\nIn the economy category, the unemployment rate was also given a full weight. We used five-year average unemployment due to lack of comparable annual data at local levels. Five-year employment growth and the share of the total working-age population with a job were each given a half weight, favoring areas with greater employment and growing job opportunities.\n\nIn the quality of life category, the poverty rate was given a full weight, penalizing cities where poverty is more common. The share of the population that struggles to put food on the table due to distance from a grocery store, known as the food insecurity rate, was given full weight. A city’s mortality rate, calculated as the number of people who died while in hospital care per hospital by city, was also given full weight. In cases where city-level data was not available, mortality rates were imputed from county level data.\n\nThe drug overdose mortality rate was given a one-quarter weighting, as was the hospital readmission rate, or the share of those released from the hospital who were readmitted within 30 days. Distance from the center of the city to the nearest hospital was given full weight.\n\nThe number of hospitalizations that would have been prevented by regularly-scheduled doctor visits for every 1,000 Medicare enrollees – known as the preventable hospitalization rate – was given half weighting.\n\nMeasures used in the community category included the average travel time to work, which was given full weight. The violent crime rate – the total number of rapes, robberies, murders, and aggravated assaults adjusted per 100,000 residents per year– was given full weight. So, too, was the property crime rate, which is the total number of burglaries, larcenies, motor vehicle thefts, and incidents of arson per 100,000 residents per year.\n\nThe share of commuters either walking, cycling, or taking public transit to work was given half weight. The total number of restaurants, bars, museums, theater companies, movie theaters, libraries, and parks per capita were each given a one-quarter weighting.\n\nTo avoid geographic clustering, we only took the top-ranking city in a given county. Our list includes cities, towns, villages, boroughs, and Census designated places. We did not include places with fewer than 8,000 residents in our analysis.\n\nMedian household income, median home value, average travel time to work, poverty rate, population, employment-to-population ratio, median property taxes paid, and average unemployment rate are all five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for the 2013-2017 period. Overall cost of living is for 2014 and comes from data analysis and aggregation company ATTOM Data Solutions.\n\nThe population-adjusted number of entertainment and cultural venues like restaurants and museums comes from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns data set, and is for 2016.\n\nViolent and property crime rates are from the FBI’s 2017 Uniform Crime Report. Drug overdose mortality rates are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are for the years 2014 to 2016. Mortality rates and hospital readmission rates are from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and are as of June 2015. Preventable hospitalizations are from the latest release of County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program.\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": "2019/09/10"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_8", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/06/politics/trump-tweet-january-6/index.html", "title": "Trump did not want to tweet 'stay peaceful' during January 6 riot, key ...", "text": "(CNN) A former Trump White House official said then-President Donald Trump initially refused to tweet the words \"stay peaceful\" as the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was escalating.\n\nAs a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers scrambling for their lives, Trump tweeted at 2:38 p.m. ET that day: \"Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!\" The tweet came 20 minutes after Trump supporters were smashing through windows and evacuations of lawmakers had begun.\n\nThe former official, who was working in the West Wing and was close to White House messaging during the insurrection, said Trump did not want to include the words \"stay peaceful\" and was \"very reluctant to put out anything when it was unfolding.\" Trump was \"letting it play out,\" the official said of the violence at the Capitol.\n\nTop Trump aides -- including the then-President's daughter, Ivanka, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows -- were pleading with Trump to call off the mob, the ex-aide said. Those officials eventually convinced Trump to include the \"stay peaceful\" message in the tweet about the Capitol Police, the former aide added.\n\nA Trump spokesperson denied that Trump resisted including the \"stay peaceful\" message in the tweet.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Jim Acosta"], "publish_date": "2022/01/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/21/jan-6-hearing-trump-updates/10086925002/", "title": "Replay: Jan. 6 committee on Donald Trump's response to capitol ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol chronicled at its Thursday hearing what was happening in Congress and at the White House during the 187 minutes between then-President Donald Trump’s fiery speech and his video encouraging the mob to go home.\n\nCommittee members have argued that Trump’s lack of response was a dereliction of duty under the Constitution to protect Congress.\n\nHere's what happened at tonight's hearing:\n\nTrump outtakes: The committee showed a never-before-seen video of Trump's statement on the day after the Capitol riot, in which he refused to accept losing the 2020 election. \"I don’t want to say the election’s over,\" he said.\n\nThe committee showed a never-before-seen video of Trump's statement on the day after the Capitol riot, in which he refused to accept losing the 2020 election. \"I don’t want to say the election’s over,\" he said. Congress stood up: In never-before-seen photos and videos, the committee showed a congressional leaders, including then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, huddling in a secured location telling Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller how the building needed to be secured.\n\nIn never-before-seen photos and videos, the committee showed a congressional leaders, including then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, huddling in a secured location telling Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller how the building needed to be secured. McCarthy was 'scared': Jared Kushner, a special adviser to Trump and his son-in-law, told the committee how House Republican Leader McCarthy called and pleaded for help as his own aides were fleeing their office. \"I got the sense that they were scared... that (McCarthy) was scared.\"\n\nJared Kushner, a special adviser to Trump and his son-in-law, told the committee how House Republican Leader McCarthy called and pleaded for help as his own aides were fleeing their office. \"I got the sense that they were scared... that (McCarthy) was scared.\" Hawley fled: The committee spotlighted how lawmakers had to be evacuated to avoid the Jan. 6 mob, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who had thrown a fist in the air in support of the protesters who were at the gates before they breached the Capitol.\n\nThe committee spotlighted how lawmakers had to be evacuated to avoid the Jan. 6 mob, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who had thrown a fist in the air in support of the protesters who were at the gates before they breached the Capitol. Watching Fox News: The in-person and videotaped testimony detailed what President Trump was doing during the height of the Jan. 6 violence, and witnesses said he was mostly watching cable news, specifically Fox News, for more than two and half hours.\n\nThe in-person and videotaped testimony detailed what President Trump was doing during the height of the Jan. 6 violence, and witnesses said he was mostly watching cable news, specifically Fox News, for more than two and half hours. Thompson by remote: Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, who is the chairman of the committee, presided over Thursday’s hearing remotely after testing positive for Covid-19 this week.\n\nDemocratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, who is the chairman of the committee, presided over Thursday’s hearing remotely after testing positive for Covid-19 this week. Witnesses back up Hutchinson: Two witnesses on Thursday supported previous testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, who said during a previous hearing how Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol with protesters. One national security aide, who was kept anonymous by the panel, said if the former president had been allowed join the rioters it would have turned into an “insurrection, coup\".\n\nTwo witnesses on Thursday supported previous testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, who said during a previous hearing how Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol with protesters. One national security aide, who was kept anonymous by the panel, said if the former president had been allowed join the rioters it would have turned into an “insurrection, coup\". 🏛️ Why is this important?: While snippets of what happened behind-the-scenes have been revealed through testimony and evidence, there are still large gaps of the day we don't know abou.\n\nWhile snippets of what happened behind-the-scenes have been revealed through testimony and evidence, there are still large gaps of the day we don't know abou. Taking the lead: The primetime hearing was led by two lawmakers who are military veterans — Democrat Elaine Luria, of Virginia, and Republican Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois — who are expected to focus in specific detail how former President Donald Trump did nothing as his supporters stormed the Capitol.\n\nLive timeline of Trump's actions during the Capitol attack:On Jan. 6, Trump was out of public view as aides urged him to act. A breakdown of those 187 minutes.\n\nCheney: The Jan. 6 committee has ‘much work yet to do’\n\nIn the last remarks of Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearings, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., stressed the responsibility of the committee’s work is not lost on its members.\n\n“Let me assure every one of you this: our committee understands the gravity of this moment. The consequences for our nation. We have much work yet to do,” Cheney said before adjourning the hearing.\n\n“We will see you all in September,” Cheney concluded.\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nCheney: Our witnesses against Trump are all Republicans - and not delicate flowers\n\nIn her closing statement, Liz Cheney made the point that the witnesses criticizing Trump's behavior are all Republicans – and they would not change their stories even under cross-examination by the former president's backers.\n\nSome Republicans have criticized the committee because there are no Trump defenders on it, but Cheney said that makes no difference when it comes to testimony from so many witnesses, especially the lawyers who advised the president he was acting improperly.\n\nFormer Attorney General William Barr, for example.\n\n“Do you really think Bill Barr is such a delicate flower that he would wilt under cross examination?\" Cheney said. \"Pat Cipollone? Eric Herschmann? Jeff Rosen? Richard Donoghue?”\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nSteve Bannon predicted days before the election that Trump would declare victory no matter what\n\nIn her closing statement to the committee, Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., shared resurfaced audio of Trump ally Steve Bannon predicting Trump would say he stole the election no matter the outcome.\n\nIn audio from Oct. 31, Bannon said that “Trump’s just going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s a winner.” Bannon said things would get even “crazier” if Trump lost.\n\n“He’s gonna sit right there and say he stole it,” Bannon said. “Trump’s gonna do some crazy sh*t.”\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nFormer Trump officials criticize his response to slain police officer\n\nTwo of former President Trump’s communication officials, Tim Murtaugh and Matthew Wolking, criticized his response to the attack on law enforcement, while also explaining why he didn’t condemn the violence more forcefully.\n\nIt was “sh**ty” not to have acknowledged the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, Wolking said. “That’s enraging to me. Everything he said about supporting law enforcement was a lie,” he said.\n\nMurtaugh explained that if Trump had “acknowledged the dead cop, he’d be implicitly faulting the mob and he won’t do that because they’re his people.”\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nWhat they went through:Capitol police protected democracy on Jan. 6; their scars keep the day's memory ever-present\n\n'I don't want to say the election is over:' Trump struggled to talk about Jan. 6\n\nThe committee showed outtakes of Trump rehearsing his public remarks about Jan. 6.\n\n\"I don't want to say the election is over,\" Trump told aides at one point, even as they urged him to do just that.\n\nTrump has never conceded his loss to President Joe Biden.\n\nThe outtakes also showed Trump stumbling over certain words – \"yesterday's a hard word for me\" – and acting at times like he didn't want to give a speech at all.\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nBiden:Jan 6 'flagrant violation' of Constitution\n\nPottinger: Jan. 6 hurt America's image across the world\n\nThe attack on democracy gave countries like China, Russia, Iran, and others a unique opportunity to again criticize the United States as hypocrites, testified Matthew Pottinger, who resigned as Trump's deputy national security advisor over his behavior.\n\n\"It emboldened our enemies,\" Pottinger said.\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nWhat they saw:Police officers describe the Jan. 6 Capitol attack like 'a medieval battle'\n\nScalia urged Trump to hold Cabinet meeting following Jan. 6\n\nFormer United States Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said in videotaped testimony that he had considered resigning like many other White House officials following the insurrection, but instead decided to stay on and made his top priority to urge former President Donald Trump to assemble the Cabinet.\n\nIn a memo to Trump, Scalia wrote that he believed “it is important to know that while President, you will no longer publicly question the election results.” He also urged Trump to limit the role of “certain private citizens” who he said served Trump “poorly” with their baseless stolen election claims.\n\nWhile Scalia didn’t name who those private citizens were in his memo, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in the hearing he was referencing Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and the “clown car” that had been advising him for weeks on overturning the election.\n\nMark Meadows did not wish to assemble the Cabinet immediately following Jan. 6 because he was concerned of how Trump would react. Meadows had told other White House officials that Trump was “very emotional, and in a bad place.”\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nMerrick Garland:Nothing to prevent investigating Trump or anyone else for Jan. 6 attack\n\nCipollone considered resigning but feared who would replace him\n\nFormer White House counsel Pat Cipollone considered resigning after Jan. 6 among a mass exodus of other members of the Trump administration, according to his recorded testimony.\n\n“Did I consider it? Yes. Did I do it? No,” he said.\n\nCipollone said he was worried about who would replace him. “I had some concerns that it might be somebody who has been giving bad advice.”\n\n“You know, I thought that trying to work with the administration to steady the ship was likely to have greater value than simply resigning,” he said.\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nMore:Jan. 6 rioter apologizes to police officers who defended Capitol against insurrection\n\nTrump said Pence let him down on Jan. 6\n\nFormer President Donald Trump told a White House employee former Vice President Pence “let him down” during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump did not say anything about the attacks going on.\n\nThe employee was the same employee who met the former president after he returned from the Ellipse, according to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.\n\nThe last tweet that Trump sent on Jan. 6 at 6:01 pm said: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously, viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love and peace. Remember this day forever.”\n\n“He showed absolutely no remorse,” Kinzinger said of Trump’s tweet.\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nGallery:January 6 committee on Capitol riots: See photos from Congress' public hearings\n\nJan. 6 hearing shows McConnell, Schumer behind the scenes during attack\n\nThough former President Trump refused to act during the attack, other federal leaders were working behind the scenes to secure the Capitol and proceed with the certification of the 2020 presidential election.\n\nNever-before-seen photos and videos revealed a portion of a call from 4:45 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, between Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and congressional leaders, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nThey told Miller they needed to finish their business and they wanted clearance to return to the floor as soon as possible. Schumer said Capitol Police believed it would take several days to secure the building, and he asked Miller if he agreed with that analysis.\n\nMiller said he did not agree with that and estimated it would take 4 to 5 hours.\n\nFormer Vice President Mike Pence also worked the phones after being evacuated, calling the Miller and other military leaders. Pence was “very animated” and “very explicit,” according to testimony.\n\nTrump never called the president, vice president or anyone in the military or law enforcement, according to the committee.\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nMeadows controlling narrative that Trump was in charge, not Pence\n\nAfter former President Donald Trump had retired for the day, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was working to establish a narrative that Trump remained in charge of the situation, not former Vice President Mike Pence, who throughout the day was making calls to officials and handling security instead of Trump\n\n“We have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative that the president is still in charge and that things are steady or stable,” Meadows said to Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.\n\nMilley told the Jan. 6 Committee that he refused to comply with Meadows’s request.\n\n“I immediately interpreted that as politics, politics, politics, red flag for me personally, no action,” Milley testified. “But I remember distinctly, and I don’t do political narratives.”\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nWho is Mark Meadows?:Meet Trump's chief of staff who defied Jan. 6 committee subpoena\n\nTrump’s call for rioters to go home was ‘off the cuff’\n\nAides to former President Donald Trump prepared a speech for him to give condemning the violence, and the president saw it, but when it came time to record his remarks, aide Nicholas Luna said he went “off the cuff.”\n\n“I urge all of my supporters to do exactly as 99.9% of them have already been doing – express their passions and opinions PEACEFULLY,” the original script read. “My supporters have a right to have their voices heard, but make no mistake – NO ONE should be using violence or threats of violence to edpress themselves. Especially at the US Capitol. Let’s respect our institutions. Let’s all do better.”\n\nThe draft comments concluded: “I am asking you to leave the Capitol Hill region now and go home in a peaceful way.”\n\nInstead, Trump repeated lies about the election outcome, saying it was “stolen,” “fraudulent” and that the other side knew “it was a landslide election.” He told them, “We can’t play into the hands of tese people.”\n\nEric Herschmann, a lawyer in the White House at the time, said there had been no discussion about recording a second video.\n\n“When he finished his video, I think everyone was like ‘day’s over,’” Herschmann told the committee. “People were pretty drained.”\n\n-- Erin Mansfield\n\nHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Jared Kushner for help on Jan. 6\n\nDuring the Jan. 6 committee hearing Thursday night, testimonial video evidence showed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, asking for help.\n\nKushner said he could tell McCarthy was fearful during their conversation. “He told me it was getting really ugly over at the Capitol and said please, you know, anything you could do to help, I would appreciate it.,” Kushner said.\n\n“He was scared,” Kushner added.\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nKetchup, regrets, blood and anger:A guide to the Jan. 6 hearings' witnesses and testimony\n\nConcern from White House press office that condemning rioters would be “handing a win to the media”\n\nFormer deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews said that she and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany urged former President Donald Trump to condemn the violence over Twitter, but that view wasn’t the consensus among the White House press office.\n\nMatthews testified that another press staff member told her that Trump shouldn’t condemn the violence or tell the mob to go home because “we would be handing a win to the media if he condemned his supporters.”\n\nDebate continued in the office and Matthews said she became “visibly frustrated” that they were arguing about Trump’s tweet when rioters were flooding into the Capitol.\n\n“I motioned up at the TV, and I said, ‘Do you think it looks like we’re f–ing winning, because I don’t think it does,’” Matthews said to her colleague.”\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nWhite House officials wanted rioters to leave the Capitol, with one notable exception: Trump\n\nAdministration officials told the committee that they were pretty much unanimous in wanting to see the insurrectionists leave the Capitol building, but one kept balking at the idea: President Donald Trump.\n\nWitnesses from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to press spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said Trump either ignored entreaties or argued about the wording of tweets or video statements he might make on the riot.\n\nThis for more than three hours, they said.\n\nCipollone said in a deposition that \"I can't think of anybody, you know, who didn't want people to get out of the Capitol.\"\n\nTrump \"should have been telling them to leave and go home,\" Matthews told the committee.\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nSign up for our newsletter:Keep up with the latest breaking politics news with On Politics\n\nTrump avoided using the word 'peace' in tweet condemning rioters\n\nFormer White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews told the committee Trump avoided mentioning the word “peace” in a tweet to condemn the violent rioters who were already in the Capitol.\n\nMatthews described a conversation between her and former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany about Trump’s refusal to tweet a stronger condemnation.\n\n“She looked directly at me and in a hushed tone shared with me that the president did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet.”\n\nThere was back and forth between White House staff and Trump about what to exactly tweet, until Ivanka Trump “suggested the phrase ‘stay peaceful,'\" according to Matthews.\n\n- Kenneth Tran\n\nDay 7 recap:Jan. 6 rioter blames his participation on Trump, false claims of election fraud\n\nDon Jr. told Meadows Trump needed to go “all in” to stop the attack\n\nDonald Trump Jr. reached out to his father’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Capitol attack and implored him to get the former president to end the insurrection, warning Trump’s legacy was in jeopardy.\n\n“This (is) one you go to the mattresses on,” he said. “They will try to (expletive) his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.”\n\nTrump Jr. said in recorded testimony that “go to the mattresses” was a “Godfather” reference that he used to urge Meadows to go “all in” and persuade the former president to condemn the violence at the Capitol.\n\n“The capitol police tweet is not enough,” Trump Jr. said in his texts to Meadows.\n\n“I’m pushing it hard. I agree,” Meadows replied.\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nMiss Day 6 of the Jan. 6 hearing?:Trump knew mob was armed and dangerous, bombshell witness says\n\nHearing room tense, frozen as committee replays Capitol breach\n\nSecurity video of rioters besieging the Capitol on Jan. 6 and accessing the second floor of the building mere feet from where former Vice President Mike Pence sheltered shocked those in the hearing room.\n\nThere fear was palpable in radio communications between members of the White House Security Counsel who debated over when to get Pence out of the building.\n\nThe room was silent while the committee played imagery of the few officers facing down dozens of rioters and audio of Secret Service detail growing more and more frantic. Some attendees uttered “wow” as the evidence concluded.\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nMiss Day 5 of the Jan. 6 hearing?:Trump's plan to topple the Justice Department and more\n\nTrump tweet forced Pence back into hiding for second time\n\nVice President Mike Pence had to be evacuated a second time inside the Capitol at 2:26 p.m. on Jan. 6 after a tweet from Trump said Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”\n\nThe committee showed surveillance footage of Pence and his security heading back to hiding inside the Capitol, coming within 40 feet of rioters.\n\n“The attack escalated quickly right after the tweet,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nMiss Day 4 of the Jan. 6 hearing?:Fake electors, Trump pressuring state leaders and more.\n\nHawley ‘riled up’ the crowd, later fled\n\nSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., raised his fist in the air on the east side of the Capitol building in the early afternoon in a show of solidarity with protesters before the crowd stormed the building, according to a picture the Jan. 6 committee showed.\n\nThe audience in the committee room laughed as Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. showed a surveillance video of Hawley running down an empty hall in the Capitol building to get out. Then he made it to a set of stairs where other senators were also trying to evacuate.\n\nLuria referenced testimony from an unnamed Capitol Police officer, who she said was upset that Hawley would rile up the crowd, because “he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers.”\n\n-- Erin Mansfield and Dylan Wells\n\nPottinger: Trump tweet attacking Pence ‘last thing that was needed in that moment’\n\nFormer Trump aide Matthew Pottinger said former President Donald Trump’s tweet on Jan. 6 attacking former Vice President Mike Pence for not having “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution,” was the “the opposite of what we really needed at that moment.”\n\nWhat was needed at the time according to Pottinger was a “de-escalation.”\n\nFurthermore, Trump’s tweet was the moment he decided to resign from the White House.\n\n“I simply didn't want to be associated with the events that were unfolding on the Capitol,” Pottinger said.\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nMiss Day 3 of the Jan. 6 hearing?:Pence's role opposing insurrection takes center stage\n\n'About to get very ugly:' National security officials expressed fears about Jan. 6 riot\n\nTrump's national security staff was fully aware of the threats posed by the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and even that did not move the president to speak out, witnesses told the investigating committee.\n\n\"VP being pulled,\" said a National Security Council \"chat log\" during the breach of the U.S. Capitol.\n\nVice President Mike Pence's security detail \"thought that this was about to get very ugly,\" a national security official told the committee in a deposition.\n\nThe committee also played radio chatter from Pence's Secret Service detail: \"If we lose any time, we may lose the ability to leave.\"\n\nIn any event, Pence did not leave the Capitol, spending time in a secure location within the complex.\n\n- David Jackson\n\nHearing Day Two:Bill Barr returns, election lies debunked and more\n\nSecret Service called to say goodbye to family members\n\nAs rioters breached the Capitol, at one point getting 40 feet away from former Vice President Mike Pence, his Secret Service detail feared for their lives and told security to say goodbye to their families, an anonymous White House security member testified.\n\n“There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth. For whatever the reason was on the ground, the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly,” the security official said.\n\nOver the radio, the official heard the vice president’s detail screaming, calling it “chaos,” and were concerned they would have to use “lethal options” to protect Pence.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nHearing Day One:Jan. 6 committee says probe shows Trump led and directed effort to overturn 2020 election: hearing recap\n\nSecret Service agents “feared for their lives”\n\nAn anonymous White House Security Official told the Jan. 6 Committee in an interview that Vice President Pence’s Secret Service detail “started to fear for their own lives” as they organized an evacuation route for Pence while rioters were in the Capitol.\n\n“At that point it was just reassurances,” the official said of the Secret Service radio chatter. “I think there were discussions of reinforcements coming but again, it was just chaos.”\n\nThe situation started to look so dire, Secret Service “became very close to either sort of having to use lethal options or worse,\" according to the official.\n\n-- Kenneth Tran\n\nCipollone: Trump could have gone to the press briefing room at any moment to make a statement\n\nBoth former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former Trump communications aide Sarah Matthews testified the former president could have gone to the press briefing room at any moment to make a statement that encouraged an end to the Capitol attack.\n\nIt would have taken about 60 seconds for Trump to walk from the White House Dining Room, where he was watching the insurrection live on Fox News, to the press briefing room to deliver a televised address to the nation, Matthews said.\n\nHe “could’ve been on camera almost instantly” to condemn the violence at the Capitol, she said.\n\nThe White House press corps could have probably been assembled “in a matter of minutes,” Matthews said.\n\n“Although President Trump was aware of the ongoing rioting, he did not take any immediate action to address the lawlessness,” Rep. Elaine Luria said.\n\nInstead, the former president called his personal counsel Rudy Giuliani for a second time during the riot. That call lasted 8 minutes, she said.\n\n-Candy Woodall\n\nMeadows told Cipollone people were trying to protect Pence\n\nFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said the chants to hang the vice president were “outrageous” and that he raised his concerns with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 6, 2021.\n\n“The nature of his response, without recalling exactly, was that he, you know, people were doing all they could,” Cipollone said in his interview. The interviewer then asked if Meadows indicated that the president “was doing all that he could to protect the vice president.”\n\nCipollone went silent for a few seconds before his lawyer instructed him that the information could not be disclosed under attorney-client privilege.\n\n-- Erin Mansfield\n\nCipollone told Trump ‘forceful’ message needed to tell people to go home\n\nPat Cipollone, Trump’s White House Counsel, said he told the former president in a \"forceful\" manner to urge Jan. 6 rioters to go home.\n\n“I think I was pretty clear there needs to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, public statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now,” Cipollone said during testimonial video.\n\nCipollone said he told the president this message “almost immediately after I found out people were getting into the Capitol or approaching the Capitol in a way that was violent.”\n\nHe also said that many people, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, suggested Trump call off the rioters.\n\n“Many people suggested it and not just me. Many people felt the same way,” Cipollone said.\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nWho is Mark Meadows?:Meet Trump's chief of staff who defied Jan. 6 committee subpoena\n\nTrump ignored pleases to make ‘strong statement’ condemning attack\n\nFormer White House attorney Pat Cipollone said multiple advisers and family members of Trump advised the former president to make a “strong statement” condemning the attack but that he ignored their pleas.\n\n“Many people suggested it,” he said. “Not just me. Many people felt the same way.”\n\nHe added: “White House Counsel's Office wanted there to be a strong statement out to condemn the rioters' violence. I'm confident that Ivanka Trump wanted him to give a strong statement to condemn the rioters.”\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nTwo witnesses confirm heated discussion in Trump’s motorcade during Jan. 6 riot\n\nTwo separate witnesses, including a protected witness, corroborated there was a heated discussion in Trump’s motorcade during the Jan. 6 riot.\n\n“After seeing the initial violence at the Capitol on TV, the individual went to see Tony Ornato, the deputy chief of staff in his office,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va, of the witnesses testimony.\n\nAlso in the room was Bobby Engel, Trump’s lead Secret Service agent, according to the witness' testimony.\n\n“This employee told us that Mr. Ornato said that the president was quote, ‘irate’ when Mr. Engel refused to drive him to the Capitol,” Luria said. “Mr. Engel did not refute what Mr. Ornato said.”\n\nSimilarly. Sgt. Mark Robinson said Trump wanted to travel to the Capitol after he returned to the White House but the motorcade was placed on standby.\n\n“We do know that while inside the limo the president was still adamant about going to the Capitol,” Robinson said. “However, the POTUS motorcade was placed on standby.”\n\n-- Mabinty Quarshie\n\nPreviously:In 'combustible' testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson, surprise Jan. 6 witness, quietly drops bombshells\n\nSecret Service agents have retained counsel, committee says\n\nRep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said the Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed further information from the Secret Service and that some agents who have been witnesses have retained legal counsel.\n\nIt comes as the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has launched a criminal investigation into the destruction of Secret Service text messages sought as part of investigations.\n\nBobby Engel, the former head of Trump's Secret Service security detail, and Anthony Ornato, who served as Trump's deputy chief of staff for operations, were named in prior testimony by former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson about an alleged outburst by Trump inside the presidential vehicle when he learned he would not be going to the Capitol on Jan. 6.\n\n“The committee is also aware that certain Secret Service witnesses have now retained new private counsel,” Luria said. “We anticipate further testimony under oath and other new information in the coming weeks.”\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nRelated:Watchdog launches criminal inquiry into deleted Secret Service text messages\n\nCommittee: Trump didn't call law enforcement or the military about the insurrection\n\nLuria and other committee members have listed a number of things Trump could have done during the Jan. 6 riot, but didn't – including calling law enforcement or the military to ask them to help stop the mayhem.\n\nTrump didn't contact anybody \"to offer assistance\" or to \"quell the attack,\" Luria said.\n\nNoting that Trump did not reach out to the National Guard, the FBI, the Pentagon, the Justice Department, or homeland security, Luria said: \"He did not call to issue orders or call for assistance.\"\n\nDuring the hearing, the Jan. 6 committee tweeted out a statement on Trump's inactivity during the riot.\n\n\"We have confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, VP Pence’s staff, and D.C. government officials: None of them heard from President Trump during the attack on the Capitol,\" the committee statement said. \"Trump did not call to issue orders or to offer assistance.\"\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nTrump spent close to three hours in dining room with Fox News playing\n\nFormer President Donald Trump spent more than two and a half hours in the presidential dining room sitting at the head of the table with the television tuned to Fox News, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. said witnesses have told the committee.\n\nDuring that time period from approximately 1:25 p.m. to about 4:00 p.m., official records at the White House do not document the former president’s actions, Luria said. The official call logs and the presidential diary do not contain entries from those times.\n\n“There are also no photos of President between this critical period between 1:21 p.m. in the Oval Office and when he went outside to the Rose Garden” to record a message to the rioters, Luria said. The White House photographer wanted to take pictures for historical purposes but was not allowed, she said.\n\n-- Erin Mansfield\n\nTrump called senators to stop the vote count during the riot\n\nWhile in the White House dining room watching the Capitol being breached, former President Donald Trump called multiple senators, encouraging them to delay the certification of electoral votes.\n\nThe Jan. 6 Committee isn’t aware of which senators Trump called because the White House call logs are empty for hours during the insurrection, Rep. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., said in the hearing.\n\nFormer White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed that Trump wanted a list of senators to call, but was not aware of who Trump called that afternoon.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nTrump ‘didn’t want anything done’\n\nAs the Capitol attack unfolded, the Pentagon had a pending call with the White House to coordinate a response to the riot. Former Senior Advisor Eric Herschmann told former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump “didn’t want anything done.”\n\nCipollone ended up having to take the call from the Pentagon himself, he said in video played Thursday.\n\n-- Kenneth Tran\n\nWhite House security “in a state of shock” long before Capitol was breached\n\nA White House security official, who spoke anonymously to the Jan. 6 Committee out of fear of retribution, said security knew that the crowd gathered at Jan. 6 moved from being a “normal, democratic public event” into a security threat.\n\nThe security official said that White House security became concerned long before rioters breached the Capitol, as they were aware of multiple reports of weapons in the crowd at the Ellipse for former President Donald Trump’s rally.\n\n“The President wanted to lead tens of thousands of people to the Capitol. I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed.”\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nTrump ‘chose not to act’ as violent rioters entered the Capitol\n\nRep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Trump deliberately “chose not to act” as rioters breached the Capitol building because the mob was doing his bidding.\n\n“Why did he not take immediate action in a time of crisis?” Kinzinger said. “Because President Trump’s plan for January 6 was to halt or delay Congress’ official proceedings to count the votes.”\n\nWhen the mob of rioters entered the Capitol, both the House and Senate were evacuated, delaying the certification of the 2020 election, which Kinzinger said was Trump’s intent.\n\n“The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose. So of course he didn’t intervene,” said Kinzinger. “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes before leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”\n\n-- Kenneth Tran\n\nKetchup, regrets, blood and anger:A guide to the Jan. 6 hearings' witnesses and testimony\n\nLuria: Trump did nothing about the insurrection for 187 minutes.\n\nRep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., stressed tonight's main theme: Trump did nothing to object to the insurrection for 187 minutes.\n\nThis even though aides urged him to speak out.\n\n\"President Trump was being advised, by nearly everyone, to immediately instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol, disperse, and halt the violence,\" Luria said.\n\nHe did not for more than three hours, she said.\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nTrump ‘refused to defend our nation’\n\nThe committee said the former president refused the advice of his closest aides and family members on Jan. 6, 2021, who urged him to call off the violent mob at the Capitol.\n\nTrump “refused to defend our nation,” Vice Chair Liz Cheney said.\n\nLuria said “virtually everyone told President Trump to condemn the violence in clear and unmistakable terms,” but he chose not to because of his desire to stay in power.\n\nInstead, Luria said the hearing will show, Trump “sat in his dining room and watched the attack on television.”\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nWho are the Proud Boys?:Extremist group at the center of prime-time Jan. 6 committee hearings\n\nCheney: ‘The dam has begun to break’\n\nRep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., was optimistic about the status of the committee’s investigation, signaling that the committee continues to get more information and get through barriers in the legal system that have stood in the way for the past several months.\n\n“In the course of these hearings, we’ve received new evidence, and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward,” Cheney said. “Efforts to litigate and overcome immunity and executive privilege claims have been successful, and those continue. Doors have opened. New subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break.”\n\n-- Erin Mansfield\n\n‘He could not be moved,’ committee chairman says of Trump as Jan. 6 attack unfolded\n\nThe committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., opened the hearing by saying that Trump “stopped for 187 minutes” as the attack on the U.S. Capitol happened, unable to be moved from his television to stop the riot he encouraged.\n\n“This man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved,” said Thompson, who was appearing by video as he recovers from COVID-19. “Not by his aides, not by his allies, not by the violent chants of rioters.”\n\nThompson said Trump even ignored the pleas of his own family, including his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to call off the mob.\n\n“He could not be moved to rise from his dining room table and walk a few steps down the White House hallway press briefing room, where cameras were anxiously and desperately waiting to carry his message.”\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nWas Trump's call witness tampering?:Jan. 6 hearing disclosure lacks crucial details, analysts say\n\nCommittee to hold more hearings in September\n\nCommittee Chair Bennie Thompson said there are more hearings to come in September.\n\n“We will reconvene in September to continue laying out our findings to the American people,” he said.\n\nThe committee’s investigation ramped up in June, and the panel has continued to collect evidence to prompt the additional sessions.\n\nRep. Elaine Luria, who was one of the members to lead questioning Thursday night, told reporters earlier in the day that the committee’s investigation was ramping up in light of new evidence.\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nMore:Capitol police protected democracy on Jan. 6; their scars keep the day's memory ever-present\n\nGallery Group members, Capitol Police widows in room for hearing\n\nSeveral members of the “gallery group” of lawmakers who were trapped in the House chamber are back in the Cannon Caucus room to watch tonight’s proceedings, including Reps. Veronica Escobar of Texas, Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, Sara Jacobs of California, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.\n\nKuster said a group went to dinner before coming to the hearing tonight and that they plan on supporting each other during what is expected to be an emotional evening. Kuster said she hopes the public sees just how close rioters came to the members on Jan. 6.\n\nThe Capitol and DC police who have attended each hearing are back again tonight, in addition to Serena Liebengood, the widow of Capitol Police Officer Howie Liebengood, and Sandra Garza, the longtime partner of Brian Sicknick, who died after suffering two strokes after fighting off the mob.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nWatchdog launches criminal inquiry into deleted Secret Service text messages\n\nWASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has launched a criminal investigation into the destruction of Secret Service text messages sought as part of investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, an official with knowledge of the matter said Thursday.\n\nA letter notifying the Secret Service of the probe was directed to Director James Murray Wednesday night, said the official who is not authorized to comment publicly on a pending investigation.\n\nThe existence of the criminal investigation was first disclosed by NBC News.\n\nIn a statement, the Secret Service acknowledged receipt of the inspector general's letter.\n\nRead the whole story here:Watchdog launches criminal inquiry into deleted Secret Service text messages sought by Jan. 6 panel\n\nMelania Trump says ‘unaware’ the Jan. 6 attack was happening\n\nFormer first lady Melania Trump said she was “unaware” the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol was happening because she was preoccupied with taking archival photos of White House renovations as part of her duties as first lady.\n\nTrump gave her account in an interview Thursday with Fox News after her former chief of staff and onetime White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, released text messages last month showing the first lady not approving a drafted statement condemning the attack.\n\n\"On January 6, 2021, I was fulfilling one of my duties as First Lady of the United States of America, and accordingly, I was unaware of what was simultaneously transpiring at the U.S. Capitol Building,\" Trump said in the interview.\n\nTrump said, “I always condemn violence” and that if she had been informed she would have “immediately denounced the violence that occurred at the Capitol Building.” She added, “And while Ms. Grisham’s behavior is disappointing, it is not surprising or an isolated incident.\"\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nPreviously:Ex-White House press secretary's book likens Melania Trump to Marie Antoinette\n\nThe news comes to you:Keep up with the latest breaking politics news with On Politics\n\nCommittee to show Trump’s ‘dereliction of duty’\n\nRep. Elaine Luria, a former Navy commander, said she and other members of the select House committee will “detail Donald J. Trump’s dereliction of duty” on Jan. 6, 2021.\n\nIn the 8 p.m. hearing tonight, the panel will zero in on the 187 minutes from the end of his “Stop the Steal” speech at 1:10 p.m. to his video message at 4:17 p.m., when he told the rioters ransacking the Capitol to go home.\n\nShe emphasized Thursday afternoon he also told the violent mob “he loved them.”\n\nLuria compared him to a captain abandoning a ship and said Thursday’s hearing will show in graphic detail his actions and inaction during those crucial three hours.\n\n-- Candy Woodall\n\nWho is Mark Meadows?:Meet Trump's chief of staff who defied Jan. 6 committee subpoena\n\nTrump watched TV from White House dining room during attack, former aides say\n\nTrump was glued to the television in the White House dining room as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to testimony previewed by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., one of the Jan. 6 committee's members.\n\n“To the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room,” former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told the committee.\n\nKinzinger released a short video Thursday teasing evidence to come during the eighth hearing from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Committee members are expected to zero in on the 187 minutes between Trump’s speech that morning and his tweet for rioters to go home.\n\nKeith Kellogg, Trump’s former national security advisor, and Molly Michael, former executive assistant to the president, both told the committee that Trump was watching television as the Capitol came under assault. Former White House attorney Pat Cipollone told the committee the violence from the attack was visible on the television as Trump watched.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nSign up for our newsletter:Keep up with the latest breaking politics news with On Politics\n\nWhy look at these 187 minutes?\n\nThe committee will scrutinize events from 1:10 p.m. EDT, when Trump stopped speaking at his rally near the White House, until 4:17 p.m., when he posted a tweet with a video urging rioters to go home.\n\nThe committee pieced together testimony from more than 1,000 witnesses and 100,000 pages of documents. But gaps remain. For example, White House logs show no calls placed to or by Trump from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on Jan. 6.\n\n“He was doing nothing to actually stop the riot,” a committee member, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We will go through pretty much minute by minute during that time frame, from the time he left the stage at the Ellipse, came back to the White House, and really sat in the White House, in the dining room, with his advisers urging him continuously to take action, to take more action.”\n\nWho are Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, the witnesses expected to testify?\n\nTwo new witnesses expected to testify each resigned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, along with cabinet secretaries and a special envoy to Northern Ireland.\n\nSarah Matthews was a deputy press secretary and Matthew Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser. Both were disturbed by Trump's tweet at 2:24 p.m. calling Vice President Mike Pence a coward. Pence had refused to single-handedly reject electoral votes for President Joe Biden, as Trump and his lawyers had urged.\n\n\"It was clear that it was escalating and escalating quickly,\" Matthews said in a videotaped deposition played at the June 16 hearing. \"The situation was already bad, and so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.\"\n\nBig question for Jan. 6 committee:Did Trump aide Mark Meadows help stop – or fuel – the insurrection?\n\nBennie Thompson to lead hearing remotely. Adam Kinzinger, Elaine Luria to oversee evidence\n\nThe Jan. 6 committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., will lead the hearing remotely after announcing Tuesday he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He said in a statement he was experiencing mild symptoms despite being fully vaccinated.\n\nReps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Elaine Luria, D-Va., will oversee the presentation of evidence. Members of the nine-member committee have taken turns during the eight hearings in June and July leading the questioning of witnesses or introducing videotaped depositions and documentary evidence.\n\nPolitical organizations go on attack on Trump before Jan. 6 hearing\n\nPolitical action committees and public interest groups are preparing for tonight's Jan. 6 hearing by releasing videos, reports, and statements seeking to promote their case against Donald Trump.\n\nThe Lincoln Project, the organization created by Republicans to oppose Trump's re-election campaign in 2020, released a video Thursday describing the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as a Trump-directed effort to stay in power.\n\nJust Security, an online forum for national security, foreign policy, and human rights issues, released an update of its \"Criminal Evidence Tracker,\" summarizing testimony from previous hearings of the Jan. 6 committee. Said the report: \"The House January 6th Select Committee hearings have presented powerful, compelling evidence that former President Donald Trump led a criminal conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWhat was the Secret Service doing?\n\nThe committee subpoenaed Secret Service texts Friday for Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, but the service replied the texts were deleted in a routine swap of staffers' phones.\n\nFormer White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified she heard from Anthony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff for operations, that Trump tried to grab the wheel of his vehicle and lunged for an officer while trying to join the mob at the Capitol. Secret Service officials said witnesses have volunteered to testify, to challenge aspects of the testimony.\n\n“I was shocked to hear that they didn't back up their data before they reset their iPhones. That's crazy,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “But we need to get this information to get the full picture.”\n\nMeanwhile, Steve Bannon is on trial for defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena\n\nThe federal trial against Steve Bannon, a political strategist for Trump, began Monday. Bannon was charged with contempt after defying a House subpoena for documents and testimony. He faces 30 days in jail and a $100,000 fine on each of the two charges, if convicted.\n\nThe committee wants to ask Bannon about two calls he had with Trump on Jan. 5, 2021.\n\nAfter the first call, Bannon said on his podcast, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” The two spoke again for six minutes, but the contents of the call are unknown.\n\nSteve Bannon on trial:Attorneys for Steve Bannon call no witnesses in contempt trial; final arguments set for Friday\n\nAre more criminal charges possible?\n\nThe Justice Department has charged more than 850 people associated with the Capitol attack. But some lawmakers and advocacy groups have urged charges against people who financed and organized the attack, potentially including Trump. Rep. Elaine Luria, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, noted the president was “the only person in the Constitution whose duty is explicitly laid out to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed.”\n\n“Well, I do think that there's a much broader plot here. I think that's pretty obvious,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, also a member of the committee. “I would not want to tell the attorney general how to conduct his investigations. But I will say this, they have subpoena power and they have a lot easier way to enforce their subpoenas than the Congress does.”\n\nThe committee simply gathers information, which it plans to pass along to the Justice Department, but the department must decide which charges to pursue. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he would follow the facts and the law.\n\nCapitol riot arrests:See who's been charged across the U.S.\n\nWhat did the Jan. 6 committee cover in its first seven hearings on its findings?\n\nDuring seven previous public hearings, the Jan. 6 committee sought to prove the former president oversaw and coordinated a plan to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.\n\nThe hearings covered:", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/politics/meadows-texts-january-6-trump-stop-violence/index.html", "title": "Trump could have stopped the violence, Republicans who texted ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) Within minutes of the US Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, messages began pouring into the cell phone of White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Among those texting were Republican members of Congress, former members of the Trump administration, GOP activists, Fox personalities -- even the President's son. Their texts all carried the same urgent plea: President Donald Trump needed to immediately denounce the violence and tell the mob to go home.\n\n\"He's got to condem (sic) this shit. Asap,\" Donald Trump Jr. texted at 2:53 p.m.\n\n\"POTUS needs to calm this shit down,\" GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina wrote at 3:04 p.m.\n\n\"TELL THEM TO GO HOME !!!\" former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus messaged at 3:09 p.m.\n\n\"POTUS should go on air and defuse this. Extremely important,\" Tom Price, former Trump health and human services secretary and a former GOP representative from Georgia, texted at 3:13 p.m.\n\nOne of the key questions the January 6 House committee is expected to raise in its June hearings 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 election.\n\nThe Meadows texts show that even those closest to the former President believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time.\n\nCNN 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. According to a source familiar with the committee's investigation, the texts provide a valuable \"road map\" and show how Meadows was an enabler of Trump, despite being told there was no widespread election fraud.\n\nSeventeen months later, CNN spoke to more than a dozen people who had texted Meadows that day, including former White House officials, Republican members of Congress and political veterans. Without exception, each said they stood by their texts and that they believed Trump had the power and responsibility to try to stop the attack immediately.\n\n\"I thought the President could stop it and was the only person who could stop it,\" said Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Trump's director of strategic communications until she left the White House in December 2020. Farah Griffin is now a CNN political commentator.\n\n\"When he finally tweeted something hours and hours later, there are reports of people inside the building saying, 'He's saying to go home.' They would have listened to him,\" she added.\n\nFarah Griffin texted Meadows at 3:13 p.m. that day: \"Potus has to come out firmly and tell protesters to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed.\"\n\nTrump's former acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, also texted Meadows on January 6: \"Mark: he needs to stop this, now. Can I do anything to help?\"\n\nMulvaney told CNN he stands by his text. \"I wish someone had responded to my outreach,\" he said.\n\nFormer White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows departs the US Capitol following the first day of the second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump on February 9, 2021.\n\nMost of the people who spoke to CNN about their texts on January 6 would be quoted only anonymously. Some said it was because of their jobs. Some said they were afraid Trump would be reelected. One said they just didn't want to go through \"the misery of being targeted by Trump supporters.\"\n\nTheir words were blunt, emotional and damning, even those who remain staunch Trump allies.\n\n\"I thought there was only one person who could stop it and that was the President,\" said a senior Republican. \"I don't know that I can think of another situation that was as grave for the nation, or as affecting for the nation, where the President didn't say something.\"\n\nA Meadows associate said Trump had waited too long to act: \"Two hours is just inexcusable ... when the safety of the federal government is in question you have the duty immediately to speak out. And Trump was derelict in that duty.\"\n\nAnother political veteran said Trump's silence made him complicit: \"I think he knew he could stop it, which is why he remained silent.\"\n\nAnd a former Trump administration official summed it up with this stark assessment: \"He failed at being the president.\"\n\nAn attorney for Meadows did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the January 6 committee also did not respond to a request for comment.\n\n'I'm very worried about the next 48 hours'\n\nThe Meadows text logs present a dramatic timeline of how friends, colleagues and Republican allies were pleading for help on January 6.\n\nRioters stormed police barriers around the Capitol just after 1 p.m. that day. The House and Senate fled their chambers around 2:20 p.m. Yet it took Trump until 4:17 p.m. to release a video on Twitter telling the rioters to go home.\n\nThe upcoming January 6 hearings are expected to focus on the gap of 187 minutes it took Trump to release the video -- as well as highlight some of the most notable texts that Meadows received and sent that day.\n\nJUST WATCHED He helped decode texts from January 6th. What he found scared him Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH He helped decode texts from January 6th. What he found scared him 04:51\n\nThe logs are not a complete record of Meadows' texts -- he withheld more than 1,000 messages, claiming executive privilege, according to the committee . But the messages Meadows did hand over show his responses were often terse and emotionless, if he replied at all.\n\nTwo sources familiar with the committee's investigation said it was remarkable that Meadows never seemed alarmed in the messages he sent on January 6, and that even in the midst of the violence, he appeared unwilling to stand up to Trump. \"Even Don Jr. knew the right thing to do,\" one source told CNN.\n\nOn January 5, the Meadows text logs show that the chief of staff was still actively involved with plans to object to the congressional certification of Joe Biden's election victory, encouraging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to pass on evidence of voter fraud.\n\n\"Last night Sen Graham told me that if I found 100 names of dead voters in GA that he would object. I have 100 dead voters names!! Tell President Trump!\" Greene, a Georgia Republican, texted Meadows at 2:30 p.m.\n\n\"Send them to him,\" Meadows responded, making sure she had Graham's cell phone number.\n\nAt 10:29 p.m., Fox's Sean Hannity chimed in with an apprehensive message over what was to come.\n\n\"I'm very worried about the next 48 hours,\" Hannity texted Meadows. \"Pence pressure. WH counsel will leave.\"\n\nMeadows did not reply directly, but he appeared to have called Hannity, who texted that he couldn't pick up the phone.\n\n\"On with boss,\" Hannity texted, an apparent reference to Trump.\n\nThe last message Meadows received on January 5 is from his close friend and Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Shortly before midnight, Jordan forwarded a message making the case that Vice President Mike Pence \"should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.\"\n\n'I have pushed for this'\n\nThe morning of January 6, Meadows woke up to three problems: logistics for that day's rally on the Ellipse, Pence's refusal to join Trump's attempts to subvert the election and the US Senate runoffs the day before in Georgia, where both Republicans were trailing.\n\nAt 7:30 a.m., Meadows responded to Jordan's message from the night before, acknowledging his support for Pence to reject the electoral votes. \"I have pushed for this,\" Meadows wrote back. \"Not sure it is going to happen.\"\n\nMeadows then turned his attention to the January 6 rally, where Trump was slated to speak later that morning. Meadows had been involved with the fraught internal drama over the speaker's list in the days leading up to the event.\n\nCrowds arrive for the \"Stop the Steal\" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election.\n\nMeadows checked in to make sure one of the speakers, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama , knew he was supposed to appear.\n\n\"You are speaking this am. Are you aware,\" Meadows asked at 8:08 a.m.\n\nBrooks, who gave one of the more incendiary speeches of the day, responded at 9:33 a.m., after leaving the stage: \"Did it in 10m. Thanks! Crowd roaring.\"\n\nJordan and Brooks are two of five House Republicans who have been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee.\n\nAt 11 a.m., Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller shared a tweet with Meadows and other top Trump aides capturing the darkening mood inside Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's camp with Democrats poised to take control of the Senate.\n\n\"Emotions running high among McConnell-aligned Republicans early Wednesday am — after reality of what transpired in Georgia settled in,\" National Journal reporter Josh Kraushaar wrote in the tweet. \"May be the heat of the moment, but mood is for declaring war on Team Trump.\"\n\n'Someone is going to get killed'\n\nAt 1:05 p.m., while Trump was still addressing the crowd at the Ellipse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the joint session inside the Capitol to begin certifying Biden's Electoral College win. Outside the Capitol, pro-Trump supporters were already breaking through police barriers\n\nRoughly an hour later, rioters clashed with police and breached the Capitol doors, forcing the House and Senate to abruptly gavel out of session and evacuate the chambers.\n\nSupporters of Donald Trump breeched security and entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress debated the 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification.\n\nAccording to court filings , at 2:02 p.m. Meadows' deputy Ben Williamson sent his boss a text message about the violence unfolding at the Capitol. The text is not included in the logs Meadows turned over, but Williamson provided it to the committee.\n\n\"Would recommend POTUS put out a tweet about respecting the police over at the Capitol -- getting a little hairy over there,\" Williamson wrote.\n\nWilliamson said he had then spoken to Meadows in person and that Meadows had immediately gone toward the Oval Office to inform Trump, according to court documents.\n\nShortly afterward, Meadows began receiving messages about the mob at the door.\n\n\"Will potus say something to tamp things down?\" wrote CNN's Jim Acosta at 2:12 p.m.\n\nDespite Williamson's advice urging the President to send a message about respecting the police, Trump tweeted again at 2:24 p.m., attacking his vice president.\n\n\"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!\" Trump tweeted.\n\nFour minutes later, Trump's allies began imploring Meadows to convince the President to do something. The first message came from Greene.\n\n\"Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn't the way to solve anything,\" Greene wrote at 2:28 p.m.\n\nFox's Laura Ingraham texted Meadows at 2:32 p.m., \"Hey Mark, The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us.\"\n\nMeadows heard from local contacts, too, including one who castigated the White House chief of staff for his role leading up to the insurrection.\n\nAt 2:34 p.m., North Carolina-based Republican strategist Carlton Huffman wrote, \"You've earned a special place in infamy for the events of today. And if you're the Christian you claim to be in your heart you know that.\"\n\n\"It's really bad up here on the hill,\" texted Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia at 2:44 p.m.\n\nAt 2:46 p.m., GOP Rep. Will Timmons of South Carolina wrote to Meadows: \"The president needs to stop this ASAP.\"\n\nSeveral who texted Meadows told CNN they hoped their messages would convince the chief of staff to stand up to Trump and get him to stop the violence.\n\n'We love you, you're very special'\n\nAt 2:48 p.m., Meadows responded to Loudermilk that \"POTUS is engaging.\" But Trump would not tell the rioters to leave the Capitol for another hour and a half as messages continued to pour in from Trump allies, Meadows associates and reporters seeking a White House response.\n\nJonathan Karl of ABC News texted at 2:53 p.m., \"What are you going to do to stop this? What is the president going to do?\"\n\nKarl said of his text to Meadows, \"I was asking a question as a reporter who wanted to know what was happening inside the White House as the Capitol was being attacked. But I was also asking as an American horrified by what I was witnessing.\"\n\nMeadows received more messages from contacts in his home state urging Trump to intervene.\n\nAt 3:42 p.m., North Carolina-based lobbyist Tom Cors wrote, \"Pls have POTUS call this off at the Capitol. Urge rioters to disperse. I pray to you.\"\n\nAt 3:52 p.m., North Carolina lawyer Jay Leutze texted, \"Mark, this assault in the Capitol is tragic for the country. Please call it off so the Congress can resume its peaceful debate.\"\n\nFinally, at 4:17 p.m., Trump released a video message telling the rioters to leave the Capitol. The video he tweeted was just over a minute long.\n\nJUST WATCHED President Trump tells rioters at Capitol to 'go home' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH President Trump tells rioters at Capitol to 'go home' 02:07\n\n\"I know your pain. I know you're hurt,\" Trump said. \"We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don't want anybody hurt.\"\n\nTrump concluded, \"So go home. We love you, you're very special. You've seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace.\"\n\n'Good that you made that video'\n\nTrump's video helped ease some of the pressure being directed toward Meadows. Priebus, a former White House chief of staff, told Meadows at 4:20 p.m., \"Good that you made that video.\"\n\nThe video also wasn't Trump's final word. At 6:01 p.m., he sent another tweet once again falsely claiming fraud. Trump's Twitter account was suspended a little over an hour later before he was ultimately banned from the platform.\n\n\"These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,\" Trump tweeted. \"Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!\"\n\nThat evening, Meadows received numerous queries from reporters asking about the fallout of the insurrection, such as questions about whether Cabinet secretaries were resigning or considering invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. He was asked about Pence's situation, too, including by Hannity, who texted at 7:57 p.m., \"Wth is happening with VPOTUS.\" Meadows does not appear to have responded.\n\nSeveral reporters also texted Meadows asking whether he personally was considering resigning.\n\n\"Off the record. No,\" he responded at 10:21 p.m. to reporter Al Weaver of The Hill.\n\n'Mrs. Trump has also signed off'\n\nWhile rioters were still being cleared from the Capitol, there were questions about whether the House and Senate would reconvene to finish counting the electoral votes. Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers vowed to do so.\n\nAt 8:06 p.m., Pence gaveled the Senate back into session.\n\n\"Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol,\" he began from the Senate dais.\n\nThe vice president condemned the violence and said the reassembled lawmakers were there to defend and support the Constitution. \"Let's get back to work,\" he concluded to loud cheers.\n\nAfter two months of trying to overturn the 2020 election, the Meadows text logs show, Trump's team had prepared a draft statement once the certification was complete, which said there \"will be an orderly transition on January 20th.\"\n\nIn a group text at 10:01 p.m., Trump campaign spokesman Miller reached out to Meadows, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump aide Dan Scavino. \"Chief, Jared, Dan - below please find an approved statement from the President to go out right as they're finalizing the votes, which we're expecting to be 3am, though with some Members caving it could happen earlier,\" Miller texted. \"Mrs. Trump has also signed off.\"\n\nKushner weighed in with a suggestion about how to release the statement. \"Why don't we post on his Facebook page since he isn't locked out there,\" Kushner wrote, after Trump had been suspended from Twitter a few hours earlier.\n\n\"I'll be up,\" responded Scavino, \"let me know when ok to drop, and it's official...just got off w/them.\"", "authors": ["Jamie Gangel", "Jeremy Herb", "Elizabeth Stuart"], "publish_date": "2022/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/what-we-learned-trump-187-minutes/index.html", "title": "What we know about Donald Trump's inaction during the 187 ...", "text": "That's the period of a little more than three hours as the riot unfolded in the US Capitol that the House select committee has argued then-President Donald Trump was derelict in his duties. The committee says it plans to show, minute-by-minute, how Trump failed to make any effort to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol or to try to help lawmakers -- and then-Vice President Mike Pence -- as they were forced to flee the House and Senate chambers.\n\nIn the previous hearings, the committee has sought to tie Trump to the violence at the Capitol, showing how he was warned by his aides that his claims the election was stolen were baseless and that there was a risk of violence on January 6, 2021. The committee's final hearing in this series will attempt to illustrate how the former President \"refused to act to defend the Capitol as a violent mob stormed the Capitol,\" according to committee aides.\n\nLike past hearings, the committee is likely to rely on witness testimony of those who were around Trump on January 6 or nearby in the West Wing, in order to tell the narrative of what happened through the words of Trump's inner circle.\n\nThe committee has spoken with numerous individuals around Trump on January 6 -- including Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, former Pence national security adviser retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.\n\nTwo witnesses are slated to testify in person on Thursday, and both resigned in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack: Former Trump deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.\n\nTrump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has not testified before the committee -- the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena. But Meadows selectively turned over more than 2,300 text messages to the panel, which CNN obtained, and the texts provide key insights into the frantic messages the chief of staff was receiving from Republican allies in Congress and even Trump's son urging the President to act.\n\nHere are some key questions and answers about the 187 minutes of January 6 ahead of the final hearing:\n\nSupporters of President Trump storm the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021.\n\nWhen do the 187 minutes begin and end?\n\nThe 187 minutes began at 1:10 p.m. ET on January 6, 2021, as Trump was wrapping up his speech at the Ellipse. This is when he told his supporters to march to the Capitol, so they could pressure lawmakers to overturn the election while they met for a joint session of Congress to formally certify President Joe Biden 's victory.\n\n\"So, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue ... and we're going to the Capitol,\" Trump said. \"We're going to try and give our Republicans -- the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help -- we're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So, let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.\"\n\nExactly 187 minutes later, at 4:17 p.m. ET, Trump posted a video on Twitter. In the clip, he said for the first time that his supporters should leave the Capitol. He also heaped praise on the rioters and repeated his debunked lies about the election, which had spurred the riot in the first place.\n\n\"I know your pain. I know you're hurt,\" Trump said at the time. \"We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don't want anybody hurt. It's a very tough period of time.\"\n\nProtesters supporting then-President Donald Trump storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.\n\nWhy do the 187 minutes matter to the committee?\n\nThis timeframe is central to the committee's mission. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee's GOP vice chair, has repeatedly said that the evidence obtained by the panel about these 187 minutes provides a clear example of Trump's \"supreme dereliction of duty\" throughout the insurrection.\n\nThe panel's Democratic chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said earlier this year , \"The President was told, 'You need to say directly to your people to go home, leave the Capitol.' And so, it took over 187 minutes to make that simple statement. Something's wrong with that.\"\n\nThursday's hearing will be led by Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican. Luria said on CNN's \"State of the Union\" Sunday that the hearing would \"go through pretty much minute-by-minute\" of what went on during the 187 minutes of the Capitol insurrection.\n\n\"The President didn't do much but gleefully watch television during this time frame,\" Kinzinger said on CBS' \"Face the Nation\" on Sunday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Jan 6 member previews 'minute by minute' account of Trump's inaction on Jan. 6 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jan 6 member previews 'minute by minute' account of Trump's inaction on Jan. 6 05:57\n\nWhat do we already know about the 187 minutes?\n\nAfter leaving the stage at the Ellipse, Trump got into his motorcade and angrily tried to convince his drivers to take him to the Capitol, according to testimony from Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. The agents refused, telling him that the scene was too dangerous and unstable.\n\nTrump then watched TV news coverage of the chaos unfolding at the Capitol, according to a book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and according to then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who said Trump was \"gleefully\" watching the news.\n\nWhite House Counsel Pat Cipollone told Trump's chief of staff that Trump needed to intervene, or else \"people are going to die,\" according to Hutchinson's testimony. Meadows responded by telling Cipollone that Trump \"doesn't want to do anything\" and that he even agreed with the rioters who were seen chanting about hanging Vice President Mike Pence.\n\nTrump posted three tweets during this critical timeframe. The first tweet criticized Pence for refusing to overturn the election. The second and third tweets told the rioters to \"stay peaceful\" and to \"respect the law\" -- but notably Trump did not instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.\n\nHe also spoke by phone with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who pleaded with Trump to call off the mob. But during the call, Trump took the rioters' side and said they cared about the election more than McCarthy did, according to previous reporting.\n\nDuring the 187 minutes, a wide array of Republican lawmakers, former Trump officials and conservative media personalities texted Meadows, saying Trump needed to intervene, CNN has previously reported. This included Donald Trump Jr., Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, former Trump administration officials Mick Mulvaney and Reince Priebus, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.\n\nCassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, is sworn in to testify last month.\n\nWho was with Trump and what have they said about it?\n\nThe committee has taken video depositions from multiple people who were with Trump on January 6 and is likely to use those interviews to try to explain what the President was doing when rioters breached the Capitol.\n\nIn addition to Ivanka Trump, Kellogg, Cipollone and McEnany, the committee has played clips at previous hearings of video depositions from a long list of White House aides, including former Trump personal assistant Nick Luna, former White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, former Ivanka Trump chief of staff Julie Radford and former Meadows deputy Ben Williamson.\n\nThe testimony from many of those inside the White House are likely to be played in order to help tell the story of what Trump was doing during the afternoon of January 6.\n\nThe committee has previously played clips from both Pottinger and Matthews, the two in-person witnesses Thursday, reacting to Trump's tweet attacking Pence.\n\n\"I remember us saying that that was the last thing that needed to be tweeted at that moment,\" Matthews said in a clip from her video deposition. \"The situation was already bad. And so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.\"\n\nPottinger told the panel that Trump's tweet was what prompted him to resign. \"I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign,\" he said in his video deposition. \"That's where I knew that I was leaving that day once I read that tweet.\"\n\nAt the end of the committee's last hearing, Cheney previewed what the committee had planned for its upcoming session by playing a clip from Cipollone deposition, which the committee had just taken days beforehand.\n\n\"Was it necessary for you to continue to push for a statement directing people to leave all the way through that period of time until it was ultimately achieved?\" Cipollone was asked in the video deposition.\n\n\"I felt it was my obligation to continue to push for that and others felt it was their obligation as well,\" the former White House counsel responded.\n\nThe committee's testimony -- along with reporting from CNN, other news organizations and several books about the Trump presidency -- have filled in key details about what was going on inside the West Wing. Kellogg told the committee, for instance, about how he encouraged Ivanka Trump to speak with her father on January 6 to act, and that she did so multiple times that day, according to committee documents\n\nThe committee has also spoken to numerous West Wing officials who didn't see Trump directly as the violence was unfolding but were reacting to what was happening on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.\n\nWilliamson, Meadows' top aide, told the committee how he texted Meadows encouraging Trump to tweet because things were \"getting a little hairy\" at the Capitol. Williamson told the panel that he went to speak to Meadows in person, and the White House chief then went toward the Oval Office, according to court filings.\n\nFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is seen in a video interview during a House select committee hearing in the Cannon House Office Building earlier this month.\n\nWhat are the big unanswered questions?\n\nWhile lots of details about Trump's response on January 6 are already known, there are still lingering questions about what the former President was doing on January 6.\n\nFor instance, Trump spoke with at least two Republican lawmakers during the early stages of the insurrection: McCarthy and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville.\n\nWhile there has been previous reporting about McCarthy's heated phone call, including that Trump told him that the rioters were \"more upset about the election than you are,\" McCarthy has not spoken at length about the conversation. The committee issued a subpoena to McCarthy and four other lawmakers in an unprecedented move earlier this year, though McCarthy has not agreed to testify or hand over documents.\n\nQuestions also remain about who else Trump spoke with by phone on January 6 during the period when the Capitol was breached. There are gaps in the White House call logs on January 6, providing incomplete public accounting of the conversations Trump had that day.\n\nAnother key question the committee is likely to dive into is how it was Pence -- and not Trump -- who ordered the National Guard to respond to the riot. At a hearing last month, the committee played testimony from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley saying it was Pence who gave him \"very direct, unambiguous orders\" to get the Guard to the Capitol.\n\nBut Milley testified that Meadows told him to say that it was Trump, not Pence, who gave the order. \"He said: We have to kill the narrative that the Vice President is making all the decisions,\" Milley said in his video deposition about what Meadows told him. \"We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect.\"", "authors": ["Jeremy Herb", "Marshall Cohen"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/11/trump-impeachment-trial-timeline-trump-actions-during-capitol-riot/6720727002/", "title": "Trump impeachment trial: Timeline of Trump actions during Capitol riot", "text": "WASHINGTON – House impeachment managers on Thursday argued former President Donald Trump's actions not only fueled the violent assault on the Capitol in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, but that he stood by as the riot raged and showed no remorse in aftermath, which left five people dead.\n\nThrough a series of audio and video clips from security footage – some of which were previously undisclosed – as well as rioters' social media accounts documenting the day, House impeachment managers prosecuting Trump argued that the former president failed to act as a mob forced their way inside the building and hunted for congressional leaders.\n\nRioters said at the time and later testified to authorities that they went to the Capitol at Trump's invitation.\n\n“Their own statements before, during and after the attack make clear the attack was done for Donald Trump, at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes,” Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said Thursday. “Donald Trump had sent them there.”\n\nHere's a look at what Trump was doing on the day the attack unfolded:\n\n12:43 a.m.: Trump retweets a post suggesting that Republican legislators should \"go to the wall\" for the president, with the added comment: \"Get smart Republicans. FIGHT!\"\n\n1:00 a.m.: Trump tweets about Pence's ceremonial role in presiding over the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. He suggests Pence had the authority to reject electoral votes, which he did not.\n\n“If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be.) Mike can send it back!”\n\n8:06 a.m.: Trump lashes out at NBC's Chuck Todd in a tweet.\n\n\"Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd is so happy with the fake voter tabulation process that he can’t even get the words out straight. Sad to watch!\" he tweets.\n\n8:17 a.m.: Trump again posts a tweet demanding Pence reject the electoral vote count, which he has no authority to do.\n\n“States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”\n\nMore:Live impeachment updates: Rep. Diana DeGette says rioters attacked because 'the president told them'\n\n8:22 a.m.: Trump tweets: \"THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, OUR COUNTRY, NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE - THE POWER OF THE VETO. STAY STRONG!\"\n\n9:00 a.m.: Trump tweets baseless claims about voter fraud.\n\n\"They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night. The USA is embarrassed by fools. Our Election Process is worse than that of third world countries!\" he tweets.\n\n9:15 a.m.: Trump again tweets about voter fraud:\n\n\"The States want to redo their votes. They found out they voted on a FRAUD. Legislatures never approved. Let them do it. BE STRONG!\"\n\n9:16 a.m.: Trump tweets \"Even Mexico uses Voter I.D.\"\n\n10:44 a.m.: Trump tweets about former Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia, who lost his seat in a runoff election the day before.\n\n\"These scoundrels are only toying with the @sendavidperdue (a great guy) vote. Just didn’t want to announce quite yet. They’ve got as many ballots as are necessary. Rigged Election!\" he tweeted.\n\n11:57 a.m.: Trump takes the stage to deliver remarks at the \"Save America Rally\" at the White House Ellipse as \"God Bless the U.S.A.\" plays in the background.\n\n12:15 p.m.: Trump tells the crowd to march to the Capitol and that \"you'll never take back our country with weakness.\" During his remarks, hundreds of people begin moving toward the Capitol.\n\nMore:Timeline: How the storming of the U.S. Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6\n\n1:10 p.m.: After speaking for nearly an hour, Trump encourages supporters to \"fight like hell\" and march to the Capitol as rioters begin storming the Capitol steps around the same time.\n\n“We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said. “So we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue – I love Pennsylvania Avenue – and we are going to the Capitol.”\n\nAfter Trump said “We will not let them silence your voices,” a chant of “Fight For Trump” broke out.\n\n1:11 p.m.: Trump concludes his remarks.\n\n1:17 p.m.: POTUS left the Ellipse in a motorcade back to the White House.\n\n2:00 p.m.: As a violent mob breached the Capitol building, Trump accidentally phoned Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, while trying to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama. Lee reportedly handed the phone to the Alabama senator, according to CNN and Utah's Deseret News.\n\nTuberville revealed Thursday night that he spoke to Trump and informed him Pence had been evacuated from the Senate chamber, which happened at about 2:15 p.m., House impeachment managers said.\n\n“I said ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,'” Tuberville told Politico on Wednesday.\n\nThe president reportedly told Tuberville to continue to object to the election results in order to buy more time, which House prosecutors pointed out in their opening argument. Lee dismissed that account as inaccurate, prompting House impeachment managers to withdraw the comments that were quoted from the news report.\n\n2:24 p.m.: Minutes after it was reported Pence was escorted out of the Senate chamber and Trump reportedly spoke to Tuberville, the president attacks Pence in a tweet.\n\n“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”\n\n2:38 p.m.: Trump expresses support for Capitol Police and members of law enforcement, who had been overrun by rioters at the Capitol. He appeared to send this from the Oval Office as a Marine was stationed outside the office at the time of the tweet, typically indicating the president is inside.\n\n“Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”\n\n3:13 p.m.: About 10 minutes after rioters are photographed on the Senate floor, Trump calls for peaceful protests.\n\n\"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!\" he tweeted.\n\n4:17 p.m.: Hours after the attack unfolded, Trump speaks publicly for the first time in a recorded video message posted on social media.\n\n\"I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now,\" Trump said in the minute-long video.\n\n\"We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. ... So go home. We love you, you’re very special. ... I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”\n\n6:01 p.m.: Trump tweets - and deletes - a post suggesting that the Capitol riot was the result of a fraudulent election, an unsubstantiated claim with no evidence to support it.\n\n“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”\n\nSome of Trump's tweets addressing the riot were deleted. Twitter bans the president from tweeting for 12 hours. He is later permanently banned from the platform, as well as others.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/10/politics/trump-civil-liability-insurrection-court-hearing/index.html", "title": "Trump's potential liability for Capitol riot faces major test in court", "text": "(CNN) A federal judge in Washington, DC, questioned former President Donald Trump 's actions during his speech on January 6, 2021, as he considers for the first time whether Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol .\n\nDuring a court hearing Monday, Judge Amit Mehta pointed out repeatedly that Trump on January 6 asked the crowd to march to the Capitol, but that he didn't speak up for two hours asking people to stop the violence.\n\n\"The words are hard to walk back,\" Mehta said. \"You have an almost two-hour window where the President does not say, 'Stop, get out of the Capitol. This is not what I wanted you to do.'\"\n\n\"What do I do about the fact the President didn't denounce the conduct immediately ... and sent a tweet that arguably exacerbated things?\" the judge asked. \"Isn't that, from a plausibility standpoint, that the President plausibly agreed with the conduct of the people inside the Capitol that day?\"\n\nMehta didn't rule at the end of the nearly five-hour hearing Monday, and rarely showed which way he was leaning. He noted to the dozen or so participants on the call, including several members of Congress, that it was not an easy case.\n\nThe major hearing is part of a trio of insurrection-related lawsuits seeking to hold Trump and other Republican figures like Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama accountable at a time when the House select committee probing January 6 has aggressively investigated the political leaders who inspired the attack, and as the Justice Department is prosecuting more than 700 rioters for criminal offenses.\n\nMehta's line of questioning is a foreboding sign for Trump, at least as people seek damages through civil litigation following the insurrection. Some of the lawsuits at issue use a civil rights law, commonly called the KKK Act, that allows for lawsuits when officials are intimidated from doing their public duties.\n\nIt is the first major test of whether civil litigation is a viable route to holding Trump accountable for the violence toward Congress, after he was acquitted by the Senate in his second impeachment trial last February.\n\nIf Trump's call to action at the rally was misinterpreted by the crowd, and they still became violent, \"Wouldn't somebody who's a reasonable person say, 'That's not what I meant?'\" Mehta asked a lawyer arguing against the insurrection lawsuits. The judge pointed out that even Donald Trump Jr., another defendant in court Monday, texted the White House chief of staff before Trump spoke up, asking for the President to condemn the violence.\n\nTrump and his close supporters say they're protected by the First Amendment, that Trump and others were speaking on January 6 as public officials and that they weren't agreeing to be part of a conspiracy with the violent crowd under the law.\n\nTrump's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, has argued everything Trump said while serving as President should be immune from liability -- including on January 6 as well as in a call to Georgia officials asking them to \"find\" votes in early 2021 and at campaign rallies -- and is protected from any lawsuits, because it was all part of his official actions as President.\n\nBinnall also argued that Trump encouraged the crowd to act \"peacefully and patriotically.\"\n\n\"You would have me ignore what [Trump] said in its entirety?\" Mehta asked minutes into the hearing. The judge pointed to a Supreme Court case related to the Johnson and Nixon administrations that established the parameters of presidential immunity.\n\n\"To say that a speech before Congress is the equivalent to a campaign trail stump speech\" doesn't appear to be what the Supreme Court had ruled on the boundaries of presidential immunity, Mehta said.\n\nThe lawmakers say they were threatened by Trump and others as part of a conspiracy to stop the congressional session that would certify the 2020 presidential election on January 6, according to the complaints. And they argue that Trump should bear responsibility for directing the assaults.\n\nSwalwell, who described his position in the case in an interview on CNN on Sunday, said he expects Monday's hearing to be long. He noted, however, that he and others will not be permitted into the courtroom because of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases. Instead, the participants will speak to the judge over videoconference.\n\nJUST WATCHED Watch President Biden's entire January 6th speech Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Watch President Biden's entire January 6th speech 24:34\n\nIf the judge rules in favor of Swalwell and others who have sued, the California Democrat said he expects \"it's going to speed up, and hopefully we'll move to more depositions and evidence discovery very soon.\"\n\nThe police officers, in their lawsuit, say they were hit by chemical sprays and objects the crowd threw at them, like water bottles and signs, because Trump inspired the crowd.\n\n\"Defendant's followers, already primed by his months of inflammatory rhetoric, were spurred to direct action,\" the lawsuit from Blassingame and Hemby said. \"Had Trump committed directly the conduct committed by his followers, it would have subjected Trump to direct liability.\"\n\nSix additional lawsuits against Trump and others for their roles in the insurrection are also in front of the same court, but haven't reached the point of being argued yet.\n\nIn the three cases before Mehta on Monday, the defendants include Trump, Brooks, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and right-wing groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. In court, they are distancing themselves from the actions of the crowd on January 6 , and asking Mehta to dismiss the cases. According to Trump's arguments, allowing the lawsuits to go forward would \"drastically\" chill political speech and prompt dozens of lawsuits aimed at damaging electoral opponents.\n\nTrump and his top advisers haven't been charged with any crimes. Several leaders in the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who have been criminally charged with conspiracy have pleaded not guilty.\n\nCongressman defends himself\n\nIn an unusual situation for a court hearing, Brooks defended himself on Monday, saying he was acting in his job as a congressman when he warmed the pro-Trump crowd on January 6.\n\nThe Justice Department has argued that Brooks should be on his own as he's being sued -- not to be protected by the government, because his speech was at a campaign event and he was advocating for Trump.\n\nWhen asked on Monday if Brooks had spoken as a way to campaign for Trump, he said he would \"reject it.\" \"Name the campaign,\" he added, echoing Trump's lawyers' claims that Trump's 2020 campaign ceased to exist when he lost the election in November and that he was speaking as President.\n\nBrooks argues his speech on January 6 -- when he called for \"kicking ass\" of Congress --was generally about the Electoral College certification vote planned for that day.\n\nMehta seemed somewhat sympathetic to Brooks' position. If he rules in his favor, it could let Brooks off the hook from paying damages related to claims of injury Democratic members of Congress and police are pursuing.\n\nThe judge, questioning the Justice Department, quoted parts of Brooks' speech where he spoke about the congressional vote planned for that day.\n\nIt's typical for even outside lawyers to argue cases when their clients are suing or are sued, even if the clients themselves are lawyers.\n\nBrooks appeared to be speaking from his office on the videoconference with the court. When he wasn't speaking, he wore a black mask to cover his nose and mouth, printed with two words in red: \"Free speech.\"\n\nCalls for combat\n\nThe Democratic representatives' cases specifically focus on the language Trump, Brooks and others used at the \"Stop the Steal\" rally on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, directly before the attack.\n\nTrump told the crowd to \"show strength\" and \"walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,\" for instance, while Brooks, in his speech, said, \"Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.\" Also at the rally, Giuliani told the crowd to have \"trial by combat.\"\n\nFollowing the speeches, hundreds of pro-Trump rally-goers marched to the Capitol, severely beating law enforcement officers guarding the building and breaking through barricades and windows to get inside. Many then ransacked congressional offices and some chanted \"treason\" as they overtook the Senate chamber, from which lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence had been evacuated minutes before.\n\nJUST WATCHED Reporter explains why McConnell isn't talking about Trump Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Reporter explains why McConnell isn't talking about Trump 01:42\n\n\"The President has been very clear he was there at the Ellipse as President,\" Binnall said in court Friday \"He was advocating for Congress to take or not take certain actions. ... We are dead center on immunity.\"\n\nAfter the Senate voted not to convict Trump last February, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed to lawsuits as an avenue for retribution.\n\nThe Kentucky Republican said Trump was \"still liable for everything he did while he was in office\" and noted \"we have civil litigation\" from which a president would not be immune.\n\nThe lawsuits could take months or even years to see resolutions.\n\nThis story has been updated with details from the court hearing.", "authors": ["Katelyn Polantz", "Cnn Reporter", "Crime"], "publish_date": "2022/01/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/09/politics/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-thursday/index.html", "title": "Jan. 6: Takeaways from the prime-time committee hearing on ...", "text": "(CNN) The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack held its first prime-time hearing Thursday evening, detailing the findings of the panel's investigation and playing new video from closed-door depositions of members of former President Donald Trump's team and depicting the violence at the Capitol.\n\nThursday's hearing was the first in a series this month that will highlight the findings of the panel's investigation, which included interviews with more than 1,000 people about how Trump and his team tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election on multiple fronts.\n\nWhile many details have been reported by CNN and other media outlets, the committee's hearings will try to tell the story of January 6 to the American people.\n\nHere are the key takeaways from the hearing:\n\nVisceral footage revives January 6 horrors\n\nThe committee played a compilation of some of the most disturbing footage from the January 6 attack.\n\nThey included some never-before seen material, including birds-eye view footage from security cameras that showed the enormous pro-Trump mob as it started swarming the Capitol grounds.\n\nThe footage also showed how the crowd took its cues directly from Trump, with one rioter reading a Trump tweet on a megaphone for the other rioters to hear. In that tweet, Trump criticized Pence for announcing that he would not overturn the results of the 2020 election while presiding over the joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden's win.\n\nJUST WATCHED Watch: The Jan. 6 committee plays never-before-seen video footage Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Watch: The Jan. 6 committee plays never-before-seen video footage 12:04\n\nAfter that moment, the committee's montage showed a now-infamous clip of Trump supporters chanting, \"Hang Mike Pence.\"\n\nThen they showed a photograph of a makeshift noose and gallows that the rioters erected near the Capitol, as well as a haunting clip of other rioters shouting \"Nancy! Nancy!\" as they converged on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, searching for her.\n\nThese clips immediately harkened back the horrors of January 6, which can easily get lost amid the partisan bickering over the committee and its investigation. But underneath this probe, there was a violent and deadly attack, that injured more than 140 police officers and lead to several deaths. The visceral footage served as a frightening reminder of a dark day in US history.\n\nTrump didn't want the riot to stop\n\nThe committee revealed testimony from Trump White House officials who said the former President did not want the US Capitol attack to stop, angrily resisted his own advisers who were urging him to call off the rioters and thought his own vice president \"deserved\" to be hanged.\n\nIt also offers a new window into Trump's demeanor during the riot -- something the committee has repeatedly suggested would be a key part of their public hearings.\n\nVice chair Liz Cheney described testimony from a witness who said Trump was aware of chants to \"Hang Mike Pence\" and seemed to approve of them.\n\n\"Aware of the rioters' chants to 'hang Mike Pence,' the President responded with this sentiment: [quote] 'Maybe our supporters have the right idea.' Mike Pence [quote] 'deserves' it,\" she said.\n\nCheney has previously characterized Trump's inaction on January 6 during those 187 minutes as a \"dereliction of duty.\"\n\nProud Boys and Oath Keepers take center stage\n\nThe committee introduced the American public to two of the most militant far-right extremist groups in the country, which were present on January 6: The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.\n\nThese groups were at the vanguard of the riot. They were among the first to breach the building, and are accused of planning violence. Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who testified on Thursday, said he was with the Proud Boys when they converged on the Capitol before Trump's speech at the Ellipse, showing that they weren't interested in the rally and were eyeing the Capitol.\n\nThompson and Cheney sought to link Trump directly to these extremists, including his comment during a September 2020 debate that the Proud Boys should \"stand back and stand by.\" They showed new testimony from Proud Boys leaders about how they viewed that as a call to arms.\n\nFederal prosecutors at the Justice Department have charged 17 members of these groups with seditious conspiracy -- an extremely serious allegation that the committee highlighted Thursday.\n\nCapitol Police officer's gripping testimony\n\nUS Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was the first witness who testified, becoming the face of the violence against law enforcement that day.\n\nThe committee said that Edwards was the first officer injured by the rioters. She described her pride in her job to \"protect America's symbol of democracy\" -- and the vicious public scrutiny she endured after she was knocked unconscious and suffered a traumatic brain injury during the attack.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I was slipping in people's blood': Capitol police officer recalls graphic scene from Jan 6. Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I was slipping in people's blood': Capitol police officer recalls graphic scene from Jan 6. 02:43\n\n\"I was called a lot of things on January 6, 2021 and the days thereafter,\" said Edwards. \"I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain. I was called a traitor to my country, my home, and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things.\"\n\n\"I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself how many time -- many, many times -- how we had gotten here. I had been called names before, but never had my patriotism or duty been called into question,\" added Edwards.\n\nEdwards called herself \"the proud granddaughter\" of a Marine veteran who fought in the Korean War.\n\n\"I am my grandfather's granddaughter, proud to put on a uniform and serve my country,\" said Edwards. \"They dared to question my honor. They dared to question my loyalty. And they dared to question my duty. I am a proud American, and I will gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come.\"\n\nUS Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman will testify during a hearing next week against two defendants who were part of the riot. Goodman, who steered a mob away from the Senate chamber during the insurrection just moments before it was secured with the members still inside, told CNN this week that it will be the first time he's given public testimony about the events of that day.\n\nTrump's team and family turn against him\n\nThe committee's first hearing was bolstered with never-before-seen video clips showing members of Trump's White House and campaign -- as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner -- speaking about how they didn't believe Trump's claims that the election was stolen.\n\nJUST WATCHED Rep. Liz Cheney shows testimony from Ivanka Trump, Bill Barr and Jason Miller Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Rep. Liz Cheney shows testimony from Ivanka Trump, Bill Barr and Jason Miller 06:05\n\nFormer Attorney General William Barr said that Trump's claims of voter fraud were \"bullshit.\"\n\nIvanka Trump said that she respected Barr and \"accepted what he was saying\" about the election.\n\nTrump spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign data person told Trump in \"pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.\"\n\nAnd the committee cited testimony from Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon, who testified he told Meadows by \"mid-to-late November\" that the campaign had come up empty trying to find widespread fraud in key states that Trump lost. Cannon said Meadows responded to his assessment by saying, \"So there's no there there.\"\n\nStaffers fled top GOP Rep. McCarthy's office, but GOP turned back to Trump\n\nOne of the new videos the committee unveiled showed staffers in House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's office frantically rushing out after rioters had breached the Capitol.\n\nThe clip was notable because of McCarthy's role on January 6 -- and his opposition to the January 6 committee that he has shown ever since.\n\nOn January 6, McCarthy had a heated phone call with Trump as the riot was ongoing. The January 6 committee has subpoenaed McCarthy seeking information about the call. And in the days immediately after the insurrection, McCarthy said Trump \"bears responsibility\" for the attack.\n\nBut soon after January 6, McCarthy cozied back up to Trump. He opposed the creation of a commission to investigate the January 6 attack and has repeatedly criticized the committee throughout the course of its investigation.\n\nThursday's hearing showed how the committee -- and Cheney, who was ousted last year from her GOP leadership position by McCarthy -- are focused on the Republican leader.\n\nIn her opening statement Cheney said that leaders on Capitol Hill \"begged the President\" for help, including McCarthy. She said that McCarthy was \"scared\" and called multiple members of Trump's family after being unable to persuade Trump himself.\n\nPence -- not Trump -- called for help\n\nThe committee also showed new video from its interview with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley saying Pence was the one who ordered National Guard troops to respond to the violence on January 6, but that he was told by the White House to say it was Trump.\n\n\"Vice President Pence -- there were two or three calls with Vice President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that,\" Milley says in the video.\n\n\"He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller. 'Get the military down here, get the guard down here. Put down this situation, et cetera,'\" he added, referring to Pence.\n\nMilley also described his interactions with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that day, drawing a stark contrast between those conversations with Pence.\n\n\"He said: We have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect,\" Milley says in the video, referring to what Meadows told him.\n\n\"I immediately interpreted that as politics, politics, politics. Red flag for me, personally. No action. But I remember it distinctly,\" he added.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional information.", "authors": ["Jeremy Herb", "Marshall Cohen", "Zachary Cohen", "Alex Rogers"], "publish_date": "2022/06/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/politics/january-6-hearings-day-3-what-to-expect/index.html", "title": "What to expect on Day 3 of January 6: A focus on Mike Pence ...", "text": "(CNN) Thursday's hearing from the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection will be all about former Vice President Mike Pence , who was at the center of former President Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021.\n\nCommittee aides said the hearing would make the case that Trump's pressure campaign against Pence had \"directly contributed\" to the violence on January 6, which placed Pence's life in danger as rioters chanted, \" Hang Mike Pence .\"\n\nAides said the hearing would include new materials and documents about Pence's movements on January 6 and what he was doing when the Senate chamber was forced to evacuate after rioters breached the US Capitol.\n\nThe hearing will focus on Trump attorney John Eastman 's theory that Pence had the authority to overturn the election results when Congress certified Joe Biden's victory on January 6, 2021. It was a theory that was rejected by Trump's own White House attorneys, but Trump and his allies embraced it, pressuring Pence to help him subvert the election in the weeks leading up to January 6.\n\nThe committee teased testimony on Tuesday, with a clip showing Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann's angry reaction to Eastman continuing to push the case the day after January 6.\n\nThe January 6 committee has obtained a trove of emails Eastman sent related to his efforts to overturn the election that could shed new light on the Trump attorney's thinking in the days leading up to January 6. Eastman had tried to block the House from accessing many of his emails, claiming they're protected as confidential attorney-client communications, but a judge has disagreed with him repeatedly and ordered them turned over.\n\nTwo witnesses will testify at Thursday's hearing who advised Pence that he did not have the authority to subvert the election, former Pence attorney Greg Jacob and retired Republican judge J. Michael Luttig\n\nThe focus on both Eastman and Trump's effort to overturn the election and the ensuing violence on January 6 reiterates a theme the committee has emphasized in its first two June hearings: that Trump's scheme to stop his election loss led to the attack on the Capitol.\n\nPence will be the focus, but not there\n\nOne person who will be noticeably absent Thursday is the former vice president himself.\n\nEarlier this year, the committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, had suggested the committee would seek testimony from Pence. Still, the prospect of Pence appearing before the committee, particularly in public, has always been viewed as a long shot -- to say the least.\n\nBut as the committee makes its case that Trump was pushing his vice president to unilaterally overturn the election on January 6, Pence's absence will undoubtedly be felt.\n\nAsked Wednesday if the committee is still interested in hearing from Pence himself, committee aides demurred, telling reporters the investigation is ongoing and therefore they cannot provide details about any engagement with a particular witness.\n\n\"Nothing new to share on that, other than we continue to search for facts and if there is more to share, we'll share it in the future,\" one of the aides said.\n\nThe fact that two of Pence's former advisers are scheduled to appear Thursday, and his former chief of staff Marc Short testified on camera behind closed doors , indicates that Pence was not actively seeking to block those around him from sharing information with the committee in his stead.\n\nPence is expected to travel to Ohio on Thursday for a roundtable discussion about energy.\n\nA judge and a lawyer\n\nThe two witnesses appearing Thursday, Jacob and Luttig, each played a key role in helping Pence stand up to Trump's pressure campaign. And both can speak to how Trump and his allies were warned that his plan for Pence to throw out electoral votes on January 6 was illegal.\n\nJacob was a lawyer for Pence and helped the vice president's team articulate that the Constitution did not give Pence more than ceremonial authority when Congress certified Biden's victory. Luttig helped provide public cover for Pence, tweeting out a thread at the urging of Pence's team to explain why Pence could not do as Trump wished. Interestingly, Eastman is a former clerk for Luttig.\n\nPence cited Luttig's statement in the letter released January 6 explaining why he would not stop the certification of the election.\n\nJacob also played a role behind the scenes on January 6 while he was being evacuated from the Senate with Pence, exchanging heated emails over what was transpiring, which were revealed in court filings.\n\n\"Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege,\" Jacob wrote\n\nEastman responded: \"The 'siege' is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.\"\n\nShort, Pence's former top aide, spoke to the committee via deposition, and committee aides said they expect to use portions of his interview during Thursday's hearing. But there's no indication the committee will call him to testify during the public hearings.\n\nIt's not unlike how the committee featured former Attorney General William Barr's deposition during Monday's hearing but did not have him appear for public testimony.\n\n'A great effing criminal defense lawyer'\n\nThe committee previewed its Thursday hearing by releasing a video clip from its deposition of Herschmann.\n\nIn the clip, Herschmann outlines how he warned Eastman to back off plans to file appeals in Georgia based on the election results after the events of January 6, 2021.\n\n\"He started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something, potentially, for appeal,\" Herschmann says in the video. \"And I said to him, 'Are you out of your effing mind? Because I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on: orderly transition.' I said, 'I don't want to hear any other effing words coming out of your mouth no matter what, other than 'orderly transition.' Repeat those words to me.\"\n\nHe then goes on to warn Eastman that his actions could potentially be against the law.\n\n\"Eventually he said, 'Orderly transition.' I said, 'Good, John. Now I'm gonna give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life: Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. You're gonna need it.' And I hung up on him.\"\n\nThe video likely foreshadows what will be an underlying theme of Thursday's hearing as the committee plans to highlight how Trump continued to embrace Eastman's plan for overturning the election despite the insistence from his top lawyers that it was not sound legal advice.\n\nAnd by attempting to carry out that plan, it is more likely than not that Trump and Eastman committed a crime, according to Herschmann and a federal judge in California who issued an opinion on the topic in a related case earlier this year.\n\nStaff attorney will ask questions Thursday\n\nThe format of Thursday's hearing will have a new wrinkle, according to committee aides: Committee counsel John Wood will do some of the questioning of witnesses.\n\nThe inclusion of a staff attorney harkens back to House Democrats' impeachment hearings in 2019, when staff attorneys conducted lengthy questioning of witnesses before the more traditional five-minute rounds were used for House lawmakers.\n\nThe select committee has limited who has spoken at the hearings so far, with one member focused on leading each session. On Thursday, Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar in California will have that task.\n\nThe committee postponed its planned hearing on Wednesday, which was to have focused on the Justice Department. Now it will hold two hearings next week, and more are likely to come the following week, though the committee has yet to announce specific times or topics for those.", "authors": ["Jeremy Herb", "Zachary Cohen", "Annie Grayer", "Ryan Nobles"], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/january-6-hearing-day-6-takeaways-hutchinson/index.html", "title": "January 6 hearings: 7 takeaways from day 6 - CNNPolitics", "text": "Hutchinson has cooperated extensively with the investigation, having sat for four closed-door depositions. She revealed how then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle were warned about the potential for violence on January 6, and how Trump wanted to join the throngs of his supporters at the US Capitol.\n\nThe testimony bolstered the narrative that the committee has been driving toward over the last few weeks: That Trump incited and supported the insurrection as part of a desperate power grab to steal a second term, and that many of his top advisers thought his schemes were illegal.\n\nHere are takeaways from Hutchinson's key testimony.\n\nTrump and his chief of staff were warned about violence -- including armed attendees of rally\n\nHutchinson really moved the ball forward in terms of establishing that Trump was personally aware of the potential for violence, yet forged ahead on January 6 with his attempts to rile up his supporters to interfere with the joint session of Congress to certify President Joe Biden's victory.\n\nShe said Trump was told that morning that weapons were being confiscated from some of his supporters who came for his rally. Later, when Trump and his team were at the Ellipse -- the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House -- and before his speech, Trump barked out orders to his staffers to \"take the mags away\" -- referring to the metal detectors -- because the people in the crowd, \"they're not here to hurt me.\"\n\nTrump also said, \"I don't f**king care that they have weapons,\" according to Hutchinson. This is particularly shocking, because Trump then encouraged the same crowd to march to the Capitol while lawmakers were affirming Biden's win. (Hundreds of Trump's diehard supporters soon stormed the Capitol, many carrying knives, bear spray, metal poles, tasers and a few guns.)\n\nJUST WATCHED Ex-aide was backstage with Trump at his Jan. 6 rally. Here's what she heard him say Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ex-aide was backstage with Trump at his Jan. 6 rally. Here's what she heard him say 02:52\n\nWhen Hutchinson told her boss, Meadows, about early reports of weapons getting confiscated, Meadows didn't even look up from his phone, according to Hutchinson. Two days earlier, he told her that \"things might get real, real, bad on January 6.\"\n\n\"The potential for violence was learned or known before the onset of the violence, early enough for President Trump to have taken steps to prevent it,\" said Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel's GOP vice chair. She added that Trump could have urged his supporters not to march to the Capitol, or condemned the violence more quickly, but didn't, because he \"had something else in mind.\"\n\nTrump intended to go the Capitol and pushed to do so until the last minute\n\nThe select committee effectively proved as much on Tuesday by featuring a mix of damning witness testimony and White House records that show Trump intended to join his supporters at the Capitol and was pushing to do so just minutes before the violence began to escalate.\n\nIt was previously known that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but Hutchinson's testimony established for the first time that people around Trump had advance knowledge of this plan.\n\nThe reality of Trump's intentions became clear to national security officials in real time as they learned the Secret Service was scrambling to find a way for the former President to travel to the Capitol while he was on stage urging his followers to march, according to National Security Council chat logs from that day that were revealed for the first time during Tuesday's hearing.\n\nThe NSC chat logs provide a minute-by-minute accounting of how the situation evolved from the perspective of top White House national security officials on January 6 and, along with witness testimony delivered on Tuesday, contradict an account by Meadows in his book where he says Trump never intended to march to the Capitol.\n\n\"MOGUL's going to the Capital ... they are clearing a route now,\" a message sent to the chat log at 12:29 p.m. ET on January 6 reads -- referring to the former President's secret service code name.\n\n\"MilAide has confirmed that he wants to walk,\" a 12:32 p.m. message reads. \"They are begging him to reconsider.\"\n\n\"So this is happening,\" a message sent at 12:47 p.m. states.\n\nHutchinson also testified that some in Trump's orbit had made clear days before January 6 that Trump wanted to travel to the US Capitol.\n\nShe told the committee Tuesday that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told her on January 2 -- four days before the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters -- that \"we're going to the Capitol\" on January 6, and that Trump himself was also planning to be there.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'This was obscene': Tapper reacts to ex-White House aide's Jan. 6 testimony Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'This was obscene': Tapper reacts to ex-White House aide's Jan. 6 testimony 05:28\n\nAide recounts secondhand incident where Trump reached for steering wheel\n\nHutchinson testified Tuesday that she heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol on January 6 that he lunged to the front of his presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel.\n\nShe said that Tony Ornato, then-White House deputy chief of staff, said that Robert Engel, who was the Secret Service agent in charge on January 6, repeatedly told Trump on their way back to the White House after Trump's Ellipse speech that it wasn't safe to go to the Capitol.\n\nAccording to Hutchinson, Ornato recounted Trump screaming, \"I'm the f**king President. Take me up to the Capitol now.\" Trump then \"reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel,\" Hutchinson remembered learning. She added that, according to Ornato, Trump used his other hand \"lunge\" at Engel.\n\nEngel and Ornato have both testified to the committee behind closed doors, but their statements were not used in the hearing Tuesday.\n\nAfter the testimony, a Secret Service official familiar with the matter told CNN that Ornato denies telling Hutchinson that the former President grabbed the wheel or an agent on his detail.\n\nThe Secret Service, through the Department of Homeland Security Office of Legislative Affairs, notified the committee Tuesday afternoon that it will make the agents involved available to testify under oath, the official said. The agents are also prepared to say under oath that the incident itself did not occur.\n\nThe lead agent, Engel, previously testified before the committee and described the interactions with Trump on January 6, including the former President's desire to travel to the Capitol, but he was not asked about an altercation or being assaulted, the official said.\n\nAsked about the Secret Service disputing the testimony, a committee spokesman said, \"The committee trusts the creditability of a witness who is willing to testify under oath and in public but is also willing to hear any and all information that others may have that would aid in their investigation.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Secret Service officials: Agents willing to dispute Trump SUV incident under oath Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Secret Service officials: Agents willing to dispute Trump SUV incident under oath 03:21\n\nHutchinson also recounted a separate Trump tantrum after then-Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press in December 2020 there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.\n\n\"I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway,\" Hutchinson began. She saw the President's valet in the dining room, changing the tablecloth, ketchup dripping down the wall, and a porcelain plate shattered on the floor.\n\n\"The President was extremely angry at the attorney general's ... interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall,\" Hutchinson said. \"I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall.\"\n\nThe anecdote came up as the committee questioned Hutchinson about Trump's state of mind after losing the election.\n\nCipollone warned: 'People are going to die and the blood's gonna be on your f**king hands'\n\nTrump defended the rioters chanting for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, according to Hutchinson.\n\nHutchinson relayed a conversation she observed between White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Meadows after they discussed with Trump the chants to inflict violence on Pence.\n\n\"I remember Pat saying something to the effect of 'Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be f**king hung,'\" Hutchinson recalled.\n\nMeadows replied, \"You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong,\" according to Hutchinson.\n\nCipollone responded, \"This is f**king crazy. We need to be doing something more.\"\n\nHutchinson testified that Cipollone had previously rushed into Meadows' office after rioters breached the Capitol and told Meadows what had happened, and said they needed to go meet with Trump.\n\n\"Mark, something needs to be done, or people are going to die and the blood's gonna be on your f**king hands,\" Cipollone told Meadows, according to Hutchinson. \"This is getting out of control.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear John Dean's direct message to ex-Trump White House lawyer Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear John Dean's direct message to ex-Trump White House lawyer 01:48\n\n'There was a large concern' in White House of the 25th Amendment being invoked after riot\n\nTrump delivered a speech on January 7, 2021, finally acknowledging that Biden would be inaugurated in part because there was a \"large concern\" by the White House that Pence and the Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from power, according to Cassidy's testimony.\n\nHutchinson also testified that Trump did not want to include references in the speech to prosecuting the pro-Trump rioters, but instead wanted to float pardons for them. After the White House Counsel's office pushed back, Trump did not mention pardons in that speech.\n\nIf the 25th Amendment had been invoked, Trump could've put his presidency up for a vote before Congress, where two-thirds would have been necessary to kick him out.\n\n\"There was a large concern of the 25th Amendment potentially being invoked, and there were concerns about what would happen in the Senate if it was,\" Hutchinson testified.\n\nThe thinking at the time was that Trump needed the speech \"as cover\" to protect himself from the threat of his Cabinet trying to oust him from power, Hutchinson said. She said that was a \"secondary reason\" for Trump to give the speech; the first was that Trump needed to condemn the violent attack to try and prevent it from becoming his legacy.\n\nWhile Trump gave the speech effectively conceding the election, he wanted to remove calls for \"prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent\" from early drafts of his January 7 speech, according to Hutchinson, but wanted to float pardons to his supporters.\n\n\"He didn't want that in there,\" Hutchinson said. \"He wanted to put in that he wanted to potentially pardon them.\"\n\n\"He didn't think that they did anything wrong,\" said Hutchinson, referring to the pro-Trump rioters. \"The people who did something wrong that day-or-the person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence, by not standing with him.\"\n\nTrump's conduct on January 6 was 'un-American' and 'unpatriotic,' Hutchinson says\n\nIn emotional and powerful testimony, Hutchinson said Trump's behavior on January 6 was \"unpatriotic\" and \"un-American.\"\n\nThe committee asked Hutchinson to describe her real-time reaction from January 6, when Trump attacked Pence in a tweet at 2:24 p.m. ET, which was after his supporters invaded the Capitol, forcing Pence, lawmakers, and staffers to run for their lives.\n\n\"As a staffer ... I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed, and really, it felt personal. It was really sad,\" Hutchinson said. \"As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We're watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie. And it was something that was really hard in that moment to digest. ... I still struggle to work through the emotions of that.\"\n\nHer condemnation of Trump's behavior may shed some light on her motivations for coming forward with so much damaging information about January 6. Committee members have heaped praise on Hutchinson and other Republicans who have testified, calling them patriots.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how close rioters got to Pence as they breached the Capitol Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how close rioters got to Pence as they breached the Capitol 03:07\n\nCommittee teases evidence of witness tampering\n\nThe committee has secured testimony from some major witnesses members of Trump's inner circle, even members of his family. But Cheney suggested during the hearing that there might be a Trump-imposed blockade of sorts, and that the panel has evidence of witness tampering.\n\nShe said one witness -- whom the committee did not identify -- testified that: \"What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I'm on the team, I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect, you know, I'll continue to stay in good graces in Trump world.\"\n\nAnother unidentified witness said they were told by someone in Trump's orbit that Trump was \"thinking about you\" and that \"he knows you're loyal\" and hopes that \"you're going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.\"\n\nCheney said the committee takes this \"seriously\" and will be considering \"next steps,\" potentially hinting at a criminal referral, for possible witness tampering or obstruction. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the committee chairman, issued a public plea for more cooperation, saying to potential witnesses that if \"you discovered some courage you had hidden away somewhere, our doors remain open.\"\n\nTrump has denied all wrongdoing regarding January 6 and the related investigations.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.\n\nCORRECTION: This story has been corrected to note that Trump did not mention pardons for rioters in his January 7, 2021, speech.", "authors": ["Marshall Cohen", "Zachary Cohen", "Alex Rogers"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/06/politics/january-6-anniversary/index.html", "title": "Biden condemns Trump as a threat to democracy in speech marking ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden on Thursday marked the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection by forcefully calling out former President Donald Trump for attempting to undo American democracy, saying such an insurrection must never happen again.\n\nBiden vowed to defend the nation's founding ideals from the threats posed by the violent mob that stormed the Capitol one year ago and the prevailing lies that Trump and his allies continue to repeat about the 2020 election. An animated Biden made one of the most passionate addresses of his still-young presidency as he harkened back to critical moments from the nation's past, casting the assault as a living symbol of the inflection point in American history he so often speaks about.\n\n\"For the first time in our history, a President had not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol,\" Biden said in a speech from the US Capitol that lasted just under 30 minutes. \"But they failed. They failed. And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again.\"\n\nIn a direct shot at Trump, Biden added, \"His bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution, he can't accept he lost.\"\n\nBiden has typically avoided speaking directly about his predecessor since taking office, and pointedly did not say his name on Thursday -- instead making more than a dozen references to \"the former President.\"\n\nBut the President's blistering speech nonetheless confronted Trump's election lies and post-presidency behavior, accusing him of spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election, refusing to accept defeat and holding him accountable for inciting a violent mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol.\n\n\"A former President of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He's done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest and America's interest,\" Biden said.\n\nBiden again emphasized the core message of his 2020 presidential campaign and the reason why he ran against Trump: \"We are in a battle for the soul of America.\"\n\nThe President warned democracy and the \"promise of America\" is at risk and called on the American public to \"stand for the rule of law, to preserve the flame of democracy.\"\n\nHe called for protecting voting rights across the nation and blasted Trump and his supporters for attempting to \"suppress your vote and subvert our elections.\"\n\n\"It's wrong. It's undemocratic. And frankly it's un-American,\" Biden said.\n\nOn Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats took part in a series of events following Biden's speech to commemorate the January 6 anniversary, including moments of silence on the House and Senate floors and speeches from lawmakers describing their personal experiences of the harrowing attack.\n\nBiden's comments come as Democrats make a renewed push to get two voting rights bills -- the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act -- passed in the Senate. The two pieces of legislation were introduced in response to Republicans enacting laws across the country making it harder for people to vote following record turnout in the 2020 election. Virtually every Republican in Congress opposes the legislation and it is unclear whether Democrats will be able to pass the bills.\n\n\"Now let's step up, write the next chapter in American history, for January 6 marks not the end of democracy, but the beginning of a renaissance of liberty and fair play,\" Biden said.\n\nAfter his speech, Biden defended calling out Trump in such a direct way when asked by a reporter if he believed going after the former President would \"divide more than it heals.\"\n\nThe President responded: \"The way you have to heal, you have to recognize the extent of the wound. You can't pretend. This is serious stuff.\"\n\n\"You've got to face it. That's what great nations do. They face the truth, deal with it and move on,\" Biden said.\n\nA day of remembrance\n\nThe events of January 6, 2021, led to Trump's second impeachment by the House of Representatives. The insurrection launched the largest investigation in FBI history, with 700 people arrested and hundreds more offenders still at large. And a House select committee continues to investigate the events leading up to the riots. Two Trump allies -- Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon -- have been held in criminal contempt for declining to cooperate with committee investigators after being subpoenaed.\n\nThe events of the insurrection took place just two weeks before Biden's inauguration, casting a shadow on the new President's administration. And despite the slew of tossed out court cases, failed state election audits and countless debunked conspiracy claims, many Trump supporters have continued to doubt the legitimacy of Biden's presidency.\n\nIn his remarks, Biden said he did not ask to be president at a time when America's founding principles were under attack, but he was up for the fight.\n\n\"I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President also praised the police officers who stood against the attack for upholding the nation's way of life.\n\n\"One year ago today in this sacred place, democracy was attacked -- simply attacked. The will of the people was under assault, the Constitution -- our Constitution -- faced the gravest of threats. Outnumbered in the face of a brutal attack, the Capitol police, the DC Metropolitan Police Department, the National Guard and other brave law enforcement officials saved the rule of law. Our democracy held. We the people endured. We the people prevailed.\n\nVice President Kamala Harris spoke before Biden , saying: \"On January 6, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful: The lawlessness, the violence, the chaos.\"\n\n\"When I meet with young people, they often ask about the state of our democracy. About January 6. What I tell them is: January 6 reflects the dual nature of democracy. Its fragility and its strength,\" Harris added. \"You see, the strength of democracy is the rule of law.\"\n\nWhile Trump was expected to hold a news conference scheduled for the anniversary of the insurrection, it was abruptly canceled. Allies had warned it would cause unnecessary problems for Republicans and himself.\n\nInstead of his news conference on Thursday, Trump is expected to air his grievances at a campaign-style rally in Arizona next week.\n\nDemocrats pay tribute to Capitol police and condemn Trump\n\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer both spoke on Capitol Hill in remembrance of the January 6 anniversary.\n\nPelosi paid tribute to police officers and staff who helped protect the Capitol before leading a moment of silence on the House floor.\n\nThe speaker acknowledged \"the heroism of so many, particularly US Capitol Police\" and \"fallen heroes of that day.\"\n\n\"In the face of extreme danger, they all risked our safety for our democracy by protecting the Capitol complex.\"\n\n\"Because of them, and our members, the insurrection failed,\" she said.\n\nFormer Vice President Dick Cheney was on the House floor with his daughter GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Pelosi spoke with the Cheneys after her remarks and the moment of silence.\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in his own speech, warned of ever-present dangers to democracy and condemned former President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection.\n\n\"The warnings of history are clear: When democracies are in danger, it often starts with a mob. That's what happened a year ago, here in this building, a mob attack,\" he said.\n\n\"Donald Trump today continues to spread his poisonous vile about the big lie,\" he said. \"It was Donald Trump's big lie that soaked our political landscape in kerosene. It was Donald Trump's rally ... that struck the match, and then came the fire.\"\n\nDemocrats share personal experiences of the attack\n\nDemocratic lawmakers recounted haunting memories of the attack in speeches throughout the day.\n\nThey described feelings of terror, disbelief and anger as the attack unfolded. They recalled horrifying sounds: breaking glass, rioters pounding on doors and walls, a gunshot. They remembered frightening directives: how they had been told to put on gas masks and run for their lives. They told stories of heart-wrenching calls to loved ones not knowing what would happen next or if they would make it out alive.\n\nSchumer described how close he had come to the pro-Trump mob that day.\n\n\"I was within 30 feet of these nasty, racist, bigoted insurrectionists,\" he said. He added, \"I was told later that one of them reportedly said, 'There's the big Jew, let's get him.'\"\n\nSchumer said a police officer grabbed him by the collar at one point, and that it was a moment he would never forget.\n\n\"Senator, we got to get out of here, you're in danger,\" he recalled the officer telling him.\n\nMany Senate Democrats delivered speeches on the Senate floor beginning in the morning and lasting through the afternoon to commemorate the anniversary.\n\nSeparately, a group of House Democrats also gave testimonials about their experiences of the insurrection. Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, one of the lawmakers trapped inside the House chamber during the attack, presided over the event.\n\nIn addition to speeches from lawmakers, a moderated conversation took place in the afternoon featuring historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham.\n\nLater, in the evening, a candlelit prayer vigil was held on the center steps of the Capitol where House and Senate Democrats, including Pelosi and Schumer, participated.\n\nLawmakers' staff also received calls from Biden; the President wrote on Instagram Thursday evening that he telephoned Senate and House staff to hear their stories from the insurrection and thank them for their courage.\n\n\"In the face of a violent mob on January 6, House and Senate staff sprang into action to defend the Capitol and our democracy. I called some of them today to hear their stories and thank them for their courage. They are just a few of the unsung heroes of that day,\" Biden wrote.\n\nRepublicans reluctant to talk about Trump\n\nGOP leaders weren't in the Capitol on Thursday with the House out of session and a number of Republican senators traveling to Georgia to attend a memorial service for the late Sen. Johnny Isakson.\n\nWhile congressional Democrats put together a full day of events to bring attention to what happened during the insurrection, congressional Republicans, in contrast, have seemed reluctant to talk much about it and especially resistant to address Trump's role.\n\nIn a letter to House Republicans at the start of the new year, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy briefly mentioned the January 6 anniversary, but did not include any mention of the former President.\n\n\"The actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be. Our Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability,\" he wrote.\n\nMcCarthy then pivoted to criticizing Democrats.\n\n\"Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again. Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country,\" he said.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments Thursday.", "authors": ["Maegan Vazquez", "Clare Foran", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/01/06"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_9", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/business/kfc-chicken-nuggets/index.html", "title": "KFC just rolled out a new menu item to attract a younger crowd - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) KFC is trying out a new type of chicken nugget in an effort to attract younger consumers.\n\nStarting Monday, the chicken chain is offering Kentucky Fried Chicken Nuggets in restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a limited time. The nuggets are made with white meat and KFC's signature 11 herbs and spices, and they come in servings of eight, 12 or 36 pieces.\n\nKFC already offers a few different types of chicken, including popcorn nuggets, on its menu. But it's betting nuggets will be a draw for the younger set.\n\n\"We're targeting younger customers, like Gen Z and Millennials, who are interested in boneless chicken options,\" said a KFC spokesperson.\n\nKFC is testing out new chicken nuggets for a limited time.\n\nGen Z, which includes those currently between the ages of 18 and 24, is an important demographic for restaurants.", "authors": ["Danielle Wiener-Bronner", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/25/tim-hortons-grease-trap-bryce-raynors-death-rochester-kid-catcher/2443385001/", "title": "The untold story of Bryce Raynor's death in Tim Hortons grease trap", "text": "ROCHESTER, N.Y. – On the day he died, the second thing Bryce Raynor told his mother was that he wanted doughnuts for breakfast.\n\nThe first thing he said, after he burst into a toothy grin and gave his mother's neck a sleepy nuzzle, planting a gleefully wet kiss on her cheek, was that he really, really had to go potty.\n\nHe was just 3 years old, after all.\n\nFor Tenitia Cullum, Bryce's desire for a doughnut that morning felt like a bit of happy relief after a stressful start. She'd only just learned that her child care plans for the day had fallen through.\n\nShe gathered Bryce into her arms, kissed his smooth belly as he giggled, and promised him not only a bakery treat but also a bottle of cold apple juice – his favorite.\n\nTenitia had been working at the Tim Hortons on University Avenue for a little more than five months. Three days a week, when his mom headed to work, Bryce would go to day care. The other two days of her five-day workweek, however, Tenitia needed to find other arrangements.\n\nThis particular Monday in July was one of those days: Tenitia's aunt was lined up to keep watch over Bryce.\n\nBut not today. Something had come up, last minute. Tenitia was on her own.\n\nAnd she had to be at work in an hour.\n\nThis was the second time this had happened. But it would be OK, Tenitia thought: She'd just do what she did last time and bring Bryce with her. That way, she wouldn't lose out on the shift, wouldn't let her co-workers down and wouldn't have to call in sick. Part-time work, after all, doesn't come with full-time benefits.\n\nAlready in her uniform of black polo and slacks, and sturdy black sneakers on her feet, Tenitia slipped a T-shirt emblazoned with \"All Muscle\" over her son's head, pulled him up in a pair of gray shorts and cinched the laces on his black-and-gray Nike sneakers.\n\nBryce brushed his teeth; Tenitia finished her morning cigarette. Their Uber arrived, and hand-in-hand they set off to get that breakfast doughnut. The ride to work that day cost more than $8, or three-quarters of an hour of work.\n\nLess than two hours after mother and son arrived at Tim Hortons that day, Bryce would accidentally slip into a coffinlike 500-gallon underground water tank and drown.\n\nBuilding a future\n\nTenitia, born in Rochester, grew up in North Carolina where she and beau Bryan Raynor celebrated the birth of their son, Bryce, in 2016.\n\nBut the love affair didn't pan out, the relationship tattered, and about a year ago, Tenitia and Bryce headed up to Rochester. They were seeking better opportunities and the embrace of extended family.\n\nAt first, Tenitia got a job at Five Guys. She made close to minimum wage, working as many hours as possible, but it was enough for mother and son to get a small apartment on Eighth Street.\n\nRent was $675 a month. Add in utilities, and Tenitia's housing costs ate nearly three out of every four paychecks. (Weekly take-home pay for a minimum-wage worker at 30 hours a week is a little less than $300.)\n\nThere wasn't room in the budget for a car. (NerdWallet estimates the monthly operating costs of a car to be about $300, excluding any car payments.) But the bus worked for most trips. And in a pinch, there was always Uber – although a round trip to and from work could cost Tenitia nearly $17, approximately as much as she earned during an hour and a half of work.\n\nWhile there wasn't room in the budget for much else, really, they still made do together. For a few weeks late last year, the future looked dazzlingly brighter when Tenitia scored a full-time gig at Conduent, working as a call center representative. But she didn't fit with the work, or the work didn't fit with her, and either way there was a hasty, mutually agreed parting of ways.\n\nLosing that job started a quick downward spiral; it's what happens when you live paycheck-to-paycheck and the paychecks stop coming.\n\nAs Tenitia struggled to find new work, she fell behind on her rent.\n\nShe lost the apartment on Eighth Street, and she and Bryce moved in with an aunt on Hazelwood Terrace.\n\nIn February, she landed a new job at Tim Hortons.\n\nIt was a relief.\n\nOnly a moment\n\nAs Tenitia started her shift around 9 a.m. July 15, she set Bryce up at a table near the restaurant's front counter. She gave him his doughnut and an apple juice. She left him her phone so he could watch YouTube. Ken, the store manager, reassigned her from working near the drive-through to the front beverage station so she could keep one eye on her son. Amid their other tasks, her fellow employees – a close-knit work family, really – stopped by Bryce's table whenever they had a few free seconds to talk and joke with him, making sure he had everything he needed.\n\nThe morning rush slowed a little before quarter to 11, and Bryce's patience was wearing thin – a 3-year-old can sit still for only so long. It seemed like a good time for a quick break. Taking out the trash would be a perfect distraction, Tenitia thought: Bryce could have a couple of minutes outside to break up the morning before sitting through the rest of Mom's workday.\n\nTrash in one hand, Tenitia opened the restaurant's back door and Bryce bolted into the sunshine. He pumped his legs running and veered toward the side of the building, reveling in the moment's freedom.\n\nTenitia gently called him back and told him to stay on the grass by the door.\n\nShe turned her back for a just a second, so she could grab a few more trash bags and empty boxes.\n\nBut she stopped hearing the slap of his sneakers on the ground, or feeling his exuberant presence behind her.\n\nWhen she turned back around, Bryce wasn't there.\n\nHas anyone seen a little boy?\n\nAny restaurant with a commercial kitchen has a grease trap, better known as a grease interceptor. It helps filter grease, fats and oils out of a restaurant's wastewater, preventing troublesome clogs in the sanitary sewer system. In small kitchens, these traps might be inside, located near the dishwasher or main sink. In bigger kitchens, they're often outside, as close to the building as possible.\n\nAt the Tim Hortons on University Avenue in Rochester, New York, the grease trap is about 10 feet straight outside the back door. It's in a little grassy patch hemmed in by the parking lot, an outdoor freezer, the building and the drive-through menu board.\n\nThere's no fence. There are no signs warning of what lies below.\n\nThat's not unusual.\n\nTenitia must have passed the green plastic cover on that thing a hundred times, never giving it a thought all the weeks that she worked there. The round cover in the grass was just something that was. She didn't even know what was under it.\n\nEmployees didn't deal with it much, if ever. Police records show it was last cleaned two days before Bryce died. The work was done by a technician from grease removal service, Baker Commodities Inc.\n\nWhen Tenitia didn't see Bryce standing in the grass, she didn't panic. He must have slipped back around the side of the building, right? He'll be right there after I go around the corner, Tenitia thought.\n\nHe wasn't.\n\nShe hustled into the restaurant to see if he'd gone back inside.\n\nHe hadn't.\n\nFear mounting, she ran across a wide expanse of parking lot to the nearby KFC, burst into the dining room yelling, \"Has anyone seen a little boy?\"\n\nThey hadn't.\n\nWithin six minutes, her co-workers are on the phone with 911, reporting Bryce missing.\n\nAs police mustered their forces and a K-9 unit sped toward University Avenue for an area search, Tenitia and her co-workers checked the bathrooms again. They rustled through the bushes, stood in the parking lot and cried out his name. \"Bryce, Bryce!\"\n\nTenitia was near the front of the building when one of her co-workers out back had a terrible thought. She flipped the lid off the grease trap – it wasn't bolted in place –grabbed a broom and stirred at the viscous, fetid muck inside.\n\nA little pair of gray shorts came into view.\n\nA $44 fix, but no requirement\n\nThe Universal Kid Catcher is a round grid of bright yellow plastic. It's designed to fit inside the wide, round pipes called risers that lead from the top of a grease trap or septic tank to ground level.\n\nIt's a form of secondary protection that comes into play only if a lid is damaged or unsecured. With one of these in place, it is impossible for a child – or even a medium-size animal, for that matter – to inadvertently slip inside an underground tank.\n\nBut there are no laws that mandate their installation.\n\n\"I've been in this business for the better part of my life, and unfortunately this happens from time to time,\" said Patrick Gavin, president of Polylok Inc., the Connecticut-based company that produces the Universal Kid Catcher as well as other plastic injection molded products. \"And every time there's a tragedy like this, the phone rings, and people talk about passing legislation and say, 'Why don't we have a kid catcher or some kind of mandatory secondary protection?' but the truth is, we're probably going to have to have another tragedy before something is done in line with secondary protection.\"\n\nUniversal Kid Catcher: This could have saved Bryce Raynor\n\nFor Gavin, advocating for the devices isn't about money – at least four or five other companies manufacture similar products that are just as effective – it's about saving lives.\n\n\"It wrenches my gut that this has to happen for people to talk about this,\" he said. \"There are products that exist that can stop this. But until it's mandated and people are told they have to do this, if they're not going to spend the extra 10-15-20 dollars because states don't say they have to, why would they?\"\n\nTo be sure, in the aftermath of Bryce's death, local leaders pledged to take safety more seriously: There's a glaring lack of state or local regulations that govern the security of grease traps. Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo proposed a new local law – Bryce's Law – that passed Sept. 10 by the county legislature and requires well-secured, sturdy lids and annual inspections by the health department. State Assembly members Harry Bronson and Jamie Romeo are drafting state legislation that would prohibit plastic lids on grease traps.\n\nNone of the proposals mandates secondary protection, however. There's no federal or state laws elsewhere that do, either.\n\nA single second\n\nThere's an involuntary gasp reflex that happens when a person falls unexpectedly into water. A mere half cup of inhaled water can kill – less liquid than it takes to fill a standard juice box.\n\nAnd it takes a child less than 20 seconds to drown.\n\nJust minutes after their initial 911 call, Tim Hortons workers call again. This time, they report a child has drowned. A dispatcher tells officers the boy fell in the grease trap and is unconscious, not breathing.\n\nThe store manager has started CPR. A state trooper arrives with an automatic external defibrillator.\n\nIn police radio broadcasts from the scene, Tenitia's voice pierces through the background, ragged and urgent. \"Oh God. Please help me,\" she beseeches. \"Please help me.\"\n\nPhotos from that day show the grief seared into the faces of Tenitia's co-workers.\n\nDuring a press conference from the scene, Rochester police investigator Francis Camp fights back his own tears.\n\n\"This is a horrible, unimaginable, unspeakable tragedy,\" he says. \"This is the worst thing that you can encounter as a police officer.\"\n\nCamp calls for city crews to come in and install a cast-iron manhole cover over the grease trap opening, not \"some friggin' piece of plastic.\"\n\nCity plans show the trap was supposed to have a cast-iron manhole cover that mates with a cast-iron riser made by the Neenah Foundry out of Wisconsin. But on the day Bryce died, it is instead covered by a lightweight plastic lid. These lids can be safe, but only if bolted in place so they remain secure.\n\nIt is unclear what happened to the original lid. But the replacement lid, described in police reports as a 24-inch Polylok cover, model number 3008-RC, is designed to fit properly only on a matching riser made by the same company. Six stainless-steel screws are supposed to hold it in place. That day, there were no screws on the lid.\n\nAn unmonitored security camera at a nearby liquor store captured the last moments of Bryce's life.\n\nHe and his mom walk out of the building around 10:49 a.m. Bryce runs out toward the menu board. He stops and turns back to his mother.\n\nTenitia turns back toward the building to grab more garbage from the rear foyer.\n\nOne second later, Bryce walks over the lid.\n\nIt flips open and he slips through the 2-foot hole. The lid pivots back into place like the swinging top of a trash can, closing the hole and trapping him inside.\n\nCity plans don't show the exact dimensions of the trap, but online records show a 500-gallon grease trap is likely to be at least 5 feet deep.\n\nFour seconds later, Tenitia steps out of the foyer and Bryce is gone.\n\nNine minutes later, employees pull him out of the trap.\n\nThe same manager who let Tenitia work the front counter that morning instead of the drive through lays Bryce out in the grass and begins performing CPR.\n\n'That was my baby'\n\nTenitia sat in the audience at the Sept. 10 legislature meeting, watching lawmakers pass the resolution that bears her son's name.\n\nIf there's any comfort, it's knowing that her lovely son, who was always smiling, always happy and who knew all his colors and shapes by the time he was 2⅓, is now helping to make sure other kids will be safer from now on.\n\nBryce's funeral was July 23. Dozens of strangers came. Many brought Tenitia little gifts or stuffed animals in memory of Bryce.\n\nThere's a small blue dinosaur Tenitia holds onto in the moments she's loneliest. A flaxen-headed little girl, not much older than Bryce, had tugged at her leg at the funeral services and asked whether she could please give it to Bryce.\n\n\"He really would have loved it,\" Tenitia said recently, sitting on the couch at another relative's apartment on South Avenue. She hasn't been back to work. She won't ever return to Tim Hortons.\n\nEvery day is a struggle.\n\n\"That was my baby, I will never get him back. I will never get his hugs back. I will never get his kisses back,\" she said, tears winding down her face. \"I just want people to know that if they ever see me in public and I'm smiling and happy, it's all a mask. I think that's how I get through every day, besides Bryce telling me he's OK every once in a while.\n\nHe was my only one and I don't think this pain will ever go away.\"\n\nDanger below:Grease traps help protect pipes but have a dangerous side\n\nHole in regulation:Boy's tragic death reveals lack of state, local oversight of grease trap safety\n\nGrease trap inspections:County to examine safety of 2,500 grease tank covers", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/09/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2022/02/16/restaurant-reviews-best-things-to-eat-blue-marlin-anna-maria-island-overton-sarasota-florida/9306911002/", "title": "Restaurant reviews: Blue Marlin Anna Maria Island, Overton Sarasota", "text": "It's probably not easy being a seafood restaurateur on Anna Maria Island during the height of tourist season and only serving fish that arrived earlier that day from the docks of nearby Cortez Village. But that's the policy of owner Adam Ellis at Blue Marlin. And it's one of the many reasons you will want to visit the Bradenton Beach dining destination that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_10", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:12", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2022/07/14/julio-rodriguez-seattle-mariners-all-star-game-playoff-drought/10051729002/", "title": "Mariners' Julio Rodriguez, youngest MLB All-Star, inspires awe", "text": "Next week in Los Angeles, the game’s brightest stars will gather in Los Angeles for what’s become Major League Baseball’s Midsummer Existential Crisis, an annual opportunity to showcase the game’s greatest players and hope that someday, one of them may be more than a passing topic at breakfast tables coast-to-coast.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/allstar/2019/07/09/al-beats-nl-win-streak-extends-seven-games/1690070001/", "title": "MLB All-Star Game 2019: American League win streak extends to ...", "text": "CLEVELAND - Mercifully, they played the 90th All-Star Game before talk of juiced baseballs and absurd home run totals devoured the narrative. And for a night, it was not about how far the pearls traveled so much as how well the pitchers manipulated them.\n\nThe American League ran its streak of conquests to seven with a 4-3 victory at Progressive Field, quieting a National League lineup that featured two players – Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger – who hit a combined 61 home runs before the All-Star break.\n\nTuesday night, the sluggers for the most part gave way to the hard-throwing men on the mound in front of them.\n\nBreaking down the AL’s victory:\n\nThe game: This was Modern Baseball at its finest – where the facets of what make the game occasionally ugly these days shone brightly.\n\nStrikeouts? Sure, tons of them – 16 by AL pitchers, seven from NL pitchers. But these seemed not the result of flailing batters but rather pitching brilliance.\n\nWith every pitcher tossing just an inning, the velocity came easy – as did the clean innings. Seven pitchers tossed perfect frames, with perhaps the most impressive back-to-back sequences coming in the bottom of the third and fourth innings, as the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom and Cincinnati’s Luis Castillo coasted through the treacherous first six in the AL lineup – George Springer, DJ LeMahieu, Mike Trout, Carlos Santana, J.D. Martinez and Alex Bregman.\n\nDeGrom, evoking memories of his red-hot 2015 NL appearance when he struck out the side on 10 pitches, hit 98 mph on the radar gun in getting AL batting leader LeMahieu on a comebacker and Trout on a pop to second. Castillo made it look easy striking out Santana and J.D. Martinez.\n\nCROSSROADS: What does the future hold for MLB?\n\nSKAGGS: Angels All-Stars wear No. 45 to honor fallen pitcher\n\nMAD MAX: MLB must 'take ownership' of ball\n\nLiam Hendriks, on waivers around this time last year, struck out the side in his inning of AL work, Kris Bryant heading back to the dugout even before Homeplate umpire Mark Wegner rang him up.\n\nHome runs? But of course. Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon sullied Hendriks’ inning of work with a drive over the wall in center field. And just as the game got a bit too sleepy, Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo destroyed the first pitch from San Francisco Giants reliever Will Smith, sending a 112-mph screamer into the right field seats for a 4-1 lead.\n\nShifts? Certainly, they can be annoying, but also create athletic moments in their own right. Max Muncy was playing halfway to the right field fence when Santana sent a screamer to his right. Muncy sprawled out, speared the ball and fired to Alonso, whose all-out stretch got Santana by a hair.\n\nOne night after winning the Home Run Derby, Alonso showed he’s perhaps an unstoppable force at the moment, bringing the NL to within 4-3 with a bases-loaded, two-run single off Indians reliever Brad Hand with two outs in the eighth.\n\nHand recovered to induce a foul out to the catcher from Mike Moustakas, shakily handing the baton to Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman.\n\nAfter strikeouts of J.T. Realmuto, Muncy and Yasmani Grandal - and, for the heck of it, a mound visit from CC Sabathia, this game was over.\n\nThere’s plenty of nights where the game’s modern trappings can be annoying, even odious. Tuesday night was not one of them.\n\nWhat you missed on TV: So much love for The Land. While many All-Star games feel staid and littered with corporate interlopers from out of town, Indians fans dominated the jerseys on the concourse and roared for heroes past and present.\n\nThe rumble for CC Sabathia’s ceremonial first pitch began as he ambled out to the mound. Former Indian Michael Brantley – now a Houston Astro - received a rousing applause in introductions and before every at-bat. Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Javy Baez – members of the 2016 Chicago Cubs who broke Cleveland’s heart with a seven-game World Series conquest – were lustily booed.\n\nIn the bottom of the fifth inning, the crowd of 36,747 rose to its feet amid chants of “Let’s go, Bieber!” as Cleveland right-hander Shane Bieber aimed to strike out the side. (He complied, freezing Ronald Acuna Jr. on a slider after punching out Contreras and Arizona’s Ketel Marte to start the inning).\n\nThe robust O-H-I-O chant during the playing of The McCoys “Hang on Sloopy” was clearly the product of fans who more closely associate the tune with Ohio State’s “Best Damn Band In The Land.”\n\nAnd after MLB’s semi-annual “Stand Up To Cancer” culminated with the Indians’ All-Stars surrounding teammate Carlos Carrasco – who is undergoing leukemia treatments – a roar of “Cookie! Cookie!”\n\nThe hero: Gallo’s home run was a near afterthought, but it stood up as the winning margin and perhaps most important, saved Hand from an ignominious blown save in front of his home crowd.\n\nOut of the ordinary: Mike Trout won consecutive All-Star MVP honors in 2014 and ’15 and had reached base in his first plate appearance in all eight previous All-Star games. Tuesday, he was retired in both plate appearances.\n\nIt didn’t seem like an All-Star game without Trout’s dominance, but then again, this was no regular circumstance. Trout wore No. 45 on his back to honor teammate Tyler Skaggs, who passed away on July 1 while the team was in Texas on a road trip.\n\n“In order to represent him, what he meant to us, on a stage like this, it’s unbelievable,” said Trout.\n\nAll jerseys bore a black No. 45 patch to honor Skaggs.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2021/07/13/freddy-peralta-corbin-burnes-both-leave-impact-all-star-game/7960349002/", "title": "Brewers' Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes both impact at All-Star Game", "text": "Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s titanic home run in the third inning, projected at 468 feet into the thin Denver air, proved to be one of the highlights of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes.\n\nBurnes was given a rare workload for an all-star pitcher — two innings — but he yielded two runs and became the second Brewers pitcher to take an all-star game loss after the American League went on to win the annual showcase, 5-2.\n\nAmong the highlights for the National League, though, was the dominant seventh inning by Milwaukee's Freddy Peralta, who struck out all three batters he faced and threw 10 of his 12 pitches for strikes.\n\nBOX SCORE: AL 5, NL 2\n\nMilwaukee had a franchise-record-tying five representatives taking part for a third straight year, though Brandon Woodruff had already been ruled out after pitching Sunday before the all-star break. He was joined in Denver by Burnes, Peralta and Josh Hader — now a three-time all-star selection who did not pitch.\n\nPeralta, Narvaez work together in Peralta's electric seventh\n\nPeralta was spectacular, slicing through Adolis García of Texas on three pitches for a strikeout and then punching out Boston's J.D. Martinez on four pitches. After he fell behind Matt Olson of Oakland, he battled back from a 2-0 count to record his third strikeout and end the 1-2-3 inning.\n\nIt had to help that he was throwing to a familiar face: Milwaukee catcher Omar Narváez, who entered the game at catcher in the sixth inning. Peralta became the first Brewers pitcher to strike out the side in an all-star game.\n\nJust 25 years old, Peralta has a 2.39 ERA at the break in 18 appearances (17 starts), with 135 strikeouts in 98 innings and an eye-popping 0.898 WHIP. He came five outs away from a no-hitter in June and has figured prominently in two one-hitters for Milwaukee this season, though he wasn't added to the all-star game roster until Woodruff was officially ruled out.\n\nNarváez, himself a late addition to the all-star roster after both catchers Buster Posey and Yadier Molina dropped out of the showcase, finished 1-for-2.\n\nNarváez led off the bottom of the seventh against Tampa Bay pitcher Andrew Kittredge and sent a grounder up the middle, but Toronto second baseman Bo Bichette was shaded there and threw Narváez out at first. Leading off the ninth against Liam Hendriks of the White Sox, he sent another squibber up the middle and beat out the throw from Kansas City's Whit Merrifield.\n\nBut Narváez was erased on the basepaths when Hendriks spiked a pitch to the backstop that bounced straight back to Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino, who fired down to second base and retired Narváez easily.\n\nBurnes escapes big inning in first of two frames\n\nBurnes saw his first all-star action in the second inning, and he was greeted rudely, allowing the first three batters to reach and ceding the game's first run, though he did escape further damage.\n\nBurnes, who famously started the season with 58 strikeouts and 345 batters faced before issuing his first walk, allowed a leadoff walk to Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees on just four pitches.\n\nBoston's Rafael Devers didn't wait to see more than the fifth, pounding a first-pitch screamer into the dirt that bounded over Atlanta's Freddie Freeman at first base and down the line for a double that put runners at second and third with nobody out. When Toronto's Marcus Semien hit a soft grounder that left third baseman Nolan Arenado without a play, the American League had the first run of the game.\n\nBut Devers held at second on the play, and Burnes struck out Salvador Perez of the Royals, then induced a double-play groundout off the bat of Toronto's Teoscar Hernández to end the frame at 1-0.\n\nIt was a lead that grew in the second inning after Burnes struck out Baltimore's Cedric Mullins and got Angels star Shohei Ohtani to ground out. Guerrero drilled a 1-1 pitch that generated a chorus of oohs and aahs.\n\nIn summary, Burnes allowed two runs on four hits in two innings with a walk and two strikeouts.\n\nIt's the first time a Milwaukee pitcher received a decision in an all-star game since 1981, when eventual Cy Young and MVP winner Rollie Fingers yielded an eighth-inning home run to Mike Schmidt of Philadelphia in a 5-4 loss to the National League in Cleveland.\n\nThe Milwaukee Braves were involved in all-star game decisions in three straight seasons in the 1950s. Warren Spahn was the winner in 1953 when the National League scored a 5-1 win, Gene Conley was the loser in an 11-9 loss to the AL in 1954, and Conley came back to win the 1955 game in a 6-5 extra-inning victory for the NL.\n\nBrewers pitchers have now allowed runs in three straight all-star games. Woodruff allowed one in 2/3 of an inning in 2019, and Hader surrendered three (one earned) on four hits in 1/3 of an inning in 2018, thanks in large part to a three-run homer by former Brewer Jean Segura. Jeremy Jeffress also threw a scoreless frame in 2018. In the previous all-star outing by a Brewers pitcher, Francisco Rodriguez also permitted two runs in one inning in the 2015 game, one year after he threw a scoreless inning in 2014.\n\nPlayer with Wisconsin ties makes defensive play of the night\n\nLos Angeles Angels first baseman/outfielder Jared Walsh, a 39th round draft pick who was born in Brookfield and spent childhood years in Oconomowoc before moving to Georgia, made his first all-star appearance and flew out to end the sixth.\n\nBut his sliding catch in left field may have saved the day for the American League. With the bases loaded in the eighth, Walsh snagged a tailing liner by Chicago's Kris Bryant to end the frame and keep the lead at 5-2.\n\nWalsh, who has played right field and hadn't played left field in the big leagues before the all-star game, also hit a deep drive to center against Craig Kimbrel that was hauled in on the warning track in the top of the ninth.\n\nThe game, which was relocated from Atlanta, featured a pregame tribute to Braves star Hank Aaron, who died in January. Aaron's illustrious career began with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954 and featured 12 seasons in Milwaukee.\n\nJR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/fantasy/2017/07/10/simulated-all-star-game-bryce-harper/464035001/", "title": "Bryce Harper's grand slam keys NL win in simulated All-Star Game", "text": "MIAMI -- Bryce Harper's second-inning grand slam propelled the National League to an early lead and a dominant bullpen held on for a 9-6 victory in USA TODAY's annual All-Star Game simulation using the online version of Dynasty League Baseball.\n\nAmerican League starter Chris Sale was rocked for six runs in 1 1/3 innings of work as the NL scored twice in the first as Buster Posey hit an RBI double and came around to score on Nolan Arenado's single.\n\nBOX SCORE: National League 9, American League 6\n\nThe NL broke things open in the second thanks to its trio of Washington Nationals starters. Daniel Murphy led off the inning with a single, Ryan Zimmerman walked, and -- after Sale hit Charlie Blackmon -- Harper cleared the bases with a 346-foot home run down the right field line.\n\nNL starter Max Scherzer worked two scoreless innings, striking out five of the seven batters he faced. But the AL bounced back for four runs in the third against Zack Greinke. The big blow was Mookie Betts' two-run homer to left.\n\nJustin Smoak also homered for the AL in the fourth off Carlos Martinez, but the NL bullpen made the lead stand up, despite some tense moments in the final two innings when the AL brought the tying run to the plate.\n\nKenley Jansen worked his way out of a jam with two on in the ninth by getting pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas to ground out to first to end the game.\n\nGAME SUMMARY:NL proves too powerful\n\nMurphy, Arenado and Posey had two hits apiece for the victorious NL and Posey finished with three RBI. In addition to his grand slam, Harper also walked and scored twice on his way to being named the game's MVP.\n\nWhat to watch in the real All-Star Game\n\nThe whole point of this annual exercise isn't to predict which team will win the game. It's more of an attempt to highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of each side -- and show how they could potentially impact the way the game unfolds on the field.\n\nSome observations:\n\n-- The National League seems to be much better defensively, on the left side of the infield in particular, with Gold Glover Nolan Arenado starting at third and Zack Cozart at short.\n\nThe AL isn't as reliable with 3B Jose Ramirez, SS Carlos Correa, 2B Jose Altuve and 1B Justin Smoak all rated as average or (in Smoak's case) below average at their positions. Sure enough, the NL's second run of the game came on a ground-ball single by Arenado that Ramirez couldn't reach.\n\n-- The American League doesn't really have a true center fielder on the roster. George Springer and Mookie Betts have played center before, but are better suited for the corner spots. That could be a factor in a game filled with sluggers.\n\nThe NL, meanwhile, has Charlie Blackmon as its starter and can go to Ender Inciarte in the late innings for defense.\n\n-- The AL has a predominantly right-handed lineup, which gives the NL an advantage with its wealth of right-handed pitchers.\n\nIn our simulated game, the NL only used one left-handed pitcher -- and Brad Hand only pitched to one batter.\n\nMeanwhile, the NL teed off against the AL's lefties. In addition to Sale's troubles, Andrew Miller retired only two of the seven batters he faced, allowing a hit and three walks.\n\n-- The biggest advantage at a position goes to the NL at first base. In addition to Zimmerman, who's hitting .330 with 63 RBI, they can turn to Joey Votto and/or Paul Goldschmidt (although Goldschmidt started our simulated game as the DH).\n\nThe AL has Smoak as its starter and Yonder Alonso as his only backup. Both are first-time All-Stars.\n\n---\n\nUSA TODAY Sports simulation tournament\n\nAnother annual tradition is the opportunity we give USA TODAY Sports readers to participate in an online tournament made up of 64 of the greatest teams in baseball history.\n\nEven if you've never played simulation baseball before, it's easy to learn. And you can get a free one-month subscription to Dynasty League Baseball to get familiar with how the game works (and keep playing after you're hooked).\n\nThe 2017 tourney will get underway Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. ET.\n\nTo sign up:\n\n-- Go to DynastyLeagueBaseball.com.\n\n-- If you're a new user, click on the button for a free 2-day trial.\n\n-- Create your user name and password, then under code USA2 for a free month of access.\n\n-- On the main menu, click on Tournaments and find \"USA Today Greatest Teams Tournament.\"\n\n-- Click to sign up and pick your team.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2015-all-star-game/2015/06/27/babe-ruth-blast-ushered-first-all-star-game-1933/29281323/", "title": "Babe Ruth's blast ushered in first All-Star Game in 1933"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2021/03/04/mlb-lou-gehrig-day-june-2/6920183002/", "title": "MLB to hold annual Lou Gehrig Day on June 2", "text": "Major League Baseball announced that they will hold an annual \"Lou Gehrig Day\" on June 2 beginning this season to commemorate the former Yankee first baseman's battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which became known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.\n\nTo commemorate the day, all players, managers and coaches will have a patch on their jerseys to honor Gehrig, and red wristbands will be available to wear that read \"4-ALS\", a nod to Gehrig's No. 4 jersey. All ballparks will also display the \"4-ALS\" logo, per MLB.\n\n“Major League Baseball is thrilled to celebrate the legacy of Lou Gehrig, whose humility and courage continue to inspire our society,\" said commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement. \"While ALS has been closely identified with our game since Lou’s legendary career, the pressing need to find cures remains. We look forward to honoring all the individuals and families, in baseball and beyond, who have been affected by ALS and hope Lou Gehrig Day advances efforts to end this disease,\"\n\nWith a day dedicated to him, Gehrig joins Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente as the only baseball players who are annually celebrated league-wide. The date, June 2, is the day that Gehrig became the starting first baseman for the Yankees in 1925.\n\nHe went on to play 2,130 consecutive games over 13 seasons, which included two AL MVP Awards, seven All-Star Game appearances, a triple crown and six World Series titles. On July 4, 1939, he gave his famous farewell speech weeks after his diagnosis with the disease, when he proclaimed he was the, \"the luckiest man on the face of this earth.\" He died in 1941 at the age of 37.\n\nALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease where people lose the ability to control their muscles, such as the ability to walk, talk and breathe. Awareness for the disease was big in 2014 with the Ice Bucket Challenge, started by Pete Frates as he began his battle with the disease. Stephen Piscotty, Oakland Athletics outfielder whose mother died of ALS complications, said his mother would be thrilled that MLB will raise awareness for the disease.\n\n\"“Lou Gehrig Day will honor Lou’s accomplishments on the field, but also help millions understand this devastating disease that has claimed far too many of us, including my mother. Before she passed, she did everything she could to raise awareness of ALS,\" Piscotty said in a statement. \"Hopefully this awareness will help lead to a cure.”\n\nContact Jordan Mendoza at jamendoza@usatoday.com or on Twitter @jord_mendoza", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/07/17/mlb-first-half-superlatives-mvp-cy-young-awards-best-worst-signings/10078029002/", "title": "MLB first half superlatives: MVP, Cy Young awards, best/worst ...", "text": "LOS ANGELES – Come on, you didn’t know the Baltimore Orioles would actually be the one of the best teams in baseball for the past month and in contention for a playoff berth?\n\nYou didn’t realize that the New York Yankees and Houston Astros would have their divisions sewn up by the All-Star break?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dave-ammenheuser/2015/07/07/czar-sports-wants-see-star-game-changes/29826461/", "title": "Czar of Sports wants All-Star Game, Titans changes", "text": "David Ammenheuser\n\ndammenheus@tennessean.com\n\nThe Czar of Sports has returned from vacation. Here are the Top 10 things he'd do today to change our world of sports:\n\n• Tweak the All-Star Game selection process: Kansas City Royals fans made a mockery of this year's election as they took advantage of the rule that allowed each fan to vote 35 times per email address. At one point, as many as eight Royals were in line to start, including light-hitting second baseman Omar Infante, who is batting .231. Late voting pushed that number down to four starters.\n\nEliminating balloting at the ballpark was ridiculous. And allowing 35 votes per email address was beyond ridiculous. Put those ballot boxes back in the ballparks. Make them available at all ballparks (major and minor). And allow just one ballot vote per email address.\n\n• Follow the NHL's example: Make Monday's All-Star workout day more exciting. The home run derby has grown old. What other player competitions could be included? The NHL's skills session offers fans a series of competitions from the fastest skater to the hardest shooters. It will be one of the highlights of All-Star Weekend in Nashville in January.\n\n• Bring the Triple-A All-Star Game here: It's been 21 years since Music City hosted the minor league all-star game. The Sounds' Ray Durham was named the MVP of the game, which was played at Greer Stadium in front of 11,601. This year's game will be played at Werner Park in Papillion, Neb. The 2016 game is scheduled to go to Charlotte, N.C. With our new First Tennessee Park, it's time for the game to return. 2017 would be perfect.\n\n• Retire Tim Dillard's number: The Sounds have retired two numbers in their history: 00 for Skeeter Barnes who played four seasons (1979, '88-90), spanning 514 games; and 18 for Don Mattingly, who played the 1981 season. It's time to honor No. 17 for Dillard, who is the franchise's all-time leader in wins (39) and innings pitched (5562/ 3 ). He ranks second in games (209) and strikeouts (334). Of course he'd also tell you he hit more batters (16) and allowed more runs (305) than any other Sounds pitcher. Dillard now plays for the Colorado Sky Sox. He did not get an opportunity to pitch during the two series between the teams this season at First Tennessee Park.\n\n• Bring the SEC Baseball Tournament to Music City: While we're still on the baseball theme, it's time that the Nashville Sports Council makes a pitch to move the SEC tournament from Hoover, Ala., to First Tennessee Park. The tournament is committed to Alabama for another year.\n\n• More high-level soccer to Nashville: While I don't think Nashville is ready to support a Major League Soccer franchise, the 44,835 who attended last week's USA-Guatemala match at Nissan Stadium proved there is a lot of interest in the sport in the region. Why not make a summer soccer exhibition an annual event?\n\n• And the Grizzlies, too: Speaking of exhibitions, why doesn't the state's NBA team play an annual preseason game in Nashville? Wouldn't the Grizzlies expand their fan base if they played a game at Bridgestone Arena (or Vanderbilt) each season? It would be perfect timing, too, now that former Brentwood Academy standout Brandan Wright has agreed to a three-year, $17.1 million deal with Memphis.\n\n• Truce among SEC football coaches : Wouldn't it be splendid if all of the SEC football coaches got together and agreed that satellite camps are a good thing? Then, agree to hold one together? Perhaps somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania? Do you think the Penn State coach would enjoy that?\n\n• Sign Marcus Mariota today : Just get it done. His face is on every piece of Titans marketing material. He's going to be behind center at 3:25 p.m. on Sept. 13 when the Titans play their season opener at Tampa Bay. He's one of the few unsigned first round NFL draft choices. Get it done.\n\n• Fix the gate issue at Nissan Stadium : We heard the stories of the long lines and gate issues during the 2015 NFL season. And we heard the excuses. I personally witnessed the lines at The Rolling Stones concert last month. I've read the stories about the gate and concession issues for the soccer game. Stadium operators need to realize that not all concertgoers and soccer fans read an NFL website on its ticketing policy. Enough excuses. Enough finger-pointing and blaming. Fix the problem.\n\nReach Dave Ammenheuser at 615-259-8352 and on Twitter, @NashSportsEd.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/09/29/mlb-renames-world-series-mvp-award-after-willie-mays/716768001/", "title": "MLB renames World Series MVP Award after Willie Mays", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nMajor League Baseball announced on Friday it has renamed the World Series MVP Award in honor of Hall of Famer Willie Mays.\n\nBeginning with the 2017 Word Series, the MVP of the Fall Classic will now be recognized as the “Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player.\"\n\nThe announcement came on the 63rd anniversary of his famous over-the-shoulder-catch in deep center field at the Polo Grounds in Game 1 of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians.\n\n“Major League Baseball is thrilled to honor Willie Mays on our game’s biggest stage and in a manner that befits his many contributions to the sport,\" commissioner Rob Manfred said in a written statement. \"Since making ‘The Catch’ on September 29, 1954, Willie has been a part of World Series history. This annual recognition will forever celebrate the life and career of a legend of the National Pastime.”\n\nMLB began handing out an award in the World Series in 1955, one year after 'The Catch.'\n\nMays, 86, played in a record-tying 24 All-Star Games in his 22 years with the Giants (1951-1972) and the Mets (1972-1973). He played in the World Series four times and won the title in 1954 with the New York Giants.\n\n\"I'd like to thank commissioner Rob Manfred and his team at Major League Baseball for\n\nhonoring me with this recognition,\" Mays said in a written statement. \"Baseball has always taken care of me, and for that I am grateful.\n\n\"I think it's just a wonderful thing to know that at 86 years of age, I can still give something back to the game. I am proud to lend my name to this important award. What a day this has been!!\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/09/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2022/07/07/this-date-in-baseball/50462187/", "title": "This Date in Baseball", "text": "AP\n\nJuly 8\n\n1912 — Rube Marquard’s 19-game winning streak was stopped as the New York Giants lost 7-2 to the Chicago Cubs.\n\n1918 — Boston’s Babe Ruth lost a home run at Fenway Park when prevailing rules reduce his shot over the fence to a triple. Amos Strunk scored on Ruth’s hit for a 1-0 win over Cleveland. Ruth, who played 95 games in the season, finished tied for the American League title with 11 homers.\n\n1935 — The AL extended its All-Star winning streak to three with a 4-1 victory at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. New York Yankee Lefty Gomez went six innings, which prompted the NL to have the rules changed so that no pitcher could throw more than three innings, unless extra innings.\n\n1941 — Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hit a three-run, two-out homer in the ninth to give the AL a dramatic 7-5 victory in the All-Star game at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium. Up to that point Arky Vaughn of the Pittsburgh Pirates was the NL hero with two home runs, the first player to do so in All-Star play. Joe and Dom DiMaggio both played for the AL, marking the first time that brothers appeared in the same All-Star game.\n\n1947 — Frank Shea became the first winning rookie pitcher in the first 14 years of All-Star play as the AL nipped the NL 2-1 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.\n\n1952 — The NL edged the AL 3-2 in the first rain-shortened All-Star game. The five-inning contest, at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, featured home runs by Jackie Robinson and Hank Sauer of the Nationals.\n\n1957 — Baseball owners re-elected commissioner Ford Frick to another seven-year term when his contract is up in 1958.\n\n1958 — The 25th anniversary All-Star game, at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, went to the AL, 4-3 in a game that only produced 13 singles. This was the first All-Star game in which neither team got an extra-base hit.\n\n1970 — Jim Ray Hart of San Francisco hit for the cycle and became the first NL player in 59 years to drive in six runs in one inning as the Giants beat Atlanta, 13-0.\n\n1974 — New York shortstop Jim Mason tied a major-league record when he doubled four times in the Yankees’ 12-5 win over Texas.\n\n1994 — Shortstop John Valentin made the 10th unassisted triple play in baseball history in the sixth inning and then led off the bottom of the inning with a homer to lead Boston to a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners.\n\n1997 — Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar hit a two-run homer to give the American League a 3-1 victory over the National League in the All-Star game. Alomar, the first player to win the All-Star MVP in his own ballpark, broke the tie in the seventh inning off San Francisco’s Shawn Estes.\n\n1982 — Billy Martin records his 1,000 career win as a manger as the A's beat the Yankees 6-3.\n\n2000 — Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens teamed up to shut down the Mets, giving the Yankees identical 4-2 victories in the first double-ballpark doubleheader in the majors since 1903. After the opener, many in the sellout crowd of 54,165 at Shea Stadium immediately headed for Game 2, which drew 55,821 at Yankee Stadium.\n\n2008 — Ryan Braun of Milwaukee hit his 56th career home run in his 200th major league game, a 7-3 win over Colorado. Only Mark McGwire and Rudy York (both 59) had hit more in their first 200 games in the majors.\n\n2014 — The Mets record the 4,000th win in franchise history by defeating the Braves 8-3.\n\n2015 — Tampa Bay hits two inside-the park home runs in a 9-7 loss to the Royals. It is the first time the feat has been done since 1997.\n\n2021 — San Diego Padres relief pitcher Daniel Camarena records his first MLB hit, a Grand Slam, in his second at bat against the Washington Nationals’ Max Sherzer.\n\n_____\n\nJuly 9\n\n1902 — Rube Waddell beat Bill Dinneen 4-2 in 17 innings when light-hitting Monte Cross hit a two-run homer for Philadelphia.\n\n1932 — Ben Chapman of the Yankees hit three homers, including two inside-the-park, as New York beat the Detroit Tigers 14-9 at Yankee Stadium.\n\n1937 — Joe DiMaggio hits for the cycle as the Yankees defeat the Seantors 16-2.\n\n1940 — The NL recorded the first shutout in All-Star play, with a 4-0 win at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Five pitchers — Paul Derringer, Bucky Walters, Whit Wyatt, Larry French, and Carl Hubbell — held the AL to three hits. Max West hit a three-run homer.\n\n1946 — After a one-year break due to war travel restrictions, the Americans trounced the Nationals 12-0 at Fenway Park, the most one-sided of the All-Star games. Ted Williams of the Red Sox didn’t disappoint the hometown fans. He hit two homers and two singles for five RBIs.\n\n1968 — Willie McCovey hit into a double play, scoring Willie Mays with the only run of the 39th All-Star game, played at the Houston Astrodome. It was the first game of this series played indoors and the first 1-0 contest in All-Star history.\n\n1976 — Houston’s Larry Dierker pitched a no-hitter as the Astros beat Montreal 6-0. Dierker struck out eight and walked four.\n\n1991 — Cal Ripken hit a three-run homer to lead the AL over the NL 4-2 in the All-Star game for the AL’s fourth straight victory in the contest.\n\n1996 — Mike Piazza launched an upper-deck home run in his first at-bat and lined an RBI double next time up, leading the Nationals to a 6-0 victory in the All-Star game in Philadelphia.\n\n2002 — Despite Barry Bonds hitting a home run and Torii Hunter making a spectacular catch, the All-Star game finished in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings when both teams ran out of pitchers.\n\n2005 — It took 847 regular-season games at Coors Field, the most any stadium needed, before hosting its first 1-0 game. The lowest total runs scored in a game at Coors Field before Colorado’s 1-0 win over San Diego was 2-0.\n\n2011 — Derek Jeter homered for his 3,000th hit, making him the first player to reach the mark with the New York Yankees. Jeter hit the milestone with a drive to left field with one out in the third inning off Tampa Bay’s David Price, his first at Yankee Stadium this season. He tied a career high going 5 for 5 and singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning for a 5-4 win. Jeter became the 28th major leaguer to hit the mark and joined former teammate Wade Boggs as the only players to do it with a home run.\n\n2011 — The Los Angeles Dodgers got their first hit with two outs in the ninth inning and still beat the San Diego Padres 1-0 when Dioner Navarro singled in Juan Uribe for the unlikely victory. Uribe was down to his last strike when he drove a pitch from Luke Gregerson over the head of left fielder Chris Denorfia for Los Angeles’ first hit and only the second hit of the game for either team. Navarro then looped a 3-1 pitch into short right-center to give the Dodgers three consecutive shutout victories for the first time since July 1991. San Diego’s Cameron Maybin had the first hit of the game in the fifth, a clean single through the box. It was the Padres’ only hit against rookie right-hander Rubby De La Rosa and three relievers.\n\n2013 — Alex Rios tied an American League record with six hits in a nine-inning game and Adam Dunn hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off Justin Verlander in the eighth to lift Chicago over Detroit 11-4.\n\n2015 — Jose Fernandez pitched seven innings and tied the modern record for most consecutive home victories by a starter to begin a career, helping the Miami Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-0.\n\n2019 — The American League defeats the National League 4-3 in the 2019 All-Star Game for their 7th straight win.\n\n_____\n\nJuly 10\n\n1917 — Ray Caldwell of New York pitched 9 2-3 innings of no-hit relief as the Yankees beat the Browns 7-5 in 17 innings in St. Louis.\n\n1932 — The Philadelphia A’s defeated Cleveland 18-17 in an 18-inning game in which John Burnett of the Indians had a record nine hits. Jimmie Foxx collected 16 total bases, and Eddie Rommell of the A’s pitched 17 innings in relief for the win, despite giving up 29 hits and 14 runs.\n\n1934 — Carl Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession, but the AL came back to win the All-Star game 9-7 at the Polo Grounds as Mel Harder gave up one hit in the last five innings.\n\n1936 — Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein hit four home runs in a 9-6 10-inning victory over the Pirates, and it wasn’t in the cozy Baker Bowl. He hit them in Pittsburgh’s spacious Forbes Field, including the game-winning three-run shot in the 10th off Bill Swift. Klein almost homered in the second inning when he sent Pirates outfielder Paul Waner to the wall in right to haul in a long fly ball.\n\n1947 — Don Black of the Cleveland Indians pitched a 3-0 no-hitter over the Philadelphia A’s in the first game of a twin bill.\n\n1951 — The NL hit four homers en route to an 8-3 triumph at Detroit, giving the league consecutive All-Star victories for the first time.\n\n1968 — The American League and National League agreed to split into two divisions in 1969. The twelve teams in each league will be divided and play a best-of-five games League Championship Series to determine the pennant winner.\n\n1982 — Larry Parrish of the Texas Rangers hit his third grand slam in seven days, off Milt Wilcox in the first game of a doubleheader against Detroit. The Rangers beat the Tigers 6-5. Parrish had hit his first on July 4 and his second on July 7.\n\n2001 — Cal Ripken upstaged every big name in the ballpark, hitting a home run and winning the MVP award in his final All-Star appearance to lead the American League over the Nationals 4-1. Derek Jeter and Magglio Ordonez connected for consecutive home runs as the AL won its fifth in a row.\n\n2007 — Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-3 with an inside-the-park home run to lead the American League to a 5-4 victory over the National League in the All-Star game.\n\n2009 — Jonathan Sanchez pitched the majors’ first no-hitter of the season, recording a career-high 11 strikeouts in San Francisco’s 8-0 win over the San Diego Padres. The only runner the Padres managed came on an error by third baseman Juan Uribe in the eighth.\n\n2012 — San Francisco’s Melky Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval keyed a five-run blitz against Justin Verlander in the first inning that powered the NL to an 8-0 romp over the American League in the All-Star game.\n\n2013 — David Ortiz doubled in his first at-bat to become baseball’s career leader in hits as a designated hitter and hit a two-run homer an inning later, leading Boston Red Sox to an 11-4 victory over Seattle. Ortiz entered the night tied with Harold Baines for the most hits as a DH.\n\n2014 — Derek Jeter, playing his final regular-season game in Cleveland, went 2 for 4 in the 1,000th multi-hit game of his career. Cleveland scored nine runs in its last two innings at bat to rally past New York with a 9-3 win.\n\n2019 — The independent Atlantic League introduces a “robot umpire” to call balls and strikes at its annual all-star game in York, PA.\n\n___\n\nJuly 11\n\n1914 — Babe Ruth made his major league debut for the Boston Red Sox and received credit for a 4-3 victory over Cleveland. He was removed for a pinch hitter in the seventh, and Duffy Lewis’ single led to the winning run.\n\n1944 — Phil Cavaretta set an All-Star game record by reaching base safely five straight times — triple, single, three walks — to lead the NL to a 7-1 victory over the AL at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.\n\n1950 — The All-Star game returned to Comiskey Park, the site of the first game, and was won by the NL 4-3 on Red Schoendienst’s 14th-inning home run off Ted Gray. It was the first extra-inning All-Star game, the first time the NL won at an AL park and the first All-Star game shown on network television.\n\n1961 — Despite a record seven errors and pitcher Stu Miller getting blown off the Candlestick Park mound by a gale wind, the NL edged the AL 5-4 in the first of two All-Star games played that year.\n\n1967 — Tony Perez’s home run off Catfish Hunter in the 15th inning gave the NL a 2-1 win in the longest game in All-Star history. The game was played in California’s Anaheim Stadium.\n\n1973 — Jim Northrup of Detroit hit two grand slams, batting in the leadoff spot, to lead the Tigers to a 14-3 romp over the Texas Rangers. Northrup became the sixth major leaguer to hit two bases-loaded home runs in a game.\n\n1978 — Steve Garvey keyed the NL’s 7-3 All-Star victory at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium with a game-tying, two-run single and a triple that sparked a four-run eighth inning.\n\n1985 — Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first pitcher in major league history to reach the 4,000-strikeout mark when he fanned New York’s Danny Heep leading off the sixth inning. The Astros beat the Mets 4-3 in 12 innings on Bill Doran’s fifth hit of the game.\n\n1995 — Jeff Conine’s solo shot in the eighth inning gave the NL a 3-2 victory in the All-Star game. Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza also homered for the NL.\n\n2000 — Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored as the AL defeated the NL 6-3 in the All-Star game. Jeter became the first Yankee to win the All-Star game MVP.\n\n2006 — With the American League down to its final strike, Michael Young hit a two-run triple off Trevor Hoffman for a 3-2 victory that kept the Americans unbeaten in Major League Baseball’s All-Star game for the past decade. The NL took a 2-1 lead into the ninth behind David Wright’s homer and some daring, old-style baserunning.\n\n2009 — Nick Johnson, Josh Willingham and Dunn homered in consecutive at-bats and the Nationals set season highs for hits and runs in a 13-2 win at Houston.\n\n2015 — The Marlins set a team record with 9 consecutive hits in the 7th inning of a 14-3 win over the Reds.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_11", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/21/monarch-butterflies-endangered-us/10115283002/", "title": "Monarch butterflies now listed as endangered in US: 'Devastating'", "text": "Christina Larson\n\nAssociated Press\n\nWASHINGTON – The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast-dwindling numbers.\n\n“It’s just a devastating decline,” said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the listing. “This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world.”\n\nThe International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as \"endangered\" – two steps from extinct.\n\nThe group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined 22% to 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method.\n\n“What we’re worried about is the rate of decline,” said Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University. “It’s very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled.”\n\nHaddad, who was not directly involved in the listing, estimates that the butterfly population he studies in the eastern United States has declined 85% to 95% since the 1990s.\n\nA plan to bring them back:Last year, early signs from California's plan to bring back monarch butterflies offered hope\n\nWorld's oldest male giant panda:An An, dies at age 35 in Hong Kong: 'A full life'\n\nIn North America, millions of monarch butterflies undertake the longest migration of any insect species known to science. After wintering in the mountains of central Mexico, the butterflies migrate to the north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles. The offspring that reach southern Canada then begin the trip back to Mexico at the end of summer.\n\n“It’s a true spectacle and incites such awe,” said Anna Walker, a conservation biologist at New Mexico BioPark Society who was involved in determining the new listing.\n\nA smaller group spends winters in coastal California, then disperses in spring and summer across several states west of the Rocky Mountains. This population has seen an even more precipitous decline than the eastern monarchs, although there was a small bounce-back last winter.\n\nGraphics: Life cycle and migrations maps of the monarch butterfly\n\nEmma Pelton of the nonprofit Xerces Society, which monitors the Western butterflies, said the butterflies are imperiled by loss of habitat and increased use of herbicides and pesticides for agriculture, as well as by climate change.\n\n“There are things people can do to help,” she said, including planting milkweed, a plant that the caterpillars depend upon.\n\nNonmigratory monarch butterflies in Central and South America were not designated as endangered.\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day\n\nThe United States has not listed monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, but several environmental groups believe it should be listed.\n\nThe international union also announced new estimates for the global population of tigers, which are 40% higher than the most recent estimates from 2015.\n\nThe new figures, between 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers worldwide, reflect better methods for counting the big cats and, potentially, an increase in their overall numbers, said Dale Miquelle, coordinator for the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society’s tiger program.\n\nIn the past decade, tiger populations have increased in Nepal, northern China and perhaps in India, while they have disappeared from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, said Miquelle. They remain designated as endangered.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/us/california-bees-fish-court-ruling-scn-trnd/index.html", "title": "California bees can be fish and have the same protections, a court ...", "text": "(CNN) A fishy ruling from California: A California court has ruled bees can legally be considered fish under specific circumstances.\n\nThe ruling, released May 31 , reversed an earlier judgment which found bumblebees could not be considered \"fish\" under the California Endangered Species Act.\n\n\"The issue presented here is whether the bumblebee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish, as that term is used in the definitions of endangered species in section 2062, threatened species in section 2067, and candidate species (i.e., species being considered for listing as endangered or threatened species) in section 2068 of the Act,\" wrote California's Third District Court of Appeal in its ruling.\n\nThe California Endangered Species Act was designed to protect \"native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.\"\n\nNotably, invertebrates are absent from the list of protected species.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Zoe Sottile"], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/14/american-bumble-bees-disappeared-8-states-face-extinction/8448637002/", "title": "American bumblebees disappeared from 8 states, face extinction", "text": "Dwindling populations of the American bumblebee and their complete disappearance from eight states has led to a call for the bee to be placed under the Endangered Species Act before they face extinction.\n\nMaine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon each have zero or close to zero American bumblebees left, according to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and Bombus Pollinators Association of Law Students.\n\n\"The American bumble bee was once the most common bumble bee species in North America, but without immediate action to protect it under the ESA, it will continue its alarming decline towards extinction,\" the petition authors wrote.\n\nOver the last two decades, the American bumblebee population has decreased by 89% across the U.S. New York had a decline of 99% and they disappeared from the northern part of Illinois that has seen a 74% decrease in population since 2004, the petition said.\n\nClimate change, pesticides, disease, habitat loss and competition from honey bees are listed as driving the bee to extinction.\n\n'In rapid decline':Australia has lost 30% of its koalas in just 3 years, foundation says\n\nExpect extinction numbers to grow:These are some of the most endangered animal species in each state, from sea turtles to dragonflies\n\nThe petition was submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Feb. 1 for review to determine if the insect could be listed as an endangered species and if a critical habitat could be designated for the bee under the Endangered Species Act.\n\nA 90-day review conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found substantial evidence that the listing of the American bumblebee under the Endangered Species Act may, in fact, be warranted.\n\nThe review now heads to a 12-month status review where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will evaluate the potential threat to the species.\n\n“This is an important first step in preventing the extinction of this fuzzy black-and-yellow beauty that was once a familiar sight,” Jess Tyler, a Center scientist and petition co-author, said in a statement. “To survive unchecked threats of disease, habitat loss and pesticide poisoning, American bumblebees need the full protection of the Endangered Species Act right now.”\n\nThe Bombus Pollinator Association of Law Students, or BPALS, is a group of 14 students from Albany Law School who collaborated with the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that works to protect endangered species, to file the petition.\n\nThe loss of the insect could cause serious repercussions to the environment and crop production due to them being essential pollinators in agriculture. If the American bumblebee is added to the endangered species list, it will join the rusty-patched bumblebee.\n\nIf granted federal protection, anyone found to have killed or harmed the bee could face up to $13,000 in fines.\n\nFollow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/14/climate-change-study-plant-animal-extinction/4760646002/", "title": "Climate change: One-third of all species could be extinct by 2070", "text": "The hottest daily highs in summer are the key variable that explains whether a population will go extinct.\n\nMost species won't be able to \"escape\" to a cooler climate in order to avoid extinction.\n\nMany species were able to tolerate some increases in maximum temperatures, but only up to a point.\n\nOne-third of all animal and plant species on the planet could face extinction by 2070 due to climate change, a new study warns.\n\nResearchers studied recent extinctions from climate change to estimate how many species would be lost over the next 50 years.\n\nSpecifically, scientists from the University of Arizona studied data from 538 species at 581 sites around the world and focused on plant and animal species that were surveyed at the same sites over time, at least 10 years apart.\n\n\"By analyzing the change in 19 climatic variables at each site, we could determine which variables drive local extinctions and how much change a population can tolerate without going extinct,\" said Cristian Román-Palacios, of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, in a statement.\n\n\"We also estimated how quickly populations can move to try and escape rising temperatures.\n\n\"When we put all of these pieces of information together for each species, we can come up with detailed estimates of global extinction rates for hundreds of plant and animal species.\"\n\nGlobally, up to 1 million species are at risk of extinction because of human activities, according to a United Nations report released in May. Many experts say a “mass extinction event” – only the sixth in the past half-billion years – is already underway.\n\nClimate change:Bumblebees are disappearing at rates 'consistent with mass extinction'\n\nThis study found that maximum annual temperatures – the highest daily highs in summer – are the key variable that best explains whether a species will go extinct.\n\nPrevious studies have focused on migration to cooler habitats as a way for species to \"escape\" from warming climates. However, this study found that most species won't be able to do this quickly enough to avoid extinction, based on their past rates of movement.\n\nInstead, researchers found that many species were able to tolerate some increases in maximum temperatures, but only up to a point.\n\nThey found that about 50% of the species had local extinctions if maximum temperatures increased by more than 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit, and up to 95% if temperatures increased by more than 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit.\n\nProjections of species loss depend on how much climate will warm in the future.\n\n\"If we stick to the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, we may lose fewer than 2 out of every 10 plant and animal species on Earth by 2070,\" said study co-author John J. Wiens of the University of Arizona.\n\n\"But if humans cause larger temperature increases, we could lose more than a third or even half of all animal and plant species, based on our results.\"\n\nThe study was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\n\n'Crowded out of existence':Up to 1M species at risk of extinction because of human activities, report says\n\nGlobal warming:Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/02/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/02/us/national-parks-climate-extreme-weather-impacts/index.html", "title": "How is climate change affecting national parks? | CNN", "text": "(CNN) When Garrett Dickman drove through Yosemite National Park early this week, he passed through a diverse band of large trees -- conifer, red fir, lodgepole pine -- and noticed a grim pattern: many of the trees were either dead or dying .\n\n\"It was really striking to see that every single tree seems to be getting hit by either climatic changes; it could be dying from drought, or it could be insect attack or fungus, but they're certainly weakened,\" Dickman, a forest ecologist with the National Park Service, told CNN. \"There's a big shift happening right now, and it's right in front of our eyes.\"\n\nThe consequences of the climate crisis -- more wildfires, devastating drought, sea level rise, flooding, ecological disease -- are plaguing the country's national parks. Most recently, unprecedented flash flooding overwhelmed Yellowstone National Park and some of its surrounding areas.\n\nScientists and officials say it signals a dramatic change unfolding at the nation's most prized parks. And unless the planet slashes fossil fuel emissions, scientists believe the climate crisis could drastically alter the landscapes, cultural sites and ecosystems in the parks, potentially making them inaccessible for humans and uninhabitable for other species.\n\nWhat happened at Yellowstone is also a classic example of the climate crisis converging with failed emergency disaster response, said Marcy Rockman, a former climate change adaptation coordinator for the Park Service.\n\n\"When I heard they were evacuating every visitor from Yellowstone, I was like, 'Oh my god, evacuating every visitor was not a part of our climate change scenarios,' \" Rockman told CNN. \"Seeing what my former colleagues at Yellowstone are having to deal with now, it's like ... I'm worried for them.\"\n\nThat the parks' climate change response \"now involves 'how do you evacuate everyone from a park' is just a gut-punch that I don't think we had fully taken in when we started the climate program,\" she said.\n\nAs more climate change-fueled events occur, CNN talked to Park Service officials and scientists to see how the climate crisis may alter the ecosystems and landscapes of some of the country's most beloved national treasures.\n\nYosemite is just one of many examples of threatened and disappearing national parks. @Rene_MarshCNN reports @kaitlancollins pic.twitter.com/INl66OOcFC — The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) July 8, 2022\n\nYosemite National Park\n\nClimate change has already touched one of the Sierra Nevada's most valuable sites. Yosemite National Park has been forced to close several times in recent years because of extreme heat, deadly wildfires or dangerous air quality from fire smoke.\n\nThe average temperature in Yosemite may increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, which is several degrees higher than global temperatures are predicted to surge\n\nA deer grazes in Cook's Meadow at Yosemite.\n\nAnd it's not a future threat. Park rangers and scientists have already observed the shrinking snowpack, dried-up waterfalls, increasing fire activity and more tree die-offs like those Dickman observed.\n\n\"People come to Yosemite because we have some of the biggest trees on Earth,\" Dickman said. \"But the whole experience in Yosemite is starting to be altered ... We're just kind of seeing that tree line lift up in a weird way.\"\n\nAs average temperature increases, it increases the elevation of where trees can grow. Dickman said forecast models show this part of the Sierra Nevada could look more like the mountains around Los Angeles, where trees can grow at a higher elevation because of the warmer temperatures.\n\nJUST WATCHED Yosemite's biggest restoration in history Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Yosemite's biggest restoration in history 01:36\n\nStudies have also showed the range of small mammals in Yosemite has shifted upslope over the last century as the area warmed.\n\nDickman told CNN even 10 years ago he was concerned about different threats, pointing to how the park dealt more with flooding from powerful storms coming off the Pacific Ocean and less with dangerous wildfires.\n\n\"For our preparedness now, it's really going to be around fire, and to get fire back on the ground in a good way to ward off some of the effects of these climate- and fuels-driven fires,\" he said.\n\nGlacier National Park\n\nScientists at Glacier National Park are bracing for its namesakes to disappear entirely.\n\n\"If you wanted to see a glacier, go to Glacier National Park in Montana,\" Beissinger said \"But you better get there soon, because the glaciers are going to be gone from Glacier National Park, probably sometime in the next decade or two. They've been disappearing.\"\n\nThe Jackson Glacier Overlook, along the east side of Going-to-the-Sun Road is one of the easiest spots in the park to see a glacier.\n\nIn the past 50 years, some of the Montana park's 26 glaciers have lost as much as 80% of their area. Loss of glacier ice is a huge threat for aquatic ecosystems within the park that rely on cold freshwater . It also threatens the surrounding area with increased flooding.\n\nMuch like the flooding at Yellowstone in June, the climate crisis is expected to trigger more flooding at Glacier. As Yellowstone closed down to visitors during its flooding disaster, officials at Glacier warned visitors their park was also experiencing dangerous water levels\n\nDid flooding in @YellowstoneNPS divert your trip toward Glacier?\n\n\n\nBe aware that we are experiencing some flooding too. Also, you will want to read about our vehicle reservation system before you arrive.\n\n\n\nVideo description: A short clip zooms in on water cascading. pic.twitter.com/ZhQ9hfN84I — Glacier National Park (@GlacierNPS) June 16, 2022\n\nMelting glaciers are also a significant source of sea level rise. Caitlyn Florentine, a research physical scientist at the US Geological Survey who studies US glaciers, noted the glaciers at Glacier National Park are already quite small. But when taken together with other glaciers globally under a warming climate, they are enough to cause significant sea level rise around the planet.\n\n\"The meltwater from these glaciers affects the streams that are very high in the alpine environment,\" Florentine told CNN, pointing to a study which found \"the presence or absence of glacier meltwater will be felt by water in the rivers that feed agricultural communities to the east of the park.\"\n\nGiven the rate at which climate change is accelerating, researchers say the timing of the loss depends highly on how much fossil fuel we burn in the future.\n\nSequoia National Park\n\nJust south of the Yosemite Valley in California, the West's megadrought is weakening and destroying the nation's largest, oldest trees in Sequoia National Park\n\nSix fires over the course of six years burned more than 85% of the giant sequoia grove acreage across the larger Sierra Nevada, compared to around 25% over the previous 100 years, the National Park Service reported . Three of those fires crossed into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks , forcing officials to close the parks to the public and take dramatic steps to protect the trees.\n\nJUST WATCHED Climate change could wipe out iconic California landmarks Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Climate change could wipe out iconic California landmarks 03:04\n\nIn September 2021, park biologists wrapped the base of General Sherman -- the planet's largest living tree -- in protective foil as the flames of the KNP Complex fire approached. General Sherman is estimated to be anywhere from 2,200 to 2,700 years old, and has grown to 275 feet.\n\nThe tree's diameter is more than 36 feet at its base, which is about as wide as six average cars.\n\nPark scientists have already seen \"major effects\" of climate change, said Christy Brigham, chief of resource management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, mainly in the form of hotter, drier droughts and how they fuel extreme wildfires.\n\n\"We had a historic superintendent's building burned down in a recent wildfire,\" Brigham told CNN. \"So those kinds of impacts are already happening in lots of national parks, and will continue to happen.\"\n\nNPS personnel fold up fire resistant aluminum and fiberglass blankets as they unwrap General Sherman.\n\nAssistant Fire Manager Leif Mathiesen, of the Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nation Park Fire Service, looks for an opening in the burned-out sequoias in Redwood Mountain Grove.\n\nBrigham added the climate crisis is \"already changing our day-to-day operational business of managing our national parks.\"\n\nBesides maintaining public amenities and ensuring endangered species are safe, she said park employees -- who have also been personally impacted by wildfires -- are working even harder to clear up trails and engage in new emergency response systems to prepare for events such as fire risks.\n\n\"People who work in these places like me and all the other staff really care deeply about keeping these places the spectacular environments that they are for the enjoyment of visitors, and we are seeing changes,\" Brigham said. \"I came to Sequoia National Park from a different Park in 2015, and we were already seeing lots of dead trees from hotter drought, and that's only been made worse by the wildfires.\"\n\nNational parks, like Sequoia National Park, \"is a place where we share values, as Americans, in terms of our heritage,\" she added. \"It's a place where we can connect and see the impacts and maybe make some choices to reduce those impacts in the future.\"\n\nGrand Canyon National Park\n\nThe impact of warmer temperatures, severe lack of rainfall and stunted streamflow on the Colorado River is alarming at Grand Canyon National Park, said Mark Nebel, the park's geosciences program manager.\n\nThe climate crisis is critically altering the Arizona park's ecosystems, habitats for species, as well as its hydrology, Nebel told CNN.\n\n\"We're seeing snow melting about a month earlier than it did a century ago, and there's evaporation as well, and that really affects the levels of water in the [Grand Canyon's groundwater] aquifer,\" Nebel said. \"We're concerned about how it will affect the springs, which are our drinking water source, as well as the vast majority of the biodiversity around the springs.\"\n\nVasey's Paradise Spring is one which has gone from consistently reliable to bone dry.\n\nWhat Vasey's Paradise Spring looks like in a normal springtime flow.\n\nVasey's Paradise Spring in 2022. Park officials say they dont totally understand why the spring is cut off, but they suspect it was caused by the lower groundwater table. There are other normally reliable springs in the park that are also showing erratic behavior.\n\nThe West's megadrought has devastated the Colorado River, which is a vital resource for the national park. Increased flooding, rock slides, wildfires, and heavy storms also pose severe challenges to Grand Canyon's cultural sites, infrastructure, surrounding communities, fisheries and other wildlife.\n\nBecause of a hotter and drier climate, as well as aging infrastructure, Nebel said the park is changing the source of their water supply from groundwater, which has long relied on one of Grand Canyon's springs, to surface water supply elsewhere.\n\nThe plummeting level of Lake Powell upstream on the Colorado River -- the nation's second-largest reservoir -- is affecting species in the river downstream and at the park according to Nebel.\n\n\"With the water level lowering at Lake Powell, these warm-water invasive fish that are normally near the surface are coming through the dam and getting into the Grand Canyon National Park and threatening native fisheries,\" he said. \"Our fisheries folks have been working really hard to remove like invasive trout from streams, where these native fish reproduce.\"\n\nNebel acknowledge for most visitors who are only there for a few days, the impacts of climate change in the park are largely imperceptible. It's different for the park researchers and staff who live with them day in and day out.\n\n\"For most of us who work at Grand Canyon, we see these crises, we see the danger, we see the damage,\" Nebel said, and \"we see that it's gonna get worse.\"\n\nJoshua Tree National Park\n\nFor Steve Beissinger, ecology professor at the University of California in Berkeley, national parks like Joshua Tree in Southern California are vital for scientific research. But over the years he has seen how climate change has threatened the park's biodiversity by pushing many species -- including small mammals and birds -- toward the brink of extinction.\n\n\"When we go back and resurvey places [in Joshua Tree] that the early scientists at UC Berkeley visited a century ago, we find about half as many birds, and that's because it's warmed and dried so much,\" Beissinger told CNN. \"What we're seeing is a whole kind of change in a community; a collapse in the case of birds. For park managers, there's limits of what they can actually do to reverse this because of the climate change effects.\"\n\nThe extreme heat, dire lack of rain and drought conditions at Joshua Tree have triggered a decline in several species, including the cactus mouse, kangaroo rat, mountain quail and other bird species\n\nA visitor walks through Hidden Valley in Joshua Tree National Park.\n\nJoshua trees in the park.\n\nJoshua trees themselves are also at risk. Scientists have concluded the western Joshua trees could lose up to 90% of its current habitat in the Mojave Desert by as early as 2070. In mid-June, the California Fish and Game Commission considered whether to list the tree under the state's Endangered Species Act. The four-person commission was split down the middle and so failed to secure a majority vote to give the species protected status.\n\nJane Rodgers, chief of science and resource stewardship at Joshua Tree National Park, said they're \"fortunate to have some longer term data which is hard to come by for land managers to be able to inform and make decisions.\" She said such comprehensive data allows park managers to b proactive rather than reactive to extreme weather and drought.\n\n\"We are looking at a holistic portfolio of things we can do to protect these areas,\" Rodgers told CNN. \"It's not just continuing to collect data, but also protecting these areas by managing fuels or creating fuel breaks, so that firefighters have a higher probability of stopping a fire. We want to be prepared for that ahead of time as much as we can.\"\n\nEverglades National Park\n\nUrban sprawl is nestled next to protected wetlands on the fringes of Everglades National Park.\n\nAs US national parks in the West continue to be plagued with drought, the opposite is taking shape in the eastern end of the country.\n\nResearchers with the National Park Service have observed an increase in water level at some inland, freshwater areas in the Everglades over the last 50 years, on par with the pace of rising seas in the region.\n\nThe park has also been battered by intense hurricanes in recent years. The Everglades, which encompasses 1.5 million acres of mangroves, marshes and upland forest, is a critical buffer, absorbing the fury of tropical storms. Hurricane Irma pummeled the region in 2017, and the Everglades took much of the storm's wrath and protected inland communities.\n\nBut scientists warn the barriers won't be around for much longer. Because of the dramatic changes seen in US national parks, Dickman said people should make climate-conscious choices to help preserve the landscapes for future generations.\n\n\"The history of America is painted [in these parks], anything from some of the good in our history, some of the bad of our history, and it protects some of the most incredible landscapes on Earth,\" Dickman said. \"I have traveled around the Earth and it is hard to go to a place more beautiful than the national parks of America. And we so owe the next generation the ability to experience these places as we have.\"", "authors": ["Rachel Ramirez"], "publish_date": "2022/07/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/world/reptiles-extinction-threat-scn/index.html", "title": "Groundbreaking study reveals the most threatened reptile species", "text": "(CNN) One-fifth of all reptile species face the risk of extinction, according to a comprehensive new study, with crocodiles and turtles most threatened.\n\nIt's the first study of its kind for reptiles and involved 961 scientists in 24 countries across six continents and took 15 years to complete.\n\nSimilar global assessments for other classes of animal have revealed that 40.7% of amphibians, 25.4% of mammals and 13.6% of bird species face the threat of extinction.\n\n\"Reptiles, to many people, are not charismatic, and there's just been a lot more focus on the furry or feathery species of vertebrates for conservation. But through persistence we were able to find the funding needed to complete the study,\" Bruce Young, chief zoologist and senior conservation scientist at NatureServe, a conservation nonprofit, told a news briefing. He was one of the authors of the study, which published Wednesday in the journal Nature.\n\n\"Through work like this, we advertise the importance of these creatures. They're part of the tree of life. Just like any other equally deserving of attention.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Katie Hunt"], "publish_date": "2022/04/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/world/monarch-butterfly-endangered-scn/index.html", "title": "Endangered monarch butterflies: 'Everybody has a role to play ...", "text": "(CNN) One of the most popular and recognizable insects is at risk of extinction, according to a global organization focused on conservation and sustainability.\n\nThe International Union for Conservation of Nature has added the migratory monarch butterfly to its Red List of Threatened Species as endangered, the group said in a release Thursday.\n\n\"It is difficult to watch monarch butterflies and their extraordinary migration teeter on the edge of collapse, but there are signs of hope,\" said Anna Walker, a species survival officer for invertebrate pollinators at the New Mexico BioPark Society who works in partnership with the IUCN Species Survival Commission.\n\nThe monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration like birds, according to the US Forest Service . Every winter, monarchs that live in the eastern part of North America migrate to the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico, and those in the west migrate to the coastal regions of California, according to the federal agency. Those migrations have been a spectator event in the past.\n\nThe IUCN Red List shows what actions need to be taken to save nature from extinction and is a resource often cited in peer-reviewed scientific research, according to its website. The list is not related to the US Endangered Species Act, and currently the US Fish and Wildlife Service has not listed the monarch butterfly as endangered.", "authors": ["Madeline Holcombe", "Jalen Beckford"], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2020/10/31/fish-scientists-climate-change-arizona/6058931002/", "title": "World's fish scientists appeal for action to reduce greenhouse gases", "text": "Early one Saturday morning in June, Scott Bonar’s phone rang.\n\nBonar is a fish biologist at the University of Arizona, and on the other end of the call was a biologist from the U.S. Forest Service, who asked Bonar to come immediately to help rescue threatened fish and take them to tanks at his lab.\n\nFlames were racing through the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, bearing down on the upper parts of Sabino Canyon. Federal and state wildlife officials determined that the Bighorn Fire, and the scar it would leave, could soon send ash and debris coursing through Sabino Creek, threatening one of the few remaining populations of an endangered fish called the Gila chub.\n\nBonar said his first thought was: “Here we go again. Another big fire.”\n\nHe’s seen the increasingly large and intense wildfires that have ravaged Arizona and the West over the past decade. And this wasn’t the first time he had been asked to help keep fish in his tanks at the university until the threat of polluted runoff from a burn scar had passed. If the Gila chub weren’t removed, there was danger that when ash and sediment washed down in a rainstorm, the fish could be smothered and die.\n\nWhen Bonar rolled up to the creek in his truck, state wildlife biologists were pulling Gila chub from the water with hoop nets.\n\nThe finger-sized silvery fishes, most of them 4-6 inches long, were dropped from the nets into aerated containers resembling round coolers. Bonar drove them to the university, where students helped move about 150 fish into tanks — one group out of hundreds of Gila chub that were rescued and taken to several locations to be held temporarily.\n\nThree months after the Bighorn Fire died down, charring nearly 120,000 acres, those fish are still swimming in Bonar’s tanks. He said the story of this rescue illustrates why he’s so concerned about how climate change is affecting fish and aquatic ecosystems, and how these threats will only grow if humans don’t act quickly to cut emissions of planet-heating gases.\n\nThe desperate attempt to save a species like the Gila chub is one of many experiences that have led biologists to decide they are witnessing a crisis so severe that they must alert the public.\n\nIn September, Bonar joined aquatic scientists around the world in issuing a statement appealing for urgent action to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions. Bonar was the outgoing president of the American Fisheries Society, and he was joined by the leaders of 110 other aquatic scientific societies representing more than 80,000 scientists from countries across the globe.\n\nIn their statement, the scientists laid out the grim picture that has emerged from thousands of peer-reviewed studies: Climate change is inflicting extensive harm to aquatic ecosystems, both in freshwater and the oceans. The degradation of these ecosystems, which are among the most threatened on Earth, is accelerating. And many of these changes are irreversible and “will continue to worsen if we persist on our current trajectory.”\n\n“The world’s aquatic resources are now under their greatest threat in human history,” the scientists wrote. “Delaying action to stop underlying causes of climate change will increase the economic, environmental, and societal consequences.”\n\nThey listed the many ways climate change is adding to stresses on ecosystems in streams and rivers, including more severe droughts, heat waves, wildfires and floods, and how marine life is being hammered by warming and acidification, while coral bleaching events threaten to wipe out much of the world’s living reefs.\n\nThey pointed out that freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface but support a third of vertebrate species and are especially vulnerable.\n\n“Our existence and well-being depend on the health and well-functioning of aquatic ecosystems,” the scientists said. “It is time to acknowledge the urgent need to act to address climate change. Delaying action to control greenhouse gas emissions is not an option if humankind wishes to conserve the aquatic resources and environmental safety of the world.”\n\nEXTINCTION CRISIS:Many species at risk of extinction because of human activities, UN report says\n\nBonar, a professor at the university’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment, said it’s very unusual for him and other biologists, who usually keep a low profile, to speak out like this.\n\n“Fish biologists, we tend to be quiet and in the background. We don't like to put ourselves out there,” he said. But the scientists have been seeing such major changes, he said, that they decided to sound an alarm about how humanity’s heating of the planet is profoundly harming fish and other aquatic life.\n\n“If we don't address climate change, then we've got a lot of fish that will go extinct,” Bonar said. “If we don't control emissions, then a lot of our aquatic ecosystems as we know them can disappear. And it's happening right now. These changes are happening right now.”\n\nClimate change accelerates extinctions\n\nThe world has been rapidly losing species in what scientist describe as Earth’s sixth mass extinction, a widespread and worsening ecological unraveling driven primarily by humans.\n\nFish and other aquatic species are being hit especially hard. Over the past century, these species have suffered because of pollution, the destruction and degradation of habitats, the diversion and pumping of water and competition from invasive species. Climate change is compounding these stresses.\n\n“It’s always there in the background, increasing more and more and making it tougher and tougher for the whole fish community to live,” Bonar said.\n\nIn Arizona, many stretches of flowing streams and wetlands have been lost to development, water diversions and groundwater pumping. There are 35 native fish species in the state, and about two-thirds are listed as threatened or endangered, among them Apache trout, spikedace, razorback sucker and the Gila chub.\n\nThis year is the second time Bonar and his students have had to hold Gila chub from Sabino Canyon in their tanks. During a fire a decade ago, fish were similarly rescued and brought to the university, where they remained for months.\n\nBonar kept the fish until the post-fire sludge had washed through and settled. Once the stream stabilized, the fish were taken back and released.\n\nThis year, students have been feeding the rescued Gila chub fish food pellets and bloodworms. The fish will stay in the tanks until it’s safe for them to return, Bonar said. It’s not clear how long that might be.\n\nThe endangered Gila chub live only in streams in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, where they feed mainly on insects. They spawn in the spring and after monsoon rains. In the summers, when the flows shrink, they often survive in isolated pools.\n\nTo study these and other fish, Bonar regularly leads students to streams throughout the Southwest, where they catch fish to sample populations. One of their methods is electrofishing. They zap and stun the fish, scoop them out with nets, count them and measure them. Then the fish wake up and swim away.\n\nWhen the water is clear enough, the researchers will strap on masks and snorkels and swim into stream pools to see the fish and estimate their numbers.\n\nBonar is passionate about this work. He grew up next to a lake in southern Indiana — watery “Mark Twain country,” he calls it — where he explored canoeing the rivers and cypress swamps.\n\nAt the University of Arizona, he teaches a course on freshwater fisheries management.\n\nWildfires threaten riparian habitats\n\nDuring his two decades working in Arizona, Bonar has seen changes sweep through many watersheds. At some natural springs, the flow has decreased. He’s noticed less water in streams after years of drought. And increasingly, large fires have blackened landscapes where runoff feeds streams.\n\nAcross the West, climate change is contributing to bigger, more intense wildfires. Hotter conditions have dried out vegetation and left wildlands parched and primed to burn.\n\nIn Arizona, all 10 of the largest wildfires on record have occurred since 2002.\n\nMore and more frequently, these big fires incinerate streamside habitats, burning off vegetation that normally holds the soil in place, Bonar said. When the rains come, the sediment and charred debris wash into the water, harming and killing fish.\n\n“Those big fires have a big impact on our fish,” Bonar said.\n\nWarmer temperatures are also changing underwater habitats. Desert fish have adapted to a certain range of temperatures. And when the water heats up, Bonar said, many species struggle to survive.\n\nHigher temperatures also increase the amount of moisture that evaporates from the landscape, leaving less water flowing in streams. This contributes to more fragmentation, Bonar said, and when portions of a stream are no longer connected, the fish can be stuck, unable to escape areas with warmer water.\n\nDrying streams affect more than just fish. While streams and riparian areas cover a tiny portion of Arizona, an estimated 80% of the state’s animals spend some portion of their life cycle in these aquatic areas.\n\nArizona’s waterways also sustain outdoor activities and tourism, drawing residents and out-of-state visitors who fish, boat and spend money. In a report last year, researchers with Audubon Arizona estimated that water-based outdoor recreation accounts for an annual contribution of $7.1 billion to the state’s economy, ranking above mining and golf.\n\nIf more streams and wetlands continue to dry up, Bonar said, more of these vital natural places, and all the life they support, could be lost.\n\nA chance to address the crisis\n\nBonar said he thought about the worsening toll of wildfires last week when he drove toward Payson for a fish survey and saw the landscape covered with charred saguaros, the cactuses devastated beyond anything he’s seen before.\n\nHe stressed that he’s an expert on fish, not fires. But over the past few years, some of the biggest fires on record have exploded in the West. Researchers have pointed to a mix of contributing factors, including the spread of invasive grasses that have pushed fires into desert areas, forests that have grown dense due to decades of fire-suppression, and the effects of climate change in fueling hot, dry conditions.\n\nDuring his term leading the American Fisheries Society, Bonar traveled widely and talked with other fish biologists in places from the Midwest to Nova Scotia to the Great Barrier Reef. He said scientists told him about the many overlapping pressures affecting their species, including overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution. They also spoke about the background effects of global warming.\n\n“Climate change is something that’s making things worse and worse. It compounds with these other factors,” Bonar said.\n\nREEFS AT RISK:Visiting the Great Barrier Reef, a reporter reflects on the crisis of dying coral reefs\n\nIn the oceans, higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are leading to more acidic waters. And as the water chemistry changes, shellfish including oysters and scallops are increasingly having trouble forming shells and their shells are growing thinner.\n\nBonar said he feels sad seeing inaction on climate change. But he also feels hopeful about the prospects of starting to tackle the crisis.\n\n“There are so many things we can do about it, and make money for our economy and take care of this,” he said, “if we recognize there's a problem and put our good old ingenuity to work.”\n\nIn their statement, he and other scientists suggested a list of responses. They called for drastically curbing greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning rapidly toward clean energy and setting national and global targets to protect and restore ecosystems that capture and sequester carbon, including wetlands and seagrass beds.\n\nThe scientists recommended adaptation measures to prepare for and mitigate the effects of global heating on aquatic habitats.\n\nThese proposals parallel other recent efforts by scientists to advocate for solutions in addressing climate change, preserving water sources and saving natural ecosystems.\n\nAnother group of scientists and experts recently launched a global initiative for groundwater sustainability. Stressing a need for effective management of groundwater, they said pumping has impacted “environmentally critical” streamflow in more than 15% of streams globally and could affect a majority of streams by mid-century.\n\nOther scientists have focused on the potential for nature-based solutions to help preserve biodiversity and address climate change.\n\nThe renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson has pointed out that species are now going extinct \"somewhere between 100 and 1,000 times faster than before the spread of humanity, and the rate is accelerating.\" He has warned that if the trend continues, most species could be gone by the end of the century.\n\nWilson has called for protecting “Half-Earth” — managing half the land and ocean areas as natural habitat to reverse the extinction crisis and ensure the health of the planet.\n\nOther scientists have advocated for a target of protecting 30% of Earth by 2030, and designating an additional 20% as “climate stabilization areas,” under what they call the Global Deal for Nature.\n\nRecently one group of researchers identified priority regions for restoring ecosystems around the world. They focused on areas where farmlands and grazing lands could be managed to let nature come back, saving species and allowing the plants and land to soak up carbon.\n\nWhen aquatic scientists from around the world released their statement calling for cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, they stressed that failing to act would imperil future generations. They also noted how preserving habitats can help store carbon.\n\nAntonio Camacho, chairperson of the European Federation for Freshwater Sciences, said in a statement that when aquatic ecosystems are healthy, they’re “important allies that capture carbon and reduce climate warming.” But when they’re damaged, he said, “they may let go of the large amounts of carbon they hold.”\n\nENVIRONMENTAL ROLLBACKS: How Trump's new rules affect air, water, wildlife in Arizona\n\nThe American Fisheries Society and the other scientific societies didn’t mention the U.S. election and aren’t taking a position on the presidential candidates or any other candidates. Bonar said he hopes the information presented by the global group of scientists will help the public, and that includes in making decisions about which candidates to vote for.\n\nThe American Fisheries Society did, however, recently take a stance against the Trump administration’s rollback of federal protections for many streams and wetlands. The group filed a brief in U.S. District Court supporting 17 states in their challenge against the Trump administration’s new rule, which strips away protections under the Clean Water Act for many creeks and washes.\n\nThe change especially affects ephemeral streams, which flow after rains but otherwise sit dry. Many of the tributary streams and washes in Arizona fall into this category, and state environmental officials have been holding a series of meetings to consider ideas for new state regulations to protect streams and wetlands.\n\nIn its court brief in May, the American Fisheries Society said the Trump administration’s new rule leaves many aquatic ecosystems unprotected and, if it’s allowed to stand, “will cause irreparable harm.”\n\nIan James reports on climate change, water and the environment for The Arizona Republic. Send him story tips, comments and questions at ian.james@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter at @ByIanJames.\n\nSupport local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.\n\nEnvironmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/10/31"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2012/11/13/chimps-humans-gut-bacteria/1703107/", "title": "Chimps' gut bugs look similar to human ones", "text": "Dan Vergano, USA TODAY\n\nFinding is in journal 'Nature Communications'\n\nGut bacteria are implicated in digestive health\n\nA common ape ancestor for people and chimps explains the shared gut bugs\n\nApes and people share more than just genes, researchers report. Our gut bacteria look awfully similar, too. And that may mean our digestive system's bugs first evolved millions of years ago.\n\nThe finding reported in the journal Nature Communications points to ancient origins for the microbes populating our innards — the so-called \"microbiome\" — that help humanity digest what we eat. Up to three types of these microbiomes, called \"enterotypes,\" have been found in people. They're made up of populations of gut bugs linked in some cases to either healthy digestion or ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome.\n\nOverall, \"chimpanzees possess enterotypes that are compositionally similar to those observed within human populations,\" finds the study led by Yale's Andrew Moeller, which looked at gut bacteria from 35 chimps at Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park over eight years. In particular, the chimps possessed gut bacteria associated with carbohydrate-rich diets in humans, no surprise given their fondness for fruit.\n\nHowever, gut bacteria types varied randomly among the chimps, where siblings and parents might differ while strangers had similar ones. Gut bacteria types changed over time in chimps, too, just as they seem to in people.\n\nThe similarity of gut bacteria suggests that chimps and people both derive their microbiomes from a common ape ancestor more than 5 million years old.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2012/11/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona/2016/03/16/2-arizona-endangered-species-up-review/81863328/", "title": "2 Arizona endangered species up for review", "text": "Danika Worthington\n\nCronkite News\n\nFederal officials Tuesday rejected a request to remove the acuna cactus from the endangered species list, but said they will give further consideration to a petition to delist the Southwestern willow flycatcher.\n\nThose were two of eight species in Arizona that were part of a batch of preliminary decisions released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on 29 species across the country.\n\nThe service said there was enough evidence to advance 16 of the 29 to a “rigorous” 12-month review process to see which ones will be added to, stay on or fall off the list.\n\n“The petition is the first step in evaluating whether something warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act,” said Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman for the Southwest region.\n\nSix species in Arizona did not make the cut for further consideration – which is what saved the acuna cactus – but the service said it will review the petition to add the Western bumblebee to the endangered list.\n\nAcuna cactus stays on endangered list\n\nTierra Curry, senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it’s not surprising that the acuna cactus will stay on the list, noting that climate change has made the desert hotter and drier. The cactus was only recently added by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013, when the known population of the small, barrel-shaped plants had dwindled to just 3,600.\n\nCurry said the Center for Biological Diversity was “definitely going to oppose” the delisting of the Southwestern willow flycatcher during an upcoming public comments period. The bird that has been listed as endangered since 1995.\n\nThe Fish and Wildlife Service said it received a petition from multiple groups seeking to delist the bird, and decided that there were substantial challenges to the bird’s scientific classification that merited another look. The flycatcher is found in the Southwest and breeds in trees and shrubs by rivers, swamps and wetlands, according to the service.\n\n“I think that’s definitely a bad decision,” Curry said of the plan to move forward on the flycatcher.\n\n“Rivers in the Southwest have never been more threatened,” she added, noting dropping water levels and high demands from a growing human population.\n\nThe requests on the cactus and the flycatcher were the only ones to delist species in Arizona – the other six all sought to put plants, animals or insects on the list.\n\nWestern bumblebee might be endangered\n\nThe service rejected five of those six, but agreed to consider the petition for the Western bumblebee. The bee was once one of the most common bumblebee species, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, but its populations have declined in the past 20 to 30 years, especially in the West.\n\nThe service said there were substantial findings that disease, pesticide use and climate change, among other factors, have impacted the species.\n\nPetitioners sought emergency listings for the Arizona wetsalts tiger beetle and the MacDougal’s yellowtops shrub, amid fears that proposed development near the Grand Canyon threatened to destroy their habitat. But the development was rejected, putting the beetle and shrub out of harm’s way, Curry said.\n\nShe said that the service’s decision to not move forward on petitions for two lizards and a silkmoth was likely due to inadequate information to prove they were threatened.\n\nThe Fish and Wildlife Service has been deciding the fate of more and more petitions in batches in the past two years in an effort to increase efficiency, Humphrey said. Additionally, environmental and advocacy groups have been filing petitions in batches, he said.\n\nHe said the service is trying to release results three or four times a year, with the next set of petition decisions likely to be released around May.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/03/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_12", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/us/dallas-school-district-requires-clear-backpacks/index.html", "title": "Dallas school district joins others in Texas requiring clear or mesh ...", "text": "(CNN) The Dallas school district announced Monday that it will require students to carry clear or mesh backpacks to class, joining other Texas districts in implementing new security measures following the Uvalde school massacre.\n\nThe new rules apply to 6th-12th grade students at Dallas Independent School District -- the second-largest public school district in Texas -- and will take effect when the upcoming 2022-2023 school year begins in August. Other types of bags will no longer be allowed, according to the school district\n\n\"We acknowledge that clear or mesh backpacks alone will not eliminate safety concerns,\" the district said in its announcement. \"This is merely one of several steps in the district's comprehensive plan to better ensure student and staff safety.\"\n\nThe district has already purchased the clear bags, and is set to distribute them before the start of the school year, the statement said.\n\nThe decision was made based on feedback from students and parents, as well as recommendations from a safety task force at the district, the district said.", "authors": ["Nouran Salahieh", "Chuck Johnston"], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/19/texas-schools-clear-backpacks-uvalde-shooting/10099314002/", "title": "Dallas joins Texas school districts requiring clear backpacks after ...", "text": "One of the largest school districts in Texas announced it will require students to use clear or mesh backpacks following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.\n\nThe Dallas Independent School District, the second largest in the state, made the announcement Monday. It joins other districts in the state that have implemented similar policies, even though school safety experts say banning regular backpacks is \"security theater\" that funnels resources away from more effective approaches.\n\n“It comes across as a knee-jerk reaction to make people feel as though something is being done,” said Jaclyn Schildkraut, associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oswego. “But it's really not going to do what people think it's going to do, and it's sending the wrong message.”\n\nTexas schools move toward requiring clear backpacks\n\nBeginning the next school year, students in sixth through 12th grade will be required to use clear or mesh backpacks, Dallas Independent School District announced. Other bags won’t be allowed.\n\nThe district said it will distribute free clear backpacks to students before the school year begins, adding that the decision came from safety recommendations from internal safety task forces and feedback from students and parents. Being able to easily see into students' backpacks, the district said, would help staff ensure they aren’t carrying prohibited items.\n\n“We acknowledge that clear or mesh backpacks alone will not eliminate safety concerns,” the Dallas school district said. “This is merely one of several steps in the district’s comprehensive plan to better ensure student and staff safety.”\n\nThe decision follows intense scrutiny of school safety measures in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24.\n\nGRAPHICS:Total police response to Uvalde school shooting, in one chart\n\nUNLOCKED DOORS, NO CLEAR LEADERSHIP:Experts say Uvalde report shows errors led to 'disaster'\n\nOther Texas districts, including Seguin Independent School District, Greenville Independent School District, Harper Independent School District, Southside Independent School District in San Antonio, and Ingleside Independent School District, announced similar clear backpack policies since the Uvalde shooting.\n\n“School administrators are under enormous pressure from parents and the public due to the heightened media attention after high-profile incidents,” said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm.\n\nMore than anything, the policies are “an effort to appease the anxieties of school communities,\" Trump said.\n\n“But with security theater like this, it may make you feel safer, but it doesn't always actually make you safer,” he said.\n\nWILL CALS FOR POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY IN UVALDE BE ANSWERED?: Legal experts say pursuing charges could prove difficult.\n\nSchildkraut said such policies have often been an anxiety-fueled reaction to high-profile school shootings, including the 2018 shooting that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she said.\n\nStudents in that shooting were required to wear clear backpacks when returning to school.\n\nWhile there is no official count of how many schools have had similar policies, Schildkraut said they’re rarely in place for longer than a year or two.\n\n“These policies come when everybody's emotions are incredibly heightened,” she said. “And then, when people's heart rate gets back into resting zone a bit, these policies often don't stay in place.”\n\nClear backpack policy ‘defies any sort of logic'\n\nDespite their popularity as a reaction to school shootings, Schildkraut said requiring clear backpacks “defies any sort of logic” because it’s “incredibly rare that the perpetrator of a school shooting will bring a gun to school in a backpack.”\n\nAlso, if someone wants to do harm, she said they’re not going to be easily deterred by a clear backpack policy.\n\n'GUT-WRENCHING':Santa Fe shooting survivors livid after their fight was ignored in Uvalde\n\nMichael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International Inc., a global nonprofit school safety center, said these requirements are often well-intended but “largely ineffective” because of how easy it is to conceal weapons, even in clear backpacks.\n\nWhile the center does not publicly show such demonstrations to avoid influencing people who may want to do harm, Dorn said he has shown school officials how as many as 26 weapons can be concealed in one student’s clear backpack.\n\nPolicy may damage trust between students, staff\n\nDorn said policies that require clear backpacks can also damage trust between students and staff and negatively impact school environments.\n\n“We're very big on trying to develop approaches that don't punish all students for the actions of a few,” he said.\n\nWHAT TO KNOW:The sentencing trial for the Parkland school shooter begins Monday\n\nSafe Havens has surveyed students at districts that have had clear backpack policies, including Broward County Public Schools, which includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.\n\nAt Marjory Stoneman, Dorn said students showed administrators that the policy wasn’t effective by taking toy pistols to school to show how easy weapons are to hide. Many students criticized the policies as ineffective and violating student privacy. The requirement was scrapped just months after its implementation.\n\n'We don't want to waste resources'\n\nSchool districts usually have limited resources in three categories: time, energy and budget, Dorn said. When these resources fuel ineffective strategies, he said that means they’re being funneled away from other areas.\n\n“Even something like bookbags can add up to quite a bit of money,” he said. “We don't want to waste those resources.”\n\n'THEY WILL BE REGRETTING THEIR INACTION FOREVER':Experts say Uvalde shooting response went horribly wrong\n\nEffective strategies for preventing violence in schools can also include investing in better training for school resource officers, including more culturally competent training tailored to the community a school is in, said Thaddeus Johnson, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Georgia State University.\n\n\"These simple solutions won't automatically fix complex, structural issues,\" he said.\n\nMost shootings and other safety incidents “involve allegations of failures of people, policies, procedures, training and other human factors not failures of hardware, equipment and things like clear backpacks,” said Trump from National School Safety and Security Services. As a result, investing in better training for staff, more supervision in hallways and more teachers to build relationships with students can have a more significant impact on safety.\n\nEXCLUSIVE VIDEO FROM INSIDE UVALDE SCHOOL:Officers' delayed response to mass shooting\n\nSchildkraut also recommended better educating students in identifying and reporting potential threats, creating anonymous tip lines, and investing in threat assessment teams. Considering a school district’s door lock systems can also go a long way, she added.\n\n“We need to invest into what will actually keep students safe rather than just more shiny objects,” Schildkraut said.\n\nContact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/01/03/oxford-middle-high-school-students-clear-backpacks/9080666002/", "title": "Oxford school shooting: Michigan district requires clear backpacks", "text": "DETROIT — With the holiday break over, some security precautions have been put in place at Oxford Community Schools as students return to classrooms more than a month after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School.\n\nFour students died and six students and a teacher were injured on Nov. 30 when a 15-year-old suspect opened fire at the suburban Detroit school. The suspect was charged with first-degree murder, terrorism and other charges.\n\nAs part of new safety protocols, high school and middle school students were provided with clear backpacks Monday to use for the foreseeable future, according to a statement from Superintendent Tim Thorne. Elementary students are not required to use clear backpacks but must keep their belongings in cubbies all day, and are not allowed to carry their backpacks throughout the day.\n\nMiddle and elementary students returned to school Monday, which began the winter semester at Oxford Community Schools. The district has yet to announce the high school's reopening.\n\n\"We continue to make progress in the reconstruction of Oxford High School and we are working through the enormous number of logistics involved in our safe and soft reopening plan,\" Thorne said in the statement.\n\nO Holy Night: From Waukesha to Oxford, from Kentucky to Surfside, communities hard hit by tragedy pray for healing at Christmas\n\nAdditional safety precautions at Oxford schools include: law enforcement and a personal security firm hired by the district onsite at every school building; trauma specialists and therapy dogs in every school building; and Gaggle software to help students manage online safety.\n\nMichigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said last month that Oxford school officials have declined her offer to lead an independent review of facts leading up to the shooting. At issue is what the school knew prior to the shooting and whether school officials took reasonable action to prevent the violence.\n\nMore:Student wounded in Oxford shooting files lawsuit against school district", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/us/five-things-june-10-trnd/index.html/", "title": "5 things to know for June 10: January 6, Covid-19, Ukraine ..."}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/us/five-things-june-14-trnd?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak", "title": "5 things to know for June 14: January 6, Stocks, Gun laws, Ukraine ...", "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 Google engineer claims that one of the tech company's unreleased artificial intelligence programs advanced so much that it has achieved a level of consciousness. Google and many in the AI community quickly shut down the engineer's claims , but the mere idea is sparking fascinating conversations -- and stoking fears -- about the potential for what this technology can do.\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. January 6\n\nThe chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol told reporters that the panel won't criminally refer former President Donald Trump or others to the Justice Department. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson's statement on Monday drew quick reactions from other members of the committee, revealing the panel is split over how to handle potential criminal referrals of Trump and his associates for prosecution. In Monday's hearing , Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren laid out evidence that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election, was told he had lost on dozens of occasions, and not only refused to accept it but actively pushed conspiracy theories and other false claims that he knew were wrong to stir up his party's base. In response, Trump lashed out in a 12-page statement trashing the committee's work.\n\n2. Stocks\n\nStocks plunged again Monday, officially pushing the S&P 500 into bear market territory -- which happens when stocks close down 20% or more from their most recent high. In short, stocks are tumbling due to inflation and the Federal Reserve's efforts to tame it, experts say. One month ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank was not \"actively considering\" raising interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point to fight inflation, but Wall Street is now worried that Powell may have to change his tune. The S&P 500, the broadest measure of Wall Street, is down more than 21% from its high reached in early January -- and cryptocurrencies have also joined the meltdown. Bitcoin fell below $23,000 today as investors bailed out of risky assets.\n\nJUST WATCHED What is a bear market? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What is a bear market? 01:09\n\n3. Gun laws\n\nThe vast majority of Republican senators are showing they are hesitant to fully embrace the announced gun safety framework, with many telling CNN they want more details before saying where they stand. It's a sign of just how hard it will be for Republicans to hold on to the support they have and expand it, as pro-gun groups and others whip up supporters against the framework. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- the most conservative Democrat in the Senate -- defended the newly reached bipartisan agreement on Monday, adding it takes \"no rights away, no privileges away\" from gun owners. Separately, Ohio's governor Monday signed a Republican-backed bill into law that makes it easier for teachers and staff to carry guns on school premises.\n\nJUST WATCHED School shooting survivor: Hardening schools is an excuse, not a solution Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH School shooting survivor: Hardening schools is an excuse, not a solution 11:41\n\n4. Ukraine\n\nThe embattled Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is nearly completely controlled by Russian forces , according to Ukrainian military officials. The third of three main bridges to the city was deemed impassable on Monday, making evacuations extremely difficult. Meanwhile, the human rights group Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes during its efforts to capture the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, documenting the alleged use of cluster munitions and \"other indiscriminate means of attack which killed and injured hundreds of civilians.\" Ukraine's national police said authorities are also investigating the deaths of more than 12,000 civilians across the country.\n\nJUST WATCHED Putin unveils imperialist mission: taking back land he says is Russia's Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Putin unveils imperialist mission: taking back land he says is Russia's 02:59\n\n5. Yellowstone\n\nSevere flooding has shut down Yellowstone National Park and left some people in surrounding communities trapped without safe drinking water, officials say. All park entrances have been closed to visitors through at least Wednesday, officials announced, citing \"record flooding events\" and a forecast of more rain to come. Images of the damage show bridges partially collapsed and washed out roads across the park -- 96% of which is in Wyoming, 3% in Montana and 1% in Idaho. The Yellowstone River, which runs through the park and several Park County cities, swelled to a record high this week due to recent heavy rainfall and significant runoff from melting snow in higher elevations.\n\nJUST WATCHED See the severe flooding that shut down Yellowstone National Park Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See the severe flooding that shut down Yellowstone National Park 01:15\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nAmerica's most outstanding restaurant is...\n\nCalling all foodies! These outstanding restaurants earned prestigious James Beard Awards at the annual ceremony on Monday.\n\nWoman clings to tree in canal for hours after trying to save her dog\n\nWatch the intense rescue footage here . A woman and her dog were trapped in the water for 18 hours -- but she didn't give up.\n\nPost Malone welcomes a baby girl\n\nlovely gift just in time for Father's Day this Sunday!\n\nAmber Heard speaks out for the first time since her defamation trial\n\nFor all of our readers following the saga, here is Amber Heard's first interview since her blockbuster trial with Johnny Depp.\n\nThink you're OK because you only drink on weekends? Think again.\n\nWell, it's not too late for 2022 to be the \"year of the mocktail.\" If you consider yourself to be a light-to-moderate drinker, this new research may interest you.\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n115\n\nThat's how many global travel destinations are on the CDC's \"high\" risk category for Covid-19 as of Monday. Some popular places that joined the \"Level 3: Covid-19 High\" category this week include Mexico, a favorite destination for US tourists, and the UAE, the Middle East's glitzy hot spot. The Level 3 category applies to countries that have had more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, the CDC said.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"We remain concerned about the prospects for what would be a seventh nuclear test over multiple administrations. We know that the North Koreans have done preparations for such a test. We are being extremely vigilant about that.\"\n\n-- Secretary of State Antony Blinken, emphasizing the US is prepared to make adjustments to military posture in response to a , emphasizing the US is prepared to make adjustments to military posture in response to a potential nuclear test by North Korea . Following several recent missile launches by Pyongyang, Blinken said Monday the US is \"preparing for all contingencies\" and is in \"very close touch\" with partners like South Korea and Japan \"to be able to respond quickly\" if North Korea carries out such a test.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Severe storms and excessive heat across much of the US Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Severe storms and excessive heat across much of the US 02:44\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nToday is National Flag Day", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/us/five-things-june-6-trnd?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak", "title": "5 things to know for June 6: Shootings, North Korea, Ukraine ...", "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 vacations, though fun and beneficial for mental clarity, have become unattainable for many Americans amid surging airfare and gas prices . About 61% of respondents in a recent poll said gas will be a major factor in their vacation plans this year. And with prices at the pump steadily rising, it's no surprise that many people are postponing trips.\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. Shootings\n\nThere were at least 10 mass shootings in the US since Friday, following several back-to-back massacres in recent weeks. In Philadelphia , three people died and 11 others were injured over the weekend after gunfire rang out at a popular entertainment district, officials said. Three others were killed and at least 14 were injured in a shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee . Eight people were shot at a high school graduation party in Summerton, South Carolina , with one person killed. Several other shootings forced various law enforcement entities to remain on alert across the country. This comes as bipartisan talks on gun legislation are ongoing -- but previous attempts in Congress to pass major gun regulation measures have either stalled or failed\n\n2. North Korea\n\nSouth Korea and the US responded to North Korea's launch of eight missiles yesterday by firing eight more missiles into waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula earlier today. Seven were fired by South Korea and one by the US, officials said. The move demonstrated that \"even if North Korea provokes with missiles from multiple locations, (South Korea and the US have) the ability and readiness to immediately strike with precision,\" according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missile exchange comes as North Korea intensifies its provocations in the region amid heightened concerns that Kim Jong Un and his military are preparing to conduct a nuclear test . North Korea's launch yesterday was its 17th missile test this year.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how US and South Korea responded to North Korea's missile tests Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how US and South Korea responded to North Korea's missile tests 01:13\n\n3. Ukraine\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin is warning that Moscow will strike new targets if the US supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine. Delivering new arms to Kyiv would only \"drag out the armed conflict for as long as possible,\" Putin said yesterday. Meanwhile, Putin claims Russia's actions in Ukraine \" have nothing to do \" with the looming global energy and food crisis, and has instead blamed Western economic policies. He also blamed European countries for not listening \"to our urgent requests to preserve long-term contracts for the supply [of natural gas]\" -- another factor that he said led to inflation. In Ukraine, some of the \" fiercest battles \" are being fought in the eastern city of Severodonetsk, the region's top official said today, adding that the evacuation of 15,000 civilians remains impossible because of intense fighting.\n\nJUST WATCHED See Putin's warning to US over long-range missiles Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Putin's warning to US over long-range missiles 01:46\n\n4. January 6\n\nJUST WATCHED He was attacked on January 6th. Hear what he thinks will happen to Trump Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH He was attacked on January 6th. Hear what he thinks will happen to Trump 01:59\n\n5. Baby Formula\n\nThe baby formula manufacturing plant that has been at the center of the nationwide shortage restarted production Saturday . Abbott, located in Sturgis, Michigan, said in a statement it has started with the production of specialty formulas for babies who can't tolerate more common ones, with the first batches expected to be available to consumers around June 20. Similac and other products made at the plant will take longer to become available , the company said. The Sturgis plant has been shut down for months following an FDA inspection that found dangerous bacteria -- which can be deadly to infants -- in several areas at the facility.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nQueen Elizabeth II makes surprise appearance to cap off jubilee\n\nThousands flocked to London from around the world to cheer on the 96-year-old monarch. Watch some highlights from the spectacular celebration here\n\nWoman gets free couch from Craigslist. See what she found inside the cushions\n\nWas it luck? Or was it fate? This incredible discovery sounds like a movie plot.\n\nMTV Movie & TV Awards 2022\n\n\"Spider-Man: No Way Home\" and \"Euphoria\" took home the most awards at the eventful show last night. Check out the full list of winners\n\nMinjee Lee wins US Women's Open\n\nOne trophy is great, but two is even better. Lee received $1.8 million for her second major win , the largest prize in women's golf history.\n\nShe was her family's breadwinner on a McDonald's salary. Now she's gone into space\n\nMeet the first Mexican-born woman to reach the edge of space. Historic!\n\nHAPPENING LATER\n\nBoris Johnson will face a vote of confidence\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face a vote of confidence later today , triggered by discontented lawmakers in his own party for hosting gatherings during the Covid-19 lockdown. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said in a statement that the number of Conservative Party parliamentarians calling for the vote had reached the necessary threshold. If 180 Conservative lawmakers -- a simple majority -- vote against Johnson, he will cease to be leader of the governing Conservative Party and will be removed from office.\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nAlec John Such, a founding member and , a founding member and original bass player of the band Bon Jovi , has died, according to a tweet from the group yesterday. He was 70 years old. Bon Jovi was formed in New Jersey in 1983 and has had hits with songs including \"Livin' On a Prayer\" and \"Wanted Dead or Alive.\"\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n250,000\n\nThat's approximately how many migrants Immigration and Customs Enforcement is monitoring in the US using GPS ankle monitors and government-issued phones , according to the agency's latest statistics. The Biden administration has rapidly increased the number of people in the program known as \"alternatives to detention\" to better manage the increasing number of asylum cases. However, critics on both sides of the immigration debate say the program raises several big questions about privacy and funding that should concern every American.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"We need to come together and help do whatever we possibly can to bring BG home quickly and safely!! Our voice as athletes is stronger together.\"\n\n-- NBA star LeBron James, urging US officials , urging US officials via a tweet to bring WNBA star Brittney Griner home after being detained in Russia for more than 100 days. Griner has been able to receive written correspondence from family and friends during her detention , her agent tells CNN -- but she has not been able to speak with her loved ones in the US.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Severe storms threaten parts of central and eastern US Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Severe storms threaten parts of central and eastern US 02:04\n\nAND FINALLY\n\n'Here Comes The Sun' on a Kalimba", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/us/five-things-february-18-trnd/index.html/", "title": "5 things to know for February 18: Ukraine, Covid-19, Winter storm ..."}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/us/five-things-july-14-trnd?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak", "title": "5 things to know for July 14: Covid-19, Biden in Israel, Jan. 6 ...", "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) Food prices in grocery stores and on restaurant menus are still on the rise, but relief may be on the horizon . Some financial experts say food producers' input costs peaked earlier this year and have been falling. But gas prices , which remain near record levels , are up nearly 60% over the past year, according to the government's latest inflation report.\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. Covid-19\n\nNearly two-and-a-half years since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the most infectious and transmissible variant yet has arrived. The latest version of the shape-shifting BA.5 variant , an offshoot of Omicron, is fueling a global surge in cases -- illustrating how the virus has evolved and can evade immunity provided by previous Covid-19 vaccines. In the US, BA.5 accounted for 65% of new infections last week, according to the CDC. The variant is also on the march in China, raising the fear that major cities there may soon reinstate strict lockdown measures that were recently lifted. As for how to manage the new wave, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House's Covid-19 response coordinator, urged Americans aged 50 and older to get second booster shots. US 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.\n\n2. Biden in Israel\n\nPresident Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday for the start of his four-day visit to the Middle East . It is his first visit to the region since being elected president. Biden was met at the airport by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whom he will hold meetings with today . In the lead-up to the trip, US officials have been working to deepen Israeli-Arab security coordination and broker agreements that will inch Israel and Saudi Arabia -- which do not have diplomatic relations -- closer to normalization. Meanwhile, many Palestinians are pessimistic about the President's visit because of the perceived unwillingness to pressure Israel over the continued expansion of West Bank settlements and other key issues.\n\nJUST WATCHED Why Palestinians are pessimistic about Biden's visit Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why Palestinians are pessimistic about Biden's visit 02:37\n\n3. January 6\n\nFormer President Donald Trump tried to call a witness who was talking to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 , attack on the US Capitol, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The witness, a White House support staffer, was not someone who routinely communicated with the former President and \"declined to answer or respond\" to his call and instead alerted their lawyer. \"We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,\" Vice Chair Liz Cheney said during the committee's hearing on Tuesday, adding that the information has been supplied to the Department of Justice . This is not the first time the committee has raised concerns about a pattern of potential witness tampering and witness intimidation from Trump and other allies in his camp.\n\nJUST WATCHED How is Donald Trump reacting to January 6 hearings? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How is Donald Trump reacting to January 6 hearings? 01:44\n\n4. Virginia\n\nSearch efforts will continue today for more than 40 people who remain unaccounted after severe flooding inundated a rural Virginia county, tearing homes from their foundations and damaging roads and bridges across the region. Buchanan County in the western part of Virginia was soaked with more than 6 inches of water in just a matter of hours Wednesday, causing widespread flooding and road closures. To aid in the response, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency to help with recovery efforts. The storm was part of several that lingered over the county as well as the surrounding region -- including Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia -- on Tuesday night.\n\n5. Sri Lanka\n\nSri Lanka has plunged into chaos and its President has fled to Singapore as anger grows in his home country over his refusal to formally resign. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had been in Maldives after fleeing Sri Lanka Wednesday -- the same day he had said he would resign . Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed acting President during his absence. But by today, no formal resignation letter had been received by the Sri Lankan parliament's speaker, raising questions about the intentions of the apparently self-exiled leader. Last weekend's protests were among the most dramatic seen so far, with people setting fire to Wickremesinghe's residence, and swimming in Rajapaksa's private pool. Many protesters have vowed to continue to demonstrate until both men step down.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'They got rich, while the poor became poorer': Hear why ordinary Sri Lankans want to oust the ruling family Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'They got rich, while the poor became poorer': Hear why ordinary Sri Lankans want to oust the ruling family 02:54\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nNASA released more images of stars, galaxies and an exoplanet\n\nAfter decades of waiting, the world is finally able to see the deepest and sharpest images of our universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.\n\nNetflix with ads is coming\n\nNo one likes the \"A\" word... but if you can tolerate a few ads, a lower-priced Netflix tier is currently in the works.\n\nChris Hemsworth stopped eating meat before filming a kiss with his vegan costar\n\nThis kind gesture helped vegan actress Natalie Portman romaine calm while shooting a kiss scene for \"Thor: Love and Thunder.\"\n\nRyan Gosling is bringing major 'Ken-ergy' to the upcoming 'Barbie' film\n\nThe highly anticipated \"Barbie\" movie won't be released until next year, but fans are already swooning over Gosling's \"Ken doll\" character.\n\nWorld's best airlines for 2022, ranked by AirlineRatings.com\n\nWe may be in the midst of a chaotic travel season, but some airlines are flying above the industry's challenges. Check out the new list here\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n$114 billion\n\nThat's Bill Gates' estimated net worth, making him the world's fourth-richest person -- but he doesn't intend to rank that high forever. On Wednesday, the Microsoft co-founder said he wants to \"move down and eventually off of the list of the world's richest people\" because he feels \"obligated to return his resources to society.\" On the same day, Gates moved $20 billion of his wealth into the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies in the world. The foundation plans to increase its payouts from nearly $6 billion to $9 billion each year by 2026.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Today, (Joshua) Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.\"\n\n-- US Attorney Damian Williams, after former CIA employee Joshua Schulte was convicted on Wednesday of carrying out the largest leak of classified data in the agency's history. Schulte, who had worked as a computer engineer within the CIA, stole cyber tools in 2016 and transferred the classified data to WikiLeaks, according to court records. Schulte had access to \"some of the country's most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organizations,\" Willams said, adding that those tools are now essentially useless.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Western Virginia devastated by heavy rain Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Western Virginia devastated by heavy rain 02:39\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nDid someone say free fries?", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/us/five-things-march-17-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for March 17: Ukraine, Inflation, Coronavirus, Japan ...", "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) If you're hunting for a new job right now, the odds are in your favor. Companies across the board are struggling to retain and hire more workers. America's largest retailers, in particular, have been hit hard -- prompting massive hiring sprees and unprecedented wage boosts.\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\nUkraine has come under increased attack by Russian forces, and despite signs of progress in ongoing negotiations, the situation on the ground is becoming more desperate by the day. A theater where hundreds of people are said to have taken shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol was mostly reduced to rubble yesterday, according to an image shared by its city council . Some people are emerging alive from the theater this morning but it is not yet clear if all those inside the building have survived, a Ukrainian official said. Russian President Vladimir Putin is maintaining aggressive rhetoric amid the destruction and is condemning Russians who show a pro-Western mindset . Putin also is retaliating by seizing hundreds of commercial jets owned by US and European leasing companies, making it harder for foreign companies to reclaim their planes without Russian government approval. President Biden called Putin a \"war criminal\" yesterday -- the harshest criticism of Putin's actions by any US official since the war in Ukraine began three weeks ago.\n\nWant to help? Learn how you can support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. CNN's audience has contributed more than $5.7 million to the humanitarian relief work according to Public Good, the online donation platform partnering with CNN.\n\n2. Inflation\n\nThe Federal Reserve is raising interest rates for the first time since 2018, the central bank announced yesterday. This comes as the pandemic and the supply-chain crisis have pushed the cost of virtually everything higher . Food and cars are more expensive, as are transport and labor costs, making inflation a concern for many Americans. The Fed needed to boost interest rates because things that could bring down inflation -- such as improvement in supply-chain gridlock and rising labor-force participation -- have not happened, Fed Chair Pro Tempore Jerome Powell said. The central bankers also revised up their inflation predictions to a median of 4.3% by the year's end, compared with 2.6% projected in December.\n\n3. Coronavirus\n\n4. Japan\n\nA deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Japan yesterday, centered off the coast of its Fukushima region, north of Tokyo. Four people were killed and at least 160 others were injured, Japanese authorities said today. Video footage from the country shows street lights and apartment buildings vigorously shaking. For many, the incident brought back painful memories of 2011, when an earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused a disastrous nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant and killed thousands of people. Wednesday's earthquake struck about 55 miles from the location of the devastating 2011 quake, but hasn't prompted a national emergency this time. The quake also derailed a bullet train, leaving 78 people trapped on board for hours until they were able to escape through an emergency exit.\n\n5. Disney\n\nDisney employees are staging walkouts over the company's response to Florida's so-called \"Don't Say Gay\" bill. Organizers of the protests have encouraged employees to walk out during their work breaks in 15-minute daily sessions. They are also planning to stage a full-day walkout next Tuesday, but it is currently unclear how many employees will take part. The controversial bill bans educators from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with children from kindergarten to third grade. Organizers of the walkout penned an open letter that claims Disney's leadership \"does not truly understand the impact this legislation is having not only on cast members in the state of Florida, but on all members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the company and beyond.\" The CEO of Disney, which employs 75,000 people at its resorts in Florida, has issued an apology for his silence on the bill.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nThis might be the end of sharing Netflix passwords\n\nNetflix is working to prevent account sharing for people who don't live in the same household. Say farewell to leeching off your friend's account (and if you're still on your ex's or parent's account... it's probably time anyway.)\n\nTesla's cheapest Model 3 now costs $46,990\n\nHow about a cheesy joke: What do you call Tesla's expensive new car smell ? An Elon Musk.\n\nThe Eiffel Tower is now 20 feet taller\n\nFrance's iconic landmark has grown with the addition of a new antenna.\n\nHere's who is presenting at the Oscars so far\n\nWe're ready for all the red carpet action! Lady Gaga was recently added to the list of A-list celebrities presenting at the March 27 ceremony.\n\nSaharan dust turns skies orange over Europe\n\nA ski resort looks like a desert after being transformed by a thick plume of dust. Check out these stunning images\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n6\n\nThat's how many days Jussie Smollett spent in jail for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019. The former \"Empire\" actor was released yesterday -- ending his 150-day sentence behind bars early -- after an Illinois appeals court ordered a stay on his jail term and granted him bond. The appeals court ordered Smollett's release after concluding it would likely not decide on his appeal before he finished serving his short, 150-day jail sentence.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space... Today we can say that design is going to deliver.\"\n\nThomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA, on the world's premier space observatory successfully --, on the world's premier space observatory successfully completing a number of steps crucial for unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Specifically, the James Webb Space Telescope has aligned its 18 gold mirror segments, meaning it will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Multi-day severe storm threat continues for much of the South Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Multi-day severe storm threat continues for much of the South 02:18\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nPolar bear cub surprised by seal", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/03/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/us/five-things-january-24-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for Jan. 24: Covid, Ukraine, Congress, Capitol riot ...", "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) Bitcoin is off to a dismal start in the new year, tumbling almost 50% since hitting a record high of $68,990 in November. Some countries are even considering banning cryptocurrencies entirely to curb their growing popularity.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can also get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Coronavirus\n\nThe Biden administration is expected to begin distributing 400 million free N95 masks to Americans this week, the latest federal step aimed at reining in the spread of Covid-19. The masks -- which are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile -- will be made available at a number of local pharmacies and community health centers . A White House official described the distribution as \"the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history.\" The huge allotment amounts to more than half of the 750 million N95 masks currently stored in the reserve, a figure that tripled over the last year as the administration sought to boost reserves. The move comes as the US grapples with an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.\n\n2. Ukraine\n\nThe US is amplifying calls for Russia to cease its aggressive actions along the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 troops have been amassed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned yesterday that there would be a severe response by the US and its allies if \" a single additional Russian force \" enters Ukraine in an aggressive way. In preparation for a possible invasion, the US sent Ukraine a second weapons supply shipment of close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. Some political leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are urging the US and its allies to penalize Moscow with sanctions now before any lives are lost. The US, however, has shown unwillingness to punish Russia preemptively. The Biden administration and its NATO allies are instead focused on bolstering troop levels in the region to support Eastern European and Baltic allies.\n\nJUST WATCHED Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Blinken: 'Single additional Russian force' in Ukraine would trigger sanctions 09:12\n\n3. Congress\n\nThe Arizona Democratic Party announced over the weekend that it has formally censured Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she voted to maintain the Senate's filibuster rules, effectively blocking Democrats' voting legislation, a key priority for the party. The symbolic gesture from Arizona Democrats adds to the mounting pressure Sinema is facing from those in her state who helped her flip a Senate seat in 2018. Sinema -- who started her political career as a progressive -- has been a target on the left during Biden's administration for her stances. Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both centrists, were the only two Democrats to join all Republicans last week in voting to maintain the Senate's 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster on legislation\n\nJUST WATCHED 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'In some political peril': Commentator on Sinema censure 01:45\n\n4. Capitol Riot\n\nThe House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has been having conversations with former Attorney General William Barr . Barr, a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump, pushed the administration's \"law and order\" message, but resigned in December 2020 after rebuking Trump's false claims about widespread election fraud. Separately, Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, acknowledged late last week that he was part of the effort to prop up so-called \"alternate electors\" to support Trump in key states. Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani supervised that effort, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme . It involved helping pro-Trump electors access state Capitol buildings, drafting language for fake electoral certificates to send to the federal government, and finding replacements for electors who refused to go along with the plot.\n\nJUST WATCHED January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH January 6 committee chairman says panel is speaking with Barr 01:35\n\n5. Boris Johnson\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure this week over alleged garden parties and Christmas gatherings held at Downing Street while the rest of the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdowns. His approval ratings are plunging and the parliamentary rebellion is growing. This is worrying some parts of his ruling Conservative Party that he is becoming a liability . Adding fuel to the fire, Johnson's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings said he would swear under oath that the Prime Minister was warned about the true nature of one of the parties, but Johnson denied that vehemently. Johnson launched an inquiry into the gatherings and that report is due to come out this week.\n\nJUST WATCHED See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See Boris Johnson grilled by British Parliament amid 'Partygate' scandal 02:33\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nNFL Playoff upsets\n\nWas that not the greatest playoff round OF ALL TIME?\n\nNetflix's 'Ozark' begins fourth and final season\n\nGlass ceiling shattered!\n\nMeet the first female captain of the historic USS Constitution in its 224-year history.\n\nMysterious ice formations showed up in Chicago\n\nHave you ever seen ice pancakes ? They kind of crepe me out.\n\nIndian couple plan country's 'first metaverse marriage'\n\nHAPPENING LATER\n\nThe three former police officers who helped Derek Chauvin restrain George Floyd on a Minneapolis street in May 2020 are set to stand trial in a federal courtroom later today for violating Floyd's civil rights. The three officers previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, while Chauvin admitted guilt in December as part of a plea deal.\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nThierry Mugler, has died. Iconic French fashion designer,has died. He was 73 . Mugler, who was born in Strasbourg, France, launched his eponymous label in 1974. He was known for his broad-shouldered, avant-garde designs. The designer's brand said they will remember their founder as a \"visionary\" who \"empowered people around the world to be bolder and dream bigger every day.\"\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n11\n\nThat's how many hours a stowaway spent in the nose wheel of a cargo plane that flew from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport yesterday. Due to the extremely cold flying conditions, Dutch officials were surprised the stowaway was found alive. Once the stowaway was revived and stabilized, they said they would work to determine his status, if he indeed is looking for asylum.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The IOC [International Olympic Committee] deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again.\"\n\nFormer NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face --, who has covered 12 Olympic Games as a host and commentator, says journalists will face unique challenges during the Beijing Winter Olympics next month. It is currently unclear how the host country may censor journalists and how they will allow reporters to cover events in and around the games.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Clipper bringing more chances for snow to the Great Lakes 01:57\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nIt's Monday, and you're going to crush it today!", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_13", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/19/why-did-netflix-lose-subscribers-and-what-does-mean-you/7531540001/", "title": "Netflix lost subscribers, but why? And what does it mean for you?", "text": "Netflix lost subscribers this year for the first time since 2011\n\nAds are coming to Netflix in early 2023\n\nThe number of shows and movies Netflix produces each year could fall\n\nIt turns out that not everyone is watching Netflix.\n\nThe world's largest streamer lost 970,000 subscribers in the three months ending June 30, the company announced Tuesday in its second-quarter earnings report, ahead of its dire prediction in April of losing 2 million.\n\nIt's been a bad few months, businesswise, for the streaming service, which has upended the TV and film industries since it began debuting original programming almost 10 years ago. After its stock price plunged 71% since November, the past year, the company is testing charges for password sharing in Latin America and plans a cheaper version of the service with ads – a major reversal. Employee layoffs have made the news even as competitors from HBO Max to Disney+ and Hulu have made gains.\n\nSo what is happening at Netflix? And more importantly, will it change what you get to watch when you chill on a Saturday night?\n\nWe spoke to experts in the entertainment industry about what's going on at Netflix, and what might happen next. It might be as wild a ride as any Netflix original series.\n\nWhat happened at Netflix?\n\nIn an April earnings call, the streamer announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers, marking its first decline since 2011. It then predicted a loss of 2 million subscribers in the three months ending June 30. The news and the prediction panicked Wall Street and reverberated through Hollywood, damaging the company's reputation and prompting layoffs. And changing priorities might alter what shows and movies get made, how long they last, and if subscribers can afford Netflix without the interruption of commercials.\n\nProduction of new TV shows and movies takes some time, so \"any moves Netflix makes today won't be felt for another two years, or possibly more when it comes to the consumer,\" says Tom Nunan, a former network and studio president who now teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.\n\nThe second-quarter subscriber loss beat the company's own expectations – and Netflix is forecasting a gain in the next three months – so all may not look so terrible for the streamer, for now. Analysts say the release of \"Stranger Things\" Season 4 in two parts, which Netflix claims is its most-streamed English language series, may have helped stem more pronounced losses this quarter.\n\nSo why did Netflix lose subscribers?\n\nThe subscriber loss \"seems to be due to increased competition from other streaming services, adverse global economic circumstances, and the fact that the company already has a very high level of subscribers,\" says Ferran G. Vilaró, CEO of streaming video analytics company NPAW. Netflix has 220.6 million subscribers worldwide, dwarfing the 74 million total for HBO Max and 87.6 million for Disney+, which are available in fewer countries.\n\nAt some point. there may be a ceiling on how many people want to subscribe to a streaming service.\n\n\"The scale of such ambition is impressive, but it turns out it's unsustainable,\" says Nunan, who cites the easing of pandemic restrictions as one of the reasons some might ditch the ’flix. Consumers are \"looking closely at their streaming bills and asking, 'Do I really need all of this content, and more importantly, can I afford it?'\"\n\nWhen will Netflix get ads? What will they look like?\n\nA lower-priced, ad-supported tier of Netflix subscriptions is on the way, due in early 2023, Netflix said Tuesday. The service didn't really explain what those ads would look like, and in what markets they'd appear first. \"Like most of our new initiatives, our intention is to roll it out, listen and learn, and iterate quickly to improve the offering. So, our advertising business in a few years will likely look quite different than what it looks like on day one.\"\n\nThere are similar plans already available from HBO Max, Hulu and Peacock (which also offers a free ad-supported tier), and soon Disney+ will join their ranks. It's just a matter of how long it takes Netflix, which last week agreed to partner with Microsoft for help, to get it up and running.\n\nThe price has not yet been announced (the most basic current ad-free monthly subscription costs $9.99, but the standard tier is $16.49) and it's not clear how the ads will fit into the programming. Will they be jammed into the middle of episodes never designed with a natural break for them, like those for network series are? \"The elegance (of TV commercials) comes when they think about how many ads to place, where to place them and at what pace,\" Nunan says.\n\nNetflix's ads could also be very specifically tailored for its subscribers.\n\n\"The industry is increasingly moving toward highly targeted and personalized ads that are able to maximize the value for advertisers,\" says Vilaró. \"Netflix certainly has the data capabilities needed to implement these types of ads, but that doesn’t mean it would necessarily do so.\"\n\nWill Netflix make fewer shows and movies?\n\nThe sheer churn of new content on the streamer will probably slow down, experts say.\n\n\"Netflix has taken an expensive and extremely high-risk approach to streaming which seems to be: Let's outspend everyone and be all things to all streaming consumers. The scale of such ambition is impressive, but it turns out it's unsustainable. They are learning to become more strategic,\" Nunan says.\n\nThere's a new mandate for \"Bigger, better, fewer\" movies at Netflix, the Hollywood Reporter says, suggesting the streamer will seek more tentpole, A-list fare like \"Red Notice,\" and fewer \"vanity projects\" such as Martin Scorsese's \"The Irishman.\" Netflix's latest high-profile film, \"The Gray Man\" (in theaters, streaming on Netflix on Friday) starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, is an example of one of these bigger films, reportedly costing $200 million.\n\n\"Netflix at this point is caught between a clear push to become more populist and broad-ranging and the fact that what's drawing people to other streamers is their strong connection to franchises,\" says Myles McNutt, an associate professor of communications at Old Dominion University.\n\nAlready, production budgets for upcoming Netflix series are being squeezed, according to a studio executive, except for the biggest titles like \"Stranger,\" which cost more than $25 million an episode for its newest season, the Wall Street Journal reported.\n\nWill Netflix still save shows like 'Manifest'? Will my favorite show last longer than three seasons?\n\nThe business of \"saving\" shows canceled elsewhere, as Netflix did for NBC's \"Manifest\" and Fox's \"Lucifer,\" among others, seems to have moved to the free streamers: Roku nabbed a follow-up film to NBC's canceled \"Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist\" in 2021, and Amazon's Freevee picked up Season 2 of Showtime's \"American Rust,\" starring Jeff Daniels. Those streamers are jockeying for a place at the table, and name-brand series are helping them get there.\n\n\"Netflix picked up 'Manifest' because it has data that proves the show has enough avid audience members to make the renewal a good business investment,\" says Nunan. These renewals on new networks or streamers are \"always because the new 'show parent' believes in the property and has data to back up their beliefs. It's always a business decision, never an emotional 'saving' decision.\"\n\nNetflix has earned itself a reputation for canceling series after just two or three seasons, a result of a business model focused on luring new subscribers with new content.\n\n\"Longer-running shows tend to cultivate a loyal, more invested audience and build deeper relationships between the platform and its subscribers. But they can also be more expensive,\" says Vilaró, referring to the increase in salaries for actors and creatives as a series ages. Series that aren't major tentpoles like \"Bridgerton\" or \"Stranger Things\" will last for multiple seasons only if they continue winning or retaining subscribers.\n\nWhat else might change at Netflix?\n\nIt's a tough time in the economy, and Hollywood isn't immune. Netflix might make big changes as the ripple effects continue to be felt. Streaming TV is starting to look more like basic cable, as bundles emerge (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+), ads become more prevalent and shows are increasingly released weekly instead of all at once.\n\n\"The most important lesson of our current moment is that Netflix's disruption was temporary: one by one, its qualities that shaped every streaming service after them – binge releases, no advertisements – are being undone,\" McNutt says. \"The future of television will, despite what might have seemed true five years ago, look closer to television's past than we might have imagined.\"\n\nContributing: Brett Molina, Gary Levin", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/media/netflix-earnings/index.html", "title": "Netflix stock plunges after subscriber losses - CNN", "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"}, {"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.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2019/01/15/netflix-cost-per-month-2019/2578859002/", "title": "Netflix to hike monthly prices for 58 million subscribers", "text": "Michael Liedtke\n\nAssociated Press\n\nSAN FRANCISCO — Netflix is raising its U.S. prices by 13 percent to 18 percent, its biggest increase since the company launched its streaming service 12 years ago.\n\nIts most popular plan will see the largest hike, to $13 per month from $11. That option offers high-definition streaming on up to two different internet-connected devices simultaneously. Even at the higher price, that plan is still a few dollars cheaper than HBO, whose streaming service charges $15 per month.\n\nThe extra cash will help to pay for Netflix's huge investment in original shows and films and finance the heavy debt it has assumed to ward off rivals such as Amazon, Disney and AT&T.\n\nThis marks the fourth time that Netflix has raised its U.S. prices; the last hike came in late 2017. But this is the first time that higher prices will hit all 58 million U.S. subscribers, the number Netflix reported at the end of September.\n\nPreviously, Netflix had continued to offer a basic, $8-a-month streaming plan while raising rates on more comprehensive plans with better video quality and options to watch simultaneously on different devices.\n\nThis time, the price for the cheapest plan is going up to $9 per month. A premium plan offering ultra-high definition will jump to $16 per month from $14.\n\nMore on freep.com:\n\n11 memorable blindfold scenes in movies before 'Bird Box'\n\nReady for 10G? As wireless carriers push 5G, cable industry makes a case to keep broadband\n\nThe new prices will immediately affect all new subscribers and then roll out to existing customers during the next three months. Customers in about 40 Latin America countries where Netflix bills in U.S. currency will also be affected, excepting key international markets such as Mexico and Brazil.\n\nNetflix had nearly 79 million subscribers outside the U.S. as of September.\n\nHigher prices could alienate subscribers and possibly even trigger a wave of cancelations. For instance, Netflix faced a huge backlash in 2011 when it unbundled video streaming from its older DVD-by-mail service, resulting in a 60 percent price increase for subscribers who wanted to keep both plans. Netflix lost 600,000 subscribers after that switch.\n\nThe company is now betting it can gradually raise its prices, bolstered by a string of acclaimed hits during that past five years that have included \"House of Cards,\" ''Orange Is The New Black,\" ''Stranger Things,\" ''The Crown\" and, most recently, the film \"Bird Box.\"\n\n\"We change pricing from time to time as we continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience,\" the company said in a statement.\n\nConsumers also have an increasing array of other streaming options. Amazon offers a streaming service as part of its Prime shipping program for $13 per month, or $120 for an annual membership. Hulu sells an ad-free service for $12 per month. AT&T's WarnerMedia unit plans a broader streaming service this year centered on HBO. Walt Disney is gearing up to launch a streaming channel this year.\n\nWith Apple also widely expected to join the video-streaming fray, the competition for programming is enabling top directors, writers and actors to charge more for their talents. That has intensified financial pressure on Netflix, which hasn't been bringing in enough money to pay for all its programming and other business expenses.\n\nThe company burned through about $3 billion last year and is expecting to do so again this year. To offset the negative cash flow, Netflix has been borrowing heavily to pay for programming. The Los Gatos, California, company had accumulated nearly $12 billion in debt before borrowing another $2 billion in an October bond offering.\n\nConcerns about the stiffening competition and Netflix's ability to sustain its current leadership in video streaming has caused the company's stock price to slide by 21 percent from its peak of $423.21 reached last June. The shares stood at $332.94 heading into Tuesday's trading session.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/01/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/media/netflix-earnings/index.html", "title": "Netflix loses subscribers, but stops the bleeding - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Netflix reported Tuesday that it lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2022 — a number far lower than its own forecasts, which had projected that the streaming giant would lose two million subscribers.\n\nThe company also said it would add another one million subscribers in the third quarter, a number that was slightly lower than Wall Street expectations. But investors were clearly happy with the results, and Netflix shares jumped as much as 8% on Tuesday in after-hours trading.\n\nAfter disclosing in April that it lost 200,000 subscribers , leading to a steep drop in its share price, all eyes were on Netflix Tuesday, with Wall Street, Hollywood and the media world all hyper-focused on its subscription numbers. The company's shares had dropped dramatically during a nightmare year.\n\nBut Netflix's second quarter profit came in at $1.4 billion, up from $1.3 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue jumped roughly 8.6% year over year, to $7.9 billion.\n\nNetflix's biggest subscriber loss came from its biggest market, the United States and Canada, where the streamer said it lost 1.3 million users in the second quarter. But that was offset by increased subscriptions elsewhere.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/investing/disney-stock/index.html", "title": "No magic for Disney investors - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Disney investors aren't having as awful a year as Netflix shareholders. But that's not saying much.\n\nhas plunged more than 40% this year, ahead of its first quarter earnings release after the closing bell Tuesday. Meanwhile, shares ofhave dropped nearly 15% so far in 2022. That makes Disney one of the worst performers in the Dow , which is down just 4% this year.\n\nBoth companies have been plagued by concerns about streaming competition and the fierce battle for subscribers.\n\nStream dreams have turned to profit nightmares\n\nDespite Disney's massive library of movies and shows thanks to its own branded studio, as well as Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars creator Lucasfilm, investors are worried that this abundance of content won't boost streaming subscription growth enough to offset slowdowns in its traditional broadcast and cable TV businesses.\n\n\"Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ have the scale and management conviction to over time be a massive global streamer,\" said JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick in a report Tuesday. But he added that \"this isn't necessarily as good a business as Disney used to have in TV.\"\n\nTraditional media companies like Disney used to rely a lot more on lucrative advertising sales and affiliate fees from cable companies to carry their channels, but the shift to streaming has upended that model. Investors now are more interested in streaming margins and not merely the bragging rights that come from how many subscribers a company has.\n\n\"The market appears to be moving past rewarding media companies, as it did in 2020 and 2021, simply for their forecast of future streaming subscriber growth,\" said MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson in a report last month.\n\n\"Now it seems that investors are looking further down the income statement — and also, finally, digging through the cash flow statement — to try to determine the underlying steady state profitability of the pivot to Direct-to-Consumer content delivery,\" Nathanson added.\n\nNathanson lowered his price target on Disney in March from $165 a a share to $150 due in part to worries about lower profit margins.\n\nFlorida controversy still an issue for Disney\n\nJUST WATCHED 'It's about right and wrong': Ex-Disney CEO on why he spoke out about bill Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'It's about right and wrong': Ex-Disney CEO on why he spoke out about bill 01:55\n\nWhether or not the Florida controversy is having an actual impact on Disney+ subscriptions, movie and theme park attendance and ratings for Disney-owned ABC and ESPN is up for debate.\n\nHowever, one analyst noted that the \"Don't Say Gay\" issue could also hurt the company in another way, if more liberal Hollywood celebrities decide not to work with the House of Mouse.\n\n\"The single most important [Disney] asset is its brand, next is its talent. If the controversy leads to a loss of key creative talent, it would clearly be a negative,\" said Loop Capital's Alan Gould in a report earlier this month.\n\nWhatever happens, it's clear that Wall Street is not happy with how Disney has performed since Chapek took over from Iger in February 2020.\n\nDisney shares are now hovering near their lowest levels since November 2020. To be sure, Chapek was dealt a bad hand since the start of his tenure coincided with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, an event that led to a dramatic slowdown in tourism and leisure activities like going to see movies.\n\nDisney should have a big 2022 at the box office\n\nBut some are hopeful that Disney will be able to soon turn things around.\n\nMichael Morris of Guggenheim Securities wrote in a report late last month that the parks business should rebound thanks to new attractions like \"Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge\" and \"Avengers Campus,\" increased visits from foreign travelers to the flagship resorts in Orlando and California and a full reopening of international parks and cruise lines.\n\nJUST WATCHED Marvel Studios releases 'Thor' teaser Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Marvel Studios releases 'Thor' teaser 01:01\n\nAnd JPMorgan's Cusick noted Disney's strong slate of movies this summer and later this year as a positive.\n\nBox office revenue should start to bounce back thanks to the upcoming releases of sequels for Marvel's Dr. Strange, Thor and Black Panther, the Pixar movie \"Lightyear\" about the inspiration behind the popular \"Toy Story' character. Also coming is the highly anticipated first sequel to the 2009 hit \"Avatar.\" (\"Avatar 3\" will follow in 2024.)", "authors": ["Paul R. La Monica", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/13/investing/dow-stock-market-today/index.html", "title": "Dow sinks sharply as Wall Street worries about drastic action from ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) US stocks have plunged into a bear market as Wall Street investors grew increasingly nervous about the prospect of even harsher medicine from the Fed to take the sting out of inflation.\n\nThesank 876 points or 2.8%. The Nasdaq was down by 4.7% and has tumbled more than 10% in the past two trading sessions.\n\nThe broader S&P 500 fell 3.9%. That index is now more than 20% below its all-time high set in January, putting stocks in a bear-market.\n\nAfter raising rates by a half point in May — an action the Fed hadn't taken since 2000 — Chair Jerome Powell pledged more of the same until the central bank was satisfied that inflation was under control. At that point, the Fed would resume standard quarter-point hikes, he said.\n\n\"After holding their breath for nearly a week awaiting the US CPI report for May, investors exhaled in exasperation as inflation came in hotter than expected,\" Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, said in a note to clients Monday morning.\n\nStovall said the risk of larger hikes dragged the markets lower Monday.\n\nInvestors fear two outcomes, neither of them good: Higher rates mean bigger borrowing costs for businesses, which can eat into their bottom lines. And overly zealous action from the Fed could unintentionally plunge the US economy into a recession, especially if businesses start laying off workers and the red-hot housing market crumbles.\n\nThere's no sign that the job and housing markets are in danger of collapse, although both are cooling off somewhat.\n\nIn an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria Sunday , former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said a US recession remains possible. But Bernanke said he had faith that Powell and the Fed could achieve a so-called soft landing, the elusive outcome in which the central bank can cool the economy down to get inflation under control without slowing it down so much that it enters a recession.\n\n\"Economists are very bad at predicting recessions, but I think the Fed has a decent chance — a reasonable chance — of achieving what Powell calls a soft-ish landing, either no recession or a very mild recession to bring inflation down,\" Bernanke said.\n\nAnalysts appeared to move beyond a \"buy the dip\" mentality on Monday, signaling that they don't see markets recovering quickly.\n\n\"Valuations aren't much cheaper given rising interest rates and a weaker earnings outlook, in our view,\" wrote strategists at BlackRock in a Monday notes. \"A higher path of policy rates justifies lower equity prices. Plus, margin pressures are a risk to earnings.\"\n\nBlackRock will remain neutral on stocks for the next six- to 12-months, the strategists said.\n\nBears and bulls\n\nThe S&P 500 closed in a bear market, so the bull run that started on March 23, 2020 has come to an end. But, because of the tricky way these things are measured, the bear market technically began on January 3, when the S&P 500 hit its all-time high.\n\nThat means the latest bull market lasted just over 21 months — the shortest on record, according to Howard Silverblatt, S&P Dow Jones Indices senior index analyst. Over the past century, bull markets have lasted an average of about 60 months.\n\nThe shortest bull market followed the shortest bear market, one that lasted just over a month — from February 19 to March 23, 2020. Bear markets historically last an average of 19 months, according to Silverblatt.\n\nStocks briefly fell into a bear market on May 20, although a late-day rally rescued the market from closing below that threshold for the first time since the early days of the pandemic.\n\nThe tech-heavy Nasdaq has been in a bear market for some time and is now more than 32% below its all-time high set in November 2021. The Dow is still some way from a bear market. It has fallen about 16% from the all-time high it reached on the last day of 2021.\n\n-- CNN Business' Nicole Goodkind contributed to this report", "authors": ["David Goldman", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/18/investing/fed-interest-rate-hike-market/index.html", "title": "Dow tumbles 1,160 points in worst trading day since June 2020 - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) The old joke goes like this: Two friends are at a resort and one says, \"The food here is really terrible.\" The other replies, \"And the portions are so small!\" Today, it's investors who dislike the taste of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes — but seemingly want more anyway.\n\nDow INDU S&P 500 SPX Markets have plummeted over the past month as the Federal Reserve telegraphed that it would regularly hike interest rates by half a percentage point for the foreseeable future to combat persistent inflation. On Wednesday, theshed more than 1164 points, or 3.6%, its biggest loss since 2020. The broader market lost 4%, putting theon the precipice of bear market territory. The Nasdaq Composite lost 4.73%.\n\nNow, investors are asking for more. They're calling for a three-quarter-point rate hike at the conclusion of the Fed's June meeting, despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell's assurances that an increase that high isn't on the table.\n\nBank of America analysts wrote in a note that they fear there will soon be a wage-price spiral in the US ​​because of risks that \"the Fed hikes too little.\" The current market reaction, they said, suggests that \"investors see the Fed as moving too slowly on the inflation fight: a 75 [basis point] hike might have been feared but it appears it would have been preferred.\"\n\nNomura Securities has predicted that the central bank will hike the fed funds rate by three-quarters of a point in June and July after the half-point rise in May.", "authors": ["Nicole Goodkind", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/18"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html", "title": "Premarket stocks: Netflix finally told investors what they want to hear ...", "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) It wasn't long ago that Wall Street would have bristled at such grim news out of Netflix: Between April and June, the company lost 970,000 subscribers .\n\nBut investors aren't freaking out about the number of customers bailing from the service. In fact, they're cheering.\n\nWhat's happening: Shares ofare up more than 6% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the company reported its latest results. The simple reason? It could have been so much worse.\n\n\"It was a 'less-bad news is good news' quarter,\" analysts at Bespoke Investment Group said in a note to clients.\n\nBreaking it down: Netflix had already pushed expectations as low as it could, projecting that it would lose 2 million subscribers last quarter after shedding 200,000 in the first three months of the year. That created room for a positive surprise.\n\n\"We're talking about losing 1 million instead of losing 2 million,\" Chairman Reed Hastings said on a call with analysts. \"So our excitement is tempered by the less bad results.\"\n\nNetflix's most substantial subscriber loss came from its biggest market, the United States and Canada, where the streamer said it lost 1.3 million users in the second quarter.\n\nThat was offset by increased subscriptions elsewhere, a sign the company's investment in foreign language programming is paying off. The release of the fourth season of the wildly popular show \"Stranger Things\" also provided a boost.\n\nLooking ahead: Netflix still has work to do to convince investors that it's on the right track. Its stock is down almost 67% year-to-date. Other tech firms, like Google parent Alphabet and Facebook's Meta are off 21% and 48%, respectively. The S&P 500 is 17% lower.\n\nThat will mean making major changes to the business. Netflix, partnering with Microsoft, is racing to develop a new lower-priced option that will be supported by ads, an attempt to scoop up customers that are watching their wallets as inflation bites. It's expected to launch early next year.\n\nIt's also looking at clamping down on password sharing. The company estimated that 100 million households use Netflix but aren't paying for it directly.\n\n\"We know this will be a change for our members,\" it told shareholders. \"Our goal is to find an easy-to-use paid sharing offering that we believe works for our members and our business that we can roll out in 2023.\"\n\nRich Greenfield, an analyst at LightShed Partners, thinks there's significant room for Netflix's pivot to advertising to be a success.\n\n\"Netflix's advertising opportunity is REAL and directly tied to its enormous time spent vs. all other streaming services,\" he tweeted\n\nBut engineering this big of a move won't be easy. Netflix's entrance into the ad space will be complicated. Competition for viewers among streaming services is tight. And if a large batch of subscribers downgrades to the lower-cost version to save money, it would hurt revenue even as new users sign up.\n\n\"We urge caution to the belief that Netflix will be able to use advertising to grow revenue in a vacuum,\" Bank of America analysts said in a report published late last month. \"The advertising ecosystem is large, complex, costly, and its competitors using ads have a several-year lead on them.\"\n\nCrypto is starting to make a comeback. Will it last?\n\nIt's been an absolutely brutal year for investors in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.\n\nThe numbers: Bitcoin has lost more than half its value in 2022. Now hovering around $23,500, the price of a single bitcoin has plunged more than 65% below last year's all-time high of nearly $70,000.\n\nThe value of all crypto coins has tumbled from about $2.2 trillion at the end of 2021 to just above $1 trillion.\n\nBitcoin, the world's top cryptocurrency, makes up about 42% of the total market, but 2022 has been just as terrible for the owners of other crypto-related assets, such as Coinbase. The brokerage's stock has plummeted 74% so far this year. Shares of rival Robinhood have lost half their value.\n\nThat said: There are hopes that the worst for crypto might be over as risk appetite shows early signs of returning to the market, my CNN Business colleague Paul R. La Monica reports.\n\nBitcoin has gained more than 15% in the past week. Two other top coins have surged even more. Solana is up more than 35% in the past seven days while ether, the second-most valuable crypto, has climbed nearly 45%.\n\nCoinbase has rallied 22% this week. Software company MicroStrategy, which had nearly 130,000 bitcoins on its balance sheet at the end of June, has soared 25%.\n\nNote of caution: The market's mood has been fickle. The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index has been improving but remains in \"fear\" territory.\n\nAnd while major players like exchange FTX are on solid footing, vulnerable firms could continue to come under pressure. Crypto lender Celsius was forced to file for bankruptcy earlier this month.\n\n\"We will see a longer-term rally in the digital assets sector, but I wouldn't get too excited yet,\" said Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group. \"This is still an emerging market.\"\n\nTwitter scores a win against Elon Musk\n\nTwitter TWTR is getting its wish for a speedy resolution as it tries to compel Elon Musk to stick to the terms of their $44 billion takeover agreement.\n\nIn an early victory for the company, a judge on Tuesday ruled that the company's lawsuit should go to a five-day trial in October.\n\nTwitter initially requested an expedited four-day trial in September, looking to limit uncertainty for its shareholders and employees and fallout for its business. Musk's legal team opposed the motion.\n\nDigging in: The hearing featured sharply worded arguments from both sides, setting the stage for a contentious legal battle. Twitter's lawyer at one point referred to Musk as a \"committed enemy.\"\n\n\"Musk has been and remains contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close this deal,\" said William Savitt, Twitter's lead counsel. \"What he's doing is the exact opposite. It's sabotage.\"\n\nMusk lawyer Andrew Rossman pushed back, saying that Musk \"doesn't have an incentive to keep this hanging for a long time.\" He noted that the billionaire remains one of Twitter's largest shareholders. Musk's team had proposed the case go to trial early next year, which it said was still \"an incredibly rapid and sensible schedule.\"\n\nInvestor insight: Twitter shares climbed almost 3% on Tuesday. They're up almost 16% in the past week, though they're still well below the price of $54.20 apiece that Musk agreed to in April.\n\nUp next\n\nAlcoa AA CSX CSX Las Vegas Sands LVS SL Green Realty SLG Tesla TSLA United Airlines UAL andreport results after US markets close.\n\nAlso today: Existing US home sales for June arrive at 10 a.m. ET.\n\nComing tomorrow: The European Central Bank is expected to begin raising interest rates for the first time in 11 years.", "authors": ["Julia Horowitz", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/investing/dow-stock-market-today/index.html", "title": "Nasdaq closes month near 14-year low as recession fears grow ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) US stocks plunged on Friday, with the Nasdaq marking its worst month since October 2008 and the S&P notching its worst month since March 2020 at the onset of the Covid pandemic.\n\nAmazon AMZN The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4.2% on Friday, dragged down by, which dropped nearly 15% after it missed earnings expectations.\n\nThe S&P 500 shed about 3.6% on Friday, while the Dow dropped about 940 points, or 2.8%.\n\nThe most closely watched inflation reading released Friday — the core personal consumption expenditures price index — rose 5.2% from a year ago, spelling more trouble for the economy.\n\nThe Nasdaq fell around 12% this month, the S&P 500 lost more than 7% and the Dow was off by nearly 4%.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Nicole Goodkind", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_14", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220722_15", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220722_16", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/12/11/2021-pop-culture-moments-britney-spears-jennifer-lopez-jeopardy/8823055002/", "title": "2021 pop culture moments: Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, 'Jeopardy!'", "text": "Pop culture this year saw more than its fair share of controversies, tragedies and stunning revelations.\n\nThe loss of cultural icons including Virgil Abloh, Stephen Sondheim, DMX, Ed Asner and Prince Philip were devastating, as were the \"Rust\" film set shooting and Astroworld concert incident. Celebrities shared shocking news, from Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's Oprah Winfrey interview to Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez's breakup.\n\nBut this year was not without cause for hope: COVID-19 vaccines became widely available to the public, and celebrities rallied to encourage people to get vaccinated to help return to a more normal world. The return to big Hollywood events like the Met Gala marked the return of over-the-top fashion moments, and award shows brought big milestones such as Beyoncé becoming the most decorated woman in Grammys history and Chloé Zhao becoming the first woman of color to win an Oscar for best director.\n\nAnd there were the shows, films and albums that had fans enthralled: \"Squid Game,\" \"Ted Lasso,\" Olivia Rodrigo's \"Sour,\" Lil Nas X's \"Montero,\" Adele's \"30,\" Taylor Swift's rerecorded \"Fearless\" and \"Red\" albums, the \"Friends\" reunion and Daniel Craig's long-awaited final run as James Bond in \"No Time To Die,\" to name a few.\n\nThese 12 moments helped to define the world of entertainment in 2021:\n\nJoe Biden's star-studded inauguration\n\nJoe Biden was sworn in as 46th president of the United States on Jan. 20. Despite security concerns in the days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Biden's swearing-in and inaugural ball were flooded with performances and appearances from A-list stars. To name just some: Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Demi Lovato, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Foo Fighters, Tim McGraw, Kerry Washington, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Yo-Yo Ma, Kumail Nanjiani, and Cher.\n\nReview:Earnest, cheesy and explosive: Joe Biden's inauguration concert hit the right notes\n\nBiden's inauguration marked a return of the connection between the White House and Hollywood – though Trump has Hollywood ties himself, the former president often skipped celebrity-filled events usually attended by the sitting president, including the Kennedy Center Honors and White House Correspondents Dinner.\n\nMore:Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in US history, calls for unity on Inauguration Day\n\nStars rally to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations\n\nMajor celebrities partnered with health officials, companies or just plain shared on their own social media accounts to get the word out about COVID-19 vaccines as they became widely available in the winter and spring of 2021. Everyone from Martha Stewart to John Legend and Olivia Rodrigo shared their own vaccine experiences in an effort to inspire others to follow suit and quell skepticism.\n\nDespite medical professionals emphasizing that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, misinformation kept many Americans from getting their shots.\n\nMore:Duchess Kate, Ellen DeGeneres and more celebs who got the COVID-19 vaccine\n\nHarry and Meghan stun with bombshell Oprah interview\n\nPrince Harry and Duchess Meghan shocked the world in March with a no-holds-barred interview with Oprah Winfrey that released bombshell after bombshell about the struggles that led them to leave their positions as senior members of the royal family. Among the biggest details: Meghan's thoughts of suicide while in the palace; Harry's strained relationships with his brother, Prince William, and father, Prince Charles; and someone in the palace raising \"concerns\" about how dark their son Archie's skin might be.\n\nNot only did the interview prompt a rare response from the queen, it got the rest of the world talking about the pressures of royal life, racism in the press and mental health.\n\n'I didn't want to be alive anymore':Duchess Meghan opens up in Oprah interview, more major moments\n\nJ.Lo and A-Rod break up; Bennifer 2.0 begins\n\nThe world of celebrity relationships was rocked when Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez announced (and then unconfirmed and reconfirmed) their breakup in the spring. The Hollywood power couple got engaged in March 2019 and planned to tie the knot in Italy in June 2020 before COVID-19 shut the world down.\n\nLopez rebounded over the summer with a highly publicized return to ex Ben Affleck, with whom she was engaged in the early aughts. As sad as some fans were to see the relationship end, many were plenty intrigued by the return of Bennifer, which helped usher in a new era of paparazzi photo obsessions.\n\nMore:Ben Affleck calls Jennifer Lopez romance 'a great story': See their relationship timeline\n\nDeeper dive:Lil Nas X, Jennifer Lopez, Grimes and the enduring appeal of celebrity paparazzi photos\n\nQueen Elizabeth's 'strength and stay,' Prince Philip, dies at 99\n\nBig royals news continued this year. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth, died April 9 at age 99 after a monthlong stay in hospital for treatment of a heart condition and an infection. He was married to the queen for 73 years, making him Britain's oldest and longest-serving royal spouse in 10 centuries.\n\nObituary:Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 99\n\nMost British historians and commentators believe Philip was one of the keys to the queen's enduring success. The queen herself famously described him as her \"strength and stay.\"\n\nMusic loses a legend: DMX dies at 50\n\nRap legend DMX died April 9 at age 50 after he was rushed to the hospital days before and put on life support after suffering a heart attack. The \"Ruff Ryders' Anthem\" rapper, known for being a pinnacle in the '90s and 2000s hip-hop scene, was Grammy-nominated for songs like \"Party Up (Up In Here)\" and \"Who We Be.\"\n\nObituary:Rap legend DMX, a pinnacle of the '90s and 2000s hip-hop scene, dies at 50 after heart attack\n\nHis loss was mourned widely and drew major crowds to a memorial later that month at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, where Kanye West's Sunday Service Choir and Ruff Ryders music label members including Eve, Swizz Beatz, Drag-On and founding member Joaquin \"Waah\" Dean paid powerful tributes.\n\n'He will rest in peace': Nas, Eve, Swizz Beatz, more honor DMX at emotional memorial service\n\n'Jeopardy!' picks Alex Trebek's replacement, prompting controversy\n\nWhen longtime \"Jeopardy!\" host Alex Trebek died last November, producers refrained from immediately naming a permanent replacement.\n\nInstead, they welcomed a grab-bag of big names from TV host Katie Couric to actor LeVar Burton to \"Jeopardy!\" champ Ken Jennings to guest-host before they named show producer Mike Richards and \"Big Bang Theory\" Mayim Bialik as new permanent hosts – until some of Richards' past offensive comments were resurfaced and resulted in his exit as host (and later as executive producer).\n\nJennings and Bialik are scheduled to share hosting duties into 2022 through the end of the season.\n\nMore:The best and worst 'Jeopardy!' guest hosts, from Mike Richards to Joe Buck\n\nR. Kelly found guilty of sex trafficking\n\nR&B star R. Kelly was convicted in New York in September on all nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering after a six-week-long trial featuring graphic testimony from dozens of witnesses. The charges dated back decades and stemmed from six accusers, including the late singer Aaliyah.\n\nOriginal story:R&B star R. Kelly found guilty on all counts in New York sex trafficking trial\n\nKelly's legal case was one of the biggest to come out of the #MeToo movement and sent a powerful message to survivors of sexual violence that their voices can be heard.\n\nMore:R. Kelly has been found guilty of sex trafficking. Now what happens?\n\nDave Chappelle's Netflix special faces backlash for anti-trans comments\n\nDave Chappelle's October Netflix standup special, \"The Closer,\" featured comments about the transgender community that sparked heavy backlash. The comedian sided with J.K. Rowling on comments the \"Harry Potter\" author made two years ago, when she conflated sex with gender and defended ideas suggesting that changing one's biological sex was a threat to her own gender identity. His special was met with criticism from trans advocates, Netflix employees and students at his former high school in Washington, D.C., which still plans to name a theater after Chappelle.\n\nMore:Dave Chappelle is accused of ‘punching down’ in 'The Closer.' How can comedy go up from here?\n\nTrans advocates were quick to point out that Chappelle's material, even if he considers it a joke, can cause serious harm to the community. The controversy raised debates about the concepts of \"punching up\" versus \"punching down\" in comedy.\n\nOpinion:Netflix's support of Dave Chappelle is setting a dangerous precedent. Here's why.\n\nAlec Baldwin fatally shoots cinematographer on 'Rust' movie set\n\nAlec Baldwin was rehearsing on the set of indie Western drama \"Rust,\" a film he was producing and starring in, on Oct. 21 with a prop gun when the weapon went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.\n\nThe shooting, which Baldwin has called the worst thing to happen to him, prompted what experts called a \"breakthrough moment\" in calls for gun safety on film and TV sets.\n\nAnd:5 biggest mysteries still surrounding the 'Rust' movie-set shooting involving Alec Baldwin\n\nBritney Spears’ conservatorship ends after 13 years\n\nMore than 13 years after Britney Spears was placed under a conservatorship, a judge in November ruled to bring it to an end. The decision followed a high-profile year for the pop icon, 40, whose fame was the subject of a slew of documentaries and launched her fans' #FreeBritney campaign to new heights.\n\nFor Spears, the ruling marks the beginning of a new chapter of her life free from answering to her conservators. For the rest of the world, it brought a new understanding and scrutiny of conservatorships.\n\nBritney Spears is free. What going 'from no control to full control' entails, according to experts\n\nAnd:Britney Spears turns 40 after a whirlwind year of #FreeBritney, paparazzi and the end of her conservatorship\n\nTravis Scott's Astroworld concert turns to tragedy\n\nA crowd surge at Travis Scott's November Astroworld concert in Houston that pushed concertgoers toward the stage, crushing and trampling fans, led to 10 deaths and scores of injuries. The Houston-native rapper, known for giving high-energy performances and encouraging rowdy crowds, came under fire for continuing to perform on stage while chaos ensued in front of him. Later investigations revealed that the Houston police chief had expressed crowd safety concerns to Scott hours before his show took a fatal turn.\n\n\"I feel like they’re pointing the finger at me because it's my festival and I am who I am, and maybe (there's) not a lot of understanding going on,\" Scott told Charlamagne Tha God in his first interview after the concert, published Dec. 9. \"I’ve shown through actions that's not my character.\"\n\nTravis Scott gives first interview since Astroworld:'My heart wasn’t there to be a villain'\n\nWhat went wrong at Astroworld? Expert: It took 'everything going wrong, like dominoes'\n\nContributing: Maria Puente, Rasha Ali and Cydney Henderson", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/11"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_17", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/world/heat-emergency-uk-us-climate/index.html", "title": "UK heat wave: Extreme heat is exposing a country woefully ...", "text": "Americans are used to switching on their air conditioners any time temperatures near 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius). But in the UK, record-shredding heat this week has brought life to a pandemic-esque standstill.\n\nTemperatures in the UK breached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for the first time on Tuesday, making it the country's hottest day on record.\n\nIn the US, one-third of the population was under heat-related weather warnings on Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures expected to climb north of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) in the Plains states.\n\nLooking at the cause of these heat extremes in the US and Europe, there are different systems at play.\n\nIn Europe, a strong ridge of high pressure has allowed temperatures to build over the continent for the past several days. On Tuesday, an area of low pressure was moving in off the coast, acting to help funnel the extreme heat northward into the UK.\n\nIn the US, a strong dome of high pressure has set up over the Southern Plains and Mississippi Valley. Instead of heat being funneled in from the south, it is building unabated as the sun bakes down through cloudless skies.\n\nThe connecting tissue between these heat waves is the influence of greenhouse gas emissions and the planet's ever-warming baseline temperature.\n\nThe UK Met Office's chief scientist, Stephen Belcher, was in a state of disbelief as he delivered a video statement about the shocking temperatures the country experienced Tuesday, noting they would have been \"virtually impossible\" the UK in an \"undisrupted climate.\"\n\n\"But climate change driven by greenhouse gases have made these temperatures possible, and we're actually seeing that possibility now,\" he said, adding that if the world keeps emitting greenhouse gases at the level it is now, such heat waves are likely to occur there every three years.\n\nJUST WATCHED CNN reporter shares 5 tips to stay cool in extreme temperatures Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN reporter shares 5 tips to stay cool in extreme temperatures 01:30\n\nForty degrees Celsius mat not be that hot to someone sitting in the Central US, Australia, the Middle East or in northern India. In the UK, it forced people to work from home and students to study remotely. Authorities told people not to take trains , which become dangerous on hot tracks that expand and bend in the heat.\n\nIn other words, don't leave home.\n\nBut in the UK, which is more likely to struggle with cold rather than hot, homes too are designed to keep heat in. Desk fans are selling out all over the country, but they only go so far.\n\nThe weather has got Brits so hot and bothered, poor heat management has become the latest criticism hurled at the nation's outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson -- this week held up as another example of the disgraced leader's failures.\n\n\"The all-time temperature record for the UK has not just been broken, it has been absolutely obliterated,\" said Hannah Cloke, natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading. \"The mark of 39 degrees Celsius will never even exist as a UK temperature record, because we have just soared past it into the 40s in a single sweaty leap.\"\n\nThe UK is woefully unprepared for the impacts of the climate crisis. It struggles to manage floods when they occur. In the heat, the nation buckles.\n\nSo many fires ignited in London on Tuesday that the city's fire brigade declare a \"major incident\" and were stretched beyond their capacity. Four people have drowned as people flocked to beaches, rivers and lakes just to try to get cool. Even a runway at an airport on London's outskirts had to be closed off as it melted in the heat.\n\nIn southern Europe, a region more accustomed to extreme heat, at least 1,100 people have died in the latest heat wave, and French firefighters are overwhelmed with blazes tearing through forests. Twenty-one European nations are under heat-related warnings.\n\nAmericans may be more used to the heat, but heat waves are getting longer and more frequent there too, which means more time indoors, or wherever the air conditioning may be. No fewer than 100 million Americans -- almost a third of the nation -- were under heat alerts on Tuesday.\n\nThe alerts run from the southern Plains into the Mississippi and Tennessee River Valleys, and there are scattered alerts through the Southwest. The Northeast has already issued heat advisories for heat \"feeling like\" 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) for Wednesday.\n\nThe most dangerous heat is forecast around parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas where excessive heat warnings are in place for Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Little Rock. Temperatures there are expected to soar to 100 to 110 degrees Farhenheit (as high as 43 degrees Celsius) over the next few days.\n\nScientists who work on just how much of a role the climate crisis is playing in extreme weather now say that just about every heat wave in the world is influenced by humans burning fossil fuels.\n\nFriederike Otto from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London said that it was up to the world to reach net zero -- where humans emit as little greenhouse gas as possible and \"offsets\" the rest -- to stop heat waves from becoming even worse, \"deadly and disruptive.\"\n\n\"We have the agency to make us less vulnerable and redesign our cities, homes, schools and hospitals and educate us on how to keep safe,\" Otto told CNN. \"40 degrees Celsius in the UK is not an act of god, but to a large degree due to our past and present burning of fossil fuels.\"\n\nIn China, the annual \"sanfu\" -- which is usually three lots of 10 days in July and August when temperatures and humidity peak -- is now forecast to run for an \"extended period\" of 40 days, the state weather forecaster said, according to Reuters\n\nIt warned of scorching heat waves this week, despite seasonal rain, with temperatures likely climb as high as 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in the south from Wednesday.\n\nIn central London on Tuesday, a student named Asser who braved the heat told CNN that world wasn't doing enough to battle the heat waves.\n\n\"In fact, the world is doing nothing. The world is burning and we are doing nothing about it. We are just consuming, the industry is running and nobody is doing anything about the climate\" he said.\n\n\"You've got heat waves in Europe and London and US, everywhere -- you can see it, it's obvious. You've got floods and wildfires and everything.\"", "authors": ["Analysis Angela Dewan", "International Climate Editor"], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/weather/us-heat-extreme-warning-forecast/index.html", "title": "More than 100 million in the US face excessive warning or heat ...", "text": "(CNN) Heat alerts cover more than 20 states today and Wednesday across the Southern Plains and parts of the Northeast, and temperatures will soar above the century mark for 60 million people over the next week. All while a similar heat wave is bringing all-time record temperatures to Western Europe .\n\n\"Dangerous heat will continue to impact a large portion of the US this week, with now more than 100 million people under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories,\" the Weather Prediction Center said\n\nBetween today and Wednesday, nearly 40 high temperature records are at risk of breaking. Also, through Thursday morning over 90 warm minimum temperature records could fall. 🌡️ For more, visit: https://t.co/jnP5oP2MfY pic.twitter.com/AixMyPaCP0\n\nIt means one-third of the US population is under heat advisories and excessive heat warnings, and more than 80% of the US population (around 265 million Americans) will see a high above 90 degrees over the next seven days.\n\nOranges and red colors show where high temperatures are forecast above 90 degrees Wednesday.\n\nThe highest temperatures, pushing well into the triple digits, will be once again centered over the southern Plains.\n\nMore than two dozen record highs are possible today and tomorrow for the Southern US, including Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, and the East Coast is about to get into the mix as well.\n\nThe entire state of Oklahoma hit 103 degrees today, according to Oklahoma Mesonet, a joint weather updating system with Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.\n\n\"This is the first time in our network's history (dating back to the mid 1990s) to have 120 sites hit that mark on the same day. Before today we had 2 days with all sites hitting 100F or higher (7/9/11 and 7/10/11),\" a tweet from the project read.\n\nA number of record highs have been set across Texas and Oklahoma today as the region bakes in extremely high temperatures. Abilene, Texas, and Oklahoma City both broke records set in 1936 -- with both reaching 110 degrees, according to CNN meteorologist Mike Saenz.\n\nAdditionally, Wichita Falls, San Angelo and the Midland International Air & Space Port in Texas all broke records set in 2018, Saenz said.\n\nThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas set another unofficial record Tuesday for demand, a spokeswoman told CNN.\n\nAnother record is expected on Wednesday.\n\nParts of the Northeast will also have temperatures nearing daily records Wednesday and Thursday.\n\n\"Heat advisories are also now in effect for Wednesday for portions of the Northeast, including the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston, where heat index values are forecast to reach near 100 degrees,\" the Weather Prediction Center said.\n\nIntense heat disrupts Texas prisons and outdoor events\n\nA pedestrian walks with a bag covering her face to block the sun during a heatwave in Houston, Texas.\n\nAfter a record-breaking heat day Monday, the southern Plains are being met with dangerous heat once again.\n\nDallas inched toward its daily record of 110 degrees yesterday but topped out at 109, making it the hottest day of the year so far.\n\nCritical fire danger expected Tuesday as winds increase and hot temps and low humidity continue. Be careful with activities that can start fires! Please do our local fire fighters a favor. They'd rather spend the afternoon with A/C.\n\n#dfwwx #ctxwx pic.twitter.com/7IJ84moiQL — NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) July 19, 2022\n\nEven first responders are falling victim to the scorching temperatures. A firefighter in Robertson County, Texas, suffered heat exhaustion on Tuesday -- when temperatures rose to about 112 degrees -- while battling a wildfire that was started by a resident burning trash, according to the Robertson County Emergency Management Facebook page.\n\nThe 15-acre fire destroyed one structure before volunteer fire departments stopped its spread, the post read.\n\nAnd some Texas prison facilities housing inmates do not have working air conditioning, the state Department of Criminal Justice said Tuesday.\n\n\"There are 100 TDCJ units, 31 have full AC, 55 have partial AC, and 14 have no AC. We take numerous precautions to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for those incarcerated within our facilities,\" agency spokesperson Amanda Hernandez told CNN in an email.\n\nThe agency says some inmates have fallen ill from heat-related injuries and needed medical care.\n\n\"In 2022, there have been seven inmates who required medical care beyond first aid for heat related injuries and none were fatal,\" Hernandez said, adding the agency has measures in place to keep inmates safe.\n\nJUST WATCHED Thermal imaging reveals the lasting impact of racist housing policies Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Thermal imaging reveals the lasting impact of racist housing policies 02:17\n\n\"The department uses an array of measures to keep inmates safe. Everyone has access to ice and water. Fans are strategically placed in facilities to move the air. Inmates have access to a fan and they can access air conditioned respite areas when needed,\" Hernandez said.\n\nExcessive heat warnings and heat advisories are in effect through Wednesday for North and Central Texas.\n\n\"The air temperatures will climb to 105 to 110 degrees in the warning area, with heat index values over 105 degrees in the advisory area,\" the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said\n\nSouthern and Midwest states are feeling the burn, too\n\nAs hot temperatures, low humidity, and wind speeds pick up, a critical fire danger threat is also in effect for northern Texas and central Oklahoma.\n\nOklahoma City could see highs nearing 110 degrees today, which would break their daily record of 109 set back in 1936.\n\n\"The last time we had a substantial stretch of heat was in 2011, when we had 63 days greater than or equal to 100 degrees,\" Vivek Mahale, a Norman National Weather Service meteorologist, said.\n\nMahale expects the above-average heat to continue into at least Sunday, with every day reaching the triple-digit mark. The Oklahoma City Will Rogers World Airport has seen nine days above 100 degrees this month.\n\nHe advised the best thing you can do to prepare is to check on vulnerable populations as temperatures will be five to seven degrees above normal.\n\n\"We really want to emphasize you want to check on your friends, family, and neighbors during the heatwave, especially susceptible populations such as the elderly,\" Mahale said.\n\nAbout 8,800 customers in western Arkansas -- where temperatures were forecast to reach 106 degrees Fahrenheit -- were without power around noon Tuesday after a windstorm damaged the local electric system.\n\nWhile the windstorm broke more than 40 electric poles, Paris Mayor Daniel Rogers told CNN, \"the problem here is the heat.\"\n\nParis High School opened for people \"who need a cool place to be after last night's storms,\" according to a Facebook post, a resource the mayor urged residents to take advantage of.\n\n\"Don't try to brave out the heat,\" the mayor said. \"Heat-related illness is a serious matter.\"\n\nIn Louisiana, a funeral will be held Thursday for a Natchitoches Police Department officer who died Saturday evening from \"an unexpected heat related medical event while working in the downtown district,\" the police department announced on Facebook Tuesday. Natchitoches is about 76 miles southeast of Shreveport.\n\n\"Please continue to keep his family and all that had the privilege of knowing Officer Brian Olliff in your thoughts and prayers,\" the post read.\n\nFarther north, Michigan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration encouraged employers to be aware of heat hazards and help prevent heat illness.\n\n\"Whether you're working indoors or outdoors, hot and humid conditions can pose serious risks to workers' health, but heat-related illnesses are preventable,\" Michigan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration Director Bart Pickelman said in a news release\n\nEmployers, it said, should have detailed procedures in place for monitoring the heat index, provisioning water and caring for a sick employee, it said.\n\nNew York, Boston and Philadelphia brace for sweltering week ahead\n\nBoston, MA - Warm weather brought people out to the Esplanade in Boston in June.\n\nHeat advisories are in effect Wednesday for the Northeast, including New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.\n\nHeat index values -- the temperature it feels like when heat is combined with humidity -- could top 100 degrees in some areas, generating dangerous conditions for Mid-Atlantic and New England residents.\n\nHot and humid conditions will combine to produce maximum heat index values ranging from the mid 90s to around 100 on Wednesday and Thursday. A Heat Advisory is in effect across the entire area. https://t.co/6NEWpQSiDp pic.twitter.com/jdnYg3rsLo — NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) July 19, 2022\n\nThe heat and humidity won't just hug the coast. Upstate New York could also see temperatures well above average.\n\n\n\nAlbany, New York, is soaring above its average of 84 degrees for this time of year, and the city could near its record of 97 degrees tomorrow with the stifling heat.\n\nTo make matters worse, humidity combined with heat will make some areas feel 5-10 degrees hotter.\n\n\"This is going to be little bit (warmer) than just the typical hot and humid weather that we get in July,\" Mike Evans, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Albany, New York, told CNN.\n\nEvans said dew points could push 70 degrees tomorrow, which is when humidity becomes \"very noticeable.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Graphic shows all the changes in global temperature since 1850 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Graphic shows all the changes in global temperature since 1850 03:28\n\nPortions of Massachusetts will reach record levels as soon as Wednesday, as temperatures reach the upper 90s, and will continue through the rest of the week in the Northeast.\n\n\"This is going to be the hottest day we've had so far, this summer. We really haven't had too hot of a summer here, at least in the Northeast,\" Evans said.", "authors": ["Payton Major", "Judson Jones", "Amir Vera"], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2021/06/17/palm-springs-ties-record-hottest-june-day-ever/7739340002/", "title": "Palm Springs ties record for hottest day ever at 123 degrees", "text": "The temperature records keep falling across the Coachella Valley and summer hasn’t even arrived.\n\nPalm Springs tied the city's all-time record for the hottest day ever Thursday when the thermometer touched 123 degrees between 3 and 4 p.m.\n\nFor a time, it appeared the thermometer at Palm Springs International Airport may have touched 124 degrees for the warmest day ever, but the weather service confirmed that 123 degrees was the official high.\n\n\"Basically, those observations are taken in Celsius and sometimes when it converts to Fahrenheit, there can be a little discrepancy,\" said Liz Schenk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.\n\n\"It can be a little wonky when you go back and forth between the two metrics so that's why we wait to dial into the observation readings on our system.\"\n\nThursday marked the fourth day in 128 years of weather records where Palm Springs reached 123 degrees. The other three occasions were on consecutive days of July 28 and July 29 in 1995 and the first time was Aug. 1, 1993.\n\nJavaScript is not available.\n\nThe 123-degree reading will go down as the hottest June day ever, surpassing the old record of 122 degrees set on five previous days in the month.\n\nSchenk said the weather service was keeping a close eye on the Palm Springs temperature Thursday afternoon as the city threatened its all-time high.\n\n\"We were watching closely,\" she said. \"Even tying an all-time record is pretty cool.\n\n\"When you are dealing not only with a daily record but an all-time record, we have to check a bunch of things to make sure it is accurate,\" she said.\n\nMore:Doctors warn of burns from asphalt as heatwave hits Southwest\n\nThursday marked the second high temperature record for the week in Palm Springs. The city easily eclipsed the old record for the date of 116 degrees set in 1961.\n\n“It’s pretty rare to hit 122 and that’s over almost 100 years of records,” said Ivory Small, a meteorologist with the weather service. “Six days is too many.”\n\nPalm Springs was not alone across Southern California in setting record high temperatures on Thursday as a scorching heat wave continued. Thermal also broke its daily record by touching 118 degrees. The old mark of 114 was set in 2008. Thermal's all-time record is 126 degrees, Schenk said.\n\n“This high pressure is broader and more locked over the West than most are,” Small said.\n\nThe Coachella Valley may not be done with records quite yet. The weather service forecasts a high of 116 on Friday, which is one degree shy of the record of 117 for the date. Saturday’s forecasted high of 117 is two degrees shy of the record of 119.\n\nFor Father’s Day on Sunday, the record high is 122, but the weather service only predicts a high of 115.\n\n“It will be so cool you won’t even need your air conditioner,” joked Small, “since it won’t even be 120.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/china/china-summer-extreme-weather-climate-change-intl-hnk-mic/index.html", "title": "China's summer of extreme heat and rainfall highlights threats of ...", "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) Towns and farmlands inundated by floods, homes and roads buried by landslides, crops withering under scorching heat, hazmat-suited Covid workers collapsing from heatstroke.\n\nSince summer began, scenes of devastation and misery have been playing out across China as the world's most populous nation grapples with an unrelenting torrent of extreme weather emergencies.\n\nScientists have been warning for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more frequent. Now, like much of the world, China is reeling from its impact.\n\nSince the country's rainy season started in May, heavy rainstorms have brought severe flooding and landslides to large swathes of southern China, killing dozens of people, displacing millions and causing economic losses running into billions of yuan.\n\nIn June, extreme rainfall broke \"historical records\" in coastal Fujian province, and parts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. At the same time, a heat wave began to envelop northern China, pushing temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).\n\nIn recent weeks, a total of 71 national weather stations across China have logged temperatures that smashed records. Four cities -- three in the central province of Hebei and one in Yunnan in the southwest -- saw temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), according to the National Climate Center.\n\nPeople queue at a Covid testing site in Beijing on June 13.\n\nThe stifling heat has coincided with a surge in Covid cases, making government mandated mass testing all the more excruciating for residents -- including the elderly -- who must wait in long lines under the sun. It has also become a dangerous task for health workers who, as part of the government's zero-Covid policy, are required to spend long hours outdoors covered head to toe in airtight PPE equipment as they administer the tests.\n\nSeveral videos of Covid workers collapsing on the ground from heatstroke have gone viral on social media.\n\nThe heat wave has also caused power shortages in some regions and hit the country's crop production, threatening to further push up food prices.\n\nAnd the worst might be still to come, according to Yao Wenguang, a Ministry of Water Resources official overseeing flood and drought prevention.\n\n\"It is predicted that from July to August, there will be more extreme weather events in China, and regional flood conditions and drought conditions will be heavier than usual,\" Yao told state-run Xinhua news agency last month.\n\nCounting the costs\n\nChina is a \"sensitive area\" that has been significantly affected by climate change, with temperatures rising faster than the global average, according to the country's latest Blue Book on Climate Change , published by the China Meteorological Administration last August.\n\nBetween 1951 and 2020, China's annual average surface temperature was rising at a pace of 0.26 degrees Celsius per decade, the report said. Sea levels around China's coastlines rose faster than the global average from 1980 to 2020, according to the report.\n\nThe changing climate can make extreme weather events -- such as summer floods, which China has grappled with for centuries -- more frequent and intense, said Johnny Chan, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the City University of Hong Kong.\n\nA warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, potentially leading to heavier rainstorms, while global warming can alter atmospheric circulation, which can contribute to extreme weather such as heat waves, Chan said.\n\n\"We should be really concerned, because these extreme weather events actually affect the most underprivileged, disadvantaged and vulnerable parts of the population -- those in the rural areas, or those who don't have air conditioning or live in very crowded conditions,\" Chan said.\n\nResidents spend their time in an air-raid shelter to escape summer heat amid a heat wave warning in Nanjing, Jiangsu province on July 12.\n\nFor China, the sheer size of its population and economy means the scale of damage caused by extreme weather events is often massive.\n\nTropical cyclones, floods and droughts are estimated to cost China about $238 billion annually -- the highest in the Asia Pacific region and nearly three times the estimated loss suffered by India or Japan, according to a report released last year by the World Meteorological Organization.\n\nHeat wave-related mortality in China rose by a factor of four from 1990 to 2019, reaching 26,800 deaths in 2019, according to a Lancet study published in 2020.\n\nNew reality\n\nMeanwhile, many Chinese are only just beginning to realize that climate change will affect them personally.\n\nIn 2019, researchers found that compared to other countries, public concerns over global warming and climate change in China were \"relatively low.\"\n\nThe Chinese government has promised to bring greenhouse gases to a peak before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.\n\nFor many Chinese, the dangers of extreme weather fueled by climate change hit home last summer, when devastating floods killed 380 people in the central city of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan province.\n\nRescuers help evacuate stranded residents at the entry to an expressway in flood-hit Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province on July 23, 2021.\n\nLast July, the city of 12 million was pelted with what its water station called a \"once in a thousand years\" downpour, but local authorities were ill-prepared and failed to heed the five consecutive red alerts for torrential rain -- which should have prompted authorities to halt gatherings and suspend classes and businesses. Flood water gushed into the tunnels of the city's subway system , trapping hundreds of passengers and killing 12 of them in a tragedy that gripped the nation.\n\nJUST WATCHED See aftermath of devastating floods in Henan in 2021 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See aftermath of devastating floods in Henan in 2021 01:21\n\nLiu Junyan, climate and energy project leader for Greenpeace East Asia, said the Zhengzhou flooding was a wake-up call for the Chinese government and public.\n\n\"The central government and local governments started to be aware that climate change is such an enormous threat to society and its sustainable development,\" she said, adding that she has noticed more discussions about climate change and extreme weather in China's traditional and social media.\n\nSince last summer, many Chinese cities have improved their emergency response systems for extreme rainfall. In May, authorities in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou suspended schools, advised residents to work from home, closed construction sites and suspended public transportation in parts of the city following alerts for torrential rains.\n\nThis June, the Chinese government released a new policy document to improve its response to climate change, which it said was not only creating long-term challenges but also made the country more vulnerable to \"sudden and extreme\" events.\n\n\"Climate change has already brought serious adverse impacts to China's natural ecological system, and has continued to spread and penetrate into economy and society,\" the government said in its national climate change adaptation strategy.\n\nIt vowed to make China a \"climate-resilient society\" by 2035, by building a nationwide system to monitor and assess climate risks, and by boosting early warning capabilities.\n\nLiu said the policy document is a \"very big and ambitious\" piece of guidance for local governments, but it lacks details on implementation.\n\n\"The impact of climate change can be very localized and its threat to vulnerable communities can be very different from place to place,\" she said. \"Local governments still need to develop more detailed and tangible plans to implement this grand strategy.\"", "authors": ["Nectar Gan"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/europe/europe-heat-wave-wednesday-wildfires-intl/index.html", "title": "Europe is burning as heat moves east while US and China ...", "text": "London (CNN) Hundreds of millions of people around the world were sweltering in extreme heat on Wednesday, as record-breaking heat waves set swathes of Europe's countryside on fire, scorched the US and put dozens of Chinese cities under alert.\n\nFive separate high-pressure weather systems across the northern hemisphere, which are linked by atmospheric waves, have led to unprecedented temperatures on multiple continents. The UK smashed its all-time heat mark on Tuesday, as did several cities in the Texas and Oklahoma, including Wichita Falls, which reached a broiling 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.\n\nResidents of Alhaurín el Grande, Spain, were evacuated due to a fire in the Sierra de Mijas mountain range on July 15.\n\nResidents of Alhaurín el Grande, Spain, were evacuated due to a fire in the Sierra de Mijas mountain range on July 15.\n\nResidents watch as a column of smoke emerges from a fire in A Pobra do Brollón, Spain, on July 17.\n\nResidents watch as a column of smoke emerges from a fire in A Pobra do Brollón, Spain, on July 17.\n\nFirefighters set a backfire to a plot of land to prevent a wildfire from spreading further in Louchats, France, on July 17.\n\nFirefighters set a backfire to a plot of land to prevent a wildfire from spreading further in Louchats, France, on July 17.\n\nPeople look at plumes of smoke caused by a wildfire in Malaga, Spain, on July 15.\n\nPeople look at plumes of smoke caused by a wildfire in Malaga, Spain, on July 15.\n\nPeople rest after being evacuated from a campsite in western France on July 13.\n\nPeople rest after being evacuated from a campsite in western France on July 13.\n\nA firefighter looks on during firefighting operations in Espite, Portugal, on July 13.\n\nA firefighter looks on during firefighting operations in Espite, Portugal, on July 13.\n\nA cloud of smoke rises from the Dune of Pilat, in the Arcachon basin of southwest France, on July 13.\n\nA cloud of smoke rises from the Dune of Pilat, in the Arcachon basin of southwest France, on July 13.\n\nA local resident tries to stop flames from reaching houses in Figueiras, Portugal, on July 12.\n\nA local resident tries to stop flames from reaching houses in Figueiras, Portugal, on July 12.\n\nFirefighters attempt to control a fire in the French communes of Landiras and Guillos on July 13.\n\nFirefighters attempt to control a fire in the French communes of Landiras and Guillos on July 13.\n\nBurnt cars and trees are seen at a campsite in southwest France on July 19.\n\nBurnt cars and trees are seen at a campsite in southwest France on July 19.\n\nAn aerial view shows the rubble and destruction in a residential area following a large blaze the previous day, in Wennington, Greater London, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows the rubble and destruction in a residential area following a large blaze the previous day, in Wennington, Greater London, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows burnt olive trees and fields in Megara, west of Athens, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows burnt olive trees and fields in Megara, west of Athens, on July 20.\n\nA firefighter battles a blaze in the suburb of Pallini, east of Athens, Greece, on July 20.\n\nA firefighter battles a blaze in the suburb of Pallini, east of Athens, Greece, on July 20.\n\nAs Europe's heat wave moves eastwards, wildfires have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, blanketing parts of Italy, Greece and France in smoke. Germany recorded its hottest day of the year as temperatures reached 104.5 F (40.3C) at a measuring station in Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen, in the center of the country, while Hungary and Italy have been hit with high temperatures of around 100 F (nearly 38C) in places.\n\nThe European Forest Fire Information System put 19 European countries on \"extreme danger\" alerts for wildfires on Wednesday, across an expanse stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast.\n\nThere was some respite in the UK, where temperatures dipped from an all-time high of 40.3 C (104.5 F) on Tuesday back into the 20s. But some residential areas around London were left in ruins after fires broke out across parts of the capital, stretching the fire service to its limits.\n\n\"Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War,\" London's mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, as residents of the capital watched their homes destroyed in heat-triggered blazes they never thought possible.\n\nA resident of Wennington, a London suburb affected by Tuesday's fires, told CNN that the gardens on his street were \"like a tinder box\" in the days leading up to the fire. Stock lost his home, eight chickens and two beehives when the fire broke out.\n\n\"I didn't sleep last night. I was in the hotel room thinking how bad it could have gone. I just thank god that everyone got out alive,\" he said. \"We've lost everything. But when we get back, we can clear the site, put some fences up, get a couple of mobile homes and we'll start again.\"\n\nLondon had no available fire engines at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand, a senior fireman with the London Fire Brigade's special rescue team told CNN.\n\nIn the United States, local leaders are urging caution and issuing health warnings as a heat wave that shows no sign of slowing before the weekend continues to bake the south-central regions of the country.\n\nAnd in China, millions of densely-populated cities are responding to extreme heat. According to the China Meteorological Administration, at least 31 Chinese cities issued the second-highest orange alert warning, with temperatures expected to go up to 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 24 hours.\n\nEurope burns in record heat\n\nGreece: On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters have been tackling vast blazes that are being whipped up by wind. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children's hospital, authorities said. One person has died and 30 have been transferred to hospitals in the capital's Attica region, the Greek Fire Service said on Wednesday.\n\n\"Our top priority remains the safeguarding of human lives. But also that of vital public infrastructure as well as citizens' properties,\" spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios said during an earlier televised briefing.\n\nA firefighter tries to extinguish a blaze in Pallini, near Athens, Greece on July 20.\n\nHuge clouds of smoke remain visible in the city on Wednesday, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters. Romanian fire crews have been drafted in to assist the operation.\n\nItaly: Blazes are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Wildfires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, Blazes are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Wildfires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, according to the regional President Eugenio Giani.\n\nGermany: In Alsdorf, western Germany, three residents and two firefighters were injured in a blaze on Tuesday, and much of the country is primed for more fires as temperatures rise on Wednesday.\n\nFrance: In France, aircraft continued to dump water over burning landscapes. Fires have been raging there for a week now, though they advanced \"very little\" on Tuesday night in the Gironde region, according to local authorities. Smoke swirled over the Brennilis nuclear power plant in Brittany on Wednesday morning.\n\nJust as UK Prime Minister was criticized for a lack of preparedness for the heat wave, France's Emmanuel Macron too is coming under pressure to respond more quickly to the heat and fires, which have already burned 25 times more land in France than in the same period last year, government spokesperson Olivier Veran told journalists on Wednesday.\n\nFirefighters spray water on a wildfire in the Monts d'Arree, in Brittany, north-western France.\n\nOn Tuesday, the president of the fire-stricken Gironde region called for additional resources, including firefighting aircraft to be diverted there.\n\nA campsite owner told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday that \"we have demands\" for Macron, who will be making a visit to the ravaged southwest on Wednesday.\n\n\"We hope that he will be able to very quickly order the public services to help us, to support us in the administrative steps to put the camp site in working order as soon as possible,\" said Stephane Carella, co-owner of Pyla Camping whose site was destroyed by fires.\n\nFrance has been tackling wildfires for a week.\n\n\"Everything has gone up in smoke,\" he said, with some 90% of his property affected by the fire. Carella described the remainders of the site as \"apocalyptic.\"\n\nHigh temperatures rip through US\n\nThe baking weather in the US has so far been centered on parts of the south, and is raising particular concern about the welfare of elderly, vulnerable and homeless people.\n\nIn Texas, 14 prisons have no air conditioning and 55 have only partially-working systems, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) told CNN in an email. Texas has had at least four heat waves this season, a hot streak that started impacting the state before the official start of summer. Since May 1, more than half their days have come with some level of heat alert.\n\nAs temperatures in neighboring Arizona reached triple digits on Tuesday afternoon, around 7,000 people lost power due to strong storms, a spokesperson for the Arizona Public Service Company said.\n\nMuch of the east coast will see temperatures in the 90s this week.\n\nIn some areas, such as Miami-Dade County and Phoenix, local governments have hired chief heat officers to help residents combat the heat.\n\nMuch of the country's north, and parts of Canada, are preparing for temperatures to soar too. Philadelphia declared a \"heat caution\" starting noon Tuesday and extending to until 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the city said in an email to CNN. It also declared a \"code red\" alert for homeless people in the area.\n\nThe Canadian government issued heat and severe thunderstorm advisories in at least four provinces on Tuesday.", "authors": ["Rob Picheta"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/weather/excessive-heat-us-south/index.html", "title": "3rd heat wave grips the South this summer, and experts say it will ...", "text": "(CNN) The third heat wave of the still-early summer is scorching the US South, and \"it will get worse ... before it gets better,\" warns the National Weather Service.\n\nOver 65 million people across 16 states are under heat alerts Thursday, with triple-digit heat indexes -- or \"feels like\" temperatures -- expected in cities including Dallas; St. Louis; Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta; and Raleigh, North Carolina.\n\nThe latest heat wave continues a trend playing out in recent weeks on every continent in the Northern Hemisphere -- and something that will be more frequent with human-induced climate change, experts with the Copernicus Climate Change Service said Thursday.\n\nAbove-normal temperatures will soar Thursday into the upper 90s and 100s Fahrenheit from the central and southern Plains to the Southeast. Paired with uncomfortable high humidity, it will feel like 110 to 115 degrees in some places.\n\nAnd above-normal temperatures are forecast well into next week across the South -- well beyond the average of four days. Dallas already has seen several days above 100 degrees and is expected to continue the trend though at least midweek, putting this stretch in the running for the city's longest consecutive 100-degree streak since 2011.", "authors": ["Payton Major", "Taylor Ward", "Monica Garrett"], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/08/weather/heat-forecast-southwest-wednesday/index.html", "title": "A Southwest heat wave is on the way, the weather service warns ...", "text": "(CNN) A \"dangerous and deadly heat wave\" is on the way for the Southwest through the weekend, the Phoenix National Weather Service warns.\n\nMore than 30 million people are under heat alerts, and more than 50 daily high- temperature records could be broken through the weekend -- including in Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on earth.\n\n\"Don't underestimate the heat! Heat is one of the most deadly weather hazards, so be sure to practice heat safety this week,\" the Sacramento National Weather Service tweeted.\n\n\"Record high temperatures will be [felt] across portions of Texas on Wednesday and Thursday and expanding into California on Friday,\" the Weather Prediction Center said Wednesday morning.\n\nHigh pressure will create a heat dome over the Western US. The dome will trap any escaping radiation and send it back to the ground, while the sun's rays continue to penetrate through.\n\nThis, combined with arid soils from an extensive and long-term drought, will allow temperatures to rise to record levels over parts of California and the Southwest, with high temperatures from the upper 90s to over 110 degrees on Friday, the Weather Prediction Center said.\n\nHere is when and where the heat will be the worst.\n\nTexas-size heat leaves the state sizzling\n\n\"Hot again\" is how the San Angelo National Weather Service started its forecast discussion Wednesday morning, as the mercury is on the rise in West Central Texas.\n\nHigh temperatures will once again break the century mark this afternoon, and highs will intensify as the week progresses. Peak intensity is likely from Saturday through Monday, the San Angelo weather office said.\n\nMajor cities in Texas will see high temperatures over 100 degrees. Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston will likely hit the figure once, twice, maybe even three or more times before the week is over.\n\nAbove-average temperatures this weekend are likely to put the Texas power grid to the test.\n\nDuring the state's heat wave last month , Texans were encouraged to conserve power by raising thermostats to 78 degrees and refraining from using major appliances during peak hours.\n\nFirst heatwave of the year for Las Vegas and Phoenix\n\nAs this weather pattern remains over Texas into and through the weekend, it will expand into Southern California as well as Nevada and Arizona Thursday into Friday.\n\nThe first excessive heat event -- level 4 of 4 on the weather services experimental heat danger scale -- of the season is now upon us, the weather service's Phoenix office said.\n\n\"The first heatwave of the year has numerous climate sites threatening daily record highs and record warm lows,\" added the Las Vegas National Weather Service.\n\nDeath Valley is forecast to reach 121 on Friday. If it does, that will break the daily record of 120 set back in 1994.\n\nLas Vegas will also flirt with daily records, with temperatures close to 109 both Friday and Saturday.\n\n\"High temperatures will approach 110 degrees already this afternoon and are expected to top out between 110 and 115 degrees across the lower deserts by Friday and last through the weekend,\" the Phoenix National Weather Service said.\n\nNighttime low temperatures will be near a record high as well.\n\nJUST WATCHED Nighttime 'lows' more dangerous than highs Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Nighttime 'lows' more dangerous than highs 01:07\n\nLas Vegas is only forecast to drop to 84 degrees Saturday morning, for example. The previous hot low temperature was 81 in 1996.\n\nWhat makes this so dangerous is when temperatures remain this hot overnight, your body doesn't get a break from the extremes.\n\nThe heat should lessen early next week, the Phoenix National Weather Service said, with temperatures falling back to near-normal readings.\n\nBoth the Las Vegas and Phoenix weather offices also say Sunday might not be as hot as initially thought.\n\nInterior California will see 'high' heat risk\n\nSimilarly in California, the worst will be Friday.\n\nIf you are on the California coast, you will escape the heat. The state's interior won't be so lucky.\n\n\"Warming and drying trend with triple-digit heat by late-week for the Central Valley,\" the Sacramento National Weather Service said. \"The hottest day will be Friday, with little overnight relief from the heat.\"\n\nThe heat risk will be high -- level 3 of 4 -- on Friday for most of interior California.\n\nJUST WATCHED These Americans are fleeing the West because of extreme heat Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH These Americans are fleeing the West because of extreme heat 03:20\n\n\"Daytime temperatures could reach at least 100-105° across the Valley on Friday, which combined with warm overnight temperatures will produce high risk for heat impacts for the general public,\" the Sacramento weather office tweeted\n\nAll of the weather service offices had similar heat safety messages with tips for staying safe during excessive heat events: Try and avoid caffeine and alcohol, which can dehydrate the body. Instead, drink plenty of water and try to find air conditioning.\n\nThe drought is making this heat worse\n\nAn ongoing drought continues to plague the Southwest. And one of the many drawbacks of drought -- and dry soil -- is its impact on temperatures.\n\nWhen there is no moisture in the soil or in plants, there is no evaporation or evapotranspiration, both of which are cooling processes that add moisture to the air and stabilize the air temperature.\n\n\"Basically, the drier the air, the easier it is to get to a high temperature,\" Bryan Jackson of the Weather Prediction Center told CNN Weather. \"When there's more humidity, the temperature can be suppressed.\"", "authors": ["Judson Jones", "Cnn Meteorologist"], "publish_date": "2022/06/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/07/01/heat-wave-europe/29565161/", "title": "Dangerous heat wave scorching Europe", "text": "Doyle Rice\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nAn intense heat wave is baking Europe this week, with countries from Spain to England setting record high temperatures.\n\nThe hot days and warm nights are creating dangerous conditions for those unable to escape the heat, AccuWeather warned.\n\nThe heat shows no signs of letting up. \"We have a lot of heat-wave days ahead of us,\" MeteoFrance forecaster Francois Gourand told the Associated Press, noting a wide swath of southern France from Toulouse to Lyon was facing temperatures up to 105 degrees through the middle of next week.\n\nGermany and Poland will begin to feel the worst of the heat wave Thursday, AccuWeather said.\n\nThe high temperatures in Europe — following blistering, deadly heat waves in India and Pakistan that killed thousands in May and June — are helping push 2015's global temperatures to the highest in recorded human history, according to the Weather Underground.\n\nEuropeans are wary of heat waves, with the murderous heat of 2003 — when 70,000 died — still fresh in people's minds. In France, where 20,000 died in 2003, a nationwide heat emergency plan has been enacted this week, the Guardian reported. This includes opening cooling centers and checking on the elderly and vulnerable.\n\nAn all-time record high temperature for the United Kingdom in July was set Wednesday at London's Heathrow Airport, as the mercury soared to 98.6 degrees.\n\nWimbledon's tennis matches in London were being competed on the hottest day in the tournament's history, which goes back to 1877. A ball boy collapsed in the heat during a match Wednesday and needed to be taken off the court on a stretcher, the AP reported.\n\nSome commuters outside a London subway weren't bothered by the sweltering heat. \"I'm loving it. I can't complain,\" said Maggie Cloud, a university student who planned to relax in the park. \"We pay so much money to go abroad to holidays, and now we have the weather here. It's cheaper,\" she told the AP.\n\nTemperatures climbed to 104 degrees in Madrid on Monday, breaking the city's all-time June high at Gatafe Airport.\n\nThe heat is the result of an unusual bulge in the jet stream, which is allowing a massive ridge of high pressure to surge over the continent, bringing in extremely hot air from North Africa.\n\nEven beyond the next few days, the weather pattern across much of Europe will feature warmer-than-normal temperatures through the middle of July with only a few brief breaks from the warmth, said AccuWeather meteorologist Adam Douty.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/953574/worlds-most-extreme-weather-events-2021", "title": "The most extreme weather events in 2021 | The Week UK", "text": "This year was regarded by scientists, politicians and environmentalists as pivotal in the global effort to take action on climate change.\n\nStark warnings and alarming forecasts were issued, as regions that were previously not considered to be on the frontline of climate change saw unprecedented weather events destroy homes and claim lives. As mercury levels in Moscow hit record-breaking highs in June, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the world was reaching a “point of no return”\n\nIn August, Boris Johnson described the latest global assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a “wake-up call to the world”. The “most comprehensive” climate report from the panel issued a “code red for humanity”, said The Independent, and stated the link between global warming and the increased rate and severity of extreme weather events.\n\nClimate scientist Professor Hannah Cloke said that this year’s extreme weather events “ought to serve as a canary in the coal mine to spur faster action to adapt society to the reality of a changing climate”.\n\nHere are some of the most costly weather incidents recorded so far this year.\n\nRecord-breaking snowfall, Madrid In the first weeks of 2021, Storm Filomena brought record-breaking levels of snow for Madrid and elderly Spanish citizens were warned to stay at home as temperatures plummeted. The heaviest snow for 50 years brought transport in and out of the city to a “standstill”, Euronews reported. The snowstorm caused around €1.4bn (£1.2bn) of damage, The New York Times said.\n\nStorm Christoph, UK The period from 18 to 20 January 2021 was “one of the wettest three-day periods on record” for North Wales and North-West England, according to the Met Office. Homes in Cheshire were flooded, and residents were evacuated from homes in Manchester and Merseyside. Once Storm Christoph cleared, significant snowfall also led to travel disruption with icy conditions and road closures. Liberal Democrat councillor Richard Kilpatrick told the Manchester Evening News the atmosphere was one of “anxiety and disbelief”.\n\nCyclone Ana, Fiji Cyclone Ana “pummelled” Fiji towards the end of January, “just a month after category 5 Cyclone Yasa tore through the country’s northern islands”, The Guardian said. Satyendra Prasad, Fiji’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the cyclone – which caused more than 10,000 people to take refuge in 318 evacuation centres across the country – had left behind “a difficult recovery”.\n\nWinter storms, Texas The Week US reported that 3.5 million businesses and homes were left without power in February as temperatures dropped to -13℃ in some areas of Texas. Power went out across the state, leaving many vulnerable people in extremely cold conditions. The total death toll rose from 151 to 210 in July, after a decision was made to include deaths caused by the collapse of the state electric power grid in the final count, The Guardian reported.\n\nDust storm, China Flights were grounded and schools shut in what the South China Morning post reported as the worst sandstorm in a decade. But what was widely reported as a sandstorm in China was, in fact, a dust storm - “and that’s much worse”, said The Conversation. The miniscule particles can travel “much, much further” than sand, and can cause health risks if they are “drawn deep into the lungs”. In Beijing, the sky became orange as dust and pollution caused hazardous air quality.\n\nFlooding, New South Wales In March, Sydney and New South Wales (NSW) residents felt the effects of extreme flooding. The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) urged residents to take care of both their physical and mental health as heavy downpours lead to rivers and dams overflowing, with thousands evacuated from their homes.\n\nCyclone Seroja In April 160 people died in Indonesia after a tropical cyclone “hit a remote cluster of islands”, Climate Home News reported. Landslides and flash floods displaced at least 22,000 people, the news site adds. Reaching Western Australia days after it made landfall in Indonesia, residents in the town of Kalbarri, north of Perth, said the storm was “absolutely terrifying”, the BBC reported. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said Cyclone Seroja was \"like nothing we have seen before in decades”.\n\nRecord temperatures, Moscow As temperatures reached 34.8℃ in Moscow, “the absolute record for any day in June was hit”, The Moscow Times reported. The “abnormal temperatures” of the “record-breaking heatwave” weren’t just recorded in the capital; Penza, Vologda and Petrozavodsk also broke heat records during the month.\n\nHeat dome, Pacific Northwest Soaring temperatures across the Northwest United States “rewrote the record books” this year, National Geographic reported. The “heat dome” was the “most dramatic example” of an extreme weather event, said The Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts, and the meteorological phenomenon led to evacuations across states that weren’t “remotely prepared for the heat”. Lytton, a village in Canada’s British Columbia, was “engulfed and largely destroyed by a wildfire” as a result of the temperatures, National Geographic continued. Blistering Pacific Northwest temperatures should act as a wake-up call", "authors": ["Julia O"], "publish_date": "2021/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/07/21/wildfires-heat-strokes-deaths-unite-fight-climate-crisis/8020579002/", "title": "Wildfires, heat strokes and deaths: Unite to fight the climate crisis", "text": "Dr. Thomas K. Lew\n\nOpinion columnist\n\nParking at the Northern California hospital where I work, I quickly break into a sweat during the 80-foot walk to the entrance. It’s 100 degrees outside, and it’s only 8 a.m. Outdoors, I can feel the intense sunlight on my skin, but inside the cool wards of the hospital, I experience the effects of the recent heat wave in my soul: My first patient of the day is gravely sick from severe heat stroke.\n\nA healthy athlete, he became severely lightheaded, disoriented and unable to put together a coherent sentence. He had only spent 15 minutes in a car driving without air conditioning, but these effects were lasting hours. At one point, we thought he was developing a true stroke in his brain and not just heat stroke.\n\nHe’s not the only one suffering. I am seeing more and more people experiencing adverse health consequences of a warming environment. Put more bluntly, more people are getting sick from climate change. I am seeing them today. Not years in the future. Right now. For our health and survival, we need to be brave enough to stop and even reverse climate change by supporting state and national policies that strive to do this.\n\nHeat stroke, dehydration and wildfires\n\nThat our planet is warming up is indisputable, and virtually all scientists agree that it is worsened by human activity.\n\nOpinions in your inbox: Get the best insights and analysis every morning\n\nExtreme temperatures and extreme weather events like hurricanes and tropical storms are becoming more frequent. The recent heat wave on the West Coast is another symptom of climate change, with the thermometer reaching triple digits for days at a time. New records were set, including the 130 degree mark in Death Valley – the second highest temperature on Earth ever recorded.\n\nPeople have found fun in the extreme temperatures, cooking breakfast or baking cookies using just the sunlight. But the heat can be deadly for our most vulnerable. At least 150 deaths have been attributed to the heat in the Pacific Northwest during this recent unprecedented heat wave. If British Columbia, Canada, is counted, then that number nears 1,000 people. In my hospital, we are seeing more heat strokes and dehydration cases, especially among our elderly and homeless population.\n\nCan-do and optimistic:We're conservatives and we're fighting against climate change\n\nThis is all happening as wildfire season is starting. Last year in California, the skies turned an ominous shade of red as much of the West Coast burned. Despite efforts in forest management, uncontrolled wildfires are raging once again. The environment is so dry, in fact, that one wildfire was set off by a golf club sparking when it struck the ground.\n\nThe health consequences are palpable. Last year, our medical wards filled with the sounds of wheezing lungs from struggling patients, both from COVID-19 and also pulmonary damage from wildfire smoke. Climate change continues to make these fires all the more frequent.\n\nNo time left for political bickering\n\nPresident Joe Biden has argued that fighting global warming is a key priority in American infrastructure – but it’s more than that, it’s a priority for humanity’s infrastructure.\n\nWe cannot turn this battle into more political bickering; we don’t have the time. We need to push our elected officials to support policies curbing carbon emissions and promoting clean energy. We need to invest in the science. We need to believe the science.\n\nBipartisan infrastructure bill is a start:Climate change is no longer other worldly, and inaction is no longer an option\n\nAside fromrising sea levels, destruction of animal habitats, melting polar caps, increased flooding and the other myriad existential hazards, we are still at grave direct health risks with worsening climate change. And those dangers are now. Nowhere is this more evident than inside a hospital, filled with patients suffering from the increasing heat and smoke. More than just causing an unpleasantly hot walk across a parking lot, climate change will certainly lead to more death and suffering unless we pull together across the political spectrum and act before it’s too late.\n\nThomas K. Lew, MD, is an assistant clinical professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and an attending physician of Hospital Medicine at Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare. All opinions are solely his own. Follow him on Twitter: @ThomasLewMD", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_18", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/19/abortion-capitol-police-arrest-17-congress-members-supreme-court/10100320002/", "title": "Abortion: Capitol Police arrest 17 Congress members at Supreme ...", "text": "WASHINGTON — A Tuesday abortion rights demonstration at the Supreme Court resulted in the arrest of 35 people, including 17 members of Congress, according to a statement released by the U.S. Capitol Police.\n\nThe protest is the latest of several staged around the nation's Capitol since June, when Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, the decades-old ruling establishing a constitutional right to abortion.\n\nCapitol Police arrested demonstrators for blocking traffic on First Street, NE in Washington after giving \"our standard three warnings,\" according to the statement. The Supreme Court is located on First Street.\n\nMore:Abortion rights protesters stage a sit-in at the White House\n\nMore:180K donated to doctor who performed 10-year-old girl's abortion to help with legal fees, security\n\nMore:No room for religious liberty in abortion debate? Since when are we a one-faith nation?\n\nA total of 35 people were arrested for \"crowding, obstructing or incommoding.\" That includes 17 Members of Congress, police said.\n\nCapitol Police did not provide the names of those arrested. When asked for comment, USCP referred USA TODAY to its original statement posted on Twitter.\n\n\"We encourage the press to reach out to a Member’s office for any comments about a Member of Congress,\" USCP said in an email.\n\nRep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., assistant speaker of the House, posted a picture of her being escorted by a Capitol Police officer away from the protest on her Twitter account.\n\nMore:Vice President Kamala Harris addresses abortion, voting rights at NAACP convention\n\nMore:Democrats' two abortion-rights bills seek to avoid 'a country of forced birth'\n\n\"The extremist Republicans are determined to take us back in time and take away our rights,\" Clark wrote in the post. \"They can arrest me, but we won’t allow them to arrest freedom.\"\n\nRep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., was also arrested, according to a statement posted to her Twitter account.\n\n\"There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies and decisions about their own health, including reproductive care,\" Maloney said in the statement.\n\nShe claimed Republicans' goal is to institute a national ban on abortion. \"We will not let them win. We will be back,\" Maloney said.\n\nStaff members for Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., tweeted from Adams account that she had been arrested at the demonstration.\n\nRep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., posted a picture with members of the \"Squad\" — progressive, female members of the House including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. — at the protest. Bush wrote that the Supreme Court \"will not stop us.\"\n\n\"Even though they arrested us, we won’t stop our organizing, agitating, and legislating for justice. We got us,\" she added. Bush was detained by officers, according to Washington-based reporter, Raquel Martin. The Missouri congresswoman retweeted Martin's post to her account.\n\nOmar posted a video of her arrest to Twitter and wrote she was arrested \"while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court.\"\n\nOcasio-Cortez retweeted Axios reporter Andrew Solender's tweet about her arrest to her account. Pressley also posted a video of her and Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Penn., being escorted by a USCP officer.\n\nEvan Brandt, reporter for MercuryX in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, said Dean will pay a $50 fine.\n\nRep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., was also taken into custody, according to HuffPost.\n\nReach out to Chelsey Cox on Twitter at @therealco.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2020/06/01/kentucky-teacher-year-arrested-breonna-taylor-protest/5306818002/", "title": "Breonna Taylor protest: Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year ...", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The 2020 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year was arrested this weekend protesting the death of Breonna Taylor in downtown Louisville.\n\nMatt Kaufmann, who teaches in Jefferson County Public Schools, was booked Sunday night on an unspecified misdemeanor charge, according to the Department of Corrections booking log.\n\nAn arrest citation was not immediately available.\n\n\"(Kaufmann) was arrested this evening for protesting and standing up for #BreonnaTaylor and for Black Lives in Louisville,\" local activist Hannah Drake wrote on Facebook.\n\n\"No way he was not peaceful,\" she said. \"He is physically okay but a little roughed up.\"\n\nMore:Beshear announces investigation into LMPD, National Guard fatally shooting man on Broadway\n\nPolice arrested at least 40 people during Sunday's protests demanding justice after the police shooting that left 26-year-old Taylor, an unarmed black woman, dead in March.\n\n\"JCPS supports the right of our employees to peacefully protest,\" Renee Murphy, a spokeswoman for JCPS, said.\n\nKaufmann was named Kentucky's top high school teacher last spring for his work teaching English at Marion C. Moore High School.\n\n\"Matt exemplifies inclusivity,\" his then principal, Rob Fulk, said at the time. \"I have witnessed firsthand the exceptional environment he creates among his students, one that promotes a strong sense of social justice, togetherness, and uniqueness.\"\n\nAn outspoken advocate for public education, Kaufmann also ran for state Senate in 2018. He lost in the primary.\n\nThis story may be updated.\n\nReach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4471, and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth. Support strong local journalism by subscribing: courier-journal.com/subscribe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/06/24/abortion-reaction-arizona-protests-planned-phoenix-tucson/7726687001/", "title": "Abortion reaction updates: Man detained, released at Phoenix protest", "text": "Arizona Republic\n\nCorrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article gave the wrong location for the Arizona state Capitol. The Capitol is located at Washington Street and 17th Avenue in Phoenix.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court's Friday ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and allows states to set their own course on abortion laws.\n\nHow this will impact Arizonans is yet to be determined.\n\nThe state has two laws on the books banning abortion, one that's from 158 years ago and another brand new one. It is unclear which ban will prevail. Experts told The Arizona Republic that we can expect an immediate challenge to the state's anti-abortion laws, as well as a direct or implied threat of prosecution for abortion providers.\n\nUncertainty over the future of abortion rights in the state is pushing many to organize across the U.S.\n\nFollow coverage of the reaction to the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade by Republic reporters here.\n\n11:30 a.m. Sunday: 4 arrested, several detained after protesters push down fencing\n\nFour people were arrested Saturday night and several others were detained by state police after protesters pulled down temporary fencing around the Arizona Capitol.\n\nSaturday marked the second day in which thousands of people gathered near the Arizona Capitol complex as a result of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.\n\nAccording to Bart Graves, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, four people were arrested on suspicion of rioting and disorderly conduct.\n\nLegal observers also attended the protests and were among the numerous people who were detained by state police.\n\nRussel Facente, 37, attended the protests as a legal observer with Central Arizona chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance.\n\n\"The purpose of legal observers is to essentially monitor police activity because cops lie,\" Facente said. \"Cops will create false narratives, overcharge people, arrest indiscriminately.\"\n\nHe, along with others who were detained, was taken to a DPS staging area behind the Capitol complex.\n\n\"We were put against a fence and told 'You're all under arrest for trespassing and disorderly conduct,\" Facente said. \"It went beyond a pat-down. They took belongings out of our pockets, took our backpacks and put them into evidence and kept us cuffed.\"\n\nFacente says he and three other legal observers were processed and photographed and were later released from custody between 1-1:30 a.m. on Sunday.\n\n9:30 p.m. Saturday: Man detained, released at Phoenix protest\n\nHundreds of people continued to gather at the Arizona Capitol on Saturday night to protest the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.\n\nProtesters marched around the premises of the Capitol building, which was fenced off early Saturday following a separate protest that drew thousands of people to the area Friday night.\n\n“Having an abortion affects nobody besides the person having the abortion,” said Suzy Olson, who was at the protest.\n\n“My cat has more reproductive rights than me,” said Olson. “My cat got neutered and they asked me ‘if your cat happens to get pregnant, would you like to terminate the pregnancy?’”\n\nDemonstrators also sat on 17th Avenue in front of the Capitol.\n\nPeople chanted, “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” “Her body, her choice,” “My body, my choice,” “Pro-life is a lie, you don’t care if people die” and “Off my body, keep your hands.”\n\nGroups of protesters wore all black and protective goggles in case of tear-gas deployment from law enforcement.\n\nOne man, who was wearing a mask and black clothes, was detained by troopers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The man had on a medic vest and a few bags. Troopers searched his bag for any potential weapons. He was then released after only medical supplies was found.\n\nDrones operated by DPS also hovered over the demonstration.\n\nIt remains unclear who organized the event.\n\nThe Phoenix branch of Radical Women and Arizona Planned Parenthood helped to organize Friday’s protest, but neither organization says it was involved in putting Saturday’s demonstration together. Radical Women issued a statement cautioning attendees to be careful.\n\nAndrew Feldman, a spokesperson for AZPP, told The Arizona Republic that the group was not involved in organizing Saturday night’s event and was unsure who was.\n\n8:40 p.m. Saturday: Hundreds march in downtown Phoenix for abortion rights\n\nHundreds gathered at the Arizona Capitol complex surrounding the fencing that had been put up earlier Saturday.\n\nCrews were out Saturday morning and afternoon putting up fences around complex buildings after protesters reportedly vandalized several memorials in the area. Saturday night, protesters could be seen demonstrating along the fence perimeter.\n\nDemonstrators continuously marched rather than assembled in one location. There were no apparent lead organizers or speakers.\n\nThe Phoenix branch of Radical Women helped to organize Friday’s protest. The group issued a statement on Saturday cautioning attendees to be careful, as it was unclear who was organizing Saturday night’s protest.\n\n“We do not have an event planned for tonight,” the statement said. “We do not know who posted the event shared on the Bans Off Our Bodies website for tonight. None of the local groups we are in touch with know about this event.”\n\nRadical Women cautioned anybody who attends to be prepared for “more police escalation and more involvement from the state police.”\n\n7:15 p.m. Saturday: Second night of protests for abortion rights in Phoenix\n\nAnother protest is planned to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Arizona Capitol Complex following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling Friday morning.\n\nThe court's decision ended the constitutional right to an abortion and triggered protests across the U.S.\n\nAs of Friday morning, demonstrators had already gathered outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. By the evening, thousands had gathered in downtown Phoenix before the event was declared to be an unlawful assembly by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.\n\nAt approximately 8:30 p.m., a bloc of protesters gathered outside the Arizona Senate building and chanted, “We won’t go back!” to a handful of onlookers inside.\n\nWhen demonstrators began hitting the glass walls and doors of the building, SWAT officers deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd. One protester was seen breaking a window before others yelled at him to stop.\n\nMinutes later, law enforcement officials declared an unlawful assembly.\n\nSenate members could be seen taking refuge in the Senate lobby as a cloud of tear gas hung in the air.\n\nHours earlier, several thousand demonstrators had marched through downtown Phoenix for the Women's March in front of the Arizona Capitol. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Phoenix branch of Radical Women also had planned to be protesting.\n\nNo arrests or injuries were reported, according to DPS officials.\n\n— Lillian Boyd\n\n1:30 p.m. Saturday: 'We're still going to be fighting as hard as ever'\n\nHundreds gathered in front of the Arizona State Capitol to celebrate the repeal of Roe v. Wade and demand more efforts from state lawmakers in protecting the unborn.\n\nSupports for the repeal held signs that read \"protection at conception,\" \"pro-life feminist\" and \"We are the post-Roe generation.\"\n\nJordyn Brittain, the regional coordinator of Students for Life in Arizona, said the organization had been preparing for today's event for months.\n\n\"We knew that whether it was a win or a lose for the pro-life movement yesterday, we wanted to show that we're still going to be fighting as hard as ever to protect life from conception,\" Brittain said.\n\nA crowd of about 50 counter-protestors also showed up at the northeast corner of the State Capitol, by the House of Representatives building.\n\nRhys Brown, a counter-protestor, said both demonstrations happened at the same time by coincidence, and that he was surprised to see the celebration for Roe's overturning taking place.\n\nBrown said the Supreme Court decision was \"unjustifiable\" and that he showed up in support of women choosing whether they want an abortion or not.\n\nA brief clash occurred between protesters from both rallies.\n\nDemonstrators in favor of abortion rights started chanting \"my body, my choice\" as two anti-abortion demonstrators walked through the crowd, waiting to cross the sidewalk.\n\nThe anti-abortion demonstrators started filming the crowd with their phones as they said \"you're killing babies, stop killing babies.\"\n\nThe protests dissolved at about 1:15 p.m.\n\n— Laura Daniella Sepulveda\n\n11 a.m. Saturday:\n\n'Life is Louder' rally to take place in Phoenix in support of Roe v. Wade reversal\n\nA pro-life rally is expected to take place at the Arizona State Capitol building Saturday morning in support of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.\n\nThe event will be organized by Students for Life Action, a national anti-abortion youth organization, as part of a national mobilization to celebrate \"a post-Roe America,\" according to a statement from the organization.\n\n\"Life is Louder\" rallies are expected to take place in about 32 states including Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, Colorado and California, among others.\n\nEvents were expected to be held at each state's capitol building at 11 a.m. local time, according to the organization's website.\n\nAccording to a statement from the organization, the demonstrations are meant to celebrate the end of what pro-life activists say was an \"egregiously\" wrong decision taken in favor of Roe about 5 decades ago.\n\nEfforts from the organization will now focus on law-making at the state level to protect lives, according to the statement.\n\n\"Our nation's most egregious sin, one that cost more than 63 million innocent lives, has finally been righted. It's time to celebrate and buckle down to do more work,\" the organization stated.\n\n— Laura Daniella Sepulveda\n\n10:45 p.m. Friday: One window broke at state building\n\nAfter the protesters had largely dispersed in downtown Phoenix, one person broke a window at the state Department of Agriculture building on Adams Street, while others booed the person for doing so.\n\nClouds of tear gas lingered heavily in the courtyard between the Arizona Senate and House of Representatives buildings, preventing anyone from entering the area.\n\nSamantha McClintock, 26, and Ryan Wullf, 31, both of Phoenix, arrived late to the Roe protest and were in the crowd that was hit with tear gas. They said a crowd had gathered between the House and Senate buildings and some protesters were banging on the glass doors and windows of the Senate. They didn't know the Legislature was in session at the time.\n\nBy 9:30 p.m., crowds had left the area after police declared it an unlawful assembly.\n\nNeither Phoenix Police Department nor Arizona Department of Public Safety has responded to requests for comment. It is unclear whether police arrested anyone in connection to the protest.\n\nProtests in Flagstaff and Tucson remained mostly peaceful. No incidents with law enforcement were reported in Flagstaff. In Tucson, police blocked off traffic from protesters demonstrating downtown. No arrests were reported.\n\n9:30 p.m. Friday: Unlawful assembly at downtown Phoenix rally\n\nAt approximately 8:30 p.m., a bloc of protesters gathered outside the Arizona Senate building and chanted, “We won’t go back!” to a handful of onlookers inside.\n\nWhen demonstrators began hitting the glass walls and doors of the building, SWAT officers deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd. One protester was seen breaking a window before others yelled at him to stop.\n\nMinutes later, law enforcement officials declared an unlawful assembly.\n\nHouse members could be seen taking refuge in the House lobby as a cloud of tear gas hung in the air.\n\nHours earlier, several thousand demonstrators had marched through downtown Phoenix for the Women's March in front of the Arizona Capitol. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Phoenix branch of Radical Women also had planned to be protesting.\n\n— Perry Vandell and Ray Stern\n\n8:40 p.m.: Senate calls recess, cites security threat\n\nSenate President Karen Fann abruptly called a recess to Senate work and evacuated lawmakers and staff to the Senate basement after protesters attending a rally after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade pounded on Senate windows and doors.\n\n\"We have a security threat outside,\" Fann said, trying to hurry along a handful of public-school supporters who had unfurled a banner expressing their disgust with the Senate's approval of universal vouchers.\n\nPeople soon returned to the Senate floor, including guests who had been seated in the Senate's gallery to watch the voucher vote.\n\n— Mary Jo Pitzl\n\n8 p.m. Friday: 'It’s very murky water': Traffic blocked at downtown Tucson protest\n\nAbout 1,000 demonstrators gathered in downtown Tucson, pouring onto Congress Street and blocking traffic.\n\n“We do not know what abortion future looks like in Arizona. It’s very murky water,” Amy Fitch-Heacock said. “As of today, all abortion care in the state of Arizona has ceased pending legal ramifications.”\n\nFitch-Heacock is one of the organizers of the Tucson Women’s March and the founder of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom. She added that she believes this will become a “worst-case scenario very soon.”\n\n“I fight because I know what happens to women who are denied abortion care … I fight because I know what happens to single mothers who raise children alone abandoned by the men who promised to show up,” Fitch-Heacock said.\n\nShe asked people to sign petitions to enshrine abortion rights into the Arizona State Constitution.\n\n“We are going to keep on fighting because the people who took our rights today are counting on us being too tired to fight back.”\n\nAt about 8 p.m., law enforcement officials began blocking traffic near the federal courthouse.\n\nVera Antranik, one of the thousands of people who attended the Phoenix protest, described the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a blatant attack on health care and women’s rights.\n\n“You’re not able to make decisions about your own body,” Antranik said. “I don’t think that crusty old men in the Supreme Court should have any say when they don’t understand what it’s like to go through that.”\n\nAntranik asserted that those claiming to be “pro-life” care more about an unborn fetus than a child’s well-being after they’re born and referenced the 19 elementary school children who were massacred in Uvalde, Texas.\n\n— Sarah Lapidus\n\n7:30 p.m. Friday: Thousands march in downtown Phoenix to protest\n\nSeveral thousand demonstrators marched through downtown Phoenix. A Women's March protest was planned for 7 p.m. in front of the Arizona Capitol. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Phoenix branch of Radical Women also planned to protest at the same place and time.\n\nIn Tucson, the Women's March chapter of the city drew nearly 300 demonstrators to the Evo A. DeConcini Federal Courthouse.\n\n“We need to show up in solidarity, and we need to show up at that ballot box,” said Faith Ramon with Arizona Center for Empowerment.\n\nAbout 5 miles east, about 50 people gathered at Reid Park, including Corinn Cooper with Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom.\n\n“I've been fighting for women's rights for 50 years,” Cooper said. “I did not expect to see rights granted by the Constitution removed from women, and I, frankly, worry that this damage won't be undone in my lifetime.\"\n\nAt the Flagstaff protest, petitions and voter registration forms were passed around the crowd with organizers encouraging people to translate their unhappiness into tangible change in the ballot box. One petition hopes to present voters this fall with a ballot initiative for the right to an abortion to be codified in the Arizona Constitution.\n\nCrowds began to disperse after 6:30 p.m. after a march. No incidents with law enforcement were reported.\n\n— Sarah Lapidus, Sam Burdette, Perry Vandell and Lacey Latch\n\n7 p.m. Friday: 'Even though it was expected, it's still profoundly disturbing'\n\nThe dark monsoon clouds rolling in overhead did not deter more than 100 people who gathered on the south lawn of Flagstaff City Hall. Impassioned protesters lined one of the cities' main thoroughfares with signs and bullhorns campaigning for reproductive rights.\n\n\"Even though it was expected, it's still profoundly disturbing,\" Debra Block, one of the rally's organizers, said of the court's decision.\n\nBlock, like many of her counterparts in the long fight for reproductive rights, has been at this for decades.\n\nShe went to her first abortion rally in Detroit in the early 1970s. Years later, Block is now a mother fighting for her rights as well as her child's.\n\n\"I should be done with this and I'm not,\" Block said.\n\nAbout half an hour after the rally began, the group began a march through town and around the courthouse before returning to City Hall and blocking traffic along historic Route 66 until being directed back onto the grass by police.\n\nCassidy Griffith and Charlotte Willin, two Northern Arizona University student, came to the rally to show support for what they say is a healthcare issue.\n\n\"I believe abortion is health care,\" Willin said. \"I'm a public health major and I believe it's a right that people should be able to have an abortion if they would like one.\"\n\n\"It is health care,\" Griffith agreed. \"I plan to be an OB/GYN, and I am going to fight until my dying days for them to have this right because it is their right no matter what and no one should stay in their way.\"\n\n\"My grandma grew up in the '60s doing this, my mom grew up doing this and now I'm doing it,\" Griffith said. \"You know, three generations of women fighting for our rights to have bodily autonomy.\"\n\n— Lacey Latch\n\n6:45 p.m. Friday: 'I will always fight for them'\n\nAbout 70 demonstrators gathered on either side of Congress Street in front of the Evo A. DeConcini Federal Courthouse ahead of the rally scheduled for 7 p.m.\n\nAmy Fitch-Heacock is one of the organizers of the Tucson Women’s March and the founder of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom. She says people in rural areas already struggled to gain access to health care and abortion before today’s court decision.\n\n“We have abortion providers mostly in the cities. Rural health care across the United States has always been a challenge,” Fitch-Heacock said. “Here in Arizona even though we don’t have an existing law that went into effect today, our abortion providers stopped providing abortions in anticipation of the legal challenges.”\n\nFitch-Heacock says she is a reproductive rights advocate because she knows what it’s like to not have access to abortion.\n\n“This is not going to impact people who are in the Supreme Court. This isn’t going to impact the people who are in Congress, this will impact people who are already at a disadvantage,” Fitch-Heacock said. “I will always fight for them and for myself.”\n\n1 p.m. Friday: Protests planned for Phoenix, Tucson\n\nWomen's March chapters in Phoenix and Tucson have planned protests in their respective cities on Friday night, and they are expected to be the largest in the State.\n\nFollowing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning, ending a constitutional right to an abortion, protests are expected to occur across the U.S.\n\nAs of Friday morning, demonstrators have already gathered outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.\n\nIn Phoenix, a Women's March protest is planned for 7 p.m. in front of the Arizona State Capitol. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Phoenix branch of Radical Women will also be protesting at the same place and time.\n\nIn Tucson, the Women's March chapter of the city will host a protest at 7 p.m. in front of the U.S. District Court in downtown Tucson.\n\n— Sam Burdette and Sarah Lapidus", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/21/breonna-taylor-protests-nfac-plans-hold-armed-march-louisville/5477815002/", "title": "Breonna Taylor protests: NFAC plans to hold armed march in ...", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Black militia is planning to hold an armed march in Louisville on Saturday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, according to a video from the leader of the group.\n\nJohn Fitzgerald \"Jay\" Johnson, the self-proclaimed grand master and founder of the NFAC, which stands for the Not F***ing Around Coalition, said in a video posted on Sunday that those wishing to march must come in a specific uniform: black boots, black pants, black button-down shirt and black mask. He added that members must come with several types of guns.\n\n\"Understand the seriousness of this situation,\" said Johnson, who goes by the name The Real Grandmaster Jay. \"Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home. ... We gotta go in on this one.\"\n\nFLASH SALE:Click here to get unlimited digital access at $39 for one year. Offer limited to new subscribers.\n\nIn a video published Monday, Johnson said that the group will meet at noon Saturday at Central High School, 1130 W. Chestnut St. But on Tuesday afternoon, Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the NFAC will change locations so that it is not on school property.\n\nUnlawful possession of a weapon on school property is a felony in Kentucky. Halladay said she did not have any additional information to share about the rally location.\n\nJohnson met electronically with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisville Metro Council President David James on Monday, according to James, who added that he organized the meeting.\n\nCameron is investigating the killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was unarmed in her South End apartment when Louisville police fatally shot her March 13. Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn confirmed the phone call took place.\n\n\"The conversation was productive,\" Kuhn wrote in an email. \"Attorney General Cameron discussed his continued commitment to moving forward with our office’s independent and thorough investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor.\"\n\nThe militia made waves July 4 when roughly 1,000 members of the group marched in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where there is a mountainside carving of three Confederate leaders: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. Authorities said the event was peaceful, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the group's presence caused a stir on social media.\n\nProtesters have taken to the streets of Louisville for 55 days to demand justice for Taylor, who was shot as police served a \"no-knock\" search warrant as a part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found in the apartment.\n\nCourt records show that police obtained a warrant with a no-knock provision for Taylor's apartment signed by Circuit Judge Mary Shaw. Even so, officials have said that plainclothes officers knocked and announced their presence before breaking in Taylor’s door with a battering ram.\n\nTaylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was also in the apartment, fired one shot in response, hitting Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh. Mattingly and Officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove returned fire, striking Taylor five times.\n\nShe died in her hallway.\n\nFACT CHECK: Debunking 7 widely shared rumors in the Breonna Taylor police shooting\n\nMore:Breonna Taylor was briefly alive after police shot her. But no one tried to treat her\n\nLike many of the protesters, Johnson, the leader of the NFAC, is demanding that the three officers involved in the shooting be fired by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and criminally charged by Cameron. One of the officers in the shooting, Hankison, was fired last month and is in the process of appealing the termination.\n\nIn a call last week organized by local activist Lebron Seay, Johnson told David James, D-6th District, and Louisville Chief of Community Building Vincent James that 5,000 to 6,000 people from his group will hold an armed march in Louisville if there is not progress made in Taylor's case.\n\n\"I would be so remiss not to tell you that there are a lot of people nationwide that are ready to descend on your city to extract justice if you cannot give us some type of guarantee that something is coming soon,\" Johnson said.\n\nDavid James said during the call that the investigation has taken so long due to Fischer's \"piss-poor leadership,\" as the city did not turn over the police's investigative to Attorney General Cameron until a few weeks ago.\n\nIn an interview with The Courier Journal, David James said he had not spoken with Johnson before and joined the call to \"help answer any questions\" and to make sure Johnson \"was aware of whatever the facts were.\"\n\nDavid James also said that the \"lack of transparency\" of Fischer's administration has led to a distortion of facts and that he was asked to join the call after the Louisville mayor refused to do so.\n\nJean Porter, a spokeswoman for Fischer, told The Courier Journal on Tuesday that the mayor was not invited to the call with Johnson.\n\nOpinion:Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron can't submit to outside pressure in Taylor case\n\nDavid James said he is \"not a big fan of people carrying weapons while they're protesting or marching through the city, no matter who they are.\" However, he added that the group consists of \"law-abiding citizens following the rules and laws of the state of Kentucky\" and that they have the right to protest.\n\nThe Metro Council president added that he is more worried about people reacting to the NFAC and that there may \"be one person that does one stupid thing, and then we have a problem.\"\n\nLouisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said the department is aware of Johnson's video announcing the NFAC's intentions to come to Louisville and the department has attempted to reach out to the group's organizers \"to understand what their plans are.\"\n\n\"We have had several protests posted over the past several weeks, some of which have occurred and some which have not,\" Mitchell said. \"We will take the appropriate steps to prepare for whatever may occur.\"\n\nMitchell declined to comment further on whether the department has successfully reached Johnson and what steps the department is taking to ensure the march is safe.\n\nAccording to Porter, Louisville police have been in contact with Johnson about tentative plans for the march and \"their shared goal for a peaceful event.\"\n\nWhen asked during a Tuesday press briefing if the state would send police to the armed march in Louisville, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said his administration has not received a request to get involved.\n\n\"Any time a request comes in, we'll have to look at the danger that's out there for life and safety of folks,\" Behsear said. \"But at the time, we have not received any official request for assistance.\"\n\nContact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/23/three-percenters-plan-response-nfac-march-louisville/5491690002/", "title": "Three Percenters plan response to NFAC march in Louisville", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A far-right militia group is calling for members to come to Louisville on Saturday in response to a planned armed march by the NFAC (Not F***ing Around Coalition), a Black militia.\n\nIn a Facebook video posted on Tuesday, a user named Michael Malinconico said the Three Percenters militia will have \"boots on the ground to assist and security on this situation.\"\n\n\"We are asking for an all call-out ... to assist in countering NFAC,\" Malinconico said.\n\nAnd in the Facebook group Kentucky Security Force III%, the page shared a video on Wednesday from the national III% Security Force group of a man criticizing the NFAC. Above the shared video, the post reads, \"See you Saturday.\"\n\nFLASH SALE:Click here to get unlimited digital access at $39 for one year. Offer limited to new subscribers.\n\nIt's unclear what the Kentucky Three Percenters plan to do on Saturday or how many people will arrive in Louisville. Patsy Bush, the state secretary of the Kentucky 3 Percenters, declined to comment, saying \"I'm not at liberty to speak about it at this point.\"\n\nThe Three Percenter posts come after John Fitzgerald \"Jay\" Johnson, the self-proclaimed grand master and founder of the NFAC, announced in a video posted on Sunday that the group plans to gather in an armed formation Saturday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot by police.\n\n\"Understand the seriousness of this situation,\" said Johnson, who goes by the name The Real Grandmaster Jay. \"Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home. ... We gotta go in on this one.\"\n\nThe militia made waves July 4 when roughly 1,000 members marched in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where there is a mountainside carving of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. Authorities said the event was peaceful, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.\n\nMore:Did Three Percenters back Beshear effigy at rally? What to know about the Kentucky group\n\nJohnson told Louisville city leaders in a phone call last week that he conservatively estimates 5,000 to 6,000 members of the NFAC will show up in Louisville. The formation was originally set to meet at Central High School at noon, but police have confirmed that it will no longer be held there due to a restriction against weapons on school property.\n\nAccording to Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay, the group will meet at Baxter Square Park at Jefferson Street and 11th and 12th streets at noon. The group will then march downtown to Jefferson Square Park, Halladay said.\n\nJohnson met electronically with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisville Metro Council President David James on Monday, Cameron's spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn told The Courier Journal.\n\nCameron is investigating the killing of Taylor, who was unarmed in her South End apartment when Louisville police shot her before 1 a.m. March 13.\n\n\"The conversation was productive,\" Kuhn wrote in an email. \"Attorney General Cameron discussed his continued commitment to moving forward with our office’s independent and thorough investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor.\"\n\nIn an interview with The Courier Journal on Tuesday, Councilman James said he is \"not a big fan of people carrying weapons while they're protesting or marching through the city, no matter who they are.\" He added that the group has marched peacefully previously, and that he is more worried about counterprotesters and \"one person that does one stupid thing, and then we have a problem.\"\n\nThe Three Percenters stirred controversy in late May when the local group's president, Terry Bush, hoisted an effigy of Gov. Andy Beshear from a tree at the Kentucky Capitol during a \"Patriot Day 2nd Amendment Rally.\"\n\nThe militia also came to Louisville in July 2018 to hold a counterprotest against a group demonstrating against federal immigration policies.\n\nThe Three Percenters - Original Facebook page says it is a \"national organization made up of patriotic citizens who love their country, their freedoms, and their liberty. We are committed to standing against and exposing corruption and injustice.\"\n\nOn Politics:Black women are fed up, and want more than justice for Breonna Taylor\n\nUSA TODAY has previously reported that members of the group were involved in the violent protests following a deadly neo-Nazi rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the national group issued a stand-down order in response to it. The Washington Post also reported the group took steps to disassociate itself from the racism at the rally.\n\nJohnson, the leader of the NFAC, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday morning on the Three Percenters' plans.\n\nIn response to the demonstrations, Louisville police will heighten its presence in Jefferson Square Park and block off several roads downtown starting at 8 a.m. Saturday.\n\nLMPD Maj. Aubrey Gregory said during a press briefing Thursday afternoon that the department is trying to provide safety for any group that is downtown Saturday.\n\nGregory said he has heard from counterprotester groups as far as Kansas, including the Mississippi Militia and Kentucky Militia on top of several Three Percenters groups, but he did not have an estimate on how many people may show up. He added that several groups who had initially expressed interest now say they will not come.\n\nTo separate groups, Gregory said police will create what he calls a \"no-go zone\" on Fifth Street, keeping opposing demonstrators divided with bike racks.\n\nMeanwhile,when asked during a Tuesday press briefing if the state would send police to the NFAC gathering in Louisville, Beshear said his administration has not received a request to get involved.\n\nOn Thursday, Gregory said he has been keeping other agencies in the loop but has not asked for any additional assistance.\n\nLMPD plans for demonstrations\n\nMaintain a visible police presence in the area of Jefferson Square Park.\n\nSecure two areas, using bike rack barriers, to keep opposing protesters separated. Fifth Street will serve as the buffer zone between those two areas.\n\nProhibit parking at all parking meters on the streets surrounding Jefferson Square Park (Jefferson, Sixth and Liberty streets)\n\nClose the following roads, starting at 8 a.m. Jefferson Street between Fourth and Seventh streets. Liberty Street between Fifth and Seventh streets. Fifth Street between Market Street and Muhammad Ali. Sixth Street between Market and Liberty streets.\n\n\n\nContact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/19/voter-photo-id-bill-passes-legislature-head-gov-andy-beshear/2881374001/", "title": "Voter photo ID bill passes legislature, head to Gov. Andy Beshear", "text": "An amended bill requiring voters to present photo identification to vote is heading to the governor's desk for his signature or veto.\n\nKentucky voters are currently required to present identification to vote unless they are recognized by a poll worker, but Senate Bill 2, passed by both chambers of the legislature, would require government-issued identification with the voter's photograph.\n\nThe bill's Republican backers say the measure is needed to prevent in-person voter fraud and ensure public confidence in elections, though Democratic opponents countered it would create an unnecessary barrier to voting, noting there have been zero confirmed incidents of voter impersonation in Kentucky.\n\nBoth chambers passed different versions of the bill earlier in the session by a nearly party-line vote, with a conference committee creating a new version of the bill Thursday before the House and Senate passed it that evening.\n\nA copy of the amended bill passed by both chambers had not been publicly posted by Thursday evening.\n\nIf Gov. Andy Beshear signs the bill into law, voters would be required to have a photo ID by this November's general election.\n\nLooking back:Amended Kentucky bill to require photo voter ID would go into effect this year\n\nBeshear previously said he would not support any bill that makes it more difficult for Kentuckians to vote but was waiting to see what version of the bill passed. Even if he vetoes the bill, it likely would be overridden by the Republican-dominated General Assembly.\n\nNoting that Kentucky's primary election already has been pushed back to June over concerns about the coronavirus, the ACLU of Kentucky issued a statement condemning the passage of SB 2 as further endangering the same populations most vulnerable to the pandemic.\n\n\"Thousands of people who do not meet the newly mandated identification requirements will have to choose between exposing themselves to COVID-19 to obtain identification, or being forced to sit on the sidelines on Election Day,\" stated Corey Shapiro, the legal director for ACLU-KY.\n\nRead this:Stressing medical care needs in pandemic, lawmakers OK $35M U of L Jewish Hospital loan\n\nAlso:Beshear rips into Senate budget proposal as Kentucky lawmakers hit pause on session\n\n\"It is unconscionable for politicians to move this legislation at a time when Kentuckians are not allowed in the Capitol and are losing their jobs, their small businesses, access to childcare and more.\"\n\nThe ACLU of Kentucky previously indicated it may file a lawsuit to block the enforcement of the law unless it delayed implementation until after this year's general election.\n\nReach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2021/01/27/dc-riot-arrests-what-we-know-kentucky-people-charged/4247232001/", "title": "DC riot arrests: What we know about the Kentucky people charged", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A convicted meth manufacturer who was sentenced to a decade in prison.\n\nAn election-conspiracy leader who protested outside U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's house.\n\nA 23-year-old University of Kentucky student who posted from the U.S. Capitol riot, \"can't wait to tell my grandkids I was here.\"\n\nAll three are among the 20 defendants with Kentucky ties who have been charged with a variety of federal crimes in the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, ranging from trespassing to assaulting an officer.\n\nThe defendants initially appeared before federal judges in their home districts, but the cases have been transferred to the D.C. Circuit for prosecution, with some Kentuckians receiving their sentences in late 2021. Other cases remain pending in 2022.\n\nHere’s what we know about the defendants:\n\nReva Vincent\n\nReva Vincent, of Brownsville, was charged in February 2022 with parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.\n\nFederal prosecutors said Vincent recorded herself entering the Capitol and remaining inside the Rotunda during the riot, yelling things, \"stop the steal\" and \"this is our house!\"\n\nVincent has accepted a plea deal and is scheduled to receive her sentence during an Aug. 2, 2022, hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.\n\nRelate:Kentucky woman who took video selfie inside US Capitol takes plea deal in Jan. 6 riot case\n\nShelly Stallings\n\nShelly Stallings, 42, of Morganfield, was arrested Feb. 16 in Owensboro and charged with various offenses in connection with the Capitol riot, including assaulting officers and civil disorder.\n\nStallings and three other defendants, including her husband, Peter Schwartz, were accused of \"spraying a chemical irritant, pepper spray, at a line of police officers attempting to secure the area of the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol Building,\" the Department of Justice said.\n\nFollowing her arrest, it was not immediately clear if Stallings had an attorney who could comment on her behalf, with details on her next court appearance not yet available.\n\nRelated:Kentucky woman used pepper spray on officers during Jan. 6 Capitol riot, feds say\n\nJoseph Irwin\n\nJoseph Irwin of Cecilia, Kentucky, was arrested and charged Aug. 17 with unlawful entry and disorderly conduct in a restricted building and disorderly conduct and parading/demonstrating in the Capitol building, the FBI's Louisville office said.\n\nIrwin, a former deputy with the Hardin County Sheriff's Office, was initially identified in photos at the Capitol by a tipster. His identity was confirmed by former coworkers, Hardin County Sheriff John Ward and Lt. Taylor Miller, as well as through photos on his wife's Facebook page.\n\nIrwin told Miller he was on his way to \"meet up with friends at a march.\" Security footage showed him entering the Capitol building at 2:43 p.m. on Jan. 6, court records show.\n\nHe was released on a personal recognizance bond and ordered to \"continue preexisting mental health treatment\" and not possess any firearms or weapons while awaiting his next appearance in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.\n\nRelated:Kentuckian arrested in connection with Jan. 6 insurrection was formerly a sheriff's deputy\n\nIrwin is represented by a public defender and must also notify the Western District of Kentucky if he intends to travel outside of the court's jurisdiction, according to court records.\n\nA memorandum about the production of discovery indicates the defense will have access to the \"vast majority\" of potentially relevant material by the end of January. A status conference was held Jan. 4, and the next is set for March 24.\n\nRobert Lynn Bauer\n\nUpdate:Robert Bauer was sentenced to 45 days in jail during an Oct. 13 hearing\n\nRobert Lynn Bauer, 43, of Cave City, was initially charged with entering restricted grounds and picketing on Capitol grounds.\n\nBut court records show two additional charges were added Jan. 22: entering grounds with the intent of impeding government business and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nBauer admitted he attended the Donald Trump rally during which five people were killed and hundreds more injured with his wife, Jenny, and his cousin from Virginia, Edward Hemenway, who also was charged.\n\nHe told the FBI his wife went back to the hotel room while he and Hemenway entered the Capitol. She was not charged.\n\nPhotos of Bauer and Hemenway inside various parts of the Capitol building were obtained by the FBI.\n\nBauer first appeared Jan. 15 before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl, based in Bowling Green, by video conference while in FBI custody, and then before Washington, D.C., U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather on Jan. 19.\n\nHe has pleaded guilty to his charges and has a sentencing hearing set for Oct. 13, with federal prosecutors recommending both Bauer and his cousin serve 30 days in jail and pay $500 in restitution, according to court documents.\n\nCourt records show Bauer was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond. He’s required to report weekly to pretrial services and is prohibited from attending any state or federal Capitol grounds; participating in public protests or rallies; going to Washington, except for court and meetings with an attorney; possessing a firearm or weapon; and breaking any other laws.\n\n'It's your house now':Kentucky man and cousin face charges in US Capitol riot\n\nHe’s also required to notify pretrial services if he plans to travel outside Kentucky and get court approval to leave the country. Court records show he has not obtained an attorney and is scheduled to appear before Meriweather on Tuesday.\n\nBauer’s criminal history includes drug convictions in Barren, Cumberland and Warren counties in Kentucky.\n\nIn 2007, he was convicted of manufacturing methamphetamines, first-degree possession of meth, unlawful possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a prescription controlled substance not in its original container in Barren County.\n\nThe same year, he was convicted of unlawful possession of meth, first-degree possession of a controlled substance and manufacturing meth in Cumberland County, according to court records.\n\nBauer was sentenced to a total of 10 years. He was paroled in November 2008 and completed his supervision in August 2013, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.\n\nIn 2005, he was found guilty of shoplifting in Barren County, and in 2004 spent 30 days in jail following a DUI in Warren County.\n\nTop stories:How Mexican drug cartels are using TikTok to entice young people into organized crime\n\nDamon Michael Beckley\n\nDamon Michael Beckley, a 52-year-old Cub Run resident, was charged with entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nHe appears in video taken inside the Capitol posted online by another protester.\n\nAbout 23 minutes into the video, Beckley, wearing a \"Trump\" beanie, a black cap and tan hood, can be seen standing with at least 100 angry protesters in Statuary Hall. They stood before five officers who were trying to block off the hallway leading to the chamber.\n\nLater that day, Beckley also gave a viral interview from the Capitol building during the riot, saying he wouldn't put up with \"tyrannical rule.\"\n\nThe week before the riots, the Louisville protester is seen on video speaking outside McConnell's Louisville home Jan. 2.\n\nHe was there with a group he founded, D.C. Under Siege, to protest McConnell accepting the 2020 presidential election results, despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud.\n\nRead more about the allegations against Beckley.\n\nIn a Jan. 27 email filed in the Western District of Kentucky, Beckley asked the court to change his plea from not guilty to no contest, meaning he does not admit nor deny responsibility but agrees to accept punishment.\n\nHe also notified the court he would be representing himself and asked that his travel restrictions associated with the conditions of his release be lifted.\n\nThe case has been transferred to the D.C. circuit, though an email response to Beckley from Western District U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl indicated his email and the response would be forwarded to the court clerk in Washington, since Kentucky no longer has jurisdiction.\n\nHis case remains pending in 2022.\n\nBeckley in his notice asked the court to \"spare the public additional time lost\" on his \"poor behavior choices\" and to consider probation in lieu of incarceration.\n\nIn the event restitution is ordered, he asked to be allowed to \"make good on that\" through community service, noting his 34 years of experience in construction specializing in residential and commercial remodeling and job management, according to his letter.\n\nHe also asked the court to lift his travel restrictions, which require him to stay in the Western District of Kentucky except for travel to Washington, D.C., for court matters.\n\nBeckley, who was initially held at Grayson County Detention Center, appeared at a virtual hearing Jan. 19, 2021, and in person for another hearing the following day. He was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond and is required to wear a GPS device as part of a location monitoring program.\n\nUnder the conditions of his release, he's required to report to pretrial services any interaction with law enforcement, and he's banned from protesting or going on any state or federal Capitol grounds.\n\nBeckley's use of the internet is restricted — he's not allowed to communicate or post about matters related to the protests or the U.S. government.\n\nBeckley said he is seeking business investment money from parties in other states — dealings that cannot be done over the internet. He also said he has construction materials and personal items in storage in Indiana and has pending civil lawsuits against individuals in other states.\n\nBeckley also said he would send an apology letter to former Vice President Mike Pence for wrongfully implicating him as \"being part of the cause of the rioting\" and for his own conduct on the Capital grounds.\n\nHis phone, laptop and his daughter's new tablet confiscated by the FBI as part of the investigation contain important business contacts and files, he wrote, and asked that they be returned. Beckley also asked that the FBI help find his phone, which was apparently stolen from him in D.C. by an \"attacker.\"\n\n\"This person (whomever it is) has the ability to post things online as if they were Mr. Beckley,\" he wrote, adding that the individual could make it appear as if he wasn't complying with court orders.\n\nHe also requested his First Amendment right be restored, because he and his family \"have received many threats online, some severe.\"\n\nHe went on to say his family is being painted online by media as white supremacists and part of hate groups, \"all of which couldn't be further from the truth, as he and his family are vehemently opposed to all forms of racism and other discriminations.\"\n\nUpon compliance with all the court orders, he asked that his Second Amendment right to have firearms be restored.\n\nJefferson Circuit Court records show Beckley was charged in 2016 with second-degree assault, robbery and wanton endangerment following an incident with someone who hired him to do work on her home.\n\nKentucky state business records show Beckley established two LLC businesses that were dissolved after failing to file annual reports. The first, urminds’eye LLC, was established in March 2007 and dissolved in 2010 after no annual report was filed that year. Records show filed annual reports in 2008 and 2009.\n\nA second business, Bucketjack Material Handling Systems, International LLC, was founded in 2010 and administratively dissolved when the first annual report wasn’t filed, records show.\n\nThe business address on Gleeson Avenue is the same listed on a Facebook page for the business DeckDude of Louisville.\n\nBeckley doesn’t hold any professional licenses in Kentucky, according to a search of the state’s department of professional licensing.\n\nAt the time Beckley was charged, police alleged Beckley didn’t complete the work, so the woman hired someone else to complete the job.\n\nBut Beckley then showed up at the home and demanded his tools back.\n\nWhen the woman refused and demanded a refund, police wrote, Beckley swung a board at the 74-year-old. The newly hired worker tried to intervene and was struck by Beckley with a dry-wall brace, allegedly causing a seizure.\n\nBeckley then left with the tools belonging to the worker.\n\nThe case was dismissed in October 2017 without prejudice, meaning the charges could be brought again, after an essential witness was unavailable to testify because of health issues, according to Kristi Gray, assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Jefferson County.\n\nBeckley then made a motion through his attorney to reject the dismissal and move forward to a jury trial, but that did not occur.\n\nThe case was dismissed with prejudice in 2018 when it became clear the witness’s circumstances hadn’t and wouldn’t change, Gray said.\n\nGracyn Dawn Courtright\n\nUpdate:Courtright was sentenced in December 2021. Read more here.\n\nEx-UK student who bragged about entering Capitol on Jan. 6 sentenced to jail\n\nA 23-year-old University of Kentucky student from West Virginia, Gracyn Dawn Courtright was charged with entering restricted grounds, entering grounds with intent to impede government business, demonstrating on Capitol grounds, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and theft of government property under $1,000.\n\nThe criminal complaint against Courtright says a photo published by The Washington Post appears to show her holding up her phone in a crowd that initially clashed with police in the halls of the Capitol.\n\nThe FBI determined the video she took and posted online were taken about the same time as the photo was taken, according to the affidavit.\n\nThe FBI also obtained videos and screenshots of her now-deleted Instagram and Twitter accounts showing photos of her at the Capitol, one captioned: \"can't wait to tell my grandkids I was here.\"\n\nThe affidavit also includes photos from security footage appearing to show Courtright inside the building carrying a \"Members Only\" sign up a set of stairs before a law enforcement officer took it from her.\n\nRead more about the allegations against Courtright.\n\nA federal public defender appointed on her behalf, Rhett Johnson, declined to comment.\n\nCourtright first appeared in the Southern District of West Virginia, where she was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. She's required to stay within her federal district and is only allowed to travel to Washington for court-related matters and to Lexington for classes, as approved by a probation officer.\n\nShe also had to surrender her passport.\n\nThe conditions of her release require her to get medical or psychiatric treatment, participate in substance abuse therapy and counseling, and submit to drug and alcohol tests, court records show.\n\nShe's also not allowed to use alcohol or narcotics, not allowed to have a gun and must report to her probation officer all interactions with law enforcement.\n\nThe UK student graduated high school in Hurricane, West Virginia, in 2015, public records show. She's now a mathematical economics major and made the dean's list in the spring and fall of 2020.\n\nNearly 2,900 people had signed a change.org petition earlier this year to have Courtright expelled for attending the riots.\n\nUK spokesman Jay Blanton said the university doesn't discuss individual disciplinary matters and Courtright remains enrolled as a student.\n\n\"But, in general, we can tell you that the student code of conduct applies both on and off campus,\" he said. \"If the university is made aware of a student taking actions in violation of local, state or federal laws, the student code of conduct applies in that context.\"\n\nFayette County court records show Courtright was charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault with no injury and one count of fourth-degree assault with a minor injury, but all three charges were dismissed in 2018.\n\nShe's also involved in a civil action related to a car accident.\n\nFor subscribers:Impeachment committee created for Beshear petition counters recent House tradition\n\nChad Barrett Jones\n\nChad Barrett Jones, 42, of Mount Washington, was charged with assault on a federal officer with a gun, impeding law enforcement, destruction of government property, disrupting official proceedings, entering restricted grounds, entering grounds with the intent of impeding government business, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and engaging in violent acts on Capitol grounds.\n\nHe's accused of being part of an aggressive crowd trying to breach a barricaded door to the Speaker's Lobby — a hallway that connects to the House chambers, according to the criminal complaint.\n\nAs members of the crowd shouted at the Capitol Police officers guarding the door, Jones \"forcefully struck\" the door's glass panels at least 10 times with a long, wooden flagpole, according to the affidavit.\n\nThe location is the same spot where rioter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by Capitol Police while attempting to crawl through a broken window.\n\nRead more about the accusations against Jones.\n\nJones was initially held in Oldham County Jail, but he was then released to the custody of his wife, Amanda Jones, who secured his $100,000 bond.\n\nHe's required to stay in the Western District of Kentucky, must surrender his passport and is banned from obtaining any other travel documents. He's also required to pay, if he's able, for location monitoring at the discretion of the probation officer.\n\nJones can't possess a gun and must report all interaction with law enforcement. He's prohibited from using social media applications and encrypted text messaging applications unless approved in advance by his probation officer.\n\nKentucky court records indicate Jones has no prior criminal history.\n\nHis case has a status conference set for March 10, 2022.\n\nMichael Sparks\n\nMichael Sparks, 43, of Elizabethtown, was charged with entering restricted grounds, entering grounds with the intent to impede government business, impeding law enforcement, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and demonstrating on Capital grounds.\n\nIn the days after the riots, tipsters reached out to the FBI to identify Sparks, who is seen on several videos from the event entering the building and roaming the halls while the presidential election was being certified by Congress.\n\nSparks was the first individual to enter the Capitol through the broken window around 2:13 p.m., according to the criminal complaint. While following a group through the Capitol, he's shown in various videos shouting and acting in a threatening manner toward a Capitol Police officer the group was confronting.\n\nFacebook posts sent to the FBI indicate Sparks confirmed he planned to go to Washington for the rally in support of Trump and warned \"a new dawn is coming. Be ready,\" the complaint said.\n\nFind out more about the allegations against Sparks.\n\nSparks was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. He's required to report to probation and must get permission before the officer before leaving the Western District of Kentucky, according to court records.\n\nRecords show he doesn't have any criminal convictions in Kentucky.\n\nHis case remains pending in 2022.\n\nJordan Revlett\n\nUPDATE:Kentucky man going to jail for Jan. 6 riot\n\nJordan Revlett, 23, of Island in McLean County, was arrested in January and appeared virtually in federal court before an Owensboro the same day.\n\nRevlett was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond. His travel is restricted to Kentucky's Western District and Washington for court matters, and he's not allowed on any state or federal capitol premises.\n\nHe's required to report to probation and isn't allowed to have a gun or participate in public rallies until his case is resolved, court records show.\n\nVideo surveillance shows Revlett entering the Capitol building at the Upper West Terrace door about 2:35 p.m. Jan. 6, according to the criminal complaint.\n\nThe FBI received tips about Revlett's involvement — screenshots of Revlett's Snapchat account indicating he was in and around the Capitol building during the time of the riots, according to the criminal complaint.\n\nThe tipster, whom the FBI interviewed, also provided a 42-second Snapchat video taken on Revlett's account that shows a chaotic, noisy scene of people climbing stairs toward a door on the Upper West Terrace.\n\nThe clip was recorded from the perspective of someone also entering the building. Once inside, shouting and chanting can be heard. A male voice near the steps yells loudly, \"We're in the (expletive) White House!\" while another male voice says, \"Holy (expletive).\"\n\nThe video switches to a first-person view of rioters and officers inside the Capitol with people chanting, \"Let us through!\" Then, it switches to a selfie of Revlett in a car with the caption: \"Just so you guys know a capitol police officer opened the door from inside to let us in,\" according to the complaint.\n\nAnother image from his Snapchat account that was added from Revlett's camera roll shows a line of 10 police officers guarding a hallway next to a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The caption said, \"Fyi there was no gunshots.\"\n\nAll the images from the Snapchat account display Revlett's name and the amount of time that passed between when the videos and images were posted and when the user viewed Revlett's posts.\n\nBryce Caldwell, an Owensboro attorney representing Revlett, declined to comment about the merits of the allegations, but said they were still in the early stages of the case and had many motions to file.\n\nCaldwell said his intention is to represent his client throughout the whole case, which will be tried virtually before a federal judge in Washington.\n\nA plea agreement hearing is set for Jan. 14, 2022, with no additional details provided in online court records.\n\nDalton Crase and Troy Williams\n\nUPDATE:Judge sentences Kentucky men who entered the Capitol during Jan. 6 riot\n\nDalton Ray Crase, 21, and Troy Dylan Williams, 25, both of Lexington, were charged with entering a restricted building or grounds, entering restricted grounds with the intent to impede government business, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, picketing on Capitol grounds and aiding or abetting a crime against the U.S. government.\n\nThey're the first Kentuckians who were at the Capitol charged with aiding or abetting.\n\nCrase and Williams have a sentencing hearing scheduled for Jan. 13, 2022.\n\nA sentencing memo that could shed more light on the punishment that prosecutors and defense attorneys will request was due Jan. 6, 2022, according to online court records.\n\nWilliams was released but required to report to probation, actively seek employment and surrender his passport. He's also banned from obtaining international travel documents and leaving the Eastern District of Kentucky except for work purposes and travel to court hearings.\n\nHe's also required to avoid all direct and indirect contact with victims or witnesses except through counsel. Williams is not allowed to have a firearm, not allowed to partake in protests or rallies and must report all interactions with law enforcement.\n\nAccording to the criminal complaint against Crase and Williams, the two traveled by car to Washington with a third person, a witness not named in the complaint, and arrived at their hotel in Arlington, Virginia just after midnight on Jan. 6.\n\nFrom a third party, the FBI received screen grabs of the witness' Facebook page with messages indicating he entered the U.S. Capitol building.\n\nIn an interview with the FBI, the witness admitted riding with his two friends, but said his Facebook page misrepresented his presence at the Capitol. He provided records that indicated he was temporarily hospitalized for an illness he developed on the car ride there and didn't participate in any of the events at the Capitol that day, the complaint said.\n\nIn an interview with the FBI, Crase admitted he arrived at the Washington Monument area around 11:30 a.m. and listened to the end of former U.S. President Donald Trump's speech. He met up with Williams after and walked with a large crowd toward the Capitol.\n\nCrase said he saw barricades that had been knocked over and didn't see any police stopping folks from getting closer to the building. They both went into the building after the riots started, but Crase said he didn't take part in any violence.\n\nCrase also said it was \"dumb\" for them to go in, and that it didn't register he might be breaking the law by being in the building. He said if he were ever to go in again, he would get a \"pass.\"\n\nIn an interview with the FBI, Williams said he and Crase went inside the building after it was breached, but had no intention of going in until everyone was already inside, describing it as \"herd mentality,\" according to the complaint. He said they both went in twice — once around 2:39 p.m. and once around 3:08, verifying it with timestamps on videos he'd taken while inside.\n\nWilliams told agents he told Crase that they would leave if people start \"fighting the cops and getting crazy,\" according to the complaint. He also voluntarily provided photos and videos to the FBI.\n\nWhen asked, Williams said he, \"to a degree,\" felt he wasn't doing anything wrong by being inside. He said he didn't do anything wrong or inciteful inside, but did recall a conversation with two elderly men outside the Capitol who said they weren't going in because it would be a felony.\n\nHe told agents when he heard this, he thought they might be right.\n\nThe Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Crase's brother, Deekon Duvall, said his brother's arrest came as a complete surprise.\n\n“It was a huge shock,” Duvall said. “He’s never done anything to harm somebody. He’s a pretty nice, humble dude.”\n\n“At first, he was a very far distance away. He wasn’t interacting, and then he went up into the steps, and then that’s where [he took] that picture that they have posted everywhere of him with the peace sign, smiling, with the officers behind,” Duvall said.\n\nAccording to Duvall, Crase grew up in Walton, Ohio. Officials confirmed that Crase attended Walton-Verona High School and graduated from there in 2018.\n\nDuvall says his brother does not have a criminal history and has never been violent. He thinks Crase was at the Capitol to express himself and got caught up in the moment.\n\n“Right after, he texted me, and he was like, ‘Dude I don’t know what I just did. This is not good. Don’t like, keep it on the low. I feel like I’m going to get in big, big trouble for this,’” Duvall said.\n\nDuvall thinks the charges against his brother should be reduced or even dropped, but prosecutors believe the evidence says otherwise.\n\n“It was just somebody who was supporting their views and made a mistake,” Duvall said. “He has no, nothing on his record. He’s perfectly clean, so they have no reason to severely punish him.”\n\nPeter Schwartz\n\nPeter Schwartz was arrested in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 4, 2021, and charged with entering restricting grounds, entering grounds with the intent to impede government business, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, assault on a federal officer and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder.\n\nThe affidavit does not specify Schwartz's hometown or age, but Kentucky court records indicate Schwartz is 47 years old and has an Owensboro address.\n\nSchwartz's case has a Jan. 18, 2022, status conference, per court records.\n\nAn affidavit says the FBI National Threat Operations Center received a tip Jan. 11 from an individual \"who is personally acquainted with Schwartz.\"\n\nThe individual said Schwartz was involved in the riot in Washington, D.C., along with supporters of now-former President Donald Trump, and that he was supposed to be at a rehabilitation facility in Owensboro on Jan. 6.\n\nFBI:Kentucky man arrested in connection with Capitol riot tried to mace officers\n\nThe person said Schwartz is a traveling welder and convicted felon who was released from prison due to COVID-19, per the affidavit from a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent.\n\nIt was not immediately clear why he was in Uniontown, a city about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Court records show Schwartz will be represented by federal public defender Jay Jon Finkelstein.\n\nFBI agents identified Schwartz in an \"Action 8 News\" video of the riot that was posted Jan. 7 on YouTube and showed the Kentucky man on the west terrace of the Capitol building wearing a \"distinctive yellow-and-blue checked shirt or jacket,\" according to the affidavit.\n\nRoughly 49 minutes into the nearly 90-minute video, an arm clad in the \"same distinctive yellow-and-blue check material\" is seen spraying an orange substance from a black canister \"directly\" at a group of Capitol and Metropolitan police officers, the affidavit says.\n\nThe orange substance, believed to be mace, \"lands near the face of an unidentified officer, causing him to turn his face away and step backwards\" while appearing to \"try to avoid inhaling the orange substance,\" federal agents said.\n\nSchwartz is later seen in the video \"carrying a wooden baton in the midst of the large crowd of rioters near the tunnel arch,\" according to the affidavit.\n\nAnother video shows a person believed to be Schwartz using a \"large red canister to spray law enforcement with what appeared to be mace,\" the FBI said.\n\nThe Jan. 11 tip from the acquaintance of Schwartz directed FBI agents to a Facebook profile believed to belong to Schwartz.\n\nFBI agents found a Jan. 7 post on the Facebook profile believed to belong to Schwartz that said, “All the violence from the left was terrorism. What happened yesterday was the opening of a war. I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war. It would be wise to be ready!”\n\nSchwartz also wrote in the comments section on his Jan. 7 post: \"I’ll tell you this … I’m shocked reading the reports of what happened yesterday. Very different than what I saw up close and personal. (We’re still spitting up gas and mace today.).”\n\nOn Jan. 18, the FBI included a picture of Schwartz on a \"BOLO\" poster of Capitol riot suspects that it distributed throughout the United States, per the affidavit.\n\nAgents also interviewed an Owensboro police lieutenant who confirmed the person pictured in the FBI poster was Schwartz.\n\nA few days later, the acquaintance who tipped off the FBI said Schwartz \"still owes him money,\" per the affidavit.\n\nAnd the individual said he knows Schwartz was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because Schwartz told him “we were there” and posted on Facebook about driving to Washington, D.C., for the protest with “more people than voted for Biden.”\n\nOne Capitol Police officer interviewed by the FBI reported being maced multiple times on Jan. 6, including once without a gas mask. Another officer, with Metro Police, also reported being maced \"multiple times\" while standing guard and attempting to keep protesters out who were shoving ladders, flag poles and other items through windows.\n\nIf convicted on the federal charges, Schwartz could face more than 20 years in prison.\n\nA status conference in his case is scheduled for Nov. 5, according to online court records.\n\nSchwartz was sentenced in April 2020 to two years of supervised probation after he had been charged in Daviess County with third-degree terroristic threatening and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, according to court records.\n\nThose charges stemmed from a 2019 incident in Owensboro in which a woman told police her boyfriend, Schwartz, had made \"verbal threats to kill her and kill her son\" while he has intoxicated, according to an arrest citation.\n\nA warrant was put out for Schwartz's arrest in late January for a \"probation violation,\" the state court records show. As part of his probation, Schwartz was ordered to attend treatment and not commit any further violations of the law, according to court records, which indicate any violations could result in Schwartz serving five years in prison.\n\nLori and Thomas Vinson\n\nUpdate:Kentucky nurse and her husband avoid jail time for entering Capitol during Jan. 6 riot\n\nThe FBI announced Feb. 23 that Lori Ann Vinson and her husband, Thomas Roy Vinson, of Morganfield, were each charged federally with entering restricted grounds, entering grounds with the intent to impede government business, demonstrating on Capitol grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nThey appeared from FBI headquarters via Zoom before a federal judge in Owensboro. The case will later be transferred to Washington, D.C., for prosecution.\n\nThe Vinsons were each released on a $25,000 unsecured bond and are required to report to probation and notify pre-trial services when they leave the Western District of Kentucky, Indiana or Illinois for the purpose of visiting their mother-in-law.\n\nNo travel outside the continental U.S. is allowed, and neither are allowed to visit Washington D.C. unless they're there with an attorney for court matters.\n\nNeither can possess any illegal firearms.\n\nA sentencing hearing was scheduled for Oct. 22, according to online court records. (Read about what happened here.)\n\nAccording to the criminal complaint against the Vinsons, several individuals sent Lori Vinson's Facebook posts showing her at the riots to the FBI's tipline in the days after the protests that left five dead and many more injured.\n\nOne witness said Lori Vinson claimed to be one of the first 100 people in the Capitol that day, and provided multiple screengrabs of threads where she's discussing what it was like being inside, the complaint said.\n\nAnother witness sent the FBI two photos and videos of her and her husband inside the building, as well as solo \"selfies\" showing her inside, according to the complaint. She claimed police let her into the building, but the witness noted that the videos show signs of forced entry, like broken glass.\n\nLori Vinson told the witness she and her husband walked around the Capitol for about 35 or 40 minutes but didn't steal or damage anything. The witness also saw her talking on the local news about being in the Capitol and then being fired from her nursing job for it, the complaint said.\n\nLori Vinson told news media that she returned to work on Jan. 8 and after her shift, was called into the back office and fired for criminal behavior at the protests.\n\n\"I felt like what I had done was justified, and so I just said I would do this all over again tomorrow, I'm sorry that you don't see my worth,\" she told a Nashville TV station, according to the complaint.\n\nOn a recorded call with the FBI, Lori said she and her husband were at a rally near the White House lawn and talked straight to the U.S. Capitol, up the steps and straight through the door, following a stream of people inside.\n\nVinson denied waiting outside for someone to break down doors or windows to get in. She said they didn't meet any resistance going in and police didn't ask them to leave, the court documents said. They also witnessed people hitting a door with Sen. Mitch McConnell's name on it with a crowd control stanchion three times, after which they decided to leave.\n\nThomas Vinson told law enforcement they were peacefully expressing their views to Congress, mostly chanting and talking — not damaging or stealing anything.\n\nThe couple also entered on the Rotunda level and stayed on the floor, court records show. Lori Vinson told the FBI she didn't know Congress was \"in session\" because she said they wouldn't have been allowed entry if it were.\n\nShe also said she didn't hear the building's alarms going off during the initial entry because of the chanting and commotion, but recently noticed upon reviewing the video.\n\nCourt records show the couple was also observed going through the 1st floor Senate Wind door, and 13 minutes later in the OAP Corridor on the 1st floor. They were also on video in the 2nd floor Rotunda.\n\nVinson was fired from her job as a nurse at Ascension St. Vincent in Evansville, Indiana, after they were made aware of social media posts showing her inside the Capitol during the protests. She's since made her accounts private.\n\n\"They said I admittedly participated in criminal behavior at a high-profile event,\" Vinson told The Courier Press in Evansville, part of the USA Today network. \"It’s hurtful that they didn’t listen to my side of it. Some of those people know me and know that in a million years, I would never be involved with rioting or anything like that.\"\n\nVinson told The Press she didn't anticipate charges, though the FBI had interviewed her, because the call was quick and they told her she wouldn't hear from them again.\n\nShe said she was there to protest what she believed in and doesn't have any regrets. She said she'll always remember Jan. 6 and is proud she was there.\n\nClayton Ray Mullins\n\nOn social media, he was known as #slickback.\n\nNow, the FBI has identified the Kentucky man seen in \"numerous\" photos and videos assaulting a police officer — while sporting slicked-back hair — during the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6.\n\nClayton Ray Mullins, of Benton, was charged federally with assaulting police, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, entering restricted grounds, disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, physical violence on restricted grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nHe initially appeared in federal court in Paducah before his case was transferred to Washington, D.C.\n\nHis remains pending in 2022.\n\nVideos of the assault on one particular Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police officer, identified as \"A.W.\" in the criminal complaint against Mullins, were posted on Twitter the day of the riots with the hashtag #seditionhunters trending with it.\n\nThe officer sustained bruises and bleeding from a head laceration that required two staples.\n\nAccording to a police interview with A.W. about a week after the riots, the officer was posted in an archway that provided access to the Capitol building's lower west terrace between 4 and 5 p.m. He was pulled into the crowd, kicked, struck with poles and stomped on by several people, according to his interview.\n\nA.W. said he was maced when someone grabbed his face mask, but he later recovered it. His helmet and baton were also taken off him.\n\nDuring the assault, one individual prevented rioters from continuing to assault him long enough for him to get on his feet and get out of the area. He was later taken to the hospital.\n\nOne video posted on YouTube shows Mullins leaning over a handrail making multiple attempts to pull the officer's leg. Mullins finally grips A.W.'s foot and violently drags him down the stairs at the Capitol building to the lower west terrace tunnel entrance, according to the complaint.\n\nBody-worn camera footage from multiple officers shows Mullins in a tug-of-war with another officer, identified as \"B.M.\" in the complaint, over A.W. while he's on the ground. The assault occurred near the body of Rosanne Boyland, one of the riot fatalities, according to a redacted photograph.\n\nThe FBI was lead to Mullins' driver's license, which connected him to his 30-year bank account\n\nMullins, who wore a dark jacket, black gloves and light blue jeans that day, was eventually identified by police through his driver's license and a 30-year-old bank account, the employees at which were able to confirm his identity.\n\nKurt Peterson\n\nKurt Peterson, of Hodgenville, was arrested in June and charged with obstructing an official proceeding, destruction of government property, entering or remaining in restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct and other offenses.\n\nAn unsealed criminal complaint says the FBI received information Jan. 13 via its national tipline that Peterson had sent a message via Facebook Messenger :stating words to the effect that he had been in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, during the rioting and unlawful entry, and that he was close enough to where the woman was shot and killed\" and \"that he had offered life-saving assistance but that offer was denied.\"\n\nThe FBI also received information that Peterson had \"previously posted on his Facebook page that Democratic lawmakers who opposed Trump were traitors and that the penalty for treason was death,\" the complaint says.\n\nA search warrant executed on the Facebook account that the FBI determined was Peterson's revealed a Jan. 10 post in which he described being in the area where Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot.\n\n\"To my family and friends who are able to see this, I am writing it with a voice recognition program while driving,\" Peterson wrote in the post, according to the complaint. \"I feel the need to keep moving and trying to keep my phone wrapped such that it can’t be traced most of the time. I was at our nation’s capital for the rally and watched the presentations at the ellipse prior to walking to the Capitol building with at least a million and a 1-1/2 to 2 million people.\"\n\n\"The people that were there at the ellipse were peaceable and loving and supporting our country,\" the post said. \"The people that were at the capital were also primarily peaceful and loving our country. But when there are huge crowds and there are people that are inciting violence the crowds will many times be pulled in to this action.\"\n\nLegal issue:Kentucky man jailed on 'insane' bond after telling a judge to settle things 'man to man'\n\n\"I was with 3 men who had served our country in special forces,\" the post continued. \"All of us in our sixties. They were patriots and not an anarchists. When at the back door that we were at open and there were no police to restrain the crowd many people entered at that time. I stood at the door and told everyone that we were not there to hurt anybody or damage anything but as a show of solidarity to right the wrongs of the past election.\"\n\nPeterson's post then described Babbitt getting shot and how he \"asked numerous times to be allowed to render 1st aid to this woman while she was bleeding on the floor\" but was not allowed to do so, according to the federal complaint.\n\n\"Sadly I do not trust many branches or people in our government particularly the federal bureau of investigation,\" the post concluded. \"So at this time I am moving continuously and wrapping my phone in such a way that I hope it cannot be tracked. If for any reason I am not available to see you or meet with you again know that my intentions are to keep our country free of oppression by an over zealous government. God-bless you all and God-bless the United States of America!\"\n\nAn FBI agent also noted in the criminal complaint that they compared the listed address and other identifying info on Peterson's Kentucky driver's license to a YouTube video that captured Babbitt getting shot in the Capitol.\n\n\"During this scene, an individual wearing a camouflage hat turned backwards with eye protection on top, and a camouflage vest over a black sweatshirt strongly resembles PETERSON,\" the agent wrote in the criminal complaint.\n\nThe FBI also interviewed a person who lives near Hodgenville, \"is familiar with\" Peterson and identified him as one of the suspects seen in the YouTube video, with the person additionally stating Peterson appeared to be out of town on Jan. 6 and returned home around Jan. 10, the complaint says.\n\nCell site records revealed a phone believed to belong to Peterson was being used in a geographic area that includes the Capitol building on Jan. 6, the complaint added, and another YouTube video captured a person believed to be Peterson using \"wooden sticks and his fist to smash an exterior window pane of the Capitol building.\"\n\n\"The Architect of Capitol has determined that the cost to replace the damaged window is in excess of $2,700, including the materials, labor, and installation,\" the complaint says.\n\nPeterson's case has a status conference scheduled for Feb. 2, 2022, per court records.\n\nMichael Orangias\n\nUpdate:Federal judge sentences Michael Orangias to 3 years of probation\n\nMichael Orangias, of Louisville, was charged in March with entering restricted grounds, entering with the intent to impede government business, demonstrating on Capitol grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nAbout a week after the attack on the Capitol, the Louisville Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives got an anonymous tip that two employees of KCC International, an HVAC company in Louisville, took a vacation day Jan. 6 to attend the rally, according to the criminal complaint against Orangias.\n\nAuthorities learned Orangias was a guest on a podcast to talk about his attendance at the protest.\n\nIn a January episode of the \"Wildly Uninteresting Podcast,\" Orangias said the point of the rally is \"To keep American good … keeping the freedom of speech there. … If we let the left continue what they're doing, they're going to keep taking more and more …\"\n\nDuring a phone interview with the FBI, Orangias acknowledged being at the Capitol on Jan. 6 for the Trump rally. He said he left by car with a friend from Louisville the night of Jan. 5 and arrived at 9:30 a.m.\n\nHe and his friend followed a large group onto what he described as the \"patio\" to the Capitol building.\n\nAt first, Orangias denied going inside. But during a second interview — an in-person chat with an FBI agent — he admitted to going into the building for about 5 to 7 minutes before going back outside, authorities said.\n\nVideos and images from his phone he agreed to give the FBI helped identify him in U.S. Capitol police video footage, which showed that he went into the building at about 2:50 p.m. with a large crowd, panned the area with his phone and left the building at 2:55 p.m.\n\nAs part of a plea deal, Orangias could face up to six months in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine, according to court documents.\n\nHis sentencing is scheduled for March 7, 2022, online court records show.\n\nEric Douglas Clark\n\nEric Clark, of Louisville, was arrested in May and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.\n\nUsing video news footage of the Jan. 6 riot, law enforcement learned Clark, who was 44 at the time of his arrest, travelled from Louisville to participate in the protests, gaining entry into the U.S. Capitol, according to federal charging documents. An anonymous tip included screenshots from Clark’s Facebook page and phone text messages detailing how “ridiculously easy” it was for him to get inside.\n\nClark has a status conference currently scheduled for March 8, 2022.\n\nStephen Chase Randolph\n\nStephen Chase Randolph, of Harrodsburg, was charged in April with assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and obstruction of Congress.\n\nRandolph, who 31 at the time of his arrest, was seen on video wearing a grey Carhartt toboggan and a black jacket, violently pushing and pulling the barricades outside of the Capitol until they were pushed down on top of several law enforcement officers, the FBI said in a criminal complaint.\n\nIn the process, one officer hit her head on the stairs resulting in a loss of consciousness. The subject, later identified as Randolph, then continued to assault two other USCP officers by physically pushing, shoving, grabbing and generally resisting the officers, according to court documents.\n\nThe FBI identified Randolph by using facial recognition software and matching photos from the Capitol with photos on his girlfriend's Instagram page. That account had photos of a man wearing the same toboggan hat who was called Stephen in the captions.\n\nAdditional photos on her Facebook account led officers to a profile for Stephen Chase Randolph. Officers observed Randolph going to work on March 3, wearing what appeared to the same hat and jacket he'd worn on Jan. 6.\n\nHe later told an undercover officer that \"it was f---ing fun\" to be in the crowd at the Capitol, according to court documents. He admitted to seeing the female police officer fall and hit her head.\n\nRandolph had a Dec. 14, 2021, status conference, but future hearings have yet to be scheduled, according to online court records.\n\nNicholas James Brockhoff\n\nNicholas James Brockhoff was charged in May with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; use of a deadly or dangerous weapon; and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder.\n\nBrockhoff, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, allegedly assaulted police attempting to control the crowd at the lower west terrace by spraying officers with a fire extinguisher, which caused them to disperse and impeded their efforts to control the crowd.\n\nRelated:How a Covington student and 'one of the best people' became accused Jan. 6 rioter 'green horn hoodlum'\n\nBrockhoff was seen on video entering the Capitol through a broken window after climbing scaffolding and forcing his way into a conference room, according to the charging documents.\n\nBody worn camera footage also recorded an exchange with him holding an MPD helmet and giving his name to officers. Although he told the FBI he just found the helmet, the FBI stated he was seen wearing the helmet in social media video.\n\nBrockhoff's case has a status conference set for Jan. 25, 2022, per court records.\n\nLucas Aulbach, Emma Austin, Darcy Costello and Billy Kobin contributed to this report. Kala Kachmar is an investigative reporter. Reach her at 502-582-4469; kkachmar@courierjournal.com or @NewsQuip on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/06/18/judge-justin-walker-mcconnell-protege-confirmed-court-appeals/3215707001/", "title": "Judge Justin Walker, McConnell protege, confirmed to Court of ...", "text": "Louisville native Judge Justin Walker was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate for a seat on what is considered the nation’s second-most powerful court.\n\nThe Senate voted 51-42 for the nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.\n\nThe vote continues Walker’s meteoric ascendancy in the federal court system. The former law professor at the University of Louisville is only 38 and was appointed to the federal district bench just last October.\n\nBut Walker, a graduate of St. Xavier High School and later Duke and Harvard Law School, had a power ally in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a family friend and mentor.\n\nThe confirmation puts Walker in line for a future nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, if he wins reelection, or a future Republican president. The appellate court in the nation’s capital has long been a springboard for future justices.\n\nThe confirmation vote went along party lines. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican to vote against Walker. Forty Democrats and one Independent voted against, while seven senators were absent.\n\nLegal paper:Some U of L law professors have turned on Justin Walker\n\nWalker will be the youngest judge on the court, according to Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who follows judicial nominations.\n\nIn a tweet, McConnell said, “We Kentuckians are sorry to lose Judge Justin Walker, but we’re very proud this brilliant and fair jurist will be serving our nation on the D.C. Circuit.”\n\nThe National Law Journal reported this month that five U of L law professors who supported Walker for U.S. District Court said he needed more seasoning before he was elevated to the higher court.\n\nOne of them, Sam Marcosson, also said Walker's order allowing to a church to hold drive-in services on Easter Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic was “troubling” because it reached unnecessary legal conclusions and had a “tenor and a tone that I thought was over the top.” Walker wrote that Mayor Greg Fischer was trying to “criminalize Easter.”\n\nWalker has no trial experience but had the conservative pedigree that McConnell has embraced in trying to remake the federal courts, which he has cited as his legacy.\n\nWalker was a star in the Federalist Society and clerked for both Justice Anthony Kennedy and Judge Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the D.C. Circuit. Walker then campaigned for Kavanaugh’s nomination to the highest court when he came under fire over reports that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when the two were in high school.\n\nWalker gave 119 interviews to the news media and made several speeches paid for by the Federalist Society rebutting Kavanaugh critics, The New York Times has reported, and Kavanaugh attended Walker’s swearing-in ceremony last fall.\n\nRead this:5 things to know about Walker and his backing by McConnell\n\nDemocratic opponents on the Senate Judiciary Committee portrayed Walker as a conservative ideologue and noted he said at the ceremony that “in Brett Kavanaugh’s America, we will not surrender while you wage war on our work, or our cause, or our hope, or our dream.”\n\nWalker also said: “Although we are winning we have not won. Although we celebrate today, we cannot take for granted tomorrow — or we will lose our courts and our country to critics who call us terrifying and who describe us as deplorable.”\n\nDemocrats also said Walker had denounced the Affordable Care Act, but Walker testified he did so in his private capacity and would abide by the Supreme Court decision upholding it.\n\nHis confirmation came despite last-minute misgivings expressed by some of his former colleagues at U of L's Brandeis School of Law, who questioned his experience and judgment.\n\nWalker was raised in Louisville by his mother, Deborah Walker, whom The Times said he once described as “a single working mom” who “made indescribable sacrifices to provide me, the first in my family to graduate from college, with the opportunities she didn’t have herself.”\n\nBut his maternal grandfather, Frank R. Metts, was a millionaire real estate developer and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet secretary under Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. Walker’s parents divorced in 1985, when he was 3.\n\nTop headlines:Daniel Cameron won't put timetable on Breonna Taylor investigation\n\nWalker grew up in a Democratic family but was a conservative from a young age. At 13, he wrote a letter to The Courier Journal praising the Christian Coalition and saying he had recently attended its convention.\n\nHe met McConnell when he was in high school, introduced by the husband of his grandmother after she she remarried.\n\nIn 2002, Walker interned in McConnell’s office, and after graduating from Duke two years later, he worked on the reelection campaign of President George W. Bush, and then served as a speechwriter for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.\n\nWalker worked at a large D.C. law firm before and after his clerkships, then moved in 2015 to Louisville, where he practiced law on his own before joining the Louisville office of Dinsmore & Shohl last year.\n\nAt U of L, he co-directed the Ordered Liberty Program at Brandeis Law School — a fellowship devoted to the study of “federalism, separation of powers, originalism, natural rights, and the common good.”\n\nWalker is married, and he and his wife, Anne, whom he met at Duke, have one daughter. They have run a nonprofit in Louisville called Global Game Changers for children from grades K-5 that tries to “transform student outcomes and empower them to overcome apathy and feel empathy,” according to its website.\n\nWalker was well-liked at Brandeis Law School. Last July, 16 faculty and staff of various political persuasions signed a letter submitted to the Judiciary Committee endorsing his nomination for U.S. District Court.\n\nSome professors independently supported his elevation to the appellate court, but there was no letter sent by the faculty.\n\nMore news:DACA recipients relieved SCOTUS denies Trump bid to end protections\n\nAndrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/andreww.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/21/mitch-mcconnell-wants-end-beefed-up-unemployment-benefits/5237309002/", "title": "Mitch McConnell wants to end beefed-up unemployment benefits", "text": "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is being accused by Democrats at home and across the country of turning his back on Kentucky at a critical time after he reportedly vowed to put a stop to enhanced unemployment benefits.\n\nMcConnell made clear during a conference call with House GOP members on Wednesday how the $600 weekly boost — which was provided to help those who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus — \"will not be in the next bill\" out of Washington.\n\nA source familiar with the conversation on Thursday told The Courier Journal that McConnell said the Senate was, \"going to have to clean up the Democrats' crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work.\"\n\nThis statement comes as 47,000 Kentuckians filed initial unemployment claims as of May 16, and more than 246,000 Kentuckians are asking for continued assistance as parts of the state economy begin to reopen.\n\nOregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the finance committee, told The Courier-Journal in an interview Thursday the numbers he's seen show COVID-19 has hit Kentucky with a \"wrecking ball\" economically.\n\n\"Mitch McConnell's comments indicate he either doesn't care or doesn't understand that unemployment insurance doesn't just protect families who've had misfortune, it's a lifeline for communities,\" he said.\n\nWyden said those benefits are more than just wage replacement but also inject demand into the market as a way to stabilize the economy. He is pushing for a bill that would link unemployment benefits to economic conditions and continue the extra $600 until a state's unemployment rate falls below 11%.\n\nRead more:Coronavirus pandemic pushes Mitch McConnell and other Senate candidates to change tactics\n\nKentucky has seen nearly 800,000 people apply for unemployment benefits since mid-March, when the coronavirus first put a choke hold on the U.S. economy. Since then, the state's jobless rate has surged to a little more than 15% in April.\n\nThe Kentucky Democratic Party also pounced on McConnell's hardening position in the context of those statistics, saying it comes as the GOP leader is holding up additional financial aid for states and local governments withstanding massive budget deficits because of the contagion.\n\n“This is what happens when you surround yourself with expensive D.C. consultants who don’t care about Kentucky,\" Democratic Party spokeswoman Marisa McNee said.\n\n\"First, Mitch wanted to let states go bankrupt, leading to layoffs for first responders and public health officials,\" she added. \"Now, he wants to cut unemployment benefits for Kentuckians who are out of work through no fault of their own. Kentucky deserves better.”\n\nRelated:More than 40,000 people filed for unemployment last week in Kentucky\n\nMcConnell said during a Thursday interview with Fox News that continuing unemployment insurance is important amid the coronavirus crisis but emphasized the extra $600 benefits will end in July.\n\n\"We think that in order to create jobs, we need to incentivize people to go back to work, not encourage them to stay home,\" he said.\n\nUnemployment insurance typically covers up to 45% of lost wages, but Congress took an extraordinary and bipartisan step with the CARES Act to provide 100% of lost wages for many Americans.\n\nThe thinking at the time was this was needed in order to keep people safe from the coronavirus while also stabilizing the economy, but McConnell's comments indicate how conservatives are beginning to thaw on the idea.\n\nMcConnell's office pointed to an ABC News story on Thursday about how some employers are having a hard time competing with the boosted benefits.\n\nIn it, ABC draws attention to a study showing roughly 40% of workers made less in their jobs than they would on the new unemployment, according to national data gathered by Noah Williams at the Center for Research On the Wisconsin Economy.\n\nMcConnell has reportedly told President Donald Trump any new legislation must create incentives for people to get back to work. He said previously he wants see how the previous COVID-19 relief bills, which total about $3 trillion, play out before the Senate moves on any new proposals.\n\nGov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said earlier this week how his administration believes it has enough money in its Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to last through the spring and at least part of the summer.\n\nKentucky took out a $972 million loan to cover unemployment benefits when it zeroed out its trust fund during the Great Recession of 2008-09. The state finished repaying the federal government in 2015.\n\nBut with nearly two in five Kentucky workers out of a job, the governor said he expects the state will have to take out a loan unless the federal government provides more direct assistance.\n\nAsked Thursday if he's worried that unemployment benefits outpacing private sector wages will dampen the reopening, Beshear said he thinks plenty of people are ready to get back to work.\n\n\"I'm not for cutting the benefits they are getting at this time,\" he said.\n\nMcConnell has conceded, according to other reports about Wednesday's conference call, how further aid may be necessary in the coming weeks but that it must be more short-term relief.\n\nHouse Democrats passed the HEROES Act last week with a $3 trillion price tag, but McConnell reportedly told the GOP House members the bill will have to go through serious changes in the Republican-controlled Senate before being considered.\n\nReach Phillip M. Bailey at pbailey@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4475. Follow him on Twitter at @phillipmbailey.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/10/01/louisville-mayor-signs-ordinance-banning-conversion-therapy-city/5883569002/", "title": "Louisville mayor signs ordinance banning 'conversion therapy' in city", "text": "The discredited practice of using \"conversion therapy\" on minors is now banned in Louisville.\n\nMayor Greg Fischer, with LGBTQ-rights advocates standing behind him, on Thursday signed an ordinance banning the practice against minors in the city.\n\n\"Our LGBTQ kids, they don't need to be converted or repaired,\" Fischer said. \"They need to be loved, supported, and accepted for who they are.\"\n\n\"Conversion therapy\" tries to change one's sexual orientation or gender identity and has been condemned by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association.\n\nThe Louisville Metro Council passed the ordinance in mid-September. The ordinance passed committee unanimously the week prior and passed Metro Council 24 to 1. The lone \"no\" vote was Councilman Stuart Benson, who said he didn't think the matter was in the council's lane.\n\nCouncilman Bill Hollander, who introduced the ordinance, said, \"I am confident that we will look back and be amazed that we were actually still talking about conversion therapy in 2020. I'm glad to say that Louisville helped end it by the signing of this ordinance today.\"\n\nMore:Louisville Metro Council votes to ban 'conversion therapy' in the city\n\nChris Hartman with the Fairness Campaign used the opportunity to speak up about the Breonna Taylor movement.\n\n\"There is no bigger LGBTQ-rights issue in America right now than the cry for justice for Breonna Taylor, and an end to police violence against Black and brown Americans,\" Hartman said.\n\nHe also condemned the charges brought against state Rep. Attica Scott and her daughter, Ashanti, after their arrest last week while attempting to reach a church right before curfew. They were arrested alongside protest leader Shameka Parish Wright, who all face felony riot charges.\n\n\"Few have done as much for our community, for LGBTQ rights locally and in Kentucky than state Rep. Scott,\" he said. \"I'd like to take this moment, not just to call for justice for Breonna Taylor but to call on another long time, Fairness Campaign ally, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell, to immediately drop these felony charges against Attica, Ashanti and Shameka. And that I think will further advance justice for all of us.\"\n\nAlso:Legislator seeks to change Kentucky's rioting law after Rep. Attica Scott's arrest\n\nLouisville is the second Kentucky city to have banned \"conversion therapy.\" Covington passed a similar ordinance earlier in the year.\n\nJacob Conway with Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky said the passage of this ordinance in Louisville, \"as the gateway to the South,\" will hopefully \"give us the momentum we need to move forward in passing a statewide law that will ban this harmful, discredited, torturous practice.\"\n\nReach breaking news reporter Sarah Ladd at sladd@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ladd_sarah. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/10/01"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_19", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/19/health/ukraine-vaccines-tuberculosis-screening/index.html", "title": "Ukrainians seeking shelter in US must have TB screenings and ...", "text": "(CNN) The United States is preparing to welcome more displaced Ukrainians now that the Biden administration has approved the first group to enter through the new Uniting for Ukraine program . Ukrainians began arriving through the program this month.\n\nIn early May, \"the first notices authorizing Ukrainian nationals to travel to the United States to seek parole through the Uniting for Ukraine process were sent out,\" Liza Acevedo, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.\n\nAs of Thursday, \"more than 15,000 individuals are able to book their own travel\" to come to the United States, Acevedo said.\n\nTo enter the United States, those travelers have to meet certain requirements -- including vaccinations and infectious disease screenings.\n\nUniting for Ukraine is a streamlined process that allows Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members to come to the United States on humanitarian grounds and stay for a two-year parole , meaning they can stay on a case-by-case for no more than two years. They must have a sponsor in the US who agrees to provide them with financial support, according to the Department of Homeland Security.\n\nentering the United States. In April, President Biden announced a commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians to the United States. Displaced Ukrainians are trickling in, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received more than 23,500 requests from supporters in the US who want to help Ukrainiansentering the United States.\n\nSponsors need to pass security background checks of their own. There's no limit on the number of individuals a person or group can sponsor, but administration officials noted that they'll be evaluating sponsors' means and ability to support Ukrainians.\n\nMeanwhile, Ukrainian applicants will undergo rigorous security checks, including biographic and biometric screening, and must have been residents of Ukraine as of February 11. They must also meet certain public health requirements, including receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.\n\n\"They'll require these individuals to attest that they have received at least one dose of measles, polio and Covid vaccinations prior to coming into the country. If they have not, they must receive the vaccination abroad from the country that they are in,\" said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.\n\nThose vaccinations could be provided by the World Health Organization or another agency or nonprofit group, she said. The Covid-19 vaccination requirement must be a vaccine that has been approved or authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, or a vaccine with WHO emergency use listing.\n\nPeople seeking authorization to travel to the United States through the Uniting for Ukraine process will be able to confirm vaccination in an account on the government's myUSCIS website\n\nAdditionally, \"they'll have two weeks once they get here to complete tuberculosis screening if they are 2 years or older,\" Freeman said. Any community provider could conduct the screenings -- but because the Ukrainians probably will not have health insurance, many will be done by local health departments.\n\nPeople then submit those results on their myUSCIS account.\n\n\"The reason for the aggressive approach with the measles and polio vaccines in particular, and also TB, is because Ukraine is known as an area that in the past has had severe measles outbreaks, and we want to be careful,\" Freeman said. \"From a health security standpoint in our country, it was important to set up the eligibility to come here based on this attestation.\"\n\nThese medical requirements are also nothing new for public health officials; people fleeing conflict and other refugees generally are required to get medical checks before coming to the United States.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nAs more people are approved to come to the US, health officials expect many of them to travel to two states, Freeman said: Washington and New York.\n\nIn Washington, \"they have a very large Ukrainian community, and they do a lot of work in public health that's focused on that community,\" Freeman said. And New York state is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the nation, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's office\n\n\"It would seem like there would be opportunity for them to connect within their own community in those places,\" Freeman said. \"That would be the draw.\"", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/05/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/22/trump-outtakes-jan-6-mega-millions-tops-600-m-5-things-podcast/10125353002/", "title": "Never before seen Trump Jan. 6 outtakes, polio case in New York: 5 ...", "text": "On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Never before seen video outtakes of Trump at Jan 6 hearing\n\nThe House committee investigating the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol shows never before seen videos of Former President Trump during and after the attack. Plus, a case of polio is found in New York, the U.S. Army is in a recruiting crisis, USA TODAY’s money reporter Elisabeth Buchwald talks about patience with investing, and the Mega Millions lottery tops $600 million.\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\nPJ Elliott:\n\nGood morning. I'm PJ Elliott and this is 5 Things you need to know for Friday, the 22nd of July, 2022. I'm filling in for Taylor Wilson, who will be back on Monday, July 25th. Today, a polio case has been reported in New York. The U.S. Army is facing its worst recruiting environment in half a century, and more.\n\nHere are some of the top headlines:\n\nA bill that would federally protect the right to contraceptive access passed the house on Thursday in a vote where eight Republicans joined all Democrats in support of the measure. Turkish officials say a deal has been reached on a UN plan to unblock the exports of Ukrainian grain amid the war. It is set to be signed Friday in Istanbul. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has launched a criminal investigation into the destruction of Secret Service text messages sought as part of investigations into the January 6th, 2021 Capitol attack. And the Supreme Court on Thursday declined a request from the Biden administration to prioritize certain immigrants for deportation, but said it would hear arguments in the dispute later this year.\n\n♦\n\nAt its Thursday prime time hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol chronicled what was happening in Congress and at the White House during the 187 minutes between then President Donald Trump's fiery speech and his video encouraging the mob to go home. Committee members have argued that Trump's lack of response was dereliction of duty under the constitution to protect Congress. The committee showed a never-before-seen video of Trump's statement on the day after the Capitol riot, in which he refused to accept losing the 2020 election.\n\nDonald Trump:\n\n\"But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results. I don't wanna say the election's over. I just wanna say Congress has certified the results without saying the election's over. Okay?\n\nTrump Aide:\n\n\"But Congress has certified... Now Congress has certified...\"\n\nDonald Trump:\n\n\"Yeah, I didn't say over. So let, let me see. Don't... Go to the paragraph before.\"\n\nPJ Elliott:\n\nIn never-before-seen photos and videos, the committee also showed congressional leaders, including then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, huddling in a secured location telling acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller how the building needed to be secured.\n\nIn her closing statement, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney made the point that the witnesses criticizing former president Trump's behavior are all Republicans and they would not change their stories, even under cross examination by the former president's backers. Some Republicans have criticized the committee because there are no Trump defenders on it. But Cheney said that makes no difference when it comes to testimony from so many witnesses, especially the lawyers who advised the president he was acting improperly.\n\n♦\n\nThe United States Army is facing its worst recruiting environment in half a century as USA TODAY'S Pentagon correspondent Tom Vanden Brook tells us, getting back on track won't be easy.\n\nTom Vanden Brook:\n\nThe problem right now is that the military, the Army in particular, is tens of thousands recruits short of its goal for the year. And without those young people joining, that means that the jobs that they need to have filled in infantry and other sources of specialties will go unfilled. And right now there's a great demand for the Armed Services to be in places like Eastern Europe, where Ukraine has obviously been invaded by Russia. So 20,000 extra soldiers were sent there, troops were sent there earlier this year. So there's great demand for them and there are a few to be found.\n\nPart of the reason for this is the great job market. Young people have a lot of options. And traditionally when unemployment has been low, it's very difficult to recruit for the military.\n\nAnd then there's some other things that are going on, too, that haven't happened in the past. COVID prevented recruiters from hitting high schools, which has been a traditional seed bed for recruits. And people have a different attitude towards work now than they did in pre-pandemic. There's more interest in working from home. And if you're in the Army, you're not working from home, you're working at a base or you're overseas deployed.\n\nFor the Army, they're looking at the pool of folks who are qualified between age 17 and 24, because those are the young people that you want to fill out your units. Only 23% of those folks have the physical and academic qualifications to join the Army. So you're looking at a smaller subsection of young people in America and not all of those 23% wanna join the Army. So they're really working with a very small pool of talent and it's getting smaller all the time.\n\nIt used to be just a few years ago, 29% of Americans were qualified physically and academically to serve in the Army. And Wednesday, the Army announced that it was starting a pilot program for perspective recruits that would help them get into shape physically and also get into shape mentally, basically academically, to join the Army. So they're gonna reach out to people who may not have the qualifications, but with some physical training and maybe some remedial coursework would be able to serve in the Army. There are record bonuses for people who sign up for a six year enlistment. So $50,000 goes to somebody who says, \"I'll serve in the Army for six years.\" And they're also offering bonuses for people who will agree to join the Army quickly within just a matter of a month or two.\n\nYou can find the link to this story in today's show description.\n\n♦\n\nA case of polio has been reported in New York. The viral disease, which can cause neurological symptoms, paralysis or death, was declared eliminated in the United States in 1979. Although routine spread has been halted for decades, occasionally travelers with polio have brought infections into the U.S. In 2013, a case occurred in a seven month old who had recently moved to the U.S. from India. The patient in this new case, a young adult who did not recently travel outside the country, was hospitalized, but is no longer, according to officials. Health officials also said that the person had not been vaccinated against polio. The person is no longer able to transmit the virus, but investigators are looking into how the infection occurred and whether other people may have been exposed to the virus.\n\n♦\n\nA few weeks ago, USA TODAY'S Personal Finance and Markets reporter Elisabeth Buchwald got a notification from an old stock market account she opened when she was 12 years old. As she told producer James Brown, seeing the return taught her about patience and investing.\n\nElisabeth Buchwald:\n\nThe funny thing is the story that I worked on was a look back at how those investments did. Kind of haven't really touched a lot of them, but I was really into it in middle school and high school. And as I've gotten older, it's just one of those things that kind of sits on the back burner. And I was curious how those investments performed. And I was a bit stunned when I saw my returns on that account were higher than my 401(k) and my other investment account that I started after college. So that was what the story was based off of, and it's just been interesting to kind of dig into my theories back then and see how it's affected me to this day.\n\nJames Brown:\n\nWhat did you take away from the fact that your portfolio is outperforming your 401(k)? I would think that would be somewhat alarming, I would think.\n\nElisabeth Buchwald:\n\nIt was at first. And that was my first thought, what is going on here? That my second thought was in my stock was at 12 and I just didn't know it. But on third thought, I realized that it was just a matter of time. And that's the big thing with investments today. If you started investing over the course of one month, you're gonna see a very volatile portfolio, things shooting up and down a lot. These days down a lot. But if you look at any major index over time, say 10 years, things tend go up because it smooths out these short term volatility points that keep investors on their seats a lot. And when you just look at over time, recessions come and go and then stocks tend to do better after that. But it really is just that I left the money there and let it compound.\n\nJames Brown:\n\nAny regrets?\n\nElisabeth Buchwald:\n\nI wish I had bought Amazon. It looked so expensive then, of course, it's one of those things that has gone up, too And Apple. I should have just... Even one share would've gone up so much more. But I think if there's any consolation, I definitely wouldn't have told myself to get crypto, which wasn't around when I was 12. But in high school, I remember it was first around. Even though I would've made a lot, it's still something that is hard to comprehend. So probably would've told myself, go for Amazon and Apple, even though they look expensive.\n\n♦\n\nPJ Elliott:\n\nThe Mega Millions jackpot will now top $600 million on Friday. Since no one matched all six numbers in Tuesday's $555 million jackpot, the jackpot will now be an estimated $630 million with a cash option of $359.7 million for Friday's drawing, this according to the Mega Millions website. The jackpot will be the fifth largest for the Mega Millions ever, and the 12th largest lottery ever in the United States. The Mega Millions has not been won since April 15th, when a ticket sold in Tennessee hit for $20 million. Mega Million's drawings are every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 PM. Eastern. You can play the game in 45 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.\n\nThanks for listening to 5 Things. As a reminder, you can subscribe for free and rate us in review on Apple Podcast, and catch us wherever you get your audio. Thanks to James Brown for his work on the show today. I'll be back with more of 5 Things tomorrow from USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/new-york-polio/index.html", "title": "New York adult diagnosed with polio, first US case in nearly a ...", "text": "(CNN) A person from Rockland County, New York, has been diagnosed with polio, the first case identified in the United States in nearly a decade.\n\nThe unvaccinated young adult began experiencing weakness and paralysis about a month ago, county Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said Thursday.\n\nThe case comes nearly a month after the UK Health Security Agency warned that it had detected poliovirus in its surveillance of London sewage samples, indicating that there had been some spread between closely linked individuals in North and East London, although no cases had been identified there.\n\nPolio is an infection caused by the poliovirus. About 1 in 4 infected people have flu-like symptoms including sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, headache and stomach pain. As many as 1 in 200 will develop more serious symptoms that include tingling and numbness in the legs, an infection of the brain or spinal cord, and paralysis, according to the US Centers for the Disease control and Prevention.\n\nThere is no cure for polio. Treatment to address symptoms may include medication to relax muscles and heat and physical therapy to stimulate muscles. However, any paralysis caused by polio is permanent.\n\n\"This patient did present with weakness and paralysis,\" Schnabel Ruppert said.\n\nThis is the first polio case diagnosed in the United States since 2013, according to the New York Department of Health\n\nState and county health officials are advising health-care providers to stay vigilant for additional cases, and they are advising county residents to get vaccinated for polio.\n\n\"The risk to an unvaccinated community member from this event is still being determined,\" Ruppert Schnabel said. \"We strongly advise anyone who's unvaccinated to get vaccinated.\"\n\nPolio vaccine is part of the CDC's standard immunization schedule and is required for school attendance. People who are vaccinated are not expected to be at risk.\n\nThe New York case was identified as a revertant polio Sabin type 2 virus, indicating that it was derived from someone who received the oral polio vaccine, which contains a live but weakened form of the polio virus.\n\nOfficials say this suggests that the virus originated outside the US, where the oral vaccine is still administered, but they are investigating the origins of this particular case.\n\nHealth officials said Thursday that the person had not traveled outside the US before or after they were diagnosed.\n\nTypically, people who catch polio can spread it to others for about two weeks. Officials said the individual is not expected to be contagious right now because they are past that window of time and have normal immune function. But others may have been exposed before the case was diagnosed.\n\nThe oral polio vaccine is no longer authorized for use in this country. In the US, only the inactivated polio vaccine has been given since 2000.\n\nA person cannot get polio from the vaccine itself, but in recent years, cases of polio linked to shedding from the oral vaccine have arisen in communities that have low vaccination rates. Health officials think the strain of virus the individual contracted originated this way.\n\nWhen this weakened strain of the virus circulates in under-immunized populations -- typically in areas with poor sanitary conditions -- the virus can acquire mutations and revert to a form that causes paralysis. These vaccine-derived viruses are different from wild polioviruses, which now circulate only in Pakistan and Afghanistan.\n\nRockland County is home to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in which vaccination rates have historically been very low. In 2018 and 2019, Rockland County was the epicenter of a major measles outbreak that continued for nearly a year and sickened 312 people. County health officials reported at the time that only 8% of people there had been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella before the outbreak began.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\n\"Based on what we know about this case, and polio in general, the Department of Health strongly recommends that unvaccinated individuals get vaccinated or boosted with the FDA-approved IPV polio vaccine as soon as possible,\" State Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett said in a statement Thursday. \"The polio vaccine is safe and effective, protecting against this potentially debilitating disease, and it has been part of the backbone of required, routine childhood immunizations recommended by health officials and public health agencies nationwide.\"", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/02/covid-culture-war-masks-vaccine-pits-liberty-against-common-good/5432614001/", "title": "How COVID vaccine, face masks pit personal liberty vs. the common ...", "text": "LOS ANGELES – In Anaheim, California, Disneyland worker Judy Hart, 62, says she’ll never get the COVID-19 vaccine because it’s “experimental.”\n\nWhat about masks? Hart wears one while working retail sales at the most magical place on Earth, but nowhere else. “It’s against our freedoms,” she says. “And I’m not some religious weirdo who thinks it’s the mark of the beast.”\n\nAfter more than 18 months of a pandemic, with 1 of every 545 Americans killed by COVID-19, a substantial chunk of the population continues to assert their own individual liberties over the common good.\n\nThis great divide – spilling into workplaces, schools, supermarkets and voting booths – has split the nation at a historic juncture when partisan factionalism and social media already are achieving similar ends.\n\nIt is a phenomenon that perplexes sociologists, legal scholars, public health experts and philosophers, causing them to wonder:\n\nAt what point should individual rights yield to the public interest? If coronavirus kills 1 in 100, will that be enough to change some minds? Or 1 in 10?\n\nToday, millions of U.S. residents shun vaccines that have proven highly effective and resist masks that ward off infection, fiercely opposing government restrictions.\n\nOthers clamor for regulation, arguing that those who take no precautions are violating their rights – threatening the freedom to live of everyone they expose.\n\nIn an online dialogue about the friction between liberty and the greater good, Clare Palmer, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M University, agreed that exercising a freedom to go maskless creates “catastrophic threats to the well-being of others.\"\n\n“How much should government constrain citizens’ otherwise rightful activities to lower the risk?” she asked. “We may be entering a period … when countries will need to reassess their willingness to use the law to protect the most vulnerable and to advance the common good.”\n\nNo matter where one stands, it puts a new spin on the famous line delivered at America's founding by Patrick Henry: \"Give me liberty or give me death.\"\n\n‘An act of defiance’\n\nSeldom in the nation’s past has a culture boundary been so clear-cut, or the clash between personal rights and public welfare been so polarized.\n\nCOVID-19 is now killing more than 2,000 Americans each week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with new infections topping 60,000 a day for the first time in more than three months. Nearly two-thirds of the nation’s counties are reeling from substantial or high transmission rates as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.\n\nAgainst that backdrop, a striking paradox has evolved: About 99% of America’s COVID-19 deaths today are people who did not get shots. Yet, the unvaccinated – who are more susceptible to infection and more likely to spread the disease – also appear to be most resistant to wearing masks.\n\nWhile the scientific research is evolving and medical messaging has been muddled, the vaccine has worked beyond expectations – “a huge celebration of effectiveness,” as Johns Hopkins notes – with limited side effects recorded so far.\n\nThat means getting shots saves lives.\n\nIt also means vaccines could prevent the mutation of more virulent coronavirus strains while hastening a return to economic and social normalcy. So, why do so many turn down the shots and shun masks? Is it a social syndrome that puts self-interest above the common good? Is it a stand for principle? Is it something else?\n\nMichael Sandel, a Harvard professor of government who teaches a course on ethics in an age of pandemics, noted in the university’s gazette that mask-wearing has emerged as “a new front in the culture wars.”\n\nWhile covering one’s face is not difficult, mask opponents are driven by another concern: They don’t want government dictating their behavior. Put simply, Sandel said, the resistance is not about public health: “It’s about politics.”\n\n“Even as the pandemic highlights our mutual dependence, it is striking how little solidarity and shared sacrifice it has called forth,” he noted. “The pandemic caught us unprepared – logistically and medically, but also morally. … (It) arrived at just the wrong moment – amid toxic politics, incompetent leadership and fraying social bonds.”\n\n“It’s an act of defiance,” said Steven Tipton, a professor of sociology and religion at Emory University. “‘You can’t make me.’ And I will enact my own freedom even if it kills me and others around me who I love.’”\n\nTipton co-wrote the book “The Good Society,” describing how America’s institutions have fallen from grace. He is among many who trace this viral distrust a half-century back to President Ronald Reagan’s quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”\n\nAs economic inequities mushroomed and social isolation festered, Tipton said, average Americans came to feel betrayed by government, the marketplace and so-called elites. For them, rejecting science and spurning authorities is a statement of moral outrage rather than an act of selfishness. And that sentiment is encouraged in a social media echo chamber that bonds the disconnected.\n\nIn the end, however, COVID-19 has no politics or ethical code. The virus, acting on a principle of proliferation, has killed more than 4.2 million people worldwide – especially now those who didn’t get shots.\n\nThe moral, Tipton suggested: “Being a good citizen is being mutually responsible. If you believe in the gospels, wear your mask.”\n\nMixed messages, lies and confusion\n\nDuring World War II, the Greatest Generation forged unity with common goals. Americans tended victory gardens to overcome food shortages, volunteered for national defense and made personal sacrifices for the good of the country.\n\nToday, in the face of a pandemic that already has killed more U.S. citizens than the Big War, we block one another’s Facebook pages, stage anti-vaccine protests and in some cases attack one another for requiring or wearing masks.\n\nTo be sure, public confusion and discord have been abetted by muddled messages from government and science, compounded by lies and disinformation spewed via social media.\n\nThe miscues are legend:\n\nEarly in the pandemic, President Donald Trump declared a premature victory over COVID-19 as his chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned against opening the country too soon. Fauci and the CDC have issued guidance in favor of masks, then against them, and then for them again – in part because the virus itself has morphed.\n\nPresident Joe Biden last week applied a carrot-and-stick approach, urging local authorities to pay $100 to unvaccinated people who get the shots while announcing that federal employees will face strict testing requirements if they are not vaccinated.\n\nBut in the absence of authority or fortitude to impose public health policies, federal leaders have largely deferred to state and local government. The result: a bewildering and inconsistent panoply of policies that vary from one jurisdiction to the next, and may change overnight.\n\n“There’s just been such tremendous inconsistency in communications about this,” said Corey Basch, chair of the public health department at William Paterson University in New Jersey. “I can understand why there are pockets of the population who really don’t want this mandated, and (they) feel distrust.”\n\nA tale of two counties\n\nConsider Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, sibling hotbeds of COVID-19 that form the nation’s largest metro area.\n\nIn May, after the Orange County Board of Supervisors announced plans to offer a digital record for residents who have been vaccinated, hundreds of enraged people – leery of a new vaccine – jammed a meeting and denounced what they mistakenly believed was a mandatory COVID-19 passport system.\n\nJeanine Robbins, 60, of Anaheim, who attended that event, noticed that nearly all the people opposed to vaccination were also maskless. “I think they’re just taking advantage, and they’re putting other people at risk,” Robbins said. “It’s selfishness.\"\n\nBy contrast, Michael Thomas, a 62-year-old accountant in San Clemente, said he doesn’t believe masks work and he won’t be getting shots because “a person’s immune system will either fight off COVID or it won’t.”\n\nAsked whether his decisions endanger others, Thomas shook his head. “It’s a personal right to do what you want,” he said. “A God-given right.”\n\nThomas volunteered that he sees COVID-19 as a “war crime,” adding, “The guy who made it – the people who developed the virus – should be brought to justice.”\n\nAsked who he believes created and spread the disease, Thomas said, “I understand Dr. Fauci was intimately involved …” He would not identify his source for that allegation.\n\nAccording to The Associated Press, a picture circulating on right-wing social media sites, which purportedly shows Fauci with then-President Barack Obama at the Wuhan, China, lab in 2015, was actually taken at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., during 2014.\n\nIn conservative Orange County, plans for digital vaccine recordkeeping were canceled, and there are no generalized mask requirements. But late last month, Disneyland reinstated a mask mandate and announced mandatory coronavirus shots for most employees.\n\nCity of the Angels\n\nBarely one month after Gov. Gavin Newsom ended most COVID-19 restrictions in California, declaring that the state was “turning the page on this pandemic,” viral caseloads in Los Angeles County had increased sevenfold.\n\nOn July 16, in a push for public safety, the Board of Supervisors reinstated indoor mask requirements. Sheriff Alex Villanueva promptly announced that his deputies would not enforce the measure because it is “not backed by science.”\n\nIn the shadow of downtown skyscrapers, Steven Nuñez, 35, mulled the question and allowed that public leaders had no choice but to impose mandates. “We’ve already seen what happens when it’s voluntary,” he noted.\n\nNuñez, a minister with the International Buddhist Meditation Center, said his theology calls for a balancing of compassion and wisdom, with action based not on personal interests but the welfare of others. “I don’t wear a mask in public because I’m afraid,” he stressed, “but because doing that might keep someone safe.”\n\n‘Typhoid Mary’\n\nIn the early 1900s, a domestic cook for wealthy families named Mary Mallon unwittingly infected hundreds of people in New York with the Salmonella typhi bacteria before medical investigators identified her as a superspreader.\n\nMallon, nicknamed “Typhoid Mary,” refused to be tested and fled from authorities, only to be captured and quarantined. During two years of confinement, she sued the health department. Upon release, she violated an agreement not to resume cooking and worked at a maternity hospital in Manhattan where more people were infected and died.\n\nCOVID-19 may be caused by a novel coronavirus, but the legal-ethical issues are not new. And just what constitutes the common good has always been a matter of disagreement.\n\nPlato advocated conduct that promotes social harmony. His student, Aristotle, promoted action allowing individuals to fulfill their human purpose. Thus, the debate proceeded.\n\nWhen the United States was founded, a Bill of Rights got locked into the Constitution to ensure that personal liberties were protected from a coercive government.\n\nBut those freedoms are not limitless. One person's right to throw a punch stops at another's nose. If you scream \"Fire!\" in a crowded theater, it could be a ticket to jail.\n\n“Keep in mind we have seat belt laws,” noted Jessica Berg, law school dean and a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. \"We have speed limits.”\n\nWhen inoculations for smallpox and polio were first mandated in the past century, backlashes erupted, eventually dying as shots eradicated two of the world’s worst scourges. Yet, Berg noted, some batches of the early polio vaccine had devastating side effects.\n\nThe question is not whether government should constrain personal liberties in the public interest, she concluded, but when and how. With face masks and vaccinations, Berg allows that constraints should result in the least possible loss of choices and the most respect for liberty.\n\nFor example, rather than threats of jail or fines, those who refuse to take precautions might be banned from crowded venues or required to undergo regular testing. The point, Berg said, is to allow for a stand on personal rights by letting people make choices.\n\n“I think if we want to accept the benefits of living in a society,” Berg added, “we also have to accept there are some constraints on individual liberty.”\n\nPamela Hieronymi, a UCLA professor who specializes in moral philosophy, said COVID-19 has revealed the “trickiness of freedoms.” She described various schools of ethical thought, noting that if someone asked four philosophy professors whether vaccines and masks should be mandated, there likely would be four different answers.\n\nThen she mentioned a book – “Assholes: A Theory” – by colleague Aaron James, which argues that American culture is producing a swarm of annoying, self-righteous people who behave as if they are so special that normal rules do not apply.\n\nMore than a lack of civility, Hieronymi said, “we’ve lost sight of the common good.”\n\nNear downtown Los Angeles, social worker Alexandra Sheehy, 37, said she gave birth during the pandemic. As a combat veteran who served in Iraq, she understands that fighting a contagious disease requires a “collective and collaborative effort.”\n\nBut she also worries about how conflict, anger and stress are wounding society and individuals. “I've learned you can’t control everybody,” Sheehy said. “You can only control how you react.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/21/biden-covid-jan-6-committee-hearing-polio-case-reported-monarch-butterflies-thursdays-news/10117875002/", "title": "Biden positive for COVID-19, Jan. 6 committee hearing, polio case ...", "text": "President Joe Biden says he's doing great after testing positive for COVID-19. A polio case was reported in New York – the first in almost a decade. And the iconic monarch butterfly is fluttering closer to extinction.\n\n👋 It's Laura Davis. It's Thursday. Here's all the news you need to know.\n\nBut first, what happened to my Facebook feed? 🤔 If you were met with major changes when you opened the Facebook app, you aren't alone. Here's a look at changes coming to your feed.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nBiden 'doing great' after positive coronavirus test\n\nBiden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, something the White House had taken extra steps to avoid as highly transmissible strains struck top aides, Cabinet members, the president's chief medical adviser and the vice president. Biden, 79, is experiencing \"very mild\" symptoms and is taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid. \"Folks, I’m doing great,\" Biden tweeted. \"Keeping busy!\" Biden will continue to work at the White House, where he will isolate until he tests negative. Here's what we know.\n\nJan. 6 committee hearing to focus on how Trump spent his time\n\nThe Jan. 6 committee is scheduled to wrap up its whirlwind series of hearings for the summer on Thursday night during prime time. After seven hearings outlining the machinations of former President Donald Trump, his aides and staffers to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the panel will put its focus on how Trump spent his time on Jan. 6, 2021. What will the panel cover? Will there be future hearings? Here's what we know.\n\nWhat to expect: Reps. Elaine Luria, D-Va., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., will lead the hearing. Luria will present evidence on behalf of the committee for the first time. The panel will give a \"minute-by-minute\" overview of the day of the insurrection, according to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., committee vice chair.\n\nReps. Elaine Luria, D-Va., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., will lead the hearing. Luria will present evidence on behalf of the committee for the first time. The panel will give a \"minute-by-minute\" overview of the day of the insurrection, according to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., committee vice chair. What is the focus? The hearing will likely feature Trump's reluctance to call off the riot or comply with pleas for help from members of Congress.\n\nThe hearing will likely feature Trump's reluctance to call off the riot or comply with pleas for help from members of Congress. A key question looms: What does Chief of Staff Mark Meadows know about Trump's actions to overturn the election?\n\nWhat does Chief of Staff Mark Meadows know about Trump's actions to overturn the election? The witnesses: Former Trump aides Matthew Pottinger, Sarah Matthews are expected to testify.\n\nFormer Trump aides Matthew Pottinger, Sarah Matthews are expected to testify. TV schedule, livestream: How to watch Day 8 of the Jan. 6 hearings.\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\nPolio case reported in New York\n\nA polio case has been reported in New York, Rockland County officials said Thursday. The viral disease, which can cause neurological symptoms, paralysis, or death, was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 1979. Although routine spread has been halted for decades, occasionally travelers with polio have brought infections into the U.S., with the last such case in 2013. The patient in the new case, a young adult who did not recently travel outside the country, was hospitalized but is no longer, officials confirmed. Investigators are looking into how the infection occurred and whether other people may have been exposed to the virus. Here's what we know.\n\nFarm labor traffickers bribed Georgia government workers, agent testifies\n\nAn alleged criminal organization bribed Georgia Labor Department officials to approve housing for farmworkers, according to sworn testimony from a Homeland Security Investigations agent. This story is part of ongoing coverage of Operation Blooming Onion, one of the largest federal cases ever prosecuted in the U.S. involving labor trafficking of guest farmworkers. Prosecutors say that organization subjected farmworkers to forced labor and degrading living conditions, including housing dozens in a single-room trailer without safe drinking or cooking water. Keep reading.\n\nReal quick\n\n📲 Pssst... Did you know you can get the news via text every day? Sign up for The Short List text messages and I'll send the news straight to your phone five days a week – plus quizzes every Friday! Go here to sign up.(It's quick, I promise)\n\nMonarch butterfly listed as endangered\n\nThe monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct. The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years. “It’s just a devastating decline,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm. “This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world.” Learn more and how you can help monarchs.\n\nA break from the news\n\nThis is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nLaura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Send her an email at laura@usatoday.com or follow along with her adventures – and misadventures – on Twitter. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/08/04/vaccinations-controversial-america-polio-health/31052179/", "title": "Vaccinations have always been controversial in America: Column", "text": "Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs\n\nIn 1952, Americans suffered the worst polio epidemic in our nation’s history. As in prior outbreaks, the disease spread during the summer, mainly attacking children who had been exposed to contaminated water at public pools or contaminated objects in other communal places. The poliovirus entered the body through the mouth and multiplied in the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms started innocently enough—a sore throat, a runny nose. As the virus moved throughout its victims’ bloodstreams, the pains soon began—electric shocks darting through the neck to legs, muscle spasms. Within a day or two, paralysis set in. If the virus made it to the nervous system in the base of the brain, death came quickly. By the time the outbreak’s end, 58,000 people had been stricken. More than a third were paralyzed, many of whom spent the rest of their lives in a wheelchair or bed.\n\nMost Americans today have no concept of the terror generated by polio throughout the first half of the 20th century. During epidemics, newspapers and magazines displayed adorable children struggling to walk in braces or entombed in iron lungs, but the disease mostly fell off the national radar after it was eliminated from the country in 1979. In the past few years, however, polio has begun creeping back into headlines, for two opposite reasons. On the one hand, thanks to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the world is closer than ever to wiping out the virus completely; widespread vaccination efforts reduced the number of cases to 414 in 2014, mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. On the other hand, because of recent anti-vaccination trends, it’s not unreasonable to worry that a resurgence of polio might afflict Americans again.\n\nThe person responsible for easing our minds over the past half century was Jonas Salk, a physician-scientist who was born in a New York tenement and driven by a passion to aid mankind. During the 1952 outbreak, with funds from the March of Dimes, he rushed to develop the earliest vaccine for polio that used a killed, or “inactivated,” form of the virus. In that, he met resistance from more-senior scientists who believed that only a vaccine made from a live virus could provide lifelong protection.\n\nThe public was desperate for a vaccine, yet Salk was afraid these scientists would try to derail his efforts. Objections from one even prompted the famed newscaster Walter Winchell to warn his radio audience not to take the vaccine, because “it may be a killer.” So Salk initially made and tested his vaccine in secret. Thankfully, his promising preliminary results led to the March of Dimes launching the biggest clinical trial in the history of medicine. Beginning on April 26, 1954, with a six-year-old named Randy Kerr from McLean, Virginia, the trial eventually involved 1.5 million children, and had remarkable results: Salk’s vaccine was 80 to 90 percent effective in preventing paralytic polio. It was mass-produced and distributed around the country, and by the end of the decade, it had reduced the incidence of paralytic polio in the United States by 90 percent.\n\nWhen the success of the vaccine trial was first announced, the public crowned Jonas Salk a national hero. He experienced a celebrity accorded few scientists in the history of medicine. Yet his rebuke by the scientific community had only just begun. As heads of states around the world\n\nrushed to honor him, scientists—the one group whose adulation he craved—remained ominously silent. Basil O’Connor, director of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis/March of Dimes, said they acted as if Salk had committed a felony. They accused Salk of failing to give proper credit to other researchers whose work had laid the foundation for his own. Salk in fact had tried to give them credit. But the media had made him the icon for polio, ignoring other scientists’ contributions. This set the stage for difficulties throughout Salk’s career wherein politics in and beyond the scientific community seemed to override good science.\n\nIn 1961, a public health decision was made to replace Salk’s vaccine with one developed by a virologist who constantly tried to discredit him, Albert Sabin. Sabin’s oral vaccine, made with a live virus, was cheaper and more convenient, but also much riskier; it actually caused polio in some cases. Salk worked throughout the rest of his life trying to reverse the decision—a sole warrior in a fight against what he considered entirely a politically-driven change. (In 1999, four years after his death, the Sabin vaccine was replaced with a new version of Salk’s vaccine, which is still used today.)\n\nSalk also campaigned vigorously for mandatory vaccination, putting the health of the public foremost. He went as far as calling the immunization of all the world’s children a “moral commitment.” Thanks to his efforts—along with those of other researchers—we’re able to enjoy our summers without the fear of a crippling disease.\n\nAmerica now has been polio free for more than 35 years, and children are supposed to be vaccinated when they are babies. We’ve reached the point, however, where it seems many people can’t believe an epidemic could really occur. Some parents refuse vaccination, arguing that a healthy lifestyle is enough to protect their children from potentially lethal infections. But studies have shown that the introduction of sanitation actually enhances the circulation of poliovirus, because babies are no longer exposed to the virus in the very small amounts that used to produce lifelong immunity. Poliovirus can spread relentlessly once it gets a foothold in an unvaccinated community.\n\nSuch was the case shortly after Salk’s vaccine was released in 1955. Massachusetts closed its vaccination program because a manufacturing error led to some contaminated shots. Even though the mishap was quickly corrected, the state did not reopen its program. That summer, Massachusetts suffered one of its largest epidemics. Four thousand people contracted polio, and 1,700 were paralyzed—mostly children.\n\nDoes the public want to repeat history? I think Jonas Salk would plead with them to learn lessons from our past. Californians did with the recent measles outbreak, which affected more than 130 people, the majority of whom were unvaccinated. This helped spur the state to join Mississippi and West Virginia by mandating childhood vaccination, despite an outcry from several groups. Now if only 47 other states would follow suit.\n\nCharlotte DeCroes Jacobs is a professor emerita at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of Jonas Salk: A Life. She wrote this for What It Means to Be American, a national conversation hosted by the Smithsonian and Zocalo Public Square.\n\nIn addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/08/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/12/28/harry-reid-former-nevada-senator-dies/9040440002/", "title": "Harry Reid: Longtime Senate Democratic leader from Nevada dies ...", "text": "Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the political pugilist who rose from a one-room southern Nevada shack to become among the most powerful people in American politics, died Tuesday. He was 82.\n\nReid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early 2018.\n\nReid was a revered and reviled force in Democratic politics for more than four decades, gaining a reputation for soft-spoken ruthlessness as he clawed his way from Nevada’s lieutenant governor’s office to the pinnacle of the U.S. Senate.\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Tuesday called Reid \"a dear friend and a giant of our history.\"\n\n\"During the two decades we served together in the United States Senate, and the eight years we worked together while I served as Vice President, Harry met the marker for what I’ve always believed is the most important thing by which you can measure a person – their action and their word,\" Biden said in a statement.\n\nRemembering those we lost: Celebrity Deaths 2021\n\n\"I’ve had the honor of serving with some of the all-time great Senate Majority Leaders in our history. Harry Reid was one of them. And for Harry, it wasn’t about power for power’s sake. It was about the power to do right for the people.\"\n\nReid, a stooped, bespectacled strategist was, by his own admission, “kind of a strange guy.” Reid was a pro-gun, pro-life Democrat and a devout Mormon who opposed prostitution but, later in life, endorsed same-sex marriage.\n\nFor years, Reid cultivated an interest in mysterious space phenomena, and even funded a shadowy Defense Department program to study unidentified flying objects. More than a decade before the Pentagon released a long-secret report on UFOs, Reid was a passionate advocate for declassifying government intelligence on the issue.\n\nReid also reliably defended his right to siphon federal funding from someone else’s backyard for “pork barrel” projects in Nevada. Meanwhile, he did everything short of lying down on Las Vegas-area train tracks to stop others from shipping nuclear waste to his own backyard at Yucca Mountain.\n\n'Tough-as-nails strong':Tributes pour in for Harry Reid, former U.S. senator, after his death\n\nA fighter, politically and beyond\n\nYucca only added to the former amateur boxer’s reputation for starting, and finishing, all kinds of fights.\n\nReid, for example, won a fistfight with his future father-in-law before marrying his wife, Landra. The couple went on to have five children.\n\nHe also faced down organized crime while serving as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission in the late 1970s, once attempting to choke out a mobbed-up Las Vegas businessman who tried to bribe him. Similarly tense clashes with Mafia associates famously earned him a fictional portrayal in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” not to mention an unexploded car bomb found under the Reid family station wagon in 1981.\n\nYet Reid’s scrappy approach translated well on Capitol Hill, where he rarely repented after petrifying an opponent or polarizing a party ally. Senate colleagues occasionally called Reid a tyrant and a dictator. He didn’t care. In fact, Reid had planned to serve a sixth term in the Senate before suffering severe eye injuries in a freak exercise accident that contributed to his decision to retire in 2016.\n\nAs Senate majority leader, Reid often acted as President Barack Obama’s enforcer.\n\nTake the 2010 fight to pass the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Reid clamored to recover rapidly scattering votes for the legislation, then used his mastery of arcane Senate procedure to quickly slingshot the bill to a vote. He did much of this work behind closed doors, over loud objections from Republicans who accused him of ramming Obamacare through without sufficient sunlight. The bill passed. Reid didn’t apologize.\n\nOr consider the 2012 presidential election, when Reid came under fire for falsely accusing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of failing to pay taxes for a decade. Romney lost. Reid didn’t apologize.\n\n“Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid once asked in an interview with CNN.\n\nIn 2013, Reid attracted a fresh round of bipartisan criticism for scrapping the Senate filibuster for judicial appointments. The move cleared a path to confirm more than 100 Obama-era judges, but also lowered the bar for approving much more conservative jurists later picked by President Donald Trump.\n\nReid didn’t shy away from that decision either, later telling the New York Times that if Obama’s presidency was to be a success, he had “no choice” but to clear the backlog of judicial nominees.\n\nReid’s uncompromising style served him well at home, too. The five-term senator was not above sweeping potential challengers out of his way via shrewd backroom maneuvers, most notably when he helped appoint rising Republican star and potential Senate challenger Brian Sandoval to a federal judgeship in 2005.\n\nNor was he skittish about anointing his successors. Just ask U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both of whom were reportedly handpicked by Reid in the twilight of his storied Senate career.\n\nLongtime Reid chronicler Jon Ralston regularly referred to Reid as “Prince Harry.”\n\nHistory may better remember him as a kingmaker.\n\n\"We are so proud of the legacy he leaves behind both on the national stage and his beloved Nevada,\" Landra Reid said of her husband in a statement issued shortly after his death. \"Harry was deeply touched to see his decades of service to Nevada honored in recent weeks with the renaming of Las Vegas' airport in his honor.\n\n\"We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from so many over these past few years. We are especially thankful for the doctors and nurses that cared for him. Please know that meant the world to him.\"\n\nFuneral arrangements for Reid will be announced in the coming days, according to the statement.\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., memorialized Reid as “one of the most amazing individuals I have ever met” and called him “my leader, my mentor, one of my dearest friends.”\n\n“He was tough-as-nails strong, but caring and compassionate, and always went out of his way quietly to help people who needed help,” Schumer said in a statement. “He was a boxer who came from humble origins, but he never forgot where he came from and used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and the middle class.\n\n“He’s gone but he will walk by the sides of many of us in the Senate every single day.\"\n\nNevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said Reid “never forgot who he was or where he came from” and “spent his life and his career fighting the good fight for all Nevadans.”\n\nHumble Nevada beginnings\n\nReid was born into poverty in Searchlight, the once-bustling gold boomtown 45 miles south of Henderson. Until high school, he lived in a small shack with no hot water, no toilet and no telephone. He was the third of four sons born to Harry Reid Sr., a miner, and his wife, Inez, who did laundry for the bordellos. Reid described both of his parents as heavy drinkers. His father committed suicide when Reid was 32.\n\nReid stayed with relatives while attending Basic High School in Henderson. There he met close friend and future Gov. Mike O’Callaghan, who was then a teacher and Reid’s boxing coach.\n\nReid also met his wife while in Henderson. Landra Gould’s parents were Jewish, and wanted her to marry a Jewish boy. She told the New Yorker that her father would “would tear up Harry’s letters, hang up the phone on him.” Tension over the courtship eventually culminated in a front yard fight that saw Reid push his future father-in-law to the ground.\n\nThe clash did not prevent Harry and Landra Reid from marrying in 1959. Days after breaking the news to her parents, Landra Reid said she got a letter saying that they had finally accepted her husband. She eventually followed him to Mormonism shortly after Reid himself converted in 1960.\n\nBoxing skills picked up from O’Callaghan helped Reid land a partial scholarship to Southern Utah State College. He graduated from Utah State University in 1961. From there, Reid was on to George Washington University, where he worked his way through law school as a U.S. Capitol Police officer.\n\nReid's early rise\n\nReid returned to Nevada and served as Henderson’s city attorney before winning a single term in the state Assembly.\n\nIn 1970, O’Callaghan picked the 30-year-old Reid as his running mate in his successful race for governor. Reid served as lieutenant governor until 1974, then launched a bid for a U.S. Senate seat, won narrowly by former Gov. Paul Laxalt. Reid suffered another campaign defeat one year later, losing the race for Las Vegas mayor in 1975.\n\nTwo years later, O’Callaghan resurrected Reid’s political career with what he thought would be a cushy appointment as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. But organized crime, then a very real presence in Nevada casinos, made the job a lot more lively.\n\nDuring his first year on the job, Reid allowed the FBI to videotape a meeting in his office with Jack Gordon, a known Mafia associate who ran arcades at the Las Vegas Circus Circus in the 1970s.\n\nGordon offered Reid a $12,000 bribe to approve two new gaming devices, an offer that so infuriated Reid that he attempted to choke Gordon before FBI agents burst into the room to break up the confrontation.\n\n\"You son of a bitch, you tried to bribe me!\" Reid reportedly said to Gordon during the videotaped encounter.\n\nGordon was convicted in federal court in 1979 and sentenced to six months in prison.\n\nReid had earlier butted heads with infamous mob bookie Lefty Rosenthal, who was denied a gaming license for the Stardust after bickering with Reid during a 1978 commission hearing. The exchange was canonized in “Casino,” the 1995 film starring Robert DeNiro as Rosenthal.\n\nIn 1981, Landra found a loose cable under the hood of the Reid family station wagon and “something” sticking out of the gas tank. Police found a device that would have exploded had it been correctly grounded, according to a 2005 report from the New Yorker.\n\nReid blamed Gordon for the botched bombing, and left the Gaming Commission when his appointment expired in 1981.\n\nCongressional controversies\n\nWithin two years, Reid won his first seat in Congress, representing Nevada’s 1st Congressional District for two terms, ending in 1987.\n\nLaxalt retired in 1986 and Reid took advantage, comfortably beating former U.S. Rep. Jim Santini to win the seat.\n\nOnce in the Senate, Reid managed to secure a spot on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Under the tutelage of longtime U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Reid soon learned how to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in pork projects back home.\n\nReid later centered whole re-election campaigns around his ability to bring home the bacon for Nevada, touting new roads, hospitals, schools and “green jobs” delivered under his tenure. Many of those funds arrived in the form of controversial “earmarks” –cash for lawmakers’ pet projects that was set aside during the budget-making process and often used as a bargaining chip between legislators.\n\nOne 2005 earmark, for a $30 million bridge between Nevada and Arizona, got Reid in trouble with good-government advocates. They argued the project would enrich Nevada’s senior senator by boosting the value of some 160 acres he owned near the bridge. Reid supporters told the Los Angeles Times those concerns were “ludicrous.”\n\nTwo years earlier, the same newspaper began publishing a series of articles suggesting that Reid had pulled strings in Congress to advance the business interests of his close friend and campaign donor Harvey Whittemore. Whittemore – a Nevada attorney and lobbyist who had employed all four of Reid's sons – was able to proceed with a $30 billion planned golf course development outside of Las Vegas despite considerable opposition from environmental groups. He later served a two-year prison sentence for funneling $133,400 in illegal contributions to Reid's re-election campaign.\n\nPolitical victories\n\nReid suffered plenty of other high-profile political setbacks during his Senate career, but none that managed to slow his startling rise up the leadership ladder.\n\nReid reportedly began circling the Senate leadership within hours of Democratic leader Tom Daschle’s defeat in 2004. A long night of phone calls to Senate colleagues saw him sew up the position by noon the following day.\n\nOnce in charge, Reid wasted little time in generating headaches for then-President George W. Bush, who Reid once called “a loser.” He became Senate majority leader in 2007, amid swirling public outrage over the war in Iraq that Reid, like Bush, had supported.\n\nStill, when Obama took power a year later, Reid was well-positioned to help execute the president’s agenda on health care, stimulus packages and Wall Street reform.\n\nHe was also in a good spot to continue blocking a long-stalled plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Reid’s role in foiling that effort only added to his reputation as a strong advocate for Nevada environmentalists and land conservationists.\n\nOver his 35-year congressional career, Reid managed to shield about 5.1 million acres of federal land from development. The designation of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, the Basin and Range National Monument and the Gold Butte National Monument count among his major environmental victories.\n\nClose campaigns\n\nReid won four Senate campaigns after taking Laxalt’s seat in 1986, including a sleek ride to re-election in 1992. But he was nearly stopped in 1998, when he faced smooth-talking, then-ascendant Republican John Ensign.\n\nOnly about 400 votes separated the pair after a nasty campaign and a brief recount. Ensign would eventually win a Senate seat in 2001, only to resign during his second term amid a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his attempts to hide an extramarital affair.\n\nIn many ways, Reid’s final, 2010 Senate re-election campaign was even tougher. He faced Sharron Angle, an insurgent Tea Party Republican who was popular in all the places Reid wasn’t – namely, Reno and the rest of northern Nevada – and in an election year that proved a killing field for many well-known Democrats.\n\nBut Reid, thanks in large part to a relentless anti-Angle TV ad campaign, was able to score a victory in a race that soon became political legend in the Silver State.\n\nThe contest also proved the value of the fabled “Reid machine” – a sprawling political organizing and get-out-the-vote apparatus that continues to drive Nevada Democrats to the polls.\n\nThat machine will undoubtedly remain a key part of Reid’s legacy, not least because he never quite took his hand off the tiller in retirement. In fact, he remained a driving force in Nevada politics right up to his death. He never completely stepped out of the national spotlight either, telling the New York Times in 2019 that President Donald Trump was “amoral,” and “without question the worst president we’ve ever had.”\n\nLike many people, Reid was a study in contrasts: a man with a notoriously sharp temper, but the endurance to run marathons.\n\nTo get where he got, he needed a lot of both.\n\nSisolak issued the following statement on the death of U.S. Senator Harry Reid.\n\n“To say Harry Reid was a giant doesn’t fully encapsulate all that he accomplished on behalf of the state of Nevada and for Nevada families; there will never be another leader quite like Sen. Reid,\" Gov. Steve Sisolak said in a statement. \"To me, he was a mentor, a father figure, and someone I trusted to always give it to me straight.\n\n\"Perhaps what I appreciate most about Senator Reid’s legacy is he never forgot who he was or where he came from. From humble beginnings in Searchlight, he became one of the state’s most powerful and fiercest advocates in Washington, DC. He spent his life and his career fighting the good fight for all Nevadans. I feel lucky to have known him.\n\n\"I’m beyond thankful for the moments we shared. He will be so deeply missed but the mark he left on the Silver State will last forever.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/06/28/wisconsin-senator-ron-johnson-promotes-views-odds-science/7418058002/", "title": "'Fundamentally dangerous': Ron Johnson has long history of ...", "text": "This story was republished on Jan. 14, 2022 to make it free for all readers\n\nIn one of the biggest moments of Ron Johnson’s political career, as a pandemic-weary nation looked on, the senior senator from Wisconsin called his star witness, a doctor with a claim that, if true, might be the biggest medical breakthrough of the 21st century.\n\nWearing a white doctor’s coat and gesturing with his hands for emphasis, Pierre Kory made a stunning guarantee before Johnson’s U.S. Senate committee in December: An old cheap drug used to treat parasitic worms was a “miracle cure” for COVID-19.\n\n“It basically obliterates transmission of the virus,” Kory said. “If you take it, you will not get sick.”\n\nBut the truth was far less clear: While the drug has shown promise, there is little rigorous evidence that it works.\n\nEven Merck, the company that developed the drug and manufactures it, says there is no meaningful evidence it is effective against COVID-19.\n\nKory’s claim that a lifesaving treatment was being ignored by the medical establishment is just one example of how Johnson has either embraced extreme pronouncements about medicine and science or made such claims himself.\n\nWhether rejecting climate change, questioning the need for vaccines and masks, promoting vaping or backing unproven COVID-19 cures, Johnson has a long history of taking positions that are at odds with scientific research.\n\nRELATED: Evers blasts Ron Johnson promoting adverse reactions to COVID vaccines\n\nMore:Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson suspended for a week from YouTube after Milwaukee Press Club event\n\nFor decades, various industries have waged propaganda efforts to undermine scientific findings that threatened their profits, such as tobacco companies fighting evidence that smoking caused cancer; oil firms distorting the science of climate change; and the National Football League trying to refute emerging research on concussions.\n\nNow, some politicians are increasingly willing to ignore or discount mounting scientific research for political gain.\n\nWith Johnson, it began more than a decade ago when the Republican first ran for the Senate and he regularly made fringe comments about climate change, such as that it was due to sunspots. When the pandemic hit, Johnson, then the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, held three hearings on the crisis, and the senator and his hand-picked witnesses made claims unsupported by solid evidence.\n\nThe claims have been frequent: In just one month, in April, Johnson told a conservative talk radio show that COVID-19 vaccines should have been limited to the vulnerable; said at a state Republican party event that two drugs, both unproven, and early treatment “could have stopped the pandemic before we even had a vaccine”; and stated in a constituent conference call that he doubted masks work.\n\nAnd in June at a Milwaukee Press Club event, Johnson criticized the Trump and Biden administrations for “not only ignoring but working against robust research (on) the use of cheap, generic drugs to be repurposed for early treatment of COVID.”\n\nThat led to a one-week suspension from YouTube after he uploaded video from the event to the website. The company said that violated its policy on medical misinformation.\n\nOlivia Troye, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the Trump administration, said Johnson’s pandemic hearings were troublesome.\n\n“I felt like (Johnson) was an echo chamber for Trump,” said Troye, a former homeland security aide to Vice President Mike Pence. “I thought to myself, ‘This is so fundamentally dangerous.’”\n\nShe said that after Johnson’s first hearing last May there was a conversation among task force members, including Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Robert Redfield, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nThe consensus was that the statements from Johnson and his witnesses were harming health officials’ efforts to curtail the pandemic, said Troye, a Trump critic who left the White House last summer. She is now director of the Republican Accountability Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans and conservatives that sprang up after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.\n\nRegarding climate change, Johnson has said he doesn’t think humans have caused the problem or that people can do anything about it.\n\nBut 97% of climate scientists believe that humans are the cause of global warming, according to a 2013 survey. And dozens of prominent science organizations, including NASA, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Meteorological Society, support that belief.\n\nSea levels have risen 8 inches in the last century, glaciers have retreated around the world, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have decreased, according to NASA. In the U.S., record-high temperatures have increased, lows have decreased, and intense rainfall events are up.\n\nSome of Johnson’s statements have involved topics in which there has been uncertainty or in which the government has sent mixed messages to the public. For instance, Fauci initially downplayed the effectiveness of masks against the coronavirus.\n\nBut for months, scientists and public health officials have agreed that mask use is a major deterrent.\n\n“I think the science is clear,” said Brian Garibaldi, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Biocontainment Unit at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We know that masks work.”\n\nGaribaldi, a pulmonary doctor who treats COVID patients, said without masks there would have been more COVID deaths. “I think without a doubt things would have been worse.”\n\nAnd while Johnson has downplayed the importance of everyone getting vaccinated and questioned the safety of the vaccines, COVID vaccines have been enormously effective and have allowed the nation to move toward normalcy. Today, Johnson held a news conference in Milwaukee with several people who say they were seriously harmed after being vaccinated.\n\nChristine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush, said she thinks Johnson believes the contrarian things he says about public health issues and climate change. “If he doesn’t believe them at all, that is just so wrong,” she said.\n\nRegarding the witnesses he invited to his panels last year, she said: “You can always find outliers in science. Unfortunately, he is giving them a microphone they don’t deserve.”\n\nJohnson, 66, declined to be interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In a written response to numerous questions, he said it is merely an opinion to call his scientific positions extreme and that scientific consensus “has been proved wrong many times before.”\n\nOn COVID-19, he said, “I have repeatedly stated I am not downplaying the severity of the disease or the tragedies caused by it.”\n\nResponding to YouTube removing his video, Johnson said in a statement at the time that “Big Tech and mainstream media believe they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives.”\n\nRegarding climate change, he told the Journal Sentinel: “I am not a climate change denier, but I also am not a climate change alarmist.”\n\nWhen asked whether he still believed humans are not causing global warming, he said: “Human activity absolutely affects the environment. Exactly how much it affects climate relative to other factors, like solar cycles, earth’s axis wobble, etc., is a legitimate subject for scientific inquiry.”\n\nHe would not say whether “the environment” and climate change were the same thing.\n\nThe senator often qualifies his controversial statements with caveats or self-admonishments, such as “I’m not a doctor” or “I got in a little trouble for saying this.” He has compared the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 to the flu “in a bad year.” At one of his Senate hearings in December, Johnson said, “I’m not downplaying COVID,” acknowledging that 5% of people aged 70 and older with COVID-19 die from it “or with it.”\n\nReferring to a United Nations estimate in July that the pandemic could push as many as 130 million people into hunger by the end of 2020, he said COVID-19 was “certainly worse than the flu, but is it that much worse to cause that much economic devastation with that severe a human toll?”\n\nMinutes later, two of his own witnesses, including the doctor who promoted a worm medication as a miracle cure, said COVID-19 was worse than the flu.\n\n“This is not the flu,” Kory said, adding that the New York health care system he worked for last year went from 95 intensive care unit beds to 350 in just two and a half weeks.\n\n“We have ICUs dedicated to COVID patients on ventilators,” he said. “That’s not what happens with the flu. Gastroenterologists are taking care of dying patients on ventilators. We don’t do that with the flu.”\n\nMore:Sen. Ron Johnson is telling people to keep coronavirus in perspective\n\nPolitifact:Russ Feingold says Ron Johnson doesn't believe 'there's a man-made role in climate change'\n\n‘Kind of smart-alecky’\n\nLittle in Johnson’s background reveals how he would someday become a U.S. senator frequently at odds with science.\n\nAt Edina (Minn.) High School in the early 1970s, Johnson could be a little abrasive in class, recalled Jay Halvorson, who took Latin with him. But he was not the kind of person who seemed to harbor extreme views, he said.\n\n“He was kind of a smart-alecky kind of guy, cocky,” Halvorson said.\n\nHe said he has been surprised by Johnson’s statements about science in the Senate. In high school, Halvorson said, Johnson seemed to fit in with the kind of moderate Republicanism that was typical in their hometown of Edina.\n\nJohnson graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in business and accounting. In 1979, he and his wife, Jane, moved to Oshkosh to start a plastics business with Jane's brother. Johnson sold his ownership stake in the business last year.\n\nWhen Wisconsin voters swept Johnson into office as part of the Tea Party wave in 2010, he vowed to fight the national debt and Obamacare. Former Florida Republican Congressman David Jolly said Johnson has gone through a “fascinating evolution” from when he was first recruited to run for the Senate as a “Chamber of Commerce, sensible conservative.” Now, he said, Johnson is embracing an anti-science wing of the Republican Party.\n\nMark Becker, the former chairman of the Brown County Republican Party, said he doubts whether Johnson believes some of his statements.\n\n“He’s a contrarian,” he said, “but he’s also an actor.”\n\nBecker recalled a conversation he said he had with Johnson in which the senator acknowledged that Joe Biden had legitimately won the presidential election. Then Becker would see Johnson on TV expressing doubts about Biden winning.\n\nThough Johnson ultimately voted against efforts to reject Electoral College votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, he has said that voter fraud should be investigated and that a large percentage of the population didn’t view the election as legitimate.\n\nBecker texted Johnson on Jan. 3, telling him to stop advancing lies about the election, according to the texts, which Becker shared with the Journal Sentinel.\n\nFour days later, Johnson texted Becker back: “Mark, It is my sincere hope to never have to see or speak to a low-life weasel like yourself again.”\n\nFormer U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who spent seven years in the Senate with Johnson, said his former colleague doesn’t do his homework on scientific issues. He mentioned Johnson's claim that Greenland got its name because it once was warm enough to be green.\n\n“That’s a climate-denier trope that he heard somewhere,” Franken said. “Instead of saying, ‘Hmm, let me check that out.’ He has a very vaunted view of himself that is somewhat unwarranted.”\n\nFranken resigned from the Senate in 2017 after several women accused him of sexual misconduct, mostly in incidents before he came to the Senate in 2009.\n\nIn his written responses to the Journal Sentinel, Johnson said, “Al Franken is uninformed and should have done his homework before falsely and ignorantly criticizing me.”\n\nHe said no one knows “for certain how Greenland officially got its name, but it has been documented that Eric the Red urged his fellow Icelanders to venture with him to a ‘green land.’ It’s certainly plausible he saw green shores.”\n\nExcept for coastal areas, Greenland was covered with ice 1,000 years ago, just as it is today, said Yarrow Axford, a Northwestern University associate professor who has researched Greenland’s climate.\n\n“It would have looked very similar when the Norse arrived as it does today,” she said.\n\n‘I’ll say it again anyway’\n\nAs Tea Party flags flapped in the wind in Madison on the morning of April 15, 2010, an organizer for Americans for Prosperity introduced Johnson to the crowd.\n\nThe advocacy group, funded by the industrialist Koch brothers, not only was behind the rally that helped launch Johnson’s career, but it and other Koch-affiliated groups would back him in the years to come.\n\nKoch Industries is heavily involved in the oil and gas business, and Johnson often has ridiculed the science of human-caused climate change.\n\nIn 2010, Johnson said global warming was likely caused by sunspots. That same year, speaking in Wisconsin to a group of constitutional conservatives called the Rock River Patriots, he said he did not believe humans were causing global warming. Over the course of geologic time, he said, “we’ve had huge cycles in climate.”\n\n“I got in a little trouble for saying this, but I’ll say it again anyway,” he said. “If it weren’t for climate changes, we’re sitting here in Wisconsin, and we’d be sitting in, what, a 200-foot-thick glacier? I’ve got to figure out what the real thickness was. Somebody told me it was a mile.”\n\nIn 2016, he said the climate had not warmed in “quite a few years. That is proven scientifically.” That comment was judged to be false by Politifact. And 2016 would prove to be the warmest year on record, at the time, surpassing 2014 and 2015, which also set records.\n\nHe also said in a 2016 radio interview that “civilization thrives” in warmer weather and that people will adapt. “How many people are moving up toward the Antarctica or the Arctic?” he asked. “Most people move down to Texas and Florida, where it’s a little bit warmer.”\n\nIn another 2016 interview, he told the Journal Sentinel, “I don’t think we can do anything about controlling what the climate is.”\n\nAsked what he thought carbon dioxide does in the atmosphere, he said, “I think it gets sucked down by trees and helps trees grow.” But carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases also trap heat that otherwise would be emitted into space.\n\nIn 2019, Johnson told the College Republicans in Madison that the climate has always been changing, and they should not be concerned about fraction-degree increases, according to a story in the Badger Herald, a University of Wisconsin’s student newspaper.\n\nThe planet’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century.\n\nSince 2010, Johnson has received more than $590,000 in individual contributions from people employed by or associated with the fossil fuel industry, according to data from Open Secrets, a federal campaign finance tracking website run by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. During that time, Johnson has also accepted more than $1.2 million from Club for Growth, a conservative organization and political action committee with anti-climate change views.\n\nIn addition to Americans for Prosperity’s involvement in the 2010 Tea Party rally that helped launch Johnson’s career, news accounts said that another Koch-affiliated group was spending $1 million on ads to bolster his 2016 re-election campaign.\n\nIn his responses to the Journal Sentinel, Johnson said his position on climate change has not been shaped by campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, Koch-related entities or PACs.\n\n“I also personally don’t keep track of, or pay any attention to, how much anyone gives to me,” he said. “Raising money to run campaigns is a necessary part of politics.”\n\nA champion of vaping\n\nIn 2016, Johnson became a champion of the e-cigarette industry after reading a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that year by physician Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health.\n\nSiegel wrote that the FDA’s new regulations on e-cigarettes would force manufacturers to show that their products were beneficial to the public’s health and safer than regular cigarettes. Because of the high cost of doing that, thousands of small businesses would be destroyed, he said.\n\nTwelve days later, on May 17, 2016, Johnson wrote the first of two letters to the FDA, citing Siegel’s opinion piece and questioning the regulations, saying they could drive consumers to resort to traditional cigarettes.\n\nThe FDA responded by saying there could also be harm to public health by not regulating the booming e-cigarette industry. And emerging research showed that chemicals that could be damaging to the lungs were being used in vaping and electronic cigarette products.\n\nThe agency told Johnson there had been a 900% increase in youth e-cigarette use between 2011 and 2015 and that 3 million high school and middle school students were using the products.\n\nArchive:Watchdog: Diacetyl was linked to deaths, sickness so why is it still being used in e-cigarettes?\n\n“E-cigarettes could benefit public health if they encourage people who would otherwise not quit smoking to stop smoking altogether, while not encouraging youth or others to start use of tobacco products or encouraging former users to relapse back to tobacco use,” an FDA official wrote to Johnson. “On the other hand, e-cigarettes could be a detriment to public health if they re-normalize smoking, encourage youth to initiate smoking, or prompt users to continue to escalate cigarette use — in effect, reversing the meaningful progress tobacco control initiatives have achieved to date.”\n\nJohnson continued his efforts to curtail FDA regulation of the industry.\n\nIn December 2016, he and then-Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California, wrote to then-Vice President-elect Pence asking that the FDA rules be repealed. (Hunter was later convicted on election corruption charges, then pardoned by Trump.)\n\nIn 2017, shortly after Trump took office, Johnson wrote to Tom Price, the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, complaining of the FDA’s “overreach.”\n\nIn November 2019, Johnson urged Trump not to move forward on flavor restrictions for vaping products. Less than four months later, Trump angered public health groups by announcing scaled-back limits on flavored e-cigarettes.\n\nIn his written response for this story, Johnson said: “I believe it helps improve the health of those who use vaping to quit smoking. I certainly don’t recommend that anyone who doesn’t smoke should take up vaping, and we should do everything we can to prevent minors from obtaining and using vaping products.”\n\nOn numerous occasions, Johnson, a nonsmoker, has been a guest on the show of conservative talk radio host Vicki McKenna, a heavy smoker who switched to e-cigarettes.\n\nIn one of his own podcasts in 2016, titled “Keep Vapin, Vicki,” Johnson had McKenna on as his guest. Johnson said on the podcast, “So I’m really glad that you quit smoking. I want to make sure these products are available to you and other people who’ve quit smoking.”\n\nOn the podcast, McKenna speculated that the FDA wanted to ban e-cigarette products because the government would lose sales tax revenue from tobacco products.\n\n“I share your cynicism,” Johnson said.\n\n‘Never developed symptoms’\n\nWhile vaping was a major public health issue at the start of 2020, it faded to the background when the pandemic hit. Johnson also pivoted, commenting on everything from COVID-19 treatments, mask use and, eventually, vaccines.\n\nJohnson tested positive for COVID-19 in October. At his November Senate hearing, he said he considered using hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug.\n\n“My cardiologist,” he said, “talked me out of using hydroxychloroquine,” explaining that he had an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation. Hydroxychloroquine is known to increase the risk of potentially fatal heart rhythms, though such cases are uncommon.\n\nInstead of taking the drug, Johnson said he took vitamins C and D, zinc, and the over-the-counter supplement quercetin, none of which are proven to be of any benefit in treating COVID-19.\n\n“I never developed symptoms,” he told the doctors who had testified at his hearing. “I will tell you one thing though: Had I developed symptoms, I would have found a doctor. I might have called one of you. And I would have tried hydroxychloroquine.”\n\nFive months earlier the FDA had revoked its emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized patients, citing its potential for causing serious cardiac adverse events.\n\nOn a talk radio program in March, Johnson said he wasn’t a doctor but told listeners that if they get COVID-19 they should talk to their physicians about early treatment with cocktails of repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine and the anti-parasite drug ivermectin, neither of which are proven to work against the virus.\n\nThen, speaking at a state Republican Party event in April, he said, “Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, just early treatment. That could have stopped the pandemic before we even had a vaccine.” He also told the audience that “health agencies” had vilified the doctors he brought before his committee who talked about early treatments.\n\nThree doctors at Johnson’s hearings promoted ivermectin, including Kory, a pulmonary physician who practiced in Wisconsin and New York and who called the drug a miracle cure.\n\nAt a May hearing last year, Kory also argued that steroids should be used to treat COVID-19 patients. At the time, steroids were not recommended, but a month later he was proven correct when a large British study showed that the common steroid dexamethasone cut the risk of death by one-third in patients on ventilators and by 20% in those getting supplemental oxygen.\n\nBut while the dexamethasone finding came as the result of a randomized, 6,400-person clinical trial, there has been a lack of such trials showing life-saving benefit for ivermectin, though some less rigorous research suggests a possible benefit.\n\nThe National Institutes of Health says there is insufficient data to recommend for or against the drug. Drugmaker Merck says there is no meaningful evidence it works against COVID-19.\n\nSeveral other major health organizations say it should not be used outside the context of a clinical trial; in June, University of Oxford researchers said they were starting a large-scale trial.\n\nIn an interview, Kory said Merck has a financial motive in claiming there is no evidence to support ivermectin. He said Merck is developing a COVID-19 drug with another company. While that drug is in early testing, if ivermectin were approved for COVID-19, it would “completely demolish” the market for Merck’s other drug, Kory said.\n\nJohnson has also cast doubt on whether masks helped prevent the spread of COVID-19, saying there would be fewer infections and deaths if they worked.\n\n“I think as more evidence comes in, it’s becoming harder and harder to support that masks actually work,” he said in a constituent conference call in April, adding that he still supported wearing masks.\n\nJohnson was questioned about his mask comment at a Milwaukee Press Club event in June. He said that early in the pandemic, Fauci reported that coronavirus particles were too small for masks to be effective.\n\nBut Fauci's position on masks changed a short time later when more information became available. Since then, Fauci has said that people should wear masks when they can’t socially distance.\n\nOne of Johnson’s witnesses at his pandemic hearings argued that masks don’t work.\n\nRamin Oskoui, a Washington, D.C.-area cardiologist, testified that one reason masks are not effective against the coronavirus is because the “predominant mechanism of spread” for the disease is oral-fecal transmission, much like the stomach flu and polio. Oral-fecal refers to a virus being shed in stool and then infecting someone else through the mouth, such as through contaminated water.\n\nWilliam Haseltine, a former professor of virology at Harvard University, said that while the virus can spread by the oral-fecal route, by far the main mode of transmission is through aerosols and tiny particles in the air.\n\nOskoui declined to comment for this story.\n\nSays no to the vaccine\n\nIn a brief March 10 interview with a Milwaukee TV reporter, Johnson said he would not get a COVID-19 vaccine.\n\n“No. I had COVID,\" he said. \"I think that probably provides me the best immunity possible, actually having had the disease. I don’t feel pressure that I need to get a vaccine. I’d rather let other people who want to get the vaccine get it before I do.”\n\nBut that runs contrary to CDC recommendations. While immunity can last a year and possibly much longer, people can be reinfected, though it is uncommon. Reinfection is an increasing concern as more variants of the virus develop and become dominant.\n\nEven Trump, who was hospitalized with severe COVID-19 at about the same time Johnson was infected, and Trump’s wife, Melania, who also got the disease, later were vaccinated.\n\nAnd a study in March in the Lancet found that reinfection was more common in people aged 65 and older compared with younger people. The younger group in the study had an estimated 80% protection against reinfection versus 47% for the older people.\n\nPublic health officials say there are important reasons to vaccinate as much of the population as possible and why people should care if those around them are not vaccinated.\n\n“Because they are going to propagate the disease,” said Harvard’s Haseltine. “If they are not vaccinated, we are never going to get rid of it.”\n\nOn McKenna’s radio show in April, Johnson said COVID-19 vaccine distribution should have been limited to the vulnerable.\n\n“The science tells us that vaccines are 95% effective,” Johnson said. “So, if you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?”\n\nIn a written statement, Johnson said: “It is a legitimate question as to whether people at very low risk of suffering serious illness from COVID, particularly the young and healthy, should be encouraged to take a vaccine that is being administered under an Emergency Use Authorization — in other words, before it has been fully tested and fully approved.\"\n\nHe said everyone should have the right to decide for themselves. Johnson also said he will vigorously oppose any government effort to impose vaccine passports. Johnson also has said he supported the Operation Warp Speed program to develop the vaccine as quickly as possible and said he considers the vaccines safe.\n\nCOVID-19 vaccines and the trustworthiness of federal health agencies was the topic of conversation when Johnson was a guest on McKenna’s show March 16. He also warned that the “liberal, progressive, radical” Democratic playbook aims to “keep the population in a state of fear. Whether it is climate change and now the pandemic, the more people fear, the more they are going to be looking to (Democrats) to alleviate that fear.”\n\nDaphne Chen contributed to this report.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/06/11/surfboards-printed-home-cherry-blossom-sculptures-news-around-states/116939290/", "title": "Surfboards up, 3D-printed home: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: The state told a federal judge Tuesday that it has nearly finished construction to use nitrogen gas to carry out death sentences, an execution method authorized by state law but never put into use. The court filing did not describe how the proposed execution system would work. When legislation was approved authorizing nitrogen hypoxia, proponents theorized death by nitrogen hypoxia could be a simpler, more humane execution method. Death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving the body of oxygen. Alabama in 2018 became the third state – along with Oklahoma and Mississippi – to authorize the untested execution method. Lawyers for the state wrote in a court filing Tuesday that the Alabama Department of Corrections “is nearing completion of the initial physical build for the nitrogen hypoxia system and its safety measures.” The information was disclosed in a court filing Tuesday involving a lawsuit over the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber. State lawyers said they did not yet know if advisers could safely be present. No state has used nitrogen hypoxia to carry out an execution or developed a protocol for its use, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. He likened the planned first usage to human experimentation.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: High school seniors in the capital city will be required to earn half a credit less than prior graduating classes under a change adopted this week that was billed as a way to acknowledge the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on learning. Under the change adopted by the Juneau School District Board of Education, the classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024 would need 22.5 credits to graduate, rather than the 23 credits previously required. Reducing the elective credit total by a half-credit would allow “more time for recovery of core content credits or other credits lost,” the proposal said. The district superintendent, Bridget Weiss, said students still must complete core academic credits, such as in English and math, KTOO Public Media reports. “What we’re hoping is that this just relieves a little bit of the pressure for those students who lost some credits throughout the pandemic and provides a little bit of space in their schedule to make up those core academic credits,” she said. Juneau schools would continue meeting state graduation standards.\n\nArizona\n\nTempe: Habitat for Humanity unveiled its progress on a 3D-printed home in the city Wednesday – the first of its kind for the nonprofit in the country – and said it could be a possible solution to the lack of affordable housing in the area. Between 70% and 80% of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home is 3D-printed. The remainder is a traditional build. PERI, a company based in Germany, provided its 3D printer for the project, shipping it to the U.S. in March before printing began in May. The company says it built Germany’s first 3D-printed house in 2020 and Europe’s largest 3D-printed apartment building. “The 3D printing project in Tempe is now continuing this success story in the USA,” PERI managing director Thomas Imbacher said in a news release. Jason Barlow, Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona’s president and CEO, said the organization had identified a family to live in the home, which was designed by Arizona-based architecture firm Candelaria Design Associates. Barlow said the family has lived and worked in Tempe for years but struggled to find affordable housing. Their new home “fits that bill,” he said. The project has been in the works for more than 18 months and is expected to be completed around September or October.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday approved performance-related merit pay raises of as much as 3% for state employees. Hutchinson announced that $28 million in state and federal funds was allocated for the merit pay increases, which he said will be the largest performance pay raises offered since he took office in 2015. The Republican governor cited the work from the state’s employees in response to the coronavirus pandemic. He said the raises will be added to employees’ existing pay and won’t be a one-time raise. Nearly 26,000 employees are eligible for the bumps. “This last year, our workforce has shown dedication, resilience and flexibility during this pandemic,” Hutchinson said at a news conference. “It’s been circumstances that no workforce has been through in the last 100 years.”\n\nCalifornia\n\nLong Beach: City officials have said they will spend $2.5 million to maintain the historic Queen Mary ocean liner for the next six months and plan out the repairs needed to reopen the tourist destination. The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to enter into a $2 million temporary caretaker contract with the ship’s current on-ship operator, Evolution Hospitality, for the next six months with the possibility of a six-month extension, The Orange County Register reports. Officials said the remaining $500,000 will pay for the city’s contract engineer, Moffatt & Nichol, to develop the engineering and design repair work, which is estimated to cost $5 million. It was not immediately known how the city would pay for future repair work. Council members agreed Tuesday that regaining control of the ship for the first time since 1978 provides the city an opportunity to preserve and leverage an asset considered synonymous with the city. “Anywhere we go, the Queen Mary represents Long Beach,” Councilwoman Mary Zendejas said. “Nobody is going to be able to take care of the Queen Mary as much as we can now that we have it back in our hands.”\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: The state has its first litter of gray wolf pups since the 1940s, wildlife officials said Wednesday. A state biologist and district wildlife manager each spotted the litter of at least three wolf pups over the weekend with their parents, two adult wolves known to live in the state, Gov. Jared Polis announced in a news release. Most wolf litters have four to six pups, so there could be more. The discovery comes after Colorado voters narrowly approved a ballot measure last year that requires the state to reintroduce the animal on public lands in the western part of the state by the end of 2023. Gray wolves lost their federal protected status as an endangered species earlier this year. But they remain protected at the state level, and hunting the animals in Colorado is illegal. Penalties for violations include fines, jail time and a loss of hunting license privileges. “These pups will have plenty of potential mates when they grow up to start their own families,” Polis said in a statement. Gray wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned into extinction in Colorado in the 1940s. Officials last year confirmed the presence of a small pack of wolves in northwestern Colorado after a number of sightings since 2019. The animals were believed to have come down from Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Lawmakers closed out a legislative session like no other Wednesday night, with the state Senate approving a two-year, $46.3 billion budget that proponents said will help Connecticut in its continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while beginning to address some long-standing inequities in the state. Legislators wrapped up their work shortly before midnight. In the final moments, the House and Senate chambers were nearly filled with lawmakers – a rare sight this session, given the strict COVID-19 protocols. As in the House, there was bipartisan support for the budget in the Senate, where the bill passed 31 to 4. Shortly afterward, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said he will sign it into law, calling it the “most progressive, transformative and life-changing budget our state has ever seen.” The new fiscal year begins July 1. Wednesday’s vote marked the culmination of an unusual and challenging legislative session, during which the Capitol was closed to the public, and staff and legislators were forced to rely on Zoom meetings to get much of their work done, including committee meetings and public hearings. Besides dealing with the devastating impacts of the pandemic, the General Assembly was also under pressure to pass a budget that addresses the state’s racial and economic inequities.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: Democratic lawmakers are proposing to give public officials more reasons to deny requests for public records under the state’s Freedom of Information Act and require people seeking records to pay new fees. The measure cleared a Democrat-led Senate committee Wednesday after a public hearing in which representatives of open-government groups spoke against it and warned that it could lead to more government secrecy. The legislation allows government workers to deny FOIA requests that they consider to be “unreasonably broad, unduly burdensome, intended to disrupt the essential functions of the public body” or “abusive.” The bill was filed on behalf of Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jenning’s office, which is charged with reviewing petitions from people whose requests for public records have been denied. State solicitor Aaron Goldstein said the Department of Justice has seen “basically a tripling of the volume of work” in recent years. While the growing number of petitions suggests that more FOIA requests are being denied, Goldstein told committee members that there are “a small amount of abusive filers” whose record requests undermine the intent of the FOIA.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Organizers of the National Cherry Blossom Festival plan to relocate the “Art in Bloom” sculptures from this year’s festival event throughout the area, WUSA-TV reports. Of the 26 oversized cherry blossom sculptures, at least one will remain in each of D.C.’s eight wards, with another five to be auctioned to the public for their “dynamic aesthetics and one-of-kind interpretations,” according to the festival’s website. “The Art in Bloom sculptures radiated springtime across the district and beyond, and now it’s time to find permanent homes for these one-of-a-kind creations,” said Diana Mayhew, president and CEO of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Mayhew said 17 of the sculptures have already been acquired by organizations, businesses and private citizens in the capital region. The five sculptures up for auction will primarily help fund the festival to ensure it can remain free and open to the public, but a portion of the proceeds will also be given to the Trust for the National Mall’s Cherry Tree Endowment, according to the auction’s webpage. The sculptures were part of this year’s “Blossom Hunt,” in which visitors were tasked with finding the sculptures around the city and posting them on social media for the chance to win prizes. The online auction ends Tuesday.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: The state Board of Education banned “critical race theory” from public school classrooms Thursday, adopting new rules it said would shield schoolchildren from curricula that could “distort historical events.” Florida’s move was widely expected as a national debate intensifies about how race should be used as a lens in classrooms to examine the country’s tumultuous history. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared by video at the top of the board’s meeting, urging its members, many of whom he appointed, to adopt the new measures he asserted would serve students with the facts rather than “trying to indoctrinate them with ideology.” The Black Lives Matter movement has helped bring contentious discussions about race to the forefront of American discourse, and classrooms have become a battleground. Supporters contend that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race and that the country was founded on the theft of land and labor. Opponents of critical race theory say schoolchildren should not be taught that America is fundamentally racist. Governors and legislatures in Republican-led states around the country are considering or have signed into law bills that would limit how teachers can frame American history.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Residents receiving unemployment benefits will once again be required to look for work, and those whose hours have been reduced will be able to earn less before payments drop, beginning June 27. Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced the changes Thursday, also saying employers with many laid-off workers collecting benefits will face higher unemployment insurance taxes after that date. It’s a further tightening of Georgia’s unemployment assistance as Butler and other elected Republican leaders say the state needs to do more to push people into the workforce. Georgia announced last month that, beginning June 27, it would cut off federal programs that provide a $300-a-week boost to people on the jobless rolls, as well as programs that pay federal money to people who are not usually eligible for state unemployment or have been receiving jobless aid for longer than the state provides. Those federal programs will last through September. Butler had earlier signaled he would reinstate work-search requirements, a move underway in more than three-quarters of states. Employers will also be asked to report when workers refuse to return to work or refuse a job offer, which could cause workers to lose benefits going forward. To keep drawing benefits after June 26, residents must register with the EmployGeorgia.com website.\n\nHawaii\n\nLahaina: Restaurants are having a hard time serving an influx of tourists returning to the islands as pandemic restrictions across the nation ease. Gov. David Ige has said the 50% capacity limit on restaurants will not increase until 60% of residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But capacity increases won’t help some restaurants with limited space, Hawaii News Now reports. On Maui, Cool Cat Cafe General Manager Paul Kemp said his restaurant won’t be able to serve many more people until social distancing rules change. “If we can get 6 feet to 3 feet, that’s when everything will really come together for the restaurants and put everything really back to the old norm,” he said. People are currently waiting about an hour to eat at the cafe, he said. And restaurants that do take reservations are often booked, sometimes for weeks in advance. The owners of Sale Pepe restaurant appreciate the safety measures. “We need to be safe,” owner and chef Michele Di Bari said. “People think it’s over, especially people who are coming on vacation.” The restaurant is booked until the end of the month and has increased its takeout and delivery business. “We always remember that this is a temporary situation,” owner and general manager Qiana Di Bari said. “It’s uncomfortable right now. ... We just have to hang in there.”\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The state could finish the fiscal year at the end of June with a record budget surplus of $800 million, Gov. Brad Little announced Wednesday. The Republican governor said he will advocate for additional tax cuts along with investments in key areas, with education topping the priority list. Lawmakers will take up the budget when they meet in January. Little said fiscal conservatism, swift action during the coronavirus pandemic, responsible allocation of billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 rescue money and “our relentless focus on cutting red tape are the reasons Idaho’s economy is catapulting ahead of other states right now.” Little noted that May revenue numbers came in $580 million ahead of forecasts and, at nearly $850 million, the best in state history. The Division of Financial Management said revenue numbers for May, also released Wednesday, were far above predictions because the deadline for paying income tax was delayed from April to May due to the pandemic. Overall this year, individual income taxes have brought in $2.3 billion, about 25% more than predicted. Sales tax collections are up nearly 8% to $1.8 billion.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: State lawmakers could take up a bill later this month that would restore voting rights to convicted offenders serving time in county jails or state or federal prisons, according to the measure’s House sponsor. Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said the bill almost came up for a vote during the final days of the regular session but was delayed due to some last-minute confusion. Lawmakers wrapped up the bulk of their spring session June 1, but they did not formally adjourn the session because negotiations were continuing on a massive energy bill that would put Illinois on a path to producing 100% of its electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources. The Senate plans to return next Tuesday to vote on the energy bill, with the House in session the following day. Ford’s proposal to restore voting rights to convicted inmates was the subject of a committee hearing in March, but the panel never voted on it. During that hearing, Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, questioned whether it would require a constitutional amendment before it could take effect because the Illinois Constitution states: “A person convicted of a felony, or otherwise under sentence in a correctional institution or jail, shall lose the right to vote, which right shall be restored not later than upon completion of his sentence.”\n\nIndiana\n\nWest Lafayette: When muscle is damaged, resident stem cells mediate the repair of the injured tissue. At the same time, circulating immune cells race to the site to aid the repair. The presence of these infiltrating immune cells at injury sites raises questions about their role in coordinating with muscle stem cells to build or regenerate muscle tissue. Shihuan Kuang, a Purdue professor of animal sciences, has identified a previously unknown subset of muscle stem cells, which he has dubbed “immunomyoblasts,” that have both muscle stem cell and immune cell properties and may shed light on how those cells interact. The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases recently awarded Kuang $2.3 million over five years to develop a basic understanding of these cells’ origins and functions. “These stem cells have unique properties that raise questions about where they come from and how they relate to muscle and immune cells,” Kuang said. “This grant will provide the support for us to answer those fundamental questions and lay a foundation for applied research into ways immunomyoblasts could be targeted to treat diseases and improve animal agriculture.” The knowledge gained from Kuang’s work may open new avenues of research in muscular diseases.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Residents will no longer be able to use a state website to check their own vaccination histories or those of their children. The Iowa Department of Public Health is limiting public access to the website, partly because of concerns that employers could surreptitiously use it to see if their workers have been inoculated, department spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand said. The change comes amid national controversy over whether employers should be able to require workers to receive COVID-19 shots and a state law banning use or government issuance of so-called vaccine passports. Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies have long been required to record vaccinations on the Iowa Immunization Registry Information System, which helps tracking of vaccination efforts, including in communities and for schools’ students. The website also lets health care providers check before administering a vaccine to see if patients have already received the shots elsewhere. Since 2012, individual Iowans could sign on to IRIS using their names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers or Medicaid numbers to view their own vaccination histories, Ekstrand said. They also could check their children’s records that way. But Ekstrand said legislators heard concerns that employers or others with access to that information could access the records.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: Eastern Kansas and western Missouri are facing a “blood emergency,” the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City announced Wednesday. The nonprofit organization asked the public to donate blood to help replenish its supply, which it said was only sufficient to last three days. Things were looking “a little bit grim” in terms of the lack of blood donations being made to the donor center the CBC operates in southwest Topeka, said Chelsey Smith, the CBC’s outreach and communications coordinator. The situation is similar at the six other centers operated by the CBC, Smith said. The blood shortage was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the center. Smith said while figures weren’t available for specific locations, about 25,000 people who had been blood donors prior to the pandemic had not yet returned to donate in the greater Kansas City area alone. Meanwhile, Smith said, the CBC was seeing virtually no first-time donors among youths, while the number of blood drives being held had been reduced by hundreds. “Complicating matters, there has been a recent surge in blood usage as hospitals perform surgeries and patients seek medical care that was postponed during the pandemic,” the CBC said. “The increased need and lag in donors has created a chronic gap in blood donations.”\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: A former nurse at a nursing home claims in a lawsuit that she was fired last year after raising repeated concerns about infection control and lack of personal protective equipment, such as masks, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Donna Frank, a registered nurse, alleges in the lawsuit filed June 3 that she was wrongly fired by Signature Healthcare at Jefferson Place Rehab and Wellness Center after about six months on the job. Frank was fired Sept. 9, 2020, the day after an investigator from the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services Office of Inspector General showed up to investigate conditions at Signature-Jefferson Place, following a complaint from Frank. The lawsuit alleges she was fired in retaliation for that and other complaints related to COVID-19 and infection control procedures. “The more she complained, the more of a headache she became, and they just got rid of her,” said Frank’s lawyer, Charles W. Miller. A spokeswoman for Signature Healthcare, Ann Bowdan Wilder, said in an email that the company doesn’t comment on pending legal matters but that “there are two sides to every story and judgement or opinion should be withheld until allegations are proven and/or disproven in the legal process.”\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: All 5-year-old children in the state should receive a kindergarten education, lawmakers decided Wednesday. With one day remaining in the legislative session, lawmakers sent the measure by Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, to the governor’s desk. The Senate voted 38-0 for the final version of the legislation, while the House backed it in a 70-32 vote. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has said he supports the bill and will sign it into law. The requirement, to take effect with the 2022-23 school year, is estimated to add up to 2,800 students to kindergarten rolls when the mandate starts. Louisiana children currently must attend school from the ages of 7 to 18, unless they graduate early from high school. Fields’ bill will require kindergarten attendance for children who turn 5 years old by Sept. 30 of each year. A parent can defer the kindergarten enrollment if the child is 4 years old on the first day of school or if the child is enrolled in a pre-K program. Supporters said mandatory kindergarten will help to keep children from falling behind, noting that studies show 90% of brain development happens between birth and age 5. They said 19 other states require mandatory kindergarten, and Southern states with the requirement have higher literacy rates than Louisiana.\n\nMaine\n\nWells: Scientists have determined that a black substance that had settled near the shoreline over several days is made up of millions of dead bugs. One of the regulars who walk Wells Beach, Ed Smith, took photos of the substance in the sand and sent them to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Portland Press Herald reports. Smith wanted to know more because he said his feet were dyed black after walking through it, and he wanted to know if it was possibly toxic. Steve Dickson, a marine geologist with Maine Geological Survey, figured out what was going on with the help of two retired oceanographers who live nearby. One of them, Linda Stathoplos, took a sample from the beach and looked at it under her microscope. “It was clearly little bugs,” Stathoplos said. “This is the first time I’ve seen or heard of this in my 35 years,” Dickson said, adding that he is still trying to determine what the bugs are, where they came from and why. But he does not expect it to be a regular occurrence.\n\nMaryland\n\nOcean City: A controversy surrounding the placement of a 149-foot-tall Ferris wheel seems to have reached a conclusion after an amusement park informed town officials that it will move its ride off town property, but with the cost of a fix estimated to top $100,000, the Big Wheel won’t operate this summer. Ocean City leaders ordered Trimper’s Rides to move its Ferris wheel off the Boardwalk on Monday night. Questions about the structure’s proximity to the town-owned Boardwalk arose over the weekend, and the encroachment was confirmed Monday when a survey paid for by Trimper’s found it overhung town property by at least 10 feet. Park officials told the town it will dismantle the ride Monday, said Jessica Waters, communications and marketing director for Ocean City. The Big Wheel has been shut down, according to Waters, but the town will continue to issue fines for the zoning violation until it’s off the Boardwalk. Trimper’s had received at least three fines from Ocean City from Saturday through Monday, she said Tuesday. Each fine was $500, and Waters said it can be increased up to $1,000 each day until the ride is moved. Trimper’s President Antoinette Bruno has said the incorrect placement was the result of human error: “I think we made an error of a few inches, and we’re sorry.”\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Roman Catholics across the state are being called back to Sunday Mass. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston and the bishops of Springfield and Fall River announced in similar statements Wednesday that the faithful are once again required to attend Mass starting the weekend of June 19-20. Houses of worship have either been closed or open under capacity limits for the past year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and services have either been broadcast or held remotely. O’Malley said Father’s Day was an appropriate time to lift the dispensation. “In this year of Saint Joseph, who was always a faithful observer of the sabbath, we chose Father’s Day as an appropriate day to encourage all of our people, and especially our families, to return to the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist,” he said in his letter to parishioners. Mass is a central part of being Catholic, Springfield Bishop William Byrne said. “The benefit of that is every time we go to Mass, we encounter Jesus Christ, we get to be together, we get to celebrate the obligation and the goodness of keeping the sabbath holy,” he said. The obligation to attend Mass does not apply to those who are ill or homebound, the bishops said. Worcester Bishop Robert McManus restored the Mass obligation for his parishioners last month.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday that makes it easier for veterans and their families who are licensed professionals to continue their careers when they move to the state. Veterans, active-duty service members and their dependents with valid out-of-state professional licenses can get their licenses in Michigan under the new laws, and the fees for application will be waived. Current law allows veterans to have the initial application fees for professional licenses waived, but the new law expands that waiver to active-duty service members and their dependents. The families of the 550,000 veterans in Michigan face enough struggles seeking employment after service without having to figure out how to get re-licensed when they have a valid out-of-state license, Zeneta Adams, director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, said Wednesday at a bill signing in Lansing. Whitmer said the bill will help welcome service members and their families to Michigan and promote a skilled workforce, helping the state achieve its goal of raising the number of people with a professional certificate or college degree to 60% by 2030, up from the current 49%. The measure received bipartisan support in the Legislature.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: A federal judge has sentenced a man to 15 months in prison for killing and then beheading a 700-pound black bear on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced 39-year-old James Stimac on Wednesday. The bear is one of seven clan animals of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. The tribe doesn’t allow non-Indians to hunt bear on its reservation. According to prosecutors, Stimac, of Brainerd, isn’t a Red Lake tribal member and entered the northern Minnesota reservation without permission in September 2019. He used a compound bow to shoot and kill the bear near the reservation’s garbage dump. He returned to the dump the next day and posed for photographs with the carcass. He later posted the photos on social media. The bear was too big to move, so he sawed its head off and took it to a taxidermist in Ironton to make it into a trophy. He left the remainder of the carcass to rot.\n\nMississippi\n\nPascagoula: A shipyard that’s the largest private employer in the state says it plans to hire about 3,000 new full-time employees. Ingalls Shipbuilding held a hiring event Wednesday in Pascagoula. Its parent company, Huntington Ingalls Industries, said in a news release that it has been recruiting potential workers in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. “We are steadily adding new team members to our growing workforce,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said in the release. “Shipbuilding is a challenging, extremely rewarding and potentially life-changing career.” Ingalls is hiring ship fitters, electricians, pipefitters, pipe welders and structural welders. It is seeking people with mechanical, hot work or carpentry experience. The news release said free training is available to those without the required skills or work experience. The shipyard recently finished improvements that include more than a million square feet of covered work area, better access to work sites and tool rooms, cool-down and hydration stations, and a second dining area, the news release said.\n\nMissouri\n\nJefferson City: A union representing state workers is urging Gov. Mike Parson to make accommodations for employees ordered last month to return to their offices, calling the directive “dangerous.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Natashia Pickens, president of the Missouri State Workers Union Communications Workers of America Local 6355, wrote to Parson on Wednesday, saying that COVID-19 is still “raging” across the state and that Parson’s office failed to take into account health or child care concerns. The union asked that Parson, a Republican, consider demands that include paid time off to get vaccinated, personal protective equipment for employees, and that the state set up a process so workers with family and child care responsibilities may request a delayed return. Thirty-one House Democrats signed onto the letter. Last month Parson directed all state employees to return to in-person work after many spent most of the previous 14 months working remotely. He cited declining cases of COVID-19.\n\nMontana\n\nNye: Two workers for the only palladium and platinum mining operation in the U.S. have died in an underground accident at a mine, company officials said. The employees were in a utility vehicle called a side-by-side that crashed into an underground locomotive Wednesday afternoon, said Heather McDowell, a vice president with the South Africa-based Sibanye-Stillwater, which owns the Stillwater Mining Co. The cause of the accident at the mine near the community of Nye, north of Yellowstone National Park, is under investigation. Mine officials said they are working with safety regulators. The identities of the workers were not made public. In a statement, company officials said that “we value safety above all else. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone impacted by this tragic event.” Stillwater Mining Co. has 2,335 employees and contractors, according to its website, including just over 1,200 workers at the mine in Nye, McDowell said. Its other palladium and platinum mine is near the small Montana city of Big Timber, and the company has a refining complex in the nearby town of Columbus.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: The state continues to report only a small number of new COVID-19 cases, but that number crept up slightly over the past week. Health officials said Nebraska recorded 280 new coronavirus cases over the past week, up from 237 the week before. But as recently as April, the state was reporting more cases than that in a single day. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska fell over the past two weeks, going from 74.43 new cases per day May 25 to 40.00 new cases per day Tuesday. The state said 54 people were hospitalized with the virus across Nebraska on Wednesday. That number has been below 100 since the middle of May, and it is a fraction of the November peak of 987. Gov. Pete Ricketts ended the last of the state’s virus-related restrictions last month because hospitalizations remain at such a low level. The state has now confirmed a total of 223,749 virus cases and 2,256 deaths since the pandemic began. Roughly 44.5% of the state’s population has been vaccinated against COVID-19, but health officials said the pace of vaccinations has slowed significantly over the past month.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: Gov. Steve Sisolak on Wednesday signed into law a bill that paves the way for Nevada to become the second state in the nation, after Washington, to offer state-managed health insurance plans. Sisolak signed the measure that seeks to create state-managed health insurance plans by 2026 at a Las Vegas medical center. It passed through the Legislature on May 30. The new law requires insurers that bid to cover Medicaid recipients and state employees to also bid to offer a so-called public option plan. State officials would select certain providers to be in-network for the public option plan and mandate that they charge 5% less in monthly premiums than the average plan on the state insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act and 15% less by four years after it is first offered. Proponents argue a state-based public option will expand coverage to Nevada’s 350,000 uninsured residents and lower the cost of health insurance throughout the market. The bill’s detractors decry the price controls and worry that forcing doctors and hospitals to accept patients at lower costs could lead them to leave the state and exacerbate a practitioner shortage. The public option plan will have to undergo an actuarial study, and then the state would need to apply for a waiver from the federal government.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: A bill seeking justice for run-over cats is heading to the governor’s desk, minus the name of the animal that inspired it. State law already requires drivers who injure or kill dogs to notify police or the animals’ owners, or else face a $1,000 fine, but Rep. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, sponsored a bill to give cats equal footing after the death of his 5-year-old cat, Arrow. The House passed the bill in April, as did the Senate, but the latter objected to dubbing it “Arrow’s Law.” The House agreed Thursday to drop the name and advance the bill to Gov. Chris Sununu, who has said he will sign it. Rep. Thomas Walsh, chair of the House Transportation Committee, urged his colleagues to support the bill despite the change. “While we will always remember Arrow, there was no objection from the committee,” said Walsh, R-Hooksett. In any state, hitting an animal with a car could be a potential violation as destruction of property, but animal advocates say the New Hampshire bill is part of a trend of states going further. In Massachusetts, the law includes cats and dogs. New York requires drivers to report injuries to dogs, cats, horses or cattle. And Rhode Island’s statute covers all domesticated animals.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nAsbury Park: Surf shops have been swamped with both new and veteran surfers searching for a safe, socially distanced activity during a pandemic, along with the exhilaration that comes with the sport. Now, surfboard manufacturers racing to meet the demand can’t keep up. Surfers are waiting longer and paying more. Melissa D’Anna opened Lucky Dog Surf Co. in Sea Bright in 2017, helping the township recover from superstorm Sandy, and she quickly built a following. She worried the pandemic would put a stop to her momentum. But the surfing industry, estimated by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Assocation to generate upward of $8 billion a year, found itself with a nearly perfect set of circumstances. Some people with vacation homes at the Shore moved there full time and could surf after work. Others had federal relief checks that they could spend on new hobbies. Surfers said they began to see their tight-knit community expand. “You saw people you hadn’t seen out the water in a while,” said Mickey Schluter, a 23-year-old surfer from Fair Haven. Local manufacturers said orders for boards spiked, forcing them to scramble to fill them. Brian Wynn, owner of Wynn Surfboards in Egg Harbor Township, said he’s about two months behind schedule.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: The state’s top information technology official says a new $100 million state account for expanding access to high-speed internet is just a start, and investments of $1 billion are likely needed to modernize infrastructure. Information Technology Secretary John Salazar told a panel of legislators Thursday that international consultant Deloitte is helping the state anticipate opportunities for federal grant money to improve internet access and data transfer rates. “They’re scoping out those grants,” he said. “We need to be up there, front and center, asking for the money.” Salazar said the consultant is also looking at internet infrastructure programs in seven comparable states for effective solutions. He said states like Colorado, Minnesota and Montana have some things in common with New Mexico in terms of geography and obligations to Native American communities. The COVID-19 pandemic and a yearlong pivot to online learning have exposed gaps in internet access across swaths of the state. Over 20% of students were left without internet at home at the start of the pandemic, and a state district court judge has directed the state to move quickly on improvements for pupils.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: The traditional Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show will return to the city this year after the pandemic forced changes to the celebration in 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. “This is really great, a tremendous sign of the rebirth of New York City,” de Blasio said at a virtual briefing. The fireworks will be launched from five barges in the East River starting at 9:25 p.m. July 4, said Will Coss, executive producer of the show. The show will be broadcast live on NBC as part of a two-hour special featuring the Black Pumas, Coldplay, OneRepublic and Reba McEntire, officials from Macy’s and NBC said. The big show was replaced by several small, unannounced fireworks displays last year in order to prevent crowds from gathering during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. De Blasio said there will be dedicated areas for fully vaccinated people to enjoy this year’s show, along with other areas for people who are not vaccinated or who want to join together with people who are not vaccinated.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Legislation that includes $2 billion in income tax reductions over the next two years and the phaseout of the state’s corporate income tax by 2028 received bipartisan approval again in the Senate on Thursday. The Republican-authored measure, which also would send up to $1 billion in federal COVID-19 recovery aid to hundreds of thousands of businesses and nonprofits, already received the Senate’s initial OK on Wednesday. Seven Democrats joined all Republicans present in voting 34-13 for the bill Thursday. The bill now heads to the House, where action isn’t expected. Rather, the Senate will insert the package in its state government budget plan later this month and negotiate it with the House after that chamber approves a competing tax and spending proposal. The Senate plan would reduce the individual income tax rate of 5.25% to 4.99% next year and increase the amount of income not subject to taxes for all filers by increasing the standard and per-child deductions. The corporate rate – at 2.5%, currently the lowest among those states that have such a tax – would start falling in 2024. Democrats opposing the bill say it would give tax breaks to out-of-state corporations and high wage-earners who don’t need them.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nFargo: Firefighters found themselves battling a string of dumpster fires on the city’s southern edge late Tuesday. The fire department said in a news release that the first call came in at 10:50 p.m. A half-hour later, firefighters responded to another dumpster fire at a different location. Three minutes later, they responded to three dumpster fires at the same location. The department said the fires are considered suspicious given the timing and proximity to one another.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Gov. Mike DeWine has come out against a controversial bill that would weaken the state’s vaccination laws and grant more individual freedom. DeWine asked Ohioans to think of the impact vaccines have had on society. “Before modern medicine, diseases such as mumps, polio, whooping cough were common and caused great, great, great suffering and death to thousands of people every single year,” DeWine said during a news conference Thursday. A 1955 newspaper photo surfaced recently showing DeWine becoming one of the first second graders in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to get a polio vaccine. Hearings on House Bill 248 have drawn national attention as advocates have spread misinformation and conspiracies. Testimony from Dr. Sherri Tenpenny and nurse Joanna Overholt drew widespread derision and mockery. “I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots, and now they’re magnetized,” Tenpenny said. “You can put a key on their forehead; it sticks. You can put spoons and forks all over, and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that.” Later, there was some show-and-tell. “Explain to me why the key sticks to me. It sticks to my neck too,” Overholt said as a key failed to stick to her neck. Tenpenny also mentioned the false claim that the COVID-19 vaccine contains particles that can connect with 5G wireless technology.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: Workers began excavating remains of possible Tulsa Race Massacre victims this week, removing them from a cemetery where searchers have found at least 27 bodies, according to Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck. The 1921 massacre occurred when a white mob descended on the Black section of Tulsa – Greenwood – and burned more than 1,000 homes, looted hundreds of others and destroyed its thriving business district. Most historians who have studied the event estimate the death toll to be between 75 and 300. The remains that have been found will be transferred for examinations led by forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield. Both Stackelbeck and Tulsa Mass Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee Chairman Kavin Ross said it’s possible the remains are from people who died from other things, such as the Spanish flu pandemic that killed an estimated 7,350 in Oklahoma in 1918 and 1919. The search began last year, and researchers in October found at least 12 sets of remains, although the remains were covered back up at that time for further study. Stackelbeck has estimated more than 30 bodies could be in the site. Searches of two other sites are planned.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: Nearly six months after a Republican legislator let violent, far-right protesters into the state Capitol, a special committee will examine his role and could recommend he be the first member of the House to be expelled in its 160-year history. Ahead of the panel’s inaugural meeting Monday afternoon, more than 200 people sent written testimony. Some excoriated Rep. Mike Nearman as a seditionist. Others praised him for letting people into the Capitol on Dec. 21, 2020, when it was closed to the public because of coronavirus safety protocols, saying people should be allowed to attend even though hearings are livestreamed on video. “Mike Nearman’s behavior … was abhorrent and anti-democratic,” David Alba wrote to the committee. “Furthermore, by aiding and supporting extremists, he has placed people’s lives in danger. He should be removed from office and he is not fit to represent my district.” After video emerged in local news reports Friday showing Nearman choreographing how he would let protesters into the Capitol, pinpointing the door he would open for them and disclosing his cellphone number so protesters could text him, every other Republican member of the House on Monday strongly recommended he step down.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: An ambitious Republican proposal to revamp state election law was unveiled Thursday – a 149-page bill that would change deadlines, adopt new rules for early voting, alter mail-in ballot procedures and mandate IDs for all in-person voters. The measure produced by State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove is likely to encounter severe pushback from Democrats in a state where both parties are competitive in statewide races. Although Pennsylvania’s closely watched 2020 election was carried out smoothly, many Republicans have called for election-law changes in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voting fraud. “This is not a view of the Republicans or the Democrats,” said Grove, R-York, whose committee conducted hearings on the topic this spring. “This is a view of what we heard through 10 extensive hearings from all sides.” The bill was introduced by Grove and House Republican leaders with just three weeks left before lawmakers are due to wrap up business and head home for the summer. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s press secretary, Lyndsay Kensinger, said the bill aimed to install new barriers against voting, in effect silencing people’s voices and turning ballot access into a political weapon.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: A trip to the beach this weekend could come with immunity benefits. The state Department of Environmental Management and the state Department of Health are partnering to host a free COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, officials said in a statement. The clinic – which will offer the one shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine – is open to beach employees and visitors, and state residents and nonresidents alike are eligible. People getting a shot must be 18 or older. The vaccine is free, but normal parking fees will still apply, officials said. There are just 37 people in Rhode Island’s hospitals with confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the latest data released Thursday by the Department of Health – the lowest single-day total since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. Of those patients, five are in intensive care and on ventilators. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state peaked at more than 500 in December. Rhode Island also reported about 40 newly confirmed cases, for a daily positivity rate of 0.7%, and no new virus-related deaths. Nearly 585,000 people in the state have now been fully vaccinated against the disease, according to agency data.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a law requiring sex offenders to register for life, without prior judicial review, is unconstitutional. In a unanimous ruling, justices wrote that the “requirement that sex offenders must register for life without any opportunity for judicial review violates due process because it is arbitrary and cannot be deemed rationally related to the General Assembly’s stated purpose of protecting the public from those with a high risk of re-offending.” Justices set a 12-month timeline to implement the ruling, to give state lawmakers time to “correct the deficiency in the statute regarding judicial review.” The case stems from a lawsuit originally brought by Dennis Powell, who was arrested in 2008 for criminal solicitation of a minor after authorities said he had graphic online conversations with someone who he thought was a 12-year-old girl but who was actually an undercover officer. After pleading guilty, Powell was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, which South Carolina’s statute mandates as a lifelong situation. South Carolina’s sex offender statute requires biannual registration in person at a sheriff’s office but provides for no periodic review by a judge, a situation the court called “the most stringent in the country.”\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: The union that had threatened a strike at a Smithfield pork processing plant says it has reached a tentative agreement with the company on a four-year contract. The Sioux Falls chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers had negotiated with Virginia-based Smithfield Foods for two days after union members rejected a previous contract proposal and authorized a strike. Union leaders said its members will vote on the proposed contract next week. The agreement appeared to assuage the possibility of a strike at the plant, which produces nearly 5% of the nation’s pork every day. UFCW said in a statement late Wednesday that the company dropped plans to take away a 15-minute break, and “the parties have reached an agreement on wages.” The union had pressed for Smithfield to boost pay from a proposed base wage of $18 an hour, as well as to keep a break during the second half of worker shifts. Smithfield has said that its initial proposal would have still ensured two 15-minute breaks for employees who work eight-hour shifts and that the company’s offer was “in full alignment” with agreements that the UFCW accepted at other locations.\n\nTennessee\n\nChattanooga: A former governor’s administration helped fund a contract murder of a key federal witness decades ago while embroiled in the state’s largest political scandal, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday. The new details revealed for the first time Wednesday have elements that ring of a movie: a trusted ally of union boss Jimmy Hoffa gunned down after testifying about a corrupt governor selling prison pardons and a gunman who donned a wig and blackface to throw authorities off the scent. Investigators in Hamilton County have been chipping away at the 42-year-old cold case of Samuel Pettyjohn since they renewed their investigation in 2015. No new charges will be filed because all of the major players involved are now dead, but authorities say closing the case provides closure to one aspect of a complicated piece of Tennessee history. Pettyjohn, a Chattanooga businessman and close friend of Hoffa, was fatally shot in 1979 in downtown Chattanooga after testifying before a federal grand jury during the early phases of Tennessee’s notorious “cash-for-clemency” scandal. The scandal ultimately led to the ousting of Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton, who was never indicted, but three of his aides were. However, questions have lingered about the extent to which the governor’s administration actively worked to thwart the investigation. Officials say at least five witnesses in the case were murdered or killed themselves.\n\nTexas\n\nEl Paso: The El Paso Museum of Archaeology will reopen June 24, city officials announced Wednesday. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the museum to close in March 2020, but under the advisement of the Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Management, visitors will once again be able to learn about the Indigenous history along the Rio Grande Valley. “The reopening of the Museum of Archaeology along with the opening of the Camp Cohen Water Park are great illustrators of our commitment to enhancing the quality of life in Northeast El Paso and for all El Pasoans,” said Cultural Affairs and Recreation Managing Director Ben Fyffe. The museum will be open with free admission from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Upon opening, visitors can experience the exhibit “From the Edge of Center: The Chacoan Outliers.” The museum will showcase many artifacts from its permanent collection, as well as artifacts on loan from the Salmon Ruins near Farmington, New Mexico, and the San Juan County Museum Association. The El Paso Museum of Archaeology highlights 14,000 years of prehistory in the area, the greater Southwest and northern Mexico. The museum also features nature trails on 15 acres of land and an American Indian Garden.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The state’s congressional delegation on Wednesday requested a meeting with President Joe Biden before he makes his final decision on whether the boundaries of two sprawling national monuments in Utah should be restored. The delegation of Republicans sent a letter to Biden in which they also requested that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s full report be made available to Congress. “It is past time to end the political back-and-forth that the communities in our state have been subjected to for more than 25 years, and you have a historic opportunity to do so by working with Congress,” the letter said. Haaland made her recommendation about whether to reverse former President Donald Trump’s decision to downsize Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante last week, but details of her decision were not released. The Interior Department gave her report to Biden on June 2, according to a court filing Thursday in a legal battle that began more than three years ago after Trump’s decision. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys mentioned the report as part of a request to have until July 13 to address the judge’s question about whether the legal battle has become a moot point.\n\nVermont\n\nMarlboro: The ongoing ownership dispute over the former Marlboro College campus has prompted the organizers of a music festival to offer to front the costs of campus maintenance this summer. The Marlboro School of Music asked a court Wednesday to allow it to temporarily pay for campus upkeep so that its annual music festival, which is held there over 10 weeks, can move forward, the Brattleboro Reformer reports. Marlboro College merged with Emerson College in Massachusetts and finalized the sale of its campus in July 2020 to a nonprofit group, Democracy Builders. But there is now a dispute about whether Democracy Builders owns the campus or whether another group, Type I Civilization Academy, holds the deed. A judge for Windham Superior Court ruled that the music school may place its $250,000 rent payment in escrow. The estimated maintenance costs could be $1 million, the newspaper reports. In court, the parties agreed to review the maintenance expenses paid by the School of Music at the end of the summer and then determine what should happen to the escrowed rent and what expenses might need to be reimbursed to the music school by the rightful owner, whoever that might be.\n\nVirginia\n\nNorfolk: A city engineer who fatally shot 12 people in a Virginia Beach municipal building in 2019 “was motivated by perceived workplace grievances” that “he fixated on for years,” according to findings released by the FBI on Wednesday. The investigation, conducted by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, found that DeWayne Craddock “struggled with how he perceived his own work performance and how others at work viewed him.” “The shooter’s inflated sense of self-importance contributed to this conflict and led him to believe he was unjustly and repeatedly criticized and slighted,” the FBI said in a news release. “Violence was viewed by the shooter as a way to reconcile this conflict and restore his perverted view of justice.” But the FBI cautioned that no person or group was in a position to “see the confluence of behaviors that may have forewarned the attack” because Craddock had purposely isolated himself and disengaged from his relationships. The agency also said that Craddock suffered from significant mental health stressors, although they “alone cannot explain the Virginia Beach attack.” The FBI’s findings appear to go a step further than two previous investigations into the mass shooting in the coastal city of nearly half a million people. Virginia Beach police said in March that they could not determine a motive.\n\nWashington\n\nSpokane: A pet dog who vanished for two days after being ejected from a vehicle during a car accident has been found apparently doing the job it was bred to do – herding sheep. Linda Oswald’s family and their dog, Tilly, were driving along Idaho State Highway 41 on Sunday when they crashed into another car, launching the dog through the rear window, The Spokesman-Review reports. The unharmed but stunned dog then ran away, prompting an immediate search with at least six complete strangers who witnessed the crash and pulled over along the highway to help, Oswald said. “People just kept going out,” she said, noting that the search lasted about 10 hours Sunday before the family went home. “We were sore and exhausted.” Oswald said the family then wrote a Facebook post that included a picture of the 2-year-old border collie and red heeler mix, and more than 3,000 people shared the post. That’s when Tyler, Travis and Zane Potter recognized the dog in the photo as the same dog they saw on their family farm south of Rathdrum on Tuesday. Both the Potters and Oswald think Tilly was drawn to the farm and their sheep. “I think that dog was trying to herd,” Travis Potter said. Oswald said if it weren’t for the post, he would still be out there.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Two newly dedicated state offices will deal with child welfare and family assistance. The state is creating a Bureau for Social Services and a Bureau for Family Assistance and Supports to streamline its handling of child welfare, The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington reports. Their staff will continue operating under the Department of Health and Human Resources. Both bureaus will be tailored to their mission, and the changes will take place in July. They were previously within the Bureau for Children and Families. Cammie Chapman, counsel for the Department of Health and Human Resources, detailed the changes to a legislative commission Tuesday.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Jim Doyle and Scott Walker don’t agree on much, but the former governors are joining together to call for people to get COVID-19 vaccines in a new public service television advertisement. The spot released Thursday, produced by UW Health, features Walker, a Republican, placing a Zoom call to Doyle, a Democrat. Both are in their personal offices and never appear in the same room together. “I’m just ready to be done with this pandemic,” Walker says. Doyle responds: “I couldn’t agree with you more.” “That’s what I thought,” Walker says. “Here’s another thought: Let’s do a commercial together – reminding people in Wisconsin how important it is to be vaccinated.” Doyle quips: “That may be the best idea you’ve ever had.” Both Walker and Doyle have been vaccinated. Both governors said in statements that they hoped the ad would encourage everyone to get vaccinated to enjoy the summer and return to a more normal life. “It just makes sense,” Walker said Thursday on Twitter in response to a post about the ad. A third former governor, current interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson, wielded a sledgehammer in a series of videos last year urging people to “smash COVID.”\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Gov. Mark Gordon has announced that up to $12 million of the remaining $67 million of coronavirus relief money sent to the state will be allocated toward oil and gas projects through the Energy Rebound Program. The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will accept applications for funding from June 15 through June 25, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. The Energy Rebound Program, which was launched in November, was created to boost the state’s oil and gas industry as it recovers from an economic decline by using federal aid as an incentive to push efforts to create jobs and stimulate the economy in Wyoming instead of in other states. “This is about trying to keep jobs in Wyoming,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming spokesman Ryan McConnaughey said, noting that projects will still need large investments because of a $500,000 cap on each project of the $12 million. The program was initially allocated $15 million from the federal government, but Gordon doubled the amount – all of which was awarded, governor’s office spokesman Michael Pearlman said. The Wyoming Business Council estimated that the last round of program projects will receive more than $150 million in oil and natural gas in 2021.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/11"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_20", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/957428/is-britain-prepared-for-more-wildfires", "title": "Is Britain prepared for more wildfires? | The Week UK", "text": "A series of wildfires destroyed homes and swathes of land across the UK as the country contended with record-high temperatures.\n\nScores of major incidents were announced by fire brigades across the country as blazes broke out in the 40C-plus heatwave.\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was the busiest day for the London Fire Brigade since the Second World War – it received more than 2,600 calls on Tuesday, seven times the usual number. Khan told Sky News that a total of 41 properties had been destroyed in fires across the capital.\n\nExperts have warned that the UK will need to learn how to deal with wildfires, as the number recorded this year is double that of 2021, according to data seen by The Times.\n\nAs of Tuesday there had been 420 fires in England and Wales since the start of the year, according to the National Fire Chiefs Council, by far outstripping the 247 in the whole of 2021, and 200 the year before that.\n\nWill the UK face more wildfires?\n\nConditions were “ripe” for wildfires as temperatures reached a new record high of 40.3C, said ITV.\n\nSpeaking to the broadcaster, Dr Thomas Smith, assistant professor in environmental geography at London School of Economics (LSE), said: “The fire risk was extreme, with record-breaking temperatures accompanied by very low relative humidity, this coming on top of a very long spell without rain. This can lead to extreme fire behaviour with fast-spreading fires burning with high intensity (large flames), making it very difficult to fight.”\n\nAnd as the climate continues to warm, the extreme temperatures we saw earlier this week are likely to become more frequent, increasing the likelihood of fires, with experts warning that the UK could become more susceptible to the kinds of fires seen in Wennington, east London, where houses are close to patches of vegetation.\n\nThese types of fires are known as “Wildfire Urban Interface fires”, said Dr Rory Hadden, Rushbrook senior lecturer in fire investigation, University of Edinburgh. “Usually in the UK large wildfires are confined to relatively remote areas such as heath and moorland,\" Dr Hadden said.", "authors": ["Sorcha Bradley"], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957404/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-20-july-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 20 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Democrats arrested at abortion rally\n\nAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the Democratic members of the US Congress arrested at an abortion rights protest in Washington DC. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were also detained near the Supreme Court. The politicians had gathered in front of the US Capitol before marching to the court building, chanting “our bodies, our choice” and “we won’t go back”. Abortion is now banned or under threat of being banned in 60% of US states, after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling, which protected the right to an abortion under the US constitution.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/europe/europe-heat-wave-wednesday-wildfires-intl/index.html", "title": "Europe is burning as heat moves east while US and China ...", "text": "London (CNN) Hundreds of millions of people around the world were sweltering in extreme heat on Wednesday, as record-breaking heat waves set swathes of Europe's countryside on fire, scorched the US and put dozens of Chinese cities under alert.\n\nFive separate high-pressure weather systems across the northern hemisphere, which are linked by atmospheric waves, have led to unprecedented temperatures on multiple continents. The UK smashed its all-time heat mark on Tuesday, as did several cities in the Texas and Oklahoma, including Wichita Falls, which reached a broiling 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.\n\nResidents of Alhaurín el Grande, Spain, were evacuated due to a fire in the Sierra de Mijas mountain range on July 15.\n\nResidents of Alhaurín el Grande, Spain, were evacuated due to a fire in the Sierra de Mijas mountain range on July 15.\n\nResidents watch as a column of smoke emerges from a fire in A Pobra do Brollón, Spain, on July 17.\n\nResidents watch as a column of smoke emerges from a fire in A Pobra do Brollón, Spain, on July 17.\n\nFirefighters set a backfire to a plot of land to prevent a wildfire from spreading further in Louchats, France, on July 17.\n\nFirefighters set a backfire to a plot of land to prevent a wildfire from spreading further in Louchats, France, on July 17.\n\nPeople look at plumes of smoke caused by a wildfire in Malaga, Spain, on July 15.\n\nPeople look at plumes of smoke caused by a wildfire in Malaga, Spain, on July 15.\n\nPeople rest after being evacuated from a campsite in western France on July 13.\n\nPeople rest after being evacuated from a campsite in western France on July 13.\n\nA firefighter looks on during firefighting operations in Espite, Portugal, on July 13.\n\nA firefighter looks on during firefighting operations in Espite, Portugal, on July 13.\n\nA cloud of smoke rises from the Dune of Pilat, in the Arcachon basin of southwest France, on July 13.\n\nA cloud of smoke rises from the Dune of Pilat, in the Arcachon basin of southwest France, on July 13.\n\nA local resident tries to stop flames from reaching houses in Figueiras, Portugal, on July 12.\n\nA local resident tries to stop flames from reaching houses in Figueiras, Portugal, on July 12.\n\nFirefighters attempt to control a fire in the French communes of Landiras and Guillos on July 13.\n\nFirefighters attempt to control a fire in the French communes of Landiras and Guillos on July 13.\n\nBurnt cars and trees are seen at a campsite in southwest France on July 19.\n\nBurnt cars and trees are seen at a campsite in southwest France on July 19.\n\nAn aerial view shows the rubble and destruction in a residential area following a large blaze the previous day, in Wennington, Greater London, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows the rubble and destruction in a residential area following a large blaze the previous day, in Wennington, Greater London, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows burnt olive trees and fields in Megara, west of Athens, on July 20.\n\nAn aerial view shows burnt olive trees and fields in Megara, west of Athens, on July 20.\n\nA firefighter battles a blaze in the suburb of Pallini, east of Athens, Greece, on July 20.\n\nA firefighter battles a blaze in the suburb of Pallini, east of Athens, Greece, on July 20.\n\nAs Europe's heat wave moves eastwards, wildfires have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, blanketing parts of Italy, Greece and France in smoke. Germany recorded its hottest day of the year as temperatures reached 104.5 F (40.3C) at a measuring station in Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen, in the center of the country, while Hungary and Italy have been hit with high temperatures of around 100 F (nearly 38C) in places.\n\nThe European Forest Fire Information System put 19 European countries on \"extreme danger\" alerts for wildfires on Wednesday, across an expanse stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast.\n\nThere was some respite in the UK, where temperatures dipped from an all-time high of 40.3 C (104.5 F) on Tuesday back into the 20s. But some residential areas around London were left in ruins after fires broke out across parts of the capital, stretching the fire service to its limits.\n\n\"Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War,\" London's mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, as residents of the capital watched their homes destroyed in heat-triggered blazes they never thought possible.\n\nA resident of Wennington, a London suburb affected by Tuesday's fires, told CNN that the gardens on his street were \"like a tinder box\" in the days leading up to the fire. Stock lost his home, eight chickens and two beehives when the fire broke out.\n\n\"I didn't sleep last night. I was in the hotel room thinking how bad it could have gone. I just thank god that everyone got out alive,\" he said. \"We've lost everything. But when we get back, we can clear the site, put some fences up, get a couple of mobile homes and we'll start again.\"\n\nLondon had no available fire engines at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand, a senior fireman with the London Fire Brigade's special rescue team told CNN.\n\nIn the United States, local leaders are urging caution and issuing health warnings as a heat wave that shows no sign of slowing before the weekend continues to bake the south-central regions of the country.\n\nAnd in China, millions of densely-populated cities are responding to extreme heat. According to the China Meteorological Administration, at least 31 Chinese cities issued the second-highest orange alert warning, with temperatures expected to go up to 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 24 hours.\n\nEurope burns in record heat\n\nGreece: On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters have been tackling vast blazes that are being whipped up by wind. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children's hospital, authorities said. One person has died and 30 have been transferred to hospitals in the capital's Attica region, the Greek Fire Service said on Wednesday.\n\n\"Our top priority remains the safeguarding of human lives. But also that of vital public infrastructure as well as citizens' properties,\" spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios said during an earlier televised briefing.\n\nA firefighter tries to extinguish a blaze in Pallini, near Athens, Greece on July 20.\n\nHuge clouds of smoke remain visible in the city on Wednesday, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters. Romanian fire crews have been drafted in to assist the operation.\n\nItaly: Blazes are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Wildfires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, Blazes are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Wildfires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, according to the regional President Eugenio Giani.\n\nGermany: In Alsdorf, western Germany, three residents and two firefighters were injured in a blaze on Tuesday, and much of the country is primed for more fires as temperatures rise on Wednesday.\n\nFrance: In France, aircraft continued to dump water over burning landscapes. Fires have been raging there for a week now, though they advanced \"very little\" on Tuesday night in the Gironde region, according to local authorities. Smoke swirled over the Brennilis nuclear power plant in Brittany on Wednesday morning.\n\nJust as UK Prime Minister was criticized for a lack of preparedness for the heat wave, France's Emmanuel Macron too is coming under pressure to respond more quickly to the heat and fires, which have already burned 25 times more land in France than in the same period last year, government spokesperson Olivier Veran told journalists on Wednesday.\n\nFirefighters spray water on a wildfire in the Monts d'Arree, in Brittany, north-western France.\n\nOn Tuesday, the president of the fire-stricken Gironde region called for additional resources, including firefighting aircraft to be diverted there.\n\nA campsite owner told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday that \"we have demands\" for Macron, who will be making a visit to the ravaged southwest on Wednesday.\n\n\"We hope that he will be able to very quickly order the public services to help us, to support us in the administrative steps to put the camp site in working order as soon as possible,\" said Stephane Carella, co-owner of Pyla Camping whose site was destroyed by fires.\n\nFrance has been tackling wildfires for a week.\n\n\"Everything has gone up in smoke,\" he said, with some 90% of his property affected by the fire. Carella described the remainders of the site as \"apocalyptic.\"\n\nHigh temperatures rip through US\n\nThe baking weather in the US has so far been centered on parts of the south, and is raising particular concern about the welfare of elderly, vulnerable and homeless people.\n\nIn Texas, 14 prisons have no air conditioning and 55 have only partially-working systems, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) told CNN in an email. Texas has had at least four heat waves this season, a hot streak that started impacting the state before the official start of summer. Since May 1, more than half their days have come with some level of heat alert.\n\nAs temperatures in neighboring Arizona reached triple digits on Tuesday afternoon, around 7,000 people lost power due to strong storms, a spokesperson for the Arizona Public Service Company said.\n\nMuch of the east coast will see temperatures in the 90s this week.\n\nIn some areas, such as Miami-Dade County and Phoenix, local governments have hired chief heat officers to help residents combat the heat.\n\nMuch of the country's north, and parts of Canada, are preparing for temperatures to soar too. Philadelphia declared a \"heat caution\" starting noon Tuesday and extending to until 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the city said in an email to CNN. It also declared a \"code red\" alert for homeless people in the area.\n\nThe Canadian government issued heat and severe thunderstorm advisories in at least four provinces on Tuesday.", "authors": ["Rob Picheta"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_21", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/uk/conservative-party-leader-final-two-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are final candidates in race to succeed ...", "text": "London (CNN) Boris Johnson will be succeeded as prime minister of the United Kingdom by either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss after the Conservative Party leadership race was on Wednesday narrowed down to the final two candidates.\n\nJohnson resigned as party leader earlier this month after a series of scandals led to dozens of ministerial resignations. Ten Conservatives stood in the contest to replace him, and over five rounds of voting, members of parliament whittled those down to two.\n\nSunak won 137 votes and Truss got 113 votes in the final round, while Penny Mordaunt with 105 votes lost out.\n\nBoth of the final two candidates took to Twitter to comment on the result.\n\n\"Grateful that my colleagues have put their trust in me today. I will work night and day to deliver our message around the country,\" tweeted Sunak.\n\nFor her part, Truss tweeted: \"Thank you for putting your trust in me. I'm ready to hit the ground running from day one.\"\n\nNow about 160,000 rank-and-file members of the party will have their say, and in September the winner -- and next prime minister -- will be announced.\n\nBoth candidates who made it to the final two in the Conservative party leadership contest served in Johnson's government, and could therefore be marred by the scandals that brought Johnson down.\n\nThe first was Johnson whipping his members of parliament to protect a political ally found to have breached lobbying rules, and ended with revelations that Johnson appointed as his deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, a man who'd been accused of sexual assault multiple times.\n\nThe best known scandal was \"Partygate\" in which Johnson and several political allies -- including Sunak -- were fined by police for breaching the government's own Covid-19 restrictions. This made Johnson the first premier in history to be found guilty of having broken the law in office.\n\nThe task facing the final two candidates is enormous enough, with the UK suffering a cost-of-living crisis and the Conservative Party increasingly unpopular after 12 years in power. And as soon as the new leader takes over, the opposition Labour Party will be only too willing to remind whoever succeeds Johnson that they were part of that government.\n\nOn Wednesday, Johnson attended his final Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons. He boasted about his government's response to the pandemic and his support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia.\n\n\"We've helped, I've helped, get this country through a pandemic and help save another country from barbarism. And frankly, that's enough to be going on with. Mission largely accomplished,\" Johnson said. \"I want to thank everybody here and hasta la vista, baby.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED 'Hasta la vista, baby': Boris Johnson bows out to lawmakers' applause Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'Hasta la vista, baby': Boris Johnson bows out to lawmakers' applause 01:38\n\nThe final round of the leadership race took place amid a record-breaking heatwave, which sparked wildfires and highlighted the UK's under-preparedness for the climate emergency as well as the need for urgent measures to curb carbon emissions.\n\nHere is what you need to know about the two final candidates:\n\nSunak served as the UK's finance minister from 2020-2022.\n\nRishi Sunak\n\nSunak has been considered the frontrunner for a long time. He served as Johnson's Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) from 2020 to 2022, and gained a largely positive public profile after introducing popular measures during the coronavirus pandemic, such as the furlough scheme and discounts on eating in restaurants.\n\nHe has recently come under pressure over questions regarding the tax status of his wife, Akshata Murthy, a multi-millionaire who is domiciled in India.\n\nSome Conservatives were worried that Sunak found this level of scrutiny hard, and are concerned he would buckle under the pressure of being prime minister.\n\nDespite this, he has consistently led the pack among Conservative MPs in the first rounds of voting.\n\nPolling of Conservative members can be difficult, especially at such tumultuous times, but in those that have taken place Sunak has consistently come second to Truss among party members.\n\nEven if he did make it to power, he would have to overcome criticism from political enemies of all stripes. Opposition leaders would be quick to remind Sunak that he was fined at the same Partygate event as Johnson.\n\nThey will also ask why Sunak remained loyal to Johnson for so long, only resigning after the scandal involving Johnson's chief whip, Chris Pincher.\n\nThings get worse when you factor in Johnson loyalists, who believe that Sunak's resignation was the moment Johnson's premiership began to crumble.\n\nSo, while Sunak might be the frontrunner, he will be surrounded by enemies on all sides.\n\nTruss is currently UK foreign secretary.\n\nLiz Truss\n\nTruss also has a Johnson association problem. She is still serving as Johnson's foreign secretary and will do so until he finally leaves office in September. She has stood by her leader throughout all of his scandals, justifying that fact she didn't resign over the Pincher scandal because she was coordinating the UK's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThat explanation might wash with some, however Truss is also largely thought of by Conservatives as the Johnson continuation candidate. Among her chief endorsers are some of Johnson's most loyal allies, which could make dissociating herself from the current PM tricky.\n\nIt will also be tricky to distance herself from Johnson's policies. Truss, who voted for the UK to remain in the European Union, has become an arch-Brexiteer since the 2016 referendum.\n\nSince Johnson has taken office, she's been his trade secretary and his foreign secretary. As the former, she has tub-thumped as loudly as Johnson over each and every trade deal signed, even ones that were simply rollover deals from the UK's time in the EU.\n\nShe has also been an ardent supporter of Johnson's plan to rewrite a controversial part of the Brexit deal, the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nTruss has spent much of her time in high office building a power base and is very popular among both MPs and the Conservative grassroots.\n\nSunak and Truss will now spend the summer campaigning to Conservative grassroot members before the victor is announced by the party on September 5.\n\nAfter that, Johnson will resign to the Queen, whom his successor will then visit and be invited to form a government.", "authors": ["Analysis Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/uk/boris-johnson-replacement-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "Conservative leadership race: Who might replace Boris Johnson as ...", "text": "Any candidates who run for the leadership will go through rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers until only two remain -- at which point Conservative Party members nationwide will vote. The winner will be the new party leader -- and prime minister.\n\nHere's a look at the possible contenders.\n\nShow More Show Less\n\nRishi Sunak\n\nBritain's former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.\n\nThe former chancellor formally announced he was standing to succeed Johnson in a campaign video on Friday, which began with the story of his Indian parents, who both emigrated to the UK from East Africa. \"It was Britain, our country, that gave them and millions like them the chance of a better future,\" he said. \"I want to lead this country in the right direction.\"\n\nSunak was Johnson's presumed successor for several months after he won praise for overseeing Britain's initial financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But he has suffered several of his own scandals while in government.\n\nHis stock sank earlier this year after revelations that he broke Covid regulations to attend the prime minister's birthday party on June 19, 2020, for which he later apologized \"unreservedly.\"\n\nHis financial and legal affairs came under scrutiny this spring following reports his wife had non-domicile status in the UK -- meaning she was not liable to pay tax on overseas income -- and that he held a US green card while serving as minister.\n\nthe worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Sunak has struggled to keep down spiraling inflation and has been criticized by opposition parties for what they call a slow and inadequate series of financial measures. Among the economic woes facing Britons after Sunak's time as the UK's chief financial minister: real wages dropping to their lowest levels in more than 21 years and inflation hitting a 40-year high of His popularity has also taken a beating in recent weeks as Britain has sufferedthe worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Sunak has struggled to keep down spiraling inflation and has been criticized by opposition parties for what they call a slow and inadequate series of financial measures. Among the economic woes facing Britons after Sunak's time as the UK's chief financial minister: real wages dropping to their lowest levels in more than 21 years and inflation hitting a 40-year high of 9.1% in May\n\nBut he is still among the bookmakers' odds-on favorites to take Johnson's job.\n\nSajid Javid\n\nFormer Health Secretary Sajid Javid.\n\nThe former health secretary, whose resignation set off a wave of departures from Johnson's government, officially announced his candidacy on Sunday.\n\n\"Whether it's the cost of living or it's low levels of growth, for me, that's our most immediate challenge... You need someone with an economic plan from day one,\" he said, adding that his economic plan would have two prongs: short-term measures to help people meet cost-of-living challenges and a longer-term plan for tax reform.\n\nPosting on Twitter on Sunday, Javid said: \"The next Prime Minister needs integrity, experience, and a tax-cutting plan for economic growth. That's why I'm standing.\"\n\nThe statement echoed Javid's resignation speech in the House of Commons in which he said that something was \"fundamentally wrong\" with government.\n\nThose who support Javid's candidacy hope that he will be credited for triggering Johnson's ultimate ouster, having been the first cabinet minister to resign -- though Sunak followed him minutes later.\n\nThe MP has twice run for party leadership in the past -- in 2016, after the Brexit referendum, and in 2019, when Johnson was ultimately elected. He served as chancellor from 2019 to 2020.\n\nHis family immigrated from Pakistan to the UK in the 1960s, and his father worked as a bus driver.\n\nLiz Truss\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.\n\nThe foreign secretary made her leadership ambitions known in The Telegraph on Sunday. At the heart of her leadership bid is a pledge to cut taxes \"from day one,\" to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nLiz Truss became the chief negotiator with the European Union on the UK's Brexit deal in December 2021 and has held multiple cabinet positions. Since voting Remain in 2016, she has since become one of the loudest Euroskeptic voices in the government, which many have chalked up to her desire for the top job.\n\nShe has a formidable and dedicated team around her -- some of whom previously worked in Number 10 -- which has been producing slick videos and photos of her looking thoroughly statesmanlike. She has apparently attempted to channel former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wearing a headscarf while driving a tank, and her role in fronting the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also heightened her public profile.\n\nIn her comment piece in The Telegraph, she highlighted her foreign policy expertise, writing: \"As Foreign Secretary, I have helped to lead the international response to Putin's war in Ukraine and delivered a tough sanctions package that has led the world, by imposing real pain on Putin and the Kremlin.\"\n\nTruss is popular among Conservative members, who would pick the eventual winner of a contest. But Johnson's downfall could simultaneously tarnish anyone in his cabinet, meaning Conservative voters could turn to a backbencher to take the mantle.\n\nPenny Mordaunt\n\nBritain's Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt.\n\nThe trade minister, one of the bookmakers' favorites to replace Johnson, announced her bid for the leadership on Sunday. A poll of party members published July 4 by website Conservative Home put her as the second favorite choice, behind the current defense secretary Ben Wallace, who has ruled himself out of the race.\n\nPenny Mordaunt first entered parliament in 2010 and later joined the cabinet under Theresa May, serving as international development and defense secretary.\n\nAfter last month's confidence vote, Mordaunt declined to comment on whether she backed Johnson, raising eyebrows among Westminster observers when she said: \"I didn't choose this prime minister.\"\n\nAnnouncing her interest in the top job, she said the party \"leadership needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship.\"\n\nMordaunt, who in 2019 became the first woman to serve as defense minister, invoked Thatcher in her statement, saying the former Conservative leader \"was remarkable for not just what she did but the speed she did it.\"\n\n\"She had a vision and a plan. So do I,\" she added.\n\nTom Tugendhat\n\nCommittee chairman Tom Tugendhat.\n\nA former British military officer who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat has been one of Johnson's most robust critics and has called for the Conservative Party to drop its focus on \"divisive politics.\"\n\nLaunching his leadership bid on Thursday in The Telegraph newspaper, Tugendhat wrote : \"I have served before -- in the military, and now in Parliament. Now I hope to answer the call once again as prime minister. It's time for a clean start. It's time for renewal.\"\n\nHe outlined his vision for tackling the cost of living crisis, reducing taxes and investing in neglected regions of the UK.\n\nDespite not having any cabinet or shadow cabinet experience, Tugendhat has impressed colleagues with his oratory skills and seriousness, most notably when he spoke about the fall of Afghanistan. He entered parliament in 2015 after serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.\n\nSome key centrist Conservatives have already been throwing their support behind the relative wildcard, but some worry that his experience is too focused on foreign affairs.\n\nNadhim Zahawi\n\nBritain's newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nLess than two days after he was appointed by Johnson to the role of chancellor, replacing Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi publicly called on the prime minister to resign and later launched his bid to replace him.\n\nUntil his promotion, Zahawi, who joined the cabinet less than a year ago, was considered an unlikely choice as the next leader of the Conservative Party. But his rise under Johnson has been rapid, making his mark with early success as vaccines minister amid the coronavirus pandemic and then as education secretary.\n\nIn his pitch for leadership, previewed in The Spectator magazine, he promised to lower taxes for individuals, families and business, boost defense spending, and continue with education reforms he started in his previous role.\n\nDespite voting to leave the European Union in 2016, Zahawi is widely admired among the moderates in the party. Crucially, as one Conservative source put it, \"he's not been in government long enough to have any obvious defects and, despite supporting Boris even after the confidence vote, is not too tainted by association.\"\n\nZahawi was born in Iraq to Kurdish parents and came to the UK as a child, when his family fled Saddam Hussein's regime. He is believed to be one of the richest politicians in the House of Commons, and helped found the polling company YouGov.\n\n\"If a young boy who came here aged 11 without a word of English, can serve at the highest levels of Her Majesty's Government and run to be the next Prime Minister, anything is possible,\" Zahawi is set to say in a speech Monday, an excerpt of which was published by The Spectator.\n\nJeremy Hunt\n\nConservative MP Jeremy Hunt.\n\nA former health and foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt lost the 2019 leadership vote to Johnson. He has since styled himself as an antidote to Johnson and is without question the highest profile contender on the moderate, ex-Remain side of the party.\n\nHunt announced his bid to become the next Conservative leader in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph, pitching himself as \"the only major candidate who has not served in Boris Johnson's government.\"\n\nIn a statement on Twitter ahead of the confidence vote in June, Hunt said: \"Anyone who believes our country is stronger, fairer & more prosperous when led by Conservatives should reflect that the consequence of not changing will be to hand the country to others who do not share those values. Today's decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change.\"\n\nTellingly, Hunt's statement focused mainly on the Conservatives' chances of electoral success under Johnson, rather than his policies or the partygate scandal -- a decision that could be read as a pitch to the Conservative MPs and members who would decide a leadership election. However, he comes with baggage, and sources from the opposition Labour Party have told CNN they are already writing attack lines.\n\n\"It can't be Jeremy. Labour can say he was running healthcare for six years and failed to prepare for a pandemic. They can say when he was culture secretary he chummed up to the Murdochs during the phone hacking scandal. He will get crushed,\" a senior Conservative source told CNN.\n\nGrant Shapps\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps.\n\nThe transport secretary launched his bid for prime minister this weekend, describing himself as a \"problem solver, with a proven record of delivery\" in a post on Twitter.\n\nOutlining his vision for the UK in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper, Grant Shapps said that within his first 100 days in office he would produce an emergency budget to lower tax for \"the most vulnerable\" and give state support to firms with high levels of energy consumption.\n\n\"We have had two-and-a-half years of tactical government by an often distracted centre. This must end. We must be a strategic government, sober in its analysis, and not chasing the next headline,\" the paper quoted Shapps as saying.\n\nThe MP for Welwyn Hatfield was elected in 2005 and has held several ministerial posts. He is also a former co-chair of the Conservative party.\n\nKemi Badenoch\n\nConservative MP Kemi Badenoch.\n\nThe former equalities minister launched her leadership bid in an op-ed published by the Times of London newspaper, saying she wants a \"strong but limited government focused on the essentials.\"\n\nKemi Badenoch resigned from the government on Wednesday citing \"issues\" that had \"come to light\" and the way they had been handled.\n\n\"I'm putting myself forward in this leadership election because I want to tell the truth. It's the truth that will set us free,\" she wrote Saturday. Badenoch, who voted in favor of Brexit in 2016, added she would run on a \"smart and nimble centre-right vision.\"\n\nSuella Braverman\n\nAttorney General Suella Braverman.\n\nLast week, the attorney general called for Johnson to quit and said that she would join a leadership race to replace him, telling ITV \"it would be the greatest honor.\"\n\nLaunching her bid a few days later, Suella Braverman wrote in The Daily Telegraph : \"I saw Brexit as the most important political decision of my life. My views are not triangulated or calibrated. They are as much a part of me as my DNA. I now realise that I cannot rely on others to take Conservatism forward.\"\n\nBraverman was elected as MP for Fareham in 2015.\n\nRehman Chishti\n\nConservative MP Rehman Chishti.\n\nAmong the biggest outsiders in the race, the newly appointed Foreign Office minister threw his hat into the ring on Sunday.\n\nBorn in Pakistan, Rehman Chishti moved to the UK at the age of six, learning English at school in Gillingham, Kent, the area of southeastern England that he has represented as an MP since 2010. He went on to become the first in his family to go to university and received his law degree.", "authors": ["Eliza Mackintosh", "Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/07/07/uk-conservative-party-votes-2-pm-candidates/86793240/", "title": "Britain's next prime minister will be a woman", "text": "Jane Onyanga-Omara\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLONDON — Britain's next prime minister almost certainly will be a woman.\n\nThat became clear Thursday when members of the ruling Conservative Party chose Home Secretary Theresa May and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom as the final two candidates to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.\n\nThe winner would become the U.K.'s first female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, known as the \"Iron Lady,\" governed from 1979 to 1990.\n\nThe new leader will be chosen by 150,000 Conservative Party members on Sept. 9, after the women campaign around the country, and will also become prime minister unless a new parliamentary election is called first.\n\nJustice Secretary Michael Gove was eliminated in Thursday's vote by Conservative members of Parliament. Gove entered the race last week after unexpectedly withdrawing his support from the early favorite to be prime minister, former London mayor Boris Johnson.\n\nCameron had spearheaded the losing campaign to remain in the EU, and Johnson was the leader of the Brexit — British exit — camp.\n\nMay, 59, who supported staying in the EU, emerged as the favorite for leader in the first round of voting Tuesday by the party's lawmakers.\n\nOn Thursday, May won 199 votes, Leadsom 84 and Gove 46.\n\nGove congratulated May and Leadsom, describing them as “formidable politicians.”\n\nThe contentious Brexit referendum, which won 52% to 48% on June 23, continues to reverberate in the U.K. and Europe.\n\nStill to be decided is when Britain formally starts the prolonged process for exiting the bloc, which will be reduced to 27 member countries. That will lead to difficult negotiations on how Britain can maintain favorable trade status and business relationships, and what price the EU will demand in return.\n\nIn the wake of the referendum, there has been turmoil in financial markets and the business community. The pound has plummeted in value, some plans for investment in Britain have been put on hold, international firms are weighing moving operations out of Britain, and France and other European nations are trying to move the continent's financial capital from London to Paris or another major city.\n\n“We need strong, proven leadership to negotiate the best deal for Britain as we leave the European Union, to unite our party and our country, and to make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us, \" May said following Thursday's party vote.\n\nMay has drawn criticism for failing to guarantee that citizens of EU countries living in Britain will be able to remain in the country after Brexit.\n\nMay was appointed Home secretary in 2010, after the Conservative Party took control of the government. She is in charge of internal affairs of England and Wales and immigration, national security and citizenship for the U.K. May is the longest-serving official in this post in more than 50 years.\n\nLeadsom, 53, who backed the “leave” campaign in the referendum, entered Parliament in 2010 after a career in financial services. She has less political experience than May and has faced allegations from rivals that she exaggerated her experience in the financial sector.\n\nHer plain-spoken style and opposition to the EU made her popular with the party’s grass-roots members, who are older and more Euro-skeptic.\n\n“I will not use people’s lives as bargaining chips in some negotiation,” Leadsom told supporters Thursday. “I say to all who are legally here that you will be welcome to stay.”\n\nPound falls sharply on renewed Brexit fears\n\nBrexit backer Farage steps down as UKIP leader", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/21/australia/australia-election-results-morrison-albanese-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Australia election results: Labor leader Anthony Albanese will be the ...", "text": "Brisbane, Australia (CNN) Australian voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to the center-right government, ending nine years of conservative rule, in favor of the center-left opposition that promised stronger action on climate change.\n\nAustralian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese claimed victory Saturday, though it was unclear as counting continued if his party would have the 76 seats required to form a majority.\n\nEarly counting showed a strong swing towards Greens candidates and Independents who demanded emissions cuts far above the commitments made by the ruling conservative coalition.\n\nAmanda McKenzie, CEO of the research group the Climate Council, declared climate action the winner of the vote.\n\n\"Millions of Australians have put climate first. Now, it's time for a radical reset on how this great nation of ours acts upon the climate challenge,\" she said in a statement.\n\nOther than climate, this election focused on the character of the leaders. Incumbent Scott Morrison. was deeply unpopular with voters and seemed to acknowledge as much when he admitted during the last week of the campaign that he had been a \"bit of a bulldozer.\" He was referring to making hard decisions during the pandemic and severing a submarine deal with France, but it reflected claims about his leadership style as being more authoritarian than collaborative.\n\nSpeaking to his supporters late Saturday night, Morrison said he had called Albanese and congratulated him on his election victory. \"I've always believed in Australians and their judgment, and I've always been prepared to accept their verdict,\" he said.\n\nJust before midnight, Albanese walked out to to cheers from his supporters and said he would seek to unite the nation. \"I will work every day to bring Australians together. And I will lead a government worthy of the people of Australia.\"\n\nHe added: \"I can promise all Australians this no matter how you voted today, the government I lead will respect every one of you every day.\"\n\nScott Morrison, flanked by his wife and daughters as he concede defeat to Labor leader Anthony Albanese.\n\nWhat Albanese will do as Prime Minister?\n\nOne of Albanese's first priorities as Prime Minister will be to rebuild relations with foreign leaders he says Morrison has neglected in recent years. They include Pacific Island leaders, including the Solomon Islands whose leader signed a security pact with Beijing, stoking fears that China plans to build its first military base in the Pacific.\n\nOn Tuesday, Albanese intends to travel Tokyo with Foreign Minister Penny Wong for talks with Quad members from the United States, India and Japan, where they'll discuss priorities to safeguard free passage in the Indo-Pacific.\n\nThe climate crisis was one of the defining issues of the election, as one of the few points of difference between the coalition and Labor, and a key concern of voters, according to polls.\n\nMarija Taflaga, lecturer in politics and international relations at the Australian National University, said the swing towards the Greens was remarkable. \"I think everyone has been taken by surprise by these results...I think it will mean there will be greater and faster action on climate change more broadly.\"\n\nLabor has promised to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050, partly by strengthening the mechanism used to pressure companies to make cuts.\n\nBut research institute Climate Analytics says Labor's plans aren't ambitious enough to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.\n\nLabor's policies are more consistent with a rise of 2 degrees Celsius, the institute said, marginally better than the coalition's plan.\n\nTo speed up the transition to renewable energy, Labor plans to modernize Australia's energy grid and roll out solar banks and community batteries. But despite its net zero commitment, Labor says it'll approve new coal projects if they're environmentally and economically viable.\n\nIn inner-city seats, results show voters threw their support behind Independents, mostly highly-educated female candidates standing on a platform of higher cuts to greenhouse emissions and integrity in government. They targeted traditionally safe Liberal seats, challenging voters to take a stand on decades of government inaction.\n\nAlbanese is supporting a rise in the minimum wage of 5.1%, though he doesn't have the power to impose it, only leeway to submit a recommendation to the Fair Work Commission that the minimum wage keeps pace with inflation.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny cast their votes at a polling booth in Sydney on Saturday.\n\nA modest upbringing to PM\n\nAlbanese often refers to his background as the son of a single mother to demonstrate his commitment to making life better for struggling Australians.\n\nHis mother, Maryanne, suffered rheumatoid arthritis and lived on disability benefits while she raised him alone in council housing in the 1960s.\n\n\"It gave me a determination each and every day to help the people like I was growing up to have a better life. And I think that's what Australians want,\" he told the National Press Club in January.\n\nAlbanese repeatedly credited his mother for her strength during his campaign, most recently on Friday when he paid tribute to a \"incredible woman.\"\n\n\"She'd be proud as punch because she made the courageous decision in 1963 to keep a child that she had out of wedlock,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese's father was a steward on a cruise ship, and the new Australian Prime Minister was born of a brief liaison that was scandalous at the time for a single Catholic woman.\n\nSo she told him that his father had died to spare him the truth, he said.\n\n\"That was a tough decision,\" he said. \"It says something about the pressure that was placed on women and pressures that are still placed on women when faced with difficult circumstances. The fact that that young kid is now running for Prime Minister says a lot about her and her courage, but it also says a lot about this country.\"\n\nAlbanese may have won over Australians, but one of his challenges as Prime Minister will be to unite the factions of his party, said Zareh Ghazarian, a lecturer in politics at Monash University.\n\n\"He's presented himself as someone who's going to be a level-headed leader. The challenge that he will have is getting on top of and keeping on top of the Labor party caucus,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese served as a minister in the previous Labor government under prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, before taking over as Labor leader after the party's most recent election loss in 2019.\n\nThat loss knocked the wind out of Labor and they returned to this election campaign with more modest promises to avoid scaring off voters worried about radical change.\n\nPaul Williams, a political scientist with Griffith University, said Albanese lacked experience in major portfolios but predicted he would \"grow into the job.\"\n\n\"I think it will be a steep learning curve for Albanese because he hasn't had a very senior portfolio like treasurer or foreign affairs minister. And he's going to be thrown into the mix of the Quad meeting next week. So it's going to be baptism by fire,\" he said.\n\nAlbanese said he hoped his win would show young Australians that \"the doors of opportunity are open to us all.\"\n\n\"Every parent wants more for the next generation than they had. My mother dreamt of a better life for me. And I hope that my journey in life inspires Australians to reach for the stars.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/06/19/boris-johnson-leads-race-replace-theresa-may-uk-prime-minister/1501382001/", "title": "UK Prime Minister race down to the final four, and Boris Johnson is ...", "text": "Jill Lawless\n\nAssociated Press\n\nLONDON – The race to become Britain's next prime minister is down to the final four on Wednesday, as Boris Johnson stretched his lead among Conservative lawmakers and upstart Rory Stewart was eliminated from the contest.\n\nJohnson, a former London mayor and U.K. foreign secretary, won 143 of 313 votes cast in a third-round ballot of Conservative lawmakers. Many fellow Brexit supporters in Parliament have rallied behind his insistence that Britain must leave the European Union as scheduled on Oct. 31.\n\nForeign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Sajid Javid trailed well behind, while Stewart came last and was dropped from the race.\n\nMore votes on Thursday will winnow the field down to two. The final pair of candidates with the most votes will appear on a runoff ballot mailed to about 160,000 party members across the country.\n\nWith Johnson all but guaranteed to be one of the two finalists, Hunt, Gove and Javid are battling for the second spot in the runoff.\n\nThe winner, expected to be announced in late July, will replace Theresa May as party leader and prime minister. May stepped down as Conservative leader earlier this month after failing to secure Parliament's approval for her Brexit deal.\n\nWednesday's vote ended the gravity-defying campaign of Stewart, who began as a longshot but sent an electric charge through the race as the \"anti-Boris\" candidate. He got just 27 votes, fewer than in the second round.\n\nA former diplomat who once walked across Afghanistan and was a deputy provincial governor in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the 46-year-old lawmaker called out his rivals for what he saw as their fantasies and empty promises, and called for compromise on Brexit.\n\nHis quirky campaign, which saw him crisscross Britain talking and listening to voters, struck a chord with the public — though was less of a hit with his Conservative colleagues in Parliament.\n\nAfter the result, Stewart said it had been \"the most incredibly wonderful, exciting campaign.\"\n\nHe said that although he had not managed to persuade his colleagues, the public reaction proved that \"pragmatism\" and \"the center ground\" were alive and kicking in politics.\n\nHunt, who got 54 votes, and Gove with 51 are tussling for second place and the slot of Johnsons' runoff opponent. Javid straggled in fourth place, with 38 votes.\n\nMany in the party doubt that anyone can beat Johnson, a quick-witted, Latin-spouting extrovert admired for his ability to connect with voters, but mistrusted for his erratic performance, and record of inaccurate and sometimes offensive comments.\n\nHunt is considered an experienced and competent minister, but unexciting. Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, says he offers a common-man alternative to his private school-educated rivals like Johnson and Hunt, although he was a highly paid investment banker before entering politics.\n\nGove is the sharpest performer and could come out best in head-to-head debates with Johnson, his longstanding frenemy.\n\nLike Johnson, Gove helped lead the campaign to leave the European Union, but scuttled his friend's bid to become prime minister in 2016 when he unexpectedly withdrew his support and decided to run for the job himself. The move left him with a lingering taint of treachery in the eyes of some Conservatives.\n\nAll the candidates to replace May have vowed to succeed where she failed and lead the country out of the EU. They differ widely on how to do that — and critics say none of their plans is realistic.\n\nThe EU says it won't reopen the Brexit agreement it struck with May's government, which has been rejected three times by Britain's Parliament. Many economists and businesses warn that leaving without a deal on divorce terms and future relations would cause economic turmoil as tariffs and other disruptions are imposed on trade between Britain and the EU.\n\nJohnson has won backing from the party's die-hard Brexiteers by insisting the U.K. must leave the bloc on the rescheduled date of Oct. 31, with or without a divorce deal to smooth the way.\n\nThe U.K.'s withdrawal, originally set for March 29, has been pushed back twice amid political deadlock in London. Johnson said during a TV debate on Tuesday there would be a \"catastrophic loss of confidence in politics\" if Brexit was delayed any further.\n\nJavid, like Johnson, says he would try to leave the EU without an agreement rather than delay Brexit beyond Oct. 31. Gove and Hunt both say they would seek another postponement if needed to secure a deal, but only for a short time.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/06/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/07/20/sunak-truss-runoff-british-prime-minister/10107973002/", "title": "Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss face runoff to become UK's next leader", "text": "Jill Lawless\n\nAssociated Press\n\nLONDON — Britain's Conservative Party chose former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss — a fiscal moderate and a low-tax crusader — as the two finalists in an election to replace departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The result came on the day the divisive, unrepentant Johnson ended his final appearance in Parliament as prime minister with the words \"Hasta la vista, baby.\"\n\nSunak and Truss came first and second respectively in a secret vote by Conservative lawmakers. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt came in third and was eliminated.\n\nThe race, which has already produced bitter Conservative infighting, pits Sunak, who steered Britain's economy through the pandemic before quitting Johnson's government this month, against Truss, who has led the U.K.'s response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe two contenders will spend the next few weeks campaigning for the votes of about 180,000 Conservative Party members around the country, who will vote by postal or online ballot. The winner of the party leadership vote will be announced Sept. 5 and will automatically become Britain's next prime minister.\n\nSunak won all four rounds of elimination votes by lawmakers, but is less popular with the party's grassroots, partly because of his previous job as Britain's chief taxman.\n\nTruss, who has taken a tough line against Russian President Vladimir Putin — and with the European Union — is a favorite of the Conservatives' right-wing.\n\nTruss said if she becomes prime minister, \"I would hit the ground running from day one, unite the party and govern in line with Conservative values.\"\n\nSunak's campaign said, \"the choice for members is very simple: who is the best person to beat Labour at the next election? The evidence shows that's Rishi.\"\n\nThe winner of the Tory contest will not have to face Britain's general electorate until 2024, unless they choose to call an early general election.\n\nThe campaign has already exposed deep divisions in the Conservative Party at the end of Johnson's scandal-tarnished three-year reign. Truss has branded Sunak a \"socialist\" for raising taxes in response to the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Sunak has hit back, saying that rivals including Truss were peddling economic \"fairy tales\" to British voters as the country faces soaring inflation and economic turbulence.\n\nJohnson allies have been accused of lobbying against Sunak, whose resignation helped bring the prime minister down, and in favor of Truss, who remained loyal. That impression was cemented Wednesday when Johnson said his advice to his successor would be not always to listen to the Treasury.\n\nAll the contenders —- there were 11 to start — sought to distance themselves from Johnson, whose term in office began boldly in 2019 with a vow to \"get Brexit done\" and a resounding election victory, but is now ending in disgrace.\n\nJohnson quit July 7 after months of ethics scandals but remains caretaker leader until the party elects his successor.\n\nOn Wednesday, he faced derisive opposition politicians and weary Conservatives at his last Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons, which adjourns for the summer on Thursday.\n\nIt was a downbeat departure, with supportive Conservative lawmakers lobbing praise and opposition politicians offering variations on \"good riddance.\"\n\nJohnson extolled what he called his accomplishments — leading Britain out of the European Union and through COVID-19, and supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion — and declared: \"Mission largely accomplished, for now,\" before departing with Arnold Schwarzenegger's \"hasta la vista\" catchphrase from \"Terminator 2.\"\n\nOpposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said: \"I will miss the delusion.\"\n\nJohnson clung to office through months of scandals over his finances and his judgment, refusing to resign when he was fined by police over government parties that broke COVID-19 lockdown rules. He finally quit after one scandal too many — appointing a politician accused of sexual misconduct — drove his ministers to resign en masse.\n\nDespite remaining prime minister, he has largely disappeared from the scene, even as Britain faces a summer cost-of-living crisis and labor discontent as inflation hits 9.4%.\n\nJohnson did not attend any government emergency meetings about the heat wave that brought record temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) to Britain this week. Last week he took a ride in a Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jet, with \"Top Gun\"-style footage released by his office, then threw a weekend party at Chequers, the country house that comes with the prime minister's job.\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan accused Johnson of wanting to \"become Tom Cruise\" and urged him to resign immediately.\n\n\"We need a full-time prime minister looking after our country rather than somebody who's checked out,\" Khan said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/955210/next-tory-leader-odds-the-favourites-to-replace-boris-johnson", "title": "Next Tory leader odds and polls: who will replace Boris Johnson ...", "text": "We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your registration as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWould you like to receive The WeekDay newsletter ?\n\nThe WeekDay newsletter provides you with a daily digest of news and analysis.\n\nWe will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your subscription as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWe will use the information you have shared for carefully considered and specific purposes, where we believe we have a legitimate case to do so, for example to send you communications about similar products and services we offer. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.\n\nIf you wish to object to the use of your data in this way, please tick here.\n\n'We' includes The Week and other Future Publishing Limited brands as detailed here.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/05/24/trump-friend-boris-johnson-leading-race-replace-theresa-may/1202769001/", "title": "Trump 'friend' Boris Johnson leading race to replace Theresa May", "text": "LONDON – A U.S.-born British politician who once told USA TODAY in an interview that the chance of him becoming prime minister was about as likely as finding Elvis on Mars or being reincarnated as an olive, is the frontrunner to take over for outgoing British leader Theresa May, according to betting markets and opinion polls.\n\nBoris Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, but renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 amid a taxes crackdown by the Internal Revenue Service on the global earnings of dual nationals. He last lived in the United States as a 5-year-old.\n\n\"Boris Johnson is a friend of mine. He has been very, very nice to me, very supportive,\" President Donald Trump said in July last year after Johnson resigned as May's foreign secretary over her handling of Britain's attempt to leave the European Union – Brexit.\n\nLike Trump, Johnson appears to enjoy the limelight and attracts controversy. He was once forced into an apology to the nation of Papua New Guinea for comparing infighting in his Conservative Party to \"Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.\" He was fired as a journalist for making up a quote.\n\nMay's fraught three-year tenure in office will officially end June 7, she announced Friday. The 62-year-old Conservative Party leader was forced from power, but she will remain as a caretaker prime minister until party lawmakers and members vote to elect a successor. In Britain, the public elects a party, not a candidate, meaning the government stays the same for now, until there is an election. The process is expected to take about six weeks. First, Conservative Party lawmakers hold a series of votes to whittle the field to two candidates. Then, those candidates are voted on by party members across the country.\n\nTheresa May:Britain's embattled leader resigns premiership amid Brexit deadlock\n\nExperts say that whoever ends up as Britain's next leader won't dramatically rewrite one of the closest diplomatic, economic and military alliances in history: The \"special relationship\" between the U.S. and Britain, a phrase and diplomatic modus operandi coined by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1946.\n\nBritish-American goodwill has accrued through two world wars, the Cold War, several conflicts in the Middle East and close cooperation in fighting international terrorism. Often, it's said, the two nations are divided only by a common language.\n\nTrump has described his relationship with May as the \"highest level of special,\" but the two leaders did clash on the substance of policy – his Muslim travel ban, in particular –and the new partnership is not expected to be all plain sailing and photo ops, either.\n\n\"The special relationship hasn't been so special recently,\" said Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary, University of London.\n\n\"Partly because the president couldn't stop himself criticizing the way May had gone about Brexit, and partly because she and other British politicians have been a little wary about associating themselves too closely with a guy who most Brits (rightly or wrongly) treat as either downright dangerous or a laughingstock, or both. Whoever takes over won't be looking for a full-on (b)romance.\"\n\nRichard Whitman, a professor of politics at the University of Kent, said the \"chemistry between May and Trump was awkward.\" But he said Johnson-Trump would be different, calling it a \"clash for the title of the greatest showman.\"\n\nMeet the main contenders\n\nBoris Johnson\n\nJohnson, 54, is the bookmakers' favorite to succeed May. He is a direct descendant of King George II — his full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson — and he has passed through many hallowed corridors of the British establishment. There was Eton College and the University of Oxford, where he was in the same classes as former British Prime Minister David Cameron. In addition to foreign secretary, Johnson has been London's mayor. He also was a journalist, editing The Spectator, a longstanding political magazine. Johnson is a leading supporter of Brexit. He has spoken of his admiration for Trump on several occasions, although when mayor he also said the U.S. president was \"clearly out of his mind.\" Johnson is well-known in Britain for his tussled blonde hair and frequent classical allusions in speeches. One in four Britons think he would make a good prime minister, according to a survey by YouGov, a research firm.\n\nMichael Gove\n\nAnother prominent supporter of Britain leaving the EU, Gove, 51, is currently minister for the environment. He had a cabinet-level role in Cameron's government and he is viewed as a seasoned operator with extremely good debating skills. (While at Oxford, Gove was president of the debating society.) Like Johnson, Gove is also a former journalist and he made headlines in Britain when he secured the first interview with Trump for a British publication after his election in 2016. Gove boasted in that interview for the Times of London that he spent an hour with the president-elect in his \"glitzy, golden man cave\" in Trump Tower, in New York City. Trump told Gove that Britain was \"smart to leave the EU.\" Gove predicted Trump would resign or lose the 2020 election. If he ends up as Trump's new British counterpart, some of his comments out of the interview may come back to haunt him: \"He is someone who is clearly narcissistic or egotistical enough to want to be seen as a success,\" Gove said of Trump.\n\nSajid Javid\n\nJavid, 49, has held various cabinet-level positions in Conservative Party governments, most recently as home secretary, or interior minister. He is the son of a former bus driver from Pakistan and represents the relatively new face of British conservatism. Javid voted to stay in the EU in the referendum but has since campaigned aggressively for Britain to abide by the vote's outcome, and leave. He is known for taking a hard line on immigration and has been a fiercely vocal opponent of letting the wives and children of former Islamic State group fighters return to Britain. In one example, that of Shamima Begun, who fled to Syria's battlefields at 15, Javid is trying to revoke her citizenship in a case that mirrors that of New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana. The Trump administration is trying to block Muthana's return in a Washington court.\n\nAndrea Leadsom\n\nLeadsom, 56, was the last candidate standing against May in the 2016 race to succeed Cameron. She resigned Wednesday as leader of the House of Commons – a job responsible for arranging the order of government business in Britain's Parliament – in protest at May's then-refusal to step aside over Brexit. Leadsom is an ardent backer of Brexit but she stumbled during the leadership contest with May three years ago after she implied in an interview with a British newspaper that she thought she would make a better prime minister than May because being a mother gave her an \"advantage\" over the childless May. \"I have children who are going to have children who will directly be part of what happens next,\" Leadsom said in the BBC interview. Leadsom also appeared to inflate her experience working in financial services.\n\nDominic Raab\n\nRaab, 45, worked for an international law firm that litigated against war criminals before joining Britain's foreign diplomatic corp as an adviser in 2000. He has a black belt in karate and boxes regularly. Raab resigned as Brexit secretary in May's government so that he could vote against her EU withdrawal deal. He served only five months in the role. In interviews with the British press, Raab has spoken of wanting to get a \"fairer deal for working Britain.\" He would do this, he said, by cutting taxes.\n\nWho else could become Britain's next prime minister?", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/05/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/uk/boris-johnson-vote-of-confidence-uk-prime-minister-intl/index.html", "title": "Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, squeaks through confidence ...", "text": "London (CNN) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has survived a confidence vote by members of his own party -- but the final count of lawmakers who rebelled against him was far higher than his supporters expected.\n\nAfter a tidal wave of recent criticism -- which included illegal, lockdown-breaking parties thrown in his Downing Street offices -- Johnson squeaked by with 211 votes to 148 in a secret ballot on Monday.\n\nThe government hailed the result, with Johnson saying he thought \"this is a very good result for politics and for the country.\"\n\n\"I think it's a convincing result, a decisive result, and what it means is that as a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that really matters to people,\" Johnson said.\n\nYet his thin margin of victory means that 41% of his own parliamentary party refused to back Johnson, three years after he led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in the last general election.\n\nVoting began at 6 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) Monday after Johnson urged Conservative lawmakers to back him and reminded them that he had led the party to its biggest electoral win in 40 years, according to a letter he wrote seen by PA Media.\n\nThe large rebellion by his lawmakers will leave Johnson's reputation diminished and could damage his ability to push through legislation. Disappointing results for the party in upcoming polls could also heap more pressure on Johnson, as Conservatives face two difficult parliamentary by-elections in late June.\n\nDespite the victory, the opposition Labour Party has said that by hanging onto power this time, Johnson makes the prospect of an early election even more likely. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer predicted to LBC that Monday's vote would mark \"the beginning of the end\" of the Prime Minister's political career -- no matter which way the vote went.\n\n\"If you look at the previous examples of no confidence votes, even when Conservative Prime Ministers survive those ... the damage is already done,\" the opposition leader told LBC Monday . \"Usually, they fall reasonably swiftly afterwards.\"\n\nFollowing the vote, Starmer said Johnson was \"utterly unfit for the great office he holds\" and accused Conservative lawmakers of ignoring the British public. \"The Conservative Government now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law.\"\n\nScotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called Johnson an \"utterly lame duck\" on Twitter following the vote.\n\n\"That result is surely the worst of all worlds for the Tories. But much more importantly: at a time of huge challenge, it saddles the UK with an utterly lame duck PM,\" Sturgeon said in a tweet on Monday night.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'No way out': Commentator predicts Boris Johnson's future Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'No way out': Commentator predicts Boris Johnson's future 02:10\n\nJohnson's predecessor Theresa May was the last sitting British leader to face a no-confidence vote from their own party. May narrowly survived that vote, which had been called amid months of chaos over her doomed Brexit deal -- but she ultimately resigned months later.\n\nMonday's vote was triggered after more than 54 lawmakers sent letters to the chair of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, following a tidal wave of criticism over a number of scandals that have engulfed Johnson's premiership for several months.\n\nLast month, a damning report by a senior civil servant found a culture of partying and socializing among Johnson's staff during Covid-19 lockdown, while millions of Britons were banned from seeing their friends and relatives.\n\nPhotos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson British Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street after giving a statement in London in July 2019. He had just become prime minister. Hide Caption 1 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson A 15-year-old Johnson, right, is seen outside Eton College, a boarding school outside London, in 1979. Hide Caption 2 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson, 21, speaks with Greek Minister for Culture Melina Mercouri in June 1986. Johnson at the time was president of the Oxford Union, a prestigious student society. Hide Caption 3 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson started his career as a journalist. He was fired from an early job at The Times for fabricating a quote. He later became a Brussels correspondent and then an assistant editor for The Daily Telegraph. From 1994 to 2005, he was editor of the weekly magazine The Spectator. Hide Caption 4 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson In 2001, Johnson was elected as a member of Parliament. He won the seat in Henley for the Conservative Party. Hide Caption 5 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson looks apologetic after fouling Germany's Maurizio Gaudino during a charity soccer match in Reading, England, in May 2006. Hide Caption 6 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is congratulated by Conservative Party leader David Cameron, right, after being elected mayor of London in May 2008. Cameron later became prime minister. Hide Caption 7 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson, left, poses with a wax figure of himself at Madame Tussauds in London in May 2009. Hide Caption 8 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses for a photo in London in April 2011. He was re-elected as the city's mayor in 2012. Hide Caption 9 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his wife, Marina, enjoy the atmosphere in London ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony in July 2012. The couple separated in 2018 after 25 years of marriage. Hide Caption 10 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson gets stuck on a zip line during an event in London's Victoria Park in August 2012. Hide Caption 11 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson waves on London's Wandsworth Bridge as a bike-sharing program was expanded in the city in 2013. Hide Caption 12 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses with his father, Stanley, and his siblings, Rachel and Jo, at the launch of his new book in October 2014. Stanley Johnson was once a member of the European Parliament. Hide Caption 13 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson takes part in a charity tug-of-war with British military personnel in October 2015. Hide Caption 14 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Michael Gove ride on a \"Vote Leave\" campaign bus in June 2016. Hide Caption 15 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson kisses a wild salmon while visiting a fish market in London in June 2016. A month earlier, he stepped down as mayor but remained a member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Hide Caption 16 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson arrives at a news conference in London in June 2016. During the Brexit referendum that year, he was under immense pressure from Prime Minister Cameron to back the Remain campaign. But he broke ranks and backed Brexit at the last minute. Hide Caption 17 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson sits next to Prime Minister Theresa May during a Cabinet meeting in November 2016. Johnson was May's foreign secretary for two years before resigning over her handling of Brexit. Hide Caption 18 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson As foreign secretary, Johnson meets with US House Speaker Paul Ryan in April 2017. Johnson was born in New York City to British parents and once held dual citizenship. But he renounced his US citizenship in 2016. Hide Caption 19 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson launches his Conservative Party leadership campaign in June 2019. Hide Caption 20 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt take part in the Conservative Leadership debate in June 2019. Hide Caption 21 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks in July 2019 after he won the party leadership vote to become Britain's next prime minister. Hide Caption 22 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Britain's Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Johnson at Buckingham Palace, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Hide Caption 23 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses with his dog Dilyn as he leaves a polling station in London in December 2019. Hide Caption 24 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson appears on stage alongside Bobby Smith during the count declaration in London in December 2019. Johnson's Conservative Party won a majority in the UK's general election, securing his position as Prime Minister. Hide Caption 25 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, react to election results from his study at No. 10 Downing Street. Hide Caption 26 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks on the phone with Queen Elizabeth II in March 2020. Hide Caption 27 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson In March 2020, Johnson announced in a video posted to Twitter that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus. \"Over the last 24 hours, I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus. I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government's response via video conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this,\" Johnson said. He was later hospitalized after his symptoms had \"worsened,\" according to his office. Hide Caption 28 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, outside of No. 10 Downing Street, join a national applause showing appreciation for health-care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hide Caption 29 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is seen via video conference as he attends a Covid-19 meeting remotely in March 2020. Hide Caption 30 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson After recovering from the coronavirus, Johnson returned to work in late April 2020. Hide Caption 31 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and staff members are pictured together with wine at a Downing Street garden in May 2020. In January 2022, Johnson apologized for attending the event, which took place when Britons were prohibited from gathering due to strict coronavirus restrictions. Hide Caption 32 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson wears a face mask as he visits the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust in July 2020. Hide Caption 33 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits across from Johnson in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street in July 2020. Hide Caption 34 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson 14/07/2020. London, United Kingdom. Boris Johnson and Carrie NHS Call.The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds with their son Wilfred in the study of No10 Downing Street speaking via zoom to the midwifes that helped deliver their son at the UCLH. Hide Caption 35 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson holds a crab in Stromness Harbour during a visit to Scotland in July 2020. Hide Caption 36 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is seen with his wife, Carrie, after their wedding at London's Westminster Cathedral in May 2021. The ceremony, described by PA Media as a \"secret wedding,\" was reportedly held in front of close friends and family, according to several British newspaper accounts. Hide Caption 37 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and US President Joe Biden speak at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, England, after their bilateral meeting in June 2021. Biden and Johnson were participating in the G7 summit that weekend. Hide Caption 38 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Queen Elizabeth II greets Johnson at Buckingham Palace in June 2021. It was the Queen's first in-person weekly audience with the Prime Minister since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Hide Caption 39 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson delivers his keynote speech on the final day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in October 2021. Hide Caption 40 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and former British prime ministers attend a requiem Mass for Conservative MP David Amess in November 2021. From left are former Prime Ministers John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Johnson. Hide Caption 41 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his wife, Carrie, holding their newborn daughter, Romy, hold video calls in December 2021. Hide Caption 42 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks in the House of Commons in January 2022. He apologized for attending a May 2020 garden party that took place while the UK was in a hard lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19. Johnson told lawmakers he believed the gathering to be a work event but that, with hindsight, he should have sent attendees back inside. Hide Caption 43 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2022. Hide Caption 44 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson attends the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral in London in June 2022. It was part of Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II. Hide Caption 45 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson \"I think it's an extremely good, positive, conclusive, decisive result which enables us to move on to unite,\" Johnson said in an interview shortly after surviving a confidence vote in June 2022. Hide Caption 46 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson leaves No. 10 Downing Street on July 6, a day after two senior Cabinet ministers quit over Downing Street's handling of the resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. Hide Caption 47 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson At Prime Minister's Questions on July 6, Johnson said \"the job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going, and that's what I'm going to do.\" Hide Caption 48 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson announces his resignation in front of No. 10 Downing Street on July 7. \"It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,\" he said. Hide Caption 49 of 49\n\nThe so-called Partygate scandal plunged his approval ratings and sparked a drumbeat of dissatisfaction among several of his backbenchers. But Johnson has also been criticized for his response to a cost-of-living crisis, and his party suffered heavy losses at local elections in May.\n\nUnder Conservative party rules -- which can be changed at any time -- a leader who survives a confidence vote is safe from such a challenge for 12 months.\n\nBut with only 58.6% of Conservative MPs backing Johnson on Monday, the Prime Minister suffered a worse result than his predecessor May, who had the support of 63% of her lawmakers in a much smaller parliamentary party when she faced a confidence vote in 2018.\n\nDespite the worse performance, Johnson insisted it was an \"extremely good\" result, saying he was not interested in a snap election to gain a new mandate from the public.", "authors": ["Tara John", "Ivana Kottasová", "Rob Picheta", "Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/10/europe/french-presidential-election-results-intl/index.html", "title": "French election: Emmanuel Macron to face Marine Le Pen in French ...", "text": "Paris (CNN) French President Emmanuel Macron will face Marine Le Pen in the second round of the country's presidential election, setting up a rematch of their runoff contest in 2017.\n\nCentrist Macron and Le Pen, a long-time standard-bearer for the French far-right, were the top two candidates in the first round of Sunday's vote, picking up 27.8% and 23.2% of the ballots respectively, according to the French Interior Ministry.\n\nTwelve candidates ran for the top job. Since none of them received more than 50% of the ballots in the first round, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff on April 24.\n\nThe first round of the 2022 contest was marked by voter apathy, with participation estimated at 73.3%, according to an analysis by pollster Ifop-Fiducial for French broadcasters TF1 and LCI -- the lowest in a first round in 20 years.\n\nWhile Macron received more votes than any of the other candidates in the first round, he is a polarizing figure whose approval rating has sagged during his first term.\n\nIn a speech after polls closed on Sunday, he urged citizens to vote in the second round.\n\n\"Nothing is settled and the debate that we will have in the coming 15 days is decisive for our country and our Europe,\" he said. \"I don't want a France which, having left Europe, would have as its only allies the international populists and xenophobes. That is not us. I want a France faithful to humanism, to the spirit of enlightenment,\" he said.\n\nMacron is seeking to become the first French president to win reelection since Jacques Chirac in 2002. Polls have given him a consistent edge over the rest of the field, but the race has tightened significantly in the past month.\n\nPolling by Ifop-Fiducial released on Sunday showed that Macron would win a second-round contest against Le Pen by just 51% to 49%.\n\nLe Pen's support has steadily risen in recent weeks. Though she is best known for her far-right policies such as drastically restricting immigration and banning Muslim headscarves in public places, she has run a more mainstream campaign this time around, softening her language and focusing more on pocketbook issues like the rising cost of living, a top concern for the French electorate.\n\nMarine Le Pen addresses her supporters on Sunday after the first round of the French presidential election.\n\nIn her speech Sunday, Le Pen vowed to be a president for \"all the French\" if she wins the second round, and called on those who didn't vote for Macron to support her in the second round.\n\nLeftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon came third, with 22% of the vote. He enjoyed a late surge in support and was considered a possible dark horse candidate to challenge Macron.\n\nWho Melenchon's voters choose to back in the second round could decide the presidency, experts say. Melenchon told his supporters that \"we must not give a single vote to Mrs. Le Pen,\" but did not explicitly back Macron.\n\nNo other candidate received more than 10% of the votes. Far-right political commentator turned presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who enjoyed a seat among the top three candidates until March, according to Ifop polling, came in fourth at 7.1%.\n\nThe other candidates on Sunday's ballot have quickly begun throwing their weight behind the top two. While Zemmour called on his backers to vote for Le Pen, the others urged their supporters to steer clear of her.\n\nThe candidates from the traditional center-left and center-right parties, the Socialists and the Republicans, have already backed Macron.\n\nSocialist Anne Hidalgo said a Le Pen victory would instill in France \"a hatred of everyone set against everyone,\" while Republican Valerie Pecresse said she was sincerely worried for the country because \"the far right has never been so close to winning.\"\n\n\"The project of Marine Le Pen will open France to discord, impotence, and collapse,\" said Pecresse.\n\nA woman picks her ballots in the first round of the French presidential election in Lyon, central France, on Sunday.\n\nThe rematch\n\nMacron's political rise shattered the playing field, as his centrist political party has pulled supporters away from the traditional centrist parties, the Socialists and the Republicans. Both its candidates polled under 5% on Sunday.\n\nSurveys ahead of the race showed that a second round of Macron vs. Le Pen was the most likely outcome. Macron handily beat Le Pen five years ago, but experts have said that a second contest between the two would be much tighter than the 2017 race.\n\nMacron is no longer a political upstart and must run on a mixed record. While his ambitious plan to bolster the European Union's autonomy and geopolitical heft won him respect abroad and at home, he remains a divisive figure when it comes to domestic policies. His handling of the yellow vest movement , one of France's most prolonged protests in decades, was widely panned, and his record on the Covid-19 pandemic is inconclusive.\n\nMacron's signature policy during the crisis -- requiring people to show proof of vaccination to go about their lives as normal -- helped increase vaccination rates but fired up a vocal minority against his presidency.\n\nFrance's President Emmanuel Macron (center), next to his wife Brigitte Macron (left), speaks to a resident before voting for the first round of the presidential election on Sunday.\n\nMacron has, so far, done very little campaigning. Experts believe his strategy was to avoid the political mudslinging as long as possible to brandish his image as the most presidential of all the candidates. Polling showed him consistently leading all candidates, and he was considered a shoo-in to make the second round.\n\n\"The widespread dissatisfaction with Macron (especially among the young) means that the outcome is uncertain and unpredictable. Le Pen will continue to exploit this, and a major political upset therefore remains possible,\" said CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas of the second round matchup.\n\n\"However much they may dislike Le Pen, there is a world of difference between her and Macron, and how she would disrupt European and global politics.\"\n\nLe Pen is the daughter of another famous far-right presidential candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The elder Le Pen made it to the runoff against Jacques Chirac in 2002, but Marine Le Pen has managed to perform better than her father in the first round of each of the past two presidential elections.\n\nLe Pen has tried to portray herself as a very different candidate to the one who lost to Macron in 2017 , when she attempted to position herself to the forgotten French working classes as her country's answer to then-US President Donald Trump. While her economic nationalist stance, views on immigration, euroskepticism and positions on Islam in France are unchanged, Le Pen has sought to broaden her appeal.\n\nThe contest was at first predicted to be a referendum on the dominance of the extreme right in French politics, but the war in Ukraine -- another key issue for voters -- upended the race.\n\nAccording to Ifop polling, Macron's support peaked in early March, as potential voters rallied around the flag and rewarded the president for his attempts to mediate the conflict in Ukraine before Russia's invasion, even if it was a failure.\n\nMany experts also expected the war to hurt the Le Pen, who had been a vocal admirer of Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader who has become a pariah in the West due to the Kremlin's decision to invade Ukraine in late February. Le Pen visited the Russian president during her 2017 campaign; this time around, she was forced to scrap a leaflet with a photo of her and Putin from that trip after Russia's unprovoked attack on its neighbor.\n\nThomas, the CNN European affairs commentator, explained that the forthcoming debates will be crucial if Macron is to convince voters that Le Pen's previous support for Putin should disqualify her.\n\n\"He will be vulnerable on a range of domestic issues, but she will have difficulty convincing the electorate of her foreign policy credentials, especially given her longstanding links with Russia,\" he said.", "authors": ["Joshua Berlinger", "Joseph Ataman"], "publish_date": "2022/04/10"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_22", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/europe/boris-johnson-resignation-intl/index.html", "title": "Boris Johnson: UK Prime Minister resigns after mutiny in his party ...", "text": "London (CNN) Boris Johnson's turbulent tenure as Britain's Prime Minister came to an end Thursday after a historic party revolt over a series of ethics scandals forced him to step down.\n\nIt took the resignation of nearly 60 members of his government -- almost half the payroll -- for Johnson to finally abandon his attempts to cling on to power. Even then, the Prime Minister insisted that he would continue as caretaker leader while the Conservative Party launches the process of choosing a successor\n\nSome senior figures in his party say even that will be unsustainable, given the dwindling number of people willing to work for him.\n\nOthers are already lining up to replace him. Party officials say they will announce the timetable for a leadership election by Monday.\n\nSpeaking in front of the famous 10 Downing Street door, the same place where many of his predecessors delivered their own resignation address, Johnson announced that he would be stepping down -- without actually saying the words out loud.\n\n\"It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore, a new prime minister,\" Johnson said.\n\n\"The process of choosing that new leader should begin now,\" he added, saying the time line will be announced next week.\n\nIn a sign that he is planning to stay in the office for as long as he can, Johnson announced he had appointed a new cabinet \"to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.\" Appointing new cabinet ministers means that the government can continue to function as he prepares to depart.\n\nJohnson spoke of his attempts to stay on as leader and how \"painful\" it is for him to step down, but made no mention of the scandals that have proved his political downfall.\n\n\"In the last few days, I've tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we're delivering so much... and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally,\" Johnson said.\n\n\"I regret not to have been successful in those arguments, and of course, it's painful, not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself,\" he said, adding that he's proud of \"getting Brexit done\" and \"leading the West in standing up to Putin's aggression in Ukraine.\"\n\nJohnson went on to address voters directly, expressing sadness at stepping down after nearly three years.\n\n\"To you, the British public: I know that there will be many people who are relieved and, perhaps, quite a few will also be disappointed,\" he said. \"And I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them's the breaks.\"\n\nJohnson has in recent months been engulfed in a series of scandals that forced even his most stalwart supporters to abandon him. The latest was Downing Street's botched handling of the resignation by Johnson's former deputy chief whip, Chris Pincher, who was accused of groping two men last week.\n\nJohnson initially attempted to ride out the crisis -- despite an unprecedented flight of middle-ranking ministers from the government, a battering at Prime Minister's Questions and a bruising appearance before a committee of senior lawmakers in Parliament. On Wednesday, he still insisted he wasn't going to resign.\n\nHe finally gave in Thursday after some of his most loyal allies told him that the game was up.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Johnson had made the \"right decision\" to resign. \"We need calmness and unity now and to keep governing while a new leader is found,\" she added.\n\nGreg Clark, newly appointed UK Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said that he had a \"duty to ensure that the country has a functioning government.\"\n\nThe leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, said it was \"good news for the country\" that Johnson had decided to resign, adding that \"it should have happened long ago.\"\n\n\"He was always unfit for office. He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale,\" said Starmer on Twitter.\n\nThe opposition leader also had scathing words for the Conservatives. \"They have been in power for 12 years. The damage they have done is profound. Twelve years of economic stagnation. Twelve years of declining public services. Twelve years of empty promises,\" Starmer said.\n\n\"Enough is enough. We don't need to change the Tory at the top -- we need a proper change of government. We need a fresh start for Britain.\"\n\nTimeline of Boris Johnson's scandals September 9, 2019 Suspends Parliament Two months into his premiership, Boris Johnson prorogues -- or suspends -- Parliament for five weeks ahead of an October 31 deadline to leave the European Union. Opponents say it's an attempt to shut down debate where Parliament can decide the type of Brexit deal with the EU. September 24 The Supreme Court rules Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament was illegal and he is forced to apologise to the Queen. April 21, 2021 Favors The BBC leaks text messages of Johnson saying he would \"fix\" concerns about a change in tax status for the staff of inventor James Dyson who were in the UK to build ventilators during the Covid-19 pandemic. November 2021 Johnson pressures Conservative MPs to overturn the suspension of Owen Paterson, a fellow Conservative MP accused of breaching lobbying rules. The next day, following a backlash, Johnson made a U-turn and Paterson resigned. December 7 A Foreign Office whistleblower leaked emails suggesting Johnson may have lied about evacuating animals before people desperate to escape the Taliban amidst the withdrawal from Afghanistan. December Partygate Allegations emerge of illegal parties taking place at Downing Street in the midst of lockdown. This was the start of the scandal that became known as \"Partygate.\" Johnson maintains that \"all guidance was followed completely in No. 10.\" December 7 A video is leaked showing a press briefing rehearsal with government adviser Allegra Stratton joking about illegal parties at Downing Street. Johnson denies any lockdown rules had been broken. Allegra Stratton in the leaked video published by ITV News. December 9 Refurbishments The Electoral Commission fines Johnson for failing to declare where the funds came from to refurbish his Downing Street residence. Johnson faced allegations of corruption after Whatsapp messages were leaked that showed Johnson asking a Conservative Party donor for funds. January 12 Johnson admits he attended a party at Downing Street but that he thought it was a \"work event.\" This was considered a farcical excuse, and the British public backlash ensued. January 12, 2022 Contracts for friends London's High Court ruled that it was unlawful for Johnson's government to have awarded contracts, without competition in 2020 to personal protective equipment suppliers with political connections. January 31 Partygate continues First version of Sue Gray's report is released. It provides details of how Johnson broke pandemic rules that he himself set for the public. April 12 Johnson and his chancellor are fined by the police for breaking lockdown rules by having illegal parties in Downing Street. This is the first time a sitting Prime Minister has been fined for breaking the law. May 25 The full Sue Gray report is released with further details of illegal parties such as \"red wine spilled on one wall.\" Gray concludes that senior leadership must \"bear responsibility for this culture\" that allowed such parties to take place. Boris Johnson raises a can of beer at his illegal June 2020 birthday party. June 6 Party divide Johnson survives a vote of confidence by a slim margin where only 59% of his party voted to keep him as party leader. July 5 Johnson apologizes for appointing Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip despite being aware of Pincher's past allegations of sexual misconduct. July 5 Two senior cabinet ministers resign citing a lack of confidence in Johnson prompting a cascade of ministerial resignations in the next 36hrs. July 7 Johnson announces he's stepping down as Conservative Party leader. Source: CNN reporting, BBC, UK Parliament Words, design and development: Sarah-Grace Mankarious and Marco Chacón, CNN\n\n'Needless damage'\n\nConventionally, when a Conservative leader resigns, he or she gives the party time to hold a thorough leadership contest , in which Conservative lawmakers and then party members nationwide vote.\n\nBut some said Johnson should leave office more quickly.\n\n\"We now need a new Leader as soon as practicable,\" Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Twitter. \"Someone who can rebuild trust, heal the country, and set out a new, sensible and consistent economic approach to help families,\" he added.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called for the leadership question to be settled.\n\n\"There will be a widespread sense of relief that the chaos of the last few days (indeed months) will come to an end, though notion of Boris Johnson staying on as PM until autumn seems far from ideal, and surely not sustainable?\" Sturgeon said in a series of tweets.\n\nConservative MP Steve Baker told CNN that the party needs \"to move swiftly to a leadership contest.\"\n\nBaker said Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab should be caretaker prime minister, but that Johnson could also continue in office. Raab has deputized for Johnson in the past: When the PM was in intensive care with Covid-19 in April 2020 and then again briefly last month when Johnson underwent \"routine\" operation and was put under general anesthetic.\n\nRaab said he would not stand as next Conservative party leader, according to Britain's PA news agency, which would make him a candidate for a caretaker PM if Johnson was to step down early.\n\n\"I am absolutely determined that we should not prolong this crisis. If it's agreed within government that Boris Johnson should continue as caretaker, then that's fine with me,\" Baker told CNN. \"Because we need to just end the crisis, get into a leadership contest, and start fresh in September.\"\n\nFormer British Prime Minister John Major said it would be \"unwise and may be unsustainable\" for Johnson to remain in the office of prime minister for long while a new Conservative leader is chosen. He too suggested Raab could serve as the acting prime minister.\n\nHours after Johnson's announcement, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat launched his campaign for the top job with an editorial in UK newspaper the Telegraph.\n\nBarrage of criticism\n\nJohnson's departure will mark a remarkable downfall for a prime minister who was once seen as having political superpowers, with an appeal that transcended traditional party lines.\n\nHe won a landslide victory in December 2019 on the promise of delivering a Brexit deal and leading the UK to a bright future outside the European Union. But his premiership unraveled in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic\n\nIn recent months the prime minister has faced a barrage of criticism from all sides over his conduct and that of some members of his government, including illegal, Covid-19 lockdown-breaking parties thrown in his Downing Street offices for which he and others were fined.\n\nNumerous other scandals have also hit his standing in the polls. These include accusations of using donor money inappropriately to pay for a refurbishment of his Downing Street home and ordering MPs to vote in such a way that would protect a colleague who had breached lobbying rules.\n\nLast month, he survived a confidence vote among members of his own party, but the final count of his lawmakers who rebelled against him was higher than his supporters expected: 41% of his own parliamentary party refused to back him.\n\nHe suffered a further blow late last month when his party lost two parliamentary by-elections in a single night, raising new questions about his leadership.\n\nHis reputation was also damaged by the resignation of his second ethics adviser in less than two years.", "authors": ["Jack Guy", "Luke Mcgee", "Ivana Kottasová"], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/europe/mario-draghi-italy-resignation-intl/index.html", "title": "Italy's president dissolves parliament, triggering snap election ...", "text": "Rome, Italy (CNN) Italy's President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament on Thursday, triggering a snap election following the resignation of the country's Prime Minister Mario Draghi earlier in the day. The national election will take place on September 25.\n\nMattarella branded the developments as \"inevitable\" following the political upheaval faced by the European Union's third largest economy over the last 24 hours.\n\nIn a short address from his residence at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Mattarella thanked Draghi and his ministers \"for their efforts over the past 18 months.\"\n\n\"The political situation that has been determined has led to this decision,\" he added. \"The discussion, the vote, and the manner in which this vote was cast yesterday in the Senate made clear the loss of parliamentary support for the government and the absence of prospects for forming a new majority. This situation made the early dissolution of the chambers inevitable.\"\n\nMattarella said the period Italy is going through \"does not allow for any pauses\", in the statement issued at the end of his meeting with Senate President Elisabetta Casellati and House Speaker Roberto Fico.\n\n\"I have the duty to emphasize that the period we are going through does not allow for pauses in the interventions that are indispensable to counteract the effects of the economic and social crisis and, in particular, of the rise in inflation, which, caused above all by the cost of energy and food, entails heavy consequences for families and businesses,\" he said.\n\nDraghi's resignation comes after several key parties in his coalition -- the powerful 5-Star movement, the largest party in the country's coalition government, center-right Forza Italia and the far-right League -- boycotted a confidence vote in the government Wednesday night.\n\nThe centrist leader's resignation came despite his popularity among many inside the country and support from world leaders, who view him as an important European voice in standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine.\n\nDraghi's resignation not only presents a challenge for the future of Italy -- but also for Europe.\n\nA political pandora's box\n\nDraghi, a prominent economist unaffiliated with any political party, became prime minister in February 2021, leading a cabinet of ministers from across the country's vast political spectrum.\n\nHe's the fifth prime minister to lead the country in just eight years, following the resignation of Giuseppe Conte in early 2021 over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe former European Central Bank chief won the moniker \"Super Mario\" for saving the euro during Europe's sovereign debt crisis. He worked closely with finance minister Daniele Franco to prepare a reforms plan for Italy that will allow it to obtain a 209-billion euro package from the European Covid-19 recovery fund.\n\nHowever, last week, 5-Star withdrew its support in a parliamentary confidence vote on an economic package designed to tackle Italy's cost-of-living crisis.\n\nDraghi had previously said he would not lead a government that did not include 5-Star. Meanwhile, the hard-right League and centre-right Forza parties have dismissed the possibility of staying in government with 5-Star, leaving the government on the brink of collapse and sending the FTSE MIB, Italy's main stock market, down more than 2.5%.\n\nWith Draghi's resignation and its government dissolved, Italy will now have to wait for elections to pass any reforms and to pass its 2023 budget. The crisis will affect ordinary Italians, as without a functioning government, Italy will not be able to access billions of euros from the EU's Covid-19 fund.\n\nItaly's Prime Minister Mario Draghi addresses to the lower house of parliament ahead of a vote of confidence in Rome on Wednesday.\n\nA blow for Ukraine\n\nDraghi has been a key figure in the West's response to Russia's war in Ukraine. He was one of the first European leaders to propose sanctions against Russia, including targeting its oligarchs and ratcheting up pressure on its central bank.\n\nHe has also supported Ukraine's bid for EU candidacy.\n\nFrom Left: Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meet for a working session in Kyiv, on June 16, 2022.\n\nLast month, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on a visit to underline his support, alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, despite a growing backlash in Italy over sanctions and aid to Ukraine.\n\nIn his last address before his resignation, Draghi warned the Senate that turmoil in Italian politics could leave an opening for Russia. \"We need to block Russian interference in our politics and society,\" he said.\n\nEmmanuel Macron hailed Draghi as a \"great Italian statesman,\" in a statement published following his resignation on Thursday.\n\nThe French president went on to call his Italian counterpart \"a great European, a trusted partner and a friend of France\" with whom he had \"built a sincere and trusting relationship over the past few years.\"\n\nHe also drew attention to Draghi's commitment to the European Union, saying that Draghi's Italy had been an \"unfailing supporter in providing European responses to our common challenges, particularly in the face of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.\"\n\nRussia is watching\n\nItalian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio believes that Draghi's political enemies have created an opportunity for Russia, telling Politico last week: \"The Russians are right now celebrating having made another Western government fall.\"\n\nHe added, \"Now I doubt we can send arms [to Ukraine]. It is one of the many serious problems.\"\n\nRome's attitude toward Moscow could shift after the elections, with Putin sympathizers among those vying for power.\n\nMatteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League Party who has made many trips to Moscow, famously posted a selfie of himself wearing a t-shirt adorned with Putin's face from the city's Red Square prior to the invasion. And Putin ally Silvio Berlusconi, who also sits in the center-right coalition, could rattle the Western European alliance.\n\nA headache for Italy and Europe?\n\nDraghi's resignation also comes as Europe is facing some of its biggest challenges in years -- and is facing a risk of recession.\n\nAnnual inflation in the European Union jumped to 9.6% in June. It reached 8.6% for the 19 countries that use the euro.\n\nAnd the wildfires that have swept across Spain and France could also put a dampener on economic activity.\n\nWith Italians now facing an early election, investors fear that right-wing factions in the country could gain increased support at the ballot box, raising questions about EU cohesion at an important juncture.\n\nItaly's center-right is led by Euroskeptics including the League's Salvini and the Brother of Italy party's Giorgia Meloni, though some parties in the coalition have taken a softer stance on the EU. And while the Democratic Party is expected to maintain its pro-Europe position, it is not expected to govern.\n\nMeanwhile, the 5-Star Movement is made up of both Euroskeptics and EU supporters, but it's not expected to do well in upcoming elections either.", "authors": ["Kara Fox", "Barbie Latza Nadeau Nicola Ruotolo", "Sharon Braithwaite", "Livia Borghese"], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/10/asia/sri-lanka-protest-president-sunday-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "As Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa agrees to step down, singing on streets ...", "text": "(CNN) Sri Lanka woke on Sunday to an uncertain future, with both its President and Prime Minister set to step down after thousands of protesters stormed their homes in fury over the nation's crippling economic crisis.\n\nPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign on July 13, the speaker of the country's parliament announced late Saturday, following a tumultuous day that saw protesters break into Rajapaksa's official residence in Colombo and splash around in his swimming pool.\n\nProtesters also targeted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, setting on fire his private residence on Fifth Lane, an affluent neighborhood in the capital. Wickremesinghe later said he was willing to resign \"to make way for an all-party government.\"\n\nThe announcements -- which protesters celebrated by singing on the streets and setting off fireworks -- marked a historic victory for the protesters, who have been demanding Rajapaksa's resignation for months over his government's failure to address the country's economic collapse\n\nFour other ministers stepped down over the weekend.\n\nMinister of Tourism and Land Harin Fernando, Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara and Minister of Transport and Highways and co-spokesperson for the cabinet Bandula Gunawardena all resigned on Saturday, according to the ministers' offices.\n\nMinister of Investment Promotion Portfolio Dhammika Perera told CNN he resigned on Sunday.\n\nThe economic turmoil has plunged the Indian Ocean island nation of 22 million into a dire humanitarian crisis, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel.\n\nAfter months of largely peaceful protests, anger reached tipping point on Saturday, as more than 100,000 people massed outside Rajapaksa's residence, calling for his resignation.\n\nVideo broadcast on Sri Lankan television and on social media showed the protesters enter the President's House -- Rajapaksa's office and residence -- after breaking through security cordons. Images show demonstrators inside the whitewashed colonial-era building and hanging banners from the balcony.\n\nLater on Saturday, live video streamed by local media and seen by CNN showed Wickremesinghe's home engulfed in flames as crowds gathered around.\n\nNeither the President nor Prime Minister were at their residences when the buildings were breached. Both had been moved to secure locations prior to the attacks, according to security officials.\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\nPolitical uncertainty\n\nSaturday's drastic escalation of unrest could spell the end of the Rajapaksa family's political dynasty, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.\n\nIn a video statement late on Saturday, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said Rajapaksa's decision to step down \"was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power.\"\n\nBut how that transition of power will eventually play out is engulfed by uncertainty.\n\nIf both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa resign, under the Sri Lankan constitution, the speaker of parliament will serve as acting president for a maximum of 30 days. Meanwhile, parliament will elect a new president within 30 days from one of its members who will hold the office for the remaining two years of the current term.\n\nThe United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Twitter on Sunday that Rajapaksa has \"lost the confidence\" of his people.\n\n\"Now, all parties must work together with the international community for a new government that respects the democratic and economic aspirations and upholds human rights the Sri Lankan people deserve,\" the committee said.\n\n\"The military and police must exercise restraint and be part of the solution, not part of the problem, in this crisis,\" it added.\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\nJournalists injured\n\nAt least 55 people were injured in the protests, according to Dr. Pushpa Zoysa with the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, who said the figure included three people with gunshot wounds. Among those injured is a lawmaker from eastern Sri Lanka, she added.\n\nThe Sri Lanka Army on Sunday denied having opened fire on protesters yesterday \"in order to cause intentional harm,\" in response to social media clips that suggested the army shot at protesters outside Rajapaksa's residence.\n\n\"The Army categorically denies having opened fire towards the protesters, but fired a few rounds to the air and the sidewalls of the main gate entrance to the President's House compound as a deterrent, aimed at preventing the entry of the protesters into the compound,\" the statement said.\n\nMeanwhile, two police officers associated with apparent attacks on the press have been suspended, according to an audio statement by Inspector General of Sri Lanka Police CD Wickremaratne, which aired on national television.\n\nA Sri Lankan television station had said that said six of its journalists were attacked by the Sri Lanka Police Special Task Force, outside the Prime Minister's private residence.\n\nTwo of the journalists from the Sri Lankan TV channel Newsfirst had their cameras rolling at the time. Video aired by Newsfirst shows two journalists being pushed to the ground by police during the confrontation late Saturday. Fellow journalists who rushed to their aid were then also attacked, Newsfirst reported.\n\nWickremesinghe, the Prime Minister, also condemned attacks on the media.\n\n\"Freedom of media is paramount to democracy in Sri Lanka,\" he said, asking both security forces and protesters to \"act with restraint to prevent any violence and ensure the safety of the public.\"\n\nSri Lanka's media freedom advocacy group Free Media Movement called for an investigation into the police attack on the journalists, saying \"the perpetrators responsible for these brutal attacks\" must be brought to justice.", "authors": ["Rhea Mogul", "Amy Woodyatt", "Nectar Gan", "Rukshana Rizwie", "Ivana Kottasová"], "publish_date": "2022/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/952385/slovak-pm-resigns-splits-purchase-russian-covid-vaccine", "title": "Slovak PM resigns amid government feud over Russian vaccine ...", "text": "Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic has stepped down as leader of the country’s ruling coalition following a month of political turmoil triggered by his decision to buy Russian-made Covid vaccines.\n\nAmid an escalating feud within his government over the purchase, which was made without his coalition partners’ knowledge, Matovic has announced that he will swap roles with his finance minister, Eduard Heger.\n\nSpeaking in the capital Bratislava on Palm Sunday, Matovic described his resignation as PM “in religious terms”, Politico reports. “On the eve of holy week, which we celebrate as a symbol of suffering, sacrifice and forgiveness, I decided to make a gesture of forgiveness towards the people who politically demanded my resignation as prime minister,” said the former business, leader of The Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party (​OLaNO).\n\nAn internal war has been raging in the four-party governing coalition since it emerged earlier this month that Matovic had purchased two million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, which has not yet been given regulatory approval by the European Medicines Agency.\n\nTwo of the ruling parties - For the People and Freedom and Solidarity - said they would “leave the government unless there was a cabinet reshuffle and Matovic stepped down”, the news site adds.\n\nSix ministers, including the health minister, have since quit his 16-member cabinet.\n\nMatovic “defended the purchase” by arguing that it would speed up Slovakia’s Covid vaccination programme, which has been hobbled by major setbacks in the EU’s joint procurement scheme, says Deutsche Welle.\n\nBut that reasoning failed to prevent him from becoming the first major political scalp claimed by the EU vaccine shortages crisis. Matovic’s critics had piled on the pressure by also accusing him of “poor communication and political missteps”, the German broadcaster adds.\n\nSlovakia’s health system is struggling to cope as the country is hit by a third wave of coronavirus, with 9,496 deaths and 357,910 Covid cases among the 5.4 million-strong population to date, according to latest figures from John Hopkins University.\n\nIt is the second EU member state to agree to the purchase of the Sputnik vaccine, after Hungary became one of the first nations to break from the bloc’s joint scheme by agreeing a deal in late February to buy doses of the Russian jab.", "authors": ["Joe Evans"], "publish_date": "2021/03/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/07/14/britains-new-pm-may-appoint-more-cabinet-members/87069612/", "title": "Britain's new PM May fires Cameron's Cabinet members", "text": "Jane Onyanga-Omara, and John Bacon\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nLONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May began her first full day in office Thursday by firing several members of her predecessor's Cabinet and hiring the woman whose withdrawal from the Conservative Party race cleared the way for May's ascension.\n\nMay named Andrea Leadsom, who backed the Brexit referendum that saw the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union, secretary for environment, food and rural affairs. Leadsom was a finalist with May for the prime minister position after David Cameron announced his resignation but dropped out of the race this week.\n\nThe Cabinet position comes as a mixed blessing. It's a fairly high-profile job, but she will oversee farmers who could take a financial hit from Brexit.\n\nAmber Rudd, the former energy secretary, replaces May as the home secretary and thus is charged with the prickly issue of immigration. David Davis is tasked with perhaps the most critical job: As Brexit secretary he will negotiate Britain's EU withdrawal.\n\nDavis has outlined a plan to formally start the separation process by year's end, with trade deals in place within a year or two. He has suggested that the EU would agree to tariff-free deals, but if not, Britain would slap EU nations with tariffs that could finance investment in industry.\n\n5 things new U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May must tackle now\n\nMichael Gove, a leading Brexit campaigner who also sought the prime minister's job, was fired as the justice secretary. Several other Cabinet members also resigned or were shown the door.\n\nThe latest announcements came a day after May named Boris Johnson, the former London mayor and face of the Brexit campaign, as foreign secretary.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Johnson to congratulate him and \"stressed U.S. support for a sensible and measured approach to the Brexit process,\" the State Department said.\n\nIt added that Kerry and Johnson agreed that the special relationship between their countries \"is as essential as ever.\"\n\nBrexit to overshadow David Cameron's legacy\n\nVoters in the United Kingdom shocked the globe last month when they voted to leave the 28-nation EU. Cameron, who led the \"remain\" campaign, announced he would step down as prime minister. Two weeks of political chaos ensued, with Leadsom and May left standing and poised for a bruising, six-week race.\n\nLeadsom's campaign stumbled out of the gate, however, and she quickly dropped out. That left the job to May, ironically a member of the \"remain\" camp. May's campaign mantra “Brexit means Brexit” made clear, however, that she would follow through on the non-binding referendum.\n\nThe previous Treasury chief, George Osborne, departed Wednesday. The new one, Philip Hammond, said Thursday that there will be no emergency budget to deal with the economic fallout from Brexit.\n\nHammond said he would meet with Mark Carney, the head of the Bank of England, to “assess where we are.” The central bank made the surprise move of leaving interest rates unchanged at 0.5% Thursday.\n\nMay, Britain’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, who governed from 1979 to 1990, took office Wednesday after meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, shortly after Cameron formally resigned.\n\n\"David Cameron has led a one-nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead,\" May said outside 10 Downing St.\n\nIn his last moments in the post, Cameron said that serving as prime minister was \"the greatest honor of my life\" in a speech in front of the Downing St. residence, flanked by his family.\n\n\"My only wish is continued success for this great country that I love so very much,\" he said.\n\nBacon reported from McLean, Va.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/europe/boris-johnson-career-intl-cmd-gbr/index.html", "title": "How scandals of Boris Johnson's own making brought him down ...", "text": "London (CNN) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader Thursday, bringing his scandal-plagued tenure to an end after less than three years.\n\nJohnson was left with little choice but to step down after several high-profile members of his cabinet resigned in protest this weekover his handling of misconduct allegations related to government officials. Dozens more members of his government have also quit.\n\nJohnson was ultimately undone by his response to fallout from the resignation last Thursday of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, amid allegations Pincher had groped two guests at a private dinner the night before. While he did not admit the allegations directly, Pincher said in a letter to Johnson last week that \"last night I drank far too much\" and \"embarrassed myself and other people.\" Other historical allegations of misconduct by Pincher emerged in the ensuing days.\n\nJohnson initially denied being aware of some of those allegations, but ultimately the Prime Minister was forced to admit he had been briefed years before and apologize for his decision-making.\n\nIt was the final straw for many political allies who had supported Johnson through crisis after crisis over the years. In recent months the Prime Minister had been facing a barrage of criticism from all sides over his conduct and that of his government, including illegal, lockdown-breaking parties thrown in his Downing Street offices, for which he and others were fined.\n\nJohnson faced numerous other scandals that hit his standing in the polls -- despite his 80-seat landslide general election victory just two and a half years ago. These include accusations of using donor money inappropriately to pay for a refurbishment of his Downing Street home and whipping lawmakers to protect a colleague who had breached lobbying rules.\n\nTwo weeks ago, the Conservatives lost two key by-elections -- results that were blamed on Johnson personally.\n\nIn early June, he survived a confidence vote , but the final count of his lawmakers who rebelled against him was higher than his supporters expected: 41% of his own parliamentary party refused to back him.\n\nThat vote was triggered after months of speculation over Johnson's future. The so-called \" Partygate \" scandal, which saw Johnson found guilty of breaking his own Covid-19 laws by attending a gathering to celebrate his birthday at a time when such events were banned, has dogged Johnson since the news broke late last year.\n\nA controversial rise\n\nWith the possible exception of his hero, Winston Churchill, Johnson was perhaps the most famous politician to enter Downing Street as Prime Minister, having forged a successful career as a journalist, novelist, TV personality and London mayor in the preceding decades.\n\nHe was a populist before populists really existed. His controversial comments -- comparing Muslim women who wear face coverings to letterboxes, or calling gay men \"bum boys\" to name but two -- appalled many. But he got away with his Lothario image, the public seemingly happy to accept his alleged affairs and love child . It seemed that Johnson could essentially laugh his way through any problem.\n\nYet, for all his ambition and charisma, the job of Prime Minister seemed out of reach for most of his adult life. Those who know Johnson personally say that he loathed the fact that many in the British Conservative elite saw him as a useful campaigning tool but more of a comedian cheerleader than a serious statesman.\n\nPhotos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson British Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street after giving a statement in London in July 2019. He had just become prime minister. Hide Caption 1 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson A 15-year-old Johnson, right, is seen outside Eton College, a boarding school outside London, in 1979. Hide Caption 2 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson, 21, speaks with Greek Minister for Culture Melina Mercouri in June 1986. Johnson at the time was president of the Oxford Union, a prestigious student society. Hide Caption 3 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson started his career as a journalist. He was fired from an early job at The Times for fabricating a quote. He later became a Brussels correspondent and then an assistant editor for The Daily Telegraph. From 1994 to 2005, he was editor of the weekly magazine The Spectator. Hide Caption 4 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson In 2001, Johnson was elected as a member of Parliament. He won the seat in Henley for the Conservative Party. Hide Caption 5 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson looks apologetic after fouling Germany's Maurizio Gaudino during a charity soccer match in Reading, England, in May 2006. Hide Caption 6 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is congratulated by Conservative Party leader David Cameron, right, after being elected mayor of London in May 2008. Cameron later became prime minister. Hide Caption 7 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson, left, poses with a wax figure of himself at Madame Tussauds in London in May 2009. Hide Caption 8 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses for a photo in London in April 2011. He was re-elected as the city's mayor in 2012. Hide Caption 9 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his wife, Marina, enjoy the atmosphere in London ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony in July 2012. The couple separated in 2018 after 25 years of marriage. Hide Caption 10 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson gets stuck on a zip line during an event in London's Victoria Park in August 2012. Hide Caption 11 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson waves on London's Wandsworth Bridge as a bike-sharing program was expanded in the city in 2013. Hide Caption 12 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses with his father, Stanley, and his siblings, Rachel and Jo, at the launch of his new book in October 2014. Stanley Johnson was once a member of the European Parliament. Hide Caption 13 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson takes part in a charity tug-of-war with British military personnel in October 2015. Hide Caption 14 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Michael Gove ride on a \"Vote Leave\" campaign bus in June 2016. Hide Caption 15 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson kisses a wild salmon while visiting a fish market in London in June 2016. A month earlier, he stepped down as mayor but remained a member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Hide Caption 16 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson arrives at a news conference in London in June 2016. During the Brexit referendum that year, he was under immense pressure from Prime Minister Cameron to back the Remain campaign. But he broke ranks and backed Brexit at the last minute. Hide Caption 17 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson sits next to Prime Minister Theresa May during a Cabinet meeting in November 2016. Johnson was May's foreign secretary for two years before resigning over her handling of Brexit. Hide Caption 18 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson As foreign secretary, Johnson meets with US House Speaker Paul Ryan in April 2017. Johnson was born in New York City to British parents and once held dual citizenship. But he renounced his US citizenship in 2016. Hide Caption 19 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson launches his Conservative Party leadership campaign in June 2019. Hide Caption 20 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt take part in the Conservative Leadership debate in June 2019. Hide Caption 21 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks in July 2019 after he won the party leadership vote to become Britain's next prime minister. Hide Caption 22 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Britain's Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Johnson at Buckingham Palace, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Hide Caption 23 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson poses with his dog Dilyn as he leaves a polling station in London in December 2019. Hide Caption 24 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson appears on stage alongside Bobby Smith during the count declaration in London in December 2019. Johnson's Conservative Party won a majority in the UK's general election, securing his position as Prime Minister. Hide Caption 25 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, react to election results from his study at No. 10 Downing Street. Hide Caption 26 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks on the phone with Queen Elizabeth II in March 2020. Hide Caption 27 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson In March 2020, Johnson announced in a video posted to Twitter that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus. \"Over the last 24 hours, I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus. I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government's response via video conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this,\" Johnson said. He was later hospitalized after his symptoms had \"worsened,\" according to his office. Hide Caption 28 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, outside of No. 10 Downing Street, join a national applause showing appreciation for health-care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hide Caption 29 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is seen via video conference as he attends a Covid-19 meeting remotely in March 2020. Hide Caption 30 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson After recovering from the coronavirus, Johnson returned to work in late April 2020. Hide Caption 31 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and staff members are pictured together with wine at a Downing Street garden in May 2020. In January 2022, Johnson apologized for attending the event, which took place when Britons were prohibited from gathering due to strict coronavirus restrictions. Hide Caption 32 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson wears a face mask as he visits the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust in July 2020. Hide Caption 33 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits across from Johnson in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street in July 2020. Hide Caption 34 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson 14/07/2020. London, United Kingdom. Boris Johnson and Carrie NHS Call.The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds with their son Wilfred in the study of No10 Downing Street speaking via zoom to the midwifes that helped deliver their son at the UCLH. Hide Caption 35 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson holds a crab in Stromness Harbour during a visit to Scotland in July 2020. Hide Caption 36 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson is seen with his wife, Carrie, after their wedding at London's Westminster Cathedral in May 2021. The ceremony, described by PA Media as a \"secret wedding,\" was reportedly held in front of close friends and family, according to several British newspaper accounts. Hide Caption 37 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and US President Joe Biden speak at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, England, after their bilateral meeting in June 2021. Biden and Johnson were participating in the G7 summit that weekend. Hide Caption 38 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Queen Elizabeth II greets Johnson at Buckingham Palace in June 2021. It was the Queen's first in-person weekly audience with the Prime Minister since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Hide Caption 39 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson delivers his keynote speech on the final day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in October 2021. Hide Caption 40 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and former British prime ministers attend a requiem Mass for Conservative MP David Amess in November 2021. From left are former Prime Ministers John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Johnson. Hide Caption 41 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson and his wife, Carrie, holding their newborn daughter, Romy, hold video calls in December 2021. Hide Caption 42 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson speaks in the House of Commons in January 2022. He apologized for attending a May 2020 garden party that took place while the UK was in a hard lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19. Johnson told lawmakers he believed the gathering to be a work event but that, with hindsight, he should have sent attendees back inside. Hide Caption 43 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2022. Hide Caption 44 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson attends the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral in London in June 2022. It was part of Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II. Hide Caption 45 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson \"I think it's an extremely good, positive, conclusive, decisive result which enables us to move on to unite,\" Johnson said in an interview shortly after surviving a confidence vote in June 2022. Hide Caption 46 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson leaves No. 10 Downing Street on July 6, a day after two senior Cabinet ministers quit over Downing Street's handling of the resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. Hide Caption 47 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson At Prime Minister's Questions on July 6, Johnson said \"the job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going, and that's what I'm going to do.\" Hide Caption 48 of 49 Photos: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Johnson announces his resignation in front of No. 10 Downing Street on July 7. \"It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,\" he said. Hide Caption 49 of 49\n\nEven during his time as Mayor of London, winning two terms in a city that traditionally doesn't vote Conservative, the most memorable moments of his time in office are images such as him inelegantly dangling from a zip wire or forcefully rugby tackling a 10-year-old child while on a trade visit to Tokyo. He just wasn't considered serious enough for the top job.\n\nThen Brexit happened. Johnson led the successful campaign that defied the odds and saw the UK vote by a narrow majority to leave the European Union in 2016.\n\nOvernight, he went from being a man who seemed to have made a fatal political error by backing the wrong horse in the referendum, to the figurehead of a mass rebellion that had just overrun the entire British establishment.\n\nGuerilla journalism\n\nOn paper, Johnson was an unlikely candidate to become the voice of those who felt themselves to be voiceless. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York City in 1964 to an internationalist family. As a boy, Johnson would tell friends and relatives that he wanted to be \"world king\" when fully grown, his sister wrote in a family biography.\n\nHe was educated at Eton College, the most exclusive private school in the UK, alma mater of 20 Prime Ministers, followed by the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club: An elite all-male group for wealthy students, famed for ostentatious (and sometimes rowdy) displays of wealth such as vandalizing restaurants, then paying for the damage on the spot in cash. Johnson was never proven to have been personally involved in any such activity.\n\nJohnson worked as a journalist for establishment newspapers, most notably The Daily Telegraph, which made him its Brussels correspondent in 1989. It was here in Belgium that Johnson began writing what would become the most important chapter of his life story: Brexit.\n\nBoris Johnson speaks at a Brexit press conference in London in November 2019.\n\nAlthough the Telegraph was firmly Euroskeptic, the UK's exit from the EU was not really on the cards at the time, and even English Conservatives seemed to accept this. However, they lapped up Johnson's guerrilla journalism, which often stretched the truth of what was actually happening in Brussels.\n\nThe most famous example of this was a story by Johnson that claimed the EU was planning to ban the sale of bendy bananas. The EU repeatedly debunked that and many of the stories that Johnson published.\n\nIn 1999, Johnson was offered the editorship of The Spectator, a weekly magazine often jokingly called the \"Conservative bible.\" He accepted, agreeing with the owner that he would drop his by now well-known political ambitions, according to a biography by the political journalist Andrew Gimson. He kept his word for all of two years and stood to become a member of parliament in 2001.\n\nIn the years that followed, Johnson was swallowed by the conservative establishment. He carried on writing the conservative script as a journalist and building a base of loyalists both inside and outside of politics.\n\nAs Johnson's confidence grew, he was determined to show the Conservative Party that his appeal went beyond the British right. In 2008, he was elected the Mayor of London -- a liberal, cosmopolitan city that did not traditionally vote Conservative. Johnson believed that he was showing his party that he had the chops to drag them into the 21st century. The problem for Johnson was that they already had a new, young leader -- his old schoolfriend and future Prime Minister, David Cameron.\n\nIt was Cameron who ultimately made Brexit possible. After winning his second general election as Conservative leader in 2015, he decided to hold the EU referendum on the understanding that Johnson would fall in line and be an asset for the \"remain\" campaign.\n\nInstead, in February 2016, Johnson shocked the nation by announcing on the front page of his old paper, the Telegraph, that he would defy Cameron and lead the Brexit campaign.\n\nThe rest is history. Johnson turned the establishment on its head and became the most influential politician in the UK. While he didn't become Prime Minister immediately, he continued to build his power base, undermining then-incumbent Theresa May as she struggled with Brexit for three years.\n\nAs foreign secretary under May, he was blamed for worsening the predicament of the jailed British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after wrongly saying in 2017 that she was in Iran teaching journalists, rather than on holiday, at the time she was detained. But his patchy record in the role did not appear to cost him much support within his party.\n\nA populist who became unpopular\n\nJohnson's time finally came in July 2019 when he became leader of the Conservative Party, claiming around two-thirds of the membership vote. His brash style was vindicated later that year, when he silenced all of his opponents in a landslide election victory that would finally allow him to, as his own slogan boasted, \"Get Brexit Done.\"\n\nIt truly seemed that the stars had finally aligned for Johnson, who desperately wanted to be taken seriously. He made Brexit popular and personally dragged it across the line. He had completed his transition to the role of statesman. He had proved everyone wrong.\n\nYet, as the clock ticked down on so-called Brexit Day, January 31, 2020, a deadly virus was already causing alarm in Asia. It would soon start spreading across Europe and kick off the crisis that would remove him from office.\n\nJohnson had a mixed pandemic. He was lauded by the public for the amount of state spending unleashed to mitigate its impacts on those whose jobs and livelihoods were threatened, but panned by the more conservative elements of his party. He was accused of responding too slowly, but also for making lockdown rules so complicated even he and his team in Downing Street couldn't follow them.\n\nThe breaking of these rules by Johnson and members of his team, the economic fallout of the pandemic leading in part to a cost-of-living crisis, his handling of the Pincher scandal and a general sense of the shine wearing off the Brexit golden boy were ultimately too much for his party. It seems its members couldn't stand the thought of Johnson staying on and dragging the party into its grave.\n\nHis political career is a story of near-misses, sex scandals, celebrity, controversy and revolution that ended in personal tragedy. The man who only ever wanted to be taken seriously ended up, ultimately, as the joker once again.", "authors": ["Analysis Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/954921/why-sweden-first-female-prime-minister-lasted-seven-hours", "title": "Why Sweden's first female prime minister lasted just seven hours ...", "text": "We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your registration as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWould you like to receive The WeekDay newsletter ?\n\nThe WeekDay newsletter provides you with a daily digest of news and analysis.\n\nWe will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for the purpose of managing your subscription as described in our Privacy Policy.\n\nWe will use the information you have shared for carefully considered and specific purposes, where we believe we have a legitimate case to do so, for example to send you communications about similar products and services we offer. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.\n\nIf you wish to object to the use of your data in this way, please tick here.\n\n'We' includes The Week and other Future Publishing Limited brands as detailed here.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/11/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/europe/british-prime-minister-resigns-what-happens-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "What happens when a British Prime Minister resigns? - CNN", "text": "London (CNN) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday following mounting pressure from lawmakers in his own party to stand down.\n\nUnder the UK political system, between elections, only Conservative members of Parliament have the ability to remove a sitting Conservative Prime Minister.\n\nSo, what happens to the UK government when a Prime Minister resigns, and how is a new leader elected?\n\nWhen will a new leader be in place?\n\nDuring his statement Johnson said he will not leave office immediately, but will wait until his successor is chosen.\n\n\"I've today appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place,\" he said.\n\nJohnson said that the timeline for the process will be announced next week, but it has been suggested he could remain in power until the Conservative Party conference in October.\n\nFormer British Prime Minister Sir John Major said it would be \"unwise and may be unsustainable\" for Johnson to remain in office for an extended period of time while a new Conservative leader is chosen.\n\n\"The proposal for the Prime Minister to remain in office -- for up to three months — having lost the support of his Cabinet, his Government and his parliamentary party is unwise, and may be unsustainable,\" Major wrote in a letter to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, Graham Brady.\n\nAnd Dominic Cummings, who served as Johnson's most senior adviser before becoming an outspoken critic of the Prime Minister, warned against allowing him to stay in post.\n\n\"We're all in for a nightmare if he's allowed to squat,\" said Cummings.\n\nRecent precedent shows that the time taken to choose a new leader can vary.\n\nAfter Theresa May resigned on May 24, 2019 it took until July 24 for Boris Johnson to take over, but when David Cameron resigned on June 24, 2016 it took just a few weeks for May to take office on July 13.\n\nWho will be Prime Minister while all this happens?\n\nAs Johnson indicated in his resignation speech, he plans to stay in office until a successor is chosen.\n\nThat's what would happen under normal circumstances: A Prime Minister who has resigned as party leader stays in office as caretaker Prime Minister until there is a new party leader.\n\nBut it's not clear that the Conservative Party will stand for that in Johnson's case.\n\nOne alternative would be for Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab to step in as caretaker. There's no precedent for that -- but there's also no precedent for more than 50 government officials to resign in two days in order to force a Prime Minister out.\n\nWill Johnson's resignation trigger a general election?\n\nNo. It starts the Conservative Party process for choosing a new leader of the party.\n\nUK Prime Ministers are not directly elected by the people; Johnson is Prime Minister because he is the head of the largest party in the House of Commons.\n\nThe Conservatives will still be the largest party after Johnson quits, so the new head of the party will become Prime Minister.\n\nHow is the new Conservative Party leader chosen?\n\nLeadership candidates need the support of at least eight lawmakers.\n\nIf there are more than two candidates, Conservative Party lawmakers hold round after round of votes to whittle the number of leadership candidates down to two.\n\nThen Conservative Party members nationwide vote -- by mail -- between the two finalists.\n\nThe winner becomes leader of the party -- and Prime Minister.", "authors": ["Richard Allen Greene"], "publish_date": "2022/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/asia/sri-lanka-rajapaksa-crisis-friday-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Sri Lankans celebrate after President Rajapaksa steps down -- but ...", "text": "Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa , who fled the country earlier this week, has formally resigned, the parliamentary speaker confirmed Friday, capping off a chaotic 72-hours in the crisis-hit nation that saw protesters storm the capital.\n\nThe President's departure from office marks a major victory for the protesters, who for months have demanded the removal of both Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.\n\nMany in Sri Lanka blame Rajapaksa for the country's worsening situation, with runaway inflation and shortages of basic goods such as fuel and food impacting everyday life.\n\nBut while Rajapaksa is now out of the picture, having landed in Singapore on Thursday, following an earlier escape to the Maldives via military jet, his close political ally Wickremesinghe remains firmly in place -- and was sworn in as Acting President Friday.\n\nA senior government source told CNN that Rajapaksa appeared before Sri Lanka's high commission in Singapore on Thursday to sign a physical letter of resignation in front of the high commissioner.\n\nThe letter was then taken to Sri Lanka by plane and delivered in person to Sri Lanka's parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenena who formally announced that Rajapaksa had stepped down.\n\nThe information sheds new light on the several hours of delay between the news of Rajapaksa's resignation, first sent by email to the speaker Thursday, and the official confirmation from Abeywardenena on Friday.\n\nThe news sparked jubilant celebrations in Colombo on Thursday night, with crowds of cheering protesters lighting firecrackers and fireworks. People from all walks of life, young and old, spilled onto the streets for the celebrations, which lasted late into the night.\n\nMany of those on the streets said they were overjoyed with the news, after months of protests and economic hardship. Rajapaksa's departure represented a victory against government corruption and mismanagement, they said.\n\n\"We had one aim -- to get rid of this absolutely corrupt regime,\" said Dishan Seneviratne, 45. \"I am not a person who (usually) comes to the street. But I came because I was scared for my son's future ... (for) the next generation. We have fought for it.\"\n\nBut others remained on edge with Wickremesinghe -- also widely unpopular and closely tied to Rajapaksa -- now in office holding presidential power.\n\nSome protesters have said they plan to continue demonstrating until Wickremesinghe has also stepped down -- and both men are held accountable for the country's alleged economic mismanagement.\n\n\"We keep on fighting. We are fighting until (Rajapaksa) is properly accused and until some action (is taken) ... we are fighting as one nation until he is getting proper punishment for whatever he has done,\" said Mariyan Malki, 29, who joined the celebrations Thursday night.\n\nWickmenesinghe will remain Acting President until Parliament elects a new President, with lawmakers summoned to meet on Saturday to start the process. No date has been set yet for the vote, but under the constitution Wickremesinghe will only be allowed to hold the office for a maximum of 30 days.\n\nOnce elected, the new President will serve the remaining two years initially allocated for Rajapaksa's term.\n\nFriday's announcement marks the end of a chaotic week, with the future of Sri Lanka's leadership thrown into uncertainty after Rajapaksa fled without formally resigning. For almost two days, it was unclear whether he would agree to resign; what would happen if he refused to do so; and even his whereabouts at times. Tensions ran high, with authorities imposing curfews and firing tear gas to disperse protesters.\n\nBut even with Rajapaksa officially out of office and a new president soon to be chosen, larger problems loom for the economically ravaged country, as it grapples with its worst downturn in seven decades.\n\nPeople celebrate in Colombo, Sri Lanka, upon learning about the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 14.\n\nThe financial crisis\n\nLargely peaceful protests 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\nBut public anger erupted last weekend, when demonstrators occupied the residences of both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe.\n\nBoth leaders said shortly afterward that they would step down, with the resignations expected on Wednesday. But Rajapaksa left the country that day on a predawn flight without resigning, leaving Wickremesinghe in charge.\n\nRajapaksa headed to Maldives -- where the former President has long held ties with the Rajapaksa dynasty -- but left just over 24 hours later, boarding a \"Saudi flight\" to Singapore on Thursday, according to a high-ranking security source in Colombo.\n\nSingapore said Rajapaska had been allowed to enter the country on a \"private visit\" but had not asked for or been granted asylum.\n\nShortly after his arrival, Abeywardenena, the Parliament speaker, announced that Rajapaksa had tendered his resignation.\n\nPeople in Colombo, Sri Lanka, celebrate upon learning about the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 14.\n\nBut experts say questions remain about Sri Lanka's future. If anything, the political upheaval and lack of clarity spells trouble for the country's economic recovery, said Ganeshan Wignaraja, senior research associate at the British think tank, ODI Global.\n\n\"The thing that I observe is that Sri Lanka is a messy democracy,\" he said. \"And in this context, today's discussions in parliament have taken a little bit too long. And it shows the political dysfunctional nature of our politics today.\"\n\n\"This political instability can really set back the economy,\" he added. \"It can scare away investors, it can scare away tourists, it can scare away inward remittances and even aid. I fear the economic crisis will take a long time to sort out and the people will suffer more unless Parliament gets its act together.\"", "authors": ["Jessie Yeung", "Iqbal Athas", "Kunal Sehgal"], "publish_date": "2022/07/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/09/asia/sri-lanka-mahinda-rajapaksa-resigns-intl/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka's prime minister resigns amid protests over economic ...", "text": "Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned on Monday, following weeks of protests against his government.\n\nThe country has been rocked by civil unrest since March, with demonstrations at times turning violent as anger builds over the government's apparent mishandling of Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis since declaring independence from Britain in 1948.\n\nA nationwide curfew was imposed after clashes broke out between supporters of the ruling party and anti-government demonstrators in the capital city, Colombo, the police said Monday. The restrictions were announced shortly before Rajapaksa announced his resignation.\n\nAnti-government protesters attacked buses carrying local officials who traveled to Colombo on Monday morning to attend a meeting with the Prime Minister, according to the national police.\n\nMahinda Rajapaksa pictured at his swearing in ceremony as prime minister in August 2020.\n\nAt least 151 people were admitted to the hospital following violence at the protests, Colombo National Hospital said. Armed troops have been deployed in Colombo, according to CNN's team on the ground.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Iqbal Athas", "Cnn"], "publish_date": "2022/05/09"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_23", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957417/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-21-july-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 21 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Sunak and Truss launch ‘bitter contest’\n\nRishi Sunak said the Conservative Party cannot win the next general election with Liz Truss at the helm as he launched his campaign to win over Tory members and reach No. 10. The Times said the race will be “bitterly contested” with allies of Truss launching personal attacks on Sunak last night over his record in government and his “betrayal” of Boris Johnson. Meanwhile, allies of Penny Mordaunt, who dropped out of the running yesterday, said she failed to make the cut due to a “vicious personal smear campaign” against her.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_24", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:13", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/957428/is-britain-prepared-for-more-wildfires", "title": "Is Britain prepared for more wildfires? | The Week UK", "text": "A series of wildfires destroyed homes and swathes of land across the UK as the country contended with record-high temperatures.\n\nScores of major incidents were announced by fire brigades across the country as blazes broke out in the 40C-plus heatwave.\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was the busiest day for the London Fire Brigade since the Second World War – it received more than 2,600 calls on Tuesday, seven times the usual number. Khan told Sky News that a total of 41 properties had been destroyed in fires across the capital.\n\nExperts have warned that the UK will need to learn how to deal with wildfires, as the number recorded this year is double that of 2021, according to data seen by The Times.\n\nAs of Tuesday there had been 420 fires in England and Wales since the start of the year, according to the National Fire Chiefs Council, by far outstripping the 247 in the whole of 2021, and 200 the year before that.\n\nWill the UK face more wildfires?\n\nConditions were “ripe” for wildfires as temperatures reached a new record high of 40.3C, said ITV.\n\nSpeaking to the broadcaster, Dr Thomas Smith, assistant professor in environmental geography at London School of Economics (LSE), said: “The fire risk was extreme, with record-breaking temperatures accompanied by very low relative humidity, this coming on top of a very long spell without rain. This can lead to extreme fire behaviour with fast-spreading fires burning with high intensity (large flames), making it very difficult to fight.”\n\nAnd as the climate continues to warm, the extreme temperatures we saw earlier this week are likely to become more frequent, increasing the likelihood of fires, with experts warning that the UK could become more susceptible to the kinds of fires seen in Wennington, east London, where houses are close to patches of vegetation.\n\nThese types of fires are known as “Wildfire Urban Interface fires”, said Dr Rory Hadden, Rushbrook senior lecturer in fire investigation, University of Edinburgh. “Usually in the UK large wildfires are confined to relatively remote areas such as heath and moorland,\" Dr Hadden said.", "authors": ["Sorcha Bradley"], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/953913/france-wine-industry-wildfires-historic-low-harvest", "title": "Fires and frost: French wine industry hit by wildfires and 'historic' low ...", "text": "France’s wine industry had already been hit by forecasts that this year’s harvest could be “the smallest vintage for at least 50 years”, Decanter reported earlier this month. Now vineyards in the south-east of the country are assessing the damage from “heartbreaking” wildfires.\n\nA blaze broke out last week in the Var region, located between Provence and the French Riviera, which forced thousands of people to evacuate. Spread by strong winds, the wildfires were mostly in forests, but several rosé wine-growing areas were also badly affected, the BBC reported.\n\nThe CIVP, Provence’s wine producers’ association, said it was unclear how much damage had been caused. But on Thursday, the National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions in France estimated that 73 wineries and five cooperatives were affected, though not necessarily damaged, Food&Wine said.\n\nFires are a regular occurrence in the south of France, but they are usually “smaller and quickly contained”, Decanter said. More than 1,200 firefighters worked to contain the blaze, which “ravaged” 7,100 hectares of land and caused two deaths.\n\nPhilip Collins, a writer for the New Statesman, was on holiday at a French farmhouse when the fire hit. “I felt as if I was in a scene from a disaster movie,” he said.\n\n‘All our life’s work is put at risk’\n\nMaison Mirabeau, a Provence vineyard that produces rosé, was one winery hit by the fires, Sky News reports. The vineyard’s British owners Jeany and Stephen Cronk revealed the extent of the damage in a post on Instagram.\n\n“The past few days have been heartbreaking to watch as the devastation has unfolded over Provence with fires sweeping across 7,000 hectares of land and protected forest,” they wrote. “We have been watching in agony and praying for our Domaine Mirabeau and the vineyards of our colleagues and partners in the area, as all our life’s work is put at risk by the raging fires.\n\n“We are still assessing the impact of the fires on our estate, but for now we are pleased to share that everyone from Mirabeau, the animals and houses at the Domaine have been saved.”\n\n‘Strenuous’ harvest ahead across the Med\n\nIt’s not just France that has seen its wine industry hit by wildfires. The “scorching and dramatic summer” around the Mediterranean has also caused “unprecedented destruction” in Turkey, Greece and southern Italy. “Producers in many of the countries’ wine regions have been forced to start planning for a strenuous harvest, upset by infrastructural damage, labour shortage and smoke taint,” Decanter said.\n\nFire is the latest problem to hit French wine producers this year, the BBC reports. In April “rare deep frosts” destroyed buds on grapevines in the vineyards of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Languedoc and the Rhône valley.\n\nThe “devastating frosts and problems with mildew fungus” means France is facing a “historic” low in terms of harvest size in 2021, Decanter said. A preliminary forecast from the French government said production is likely to fall between 24% and 30% overall from last year. This would make 2021 the “smallest French wine harvest since at least 1970”.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/08/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-wildfires/2017/05/12/current-arizona-forest-wildfires-2017-updates/311096001/", "title": "Arizona wildfires: New fire prompts evacuations near Seligman", "text": "Ron Dungan\n\nThe Republic | azcentral.com\n\nFind the latest news about wildfires across Arizona, including road closures, evacuation orders, fire weather alerts and what to watch for day by day.\n\nJuly 12: Southeastern Arizona fire chars 3.2 square miles\n\nAuthorities say a wildfire burning mostly on state land in southeastern Arizona charred about 3.2 square miles in 12 hours.\n\nThe fire was reported about 10 p.m. Tuesday some 15 miles southeast of Sunizona and southwest of the Chiricahua National Monument in Cochise County.\n\nAuthorities say the flames have been fanned by gusty winds. The cause of the fire isn't immediately clear.\n\nAuthorities say there was zero percent containment as of late Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThey say 80 percent of the fire is on state land with 20 percent on Coronado National Forest land.\n\nMore than 150 firefighters are at the scene including nearly a dozen aircraft plus water tenders and engines.\n\nThe Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is managing the wildfire with assistance from the Coronado National Forest.\n\nAssociated Press contributed to this article.\n\nJuly 8: No evacuations near Daisy Mountain\n\nPhoenix fire officials said there have been no evacuation orders issued in the Daisy Mountain and Black Canyon City area, and none are needed at this point.\n\nStrong winds have pushed smoke from a nearby fire into the region and Phoenix Fire spokesman Larry Subervi said the department has been \"inundated\" with 911 calls from people asking if they need to evacuate because of smoke coming from the wildfire near the Interstate 17 at milepost 244.\n\nSubervi said there is \"no threat of fire at this time\" but said anyone with health or respiratory problems that are sensitive to smoke can choose to leave the area or take other precautions.\n\nThe nearest fire to the area appears to be the Brooklyn Fire, burning six miles northeast of Black Canyon City.\n\nThe lightning-caused wildfire has burned nearly 36,000 acres since it started Friday afternoon and currently stands at five percent containment.\n\nOne hundred fire personnel are working to combat the fire, which officials said doesn't currently threaten any structures or wildlife. There are no evacuation orders under this fire.\n\nJuly 8: New fire prompts evacuations near Seligman\n\nThe Limestone Fire that started Saturday evening prompted officials to evacuate residents nine miles west of Seligman in the Bridge Canyon subdivision, the Arizona State Forestry said.\n\nThe fire was sparked by a lightning strike at about 5:45 p.m., spokeswoman Tiffany Davila said.\n\nJuly 8: Heat poses challenge for Tucson wildfire\n\nOfficials say extreme heat will challenge firefighters battling a wildfire in the Santa Catalina Mountains overlooking Tucson.\n\nHigh temperatures in the Tucson area are expected to range from 109 to 114 on Thursday and Friday. Fire management team spokeswoman Sandra Lopez said heat limits what firefighters can do and carry, while restricting the use of aircraft.\n\nAn anticpated weather change by Saturday is expected to help firefighters by increasing moisture and producing rainfall.\n\nThe fire has burned more than 38 square miles, and its perimeter is 11 percent contained. The summer-retreat community of Summerhaven atop Mount Lemmon remains evacuated.\n\nNearly 700 personnel are assigned to the fire, which started Friday. Its cause remains under investigation.\n\nAssociated Press contributed to this article.\n\nJuly 4: Burro Fire rages northeast of Tucson\n\nFrye Fire\n\nLightning started the Frye Fire on June 7. About 648 officials have been combating the fire that has burned approximately 46,760 acres. The fire is 45% contained, according to Coronado National Forest officials.\n\nOfficials say they're estimating that the fire will be fully contained by July 30.\n\nBurro Fire\n\nThe Burro Fire is still raging northeast of Tuscon. The fire has burned 19,057 acres and is zero percent contained, according to the Coronado National Forest.\n\nThere are 469 people fighting the fire that started on June 30.\n\nOfficials said that \"zero containment doesn't mean zero effort,\" as firefighters have stopped the fire's advance on the south side, and made contingency plans to protect structures in areas where the fire might advance.\n\nAn evacuation order remains in place for residents along the Catalina Highway up to Summerhaven, said the Coronado National Forest.\n\nOfficials said a stage 2 fire restriction has been implemented in the forest, which prohibits building a fire, using an explosive, smoking outside of a building or car, firing a weapon and driving a vehicle off road.\n\nFireworks are also prohibited year-round on all federal lands, according to the Coronado National Forest.\n\nGoodwin Fire\n\nThe Goodwin Fire is 91% contained and expected to be fully contained by July 13, according to the Prescott National Forest.\n\nOfficials said the cause is still under investigation, but the fire started sometime during the afternoon of June 24.\n\nForest service officials continued to warm the public of the dangers of flying drones in a area close to a wildfire.\n\nThe Prescott National Forest stated that, \"[It's] illegal, endangers aviators as well as crews on the ground, and slows operations which potentially could result in the fire increasing in size.\"\n\nFlying a drone near a wildfire can result in large fines up to $25,00 and jail time, according to officials.\n\nJuly 3: Community on Mount Lemmon evacuated\n\nSummerhaven, a small community on Mount Lemmon, was ordered to be evacuated beginning at 6 a.m. July 3.\n\nNo residents will be allowed back into the community, which includes part-time residents and cabin owners, until the order is lifted, Coronado National Forest officials said.\n\nThe fire had grown to 14,000 acres.\n\nGoodwin Fire\n\nYavapai County Sheriff's Office announced that several evacuation orders had been lifted.\n\nResidents of Walker, Potato Patch, Mount Union, Mountain Pine Acres, Pine Flat (Forest Road 177) and the west side of Poland Junction just south of Mayer were allowed back in their communities in the morning, and residents of Breezy Pines (Forest Road 58) were to be allowed back into their homes after noon.\n\nBecause the fire was still active, residents were urged to remain vigilant and monitor fire news.\n\nThe Yavapai County Sheriff Office urged residents whose wells may have been affected to avoid the use of water for cooking or consumption until the water was tested by the county health department.\n\nJuly 2: Burro Fire grows to 5,000 acres\n\nEvacuations have been ordered in the area of the Burro Fire northeast of Tucson, and a Type 1 Incident Management Team was assigned to take control of the fire on July 2.\n\nThe fire started about 10:30 a.m. June 30, according to Coronado National Forest officials.\n\nOfficials say the fire is in the foothills of Redington Pass near Burro Tank. The fire has burned 5,000 acres, primarily high grass and brush.\n\nRedington Road is closed from milepost 2 to 14. The Mount Lemmon Highway is now closed from the base to the Palisades area.\n\nThe cause of the fire is still under investigation.\n\nGoodwin Fire\n\nThe greatest potential for fire growth continues to be on the north and northwest portions of the fire, burning 14 miles southwest of Prescott in Yavapai County. Fire crews are working July 2 to complete burnout operations and to hold the line on the northwest side of the fire to prevent threats to Breezy Pines and Walker.\n\nThe fire has consumed 27,327 acres.\n\nFrye Fire\n\nThe Frye Fire continues to burn in steep rugged terrain on the slopes of Mount Graham in the Pinaleno Mountain Range, growing to 45,154 acres in size on July 2, according to Coronado National forest officials.\n\nThe day's goal is to keep the fire confined to National Forest System lands and keep it from burning onto adjoining state and private lands. Monsoon moisture will be on the rise as the week progresses, with daily afternoon and evening thunderstorms possible.\n\nJuly 1: Goodwin Fire over 25,000 acres\n\nThe Goodwin Fire just south of Prescott has reached 25,714 acres as of 7:40 a.m. Saturday, according to the InciWeb.\n\nSeveral communities are under evacuation orders today including Blue Hills, Upper Blue Hills, Dewey and all areas west of SR 69 south to mile post 280, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.\n\nThere are 1,222 personnel working on the fire and it is currently 44 percent contained.\n\nCrews today will be working in the Breezy Pines area, trying to stop any northward movement of the fire.\n\nThe cause of this fire is still unknown.\n\nGentry Fire\n\nThe Gentry fire located in the Black Mesa Ranger District of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests has reached over 400 acres as of Saturday morning.\n\nThe fire, caused by lighting, is 10 percent contained with 212 personnel working to put out the fire.\n\nCrews are mainly working with tall grass, brush, high temperatures and low humidity.\n\nSwisshelms Fire\n\nAccording to the Arizona State Forestry, the Swisshelms fire has burned almost 8,000 acres.\n\nGusty winds are adding to the dynamic fire behavior.\n\nThe Swisshelms Fire just east of Elfrida has grown to 7,250 acres since June 27, burning in tall grass and brush. The fire is 25 percent contained.\n\nCrews are worried about high temperatures and low humidity that increase the potential for dynamic fire behavior.\n\nJune 29: New: Gentry Fire burns near Forest Lakes and Heber-Overgaard\n\nThe Gentry Fire has grown to about 100 acres Thursday since it was sparked by lightning on Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.\n\nThe fire is burning about 5 miles south of Forest Lakes and 10 miles south of Heber-Overgaard.\n\nCrews were working to protect the Gentry Lookout station on Thursday using Forest Road 300 as a holding line to the south and Forest Road 86 to the north. Forest Road 86 was closed and sections of Forest Road 300 may eventually be closed, the U.S. Forest Service said.\n\nNo other structures were threatened.\n\nIf conditions allow, the fire may burn out another 400 acres on Thursday night and help burn the dead and downed materials left over from the massive Rodeo-Chediski Fire in 2002.\n\nThat fire forced evacuations in Heber-Overgaard and other communities along the Mogollon Rim, destroyed several hundred homes and scorched about 470,000 acres.\n\nThe Gentry Fire burnout will help reduce the risk of another high-intensity wildfire.\n\nJune 28: Ducey declares Goodwin Fire 'top priority'\n\nIn a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said he wanted to assure Yavapai County residents that the state's attention and resources were focused on containing the Goodwin Fire, which had burned more than 20,600 acres and was 1 percent contained.\n\n\"I want the residents of Yavapai County to know the #GoodwinFire is the state's top priority right now,\" Ducey tweeted.\n\nUPDATES: Find out the latest evacuations, closures from the Goodwin Fire\n\nJune 27: Goodwin Fire prompts Mayer evacuations; main highway closed\n\nOfficials on Tuesday ordered the town of Mayer evacuated because of a fast-moving Arizona wildfire that has burned nearly 4,500 acres.\n\nThe evacuations initially were ordered for everything west of Main Street in Mayer but later included the entire community, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said.\n\nMayer is home to about 1,400 residents.\n\nEvacuations also were ordered in the Breezy Pines subdivision, the area north of the Goodwin-Mayer Road/County Road 177, and west of Highway 69 from Mayer to Poland Junction, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.\n\nIn addition, Chaparral Hills and Poland Junction Proper were ordered evacuated late Tuesday afternoon. The fire still was west of those communities.\n\nThe evacuations do not include areas east of Highway 69, which was closed Tuesday in both directions between Interstate 17 at Cordes Junction and the State Route 169 junction because of the fire on Tuesday.\n\nSR 169 between Prescott Valley and I-17 and SR 89 via U.S. 60 and U.S. 93 through Wickenburg are alternate routes, the Arizona Department of Transportation said.\n\nAn earlier evacuation order for the community of Pine Flat is still in place, officials said.\n\nPre-evacuation notices have been ordered for Walker, Potato Patch, Mountain Pine Acres and Mount Union.\n\nMotorists traveling to or from the Prescott area should research conditions, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.\n\nGo to the Arizona traveler Information site at az511.gov, call 511 or follow ADOT on Twitter @ArizonaDOT.\n\nFrye Fire\n\nBuildings at the Mount Graham International Observatory escaped harm in the Frye Fire, which has burned more than 38,000 acres in southeast Arizona, but the condition of the telescopes inside is unknown.\n\n\"The Forest Service did a great job of fighting the fire back,” said observatory director Eric Buckley. The fire has moved away from buildings and is now burning along Arizona 366, cutting off access to the observatory, Buckley said.\n\n“We just haven’t had a chance to get the technicians and the engineers in those buildings.” Buckley said.\n\n“Telescopes are very, very delicate instruments. Telescopes and heat don’t get along very well … but honestly we just don’t know yet,” he said.\n\nMost of the fire has been within the burn scar of the Nuttall Complex Fire, which scorched about 29,000 acres in 2004.\n\nJune 26: Goodwin Fire grows to 1,500 acres\n\nThe Goodwin Fire burning about 14 miles south of Prescott had scorched nearly 1,500 acres as of Monday night, officials said.\n\nFire crews had been order to pull back efforts temporarily Monday as conditions deteriorated, but suppression efforts resumed as conditions improved.\n\nAn evacuation order was in place for the community of Pine Flat and a pre-evacuation order for residents of Breezy Pines.\n\nA community information meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Mayer High School in Spring Valley.\n\nThe fire began Saturday afternoon in the Prescott National Forest and has resulted in the closure of numerous county and forest roads in the area. The cause was under investigation.\n\nFrye Fire\n\nFirefighters continued to battle the Frye Fire in southeast Arizona, which has burned more than 38,000 acres. Firefighters have had some success to the east and northeast edges of the blaze, which is burning in the burn scar of the 2004 Nuttall Complex Fire.\n\nFirefighters are trying to keep the fire contained to the burn scar, building fire lines to protect cabins and other structures in the area.\n\nWind and dry weather remain a concern and could cause the fire to expand, according to a press release updating the fire's progress.\n\nBeeline Highway\n\nAnother fire just northeast of Fountain Hills led the Arizona Department of Transportation to close one southbound lane of State Route 87 southbound Monday evening.\n\nThe brush fire was near Mile Marker 208, about eight miles south of Sunflower.\n\nDavid Albo, spokesman for the Tonto National Forest, said the fire had burned 275 acres as of Monday evening and the cause was under investigation. Roughly 70 people were working to combat the fire.\n\nAlbo said ground crews were working to establish containment lines, and aircraft and helicopters were used to slow the fire's spread.\n\nJune 23: Arizona declares emergency in response to wildfires\n\nGov. Doug Ducey declared a state of emergency on Friday in response to the growing number of wildfires in Arizona and directed additional resources be made available for fire-suppression efforts.\n\nThe declaration authorizes the release of $200,000 in emergency funds and requests the State Emergency Council provide fire officials with additional resources as needed to combat the fires.\n\nAs of Friday afternoon, there were 14 active wildfires around Arizona, the largest of which is the Frye Fire that has burned through more than 21,000 acres of land near Safford.\n\nThe lightning-caused fire started on June 7 and was 10 percent contained as of Friday afternoon. Crews expect the fire to be fully contained by July 30.\n\nJune 23: Coconino Forest beefs up fire restrictions\n\nAlthough campfire restrictions were in place last weekend on Coconino National Forest, 34 people had fires anyway, and abandoned them, according to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service.\n\nThe agency will move forward with stage two restrictions, in an effort to further protect the forest. Coconino now has restrictions on smoking, shooting, woodcutting, blow-torching, off-driving and blowing things up.\n\nBecause a hot muffler on dry grass is one of many ways you can accidentally start a fire, the Forest Service is asking the public to be careful when picking a campsite.\n\nThe restrictions went into effect Thursday and will remain in effect until the state gets some rain. Violations are punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, six months in prison, or both.\n\nJune 21: Encino Fire destroys 4 homes\n\nThe Encino Fire burning in Sonoita has burned four homes and spread to about 1,300 acres since it sparked on Tuesday.\n\nAnother 122 homes are threatened, according to Chief Joseph De Wolf of the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District.\n\nOne firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service suffered a broken ankle and was transported to a Tucson hospital Tuesday evening, De Wolf said.\n\nWolf said the upcoming heat of the day would pose a significant challenge but that his goal was to have residents back in their homes by Wednesday night.\n\nJune 20: Evacuations issued in Sonoita\n\nA new, \"rapidly spreading\" wildfire was sparked on Tuesday in southern Arizona, prompting officials to issue evacuation notices in Sonoita, a small area about 50 miles southeast of Tucson.\n\nThe notices were issued for residents on Boyd, Toledo and Terry roads, as well as Apache Trail, Holbrook Drive and all adjacent streets, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.\n\n\"Last report received was of three homes that have been destroyed and many others remain threatened,'' the Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page Tuesday night.\n\nOfficials said evacuees can find refuge at the Sonoita Fairgrounds or the Harvest Church at 3107 Highway 83.\n\nNo further details were immediately available.\n\nJune 18: Highline Fire evacuation orders lifted\n\nThe Highline Fire near Payson expanded by several hundred acres since Saturday and has now reached 6,092 acres with 60 percent containment as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Tonto National Forest.\n\nThe slow growth and large containment prompted officials to lift the evacuation and pre-evacuation orders for residents and local businesses in the Bonita Creek, La Cienega and Ellison Creek Estates north of the control road in the fire area, according to the Gila County Sheriff's Office.\n\nOfficials said the progress made in the last two days gave them confidence to deem evacuations unnecessary.\n\nAll road closures remain in effect around the perimeter of the fire, with officials only granting access to residents and local business traffic.\n\nThere are 1,243 fire personnel working on combating the fire.\n\nCrews tonight will focus on the southeast portion of the fire above La Cienega and Ellison Creek Estates, officials said.\n\nStructure protection groups will remain in place in the communities south of the fire, while crews on the northwest side of the fire will conduct burnout operations to limit fire movement north, officials said.\n\nThe Boundary Fire, burning on Kendrick Mountain 17 miles northwest of Flagstaff, has reached 7,367 acres and was 18 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon, according to officials with the Kaibab National Forest.\n\nJust under 400 personnel were working to combat the fire on Sunday.\n\nNorth winds overnight on Saturday pushed light smoke into some communities near Flagstaff early Sunday morning, but officials said most smoke was cleared by dawn.\n\nNortheast winds on Sunday are expected to push smoke toward Williams and Bellemont, with officials advising individuals sensitive to smoke to stay indoors.\n\nThe closure on Highway 180 between mileposts 236 and 248 remains in effect.\n\nJune 17:\n\nThe Highline Fire near Payson has reached 5,737 acres with 44 percent containment as of Saturday morning, according to Mike Reichling from the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.\n\nThere are 1,240 working firefighters who made success on the east and west sides of the fire Friday night, Reichling said.\n\nEllison Creek and La Cienega estates are still under evacuation and will remain under evacuation today.\n\nBonita Creek will be under evacuation notice as of today.\n\nOficials also said humidity is \"critically low\" and temperatures are rising, so fire behavior may be very active.\n\nCrews will be working on the north end of the fire today in hopes of containing it, according to officials.\n\nJune 16: Flames stop short of community\n\nThe Highline Fire made its way down the hills of Gila County and toward the Payson communities of La Cienega and Ellison Creek Estates on Thursday night, but stopped short of a fire line built near homes.\n\nCalm and shifting winds on Friday and Saturday are expected to slow the fire's advance and redirect its spread, pushing the flames on top of each other.\n\n\"We expect them to push back up the canyon, pushing the fire into itself,\" a fire team spokesman said Friday morning.\n\nEvacuation orders are still active for La Cienega and Ellison Creek Estates, though the emergency shelter at Payson High School stayed empty overnight. A few people checked in, stopping by for a free dinner or the latest fire update, but left to stay with family or friends.\n\nThe Highline Fire near Payson has reached 4,929 acres and 35 percent containment as of Friday morning.\n\nThere are 1,069 firefighters working on the Mogollon Rim, said Mike Reichling, public information officer for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.\n\nHe added that the Mogollon Rim is a challenging area due to the changes in elevation.\n\nHumidity percentage is in the single digits, which makes fire behavior \"very erratic because of winds drying out fuels.\"\n\nFirefighters will be working on the southeastern and western portions; however, they are concerned about using aircrafts.\n\nBecause of elevation and heat, aircrafts are limited in their abilities to drop water and retardant, Reichling said.\n\nIn addition, 10 people were evacuated from the southeastern side of the fire but three stayed, despite the evacuation orders, according to Reichling.\n\nHe said the three that stayed signed forms stating that they understand the risk.\n\nJune 15: Evacuations ordered after fires merge\n\nThe Highline Fire near Payson has merged with a second wildfire, the Bear Fire, and the combined blaze now has burned over 4,258 acres, officials said Thursday.\n\nAn evacuation order was later issued for La Cienega and Ellison Creek Estates northeast of Payson, according to the Tonto National Forest.\n\nThe order does not affect the Bonita Creek Estates community, which is still under a pre-evacuation notice.\n\nThe evacuations were prompted by \"rapid fire movement towards the community,\" officials said, adding that they were concerned that the fire could reach the community overnight.\n\nThe evacuation order became effective 7:30 p.m. Thursday.\n\nResidents will not be allowed in until the area is deemed safe again.\n\nA Red Cross shelter is set up at the Payson High School. Large animals can be brought to the Payson Multi-Event Center.\n\nThe Highline Fire had been moving toward the Bear Fire, and the two merged Monday. They are now being managed as one fire, the Forest Service said in a press release.\n\nThe fire continues to challenge firefighters to the east as it burns in upper Ellison Canyon.\n\nUpdates for the Highline Fire can be found at @HighlineFire on Twitter.\n\nJune 14: Highline Fire near Payson expands\n\nThe 4-day-old Highline fire burned eastward through upper Moore Creek, onto the Myrtle Trail and into upper Ellison Creek as firefighters worked to suppress the flames overnight, officials reported Wednesday.\n\nThe fire north of Payson had expanded to more than 1,300 acres, officials said.\n\nCrews used air tankers to slow the fire's progress above the Rim and used strategic fire operations south of the 300 Road at the Rim overnight. The blaze started about 8 miles north of Payson.\n\nMoving forward, firefighters look to hold the fire north of the Highline Trail, south of the 300 Road and create a new line of protection at the head of Ellison Creek.\n\nNo evacuations are in effect, though the community of Bonita Creek remains under a precautionary pre-evacuation notice.\n\nUpdates for the Highline Fire can be found at @HighlineFire on Twitter.\n\nJune 13: Highline Fire lines hold\n\nCrews strengthened fire lines along the north side of the Highline Fire on Tuesday. The U.S. Forest Service said in a press release that crews faced rolling debris and other hazards as they battled the fire, which is burning in steep terrain near Payson.\n\nNo evacuations are in effect, though the community of Bonita Creek remains under a precautionary pre-evacuation notice. A community meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Starlight Pines Community Center in Blue Ridge.\n\nCoconino National Forest and Kaibab National Forests will restrict campfires to developed campgrounds beginning Thursday. Campfires, charcoal and wood stoves are prohibited.\n\nJune 12: Fires keep communities on edge\n\nFirefighters continued to battle the Highline Fire near Payson on Monday. The 750-acre blaze moved quickly up the Mogollon Rim when it started Saturday, and by Monday the Forest Service said in a press release that crews had 460 people working day and night for full suppression.\n\nNo evacuations were ordered, though a precautionary notice was issued for residents of Bonito Creek Canyon. A community meeting will take place 7 p.m. Monday, June 12 at the Payson High School auditorium, 301 S. McLane Road.\n\nA cold front could bring high southwest winds to the fire, which is burning in rugged terrain with grass, thick brush, oak and ponderosa pine.\n\nFirefighters were using helicopters, back burns and air tankers. Crews from the nearby Bear Fire battled spot fires north of Forest Road 300 and built a fire line with a bulldozer.\n\nA number of trails in the area have been closed.\n\nIn southeast Arizona, the Lizard Fire continued to burn near Dragoon. Firefighters expected dry, windy conditions, which failed to materialize, giving them the opportunity to work the fire’s eastern flanks.\n\nEvacuations were ordered Monday afternoon in the Cochise Stronghold area, beginning at the intersection of Cochise Stronghold and Ironwood Road and including everything west and south from there. A pre-evacuation will remain in the Redhead area, according to the Sheriff's Office.\n\nThe fire, which merged with the Dragoon Fire last week, has burned 14,954 acres and is 15 percent contained, according to InciWeb, a multi-agency web site dedicated to wildfire.\n\nHelicopter water drops helped crews working to protect structures in the area.\n\nThe lightning-caused fire has 615 firefighters working toward suppression of the fire, which is burning near the communities of Dragoon, Pearce, Sunsites and Cochise Stronghold.\n\nJune 11: Highline Fire burns northwest of Payson\n\nThe Highline Fire, which ignited Saturday afternoon, spread to cover 750 acres near the Mogollon Rim on Sunday.\n\nThe expansion spurred Coconino National Forest closures, including Knoll Lake, the General Crook Trail and parts of the Cabin Loop Trail System.\n\nFirefighters were \"working around the clock\" to suppress the fire, officials said, with units using hand crews, engines, water tenders, dozers, helicopters and air tankers.\n\nNo evacuation orders were in effect as of Sunday night.\n\nJune 11: Tee Fire burns near Black Canyon City\n\nThe Tee Fire began burning around 7 p.m. Saturday night about 4 miles away from Black Canyon City and near Table Mesa.\n\nTiffany Davila, a representative for Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, told The Republic that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was working with the department to ensure nearby campers had evacuated the area. Davila said there weren't any nearby structures for the fire to endanger.\n\nThe fire's estimated to be roughly 700 acres.\n\nJune 10: 2 fires merge; power threatened\n\nThe Lizard Fire has merged with the Dragoon Fire in the Coronado National Forest east of Tucson and is moving south.\n\nThe Cochise County Sheriff's Office has evacuated residents south of Dragoon Road and in the Cochise Stronghold. Pre-evacuation warnings have been issued in other nearby areas.\n\nPower lines in Cochise County are being threatened, and some of the lines may be shut off.\n\nThe fire has spread over 7,500 acres.\n\nJune 10: U.S. 180 north of Flagstaff still closed\n\nIn northern Arizona north of Flagstaff, U.S. 180 remains closed due to smoke from the Boundary Fire.\n\nThe lightning-caused fire is burning on the northeast side of Kendrick Peak and includes areas in both the Coconino and Kaibab national forests.\n\nThe fire has spread to 3,800 acres, according to fire officials. it is expected to remain active for the next few days as forecasts call for high winds.\n\nJune 8: Fires reported in southeast Arizona\n\nMultiple fires have been reported in southeast Arizona. Five of them were \"significant,\" said Dolores Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management. Firefighters were battling some of them aggressively because of possible threats to homes and other structures. Among them is the Lizard Fire, which was spread over 3,500 acres on Thursday, June 8.\n\nMeanwhile, increased winds near the Boundary Fire north of Flagstaff forced a closure of U.S. 180 between mileposts 236 and 248, according to a press release from the U.S. Forest Service.\n\nThe multiagency website InciWeb reported that access to the Ten of Diamonds area of the Black River was closed because of the Freeze 2 Fire. The closure includes access points from both Fort Apache Reservation and San Carlos Reservation. The fire is burning on the San Carlos side of the river.\n\nThe Antelope Fire, near Kingman, was also being watched closely because of \"threats to homes,\" Garcia said.\n\nMany of the fires were lightning-caused, though others remain under investigation.\n\nJune 7: Boundary Fire grows\n\nThe Boundary Fire began burning Wednesday afternoon 17 miles northwest of Flagstaff, officials said.\n\nLightning caused the fire to break out on the northeast side of Kendrick Peak in the Kendrick Mountain Wilderness just before 4:30 p.m.\n\nAs of Wednesday evening, the fire had consumed 450 acres and was being fueled by heavy dead and down trees as well as forest debris left from the Pumpkin Fire of 2000, officials said.\n\nThe fire was expected to move onto the Kaibab National Forest side of the boundary line within the next several days.\n\nIncreased winds are expected over the next few days in the area.\n\nJune 7: Slim Fire at 3,000 acres\n\nThe Slim Fire is burning about 4 miles north of Forest Lakes in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.\n\nThe lightning-caused fire was reported June 2 and had grown to about 3,000 acres by Wednesday evening, according to officials.\n\nThe fire, which was about 16 miles west of Heber, was burning in Ponderosa pine and mixed conifer.\n\nThe fire was 30 percent contained Wednesday, with 304 personnel battling the blaze.\n\nThe fire is expected to be fully contained by June 30.\n\nOfficials said a flight restriction is in effect over the area, which includes drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.\n\nJune 7: Snake Ridge Fire fully contained\n\nA 15,333-acre wildfire near Happy Jack, southeast of Sedona, was fully contained as of Monday, officials said.\n\nFirefighters began a burnout Sunday morning that they expected would last several days, according to officials.\n\nBurnout activity began around 8 a.m. Sunday as firefighters attempted to contain the fire by mid-week. Crews plan to direct the fire to burn away from property and trail heads for another 15,000 acres for approximately two more weeks.\n\nSmoke drifted toward the northern Arizona communities of Holbrook, Snowflake and Show Low on Sunday and Monday, officials said. Throughout the burnout, smoke was visible from communities along Lake Mary Road, State Routes 87 and 260, and other Verde Valley cities.\n\nThe fire ignited due to lightning on May 19 about nine miles northwest of Clints Well, around 10 miles southwest of Happy Jack.\n\nThe area around where the fire burned continues to be closed to the public, officials said.\n\nJune 2: Roads open near Kellogg Fire\n\nFirefighters secured the perimeter of the Kellogg Fire and turned mop-up operations over to local crews on Friday. The fire burned 780 acres of grasslands near the southeast Arizona town of Sonoita, forcing road closures and evacuations. Two barns were burned in the wind-driven blaze, but evacuations have been lifted and roads have reopened.\n\n“I think our crews got a good handle on it yesterday,” said Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. The evacuations were largely a precaution because the fire was so close to residential areas.\n\n“Anytime you’ve got a wind-driven fire. It can move pretty quick,\" Davila said.\n\nJune 2: Badger Fire nearly contained\n\nFirefighters hoped to see 100 percent containment on the Badger Fire by nightfall, said Dolores Garcia, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Both lanes of Interstate 17 north of Phoenix were open going into the weekend. Garcia said drivers may see some smoke in the area. She encouraged motorists to report smoke if they are unsure where it is coming from.\n\n“We’re going to see, unfortunately, roadside fires, as long as there’s grass along the side of the road,” she said.\n\nJune 1: Kellogg Fire forces evacuations\n\nA fast-moving brush fire that sparked Thursday afternoon in Sonoita burned about 250 acres within an hour of its start and forced 15 homes to evacuate, officials said.\n\nThe Kellogg Fire broke out about 1 p.m. just south of State Route 82 and north of Old Sonoita Highway, the latter of which is closed.\n\nJune 1: Badger Fire stop straffic\n\nSeparately, a brush fire alongside Interstate 17 near Cordes Junction brought traffic to a standstill on northbound lanes Thursday afternoon, officials said. The Badger Fire apparently started when a vehicle broke down and was forced to pull off to the side of the road, sparking dry vegetation about 2 p.m.\n\nThe fire, which burned more than 60 acres, was controlled in a few hours and the highway reopened about 4:30 p.m., officials said, after traffic backups reached 8 miles.\n\n— Josiah Destin\n\nJune 1: Exploding balls fighting blazes\n\nNational forest crews have been fighting fire with fire in the last week by dropping combustible spheres that resemble ping-pong balls from helicopters to help control a lightning-caused blaze in Arizona.\n\nThe devices are filled with flammable substances that cause them to ignite once they hit the ground. By using the exploding balls, authorities didn’t have to send firefighters into unsafe and remote areas.\n\n“The flammable spheres burn out in a circular pattern on the forest floor, as each circle of fire slowly grows they eventually burn into each other,” said Kaitlyn Webb, a spokesperson for Coconino National Forest.\n\nThe fire started on May 19 roughly 8 miles southwest of Happy Jack and has since covered more than 12.5 square miles, Incident Commander trainee Jason McElfresh said.\n\nAuthorities expect to soon have the fire contained.\n\n— Associated Press\n\nMay 30: Restrictions in Prescott National Forest\n\nFire restrictions will go into effect in Prescott National Forest at 8 a.m. June 1. Campfires and charcoal and wood stoves will only be allowed in developed campsites and recreation sites with metal rings or grills until the ban is lifted.\n\nSmoking is prohibited except in vehicles, buildings or developed recreation sites. Smokers are required to remain in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials.\n\nTarget shooting is also prohibited under the ban.\n\nDry, windy conditions and a number of abandoned campfires over the Memorial Day weekend led to the ban, the Forest Service said in a news release.\n\nA wet winter brought relief throughout Prescott National Forest, but the moisture also helped grass grow, and that grass is drying. Tall grass can make fires difficult to control.\n\nFor a list of campgrounds where fires and charcoal are allowed, call 928-777-5799 or go to the Prescott Forest website.\n\nMay 30: Fire near Tortilla Flat burns 150 acres\n\nA brush fire that ignited near Tortilla Flat in the early morning May 30 had burned about 150 acres and was about 80 percent contained by midafternoon, according to the U.S. Forest Service.\n\nThe fire burned close to State Route 88, and the Arizona Department of Transportation shut down a 13-mile stretch of the highway for most of the morning and into the afternoon.\n\nThe fire was reported about 6:30 a.m. near Tortilla Flat, said Carrie Templin, a Tonto National Forest spokeswoman.\n\n\"The fire is human-caused, but at this time we don't have any additional information. It is under investigation,\" she said.\n\nMay 29: Firefighters contain Joe's Hill Fire\n\nFirefighters contained the Joe's Hill Fire about noon May 29, according to the Daisy Mountain Fire Department.\n\nSix structures were lost in the fire, including a mobile home and storage facilities, the department released.\n\nThe fire ignited in Black Canyon City on the afternoon of May 27, was controlled, then jumped containment lines and eventually grew to 50 acres, leading to evacuation orders for about 35 residents.\n\nMORE:Arizona wildfires: Black Canyon City evacuation lifted\n\nThe evacuation orders in Black Canyon City were lifted on the evening of May 28 as firefighters gained about 50 percent control of the fire that started in a salvage yard Saturday.\n\nThe American Red Cross closed the shelter it set up for about 20 people who were forced from their homes, including two people who lost their homes, the organization said.\n\nThose two people, as well as one person who was placed in a hotel for health concerns during the fire, will be provided follow-on services from the Red Cross, the organization said.\n\nMay 28: Joe's Hill Fire expands to 50 acres\n\nAbout 200 firefighters were battling a 50-acre blaze that forced evacuations for about 20 homes in Black Canyon City and destroyed six structures.\n\nThe Joe's Hill Fire broke out again late May 27 in a salvage yard, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Management.\n\n\"We're looking at about 35 residents that have been evacuated,\" said Daisy Mountain Fire Chief Mark Nichols.\n\nOfficials hope to have the fire suppressed by 6 p.m. May 29, according to The Department of Forestry and Fire Management.\n\nThe fire was initially contained by local fire departments, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Management said that the fire started back up under suspicious circumstances later that night.\n\nThe cause of the fires is not currently known, and is under investigation according to the department.\n\n\"We're doing an evaluation of the fire right now,\" Nichols said.\n\nThere have been no additional evacuations and no permanent structures damaged outside of the facility where the fire started, according to the department.\n\n\"We've lost a couple structures but we don't have an exact count. We're thinking we've lost up to six,\" Nichols said.\n\nNichols was confident that the firefighters would be successful in their suppression efforts.\n\n\"Everything is looking good so far,\" he said.\n\nMay 28: Residents near Joe Hill Fire evacuated\n\nJust after 11 p.m. May 27 a fire, dubbed the Joe Hill Fire, broke out at the C and S, an auto salvage yard on Smitty Way at Tara Springs Road in Black Canyon City, authorities said.\n\nAn initial brush fire in the area had been thought to be extinguished, but continued to burn, affecting the yard.\n\nCrews worked overnight to contain the fire, which was reported to be at 15 acres on the morning of May 28, It was an multi-agency effort, involving about 240 firefighters from Black Canyon, Daisy Mountain, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Phoenix and Glendale fire departments.\n\nResidents in the vicinity were evacuated as a precaution, with a shelter set up at the Canon School near Velda Rose and School Loop roads.\n\nNo further evacuations were expected as of 6 a.m. Sunday, but the Red Cross said they will remain on hand to provide support\n\nMay 27: Road closures for Pinal Fire expands\n\nThe Pinal Fire closure order has been expanded to include portions of three roads and an additional area, authorities said.\n\nThe revisions will remain in effect until July 31, or until the Pinal Fire has been mitigated.\n\nThe portion of Forest Road 55, locally known as Russell Road, has been closed from the Tonoto National Forest boundary south to the intersection of Forest Road 652, as well as east to the intersection with Forest Road 112C.\n\nThe portion of Forest Road 157, from the forest boundary south to the intersection with Forest Road 55.\n\nThe portion of Forest Road 112C from the intersection with Forest Road 55 in Kellner Canyon, southeast to the intersection with Forest Road 112 in Icehouse Canyon.\n\nThe portion of national forest land between Forest Road 55 and Forest Road 157, south from the forest boundary to the intersection of the above three roads at Tuxedo Junction.\n\nMay 27: Black Canyon City structures at risk\n\nA one-acre fire ignited in Black Canyon City on the afternoon of May 27, threatening multiple structures and spreading to a vehicle storage yard, authorities said.\n\nShortly before 7 p.m., 24 units were on the scene, mostly from Daisy Mountain and Black Canyon fire departments. The fire was near the 21000 block of East Smitty Way.\n\nMay 27: Forest closures in Snake Ridge Fire\n\nThe lightning-caused Snake Ridge Fire had grown to 4,850 acres on May 27 and was still creeping across the forest floor in the Coconino National Forest.\n\nForest closure areas have been expanded to the north and east of the fire area, which is about nine miles northwest of Clints Well and several miles west of Lake Mary Road.\n\nSmoke is expected to be visible along Lake Mary Road, on state Routes 87 and 260, and in nearby communities and the Verde Valley over the next several days.\n\nMay 27: Pre-evacuation order in Pinal Fire\n\nThe Pinal Fire burning south of Globe had scorched more than 6,400 acres of land by the morning of May 27.\n\nOn Friday, officials issued a precautionary pre-evacuation notice to some residents in the area, the Gila County Sheriff's Office said.\n\nThe notice only affects residents in the Icehouse and Kellner canyons who are south of the Icehouse and Kellner junction, southwest of Globe.\n\nOfficials stressed that residents do not need to leave the area at this time, adding that the precautionary notice is because of a change in the fire's \"weather and fuel conditions.\"\n\nLocal public-safety personnel will go door to door to give residents information about the pre-evacuation procedures, the Sheriff's Office said.\n\nThe Sheriff's Office said residents should start making preparations now in case an evacuation becomes necessary.\n\nResidents with livestock can choose to shelter their animals at the Burch Sale Yard, officials said, adding that the Phoenix Humane Society would assist in providing shelter for pets if necessary.\n\nMore than 600 personnel were working on combating the fire, almost double the number from Wednesday.\n\nOn Wednesday, the fire had consumed about 4,300 acres.\n\nThe Pinal Fire is the first naturally caused fire to spread through the area in 65 years, starting from a lightning strike on the afternoon of May 8. The fire is being fueled by timber and chaparral in the area, officials said.\n\nFire officials determined early on to treat the fire as a controlled burn because the area had not burned naturally in so long, while keeping crews in place to prevent it from crossing containment lines.\n\nResidents with questions were asked to call the Pinal Fire Incident Command Center at 928-487-0676.\n\nThe Tonto National Forest said the fire was expected to be contained by June 15.\n\nMay 27: Authorities issue drone warning\n\nFirefighters spotted four drones flying illegally near the Pinal Fire, according to the U.S. Forest Service.\n\nThe drones have hindered firefighting operations, prompting the agency to repeat its message that drones are not allowed near wildfires.\n\nWhen drones are in the area, firefighters ground their aircraft. Helicopters are particularly susceptible to collisions, even with smaller objects, and so it is considered unsafe to fly with a drone in the air.\n\nOne drone operator has been cited for flying near the Pinal Fire.\n\nDrone operators who violate the law \"may be subject to civil penalties, including fines of up to $25,000, and potentially criminal prosecution,\" the agency said in a news release.\n\nThe fire, which has burned about 6,418 acres since May 8, is being allowed to burn in some areas but contained in others. Firefighters had to ground a tanker releasing retardant until one of the drone issues was resolved, the Forest Service reported.\n\nMay 24: Fire restrictions imposed in southeastern Arizona, Tonto Forest\n\nDry conditions have triggered fire restrictions throughout southeast Arizona, including Coronado National Forest, where campfires are banned except in developed campgrounds.\n\nCharcoal fires, smoking, target shooting, welding and smoking are included in the ban, which was announced in a multiagency press release.\n\nCamp stoves are allowed. Fires are allowed in metal fire rings at campgrounds but must be extinguished when you leave the campsite.\n\nThe ban also covers a number of national parks and monuments, state lands and the Gila District of the Bureau of Land Management. Although there is no camping where some of the restrictions apply, smoking is restricted to vehicles, buildings, developed recreation sites or barren areas at least 3 feet in diameter clear of all flammable materials.\n\nThe national parks and monuments are:\n\nSaguaro National Park\n\nCasa Grande Ruins National Monument\n\nCoronado National Memorial\n\nChiricahua National Monument\n\nFort Bowie National Historic Site\n\nTumacácori National Historical Park\n\nOrgan Pipe Cactus National Monument\n\nState lands in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties are also under fire restrictions.\n\nTonto National Forest announced a ban last week.\n\nFor more information, go to firerestrictions.us.\n\nFire restrictions in effect for Tonto Forest\n\nTonto National Forest has imposed fire restrictions, banning open campfires and other activities that may spark a wildfire.\n\nRising temperatures have prompted the agency to restrict fires to metal fire rings in developed campsites, which means campers in undeveloped areas must use stoves, lanterns and heating devices.\n\nThe agency has also banned welding equipment, chain saws, or \"operating combustion engines without spark-arresting devices,\" the agency said in a press release.\n\nTarget shooting is prohibited while the restrictions are in place. Hunting is allowed. Fireworks and explosives are prohibited year-round. Exploding targets and tracer rounds are illegal on public lands.\n\nSmoking is prohibited except within an enclosed vehicle or building, or at a developed recreation site as long as butts are not tossed on the ground.\n\nWith temperatures climbing, grasses and leaves are drying out and the fire danger is rising, the agency said.\n\nFor more information on fire restrictions, call 602-225-5200, or go to the Tonto Forest's website.\n\n10 of the biggest wildfires since 2002\n\nToday’s wildfires are bigger than they once were. That’s no guarantee that this fire season will be bigger than the last, but in 2002, when the Rodeo-Chediski fire burned about 468,638 acres, Arizona got a glimpse of what a century of fire suppression, climate change and a spark can lead to.\n\nHigh Country News reports that not only are large wildfires more common, but the fire season is also longer.\n\nHere is a look at Arizona’s 10 biggest blazes since 2002.\n\nCrews battle fires near Nogales, Globe\n\nTwo wildfires burning in parts of Arizona were not posing an immediate threat to any residents and at least one was being allowed to continue burning, according to officials.\n\nThe Peña Fire had burned about 300 acres of mostly grass and brush as of Tuesday night in an area south of Peña Blanca Lake west of Nogales, Coronado National Forest officials said.\n\nThe second major fire was burning about 6 miles south of Globe, west of State Route 77, in the Pinal Mountains.\n\nThe Pinal Fire was caused by lightning on May 8, according to Tonto National Forest officials.\n\nIt had burned about 206 acres as of Tuesday and was zero percent contained, but crews were working the fire as a natural prescribed burn to help prevent future fires, noting the area had not experienced a fire since 1952, when 36 lightning strikes were recorded, said Andrew Mandell, incident commander.\n\nFind more details on both fires here and return to azcentral.com for updates.\n\nSetting small fires to prevent the big ones\n\nFor the past decade, Coconino National Forest has burned between about 8,000 to 22,000 acres each year with prescribed fires. The cost of a controlled burn is in the thousands of dollars.\n\nWildfire costs — manpower, home damage, rehabilitation, property value and other costs — run into the millions.\n\nAnd prescribed burns can help restore forest health after decades of fire suppression.\n\nRead more about how firefighters protect forests with prescribed burns.\n\nOld Bisbee fire burns at least 6 structures\n\nAuthorities say at least six structures have been lost after a wind-whipped fire in Bisbee.\n\nThe fire had burned little more than five acres and was contained overnight.\n\nAlthough about 50 people were evacuated Monday evening during the firefight, no overnight shelters were needed, according to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office.\n\nNo injuries were reported.\n\nRead more about the firefighting efforts in the Old Bisbee fire.\n\nFather of hotshot hopes to move buggy to museum\n\nTwo buggies used by the Granite Mountain Hotshots have been put up for sale, and the father of one of the fallen firefighters hopes to turn one of the vehicles into a memorial.\n\nJoe Woyjeck, a retired fire captain and volunteer at the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, said he would like to bring one of the buggies to the museum, to honor the 19 firefighters who died battling the Yarnell Hill Fire in June 2013.\n\nThe buggies were used to transport the hotshots to fire scenes and were in Yarnell June 30, the day the Yarnell Hill Fire killed all but one of the elite firefighters.\n\nWoyjeck said his son, Kevin, spent a lot of time in the fire museum while he was growing up.\n\nREAD MORE:About the Yarnell Hill fire and the Granite Mountain Hotshots\n\n“All three of my children were in the museum pretty much from the time they could walk,” Joe Woyjeck said.\n\nThe Daily Courier in Prescott reported that, in addition to the buggies, the city of Prescott would like to sell Fire Station 7, where the hotshots were based.\n\nWoyjeck said he was focused on the buggies and did not know what might happen to the fire station.\n\n“We want to make sure at least one of the buggies is in our collection … and is treated with dignity and respect,” he said.\n\nAlthough the museum will have the final say, Woyjeck said he envisions having a plaque or seat assigned to each firefighter in the back of the buggy. He also envisions a place where people can leave letters for the fallen hotshots.\n\nWoyjeck said he expects to hear soon on the museum’s bid.\n\n“There’s no agenda involved other than honoring those 19 firefighters. … We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”\n\nREAD MORE: Complete coverage of Arizona wildfires\n\nIncludes information from Arizona Republic reporters April Morganroth, Kelsey Mo, Robert Gundran and Adrian Marsh.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/05/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/success/buying-a-home-in-2022-feseries/index.html", "title": "Thinking of buying a home in 2022? Here's what to expect - CNN", "text": "If you're one of many would-be homebuyers who got shut out of the real estate market last year, you might be hoping for better luck in 2022.\n\nThe good news is that you probably won't see the jaw-dropping jumps in home prices seen last year. But prices are still expected to go higher and mortgage rate hikes are anticipated, too.\n\nThe housing market had the strongest showing in 15 years in 2021, sending home prices through the roof . Prices skyrocketed nearly 20% through the third quarter compared to a year before, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.\n\nHeading into this year, just 26% of consumers thought it was a good time to buy a home, according to Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index for December. That was a sharp decrease in sentiment from one year earlier, when 52% believed it was a good time to buy.\n\nOne big reason prices have skyrocketed is that there are so few homes on the market. Housing inventory hit an all-time low in December. And, as long as there are way more buyers than sellers, competition will remain fierce and prices will go up.\n\n\"Even though demand remains strong, a majority of consumers clearly have reservations about purchasing a home at current prices,\" said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae senior vice president and chief economist.\n\nBut that hasn't stopped people from house hunting. Here's what to expect if you're one of them.\n\nHome prices will go up, just not as fast as last year\n\nHome prices are widely expected to continue to rise this year, but not at the eye-popping pace of 2021.\n\n\"That kind of price increase was a shock. 'Unprecedented' is not strong enough. It was nuts,\" said Skylar Olsen, senior director and principal economist at Tomo Networks, a buyer-focused mortgage and home-purchasing platform.\n\nThe median price of a home was $346,900 in 2021 , up 16.9% from 2020, and the highest on record, according to the National Association of Realtors.\n\nA panel of economists convened by the NAR forecast median home prices will increase by 5.7% in the upcoming year, while a panel of housing experts polled by Zillow expect home values to rise 6.6% in 2022.\n\nBut exactly what happens next will depend largely on how both buyers and sellers react to the changing market.\n\n\"If buyers finally balk at unaffordable prices, sales volumes could fall,\" said Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow. \"But if homeowners finally start listing their homes en masse, we could see a sales bonanza, cooling the pace of price appreciation.\"\n\nMortgage rates will rise\n\nAlready in the first few weeks of the year, the average 30-year fixed rate for a mortgage has jumped significantly , rising to the highest rate it's been since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.\n\nThat trend toward higher rates is expected to continue, although not necessarily at the pace seen in the past couple of weeks.\n\n\"We are expecting interest rates to rise this year and that directly impacts affordability for families and their ability to finance a home,\" said Jeff Ruben, president of WSFS Mortgage. \"We don't see it being a situation where it will choke off the home purchase market, but we project that the rise in interest rates will dampen activity a bit.\"\n\nThe 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.56% last week. The average was 2.77% this time last year.\n\nInventory will grow, but so will the number of buyers\n\nWhile the availability of homes for sale often ebbs and flows, last year seemed to be all ebb.\n\n\"The last 18 months have been out of control -- every time you turn around it's been record-high prices or record-low inventory,\" said Mike Miedler, president and CEO of real estate firm Century 21. \"We have lost the cyclicality of the market.\"\n\nBut this year, the housing market is expected to return to its normal seasonal cycle, with more homes coming on to the market in the spring, then tapering off throughout the summer. But competition will remain stiff: Experts say buyers -- many of whom have been putting offers on homes since last spring -- will continue to come in hordes, at least for the first part of the year.\n\n\"In the spring, you'll see that demand come in strong driven by interest rates that are climbing,\" Miedler said. \"You'll see people who were waiting on the sidelines -- when they see a spike in inventory they will come back into the market.\"\n\nSome agents say a few buyers are starting early by looking now. The problem is, there's not much to look at.\n\nAt the end of 2021, inventory was at the lowest levels ever, with just 910,000 homes available to buy nationwide, according to the National Association of Realtors.\n\nThe problem is even more pronounced in popular areas.\n\nJennifer Branchini, a Compass agent, was working with a couple looking to buy in Pleasanton, California, in the Bay Area, where there are currently just under 20 homes on the market.\n\n\"If you have only one property that comes on the market around the median price of $1.3 million, that has every homebuyer looking,\" she said.\n\nShe's seen prices rise so much during the winter months that she advised some clients to just put their search on hold.\n\n\"When I look at what some homes are selling for, I told my clients, 'I can't even get behind that number for you guys,'\" Branchini said.\n\nHomes will continue to sell fast\n\nThose looking to buy will have to act fast. Many homes have been going into contract in a matter of days of first being listed.\n\nLast summer homes were taking an average of just 17 days to sell, according to the National Association of Realtors. But it depends on the price. Even during November, which was relatively slower, homes priced in the most popular sweet spot of between $250,000 to $500,000 sold in an average of 10 days.\n\nIn the greater Washington, DC, area Gail Chisholm, an agent with Compass, said agents often put a home on the market on a Thursday, allow buyers to see it over the weekend during one open house, and then ask that offers are submitted by Tuesday evening.\n\n\"It moves very fast, there is buyer's fatigue for sure,\" Chisholm said. \"If you find the house you think is your dream house and offer $150,000 or more over ask and waive all contingencies and you still don't get it? And you've lost five houses that way and paid $500 on pre-inspections each time? I have buyers who have taken a break. But many still have to find a home.\"\n\nIn very competitive markets like hers, she said, the baseline for buyers to compete is to include an escalation clause and escalation cap in their offer, which spells out how much they are willing to top the next closest offer, up to a specific amount.\n\nBeyond that she lays out all the levers that buyers can use, so they can adjust the offer to their risk tolerance.\n\n\"It is usually the offer with the fewest contingencies, the highest escalation cap, the most money down and the most accommodation of the seller's needs that wins.\"\n\nIn a market this competitive, buyers need to come with their agent and mortgage team in place and be ready to make decisions, said Olsen.\n\n\"If you're in the search process, new listings are coming, but they sell so darn fast,\" she said. \"Your search for a home is a job.\"\n\nStill, Olsen said she's fearful the pressure and fatigue will lead buyers to make rash decisions they may regret.\n\n\"I'm so worried that people will buy out of desperation to finally win a bid and not buy at a price they can afford sustainably,\" she said. \"Buy a home that is a good match.\"", "authors": ["Anna Bahney", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/01/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/17/australia/australia-election-climate-crisis-intl-hnk-dst/index.html", "title": "Australia election: The 'lucky country' is facing a climate crisis test ...", "text": "Woodburn, Australia (CNN) Ken Morrison has twice been up to his neck in water during climate disasters .\n\nThe first time, in 2007, he was trapped in a pool with a towel over his head as wildfires ripped through Australia's Hunter Valley , a wine-growing region about three hours' drive north of Sydney.\n\n\"The roar is unbelievable. You can feel the oxygen getting taken out of the air,\" recalled the 57-year-old paramedic, who was on the job treating volunteer firefighters for burns and broken bones at the time.\n\nThe second incident was this February, when relentless rain burst the banks of the Richmond River, sending a tsunami-like wave surging through the small town of Woodburn in northern New South Wales, where Morrison lives. He waded in darkness to free a boat stored in the back shed so his family could escape the floodwater.\n\n\"I'm in total darkness. I got leeches all over me. Covered,\" he told CNN, standing in boots caked with mud in his backyard after a second flood in April.\n\nAustralia has long been known as the \"lucky country,\" partly due to its wealth of coal and gas, as well as minerals like iron ore, which have driven generations of economic growth.\n\nBut it's now sitting on the frontier of a climate crisis, and the fires, floods and droughts that have already scarred the country are only expected to become more extreme as the Earth warms.\n\nDespite its exposure to the crisis, Australia has one of the worst records on climate action in the developed world, with plans under the current government to cut emissions by just 26-28% from 2005 levels by 2030 -- a target that pales in comparison to those set by its allies in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Even the Business Council of Australia, which represents companies including mining interests, supports a higher target.\n\nThe water was high enough for Ken Morrison and his family to climb over the second balcony into his boat.\n\nOn May 21, Prime Minister Scott Morrison (who is of no relation to Ken Morrison) will be asking Australians to re-elect his center-right Liberal Party and its ally, the Nationals, in a coalition government, after a three-year term bookended by climate-related disasters: The Black Summer fires in 2019-20 that razed bushland covering an area equivalent in size to the UK, claimed dozens of lives and killed or displaced roughly three billion animals . Then the floods this year that swamped Ken Morrison's home and so many others like it in New South Wales and further north in Queensland.\n\nBut the Prime Minister's bid for a second term could be thwarted by his main rival, Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese, who's promising to cut emissions by 43% by 2030.\n\nSaturday's vote is a pivotal one -- it will either provide a mandate for more of the same, or set the country on a different path.\n\nA bushfire burns near the town of Bilpin, Australia, on December 19, 2019 during the Black Summer fires.\n\nwere \"concerned\" about the crisis, and two-thirds thought the country should be doing more about it. According to the Ipsos Climate Change report , a survey of 1,000 voters in the last week of March showed that four in fivewere \"concerned\" about the crisis, and two-thirds thought the country should be doing more about it.\n\nBut public surveys have been wrong before.\n\nIn 2019, opinion polls predicted a win for the opposition center-left Labor Party and its ambitious plan to boost the use of renewables and electric cars. But Labor lost, and the vote only vindicated the coalition's inaction on climate.\n\nWhile current polls show Labor is on track to win this election, the crisis is now competing with other problems that appear more immediate -- the cost of living, the rise of China and inflation among them.\n\nKen Morrison says he's not sure who he'll vote for, but he knows it won't be either of the main parties: \"Liberal and Labor, they're the same horse with different stripes.\"\n\n'This is coal. Don't be afraid'\n\nBefore he became prime minister, Scott Morrison cemented his position as an unflinching ally of the fossil fuel industry when he wielded a lump of coal in parliament to taunt the opposition about its renewable energy policy.\n\n\"This is coal. Don't be afraid. It won't hurt you!\" he bellowed over jeers. \"It is coal that has ensured for over 100 years that Australia has enjoyed an energy competitive advantage.\"\n\nThen Treasurer Scott Morrison hands Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce a lump of coal during Question Time in Canberra on Feb. 9, 2017.\n\nThat was five years ago, but the Australian government has been on the record as an international holdout on climate action since 1997, when it strong-armed delegates during the landmark Kyoto talks to secure a deal to not only avoid cutting its net emissions but to actually increase them to 108% of its 1990 levels by 2012.\n\nAustralia relies on fossil fuels to power its economy, and in the last 10 years, the mining industry has earned 2.1 trillion Australian dollars ($1.5 trillion USD) in export revenues, amounting to 21% of total GDP growth.\n\nWhile much of the world is working on a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, Australia is considering more than 100 new fossil fuel projects, many of which could go online within the next decade.\n\nIf all fossil fuel developments under consideration in Australia went ahead, they could collectively contribute an extra 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year, according to research by independent think tank The Australia Institute. That is a lot of greenhouse gas -- more than three times the amount Australia already emits, and nearly double of what all the global aviation produces in a year.\n\nThe federal government has long supported coal and gas with subsidies that amounted to 10.5 billion Australian dollars (US$7.2 billion) in the 2021-22 budget, and now, its economic recovery plan is decidedly \"gas-fired.\" Among its new gas projects and pipelines is the Scarborough to Pluto development in Western Australia, which will emit between 1.37 1.6 billion tons of greenhouse gasses in its lifetime, including emissions sent offshore. That's equivalent to nearly 15 new coal-fired power stations, according to recent analysis.\n\nAustralia \"appears intent on replacing fossil fuels with fossil fuels,\" notes a scathing assessment from the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors climate commitments by governments.\n\nOn paper, both major parties say they want to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and are promising to spend around 20 billion Australian dollars ($14 billion) to get there.\n\nFor the coalition, that means more gas projects and investing in emissions-reducing technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), a method of trapping and storing carbon from fossil fuels to allow for their continued use. But the technology is not 100% effective, and scientists have warned against using it to meet climate goals.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'Climate Wars:' How Australia wasted a decade to act against climate change Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'Climate Wars:' How Australia wasted a decade to act against climate change 05:07\n\nFor Labor, reaching net zero means overhauling the electricity grid, offering discounts on electric cars, and creating new solar banks and community batteries. But Albanese hasn't ruled out more coal projects, saying that applications will be approved if they \"stack up environmentally, and then commercially\" -- a nod to how politically popular supporting coal mining jobs is among the party's traditional voting base.\n\nThe Greens are promising to phase out the mining, burning, and export of thermal coal by 2030 and end fossil fuel subsidies, but as a minor party its influence will be limited unless its candidates can secure enough seats to sway a hung parliament.\n\nThe 'lucky country'\n\nBack in Woodburn, northern New South Wales, some residents are still living in tents and caravans pitched in front of mud-stained houses 11 weeks after the first flood in February. Having lost everything, it would be easy to assume they'd tilt towards parties promising greater climate action. But not necessarily.\n\nTamara Collins, a remote nurse who lives near Ken Morrison's house, said she'll vote Labor, but only because their local candidate answered the phone when she and her husband, Tim Phillips, were scooping toxic mud from the floor of their newly renovated house.\n\nTamara Collins and Tim Phillips are living in their shed after floodwater ruined their newly renovated home in Coraki, New South Wales.\n\nCam Hollows, a doctor and the son of prominent eye surgeon Fred Hollows, lives and works in the region. As water rushed into homes, he took a helicopter to remote communities cut off by floodwater to help with relief efforts. \"A lot of people that live in the bush don't choose to live here because they're lucky in life,\" he said. \"The 'lucky country' has a lot of unlucky people.\"\n\nAbout a third of the nation's 26 million people live outside major cities in regional towns and villages. The cost of living is typically lower, but life in rural Australia can be hard. There are fewer jobs and prolonged droughts have robbed many farmers of their livelihoods.\n\nHollows describes the \"two very different classes in Australia\" in terms of caravans: \"There's the $80,000 caravans towed behind $100,000 cars and caravans that haven't had wheels for 40 or 50 years.\" Some are used for extended holidays, others are permanent homes.\n\nWoodburn is in the federal electorate of Page, a safe seat held by the National Party, the Liberal Party's conservative coalition partners, who typically represent regional voters.\n\nIn Page, Hollows expects the Liberal National Coalition to \"bleed yellow,\" a reference to the United Australia Party, which is making its pitch to voters on bright yellow billboards on roads and highways around the country. The right-wing party is a collection of candidates led and bankrolled by Clive Palmer, the brusque former mining magnate who has promised to \"Make Australia Great!\" on a platform of capped mortgages and pulling all Australian investments out of Europe and the US. Palmer has no climate policy at all.\n\nA new wave of Australian politics\n\nAt the opposite end of the ideological scale to Palmer sit the Independent \"teal\" contenders, named after the color most have chosen to use in their campaigns, who are launching challenges in 22 predominantly marginal electorates.\n\nAnd almost all of the candidates are women.\n\nTheir plan is to take inner-city seats held by Morrison's government by offering climate action to fiscally conservative voters who won't back Labor but are tired of the coalition's business-as-usual approach to fossil fuels.\n\nWhile these candidates are independent, all are backed by \"Climate 200,\" an organization pushing to elect Independent voices capable of negotiating larger emissions reduction targets.\n\nOne of the teal candidates is Jo Dyer, an Australian theater and film producer, who decided to run for office after becoming frustrated with what she described as the \"revolving door\" between Australia's political class and the fossil fuel industry.\n\nJo Dyer is vying for the federal seat of Boothby, south of Adelaide, in South Australia.\n\n\"Climate change is seen as some sort of ideological issue here as opposed to an impending global crisis -- it's been reduced to part of the culture wars,\" Dyer told CNN during a meeting in her local seat of Boothby, a collection of suburbs in the nation's driest state of South Australia, which encompasses rugged coastline and sprawling foothills.\n\nAt a climate forum hosted by Dyer, local resident Cheryl Lange said she was fed up with the lack of urgency of the major parties.\n\n\"I'm voting for a climate candidate because the big parties are under the thumb of the fossil fuel companies. There's no sense at all of the urgent need to take action,\" she said.\n\nIn Dyer's view, this is a last-chance election -- one which could reveal uncomfortable truths about Australia's priorities.\n\n\"People often say this is 'not who we are as a country,'\" Dyer said. \"Well, if this government is rewarded, we'd have to say, actually this is exactly who we are.\"\n\nA different pathway\n\nThe landmark Paris agreement in 2015 saw 200 nations put their differences aside with a promise to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century -- a commitment that was strengthened at last year's summit in Glasgow.\n\nBut neither of Australia's major parties are currently coming to the table with targets that are consistent with those goals, according to climate scientists.\n\nThe coalition's targets are currently in line with nearly 4 degrees Celsius of warming globally, while Labor's path would see a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise, according to Climate Analytics , led by one of Australia's top scientists, Bill Hare.\n\nHare is acutely aware of the existential threats facing his nation, but says if enough climate-conscious candidates win their seats and apply pressure in Parliament, the election could be \"transformative.\"\n\n\"Underneath this horrible inaction lies an enormous opportunity to be a leader in clean energy,\" Hare said, explaining that \"a lot of the things Australia does to enable mining and gas extraction are very relevant to the rapid scaling up of the basic supply infrastructure needed for renewables.\"\n\nA 55-hectare array of solar panels on a farm near Dubbo in New South Wales.\n\nOn top of having the tools to harness more renewable energy, Australia has the natural resources to provide it, with more solar potential per square meter than any other continent, and some of the best wind assets in the world.\n\nRenewable energy already accounts for almost 33% of the nation's power, according to the sector's peak body. And states like South Australia -- where two-thirds of electricity is generated from wind and solar -- have been world-leading in their transition away from fossil fuels.\n\nBut back in Woodburn, where the sound of yet more rain keeps locals awake at night, voters like Ken Morrison are banking on self-reliance as they stare down the barrel of more extreme weather events, rather than any kind of change in government.\n\nThe boat that he once stored in the back shed now lives in the garage beneath his two-story home, ready in the event of a flash flood.\n\n\"And the kayak,\" he said, \"so we can get in and out quickly.\"", "authors": ["Hilary Whiteman", "Hannah Ritchie"], "publish_date": "2022/05/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/24/most-important-event-the-year-you-were-born/37164307/", "title": "The most important events from 1917 to 2017: WWI to Trump's election", "text": "Angelo Young and John Harrington\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nOver the past 100 years we’ve witnessed some of the most profound changes in human history.\n\nBetween wars, technological developments, progress in civil rights and breakthroughs in science and medicine, the old order that held back hundreds of millions of people has been swept away.\n\nCenturies-old empires crumbled as new ideologies – from communism to fascism – for better or worse found roots in many places of the world. Progressive human rights ideas also emerged and changed the world as women, blacks, and the LGBT community demanded, and often won, equal rights. Technology evolved, modifying and innovating our lives in ways never dreamed of.\n\nThe world certainly has progressed, but wars have raged on, and climate change has picked up speed, endangering the ecosystems of our planet.\n\nTo put this in perspective, 24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of the most important event in each of the past 100 years. We drew on research material and news reports to determine what event had the biggest impact in a particular year.\n\n1919: National booze ban\n\n• Date: Oct. 28\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nCongress passes the 18th Amendment that bans the production, transport or sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The legislation opens the way for Prohibition, which lasts from 1920 to 1933. The public flouts the law, which succeeds in enriching gangsters and contributing to the rise of organized crime.\n\n1920: Women's suffrage\n\n• Date: Aug. 26\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nThough the United States was founded under democratic principles, only a minority of its population (starting with white landowning males over the age of 21) could actually vote. But after the 19th Amendment of the Constitution is passed, women finally gain a voice and the right to cast their ballots.\n\nSports gambling:Why sports betting hasn't gone nationwide yet after Supreme Court ruling\n\n1921: Chinese Communists rise\n\n• Date: July 1\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nIn a prequel to the rise of Mao Zedong and Red China, the Chinese Communist Party is founded, and three weeks later it convenes its first National Congress that is attended by Mao. It would take another 28 years before the Republic of China becomes the People's Republic of China.\n\n1922: British Empire shrinks\n\n• Date: Feb. 28\n\n• Location: London\n\nThe British Empire was at its peak toward the end of World War I, commanding a global population estimated to be as many as 570 million people, or about a fourth of the world's population at the time. The empire's size began to shrink in 1920, when Britain declared limited independence for Egypt, which leads to full independence two years later.\n\n1923: Great Kanto earthquake\n\n• Date: Sept. 1\n\n• Location: Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan\n\nThe Great Kanto earthquake, also known as the Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake, strikes the Japanese mainland at noon on Sept. 1, 1923, with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale. The death toll is estimated at 140,000 people. The force of the temblor destroys hundreds of thousands of homes that either collapse or are engulfed in fire. The quake sets off a tsunami that reaches a height of almost 40 feet at Atami in the Sagami Gulf, killing 60 people there. The most significant outcome of the catastrophe is the rebuilt Tokyo that would become a modern metropolis.\n\n1924: From Lenin to Stalin\n\n• Date: Jan. 21\n\n• Location: Moscow\n\nFollowing the death of Vladimir Lenin on Jan. 21, the new leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, immediately begins a purge of political rivals. Some are simply moved to different positions, while others, like Leon Trotsky, the presumed successor to Lenin, are exiled. Stalin's paranoia grows as he takes control of the nation, and with it the level of violence and killing of anyone perceived to be a threat to his power and control.\n\n1925: Scopes monkey trial\n\n• Date: July 10\n\n• Location: Dayton, Tennessee\n\nAfter teaching the theory of evolution in a Tennessee high school, the state prosecutes science teacher John Thomas Scopes because state law prohibits such teaching as it runs counter to Biblical beliefs. The trial pits well-known Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan against renowned attorney Clarence Darrow. The jury rules against Scopes, forcing him to pay a fine of $100 (about $1,460 in 2017 dollars). It would take another 43 years before the U.S. Supreme Court rules that laws punishing people for teaching evolution violate the First Amendment.\n\n1926: U.S. starts numbered highway system\n\n• Date: Nov. 11\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nIn a precursor to the modern interstate highway system, the federal government introduces a national highway numbering system in an effort to standardize roadways, especially local roads and trails with names unfamiliar to outsiders. The U.S. Numbered Highway System makes it easier for the growing number of car owners to figure out how to get from one city or town to the next and opens the way for the great American road-trip tradition.\n\n1927: Lindbergh nonstop to Paris\n\n• Date: May 21\n\n• Location: New York to Paris\n\nWhen the monoplane The Spirit of St. Louis touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris on the evening of May 21, Charles Lindbergh becomes the person to fly over the Atlantic Ocean nonstop. Lindbergh would become one of the heroes of the age. His feat fires the imagination of aspiring aviators about the commercial possibilities of flight. Lindbergh would stay in the news, but for regrettable reasons. A strong advocate for American isolationism in the 1930s, he is criticized for his admiration of Nazi Germany's aircraft industry. Also, his son would be killed during a bungled kidnapping attempt in 1932.\n\n1928: Earhart crosses Atlantic\n\n• Date: June 17-18\n\n• Location: Wales\n\nAmelia Earhart becomes the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Wales, making her an American national heroine and feminist icon who would go on to set numerous aviation records. She would later set another record as the first person – man or woman – to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan would vanish over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during Earhart's attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Recent evidence has emerged indicating Earhart may have sent distress signals after surviving a crash, possibly on the remote Gardner Island in the western Pacific Ocean.\n\n1929: Wall Street crashes\n\n• Date: Oct. 24-29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nThe \"Roaring Twenties\" come to a halt on Black Tuesday in October 1929, when stocks take a nosedive, contributing to the Great Depression. Reasons for the worst economic downturn in American history include over-lending by weakly regulated banks, excessive stock price valuation, too many stocks purchased on margin, unrestrained exuberance that sends millions of people to convert their savings into stocks, tightening of the credit by the Federal Reserve and an agricultural drought.\n\n1930: Ho Chi Minh rises in Vietnam\n\n• Date: Feb. 2\n\n• Location: Hanoi\n\nIn an event that would have repercussions for U.S. foreign policy decades later, Vietnamese independence fighter Ho Chi Minh founds the Communist Party of Vietnam as part of his effort to oust French colonial occupiers. \"Uncle Ho,\" as he was known to his many supporters, was inspired by the Russian Bolsheviks, who oppose the Tsarist autocracy, seeing parallels between that struggle and the fight against the foreign occupiers of his country.\n\n1931: Empire State Building completed\n\n• Date: May 1\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nPresident Herbert Hoover inaugurates the completion of the Empire State Building on May Day. It becomes the tallest building of the iconic Manhattan skyline until the construction of the World Trade Center Towers are completed in 1973. Incredibly, the 86-story office building took only 13 months to build, with construction starting in March of the previous year.\n\n1932: Hitler becomes German\n\n• Date: Feb. 25\n\n• Location: Germany\n\nSeven years after Adolf Hitler renounces his Austrian citizenship, a fellow member of the Nazi Party gets him a low-level government job, which comes with automatic citizenship. This opens the way for him to run for office. Already a well-known party activist, it takes Hitler only two years from receiving his citizenship status to becoming the leader of Germany.\n\n1933: FDR elected\n\n• Date: March 12\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nWith the Great Depression sending millions of Americans to soup kitchens and chasing whatever work they can find, newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt begins his weekly \"Fireside Chats\" as Americans are eager for guidance and solace during those dark times. FDR's first radio talk explains to Americans in plain language why he ordered that banks would close temporarily at different time in different parts of the country. The purpose, he explains, is to curb panic rushes of withdrawals, which has been hurting efforts to stabilize the banking system.\n\n1934: Hitler consolidates power\n\n• Date: June 30\n\n• Location: Berlin\n\nGermans, who had been suffering from a disastrous economic depression in 1929-30, begin to embrace the ideas of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party – the Nazi Party. It becomes the largest party after the 1932 elections. In 1933, Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany. After President Paul von Hindenburg dies in 1934, Hitler then purges members of his own party – the bloody Night of the Long Knives – with the help of Nazi storm troopers and becomes the unquestioned leader of Germany.\n\n1935: FDR launches New Deal\n\n• Date: Aug. 14\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nPresident Roosevelt, grappling with the Great Depression, signs into law his signature Social Security Act, a law that creates the country's first retirement security system. Earlier that year, as part of his \"New Deal\" policy, the president established the Works Progress Administration, a massive economic stimulus program, putting millions of Americans to work building the country's public infrastructure.\n\n1936: Owens flouts Nazis\n\n• Date: Aug. 3\n\n• Location: Berlin\n\nAs the concept of racial purity and superiority dominates Germany in the 1930s, African-American sprinter Jesse Owens of Oakville, Alabama, shows them who is the master racer. During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and under the gaze of Adolf Hitler, Owens wins four Olympic gold medals for the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints, the long jump, and the 100-meter relay.\n\nFrom Alaska to Florida:States with the biggest and smallest governments\n\n1937: UAW changes car industry\n\n• Date: Feb. 11\n\n• Location: Flint, Michigan\n\nNearly two years after the establishment of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), the union scores a major victory in Flint, Michigan. Workers at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant Number One lay down their tools and occupy the factory, demanding union representation, a fair minimum wage, safer working conditions, and not to outsource labor to non-union plants. Despite efforts by GM and local police to extricate them from the plant, including shutting off the heat, cutting off food supply, and attacks that leave 16 workers and 11 police officers injured, the strike lasts 44 days. The strike leads to an agreement between GM and the UAW, which includes a 5% pay raise and permission to talk in the lunchroom.\n\n1938: Anti-Semitism surges\n\n• Date: Nov. 9\n\n• Location: Germany, Austria, Sudetenland\n\nGrowing anti-Semitic scapegoating amid Germany's crippling economic conditions culminates in the Kristallnacht, or \"Night of Broken Glass,\" a pogrom sparked by a speech from German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Storm troopers and other Nazi groups are ordered to attack and destroy Jewish businesses, homes and houses of worship. In one night of attacks in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking area of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, dozens of Jews are killed and tens of thousands are rounded up and sent to concentration camps.\n\n1939: World War II starts\n\n• Date: Sept. 1\n\n• Location: Westerplatte, Poland\n\nUnder the cover of predawn darkness, a German battleship floats quietly into the center of Danzig Harbor and opens fire on a Polish stronghold in Westerplatte, the first shots of World War II. In the following weeks, Nazi forces, including 2,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft, would shatter Polish defenses and surround Warsaw, which surrenders 26 days after the Danzig Harbor attack.\n\n1940: McDonald's founded\n\n• Date: May 15\n\n• Location: San Bernardino, California\n\nBrothers Richard and Maurice McDonald open McDonald's Barbecue Restaurant, offering BBQ ribs, pork sandwiches and 23 other menu items. Eight years later, they would restructure their popular local business to focus on hamburgers, milkshakes and fountain sodas, emphasizing speed, a simple menu and low prices. In the 1950s, businessman Ray Kroc would buy out the brothers and grow McDonald's into what it is today – the world's largest restaurant chain.\n\n1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor\n\n• Date: Dec. 7\n\n• Location: Oahu, Hawaii\n\nKnowing the U.S. is gearing up to engage them in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, Japan deploys a massive air attack on U.S. Navy ships parked at Pearl Harbor. The surprise assault by 353 Japanese aircraft leads to the deaths of 2,403 people, including 1,177 sailors aboard the ill-fated USS Arizona, one of 19 vessels that were damaged or destroyed in the attack. Nearly 330 aircraft were also damaged or destroyed. The United States declares war on Japan the next day and three days later against Germany and Italy.\n\n1942: GIs arrive in Europe\n\n• Date: Jan. 26\n\n• Location: Northern Ireland\n\nThe first U.S. troops destined to fight in Europe in the world's greatest war arrive in Northern Ireland. It is the beginning of a military buildup that would culminate in the invasion of France more than two years later. Before then, the United States was providing only material support to its ally across the Atlantic, while building up what President Roosevelt called the \"Arsenal of Democracy\" in anticipation for the inevitable entry of the United States into the war in Europe.\n\n1943: Invention of LSD\n\n• Date: April 19\n\n• Location: Basel, Switzerland\n\nSwiss chemist Albert Hoffman had been studying the potential medicinal value of lysergic compounds when he accidentally exposed himself to LSD-25, which he had created years earlier in his lab. This was the first LSD trip, a quarter-century before the counterculture endorses the hallucinogenic compound. Hoffman describes the \"not unpleasant\" experience as \"uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.\" Hoffman takes a second dose and writes a paper about his discovery. The U.S. Army tests the drug on soldiers numerous times from 1955 to 1967, briefly toying with the idea of using LSD as a weapon to disorient enemy soldiers during combat.\n\n1944: D-Day\n\n• Date: June 6\n\n• Location: Normandy France\n\nThe plan for the biggest one-day military campaign in history, the invasion of Normandy by Allied forces to push the Nazis out of France, is hatched in extreme secrecy a year earlier. The plan is conceived during the Quebec Conference by Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. The invasion starts at 6:30 a.m. on five beaches, and over the next 24 hours about 4,900 Allied soldiers are killed, many of them the instant the doors of their Higgins transport boats opened directly into German machine gun fire.\n\n1945: World War II ends\n\n• Date: Sept. 2\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nThe surrender of Japan marks the end of World War II amid one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. Earlier in the year, leaders of three nations – Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler – die and Nazi Germany surrenders. Though the surrender of Japan was inevitable, the prospect of a horrific Allied assault on the Japanese mainland convinces the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bomb attacks, along with the entry of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan, compel the Japanese to surrender.\n\n1946: Baby boom starts\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nMore American babies are born – 3.4 million – in 1946 than in any year in U.S. history up to then. The number of births grows to 4 million per year from 1954 to 1964, the last year of the baby boomer generation, the biggest generation at that point in history.\n\nIt's raining rats:Live rat falls from Buffalo Wild Wings ceiling as customer watches\n\n1947: India gains independence\n\n• Date: Aug. 15\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C\n\nThe sun sets on the British Empire in India in 1947, as the Asian nation becomes the world's largest democracy. Independence is the culmination of decades of work by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indian nationalists committed to throwing off the yoke of British colonialism. The transition to independence comes at a price. The subcontinent is partitioned into two nations, Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Violence erupts between Hindus and Muslims as Hindus migrate to India and Muslims shift to Pakistan. It is estimated that 1 million people die during the migration.\n\n1948: Birth of Israel\n\n• Date: May 15\n\n• Location: Middle East\n\nAfter Israel declares its independence following a UN resolution, neighboring Arab states with troops from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Transjordan (now Jordan), Lebanon and Saudi Arabia attack the former British-controlled Palestinian mandate. The Arab-Israeli War ended with an armistice that leaves Israel with some territories as Egypt and Jordan retains control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, respectively.\n\n1949: NATO founded\n\n• Date: April 4\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nTwo years into the Cold War, the Soviet Union detonates its first nuclear bomb and quickly exerts its influence over Eastern Europe. It attempts to do the same in Western Europe, which is still recovering from the massive destruction of World War II. To respond to the Soviet threat, U.S. and Western European allies form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Fundamentally, NATO simply states that an attack on any NATO member would be considered an attack on all NATO members. Cold War tensions ratchet up later that year when the communists take over China, the world's most populous nation.\n\n1950: Korean War starts\n\n• Date: June 25\n\n• Location: Korea\n\nThe North Korean People's Army crosses the 38th parallel into South Korea, eliciting almost an immediate response from President Harry Truman, and starting the Korean War – a proxy battle between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Three years later, a ceasefire would halt the war. The uneasy relations between North Korea and South Korea last to this day.\n\n1951: Rosenbergs sentenced\n\n• Date: March 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nHusband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their part in passing along atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. They are executed two years later. Not everyone is convinced of their involvement in the scheme. Supporters claim they are scapegoats swept up in the Cold War hysteria of the time. Documents revealed decades later would show the detailed extent of Julius Rosenberg's involvement in the spy ring, though Ethel's participation in the scheme remains inconclusive.\n\n1952: First hydrogen bomb test\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Marshall Islands\n\nThe United States successfully detonates its first hydrogen bomb, a second generation thermonuclear device, in the Marshall Islands as part of Operation Ivy, one of a series of nuclear bomb tests. From 1946 to 1958, the United States used the remote Pacific Marshall Islands as its nuclear weapons testing site, detonating a total of 67 nuclear tests.\n\n1953: The dawn of DNA\n\n• Date: Feb. 28\n\n• Location: Cambridge, England, U.K.\n\nCambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce they have discovered the fundamental behavior and double-helix structure of DNA. Though scientists had been aware of DNA since the 1860s and its role in genetic inheritance since 1943, Watson and Crick were the first to explain how DNA works to replicate itself and pass on genes from one generation to the next.\n\n1954: Brown vs. Board of Education\n\n• Date: May 17\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nIn a landmark case involving Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas, who had to cross a railroad track to reach an all-black elementary school even though an all-white school was closer, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the segregated school system was unconstitutional on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The clause would be used again by the courts to reverse state-level racial segregation practices and ordinances.\n\n1955: Parks starts a movement\n\n• Date: Dec. 1\n\n• Location: Montgomery, Alabama\n\nRosa Parks makes history by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. The arrest of Parks for insisting to remain seated leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the ascent of a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr., as a local activist leader to advance the civil rights cause. A successful federal lawsuit by the NAACP against the city leads to the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system on Dec. 21 of the following year.\n\n1956: Hungary suppressed\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Budapest\n\nNine years after the start of the Cold War, Hungarians took to the streets, demanding democratic reforms. Three days later, Soviet Red Army troops invade Hungary, killing thousands. Nine days after the incursion, Budapest is occupied by the Soviet troops in one of the largest and most aggressive actions taken by the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.\n\n1957: The Little Rock Nine\n\n• Date: Sept 24\n\n• Location: Little Rock, Arkansas\n\nPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower orders federal troops to protect nine African American high school students as they start classes at the all-white Little Rock Central High School. This would become one of the first high-profile actions by the federal government against state-level racial segregation.\n\n1958: U.S. launches first satellite\n\n• Date: Jan. 31\n\n• Location: Cape Canaveral, Florida\n\nThe United States successfully launches Explorer 1, three months after the Soviet Union sent its first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. The two superpowers would go on to send more satellites into space, creating a Cold War space race to build ever more sophisticated orbital communications devices.\n\n1959: Castro takes over Cuba\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Havana\n\nU.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Havana as Fidel Castro's forces advance on the Cuban capital. Days later, rebels led by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter the city, followed two days later by Castro's forces, who quickly consolidate power in Cuba, establishing a communist government in the Caribbean's largest country.\n\nTraveling nightmare:Air Canada traveler claims she woke up on 'freezing cold,' 'pitch black' and empty plane\n\n1960: Lunch Counter Sit-in\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Greensboro, North Carolina\n\nWhen four African-American college students – Ezell A. Blair, Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil and David L. Richmond – sit down at a Woolworth's lunch counter and ask for service, they are denied. The young men refuse to leave, leading to a larger six-month protest that results in the desegregation of the lunch counter by that summer.\n\n1961: Berlin Wall built\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nBy the late summer of 1961, the loss of skilled workers such as teachers, engineers, and doctors to the West reaches crisis levels in East Germany. On Aug. 12, 2,400 East Germans cross into West Berlin, the most in a single day. The next day, with the approval of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, East Germany builds a wall that would extend 27 miles through Berlin, dividing families and friends for the next 28 years. The wall would serve as an enduring symbol of the Cold War, used by presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to inspire a divided city.\n\n1962: Cuban missile crisis\n\n• Date: Oct.16-28\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWhen the United States learns that the Soviet Union is building nuclear missile installations 90 miles south of Miami in communist Cuba, the Kennedy administration starts a naval blockade around the island, which is at times tested, and Kennedy demands the removal of the missiles.The standoff is widely considered to be the closest the two nuclear superpowers come to direct military confrontation. Cooler heads prevail. The Soviet Union offers to remove the missiles in exchange for a guarantee that the United States will not invade Cuba. In secret, the administration also agrees to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey.\n\n1963: JFK assassinated\n\n• Date: Nov. 22\n\n• Location: Dallas\n\nAs John F. Kennedy prepares for his re-election bid, the 34th president of the United States embarks on a multi-state tour in September 1963. He is murdered by a sharpshooter's bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald at about 12:30 p.m. as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Oswald himself is murdered two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.\n\n1964: LBJ's \"War on Poverty\"\n\n• Date: Jan. 8\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nBogged down by the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson struggles constantly to pivot away from the war to focus on his stated goals of reducing poverty, ending segregation, and establishing the social programs many Americans rely on to this day, including the immensely popular Medicare program. During his \"War on Poverty\" State of the Union Address of Jan. 8, 1964, LBJ outlines the need for the country to reduce poverty, end racial discrimination, attend to the health needs of the elderly, and other progressive goals. LBJ later ushers in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Social Security Amendments of 1965.\n\n1965: Civil rights turns violent\n\n• Date: March 7\n\n• Location: Selma, Alabama\n\nThe fatal shooting of protester Jimmy Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper sparks a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Hundreds of civil rights activists march in what becomes known as \"Bloody Sunday.\" Police would confront the marchers, led by John Lewis (who is a House Democrat from Georgia) and others. As the activists cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police attack the protesters with tear gas and billy clubs, hospitalizing 50.\n\n1966: Mao purges rivals\n\n• Date: Aug. 13\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nAt the end of a week-long session of the Communist Party Central Committee of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zedong condemns the political elites, calling on China's youth to rebel against the entrenched political hierarchy. It is the beginning of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that fundamentally transforms Chinese society. Intellectuals, members of the former Nationalist government, and people with ties to Western powers are persecuted, sent to re-education labor camps, or killed by the factions of Red Guards formed in the wake of Mao's call to action.\n\n1967: Six-Day War\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Middle East\n\nAmid escalating tensions with its neighbors, Israel launches a preemptive strike that destroys most of Egypt's air force. Syria, Jordan, and Iraq also attack Israel. As the war continues, Israel takes the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, captures East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and in heavy fighting seizes the Golan Heights from Syria. A ceasefire went into effect on June 10.\n\n1968: Dream denied\n\n• Date: April 4\n\n• Location: Memphis, Tennessee\n\nMartin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot by James Earl Ray as the civil rights icon stands on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, a tragedy that sparks race riots nationwide. King's influence in words and actions touch and move not only the nation, but the world, and resonate to this day. Two months later, on June 4, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and brother of John F. Kennedy, is fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab Christian from Jerusalem, who believes Kennedy is \"instrumental\" in oppressing Palestinians.\n\n1969: Landing on the moon\n\n• Date: July 20\n\n• Location: Merritt Island, Florida\n\nPresident Kennedy's goal of a manned lunar landing before 1970 is realized six years after his assassination. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blast off from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. aboard the Saturn V rocket. After three days of travel, Armstrong and Aldrin land the Eagle module on the lunar surface as Collins remains in lunar orbit to pilot the module. Upon their return to Earth, the three astronauts are put in 21-day quarantine to ensure they do not bring back any lunar contagions.\n\n1970: Vietnam War turns to Cambodia\n\n• Date: April 29\n\n• Location: Eastern Cambodia\n\nAlthough the United States should be scaling back U.S. troop presence in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon approves an operation with the South Vietnamese to invade Cambodia to oust Northern Vietnamese forces there. The Cambodian incursion inflames anti-war protests in the United States as it is perceived to be an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia.\n\n1971: Pentagon Papers\n\n• Date: Feb. 8\n\n• Location: Laos\n\nThe Pentagon Papers, a study by the U.S. Department of Defense about the country's involvement in the Vietnam War, are released and published first in The New York Times, then other newspapers. The documents expose several missteps and how several administrations have misled the American public regarding the war in Vietnam. They also reveal an expanded campaign in Cambodia and Laos, especially clandestine bombing in Laos, which today is considered the heaviest bombardment in history.\n\n1972: Nixon goes to China\n\n• Date: Feb. 21\n\n• Location: Beijing\n\nNixon, a virulent anti-communist earlier in his political career, surprises the American public by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks in a historic first step toward normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Until this trip, the United States and communist China were de facto enemies, fighting proxy wars in the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s and South Vietnam at the time of Nixon's visit.\n\n1973: Roe vs. Wade\n\n• Date: Jan. 22\n\n• Location: Washington D.C.\n\nIn a landmark 7-2 decision that will be known as Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court rules that under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, states cannot completely bar a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy. However, the court adds that as the pregnancy develops, the state can balance a woman's right to privacy with its interest in preserving the \"potentiality of human life.\" As a result, states can ban abortion in the third trimester except in cases where a pregnancy affects a woman's health.\n\n1974: Nixon resigns\n\n• Date: Aug. 8\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nPresident Richard Nixon announces his resignation amid impeachment proceedings stemming from the Watergate scandal and his administration's attempt resist a congressional investigation. The scandal exposes abuses of power by the White House after five burglars were busted breaking in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon becomes the only president in U.S. history to resign.\n\n1975: Saigon falls\n\n• Date: April 30\n\n• Location: South Vietnam\n\nTwo years after the last American troops leave Vietnam, communist troops from North Vietnam capture Saigon, ending nearly two decades of relentless war in the rice paddies and jungles of that Southeast Asian nation. The final tally of war dead for the United States is 58,220.\n\n1976: The Concorde changes air travel\n\n• Date: Jan. 21\n\n• Location: London and Paris\n\nTwo supersonic Concorde jets take off simultaneously – one from London to Bahrain, operated by British Airways, and the other from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar in Senegal, operated by Air France – marking the first time paying passengers enjoy commercial travel at faster than the speed of sound. Though travel by one of the 16 Concordes ever put into service could slash travel time from New York to London in half, the high cost of maintenance, soaring ticket prices, as well as a fatal accident in 2000, sealed the fate of the narrow, slope-nosed aircraft.\n\n1977: Rise of the personal computer\n\n• Date: January\n\n• Location: Chicago\n\nPersonal home computers began to emerge in the 1970s, but many of the earliest versions resembled calculators that would plug into televisions sets. By 1977, however, the desktop home computer begins to resemble their more modern versions – with an accompanying attached or separate computer screen and a magnetic tape or floppy disk storage device. The Commodore PET is unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago that year, while the first Apple II and Radio Shack's TRS-80 go on sale.\n\nPolice:Postal worker gunned down while delivering mail in Louisiana\n\n1978: Cult's mass suicide\n\n• Date: Nov. 18\n\n• Location: Jonestown, Guyana\n\nMore than 900 people die in one of worst recorded acts of cult-related mass murder-suicide after most of the victims and perpetrators drink a powdered drink mix dosed with cyanide. Most of the victims are Americans, devotees of Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones, a former Methodist-trained preacher who built a following and led the flock to Guyana. Among the dead are 276 children who drink the poison. A small number of cult defectors are killed by Peoples Temple gunmen who also slay California congressman Leo Ryan, who had gone to Guyana to investigate Jonestown.\n\n1979: Islamic Republic born in Iran\n\n• Date: Feb. 11\n\n• Location: Tehran\n\nWorsening economic conditions, increasing discontent with the government, and wide support for religious leader in exile Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini end the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The shah and his family flee Iran in January 1979. On Feb 11, the monarchy is dissolved, and on April 1, Khomeini declares Iran an Islamic republic. With support among the nation's clergy and their many followers, he begins rebuilding Iranian society based on conservative Shiite religious principles.\n\n1980: Reagan elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 4\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nWith the United States in an economic malaise and the Iranian hostage crisis hobbling the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th president in a landslide. Reagan, who would serve two terms, was the oldest man elected president at the time. Reagan's election changes the trajectory of American politics, ushering in an era of conservative leadership. During his tenure, he takes a more aggressive approach to the Soviet Union and increases defense spending. Reagan convinces Congress to cut taxes, a move that many economists credit with triggering an economic boom in the 1980s.\n\n1981: AIDS impacts America\n\n• Date: June 5\n\n• Location: Los Angeles\n\nThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes a report about five gay men who had been diagnosed by local physicians with a rare form of pneumonia – the first reported U.S. cases of what would later become known as HIV/AIDS. The autoimmune disease spread so fast that by the end of the 1982, 500 Americans had died from what now the CDC called acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. The death toll would rise to 5,000 by 1985.\n\n1982: Mexico triggers regional debt crisis\n\n• Date: Aug. 12\n\n• Location: Mexico City\n\nGlobal economic stagnation in the 1970s and early 1980s, and excessive borrowing among Latin America's biggest economies, boils over when Mexico's Finance Minister Jesús Silva-Herzog tells the U.S. Federal Reserve his country can no longer service its debt to $80 billion. After the announcement, lenders realize virtually every country in Latin America, led by Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, are not able to pay back loans. The crisis would lead to years of eroding wages, weak-to-negative economic growth, sky-high unemployment, severe austerity measures, and political instability – known as the \"lost decade\" in Latin America.\n\n1983: The internet is born\n\n• Date: Jan. 1\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nThe internet as we know it today – a seemingly endless collection of websites hosted on servers scattered across the globe – is still more than a decade away. But at the beginning of 1983, the the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) – a small network for academics and researchers – transitions to the standard TCP/IP protocol of the World Wide Web. The protocol would become the internet's cornerstone and technical foundation as it allows expanded available address space and decentralizes the network, thus also expanding accessibility.\n\n1984: Chemicals kill thousands in India\n\n• Date: Dec. 2\n\n• Location: Bhopal, India\n\nThe chemical disaster in Bhopal is still considered history's worst industrial disaster. About 30 tons of methyl isocyanate, an industrial gas used to make pesticide, are released at a Union Carbide Corp. plant. About 600,000 poor residents of nearby shanty towns are exposed to a highly toxic compound that kills about 15,000 people and countless farm animals, according to Indian government estimates. The calamity leads to a generation of birth defects. To this day, locals claim the now-abandoned site is riddled with toxic materials left behind by Union Carbide, which was acquired by Dow Chemical in 2001.\n\n1985: Reagan, Gorbachev meet\n\n• Date: Nov. 19\n\n• Location: Geneva\n\nDespite his often bellicose criticisms of the Soviet Union, Reagan agrees to meet with his counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Geneva in the first meeting between leaders of the two Cold War foes in nearly a decade. Though the meeting yields little of substance, it starts a closer relationship between the two men who both seem committed to scaling back the nuclear arms race between the two nuclear superpowers.\n\n1986: Shuttle tragedy\n\n• Date: Jan. 28\n\n• Location: Off the coast of Florida\n\nThe 25th mission of the U.S. space shuttle program ends with the tragic loss of seven astronauts as space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Among those killed are Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. The failure is later identified as a problem with the so-called O-rings used to form a seal in the seams of the shuttle's external fuel tanks.\n\n1987: Stock market tanks\n\n• Date: Oct. 19\n\n• Location: Worldwide\n\nOct. 19, 1987, is called Black Monday because on that day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 508 points, or more than 22%. The drop is worse than the crash in 1929. It is also worse than the market plunge after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Among the reasons cited for the drop are rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, concern over higher interest rates and the belief that the bull market is ending. Computerized trading, relatively new at the time, accelerates trade orders, which speeds up the market drop. As a result of the collapse, exchanges put in place so-called circuit breakers intended to halt trading when stocks fall too fast. This measure is designed to provide investors a cooling off period and avoid a panic.\n\nThe 50 hottest cities in America:Phoenix tops the list\n\n1988: When the U.S. armed Iran\n\n• Date: March 16\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nLt. Col. Oliver North and Vice Adm. John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States for their involvement in the so-called Iran-Contra affair. The scandal involved members of the Reagan administration who illegally sold arms to Iran to help facilitate the release of American hostages, and then transfer the proceeds of the sale to fund the Nicaraguan contras, a loose affiliation of right-wing militias. North is convicted, but his conviction is vacated and reversed, while Poindexter's convictions are also reversed on appeal.\n\n1989: The Berlin Wall falls\n\n• Date: Nov. 9\n\n• Location: Berlin, East and West Germany\n\nCracks in the monolithic Soviet bloc are starting to appear in the 1980s, and the very symbol of communist repression comes crashing down in November, when the Berlin Wall is breached, ending a 28-year division of the city. During the day on Nov. 9, a spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party says starting at midnight that day, citizens of East Germany are free to cross the country's borders. Almost immediately Berliners start slamming the wall with axes and sledgehammers. By nightfall, the celebration turns into what one observer calls \"the greatest street party in the history of the world\" and the city is reunited. East and West Germany would reunite one year later.\n\n1990: Democracy in Poland\n\n• Date: Jan. 28\n\n• Location: Poland\n\nWith the hold of the Soviet Union and communism on East Europe loosening, Poland's ruling communist party votes to dissolve and become more moderate. In the following elections, Lech Wałęsa, leader of the Solidarity Movement and the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, wins the election and becomes president.\n\n1991: America goes to war in Middle East\n\n• Date: Jan. 17\n\n• Location: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait\n\nAfter Saddam Hussein's Iraq invades and occupies Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, the United States sends forces to defend neighboring Saudi Arabia from being overrun and to protect its vital oil assets in Operation Desert Shield. With Saudi Arabia secured, U.S. implements Operation Desert Storm to push Iraqi forces back across the border with Kuwait in a military operation that lasts until a ceasefire takes effect in April.\n\n1992: Cold War ends\n\n• Date: Feb. 1\n\n• Location: Camp David Maryland\n\nJust weeks after the dissolution of the Soviet Union on Dec. 26, 1991, President George H.W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, meet at Camp David to formally declare the end of the Cold War that began shortly after the end of World War II. The meeting comes days after both countries announce they would stop aiming nuclear missiles at each other. Russia declares its 11 former communist satellite republics – from Armenia to Uzbekistan – independent.\n\n1993: The EU becomes reality\n\n• Date: Nov. 1\n\n• Location: Brussels\n\nThe Treaty of the European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, goes into effect in November, after a rough series of political wrangling that, among other concessions, allows the U.K. and Denmark to opt out of the common euro currency. The treaty opens the way to removing border controls among member states and invites new members to join the union.\n\n1994: Amazon.com is born\n\n• Date: July 5\n\n• Location: Seattle\n\nWith an initial aim of becoming an online bookstore, Jeff Bezos and a handful of angel investors launch Amazon.com, just as e-commerce is about to take off . Twenty-four years later, after expanding from books to the so-called \"Everything Store\" and growing a business selling cloud services to companies like Netflix and Instagram, Bezos has become the world's richest man. Amazon.com, meanwhile is racing with Apple to become the world's first trillion-dollar American company.\n\n1995: Domestic terror strikes Oklahoma\n\n• Date: April 19\n\n• Location: Oklahoma City\n\nIn the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, anti-government radicals Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. They time the truck-bomb attack for a weekday morning in order to maximize casualties. For the murder of at least 168 people, including 19 children who were in a child care center in the building, and the injury of hundreds of others, an unremorseful McVeigh is executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Nichols is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.\n\n1996: The dawn of cloning\n\n• Date: July 5\n\n• Location: Midlothian, Scotland, U.K.\n\nDolly the Sheep enters the annals of bioengineering when scientists at Scotland's Roslin Institute become the first to not only successfully clone a mammal, but also the first to do so using an adult cell rather than an embryonic one. After 277 so-called cell fusions that created 29 embryos, the teams managed to turn an udder cell into a nearly complete biological carbon copy of the sheep from which it came.\n\n1997: Machine tops chess champ\n\n• Date: May 11\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nArtificial intelligence and machine learning have been serious areas of study (and hype) for over 60 years. In 1997, one of the most significant victories for silicon logic came when IBM's Deep Blue became the first machine to beat a world chess champion. The the refrigerator-sized computer beat Garry Kasparov twice and tied him three times in a six-game match.\n\n1998: The age of Google begins\n\n• Date: Sept. 4\n\n• Location: Menlo Park, California\n\nWith seed money from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others, Stanford University Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin launch the search engine Google. The digital advertising behemoth Google Inc., now Alphabet Inc., is an $854 billion company with several subsidiaries, including YouTube, autonomous-car development company Waymo and X, the company's research and development division.\n\n1999: NATO's first independent strike\n\n• Date: March 24\n\n• Location: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia\n\nIn order to get Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo during the Kosovo War, NATO forces initiate their first-ever military campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro and Serbia) without U.N. Security Council authorization as Russia and China oppose the attack. The NATO airstrikes are aimed at stopping an onslaught against ethnic Albanians by the government of Slobodan Milošević. The NATO attacks last nearly three months, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.\n\nWant to make money? Buy whisky\n\n2000: International Space Station opens\n\n• Date: Nov. 2\n\n• Location: Low Earth orbit\n\nCommanders Bill Shepherd from the United States and Yuri Gidzenko of Russia, along with Russian flight engineer Sergei Krikalev become the first temporary residents of the International Space Station two years after the first component of the research center was put into low-Earth orbit about 250 miles above sea level. Since that first crew, there have been 229 other visitors to the ISS,some of them multiple times, led by 146 from the United States and 47 from Russia.\n\n2001: 9/11\n\n• Date: Sept. 11\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nIn the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, 19 hijackers inspired by Islamist extremism kill nearly 3,000 people after crashing two passenger-laden commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan and one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempt to regain control of the plane headed toward Washington, D.C.\n\n2002: Homeland Security\n\n• Date: Nov. 25\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nFollowing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress and President George W. Bush enact the Homeland Security Act, the biggest government reorganization of national security efforts since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. The sweeping legislation creates the massive Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for everything from protecting infrastructure from cyberattacks to managing the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.\n\n2003: U.S. crushes Iraq\n\n• Date: March 19\n\n• Location: Iraq\n\nWith the help of British and other allied forces, the United States begins its invasion of Iraq with a rapid bombing \"Shock and Awe\" campaign with the intention of destroying Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction; the weapons are never found. Coalition forces manage to quickly topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, but have to fight insurgent forces for years afterward.\n\n2004: Facebook founded\n\n• Date: Feb. 4\n\n• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts\n\nMark Zuckerberg, a 23-year-old Harvard University student, creates \"The facebook,\" a local social networking site named after the orientation materials that profiles students and faculty and given to incoming college freshmen. Fourteen years later, Facebook has become a $510 billion digital advertising behemoth so integral to many people's lives that it has been criticized for helping foreign powers and propagandists influence the U.S. political system.\n\n2005: Katrina overwhelms New Orleans\n\n• Date: Aug. 29\n\n• Location: U.S. Gulf Coast\n\nAfter spending four days in the Gulf of Mexico bulking up to a Category 5 hurricane, Katrina slams into New Orleans, inundating the city and creating a humanitarian crisis that lasts for weeks. The catastrophe underscores the precarious situation not only in the Big Easy but also the surrounding area of the Gulf Coast. At least 1,833 people in the storm's path are killed, and the storm inflicts $161 billion in damages to the region, the costliest storm in U.S. history.\n\n2006: Hussein executed\n\n• Date: Dec. 30\n\n• Location: Baghdad\n\nThree years after U.S. soldiers pulled him from a hole in the ground where he had been hiding, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is hanged after he was convicted for crimes against humanity, specifically for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiites in 1982 following a failed assassination attempt against him.\n\n2007: The iPhone\n\n• Date: Jan. 9\n\n• Location: San Francisco\n\nApple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011, first shows the world one of the most popular branded consumer electronic devices in history, the iPhone. Since the first-generation phone that Jobs introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show that year, there have been 18 versions of the mobile device, and more than 1.2 billion units have been sold globally through 2017. Only Samsung's Galaxy smartphone comes close to that volume.\n\n2008: Dow plunges\n\n• Date: Sept. 29\n\n• Location: New York City\n\nThe Dow Jones Industrial Average records the largest-ever intraday drop, 777.68 points, after Congress rejects a massive $700 billion bailout of U.S. banks. The bill would pass days later. The market reacts also to months of global market turmoil amid the 2008 global financial crisis spurred by the U.S. subprime mortgage market crash. The Dow fell by more than half during the 2007-09 Great Recession, tumbling from 14,164 on Oct. 9, 2007, to 6,594 on March 5, 2009.\n\n2009: America's first African-American president\n\n• Date: Jan. 20\n\n• Location: Washington, D.C.\n\nAfter winning in a landslide against Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, amassing in 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States. Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, the president is able to pass a stimulus package and his signature Affordable Care Act in March 2010.\n\nCalifornia home to 17 of them:America’s 25 least affordable housing markets\n\n2010: Catastrophic oil spill\n\n• Date: April 20\n\n• Location: Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana\n\nEleven workers die and 17 are injured after an explosion and fire erupts on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig 40 miles from the Louisiana coast. The explosion causes the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, spewing 3 million barrels of crude over the three months it takes to stop the leak. British oil company BP says costs climbed to $65 billion in claims for the accident, including a $1.7 billion charge it took as recently as the fourth quarter of 2017.\n\n2011: Bin Laden killed\n\n• Date: May 2\n\n• Location: Abbottabad, Pakistan\n\nIn an intense 40-minute nighttime firefight, 25 U.S. Navy SEALs hunt down and kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within hours, bin Laden's body is identified using DNA and then buried in the Arabian Sea.\n\n2012: The \"God Particle\" is (probably) discovered\n\n• Date: July 4\n\n• Location: Near Geneva\n\nNearly 600 feet below the France-Switzerland border at CERN's Large Hadron Collider Facility, an international team of scientists discovers a new particle widely believed to be the elusive Higgs boson, known as the \"God Particle,\" which is thought to be a fundamental component of the universe. Higgs boson has been an important element of particle physics theory for decades, but until 2012 there had been no physical evidence to support its existence.\n\n2013: Snowden reveals secrets\n\n• Date: June 6\n\n• Location: Hong Kong\n\nAfter surreptitiously leaving his job at U.S. National Security Agency contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, computer security consultant Edward Snowden meets secretly in Hong Kong with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. He reveals the first of a series of secrets about numerous U.S. and European government surveillance operations. Hailed as a courageous whistleblower and privacy champion by some, and a traitor that compromised counterterrorism efforts by others, the American now resides in exile in Moscow.\n\n2014: Russian bear bites Ukraine\n\n• Date: March 16\n\n• Location: Crimea\n\nExploiting political unrest in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrates the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The action incites peals of condemnation from world leaders and a raft of economic sanctions against Moscow. This strategically important and predominantly Russian-speaking region on the Black Sea has been coveted by the Russians as part of their strategic efforts to check NATO expansion along Russia's western border.\n\n2015: NASA flies by Pluto\n\n• Date: July 14\n\n• Location: 3 billion miles from Earth\n\nNASA spacecraft New Horizons becomes the first human-made object to fly past and observe the dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons sends back stunning photographs of this enigmatic and distant member of the solar system, including images of a mountain range and massive icebergs floating in frozen nitrogen. New Horizons is now en route to the Kuiper Belt, a massive asteroid belt at the far reaches of the solar system.\n\n2016: Trump elected\n\n• Date: Nov. 8\n\n• Location: U.S.\n\nRunning on a populist agenda, Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States and the fifth president in U.S. history (the second since the 2000) to win despite losing the popular vote. The real estate developer and television personality ran on a platform of putting \"America First\" in global trade and foreign policy negotiations and cracking down on undocumented immigrants.\n\n2017: Hurricane triple-whammy\n\n• Date: August-September\n\n• Location: Multiple\n\nWithin just four weeks, three massive hurricanes – Harvey, Irma and Maria – strike Texas, Florida and the Caribbean, killing 228 people, inflicting a combined $265 billion in damages and displacing millions of homeowners. Hurricane Maria inflicts immense damage to the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which was already struggling from economic insolvency.\n\nDetailed findings & methodology\n\nThere is little doubt that in the last 100 years, mankind has progressed dramatically. People live longer, eat better, have greater access to improved medical care and are freer to express their opinions and associate with whomever they want.\n\nThat optimism can be seen in population growth. Despite the two most devastating wars in human history, the world population has nearly tripled, from 1.9 billion to 7.5 billion, since 1917.\n\nOne hundred years is an eye blink in history, yet 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote in the United States. African-Americans were prevented from voting in the American South. Labor unions were in their infancy and were weak, and laws reforming child labor had yet to be passed by Congress. All that changed because of women’s suffrage, the inexorable march of civil rights and the strengthening labor unions.\n\nOne hundred years ago, a person anywhere in the world was more likely than not to be illiterate. And there was a good chance he or she was the subject of colonial rulers in South America, Africa and Asia. Two world wars would spell the end of imperial houses in Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia, and weaken the grip of another, Great Britain. Independence movements sprouted in Europe, Africa and Asia, yearning for freedom and expressing national pride.\n\nNationalism had its dark side, though, with fascist governments ruling Italy and Germany. It would take a world war to remove their scourge. Another form of totalitarianism, communism, would dominate the USSR and Eastern Europe for several generations, as well as China and other countries in Asia, before the West would triumph over the Soviet Union and its allies in the Cold War.\n\nSpeaking of the Cold War, that conflict launched the space race and accelerated technological progress, hastening the use of personal computers and cell phones. These inventions have fundamentally changed our lives – from the way we communicate to the way we shop and socialize – and made billions of dollars for the companies that make them and their founders. These products and innovations are a major part of the culture today.\n\nTo determine the most important event the year you were born, 24/7 Wall St. drew on research materials and media sources to compile its list. Deciding the most important event in a given year by its nature is a subjective exercise. In reaching our decisions, we chose the event that had the most far-reaching impact and was not necessarily the most famous event in a given year.\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": "2019/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/954041/a-short-history-of-the-uks-honour-scandals", "title": "A history of the UK's honours scandals | The Week UK", "text": "The doling out of honours in the UK is never short of controversy. And the latest announcement is no different after critics responded with disbelief to the news that former education secretary Gavin Williamson is to receive a knighthood. “Headteachers and education union leaders expressed shock and surprise” when Downing Street yesterday said that the Queen had approved the honour for “political and public service”, The Telegraph reported. Explaining the unusual timing of the announcement, one government source told the paper it had been planned for the New Year Honours list but had been “delayed” after Williamson became entangled in the “Partygate” scandal. The question of whether the honours system is open to financial or other influence has haunted British public life for decades. Here are some of the most bitter disputes over honours in recent UK political history: Lloyd George’s ‘cash for patronage’ scandal David Lloyd George enjoyed an illustrious political career, including serving as prime minister from 1916 to 1922. But the Liberal PM found himself embroiled in a major “cash for patronage” scandal over his resignation honours list in 1922. Although the purchase of peerages was not illegal, Lloyd George was accused of raising funds for his party through the sale of peerages, as well as using the honours system to (unsuccessfully) avoid criticism from newspapers. It was the brazenness of Lloyd George’s “price list for peerages” that caused a scandal. They were arranged through political fixer Maundy Gregory, who sold peerages “ranging from £10,000 (more than £400,000 today) for a knighthood up to £40,000 for a baronetcy”, according to The Guardian. From 1917 to 1922, more than “120 hereditary peers alone were created”, said The Spectator. So many knighthoods were given out in Cardiff – Lloyd George had grown up in Wales and spoke Welsh as his first language – that “it became known as the ‘city of dreadful knights’”, said the magazine. Skip advert The scandal led to the passing of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act in 1925, and Gregory would eventually become the only person to be convicted under the act, continuing to falsely offer honours to the wealthy and connected into the 1930s. Wilson’s Lavender List Allegedly handwritten on pastel-hued paper by Harold Wilson’s closest aide Marcia Williams, later Lady Falkender, the so-called “Lavender List” has become an infamous document in modern political history.\n\nThe list named businessmen Wilson had chosen to honour to mark his 1976 resignation, making way for James Callaghan as the next prime minister. The list was controversial as many felt it “sanctioned the ennobling and knighting of crooked and dubious businessmen”, according to The Times – many of whom held views antithetical to the values of the Labour Party. Names included a knighthood for Joseph Kagan, later convicted of false accounting, and businessman Eric Miller, who committed suicide while his firm was being investigated. But further controversy was fuelled by the suggestion that Lady Falkender was either the principal author of the list or had sought to add to the list in order to reward her friends and financially benefit from the list herself. The list was seen as “an indication of the sway she held over Wilson, her alleged lover”, reported the paper. Lady Falkender denied any involvement in compiling the list, maintaining she had “merely copied it from another list, on pink”, said the Financial Times in her 2019 obituary. And in 2007, the BBC was forced to pay her £75,000 in libel damages after a BBC Four docu-drama claimed she had conducted an affair with Wilson and had undue influence over the list. Blair’s ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal In 2006, Tony Blair became the first prime minister to be questioned by police as part of a political corruption inquiry that would drag on for 16 months, and overshadow the last days of his premiership. An investigation was launched after SNP MP Angus MacNeil complained that four wealthy businessmen were nominated by Tony Blair for peerages after lending the party a total of £5m. All four of the peerages were blocked by the House of Lords appointments commission, and MacNeil’s complaint launched a police investigation into whether laws banning the sale of honours had been broken. Skip advert The police inquiries would lead to 136 people being interviewed, according to the BBC, and Blair himself would be questioned three times, although not under caution and “as a witness rather than a suspect”. Labour’s chief fundraiser Lord Levy – nicknamed “Lord Cashpoint” by the tabloid press – was arrested twice on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. In 2007, the police would hand a 216-page report on the scandal to the Crown Prosecution Service – which later announced it had insufficient evidence to bring charges against anyone. Cameron accused of cronyism David Cameron was accused of cronyism when he nominated almost 50 close aides, political allies and Conservative donors for honours as part of his resignation honours list.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/09/06"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/people/955226/people-of-2021", "title": "People of 2021: from Gareth Southgate to Angela Merkel | The Week ...", "text": "Days after Boris Johnson puts England into a third national lockdown, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warns that the UK is entering the “most dangerous” phase of the pandemic. But there is reassurance of a sort when Brian Pinker, 82, becomes the first person in the world (outside a clinical trial) to have the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.\n\nA mob of Donald Trump’s supporters storm the US Capitol in a failed attempt to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s election victory; the violence leads to the deaths of five people. Trump, who took several hours to call off his supporters, is charged by Congress with incitement to insurrection, but his Republican colleagues later acquit him.\n\nHundreds of the rioters are later identified and arrested, including Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman”; his lawyers argue that he was “groomed” by Trump and was only following the president’s orders, but he is convicted and sentenced to 41 months in prison.\n\nDerbyshire Police agrees to refund two women who were fined for taking a country walk together. Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore, both 27, had received a penalty of £200 each, on the basis that the tea they had brought with them counted as an illegal “picnic”.\n\nAfter giving a “cast-iron guarantee” that exams will go ahead in England in the summer, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announces that they’re being cancelled after all.\n\nBiden is inaugurated as the 46th president of the US; the highlight of the pared-back ceremony is a recital of The Hill We Climb by the youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman.\n\nThe Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny flies back to Moscow to continue his campaign to unseat President Putin – and is promptly arrested and jailed.\n\nThe UK becomes the first country in Europe – and only the fifth in the world, after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico – to pass the milestone of 100,000 recorded coronavirus deaths.\n\nMyanmar’s armed forces stage a dramatic early-morning coup, ousting the civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and returning the fledgling democracy to military rule.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/12/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/07/15/new-uk-prime-minister-theresa-may-visit-scotland/87118976/", "title": "New U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May visits Scotland", "text": "Michael Settle, The (Glasgow, Scotland) Herald\n\nGLASGOW — Theresa May visited Scotland on Friday in her first official engagement as Britain's new Prime Minister in a clear indication of the strength of her commitment to maintaining the “special Union” between the United Kingdom's four nations and people.\n\nAnd the new Conservative Party leader will deliver a message to Scots, saying: “The government I lead will always be on your side.”\n\nMay is holding talks with Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon in Bute House in Edinburgh, in which she will stress how she wants the Scottish government to form a central part of the Brexit process — Britain's exit from the European Union.\n\nAhead of her visit, May said: “I believe with all my heart in the United Kingdom; the precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This visit to Scotland is my first as prime minister and I’m coming here to show my commitment to preserving this special union that has endured for centuries.\n\n“I want to say something else to the people of Scotland too: the government I lead will always be on your side. Every decision we take, every policy we take forward, we will stand up for you and your family; not the rich, the mighty or the powerful.\n\nBritain's new PM May fires Cameron's Cabinet members\n\n“That’s because I believe in a union, not just between the nations of the United Kingdom but between all of our citizens. Whether it’s reforming the economy or strengthening our society, we are going to build a better Britain and a nation that works for everyone; not just the privileged few,” she added.\n\nHowever, the potential for an early intergovernmental clash is high as May has been adamant that “Brexit means Brexit” while Sturgeon has insisted, given Scotland voted strongly to stay in the EU, that from her perspective “Remain means Remain.”\n\nWithin the government the new prime minister is regarded as a tough, no-nonsense negotiator. She is thought to have believed David Cameron caved in too easily to demands by the pro-independence Scottish National Party before and after the 2014 referendum on whether Scotland should be an independent country.\n\nOne source, reflecting on the prospect raised by Sturgeon of a second independence referendum, said: “Theresa is a tough cookie and will not give ground as easily as David did.”\n\nSturgeon said she was hoping for a constructive discussion but stressed: “I respect how people in other parts of the U.K. voted; I hope the prime minister will respect how people in Scotland voted.\" Scotland voted to remain in the EU in the referendum last month. The U.K. overall voted to leave.\n\n\"My job is to seek to protect Scotland's interests and I've said I'm open to seeking to do that through the U.K. process. If I'm going to be able to do that, then she has to make the process open and flexible,\" Sturgeon said.\n\n5 things new U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May must tackle now\n\nSturgeon said a second Scottish independence referendum could be the only way to secure Scotland's interests and protect its EU membership but stressed she wanted to \"explore all options\".\n\nDavid Davis, the new secretary of state for Brexit, suggested Britain could quit the EU by December 2018, noting how a “brisk but measured approach to Brexit” was achievable.\n\nEarlier this week, David Mundell, the reappointed Scottish Secretary, suggested he was open to Scotland having a different Brexit deal to the rest of the UK if it was “doable”.\n\nBut Philip Hammond, the new Treasury chief, made clear this would not happen, pointing out how the people of the U.K. had voted “collectively” to leave the EU.\n\nSturgeon described these comments as \"deeply disappointing,\" adding: \"I hope the new prime minister,Hammond and all of the U.K. government will understand that we are absolutely serious when it comes to achieving our goal of protecting Scotland's vital interests.\"\n\nU.K.'s next prime minister, Theresa May, formidable like 'Iron Lady' Thatcher\n\nShe spoke after the first meeting of the Standing Council on Europe, which she set up to advise the Scottish government following the vote to leave the EU on June 23.\n\nThe body is made up of 18 legal, economic and diplomatic specialists and chairman Anton Muscatelli said they would examine how best to secure Scotland's place in the EU.\n\nMay spent Thursday appointing and firing ministers from the Cabinet. One insider said: “This is not a reshuffle but a completely new government.”\n\nThose ministers who were sacked, including Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan, John Whittingdale and Theresa Villiers, were told their services were no longer needed in early morning private meetings.\n\nLater in Downing Street, the procession of promoted ministers and those who survived the chop took place before television cameras. Among the winners were a string of women and Brexiters.\n\nThese included Justine Greening promoted to the education brief, Liz Truss, who succeeds Gove as justice secretary, and leading Leave campaigner Andrea Leadsom, who takes on the environment portfolio.\n\nMay's office made clear that the new premier had created “a bold cabinet, which was hitting the ground running” with ministers already having met some of their foreign counterparts for talks.\n\n“What you have seen with the appointments today is that commitment to putting social reform at the heart of her government,\" declared May’s spokeswoman.\n\nThe creation of specific Cabinet posts for exiting the EU and boosting international trade \"underlines the commitment to delivering on the decision of the British people,\" she added.\n\nBut the opposition Labour Party said the promotion of a string of right-wingers contradicted the new premier’s \"warm words\" on her entry into Downing St. about seeking to govern \"not for a privileged few but for every one of us\".\n\nMeantime, the prime minister, who has already taken telephone calls from Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande, had a 15-minute congratulatory telephone call from President Obama.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/07/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/08/us/five-things-may-8-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know on May 8, 2022: Start your week smart: Ukraine ...", "text": "Happy Mother's Day! We're sending lots of love and appreciation to the millions of mothers near and far -- especially those who are struggling to make ends meet .\n\nHere's what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.\n\nThe weekend that was\n\n• Sixty people are feared dead following an airstrike yesterday on a school in Ukraine where 90 people were sheltering, according to a local official. Separately, the Ukrainian government said \"all women, children and elderly people\" have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.\n\n• Northern Ireland is on the cusp of having a nationalist leader for the first time in its history after Sinn Fein, once considered the political wing of the IRA, emerged as the largest party in regional elections yesterday.\n\n• The Biden administration is issuing a new warning that the US could potentially see 100 million Covid-19 infections this fall and winter , as officials publicly stress the need for more funding from Congress to prepare the nation.\n\n• Women in Afghanistan must cover their faces in public, ideally wearing the traditional burqa, according to a decree issued by the Taliban yesterday . If a woman does not follow the rules, her \"male guardian\" will be visited and advised, and eventually jailed and sentenced.\n\n• An explosion rocked the historic Hotel Saratoga in the center of Cuba's capital of Havana on Friday, killing at least 30 people, Cuban officials say, and leaving more than 60 hospitalized for injuries.\n\nThe week ahead\n\nMonday\n\nThere is speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine on Monday, which a symbolic day for Russia. May 9 is known as \"Victory Day\" and commemorates the country's defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Western officials have long believed that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of the day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities -- or both. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and since then, Putin has insisted that his troops are carrying out a \"special military operation\" instead of a war.\n\nThe Philippine presidential election is also scheduled to take place on Monday. The current front-runner is Ferdinand Marcos Jr. -- the son and namesake of the Philippines' late deposed dictator.\n\nTuesday\n\nPrimary elections are set to kick off across Nebraska and West Virginia Tuesday. In Nebraska, eyes are on a Republican candidate for governor -- but not for positive reasons. Charles Herbster, a rancher and businessman who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is facing multiple allegations he inappropriately touched women . Trump stood by him even after the Nebraska Examiner reported in mid-April that seven women, including Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, had accused Herbster of groping them at political events or beauty pageants, with an additional woman accusing him of kissing her forcibly. In six cases, at least one eyewitness corroborated the women's allegations, the publication reported. Herbster has denied the allegations, calling them \"100% false.\"\n\nDonald Trump Jr. is also scheduled to be deposed Tuesday as part of a class-action lawsuit alleging some members of the Trump family collaborated with a fraudulent marketing company. Donald Trump and his two adult sons have agreed to sit for depositions in May and June. The former President agreed to be deposed on June 16 while Eric Trump will sit for questioning on May 12, according to a letter filed with the court.\n\nTuesday also marks three years since the death of Ronald Greene in police custody . Greene died on May 10, 2019, after police said he resisted arrest and struggled with officers. His family has said they were told Greene died in a car crash after a police chase. Video of the incident released two years later showed officers kicking, punching and using a taser on Greene before he died in their custody.\n\nThursday\n\nThursday is International Nurses Day! The day honors nurses for their contributions worldwide and marks the conclusion of National Nurses Week , which began on May 6. Thursday is also the birthday of the notable nurse Florence Nightingale . The International Council of Nurses has celebrated the day since 1965.\n\nWant more 5 Things?\n\nThis week on the Sunday edition of the 5 Things podcast, CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue looks at the future of abortion access in this country following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion, which could signal end of Roe vs. Wade after nearly 50 years as a constitutional right. Listen here\n\nPhotos of the week\n\nCheck out more moving, fascinating and thought-provoking images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.\n\nWhat's happening in entertainment\n\n'Doctor Strange' enters the multiverse\n\nMarvel fans! Prepare to be thrilled, entertained, and maybe even a little disoriented. \" Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness \" might be the most insanely Marvel movie ever, for good and ill, according to CNN's Brian Lowry. Directed by Sam Raimi, who has his own Spidey ties, the movie has roots that reach back to Strange's journey from the original, as well as the Avengers' two-part battle against Thanos. The movie premiered in US theaters on Friday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Elizabeth Olsen on her 'Doctor Strange' role Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Elizabeth Olsen on her 'Doctor Strange' role 01:33\n\nWhat's happening in sports\n\nKentucky Derby\n\nIn a stunning upset that sent the crowd roaring, Rich Strike won the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby yesterday. The horse entered the race at 80-1 odds -- the biggest long shot in the 20-horse field. Rich Strike began the derby week as an alternate and wasn't added to the field until Friday when another horse pulled out of the race.\n\nQuiz time!\n\nTake CNN's weekly news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 49% of fellow quiz fans have gotten an 8 out of 10 or better this week. How well can you do?\n\nPlay me off\n\nDrumroll please... it's Spandau Ballet", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_25", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:14", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/17/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html", "title": "Omicron hasn't peaked nationwide, and 'the next few weeks will be ...", "text": "(CNN) Areas that were among the first to get hit hard by the Omicron variant are starting to see their Covid-19 numbers level off or even improve. But that's not the case for much of the country, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said.\n\n\"There are parts of the country -- New York, in particular, and other parts of the Northeast -- where we are starting to see a plateau, and in some cases, an early decline in cases,\" Murthy told CNN on Sunday.\n\n\"The challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace,\" he said. \"The Omicron wave started later in other parts of the country, so we shouldn't expect a national peak in the next coming days. The next few weeks will be tough.\"\n\nAn average of more than 750,000 new Covid-19 infections were reported every day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.\n\nThat means Americans at work, school and elsewhere face a heightened risk of exposure that is unparalleled during the pandemic.\n\nThe number of Americans dying every day from Covid-19 has increased in recent days, with 1,796 Covid-19 deaths reported Sunday, according to JHU data.\n\nAnd 156,000 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Sunday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.\n\nThe crush of Covid-19 patients means some hospitals are running out of space to treat other patients in intensive care units.\n\n\"I expect those numbers to get substantially higher,\" Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told Fox News on Sunday.\n\n\"The problem is we are running out of health care workforce, we don't have the staffing. So that is going to be a challenge for many weeks ahead.\"\n\nA nurse tends to a patient in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on January 14.\n\nTrying to keep schools open with more safety\n\nAs the US battles the most contagious strain of novel coronavirus yet, some school districts are struggling to keep classrooms open , while others have added more safety measures to prevent a return to remote learning.\n\nChicago Public Schools resumed in-person teaching last week after pledging to increase Covid-19 testing as well as provide higher-quality KN95 masks.\n\nHealth experts say Americans have more tools to help schools stay open now than at any other point in the pandemic.\n\nOne of those tools is face masks. In Virginia, at least two school districts will keep requiring masks despite the state's newly elected governor signing an executive order saying parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school.\n\nBeware of Covid-19 testing scams, state officials warn\n\nStarting Wednesday, Americans will be able to order free Covid-19 tests through a federal website -- covidtests.gov\n\nMurthy said 50 million tests have been sent to community health centers. And people with private insurance can now get up to eight tests per person per month.\n\nYet the current lack of testing availability in some areas has led to scammers taking advantage of those in need.\n\nAttorneys general in Oregon, New Mexico and Illinois warned consumers of \"pop-up\" Covid-19 testing sites that might give false results or skim personal information.\n\nPeople should be \"cautious about pop-up testing sites that charge out-of-pocket fees, do not display logos, do not disclose the laboratory performing the test, are not affiliated with a known organization, or that ask for sensitive information, like social security numbers, that is not necessary for insurance,\" Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said.\n\nResearcher: 'Ending isolation at day 5 should include a negative rapid antigen test'\n\nCurrent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people infected with Covid-19 can end isolation after five days if they don't have symptoms, and that they should wear a mask around others for at least five more days.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'This is nonsense': Stelter blasts Fox and Glenn Beck for false Covid story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'This is nonsense': Stelter blasts Fox and Glenn Beck for false Covid story 02:28\n\nThe CDC said the best approac h for someone with access to a test is to use it toward the end of their five-day isolation period. But the CDC did not say a negative test result was necessary to end isolation at five days.\n\nBut a new study on the infectiousness of the Omicron variant found that many people were still assumed to be contagious five days after their infections were initially detected -- suggesting a more cautious approach may be needed.\n\nResearchers looked at 10,324 Covid-19 test results from 537 NBA players and others affiliated with the league, finding 97 confirmed and suspected Omicron cases.\n\nAmong 27 people who tested positive one or fewer days after a previous negative test, 52% were still assumed infectious five days after their infection was detected, the study found.\n\nAnd among 70 people who tested positive two or more days after a previous negative test, 39% were still assumed infectious five days after their infection was detected.", "authors": ["Travis Caldwell", "Holly Yan"], "publish_date": "2022/01/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/19/health/monkeypox-us-cases-cdc-investigation/index.html", "title": "CDC monitors 6 people in US for possible rare monkeypox, says ...", "text": "(CNN) Officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are closely tracking recent clusters of monkeypox infections around the world -- and possible cases in the United States.\n\nCurrently, the CDC is monitoring six people in the United States for possible monkeypox infections after they sat near an infected traveler who had symptoms while on a flight from Nigeria to the United Kingdom in early May.\n\nSeparately, CDC officials also are investigating a case of monkeypox confirmed in a man in Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada. And in New York City, one patient has tested positive for orthopoxvirus, the family of viruses to which monkeypox belongs, NYC health officials announced in a news release Friday.\n\nThe case is being treated as a \"presumptive positive\" case until confirmed pending CDC testing and the patient is currently isolating, the release states.\n\nNew York City health officials had also tested one other patient for monkeypox, but that case has been ruled out, health officials said. City officials have been working with state authorities from the New York State Department of Health in their investigation of the two cases, both of which were identified Thursday.\n\nNew York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement Friday that \"the current risk to the public is low.\"\n\n\"Reports of suspected cases of monkeypox in the United States and elsewhere are concerning. While a possible case in New York State awaits confirmatory testing by our local and federal partners, the Department has alerted health care providers in New York State so that they can consider this unusual diagnosis if their patients present with symptoms,\" Bassett said.\n\nMeanwhile, recent monkeypox infections have been identified in several other regions around the world where the virus is not usually common, including Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Northern Ireland and Spain.\n\n\"We have a level of scientific concern about what we're seeing because this is a very unusual situation. Monkeypox is normally only reported in West Africa or Central Africa, and we don't see it in the United States or in Europe -- and the number of cases that are being reported is definitely outside the level of normal for what we would see,\" Jennifer McQuiston , deputy director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology within the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Thursday.\n\n\"At the same time, there really aren't that many cases that are being reported -- I think maybe a dozen, a couple dozen -- so, the general public should not be concerned that they are at immediate risk for monkeypox,\" she said. \"We're working through the investigations.\"\n\nOverall, \"we have people who are being monitored for diseases all the time,\" CDC spokesperson Christine Pearson wrote in an email, Thursday. That means that if someone might have been exposed to a pathogen, their health is monitored, and they should see physicians if they develop symptoms.\n\nAs for the six people currently being monitored for potential monkeypox, they all \"are healthy, with no symptoms and are considered at low risk for monkeypox,\" Pearson wrote, adding that none were seated next to the ill passenger and none had direct contact.\n\nAs the CDC's investigation continues, discussions have started to include the topic of vaccines.\n\nCDC 'discussing and evaluating' smallpox vaccine\n\nCDC officials are evaluating whether smallpox vaccine should be offered to healthcare workers treating monkeypox patients and other people who may be at \"high risk\" for exposure to monkeypox, McQuiston said.\n\n\"It's definitely something that we're discussing and evaluating, whether offering smallpox vaccine makes sense in the current setting,\" she said. \"We'll be closer to making recommendations for that in the next day or so.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED How vaccines stop the spread of viruses Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How vaccines stop the spread of viruses 01:26\n\n\"We have vaccines that are stockpiled and available to be used, and if judged as a way to help manage this outbreak, we have the availability to use them,\" McQuiston said.\n\n\"I would say that we are in the early days of understanding what is causing this outbreak -- and the fact that we're seeing cases reported in multiple places around the globe suggests that maybe it's been going on for a couple of weeks,\" she said. \"As we work to complete our investigations and get our arms around it then hopefully we'll have much stronger recommendations for folks.\"\n\nMonkeypox, a viral disease, is rare in the United States and the virus does not occur naturally in the nation, according to the CDC . But cases have been identified that were associated with international travel or importing animals from areas where the disease is more common. After the virus jumps from an animal to a human, human-to-human transmission of monkeypox can occur when a person encounters the virus through direct contact to: large respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, or lesions on the skin.\n\nMonkeypox symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. A characteristic of the disease is that it can cause lesions and a rash on the body , including the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.\n\n\"This is not a disease that is going to sweep across the country,\" Dr. Daniel Bausch, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, told CNN on Thursday.\n\n\"From a public health angle, of course, we need to investigate and respond -- I think the general population should just be aware of this -- but there's certainly no reason to panic and I think it's highly, highly, highly unlikely that we will get any sort of large outbreak of this,\" he said. \"And if you haven't had contact in Massachusetts and you're not related to the person who had disease or in that link at all -- until we have any other reason to expect or to understand how this disease got into the United States -- your risk of getting monkeypox is really low.\"\n\nA monkeypox mystery\n\nIn Massachusetts, physicians donning the same personal protective equipment they wear for Covid-19 patients have been treating the US monkeypox patient at a special pathogens unit within Massachusetts General Hospital, where he originally was diagnosed.\n\n\"They were undergoing a workup related to symptoms and the infectious diseases physician seeing the patient, learning about some of the cases in the United Kingdom, decided that the patient could possibly have monkeypox,\" Dr. Erica Shenoy, medical director for the Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Center and associate chief of the infection control unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CNN on Thursday.\n\n\"Then we had discussions with our state public health officials. The decision was made that yes, they did meet criteria for testing,\" Shenoy said. The patient tested positive.\n\n\"I think to the public overall, there really is no clear risk at this point,\" Shenoy said. \"This is an evolving situation that we're looking to understand better -- why these clusters that have been reported as well in the UK and in Portugal and Spain are happening, and to better understand the epidemiology.\"\n\nBoth in the United Kingdom and Canada, health authorities have noted that many of the monkeypox cases were identified in men who have sex with men -- but the virus is not typically described as a sexually transmitted infection and investigations into these recent cases continue.\n\nMonkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like illness were seen in colonies of monkeys that were kept for research, leading to the name \"monkeypox,\" according to the CDC. The first human case of monkeypox was reported years later in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a time when intense efforts were underway to eliminate smallpox.\n\nIn the United States, the last outbreak of monkeypox recorded was in 2003, when 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in six states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. \"No instances of monkeypox infection were attributed exclusively to person-to-person contact,\" according to CDC.\n\nAll of the people infected with monkeypox during that outbreak became ill after having contact with pet prairie dogs, the CDC found. Those pets were housed at an animal vendor's facilities in Illinois where they may have been infected with the virus. The facilities housed other small mammals imported from Ghana that tested positive for monkeypox virus: two African giant pouched rats, nine dormice and three rope squirrels.\n\n\"The prairie dogs got monkeypox from the imported animals and then passed it on to the humans,\" Bausch said. \"It's a bit of a misnomer calling it monkeypox. The reservoir for this virus, the natural reservoir in nature is probably certain types of rodents.\"\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nUS Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Thursday that people should not be worried about monkeypox at this point, but that they should be aware of symptoms and when to reach out for help.\n\nMurthy explained on CNN's New Day that monkeypox is rare in humans, \"but when it does come up, it's a serious one that we should investigate, and we've got to make sure that we understand if and how it is spreading from person to person.\"\n\nSymptoms generally are similar to the flu, he told CNN's John Berman and Erica Hill.\n\n\"The good news is we have one confirmed case right now. But we should always be on the lookout for more cases,\" he said. \"At this time, we don't want people to worry. At this point, again, these numbers are still small -- we want them to be aware of these symptoms and if they have any concerns to reach out to their doctor.\"", "authors": ["Jacqueline Howard"], "publish_date": "2022/05/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politics/desantis-concealed-firearms/index.html", "title": "DeSantis vows Florida will allow people to carry firearms without ...", "text": "(CNN) Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed on Friday that he would make Florida a so-called constitutional carry state, which would allow people to publicly carry firearms without permits.\n\n\"The legislature will get it done,\" DeSantis said during a news conference in north Florida. \"I can't tell you if it's going to be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that.\"\n\nIn Florida, people must obtain concealed weapon permits in order to carry hidden guns in public. About 2.5 million people have permits, more than any other state where they are required. The permit can be obtained by taking a gun training course and submitting proof of competency. In most cases, gun owners in Florida cannot openly carry firearms without permits, either, except in certain circumstances, like while hunting.\n\nFor DeSantis, successfully ushering a constitutional carry measure into law would be another conservative victory as he builds a resume that could appeal to Republican primary voters if he decides to run for president. He has already taken on several other issues of importance to his base, including a 15-week abortion ban and championing several measures the LGBTQ community has called anti-transgender, such as a prohibition on transgender girls and women competing in female scholastic sports.\n\n\"We used to be a leader on the Second Amendment,\" said DeSantis, who is up for reelection in November.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Steve Contorno"], "publish_date": "2022/04/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-what-we-know/index.html", "title": "Uvalde Texas school shooting: What we know about the Texas ...", "text": "(CNN) We may never know why a shooter gunned down 19 children and two teachers in a massacre Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, two days before summer break.\n\nBut as the nation mourns 21 lives lost , disturbing details have emerged about the shooter's behavior in the weeks leading up to the shooting as well as unsettling questions about police officers' delayed response to America's deadliest school shooting since 2012.\n\nPerhaps the most pressing questions are how and why the shooter managed to remain inside the school for more than an hour before law enforcement shot him dead.\n\nArmed with a rifle, the 18-year-old barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms, where he shot and killed children and their teachers who tried to protect their them.\n\nOne 11-year-old student survivor, Miah Cerrillo, told CNN on Friday that she smeared her classmate's blood on her face and played dead to avoid being targeted by the shooter.\n\nInteractive: How law enforcement's narrative of the Uvalde massacre has changed\n\nOutside the bloody crime scene, up to 19 officers were in the hallway but did not storm the classrooms because the commanding officer mistakenly believed the \"active shooter\" portion of the attack had ended, Col. Steven McCraw, who heads the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday during a news conference. Most of the shots were heard in the initial minutes of the siege, with later outbursts seemingly directed at the door.\n\n\"Of course it was not the right decision,\" McCraw said. \"It was the wrong decision, period. There's no excuse for that.\"\n\nA school resource officer was not on campus when the violence started, and he then drove past the suspect to meet with a teacher he mistook for the shooter, officials said Friday, contradicting earlier information that the shooter was met by officers upon entering the school.\n\nAlso revealed Friday: A teacher had propped open the door the shooter used to enter the school, where he fired more than 100 bullets.\n\nHere's what we know and what we don't know:\n\nGunman shot his grandmother, texted his plans and crashed his car\n\nSalvador Ramos , an 18-year-old from Uvalde, was the gunman, authorities have said. Officials said the gunman purchased his rifles, one of which was used in the attack, with a debit card.\n\nMinutes before the horrific attack, Ramos allegedly sent a series of text messages to a teenage girl in Europe whom he had met online, describing how he had just shot his grandmother and would \"shoot up a(n) elementary school.\"\n\nPhotos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The area around the Robb Elementary School signs has become a memorial dedicated to the victims of the May 24 mass shooting. Hide Caption 1 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Celia Correa Sauceda, right, hugs her friend Stacey Mazuca after they and other mariachi musicians from San Antonio performed during a memorial in Uvalde on Wednesday, June 1. Sauceda, who plays violin, is an elementary teacher in San Antonio. She said she was in Uvalde to be a voice. \"We cannot forget what happened, and it needs to stop,\" Sauceda said. Hide Caption 2 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Mateo López sings during a mariachi performance at a Uvalde memorial on June 1. Hide Caption 3 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Pallbearers carry Amerie Jo Garza's casket into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde on Tuesday, May 31. Hide Caption 4 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Jose Mata, brother of shooting victim Xavier Lopez, carries a wooden cross decorated with a baseball bat to place it at Xavier's memorial outside his home in Uvalde on May 31. Hide Caption 5 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school President Joe Biden looks back at the crowd gathered outside of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church after attending Mass in Uvalde on Sunday, May 29. People in the crowd shouted, \"Do something!\" And as Biden looked back at them he said, \"We will.\" Hide Caption 6 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A cutout photograph of one of the victims is taken onto school grounds Saturday, May 28, in preparation for Biden's visit the next day. Hide Caption 7 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Mourners gather in the main plaza in Uvalde on May 28. Hide Caption 8 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A choir from The Light of the World Church sings songs in Uvalde on Friday, May 27, to support families who lost loved ones in the shooting. Hide Caption 9 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The Light of the World Church offers prayers for the families impacted by the shooting. Hide Caption 10 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Vanessa Palacios, left, and Melissa García write the victims' names on their storefront, Cut Loose Hair Emporium, on May 27. Hide Caption 11 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, points to a map of the shooter's movements during a news conference on May 27. In all, 80 minutes passed between when officers were first called to the school at 11:30 a.m. to when a tactical team entered locked classrooms and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m., McCraw said. Hide Caption 12 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The friends and family of Maranda Mathis, one of the young victims of the school shooting, grieve her loss in front of a cross bearing her name on May 26. \"These children should be remembered for all the right reasons,\" a family member said. Hide Caption 13 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Tyler Garcia raises up a sign that says \"#UvaldeStrong\" during a car wash and food sale that was raising money for the families of those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Hide Caption 14 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Congregants at St. Philip's Episcopal Church light candles in Uvalde to remember the shooting victims on May 26. Hide Caption 15 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Copies of the Uvalde Leader-News sit on stands at a market on May 26. Hide Caption 16 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Crosses bear the names of shooting victims on May 26. Hide Caption 17 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People in Uvalde light candles during a memorial for the shooting victims on May 25. Hide Caption 18 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A prayer vigil is held in Uvalde on May 25. Hide Caption 19 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school An officer with the Texas Highway Patrol prays with a community member before taking his flowers to the growing memorial in front of Robb Elementary School. Hide Caption 20 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school From left, Michael Cavasos, Brenda Perez and Eduardo Galindo are seen in the foreground as they wait in line to donate blood in Uvalde on May 25. Galindo, who lives in Uvalde, said: \"When it hits you in your hometown, you wake up and say, 'Wow.' ... We have to be here and show support for these families right now.\" Approximately 200 people donated blood to South Texas Blood and Tissue, who would be delivering the units to surrounding area hospitals. Hide Caption 21 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People attend Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde on May 25. Hide Caption 22 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Flowers are seen at the memorial in front of the school. Hide Caption 23 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Texas gubernatorial nominee Beto O'Rourke, bottom right, confronted Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials during a news conference about the shooting on May 25. \"The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing,\" O'Rourke told Abbott. The two will face off in November's election. Hide Caption 24 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement vehicles are lined up outside the school on May 25. Hide Caption 25 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People pray outside the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center in Uvalde on May 24. The civic center is where students were transported after the shooting. Hide Caption 26 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Kladys Castellón prays during a vigil that was held in Uvalde on May 24. Hide Caption 27 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials work the scene after the shooting on May 24. Hide Caption 28 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People comfort each other outside the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 29 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Students run to safety after law enforcement officers helped them escape from a window at the school. Hide Caption 30 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement personnel run near the scene of the shooting on May 24. US Customs and Border Protection, which is the largest law enforcement agency in the area, assisted with the response. Hide Caption 31 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People react outside the Uvalde civic center on May 24. Hide Caption 32 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A Texas state trooper walks outside the school on May 24. Hide Caption 33 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman reacts outside of the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 34 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A child gets on a school bus under the watch of law enforcement on May 24. Robb Elementary teaches second through fourth grades and had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, according to state data. About 90% of students are Hispanic and about 81% are economically disadvantaged, the data shows. Hide Caption 35 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People react outside the civic center in Uvalde. This marks at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. Hide Caption 36 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials and other first responders gather outside the school following the shooting. Hide Caption 37 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman cries and hugs a young girl while on the phone outside the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 38 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Another child gets on a bus to leave the school. Hide Caption 39 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman cries as she leaves the civic center. Hide Caption 40 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials stand outside the school following the shooting. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been assisting local police with the investigation. Hide Caption 41 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People sit on the curb outside of the school as state troopers guard the area on May 24. Hide Caption 42 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Police walk near the school following the shooting. Hide Caption 43 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman and a child leave the Uvalde civic center on May 24. Hide Caption 44 of 44\n\nRamos complained about his grandmother being \"on the phone with AT&T abojt (sic) my phone,\" according to screenshots reviewed by CNN and an interview with the girl, whose mother gave permission for her to be interviewed.\n\n\"It's annoying,\" he texted.\n\nSix minutes later, he texted: \"I just shot my grandma in her head.\"\n\nSeconds later, he said, \"Ima go shoot up a(n) elementary school rn (right now).\"\n\nIt's not clear why Ramos then targeted Robb Elementary, a school of 535 students in grades 2 through 4 as of last school year.\n\nThe 15-year-old girl, who lives in Frankfurt, Germany, had begun chatting with Ramos on May 9 on a social media app, she said later.\n\nRamos told her Monday he got a package of ammunition and the bullets would expand when they struck somebody, she said.\n\nAt some point, the girl asked what he planned to do. He told her it was a surprise and to \"just wait for it,\" she said.\n\nOn Tuesday, at 11:01 a.m. CT, Ramos called and told her he loved her, she said.\n\nWhen the horrific school attack unfolded\n\nAlthough authorities have released conflicting information on law enforcement's response to the shooting, here's what we know about the timeline of Tuesday's shooting (all times Central) -- as of Friday night.\n\n• 11:21 a.m.: The shooter allegedly engaged in a text message exchange with the girl in Germany, telling her he shot his grandmother. The 66-year-old was in serious condition Wednesday at a San Antonio hospital, officials said.\n\n• 11:27: Video shows a teacher propping open a school door to the outside, McCraw said Friday. The door is \"typically locked,\" said Ross McGlothlin, a former principal for the school. \"It's an exterior door that you don't need to go to unless you're leaving to go home on a school bus,\" McGlothlin said.\n\n• 11:28 a.m.:The shooter crashed his grandmother's pickup in a ditch near the school, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said during a news conference Thursday. Ramos got out of the truck, carrying a rifle and bag, Escalon added. The cause of the crash was not clear, officials have said.\n\nThe shooter saw two people at a funeral home across the street and fired at them before continuing to walk toward the school, Escalon said. He climbed a fence into a parking lot and began shooting at the school.\n\nAt that point, no officers were at the school, Escalon said, walking back earlier information released by his agency that the gunman first encountered an armed school resource officer.\n\nA school resource officer \"was not on campus,\" McCraw said. The officer heard a 911 call, went to school and saw a teacher he mistook for the shooter, McCraw said. \"In doing so, he drove right by the suspect who was hunkered down behind the vehicle where he began shooting at the school.\"\n\n• 11:30 a.m.: US Marshals receive a call for help from an Uvalde police officer, the US Marshals Service said in a statement Friday. On Wednesday, US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said his team received a call around this time.\n\n• 11:31 a.m.: The teacher who kept the door open called 911 to report the crash and a man with a gun, McCraw said.\n\n• 11:33 a.m.: The shooter walked into the west side of the school through the door propped open by the teacher, McCraw said. The shooter fired more than 100 rounds into classroom 111 or 112, which are adjoined, McCraw said.\n\n• 11:37 a.m.: More shots are heard from inside the classrooms. Officers gather in the hallway, McCraw said.\n\n\"Officers are there, the initial officers, they received gunfire, they don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they're receiving. But we have officers that are calling for additional resources,\" Escalon said, describing requests for equipment and personnel, including negotiators.\n\n• 12:03 p.m.: A student makes a 911 call from room 112 lasting 1 minute, 23 seconds. She calls back at 12:10 to report multiple deaths. She calls back at 12:13 and at 12:16 to say \"eight or nine students\" were alive, McCraw said.\n\n• 12:15 p.m.: Members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit begin to arrive, according to McCraw. Some agents came from the field, and some who were off duty also sped in to respond, according to a source familiar with the situation.\n\n• 12:36 p.m.: Shots are heard on another 911 call.\n\n• 12:50 p.m.: The tactical team opens the door with a key from the janitor and shots can be heard on a 911 call, according to McCraw.\n\nA truck authorities believe belonged to the Robb Elementary School shooter sits crashed in a ditch.\n\nShooter was in the school for an hour\n\nAuthorities faced backlash over the conflicting nature of information that has been released about the timeline of the shooting spree, particularly over the length of time the gunman was in the school before he was fatally shot.\n\nPedro \"Pete\" Arredondo, the Uvalde School District police chief, was acting as commander during law enforcement's response to the mass shooting, McCraw said.\n\nWhen special agents with the US Border Patrol finally arrived at the school to offer backup, the chief made the call for the officers not to breach the classrooms the shooter had locked from the inside, McCraw said.\n\nThe officers waited for about 40 minutes before entering the classrooms. Some children called 911 and pleaded for help as the officers stood outside, McCraw said. The officers took no action while waiting for room keys and tactical equipment, a state official said at a news conference.\n\nIn all, 80 minutes had passed between when officers were first called to the school at 11:30 a.m. to when a tactical team entered locked classrooms and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m., McCraw said.\n\nCNN attempted to reach Arredondo at his home on Friday, but there was no response.\n\nThe district had created a safety plan with its own police force, social media monitoring, and a threat-reporting system to \"provide a safe and secure environment\" for students, its website states. It's not clear to what degree the plan was developed with active shooters in mind.\n\nWhat we know so far about the shooter ...\n\nThree days before the shooting, a photo of two AR-15-style rifles appeared on an Instagram account tied to Ramos.\n\nRamos recently sent a former classmate a photo showing an AR-platform rifle, a backpack with rounds of ammunition, and several ammo magazines, said the peer, who didn't want to be identified.\n\n\"I was like, 'Bro, why do you have this?' and he was like, 'Don't worry about it,'\" the friend told CNN. \"He proceeded to text me, 'I look very different now. You wouldn't recognize me.'\"\n\nRamos had stopped attending school regularly, the friend said. He worked at a local Wendy's, the restaurant's manager told CNN.\n\nRamos \"kept to himself mostly\" and \"didn't really socialize with the other employees,\" evening manager Adrian Mendes said. \"He just worked, got paid, and came in to get his check.\"\n\nThe teen in Germany who said she and Ramos had communicated for weeks said Ramos told her he spent a lot of time alone at home.\n\n\"Every time I talked to him,\" she said. \"He never had plans with his friends.\"\n\nUsing the social media app Yubo, Ramos threatened girls he would rape them, showed off a rifle he bought and threatened to shoot up schools in livestreams.\n\nAmanda Robbins, 19, said Ramos verbally threatened to break down her door and rape and murder her after she rebuffed his sexual advances during a livestream.\n\nDuring another livestream, an 18-year-old Yubo user Hannah from Ontario, Canada, said she reported Ramos to Yubo in early April after he threatened to shoot up her school, rape, kill her and her mother.\n\nIn a statement to CNN, a Yubo spokesperson said, \"We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation,\" adding that an account has been banned and under investigation.\n\n... and the victims whose lives were stolen\n\nBy Wednesday morning, after hours filled with agony, several of the victims' families confirmed they had received devastating news.\n\nJust hours before he was killed, 10-year-old Xavier Lopez was celebrated at Robb Elementary's honor roll ceremony, his mother Felicha Martinez told The Washington Post\n\n\"He really couldn't wait to go to middle school,\" she said.\n\nAngel Garza spent seven hours searching for his 10-year-old daughter before learning Amerie Jo Garza was among the children killed , he said.\n\n\"Please don't take a second for granted,\" Garza posted on Facebook. \"Hug your family. Tell them you love them.\"\n\nTen-year-old Eliahana \"Elijah\" Cruz Torres was also a victim, her aunt Leandra Vera told CNN. \"Our baby gained her wings,\" she said.\n\nTess Marie Mata, also 10, was killed in the shooting, too, her sister Faith Mata, 21, confirmed to the Washington Post . Tess was a fourth-grader who loved TikTok dances, Ariana Grande and the Houston Astros, Mata told the Post. She had been saving money for a family trip to Disney World.\n\n\"My precious angel you are loved so deeply. In my eyes you are not a victim but a survivor. I love you always and past forever baby sister, may your wings soar higher than you could ever dream,\" Mata wrote on Twitter.\n\nPeople gather outside a civic center after the shooting at nearby Robb Elementary School.\n\nAs of Thursday, six victims remained hospitalized, four of whom -- including the gunman's grandmother, who is in serious condition -- are at University Hospital in San Antonio, according to the hospital.\n\nTwo 10-year-old girls are among those in the hospital -- one in serious condition and the other in good condition. A 9-year-old child is in good condition, the hospital said Thursday.\n\nBrooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio was treating two adult patients from the shooting, both in serious condition, a spokesperson said.\n\nThe remains of 19 victims had been taken to funeral homes by midday Thursday, with the final two due to be released that afternoon, Judge Lalo Diaz said.", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi", "Holly Yan", "Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/05/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2022/03/26/ncaa-tournament-live-updates-saturday-elite-8-sweet-16-duke/7177467001/", "title": "NCAA Tournament updates Saturday: Duke, Villanova reach Final ...", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\nOne half of the men's Final Four is now set.\n\nDuke made sure Coach K's final season will end in New Orleans after the second-seeded Blue Devils smothered No. 4 seed Arkansas in the West Regional final to secure a record 13th trip to the Final Four for coach Mike Krzyzewski\n\nNo. 2 seed Villanova clinched the first spot in the Big Easy next weekend with a tight win over No. 5 Houston in the South Regional final that sends the Wildcats back to the Final Four for the third time since 2016.\n\nBut, it was the women that took center stage early as four more Sweet 16 games commenced in the women's tournament. The Bridgeport Region's No. 1 seed North Carolina State overcame a second half deficit to dispatch No. 5 Notre Dame and advance to the Elite Eight.\n\nThe region's second game featured No. 2 seed Connecticut, which used a decided home court advantage and a 16-0 second half run to topple No. 3 Indiana 75-58.\n\nThe Wichita Region saw No. 1 seed Louisville knock out tournament mainstay and No. 4 seed Tennessee, 76-64. No. 3 seed Michigan ended No. 10 seed South Dakota's Cinderella run 52-49 to wrap up the Sweet 16.\n\nDUKE: Coach K's young Blue Devils growing up fast\n\nNOT MIDNIGHT YET: 10 most surprising Cinderellas of NCAA Tournament include Saint Peter's\n\nJERSEY CITY RISE UP: Saint Peter's embodies wackiness and uncertainty of this NCAA Tournament\n\n—\n\nVillanova wins but may have lost a star player\n\nVillanova junior guard Justin Moore was in tears and on crutches after injuring his lower right leg at the end of Villanova's win over Houston that sent the Wildcats to next weekend's Final Four.\n\nSomething in Moore's leg appeared to pop on a play with 35 seconds left, but the Wildcats had built up a tiny cushion on the Cougars to withstand the loss of the star guard.\n\nFollowing the win, Villanova coach Jay Wright revealed than an X-ray showed no broken bones, but the situation is \"probably not good for Justin.\" Wright also said Moore will have an MRI when the team returns to Philadelphia.\n\nMoore has averaged 15 points for the Wildcats and assuming he misses the Final Four, that'll be a huge loss for Villanova.\n\n— Scott Gleeson\n\nCharles Barkley follows Tara VanDerveer's lead to help Ukraine\n\nOn Saturday night, following Duke's win over Arkansas in the second of two men's Elite Eight games broadcast on TBS, Charles Barkley, Hall of Famer and basketball studio analyst, pledged $25,000 to humanitarian aid in Ukraine.\n\nThe idea to use the NCAA Tournament to raise money for Ukraine sprung from the mind of another Hall of Famer — Tara VanDerveer, head coach of the reigning women's national champion Stanford Cardinal.\n\nAt the onset of this year's tournaments, VanDerveer pledged to donate $10 for every made 3 in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Then she challenged other coaches, from both the men’s and women’s tournaments, to join her.\n\n“Pony up,” she said after Stanford dispatched 16-seed Montana State, 78-37, in the first round.\n\n(Read more about what inspired VanDerveer's effort and the coaches that have pledged support here.)\n\n— Ellen J. Horrow and Lindsay Schnell\n\nDuke demolishes Arkansas to send Coack K back to Final Four\n\nSAN FRANCISCO — The final farewell will come at the Final Four.\n\nMike Krzyzewski’s coaching career and farewell tour survived again as his second-seeded Duke Blue Devils beat the fourth-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks, 78-69, Saturday in the Elite Eight of the men’s NCAA Tournament.\n\nDuke’s victory at the Chase Center secured a record 13th trip to the Final Four for Krzyzewski, the legendary basketball coach who will retire after the end of the season, his 42nd at Duke.\n\nWith two more victories, the Blue Devils can send off Coach K with his sixth national title.\n\nIn the national semifinals, the Blue Devils will face the winner of the Saint Peter’s-North Carolina game, to be played Sunday.\n\nRegardless of the final outcome, Krzyzewski, 75, made it clear he will relish being in New Orleans, site of the Final Four, which on Friday he called the “Mecca’’ for coaches and players.\n\nDuke denied Arkansas its first trip to the Final Four since 1995. But the Razorbacks have flourished under head coach Eric Musselman while reaching the Elite Eight in consecutive years.\n\n— Josh Peter\n\nCheerleaders come to the rescue ... again\n\nFor the second time in the men's NCAA Tournament, cheerleaders came to the rescue.\n\nWhen the ball got stuck on the top of the backboard early in the second half during Duke's Elite Eight game against Arkansas, the officials didn't bother with the broom. Instead, the Arkansas cheerleaders, who were stationed under the basket, immediately took charge, executing a perfect lift to grab the basketball.\n\nThe Arkansas cheerleaders seemed to have learned a lesson from Indiana's cheerleading squad.\n\nEarlier in the tournament, when the Hoosiers played Saint Mary's in a first-round game, many minutes were spent trying to figure out how to dislodge the ball wedged between the back of the backboard and the shot-clock rigging behind it.\n\nA near 7-footer failed first. Standing on a chair, the referee, on a chair and using a mop, failed next. So Saint Mary’s forward Matthias Tass, who had failed to get the ball the first time, motioned to the Indiana cheerleaders.\n\nSunday night, no one bothered with chairs or mops. They didn't need to. The cheerleaders were ready.\n\n— Ellen J. Horrow\n\nDuke leads Arkansas at half with trip to Final Four on the line\n\nDuke is doing everything it can to make sure coach Mike Krzyzewski ends his final season with the Blue Devils in New Orleans.\n\nNo. 2 seed Duke scored the final eight points of the first half and took a 45-33 lead over No. 4 seed Arkansas into halftime at the West Regional final.\n\nThe Blue Devils shot 54.8% in the first half, making 17 of 31 shots and going 9-for-10 from the free throw line. Duke's defense also came up big, out-rebounding the Razorbacks 22 to 12 and holding Arkansas to 40.6% shooting.\n\nCenter Mark Williams led the way for Duke, going a perfect 5-for-5 from the field for 10 points, while adding eight rebounds and two blocks. Guard Trevor Keels hit a three seconds before the half ended to give the Blue Devils their biggest lead of the game.\n\n— Ellen J. Horrow\n\nMichigan women’s basketball is headed to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight for the first time in program history.\n\nIt wasn't pretty, though, as the third-seeded Wolverines grinded out baskets in the second half to take down 10-seed South Dakota, 52-49, on Saturday in Wichita, Kansas.\n\nFreshman Laila Phelia hit a running layup with 23.5 seconds left to snap a 48-all tie, delivering her first basket of the second half in a clutch moment. Naz Hillmon led the Wolverines with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Phelia added 14 points, her most since scoring 19 in U-M’s loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament. But now the Wolverines have a rematch set with another former foe.\n\nMichigan will face No. 1 seed Louisville in the regional final on Monday. The winner heads to the Final Four in Minneapolis, which begins Friday. The Wolverines and Cardinals played on Dec. 2, with Louisville dominating Michigan, 70-48.\n\n– Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press\n\nNo. 2 Villanova tops No. 5 Houston and reach Final Four\n\nVillanova earned coach Jay Wright’s fourth trip to the Final Four with a 50-44 victory over Houston, withstanding the Cougars’ ultra-physical style and their massive crowd advantage to earn a trip to New Orleans next week.\n\nThe Wildcats, who were seeded No. 2 in the region, won despite shooting just 29 percent from the field and making 5-of-21 from the 3-point line. But they were able to lead start-to-finish, then fend off a late Cougars push, because they made all 15 foul shots, turned the ball over just nine times and held their own on the boards against a team that has made rebounding its specialty all season.\n\nLeading by just four points late, Villanova senior Jermaine Samuels (16 points, 10 rebounds) found his way to the rim for a layup with 1:06 remaining — one of many massive plays by the Wildcats down the stretch when Houston needed a stop to give itself a chance.\n\nHouston, of course, didn't shoot well at any point in the game either, making just 1-of-20 from the 3-point line and 30 percent overall.\n\n– Dan Wolken\n\nHouston cold from three point line, trailing Villanova at halftime\n\nNo. 2 seed Villanova leads No. 5 Houston 27-20.\n\nThe Wildcats are up by seven points despite shooting 28% from the field and 3-12 from three. Jermaine Samuels has 7 points for the Wildcats and Caleb Daniels added 7 from the bench.\n\nThe Houston Cougars aren’t shooting much better. They are 32.0% from the field and 0-8 from three. Taze Moore leads the team with 6 points. Jamal Shead added 4 points.\n\nHouston’s 20 points tied for the fewest first half points in a NCAA Tournament game in school history, according to TBS.\n\n– Cydney Henderson\n\nLouisville women headed to Elite Eight for fourth consecutive time\n\nWICHITA, Kan. — The Louisville women's basketball team is going back to the Elite Eight for the fourth straight season.\n\nThe No. 1 seed Cardinals, who defeated No. 4 seed Tennessee 76-64 in Saturday's Sweet 16 matchup, were led by a stellar outing from Emily Engstler (20 points and 10 rebounds). Hailey Van Lith had 23 points and a career-high six assists, and Kianna Smith had 12 points despite sitting the entire second quarter.\n\nLouisville's defense gave Tennessee problems throughout the game. Still, Tennessee cut the Louisville lead to two points in the fourth quarter, 55-53, but four straight turnovers allowed the Cardinals to take control again. Louisville forced 18 turnovers in the game and had 21 points off those turnovers.\n\nThe Cardinals have become one of the nation’s dominant women’s programs under coach Jeff Walz — much like the Lady Vols were for so many years under Pat Summitt — but are still chasing their first national championship.\n\nLouisville will play the winner of No. 3 Michigan and No. 10 South Dakota on Monday night.\n\n– Cameron Teague Robinson, Louisville Courier Journal; The Associated Press\n\nHall of Fame coach thinks Arkansas will beat Duke\n\nSAN FRANCISCO – Nolan Richardson, the Hall of Fame basketball coach who led the Arkansas Razorbacks to the 1994 national title, has a prediction about Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell tour.\n\nIt’s going to end of Saturday, at the Chase Center in the Elite Eight.\n\nThat’s when the fourth-seeded Arkansas plays the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils.\n\n“When you look at it with the eye test, when they both (teams) play to their potentials, I think the Razorbacks are three, four, five points better at this point, hopefully because of maturity,’’ Richardson said Friday.\n\nIn 1994, his Razorbacks beat Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils, 76-72, in the national championship game.\n\n— Josh Peter\n\nUConn uses strong second half to rout Indiana\n\nBRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Paige Bueckers and Christyn Williams each scored 15 points to lead a balanced UConn offense in a 75-58 win over Indiana on Saturday to advance the Huskies into their 16th consecutive regional final.\n\nOlivia Nelson-Ododa had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds for Connecticut (28-5), which outscored the Hoosiers 46-32 in the paint.\n\nAzzi Fudd added 13 points for the Huskies, who face top-seeded North Carolina State on Monday night in an attempt to earn a 14th straight trip to the Final Four.\n\nAli Patberg, in her seventh year of college basketball thanks to transfer and COVID-19 rules, had 16 points for the third-seeded Hoosiers, who finish their season at 24-9. Grace Berger had 13 points and Mackenzie Holmes added 12 for Indiana.\n\nUConn led 37-33 at the half, but opened the second half with a 16-0 run to take control of the game.\n\n— Associated Press\n\nLate steal propels NC State over Notre Dame\n\nRaina Perez picked the pocket of Notre Dame guard Dara Mabrey near midcourt with 16 seconds left and hit the go-ahead breakaway layup as North Carolina State advanced to the Elite Eight with a 66-63 victory over Notre Dame.\n\nThe Wolfpack, the No. 1 seed in the Bridgeport Region, advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1998.\n\nPerez's layup capped a 13-4 run as North Carolina State erased a 10-point second half deficit and got back into the game by forcing seven turnovers in the fourth quarter by Notre Dame.\n\nNotre Dame freshman guard Olivia Miles scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the first half. Miles also had six assists and six rebounds.\n\nElissa Cunane led the Wolfpack with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Kai Crutchfield added 14 points.\n\nNC State, who shot only 40 percent, advances to play Connecticut, with a trip to the Final Four in Minneapolis on the line.\n\n— Scooby Axson\n\nACC is no good, huh? Miami gives league three Elite Eight teams\n\nCHICAGO — In a battle between two double-digit seeds not expected to be here in the Sweet 16, a veteran-laden Miami (Fla.) team made enough plays down the stretch to put away a relentless Iowa State 70-56 on Friday to reach the Elite Eight in the men’s NCAA Tournament.\n\nIt’s coach Jim Larrañaga’s first advancement past the Sweet 16 with Miami in 11 seasons. The Hurricanes (26-10) are now one win away from getting the seasoned coach back to the Final Four — where he memorably guided mid-major George Mason in 2006. With Miami’s hot shooting, alley-oop dunking and experienced roster thanks to the extra COVID year of eligibility, they’re seriously dangerous and have become the biggest surprise of this March Madness not named the Saint Peter’s Peacocks.\n\nDue to a down year in the ACC regular season, Miami was a bubble team at the start of the month but did enough to comfortably hear its name called on Selection Sunday as a No. 10 seed. Now, with North Carolina upsetting UCLA on Friday and Duke advancing Thursday, the ACC has three teams still standing.\n\n- Scott Gleeson\n\nStanford women heading to third Elite Eight in a row after win over Maryland\n\nSPOKANE, Wash. — Stanford rolled to a (mostly) easy 72-66 win over Maryland in the Sweet 16 Friday, advancing to its third Elite 8 in a row. The defending champion Cardinal will meet Texas on Sunday evening with a ticket to the Final Four on the line.\n\nThe two teams met (much) earlier this season in Maples Pavilion, with then-No. 25 Texas upsetting the Cardinal 61-56.\n\nFriday night, three Stanford players scored 15 or more. Lexie Hull, playing in her hometown with her twin sister Lacie, also grabbed nine rebounds. Every player who logged minutes for the Cardinal scored except Ashten Prechtel, who played just three minutes.\n\nStanford led for more than 38 minutes, and dominated the boards, 50-32, which surely helped make up for its 18 turnovers. The Cardinal held Maryland to 34% from the field and just 16% from 3. Stanford blitzed the Terrapins early, using precise backdoor cuts for easy scores to take a 39-23 lead into the locker room.\n\n– Lindsay Schnell", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/03/politics/gavin-newsom-ron-desantis-ad-2024/index.html", "title": "Gavin Newsom goes on the air against Ron DeSantis as political ...", "text": "(CNN) Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis aren't just avatars for the different futures of their parties, but also for the separate realities blue and red Americans are living in -- two people of opposing viewpoints looking at the exact same set of facts and coming to vastly different conclusions.\n\nThey're both governors, rising stars and speculated soon-to-be presidential candidates, building out micro-ideological models in their sunny capitals.\n\nIn ever-blue California, Newsom, the son of a state appellate judge, has rebooted from his start as a flashy progressive hero around quieter legislative pushes. Meanwhile, in reddening Florida, there's DeSantis, the son of a Nielsen box salesman, who in public cleaves less to his two Ivy League degrees than to the anti-elitist, reactionary politics that have consumed the GOP.\n\nNewsom now is going on the air against DeSantis in Florida -- with what he says is not the first ad of the 2024, or even the 2028, presidential race -- with the goal of trying to get Democrats to reclaim a sense of collective identity that could enable them to beat Trumpism in the long term.\n\nWith $105,000 on Fox News, Newsom's new ad , first provided to CNN and set to air on July 4, is a mashup of a classic campaign spot, business investment pitch and one of those California tourism commercials full of celebrities saying how much better it is there, wrapped in the existential terror that's wracking progressives these days.\n\n\"It's Independence Day -- so let's talk about what's going on in America,\" Newsom says in the ad, standing in the California sun, tieless, as \"America the Beautiful\" fingerpicks in the background. \"Freedom is under attack in your state.\"\n\nThose last words flash across the screen in red, followed by a photo of DeSantis shaking hands with former President Donald Trump , and then another of the Florida governor as Newsom ticks through Florida laws to ban books and restrict voting, speech and access to abortion.\n\n\"I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight -- or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love,\" Newsom says as the images proceed from an aerial shot of the Santa Monica Pier to a rainbow flag waving in the hands of two women with arms around each other. \"Don't let them take your freedom.\"\n\nThe ad is paid for by Newsom's reelection campaign, though this clearly isn't about racking up potential absentee voters who have retired to the Sunshine State for what's expected to be an easy win for California governor in November.\n\n\"He's running for president,\" Newsom told CNN last week. \"I care about people. I don't like people being treated as less of them. I don't like people being told they're not worthy. I don't like people being used as political pawns. This is not just about him, but he is the poster child of it.\"\n\n\"We're as different,\" Newsom said of both the governors and their states, \"as daylight and darkness.\"\n\nOver the course of a 20-minute phone interview, Newsom called DeSantis a bully, a fraud, an authoritarian, a fake conservative, a betrayer of Ronald Reagan's legacy and, several times, \"DeSantos.\"\n\n\"Everybody's got portions of the playbook,\" Newsom said, comparing DeSantis to other Republicans. \"He's writing it.\"\n\nDeSantis declined a request for an interview, but those around him say he's happy to have this fight.\n\n\"Gavin Newsom might as well light a pile of cash on fire,\" DeSantis campaign spokesman Dave Abrams said. \"Pass the popcorn for his desperate attempt to win back the California refugees who fled the hellhole he created in his state to come to Florida.\"\n\nThe enmity between the two governors has been building for months. DeSantis has said California was letting a \"coercive biomedical apparatus\" guide its closure-heavy Covid-19 approach, and he called San Francisco -- a city Newsom once led -- a \"dumpster fire.\" Newsom has said that DeSantis' approach to the pandemic would have killed an extra 40,000 Californians and that he does \"not look for inspiration to that particular governor.\"\n\nin November 2020, he sheepishly apologized. When DeSantis was spotted maskless at the Super Bowl months later in February 2021, he sniped, \"How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?\" His campaign put the quote on a koozie and sold it online. It's also a question of style. When Newsom was caught having gone maskless to a birthday party at an exclusive Napa Valley restaurantin November 2020, he sheepishly apologized. When DeSantis was spotted maskless at the Super Bowl months later in February 2021, he sniped, \"How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?\" His campaign put the quote on a koozie and sold it online.\n\nDeSantis on the rise\n\nDeSantis' popularity among Republicans soared during the pandemic, when he bucked medical experts and pushed Florida toward normalcy months before the rest of the country. DeSantis welcomed comparisons between Florida's laissez-faire approach and California, where leaders implemented mask mandates and lockdowns dictated by public health metrics such as case rates.\n\nLook no further than how each state handled its House of Mouse. Disney World, outside Orlando, reopened in July 2020 , just as Florida became the epicenter of the country's deadly Covid-19 summer. Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, cautiously welcomed back visitors about 10 months later in April 2021.\n\nJUST WATCHED Pollster says Republicans are moving away from Trump after poll in key state Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Pollster says Republicans are moving away from Trump after poll in key state 01:09\n\nThe stark differences in approach became fodder for both governors.\n\nIn a recent sit-down with conservative political commentator Dave Rubin, DeSantis recalled a fundraising trip to California in June 2021 (he's received more donations from residents of the Golden State than from any other state besides Florida, and most of them $100 or less). He'd made a point of telling staff he wouldn't abide by any Covid-19 restrictions while in the state and recalled an incident that he said showed how much he was resonating there.\n\n\"These two guys in masks come scurrying over to me,\" DeSantis said. \"I'm like, 'Oh, God. Here we go.' One guy gets right in front of me, pulls down his mask, looks me right in the eye and says, 'I wish you were our governor.'\"\n\nIf DeSantis versus Newsom ever moves beyond a cross-country shouting match and into a real campaign, Republicans in Florida believe they have the ultimate winning argument: Florida is a growing state and California's population is on the decline, though there's a long way to go before the two approach each other; Florida has more than 21 million residents and California has about 40 million.\n\n\"We have a working product in Florida,\" said Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida GOP. \"The No. 1 way you can measure success of states is economy, job performance and people moving to or moving from states. And the state of Florida is winning that battle. They're losing people. People are fleeing California. And a heckuva lot of them are coming to Florida.\"\n\nBut unlike Texas leaders, who revel whenever a Silicon Valley company sets up shop in the Lone Star State, DeSantis lately has urged California CEOs to stay away from Florida for fear a progressive wave of tech workers would offset the GOP sanctuary he is building. When other Republican leaders in Florida publicly courted Elon Musk to move Twitter to the Sunshine State, DeSantis pushed back, saying, \"They enjoy our lower taxes, but you know, what are they really providing?\"\n\nNewsom pushes back\n\nFor the California governor, this goes deeper than a personal grudge match, or political angling as he pushes legislation and lawsuits that spin away from the rightward trend of recent US Supreme Court decisions and further embrace the \"California Republic\" on the state flag.\n\nDeSantis isn't Newsom's only GOP target. The California governor joined Trump's social media site purely for the sake of trolling the former President and his supporters. He knocked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott repeatedly and tweeted a retort targeting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who signaled last month he would be comfortable defending the state's defunct anti-sodomy law if the US Supreme Court reverses its 2003 decision to strike down the statute.\n\n\"Hell of a thing. Not to mention during pride month,\" Newsom wrote. \"Hey, corporate America -- where are your values? Stand up to these hateful states and come to California.\"\n\nNewsom insists he's not taking digs at President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he says he's trying to prod his party into getting angrier and more activated. He called the hearings held by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol a \"master class\" but said Democrats need to be looking past Trump and toward how Trumpism is evolving. After spending much of the pandemic watching and reading right-wing media, Newsom said he's grown more and more alarmed to see how much is taking root.\n\n\"My expression is one of frustration, watching now for many years, in many ways predating the current climate and the current administration,\" Newsom said in the interview. \"The success of the right to define the terms of the debate, the success of the right to dominate the narrative ... they're winning in ways that are alarming to me.\"\n\nThe ad, he promised, will be the start of much more to come.\n\n\"Things have changed, rules of engagement have to change,\" Newsom said. \"You've got to take the fight to them.\"", "authors": ["Edward-Isaac Dovere", "Steve Contorno"], "publish_date": "2022/07/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/restaurants/2018/08/09/highest-grossing-restaurants-in-america/37227589/", "title": "Profitable restaurants: Highest grossing eateries in America", "text": "Colman Andrews\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nThe restaurant business is a tough one. The average lifespan of a restaurant is five years and by some estimates, up to 90 percent of new ones fail within the first year. There are, however, some very successful exceptions that manage to rake in millions of dollars a year.\n\n24/7 Wall Street reviewed food service trade publication Restaurant Business’s latest annual ranking of the top 100 independent restaurants in America, which is based on their reported or estimated gross food and beverage sales for the year. They define independents, for the survey’s purposes, as restaurants with no more than five locations. Fewer than a dozen of the places on this list are single-operator restaurants.\n\nThe most recent Restaurant Business rankings, sponsored by Campbell’s, were published late last year, based on figures from 2016. The shuttering in late July of one of their top 50 establishments, Carnevino (No. 23), due to sexual misconduct allegations, inspired us to take a new look at the list. In the course of doing that, we discovered that two other restaurants in the top 50 have also closed since the list was published. There’s no indication that these two went out of business for financial reasons, but the fact that even restaurants that are phenomenally successful can close might serve as a reminder that sales and profits are not the same thing.\n\nPerusal of this list reveals a few interesting facts. First, American diners are obviously carnivorous, as 16 of the top 50 are steakhouses or focus strongly on meat. Second, though Los Angeles has been getting much publicity lately as the country’s new food capital, it shows poorly on the list of top grossing restaurants, with only one restaurant making the cut. New York City, on the other hand, accounts for 20 of the 50. Next in line are Las Vegas, Chicago and vicinity, and Washington, D.C. Finally, celebrity chefdom apparently doesn’t mean very much when it comes to serious financial success. Only half a dozen of these highly grossing restaurants have or had famed culinary personalities attached. Two of those are among the places that have since closed, and two more are no longer associated with the noted names.\n\nSome of the restaurants on this list serve breakfast (and brunch), lunch, and dinner, while others are open only in the evenings; many are open seven days a week, while others might close for a day or two. These factors obviously influence the number of meals served annually. The restaurant industry usually computes “average check” (or “check average”) by dividing total sales by number of those meals. In some instances in this list, the math doesn’t work out, but that’s most likely because the restaurants in question (especially those with nightclubs and/or large bars or lounges) racked up substantial sales from alcohol unaccompanied by meals.\n\nMore: Employment trends: 20 jobs that have become dominated by women\n\n50. Beauty & Essex\n\nLocation: New York City, N.Y.\n\nNew York City, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,308,810\n\n$16,308,810 Avg. check: $85\n\n$85 Meals served annually: 191,505\n\nThis quirky place on Manhattan's trendy Lower East Side is a functioning pawn shop up front, filled with merchandise for sale — some of it genuinely pawned, some of it chosen second-hand by curator Lauren Kaminsky. Through a door at the back of the shop, though, is a bustling restaurant, complete with four dining rooms, two bars, and a lounge.\n\nThe imaginative menu includes such mashups as tuna poke wonton tacos, Caesar toast with crispy chicken skin, and chile relleno empanadas. The restaurant — owned by Madison Square Garden Co.'s Tao Group, which is well-represented on this list (see No. 14, No. 7, No. 3, and No.1) — has siblings in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.\n\n49. Le Diplomate\n\nLocation: Washington, D.C.\n\nWashington, D.C. Annual sales: $16,377,232\n\n$16,377,232 Avg. check: $58\n\n$58 Meals served annually: 306,708\n\nA skillfully recreated Parisian-style brasserie with a skylit terrace, this popular D.C. restaurant is part of the Philadelphia-based Starr Group, which operates 37 restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Paris, as well as in the nation's capital and its hometown. The fare is mostly old-style French — oysters, pâté, salade niçoise, beef bourguignon, etc. — and there is an outdoor cart selling homemade ice creams and sorbets in nice weather.\n\n48. Grand Central Oyster Bar\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,400,000 (est.)\n\n$16,400,000 (est.) Avg. check: $54 (est.)\n\n$54 (est.) Meals served annually: 310,000\n\nA New York classic for more than a century, the Oyster Bar on the lower level of iconic Grand Central Station is a major destination for seafood-lovers. Oysters, of course, are the big draw. Every day there are 20 or more choices; the ever-changing master list contains more than 250 different kinds, from the East and West coasts of both the U.S. and Canada, as well as Mexico and Chile. Stews and pan-roasts, cold seafood salads, and 15 or 20 kinds of fresh-caught fish are among the other offerings. The vaulted tile arches and ceilings by famed Valencian architect Rafael Guastavino provide a stunning setting.\n\n47. Quality Italian\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,529,915\n\n$16,529,915 Avg. check: $90\n\n$90 Meals served annually: 171,713\n\nPart of the Quality Branded group -- which has eight restaurants in New York City, one in Miami Beach, and a second Quality Italian in Denver -- Quality Italian serves modern Italian-American food. That translates to several varieties of crudo, homemade pastas (including agnolotti with dry-aged porterhouse), sausage and pepper garlic toast, and assorted steaks and chops, among other specialties. Quality Branded's principals are veteran restaurateur Alan Stillman (see No. 8) and his son Michael.\n\nMore: US cities where incomes are growing at the fastest pace\n\n46. Taste of Texas\n\nLocation: Houston, Texas\n\nHouston, Texas Annual sales: $16,720,966\n\n$16,720,966 Avg. check: $55\n\n$55 Meals served annually: 363,715\n\nOpened in 1977, Taste of Texas is a landmark Houston steakhouse with a menu that includes eight cuts of steak -- all Certified Angus Beef -- seafood, and other steakhouse staples, as well as a range of appetizers, such as Texas quail bites and jalapeño stuffed shrimp. The restaurant also hosts a collection of museum-quality Texas historical artifacts, from Sam Houston's calling card to a Victorian-era gun rack to an assortment of pre-statehood Texas flags.\n\n45. Prime Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)\n\n$16,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $158 (est.)\n\n$158 (est.) Meals served annually: 112,675\n\nLocated in the Bellagio Hotel, this is one of two Las Vegas steakhouses run by Alsatian-born celebrity chef-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In all, he is responsible for 23 establishments around the U.S. and 16 overseas. The menu, of course, is steak-heavy (certified A5 Japanese Kobe beef is one of the choices), but includes peekytoe crab cakes, pan-roasted Dover sole, and other seafood choices as well. Several years ago, the bar was remodeled at a cost of $1.1 million into a luxurious 2,723-square-foot lounge with an enclosed patio.\n\n44. Aria Cafe\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)\n\n$16,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $24 (est.)\n\n$24 (est.) Meals served annually: 700,000\n\nOpen daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., this casual café in the Aria Resort & Casino, with its terrazzo floors and sloping glass walls, offers diners everything from huevos rancheros to fish and chips, from a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato dipping sauce to a \"secret sushi\" menu.\n\n43. Parc\n\nLocation: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania Annual sales: $16,921,459\n\n$16,921,459 Avg. check: $56\n\n$56 Meals served annually: 423,619\n\nOne of 37 Starr Group restaurants around the country (and in Paris), Parc is a French-style bistro/brasserie transported to Philadelphia. The menu covers all the bases for such places — oysters, onion soup, escargots, trout amandine, duck à l'orange, profiteroles, and the like — and there are daily specials, such as lobster risotto and bouillabaisse.\n\n42. Guy's American Kitchen & Bar\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,000,000 (est.)\n\n$17,000,000 (est.) Avg. check: $43 (est.)\n\n$43 (est.) Meals served annually: 406,000\n\nGuy's — the guy in question being TV star and chef-restaurateur Guy Fieri — opened in late 2012 and was greeted with a now-legendary review by New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. \"Guy Fieri, have you eaten at your new restaurant…?\" Wells asked. He went on to describe a cocktail that tasted like radiator fluid and formaldehyde, \"deeply unlovable\" nachos, and Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders that were \"very far from awesome.\" That didn't stop a couple of million Fieri fans from lining up outside to sample his \"off-the-hook\" cooking over the next five years. They're not lining up anymore. Notwithstanding the restaurant's healthy annual sales, Fieri and his backers closed the place on Dec. 31, 2017 for reasons that were never explained.\n\nMore: US cities where incomes are shrinking at the fastest pace\n\n41. Shaw's Crab House\n\nLocation: Chicago, IL\n\nChicago, IL Annual sales: $17,100,000 (est.)\n\n$17,100,000 (est.) Avg. check: $65 (est.)\n\n$65 (est.) Meals served annually: 265,000\n\nInspired by old-school seafood houses in Maryland and Detroit, Shaw's was opened in 1984 by the massive Lettuce Entertain You food service empire, which runs 120+ restaurants in nine states and counting.\n\nIn a 1940s-style atmosphere, Shaw's offers oysters, crab (of course) in several forms, sushi and sashimi, steamed Maine lobster, and a selection of fish in season that might include Santa Barbara stone crab claws, Panama swordfish, and Lake Erie yellow perch. There is a newer Shaw's in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.\n\n40. Tavern on the Green\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)\n\n$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $70 (est.)\n\n$70 (est.) Meals served annually: 260,000\n\nThis beautifully located Central Park landmark started life in the 1880s as a sheep barn, designed by the celebrated English architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux. Controversial city planner Robert Moses turned it into a restaurant in 1934. Over the years, the fortunes of the place ebbed and flowed, and the management changed frequently. Restaurant impresario Warner LeRoy ran it from 1976 to 1988; famed chef Jeremiah Tower took over the kitchen for a scant five months in 2014 and '15. Today, under Philadelphia restaurateurs Jim Caiola and David Salama, it seems to have found its groove with solid cooking and a something-for-everyone menu that includes kale and quinoa salad, grilled baby octopus, and roasted organic chicken.\n\n39. Mon Ami Gabi\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)\n\n$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $66 (est.)\n\n$66 (est.) Meals served annually: 300,000\n\nThe Sin City outpost of this friendly French bistro, with locations also in the Chicago and Washington D.C. areas, is part of the Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You group. The classic French fare focuses on variations on steak frites, though many other choices are available. Breakfast and weekend brunch are also served, and there is an ample gluten-free menu.\n\n38. Chicago Cut Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Chicago, Illinois\n\nChicago, Illinois Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)\n\n$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $85 (est.)\n\n$85 (est.) Meals served annually: 210,000\n\nSteakhouse veterans David Flom and Matthew Moore opened this busy steakhouse in 2010. It has proven popular with a wide range of sports stars as well as celebrities like actors Colin Farrell and John Cusack, who were presumably tempted by its bone-in prime rib, prime steaks, and fresh seafood -- and maybe even by its foot-long Kobe beef hot dog.\n\n37. Founding Farmers\n\nLocation: Washington, D.C.\n\nWashington, D.C. Annual sales: $17,243,194\n\n$17,243,194 Avg. check: $35\n\n$35 Meals served annually: 571,078\n\nThis unique LEED Gold Certified establishment, which opened in 2008, is one of five restaurants -- four in the D.C. area, one in Pennsylvania -- owned primarily by more than 47,000 family farmers belonging to the North Dakota Farmers Union. Hundreds of farms involved supply raw materials to the restaurants. The fare is mostly home-style — skillet cornbread, fried green tomatoes, chicken pot pie, Yankee pot roast, pork chops — and there are numerous sandwiches and homemades pastas. Founding Farmers also serves proprietary \"farm-to-still\" rye whisky, gin, and Peruvian pisco brandy.\n\nMore: SNAP benefits: Which cities have the most people on food stamps?\n\n36. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Rosemont, Illinios\n\nRosemont, Illinios Annual sales: $17,442,193\n\n$17,442,193 Avg. check: $71\n\n$71 Meals served annually: 258,249\n\nThis is one of two suburban locations of the popular downtown Chicago steakhouse of the same name. The no-nonsense menu is centered around prime corn-fed Black Angus beef, aged for 40 days. There's also plenty of seafood, including a spicy lobster cocktail, as well as spit-roasted chicken, baby back ribs, and a charbroiled burger. Owned by the Gibsons Restaurant Group, this Gibsons is across from Rosemont's Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.\n\n35. The Smith (Midtown)\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y. f/c\n\nNew York, N.Y. f/c Annual sales: $17,450,000\n\n$17,450,000 Avg. check: $44\n\n$44 Meals served annually: 395,911\n\nTwo locations of this \"jack-of-all-trades\" restaurant (as their website calls it) — out of four Smiths in New York City and two in Washington, D.C. — made this list (see No. 27). It's easy to see the appeal. The kitchen seems more concerned with satisfying cravings than breaking new ground. Thus: a raw bar, tomato soup, Caesar salad, ricotta gnocchi, lobster roll, two burgers, five steaks (with fries or field greens), spaghetti and meatballs as a Sunday special…. You get the idea.\n\n34. Abe & Louie's\n\nLocation: Boston, Massachusetts\n\nBoston, Massachusetts Annual sales: $17,463,196\n\n$17,463,196 Avg. check: $85\n\n$85 Meals served annually: 222,599\n\nAbe & Louie's is an \"add lobster tail to any entrée for $25\" kind of place, as specified on the menu, heavy on corn-fed Midwestern prime steaks, chops, and seafood. Its parent company, the Tavistock Restaurant Collection, runs 18 restaurants in eight states, including a second Abe & Louie's in Boca Raton, Florida.\n\n33. Blue Fin\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,500,000 (est.)\n\n$17,500,000 (est.) Avg. check: $72 (est.)\n\n$72 (est.) Meals served annually: 243,000\n\nThe recently remodeled Blue Fin in the Times Square W Hotel proposes an extensive menu of sushi and other seafood, plus a couple of steaks and a New York State of Mind burger, made with all New York State ingredients. A raw bar and an artisanal cheese selection round out the menu, and breakfast and brunch are served. The restaurant's corporate parent, BR Guest Hospitality, which runs 17 restaurants in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Las Vegas, was acquired in late 2016 by the massive Landry's, Inc., which itself oversees more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos, and sports teams across the country.\n\n32. Del Posto\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,800,000 (est.)\n\n$17,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $162 (est.)\n\n$162 (est.) Meals served annually: 110,000\n\nThis elegant, justifiably pricey Italian restaurant is described on its website as a \"creation of Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich and Executive Chef Melissa Rodriguez.\" That's true as far as it goes, but the missing name on that list is the now-disgraced Mario Batali, whose vision was essential to the place for more than a decade. Opened in 2005, Del Posto got a three-star review in the New York Times the following year, and then a four-star ranking — the paper's highest restaurant accolade — in 2010. No other Italian place had reached that level since 1974. Chef Rodriguez -- who joined the staff in 2011, was promoted to chef de cuisine in 2015, and became executive chef last year -- prepares refined but full-flavored versions of many Italian classics, including vitello tonnato, orecchiette with rabbit sausage and turnips, and the seafood stew called cacciucco livornese.\n\n31. Acme Feed & Seed\n\nLocation: Nashville, Tennessee\n\nNashville, Tennessee Avg. check: $16\n\n$16 Meals served annually: 611,454\n\nBuilt in 1890, the building now occupied by Acme Feed & Seed has housed a grocery store, a flour company, and a wholesale drug firm, among other tenants, and from 1943 to 1999 it was home to the business that became known as Acme Farm Supply. After that closed, the structure was occupied only occasionally until 2014, when Nashville chef-restaurateur and caterer Tom Morales took it over. In the space, he created a four-level complex with a \"funkytonk\" on the ground floor, serving such fare as hot chicken sandwich, gorgonzola meatloaf, and \"redneck lo mein;\" a lounge and bar with sushi bar and bar food on the second level; an event and music venue on the third floor; and an open-air bar on the roof.\n\nMore: US population boom: Fastest growing county in every state\n\n30. Bob Chinn's Crab House\n\nLocation: Wheeling, Illinois\n\nWheeling, Illinois Annual sales: $17,990,990\n\n$17,990,990 Avg. check: $37\n\n$37 Meals served annually: 483,111\n\nOpened by veteran Chinese-American restaurateur Bob Chinn in 1982, this seafood house about 30 miles northwest of Chicago takes pride in its quick service, noting that almost every item can be prepared in 15 minutes or less.\n\nCrab, of course, features prominently on the lengthy menu — Louisiana blue crab, Alaskan snow crab and king crab, Maryland softshells, Massachusetts Jonah crab, Australian kona crab. There's a salad bar, a selection of fresh fish, and some meat dishes marked on the menu as \"for the landlubber.\" Some 13 variations on surf & turf are also offered.\n\n29. Quality Meats\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $18,003,504\n\n$18,003,504 Avg. check: $100\n\n$100 Meals served annually: 178,297\n\nThe second Quality Branded restaurant on this list (see No. 47), Quality Meats is a clubby-looking steakhouse with a raw bar, a charcuterie selection, and what is provocatively called a \"smoking section.\" This isn't the place for cigarettes and cigars, but rather a menu of smoked cocktails such as the BBQ old-fashioned, liquors such as the rimfire mesquite-smoked Texas single malt, and snacks such as devils on horseback sliders, with bacon jam, dates, Maytag Blue cheese, and caramelized onions. The restaurant's winning customer-suggested dessert is cheesecake ice cream with Key lime pie ribbons, graham cracker crunch, and toasted marshmallow swirl. T.G.I. Fridays and Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman and his son Michael run Quality Branded.\n\n28. Sparks Steak House\n\nLocation: New York, NY\n\nNew York, NY Annual sales: $18,150,000 (est.)\n\n$18,150,000 (est.) Avg. check: $90 (est.)\n\n$90 (est.) Meals served annually: 210,000\n\n\"Little but the prices has changed at Sparks since it opened in 1966, and patrons like it that way,\" according to Restaurant Business. The menu is steakhouse-standard: shrimp cocktail, baked clams, spinach salad, extra-thick veal and lamb chops, lobster, swordfish, and of course steak. The wine list is immense and justly famous, and there are private rooms that can seat up to 250 people.\n\n27. The Smith (Lincoln Square)\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $18,950,000\n\n$18,950,000 Avg. check: $43\n\n$43 Meals served annually: 530,802\n\nSituated for success across the street from Lincoln Center, this branch of The Smith offers a menu that is almost identical to that at the Midtown version (see No. 5). That means straightforward fare, varied and, according to many reviews both professional and crowd-sourced, generally very good.\n\nMore: Cities where Americans are struggling to afford their homes\n\n26. Primehouse\n\nLocation: Chicago, Illinois\n\nChicago, Illinois Annual sales: $19,200,000 (est.)\n\n$19,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $98 (est.)\n\n$98 (est.) Meals served annually: 200,000\n\nFrom the time it was founded in 2006 until last year, this Chicago steakhouse — famous for its dry-aged beef in a city where wet-aging is more prevalent — was called David Burke's Primehouse. Burke, the celebrity chef who has opened and closed a number of restaurants in New York and elsewhere, actually left the place in 2014 but didn't take his name off it until last year. Despite its success, the restaurant, which is located in the James Hotel, closed on Dec. 9 and is scheduled to be reinvented soon as The James Kitchen + Bar.\n\n25. SW Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $19,900,000 (est.)\n\n$19,900,000 (est.) Avg. check: $130 (est.)\n\n$130 (est.) Meals served annually: 151,000\n\nThis waterside meat emporium, which offers views of the nightly Wynn Hotel's Lake of Dreams shows — featuring music, lights, holographics, and puppetry — is the preserve of chef David Walzog, a veteran of several New York City steakhouses.\n\nIn addition to a caviar service, several salads, and a good choice of aged steaks and other entrees, the menu lists seven varieties of high-quality wagyu beef, six of them from Japan, topping out at $220 for a 4-ounce portion of Hyogo Prefecture Kobe tenderloin, New York strip, ribeye, or rib cap.\n\n24. Bazaar Meat by José Andrés\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $20,200,000 (est.)\n\n$20,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $105 (est.)\n\n$105 (est.) Meals served annually: 192,000\n\nJosé Andrés is a phenomenon, a tireless champion of Spanish food, both traditional and avant-garde, and a globe-trotting food activist who has spearheaded hunger relief efforts in places like Haiti and Puerto Rico and was named one of Time magazine's most influential people for 2018. He is also a showman, well-suited to Las Vegas, where this carnivore's paradise offers an array of tartares, carpaccios, and cured meats; steaks galore, including Japanese Kobe; roast suckling pig (by special order); and, just for variety, caviar tasting flights and what the menu calls \"meats from the sea\" like whole turbot and grilled Maine lobster.\n\n23. Carnevino Italian Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $20,400,000 (est.)\n\n$20,400,000 (est.) Avg. check: $182 (est.)\n\n$182 (est.) Meals served annually: 112,000\n\nCarnevino was part of the mostly-Italian restaurant group founded by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. It was known for its wide range of pastas and its veal, beef, lamb, and pork dishes. Following allegations of sexual misconduct against Batali earlier this year, Batali separated from the organization, and the group announced that it was closing its three Las Vegas restaurants this month, including this one. Carnevino shut down on July 23.\n\n22. Angus Barn\n\nLocation: Raleigh, N.C.\n\nRaleigh, N.C. Annual sales: $20,402,068\n\n$20,402,068 Avg. check: $68\n\n$68 Meals served annually: 298,960\n\nThis family-owned meat mecca in a huge barn-like building near the Raleigh-Durham airport opened in 1960. The structure burned in 1964 but was rebuilt and reopened the following year. Aged steaks, in various cuts and sizes, are a specialty — the restaurant claims to serve an average of 22,000 of them a month — but seafood, seafood-and-meat combinations, and even a char-grilled vegetable plate are also available.\n\n21. Buddakan\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $20,555,460\n\n$20,555,460 Avg. check: $84\n\n$84 Meals served annually: 250,416\n\nAnother establishment owned by Philadelphia’s Starr Group, which has 36 eating places around America as well as one in Paris, Buddakan has been hailed as one of the most beautifully designed restaurants in New York City. The main dining room is illuminated with chandeliers that one critic described as being “as big as Volkswagens” hung from a ceiling and another called “as high as the Himalayas.”\n\nThe menu is Asian-inspired, with a selection of dumplings and other dim sum, a Peking duck salad with sherry vinaigrette, Mongolian lamb chops, kung pao monkfish, and Dungeness crab sticky rice with Chinese broccoli among the choices.\n\nMore: Budweiser, Coors Light, Bud Light top list of best-selling beers in America\n\n20. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab\n\nLocation: Chicago, Illinois\n\nChicago, Illinois Annual sales: $21,200,000 (est.)\n\n$21,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $80 (est.)\n\n$80 (est.) Meals served annually: 265,000\n\nThe owners of Joe's Stone Crab, a Miami Beach institution dating from 1913, entered into a partnership with Richard Melman, founder of Chicago's Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, in 2000 to open this popular Chicago extension of the original concept. Two more were subsequently launched, in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., and all three are among\n\nthe highest-grossing restaurants in the country (see No. 15 and No.17).\n\nFlorida stone crab remains a staple of the menu, along with other fish and shellfish choices such as oysters Rockefeller, crispy fried shrimp, and grilled Alaskan halibut. Steaks include a rarely seen bone-in filet mignon.\n\n19. St. Elmo Steak House\n\nLocation: Indianapolis, Indiana\n\nIndianapolis, Indiana Annual sales: $21,308,565\n\n$21,308,565 Avg. check: $90\n\n$90 Meals served annually: 239,725\n\nThe oldest Indianapolis steakhouse still in its original location, St. Elmo — named for the patron saint of sailors — opened as a tavern in 1902. Nine different steaks are served, and prices for these and other entrees include navy bean soup or tomato juice plus a choice of potatoes or green beans. Chops, chicken, seafood, and salads fill out the bill of fare. For sports fans, there are also special Colts football and Pacers basketball pre-game menus.\n\n18. Bottega Louie\n\nLocation: Los Angeles, California\n\nLos Angeles, California Annual sales: $21,720,463\n\n$21,720,463 Avg. check: $35\n\n$35 Meals served annually: 729,612\n\nThis 255-seat restaurant in downtown Los Angeles has a gourmet market, patisserie, and café attached. Breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch, and dinner are served. Pizzas, pastas, small plates, such as gazpacho, Sicilian tuna crudo, meatballs marinara, etc., and a selection of main dishes are offered day and night. Yelp named Bottega Louie as one of the 30 L.A. restaurants worth a wait (reservations aren't accepted). A West Hollywood location is planned for 2019.\n\n17. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $21,800,000 (est.)\n\n$21,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $85 (est.)\n\n$85 (est.) Meals served annually: 260,000\n\nThis spinoff has a menu that's almost identical to that at the Chicago original, but with prices slightly higher. The daily market card differs somewhat, especially in the choice of oysters. Restaurant Business notes that, while its name specifies prime steak, Joe's created a sriracha bacon burger for National Burger Month in May.\n\n16. The Hamilton\n\nLocation: Washington, D.C.\n\nWashington, D.C. Annual sales: $21,978,322\n\n$21,978,322 Avg. check: $34\n\n$34 Meals served annually: 759,970\n\nThe Hamilton (not to be confused with the Hamilton Hotel) is owned and operated by the Clyde's Restaurant Group, whose holdings include more than a dozen restaurants and music venues in the D.C. area, including the historic Old Ebbitt Grill (see No. 5). The club at The Hamilton is host to the annual White House Correspondents Jam, held the night before the famous political-themed dinner itself (Billy Bob Thornton, Kevin Bacon, and newsman/rock bassist Lester Holt have been among the performers).\n\nThe restaurant? It has something for everyone: mezze platter, wings, charcuterie and cheese, salads, sushi, fish and chips, Nashville-style hot chicken, house-made pastas, steaks and chops, burgers and sandwiches … and a selection of milkshakes and malts, plain or with booze added.\n\nMore: Wage potential: Highest paying jobs you can get without a college degree\n\n15. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab\n\nLocation: Washington, D.C.\n\nWashington, D.C. Annual sales: $23,000,000 (est.)\n\n$23,000,000 (est.) Avg. check: $80 (est.)\n\n$80 (est.) Meals served annually: 288,000\n\nPrices at this outpost of Joe's in the nation's capital are slightly lower in many cases than at the parent restaurant in Chicago, but the menu is otherwise identical. There's a long \"Cocktail Hour\" daily, running from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and featuring signature drinks and half-price oysters on the half shell.\n\n14. Tao Uptown\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,089,638\n\n$23,089,638 Avg. check: $85\n\n$85 Meals served annually: 282,827\n\nOne of two Taos in New York City (Tao Downtown is listed at No. 3) — others are in L.A., Chicago, and Las Vegas (see No. 1) — this Asian-themed mega-restaurant occupies a building that was a Vanderbilt family stable in the 19th century and later a movie theatre. The design of this three-level, 300-seat place is appropriately theatrical, with a dining room dominated by a 16-foot-tall seated Buddha above a virtual reflecting pool.\n\nDim sum and other small plates such as rock shrimp lettuce cups, and chicken satay, as well as Chinese-style spareribs, tempura vegetables, sushi and sashimi, seafood in various guises, kung pao chicken, and a grilled Kobe ribeye with yuzu cilantro butter are among the menu choices. The Madison Square Garden Co. bought a 62.5% stake in Tao Group for $181 million in early 2017.\n\n13. Prime 112\n\nLocation: Miami Beach, Florida\n\nMiami Beach, Florida Annual sales: $23,100,000\n\n$23,100,000 Avg. check: $120\n\n$120 Meals served annually: 193,000\n\nMiami Beach-based Myles Restaurant Group operates four restaurants and a boutique hotel within a one-block radius in trendy South Beach. The group launched this place — which it describes as \"the first modern steakhouse in the United States\" — in 2004.\n\nThe extensive menu includes a raw bar selection, more than 20 appetizers and salads -- including such unusual choices as truffle provolone fondue and pan-seared diver scallops with slow-braised wagyu short rib -- 15 different cuts and sizes of steak with 17 accompanying sauces and compound butters, 10 kinds of regular and sweet potatoes, 22 vegetable preparations, and a raft of \"chef's compositions,\" from blackened local swordfish to chicken and waffles.\n\n12. Vandal\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,680,917\n\n$23,680,917 Avg. check: $80\n\n$80 Meals served annually: 215,483\n\nAnother oversized restaurant complex from the Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 7, No. 3, and No. 1), which has been majority-owned by the Madison Square Garden Co. since last year, Vandal eschews the Asian ambiance of the Tao restaurants themselves to feature what its website styles as \"the art, architecture, and food of global culture.\" Graphics, multimedia works, and photographs by an international group of urban artists line the walls. It can be debated whether yellowtail crudo with blueberry and ginger, avocado toast with peas and radishes, or a 50-day-dry-aged 36-ounce tomahawk ribeye steak were \"[i]nspired by street food from around the world,\" as the website puts it, but there is certainly a multi-cultural flavor to such dishes as roasted squash tostadas, shawarma salad, tortilla soup dumplings, and wild mushroom \"street pizza.\"\n\n11. Junior's (Times Square)\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,972,978\n\n$23,972,978 Avg. check: $24\n\n$24 Meals served annually: 950,000\n\nSince the original was opened in 1950 in Brooklyn, Junior's has been famous for its New York-style cheesecake. The menu goes far beyond that, though, with a full deli-style selection of blintzes and potato pancakes, deli sandwiches (including four Reuben variations), burgers, and entrees, including brisket of beef and Hungarian beef goulash. Less in the deli mode are such appetizers as Thai ginger BBQ wings, disco fries, and seven barbecue shrimp, chicken, and ribs choices. When this first Junior's in Manhattan's Times Square neighborhood opened in 2006, according to the restaurant website, its \"Brooklyn NY\" sign confused would-be customers who thought they'd come out of the subway at the wrong stop. There's a newer Junior's four blocks north, as well as outposts at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and in Boca Raton, Florida.\n\nMore: Are these the worst cities to live in? Study looks at quality of life across the U.S.\n\n10. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse\n\nLocation: Chicago, Illinois\n\nChicago, Illinois Annual sales: $24,700,825\n\n$24,700,825 Avg. check: $75\n\n$75 Meals served annually: 363,301\n\nThe suburban Rosemount extension of this old-style steakhouse made this list at No. 36, but this is the Near North Side Chicago original. It opened its doors in 1989 in the space that once housed the legendary club Mister Kelly's, where the likes of Bette Midler, Sarah Vaughan, and Muddy Waters once appeared. Gibsons was the first restaurant group in the country to be granted its own USDA Prime certification, and it serves only Midwestern grass-fed Black Angus beef plus a couple of 75-day-aged Australian grass-fed cuts. The menu is similar to that at the Rosemount restaurant, and prices are basically the same.\n\n9. Bryant Park Grill & Cafe\n\nLocation: New York, NY\n\nNew York, NY Annual sales: $25,400,000\n\n$25,400,000 Avg. check: $50 (est.)\n\n$50 (est.) Meals served annually: 420,000\n\nIn the early 1980s, Manhattan's centrally located Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library's main branch, was an unkempt no-go landscape where dope dealers and other disreputable types plied their trades. Today, it is a major destination, hosting over a thousand free activities, classes, and events each year as well as a popular Winter Village of shops — and this beautifully situated restaurant, opened in 1995 in a latticed pavilion and environs.\n\nBreakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and all-day café service are available here. The menu is international in flavor, ranging from Moroccan lamb kebab and sashimi tuna taco appetizers to such main dishes as sweet and spicy monkfish and grilled chicken fricassée. Ark Restaurants, which operates 22 establishments in six states and Washington, D.C., runs the place.\n\n8. Smith & Wollensky\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $25,961,337\n\n$25,961,337 Avg. check: $100\n\n$100 Meals served annually: 296,723\n\nBorn in 1977, this classic steakhouse was named totally at random, with \"Smith\" and \"Wollensky\" chosen from a New York City phone book. The man behind it was Alan Stillman, who a dozen years earlier had created T.G.I. Fridays. He described the steakhouse originally as \"the American version of the French restaurants I loved in France.\" Since its founding, Smith & Wollensky grew into a small chain, which today has nine venues around the country and one in London. In 2007, however, Stillman sold the company to the Patina Restaurant Group, keeping the Manhattan original for himself.\n\nPrime dry-aged steaks form the heart of the relatively restrained menu, but there are also such traditional dishes as Caesar salad, New England clam chowder, lemon pepper chicken, and Dover sole meunière. Wine lovers appreciate the thrice-yearly Wine Week promotion, which offers samples of 10 different wines with lunch or dinner for $20.\n\n7. Lavo New York\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $26,822,655\n\n$26,822,655 Avg. check: $85\n\n$85 Meals served annually: 200,000\n\nThe Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 3, and No. 1) turns to Italy for inspiration for this restaurant and nightclub. Antique mirrors, reclaimed subway tiles, and old factory bricks frame the dining room.\n\nThe menu offers a few surprises, but covers such basics as baked clams oreganato, Maine lobster cocktail, \"The Meatball,\" an assortment of pizzas and pastas, chicken Marsala, and grilled red snapper with panzanella salad. The subterranean herringbone-tiled nightclub boasts a sunken dancefloor, raised VIP sections, and a multitude of LED screens.\n\n6. The Boathouse Orlando\n\nLocation: Orlando, Florida\n\nOrlando, Florida Annual sales: $30,814,369\n\n$30,814,369 Avg. check: $43\n\n$43 Meals served annually: 643,829\n\nAppropriately for the theme-park capital of Orlando, The Boathouse at Walt Disney World Resort at Disney Springs offers rides of a sort itself: 25-minute tours of Disney Springs landmarks in vintage Amphicars and a cruise across Lake Buena Vista, and a scenic river-way in a 40-foot-long Venetian water taxi.\n\nIf being out on open water works up customers' appetites, they can feast in the waterfront dining room on the likes of firecracker shrimp, hoisin chili calamari, New England lobster roll, panko-fried fish of the day, or filet mignon Oscar style, with lump crab, asparagus, and béanaise. Chicago's Gibsons Restaurant Group (see No. 36 and No. 10) is in charge here.\n\nMore: Who is getting paid more? 16 states where personal incomes are booming\n\n5. Old Ebbitt Grill\n\nLocation: Washington, D.C.\n\nWashington, D.C. Annual sales: $32,662,051\n\n$32,662,051 Avg. check: $39\n\n$39 Meals served annually: 1,072,293\n\nThis historic Washington establishment was founded as a boarding house in 1856. It evolved into a saloon and then an eating place, occupying numerous locations over the decades. The owners of Georgetown restaurant Clyde's bought it at a federal tax auction in 1970 -- this was the beginning of what is today the Clyde's Restaurant Group (see No. 16) -- and it moved a final time in 1983.\n\nThe clubby dining room, with its Old Bar behind carved glass panels, serves mostly all-American fare with an occasional Southern accent, including fried green tomatoes, oyster gumbo, cornmeal-crusted fried catfish, along with a couple of steaks, a few pastas, and a choice of sandwiches and burgers.\n\n4. Carmine's (New York)\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $33,147,017\n\n$33,147,017 Avg. check: $33\n\n$33 Meals served annually: 396,871\n\nA 1990 uptown evocation of an old-school New York Italian-American family restaurant, Carmine's — which subsequently spawned branches in Times Square and in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and the Bahamas — is famous for its gargantuan family-style portions and generously poured cocktails.\n\nAll the crowd-pleasers are here: stuffed mushrooms, fried zucchini, hot or cold antipasto plates, roasted peppers with anchovies, pasta with white or red clam sauce, manicotti, penne alla vodka, chicken scarpiello, veal parmigiana, shrimp scampi, tiramisù, and on and on. A special allergy menu caters to those with dairy and egg, wheat/gluten, and garlic allergies as well as to vegetarians and vegans.\n\n3. Tao Downtown\n\nLocation: New York, N.Y.\n\nNew York, N.Y. Annual sales: $33,401,819\n\n$33,401,819 Avg. check: $95\n\n$95 Meals served annually: 311,945\n\nThe dramatic decor in this downtown sibling of Tao Uptown (see No. 14) includes a gigantic reclining Buddha, a 24-armed standing Quan Yin Buddha, 3D animated projections of flowing waterfalls and growing moss, and mixed-media murals by British urban artist HUSH. The restaurant's website says that the place \"is intended to look and feel as if it has been there for decades and only unearthed recently …\"\n\nThe pan-Asian menu includes dim sum, yakitori, tempura, a number of noodle and rice selections, sushi and sashimi, and numerous seafood, poultry, and meat dishes. The majority owner of the Tao group is now the Madison Square Garden Co., which owns sports teams and various entertainment venues around the country in addition to its iconic namesake.\n\nMore: Broad appeal: McDonald's, Walmart top list of 25 most popular stores in America\n\n2. Joe's Stone Crab\n\nLocation: Miami Beach, Florida\n\nMiami Beach, Florida Annual sales: $37,243,159\n\n$37,243,159 Avg. check: $80\n\n$80 Meals served annually: 316,000\n\nJoe's founder Joe Weiss \"discovered\" stone crabs. He and his wife had opened a lunch stand in Miami Beach in 1913. In 1921, a visiting ichthyologist from Harvard brought him a sack of these crustaceans. At first, Joe thought nobody would eat them, but he tried boiling and then chilling them, and they were a hit. In 2000, Chicago's Let Us Entertain You restaurant group went into partnership with Weiss's descendents to open a hybrid called Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab (see No. 20 and No. 17), but the original remains a one-of-a-kind operation.\n\nBesides the signature claws -- fresh stone crabs are in season from October 15 to May 15 -- the large menu offers plenty of other seafood, including oysters, snapper and shrimp ceviche, crab cannelloni, potato-crusted mahi mahi, and even skirt steak tacos and steak frites. If you can't get to Joe's in person, the restaurant ships \"Claws for Celebration\" packages, featuring stone crab claws, the house mustard sauce, a cracking board, a mallet, cocktail forks, and bibs. Prices range from $138.95 for medium claws for two to $1,251.95 for jumbo claws for 10.\n\n1. Tao Las Vegas\n\nLocation: Las Vegas, Nevada\n\nLas Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $42,470,345\n\n$42,470,345 Avg. check: $90\n\n$90 Meals served annually: 226,146\n\nInstalled in the Venetian Hotel, Tao Las Vegas encompasses a restaurant -- self-described as an \"Asian bistro,\" but bigger than any bistro should be -- a 10,000-square-foot Thursday-through-Saturday nightclub, and a weekend poolside \"beach club.\" The menu is similar to that at other Taos (see No. 3 and No. 14), with dim sum, sushi and sashimi, rice and noodle dishes, and various entrees.\n\nIt's possible, however, that between its glamorous lounge, its beach club, and its nightclub — where celebrity sightings have included Madonna, Jay Z, Drake, Kim Kardashian, and Jamie Foxx — dinner here is almost beside the point. The Madison Square Garden Co., which bought a majority stake in the Tao Group in 2017, owns various entertainment venues in addition to sports teams and the Garden itself.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/09/entertainment/gallery/people-we-lost-2022/index.html", "title": "Photos: People we've lost in 2022", "text": "Pramod Thakur/Hindustan Times/Getty Images\n\nIndian singer and composer Bappi Lahiri, who lent his talent to Indian cinema for nearly 50 years, died February 15 at the age of 69, according to a statement from his doctor. Lahiri, who was fondly referred to as \"India's Disco King,\" was known for his love of 1970s-inspired dance beats. His signature hits, including the 1982 smash \"Disco Dancer\" from the Bollywood movie of the same name, helped to infuse Indian cinema with a lively, more contemporary sound.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/18/health/pop-up-covid-testing-sites/index.html", "title": "Fake Covid-19 testing sites put consumers at risk, officials say as ...", "text": "New York (CNN) In recent months, mobile Covid-19 testing tents and vans have sprouted on urban sidewalks and street curbs as demand has skyrocketed in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nSome of the sites run by private companies offer legitimate, timely and reliable results, but others are more like weeds.\n\nHigh demand and scarce supply opened the door to bad actors, and officials in some states are having a hard time keeping up their oversight amid the proliferation. And they are sounding the alarm that by visiting the pop-up industry's sometimes makeshift tents, desperate patients could be putting their health, wallets and personal data at risk.\n\n\"These conditions change so rapidly,\" said Gigi Gronvall , a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who leads the COVID-19 Testing Toolkit , which provides guidance to employers and others. \"It's not a surprise that these conditions were totally ripe for consumers to be gouged and to get fraudulent tests.\"\n\nConsumers seeking testing — either a rapid antigen test that provides results in under an hour or a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test that generally takes longer but is more accurate — may think all testing sites are created equal, but they're not. Unfortunately, telling the good from the bad is not always easy.\n\nConsumers at testing sites in the Chicago area have encountered employees who aren't wearing masks or gloves or have been asked to provide a Social Security or credit card number before a test is provided, said Dr. Eve Bloomgarden , who co-founded the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, an advocacy group.\n\nFake testing sites put consumers at risk for identity theft, inaccurate or missing test results, and financial losses if they're charged for the tests, which are typically free to consumers.\n\n\"I don't think we can put this on the public to know\" which sites are legitimate, Bloomgarden said. \"Guidance needs to be coming from the state and regulated at the public health level.\"\n\nMelaney Arnold, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said state officials \"are aware of complaints for various testing locations across the state\" and are investigating. She said consumers should contact Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office if they are concerned about fraud or criminal activity at testing sites.\n\nIn Philadelphia, workers at a sidewalk Covid-19 testing tent falsely claimed to be working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said James Garrow, communications director for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, in an emailed response to questions. But FEMA told the department it wasn't funding any testing centers in the city at the time.\n\n\"Currently, there are no quick markers to help folks know if a site is legitimate or not ,\" Garrow said. \"That's why we're investigating if it is possible to provide a placard to demonstrate that a site is legitimate.\"\n\nIt's hard to walk down a street in some parts of Manhattan without running into at least one or two of the pop-up sites. Leading up to the holidays, people stood in long lines in the cold waiting to be swabbed. Some vans and tents are clearly marked with company names, while others are operating out of what appear to be rental vans.\n\nA Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard in December.\n\nThe sites were also ubiquitous in Los Angeles. In some places, testing sites run by the same company were clustered within easy walking distance of one another. In the pre-holiday rush, the operator at a Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Wilshire Boulevard, who wouldn't give her name to a reporter, said she also provided a VIP service from another testing company for people willing to pay extra for rapid PCR tests.\n\nPublic health experts say they hope that concerns about a mobile test site's legitimacy won't deter people from getting tested.\n\nTesting outdoors has advantages, too.\n\n\"If I had the choice between two options while there was a surge happening, one being completely outdoors and one indoors, I would choose the outdoor testing site,\" said Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York. \"And I would choose affordable home testing over both of those.\"\n\nIn general, more testing is better than less.\n\n\"I tend not to care why people are testing,\" Nash said. \"If they are doing it to be safer at a party, great. But I do care if access is inequitable.\"\n\nPeople stand in line at a LabQ testing van near Columbia University in New York in December.\n\nSome testing operators are more prominent in neighborhoods where large shares of residents likely have health insurance rather than those where people are more likely to be without. For example, a map of testing locations for LabQ, a company that offers mobile Covid-19 testing in the New York City area, shows dozens of spots in Manhattan but only a handful in the Bronx.\n\nOne weak spot in the system is that although city and state health departments keep close regulatory tabs on the labs that process Covid-19 tests, they typically don't regulate the site operators that administer the tests.\n\nIn Philadelphia, Garrow said, the only licensing requirement for Covid-19 testing sites is that the lab they use have a license from the state health department showing that it meets federal standards under the law known as Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments . CLIA sets lab testing standards for accuracy, reliability and timeliness.\n\nIn Maryland, Covid-19 testing sites must have a CLIA \"waiver\" from the federal government allowing them to perform the tests, said Andy Owen, deputy media relations director for the Maryland Department of Health.\n\nIn general, labs in the U.S. must have CLIA licenses, and requiring waivers for point-of-care testing is also standard.\n\nIn December 2020, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh issued a news release warning consumers about unauthorized Covid-19 testing operations that could collect people's personal identifying information and use it to steal their identity.\n\nSince then, the department hasn't received any complaints about pop-up testing sites, according to Aleithea Warmack, deputy director of communications in the consumer protection division of the attorney general's office.\n\nIn general, a test site operator seeking payment from a health plan for administering a Covid-19 test must have a national provider identifier, which comes from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Kristine Grow , a spokesperson for AHIP, a trade group for health plans.\n\nAlthough test operators routinely ask consumers for health insurance information, asking for credit card numbers is not routine. Individual consumers typically don't have to pay out-of-pocket for a Covid-19 test because it is covered by insurance or by the federal government for people who are uninsured. However, some people are charged if the test isn't ordered by their doctor, is a rush service or is performed by an out-of-network provider, where \"we do continue to see price gouging through the course of the public health emergency,\" Grow said.\n\nOne way to identify a legitimate testing operator is to check lists maintained by states and cities of the testing operators they work with or fund. But many legitimate testing operators are not in the official databases, Bloomgarden said.\n\nSome independent test site operators are \"highly qualified,\" said Scott Becker , CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Becker went to a drive-through testing site in his neighborhood in Montgomery County, Maryland. The test operator told him which lab they used, and he received results with the name of the lab on them.\n\n\"They're not all bad,\" Becker said. \"It's just hard for Joe Consumer to figure it out.\"\n\nAs demand for Covid-19 testing grows, even legitimate test operators may not meet their commitments.\n\nTheo Servedio stood in line with a handful of other people at the sliding door of a LabQ mobile testing van near Columbia University in New York in December. The 19-year-old sophomore planned to attend a fraternity party, but with the uptick in Covid cases, he wanted to get tested first. A sign at the registration table promised a 24-hour turnaround on its PCR tests.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\n\"They're both free, but turnaround for testing at the school has been 48 to 72 hours in the past,\" Servedio said.\n\nHe got his results in 24 hours. But others weren't so lucky. According to a warning letter sent to LabQ in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James , some consumers had waited more than 96 hours for their Covid-19 test results despite the company's promise of a 48-hour turnaround. LabQ was one of several Covid-19 test companies that received the warnings in late December and early January.\n\nLabQ didn't respond to a request for comment.", "authors": ["Michelle Andrews", "Kaiser Health News"], "publish_date": "2022/01/18"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/us/moriah-wilson-cyclist-death-what-we-know/index.html", "title": "Moriah Wilson came from a family of athletes. The 25-year-old elite ...", "text": "(CNN) Fresh off a series of racing wins in the spring, elite cyclist Anna Moriah \"Mo\" Wilson was set to compete in a 157-mile race in Texas on May 14. But days before the contest, the 25-year-old was shot and killed at a friend's home in Austin.\n\nUS Marshals are now on the hunt for a 34-year-old woman suspected of her murder, and police investigators are digging into Wilson's past relationship with the suspect's boyfriend.\n\nWilson's family is mourning the loss of their \"beautiful daughter and sister,\" who excelled as a biker and skier. \"Moriah was a talented, kind, and caring young woman. Her life was taken from her before she had the opportunity to achieve everything she dreamed of,\" the family said.\n\nHere's what we know so far about Wilson, why police believe she may have been targeted and her short-lived success in the burgeoning sport of gravel racing.\n\nA star skier turned cyclist from a family of athletes\n\nWilson was a star skier in her younger years but recently became a high-level cyclist. She particularly excelled at \"gravel racing,\" a relatively new category of cycling that sits in a hybrid middle ground between road cycling and mountain biking.\n\nprofile in VeloNews published the day she died referred to her as \"the winningest woman in the American off-road scene.\" Wilson had won nearly 10 races this year, including the Shasta Gravel Hugger and Rock Cobbler in California, according to the article. Last month, she won the 137-mile Belgian Waffle Ride by 25 minutes over the second-place finisher.\n\nWilson wrote about her racing experiences on her Instagram and in a Substack newsletter . In March, she reflected on her second place finish at The Mid South race and reflected briefly on her rise to the top of the field.\n\n\"This race was the first time in my career (I can call it a career at this point) that I truly felt like I had a target on my back,\" she wrote. \"Was I nervous? Heck yeah! But more than anything I was excited.\"\n\nAt the time of her death, Wilson was just days from participating in the Gravel Locos bike race. The day after the race, an event organizer remembered her on Facebook as a \"role model, a shy compassionate person, a spirited tactical racer and a competitor that genuinely cared about those competing against you.\"\n\nMo Wilson spent her Vermont childhood skiing in the winter and biking in the summer.\n\nWilson had recently moved back to her home state of Vermont. While growing up, she was a consummate athlete, skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. Her father Eric Wilson skied for the US National Ski team, and her aunt Laura was a Nordic skier and competed at the Olympics, she told VeloNews.\n\nShe, too, picked up the sport competitively. \"In alpine skiing, Moriah rose to the level of a nationally ranked junior skier, placing 3rd in the 2013 U.S. Junior National Championship Downhill event,\" her obituary states . While attending Dartmouth University, she was a member of the Alpine Ski Team, \"fulfilling a childhood dream,\" the obituary says.\n\nWilson also was the captain of her high school soccer team, according to her Dartmouth athletic profile\n\nAfter college, she moved away from skiing toward competitive biking.\n\n\"Growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, she spent many hours on the Kingdom Trails developing her skills and strength as a biker,\" the obituary states. \"After graduating from Dartmouth, Moriah shifted gears and continued to pursue her athletic dreams as an elite bike racer.\"\n\nOutside of sports, she enjoyed \"cooking, writing, and traveling,\" it says, adding, \"she especially loved Italy, Taco Tuesdays, maple creemees and playing Catan with her friends.\"\n\nHow the shooting unfolded\n\nOn May 11, Wilson was shot multiple times while staying at a friend's home in Austin ahead of the Gravel Locos race in Hico, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Travis County District Court.\n\nKaitlin Marie Armstrong, a 34-year-old Austin resident, is wanted for homicide in the killing and is now a fugitive, the US Marshals said\n\nBoth women had recently been in romantic relationships with the same man -- 35-year-old professional cyclist Colin Strickland -- and messages and interviews with tipsters suggest jealousy could be a potential motive, according to the affidavit.\n\nOn the day of the killing, Wilson told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Strickland, the affidavit says -- a detail Strickland confirmed in an interview with police. They had dinner together afterward and he then dropped her off at her friend's home, Strickland said. He did not go inside.\n\nAustin Police responded to the home later that evening, shortly before 10 p.m. CT, and found Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nThe shooting did not appear to be \"a random act,\" police said in a May 14 news release\n\nPolice issued a homicide warrant on May 17 for Armstrong. The affidavit for her arrest points in part to video surveillance obtained by investigators that shows a vehicle similar to hers near the home shortly before Wilson's body was found.\n\nIn addition, investigators compared ballistics from the scene with those of bullets test-fired from a firearm Strickland had recently purchased for Armstrong, and the \"potential that the same firearm was involved is significant,\" the document says.\n\nPer the affidavit, Strickland told police he has not had contact with Armstrong since May 13.\n\nWithin 24 hours of Wilson's death, officers from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force apprehended Armstrong in connection with an unrelated arrest warrant and spoke to her. However, Austin Police said they then learned Armstrong's arrest warrant was not valid and told her she was free to leave.\n\nArmstrong requested to end the interview and left after detectives began confronting her about the security camera video that placed her car near the crime scene, the affidavit states.\n\nWilson had past relationship with suspect's boyfriend\n\nIn a statement to the Austin American-Statesman , Strickland said he had a \"brief romantic relationship\" with Wilson from late October to early November 2021, while he was separated from Armstrong.\n\nStrickland and Armstrong reconciled and resumed their relationship about a month later, he told the paper . His relationship with Wilson then became \"platonic and professional\" and he considered her a \"close friend,\" he said.\n\n\"There is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime,\" Strickland said, per the newspaper. \"I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable situation.\"\n\nThe affidavit cites a tipster who alleged Armstrong came to believe Strickland and Wilson's romantic relationship was ongoing as of January 2022. Strickland admitted to trying to hide his communications with Wilson from Armstrong by changing Wilson's name in his phone and deleting texts, the affidavit says.\n\nArmstrong had contacted Wilson several times and in one instance told her to \"stay away\" from Strickland, one of Wilson's friends told investigators, according to the affidavit.\n\nWilson was not in any romantic relationship at the time of her death, her family said in a statement.\n\n\"While we will not elaborate about the ongoing investigation, we do feel it's important to clarify that at the time of her death, those closest to her clearly understood, directly from Moriah, that she was not in a romantic relationship with anyone,\" the family said.", "authors": ["Eric Levenson", "Hannah Sarisohn", "Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/05/23"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_26", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:14", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220722_27", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:14", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/957390/what-is-marburg-virus-disease", "title": "What is Marburg virus disease? | The Week UK", "text": "Ghana has confirmed its first cases of the deadly Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, after two people who tested positive for the illness died earlier this month.\n\nThe two patients who died in hospital in the southern Ashanti region tested positive for the virus on 10 July, and have now been verified by a laboratory in Senegal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).\n\nMedical staff in Ghana have reported that 98 people are now under quarantine as suspected contact cases, although none has developed any symptoms so far according to WHO, which is supporting the country’s response to the outbreak.\n\n“Health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start preparing for a possible outbreak,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. “This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand.”\n\nWhat is Marburg virus?\n\nThe virus, which is similar to Ebola, is transmitted to people “from fruit bats and spreads between humans through the transmission of bodily fluids”, said the BBC. “It is a severe, often fatal illness,” the broadcaster added.\n\nWhat are the symptoms?\n\nSymptoms include:\n\nheadache\n\nfever\n\nmuscle pains\n\nvomiting blood\n\nbleeding.\n\nHow is it treated?\n\nNo known treatment exists for Marburg virus disease (MVD), but doctors say drinking plenty of water and treating specific symptoms improves a patient’s chances of survival. The WHO is also “exploring treatments involving blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies”, according to ABC News.\n\nHow did it begin?\n\nThe first ever Marburg cases were in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967. Thirty-one people contracted the disease and seven died.\n\nSince then, there have been a dozen major Marburg outbreaks, mostly in southern and eastern Africa, according to the WHO. Fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on the virus strain and case management, with the average fatality rate for MVD being about 50%.\n\nAccording to the global health agency, the initial outbreaks were “associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) imported from Uganda”.\n\nThere have subsequently been sporadic outbreaks in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.\n\nThe virus killed more than 200 people in Angola in 2005, the deadliest outbreak on record.\n\nIt is only the second time that MVD has been discovered in West Africa. Last year, one case was confirmed in Guinea, but the outbreak was declared over in September, five weeks after the case was identified, said the BBC.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/africa/ghana-first-marburg-outbreak-intl/index.html", "title": "Marburg virus: Ghana confirms its first outbreak of the deadly virus ...", "text": "(CNN) Ghana has confirmed its first two cases of the highly infectious Marburg virus disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday in a statement.\n\nThe announcement comes after two unrelated patients from the southern Ashanti region of Ghana, both of whom later died, tested positive for the virus.\n\nThe patients had shown symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting, WHO said, adding that more than 90 contacts are being monitored.\n\nMarburg is a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever in the same family as the better known Ebola virus disease and has a fatality ratio of up to 88%, according to WHO. \"Illness begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache, and malaise,\" it stated.\n\nThe virus is transmitted to humans from fruit bats and can then be spread human-to-human through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids, WHO explained.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Irene Nasser", "Nimi Princewill"], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/10/deadly-marburg-virus-confirmed-guinea-after-ebola-outbreak-ends/5554010001/", "title": "Deadly Marburg virus confirmed in Guinea after Ebola outbreak ends", "text": "A man in Guinea has died from the highly infectious Marburg virus, which has sent more than 100 people into quarantine just months after the end of the country's Ebola outbreak.\n\nThe country's first case of the disease was discovered on Friday, according to the World Health Organization. The man first showed symptoms on July 25 and died eight days later. Tests after his death confirmed he was positive for Marburg.\n\nMarburg is a highly contagious disease spread by bodily fluids with a fatality rate of up to 90% and is part of the same virus family as Ebola, according to WHO.\n\nIt was first recognized in 1967, and numerous outbreaks across the world have occurred since. The most notable outbreak occurred in Angola from 2004 to 2005, when 90% of the 252 people infected died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus.\n\nIn Guinea, health officials are trying to determine how many people were in close contact with the infected man. So far, 145 people have been identified and have been told to self-isolate.\n\nMore viruses? Scientists discover more than 30 viruses frozen in ice, most never seen before\n\nThe confirmed case comes months after the end of Guinea's Ebola outbreak in June. The region Gueckedou, where Marburg was confirmed, also was where cases of Ebola were discovered this year.\n\n“We applaud the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea’s health workers. The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, said in a statement. “We are working with the health authorities to implement a swift response that builds on Guinea’s past experience and expertise in managing Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way.”\n\nHow the man contracted the virus is unknown, but scientists from the CDC said in January that the virus was found in Egyptian rousette bats in Sierra Leone, which shares a border with Guinea.\n\nGuinea is also experiencing one of its worst COVID-19 waves. As of Aug. 2, there were 1,159 confirmed cases, the most since the beginning of the pandemic, according to WHO.\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jord_mendoza.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/30/dallas-ebola-patient/16496665/", "title": "Dallas hospital diagnoses first patient with Ebola", "text": "Liz Szabo\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Tuesday the first case of Ebola in a critically ill patient diagnosed in a U.S. hospital.\n\nThe patient — who has been isolated since his symptoms were recognized — is an unnamed man in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas.\n\nHospital workers noted his case because of his symptoms and recent travel history. It is not known whether he has infected others, although CDC officials are tracing his contacts.\n\nThe man left Liberia Sept. 19 and arrived in the USA the next day but had no symptoms when leaving Africa or arriving here, said Thomas Frieden, the CDC director. The patient became sick Sept. 24, and he sought care two days later. He was sent home but returned to a hospital and was admitted Sept. 28. Frieden did not reveal the man's nationality but said he came to the USA to visit relatives.\n\nFrieden said there is no danger of the sort of widespread outbreak seen in West Africa.\n\n\"This is the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. and the first strain of this Ebola diagnosed outside of Africa,\" Frieden said. \"I have no doubt that we will control this case of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country. It is certainly possible that someone who has had contact with this patient could develop Ebola, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here.\"\n\nEbola patients are contagious once they begin showing symptoms, such as fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Frieden said.\n\nSomeone with these symptoms could infect health care workers, such as people working in an emergency room. The virus is spread only through contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or vomit, says Brett Giroir, CEO at Texas A&M Health Science Center, an intensive care specialist.\n\nEbola does not spread through the air, like measles or the flu, said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.\n\nBecause the man was not sick on the plane or in the airport, Frieden said he's not worried that others on his flight will become sick. Health officials are not contacting fellow passengers. \"There is zero risk of transmission on the flight,\" Frieden said. \"He was checked for fever before getting on the flight.\"\n\nHe said health officials are following a \"handful\" of contacts, including a few family members and friends. The man stayed with family, not at a hotel.\n\nThe Dallas Fire-Rescue crew that transported the Ebola patient on Sunday is now under quarantine. The city has activated its Emergency Operations Center on \"Level 2: High Readiness\" in response to Tuesday's developments, WFAA-TV reported.\n\n\"I have no doubt that we will stop this in its tracks,\" Frieden said, but as long as the epidemic is spreading out of control in West Africa, \"we have to be on our guard.\"\n\nInfectious disease experts agreed with Frieden that Ebola is unlikely to spread very far in the USA because of stringent infection control measures in place at American hospitals. There are no plans to transfer the patient to a specialized hospital with a biocontainment unit, Frieden said, noting that any hospital that has the ability to isolate a patient can treat someone with Ebola.\n\nFrieden said there have been five cases of patients with similar hemorrhagic fevers in the USA, including Lassa fever and Marburg virus, and none of them infected anyone else.\n\n\"There is no cause for concern,\" says Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. \"The Ebola virus is not easily transmitted from person to person, and we have an outstanding infrastructure in place both to contain the virus and trace contacts. There will not be an Ebola epidemic in the United States.\"\n\nGiroir noted that other Ebola patients who have been airlifted from West Africa to American hospitals have done well, at least partly because of the good intensive care provided.\n\n\"We need to take this extremely serious and with extraordinary care, but Ebola is able to be controlled with appropriate isolation and public health measures,\" Giroir says. The Dallas hospital is \"an extraordinarily fine hospital with very capable physicians and staff.\"\n\nTuesday evening, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced plans to visit Dallas to evaluate the response to the Ebola situation.\n\nStandard public health measures for Ebola include asking patients when they first fell ill and for the names of everyone with whom they've been in contact since then. Officials contact all those people and monitor anyone at risk for 21 days to see whether they develop symptoms of Ebola, Frieden said.\n\nPatients who aren't sick by that point aren't considered at risk for Ebola. Patients who develop fevers are isolated immediately and given treatment, Frieden said.\n\nThose time-consuming but low-tech methods were used to contain the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. The CDC reported today that the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria appears to be over after 20 confirmed or probable cases and eight deaths. An Ebola outbreak in Senegal has been successfully confined to one patient, who traveled to that country from Guinea but didn't infect anyone in Senegal.\n\nEbola has infected 6,553 people and has killed 3,083 in the three countries hit hardest by the epidemic — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — the World Health Organization says. The number of cases has doubled every three weeks, and the CDC estimates that the disease could affect up to 1.4 million people by January if it's not quickly put under control.\n\nThree Americans have survived Ebola after getting intensive care in specialized biocontainment units in the USA.\n\nPhysician Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol were treated and released from Emory University Hospital, and physician Richard Sacra was treated and discharged from Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Writebol and Sacra served in Monrovia, Liberia, with missionary group SIM USA. Brantly worked with missionary group Samaritan's Purse.\n\nAll three received experimental therapies, because there are no approved vaccines or treatments for Ebola.\n\nBrantly and Writebol got the experimental drug ZMapp, which contains man-made antibodies against Ebola. Supplies of that drug — which was early in the development process when the Ebola epidemic broke out — are exhausted.\n\nSacra received a drug called TKM-Ebola, which blocks the virus' ability to replicate. In addition, Brantly received a blood donation from an Ebola survivor while he was in Liberia. Brantly then donated blood to Sacra.\n\nDoctors don't know whether any of these experimental treatments were responsible for curing patients or if the Americans survived because of excellent supportive care to prevent dehydration and other dangerous complications.\n\nAbout 70% of Ebola patients in this outbreak have died, according to the World Health Organization.\n\nSen. Chris Coons, D-Del., urged people not to react with fear to the news of the Dallas patient.\n\n\"Americans need to remain calm and listen to the precautionary measures being suggested by the CDC,\" said Coons, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. \"Ebola cannot be contracted through the air or the water supply and requires direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone already infected and exhibiting symptoms. It was only a matter of time before an Ebola case would be emerge here in the United States, but as we're seeing in Dallas today, our public health system has the resources, capabilities and knowledge to address and contain this virus quickly and safely.\"\n\nCoons praised the U.S. effort to help fight Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.\n\n\"The U.S. is doing the right thing by stepping up to the growing challenge of combating the spread of Ebola in West Africa and developing a vaccine and treatment,\" Coons said. \"Without America's aggressive and proactive engagement, there is a real threat that this virus might become a global pandemic.\"\n\nPresident Obama has committed more than $750 million in resources and is deploying 3,000 troops. Coons noted that Congress authorized $58 million in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services to expedite development, testing and production of a vaccine and treatment.\n\nContributing: Janet St. James and Josh Davis, WFAA-TV, Dallas.\n\n\n\n", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/09/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/28/biolabs-pathogens-location-incidents/26587505/", "title": "Inside America's secretive biolabs", "text": "Alison Young and Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY\n\nVials of bioterror bacteria have gone missing. Lab mice infected with deadly viruses have escaped, and wild rodents have been found making nests with research waste. Cattle infected in a university's vaccine experiments were repeatedly sent to slaughter and their meat sold for human consumption. Gear meant to protect lab workers from lethal viruses such as Ebola and bird flu has failed, repeatedly.\n\nA USA TODAY Network investigation reveals that hundreds of lab mistakes, safety violations and near-miss incidents have occurred in biological laboratories coast to coast in recent years, putting scientists, their colleagues and sometimes even the public at risk.\n\nOversight of biological research labs is fragmented, often secretive and largely self-policing, the investigation found. And even when research facilities commit the most egregious safety or security breaches — as more than 100 labs have — federal regulators keep their names secret.\n\nOf particular concern are mishaps occurring at institutions working with the world's most dangerous pathogens in biosafety level 3 and 4 labs — the two highest levels of containment that have proliferated since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Yet there is no publicly available list of these labs, and the scope of their research and safety records are largely unknown to most state health departments charged with responding to disease outbreaks. Even the federal government doesn't know where they all are, the Government Accountability Office has warned for years.\n\nA team of reporters who work for the USA TODAY Network of Gannett newspapers and TV stations identified more than 200 of these high-containment lab facilities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia operated by government agencies, universities and private companies. They're scattered across the country from the heart of New York City to a valley in Montana; from an area near Seattle's Space Needle to just a few blocks from Kansas City's Country Club Plaza restaurant and shopping district.\n\nHigh-profile lab accidents last year with anthrax, Ebola and bird flu at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the discovery of forgotten vials of deadly smallpox virus at the National Institutes of Health raised widespread concerns about lab safety and security nationwide and whether current oversight is adequate to protect workers and the public. Wednesday the Department of Defense disclosed one of its labs in Utah mistakenly sent samples of live anthrax -- instead of killed specimens – to labs across the USA plus a military base in South Korea where 22 people are now being treated with antibiotics because of their potential exposure to the bioterror pathogen. As many as 18 labs in nine states received the samples, the CDC said Thursday.\n\n\"What the CDC incidents showed us ... is that the very best labs are not perfectly safe,\" says Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard University professor of epidemiology. \"If it can happen there, it certainly can happen anywhere.\"\n\nSome people find little reassurance that nobody was sickened in the CDC accidents or in the historically low numbers of serious infections among lab workers generally, or that infections spreading into communities surrounding labs have been rarer still.\n\n\"Many of us think that's really a matter of good fortune,\" said Beth Willis, who chairs a citizen lab advisory panel in Frederick, Md., home to one of the nation's largest high-containment research campuses at the Army's Fort Detrick.\n\nThe country's best labs have robust safety programs, said Kenneth Berns, co-chair of a panel of outside lab safety advisers currently examining biosafety at CDC and other federal labs. Yet the systemic safety problems identified at the CDC's prestigious labs have raised questions about what's happening elsewhere. \"It's a matter of some concern,\" said Berns, a distinguished professor emeritus of molecular genetics and microbiology at the University of Florida.\n\nThe consequences could be devastating if accidents were to occur with lab-created strains of deadly influenza viruses that are purposely engineered to be easier to spread than what's found in nature, said David Relman, a microbiology professor at Stanford University who is a federal adviser on lab safety and a past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.\n\n\"You're talking about something that has the ability to take off, and we could not be confident of being able to contain it,\" he said.\n\nRelman said that not enough is known about the state of safety at labs that perform infectious disease research but emphasized that the kinds of labs drawing concern are the same ones the public needs to discover important new treatments and vaccines. \"We have to find some happy blend of minimized risk and enhanced benefit,\" he said.\n\nAt the high-containment labs identified by USA TODAY, experiments are underway involving drug-resistant tuberculosis, exotic strains of flu, the SARS and MERS viruses, plague, anthrax, botulism, ricin and the Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever viruses, according to interviews and more than 20,000 pages of internal lab safety records and incident reports obtained from labs across the country.\n\nStudies are also being done on a wide range of bioterrorism pathogens that are less known to the public, such as the agents that cause exotic diseases like tularemia, Q fever and melioidosis. Still others are focused on pathogens that pose serious economic risks to agriculture, such as foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis and \"mad cow\" disease.\n\nAt a few labs, experiments have been done with strains of flu and other viruses purposely made to be more dangerous in studies that seek to understand how they might mutate naturally. White House science advisers called for a temporary halt of that kind of \"gain of function\" research last fall while expert scientific panels spend the next year studying its risks and benefits.\n\nThe research at BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs — which use special equipment, negative air pressure and numerous safety and security procedures — seeks to better understand how organisms cause disease and ways to protect against them. It's the kind of work that the public doesn't give much thought to until people with Ebola arrive on planes in the United States from an outbreak in Africa, or the current avian flu outbreak forces farmers to kill millions of chickens raising the specter of higher egg prices.\n\nIt's impossible to obtain a full accounting of lab accidents or lab-acquired infections because there is no universal, mandatory requirement for reporting them and no system to analyze trends to assess emerging biosafety risks and disseminate lessons learned on a regular basis.\n\nThe Federal Select Agent Program, which inspects and regulates the subset of research labs that experiment with about four dozen types of pathogens deemed to pose bioterror threats, requires labs to report potential exposure or release incidents, as well as thefts or losses of specimens.\n\nFrom 2006 through 2013, labs notified federal regulators of about 1,500 incidents with select agent pathogens and, in more than 800 cases, workers received medical treatment or evaluation, limited public data in program annual reports show. Fifteen people contracted laboratory-acquired infections and there were three unintended infections of animals, according to the reports, which do not identify labs and mostly provide aggregated counts of incidents by type. Reported incidents involve events ranging from spills to failures of personal protective equipment or mechanical systems to needle sticks and animal bites.\n\nThe program, jointly run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, refuses to release copies of detailed incident reports, citing a 2002 bioterrorism law.\n\nIncident records the USA TODAY Network obtained directly from individual labs provide a window on the kinds of mistakes that happen. An animal caretaker in Georgia was potentially exposed to a bird flu virus that kills 60% of the people it infects when a defective respirator hose supplying purified air detached from its coupling in September. A researcher in Wisconsin was quarantined for seven days in 2013 after a needle stick with a version of the same H5N1 influenza virus. A lab worker in Colorado failed to ensure specimens of the deadly bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei had been killed before shipping them in May 2014 to a co-worker in a lower-level lab who handled them without critical protective gear. None of the workers was infected.\n\nThe public and the lab community tend to learn only about the rare instances of serious or fatal lab infections, which sometimes are published as case reports in scientific journals or make national news.\n\nIn 2009, Malcolm Casadaban, a University of Chicago scientist with an underlying medical condition, died from an infection with a weakened strain of plague bacteria. In 2012, 25-year-old researcher Richard Din died after being infected during vaccine research involving Neisseria meningitides bacteria at a lab inside San Francisco's VA medical center. Both of their deaths involved research in biosafety level 2 labs, where pathogens are considered to be less dangerous than those worked with in high-containment labs.\n\nDin, who became a researcher to cure diseases like the cancer that killed his mother, developed a fever and started feeling dizzy while out to dinner with friends. He had no idea how serious his symptoms were, his friends and family told USA TODAY. By morning, Din was covered in a splotchy rash and could barely talk, recalled Lawrence Tsai, who raced to Din's apartment to help.\n\nTsai carried his friend down two flights of stairs and drove him to the hospital. \"His body was very hard, very straight,\" Tsai said. \"Only his eyes were open. He could not say anything.\"\n\nA few hours later, Din was dead. And Tsai said he and his friends were told they, too, were at risk and needed to take antibiotics because of their close contact with him. The bacteria that killed Din can spread from person to person by direct contact with respiratory secretions. About two dozen emergency room workers also were treated with antibiotics as a precaution, according to a presentation about the case at a scientific conference. Nobody else was sickened.\n\nFederal workplace safety investigators, who investigated because the case involved a death, said Din died because the VA failed to adequately supervise and protect workers in the research lab. Among the \"serious\" issues they cited: Din and other workers in the lab were manipulating specimens of the dangerous bacteria out on tabletops — not inside protective biosafety cabinets that would have reduced potential exposures to droplets or splashes. The lab also failed to train workers about warning signs of infection, violation records show.\n\nAlthough lab-created outbreaks that spread to people or animals in the surrounding community are rare, they have happened.\n\n\"That's what you would worry about,\" said Gigi Kwik Gronvall, of the UPMC Center for Health Security, an independent think tank that studies biosecurity and epidemics. \"But even then the consequences up to now have been limited to the very close contacts of the person who was infected.\"\n\nA small, deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China in 2004 was traced to lab workers at the National Institute of Virology in Beijing. In 2007, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease among cattle in England that required herds to be slaughtered was blamed on leaking drainage pipes at a nearby research complex.\n\nIn Louisiana, tests are underway to make sure a deadly bioterror bacterium hasn't colonized the soil and water around the Tulane National Primate Research Center near New Orleans. Late last year, the bacteria got out of one of the center's BSL-3 labs, likely hitching a ride on workers' clothing, sickening two monkeys that lived in outdoor cages and later infecting others. Tulane will spend the next five years testing its outdoor monkey colony as well as wildlife and feral cats around the 500-acre facility to ensure the bacteria haven't contaminated the environment. The CDC and Tulane say they think the bacteria spread only inside the center's buildings, and so far tests outdoors have not detected the bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, which can cause severe and difficult-to-treat illness in people and animals infected by coming into contact with contaminated soil or water.\n\nOn a global scale, a lab accident is considered by many scientists to be the likely explanation for how an H1N1 flu strain re-emerged in 1977 that was so genetically similar to one that had disappeared before 1957 it looked as if it had been \"preserved\" over the decades. The re-emergence \"was probably an accidental release from a laboratory source,\" according to a 2009 article in the New England Journal of Medicine.\n\nHowever, most pathogens studied in labs, unlike the flu, don't spread easily from person to person. Often, to become infected a person needs to have direct contact with a pathogen, which is why lab workers are most at risk, experts said. For example, people can become infected with anthrax by inhaling the bacterium's spores, but once sickened they are not contagious, according to the CDC.\n\n\"I don't think the public needs to be too concerned,\" said Marian Downing, president of the American Biological Safety Association. \"There are multiple levels of checks and balances in place.\"\n\nBeyond accidental lab-associated outbreaks, federal auditors consider the deliberate theft and misuse of a deadly pathogen to be one of the most significant risks of biolab research. That's what the FBI says happened in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that killed five and sickened 17. Bruce Ivins, a biologist and anthrax researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., was the perpetrator, the FBI concluded.\n\nThe GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, has issued repeated warnings since 2007 that the proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories has increased the aggregate risk of accidental or intentional releases of viruses, bacteria or toxins.\n\nNo single agency tracks the overall number or location of these labs, the GAO has said. Little is known about high-containment labs working with dangerous pathogens such as tuberculosis, the MERS virus and others that aren't on the select agent list and tracked by the Federal Select Agent Program.\n\nNational standards for constructing and operating these kinds of labs are lacking, which means labs vary by local building requirements. While voluntary guidance exists for safe lab design and operations, the GAO has found it is not universally followed.\n\nThe documents obtained by USA TODAY show power failures at BSL-3 labs at Texas A&M University repeatedly resulted in the labs losing their negative air pressure during 2013, a key safety feature that is among several used to keep pathogens contained inside the lab. The CDC's labs in Atlanta also have had airflow problems over the years, the newspaper previously reported.\n\n\"The public is concerned about these laboratories because exposing workers and the public to dangerous pathogens, whether deliberate or accidental, can have disastrous consequences,\" the GAO's Nancy Kingsbury told Congress at a hearing on the CDC lab incidents last summer.\n\nLab regulators at the Federal Select Agent Program — whose departments often fund the research they oversee — would not grant interviews despite repeated requests since last year. The program oversees about 262 organizations that operate BSL-3 and eight organizations that operate BSL-4 labs.\n\nThe two federal agencies that jointly run the program — the CDC and USDA — operate their own labs, which have been involved in recent high-profile incidents.\n\n\"We believe the current system of inspecting/overseeing laboratories is adequate, but we are always open to continued improvements,\" the CDC said in an emailed statement. USDA officials also declined to be interviewed.\n\nLab safety officials at the National Institutes of Health, a major research funding agency that operates its own labs and helps set national biosafety guidelines, also declined interview requests.\n\n\"There is no 'zero-risk' proposition in the conduct of research,\" the agency said in a statement. \"NIH works extremely hard to minimize all research-related risks.\"\n\nMore than 100 labs experimenting with potential bioterror agents have been cited by regulators at the CDC and USDA for serious safety and security failings since 2003, USA TODAY has learned.\n\nYet so much of select agent oversight is cloaked in secrecy, making it difficult to assess regulators' effectiveness in ensuring safety. In several instances, troubled labs and even federal regulators appeared to misrepresent the significance of the government's enforcement efforts.\n\nSince 2003, the CDC has referred 79 labs for potential enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. It has levied fines against 19 of them totaling more than $2.4 million, the CDC said in response to questions.\n\nSome are repeat offenders. Five labs have had \"multiple referrals\" for enforcement actions, the CDC said. Two labs have been kicked out of the program, and five labs have been suspended from doing any select agent research, the agency said.\n\nWhich labs repeatedly failed to address safety problems? The CDC won't name names — not even for the two labs kicked out of the select agent program. The CDC and its regulatory partners at the USDA say the 2002 bioterrorism law requires keeping this information secret.\n\nYet earlier this year, the CDC publicly announced its suspension of the Tulane National Primate Research Center — after the center's accidental release of a bioterror bacterium became publicly known and was the subject of news reports. The CDC said it balances the public's right to transparency with the risk posed by information being made available to those who might use it to threaten public health or security.\n\nCurrently seven labs are under the extra scrutiny of a federal select agent lab performance improvement program, the CDC said. The program is offered as a voluntary alternative to suspension or other regulatory action, the agency said, for labs with a \"repeated failure to correct past observation, biosafety and security concerns\" or failures to comply with extra security requirements for work with \"Tier 1\" select agents. Tier 1 agents are those deemed to pose the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with the most significant potential for mass casualties or devastating economic effects.\n\nWhile under scrutiny of the program, an individual researcher or project must halt the research that has been found in violation, but other select agent research at the institution generally is allowed to continue, the CDC said.\n\nThirty-three labs have been put on performance improvement programs since 2008, CDC said. Their names are secret too.\n\nDozens more labs have faced regulatory actions from the USDA, which takes the lead overseeing select agent labs primarily working with animal or agricultural pathogens. The USDA says it has conducted 48 investigations that have resulted in $116,750 in fines.\n\nThe USDA said all of its enforcement records about these fines are required to be kept secret because of the 2002 bioterrorism law. The USDA did release a spreadsheet it says documents its actions, but the agency redacted almost all the information on it: lab names, violation types and even dates. Only a few references to warning letters and fines were spared the agency's black marker.\n\nThe Federal Select Agent Program says no law or regulation bars the labs themselves from discussing their select agent research. And universities and other research institutions routinely publish their research on select agent pathogens in scientific journals.\n\nRegistered labs just aren't supposed to share details of specific security measures, such as locations of keys and codes, that would give access to pathogens. The CDC and USDA said there is nothing that prohibits labs from releasing information or answering questions about any regulatory problems they've had. Yet few were willing to readilydiscuss violations or failed inspections.\n\nLabs at the University of Hawaii-Manoa are among those in the federal performance improvement program, at least as of January, records obtained by USA TODAY show. Although the secrecy provisions of the 2002 bioterrorism law apply only to certain federal agencies, officials at the state-run university cited that law among its reasons for denying requests for records about safety violations and the performance improvement program.\n\nThe university inadvertently confirmed that its Honolulu labs had been put in the performance improvement program in records it filed in January with Hawaii's Office of Information Practices, which is deciding USA TODAY's public records appeal. The university wrote that being put on a PIP is something it is \"proud\" of.\n\n\"We do not believe entering into the program is an embarrassment, we think it should be showcased, but that would be improper because as participants in the Federal Select Agent Program, we are obligated to keep this information private,\" the university wrote to the appeals agency, adding that it \"has been an exemplary participant in the Federal Select Agent Program.\"\n\nUniversity of Hawaii officials declined to be interviewed.\n\nLast year, two labs agreed to pay fines handed down by the HHS Office of Inspector General for select agent violations, records show.\n\nA lab that federal officials would describe only as an \"Arizona research university\" agreed in 2014 to pay a $165,000 fine for failing to keep accurate inventory records for select agents and not having biosafety procedures adequate for the risks associated with the pathogens they worked with. The lab, the USA TODAY Network's reporting found, was Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Lab director Paul Keim said the issues date back to 2010 when the university had difficulty keeping up with changing federal regulations. Since then the university's labs have passed several inspections, he said.\n\nAn unnamed Florida laboratory agreed to pay $50,000 to resolve violations that included failing to ensure accurate inventories of select agents and failing to notify the CDC and appropriate law enforcement agencies after discovering a missing select agent.\n\nThe inspector general's office, citing regulations stemming from the 2002 bioterrorism law, redacted the names of these labs, as well as all other labs receiving fines, in documents it provided to USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act. Other labs that have been fined over the years for select agent violations are located in Alabama, California, Missouri, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, records show.\n\nAs a way of providing some oversight, Congress requires a report each year on the number of thefts, losses and releases of bioterror pathogens at labs regulated by the Federal Select Agent Program.\n\nYet regulators provide scant details of their activities and the problems identified at labs. Usually just three pages long plus a cover page, the reports contain only aggregated counts of lab incidents by type, plus vague information on a few serious incidents.\n\nThe select agent program told Congress it had \"imposed a $425,000 civil money penalty\" on an unnamed lab where a serious biosafety lapse in 2008 had resulted in a cow in a nearby disease-free herd becoming infected with Brucella bacteria, which cause brucellosis.\n\nBrucellosis is a contagious and economically significant agricultural disease — which causes cattle and other livestock to abort their fetuses, produce less milk, suffer weight loss, infertility and lameness. It has been the subject of eradication efforts for decades.\n\nThe $425,000 fine would have been one of the largest in the overall select agent program's history — if it had actually been imposed.\n\nBut it wasn't imposed, USA TODAY's investigation found, and the USDA never corrected the record with Congress.\n\nUSA TODAY was able to identify the Brucella research program at Louisiana State University's AgCenter in Baton Rouge as the likely recipient of the $425,000 fine by examining USDA animal health reports that tallied what states reported brucellosis cases in 2008. Louisiana, which had a case that year, had been declared brucellosis-free in 2000.\n\nLSU officials spent months denying USA TODAY access to its records about the incident, citing among other things select agent regulations unrelated to the requested information. In statements and interviews, LSU downplayed its violations and provided information that was later contradicted by federal records.\n\n\"The incident was not found to be caused by a violation of federal regulations; no fines were imposed upon LSU, and the regulatory agencies had uncertainty as to whether the strain of bacteria in the affected cow was the same strain that was being used in the LSU research,\" LSU officials said in a November 2014 email to USA TODAY.\n\nYet, in December 2014, when USA TODAY received copies of the incident investigation reports from the USDA and Louisiana's state agriculture department, the documents showed no uncertainty.\n\nUSDA records show that investigators documented serious violations. In levying the $425,000 fine, regulators cited LSU for failing to have adequate biosafety measures, resulting in the release of the bacteria that caused the cow's infection. The USDA also cited LSU for violating regulations by sending Brucella-infected cattle that had been part of select agent vaccine experiments to an unregistered slaughter facility where their meat was sold for human consumption.\n\nLSU's Phil Elzer, who at the time ran the Brucella studies and now is a university administrator, said in an interview the practice of sending research cattle to slaughter was declared in the lab's operating procedures that were reviewed and signed off on at each inspection by Federal Select Agent Program regulators. \"To all of a sudden say we were doing it wrong was very surprising,\" Elzer said. LSU appealed, and the USDA eventually dropped the fine, he said.\n\nIn January 2010, records show, the USDA sent a letter to LSU saying the case was being closed but reiterating the issues with the infected cow and the use of the unauthorized slaughter plant.\n\nUSDA officials acknowledge that they never imposed the $425,000 fine and made a mistake touting it in their report to Congress.\n\n\"It should have stated that we were proposing a fine, instead of stating we issued a fine,\" said Freeda Isaac, USDA's director of Agriculture Select Agent Services, in an emailed statement. Isaac added that the USDA suspended a portion of LSU's select agent registration because of the Brucella incident and \"that portion of the registration is still suspended,\" Isaac said last fall.\n\nFor those labs not in the select agent program — and even those that are — self-policing is the front line of biosafety. Biosafety committees at research institutions, often staffed by scientists' colleagues, assess the risks of proposed research and grant or deny approval for studies. Labs also have other safety staff who may do internal inspections and lab audits, plus additional committees overseeing the use of animals in research.\n\nYet some researchers appear ignorant of their institutions' biosafety rules. Others brazenly ignore repeated requests by biosafety staff to stop experiments and address issues.\n\nDocuments obtained by the USA TODAY Network include at least 50 incidents since 2012 in which researchers were conducting experiments with genetically manipulated organisms without proper approval from internal safety committees. In some cases, records show researchers flaunting their institutional rules.\n\n• At the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in, biosafety staff concluded in a 2013 report that the root causes of a researcher failing to get her experiments approved included \"general indifference of the investigator to institutional rules governing the need for biosafety compliance\" as well as a \"lack of oversight of research activities.\" The scientist, the investigation revealed, knowingly launched unapproved experiments — exposing mice to a genetically manipulated strain of Burkholderia thailandensis — in a quest to get a vaccine study manuscript published that reviewers said needed additional data. The research was halted after veterinarians found several cages containing dead and dying mice, yet none of the cages was labeled with the infectious agent and they were in an area not approved for experiments with a BSL-2 pathogen. The incident was \"an extremely unusual event,\" said Sheila Champlin, an assistant vice chancellor at the center, noting corrective actions were taken before the scientist was allowed to resume research.\n\n• At the University of Iowa, a biosafety officer in February 2014 discovered that a scientist had been conducting experiments with a genetically manipulated strain of the MERS virus since September 2013 without biosafety committee approval. The biosafety officer ordered the investigator to stop all experiments, and the scientist was put on probation and received increased safety monitoring. The work was being done in a BSL-3 lab at the time it was discovered, but started in a BSL-2 lab, the safety officer's investigation found. The university concluded that the scientist did not \"effectively communicate\" to his staff the importance of getting safety committee approval before starting the experiments with the virus, which can cause a deadly, contagious respiratory disease in people.\n\n• At the University of California-Irvine, a researcher ignored repeated notices from biosafety staff during 2012 and 2013 that a research project's approval had expired, that it needed further revisions and that all work must cease — yet the scientist continued the experiments with a lentivirus, anyway, in the BSL-2 lab. As a result of the incident, the university now sends researchers four notices starting 90 days before approvals expire, said James Hicks, the university's associate vice chancellor of research. As the deadline nears, Hicks is copied on the notices so he can intervene if necessary. \"We take a very strong view and a very correct view of the importance of following the regulations and the guidelines,\" he said in an interview.\n\n• At the University of Nebraska, a biosafety officer in 2013 found that a researcher had continued growing plants as part of an experiment using a transgenic tobacco rattle virus vector — despite being told repeatedly over two months that additional approval was needed from the biosafety committee before research could begin. As a result of the incident, the university said it revised its biosafety guidelines to describe consequences of unapproved research and sent a letter to faculty. \"This was an isolated instance that was fully and successfully resolved,\" the university said.\n\n• At the University of Hawaii-Manoa, biosafety staff discovered a scientist was doing a type of cancer research in 2012 despite being denied biosafety committee approval and being repeatedly told not to do the experiments. Separately, at a March 2013 biosafety committee meeting at the university, members discussed the need for penalties when researchers fail to comply with biosafety rules, stating \"there must be some consequence and corrective action other than an email\" to the scientist, the minutes say.\n\nLabs that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health and some other federal agencies are required to report incidents to the NIH involving certain types of genetically engineered organisms and recombinant DNA technology. From 2010 through 2014, the NIH received 644 reports of lab incidents during this kind of research.\n\nMost of the reports the NIH receives are for what it says are non-serious incidents, such as small spills, splashes, cuts and equipment failures. Failure to obtain required biosafety committee approvals to do this type of research are among the more common types of non-compliance.\n\nAlthough it is not a regulatory agency, the NIH said in a statement that agency staff have made site visits to 100 institutions in recent years in an effort to help improve biosafety committee resources and adherence to the NIH Guidelines for operating their labs.\n\n\"Most instances of non-compliance result from a lack of full understanding of the requirements of the NIH Guidelines, rather than willful disregard, and our emphasis has been on corrective actions through education, which institutions seem uniformly responsive to,\" the NIH said.\n\nIn September 2014, the NIH contacted the University of Louisville after a whistle-blower alleged the university had knowingly failed to report lab incidents as required, according to records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act. In response, the university told the NIH that it discovered three incidents that were not reported to the NIH but should have been, the records show.\n\nThe records indicate that University of Louisville biosafety officials were aware of some of the unreported incidents as much as six months before the NIH opened its inquiry. William Pierce Jr., the university's executive vice president for research and innovation, in a statement to USA TODAY, said \"there was apparent confusion regarding the authority and responsibility for reporting violations to the NIH.\" Pierce said the university has hired an outside firm to oversee its biosafety committee and created training courses for scientists. \"We feel confident the current system is working,\" he said.\n\nThe NIH closed its inquiry after the university answered the agency's questions, filed reports on the previously unreported incidents and agreed to take actions to ensure better reporting in the future.\n\n\"In investigating the incident, we did not find any evidence of willful non-compliance,\" the NIH said in response to USA TODAY's questions.\n\nFor some residents living near labs, the lack of transparency is frustrating — and worrisome. It's not enough to tell the public the labs have robust safety procedures. \"What people are really interested in is how well it's working,\" said Beth Willis, the citizen lab safety representative near Fort Detrick. \"The more people in the community feel that there's secrecy, the more they're distrustful, whether their distrust is warranted or not.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/05/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/01/ebola-survivor-sex/26698329/", "title": "Liberian woman appears to have contracted Ebola through sex with ...", "text": "Liz Szabo\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nA Liberian woman appears to have contracted Ebola from unprotected sex with a man who survived the virus, health officials said today.\n\nThe 44-year-old woman was diagnosed March 20, the first new Ebola case in Liberia in a month. Doctors were perplexed by her case, because she hadn't been to a funeral or had any other contact with current patients, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nBut the woman did have unprotected vaginal intercourse a few weeks earlier, with a 45-year-old Ebola survivor who has been free of the disease for months. The man developed the disease in September and was discharged from a treatment center in early October. That man also had sex with a second woman, who has not tested positive for Ebola, the CDC says.\n\nAlthough doctors have known for some time that the Ebola virus can survive in semen long after a patient is considered cured, there has never been a clear, documented case of this happening, according to the CDC report.\n\nPeople who survive Ebola — and whose blood tests show no sign of the virus — are generally considered to be non-infectious. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids and typically spreads through blood, a fact that has put health workers at very high risk of Ebola. People cannot spread the virus through casual contact, such as working in the same office or riding the bus. Ebola does not spread through the air.\n\nBut studies conducted during previous outbreaks have found that the Ebola virus can be found in semen up to 82 days after a patient's initial symptoms. Scientists don't know if the man's semen contains live Ebola viruses, although they plan to conduct such tests, the CDC report says.\n\nTests of the man's semen did find genetic material from the Ebola virus, called RNA. The tests were performed 199 days — or about 6½ months — after he first developed symptoms, suggesting that the genetic material can remain in semen much longer than previously known. Earlier studies have found genetic material from Ebola up to 101 days after the beginning of symptoms, the CDC says.\n\nThe CDC notes only one previous case of a possible sexual transmission of Ebola, although the new report describes the evidence as \"inconclusive.\" Researchers also documented a possible case in which someone contracted the Marburg virus — which is similar to Ebola — in 1968.\n\nThe CDC has long warned Ebola survivors to either abstain from sex for three months or to use condoms during that time. Now, the CDC advises people to avoid contact with semen from male survivors. Men who survive Ebola should use condoms if they have sex and take care when disposing of the condoms.\n\nAccording to the World Health Organization, 26,298 people have been infected with Ebola in the West African outbreak, and 10,892 have died, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.\n\nLiberia has had no new Ebola cases in five weeks. That country's last confirmed case died March 27. The WHO declares countries to be Ebola-free 42 days after the last known case. If there are no additional cases, Liberia could be declared Ebola-free May 9.\n\nA total of 33 new cases were diagnosed in Sierra Leone and Guinea in the week ending April 26, the WHO says. No health workers have been diagnosed with Ebola for the past two weeks. More than 865 health workers have been infected with the virus and 504 have died.\n\nGuinea and Sierra Leone are still struggling to control risky practices that can spread Ebola, such as traditional burials in which mourners touch the dead. According to the WHO, 66 unsafe burials were held in Guinea the week that ended April 26.\n\nDuring the same week, eight Ebola victims in Guinea were diagnosed only after death. That's a dangerous trend, because people who remain at home during their illness can spread the virus to many other people. Doctors have tried to isolate Ebola patients in treatment centers, both to keep them from transmitting the virus, as well as to provide the best chance of survival.\n\nIn related news, a patient admitted to a hospital in Charlotte, N.C., has tested negative for Ebola. The patient had been isolated at Carolinas Medical Center because of Ebola-like symptoms and recent travel to West Africa.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/05/01"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957381/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-18-july-2022?amp", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 18 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "IMF calls for tax hikes\n\nCutting UK taxes now would be a mistake, a top official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. As several Tory leadership hopefuls promise tax cuts, Mark Flanagan, who leads the IMF’s UK team, told BBC News that “debt-financed tax cuts at this point would be a mistake”. He argued that it would be better to raise taxes: “At some point you have to decide, do we want to invest in the climate transition? Do we want invest in digitalisation? Do we want to invest in skills for the public? Well, if you do, you need the resources to do it.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/13/fact-check-swine-flu-spread-rapidly-but-not-deadly-covid-19/5577001002/", "title": "Fact check: 2009 swine flu spread rapidly, but COVID-19 is more ...", "text": "The claim: The 2009 swine flu pandemic had 56 million more cases in the U.S. than coronavirus and we did nothing.\n\nOver the past several months, social media users have made comparisons between the spreading coronavirus and past disease outbreaks.\n\nSome widely shared Facebook posts have compared the coronavirus to the 2009 H1N1 \"swine flu\" pandemic, pointing out that the swine flu had 56 million more cases in its first year than the coronavirus has had so far.\n\nThe posts, which lack any context about the number of deaths from either virus, question the U.S. response to the coronavirus, given the response to the swine flu based on the apparent disparity in the number of cases.\n\n\"How many months were schools closed back then? How long did we wear masks?\" an Aug. 2 post from the page Awkward Gym Moments says.\n\n\"Only 56 million to go until we equal swine flu in 2009 when we did nothing then,\" says a July 26 post from the Facebook user David Pike Sr., which had 22,000 shares as of Thursday.\n\nNeither user responded to a USA TODAY request for comment.\n\nMore:The benefits of clear face masks—and where to buy them\n\nA look back at swine flu\n\nIn spring 2009, a new strain of the H1N1 virus that became known as \"swine flu\" began circulating in the United States. On June 11, the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic.\n\nFrom April 12, 2009, to April 10, 2010, the virus infected more than 60 million people in the U.S., according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nCDC estimates show those infections resulted in about 274,000 hospitalizations and 12,500 deaths, or a fatality rate of 0.02% among cases. The CDC estimates that 151,700 to 575,400 people died from that flu worldwide. The swine flu affected predominately children and young- to middle-aged adults: According to the CDC, 80% of deaths worldwide were in people under 65.\n\nMore:A new swine flu strain found in Chinese pigs has 'pandemic potential,' experts say\n\nWhile the U.S. government in spring 2009 initially recommended schools shut down temporarily if there were suspected cases, it soon changed its recommendation based on the lower severity of the virus. However, hundreds of schools did shut down for a few days in the spring and fall because of the rapid spread of the virus.\n\nDr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a video interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year that the swine flu was easily transmitted but was not as deadly as some other pandemics.\n\n\"That spread very, very well, but the fatality rate was quite low, and that’s the reason why it wasn’t dubbed as a particularly serious pandemic, even though it spread very rapidly,\" Fauci said.\n\nMore:Fact check: What's true and what's false about coronavirus?\n\nHow do H1N1, COVID-19 compare?\n\nThe death toll for the novel coronavirus is already exponentially higher than that of H1N1, despite having just a fraction of the number of infections in a fraction of the time.\n\nSince the first reported U.S. coronavirus death on Feb. 29, there have been more than 166,000 U.S. deaths – more than 13 times the estimated number of U.S. swine flu deaths in its first year – according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 750,000 people have died of COVID-19, significantly more than the highest swine flu death estimate from the CDC.\n\nThe CDC estimates the coronavirus has an infection fatality rate of 0.65%. Unlike the swine flu, those primarily at risk for coronavirus are older adults and those with underlying medical conditions.\n\nDr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told USA TODAY that because the severity of the coronavirus is quite different from that of the swine flu, the U.S. response needed to be significantly different, too.\n\nBenjamin said the U.S. was able to develop a vaccine relatively quickly to combat the swine flu. The first doses of the swine flu vaccine were given on Oct. 5, just five months and 20 days after the first confirmed U.S. case, and were available in larger quantities in November. But there is no coronavirus vaccine.\n\nBenjamin said therapeutics like Theraflu also aided the U.S. response to the swine flu, while therapeutics for COVID-19 have taken longer to develop.\n\n\"We're just now beginning to get some stuff that gives us a little chance to have something that kind of works (and) shortens the hospital stay,\" he said.\n\nOur ruling: Missing context\n\nIt's true that the CDC estimates the 2009 swine flu pandemic infected an estimated 60.8 million people in its first year, versus about 5 million COVID-19 cases confirmed in the U.S. But that comparison lacks important context about the severity of each virus. While the swine flu spread easily, the virus had only a fraction of the fatality rate of COVID-19. A comparison between the two that lacks this context when comparing the nation's response is incomplete. For that reason, we rate this post as MISSING CONTEXT.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nIan Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com.\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/04/30/fact-check-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-death-wont-depopulate-planet/7411271002/", "title": "Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines don't cause death, won't depopulate ...", "text": "The claim: Coronavirus vaccines are killing people and will decimate the world’s population\n\nSeveral widely shared videos and blog posts on Facebook say the COVID-19 vaccines are a matter of life and death – but not because of the risk of the disease.\n\nIn an article published April 22 and later taken down, a website called Red Pill University (a reference to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory) wrote that COVID-19 vaccines “will decimate world’s population.” As evidence, it cites a video featuring Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi.\n\nBhakdi is a microbiologist who has promoted ideas that run counter to the scientific consensus about the coronavirus pandemic, including the claim that face masks don’t protect against infection. In the video, which originally was published by the New American, a conservative magazine, Bhakdi says COVID-19 vaccines are deadly.\n\n“They are forcing vaccination on people, and I believe they are killing people with this vaccination,” he says during the video, which has more than 268,000 views on Rumble, a video-sharing platform.\n\n“Guys, don’t get a third or fourth or fifth (shot), because if you do that, you are going to contribute to the decimation of the world’s population,” he says later.\n\nOver the course of the 40-minute clip, Bhakdi calls the pandemic “a fake,” says wearing masks and quarantining is “absolutely ridiculous nonsense,” and coronavirus tests don’t work. In this fact-check, we’re focusing on the claim that COVID-19 vaccines are killing people.\n\nThat claim sounds scary coming from a scientist, but it's not accurate.\n\nThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use in the United States. Clinical trials involving tens of thousands of participants found the vaccines were safe and effective at preventing coronavirus infection, and millions of Americans have safely received them.\n\nThere’s no evidence the vaccines cause death, or that they will depopulate the planet – and clear evidence to the contrary.\n\nFact check:Biden didn't say July 4 celebrations may be canceled if people don't get COVID vaccinations\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to Red Pill University and the New American for comment.\n\nCoronavirus vaccines are safe, effective\n\nThe three COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use in the U.S. are one from Pfizer-BioNTech, one from Moderna and one from Janssen, a pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson. Public health officials say all are safe and effective at preventing COVID-19.\n\nOver the course of several months in 2020, more than 100,000 people participated in clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccines as a group. None of those trials found that the vaccines caused death. The FDA approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in December and the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in February.\n\nFact check:No, interacting with a vaccinated person won't cause miscarriage or menstrual changes\n\nSince then, more than 144 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nIf the vaccines were as deadly as Bhakdi says, we would surely see widespread and mounting deaths in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a federally managed database of self-reported vaccine side effects. There are reports of vaccine-related deaths in the VAERS database, but because anyone – from doctors and nurses to patients and parents – can submit cases, the CDC says those reports are unverified and may be inaccurate.\n\nFact check:CDC data on adverse effects of vaccine cannot determine cause\n\n“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” the CDC says on its website. “To date, VAERS has not detected patterns in cause of death that would indicate a safety problem with COVID-19 vaccines.”\n\nNo evidence of autoimmune responses\n\nBhakdi says in the video that the vaccines can kill people by causing autoimmune responses. He says that’s because messenger RNA (mRNA) “packages” – genetic strands in the Pfizer and Moderna shots that tell your body how to defend itself against the coronavirus – don’t leave the bloodstream and could cause your immune system to attack healthy cells.\n\nThat’s wrong on both fronts.\n\nFact-checkers have repeatedly debunked the notion that COVID-19 vaccines cause autoimmune disorders. There is no evidence to suggest they do, and Bhakdi’s rationale for the claim – that mRNA never leaves the bloodstream – isn’t accurate. Here’s how it works:\n\nWhen someone receives a vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna, mRNA strands program cells to produce spike proteins similar to those on the surface of the coronavirus. The body recognizes those proteins as invaders and produces antibodies to block them. Those antibodies prevent future coronavirus infections.\n\nOnce that process is completed, mRNA doesn’t linger in the bloodstream.\n\nFact check:FDA did not associate Pfizer's first vaccine dose with COVID-19 infections\n\n“The cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions,” the CDC says on its website.\n\nBlood clot cases extremely rare\n\nAccording to Bhakdi, another way COVID-19 vaccines are killing people is through the formation of deadly blood clots. That’s an inaccurate spin on recent news about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.\n\nIn mid-April, the CDC and the FDA recommended a pause in Johnson & Johnson shots after six cases of a rare type of blood clot were reported in women ages 18 to 48 among the nearly 7 million people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the time. One woman in Virginia died.\n\nFact check:CDC recommends masks in most cases even after COVID-19 vaccine\n\nAfter a review of the vaccine’s safety, public health officials recommended April 23 that Johnson & Johnson shots resume nationwide.\n\n“A review of all available data at this time shows that the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks,” the CDC says on its website. “However, women younger than 50 years old especially should be aware of the rare but increased risk of this adverse event and that there are other COVID-19 vaccine options available for which this risk has not been seen.”\n\nOur rating: False\n\nThe claim that coronavirus vaccines are killing people and will decimate the world’s population is FALSE, based on our research. Public health officials say all three coronavirus vaccines approved for emergency use in the U.S. are safe and effective at preventing infection. There is no evidence the vaccines cause deadly autoimmune disorders, and reports of blood clots following the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are extremely rare.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/04/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/09/fact-check-quarantine-sites-real-covid-19-claim-stretches-truth/5499196002/", "title": "Fact check: Quarantine sites are real; COVID-19 claim stretches truth", "text": "The claim: U.S. military has approved COVID-19 quarantine 'camps' that will access personal information and be monitored by militarized CDC police\n\nEarly in the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Defense's approval of military facilities for quarantine use was theorized to be much more than a public health effort.\n\n\"A coming digital 5G biometric tracking surveillance CHECKPOINT service that accesses your entire data from financial status, tax history, social credit score, social media ranking, watch history, sexual preference, political views, will be monitored by armed militarized CDC police will determine who is desirable for society and who goes to camp,\" an Instagram post by user liftingtheveilofficial claims.\n\nThe post, from early in the pandemic but which remained viral well into late spring, also incorporates copied text from a February Daily Mail UK article that claims the Pentagon has approved \"11 quarantine camps on military bases near major airports across the US in anticipation of an influx of American citizens returning from China in need of monitoring for the deadly coronavirus that is now being called COVID-19.\"\n\nLiftingtheveiloffical told USA TODAY that his claim was \"mostly my own personal sarcastic speculation, and (I'm) being a bit hyperbolic as well.\" But, he later asserted his speculations were indeed substantiated and made allusions to Bill Gates, various world organizations and secret societies.\n\nFact check:Federal agents in Portland are not mercenaries provided by Erik Prince\n\nThe early origins of quarantining the sick\n\nThe concept of quarantine is mentioned in the biblical book of Leviticus – estimated to have been written between the fifth and eighth centuries B.C. – where those afflicted with leprosy are asked to live separately from the healthy. In Chapter 5 of the Book of Numbers, individuals with, suspected of having or exposed to leprosy are advised to be \"put out of camp\" in order to keep the general living area clean and disease-free.\n\nOutside of religious texts, the Byzantine emperor Justinian, in 549 A.D, enacted laws to prevent entrance to travelers from plague-afflicted regions. During the ecumenical Council of Lyons in 583 A.D., bishops were urged to assist lepers (those suffering from leprosy) within their own cities but cautioned against allowing such individuals to wander about freely.\n\nThe large-scale practice of quarantine as a public health strategy emerged in the Middle Ages. This time — between the fifth and 15th centuries A.D. — was notorious for plagues caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, occurring regularly almost every 40-50 years. Towns and villages throughout Europe would isolate sick individuals and forbid outsiders from infected regions or countries from stepping foot in their communities. Some historical documentation from the seventh century suggests armed guards were used to forcibly stop travelers when the plague hit southeastern France.\n\nFact check:Coronavirus deaths surpass combined battle fatalities in several US wars\n\nMore formative policy would take shape after 1348. It was around this time that the deadliest pandemic in recorded in human history, the Black Death, overtook Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the world. Also caused by Yersinia pestis and believed to have originated in the Qinghai Plateau of central Asia (now modern-day Tibet), this plague would strike every 10-20 years over the next four centuries. It is estimated 50%-60% of Europe's population died as a result.\n\nThe Black Death compelled European cities, especially those with oft-visited seaports like Venice, Italy, or Dubrovnik, Croatia, to institute a quarantine system involving a council of three who oversaw the responsibility and power of detaining individuals and entire ships. The duration of isolation typically observed by ships coming from infected, or suspected infected, seaports was 30 days; this became 40 days for land travelers, and is the source of the word \"quarantine,\" from the Italian \"quaranta giorni\" meaning 40 days (this prescribed duration itself appears to be derived from the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates).\n\nEntering legislation\n\nWhile the Black Death subsided in the early 17th century, the emergence of other transmissible diseases like smallpox, cholera and yellow fever would lay the framework for uniform quarantine policies.\n\nIn 1710, England passed the Quarantine Act, mandating a death sentence for anyone who refused to comply with the required 40-day quarantine. Similarly, in the United States, Massachusetts enacted a statute in 1797 that invested the state with the power to mandate quarantine.\n\nFact check:Document claiming to show CDC guidance about various types of masks is a fake\n\nQuarantine edicts in early America largely varied and were up to local authorities. It was not until a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans in 1877 that the National Quarantine Act was passed in April 1878. This egislation formalized measures against the introduction and spread of contagious, infectious diseases, and created the National Board of Health, a short-lived institution charged with standardizing quarantine across the nation.\n\nNearly 70 years later, in 1944, the Public Health Service Act was passed granting the U.S. Public Health Service (now the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service) authorization to \"prevent the introduction of epidemic diseases into this country from abroad and to prevent interstate spread of communicable disease.\" The quarantine program inherent in this responsibility was later transferred to the agency now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1967.\n\nQuarantine stations\n\nJust as quarantine took shape centuries ago, so did the concept of a specific building for the quarantined. The first predecessor of a quarantine station was constructed outside Venice on the island of Santa Maria di Nazareth in 1423. Called a lazaretto after the biblical figure Lazarus, these plague hospitals popped up all over Europe and served as \"centers of habitation to restrict the spread of disease but close enough to transport the sick,\" writes Dr. Eugenia Tognotti, a professor of history of medicine and human sciences at the University of Sassari in Italy.\n\nIn the United States, the New York City Council constructed a maritime quarantine station on Bedloe's Island, one of a group of islands at the mouth of the Hudson River, in 1738. In 1793, during Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic, a 10-acre quarantine station was built south of the city along the Delaware River.\n\nAfter Congress approved \"an act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen\" in 1798, the Marine Hospital Service built and supervised a series of hospitals in the nation's seaports, which included quarantining sailors suspected of carrying disease. These hospitals would later play a huge role in screening and quarantining new immigrants arriving to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Around the same time, tuberculosis became a major concern, and institutions known as sanatoria or preventoria were established to quarantine and treat affected individuals.\n\nFact check:Black nurses helped save Philadelphia during a 1793 epidemic\n\nBy the first half of the 20th century, quarantine stations were widespread. The U.S. Public Health Service created and maintained more than 110 quarantine stations at air, sea and land ports. But as the perceived threat of infectious disease diminished (thanks to advances in modern medicine such as vaccination), the number of quarantine stations fell: There were 55 when the CDC was given responsibility for quarantines in 1967, shrinking to just seven by 1995.\n\nOutbreaks of new infectious diseases, such as SARS and Ebola, and threats of bioterrorism renewed interest in quarantine stations. An eighth station opened in Atlanta ahead of the 1996 Olympic Games, and increased to 20 more by mid-2007. Currently, there are quarantine stations at 20 ports of entry and land-border crossings where international travelers arrive, according to the CDC.\n\nIn response to the coronavirus outbreak, more quarantine sites were made available.\n\nIn February, the Department of Defense approved a request from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, for possible use of military facilities to quarantine Americans returning from overseas, particularly evacuees from Wuhan, China, and passengers of the Grand Princess cruise ship.\n\nWhile 11 bases were approved at the time of the Daily Mail article cited in the Instagram post, this was later expanded to 15. But it's important to note that these quarantine sites were temporary – some were not even used – and not official CDC quarantine stations. Hundreds of Americans were released in February after observing the 14-day quarantine.\n\nQuarantine and individual rights\n\nAt present, most isolation and quarantine measures are still split among federal and state authorities and roughly 2,800 local public health departments, according to STAT News. The CDC does retain the authority to \"detain, medically examine, and release persons arriving into the United States and traveling between states who are suspected of carrying these communicable diseases\" but forced isolation or quarantine is typically undertaken by individual states, not by federal agencies. Isolation or quarantine in a CDC station is generally applied to travelers arriving from abroad.\n\nWhile U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies may help in enforcing federal quarantine orders, the CDC is itself not militarized. Medical and public health officers at quarantine stations are typically involved in responding to reports of illness, distributing medication, emergency preparedness, alerting local health authorities, inspecting cargo or personal items and other related tasks, according to the CDC. There is no evidence to suggest information pertaining to financial status, tax history, social credit score, social media ranking, watch history, sexual preference or political views is or will be accessed at quarantine stations.\n\nFact check:5G technology is not linked to coronavirus\n\nOur ruling: Partly false\n\nWe rate the claim that the U.S. military has approved COVID-19 quarantine \"camps\" that will access personal information and be monitored by militarized CDC police as PARTLY FALSE because some of it is not supported by our research. While it is true that 11 military facilities were approved as quarantine bases, these sites were meant to be temporary and are not true quarantine stations. The federal government has some authority to institute a large-scale quarantine, but quarantine measures are still the discretion of state and local health departments. Law enforcement agencies may help enforce federal quarantine orders, but the CDC itself is not militarized. There is no evidence to suggest personal information is or will be accessed at quarantine stations.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/09"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_28", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:14", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957417/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-21-july-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 21 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Sunak and Truss launch ‘bitter contest’\n\nRishi Sunak said the Conservative Party cannot win the next general election with Liz Truss at the helm as he launched his campaign to win over Tory members and reach No. 10. The Times said the race will be “bitterly contested” with allies of Truss launching personal attacks on Sunak last night over his record in government and his “betrayal” of Boris Johnson. Meanwhile, allies of Penny Mordaunt, who dropped out of the running yesterday, said she failed to make the cut due to a “vicious personal smear campaign” against her.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/10/20/aldi-advent-calendar-2021-coming-november-christmas-countdown/6107603001/", "title": "Aldi Advent calendar 2021: Wine, cheese, beer, candy and toys ...", "text": "Aldi will have more than wine and cheese Advent calendars this year.\n\nThe discount grocer said Wednesday the 2021 lineup is its \"most robust collection to date\" and also brings back the beer calendar, candy collections and toys along with new family-friendly calendars.\n\nThe calendars will start rolling out on Nov. 3 for the second annual National Advent Calendar Day, held on the first Wednesday in November. Aldi created the made-up holiday in 2020.\n\nAldi announced in September that two of its most popular calendars would go on sale Nov. 3: Collection Wine Advent calendar and Emporium Selection Advent Cheese calendar.\n\n►Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\n►Free breakfast Thursday:Taco Bell giving away free breakfast burritos Thursday and bringing back World Series promo\n\nThe wine calendar will sell for $59.99, down from $69.99 in past years. It will be available only at Aldi U.S. stores that sell alcohol.\n\nMost of the calendars are used to count down the Advent, the religious days leading up to Christmas Eve.\n\nAccording to a list provided by Aldi, 26 calendars will be released this year, including a New Years' countdown. Sixteen calendars will be released Nov. 3.\n\nOn its website, Aldi said the \"calendar collection goes on sale Wednesday, Nov. 3, with new calendar varieties rolling out throughout November and early December.\"\n\nLast year, Aldi released 20 calendars, which the company said at the time was the most ever.\n\nJoan Kavanaugh, Aldi U.S. vice president of national buying, told USA TODAY in 2020 that the company has sold Advent calendars for many years, but their popularity skyrocketed in 2018 when the first U.S. wine calendar went on sale.\n\n\"Based on the overwhelmingly positive shopper interest, we realized there was a real market for unique holiday countdown calendars,\" Kavanaugh said at the time.\n\nTo get your hands on one of the limited items, which have sold out quickly in past years with some landing on eBay, you'll have to head to one of the 2,100-plus Aldi stores in 37 states. However, not all states or municipalities allow alcohol sales at grocery stores; those stores are expected to carry the cheese and other calendars.\n\nAldi says that based on supply some calendars \"may be available for purchase online in the days following Nov. 3. Curbside pickup and delivery for Advent calendars and holiday countdowns differs by location.\"\n\nCostco has already released its 2021 wine and beer Advent calendars. The Costco wine calendar costs $99.99 and the beer calendar is selling for $59.99. Prices and availability vary by location.\n\nAldi Advent calendars 2021\n\nAldi will start rolling out Advent calendars on Nov. 3.\n\nWine Advent calendar and more\n\nBarissimo Coffee Advent Calendar ($9.99)\n\nBeer Advent Calendar ($49.99; in select markets)\n\nConnellys 12 Days of Irish Cream ($29.99)\n\nEmporium Selection Cheese Advent Calendar ($14.99)\n\nSparkling Wine Countdown to the New Year ($29.99)\n\nThe 2021 Collection Wine Advent Calendar ($59.99)\n\nSelf-care Advent calendars\n\nBee Happy Craft Advent Calendar ($12.99)\n\nHuntington Home Advent Calendar Candle ($4.99)\n\nMy Beauty Spot 12 Days of Bath Fizzers ($12.99)\n\nToy Advent calendars\n\nLego City Advent Calendar ($29.99)\n\nLego Friends Advent Calendar ($29.99)\n\nLego Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar ($39.99)\n\nLego Star Wars Advent Calendar ($39.99)\n\nMattel Cars Advent Calendar ($16.99)\n\nMattel Polly Pocket Advent Calendar ($16.99)\n\nMattel Kids Toys Advent Calendar ($24.99)\n\nMerry Moments My Friend Gnome Kit ($24.99; limit one per customer)\n\nNickelodeon Paw Patrol Advent Calendar ($19.99)\n\nWarner Brothers Elf Advent Calendar ($29.99)\n\nWarner Brothers Christmas Story Advent Calendar ($29.99)\n\nCandy Advent calendars\n\nChoceur Advent Calendar ($1.49)\n\nMoser Roth 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar ($4.99)\n\nMoser Roth 24 Days of Christmas Nutcracker Advent Calendar ($8.99)\n\nMoser Roth Luxury Chocolate Advent Calendar ($14.99)\n\nPet Advent calendars\n\nPure Being Cat Advent Calendar ($5.89)\n\nPure Being Dog Advent Calendar ($5.89)\n\nWhen will Aldi release calendars?\n\nAldi confirmed to USA TODAY that the following calendars will be released on National Advent Calendar Day, Wednesday, Nov. 3, with other calendars being released throughout November and December.\n\nEmporium Selection Advent Cheese Calendar\n\nBarissimo Coffee Advent Calendar\n\nMoser Roth Luxury Chocolate Advent Calendar\n\nThe 2021 Collection Wine Advent Calendar\n\nBeer Advent Calendar\n\nLego City Advent Calendar\n\nLego Friends Advent Calendar\n\nLego Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar\n\nLego Star Wars Advent Calendar\n\nNickelodeon Paw Patrol Advent Calendar\n\nMattel Cars Advent Calendar\n\nMattel Polly Pocket Advent Calendar\n\nMattel Kids Toys Advent Calendar\n\nMerry Moments My Friend Gnome Kit\n\nPure Being Cat Advent Calendar\n\nPure Being Dog Advent Calendar\n\n►Costco Advent calendars 2021:Raise a glass, wine and beer calendars back at clubs. But act fast as they could sell out fast.\n\n►How to shop at Aldi:Save on groceries, get $2.95 wine, knock-off Chick-fil-A and find rare deals without coupons\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/09/business/food-fuel-prices-political-instability/index.html", "title": "Soaring food and fuel prices are destabilizing countries on the brink ...", "text": "London (CNN Business) When people took to the streets in Egypt in 2011, protesters chanted about freedom and social justice — but also bread . The cost of pantry staples had jumped because of the skyrocketing price of goods like wheat , stoking fury with President Hosni Mubarak.\n\nNow, more than a decade after the Arab Spring,global food prices are soaring again . They had already reached their highest level on record earlier this year as the pandemic, poor weather and the climate crisis upended agriculture and threatened food security for millions of people. Then came Russia's war in Ukraine, making the situation much worse — while also triggering a spike in the cost of the other daily essential, fuel.\n\nThe combination could generate a wave of political instability, as people who were already frustrated with government leaders are pushed over the edge by rising costs.\n\n\"It is extremely worrisome,\" said Rabah Arezki, a senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and former chief economist at the African Development Bank.\n\nUnrest in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Peru over the past week highlights the risks. In Sri Lanka, protests have erupted over shortages of gas and other basic goods. Double-digit inflation in Pakistan has eroded support for Prime Minister Imran Khan , forcing him from office. At least six people have died in recent anti-government protests in Peru sparked by rising fuel prices . But political conflict isn't expected to be limited to these countries.\n\n\"I don't think people have felt the full impact of rising prices just yet,\" said Hamish Kinnear, a Middle East and North Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk consultancy.\n\nLessons from the Arab Spring\n\nIn the run-up to the anti-government protests that became known as the Arab Spring — which began in Tunisia in late 2010 and spread through the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 — food prices were climbing sharply. The Food Price Index from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reached 106.7 in 2010 and jumped to 131.9 in 2011 , then a record.\n\n\"Mohamed Bouazizi didn't set himself on fire because he couldn't blog or vote,\" an Emirati commentator wrote in January 2011 , referring to the street vendor whose protest act helped launch the revolution in Tunisia and, ultimately, the Arab world. \"People set themselves on fire because they can't stand seeing their family wither away slowly, not of sorrow, but of cold stark hunger.\"\n\nCircumstances in individual countries differed, but the bigger picture was clear. Surging wheat prices were a major part of the problem.\n\nThe situation now is even worse than it was then. Global food prices have just hit a new record high. The FAO Food Price Index published Friday hit 159.3 in March, up almost 13% from February. The war in Ukraine, a major exporter of wheat, corn and vegetable oils, as well as harsh sanctions on Russia — a key producer of wheat and fertilizer — is expected to spur further price increases in the coming months.\n\n\"Forty percent of wheat and corn exports from Ukraine go to the Middle East and Africa, which are already grappling with hunger issues, and where further food shortages or price increases could stoke social unrest,\" Gilbert Houngbo, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said last month\n\nAdding to the pain is the surge in energy prices. Global oil prices are almost 60% higher than they were a year ago. The cost of coal and natural gas has spiked, too.\n\nMany governments are struggling to protect their citizens, but fragile economies that borrowed heavily to make it through the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic are most vulnerable. As growth slows, hurting their currencies and making it harder to keep up with debt payments, maintaining subsidies for food and fuel will be difficult, especially if prices keep climbing.\n\n\"We are now in a situation where countries are indebted,\" Arezki said. \"As a result, they have no buffers to try to contain the tensions that will emerge from such high prices.\"\n\nAccording to the World Bank, close to 60% of the poorest countries were \"already in debt distress or at high risk of it\" on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine.\n\nWhere tensions are simmering\n\nAsia: In Sri Lanka, an island nation of 22 million, an economic and political crisis is already boiling over, with protesters taking to the streets in defiance of curfews and government ministers stepping down en masse.\n\nGrappling with high debt levels and a weak economy reliant on tourism, Sri Lanka was forced to run down its reserves of foreign currency. That prevented the government from making payments for key imports such as energy, creating devastating shortages and forcing people to spend hours lining up for fuel.\n\nIts leaders have also devalued its currency, the Sri Lankan rupee, as they try to secure a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. But that just made inflation worse at home. In January, it reached 14%, almost double the rate of price increases in the United States.\n\nPakistan's parliament issued a vote of no confidence in Khan on Sunday, ousting him from power and upending his government. While his political problems date back years, claims of economic mismanagement as the cost of food and fuel leaped, as well as the depletion of foreign exchange reserves, made matters worse.\n\n\"The extent of economic chaos has united opposition to Imran Khan,\" Kinnear of Verisk Maplecroft said.\n\nMiddle East and Africa: Experts are also watching for signs of political distress in other countries in the Middle East that are heavily dependent on food imports from the Black Sea region, and often provide generous subsidies to the public.\n\nWith an estimated 70% of the world's poor living in Africa, the continent will also be \"very exposed\" to rising food and energy prices, Arezki said.\n\nDroughts and conflict in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Burkina Faso have created a food security crisis for more than a quarter of the continent's population, the International Committee of the Red Cross said this week. The situation risks getting worse in the coming months, it continued.\n\nPolitical instability has already been building in parts of the continent. A series of coups have taken place in West and Central Africa since the start of 2021.\n\nEurope: Even countries with more developed economies, which have greater buffers to shield citizens from painful price increases, won't have the tools to fully cushion the blow.\n\nThousands of protesters gathered in cities across Greece this week to demand higher wages to counter inflation, while France's presidential election is narrowing as far-right candidate Marine Le Pen plays up her plans to reduce the cost of living . President Emmanuel Macron's government said last month it was c onsidering issuing food vouchers so that middle and low-income families could afford to eat.\n\n— Jessie Yeung, Rhea Mogul and Sophia Saifi contributed reporting.", "authors": ["Julia Horowitz", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/04/business/coca-cola-new-flavor/index.html", "title": "Coke's latest flavor is here. And it's a weird one - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Coke's recent foray into bold new flavors has its latest entry, and it's a doozy.\n\nLast month, Coca-Cola announced a new limited-edition beverage: Coca-Cola Starlight , a red version of the iconic soda with a flavor \"inspired by space.\"\n\nNow the company is one-upping itself with another offbeat offering: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte, a new flavor that is supposed to taste like ... pixels.\n\n\"Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte makes the intangible taste of the pixel tangible,\" Oana Vlad, senior director of strategy at Coca-Cola, told CNN Business in an email. It's \"the Coca-Cola taste you know and love with bright elements upfront and refreshing with the finish,\" she said.\n\nByte is the second beverage — after Starlight — from Coca-Cola Creations, the company's new innovation division.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Danielle Wiener-Bronner", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/04"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/12/business/food-crisis-ukraine-russia/index.html", "title": "War has brought the world to the brink of a food crisis | CNN Business", "text": "London (CNN Business) Svein Tore Holsether says the world is careening toward a food crisis that could affect millions of people.\n\nRecord high natural gas prices have forced the company he runs, fertilizer producer Yara International , to curtail its production of ammonia and urea in Europe to 45% of capacity. With less of those two essential agricultural ingredients, he expects knock-on effects for global food supplies\n\n\"It's not whether we are going to have a food crisis. It's how large that crisis will be,\" Holsether told CNN Business.\n\nTwo weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the prices of key agricultural products produced in the region have skyrocketed. The biggest problem is wheat , a pantry staple. Supplies from Russia and Ukraine, which together account for almost 30% of global wheat trade, are now at risk. Global wheat prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.\n\nAnother major problem is access to fertilizer. Essential for farmers to hit their production targets for crops, it's never been more expensive, as exports from Russia grind to a halt. Output in Europe has also plunged thanks to the surging price of natural gas, a key ingredient in nitrogen-based fertilizers like urea.\n\nThe situation is ringing alarm bells for global health experts. The cost of corn, soybeans and vegetable oils has been jumping, too.\n\nAgriculture ministers from the G7 countries said Friday they \"remain determined to do what is necessary to prevent and respond to a food crisis.\"\n\nBut fearing shortages, countries are already turning inward, which could ultimately leave less food for those in need.\n\nEgypt just banned the export of wheat, flour, lentils and beans amid growing concerns over food reserves in the Arab world's most populous state. Indonesia has also tightened export restrictions on palm oil, which is a component in cooking oil as well as in cosmetics and some packaged goods like chocolate. It's the world's top producer of the product.\n\nThe G7 ministers called on countries to \"keep their food and agricultural markets open and to guard against any unjustified restrictive measures on their exports.\"\n\n\"Any further increase in food price levels and volatility in international markets could threaten food security and nutrition at a global scale, especially among the most vulnerable living in environments of low food security,\" they said in a statement.\n\nWestern countries with more access to agriculture will be hurt, too. Consumers there have already been stung by higher prices, and the situation is poised to deteriorate further.\n\nRussia, Ukraine and global food supplies\n\nEven before Russia launched a war in Ukraine, the global food system was strained. Snarled supply chains and unpredictable weather patterns — often the result of climate change — had already pushed food prices to their highest level in about a decade. Affordability was also an issue after the pandemic left millions out of work.\n\nThe number of people on the edge of famine has jumped to 44 million from 27 million in 2019, the UN's World Food Programme said this month.\n\nThe conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which both play crucial roles in the carefully calibrated system of global food production, stands to make the situation worse.\n\nGlobal wheat prices have fallen from record highs in recent days, but remain elevated. They're expected to stay that way for some time, according to Rabobank commodity analyst Carlos Mera.\n\nThe wheat planting season, which is about to begin in Ukraine, will be disrupted by fighting. It's not clear there will be enough farmers to till the land, as people in the country take up arms — or whether they'll be able to access machinery and other essential products that would typically arrive through Black Sea ports.\n\n\"It's anyone's guess if Ukraine will be able to export anything for the rest of this year, or next year, or in the foreseeable future,\" Mera said. The country also accounts for half of all exports of sunflower oil\n\nGetting products from Russia onto the world market has also gotten more difficult, because businesses don't want to risk running afoul of sanctions or deal with the logistics of traveling near a war zone.\n\nRussia and Ukraine serve as the breadbasket for countries in the Middle East and North Africa that depend on imports. Many will be hit hard as a result. The United States and Europe will feel the pain, too, since the run-up in prices for important agricultural goods will affect businesses that produce food in every market.\n\n\"Any serious disruption of production and exports from these suppliers will no doubt drive up prices further and erode food security for millions of people,\" the Agricultural Market Information System said in a recent report\n\nFertilizer costs soar\n\nThe brewing crisis goes beyond wheat and oils. Russia, along with its ally Belarus, is also a major exporter of the fertilizers needed to plant a wide range of crops. But right now, everyone is shunning their stock.\n\n\"Nobody wants to touch a Russian product right now,\" said Deepika Thapliyal, a fertilizer expert at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services. \"If you look at all of the traders, all of the buyers, they're very scared.\"\n\nThe price of natural gas is exacerbating the issue. Fertilizer producers outside of Russia and Belarus need gas to make nitrogen-based products like urea, which is used when sowing crops to boost yield and even promotes their deep-green color.\n\nBut Holsether, the CEO of Yara, said costs have gotten too high to keep operations running at scale. He's not sure when European production will be at full capacity again.\n\n\"There's a large part of the industry that's at risk of not being able to deliver products to the farmers, and that will have an impact on the crop yields quite rapidly,\" he said.\n\nFarmers have the incentive right now to pay what they need to get fertilizer, since prices for their products are going up, too. Not everyone has this option, however. Urea has been trading near $1,000 per metric ton, about four times the price at the start of 2021, according to Chris Lawson, the head of fertilizers at CRU Group, a market intelligence firm.\n\nCountries without domestic fertilizer production may also struggle to access it, with huge consequences for the global food system.\n\n\"You can't grow massive fields of wheat, barley or soy without fertilizer,\" said Johanna Mendelson Forman, a professor at American University who specializes in war and food. Farmers in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil are already worried about shortages, she added.\n\nThe consequences\n\nOn Monday, Russian fertilizer and coal billionaire Andrey Melnichenko broke with President Vladimir Putin and called for peace in Ukraine, noting that a global food crisis looms.\n\nThe war \"has already led to soaring prices in fertilizers which are no longer affordable to farmers,\" Melnichenko told Reuters. \"Now it will lead to even higher food inflation in Europe and likely food shortages in the world's poorest countries,\" he added.\n\nThe G7 agriculture ministers said Friday that their countries would leverage humanitarian aid where they can to mitigate fallout from the war. But they may also be hamstrung by a dearth of supplies and rising prices.\n\n\"If Ukrainian fields lie fallow this year, aid agencies such as ours will be forced to source new markets to compensate for the loss of some of the world's best wheat,\" David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme, said in an op-ed published in the Washington Post this week. \"Doing so will come at a vastly inflated cost.\"\n\nBeasley noted that Ukrainian wheat has also been essential to feeding populations in other countries facing conflict, including Afghanistan, Sudan and Yemen.\n\n\"The vast majority of wheat is used for human consumption, and that's irreplaceable,\" Rabobank's Mera said.\n\nAnd it won't just be countries grappling with famine or war that feel the effects.\n\nThe affordability of food is a problem for lower-income shoppers everywhere, Mendelson Forman emphasized. In April 2021, about one in seven American adults experienced food insecurity over the past 30 days, according to the Urban Institute.\n\n\"We're used to a globalized system of trade to get all kinds of varieties of food,\" she said. \"People will see it in their pocketbooks, and they'll see it in the grocery stores.\"\n\n— Mostafa Salem contributed reporting.", "authors": ["Julia Horowitz", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/08/23/21-restaurant-and-supermarket-chains-that-require-customers-to-wear-masks/42226057/", "title": "21 restaurant and supermarket chains that require customers to ...", "text": "Colman Andrews\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nSome 96% of the restaurants surveyed around the country in July by industry newsletter Restaurant Dive reported that they required their employees to wear masks while working. Many supermarket chains had similar rules in place. The policy is now increasingly extending to customers as well.\n\nAs of mid-August, the governments of some 34 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, had mandated the wearing of protective masks or other face coverings in public places – including restaurants, stores, and hotel common areas – according to a state-by-state guide to face mask requirements published by AARP.\n\nIn addition, a growing number of major national and regional restaurant and supermarket chains have issued systemwide mask orders of their own – even though many of their locations were already subject to the statewide mandates. Chains that have taken this extra step include Starbucks, McDonald's, Chipotle, Shake Shack, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.\n\nCheck in the mail?:IRS to distribute tax refund interest checks to taxpayers who filed 2019 returns on time\n\nPeach recall:Target and Aldi recalling peaches linked to salmonella outbreak that has sickened 68\n\nThe public hasn't always appreciated the new measures. For whatever reasons, mask-wearing (or not-wearing) has become a political issue – and a sometimes violently emotional one. In July, for instance, two customers at a Manhattan branch of Trader Joe's not only refused to wear masks, but also ripped the mask off an employee in protest, hit another one with a wooden paddle, and pulled a third one's hair. The same month, a cashier at a McDonald's drive-thru window in Oakland, California, was assaulted – through the window – by a man who resented being asked to cover his face.\n\nNumerous other examples of mask rage have been recorded around the country, with some establishments actually closing down rather than risking harassment or worse from angry anti-mask customers. (The mask issue isn't the only reason some places are shutting down. These are states where recently reopened bars and dining rooms are closing again.)\n\nThe good news is that, angry mask-haters aside, the general populace seems to be getting used to wearing masks in public. A Harris Poll published last month found that 76% of Americans believe that retail businesses in general – not just restaurants and supermarkets – should institute customer mask policies, with 78% feeling that workers should be prepared to enforce them. (Already, these national stores require customers to wear face masks.)\n\nIn most cases, corporate policies introduced by restaurant and supermarket chains went into effect in late July or early August. Most mandates cite exceptions based on age or health conditions, and for obvious reasons, restaurant customers don't have to keep their faces covered when they're actually eating or drinking.\n\n“We are not defenseless against COVID-19,” said Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a statement released in mid-July. “Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus – particularly when used universally within a community setting.\" That certainly would include restaurants and grocery stores.\n\nAlbertsons\n\nAll 2,252 supermarkets Albertsons operates nationwide – under its own brand as well as such brands as Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Jewel-Osco, Acme, and Shaws – began requiring customers to don face coverings on July 21. The company website says the policy is for the customers' protection and for that of the associates.\n\nAldi\n\nEffective July 27, ALDI discount supermarkets began requiring that both customers and staff at all stores wear masks, as \"an enhanced safety measure intended to help limit the spread of COVID-19,\" as a corporate statement put it. The company urges customers unable or unwilling to wear a face covering to use the ALDI delivery service or, where available, curbside pickup.\n\nBaskin-Robbins\n\nAs of Aug. 5, the ice cream chain began mandating \"a face covering while inside our restaurants\" for all customers. In its statement announcing the policy, the company went on to say, \"This simple step ... will help to provide a safe environment for guests, franchisees and their restaurant employees.\"\n\nChipotle Mexican Grill\n\nIn a statement to the trade publication Nation's Restaurant News, Chipotle chief corporate affairs and food safety officer Laurie Schalow announced that the chain had \"proactively made the decision to require guests to wear masks in all restaurants.\" The requirement went into effect on July 24.\n\nDunkin'\n\nDunkin' (formerly Dunkin' Donuts) joined the ranks of restaurant chains requiring customers to wear masks on Aug. 5. \"We believe that wearing a mask is a simple step we can all take to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and help to keep guests and restaurant crew safe,\" says a statement on the chain's website. In a reference to its longtime slogan \"America Runs on Dunkin',\" the site includes a graphic depicting a Dunkin'-themed mask with the legend \"Join us in wearing a mask to help keep America runnin'.\"\n\nH.E.B.\n\nThis massive San Antonio-based grocery chain, whose only American stores are in Texas (it also operates in Mexico), introduced its statewide mask mandate for customers as of July 1. \"[A]s Texans Helping Texans,\" reads a statement from the company, \"we wear masks to keep each other and our families safe.\" H.E.B.'s high-end Central Market chain, which has nine stores around Texas, instituted its own mask requirement on June 22.\n\nHilton Hotel restaurants\n\n\"In accordance with CDC guidelines,\" reads a statement on the Hilton website, \"we are requiring face coverings in all indoor public areas of our hotels throughout the U.S. for guests and Team Members.\" The measure, which includes hotel dining areas, took effect on July 28.\n\nHyatt Hotel restaurants\n\n\"NOTE: face coverings are required in hotel indoor public areas and when moving around in outdoor areas at all Hyatt hotels in the Americas,\" says a statement on the Hyatt website. The policy, encompassing dining rooms as well as other public spaces, was instituted as of Aug. 10.\n\nKroger\n\nAmerica's second-largest grocery company and largest supermarket chain (Walmart sells more groceries, along with many other items), Kroger mandated the wearing of face masks for customers on July 22. The policy applies not only to Kroger stores but also to other chains under the Kroger corporate umbrella, including Ralphs, Smith's, Fred Meyer, and Harris Teeter.\n\nMarriott Hotel restaurants\n\nMarriott, the world's largest hotel company, announced in a video message from company CEO Arne Sorenson that masks would be required in all indoor areas (restaurants included) as of July 27. Wearing masks, said Sorenson, \"is one of the easiest steps that we can all take to protect one another and reduce the spread of COVID-19.\" The requirement applies to all of the company's U.S. and Canadian properties, including more than 25 Marriott brands, among them Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W Hotels, Westin, and Sheraton.\n\nMcDonald's\n\nAs of Aug. 1, McDonald's began requiring customers to wear face coverings when entering its U.S. restaurants. The company statement announcing the policy notes that more than 80% of its locations are in states or localities where masks had already been mandated. Customers who enter without a mask, the chain told CNN Business, \"will be offered one by an employee. If they refuse to wear it, they'll be asked to stand at a designated spot, away from other customers, where they'll receive their orders.\"\n\nNoodles & Co.\n\n\"Effective Wednesday, July 22,\" reads a statement on the website of this internationally themed pasta chain, \"all team members and guests who visit Noodles & Company will be required to wear a face covering inside all company-owned locations.\"\n\nPublix\n\nThis supermarket chain, with stores throughout Florida and other Southern states, initiated a customer mask requirement on July 21. According to a statement on the company website, \"We have previously encouraged our customers to follow CDC guidance and have now implemented a face covering requirement in our stores to do our part and help protect our communities.\"\n\nPanda Express\n\nOn July 29, the fast casual American-Chinese chain Panda Express issued a statement saying, \"We ask guests to respect our safety protocol and wear face masks when visiting our restaurants.\" The company website adds, \"Let's stay safe together...\"\n\nPanera Bread\n\nIn a statement dated July 15, Panera announced that \"guests are asked to wear a mask inside our bakery-cafes nationwide ... [to] ensure the safety of our associates and guests.\" The statement adds that \"If any customer does not have or want to wear a mask for any reason, we will happily serve them via Panera Curbside, Delivery or Drive-Thru.\"\n\nShake Shack\n\nOn July 30, this popular burger chain noted in a COVID-19 update on its website, \"With the well-being of our communities as our guide, we've been adapting our Shacks to ensure the safety of our guests and team members.\" Among other things, the statement specifies, this means that \"Masks are required for all guests, team members + delivery couriers.\"\n\nStarbucks\n\n\"In its continued effort in prioritizing the health and well-being of partners (employees) and customers,\" reads a statement on the ubiquitous coffee chain's website, \"Starbucks today announced that beginning on July 15, it will be requiring customers to wear facial coverings while visiting all company-owned café locations in the US.\"\n\nTrader Joe's\n\n\"We require customers wear a face covering while shopping in our stores,\" says a statement by the chain. Interestingly, the chain provides masks to \"crew members\" (as it styles its employees) but is only \"urging that they use them.\"\n\nWhole Foods Market\n\nAs of July 20, the upscale Amazon-owned grocery chain has required all customers to wear face coverings \"to protect the health and safety of our Team Members and communities,\" according to the website. Masks are provided for customers who don't have their own.\n\nWinn-Dixie\n\nThe chain, which operates supermarkets in seven Southern states under several banners, began requiring customers to mask up on July 27. It had initially refused to make the practice mandatory on the grounds that – as a company spokesperson told CBS News – \"Mask mandates are a highly charged issue with our customers.\" The company still maintains that state and federal officials should pass mask laws instead of relying on individual companies to declare and enforce the policy.\n\nWyndham Hotels & Resorts restaurants\n\nThe major hotel group requires that \"guests and all other individuals entering the hotel wear a mask or face covering when in indoor public areas.\" Restaurants are included in the mandate, which extends to all the company's U.S. and Canadian properties. Wyndam's mask requirement went into effect on Aug. 10.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/02/world/putin-invasion-mistakes-hitler-blake-cec/index.html", "title": "Putin is making the same mistakes that doomed Hitler when he ...", "text": "(CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin often evokes the Soviet Union's epic defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II to justify his country's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nYet Putin is committing some of the same blunders that doomed Germany's 1941 invasion of the USSR -- while using \"Hitler-like tricks and tactics \" to justify his brutality, military historians and scholars say.\n\nThis is the savage irony behind Putin's decision to invade Ukraine that's become clear as the war enters its second month: the Russian leader, who portrays himself as a student of history, is floundering because he hasn't paid enough attention to the lessons of the \"Great Patriotic War\" he reveres.\n\n\"I have been trying to make sense of this for a month, because as terrible as Putin is, you could never say he was illogical,\" says Peter T. DeSimone, an associate professor of Russian and Eastern European history at Utica University in New York.\n\n\"All of this is illogical, and that's the scary thing,\" he says. \"This is not normal for what he's done in the past. This is something that makes no sense on many levels, and not just in regard to World War II.\"\n\nThere are, of course, significant differences between the current war in Ukraine and the clash between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.\n\nThe Nazi war machine was formidable, agile, and well-trained. The Wehrmacht killed and wounded 150,000 Red Army soldiers in the first week of their invasion in June of 1941. They seized vast swaths of territory, and in one \"mega-encirclement\" trapped four Soviet armies, capturing 700,000 prisoners of war.\n\nSoviet soldiers fighting in the streets of Stalingrad in October 1942.\n\nAnd there is no moral equivalence between Joseph Stalin , the Soviet dictator, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\n\nStalin was a sociopath (he once reached into a cage and killed a family pet parrot because its chirping annoyed him) who starved millions of Ukrainians to death and routinely murdered political rivals. Zelensky is a democratically elected leader who has rallied Ukrainians and inspired the world with his conspicuous displays of courage and eloquent defense of democracy.\n\nBut look closer at Putin's struggles in Ukraine and ironic parallels emerge. Military historians say Putin is following Hitler's ill-fated playbook in at least three areas.\n\nPutin forgot a basic rule of warfare\n\nThe tank has long struck dread in enemy troops. When the British introduced the first lumbering tanks during World War I, soldiers fled in terror\n\nUkraine, though, has become, according to one recent headline, a \"graveyard for Russian tanks.\" Ukrainian soldiers are using everything from drones to Javelins to destroy tank convoys.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'Structured ambush': Video appears to show strike on Russian tanks Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'Structured ambush': Video appears to show strike on Russian tanks 01:40\n\nBut Russian tanks have been stymied for another surprising reason: lack of fuel . The lack of fuel is part of a bigger problem. The once-vaunted Russian army has become bogged down in Ukraine not just because of fierce resistance but by something more prosaic: logistics.\n\nSmoke rises from a destroyed Russian tank on the side of a road in the Lugansk region of Ukraine on February 26, 2022.\n\nPutin has struggled to feed, fuel and equip his army. There have been reports of Russian troops looting banks and supermarkets, tanks running out of fuel, and soldiers using substandard forms of military communication -- like smartphones -- that have contributed to what Ukraine says are the deaths of at least seven Russian generals\n\n\"The evidence suggests that Putin thought he could win a quick victory with the deployment of special forces and airborne units,\" says Ian Ona Johnson , a professor of military history at the University of Notre Dame. \"So when they were forced to go to a much more traditional war involving essentially most of the Russian army along the Ukrainian border, they weren't prepared for some of the logistics.\"\n\nPoor logistical planning also played a critical role in Nazi Germany's defeat on the Eastern front, where Hitler expected a quick victory.\n\nThe German army failed to set up sufficient supply lines for the vast distances and harsh terrain of the Soviet Union. German tanks ran out of fuel. The consequences of this poor logistical planning would prove fatal when the Russian winter hit.\n\nHitler didn't equip many of his soldiers with winter clothing because he thought the Soviet army was so inferior. German soldiers were forced to fight in freezing temperatures while still clad in their summer uniforms, with some using newspaper and straw to shield themselves against the cold.\n\n\"This proved devastating when a particularly brutal Russian winter set in,\" Johnson says. \"Something like 250,000 German soldiers eventually suffered frostbite injuries or died from the cold that winter because of logistical issues.\"\n\nUkrainian soldiers patrol next to a destroyed Russian tank in the village of Lukianivka near Kyiv on March 30, 2022.\n\nThe German army reached its lowest point at the battle of Stalingrad, considered the turning point of World War II. There ill-equipped German soldiers were forced to eat horses, dogs and rats to survive the winter.\n\nThe scale of the fighting in Ukraine today doesn't approach the Eastern Front, but the lesson from both wars can be summed up in a military maxim attributed to Gen. Omar Bradley , an American general during World War II:\n\n\"Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.\"\n\nHe alienated potential allies\n\nIn a war already full of heartbreaking images, one photo may be the worst.\n\nIt is a haunting photo of a pregnant Ukrainian woman in torn clothes being carried on a stretcher. The woman is conscious, her hand cradled protectively over her bare womb, which is smeared with blood. Both she and her baby would later die from her injuries. Ukrainian authorities say she was in a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol when it was shelled by Russian artillery.\n\nThe image underscored what some commentators now say is Putin's standard approach to war: He is indiscriminately killing civilians to break the will of the Ukrainian people.\n\nA Ukrainian woman near a block of apartment buildings destroyed in the besieged port city of Mariupol on March 17, 2022.\n\nRussia's army has been accused of bombing hospitals, shopping malls, apartment buildings and a theater with the word \"children\" written in Russian on the exterior of the building. Russia also been accused of trying to starve a Ukrainian city into submission by blocking humanitarian relief.\n\nThe Russian army's brutality, though, is having the opposite effect, Maria Varenikova wrote from Lviv, Ukraine, in a recent article for the New York Times.\n\n\"If there is one overriding emotion gripping Ukraine right now, it is hate,\" Varenikova said. \"It is a deep, seething bitterness for President Vladimir V. Putin, his military, and his government.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED CNN investigation reveals details of Russian strike on hospital Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN investigation reveals details of Russian strike on hospital 03:42\n\nBrutality can backfire in war.\n\nPutin has potential allies in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are two Slavic nations that share religious and cultural ties. Many Ukrainians have relatives in Russia and speak the language. And there has historically been more allegiance to Russia in the eastern part of the country.\n\nBut Putin's indiscriminate brutality against civilians is uniting Ukrainians in a way they've never been brought together before. One commentator called hate a \"hidden treasure\" in war because it can sustain resistance for generations.\n\nHitler's indiscriminate brutality against Soviet civilians also played a crucial factor in his defeat.\n\nHitler had many potential allies in the Soviet Union. Many Soviets despised and feared Stalin, who routinely murdered political opponents, executed military leaders and persecuted Soviet citizens. He murdered about four million Ukrainians by starving them during one infamous period known as the Holodomor\n\nThat's why some Soviets initially welcomed Hitler as a liberator, and gave some German troops Christmas presents.\n\nOnlookers survey the damage at a residential building that was hit in an alleged Russian airstrike in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on February 25.\n\nBut Hitler's brutal treatment of civilians quickly stiffened Soviet resistance. German troops looted and starved Russian cities into submission. They rounded up Soviet Jews and other minorities, shooting them or poisoning them in mobile gassing vans. Nazi propaganda taught Germans that Soviets were generically inferior \"Mongolized\" Slavs who deserved death or enslavement.\n\n\"The Nazis were not an occupying force; they were an extermination force from the start,\" says DeSimone, the historian from Utica University.\n\nStalin was so hated that roughly a million Soviets served in the German army, says Johnson, the Notre Dame historian. Hitler's brutality destroyed any chance he had of picking off Soviet sympathizers and weakening Soviet resistance, Johnson says.\n\n\"Instead of taking advantage of large numbers of people who might been sympathetic or at least think the Germans were better than the Soviets,\" he says, \"Hitler rapidly alienated all those groups.\"\n\nHe's using Hitler-like language to justify war\n\nLast summer, Putin published a lengthy essay entitled \"On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians\" that sought to explain that there was an artificial division between the two countries and that \"true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.\"\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a celebration marking the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on March 18, 2022.\n\nThe language Putin used caused some historians to shudder. They said he echoed some of the same rhetoric Hitler used in \"Mein Kampf,\" the dictator's autobiography and political manifesto. Hitler's book brimmed with distorted history about Germany's lost greatness, global conspiracies that undercut Germany's power, and justifications for conquest of another group of people.\n\n\"Like the Führer, the president of Russia bemoans the tragedy that has befallen his homeland, an erstwhile empire, and he too wants to turn back the clock,\" wrote Avi Garfinkel, a reporter for Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, in an article entitled, \"How Putin's Ukraine Agenda Evokes Hitler's Mein Kampf.\"\n\nThis may be one of the most disturbing links between Putin and Hitler. Some Putin critics say he is using Nazi language and propaganda techniques to justify the invasion of Ukraine. They compared the \"Z\" inscribed on Russian tanks to a symbol used by Nazis in concentration camps. Others compared a recent massive war rally Putin led in a Moscow stadium to scenes of a Hitler speech in an infamous Nazi propaganda film called \" Triumph of the Will.\n\nGerman leader Adolf Hitler addresses soldiers at a Nazi rally in Dortmund, Germany.\n\nSome of the strongest reaction to Putin's rhetoric stems from his claim that the Russian army is striving for the \"de-Nazification\" of Ukraine and seeks to protect people who have been \"abused by the genocide of the Kyiv regime.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Jewish community in Ukraine reacts to Putin's Nazi rhetoric Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jewish community in Ukraine reacts to Putin's Nazi rhetoric 05:14\n\nTimothy Snyder , a leading authority on Central European history and the Holocaust, says Putin's claim about \"de-Nazification\" is \"grotesque\" because he's trying to justify invading a democratic country -- led by a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust -- by claiming he's there to fight Nazis.\n\nSnyder calls Putin's justification a variation of Hitler's Big Lie -- a Nazi propaganda technique that insists that if a political leader repeats a colossal untruth enough, people will eventually believe it.\n\n\"Adolf Hitler had some public relations advice: Tell a lie so big that people will not believe that you would ever try to deceive them on such a grand scale,\" Snyder wrote in an essay titled, \"Putin's Hitler-like tricks and tactics in Ukraine.\"\n\nBy telling lies that Ukraine is run by Nazis bent on genocide, Putin is making a mockery of people who survived the Holocaust, says Snyder, author of \" On Tyranny .\"\n\nA Nazi propaganda image showing German troops being hailed as liberators in Riga, Latvia, during World War II.\n\nYet Putin's embrace of the Big Lie could also backfire. In a country where many citizens' ancestors perished in the Holocaust, invoking such a historical tragedy to justify war may only make some Ukrainians more determined to defend their homeland.\n\nPerhaps that is why some Ukrainians no longer call Putin the Russian president.\n\nThey call him \"The New Hitler.\"\n\nWhat could be the biggest irony of all\n\nWe know the result of Hitler's invasion. The Soviet Union eventually destroyed the Nazi war machine. The Soviets, more than any country, were responsible for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Hitler committed suicide as Russian troops closed in on his Berlin bunker in 1945.\n\nAn estimated 26 million Soviets died during World War II. One was Putin's two-year-old brother, Viktor , who died after the German army lay siege to a Russian city, blocking the delivery of food and water.\n\nWe don't know how the war in Ukraine will end. Putin could still prevail . He could split the nation and seize the energy-rich resources of Eastern Ukraine and consolidate his hold on the country's coastline, some say.\n\nGerman artillery in the streets of Stalingrad in 1942, shelling a factory that was reportedly used by Soviets as a base for counter-attacks.\n\nAnd we know that in war no one side has a monopoly on brutality. A far-right group with a history of neo-Nazi leanings has played a crucial role in Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian soldiers have been accused of shooting Russian prisoners.\n\nBut if Ukraine somehow preserves its independence and its territory, something may happen that could lead to one of the biggest ironies of all.\n\nA Ukrainian victory will be depicted as another Great Patriotic War. Ukrainians will commemorate their country's victory with parades and monuments. And Putin will no longer be hailed as a shrewd and bold leader who restored Russia's greatness by manipulating chess pieces on a global stage.\n\nHe will be seen as a fool whose hubris and brutality drove him into making the same mistakes as the dictator he professed to despise.", "authors": ["Analysis John Blake"], "publish_date": "2022/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/09/12/costco-advent-calendar-2021-wine-and-beer-calendars/8280509002/", "title": "Advent calendars 2021: Costco brings back wine and beer calendars", "text": "It's only September, but Costco is already getting into the holiday \"spirit.\"\n\nAside from starting to sell Christmas decor alongside Halloween costumes, the retailer has brought back its popular wine and beer Advent calendars, which are used to count down the Advent season, the religious days leading up to Christmas Eve.\n\n\"It might be Advent-ageous to add two very fun beer and wine holiday items to your Costco list in early September, as they sell out quickly,\" the wholesale club said in its September edition of Costco Connection magazine.\n\nThe wine calendars cost $99.99 and include 24 half bottles of wine in different varieties, which Costco says \"flies off the shelves.\" Price and availability can vary by location.\n\n►Aldi Advent calendars:Aldi unveils 2021 wine Advent calendar with $10 price drop is coming to stores Nov. 3\n\n►Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar:This Advent calendar is one of the hottest toys of the season. Here's how to get it\n\n\"We didn’t develop this idea, but we Costco-sized it,\" Kirk Johnson, a wine buyer for the retailer's Midwest region, said in the Costco Connection. \"We made this item bigger and better by using half bottles instead of the standard 187-milliliter bottles you see in other packs. We also gathered 24 unique, premium-quality wines to create a treasure hunt for our members.\"\n\nThere's also a website with more information about the wines at Wineadvent-ure.com, which notes that this year’s \"calendar will be in most Costco stores the first week of October.\"\n\nCostco says its Brewer’s Advent Calendar is in its seventh year and includes 24 16.9-ounce cans of German beer. The calendar was selling for $59.99 at a Florida Costco club Friday.\n\nTony Rizzo, a San Diego regional beer buyer, told the Costco magazine that each year there are about six new beers in the calendar based on feedback from members.\n\n►Costco shopping 101:These 3 tips will get you the best deals and the biggest discounts\n\nTraditionally, Advent calendars have been simple with fold-back flaps revealing treats such as chocolates, but over the years they have evolved to include options ranging from spirits to beauty items.\n\nIf you miss out on Costco’s booze-filled calendars, Aldi could have you covered. The discount grocer is bringing back its wine and cheese Advent calendars beginning Nov. 3 and plans to also release additional holiday countdowns.\n\nAnd if you're having a hard time finding a Costco Advent calendar, shoppers on Facebook groups like Costco Fans, which has regional groups in addition to the main group, are posting where the calendars have been spotted. Learn other tips to save at Costco here.\n\n►Target car seat trade-in event 2021:How to get a 20% discount for recycling an old car seat\n\n►Costco recall:70,000 teak shower benches recalled after 81 reports of breaking, 4 injuries\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2021/06/24/memphis-trivia-quiz-experts-history-politics-business/7713893002/", "title": "Memphis trivia quiz: Questions about history, politics, business", "text": "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.\n\nThat's an oft-repeated paraphrase of the line \"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,\" from George Santayana's early 20th-century \"The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress.\"\n\nWhat's that got to do with this, the fifth in the monthly series of \"Memphis Memories\" quizzes that The Commercial Appeal launched in February?\n\nWell, the focus this time is \"History.\" And maybe you'll learn something from it. But however you do on the quiz, you won't be doomed or condemned to repeat it; even so, we hope you'll enjoy it enough to read through it a second time, or share it with friends and family members.\n\nTo be honest, the \"History\" theme is something of a catch-all. After all, isn't almost everything you can think of that's connected with Memphis a part of the city's history, whether the subject is politics or Piggly Wiggly?\n\nIn other words, this latest quiz could have run on for hundreds of questions. But as usual, we chose 21, because the year is 2021. Clever!\n\nSo, let's begin. (The answers, as always, appear at the bottom of the quiz.)\n\nTHE QUESTIONS\n\n1. Modern Memphis was founded on May 22, 1819, by planter John Overton, Revolutionary War officer James Winchester and future president Andrew Jackson, on territory that the federal government had purchased from:\n\na) France.\n\nb) Spain.\n\nc) John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), the real-estate mogul who was America's first multimillionaire.\n\nd) The Chickasaw Nation.\n\n2. Ida B. Wells launched her anti-lynching campaign in the 1890s, while she was editor and reporter at this Memphis newspaper:\n\na) The Western World & Memphis Banner of the Constitution.\n\nb) The Avalanche.\n\nc) The Memphis Free Speech & Headlight.\n\nd) The Memphis Press-Scimitar.\n\n3. Fill in the blank: In his 1982 history of Memphis, “Metropolis of the American Nile,” author John E. Harkins wrote: “From its founding in 1819 until about 1840, Memphis was a _____ striving to survive as a town.\"\n\na) disreputable delta afterthought\n\nb) cotton patch with delusions of grandeur\n\nc) river pirate’s sanctuary\n\nd) primitive and pestilential little mudhole\n\nMEMPHIS TRIVIA QUIZ:From crime to scandal, how much do you know about the city's past?\n\nMEMPHIS SPORTS QUIZ:Sports! Memphis Quiz No. 3 tackles bats, balls, pucks and more\n\n4. In 1991, Dr. W.W. Herenton, longtime superintendent for Memphis City Schools, became the first Black mayor of Memphis when he defeated incumbent Dick Hackett by _____ votes (according to The New York Times), out of about 250,000 cast.\n\na) 6\n\nb) 43\n\nc) 172\n\nd) 1,608\n\n5. In 1826, this man was elected to Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District — the seat (with very different boundaries) later held by Harold Ford and Steve Cohen.\n\na) Davy Crockett.\n\nb) Daniel Boone.\n\nc) James K. Polk.\n\nd) Nathan Bedford Forrest.\n\n6. In 1835, journalist David Cohn wrote: “The Mississippi Delta begins ____”\n\na) on the banks of the Bluff City.\n\nb) in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel.\n\nc) within the hearts of the fair ladies of Memphis.\n\nd) in the pulpits of this most God-fearing of cities.\n\n7. According to the lead story on the front page of the May 17, 1905, edition of The Commercial Appeal, \"between 13,000 and 20,000 people\" had gathered the previous day for \"what will be recorded among the important events in the history of the city,\" the unveiling of the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in what was then known as Forrest Park. Which of these passages did not appear in that lengthy story?\n\na) \"Her lips fluttered with a smile like the red petals of a jacqueminot rose, gently blown, and her eyes danced as she released the cords and allowed the wind to carry off the shielding bunting.\"\n\nb) \"The general's investment in the slave trade inspired the occasional skeptical remark from some onlookers...\"\n\nc) \"The historian of the present time will review many significant and important lives. He will lay the laurel upon many a storied tomb; but he will honor no genius more loved and revered than the one who rests beneath the historic statue in Forrest Park.\"\n\nd) \"He sits the more supreme in the saddle to exercise an unconscious influence among the people who so honored him yesterday.\"\n\nMEMPHIS NEWS:Remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, wife have been removed from Health Sciences Park in Memphis\n\nFOR SUBSCRIBERS:Nathan Bedford Forrest's remains have been dug up twice, but for very different reasons\n\n8. Opened in 1875 at 180 N. Main, this Memphis shop is still in business, although at a different location.\n\na) Burke's Book Store.\n\nb) The Peanut Shoppe.\n\nc) A. Schwab Dry Goods.\n\nd) Dinstuhl's Fine Candies.\n\n9. On July 15, 1853, Mrs. R.B. Berry made Memphis history when...\n\na) She was arrested for \"indecency\" for wearing pants in public.\n\nb) She hacked her husband to death with an ax, setting the stage for her to become the city's first convicted murderess.\n\nc) She opened The Happy Cat, the city's first female-owned saloon.\n\nd) She became the first person buried in Elmwood Cemetery.\n\n10. \"The Hot Wing King.\"\n\na) That's the nickname of Bobby \"Bawk Bawk\" Bumps, the gimmicky1990s Memphis professional wrestler who rubbed what was said to be blistering hot sauce into the eyes of opponents he immobilized with his signature \"chicken wing\" headlock.\n\nb) That's the title of the first nationally televised Memphis-set situation comedy, which unfortunately lasted only six episodes on Nickelodeon in 1992, despite the presence of the post-\"What's Happening!!\" Fred \"Rerun\" Berry, who was cast as a hopeful chicken restaurateur.\n\nc) That's the B-side of Rufus Thomas' 1973 single, \"Funky Hot Grits.\"\n\nd) That's the name of the play that on June 11 earned Memphis writer Katori Hall the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.\n\nKNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT MEMPHIS:Try to answer these questions about science and geography\n\nMEMPHIS ENTERTAINMENT QUIZ:Think you know everything about Memphis pop culture? Try to answer these questions\n\n11. Did someone say \"Pulitzer\"? In 1923, The Commercial Appeal was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service for what the jury described as...\n\na) \"an in-depth examination of the boll weevil threat to Southern agriculture.\"\n\nb) \"a series of editorials decrying the Communist menace that has infiltrated even the most cautious of American communities since the Reds began their revolution in Russia.\"\n\nc) \"the publication of cartoons and the handling of news in reference to the operations of the Ku Klux Klan.''\n\nd) \"an exploration of the increasing usefulness of the Mississippi River in regards to modern commerce and passenger travel.\"\n\n12. With 24,251 music fans in attendance, which emcee and radio personality George Klein announced as \"the biggest crowd ever to attend a rock concert in Memphis,\" the Liberty Bowl — then known as Memphis Memorial Stadium — hosted its first rock show on June 24, 1972. The triple bill consisted of:\n\na) Buddy Miles, Black Oak Arkansas and Three Dog Night.\n\nb) Wet Willie, Little Feat and the Allman Brothers Band.\n\nc) Furry Lewis, ZZ Top and the Rolling Stones.\n\nd) Leon Russell, Spirit and Grand Funk Railroad.\n\n13. The Memphis Zoo launched its reputation as the \"Hippo Capital\" of America with the arrival of its first hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) in 1914. Enthusiastic parents, the proud pachyderms produce 16 calves. The mother and father hippos were named:\n\na) Caesar and Cleopatra.\n\nb) Venus and Adonis.\n\nc) Samson and Delilah.\n\nd) Tristan and Isolde.\n\n14. Memphis entrepreneur Clarence Saunders launched his culture-changing self-service grocery chain in 1916. Why did he call the business \"Piggly Wiggly\"? According to the Piggy Wiggly website, Saunders offered this explanation for the store's unusual name:\n\na) \"The public remembers a rhyme.\"\n\nb) \"Everybody loves pigs.\"\n\nc) \"So people will ask that very question.\"\n\nd) \"Bacon tastes good.\"\n\n15. Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz was not born in Memphis, but the impact he made on the city — and beyond — continues. The man is better known as:\n\na) Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, who recorded Elvis, Johnny Cash, B.B. King and others.\n\nb) Danny Thomas, comedian and founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.\n\nc) Shelby Foote, author and Civil War chronicler.\n\nd) Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn.\n\n16. In 1968, influential Memphians A.W. Willis and Benjamin L. Hooks partnered with Mahalia Jackson to help the legendary gospel singer launch a fast-food chicken franchise that would function as a sort of sanctified complement to the country music-associated Minnie Pearl's Chicken restaurant chain (also an investor in the Jackson enterprise). The short-lived franchise was called:\n\na) Mahalia Jackson's Holy Ghost Chicken.\n\nb) Mahalia Jackson Glori-Fried Chicken.\n\nc) Mahalia Jackson's Chew On Up a Little Higher.\n\nd) Mahalia Jackson's What a Friend We Have in Chicken.\n\n17. Which of these milestones did not occur in 1972?\n\na) The 34-story Clark Tower in East Memphis was completed.\n\nb) U.S. District Judge Robert McRae Jr. ordered the Memphis Board of Education to implement a desegregation plan that led to the busing of an estimated 13,789 students during the following school year.\n\nc) Harold Ford Sr. became the first Black person elected to Congress in Tennessee.\n\nd) Isaac Hayes won the Oscar for Best Original Song for \"Theme from Shaft.\"\n\nMISS TENNESSEE 2021:Scholarship competition comes to Memphis at Cannon Center for Performing Arts\n\nMEMPHIS TOURISM:Miss Tennessee promoters shine spotlight on Memphis; event a 'godsend' after tough 2020\n\n18. Which of these Memphis \"pageant facts\" is not true?\n\na) Competing as the reigning \"Miss Memphis,\" Barbara Jo Walker — future mother of Andy Hummel, who was a founding member of the influential 1970s Memphis power pop group Big Star — in 1947 became the last woman to be crowned Miss America while wearing a bathing suit.\n\nb) Memphis-born Kellye Cash, who was Miss Tennessee when she won the Miss America crown in 1987, is the niece of singer Johnny Cash.\n\nc) In 1970, Elvis Presley wrote to Miss America officials to express interest in performing the song \"There She Is, Miss America\" at the end of the nationally televised pageant, but organizers did not respond because they believed Elvis' image was not \"clean cut\" enough for the show.\n\nd) The Miss USA competition was held at Graceland in 2020.\n\n19. Which of these actual events happened first?\n\na) The Hernando de Soto Bridge (now closed indefinitely due to a \"structural\" crack) is opened to traffic.\n\nb) Memphis schoolteacher Anita Ward has a No. 1 pop, disco and soul hit with \"Ring My Bell.\"\n\nc) City Council member J.O. Patterson Jr. becomes the city's first Black mayor, after he is named interim mayor, to replace Wyeth Chandler, who resigned from office to accept a Circuit Court judgeship. (W.W. Herenton does not become the first elected Black mayor until 10 years later.)\n\nd) The private liberal arts school known as \"Southwestern at Memphis\" becomes \"Rhodes College.\"\n\n20. Signing on the air on Dec. 11, 1948, as WMCT, the station that is now WMC-TV Channel 5 was the first television broadcaster in Tennessee and the only Memphis station for five years. The W, of course, is the designated first letter of almost all radio and television stations east of the Mississippi, as mandated by federal licensing guidelines; but what did the \"MC\" in the call sign originally stand for?\n\na) Memphis Communications.\n\nb) Movies and Conversation.\n\nc) Mister Crump.\n\nd) Memphis Commercial Appeal.\n\n21. In an 1858 letter to his sister, Mark Twain characterized Memphis as _____\n\na) \"Dante's tenth circle of hell.\"\n\nb) \"a nice place to visit, if you are a cutpurse or dipsomaniac.\"\n\nc) \"New Orleans, with hungry mosquitos and even hungrier mosicians.\"\n\nd) \"the noblest city on the face of the Earth.\"\n\nTHE ANSWERS\n\n1. D.\n\n2. C.\n\n3. D.\n\n4. C. (Proving joke candidates can make a difference, Robert \"Prince Mongo\" Hodges, who claimed to be a resident of a planet named Zambodia, received 2,921 votes.)\n\n5. A.\n\n6. B.\n\n7. B. (In fact, no explicit mention of race or slavery appears in the story; nor does the term \"Civil War.\") (The passage in 'A' was written about Forrest's great-granddaughter, Kathleen Bradley, who unveiled the statue.)\n\n8. A. (Main Street's Peanut Shoppe was established in 1949, A. Schwab's opened on Beale in 1876, and Dinstuhl's was founded on Main in 1902.)\n\n9. D. (The other scenarios are made-up.)\n\n10. D. (Rufus Thomas really did release a 1973 single titled \"Funky Hot Grits,\" but the B side was \"Give Me the Green Light.\" The scenarios in answers A and B are fictional.)\n\n11. C.\n\n12. A.\n\n13. B.\n\n14. C.\n\n15. B.\n\n16. B.\n\n17. C. (Ford earned this distinction in 1974.)\n\n18. C. (Bonus fact: From 1948 on, Miss America winners have been crowned while wearing evening gowns.)\n\n19. A. (The answer choices are listed in chronological order: The bridge opened in 1973; \"Ring My Bell\" was a hit in 1979; Patterson became mayor in 1982; Southwestern changed its name in 1984.)\n\n20. D. (At the time, both The Commercial Appeal and the television station were owned by Scripps Howard, so the letters in the \"call sign\" were chosen to emphasize the new enterprise's connection with the well-established newspaper.)\n\n21. D. (Twain's letter was written after a visit to the Memphis hospital where his brother Henry was being treated for injuries in a steamboat explosion.)", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/business/king-soopers-strike/index.html", "title": "King Soopers strike by 8,000 workers affects Denver area grocery ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) About 8,000 grocery store workers at 77 King Soopers and City Markets stores in the Denver area are on strike after the union rejected what the company described as its best and final offer to replace a recently expired contract.\n\nKroger KR The strike started Wednesday morning against the stores, which are part of, the nation's largest stand-alone grocery retailer.\n\nThe number of members of the United Food & Commercial Workers union who are on strike make it the nation's second largest strike of the last two years, behind only a five-week work stoppage by 10,000 auto workers at John Deere & Co. that ended in November\n\nat King Soopers and City Markets voted ovewhelmingly last week to authorize the strike, according to the union, which did not hold a separate vote to consider the company's final offer. The union said that offer would have created a new subclass of gig workers, which it claimed would be used to reduce work hours and drain the company's health fund for long-term employees. It also did not address worker concerns about Covid The rank-and-file workersat King Soopers and City Markets voted ovewhelmingly last week to authorize the strike, according to the union, which did not hold a separate vote to consider the company's final offer. The union said that offer would have created a new subclass of gig workers, which it claimed would be used to reduce work hours and drain the company's health fund for long-term employees. It also did not address worker concerns about Covid safety measures to protect both employees and customers, the union added.\n\n\"The company's 'last, best, and final' offer, in many ways, is worse than its previous offers,\" said Kim Cordova, president of the local unit of the striking union. \"Clearly, King Soopers/City Market will not voluntarily meet the needs of our workers, despite our repeated pleas for the company to listen to the voices of our members. We strike because it has become clear this is the only way to get what is fair, just, and equitable for the grocery workers who have risked their lives every day just by showing up to work during the pandemic.\"", "authors": ["Chris Isidore", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/01/13"}]}
{"question_id": "20220722_29", "search_time": "2022/07/22/14:14", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/07/28/california-monsoon-popular-ports-disney-meets-elvis-news-around-states/117677814/", "title": "50 States", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: The number of COVID-19 patients in Alabama hospitals climbed to more than 900 on Monday – a number the state has not seen since February. There were 947 COVID-19 patients in state hospitals Monday, up from 204 at the beginning of July, according to numbers from the Alabama Hospital Association. The latest number is about a third of where the state was at the peak of the pandemic, when there were 3,000 virus patients in state hospitals in January. Dr. Scott Harris, who serves as Alabama’s health officer, said he is “extremely concerned” about the rise in cases. “It’s the perfect storm of large numbers of unvaccinated people and the delta variant which is highly infectious and much more transmissible than anything we saw before,” Harris said. Dr. Don Williamson, the former state health officer who now heads the Alabama Hospital Association, said the concern is the steep upward trajectory in numbers. Williamson said the state has the solution in the form of the vaccine, but “there is not a long line of people wanting to be vaccinated.” Health officials say the latest spike is associated with the delta variant which is exploiting low immunization rates, summer crowds and the end of cautionary measures like mask wearing.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to review whether a southeast Alaska wolf population merits Endangered Species Act protections. The plans are outlined in a document set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday. The document stated that a petition from conservation groups to protect the Alexander Archipelago wolf included information indicating protections might be warranted because of potential threats associated with logging, illegal and legal trapping and hunting, climate change and loss of genetic diversity. The agency said it is initiating a status review to determine if protections are warranted. An email seeking comment was sent to an agency spokesperson Monday. The wolves are found in the coastal rainforests of southeast Alaska and British Columbia and a petition filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity, Alaska Rainforest Defenders and Defenders of Wildlife raised particular concerns about the wolves in Alaska and on southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. In 2016, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined the wolf did not warrant Endangered Species Act protections.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix:Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, were among 39 people arrested Monday after refusing to leave the Phoenix office of Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has faced unrelenting pressure from liberal activists over her opposition to ending the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation. Jackson, one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leaders, said the U.S. is in a “civilization crisis” with “battle lines drawn,” and he urged activists to fight nonviolently for their rights. Sinema is among moderate Democratic senators who have ruled out changes to the filibuster, which she said encourages bipartisan cooperation and more lasting legislative compromises. Several hundred activists marched about a mile from a park to Sinema’s office in Phoenix’s Biltmore neighborhood, chanting “end the filibuster now.” Eliminating the filibuster would open the door for Democratic senators to enact voting rights bills and raise the federal minimum wage to $15, they said.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he planned to meet with House and Senate leaders about growing calls to allow schools to require face masks as the state reported 23 more deaths from COVID-19. The Republican governor said he planned to discuss the issue Tuesday with the GOP leaders of the state House and Senate, following calls from Democratic lawmakers and others to lift a state law banning mask mandates by state and local governments. The Little Rock School Board on Monday night passed a resolution urging a change in the law so districts could decide whether to require students and employees wear masks. Arkansas’ virus cases have been surging in recent weeks, fueled by the delta variant and the state’s low vaccination rate. The state’s deaths rose to 6,077. The number of people hospitalized rose by 61 to 980. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson tweeted that the hospital had 66 COVID-19 patients, surpassing the record it reached in January when it had 63.\n\nCalifornia\n\nPalm Springs:Monsoonal thunderstorms drenched the Coachella Valley early Monday, bringing flooded roadways, power outages and the wettest day for Palm Springs in more than 15 months. The Palm Springs International Airport collected nearly a half-inch of rain, setting a daily record. Monday's heavy rain was the largest single-day accumulation in the city since 0.46 fell on April 8, 2020. The heavy rain also impacted Monday's morning commute as intersections saw minor flooding. In Palm Springs, Indian Canyon Drive was closed between Sunrise Parkway and Garnet for several hours because of water washing over the roadway, but the road was reopened about 3:15 p.m. Monday, with the exception of one southbound lane. Near Mecca, Box Canyon Road was closed near Interstate 10 because of debris and flooding. Across the valley, the California Highway Patrol reported a sinkhole at Dillon Road and Thousand Palms Canyon Road, with residents advised to avoid the area. The weather also left several thousand residents in the Coachella Valley without power. Southern California Edison reported power outages impacted roughly 6,800 customers in the valley at the height of the storm, but that number dropped to approximately 1,500 customers by afternoon.\n\nColorado\n\nFort Collins:The first phase of the Larimer County Jail’s multimillion-dollar expansion project has wrapped up. Larimer County commissioners and other county officials toured the completed parts of the $80 million project last week, including a new kitchen, laundry area and boiler room. Construction on the first phase of the project was completed July 9. The new kitchen is about double the size and more open than the old kitchen, which jail Capt. Bobby Moll said will make it easier for jail staff to supervise those assigned to work in the kitchen. The jail works to provide meal options to accommodate religious and dietary needs, and the extra space in the new kitchen will give workers more space for food prep, Lt. Staci Shaffer said.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Dr. Manisha Juthani, an infectious disease specialist at Yale School of Medicine, was nominated by Gov. Ned Lamont to serve as the next commissioner of the Department of Public Health. Juthani will succeed Dr. Deidre Gifford, the state social services commissioner who has also been leading the health agency since the departure of Renee Coleman-Mitchell in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Juthani was among the doctors who signed a letter in November to Lamont urging him to prohibit indoor dining, close gyms and ban nonessential social gatherings to slow the spread of the virus. Juthani will begin the new role on Sept. 20. At a news conference, she said she was eager to work on issues including health care equity and disparities in access to treatment. She also commended the health care workers and others who have helped the state through the pandemic.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington:State Rep. Gerald Brady will not seek reelection when his term ends in 2022, he said Monday. The announcement came after a week of criticism and calls for his resignation after a an email sent by Brady using an anti-Asian racial slur.was published by The News Journal. The comments from Brady came from an email exchange with an out-of-state advocate regarding legislation intended to protect sex workers. That June 27 email was intended for a private citizen Brady knows, asking if they could read and summarize the study, said Drew Volturo, spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus. Instead, Brady hit reply and emailed the original sender. In Delaware, lawmaker emails are not considered public record. The response was shared with The News Journal. Brady’s actions “make it more difficult to effectively provide the kind of representation” constituents of his district deserve, he said in a statement on Monday.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:D.C. neighbors are calling for action from the city after three young men were shot on Q Street northwest Sunday afternoon, two of whom died, WUSA-TV reported. D.C. Police identified the two men killed as 22-year-old Javon Hill, Jr. and 19-year-old Tariq Riley. The third young man hit is recovering from gunshot injuries, according to police. Resident Brenda Stewart and her Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, Karla Lewis, said they had been pressing the city to do more – to be more proactive – to no avail. “I don't have any answers, I just want some solutions,\" Stewart said. \"I like to see some real masterminds in our community that can come up with some solutions.” Stewart said she's proud of her home and wants the city to take care of it. Lewis said they're working with Councilmember McDuffie's office to set up a community meeting to discuss solutions.\n\nFlorida\n\nOrlando: Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said “we are now in crisis mode” when it comes to dealing with soaring numbers of COVID-19 infections. Florida accounted for a fifth of the nation’s new infections last week, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now Orange County, the home to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort is seeing about 1,000 new cases a day, Demings said. “A thousand a day is extraordinary,” Demings said. “We are now in crisis mode … We as a community need to work together to slow this rate.” The positivity rate for the virus in the county of 1.4 million residents has tripled to 14% from about 4.3% a month ago. More than 61% of county residents have had at least one vaccination shot, and the mayor urged unvaccinated residents to get theirs as soon as possible. Demings said central Florida hospitals are approaching capacity. A medical officer at one of the state’s largest health systems said its number of COVID-19 patients is nearing a record high: 862, approaching the peak of 900 hospitalized patients with the virus in January.\n\nGeorgia\n\nSavannah:For the first time, the Port of Savannah has moved 5.3 million 20-foot equivalent container units in a fiscal year, the Georgia Ports Authority said. That means it has grown its cargo volumes by 20% in fiscal year 2021. American companies are continuing to choose the Port of Savannah as a gateway to global trade, Gov. Brian Kemp said. Georgia’s ports are a key reason that it remains a strong state for business, the governor said. Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said the project to deepen Savannah Harbor, the Mason Mega Rail terminal and other capacity upgrades are preparing Georgia for future cargo demand. The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is now nearly 90% complete, the Ports Authority said. The project is expected to finish in December. With a high-tide depth of 54 feet, the deeper harbor will allow vessels to take on heavier loads with fewer tidal restrictions.\n\nHawaii\n\nLihue: Kauai utility officials are installing glow-in-the-dark devices to prevent endangered nocturnal seabirds from crashing into power lines. The diverters help Newell’s shearwater, Hawaiian petrel and band-rumped storm petrel avoid power lines after dark. Kauai is considered an important breeding habitat for all of those species. The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative installed diverters on 109 power line spans last year and expects to install diverters on another 628 spans by the end of 2021, The Garden Island reported Monday. The cooperative said it is using reflective diverters that glow in the dark near residential areas, commercial districts and public roads. In remote areas, it’s using LED diverters that charge via a solar panel during the day to produce light that’s visible to birds at night. Bird diverters are estimated to be 40% to 90% effective in minimizing power-line collisions, depending on type and location.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: A federal court has temporarily halted a northern Idaho logging project in grizzly bear habitat following a lawsuit contending the U.S. Forest Service violated environmental laws. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled Friday in favor of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and issued a preliminary injunction on the 2,500-acre Hanna Flats Logging Project in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The Forest Service and Idaho Department of Lands are partnering on the project under a program called the Good Neighbor Authority intended to speed up logging and forest restoration projects on U.S. Forest Service land by allowing state officials to take care of some of the work. The Forest Service said it doesn’t have to follow certain environmental laws because the project qualifies for a categorical exclusion under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. The act allows the Forest Service to avoid some environmental studies if an area is designated as “wildland urban interface,” an area where homes and wildland intermingle, and that can leave homes vulnerable to wildfires. The Forest Service cited Bonner County’s wildfire protection plan that designates the area as wildland urban interface in saying the logging project qualified for the categorical exclusion. However, Winmill ruled that the project does not appear to qualify for an exclusion and halted logging until it rules on the merits of the case. The U.S. Department of Justice, which represents federal agencies in court cases, didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry sent through its online portal on Monday.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: The city of Chicago and its police union announced they have reached a tentative contract agreement after four years of negotiations. The tentative contract is aligned with the consent decree entered into in 2019 that calls for reforms to how the Chicago Police Department operates, according to officials. The 236-page plan negotiated between Illinois and Chicago officials calls for more community policing, more data collection on how officers work and expanded training on the use of force. One provision will require officers to file paperwork each time they point a gun at someone, even if they don’t fire. The reforms in the contract includes the end to a ban on investigation of anonymous complaints and the changing of officer testimony after viewing video. In addition, officers can now be rewarded for reporting misconduct of other officers. The tentative contract calls for rank-and-file police officers to receive a 10.5% retroactive pay raise and 9.5% more through January 2025. The proposal represents an average annual increase of 2.5%.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: The Department of Environmental Management forecasted high ozone levels Tuesday for four regions in the central, southern and western parts of the state. The alert covered Clark and Floyd counties in southeastern Indiana; Vigo, Carroll and Tippecanoe counties in west-central Indiana; Marion, Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Delaware, Hamilton, Hendricks, Howard, Madison and Shelby counties in central Indiana; and Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in southwestern Indiana. Anyone sensitive to changes in air quality could be affected when ozone levels are high. Children, the elderly, and anyone with heart or lung conditions were advised to reduce or avoid exertion and heavy work outdoors. Ground-level ozone is formed when sunlight and hot weather combine with vehicle exhaust, factory emissions, and gasoline vapors. It can irritate lungs and can cause coughing and breathing difficulties for sensitive populations. The agency encouraged everyone to help reduce ozone by driving less; not refueling vehicles or using gasoline-powered lawn equipment until after 7 p.m.; and conserving energy by turning off lights and setting thermostats to 75 degrees or above.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines:The Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority has begun sampling sewage as part of a national program to track the spread of the coronavirus and its variants. The agency announced its participation Monday, the Des Moines Register reported. Agency workers began collecting samples last week and shipping them to a national lab in Maine. The effort is being funded by the federal government and is expected to continue for eight or nine weeks. Larry Hare, manager of the southeast Des Moines sewage treatment plant, said sewage sampling can inform officials if a dangerous virus or germ is circulating in a community. “It will tell us whether we’re behind the curve or ahead of the curve,” Hare said. He said the sampling is the first time the Des Moines agency has participated in a search for a virus, but it has previously provided samples for researchers looking for opioid drug use and other information.\n\nKansas\n\nOverland Park: One of Kansas’ largest public school districts plans to require elementary students to wear masks this fall after a health official warned that the faster-spreading delta variant would lead to widespread infections among unmasked children. The Shawnee Mission district joins the Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, schools in requiring masks for some students. But Shawnee Mission is the only district to plan on mandating masks among the six in Johnson County, the state’s most populous county, The Kansas City Star reported. Shawnee Mission’s board voted 6-1 to require masks in elementary schools but keep them optional for middle and high schools. The district has 26,000 students, making it the third-largest in Kansas behind Wichita and Olathe. Johnson County Epidemiologist Elizabeth Holzschuh warned the board that the delta variant would become widespread in classrooms of unmasked elementary-aged students. The federal government has not authorized any vaccine for children under 12.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: The Kentucky Department for Public Health is offering a coronavirus testing program for schools to assist with safe in-person learning for the upcoming academic year, Commissioner Steven Stack said. It is limited to staff and students of Kentucky K-12 public, private and charter schools. “We’ve been given $134 million by the federal government to create a testing program for K-12 schools, public and private, throughout the entire commonwealth,” Stack said. “I urge everyone who operates a school out there to explore the options and make testing available to keep yourselves safe.” Superintendents and school administrators can learn more at govstatus.egov.com/K-12-kentucky-school-testing-program.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: Officials suspended visitation and volunteer programs in Louisiana’s eight state-run prisons Tuesday to guard against the spread of COVID-19. The action came in response to a fourth surge of the disease in the state, where hospitalizations – at more than 1,200 as of Monday – have more than doubled in 10 days. The suspension is effective immediately and will be reevaluated on Aug. 16, the Department of Corrections said in a news release. “In lieu of visitation, the Department will continue to offer two free phone calls per week to ensure inmates have continued connection to family and friends during this event,” the department said. “In addition, video calling remains available for a fee.” At least two major hospital systems in the state have announced the suspension of nonemergency surgeries that might require hospital admissions as COVID-19 hospitalization numbers grow. In the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish, officials held a morning news conference to again urge people to get vaccinated. Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng, accompanied by the parish coroner and doctors from two local hospital systems, said new cases are evident in areas of the parish where vaccination rates are low.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Public health authorities said a second case of a rare tick-borne infection has been located in the state. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said laboratory tests confirmed a case of Powassan virus in a resident of Knox County. A Waldo County resident who is still recovering from the virus contracted it in June. The agency said about 25 cases of the disease are reported in the U.S. every year. Maine has had 10 cases since 2010. Symptoms of the disease can include fever, headache, weakness, confusion and memory loss. Severe infection can also lead to death. The Maine CDC said residents should take precautions, such as wearing repellent and protective clothing to avoid Powassan and other tick-borne infections.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan honored deaf and blind swimmer Becca Meyers for courage in championing the disabled, after the three-time gold medalist withdrew from the Paralympics in Tokyo when told her mother couldn’t travel as her personal care assistant. Hogan presented a citation to Meyers during a news conference commemorating the 31st anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act. The certificate honored her “bravery for highlighting the issue of inequality and access for people with disabilities.” Hogan also signed an executive order declaring that Maryland will annually celebrate July as Disability Culture and Achievements Month. “Becca deserved to be able to compete, and while we’re all so disappointed for her, I got the chance to tell her just a moment before this started that I’m unbelievably proud of her for having the courage to speak up and to speak out about this injustice,” Hogan said. Meyers, 26, said the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee approved her mother to act as her assistant at all international meets since 2017 but the committee said her request to bring her mother this time was denied because of restrictions put in place by the Japanese government because of COVID-19. Meyers said she made the decision to withdraw to stand up for future Paralympic athletes, saying she didn’t want them to have to experience what she’s been through. “I hope to work with others to effect change so that no one ever feels afraid to travel with Team USA,” Meyers said.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nProvincetown: City officials have approved an indoor mask mandate to fight an outbreak of more than 500 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the vacation haven at the tip of Cape Cod. The town’s Select Board and Board of Health unanimously voted in favor of the mandate during an emergency joint meeting Sunday. “We are entering a new stage of COVID,” Town Manager Alex Morse said. “COVID, while depressing for many of us, is not going away anytime soon.” The boards had approved an indoor mask advisory last week, but it had not adequately succeeded in slowing the spread, he said. The new cases stem from a busy Fourth of July weekend, officials have said. The indoor mask mandate will become an advisory again when positivity rates drop lower than 3% over five days. The advisory can be lifted when the positivity rate drops lower than 2%.\n\nMichigan\n\nSt. Ignace: Enbridge said it had retrieved an anchor that broke away from a maintenance vessel while on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. The mishap occurred June 21 as a contractor for the pipeline company was doing seasonal work on the underwater section of Line 5, an oil line that runs between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. The section in the straits, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, is divided into two pipes about 1,200 feet apart. The anchor was deployed about midway between them. When the crew tried to raise it, the shackle connecting it to the cable failed, Enbridge spokesman Michael Barnes said. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy ordered the company to remove the anchor, which took place Sunday. A crane on a barge was used to lift the 15,000-pound object to the surface, Barnes said. Pipeline operations weren’t affected, he said.\n\nMinnesota\n\nFairmont: An announcer who was fired by an Iowa racetrack after a racist rant was back behind the microphone in southern Minnesota last weekend, but he did not receive a standing ovation as promised because he was apparently uncomfortable with that plan, according to the promoter of Fairmont Raceway. Lon Oelke is the full-time announcer at Fairmont Raceway, where he worked Friday – days after the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona, Iowa, cut ties with him after he went on a racist rant this month against Black fans and athletes who kneel during the national anthem as a protest against racial inequality. The Kossuth County Speedway said in a statement that its leaders “do not condone” Oelke’s comments, adding that management did not hear them during the race, but only after they gained attention on social media. “I think perhaps the whole thing is taken a little out of context with social media these days,” Fairmont track promoter Jon McCorkell told the Star Tribune, adding that he’ll “stick by my guy.”\n\nMississippi\n\nVicksburg: The Mississippi Department of Public Safety said it wants local officials to find a larger building for the state driver’s license office in Vicksburg. The department’s director of driver services, Kevin Raymond, told Warren County supervisors Monday that the county-owned building is too small to accommodate workers and visitors, the Vicksburg Post reported. Raymond said the driver’s license office needs an additional entrance, a second bathroom, a break room and more square footage. However, he said the state doesn’t provide money for those needs. Warren County pays most expenses for the building where the driver’s license office is housed, including cleaning services and utilities. The new space being considered is in the former Outlets of Vicksburg. It would be larger, have two restrooms, multiple entrances and a large parking lot. The lot would provide space for commercial driver’s license training, and the manager of the Vicksburg driver’s license office, Rhonda Howard, said that would make a big difference. Performing a commercial driver’s license road test now requires 11/ 2 -hour round trip to Pearl.\n\nMissouri\n\nJefferson City: Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has sued to halt a mask mandate that took effect Monday in the St. Louis area amid a rise in COVID-19 cases that are burdening a growing number of hospitals across the state. The mandate, one of the first to be reinstated in the country, requires everyone age 5 or older to wear masks in indoor public places and on public transportation in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, even if they are vaccinated. Wearing masks outdoors is strongly encouraged, especially in group settings. But the lawsuit said the mandates are “arbitrary and capricious because they require vaccinated individuals to wear masks, despite the CDC guidance that this is not necessary.” It also questions mandating children to wear masks in school, noting they are less likely to become seriously ill. “This continued government overreach is unacceptable and unconstitutional, especially in the face of a widely available vaccine,” Schmitt said in a news release. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said Schmitt would not be successful in his legal challenge. She noted that he filed an unsuccessful lawsuit last year against the Chinese government over the coronavirus, alleging that nation’s officials are to blame for the pandemic.\n\nMontana\n\nLivingston: Authorities in south-central Montana continued searching Tuesday for an inmate who overpowered a county jail guard, took the guard’s gun and car keys and escaped in a stolen minivan. Jordon Earl Linde, 34, is believed to have stayed in the Livingston-Shields Valley area after escaping from custody in Park County at about 11 p.m. Sunday, Sheriff Brad Bichler said in a social media post. Bichler encouraged Linde to no longer “prolong the inevitable” and turn himself in, or for anyone who has contact with him to do the same. Linde was arrested Saturday for felony drug charges and other alleged offenses. After stealing a Park County Detention Center minivan during his escape, he abandoned the vehicle and was believed to have stolen another – a gold Chrysler Town and Country minivan. Linde had a pistol and was considered armed and dangerous.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: An Omaha man has been indicted on a federal charge of bank fraud after prosecutors said he lied to get a loan through a federal program meant to help businesses struggling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. M.A. Yah faces court next month and could get up to 30 years in prison if convicted, the office of the U.S. Attorney for Nebraska said in a news release. The indictment against Yah said he was director of The Heartland News – a nonprofit newspaper with a mission to end poverty and homelessness in the region – when he requested a Paycheck Protection Program loan of more than $100,000 for the business in April 2020. Paperwork filed by Yah said the loan was to support the newspaper’s payroll, but prosecutors said he lied about the number of employees and payroll of the nonprofit from the previous year. Reached by phone Tuesday, Yah denied the allegations, ut said he could not yet comment further on the charges. Yah said he planned to hire an attorney this week to fight the charge.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: A federal judge has denied environmentalists’ request for a court order temporarily blocking the government from digging trenches for archaeological surveys at a mine planned near the Nevada-Oregon line with the largest-known U.S. deposit of lithium. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du said in an 11-page ruling late Friday in Reno that four conservation groups failed to prove the trenches planned across a total of one-quarter acre would cause irreparable harm to sage brush that serves as crucial habitat for imperiled sage grouse. She said she plans to rule later this week on a request from a Nevada tribe to join the legal fight as a co-plaintiff and seek a similar restraining order based on claims the digging would disturb sacred burial grounds.Du emphasized she has placed the overall case on an expedited schedule and intends to issue a ruling on the merits by early next year. She noted any construction of the mine itself is unlikely to begin before the snow melts in the spring of 2022. Lithium Nevada Corp.’s proposed Thacker Pass mine is emerging as a key battleground in the debate over environmental trade-offs tied to President Joe Biden’s push for renewable energy. Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Fine-particle air pollution concentrations have reached unhealthy levels statewide for people with lung diseases and those who are active outdoors as smoke from wildfires in the West and Canada reaches the area, the Department of Environmental Services said. The department said people should take precautions by limiting prolonged outdoor exertion. Current wind patterns are transporting waves of smoke from fires in the West and parts of Canada across much of the country, including New Hampshire, the department said. The smoke plumes also diffract light, causing a hazy appearance in the sky and reducing visibility of distant objects, the department said. Sensitive individuals include children, older adults and anyone with lung disease such as asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis. The air quality is expected to improve Wednesday as the wind is forecast to move the smoke plumes out of the area.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nNewark: A $44 million federal grant announced Monday will be used to modernize, expand and reconfigure the road system at the port complex in Newark and Elizabeth, making it safer and cutting down on delays. Some of the most congested roads in New Jersey are at the port complex, where trucks roll through nonstop to pick up and drop off shipping containers at the nation’s second-busiest port. With container volume in the New York/New Jersey port system setting a record last year despite the disruptions to the global supply chain caused by the pandemic, the aging roads and interchanges in Newark figure to continue taking a beating. It’s estimated that 15,000 trucks use the roads each day at the northern access points to the port, which sit at the intersection of Interstate 78 and the New Jersey Turnpike across from Newark Liberty International Airport. The Port Authority, which operates the ports, said there were more than 400 truck accidents and three fatalities between 2005 and 2018. The grant comes from the Department of Transportation’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program, and will be used as part of the Port Authority’s 10-year, $176 million road network modernization project.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: State education officials released updated guidance on COVID-19 case reporting, masking requirements and vaccine considerations for K-12 schools this fall. The new rules give vaccinated students more chances to take off masks. It also allows them to avoid quarantines if there’s an outbreak on campus. Schools serving only middle or high school students can choose to allow vaccinated children to go without masks in most situations. But deciding which schools can unmask won’t be easy, and could hinge on vaccination rates. Under the new guidelines, local school officials are allowed to require universal masking in any school, even among students who volunteer proof of vaccine status in the form of a card or a screenshot of a Department of Health confirmation.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York City: Carlos Santana, LL Cool J and Barry Manilow are among the performers who will join previously announced headliners Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Hudson at next month’s Central Park concert to celebrate the city’s recovery from the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The Aug. 21 concert will be broadcast worldwide on CNN and will also include performances by Elvis Costello, Andrea Bocelli, Wyclef Jean and Cynthia Erivo, the mayor said. Patti Smith will duet with Springsteen. “This is going to be an historic, monumental moment for all New Yorkers and all Americans,” de Blasio said. “I’ll put it plainly: You’re going to want to be here.” City officials said 80% of the tickets for the concert will be free. Free and for-purchase tickets will be released to the public in batches starting Monday at www.homecoming2021.com. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required for entry, de Blasio said.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nCurrituck: The Currituck-Knotts Island ferry service is being suspended to alleviate a staffing shortage at the Hatteras terminal, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division. In a news release, the division said the Currituck-Knotts Island route will resume its scheduled service on July 31. Earlier this year, the department said its ferry service was facing a shortage of deck hands, seamen and captains. The Virginian-Pilot reported in the spring that there is often a waiting list to get a ferry job. But this year, the service needs to fill an expanded summer schedule. Jed Dixon, deputy director of the North Carolina Ferry Division, said the pandemic prevented an annual job fair that typically helps recruit enough employees. But he said that people could simply be choosing other careers. North Carolina operates 22 ferries on seven routes, and officials said about 2 million people ride the vessels each year. In April, the ferry service said it needed roughly 20 more employees.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nFargo:The Army has awarded a more than $13 million contract to Gast Construction Company, Inc. in Fargo to build a Remotely Piloted Aircraft operations center for the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Wing. Republican U.S. Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Committee, was able to secure $17.5 million for the construction of the facility, which is needed to support new advanced technology and equipment that is crucial to the mission’s long-term success, while also preventing interruptions for the wing’s operations. The Air Guard anticipates moving into the new facility sometime in fiscal year 2023.\n\nOhio\n\nAthens: Ohio University has notified the Delta Pi chapter of Sigma Chi that it has been suspended for four years following an investigation by the school that revealed student code of conduct violations. The fraternity accepted responsibility for providing false information to school officials or law enforcement and two hazing-related counts. The suspension came about two weeks after the university found the Beta Chapter of Delta Tau Delta committed nine violations, including selling and distributing alcohol, reckless behavior and coerced consumption of alcohol. That fraternity was also suspended for four years. Members of the fraternities are prohibited from joining other frats on campus or starting their own, the school said. Both will be eligible to apply for reinstatement in 2025. Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed a measure that put in place tougher penalties for hazing at Ohio universities and colleges starting this fall. “Collin’s Law,” is named after Collin Wiant, an 18-year-old Ohio University freshman who died in 2018 after ingesting nitrous oxide at a different fraternity house, which was expelled in May 2019.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: The remains of 19 bodies exhumed as part of a city search for unmarked burials from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre will be reinterred during a private ceremony Friday at Oaklawn Cemetery, city officials said. The bodies were exhumed in June and examined at an on-site laboratory by forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield, whose findings have not been made public, the Tulsa World reported. Efforts to identify the remains through records and possibly DNA are ongoing, according to the city. Stubblefield has said that the remains appeared to include men, women and children. In at least one set of male remains, a bullet was found in a shoulder. Other parts of the man’s remains showed similar signs of trauma, including to the head.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Health officials in Oregon’s most populous county said they strongly recommend that people wear masks in all indoor public spaces regardless of vaccine status. Multnomah County officials said in news release that the advisory was issued in response to COVID-19 cases increasing largely because of the highly contagious delta variant. Public Health Director Jessica Guernsey said if people don’t act, an exponential rise in cases can be expected, especially in pockets with low vaccinations. County health officials are particularly worried about the delta variant, which is roughly twice as contagious as earlier virus strains and might cause more severe illness. Eight counties in Western Washington are also recommending people wear masks in public indoor settings as are officials in Los Angeles County and San Francisco Bay Area counties.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg:Nearly 1,500 nursing home workers across Pennsylvania canceled a one-day strike Tuesday after they reached contract agreements with their employers. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania had said that employees at 20 nursing homes were going to hold a one-day strike to draw attention to problems with the industry, such as low wages, short staffing and outdated state regulations. On Monday, the union first announced that workers had come to tentative contract agreements with Guardian Healthcare. Then late Monday afternoon, the union said workers at Priority-owned facilities had also come to preliminary agreements. “Our new agreements move us in the right direction but they are only a first step in an urgent and larger conversation about reforming our long-term care system,” said Matthew Yarnell, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania’s president, in a statement. Workers will discuss the proposed agreements “over the next few weeks” and hold ratification votes, according to the union’s statement.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Public health officials are investigating a rise in the number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease in Rhode Island, the state Department of Health said. There have been 30 cases reported since June 2, the agency said in an emailed statement. Of those, 28 people have required hospitalization. The state has had an average of 10 cases per month in June and July since 2014, the agency said. No common source of exposure has been identified. “We know that Legionella bacteria grow best in complex water systems that are not well-maintained,” department Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said in a statement. “When this water becomes aerosolized in small droplets, such as in a cooling tower, shower, or decorative fountain, people can accidentally breathe in the contaminated water. This is of particular concern now as some buildings’ water systems have been offline for a prolonged period due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are just now returning to service.” Legionella is especially a concern in buildings that primarily house people older than 65, buildings with multiple housing units and a centralized hot water system like hotels or high-rise apartment complexes. Symptoms, which typically start two to 10 days after breathing in the bacteria, can include cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, and headaches.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nLake Wylie: At least 80 dogs were taken out of a home because they were living in very poor conditions, deputies said. Two monkeys and a bird were also removed Monday from property in Lake Wylie, the York County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “The smell about knocked me over. There were feces everywhere,” sheriff’s spokesman Trent Faris told reporters outside the home. The dogs were mostly smaller animals and were living inside and outside the home, deputies said. The animals have been taken to the county animal shelter to determine how healthy they are and if they can be adopted, authorities said. A man in the home was charged with ill treatment of and hoarding of animals and deputies said more charges are possible after a veterinarian examines the animals. Deputies said they found methamphetamine and several guns in the home as well. There were so many animals to examine that the York County Animal Shelter had to stop taking in other animals from the public on Monday.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nRapid City: The Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board is requiring all of its employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The board’s CEO, Jerilyn Church, has sent a memo to staff that said those working under the Health Board banner, including the Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center, Oyate Health Center and the We Are Warriors EOC will be required to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 21. “In accordance with GPTLHB’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards, GPTLHB has adopted this policy to safeguard the health of our employees and their families, our relatives and visitors, and the community at large from infectious diseases that vaccinations reduce,” Church said. Currently, 74% of the Health Board’s staff has received the vaccine, according to officials. But, with numbers on the rise and the emergence of the delta variant, mandatory vaccinations for all staff is a logical next step for the organization, Church said.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis:An exhibit of artwork, costumes and props from The Walt Disney Co. archives is on display at the Graceland Exhibition Center. The 10,000-square-foot display, “Inside the Walt Disney Archives,” covers multiple Disney properties, ranging from Disney live action to animated films, Walt Disney’s personal effects, items from various Disney Parks and more. The exhibit premiered at D23 Expo Japan in 2018. The items are on loan to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis. Some items include Jack Sparrow’s compass from “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” Mary Poppins’ original carpet bag, Wilson from “Cast Away,” Lumiere and Cogsworth props from 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” and Congo Queen Model Boat from Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise. The exhibit will continue through Jan. 2, with special events planned through the run. Tickets are $15 for ages 11 and older and $8 for ages 5 to 10. There is no charge for children 4 and younger to visit.\n\nTexas\n\nSan Antonio: A man elbowed a bailiff who was attempting to handcuff him after the man was convicted of killing a San Antonio police detective. Jurors deliberated about 25 minutes Monday before convicting Otis McKane, 40, of capital murder in the November 2016 fatal shooting of Detective Benjamin Marconi. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against McKane; the trial’s punishment phase was set to begin Tuesday afternoon. A bailiff was trying handcuff McKane when McKane elbowed him in the face before several officers pushed him into an adjacent room. District Attorney Joe Gonzales and defense attorney Joel Perez declined comment on the outburst. Gonzales said the bailiff was not seriously injured. Marconi was fatally shot as he sat in his patrol car during a traffic stop that did not involve McKane, authorities said. McKane, as he was being taken to jail following the shooting, told reporters that he “lashed out at someone who didn’t deserve it” because he was upset with the court system. McKane said he was angry because he had not been allowed to see his son during a custody battle.\n\nUtah\n\nKanosh: A sandstorm caused a 22-vehicle pileup on a highway that left eight people dead, including four children, authorities said. The Sunday afternoon crashes on Interstate 15 near the town of Kanosh came at the end of a holiday weekend for the state that often leads to increased highway traffic. At least 10 people were taken to hospitals, including three in critical condition, according to the Utah Highway Patrol. Ground and air ambulances were used to transport crash victims. The pileup occurred during a period of high winds that caused a dust or sandstorm that reduced visibility, the highway patrol said. Five of the eight people killed were in one vehicle, and two others were in another vehicle, according to a news release. Another fatality was in a third vehicle. I-15 remained partially shut down late Sunday. Traffic was redirected around the crash site. Roadways on Sunday were full of drivers headed home after a long weekend to celebrate a state holiday recognizing Utah history and settlers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who trekked west in search of religious freedom.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Vermont’s congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. State Department on Tuesday asking it to direct sufficient resources to work through a backlog of requests for passports and renewals. The lawmakers also wrote they are hearing from a significant number of Vermonters having trouble with the main contact number, sometimes waiting on hold for hours. Earlier this month, the State Department reported a backlog of 1.5 million requests nationwide and said that the wait for a passport is now between 12 weeks and 18 weeks, even if people pay for expedited processing. The delay is because of ripple effects from the coronavirus pandemic that caused extreme disruptions to the process at domestic issuance facilities and overseas embassies and consulates. An email was sent to the State Department on Tuesday.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: The two leading candidates in the closely watched race for governor said they will voluntarily disclose at least some information from recent tax returns before the November election. In response to questions from the Associated Press, the campaigns of Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe made vague pledges to release unspecified details from their tax returns, but neither said they would make the documents available in full. “Glenn Youngkin will release information from his tax returns in recent years when his latest filings are complete, before November,” said spokeswoman Macaulay Porter. Christina Freundlich, a spokeswoman for McAuliffe, said he would share a summary of recent years’ returns before the election. Although it is not required for Virginia gubernatorial candidates to disclose their returns, there is some limited precedent for doing so. The complete documents could give a more nuanced look at a candidate’s income, tax deductions and philanthropy than the state’s mandatory disclosures do.\n\nWashington\n\nYakima: The federal government has issued big fines against two Yakima County fruit companies for missing the annual deadline for filing forms reporting that their facilities store anhydrous ammonia. Stadelman Fruit LLC was fined $238,875 by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Hollingbery and Sons Inc. and the related Hollingbery CA and Cold Storage LLC were penalized a total of $118,200. The Capital Press reported the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act required companies that store hazardous chemicals to submit the forms by March 1 to state and local emergency planners, and the local fire department. Bud Hollingbery, president of the Hollingbery companies, said Friday his businesses have been sending in the information for years. In 2020, the employee who files the forms had a family emergency, and the forms weren’t submitted until May 12, he said. By then, according to EPA, the Hollingbery companies had committed 12 violations. Stadelman Fruit also was fined for missing the March 1, 2020, reporting deadline for its four cold-storage facilities in Zillah. Stadelman agreed to settle, but also did not admit to the allegations. Efforts to obtain comment from the company were unsuccessful.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nMount Hope: A new West Virginia highway marker commemorates the Siltix Mine explosion that killed seven people. The marker was unveiled last week in Mount Hope on the 55th anniversary of the blast, the Herald-Dispatch reported. The explosion was caused by the ignition of built-up methane gas, according to the marker, which also noted that 39 miners were able to escape unharmed. The marker is sponsored by Mount Hope Heritage & Hope and the National Coal Heritage Area Authority, along with the city of Mount Hope, the West Virginia Archives and History and the state Division of Highways. More than 1,000 highway markers note significant locations across the state.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMilwaukee: The Milwaukee Common Council voted Tuesday to approve a $627,000 settlement with former Police Chief Alfonso Morales over his demotion last year. A federal lawsuit by Morales over his ouster would be dropped as part of the agreement. Morales has 21 days to sign off on the negotiated deal. The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, a citizen panel, unanimously voted to remove Morales as chief last August, claiming he failed to fulfill a list of directives. But Milwaukee County Judge Christopher Foley in December reversed the civilian commission’s decision to demote Morales to captain, which had prompted Morales to retire and sue. Foley at the time called the commission’s process “fundamentally flawed.” Under the agreement, the city and commission would not admit to any negligence or to having violated any contract or federal, state and local laws. The commission’s vote came days before an Aug. 1 deadline agreed to by both sides to resolve the matter.\n\nWyoming\n\nGillette: Recently retired U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming died Monday at 77. Enzi had been hospitalized with a broken neck and ribs three days after a bicycle accident near Gillette on Friday. Enzi was stabilized before being flown to a hospital in Colorado. He remained unconscious and was unable to recover from his injuries, former spokesman Max D’Onofrio said. Police said they have seen no indication anyone else was nearby or involved in the accident. Enzi fell near his home about 8:30 p.m. Friday, about the time Gillette police received a report of a man lying unresponsive in a road near a bicycle. Enzi, a Republican, retired in January after four terms as senator. He previously was a state lawmaker and mayor of Gillette, where he owned a shoe store. Enzi is survived by his wife; two daughters, Amy and Emily; a son, Brad; and several grandchildren.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/10/13/school-food-shortages-elk-sheds-tire-city-status-retained-news-around-states/119045212/", "title": "School food shortages, elk sheds tire: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nAlexander City: Schools across the state have been facing food shortages, education officials say. Disruptions in the workforce needed to serve and deliver meals – along with supplies of food and packaging materials – are behind the shortages, Al.com reports. State education officials say every school district in Alabama is facing shortages to some degree. Alexander City Schools recently warned parents that it’s experiencing supply chain issues with its food vendors. In recent weeks, the school system hasn’t received food deliveries because suppliers are short on supplies, drivers and warehouse employees. The school system asked parents to feed breakfast to their students at home if possible. In southeast Alabama, Dothan City Schools asked parents last month to prepare for a possible shift to remote learning due to the district’s food supply issues.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: Several Republican state lawmakers are urging easier access to ivermectin amid the pandemic, though that drug is not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for preventing or treating COVID-19. Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes of Palmer said she urged Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state health commissioner to consider supplying Alaskans with vitamins and drugs, including ivermectin, “that some Alaskan physicians are prescribing but pharmacies aren’t filling.” Three Republican House members testified about ivermectin at a recent state pharmacy board meeting, Alaska Public Media reports. “Maybe the pharmacists could be directed – or directed’s the wrong word – suggested that they allow the doctors to actually be doctors and do their jobs,” said Rep. Kevin McCabe of Big Lake. In a letter to the House members after the meeting, the board’s chair, Justin Ruffridge, a Kenai Peninsula pharmacist, noted potential legal liability for pharmacists for drugs they dispense and said pharmacists were free to use their “professional judgment” when deciding whether to fill prescriptions. He said the board has not threatened pharmacists’ licenses around the issue but said reports of misuse of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 “should give most prescribers and pharmacists reason to pause.”\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: A judge has blocked the state from collecting $1.1 million from the city of Flagstaff to compensate for its minimum wage that is higher than the state’s rate, ruling that the state missed a deadline for the assessment and was stretching a law targeting higher voter-approved city wages to collect its indirect costs. But the ruling from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith released Monday sidestepped the question of whether the assessments are unconstitutional. The state minimum wage reached $12 an hour in 2020 with inflation adjustments after that and now stands at $12.15 an hour. Flagstaff voters in 2016 phased in higher city minimum wages, which hit $15 per hour this year with annual increases thereafter. Smith’s ruling said a law enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2019 targeting higher local minimum wages set a July 31 deadline for setting the yearly assessment. The state missed that deadline. The judge also said the state can’t charge for the indirect costs of Flagstaff’s higher minimum wage, which is what it did in coming up with the $1.1 million figure. The state is exempt from paying the higher minimum wage Flagstaff voters approved in 2016, and the law authorizing assessments does not specifically say the state can calculate the indirect costs of paying contractors.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Lawmakers sent the governor a congressional redistricting plan that critics say weakens the influence of minority voters in the Little Rock area by splitting the state’s most populous county among three U.S. House districts. The measure splits portions of Pulaski County, a heavily Democratic county that includes Little Rock, among the 1st, 2nd and 4th congressional districts. The county is currently in the 2nd District, which Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to flip in recent years. Republicans hold all four of the state’s U.S. House seats and a majority of both chambers of the Legislature. Democrats have criticized the plan for moving predominantly Black and Hispanic precincts out of the 2nd District and accused Republicans of trying make a GOP district even redder. Arkansas is the only former Confederate state that has not elected a Black representative to the U.S. House. “It’s going to disenfranchise African American communities, regardless of the intent,” state Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, said before the House approved the measure last week. Supporters of the plan say splitting Pulaski County makes sense given its location in the middle of the state. They also say it helps limits the number of counties split up. Opponents of splitting up counties have said it divides up communities and their interests.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSantee: Recordings indicate the pilot of a twin-engine plane nose-dived into a San Diego suburb despite a growingly concerned air traffic controller who repeatedly warned the pilot to climb in altitude – information that will be examined by investigators who arrived at the crash scene Tuesday. The Cessna 340 smashed into a UPS van, killing the driver, and then hit two houses to ignite just after 12 p.m. Monday in Santee, a suburb of 50,000 people east of San Diego. United Parcel Service of America Inc. held a moment of silence Tuesday for van driver Steve Krueger, who was remembered for making work better with his laugh, the company said in a statement. The plane’s owner, an Arizona physician, also died, and an elderly couple whose home went up in flames after it was hit suffered burns. It was unclear whether others were on board the plane. An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the crash scene Tuesday morning, according to agency spokeswoman Jennifer Gabris. Investigators will review radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication, airplane maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records, she said. The plane had planned to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego when it crashed.\n\nColorado\n\nPine: Wildlife officials say an elusive elk that has been wandering the hills with a car tire around its neck for at least two years has finally been freed of the obstruction. The 41/ 2 -year-old, 600-pound bull elk was spotted near Pine Junction, southwest of Denver, on Saturday evening and tranquilized, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Officers with the agency had to cut off the elk’s five-point antlers to remove the encumbrance because they couldn’t slice through the steel in the bead of the tire. “We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic, and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible,” Officer Scott Murdoch said. Murdoch and fellow officer Dawson Swanson estimated the elk shed about 35 pounds with the removal of the tire, the antlers and debris inside the tire. Wildlife officers first spotted the elk with the tire around its neck in July 2019 while conducting a population survey for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness. They said they have seen deer, elk, moose, bears and other wildlife become entangled in a number of items, including swingsets, hammocks, clotheslines, decorative or holiday lighting, furniture, tomato cages, chicken feeders, laundry baskets, soccer goals and volleyball nets.\n\nConnecticut\n\nSimsbury: A plot of land that was once a thriving tobacco farm where Martin Luther King Jr. worked as a college student in the 1940s will be protected for its historic and cultural significance to the state’s civil rights history. Last month’s finalized sale of the 288-acre parcel of land was announced Friday. The nonprofit Trust for Public Land and the town of Simsbury plan to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday for the Meadowood site. Nearly 130 acres will be set aside for recreational access and roughly 120 acres for working farmland. The rest will be saved for future needs of the town of Simsbury, while 2 acres will be kept for historic preservation purposes. Simsbury voters in May overwhelmingly authorized $2.5 million to purchase the property. Various state agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the George Dudley Seymour Trust, individuals and foundations have provided an additional $4 million. Historians believe King’s experiences in Connecticut influenced his decision to become a minister and civil rights leader. He was among a group of students from Atlanta’s Morehouse College recruited by tobacco growers to work in the fields to earn money for tuition. “On our way here we saw some things I had never anticipated to see,” King wrote his father in June 1944. “After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit any where we want to.”\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: The state auditor, who is responsible for rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse, was indicted Monday on public corruption charges. An indictment issued by a New Castle County grand jury charges Kathleen McGuiness, 58, with felony counts of theft and witness intimidation, plus misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, conflict of interest and noncompliance with state procurement laws. Prosecutors said the charges include allegations that McGuiness hired her daughter and one of her daughter’s friends, both high school seniors at the time, as temporary employees in May 2020, even though other temporary employees had to leave their positions because of the lack of available work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities said Elizabeth McGuiness, who has not been charged, continued to be paid even after enrolling at a college in South Carolina last August, and she was still listed as an employee as recently as Aug. 28 of this year. She was initially listed as a “public information officer” and later as an “intern.” McGuiness also is charged with orchestrating a 2019 no-bid “communications services” contract for a company she had used as a campaign consultant when running for lieutenant governor in 2016.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Howard University and Netflix have announced a $5.4 million endowed scholarship to honor the late actor, writer, producer and Howard alumnus Chadwick Boseman, WUSA-TV reports. The Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship will provide incoming students in the College of Fine Arts, recently named for Boseman, with a four-year scholarship to cover the full cost of tuition, the university said. “This scholarship embodies Chadwick’s love for Howard, his passion for storytelling, and his willingness to support future generations of Howard students,” Howard University President Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick said in a release. “I am thankful for the continuous support and partnership of Chadwick’s wife, Mrs. Simone Ledward-Boseman, and to Netflix for this important gift.” The scholarship was established with the support of Ledward-Boseman, with Netflix as the inaugural donor. The first four scholarships were earmarked for one recipient in each class beginning this fall, and they’ll continue to be distributed to an incoming freshman every year. The university said the scholarship will focus on students who exemplify exceptional skills in the arts, reminiscent of Boseman, and who demonstrate financial need.\n\nFlorida\n\nOrlando: The state is investigating dozens of local governments, performing arts centers, the Miami Marlins, a law enforcement counterterrorism unit and a concert by singer Harry Styles for violating a law prohibiting businesses and governments from requiring people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. About 120 cases are being reviewed for violations of Florida’s “vaccine passport” law, which took effect last month and can result in a $5,000 fine per violation, according to a public records request from the Orlando Sentinel. The law is being challenged in court and conflicts with a Biden administration order that companies with over 100 employees require them to be vaccinated or face weekly coronavirus testing. In central Florida, the list includes Orange County government; the Orange County Convention Center; AdventHealth, one of the state’s largest health care systems; several performing arts venues; and the Amway Center, which is home to the Orlando Magic and recently hosted a concert by Styles whose tour mandated attendees either be vaccinated or have a negative test. “At this point … the courts have not reached the final decision, but the indication is that the Florida law flies in the face of our Florida Constitution and perhaps in the face of common sense,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings told the newspaper.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Officials in Fulton County, where election operations are already under review by the state, have fired two workers accused of shredding paper voter registration applications, according to a county statement released Monday. Preliminary information indicates the employees checked out batches of applications for processing, and they are alleged to have shredded some of the forms, the Fulton County statement said. Fellow employees reported the alleged actions to their supervisor Friday morning, and the two employees were fired that day. The county statement said the applications were received in the past two weeks. Fulton County includes most of the city of Atlanta, where voters are set to go to the polls Nov. 2 to elect a mayor, City Council members and other municipal officials. The deadline to register to vote in that election was Oct. 4. It’s not immediately clear whether the 300 voter registration records in question were lost, county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said. “Normally, processing a voter registration application involves entering them in the state system, updating them, verifying their information,” she said. “That is the matter that’s under investigation – was that process completed.” Voters don’t register by party in Georgia, so the applications had no party affiliation.\n\nHawaii\n\nWailuku: The median sales price of a single-family home in Maui County dropped below $1 million last month as people priced out of the market have chosen to pause their homebuying. The Maui News reports the median sales price for a single-family home in the county stood at $996,500 in September. That’s up 27.3% from the same month last year. But it’s below levels from May through August, when the median topped $1 million for four straight months. Median sales prices for single-family homes in Kauai and Honolulu counties have also topped $1 million this year. The September report from the Realtors Association of Maui said declining affordability has had “a significant impact” on homebuyers who have been priced out of the market. Association President Keone Ball said Sunday that he believes prices will go back up. “The problem is the volume – you know, there isn’t enough for sale,” he said, noting that low inventory combined with high demand for affordable housing is also a nationwide problem. Pending sales decreased 4.3% for single-family homes in Maui County but increased 5.7% for condominiums. Ball said investment in condos may have spiked due to the settling of the COVID-19 pandemic, affordability and condominiums being “the only option.”\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: State officials will make available up to $200,000 to be divided into payments for hunters and trappers who kill wolves in the state through next summer. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game late last month entered into an agreement with a nonprofit hunting group to reimburse the expenses for a proven kill. The agreement follows a change in Idaho law aimed at killing more wolves that are blamed for attacking livestock and reducing deer and elk herds. Montana this year also expanded when, where and how wolves can be killed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at the request of environmental groups concerned about the expanded wolf killing in the two states, last month announced a yearlong review to see if wolves in the U.S. West should be relisted under the Endangered Species Act. Idaho has managed wolves since they were taken off the list in 2011. State wildlife managers had been incrementally increasing wolf harvest during that time – but not fast enough for lawmakers, who earlier this year passed the law backed by some trappers and the powerful ranching sector. Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the measure lawmakers said could lead to killing 90% of the state’s 1,500 wolves before federal authorities would take over management.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Al Capone died nearly 75 years ago, but it’s clear interest in the infamous Chicago gangster is very much alive after some of his prized possessions were auctioned off over the weekend for at least $3 million. The Chicago Tribune reports Capone’s family sold several of his belongings, including what was billed as his favorite gun, at auction in California, where his three surviving granddaughters live. The event, called “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone,” was held at a private club in Sacramento and attracted nearly 1,000 registered bidders, including 150 who attended the nearly four-hour-long event in person. Among the items up for auction was a bear-shaped humidor as well as diamond jewelry and some family photographs. The most popular item proved to be Capone’s favorite Colt .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which went for $860,000. The story of Capone, the original “Scarface,” is a familiar one, thanks in large part to a host of movies, television shows and books about the mobster. Called Public Enemy No. 1 after the 1929 “Valentine’s Day Massacre” in which seven members of a rival bootlegger gang were gunned down in a Lincoln Park parking garage, Capone was convicted of income tax evasion in 1934. He spent 11 years locked up in Alcatraz and died of a heart attack in 1947.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: More than 6,600 Afghan refugees who began arriving at the Indiana National Guard’s Camp Atterbury training post nearly six weeks ago are awaiting resettlement. Additional evacuees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, although it’s unclear how many, said Mark Howell, regional spokesman for the federal Transportation Security Administration overseeing Operation Allies Welcome. Officials said they’re also uncertain if the refugees will be permanently resettled by early November, as hoped. Howell said Friday that many Afghans are still completing medical and security screening checks. Once cleared, they’ll work with nongovernmental organizations to determine housing assignments, sponsor families and work authorizations before they can leave the post. Camp Atterbury, about 25 miles south of Indianapolis, is one of eight sites in the U.S. that the Department of Defense is using for Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, their families and other Afghan personnel. Exodus Refugee Immigration, an Indianapolis agency, has helped at least four Afghan families resettle in the city in the past month, Executive Director Cole Varga said. They were all U.S. citizens or had visas and family ties to the area. It’s unclear how many Afghans have resettled in Indiana, but the state is projected to take 490, according to U.S. officials.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: A judge has found a local activist guilty of a felony theft count for taking a police flyer used to identify protesters from an officer’s back pocket during a protest last year. Alexandria Dea, 27, was found guilty of first-degree theft Monday by Judge David Porter after she waived her right to a jury trial and consented to allow the judge to base his decision on facts already on the record. Dea is expected to seek a deferred judgment when she’s sentenced Dec. 7. Prosecutors have said Dea picked up and threw a police radio that fell to the ground as the officer scuffled with a protester July 1, 2020. She was also accused of taking the intelligence bulletin from an officer’s back pocket during the confrontation, then giving it to another Black Lives Matter activist who gave it to a television reporter. Dea and the other activist had also initially been charged with a rarely used count of leaking intelligence data, but the charge was dismissed in July after a judge ruled that the bulletin did not count as “intelligence data.”\n\nKansas\n\nKansas City: An organization run by rapper Jay-Z has facilitated donations totaling $1 million for an effort to investigate wrongful convictions in Wyandotte County. The money was raised by Team Roc, which is the criminal justice division of Jay-Z’s entertainment organization, Roc Nation, the Kansas City Star reports. Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, called it “a huge investment,” adding that the ability to look at these cases is going to shine a light on what the group needs to do to provide a just criminal legal system in Wyandotte County. Among those injustices is the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for two murders he did not commit in Kansas City, Kansas. Another is the case of Olin “Pete” Coones Jr., who spent 12 years in prison before he was exonerated of a Wyandotte County murder – only to die from cancer that went undiagnosed 108 days after he was freed. About 40 others have asked the innocence project to investigate their convictions in Wyandotte County, Rojo Bushnell said Monday. In September, Team Roc filed a petition seeking records from the Kansas City, Kansas, police department related to what it calls a history of officer misconduct within the agency.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: The city has agreed to pay $75,000 to a couple who say police removed them from their car and frisked them because they were Black and driving a nice vehicle. But in an unusual condition of the payment, the couple and their lawyers are forbidden from criticizing the Louisville Metro Government or the police officers involved. The prohibition includes criticisms in statements to the media or on social media, according to a copy of the settlement obtained under open records laws. Michael Abate, a lawyer for the Louisville Courier Journal and the Kentucky Press Association, said the stipulations are “totally improper.” “The city is paying to silence its critics,” he said. “It is paying them off. And it seems designed to impede reform. It is bad policy and really troubling.” In a statement, First Assistant County Attorney Ingrid Geiser said the couple “are not prohibited from talking truthfully about what happened during their traffic stop,” though she said the language “should have more accurately reflected the agreement of the parties.” In their federal lawsuit, Anthony Parker Sr. and Demetria Firman, who are now married, say they were pulled over in 2018 for failing to use a turn signal, but body camera footage from one of the officers showed their turn signal was on.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: The state’s problem of wasted COVID-19 vaccine shots continues to balloon, with about 224,000 doses thrown out across Louisiana as health providers can’t find enough residents willing to roll up their sleeves. The number of trashed doses has nearly tripled since the end of July, even as the state grappled with a fourth, deadly surge of the coronavirus pandemic during that time that led to increased interest in the vaccines. The latest data provided by the Louisiana Department of Health showed 223,918 doses of the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been thrown out. That’s relatively small compared to the 4.4 million vaccine doses administered around the state. But while waste is not uncommon in mass immunization efforts, the throwing away of doses in the United States comes as millions of people around the globe still are waiting for the opportunity to get inoculated against COVID-19. Most of Louisiana’s wasted vaccine doses happened because vials containing the shots were opened, but hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other providers couldn’t find someone to take the doses, health department spokesperson Kevin Litten said. More than 21,500 shots simply weren’t used before their expiration dates. Louisiana has one of the nation’s lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Environmental regulators will soon undertake a statewide investigation to find concentrations of long-lasting environmental pollutants. The investigation stems from the state’s efforts to mitigate a class of chemicals known as PFAS, also called “forever chemicals.” The substances are a problem in some parts of Maine because of the long-standing use of municipal sludge and paper mill waste as farm fertilizer, the Portland Press Herald reports. The state set aside $30 million to test for the chemicals and install filtration systems in areas with contaminated water. Maine officials also plan to help farmers and start cleaning up sites, the Press Herald reports. Maine is hiring and training 17 new staff members for the effort. The state needs to decide which of more than 500 sludge application sites should be prioritized for testing. Sewage sludge as farm fertilizer has caused environmental problems in other parts of the country as well. The chemicals also carry human health risks.\n\nMaryland\n\nGaithersburg: Four police officers will not be charged for fatally shooting a Black man they said fired first during a late-night foot chase in January. A grand jury declined to charge the officers from the Gaithersburg Police Department due to lack of evidence in a decision announced last week. The officers, members of a plainclothes street crimes unit, told investigators they saw a “muzzle flash” from a gun aimed at them by Kwamena Ocran, 24, according to their recorded statements released by Montgomery County prosecutors. One officer said he heard a round pass by his head. All four fired on Ocran, who was running away from them. He was hit eight times, according to a report from prosecutors. The shooting happened outside an apartment complex after officers said they received a tip that Ocran was illegally carrying a gun he intended to sell, according to the report. The incident was not recorded on video. Another officer arrived at the scene moments later and recorded footage of a gun next to Ocran’s body, but investigators could not find evidence he had fired it. Crime scene technicians failed to find shell casings from Ocran’s gun – only the 23 shell casings from the officers’ guns, prosecutors said. Howard County Deputy State’s Attorney Christopher Sandmann told The Washington Post that investigators had prepped Ocran’s hands for gunshot reside analysis, but there was a “mistake or miscommunication,” and his hands were never swabbed.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A letter written by founding father Alexander Hamilton during the Revolutionary War and believed stolen decades ago from the state archives has been returned following a federal appeals court decision, officials said Tuesday. Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin hailed the homecoming, after last week’s decision by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling by a district court judge. The letter was reputedly stolen between 1938 and 1945 by a “kleptomaniacal cataloguer” who worked at the archives, according to the court decision. Hamilton wrote the letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who served as a general in the Continental Army. Dated July 21, 1780, the letter resulted in Massachusetts sending troops to Rhode Island “to bolster the embattled French forces,” the appeals court wrote. Galvin, whose office oversees the archives and the Commonwealth Museum, said he was pleased the court ruled “that this historical treasure belongs to the people.” The letter is expected to be put on display at the museum for special events, including the annual Independence Day celebration, Galvin said.\n\nMichigan\n\nCenter Line: An employee at a suburban Detroit nursing home filled out absentee ballot applications for two dozen residents without consulting them before the 2020 election, authorities said Monday. The case was one of three cases of alleged fraud announced by the state. “Our election system is secure, and today’s charges demonstrate that in the rare circumstances when fraud occurs, we catch it and hold the perpetrators accountable,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. A woman who worked at the Father Murray home in Center Line was charged with election forgery and signature forgery. In another case, a Detroit woman was accused of signing her grandson’s name on an absentee ballot and returning it, even though he had decided to vote at a polling place. In a third investigation, a woman who served as a guardian was charged in several communities after authorities said she fraudulently submitted 26 absentee ballot applications and sought to have ballots mailed directly to her. Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel praised local election officials for noticing irregularities. “We will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who attempts to undermine our elections,” Nessel said.\n\nMinnesota\n\nBeaver Bay: A Lake Superior lighthouse plans to welcome visitors back for an annual memorial honoring the sailors who died when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. Every Nov. 10, the day the ship sank in a gale in 1975, the Split Rock Lighthouse just south of Beaver Bay holds a beacon lighting. Lighthouse officials announce the names of all 29 sailors who died as a bell tolls, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The lighthouse didn’t allow visitors to attend last year’s ceremony because of COVID-19 concerns. People had to listen through an online livestream. Lighthouse officials say this year’s ceremony will be a hybrid, with the lighthouse grounds open to the public and a livestream on the Minnesota Historical Society’s Facebook and YouTube pages for those who can’t attend. The ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. “There’s something about being here on site and hearing the bell ring and the names being read off and then seeing the beacon turned on right after that. There’s just something very special about that,” said Hayes Scriven, the lighthouse site manager. “It’s just a way to connect with the past and remember that Lake Superior is a fickle animal, and you’ve got to respect the power and not take it for granted.”\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: The Mississippi Book Festival is being shown online after the in-person event was canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers say videos of 31 panel discussions have been recorded in the past month. Those became available Tuesday on the festival’s website, msbookfestival.com. “We’ve got an amazing group of authors and moderators who have rallied to record more than 35 hours of great conversations about books and writing,” Executive Director Ellen Daniels said in a news release. “Honoring these writers and continuing to engage our loyal and growing community of book lovers is what the festival is all about.” Among the authors speaking are Curtis Wilkie, Kiese Laymon, Nic Stone, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jerry Mitchell, Catherine Pierce, Beth Ann Fennelly, Mitch Landrieu, William Ferris, Angie Thomas, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Robert Khayat and Kai Bird. The festival originally was scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Mississippi Capitol and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson. Organizers switched to the online format because the state was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases at the time.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: Data shows that most of the people who participated in the state’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery were already immunized before the program started. The incentive program was started in July as Missouri struggled to control a surge of coronavirus cases driven by the more transmissible delta variant in less-vaccinated communities. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services conducted the last of the drawings in the program Friday. Among the participants, 57,117 adults got the shot after the program was announced, while nearly 600,000 got the shot beforehand, The Kansas City Star reports. The program also had more than 39,000 entries from children 12 and up. In total, the state will pay out $9 million to 900 prizewinners, who will each receive $10,000 in either cash or, for the youth winners, scholarship accounts. Anyone who had gotten at least one dose of a vaccine was eligible to enter, but separate drawings were conducted for those who had already gotten a shot, making the odds of winning higher for the newly vaccinated. Just over 48% of Missouri’s total population is fully vaccinated now, up from about 40% when the incentive program was announced.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: All local calls in the state must be dialed with the 406 area code to connect beginning Oct. 24 due to changing federal regulations. Montana’s 406 area code currently allows seven-digit dialing to complete local calls. That will change this month due to a Federal Communications Commission order designating 988 as the new nationwide number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Some seven-digit phone numbers in Montana’s 406 area code begin with 988. To prevent misdialing the 988 Lifeline, all local calls in Montana must be dialed with the area code. Calls that are currently considered local for billing purposes will continue to be billed as local calls. Existing seven-digit phone numbers will not change but will require the 406 area code to connect. Three-digit dialing services, such as the 911 emergency number, will continue to work as a three-digit number with no need to dial an area code. Along with manually dialed calls, all services that use automated dialing will need to be updated to include 10-digit phone numbers. The 988 number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will be available beginning July 16, 2022.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Police are investigating after downtown pedestrians were forced to dodge deck chairs, tables and bricks thrown from a rooftop. The Omaha World-Herald reports the incident happened Saturday night when items were thrown from the roof of the nine-story Old Market Lofts apartments. Omaha resident Lisa Brauer told the newspaper she was nearly struck by several objects. Brauer, who works for Park Omaha, was checking parking meters when she was nearly hit by a rock. That was followed by a metal table, a metal chair and a grill rack, all landing within inches of her. A police report said a pickup truck was hit by something and sustained $2,000 in damage. No arrests have been made.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: Two historic locomotives that were part of the pioneering shift from steam-powered to diesel-electric trains in the mid-1900s are coming back to their home in a northeast Nevada railyard. Built in 1951, Locomotive 201 is the last survivor among 38 experimental models manufactured by the American Locomotive Company. It is scheduled to be loaded onto a truck Nov. 2 at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, Washington, where it still sometimes pulls excursion trains on the museum’s Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. The truck hauling the 286,000-pound engine will take four or five days at a top speed of about 35 mph to make the 900-mile trip back to Ely at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum near the Nevada-Utah line, railway President Mark Bassett said. Details are still pending for the return from Delta, Utah, of the No. 401, the first special-duty model General Motors built in 1952 in its Electro-Motive Division. It was the only one painted in the “Desert War Bonnet” scheme, a cream, scarlet and black design that remains on it today. It became known as the “Last Empress of Ely.” “These both are one-of-a-kind locomotives,” Bassett said. “Both have a story to tell, and they are both tied into the early days of dieselization of the Nevada Northern Railway.” The museum plans to restore each and eventually return them to operation for tour rides.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: For the first time, New Hampshire’s only state-run psychiatric treatment facility has negotiated contracts with all major insurance carriers in the state. Carriers now under contract with New Hampshire Hospital include Aetna, Ambetter, Anthem, Cigna, Harvard Pilgrim and United Health Care, state officials said. “Over the past few years, we have made significant strides to rebuild New Hampshire’s mental health system, and those critical efforts will continue,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. “Having insurer contracts in place is an important step and will help alleviate the financial uncertainty that has been a challenge for patients at New Hampshire Hospital for decades.” Previously, special case agreements were negotiated on a patient-by-patient basis. However, some care was uncompensated. The practice of New Hampshire Hospital is to accept all patients regardless of insurance coverage. New Hampshire Hospital is currently the only inpatient institute for adults with serious mental illnesses in the state.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: No one understands the stress a nurse faces on the job better than another nurse. And nothing has caused more stress for nurses than the COVID pandemic, as front-line caregivers guard against exposure to the coronavirus, witness patient deaths, and worry about family members and friends becoming infected. A confidential mental health help line, staffed by current and retired nurses, was launched Monday for nurses and their family members in the state. The Nurse2Nurse help line – at 844-687-7301 – is based at Rutgers Behavioral Health Services and available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. “It’s in our hearts to help the healers,” said Barbara Brilliantine, one of the nurses staffing the help line. “We’ve walked in their shoes.” The counselors include active and retired nurses who receive training in reciprocal peer support and wellness principles and are mental health and peer support specialists. Services are also available through virtual support groups, wellness webinars and other resources at nurse2nursenj.com. Information provided on the calls is confidential, the sponsors say. The website says the project is not affiliated with any health care system or nursing organization, and no information from the calls will be shared with employers, co-workers or peers.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: The final price tag for a settlement reached by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and a former campaign spokesman to settle accusations of harassment is now $150,000. The latest round of payments was disclosed in a mandatory campaign finance report that the Democrat’s campaign filed Monday. The twice-annual report on spending and contributions shows the incumbent has raised $2.5 million since April for her reelection bid as several Republicans are vying to take back the office. GOP state Rep. Rebecca Dow raised more than $440,500 since announcing her candidacy in early July. Her campaign said she has received contributions from more than 1,300 donors. In the settlement involving Lujan Grisham, former campaign staffer James Hallinan had accused Lujan Grisham of dropping water on his crotch and then grabbing his crotch in the midst of a campaign staff meeting prior to the election – accusations that the governor denies. Lujan Grisham said earlier this year that she decided to resolve the matter because she wanted to focus her attention on the pandemic. At the time, the governor said there hadn’t been any other financial settlements and nondisclosure agreements of a similar nature.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: Recreational marijuana legalization is moving into a new phase. After stifling staff delays brought on by political infighting, newly minted members of the state Cannabis Control Board are now interpreting and shaping the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, the cannabis law approved by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers last spring. Much of what the redefined medical cannabis program and the implementation of the potentially lucrative legal market will look like in the Empire State is in the purview of the five-person panel, which had its first meeting last week. The board must do that work while putting particular emphasis on social equity and repairing the harms done during the substance’s prohibition. Already, language in the law has legalized possession of 3 ounces of cannabis for people 21 and over. However, some of the regulations for localities, as well as the licensing process and social equity provisions, have yet to materialize. Kristin Jordan of Park Jordan, a commercial real estate brokerage and cannabis industry advisory firm, said the cannabis regulators don’t have a model in other states in how to legalize while accentuating social equity. “So I think more than anything we’ve got a roadmap of what didn’t work,” said Jordan, the firm’s founder and CEO.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is facing calls to resign from elected officials and LGBTQ advocacy groups over comments he made criticizing sexual education and likening gay and transgender people to “filth.” “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” Robinson said at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove. The state’s highest Republican executive officeholder, already the focus of criticism for trying to influence how racism can be discussed in public schools, is getting more pushback since Right Wing Watch, a project of the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way, posted the video on social media last week. The Human Rights Campaign, Equality North Carolina, prominent Democratic lawmakers and the White House have condemned the remarks, with some demanding the lieutenant governor’s resignation. In a video posted on his Facebook page Saturday, Robinson narrated over images depicting gay sex that were taken from “Gender Queer,” an illustrated book he claimed “is currently in North Carolina schools,” though it wasn’t mentioned in the 831-page report he released in August highlighting cases of alleged “indoctrination.” In 2017, Robinson wrote: “You CAN NOT love God and support the homosexual agenda.”\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: State wildlife officials are urging people to keep an eye out for migrating whooping cranes. The North Dakota Fish and Game Department says a portion of a population of 500 cranes is crossing the state on a 2,500-mile migration from nesting grounds at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to wintering grounds in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. The agency says anyone who spots cranes should leave them alone but record the date, time and location along with the birds’ activities and report the sighting to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The reports help biologists locate crane habitat areas, monitor marked birds, and determine population numbers and migration routes.\n\nOhio\n\nNelsonville: Thanks to a long-forgotten state law from 1953 and a community dinner, the city has challenged the results of the 2020 U.S. census. The results of last year’s count had downgraded the Athens County community from a city to a village after counting 4,612 residents – a 780-person drop from the 2010 census. Under Ohio law, the 5,000-resident level demarcates the difference between a city and a village. “We knew it was wrong,” City Auditor Taylor Sappington said. On Tuesday morning, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose agreed, restoring Nelsonville’s city status. Sappington set out to prove the city’s case by collecting census information and signatures from the town’s 5,373 residents. After a preliminary federal census report demotes a city to a village, state law gives a city auditor the authority to conduct a re-enumeration if the municipality’s governing body passes a resolution directing the auditor to do so, according to a statute in the Ohio Revised Code. After the City Council took that action, Sappington appointed five enumerators, who canvassed each block of Nelsonville over 10 days. Last week, volunteers served ham, green beans, cheesy potatoes, salad and rolls donated by Texas Roadhouse at a free community dinner where residents could come down to the town square to be counted, Sappington told council members Monday night. “I’m so proud of this community,” he said.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: The city and Tulsa County have each announced they will officially recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. June 19 will be an additional paid holiday for city and county employees beginning in 2022. June 19, 1865, is the day Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas – some 21/ 2 years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed slaves in Southern states. “Juneteenth is an important day in our country’s history, and I’m glad we are able to celebrate freedom for all Americans in this way by joining Tulsa County in adding Juneteenth to our official holiday schedule,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement Monday announcing the holiday. A 1921 massacre in Tulsa left an estimated 300 Black people dead at the hands of white mobs. Then-President Donald Trump scheduled his first campaign rally amid the coronavirus pandemic for June 19, 2020, in Tulsa but later rescheduled the rally for the following day amid widespread criticism from Black leaders. In June, President Joe Biden signed legislation officially recognizing the day as a federal holiday.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: Former Oregon Secretary of State Bev Clarno and three other Republicans have filed a lawsuit to challenge new congressional districts recently passed by state lawmakers. They say the new maps are partisan gerrymandering, unconstitutional and contrary to state law. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the suit, filed Monday in Marion County Circuit Court, is the first such attempt to alter the six-district map that Democrats pushed through during a contentious special legislative session last month. That session nearly ended in a Republican walkout after House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, reneged on a deal to grant the GOP an equal say in new congressional and legislative maps. Instead, Republican lawmakers showed up on the last possible day and allowed Democrats to pass a map that could lead to Democratic control of five of the state’s now-six seats in Congress. Oregon picked up an additional U.S. House seat because of population gains recorded by the recent U.S. census. The suit notes that four of the state’s six new congressional districts include part of the Portland metro area, which the Republicans say is a sign Democrats improperly stocked the districts with left-leaning voters. They have asked the court to block the plan and draw its own.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Total enrollment at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities has declined to the lowest level in decades, according to data released Monday. The State System of Higher Education figures indicate loss of another 5,000-plus students this fall, dropping the universities’ total enrollment below 89,000 students – a level not seen in more than three decades, dating nearly to the system’s founding, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. PennLive.com reports the percentage drop in enrollment was the highest in well over two decades. System officials earlier warned state lawmakers and others that the 2021-22 year would be a “very challenging” one for enrollment, citing factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The system, founded in 1983, saw its enrollment peak at about 119,500 students in 2010 but saw the total drop to 94,000 last year. A review of system data indicates that the current total below 89,000 is lower than in any year since 1989, the Post-Gazette reports. Chancellor Dan Greenstein said the drop likely stems from the pandemic finally catching up with the system, which had avoided the declines other institutions saw last year. He said anecdotal accounts point to the pandemic’s impact on family incomes and students taking advantage of $15 and $20 per hour wages some firms are offering.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Mayor Jorge Elorza wants to spend up to $1.6 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to establish nonviolence training and youth mentorship programs to address an increase in violence in the city. Providence recently opened requests for proposals for both initiatives, planning to allocate up to $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds for training and up to $1.1 million for mentorship. Elorza said the idea began taking shape in May when nine people were injured in a shooting. “I reached out to some community leaders, sort of on the front line of things, and I asked them to put me in contact with families, mothers who had lost children, people who were either on parole or on probation, but were trying to turn their life around, and other folks who are on the front lines of living and working with these issues,” Elorza said. It became clear that the city was in need of more opportunities for youth, he said. There have been 20 homicides in the city this year. The five-year average for this point in the year is 11.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The South Carolina State Fair returns Wednesday after a hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year’s event was drive-thru only due to a high number of COVID-19 cases. On Tuesday, Department of Health and Environmental Control officials reported that such cases have dropped below 1,000 for the first time since July. More than 50% of South Carolinians are fully vaccinated against the disease caused by the virus. State fair officials have instituted new protocols to prevent the virus’s spread, including increased cleaning, hygiene signage, hand sanitizer stations and reminding guests that in Columbia they must wear a face covering, WIS-TV reports. Guests are also encouraged to socially distance, use card and touchless methods for payments, and not come to the fair if they aren’t feeling well. The event, which runs through Oct. 24, includes rides, food, agriculture and livestock shows, crafts, art and a cookie kitchen.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Lawmakers redrawing the state’s political boundaries kicked off a three-day tour of public input meetings Monday amid intraparty Republican bickering and competing proposals for new legislative districts. The House and Senate committees, both dominated by Republicans, had previously sought accord in the once-in-a-decade process. But at a public input meeting in Box Elder, the schism between the House and Senate was on full display during the tour, dubbed “the redistricting roadshow” by lawmakers. The Legislature will convene Nov. 8 to consider new political boundaries, which must also be approved by Gov. Kristi Noem. If they can’t reach a consensus by Dec. 1, redistricting would be determined by the state Supreme Court. As Republicans accused each other of gerrymandering and “D.C. political tactics,” members of Native American communities used the meetings to press for greater representation in the Legislature. At the first meeting Monday, advocates pushed for compact political boundaries around northern Rapid City, which has a large number of Native Americans, that would allow the community to elect someone who represents its interests. The lawmakers are making seven stops this week, culminating with two meetings in Sioux Falls on Wednesday.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A federal judge on Tuesday slightly tweaked his order requiring Knox County schools to implement a school mask mandate, saying officials would be allowed to approve exemptions on a case-by-case basis. In his 14-page ruling, however, U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer warned school officials – who had previously refused to adopt a mask mandate amid the COVID-19 outbreak – that the new mask exemption policy must not be abused. “The court reminds the Knox County Board of Education that its school system is no longer under a voluntary mask mandate; rather, it is under a court-ordered mask mandate,” Greer wrote. “The record evidence supports the need for – and the court ordered – a universal mask mandate, and the court fully expects its mask mandate to be exactly that: universal, to every possible extent, with ‘very few’ medical exemptions.” The Knox County Board of Education must file monthly status reports that identify not only the number of exemptions for students, employees and visitors but also the specific reasons for the exemptions. Greer said he would impose “considerable sanctions” if the education board did not comply with his latest order.\n\nTexas\n\nHouston: The state’s child welfare agency is being accused of removing a webpage that provided information about a suicide prevention hotline and other resources for young LGBTQ people, following criticism by one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s primary challengers. The Houston Chronicle reports Abbott challenger Don Huffines posted a video on Twitter in August accusing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services of “promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth.” Within hours of the video being posted, the webpage was removed. The page appeared in a section of the agency’s website called “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.” Also gone was the entire website for the Texas Youth Connection, a division of Family and Protective Services that steers young people in foster care to various resources, including education, housing and those on its LGBTQ page. “These are not Texas values, these are not Republican Party values, but these are obviously Greg Abbott’s values,” Huffines said in his video. Abbott, who appoints the department’s commissioner and nine-member council, didn’t respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. Agency communications obtained through a public records request show that employees discussed removing the page in response to Huffines’ tweet.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: Lawyers for Gov. Spencer Cox’s former campaign manager, who resigned last week after an investigation substantiated claims of sexual misconduct made against him by a female campaign employee, are calling the accusations baseless. In a statement Friday, lawyers representing Austin Cox said the relationship in question was a long-term one between two young adults that he ended earlier this year, KUTV reports. “Our client unequivocally and emphatically denies any allegations to the contrary,” the statement said. The Republican governor said Thursday that an independent investigation found cause to terminate Austin Cox, his 2020 campaign manager, but he resigned before its completion. The investigation also revealed previously unreported “hostile conduct” toward other members of the team. Austin Cox’s attorneys on Friday additionally criticized a joint statement from the governor and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson on Thursday that condemned the former campaign manager’s behavior. KUTV requested to speak with Austin Cox on Friday, but his attorney declined their request for an interview. The governor and former campaign manager are not related.\n\nVermont\n\nBennington: An Abraham Lincoln statue at a museum was vandalized with the number “38,” which police say they believe is a reference to the execution of 38 Native Americans ordered by the former president in 1862. Police said an employee at the Bennington Museum arrived Sunday morning to find a large “LAND BACK” banner had been put up between two light poles at the entrance to the museum’s courtyard. The Lincoln statue in the courtyard had reddish spray paint on its face and hands, along with the number “38” painted on its chest, police said. Officials said it is expected to cost several thousand dollars to repair the statue and remove the paint. Police said they believe the vandalism is a reference to the Dakota 38, who were executed after the 1862 Dakota War, also known as the Sioux Uprising of 1862. A military commission sentenced 303 Sioux fighters to be executed. Lincoln reviewed the cases and decided there was evidence that 39 Sioux were guilty of murder or rape during the uprising and ordered their execution. The remaining 264 sentences were commuted. One of those sentenced to be executed received a reprieve. The Bennington Museum describes itself as a museum of art, history and innovation.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: Former President Barack Obama will campaign with fellow Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the final stretch of the gubernatorial race. “The stakes could not be greater,” McAuliffe said as he announced the news Tuesday morning on MSNBC. McAuliffe’s race against the GOP nominee, first-time political candidate Glenn Youngkin, is tightening, according to the latest polls. His effort to win a second, nonconsecutive term in office is one of only two regularly scheduled governor’s races in the country this year and is being closely watched for indications of voter sentiment ahead of next year’s midterms. McAuliffe’s campaign announced that Obama will join him in Richmond on Oct. 23 to mobilize Virginians during early voting, which began weeks ago and runs in person through Oct. 30. Obama rallied Democrats in Virginia’s capital city in 2017 before Ralph Northam beat Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie by nearly 9 percentage points. He’ll follow other high-profile Democrats visiting the commonwealth to support McAuliffe. First lady Jill Biden is set to visit on Friday. Stacey Abrams, the voting rights activist, grassroots organizer and former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, will campaign with McAuliffe in Norfolk and northern Virginia on Sunday.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Rewards totaling $2.5 million are now being offered for information that helps solve the killing of federal prosecutor Thomas C. Wales in Seattle 20 years ago. Nicholas Brown, newly sworn in as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, announced Monday at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Wales’ death that the Justice Department had doubled its reward to $2 million, in addition to about $500,000 being offered by the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys. Brown also said his office – long recused from the case – is taking on leadership of the investigation, as there are few remaining assistant U.S. attorneys in Seattle who worked with Wales. The investigation had been overseen by a special prosecutor in New York, Steve Clymer; transferring the oversight to Seattle will allow for fresh eyes and additional resources, Brown said. “Twenty years is far too long for this crime – this attack on the American justice system – to go unresolved,” Brown said. Wales was an 18-year veteran of the U.S. attorney’s office who focused on white-collar crime and also served as president of a gun-control group called Washington CeaseFire. A gunman shot him through a basement window of his home Oct. 11, 2001.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Lawmakers endorsed proposed maps of congressional and state legislative districts during a special session on redistricting Monday, setting up a potential fight between two of the state’s current members of Congress. West Virginia lost one of its three U.S. House seats after the 2020 census, and lawmakers are trying to redraw the state into two congressional districts. In the proposed map, Rep. David McKinley and Rep. Alex Mooney would be in the same district. All three current U.S. House members from West Virginia are Republicans. The state Senate redistricting committee forwarded its versions of congressional and state Senate maps Monday. Earlier in the day, a map that reconfigures all 100 House of Delegates seats into separate, single-member districts was endorsed by a House committee. The maps now go before the committees’ respective full chambers. The congressional redistricting map endorsed by the House committee would split the state roughly into north and south sections. The 1st District would include both panhandles and much of the northern part of the state along with Wood County on the western edge. The 2nd District would include the southern coalfields and the Greenbrier Valley, extending north into Ritchie County.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The state’s Democratic attorney general, who represents the state elections commission, on Monday called for a Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election to be shut down, saying it is a partisan political effort that lacks credibility, wastes taxpayer money and is not serious. “This investigation suffers from glaring flaws that destroy any credibility its results could have had,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said at a news conference. “Shut this fake investigation down.” Kaul’s comments came after the Republican leader of the Assembly election committee said she’s been kept out of the loop and doesn’t agree with moves being made by the leader of the probe. The latest twists comes after Michael Gableman, the retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice leading the investigation, issued a video over the weekend taking aim at Gov. Tony Evers. The Democratic governor told local election officials they should be “lawyered up” and called the taxpayer-funded investigation a “$700,000 boondoggle.” Gableman called that “an incomplete and misguided view” of the probe. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos ordered the investigation under pressure from Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed he won Wisconsin last year.\n\nWyoming\n\nCody: Rapper, music producer and clothing entrepreneur Kanye West has put his ranch and business properties in northwestern Wyoming up for sale. The West Ranch, formerly known as Monster Lake Ranch, went on the market Monday for $11 million. The property sprawls across 6 square miles of open land and tree-studded hills and outcrops about 6 miles south of Cody. The property features lakes, a lodge, a commercial kitchen, equipment sheds, a horse facility, corrals and a go-kart track, according to the DBW Realty listing. The listing came days after West listed his seven commercial properties in Cody for more than $3.2 million, the Cody Enterprise reports. The ranch, which leases additional land owned by the U.S. government, was listed for $13.3 million before West bought it in 2019, though it’s unknown how much he paid for the property. Wyoming law does not provide for public disclosure of real estate sale amounts. West moved from California to Wyoming in 2019 and set about basing at least some of his clothing business in Cody, a city of about 10,000 on the eastern approach to Yellowstone National Park. It wasn’t clear if the property sales mean West is leaving Wyoming or just reorganizing his business there.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/10/12/mining-fight-pocketknife-record-hitsville-remodel-news-around-states/119042614/", "title": "Mining fight, pocketknife record: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nBirmingham: The state’s best hope for avoiding another holiday spike of COVID-19 infections and deaths lies in large part on people who’ve not been vaccinated getting a jab this week, the state health officer said Friday. Dr. Scott Harris, head of the Alabama Department of Public Health, said it takes five or six weeks for someone to gain the maximum amount of immunity after the initial vaccine in a two-shot process. That means time is nearly up for people to start the vaccination process and have “the safest possible Thanksgiving,” he said. Harris said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays won’t be as deadly as last year because of vaccinations and the large number of people who have antibodies after contracting COVID-19, but there are no guarantees. “We just don’t know,” he said. While statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 2.6 million people in Alabama have gotten at least one vaccination, only 2.1 million residents, or 43% of the state’s population, are fully vaccinated – among the worst rates in the nation. More than 14,700 people have died of COVID-19 in Alabama, giving the state the fourth-worst death rate nationally, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast early Monday in what the Alaska Earthquake Center called an aftershock of an 8.2 quake from late July. Monday’s earthquake was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. It occurred about 70 miles east of Chignik, a community of about 90 people on the Alaska Peninsula. Chignik is about 450 miles southwest of Anchorage and 260 miles southwest of Kodiak. The center had not received reports of significant damage but also relies on self-reporting, said seismologist Natalia Ruppert. Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for Alaska’s emergency management office, said the office was contacting communities and had no reports of damage so far. The U.S. Geological Survey on Twitter had reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 that was later revised to 6.9, which ties another earthquake that hit Alaska in August. The two 6.9 quakes were the largest aftershocks tallied since the United States experienced its largest earthquake in the past half-century, the magnitude 8.2 quake that struck south of the Alaska Peninsula on July 28. It was widely felt but caused no major damage in the sparsely populated region closest to it.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Opponents of a nearly seven-year-long process to exchange Oak Flat, a 2,200-acre site in Tonto National Forest, to a copper mining company cheered to learn that a recent survey found 74% of likely Arizona voters do not approve of the mine. And a new report has revealed the mine would use enough water to supply a city of 140,000 annually for its estimated life. Legislation to repeal the land deal has been pushed forward, and a lawsuit filed in January will be heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this month. To obtain the ore, Resolution Copper plans to use a method known as block cave mining. Eventually, the ground under Oak Flat would subside, leaving behind a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly 2 miles across. Opponents also fear underground water channels and major aquifers might be damaged or destroyed. Oak Flat is a sacred site to Western Apaches and holds great cultural significance for other tribes in the region. Known to the Apaches as Chi’chil Bildagoteel, Oak Flat had been withdrawn from mining claims since the Eisenhower administration. To boot, it’s one of Arizona’s rare riparian habitats, providing water and shelter for animals, birds and plants, including the Emory oak, a staple in Apache peoples’ diets for centuries. And the area is popular with recreationists.\n\nArkansas\n\nFort Smith: The city violated state law with its removal last year of a historical display that included a Confederate flag, a judge ruled. In an order filed last week, Sebastian County Circuit Judge Gunner DeLay found that the city is in violation of the Arkansas State Capitol and Historical Monument Protection Act, which didn’t take effect until April of this year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. DeLay found that the flags and bronze markers that were removed from Riverfront Park in April 2020 are a “historical monument” even though they are no longer displayed. The display was put up in 2001 and also included the French flag and old 15-star and 20-star American flags, among others. This June, attorney Joey McCutchen filed a lawsuit alleging the city violated the new state law by not replacing the display or obtaining a waiver from the Arkansas History Commission. An email exchange in June 2020 among City Administrator Carl Geffken and other officials indicated the flags were initially removed because they were tattered and needed to be replaced. Geffken wrote that he and others discussed changing the flags flown at the park after the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. He also said his decision to remove the flags would maintain “a piece of history from potential harm.”\n\nCalifornia\n\nHuntington Beach: A Southern California beach that was closed more than a week ago because of a leak of crude oil from an undersea pipeline reopened Monday, far sooner than many expected. Huntington Beach’s city and state beaches reopened after officials said water quality tests revealed no detectable levels of oil-associated toxins in the ocean water. Early Monday morning, surfers bobbed in the waves, and people walked along the shoreline, some with dogs jumping and playing in the water. Andrew Boyack, a 54-year-old commercial photographer, was eager to get back to surfing the waves he usually rides three or four times a week. “There’s lots of guys out, so I figure it’s probably all right, and I guess they tested it,” he said while rinsing off at an outdoor beach shower. Huntington Beach and nearby coastal communities reeled from last week’s spill that officials said sent at least about 25,000 gallons and no more than 132,000 gallons of oil into the ocean. It was caused by a leak about 5 miles off the coast in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that shuttles crude from offshore oil platforms to the coast. The cause is under investigation, and officials said they believe the pipeline was likely damaged by a ship’s anchor several months to a year before it ruptured. It remains unknown when the slender, 13-inch crack in the pipeline began leaking oil.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Body camera footage released Friday in the case of a police officer accused of using a chokehold during an arrest shows him putting his arm around a man’s neck and holding it there for about 10 seconds shortly after handcuffing him. While holding the standing man around his neck during the June 7 arrest at a city building in Greeley, Officer Kenneth Amick accused him of trying to grab the officer’s hands. The man denied it, his voice distorted, while still in the hold. Amick released the chokehold after another officer stepped toward them and said: “Take it easy. Take it easy. Take it easy.” A judge ordered the release of the video Thursday, siding with a coalition of news media. The coalition argued that it should be released under a Colorado law enacted this year in response to nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. It generally requires that footage be made public, upon request, when a complaint is lodged against a police officer. Amick, charged with second-degree assault, is scheduled to enter a plea Oct. 22. Weld County District Court Judge Vincente Geraldo Vigil had earlier blocked the release of footage after Amick and prosecutors argued it could prejudice a potential jury. On Thursday, he ruled such concerns can be dealt with during jury selection, KDVR-TV reports.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Online gambling is coming to the state, on a limited basis. A “soft launch” beginning Tuesday will allow several hundred people to open accounts to wager for a seven-day period. The state marked the first day of its long-awaited rollout of legalized sports and internet wagering Sept. 30, when Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods held events to mark the grand opening of temporary sports betting venues. In addition to the two tribal casinos, the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, the state’s quasi-public lottery, will offer online sports wagering and retail sports betting at 15 locations. The soft launch allows people to gamble using their phones, tablets and other online devices. Once the launch is completed, online gambling will be available statewide. “After more than a decade of advocacy and negotiation, statewide sports betting and iGaming is finally coming to Connecticut,” Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, told the Hartford Courant. ”We’ve made it to the finish line, and we’re excited to finally launch.” The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which operates Foxwood, has partnered with DraftKings Inc., and Mohegan Sun, operated by the Mohegan tribe, has partnered with FanDuel. The lottery’s partner is Rush Street Interactive.\n\nDelaware\n\nNewark: The University of Delaware is bringing to fruition its plans to develop a science and technology-focused campus at the sprawling former Chrysler plant in the city. The university on Thursday officially opened the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center, a six-story, 220,000-square-foot building designed to bring together UD students, researchers and industry workers focused on “life-saving medicines and transformational treatments.” It’s one of a series of buildings to open or break ground amid the COVID-19 pandemic at what’s now the UD Science, Technology and Advanced Research Campus. The new innovation center – nicknamed AP BIO by officials – is among the most advanced UD facilities. Charles Riordan, UD’s vice president of research, scholarship and innovation, called it “the most interdisciplinary building” in the school’s history. It houses the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, a federally sponsored private-public partnership that aims to accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation; the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, a support and research group formed by Delaware’s research organizations; the university’s department of biomedical engineering; and research laboratories in pharmaceutical discovery and molecular and medical sciences.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: A new bike path is in the works for the National Mall, WUSA-TV reports. This week, the D.C. Department of Transportation, in partnership with the National Park Service, will begin implementing safety improvements on 15th Street, including two-way protected lane for bicyclists. “This project will improve pedestrian safety for visitors to the National Mall and create a north-south bicycle connection between the White House, National Mall and the Jefferson Memorial,” Mike Litterst, chief of communications and spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Park, said in a release. NPS said it will install an additional projected lane on East Basin Drive Southwest next spring that will connect with the multiuse trail on the 14th Street bridge. Construction on 15th Street will last through the fall and involve temporary lane closures for drivers. When the work is complete, there will be three lanes open to drivers on 15th Street – one southbound and two northbound. Pedestrians and bicyclists can continue to use the sidewalks along 15th Street until the project is complete, but they should expect a limited number of disruptions due to construction activity.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: The activist who led a movement to allow most former felons in Florida to vote has gotten more of his own civil rights restored under a new state clemency program. Desmond Meade, head of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, announced in a Twitter video Saturday that he can now run for office, serve on a jury and take the bar exam to become a lawyer. Meade has a law degree from Florida International University. “This is good,” Meade said on the video. “The restoration of my civil rights definitely helped remove some hurdles for me.” Meade, 54, was a leader in the successful 2018 effort to enact a voter-approved constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to felons whose sentences are complete. The GOP-led Legislature later passed a measure requiring all financial obligations such as fines to also be completed, which critics said primarily disenfranchises minorities and poor people. Meade, who served time for drug and firearms offenses, already had regained the right to vote. The other rights were automatically restored under a policy adopted in March by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet. Meade last month was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” of $625,000 in recognition of his work. He said it will be used to pay off law school loans and continue his work for people convicted of felonies.\n\nGeorgia\n\nSavannah: City officials say bars and restaurants are toasting a successful trial run at serving to-go orders of beer and cocktails in aluminum cups. Georgia’s oldest city recently ended a two-month pilot aimed at seeing whether businesses can reduce their use of plastic cups by switching to aluminum ones that people can reuse or recycle. Sipping from to-go cups of alcohol on the streets of the downtown historic district has long been a part of Savannah’s bustling nightlife. City Alderman Nick Palumbo pushed for the trial to let businesses test the aluminum cups. The City Council agreed to temporarily add aluminum alongside paper and plastic cups allowed for serving to-go drinks during the pilot period. Bars and restaurants ended up using about 50,000 aluminum cups. “We know that diverted 50,000 pieces of plastic out of the waste stream, out of our environment, which is just a huge hit,” Palumbo said. Carey Ferrara of the Gaslight Group, which owns several Savannah restaurants, agreed the pilot was successful. She said the biggest downside is that the aluminum cups cost at least four times more than plastic. She said businesses might be able to reduce the extra cost by combining their orders. “We can work together to purchase the cups in a quantity to make the price low enough for us,” Ferrara said.\n\nHawaii\n\nNaalehu: Two strong earthquakes struck off the coast of the Big Island on Sunday, rattling residents and causing items to fall off shelves. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake had a magnitude of 6.1 and struck about 17 miles south of Naalehu. The agency said a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck about 20 minutes later in the same area. The National Weather Service in Honolulu said there was no tsunami threat. At a gas station in Naalehu, the refrigerator display doors were opened by the shaking, and items fell to the ground. No injuries were immediately reported. The Hawaii Department of Transportation said there was no damage from the earthquake at airport runways, commercial harbors or highway bridges.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The Idaho Press Club has dropped its request that a judge hold Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin in contempt of court for refusing to turn over public records related to her education task force. Attorneys for the state press association and the lieutenant governor’s office filed the agreement to drop the contempt request Friday afternoon, according to court documents. McGeachin and her chief of staff, Jordan Watters, have repeatedly ignored requests for comment from the Associated Press. The Idaho Press Club sued McGeachin in July after several journalists said she wrongly denied public record requests for materials relating to her new Education Task Force. The task force was tasked with investigating alleged “indoctrination” in the state’s public school system, something McGeachin said was necessary to “protect our young people from the scourge of critical race theory, socialism, communism and Marxism.” The lieutenant governor lost the lawsuit, and Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler ordered her to release the documents. But McGeachin didn’t immediately release the materials, and a few weeks after Hippler’s ruling she formally asked the judge to reconsider the matter. Her office finally released the records shortly after the Idaho Press Club asked the judge to hold McGeachin in contempt of court.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: The Old State Capitol has reopened to visitors after interior renovations were completed. Visitors will see a new feature, an education gallery and video room. Exterior work on the dome of the building continues, but indoor plaster work and painting is finished, allowing the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to open for tours Thursday. Its hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The building served as Illinois’ Capitol from 1840 to 1876. Abraham Lincoln served in the Legislature there and in 1858, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, delivered his famous “House Divided” speech in the Hall of Representatives. When work began in March, officials indicated the building would only be closed through April. But officials said the project met with unforeseen delays, according to historic sites superintendent Justin Blandford. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the reopening was delayed. The $1.5 million project, under the management of the Illinois Capital Development Board, involves installing a new roof on the drum that supports the dome and restoration of the drum’s columns and windows. Work on the outside of the dome is marked by the construction scaffolding that surrounds it.\n\nIndiana\n\nFort Wayne: Former Vice President Mike Pence climbed on horseback during a ride by a veterans group trying to reduce suicides among military veterans. Pence joined members of the nonprofit organization BraveHearts for a Saturday ride in Fort Wayne aimed at raising awareness about the suicide issue. The national group uses the riding and care of horses in therapy for veterans suffering with depression or other emotional troubles. Pence rode for part of the route, talked and posed for photos with residents and riders, and spoke during a ceremony at the ride’s conclusion. The former Indiana governor said he was inspired by the group’s recognition that some veterans have wounds “that can’t be seen with the human eye.” “They are the burden of the heart and the mind that over generations in America that have really gone unspoken of,” Pence said. “But I’m proud to say now we’re recognizing as a nation the unseen injuries of our heroes.” About 30 horses and riders followed the full 20-mile route through Fort Wayne – a distance referring to the estimated 20 veterans a day who die from suicide.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Debates over COVID-19 mitigation strategies and how race should be discussed in classrooms are fueling frenetic energy around suburban school board races. A wave of conservative candidates and their supporters are urging their neighbors to take their frustrations to the polls. Although the races are nonpartisan in Iowa – party ID doesn’t appear on the ballot – they’re gaining attention from Republican leaders at both the state and national levels. In Waukee, a slate of parents backed by the local Republican Party is warning about “harmful ideology” in schools. In Southeast Polk, a candidate hosted an event for parents to get their mask mandate exemption forms notarized. And in Ankeny, a school board candidate who inspired the state’s law prohibiting mask mandates in schools has the endorsement of Gov. Kim Reynolds. Their platforms are part of a nationwide backlash from the defining events of 2020: the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of attention on racial justice issues after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who was choked to death by a white police officer. The rancor has risen to such a level across the country that a nonprofit that represents school boards has asked federal officials to step in to protect elected officials and school leaders from physical violence.\n\nKansas\n\nWichita: A major water line break that forced residents to boil their water before using it for several days highlights concerns about aging infrastructure in the state’s largest city. The water main break that forced the boil order last week happened after the city’s water plant lost part of its power supply, so the pumps sending water throughout the system automatically shut down. The boil order was lifted for Wichita on Saturday. “That was an abrupt shutdown,” Director of Public Works and Utilities Alan King said. “When we brought the pressure back up and to pressurize the system, that was a rapid decrease in pressure (followed by) a rapid increase in pressure, and both of those are not friendly to pipes, especially older pipes.” The Wichita Eagle reports that a 2017 assessment found 99% of the city’s water treatment plant was in poor condition, and the entire raw water pipe system was in very poor condition. Recent reports have said Wichita’s water supply needs hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and near-constant repair and replacement. The city is aware of the fragile state of its water supply and has budgeted $10 million a year in its most recent capital improvements plan for repairs, replacements and maintenance of distribution lines. A new water plant under construction won’t be ready until 2024 at the earliest.\n\nKentucky\n\nRadcliff: It was no small feat, but now a local landmark is part of the Guinness Book of World Records. What started as a sharp idea in 2017 has turned into a crowning moment for Red Hill Cutlery and its owners, Lonnie, Jason and Josh Basham. The company has received confirmation that it does indeed own the world’s largest pocketknife at 34 feet, 6 inches. The business will hold a formal celebration this week. “It means a lot for us,” Jason Basham said. “It gives us an identity that sets us apart from any other knife store of its kind.” The idea started when the family began building a new location for Red Hill Cutlery and its American Pocketknife Museum in Radcliff. They gathered inspiration from a Barlow pattern pocketknife in Lonnie Basham’s personal collection. Josh Basham said the pattern has been interwoven with American history dating back to the 1600s. “The Barlow goes back to Huckleberry Finn,” he said. “You can go back in history, and the Barlow was one of the most notorious knives carried by U.S. presidents.” The world’s largest pocketknife is held open by a single pin, Lonnie Basham said. “We could pull out that one pin and it would close, but it would take a crane to do it because it’s so heavy,” he said. A community event acknowledging the Guinness recognition is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The city hopes a temporary shift to once-weekly garbage collections will help address the piles of trash and debris that have piled up along streets across much of New Orleans. Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration announced the change to its solid waste collection Saturday as a way to bring a level of consistency to residents. “We are collectively beginning to see the progress on the ground, but it’s time to bring some predictability so that our residents can better prepare for their trash collection,” Director of Sanitation Matt Torri said in a statement. The city’s two primary solid waste contractors, Metro Service Group and Richard’s Disposal, are supposed to collect garbage twice a week, but they have fallen behind throughout the year primarily because of staffing shortages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. After Hurricane Ida, the situation worsened. Torri said the shift to once-weekly pickup is “temporary,” but the administration is not committing to any collection schedule in the future. Cantrell announced Sept. 23 that she had hired four emergency contractors to clear out the backlog while Metro and Richard’s resumed regular collections. That effort is expected to last a month and cost and estimated $20 million to $30 million, The Times Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: Prices for the state’s most beloved export are much higher than typical right now because of high demand and the possibility that those who catch lobsters are having a slower season. Maine lobsters usually become less expensive over the course of the summer because of the increase in catch off the state’s coast. But this year, wholesale prices that typically fall to the $8 or $9 per pound range never fell below $10.50. And they’ve soared even higher in early fall, eclipsing recent records and causing consumers to fork over more money at seafood counters. Members of the industry said interest in lobster from food processing companies and international buyers is driving heavy demand for the crustaceans. Meanwhile, the fishing season might be slightly off the pace of recent years, so supply is stretched thin, they said. “The season has been maybe a little bit below average, but the price has been pretty decent, so I think we’re going to be OK,” said Kristan Porter, a lobster fisherman and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. America’s lobster industry, based mostly in Maine, goes through pricing ebbs and flows over the course of a typical year. Lobsters are typically heavily fished in summer, when they shed their shells and many reach legal size.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: Lumped into the “Other” racial and ethnic category, American Indians and Alaska Natives are effectively invisible on the state’s COVID-19 website. More than 120,000 people who identify as Native American live in Maryland, but without public-facing numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, it is a mystery how many the disease has affected – and how many resources should be allocated to help them. “Not only is that bad public health, but it’s also very dehumanizing for American Indians and Alaska Natives on our native lands,” Kerry Hawk Lessard, executive director of the health services nonprofit Native American Lifelines of Baltimore, told Capital News Service. The Maryland Department of Health puts American Indians and Alaska Natives in the “Other” category for COVID-19 cases and death numbers “due to low statistical occurrence given the population of Native Americans in the state,” department spokesperson Andy Owen wrote in an email to Capital News Service. However, American Indians and Alaska Natives are at the highest risk for death and hospitalization from COVID-19 among all races and ethnicities, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There is no regulation that requires this manner of reporting,” Owen wrote.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Kenya’s Benson Kipruto won the pandemic-delayed Boston Marathon on Monday when the race returned from a 30-month absence with a smaller, socially distanced feel and moved from the spring for the first time in its 125-year history. Although organizers put runners through COVID-19 protocols and asked spectators to keep their distance, large crowds lined the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston as an early drizzle cleared and temperatures rose to the low 60s for a beautiful fall day. They watched Kipruto run away from the lead pack as it turned onto Beacon Street with about 3 miles to go, and he broke the tape in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 51 seconds. Diana Kipyogei won the women’s race to complete the eighth Kenyan sweep since 2000. Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the men’s wheelchair race earlier despite making a wrong term in the final mile, finishing the slightly detoured route just seven seconds off his course record in 1:08:11. Manuela Schar, also from Switzerland, won the women’s wheelchair race in 1:35:21. Hug, who has raced Boston eight times and has five victories here, cost himself a $50,000 course record bonus when he missed the second-to-last turn, following the lead vehicle instead of turning from Commonwealth Avenue onto Hereford Street.\n\nMichigan\n\nDetroit: One of the city’s most iconic landmarks, a site familiar to music lovers around the world, is gearing up for a dramatic new look. The Motown Museum has unveiled renderings that depict a crisp, lush, bustling outdoor plaza at Hitsville U.S.A. Officials say they’re aiming to create a welcoming hangout for visitors, inspired by the days when artists and fans strode Motown’s front lawn in search of musical opportunity and glory. And they want to foster a Motown experience before guests even step through the doors. The space, part of the museum’s ongoing $55 million expansion, will be a mix of hardscapes and softscapes: The plaza will be tiled with granite pavers and adorned with benches, flower beds and foliage, including a new line of trees on the property’s west side. A new surround-sound system will envelop visitors in Motown songs as they step onto the grounds, while the space will be bathed in light at night. A permanent stage will host scheduled performances and pop-up music sets, helping address one of the most common questions from tourists in Detroit: “Where can I go to hear Motown music?” The front-yard transformation, now underway and scheduled for completion next summer, is the second of three construction phases in the museum’s expansion project, launched in 2016.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: The state imposed an emergency order Monday blocking importation and movement of deer into and within the state to slow the spread of chronic wasting disease from deer farms and protect the state’s wild deer herd. “This disease poses a clear, immediate and serious threat to Minnesota’s wild deer, and these actions reflect what’s at stake,” Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Sarah Strommen said in a news release. The decision came after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last month that a Wisconsin deer farm where the disease was detected sold nearly 400 deer to 40 farms across seven states in the past five years. The Minnesota DNR said it learned Sept. 27 that Minnesota farms received five deer from the Wisconsin farm. A farm in Stillwater received two of the deer in 2016. That farm has since closed, and the deer were shipped back to Wisconsin in 2019. The other three deer went to a farm in Clear Lake in 2017. That farm is active but under quarantine. Regulators have yet to approve a live test for CWD, which is similar to mad cow disease. It attacks deer’s brains, causing them to act strangely, lose weight and die. It’s always fatal to deer or elk. It’s caused by an abnormal proteins, prions, that can persist in the environment and spread to other deer.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Child care providers are complaining that they are being forced to endure financial hardships, with some even being forced to close their doors, because of the challenge of accessing federal funds through the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Deloris Suel, president of the Child Care Directors Network Alliance, told WLBT-TV the state has failed to distribute half a billion dollars in federal money meant to help support child care providers from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Bob Anderson, executive director for the Department of Human Services, told the television station the agency is not sitting on federal child care money, but officials want to distribute the funds “responsibly, prudently and carefully” and within the parameters of state and federal guidelines. Anderson said the state will be reviewed and audited for every dollar that is awarded. Anderson said that during the pandemic, the state provided thousands of dollars of cash grants to child care providers, and it’s still waiting for hundreds to provide documentation on how the funding was spent. Suel said many child care providers don’t understand the process because it is too complicated and filled with barriers. She said a lot of providers are struggling to stay afloat.\n\nMissouri\n\nColumbia: Elected officials have voted to remove two courthouse murals that show a white man pointing a gun at a Native American man and an attempted lynching. The Boone County Commission made the decision Thursday after lawyers raised concerns. The murals, painted by Sidney Larson in 1994, will be placed in storage. The murals depict multiple scenes from Columbia’s history, including when Southern guerrillas terrorized Union loyalists in 1864. Another scene shows a white man being punished for stealing a cow. Three shirtless Black men also are shown chained by their ankles as they carry a plank. The majority of those who spoke at a public hearing late last month were in favor of the murals’ removal from the courthouse. Among them them was attorney Gary Oxenhandler, who said having the art in the courthouse is a wedge. “Boone County can either be a justice leader or an embarrassing media soundbite,” he said at the hearing. “I have never met a person of color who needed to be reminded their ancestors were lynched by mobs or beaten by police.”\n\nMontana\n\nBusby: Researchers are looking for the graves of nine soldiers killed in the Battle of the Rosebud, the largest battle of the Plains Wars. The fighting involved the U.S. government, committed to confining the Indigenous peoples of the continent to reservations, and the Cheyenne and Lakota who continued to resist, the Billings Gazette reports. To prevent their bodies from being discovered, men under the command of Gen. George Crook built a massive fire over the grave. Once it was snuffed out, they rode horses over the burned earth and covered any trace of who laid below. With much of the battlefield largely unchanged over the next 145 years, a team of researchers conducted a survey last week trying to find those nine men. The hunt for the soldiers’ grave – one of several projects intended to clarify the events of a day often overshadowed by the obliteration of Lt. Col. George Custer and his 263 soldiers – is the result of a partnership among Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, tribal officials, the State Historic Preservation Office and faculty with Colorado Mesa University. “What we’re trying to do is put together the physical history of the battle and see how it fits with Native American oral accounts and written records. We look at it as a crime scene, quite in the literal sense,” said Doug Scott, an expert in forensic and military archaeology with Colorado Mesa University.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Officials are refusing to release presentations the state has received from a nonprofit group that is analyzing criminal justice data to help Nebraska deal with severe overcrowding in its prison system. Gov. Pete Ricketts’ office refused the Omaha World-Herald’s request for those reports from the Crime and Justice Institute because the group of state officials who heard the presentations isn’t a public body, and officials said the information is still in draft form. “If there’s any legislation that comes out of it, it will go to a hearing just like any other bill, and the public will have a chance to weigh in on that,” Ricketts said. At some point, he said, data will be released in support of any prospective legislation. The director of the Nebraska ACLU, Danielle Conrad, said it doesn’t make sense to her that presentations given to a committee composed of public officials would be considered drafts. The ACLU, which has opposed Ricketts’ proposal to build a new prison, said state officials should uphold Nebraska’s “strong and proud tradition of open government” and release the reports. State Corrections Director Scott Frakes is expected to address prison overcrowding concerns when he testifies before the Legislature on Wednesday, but it doesn’t appear likely he will address the work state officials are doing with CJI.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: Health officials report a dramatic increase in drug overdose deaths in the state between 2019 and 2020. Accidental overdoses among Nevadans totaled 788 in 2020, a 55% increase from 510 in 2019, the Nevada Overdose Data Program reported Thursday. The number of overdose deaths among people younger than 25 nearly tripled, from 38 in 2019 to 106 in 2020. According to the state’s drug overdose reporting system, 1 of every 2 overdose deaths involved a person with a mental health problem, while 3 in 4 overdose victims had an identified substance misuse problem not related to alcohol. The opioid overdose antidote naloxone is available free statewide, and the overdose data program encourages Nevadans to learn about the life-saving resource. Naloxone can be obtained in Nevada without a prescription. In 2015, Nevada adopted the Good Samaritan Overdose Law, which protects a person from prosecution for many narcotics-related offenses when seeking medical assistance for another person for a drug-related emergency.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The New Hampshire Department of Insurance has launched the state’s new HealthCost website to help people compare prices across health care facilities. The site, launched Friday, also includes information on health insurance and an interactive tool to compare hospitals’ quality of care, cleanliness and customer satisfaction. The site can be accessed at nhhealthcost.nh.gov. NH HealthCost, created by the Insurance Department in 2007, uses paid claims data collected from New Hampshire’s health insurers to show patients – insured and uninsured – an estimated price for a procedure. Patients can access the total costs of their procedures, including physician fees, lab fees and facility fees.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nMaplewood: Outrage swept social media Friday over allegations that a teacher had pulled a hijab from the head of a second grade student. For Muslims, many of whom view the hijab as an expression of faith, the alleged episode was hurtful and offensive and highlighted what community leaders say is a larger problem of bias in the classroom. “This is really a wake-up call for districts,” said Nagla Bedir, founder of Teaching While Muslim, a New Jersey-based nonprofit focused on education and anti-bias training. “A lot of schools across the country have tried to be more inclusive and anti-racist, but part of anti-racism is also (teaching about) Islamophobia.” The South Orange-Maplewood School District said it was investigating the allegations, which were detailed in an Instagram post Thursday by Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, a Maplewood native who said she is friends with the child’s mother. The bronze-medal winner was the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympic Games. Muhammad said the teacher “forcibly removed” the girl’s hijab in class. The teacher “told the student that her hair was beautiful and she did not have to wear hijab to school anymore,” she wrote. “Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates. ... This is abuse.”\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: A coalition of environmental groups is raising concerns about Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s plans to turn the state into a hydrogen fuel hub. The Democrat, who is running for reelection, has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 45% by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels. The Natural Resource Defense Council, the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and two dozen other organizations argue in a letter sent to the governor and other top elected officials last week that large-scale development of hydrogen risks incentivizing new oil and natural gas fields. Hydrogen fuel cells can power vehicles to reduce transportation emissions, but most energy used to produce hydrogen comes from natural gas. Some are hopeful that hydrogen can be produced by using electricity generated from solar or wind power to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water. However, the letter warns of excessive water use in a state where the commodity is already scarce. The groups urged the governor to focus on wind and solar energy instead. Lujan Grisham has expressed interest in speaking at a climate change conference next month. Earlier this year, she asked President Joe Biden to exempt oil and gas producers in New Mexico from a drilling moratorium.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: The city’s annual Columbus Day Parade returned Monday after being canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Marching bands and floats traveled up Fifth Avenue as spectators waved green, white and red Italian flags. Organizers said 35,000 marchers took part in the parade, and tens of thousands more watched. Billed as the nation’s largest celebration of Italian American pride, the Columbus Day Parade has faced criticism in recent years from activists who fault the 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus for his brutal treatment of Indigenous people in the West Indies. Some communities have responded to the controversy by replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, and President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day, which was observed Monday along with Columbus Day. Born in the Republic of Genoa, part of modern-day Italy, Columbus sailed from Spain in August 1492 and landed on an island in the Bahamas on Oct. 12 of that year. Many of the native people were forced into servitude. Multitudes died of disease. Spain repopulated the workforce with African slaves. President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the first national Columbus Day in 1892 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his “discovery” of the Americas.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: The N.C. Department of Transportation has signed a $432 million contract to rebuild 8 miles of Interstate 95 through one county with an eye on eliminating a recurring flooding problem. Flooding resulting from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018 closed the highway in Robeson County for several days, The News & Observer of Raleigh reports. Starting next year, contractors will begin work on widening I-95 from four lanes to eight and replace bridges at three interchanges. Contractors will use fill dirt to raise the highway above its current elevation through Lumberton, said Matt Lauffer, NCDOT’s hydraulics design engineer. Lauffer said the work aims to raise all bridges and culverts high enough to handle a 100-year flood, plus provide an 18-inch cushion so items floating underneath can pass. The project also calls for a new, higher bridge to carry I-95 over the Lumber River, where floodwaters left the interstate impassable for several days after both hurricanes. Construction on the Lumberton section of I-95 is scheduled to begin next summer and be completed by late summer 2026. NCDOT expects to award two more contracts to widen another 15 miles of I-95 between Lumberton and Fayetteville, starting next fall.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The abrupt closure of a photography business has left couples in a four-state area scrambling to locate wedding photos or find new photographers for upcoming nuptials. Glasser Images owner Jack Glasser said in a statement Friday that due in large part to COVID-19, the Bismarck studio “simply couldn’t keep up with our ongoing costs, debt repayment, salaries, rent and other business expenses.” He told customers in an email that he cannot offer refunds. The move has Johnny Thompson and wife Crystal Brunner-Thompson wondering if they will ever receive photos of their August wedding. They paid more than $2,000 for the Bismarck event. “I’m an only child,” Brunner-Thompson said. “My parents are never going to get to do this again. I have no photos with my parents. I’d never seen my dad get emotional. It’s just stuff you can’t get back.” Glasser Images photographed weddings throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and Colorado without charging for travel costs, according to the company website. The North Dakota Attorney General’s Office said it had fielded more than 170 complaints about the situation by Friday afternoon and was investigating. Glasser’s attorney, Tim O’Keeffe, told The Bismarck Tribune he and Glasser will try to talk with customers in the coming days.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Alumni of Ohio Wesleyan University are speaking out after their alma mater was used to film a U.S. Senate campaign ad that demonizes athletes who kneel during the national anthem. GOP candidate Mike Gibbons released an ad last month that paints Democrats, corporations and media as anti-faith and claims they want to “replace God with government.” The video also takes aim at former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who started a movement after he refused to stand during the anthem to protest racial injustice. “I believe in an America where we kneel in devotion, not disrespect,” Gibbons says, as an image of Kaepernick flashes across the screen. The ad also shows an anti-critical race theory sign. Gibbons’ campaign filmed the ad at OWU’s Selby Stadium, which one former student who played football there quickly noticed. Alumni say the ad is divisive and contrary to the Delaware, Ohio, liberal arts school’s values of diversity and inclusion. Gibbons, who played football at Kenyon College, is running in the crowded race to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman. The ad was part of a $10 million ad buy aimed at keeping him on air until the May primary.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Architectural consultants hired by the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council have shared two multimillion-dollar options for the future of the Oklahoma County Jail, but some citizens are calling for investments in social services instead. The options, one to build an entirely new facility and a second to renovate the existing facility and add an annex, both come with price tags of several hundred million dollars. A new facility valued at $300 million would allow the county to abandon the current, troubled, 30-year-old high-rise facility. Renovation, according to architectural consultants John Semtner and Jeff Bradley, is possible but would mean added time and complexities due to years of deferred maintenance and the requirement to move detainees while each floor of the 13-story building is being worked on. Still frustrated with what they view as a lack of overall progress by the jail trust, some citizens called Thursday’s meeting at which the options were unveiled a sales pitch rather than a listening session. Others argued with assessments of the size of the jail. Many residents cited concerns that building a new, possibly bigger jail would just lead to county officials trying to fill it, recreating the same conditions that exist in the current jail.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: Gov. Kate Brown is requesting disaster relief from the federal government for the state’s strained commercial salmon industry. The governor submitted the formal aid request last week to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Brown wrote that the economic return from commercial salmon fishing along most of the coast since 2018 has been less than one-third of what it was in previous years. She said the trend is having severe effects on already distressed rural communities and businesses that depend on salmon. “While economic assistance will be essential to address the impacts of closures and restrictions on our salmon fisheries, it is vitally important that federal, state, tribal, and local governments continue to work together to recover and restore salmon populations and develop management strategies to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of our salmon fisheries,” she said in the letter. State Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, is the chair of the Legislature’s Oregon Coastal Caucus, which urged Brown to seek disaster aid. If the relief money comes through, Gomberg said it will help buy time while longer-term solutions are worked out. There is no timeline for when the U.S. Department of Commerce might make its decision.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nKennett Square: President Joe Biden attended his nephew’s wedding in the state where he was born Monday before returning to Washington for the week. The president and his wife, Jill Biden, attended the wedding of Cuffe Owens, the son of Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens, to Meghan O’Toole King. King is a former cast member on “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” while Owens is an attorney. The event was held at Biden Owens’ home. King shared a photo of the two on Instagram in September, writing: “meet my man.” Joe Biden had a quiet weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, visiting church early Sunday but otherwise keeping to his home. King was previously married to retired MLB player Jim Edmonds.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Johnson & Wales University is suing its insurer over financial losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, alleging the company breached its contract because it did not allow the university to claim pandemic-related economic losses. The university, whose main campus is based in Providence, said the American Guarantee & Liability Company’s current policy does not have preventive pandemic-related coverage in its insurance policy to cover economic losses. As a result of the pandemic, the university said it lost enrollment, tuition, housing and dining revenues while expensing additional COVID-19 safety protocols. In the lawsuit, Johnson & Wales asked the court to rule that the insurer must cover its financial losses “totaling many millions of dollars.” A spokesperson for Zurich Insurance Group, American Guarantee’s parent company, did not respond to an email seeking comment. The company has also not yet responded to the lawsuit in court.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: An appellate court is set to debate a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law about a week after the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar measure in Mississippi. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has tentatively scheduled the South Carolina case for oral arguments the week of Dec. 6, according to an order from the court posted Friday. Planned Parenthood is suing South Carolina over the measure, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this year and requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a so-called fetal heartbeat. If cardiac activity – which can typically be detected about six weeks into pregnancy – is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. Opponents have argued that many women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks and that with such an early deadline, the law gives women little time to consider whether to have an abortion. Medical experts say the cardiac activity is not an actual heartbeat but rather an initial flutter of electric activity within cells in an embryo. They say the heart doesn’t begin to form until the fetus is at least 9 weeks old, and they decry efforts to promote abortion bans by relying on medical inaccuracies.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: The Boy Scouts of America are set to sell a campground to the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department for $2million. Department officials confirmed at their October meeting that the Boy Scouts are ready to finalize the sale of the 223-acre campground to the agency in late November. The state appraised the property at $3.59 million earlier this year. The campground sits between Newton Hills State Park and the Johnson Game Production Area. Boy Scout leaders have talked about selling it since 2011. A push from national Scout leaders to upgrade existing facilities led them to approach GFP officials about a sale last year. The campground was built during the 1930s and would require extensive improvements to bring it up to Boy Scouts of America standards.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: State agriculture officials are offering to share the costs with landowners who are interested in improving the forests and watersheds on their properties near two rivers. The state Department of Agriculture says the Duck and Elk Watershed Initiative is open for applications until Oct. 29. The counties in the watershed of the Duck and Elk rivers include Bedford, Coffee, Dickson, Franklin, Giles, Hickman, Humphreys, Lewis, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore and Williamson. Eligible activities include tree planting, forest improvement, invasive plant management and prescribed burning. The activities should be implemented from January through May of next year. The Division of Forestry is offering free site visits and consultations on action plans to improve the watershed.\n\nTexas\n\nHouston: Executions in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state face delays amid legal questions about Texas’ refusal to allow spiritual advisers to touch inmates and pray aloud as condemned individuals are being put to death. It’s unclear when Texas may carry out another execution after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear religious freedom claims from death row inmate John Henry Ramirez. The court blocked his execution last month, about three hours after it could have been carried out. Several other inmates have since made similar claims, and courts have put some of their executions on hold. “It would be unusual for somebody who has the same issue to not get a stay while the Supreme Court is deciding that issue. It would be very unusual,” said Michael Benza, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. A ruling from the Supreme Court could be months away. It’s set to hear oral arguments Nov. 1. Ramirez says the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him and pray out loud as he is executed. Texas prison officials say that direct contact poses a security risk and that prayers said aloud could be disruptive.\n\nUtah\n\nFarmington: An unexpected snowstorm forced the rescue of dozens of runners in a long-distance trail race in the mountains of northern Utah. None of the 87 or so runners rescued Saturday was hospitalized, though several were treated for hypothermia, and one was hurt in a fall, according to Davis County Sheriff Kelly Sparks. “We feel very fortunate today that there were no serious injuries,” Sparks said. The 50-mile race in the Francis Peak area between Ogden and Salt Lake City began at 5 a.m. Severe weather struck about four hours later. Some runners were wearing just shorts and a T-shirt, authorities said. Race organizers had told runners to expect rain, but the rain turned to snow, runner Kelcey McClung Stowell said. “We thought, ‘We’ll be OK once we get to Francis Peak, and then we start coming down the mountain. We’ll be out of the snow, and it’ll be fine,’ ” Stowell said. “But it just turned terrible. It was just like a blizzard up there.” Temperatures plummeted to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and as much as 18 inches of snow fell in strong wind. Rescuers using snowmobiles and other vehicles caught up with runners on the route and got them out of the mountains, KSL-TV reports. All runners were accounted for by 2:45 p.m.\n\nVermont\n\nWeybridge: After erosion washed away some graves at an old cemetery near a riverbank, the remains of two Revolutionary War soldiers and others buried there will be moved to a new resting place. Revolutionary War soldier Josiah Clark, who fought at the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts, was buried in the Stow cemetery in Weybridge in 1835. Erosion over the years left his grave perched on the edge of the steep eroding bank, so his bones were exhumed in 2019. Revolutionary War soldier William Haven is also buried there, a bit farther back from the bank. The roughly 20 graves eventually will be moved to the Old Weybridge Hill Cemetery. An archeological team from the University of Vermont is now working to remove graves along the bank, starting with the ones most at risk, Tom Giffin, president of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, said Monday. “I feel relieved that they’ll not be washed over the bank and go down Otter Creek. I thought that was awful wrong,” Giffin said. “My big thing is this is a history of the United States, as well as a history of Vermont, as well as a history of Weybridge.” The archeological team, including students, started its work last week, and the first reinternments are expected to take place next spring.\n\nVirginia\n\nAlexandria: More than $33 million in U.S. Department of Justice grants has been awarded to 26 Virginia-based public and nonprofit organizations to fund programs that address violence against women, a federal prosecutor says. Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh said in a news release Friday that the grants will provide funding and essential services to vulnerable communities – especially women, people with disabilities and immigrants – who are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. The department’s Office on Violence Against Women selected organizations from across the Eastern District of Virginia to receive funding through 42 separate grants. The money will allow the organizations to better address a wide variety of needs and issues facing victims of domestic and sexual violence. The recipients include state government entities that provide services throughout the commonwealth, as well as nongovernmental organizations that provide technical training and assistance nationwide. In addition, grants were awarded to universities to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus. Multiple nonprofit organizations that provide direct services to victims and survivors in the district also received funding.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: A mandatory payroll tax to fund the state’s new long-term care program will start coming out of most workers’ paychecks in January. The insurance benefit, dubbed the WA Cares Fund, is a first-in-nation public insurance program aimed at helping older residents age in their own homes, The Seattle Times reports. The plan, signed into law in 2019 through the Long Term Care Trust Act, will use a 0.58% payroll tax to pay up to a $36,500 benefit for individuals to pay for home health care and an array of services related to long-term health care including equipment, transportation and meal assistance. The plan is expected to save $3.9 billion in state Medicaid costs by 2052, and eligible beneficiaries will be able to begin collecting benefits starting in 2025. The program has drawn both ire and praise from advocacy groups and politicians. Advocates cite a rapidly aging population and high premiums on the current private long-term care market, while critics have lambasted the plan as expensive, unnecessary and inflexible in terms of eligibility and payout.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nDavis: Two locations have been added to a new program to protect rare plant and animal species. Bald Knob and the Canaan Valley wetlands are the first sites in the West Virginia Natural Areas Program, the state Division of Natural Resources said in a news release. The program places extra protection on areas with significant conservation needs under the agency’s administration. Both areas are within the Canaan Valley Resort State Park. The areas include more than 2,200 acres of rare conifer swamps and red spruce forest with more than 40 rare plants, 12 rare invertebrates and several animals unique to the area, the agency said. “These two areas have the state’s highest concentration of federally listed species and species of greatest conservation need, and this designation is going to give us the awareness and resources we need to make sure they are properly managed,” said Scott Warner, the division’s assistant chief of wildlife diversity.\n\nWisconsin\n\nOneida: Gov. Tony Evers issued a formal apology Monday for the state’s role in Native American boarding schools, joining with tribal leaders at an Indigenous Peoples Day event. Evers signed an executive order that also formally supported the previously announced U.S. Department of the Interior investigation into the schools and asked that anything done in Wisconsin be conducted in consultation with the state’s tribes. Wisconsin is home to 11 recognized American Indian tribes. Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support Indian boarding schools across the nation. For more than 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation. Records show that Wisconsin was home to at least 10 day and boarding schools attended by thousands of American Indian children between the 1860s and 1970s, the governor’s office said. Additionally, hundreds of children were sent from Wisconsin to attend out-of-state schools, the governor’s office said. The lack of available and reliable documentation related to the schools makes it challenging to know the full scope of what happened in Wisconsin, Evers’ office said.\n\nWyoming\n\nLaramie: A lab at the University of Wyoming is monitoring wastewater in six communities to track the coronavirus’ presence in the state, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Funded by an $800,000 state grant, the university’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is regularly testing wastewater from Cowley, Deaver, Hudson, Laramie, Pinedale and Powell as part of a 30-town tracking effort to see where COVID-19 may be going undetected, according to the newspaper.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2019/07/10/molly-denali-saloon-discourse-ashes-mail-news-around-states/39670063/", "title": "News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nCarbon Hill: Two city leaders have resigned after their mayor posted a comment on Facebook about “killing out” socialists, “baby killers,” and gay and transgender people. But Mayor Mark Chambers refused to step down and told residents he plans to run for re-election. Protesters staged a die-in and then confronted Chambers at a meeting Monday, where he sat between two empty chairs. Some asked just how he’d like to kill them. One carried a sign saying, “If you kill me, my ghost will haunt you.” The meeting soon ended, with Chambers walking out past people calling for him to resign. He met privately beforehand with a small group of protesters. Resident Rawsy McCollum says the mayor apologized and said his comments shouldn’t have been public. But McCollum says he shouldn’t have voiced hatred at all, and it’s time for him to go.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: Alaska Natives are sharing their world with a general audience in the nation’s first-ever children’s series featuring indigenous leads. “Molly of Denali” premieres Monday on PBS Kids. The animated show highlights the adventures of a 10-year-old Athabascan girl, Molly Mabray. Her family owns the Denali Trading Post in the fictitious community of Qyah, which has a diverse population. Native Americans voice the indigenous characters. The series is co-produced by Boston-based WGBH and animation partner Atomic Cartoons in collaboration with Alaska Native advisers and script writers. The 30-minute show will run mornings seven days a week. WGBH executive producer Dorothea Gillim says PBS ordered 38 half-hour episodes besides the hourlong premiere. Each episode also includes a short video featuring real Alaska Native children living life in the vast state.\n\nArizona\n\nChandler: Dozens of city employees in this Phoenix suburb will use self-driving vehicles at work in partnership with Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company. The partnership will begin this month as Chandler evaluates whether using the autonomous vehicles cuts costs to maintain and operate its vehicles and makes employees more productive. Officials say the program will last at least a year. Chandler has been a leader on testing autonomous vehicles in metro Phoenix. Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, has been testing its autonomous vehicles in the area since 2016. The partnership will let employees use the Waymo app to schedule rides to work meetings within the company’s service area.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will visit the city later this year as part of a lecture series put on by the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton School of Public Service. Ginsburg became the second female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993 after then-President Bill Clinton nominated her to the post. She’s to speak Sept. 3 on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Ginsburg missed six days of arguments last term as she recovered from surgery for lung cancer, but she returned to the bench in February. In March, fans marked her 86th birthday by wearing workout gear and exercising in front of the high court in a nod to Ginsburg’s well-known workout routine. The Little Rock event is open to the public.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: The state Senate on Monday sent legislation to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that will spend $130 million a year over the next decade to improve drinking water for about a million people. Roughly 1 million of California’s nearly 40 million residents don’t have access to clean drinking water because of pollution from humans or natural causes, a fact state lawmakers have called an embarrassment for a state with the fifth-largest economy in the world. The problem is statewide, but it is concentrated in the Central Valley – the capital of the state’s $20 billion agriculture industry. Senators approved the measure 38-1. Newsom had proposed a tax on most residential water bills to address the problem. But state lawmakers were wary of approving a new tax in a year when they had an estimated $21.5 billion surplus. Instead, on Monday the state Senate approved a bill that would authorize spending up to $130 million each year on the state’s distressed water districts, with most of it coming from a fund aimed at fighting climate change.\n\nColorado\n\nColorado Springs: A giraffe herd at a local zoo has welcomed its 16th member following the birth of a calf. The 10-year-old reticulated giraffe named Msitu gave birth Saturday at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The zoo says the calf was about 6 feet tall at birth and weighed more than 150 pounds. Zoo officials say the mother and calf appear to be doing well. The sex of the calf has not yet been confirmed. The zoo waits 30 days before naming babies. Pregnancies for reticulated giraffes can last up to 15 months. The calf is Msitu’s third. She gave birth to Emy in 2013 and to Rae in 2017. Emy lives at a zoo in Peoria, Illinois. Rae remains with the Colorado Springs herd.\n\nConnecticut\n\nNorwalk: A federal judge has cleared the way for state and federal transportation officials to move forward with a $1.1 billion replacement of a 122-year-old movable railroad bridge in the city. U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill ruled Monday against opponents who had filed a lawsuit that argued there are cheaper alternatives for replacing the Walk Bridge. The Norwalk Harbor Keeper and others say that unlike a century ago, few boats with tall masts currently pass in and out of the Norwalk River. They had suggested replacing the bridge with a fixed bridge that would save taxpayers money and cause less disruption to the environment. In his ruling, Underhill said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. He also found the government made its decision properly after considering other options.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: Leo E. Strine Jr., the state’s witty and sometimes controversial Supreme Court chief justice, is stepping down from the bench with about half his term remaining. Strine delivered his resignation letter to Gov. John Carney on Monday, saying he plans to retire in the fall. A press release from the governor’s office did not detail Strine’s reasons, and the chief justice’s spokesman said he is on vacation and not available for comment. During his tenure, the court invalidated the state’s death penalty, ruled on controversial land use issues and weighed in on billion-dollar business disputes. His stepping down begins a process in which Carney will nominate his successor, a dance that will be watched closely by legal and corporate circles around the world given Delaware’s prominence in business.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: The National Zoo says the first documented Asian water dragon to be born from the DNA of a single parent has died. The Washington Post reports the zoo says the 2-year-old female lizard died from blood cancer in mid-June. The lizard was born in 2016 through a process known as facultative parthenogenesis, which is when female creatures that can produce sexually instead produce offspring on their own. The lizard was hospitalized after workers found it struggling to breathe. It was later found dead. The zoo says water dragons are native to Southeast Asia and have a life expectancy of up to 15 years. They’re named after their defensive strategy that involves submerging themselves in water and holding their breath for up to 25 minutes.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: Voting rights advocates have filed suit against the Florida secretary of state over a new law they say makes it impossible to hold early voting on college campuses. They argue that the law disenfranchises young voters. The measure requires early voting locations to have “sufficient non-permitted parking,” which critics say would virtually ban sites on colleges campuses because of their restrictive parking rules. It was part of a broader voting bill signed into law last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The lawsuit against Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee. Lee did not have a direct hand in drafting the law but would have to enforce it. The plaintiffs include the League of Women Voters and eight young voters.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Scientists are learning more about suicides among the state’s farmers – and they say the aftermath of Hurricane Michael could bring more risks to rural areas. New research shows that relationship issues, health-related problems and financial hardship are among the most common factors. A University of Georgia researcher believes Hurricane Michael could pose an additional threat to Georgia’s farming community. Anna Scheyett, dean of the University of Georgia School of Social Work, says farmers are very resilient – but they’re also vulnerable and need support. WABE Radio reports that Scheyett examined 106 cases of suicide among farmers and agriculture workers, which were recorded in the Georgia Violent Death Reporting System from 2008 to 2015.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: A large missile defense radar mounted on a modified floating oil platform has returned to the state. Missile Defense Agency spokeswoman Maria Njoku told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the radar is back at Pearl Harbor for regular maintenance and installation of system upgrades. She says shore personnel will conduct inspections and surveys, and crew members will receive training. The Missile Defense Agency plans to keep the $2 billion Sea-Based X-Band Radar at sea for more than 300 days in the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 to “address the continued missile test activity in North Korea.” The agency plans to have the radar spend 330 days at sea each year between 2021 and 2024. The military is planning to build a series of land-based sensors that will also track ballistic missiles.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Environmental groups say a U.S. Forest Service plan to improve wildlife habitat in eastern Idaho will do the opposite and takes an illegal shortcut around environmental laws. Alliance for the Wild Rockies and two other groups filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking to halt the Rowley Canyon Wildlife Enhancement Project in Bannock County. The Forest Service in June approved the project that would remove more than half of the juniper trees on about 1,300 acres and remove shrubs on another 400 acres. Federal officials say that will improve habitat for deer, elk and grouse. The environmental groups say it instead will allow cheatgrass and other invasive plants to move in and destroy good habitat.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: The Illinois State Museum Society is offering day trips for people to explore the state’s history and culture this summer by coach bus. The first trip, scheduled Aug. 10, will feature a visit to the Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery and a 90-minute walking tour of the Old Joliet Prison. The facility was Illinois’ second state prison and operated from 1858 to 2002. It was famously featured in the movie “The Blues Brothers.” The second trip, Sept. 14, will focus on African American history. The first stop will be in New Philadelphia, the site of the first town platted and registered by an African American. The group will then visit the Huck Finn Freedom Center in Hannibal, Missouri. Trips range in cost from $114 to $149.\n\nIndiana\n\nBloomington: Tiles with images of swastikas that were installed more than a century ago have been removed from the walls inside an Indiana University building. The school says the tiles at the Indiana University School of Public Health classroom building were installed before the swastika was adopted as the symbol of the Nazi Party. They’re among tiles that include symbols from different cultures. The (Bloomington) Herald-Times reports an explanation of the symbol’s history was posted near the tiles for many years, but some still found the tiles offensive. The school says the swastika tiles will be sanded to remove the symbol and remounted. The tiles were installed during the construction of the original IU Men’s Gymnasium in 1917. It’s now part of the IU School of Public Health classroom building.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: A southwest Iowa man has won his free speech legal battle with a sheriff’s department and two officers who charged him with harassment for writing a social media post that profanely criticized a deputy. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office will pay Jon Richard Goldsmith $10,000 to settle a federal lawsuit he filed in May alleging violations of his free speech rights, retaliation and false arrest. The sheriff’s office agreed to a court order filed Monday that prohibits it from bringing criminal charges against or threatening to criminally charge citizens on the basis of the lawful comments, posts or other speech protected by the First Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa represented Goldsmith in the lawsuit against Adams County, Deputy Cory Dorsey and his supervisor.\n\nKansas\n\nWichita: A violent crime rate about twice the national average has prompted city law enforcement officials to join a national program that aims to drive down crime. The Wichita Eagle reports the city is among 10 selected this year to participate in the U.S. Department of Justice National Safety Partnership. Wichita cited the latest figures published by the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation in its application for the program. Shootings have climbed steadily since 2014. Murders, rapes and aggravated assaults all ticked up between 2016 and 2018. And domestic violence now accounts for nearly half of all aggravated assaults reported in the city. The partnership will provide training and technical assistance to the department at no cost.\n\nKentucky\n\nLexington: The city is ramping up the horseplay with a simple message to prospective visitors: Won’t you be my neighhhbor? As part of an ad campaign, VisitLEX, Lexington’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, dressed up a horse as Fred Rogers, the writer and host of preschool television series “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The star of the campaign is Hank, a 21-year-old horse from the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Hank’s outfit was designed by Lexington-based fashion designer Soreyda Benedit Begley. Coincidentally, the horse’s name almost matches that of Tom Hanks, who will portray Rogers in the upcoming film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” set to be released in November. Lexington, surrounded by more than 400 horse farms, claims to be the horse capital of the world.\n\nLouisiana\n\nCovington: A dispute is developing over whether a hotel and conference center should be developed at a state park. A study paid for by the St. Tammany Parish Tourist and Convention Commission says the project should be built at Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville. The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports that the proposed lodge and conference center would offer views of Lake Pontchartrain. It is projected to generate $1.8 million in cash flow in 2021, its first year. That’s projected to grow to nearly $2.3 million by 2025. Critics of the plan say it will draw commerce away from existing businesses in Slidell and Covington. They also question the need for more revenue at a park that they said brings in $1.3 million a year, with expenses of $1.2 million.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: A new state law is designed to prevent young children from being suspended or expelled from schools. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has signed “An Act to Promote Social and Emotional Learning and Development for Young Children” into law. The proposal by Democratic Sen. Cathy Breen of Falmouth is intended to cut down on suspension and expulsion rates by providing a consultation program for teachers and parents of young children. Senate Democrats say the proposal will create a voluntary program that makes consultants with advanced training in mental health and child development available to help “contain the impact of challenging behaviors in the classroom.” The Democrats say Maine has the second-highest rate of preschool student expulsion in the country, and that causes disruptions in the education of the children.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: An area in the state that’s home to abandoned World War I-era steamships has been designated a new national marine sanctuary. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state of Maryland and Charles County announced the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary on Monday. It contains more than 100 abandoned steamships and vessels that were built as part of the nation’s engagement in World War I. It’s about 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., along an 18-mile stretch of Potomac River coast in Charles County. Maryland nominated the area for sanctuary designation in 2014 to conserve the shipwrecks and increase opportunities for public access, tourism and economic development. The sanctuary designation will take effect following 45 days of congressional session after publication of the action in the Federal Register.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A replica of the Mayflower will be sailing to the city as part of commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing in Massachusetts. Organizers say the Mayflower II will be on display at the Charlestown Navy Yard from May 14 to May 19, 2020, and visitors will have an opportunity to board the ship for free. The vessel has been undergoing a $7.5 million restoration at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut since 2016. The original Mayflower was lost to history after returning to England following its famous 1620 voyage to the New World. The full-scape replica ship was built in England in the 1950s and has been berthed in Plymouth Harbor. Plans are to bring it back to Plymouth following the Mayflower Sails 2020 event.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: The governor has signed legislation honoring the late Queen of Soul with a highway designation. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday approved the bill to designate a portion of M-10 in Detroit as the “Aretha L. Franklin Memorial Highway.” Franklin died in the city last year after battling pancreatic cancer. Whitmer, a Democrat, noted in a statement that Franklin’s “creativity and voice contributed to our musical and cultural history in Michigan.” Supporters of the designation say dedicating a portion of the highway is a way to honor the musical and cultural icon, who grew up in Detroit and learned the gospel fundamentals at New Bethel Baptist Church. Some Republicans who opposed the bill, however, have said such designations should only go to fallen first responders and military veterans.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Two University of Minnesota students are launching a prescription drug repository program to redistribute unused medications to people who are struggling to pay for their medicine. Minnesota Public Radio News reports that pharmacy students Rowan Mahon and Hannah Van Ochten were behind the bill to set up the repository, which will begin next year. Gov. Tim Walz approved a state health budget that included the measure this spring. The new law allows care facilities to send unused pills to a central repository, where they’ll undergo safety checks. Mahon says the medicine can’t be expired or show signs of tampering. Once cleared for use, the drugs can be distributed at reduced prices for people in need. Mahon is applying for grants and fundraising to get the program off the ground.\n\nMississippi\n\nGulfport: Toxic bacteria are keeping swimmers out of the water on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it will be weeks before financial information shows whether beach closures are hurting the local economy. The communications director for the tourism agency Coastal Mississippi, Erin Rosetti, says she’s seeing fewer people hanging out on the sand. “We do see people on the beach. However, we don’t see them en masse as we are used to during this month,” Rosetti said Monday. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is warning that people and pets should stay out of saltwater near the mainland beaches. The agency started closing some beaches June 22 and on Sunday closed the last two sections near the Alabama line. While the water is off limits, people can still be on the sand.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Joseph: Officials say a letter filled with a white, granular substance that spurred an evacuation contained human ashes. St. Joseph spokeswoman Mary Robertson said the city finance department evacuated Monday after a staffer opened the letter and saw a bag filled with a white substance inside. The envelope was addressed to the mayor and had been cut open and re-taped shut. Robertson says once emergency officials were able to safely open the envelope, they found a letter explaining that it contained the ashes of a former resident who died last year and had wanted her ashes to be spread around City Hall. Hazmat officials confirmed the substance was human ashes. Robertson says she’s not sure if the ashes will be spread at City Hall.\n\nMontana\n\nBozeman: In their quest to develop an improved computer that could one day be used in NASA spacecraft, Montana State University researchers have tinkered with their creation on the laboratory bench, dangled it from high-altitude helium balloons, sent it to the International Space Station and launched it into Earth’s orbit on a bread loaf-sized satellite. Now it will go to the moon. NASA announced that an MSU team led by Brock LaMeres has won a coveted spot on a 2020-2021 lunar mission that will be the biggest trial yet for the radiation-tolerant computing concept LaMeres conceived more than a decade ago. “Talk about a moonshot,” said LaMeres, professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering. “The dream has always been to get (this technology, called RadPC) that far out into space.”\n\nNebraska\n\nDenton: The state Game and Parks Commission is inviting families to experience prairie wildlife and enjoy time together during a bioblitz scheduled for Saturday at Denton Prairie in southeast Nebraska. A bioblitz is an intense survey of species within a designated area. Attendees will count as many living things as possible in three hours, with teams looking for birds, insects, plants and more. The day will begin at 7 a.m. with a bird banding demonstration. Participants will begin looking for species about 9 a.m. and halt at noon. Water and snacks will be available; participants are encouraged to bring their own water bottles. Denton Prairie is a part of the Prairie Corridor on Haines Branch, a tallgrass prairie passage that connects Pioneers Park Nature Center to Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center.\n\nNevada\n\nEly: Federal officials say they plan to round up as many as 800 wild horses from vast range in eastern Nevada to reduce what land managers call damaging overpopulation. The Bureau of Land Management says the operation was scheduled to begin Tuesday in a public land study area known as the Triple B Complex. The complex covers about 2,500 square miles in the bureau’s Elko and Ely districts. A statement says helicopters will be used, the roundup should last less than four weeks, and the aim is to reduce the number of wild horses from an estimated 3,400 to about 2,600. The bureau says agents will escort public observers at pre-scheduled times, and captured horses will be checked by a veterinarian and offered for adoption or sale through a bureau program in Sparks.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The state is increasing its efforts to serve its aging population. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu last week signed a bill to create a commission to advocate for elderly residents. The commission will replace a small committee within the Department of Health and Human Services that was composed mostly of volunteers. The new group will include representatives from seven state agencies and a full-time director. Doug McNutt of AARP New Hampshire told New Hampshire Public Radio the state needs to do a better job of adapting to issues affecting the aging population, including workforce issues and housing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New Hampshire is the second-oldest state. Maine has the highest median age, with New Hampshire and Vermont right behind.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nJersey City: Gov. Phil Murphy has signed legislation aimed at helping first responders to the Sept. 11 attacks. The Democrat signed the bills Monday at Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River from the site of the 2001 attacks. One measure permits volunteer first responders to qualify for disability pensions when they retire. It’s aimed at helping those who were not on duty but who helped after the World Trade Center towers fell. A legislative estimate says it’s unclear how much the change would cost. It depends on how many retirees apply, and the estimate doesn’t specify a possible number. The other measure makes it easier for first responders to get workers compensation by removing the burden of proving the cause of an illness in certain cases.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nWhite Oaks: A saloon in this ghost town attracts regulars with diverse backgrounds and opinions with a promise to “have dialogue.” The Albuquerque Journal reports the No Scum Allowed Saloon pulls in people from around the state and sometimes tourists from overseas because of its reputation and catchy name. Saloon owner Karen Haughness, one of nine people who live in White Oaks, says the saloon’s regulars often exceed the town’s population. She says the establishment cultivates civil discourse among visitors. The town was founded after gold was discovered in the region in 1879. Outlaw Billy the Kid is said to have visited White Oaks often looking for a good time. White Oaks is 160 miles southeast of Albuquerque.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: A county clerk in western New York has filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law authorizing driver’s licenses for immigrants who are in the country illegally. Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns filed the federal court challenge late Monday. The suit seeks a court injunction blocking the law while its constitutionality is reviewed by the court. The lawsuit names Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, as defendants. Kearns says the law forces county clerks to violate their oaths of office by granting licenses to immigrants who have broken immigration law. Supporters of the measure, which passed last month, say they expected a lawsuit and carefully crafted the law to withstand court scrutiny. Twelve states already have similar laws.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Legislation designed to give prosecutors a new tool to convict drug dealers and to require public schools to teach more finance education is now law. The bills are among a dozen Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday that he’s signed into law. One bill makes it a felony to illegally sell drugs that result in an overdose death, punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Supporters say the “death by distribution” law will help fight the opioid epidemic, but critics say it will deter people from calling 911 during an overdose. Another new law requires high school students to pass a personal finance and economics class to graduate. Some teachers worry this will detract from other instruction, but supporters believe financial literacy is critical to real-world success.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: State officials are looking for help collecting an insect that attacks an invasive plant. The state departments of Agriculture and Trust Lands as well as several county weed boards are trying to round up flea beetles and disperse them to feed on leafy spurge, one of North Dakota’s worst noxious weeds. They’ve been running collection days at different locations around the state since late June. The next scheduled day is Thursday along Franks Creek Road north of Fryburg in Billings County. Collection efforts are slated for 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Collectors should bring sweep nets and coolers with ice packs for transporting the beetles.\n\nOhio\n\nWapakoneta: This small city is shooting for the moon in celebrating its native son’s history-making walk 50 years ago this month. The hometown of Neil Armstrong has expanded its usual weekend “summer moon festival” to 10 days of Apollo 11 commemorations, starting this Friday. Tens of thousands of visitors – the biggest crowds here since Armstrong’s post-mission homecoming – are expected. There will be hot air balloons, ’60s-themed evenings, concerts, rocket launches and a visit from five other Ohio astronauts. And “the world’s largest moon pie,” all 50 pounds of it. Event planning began two years ago in this city of about 10,000 that has added nearly 3,000 residents since 1969 but retains that everybody-knows-everybody rural town feel.\n\nOklahoma\n\nKingfisher: No injuries or damage have been reported following several small earthquakes in central Oklahoma. The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 3.1 temblor was recorded at 9:44 a.m. Tuesday 7 miles west of Kingfisher, or about 35 miles west of Oklahoma City. The earthquake was recorded at a depth of 4 miles. Two other earthquakes, both magnitude 2.6, were recorded in the same area Tuesday. Thousands of earthquakes in Oklahoma in recent years have been linked to the underground injection of wastewater from oil and gas production. The USGS reports the number of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes is on pace to decline for the fourth straight year after state regulators began directing producers to close some wells and reduce volumes in others.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: A state Senate committee has placed conditions by which Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, must abide if he enters the Capitol building, stemming from threats he made more than two weeks ago against the Senate president and Oregon State Police. Until a full investigation into his comments is complete, Boquist must give 12 hours advance notice to the secretary of the Senate before he intends to be in the Capitol. When he is in the building, State police will bolster their presence. The Senate Committee on Conduct also voted Monday to advise Boquist he cannot retaliate against anyone who raised concerns about safety because of his comments or anyone who is participating in the investigation. During a recent GOP walkout to protest a cap-and-trade bill, Boquist told state police to “send bachelors and come heavily armed” if they came after him.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nAltoona: A convenience store chain is putting Bitcoin ATMs in six shops around the state, giving customers the ability to buy and sell the cryptocurrency with U.S. dollars. Sheetz, based in Altoona, announced Tuesday that it has teamed up with Coinsource to put the ATMs in the five Pennsylvania stores and a shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ryan Sheetz, a vice president at the company, says the family-owned chain is always trying to be innovative and give customers what they want. Customers must enroll with Coinsource before they can use the ATMs. Then they’ll be able to make transactions from $5 to $5,000 per day from the machines.\n\nRhode Island\n\nSouth Kingston: State officials are telling visitors to a local pond to watch out for jellyfish. The Department of Health says five people have been treated in emergency rooms after being stung by jellyfish at Potter Pond in South Kingston. Experts say the type of creatures involved, known as clinging jellyfish, are small – about the size of a dime – but pack a powerful sting. Symptoms can range from mild discomfort to severe pain and occasionally even respiratory or neurological problems. People wading in the pond are advised to wear protective clothing and take other precautions. Officials say clinging jellyfish typically attach themselves to underwater aquatic vegetation and algae and have been found in other ponds and estuaries. They are not typically found on ocean beaches.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nGreenville: Police say a woman stole a vehicle after throwing a snake at the driver, then crashed through barricades set up for a pole-vaulting exhibition. In a statement, Greenville Police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Hilmary Moreno-Berrios. They she was hurt in Friday’s crash and released from the hospital Monday. Authorities say Moreno-Berrios demanded a woman’s keys and threw a live black snake at her. They say she then drove the stolen SUV, with the snake still in it, into barriers set up for the Liberty Bridge Jump-Off. Moreno-Berrios is charged with carjacking, malicious damage to property and five traffic violations. It wasn’t known whether she had a lawyer to contact for comment on her behalf. Police say the snake wasn’t venomous and was released in nearby woods.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nFort Pierre: A new proposal would ban transporting deer and elk carcasses in some parts of the state to help slow the spread of chronic wasting disease. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to the most restrictive options presented to the commissioners for transporting mule deer, whitetail deer and elk carcasses into and around South Dakota. A final decision is expected in September. If approved, the restrictions would go into effect July 1, 2020. Chronic wasting disease has been found in free-ranging deer and elk in southwestern South Dakota. Staff urged the commission to adopt the most restrictive options to slow the disease’s spread to the rest of the state. CWD is a fatal disease that strikes the nervous system in deer, elk and moose.\n\nTennessee\n\nPigeon Forge: Laura Mabel Francatelli survived the sinking of the Titanic wearing a life jacket she cherished for the rest of her long life. Now, for the first time in 107 years, Francatelli’s jacket is on public display. It’s one of six on exhibit through December at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge. The six life jackets – two linked to surviving passengers and four others with sadder, less certain pasts – are half of the 12 known to still exist from the Titanic. “It’s very poignant,” says Paul Burns, the museum’s curator. “This was a tragedy for the survivors and the victims.” Francatelli’s life jacket was unveiled Tuesday in a ceremony at the museum. Musicians performed “Nearer My God to Thee” – the last song Titanic musicians played – to begin the event.\n\nTexas\n\nGalveston: A borrowed ship has become the floating summer school home for more than 300 maritime students and staff from Texas A&M University at Galveston. The Galveston County Daily News the Golden Bear departed Saturday from the Port of Galveston as part of Sea Aggies training. The 500-foot vessel is normally operated by the California State University Maritime Academy. The Golden Bear set sail with about 260 members of the Corps of Cadets, plus 70 faculty and staff, for two months in the Gulf of Mexico and ocean experience. Daryn Taylor, a senior, says the voyage combines the stresses of college life and being on a working vessel in the open sea. Texas A&M has a smaller training ship, the General Rudder, which can accommodate 50 students.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: Four famous paintings will be showcased in the Utah Museum of Fine Arts beginning this fall. The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced Monday that Utah is one of five states in the West selected to host works from American painter Georgia O’Keeffe and others as part of a new initiative to share art with smaller cities throughout the United States. From Oct. 25 until Oct. 4, 2020 visitors can view paintings from O’Keeffe and fellow American painters Thomas Moran and Alma Thomas. A fourth artwork by Mexican painter Diego Rivera will also be on display in a separate project. The museums will contribute their own artwork to a traveling exhibition that will end at the Smithsonian in 2023.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan wants state police to have body cameras. WCAX-TV reports the state police say they’d like to supply troopers with body cameras, but they don’t have the approximately $260,000 a year needed to store the information. Donovan says body cameras have limitations, but they still provide the best evidence as to what happened in some situations. He says they are good for the officer and the citizens because they provide “a true and accurate picture of what transpired at the scene.” Currently members of the state police tactical teams wear body cameras, but troopers do not while on routine patrol. State police officials say obtaining body cameras for all troopers is one of the agency’s top priorities.\n\nVirginia\n\nLynchburg: With about a year left before the prescribed closure of the Central Virginia Training Center, the state has moved most of its patients with intellectual and physical disabilities into community-based care settings. But the state is still struggling to comply with other requirements in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and has not yet determined the fate of the complex. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services told a legislative subcommittee Monday that the state has made “excellent progress” in transitioning patients. A DOJ investigation found that the way Virginia treated disabled people in training centers violated their civil rights. Since then, the number of people living in the large institutions has dropped by 89%, from 1,084 to 116.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: The state is suing the Navy over its expansion of jet operations on Whidbey Island. Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the federal lawsuit Tuesday, saying the Navy failed to adequately examine the effects that having nearly 50,000 flights per year would have on people or wildlife. The Navy in March authorized the expansion of its Growler program by up to three dozen jets, adding to the 82 already based on Whidbey Island. The jets conduct electronic warfare to jam enemy communications and launch systems. The Navy’s public affairs office said it does not comment on litigation. Ferguson said that while the Navy has an important job, and its crews must be able to train, it must also follow its obligations to avoid unnecessary harm to human health and the environment.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nPineville: Nicole Sadecky, a graduate student at West Liberty University, has spent the past year wading the shallows of two southern West Virginia streams, tracking the movements of Cambarus veteranus, colloquially known as the Guyandotte crayfish. She hopes her research might someday help get the rare crawdad off the federal Endangered Species List. The Guyandotte crayfish, once thought extinct, was rediscovered in 2009 by Sadecky’s mentor, West Liberty professor Zac Loughman. Historically, the creature had been found in eight streams, all tributaries to the upper Guyandotte River in Wyoming and Logan counties. Loughman found it at only one site in only one Wyoming County stream, Pinnacle Creek. Subsequent studies discovered the species’ presence in Clear Fork, another Wyoming County stream a dozen miles to the northwest, but that turned out to be the extent of it.\n\nWisconsin\n\nEast Troy: Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and the Dave Matthews Band will headline Farm Aid 2019 when the music and food festival visits the state’s dairy country this fall. Tickets for the Sept. 21 event at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy go on sale Friday. Farm Aid says the farming economy this year resembles how things were when Nelson founded Farm Aid in 1985. Nelson says devastating weather, low prices, and current federal farm and trade policies pose enormous challenges to family farmers struggling to keep their farms. Other performers include Bonnie Raitt, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Jamey Johnson, Tanya Tucker, Brothers Osborne, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Yola, and Particle Kid. Farm Aid has raised $57 million since 1985.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: State and tribal officials are trying to make it easier for people to use tribal identification to register to vote. The Casper Star-Tribune reports Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan met with leaders of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes last week to talk about how the state could allow tribal IDs to be the only form of identification tribe members would need to register. Tribal IDs can currently be used to register, but a driver’s license, its number or a Social Security number must also be presented. The meetings came after the Wyoming Democratic Party alleged that members of the two Wind River Reservation tribes had difficulties registering to vote for last year’s election. An investigation determined election workers followed the law, and no eligible tribal members were prevented from voting.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/07/26/sandy-hook-memorial-rabid-bats-tour-de-turtles-news-around-states/117661940/", "title": "Sandy Hook memorial, rabid bats, Tour de Turtles: News from ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nDothan: Police searching the home of a man suspected of attacking a woman in her home found more than 400 pairs of women’s panties, authorities said. Investigators also found dozens of photos of John Thomas Uda’s co-workers taken without their permission from the neck down, leading to 50 counts of voyeurism, Dothan police told news outlets. Uda, 27, also is charged with attempted rape, three counts of burglary, aggravated criminal surveillance and two counts of illegal possession of a credit card. Police are trying to figure out how many of those 400 paris of women’s underwear, which had been worn, might have been stolen. Investigators said worn panties can also be bought on the internet. Uda was accused in 2019 of stealing women’s underwear from laundromats, authorities said. Jail records did not indicate if Uda had an attorney.\n\nAlaska\n\nNome: A miner who said he was harassed by a bear for seven straight nights in the tundra near Nome was rescued when a passing Coast Guard helicopter spotted an SOS, the internationally recognized sign for help, on top of his cabin. The man, who was not identified by the Coast Guard in a statement, was taken to waiting rescue personnel in Nome. The helicopter crew was flying from Kotzebue to Kodiak on July 16 when it saw the SOS on top of the building. The crew circled back over the mining camp and saw a man waving his arms, another recognized sign of distress, the Coast Guard statement said. The man requested medical assistance after the helicopter landed, saying he had been attacked by a bear a few days earlier. The man appeared to have a leg injury and bruising on his torso, the Coast Guard said. The man said the bear had returned to his camp and harassed him every night for the previous week, according to the statement. Friends the same day the man was found had reported him overdue when he hadn’t returned to Nome. The Coast Guard statement didn’t specify what type of bear was involved.\n\nArizona\n\nPage:Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir on the Colorado River, is about to hit the lowest water level since it was filled in 1963, the Bureau of Reclamation said. As of Friday afternoon, agency data showed the elevation at 3,555.35 feet above sea level. Despite the recent rain, officials anticipated the levels to decline to 3,555.1 feet by last weekend. The last time the reservoir dropped that low was in 2005, during the early days of a prolonged drought that continues to linger to this day. Once it falls below that level, it will mark a new low in the reservoir’s history. “The fact that we’ve reached this new record underscores the difficult situation that we’re in,” said Wayne Pullan, regional director for the Upper Colorado Basin at the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Glen Canyon Dam, during a press call to discuss the milestone. Because of the low water levels, the bureau plans to release water from three upper basin reservoirs downstream into Lake Powell ahead of schedule. The emergency measure is intended to help ensure the water level remains high enough to keep the hydropower turbines spinning and generating electricity.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Arkansas’ coronavirus cases rose by nearly 2,000 on Friday as the state’s COVID-19 surge prompted the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to scale back its hospital visitor policy. The Department of Health said the state’s virus cases rose by 1,987 to 372,313 total since the pandemic began. The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 22 to 871, with 328 in intensive care and 159 on ventilators. UAMS announced that beginning Monday it will change its visitation policy to limit patients to one visitor per day. Previously, patients could have multiple visitors a day as long as only one visitor was in the patient’s room at a time. UAMS said it will continue to allow additional visitors for end-of-life situations. UAMS will continue to require visitors to pass a daily health screening and wear a photo ID badge and a face mask. Hospital visitors will also be required to stay in the patient’s room at all times.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSan Diego: An unvaccinated snow leopard at the San Diego Zoo has contracted COVID-19. Caretakers noticed that Ramil, a 9-year-old male snow leopard, had a cough and runny nose on Thursday. Later, two separate tests of his stool confirmed the presence of the coronavirus, the zoo said in a statement Friday. Ramil is not showing additional symptoms, the zoo said, but because he shares an enclosure with a female snow leopard and two Amur leopards, the staff assumes they have been exposed. As a result, the animals were quarantined and their exhibit was closed. It’s unknown how Ramil got infected. In January, a troop of eight gorillas at the zoo’s sister facility, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, contracted COVID-19 from a keeper who had the virus but showed no symptoms. The gorilla troop, which has since recovered, became the first known example of the virus infecting apes. The case prompted the zoo to request an experimental COVID-19 vaccine for animals for emergency use. The vaccine from Zoetis, animal health company that was once part of Pfizer, was administered to species most at risk of contracting COVID-19, including several primates and big cats.\n\nColorado\n\nWindsor:The city closed Windsor Lake on Friday afternoon and shifted planned activities this week because of the detection of blue-green algae in the water. The lake, swim beach and dog park are closed to the public until further notice while the city works with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to monitor bacteria levels. Permitted boats are allowed on the lake “to assist in agitating the water,” but tubing, water skiing and other water activities are not allowed. The algae was detected in a precautionary water test July 19. On July 20, the town put out an algae advisory and put signs around the lake, but staff had not yet identified any toxins. Blue-green algae are known to spread rapidly and can be a result of hot weather, stagnant water and stormwater runoff. CDPHE said that the algae, while common in Colorado, can sometimes produce toxins that can harm people and be fatal to dogs and other animals.\n\nConnecticut\n\nNewtown: After nearly eight years of discussion and planning, a memorial to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting is nearing construction with the goal of offering a peaceful place for reflection. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned next month at the site down the street where the shooting occurred that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012. Construction will be finished before the 10th anniversary next year, officials said. The State Bond Commission approved $2.5 million for the project on Friday, which the town will use to defray much of the $3.7 million local voters approved in April for the total cost of the memorial. The key area of the memorial will be a water feature with a sycamore tree in the middle and the victims’ names engraved on the top of the surrounding supporting wall. The water flow has been designed so floatable candles, flowers and other objects will move toward the tree and circle around it. Pathways will take visitors through a variety of plantings, including flower gardens.\n\nDelaware\n\nDagsboro: A historic chapel that predates the Revolutionary War has reopened to the public following a 16-month closure because of the pandemic. Prince George’s Chapel in Dagsboro welcomed the public for monthly tours Sunday, the Delaware State News reported. “It wasn’t worth even trying to open it up with all the restrictions and everything. So we’ve had it shut down,” Brian Baull, president of the nonprofit organization that serves as caretaker for the chapel, told the newspaper. Tours, which will take place the fourth Sunday of each month, are free. Construction on the chapel began in 1755 and was completed two years later. It was deeded to the state of Delaware in 1967, restored and reopened as a museum. In 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its most prominent feature is a vaulted ceiling made of heart-of-pine planks, the newspaper reported.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:Mayor Muriel Bowser has activated the District's Heat Emergency Plan for the first half of this week, WUSA-TV reported. The plan goes into effect when the forecast of the temperature or heat index in the District is 95 degrees or higher. That causes the city to open cooling centers for residents seeking relief from the heat. A list of District cooling centers can be found here. In addition, the city recommends that residents stay indoors, find places in the shade or with air conditioning to seek relief from the heat; check on neighbors – children, the elderly and those with access and functional needs are the most vulnerable in the community; dink plenty of water and wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing; do not leave children or pets in vehicles; pet owners should keep pets indoors, walk pets early in the morning and give pets plenty of water.\n\nFlorida\n\nMarathon: A juvenile green sea turtle rehabilitated at the Keys-based Turtle Hospital has been fitted with a satellite-tracking transmitter and released from a Keys beach to join the 14th Tour de Turtles, a marathon-like race that follows long-distance migration of sea turtles over three months. The educational outreach program organized by the Sea Turtle Conservancy raises awareness about sea turtles and threats to their survival. “The Tour de Turtles is an online educational program where, starting August 1, we’re tracking 19 turtles from Florida, Panama, Costa Rica and Nevis,” said Dan Evans, a senior research biologist with the Sea Turtle Conservancy. “It’s the idea that we’re tracking which turtle swims the furthest distance over three months.” Dubbed “Lucky Pulse” by her rescuers for a pulse-like marking on her head, the Keys turtle was released Friday to raise awareness about her own affliction. She was found off the Keys on March 17, entangled in fishing trap line and covered with fibropapilloma, debilitating tumors that develop from a herpes-like virus that affects sea turtles around the world. After the tumors’ removal, Lucky Pulse’s recovery included blood transfusions, breathing treatments, a broad spectrum of antibiotics, fluids, vitamins and a diet of seafood and greens.\n\nGeorgia\n\nColumbus: Residents at a mobile home park said they have had almost no water service for the past three weeks. So little water comes out of the pipes that it is almost impossible to flush toilets, wash dishes or take a bath at the Sea Breeze Mobile Home Park in Columbus, WRBL-TV reported. The water also isn’t safe to drink. “I had to spend three days in the hotel, me and my 8-year-old and my wife. That was money coming out of our pocket,” resident Jeffery Williams said. Water has been restored to some areas of the mobile home park and a citation has been issued to owner Fountain Bleau Capital LLC, said Columbus Inspection and Code Enforcement Director Ryan Pruett. The Massachusetts owner of the park said the maintenance staff was infected with COVID-19 and that delayed fixing the water problems.\n\nHawaii\n\nHilo: A lawsuit challenging using police forces from other islands to respond to protests over a giant telescope planned for Hawaii’s tallest mountain is headed to the state Supreme Court. Police officers from Oahu and Maui flew to the Big Island in 2019 to help control protesters who blocked the mountain’s access road. Opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope said it will desecrate land held sacred by Native Hawaiians. Big Island resident E. Kalani Flores’ lawsuit against police chiefs of the Hawaii County, Maui County and Honolulu forces argued his rights to observe Native Hawaiian cultural practices on Mauna Kea were violated by the police presence. The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case next month, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported. The lawsuit said police violated a state statute that a police chief can operate on a neighboring island if doing so is required in the pursuit of an investigation that started in that chief’s jurisdiction. The lawsuit was initially dismissed because of a technicality and later went before the state Intermediate Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of the police chiefs.\n\nIdaho\n\nKetchum: A multiyear project to improve forest health in and around one of the nation’s top ski destinations has begun in central Idaho. The 10-year Bald Mountain Stewardship Project is intended in part to reduce the chances of a wildfire at Sun Valley Resort’s Bald Mountain ski area that operates on U.S. Forest Service land. The Idaho Mountain Express reported that work has started on the Forest Service’s plan to reduce fuel, restore forest health and enhance recreation opportunities. The ski area is a huge economic driver. But pine beetles, dwarf mistletoe and white pine blister rust are killing trees on the ski-run-carved mountain that forms a scenic and much-photographed backdrop for the resort towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley. Experts said the aging forest long protected from wildfires is at risk, leading to the project that also will clear debris within the ski area. The 9-square-mile project includes Sun Valley Resort’s nearly 5-square-mile ski area, of which about 4 square miles is skiable terrain. Officials said wildfires in 2007 and 2013 surrounded 9,150-foot Bald Mountain with burned forest, creating an island of green trees and increasing bark beetle attacks.\n\nIllinois\n\nRockton:Officials have found elevated levels of harmful metals in groundwater monitoring wells at a Rockton Superfund toxic waste site. But the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency noted that the substances were not found in the municipal water system for the Village of Rockton. Its water was tested June 21. Testing of private wells near the site will begin soon. The metals discovered include antimony, cadmium, chromium and nickel. Some metals are essential nutrients, but others can cause health problems. The results came from wells that check groundwater on the site of the former Beloit Corp. toxic waste investigations at the former manufacturer of paper-making products have been underway since 1992. Elevated metal levels were found in 16 of 20 monitoring wells. All are contained on the Superfund site. The samples were collected following the June 14 explosion and devastating fire at Chemtool Inc., located on the Superfund site. Metals were not previously a concern on the Beloit Corp. property. State officials are investigating their source. Officials said that until testing is completed, those with private wells living in the Blackhawk neighborhood adjacent to Chemtool should use bottled water for drinking and cooking.\n\nIndiana\n\nBurns Harbor: Indiana’s Lake Michigan port has seen a big increase in shipments this year as the global economy rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic. In June, the port handled a 52% spike in cargo. So far this year, the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor has had more than a 36% increase in maritime tonnage compared with the same period last year, said Vanta E. Coda II, chief executive of the Indianapolis-based Ports of Indiana port authority. “Steel is up more than 100% and limestone has climbed nearly 90%, too. We look forward to additional growth in the second half of the year,” Coda said. Through the end of June, international cargos shipped through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Great Lakes ports are up by 8.37% to 12.9 million tons, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported. Great Lakes shipping officials attributed the boost to increased domestic construction, manufacturing activity and global export demand. Shipments of cement are up 36%, gypsum 79% and general cargo 61%. Iron ore volumes are up 14%, partly because of exports to Asia and Europe. Coke, another steelmaking input, is up 125%, partly because of exports to France, the Netherlands and other European countries.\n\nIowa\n\nCedar Rapids: Forty Iowans, including some from the Cedar Rapids area, had to undergo treatment for rabies after they were potentially in contact with a rabid bat at the zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. More than 180 individuals were advised to receive the rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, which contains the rabies vaccine, after a wild bat was found near a person attending one of the Henry Doorly Zoo’s multiple overnight campouts at the aquarium earlier this month. A total of 186 overnight campers, including youth and adult groups, were contacted by the Nebraska public health department, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Among those were dozens of Iowans, mostly adolescents and their parents, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Linn County Public Health said anyone locally who has been impacted has been contacted and the appropriate follow-up has been conducted. Public health officials in Nebraska recommended all campers who stayed at the zoo overnight June 29, June 30, July 2 and July 3 receive prophylaxis. The recommendation came after a camper staying in the aquarium the night of July 3 woke up to a wild bat near her head. A team found seven bats in the building, one of which tested positive for rabies, a news release from the zoo stated.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka:Union members at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka have approved a new contract and will return to work Monday, ending a nearly three-week strike at the plant, union officials said. Members of Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union approved the contract Friday. It gives all union members a 4% pay raise over two years and guarantees workers at least one day off each week, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. More than 500 of the 850 employees represented by the union went on strike on July 5, complaining of a toxic work environment, forced overtime and a lack of pay raises. Workers said the shifts were caused by a severe staffing shortage at the plant. Carolyn Fisher, spokeswoman for PepsiCo., Frito-Lay’s parent company, said the contract allows the company to rebid its entire facility, or parts of it, once during the two-year contract. Labor-management committees will be formed to make recommendations on staffing and overtime and shape the rebid process.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Two members of Kentucky State University’s governing board resigned days before the abrupt departure of the campus president, adding to the upheaval in the highest ranks of the school as it faces an independent investigation into its finances. Soon after M. Christopher Brown II’s resignation as school president last week, Gov. Andy Beshear called for an independent accounting of KSU’s finances and signed an order empowering the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education to provide guidance and oversight during the review. The development came as Kentucky’s sole public historically Black university contended with concerns about its financial health and lawsuits alleging misconduct by campus officials. In the days before Brown’s departure, Candace McGraw submitted her resignation from the school’s Board of Regents. In her resignation letter, McGraw said she was “not fully aware of the time needed to engage fully in order to ensure the ongoing success of the university.” McGraw, a recent board appointee, is CEO of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Paul Harnice also resigned from the school’s board before Brown left, The State Journal reported. Harnice’s resignation letter did not provide an apparent reason for his resignation, The State Journal reported.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: With more than 1,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards encouraged everyone, whether vaccinated or not, to wear masks indoors if they can’t stay distanced from others. But the Democratic governor stopped short of issuing a statewide face covering mandate or new restrictions on activities and businesses amid the state’s fourth spike of COVID-19, driven by the highly contagious delta variant. Louisiana – which has among the nation’s lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates – is seeing thousands of new confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness each day, and its hospitalizations have surged in recent weeks. Edwards said Louisiana has the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation and has been labeled a “state of concern” by the White House. Edwards placed the blame squarely on people refusing to get immunized against the coronavirus in a state where only about 48% of those eligible for the vaccines have gotten at least one shot.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: Maine is home to the last wild Atlantic salmon populations in the U.S., but a new push to protect the fish at the state level is unlikely to land them on the endangered list. Atlantic salmon once teemed in U.S. rivers, but now return from the sea to only a handful of rivers in eastern and central Maine. The fish are protected at the federal level under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, but a coalition of environmental groups and scientists said the fish could be afforded more protections if they were added to Maine’s own list of endangered and threatened species. State law allows Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher to make that recommendation, but his office told the Associated Press he does not intend to do it. The department has done extensive work to conserve and restore the fish, and Keliher “does not believe a listing at the state level would afford additional conservation benefits or protections,” said Jeff Nichols, a department spokesperson. The environmentalists who want to see the fish on the state list said they’re going to keep pushing for it and other protections. Adding the fish to the state endangered list would mean conservation of salmon would be treated as a bigger concern in state permitting processes, said John Burrows, executive director for U.S. operations for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.\n\nMaryland\n\nOakland: A state police helicopter hoisted an injured swimmer to safety in western Maryland. The helicopter was dispatched shortly after 5 p.m. Friday to rescue a swimmer who sustained a head injury after slipping on a rock at Swallow Falls along the Youghiogheny River in Garrett County, state police said in a news release Saturday. The helicopter was requested partly because of the steep terrain and nature of the victim’s injuries, police said. The helicopter hovered 275 feet above the river as a trooper with medical equipment was lowered to the scene to prepare the patient for an aerial extraction, the news release said. Once the patient was secured inside the AW-139 helicopter, the crew provided medical care during the trip to a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. The patient wasn’t identified, and the person’s condition wasn’t immediately known.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A rare first-place medal from the first modern Olympic Games has sold for more than $180,000. Boston-based RR Auction said Friday that the winning bidder for the silver medal from the 1896 games in Athens, Greece, was a collector based on the East Coast. The company estimated before the auction that the first place medal could fetch about $75,000. At the inaugural Olympiad, first-place winners were awarded silver medals and second-place finishers earned bronze, the auction house said. There was no award for placing third. Unlike today’s games where thousands of athletes compete, just 250 were featured at the first modern games, the company said. Other notable items sold include a gold medal bestowed on the Argentine men’s soccer team during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics that went for more than $97,000. A gold medal for the U.S. men’s basketball team during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics also sold for more than $83,000 and a gold medal awarded to Swedish wrestler Ivar Johansson during the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics sold for more than $45,000.\n\nMichigan\n\nCorunna: Elected officials in Shiawassee County who gave themselves bonuses of $65,000 with federal COVID-19 relief aid said they will return the money following days of criticism. County commissioners acted after the county prosecutor said the payments were illegal, The Argus-Press reported. The Michigan Constitution bars additional compensation for elected officials “after services had already been rendered,” prosecutor Scott Koerner said Friday. The commissioners, all Republicans, voted on July 15 to award themselves $65,000 as part of a plan to give $557,000 to 250 county employees as “hazard pay” for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. The smallest amounts for recipients were $1,000 to $2,000. But County Board Chairman Jeremy Root got $25,000. Two more commissioners received $10,000 each, and four others received $5,000 each. The commissioners awarded money to other elected officials, including the prosecutor, the sheriff and the county clerk, all Republicans. They, too, said they would give it back. Two Michigan congressmen, a Democrat and a Republican, said federal virus aid wasn’t intended to reward elected officials.\n\nMinnesota\n\nBlaine: A crane fell over at a construction site in the Minneapolis suburb of Lexington on Friday, causing a power outage for nearly 900 customers in the area as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s. There were no injuries reported. A dispatch supervisor with the Centennial Lakes Police Department said the call came in shortly before 12:30 p.m. The crane fell into power lines and onto the partially constructed building. Dispatch supervisor Donnelle Lawrence said the building was evacuated. The collapse also caused a small grass fire, which was quickly extinguished, Lawrence said. Xcel Energy reported reported nearly 900 customers in the areas of Blaine, Circle Pines and Lexington were without power after the collapse according to its online outage map. Temperatures were in the mid-90s on Friday afternoon and the area was under a heat advisory, as forecasters said the combination of heat and humidity made the temperature feel like it was 100 degrees.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Even as COVID-19 cases have increased rapidly in Mississippi in recent days, some school districts are saying masks will be optional for students, teachers and staff. Among the districts taking that approach is the state’s largest one, DeSoto County School District. “Right now, there are no state mandates or local mandates requiring masks,” Superintendent Cory Uselton told WMC-TV. “Last year, we were under a mask mandate because of the governor’s executive order. There’s no executive order in place right now, so that will be a parental decision.” As part of its guidance for K-12 school settings, the State Department of Health recommends masks for anyone not fully vaccinated. It also recommends people 12 and older get vaccinated. Instead of encouraging either of those things, the DeSoto District will give families information from the health department, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics, Uselton said.\n\nMissouri\n\nO’Fallon: St. Louis city and county officials said they will require masks in some public places starting Monday, citing a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases spurred by the delta variant. Masks will be mandatory in indoor public places and on public transportation for everyone age 5 or older, even for those who are vaccinated, officials said in a news release Friday. Masking outdoors “will be strongly encouraged,” especially in group settings. The decision comes as both of Missouri’s urban areas are seeing a big uptick in cases in hospitalizations that began in rural areas of the state, especially in southwestern Missouri. The Kansas City Star reported Friday that medical leaders in that region appear to be on the verge of calling for a new mask mandate there, as well.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Five firefighters were injured when a thunderstorm and swirling winds in central Montana blew a lightning-caused wildfire back on them, federal officials said. All five remained in medical facilities and were still being evaluated and treated Saturday, a day after they were injured, Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Mark Jacobsen said. He declined to release the extent of the firefighters’ injuries or specify where they were being treated. They had joined other crews working on the 1,300-acre fire burning in rough, steep terrain about 36 miles northwest of the town of Jordan. They were building a defensive fire line Thursday when the weather shifted, Jacobsen said. “Numerous wind shifts and rapid rates of spread resulted in erratic fire behavior as thunderstorms and associated cells were passing over the area when the incident occurred,” he said. Other firefighters in the area were able to call for help and the injured firefighters – three U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crew members from North Dakota and two USDA Forest Service firefighters from New Mexico – were evacuated, Jacobsen said. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Friday that crews from Utah and California were coming to Montana on Saturday to help fight fires. Utah will send two task forces with a total of seven engines and 25 personnel, and California is sending a strike team with five engines and 20 personnel, Gianforte said. The teams will be in Montana for two weeks, and Montana will pay their costs, the governor said.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Nearly 50 Nebraska school boards have objected to proposed state health education standards that include lessons for young children on gender identity and gender expression. State Sen. Joni Albrecht said 47 school boards across the state have either adopted resolutions or sent letters opposing the first draft of the standards that the Nebraska Department of Education is considering. Albrecht was part of a group of 30 state senators who signed a statement urging school districts to object to the standards. The standards would be optional if they’re approved, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Under the proposed standards, kindergartners would learn about different kinds of family structures, including same-gender families. First-graders would be taught about gender identity and gender stereotypes. Sixth-graders would learn about a range of identities related to sexual orientation, including heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, two-spirit, asexual and pansexual. They would be taught the differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive and gender identity. The proposal has faced strong opposition from Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has no direct influence over the state board, and large crowds have attended state education board meetings. State Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt told school districts in a letter earlier this month that there would be changes in the second draft of the standards. He said that next draft will remove many of the explicit examples and make clear that discussions of sensitive health-related topics should be “thoughtfully conducted with parental input at a local level.”\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: Coronavirus numbers remained high in Nevada as the state reported more than 1,000 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, at least 20 deaths and hospitalizations climbing past the 1,000 plateau for the first time in more than five months, state health officials said. The 1,003 new cases reported by the state Department of Health and Human Services nearly matched the 1,004 new cases reported on Tuesday. It was the highest since 1,070 cases were recorded Jan. 30, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The updated figures pushed totals to 349,043 COVID-19 cases and 5,817 deaths statewide since the pandemic began in March 2020.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: New Hampshire residents can’t be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access public facilities, benefits or services under a bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu. Supporters said the bill signed this week establishes “medical freedom” by specifying that all residents have the “natural, essential and inherent right to bodily integrity, free from any threat or compulsion by government to accept an immunization.” It does not, however, supersede the state law regarding vaccinations as a prerequisite for admission to school. That law lists seven required vaccinations but does not include the COVID-19 vaccine. The new law also does not apply to county nursing homes, the state psychiatric hospital or other medical facilities operated by the state or other governmental bodies. And it allows mandatory immunizations in prisons and jails when there is a significant health threat.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nSecaucus: New Jersey on Friday took the first step to rid the lower Hackensack River of heavily contaminated sediment dating from the state’s industrial past. State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette announced the commitment of Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration to seek placement of the 23-mile stretch of river on the federal government’s list of Superfund toxic sites. Approval would mean access to federal funding and would enable the Environmental Protection Agency to seek the parties responsible for polluting the waters to help fund the remediation, once identified. “Designating the lower Hackensack River as a federal Superfund site will provide the tools we need to remove decades of contamination that have polluted river sediments and restore the natural resources that have been impaired for far too long,” LaTourette said. A previous EPA study found elevated levels of cancer-causing dioxin, cadmium, lead, mercury and PCBs in sediment sampled from the river’s mouth at Newark Bay to the Oradell Reservoir. Achieving Superfund status could take years to complete. “I realize that this is one step in the process and that cleanup will take time,” said Hackensack Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan. He said he has been working to get the designation since 2015.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: New Mexico schools plan to spend the bulk of the federal coronavirus relief money they have received on technology and building upgrades rather than student learning loss. A report this week before the New Mexico Legislature’s budget committee showed school districts and charters plan to spend 38% of the $490 million they received thus far on technology and HVAC systems. T he Santa Fe New Mexican reported that schools plan to spend 9% of the funds on learning loss programs and 8% on interventions for at-risk students. The budget committee’s program evaluation manager Micaela Fischer told lawmakers those numbers were surprising because students likely missed out on learning because of the shift to remote classrooms during the pandemic. Los Alamos Public Schools is an exception to the trend and plans to spend all of the money it received from a December coronavirus relief package to address learning loss with summer and after-school programs.\n\nNew York\n\nYonkers: Police and bystanders lifted a car to free a trapped baby after a suspected drunken driver struck the girl and her mother and then plowed through a storefront with the pair on the hood. The crash and rescue were recorded on video released by Yonkers Police. It showed a Hyundai Elantra striking a curb and parked car Friday before driving into a woman as she crossed the street with a child in her arms. With the woman and child on the hood of the car, it accelerates through the storefront of a barber shop. Police body camera footage from inside the building showed Yonkers Officers Rocco Fusco and Paul Samoyedny, who had been having breakfast nearby, frantically working with bystanders to lift the heavily damaged car and pull the crying 8-month-old girl from beneath it. “Luckily, two veteran officers of Yonkers’ finest just happened to be getting breakfast next door and quickly took action along with members of the community to rescue a child trapped under the vehicle and render aid to her mother,” Police Commissioner John Mueller said in a news release. “The actions taken are nothing short of heroic.” The baby sustained a skull fracture and burns to her back and foot. Her 36-year-old mother broke a leg, the news release said. The 43-year-old male driver and a female passenger were not injured. The driver, from Yonkers, was charged with driving while intoxicated, vehicular assault and aggravated unlicensed operation.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nOcracoke: Transportation officials said successful drone flights this week to Ocracoke have them hopeful that it might soon get easier to deliver vital supplies to the remote Outer Banks island amid bad weather. The Department of Transportation’s Division of Aviation and U.S.-based drone logistics company Volansi completed two successful trial flights of a delivery drone from a ferry dock in Hatteras to Ocracoke Island, the department said in a news release. “This is a tremendous first step in better connecting Ocracoke Island to potentially life-saving supplies and equipment,” Secretary of Transportation Eric Boyette said in a statement. “Today, Ocracoke Island is accessible only by plane or by boat. What we’re working on here is an entirely new, third method of serving the needs of Ocracoke’s people.” The tests involved an 8-mile round-trip flight averaging 18 minutes in flight time. The first delivered a small survival kit, space blankets and a chocolate muffin to Ocracoke, and the second delivered bottles of water, according to the news release. The next test, at a time to be determined, will involve a longer flight, the department said.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The federal government has denied a request by North Dakota leaders to allow ranchers struggling with drought to hay idled grassland while it’s still of good quality. The Bismarck Tribune reported the state Agriculture Department is looking into the reasons why the request was denied. The federal government is allowing limited emergency grazing of Conservation Reserve Program land, which typically is idled under a government program that pays farmers to protect erodible land and create wildlife habitat. North Dakota ranchers all summer have been seeking federal government permission to also hay that land. The CRP typically doesn’t open until after nesting season ends, to protect wildlife populations. The season in North Dakota ends Aug. 1. Ranchers said that after that day, grass might not be of good enough quality to make it worthwhile to hay. State officials and members of North Dakota’s congressional delegation this summer have pushed the U.S. Department of Agriculture for earlier CRP haying. State Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring earlier this week made another plea. His department has received hundreds of calls from ranchers in recent weeks about the issue.\n\nOhio\n\nCincinnati:The Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame is officially scheduled to open next summer. Plans for the interactive park and star-studded path were unveiled Saturday during an induction ceremony. The crowd was lively while the P. Ann Everson-Price & The All-Star Band played tributes to the walk's first inductees as well as other famous Black musicians and funk artists. The first four inductees to receive stars on the Walk of Fame will be Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Bootsy Collins, King Records icon Otis Williams, and Grammy Winners The Isley Brothers and the late Gospel great Dr. Charles Fold. The Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame is intended to stand toe-to-toe with The National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta’s Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame; and Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, each inductee will have their name placed on a star on the walkway. The funding for the park and walkway will come from the $159 million stimulus fund that was awarded to the county. The Hamilton County Commission unanimously voted in favor of the park while deciding on how to spend the county's stimulus money. The park was awarded $9 million. Procter and Gamble has also partnered with the project and will pay for the new inductee stars for the next several years.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City:The owner of a dilapidated Oklahoma Panhandle wind farm has presented plans to clean up the most dangerous of the wind turbine towers. The plans are to address dangerously broken-down towers and turbines of the 60-tower KODE Novus I and II wind farm near Guymon, The Oklahoman reported. Owner Olympia Renewable Platform LLC has hired a contractor to remove broken blades from seven towers and topple a couple of others topped with burned-out generator nacelles. The company assured the repair work could begin next month and take 20 to 30 days to complete, depending on wind conditions. Dozens of wind turbines in the complex have been locked down and aren’t part of the cleanup plan. Oklahoma Corporation Commission officials have determined that the dilapidated wind towers are dangerous to the public, which had easy access to the scene until Olympia erected temporary fencing around it. The complex was developed and owned by a subsidiary of a South Korean company until it went bankrupt.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Low oxygen levels measured off the coast of Oregon and Washington are raising concerns of large “dead zones” that could decimate crabs and bottom-dwelling fish within them. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this week that researchers have detected unseasonably low oxygen levels in a large area off the Pacific coast, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Year after year of low oxygen levels beginning in the early 2000s led researchers to determine Oregon now has a “hypoxia season” – just as it has a fire season – and this year’s hypoxia season has arrived far earlier than usual. The start of the hypoxia season is marked by the upwelling of cold bottom water. Winds initiated that upwelling this year around March. Chan said that’s the earliest Oregon ocean-watchers have seen in 35 years. That could have major implications for coastal economies, particularly related to the Dungeness crab. Dead zones happen as winds pick up, driving cold water from the bottom of the ocean toward the surface, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That contributes to blooms of phytoplankton, which once they die, sink to the ocean floor. Bacteria consume oxygen while decomposing the plankton.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: President Joe Biden will head to the Allentown area Wednesday as he fights for passage in the Senate of a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure measure that a bipartisan group of senators brokered with him. The White House is billing Biden’s visit to Macungie as a stop to “emphasize the importance of American manufacturing, buying products made in America, and supporting good-paying jobs for American workers.” It gave no other details of the visit – Biden’s second to Pennsylvania so far this month after he went to Philadelphia last week to speak on voting rights. In the Senate, Republicans rejected an effort this week to begin debate on the infrastructure deal. Supporters said they need more time before another vote, possibly next week. Macungie is near the home of Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted against opening debate. In a statement after the vote, Toomey echoed other Republicans in pointing out that crucial details about the deal are not completed. Should an agreement be reached on those, Toomey said he will consider the measure “based on its substance.” Pennsylvania’s other U.S. senator, Democrat Bob Casey, voted with other Democrats to start debate.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Environmental officials in Rhode Island have extended their ban on shellfish harvesting in certain areas of the state. The state Department of Environmental Management said a ban that was set to expire Sunday will be extended until further notice. The announcement covers what it refers to as the “Lower Providence River Conditional Area E” and “Upper Bay Conditional Area A.” The closures were enacted after recent heavy rainfall and are being extended because test samples showed continued high bacteria levels in the water. At least one other shellfish area in Greenwich Bay reopened to harvesting Sunday, and two others in Mt. Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River are open, the agency said.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nNichols: A utility is building walls around an electric substation to prevent it from being overrun by floodwaters in the first-of-its-kind project in South Carolina. Duke Energy is spending $1.6 million on the Nichols project to protect a substation that has flooded twice in the past five years, utility spokesperson Ryan Mosier told the Morning News of Florence. The substation was flooded in 2016 in Hurricane Matthew and 2018 in Hurricane Florence. In 2018, the substation, which takes high voltage power from plants and converts it to lower voltage electricity for homes, was out for five weeks, Mosier said. The substation is surrounded by reinforced fiberglass walls. Crews put up aluminum gates when flooding is threatened, which keep water out but allow crews access inside. The walls are 6-to-8 feet tall with access gates. The gates are installed when the company forecasts potential flooding. Crews can also quickly access the substation for maintenance. Duke Energy has already installed the walls at facilities in Lumberton and Wallace in North Carolina and plans four more projects, Mosier said, Other nearby substations to Nichols are on higher ground and didn’t need the walls, said Davy Gregg, a Duke Energy supervisor for the Marion County area.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls:A replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier came to Sioux Falls over the weekend as part of a honorary tour to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the monument. The half-scale replica was at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance and crowds came to view it and learn more about its history. The original Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, across the Delaware River from the nation’s capital.. The replica is part of a traveling exhibition called A Call to Honor: Tomb of The Unknown Soldier. The Americanism Committee of the Exchange Club in Rome, Georgia, is responsible for the exhibition and brings the replica to all parts of the United States.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville:The bust of Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest that had been prominently displayed inside the state Capitol for decades – over objections from Black lawmakers and activists – was removed from its pedestal Friday. The image of Forrest has sparked protests since its installation in 1978 as defenders sought to tout his legacy while critics objected to honoring a historical figure who supported the South’s secession. Over the years, some suggested adding historical context next to the bust. Yet many others, including Republican Gov. Bill Lee, successfully argued for moving it to the Tennessee State Museum, just north of the Capitol. Forrest was a Confederate cavalry general who amassed a fortune before the Civil War as a Memphis slave trader and plantation owner. Later, he was a leader of the Klan as it terrorized Black people. The busts of Union Navy Adm. David Farragut and U.S. Navy Adm. Albert Gleaves also were moved to the museum on Friday, part of an agreement used to win over the votes needed on key panels that military leaders shouldn’t be displayed in the Capitol.\n\nTexas\n\nDallas: The Dallas area was the country’s top market for commercial property investments in the first half of 2021. Dallas retained the top real estate spot it gained last year during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by Real Capital Analytics. Through the first six months of this year, Dallas saw almost $13.4 billion in commercial property deals – 43% more than in the same period a year ago. Last year, more than $19.7 billion in commercial real estate deals were recorded in the local market. Sales of dozens of local apartment communities and warehouses, plus the $700 million purchase of Uptown Dallas’ Crescent complex, all contributed to the huge volume of property investments in the area this year. The Crescent was ranked as the second-largest commercial property deal in the country in the first six months of 2021.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City:People in Utah gathered to celebrate the state’s history and recognize early Mormon pioneers who trekked west in search of religious freedom. Pioneer Day is a beloved only-in-Utah holiday every July 24 that features parades, rodeos, fireworks and more. The festivities were canceled last year because of the pandemic. Hundreds of people on Friday camped and staked out spots along the parade route in downtown Salt Lake City. Pioneer Day marks the date in 1847 when Brigham Young and other Mormon pioneers, many pulling handcarts, ended their treacherous journey across the country from Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley. Many businesses and government offices close for the state holiday.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Signs will be posted near eight Vermont ponds where the use of baitfish is prohibited to protect native brook trout, the Fish and Wildlife Department said. 1/ 2 “Wild native brook trout thrive in ponds where there are simple fish communities with no or few other fish species,” department fisheries biologist Jud Kratzer said in a statement earlier this week. “Adding new fish species, even minnows, disrupts a long-established food chain. Trout populations suffer as a result.” Brook trout are native to the eastern United States but no longer exist in much of their original range, the department said. Signs will be posted at public access points near Beaver Pond in Holland; Blake Pond in Sutton; Cow Mountain Pond in Granby; Jobs Pond in Westmore; Lewis Pond in Lewis; North Pond in Chittenden; Unknown Pond in Avery’s Gore; and Noyes Pond in Groton.\n\nVirginia\n\nCulpeper: Virginia’s government watchdog said the commonwealth’s land conservation easement program that offers participants tax breaks needs improvement. Auditors with the Office of the State Inspector General found items such as trash, old tires, inoperable vehicles and a manure storage area containing dead cattle parts on properties with easements it inspected, the Culpeper Star-Exponent reported. “Virginia provides tax credits up to $75 million per year for conservation easements and land donations,” Inspector General Michael Westfall said in a statement. “In effect, Virginia is paying for natural resource preservation through these tax credits.” There’s a $1 million tax credit value threshold for a Department of Conservation and Recreation quality review of an easement. Among the watchdog’s recommendations was lowering that threshold. But Dan Holmes, director of state policy for the Piedmont Environmental Council, told the newspaper the tax credit was a valuable tool and questioned the audit’s conclusions and methodology.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Mayor Jenny Durkan and other city officials plan to add a response unit for 911 calls that don’t require typical, armed police officers. Officials said they are still working out details, and it won’t launch until at least next year, The Seattle Times reported. Durkan said the idea is to provide 911 dispatchers with a new option for certain calls, such as wellness checks, that are associated with neither criminal nor medical emergencies. The mayor said it could be similar to the city’s Health One program, which sends firefighters and social workers to nonemergency medical calls. It will likely be staffed by civilian city employees, possibly partnered with certain officers, she said. The responders will know deescalation techniques and how to guide people to social services, she said, adding that it might be called “Triage One.” Durkan said she intends to include funding for the new option in her 2022 budget proposal, which is due in September. She hasn’t said what it might cost but said it would start as a pilot program, with limited capacity.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: The state treasurer’s office raised nearly $140,000 for law enforcement agencies through its unclaimed property firearms auction. This year’s event had record inventory – more than 500 firearms lots – because the pandemic prevented the treasurer’s office from holding an auction last year, Treasurer Riley Moore’s office said in a news release. The treasurer’s office raised $139,790 during the auction. Under state law, state and local law enforcement agencies can turn over unclaimed, seized or outdated firearms in their possession to the treasurer’s office for auction, and the proceeds can be returned to the law enforcement agency. This year’s auction attracted more than 60 federally licensed firearms dealers. Bidders must be a valid, licensed federal firearms dealer. The event isn’t open to the general public.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The University of Wisconsin System plans to offer nearly $500,000 in scholarships this fall to students who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. System President Tommy Thompson said all vaccinated students at regional four- and two-year campuses that get at least 70% of their students vaccinated by Oct. 15 will be eligible for a drawing for a $7,000 scholarship. Seventy students will win, with more winners coming from campuses with larger enrollments. UW-Madison students won’t be eligible, Thompson said, because Chancellor Rebecca Blank is working on her own vaccination incentive programs. Asked for details on Blank’s plans, UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said the flagship university is “on a path” to reach 80% vaccination among students and is “considering incentives” but had nothing to announce. Thompson has called for campuses to offer at least three-quarters of their courses in-person this fall. He said he set the vaccination threshold at 70% for the scholarship drawing because that’s generally considered the minimum for herd immunity.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Officials expect moderate to extreme drought to persist and spread throughout Wyoming. The multiyear drought is the state’s worst since 2013. Last year was Wyoming’s fifth-driest and 16th-warmest since 1895, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. Even parts of the state with average or above-average precipitation got it earlier in the year than usual, leaving those areas just as susceptible to drought now, Wyoming Game and Fish Department terrestrial habitat supervisor Ian Tator told the state Game and Fish Commission last week. “On a statewide basis, there’s nowhere that’s doing fantastic,” Tator said. Fishing spots also face strain as water levels fall and temperatures rise, state fisheries management coordinator Dave Zafft told the commission.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/victor-panichkul/2014/12/18/registration-now-open-oregon-wine-symposium/20593485/", "title": "Registration now open for Oregon Wine Symposium", "text": "Victor Panichkul\n\nStatesman Journal\n\nRegistration is now open for the largest annual wine industry educational event in the Pacific Northwest.\n\nThe Oregon Wine Symposium is scheduled for Feb. 24-25 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.\n\nIn addition to speakers and seminars, there will be more than 145 trade show exhibitors showcasing a wide range of products.\n\nKeynote speaker Michael Dorf, founder and CEO of City Winery, a unique urban wine venue that combines live music with winemaker tastings and talks, will share his story of growing his innovative wine business from scratch. With City Winery venues now in New York, Chicago, Nashville and Napa, Dorf is redefining the experience of wine and culture across generations, according to Michelle Kaufmann, communications manager at the Oregon Wine Board.\n\nA variety of other sessions will give attendees advice on a variety of topics including: drivers of profitability in the wine industry, differentiating your brand through storytelling and choosing a fermentation vessel.\n\nAlso open for registration is the annual Oregon Wine Symposium Awards dinner, held at the Doubletree Portland on Feb. 24.\n\nThe fee for the symposium is $175 for single or $140 for multiple attendees for Oregon Wine Association members, $210 for single and $175 for multiple attendees for non-OWA members, and $75 for students. Tickets for the awards dinner are $125 each. For information or to register, go to symposium.oregonwine.org.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/12/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/02/20/leaning-tower-dallas-john-glenn-blue-lobster-news-around-states/111337480/", "title": "Leaning Tower of Dallas, John Glenn: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: A bill to allow medical marijuana cleared its first hurdle Wednesday in the Legislature, giving hope to advocates after years of setbacks. Audience members applauded as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-1 for the bill, putting it in line for a Senate floor vote later this session. The bill by Republican Sen. Tim Melson would allow people to be prescribed medical marijuana for 15 conditions – including cancer, anxiety and chronic pain – and to purchase cannabis products at a licensed dispensary. The bill would allow marijuana in forms such as pills, gelatinous cubes, oils, skin patches, gels and creams but not products consumed by smoking or vaping. The bill drew opposition from some law enforcement and conservative groups. They expressed concern about dosing, safety and the potential for abuse.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: The Alaska Democratic Party is preparing to debut a new voting system for its upcoming presidential primary, officials say. The April 4 primary will use a ranked-choice, vote-by-mail system, The Anchorage Daily News reports. The new system will not have the problems that plagued Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Lindsay Kavanaugh says. A significant change is the decision to drop the caucus system, which the state party used in 2016. “They’re a fairly antiquated method of determining presidential preference,” Kavanaugh says. Presidential primaries are run by the party, rather than the state, and operate under different rules from the Aug. 18 state primary or the Nov. 3 general election. Alaskans complained in 2016 about overcrowding, long waits and the inaccessibility of the existing system for picking presidential candidates.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Advocates for overhauling the state’s criminal justice system want to put a proposal on the November ballot that would cut the sentences of non-dangerous offenders for good behavior. A ballot proposal filed Tuesday would allow for the release of non-dangerous offenders after serving 50% of their sentences. Currently, inmates generally must serve 85% of their punishments. The latest measure wouldn’t apply to people convicted of sexual assault, murder or dangerous crimes against children. The proposal also would authorize the use of state revenue from medical marijuana sales to hire more substance abuse counselors for inmates. Proponents say there aren’t enough counselors in state prisons. Organizers have until early July to gather the 237,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot for voters to decide.\n\nArkansas\n\nFayetteville: The University of Arkansas and a former student have reached a settlement agreement in a lawsuit alleging school officials acted with “deliberate indifference” after she reported being sexually assaulted by another student on campus. The student will receive $100,000, with another $15,000 going to her attorneys to cover legal expenses. A jury trial had been scheduled for March, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Both sides filed a joint stipulation Monday in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville that the case be dismissed with prejudice, so it cannot be filed again. The student, who was 19 when she reported the attack in October 2014, filed the Title IX lawsuit in 2016. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funding.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLos Angeles: Concerned that elephants and other animals have been used as props at Hollywood parties, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban the use of wild, exotic and dangerous animals for entertainment. The council voted 14-0 to make it illegal to require such animals to perform tricks, give rides, or be provided for “the entertainment, amusement, or benefit of a live audience, whether or not a fee is charged.” The issue came up four years ago when “a baby giraffe and elephant were being marched up the Hollywood Hills for a house party,” says David Ryu, the councilman who sponsored the ordinance. He calls such uses barbaric. The law covers a wide variety of animals, from lions, tigers, wolves and bears to gorillas, snakes over 8 feet long and all venomous snakes. State law already banned the use of exotic and wild animals in circuses, but the city law covers a broader range of entertainment, while exempting zoos and filming.\n\nColorado\n\nVail: Days after an avalanche killed two motorized snowbike riders near this resort town, large avalanches continue to rain down on the state’s mountains, prompting avalanche experts to urge backcountry recreationists to remain especially cautious despite the lull between storms. Saturday’s avalanche was one of nearly 50 in Colorado over a span of just three days, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. As of Tuesday, the CAIC had reported 344 natural, human-triggered and controlled avalanches in February alone, including 48 from Saturday through Monday. Several storms – each dumping multiple feet of snow – have hammered the central and northern mountains this month, and dangerous avalanches persist in the central and northern mountains, the CAIC said in a Tuesday report.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: A Connecticut State Police sergeant says in a lawsuit that state public safety Commissioner James Rovella retaliated against him because the sergeant reported the sexually inappropriate conversation of a colleague. Sgt. Timothy Begley says in his suit that he was reassigned from the state police counterterrorism unit to a midnight patrol shift last March in apparent retribution for his role in filing a complaint with the state Equal Employment Opportunity Office on behalf of a female member of the unit who complained of a colleague’s sexually inappropriate remarks, the Hartford Courant reports. At the time, the officer who made the alleged remarks was a Hartford police officer, and Rovella was chief of the Hartford department. Rovella became the head of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees state police, in February 2019. Days later, he was reassigned to a shift designed to punish him, according to the suit.\n\nDelaware\n\nStanton: Four people were found dead at a homeless camp Tuesday, possibly from carbon monoxide poisoning linked to a heater discovered inside their tent, according to a family member and authorities. An autopsy will determine the four adults’ causes of death, but no foul play was suspected, Delaware State Police confirmed in a statement Tuesday. Bruce Messick, who identified himself as a family member of two of the victims, said he went to check on his brother and nephew that afternoon in the woods off Route 7 in Stanton, where he found the group dead inside a tent equipped with a propane heater. Messick said his family members had been homeless for years, and he often brought food and money to them. The almost-full propane tank being used by the four victims to keep warm had recently been dropped off, he said, and temperatures below freezing had been recorded throughout the week.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: A control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was evacuated late Wednesday morning, causing brief delays, WUSA-TV reports. The evacuation came after a sprinkler system used to manage fires went off, causing emergency officials at the airport to take action. Planes both in the sky and on the tarmac waited for the control tower to resume operations after a brief delay from the evacuation. According to fire and rescue personnel with Reagan, the tower was evacuated within 30 minutes of the original alarm, and no present danger existed. As of 11:30 a.m, flights and departures resumed back to their normal schedules. People were seen filing back into the control tower.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: The state cannot, for now, bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Tallahassee federal judge’s preliminary injunction that a state law implementing Amendment 4 amounted to an unfair poll tax that would disenfranchise many of the released felons. Helen Ferre, chief spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the state would immediately ask the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider the ruling. The case is one of several now before judges amid high-stakes legal skirmishes over Florida elections, which have drawn national scrutiny because of the state’s perennial status as a political battleground and the razor-thin margins deciding some high-profile contests.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: A former sheriff has been chosen to lead the state Department of Public Safety on an interim basis after its prior chief resigned in the aftermath of a cheating scandal involving state troopers. Former Tift County Sheriff Gary Vowell, who retired from office in 2012, was approved to step in as Georgia’s interim public safety commissioner by the agency’s board Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced. Vowell will take over for Col. Mark McDonough, who resigned last week at Kemp’s request. The turnover at the top of the agency that oversees the Georgia State Patrol comes after an entire graduating class of the State Patrol’s Trooper School was fired or resigned in January over accusations of cheating on an online exam. Thirty troopers who were August graduates of the school were fired, and another resigned. The exam in question dealt with operating speed detection equipment.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: Sightseers will soon have an opportunity to experience history while viewing Oahu when a vintage World War II fighter plane begins passenger flights. A private company has modified a P-51D Mustang to allow space for the pilot and a backseat passenger beginning in March, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. Wings Over Pearl is expected to take passengers up in a 1944 Mustang owned by the Erickson Aircraft Collection, which participates in global air shows and operates paid flights from its hangar at Madras Airport in Oregon. A 15-minute tour of Pearl Harbor, Wheeler Army Airfield and the Haleiwa Fighter Strip is expected to cost $2,900. A 30-minute ride that includes flights around Pearl Harbor, Wheeler, Haleiwa, Bellows Airfield, Kahuku Army Airfield, and the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point is scheduled to cost $3,400. The P-51 was regarded as one of the best fighter planes of the European theater in the latter part of WWII.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The state Department of Parks & Recreation has asked residents for donations to combat years of budget cuts for trail maintenance across the state. The department has plans to debut a voluntary, donation-based initiative to secure funds for nonmotorized trails, the Idaho Statesman reports. “The trails are disappearing. They’re just going away,” department coordinator Tom Helmer said. The initiative would use donations to fund trail preservation, mirroring the model used in the state for motorized trails, which are funded by registration fees for off-highway vehicles, Helmer said. The funds could also be used to maintain backcountry trails on Forest Service land to nonmotorized paths on county property, he said. Multiple federal and state land management agencies have faced budget cuts causing trails to become overgrown, blocked by debris, washed out or impassable.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: The city’s streets are now being illuminated by 200,000 LED streetlights that will significantly reduce its electricity bills, transportation officials announced Monday. Chicago’s Department of Transportation is aiming to install 270,000 LED streetlights by 2021, replacing high-pressure sodium lights that officials said are less efficient. The city estimates the change will cut electricity costs by $100 million during the program’s first decade. The department also announced plans for a citywide lighting management system to better detect outages. Residents still are encouraged to report outages to the 311 system via phone call or text messages. More installations are planned this year in communities on the city’s North and South sides.\n\nIndiana\n\nMonticello: The city’s Twin Lakes region was shocked Tuesday when the California-based owner of Indiana Beach told community leaders the amusement park, open for nearly 100 years, would close. “We didn’t see this coming at all,” said Randy Mitchell, White County economic development director. Mitchell had met Tuesday morning with White County commissioners and council members to relay word that things were going well for the amusement park tucked along Lake Shafer, based on reports Mitchell said he received from Gary Fawks, the local manager of Indiana Beach. On Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell said he met with Gregg Borman, senior vice president of operations for Apex, who told him the company was closing Indiana Beach and three other amusement parks it owns across the country for financial reasons. Mitchell said Borman indicated that Indiana Beach – long known for its slogan and jingle, “There’s more than corn in Indiana” – was marginally profitable. But Mitchell said he was told Apex wasn’t in a position to continue to make capital improvements to the rides.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: A Republican bill that would ban health care providers from administering the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy on LGBTQ children, while carving out exemptions tied to religious professionals and family, will not advance this year. But the chairman of the House State Government Committee, Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said he’s determined to bring the issue back next session. Kaufmann’s bill includes provisions outlining that the bill would not be interpreted to apply to a clergy member or a religious counselor who is acting in a pastoral or religious capacity, or to a parent or grandparent of a minor who may also be a health care professional but is acting as a parent. Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, said she couldn’t support the religious exemption in the bill. “I feel that that is state-sanctioned child abuse, and why would we as a state believe or condone that in any way, shape or form?” she said.\n\nKansas\n\nJunction City: Pit bull supporters are calling for this military town to lift its ban of the breed. The Hays Post reports that Kim Bradney of Legalize Bully JC says the ban forces some people in the community near Fort Riley to choose to live in surrounding communities with friendlier pit bull policies. She said the more than 20-year-old ban has left animal shelters flooded with dogs that aren’t adoptable. She said several other cities in the state already have removed their bans. Commissioner Ronna Larson asked city staff to check into different ordinance options. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has long opposed breed-specific legislation, saying there’s no evidence such laws increase safety.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Calling diabetes a health epidemic, Gov. Andy Beshear joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday to push for a cap on out-of-pocket costs for many Kentuckians relying on insulin. The bill, co-sponsored by more than 70 lawmakers, has cleared a House committee and is awaiting action in the full House before it could advance to the Senate. House Bill 12 would limit out-of-pocket costs at $100 per prescription for a 30-day insulin supply. That cap would apply to people with commercial health insurance plans. About 500,000 Kentuckians are diagnosed with diabetes. Some can’t afford insulin or ration supplies because of costs, the bill’s supporters said. Hardest-hit families pay more than $1,000 a month for supplies, they said. Insulin is used to keep people’s blood sugar at safe levels. “Insulin is not something diabetics take out of convenience,” Beshear said. “They take it just to stay alive.”\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: Gov. John Bel Edwards’ allies have announced the formation of an outside organization to promote his agenda as he readies for the first legislative session of his new term. The political nonprofit, called A Stronger Louisiana, doesn’t have to disclose the donors funding its mission, a type of organization commonly called a “dark money” group. The president of A Stronger Louisiana is listed in documents as Randy Morris, an Edwards campaign contributor and owner of West Carroll Health Systems. The group’s creation was announced Tuesday by Edwards’ reelection campaign manager, Richard Carbo, who said the political nonprofit “is committed to supporting bipartisan solutions that move Louisiana forward.” In a statement, Carbo said the organization also will “work to hold elected officials accountable and promote transparency, ethics and accountability.”\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Fishermen are running out of time to apply to participate in a lottery for a license to harvest baby eels, which are among the most valuable resources in the state. Fishermen catch baby eels, called elvers, from rivers and streams in Maine so they can be used by aquaculture companies. The eels are raised to maturity for use as food. Maine is taking entries for the elver license lottery until Friday at 4:30 p.m. There are nine available licenses. The state caps the total number of elver licenses at 425. The elvers were worth more than $2,300 per pound in 2018, which was a record-breaking year for the fishery. They’re typically worth well over $1,000 per pound even in a below-average year. The elvers are subject to strict quotas designed to prevent overfishing.\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: Community groups, civic organizations and resident volunteers can now sign up to participate in a citywide spring cleanup effort and, in exchange, earn credits toward their stormwater fee. The city’s Department of Public Works on Tuesday began registering volunteers for the April 18 event. People interested in participating must call 311 and provide a specific location to be cleaned and the number of volunteers who will assist in the effort. Trash bags will be provided to those registered. The department will collect the debris. Participants have to fill out paperwork to receive the stormwater credit. Registration for the annual event is open through April 9.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: The New England Aquarium has a new resident: a bright blue lobster. The Boston aquarium was recently gifted the colorful crustacean that was caught in the wild by Patriot Seafoods. It’s on display in the aquarium’s Isle of Shoals exhibit after a 30-day quarantine to ensure it’s healthy. The aquarium says incidence of blue lobsters in the wild is estimated to be about 1 in 2 million. The blue lobster joins other oddly colored lobsters already at the aquarium, including a yellow lobster, a calico lobster and a half-black, half-orange lobster, which the aquarium calls the “Halloween” lobster.\n\nMichigan\n\nFrankfort: An organization responsible for maintaining a historic lighthouse hopes that improving the site’s shoreline protection system will minimize damage from Lake Michigan’s high water levels. High water is causing problems for properties all along Michigan’s shoreline, including the Point Betsie Lighthouse on the northeastern shore of Lake Michigan, the Record-Eagle reports. A crack in the cement barrier intended to prevent erosion in front of the lighthouse is a high priority. The Friends of Point Betsie Lighthouse began a $1 million fundraising campaign last year to pay for the work. Dick Taylor, president of the group, said a request for engineering study proposals has been issued. The project requires permits from Michigan’s Department of Environment and other state and federal agencies, he said. The lighthouse was established in 1858. The site also includes a restored keeper’s residence and a museum for visitors.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: Groups calling for changes in the state’s criminal justice system to make it easier for people to turn their lives around said Wednesday that they’re optimistic some of the proposals they’re promoting may become law this year. The Minnesota Second Chance Coalition held its annual rally at the Capitol. At a news conference beforehand, leaders said they have grounds for hoping that a proposal to stop suspending drivers’ licenses for unpaid traffic tickets will finally get enacted. The bill has significant support in both the GOP-controlled Senate and among Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House, said Anna Odegaard of the Minnesota Asset Building Coalition. She listed its main sponsor, Burnsville Republican Dan Hall, and two key co-sponsors: Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of Nisswa, and GOP Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, of Alexandria, a retired sheriff.\n\nMississippi\n\nColumbus: A renewable energy company will build a 200-megawatt solar facility in northeast Mississippi, under a contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA awarded the contract to Florida-based Origis Energy, the Commercial Dispatch reports. Johan Vanhee, chief commercial and procurement officer for Origis, met with landowners of the proposed site last week near Columbus. Construction is tentatively set to begin the second half of 2021. The contract says Origis will begin providing energy to TVA in October 2022. The 200-megawatt site will use the energy produced by 650,000 solar panels, enough power to serve 45,920 homes. Origis, through its subsidiary MS Solar 5, originally planned to build a $200 million, 350-megawatt facility, the maximum amount of energy capacity at TVA’s new substation located at Infinity.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: State officials are spending $3.6 million to purchase a new helicopter to help fight fires, survey flooding and manage wildlife. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Airbus H125 is expected to be delivered to wildlife officials from a dealer in Texas no later than mid-June. State bidding documents released Tuesday provided details about the purchase. Missouri Department of Conservation spokeswoman Candice Davis said it will allow the agency to monitor the state’s growing bear population and generate wildlife population estimates. After flooding, it also will help officials survey areas that can’t be reached by land. The new helicopter, which can be configured to hold as many as six passengers, replaces a 1995-era chopper that was deemed insufficient for further work.\n\nMontana\n\nKalispell: A proposal by wildlife managers to extend the wolf hunting and trapping seasons in northwestern Montana was rejected, a wildlife commission said. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks voted last week to maintain the hunting and trapping seasons from Sept. 15 to March 15, the Daily Inter Lake reports. The proposal would have lengthened the hunting season by six weeks, from Aug. 15 to March 31, and increase the individual hunting quota from five to 10 wolves affecting Region One, which covers Lincoln, Flathead, Sanders and Lake counties, commission officials said. The two proposals received about 1,000 comments online and dozens during the meeting Thursday from people as far away as Arizona.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: The state’s pardons board refused Tuesday to pardon the murder conviction of the ex-girlfriend of Charles Starkweather, the infamous killer who went on a rampage in the 1950s that was later immortalized in movies, books and two hit songs. The board voted 3-0 to deny the application from Caril Ann Clair, even though some relatives of Starkweather’s victims lobbied in her favor. The board is composed of Gov. Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Secretary of State Bob Evnen, all Republicans. Clair, who was known as Caril Ann Fugate at the time, was 14 when Starkweather, then 19, went on a killing spree in 1957-58 that left 11 people dead, including her mother, stepfather and baby half-sister. The murders formed a loose basis for the 1973 movie “Badlands,” with Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen, as well as other films. The killings were the subject of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska” and referenced in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Clair spent 17 years in prison on a murder conviction before she was paroled in 1976.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: School district officials are investigating allegations that a class was playing a game of “Duck, Duck, Goose” that invoked slavery. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the principal at Rowe Elementary School issued a message to parents about the reported incident. Principal Jeffrey Schaber said no behavior that contradicts having “an inclusive community” would be tolerated. A parent posted on Facebook that her kindergarten-age daughter last week was taught to play “Duck, Duck, Goose,” but as “Hunter Chase the Slave.” It was not clear if this occurred in front of a teacher. Schaber said the incident is being thoroughly investigated.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: A change in construction development rules in the state puts endangered species at a greater risk of facing harm, according to environmental groups. The state’s Department of Environmental Services changed its construction permit rule in December after it deemed a state Supreme Court interpretation of the previous rule to be unrealistic. For years, the rule mandated that development projects “not result in adverse impacts” to a list of more than 50 animals deemed threatened or endangered by the state, New Hampshire Public Radio reports. Advocates say the change, which the agency wants to make permanent, softens protections for the New England cottontail, golden eagle, frosted elfin butterfly and other animals along with some that are subject to separate federal protections.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: New Jersey, four other states and New York City are suing the Trump administration again to try to force it to clamp down on upwind states that contribute significantly to poor air quality in the Garden State. The lawsuit, filed by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal on behalf of the states, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has failed to address the issue even after an appeals court ruled last year that it must do so. “We already beat EPA in court and won an order demanding the federal government tackle out-of-state pollution, and yet EPA still did not act,” Grewal said in a statement. “Enough is enough: this is a serious environmental and public health problem, and it demands a serious response from Washington.” Prevailing winds send pollution into New Jersey from states like Pennsylvania and Ohio where there are coal-burning power plants. That causes ozone levels to spike to unhealthy levels in New Jersey several days a year.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nMoriarty: Three school districts will be rolling out the state’s first propane-fueled buses for the upcoming school year. Districts that serve schools in Los Lunas, Magdalena and the Moriarty area have purchased propane buses as part of a partnership with the state Public Education Department. Officials say the 17 new buses will help cut costs, since propane prices average 50% less than diesel, and maintenance costs are expected to be less. The buses also emit less pollution. Teresa Salazar, the superintendent of the Moriarty-Edgewood School District, said the district has had to dip into operational funds to supplement transportation costs over the past several years. Other school districts have expressed interest. Officials with Blue Bird, which made the buses, and the engineering company ROUSH CleanTech plan to continue working with districts, transportation contractors and the Public Education Department to bring more propane buses to the state.\n\nNew York\n\nSpring Valley: A man stabbed a library security guard to death after she told him to turn his music down, authorities said Wednesday. Blanchard Glaudin, 25, has been charged with second-degree murder in Tuesday’s stabbing of Sandra Wilson inside Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, Rockland County District Attorney Thomas E. Walsh II said. Glaudin was tackled by library patrons after the stabbing. Wilson was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. Spring Valley Police Chief Paul Modica said Glaudin stabbed Wilson after she told him to turn his music down. “She was at the computer terminals and told him he had to turn it down,” Modica said. “That was it.” Glaudin was being held without bail, and it was not clear whether he had an attorney who could speak for him.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo has visited North Carolina to push for policies to eliminate chemical pollution from industrial products, like those discharged into the Cape Fear River for years. Ruffalo spoke Wednesday at a Legislative Building news conference in Raleigh to highlight the challenges of communities affected by what are known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” These compounds include GenX, which is used in producing nonstick surfaces. Little research exists about the health effects of chemicals like GenX, which has been used at the Chemours Co. plant near Fayetteville. The event was sponsored by the North Carolina Conservation Network, Clean Cape Fear and the Center for Environmental Health. State legislators and residents also spoke. Ruffalo is known for his roles in the “Avengers” movies, “Thanks for Sharing” and others. He also recently played an environmental defense attorney in “Dark Waters.” Ruffalo participated in an event in Wilmington on Tuesday evening that included a screening of “Dark Waters.” He also spent some time with Attorney General Josh Stein earlier Wednesday.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Transportation officials say the final number is in on traffic fatalities in the state last year. The state Department of Transportation and Highway Patrol say a total of 100 people were killed on North Dakota roadways in 2019. That’s a decrease of five fatalities compared to 2018 and the lowest number of deaths in 15 years, officials said. “Traffic fatalities have been on a downward trend since 2012,” DOT Director Bill Panos says. “Vision Zero continues to work toward the goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries on North Dakota roads because even one fatality is too many.” Of the 100 fatalities in 2019, 47% were not wearing their seat belt, 42% were alcohol-related, and 24% were speed-related, according to the department’s data. Victims ranged in age from 3 to 93 years old, and 82% were North Dakota residents.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Fans of the late astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn are working to bring a statue of his likeness to the Statehouse to mark major future milestones, such as his birthday and the anniversary of his famous space flight. Thursday marks 58 years since Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making him an instant national hero in 1962. He returned to space in 1998, at age 77, as part of NASA research on aging. State Rep. Adam Holmes, a Zanesville Republican, has proposed temporarily placing a statue of Glenn on Statehouse grounds beginning with what would have been his 100th birthday on July 18, 2021. Under his plan, it would return again Feb. 20, 2022, for the 60th anniversary of Glenn’s orbital flight in Friendship 7. The $80,000, 7-foot bronze statue of him that is being eyed by Holmes was crafted by Alan Cottrill, who was born and raised in Zanesville, a short drive from New Concord, where Glenn was born.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: State officials were forced to revise the language on a new state branding website after backlash over its exclusion of Native Americans’ historical roots in the state. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, coming from the state and private groups, were spent on the attempted rebranding of the Sooner State as a place of opportunity that best represents its heritage, history and people, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell said. But officials failed to recognize the ties one crucial group has to the state: Native Americans. On the website that provides information on the advertising endeavor, a paragraph described Oklahoma’s history as beginning with the 1889 Land Run,when thousands of Americans took over what the U.S. government at the time called unclaimed territory and what has become known as the Oklahoma Land Rush. But Native American tribes have been living in Oklahoma for hundreds of years, well before the Land Run.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed a sheriff’s office in the city’s suburbs Tuesday for information about two Mexican citizens wanted for deportation, a move that is part of a broader escalation of the conflict between federal officials and local government agencies over so-called sanctuary policies. ICE, the Homeland Security agency responsible for arresting and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, served the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Hillsboro with the subpoenas in an attempt to get more information about two men, including one who has already been released from custody, said ICE spokeswoman Tanya Roman. Oregon’s 1987 sanctuary state law, the nation’s first, prevents law enforcement from detaining people who are in the U.S. illegally but have not broken any other law.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: The 1.3 million Roman Catholic parishioners of the archdiocese of Philadelphia have a new spiritual leader. Fifty-eight-year-old Nelson Perez, who spent most of his early pastoral career in the area, assumed the post of archbishop in a ceremony Tuesday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Perez, the former bishop of Cleveland, is the first Hispanic archbishop to lead the five-county archdiocese. He is the 14th Roman Catholic bishop and 10th archbishop of Philadelphia. He succeeds Archbishop Charles Chaput, who stepped down after turning 75 last year, the traditional retirement age for Catholic bishops. The Mass of Installation followed a procession of hundreds of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians to the city’s cathedral church. Perez attended the diocesan seminary in Philadelphia in the 1980s and served in a number of Philadelphia parishes before being named as an auxiliary bishop in Rockville Centre, New York, and then bishop of Cleveland in 2017.\n\nRhode Island\n\nPawtucket: A new report on the closure of a hospital two years ago says nearby communities have been left with less access to emergency care and put pressure on other area hospital emergency rooms. The independent report on the January 2018 closure of Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket released this month was compiled by public health research and consulting firm John Snow Inc. and paid for by Care New England, Memorial’s operator. It concluded that Memorial’s closure “removed a nucleus of health care services for communities with high health care need,” including Pawtucket, Central Falls and Cumberland, whose residents have a higher rate of emergency room use than the state as a whole. Also, the dispersion of patients from Memorial resulted in “an immediate system-wide impact,” evidenced by increased wait times at emergency departments at other area hospitals.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The first of more than a dozen hearings by the General Assembly on whether South Carolina should sell its state-owned utility had senators on Tuesday questioning the officials who reviewed the proposals. The Department of Administration released a 111-page report Tuesday detailing NextEra Energy of Florida’s bid to buy Santee Cooper, Dominion Energy of Virginia’s offer to manage it and one deal to let Santee Cooper reform itself. The Senate Finance Committee got the first crack at getting more information and spent nearly six hours discussing the plans at an initial meeting. Senators asked about a 42-page bill that NextEra says lawmakers must pass for the deal to go through but that includes allowing NextEra to bypass regulators. Some lawmakers said bypassing regulators is what got Santee Cooper into $4 billion of debt for its minority share in two nuclear plants that were never finished.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nPierre: The state House passed a bill Tuesday pushed by Gov. Kristi Noem that would revamp South Dakota’s riot laws with criminal and civil penalties for those who urge rioting. The push has sparked conflict between Noem and Native American tribal members, who say the law is an attempt to “silence” peaceful protests against the Keystone XL pipeline. The governor argues that the law does not apply to peaceful protests and is intended to enforce the rule of law in the state. Noem has attempted to foster cooperation on other issues in the past week. As the House passed the bill, a protester named Tasina Smith shouted from a balcony overlooking the floor of the House, yelling that law enforcement at Standing Rock had used laws on “incitement to riot” against people who were peacefully protesting. She was escorted out of the room by security. Others demonstrated before the vote in the central hall of the Capitol building. “Kristi Noem, we are not a riot,” nearly a dozen protesters chanted as they danced to a drumbeat and held banners to protest the “riot boosting” bill.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A small group of state lawmakers advanced a proposal for a nonbinding resolution Tuesday stating that the state recognizes CNN and The Washington Post as “fake news.” Republican Rep. Micah Van Huss, the sponsor, said the measure is needed because his constituents are “tired of these elitists in the media” and wanted to condemn the news organizations for their coverage of President Donald Trump and his supporters. No other news organizations were listed in the proposed resolution. Four Republicans supported the measure in advancing it out of House Constitutional Protections and Sentencing Subcommittee, while one Democratic member opposed. Two Republicans declined to vote. The proposal now goes to the full House Judiciary panel for consideration. Democrats quickly criticized the measure.\n\nTexas\n\nDallas: A social media sensation dubbed the “Leaning Tower of Dallas” was born when a portion of a building survived an implosion. After the implosion Sunday failed to bring down the core of the 11-story former Affiliated Computer Services building, the online jokes and photos began. Many, inspired by Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa, posted photos showing themselves pretending to prop up the lopsided tower. One Twitter user quipped, “Oops, an implosion masterpiece!!” Another asked, “Who needs Pisa? We have the Leaning Tower of Dallas.” An online petition even popped up to “save this landmark from destruction.” Lloyd Nabors, whose company is handling the demolition, said crews will use a wrecking ball to take down the remaining tower, which included the elevator shafts. The building is being demolished to make way for a $2.5 billion mixed-use project.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: A proposal to require warning labels on pornography passed the state House on Tuesday, a move an adult-entertainment industry group called a dark day for freedom of expression. GOP state Rep. Brady Brammer, the lawmaker behind the plan to mandate the labels about potential harm to minors, says it’s aimed at catching the “worst of the worst.” The measure would allow private citizens to file complaints and carries a potential penalty of up to $2,500 for each violation. It now moves to the Utah Senate for consideration. Republican lawmakers praised the idea from Brammer, calling it a creative way to deal with the increasing availability of pornography online. It would apply to any material that appears in Utah and would be enforced through civil rather than criminal courts, allowing the state and private groups to file suit against producers.\n\nVermont\n\nBurlington: Roughly 3 in 4 Vermonters support the legalization and regulation of cannabis sales, according to a recent statewide survey. In anticipation of a major vote by the Vermont House of Representatives on a bill that would regulate and tax the sale of cannabis, nearly 900 residents were surveyed. The poll, commissioned by the nonprofit advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, was conducted by national Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. The results show support for a commercial market across many demographic groups, including Republicans (58%), residents 65 and older (69%) and Vermont’s most educated residents (84%). Meanwhile, 19% remain opposed. Among other results, the survey found 87% of respondents supported the continuation of medical cannabis.\n\nVirginia\n\nVirginia Beach: An upcoming ad campaign for the city will feature a new song by Grammy-winning hometown superstar Pharrell Williams. The singer, rapper and producer contacted the city last year asking how he could help after the mass shooting at a municipal building in May, Deputy City Manager Ron Williams told The Virginian-Pilot. That led to a a multiyear plan involving the singer in tourism and economic development initiatives, he said. As part of that, Pharrell Williams will narrate two 60-second commercials with his soon-to-be-released song, “Virginia.” The spring tourism campaign will also include window signs as well as items from the singer’s clothing lines emblazoned with a “We’re open” slogan.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: The City Council has voted to allow the creation of up to 40 tent cities, tiny house villages, or parking lots where people living in their cars can camp – a sharp increase from the number the city currently allows. The Seattle Times reports the ordinance approved Tuesday reflects a dramatic shift in Seattle’s attitude toward these temporary places for homeless people to live while waiting to get into housing: It allows encampments to exist indefinitely with renewal of a permit once a year and allows them in residential zones. The first city-permitted tent cities opened in 2015. Because of opposition at the time, the city adopted legislation, which expires next month, that applied a built-in sunset to some of the villages. This new ordinance has no such end date.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: The state may soon require the speedy testing and collection of rape kits under a bill heading to the governor’s office to be signed into law. The House of Delegates gave final passage to the proposal Tuesday after approving a minor Senate amendment. The measure would require the kits to be submitted to the state police’s forensic lab within 30 days or as soon as possible after collection. The kits could also be tracked, and law enforcement would have to get a court order before disposing of the examinations. The bill comes during a national push to clear backlogs of the kits, with more than 20 states approving bills to require submission guidelines or kit audits in the past two years, according to the advocacy group End the Backlog. West Virginia officials in 2015 started an initiative to test nearly 2,400 shelved rape kits, some of the which dated back to the 1980s.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMilwaukee: The count for the 2020 U.S. census will officially begin in less than a month, and as it nears, officials are ramping up recruitment efforts for census takers. “It’s crunch time,” said Sharon Robinson, co-chair of the Greater Milwaukee Complete Count Committee. “Our communications team has really been working hard behind the scenes. You will see massive visibility.” Gina Manley, partnership coordinator for the Chicago Regional Census Committee, said the bureau is trying to hire locally and emphasized the position’s flexible hours and the pay, which ranges from $17 to $24 statewide. “We want it to be neighbors knocking on neighbors’ doors,” she said. A U.S. Census Bureau representative estimated that Milwaukee County is short about 1,000 census takers, while Wisconsin overall is short more than 13,000.\n\nWyoming\n\nJackson: Federal officials are allowing a scenic helicopter business to resume flights in Jackson Hole despite opposition. Wind River Air owner Tony Chambers plans to continue flights no later than early summer following a letter from the Federal Aviation Administration. “I was pleased, but I was also expecting exactly that,” Chambers told the Jackson Hole News&Guide. The Jackson Hole Airport board has acknowledged an obligation to accommodate Wind River Air but has also tried to find a way to slow or stop the business venture amid opposition from a variety of groups including the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and National Parks Conservation Association. The commercial airport within Grand Teton National Park is one of the busiest in Wyoming. Opponents worry about helicopter noise in places including the Leidy Highlands and Jedediah Smith Wilderness just west of Grand Teton.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/02/20"}]}