{"question_id": "20240105_0", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:29", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/27/asia/taiwan-election-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen billed midterms as all about China ...", "text": "Tainan, Taiwan CNN —\n\nTaiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as the leader of the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, after her party suffered heavy losses in mid-term elections.\n\nThe DPP’s losses in Saturday’s vote come as a heavy blow for Tsai as she had tried to frame the election – technically a local affair to choose city mayors, councilors and county chiefs – as a way to send a message against Beijing’s rising bellicosity toward the island.\n\nBeijing has been increasingly assertive in its territorial claims over Taiwan in recent months, and in August launched large-scale military exercises around the island in response to a controversial visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nBut Tsai’s appeal to link the issues appears to have done little to boost the fortunes of her party, which is often outperformed by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party in local ballots.\n\nThe KMT – which is widely seen as friendlier to Beijing and advocates greater economic ties with mainland China – is expected to win mayoral elections in 13 counties, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency. Tsai’s party, by comparison, is expected to win only five – one fewer than in the last local election.\n\n“We humbly accept the results of the election and the decision of the people of Taiwan,” Tsai wrote on Facebook on Saturday night.\n\nShe added that she had already resigned as party chief to “fully bear the responsibilities”.\n\nHowever, Tsai will remain as President. Her presidential term ends in 2024.\n\nDomestic priorities\n\nThe result comes despite escalating rhetoric from Beijing. China’s leader Xi Jinping told a Communist Party meeting last month that “the wheels of history are rolling on towards China’s reunification” and that Beijing would never renounce the use of force to take Taiwan.\n\nAnalysts said the result showed voters were more focused on domestic issues like the economy and social welfare.\n\n“Taiwanese voters have become desensitized to China’s military threat. And hence there isn’t quite as much of a perceived urgency to making the issue of survival front and center,” said Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program.\n\n“The DPP’s China threat card is facing diminishing marginal returns over time.”\n\nThat assessment tallied with the thoughts of voter Liao Su-han, an art curator from the central Nantou county who cast a ballot for the DPP but said Beijing’s recent actions were not a major factor in deciding her vote.\n\n“China’s military threat has always been there, and it did not just begin this year,” she said.\n\n“As Taiwanese, we are pretty used to China’s rhetoric that they want to invade us all the time, so [it] did not have a big impact on who I’m voting for.”\n\nEric Su, a 30-year-old account manager who lives in New Taipei City, said while he voted for Tsai in the presidential election, he supported a KMT candidate because they are stronger on local issues.\n\n“In a presidential election, I consider more about global issues, because a president can influence our economy and international standing,” he said.\n\n“In a mayoral election, I care more about what a candidate can bring to local residents, such as infrastructure planning and child subsidies.”\n\nKMT: Friendlier to Beijing\n\nThe KMT, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, ruled over China between 1912 and 1949, when it retreated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Chinese Communist Party.\n\nThe KMT set up its own government on the island – having taken control of it from Japan after the second world war – while the Communist Party took control of mainland China. Ever since, the Communist Party has harbored ambitions of “reunification” with Taiwan – by force, if necessary.\n\nWhen the KMT first fled to Taiwan, its then-president Chiang Kai-shek ruled the island with an iron fist and implemented decades of martial law to crack down on political dissent.\n\nAfter decades of struggle by pro-democracy campaigners, Taiwan was gradually transformed from authoritarian rule into a democracy, and it held the first direct presidential election in 1996.\n\nThe KMT is now widely seen as friendlier to Beijing than the ruling DPP, and it accepts a so-called “1992 consensus”, a tacit understanding that both Taipei and Beijing acknowledge they belong to “one China”, but with different interpretations of what that entails.\n\nTsai, on the other hand, has refused to acknowledge the consensus. The position of her DPP is to defend Taiwan’s status quo as an independent government and expand its international space against an increasingly assertive Beijing.\n\nAmong the more notable victories in Friday’s mayoral races was that of Chiang Wan-an – the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek. He will become the next mayor of Taipei after beating the DPP’s Chen Shih-chung, who served as Taiwan’s health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday night, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the election results showed that most people in Taiwan valued “peace, stability and a good life”. It said Beijing will continue to “firmly oppose Taiwan independence and foreign interference.”\n\nHowever, experts said the KMT’s victory did not necessarily reflect a shift in how Taiwan’s public viewed their relationship with mainland China.\n\n“The election was voted on bread-and-butter issues, and I disagree that it signals a major impact on Taiwan’s cross-strait policies,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior adviser for International Republican Institute.\n\n“The outcome of this election is not reflective of what voters will be looking for in choosing the next president.”\n\nSung at Australia National University said it was too early to speculate over the KMT’s chances of winning the next presidential election in 2024, but felt this result had given it a boost.\n\n“The KMT is now better positioned to be the (party) that unifies the opposition and attracts all the anti-status quo protest votes against the current administration,” he said.", "authors": ["Eric Cheung"], "publish_date": "2022/11/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/08/23/republican-gop-debate-live-updates/70653558007/", "title": "Republican debate recap: Highlights as GOP candidates face off", "text": "Eight Republican presidential candidates battled Wednesday over Ukraine, abortion and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as they gathered in Milwaukee for their first primary debate of the 2024 cycle.\n\nWith frontrunner Donald Trump absent, Vivek Ramaswamy took a lot of heat, with Mike Pence calling him a \"rookie\" and Chris Christie attacking him as an \"amateur.\"\n\nAs other candidates criticized Ramaswamy’s lack of experience, the Republican entrepreneur said his business background was a better asset to lead a \"revolution” and pitched himself as some who could offer a new generation of leadership.\n\nNikki Haley ripped into Ramaswamy for saying that the United States should cede eastern Ukraine to Putin. “You have no foreign policy experience and it shows,” she said.\n\nTrump’s name finally came up about an hour into the debate: The candidates were asked : Would you support Trump if he is convicted? Most of the candidates raised their hands, while Christie raised an objection.\n\nWould you support Trump if he is convicted? Most of the candidates raised their hands, while Christie raised an objection. Mike Pence got backup for the issue that has been the biggest weight on his candidacy: his refusal to interfere in the congressional counting of electoral college votes on Jan. 6, 2021 as Trump wanted.\n\nRepublican hopefuls make their pitch to voters\n\nDuring a 14-minute discussion, most of the GOP candidates said they would still support Trump, even if he is convicted of crimes and still wins the Republican nomination. They also said GOP voters are tiring of all the drama surrounding the former president.\n\n\"We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America,\" said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. \"We can’t win a general election that way.\"\n\nTwo GOP candidates, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, again said that Trump's indictments disqualify him from leadership of the party or nation.\n\n\"Someone's got to stop normalizing this conduct,\" Christie said, drawing boos from the crowd at a sports arena in downtown Milwaukee.\n\nOn the stage in Milwaukee, most of the attacks went against businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, an upstart who has seen his poll numbers rise. Rivals like former Vice President Mike Pence hit Ramaswamy on his lack of government experience. Ramaswamy called than an asset.\n\nDeSantis, who is second to Trump in many polls, emerged from the debate relatively unscathed, but had no memorable quotes. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum used the debate to promote their own platforms.\n\nSome highlights from debate day:\n\nMike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy spar about age on the debate stage\n\nWhen asked whether an elected president should pass a mental or physical test if above a certain age, Pence, 64, said Americans can make their own judgment. But he added that the country doesn’t need a president who’s too old, or a president who’s too young.\n\nRather, he said that the country needs a president who’s been there and knows how the government works.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy, 38 and the youngest candidate on the debate stage, said that there needs to be a person of a different generation leading the country forward, and that he is the only candidate to do that.\n\n−Sudiksha Kochi\n\nRepublican candidates push to eliminate Education Department\n\nSeveral of the Republican candidates showed their support for eliminating the federal Department of Education.\n\n“We need education in this country, not indoctrination in this country,” Ron DeSantis said.\n\nRamaswamy agreed that the Department of Education should be shut down and said he supports parents choosing where they send their kids to schools. He said he believes high school students should have to pass a civics test, like individuals in the process of becoming American citizens.\n\nDoug Burgum, also in favor of removing the Department of Education, said the country forgets that education differs by state. He emphasized the need for schools to innovate.\n\nNikki Haley pushed for transparency in the classroom.\n\n“There’s a lot of crazy, woke things happening in schools,” she said, later adding, “Parents need to be deciding which schools their kids go to because they know best.”\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\n'C'mon, man': Chris Christie doesn't like UFO question\n\nThe former governor of New Jersey took umbrage at a \"lighting round\" question on whether presidents should \"level\" with the American people about UFOs.\n\n\"I get the UFO question? C'mon, man,\" Christie told Fox News' Martha MacCallum.\n\nHe did answer the question by saying: “The job of the president of United States is to level with the American people about everything.\"\n\n− David Jackson\n\nSparks fly over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine\n\nFormer U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence tore into entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for saying he’d freeze the current lines of control in Ukraine in return for a promise from Russia that it would not form a military alliance with China.\n\nPence told Ramaswamy “if we do the giveaway that you want to” and give Putin eastern Ukraine, “it's not going to be too long” before he rolls across the border into a NATO nation.\n\n“Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America,” Ramaswamy argued, raising China as a bigger threat.\n\nHaley argued that a win for Russia is a win for China and said Ukraine is the first line of defense.\n\n“You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” Haley told Ramaswamy.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nOther GOP candidates said Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6\n\nMike Pence got some back up for the issue that has been the biggest anchor on his candidacy: his refusal to interfere in the congressional counting of electoral college votes as Donald Trump wanted.\n\nAsked if Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6, 2021, other candidates said he did – though it took longer for some to get there than others.\n\nAfter Ron DeSantis tried to dodge the question, Pence said the American people deserve to know if everyone on stage would’ve done what he did.\n\n“Answer the question,” Pence said.\n\n“Mike did his duty,” DeSantis responded. “I’ve got no beef with him.”\n\nPence got his biggest backing from Chris Christie who said the former vice president stood up for the Constitution and deserves thanks, “not grudging credit.”\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nVivek Ramaswamy says he would pardon Donald Trump\n\nDonald Trump’s indictments over his handling of classified documents and the 2020 election have raised the question among his GOP rivals of whether they would pardon the former president if they're elected.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy said on the debate stage that he would pardon Trump, a position he has long held. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she was \"inclined in favor\" of a pardon in an interview, though Haley noted that the discussions were still premature.\n\nFormer Vice President Mike Pence said pardons would only be appropriate to weigh if Trump was found guilty. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Trump’s two most vocal critics, have leaned against a pardon.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nNikki Haley targets Donald Trump's electability\n\nDuring the 14-minute discussion of Donald Trump's legal problems, Nikki Haley was the only candidate who mentioned a political issue: His ability to win a general election.\n\n\"We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America,\" Haley said. \"We can’t win a general election that way.\"\n\nTrump will no doubt disagree with this assessment, but don't be surprised if other GOP candidates echo Haley's argument in the coming weeks.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nDonald Trump finally comes up: Most candidates will support him even if he is convicted, but not Chris Christie\n\nThe first Trump question came at 9:56 p.m., eastern, nearly an hour in: Would you support him if he is convicted?\n\nMost of the candidates raised their hands, while Christie raised an objection.\n\n\"Someone's got to stop normalizing this conduct,\" Christie said, drawing boos from the crowd and criticism from Ramaswamy, who said the Justice Department is being weaponized against Trump.\n\nScott also criticized the Justice Department. So did DeSantis, though he said the party also needs to stop talking about this and look forward - presumably with him as president.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nVivek Ramaswamy says we are in a \"dark moment;\" Mike Pence disagrees\n\nMike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy went at it again, this time over the moral climate of the nation.\n\nPence bashed Ramaswamy over his negativity, saying \"we just need government as good as our people.\"\n\nRamaswamy's reply: \"It is not morning in America. We are living in a dark moment and we have to confront that,\" an apparent reference to former President Ronald Reagan.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nGOP lacks uniform abortion message\n\nNikki Haley and Mike Pence’s exchange on abortion shows the hopscotch Republicans have to deal with since the Supreme Court knocked down Roe v. Wade.\n\nSix states have had reproductive rights questions on their ballot since then, and liberals have won all of those.\n\nOn the stage, most of the GOP contenders talked about a 15-week national ban being the standard, but Ron DeSantis talked up signing a 6-week ban in Florida. At one point Tim Scott, who often talks about his anti-abortion views, said that Congress should aim for a 15-week ban at least.\n\nBut others such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, don’t support a federal prohibition at all, saying it should be left up to the states.\n\nEach touted how they are a “pro-life” candidate, but there isn’t a uniform standard.\n\n— Phillip M. Bailey\n\nNikki Haley, Mike Pence tangle on abortion\n\nNikki Haley tried to argue to Republicans that they need to be honest with Americans when discussing a national abortion ban. Because any federal legislation will require 60 votes in the Senate, she said, party leaders should be trying to find a consensus on abortion issues, such as banning later abortions and agreeing not to jail women who get them.\n\nMike Pence, the strongest anti-abortion advocate on the stage, wasn’t having it.\n\n“Nikki, you’re my friend,” Pence said, “but consensus is the opposite of leadership.”\n\nPence said abortion is not an issue for the states to decide.\n\n“It’s a moral issue,” he said.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nMore than 45 minutes in − and no discussion of Donald Trump\n\nAfter more than 45 minutes, the debate moderators, and the candidates, have yet to discuss a big campaign issue: Donald Trump.\n\nMike Pence made passing references to the president who put him on the ticket in 2016, but neither he nor his rivals mentioned Trump's indictments or big poll leads.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nVivek Ramaswamy falsely claims climate change agenda is a hoax\n\nVivek Ramaswamy during the debate claimed that climate change is a hoax, but that is inaccurate.\n\nThere is a wide range of proof that climate change is real, including research on increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels and and decreasing Antarctic ice sheets.\n\nScientific data show warming has accelerated since the mid-20th century and that human activities have contributed to that trend.\n\n− Sudiksha Kochi\n\nChris Christie on Vivek Ramaswamy: ‘A guy who sounds like ChatGPT’\n\nFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn’t hesitate to attack entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy after the candidates were asked whether they believe in climate change.\n\n“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like Chat GPT stand up here…” Christie said, interrupting Ramaswamy.\n\n“The last person at one of these debates who stood in the middle of the stage and said, 'what’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing here' was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur,” Christie added.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nTim Scott tells opponents to stop being childish\n\nSouth Carolina Sen. Tim Scott sought to bring order to all the noise, telling colleagues that \"going back and forth\" and \"being childish\" will not help the American people.\n\nHis opponents are likely to continue being feisty.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nHaley draws attention to being sole woman on stage\n\nAs several of the candidates traded insults, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley saw a chance to draw attention to her status as the only woman on stage.\n\n“This is exactly why Margaret Thatcher said, `If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman,’” Haley said.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nNo one has 'the sway': South Carolina young Republicans on the GOP debate\n\nPedro Mateo, 29, said he thinks the debate will be more about setting the stage for determining a vice president or even 2028 candidate.\n\n“I don’t think anyone on the stage really has the sway to upend Trump,” Mateo said.\n\nMateo is the chairman of the political engagement committee for Young Greenville, a Republican club in South Carolina. He said regardless of who ultimately wins the nomination, he’ll support any candidate over the Democratic opponent.\n\n− Savannah Kuchar\n\nVivek Ramaswamy takes heat from Mike Pence\n\nSo far, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is getting the most heat, with former Vice President Mike Pence attacking him for a lack of government experience.\n\nAfter Pence called the rising Republican a \"rookie,\" Ramaswamy said his business background is a better asset to lead a \"revolution.\"\n\n\"We're just going to have some fun tonight,\" he said.\n\nLater, several candidates hooted at Ramaswamy for claiming he is the only candidate not \"bought and paid for.\" Chris Christie compared him to another guy with a \"funny name:\" Barack Obama.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nNikki Haley comes out swinging\n\nWhereas the other candidates played nice when they first spoke, Nikki Haley wasn’t having it.\n\nThe former South Carolina governor, who is the lone women running for the GOP nomination, drew first blood by attacking her rivals for supporting COVID-19 stimulus spending.\n\n“The truth is that Biden didn't do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too,” she said.\n\nHaley mentioned multiple candidates on the stage by name and Trump when slamming Republicans for raising the U.S. debt and supporting earmarks.\n\n“You tell me who are the big spenders,” she said. “I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House.”\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nRon DeSantis starts with an attack on Joe Biden\n\nThe moderators opened with a question about a song that bemoans the state of the nation. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used it as an excuse to bash President Joe Biden, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie followed suit.\n\nThe eight candidates on stage were quick to criticize Biden over a slate of economic issues, from inflation to job opportunities.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nThe lineup: The candidates' positions on the stage - and the polls\n\nThe candidates were introduced in the order of their place in political polls: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.\n\nDeSantis and Ramaswamy are first and second, so they are in the center. They are flanked by Pence, Haley, Christie, Scott, Hutchinson and Burgum.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nBrian Kemp chides Donald Trump for skipping debate\n\nGeorgia Gov. Brian Kemp remains one of the few popular Republicans who won’t spare Donald Trump a criticism.\n\nKemp, who is mentioned as a possible 2024 contender, trekked to Wisconsin for the first GOP debate. He said the former president, who remains the clear front-runner, is making a big mistake by not joining the discussion.\n\n“Fight it out,” Kemp said on a podcast appearance.\n\n— Phillip M. Bailey\n\nNew Hampshire voters turn to Republican debate: ‘I’d like to see how everybody conducts themselves’\n\nEven though Kenneth Biel has narrowed down his vote for a few specific candidates in New Hampshire’s crucial first-in-the-nation primary, the debate he said, could sway him.\n\n“I’m open to hearing somebody change my mind,” said the 47-year-old software engineer from Chester. Biel said he is eyeing former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. But if a different candidate has a standout performance, the debate could change his mind.\n\n“I’d like to see how everybody conducts themselves,” Biel said, adding he’s open to “people who I disagree with.”\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nWill Donald Trump attend the Republican debate?\n\nFormer President Donald Trump will be skipping the first Republican primary debate, citing his lead in GOP polls.\n\nThe former president had previously hinted he would not attend the event in Milwaukee, saying he did not want to give trailing rivals free shots at him on a debate stage.\n\n“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,\" Trump said Sunday on his Truth Social platform, before adding: \"I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”\n\nMeanwhile, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson posted his taped interview of Trump on the X social media site at 8:55 p.m., eastern.\n\n– Rachel Looker and David Jackson\n\nJoe Biden's campaign mocks Donald Trump for ‘softball’ interview with Tucker Carlson\n\nAhead of Wednesday’s debate, the Biden campaign mocked former President Donald Trump for taking part in a “softball” interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that will air online simultaneously.\n\n“In his softball 'interview' posting tonight, Donald Trump will again make clear that he’s running on the same extreme and deeply unpopular MAGA agenda the American people have rejected time and time again,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.\n\nMunoz said that instead of explaining his “broken promises” to bring manufacturing jobs to Wisconsin, Trump will likely “double down on his most out-of-touch positions, including his support for wild, debunked conspiracy theories and a national abortion ban.”\n\nThe Biden campaign has circled the first Republican primary debate as an opportunity to ramp up their attacks against the GOP field after staying mostly quiet since Biden announced his reelection bid in April.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nWhere do the Republican candidates stand on student loan forgiveness?\n\nEarlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt, a move 2024 GOP candidates applauded.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wrote on X that a president “cannot just wave his hand and eliminate loans for students he favors.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has supported legislation prohibiting Biden from cancelling student loan debt.\n\nLikewise, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also supported the court’s decision, sharing at the time: \"We have a bad habit in America of paying people to do the exact opposite of what we want them to do.\"\n\n− Sudiksha Kochi\n\nFollow along as we fact-check the first Republican debate\n\nWas that fair criticism or cherry-picked data? An accurate description or a baseless conspiracy theory?\n\nThe USA TODAY Fact Check Team will dig into key claims from the candidates as they make them during tonight’s Republican primary debate. Follow our live fact-check file as we dig through the data, documents and transcripts to sort fact from fiction.\n\nFact-checking the GOP debate: What the Republican candidate hopefuls get right and wrong\n\n− Eric Litke\n\nBashing Biden: Democrat likely to be a GOP punching bag\n\nGOP candidates will be eager to demonstrate they have the best chance of beating President Joe Biden in the general election.\n\nA strategy memo put together by Ron DeSantis’ political action committee, which the candidate and his campaign have denounced, suggested the Florida governor focus his attacks on the Democratic president.\n\nDebaters will need little prompting to criticize Biden, although entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and several others have said they intend to use the primetime event to introduce themselves to voters and make the case for their own candidacies. Vice President Kamala Harris is also likely to be a target. DeSantis has been sparring with Harris over slavery, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been critical of the vice president’s record. Haley has made a point of arguing that if anything happens to Biden, who is 80, Harris would succeed him as president.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nA crowd gathers in Milwaukee for Republican debate night\n\nIt's party time in Milwaukee: the Republican Party. As the debate approaches, ticket holders, Republican supporters and curious bystanders are enjoying the restaurant-and-bar areas near the city's sports arena.\n\nOthers have more organized activities.\n\nMore than 100 union members marched behind the arena, promoting labor rights and chanting \"we are the union/the mighty, mighty union.\" Another chant included the line \"Republicans hear our call!\"\n\nDown the avenue, an old-fashioned fife-and-drum corps led a group of Vivek Ramaswamy supporters dressed in Revolutionary War-era garb, topped by bonnets and tri-cornered hats, all in 99 degree weather.\n\nSpecial guests gathered in the plaza right beside Fiserv Forum, the home of professional basketball's Milwaukee Bucks. Food trucks, television tents, and a bandstand dotted the \"Block Party\" hosted by Young America's Foundation, one of the debate sponsors.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nDonald Trump declared Republican debate victory hours ago\n\nHours before the first Republican presidential debate even began, Donald Trump’s campaign was claiming victory, mocking his rivals and the network hosting the event.\n\n“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” Chris LaCivita, who serves as a campaign senior adviser, said in a statement Wednesday.\n\nLaCivita added how Fox News hosts will \"show an unnatural obsession\" with Trump by asking the other GOP contenders their reaction to the front-runner's policy positions. He said the campaign will even be looking for how many times the former president's name is brought up.\n\n“In fact, tonight’s Republican undercard event really shouldn’t even be called a debate, but rather an audition to be a part of President Trump’s team in his second term,\" he said.\n\n— Phillip M. Bailey\n\nVivek Ramaswamy Googled most, Mike Pence least before Republican debate\n\nWhich candidate were Googlers most curious about leading up to the debate? That would be political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy.\n\nHe was the subject of 40% of searches for candidates by name this past week, according to Google. Former President Donald Trump was next at 33%.\n\nThen there was a drop-off in interest with everyone else appearing in no more than 10% of searches.\n\nMike Pence, Trump’s former running mate, was last at 1%.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nWhich Republican candidates go beyond bashing Biden over inflation?\n\nWhen the candidates go after Joe Biden on the debate stage tonight, there’s a good chance they’ll bring up inflation. Although price increases have cooled over the past year, pocketbooks are still pinched and Republicans love to blame Biden.\n\nSome of the candidates have been more specific than others about what they would do differently.\n\nFormer Vice President Mike Pence has an entire “Ending Inflation” plan that includes specific spending cuts, such as eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency. Both Pence and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy want to change how the Federal Reserve manages the economy.\n\nSouth Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has backed a proposal to bar Congress from passing any legislation that would increase inflation when the inflation rate is 4.5% or higher.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nHow have the GOP candidates prepared for the Republican debate?\n\nFrom the tennis courts – entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called his tennis practice this week “three hours of solid debate prep” – to the basketball courts – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball. GOP candidates employed a range of tactics to prepare for the debate.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis brought in debate coach Brett O’Donnell, who has experience prepping former President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney for debates.\n\nOthers like former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley relied on their prior political experience, with Pence falling back on the way he approached one-on-one vice presidential debates in 2016 and 2020 and Haley relying on her experience from 80 town halls she held in Iowa and New Hampshire.\n\nSen. Tim Scott will likely lean into his faith and role as the \"nice guy” in the race. Scott campaign spokesperson Nichole Morales told USA TODAY earlier this week he “will share his positive, conservative message on the debate stage in Milwaukee.”\n\n– USA TODAY staff\n\nFact-checking the GOP debate:What the Republican candidate hopefuls got right and wrong\n\nConservative advocacy groups descend on Milwaukee before presidential debate\n\nThe Republican presidential campaigns aren't the only political organizations in town for the debate − advocacy groups are also hanging around the city's pro basketball arena promoting their issues.\n\nEconomic conservatives, like the Club For Growth, and social conservatives, like the Faith & Freedom Coalition are represented in Milwaukee to lobby lawmakers and candidates, many of whom they back with money and voter turnout.\n\n\"We want to make sure they hear what our message is,\" said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.\n\nIt's not just conservative groups taking advantage of the big political event.\n\nDeath Penalty Action, which describes itself as the only national organization strictly focused on stopping the death penalty, is also in town solicitating support for a national ban on capital punishment.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nWhat to know ahead of the debate: Here's where candidates stand on China, potential invasion of Taiwan\n\nRepublicans agree on what they argue is an urgent need to combat the military and economic threat from China. But that’s where their agreement on the issue ends.\n\nThe United States has traditionally had a policy of strategic ambiguity on whether it would send troops to Taiwan to defend the island in the face of a Chinese invasion. Former Vice President Mike Pence supports this policy and says the U.S. should keep providing Taiwan with military assistance.\n\nFormer U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has described China as the “most dangerous foreign threat we face since the second world war” and said it’s clear that Beijing is preparing for war. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he would do everything he could to avoid using the U.S. military against China, “but if it was unavoidable, I would do what needs to be done.”\n\nEntrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy says he would aggressively defend Taiwan – but only until the U.S. has semiconductor independence, which he has pledged to do by 2028. At that point, he said, would not risk war for “some nationalistic dispute between China and Taiwan.”\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nGOP candidates who won't be at presidential debate blast polling requirement\n\nGOP candidates Larry Elder and Perry Johnson announced on Tuesday that they planned to sue the Republican National Committee after not making the debate stage.\n\nElder alleged on X that the RNC notified him after he turned in his debate qualification package that one of the polls he cited would not count. Johnson’s campaign also sent an email claiming that the committee had rejected him because they weren’t accepting certain polls.\n\nGOP candidate Francis Suarez said on X that his campaign also faced a similar issue on Monday night, though he added that he respects the rules set forth by the RNC.\n\n“I am sorry that this debate will not include my perspectives from the largest growing voting block in our country - young, conservative Hispanics,” Suarez wrote.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nFlying the flag: Donald Trump aides, supporters and surrogates swarm presidential debate site\n\nDonald Trump himself may not be in Milwaukee, but Trump World has a definite presence at the debate site.\n\nSurrogates like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are out and about, giving television interviews promoting their favorite absent candidate. Trump campaign aides are also milling about the area around the Fiserv Forum and speaking to reporters.\n\nEveryday supporters have also flocked to downtown Milwaukee, despite temperatures in excess of 90 degrees, adorned in red or white Trump t-shirts and carrying signs. Part of their job, apparently: Wave the signs while standing behind television correspondents during live shots.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nPlanned Parenthood highlights Mike Pence, Tim Scott and other GOP candidates’ position on abortion\n\nPlanned Parenthood launched this week its first ad in the 2024 presidential campaign, highlighting what five of the GOP candidates have said about abortion.\n\nThe first clip is of former Vice President Mike Pence, who has for decades tried to end government funding for Planned Parenthood and has taken the strongest anti-abortion stand in the 2024 field.\n\n“Every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion,” Pence says in the clip.\n\nThe ad is running on social media and in Wisconsin.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nUkraine war a pressure point for the GOP field\n\nThe Ukraine war could prove to be fertile ground for the large group of presidential hopefuls to differentiate themselves.\n\nSupport for U.S. military assistance to Ukraine is flagging inside the GOP electorate with Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army making slow progress. Still, any suggestion that Ukraine is at fault for Russia’s violation of its sovereignty is likely to drive away establishment Republican voters.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ description of the conflict as a “territorial dispute” helped fuel his decline, even though he later backtracked the comment and called Putin a “war criminal.” Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also come under scrutiny for his views, including a proposal to allow Putin to keep parts of eastern Ukraine.\n\nFormer U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the candidates who say that stopping Putin is vital to U.S. national security and helps to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nAsa Hutchinson, Chris Christie and other GOP candidates weigh in on Trump's indictments\n\nFormer President Donald Trump’s indictments in both federal and state criminal cases have led some of his rivals to defend him, while others have sharply criticized him over the charges.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have condemned the indictments on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have largely dodged questions about his criminal cases.\n\nFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have been some of Trump's most vocal critics, particularly after he was indicted for allegedly trying to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden. After Trump's federal indictment over the 2020 election, former Vice President Mike Pence said anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should not be president.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nVivek Ramaswamy: The newcomer on the presidential debate stage\n\nBiotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has faced scrutiny in recent days over conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attack, something his rivals could use to their advantage during the debate.\n\nIn an interview on CNN earlier this week, Ramaswamy claimed he was misquoted in an article about his 9/11 comments, though that wasn’t the case according to a recording released later.\n\nRamaswamy, a Trump-loving candidate who embraces meritocracy and anti-wokeness, has previously drawn scrutiny over comments on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Juneteenth and more.\n\n– Rachel Looker and Sudiksha Kochi\n\nConservative Supreme Court could factor into GOP debate\n\nSeven years ago, during the first GOP debate of the 2016 election, the Supreme Court was criticized by several candidates.\n\n“It's time that we recognize the Supreme Court is not the supreme being,” then candidate Mike Huckabee quipped.\n\nWhat a difference a few years makes.\n\nThe nation’s highest court, which today is more conservative than it has been in decades, has already factored into the GOP primary. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump have swiped at each other over whether the bench is conservative enough. Last month, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy released a list of candidates he said he would nominate to the court, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nPresident Biden hopes to watch ‘as much as I can’ of Republican debate\n\nPresident Joe Biden is among the millions of Americans expected to tune in to tonight’s Republican primary debate.\n\n“I’m going to try to see — get as much as I can, yes,” Biden, who is vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, told reporters when asked if he plans to watch the debate.\n\nAsked about his expectations, Biden smiled and laughed. “I have none,” he said.\n\nWhile Republican frontrunner Donald Trump skips out on the debate in Milwaukee, Biden’s reelection campaign is going on the offensive during the event.\n\nThe Biden campaign launched a $25 million television ad blitz to coincide with the first Republican debate and dispatched surrogates to Milwaukee as Democrats seek to paint the eight Republicans on the debate stage as part of an extreme “MAGA” Republican Party.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nDonald Trump opts for interview with Tucker Carlson\n\nTrump may not be on the stage in Milwaukee, but he is expected to weigh in on the proceedings.\n\nA pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is scheduled to be posted at 9 p.m., eastern, the same time as the debate.\n\nTrump - who has also threatened to skip a second GOP debate scheduled for Sept. 27 in California - will likely comment on whatever happens in Milwaukee on Truth Social.\n\n“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,\" Trump said Sunday on his social media platform, before adding: \"I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”\n\n- Rachel Looker and David Jackson\n\nTrump, absent from the debate, remains frontrunner in GOP primary polls\n\nFormer President Donald Trump is still leading the polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to an average calculated by RealClearPolitics.\n\nHe has garnered 55.4% in an average of polls, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trails behind him with 14.3%. Biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is in third with 7.2%, and former Vice President Mike Pence leads behind with 4% of support.\n\nIn line after those candidates are former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.\n\nTrump aides are all over media set-ups outside the debate venue in Milwaukee, promoting those polls and proclaiming the race all but over. “You can’t stop the Trump Train,” senior adviser Jason Miller said.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi and David Jackson\n\nDoug Burgum rushed to emergency room a day before the GOP debate\n\nNorth Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, 67, was rushed to a Milwaukee emergency room on Tuesday after he tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball. He is currently using crutches.\n\nHowever, he will still be on the debate stage, according to a post he shared on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.\n\nBurgum, who did an early afternoon “walk through” said he wants to debate. A candidate with little name recognition, Burgum previously told USA TODAY his focus in the debate will be to introduce himself to Americans.\n\n– Francesca Chambers,David Jackson and Sudiksha Kochi\n\nDemocrats look to get in a word at the Republican debate\n\nDemocratic Party officials are also zeroing in on the Milwaukee debate, trying to promote their messages in favor of President Joe Biden.\n\nSpeakers are doing national and local media hits, arguing that the Republicans are too extreme and too beholden to the missing debater, Donald Trump.\n\nDemocrats also have paid advertising on local and national media, as well as billboards on highways surrounding Milwaukee. The signs feature Biden answering various Republican proposals.\n\nOne section of the billboard says \"tax cuts for yacht owners?\" Biden's response: \"Good luck with that, champ.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nGOP debate location: Why it's in Milwaukee\n\nThe debate will take place at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\n\nWisconsin is one of several swing states that could decide the presidency in 2024. Out of the last six presidential elections, four have been decided by less than one percentage point in Wisconsin.\n\nThe debate will be held ahead of the Republican National Convention, which is also set to take place in the city next year.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nHow can you watch the Republican debate?\n\nThe first Republican primary debate is scheduled for Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern.\n\nThe debate, hosted by Fox News, will air on Fox News Channel as well as Fox Business Network. It will also be streamed at foxnews.com and on the streaming service Fox National as well as on Rumble, an online streaming platform.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nWho is in the Republican debate tonight?\n\nThe Republican National Committee formally announced that eight GOP candidates will take the debate stage Wednesday.\n\n- Rachel Looker, David Jackson\n\nWhat time is the GOP debate?\n\nThe debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern time. It's set to last two hours until 11 p.m. Eastern time.\n\n– Rachel Looker", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/26/politics/george-santos-admits-embellishing-resume/index.html", "title": "Rep.-elect George Santos admits to lying about bio, but says he still ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nGOP Rep.-elect George Santos of New York admitted in two separate interviews on Monday to lying about parts of his resume but claimed that he hasn’t committed any crimes and intends to serve in Congress.\n\nSantos has faced scrutiny over discrepancies in his employment and education history, as well as other public claims he has made about his biography. In interviews with WABC radio and the New York Post – the first times Santos has spoken publicly about the controversy – he acknowledged that he had fabricated some facts.\n\n“I am not a criminal. Not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes,” Santos said in an interview with WABC radio host John Catsimatidis.\n\n“To get down to the nit and gritty, I’m not a fraud. I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional character and ran for Congress. I’ve been around a long time. I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They’ve done business dealings with me,” he added.\n\n“I’m not going to make excuses for this, but a lot of people overstate in their resumes, or twist a little bit. … I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that,” he said.\n\nSantos also admitted that he never worked directly for the financial firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as he has previously suggested, but claimed that he did do work for them through his company, telling the New York Post it was a “poor choice of words” to say he worked for them.\n\nHe also told the Post that he didn’t graduate from any college or university, despite claiming he had degrees from Baruch College and New York University.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback Reporter who broke the inconsistencies of GOP Rep.-elect Santos' resume says there's more to explore 06:35 - Source: CNN\n\n“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he told the Post, adding that he owns up to that and that “we do stupid things in life.”\n\nHe told WABC, “I want to make sure that if I disappointed anyone by resume embellishment, I am sorry.”\n\nThe New York Times first revealed last week that Santos’ biography appeared to be partly fictional. CNN confirmed details of that reporting, including about his college education and employment history.\n\nCNN’s KFile also reported last week that claims by Santos that his grandparents “survived the Holocaust” as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium who changed their surname are contradicted by sources including family trees compiled by genealogy websites, records on Jewish refugees and interviews with multiple genealogists. A lawyer for Santos had declined to comment to CNN.\n\n“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos told the Post. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”\n\nSantos had said he was “very proud” of his “Jewish heritage” as recently as a late November 2022 appearance with the Jewish News Syndicate.\n\nCNN has reached out to House GOP leadership and the National Republican Congressional Committee in the wake of Santos’ admissions. House GOP leadership was silent amid last week’s revelations. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy would not answer CNN’s questions Thursday when asked if he was concerned about apparent misrepresentations.\n\nSantos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in a newly drawn district covering parts of Queens and some nearby Long Island suburbs, flipping control to Republicans, who dominated the New York suburbs on their way to winning a House majority.\n\nIt was Santos’ second run – he lost to Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in 2020 – and most of the criticism he faced during his recent campaign centered on his attendance of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, and a video in which he claimed to have written a “nice check” to help alleged rioters with their legal fees.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional context.", "authors": ["Kyle Blaine"], "publish_date": "2022/12/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/politics/biden-taiwan-china-japan-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Biden says US would respond 'militarily' if China attacked Taiwan ...", "text": "Tokyo CNN —\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Monday that the United States would intervene militarily if China attempts to take Taiwan by force, a warning that appeared to deviate from the deliberate ambiguity traditionally held by Washington.\n\nThe White House quickly downplayed the comments, saying they don’t reflect a change in US policy. It’s the third time in recent months – including during a CNN town hall in October – that Biden has said the US would protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack, only to have the White House walk back those remarks.\n\nDuring a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Biden was asked if the US would be willing to go further to help Taiwan in the event of an invasion than it did with Ukraine.\n\n“You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” a reporter asked.\n\n“Yes,” Biden replied. “That’s the commitment we made.”\n\n“We agree with the One China policy. We signed on to it, and all the attendant agreements made from there, but the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is (just not) appropriate,” he said.\n\nUnder the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the self-governing island of 23 million. The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback Biden's balancing act amid tensions between mainland China and Taiwan 02:41 - Source: CNN\n\nBiden’s strong warning was made right on China’s doorstep during his first trip to Asia as President. The visit is aimed at uniting allies and partners to counter China’s rising influence. It also came a day before Biden is scheduled to attend the second in-person summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) – an informal grouping between the US, Japan, Australia and India that has alarmed Beijing.\n\nSeveral of Biden’s top administration officials were caught off-guard by the remarks, several aides told CNN, adding that they were not expecting Biden to be so unequivocal.\n\nIn a statement following Biden’s comments, a White House official said the US’ official position remained unchanged.\n\n“As the President said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself,” the official said.\n\nWithin hours, China had expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to Biden’s comments, saying it will not allow any external force to interfere in its “internal affairs.”\n\n“On issues concerning China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and other core interests, there is no room for compromise,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.\n\n“We urged the US side to earnestly follow the One China principle … be cautious in words and deeds on the Taiwan issue, and not send any wrong signal to pro-Taiwan independence and separatist forces — so it won’t cause serious damage to the situation across the Taiwan Strait and China-US relations.”\n\nChina’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian added, “We urge the US to stop saying or doing anything in violation of the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués. … Those who play with fire will certainly burn themselves.”\n\nTaiwan lies fewer than 110 miles (177 kilometers) off the coast of China. For more than 70 years the two sides have been governed separately, but that hasn’t stopped China’s ruling Communist Party from claiming the island as its own — despite having never controlled it.\n\nChinese leader Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable and refused to rule out the use of force. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at the highest they’ve been in recent decades, with the Chinese military sending record numbers of war planes near the island.\n\nJoanne Ou, a spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CNN that it “expresses sincere welcome and gratitude to President Biden and the United States government for reiterating its rock solid commitment to Taiwan.”\n\nBiden compares potential invasion of Taiwan to Ukraine war\n\nBiden on Monday compared a potential invasion of Taiwan by China to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, warning, “It will dislocate the entire region,” and emphasizing “Russia has to pay a long-term price for its actions.”\n\n“And the reason I bother to say this, not just about Ukraine – if, in fact, after all (Russian President Vladimir Putin has) done, there’s a rapprochement … between the Ukrainians and Russia, and these sanctions are not continued to be sustained in many ways, then what signal does that send to China about the cost of attempting, attempting to take Taiwan by force?”\n\nBiden said that China is “already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers they’re undertaking.”\n\n“But the United States is committed, we made a commitment, we support the One China policy, we support all we’ve done in the past, but that does not mean, it does not mean that China has the ability, has the, excuse me, jurisdiction to go in and use force to take over Taiwan,” he added.\n\nAt the press conference, Kishida also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.\n\n“Attempts to change the status quo by force, like Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, should never be tolerated in the Indo-Pacific, above all, in East Asia,” he said.\n\n“As the regional security environment becomes increasingly severe, I reaffirmed with President Biden that we need to speedily strengthen the deterrence and response of the Japan-US alliance,” he said, adding that he conveyed his determination to “fundamentally strengthen Japan’s defense capability.”\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting and reaction.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak Donald Judd Nectar Gan", "Kevin Liptak", "Donald Judd", "Nectar Gan"], "publish_date": "2022/05/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/11/08/republican-debate-live-updates-miami/71474663007/", "title": "Republican debate replay: Barbs fly during raucous 3rd GOP face-off", "text": "Republican presidential candidates faced off in Miami, Florida, during the third GOP primary debate on issues ranging from foreign policy to abortion rights and Social Security.\n\nThe Republican National Committee announced that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott all qualified for the third debate, a smaller crowd from the previous two events.\n\nFormer President Donald Trump skipped the debate, citing his major lead in state and national polls. The former president has also said he wouldn’t sign the Republican “Beat Biden” pledge to support a GOP nominee, even if it isn't him.\n\nCatch up with USA TODAY's live coverage of the third Republican primary debate here.\n\nClosing arguments: GOP candidates vow to wage 'war' on the nation's problems\n\nThe Republican candidates made their final arguments by employing a variety of martial metaphors.\n\nDeSantis: Pledged to reverse the nation's \"decline\" and said he is the one Republican candidate who can win a general election against President Joe Biden.\n\nHaley: \"The world is on fire\" in the Middle East and Ukraine, and she is part of a new generation who can move the country forward.\n\nRamaswamy: Pledged to win the \"war\" with the \"deep state\" and other anti-American forces. He also called on Biden to exit the race, though the president is unlikely to take the advice.\n\nChristie: Said he wants to address the \"divisions\" in American society. He did not mention Trump, whom he has blamed for fostering those divisions.\n\nScott: Said he would address the nation's \"cultural and spiritual\" crisis, and fight \"the war for Christian conservative values.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nRepublican candidates pledge to fight opioid crisis, increase surveillance of southern border\n\nGOP candidates said they would beef up the technology at the southern border to fight fentanyl trafficking.\n\nTim Scott said he would impose stricter surveillance at the border to keep the synthetic drug out and prevent overdose deaths, and Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney, said he would sign an executive order on his first day in office to send the National Guard to partner with “overwhelmed” Customs and Border Protection officers at ports of entry.\n\nRon DeSantis said he would declare the opioid crisis a national emergency his first day in office and would send the U.S. military to the border.\n\n“And I’m even going to build the border wall and have Mexico pay for it like Donald Trump promised,” he said.\n\nHe also issued a warning to members of the cartels who try to sneak drugs across the border: “We’re going to shoot them stone cold dead.”\n\nBiotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said the crisis is closer to “bioterrorism” and warrants a “more aggressive” means of response. He pledged to use the U.S. military to seal the southern border.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said that she would send special operations in to “take out the cartels” but said the U.S. must also go to the source of the drug’s creation. She pledged to end normal trade relations with China until the drug flow stops.– Francesca Chambers\n\nRamaswamy: ‘I’m upset’ after Ohio passes abortion rights ballot measure\n\nRamaswamy said he was upset by the outcome of the Ohio ballot measure on Tuesday where voters passed a constitutional amendment that enshrines abortion rights in the state constitution.\n\n“Why it’s back to that Republican culture of losing? The Republicans did not have an alternative amendment or vision on the table,” he said.\n\nRamaswamy said the missing piece of the abortion movement is \"sexual responsibility for men.\"\n\n“It’s not men’s rights versus women’s rights, it’s about human rights,” he said.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nNikki Haley on abortion: 'We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore'\n\nHaley said she considers herself pro-life, but that she believes abortion is “a personal issue for every woman and every man.”\n\nThe Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade corrected a wrong and returned the decision to the states, she said during Wednesday's debate.\n\nShe urged her competitors to “be honest” that passing a federal ban on abortions would require 60 votes in the Senate, which could not happen given the political makeup of the upper chamber.\n\nInstead, policymakers should focus on things they can agree on, she said, such as banning late-term abortions, making birth control accessible, and ensuring women don’t go to jail for getting an abortion.\n\n“We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore,” she said.\n\nLater asked whether she would sign a 15-week ban on abortions, she said: “I would support anything that would pass.”\n\n– Riley Beggin\n\nTrump - and his followers - mock Republican debaters\n\nAs Republican rivals debated in Miami, Trump mocked them in a speech to followers in nearby Hialeah.\n\nStanding in front of thousands of people is \"a hell of a lot harder to do than a debate,\" Trump told the crowd at one point.\n\nMeanwhile, at the debate hall in Miami, some fans began a pro-Trump chant before an organizer told them to stop.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nDeSantis goes after Congress over Social Security\n\nCommenting on Social Security’s looming insolvency, DeSantis went after Congress and accused lawmakers of taking “money from Social Security.”\n\nIt is unclear what DeSantis was specifically alluding to, but it was possible the Florida Governor took aim at Congress borrowing funds from the Social Security Trust Fund. Congress, DeSantis said, has “a lot of dirty hands” on the social safety net.\n\nAs president, DeSantis said he would “will force Congress to stop spending so much money,” he said.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nHaley hits DeSantis over Social Security\n\nThe federal debt and Social Security drew out another dispute between Haley and DeSantis.\n\nDeSantis said he can \"shore up\" Social Security by curbing inflation and growing the economy. He did not propose any changes to the popular program itself.\n\nHaley said the growing federal debt requires changes to Social Security and other entitlement programs, though they should be applied only to younger people who are years away from retirement.\n\nShe also chided DeSantis and other candidates for ignoring the problem.\n\n\"Any candidate that tells you they're not going to take on entitlements is not being serious,\" Haley said.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nRepublican candidates answer first economy question\n\nThe first question on the state of the economy came over an hour into the debate. Tim Scott said as president, he would lead the country to use its own resources first before turning to other countries, like China.\n\nHe pointed to the important role of energy in the economy, with Christie agreeing.\n\n“Energy is the key to bringing this down... we need to do that first and foremost. That’s the short-term answer,” Christie said.\n\nDeSantis said on day one as president, he would rip up any regulations or executive orders related to Bidenomics, a slogan the president uses for his economic agenda.\n\n“I’ve heard from multiple people the same story,” DeSantis said. “When they go grocery shopping, what they now do is figure out what they have to take out of the cart once it’s ringing up because it rings up so much faster and so much higher at the cash register that they can’t afford the full cart of groceries anymore,” he said.\n\nRamaswamy had a simple answer on the economy: Increase the supply of everything—from energy to labor.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nDeSantis and Haley clash over fracking and the 'Green New Deal'\n\nDeSantis' pledge to \"repeal the Green New Deal\" on the \"Day One\" prompted another battle with his top rival Haley, who questioned his commitment to more energy development.\n\n\"You banned fracking,\" Haley told the Florida governor.\n\nDeSantis has said he supports fracking-style oil and gas drilling, but doesn't think it's a good idea in the Florida Everglades.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nHaley told Ramaswamy ‘you’re just scum’ after he mentioned her daughter\n\nWhen asked if he supports a TikTok ban, Ramaswamy entered into a heated exchange with Haley pointing to how the former UN ambassador previously made fun of him for joining the platform to campaign. He accused Haley of allowing her daughter to use TikTok while at the same time she criticized his use of the platform.\n\n“You might want to take care of your family first,” he said.\n\n“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley replied, later interrupting Ramaswamy to add: “You’re just scum.”\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nRepublican candidates all say they will ban TikTok\n\nAll of the candidates on stage pledged to ban TikTok, claiming it helps China spy on the United States. In doing so, it created another chance for the White House hopefuls to attack each other over China policy in general..\n\nDeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy all said they would be tougher on China and that the others have been too reticent about the threat posed by the Chinese.\n\nChristie used the TikTok question to attack Trump, saying he should have banned the app when he was president.\n\nTikTok \"is China trying to further divide the United States of America,\" Christie said.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nCandidates spar over funding for Ukraine\n\nAmericans are frustrated by a lack of accountability for how money is being spent by Ukraine, Tim Scott said.\n\nScott said a $106 billion funding package that President Joe Biden proposed, which included $61.4 billion to support Ukraine, is the “wrong approach” and the U.S. should focus on providing Israel with the $14.3 billion that he requested.\n\nHitting Biden over the request, Ron DeSantis took issue to the U.S. funding Ukrainian pensions, calling it a “totally ridiculous use” of Americans’ taxpayer dollars.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy accused Ukraine hawks of “quietly coming around” to his “more cautious” position on Ukraine and assailed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a “Nazi” and anti-democratic for saying it would not hold elections next year amid the war.\n\nHe invoked Nikki Haley, who responded by saying that the presidents of Russia and China are “salivating at the thought that someone like that could become president.” Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, said the U.S. should give Ukraine the equipment they need to win.\n\nChris Christie said that helping Ukraine is the price that America pays to be leader of the free world.\n\n“We must stand with all of those that are standing up for democracy and freedom in this world,” the former New Jersey governor said.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nHaley, DeSantis and Ramaswamy mix it up over China policy\n\nThe first DeSantis-Haley dispute came over China.\n\nDeSantis stressed that Florida has banned sales of land to China; Haley noted that DeSantis' government used to do plenty of business with China.\n\nDeSantis, and Ramaswamy, also hit Haley for going soft on China during her years as U.N. ambassador.\n\nChristie admonished DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley: \"These three in the middle think they are the enemy ... I know that China is the enemy.\"– David Jackson\n\nVivek Ramaswamy: Israel has the right to defend itself, and we will both 'smoke those terrorists'\n\nRamaswamy, who in the past has suggested cutting off aid to Israel, stayed away from that issue tonight and instead said that \"Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself.\"\n\nThe businessman also said he would tell Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he should \"smoke those terrorists on his southern border, and as president, I'd smoke those terrorists on our southern border.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nRepublican candidates decry anti-Semitism on college campuses\n\nMatthew Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, asked the candidates what they would say to Jewish students on college campuses who feel unsafe due to anti-Semitism.\n\nRamaswamy said “anti-Semitism is a symptom of a deeper cancer” and said it would be solved with “leadership not censorship.” Meanwhile, Scott suggested federal funding for universities and visas for foreign students could be revoked if they do not show sufficient support for Israel. He said to foreign students who are “encouraging Jewish genocide” that he “would deport you from those campuses.”\n\nDeSantis said he was the first presidential candidate to make that promise and said that the state of Florida took funding away for groups like Students for Justice in Palestine under his leadership.\n\nChristie recalled his time leading New Jersey following Sept. 11, 2001, protecting synagogues and mosques with police presence. “We developed fabulous relationships with Muslim Americans across the State of New Jersey and we stopped any hate crimes” against Muslims or Jews, he said. “You must work with both sides.”\n\nHaley said college leaders should not treat antiSemitism as less dangerous than racism: “If the KKK were doing this, every college president would be up in arms. This is no different.”\n\n– Riley Beggin\n\nWho is running for president in 2024?\n\nThough five Republican White House hopefuls are on stage tonight, they're not the only GOP presidential candidates.\n\nHere are the Republicans running for president next year:\n\nDonald Trump\n\nNikki Haley\n\nVivek Ramaswamy\n\nAsa Hutchinson\n\nRyan Binkley\n\nTim Scott\n\nRon DeSantis\n\nChris Christie\n\nDoug Burgum\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nTim Scott on Israel-Hamas war: ‘Cannot negotiate with evil’\n\nScott described his foreign policy as simple on the debate state Tuesday night when asked what he would tell Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.\n\n“You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to destroy it,” he said.\n\nScott added that he would emphasize to President Joe Biden that “diplomacy only is a weak strategy” and that “appeasement leads to war.”\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nRamaswamy: Haley is Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels\n\nVivek Ramaswamy went on the offense against Nikki Haley minutes into the third debate – lobbing a personal insult at the only female candidate on the stage.\n\nBefore the former U.N. ambassador could attack him, as she has done in previous debates, he compared her foreign policy views to those of former Republican vice president Dick Cheney as the candidates discussed Israel.\n\n“Do you want a leader from a different generation, who’s going to put this country first? Or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” he asked.\n\nHaley told him later that she wears “5-inch heels” before adding, “And I don’t wear them unless you can run in them.”\n\n“I wear heels, they’re not for a fashion statement, they’re for ammunition,” Haley said.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nDeSantis to Netanyahu: “Finish the job once and for all” as Israel-Hamas war continues\n\nAsked what he would advise Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do following Hamas’ capture and killing of Israelis on Oct. 7, DeSantis said he would advise him to “finish the job once and for all.”\n\nDeSantis said they are “terrorists” that would like to “wipe every Jew off the globe.” Israel has been\n\nHe called upon Hamas to release the remaining hostages and surrender and said he’s “sick” of hearing people “blame Israel just for defending itself.”\n\n– Riley Beggin\n\nVivek Ramaswamy, GOP candidates reflect on disappointing off-year elections: ‘Party of losers’\n\nOn the debate stage, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy lamented the string of losses Republicans have suffered in recent elections.\n\n“I’m sick of Republicans losing,” DeSantis said, arguing he could end the GOP’s losing streak as the party nominee, arguing he brought the party a “landslide victory” in Florida in the 2022 midterms.\n\nRamaswamy on the other hand, pinned the blame on Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel for their losses, calling the GOP a “party of losers” and said the party is failing to bring more voters into the Republican fold.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nGOP candidates: We would be better candidates than Trump\n\nThe first question is to all the candidates about Trump - why are you a better candidate than him?\n\nDeSantis said he has done the things Trump talks about - and is insulting voters by refusing to debate.\n\nHaley said Trump spent too much money when he was president; added that he was good for his time, but \"I don't think he's the right president now.\"\n\nRamaswamy also said that time has passed Trump by, and the Republicans have become \"a party of losers.\" He also complained about the NBC moderators, saying they should not be doing a Republican debate.\"\n\nChristie, as he often does, said Trump's legal issues make him ineligible to be president again, and the former president is too busy trying to \"stay out of jail.\"\n\nScott questioned whether Trump can win a general election.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWho are the GOP debate moderators? Kristen Welker, Lester Holt and Hugh Hewitt\n\n\"Meet the Press\" moderator Kristen Welker, \"NBC Nightly News\" anchor Lester Holt and radio host Hugh Hewitt will moderate the third GOP primary debate Wednesday night.\n\n– Anthony Robledo\n\nWhere to watch the Republican debate tonight: Channel, time and more\n\nThe third Republican primary debate will air live on NBC on Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST as stated. The debate will also stream on NBC News NOW and NBCNews.com.\n\n– Anthony Robledo\n\nWhere to stream Republican debate\n\nAs with the other two debates, the Republican National Committee has partnered with Rumble — a video-sharing platform popular with some conservatives — to livestream this one, in lieu of the network’s YouTube channel.\n\nRNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said earlier this year this was a decision aimed toward “getting away from Big Tech.”\n\nBut NBC says the event will air on its television, streaming and digital platforms, including streaming on NBCNews.com.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nWill Tim Scott target Donald Trump on the Republican debate stage?\n\nMatt Gorman, a senior communications adviser for Tim Scott, told NBC News that the Republican debate might be a \"slugfest\" between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.\n\n\"Unlike either of them, Donald Trump didn't make our political careers,\" Gorman added.\n\nThe adviser added that Scott hasn't been shy about going after his GOP rivals on abortion, Israel's ongoing war with Hamas and other contentious issues on the campaign trail.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nDebate lineup: Ron DeSantis in the middle; flanked by Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy\n\nThanks to his relatively high poll numbers, Ron DeSantis is the candidate in the middle of the five-person stage in Miami.\n\nThe Florida governor is flanked by his closest competitors, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.\n\nThe lowest polling candidates, Chris Christie and Tim Scott, are at either end of the group.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWhy is Trump not at the Republican debate?\n\nTo no surprise, former president Donald Trump will not attend the third GOP primary debate in Miami.\n\nInstead the Republican frontrunner will hold a rally Wednesday night at a stadium in Hialeah, Florida, just about a half-hour drive from the debate stage in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.\n\n− Anthony Robledo\n\nHow long is tonight's Republican debate?\n\nThe third Republican debate will last from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’s being moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt and Kristen Welker, as well as nationally syndicated Salem Radio Network talk show host Hugh Hewitt.\n\nNBC says the event will air on its television, streaming and digital platforms, including streaming on NBCNews.com.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nDonald Trump's vice president pick: Tucker Carlson?\n\nSome Republicans gathered in South Florida are already talking about who Trump might pick as a running mate if he goes on to win the GOP nomination - and pre-debate chatter centered on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.\n\nWhile he and Carlson have clashed over the years, Trump had nothing but nice things to say when asked on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show whether he would consider him for running mate.\n\n\"I like Tucker a lot - I guess I would - I think I'd say I would because he's got great common sense,\" Trump said.\n\nTrump and his aides have also said it's way too early to discuss running mates, and he is not likely to talk down any possibility.\n\n− David Jackson\n\nWill Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley spar?\n\nOne rivalry that viewers may be watching for during the Republican debate is between Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. During the second debate, Haley told Ramaswamy that TikTok is “one of the most dangerous social media apps” in existence before she asserted in an exasperated tone: “Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”\n\nThe political newcomer faced brunt of the blows in the first two debates, with more established Republicans on the stage, including Haley and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, lining up to discredit the businessman.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nFollow along as we fact-check the Republican debate\n\nWas that fair criticism or cherry-picked data? An accurate description or a baseless conspiracy theory?\n\nFollow along with the USA TODAY Fact Check Team as we dig into claims from the candidates as they make them in tonight’s Republican primary debate. We'll dig through the data, documents and transcripts to sort fact from fiction.\n\nGOP debate live fact check:Separating fact from fiction on Republican candidates' claims.\n\n– Eric Litke\n\nWhen is the next Republican debate? Alabama, Iowa and New Hampshire all host\n\nWhile Trump is calling for all debates to end, Republican officials in Miami say they are moving forward with plans for at least three more confrontations - whether Trump wants to show up or not.\n\nThe next debate is already on the schedule: Dec. 6 in Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama. Trump is not expected to attend. The GOP is also planning debates just before the Iowa caucuses, which are on Jan. 15, and the New Hampshire primary, which is expected to be scheduled for Jan. 23.\n\nIt may be harder for Trump to snub Iowa and New Hampshire - those debates will likely be held right before people actually vote.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nGroup supporting Ron DeSantis tags Nikki Haley as ‘Hillary 2.0’\n\nA political action committee that supports Ron DeSantis is taking shots at Nikki Haley ahead of Wednesday’s debate by reminding Republicans of who inspired her to run for elected office.\n\nNever Back Down released a 30-second spot featuring the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor praising Democrat Hillary Clinton on several occasions.\n\n“I often say it… the reason I got into politics was because of Hillary Clinton,” Haley says in the video.\n\nHaley, the only woman in the 2024 race, did credit Clinton for inspiring on numerous occassions during a 2012 book tour. She noted how Clinton, who ran for president in 2016, was a keynote speaker when she as a student at Birmingham University.\n\nThe attack is part of a larger offensive DeSantis and his allies have waged against the former UN ambassador, who has climbed in the polls and emerged as the likely new No. 2 in the GOP field.\n\n— Phillip M. Bailey\n\nChris Christie, Nikki Haley issue dueling taunts before Republican debate\n\nNikki Haley and Chris Christie both took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to share a message of confidence heading into the GOP debate.\n\n\"I've never lost a race, I'm not going to start now,\" Haley shared before the event, alongside a video of her campaigning.\n\nThe former New Jersey governor also posted \"Let's win the damn thing.\"\n\n− Marina Pitofsky\n\nPre-Republican debate atmosphere in Miami? Pretty low-key\n\nYou might expect a laid back atmosphere in Miami, even for a presidential candidates' debate.\n\nAnd that's what you've got: Streets are blocked off and fencing is in place around the debate site, but there are few people milling around and almost no demonstrators.\n\nQuite a difference from the street fairs and protesters who surrounded the Milwaukee arena that hosted the first Republican debate back in August.\n\nThe second debate in September did not draw many bystanders, but that was held at the Ronald Reagan library on top of a mountain in California.\n\nAs night fell on sun-bleached Miami, a bicyclist carried a Trump 2024 flag. A man in a lawn chair at a street intersection held a sign that read \"Trump or World War III.\"\n\nTrump himself, meanwhile, planned to host his own campaign rally in nearby Hialeah, Fla. On the other side of the Miami concert hall where the debate will be held, a lone man dressed a rat suit carried a sign that read \"RAT: Republicans Against Trump.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWill Republican hopefuls address Glenn Youngkin, Andy Beshear and other 2023 races?\n\nOne thing viewers could keep an eye out for tonight is whether the Republican candidates address GOP losses after Election Day 2023.\n\nVirginia Democrats took control of the state's legislature, and they're expected to block Gov. Glenn Youngkin's conservative agenda. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear also won reelection on Tuesday and defeated his Republican challenger.\n\nAnd in Ohio, voters passed a ballot measure to protect abortion rights, a push supported by Republicans in the Buckeye State.\n\nThe GOP hopefuls participating in Wednesday's Republican debate may be pitching their vision for the nation, as well as a vision for the future of the Republican Party at the state and local level.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nAdrienne Arsht Center: Where is the Republican debate tonight being held?\n\nThe Republican debate will be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.\n\n– Haadiza Ogwude and Anthony Robledo\n\nWhat time does the GOP debate start?\n\nThe third GOP primary debate will occur on Wednesday, Nov. 8 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST in Miami.\n\n– Anthony Robledo\n\nWhat are the candidates saying about Donald Trump's criminal indictments?\n\nTrump’s various indictments in both federal and state criminal cases have led some of his rivals to fiercely defend him, while others have knocked him.\n\nBiotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has taken the former position, alleging without evidence that the indictments are politically motivated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have also condemned the indictments on the campaign trail.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has warned that Trump's legal troubles could cost GOP the 2024 presidential election. And Christie, one of Trump's most vocal critics, has forecasted that the former president will be convicted, even as he seeks a second term in the White House.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nDebate control: Republican Party tells candidates not to participate in Iowa forum\n\nSeeking to maintain control of the debate process, the Republican National Committee is warning presidential candidates not to participate in an Iowa forum scheduled for later this month - or face exclusion from future RNC debates.\n\nIn a letter to the various campaigns, the RNC said it regards a “Thanksgiving Family Forum” sponsored by Iowa’s Family Leader Foundation as a debate in all but name.\n\nCandidates have pledged not to participate in non-RNC debates. Said the letter: “Please be advised that any Republican presidential candidate who participates in this or other similar events will be deemed to have violated this pledge and will be disqualified from taking part in any future RNC-sanctioned presidential primary debates.”\n\n– David Jackson\n\nHere’s where GOP candidates stand on China and a potential invasion of Taiwan\n\nRepublicans agree on what they argue is an urgent need to combat the military and economic threat from China. But that’s where their agreement on the issue ends.\n\nThe United States has traditionally had a policy of strategic ambiguity on whether it would send troops to Taiwan to defend the island in the face of a Chinese invasion. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has described China as the “most dangerous foreign threat we face since the second world war” and said it’s clear that Beijing is preparing for war.\n\nNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he would do everything he could to avoid using the U.S. military against China, “but if it was unavoidable, I would do what needs to be done.”\n\nEntrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has previously said he would aggressively defend Taiwan – but only until the U.S. has semiconductor independence, which he has pledged to do by 2028. At that point, he said, would not risk war for “some nationalistic dispute between China and Taiwan.”\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nWho is in the Republican debate tonight?\n\nFive Republican candidates qualified for the third Republican debate tonight, a smaller field than the previous events. They include:\n\nWill there be a Democratic debate?\n\nJoe Biden probably won't take the debate stage with his Democratic rivals.\n\nIf an incumbent president is running, political parties usually rally around that person's reelection bid. There's no formal rule, but at this point, Biden is the de facto Democratic nominee.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nWhere do the Republican candidates stand on abortion?\n\nNikki Haley has often argued that leaders need to find consensus on the issue of abortion, including agreeing to not jail women who have the procedure. A self-described “pro-life” candidate, Haley said Republicans need to be honest about a national ban, which would require 60 votes in the Senate.\n\nMost Republican candidates, including Chris Christie, have said they would leave the issues to the states.\n\nRon DeSantis has touted his record on the issue as Florida governor, having signed a statewide six-week ban into law earlier this year.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nWhen is the Republican convention?\n\nTonight's debate isn't part of the Republican convention, where an official GOP nominee will be chosen for the 2024 presidential election.\n\nThe Republican convention is set for July 2024 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin is expected to be a major swing state heading into the race for the White House.\n\n− Marina Pitofsky\n\nUkraine war a pressure point for the GOP field\n\nThe Ukraine war could prove to be fertile ground for the group of presidential hopefuls to differentiate themselves.\n\nSupport for U.S. military assistance to Ukraine is flagging inside the GOP electorate with Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army making slow progress. Still, any suggestion that Ukraine is at fault for Russia’s violation of its sovereignty is likely to drive away establishment Republican voters.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ description of the conflict as a “territorial dispute” helped fuel his decline, even though he later backtracked the comment and called Putin a “war criminal.” Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also come under scrutiny for his views, including a previous proposal to allow Putin to keep parts of eastern Ukraine.\n\nFormer U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is among the candidates who say that stopping Putin is vital to U.S. national security and helps to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nTim Scott invites Jewish students to Republican debate\n\nSouth Carolina Sen. Tim Scott on Wednesday shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he invited a group of Jewish students to attend the debate in Miami.\n\n\"As hate and anti-Semitism proliferate on college campuses, it is more important than ever to educate the minds of our next generation with thoughtful debate and discussion,\" Scott shared.\n\nThe move comes as American colleges have reported a surge in crimes that appeared to target Jewish and Muslim people as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.\n\n− Marina Pitofsky, Krystal Nurse, Eduardo Cuevas and Vanessa Arredondo\n\nNikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are feuding\n\nThe 2024 Republican presidential campaign trail is becoming increasingly icy, and it’s not because of dropping temperatures.\n\nAmid their battle for second place in the GOP primary race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have heightened attacks against one another on everything from their foreign policy stances to footwear choices.\n\nNew Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu described the frosty relationship between the two candidates as getting “a bit chippy” after appearing with Haley at an event.\n\nBut the campaign jabs aren’t necessarily scoring the candidates any wins with voters in early primary states. Voters USA TODAY spoke with said they haven't paid much attention to the back-and-forth between the two candidates.\n\n− Karissa Waddick\n\nWhat are the stakes for tonight's Republican debate?\n\nRepublican White House hopefuls not named Donald Trump will assemble in Miami this week for the third presidential primary debate. But what does each candidates need to do to break out? Here's a look at a few contenders:\n\nNikki Haley: Given how much the world stage has consumed the country, Washington and campaign trail, expect Haley's quick-witted acumen to seize the microphone when America's standing and role in the world comes up.\n\nRon DeSantis: DeSantis will have to stiff arm Haley while also making the case that something has changed enough for him to be a serious threat to Trump.−\n\nVivek Ramaswamy: The biggest challenge for Ramaswamy, whose ideas and rhetoric might excite some in the GOP base, will be showing a more personal side that can close that likability gap with those same voters.– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nConservative Supreme Court could factor into debate\n\nSeven years ago, during the first GOP debate of the 2016 election, the Supreme Court was criticized by several candidates.\n\n“It's time that we recognize the Supreme Court is not the supreme being,” then candidate Mike Huckabee quipped.\n\nWhat a difference a few years makes.\n\nThe nation’s highest court, which today is more conservative than it has been in decades, has already factored into the GOP primary. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump have swiped at each other over whether the bench is conservative enough. Earlier this year, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy released a list of candidates he said he would nominate to the court, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. – John Fritze\n\nNikki Haley, Tim Scott and others oppose student debt forgiveness\n\nEarlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt for hundreds of Americans - a move that 2024 GOP candidates applauded and has become a contentious point of debate.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wrote on X that a president “cannot just wave his hand and eliminate loans for students he favors.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has supported legislation prohibiting Biden from cancelling student loan debt.\n\nLikewise, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy supported the court’s decision.\n\n“We have a bad habit in America of paying people to do the exact opposite of what we want them to do: more $$ to stay at home than to work, more $$ to be a single mother than married, more $$ for those who *fail* to repay loans than those who do,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nWill GOP election losses take center stage at tonight's Republican debate?\n\nMost of the pre-debate buzz in Miami centers on Republican reversals in Tuesday's off-year elections - and debaters plan to argue that they are the answer to the party's ills.\n\nHaley and her aides cite her strong poll numbers against President Joe Biden and stress that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections.\n\n\"Isn't it time we had a Republican who can win a general election?\" the Haley campaign said in a statement.\n\nDeSantis, meanwhile, cites the fact that he won re-election as governor of Florida in a landslide, and has turned a former battleground state into a Republican-leaning one.\n\nTrump, who is holding a competing rally near the debate site, is being blamed for some of the GOP losses, But he is laying it on establishment Republicans like Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.\n\nCiting the GOP candidate who lost the Kentucky's governor race, Trump said on Truth Social: \"Daniel Cameron lost because he couldn’t alleviate the stench of Mitch McConnell.\"\n\nOf course, Trump also endorsed Cameron.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nGOP presidential polls ahead of the third GOP debate\n\nAll of the candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night are trailing former President Donald Trump in state and national polls.\n\nAccording to a Real Clear Politics average of GOP primary polls, Trump leads the crowded Republican field with 58.3% support, followed by DeSantis at 14.6%. Haley has garnered 9.4% support, while Ramaswamy has received 4.4%.\n\nDuring the debate, the Republican White House hopefuls will be looking for breakout moments to connect with voters and potentially boost their support across the country.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nHow did GOP candidates qualify for the Republican debate\n\nCandidates had to meet a higher bar to participate in the third debate than the first two. White House hopefuls must have polled at least 4% in two national polls or 4% in one national poll and one early state poll from states recognized by the committee.\n\nThey must also have had a minimum of 70,000 unique donors and signed the “Beat Biden” pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/11/2024-presidential-candidates-on-ukraine/70325435007/", "title": "Where the 2024 presidential candidates stand on the war in Ukraine", "text": "More than 500 days after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war in Ukraine remains at the top of American foreign policy priorities.\n\nAs President Joe Biden discusses with allies at the NATO summit in Vilnius how to provide increased security guarantees for Ukraine, at home 2024 presidential candidates have been discussing their own views on the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn both parties, Democrats and Republicans are divided on the war in Ukraine and whether the U.S. should continue providing military aid for Ukraine.\n\nAmong Republicans, most presidential candidates are in favor of continuing to provide Ukraine with support. The two frontrunners, however, are the most skeptical candidates in their own party when it comes to sending Ukraine additional ammunition and weapons.\n\nHere are the leading presidential candidates and their views on the war in Ukraine:\n\nDonald Trump\n\nFormer President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, has frequently suggested that the U.S. might be providing Ukraine with too much support.\n\nTrump criticized American allies for not spending as much to support Ukraine during a CNN town hall in May. The former president also said the U.S. is depleting its own military stockpiles by sending aid packages to Kyiv.\n\n\"We've given away so much equipment,\" Trump said. \"We don't have ammunition for ourselves.\"\n\nTrump also repeatedly refused to answer questions regarding whether he wants Russia or Ukraine to win the war. In an interview with Fox News, Trump also declined to say whether he would consider allowing Russia to keep Ukrainian land as part of an agreement to end the war.\n\nInstead, Trump has frequently claimed that he would end the war in 24 hours if reelected president. Trump has also claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin would have not invaded Ukraine if he won the 2020 presidential election.\n\nRon DeSantis\n\nAlongside Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has emerged as the other major skeptic among Republican presidential candidates regarding American support for the war in Ukraine.\n\nDeSantis also said that in a statement to Fox News in March that the war in Ukraine is a \"a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia\" and not one of the country's \"vital national interests.\"\n\n\"We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted,\" DeSantis said.\n\nDeSantis later walked back his comments and called Putin a \"war criminal.\" He also said it was \"wrong\" for Russia to invade Ukraine in 2022 and take Crimea in 2014, but DeSantis has maintained that the U.S. should not become more involved in the war in Ukraine.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy\n\nVivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who has self-funded most of his 2024 GOP campaign for president, said Ukraine \"should punch its own bully in the nose.\"\n\nIn an interview Monday night with Piers Morgan on Fox News, Ramaswamy said the U.S. has done enough to help Ukraine in the conflict.\n\n\"The U.S. has more than fulfilled its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994,\" he said. \"But right now we need to focus on how we advance American interests.\"\n\nRamaswamy said he would end the war by negotiating a peace treaty that would freeze the current lines of control where they are − \"a Korean War-style armistice agreement.\" He would commit to ensuring NATO does not admit Ukraine.\n\nBut he said he would demand Russia has to exit its military partnership with China. \"The China-Russia military partnership is the single greatest military threat the United States faces.\"\n\nChris Christie\n\nFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has made criticizing Trump the focus of his campaign since entering the race in June, including taking aim at the former president over the war in Ukraine.\n\nChristie criticized Trump for claiming he could end the war in 24 hours, saying \"the only way he could do that is do what he normally does, which is bend down to Vladimir Putin and get him whatever he wants.\"\n\nWhile he has also criticized Biden for not doing more to support Ukraine earlier in his presidency, Christie said he supports continued U.S. military aid for Ukraine and would seek to help end the war on terms that are acceptable to Ukrainians.\n\n\"We need to send them the military hardware that they need to be able to fight the war against Russia and we need to make sure that this war is ultimately resolved on terms that are acceptable to Ukraine,\" Christie told radio host Michael Medved.\n\nNikki Haley\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Trump's tenure as president. Haley has touted her past foreign policy experience since entering the 2024 race, frequently discussing her support for Ukraine.\n\nHaley said in a CNN town hall that the war in Ukraine is \"bigger than Ukraine.\"\n\n\"This is a war about freedom and it's one we have to win,\" she said. \"When Ukraine wins that sends a message to China with Taiwan, it sends a message to Iran that wants to build a bomb, sends a message to North Korea testing ballistic missiles, and it sends a message to Russia that it's over.\"\n\nHaley, however, said that American support should not come in the form of giving cash to Ukraine or putting troops on the ground, but rather by collaborating with allies to ensure that Ukraine has \"the equipment and the ammunition to win.\"\n\nTim Scott\n\nSouth Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has also said he would continue supporting the war in Ukraine as president.\n\nScott has frequently criticized Biden for failing to articulate \"America's national vital interest in Ukraine.\" In explaining his own support for Ukraine, Scott has pointed to the war's ability to weaken Russia militarily.\n\n\"One of the most important priorities that we should have is degrading the Russian military,\" Scott told Fox News. \"By degrading the Russian military, we’re preventing attacks on the homeland as well as our NATO partners.\"\n\nMike Pence\n\nFormer Vice President Mike Pence has distanced himself from Trump over the war in Ukraine. Pence said he is in favor of providing Ukraine with military support to fight Russia, most recently welcoming the Biden administration's decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.\n\nPence visited Kyiv late last month and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, marking the first visit to Ukraine by a 2024 Republican presidential candidate since launching their bid.\n\nPence has also said he believes it is important to support Ukraine now because if it loses the war, Russia might next attack a NATO ally and trigger a military response from U.S. troops.\n\nIn Ukraine, Pence told NBC News that supporting Ukraine is \"advancing our national interest.\"\n\nWill Hurd\n\nWill Hurd, a former congressman from Texas, said he believes the U.S. government \"should be supporting the Ukrainians more.\"\n\nHurd has quickly emerged as the strongest supporter for Ukraine among Republican presidential hopefuls, supporting policies that have failed to receive support from some of the most vocal pro-Ukraine lawmakers.\n\nMost notably, Hurd told ABC News he supports the implementation of a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory. In the first days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy requested the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Western military officials, however, declined to implement the no-fly zone because of the risk of escalating the conflict over a direct military confrontation.\n\nHurd has also insisted that he supports Ukraine reclaiming all of its territory from Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.\n\nAsa Hutchinson\n\nFormer Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson addressed Russia on his campaign website, writing that it is \"a threat to our national security and a threat that must be taken seriously.\"\n\n\"We must be tough on Russia and that starts with not backing down from Putin,\" Hutchinson added.\n\nHe also said that he supports providing Ukraine with aid, but that he would want to ensure that the funds are spent as intended.\n\n\"America is strongest when we stand with our allies and those being oppressed,\" Hutchinson wrote in a tweet. \"Standing with Ukraine means standing up to Putin.\"\n\nRobert F. Kennedy Jr.\n\nRobert F. Kennedy, who is challenging President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary election, has distanced himself from most fellow Democrats over his willingness to criticize U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine.\n\nKennedy called Ukraine a \"pawn in a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia\" and took aim at the Biden administration for not ending the war through a peaceful resolution. Kennedy also criticized Biden's controversial decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.\n\nLast year, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the use of cluster bombs a “war crime.” Now President Biden plans to send them to Ukraine,\" Kennedy wrote on Twitter. \"Stop the ceaseless escalation! It is time for peace.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/02/politics/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-parliament-visit/index.html", "title": "Pelosi says US will 'not abandon' Taiwan as China plans military ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nDuring a historic trip to Taiwan Wednesday, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her visit was intended to make it “unequivocally clear” that the United States would “not abandon” the democratically governed island.\n\nChina responded to Pelosi’s trip launching military exercises, which China’s Ministry of Defense said began on Wednesday with drills in both the seas and airspace surrounding Taiwan. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 27 Chinese warplanes made incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, and 22 planes crossed the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday – an unprecedented number since Taiwan began publicly releasing information about China’s air incursions about two years ago.\n\nAs the California Democrat departed the island on Wednesday afternoon for South Korea, there were already signs of the strains her visit to Taipei – the first by a sitting US House speaker in 25 years – had placed on Washington’s relationship with Beijing – which warned that her trip would have a “severe impact on the political foundation of China-US relations.”\n\nChina’s ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it, and has long vowed to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.\n\nPelosi’s praise of the island’s commitment to democracy was a significant show of support for Taipei, coming just hours after China threatened to retaliate to her presence with a series of military exercises the Taiwanese Defense Ministry likened to a “maritime and aerial blockade.”\n\nPelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai at the presidential office in Taipei, August 3, 2022. Taiwan Pool/Reuters\n\nBeijing had repeatedly warned of dire consequences should the trip go ahead – even going as far as to warn US President Joe Biden that those who played with fire would “perish” by it.\n\nBut the warnings from Beijing – and even a suggestion by Biden himself that the US military thought the trip was “not a good idea” – did not dissuade Pelosi, 82, from flying into the island alongside a congressional delegation on Tuesday evening and meeting its leading officials.\n\n“We are proud of our enduring friendship,” said Pelosi, speaking alongside Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei the morning after her arrival.\n\n“Now more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is crucial and that is the message we are bringing here today.”\n\nIn a statement released Wednesday after she left Taiwan, Pelosi said that her visit “should be seen as a strong statement that America stands with Taiwan.”\n\nChina’s response\n\nPelosi arrived to a largely warm welcome in Taipei, with the city’s tallest building, Taipei 101, lighting up with a welcome message and supporters gathering outside her hotel – though her visit to the legislature on Wednesday attracted a smattering of protesters. Video showed some people shouting, “Pelosi, get out” and holding placards reading, “Taiwan doesn’t want war.”\n\nPresident Tsai thanked Pelosi for visiting, praised her long commitment to democracy and human rights and bestowed on her Taiwan’s highest civilian honor.\n\nBeijing, within minutes of Pelosi’s arrival in Taipei, said it would immediately begin “a series of joint military operations around the island,” including using long-range live ammunition in the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from mainland China.\n\nChina’s Ministry of Defense said the military exercises began on Wednesday, which it said involved the navy, air force and other military forces.\n\nTaiwan’s Defense Ministry described the military exercises as “irrational” and tantamount to a “blockade.” It said the planned drills would violate Taiwan’s territorial waters, “threaten an international waterway, challenge the international order, undermine the cross-strait status quo and endanger regional security.”\n\nThe Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) were made by six J-11 fighter jets, five J-16 fighter jets, and 16 Su-30 fighter jets, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday night. China frequently sends warplanes into Taiwan’s self-declared ADIZ. The highest number of incursions ever recorded was on October 4 last year, when 56 military planes flew into the area on the same day.\n\nOn Wednesday, as Pelosi met with Taiwan’s leaders, elbow-bumping and posing for photos, China suspended the import of citrus fruits and some fish products from Taiwan, as well as the export of sand to the island.\n\nChinese Customs claimed the suspension of citrus fruit imports was a result of “pest control” and “excessive pesticide residues,” and cited “Covid prevention” for the suspension on seafood imports. However, its previous bans on some Taiwanese products have often coincided with periods of escalating tensions.\n\n‘Taiwan will not back down’\n\nPresident Tsai, like Pelosi, appeared unmoved by China’s warnings.\n\n“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said during a televised meeting with Pelosi.\n\n“We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy. At the same time, we wish to cooperate and work in unity with all democracies around the world to jointly safeguard democratic values.”\n\nTaiwan would do “whatever it takes” to strengthen its defensive capabilities, Tsai added, saying she was committed to “maintaining peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait and vowing to make Taiwan a “key stabilizing force” for regional security and the development of global trade.\n\nPelosi told reporters Wednesday that “America stands with Taiwan” and China will “not stand in the way” of people coming to visit the island.\n\n“We have to show the world, and that is one of the purposes of our trip, to show the world the success of the people of Taiwan,” she said. “We want Taiwan to always have freedom with security and we’re not backing away from that.”\n\nShe also praised Taiwan as “one of the freest societies in the world.”\n\nPelosi and the US congressional delegation also met Taiwanese lawmakers, exchanging pleasantries with Taiwan’s Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang before a closed-doors meeting.\n\nPelosi is a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist Party. She has denounced Beijing’s human rights record, and met pro-democracy dissidents and the Dalai Lama – the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who remains a thorn in the side of the Chinese government.\n\nIn 1991, Pelosi unfurled a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters. More recently, she has voiced support for the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.\n\nOn Wednesday, Pelosi and the congressional delegation left the self-governed island around 6 p.m. (local), departing from Taiwan’s Songshan airport\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments.", "authors": ["Jeremy Herb Eric Cheung Wayne Chang Rhea Mogul", "Jeremy Herb", "Eric Cheung", "Wayne Chang", "Rhea Mogul"], "publish_date": "2022/08/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/20/house-speaker-vote-news-updates-jim-jordan/71233801007/", "title": "House still without a speaker after GOP drops Jordan. New race ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – House Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as their speaker nominee Friday, throwing the House into even more chaos and turmoil as GOP lawmakers must scramble to find a new candidate to unite behind.\n\nFollowing three failed speaker elections, House Republicans held an internal secret ballot vote to decide whether Jordan should remain as the conference’s nominee. Jordan was ultimately dropped as the nominee by a vote of 112-86.\n\nHouse Republicans will head home for the weekend and return to Washington to hold a candidate forum on Monday evening to hear from prospective speakers. Following the forum, they will hold another internal vote to determine a nominee on Tuesday.\n\nA mad dash for the top job has begun within the House Republican conference, with some members immediately declaring their candidacy leaving the meeting after Jordan’s exit and other lawmakers saying they will seriously consider running over the weekend.\n\nThe House will remain speakerless over the weekend and into Monday, leaving the lower chamber in a state of paralysis.\n\nFollow along for the latest updates from USA TODAY on the speaker fight.\n\nEndorsements start rolling in for new speaker candidates\n\nAs the speaker's race gets underway, once again, endorsements have started slowly rolling in for declared candidates.\n\nRep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., endorsed his fellow Floridian, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., for the speakership. Donalds publicly announced his intent to seek the gavel on Friday.\n\nDonalds, \"is an honorable leader and respected by the entire conference. That is why it is a privilege to endorse Byron for speaker,\" Diaz-Balart said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.\n\nIn a statement announcing his candidacy, Donalds wrote that under his leadership, \"The House will lead a charge to advance a simple objective: Put the American people first, keep them safe and make their lives easier.\"\n\n− Ken Tran and Karissa Waddick\n\nWho is running for speaker so far?\n\nMultiple candidates immediately jumped into the speaker's race following Jordan's exit. They are:\n\nRep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla.\n\nRep. Austin Scott, R-Ga.\n\nRep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn.\n\nRep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich.\n\nRep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas\n\nRep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida\n\nRep. Mike Johnson, R-La.\n\nRep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas , is also considering a bid.\n\nUSA TODAY will update this list as more candidates jump in.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nEmmer announces speaker run\n\nHouse Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., officially announced his candidacy for speaker Saturday.\n\n\"Our conference remains at a crossroads and the deck is stacked against us,\" Emmer wrote in a letter to colleagues. \"We have no choice but to fight like hell to hold on to our House Majority and deliver on our conservative agenda.\"\n\n− Karissa Waddick\n\nKevin Hern will run for speaker\n\nRep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who previously considered a run for speaker, told reporters he will now launch a bid following Jordan's loss.\n\nHern is chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of House Republicans.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nJack Bergman to run for speaker\n\nRep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., who was previously considering challenging Jordan, is officially running for speaker.\n\n\"My hat is in the ring, and I feel confident I can win the votes where others could not. I have no special interests to serve; I’m only in this to do what's best for our Nation and to steady the ship for the 118th Congress,\" Bergman said in a statement.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nMike Johnson to run for speaker\n\nRep. Mike Johnson, vice chair of the House Republican conference, released a \"Dear Colleague\" letter Saturday officially announcing his bid for speaker.\n\n\"I have been humbled to have so many Members from across our conference reach out to encourage me to seek the nomination for Speaker,\" Johnson wrote. \"Until yesterday, I had never contacted one person about this, and I have never before aspired to the office. However, after much prater and deliberation, I am stepping forward now.\"\n\n−Karissa Waddick\n\nMcHenry: 'Goal' to have floor vote Tuesday\n\nActing Speaker Patrick McHenry told reporters that after a candidate forum and an internal vote to select a nominee, the \"goal\" is to hold a speaker election on the House floor next Tuesday.\n\nWhen lawmakers return next Monday evening, House Republicans will hold another candidate forum to hear from prospective speakers ahead of a vote on Tuesday to select a nominee.\n\n−Ken Tran\n\nJordan loses internal vote, House GOP must find new nominee\n\nJordan is no longer the GOP's speaker nominee.\n\nThe Ohio Republican lost an internal secret ballot vote on whether to keep him as the conference's nominee, Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., told reporters.\n\nJordan lost an internal secret ballot vote to determine whether he should remain as the nominee by a vote of 112-86, according to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.\n\nAccording to Womack, lawmakers are heading home for the weekend.\n\nThe House will return into session next Monday at 6:30 p.m.\n\nCandidates have until noon on Sunday to declare their intentions to run for speaker.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nInternal GOP vote exclusively about Jordan\n\nThe internal vote on whether to keep Jordan as the GOP speaker nominee is a secret ballot vote according to Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa.\n\nThe options, he said, were to either vote yes, no or present.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nHouse GOP voting whether to keep Jordan as nominee\n\nLawmakers are now leaving the closed-door meeting saying that voting is ongoing on whether Republicans should keep Jordan as their nominee.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nLetter from group who ousted McCarthy included Jordan holdout\n\nThe group of House Republicans who ousted McCarthy sent a letter to the House GOP conference offering to face consequences for removing McCarthy in exchange for putting Jordan in the speaker's chair.\n\nBut one of the GOP lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy is also a Jordan holdout: Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.\n\nThe letter originally included Buck but after the Colorado Republican noticed his signature, the letter removed Buck's name.\n\nRep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the lawmakers who voted to remove McCarthy said it was \"some miscommunication I guess.\"− Ken Tran\n\nHouse Republicans are meeting behind closed-doors\n\nFollowing Jordan's third defeat, House Republicans are huddling behind closed doors at 1 p.m. Friday.\n\n−Ken Tran\n\n8 GOP lawmakers who voted against McCarthy offer to be 'punished'\n\nSpeaking on the Capitol steps, five of the eight GOP lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy said the eight are offering to be punished by the rest of the House GOP conference if it would placate Jordan's holdouts.\n\nReps Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Bob Good, R-Va., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said they would accept any consequences for voting to remove McCarthy.\n\nThose consequences could include removal of committee assignments, censures and/or removal from conference.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nJordan loses third vote for House speaker\n\nJordan lost the third speaker vote, failing to garner enough support behind him and only losing more support among House Republicans.\n\nLike with the second ballot, his detractors only grew in numbers − this time to 25 − making Jordan’s path to the speakership more uncertain.\n\nIt is unclear if a fourth vote will be held and whether lawmakers will stay in session through the weekend.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nHere are the 25 GOP lawmakers who voted against Jordan\n\nSome 25 GOP lawmakers voted against Jordan as speaker. Three of those votes against Jordan are new holdouts who previously supported the Ohio Republican. The 25 are:\n\nRep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.\n\nRep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.\n\nRep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.\n\nRep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore.\n\nRep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y.\n\nRep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.\n\nRep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas\n\nRep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga.\n\nRep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.\n\nRep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y.\n\nRep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla.\n\nRep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas\n\nRep. Kay Granger, R-Fla.\n\nRep. John James, R-Mich.\n\nRep. Tom Kean, R-N.J.\n\nRep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.\n\nRep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va.\n\nRep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.\n\nRep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.\n\nRep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa\n\nRep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y.\n\nRep. John Rutherford, R-Fla.\n\nRep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho\n\nRep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn.\n\nRep. Steve Womack, R-Ark.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nWho are the new GOP lawmakers who flipped against Jordan?\n\nJordan lost even more support on the third ballot, with three new lawmakers opting to support another candidate after initially voting for him before. They are:\n\nRep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.\n\nRep. Tom Kean, R-N.J.\n\nRep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nJordan on track to lose third vote\n\nThe House vote is ongoing, but Jordan is on track to lose a third time.\n\nHe has lost 25 votes so far, which is more than the 22 votes he lost in the second vote and 20 votes he lost in the first vote.\n\n− Candy Woodall\n\nClark nominates Jeffries for speaker\n\nHouse Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., nominated Jeffries for the speakership on behalf of House Democrats. He's earned the most votes this week, but not enough to clinch the win.\n\nClark took aim at Jordan's legislative record, saying the Ohio Republican supports cutting Social Security and Medicare and noting the Ohio Republican has never voted for a farm bill.\n\nJordan, she added, is a \"true threat to our democracy and our Constitution,\" for his vote against certifying Biden's victory in the 2020 election.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nMcCarthy: Jim Jordan is a leader, a listener and a fighter\n\nIn another historic moment in the House, ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy nominated Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the representative to succeed him.\n\n\"Being the speaker is not an easy job, but especially in this conference,\" McCarthy said to a few laughs and light applause.\n\nBut Jordan is the representative for the job, he said.\n\n\"Jim Jordan is a leader, a listener and a fighter,\" McCarthy said.\n\n−Candy Woodall\n\nMcCarthy defends how many bills Jordan has passed\n\nMcCarthy sought to defend the Jordan from Democratic arguments that the Ohio Republican has never passed one of his own bills with his name attached to it.\n\nThe former speaker called Jordan an \"effective legislator\" and \"selfless,\" drawing laughter and jeers from Democrats.\n\nMcCarthy also took aim at House Democrats, singling out Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., for passing only one bill with his name on it, garnering applause from Republicans.\n\nBut in a display of Jordan's uphill battle towards becoming speaker, several GOP lawmakers, including Jordan's holdouts, remained seated even as the majority of the conference gave a standing ovation for McCarthy.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nJeffries: 'Jim Jordan is a clear and present danger to our democracy'\n\nHouse Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries unloaded on the \"national nightmare\" he says his colleagues across the aisle have created in 17 days without a House speaker.\n\nThe GOP nominee who has lost the vote twice, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, is a threat to the nation, according to Jeffries.\n\n\"Jim Jordan is a clear and present danger to our democracy,\" Jeffries said to reporters Friday morning at the Capitol.\n\nThe Democratic leader then rattled off his list of reasons, saying Jordan is a 2020 election denier and \"the poster child for MAGA extremism,\" who wants an abortion ban and to cut Social Security and Medicare.\n\n−Candy Woodall\n\nJordan declines to say whether 2020 election was stolen\n\nJordan, when asked whether he thought the 2020 election was stolen, gave a non-committal answer and said he thought “there were all kinds of problems with the 2020 election.”\n\nOne of Jordan’s holdouts, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., is refusing to support the Ohio Republican for speaker until he acknowledges former President Donald Trump lost in 2020.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nDemocratic leaders consider empowering a temporary speaker\n\nHouse Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he hasn't met with acting speaker Patrick McHenry, but he and other Democratic leaders are open to the idea of empowering him to do the House's business.\n\n\"All options are on the table to get the House back open,\" Jeffries said, responding to a question about whether his caucus would support a plan to empower a speaker pro tempore.\n\nMcHenry has limited powers as interim speaker. It would take a majority of the House and some Democratic votes to give him expanded powers to do things like passing an aid package to Israel or negotiating to avoid a shutdown.\n\nDemocratic Whip Katherine Clark said bipartisanship is the only path forward.\n\n\"Come together,\" she said to Republicans. \"You are weakening this country, you are weakening this institution.\"\n\n−Candy Woodall\n\nJim Jordan press conference today: He's not dropping out\n\nFrom his bully pulpit as chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which has spent most of its time this session trying to impeach Biden, Jordan held a press conference at 8 a.m. to try and attract more support for his speaker bid.\n\nJordan said he was not backing down in his pursuit of the speakership, even as his opposition threatens to grow.\n\n\"We can't open the House without a speaker.\"\n\n−Candy Woodall and Ken Tran\n\nCrenshaw says ‘votes aren’t changing’ for Jordan\n\nLeaving a meeting held by the Texas GOP delegation, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, told reporters the “vote’s aren’t changing” for Jordan ahead of a third speaker election that Jordan is expected to lose.\n\nWhether Jordan should drop out, Crenshaw said, is ultimately the Ohio Republican’s decision, but there’s a “growing sense” that House Republicans will have to find a new candidate to rally behind “quite soon.”\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nGOP lawmaker is slightly more optimistic about electing a new speaker… slightly\n\nRep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters last week he put the odds of the House electing a new speaker by last Friday at 2%.\n\nThis time around, with Jordan as the speaker nominee, he’s feeling a little more optimistic about electing a new speaker by the end of the day: he’s putting the odds at 30%.\n\n“It still isn’t 50%,” Massie quipped.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nWill House stay in session this weekend to elect a speaker?\n\nJordan and his allies have hinted on social media and during a press conference Friday that the House will not take the weekend off if there's no speaker.\n\nThe House Judiciary chair said during his news conference today he hopes the lower chamber will elect a new speaker \"this weekend,\" suggesting there could be more elections to come.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nWhat happened to the speaker of the House?\n\nThe House has been without a speaker since Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was removed from the position more than two weeks ago.\n\nIn a move led by conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., eight Republicans were joined by House Democrats in a vote to oust him. Gaetz and a handful of hardliners were angry with McCarthy for striking a bipartisan compromise to avoid a government shutdown.\n\nMcCarthy's nine-month speakership started in turmoil, outlasting 15 historic rounds of voting to be elected in January. To get the gavel, he made several concessions, including a rule allowing any one member to call for the vote to remove McCarthy.\n\nGaetz used that rule to remove McCarthy from the top position in the House with no viable plan to replace him.\n\n−Candy Woodall\n\nHouse without a speaker: Will Jordan lose again?\n\nWithout a speaker, the House has been in a state of paralysis, unable to pass any legislation. Lawmakers in the lower chamber can't take up crucial funding to avoid a government shutdown or approve aid to Israel as the war with Hamas continues.\n\nRepublicans appeared close to finally getting the House moving again Wednesday morning, as they considered temporarily empowering Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., as an interim speaker. But those plans fell through amidst wide-ranging disagreements within the GOP conference.\n\nJordan is expected to lose his third speaker election, and it is unclear whether he will drop out of the race.\n\n−Ken Tran\n\nBiden’s foreign aid package can’t pass House without a speaker\n\nBiden’s request for foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the U.S.-Mexico border, which totals almost $100 billion, is unable to pass the House without a speaker.\n\nThe House, which is in its 17th day without a speaker, has been unable to take any legislative action. There is a sense of urgency to elect a new speaker among lawmakers so the House can pass a foreign aid package for Israel, a key U.S. ally, but House Republicans have been unable to coalesce behind a speaker despite the calls for decisive action.\n\n− Ken Tran\n\nWhat was the plan to empower McHenry?\n\nHouse Republicans huddled behind closed doors for over three hours to discuss a resolution from Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, that would have temporarily empowered McHenry as an interim speaker to get the House moving again.\n\nThe move would have allowed Jordan to continue building support for his speakership bid on the sidelines while the House works on crucial legislation to avert a government shutdown and address the Israel-Hamas war.\n\nBut the plans ultimately fell through as it became apparent a sizable number of members opposed the path. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who was critical of the resolution, estimated half of House Republicans were against empowering McHenry.\n\n– Ken Tran", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/politics/biden-news-conference-midterms/index.html", "title": "Biden says midterm vote was a 'good day for democracy' and notes ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nIn his first speech since polls closed around the country Tuesday night, President Joe Biden called out detractors who he said doubted his “incessant optimism” about Democrats’ ability to stave off resounding Republican wins in the midterm elections – even as his presidency is now likely entering a new period of divided government.\n\nThe results, he said during a press conference at the White House Wednesday, are a sign American democracy is intact, despite coming under threat over the past several years.\n\n“We had an election yesterday,” Biden said. “And it was a good day, I think, for democracy.”\n\n“Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are,” he continued, adding that “while the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen.”\n\nThe results were neither the “thumping” George W. Bush described during his own post-midterms press conference in 2006 nor the “shellacking’” Barack Obama said Democrats endured in 2010.\n\nInstead, the failure of a so-called “red wave” to materialize Tuesday night had Biden appearing confident, reflecting the mood of Democrats, including those inside the White House, who are feeling enthused and vindicated following an election season where the president’s political aptitude was questioned. At the time of Biden’s remarks, CNN has not been able to project the future majorities of the House or the Senate.\n\nThe president did concede that the results are not a ringing endorsement of his approach. Voters, he said, “were also clear that they are still frustrated. I get it. I understand it’s been a really tough few years this country for so many people.”\n\n“While any seat lost is painful … Democrats had a strong night. And we lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in the last 40 years. We had the best midterm for governors since 1986,” Biden remarked.\n\nThe president, who turns 80 later this month, also said he is not in “any hurry” to announce a bid for reelection in 2024, reiterating that his timeline remains “early next year.”\n\n“Our intention is to run again. That’s been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was,” he told reporters. Still, Biden added, he’s “a great respecter of fate,” calling another run “a family decision.\n\n“I think everybody wants me to run, but we’re gonna have discussions about it,” he said.\n\nAnd Biden had a message to those opposed to another presidential bid: “Watch me.”\n\nThe future of both parties\n\nThe president said he will be inviting leaders of both parties in Congress to the White House to discuss where they can work together when he returns from his upcoming overseas trip, adding that he’s prepared to work with elected Republicans on a number of issues. “The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me, as well,” he added.\n\nStill, Biden drew a red line on a number of Republican proposals, saying he’d veto legislation he thinks could make inflation worse, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as any attempt to introduce a national ban on abortion.\n\nBiden said he plans to speak with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – who is mounting a run for House speaker – later on Wednesday.\n\nThe results appeared more likely to prompt soul-searching among Republicans than Democrats, as former President Donald Trump teases an imminent announcement that he is running for the White House again. Many of the candidates Trump endorsed in toss-up races lost or were locked in contests that were too early to call.\n\nFor his part, Biden said on Wednesday that he does not plan to do anything differently in the second half of his presidential term. Instead, he said as his agenda items begin taking effect, Americans would come to see their benefit.\n\n“They’re just finding out what we’re doing,” the president said. “The more they know about what we’re doing, the more support there is.”\n\nStill, Biden and his team still face the prospect of a difficult two years of governing should Republicans seize control of the House. The President’s agenda would likely be sharply curtailed without a Democratic majority. And Republicans have promised investigations into Biden’s administration and family.\n\nBiden said he believes the American public wants the government to “move on and get things done for them,” not lead investigations into him, his family or his administration.\n\n“It’s just, almost comedy,” Biden said of the possible probes. “I can’t control what they’re going to do. All I can do is continue to try to make life better for the American people.”\n\nExit polls also indicated still-simmering dissatisfaction among voters at the country’s economic health. Around three-quarters of voters nationally said the economy is “poor” or “not good,” and the same share said that inflation has caused them severe or moderate hardship. About two-thirds said that gas prices have been causing them hardship.\n\nVoters have a dour view about the way things are going in the country generally, with more than 7 in 10 saying they are “dissatisfied” or “angry.”\n\nFor the president, improving the country’s pervasive dark mood will be an ongoing challenge despite Democrats outperforming expectations Tuesday. Without a majority in the House, his tools to accomplish that will be more limited.\n\nBiden spent most of his campaign season focused on economic issues, including areas he’d taken action to reduce costs. But he drew some criticism, including from some Democrats, for expanding his closing message to including abortion rights and a defense of democracy.\n\nHeading into Tuesday, Biden advisers were prepared to defend the tactic and were prepared with historic data showing Democrats faring better this year than in previous midterm cycles, which typically result in losses for the sitting president’s party.\n\nUltimately, however, Biden is likely to avoid the finger-pointing and second-guessing. Even with the House losses, this year’s results are among the best for the party in power in recent memory.\n\nBy comparison, Democrats lost 54 seats in 1994, when President Bill Clinton was in office. And Obama’s first midterm election saw his party lose 63 seats.\n\nBiden addresses foreign policy issues and Elon Musk’s influence\n\nSpeaking in front of the press on Wednesday, Biden addressed challenges with two of the nation’s biggest foreign adversaries – China and Russia.\n\nBiden said the timing of Russia’s announcement on retreating from the city of Kherson, Ukraine, was “interesting.”\n\n“I find it interesting they waited until after the election to make that judgment, which we knew for some time they were going to be doing, and it’s evidence of the fact that they have some real problems – the Russian military,” Biden said. He added that where the withdrawal leads and “whether or not Ukraine is prepared to compromise with Russia” remain to be seen.\n\nBiden also said he was told that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not likely to attend the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia. He also told reporters that he’s hopeful Putin will be more willing to discuss the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who remains detained in Russia, now that the elections are over.\n\nBiden confirmed expected talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at next week’s G20 summit. Biden said he’s not planning to make any “fundamental concessions” and that they will discuss the economy and trade. But he declined to reveal what his message would be on US military support to Taiwan should China move on the self-governing island.\n\n“I’m gonna have that conversation with him,” Biden added, noting that they’ll lay out “what each of our red lines are.”\n\nThe president also told reporters that Twitter owner Elon Musk’s relationship with other countries was “worthy of being looked at,” but declined to say how that could be done.\n\n“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate,” Biden said, when asked if Musk was a threat to national security. “But that’s all (I’ll) say.”", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak Maegan Vazquez", "Kevin Liptak", "Maegan Vazquez"], "publish_date": "2022/11/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/09/27/gop-republican-debate-live-updates/70982273007/", "title": "Republican debate highlights: Details of candidates' fierce sparring", "text": "SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Republican presidential candidates gathered in California on Wednesday for the second GOP primary debate of the 2024 election season.\n\nThe seven candidates who qualified for the event in Simi Valley battled over issues ranging from abortion rights in American to the war in Ukraine and healthcare costs. The White House hopefuls addressed the spread of fentanyl in the United States and workers' rights.\n\nBut the debate also turned personal Former President Donald Trump didn't attend the debate, but his Republican rivals took time to launch new attacks against the GOP frontrunner. As former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sparred with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, she told him to \"bring it\" on the debate stage.\n\nThe Republican hopefuls started off the debate by discussing the United Auto Workers strike, with several criticizing President Joe Biden for joining the workers on the picket line earlier this week.\n\nSen. Tim Scott showed a feistier side in this debate, taking on Vivek Ramaswamy for having done business with China.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis jabbed at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for not participating in the debate. \"Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be here,\" DeSantis said.\n\nChris Christie: Kick Donald Trump 'off the island'\n\nNone of the Republican debaters wanted to vote one of their fellow candidates \"off the island,\" though Chris Christie suggested running Donald Trump out of the GOP primary.\n\n\"This guy has not only divided our party, he's divided families all over this country,\" Christie said. \"He needs to be taken out of this process.\"\n\nOther candidates balked at the last question of the evening, one borrowed from the game show \"Survivor:\" Who would you vote \"off the island.\"\n\nDeSantis voiced his objection, calling it \"disrespectful\" to the candidates who showed up to the debate.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nRon DeSantis takes on Donald Trump over abortion\n\n“He should be here,” Ron DeSantis said of Donald Trump during Wednesday's debate, calling on the former president to explain his stance on abortion.\n\nTrump recently called the Florida governor’s six-week abortion ban “a terrible mistake” and refused to state his position on a federal ban, while on NBC’s Meet the Press.\n\nDeSantis, who has also fielded criticism from anti-abortion advocates for not taking a strong enough national abortion stance, called out Democrats for what he said are extremist abortion rights positions.\n\n“We’re better off when everybody counts,” he said.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\n'Bring it, Tim:' South Carolina candidates Haley, Scott argue about experience\n\nThe two South Carolina candidates in this race went after each other over who has the better experience: Former Gov. Nikki Haley or current Sen. Tim Scott.\n\n\"Twelve years - where have you been?\" Haley asked Scott, citing the Senate's uneven record on issues like debt and federal spending.\n\nScott responded that Haley's experience as governor is inadequate, and the two drowned out each other in argument. It was broken up by DeSantis, who touted his own record as governor of Florida.\n\nHaley shot back at Scott \"Bring it, Tim.\"\n\nBoth Haley and Scott are aiming for the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24 - if they can make it that far.\n\n– David Jackson and Sudiksha Kochi\n\nNikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy spar over Ukraine, China\n\nAnother fight broke out between Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy over foreign policy, this time over Russia’s war against Ukraine, as he said the candidates need to “level with the American people” on the issue.\n\n“Just because…Putin’s an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good,” he said, bringing up the country’s ban on 11 political parties with ties to Russia.\n\nInterrupting him, Haley said, “A win for Russia is a win for China.” She added, “But I forgot, you like China.”\n\nRamaswamy hit back that “hurling personal insults” were not helping.\n\nMike Pence also got in on the action, arguing that letting Russian President Vladimir Putin have Ukraine would be a “greenlight” to China to invade Taiwan. “Peace comes through strength,” Pence responded, in a nod to Reagan.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nNikki Haley criticizes Donald Trump on his handling of China\n\nNikki Haley, who served as an ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, took a jab at her former boss for his handling of China.\n\nShe said that she would end all normal trade relations with China until it stops contributing to the spread of fentanyl.\n\n“This is where President Trump went wrong,” Haley said. “He focused on trade with China. He didn't focus on the fact that they were buying up our farm and he didn't focus on the fact that they were killing Americans. He didn't focus on the fact that they were stealing $600 billion in intellectual property.”\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nNikki Haley tells Vivek Ramaswamy 'Every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber'\n\nVivek Ramaswamy tried to defuse the biggest criticism of him: That he's a young and arrogant \"know-it-all\" who doesn't know what he's talking about.\n\n\"I'm here to tell you, I don’t know it all,\" Ramaswamy said, adding that he knows how to use staff and develop a strong organization.\n\nHis rivals didn't seem convinced, especially Haley.\n\nNoting that Ramaswamy has joined TikTok while pledging to confront Chinese spying, Haley told the upstart candidate: \"Every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nMike Pence: ‘I’ll stand up for the safety and the civil liberties of every American’\n\nWhen asked how he would protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination and violent attacks, Mike Pence said “I’ll stand up for the safety and the civil liberties of every American from every background.”\n\nBut Pence quickly turned to transgender children and their rights at school.\n\n“We've got to empower parents at the state level with the ability to choose where the kids go to school, whether it's public, private, parochial or homeschool,” Pence said. “You empower parents, and our schools will straighten up and reflect our values and focus on the basics faster than you can possibly imagine.”\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\n'How it's done': Ron DeSantis touts education record\n\nRon DeSantis answered controversy around Florida’s new history curriculum, which requires teachers to instruct students on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” The Florida governor called criticism and response to the change a “hoax” led by Vice President Kamala Harris.\n\nDeSantis turned his comments to Florida’s other education policies, including the Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents. The law bans instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-12.\n\n“Florida is showing how it’s done,” DeSantis said, boasting his administration’s focus parents’ rights and having “eliminated critical race theory.”\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nMike Pence takes on 'former running mate' Trump\n\nMike Pence also got in a few digs at Donald Trump on Wednesday, faulting him for proposals that would expand government.\n\nReferring to the ex-president as \"my former running mate,\" Pence said that \"Donald Trump has a plan to consolidate more power to the government.\"\n\nIt looked like a planned attack: Pence dragged in Trump after a question about whether former President Barack Obama's health care would survive all Republican efforts to repeal it. However, Pence did not address Obamacare.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nNikki Haley calls for transparency in the healthcare system\n\nNikki Haley told a story about her mother being in the hospital, and when healthcare workers tried to bring her Tylenol and she refused, they said ‘honey, go ahead and take it because you're paying for it anyway.’\n\n“Why is it that when we got the bill, the insurance company in the hospital negotiated the bill for her without her having anything to do with it?” Haley said. “When I'm president, we will bring all that from the insurance company to the hospitals.\n\n\"We will make it all transparent because when you do that, you realize that's what the problem is,\" Haley added.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nVivek Ramaswamy: Address fentanyl crisis by sealing border, addressing mental health\n\nWhen asked how he would stop fentanyl brought into the country through ports of entry, Vivek Ramaswamy said that there’s two sides to the issue: seal the southern border and address the mental health epidemic in America.\n\nHe referenced two parents he met whose son died after buying Percocet on Snapchat.\n\n“It is our job to make sure that never happens,” Ramaswamy said. “But it's also our job to make sure that 17 year olds don't turn to Percocet via Snapchat. We have to bring back mental health care in this country, not with pumping pharmaceuticals but with faith based approaches.”\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nMore politics, in your inbox. Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter.\n\n'Donald Duck': Chris Christie calls out Donald Trump for absence\n\nWhile answering a question on crime rates in America, Chris Christie took time to address Donald Trump directly, calling him too afraid to join the debate stage.\n\n“We’re going to call you Donald Duck,” Christie, who turned directly to the camera to address the former president, said Wednesday night.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nTim Scott criticizes Vivek Ramaswamy after he says he's not ‘bought and paid for’\n\nIn the first Republican debate, Vivek Ramaswamy said that he was the only GOP candidate “not bought and paid for.” Scott invoked those comments in the Wednesday's debate when he criticized Ramaswamy over business in China.\n\nRamaswamy pushed back by saying that while he opened a subsidiary in China, what he did differently from other companies is that he “got the hell out of there.”\n\nWhat's the CCP? It's a reference to the Chinese Communist Party\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nRon DeSantis: Donald Trump is 'missing in action'\n\nFollowing Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis also invoked Donald Trump's absence from the debate by saying that Biden and others are \"missing in action\" when it comes to national leadership.\n\n\"You know who else is missing in action?\" DeSantis said, referencing the former president's choice to skip the second GOP debate. \"Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be here!\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\n'Missing in action':Ron DeSantis blast Donald Trump for skipping the GOP presidential debate\n\nVivek Ramaswamy veers from Tim Scott, sides with workers\n\nWhile saying he agrees with the “spirit” of Tim Scott’s comments on the ongoing UAW strike, Vivek Ramaswamy added that he sympathizes with workers.\n\n“I understand that hardship is not a choice,” Ramaswamy said, referencing his own family and upbringing. He added, though, that he believes “victimhood\" is a choice and told workers to picket outside the White House in Washington in a message to President Joe Biden.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nMike Pence: Joe Biden should be on the unemployment line, not the picket line\n\nFormer Vice President Mike Pence pulls out the first pre-planned line of the night, saying that Biden \"doesn't belong on the picket line - he belongs on the unemployment line.\"\n\nLike the other candidates, Pence hits Biden for the condition of the economy. The group of GOP hopefuls quickly zeroed in on inflation, jobs and other economic issues.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nTim Scott weighs in on UAW strike, blasts Biden\n\nTim Scott, when asked about his previous comments that striking workers should be fired, said that the president can’t fire anyone in the private sector.\n\nHowever, he criticized workers for wanting additional benefits and fewer hours, saying that this will simply not stand.\n\nHe also blasted Biden for being on the picket line in Michigan to show support to striking autoworkers and said the president should be at the southern border instead.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nDonald Trump praises unions, attacks Joe Biden, mocks GOP rivals before debate\n\nSeeking to divert attention from a debate among his Republican opponents, Donald Trump traveled to Michigan for a speech extolling union members, attacking President Joe Biden, and mocking his GOP campaign opponents.\n\n\"You know, we're competing with the job candidates,\" Trump said at one point during an event in Clinton Township, Mich., adding he didn't even see a potential vice president or Cabinet secretary in the group.\n\nTrump designed his speech on \"economic nationalism\" to take advantage of the ongoing auto workers strike. He blamed it on Biden, saying his emphasis on electric cars will lead to the elimination of auto workers' jobs.\n\n\"Yesterday, Joe Biden came to Michigan to pose for photos at the picket line,\" Trump said. \"But it's his policies that send Michigan auto workers to the unemployment line!\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nTim Scott needs a breakout moment. Will this debate be his chance?\n\nTim Scott, who is lagging in the Republican primary polls, struggled to have a breakout moment on stage in the last debate, often disappearing into the background as other candidates sparred over issues like Ukraine aid and abortion.\n\nThis debate, however, could look different.\n\nModerators could contrast Scott's positions with Nikki Haley, since both candidates are from South Carolina. The senator will also likely face questions about a complaint filed by the UAW over his comments supporting the idea that striking workers should be fired.\n\nBut Scott has said he doesn’t think he needs a standout moment on stage in the second debate\n\n“What I need to do is continue to do what I have been doing — showing up,” Scott told “Fox News Sunday.”\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nRepublican debate fact check: Follow along live\n\nWas that fair criticism or cherry-picked data? An accurate description or a baseless conspiracy theory?\n\nThe USA TODAY Fact Check Team will dig into key claims from the candidates as they make them during tonight’s Republican primary debate. Follow our live fact-check file as we dig through the data, documents and transcripts to sort fact from fiction.\n\nGOP debate live fact check: What the candidates get right – and wrong\n\n– Eric Litke\n\nWill the economy take center stage?\n\nThe Republican candidates onstage in California will likely spend swaths of the debate talking about jobs, inflation and other economic issues impacting Americans' wallets.\n\nAnd one of the sponsors of the debate is the Fox Business Network, so expect a lot of discussion of the economy. You can also expect a lot of attacks on President Joe Biden on these issues, many of which will follow the campaign for the next 13-and-a-half months.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nUkraine war a pressure point for the GOP field\n\nThe Ukraine war could prove to be fertile ground for the group of presidential hopefuls to differentiate themselves.\n\nSupport for U.S. military assistance to Ukraine is flagging inside the GOP electorate with Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army making slow progress. Still, any suggestion that Ukraine is at fault for Russia’s violation of its sovereignty is likely to drive away establishment Republican voters.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ description of the conflict as a “territorial dispute” helped fuel his decline, even though he later backtracked the comment and called Putin a “war criminal.” Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also come under scrutiny for his views, including a previous proposal to allow Putin to keep parts of eastern Ukraine.\n\nFormer U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the candidates who say that stopping Putin is vital to U.S. national security and helps to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nRepublican debate in the shadows\n\nThe Ronald Reagan presidential library is nestled in the mountains of Simi Valley, Calif., but the candidates who debate here Wednesday night will be in some political shadows.\n\nAs much or more attention is being given to Donald Trump's speech in Michigan, and a prospective government shutdown is also soaking up media coverage.\n\nThat means the GOP challengers will have to work extra hard to get attention, perhaps on the topics of Trump and the shutdown.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nRepublican candidates on immigration\n\nOfficials in New York City and San Diego have recently warned about the migrant crisis in their cities that have overwhelmed shelters, schools and other services.\n\nAnd Republican White House hopefuls will likely discuss immigration and the U.S. southern border during Wednesday's debate.\n\nOne candidate has already vowed to bring up the issue. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday that his first action if elected to the White House will be to send the National Guard to the border. He has also criticized Trump and Biden’s border policies and said he would be the only candidate willing to address the issue head on at the second debate.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nAnd then there were 7: Asa Hutchinson, other candidates aren't debating in Simi Valley\n\nThe debate stage in Simi Valley will be a little less crowded than the last time the GOP candidates went up against one another.\n\nFormer Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson barely made the August debate and did not meet the threshold for the September match. He’ll be watching on Wednesday evening from a Washington, D.C. hotel.\n\nHe is the only candidate who qualified for the first debate who missed the mark the second time.\n\nFormer GOP Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, pastor Ryan Binkley, radio host Larry Elder and businessman Perry Johnson have not qualified for any of the primary debates yet.\n\nGOP frontrunner Donald Trump has met the donor and polling requirements, but he has declined to go head-to-head with his opponents so far.\n\n– Francesca Chambers\n\nGOP candidates try to appeal to \"maybe Trump\" voters while he's in Michigan\n\nThe Republican debaters are looking for any slivers of good news in the polls, and they found a little bit this week: Many self-proclaimed Trump voters also say they are open to other candidates.\n\nIn Iowa and New Hampshire, \"most voters are still considering multiple candidates,\" CBS News said about its most recent survey of those states. These \"maybe Trump\" voters will be big targets in the debate.\n\nMany of the Republican presidential candidates have hesitated to criticize Trump for fear of alienating the many Republican voters who have backed him in the past. Those are voters they'll need if they are to somehow wrest the GOP presidential nomination away from him in 2024.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWill there be a Democratic primary debate?\n\nJoe Biden probably won't take the debate stage with his Democratic rivals.\n\nIf an incumbent president is running, political parties usually rally around that person's reelection bid. There's no formal rule, but at this point, Biden is the de facto Democratic nominee.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nGavin Newsom: Republican debate is ‘vice presidential debate at best’\n\nThe second Republican presidential primary debate is nothing more than a try out to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024. At least that’s how California Gov. Gavin Newsom sees things.\n\n“This is a vice presidential debate at best,” he told CBS News. “This is the JV team.”\n\nNewsom, whose state is where Wednesday’s discussion is taking place, has been a surrogate for the Biden campaign and has vigorously defended the president and Democratic Party's record. He emphasized how Trump is “running away” with the primary in every poll.\n\n“This is the XFL, and it’s entertainment, I guess,” he said.\n\nNewsom is also set to debate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later this year in Georgia in a Fox News event\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nHow will the Republican candidates line up?\n\nThere's a new debate lineup tonight, and not just because there are only seven candidates on stage.\n\nJust like the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, poll averages helped determine where the candidates will stand on stage: Nikki Haley and Tim Scott have moved up, while Mike Pence has moved down.\n\nOnce again, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy are listed first and second, and will be in the middle of the pack on stage at the Ronald Reagan library.\n\nHaley and Tim Scott will be on either side of those first two, in the 3 and 4 slots. Chris Christie is in the fifth position, Pence is in sixth, and the late-qualifying Doug Burgum is in seventh.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWhich candidates would pardon former President Trump?\n\nFormer President Donald Trump is facing four sets of criminal charges, and it has raised questions among his GOP rivals of whether they would pardon the former president if they're elected president − and he's found guilty.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy, who has defended Trump on the campaign trail, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have leaned towards a pardon, though Haley noted in interviews that the discussions were still premature.\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated he would be pursuing pardons aggressively if he's elected but hasn’t given a definitive answer on Trump. Former Vice President Mike Pence said pardons would only be appropriate to weigh if Trump was found guilty.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nDoug Burgum will appear on the debate stage - this time without an injured leg\n\nNorth Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, the final candidate to qualify for the debate, will appear on stage with six other candidates vying for the Republican nomination. But with this debate, he won't have just injured his leg.\n\nBurgum, 67, was rushed to a emergency room after he tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball a day before the first GOP debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last month. But he still made it on stage the next day.\n\n“I think I took them a little too literally when they said go to Milwaukee and break a leg,” he joked on stage that day.\n\nSudiksha Kochi\n\nWill Republican candidates clash with Ramaswamy again?\n\nVivek Ramaswamy will again be near the center of the debate stage, ensuring high-profile skirmishes with other candidates, according to Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan and co-author of \"Debating The Donald.\"\n\nIn the last debate, many candidates sparred with Ramaswamy over his lack of experience and some of his controversial stances on foreign policy and former President Donald Trump’s indictments, which will likely resurface in the second debate.\n\nRamaswamy has leaned on ultra-conservative values to try to appeal to voters, but he has also reached out to younger Republicans as the youngest Republican candidate in the field.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nGOP debate live updates:Republicans face off for 2nd time at Ronald Reagan library\n\nWhere do the Republican candidates stand on abortion?\n\nNikki Haley reiterated her abortion stance in the first Republican debate, arguing that leaders need to find consensus on the issue, including agreeing to not jail women who have the procedure. A self-described “pro-life” candidate, Haley said Republicans need to be honest about a national ban, which would require 60 votes in the Senate.\n\nMike Pence, abortion’s harshest opponent among the Republican candidates, took immediate issue with Haley’s comments during the event, saying abortion is “a moral issue.”\n\nMost Republican candidates, including Chris Christie and Doug Burgum, have dodged the question by saying they would leave the issues to the states.\n\nRon DeSantis has touted his record on the issue as Florida governor, having signed a statewide six-week ban into law earlier this year.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nNikki Haley seeks to keep the debate spotlight\n\nMany Republicans said Nikki Haley \"won\" the first debate − she certainly garnered the best reviews − and they are watching to see if the former South Carolina governor can do it again.\n\nAfter the Aug. 23 set-to in Milwaukee, Haley saw a spike in fundraising and poll numbers. She passed DeSantis for second place in a few national and state polls.\n\nThat may make her a target tonight for other Republican candidates, as the former United Nations ambassador seeks to make it two in a row.\n\n\"America deserves a choice, not an echo,\" Haley said in a pre-debate post on the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWhere do the Republican candidates stand on transgender rights?\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed multiple anti-trans bills in Florida earlier this year targeted at gender-affirming care for minors, instruction of gender identity in schools and more.\n\nHe isn’t alone among the Republican candidates. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a law that allows schools and government employees to ignore pronouns that transgender individuals use.\n\nOther GOP candidates have also been vocally opposed to transgender rights. Biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has made disparaging remarks about transgender individuals, and former Vice President Mike Pence said he wouldn’t allow transgender Americans to serve in the military.\n\nFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stands apart. He has said he opposes transgender health care bans, along with other measures.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nWhat are the candidates saying about Donald Trump's criminal indictments?\n\nDonald Trump’s four sets of criminal charges in both federal and state cases have led some of his rivals to fiercely defend him – while others have knocked him.\n\nBiotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has taken the former position, alleging without evidence that the indictments are politically motivated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have also condemned the indictments on the campaign trail.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have largely dodged questions about the indictments.\n\nMeanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, two of Trump's most vocal critics, have argued that the Republican Party can't stand behind Trump. Former Vice President Mike Pence said in response to federal allegations that Trump tried to steal the 2020 presidential election that anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should not be president.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nRepublican debate moderator Dana Perino: The 'rubber meets the road' for GOP debaters\n\nFor students of political history, one of tonight's debate moderators will look familiar: She's a former White House press secretary.\n\nDana Perino, the chief spokeswoman for President George W. Bush and now a Fox News host, says tonight's showdown is where \"the rubber meets the road\" for GOP candidates who are struggling to catch the front-running Trump.\n\n\"This is the moment where all of them realize, 'if I don't have some sort of break-out moment to show that I could be the rival, the alternative to President Trump, their campaigns probably start to lose even more steam,'\" Perino told Fox News Sunday.\n\nThe other moderators tonight are Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney and Univision anchor Ilia Calderón.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nConservative Supreme Court could factor into debate\n\nSeven years ago, during the first GOP debate of the 2016 election, the Supreme Court was criticized by several candidates. “It's time that we recognize the Supreme Court is not the supreme being,” then candidate Mike Huckabee quipped. What a difference a few years makes. The nation’s highest court, which today is more conservative than it has been in decades, has already factored into the GOP primary. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump have swiped at each other over whether the bench is conservative enough. Earlier this year, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy released a list of candidates he said he would nominate to the court, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. – John Fritze\n\nNikki Haley, Tim Scott and others oppose student debt forgiveness\n\nEarlier this year, the Supreme Court had struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt for hundreds of Americans, a move that many of the 2024 GOP candidates applauded.\n\nFormer South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wrote on X that a president “cannot just wave his hand and eliminate loans for students he favors.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has supported legislation prohibiting Biden from cancelling student loan debt.\n\nLikewise, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy supported the court’s decision.\n\n“We have a bad habit in America of paying people to do the exact opposite of what we want them to do: more $$ to stay at home than to work, more $$ to be a single mother than married, more $$ for those who *fail* to repay loans than those who do,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nWhen is the third Republican debate?\n\nThe third Republican debate will be held in Miami on Nov. 8, the day after Election Day 2023.\n\nThe Republican National Committee announced that the requirements to participate in the debate will the strictest yet: participating candidates must secure 4% of the vote in multiple polls and 70,000 unique donors.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nRepublican primary polls: Trump still leads, DeSantis a distant second\n\nDonald Trump continues to lead Republican primary polls by about 40 points in most national surveys heading into the debate night. The frontrunner will not be on the stage, though, opting instead to hold a rally for United Auto Workers members in Detroit.\n\nSecond and far behind Trump in polls is Ron DeSantis, who will stand at the center of the debate stage. Next in the polls, each less than ten points behind DeSantis and standing on either side of him on stage, are Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.\n\nMike Pence and Chris Christie are close behind Ramaswamy in most polls, followed by Tim Scott and Doug Burgum.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nRepublican debate ratings ahead of 2024\n\nMillions of Americans may be tuning into the GOP debate on Wednesday night Approximately 12.8 million people watched the first Republican presidential primary debate last month, when GOP candidates faced off in Milwaukee.\n\nEight Republican candidates pitched their vision for the country’s future during the event, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Vice President Mike Pence.\n\nCandidates focused on issues like climate change, the war in Ukraine and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. But the debate also got personal, with Republican hopefuls targeting Ramaswamy’s lack of political experience, Haley’s perspective on abortion restrictions in the U.S. and more.\n\nDonald Trump did not participate in the event, instead opting for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nPolitical groups divide their forces between Trump speech, non-Trump debate\n\nSome political interest groups seem more interested in Donald Trump’s speech in Michigan this week than in the challengers' debate in California.\n\nFor example: American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive group, financed a plane to fly over the site of Trump's union event with a banner saying \"Trump Sold Us Out.\"\n\n“It’s obvious that, barring something drastic, Donald Trump is going to be the GOP nominee next year,\" said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century. \"The Republicans on the debate stage know that, too.\"\n\nGroups that flooded Milwaukee for the first Republican debate are not much in evidence in Simi Valley, though the Reagan library is a fairly remote location compared to Wisconsin's Fiserv Forum.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWhere is the second Republican debate?\n\nThe seven Republican presidential candidates will take the stage in Simi Valley, California, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.\n\nNorthwest of Los Angeles, the library opened in 1991 with a ceremony that at the time boasted the largest ever gathering of former presidents and their families. The site is also the final resting place for the 40th president and his wife, Nancy Reagan.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nWhy is Donald Trump not debating?\n\nNo, Donald Trump won’t go head-to-head with his Republican rivals on Wednesday night.\n\nInstead, Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, is traveling to Michigan to speak with supporters in a battleground state. It's also the epicenter of the ongoing United Auto Workers strike, where workers are protesting the nation's largest auto companies.\n\nTrump also skipped the first Republican debate last month, explaining that he didn’t want to give opponents free shots at him.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nFox's Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, UNIVISION's Ilia Calderón are moderating\n\nFox News Media's Stuart Varney and Dana Perino and UNIVISION's Ilia Calderón will co-moderate the second Republican presidential primary debate.\n\nCalderón will be the first Afro-Latina to moderate a Republican Primary Debate, according to the network.\n\n– Anthony Robledo\n\nGOP debate participants\n\nSeven Republican candidates are expected to participate in the Wednesday debate: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.\n\nArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who qualified for the first GOP debate last month, did not make the stage this time.\n\nFormer GOP Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, pastor Ryan Binkley, radio host Larry Elder and businessman Perry Johnson did not qualify for the first or second debate.\n\n– Sudiksha Kochi\n\nHow to watch the Republican debate tonight? What channel is it on?\n\nFox Business Network and Univision will broadcast the second Republican presidential primary debate. It will air at will air at 9 p.m. Eastern.\n\nThe RNC will also stream the event on video-sharing platform Rumble.\n\n– Anthony Robledo\n\nWhen does the Republican debate start?\n\nThe second GOP presidential primary debate will take place Wednesday, Sept. 27, will air at 9 p.m. Eastern.\n\nThe Republican candidates are set take the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday as they continue vying for their party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential race.\n\nFox Business Network and Univision will broadcast the second Republican presidential primary debate.\n\n– Anthony Robledo", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/09/27"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_1", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:29", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20240105_2", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:29", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2024/01/02/luke-littler-world-darts-championship-teen-finalist/72089916007/", "title": "16-year-old Luke Littler is in the darts world championship final", "text": "A 16-year-old is making waves at the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace in London.\n\nLuke Littler took down two-time European Championship winner Rob Cross in order to secure a spot in the World Championship Finals.\n\nWhen did Littler start playing darts?\n\nCasually? Probably as soon as he developed motor function.\n\nBut competitively, Littler won the England Youth Grand Prix and Isle of Man Masters youth competition in 2019. He was even able to defend his title in the latter of those events in 2020.\n\nLittler won his first seniors title in November 2022, claiming first place at the Irish Open.\n\nHow did Littler qualify for the PDC World Championship?\n\nLittler qualified for the event based on his production in the PDC Development Tour. He actually set two records on tour, including youngest winner and highest average score for a first-year member.\n\nDuring the PDC Championship, Littler has been able to take down multiple champions including five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld and 2023 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding.\n\nRob Cross, Littler's semi-final matchup, was the highest-rated player that Littler had ever faced. He beat him 6-2.\n\nWho will Littler face in the finals?\n\nThe finals, set for January 3, 2024, will be between Littler and 2023 World Grand Prix champion Luke Humphries. Humphries is also the reigning Players Champion. Humphries took down Michael van Gerwen to claim victory in that event.\n\nIronically, van Gerwen is the current record holder for the youngest PDC World Championship title holder. He won his first world championship in 2014 at the age of 24. Littler, should he win, would blow that record out of the water.\n\nHas Littler participated in any other major tournaments?\n\nLittler participated in two World Darts Federation (WDF) events back in 2022. Littler did not win either event though. He was eliminated in the third round of both the World Championship and the World Masters.\n\nNFL News:Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper fined by NFL for throwing drink into stands", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2024/01/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_3", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:29", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2023/11/02/storm-ciaran-batters-western-europe-france-uk/71419773007/", "title": "Storm Ciarán batters France, UK with powerful winds, flooding", "text": "At least seven people were killed, more than 1 million households were in the dark, and trees were toppled as Storm Ciarán brought winds of over 100 mph to Western Europe overnight into Thursday.\n\nWinds of up to 118 mph battered the northern tip of France’s Atlantic coast, blowing out windows and uprooting trees that blocked roads, and massive waves slammed French ports and shorelines.\n\nMore than 1 million French households were without power Thursday, and electrical company Enedis said 3,000 workers were needed to restore services. Thousands more people lost power in the United Kingdom.\n\nThe storm snarled transportation systems: Local trains across western France canceled service, and all roads in the Finistère region of Brittany were closed Thursday morning. Several trains and flights were canceled in Spain.\n\n\"We see how roads can be fatal in these circumstances,\" Transport Minister Clement Beaune told broadcaster France-Info.\n\nHundreds of schools were shuttered Thursday in Cornwall and Devon, coastal communities in southwest England where flooding and downed trees blocked commutes.\n\nCiarán will continue to affect Western Europe through the end of the week, and the heaviest rainfall was expected across northwestern Spain, the southwestern and northern coast of France and parts of northern Italy, according to AccuWeather.\n\nOfficials say 7 killed in storm\n\nOfficials in multiple Western European countries said at least seven people were killed in the storm as of Thursday.\n\nA truck driver in northern France was killed when his truck was hit by a tree, Beaune said. In Spain, emergency services in Madrid said a woman died when a tree fell on her Thursday. A tree that fell in Ghent, Belgium, killed two people at a park, including a 5-year-old. Also in Ghent, a 64-year-old German tourist was killed by a falling branch.\n\nAnother falling tree fatally injured a 46-year-old woman in the Harz mountains in northern Germany. A 70-year-old man in Normandy died in a fall from his balcony; a local news report quoted a prosecutor saying he appeared to be closing his shutters when he fell around noon on Thursday during a gust of wind.\n\nSeveral others have been injured, including at least seven emergency workers in western and northern France, officials said.\n\nWhat's causing the severe wind storm?\n\nA branch of the jet stream – a consistent band of strong wind high above the Earth's surface flowing west to east – heading toward northern Europe is causing the weather, meteorologist and Yale Climate Connections writer Bob Henson told The Associated Press.\n\nThe band is arcing southward from its origin point high above eastern Canada, intensifying a low-pressure area and spawning the storm, he said. The storm is caused by an interaction between what’s going on near the surface and a few miles above ground.\n\nHenson said Ciarán was looking like a \"once-in-every-few-years storm\" that could turn into a \"once-in-a-generation storm.\"\n\nDamage from heavier rainfall associated with such storms and rising sea levels are a result of climate change, Friederike Otto, of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, told the outlet.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/business/winter-storm-flight-cancellations/index.html", "title": "Almost 5,000 US flights canceled this weekend as winter storm ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nAirlines have canceled thousands of flights this weekend as a powerful winter storm packing strong winds and many inches of snow is set to envelop major cities on the East Coast.\n\nAccording to FlightAware, nearly 5,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled through Saturday and as of 9 AM Sunday, with East Coast hubs being the most affected. On Saturday alone more than 3,500 US flights were canceled.\n\nBoston’s Logan airport, which is a hub city for JetBlue and Delta Air Lines (DAL), has seen 500 cancellations this weekend. About 15% of JetBlue’s schedule has been axed Sunday, though it’s an improvement from the 70% of its schedule that was canceled on Saturday. About 18% of American’s schedule and 22% of United’s (UAL) schedule for Saturday were also canceled.\n\nRepublic Airways, a feeder carrier that operates flights under the names American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express, canceled 60% of its schedule Saturday.\n\nRead more: What should I do if my flight has been canceled or delayed?\n\nNew York City airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, have more than 1,500 cancellations on Saturday and Sunday combined. Both of those airports have sizable operations for Delta, JetBlue and American (AAL). Newark Liberty in New Jersey, which is United’s hub, had 383 cancellations this weekend.\n\nDelta, JetBlue and United all have issued waivers allowing travelers flying from multiple East Coast airports to rebook without paying any difference in fare.\n\n“Delta’s meteorology team in the airline’s operation and customer center will continue to monitor the winter weather and make tactical adjustments as needed,” the airline said.\n\nAn American Airlines spokesperson said that the storm is “expected to have a significant impact on our Northeast operation, especially at Boston Logan International Airport.”\n\nOn Friday, more than 1,400 cancellations were recorded, most of them at Chicago O’Hare.\n\nThe path of this weekend’s Nor’easter is becoming clearer as 75 million people from the Southeast to New England may face dangerously heavy snow and winds approaching hurricane intensity with the potential to knock out power, flood coastal areas and severely impair travel, forecasts show.\n\nThe storm is expected to unleash a double whammy of heavy snowfall and strong winds throughout parts of the Northeast, but the exact impact across the region remains in question.\n\n“This storm is likely to strengthen at a rate, and to an intensity, equivalent to only the most powerful hurricanes, so the high-end potential of this storm cannot be overstated,” CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. “But with nor’easters, like in real estate, it will all come down to location, location, location.”\n\nIt’s been a miserable few weeks to be an airline traveler. Winter weather and Omicron surges left 20,000 US flights canceled over the busy holiday travel season. As travel picked up, staffing cuts also left airlines with fewer employees than they had before the pandemic.", "authors": ["Jordan Valinsky"], "publish_date": "2022/01/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/weather/winter-storm-system-snow-in-us-west-monday/index.html", "title": "Nationwide winter storm set to bring everything from blizzard ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nA large winter storm slammed into the western US over the weekend, blanketing mountain areas with heavy snow, and is now set to traverse the nation, threatening dangerous blizzard conditions, strong tornadoes, and flooding this week.\n\n“This winter storm is a true coast-to-coast, top-to-bottom impact that will be felt by every person in the country at some point this week,” CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said.\n\nThe storm already brought avalanche warnings to parts of the West, shutting down major highways as conditions became icy.\n\nAlmost 15 million people in over a dozen states are under some level of winter weather alert as the powerful storm moves across the county, bringing with it a multiday severe storm threat.\n\nSign up to receive weekly email updates from CNN Meteorologists.\n\nBlinding blizzard conditions\n\nThe storm will strengthen as it travels eastward, bringing snow to the Rockies tonight, where a foot of snow is expected before the system strengthens even more.\n\nThe Upper Midwest, and northern and central Plains will get hit the hardest Monday night into Tuesday as widespread heavy snow falls.\n\n“Snow accumulations through Tuesday morning will generally range between 6 to 12 inches, centered on the Northern High Plains,” the US weather prediction center said. “The highest snow totals are currently forecast for western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, where upwards of 18 to 24 inches is possible.”\n\nMeanwhile, a widespread area from eastern Wyoming and Colorado to western South Dakota and Nebraska will also have winds gusts as high as 60 mph. Heavy snowfall and strong winds will set the stage for a blizzard, leading to whiteout conditions and impossible travel.\n\nBlizzard conditions are when there are sustained winds of 35 mph or higher and visibility below a quarter mile for at least three consecutive hours.\n\nWinter storm alerts stretch from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and blizzard warnings extend from just west of Denver into the Dakotas.\n\n“All preparations for this storm should be well underway and completed sooner rather than later,” the National Weather Service office in Rapid City said.\n\nSome locales inside the blizzard warning areas could pick up as much as 20 inches of snow. The winds could be strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, and the harsh conditions could be deadly for anyone outdoors.\n\n“The cold wind chills, as low as 20 below zero, could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes,” the weather service office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said.\n\nFarther east, ice warnings blanket eastern North Dakota, where nearly half an inch of ice could accumulate. If it materializes, power outages are certain and travel will be impossible.\n\nIcing is also possible across southwestern Minnesota and western Iowa, where as much as a tenth of an inch of ice could develop.\n\nEven Anchorage schools are closed\n\nWhile the Anchorage school district builds two snow days into the calendar, the system has been closed for four.\n\n“It’s very unusual. Unsafe road conditions have prevented us from returning to school,” Anchorage School District spokesperson MJ Thim said.\n\nThe current snow depth in Anchorage, Alaska, is 31 inches, making it the greatest since March 27, 2012, according to a tweet from Alaska climate scientist Brian Brettschneider.\n\nBetween 12 and 24 inches of snow fell in the region Sunday into Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. It was second significant snow storm in less than a week.\n\nThim said officials are looking at their options, including remote learning, depending on future snowfall totals.\n\nMultiday severe storm threat\n\nWhile the storm brings whiteout conditions to the North, the southern section of the storm will have the potential to bring late-season tornadoes along with strong thunderstorms.\n\nOn Monday evening, storms will fire up across western Kansas, as well as across portions of Texas and Oklahoma. The Storm Prediction Center is expecting storms to rapidly develop tonight, after dark.\n\nA Level 2 of 5 risk of severe weather has been issued for the area, including Oklahoma City and Norman in Oklahoma as well as Colby and Garden City in Kansas, and Wichita Falls in Texas.\n\n“Occasional damaging winds, isolated large hail, and a couple of tornadoes will be possible tonight,” the Storm Prediction Center said.\n\nTrack the storms as they develop here.\n\nAs the storm system strengthens and pushes eastward on Tuesday, the possibility of damaging winds, hail, flash flooding and even strong tornadoes will be a concern for portions of the Deep South, especially central Louisiana and eastern Texas.\n\n“All modes of severe will be possible with damaging winds, hail and some more late fall tornadoes,” the weather service office in Shreveport said.\n\nShreveport, Monroe and Alexandria in Louisiana are in a Level 3 of 5 risk for severe weather. Dallas, Fort Worth, and New Orleans are under a Level 2 risk.", "authors": ["Jennifer Gray Haley Brink", "Jennifer Gray", "Haley Brink"], "publish_date": "2022/12/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/17/business/winter-storm-flight-cancellations/index.html", "title": "1,200 US flights canceled Monday as winter storm pummels East ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nUS airlines have canceled more than 1,200 flights Monday as a powerful winter storm packing rain, sleet and snow slammed the East Coast on the holiday weekend and made travel difficult. On Sunday, roughly 3,000 flights were canceled.\n\nCharlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, an American Airlines (AAL) hub, continues to be the hardest hit. More than 400 flights were canceled there Monday and 85 delays were reported according to flight tracking site FlightAware. The airline preemptively canceled 1,100 flights Sunday across its mainline and regional operations after canceling 90 Saturday.\n\n“This weekend’s winter storm is expected to have a significant impact on our operation, especially at Charlotte International Airport,” American said in a statement. It also issued a travel notice allowing customers affected by the weather to rebook flights without a fee.\n\nRonald Reagan Washington National Airport is the second-most affected airport, with 38 cancellations reported Monday.\n\nA massive storm system slammed the eastern United States and the Midwest over the weekend. There were reports of crippling ice in parts of Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas on Sunday. The governors of those states have declared emergencies.\n\nMonday is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, a federal holiday, and many schools and offices were closed.\n\nAmerican isn’t the only carrier canceling flights. As of 8 am ET Monday, Southwest (LUV) canceled 72 flights, according to FlightAware, while Delta Air Lines (DAL) canceled 37 flights. JetBlue (JBLU) canceled 49 flights and 82 flights on United have been axed.\n\nIt’s been a miserable few weeks to be an airline traveler. Winter weather and Omicron surges left 20,000 US flights canceled over the busy holiday travel season. As travel picked up, staffing cuts also left airlines with fewer employees than they had before the pandemic.\n\n–CNN Business’ Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.", "authors": ["Jordan Valinsky"], "publish_date": "2022/01/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/weather/nationwide-winter-storm-blizzard-tuesday/index.html", "title": "At least 5 tornadoes confirmed in Texas as storms roll through ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nAt least five tornadoes were confirmed in Texas during a storm outbreak Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.\n\nThree of the tornadoes were in Tarrant County, with the strongest having an EF-1 rating. One damage track was seen in the city of Grapevine, near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.\n\nThe weather service said there was also an EF-2 tornado with 125 mph winds in Wise County, as well a tornado just west of the city of Paris. Damage surveys will be conducted in those communities Wednesday. Based on radar and damage reports, the National Weather Service said there could have been as many as 12 tornadoes in Texas Tuesday that they have not yet confirmed.\n\nThe storms have carved a path of destruction across Oklahoma and the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday and injured at least seven people. They’re part of a larger storm system that threatens more damage in the South and blizzard conditions in states farther north.\n\nThe giant winter storm system is pushing through the central US after walloping the West. And about 10 million people – largely in the north-central US – are under winter-weather warnings or advisories Tuesday, with blowing snow and power outages a key concern.\n\nA “one-in-five-year storm” worked its way through parts of Nebraska Tuesday and is expected to linger in the area through the end of the week, according to the NWS metrologist Bill Taylor. Blizzard warnings are in place throughout parts of the state and the state’s Department of Transportation said several roadways are closed, including all roadways from Nebraska into Colorado.\n\n“If your destination is west, please delay those plans and adjust accordingly!” the department tweeted.\n\nMore than 18 million people from Texas to Mississippi are under threat of severe storms Tuesday, including tornadoes.\n\nIn Caddo Parish, Louisiana, which includes Shreveport, authorities are performing a search and rescue operation after a strong storm moved through Tuesday afternoon. The storms resulted in one woman being sent to the hospital and two people are currently missing, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said on their Facebook page.\n\n“Several structures were damaged. Electrical lines and trees were also knocked down,” the sheriff’s office said. “Caddo deputies, K-9 teams, fireman, and volunteers are searching through debris and the area for the missing people. Caddo deputies continue to check the welfare of citizens from house to house.”\n\nAuthorities are “in search and rescue operations of a subdivision that contains approximately 40 homes,” Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security Deputy Director Robert Jump tells CNN.\n\nIn a Facebook post Tuesday evening, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office asked anyone concerned with missing people to contact their dispatch.\n\nBelinda Penner carries belongings from her cousin's home that was destroyed by a tornado on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, in Wayne, Oklahoma. Sue Ogrocki/AP\n\nA tornado watch is in effect for northeast Louisiana, southwest Arkansas and western Mississippi until 2 a.m. CST, according to the Storm Prediction Center. This watch covers more than 1.5 million people and includes Shreveport and Alexandria, Louisiana.\n\n“A few tornadoes and a couple intense tornadoes [are] possible,” the Storm Prediction Center said. Additionally, damaging winds up to 70 mph are also possible.\n\nDamage on Tuesday includes:\n\n• Grapevine, Texas: At least one tornado was reported in this city just outside Dallas Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said, and storms left at least five people there injured, Grapevine police said. Details about the injuries weren’t immediately available.\n\nBusinesses including a Grapevine mall, a Sam’s Club and a Walmart were damaged, police said. A gas station was destroyed, and drivers on one road were forced to share a single lane because downed trees and other debris blocked parts of the thoroughfare, motorist Claudio Ropain David told CNN.\n\nA storm damaged Bertha Gonzalez's home on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, near Decatur, Texas. Rebecca Slezak/The Dallas Morning News/AP\n\n• Elsewhere outside Dallas: At least two people were injured, and homes and businesses were damaged, as severe weather hit east of Paradise and south of Decatur in Wise County on Tuesday morning, northwest of Fort Worth, county officials said.\n\nOne person was hurt when wind overturned their vehicle, and the other – also in a vehicle – was hurt by flying debris, the Wise County emergency management office said. One was taken to a hospital, the office said without elaborating.\n\nA damaged home is seen Tuesday morning in Parker, Texas, outside Dallas. KTVT\n\nHigh winds also damaged homes and trees near Callisburg north of Dallas, blew over tractor-trailers near the towns of Millsap and Weatherford; and damaged barns near the town of Jacksboro, the National Weather Service said.\n\n• Wayne, Oklahoma: A confirmed EF2 tornado in that town knocked out power and damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said, adding no injuries were reported. Homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, and trees were snapped like twigs, video from CNN affiliate KOCO showed.\n\nThe storm that rocked Wayne was on the ground for at least 3 miles with 120-125 mph winds, the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said.\n\nMore severe storms capable of tornadoes, as well as hail and damaging winds are expected Tuesday and Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region as the complex snow-or-rain system sweeps through the central US from north to south.\n\nA home sits in shambles Tuesday in Wayne, Oklahoma, after a tornado reportedly struck. KOCO\n\nBlizzard and ice warnings in the north-central US\n\nAcross the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest, heavy, blowing snow and/or freezing rain into Thursday could snarl travel and threaten power outages.\n\nBlizzard warnings – forecasting at least three hours of sustained winds or frequent gusts at 35 mph or greater during considerable snowfall and poor visibility – extended Tuesday from parts of Montana and Wyoming into northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska and South Dakota.\n\nBlizzard conditions were being reported in the morning and early afternoon near the Colorado-Kansas state line. Visibility along Interstate 70 in that area was down to 100 feet, a Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman said on Twitter.\n\nSnowfall through Wednesday morning generally could be 10 to 18 inches in the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Some areas inside the blizzard warning zones – particularly western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska – could get as many as 24 inches of snow, with winds strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, the Weather Prediction Center said.\n\nSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that all state government executive branch offices statewide will be closed Tuesday due to the winter storm.\n\nMost state offices in South Dakota will be closed again Wednesday and state workers who are normally in the offices affected will be working remotely, the governor’s office said.\n\nState offices will be reopening Wednesday in 11 southeast counties that have less severe travel conditions.\n\n“Officials continue to closely monitor the storm which features heavy snow, freezing rain, and high winds,” the governor’s office said. “A decision on state government office availability for Thursday will be made Wednesday.”\n\nParts of Wyoming have reported snow accumulations between 1 and 2 feet, according to the National Weather Service. The state’s Department of Transportation on Tuesday said wintry weather is impacting roadways throughout the entire state.\n\n“Not a single green stretch of road in the state,” the department said in a Facebook post. “Strong winds, blowing snow, whiteout conditions and slick spots are impacting routes statewide (and in some neighboring states!)”\n\nThe Wyoming Highway Patrol also advised motorists to be aware of road conditions, as “many roads across Wyoming are currently closed due to crashes and winter conditions.”\n\nIn Sidney, Nebraska, winds whipped Tuesday morning at 53 mph, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said, “and then you add in the snow, visibility is a quarter mile.”\n\nInterstates in South Dakota could become impassable amid the blizzard conditions, resulting in roadway closures across the state, the South Dakota Department of Transportation warned Monday.\n\nIce storm warnings were issued for parts of eastern South Dakota. Up to two-tenths of an inch of ice could accumulate in some of these areas, forecasters said.\n\nWintry precipitation “will begin to spread eastward over the Upper Great Lakes late Tuesday and Wednesday and into the Northeast late Wednesday as the storm system continues eastward,” the prediction center said.\n\nFreezing rain and sleet, meanwhile, will be possible through Wednesday in the Upper Midwest.\n\nMore tornadoes are a threat on the storm’s southern end\n\nMeanwhile, the southern end of the storm threatens to bring more tornadoes.\n\nBe prepared for severe weather and tornadoes • Know where to find your daily local forecast • Set devices to receive storm and tornado warnings via Wireless Emergency Alerts • Bookmark and tune into NOAA Weather Radio and your local news stations\n\nAn alert for enhanced risk of severe weather – level 3 of 5 – was issued Tuesday for eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi River Valley, with the main threats including powerful tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Lafayette, Louisiana, are part of the threatened area, as is Jackson, Mississippi.\n\n“My main concern with the tornadoes is going to be after dark,” Myers said Tuesday. “We have very short days this time of year, so 5 or 6 o’clock, it’s going to be dark out there. Spotters aren’t as accurate when it is dark. Tornado warnings are a little bit slow; if you’re sleeping, you may not get them. So, that’s the real danger with this storm.”\n\n\"Everything was calm, and then I just saw a huge wall cloud,\" said Darrell Barton of the storm effect he spotted early Tuesday around Decatur, Texas. \"The rain and lightning was insane.\" Darrell Barton/B-Safe shelters\n\nA zone of slight risk – level 2 of 5 – encircled that area, stretching from eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma to southern Arkansas and much of the rest of Louisiana, including New Orleans, and central Mississippi.\n\nTuesday also brings a slight risk of excessive rainfall in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, with 2 to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding possible, the Weather Prediction Center said.\n\nOn Wednesday, the threat for severe weather is largely focused on the Gulf Coast, with tornadoes and damaging winds possible over parts of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.\n\nIn Mississippi, the Meridian Public School District – which serves over 4,900 students – announced they will be closed Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather. Meridian is about 86 miles east of Jackson.\n\n“All schools, offices, and departments in the Meridian Public School District will be closed on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, due to the threat of 70 mph winds and possible tornadoes throughout the day on Wednesday, December 14, 2022. All extracurricular activities and practices are also canceled for December 14, 2022,” the school district said in a message on Facebook.\n\nThe Lawrence County and McComb School Districts also announced they were closing Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather.\n\nThe Mississippi Emergency Management Agency also noted the severe weather expected in the state and asked residents to prepare.\n\n“With severe weather expected throughout Mississippi tonight and tomorrow, please review your severe weather preparedness checklist to make sure you are ready for the storms,” the agency said in a message on Twitter.", "authors": ["Amir Vera Jason Hanna Monica Garrett", "Amir Vera", "Jason Hanna", "Monica Garrett"], "publish_date": "2022/12/13"}, {"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", "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\nSubscribe to The Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up\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\n1. Record-breaking snowfall, Madrid\n\n(Image credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)\n\nIn 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\n2. Storm Christoph, UK\n\n(Image credit: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)\n\nThe 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\n3. Cyclone Ana, Fiji\n\n(Image credit: Leon Lord/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nCyclone 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\n4. Winter storms, Texas\n\n(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)\n\nThe 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\n5. Dust storm, China\n\n(Image credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)\n\nFlights 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\n6. Flooding, New South Wales\n\n(Image credit: Jenny Evans/Getty Images)\n\nIn 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\n7. Cyclone Seroja\n\n(Image credit: Alfred Ike Wurin/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nIn 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\n8. Record temperatures, Moscow\n\n(Image credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nAs 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\n9. Heat dome, Pacific Northwest\n\n(Image credit: Nathan Howard/Getty Images)\n\nSoaring 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.\n\nBlistering Pacific Northwest temperatures should act as a wake-up call\n\n10. Bootleg fire, Oregon\n\n(Image credit: Payton Bruni/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nA “heavier-than-normal start to the US wildfire season” saw “one of the largest blazes in Oregon’s history” consume more than 364,000 acres of land, the BBC reported in July. More than 2,000 firefighters tackled the wildfire, which took more than a month to contain. The fire “generated its own weather system”, noted Oregon Live, and thousands of homes were threatened by the blaze, which saw residents temporarily housed in evacuation centres in the state.\n\n11. Flooding, west Germany\n\n(Image credit: Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nFloods destroyed homes and bridges along the River Ahr in July, while in the German village of Schuld, water “engulfed streets and swallowed homes” CNN reported. Victims will be supported by a government-approved €400 million recovery package, as ministers have promised to move quickly on rebuilding affected areas, Euronews reported. A study by World Weather Attribution found that this event was between 1.2 and nine times more likely to happen in 2021 compared to pre-industrial periods.\n\n12. Flooding, China\n\n(Image credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nMore than 300 people died when China’s Henan province experienced severe rainfall and flooding in July. Twelve people lost their lives in a Zhengzhou metro train, with survivors describing how water leaked through the carriage’s doors until it became difficult to breathe. While the country typically experiences flooding in the summer months, this year’s occurrence was “exacerbated by rapid urbanisation, conversion of farmland and the worsening climate crisis, as well as overwhelmed flood mitigation systems,” The Guardian reported.\n\n13. Wildfires, Greece\n\n(Image credit: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images)\n\nHuge wildfires “ravaged” large regions of southern Europe in August, claiming lives in Greece, Turkey and Italy, The Guardian reported. The blaze came as a heatwave swept the region, and Greece’s second largest island - Evia - was evacuated. Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologised for the blazes, and said that more than 580 fires have broken out in the past seven days. More than 20 countries offered to send firefighting resources, and the “camaraderie” that’s developed between Greek and British firefighters “is testament to the scale of the job before them”, Sky News reports.\n\n14. Hurricane Ida, US\n\n(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)\n\nMore than one million homes and businesses were left without power in the southern US states of Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Ida made landfall on 29 August, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ida hit with maximum sustained winds of 150mph. It was later downgraded to a tropical depression, and moved from a category four storm to category one. “Katrina followed a similar trajectory”, Sky News said. In the following days, Storm Ida moved up the northern-eastern coast of America. Subway stations and roads were flooded in New York, where the lives of at least nine people - including that of a two-year-old boy - were claimed by the storm. For communities in New Orleans, Ida has brought “painful reminders of the death and devastation” caused by the 2006 hurricane which killed more than 1,800 people, The New York Times reported.\n\n15. Monsoon floods, India and Nepal\n\n(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)\n\nSeveral Nepalese regions and two Indian states were hit by “heavy late monsoon rains” in October, Reuters reported. “Deadly flash floods” took the lives of more than 180 people as “homes were submerged or crushed by rocks”, said the BBC. The Nepalese government committed to giving each of the victims’ families $1,700 (£1,220) in response.\n\nThe unseasonal rainfall was attributed to the climate crisis, but some experts indicated that hydro-power projects in the Himalayas, and “excessive and often unchecked construction on steep slopes”, had contributed to the damage caused to the region’s “fragile ecology”, said the broadcaster.\n\n16. Tornadoes, Kentucky\n\nBrett Carlsen/Getty Images\n\nJoe Biden said that Kentucky had experienced “one of the largest tornado outbreaks in US history”. More than 30 tornadoes “tore through” Kentucky and seven other states, claiming the lives of at least 90 people, and leaving thousands of residents homeless, said Sky News.\n\nThe state’s governor, Andy Beshear, said that this was “the most devastating, most deadly tornado event in Kentucky’s history”.\n\nTwo brothers, aged 15 months and three months old, were placed in a bathtub before being carried away by the severe winds. Their grandmother, Clara Lutz, later learned that both boys had been found alive in her garden under the upturned bath.\n\nBiden’s infrastructure bill has allocated billions of dollars to climate resilience projects, in the hope of strengthening infrastructure and defence against future extreme weather events.\n\n17. Typhoons, Philippines\n\nThe Philippine Red Cross described “complete carnage” in coastal areas of the country after Super Typhoon Rai “sent some 400,000 people running for safety” on 16 December, said the BBC. Thousands of military and service personnel were working to assist with search and rescue efforts in the worst-hit areas.\n\nWinds of around 120mph ripped through the nation’s south-eastern islands, injuring at least 500 people. A further 375 people are known to have died. “There are some areas that look like it has been bombed worse than World War Two,” Red Cross chair Richard Gordon told the BBC.", "authors": ["Julia O'Driscoll", "The Week Uk", "Last Updated", "Catherine Garcia", "The Week Us", "Devika Rao", "Richard Windsor", "Rebekah Evans", "Social Links Navigation"], "publish_date": "2021/07/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2023/03/04/winter-storms-weekend-weather-march-4-5/11392557002/", "title": "National Weather Service warns of winter storm: Weekend US forecast", "text": "Millions of Americans, including those in California, Idaho and Maine, have been warned of winter weather danger this weekend as power outages plague states in the East from Alabama to New York after a deadly outbreak of severe weather.\n\nNorthern California residents already socked by snow will get more on Saturday.\n\nA powerful winter storm that pummeled the Midwest this week will set its sights on the Northeast.\n\nAnother winter storm is headed for parts of the Midwest, but much of the southern Midwest and Plains states can expect a fairly tranquil weekend.\n\nThis comes in the days after a multistate severe weather outbreak slammed wide swaths of the South and Midwest with tornadoes, fierce winds and flash floods, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others. Cleanup had begun in those areas while tens of thousands were also left without power, and heavy winds and tornadoes damaged buildings, especially in Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas.\n\nHere's what you need to know about this weekend's weather:\n\nThe West\n\nA winter storm warning is in effect for a large swath of northern and central California on Saturday and Sunday as storm-weary Southern California is mostly spared by the weekend storm.\n\nThe Sierra Nevada, including the Lake Tahoe region, is expected to be hardest hit, with 1 to 2 feet of snow accumulations expected at lower elevations and 2 to 4 feet above 7,000 feet. Winds could gust as high as 50 mph, with up to 100 mph along the Sierra crest.\n\n\"If you come to the Sierra this weekend, you may not be able to leave for a while,\" the National Weather Service warned. \"If you become stuck in your vehicle, rescue may be significantly delayed.\"\n\nSome areas around Lake Tahoe have recorded over 50 feet of snow this year since the first of October, according to Shawn Carter, a physical scientist at the National Water Center.\n\nThat same storm is expected to bring snow or rain to parts of eastern Oregon and Washington, with accumulations between 5 and 12 inches in places like Toutle, Ariel and Lake Merwin, and more like 2 inches in places including Lower Columbia, Oregon.\n\nCalifornia residents snowed in after heavy snowfall\n\nAuthorities said some residents in the mountains east of Los Angeles may be stranded in their homes for at least another week as plows struggle against back-to-back snowstorms.\n\nAs the San Bernardino Mountains were slammed with waves of heavy snowfall starting late last week, residents have been left stranded without power, with collapsed roofs and running out of necessities like food and medicine. The National Guard was deployed to 13 California counties to aid recovery, but crews are struggling to clear roads and bring aid.\n\n\"I feel like I'm never going to get out of here,\" Marcia Woloshun, a resident of Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains, told USA TODAY on Friday.\n\nSTILL DIGGING OUT:After epic California storm, towns remain snowed in\n\nMany without power in Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee\n\nHundreds of thousands of households remained without power in Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan on Saturday morning as a powerful winter storm made its way across the country. Power outages also impacted Alabama, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York as the storm moved east.\n\nIn New York’s capital region of Albany, crews worked to restore power to nearly 20,000 customers as heavy, damp snow snapped tree branches.\n\nUS weather watches and warnings\n\nThe Northeast\n\nA powerful storm that tore through the Midwest hit the Northeast overnight Friday and is forecast to continue causing heavy snow all day Saturday.\n\nThe biggest impact will be in New England from upstate New York to the Canadian line and east through Boston, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.\n\nParts of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire may see between 8-12 inches of snow, while the southern half of Maine could see between 6 and 12 inches, said Bob Larson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.\n\nThe snow mixed with winds gusting up to 50 mph is likely to cause flight delays, Larson said.\n\nDriving conditions were hazardous, as dozens of cars, trucks and tractor-trailers slid off roads, police said.\n\nLuckily for the region, the storm is expected to move offshore on Sunday.\n\nWinter storm map\n\nThe Midwest and South\n\nTranquil days are ahead for much of the Midwest and South, with partly sunny skies and highs expected in the upper 30s and 40s in places like Detroit and Chicago.\n\nIn the upper Midwest, residents dug out Saturday from snowfall that caused widespread power outages and forced Detroit's Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to briefly close late Friday. Passengers were advised to check with airlines for flight delays on Saturday.\n\nFarther south, temperatures will be in the 60s and 70s in places like Wichita, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Dallas.\n\nTo the north, a storm will roll in to the Dakotas on Saturday, spreading to Minnesota and far northern Wisconsin on Sunday, with accumulations between 3 and 6 inches.\n\nNational weather radar\n\nContributing: Chris Kenning and Mike Snider, USA TODAY; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/03/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/12/storm-flood-wind-britain/5415229/", "title": "Storm threatening 100 mph gusts hits soggy Britain", "text": "AP\n\nThe country has been lashed by wind and rain since December\n\nGusts of between 80 and 100 mph could cause widespread structural damage and loss of power\n\nFloods drenched the southwestern coast%2C the low-lying Somerset Levels and the Thames Valley\n\nLONDON (AP) — Britain's west coast is being battered by wind gusts that could reach 100 mph as a new storm pummels the flood-stricken country.\n\nThe Meteorological Office has issued a highest-level red warning of \"exceptionally strong winds\" for west Wales and northwest England.\n\nIt says gusts of between 80 and 100 mph could cause widespread structural damage and loss of power.\n\nEngland had its wettest January since records were first kept almost 250 years ago, and the country has been lashed by wind and rain since December.\n\nResulting floods have drenched the southwestern coast of England, the low-lying Somerset Levels and the Thames Valley, west of London, where hundreds of properties have been swamped as the river burst its banks this week.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/02/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/12/26/winter-storm-snow-death-toll-rises-buffalo/10953148002/", "title": "Winter snow storm death toll rises, Buffalo, NY, could see more snow", "text": "The death toll from a historic onslaught of winter weather across the U.S. rose to at least 50 Monday as frigid arctic air and heavy lake-effect snow left large swaths of the U.S. frozen.\n\nThe pre-Christmas winter storm left at least 28 dead in western New York – one of the worst weather-related disasters in the region's history after the area was pummeled with as much as 43 inches of snow.\n\nThe dead have been found in their cars, homes and in snowbanks. Some died while shoveling snow. The death toll across the country was expected to rise as many remained without power in the frigid temperatures and hazardous road conditions continue.\n\nBuffalo, New York, has seen some of the worst damage from the storm, including hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions from snow that left emergency response vehicles stranded on highways and roads.\n\nErie County Executive Mark Poloncarz described the blizzard as “the worst storm probably in our lifetime” and warned there may be more dead. Some people, he noted, were stranded in their cars for more than two days.\n\n“This is a once-in-a-lifetime, generational blizzard,” he said of the impacts to the county, which includes Buffalo. “And this is not the end yet.”\n\nPresident Joe Biden spoke by phone to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday, offering federal assistance to the state as it recovers from the storm.\n\nWhile warmer temperatures are forecast for later in the week, the area is still expected to receive 6 to 12 inches more of heavy, lake-effect snow between Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service station in Buffalo.\n\nMuch of New England and the Eastern coast will remain in a deep freeze until more moderate temperatures arrive Tuesday, the weather service said Monday, and lake-effect snow could continue to cause travel hazards until they slowly improve later in the week.\n\nMORE:Buses with migrants have dropped off outside of VP Harris' house before. Why Christmas Eve was different.\n\nSnowstorm is Buffalo's worst in 4 decades, rivals historic 1977 storm\n\nOfficials in Erie County compared the storm to what is widely known as Buffalo's worst blizzard in January 1977, which saw surprisingly little snowfall but brought sustained, deadly cold temperatures into the area for weeks.\n\nOnly 12.3 inches of new snow fell at the Buffalo Airport during the 1977 blizzard, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, compared to more than 40 inches in this week's storm. Blizzard-condition winds occurred for nine consecutive hours and zero visibility lasted for 13 consecutive hours.\n\nPowerful winds instead blew loose snow from previous storms that winter from frozen Lake Erie onto land, creating huge snowdrifts and fully burying houses and cars alike.\n\nIn the 1977 storm, 29 people died in four days, including 12 who were found frozen in stranded cars, The Associated Press reported.\n\n\"This is a horrible situation,\" Poloncarz said Monday of the 2022 storm. \"The blizzard of 1977 lasted longer – it lasted three days of terrible conditions, this was two days of terrible conditions – but the ferocity of the storm was worse than the blizzard of 1977.\"\n\nIn the case of this year's storm, sustained cold temperatures and high winds can make the storm even more challenging, according to Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist at Accuweather.\n\n\"Even in areas where you do clean the snow off, they can just blow right back onto roads and sidewalks. On top of that, you're dealing with a lot of power outages due to the wind,\" he said. \"That makes it very difficult to deal with.\"\n\nRelief on the way? Forecast for warmer temperatures, power restorations\n\nOver the holiday weekend, extreme weather stretched coast to coast and from Canada down to Mexico. In total, about 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, with temperatures plummeting drastically below normal in many areas.\n\nBut forecasts for the days leading up to the New Year show some promise of warmer weather. Residents in the Buffalo area and swaths of the country can expect warmer temperatures in the later portion of the week, according to Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather.\n\n\"The trend is going to be for warmer weather for the upcoming week. In fact, Buffalo could easily get up in the 40s at some point during the second half of the week,\" Kines said.\n\nPower outages, flight cancellations across the US\n\nPower outages from coast-to-coast continued to be steadily restored Monday, addressing some concerns for residents trapped in their homes without electricity and heat. Fewer than 100,000 customers were still without power as of 3 p.m. EDT Monday, according to poweroutage.us, down from a peak of 1.7 million.\n\nEven with steady progress on power restorations and storm cleanup, more than 3,500 flights were cancelled within, into, or out of the U.S. for Monday, according to FlightAware.\n\nFlight delayed or canceled?:What you need to know and what airlines owe travelers.\n\nFrom Tennessee to Michigan, storm and cold wreak havoc\n\nCold temperatures and high winds caused damage across the country, leading to water main breaks, power outages and abnormal cold and dangerous travel conditions.\n\nIn Tennessee, 23 water mains broke as a result of the storm, according to the state's utility company, and 19 have since been repaired. Parts of Tennessee and Mississippi remained under boil-water advisories because of water lines bursting in the frigid temperatures.\n\nVirginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee all saw power outages, and Florida saw unusually low temperatures throughout the weekend because of the cold, according to Pydynowski.\n\n\"Just how widespread the cold was and how intense it was, was very impressive,\" he said.\n\nSix motorists were killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky, and a Vermont woman died after struck by a falling branch. Police in Colorado said they found the dead body of a person who appeared to be unhoused while the area was experiencing subzero temperatures.\n\nWhat is lake-effect snow?\n\nLake-effect snow, which can last for only a few minutes to several days, develops from narrow bands of clouds that form when cold, dry arctic air passes over a large, relatively mild lake.\n\nIn the case of Buffalo, the city is in close proximity to Lake Erie, and ranks among the nation's snowiest big cities as a result.\n\nDuring this week's storm, the air mass over Lake Erie was \"extremely cold\" over the relatively warm waters of the lake, with winds that set up a snow band dumping intense snow for days, according to Pydynowski.\n\n\"Both Lake Erie and Ontario just produced a very intense lake effect snow,\" he said. \"Not only are you dealing with heavy snow, you're dealing with blizzard conditions ... all those factors combined to make a very intense outbreak that's finally just letting up now.\"\n\nDig deeper\n\nContributing: The Associated Press; Joel Shannon, Wyatte Grantham-Phillips, Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/12/26"}, {"url": "https://theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/958102/the-destruction-caused-by-hurricane-ian-in-pictures", "title": "The destruction caused by Hurricane Ian – in pictures | The Week", "text": "One of the fiercest storms in US history has left a trail of destruction and death after battering Florida last week.\n\nThe death toll has risen to more than 100 since Hurricane Ian hit the southwest of the state as a category four storm on 28 September, before making a “second deadly US landfall” in South Carolina, said The Guardian. As rescue workers continue to search ruins for survivors, the tally of fatalities is expected to climb.\n\nAlthough Hurricane Ian is “one of the deadliest hurricanes in recent memory”, said the BBC, it “pales in comparison” to Katrina (2003) and Maria (2017), which killed 1,800 and 3,000 people respectively. But “close to 270,000 homes and businesses” remained without power in Florida on Wednesday, Reuters reported.\n\nAnd thousands of people in the state are living in “emergency shelters after their homes were damaged or destroyed”, said NBC News. Joe Biden visited Florida yesterday to “survey damage” caused by the “150mph winds and storm surges as high as 14ft”.\n\nBiden warned that rebuilding “could take years”, the news site added, but the president vowed to “build back better”.\n\nThe hurricane is expected to be “among the costliest storms in US history”, said The Guardian. Initial estimates put the cost at around $55bn, but “some insurance industry analysts say the final figure could be far higher”, the paper reported.\n\nIan also pummelled Cuba before hitting Florida, and has been “nightmare of a storm to forecast”, said Axios. According to the news site, “experts say the tools meteorologists used to assess and communicate its likely path were part of the problem”, with computer models used to help predict the weather “at war with one another until about 36 hours before landfall”.\n\nAuthorities in Lee County, one of Florida’s hardest-hit areas, have “faced questions about the timing of their evacuation order”, which was made “​​less than 24 hours before Ian made landfall”, said the BBC. State governor Ron DeSantis defended the decision, insisting that “we did what we had to do at the exact same time”.", "authors": ["Richard Windsor", "The Week Uk", "Rafi Schwartz", "The Week Us", "Joel Mathis", "Catherine Garcia", "Social Links Navigation"], "publish_date": "2022/10/06"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_4", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/uk/queen-elizabeth-ii-platinum-jubilee-accession-day-gbr-intl/index.html", "title": "Queen Elizabeth II uses Platinum Jubilee message to elevate ...", "text": "London CNN —\n\nBritain’s Queen Elizabeth II has used the historic milestone of her Platinum Jubilee to redefine the future of the monarchy, calling for the Duchess of Cornwall to be known as Queen Camilla when Charles becomes King.\n\nWhen Charles married Camilla in 2005, the couple announced she intended to be known as “Princess Consort” despite having a right to the title of Queen. It was seen as a recognition of the sensitivities around a title that was destined for Charles’ first wife, Diana.\n\nIt’s the same reason Camilla doesn’t use the title of Princess of Wales.\n\nThe Queen would be expected to consult her direct heirs Charles and William before making such a significant announcement about titles, which suggests they both agreed and felt the British public is ready to accept Camilla as Queen.\n\nThe 95-year-old monarch laid out her vision for institution’s transition in an extraordinary message released as she reached the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.\n\n“I would like to express my thanks to you all for your support. I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me,” the Queen said.\n\n“And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”\n\nWhen her father died in 1952, Elizabeth II — then just 25 years old — became the Queen of England. AFP/Getty Images King George VI, left, is joined by his wife, Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret as he leaves an airport in London on January 31, 1952. They had waved farewell to Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, who were heading on a royal tour. Fox Photos/Getty Images During her royal tour, Princess Elizabeth attends a polo match in Nyeri, Kenya, on February 3, 1952. Chris Ware/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip wave to Kenyans from the balcony of Nairobi's City Hall on February 4, 1952. Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Londoners read the news of King George's death on February 6, 1952. He was 56 years old when he died in his sleep from a coronary thrombosis. Bettmann/Getty Images The flag flies at half-staff at Windsor Castle following the King's death. Mirrorpix/Getty Images Prime Minister Winston Churchill leaves St. James's Palace after attending a meeting of the Accession Council, which is automatically summoned on the death of the sovereign. PA Images/Getty Images Elizabeth, now the new Queen, returns from Kenya on February 7, 1952. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Elizabeth and Philip are greeted on their arrival in London. AP Gerald Wollaston, the Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, reads the proclamation of the Queen's accession on February 8, 1952. PA Images/Getty Images A ceremony for the proclamation is held on February 8, 1952. AFP/Getty Images The Queen and her family arrives for her father's funeral procession on February 15, 1952. PA Images/Getty Images King George's coffin is guarded at Westminster Hall in London. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Crowds line the route of the King's funeral procession. Hulton Deutsch/Corbis/Getty Images Foreign heads of state and their representatives march in the King's funeral procession. Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The funeral procession of King George makes its way through London. Stroud/Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images 70 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II took the throne Prev Next\n\nIt’s a hugely significant intervention from the monarch, who is the only person who can define royal titles.\n\nCamilla became something of a public pariah following the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s union in the mid-90s.\n\nDiana had blamed Camilla for ruining her marriage, saying in a 1995 television interview, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” A year earlier, Charles had also appeared on television and confessed his infidelity, but maintained he had only been unfaithful once his marriage had crumbled.\n\nPositive public sentiment for the Princess of Wales was only further cemented when she was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997.\n\nIn the intervening years, Camilla retreated to the shadows, supporting Charles quietly from a distance.\n\nBut as time has gone by, sentiment toward the Duchess of Cornwall has softened. And the Queen’s moves to future-proof the monarchy reflects Camilla is no longer viewed as the royal mistress but a central figure in “the firm.”\n\nOn Saturday, Prince Charles and Camilla announced they were “touched and honoured by Her Majesty’s words” according to a spokesperson.\n\nElizabeth ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI, at the age of 56.\n\nThroughout her reign, Elizabeth has often used landmark moments to reaffirm her devotion to her duties, and did so once more in her message on Saturday, despite the fact she is nearing her 96th birthday.\n\n“As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service,” she said.\n\nThe Queen also expressed “a sense of hope and optimism” for the year ahead, before conveying her gratitude to her family for their support and paying tribute to her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.\n\n“I was blessed that in Prince Philip I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it. It is a role I saw my own mother perform during my father’s reign,” she shared.\n\nThe monarch ended her message by restating she looked forward “to continuing to serve you with all my heart” and shared her hope her jubilee would provide an opportunity for people to come together after the difficulties of recent years.\n\nTraditionally, the Queen marks her Accession Day at her countryside retreat of Sandringham in Norfolk, about 100 miles north of London. It’s a chance for her to reflect upon the death of her father away from the glare of the public. In keeping with previous years, no public engagements are expected on Sunday.\n\nThe nation will have the chance to honor the monarch’s historic reign in a series of jubilee-themed festivities set to take place throughout the year, culminating in a blockbuster, four-day public holiday in June.\n\nOver the long weekend, beacons will be lit across the United Kingdom; Buckingham Palace will host a music concert; street parties are being encouraged; and a pageant will bring together more than 5,000 personnel, performers, key workers and volunteers from the UK and the Commonwealth.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback Queen Elizabeth's history with US Presidents 02:00 - Source: CNN\n\nHowever, the Queen did host a special reception earlier Saturday for some Sandringham community members on the eve of her Platinum Jubilee.\n\nShe welcomed pensioners and representatives from several local charities to the Sandringham House ballroom to celebrate her historic milestone with cake.\n\nOne of those in attendance was former cookery student Angela Wood, who helped develop a recipe intrinsically linked to the start of her reign – Coronation Chicken, a dish of cold chicken in a curry cream sauce served with a side salad.\n\nThe Queen appeared to be in great spirits during the engagement, according to Britain’s PA Media news agency. She held a wooden walking stick and carried her trademark black handbag as she made her way around the room, joking and laughing with guests.\n\nIt was the largest gathering the sovereign has attended since October, when she hosted a reception to mark the Global Investment Summit at Windsor Castle.\n\nSign up for CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.", "authors": ["Max Foster Lauren Said-Moorhouse", "Max Foster", "Lauren Said-Moorhouse"], "publish_date": "2022/02/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/02/europe/queen-platinum-jubilee-gbr-intl-scli/index.html", "title": "Queen Elizabeth pulls out of jubilee service due to 'discomfort ...", "text": "London CNN —\n\nBritain’s Queen Elizabeth II will miss a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral for her 70 year reign on Friday, after experiencing “some discomfort” during the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebration.\n\nThe Queen appeared at Buckingham Palace on Thursday during the festivities and participated in a beacon lighting ceremony from Windsor Castle in the evening.\n\n“The Queen greatly enjoyed today’s Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.\n\n“Taking into account the journey and activity required to participate in tomorrow’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Her Majesty with great reluctance has concluded that she will not attend,” it continued.\n\nEarlier Thursday, the 96-year-old Queen looked on from the palace’s famous balcony at a sea of red, white and blue as huge, flag-waving crowds flocked to the Mall to see the monarch and her family.\n\nThe area around Buckingham Palace and nearby St James’ Park was packed with homegrown and international tourists – some of whom had camped out overnight – to witness the first event of the bumper four-day weekend celebrations.\n\nAnd after seven decades of duty, the sovereign certainly lived up to her reputation as a loyal crowd-pleaser. She may not have been up to the ceremonial role of riding on horseback as part of Trooping the Colour, but she nonetheless delighted fans by her presence on the balcony following the military parade.\n\nDressed in a dusky dove blue Angela Kelly ensemble with matching hat, the Queen smiled as she received the salute as soldiers and officers returned from Horse Guards Parade following the conclusion of her birthday parade.\n\nBritain's Queen Elizabeth II watches from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade in London on Thursday, June 2. Jonathan Brady/Pool/AP The Queen is joined by members of the royal family during her balcony appearance on Sunday. With her, from left, are Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles; Prince William; Prince George; Princess Charlotte; Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge; and Prince Louis. Bernadette Tuazon/CNN Soldiers parade during the People's Pageant in London on Sunday. Frank Augstein/Pool/AFP/Getty Images Crowds watch the Queen's appearance in London on Sunday. Dominic Lipinski/PA/AP Ed Sheeran performs before the Queen's appearance. Leon Neal/WPA Pool/Getty Images Archive video of the Queen plays inside a Gold State Coach during the parade on Sunday. Toby Hancock/CNN Cakes celebrating the jubilee are displayed at a street party in Aylesford, England, on Sunday. Gareth Fuller/PA Images/Getty Images Sunday's parade had performers, military personnel and key workers walking down The Mall to bring to life many iconic moments from the Queen's reign. Dominic Lipinski/PA/AP Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, attend a Big Jubilee Lunch event Sunday in London. There were similar lunchtime events taking place in other communities across the country. Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images Revelers pose for pictures as they attend a party in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England, on Sunday. Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images People gather outside Windsor Castle for the Big Jubilee Lunch there on Sunday. Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images Children chalk a flag on the road during a street party in York, England, in Sunday. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Queen's Brian May delights concertgoers as the band — joined by Adam Lambert — opens a special show outside of Buckingham Palace on Saturday night. The two-and-a-half hour concert boasted an impressive lineup of stars. Alberto Pezzali/AP Members of the royal family attend Saturday night's concert. In the center row, from left, are Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge; Princess Charlotte; Prince George; and Prince William. Chris Jackson/Pool/Getty Images Rod Stewart performs on stage during Saturday night's concert, where he performed Neil Diamond's \"Sweet Caroline,\" a British karaoke classic. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Drones make a shape of a corgi dog — a Queen favorite — above the palace on Saturday night. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Images/Getty Images Prince Charles, accompanied by his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, delivers a speech at Saturday night's concert. \"You pledged to serve your whole life,\" he said of his mother, the Queen. \"You continue to deliver. That is why we are here. That is what we celebrate tonight.\" Jonathan Buckmaster/AFP/Getty Images People cheer as they gather at The Mall for the concert outside Buckingham Palace. Hollie Adams/Getty Images Diana Ross appears on stage during the concert. The legendary singer closed the show with \"Ain't No Mountain High Enough.\" Alastair Grant/AP People gather along The Mall for Saturday night's concert. Hollie Adams/Getty Images Prince George and Princess Charlotte also joined their parents at a walkabout in Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday. Their visit was part of the royal family's tour of all four regions of the United Kingdom. Ashley Crowden/AFP/Getty Images Princess Anne, the Queen's only daughter, stands on the balcony of the royal box while attending the Epsom Derby horse race on Saturday. She was filling in for her mother, who has been a regular spectator at the event in past years. Megan Ridgwell/The Jockey Club/PA Wire/Reuters Boys ride a bus in Epsom alongside cardboard cutouts of the Queen. Leon Neal/Getty Images Princess Charlotte conducts a band next to her brother Prince George as they visited Cardiff Castle in Wales. Ashley Crowden/AFP/Getty Images People dance during jubilee celebrations in London on Saturday. Dylan Martinez/Reuters People gather for a street party in Hayfield, England, on Saturday. Anthony Devlin/Getty Images Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, depart St Paul's Cathedral in London after attending a service honoring the Queen on Friday. Harry and Meghan, who flew from the United States for the jubilee celebrations, were warmly welcomed by a crowd outside the service. Ahead of the event, there was much speculation in the British press over how the couple would be received following their decision to step back from the royal family and move to California two years ago. Alberto Pezzali/AP Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, smiles as she arrives at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday. Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images More than 400 people were invited to Friday's event recognizing the Queen's lifetime of service. The congregation included key workers, teachers and public servants as well as representatives from the Armed Forces, charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups, according to Buckingham Palace. London Mayor Sadiq Khan was among those in the audience. Dan Kitwood/AP Prince Charles arrives for Friday's service. Another one of the Queen's sons, Prince Andrew, was notably absent after testing positive for Covid-19. Henry Nicholls/AP The theme of Friday's event was public service. It included Bible readings, prayers and congregational hymns to honor the Queen's 70 years on the British throne. Aaron Chown/AP/Pool British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pauses while inside St Paul's Cathedral on Friday. Johnson was cheered and booed by the crowd when he arrived for the service. Victoria Jones/AP A member of the military stumbles Friday while on duty ahead of the service. Daniel Leal/AP A woman holds a cutout picture of the Queen while waiting outside St Paul's Cathedral on Friday. Alberto Pezzali/AP People gather outside St Paul's Cathedral to watch the arrivals. Alberto Pezzali/AP The Queen prepares to touch the Commonwealth of Nations Globe to start the lighting of the Principal Beacon outside Buckingham Palace on Thursday. Steve Parsons/Getty Images A Platinum Jubilee beacon is lit by Lord Provost Robert Aldridge and Commander of Edinburgh Garrison Lt. Col. Lorne Campbell at Scotland's Edinburgh Castle on Thursday. More than 1,500 towns, villages and cities throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories would come together to light a beacon to mark the jubilee. Jane Barlow/AP People pack The Mall in London for Thursday's Trooping the Colour parade. Aaron Chown/AP The Queen walks out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Trooping the Colour parade. Bernadette Tuazon/CNN Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, waves during a carriage procession on Thursday. Joining her on the carriage were her three children — Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte — as well as Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. Toby Hancock/CNN Planes spell out the number 70 as they fly over Buckingham Palace on Thursday. Toby Hancock/CNN The Queen's great-grandson Prince Louis holds his hands over his ears during the six-minute flypast staged by the Royal Air Force. From left are Prince Charles; the Queen; Prince Louis; Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge; and Princess Charlotte. Hannah McKay/Reuters A 124-gun salute is fired at the Tower of London as part of the Trooping the Colour parade. Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images The Trooping the Colour event involved 1,500 soldiers and officers, 400 musicians, 250 horses and 70 aircraft, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images Three of the Queen's great-grandchildren— from left, Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte — ride in the carriage procession on Thursday. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images Prince William, left, rides on horseback next to his father, Prince Charles, during the Trooping the Colour parade. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images The Queen's Guard marches during the Trooping the Colour parade Thursday. Matt Dunham/AP The Queen is joined by members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday. Aaron Chown/AP Thousands of people flocked to central London for the celebrations Thursday. Abbie Trayler-Smith for CNN A military band performs on Thursday. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Four of the Queen's great-grandchildren watch the parade from a window of Buckinghamp Palace on Thursday. From left are Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Mia Tindall. Matt Dunham/Pool/AFP/Getty Images A member of the Coldstream Guards holds souvenir programs ahead of the start of Thursday's parade. Toby Melville/AFP/Getty Images Prince Edward, right, rides in a carriage along with his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and their children, James and Louise. Bernadette Tuazon/CNN The Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry takes part in the parade Thursday. Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images A man wears a Union Jack suit as people gather on The Mall for jubilee celebrations on Thursday. Henry Nicholls/Reuters Police officers line up on The Mall ahead of the Trooping the Colour parade on Thursday. Dominic Lipinski/PA Images/Getty Images A member of the Buckingham Palace staff cleans the balcony ahead of the Trooping the Colour parade on Thursday. Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images Crowds gather in London for the parade. Toby Hancock/CNN Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lights the Commonwealth Beacon for a jubilee celebration in Canberra, Australia, on Thursday. Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images Some royal fans had Union flags applied to their faces as they gathered along The Mall in London on Thursday. David Cliff/AP People wear masks of the Queen and one of her dogs as they attend jubilee celebrations on The Mall on Thursday. Peter Nicholls/Reuters Anita Atkinson, who has collected more than 12,000 items of royal memorabilia, makes her way to a tea party in Durham on Thursday. Owen Humphreys/PA Images/Getty Images People sing the national anthem as they gather along The Mall on Thursday. David Cliff/AP A boy poses with a Union flag on The Mall on Wednesday. Leon Neal/Getty Images In pictures: Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Prev Next\n\nThe “major military spectacle” – as it was described by the UK Ministry of Defence – involved “months of training and centuries of tradition,” as well as 1,500 soldiers and officers, 400 musicians, 250 horses and 70 aircraft.\n\nPrince Charles, heir to the throne, represented his mother in the ceremonial role which she has traditionally undertaken. He rode on horseback, closely followed by his sister Princess Anne and his son, Prince William.\n\nHousehold Division foot guards march in the Trooping the Colour parade. Henry Nicholls/Reuters\n\nOther members of the royal family rode down The Mall in carriages to the parade ground – among them Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by her three children and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.\n\nAs the Colour of the Irish Guards was trooped at Horse Guards Parade, during which military bands played in formation and undertook a tricky manoeuvre called “the spinwheel,” other royals watched on from the Major General’s Office nearby.\n\nA short while later, the Queen appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with her cousin the Duke of Kent.\n\nCamilla, Duchess of Cornwall rides in a carriage with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and family during the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee celebrations on Thursday. Toby Hancock/CNN\n\nIn a second balcony appearance, she was joined by three of her four children, in addition to several family members. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex did not appear on the balcony as the Queen decided last month that only royals carrying out official duties would be included.\n\nBut earlier the Sussexes had watched the Trooping the Colour event with other royals from the Major General’s office near Horse Guards Parade, in their first public appearance with the royal family since they quit working as royals two years ago.\n\nThe Queen’s decision to only invite working royals onto the balcony also meant Prince Andrew, who was stripped of royal duties and his HRH title in January in the wake of his civil sexual assault lawsuit in the US, did not appear on the balcony. It later emerged that he will not be able to join his family members at Friday’s thanksgiving service either as he has tested positive for coronavirus. A royal source told CNN the duke had seen his mother in the last few days but has been undertaking regular testing and has not seen her since he tested positive.\n\nFor many, the highlight of the proceedings was the spectacular RAF flypast, an awe-inspiring air show involving 70 aircraft, including the Red Arrows.\n\nThere was, however, one person who did not seem overly impressed with the display – 4-year-old Prince Louis. The youngest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge was pictured with his hands over his ears and pulling faces as the spectacle to celebrate his great-grandmother’s 70 years on the throne all proved a little overwhelming.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback See Prince Louis' reaction to royal flypast at Queen's jubilee 01:33 - Source: CNN\n\nNevertheless, his family did not appear to be remotely bothered by Prince Louis’ refusal to maintain protocol, as they smiled and chatted to each other while the planes continued to fly – even at one point arranged in formation to make up the number 70.\n\nMore than 3,000 beacons are being set alight across the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and in UK Overseas Territories. The principal beacon was lit in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The lighting of beacons is a long running royal tradition used to mark jubilees, weddings and coronations. Beacons will also be lit in the capital cities of Commonwealth countries.\n\nSign up for CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.", "authors": ["Max Foster Lauren Said-Moorhouse Lianne Kolirin", "Max Foster", "Lauren Said-Moorhouse", "Lianne Kolirin"], "publish_date": "2022/06/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_5", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20240105_6", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/12/14/2024-presidential-candidates-republicans-democrats/71691815007/", "title": "Who is running for president in 2024? These candidates want your ...", "text": "The 2024 election cycle has kicked off, and the race is heating up even as Election Day is months away.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is seeking another term in the White House, and with former President Donald Trump's hat also in the ring, a 2020 rematch is a real possibility. Democrats are expected to fall firmly behind Biden, and Trump has held a stubborn lead in polls on the Republican side.\n\nWith mounting legal troubles, and several high-profile candidates aiming to unseat him, however, Trump is not yet a sure-fire winner.\n\nHere are the latest developments on the path to the 2024 election:\n\nDEMOCRATS\n\nDespite concerns over his age, Biden remains a strong frontrunner for his party's nomination. Several lesser-known Democratic candidates are mounting challenges to the president, but they have yet to gain much traction.\n\nJoe Biden\n\nBackground: First elected in 1972, Biden served as a senator from Delaware for 36 years before being elected vice president in 2008, mounting a victory alongside former President Barack Obama. After serving two terms as vice president, he took a brief hiatus from government work before returning to run, and win, in 2020.\n\nViews: Biden's campaign is focused on the \"battle for the soul of America,\" doubling down on the central message of his campaign four years ago. He said the question facing the nation is \"whether, in the years ahead, we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer.\"\n\nDean Phillips\n\nBackground: Phillips represents Minnesota in the House of Representatives and was first elected to Congress in 2018. Before entering politics, Phillips made his name as a businessman, heading up Phillips Distilling and serving as chair of Talenti Gelato.\n\nHis views: Phillips is a moderate with a reputation in Washington for reaching across the aisle. A member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, one of his major legislative accomplishments was the creation of the Paycheck Protection Program, which he co-authored with Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy. The program provided loans to businesses to help them during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nMarianne Williamson\n\nBackground: Williamson is a self-help author and spiritual leader who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020.\n\nHer views: Williamson supports abortion rights, a single-payer health care system and reparations for descendants of formerly enslaved Americans. She has suggested creating a U.S. Department of Children and Youth to increase child advocacy and a U.S. Department of Peace.\n\nREPUBLICANS\n\nSince his win in 2016, Trump has served as de facto leader of the Republican Party, his influence still looming large in Washington. After Trump-endorsed candidates suffered in the 2022 midterms, however, speculation swirled that there was an opening for a new leader to rise. Here are the candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring.\n\nRyan Binkley\n\nBackground: Binkley is CEO, president, and co-founder of the mergers and acquisitions conglomerate Generational Group. He is also a faith leader, co-founding and serving as the pastor at Create Church in Richardson, Texas.\n\nHis views: Binkley has said he hopes to prioritize balancing the budget, lowering health care costs, creating bipartisan immigration reform and putting more community emphasis on education. Binkley is against abortion rights. His campaign website says he was \"thankful\" when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but that a \"culture of life\" means prioritizing adoption as well.\n\nChris Christie\n\nBackground: Christie was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey in 2001 and served for six years, before being elected governor of the state in 2010 and serving until 2018. Christie has been a prominent figure in the GOP for many years. In 2016, he mounted an unsuccessful presidential campaign and, despite prior criticism, ultimately endorsed Trump and later joined his campaign.\n\nHis views: Christie is anti-abortion, but does support some exceptions in the case of incest, rape and danger to the mother. He is not for a federal ban. Instead, he believes the issue should be left to the states. He has advocated for a more secure border to stem the flow of fentanyl into the country, saying earlier in his campaign he planned to deploy the National Guard.\n\nRon DeSantis\n\nBackground: DeSantis serves as the 46th governor of Florida. While in law school, DeSantis joined the U.S. Navy as a JAG officer, later deploying to Iraq for active duty. Before his run for governor, he served in the House of Representatives as a congressman for Florida's 6th district for three terms from 2013 to 2018.\n\nHis views: DeSantis is campaigning on a hard-right agenda to make America look more like Florida. He is anti-abortion and has signed a 6-week abortion ban in his home state. On the border, DeSantis has been outspoken in his vision for a crackdown. He has promised to complete a border wall, reimpose the \"Remain in Mexico\" policy, and possibly end birthright citizenship. Similar in politics but different in demeanor, DeSantis represents a younger, some say more predictable, alternative to Former President Donald Trump.\n\nNikki Haley\n\nBackground: Haley started her political career in South Carolina's state legislature, where she served for 6 years before mounting a successful campaign for the governor's office in 2010. In 2016, former President Donald Trump nominated Haley to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held for a year before unexpectedly stepping down in 2018.\n\nHer views: Haley opposes abortion rights and has been a vocal supporter of Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas. While on the campaign trail, she has focused on illegal immigration, advocating for a return of the Trump-era \"Remain in Mexico\" policy as well as the defunding of sanctuary cities. Haley has told voters she hopes to crack down on China's influence on the U.S. economy. She has supported Trump in the past but also criticized him after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.\n\nAsa Hutchinson\n\nBackground: Hutchinson was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to serve Arkansas' 3rd district in 1997. He served until 2001 when he was appointed director for the Drug Enforcement Administration and later undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security for former President George W. Bush's administration. After leaving Washington, he was elected 46th Governor of Arkansas. He served for two terms, from 2015 to 2023.\n\nHis views: On immigration, Hutchinson has promised to send more resources to Border Patrol as well as resume construction of a border wall. He opposes abortion and has said he would sign a federal ban if elected but supports exceptions. He is also a vocal critic of Trump, saying he \"is not the right leader” for the nation or the Republican Party.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy\n\nBackground: Ramaswamy is a former biotech investor who founded the pharmaceutical research company Roivant Sciences in 2014. He stepped down as CEO in 2021 after going more public with his opposition to ESG and 'woke' politics in the corporate sector. He moved on to found Strive Asset Management, before stepping down to dedicate time to his 2024 run.\n\nHis views: Ramaswamy is framing himself as an outsider, an entrepreneur-turned-political-hopeful who will give the establishment a run for its money. He has peddled ideas such as ending affirmative action programs and eliminating the Department of Education.\n\nDonald Trump\n\nBackground: Prior to 2016, Trump dabbled in politics, often sounding off on issues like the birther movement meant to cast doubt on former President Barack Obama's citizenship and the case surrounding the now-exonerated Central Park Five. However, he was still primarily known for real estate and his forays into reality television, famously starring in \"The Apprentice.\"\n\nIn 2016, Trump won the White House, serving a full four-year term before being defeated by Biden in his reelection bid.\n\nHis views: The former president has, without evidence, centered much of his campaign on the claim that his political enemies are fueling his ongoing criminal cases. He has said he would consider pardoning participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which his critics say was inspired by his false claims of election fraud.\n\nTHIRD-PARTY CANDIDATES\n\nThe potential of a tight Trump-Biden rematch opens the door for a third-party candidate to be integral in determining the results of the race. A third name on the presidential ballot could drain votes from either of the two major party nominees, tipping the scales toward either Biden or Trump.\n\nRobert F. Kennedy Jr.\n\nBackground: Kennedy is an environmental lawyer known for trumpeting a debunked theory that vaccines can be linked to autism. In 2017, Trump invited Kennedy to head up a presidential commission on vaccine safety.\n\nHis views: He is campaigning on a platform of fighting for the \"liberties guaranteed by the Constitution,\" according to his campaign website. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy opposed vaccine mandates, calling them an infringement on individual liberty and at times used the Holocaust as a historical comparison.\n\nCornel West\n\nBackground:West is an American academic and philosopher known for his progressive ideals. He has taught at several Ivy League institutions and works now as a professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary.\n\nHis views: West is a proponent of establishing Medicare for All, and barring oil and gas subsidies, as well as drilling on public lands. Long a vocal opponent of militarism, West's campaign website lists \"end the wars\" as a key priority, which would include disbanding NATO and banning nuclear weapons across the globe.\n\nJill Stein\n\nBackground: Stein is a doctor and organizer who has championed causes like campaign finance reform and environmental protection. She has run for president twice before, launching bids in 2012 and 2016.\n\nHer views: Stein paints herself as an outsider, coming in to disrupt a political system ruled by money and special interests. In her campaign launch video, posted to X, she called for an economic bill of rights including \"the right to a job, to health care, to housing, to food, education and more.\n\nCandidates who dropped out", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/11/09/when-is-the-2024-primary-election-in-ohio-who-will-be-on-the-ballot/71435169007/", "title": "When is the 2024 primary election in Ohio? Who will be on the ballot?", "text": "The 2023 off-year general election has ended in Ohio, leaving voters wondering what comes next.\n\nA full list of local election results has been posted online and will be published in Thursday's print edition.\n\nWinning candidates will be sworn in after the start of the new year.\n\nAfter that, electors can turn their attention to the 2024 state primary election on March 19 and general election on Nov. 5.\n\nWhen is the next presidential election?\n\nPresident Joe Biden is up for a second term in 2024.\n\nThough White House incumbents rarely face significant challenges from within their own party during the primary, the general election is different. The race in November could well be a 2020 redux because polling has shown that former President Donald Trump — despite multiple federal indictments — remains a heavy favorite among likely Republican voters in a GOP field that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and several others.\n\nA recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll shows Biden and Trump tied nationally at 37%, with independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West garnering 13% and 4%, respectively.\n\nU.S. Senate seat attracts candidates from two parties\n\nOhioans will vote for one of the state's two senators next election cycle.\n\nLast year, they chose J.D. Vance, a Republican, over Tim Ryan, a Democrat.\n\nSenator terms last six years. There are no limits to the number of times one person may hold the seat.\n\nThe 2024 primary race appears to be heavily contested on both sides of the aisle.\n\nThe race for Democrats is, so far, a matchup between incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who was first elected in 2007, and Tariq Shabazz, a Navy veteran who filed with the Federal Election Commission on Aug. 1.\n\nThe field of Republicans is a little stiffer at three: Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls), and Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman who ran for the state's other senate seat in 2022.\n\nMany congressional seats to be decided in 2024\n\nAll 15 of Ohio's seats in the United States House of Representatives will be decided in 2024.\n\nCongressional terms only lasts two years. There are no term limits.\n\nThe most prominent incumbent will be U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Urbana), who recently lost a bid to become Speaker of the House.\n\nThe Ohio General Assembly will see a number of contested races in 2024.\n\nIn the Ohio Senate, 16 of the state's 33 seats will be up for election. The current senate is filled by 26 Republicans and 7 Democrats.\n\nIn the Ohio House of Representatives, all 99 seats will be decided. The existing composition of the state's lower house is 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats.\n\nOhio Gov. Mike DeWine was elected to his second consecutive 4-year term last year, which brings him to the end of his eligibility due to term limits. Voters will choose his replacement in 2026.\n\nztuggle@gannett.com\n\n419-564-3508", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2023/07/26/2023-des-moines-register-political-soapbox-schedule-iowa-state-fair-presidential-candidates-coverage/70445587007/", "title": "Des Moines Register Political Soapbox to bring 13 presidential ...", "text": "Staff Report\n\nDes Moines Register\n\nAs campaigning for the 2024 Iowa caucuses heated up, the Des Moines Register hosted presidential hopefuls at its Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.\n\nThe Register invited nearly 20 candidates who were seeking the Democratic, Libertarian or Republican nomination for president to speak to fairgoers. Candidates had to meet certain eligibility criteria such as campaign activity, political experience and fundraising before receiving an invitation.\n\nThis year, 13 presidential candidates took the Soapbox stage.\n\nAt the Soapbox, the hopefuls are offered 20 minutes, a microphone and a crowd eager to listen to political pitches.\n\nThe event, held along the Grand Concourse in front of the Horner Service Center, has become an Iowa tradition that also puts the state on the national stage.\n\nWhile candidates often don cowboy boots, eat giant turkey legs in the hot August sun and mingle with fairgoers, the Soapbox provides a space for real political discussion. Face-to-face with Iowans, candidates explain and defend their policy positions in front of a live audience.\n\nCoverage from the 2023 Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair\n\nRepublican Asa Hutchinson, Saturday, Aug. 19\n\nLibertarian Chase Oliver, Saturday, Aug. 19\n\nRepublican Will Hurd, Friday, Aug. 18\n\nRepublican Ryan Binkley, Saturday, Aug. 12\n\nRepublican Vivek Ramaswamy, Saturday, Aug. 12\n\nDemocrat Marianne Williamson, Saturday, Aug. 12\n\nDemocrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Saturday, Aug. 12\n\nRepublican Nikki Haley, Saturday, Aug. 12\n\nRepublican Francis Suarez, Friday, Aug. 11\n\nRepublican Perry Johnson. Friday, Aug. 11\n\nRepublican Larry Elder, Friday, Aug. 11\n\nRepublican Doug Burgum, Thursday, Aug. 10\n\nRepublican Mike Pence, Thursday, Aug. 10", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/07/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/10/how-old-biden-and-trump-how-age-2024-election/70489981007/", "title": "How old are Biden and Trump? How age will impact the 2024 election", "text": "WASHINGTON — When Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is 81, suddenly froze at a press conference last month, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, fell and was hospitalized last week, it put a spotlight on a concern among voters about political candidates: age.\n\nThe Democratic and Republican frontrunners, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, are the oldest candidates running in the 2024 race.\n\nBiden, who’s 80, has said in multiple interviews that he’s capable of reelection and has even turned his age into a punchline. But some voters are concerned his age could become a liability in office.\n\nThirty-seven percent of Democratic and Independent voters say Biden’s age makes them less likely to vote for him, according to a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll. Three percent say it makes them more likely, while 56% say it doesn’t make a difference.\n\nAnd Trump, 77, is just three years younger than the current president.\n\nHere’s what you need to know about how age will play a role in the 2024 election.\n\nHow old are the candidates running in 2024?\n\nThe field of presidential candidates in the 2024 race has grown bigger and more diverse in recent months, with people from a variety of backgrounds competing for a chance to run the country.\n\nSome voters are looking for a “fresh face” in the crowd, potentially someone youthful with no political experience. But others are looking for an older and more tenured leader who knows the ins and outs of the political landscape.\n\n\"Age has already been a constant topic, really since the last election,\" Matthew Schmidt, a politics expert at the University of New Haven, told USA TODAY.\n\nHow old are the Democrats running in the 2024 election?\n\nJoe Biden: 80\n\nMarianne Williamson: 71\n\nRobert F. Kennedy Jr: 69\n\nHow old are the Republicans running in the 2024 election?\n\nDonald Trump: 77\n\nAsa Hutchinson: 72\n\nLarry Elder: 71\n\nDoug Burgum: 67\n\nMike Pence: 64\n\nChris Christie: 60\n\nTim Scott: 57\n\nNikki Haley: 51\n\nRyan Binkley: 55\n\nFrancis Suarez: 45\n\nWill Hurd: 45\n\nRon DeSantis: 44\n\nVivek Ramaswamy: 37\n\nHow old are the third-party candidates running in the 2024 election?\n\nCornel West: 70\n\nHow has age played a role in previous elections?\n\nAge can affect the energy of all candidates, Lindsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian, told USA TODAY. But it's impossible to say how age affects mental acuity because aging is such an individual process, she added.\n\n“On one hand, age can bring wisdom and experience, which can be enormously helpful when facing challenges on the global scale,” Chervinsky said. “On the other hand, the job is so demanding that voters naturally ask if a candidate is up to the task. That's something each voter has to answer themselves.”\n\nPrior to the most recent presidential elections, former President Ronald Reagan was the oldest person to seek the presidency run for office, she said.\n\nIt is getting more common to see candidates running in their 70s though, James Campbell, a political science professor at the University at Buffalo, said. For instance, by May 2019 during the lead-up to the 2020 election, all but one of the 2020 presidential candidates were above 70 years old.\n\nOne factor contributing to this change, Schmidt said, is that the life expectancy of individuals has increased.\n\n\"People live longer now and are more capable in their later years because they're healthier than in the past,\" Schmidt said.\n\nJennifer Ailshire, a gerontology researcher at the University of Southern California, said that as long as someone is up to the task, she doesn't see why age should be a limiting factor in an election. What voters should watch out for is the physical and cognitive fitness of a candidate, she added.\n\nAilshire's research has shown that while many older individuals will start to experience physical declines in their 70s, there are people who avoid these declines. She also warned that a momentary lapse in memory or focus does not necessarily mean someone is experiencing significant cognitive decline.\n\nBiden versus Trump: 'Life begins at 80'\n\nIf Biden reclaims the White House, he would be 82 years old at the beginning of his second term in January 2025. If Trump wins, he would be 78 − the same age that Biden was when he began his first term in 2021.\n\nTrump dismissed questions about his age in a Truth Social post last year, arguing that Biden was “one of the oldest 79s in History but by and of itself, he is not an old man.”\n\n“There are many people in their 80s, and even 90s, that are as good and sharp as ever,” Trump wrote. “Biden is not one of them, but it has little to do with his age. In actuality, life begins at 80!”\n\nThe White House, however, has rejected criticism about Biden's age, saying he is healthy and fit to serve in office.\n\nBarry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued that, even if Biden's age has not affected his ability to do the job, \"some members of the public may nonetheless believe he is not mentally sharp enough or that he lacks the necessary physical stamina.”\n\nThese concerns stem from reports of Biden falling, sometimes mixing up countries and dates and making other small blunders.\n\nThere were also reports of Trump slurring words, having difficulty walking and struggling to raise a water glass during his presidency, raising concerns about his age. One of Trump's long-time supporters, Franklin Graham, expressed concern of Trump's eating habits potentially compromising his health, as Axios reported in 2021.\n\nBut though he had gained a few pounds while he served in office, his doctor had said on numerous occasions that he was healthy. The former president has not released any medical records since leaving office.\n\nBut if voters do have concerns about candidate's age, that's an issue they can watch for on the campaign trail leading into next year's election.\n\n\"Voters need to be aware of the potential problems associated with aging in such a demanding job, and the best way for voters to get a good reading of the candidates' conditions is by frequently observing them,\" Campbell said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2023/12/07/iowa-caucuses-vivek-ramaswamy-presidential-campaign-flirts-with-libertarian-party-ticket/71841250007/", "title": "Vivek Ramaswamy, Libertarian candidate? In Iowa, his campaign ...", "text": "Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has reached out to the Libertarian Party in Iowa to inquire about running for president on the party's ticket.\n\nCampaign operatives for Ramaswamy attended a local party event this week, and Ramaswamy has had conversations with two Iowa Libertarian officials, including one instance where he expressed interest in joining the ticket, one of those officials confirmed.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/10/24/biden-wont-be-on-the-new-hampshire-primary-ballot/70961265007/", "title": "Biden won't be on the New Hampshire primary ballot", "text": "CONCORD, N.H. – It’s a rite of passage for presidential candidates. But this time, President Joe Biden's name won't be on the New Hampshire ballot.\n\nBiden has been tussling with the state for nearly a year over its historically early primary date and will not make the trip to Concord to file this week.\n\nIn a break with centuries-old tradition, the incumbent president will not appear on the state’s Democratic primary ballot at all – with the national party pledging to discipline candidates who compete in unsanctioned primaries like the one New Hampshire plans to hold.\n\nBiden's reelection campaign notified New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley of the president's decision on Tuesday evening, citing guidance from the national party that urged campaigns not to place their candidates’ names on the ballot.\n\n\"Biden for President will refrain from submitting a Declaration of Candidacy for the Primary ahead of Friday’s candidate filing deadline for the Primary,\" the letter obtained by USA TODAY stated. \"[T]he president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November.\"\n\nOther presidential candidates have been making the trip to the New Hampshire State House for the last two weeks to file their paperwork to compete in the 2024 primaries.\n\nThe saga began last December when Biden proposed that South Carolina, the first state he won in the last competition, hold the first party-approved primary of the next presidential election.\n\nBiden told members of the Democratic National Committee who were tasked with making the decision that New Hampshire and Nevada should share the date of the second primary election. He also advised them to demote Iowa, which has traditionally held the first caucus, and give Georgia and Michigan more influential contest dates.\n\nIn a December letter outlining his decision, Biden said the changes to the Democratic schedule were necessary to empower voters of color and encourage candidates to invest in battleground states earlier. The party did what Biden asked, and earlier this year, the DNC voted to affirm the new calendar.\n\nMembers of the committee’s rule-making body say they will take away delegates from state parties and candidates who appear on the ballot in any contest that defies the approved order. That has led to fierce clashes with Republican-led New Hampshire over its refusal to change a state law requiring it to continue a more than 100-year tradition of holding the country’s first presidential primaries.\n\nBiden’s allies in the state are pursuing a workaround. They are putting the pieces in place for a write-in effort, which they hope will keep him from losing the first contest of his reelection campaign.\n\n“We have had a growing number of prominent Democrats express interest in being on a grassroots committee. We have received a significant amount of financial pledges. We have done all of the research with the FEC and everything that's needed. So now it's just the final decision of whether to pull the trigger or not,” said Jim Demers, a Democrat in New Hampshire who is helping with the preparations.\n\nCould eleventh-hour shuffling shake up the New Hampshire ballot?\n\nDemocrats inside and outside the state said for weeks that they did not expect Biden to appear on the ballot.\n\nBiden does not currently face a significant primary challenger, although there have been rumblings for days that Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota may launch a bid this week in New Hampshire.\n\nHe has already missed the filing deadline for the Nevada primary and would not be eligible to win delegates in New Hampshire if he put his name on the ballot there.\n\nPhillips, 54, has openly encouraged a Democrat to challenge Biden, 80, for the party’s nomination. He has not said whether it will be him and a spokeswoman declined a request for comment.\n\nCampaigns have until 5pm on Oct. 27 to submit the paperwork in New Hampshire.\n\nDemers, a Democrat who co-chaired former President Barack Obama's campaigns in New Hampshire and supports Biden, said the potential for Phillips to get in has not affected plans to write-in the incumbent president. Those efforts were already in motion and organizers will be meeting this week to make a final decision, he said.\n\n“As for Dean Phillips, it is way too late to be entering a presidential primary in New Hampshire,” he said. “I have had so many Democrats contact me, really annoyed with even the thought of somebody getting in at this point and especially a sitting member of Congress.”\n\nThe lobbyist and former member of the state legislature, whose Concord office sits across the street from the New Hampshire State House, said Democrats are looking ahead to next November’s general election. They are fearful that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump could be elected president again, Demers said.\n\n“And they recognize that if Democrats go into November disunited, it does nothing but help Donald Trump,” he said.\n\nDemocrats fear a New Hampshire loss in the general election\n\nDemocrats in the state say they are worried that Trump, or whomever the GOP nominee is, will dump money into the state that has four electoral votes. Had former Vice President Al Gore won New Hampshire in 2000, he would have become president.\n\nTheir arguments have done little to persuade members of the national party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to let New Hampshire off the hook.\n\nIn an Oct. 24 memo to Democratic presidential campaigns that stressed the panel's efforts to \"increase the diversity and competitiveness of the process,\" which was obtained exclusively by USA TODAY, the panel's co-chairs, Jim Roosevelt, Jr. and Minyon Moore said that they have \"no reason to expect\" that New Hampshire will comply with its rules and its primary will be considered a \"non-binding presidential preference event.\"\n\n\"As such, we advise campaigns to refrain from including their candidate’s name on the ballot. Should your campaign have already filed, we advise your candidate to inform the RBC of its process to remove their name from the ballot should New Hampshire schedule its primary in violation of Rule 12,\" they said.\n\n\"Campaigns should also remain cognizant that should they place the candidate’s name on the ballot or fail to take action to remove it from the ballot, they shall not receive pledged delegates or delegate votes from New Hampshire.\"\n\nDemocrats who serve on the panel hope that penalties for candidates who appear on the ballot in non-compliant states will dissuade candidates who are competing to win the Democratic nomination from future acts of defiance.\n\nAt an Oct. 6 meeting, RBC member Elaine Kamarck noted that their sanctions are “pretty weak, okay, let’s face it” and suggested New Hampshire Democrats never cared about having delegates at the national convention.\n\nNew Hampshire cares about having the first-in-the-nation primary, she said. “The ultimate sanction is that the presidential candidates don’t go there. In other words. if you have a primary and nobody goes, you might as well have not had a primary.”\n\nThe national party’s plan to strip Democratic candidates who participate in any state that holds its contest too early in the nominating calendar did not keep longshot Biden competitor Marianne Williamson from putting her name on the New Hampshire ballot this year.\n\nTwo days before New Hampshire opened its filing deadline, however, former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy changed his mind and said he would compete for the White House as an independent.\n\nSome of Biden’s supporters from outside the state encouraged Democrats to switch their party affiliation to undeclared before an early October deadline so they could vote against Trump in the GOP primary. They are uniting with Republicans who are trying to defeat Trump at a conference this Saturday at New England College in Henniker.\n\nNew Hampshire’s Democratic Party is informally supporting the expected Biden write-in effort. It can not officially be involved in that campaign once it launches, which is where activists such as Demers and former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Kathy Sullivan come in.\n\nSullivan said in an interview from the party headquarters that her goal is to generate enthusiasm for Biden until he can campaign in the state.\n\n“A lot of people who are involved in politics in New Hampshire got involved because of presidential primaries,” she said. “And we're losing a lot of that right now, because we don't have the president here running for reelection. And so we don't have new people coming in and saying hey, what can I do to help. And that's unfortunate and that's sad.”\n\nSullivan said she also hoped that a write-in effort would change negative attitudes toward the White House because Biden is not filing in the state. She said that she had heard from angry voters who asked why they should write Biden’s name down on the primary ballot after what he did to the state.\n\nA University of New Hampshire poll, taken in coordination with CNN at the end of September, found that 78% of likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire plan to vote for Biden whether he appears on the primary ballot or not.\n\nIn a separate interview at party headquarters, Matt Wilhelm, the New Hampshire House Democratic leader, said most Biden backers do not want to let the DNC dictate how they conduct their primary.\n\n“I think by engaging in a write-in campaign, we show that we take our first-in-the-nation primary really seriously, but also support the president,” he said. “We're able to, I think, separate a squabble over the order of which, primaries and caucuses are scheduled when, with the accomplishments of the administration.”\n\nNew Hampshire plows ahead with first-in-the-nation contest\n\nSouth Carolina will hold its Democratic primary on Feb. 3. The party told Nevada and New Hampshire to have their primaries on Feb. 6. But the New Hampshire secretary of state, David Scanlan, says his state will go first regardless.\n\nScanlan, a Republican, said he would not announce the primary date until after the filing period closes on Oct. 27. But he told USA TODAY as the filing period opened: “We will not be going on Feb. 6.\"\n\nScanlan said there was “no chance” he would change his mind on holding New Hampshire's primary first.\n\n“I don’t know if that opens the door for President Biden to sign up for the New Hampshire primary or not but that’s his decision to make,\" Scalan said. \"We will continue on our path, regardless of what that decision is.”\n\nBiden ultimately decided against it.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2023/10/20/desantis-trump-ramaswamy-campaigns-fuel-conservative-covid-anger/70961817007/", "title": "DeSantis, Trump, Ramaswamy campaigns fuel conservative COVID ...", "text": "In an Iowa sports bar on a dreary Saturday morning, Grimes resident Mike Pauk posed a final audience question to GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.\n\n“When are the people like Anthony Fauci, hospital administrators, when are they going to be held accountable? Not getting fired, not driving around in limos — when are they going to be in cuffs?” Pauk asked. “We hung seven Nazi doctors, including Karl Brandt, for doing far less.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/08/vivek-ramaswamy-campaign-flirts-with-libertarian-party-ticket/71850679007/", "title": "Vivek Ramaswamy, Libertarian candidate? His campaign flirts with a ...", "text": "Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has reached out to the Libertarian Party in Iowa to inquire about running for president on the party's ticket.\n\nCampaign operatives for Ramaswamy attended a local party event this week, and Ramaswamy has had conversations with two Iowa Libertarian officials, including one instance where he expressed interest in joining the ticket, one of those officials confirmed.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/08/2022-midterm-election-live-updates/8257821001/", "title": "Midterm election results 2022: Recap on Election Day", "text": "Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Election Day 2022. For updated information about voting results in key races, check out of live updates file for Wednesday, Nov. 9.\n\nDemocrat John Fetterman won the hard-fought U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania against Republican Mehmet Oz, flipping a seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.\n\nFetterman's victory reinforced other signs that a “red wave” of Republican strength had not materialized, as Democrats held on to several competitive Senate and governor seats.\n\nWhich party control the House and Senate is still undecided. Republican J.D. Vance bettered Republicans' chances of taking the Senate with his win over Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. But Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan defeated a GOP challenger in the competitive New Hampshire race.\n\nA handful of the closely watched Senate races have yet to be called, including the contest in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker and the Nevada Senate match-up pitting Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto against Republican Adam Laxalt.\n\nVulnerable House Democrat survives: Rep. Abigail Spanberger won a competitive race against Republican challenger Yesli Vega in Virginia\n\nRep. Abigail Spanberger won a competitive race against Republican challenger Yesli Vega in Virginia Republican Abbott defeats O'Rourke in Texas: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott held his seat against Democrat Beto O'Rourke\n\nTexas Gov. Greg Abbott held his seat against Democrat Beto O'Rourke Trump’s favored Pennsylvania governor candidate loses: Democrat Josh Shapiro will be Pennsylvania’s next governor, defeating Trump-backed Doug Mastriano.\n\nDemocrat Josh Shapiro will be Pennsylvania’s next governor, defeating Trump-backed Doug Mastriano. History made: Maryland voters elected only the third black governor – Democrat Wes Moore – in U.S. history. And Democrat Maura Healey becomes the first woman and first openly gay candidate elected as governor of Massachusetts. And progressive activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost is the first Gen Z member to win a seat in Congress.\n\nMaryland voters elected only the third black governor – Democrat Wes Moore – in U.S. history. And Democrat Maura Healey becomes the first woman and first openly gay candidate elected as governor of Massachusetts. And progressive activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost is the first Gen Z member to win a seat in Congress. DeSantis, Rubio wins reinforce rightward shift in Florida: Incumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rubio comfortably won reelection as voter concerns about the economy appeared to prevail over a message emphasized by Democrats focusing on abortion rights.\n\nIncumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rubio comfortably won reelection as voter concerns about the economy appeared to prevail over a message emphasized by Democrats focusing on abortion rights. Republicans flexed their muscle in gubernatorial races with Chris Sununu (New Hampshire), Ron DeSantis (Florida), Henry McMaster (South Carolina), Mike DeWine (Ohio) and Kay Ivey (Alabama) all winning reelection. In addition, former Trump White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders won the governor’s race in Arkansas.\n\nThe latest updates:\n\nGeorgia secretary of state: Raffensperger wins\n\nRepublican incumbent Brad Raffensperger emerged victorious in the race for Georgia secretary of state, beating out Democratic nominee and former state senator Bee Nguyen.\n\nRaffensperger held a solid lead over Nguyen in the polls throughout the race. The contest to be the state’s chief election officer, a down-ballot race that has previously garnered little attention, has gained increased importance in the wake of the 2020 election and unfounded voter fraud claims.\n\n-- Anna Kaufman\n\n3 takeaways from Georgia governor's race:Brian Kemp defeats Stacey Abrams for second term\n\nDemocratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin wins in Michigan\n\nRep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich, won reelection over Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett and Libertarian candidate Leah Dailey in Michigan’s new 7th Congressional District, ending one of the nation’s most expensive and closely watched House races.\n\nSlotkin was first elected from the 8th District in 2018, when she flipped a Republican seat that President Donald Trump won in 2016, and she was one of the few Democrats to win reelection in a district that voted for Trump in 2020. A former National Security Council and CIA staffer, she opted to run this year in the newly redrawn 7th District, which is centered on Lansing and would have voted narrowly for President Joe Biden had it existed in 2020.\n\nWhile Slotkin was endorsed by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a harsh Trump critic, Barrett was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence. Barrett, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, has focused his campaign on less spending, more energy production and criticism of Slotkin's voting record. Slotkin has struck back at Barrett's refusal to say if he would have accepted the results of the 2020 election, which he has called an \"unknowable thing.\"\n\n– Yoori Han, Cronkite News\n\nDemocrat Greg Landsman unseats Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot\n\nDemocrat Greg Landsman defeated Republican incumbent Steve Chabot in the House race for Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, the AP reported.\n\nLandsman, a former Cincinnati City councilman, won by a little more than 10,000 votes when the race was called.\n\nChabot represented Hamilton County for 26 years in Congress. This was his first defeat since he lost to Democrat Steve Driehaus in 2008. He regained his seat two years later.\n\n-- Rachel Looker\n\nSenate flip:Democrat John Fetterman flips U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, beating Republican Mehmet Oz\n\nWisconsin governor: Evers wins reelection\n\nWisconsin Gov. Tony Evers won a heated re-election battle against Trump-backed Republican Tim Michels.\n\nA Marquette University Law School poll last week had them tied at 48%.\n\nEvers won the governor’s office by a thin margin in 2018 when he defeated Republican Scott Walker, a 2016 presidential candidate. Evers had been a school district superintendent and served as the statewide superintendent of public instruction in Wisconsin for nearly a decade.\n\nAs governor, Evers’s job approval has been slightly underwater in recent Marquette polls, with 46% approving of the job he’s been doing as governor and 48% disapproving.\n\nMichels is backed by former President Donald Trump, who has traveled to Wisconsin to campaign for him. The once low-key owner of Wisconsin’s largest construction company, the eponymous Michels Corp, Michels launched his bid for governor in April -- about 15 months after Biden revoked a key permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project for which Michels’ company had a contract to build pump stations. It’s Michels’ third run for office.\n\n– Donovan Slack\n\nLive updates:Wisconsin Election Results 2022\n\nMichigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wins reelection\n\nDemocratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed victory in her bid for reelection as Michigan governor, successfully fending off a challenge by Republican nominee Tudor Dixon.\n\nThe contest, once seen as an easy win for Democrats in a major battleground state, tightened in the final weeks with a last minute push by the Dixon campaign helping her to inch closer in the polls.\n\nWhitmer is a veteran of Michigan politics, serving six years in the state House and eight in the senate before being elected governor in 2018.\n\nDixon spent years as a conservative TV commentator and producer of conservative news for students.\n\nDixon, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, denies the results of the 2020 election and has criticized Whitmer for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitmer, like many other Democrats, emphasized abortion rights throughout the campaign and criticized Dixon for her no-exceptions stance on the procedure.\n\n– Anna Kaufman\n\nPreviously:Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Tudor Dixon facing off in second gubernatorial debate: recap\n\nRepublican Sen. Mike Lee wins reelection for Utah seat\n\nSen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, fended off Independent challenger Evan McMullin for a third term.\n\nWith just over half of Utah ballots counted, Lee had more than 55% of the vote compared to McMullin’s 41% when the race was called early Wednesday morning.\n\n-- Ella Lee\n\nVoted into history:Wes Moore to be Maryland's first Black governor; first Gen-Z House member in Fla., more\n\nIn victory speech, Fetterman says he’s ‘proud’ of campaign\n\nDonning his signature hoodie, Democrat John Fetterman addressed a raucous crowd of supporters early Wednesday morning after his narrow win against Republican challenger Mehmet Oz in the closely watched Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race.\n\n“We jammed them up, we held the line,” Fetterman said. “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do.”\n\nIn his victory speech, Fetterman said he was “proud” of the issues he ran on, like abortion rights, increased minimum wage and health care.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nJohn Fetterman wins Pennsylvania Senate seat\n\nJohn Fetterman is the projected winner of the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, beating out Donald Trump-backed celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and overcoming concerns that his stroke recovery had foreclosed his chances at victory.\n\nOpinion polls showed Oz gaining on Fetterman after the Democratic candidate's rocky debate performance.\n\nThe lieutenant governor suffered a stroke just days before the primary in May and has relied on closed captioning in recent interviews and the debate.\n\nIndependent analysts had predicted the Pennsylvania race would be the best chance for Democrats to pick up a Republican-held Senate seat. Fetterman and Oz have been vying for the open seat created by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's retirement.\n\n\"It's official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania,\" Fetterman tweeted early Wednesday morning.\n\n– Donovan Slack\n\nTexas Democrat Vicente Gonzalez reelected to House\n\nRep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, won his reelection campaign against GOP challenger Mayra Flores to represent Texas' 34th Congressional District, a setback for Republicans hoping to mobilize Hispanic voters.\n\nWith more than 88% of ballots counted, Gonzales led Flores by more than 8 points when the race was called.\n\nRepublicans have made inroads with Latino voters in states like Texas and Nevada, where Democrats are locked in tight congressional and statewide elections. But Gonzalez’ win is a blow to those efforts.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nNo victory or concession speeches tonight from Nevada Democrats\n\nJust as the crowd doubled in size at the Democratic ticket's election party on the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada's top candidates took the stage to thank their supporters – and encourage them to \"go home.\"\n\nSen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Gov. Steve Sisolak said they didn't expect final election results to be available before the end of the night, but assured the crowd that they \"believe strongly when this is done, we're going to win this thing!\"\n\n\"It's going to be a couple of days,\" Sisolak said, \"so I encourage you to go home, get some sleep, and let the county continue (counting) tomorrow and Thursday. And we'll be celebrating then.\"\n\nAbsent of any victory or concession speeches tonight, Cortez Masto and Sisolak walked off the stage together as their supporters cheered. And soon after the two Democrats disappeared, the crowd quickly thinned out.\n\n– Rio Lacanlale\n\nNew Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas reelected to House\n\nRep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., won a second term serving New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District.\n\nPappas led Republican challenger Karoline Leavitt by more than 8 points; just under 80% of the vote had been counted when the race was called.\n\nIf Leavitt had won the race, she would have been the second member of Gen Z elected to the U.S. House of Representatives this election cycle.\n\n-Ella Lee\n\nRep. Henry Cuellar reelected in Texas\n\nDemocratic Rep. Henry Cuellar won reelection Tuesday, fending off an aggressive play by Republicans to remake the U.S.-Mexico border into a midterm battleground.\n\nCuellar’s victory over Republican Cassy Garcia holds the line for Democrats in an important stronghold for the party. Garcia was one of three Republican Latina candidates who ran competitive House races along the border after the GOP made inroads with Hispanic voters in 2020.\n\nCuellar is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House and narrowly survived a primary challenge this spring from a progressive challenger.\n\n– Paul J. Weber and Acacia Coronado, Associated Press\n\nRazor-thin margin in Georgia Senate race\n\nATLANTA – Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock told supporters late Tuesday he remains confident as Republican opponent Herschel Walker holds a razor-thin lead.\n\nWalker was ahead by less than 7,000 votes as votes continue to be counted as the clock hit midnight.\n\n“We always knew that this race would be close,” Warnock told supporters. “And so that's where we are. So y'all just hang in there. I'm feeling good.”\n\nWith about 88% of the total vote counted thus far, less than half a percentage point separates the two candidates.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nNorth Carolina Sen.-elect Ted Budd: It's been a long night\n\nWINSTON-SALEM N.C. – It was later than he had hoped, but Ted Budd went before supporters shortly before midnight to claim victory in a U.S. Senate race in North Carolina.\n\n\"What an incredible and long night this has been,\" Budd said after a closer-than-expected win over Democrat Cheri Beasley.\n\nBudd's list of thank-yous included Donald Trump, whose endorsement propelled him to the Republican Senate nomination earlier this year.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nDemocratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wins reelection in New Mexico\n\nNew Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, won reelection Tuesday over Republican Mark Ronchetti, a local TV weatherman turned politician who built his campaign on criticism of the first-term governor's performance, according NBC and ABC News\n\nGrisham, who served three terms in the U.S. House, was the first Democratic Latina to hold a governor’s seat at the time of her election in 2018. She ran then on a campaign focused on crime, education and immigration policy, but her reelection was centered on economic issues.\n\nAfter a failed bid for U.S. Senate in 2020, Ronchetti framed his gubernatorial campaign around Grisham's track record, blaming Democrats for a faltering economy and specifically blaming the incumbent's policies for New Mexico’s rank as second in the nation for violent crime. Ronchetti also got a last-minute endorsement this month from former President Donald Trump.\n\nA third candidate, Libertarian Karen Bedonie, a mother of eight and citizen of the Navajo Nation, polled in the single digits throughout the race. She initially hoped to run on the Republican ticket, and is among those that have questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential election.\n\n– Laura Bargfeld, Cronkite News\n\nDemocrats win in Hawaii Senate, governor’s races\n\nDemocrats easily won their races for the U.S. Senate and governorship in Hawaii.\n\nJosh Green overcame Republican challenger Duke Aiona for governor, while Sen. Brian Schatz winning reelection for his seat against Republican Bob McDermott.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nBiden makes another round of congratulatory calls\n\nPresident Joe Biden called made congratulatory calls to the following candidates Tuesday: Sen. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Alex Padilla ,Rep.-elect Seth Magaziner, Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.\n\nBiden also phoned Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, along with Wes Moore, Maryland's newly elected governor, and Emilia Sykes, who rain in Ohio's newly redrawn 13th Congressional District – a closely watched tossup election.\n\n– Kathleen Wong and Christal Hayes\n\nDemocrat Janet Mills reelected as Maine governor\n\nMaine Gov. Janet Mills was reelected to the state’s governorship, beating her Republican opponent, Paul LePage. This will be Mill’s second term as Maine governor, according to NBC and CBS news.\n\nMills became the first woman elected as the state’s governor in 2018 when she was first elected. She also was the first woman to serve as the state’s attorney general, an office she served twice.\n\n– Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nIn victory speech, Hassan offers credit for Bolduc\n\nDemocratic Sen. Maggie Hassan took the stage to an enthusiastic, and teary-eyed, crowd after NBC and CNN called the race in her favor.\n\n“Thank you to all the wonderful friends that are here tonight,” Hassan said, after continued chants of “Maggie” and “Six more years” from the crowd. “I love you too!\" Hassan said.\n\nHassan paused to credit Republican Don Bolduc for a hard-fought race, but not before shushing boos upon mention of his name.\n\n“No guys. No,” said Hassan, stopping the crowd. “I want to thank Don Bolduc for his service to our country. We share a love of country.\"\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nKiggans declares victory in Virginia\n\nRepublican Jen Kiggans declared victory in the hotly contested House race in Virginia, unseating Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria.\n\nSpeaking at her campaign’s election watch party at the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, Kiggans gave a message of unity in her victory speech.\n\n“I believe it’s important to focus on the things that unite us, and not what divides us,” she said.\n\nKiggans wished her opponent well. “Although we may differ in our political ideologies, we certainly share a love for our navy and a love for our country,” she said.\n\n– Christina van Waasbergen\n\nDemocrat Ron Wyden reelected to Oregon U.S. Senate seat\n\nSen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., won his reelection bid against Republican challenger Jo Rae Perkins, according to multiple reports.\n\nWyden, who led Perkins by more than 13 percentage points when the race was called, has been in Congress for more than 40 years overall, assuming his Senate seat in 1996.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nDemocrat Gov. Kathy Hochul wins New York governor race\n\nDemocratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won the New York governor’s race against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, NBC and ABC reported.\n\nHochul unexpectedly became the state's first female governor in 2021, after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham: ‘Definitely not a Republican wave’\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said a \"red wave\" election didn’t appear to be materializing after Republicans were projected to lose Senate races in New Hampshire and Colorado, but he still predicted Republicans would take control of the upper chamber.\n\n“Definitely not a Republican wave,” Graham told NBC. “I think we’re going to be at 51, 52 when it’s all said and done.”\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nElection analysis: Even with Kemp, Vance wins, are midterm results more red ripple than wave?\n\nRepublican JD Vance wins Ohio Senate seat over Democrat Tim Ryan\n\nTrump-backed Republican author JD Vance won the Senate race in Ohio, beating Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, whose campaign had a fundraising edge but lacked national party support, according to NBC and ABC News.\n\nThe race has been one of the tightest in the country in recent polling and is a key test of the influence former President Donald Trump still wields. Trump endorsed Vance and went to Ohio to support him, telling rally goers in September that \"The entire MAGA movement is for J.D. Vance.\"\n\nIt’s also a bellwether for which way national tides are turning on Election Day. The Senate seat has been occupied since 2011 by Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who’s retiring.\n\n– Donovan Slack\n\nDemocrat Patty Murray wins reelection to Senate\n\nDemocratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray won reelection to the Senate against Republican opponent Tiffany Smiley after leading Smiley by nearly 15% with 56% of the precincts reporting, according to multiple reports.\n\nMurray will be serving her sixth term in the Senate. While in the Senate, Murray was the first female chair for the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and Budget Committee.\n\nRecent polls showing the race neck-and-neck suggested the veterans lawmaker was in the fight of her political life but an upset never materialized on election day.\n\n- Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nPresident Biden congratulates Democratic winners\n\nPresident Joe Biden has completed congratulatory calls to Senator Chris Van Hollen, Senator Michael Bennet, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, and Representative Jennifer Wexton.\n\nVan Hollen of Maryland was reelected to his second Senate term, beating out Republican Chris Chaffee.\n\nBennet defended his Colorado Senate seat over Republican opponent Joe O’Dea for his third term in office. The race was competitive, according to multiple reports.\n\nBillionaire J.B. Pritzker swiftly beat Republican challenger Darren Bailey for reelection as Illinois Governor.\n\nIn a tight race, Virginia Democrat Jennifer Wexton won reelection to the U.S. House over Republican Hung Cao. This will be Wexton's third term.\n\n- Kathleen Wong\n\nRepublican Ted Budd wins North Carolina Senate seat\n\nTrump-endorsed Ted Budd won the race for a North Carolina Senate seat, defeating Democrat and former state Supreme Court chief justice Cheri Beasley.\n\nComing into tonight, the three-term GOP congressman had a five-point lead over Beasley in a poll by Emerson College Polling and The Hill, according NBC and ABC News.\n\nTheirs was among the most competitive Senate races this election cycle, seen as a potential factor in Republican efforts to gain the majority. The North Carolina seat was up for grabs for either party, with Republican Richard Burr retiring after his fourth term as Senator.\n\n– Savannah Kuchar\n\nShapiro win brings relief for Pennsylvania Democrats\n\nSWARTHMORE, Pa.- Bonnee B. Bentum feels safer tonight, knowing Democrat Josh Shapiro won the governor’s seat and blocked a Republican supermajority in Pennsylvania that could have threatened abortion rights and voting rights.\n\nShe said this as someone who works for a state Democratic senator, serves as an executive board member of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and mostly as a Black woman.\n\nBentum pointedly describes what was at stake: “My life, my daughter’s life…to live freely.”\n\n- Candy Woodall\n\nNew Maryland voter choses digital over paper vote\n\nTUXEDO, Md. - Bill Aylin is a lifelong voter, but he was still surprised when he voted for the first time in Maryland after moving from Georgia.\n\n“All of Georgia is digital and this one is mostly paper,” said Aylin, who found things at the Judith P. Hoyer Early Childhood Center \"radically\" different from what he was used to. But the Prince George's County polling place also offered two digital machines, so he chose to vote on one of those.\n\nHe said he feel it’s his duty to vote, and that he found the House and Senate races to be the most important. Outside of that there were some questions about bonds and borrowing money that drew his attention.\n\n“I’m fine with schools borrowing money,\" Aylin said. “I’m not fine with it for the government.”\n\n- Haley Smilow, Cronkite News\n\nRepublican Brian Kemp reelected as Georgia governor\n\nRepublican incumbent Brian Kemp won the race for Georgia governor, defeating Democratic candidate and now two-time opponent Stacey Abrams, according to NBC and ABC News.\n\nThe two faced off once before back in 2018, with Kemp narrowly claiming victory after a runoff election. This gubernatorial contest has been one of the most closely watched this midterm cycle as both candidates are major players in their parties.\n\nThe tightly fought race, along with Sen. Raphael Warnock’s bid to keep his seat in Congress, was expected to serve as a litmus test of just how strong the Democratic coalition in Georgia is and whether it can withstand an election largely viewed as a referendum on President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings have suffered throughout his second year.\n\n– Anna Kaufman\n\nBrian Kemp's win: 3 takeaways from the Georgia governor's race\n\nVirginia Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria unseated by Jennifer Kiggans\n\nRepublican state Sen. Jennifer Kiggans unseated incumbent Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., Tuesday in Virginia's 2nd District, which gained a more Republican tilt in redistricting but was still considered a toss-up.\n\nBoth Luria and Kiggans are Navy veterans who campaigned on promises to fight for defense and veterans issues.\n\nKiggans, who currently represents Legislative District 7 in the Tidewater region of the state, positioned herself as the candidate to restore American strength that she said has been injured by the policies of the Biden administration - policies she said Luria continually backed.\n\nLuria, a two-term House member, is also a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. A main thrust of her campaign was what she called Kiggans' failure to discuss her stance on results of the 2020 election.\n\n– Emilee Miranda, Cronkite News\n\nDoes early good news for Dems mean a red tsunami isn't materializing?\n\nTwo vulnerable House Democrats in Virginia swing districts appeared to be on their way to victories, perhaps signaling that a red tsunami many predicted isn’t materializing.\n\nCNN and NBC projected that U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., defeated Republican challenger Yesli Vega in the state’s 7th congressional district, a fiercely fought battleground, while Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., was the projected winner over Republican Hung Cha in the 10th congressional district.\n\n“I’m still waiting for the Red Wave to arrive,” veteran political handicapper Stuart Rothenberger said on Twitter. “It may still come, but I have not seen it yet. That does not mean the Rs won’t win the House and Senate.”\n\nRepublicans picked up a third battleground seat in Virginia, however, with CNN projecting Jen Kiggans defeated Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.\n\nIn a fourth battleground House race in Rhode Island, Democrat Seth Magaziner is the projected winner over Republican Allan Fung, mayor of Cranston, R.I.\n\n- Joey Garrison\n\nRepublican Mike Crapo wins reelection to Idaho Senate seat\n\nRepublican Sen. Mike Crapo defended his Senate seat in the race against Democratic challenger David Roth.\n\nCrapo, a former attorney who previously served in the U.S. House and the Idaho Legislature, will now serve his fifth term in the Senate. The last time Democrats won a U.S. Senate election in Idaho was 1974.\n\nCrapo is currently the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nDemocrat Gov. Gavin Newsom wins reelection\n\nDemocrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has been reelected in the California gubernatorial race defeating Republican challenger Brian Dahle.\n\nNewsom had a large lead over Dahle during the campaign. Newsom, the former Lieutenant Governor of California and former Mayor of San Francisco, will now serve his second term in the governor’s mansion.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nDemocrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger, top GOP target, wins reelection\n\nRep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., won re-election Tuesday over Republican challenger Yesli Vega in a redrawn Virginia 7th District, a potential bellwether for Democrats odds in the U.S. House.\n\nBoth Spanberger and Vega have law enforcement backgrounds. But Spanberger, a two-term congresswoman and the first Democrat elected to represent the 7th district since 1971, highlighted her bipartisan record throughout the campaign.\n\nVega, a first-generation Salvadoran-American and a one-term Prince William County supervisor, positioned herself as a check on the Biden administration. She got a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump last week, but did not actively embrace it.\n\n– Emilee Miranda, Cronkite News\n\nRepublican Chuck Grassley reelected to Senate seat\n\nRepublican Chuck Grassley has defended his Iowa Senate seat against Democratic challenger Michael Franken, according to ABC and NBC.\n\nGrassley has served in office since 1959. The 89-year-old congressman will now serve his sixth term, which upon completion would make him the second-oldest member of Congress at 95 years old.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nDemocrat Josh Shapiro wins Pennsylvania governor\n\nPennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro bested Trump-backed Republican Doug Mastriano to win the governor’s race in Pennsylvania, according to NBC and Fox news.\n\nShapiro had been leading Mastriano by significant margins in recent polling.\n\nShapiro, the state’s attorney general since 2017, led Mastriano 52%-40% in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll last week. He is a former state representative who cast himself as someone willing to take the fight to the status quo. Shapiro defended the state’s presidential election results in 2020 against an onslaught of legal challenges.\n\nMastriano, a state senator and retired Army colonel, marched on the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6 attack and was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who visited the state to rally for him.\n\nMastriano supported unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and held a hearing featuring Rudy Giuliani and Trump, via call-in, hyping voting irregularities.\n\n- Donovan Slack\n\nDemocrat Maggie Hassan wins reelection to U.S. Senate\n\nSen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., beat back Trump-endorsed Republican challenger Don Bolduc in a race that narrowed sharply in the final days despite the state being carried by President Joe Biden in 2020, according to ABC and NBC News\n\nHassan, who served as governor from 2013 until she entered the Senate in 2017, tried to distance herself from the president throughout her campaign. She criticized the administration for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan last year and for its handling of rising inflation.\n\nBolduc, a retired Army general, repeated false claims during the primary that the 2020 election was stolen, but he walked those back after securing the GOP nomination in September. In October, the National Republican Senatorial Committee stopped funding Bolduc’s campaign to prioritize other battleground states.\n\n– Ryan Knappenberger\n\nProgressive activist becomes first Gen Z-er to be elected to Congress\n\nA former March for Our Lives and ACLU activist, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, 25, won his election bid against Republican Army veteran Calvin Wimbish to represent Florida's 10th Congressional District, which includes the Orlando area. He received more than 58% of vote with more than 98% of all ballots counted.\n\nThe seat became open when Democrat Val Demings decided to run for Senate against Republican Marco Rubio.\n\n- Ella Lee\n\nA win for Gen-Z: Florida's Max Frost becomes first Gen-Z member of Congress\n\nDemocrat Sen. Michael Bennet wins reelection\n\nDemocratic Sen. Michael Bennet defended his Colorado Senate seat in a competitive race against Republican challenger Joe O’Dea, according to multiple reports.\n\nThis will be Bennet’s third term in office, but was one of his most challenging reelection campaigns. He sought out the Democratic party nomination for the 2020 presidential election.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nAbbott wins reelection as Texas governor\n\nTexas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott won reelection, besting former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who had sought to ride what he and other Democrats hoped would be a wave of registered Democratic voters to victory in the long deep-red state, according to multiple reports.\n\nThe race drew national attention for O'Rourke, who lost a bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 and made a brief presidential run in 2020. O'Rourke's name recognition and charisma fueled Democratic hopes that he could win the governor's race.\n\nBut as of last week, Abbott was favored to win by nearly 10 points, according to FiveThirtyEight polling averages. And voter registration numbers from the Texas secretary of state’s office showed an increase in voter registrations - but not the massive wave state Democrats had hoped would follow the state’s abortion ban and the Uvalde school massacre.\n\n– Donovan Slack\n\nRepublican Kristi Noem reelected as South Dakota governor\n\nSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, will serve a second term as the state’s leader, according to projections by NBC and ABC.\n\nNoem had received about 61% if the vote with 16% of ballots counted.\n\nThe South Dakota Republican faced a pair of complaints in August, one of which was referred to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office for investigation.\n\nThe first complaint alleged personal use of the state airplane. The second, which accused Noem of misusing her position as governor to help her daughter through the state real estate appraiser program, was partially dismissed by the Government Accountability Board, because \"appropriate action\" had been determined.\n\n- Ella Lee\n\nMother shares the experience of voting with her daughter\n\nPHOENIX - Vanessa Figueroa brought her 9-year-old daughter, Victoria Medina, with her to the Maryvale Bridge United Methodist Church in Phoenix to drop off her ballot.\n\nFigueroa, 39, said she thought it would be a good chance to teach her daughter the importance of voting.\n\n“(I want her to know that) you get to vote and give your opinion and decide for your own education, too,” she said.\n\nFigueroa said voting is one way she can express support for public education. Victoria hasn’t been able to see a school counselor, she said, because of short staffing – one indication to her that schools need more resources.\n\n- Alex Appel/Special for Cronkite News\n\nRepublican John Kennedy defends his Louisiana Senate seat\n\nRepublican Sen. John Kennedy defended his Senate seat in Louisiana defeating Democratic challenger Luke Mixon, according to NBC and ABC.\n\nKennedy joined a group of 11 senators in 2021 who objected to the certification of President Donald Trump's 2020 presidential loss. He will now serve his second term.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nRepublican Gov. Phil Scott wins re-election in Vermont\n\nRepublican Gov. Phil Scott secured a fourth term in Vermont after defeating Democratic challenger Brenda Siegel. Scott was elected in 2016 and ran for re-election in 2022 on a platform of reducing taxes and boosting the economy.\n\nThough a Republican, Scott has openly criticized former President Donald Trump and voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.\n\n-BrieAnna Frank\n\nDemocratic Gov. Jared Polis wins reelection in Colorado\n\nDemocratic Gov. Jared Polis secured a second term after defeating Republican challenger Heidi Ganahal in Colorado’s gubernatorial race, according to projections from NBC and ABC. In his first term, Polis pushed for health care and education affordability and unveiled a plan for the state to be 100% renewable energy by 2040.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nDeSantis '24? Supporters chant to reelected Florida governor: 'Two more years!'\n\nSounds like some of Ron DeSantis' backers want him to run for president in 2024, though others may be equivocal.\n\nDuring the party to celebrate DeSantis' easy reelection as governor of Florida – a four-year job – some backers began chanting \"two more years! Two more years!\" Others overrode that suggestion with counter-chants of \"U-S-A! U-S-A!\"\n\nThe governor just smiled, and did not comment on any plans he may have for 2024.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nNative Vote volunteer excited by high voter engagement\n\nGUADALUPE, Ariz. - “This is my Super Bowl,” said Jessica Aguilar, a volunteer for Native Vote, at El Tianguis Mercado in Guadalupe Tuesday.\n\nAguilar volunteered with Native Vote during the last election at the same polling place. The nonpartisan organization aims to help and educate voters.\n\nAguilar, who has a degree in political science, said she saw more voter engagement this year than in the last election, though most voters she talked to Tuesday were dropping off ballots that were already filled out.\n\nAguilar, who is not Native American, said she volunteers to support a friend who is. Stationed Tuesday near a group of conservative women handing out pamphlets near the 75-foot canvassing line, Aguilar said she is “happy to provide voter education.”\n\n- Deanna Pistono/Special for Cronkite News\n\nAOC wins reelection\n\nDemocrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won reelection to her New York House seat, defeating Republican challenger Tina Forte.\n\nThe congresswoman, who represents Queens and the Bronx, was the youngest woman and Latina to serve in Congress when she was elected in 2018. She is known for her progressive views on health care, income inequality, immigration, combating climate change and her work on the Green New Deal.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nRepublican Gov. Mark Gordon wins reelection in Wyoming\n\nRepublican Gov. Mark Gordon won reelection in Wyoming against Democratic challenger Theresa Livingston. After taking office in 2019, Gordon’s first term was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and a crash in oil prices that had dire consequences for the state’s economy. Earlier in 2022, Gordon signed a “trigger law” banning most abortions in state, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nMaryland singer's vote motivated by abortion policy\n\nSUITLAND, Md. - Kanysha Williams said that she felt it was important to come out to vote and make sure her voice was heard in what she called this year’s “spicy” midterm elections.\n\nShe said she was particularly motivated by the issue of abortion. Williams, a 30-year-old singer, said that as someone thinking about starting a family, “I’m focused on making sure a woman’s right over her own body is protected.”\n\nWilliams said she is glad to live in Maryland, where abortions are legal up to fetal viability – around 24 weeks – or later if the mother’s life is as at risk. And she hopes to keep it that way.\n\n“I want to make sure the people who represent me represent the issues I care about,” Williams said.\n\n– Ryan Knappenberger, Cronkite News\n\nMarjorie Taylor Green wins reelection\n\nRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., won reelection over Democrat Marcus Flowers, an Army veteran who also worked for the Defense Department, ending the most expensive and one of the highest-profile House races of the 2022 midterms.\n\nGreene quickly gained notoriety during her first campaign for office in 2020 for a track record of promoting racist rhetoric and far-right conspiracy theories. She vowed to spend her time in office promoting Trump-era policies.\n\n– Laura Bargfeld, Cronkite News\n\nRepublican Sen. Jerry Moran reelected to Senate\n\nKansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran won reelection against Mark Holland, the Democratic candidate for a Kansas Senate seat. Moran will be serving this third term in the Senate.\n\nMoran previously served as the chairman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2013 to 2015 and in the U.S. House from 1997 to 2011.\n\n– Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nHeavy evening turnout in Las Vegas\n\nWith two hours before the polls closed in Nevada, Las Vegas resident and stay-at-home mom Lorena Cardenas, 43, led a small group in a chant outside the Desert Breeze Community Center. Like many Nevada residents, Cardenas expected a Republican “red wave” to seize control of Congress.\n\nCardenas hopes Republicans will check Biden’s “radical” government, which she feels is being used to target his political enemies. She said she hoped Republicans could tighten border controls, fight inflation and de-sexualize public education.\n\n“No more Democrats, the damage has been done, woo!” shouted the small group from outside the 100-foot polling place boundary.\n\n– Trevor Hughes\n\nSen. Chuck Schumer wins reelection\n\nDemocrat Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, won reelection in the New York Senate race defeating Republican challenger Joe Pinion.\n\nSchumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, will now serve a fifth term.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nSouth Dakota Republican John Thune wins historic fourth Senate term\n\nSen. John Thune, R-S.D., won his reelection bid against Democrat Brian Bengs for a historic fourth term in Congress’ upper chamber.\n\nOnly Karl Mundt, who served in the Senate from 1948 to 1973, won four terms as a senator in South Dakota. Since Mundt’s retirement, three senators have lost running for a fourth term: George McGovern in 1980, Larry Pressler in 1996 and Tom Daschle in 2004.\n\nThune is currently the No. 2 ranking senator behind Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.\n\n– Ella Lee; Jonathan Ellis and Joe Sneve, Sioux Falls Argus Leader\n\nNorth Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven wins reelection\n\nSen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., won his reelection bid against Democrat Katrina Christiansen. Hoeven, who will serve a third Senate term, was previously North Dakota’s governor for a decade.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nRepublican Gov. Kim Reynolds wins reelection in Iowa\n\nIncumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds secured a victory in Iowa in her reelection bid against Democratic nominee and businessperson Deidre DeJear.\n\nThe candidates clashed on hot-button issues including abortion policy and school funding in their only debate ahead of the election. Reynolds was appointed governor in 2017 and was elected to her first full term the following year.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nRepublican Rep. Jim Jordan wins Ohio House seat\n\nRepublican Rep. Jim Jordan defended his Ohio House seat against Democratic challenger Tamie Wilson.\n\nJordan is an eight-term congressman who has held his seat since 2007. He is a close ally of former President Donald Trump.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nArizona judge declines to extend voting hours in Maricopa County\n\nAn Arizona judge has declined to extend polling hours in Maricopa County after the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit over earlier problems with ballot tabulation machines.\n\nA Maricopa County superior court judge declined a request to extend voting in the state’s most populous county until 10 p.m. MST, or midnight on the east coast.\n\nOfficials said the problem with the machines affected about 20% of voting sites. Officials have stressed that ballots in affected precincts will be counted. The county identified a fix for the problem by midday.\n\nThe judge, who ruled from the bench after a last-minute hearing, found no evidence that any voter was denied the chance to vote at one of the county's polling places, despite the tabulation glitch forcing some to the option of casting a provisional ballot.\n\n– John Fritze and Bart Jansen\n\nStay in the conversation:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter\n\nWhat you need to know on Election Day:\n\nDemocratic Gov. Dan McKee wins re-election in Rhode Island\n\nDemocratic Gov. Dan McKee won reelection in Rhode Island against Republican challenger Ashley Kalus.\n\nThrough the contentious campaign, McKee emphasized his administration’s investments in infrastructure and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. McKee took office as governor in 2021 and previously served as mayor of Cumberland, Rhode Island.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nRep. Matt Gaetz reelected to House seat\n\nRepublican Rep. Matt Gaetz defended his Florida House seat against Democratic challenger Rebekah Jones.\n\nGaetz, who has represented the district since 2017, has been one of former President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters. He has faced legal troubles and has been under federal investigation over allegations he violated federal sex trafficking laws.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nVoting is over in Ohio, but the fundraising continues\n\nThe polls may have closed in Ohio, but GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance is still asking supporters to vote with their wallets.\n\n“If you want to make an impact on this race personally, then I have a link for you!” Vance said in fundraising email Tuesday night that urged backers to “rush” a donation.\n\n“Thanks for everything as we reach the finish line,” the appeal says.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nKari Lake casts ballot, pledges election reform if elected Arizona governor\n\nPHOENIX - After casting her ballot in downtown Phoenix, a confident Kari Lake attacked the election process and pledged election reform if she wins the race for Arizona governor.\n\n“We’re going to win,” said the Republican nominee, though she noted she had little confidence in the election process. “I’m just not confident in the people we’ve elected to run these elections… We will bring about good, honest reform to our elections.”\n\nLake, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is one of the most prominent Republicans who have built their campaigns on denying the results of the 2020 presidential election.\n\n– Kaden Kleinschmidt/Cronkite News\n\nGOP hammered economic message in Florida. It worked.\n\nRepublicans up and down the ticket in Florida ran against President Joe Biden and fed on voter frustration with inflation and a turbulent economy.\n\nIt seemed to work. And the GOP overwhelmingly outspent Democrats to hammer this message across.\n\nDemocrat Charlie Crist centered his campaign on a pledge to protect abortion rights in his fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis. But polls showed concerns about the future of abortion across the nation had slipped down the priority list for voters but Crist never re-pivoted, likely further dimming his longshot bid to unseat DeSantis.\n\nDemocrat Val Demings also kept abortion rights front-and-center in the homestretch of her campaign against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who, like virtually every Republican candidate this season, sought to avoid engaging on the issue.\n\nDemocratic voter turnout also was down. A harbinger of Tuesday’s doom for Democrats was that Republicans held a more than 300,000-voter edge in combined early voting and mail-in ballots going into Election Day.\n\nDeSantis was intent on proving his victory in 2018 by less than 33,000 votes was no fluke. And he pushed GOP get-out-the-vote efforts and campaigned before large, supportive crowds in a final week dash around the state knowing that a blowout win would give him the bounce he needs to maybe launch a presidential campaign. He got it.\n\n– John Kennedy, Capital Bureau, USA TODAY Network - Florida\n\nRepublican Sarah Huckabee Sanders wins governorship in Arkansas\n\nRepublican candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders won election in Arkansas’ gubernatorial race against Democratic challenger Chris Jones. Sanders previously served as the White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump before seeking the office once held by her father, Mike Huckabee. Huckabee Sanders is the first woman elected to the position.\n\n–BrieAnna Frank\n\nRepublican Sen. John Boozman wins reelection bid\n\nSen. John Boozman, R-Ark., will serve a third term in the U.S. Senate, winning his reelection bid against Democrat Natalie James.\n\nBoozman currently serves on five Senate committees, including the appropriations committee, and supported the acquittal of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.\n\n– Ella Lee, Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nRepublican Gov. Henry McMaster reelected governor\n\nRepublican Gov. Henry McMaster won reelection in the South Carolina governor’s race defeating Democrat Joe Cunningham, according to NBC and ABC News.\n\nMcMaster outraised Cunningham by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to S.C. Ethics Commission reports. He raised over $2 million during the campaign.\n\n– Rachel Looker; Adam Friedman, Nashville Tennessean\n\nKatie Hobbs urges ASU students in Tempe to vote\n\nPHOENIX - Katie Hobbs, Arizona Democratic candidate for governor and current secretary of state, told students on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus that her race against Republican Kari Lake is going to be tight and that voters can’t be taken for granted.\n\nArizona attorney general candidate Kris Mayes and incumbent Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, both Democrats on the ballot, also spoke briefly to a small crowd of students Tuesday midday and encouraged them to vote.\n\n“American democracy runs through Arizona,” Mayes told students.\n\nThe candidates appeared at an Election Day event held by student political organizations Mission for Arizona and Young Democrats at ASU at ASU’s Memorial Union. Hobbs spent a short time on campus and then moved on to an event in south Phoenix.\n\n– Shane Brennan/Cronkite News\n\nAt Mar-a-Lago, Rubio victory cheered. DeSantis win … not so much\n\nWEST PALM BEACH, Florida – When Fox News called the gubernatorial race for Ron DeSantis against Democratic rival Charlie Crist just after 8 p.m., the crowd in the ballroom of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate clapped quietly.\n\nBut the crowd cheered and clapped boisterously when it was announced that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio had defeated Democratic challenger Val Demings.\n\nTrump said Tuesday he would \"bring up the past\" should DeSantis seek the 2024 presidential nomination.\n\n\"It'd be like anybody else that runs, if somebody runs you have to bring up the past,\" Trump told reporters in a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate around 6:30 p.m., a half hour before most polls in Florida closed. \"I'm not sure he would want to run. We'll see.\"\n\nTrump then noted that he voted for DeSantis on Tuesday.\n\n– Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post\n\nWes Moore wins Maryland governorship, makes history\n\nDemocrat Wes Moore won Maryland’s governor race against Republican opponent Maryland Del. Dan Cox, making history as Maryland’s first Black governor.\n\nMoore gives the governorship back to the Democrats after two terms of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.\n\n– Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nVoted into history: Wes Moore to be Maryland's first Black governor; first Gen-Z House member in Fla., more\n\nRepublican Gov. Bill Lee wins reelection in Tennessee\n\nRepublican Gov. Bill Lee was reelected governor of Tennessee. He defeated Democratic challenger Jason Martin.\n\nLee sought a second and final term as governor after he was first elected in 2018. He formerly served as a businessman and chairman of the Lee Company. He ran unopposed in the primary this year.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nMaryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen wins reelection\n\nSen. Chris Van Hollen was reelected Tuesday evening, defeating his Republican opponent Chris Chaffee and keeping his Maryland Senate seat.\n\nVan Hollen, who previously served as the representative for Maryland's 8th Congressional District, won his second Senate term.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nRepublican Gov. Kay Ivey wins re-election in Alabama\n\nIncumbent Republican Gov. Kay Ivey won reelection in Alabama against Democratic challenger Yolanda Flowers. Ivey’s win puts her on pace to become the longest-serving governor in Alabama history, according to The Montgomery Adviser.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nChris Sununu reelected New Hampshire governor\n\nRepublican Gov. Chris Sununu defeated Democrat Tom Sherman in the New Hampshire gubernatorial race.\n\nSununu will now serve a fourth two-year term. He was heavily favored against Sherman, who ran unopposed in his party's governor's nomination.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nIllinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth wins reelection\n\nSen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., beat Republican challenger Kathy Salvi for a second term.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nVoter recounts poll watcher intimidation\n\nGLENDALE, Arizona – Daniel Ruiz, 28, has voted since 2016, but Tuesday was the first time he had a poll watcher shove a camera in his face.\n\n“I’m going to have some problems with that. I don’t know who you are,” he said after trying to confront the poll watcher. The other man did not identify himself and left quickly after taking photos of Ruiz and nonpartisan Election Protection volunteers at Glendale Community College.\n\nA federal judge last week set limits on groups watching ballot drop boxes in Arizona, ordering them to stop filming and confronting voters, carrying weapons and to remain at least 75 feet away from ballot boxes.\n\nExcept for the encounter, Ruiz said everything went smoothly and he was able to drop off his ballot. “I feel like, weirdly, if people don’t get their way, things can escalate, and that’s kind of scary for a regular citizen,” he said.\n\n– Khanh Nguyen/ Special for Cronkite News\n\nRepublican Katie Britt wins Alabama Senate seat\n\nRepublican Katie Britt won the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. She defeated Democrat Will Boyd.\n\nBritt was previously the former president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama. During the campaign, she received the endorsement of Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, who is retiring.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nRepublican Senate candidates sweep in Oklahoma\n\nOklahoma’s two Republican Senate candidates won their elections early Tuesday night.\n\nMarkwayne Mullin was elected to the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma and Sen. James Lankford won his reelection bid.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nIllinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wins reelection\n\nIllinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker easily beat Republican challenger Darren Bailey in his reelection bid.\n\nBillionaires like Ken Griffin and Richard Uihlein threw millions of dollars into the race heading into its primary, igniting a second round in the state's battle of the billionaires.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis wins reelection\n\nRepublican incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis won the race for Florida governor, defeating Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist.\n\nDeSantis held onto a double-digit lead in the polls for much of the race.\n\nThe contest has been closely watched nonetheless, as DeSantis has built a national profile in what some see as preparation for a bid to secure the GOP nomination for president in 2024.\n\nCrist, a former Republican himself, served as Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2011, re-registering as a Democrat after leaving office.\n\n– Anna Kaufman, Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nSen. Richard Blumenthal defends Connecticut Senate seat\n\nSen. Richard Blumenthal won reelection in the Connecticut Senate race.\n\nBlumenthal has been in office since 2011. This is his third six-year term. The senator’s last tight contest was in 2010, which was his first run for U.S. Senate.\n\n- Rachel Looker\n\nTop US cybersecurity officials confirm some election website outages but say no disruption of election infrastructure\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security has seen no specific or credible threat that is disrupting election infrastructure, or any activity that should cause voters to question the security, the integrity or resilience of the midterm elections, two senior U.S. cybersecurity officials said Tuesday evening.\n\nThe officials, both with DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, noted that there have been a few isolated issues arising from within the 8,800 or so individual election jurisdictions in the United States, including Maricopa County, Arizona – but chalked them up to mostly routine Election Day glitches.\n\nThe two officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing cybersecurity operations, confirmed that they were aware of so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks affecting a number of websites for state election offices, campaigns, and partisan organizations – including a sustained effort to take down election-related websites in Mississippi. But they sought to reassure voters by stressing that such DDoS attacks, which flood websites with computer messages, can only slow down voting or counting processes as opposed to actually meddling with the actual vote count.\n\nThey also said that while it is inherently difficult to find out who is behind such attacks, CISA has seen no evidence suggesting that the DDoS attacks were part of any widespread or coordinated campaign.CISA hasn't seen any DDoS attacks on election night results reporting websites, the senior official says.\n\n– Josh Meyer\n\nDemocrat Maura Healey wins Massachusetts’ governor’s race\n\nDemocrat Maura Healey won Massachusetts’ gubernatorial race against Donald Trump-backed Republican nominee Geoff Diehl. The Associated Press called the race at 8 p.m. ET.\n\nHealey makes history as the first woman and the first openly gay candidate elected to the office.\n\n– BrieAnna Frank\n\nFlorida Sen. Marco Rubio defeats Democratic challenger\n\nRepublican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio successfully fended off Democratic Rep. Val Demings in Florida’s U.S. Senate race to keep his seat, according to Fox and CNN’s projections.\n\nRubio, a two-term senator, had been the favorite to win in polls conducted throughout the race, while Demings, a congresswoman representing the Orlando area since 2017, trailed.\n\nThe contest has shaped up to be one of the most expensive in the country, with Democrats spending big, hoping to flip the seat.\n\nIdeologically the candidates are split mostly along party lines, sparring in their sole debate over hot-button issues like abortion, border policy, and gun control.\n\n– Anna Kaufman, Ella Lee\n\nRepublican Sen. Tim Scott wins South Carolina Senate seat\n\nIncumbent Republican Sen. Tim Scott won the South Carolina Senate seat in the race against Democrat Krystle Matthews. Scott will now serve his second full term.\n\nScott has made repeated trips to Iowa, creating speculation he may be laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid.\n\nMatthews serves as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nTodd Young wins Indiana Senate race\n\nRepublican Sen. Todd Young defended his seat against Democratic challenger Thomas McDermott in the Indiana Senate race.\n\nYoung is finishing his first term as senator. He was set to be the frontrunner of the race and had over $3.5 million cash on hand in the run up to Election Day.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nMaryland voter motivated by abortion access issue\n\nSUITLAND, Md. - Kanysha Williams said that she felt it was important to come out to vote and make sure her voice was heard in what she called this year’s “spicy” midterm elections.\n\nShe said she was particularly motivated by the issue of abortion. Williams, a 30-year-old singer, said that as someone thinking about starting a family, “I’m focused on making sure a woman’s right over her own body is protected.”\n\nWilliams said she is glad to live in Maryland, where abortions are legal up to fetal viability - around 24 weeks - or later if the mother’s life is as at risk. And she hopes to keep it that way.\n\n“I want to make sure the people who represent me represent the issues I care about,” Williams said.\n\n- Ryan Knappenberger, Cronkite News\n\nGov. Mike DeWine wins reelection in Ohio\n\nRepublican incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine claimed victory in his bid for reelection in Ohio’s gubernatorial race against Democratic challenger Nan Whaley, according to projections from CBS and CNN. Whaley was the first woman ever nominated by a major party for governor in the state's history.\n\n-BrieAnna Frank\n\nPeter Welch wins Vermont Senate seat\n\nDemocrat Peter Welch will succeed Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the longest-serving member of the chamber.\n\nWelch beat Republican Gerald Malloy with just 1% of the vote counted.\n\nLeahy, first elected to the Senate in 1974, announced his retirement in November 2021.\n\n-Ella Lee\n\nAnalyst: Democrats must outrun Biden\n\nDemocrats in competitive Senate races must outrun President Joe Biden’s approval rating by six to nine percentage points to win Tuesday, according to Jessica Taylor, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.\n\n“The biggest hurdle for Senate Dems tonight – Biden's approval,” tweeted Taylor,\n\nThat helps explain why Biden did not campaign with most of the candidates in nine of the top races. The exception was John Fetterman, who appeared with Biden and former President Barack Obama at a rally in Philadelphia Saturday.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nFirst wave of polls closed, including Florida, Georgia and Ohio\n\nPolling locations will close in East Coast states over the next few hours. Polls will close at the following local times:\n\nPolls in parts of Kentucky and Indiana closed at 6 p.m.\n\nVirginia, Vermont, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Georgia and Florida closed at 7 p.m.\n\nOhio and North Carolina closed at 7:30 p.m.\n\nPennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine and Connecticut close at 8 p.m.\n\nPolls in New York close at 9 p.m.\n\nVoters on the west coast still have a few hours to cast their ballots. Key states on the West Coast are set to close at the following local times:\n\nNevada, New Mexico and Arizona close at 7 p.m.\n\nCalifornia, Oregon and Washington close at 8 p.m.\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nTexas county sued over voting problems, urged to extend voting hours\n\nHarris County – the most populous county in Texas, according to the 2020 Census – was sued Tuesday by lawyers from the Texas Civil Rights Project and the ACLU of Texas on behalf of the Texas Organizing Project after delays in opening several polling locations.\n\nThe Judge granted the request, extending polling time an hour to 8 p.m. local time. Voters arriving between 7-8 p.m. will cast provisional ballots.\n\nThe county also has been plagued with voting machine malfunctions, resulting in long lines and closures at certain voting stations, according to NBC News.\n\n– Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\nGOP files lawsuit seeking extended hours in Maricopa County\n\nThe Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit in an Arizona court Tuesday seeking to extend the hours of polling locations in Maricopa County because of earlier problems with ballot tabulation machines.\n\nThe suit asks a superior court judge to extend polling hours in the county until 10 p.m. MST.\n\nOfficials said the issue with the tabulators affected about 20% of voting centers in the state's largest county. Officials have stressed that ballots in affected precincts will be counted, but the glitch has drawn criticism from conservatives, including former President Donald Trump.\n\nSome voters who confronted the problem were encouraged to place ballots in secure drop boxes, the Arizona Republic reported.\n\n- John Fritze and Bart Jansen\n\nKentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul easily wins reelection\n\nU.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sailed to reelection Tuesday night, crushing Democrat Charles Booker's hopes that he'd pull off a massive upset and become not only the first Democratic senator elected in Kentucky since 1992 but also the commonwealth's first Black senator.\n\nPaul won a third six-year term in Congress, scoring a victory that the Associated Press called relatively early Tuesday evening as election results rolled in.\n\nThe libertarian-leaning senator ran on a staunchly conservative platform.\n\n- Morgan Watkins, Louisville Courier Journal\n\nRoe on some Georgia voters' minds\n\nOf all the issues at play in the 2022 cycle, Peach State voter Morgan Jones said protecting women’s reproductive rights was at the forefront.\n\nThe 38-year-old mortician said while many in her community might likely skip this year's midterm elections, she said abortion was the chief reason she went to the polls Tuesday.\n\n“With me being a woman, especially a Black woman who has a child… I feel that it should still be a choice of ours that we should be able to make on our own,” she said.\n\nVoter Ash Dawson said the possibility of lawmakers banning abortion outright was the main engine for showing up to vote.\n\n“I wanted to make sure I got some votes in the right direction that those rights are preserved for women,” Dawson, an urban farmer, told USA TODAY.\n\n- Phillip M. Bailey\n\nDonald Trump threatens Ron DeSantis (if he runs against him)\n\nDonald Trump is all but threatening Ron DeSantis with personal attacks if the Florida governor decides to run against him for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.\n\n“If he runs, he runs,” Trump recently told a group of reporters, according to The Wall Street Journal. \"If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”\n\nDeSantis, who is expected to win re-election as governor on Tuesday, has not commented on Trump's jibes; he also hasn't said whether he is willing to run against Trump in 2024.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nNancy Pelosi says she believes Democrats can hold majority\n\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believes Democrats have a path to hold the majority in the House of Representatives.\n\nDuring an interview with PBS NewsHour, Pelosi said Democratic candidates are connecting with voters in their districts and focusing on what is important to their constituents, whether it be lowering costs, abortion or climate change.\n\n“We own the ground out there today,” Pelosi said. “Just because a pundit in Washington says ‘history says you can't win,’ is no deterrent for the enthusiasm we have out there. I think you'll be surprised this evening.”\n\n– Rebecca Morin\n\nVoting times extended at some polling sites after delays\n\nPolls in several states will allow voters to cast their ballots later than planned following unexpected delays.\n\nIn Georgia, where polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m., at least two precincts are giving voters more time after opening late. A location in Cobb County will extend its voting time by 45 minutes and a location in DeKalb County will remain open an extra 39 minutes, according to state Democratic officials.\n\nA paper shortage in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, caused a judge to order voting sites there to remain open until 10 p.m. Polling places in the county were supposed to close at 8 p.m., according to the county’s website.\n\nAnd in North Carolina, voting will be delayed by an hour at three polling sites after one precinct opened late, leaving staff “locked out,” and two others experienced printing problems, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey; David Jackson; Bethany Rodgers, GoErie; Ella Lee\n\nKey House races to watch as results roll in\n\nAs polls start to close, here are some of the key House races we have our eyes on:\n\nCalifornia: David Valadao (R) vs. Rudy Salas (D)\n\nOhio: Steve Chabot (R) vs. Greg Landsman (D)\n\nVirginia: Abigail Spanberger (D) vs. Yesli Vega (R)\n\nNevada: Dina Titus (D) vs. Mark Robertson (R)\n\nTexas: Mayra Flores (R) vs. Vicente Gonzalez (D)\n\nMichigan: Elissa Slotkin (D) vs. Tom Barrett (R)\n\nColorado: Yadira Caraveo (D) vs. Barbara Kirkmeyer (R)\n\nNew Jersey: Tom Malinowski (D) vs. Tom Kean Jr. (R)\n\nNorth Carolina: Wiley Nickel (D) vs. Bo Hines (R)\n\n– Rachel Looker\n\nElection denial group calls for protests\n\nA group is calling for dual rallies on Tuesday in Maricopa and Pima counties to protest voting machines.\n\nThe group, 2020 Is Nullified, issued a call on social media for supporters to gather at 8 p.m. outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix and at the Pima County Recorder’s Office in Tucson.\n\n“Stand in solidarity with fellow Americans to demand a hand count” of ballots, the group said.\n\nThe group maintains voting machines are not legal and have not been certified. Election officials say the tabulation machines are certified by state and federal inspectors, which is required under the law.\n\nFormer President Donald Trump's claims there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election have been roundly debunked.\n\n— Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic\n\nOhio sets record for early voting\n\nOhio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced Ohio voters set a record this year for early voting in a nonpresidential election year.\n\nMore than 1.55 million Ohioans either voted early in-person or requested a mail-in absentee ballot for this election.\n\n“This is an increase of 3.9% over the previous record set in 2018,” according to the Secretary of State's office. The data includes all ballots received through 2 p.m. Monday, when early in-person voting ended across the state.\n\n- The Columbus Dispatch; Rachel Looker\n\nGuam elects first Republican representative since 1993\n\nRepublican James Moylan defeated Democrat Judith Won Pat to become Guam’s newest non-voting House of Representatives delegate.\n\nMoylan received 17,075 votes compared to Won Pat’s 15,427, according to partial, unofficial election results from the Guam Election Commission. He is the second Republican to be elected to the position since its creation in 1972.\n\n– Eleanor McCrary\n\nNew Mexico same-day registration brings 14,000 new voters by noon\n\nMario Jimenez, executive director of Common Cause of New Mexico, said voters were eager to cast their ballots.\n\nThe election was the first with same-day registration and 14,000 new voters registered by noon Tuesday to vote, Jimenez said. Another 100,000 voters cast absentee ballots and 350,000 people voted by noon Tuesday, he said.\n\n“We’re seeing really good turnout for a mid-term election here in New Mexico,” Jimenez said.\n\n– Bart Jansen\n\n2-minute wait times in Georgia, Raffensperger says\n\n\n\nSpeaking to reporters, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said even with a projected high turnout on Tuesday most polling places saw a two-minute wait time.\n\n“It’s just been tremendously smooth,\" he said.\n\nGeorgia election officials were told to brace for roughly 2 million voters to show up to the polls this afternoon. That's on top of the 2.5 million who've already voted early.\n\nGeorgia's polls close at 7 p.m. EST\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nIn Rep. Abigail Spanberger's Virginia district, inflation and health care drive voters\n\nFor voters in Prince William County, where Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger is on the ballot against Republican Yesli Vega for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, the main issues include inflation and abortion.\n\nReba Gravelle, a 40-year resident of the Woodbridge area, said her candidate would have to support her views on abortion. “I’m a very pro-life person and so my candidate needed to support that,” she said.\n\nJoshua King, a veteran and current deputy sheriff, said health care brought him to the polls for Democrats. King also took into consideration his daughter, who has autism. “I support any candidate who decides that they want to help out our special needs community because they’re marginalized,” he said.\n\n– Kaila Nichols and Dante Nieto, Medill News Service\n\nIn Texas, Beto O'Rourke supporters argue with protesters over LGBTQ issues\n\nDemocrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, held an Election Day meet-and-greet outside a public library in North Dallas this morning. While O’Rourke talked with a ring of supporters, far-right agitators jostled with onlookers and tried to disrupt the candidate’s speech, with little success.\n\nThe handful of anti-O’Rourke onlookers shouted statements about pedophilia and transgender rights that have become a refrain of the extremist right in Texas in recent months. Despite some high-spirited discussions with the candidate’s supporters, the hecklers were unable to push past them and get close to O’Rourke, who spoke to the crowd for about an hour.\n\nTransgender rights have become a political lightning rod in Texas, which has also seen a surge in protests and attacks on LGBTQ-friendly events such as family friendly drag shows. O’Rourke has been endorsed by several LGBTQ organizations, and has criticized Abbott for his support of policies that he says discriminate against LGBTQ people.\n\n– Will Carless\n\nBiden: 'MAGA Republicans' don’t care about Black communities\n\nWASHINGTON – President Joe Biden warned in an Election Day radio interview targeted at Black Americans that far-right “MAGA Republicans” don’t care about African-American communities.\n\n“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden said on the “D.L. Hughley Show” when asked about his message to Black Americans who are still on the fence about voting.\n\nMAGA Republicans are “a different breed of cat,” Biden said in the interview, which was taped Tuesday morning. “They care about your community about as much as … well, anyway,” he said, without finishing the sentence. “You’ve seen what you’ve got from that community,” he added.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nNorth Carolina Senate race: Ted Budd supporters optimistic at polls\n\nWINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – North Carolina has never elected a woman of color to the U.S. Senate, and many voters don't expect that to change Tuesday.\n\nSupporters of Democrat Cheri Beasley say they are not exactly confident, but some remain hopeful: \"Some of the underdogs come out on top!\" said Jannet Blue, 58, a Department of Motor Vehicles supervisor who voted in Winston-Salem.\n\nBackers of Republican Ted Budd are more confident; his poll lead has grown in recent weeks, and voters said it just feels like a Republican year in the Tar Heel State. \"We need to keep working people working,\" said James Wilcox, 61, a Winston-Salem businessman.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nArizona voting machines: Maricopa County resolves ballot tabulation issues at some locations\n\nThe Maricopa County Elections Department found a solution for tabulation issues that affected about 60 of the county’s 223 voting centers, the county government said Tuesday.\n\nPrinters at the locations were not producing dark enough timing marks on ballots, according to Maricopa County’s official Twitter. To resolve the issue, county technicians changed the printer settings. The solution has so far worked at 17 locations and technicians have been deployed to the remaining locations to resolve the issue, according to the county.\n\nStephen Richer, Maricopa County recorder, issued an apology to voters on his personal Twitter, promising that “every legal vote will be tabulated.\"\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nPhiladelphia voting ‘going great’ so far\n\nPHILADELPHIA – Tuesday has been a “wonderful” day for voting in the city, according to Philadelphia Deputy Commissioner Nick Custodio.\n\n“It’s going great,” he told USA TODAY. “Nothing has risen to a level of concern.”\n\nThe overwhelming majority of voters have been able to cast ballots without incident and the processing has been “going smoothly,” Custodio said.\n\nPolls are open until 8 p.m. and voters can turn in mailed ballots until that time in Pennsylvania.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nFor some in New Hampshire, Biden’s stake in democracy gets through\n\nBEDFORD, N.H. – For some in New Hampshire, where presidential candidates flock every four years, President Joe Biden’s message that democracy is at stake resonated with some voters.\n\nJonathan French says it’s why he’s voting for Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan over Republican Don Bolduc.\n\n“I believe in democracy. Don Bolduc denies the election results from 2020,” French simply put. But at the same time, French isn’t sure if he wants to see Biden run again in 2024. “We’ll wait and see,” said French.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nMailed ballots drive higher turnout in Philadelphia\n\nPHILADELPHIA – There is a higher turnout today and the bulk of the counting will be done tonight, according to Philadelphia Deputy Commissioner Nick Custodio.\n\nAbout 101,000 mailed ballots will be processed tonight, he told USA TODAY, with the first tally showing five minutes after the polls close at 8 p.m. in Pennsylvania. The counting will take “the normal amount of time,” meaning most of the results will be in tomorrow or Thursday, he said.\n\nCustodio is expecting a higher turnout in this election compared to 2018 because of mail-in voting, he said.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nWhy one voter in Philadelphia is staying home\n\nPHILADELPHIA – Standing outside a Save A Lot grocery store, Lori Dornan explains why she’s shopping after work instead of voting.\n\n“My vote will just give a politician more money and power. It won’t help me afford groceries,” she said.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nMan in custody after disturbance at West Bend, Wisconsin, polling place\n\nA 38-year-old Wisconsin man was arrested Tuesday after “demanding for staff to ‘stop the voting'\" not far from a polling location in the West Bend Community Memorial Library in West Bend, Wisconsin, according to police.\n\nA poll worker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he heard a man with a knife approach the library’s front desk. Voters and children playing in the area were escorted into the voting room, he said, and the doors were shut.\n\nLibrary staff declined to comment on the incident. Police would not confirm whether a knife was involved, saying only that someone was taken into custody following a disturbance in which no one was injured. Voting at the library was disrupted for about 30 minutes, the poll worker said, but has since returned to normal operations.\n\n– Lawrence Andrea\n\nGet your 2022 live midterm election results here\n\nThe 2022 midterm elections are underway and American voters are hitting the polls to elect members of the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as governors in certain states.\n\nFollow our live coverage for Senate results, House results and gubernatorial results begin to roll in. You can also learn how to vote and who's on the ballot in your state.\n\nCybersecurity officials: Still no specific or credible threat to disrupt election operations\n\nTwo senior U.S. cybersecurity officials said Tuesday afternoon that the Department of Homeland Security continues to see no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure or election day operations, and that it remains vigilant to protect against foreign nation disinformation and malign influence operations.\n\nThe officials, both with DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA, noted that there have been a few isolated issues arising from within the 8,800 or so individual election jurisdictions in the United States, including Maricopa County, Arizona.\n\nBut they described them as nothing out of the ordinary and said CISA was in close touch with elected officials there and elsewhere across the country in order to understand and respond to any election day problems if needed.The officials, both speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing cybersecurity operations, referred questions about Maricopa County to local officials there, who have released statements and a video explaining how the voting machinery works.\n\n– Josh Meyer\n\nVoting rights group: Overvoting in NH causes some concerns\n\nDERRY, N.H. – In New Hampshire, some voters are filling out more names than they should on their ballot, forcing their ballot to be hand recounted rather than being read by a machine. Voting rights groups worry the tactic called “overvoting” could lower voter confidence and slow down counting.\n\n“We have seen a few loosely organized groups pushing for folks to purposely overvote their ballot to make sure their ballot is hand counted this cycle,” said Liz Wester, director of the New Hampshire Voter Empowerment Task Force, a voting rights group.\n\nNew Hampshire Secretary of State, David Scanlan, told USA TODAY that the state is already prepared for hand counting; his office has sent more election workers to polling places to assist in counting ballots.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nCommon Cause: Election glitches routine, with some 'weird' anecdotes in Ohio\n\nCatherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause of Ohio, said most questions about voting have been routine, with a couple of “weird” examples.\n\nA priest in Toledo was checking the identification of voters, Turcer said. In Summit County, around Akron, a man was visiting polling places and just watching before being asked to move along, she said.\n\nBut most voting problems reported nationwide were routine, such as problems with voting machines forcing longer lines, not systemic, said Sylvia Albert, Common Cause director of voting and elections.\n\n“What we’re seeing is really what we see in every election, isolated incidents of some problems,” Albert said. “No election is perfect. Election officials are doing their job.”\n\n– Bart Jansen\n\nFor some, Walker’s candidacy is about ‘grace and forgiveness’\n\nKENNESAW, Ga. – Former football player Herschel Walker’s personal controversies have made his Senate campaign a target for Democrats, but many Georgia voters think differently.\n\n“Herschel is real, he’s one of us,” voter Tricia Choi, 55, told USA TODAY. Choi said for many Walker's story is about the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, which she said appeals to faith-based voters.\n\nWalker, who is running to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife. Most recently, allegations surfaced that he pressured former girlfriends to have abortions, which he has denied.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nMark Kelly, Blake Masters set for final pitch in Arizona Senate race\n\nOn one side is Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat and former astronaut whose wife was shot in the head by an angry constituent. On the other is Blake Masters, a tech investor and first-time candidate backed by a billionaire patron and endorsed by Trump.\n\nThe two are locked in what’s become an increasingly tight race, with Kelly’s initial advantage in the polls narrowing to a dead heat.\n\nWith hours to go until polling places close, Kelly planned to hit get-out-the-vote events in west Phoenix and Tucson. Masters planned to spend election night at the Arizona Republican Party’s watch event in Scottsdale.\n\nMaricopa County, where problems have been reported at one out of five polling sites, is home to Phoenix and is Arizona’s most populous county. It's also one of the largest in the nation – and while it has tended to vote for Republican candidates in recent years, Biden carried it in 2020.\n\nThe vote there will likely be critical to deciding the tossup Senate race.\n\n— Alison Steinbach, The Arizona Republic, Donovan Slack, and John Fritze\n\nSnowstorm greets voters in crucial swing county\n\nIt was a snowy Election Day in Washoe County, Nevada.\n\nThe county is crucial territory for Nevada – and the nation – as Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is fending off a challenge from Trump-backed Republican Adam Laxalt. The contest is among a handful that could determine who controls the Senate – and the fate of Biden's agenda for the next two years.\n\nMarc Picker, poll manager at Damonte Ranch High School, said turnout so far is among the highest he has seen despite the weather. One Democratic voter, Reno resident Margaret Smith, said few flakes wouldn't have kept her away.\n\n“I’m like the U.S. Postal Service – neither rain, sleet or snow will stop me from going out like Santa,” Smith said. “(Voting) is that important.”\n\nAnother Reno voter, Jim Lewis, agreed, despite being on the opposite end of the political spectrum. “If they like their freedom and liberty, they should go out there and not be afraid,” he said.\n\n— Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette Journal, and Donovan Slack\n\nStocks rally on expectations of GOP inroads\n\nStocks rallied Tuesday on expectations that Republicans will retake at least one chamber of Congress, likely the House of Representatives. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 1.5% as of 1 p.m. ET. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were also up by more than 1%.\n\nStocks tend to perform better when in a divided Congress gridlock since it can restrict government spending and hold up new legislation that can negatively impact stocks, analysts said.\n\n— Elisabeth Buchwald and Medora Lee\n\nMore debates is what some voters wanted\n\nAVONDALE ESTATES, Ga. — Coming out of his polling place in DeKalb County, voter Gregory Ewing said what was most aggravating during the 2022 midterms was the lack of debates.\n\nAs USA TODAY reported in September many candidates sought to avoid each other in some of the most high-profile races.\n\nEwing said Georgians deserved more chances to see a direct contrast between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker on stage in the final weeks of the race.\n\n“It’s hard to know what the truth is with these ads. The closest place we can get to the truth and how candidates really think is through a debate,\" he said.\n\n— Phillip M. Bailey\n\nIllinois county reports election-related cyberattack, but voting not compromised, officials say\n\nChampaign County, Ill., is fighting off an election-related cyberattack that is unrelated to actual voting operations, according to officials there, who say connectivity issues and computer server performance are making it harder – but not impossible – for people to vote.\n\n“The Clerk’s Office believes these are due to cyber-attacks on the network and servers,” Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons said in a news release.\n\nChief Deputy Clerk Angie Patton told USA TODAY that the clerk’s office has been the target of repeated DDOS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attacks and that she believes other counties may have been targeted as well.\n\nBut she said IT specialists have secured the Clerk's website – and election operations – and that no data or information has been compromised and the election is secure. She urged voters waiting in long lines to either wait or go to another polling place within the county since voters can cast their ballots there as well.\n\n— Josh Meyer\n\nAt the top of the Texas ticket: Gov. Greg Abbott faces Beto O’Rourke\n\nTexans have their eye on the marquee race for governor: incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott runs against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke caught the attention of the state and nation after running against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. Abbott is fighting for a third term.\n\nAbbott has led ahead of O’Rourke in Texas polls; margins sometimes reach single digits. On Oct. 30, a poll by the University of Texas at Tyler showed Abbott leading by 6 percentage points among likely voters. Another October poll by the University of Texas Politics Project showed Abbott leading by 11 points.\n\nO’Rourke seeks to galvanize voters around abortion access and gun legislation. O’Rourke’s final ad ahead of Election Day centered around his support for abortion access.\n\n— Nusaiba Mizan\n\nBiden spending Election Day at the White House\n\nWASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is spending Election Day at the White House with no public events on his schedule.\n\nThe White House said he dropped in on a virtual phone bank by the Democratic National Committee to thank staff and volunteers and taped a radio interview targeted at Black Americans.\n\nThe president has already cast his midterm ballot. Accompanied by one of his granddaughters, a first-time voter, Biden voted in Wilmington, Delaware, on Oct. 29.\n\nBiden is expected to address the nation about the election results on Wednesday, though they are likely to be incomplete at that point.\n\n— Michael Collins\n\nTrump says he voted for DeSantis, hints again at presidential run\n\nFormer President Donald Trump said he voted Tuesday morning for Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while also dropping more hints that he’ll soon declare a third run for the White House, according to media reports.\n\nTrump spoke to the media after he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center on Tuesday morning, according to video posted by the local CBS news station CBS12. Former first lady Melania Trump joined him. \"No matter who you vote for, you have to vote,\" Trump told a sparse crowd outside the polling station.\n\nTrump also repeated that he’ll be making an announcement a week from today at his Mar-a-Lago home and resort in Palm Beach, though he didn't say about what. \"I think Tuesday will be a very exciting day for a lot of people,” Trump said, adding that, “The country has gotten very bad. Its lost its way, its lost its confidence.\"\n\n— Josh Meyer\n\nLA voters elect mayor amid political turmoil\n\nLos Angeles voters headed to the polls Tuesday to elect a new mayor amid political tumult in the nation’s second-largest city.\n\nU.S. Rep. Karen Bass, a former state Assembly leader and Democrat who is backed by President Joe Biden, could become the first Black woman to hold the job. She faces developer Rick Caruso, a billionaire Republican turned Democrat, who has campaigned on a platform of change.\n\nThe winner fills the seat of embattled Democrat Eric Garcetti, whose nomination to become U.S. ambassador to India is stalled in the Senate.\n\nThe election comes just weeks after City Hall was embroiled in a racism scandal that led to the ouster of the City Council president and urgent calls for the resignation of two more members. President Nury Martinez resigned after audio leaked of her racist remarks about a colleague’s child and Oaxacan immigrants in the city.\n\n— Susan Miller\n\nCatch up on our election-related fact checks\n\nAccusations, misinterpretations and flat-out lies circulated widely as part of the pre-election debate on social media.\n\nThe USA TODAY Fact-Check Team debunked an array of the most common claims in recent weeks, which you’ll find here in our fact check roundup.\n\nOur reporters assembled evidence and expert interviews to address false claims about ballot boxes, mail-in voting and vote counting. And we corrected claims that missed the mark attempting to attack ballot initiatives in Michigan, California and Connecticut.\n\nWe’ll update this roundup throughout the week as we research additional claims.\n\n— Eric Litke\n\nArizona's Maricopa County reports issues at 20% of voting locations\n\nMaricopa County elections official now say 20% of the county's voting locations are reporting problems. That's double the estimate the county provided earlier in the day.\n\n\"We’re doing what we can to get these back online. It’s not like both of the tabulators are having these issues. It may only be one (at a location),\" Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday morning during an impromptu news conference.\n\nMaricopa County has 223 voting centers.\n\nVoters at impacted sites have two options: to cast their ballot via a secure box to be counted later or to go vote at a different location. Elections Department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson said poll workers are best equipped to help voters ensure their ballot is successfully cast.\n\n“It’s important for voters to talk to the poll workers on site,” Gilbertson said.\n\n— Anne Ryman and Sasha Hupka\n\nVirginia voters can register today, then vote\n\nVirginia’s same-day voter registration law went into effect last month. In theory, that could make it easier for some folks to vote on Election Day.\n\nSame-day registration ballots are provisional and will be evaluated by local registrars later this week to confirm voter eligibility.\n\nDonald Sutton, the chief election official at the Virginia Beach 5th Precinct, said the new law isn’t a big departure from business as usual.\n\n– Grant Schwab, Medill News Service\n\nVoting problems? There’s a hotline for that!\n\nThe Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is administering an election-protection hotline for voters experiencing problems at the polls.\n\nVolunteers are manning the phones at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). There are also hotlines in other languages:\n\nSpanish/English: 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682)\n\nAsian languages/English: 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683)\n\nArabic/English: 844-YALLA-US (844-925-5287)\n\n— Donovan Slack\n\nMeanwhile, in Pennsylvania...\n\nPHILADELPHIA – There’s a guy dancing in a cardboard, drop-box costume outside City Hall.\n\n— Candy Woodall\n\nFlorida rejects federal election monitors; feds say no biggie since monitors are outside anyway\n\nFlorida’s top election official said Tuesday that the state won’t allow federal monitors at polling locations in South Florida because it’s against state law and federal authorities failed to present any evidence for such an action.\n\nSecretary of State Cord Byrd told reporters in Tallahassee that state officials “wanted to make it clear that (polling locations) are places for election workers and for voters, not for anyone else.”\n\nThe Justice Department said Monday that it was deploying election monitors to 64 jurisdictions across the country, including three counties in South Florida: Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.\n\nBrad McVay, an attorney with Florida’s Department of State, sent the Justice Department a letter Monday. “None of the counties are currently subject to any election-related federal consent decrees,” he wrote. “None of the counties have been accused of violating the rights of language or racial minorities or of the elderly or disabled.”\n\nThe Justice Department confirmed receipt of the Florida letter but declined to comment except to indicate that federal monitors would be outside the polling places.\n\n— Doug Soule, USA Today Network-Florida, and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY\n\nIs Miami-Dade turning red? Voting numbers tell the story\n\nMiami-Dade County is one of the biggest and most coveted prizes for any statewide candidate in Florida, and Democrats have owned it for years.\n\nConsider the fact that Miami-Dade hasn’t voted for a Republican since 1988 and hasn’t backed a Republican governor since 2002. That may be changing this year. Early voting numbers as of Tuesday morning show Republicans holding a slight edge of almost 4,000 votes over Democrats.\n\nIf the numbers hold up, it would represent one of the most dramatic electoral turnarounds in Florida history and may solidify the Sunshine State as a red, Republican state moving forward.\n\n— Sergio Bustos, USA Today Network-Florida Enterprise/Politics Editor\n\nYOUR GUIDE TO MIDTERMS:Voting rights, ballot access and key issues: A guide to midterm elections in your state\n\nDon Bolduc says he will accept Election 2022 results if he loses to Maggie Hassan\n\nRepublican U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc said Tuesday that his opponent, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, is out of touch in accusing him of being “extreme” and an “election-denier,” saying he will concede the election Tuesday if he loses.\n\nBolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, made those remarks after voting at the Stratham Memorial School in the town where he lives.\n\n— Max Sullivan\n\nVoting begins smoothly in contested Nevada Senate race\n\nAt the Desert Breeze Community Center outside Las Vegas, approximately 100 people waited in line as the polls opened at 7 a.m. Robert Streat, 73, was among the first to cast a ballot, a personal in-person voting tradition he said dates back decades.\n\nStreat said he opposes Biden's agenda and worries the country is changing too fast from the values he helped defend in Vietnam. He said he supported Republican candidates in the election.\n\n“This country is going to hell if we don’t change it. We’ve got too many people who hate it,\" he said. “We should control the government but we’ve lost it.”\n\nBut Jonathan Copeland, 55, said he worries that Republican control of the House and Senate would mean further erosion of abortion rights, which he supports. Copeland said he voted to help defend the seat of U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat in danger of losing to Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. A Laxalt victory would help flip the Senate to Republican control.\n\n\"What politician has the right to tell a woman what to do?\" Copeland said.\n\n— Trevor Hughes\n\nElection watchdog Common Cause reports routine polling problems in battleground states\n\nCommon Cause officials reported during a 10 a.m. news conference routine problems with voting in battleground states, but urged voters who cast ballots by mail to track them and make sure they were counted.\n\nAmy Keith, program director for Common Cause in Florida, said more than 15,000 absentee ballots were flagged by Thursday for problems such as a missing signature. Voters have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to fix the problems, but with a tropical storm hurtling toward the state, Keith urged voters to vote move briskly.\n\nShe said 2.2 million voters voted early in person and another 2.5 million voted early by mail.\n\n“Floridians are coming out to have their voices heard,” Keith said.\n\n— Bart Jansen\n\nU.S. cybersecurity officials see no attacks on election infrastructure yet\n\nU.S. cybersecurity officials so far have seen no indications of direct attacks on election infrastructure across the United States in the early hours of mid-term voting Tuesday. But they remain on high alert to disinformation operations and efforts to sway voters’ opinions by nation-states such as Russia, China and Iran, a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters.\n\nThe senior CISA official said those three nations continue to use the election disinformation playbook they have in past elections, and that CISA will continue to support election officials nationwide to any risks that may arise because of them.\n\nIn the first of three election security media briefings scheduled for Tuesday, the official would not say whether such foreign disinformation efforts are worse than in past election cycles, but confirmed that CISA is especially on guard against Russian malign influence campaigns following yesterday’s claim by sanctioned Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin that the Kremlin has meddled in U.S. elections and will continue to do so.\n\n— Josh Meyer\n\nNew Hampshire governor: Trump announcing 2024 run soon comes at 'worst time'\n\nNew Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican running for reelection, was one of the first in line to cast his ballot, and when asked about reports former President Donald Trump is expected to announce a 2024 presidential run, he said it seemed like poor timing.\n\n“Anyone who thinks it’s a smart idea to announce an election, a potential presidential bid, after (Tuesday’s) election but before Christmas, is just the worst time you could possibly do it,” Sununu said. “My sense is the former president needs better advisers if that’s really what his strategy’s going to be.”\n\nAs he has crisscrossed the country to campaign for Republican midterm candidates, Trump has increasingly hinted that he may launch a 2024 White House bid soon after the midterms. At a Monday night rally in Dayton, Ohio, he told supporters he was planning a \"very big announcement\" on Nov. 15 from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.\n\n— Max Sullivan\n\nThere's a reason for all those negative campaign ads...\n\nOn Election Day 2022, Americans are unhappy with the present, pessimistic about the future and not fully enamored with either political party. Their anxious, angry mood helps explain why campaign appeals have mostly turned not on aspirational promises – on exploring space or ending poverty, say – but on ominous warnings about the dangers of supporting the other side.\n\n\"Probably not since even the Civil War (has there been) such a dire situation for our democracy as we are in the current day,\" said John Mark Hansen, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.\n\nLessons learned in the midterms include those on the importance of the economy and the emergence of the extremes, among others. Also, the next campaign has already begun, so if you wanted to take a breath before 2024, you’re out of luck.\n\n— Susan Page\n\nIn Ohio, voters to weigh rules for future elections along with Ryan vs. Vance contest\n\nAfter months of campaigns, debates, primaries, absentee and early voting, polls in Ohio opened at 6:30 a.m. EST and will remain open until 7:30 EST.\n\nOne key issue is a ballot measure on rules for future elections. Issue 2 would prohibit noncitizens from voting, proposing that only adult U.S. citizens who legally reside and are registered to vote in Ohio for at least 30 days can cast a ballot in future state and local elections.\n\nThe most high-profile race in the state is the contest between Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan that will help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. Voters will also choose between incumbent Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and his Democratic challenger Nan Whaley. While polls show a tight race for the Senate seat, DeWine has had a wide lead over Whaley in many polls.\n\n— Micah Walker and Caren Bohan\n\nElection officials: Disrupt ‘at your peril’\n\nTop election officials in key states with tight contests are ready for potential disruptions as voters head to the polls – and the ballots are counted afterward.\n\nIn Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said her office is coordinating closely with law enforcement, deploying dozens of monitors to polling paces, and is prepared to eject poll workers who violate rules.\n\nIn Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office set up a texting system for poll workers in 85 counties to report problems and has state patrol officers and the National Guard ready to provide security.\n\nIn Arizona, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said officials throughout the county are ready to respond and are closely coordinating with law enforcement to ensure balloting goes smoothly.\n\n“Our message has been very clear to those who would try and disrupt this election: They do it at their peril,” Gates told reporters at a recent briefing hosted by The Center for Election Innovation & Research. “We're going to respond very strongly to that.”\n\nOne of his biggest worries ar", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/11/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/06/visiting-lakeland-libertarian-candidate-expresses-hope-for-2024-race/71287248007/", "title": "Visiting Lakeland, Libertarian candidate expresses hope for 2024 race", "text": "A presidential candidate recently visited Lakeland.\n\nNo, not a current or past president, and not a certain governor. This candidate could have sauntered through Munn Park or Lakeside Village and perhaps not been recognized by any local residents.\n\nMike ter Maat hopes the situation will be dramatically different a year from now. The longtime Floridian, now living in Virginia, is one of 36 Libertarian candidates for president. He said he only knows five of the others and described them as “terrific” but confidently predicted that he will gain the nomination when the party holds its convention next Memorial Day weekend in Washington, D.C.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/06"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_7", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/us/abbott-baby-formula-recall-fda-warning/index.html", "title": "Abbott baby formula recall: FDA says parents should avoid certain ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday cautioned people to avoid certain powdered infant formulas that may be tied to bacterial infections in four babies who were hospitalized.\n\nThe infections, which may have led to the death of one baby, were found in Texas, Ohio and Minnesota, the FDA said in a news release.\n\nThe FDA is advising that people should avoid using Similac, Alimentum or EleCare powdered infant formulas if the first two digits of the code are 22 through 37; the code on the container contains K8, SH or Z2; the expiration date is April 1, 2022, or later.\n\nThree infections stemmed from Cronobacter, a bacteria that can cause severe, life-threatening infections or inflammation of the membranes that protect the brain and spine. The third infection was from Salmonella, a group of bacteria that can cause digestive illness and fever.\n\n“Parents and caregivers of infants who have used these products, and are concerned about the health of their child, should contact their child’s health care provider,” the FDA said in the news release.\n\nThe infections stem from infant powdered formulas that were made at Abbott Nutrition’s facility in Sturgis, Michigan. The company said Thursday that it’s recalling the formulas in question\n\n“During testing in our Sturgis, Mich., facility, we found evidence of Cronobacter sakazakii in the plant in non-product contact areas. We found no evidence of Salmonella Newport,” Abbott Nutrition said in a news release. “Importantly, no distributed product has tested positive for the presence of either of these bacteria, and we continue to test.”\n\nThe company noted that its testing did not find Cronobacter sakazakii or Salmonella in the retained samples related to the complaints. The investigation is underway.\n\nThe US is facing a shortage of baby formula.\n\nAccording to market research firm IRI, stores’ infant formula inventories in mid-January were down 17% from where they were in mid-February 2020, just before the pandemic hit US shores.\n\nThe Infant Nutrition Council of America, whose members include the largest formula makers Abbott Nutrition, Reckitt Benckiser and Gerber Products Co., said earlier this month that manufacturers were working to quickly ensure availability and access to infant formulas.\n\nIn a statement, the group acknowledged reports of challenges across the supply chains, including impacts on transportation, labor and logistics.\n\n“Members of INCA are committed to meeting the needs of families who rely on infant formula — it is their top priority,” the group said.", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi"], "publish_date": "2022/02/18"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_8", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2023/11/27/greta-gerwig-to-receive-palm-springs-film-festival-award-for-barbie/71659653007/", "title": "Greta Gerwig to receive Palm Springs film festival award for 'Barbie'", "text": "Academy Award nominee Greta Gerwig will receive the Director of the Year Award for her criticallyacclaimed, record-breaking film \"Barbie\" at the Palm Springs International Film Awards.\n\nThe Film Awards will take place on Jan. 4, 2024, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running through Jan. 15.\n\nGerwig's \"Barbie\" (cowritten with Noah Baumbach), along with Christopher Nolan's \"Oppenheimer,\" took cinematic audiences by storm this summer as the global phenomenon aptly named \"Barbenheimer.\" The film follows the iconic doll Barbie in her perfectly pink world until she suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and existence. \"Barbie\" stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon and Simu Liu.\n\n\"Barbie\" has brought in more than $1 billion at the global box office and is the highest-grossing film of the year.\n\n“Director Greta Gerwig has brought us the cinematic experience of the year with 'Barbie,' theperfect blend of comedy, emotion and adventure that has both entertained and resonated withaudiences, becoming a cultural touchstone around the world,” Festival Chairman NachhattarSingh Chandi said in a statement.\n\n\"Gerwig is a masterful filmmaker, and her vision is brought to life so vividly by both the script she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, and by her clear and singular collaboration with her extraordinary crafts teams, whose visuals are matched only by the outstanding performances delivered by Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and the entire cast. It is our honor to present the Director of the Year Award to Greta Gerwig,\" he added.\n\nGerwig is a three-time Academy Award-nominated director and writer who has established herselfas one of Hollywood’s most important voices. Her solo directorial projects include \"Lady Bird,\" which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best director and best original screenplay for Gerwig, and \"Little Women,\" which earned her a best adapted screenplay nomination.\n\nShe has also appeared in front of the camera in a number of projects, including \"White Noise,\" \"Jackie,\" \"Maggie’s Plan,\" \"20th Century Women,\" \"Lola versus,\" \"Damsels in Distress,\" \"Mistress America\" and \"Frances Ha,\" for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a comedy/musical.\n\nPast recipients of the Director of the Year Award include Jane Campion (\"The Power of the Dog\"), Alejandro G. Iñárritu (\"Babel,\" \"Birdman\"), Steve McQueen (\"12 Years a Slave\"), Alexander Payne (\"Sideways\"), Sarah Polley (\"Women Talking\"), Jason Reitman (\"Up in the Air\"), David O. Russell (\"The Fighter\"), Quentin Tarantino (\"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood\") and Chloé Zhao (\"Nomadland\"). In the years they were honored, McQueen, Payne, Reitman, Russell and Tarantino received Best Director Academy Award nominations, while Campion, Iñárritu and Zhao won the Oscar.\n\nGerwig joins this year’s previously announced honorees \"Killers of the Flower Moon\" (Vanguard Award), Emma Stone (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Cillian Murphy (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor) and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Breakthrough Performance Award).\n\nEma Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/12/27/quentin-tarantino-nabs-director-year-award-palm-springs-film-festival/2734380001/", "title": "Quentin Tarantino nabs director of year award at Palm Springs film ...", "text": "Quentin Tarantino will receive the Director of the Year Award at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival for the film \"Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood.\"\n\n\"Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood\" is a comedy-drama about a fictional '50s-era Hollywood actor named Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (played by Brad Pitt) who are both struggling to find work in Hollywood two decades later, and soon find themselves intertwined with the Manson Family.\n\nTarantino will receive his award at the Palm Springs film festival's annual Film Awards Gala, taking place at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Jan. 2, 2020.\n\nFestival Chairman Harold Matzner said Tarantino \"captures the essence of 1969 Hollywood in his latest cinematic masterpiece, 'Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.'\"\n\nFilm Festival 2020:'Marriage Story' star Adam Driver to receive award\n\nFilm Festival 2020:'Harriet' star Cynthia Erivo to receive award\n\nFilm Festival 2020:Robert De Niro to receive Variety's creative impact award\n\nThe film is Tarantino's first not to be distributed by Miramax Films, after he ended his business relationship with the entertainment company following sexual assault allegations made against founder Harvey Weinstein.\n\nIt was also former \"Beverly Hills 90210\" star Luke Perry's final film before his death in March.\n\nReviews of the film were positive overall. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone referred to Pitt and DiCaprio as a \"landmark screen team\" in his critique.\n\n\"Two hours and 40 minutes can feel long for some. I wouldn’t change a frame,\" Travers added.\n\nRichard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it \"one of the best films of the year.\"\n\n\"This is a brilliant and sometimes outrageously fantastic mash-up of real-life events and characters with pure fiction,\" Roeper said.\n\nBut some reviewers took issue with the film, criticizing its masculine heroism and dark nostalgia.\n\nTthe moral of 'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood' seems to be 'who doesn’t miss the good old days when cars had fins and white men were the heroes of everything?'\" wrote Los Angeles Times culture columnist and critic Mary McNamara.\n\n\"Tarantino has a history of seeming to enjoy planting racial slurs in the mouths of his characters, and 'Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood' is no different,\" wrote Richard Brody of The New Yorker.\n\nTarantino made his directorial debut with the 1992 crime film, \"Reservoir Dogs.\" After its premiere at Sundance Film Festival, it was picked up by Miramax Films and grossed more than $2 million playing in 61 theaters nationwide.\n\nTwo years later, Tarantino released another crime film, \"Pulp Fiction,\" starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis. It grossed over $200 million at the box office and won Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary an Oscar for Best Screenplay, along with nominations for Travolta, Jackson and Thurman.\n\nAfter the release of his 2012 revisionist western \"Django Unchained,\" Tarantino won another Oscar for Best Screenplay.\n\nTarantino joins previously announced Palm Springs film festival honorees Jamie Foxx, Adam Driver, Cynthia Erivo, Laura Dern, Zack Gottsagen, Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Joaquin Phoenix and Renée Zellweger, all of whom are expected to be in attendance to receive their awards at the gala.\n\nPast recipients of the Director of the Year Award include Bradley Cooper, Steve McQueen, Sean Penn, Jason Reitman and Robert Zemeckis.\n\nThe Film Awards Gala ceremony, hosted once again by longtime television host Mary Hart, kicks off the 12-day festival of events and film screenings happening Jan. 2-13, 2020 in the Coachella Valley.\n\nFor gala tickets or tables, call (760) 969-7533.\n\nDesert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4617. Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/12/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2023/11/17/cillian-murphy-to-receive-palm-springs-international-film-fest-award-oppenheimer-barbenheimer/71612972007/", "title": "Cillian Murphy to receive Palm Springs International Film Festival ...", "text": "BAFTA Award nominee Cillian Murphy will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, for his performance as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in \"Oppenheimer\" at the Palm Springs International Film Awards.\n\nThe Film Awards will take place on Jan. 4, 2024, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running through Jan. 15.\n\nChristopher Nolan's \"Oppenheimer,\" along with Greta Gerwig's \"Barbie,\" took cinematic audiences by storm this summer as the global phenomenon aptly named \"Barbenheimer.\" Writer-director Nolan's record-breaking epic thriller \"Oppenheimer\" propels audiences into the paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it. With America locked into a devastating war, Oppenheimer becomes the central figure in a pulse-pounding race against the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb. The film also stars Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt, Oscar winner Matt Damon and Oscar nominees Robert Downey Jr. and Florence Pugh.\n\nRelated:Barbie lives a mid-century modern lifestyle on Tiny Palm Springs Instagram account\n\n\"Oppenheimer\" marks Murphy’s sixth collaboration with and first leading role for Nolan.\n\n\"After working together on five previous films, including 'The Dark Knight' trilogy, 'Inception,' and 'Dunkirk,' Cillian Murphy and writer-director Christopher Nolan reunite for one of the most ambitious and epic films of the year. Murphy gives a stunning portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer as a conflicted scientist leading the Manhattan Project to produce the world’s first atomic bomb,\" Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said in a statement. \"For this career-best performance, we are honored to present the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, to Cillian Murphy.\"\n\nIn 2005, Murphy made an indelible impression as Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow in \"Batman Begins,\" for which he received a London Film Critics Circle Award nomination. He reprised the role in the Oscar-winning blockbuster \"The Dark Knight\" and \"The Dark Knight Rises,\" and later collaborated with Nolan as the billionaire heir apparent/mark in the critically acclaimed sensation \"Inception.\" More recently, Murphy played a solider opposite Mark Rylance and Barry Keoghan in Nolan’s World War II epic \"Dunkirk.\"\n\nMurphy's filmography also includes \"28 Days Later,\" \"Breakfast on Pluto,\" \"A Quiet Place Part II,\" \"The Wind that Shakes the Barley,\" \"The Party,\" \"Free Fire,\" \"Anthropoid,\" \"In the Heart of the Sea,\" \"Transcendence,\" \"Aloft,\" \"In Time,\" \"Perrier’s Bounty,\" \"Sunshine,\" \"Red Eye,\" \"Cold Mountain,\" \"Girl with a Pearl Earring\" and \"Intermission.\" For six seasons on television, Murphy starred as Thomas Shelby, the most ruthless brother in a family of Birmingham gangsters, in the BAFTA Award-winning series \"Peaky Blinders.\"\n\nPast recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, include Riz Ahmed, Jeff Bridges, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Day-Lewis, Adam Driver, Colin Farrell, Colin Firth, Andrew Garfield, Matthew McConaughey, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Eddie Redmayne. In the years they were honored, Bridges, Day-Lewis, McConaughey, Oldman, Penn and Redmayne went on to win the Academy Award for best actor, while Ahmed, Cooper, Driver, Garfield, Farrell, Firth and Pitt received nominations.\n\nOther honorees at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Awards include \"Killers of the Flower Moon\" (Vanguard Award) and Emma Stone (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress).\n\nEma Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/2021/01/25/palm-springs-film-festivals-director-year-chloe-zhao/6693066002/", "title": "Palm Springs Film Festival's Director of the Year is Chloé Zhao", "text": "Director and screenwriter Chloé Zhao has been named the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Director of the Year for her film, \"Nomadland.\"\n\nZhao adapted her film from the book by Jessica Bruder. It focuses on Fern, a woman who explores life \"outside of conventional society\" following her rural Nevada community's economic collapse following the Great Recession, according to film festival officials.\n\nThe film \"captures the triumph of the human spirit,” Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement.\n\n“This extremely unique and well-done film captures the grand landscapes of the American West as it follows Fern, played by Frances McDormand, who hits the road in her camper van moving from one real encampment of present-day nomads to another,\" Matzner said. \" 'Nomadland' is one of the most accomplished films of the year and we are delighted to honor our first female Director of the Year, Chloé Zhao.”\n\nMcDormand won Oscars for her performances in \"Fargo\" and \"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\" She is also known for performances in films such as \"Almost Famous,\" \"Mississippi Burning,\" and \"North Country.\"\n\nThis year, \"Nomadland\" won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival and the People’s Choice Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It also recently won Best Film from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association and the Indiana Film Journalists Association.\n\nZhao was named Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Indiana Film Journalists Association.\n\nZhao was born in Beijing and also raised in Brighton, England. She moved to the United States and studied politics at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and film production at New York University.\n\nHer first feature film as a writer, director and producer was \"Songs My Brothers Taught Me,\" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015.\n\nThe 32nd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival had been planned for Feb. 25 to March 8 before organizers canceled it in November due to the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nZhao will join other honorees who will be acknowledged the week of Feb. 8 during tribute segments on the TV program \"Entertainment Tonight.\" Exclusive interviews with honorees will air the week of Feb. 22.\n\nHonorees include actor and filmmaker Gary Oldman, who's receiving the Chairman’s Award for his role in \"Mank,\" and actress Carey Mulligan, who's getting the International Star Award, Actress for her performance in \"Promising Young Woman.\"\n\nPrevious recipients for Director of the Year include Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Steve McQueen, Alexander Payne, Jason Reitman, David O. Russell and Quentin Tarantino.\n\nDesert Sun reporter Colin Atagi covers crime, public safety and road and highway safety. He can be reached at colin.atagi@desertsun.com or follow him at @tdscolinatagi. Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/2021/02/28/golden-globes-which-winners-losers-and-moments-had-ties-palm-springs-area/6863711002/", "title": "Golden Globes: Which winners, losers had ties to Palm Springs area", "text": "Under normal circumstances, the Golden Globes are held smack dab in the middle of the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January.\n\nThe same stars who walk the red carpet on gala night in Palm Springs make the short trip over to Hollywood to do it all again at the Globes.\n\nBut not this year, of course. The Golden Globes were held Sunday in a virtual format which led to a disjointed and somewhat clumsy broadcast with sound and timing problems. Hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were on different coasts, and nominees chatted with each other over Zoom during commercials.\n\nGolden Globes 2021:'Nomadland' wins best drama, 'Borat 2' named top comedy\n\n'Definitely a challenge':Riz Ahmed on learning sign language for 'Sound of Metal'\n\nEven though that symbiosis between the two events didn't happen this year, there are still plenty of ties between the desert and the Golden Globes.\n\nHere are a few:\n\nNo Globes for 'Palm Springs,' the movie\n\nThe movie named after our fair city \"Palm Springs\" was up for Best Picture of the comedy or musical variety, and its star Andy Samberg was up for Best Actor, but neither earned the victory. The film which, notoriously in these parts, did not show or have anything to do with Palm Springs, was a hit last summer.\n\nMore:The one thing missing from Andy Samberg's 'Palm Springs' movie? The city itself\n\nThe Best Picture for a comedy went to \"Borat Subsequent Moviefilm\" and the Best Actor in a Comedy went to Sacha Baron Cohen for the same movie.\n\nIn one comedic element during the broadcast, actors had pretend Zoom calls with their doctors. Actress Carey Mulligan, who received the International Star Award, Actress from the Palm Springs film festival for her performance in \"Promising Young Woman,\" told her doctor that she wakes up every morning feeling it's the same day over and over again. Her doctor told her she's got a case of \"Palm Springs,\" a reference to the infinite time loop vibe of the film.\n\nDesert resident nominated but does not win\n\nGary Oldman, who announced at a recent film festival that he had moved to Palm Springs, did not win Best Actor in a Drama for the movie \"Mank\" about Herman J. Mankiewicz, who famously penned the movie \"Citizen Kane.\"\n\nScenes in 'Mank' look familiar? That's because it was filmed in California desert\n\nThat award went posthumously to the late actor Chadwick Boseman for his role in \"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.\"\n\nOldman's portrayal was excellent and he likely saved on gas mileage with parts of the movie filmed in nearby Victorville, which as the movie explains, is where Mankiewicz was when he wrote the famous script.\n\nOldman did, however, nab the Chairman’s Award, Actor from the Palm Springs film festival for his performance in \"Mank.”\n\nPalm Springs film fest honorees get wins\n\nWhile the Palm Springs International Film Festival did not exist in its traditional in-person capacity this year, it did still hand out its annual awards — and some of those honorees took home Golden Globes on Sunday, including one of the biggies.\n\nAndra Day, of the film \"The United States vs. Billie Holliday,\" won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. She also took home the Breakthrough Performance Award handed out by the Palm Springs film festival.\n\nChloe Zhao won the Golden Globe for Best Director for her remarkable film \"Nomadland\" which also won Best Picture. She became just the second woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Director. She was also given the Director of the Year Award by the Palm Springs film festival.\n\nDaniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his role in the movie \"Judas and the Black Messiah.\" He was given the International Star Award by the Palm Springs film festival this year. He won the first award of the night and immediately started talking while on mute, hammering home the unusualness of the night with honorees all chiming in via Zoom.\n\nAaron Sorkin won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for the film \"The Trial of the Chicago 7.\" Sorkin, along with the cast of the film, was given the Vanguard Award by the Palm Springs film festival.\n\nThe movie \"Minari\" won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. One of its stars Yun-Jung Youn, who played the grandmother, was honored by the Palm Springs film festival as this year's Spotlight Award-winning woman.\n\nShad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2019/12/04/palm-springs-film-festival-celebrities-these-stars-expected-show-up/2610504001/", "title": "Palm Springs film festival celebrities: Adam Driver, Jennifer Lopez ...", "text": "Lights, camera, action. It's almost time for the Palm Springs International Film Festival!\n\nThat means we're also close to welcoming a slew of A-list celebrities to the Coachella Valley. Some of Hollywood's most high-profile directors, actors, actresses and more will descend on the California desert for the 12-day festival of events and film screenings happening Jan. 2-13, 2020.\n\nIt kicks off with the star-studded Film Awards Gala, where many Oscar hopefuls walk down a red carpet in front of the Palm Springs Convention Center.\n\nMore:5 ways to 'accidentally' bump into a celebrity during the Palm Springs film fest\n\nMore:Want a selfie with Bradley Cooper? So does everyone, so try these tricks\n\nHere are the celebrities expected to be in attendance at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival:\n\nAntonio Banderas\n\nSpanish actor and singer Antonio Banderas will receive the International Star Award, Actor for his performance in \"Pain and Glory\" at the film festival's Film Awards Gala, taking place at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Jan. 2, 2020. The film chronicles the final days of a fictional film director named Salvador Mallo as he reflects on his life. Banderas is also expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of \"Pain and Glory,\" taking place at 10 a.m. on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater.\n\nMore:Antonio Banderas to receive award at Palm Springs film festival\n\nNoah Baumbach\n\n\"Marriage Story\" director Noah Baumbach is expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of the film, taking place at noon on Jan. 2 at the Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School. The film is about a marriage between a stage director (played by Adam Driver) and his actress wife (played by Scarlett Johansson) who go through a coast-to-coast divorce and fight for custody of their young son.\n\nRobert De Niro\n\nFor his performance in \"The Irishman,\" Robert De Niro will receive the Creative Impact in Acting award from Variety on Jan. 3 during the annual 10 Directors to Watch brunch at the Parker Palm Springs. Many film critics criticized director Martin Scorsese for using de-aging special effects on De Niro in \"The Irishman.\" Regardless, the actor's portrayal of World War II veteran and mafia hitman Frank Sheeran is one of De Niro's finest roles.\n\nLaura Dern\n\nActress Laura Dern will receive the Career Achievement Award at the film festival's gala. The 52-year old actress starred in two films this year: the classic period drama, \"Little Women,\" and the comedy drama, \"Marriage Story.\" She also plays Renata Klein in the HBO series \"Big Little Lies\" and is the voice of Sue Murphy in the Bill Burr animated Netflix sitcom \"F is for Family.\" Dern is also expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of \"Marriage Story,\" taking place at noon on Jan. 2 at the Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School.\n\nMore:Laura Dern to receive career achievement award at Palm Springs film fest\n\nAdam Driver\n\nDriver will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor at the awards gala for his performance in \"Marriage Story.\" The actor is also expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of the film, taking place at noon on Jan. 2 at the Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School.\n\nMore:'Marriage Story' star Adam Driver to receive award at Palm Springs film fest\n\nCynthia Erivo\n\nActress Cynthia Erivo will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award at the film festival for her performance in the title role of the Harriet Tubman biopic, \"Harriet.\" It's the first leading role for Erivo, a 32-year old actress, singer and songwriter, who plays the renowned \"conductor\" of the Underground Railroad. The actress is also expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of the film, taking place at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2. at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.\n\nMore:'Harriet' star Cynthia Erivo to receive award at Palm Springs film festival\n\nJamie Foxx\n\nActor, singer and comedian Jamie Foxx will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor at the awards gala for his performance in \"Just Mercy.\" The film is based on attorney Bryan Stevenson's (played by Michael B. Jordan) bestselling 2015 memoir about defending Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian (played by Foxx), a black man sentenced to death row for a crime he did not commit.\n\nMore:Jamie Foxx to receive Spotlight Award at Palm Springs film festival\n\nZack Gottsagen\n\nActor Zack Gottsagen will receive the Rising Star Award for his performance in \"The Peanut Butter Falcon,\" at the Film Awards Gala. The film follows young man with Down syndrome (played by Gottsagen) who lives in an assisted living facility in North Carolina and is obsessed with professional wrestling. He decides to escape to Florida to attend wrestling school with the help of a thief and fisherman (played by Shia LaBeouf).\n\nMore:Zack Gottsagen to receive award at Palm Springs film festival\n\nJennifer Lopez\n\nSinger, actress and fashion designer Jennifer Lopez will receive the Spotlight Award, Actress for her performance in the film \"Hustlers\" at the Film Awards Gala. \"Hustlers\" follows a group of former strippers in New York who come together in a scheme to steal money from their Wall Street clients. Lopez plays veteran stripper Ramona Vega.\n\nCelebrity significant other possibility: Perhaps Lopez will be joined by her famous fiancé, former baseball star and current TV personality Alex Rodriguez.\n\nMore:'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez will be honored at film festival\n\nEdward Norton\n\nThe writer, director, producer and actor of \"Motherless Brooklyn\" is expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening of the film, taking place at 9 a.m. on Jan. 4 at Palm Springs High School. Edward Norton will join a discussion with author Jonathan Lethem, who wrote the 1999 novel, “Motherless Brooklyn” about a detective with Tourette syndrome, following the screening.\n\nTodd Phillips\n\n\"Joker\" director Todd Phillips will receive the Creative Impact in Producing award from Variety during the annual 10 Directors to Watch brunch. Using the 1988 graphic novel \"The Killing Joke\" as source material, \"Joker\" provides a cautionary tale about ignoring those with mental illness. Actor Joaquin Phoenix plays a failed stand-up comedian and party clown who morphs into a criminal.\n\nJoaquin Phoenix\n\nPhoenix, known for his roles in \"Walk the Line\" and \"Inherent Vice,\" will receive the Chairman's Award at the Film Awards Gala for his performance in \"Joker.\" Festival Chairman Harold Matzner called the actor's portrayal of the film's title role \"another in his arsenal of unforgettable characters.\"\n\nMore:'Joker' star Joaquin Phoenix to receive award at film festival\n\nJay Roach\n\nThe \"Bombshell\" director is expected to attend the Talking Pictures screening of the film at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2 at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater. The movie is based on the 2016 sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News chairman and CEO, the late Roger Ailes. Roach will answer questions following the screening, around noon.\n\nLorene Scafaria\n\nLorene Scafaria, the writer and director of \"Hustlers,\" is expected to attend the Talking Pictures screening of the film at 9:45 a.m. on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.\n\nMartin Scorsese\n\nScorsese, who is known for such epic mob films as \"Goodfellas,\" \"Casino\" and \"The Departed,\" will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award at the awards gala for his film \"The Irishman.\" Almost four hours long, \"The Irishman\" follows Frank Sheeran (portrayed by De Niro), a high-ranking official in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and one of only two non-Italians affiliated with the American commission of the Sicilian Mafia.\n\nMore:'The Irishman' director Martin Scorsese will be honored at film festival\n\nQuentin Tarantino\n\nQuentin Tarantino will receive the Director of the Year Award at the awards gala for his film \"Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood.\" Matzner said Tarantino \"captures the essence of 1969 Hollywood in his latest cinematic masterpiece,\" which is a comedy-drama about a fictional '50s-era Hollywood actor (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double (played by Brad Pitt) who struggle to find work in Hollywood.\n\nMore:Quentin Tarantino nabs director of year award at Palm Springs film festival\n\nCharlize Theron\n\nSouth African actress Charlize Theron will receive the International Star Award, Actress at the Film Awards Gala for her performance in the film \"Bombshell.\" Theron plays former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. The actress was previously honored at the Palm Springs film festival with the Desert Palm Achievement Award in 2006 and the Vanguard Award for her performance in \"Young Adult\" in 2012.\n\nMore:'Bombshell' actress Charlize Theron nabs award at film festival\n\nLena Waithe\n\n\"Queen & Slim\" writer Lena Waithe will receive the Creative Impact in Producing award from Variety during the annual 10 Directors to Watch brunch. In the film, a young African-American couple meet for a first date. After they're pulled over by a white bullying police officer (played by country singer Sturgill Simpson), the night takes a dark turn when the officer is dead and the couple is on the run.\n\nOlivia Wilde\n\nThe \"Booksmart\" director is expected to be in attendance at the Talking Pictures screening and discussion of her film, taking place at 1 pm. on Jan. 3 at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theater. \"Booksmart\" is Wilde's directorial debut and follows two high school standouts who attend a party ahead of graduation.\n\nRenée Zellweger\n\nRenée Zellweger is picking up Oscar buzz for her performance in the 2019 Judy Garland biopic \"Judy\" and will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress at the Film Awards Gala. Matzner called Zellweger's portrayal of Garland \"outstanding\" and \"a career best,\" echoing the praise of many film critics for her performance, in which she does her own singing.\n\nMore:Renée Zellweger to receive Palm Springs film festival's top actress award", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/12/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2017/01/05/artistic-director-offers-10-must-see-festival-picks/96184512/", "title": "Artistic director offers 10 must-see festival picks", "text": "Bruce Fessier\n\nThe Desert Sun\n\n\n\nThe Palm Springs International Film Festival this week offers an opportunity to view about half of the films being considered for Best Foreign Language Oscar nominations.\n\nOne of those films will be named Best Foreign Language Film of the Year award by the international FIPRESCI critics organization, which is judging the festival’s 43 Oscar submissions in its Awards Buzz section. That designation may not be as prestigious as the Motion Pictures Academy's selection for Best Foreign Language Film, but it makes the Awards Buzz a competition worth exploring.\n\nWHOLE PICTURE: Complete Awards Buzz program\n\n43 films are still a lot of movies for the average festival-goer to see in the next 10 days. And who wants to ignore all the premieres in this festival?\n\nFestival Artistic Director Michael Lerman has come up with two lists of five “must-sees” films.\n\nThe five in the Awards Buzz competition are:\n\n“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki,” from Finland. 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Palm Springs High School; 10:30 a.m. Monday, Mary Pickford; 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, Camelot. This is the story of a small-town boxer who has a shot at the featherweight boxing championship of the world, if he can only stop eating long enough to make weight. Lerman calls it an “audience-pleasing tale of love and boxing. Sweet, pitch-perfectly acted and incredibly endearing.”\n\n“Apprentice,” from Singapore. 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Regal; 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Mary Pickford. This psychological drama by Boo Junfeng was runner-up to “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki” for the Un Certain Regard Award recognizing innovative, emerging filmmakers at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. “A thought provoking meditation on death and capital punishment in one of the smartest character studies made this year,” Lerman said.\n\n“My Life as a Zucchini,” Switzerland. 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Regal; 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, Palm Springs High School. A Golden Globe-nominated animated film about a boy who is accompanied to a foster home by a friendly police officer after his mother disappears. “Beautiful, hilarious and human, this Swiss kids movie has been striking a chord with adults all over the world for its sharp writing and unique animation style,” Lerman said. “Made for anyone ages 12-100, this is a ‘don’t miss’ shoe-in for the Best Foreign Language and Animation Oscars.\n\n“Fire at Sea,” Italy. 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Annenberg; 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Camelot; 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Annenberg. Gianfranco Rosi’s commentary on the European migrant crisis, as seen through the eyes of one man and the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. It won the European Film Award for best doc. “Equal parts beautiful and harrowing, this brilliantly structured documentary explores Italy’s relationship to the seas that border it by juxtaposing an aspiring sailor against the backdrop of the rough seas around him, which serve as a key area in the European migrant crisis,” Lerman said.\n\n“Under the Shadow,” from the UK, Qatar, Jordan and Iran. 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, all at the Mary Pickford. Babak Anvari’s Farsi-language horror tells the story of a mother and daughter in post-revolution Tehran in the 1980s who find themselves terrorized by an evil that has invaded their house. “Part terrifying ghost story, part examination of war-torn Tehran, this exhilarating film captures what genre cinema does best – uses metaphor to explore the evils in the real world,” Lerman said.\n\nARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Who is Michael Lerman?\n\nFive narrative films not up for Academy Awards consideration, but still likely to satisfy audiences are:\n\n“Paint It Black,” U.S., 7:30 p.m. Friday, Camelot; 11 a.m. Saturday, Regal, 4 p.m. Wednesday, Mary Pickford. This film, starring Rancho Mirage native Alia Shawkatt (best known for her role from “Arrested Development”), follows the aftermath of a young man’s suicide, when his mother and punk girlfriend get into an epic battle. Actress-turned-director Amber Tamblyn's cast also includes Janet McTeer and Alfred Molina in Tamblyn's directorial debut. “Unique filmmaking and a daring lead performance from Alia Shawkat anchor this female centric, emotional drama,” Lerman said.\n\n“Souvenir,” Belgium. 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Camelot; 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, Regal; 12:45 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, Palm Springs High School. A musical romance starring Isabelle Huppert as a former Eurovision star who is enticed into making a comeback. “Isabelle Huppert shines in this touching love story between a retired front woman for a band and much younger factory worker who rekindles her passion for music,” Lerman said.\n\n“Una,” UK. 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Annenberg; 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13 Camelot; 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, Palm Springs High School. The story of an encounter between a man and a woman 15 after he was imprisoned for having a sexual relationship with her when she was 13 and he was 40. “Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn give riveting performances,” Lerman said, “in this searing adaptation of David Harrower’s award winning play ‘Blackbird.’”\n\n“King of the Dancehall,” U.S. 7:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, Annenberg; 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, Mary Pickford. Nick Cannon’s introduction as a tour de force writer, producer, director and star. “Be whisked away to Jamaica in this colorful and lively story of an ex-con who gets caught up in the vibrant dancehall scene in Kingston,” Lerman said.\n\n“The Rehearsal,” New Zealand. 1:30 p.m. Monday, Camelot; 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, Regal; 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, Regal. An adaptation of the Eleanor Catton novel exploring teaching and art and showing once again how life inspires art. Or, as Lerman puts, “Alison Mclean (Jesus’ Son) returns with this fiercely sardonic and extremely engaging take on a scandal inside a performing arts school.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/01/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2021/11/17/jane-campion-receive-director-year-the-power-dog/8654584002/", "title": "Palm Springs film festival to honor Jane Campion with Director of the ...", "text": "Academy Award-winner Jane Campion will receive the Director of the Year Award for her latest film \"The Power of the Dog\" at the Palm Springs International Film Awards.\n\nThe Film Awards will take place in person on Jan. 6, 2022, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the film festival running through Jan. 17. The 2021 festival and film awards were canceled last November due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nOn top of directing \"The Power of the Dog,\" Campion produced and wrote the script based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage. Hyper-masculine rancher Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) incites fear in others, while his brother George (Jesse Plemons) is more gentle and wants to distance himself from Phil. When the two meet widow and inn owner Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) and her quiet son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and George eventually marries Rose, Phil takes his mockery and torment to a new level. That is until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.\n\nCampion was awarded the Silver Lion for directing at the Venice International Film Festival in September. The film is out in theaters beginning Wednesday and will be released on Netflix on Dec. 1.\n\nRelated: 'Spencer' star Kristen Stewart to be honored with Spotlight Award at Palm Springs International Film Awards\n\nMore: Palm Springs film festival to honor Penélope Cruz with International Star Award for 'Parallel Mothers'\n\nFestival Chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement that Campion has \"once again created a cinematic masterpiece.\"\n\nPast recipients of the Director of the Year Award include Alejandro G. Iñárritu (\"Babel,\" \"Birdman\"), Steve Mc Queen (\"12 Years a Slave\"), Alexander Payne (\"Sideways\"), Jason Reitman (\"Up in the Air\"), David O. Russell (\"The Fighter\"), Quentin Tarantino (\"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood\") and Chloé Zhao (\"Nomadland\"), who all went on to receive Best Director Academy Award nominations. Last year's honoree Zhao won Best Director, making her the second woman and first woman of color to win in the award.\n\nCampion is best known for her 1993 debut feature \"The Piano,\" for which she was the first female director to win the Palme D’Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, and one of only seven women ever to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar. The film also received nine Academy Award nominations and three wins, including Campion taking home the Best Screenplay statue.\n\nHer other films include \"Sweetie\" in 1989; \"An Angel at My Table\" in 1990, which won seven awards at the Venice Film Festival; \"The Portrait of a Lady\" in 1996, which was nominated for two Academy Awards; \"Holy Smoke\" in 1999; \"In the Cut\" in 2003; and \"Bright Star\" in 2009. Campion also created, co-wrote, co-directed and executive produced the two season mini-series \"Top of the Lake\" starring Elisabeth Moss.\n\nCampion joins this year’s previously announced honorees Penélope Cruz (International Star Award, Actress) and Kristen Stewart (Spotlight Award, Actress).\n\nEma Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/01/02/palm-springs-film-fest-kicks-off-celebrity-arrivals-red-carpet/2306081002/", "title": "Palm Springs film fest kicks off with celebrity arrivals on red carpet", "text": "The Palm Springs International Film Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.\n\nOn Thursday, the illustrious Film Awards Gala takes place at the Palm Springs Convention Center to mark the start of the festivities – and awards season.\n\nHosted by Mary Hart and \"Entertainment Tonight,\" and presented by American Express, the gala is an evening of glam that raises more than $1 million for the Palm Springs International Film Society every year, according to the festival's website.\n\nIt's also played a key role in attracting industry stars, distinguishing Palm Springs from most other film festivals. The gala's reputation as a portender of Academy Awards nominations has made it prudent for Oscar hopefuls to attend.\n\nThe evening starts with a cocktail hour at 5 p.m. before dinner and the awards show, where previously announced honorees receive ornate statuettes. But first, they walk a red carpet outside the convention center, flanked by other A-list celebrities.\n\nLive coverage of Palm Springs film fest:Live blog: 'Mary Poppins' cast, Queen film star Rami Malek to walk Palm Springs film fest red carpet\n\n30TH ANNIVERSARY:The Palm Springs film festival is positioned to survive. L.A.'s didn't. Here's why\n\nFESTIVAL EXPANDS: Lineup shows best of last 30 years\n\nSTARS RETURN:Palm Springs film festival calling Timothée Chalamet's name for Spotlight Award\n\nSome of this year's awardees include: Timothée Chalamet, who will be honored with the Spotlight Award, Actor; Glenn Close with the Icon Award; Olivia Colman with the Desert Palm Achievement Award; Bradley Cooper with the Director of the Year Award; Alfonso Cuarón with the Sonny Bonny Visionary Award; Spike Lee with the Career Achievement Award; Regina King with the Chairman's Award; Rami Malek with the Breakthrough Performance Award; Melissa McCarthy with the Spotlight Award, Actress; the cast and director of \"Green Book\" with the Vanguard Award; and the cast of \"Mary Poppins Returns\" with the Ensemble Performance Award.\n\n\"Green Book\" stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, and director Peter Farrelly are expected to be in attendance to accept their award. From \"Mary Poppins Returns,\" actress Emily Blunt, who plays the magical English nanny, is expected to be on hand along with Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson, who play the kids in the musical fantasy.\n\nAdditionally, actress Emma Stone will be in attendance to present Colman, her co-star in \"The Favourite,\" with her award along with last year's Oscar winner Gary Oldman, who has a home in Palm Springs.\n\nIf you're hoping to snag some autographs, it's best to line up no later than 4:30 p.m. Stars usually arrive around 5:30 p.m. Barricades are set up across from the red carpet, and usually a couple hundred fans line up behind them. Some die-hards camp out overnight to claim the best spots, but even if you show up on Tuesday afternoon, you should be able to be in position to easily see the stars, if not interact with them.\n\nIf you can't make it to the convention center, you can follow The Desert Sun's live coverage throughout the evening. In addition to updates on desertsun.com, you'll also find photo galleries of our favorite fashion trends and more.\n\nOn The Desert Sun Instagram account @DesertSun, our reporters will take you behind the scenes to peep the arrivals. Plus, our Twitter account @MyDesert will be updated throughout the night.\n\nYou also can watch a Facebook live stream of the fans who line up to see their favorite stars, plus witness their potential meltdowns upon meeting, at facebook.com/TheDesertSun.\n\nFollowing the Film Awards Gala, Opening Night takes place Jan. 4 with a 6:30 p.m. screening of \"All is True\" at Palm Springs High School. Directed by and starring England’s five-time Oscar-nominated Kenneth Branagh, “All Is True” is a look at the final days of William Shakespeare.\n\nThe festival runs Jan. 3-14 at venues throughout Palm Springs and Cathedral City. Over the course of two weeks, 223 films from 78 countries will be screened, including 30 of the most popular films in the festival's history.\n\nThis year's event will close Jan. 13 with a 6:30 p.m. showing of \"Ladies in Black,\" directed by two-time Oscar-nominated Australian, Bruce Beresford, at Palm Springs High School. The film examines the glory days of elegant department stores.\n\nKristin Scharkey is the editor of DESERT magazine and community content editor at The Desert Sun. Desert Sun reporters Geraldine Estevez, Bruce Fessier and Shad Powers contributed to this report.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/01/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainment/movies/film-festival/2022/11/18/sarah-polley-to-receive-directing-award-at-palm-springs-film-festival/69655328007/", "title": "Sarah Polley to receive directing award at Palm Springs film festival", "text": "Academy Award nominee Sarah Polley will receive the Director of the Year Award for her latest film, \"Women Talking,\" at the Palm Springs International Film Awards.\n\nThe Film Awards will take place in person on Jan. 5 at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the Palm Springs International Film Festival running through Jan. 16. The 2022 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nOn top of directing \"Women Talking,\" Polley wrote the script, which is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews. The film centers on a group of women living in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith after a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men are revealed. The film stars Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, August Winter, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand.\n\n“Sarah Polley continues her outstanding work as a writer and director in her latest film 'Women Talking.' She brings together a stellar cast in her adaptation of the Miriam Toews book, taking us on a cinematic journey filled with raw emotions and performances,” Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement. “It is our honor to present Sarah Polley with the Director of the Year Award.”\n\nPolley received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for her feature directorial debut, \"Away From Her.\" The film also garnered a Best Actress nomination for star Julie Christie. Her second feature was \"Take This Waltz\" starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman.\n\n\"Stories We Tell,\" her documentary that examines secrets and memories in her own family, won Best Documentary Film awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as a Writer’s Guild of America award for its screenplay. Polley executive produced and wrote the Netflix limited series \"Alias Grace,\" which she adapted from Margaret Atwood’s novel.\n\nAs an actor, her film credits include \"The Sweet Hereafter\" (Best Supporting Actress Award from the Boston Society of Film Critics), \"Go\" (Independent Spirit Award nomination), \"Dawn of the Dead,\" \"Mr. Nobody,\" \"The Weight of Water, Existenz,\" \"The Secret Life of Words,\" \"My Life Without Me\" (Best Actress from the Chlotrudis Awards), \"Guinevere,\" \"Don’t Come Knocking,\" \"The Claim\" and \"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.\"\n\nIn 2022, Polley released \"Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory,\" an autobiographical collection of essays detailing her relationship with her body and how her memory of past and present experiences has contributed to her evolving understanding of self.\n\nPast recipients of the Director of the Year Award include Jane Campion (\"The Power of the Dog\"), Alejandro G. Iñárritu (\"Babel,\" \"Birdman\"), Steve Mc Queen (\"12 Years a Slave\"), Alexander Payne (\"Sideways\"), Jason Reitman (\"Up in the Air\"), David O. Russell (\"The Fighter\"), Quentin Tarantino (\"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood\") and Chloé Zhao (\"Nomadland\") who all went on to receive Best Director Academy Award nominations. Campion, Iñárritu and Zhao went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Director.\n\nPolley joins the Film Awards' previously announced honoree Colin Farrell (Desert Palm Achievement, Actor).\n\nEma Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/11/18"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_9", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/25/business/q-tips-ears-wellness-history/index.html", "title": "How we got addicted to using Q-tips the wrong way | CNN Business", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nEvery Q-tips box has a warning label: “Do not insert swab into ear canal,” and if you’re going to use it to clean your ears, gently swab the outer part only.\n\nBut extracting wax from our ear canals is precisely why most of us buy Q-tips in the first place. The humble Q-tip was so perfectly designed for this purpose that it turned into a generic word for a product.\n\nYet, somehow, we use it for the very thing it specifically warns us not to do.\n\n‘Q-Tips Baby Gays’\n\nThe origins of this strange consumer phenomenon can be traced to Leo Gerstenzang, an immigrant from Poland.\n\nIn 1923, Gerstenzang supposedly thought he could improve upon his wife Ziuta’s method of wrapping a wad of cotton around a toothpick to clean their newborn daughter Betty’s eyes, ears, belly button and other sensitive areas during bathing.\n\nGerstenzang started a company that year to develop and manufacture the first ready-made sterilized cotton swabs for baby care. Over the next couple of years, he worked to design a machine that could produce swabs “untouched by human hands.”\n\nA Q-tips advertisement from 1945. Q-tips were originally designed for baby care. The Tampa Tribune\n\n“Baby Betty Gays” was the original working name for the swabs because daughter Betty laughed when her parents tickled her with them, according to her 2017 paid obituary. By the time Gerstenzang put out one of the first newspaper advertisements for his invention in 1925 it was shortened to “Baby Gays.”\n\nSoon, Gerstenzang changed the brand name to “Q-Tips Baby Gays.” By the mid-1930s, “Baby Gays” was dropped from the name.\n\nThere are competing histories to where the “Q-tips” addition came from. According to a spokesperson for Unilever (UL), the consumer goods conglomerate that bought Q-tips in 1987, the “Q” stands for “quality” and “tips” describes the cotton swab at the end of the stick (the first swabs were single-sided sold in sliding tin boxes).\n\nBut, according to Betty’s obituary, “Q-tips” was a play off “Cutie-Tips” because she was so cute as a baby.\n\n‘Adult ear care’\n\nQ-tips never told us to stick the swabs in our ear canal to clear out earwax. But, from its beginning in the 1920s, it made ear care a key focus of its marketing strategy. This trained generations of Americans to associate it with cleaning there.\n\nMid-century advertisements often featured illustrations of men and women cleaning their ears or their babies’ ears with them, including one depicting a man removing water from his ears after a swim.\n\nOld versions of boxes listed “adult ear care” as a main use for the product.\n\nEven Betty White later appeared in television spots for Q-tips in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting them as the “safest and softest” swabs on the market for your eyes, nose and ears.\n\nA Q-tips advertisement in Life Magazine from 1956. Some ads around the period showed men cleaning water out of their ears with Q-tips. Life Magazine\n\nQ-tips are almost addicting to use to clear out wax and it becomes a vicious cycle when we do so, said Douglas Backous, a neurotologist specializing in treating ear and skull conditions. Removing earwax creates dry skin, which we then want to scratch with — of course — a Q-tip.\n\nSticking Q-tips in your ears also can damage the ear canal. Most people do not actually need to remove earwax, as well, because ears are self-cleaning. Inserting a swab can traps earwax deeper inside, he said, and “you’re actually working against yourself by using it.”\n\nIt wasn’t until the 1970s, under previous owner Chesebrough-Pond’s, that Q-tips added a warning about not sticking the thing in your ear. It’s unclear what prompted this change.\n\n“The company has no details on why they did this, and our search of the records turns up no publicized case of anyone with a swab in the brain,” the Washington Post reported in 1990. “Something must have happened, and Chesebrough-Pond’s didn’t want to be blamed.”\n\nBut by the time Q-tips added that warning label, it was too late. Consumer habits had become impossible to break, and Q-tips controlled around 75% of the market for cotton swabs.\n\n“It was just accepted that that’s how people were using it,” said Aaron Calloway, the Q-tips brand manager at Unilever in 2007 and 2008.\n\n‘Beauty assistant’\n\nSo what should you use Q-tips for? The company has several suggestions. For decades, it has tried to emphasize the versatility of cotton swabs.\n\nDuring the 1940s, Q-tips were positioned as an essential tool for women’s cosmetics and beauty routines.\n\n“Mommy, do you know you can use Q-tips for many things?…You can use them yourself when using cream or make-up, too mommy!” read a 1941 print advertisement.\n\nBy the 1940s, Q-tips was marketed to women as a tool for their beauty routines. New York Daily News\n\nAnother print advertisement, a decade later, described Q-tips as a “beauty assistant” for women.\n\nIn the 1950s and 1960s, Q-tips began to tell consumers they were for more than just for babies or women – they were handy for just about any project around the house or in their lives.\n\n“For lubricating power saws and drills…guns and fishing reels…mending a tea cup and cleaning jewelery…Antiquing furniture,” read a 1971 ad.\n\nToday, there are no ears in Q-tips’ advertising. A spokesperson for the brand says 80% of consumers use Q-tips for purposes other than personal care.\n\nCNN’s Leidy Cook contributed to this article.", "authors": ["Nathaniel Meyersohn"], "publish_date": "2022/06/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/16/business/tide-pods-laundry-detergent-history/index.html", "title": "Why Tide Pods look like candy | CNN Business", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nIn 2004, Procter & Gamble was looking for a hit.\n\nIt had been two decades since the consumer products conglomerate introduced Tide liquid detergent, revolutionizing the way people washed their clothes. Cheaper rivals and in-house store brands were chipping away at Tide’s dominance.\n\nP&G had also found that consumers were tired of lugging around bulky seven-pound Tide detergent bottles, measuring and pouring liquid detergent into a cup and then cleaning up the inevitable spills. Doing the laundry had become a dreaded chore.\n\nTide Pods' signature three-chamber design. The product has been one of Procter & Gamble's most successful innovations in years. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images\n\nThe company needed to develop something so different that it would convince consumers to switch away from liquid detergent. It set about trying to develop a distinctive palm-size, liquid-filled detergent capsule that would catch shoppers’ eyes on the shelf and make doing laundry a bit more exciting.\n\nIn 2012, after eight years, P&G finally introduced America to Tide Pods, a delectable blue, orange and white single packet of concentrated detergent.\n\nTide Pods was a breakthrough success. But P&G created a product so visually appealing and irresistible that it inadvertently turned into a public health risk.\n\nDisrupting the wash\n\nTide, which arrived on the US market in 1946 as the first synthetic detergent, has long been one of P&G’s most important brands on a roster that includes Gillette, Pampers, Dawn, Bounty and other staples of American homes.\n\nTide came to dominate the detergent sector and was at one point P&G’s largest US brand. Within the company, working on Tide has been a coveted job and often a stepping stone to the executive suite.\n\nTide Pods was not P&G’s first attempt to develop a laundry tablet.\n\nIn 1960, P&G launched Salvo, a compressed powdered tablet. It was on the market for about five years. In 2000, P&G introduced Tide Tabs: tablets filled with powder detergent. But the company pulled them off the market two years later – the powder tablets didn’t always dissolve completely and they worked only in hot water.\n\n“It wasn’t even close to hitting the goals,” one former P&G employee later told The Wall Street Journal.\n\nTide Pods launched in 2012. Here, former CEO Bob McDonald showcases an early version of Tide Pods' clear package design. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images\n\nP&G’s next attempt – creating a tablet with liquid that would eventually become Tide Pods – was a hugely difficult engineering task. It involved more than 75 employees and 450 different packaging and product sketches. Thousands of consumers were surveyed.\n\nThe goal was to “disrupt the ‘sleep-washing’ ” among consumers who “automatically pick up” detergent, P&G’s marketing director for North American fabric care told The New York Times. “We want to shake this category up with innovation.”\n\nAt the Academy Awards telecast in 2012, P&G introduced Tide Pods in a sparkling, vibrant commercial with the tagline “Pop In. Stand Out.” The spot encouraged customers to “pop” Tide Pods into the washing machine and watch their clothing “pop” with brightness. P&G spent $150 million on an advertising blitz rolling out Tide Pods to consumers.\n\n‘Food imitating products’\n\nWithin a year, Tide Pods crossed $500 million in sales in North America and controlled about 75% of the market for single-dose laundry packets, the company said at the time. The product was so successful that other manufacturers raced to create similar versions.\n\nTide Pods appealed to customers with its lightweight design, blue, orange and white-striped swirl and soft, squishy feel.\n\nToday, it features a patented three-chamber design that separates detergent (the green compartment), stain remover (white) and whitener (blue). P&G did not say why it changed the colors.\n\nEven Tide Pods packaging was distinct.\n\nThe company developed a see-through fishbowl-shaped plastic container that showed the pods clearly to stand out on the shelf. People also liked how the Tide Pods felt in their hands, researchers found.\n\nTide Pods’ design was reflective of a long strategy of consumer product makers designing cleaners and personal hygiene products that exhibited food or drink attributes, according Dr. Frédéric Basso, a professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science, who has researched this trend, known as “food imitating products.”\n\nOther examples of this tactic include bottles shaped like soft drinks and labels that depict colorful fruits.\n\nBy developing products that create links to food, play or other positive experiences, customers are less likely to automatically associate these items with an unpleasant or boring chore, Basso said.\n\n“Tide Pods obviously remind people of foods, especially foods that have been made to appeal to children,” John Allen, an anthropologist at Indiana University and author of “The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food,” said in an email. It’s “bite sized, processed, colorful, with a non-threatening texture, sort of like a cross between candy and a chicken nugget.”\n\nUnintended consequences\n\nBut Tide Pods’ appearance held an unforeseen threat.\n\nYoung children and elderly people with dementia started popping them into their mouths. Within two months after Tide Pods’ launch, nearly 250 cases of young children eating detergent packs were reported to poison control centers around the United States.\n\nP&G quickly responded to safety issues by making Tide Pods packages more difficult to open, with a double-latch to the lid. A year later, the packaging was changed to orange from the original clear plastic that resembled candy bowls. Since then, P&G has made a number of other changes that made Tide Pods’ packages more child-resistant, and it enhanced the warning labels.\n\nP&G said accidents among young children result primarily from incorrect safekeeping and access to laundry packets, not the color of the pods. The company pointed to a 2017 study that found color does not play a critical role in accidental exposures to laundry pods.\n\nThe company has an ongoing safety campaign on Tide Pods to educate consumers about proper use and storage of the product, a P&G spokesperson said. It includes advertising and content partnerships with online parenting channels.\n\nStill, laundry detergent pods by Tide and other companies were involved in two deaths and two dozen life-threatening poisonings in 2013 and 2014. US poison control centers received more than 37,000 calls in those years involving children younger than six, according to one study.\n\nP&G has developed numerous safety innovations to Tide Pods since 2012. Mike Blake/Reuters\n\nBetween 2012 and 2017, eight deaths were reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Two of the cases were young children and six were adults with dementia.\n\nIn 2015, Consumer Reports said laundry pods were too risky to recommend because of their safety issues.\n\nThat year, P&G and other manufacturers adopted voluntary standards for laundry packets aimed at reducing accidents involving young children. Led by P&G, manufacturers agreed to keep the capsules in opaque containers, coat them in a bitter or foul-tasting substance and strengthen them to reduce the risk of bursting when they’re squeezed.\n\nA P&G spokesperson said that the standard has led to a steep decline in the rate of accidents in recent years, even as more people use laundry packets.\n\nDespite P&G’s efforts to make Tide Pods’ packaging and design safer and warn consumers on risks, a Tide Pods “challenge” meme spread rapidly on social media among teenagers daring others to swallow the pods in early 2018. Tide partnered with then-New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski to issue a PSA and launched a safety campaign on social media.\n\nAt the time, New York lawmakers called for P&G to change Tide Pods’ design to make them look less edible. Lawmakers in the state introduced a bill that would require all detergent packages sold in New York to be of a uniform color that is “unattractive to children.”\n\nBut P&G said accidents happen whether the product has no color, one color, or multiple colors and there is insufficient evidence to show that any color is linked to safety improvements.\n\nStoring Tide Pods out of the reach of children, the company said, is the most important safety prevention measure.", "authors": ["Nathaniel Meyersohn"], "publish_date": "2022/07/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_10", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/bergen/carlstadt/2017/05/15/reports-plane-crashes-near-teterboro-airport-multiple-buildings-fire/323499001/", "title": "Two dead as plane crashes near Teterboro Airport", "text": "Just minutes after another pilot reported wind shear upon takeoff, a Learjet on its way to Teterboro Airport plunged from the sky in Carlstadt — causing a loud explosion and multiple fires as people on the ground scrambled to safety while the plane disintegrated in a fireball in the parking lot of the borough’s public works building.\n\nThe plane’s two crew members died in the crash, authorities said.\n\nBut remarkably, despite a devastating scene that included flames and black smoke billowing from two buildings, damage to 13 vehicles — many of which were on fire —and the remnants of the plane scattered across multiple parking lots, no one on the ground was injured.\n\nUPDATE:Pilots in deadly crash didn't need to fly to Teterboro that night, spokesman says\n\nEyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be coming in low and struck power lines before clipping buildings in an industrial area of the borough that often bustles with activity in the afternoon.\n\nThe crash took place during a period of high wind gusts, although federal authorities did not provide information about what might have caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board was expected to arrive on the scene Tuesday to begin its investigation, a process that can take more than a year to complete. The NTSB typically releases preliminary reports weeks after a crash.\n\nWHAT WE KNOW: Information about the crash, questions still to be answered\n\nLEARJET: Model involved in 20 other fatal accidents since 1979\n\nTETERBORO AIRPORT: Five things to know about the airport\n\nLocal authorities did not release information about the two people who were killed on the plane, saying at a 9 p.m. Monday press conference that the Bergen County medical examiner was working to identify them. They said that any further information about the crash would come from the Federal Aviation Administration or the NTSB.\n\nBergen County Executive Jim Tedesco said it was \"somewhat a miracle\" that no one on the ground was injured. Carlstadt Deputy Police Chief Thomas Berta said the tragedy could have been compounded, given the location.\n\n“Our industrial area is congested heavily during the day,” Berta said at a press conference at the Teterboro Airport Administration Building. “Thank God nobody [on the ground] was injured.”\n\nCraig Lahullier, the Carlstadt mayor, said he initially feared that borough workers at the DPW building might have been hurt. But when he got to the scene, the building was empty, he said. The last employee had left the building just 15 minutes before the crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m.\n\n“I tell you, it’s a miracle that [the DPW workers] were all out of there at that time,” Lahullier said. He added that the plane, which came to rest in the DPW parking lot, “was “pretty much disintegrated.”\n\nFirefighters battled multiple blazes and had put them out in about 40 minutes, said a borough spokesman, Joe Orlando. Berta said workers evacuated from buildings “involved in the fire” and that authorities had accounted for all of the occupants, “so it appears we have no one on the ground that was injured in any way.”\n\nStory continues after video player\n\nThe FAA said the plane — a Learjet 35 that can hold up to seven people — was making its approach to Runway 1 at Teterboro at about 3:30 p.m. when it went down about one-quarter of a mile south of the airport.\n\nThe twin-engine plane was registered to a company called A&C Big Sky Aviation, of Billings, Montana, according to an FAA database. The company could not be reached for comment Monday.\n\nThe plane had taken off from Philadelphia International Airport, where it was being serviced by a company called Atlantic Aviation, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia airport said. Officials from the company, which also operates at Teterboro, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nAlexander Lawrence, who works at Pioneer Industries, near the crash site, said he hears planes headed to Teterboro all day long but that this one \"was too close.” He said it hit the corner of a building and bounced off, crashing in a “ball of fire.\"\n\nKELLY: The accident waiting to happen at Teterboro has happened. Again.\n\nTETERBORO AIRPORT: Five things to know about the airport\n\nTIMELINE:Crashes and mishaps at Teterboro Airport\n\n\"I couldn't believe it,” he said.\n\nJohanna Pulido, who works at United Paper in the 99 Kero Road building, said the plane hit power lines as it came down, and that she and other workers evacuated in the immediate aftermath of the crash.\n\n“It was between our building and the DPW,” she said.\n\nThe accident occurred amid wind advisories and gusts of up to 37 miles per hour between 3 and 4 p.m. at Teterboro, according to the National Weather Service.\n\nAt about 3:20 p.m., according to a recording of the air traffic control communications, a pilot taking off from Teterboro on Runway 24 radioed the control tower to report wind shear, a change in wind velocity that can affect a plane’s direction.\n\nAndrew Barcia said he saw the plane \"on its side\" as it flew overhead.\n\n“It looked like it was heading toward the airport,\" he said. “I feel sorry for those people inside.”\n\nNaeem Majors, of Brooklyn, was working at Manhattan Door when the plane hit the building.\n\n\"We first heard the explosion, and afterwards we saw that a plane had just hit the building, and we got out of there,\" he said. \"I left my phone, I left my glasses. We left out of the other side of the building, and our cars are totaled. It’s pretty bad.”\n\nMajors added that it could have been much worse had people been leaving at the time of the crash, with much of the damage occurring outside the building. “People usually leave around the time that it happened,” he said. “Luckily no one was in their cars or walking towards their cars.”\n\nGustavo Yepez of Westwood, who also works at Manhattan Door, said he heard a “loud boom” and that he felt the floor shaking beneath him.\n\n“The owner came inside and said, ‘Get out.’ We looked at each other and got out. All we saw was flames. For a second, we thought it was like being in a movie. It still feels surreal. I feel shook still.”\n\nAOL co-founder Steve Case was on a plane at the airport when the crash occurred. He took a photo of billowing smoke in the distance and shared it on social media.\n\n“Plane just crashed trying to land at Teterboro Airport in NJ. Missed runway and landed in adjacent industrial area. Airport closed,” he wrote.\n\nTedesco said the crash did not lead him to question safety at the airport. He said he is \"very confident in the operations here at Teterboro,\" and added that it is \"one of the safest airports in the country.\"\n\nHe said the FBI and the Sheriff’s Office were at the scene collecting evidence to assist the FAA, and that the Bergen County Technical High School Teterboro campus on Route 46 would be open with “support counseling for those that might need it.”\n\nBergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said his office also was assisting in the investigation.\n\nConnie Bovino, chairwoman of Hackensack’s condo and co-op advisory board, said she has been concerned about low-flying planes for some time. She favors a flight path that takes planes south along the Route 17 corridor, which she said would be less hazardous.\n\n“We’re concerned with the high-rises; we’re concerned with the hospital and the schools … they’re going over lower and lower,” Bovino said. “It’s a shame that something like this has to happen before they realize we’ve got to make changes. It’s crazy.”\n\nIn 2005, a corporate jet taking off from Teterboro skidded across a runway, crashed through a fence, veered across the six lanes of Route 46, struck a car and slammed into a clothing warehouse. The two pilots were seriously injured, as were two occupants in the car. A cabin aide, eight passengers and one person in the building suffered minor injuries.\n\nStaff Writers Keldy Ortiz, Kristie Cattafi, Rodrigo Torrejon, John Brennan, Tom Nobile, Svetlana Shkolnikova and Steve Janoski contributed to this article", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/05/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/02/crash-delta-191-30-years-since-hell-ripped-open-dallas/31024123/", "title": "Crash of Delta 191: 30 years since hell 'ripped open'", "text": "WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth\n\nDALLAS — Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of the crash of Delta Flight 191 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.\n\nThe Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet was coming in for a landing on a rainy Friday evening Aug. 2, 1985, when it encountered a \"microburst\" that sent the aircraft careening along the ground north of runway 17L, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane struck a car on Texas Highway 114, killing its driver, then broke up in a fireball as it slammed into two large above-ground water tanks.\n\nThe crash killed 136 passengers and crew on board plus the motorist; 27 people survived the impact.\n\nThe NTSB investigation said although the pilot was experienced and competent, training in dealing with microbursts was lacking. After the crash, pilots were required to train to react to microbursts and quickly take evasive action. Since then, weather forecasting and windshear detection also has improved.\n\nMemories of the crash are still fresh for Dallas viewers who posted their accounts on WFAA-TV's Facebook page.\n\n\"My father was on that flight,\" Kirsten Monberg Gappelberg said. \"Today we will convene with first responders at Founder's Plaza at 6 p.m. to remember that day.\"\n\n\"I remember Dixie Dunn, one of the senior flight attendants lost on the crash,\" wrote Linda Newman. \"A beautiful soul.\"\n\n\"I was at the airport that day, with my two-year-old, picking up my husband on a flight that was supposed to land around the same time,\" Paula Cooper shared. \"I'll never forget seeing the awful black smoke. People were parking in the middle of the road and running towards the crashed plane. I saw the crinkled up tanks on the north end of DFW that had been hit by the wings of the L-1011. I remember being absolutely stunned that anyone survived that awful crash.\"\n\nMatt Lewis, who was working on the flight line for Delta that day, said the storm had blown luggage carts from the gate like they were child's toys.\n\n\"Later that evening, some of the other employees and I went to the crash site to volunteer,\" he wrote. \"I was only 19 at the time, and I remember thinking that hell had ripped open and was right in front of me.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/08/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/bergen/carlstadt/2018/07/26/pilot-negligence-caused-teterboro-crash-lawsuit-states/835851002/", "title": "Pilot negligence caused Teterboro crash, lawsuit states", "text": "An insurance company is suing an airline and aviation company connected to the deadly crash of a Learjet at Teterboro Airport last year for negligence citing a federal report that the co-pilot should not have been at the controls.\n\nSelective Insurance Company of New England, which insures the United Paper & Ribbon Corporation building on Kero road in Carlstadt, wants to recover $15,000 in damages caused by the crash that killed the pilot and co-pilot.\n\nErcument Muftahi, the building owner, saw his business property “substantially damaged or destroyed” by fire and debris from the Learjet as it nose-dived en route to Teterboro Airport on May 15, 2017, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Superior Court in Hackensack.\n\nThe fire, which resulted in loss of income, occurred \"due to the carelessness, negligence and recklessness\" of the aviation companies involved, the suit states.\n\nA representative from Selective Insurance, and its attorney did not return calls for comment.\n\nSelective Insurance is suing Trans-Pacific Air Charter, a Hawaiian company that employed the two pilots, and A&C Big Sky Aviation, which owned the small passenger jet.\n\nA spokesperson for Trans-Pacific said the company had not yet seen the suit. Big Sky Aviation did not respond for comment.\n\nArchives:Complete coverage of the plane crash near Teterboro Airport\n\nLand Use:Close Teterboro Airport and expand Newark, JFK to absorb the traffic, planning group says\n\nWetlands:Teterboro Airport expansion could have 'unacceptable impact' on Meadowlands, EPA says\n\nThe suit states that co-pilot Jefferey Alino flew the plane on its approach to Teterboro, despite the fact that Trans-Pacific “knew or should have known that he did not have the proper experience, ratings or credentials to operate the aircraft at the time of the crash.\"\n\nStory continues below gallery.\n\nThe allegations are corroborated by a February report from the National Transportation Safety Board, which found that Alino was restricted under company standards from flying the plane at any point.\n\nTrans-Pacific had a policy of ranking pilots on a 0 to 4 scale denoting their authorization to act as a flying pilot. Alino held a rating of 0 on the Learjet, meaning he could only perform second-in-command duties, according to the NTSB report.\n\nHead pilot William Ramsey should have known this, and failed to “properly recognize that Alino was operating the aircraft in an unreasonable and unsafe manner, and take control of the aircraft as he should have as pilot,\" the lawsuit states.\n\nEyewitnesses to the crash said the aircraft plunged from the sky like a scene from a movie, causing a loud explosion and multiple fires as people on the ground scrambled to safety while the plane disintegrated in a fireball in the parking lot of the Carlstadt Department of Public Works building.\n\nStory continues below video.\n\nAside from the pilots, no one else was killed or injured.\n\nA preliminary report by the NTSB revealed the plane was late making a turn that would have aligned it with a runway at Teterboro Airport, and then banked so far to the right that its wings appeared to be perpendicular to the ground shortly before it plummeted out of control, the agency found.\n\nAt nine miles out, the crew was told to contact the Teterboro tower, but they did not make contact until the plane was four miles from the runway. Experts had said that delay did not seem to be significant.\n\nBut what was significant, they said, was the \"right circling turn\" that the plane made less than one mile from the airport — a turn that is typically made four miles out.\n\nThe turn was “so extreme that the plane lost altitude”, the lawsuit states. Alino allegedly handed the controls over to Ramsey for help, but the plane stalled and crashed.\n\nStory continues below gallery.\n\nA security camera captured an image of the plane with its right wing low and nose down at impact. The plane clipped one building and caused a fire that damaged two other buildings and 16 cars.\n\nOne building was the Carlstadt Department of Public Works, which had just closed for the day. The borough initially reported damage totaling $72,064 to DPW fencing, windows, paving and two vehicles.\n\nBorough Administrator Joe Crifasi said the town received a check for about $35,000 two months after the accident.\n\nThe planes that continue to circle Carlstadt en route to Teterboro still bring feelings of dread in the community, knowing the accident could have been more severe had the Learjet crashed 15 minutes earlier, or in another part of town, he said.\n\n\"It's a constant reminder of what could have happened,\" Crifasi said. \"There's a possibility that we wouldn't be here today.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/07/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/07/06/shockwave-jet-truck-chris-darnell/7813402001/", "title": "Years before Shockwave jet truck crash, I rode it at 300 mph", "text": "I sat securely belted into the passenger seat of a truck that happened to have three jet engines strapped to the back of it.\n\nIt was the mid-1990s and we waited at the end of an airport runway in Bloomington, Illinois. I had an idea of what was to come, but not a clear, realistic understanding of it.\n\nIt was summer in central Illinois. A heavy, fireproof suit weighed on my work clothes underneath it. The truck's team required that I wear the suit and the heat was stifling. As a young TV reporter, I was rather naive when I signed a waiver to ride in the Shockwave.\n\nAn airplane appeared above us and the driver, Les Shockley, reached across, pushed down the face shield on my helmet, hit the throttle with his foot and my life would never be the same. The world went white.\n\nShockley built and designed the truck to be a stunt show novelty. And it was just that, successfully performing without incident at air shows across the country for more than three decades.\n\nOn Saturday, that show, at least the one using the Shockwave, came to a tragic end in a matter of seconds when the jet truck crashed on a runway at the Battle Creek Field of Flight Airshow. The accident killed the driver, Chris Darnell, 40, the only one on board this time. Darnell had been operating the Shockwave since 2012, according to the International Council of Air Shows.\n\n'Living the dream'\n\nThe accident Saturday was the result of a mechanical failure, according to a Facebook post written on Saturday by Darnell's father, Neal Darnell.\n\n\"My youngest son passed away from his injuries at approximately 1:01 pm. No one else was involved,\" Neal Darnell, founder of Darnell Racing Enterprises, wrote. \"We are so sad. He was so well loved by everyone who knew him. Chris so loved the Air Show business. He was 'Living the Dream' as he said.\"\n\nThe Battle Creek Police did not return a call seeking details on the cause of the accident. But a report by Kalamazoo-based WWMT-TV News on Tuesday said a blown rear tire likely set off a chain of events that caused the truck to catch fire and roll off the runway. A severed fuel line likely caused the explosion, Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker said in the article.\n\nIn online videos, the crash happened just as pyrotechnics exploded on the airfield, but that fireball did not come from the truck.\n\n“He did deploy his parachute early, so we can surmise from that he knew something was wrong,” Blocker said to WWMT.\n\nThe Darnell family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Darnell Enterprises' website shows it owns other stunt trucks, including a military version of the Shockwave:\n\nAftershock Jet Fire Truck : A 1940 Ford Fire Truck with twin Rolls-Royce Bristol Viper Jet Engines totaling over 24,000 horsepower. It holds the Guinness record for Fire Trucks at 407 mph.\n\n: A 1940 Ford Fire Truck with twin Rolls-Royce Bristol Viper Jet Engines totaling over 24,000 horsepower. It holds the Guinness record for Fire Trucks at 407 mph. Flash Fire Jet Truck: The Flash Fire has a 12,000 horsepower jet engine and reaches speeds exceeding 350 mph.\n\nNeal Darnell told WWMT, despite this accident, his other stunt trucks will appear Saturday at a scheduled event in Goshen, Indiana, because his son would have wanted the show to go on.\n\nFastest semitruck on Earth\n\nI did not know the Darnells. When I rode in the Shockwave, Shockley was the driver and his wife, Donna, did everything else including help me get into the fireproof suit and sign the legal waivers before I climbed on board.\n\nShockley was in his early 50s at the time. He had custom-built his beast in the 1980s by taking the shell of a Peterbilt cab and attaching three Pratt & Whitney jet engines to it. The result was the fastest semitruck in the world, producing 36,000 horsepower.\n\nI remember Donna told me if they set the truck on its rear end, the jets could launch it straight up into space.\n\nAccording to www.shockwavejettruck.com, the jet engines originally were in the USA Navy T2 Buckeye. The Buckeye is a \"tandem-seat, carrier-capable, all-purpose jet trainer\" used to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots and naval flight officers, according to military.com.\n\nThe Shockwave's engines make a total of 21,000 pounds of thrust, \"which easily propels this truck to speeds over 350 mph while racing planes at air shows all over North America!\" Shockwave also holds the record speed for semitrucks at 376 mph, the website said.\n\nI don't remember the top speed Shockley and I got up to that day, but I know it was close to 300 mph.\n\nHe told me our ride elevates the heart rate to the equivalent of running a mile.\n\nThe uninformed volunteer\n\nI found myself sitting next to Shockley by a fluke.\n\nEvery year, the Friday before the air show at the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, there would be a media day.\n\nI was the Bloomington-Normal bureau chief for the Peoria-based WHOI-TV so a photographer and I went. After interviewing a few stunt pilots, the media coordinators asked all the reporters and photographers if one of us would like to ride in the Shockwave.\n\nNo one was volunteering. I raised my hand to ask what the Shockwave was and somehow that segued into me being the volunteer.\n\nI remember it being explained to me this way: It's a truck that goes to the end of the runway and waits for one of the stunt planes to fly overhead, then the truck races the plane and wins. That sounded harmless and I was assured that it's totally safe and only lasts a few seconds.\n\nNo one mentioned 300 mph.\n\nInstant regret\n\nThe cockpit was full of black roll bars for safety and bucket seats. I was strapped in by a series of safety belts over my hips and chest. Shockley told me there were three braking systems and four parachutes to stop it.\n\nDespite that, I still did not comprehend the speed we were about to achieve.\n\nShockley was an extremely nice man. He told me that we'd pause in front of the media audience for a minute so that I could wave to them. The truck was roasting hot, rattling and shaking. The reporters were hollering at me and waving. I waved back, oblivious to the fact that Shockley was revving fire from the jet engines to put on a display for the crowd.\n\nWe slowly drove across the tarmac to the end of the runway, as a calm Shockley kept chatting with me.\n\nWe sat there waiting, and then a plane flew overhead. Shockley reached over and pushed down my face shield — and I felt instant regret.\n\nTo describe the feeling of thrust from a standstill to nearly 300 mph is almost impossible.\n\nThe most striking part for me was how everything turned white. I lost all vision. We were going so fast, the world was literally a white blur. I also remember I couldn't really breathe because of the pressure of air coming at me. And the G-forces bent my neck back and pulled hard at my face. Just think about going down the steepest, fastest roller coaster and then multiply that by 10.\n\nThe worst was the psychological terror. I was certain I was going to die. I could not fathom how we'd ever stop at that speed. I knew that any little thing that could go wrong would kill us at that speed.\n\nThe only way I can characterize the fear would be to liken it to what I imagine it would feel like to jump from a building and hurtle toward the ground.\n\nThe gift\n\nWhen we finally did stop, the pressure of the safety belts against my chest nearly squeezed the wind out of me. It took me several minutes to recover and feel like I could breathe.\n\nYet when I looked over at Shockley he was as nonchalant as my dad was when he pulled the family car into our driveway. Shockley asked if I was all right and I remember nodding because I couldn't talk.\n\nShockley, who died in 2019 at age 75 from complications from a stroke, had a gift. I imagine Chris Darnell had that same gift. They could do something the average person cannot: They could read their instrument panel, see the road ahead of them and operate the controls at 300 mph the same way you and I can at 45 mph.\n\nAnd, for that reason, they both lived the dream.\n\nContact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/08/14/michigan-plane-crash-air-show-fighter-jet/70586789007/", "title": "Fighter jet crash at Michigan air show near Ypsilanti; no injuries", "text": "DETROIT − A retired Russian fighter jet flying in a Michigan air show crashed Sunday afternoon, as thousands of spectators, including children, watched in horror.\n\nThe two people aboard ejected before the jet went down just after 4 p.m., but when the plane hit the ground, it burst into a raging fireball, narrowly missing an apartment building in Van Buren Township and hitting vehicles but not injuring anyone. Emergency crews rushed to extinguish the flames.\n\nThe jet was flying in Yankee Air Museum's Thunder over Michigan air show at the Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, a city between Ann Arbor and Detroit.\n\nThe plane, a former Soviet − now Russian − MiG-23 aircraft, was doing aerial maneuvers. It was not immediately clear what malfunction led the two aboard to eject and the jet to crash. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.\n\nWatch the video taken by spectators showing an explosion before the two people in the jet ejected.\n\n\"The pilot and backseater successfully ejected from the aircraft before the crash,\" Randy Wimbley, a spokesman for the Wayne County Airport Authority said. \"While it did not appear they sustained any significant injuries, first responders transported the pair to a nearby hospital as a precaution.\"\n\nThe pilot, listed as Dan Filer in the program, and backseater can be seen ejecting, as their parachutes opened and eased them back to the ground. Some media accounts reported the two were in stable condition after being rescued.\n\nThe plane, Wimbley said, crashed into the parking lot at the Waverly on the Lake apartment complex, striking unoccupied vehicles, but \"no one at the apartment complex nor the air show was injured.\"\n\nSunday's crash falls on the heels of two fatal ones last month as an air show was underway in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A helicopter and a gyrocopter collided in midair, leaving two dead and two injured. Two others died earlier in the day when a single-engine plane went into nearby Lake Winnebago.\n\nOn Sunday, witnesses − including people who were not at the air show but close enough to see it − posted a video of the crash to social media. They described a loud boom and then plumes of dark smoke rising south of the airport.\n\nThe two-day show was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Sunday was the last day.\n\nMatthew Gerick, who was at the show, watched the two people eject, and then the plane zoom to the ground.\n\n\"Like, did we just watch that happen?\" he told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, after the plane went down. \"I was sitting over on Beck Road watching the plane fly out toward (Interstate) 94 when it kept getting lower and lower. Then my wife and I saw the black smoke so we drove down to see the crash on 94 and it landed right next to the apartment building.\"\n\nContact Frank Witsil: fwitsil@freepress.com. Free Press reporters Jasmin Barmore and Kylie Martin contributed.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/18/reports-plane-carrying-more-than-50-passengers-crashes-russia/82001428/", "title": "62 dead as Dubai plane crashes in bad weather in Russia", "text": "Doug Stanglin, and Jessica Estepa\n\nUSA TODAY\n\n\n\n\n\nA Dubai airliner making a second attempt to land during strong wind and rain crashed in a fireball short of the Rostov-on-Don airport in southern Russia on Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.\n\nRussia’s Emergencies Ministry said the Boeing 737-800 operated by FlyDubai was carrying 55 passengers, most of them Russians, and a seven crew members of various nationalities, including a captain from Cyprus.\n\nFlyDubai, a budget airline operating out of the United Arab Emirates, said Flight FZ981 was traveling from Dubai to the Rostov-on-Don airport, located about 600 miles south of Moscow.\n\nVasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, told local journalists that the plane crashed about 800 feet short of the runway, according to Russian news agencies.\n\nAlthough the precise reason for the crash was not immediately determined, \"by all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level,” he said.\n\nBoth flight data recorders were recovered in good condition, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.\n\nAccording to the weather data reported by Russian state television, winds at the time of the crash at an altitude of 1,640 feet and higher were around 67 miles per hour, the Associated Press reported.\n\n\n\nIan Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told AP the plane missed its approach then entered a holding pattern.\n\nAccording to Flightradar24, the plane circled for about two hours before making another attempt to land. It said a Russian Aeroflot plane scheduled to land around the same time made three landing attempts but then diverted to another airport.\n\nAccording to Flightradar24 data, the Dubai plane began climbing again after a go-around when it suddenly started to fall with a vertical speed of up to 21,000 feet per minute.\n\n\"The aircraft completely fell apart at the start of the runway,\" Igor Oder, chief of the Southern Regional Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said during a video conference, Tass news agency reported.\n\nClosed-circuit TV footage showed the plane going down in a steep angle and exploding in a huge fireball that lit up the night sky.\n\nThe impact of the crash pulverized the jet, leaving few pieces of debris larger than a foot wide across a large area just off the main runway.\n\nSome Russian aviation experts said the steep descent appeared to indicate the crash was likely caused by a gust of wind.\n\n“It was an uncontrollable fall,” said Sergei Kruglikov, a veteran Russian pilot, said on Russian state television. He said that a sudden change in wind speed and direction could have caused the wings to abruptly lose lifting power.\n\nAmong the passengers, 44 people were from Russia and eight from Ukraine. Other victims were from India, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia and the Seychelles Islands, the Tass news agency reports.\n\n“Our primary concern is for the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. Everyone at FlyDubai is in deep shock and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those involved,” said FlyDubai CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith.\n\nHe said the pilots, who were from Cyprus and Spain, didn't issue a distress signal before the crash. They had 5,965 and 5,769 hours of flying time respectively, making them “quite experienced,” al-Ghaith added, the AP reports. The cabin crew included two Russians and citizens of Seychelles, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan.\n\nIt was FlyDubai’s first crash since the budget carrier began operating in 2009. It was launched in 2008 by the government of Dubai, the Gulf commercial hub that is part of the seven-state United Arab Emirates federation. The carrier has been flying to Rostov-on-Don since 2013.\n\nThe airline shares a chairman with Dubai’s government-backed Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest airline, though the two carriers operate independently and maintain separate operations from their bases at Dubai International Airport, the region’s busiest airport.\n\nFlyDubai’s fleet consisted of relatively young 737-800 aircraft, like the one that crashed. The airline says it operates more than 1,400 flights a week.\n\nThe airline has expanded rapidly in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, the AP reports. Dubai is a popular tourist destination for Russian visitors, who are attracted to its beaches, shopping malls and year-round sunshine. Many Russian expatriates live and work in Dubai, a city where foreigners outnumber locals more than 4-to-1.\n\nFlyDubai has a good safety record. In January 2015, one of its planes was struck on the fuselage by what appeared to small-arms fire shortly before it landed in Baghdad. That flight landed safely with no major injuries reported.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/03/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/military/2016/06/02/reports-fatality-blue-angels-crash-tenn/85312020/", "title": "Blue Angels pilot dies in Tenn. crash", "text": "Stacey Barchenger\n\nThe Tennessean\n\nEditor’s note: Out of respect to the pilot's family, the Pensacola News Journal will not release the name of the Blue Angels pilot killed Thursday until a statement is made by the Navy. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and the Blue Angels team.\n\nSix elite military jets of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight team roared over Middle Tennessee on Thursday, but the cheers from fans on the ground in just hours turned to wails.\n\n“Oh no, no, no, God bless his soul.”\n\nA Blue Angel Pilot, whose name has not been officially released, was killed Thursday when his jet crashed at 3:01 p.m. just off Smyrna Airport.\n\nSix pilots in matching blue jets were in the air practicing for the Great Tennessee Airshow this weekend.\n\nThe fatal crash was the first in nearly a decade involving the Navy’s aerobatic performance jets, whose flights are meant to showcase pride in the military. Local and federal investigators rushed to the scene looking for the cause.\n\nThe crash occurred the same day as another military performance plane, a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird, crashed near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado after a flyover during a graduation ceremony. That pilot was not injured.\n\nIn Smyrna, Belinda McGriff and her granddaughter were walking to their home on Mingle Lane after watching the acts in the airshow practice. The six-in-formation Blue Angels screamed through the cloudy but blue skies before two jets split off.\n\n“And we seen a Blue Angel come down real low behind the trees on the other side of Sam Davis (Road), and then boom,” McGriff said. “A big, big billow of fire came up.\n\n“We could feel the heat off of it, we were that close.”\n\nHer granddaughter recorded the fireball of orange and chimney of black smoke that rose from behind a line of trees. Four of the jets screamed by the smoke. The other pilots landed safely, Navy officials said.\n\nThe video captured the horror:\n\n“No.”\n\n“Oh guys watch out.”\n\n“Oh no, no, no, God bless his soul,” McGriff’s voice says.\n\nThe crash shook the community. After nightfall, hundreds of people gathered for a candlelight vigil for the pilot at Smyrna’s Lee Victory Park.\n\nRick Tomlin, a Navy veteran, passed small American flags to residents. Tomlin said he broke down when he lowered his own flag at home to half-staff.\n\n“I love these guys and watch them every time they come,” he said with tears in his eyes.\n\n“Heaven gained a true angel today.”\n\nThe Navy said in statements late Thursday afternoon that the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 jet was taking off from Smyrna Airport when it crashed about two miles from the runway. The Navy and Federal Aviation Administration launched investigations of the crash.\n\n“The Navy is deeply saddened by the loss of this service member,” a statement from the Naval Air Forces reads. “We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family of the pilot, and those he served with.”\n\nPensacola mourns Blue Angel's death\n\nThe crash site was marked by black char, yellow police tape and flashing emergency lights of first responders. Helicopters buzzed overhead.\n\nFive aircraft of the flight demonstration squadron sat on the runway nearby.\n\nThe plane went down in a field surrounded by homes and history, about 100 yards from the Civil War-era Sam Davis Home and Plantation. Smyrna Fire Chief Bill Culbertson said power lines brought down by the jet created several smaller fires.\n\nIn the aftermath, an 8-acre area around the site was closed off. The Blue Angels said they would not perform in the airshow, though the show was still scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.\n\nThe Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 66 demonstrations in 34 cities throughout the nation this year, which is the team’s 70th anniversary year.\n\nThursday morning, the flight formation soared overtop downtown Nashville tracing the skyline with lines of white contrail.\n\nBlue Angels pilots, support staff are tight-knit family\n\n“Love.” “Very cool!” “An amazing experience,” Nashvillians posted on social media.\n\nThat awe spread to Smyrna as the formation began practices there Thursday afternoon. Several Rutherford County residents said the roar of the powerful planes became routine Thursday.\n\nUntil the boom.\n\nMonica Hosford, who works at Cutting Edge hair salon on Sam Davis Road, has lived in Smyrna for 40 years. She remembered people gathering to watch past airshows from rooftops and parking lots.\n\nBlue Angels pilots, support staff are tight-knit family\n\n“This is very personal,” she said, calling the airshow a big draw for the area.\n\nJennifer Elliott was in her yard watching the Blue Angels practice. She went inside and felt the explosion at their house, which is about a mile from the Smyrna Airport.\n\n”It sounded like car crashed into my house,” she said.\n\n“Everything shook.”\n\nReach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.\n\n\n\n\n\nARCHIVE GALLERIES", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/martin-county/2019/11/18/pilot-fatal-plane-crash-before-audi-stuart-air-show-wasnt-perform-acrobatic-maneuvers-witness-told-n/4230920002/", "title": "Pilot in fatal plane crash before air show wasn't to perform 'acrobatic ...", "text": "STUART — The pilot of a rare military aircraft who died as his plane crashed while he was practicing for the Audi Stuart Air Show reportedly told two people that “no acrobatic maneuvers were to be performed,” according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.\n\nJoseph Masessa, 59, a dermatologist with offices in Florida — locally, in Martin and St. Lucie counties — and in New Jersey and South Carolina, died Nov. 1 after his 1968 Grumman OV-1 Mohawk crashed at Stuart’s Witham Field as he prepared for the air show that was to start later that day.\n\nHe was supposed to perform a 12-minute routine.\n\nA person the report said was acting as a crew chief said Masessa was readying for the air show the next day.\n\n\"His intent was to make a slow-speed low pass followed by a high-speed low pass and a normal landing to a full stop,” the NTSB report states.\n\nMore: Dr. Joseph Masessa, pilot in Stuart fatal plane crash, was patriotic, kind, 'adrenaline junkie'\n\nA final report from the NTSB could take more than a year.\n\nThat type plane, of which fewer than 400 were built before production stopped in 1970, served with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.\n\nMasessa, during a 2013 video interview, said when he bought the plane it had been “in a snowbank, pretty much, in Ogden, Utah, for three years.” He said he was the fourth civilian owner.\n\nThe crew chief said he saw Masessa check the flight controls, flaps and speed brakes as he taxied to takeoff.\n\nMore: Pilot killed in vintage military plane crash had 'special passion' for those missing in Vietnam\n\nHe said at one point the twin-engine plane “did a rapid right roll to an inverted position, and the nose dropped to what appeared to be a 45-degree nose down followed by impact and fireball,” the report states.\n\nAn air show performer about 0.4 miles away said the plane started climbing and made “a ‘dog leg’ to the left followed by a right turn ... The airplane then descended or dove in, and when near the approach end of runway 30, began to climb.”\n\nHe diverted his attention and after looking back saw the plane “‘overbanked’ about 100 degrees to the right.”\n\n“He then saw the airplane in a nose-low attitude pulling, which continued until he lost sight,” the report states.\n\nAttitude refers to orientation.\n\nHe said it sounded like the engines were at full power.\n\nAnother witness reported seeing the plane “in a 45-degree nose-down attitude ‘spiraling’ to the right.”\n\nMore: Stuart Air Show crash: Plane was 'nose down' before fatal crash in Stuart\n\n“She thought the airplane was accelerating (consistent with power) or at least maintaining a constant rate during the descent, indicating to her that it was not decelerating,” the report states.\n\nIn the early part of the Vietnam War, Mohawk planes were outfitted with guns and rockets and used in close air-to-ground support for the troops, said Ron Pitcock, executive director and president of the OV-1 Mohawk Association. They later were used as electronic surveillance aircraft.\n\nThe air show wound up being canceled after the crash and subsequent poor weather.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/11/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2018/04/26/scottsdale-plane-crash-wings-became-nearly-vertical-new-details-report/533964002/", "title": "Scottsdale plane crash: Report adds new details on how crash ...", "text": "The airplane that crashed after takeoff from Scottsdale Airport earlier this month was equipped with six seats but appears to have struggled to gain altitude on departure, federal investigators determined in a preliminary crash report published Thursday.\n\nUsing surveillance video from the airport and a traffic camera nearby, National Transportation Safety Board investigators pieced together the plane's final moments before the 8:48 p.m. crash April 9.\n\nThe plane's wings were \"rocking during and shortly after\" takeoff from Runway 3. As the plane went into a left-banking turn, the angle increased and the plane started to lose altitude, investigators wrote.\n\n\"The wings became nearly vertical, and the view of the airplane was lost behind a berm,\" they wrote. \"Seconds later, the camera caught a fireball when the airplane impacted terrain.\"\n\nWitnesses did not hear any unusual sounds or see the plane put off any unusual smoke during takeoff. One witness did, however, say the plane was traveling lower than most other aircraft that depart before it crashed onto TPC Scottsdale, killing all six people onboard.\n\nWho was flying the plane?\n\nThe victims were identified as James Pedroza, 28; Mariah Coogan, 23; Erik Valente, 32; Anand Kamlesh Patel, 28; Helena Lagos, 22; and Iris Carolina Rodriguez Garcia, 23.\n\nScottsdale police identified those killed but initially said Valente was 26.\n\nSEE ALSO:Social media influencers among 6 dead in TPC Scottsdale plane crash\n\nInvestigators said a certified airline transport pilot — Valente — and student pilot — Pedroza — were in the front of the plane, although they did not specify who was supposed to have been in control at the time of the crash. Pedroza was in the front left seat, and Valente was in the front right.\n\nTwo women sat in the back two seats, and a man and a woman occupied the middle two seats.\n\nEarlier that evening, Valente flew the plane to Scottsdale from Las Vegas to pick up the passengers and return them to Nevada. It was his first flight in the airplane, and it remains unclear how familiar he was with its operation.\n\nThe report stops short of saying what caused the crash.\n\nWhat caused the crash?\n\nBut three factors — all related to loading — could have contributed to the small Piper PA-24 Comanche crashing less than a mile away, experts told The Republic previously.\n\nSix adults, fuel and, likely, luggage could have skewed the center of gravity, according to Brent Bowen, a professor in the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott. Based on the details released so far, the loaded weight and balance of the aircraft appeared to have exceeded capacity.\n\nIt's widely known among aviators that planes have two more seats than they can really use.\n\nAdditionally, a calculation — density altitude — to determine performance demands based on temperature and atmospheric conditions could have been incorrect, he said.\n\n“A disaster could occur by miscalculating any of those components,” Bowen said previously, speaking generally about aircraft incidents and the ability of the Piper PA-24.\n\nDetails released in Thursday's report bolstered that initial assessment, he said.\n\nThe National Transportation Safety Board is in the process of meticulously evaluating the wreckage, which has been transported to a secure facility in the Valley.\n\nThe plane came to a rest on the golf course about one-quarter of a mile from the end of the departure runway. The main cabin was mostly burned, and parts of the wings were located apart from the fuselage.\n\nThe crash scene should be revealing, said Bill Waldock, a professor of safety science who specializes in aircraft accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.\n\nMORE ON SCOTTSDALE PLANE CRASH:\n\nWith a controlled crash, such as one caused by engine failure or a mechanical issue, a plane will leave a lengthy impact slide as the pilot tries to ease the aircraft to the ground.\n\nThat doesn't appear to be what happened April 9. The scene was contained to a relatively small area of TPC Scottsdale. Based on local television footage, the smoldering wreckage was contained, and the debris field was particularly small.\n\nThursday's preliminary report likely will be the last official update on the crash until the final report is released sometime in mid-2019.\n\nReach the reporter at 602-444-8515, jpohl@azcentral.com or on Twitter: @pohl_jason.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/04/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/03/drury-inns-room-416-mute-tribute-those-who-died-c-130-crash/97467056/", "title": "From the Archives: Drury Inn's Room 416 is mute tribute to those ...", "text": "Thomas B. Langhorne\n\nCourier & Press\n\nEDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally ran in 2012.\n\nThere is no Room 416 at the Drury Inn anymore.\n\nThe door to what would be Room 416 stands numberless in mute tribute to nine people who died 20 years ago Monday, when a fireball of searing hot aviation fuel roared through the windows after a plane crashed into Jojos restaurant next door. A maid at the North Side hotel said last week her master key will not open the room, which is used for storage.\n\nIn all, 16 people were killed Feb. 6, 1992, when a C-130B military transport plane dropped from the sky onto the Jojos at U.S. 41 and Lynch Road.\n\nThe incident cast a long shadow in the years that followed, spawning bitter recriminations and $36.3 million in Air Force payments to settle wrongful death, personal injury and property damage claims. It also inspired significant and potentially lifesaving improvements in local emergency response.\n\nLynn Jackson, one of just four people who escaped the inferno in Room 416, said she draws strength from the years she spent recovering from severe burns over 35 percent of her body.\n\n\"The way I look at my life is, I was blessed to have survived,\" said Jackson, who was 36. \"I've been given a new lease on life, and I need to make it as fulfilling as possible. That's how I've tried to live my life.\"\n\nJackson is now vice president of a West Olive, Mich.-based management consulting firm that she co-founded in 1993 with former co-worker and fellow survivor Bill Capodagli.\n\nThey are now married.\n\nOn Feb. 6, 1992, Jackson and Capodagli were conducting a quality-control seminar for 11 employees of Plumbing and Industrial Supply Co., which lost a third of its workforce that day.\n\nLooking back at the events of two decades ago, Jackson takes special pleasure in what she calls P and I Supply's robust recovery.\n\nCompany President Bruce Stallings, who lost a brother in the C-130B disaster, did not return a telephone message seeking comment. Jackson said she and Capodagli reconnected with him recently.\n\n\"His company has grown, and we're just thrilled to hear that piece of information from him,\" Jackson said. \"The outpouring of love and affection and support after the crash for his company was very moving.\"\n\nCapodagli declined to comment for this story other than to issue a statement celebrating P and I's success.\n\nThe Jojos building where once the fires raged is now occupied by a Denny's restaurant. It shows little outward evidence of that Thursday morning 20 years ago, when no one knew what was coming.\n\n'Something bad just happened'\n\nThe first few seconds were confusing, say earwitnesses who remember looking up and blinking.It took a few more moments for confusion to turn to dread.\n\nMost people didn't see the C-130B descend almost vertically and demolish the rear of Jojos.They didn't see the resulting explosion that showered the center north wall of the neighboring Drury Inn with thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel.\n\nThey felt it.\n\n\"The ground rolled under my feet one time. I could just feel the floor come up. It almost felt like a wave,\" Steve Gerard said of the disaster, which also killed the plane's five-man crew of Kentucky Air National Guard members and two Jojos employees.\n\n\"I thought we were having an earthquake, but there was never anything else.\n\nIt just stopped,\" said Gerard, who was working that day as general manager of the Denny's restaurant then located less than a half-mile north on U.S. 41.\n\n\n\nSo powerful was the force expended at impact that Gerard next wondered whether a semi tractor-trailer had slammed into his own building.\n\nBut the damage was concentrated down the road, in what a subsequent report of the U.S. Fire Administration called a \"very small crash impact zone.\"\n\n\"The impact created a crater eight feet deep and 12 feet across .. and broke windows across the center portion of (the Drury Inn),\" the report stated.\n\nThe destruction of the kitchen area in the southeast quarter of Jojos hurled bricks, chunks of concrete and parts of the C-130B at - and onto the roof of - the four-story Drury Inn.\n\nThe intensity of the blaze melted nearly everything in its path, including parts of vehicles that were parked outside Jojos. Military officials later estimated the C-130B had been carrying 6,000 gallons of fuel.\n\nEmergency responders fixed the time of the crash at 9:53 a.m., because the cockpit clock was stopped at that time when they found it lying among the wreckage.\n\nBecky Cook felt the impact too - from more than three miles away.\n\nCook, then as now a bookkeeper at M&M Auto Service on North Heidelbach Avenue, recalls being jolted out of her morning routine by what she, too, thought was an earthquake.\n\n\"It went, 'Boom!', then the desk shook. The floor shook. The whole building shook,\" she said. \"We lost all power - computer, phones, everything was down.\n\n\"I said to (coworker Bob Mehling), 'Something bad just happened.'\"\n\nSeconds later, Cook saw something in the distance that made her blood run cold - a massive, rising cloud of thick black smoke that towered above Evansville's North Side for more than an hour.\n\n\"Disbelief,\" she said.\n\n\"We didn't know what it was. Disbelief.\"\n\nEscape\n\nInside 416, all hell was breaking loose as a pitiless inferno of indescribable ferocity and dense, acrid black smoke engulfed the room. Just four of the room's 13 occupants - Jackson and Capodagli and P and I Supply employees Tom Welch and Marilou Ohning - got away with their lives.The only thing that mattered - who lived and who died - hinged on a value as random as where each person was standing.\n\nThe survivors, three of whom suffered severe burns, were able to escape because they were the closest to the door at the room's southwest corner and thus farthest from the window on the north wall.\n\nStanding just seven feet from the door, Capodagli stared death in the face.\n\n\"I looked at Lynn and behind her out the small window. I didn't see the plane crash. All I saw was this ball of fire which almost looked like it was coming at us in slow motion,\" the U.S.\n\nFire Administration report quotes him.\n\nIt was all the time Capodagli needed.\n\n\"He had a second, a split-second, whatever that was, of notice, which in a fireball is everything,\" Jackson said.\n\nAlso working to Capodagli's advantage was the fact that he was wearing flat shoes, Jackson said, while she wore heels.\n\n\"When he ran, I ran but I was in sort of a classic traditional business suit also with heels and nylons, and so I was blown out of the room because that split-second made all the difference in the world,\" she said.\"I didn't run out of the room; I was blown out of the room.\"\n\nAfter rushing the doorway, Capodagli dropped to the hallway floor and rolled to extinguish his flaming shirt. He then raced westward and onto a 4-by-6-foot balcony overlooking the hotel lobby.\n\nApparently unaware that anyone else had made it out of the room, he yelled down to hotel guests and employees that Room 416 was ablaze and 12 people were inside.\n\nJudged not to be gravely injured and trapped on the tiny balcony after the fire alarm system closed a door, the 48-year-old Capodagli waited there without answers for nearly an hour.\n\nHe told The Evansville Courier he spent that time \"worrying about the people in that room.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a severely burned and dazed Jackson crawled through the thick, choking smoke in the hallway with Welch, also badly burned. They would later credit a Good Samaritan with saving their lives.\n\nHotel guest Jack Eddy, a West Virginia truck driver who had opened his door to see what all the commotion was about, spotted the pair and sprung into action.\n\nEddy and Welch pulled Jackson into Room 405, where Eddy helped put out the fire on her shirt. Evansville firefighters rescued the trio through a window using an aerial ladder 15 to 20 minutes after the crash.\n\nJackson said she will never forget what Eddy did for her in those harrowing moments.\n\n\"He dragged me all the way down the hall and had me breathe through a window until the firemen came. He was an angel, actually,\" she said.\n\nGrateful as she is for her own survival, Jackson is plagued by sorrow that Feb. 6, 1992, brought a sudden end to the lives of nine P and I Supply employees, none of whom were older than 51.\n\nThe nine, all men, had awakened that morning ready to complete the final day of a three-day seminar and start their weekends.\n\nThey ranged from hourly workers to the company's vice president of operations, John R. \"J.R.\" Stallings Jr., who left behind a wife and triplets.\n\nThe loss of life also has great emotional significance for Tom Ashby, former CEO and president of Evansville-based Brake Supply Co.\n\nAshby still mourns Stallings, a close family friend and racing buddy who died at 41 years of age. In the days after the C-130B crash, Ashby made available to P and I Supply several of his drivers who had volunteered to make pickups and deliveries.\n\n\"We called him 'Smiley,'\" Ashby said of Stallings. \"Because he had this dry sense of humor. He was one of those guys that didn't say a lot, but when he said something you could break up from what he said.\"\n\nAshby recalled that Stallings had been like an uncle to his children before getting married himself. \"He was just a great pal,\" he said.\n\n'Nothing Short of inSane'\n\nOver the weeks that followed the crash, the truth about how it had happened gradually emerged, even though the Air Force did not disclose the cause in a 400-page public report.\n\nAnd with the truth came righteous anger.\n\nBased at Standiford Field in Louisville, Ky., the five-man Kentucky Air National Guard crew had been doing routine pilot proficiency training at Evansville Regional Airport less than a mile north.\n\nFour separate sources - The Evansville Courier cited two within the military and two in other agencies that had access to a secret military report - said the crash's cause was pilot error.\n\nThe crew of the four-engine aircraft was practicing a takeoff when a supervising instructor-pilot in the cockpit simulated an engine failure.\n\nAccording to the sources, the plane climbed to 1,300 feet on the three remaining engines, but a pilot relatively inexperienced in that aircraft, 25-year-old Lt. Vincent \"Rin\" Yancar, became distracted with checklists and air traffic control commands.\n\nYancar failed to notice the plane's airspeed was dropping precariously.\n\nWhen the plane's speed dropped below the \"in-flight minimum control speed,\" the C-130 shuddered, stalled and banked to the left, the side with the idled propeller.\n\nMaj. Richard A. Strang, the instructor-pilot, seized control of the plunging aircraft and had begun to correct the stall when the crash occurred. The plane did not have enough altitude to recover, the sources said.Strang had wanted to use the Evansville airport because its 8,021-foot runway was better for less-experienced pilots, according to the public report of the accident.\n\nBut Susan Johnson, an injured Drury Inn guest who recalled hearing the cries of doomed men in Room 416, pointedly asked why military training and practice flights were conducted at airports in populated cities.\n\n\"I'm saying this probably just from anger,\" Johnson, a Mount Carmel, Ill., resident, told The Evansville Courier. \"This needs to be out in White Sands, N.M., somewhere. It doesn't need to be near buildings and factories.\"\n\nIt was a point others made as well.\n\nA March 29 Evansville Courier editorial pointed out that the newspaper had earlier reported the Air Force \"won't allow some more dangerous maneuvers, such as simulated engine failures, when civilians are aboard.\"\n\n\"Simulated engine failures - exactly what was being practiced Feb. 6 when the C-130 hit Jojos,\" the editorial acidly observed. \"Too dangerous to be practiced with a civilian aboard, when one civilian might be killed.\n\n\"But not too dangerous to be practiced over civilian installations like a Drury Inn, or a Whirlpool plant, where hundreds might have been killed had the Feb. 6 crash taken place just a few hundred feet to the north.\"\n\nThe editorial said conducting such training maneuvers at a civilian airport, over civilian installations, was \"nothing short of insane.\"\n\nMilitary training exercises at Evansville Regional Airport using C-130 planes essentially stopped after the 1992 crash.\n\n\"I don't recall seeing C-130s in here for years,\" said Doug Joest, the airport's manager.\n\n\"I think about three or four years ago one came through, and it flew some practice approaches and left. I think we might have gotten one phone call because people recognized it.\"\n\nThe Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District could not forbid the military from training there at any rate, Joest said, because airports that receive federal funds cannot turn away military operations.\n\n\"I think the military as a whole probably was sensitive to what happened here, and they found other places to practice, I presume,\" he said.\n\n1999 brought evidence that the C-130B crash likely will always resonate emotionally in Evansville.\n\nThat year, an advertising agency removed an anti-smoking billboard on 41, across the street from the former crash scene, because its message was deemed insensitive to survivors and victims.\n\nThe billboard featured a downed airliner and the message, \"Tobacco kills a 747 full of Hoosiers every 10 days.\"\n\n\n\n\n\nLessons\n\n\n\nIn the hurly-burly of the crash site at Jojos and the Drury Inn, disorganization worked against well-meaning responders who had swarmed to the scene without being called there.\n\nOff-duty firefighters responding with their own equipment, police officers and sheriff's deputies without self-contained breathing apparatuses and an overabundance of ambulances - three-dozen from throughout the Tri-State - all combined to hinder a coordinated response.\n\n\"We had a lot of people that were responding, but they were doing their own things,\" said Sherman Greer, director of the Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency.\n\nThe U.S. Fire Administration report found much to commend in the way local emergency responders made use of what was then a relatively new $2.8 million radio system that operated at 800 megahertz. The radio system had multiple talk groups that allowed dispatchers to send police, fire and sheriff's officers on separate daily calls while still responding to the tragedy.\n\nThe report also noted that the local Incident Command System, which coordinated emergency response functions under a central command, had aided an orderly transition from response to investigation and recovery operations.\n\nBut there were problems - problems Greer says would not occur today because of what was learned in 1992. The perimeter of the crash site was not cordoned off by firefighters for 30 minutes, according to the federal report.\n\n\"With law enforcement personnel assisting firefighters and attempting several risky rescues without proper protective equipment, early fire scene security was not established,\" the report stated, pointing to smoke inhalation and related injuries suffered by a handful of responders.\n\nThe report cited the case of Evansville Police Department officer James \"Duke\" Gibson Jr., who rushed to the scene within minutes of the crash.\n\nGibson, 40, entered the blazing Drury Inn without a breathing apparatus before the arrival of additional firefighters and helped rescue people who were trapped inside.\n\nHe was overcome with smoke and toxic fumes and had to be carried out.\n\nEighteen days later, Gibson died. The Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office ultimately ruled his death was accidental and caused by a toxic reaction to medication.\n\nGibson and other officers described as \"first responders\" to the crash scene received the Evansville Police Department's Gold Merit Award for risking their lives to help others.\n\nGreer winced as he recalled a river of jet fuel, hydraulic fluid and oil running into ditches alongside the Drury Inn.\n\n\"We were walking through it. I was as guilty as anybody else. We were walking through that stuff and tracking it around,\" he said.\n\n\"We had some stuff there that was actually glowing in the dark. There were people walking through there, and they weren't paying any attention to that. We didn't know what that was.\"\n\n\n\nThe glowing material turned out to be nontoxic dye for inflatable boats.\n\nGreer also recalled seeing responders, Jojos employees and others walking through the crash scene with no protective breathing gear. He said photographs show the restaurant's manager talking to firefighters while standing close enough to a firetruck to feel the heat. \"We wouldn't let that happen today because of the possibility of hazardous materials incidents,\" he said. \"The fire department would tell the police department, 'I want this area cleared out and cordoned off, and nobody gets in here unless they are firefighters or have proper personal protection equipment.'\n\n\"We didn't know whether or not there was going to be a secondary explosion, so we should have treated that incident a lot more like a hazardous situation than we did. Today, we would.\"\n\nRemembrance\n\nJojos restaurant, a small Japanese maple tree lends serenity to a memorial to employees Lynette Scott and Matt Phipps. The pair, who were just 27 and 28 years old, respectively, died after being pinned in the rubble at the rear of the restaurant.\n\n\"Dedicated in memory of their devoted service, warm smile and team spirit. Matt and Lynette are missed. Jojos Restaurant,\" the memorial states.\n\nIn other ways, too, the wounds inflicted on Feb. 6, 1992, have healed over.\n\nThat summer, Drury Inn reopened after a $2 million reconstruction that included a new indoor swimming pool, whirlpool and other features. The pool was built atop the one destroyed by the military plane's impact. Jojos also was rebuilt and reopened that year, transitioning to Denny's in 2009.\n\nLynn Jackson, now 56, went on to write two successful business books with Capodagli, with whom she heads up Capodagli Jackson Consulting.\n\nAs is often the case in aviation disasters, some who witnessed the horror in 1992 have spoken of suffering nightmares and post-traumatic stress.\n\nBut Jackson, who felt the flames and who underwent so many surgeries that she has literally lost count, has made peace with the past.\n\n\"A lot of people who knew me outside of the Evansville area would think, 'Oh, that lady is burned. It must be really horrible for her,'\" she said. \"But if you look at it in the context of, a lot of people lost their lives, I am the one who was blessed.\n\n\"Every day, I realize how fortunate I am to be with people who love and support me; have a thriving business; and enjoy all the beauty that life has to offer.\"\n\n\n\nCasualties\n\n\n\nDRURY INN\n\nDarrel Arnold, 38, Evansville Charles Berqwitz, 22, Evansville Robert Hays, 45, Evansville David Horton, 29, Evansville Ronald Keown, 45, Chandler, Ind. Matthew Prasek, 27, Evansville Thomas Ruby, 28, Evansville John Stallings, 41, Evansville Harry Tenbarge, 51, Evansville\n\n\n\nJOJOS\n\nLynette Scott, 27, Evansville Matthew Phipps, 28, Evansville\n\n\n\nCREW OF C-130B\n\nMaj. Richard Strang, 39, Floyds Knobs, Ky. Lt. Vincent Yancar, 25, Louisville, Ky. Capt. Warren Klingaman, 29, Louisville, Ky. Master Sgt. William Hawkins, 41, Crestwood, Ky. Master Sgt. John Medley, 38, Louisville, Ky.\n\nARCHIVE: UE plane crash hit Illinois town extra hard\n\nUE grad survived crash, then killed by missile in Vietnam\n\nHilton DoubleTree opening confirmed Feb. 14", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/02/03"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_11", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/22/business/ford-1-7-billion-dollar-verdict/index.html", "title": "Ford hit with $1.7 billion verdict for F-series pickup roof collapse that ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nThe family of an elderly couple killed when the roof of their F-250 pickup collapsed during a rollover accident in 2014 has been awarded a massive $1.7 billion in punitive damages from Ford.\n\nThe jury appeared to endorse the plaintiff’s arguments that Ford knew of the problem years before the fatal crash, acted slowly to correct it and that other deaths have resulted from the same design flaw.\n\nEvidence presented in the case showed that the F-250 pickups made in the 17 model years prior to 2017 all pose a risk to drivers and passengers in cases of a rollover, said Jim Butler Jr., the attorney who won the verdict. He said 5.2 million trucks have been built with the same faulty roof.\n\nPerhaps even more troubling is that the best-selling F-150 pickups made before Model Year 2009 have a very similar roof design, Butler said. The F-150 has been the best selling US vehicle of any type for more than 40 years.\n\nA Georgia jury awarded the family of a couple killed when the roof of their F-250 pickup collapsed during a rollover accident $1.7 billion in punitive damages. Nick Giles/Courtesy Butler Prather LLP\n\n“There are many millions of F-150’s on the road with this roof,” Butler told CNN Business Monday. “I don’t know how many. They wouldn’t answer that at trial.”\n\nThe April 2014 crash in Gwinnett County, Georgia, killed Melvin Hill, 72, and his 62-year old wife, Voncile Hill. A jury had earlier awarded the family $24 million in compensatory damages. The $1.7 billion in additional damages was awarded by a jury on Friday.\n\nThe case originally went to trial in 2018 but the plaintiffs were granted a mistrial after three weeks because Ford introduced evidence that the court had ordered the company not to present, Butler said.\n\nThe punitive damages were awarded because Ford knew well in advance of the 2014 crash that it had a problem with the roof, Butler said. He said Ford’s engineers had already designed a safer roof, but the automaker did not move immediately to install it on the trucks.\n\n“Long before the Hills were killed, Ford was on notice from their own engineers, own crash tests and dozens of accidents that people were being killed, and it did nothing,” Butler said.\n\nFord would not comment on Butler’s statement that the older F-150’s and F-250’s have similar roofs at danger of collapse. It did say it intends to appeal the huge verdict.\n\n“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we don’t believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” the company said. “In the meantime, we aren’t going to litigate this matter through the news media.”\n\nFor years the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration had exempted heavy-duty trucks like the F-250 from the same safety standards as passenger cars and trucks. But Butler said that didn’t make a difference in this case.\n\n“The NHTSA standard is irrelevant,” he said. “By law it’s no defense.”\n\nAnd it wasn’t a change in the NHTSA standard, but potential pickup buyers doing research on the vehicle’s safety record that finally prompted Ford to put a stronger roof on both the F-150 and F-250, according to Butler.\n\nButler said evidence in the case clearly showed that the Hills would have survived the crash if the roof of the cab had not collapsed on them.\n\n“They might as well have been in a convertible,” he said.\n\nButler conceded that the $1.7 billion verdict is likely to be reduced on appeal, but he’s hoping it serves as a wake-up call to both automakers and pickup truck owners.\n\n“The Hill family is thankful to the jury for their verdict, and glad to get this phase of the litigation over with, finally,” Butler said. “An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn people riding around in the millions of those trucks Ford sold was the reason the Hill family insisted on a verdict.”\n\nIf punitive damages are upheld by higher courts, the Hill family and their attorneys will only get 25% of the award amount. Under Georgia law, the state gets 75% of the awards granted by the courts. The only way the plaintiffs would get the full amount of punitive damages is if there is a settlement reached between the two sides, Butler said.", "authors": ["Chris Isidore"], "publish_date": "2022/08/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/20/business/ford-supply-chain-problems/index.html", "title": "As many as 45,000 Fords can't be sold because they're missing ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nThe still-clogged global supply chain continues to wreak havoc on the auto industry.\n\nFord said late Monday it will end September with between 40,000 and 45,000 large pickups and SUVs that it can’t finish because it doesn’t have all the parts.\n\nNegotiations on various supplies, which Ford (F) did not identify, are raising its costs. The company warned late Monday that shortages and rising prices of supplies will cost it an extra $1 billion this quarter. Shares of Ford (F) fell 5% in premarket trading Tuesday.\n\nThe uncompleted vehicle problem should be a temporary setback: Although many of the uncompleted vehicles are highly profitable for the company, Ford said it should be able to hit its full-year earnings targets. That’s because Ford plans to shift the sales revenue it will get from the nearly completed vehicles into the fourth quarter.\n\nAutomakers have been struggling with various supply chain issues, specifically a shortage of computer chips, which has choked off vehicle production for much of the last two years.\n\nThe average vehicle has hundreds of computer chips, which control virtually every onboard system: They regulate fuel flow, help manage fuel economy, control crash-avoidance safety features and operate lumbar support and seat warmers.\n\nThis is not the first time that Ford has built vehicles with most but not all of their computer chips as it awaited. In March, the company announced it would ship some SUVs without all their some of their less crucial chips and then add them later after they were sold to customers. At times it has been forced to temporarily close some plants altogether due to chip shortages.\n\nThe shortage of vehicles, combined with strong demand from consumers, has sent vehicle prices soaring to record highs. Much of the windfall from higher prices is going to car dealerships, — which are independent businesses — rather than to the automakers, as most buyers are now paying above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or sticker price. It has been common practice for decades for customers to pay less than the sticker price.\n\nFord and other automakers keep anticipating that the supply problems will improve. In July, CFO John Lawler told investors that the company expected to see an “increase [in] volumes through the second half of the year, as some of the chip constraints ease.”\n\nIt’s not just automakers dealing with supply chain problems and shortages.\n\nA survey of members released by the National Association of Manufacturers Monday showed 78% saying supply chain disruptions are their primary business challenge, with only 11% now believing improvement will occur by the end of the year.\n\nThe survey also found 76% cited higher raw material costs such as those highlighted by Ford as a problem, with 40% saying that inflationary pressures are worse today than six months ago. And 76% said they’re having problems finding the workers they need.\n\nThere is also growing concern that the US economy could fall into a recession soon, with most manufacturers expecting a recession either later this year or in 2023.\n\n“Three out of four manufacturers still have a positive outlook for their businesses, but optimism has certainly declined,” said NAM CEO Jay Timmons.", "authors": ["Chris Isidore"], "publish_date": "2022/09/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/tech/ford-self-driving-argo-shutdown/index.html", "title": "Ford takes $2.7 billion hit as it drops efforts to develop full self ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nFord is essentially pulling the plug on an effort to develop its first full self-driving car, and it’s going to cost the automaker $2.7 billion to walk away.\n\nThe company announced Wednesday it would no longer provide financial support for Argo AI, a self-driving car technology company it invested $1 billion in back in 2017.\n\nInstead of having Argo develop self-driving car technology for cars without steering wheels, brakes or accelerator pedals — what is known in the industry as Level 4 or L4 technology — Ford will instead pursue in-house development of a lower level of automated driving technology.\n\nThe level it will now pursue on its own, known as Level 3 or L3, allows a driver to not pay attention to the road in certain conditions, such as on the highway, but it would expect a driver to be aware enough to quickly take control of the car if needed.\n\nThe decision will mean that Argo AI will shutdown. And the drop in value of Ford’s investment in Argo caused it to take a $2.7 billion charge in the just-completed third quarter. That resulted in an $827 million loss in the period.\n\nEven excluding the special charges for Argo and other items, Ford reported adjusted earnings per share of 30 cents, a slide from the 51 cents it earned on that basis a year ago, but a slight improvement over the 27 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.\n\nFord reported automotive revenue of $37.2 billion, a jump of $4 billion from a year ago and $1 billion more than the analysts’ forecasts. The revenue was helped by a $3.4 billion from higher pricing on vehicles.\n\nFord did have some problems in the quarter beyond the charge it took for closing down Argo. It said supply shortages left it with about 40,000 vehicles in its inventory at the end of the quarter that were built but awaiting needed parts before they can be shipped to dealers.\n\nIt also was hit with $1 billion in higher-than-expected supplier payments, and a $1.5 billion increase in commodity costs.\n\nAnd it had a smaller profit and profit margin in its core North American market due to those higher commodity costs, and a loss in China, due to costs associated with the development of electric vehicles.\n\nWhile higher pricing on vehicles helped its European unit post a narrow profit in the quarter compared to a narrow loss a year ago, CEO Jim Farley did concede, “Our performance in China and Europe is not nearly as healthy as we’d like it to be.”\n\nBut, in good news, Ford raised its goal for full-year cash that will be generated by the business to be between $9.5 billion and $10 billion — up from $5.5 billion to $6.5 billion — on strength in the company’s automotive operations.\n\nShares of Ford (F) were down 1% in after-hours trading following the earnings news.\n\nBut in the end, the big news of the earnings report was a major change in direction on self-driving vehicles.\n\nThe company insists it still expects to offer full self-driving vehicles in the future, just not soon enough to make the investment such technology will require today. It said it decided it is better to invest in driver assistance technology that is closer to being implemented on vehicles today, and that customers want from their new cars, rather than a fleet of robo-taxis with no drivers at all aboard.\n\n“We’re optimistic about a future for L4 ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems], but profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off and we won’t necessarily have to create that technology ourselves,” said Farley.\n\nFarley said he expects to be able to find jobs for many of the Argo employees at Ford, having them switch gears to develop L3 driver assistance features.\n\n“That’s really the decision, in many ways, that is driving what we’re doing here at Argo… we are deeply passionate about the L3 mission,” said Doug Field, Ford’s chief advanced product development and technology officer.\n\nHe said there is only so much talent available to develop the different driver assistance and self-driving features.\n\n“So this is the way we want to use that talent,” he said.", "authors": ["Chris Isidore Matt Mcfarland Peter Valdes-Dapena", "Chris Isidore", "Matt Mcfarland", "Peter Valdes-Dapena"], "publish_date": "2022/10/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/cars/toyota-bz4x-tundra-recall/index.html", "title": "Toyota is recalling its first mainstream electric car because the ...", "text": "CNN Business —\n\nToyota has issued recalls for its first mainstream electric car and one of its full-sized pickup trucks for problems in which nuts or bolts could loosen and wheels or axles can become disconnected.\n\nToyota warned owners of BZ4X electric SUVs to stop driving them because the wheels might fall off. The SUVs only recently went on sale in the United States and the warning and recall announced by Toyota Motor Sales USA on Thursday applies to all approximately 260 BZ4X SUVs that have been delivered to customers so far.\n\nBZ4X owners should stop driving the vehicles immediately, according to Toyota’s announcement. Bolts that hold the wheels on can loosen after even a relatively small number of miles on the road, allowing the wheels to detach. Toyota is still investigating why this can happen and under what sorts of conditions.\n\nToyota is warning drivers of the BZ4X crossover to stop driving them From Nathan Leach-Proffer/Toyota\n\nToyota doesn’t know, yet, how to fix the issue, the automaker said. Until a remedy has been figured out, Toyota dealers will pick up customers’ BZ4Xs and bring them to the dealership and provide free loaner vehicles in the meantime, Toyota said.\n\nThe Toyota BZ4X and Subaru Solterra electric crossovers were developed jointly by the two Japanese automakers. They share most of their engineering and even look very similar. Subaru has not announced a similar recall for the Solterra because none of those have been delivered to customers in the United States yet, Subaru spokesperson Jessica Tullman said in an email.\n\nThe BZ4X is Toyota’s first fully battery-powered electric vehicle that is not a modified version of a gasoline-powered model. Toyota had previously offered an electric version of the Rav4 SUV in some markets.\n\nNuts in the axle assemblies of some 2022 Toyota Tundra trucks may loosen, according to Toyota. Toyota\n\nToyota separately announced a recall for approximately 46,000 2022 Toyota Tundra full-size pickups in which nuts on the rear axle assembly can loosen. In some cases, this can cause an axle sub-assembly to become disconnected, affecting the truck’s stability and braking, according to Toyota. The problem with the Tundra is unrelated to the issue affecting the BZ4X, the company added.\n\nTo fix this problem, Toyota dealers will inspect and retighten the nuts if needed, free of charge, according to Toyota. Some parts may also be replaced if required at no charge, Toyota said in its announcement. Toyota is not warning Tundra owners to immediately stop driving their trucks, however.\n\nBZ4X and Tundra owners with questions about the recall can call Toyota customer service at 800-331-4331.", "authors": ["Peter Valdes-Dapena"], "publish_date": "2022/06/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/business/ford-f-150-lightning-review/index.html", "title": "Ford's electric F-150 Lightning is a better version of America's best ...", "text": "San Antonio, Texas CNN Business —\n\nThe Ford F-150 Lightning may be the best pickup truck the company has ever made. All it took was making it completely electric, something that, not long ago, might have seemed off-brand for a traditional truck company like Ford.\n\nNewer automakers have so far led the way on electric trucks. Tesla in 2019 revealed the prototype for its futuristic, electric Cybertruck but still hasn’t put it into production. Rivian came out with its electric pickup, the R1T, which won the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year Award. But the electric pickup truly hit the mass market last month when Ford started production on the F-150 Lightning at its famous Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.\n\nIt’s quick and powerful, and it drives better than any F-150 I’ve been in before. All that, and it does stuff you never imagined a truck would do, like provide workspace that also functions as a drinks cooler under the hood. (The front storage compartment is watertight and has drain plugs.) It can even power your entire home for days if you need it to.\n\nThis is a real truck, not a toy for campers and not a weird design exercise. It’s now in production by a company that already knows how to produce vehicles in big numbers. Ford has plans to make 150,000 of these trucks a year, which is equal to about 20% of all the F-series trucks Ford sold last year. The Ford Lightning is an all-electric version of the best-selling truck in America. To learn what truck owners really want and need Ford had only to talk to its own customers. This wasn’t delving into foreign territory. I recently got to drive several versions of the truck under vastly different scenarios at a two-day event around San Antonio, Texas.\n\nThe Ford F-150 Lightning looks only subtly different from gas-powered versions. Courtesy Nimai Malle\n\nIn the fundamentals, this new F-150 doesn’t veer too far from its siblings. At a glance, if you don’t notice the charging port on one front fender and the fake charging port on the side, you might not notice it was anything but another F-150. Besides that, it has some extra lights running across the nose of the truck and across the tailgate, plus the grille has no holes on it. As I drove through the south Texas countryside I wondered how many people in the all the other pickup trucks around me realized how different this one was from theirs.\n\nThe F-150 Lightning has no engine in the front. Its huge boxy hood instead covers a massive storage space. To drive home the point, at the event in Texas, Ford representatives filled one with ice and served cold drinks from it. There are plugs in the storage space to power and to charge electronics, along with more plugs in the bed of the truck.\n\nWith one electric motor driving the front wheels and another the back, full-time all-wheel-drive is standard in every version of the Lightning. That includes a stripped down work truck with few amenities, a range of 230 miles, 426 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque, and a starting price around $40,000. That isn’t very different from the price of a four-wheel-drive V8-powered F-150 XL work truck which has a similar 400 horsepower and only 410 pound-feet of torque.\n\nThis is a real work truck that isn’t positioned as a luxury piece of camping equipment like, say, the Rivian R1T. As with other F-150 models, of course, the Lightning can be had with luxury levels of amenities and prices reaching six digits.\n\nI spent some time in Lightning pickups towing heavy trailers and carrying heavy loads on highways and on narrow curving country roads. The truck does these things very well and can, in fact, accelerate up a highway on-ramp pulling a 5,000-pound trailer with remarkable ease. (The truck can tow up 10,000 pounds, according to Ford.) Electric motors provide instant response with smooth acceleration and are, of course, virtually silent.\n\nWith full tiime all-wheel-drive, the Ford F-150 Lightning proved to be capable off-road. Courtesy Nimai Malle\n\nThe thing that surprised me the most, though, was just how much more nicely the Lightning drives than gas-powered F-150s. That’s largely due to the improved weight balance that comes having heavy battery packs spread out between the front and back wheels rather than a big engine under the hood. The Lightning also has independent rear suspension, rather than a stiff solid rear axle like other F-150s do, so a bump on the side doesn’t immediately affect the other side. This, combined with the smooth power delivery of electric motors that never need to shift gears, make the Lightning a remarkably civilized highway cruiser. It’s also very quick – especially for a full-sized truck – when the accelerator is pressed.\n\nOff-road, climbing perilously steep, muddy trails, the Lightning proved, again, remarkably capable. That may not be surprising given that the trail was one selected by Ford to show off the truck but, to Ford’s credit, the truck I drove clambered up slippery rocks with the same tires as the ones I drove on the Interstate. Electric motors, with their smooth and quick power delivery to whichever wheels can use it, are ideal for slippery work.\n\nBesides doing all the things gas trucks can do but better and faster, the Lightning offers a number of bonus capabilities. First, there’s that huge “frunk,” or front trunk, with plugs and lights inside. Then there’s the fact that, when plugged into a home charger, it can automatically provide back-up power to the house if there’s an outage. That’s in addition to the fact that it can also run power tools at a worksite.\n\nOf course, towing and hauling (and accelerating hard while towing and hauling) uses a lot of electricity. Without hauling a heavy load, an F-150 Lightning can go 230 or 320 miles on a charge, depending on what size battery pack the customer orders. Hard work eats into the truck’s range by about the same amount that it depletes a gas truck’s driving range, according to Ford.\n\nHowever, gas trucks can go farther on a tank to start with – the V6-powered F-150 can go up to 520 miles, according to the EPA – and filling a tank takes less time than recharging a battery. That will be a serious issue for some buyers. Most pickup owners probably drive much less than 200 miles on a typical day, though, and could easily recharge overnight. The only problem now is that The Lightening will be tough to get for customers who did not previously place an order. Ford has stopped taking orders from retail customers due to high demand.\n\nMuch of what’s great about the F-150 Lightning will probably also be great about future EV trucks, like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the Ram 1500 EV. The smooth performance and ample power are largely inherent to electric drive systems. But the F-150 Lightning marks a real turning point in America’s long love affair with pickups.", "authors": ["Peter Valdes-Dapena"], "publish_date": "2022/05/11"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_12", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/12/22/minimum-wage-raise-23-states/10940440002/", "title": "Minimum wage is going up in 23 states. Here's where to expect ...", "text": "Over the past year, historically strong wage growth hasn’t kept pace with skyrocketing inflation, leaving millions of low- to middle-income Americans struggling to pay their bills.\n\nStarting New Year’s Day, the lowest-paid workers will make up a good chunk of that lost ground.\n\nTwenty-one states and 41 cities and counties are poised to raise their minimum wages on or about Jan. 1, according to a report provided exclusively to USA TODAY by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a worker advocacy group.\n\nTwo states, Massachusetts and Washington, will reach a $15 hourly pay floor for the first time, joining California and much of New York.\n\nBecause some governments will act later in the year, a total 27 states and 59 cities and counties – a record 86 jurisdictions – will increase their base pay sometime in 2023, according to NELP.\n\nHigh-interest loans low-income borrowers:How 4 small Utah banks have taken their 'predatory lending' national. It's all thanks to state law, critics say\n\nLoans too good to be true? In a financial bind? Don't let desperation lead you to a predatory loan, experts advise\n\n“The movement to raise wages continues to gain momentum,” said Yannet Lathrop, NELP’s senior researcher and policy analyst.\n\nHow does inflation affect the minimum wage?\n\nTypically, the annual minimum wage hikes dole out the largest increases to workers in states or localities taking a step in a planned series of bumps over several years.\n\nOther states nudge up their pay floors by small amounts, perhaps 20 cents to 50 cents an hour, because they’re indexed to annual inflation, which has averaged 1% to 2% for most of the past dozen years.\n\nBut inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) began to soar in spring 2021 as the U.S. economy reopened after the pandemic, reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% this past June before easing to a still elevated 7.1% in November.\n\nAs a result, many of the 11 states and 31 cities and counties enacting CPI-triggered minimum wage increases around New Year’s Day will be handing workers significant pay increases.\n\nThe minimum wage will climb from $12.80 to $13.85 in Arizona; from $12.56 to $13.65 in Colorado; and from $12.75 to $13.80 in Maine, all gains of more than 8% based on the CPI increase in those regions.\n\nIn Seattle, base pay will jump from $17.27 to $18.69 for most workers, the highest among localities, because of inflation indexing.\n\nRather than providing workers a financial windfall, the increases will simply allow them to keep up with surging prices, Lathrop says.\n\n“It will help workers at least maintain a minimum living standard,” Lathrop says. “It will prevent people from having to make tough decisions,” such as whether to buy food or medicine.\n\nOther states are providing a healthy raise as part of a several-step increase in the minimum wage. The pay floor will rise from $10.50 to $11.75 in Delaware; from $12 to $13 in Illinois; and from $11 to $12 in Virginia.\n\nNebraska, a Republican-controlled state, hasn’t lifted its minimum wage since 2014, Lathrop notes. But on New Year’s Day, the Cornhusker State will increase its base pay from $9 to $10.50 in the first of a series of steps that will bring it to $15 by 2026. Voters approved a ballot initiative last month.\n\nMinimum wage in every state:Somewhere between $5.15 and $16 an hour: What is your state's minimum wage?\n\nWhat states have a $15 minimum wage?\n\nMore states are joining the rapidly spreading $15-an-hour club. On Jan. 1, pay floors will increase to $15 from $14.25 in Massachusetts and to $15.74 from $14.49 in Washington State. In July, Connecticut will expand the contingent to five states as its pay floor rises to $15 from $14.\n\nBy 2026, another eight states will join the $15 faction – Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia and Nebraska. Hawaii will get there by 2028. That’s a total 14 states with about 41% of the U.S. workforce at or heading to $15 an hour.\n\nAnother 36 localities – including more than two dozen in California, along with Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle – are already at $15 and set to hurtle beyond it in less than two weeks.\n\nRecall alert:140,000 Chevrolet Bolt electric cars recalled to fix seat belt issue that can cause fires\n\nProduct recalls ignored?:Do you have a recalled toy under the tree? Some are still being sold. Here's where\n\nThe $15 threshold was widely considered a pipe dream when Fight for $15, an alliance of fast-food and other low-paid workers, began demanding it as part of walkouts across the country that launched in 2012.\n\n“$15 is still a very important target rate,” Lathrop says. “It’s a bare minimum baseline.”\n\nHow does the minimum wage affect inflation?\n\nMany restaurants and other businesses employing low-wage workers disagree. They argue that sharp minimum wage increases will only intensify inflation as employers raise prices to offset higher labor costs.\n\nFederal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has noted that inflation for goods like furniture and used cars has been moderating, but not for service businesses like restaurants whose labor costs make up the lion’s share of their expenses.\n\nThose price increases, he said, must ease before the Fed pauses an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes that has increased consumer borrowing costs and hammered stocks.\n\n“Powell is right,” says Michael Saltsman, managing director of the Employment Policies Institute, which is backed by the restaurant industry. “An extreme wage mandate makes bad economic sense in any environment. Right now, it’s insane to move ahead with it. Business owners, and small restaurants in particular, will pay the price.\"\n\nBut Dante DeAntonio, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, says minimum wage workers make up a relatively small share of the workforce and their pay increases probably have little effect on inflation overall, especially considering strong U.S. wage growth the past two years.\n\n“I’m not sure this really adds that much fuel to the fire,” DeAntonio says.\n\nWhat is the impact of raising the minimum wage?\n\nThe state minimum wage increases around New Year’s Day will affect 3.4 million workers now earning base pay and another 5.4 million who make somewhat more but will benefit from ripple effects within a business, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The figures don't include city and county minimum wage increases.\n\nMeanwhile, private-sector wages and salaries broadly increased a robust 5.2% annually in the third quarter, according to the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index.\n\nWhat is the US federal minimum wage?\n\nThe minimum wage increases come as the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 as Republicans in Congress repeatedly blockedg efforts to raise it.\n\nAbout 30 states with more than 60% of the U.S. workforce have higher pay floors than the federal government’s.\n\nAlso, dozens of companies have raised their entry-level wages to $15, including Target, Best Buy, Amazon, Costco and Southwest Airlines.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/12/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/12/23/minimum-wage-hike-2020-pay-floor-rise-21-states-jan-1/2709875001/", "title": "Minimum wage hike 2020: Pay floor to rise in 24 states next year", "text": "Several years ago, a $15-an-hour minimum wage was the pipe dream of a national coalition of striking fast-food workers.\n\nNow, it’s increasingly becoming a reality across the country, with significant gains expected in 2020.\n\nThe number of cities and counties with at least a $15 pay floor is set to double next year to 32, as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and South San Francisco, along with about a dozen other California cities, adopt the benchmark, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project provided exclusively to USA TODAY. They’ll join cities such as New York, Seattle and San Francisco that are already members of the $15 club.\n\nMore broadly, 24 states and 48 cities and counties will raise their minimum wages in 2020 – a record 72 jurisdictions, the worker advocacy group’s study says. Most will occur on or about Jan. 1.\n\nMaiden name voyage:My married name is driving me crazy. Here's why.\n\nWill stocks be naughty or nice?Could a Santa Claus rally happen this week?\n\n“They’re feeling they can’t rely on the federal government to raise wages, so they’re doing it on their own,” says Yanett Lathrop, a researcher and policy analyst for NELP.\n\nIn Kansas City, Missouri, Milly Hobbs, 28, earns $9 an hour working full-time at McDonald’s, an amount she says forces her to share a three-bedroom apartment with five relatives and friends, including her mother. She says she spends about $20 a week on groceries, allowing her just one meal a day, and makes do with one pair of socks and two pairs of tattered pants. Her cellphone was recently turned off for nonpayment. And she doesn’t have the money to replace her one-armed eyeglass frames.\n\n“It’s been very difficult,” she says. “And this time of year it’s even more stressful.”\n\nA relatively small 45-cent increase in her hourly pay to $9.45 starting Jan. 1 should help her buy new frames, pay her phone bill and start saving toward a car purchase.\n\n“Every little bit helps,” she says. “It’s a start, but it’s not enough to live on.”\n\nThe federal minimum has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. In July, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation to raise it to $15 by 2025, but the Republican majority Senate has refused to debate the bill, the latest chapter in a years-long standoff between the parties over the issue.\n\nTwenty-nine states, with 61% of the U.S. workforce, now have pay floors above the federal government’s, according to NELP.\n\nOn or about Jan. 1, 21 states and 26 cities and counties will lift their base pay, including California, New York, Illinois, Maine, Michigan and Massachusetts. Most will be relatively large increases as part of significant hikes that are being phased in over several years following legislation or ballot initiatives.\n\nEven some states with low pay floors are taking action. New Mexico’s wage base will rise from $7.50 to $9 and Illinois’ from $8.25 to $9.25 as both states raise their thresholds for the first time in a decade. Missouri is raising its minimum from $8.60 to $9.45 in a second step toward reaching $12 by 2023.\n\nThere will also be small, annual cost-of-living increases in seven states, such as bumps from $8.46 to $8.56 in Florida and from $8.55 to $8.70 in Ohio. Twenty-six cities and counties, many of them in California, also will raise their minimums, including 14 cost-of-living increases.\n\nLook ma, no cash:Will 2020 mark the start of a decade when Americans finally ditch cash and use digital wallets, credit cards?\n\nLater in 2020, another three states – Connecticut, Nevada and Oregon – and 22 localities will raise their minimum wages, the NELP report shows.\n\nBut the most striking development is the growth in the number of jurisdictions headed to a $15 pay floor. A couple of years ago, it was just California and New York. Now, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut are also on their way to $15. Nearly a third of the U.S. workforce lives in states climbing to $15 over the next few years, says David Cooper, senior economic analyst for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.\n\nAnd along with many cities in California, Chicago, Denver and St. Paul, Minnesota, are moving to that benchmark. Lathrop credits the awareness generated by Fight for $15, an alliance of fast-food and other low-paid workers that has staged walkouts across the country since 2012 and are backed by the Service Employees International Union.\n\n“The Fight for $15 has really been making inroads,” Lathrop says.\n\nAt the same time, 21 states still have minimum wages at the federal government’s $7.25 or are subject to the U.S. standard. In several of those states, localities such as Madison, Wisconsin; Louisville, Kentucky; and Polk County, Iowa, have adopted their own higher minimums only to be blocked by state legislatures, according to the NELP report. Some cities in states with higher pay bases, such as Miami and Denver, similarly have seen their efforts to rise above the thresholds preempted by the states.\n\nBut Colorado lawmakers repealed the state’s wage preemption law last May, allowing Denver to pass legislation that will bring its minimum to $15.87 by 2022. Similar repeal efforts are underway in 12 other states, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, all of whose pay floors are mired at $7.25.\n\nCan you spare a part? GM scrambles to recover from parts shortage caused by UAW strike\n\nMichael Saltsman, research director for the Employment Policies Institute, which is backed by the restaurant industry, says a $15 minimum wage has led to restaurant closings in Seattle and San Francisco. Noting that companies such as Target, Walmart and Amazon have raised their own pay bases, Saltsman says the state laws, and an increase in the federal minimum, are unnecessary.\n\nA Congressional Budget Office study published in July found that a $15 federal minimum wage would increase pay for 17 million workers who earn less than that and possibly another 10 million who earn slightly more. It would cause 1.3 million other workers to lose their jobs, according to the study’s median estimate.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/12/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/economy/minimum-wage-increases-2023/index.html", "title": "These states are raising their minimum wage in 2023 | CNN Business", "text": "Minneapolis CNN —\n\nThe current period of high inflation that has significantly impacted the US economy will also influence a New Year’s tradition: The annual state minimum wage increases.\n\nBy January 1, hourly minimum wages in 23 states will rise as part of previously scheduled efforts to reach $15 an hour or to account for cost-of-living changes. The increases account for more than $5 billion in pay boosts for an estimated 8.4 million workers, the Economic Policy Institute estimates.\n\nAdditionally, nearly 30 cities and counties across the US will increase their minimum wage, according to the EPI, a left-leaning think tank.\n\nThe larger-than-typical increases for a dozen states come after inflation hit a 40-year high this summer, leaving families struggling to keep up with the rising costs.\n\n“The fact that there’s high inflation really just underscores how necessary these minimum wage increases are for workers,” said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a research assistant at the EPI. “Even before the pandemic, there was no county in the United States where you could affordably live as a single adult at $15 an hour.”\n\nThe pandemic and the subsequent period of economic recovery has further revealed the growing chasm in America’s wealth gap. During the past two years, working conditions and low pay contributed to a swelling of labor movement activity and actions by many large corporations to raise their wage floor.\n\nRaiseUpNY Coalition, including the Laborers Internation Union 79 and 32BJ SEIU, hold a rally at City Hall Park to fight for a higher minimum wage in Manhattan, New York, on November 15, 2022. Derek French/Shutterstock\n\nThe pandemic also led to a structural upheaval in the nation’s labor market, creating an imbalance of worker supply and demand that still persists. Employers have found themselves short of workers for most of the year, which has pushed up average annual hourly wages in the battle to recruit and retain staff. While some workers in competitive industries such as retail and dining have found their new salary outpaces inflation, most pay has been outpaced by rising prices.\n\n“The story is different because wages have been increasing at the low-end, much faster than inflation and much faster than in middle- or high-wage jobs,” said Michael Reich, economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “And that means that many workers, even in the $7.25 states, are already getting paid above the minimum wage.”\n\nIn other words, he said, the minimum wage “has become less and less binding.”\n\n“Even though minimum wages might go up by 7%, in many states and cities, labor costs aren’t going to go up anywhere as much as they have in the past, because they already have gone up,” he said. “That also means that prices aren’t going to go up at [places like] restaurants.”\n\nThe federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour hasn’t budged since 2009, and 20 states have a minimum wage either equal to or below the federal level, making $7.25 their default baseline. The value of the federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 when it was $1.60, which would be worth about $13.46 in 2022, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.\n\nStates with scheduled minimum wage increases on December 31, 2022, or January 1, 2023\n\nDelaware: $10.50 to $11.75\n\nIllinois: $12 to $13\n\nMaryland: $12.50 to $13.25\n\nMassachusetts: $14.25 to $15\n\nMichigan: $9.87 to $10.10\n\nMissouri: $11.15 to $12\n\nNebraska: $9 to $10.50\n\nNew Jersey: $13 to $14.13* (scheduled increase also includes inflation adjustment)\n\nNew Mexico: $11.50 to $12\n\nNew York: $13.20 to $14.20 (Upstate New York); $15 (in and around NYC)\n\nRhode Island: $12.25 to $13\n\nVirginia: $11 to $12\n\nCost of living increases of state minimum hourly wages:\n\nAlaska: $10.34 to $10.85\n\nArizona: $12.80 to $13.85\n\nCalifornia: $14.50 (firms with 25 or fewer employees) /$15 (firms with 26+ employees) to $15.50\n\nColorado: $12.56 to $13.65\n\nMaine: $12.75 to $13.80\n\nMinnesota: $8.42 to $8.63 (small employer); $10.33 to $10.59 (large employer)\n\nMontana: $9.20 to $9.95\n\nOhio: $9.30 to $10.10\n\nSouth Dakota: $9.95 to $10.80\n\nVermont: $12.55 to $13.18\n\nWashington: $14.49 to $15.74\n\nLater in 2023:\n\nConnecticut (effective July 1): $14 to $15\n\nFlorida (September 2023): $11 to $12\n\nNevada (effective July 1): $9.50 to $10.25 (firms that offer benefits); $10.50 to $11.25 (no benefits offered)\n\nOregon: $13.50 (effective July 1, indexed annual increase to be based on the CPI)\n\nSources: State websites, National Conference of State Legislatures, Economic Policy Institute", "authors": ["Alicia Wallace"], "publish_date": "2022/12/31"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/12/20/minimum-wage-states-raise-15/8935133002/", "title": "Minimum wage is about to rise in 21 states, 35 localities as more ...", "text": "This was the year that low-wage workers finally gained significant bargaining power and wielded it to snare big pay increases.\n\nBut that’s not stopping many states and cities from cementing at least some of those advances into law.\n\nTwenty-one states and 35 cities and counties are set to raise their minimum wages on or about New Year’s Day, according to a report provided exclusively to USA TODAY by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a worker advocacy group.\n\nBase hourly pay will climb from $11 to $12 in Illinois; from $9.25 to $10.50 in Delaware; from $9.50 to $11 in Virginia; from $12 to $13 for most workers in New Jersey; and from $10.50 to $11.50 in New Mexico.\n\nSince some governments will act later in the year, a total of 25 states and 56 localities – a record 81 jurisdictions – will lift their pay floors sometime in 2022, according to NELP.\n\nProtect your assets: Best high-yield savings accounts of 2023\n\nA base wage of $15 an hour or higher, derided as the pipe dream of striking fast-food workers just a few years ago, is becoming commonplace. California’s minimum will reach $15 for the first time on Jan. 1 for large employers. New York state – already at $15 in New York City and for fast-food workers statewide – will extend that benchmark to Long Island and Westchester County on New Year’s Eve.\n\nFour of the localities lifting their pay floors Jan. 1 will hit the $15 threshold for the first time: Denver, which is leaping from $14.77 to $15.87, and the California cities of San Diego, Oakland and West Hollywood.\n\nAn additional 27 cities and towns already at $15 will climb even higher in a couple of weeks, as California’s Mountain View and Sunnyvale both reach $17.10 and Seattle edges up to $17.27 for most employers.\n\nMinimum wage in Oakland\n\nIn Oakland, Evelia Domingo, 23, works full time at a local Jack in the Box, earning the city’s $14.36 hourly minimum. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her father and two sisters, splitting the $3,000 monthly household expenses with her father, a construction worker.\n\nAlthough they can pay the bills, Domingo says she has no money for discretionary spending such as dining out.\n\n“I would like to go out and take my family out but I can’t because I don’t have enough money for anything that isn’t household expenses,” she said through a translator. “I don’t like to go shopping because I see things I want but can’t afford.”\n\nOn New Year’s Day, Oakland’s base wage will rise to $15.06, netting Domingo an extra $112 a month. She plans to give the money to her father to cover the electric and water bills so he can send more cash to Domingo’s mother, who is ill and lives in Guatemala. The slightly larger paycheck also could help the family put away some money to eventually move to a bigger apartment.\n\n“I want to be able to help if I can,” she said.\n\nBut there will be no frills. Domingo says she would need an additional $5 an hour bump in pay to afford other things she’d like to do, such as saving up for a car, helping pay for her sister to attend college, going out and buying clothes. “Everything just feels impossible,” she said.\n\nYannet Lathrop, a researcher and policy analyst at NELP, says $15 provides just a living wage in much of the country.\n\n\"It's becoming the default minimum,\" she says\n\nThat may not be the case across the U.S. but it is in many higher-cost regions.\n\nWhere are $15 minimum wages?\n\nBesides California and New York, nine states are headed to a $15 pay base over the next four years – Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia. They’ll join 50 localities at or on the way to $15, including Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.\n\nAll told, by 2026, about 40% of the U.S. workforce will be covered by $15 minimum wage mandates, NELP figures show.\n\nSeparately, at least 100 or so mostly large companies already have raised their pay floors to $15 or higher, including Best Buy, Costco, Wayfair, The Container Store and Southwest Airlines, according to the NELP study.\n\nLathrop traces the $15 movement to Fight for $15, an alliance of fast-food and other low-paid workers that has staged walkouts across the country since 2012 and is backed by the Service Employees International Union.\n\n“This is the result of that organizing,” she said.\n\nPower shifts to workers\n\nThen there are the ripple effects of COVID-19.\n\nPandemic-related labor shortages have handed U.S. workers unprecedented leverage. Several million Americans remain on the sidelines because they can’t find or afford child care, they’re afraid of contracting COVID or they’re still living off enhanced unemployment benefits or government stimulus checks. And many older people retired early.\n\nEmployers, in turn, are sharply boosting pay to attract and hold onto workers amid a reopening economy and strong consumer demand. In October, there were 11 million job openings and 4.2 million people quit, typically to take other positions that pay more, Labor Department figures show. Both totals are near records.\n\nIn November, wages overall rose 3.7% from a year earlier, the most since 2009, and pay for the bottom quartile of employees jumped 5.1%, the biggest gain in nearly two decades, according to the Atlanta Fed’s wage growth tracker. Average hourly earnings for employees at restaurants and bars surged 12.1% in October, the most on record, to $17.66, according to the Labor Department.\n\nWorkers’ newfound bargaining power has emboldened many to play hardball. The nation has seen a rise in strikes this fall at companies such as John Deere, Kellogg and Kaiser Permanente, with many employees winning higher pay and benefits.\n\nThe worker-friendly landscape has lessened the impact of the minimum wage hikes since most employees’ earnings already are close to or above the new pay floors, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.\n\nFederal minimum wage remains $7.25\n\nLathrop, however, says the government-mandated increases are still critical to helping low-income households meet expenses, especially with inflation hitting a 39-year high last month.\n\n“At some point, we’ll go back to an economy where workers don’t have the leverage and we’ll need to rely on laws,” she says. “It would not be good policy to leave wage floors to the discretion of the private sector.”\n\nThe federal minimum wage, however, has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009, with Senate Republicans repeatedly blocking efforts to increase it.\n\nAlthough 30 states with more than 60% of the U.S. workforce now have higher pay floors than the federal government’s, 20 states – mostly in the South and Midwest – rely on the federal minimum and are unlikely to set a higher base, Lathrop says. That has intensified the need for federal action, she says.\n\nMany employers, though, say the minimum wage hikes will add to the cost pressures triggered by the worker shortages and supply-chain bottlenecks that have delayed product deliveries.\n\n“In the current environment, where employers are trying to reduce costs by pulling labor out of the restaurant, the last thing you want to do is give them another incentive to do so,” says Michael Saltsman, managing director of the Employment Policies Institute, which is backed by the restaurant industry.\n\nThe wage increases, he says, will accelerate a trend toward more automation and fewer workers.\n\nA Congressional Budget Office study in 2019 found that a $15 federal minimum wage would increase pay for 17 million workers who earn less than that and possibly another 10 million who earn slightly more. It would cause 1.3 million other workers to lose their jobs, according to the study’s median estimate.\n\nNot all of the base pay hikes taking effect next month will be large. A handful of states and 27 localities will enact small, annual cost-of-living increases. Pay floors will rise from $12.32 to $12. 56 in Colorado, from $8.80 to $9.30 in Ohio and from $8.75 to $9.20 in Montana.\n\nLater in 2022, an additional four states and 22 cities and counties will increase their minimum wages. Connecticut’s will climb from $13 to $14 on July 1 and Florida’s, from $10 to $11 on Sep. 30. Many cities such as Los Angeles and Tucson, Arizona, will bump up base pay more modestly to offset the higher cost of living.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/04/obama-states-push-minimum-wage/5188769/", "title": "States gaining speed on minimum wage faster than Obama", "text": "Aamer Madhani\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nAlready%2C 22 bills have been introduced in 14 states and the District of Columbia\n\nHawaii%2C Illinois%2C Maryland%2C Massachusetts and Minnesota are states where a hike is most likely\n\nDemocrats are highlighting issue in gubernatorial races\n\nWASHINGTON — President Obama faces a difficult path in his push to raise the federal minimum wage, but workers and lawmakers have gained momentum on the state level on the issue that will remain front-and-center throughout much of the country in 2014.\n\nMore than 30 states are set to consider legislation or ballot measures to hike the minimum wage in the coming months.\n\nAlready, 22 bills have been introduced in 14 states and the District of Columbia on minimum wage increases and related issues in the first weeks of the 2014 legislative sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\n\n\"Momentum has gathered,\" Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat who is backing raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour from $8.25 in his state, told USA TODAY. \"Given the nature of the House of Representatives in Washington, the states are going to have to lead the way.\"\n\nThe latest effort follows five states and Washington, D.C., approving increases in their minimum wage laws last year.\n\nProponents of a minimum wage hike are increasingly staking out territory on the issue that the White House and many Democrats believe resonates with voters. To that end, Organizing for Action, a national advocacy group that promotes Obama's agenda, announced Monday it was a launching a six-figure national television ad buy highlighting Obama's call to raise the minimum wage.\n\nObama announced last week that he will soon sign an executive order to hike the minimum wage for people working under new federal contracts — a move that could eventually affect a few hundred thousand workers. But it will take congressional action — and a measure of Republican support — to raise the federal rate to $10.10 by 2016 as Obama and fellow Democrats are advocating.\n\nIt seems unlikely that Democrats — who weren't able to win Republican support for an effort to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 last year — will have any better luck getting to 60 votes with this effort.\n\nRepublicans have already signaled their opposition to the latest push, raising concerns that a higher minimum wage would force business owners to cut workers' hours, slash jobs and raise prices. GOP lawmakers — including potential 2016 presidential candidates Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida — have argued that raising the minimum wage could harm more than help America's poorest.\n\n\"As part of our concern about creating jobs, the last thing we want to do is pass a measure to destroy jobs,\" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.\n\nYet the push for a higher minimum wage rate is starting to gain traction. Some states have benefited from Obama elevating attention on the issue, says Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington group opposed to raising the minimum wage,\n\nSaltsman suggested that \"blue\" states, including Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Minnesota, are where backers of raising the minimum wage have their best chance.\n\n\"I think those are the five where you are going to see the most intense fight,\" he said. \"Those are the states where you are basically looking for the number (wage rate) that Democrats can agree on.\"\n\nIn Hawaii, there's a push in the legislature to raise the minimum wage to $10.10. The new push follows a failed effort last year to raise the state's rate to $8.75 per hour by 2016. The minimum wage in Hawaii currently stands at $7.25 per hour.\n\nDrew Astolfi, an organizer for an interfaith coalition pushing for a higher minimum wage, said that initially proponents had set their goal at $9.50 per hour, but bumped up their call to $10.10 to line up with the federal rate Obama is backing. Meanwhile, Hawaii's Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie in his State of the State address called for raising the state's minimum wage to $8.75 by January 2015.\n\n\"Not much is going to happen in Congress, so I think you got to turn back to the states to get anything done,\" Astolfi said..\n\nIn Massachusetts, the state Senate has already passed legislation that would raise the rate from $8 to $11 by 2016, but the House hasn't taken up the measure.\n\nVoters could end up deciding the issue themselves. Massachusetts activists gathered 150,000 signatures to get a question on the November ballot to gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $10.50 by 2016.\n\nMassachusetts is just one of several states where voters could decide at the ballot box on a minimum wage hike. Activists and lawmakers in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Idaho, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington, D.C., are all pushing for placing the minimum wage issue on the ballot in November in those states.\n\nDemocratic gubernatorial candidates in several states have also sought to make the minimum wage a central issue in their campaigns,\n\nLast week, the Democratic Governors Association highlighted dismissive remarks about raising the minimum wage made by Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Illinois Republican Bruce Rauner, while spotlighting several of their candidates — including Charlie Crist in Florida, Rep. Mike Michaud in Maine and Mark Schauer in Michigan — who support a hike in the rate.\n\nMeanwhile, Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke this week set out to separate herself on the issue from the Republican incumbent Gov. Scott Walker, who recently called a Democratic effort in the state Legislature on the issue \"political grandstanding.\"\n\nKeeping the wage at $7.25 an hour \"is basically ensuring that people have to be dependent on government programs,\" Burke said in an interview on WISN-TV. \"I think increasing the minimum wage leads to people being able to support themselves and their families, and we can do it in a way that's not going to hurt job creation.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/02/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/09/20/bofa-minimum-wage-increase/70904187007/", "title": "BofA is latest bank to increase minimum wage for employees", "text": "Bank of America is increasing its U.S. minimum wage to $23 an hour, with plans to pay employees at least $25 an hour by 2025. The initial wage spike will take effect this October. The announcement follows several incremental minimum wage raises for BofA employees over the past six years.\n\nMinimum wage for Bank of America employees increased from $15 in 2017; to $17 in 2019; to $20 in 2020; to $21 in 2021 – and to $22 in May 2022. Full-time employees can expect to be paid an annualized salary of at least $48,000 starting this year.\n\nBetween December 2021 and December 2022, job salaries nationwide increased 5.1%, but wage growth did not keep up with inflation, which averaged 8% in 2022, according to a report from SmartAsset\n\nBank of America is one of several banks who've increased wages over the past few years. In 2022, Truist Financial increased their minimum wage to $22 an hour. And JPMorgan Chase, told employees last year that its minimum wage would increase to between $20 and $25 an hour, depending on location. In 2021, Wells Fargo raised minimum wage for hourly workers to $18-$22, also depending on location.\n\nIn the past few years, the high number of job openings pushed big banks like BoFA and Wells Fargo to increase minimum wage offered to entry-level employees.\n\nSheri Bronstein, chief human resources officer at Bank of America wrote, “Providing a competitive minimum rate of pay is foundational to being a great place to work.”\n\nBronstein continued, “By investing in a variety of benefits to attract and develop talented teammates, we are investing in the long-term success of our employees, customers and communities. Our commitment to $25 by 2025 is how we share success with you and lead the way for other companies.”\n\nHow does minimum wage compare by state?\n\nFifteen states have laws in place that make minimum wages equivalent to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to the Department of Labor. Another five states have no minimum wage laws.\n\nHow many workers make federal minimum wage or less?\n\nAccording to the Department of Labor, 78.7 million workers age 16 and older were paid at hourly rates, making up 55.6% of all wage and salary workers. Of those hourly workers, about 1 million were paid wages at or below the federal minimum wage, making up 1.3% of all hourly paid workers.\n\nMinimum wage across the US:California fast food workers will earn at least $20 per hour\n\nView your state:Minimum wage is going up in 23 states as $15 an hour gains steam.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/09/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/28/minimum-wage-increases/1862355/", "title": "Growing number of states look at minimum wage hikes", "text": "Emma Beck, USA TODAY\n\nThirteen states have weighed wage increases\n\nIn nine states%2C automatic wage hikes took effect\n\nOpponents say the increases could hurt workers\n\nNearly half the states have increased their minimum wage this year or are considering plans to hike it as the economy transitions from recession to a stronger recovery.\n\nThirteen states have weighed wage increases since Jan. 1. Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Hawaii are among the most recent. Monday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, rejected a bill that called for an immediate $1.25-per-hour hike, pushing the minimum wage to $8.50. He suggested instead a $1 increase phased in over three years.\n\nIn nine other states, automatic wage hikes took effect, adding 10 to 35 cents per hour to state minimum wages. In a 10th state, an increase approved by the Rhode Island Legislature last June raised the state's minimum from $7.40 to $7.75 as of Jan. 1. It was the state's first increase since 2007.\n\nOf the states considering proposals, the last increases occurred from 2007 through 2009. The last federal minimum wage increase came in 2009, when it rose from $5.15 to $7.25.\n\n\"The movement by the states shows that when you get people together, you can get stuff done (and) hopefully convince people that everyone else across the country deserves a raise,\" said Aaron Albright, communication director for Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.\n\nOpponents say the increases could hurt workers.\n\nThe increase in labor costs could leave employers grappling with alternatives to provide the same product for less service, a result that could slash company workforces and employee hours, says Michael Saltsman, a research director with Employment Policies Institute, a non-profit group that researches public policy in relation to employment growth.\n\n\"It's not as simple as saying consumer spending will go up,\" Saltsman said. \"If labor costs go up, it's going to look a lot more attractive to make other cuts.\"\n\nSmall businesses — particularly restaurants — may feel the blow strongly. \"I am opposed to raising the minimum wage without some kind of agreement of the tips that servers or anybody with gratuities make,\" said Nick Anastasopoulos, the treasurer of the California Small Business Association and owner of the Athens Market Cafe.\n\nAthens Market Cafe servers make roughly $28 to $30 per hour after tips, he said.\n\n\"On the one side, I'm appreciative that people might get higher wages, but consumers will end up paying the increase,\" Anastasopoulos said.\n\nThe state push could encourage Washington to re-evaluate the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, says James Parrott, a director and chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, a non-partisan New York research and education organization.\n\nThe federal minimum wage has increased from $1.60 in 1968 to today's minimum of $7.25, according to 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 2011 summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 73.9 million American workers over the age of 16 were paid at hourly rates, of which 1.7 million earned minimum wage.\n\nThe average hourly wage in December for all privately employed workers was $23.73, up 6% from 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.\n\nPaul Sonn, the legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy organization for employment rights of lower-wage workers, says the proposals reflect an increased pressure to protect the value of minimum wage from eroding as a result of increased inflation rates. On a federal level, minimum wage would be at $10.58 had it adjusted to increased cost of living, according to an Employment Law Project report in December.\n\nSen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 in July. The bill proposed a federal minimum wage increase to $9.80 over three years and annual cost-of-living adjustments to keep the minimum wage from falling behind and eroding in value. No date has been set as to when the bill will be reintroduced.\n\n\"From our point of view, low-income workers will spend their [increased] wages locally, which will help the local economy,\" said Jim DeLuca, the general manager at the Abundance Cooperative Market, a natural products grocer in Rochester, N.Y.\n\nThe store increased its wage to $8.75 two years ago, a raise from the state minimum of $7.25, and the move hasn't affected business operations, the manager said. \"It was an effort on our part to create a living wage model,\" DeLuca said.\n\nDemocratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Jan. 22 proposal would increase New York's minimum wage to $8.75. The raise would benefit more than 1 million workers and create 25,000 jobs, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute report from January 2012.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/01/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/politics/american-workers-15-dollars-hour-minimum-wage/index.html", "title": "Nearly one-third of American workers make less than $15 an hour ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nNearly 52 million workers – or almost one-third of the nation’s labor force – earn less than $15 an hour, according to a study released Tuesday by Oxfam America, an anti-poverty advocacy group.\n\nThese workers, whose annual income is less than $31,200, are disproportionately women and people of color, the study found.\n\nSome 47% of Black workers and 46% of Hispanic workers make less than $15 an hour, compared with 26% of White workers. Some 40% of female workers earn less than that threshold, compared with 25% of male workers.\n\nHalf of the women of color in the workforce make less than $15 an hour, as do nearly 58% of single parents.\n\n“It’s shameful that at a time when many US companies are boasting record profits, some of the hardest working people in this country – especially people who keep our economy and society functioning – are struggling to get by and falling behind,” said Kaitlyn Henderson, the study’s author and senior research adviser at Oxfam America.\n\nThe report is one of the latest efforts to push for raising the federal minimum wage above the current $7.25 an hour, where it has been since 2009. Many worker advocates would like to see the threshold increased to $15 an hour, which they say is a first step to creating a more livable wage.\n\nSoaring inflation, which has pushed up the prices of food, housing, gasoline and other necessities, has made it even more difficult for lower-income families to survive on their wages, Oxfam America said.\n\nTake Vikki Tully, 65, who lives in Alkol, West Virginia. She makes $12.70 an hour after working as a Head Start teacher for 26 years.\n\nThe skyrocketing cost of gas means she and her husband will take fewer trips this summer to visit their grandchildren in Virginia Beach, while the increased cost of wood and building materials means they will have to put off repairs and updates to their home.\n\nLower pay also makes it harder for her Head Start program to fill its vacancies. A teacher’s aide, for instance, starts at $10.10 an hour, while bus drivers and cooks start at $9.87 an hour, she said.\n\n“We’re short-staffed at one of the centers because no one wants to work because of the pay,” Tully said. “They have tried and tried to hire people. We’re losing people to other jobs too.”\n\nA growing number of companies have been raising their pay to lure and retain workers – a trend that started even before the pandemic. Last year, Under Armour raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour, while Amazon, Costco, Walmart, McDonald’s, Starbucks and others said they would increase the pay of some or all of their employees. Target announced last month that it would raise its starting wage for some positions to $24 an hour.\n\nBiden administration efforts\n\nThe Biden administration hiked the minimum wage for federal civilian workers stationed in the US and for federal contractors to $15 an hour earlier this year. Several Republican attorneys general have challenged President Joe Biden’s authority to lift the threshold for federal contractors.\n\nThe President also sought to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which he signed into law in March 2021. However, the Senate parliamentarian ruled against including it in the Covid-19 relief bill, saying it did not meet a strict set of guidelines needed to move forward in the Senate’s reconciliation process.\n\nDemocratic lawmakers have repeatedly introduced the Raise the Wage Act bill, which would boost the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and phase out the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, youth employees and workers with disabilities. But it has never made it through the Senate.\n\nThere are various analyses of how many people earn less than $15 an hour. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute last year that 22 million people would see a boost in pay if the federal minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour in 2025 under the Raise the Wage Act.\n\nOxfam America’s figure is higher because it includes the number of people who currently make less than $15 an hour and looks at a broader set of workers that includes tipped wage workers, sub-minimum wage workers, gig workers, farmworkers and care workers, Henderson said. It also includes Puerto Rico, which adds nearly 1 million people.\n\nBoth analyses are based on US Census Bureau data.\n\nWhere lower-paid workers live\n\nOxfam America, which backs the Raise the Wage Act legislation, also looked at which states have larger shares of their labor forces making $15 an hour.\n\nThe South has a disproportionate percentage of workers making less than that threshold, as do some states in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain region, the study found.\n\nIn Texas, for instance, more than 60% of women of color earn less than $15 an hour. In Mississippi, 45% of the state’s workforce makes less than that amount.\n\nAt the other end of the spectrum, Washington, DC, has a minimum wage of $15.20 an hour, while California’s minimum wage this year rose to $15 an hour for larger companies. Some localities, including Seattle, Denver and Los Angeles, have even higher minimum wages.", "authors": ["Tami Luhby"], "publish_date": "2022/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/debate/2015/11/09/iowa-minimum-wage-debate-mixed-between-people/75172680/", "title": "Minimum wage debate: Meet people living on it", "text": "Mike Kilen\n\nmkilen@dmreg.com\n\nClarification: This story has been updated to include a more precise interpretation of an analysis of Iowa workers by an Iowa State University scientist. The Sioux City area has the state's highest proportion of people working in three sectors that generally employ more workers being paid roughly the minimum wage.\n\nHeather Costello of Sioux City works for $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. For 40 hours a week, she presses meats into Lunchables on an assembly line at Tur-Pak Foods in Sioux City.\n\nShe's single and 39. Her weekly balance sheet: She brings home $250, pays $30 for transportation to her job through an employment agency, $25 to settle a debt, and roughly $84 a week for the rent-subsidized apartment she just moved into. That will leave $111 for food and, someday she hopes, a car.\n\nSo this is her dream: a $9-an-hour job.\n\nCostello said she doesn’t pay enough attention to politics to know how her financial situation could be helped by presidential candidates campaigning in Iowa who continue to debate whether — or how much — the federal minimum wage should increase.\n\nThe issue typically surfaces among Democrats, who will debate in Des Moines on Saturday. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have advocated raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and Hillary Clinton has called for a raise to $12.\n\nMost Republicans running for president oppose raising the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t increased since 2009. Democrats and some economists say increasing the wage is needed to help the working poor get by and narrow U.S. income inequality. Most Republicans and some economists say raising the minimum will cause job losses and raise prices.\n\nThe issue is boiling up across the country today. Fast-food and other low-wage workers are expected to walk off the job in 270 cities Tuesday as part of a push for a nationwide $15 minimum wage.\n\n“I’m really just busy trying to find out how I am going to squeeze by. I may have to get another job for groceries,” said Costello, who until recently has been living in a homeless shelter for women.\n\nShe knows enough about the wage debate to realize this: Some people will say folks are paid what they are worth in the market, and they will point to mistakes that lowered her worth in the workforce. She had a child at 16 and another at 19. She has no college education and became an alcoholic later in life.\n\nBut the bottom line, Costello said, is that she is one year sober and one year on a job that pays her to do a task, which she does reliably every workday from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at a wage that puts her near the federal poverty level.\n\nAs much as she likes the company, her fellow employees and the work, she said that task is worth more than $7.25 an hour, with the lone benefit of one week of paid vacation.\n\n“My children are 19 and 22 and both work at Burger King. They make more than me, I think $9 and $9.50 an hour,” she said. “I need a job like theirs that gives raises.”\n\nEconomists say impact would be mixed\n\nNearly 3 million U.S. workers make minimum wage. Iowa had the 12th highest percentage of hourly workers earning at or below the minimum wage in 2014 (5 percent), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tennessee was highest with 6.8 percent.\n\nIowa hasn’t raised its minimum wage since 2007. Every state surrounding it except Wisconsin has raised its rate since then.\n\nThe data are mixed on the effects of a minimum wage increase on individuals and the economy, said Peter Orazem, a professor of economics at Iowa State University.\n\n“People who remain employed are going to make more. That’s good. For people who don’t remain employed, that’s bad,” he said, citing estimates that for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, there is a 1 percent to 3 percent reduction in employment.\n\nOrazem said he has heard arguments that it is better to not have a job than to have one that pays below the social standard.\n\n\"I am not in that camp. That’s a little presumptuous,\" he said. \"Most are just starting out and getting trained; there aren’t many lifetime minimum wage workers.”\n\nIf setting a higher minimum wage is a signal of social standards, that’s fine, he continued, but “the general consensus is it’s not a good poverty alleviation device,” and most prevailing wages in urban areas are above the minimum. A better device is expanding the earned income tax credit, targeted at helping low-income working families and those with children.\n\nJohn Solow, an economics professor at the University of Iowa, agreed that while a minimum wage increase would improve living standards for low-wage workers, some jobs would be trimmed, and the price of goods would rise.\n\n“The important issue is how big those two effects are and how do you balance them,” he said. “Some could make the argument that we have an obligation to those families that suffer, who shouldn’t live in that sort of poverty. As a general matter, that is something I agree with. Do we really want to compete with India and China in a race to the bottom? In India, people are picking over piles of garbage.”\n\nEffects extend beyond those earning $7.25\n\nSioux City's market area has the highest percentage of people (24 percent) in Iowa working in three job categories with the largest shares of people working at or near the minimum wage, according to an analysis compiled for the Register by Liesl Eathington, a scientist for the Iowa Community Indicators Program at ISU.\n\nJean Logan, who heads a nonprofit that assists the low-income population, said she sees the effects every day of wages that haven’t kept up with inflation.\n\n“Of course we should be serving people on disability or aging people who can’t work anymore, but the real rise has been working families,” said Logan, executive director of the Community Action Agency of Siouxland. “People are working, and they still qualify for assistance.\n\n“We don’t want to think about poverty, but it’s our brothers and sisters and families with kids who play baseball with our kids and go to church with us,\" Logan said. \"For those in poverty, it’s a lot of quiet desperation.”\n\nOne argument against a raise is that the bulk of minimum wage workers are teens in part-time jobs just earning spending money. In the U.S., 48 percent of those working at or below minimum wage are ages 16 to 24.\n\nYet some economists believe that raising the minimum would raise the wages of all low-income workers, and many are not teenagers.\n\nMORE: 'Core Four' support Johnson County minimum wage increase\n\nPeter Fisher, who has a doctorate in economics and is the research director for the nonprofit Iowa Policy Project, cited a 2006 study by Jeannette Wicks-Lim that shows the ripple effect of a minimum wage increase would benefit four times the number of people who actually make minimum wage. Wicks-Lim is an assistant research professor with the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.\n\nFisher also analyzed Economic Policy Institute data for Iowa, and found that 78 percent of those who would be helped by a minimum wage increase to $10.10 an hour are age 20 or older.\n\nFisher said the job losses after a minimum wage increase would be “relatively small.”\n\nThe Congressional Budget Office last year estimated that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would eliminate 500,000 jobs, or 0.3 percent of the workforce.\n\nWith an increase, Fisher agrees that firms would try to cut labor costs with fewer workers and automation, but others would find they save money on training and recruitment with lower turnover of employees, as more get raises who are already above the minimum.\n\nJeremy Ogle, 36, has seen the effects firsthand in Sioux City. As a customer service worker, he saw his hourly income increase by a dollar to $10.15 an hour when his South Dakota firm increased its wages after that state increased its minimum wage to $8.50.\n\nThe single father, who is raising a 4-year-old son, graduated from Morningside College in May and works 30 hours a week. The increase helped, but he’s still mostly eating sandwiches so his son can eat meat, fruits and vegetables. He said he hasn’t bought new clothes in five years.\n\nThe political science major volunteers for Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, fully aware that raising the minimum wage is not a priority of many in the party. “But in my opinion, it is something we can’t avoid,” he said.\n\nRaise stalled last year in Iowa Legislature\n\nWith the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25, 29 states and many cities and counties in the U.S. have raised it on their own. Iowa's Johnson County joined the trend this fall.\n\nLegislation to raise the statewide minimum to $8.25 stalled last session.\n\nState Sen. Tom Courtney, R-Burlington, who supported the bill, said opponents wrongly argue that hardly anyone is working for the minimum wage.\n\n“Then why are they opposed to raising it?” he asked. “I tell you why. They know it’s not true. There are poor people trying to live on $14,000 a year.”\n\nOthers say one detriment would be firms hiring part-time workers to keep benefits and costs lower.\n\nMichael Patz said employers are already doing it. He is 25, works at a grocery store in West Des Moines, and can’t get his employer to increase his $9-an-hour job to more than 30 hours because the company doesn’t want to pay benefits.\n\nWith student loans, rent he shares with an employed girlfriend and no car, he still barely has enough to make it. He treated himself to an expensive bottle of craft beer as a birthday present recently, but he rarely goes out. He said workers need a raise, but it's difficult to accomplish with corporate influence in politics.\n\n“It’s profits, profits,” he said. “Politicians and the 1 percent want to keep lower-class Iowans down. It benefits them.”\n\nOthers say businesses are just trying to survive and that an increase could put them out of business\n\nJohnson County's ordinance, which took effect Nov. 1, sets a new minimum wage of $8.20, which will increase to $10.10 by January 2017. But four of the county's 11 cities countered with their own ordinance to keep the rate at $7.25.\n\nOne of them was Shueyville, where Mayor Mickey Coonfare said her informal survey of local businesses indicated raising the minimum wage would prompt some to close.\n\nCoonfare said most people working for minimum wage in Shueyville are teenagers who work part-time, but even those businesses with people working for more than the minimum wage would be hurt.\n\n“We are a tiny town with very few businesses,” she said. “The last thing I wanted to do is have businesses close.”\n\nWhile the debate rages on, Iowans such as Patsy Butler of West Des Moines struggle to make it. The 59-year-old lifelong manufacturing employee is working for a West Des Moines plant on the assembly line for $9 an hour with no benefits.\n\nOut of the $1,150 a month she makes, Butler says $900 a month goes to the lot rent for a trailer she owns, utilities, gas and a student loan. The remaining $250 is to buy food. She’s on her adult daughter’s cellphone plan.\n\n“I just have me, and I’m having a hard time. Thank God it’s just me,” she said.\n\nHer dream? $13 an hour. She could go out then and circulate a little money back into the local economy.\n\n“I’m not getting paid what I’m worth. I’m fast,” she said. “Nine dollars an hour isn’t enough, even for a young person. It’s my generation that is running everything, the big-time corporations and the government. I’m a little bit embarrassed that my generation has become greedy power mongers.”\n\nNext: College affordability\n\nAhead of Saturday's Democratic presidential debate at Drake University, KCCI-TV and The Des Moines Register are exploring issues that have figured prominently in the Democratic race.\n\nKCCI-TV's 10 p.m. Tuesday newscast: You'll meet Iowa students who are struggling to pull together the money to pay for college and their ideas for policy changes, including a Des Moines Area Community College student who's juggling college with raising a family, another DMACC student who wishes for more work-study options and an Iowa State student whose parents have multiple children in school at the same time.\n\nWednesday in the Register: Iowa has the dubious distinction of ranking No. 8 in the country when it comes to average student debt. Reporter Jeff Charis-Carlson has interviewed Iowans with varied experiences in paying for college, from those who have managed to graduate with little or no debt to a law school graduate who expects to be paying off his loans until age 62.\n\nAbout the debate\n\nWhen: 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14\n\nMain host: CBS News\n\nPartners: CBS affiliate KCCI-TV, The Des Moines Register, Twitter, Drake University, the Iowa Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee\n\nDebate site: Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University\n\nModerators: Lead moderator is John Dickerson of CBS News, anchor of “Face the Nation.” Also moderating are Nancy Cordes, congressional correspondent, CBS News; Kevin Cooney, anchor, KCCI-TV; and Kathie Obradovich, columnist, The Des Moines Register.\n\nTickets: The Iowa Democratic Party has a very limited number of tickets available; those interested in attending should email info@iowademocrats.org.\n\nLive coverage\n\nWhat’s the buzz on social?\n\nDuring Saturday's debate, The Des Moines Register will offer readers the ultimate second-screen experience with a curated collection of reaction tweets, up-to-the-second coverage from our staff and a feed of our latest stories, photos and videos. We’ll cut through the noise. Follow along during the debate, starting 8 p.m. Saturday, at DesMoinesRegister.com/DemDebate.\n\nPlus check in this week for previews, examination of key issues, photos and videos.\n\nYou can also follow coverage on Twitter at @DMRcaucus and @DMRegister. Look for the official hashtag #DemDebate.\n\nTWEET: Use #DemDebate to sound off on Twitter", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/11/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/new-jersey/governor/2018/02/08/phil-murphy-promise-tracker-minimum-wage-nj-transit-and-more/1034208001/", "title": "Phil Murphy promise tracker: Minimum wage, NJ Transit and more", "text": "Last updated Oct. 19, 2021.\n\nGov. Phil Murphy made a lot of promises while running for governor. Now he has to try to fulfill them. The Record and NorthJersey.com have compiled a list of those promises and is publishing them here as a way of informing the public and to hold Murphy accountable.\n\nThis list is comprehensive but not exhaustive, and is culled from statements Murphy made during the campaign or posted on his website. The Record will update this list as needed with the status on these promises as Murphy moves through his tenure.\n\nTaxes, spending and the economy\n\nPromise: Pass a millionaire's tax\n\nMurphy has supported raising taxes on New Jersey's highest earners for a while, and he has not moved off his position despite wavering by other Democratic leaders.\n\n“Everything we’ve talked about this entire campaign is to back the truck up and get back to reinvesting in the middle class and asking those, the biggest among us, the wealthiest among us, to pay their fair share,” Murphy said in November 2017.\n\nUnlike past attempts by Democrats to pass a tax on high earners, Murphy said on MTP Daily on Jan. 17, 2018 that he wants a true millionaire's tax.\n\nRelated:Gottheimer to Murphy - Don't hike taxes on NJ millionaires\n\n\"When we talk about a millionaire's tax, that's a millionaire,\" Murphy said. \"We'll figure it out because the middle class needs, in our state, at all costs to be rescued,\" he added.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nIn his March 13, 2018 budget address, Murphy called on the Legislature to pass a measure \"asking those with taxable incomes in excess of $1 million to pay a little more.\" He anticipated raising rates from the top 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent on incomes over $1 million to raise $765 million in the 2019 fiscal year.\n\nHe faced a major obstacle, though. Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, had expressed resistance to the millionaire's tax and said it should be the \"absolute last resort\" after passage of President Donald Trump's federal tax overhaul.\n\nAfter intense negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, Murphy abruptly abandoned his years-long quest to pass a true millionaire's tax and agreed to a Sweeney-backed proposal increasing the top tax rate to 10.75 percent on incomes over $5 million — a \"multi-millionaires\" tax, as Murphy put it. When asked what changed enough for him to change his mind and accept the higher income threshold, Murphy said it was the tax rate.\n\n\"A millionaire's tax was an existential item for me and for us, I believe, in order to achieve tax fairness,\" Murphy said in a June 30 news conference to announce a budget agreement. \"The notion of how we did it was never as important as doing it and establishing that recurring revenue for the wealthiest among us.\"\n\nThat is quite a turnaround in philosophy from just one day earlier, when Murphy called the $5 million threshold a symbolic gesture from legislative Democrats because, he said, about 21,000 millionaires earning up to $5 million would be exempt from the new rate. And raising the threshold would dramatically reduce the expected revenue for the budget — about $280 million compared to the $765 million from a true millionaire's tax.\n\n\"We've got folks who are trying to protect 21,000 millionaires. I literally don't get that,\" Murphy said during a June 29 news conference.\n\nThat all changed after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, causing a major drop-off in revenues along with a public health disaster.\n\nIn a deal brokered by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, Sweeney and Murphy agreed to raise the top rate on incomes over $1 million to 10.75% in exchange for rebates of up to $500 for parents. Murphy pitched it as middle-class tax relief, although it excludes a large portion of the middle class and wasn't expected to arrive to households until summer 2021, when he and lawmakers are expected to run for re-election.\n\nMurphy signed the millionaire's tax into law on Sept. 29, 2020 as part of a nearly $33 billion budget.\n\n\"Importantly, this budget lives up to the ideal of shared sacrifice in trying times by including meaningful tax fairness,\" Murphy said.\n\nPromise: Create a state bank\n\nThis was one of Murphy's big policy ideas at the outset of his campaign. He envisions it to invest tax dollars in small businesses, student loans and infrastructure projects and offer low-interest loans.\n\n\"I can look back at periods in this state under the leadership of both or either party, when we were both fiscally responsible, proudly progressive and we dreamt and took chances and took risks and embraced big ideas,\" Murphy said at a gubernatorial forum held by the New Jersey Bankers Association in April 2017. \"If we believe in our future, let's put our money where our mouth is. Let's again think deeply and do more,\" he added.\n\nHe told CNBC's \"Squawk Box\" in March 2017 that the bank would be owned by the residents of New Jersey \"and the business that it does would be restricted to New Jersey.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched but unfulfilled.\n\nOn Nov. 13, 2019, nearly two years into his term, Murphy signed an executive order creating an \"implementation board\" to work out the details of how a state bank would be run in New Jersey. The 14-member board had one year to present its plan. As of November 2020, that hadn't happened and the board was set back by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nMurphy acknowledged at the time that \"this is one of the few (promises) that we haven't gotten to.\"\n\nPromise: $15 hourly minimum wage\n\nMurphy made this one of his top campaign promises and said on Jan. 17, his first full day in office, that it is \"high on that list\" of his legislative priorities. But Murphy favors a \"clean\" bill to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and said last March during a forum with the New Jersey Working Families Alliance that he would veto what the forum moderator called a \"watered down\" proposal.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nOn Feb. 4, 2019, Murphy signed the wage increase to make New Jersey the fourth state to pass a $15 hourly minimum wage law.\n\n\"Big day for New Jersey,\" Murphy said in an interview after the bill-signing.\n\nThe increase won't be automatic. The 2019 minimum wage of $8.85 an hour is scheduled to increase to $10 in July, then rise by $1 each January until 2024.\n\nThere are also exceptions. Seasonal workers, employees at businesses with fewer than six workers and farm laborers will have their pay increase on a slower timeline, beginning with an increase to $10.30 an hour in 2020.\n\nPromise: Legalize recreational marijuana\n\nMurphy has said marijuana legalization is a social justice issue and that the revenue generated from it is one of the last reasons he is in favor of it. He has said that as a father of four, it has taken him some time to come around to the idea of legal marijuana, but he has come to view laws being unevenly applied to minorities and young people.\n\n\"I want to legalize it, regulate it. I'm glad we're not the first state, because a lot of other states have done it and made mistakes,\" Murphy said during a debate on Oct. 18, 2017. \"And at the end of the day, will we earn some revenues from it? Yes. But it's got to be social justice first.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nMurphy had hoped to legalize marijuana through legislation, but after failing to reach agreement with fellow Democrats in the Legislature, he and lawmakers put it before voters to decide. They overwhelmingly approved it in November 2020.\n\nBut it took nearly three months for Democrats to agree on the legal framework to start the new industry, another sign of the difficulties New Jersey's policy makers had in fulfilling a long-sought objective.\n\nAfter weeks of negotiations that appeared at times to collapse chances of a marketplace rising up in 2021, lawmakers delivered bills to decriminalize and legalize the drug to Murphy on Feb. 22. He signed it within an hour.\n\n\"New Jersey's broken, indefensible marijuana laws — which permanently stained the records of many residents and short-circuited their futures, disproportionately hurt communities of color and failed the meaning of justice at every level, social or otherwise — are no more,\" Murphy said in a press conference.\n\n\"In their place are laws that will usher in a new industry, based on equity, which will reinvest dollars into communities — laws which promote both public health by promoting safe cannabis products and public safety by allowing law enforcement to focus their resources on serious crimes.\"\n\nThe laws signed he signed allow the possession and use of marijuana by anyone over 21 years old within the state of New Jersey, who can have up to 6 ounces of weed on them without facing any penalty. They also allow the purchase and sale of the drug at state-licensed dispensaries.\n\nSome marijuana offenses will remain criminal, including drug distribution and growing cannabis plants without a license.\n\nPromise: Guarantee earned sick leave\n\nPaid sick leave, like the $15 minimum wage, is another one of Murphy's central promises that he included to be \"high on that list\" of policy priorities early in his term. At a Jan. 17 round table in Newark on the two topics, Murphy said that even though about a dozen towns have passed sick leave ordinances, \"we have 565 communities in our state and we need a statewide agenda, we need a statewide law that ensures earned sick leave.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nOn May 2, 2018 Murphy signed bill A-1857 giving most workers an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. It caps sick time at 40 hours.\n\n\"This is not just about doing what's right for workers and their families,\" he said of paid sick leave. \"This is about doing the right thing for our economy and protecting more New Jerseyans' place in that economy.\"\n\nThe law took effect at the end of October 2018.\n\nPromise: Equal pay for equal work\n\nMurphy aims to close the gender wage gap with a statewide law. On inauguration day he signed an executive order, his first, prohibiting state agencies from asking about a job applicant's pay history, saying employers should \"pay people based on what their job is, not on what their past pay was.\" His campaign website said that he would sign a bill that \"strengthens penalties for wage discrimination, bans employers from asking job applicants for their salary history, and prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who discuss compensation.\"\n\nOn inauguration day he called for lawmakers to deliver.\n\n\"They don't need urging on this one, trust me, they lead on this one,\" he said on inauguration day. \"Send the bill to my desk to make this simple and common sense practice state law. As I said earlier, I will sign it.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nIn an April 24, 2018 ceremony at the Trenton War Memorial, Murphy signed that bill, known as the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act. It is considered one of the strongest, if not the strongest, wage discrimination laws in the country. Among other things, it prohibits employers from paying a woman or minority less than a male doing \"substantially similar\" work and allows for up to six years of back pay to be awarded to workers.\n\nPromise: Create a new retirement plan for employees of small businesses.\n\nAccording to his campaign website, \"Phil will offer, just as a growing number of states do, a simple, opt-in retirement plan for small business employees. Doing so will help ensure that all workers in our state can adequately save for their retirement.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nOn March 28, 2019, Murphy today signed the New Jersey Secure Choice Savings Program, requiring employers with 25 or more workers to participate in a retirement savings program administered through automatic payroll deductions. They will be automatically enrolled in the program, which is funded through a payroll deduction, but can also opt out. Employees of businesses of any size can also participate.\n\nBy creating the program, Murphy said in a statement, \"we are ensuring that every worker in New Jersey will have the opportunity to save for the future. \"\n\nPromise: Make home ownership affordable and accessible.\n\nAccording to his website, Murphy plans to achieve this by \"stopping Governor Christie’s practice of diverting affordable housing funds to plug holes in the budget; expanding counseling programs to keep people in their homes and repurposing foreclosed properties as affordable housing; expanding tax credits to create new housing; and lowering property taxes by funding our schools, incentivizing shared services, and restoring rebates to low-income, seniors and disabled residents.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise partially kept.\n\nIn Murphy's 2019 budget, $59.3 million was dedicated for affordable housing and neighborhood preservation. The Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit, which among other things is used to develop affordable housing, increased from $10 million to $15 million for the fiscal year.\n\nAnd after maintaining a cut in his budget proposal to the Homestead rebate program that helps low-incomes, seniors and disabled residents, Murphy restored $150 million to to bring the total appropriation to $298 million.\n\nOn Aug. 14, the Department of Community Affairs announced a new mediation program designed to save up to 2,000 homeowners from foreclosure. The New Jersey Housing and Finance Agency is providing $1 million to the program and there are at least two counseling agencies serving each county, according to the department, which is led by Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver.\n\nUnder the program, homeowners who have been served with a foreclosure notice will be notified of free U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-certified counseling services and a counselor will help them navigate the process. The counselor can also determine if further assistance, such as negotiating with the lender or transition assistance, is needed.\n\nIn many cases, mediation can help avoid foreclosure.\n\nPromise: Expand Earned Income Tax Credit\n\nThe earned income tax credit, or EITC, is a state benefit intended to help poor and low-income households. Christie had cut the state credit percentage relative to the federal credit in leaner years, but he raised it to 35 percent of the federal credit in 2017, his final year in office.\n\nMurphy wants to raise the earned income tax credit to 40 percent of the federal level, his website said, \"so that working families can lift themselves out of poverty.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promised kept.\n\nMurphy outlined a plan in his 2019 budget address to reach the 40 percent level in three years. Aides said the credit would help more than 510,000 low-income families who could see an average benefit of more than $1,160.\n\nIncreasing the credit from 35 percent to 40 percent was included in the budget package Murphy signed July 1.\n\nPromise: Create a new child care and caregiver tax credit\n\nThis didn't get much attention during the campaign, so there aren't many specifics. Murphy told the AARP Bulletin that he would create a credit similar to the state's child-care tax credit and, the bulletin wrote, \"educate caregivers about how they can use the New Jersey Family Leave Act and make it more accessible.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nIn his budget address, Murphy said he would create a \"Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit\" for middle-class and working families. His office later said it would be tied to the federal program and would help more than 70,000 people in New Jersey earning less than $60,000 \"with assistance to support the care of a child or other dependent when necessary for the taxpayer’s employment.\"\n\nLike the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child care tax credit was part of the budget Murphy negotiated with Democrats and signed July.\n\nPromise: Close loopholes for \"wealthy individuals and large corporations\"\n\nMurphy talked often about closing loopholes without identifying them to help bring in revenue.\n\n\"We're going to stand for tax fairness,\" he said in the Jan. 17 MTP Daily interview. \"If you're a hedge fund and you're getting away with carried interest that we should close as a loophole at the federal [level], we're going to find a way to do that at the state level, I hope with other allied states. If you're a big corporation that's living off of loopholes,\" he added, \"we're going to close those loopholes.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nThe 2019 budget recommended changes that would \"modernize and improve\" business taxes and bring in an extra $110 million to the state.\n\nMurphy's proposals included several changes, including combined reporting of corporate business taxes and re-instituting taxes on international holding companies.\n\nIn his budget agreement with Democrats, Murphy signed into law a business tax modernization that includes:\n\nCombined reporting, which targets tax avoidance of companies by requiring multi-state corporation to add together the profits of all of its subsidiaries, regardless of their location, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.\n\nRecapturing income made available through the enactment of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act\n\nAddressing \"abusive\" profit-shifting activities\n\nA four-year tax on corporations earning more than $1 million\n\nClosing various loopholes\n\nThese changes are expected to yield $861 million in the 2019 fiscal year, many times more than Murphy had anticipated his initial business recommendations would.\n\nPromise: Divest pension funds from hedge funds and private equity\n\nThis is one of the ways, along with closing loopholes and raising taxes, that Murphy plans to raise revenue to support his policy ideas. In an interview with NorthJersey.com and The Record in April 2017, he said that the state pays \"exorbitant fees to hedge funds and private equity managers\" but \"the evidence is overwhelmingly the case you no longer get what you pay for.\"\n\n\"The space is overcrowded, the returns are mediocre, the fees are exorbitant. That's one obvious area,\" to save money, he said. \"Probably not the only area, but it's the area that I'd look to first.\"\n\nThe State Investment Council, already facing criticism in Gov. Chris Christie's later years for its hedge fund investments, began scaling back its allocations in 2016 and seeking better fee structures.\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nUnder Murphy, the State Investment Council has continued to decrease its investments in hedge funds. The council moved in March 2018 to hold off making any commitments to hedge funds given Murphy's view that the fees are too high for questionable returns.\n\nAt that time, equity-oriented hedge funds accounted for 1 percent of the public employee pension fund's assets and credit-oriented hedge funds represented 1.15 percent of assets, according to the trade publication Pension & Investments, citing a report submitted to the council.\n\nAs investment council chairman Tom Byrne noted in the body's annual report issued in February 2018, \"No member of this Council has ever moved to get rid of hedge funds entirely.\" But Byrne also announced his plan to leave the council and the decision may rest with Murphy, who will choose Byrne's successor.\n\nPromise: Establish a state-level Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and strengthen existing regulations in light of President Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back the federal Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.\n\nMurphy has not spoken much about specifics on this idea, but said when he named Assemblywoman Marlene Caride his choice to be the next Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner that it is up to the state to push back against what he views as harmful policies of Republican President Donald Trump. Murphy specifically named the administration's actions to take control of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the sort of \"destruction that's coming at us from Washington.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nOn March 27, 2018 Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the appointment of Paul Rodriguez as director of Division of Consumer Affairs, the lead agency in charge of protecting consumer rights.\n\nAlthough Murphy has not established a state-level Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an Attorney General spokeswoman said Rodriguez \"the existing office will be used in a new way to tackle consumer financial protection.\"\n\nPromise: Prosecute financial fraud\n\nThis is another promise light on details but was included on Murphy's multi-step plan of \"ending Wall Street's influence on State Street.\" The state Attorney General's office already does prosecute financial fraud with regularity.\n\nPromise: Reclaim the innovation economy\n\nMurphy often talked about New Jersey being \"Silicon Valley before there was a Silicon Valley.\" According to Murphy's website, he wants to return New Jersey to its technological glory by:\n\n\"Launching a “Computer Science for All” initiative to offer computer science education to every public school student; partnering with companies to expand access to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, internships and vocational programs; providing loan forgiveness for STEM educators in high-need schools and creating a new STEM-educator fellowship program to recruit and train a new class of STEM teachers.\"\n\nMurphy said he would also establish a Grant Management Office \"to make sure we get our fair share of federal funds for research and development,\" increase state funding for research and development, provide affordable, high-speed internet for all New Jerseyans and configure public spaces to be digitally and universally accessible; convene an \"innovation cabinet,\" increase access to capital for small businesses and startups and forgive student loans for new graduates launching businesses in \"under-served and distressed communities.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nMurphy's 2019 budget includes $2 million for a \"Secondary School Computer Science Education Initiative,\" which his office says fits into his \"computer science for all\" plan.\n\nAnd on May 29, 2018 Murphy announced plans to pay interns and chip into student debt in STEM fields.\n\nUnder Murphy's student debt plan, the state would pay up to $1,000 annually for four years toward eligible workers' college debt through the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority. Employees must live in New Jersey and work in eligible science, technology, engineering and math fields for four years before becoming eligible. The state would then pay for the next four years. And Murphy's office said employers would have to match the cost, giving the worker $8,000 toward student debt.\n\nDemocratic lawmakers said at the time they planned to sponsor bills for the debt relief, but the measures had not made it to Murphy as of July.\n\nMurphy's paid internship proposal would also apply to the STEM fields. Through the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state would reimburse participating employers up to 50 percent of wages paid to student interns in information technology, life science and health care fields. The program would cap employer reimbursements at $1,500 per student, Murphy's office said.\n\nMurphy planned to pay for the initiative by increasing the state's Career Accelerator Program from $1.5 million to $4 million. But the 2019 budget he signed included $3 million for the program, which will come from the $34.5 million Workforce Development Partnership Fund, according to his office.\n\nOn Aug. 13, Murphy named Beth Simone Noveck, director of the Governance Lab at New York University Tandon School of Engineering, as the state's first chief innovation officer.\n\nThat position's responsibilities include \"designing and deploying more effective and agile government services,\" using new technologies and collaboration with other governments, higher education institutions and private sector businesses to solve public problems; and helping to craft policies to \"respond to the opportunities and challenges of new technology,\" Murphy's office said.\n\nNoveck was the country's first deputy chief technology officer, under former President Barack Obama, before being appointed as former United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron's senior adviser for open government. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School and is a member of the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress.\n\n\"Beth is an experienced, high-caliber professional who will make New Jersey a leader in government effectiveness,\" Murphy said in a statement.\n\nNoveck will be paid $140,938 a year through Rutgers University, where she will be a visiting senior fellow at the university's Heldrich Center. That money will come from a $500,000 line item in Murphy's budget to Rutgers for an office overseeing coordination and improvements to technology and innovation.\n\nOn Dec. 14, Murphy signed into law a STEM Loan Redemption Program within the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority providing graduates of colleges and universities employed in STEM fields with $1,000 each year, for a maximum of 4 years, towards their student loans. The loans would be matched by the graduate's employer.\n\nHealth\n\nPromise: Restore Christie's annual $7.5 million cut to Planned Parenthood\n\nChristie repeatedly cut funding to Planned Parenthood and vetoed efforts from the Democratic Legislature to pass annual funding of $7.5 million. Murphy promised to restore that funding throughout the campaign, and during his inaugural address called on lawmakers to send him a bill to do so.\n\n\"To my partners in the Legislature: I ask you to send me the bills, among others, to reaffirm our support for women’s health and Planned Parenthood,\" Murphy said.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept. After eight years of denials by Christie, the Democrats who control the Legislature were eager to send the bill appropriating $7.45 million for family planning services to Murphy for approval. Murphy signed the bill — his first — during a Feb. 21, 2018 ceremony at the Trenton War Memorial, where he was surrounded by lawmakers, his wife, Tammy, and Planned Parenthood's outgoing president, Cecile Richards.\n\nPromise: Lower insurance premiums by reining in excessive out-of-network costs\n\nLawmakers in Trenton have tried for nearly a decade to end surprise medical bills due to out-of-network costs. Murphy has made doing so part of his plan to raise about $1.3 billion in revenues.\n\nWhen he named Dr. Shareef Elnahal his choice to be the next health commissioner on Jan. 10, Murphy said that one of his challenges is going to be \"helping close the out-of-network loopholes that erode affordability.\" Murphy likely has an ally in Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, who, before being named to lead the chamber, sponsored legislation to rein in excessive costs.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nMurphy signed the \"Out-of-network Consumer Protection, Transparency, Cost Containment and Accountability Act” on June 1, 2018 making New Jersey one of the rare states with such a strong consumer protection law.\n\nIt requires healthcare providers disclose what they expect to charge for out-of-network services and for insurers to disclose what they expect to pay. Patients will be able to find out in advance what their financial responsibility will be.\n\nOut-of-network doctors and hospitals will have to enter into baseball-style arbitration over reimbursement disputes, which will be decided by an independent arbitrator.\n\nPromise: Work to identify the state’s 75,000 uninsured children and enroll them in health coverage\n\nMurphy listed this promise on his campaign website, but did not lay out how he would achieve it.\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nMurphy signed a \"Cover All Kids\" bill in 2021 that would put New Jersey on a path to universal health coverage. The governor's budget set aside $20 million to expand New Jersey FamilyCare, the state’s Medicaid program, and it would reach about 88,000 children over two years.\n\nPromise: Expand access to addiction treatment and services\n\nAnother unclear promise on his website. Murphy suggested during his inaugural address that he would continue Christie's work combating opioid addiction, but did not specifically say how in his speech.\n\n\"There is much in your body of work from which to choose, but, in particular, your work to save lives from the epidemic of opioid addiction is a legacy worth applauding and continuing, and I intend to do so,\" Murphy said.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nMurphy's 2019 budget included $100 million in opioid funding. That is half of what Christie budgeted in his final year budget, but Murphy said in April 2018 that just about $90 million of that was spent on treatment. A key component of Christie's push in his last year to highlight the heroin and opioid epidemic was a series of commercials and advertisements.\n\nMurphy said most of the money he budgeted, $87 million, was to be directed to expanding treatment access and maintaining existing programs, such as linking overdose victims with recovering addicts and providing housing and workforce training to families and individuals. The remaining $13 million was planned to build out a \"modern\" data infrastructure to collect and analyze drug-related information and increase the use of electronic health records for providers.\n\nPromise: Tackle opioid epidemic\n\nAccording to his website, Murphy would do this by: pooling state, federal and private resources to expand access to addiction treatment facilities statewide; requiring health insurers to cover Medication-Assisted Treatment and allowing nurse practitioners, pharmacists and physician assistants to prescribe any medications necessary to treat addiction; and lowering the cost of Narcan.\n\nEnvironment\n\nPromise: Rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative\n\nMurphy said he would \"immediately\" restore New Jersey's place in the cap-and-trade program that Christie pulled out of in 2011 because, he said, it was a failure. Murphy sees it as a necessary tool to help reduce emissions and follow a standard of environmental stewardship. In an April 2017 press release, Murphy's campaign said \"he would make rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) one of his first acts in office.\"\n\nStatus: Murphy signed an executive order on Jan. 29, his 13th day in office, directing his administration begin the process to rejoin the cap-and-trade program. But it is not an immediate re-entry. The administration must work with the nine other member states to determine the best way to get back into the program and the state must create regulations on how to administer the program.\n\nPromise: 100 percent clean energy by 2050\n\nIn an April 26, 2017 press release, Murphy outlined details of his plan and \"committed, within his first 100 days in office, to starting the process of creating a new State Energy Master Plan to set New Jersey on a path to 100 percent clean energy by 2050, with higher renewable standards to motivate public and private sector actors to adapt and expand the clean energy market.\"\n\nHis plan also includes: A target of producing 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind generation by 2030, a goal of 600 megawatts of energy storage by 2021 and 2000 megawatts of storage by 2030; increasing funding and incentives for energy efficiency; and \"prioritizing solar energy expansion and ensuring that New Jersey regains its status as a national leader in solar energy production and job creation — including the establishment of a community solar program, allowing low-income communities to work together to afford clean energy options.\"\n\nAnother component of his clean energy plan is a ban on fracking and storage of fracking waste in New Jersey, as well as a fracking ban in the Delaware River.\n\nStatus: This is a broken promise on clean energy and a promise launched on wind production.\n\nMurphy signed an executive order on Jan. 31 directing his administration to develop on offshore wind plan, specifically with the 3,500 megawatt power generation goal by 2030.\n\nMurphy announced a day later that the state intends to vote in favor of a fracking ban in the Delaware River basin.\n\nBut Murphy has broken the main component of his promise: 100 percent clean energy. He unveiled the state's Energy Master Plan on Jan. 27, 2020, saying that \"in the absence of climate change leadership in Washington, these reforms will help propel New Jersey to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.\"\n\nBut the Murphy administration defines clean energy as \"carbon neutral,\" meaning the carbon is captured or eliminated. That change allows the state to use other energy sources, such as natural gas, a fossil fuel that emits carbon. As a candidate, Murphy had pledged to \"eventually\" reach 100 percent carbon-free electricity.\n\nRead the plan here.\n\nThe energy plan also does not include a moratorium on pending fossil fuel projects, which environmental groups had called for. Not including the moratorium, they say, will hamper Murphy's clean energy goals.\n\n\"Governor Murphy has changed the definition of clean energy to dirty energy,\" said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club. \"If Murphy really cared about reaching 100% clean energy, he would put a moratorium on all fossil fuel projects and make sure New Jersey divests from fossil fuels.”\n\nOn offshore wind production, the Board of Public Utilities took the first step toward meeting Murphy's power production goal by voting Sept. 17, 2018 to solicit applications for developers to build facilities to produce 1,100 megawatts of energy. The board said it intends to act on the applications by July 1, 2019.\n\nBeyond that, Murphy called on the board to open two more 1,200 megawatt solicitations, in 2020 and 2022.\n\n“In the span of just nine months, New Jersey has vaulted to the front of the pack in establishing this cutting-edge industry,” Murphy said in a statement the day of the board vote.\n\nOn Nov. 19, 2019, at an event with former Vice President Al Gore, Murphy said he plans to double the state's wind energy production, to 7,500 megawatts by 2035.\n\n\"When we meet this goal, our offshore winds will generate enough electricity to power more than 3.2 million New Jersey homes,\" Murphy said.\n\n\"We will meet half of our electric power need,\" he said. \"We will generate billions of dollars in investments in our state’s future that will, in turn, generate thousands of union jobs.\"\n\nPromise: Protect the Jersey Shore\n\n\"We will resist the dangerous and wrong attempt to allow drilling for oil off our precious shore. We will not allow this threat to our environment and our economy to stand. Our administration, along with the bipartisan support of our federal delegation, will not back down in our fight to protect the Jersey Shore from President Trump and the energy industry special interests,\" Murphy said in his inauguration speech.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nDuring a beachside ceremony on April 20, 2018 Murphy signed into law a measure banning offshore drilling in state waters. But state waters extend just three miles from the coastline and Murphy does not have the power to extend the ban beyond that, into federal territory.\n\nConceivably the federal government could allow drilling off the Jersey Shore past the three mile point, but the bill Murphy signed includes prohibitions on pipelines and infrastructure crossing state territory, acting as a strong deterrent.\n\nPromise: Preserve open space\n\nAccording to his website, Murphy will \"stop the practice of diverting constitutionally-dedicated open space funding away from its intended purpose\" and \"will also depoliticize key environmental staff and commissions — including those that protect the Highlands and Pinelands — and restore New Jersey as a leader in smart planning.\"\n\nGuns\n\nPromise: Sign all gun legislation Christie vetoed\n\n\"You can assume the measures he's vetoed we would have signed, and we'll endeavor to do so,\" Murphy said on an Aug. 24, 2017 conference call, where he accepted the endorsement of Americans for Responsible Solutions.\n\nStatus: This is a promise partially kept.\n\nChristie vetoed more than a dozen gun-related bills during his eight years as governor, but the Legislature, as of July 2019, had not sent Murphy all those measures for his promised signature.\n\nBut Murphy has signed what he could. On July 16, 2019, he approved a bill to open the market up to smart guns, personalized firearms that use a fingerprint or radio frequency chip to identify just one authorized shooter. The intent is to prevent accidental deaths.\n\nAnd Murphy signed six gun-related bills on June 13, 2018. Of them, three had been vetoed by Christie: reducing the magazine capacity limit from 15 to 10; requiring background checks for private gun sales; and codifying the state's justifiable need standard for a concealed carry permit.\n\nThe three other bills Murphy signed that day were:\n\nA-1217: Allows a police officer, family or household member of a gun owner to petition for an “extreme risk protective order,” authorizing authorities to seize the weapon.\n\nA-1181: Requires law enforcement to seize firearms from individuals deemed by a mental health professional to pose a threat to themselves or others.\n\nA-2759: Adopts the federal definition of “armor-piercing ammunition” into state law.\n\nPromise: Tax gun sales to prevent violence\n\nFrom his website: \"All gun sales should be subject to a tax that will fund law enforcement, drug treatment centers, and mental health services.\" And on an Aug. 24, 2017 conference call, Murphy said he supports a tax on guns but he lacked specifics.\n\n\"We have not picked a particular level yet. That’s something we’re still trying to work through,\" Murphy said.\n\nStatus: This is a promise unfulfilled.\n\nMurphy proposed the tax in his 2019 budget. While he did not specify a rate, he did anticipate $1.4 million in revenue from the fee increase, which he said haven't been updated in many years. But he did not have the support of legislative leadership and it was stripped from the budget he signed.\n\nPromise: Create a regional gun coalition\n\nMurphy offered the idea of a gun coalition as a way to cut down on illegal weapons crossing state lines. It was a plan modeled loosely on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to reduce carbon emissions. He didn't have much detail on the gun coalition plan at the time he discussed it with The Record in October 2017, but he said, \"You’re stronger if you do this in numbers.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nMurphy announced the States for Gun Safety coalition on Feb. 22, 2018 during a conference call with the participating governors of Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island.\n\nMurphy said the coalition will strengthen ties between the states by sharing intelligence and information on guns, such as protective orders for individuals that would prohibit them from purchasing firearms. The states will also study gun violence, he said, and create a cross-state task force to trace and intercept illegal guns.\n\nDays later, Delaware, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico joined the coalition. Murphy said he hopes to add more states in the future.\n\nImmigration\n\nPromise: Make New Jersey a sanctuary state*\n\nDuring the Oct. 10, 2017 debate with Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, Murphy said: \"if need be, we'll be a sanctuary, not just city, but state.\"\n\nMurphy quickly backed off that language after the election, saying he recognized that the term was charged. He instead adopted \"welcoming community.\" Still, he has not provided a clear definition of what that may mean. In a December 2017 interview, Murphy explained his thinking:\n\n\"How we get it done, what the trigger is, I haven’t given more thought to that. But I will repeat what I said on the campaign trail: We’ll do what we have to do. And, by the way, that also is invariably going to mean we’re going to need to engage the federal government. And I don’t mean engage in a Kumbaya. I mean we’re going to need an attorney general, a governor, a lieutenant governor who are prepared to stand up to the Trump administration, probably locking arms with other like-minded states.\"\n\n*There's a catch. Murphy did not propose making New Jersey a sanctuary state as something he would pursue on his own. It is a measure he would take in response to President Donald Trump's immigration policies. It isn't clear what exactly would prompt him to pursue sanctuary policies.\n\nPromise: Protect immigrant rights\n\nMurphy was vocal about being resistant to policies put forth by President Donald Trump that he found un-American and perhaps unlawful. He vowed to protect so-called \"Dreamers\", young immigrants who came to the United States illegally, and said he would oppose \"any efforts,\" according to his website, to use state and local police to assist in mass deportations.\n\nMurphy said he would extend immigrant protections to identification and education.\n\n\"I'm all in and I've been all in for years on everyone gets access to (a) driver's license, not just some of us, everyone gets a state identification card, everybody gets not just in state tuition but in state financial aid,\" he said at the March 2016 New Jersey Working Families Alliance forum. \"That can't be for some. You're either in or you're out. And I want to be in, and you have my word I will be.\"\n\nStatus: The Murphy administration has kept the promise to oppose efforts to use state and local police in mass deportations, but New Jersey remains a popular place for the federal government to hold immigrants.\n\nAttorney General Gurbir Grewal announced a new directive on Nov. 29 restricting law enforcement's cooperation with the federal government's immigration operations.\n\nUnder the Immigrant Trust Directive, local police officers can no longer stop, search or detain any individual over immigration status or detain immigrants at the request of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, except in cases of serious or violent crimes or final deportation orders.\n\n\"There is a difference between state, county, and local law enforcement officers, who are responsible for enforcing state criminal law, and federal immigration authorities, who enforce federal civil immigration law,\" Grewal said. \"Put simply, New Jersey’s law enforcement officers protect the public by investigating state criminal offenses and enforcing state criminal laws.\"\n\nBut arrests of immigrants rose 35 percent in 2017, and ICE warned after Grewal issued his directive that more raids would come to New Jersey.\n\nNew Jersey jails are popular holding spots for detainees as well. The federal government pays Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties to hold immigration detainees, a practice that has been protested as hypocritical.\n\nPromise: Create an Office of Immigrant Defensive Protection\n\nMurphy wants to develop an office he described to The Washington Post as a \"legal services-oriented\" resource for immigrants. He said on MSNBC on Jan. 17 that there are a lot of \"scared\" people in the state and a \"lot of rumors\" going around under Trump. \"We want one point of contact where folks can call up and get the right answer,\" Murphy said.\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nOn July 4, 2019 Murphy signed an executive order to \"design\" an Office of New Americans — a name different from what he'd promised but whose function is \"the same thing\" he proposed during the campaign, according to his office.\n\nThe office is will \"work to empower immigrants and refugees throughout the state\" and must submit a plan to Murphy by the end of the year detailing its actions.\n\nThe office's objectives, according to the order are: \"promoting trainings that inform new Americans of the availability of services and their rights, including in the employment context; working with organizations and advocacy groups to increase accessibility to state programs for new Americans; and ensuring that services are accessible to New American populations, including those who speak languages other than English.\"\n\nIn announcing the new office, Murphy also said his administration had submitted its intent to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to regain the state's role in overseeing New Jersey's resettlement program. Republican former Gov. Chris Christie pulled out of that program in 2016.\n\nMurphy had already taken one \"legal services-oriented\" step toward aiding immigrants when he made the announcement.\n\nOn Nov. 19, 2018 the Treasury Department announced that it would allocate $2.1 million out of Murphy's first budget to help pay for legal representation for immigrants. The state's principal contractor, Legal Services of New Jersey, was scheduled to receive $925,000 for direct representation services to eligible immigrants. Another $925,000 was expected to go to the American Friends Service Committee for its direct representation services, and $125,000 for each of the law school clinics at Rutgers University and Seton Hall University.\n\n“Families who came to New Jersey for a better life do not deserve to be torn apart by the federal government’s cruel and discriminatory policies,” Murphy said in a statement.\n\nEducation\n\nPromise: Fully fund school funding formula\n\nMurphy made it a feature of his candidacy to fully fund education under the Corzine-era School Funding Reform Act, which has not been done since it was passed in 2008 and upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2009. Three days after he was elected, speaking at the New Jersey Education Association conference in Atlantic City, he made his first big promise as governor-elect.\n\n“For too long our educators, our students and New Jersey property taxpayers have suffered from under-funding,” Murphy said. “We are going to stop the under-investment in public schools. It is priority number one.”\n\nMurphy has not said exactly how or when he would do that.\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nMurphy's 2019 budget increases school funding by $283 million, or 3.5 percent more than last year. Most districts — 94 percent — would receive extra aid, with the remaining districts getting flat funding. Total state education spending under Murphy's proposal would be $14.9 billion.\n\nMurphy said he intends to reach full funding under the School Funding Reform Act in four years.\n\nPromise: Tuition-free community college\n\nMurphy announced the promise during a Sept. 18, 2017 news conference in Trenton with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. He said it would cost between $200 million and $400 million.\n\n\"This is investing in the economy,\" he said. \"This is investing in our most important asset, which is our people, so the return on the investment, if you will, is significant and relatively soon.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nMurphy presented a path toward free community college within three years during his budget speech. In his first fiscal year, 2019, he has allotted $50 million that would allow about 15,000 low-income students attend college next spring. But the spending must be approved by the Legislature before he signs the budget into law. It's also unclear how Murphy arrived at the tuition cost, and other analyses suggest tuition-free college would ultimately cost much more than Murphy's estimate of $197.5 million.\n\nUnder the first budget Murphy signed July 1, 2018 his initial plan to spend $50 million was cut to $25 million.\n\nWith the reduced funding, Murphy formally rolled out a pilot program that July 31 to cover tuition and mandatory fees for students of the select colleges who make less than $45,000 in adjusted gross income and take at least six credits in the spring 2019 semester.\n\nDue to limited funding, not all 19 community colleges in New Jersey will be selected for the pilot program. But every college that applies will receive at least $250,000 to either implement the program or \"build capacity\" for future rounds of funding.\n\nPromise: End PARCC testing and eliminate exit test graduation requirement\n\n“Good teachers and good students can have bad test days. Too much emphasis is being put on a single test, as opposed to weighing a student’s progress through years of instruction,\" Murphy said on his website.\n\nMurphy said he is \"committed\" to ending Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, testing and the requirement that students take an exit test to graduate high school. Instead, Murphy said he would direct the state Department of Education to create an assessment that would meet the standards set in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA.\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched but unlikely to be fulfilled in the near future.\n\nIn March 2018, Murphy instructed education commissioner Lamont Repollet to form an advisory group “fulfilling the governor’s call to transition away from and to improve upon the current system of PARCC assessments.”\n\nThat advisory group conducted about 75 meetings and traveled the state over two months seeking input on the testing. It recommended number of changes that Murphy embraced, but during a July 10 news conference in Atlantic City he acknowledged that \"we're not eliminating PARCC completely.\"\n\nDuring that news conference Murphy announced that the state would transition away from the testing beginning with the 2019 school year by cutting down the length of testing and reducing the weight of assessments on teacher evaluations.\n\nBefore dropping PARCC, the state has to consider new testing vendors and costs, and make sure the new tests align with New Jersey’s education standards, Repollet said.\n\nThe transition is expected to take a couple of years, Murphy said.\n\n“While I would have personally liked to have ditched PARCC on day one, that simply wasn’t feasible,” Murphy said. “But we are now on a clear path away from it.”\n\nPromise: Expand universal pre-kindergarten\n\nProviding pre-kindergarten statewide “is absolutely our aspiration,” Murphy told NJTV in September 2017. “I don’t think you can get there overnight, though. I think you have to phase it in over some number of years.”\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nNew Jersey will not get to universal pre-K overnight, as Murphy acknowledged. But his budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year would direct $57 million in new funding for pre-kindergarten, the largest increase in more than a decade, for a total of $83 million. The new money will support pre-k expansion in the current year as well as prepare districts for future expansion. More than 3,500 4-year-old students are expected to \"gain access\" to pre-k this year, the administration said.\n\nMurphy's 2019 budget includes $403 million for education, including the pre-k expansion.\n\nHe's added more money in subsequent budgets and said in September, 2021 that true universal pre-k would be a reality in \"several years.\"\n\nDiversity, equality and military\n\nPromise: LGBTQ equality\n\nOn his website, Murphy said he would work toward equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people by: Allowing transgender people to select their gender on birth and death certificates and ensure that access to facilities is non-discriminatory; ensuring that all residents, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, have equal access to healthcare and fertility treatment; expanding state contract set-asides to include LGBTQ-owned businesses;and reclassifying veterans dishonorably discharged due to the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to an honorable discharge so they will be eligible for state benefits.\n\nStatus: This is a promise launched.\n\nOn July 3, 2018 Murphy signed a pair of bills into law allowing transgender people to select their gender on their birth and death certificates. He also created a 17-member Transgender Task Force to study issues on health care, housing and criminal justice, among many others, affecting the lesbian, gay and transgender community.\n\nPromise: Gender parity and diversity\n\nAccording to his website, \"Phil believes the perspectives of women and minorities must be represented in every rank of government. He will appoint a cabinet that reflects the diversity of New Jersey, establish a Chief Diversity Officer position, and publish an annual review of state diversity contracting and procurement.\"\n\nStatus: New Jersey already has a Chief Diversity Officer, identified by the Treasury Department as Maurice Griffin.\n\nChristie approved the position's creation in 2017 with his signature of A-1869. That person's duty is \"to monitor the state’s public contracting process for the purpose of compiling information on the awarding of contracts to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises, the total value of all contracts and the percentage of the value of those contracts awarded to minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises.\"\n\nGriffin earns an annual salary of $130,000, according to Treasury Department records.\n\nThis counts as a promise kept by default. But Murphy had nothing to do with it.\n\nStill, Murphy named his own choice for the position on April 20, 2018: Hester Agudosi, a 19-year veteran of state government. An attorney who previously worked in the Attorney General's office, Agudosi most recently served as director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Public Contract Assistance at the Department of Environmental Protection.\n\nAgudosi will earn an annual salary of $135,000, according to the Treasury Department. She will replace Maurice Griffin, who had been assigned the role while still working as the department's director of purchase and property. Griffin will return to his previous position. Agudosi will be full time, which the department said is more in line with the intent of the legislation.\n\nPromise: Reflect New Jersey's diversity in his administration\n\n\"We will put together an administration that looks like our state in all its great diversity, experience and intelligence. We will seek the right people working in public service for the right reasons trying mightily to do the right things,\" he said on election night.\n\nStatus: Murphy has kept his promised to make his administration a diverse one. On Feb. 20, 2018 Murphy became the first governor in state history to nominate a majority of females to his Cabinet, he announced.\n\nThe female Cabinet nominees were: Zakiya Smith Ellis as the secretary of higher education; B. Sue Fulton as chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission; Deirdre Webster Cobb as chief executive officer of the Civil Service Commission; Elizabeth Maher Muoio as treasurer; Marlene Caride as commissioner of the Department of Banking and Insurance; Tahesha Way as secretary of state; Carole Johnson as commissioner of the Department of Human Services; Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti as commissioner of the Department of Transportation; Catherine McCabe as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection; and Christine Norbut Beyer as commissioner of the Department of Children and Families.\n\nMurphy's Lieutenant governor, Sheila Oliver, also serves as a Cabinet member, leading the Department of Community Affairs.\n\nMurphy's Cabinet includes many minorities. Gurbir Grewal was the first Sikh attorney general in the country. Murphy's first health commissioner, Dr. Shareef Elnahal, was the first Muslim-American Cabinet member in state history. And he also named two African Americans to his Cabinet: Lamont Repollet for education commissioner and Col. Jemal J. Beale to lead the state National Guard.\n\nAll those nominees left the administration in the first term.\n\nPromise: Help people with disabilities\n\nMurphy said in his inauguration speech that having a stronger and fairer economy means that it \"remembers that we all have value and we all can contribute, including, and especially, the differently abled.\" And on his campaign website he said that the state budget \"is a $35 billion statement of our priorities. We must get back to prioritizing services for the people who need them the most, including those struggling with disabilities.\" He added that he is \"determined to make New Jersey the most inclusive and most accessible place to live, work, and raise a family for people with disabilities.\"\n\nMurphy plans to achieve that by better coordinating state services and making sure that people with disabilities \"have a seat at our policy-making table.\"\n\nStatus: This is a promise kept.\n\nMurphy named former Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn on April 19, 2018 to lead the Office of the Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families, an office created by a law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie a week before he left office in 2018.\n\nIn the ombudsman position, for which he will be paid $120,000 a year, Aronsohn will be \"the administration’s lead advocate and ally for New Jersey residents in need of critical services ranging from early childhood through adulthood,\" Murphy's office said.\n\nAmong other things, the office is charged with providing information to people with disabilities about resolving disagreements with state agencies, identifying concerns for disabled individuals and coordinating state programs. The office will also have to issue an annual report on its work.\n\nPromise: Divide the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs into two agencies — one with responsibility for the National Guard and another responsible for veterans\n\n\"Veterans’ issues are fundamentally distinct from military affairs, and our bureaucratic structure should reflect that reality,\" Murphy said on his website.\n\nMurphy said that \"at a minimum,\" the new veterans affairs department should consist of divisions for employment and skills development; mental health; higher education; veteran-owned businesses and military transitions and families.\n\nTransportation\n\nPromise: Improve NJ Transit\n\nMurphy has said that NJ Transit was once a model for the nation, but it has in recent years become a \"national disgrace.\"\n\nOn his website, Murphy outlined a number of immediate steps for near-term commuter relief: \"Appointing an emergency manager to re-convene a working relationship with Amtrak — a relationship that currently is broken — around issues at Penn Station, as well as coordinate with various state and federal agencies, including the Port Authority; undertaking an immediate capital and personnel audit of NJ Transit to understand the true needs of the agency; improving customer service by deploying more uniformed NJ Transit personnel in NY Penn Station, Secaucus, and Newark Penn, among other key stations.\"\n\nMore from the website: \"Murphy also would require NJ Transit to have push notifications about delayed trains on its app, create a “Where’s my train?” app that would mirror the “Where’s my bus?” app, and make it easier for commuters to obtain delay letters both online and through the app; expanding options for alternative service by creating an indefinite cross-honoring agreement with PATH and also cross-honoring with ferries and bus services, including private carriers; increasing transparency by requiring weekly reports by NJ Transit including data on number of trains on time during peak and off-peak hours and length of delays, as well as opening more NJ Transit board meetings to the public and streaming them online; holding Amtrak accountable on repairs to ensure that no hour in which tracks are closed is wasted and disruptions are minimized disruptions, including requiring work to be done during off-hours and through holiday weekends.\"\n\nIn the long term, Murphy said he would: Restore operating assistance for NJ Transit; work with New Jersey’s Congressional Delegation and federal and regional officials to secure funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project and the Port Authority Bus Terminal among other critical infrastructure investments; and would work to build new relationships with public sector actors throughout the region – including both legislators and Port Authority commissioners – to better coordinate infrastructure investment.\"\n\nFinally, Murphy said he would: \"Restore professionalism to NJT management by implementing the recommendations of the capital and personnel audit to hire a new class of professional and nationally-qualified management,\" and \"ensure NJ Transit’s board has commuter representation to better allow the agency to respond to consumer concerns, establish an ongoing working arrangement with Amtrak, NJTransit, and the LIRR to fund capital improvements in and around Penn Station, including those that would facilitate better passenger movement\" and \"expedite implementation of safety measures, including positive train control automatic braking technology, to guarantee long-range passenger safety.\"\n\nStatus: Murphy took the first steps toward his promise of improving NJ Transit but has a long way to go. He signed an executive order on Jan. 22 directing an audit of the transportation agency to be completed \"as expeditiously as possible.\" He also named Kevin Corbett the agency's new executive director on Jan. 30, promising he would \"yank it back from the brink.\"\n\nMurphy also earmarked $242 million in his 2019 budget for NJ Transit, though much of that makes up for money the agency stands to lose from off-budget sources. Still, the infusion of cash will keep fares flat for the year, Murphy said, and allow the agency to hire more than 100 new employees and invest in improved communication with customers.\n\nThe long-awaited audit, released in October 2018, showed an agency where \"morale is at an all-time low.\" It had become politicized, underfunded, lacked succession plans and had high vacancy rates in key areas, according to the audit.\n\nOn Dec. 6, Murphy unveiled a new initiative, called \"Engage. Inform. Improve.\" It aims to improve customer service by having transit workers actively engage customers and identify problem, improve communications and upgrade technology. That included an upgraded smartphone app with transit alerts and the ability for customers to make purchases.\n\nMurphy also said the agency was in the process of purchasing 113 new multi-level rail cars and 182 cruiser buses.\n\nThe agency successfully installed Positive Train Control by the end of 2018 and is moving to meet a 2020 deadline to have the safety system operational.\n\nAnd on Dec. 20, 2018, Murphy signed into law the first major restructuring of NJ Transit in a generation. The law will expand the agency’s board of directors, add transparency requirements, streamline procurement procedures and create a new “consumer advocate” to represent the needs of commuters inside the agency.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/02/08"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_13", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/politics/civica-insulin-affordable-drug/index.html", "title": "Civica Rx will provide insulin for no more than $30 a vial | CNN Politics", "text": "CNN —\n\nCivica Rx, a non-profit generic drug maker backed by hospitals, insurers and philanthropies, announced Thursday that it plans to manufacture and sell insulin for no more than $30 a vial. It is expected to be available as soon as early 2024, pending federal approval.\n\nInsulin, which more than 8 million Americans with diabetes depend on, has been a poster child for the soaring cost of prescription drugs.\n\nThough insulin was discovered more than a century ago and costs little to make, the list price of the brand name products that Civica Rx is targeting is roughly $300 per vial, according to the Gary and Mary West Foundation, which co-founded Civica Rx. The cost has nearly tripled since 2010.\n\nThe high cost has led an estimated 1 in every 4 people with diabetes to ration or skip doses, according to a study published in 2019 in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Patients who are Black, Latino or Native American are disproportionately affected since they are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured.\n\nThere have been multiple efforts to help diabetics afford their medication, the latest being a $35 cap on insulin prices that President Joe Biden called for in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. Congress, however, has yet to pass such a measure. It was contained in the Democrats’ $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package, which is on hold in the Senate.\n\nCivica Rx, which was founded in 2018 to manufacture generic drugs that are in short supply or subject to price spikes, aims to produce three insulin products that will be available in vials and prefilled pens. They would be interchangeable with Lantus, Humalog and Novolog and be co-developed by GeneSys Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company based in India.\n\nA box of five pen cartridges will cost no more than $55.\n\nBefore it can roll out the medications, however, Civica Rx needs to complete clinical trials and receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. Also, it must finish building a 140,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Virginia.\n\nThe non-profit is raising $125 million to undertake the insulin effort and has secured commitments for more than two-thirds of the funds, Ken Boyden, executive director of The Civica Foundation, said in a statement.\n\nThe venture will eventually be self-sustaining, said Shelley Lyford, vice chair of Civica Rx’s board. It will initially produce enough insulin to cover about 30% of the market.\n\n“Those who are going to benefit greatly from this opportunity that we are providing at Civica are those who are underinsured or uninsured who cannot afford to pay for their drugs,” Lyford said.\n\nUnlike other efforts, which focus mainly on lowering what patients pay for insulin, Civica Rx aims to reduce the price of the medication itself.\n\n“Civica’s goal to produce and sell insulin at very low prices could be an important disruption to the current system,” said Stacie Dusetzina, associate professor of health policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “There are a couple of big potential wins for consumers.”", "authors": ["Tami Luhby"], "publish_date": "2022/03/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/08/15/amazon-insulin-discounts-manufacturer-coupons/70587922007/", "title": "Amazon Pharmacy offers insulin discounts amid price hikes: 'Making ...", "text": "Consumers who are struggling to get discounted insulin due to pharmacy restrictions and red tape will soon have another option to order the life-saving medication needed by millions of people.\n\nAmazon Pharmacy said it will begin automatically applying manufacturer coupons to more than 14 commonly-used insulin products to ease consumer purchases. If insurance plans provide additional discounts, consumers will pay even less, officials said.\n\n\"We’re making it as simple as possible,\" said Dr. Vin Gupta, Chief Medical Officer of Amazon Pharmacy.\n\nIn March, three insulin makers that dominate the market announced they would slash prices by 70% or more on their respective products. The move followed consumer and political pressure urging Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi to lower insulin prices, which soared last decade and promoted some consumers to ration supplies.\n\nOlder Americans on Medicare received some price relief through the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate and health bill that caps insulin costs at $35 a month for Medicare enrollees. And President Joe Biden urged Congress to extend that out-of-pocket cap to younger Americans who have private health insurance.\n\n'THE FUTURE IS ACCESSIBILITY':Pills for weight loss to soon replace injectables like Wegovy\n\nConsumers search for discounted insulin\n\nDespite efforts to lower the price of this medication required by all with Type 1 diabetes and sometimes necessary with Type 2 diabetes, some consumers struggle to navigate the health system to access cheaper insulin\n\nA report this summer from Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Raphael Warnock found consumers had trouble getting discounted insulin from pharmacies nationwide and were often charged more than what the drug manufacturers promised. The report cited a \"confusing thicket of coupons, competing generic drugs, and misleading information\" consumers faced when asking about discounted insulin.\n\nThe report included a survey of more than 300 pharmacies that found 43% did not stock Lispro, Eli Lilly’s less expensive generic version of insulin, while 79% had the more expensive brand drug Humalog. The report said the average Lispro price for uninsured patients was $97.51, or about four times as much as the $25 Eli Lilly promises for its authorized generic.\n\nEli Lilly said the company is doing its part to ensure people have access to affordable insulin. A company spokesperson said pharmacies fill 50,000 prescriptions of Lispro each week. And those who are uninsured can download a savings card at insulinaffordability.com to get insulin for $35 per month.\n\nDRUG PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES:Why drugmakers have raised prices on nearly 1,000 drugs so far this year\n\nDiscounts applied to Humalog, Lispro, Novolog, and Lantus\n\nAmazon said it will extend the $35-per-month price to Eli Lilly’s Humalog, Humulin, and Lispro products. Other widely-used insulin brands at that price include Novo Nordisk’s Novolog and Sanofi’s Lantus.\n\nAmazon said its website will estimate the consumer’s insurance price. If consumers transfer their prescriptions to Amazon, they will see the actual price with insurance and what it would be without insurance.\n\nThe retailer also will apply manufacturer coupons to Insulet's insulin pump, the Omnipod 5 Introket, and Dexcom's G6 and G7 continuous glucose monitors.\n\nConsumers enrolled in a government insurance plan such as Medicare or Medicaid are not eligible to receive manufacturer coupons. Also, the offer can't be combined with other discount programs such as Rxpass or Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit, Amazon officials said.\n\nCharles Henderson, chief executive officer of the American Diabetes Association, said Amazon's new initiative will help diabetes patients with a \"transparent purchase process that automatically applies any eligible discounts.\"\n\nA 2020 survey from T-1 International found 1 in 4 people with Type 1 diabetes rationed insulin because of cost. Patients also struggled to pay the out-of-pocket costs for other needed supplies such as insulin pumps, testing strips, and continuous glucose monitors.\n\nOther tech companies also have sought to offer insulin products. Tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs aims to cut out pharmacy benefit managers and deliver lower-priced drugs to consumers. The company has launched a test program for insulin.\n\nNonprofit CivicaRX plans to make and sell market-discounted biologics that are interchangeable with Lantus, Humalog, and Novolog.\n\nGOLD STANDARD?10% of newly approved drugs were based on studies that didn't achieve goals", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/03/16/insulin-prices-explained-eli-lily-novo-nordisk-sanofi/11475015002/", "title": "3 major insulin makers have now slashed the price of the life-saving ...", "text": "Amid consumer angst and political pressure over the cost of life-saving insulin, Sanofi announced Thursday it would slash the price of its most-prescribed insulin, Lantus.\n\nSanofi was the final holdout among three companies that make up 90% of the world's insulin market by value. Earlier in the week, Novo Nordisk followed Eli Lilly Co.'s plans to slash U.S. prices by up to 75% and 70%, respectively.\n\nSanofi said it will cut the price of Lantus by 78% and short-acting Apidra by 70% as of Jan. 1, 2024.\n\nThe prices these companies set for insulin have increasingly been scrutinized by analysts, politicians and patient advocates. In recent years, federal and state laws, Medicare and Medicaid policies, and changing market dynamics for these older insulin drugs have influenced price cuts.\n\nMORE:Hacks on hospital records are surging. Here's why your medical data is vulnerable.\n\nBut more needs to be done, said Elizabeth Pfiester, founder and executive director of T1International, an advocacy organization for people with Type 1 diabetes.\n\nThe life-saving medication is needed by millions of people. A 2020 survey from her organization found 1 in 4 people with Type 1 diabetes rationed insulin because of cost. Patients also struggled to pay the out-of-pocket costs for other needed supplies such as insulin pumps, testing strips and continuous glucose monitors.\n\nHer organization is pushing for a federal policy that would cap the cost of insulin.\n\n\"It's great that they've chosen to lower the price,\" Pfiester said of the insulin manufacturers. \"But they can choose to raise the price again.\"\n\nSanofi drops list price for Lantus\n\nSanofi's list price is $292 per vial of Lantus, the amount charged before discount programs or reduced prices negotiated by health insurers. When Sanofi cuts the price as of Jan. 1, Lantus will cost about $64 per vial.\n\nThe company also announced a price cap that ensures no patient will pay more than $35 for a monthly supply of Lantus.\n\nThe Paris-based pharmaceutical company earlier said most people with private insurance already pay $15 or less because of a copay assistance program. The drugmaker's program for the uninsured also offers a 30-day supply for $35.\n\n\"The list prices of our insulins do not reflect the actual, net prices paid to Sanofi after various discounts and rebates,\" Sanofi said in a statement. \"Despite the rhetoric about skyrocketing insulin prices, the net price of insulin has fallen for eight consecutive years, making our insulins significantly less expensive for insurance plans.\"\n\nSanofi vowed to continue to listen to patients, advocates, caregivers and others to \"better understand additional actions we could take to address access or affordability challenges.\"\n\nOpinion:My son needs insulin to survive. Plans to lower drug costs are welcome, but not enough.\n\nWhy is insulin so expensive?\n\nInsulin prices charged by the three major drug manufacturers spiked over the past two decades. From 2002 through 2013, the average price of insulin nearly tripled, according to the American Diabetes Association.\n\nA Senate Finance Committee investigation in 2021 found the drug price increases coincided with lucrative rebate demands from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, which are drug-pricing middlemen that command steep rebates in exchange for favorable placement on private insurance plan drug formularies.\n\nThese pharmacy managers in the past decade began to pit manufacturers against one another by excluding them from large blocks of patients through formulary exclusions, the Senate Finance Committee reported.\n\nWhy insulin prices are starting to come down now\n\nLast year's sweeping climate and health bill called the Inflation Reduction Act caps insulin costs at $35 a month for Medicare enrollees. And last month, Biden urged Congress to extend that out-of-pocket cap to younger Americans who have private health insurance.\n\nWashington, D.C., and 22 states have enacted cost-sharing limits for consumers purchasing insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.\n\nDrugmakers also are bracing for a drug pricing change under Medicaid, the federal health program for low-income families. Medicaid has required drug companies to pay rebates when they significantly raise prices over time. But the amount drug companies paid Medicaid was capped in previous years.\n\nThe new provision, part of the American Rescue Plan Act passed in 2021, eliminates the rebate cap beginning next year. In other words, drug companies could face significant financial penalties beginning next year, said Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit that researches drug pricing.\n\nThe elimination of this Medicaid rebate cap, in particular, might be influencing drugmakers decisions to drastically cut insulin list prices, Ciaccia said.\n\n\"It's one thing for a drug manufacturer to offer something for free,\" Ciaccia said. \"It's another thing to literally pay for the privilege of doing so.\"\n\nMarket dynamics mean insulin will keep getting cheaper\n\nDrug manufacturers also face changing market dynamics.\n\nCost Plus Drugs, a company from tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, aims to cut out pharmacy benefit managers and deliver lower-priced drugs to consumers. The company has launched a test program for insulin.\n\nMeanwhile, CivicaRX plans to make and sell market discounted biologics that are interchangeable with Lantus, Humalog and Novolog.\n\nThe nonprofit, which is building a manufacturing facility in Virginia, expects to seek authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its insulin products beginning next year, a spokeswoman said.\n\nCiaccia, of 46brooklyn, said these older insulin drugs also face competition from newer insulin products, as well as weight loss drugs such as Ozempic.\n\n\"The writing is on the wall from a market perspective,\" Ciaccia said.\n\nHow much does insulin cost?\n\nPrior to companies announcing price cuts, insulin has cost nearly $300 a vial.\n\nEli Lilly, the first to announce insulin price cuts this month, will slash the drugmaker's most commonly prescribed insulin Humalog to $66.40 per vial, down from $274.70. It will implement price cuts within the final three months this year.\n\nNovo Nordisk, a Danish drugmaker, will cut the price of its top-selling NovoLog to $72.34 per vial, down from $289.36. Novo's discounts will take effect Jan. 1.\n\nPressure ratchets up\n\nThis week, President Joe Biden said he's pleased that Novo followed Lilly's price cuts and urged \"others to follow.\"\n\nU.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., earlier in the week said on social media that \"grassroots pressure\" led to the Lilly and Novo price cuts, adding, \"Sanofi must follow.\" The week before, he and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., introduced a bill that would limit the list price of insulin at $20 per vial.\n\nDig Deeper\n\nKen Alltucker is on Twitter at @kalltucker, or can be emailed at alltuck@usatoday.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/03/01/eli-lilly-cuts-insulin-prices/11365772002/", "title": "Eli Lilly insulin price cut: Drugmaker caps out-of-pocket costs", "text": "Eli Lilly and Co. said it will cut prices of its most commonly prescribed insulins up to 70% and expand a program that limits out-of-pocket monthly costs for some consumers.\n\nThe Indianapolis drugmaker's price cuts and discounts for insulin come as federal and state lawmakers and patient advocates pressure drug companies and health insurers to improve affordability for the lifesaving medication used by millions of Americans.\n\n“The aggressive price cuts we’re announcing today should make a real difference for Americans with diabetes,\" said Lilly Chair and CEO David Ricks.\n\nDrug prices:Why drugmakers have raised prices on nearly 1,000 drugs this year\n\nGold standard? Gold standard? 10% of new drugs cleared by FDA fall short of goals\n\nEli Lilly discounts Humalog and Humulin insulin\n\nThe drugmaker will cut list prices by 70% for the fast-acting injectable Humalog, which is the company's most commonly prescribed insulin. Lilly also will discount an older fast-acting drug, Humulin.\n\nThe list price for Humalog U-100, 10 mL vial will drop from $274.70 to $66.40.\n\nThe list price for Humulin U-100, 10 mL vials will drop from $148.70 to $44.61.\n\nThe price changes will take effect between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.\n\nLilly also will reduce the price of its nonbranded, fast-acting insulin to $25 a vial, effective May 1.\n\nOn April 1, Lilly also will launch a biosimilar to Sanofi's Lantus that will be a less expensive version of the long-acting insulin. The new drug, Rezvoglar, will be interchangeable with Lantus, which means a pharmacist can substitute the drug without a new prescription. Rezvoglar will cost $92 per five-pack of KwikPens, a 78% discount to Lantus, Lilly said.\n\n'Who can afford that'? Patients face costly bills amid FDA's battle over 'orphan drugs'\n\nLilly caps out-of-pocket costs for privately insured patients at $35 a month\n\nLilly said in a news release that it will cap out-of-pocket costs for privately insured consumers at $35 a month at the \"majority of retail pharmacies.\" Company officials said about 85% of national and local pharmacies will honor the $35 price cap, but the company did not provide a list. Consumers are encouraged to call their local pharmacy and ask about the program.\n\nFor those without insurance, the drugmaker offers a program savings card that will cap Lilly insulin at $35 a month. Uninsured consumers can get more information and download the discount card at InsulinAffordability.com.\n\nThe price might sound familiar to older Americans on Medicare. The federal Inflation Reduction Act caps insulin costs at $35 a month for people on Part D plans. Last month, President Joe Biden called on Congress to extend that out-of-pocket cap to younger Americans who directly purchase their own health insurance or get coverage through an employer.\n\nMedicare caps insulin costs at $35 a month. Can Biden get that price for everyone?\n\nMore:Fake Eli Lilly Twitter account locked down after false claims of 'free' insulin\n\nWhy is Lilly cutting insulin prices?\n\nA study last year found more than 1.3 million American adults skipped, delayed buying or rationed doses of insulin because of the cost of the medication.\n\nRicks acknowledged that his company and others must make insulin less expensive for people with diabetes who can't afford the medication.\n\nBut he added that other stakeholders must help drive down prices. Employers should share cost savings from drug rebates with their workers, and pharmacies should carry low-cost insulins and make people aware of these options, he said.\n\n“We are driving for change in repricing older insulins, but we know that 7 out of 10 Americans don’t use Lilly insulin,\" Ricks said. \"We are calling on policymakers, employers and others to join us in making insulin more affordable.”\n\nMore:Fake Eli Lilly Twitter account falsely claimed insulin 'free'\n\nWith 8.4 million Americans needing insulin, advocates hope other drugmakers will follow suit\n\nInsulin is needed by all people with Type 1 and some with Type 2 diabetes.\n\n\"Insulin is one of those medicines, particularly for those with Type 1 diabetes, that's in the must-have category,\" said Dr. Robert Lash, chief medical officer of the Endocrine Society. \"If you don't have it, you die.\"\n\nSome with Type 2 diabetes also need insulin. While skipping a dose might not be life-threatening, these people often need insulin to keep their glucose under control and avoid complications, Lash said.\n\nThe American Diabetes Association estimates about 8.4 million Americans rely on insulin.\n\nLisa Murdock, chief advocacy officer for for American Diabetes Association, said reducing out-of-pocket expenses for the drug is a crucial step. As drug companies have raised the price of insulin, insured consumers have absorbed some of those costs in the form of higher co-payments and deductibles.\n\nCutting insulin list prices, capping co-payments for the insured and extending the $35 cap to the uninsured will make the medication more affordable for people who use Lilly's products.\n\n\"We can only hope that the other major manufacturers of insulin follow suit,\" Murdock said.\n\nFederal lawmakers target insulin prices\n\nIn 2021, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a sweeping investigation of insulin prices. Drug companies in the past decade raised insulin list prices as pharmacy benefit managers commanded more lucrative rebates, the Senate Finance Committee investigation found.\n\nAt the time, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said drugmakers and drug-pricing middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers created a \"vicious cycle of price increases that have sent costs for patients and taxpayers through the roof.\"\n\nDrug pricing analysts said Lilly's price cuts might be a sign that the insulin pricing dynamics are shifting. That could be good news for consumers, employers and government payers. But the uninsured and those with skimpy health insurance coverage who depend on insulin might be the biggest beneficiaries, said Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit that researches drug pricing.\n\n\"Any patient that's been stuck paying full out of pocket, this is essentially prohibiting that game from continuing,\" Ciaccia said. \"That's significant, since we know so many patients have struggled with affordability.\"\n\nKen Alltucker is on Twitter at @kalltucker, or can be emailed at alltuck@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/03/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/07/biden-state-of-the-union-sotu-address-updates/11204405002/", "title": "State of the Union recap: Biden tells Americans economy roaring ...", "text": "WASHINGTON, D.C — President Joe Biden took credit Tuesday for what he said was the country's economic revival while pushing an agenda of reducing prescription drug costs, protecting abortion rights and banning assault weapons.\n\nThe economy was reeling two years ago, Biden said in his second State of the Union address delivered in a packed House chamber. In a preview of an expected reelection campaign announcement, he noted that the unemployment rate was at 50-year low while inflation has been easing.\n\n“We’ve been sent here to finish the job,” Biden said, invoking a phrase he used several times in his speech.\n\nBut the rancorous atmosphere in the House chamber telegraphed fights ahead, including over budget priorities and avoiding a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt. At several points in Biden’s speech, was interrupted by Republicans, who criticized his handling of border policy and pushed back when he accused them of trying to cut popular entitlements.\n\nSOTU analysis:Pivot point: Joe Biden faced a different chapter of his presidency in his State of the Union\n\nHeckles, spats and deflection:The biggest moments you missed from Biden's State of the Union\n\nState of the Union takeaways:Blue-collar Joe, GOP boos and a 2024 preview\n\nThe latest on Biden's speech:\n\nBlue-collar pitch: Promoting his economic plan, Biden assured Americans that he wants to invest in “places and people that have been forgotten,” arguing that “too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible.”\n\nPromoting his economic plan, Biden assured Americans that he wants to invest in “places and people that have been forgotten,” arguing that “too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible.” Biden calls Pelosi 'greatest speaker’ ever: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t sitting behind Biden for his address but she got a special call-out from the president anyway.\n\nFormer House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t sitting behind Biden for his address but she got a special call-out from the president anyway. Biden touts progress on insulin prices while pushing for more: Biden renewed his call to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American.\n\nBiden renewed his call to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American. Biden spars with GOP over Social Security and Medicare: The president prompted protests in the chamber from Republican lawmakers when he repeated his accusation that the GOP was trying to cut entitlements. When the protests continued, Biden said he wasn’t arguing that all Republicans back reviewing entitlement programs every five years. “But it’s being proposed,” he said.\n\nSanders: Biden has 'failed' American people; calls for 'new generation'\n\nSarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, at age 40 the youngest governor in the country, didn't hesitate to point out that 80-year-old Joe Biden is the oldest president in history – and added that it is time for a \"new generation\" of Republican leadership.\n\n\"Biden and the Democrats have failed you,\" Sanders said in the formal GOP response to Biden's State of the Union address. \"It's time for a change.\"\n\nSpeaking from the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Ark., Sanders cited domestic issues like inflation, immigration, and crime. Also criticizing the president's foreign policy, Sanders said Biden is \"unfit\" to be Commander-in-Chief.\n\nCiting the Republican majority in the House, Sanders said: \"We will hold the Biden administration accountable.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nThe GOP:In Republican response to Biden's State of the Union, a vow to block the president's agenda\n\nBiden calls Paul Pelosi 'tough'\n\nBiden called out the political violence that was unleashed in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.\n\n“With democracy, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is,” he said.\n\nBiden introduced Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was violently attacked in their home by an intruder, saying the assailant was “unhinged by the Big Lie” that the election was stolen.\n\n“Here tonight in this chamber is the man who bears the scars of that brutal attack, but is as tough and strong and as resilient as they get. My friend, Paul Pelosi,\" he said. “But such a heinous act never should have happened.”\n\n– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy\n\nPaul Pelosi attack:Video footage of violent home attack on Paul Pelosi released\n\nBiden gets personal and celebrates Cancer Moonshot initiative\n\nBiden celebrated the Cancer Moonshot initiative, aimed at advancing cancer prevention and treatment,\n\n“Our goal is to cut the cancer death rates at least by 50% in the next 25 years. Turn more cancers from death sentences to treatable diseases. Provide more support for patients and their families.” The issue is also deeply personal to Biden, as one of his sons, Beau Biden, passed away due to brain cancer. “It’s personal to so many of us.”\n\nBiden also singled out Maurice and Kandice Barron, a pair of guests invited by First Lady Jill Biden. Their daughter, Ava Barron, was diagnosed with a form of kidney cancer when she was one year old. “She turns four next month,” Biden said to wide cheers from the audience. “They just found out Ava’s beating the odds and is on her way to being cured from cancer.”\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nCancer treatment:New cancer therapy takes personalized medicine to a new level\n\nBiden says US stood up to China\n\nFacing Republicans who’ve accused him of being too soft on China, Biden said he responded clearly last week when a Chinese surveillance balloon floated over the United States.\n\nChina knows that if U.S. sovereignty is threatened, Americans will act to protect the country.\n\n“And we did,” Biden said, an apparent reference to his decision to shoot down the balloon.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nChinese spy balloon:Chinese spy balloon went over other US missile and nuclear weapons sites, lawmaker says\n\nBiden: Stop production, trafficking of fentanyl\n\nCiting Americans’ growing dependence on prescription drugs, Biden called for a major campaign to stop the production, sale and trafficking of fentanyl.\n\nBiden noted that fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year. But his remarks were met with contempt from some members of Congress.\n\n“It’s your fault!” several Republicans shouted.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nWhat is fentanyl poisoning?:These State of the Union guests lost their son to it\n\nBiden says VA working to end 'the silent scourge of suicide'\n\nBiden said when he first appointed Denis McDonough to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, the country was losing up to 25 veterans a day to “the silent scourge of suicide,” and continues to lose 17 per day.\n\n“The VA is doing everything it can, including expanding mental health screenings and a proven program that recruits veterans to help other veterans understand what they’re going through and get the help they need,”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nMilitary suicide:Amid suicide crisis, the Army says it will rush mental health providers to Alaska\n\nBiden calls for higher teacher pay\n\nBiden hasn't touched much on education issues during the address but did take a moment to outline several priorities on that front. Among them: expanding access to preschool and raising teacher pay.\n\nIn 2021, teachers made less than 77 cents on the dollar compared with other college graduates. Yet surveys show teachers work more than 50 hours a week on average. Close to 1 in 5 work elsewhere at another job. It's no surprise that nearly half of U.S. schools are short teachers. Some states and districts have proposed or enacted pay bumps but they've been modest at best.\n\nFederal legislation again before Congress this session would set a teacher salary floor of $60,000. While raising teacher pay has garnered the support of some Republicans, the American Teacher Act is unlikely to get far. In some states teachers make less than $50,000 on average.\n\n– Alia Wong\n\nTeacher shortage:Amid crippling teacher shortages, some schools are turning to unorthodox solutions\n\nBiden urges lawmakers to protect abortion rights\n\nBiden called on lawmakers to “restore” abortion rights after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.\n\n“The vice president and I are doing everything to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient safety,” Biden said, noting that states across the country have implemented abortion bans and restrictions.\n\n“Make no mistake about it. If Congress passes a national ban, I will veto it,” the president vowed.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nRoe v. Wade overturned:Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, eliminating constitutional right to abortion\n\nAbortion pills:20 Republican attorneys general warn CVS, Walgreens against selling abortion pills by mail\n\nBiden renews call to stand with Ukraine 'as long as it takes'\n\nCalling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “test for the ages,” Biden said the U.S. passed that test by standing for sovereignty.\n\nThat matters, Biden said, because it “prevents open season for would-be aggressors.”\n\nHis argument – and promise to stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes” – comes as some Republicans are calling for greater scrutiny, or even a curtailment, of U.S. involvement.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nUkraine latest:Ukraine pushes to exclude Russia from 2024 Paris Olympics\n\nBono at the SOTU:Here's why musician, advocate Bono is at Biden's State of the Union address\n\nAmerica’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts, said Biden.\n\nSince launching a new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97%, Biden said.\n\n“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months,” he said.\n\nHe urged Congress to pass his plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. He also asked Congress to pave a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.\n\n– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy\n\nBorder politics:Republicans said Biden wasn't doing enough on the border. New GOP-led House is demanding answers\n\nBiden highlights ‘courage’ of Brandon Tsay and calls for assault weapon bans\n\nBiden singled out Brandon Tsay’s heroism two weeks ago when he disarmed the Monterey Park shooter who killed 11 people who attended a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. Tsay, who is in attendance, received a standing ovation from lawmakers as Biden acknowledged him.\n\n“He saved lives. It’s time we do the same as well,” Biden said. “Ban assault weapons once and for all.”\n\nMass shootings typically lead lawmakers to call for such actions but it’s unlikely that a ban will pass in a divided Congress with many Republican lawmakers who have vowed that they will not waver on gun control.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\n'Still too high':Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin orders independent panel to study military suicide\n\nMarjorie Taylor Greene yells at Biden multiple times\n\nRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a fervent opponent of Biden who has called for his impeachment, yelled at him twice during the State of the Union address.\n\nThe first time came as Biden said Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare – an accusation that Greene refuted when she stood up yelled “Liar!”\n\nGreene later yelled, “China spied on us!” near the end of Biden’s speech.\n\nShe also yelled to “close the border” and “it’s your fault” when the president talked about the fentanyl crisis.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nHeckling lawmakers:Marjorie Taylor Greene, other Republicans spar with Biden over Social Security, Medicare\n\nState of the Union guests:Lawmakers highlight policing, abortion, wrongful imprisonment\n\nBiden on Tyre Nichols’ death: ‘Something good must come from this’\n\nBiden used his speech to pay tribute to Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers.\n\nBiden called for more police training and more resources to reduce violent crime, along with more investments in housing, education and training.\n\nNoting that Nichols’ mother and stepfather were seated in the first lady’s box, Biden urged lawmakers to commit themselves to making the words of Nichols’ mother come true: “Something good must come from this.”\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nTyre Nichols killing:7 more Memphis police employees under investigation in Tyre Nichols' death, city attorney says\n\nBiden invokes Uvalde massacre in call for gun reform\n\nIn a call to action on gun violence, Biden invoked his trip to Uvalde, Texas, after the Robb Elementary School shooting where 19 students and two teachers were killed.\n\n“Do something, do something. That was the plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde, I met with everyone.” Biden said, then pointing to the bipartisan gun reform law he signed. “Thank god we did. Passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.”\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nUvalde shooting:Her daughter was killed in Uvalde. She's suing police, the school district and a gunmaker.\n\nCOVID is under control but vigilance necessary, says Biden\n\nWhile COVID-19 deaths are down nearly 90%, and the end of the public health emergency is close, Biden said the country will remember the pain of losing loved ones will never go away for many.\n\n“Families grieving. Children orphaned. Empty chairs at the dining room table. We remember them, and we remain vigilant,” he said.\n\nBiden said it was important to remain vigilant and monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments. He urged Congress to fund these efforts and keep America safe.\n\n– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy\n\nThe COVID emergency declaration is ending:What it means for tests, vaccines, treatment\n\nBiden: Police departments 'must be held accountable'\n\nSaying Tyre Nichols’ mother wants something good to come from his death at the hands of police officers in Memphis, Biden called for police reform.\n\n“When police officers or departments violate the public trust, they must be held accountable,” he said.\n\nBiden also pointed to an executive order he signed affecting federal officers that banned chokeholds, restricted no-knock warrants, and implemented “other key elements of the George Floyd Act.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nTyre Nichols:Ex-Memphis police officer took a photo of Tyre Nichols after beating, document says\n\nBiden urges Congress to act on labor reform\n\nBiden called for Congress to take up labor reform and worker protections as he touted his support for unions and his pledge to be “the most pro-union president.”\n\n“I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing,” said Biden. “Workers have a right to form a union.”\n\nBiden also urged action on additional worker protections and benefits, including paid family and medical leave and affordable child care, specifically calling for the return of the expanded Child Tax Credit.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nLabor secretary makes move:Former Boston mayor Marty Walsh stepping down as Biden Labor Secretary for job with NHL union\n\nBiden calls for rebooting the expanded Child Tax Credit\n\nParents who qualify for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) won’t be getting as hefty checks as last year. That’s because the enhanced CTC, which parents could also opt to receive in installments rather than waiting to receive it in a lump sum payment when they file their taxes, expired.\n\nThe enhanced CTC increased payments from $2,000 per qualifying child to $3,600 for children ages 5 and under and $3,000 for children ages 6 through 17. This year it will go back to $2,000 for qualifying children of all ages.\n\nIn his remarks, Biden vowed to “restore the full Child Tax Credit which gave tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half, to the lowest level in history.”\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nChild tax credit this year:How much is the Child Tax Credit for 2023? Here's what you need to know about qualifying.\n\nBiden: Ban ‘junk fees’ on hotel bills, other services\n\nBiden urged Congress to pass legislation to ban excess fees that companies often tack onto hotel bills, airline tickets and other services.\n\n“Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” he said.\n\nThe Junk Fee Prevention Act, if approved, would bar so-called “resort fees” that can add up to $90 a night on hotel bills, stop cable internet and cell phone companies from charging up to $200 more when a customer switches providers, and prohibit airlines from charging up to $50 roundtrip for families to sit together, Biden said.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nJunk fees:Biden moves to limit credit fees to $8 for missed payments in latest \"junk fee\" crack down\n\nSocial Security and Medicare benefits draw tension during speech\n\nBiden’s State of the Union address comes as he and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have started talks on the debt ceiling and government spending.\n\nTension has been building between the two parties over Social Security and Medicare benefits. McCarthy said Republicans aren’t going to cut those programs, but Democrats say the math will force those cuts if the GOP demands lowered government spending.\n\nBiden in his speech said Republicans want to cut the programs, to which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stood up and yelled “Liar!” as other members booed the president.\n\n“OK, so we agree,” Biden said. “Social Security and Medicare is off the books.”\n\nBipartisan cheers returned to the chamber.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nMedicare:Medicare launches plan to negotiate prices for the costliest drugs. Here's what to know.\n\nBiden takes credit for deficit cuts\n\nBiden celebrated the government’s deficit cuts seen under his administration in his State of the Union address.\n\n“For the last two years, my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion, the largest deficit reduction in American history,” Biden said. The deficit’s cut was partly a result of higher tax revenues that Biden touted but also the end of spending related to the pandemic.\n\nBiden also took a jab at former President Donald Trump for increases in the federal deficit under Trump’s administration. “Under the previous administration, the American deficit went up four years in a row,” Biden said, to boos and jeers from Republican lawmakers.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nWhat happens if the US hits the debt ceiling?:Here's what to expect if we reach debt limit.\n\nBiden says Republicans want to ‘take the economy hostage’ in debt ceiling talks\n\nBiden accused Republicans of wanting to “take the economy hostage” unless he agrees to their demands for spending cuts during debt ceiling talks.\n\nBiden demanded Republicans show “what their plans are.” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not specified what Republicans want axed.\n\n“Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years,” Biden said, prompting loud boos from Republicans in Congress.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nMedicare and debt ceiling fight:How Medicare and Social Security benefits factor into the Kevin McCarthy debt ceiling fight\n\nBiden defends Inflation Reduction Act\n\nPresident Biden touted the Inflation Reduction Act which he signed into law, saying he was taking on powerful interest to bring health care costs down.\n\n“You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any major country on earth,” he said. “Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars – and making record profits.”\n\nHaving capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare, Biden said it was time to help Americans not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type I diabetes who need insulin to save their lives. “Let’s cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it,” he said. The law also caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare at a maximum $2,000 per year.\n\nHe also promised to veto any attempts to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.\n\n– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy\n\nCredit fees:Biden moves to limit credit fees to $8 for missed payments in latest \"junk fee\" crack down\n\nBiden tangles with GOP lawmakers over Social Security and Medicare\n\nBiden got into an unusual back and forth with Republicans over whether GOP lawmakers want to end the automatic continuation of Social Security and Medicare.\n\nWhen some vocally protested, Biden responded: “Anyone who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”\n\nWhen the protests continued, Biden said he wasn’t arguing that all Republicans back reviewing entitlement programs every five years.\n\n“But it’s being proposed,” he said.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nMedicare debate:How Medicare and Social Security benefits factor into the Kevin McCarthy debt ceiling fight\n\nCheers and boos for Biden\n\nProgressive members of the House, known as “the Squad,” cheered as President Joe Biden pushed for fair taxes and called out low tax rates for billionaires.\n\n“You tell ‘em, Joe,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.\n\nHe also had plenty of jeers from the Republican side of the chamber when he slammed former President Donald Trump’s fiscal record and accused the House GOP of trying to cut Social Security and Medicare. The latter attracted loud boos.\n\nRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stood up and yelled, “Liar!” from the back of the chamber.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nTalkative Biden:On average, Biden is most talkative president in six decades of State of Union addresses\n\nBiden repeats call for ‘billionaire’s tax’\n\nBiden used his speech to call again for Congress to pass a so-called “billionaire’s tax,” saying some of the biggest corporations in the country are raking in billions of dollars in profits but paying no federal income taxes.\n\n“That’s simply not fair,” he said.\n\nBiden did not spell out the specifics of his proposal. But in the past, he has called for a 20% levy on households with a net worth of more than $100 million.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nWhat are the tax brackets?:What are the 2022 US federal tax brackets? What are the new 2023 tax brackets? Answers here\n\nBiden calls climate crisis ‘an existential threat’\n\nBiden said “the climate crisis doesn't care if you're in a red or blue state” as he touted his administration’s work to take on what he called “an existential threat.”\n\nHe pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which included the largest climate package ever, and investments from his infrastructure law.\n\nHe later went off-script, saying, “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while.”\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nUN Secretary-General::'No more baby steps' on climate change\n\nBiden to Congress: Continue insurance subsidies that lowered uninsured rates\n\nBiden celebrated the fact that a record number of Americans have health insurance while calling on Congress to continue expanded insurance subsidies that helped boost that rate.\n\nThose enhanced subsidies for people who purchase insurance on their own, instead of getting coverage from the government or an employer, expire after 2025.\n\n“Let’s finish the job and make the savings permanent,” Biden said as he also called for extending expanded Medicaid coverage to all states.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nBiden takes made in America a step further\n\nBiden touted American manufacturing gains and a campaign promise to move more production to the U.S. from foreign countries. Biden then announced, “new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.”\n\n“American-made lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cables,” he said. “And on my watch, American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products.”\n\nBiden’s message echoes former President Donald Trump’s prior State of the Union addresses where he boasted about initiatives to bring back manufacturing jobs that have been lost over the years.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nInsulin costs:Medicare caps insulin costs at $35 a month. Can Biden get that price for all Americans?\n\nBiden touts legislative victories in infrastructure and manufacturing\n\nBiden championed his series of legislative victories that ranged from tackling the country’s supply chain shortage and sweeping investments in domestic manufacturing and infrastructure.\n\n“We’re gonna make sure the supply chain for America begins in America,” Biden said, touting a bipartisan bill he signed that made investments to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductors.\n\n“To maintain the strongest economy in the world, we need the best infrastructure in the world,” said Biden, pointing to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. “Folks, we’re just getting started.”\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nWhy Bono is at SOTU:Here's why musician, advocate Bono is at Biden's State of the Union address\n\nBiden appeals to middle and working class people on manufacturing\n\nIn an appeal to middle class and working class people, Biden said he ran for president “to make sure the economy works for everyone” so that everyone can have pride in what they do for a living.\n\n“For decades, the middle class was hollowed out,” he said. “Too many good-paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas. Factories at home closed down. Once-thriving cities and towns that many of you represent became shadows of what they used to be.”\n\nBiden then spoke about his administration’s accomplishments in the manufacturing sector.\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nWhat is fentanyl poisoning?:These State of the Union guests lost their son to it\n\nMore:As Biden prepares 2024 reelection run, Dems worry blue-collar voters are slipping away\n\nBiden: ‘COVID no longer controls our lives’\n\nBiden said the nation’s economy is roaring back from the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\n“Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much,” he said. “Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”\n\nBiden said his administration has created 12 million jobs, “more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four.”\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nA full House – literally – for State of the Union\n\nPresident Joe Biden entered a full House chamber Tuesday.\n\nThe capacity crowd included House and Senate members, current and former Supreme Court justices, family and honored guests.\n\nBiden’s first words were met with a standing ovation, as he honored Republican and Democratic leaders – but also as he described the state of the union.\n\nThe applause came from Democrats and Republicans, and the standing ovations were sometimes led by a row of powerful Senate moderates, including Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Kyrsten Sinema, who recently changed her party affiliation to independent.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nBiden: Pelosi is 'greatest speaker’ ever\n\nFormer House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t sitting behind Biden for his address but she got a special call-out from the president anyway.\n\n“I want to give special recognition to someone who I think will be considered the greatest speaker in the history of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi,” Biden said.\n\nPelosi stepped down from Democratic leadership after the midterm elections. Biden also congratulated her successor, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black American to be House minority leader.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nWhat are burn pits?:Why were burn pits used? Toxic fumes, medical risks explained.\n\nBiden begins speech telling McCarthy he looks forward to ‘working together’\n\nBiden began his remarks congratulating Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican House speaker, and saying he looks forward to “working together.”\n\nBiden also congratulated Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies, the first African American man to lead a party, and gave shout outs to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\n“The story of America is a story of progress and resilience. Of always moving forward. Of never giving up,” Biden said.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nLabor Secretary Marty Walsh is designated survivor for 2023 State of the Union\n\nSecretary of Labor Marty Walsh is the designated survivor for this year's State of the Union address.\n\nEvery year, a top government official is chosen as the “designated survivor” as a way to maintain the presidential line of succession in case of a catastrophic event where multiple officials in the line are unable to assume office.\n\n– Ken Tran\n\nMarty Walsh:Former Boston mayor Marty Walsh stepping down as Biden Labor Secretary for job with NHL union\n\nBono is at the State of the Union\n\nBono, the Irish lead singer of U2, is attending the State of the Union as a guest of first lady Jill Biden.\n\nBono is a longtime social justice advocate who co-founded the nonprofit ONE Campaign to address poverty and preventable diseases and Prouct RED to address HIV and AIDS in Africa.\n\nHe’s sitting next to Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nWhat is fentanyl poisoning?:These State of the Union guests lost their son to it\n\n2 Californians will sit behind Biden\n\nVice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may not share a political party. But they do have something in common. Both are from California.\n\nThat gave them at least one thing to talk about as they stood on the rostrum, waiting for Biden’s speech to begin.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nBiden gets a Supreme Court majority for speech, if not policies\n\nAt least for tonight, President Joe Biden landed a majority of the Supreme Court.\n\nFive sitting Supreme Court justices stepped into the House chamber before the president’s remarks: Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.\n\nThat’s a decent turnout for an event some current and former justices have derided as a “political pep rally” and a “childish spectacle.”\n\nWhether the president can cobble together a majority for any of his policies pending at the court – on immigration, student loan debt relief or environmental rules – remains to be seen.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nBiden to get bipartisan escort into House chamber\n\nBiden will be escorted into the House chamber by a bipartisan group of House and Senate officials, including Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.\n\n–Michael Collins\n\nFace masks uncommon as pre-pandemic normality returns\n\nFew lawmakers were wearing face masks as they filed onto the House floor for Biden’s State of the Union speech.\n\nAnd unlike last year, members of Congress were allowed to bring guests, a return to pre-pandemic normality.\n\n“Today, COVID no longer controls our lives,” Biden will declare, according to speech excerpts the White House released in advance.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nState of the economy:A look at economy's strengths, weaknesses as Biden sets to boast of record job growth in State of Union\n\nBiden arrives at Capitol\n\nBiden’s motorcade arrived at the Capitol at 8:40 p.m. ahead of his 9 p.m. State of the Union speech.\n\n“Great shape, getting better,” Biden said when a reporter asked him, “What’s the state of the union?” before he departed the White House.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\n5 big questions for Biden's speech:Is he running? 5 big questions Joe Biden will answer in the State of the Union\n\nPoll: Republicans want GOP leaders to 'stand up’ to Biden\n\nIf Biden doesn’t find a receptive audience to his call for the two parties to work together, Republican voters could be the reason.\n\nMost Republicans (64%) want GOP congressional leaders to “stand up” to Biden on matters important to GOP, even if that makes it harder to address critical problems facing the country, according to recent polling from the Pew Research Center.\n\nAnd more are concerned that GOP lawmakers won’t focus enough on investigating the administration than the share worried that they will focus too much on investigations.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nState of the Union guests:Lawmakers highlight policing, abortion, wrongful imprisonment\n\nBiden approval rating hovering in low 40s ahead of speech\n\nBiden’s second State of the Union address Tuesday comes as he remains under water politically, with more than half of voters disapproving of his job performance, according to most polls.\n\nA Washington Post-ABC poll released this week found 42% of voters approve of Biden’s job performance, while 53% disapprove. That closely matches the FiveThirtyEight average of polls.\n\nBiden’s job performance has stayed below since August 2021 in most polls. Even more troubling for Biden, most Americans can’t identify his achievements. Sixty-two percent of Americans said Biden has accomplished \"not very much\" or “little or nothing,\" in the same Washington Post-ABC News poll, while only 36% said he has accomplished \"a great deal\" or \"a good amount.\"\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nWhat to watch for:The State of the Union is Tuesday: Here's what you can expect from Joe Biden's speech\n\nVice President Kamala Harris chats with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ahead of speech\n\nVice President Kamala Harris shook hands with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and the two chatted, as they stood behind the rostrum waiting for Biden to enter the House chamber.\n\nThis will be the first State of the Union with McCarthy as speaker since Republicans took control of the House during the midterm elections.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nBiden heads to the Capitol\n\nBiden left the White House at 8:30 p.m. en route to the Capitol. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived ahead of him along with the majority of his Cabinet.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nPaul Pelosi arrives at State of the Union\n\nPaul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arrived at the State of the Union about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.\n\nThis marks his first visit to a joint session of Congress since a video release of a brutal October attack that left him with head and hand injuries requiring surgery.\n\n– Candy Woodall\n\nLawmakers arrive for State of the Union\n\nIf handshakes across the aisle are any reliable indication, there was a hint of bipartisanship in the air as lawmakers arrived for President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union before a divided Congress.\n\nThere was also the smell of cigars in the House gallery hallways on the third floor, a sign of the changing guard and new House rules.\n\nSeveral guests and congresswomen were wearing white, as a nod to the suffragettes. That included Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who despite earlier posts did not bring a white balloon into the chamber to troll Biden about what she describes as a delayed response in taking down the Chinese spy balloon.\n\n- Candy Woodall\n\nBiden traveling to Wisconsin and Florida after speech\n\nBiden administration officials will hit the road this week, holding events in at least 20 states to highlight parts of the president’s message.\n\nBiden himself will talk about his economic agenda in Wisconsin Wednesday and will discuss Social Security and Medicare in Florida Thursday.\n\nVice President Kamala Harris is heading to Georgia and Minnesota. Multiple other cabinet members are also fanning out across the country.\n\n- Maureen Groppe\n\nHow would Biden’s billionaire tax work?\n\nTonight Biden will resurface his plan to levy more taxes on the ultra-wealthy. But how would that work?\n\nUnder the current tax system, you don’t have to pay taxes on assets like stocks, homes and artwork that can appreciate over time until you sell it. But if you hold onto them until you die, you won’t have to pay any taxes. And on top of that, heirs that inherit your assets won’t have to pay taxes if they sell them.\n\nThe Biden Administration refers to this as a tax loophole, as billionaires benefit the most since they’re more likely than working-class Americans to get compensated via stocks or other assets that appreciate over time or inherit them.\n\nTo end the practice, Biden is proposing “minimum income tax” on American households worth more than $100 million. His plan calls for the wealthiest Americans to pay a tax rate of at least 20% on their full income, including unrealized gains from assets that have increased in value since their purchase.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nTaxing billionaires:Should the wealthy pay taxes on expensive art and wine? Joe Biden thinks so. Here's how it would work\n\nOcasio-Cortez lays out expectations for Biden’s speech, working with Republicans\n\nAhead of Biden’s address, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.-N.Y., said she’s hoping to “hear a really strong vision” from Biden and explained how Democrats and Republicans could find common ground after the GOP gained control of the House during the midterm elections.\n\nThe New York lawmaker told CNN she hopes to hear “about not just what we've done so far, but also our plans on executing on the enormous bills and successes that we've had in the last one to two years,\" saying “There still is implementation and execution on these plans to address our priorities around climate, taxing the rich and so much more.”\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nBiden's 'finish the job' call in State of the Union echoes FDR\n\nHistorian Michael Beschloss hears echoes of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Biden’s State of the Union address.\n\nBiden will call on Republicans to work with him to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and uniting the country, according to excerpts of the speech released by the White House.\n\n“Finish the job” was used as a rationale for FDR's reelection, Beschloss tweeted about the phrase’s historical lineage. It was also a slogan for the World War I effort. And in a famous radio address during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill vowed to “finish the job.”\n\nAt the start of Biden’s administration, many comparisons – not all of them favorable – were made between the size and scope of Biden’s ambitions, Roosevelt’s programs and the World War II spending that lifted the nation out of the Great Depression.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nSarah Huckabee Sanders: Biden is more interested in 'woke fantasies' than concerns of everyday Americans\n\nIn delivering the Republican response to the State of the Union, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sander plans to attack Biden and the Democrats over a panoply of issues that include inflation, taxes, education and so-called \"culture wars.\"\n\n\"And while you reap the consequences of their failures, the Biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day,\" Sanders plans to say, according to speech excerpts released by her office.\n\nAnother excerpt: \"Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nState of the Union guests:Lawmakers highlight policing, abortion, wrongful imprisonment\n\nHow long does the State of the Union last? What it will take for Biden to set a SOTU record\n\nBiden’s first State of the Union address in 2022 was somewhere between the longest and shortest speeches ever given, according to The American Presidency Project. Will he keep his second address tonight short and sweet, or will he be long-winded?\n\nIf he intendeds to break the record for the shortest speech ever, he’d have it keep it under 28 minutes and 55 seconds. That was the time Richard Nixon took to deliver his address in 1972. To beat the longest address ever, he’d have to outdo his fellow Democrat former President Bill Clinton, who went on for 1 hour, 28 minutes and 40 seconds for his final State of the Union speech in 2000. Clinton also claims the spot for the second longest address, clocking in at 1 hour, 24 minutes and 58 seconds in 1995.\n\n– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy\n\nBiden to promise investment in ‘places and people that have been forgotten’\n\nBiden will spend part of his address promoting his economic plan and assuring Americans that he wants to invest in “places and people that have been forgotten.”\n\nAmid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible, he will say, according to excerpts of the speech released by the White House.\n\n“Maybe that’s you watching at home,” Biden will say. “You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it. That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.”\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nBiden to praise recovery from Jan. 6 riot, COVID\n\nPresident Joe Biden will say “the story of America is a story of progress and resilience” in his State of the Union address as he touts a rebounding economy, COVID-19 recovery and democracy that survived the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, according to excerpts of the speech provided by the White House.\n\nBiden will tout 12 million new jobs created under his presidency – many that came back following the pandemic – to claim economic progress. And he will reflect on a period two years ago when businesses and schools closed at the height of the pandemic.\n\n“Today, COVID no longer controls our lives,” Biden plans to say. “And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nBiden to ask Republicans to work with him in SOTU speech\n\nPresident Joe Biden will make a plea to Republicans in Congress to work with him. He said after the November elections that Americans sent a divided Congress to Washington because they want them to work together.\n\n“The people sent us a clear message,” Biden will say, according to excerpts released from the White House. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nWhy Sen. Patty Murray and other lawmakers will be wearing crayons at State of the Union\n\nWashington Sen. Patty Murray and some of her Democratic colleagues will be wearing crayon pins to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday to signal their support for greater investments in child care. Such care now costs more than $10,000 a year on average, and roughly half of Americans live in a child care desert. Insufficient child care takes a toll on America's economy, recent research shows, costing taxpayers $122 billion annually.\n\nPartisan gridlock has prevented progress on major child care reforms, such as Murray's Child Care for Working Families Act, which would generally cap child care expenses at 7% of a family's household income. Biden, who alluded to that cap in his last State of the Union, has also struggled to gain traction on his child care proposals.\n\n– Alia Wong\n\nLawmakers to highlight key social issues through guests\n\nTuesday night’s State of the Union address will be the first year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic where lawmakers are allowed to bring their own guests. As part of tradition, lawmakers tend to invite guests that draw attention to issues important to them.\n\nSeveral Democratic lawmakers have invited guests to champion abortion access such as Roslyn Roger Collins, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Metropolitan New Jersey, who will attend the address alongside Rep. Bob Mendendez, D-N.J., according to Planned Parenthood.\n\nIn the wake of the brutal beating and subsequent death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are bringing guests who have been impacted by police violence. House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has invited Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died at the hands of a New York police officer in 2014.\n\n– Christine Fernando and Ken Tran\n\nRepublican response: Sarah Huckabee Sanders follows in historic footsteps with her State of the Union response\n\nArkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the first former White House press secretary to deliver a formal State of the Union response – she is not, however, the first governor of Arkansas to do the honors.\n\nBack in 1985, the Democrats picked a young governor of Arkansas to deliver their response to President Ronald Reagan.\n\nHis name? Bill Clinton ... then-future President Bill Clinton.\n\nSanders will give the Republican rebuttal after Biden's speech.\n\n– David Jackson\n\n5 big questions for the SOTU:Is he running? 5 big questions Joe Biden will answer in the State of the Union\n\nBiden and China: Spy balloon likely to be addressed\n\nThe speech is a chance for Biden to respond to those who have criticized how he handled the suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted over the United States last week – and to send a public message to China. Republicans have accused Biden of showing weakness by not shooting down the balloon sooner.\n\nTensions have been rising with China, which the U.S. considers its biggest strategic and economic competitor. The nations have clashed over Taiwan, technology, human rights, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other disputes.\n\nThe Biden administration has been trying to stabilize the relationship, building what it’s called “guardrails” as it normalizes interaction. But one effort to do that – sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China – was postponed because of the balloon incident.\n\n– Maureen Groppe and Michael Collins\n\nIntel chair: China balloon flew over nuke sites\n\nBiden to lay out 'forceful approach’ to combatting fentanyl\n\nThe Biden administration will launch a national campaign to educate young people on the dangers of fentanyl, part of the “forceful approach” for going after fentanyl trafficking and reducing overdose deaths.\n\nOther steps include:\n\nUsing new large-scale scanners to improve efforts to stop fentanyl from being brought into the U.S. through the southern border.\n\nWorking with package delivery companies to catch more packages containing fentanyl from being shipped around the country.\n\nWorking with Congress to make permanent a temporary tool that that’s helped federal agents crack down on drugs chemically similar to fentanyl.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n5 big questions on Biden's speech:Is he running? 5 big questions Joe Biden will answer in the State of the Union\n\nBiden to plug job market as recession looms\n\nPresident Joe Biden is expected to take credit for a booming job market and easing inflation when he speaks to the nation Tuesday night.\n\nBut he’ll likely leave out a litany of trouble spots, including a slumping housing market, a monthslong manufacturing downturn and elevated recession risk this year. Meanwhile, inflation is still high and economists pin at least some of the blame on Biden for showering Americans with cash in early 2021 while the economy was already healing.\n\n– Paul Davidson\n\nState of the economy:A look at economy's strengths, weaknesses as Biden sets to boast of record job growth in State of Union\n\nWho is Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Arkansas governor to giver Republican response to Biden's State of the Union address\n\nSarah Huckabee Sanders, one-time White House press secretary for former President Trump and current governor of Arkansas, will deliver the Republican rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union address tonight.\n\nSanders, the youngest governor in the U.S., hails from a prominent political family. Her father Mike Huckabee was the 44th governor of Arkansas, serving from 1996 to 2007 before launching an unsuccessful presidential bid during the 2008 election. The younger Sanders has since cut out her own place in GOP politics, emerging as one of the more high-profile members of the Trump administration.\n\n– Anna Kaufman\n\nBono, Tyre Nichols’ family members among guests sitting with first lady Jill Biden Tuesday night\n\nThe lead singer for the rock group U2, Bono, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, are among the White House guests attending President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday.\n\nGuests are chosen to highlight themes of the president’s speech or because they represent his policy initiatives.\n\nBono is the cofounder of the ONE campaign to fight poverty and preventable diseases, and (RED), which fights HIV/AIDS in Africa. Other guests who will be sitting with first lady Jill Biden during the speech include:\n\nThe mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers.\n\nBrandon Tsay, the man who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman who killed 11 people and injured 10 others during a Lunar New Year celebration.\n\nA Texas woman who almost died because doctors were concerned that intervening when her pregnancy ran into difficulties would violate the state’s abortion ban.\n\nOne of the Massachusetts same-sex couples who sued the state for the right to marry in 2001.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nWhat to expect from tonight's speech:Here's what you can expect from Joe Biden's speech\n\nBiden's speech comes amid job gains\n\nOne accomplishment Biden is sure to bring up tonight is the level of job gains under his presidency. Since he took office the unemployment rate went from 6.3% to 3.4%, per the latest jobs data.\n\nDespite recession fears and massive tech layoffs, U.S. employers added 517,000 new jobs last month, well exceeding economists' expectations of around 180,000 new jobs.\n\nThe blowout jobs report paved the way for the Federal Reserve to pass more rate hikes aimed at lowering inflation, Fed Chairman Powell said in remarks he delivered earlier today. But the rate hikes could push the economy closer to a recession, which the central bank has avoided so far.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nBiden’s student loan forgiveness plan remains stalled\n\nBiden has yet to fulfill his campaign promise of canceling at least $10,000 in student loan debt. Last year he unveiled a plan to make good on his promise.\n\nHowever the plan is being stalled by legal challenges. Six states – Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina – formed a coalition to fight the proposal. They argue that canceling student loan debt extends beyond the administration’s legal authority.\n\nThe Supreme Court is set to hear arguments for the case later this month. The Biden administration claims it is well within their legal realm to proceed with its plan. It cannot do so unless the Court rules in its favor, however.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nStock market under Biden\n\nSince President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 10%. Last year the index fell into a bear market, meaning it dropped 20% below a market peak set last January.\n\nDuring former President Donald Trump's time in office, the Dow gained 56%. That represents an annualized gain of close to 12%, one of the best stock market performances under a Republican president according to data from LPL Financial.\n\n– Elisabeth Buchwald\n\nWhat time is the State of the Union speech tonight?\n\nBiden’s State of the Union speech is Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST.\n\nHow to stream the SOTU\n\nThe speech will be livestreamed by USA TODAY.\n\nWho is the designated survivor tonight?\n\nThe State of the Union address, delivered to a joint session of Congress and a crowd that includes all nine Supreme Court justices, poses a unique scenario in which every key member of the nation’s leadership is in one room.\n\nThat makes it both a momentous affair, and a significant national security risk. For this reason, each year one member of the president’s Cabinet dubbed the \"designated survivor\" hangs back.\n\nThe practice dates back to the Cold War, during which fears of a Soviet Nuclear attack abounded and a fresh urgency surrounded protocols for the order of presidential succession. The designated survivor for 2023 has not yet been announced, but heads of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy have most frequently been chosen.\n\n– Anna Kaufman\n\nWhat channel is the State of the Union on?\n\nThe major TV networks and other news outlets, such as Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and PBS, are providing live coverage of the address.\n\nWhat is the State of the Union address?\n\nThe State of the Union address isn’t just a tradition in the nation’s capital. It's rooted in the Constitution.\n\nArticle II of the Constitution says the president shall “from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.\"\n\nThat doesn’t mean the president has to give a speech – as they often do today.\n\n\"From that very general mandate in the Constitution has evolved into what we recognize today as a yearly event, with lots of pomp and circumstance,\" Claire Jerry, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History, told USA TODAY.\n\n– Marina Pitofsky\n\nWhen did the annual message become known as State of the Union address?\n\nFrom 1790 to 1946, the speech delivered by the president to Congress was known simply as the \"Annual Message.\"\n\nIn 1947 is became the ‘State of the Union’ and has since been referred to by that name.\n\n– Anna Kaufman\n\nWhat is the origin of the state of the union address?\n\nArticle II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution states that the president will “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”\n\nThis language birthed the practice, allowing the executive to deliver to a joint session of Congress and the American people.\n\nIn the modern era, the speech has become a vehicle for administrations to roll out their policy priorities for the coming year and spotlight key agenda issues.\n\n– Anna Kaufman", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/02/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/health/insulin-rationing-diabetes-study/index.html", "title": "Insulin: 1.3 million Americans with diabetes rationed their supply in ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nIn December, Stephanie Arceneaux of Utah will have been living with type 1 diabetes for 30 years. She was diagnosed at age 6.\n\n“I have seen a lot of changes within how diabetes is cared for,” she said. “I always thought that as I got older, that things would improve, and unfortunately, that has not been the case.”\n\nArceneaux’s husband and young son also both have type 1 diabetes. All three of them depend on insulin to survive.\n\n“When I first heard stories about individuals with diabetes rationing their insulin, my initial thought was that is so horrible, because I know what it feels like not to have enough insulin in your body. At the same time, I also had this thought, ‘I’m so lucky that I’ve never had to do that,’ ” she said.\n\n“But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had spent my entire adult life doing that. I’ve been lucky in that it didn’t cause any serious ramifications that I’m aware of, but I made choices in my life so that I would have the insulin that I needed to live.”\n\nArceneaux isn’t alone: According to research published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, over a million people with diabetes in the US rationed their insulin in the past year.\n\n“The main takeaway is that 1.3 million people rationed insulin the United States, one of the richest countries in the world,” Dr. Adam Gaffney, the lead author of the study and a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, told CNN. “This is a lifesaving drug. Rationing insulin can have life-threatening consequences.”\n\n16.5% of people who use insulin report rationing\n\nGaffney and his co-authors analyzed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2021 National Health Interview Survey, which included 982 people with diabetes who use insulin. They looked at how commonly these people rationed insulin because of how much it cost.\n\nPeople were considered to be rationing if they responded positively to questions in the survey about skipping insulin doses, taking less than needed or putting off buying their insulin.\n\n“What we found was that nationwide, about 1.3 million Americans with diabetes rationed insulin annually, and that’s about 16.5% of all those people who use insulin,” Gaffney said.\n\nSome groups said they did so more frequently, such as those with type 1 diabetes; those without health insurance rationed most frequently of all.\n\nAdults under the age of 65 rationed more frequently than those who were 65 and older, with Gaffney noting that almost all of those who were older and rationed less were covered by Medicare.\n\nTwo other groups who were more likely to ration insulin than their counterparts were middle-income people and Black Americans.\n\n“We found high rates of rationing of a life-saving drug, and that should really be something of concern for everyone,” Gaffney said.\n\n“We need urgently policy change to ensure that everyone has access to this critical medication without cost barriers,” he said. “And we need to do that today.”\n\nGaffney and his co-authors said in the study that there are several factors underlying their findings, including that insulin prices in the US are far higher than in other places, and that pharmaceutical companies have increased the price “year upon year, even for products that remain unchanged.”\n\n“By limiting insulin copays to $35 per month under Medicare, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act may improve insulin access for seniors, who experienced substantial rationing in our study,” they wrote. “However, a similar cap for the privately insured was removed from the bill, and copay caps do not aid the uninsured. Further reform could improve access to insulin for all Americans.”\n\nRates of diabetes more than double\n\nAccording to the CDC, more than 37 million adults in the US have diabetes, but 1 in 5 don’t know it. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the country and the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations and adult blindness.\n\nThe number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled in the past year, the CDC said.\n\nType 1 diabetes is thought to be caused by an autoimmune reaction that stops the body from making insulin. According to the CDC, 5% to 10% of people with diabetes have this kind.\n\nType 2 diabetes means the body doesn’t use insulin well and can’t keep blood sugar at normal levels. It develops over many years and is usually diagnosed in adults.\n\nAlthough there’s no known way to prevent type 1 diabetes, type 2 can be prevented or delayed with healthy lifestyle changes, including losing weight and being active.\n\nFood vs. insulin\n\nThe choices Arceneaux found herself making in order to ration included not eating – as insulin is needed to cover carbohydrates that a person eats – and rationing things like test strips needed to test her blood sugar, meaning she was unaware of how much insulin she needed to give herself.\n\nShe also rationed other care that she needed, she said, and spent a lot of time deciding which medical care was more important for her. She would go to her doctor to get insulin prescriptions, but she wouldn’t do other things that someone with diabetes is supposed to do, such as getting annual eye exams to check for complications like retinopathy.\n\nThe cost of insulin plays into her decisions “to a huge extent,” she said.\n\n“If you don’t the have money to buy it, you don’t have the money to buy it,” she said. “So what I found myself doing was doing everything I possibly could, limiting everything I possibly could, so that I could purchase my insulin so that I would have it available.”\n\nWhen she first moved out on her own, she said, she quickly ran into trouble: She could afford food or insulin but not both. A friend bought groceries to help her through.\n\n“I remember telling her, ‘It’s difficult now. I’m young. I’ve just moved out on my own, but I know that it’s going to be better, you know, in five or 10 years, things are going to get better,’ ” she said. “And here I am. That was when I was 20 years old. I’m now 43, almost 44 years old, and it’s worse now. The costs have skyrocketed.”\n\nShe now has insurance through her husband’s employer, but “the cost of the premiums are so high that that leaves very little left over to afford everything that we need.” They often have to rely on donated insulin from other members of the local diabetes community, she said.\n\nInsulin is ‘like oxygen’ for many\n\nThe findings of the new study are “so important,” said Dr. Kasia Lipska, an associate professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine who sees patients at the Yale Diabetes Center.\n\n“The findings are really concerning in terms of access to insulin among Americans,” said Lipska, who was not involved in the research.\n\n“We have a serious problem. There are many people with diabetes who are rationing insulin, and there are disparities in terms of access, in terms of age, race, income and insurance status,” she said. “I think that this study points to persistent access issues to insulin in our country.”\n\nThe findings did not surprise her, she said, but rather back up what she sees in clinical practice. Her own research into a single diabetes center found high rates of insulin rationing.\n\n“We see people in the hospital setting who get admitted to the hospital because of high blood sugars, and then when we sort of ask what happened, turned out that they lack insurance or insurance is inadequate and they couldn’t take their insulin,” Lipska said. “In the outpatient setting, there is not a clinic that goes by where we don’t talk about cost of insulin and figuring out how to get the patient the insulin they need without breaking their budget. These are like daily conversations we have in the Yale Diabetes Center.”\n\nInsulin is “like oxygen” for people with type 1 diabetes, she said, and those who go without can get very sick within hours or days and end up in the hospital with ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening complication. It can even be deadly.\n\nThose with type 2 diabetes who don’t have adequate insulin can have high blood sugar levels, putting them at risk for complications such as heart disease, blindness and kidney failure.\n\n‘We’re making sacrifices every day’\n\n“Diabetes is even more expensive now than it was in my 20s,” Arceneaux said. “I know that studies have been done that say that one in four individuals with diabetes ration their insulin, but my guess is that it’s much more than that. We just may not realize that we’re doing it.\n\n“We’re doing what we need to stay alive, and that means getting the insulin that we need,” she said. “So we’re rationing not just our insulin but potentially other things in our life to do that.”\n\nArceneaux, who is the Utah chapter leader for the nonprofit T1 International, said she hears about rationing all the time.\n\nT1 International is led by people with type 1 diabetes who support local communities, giving them the tools they need to access insulin and diabetes supplies.\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“We deserve the same quality of life that everybody else deserves, and we shouldn’t have to sacrifice so much of our lives just to stay alive. That’s what so many of us that have diabetes are doing: We’re making sacrifices every day that others do not, that others don’t even realize,” Arceneaux said.\n\n“I think that’s unacceptable, and it needs to change. And it needs to change now. We’re tired of waiting,” she said. “People with diabetes are tired of waiting. We need a true price cap on insulin, and we need that to happen today so that we can have everything we need to live.”", "authors": ["Naomi Thomas"], "publish_date": "2022/10/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/us/california-makes-own-insulin/index.html", "title": "California to make its own low-cost insulin, Gov. Newsom says | CNN", "text": "CNN —\n\nCalifornia will begin making its own low-cost insulin in an effort to make it more financially accessible amid soaring prices for the life-saving medication, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday.\n\nThe move is possible through an allocation of $100 million in the state budget for the manufacture of the medication at a cheaper price.\n\n“Nothing, nothing epitomizes market failures more than the cost of insulin,” he said in a video posted on the governor’s official Twitter page.\n\nNewsom noted that $50 million will go toward funding a California-based manufacturing facility “that will provide new, high-paying jobs and a stronger supply chain for the drug.” The other $50 million will cover the cost of developing insulin products.\n\nMore than 8 million Americans with diabetes depend on insulin, which has been notorious for being among prescription drugs experiencing steep price surges.\n\nThe high cost has led an estimated 1 in every 4 people with diabetes to ration or skip doses, according to a study published in 2019 in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Patients who are Black, Latino or Native American are disproportionately affected because they are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured.\n\nCivica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug maker, announced In March that it planned to make and sell insulin for no more than $30 a vial. It is expected to be available as soon as early 2024, pending federal approval.", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi"], "publish_date": "2022/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2021/02/02/fact-check-insulin-prices-going-up-senator-chuck-grassley-explains/4359751001/", "title": "Why are insulin prices going up? Chuck Grassley explains it", "text": "By Madison Black, PolitiFact.com\n\nChuck Grassley: Insulin prices have \"gone THRU THE ROOF for patients/taxpayers bc of manufacturer, health plan & PBM biz practices.\"\n\nPolitiFact's ruling: True\n\nHere's why: More than 7 million Americans require insulin to treat their diabetes but some people struggle to afford the cost.\n\nOn Jan. 14, 2021, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted, \"2day Sen Wyden & I released Finance Cmte report on INSULIN costs Prices hv gone THRU THE ROOF for patients/taxpayers bc of manufacturer, health plan & PBM biz practices They make $$ as % of ballooning list price so no incentive to lower price on 100 yr old drug.\"\n\nGrassley has a history of attempting to lower the cost of the drug, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, worked with him as the ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee when Republicans controlled the Senate.\n\nIs Grassley right when he tweets about why insulin costs so much?\n\nInsulin costs\n\nBetween 2012 and 2016, the drug’s cost nearly doubled. A Humalog 50/50 vial costs an average of $390.23.\n\nDavid Tridgell, a Minneapolis endocrinologist who has had Type 1 diabetes since he was 15, wrote in The Washington Post that patients with Type 1 diabetes tend to use two or three vials of insulin per month. At the current cost of one vial of Humalog 50/50, these patients would spend $780 to $1,170 on their insulin every month. Type 2 Diabetes patients can require even more insulin per month, sometimes requiring six or more vials, Tridgell wrote. This would add up to $2,341 or more every month.\n\nGrassley claims that the increase is tied to the business practices of manufacturers, health plans and PBMs, or pharmacy business managers. A 2019 House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing featured testimony from CVS Health, Express Scripts, OptumRx, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi. They couldn’t lower the prices of insulin, the companies claimed, because of how PBMs and health insurance companies operate.\n\nFact-check:Are former leaders prosecuted 'only in the Third World'?\n\nPBMs serve as a liaison between drug companies and health insurance companies, negotiating what insurance companies, pharmacies and patients pay for a drug. They can negotiate rebates, discounts, and other services. These rebates and other benefits are passed on to the health plans. Medicare is barred from participating in these negotiations.\n\nA study published by the American Diabetes Association in 2018 showed that these negotiations encourage high list prices. As these list prices increase, \"profits of the intermediaries in the insulin supply chain, such as wholesalers, PBMs and pharmacies, increase because each may receive a rebate, discount or fee calculated as a percentage of the list price.\"\n\nThe study also reported that, because transparency is lacking within the insulin supply chain, \"it is unclear precisely how the dollars flow and how much each intermediary profits.\"\n\nFact-check:Is U.S. the only industrialized country without paid family medical leave?\n\nSome insulin producers blame insulin’s prices on the cost of innovation. However, Mayo Clinic hematologist S. Vincent Rajkumar dismissed this claim in a 2020 paper. Rajkumar wrote that limited innovation exists when it comes to insulin, and that what matters more is affordability.\n\nA U.S. Senate Finance Committee staff report released this year stated, \"Eli Lilly reported spending $395 million on (research and development) costs for Humalog, Humulin, and Basaglar between 2014 and 2018, during which time the company spent nearly $1.5 billion on sales and marketing expenses for its insulins.\"\n\nThe report also cited instances of 100-year-old drugs still going up in price. Every time a pharmacy dispenses therapeutic insulin, manufacturers pay PBMs administrative fees as high as 5 percent of the drug’s wholesale acquisition cost, the Senate staff report states. \"These fees are a significant revenue stream for PBMs and likely act as a countervailing force against lower list prices—PBMs may be reluctant to push for lower WAC prices since it would reduce their administrative fee-based revenue,\" the report stated.\n\nFact-check:Did Biden admit that he's governing like a 'dictator'?\n\nOur ruling\n\nGrassley said that insulin prices have dramatically increased because of manufacturer, health plan, and pharmacy business manager practices. He’s right. Innovations alone aren’t enough to justify the extreme increases in price that have raised insulin costs over the years.\n\nPBMs, with their complicated discount negotiations, and manufacturers, with their continuing drive to increase earnings, both play a role. So do drug stores, pharmacies, and other suppliers who want to be competitive in the marketplace by offering consumers discounts. But the discounts don’t go to everyone with diabetes, and when they do, they vary from vendor to vendor.\n\nMultiple studies in recent years, testimony in public hearings, the drug’s pricing history, and sourcing in federal government reports show examples of complicated procedures related in large part to negotiated discounts for some vendors adding to overall insulin costs.\n\nWe rate Grassley’s statement True.\n\nFact-check:Does the Paris accord fail to hold China and India accountable?\n\nSources", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/08/29/biden-eliquis-jardiance-xarelto-drug-price-negotiations/70705825007/", "title": "Top diabetes, heart disease drugs for Medicare price negotiation", "text": "The first 10 prescription drugs the federal government will negotiate under a new federal law were revealed Tuesday, launching a process that could deliver drug discounts by 2026.\n\nThe batch of 10 medications include some of the most widely prescribed or expensive drugs older Americans use for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and autoimmune conditions.\n\nThe Biden administration will negotiate prices for these nine drugs: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica and Stelara. The other drug includes the insulin medications Fiasp and NovoLog, including versions named Fiasp FlexTouch, Fiasp PenFill, NovoLog FlexPen and NovoLog PenFill, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Tuesday.\n\n\"For far too long, Americans have paid more for prescription drugs than any major economy,\" President Joe Biden said in a statement early Tuesday. \"And while the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits, millions of Americans are forced to choose between paying for medications they need to live or paying for food, rent, and other basic necessities. Those days are ending.\"\n\nPrice changes for the first batch of 10 negotiated drugs won’t take effect until 2026. Over the next two years, another 30 drugs will be selected for negotiated prices beginning in 2027 and 2028.\n\nEven as Big Pharma objects,Medicare's priciest drugs may get cheaper as feds start negotiations\n\nLimits on which prescription drug prices can be negotiated\n\nThe 10 selected drugs accounted for about 20% of total spending for Medicare Part D prescription drugs over the past year, officials said. In all, those drugs cost Medicare and enrollees about $50.5 billion from June 1, 2022, through May 31 this year − the period for which costs were evaluated.\n\nAlthough Medicare picks up most of that tab, about 9 million enrollees spent $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for those drugs − a struggle for many seniors.\n\nThe federal government's new drug negotiating power comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping climate and health legislation Congress passed last year.\n\nThe list did not include the top-selling rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, which had a two-decade exclusive window before competing biosimilars launched this year.\n\nAdministrators followed provisions of the law and earlier guidance when selecting which drugs to negotiate, said Meena Seshamani, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare.\n\nRetail drugs were selected only after they have been on the market for seven years without a competing generic version. Physician-administered \"biologic\" drugs must be on the market for 11 years before being subject to negotiation, Seshamani said.\n\n'Who can afford that'? Patients face costly bills amid FDA's battle over 'orphan drugs'\n\nSome savings to come sooner than others\n\nWhile consumers won't see discounts from negotiated prices until 2026, other provisions promise more immediate savings. In 2025, enrollees in Medicare's Part D drug plans will have their out-of-pocket expenses for prescriptions capped at $2,000 per year.\n\nConsumer and senior advocates long have sought efforts to slow rising drug prices for brand-name prescriptions for Medicare enrollees and taxpayers. But drug companies and their industry allies have fiercely contested the process, filing eight lawsuits seeking to halt drug negotiations.\n\nStephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents pharmaceutical companies, blasted the negotiations as a \"rushed process focused on short-term political gain rather than what is best for patients.\"\n\n\"Giving a single government agency the power to arbitrarily set the price of medicines with little accountability, oversight or input from patients and their doctors will have significant negative consequences long after this administration is gone,\" Ubl said.\n\nCMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure told USA TODAY she hopes the drug companies will \"want to come to the table\" and negotiate despite the lawsuits. Her agency will bargain with drug manufacturers and publish prices next September for prices that will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.\n\n\"We want to pay them adequately,\" Brooks-LaSure said. \"We just don't want to be a price taker where they just set whatever price they want to charge and Medicare has no ability to make sure that people are getting the best value for their dollar.\"\n\nThe federal health program for adults 65 and older and disabled people sets reimbursement amounts for medical care from doctors and hospitals, but until now, Medicare has been prohibited from negotiating drug prices under 2003 legislation that expanded Medicare’s prescription drug coverage.\n\nThe law also capped Medicare recipients' out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a dose beginning this year. Though that provision did not extend to Americans covered by private insurance plans, three major insulin makers said they would slash prices by 70% or more on their respective products.\n\nMedicare wants to trim spending on expensive, widely used drugs\n\nAnalysts say that while the price negotiations will start with 10 drugs, it will represent big savings for Medicare. The drugs were targeted for overall cost to Medicare, because of either high list prices or use by a lot of enrollees.\n\n\"The goal of this program is really to lower Medicare spending on these drugs,\" said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health foundation.\n\nEliquis, prescribed to prevent or treat blood clots, was used by 3.7 million Medicare enrollees at a cost of nearly $16.5 billion last year. Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb disputed the amount Medicare spent, saying it \"fails to take into consideration all rebates, discounts, and fees paid to Medicare and Part D plans,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nMariana Socal, an associate scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's department of health policy and management, said the negotiations should make drug pricing more transparent because Medicare will publish the negotiated prices.\n\n\"This will bring great relief to Medicare patients who pay high out-of-pocket costs for their drugs,\" Socal said. \"In addition, the transparent prices will provide more information to empower patients outside of Medicare to demand lower prices as well.\"\n\nNick Fabrizio, a senior lecturer in health policy at Cornell University, said Democrats will likely highlight their efforts to lower drug costs. However, he said, it will take time to assess how the price negotiations will affect the drug industry.\n\n“While we may see the impact that this has on lowering health care costs, we will also see whether prescribing habits change to other alternatives that may provide greater reimbursement and whether these price controls hamper research and development by the pharmaceutical industry.\"\n\nKen Alltucker is on X, formerly Twitter, at @kalltucker, or can be emailed at alltuck@usatoday.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/08/27/biden-administration-to-negotiate-costs-on-medicares-priciest-drugs/70669256007/", "title": "Biden administration to negotiate costs on Medicare's priciest drugs", "text": "The Biden administration this week is expected to announce the first 10 prescription drugs the federal government will negotiate under a new federal law that aims to reduce the cost of Medicare's most expensive medicines.\n\nFor the first time, the federal government is allowed to negotiate drug prices for older Americans because of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping climate and health legislation passed by Congress last year. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must publish the list of 10 drugs by Friday, but administration officials have signaled the announcement could come earlier in the week.\n\nConsumer and senior advocates long have sought efforts to rein in drug prices for Medicare enrollees and taxpayers.\n\nThe federal health program for adults 65 and older and disabled people sets reimbursement amounts for medical care from doctors and hospitals, but until now, Medicare has been prohibited from negotiating drug prices under 2003 legislation that expanded Medicare’s prescription drug coverage.\n\nAnalysts say some expensive and widely used drugs for arthritis, cancer, diabetes or heart disease could be targeted for negotiation. Price changes for the first batch of 10 drugs won’t take effect until 2026. Over the next two years, another 30 drugs will be selected for negotiated prices beginning in 2027 and 2028.\n\n“The negotiation process is going to meet its goal of capturing those drugs that are either used by a lot of people, are very expensive, or both,” said Leigh Purvis, a prescription drug policy principal with AARP Public Policy Institute.\n\nMedicare launches plan on costly drugs:Here's what to know\n\nBig Pharma takes the fight to court\n\nBut the pharmaceutical industry is challenging the drug negotiations. Big Pharma and industry allies have filed eight lawsuits seeking to derail drug negotiations. AstraZeneca, Astellas Pharma, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and the drug industry's trade group, PhRMA, have filed legal challenges, as has the U.S., Michigan and Ohio chambers of commerce.\n\nThe lawsuits use unique legal theories on why drug negotiations should be halted. In a lawsuit filed Friday at U.S. District Court in Delaware, AstraZeneca said the Inflation Reduction Act's drug negotiation provisions conflict with another federal law, the Orphan Drug Act, which seeks to promote drug industry investment in new therapies for rare diseases.\n\nIf the drug negotiations are allowed to continue, U.S. patients \"will get delayed access to scientific breakthroughs relative to other parts of the world,” said Dave Fredrickson, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of oncology.\n\nThe growing list of lawsuits filed in different courts likely represents a strategy to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Kelly Bagby, vice president of litigation for the AARP Foundation.\n\n“What they're trying to do is create as much momentum to get to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible,” Bagby said.\n\nPatient on Xarelto looks for negotiated discount\n\nSeniors who rely on expensive prescription drugs are anxiously awaiting which drugs could be discounted through negotiation.\n\nMassachusetts resident Ellen Farmer, 64, takes Xarelto to manage a type of abnormal heartbeat called atrial fibrillation. Her doctor told her she needed to take the blood thinner or she could be at risk for blood clots, heart attack or stroke.\n\n“I was shocked and terrified when the pharmacist told me the monthly copay for Xarelto, after insurance, would be $1,000,” Farmer said. “There was no way I could afford that.”\n\nFarmer is enrolled in Medicare because of a disability caused by her heart condition. And subsidies available to some low-income Medicare recipients − another provision of the IRA − means her monthly copayment has for the drug has been sharply reduced.\n\nShe said it “gives me hope” the price of her medication might be cut even more through drug negotiations.\n\n“There are far too many in this country who cannot afford the price of countless medications they need to survive,” Farmer said. “No one should ever have to choose between financial security and their health.”\n\nInsulin costs, vaccines among other benefits\n\nThe law does not give Medicare unlimited authority to select which drugs to negotiate. Retail drugs are eligible only after they have been on the market for nine years without a competing generic version. Physician-administered drugs will have 13 years before being subject to negotiation.\n\nWhile consumers won't see discounts from negotiated prices until 2026, other provisions promise more immediate savings. In 2025, Enrollees in Medicare's Part D drug plans will have their out-of-pocket expenses for prescriptions capped at $2,000 per year.\n\n'Making it as simple as possible:'Amazon Pharmacy offers insulin discounts amid price hikes\n\nThe law also capped Medicare recipients' out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per dose beginning this year. While that provision did not extend to Americans covered by private insurance plans, three major insulin makers said they would slashed prices by 70% or more on their respective products.\n\nMedicare recipients also won't pay out-of-pocket costs for recommended vaccines such as shingles, whooping cough or tetanus.\n\nThe federal law also requires drugmakers to pay federal rebates if they increase prices above inflation levels. In June, Medicare said it would target 43 drugs with price hikes that exceeded this threshold. Officials said the rebates could save consumers money through lower costs, as well as trim Medicare's spending.\n\nPurvis, of AARP Public Policy Institute, said even consumers who don’t take expensive prescriptions will see benefits. The health-related provisions of the federal law are expected to save taxpayers $173 billion over the next decade, according to a Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget analysis.\n\n“They are going to see savings as a result of negotiation,\" Purvis said.\n\nKen Alltucker is on X, formerly Twitter, at @kalltucker, or can be emailed at alltuck@usatoday.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/27"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_14", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:30", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/29/europe/denmark-queen-grandchildren-scli-intl/index.html", "title": "Denmark's Queen Margrethe strips four grandchildren of royal titles ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nA rift has emerged in the Danish royal family following a decision by Queen Margrethe to strip four of her eight grandchildren of their royal titles in order to “future-proof” the monarchy.\n\nThe 82-year-old monarch, who this year celebrated half a century on the throne, announced on Thursday that from next year the children of her younger son, Prince Joachim, will no longer be known as prince and princess.\n\nThe reason for the move, according to an announcement from the Danish royal household, is to allow the junior royals to lead more normal lives, while it follows a similar decision by other royal families to slim down the monarchy.\n\nThe announcement explained: “The Queen’s decision is in line with similar adjustments that other royal houses have made in various ways in recent years.\n\nPrince Joachim, sons Nikolai and Felix, and Princess Marie during celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Queen's accession to the throne in Copenhagen on September 10. Sergei Gapon/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images\n\n“With her decision, Her Majesty The Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves.”\n\nJoachim, the Queen’s second son, lives in Paris with his wife, Princess Marie, and their two children, Henrik, 13, and Athena, 10. The prince has two older sons, Nikolai, 23, and Felix, 20, from his first marriage to Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg.\n\nThe royal household said their HRH titles will be “discontinued,” adding: “Prince Joachim’s descendants will thus have to be addressed as excellencies in the future.”\n\nAll four of Joachim’s children will maintain their places in the order of succession.\n\nQueen Margrethe, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, Prince Nikolai, Prince Felix, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena during the confirmation of Princess Isabella on April 30, 2022. Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images\n\nIn a telephone conversation with CNN, Helle von Wildenrath Løvgreen, press secretary to Countess Alexandra, said the countess was “very sad and in shock.\n\n“She can’t believe why and why now, because there’s no good reason. They would lose their titles anyway when they get married one day. Her sons are young men so maybe they might get married in the near future so why shouldn’t it wait until that day so that the titles would disappear on a happy day?”\n\nThe palace said the latest development was a “natural extension” of earlier moves to slim down the monarchy, saying: “In April 2008, Her Majesty The Queen bestowed upon her sons, their spouses and their descendants the titles of count and countess of Monpezat. In May 2016, it was also announced that His Royal Highness Prince Christian, as the only one of The Queen’s grandchildren, is expected to receive an annuity from the state as an adult.”\n\nJoachim’s older brother, Crown Prince Frederik, is first in line to the throne. His oldest child, Prince Christian, is second in line. All four of Frederik’s children retain their titles.\n\nCountess Alexandra told CNN by email that Von Wildenrath Løvgreen has been authorized to speak on behalf of Joachim and Marie, as well as on her behalf.\n\nVon Wildenrath Løvgreen said: “Their father told his children. They were quite shocked.\n\n“He’s really a man of honor. He’s lived all his life in his family with that title and he’s shocked and nearly cried this morning when one of the European tabloids talked to him in Paris.”\n\nShe said the children only learned of the change in their titles in recent days, adding: “Back in May he (Prince Joachim) was told that they might remove their titles when they turn 25 and then he didn’t hear any more until a few days ago.”\n\nVon Wildenrath Løvgreen explained that the rebrand is purely a formality, as Joachim’s children do not receive any money from the public purse.\n\n“It’s just their loss of identity and it’s very hard for little children and young men. As Prince Nikolai said to me, ‘what will they write in my passport now?’”\n\nThe four children have not spoken with their grandmother since the announcement was made, she said.\n\nResponding to the palace’s explanation that this will enable the youngsters to lead a more normal life, she added: “They will never get a normal life. If they do something very stupid it will always come back on the family.”\n\nLene Balleby, the royal household’s director of communications, told CNN in an email: “As Her Majesty The Queen stated yesterday, the decision has been a long time coming. The Queen’s decision has taken various forms along the way, but Prince Joachim has been involved in and informed about the process since May 5th. We fully understand that there are many emotions involved at the moment, but we hope that The Queen’s desire to future-proof the Royal House of Denmark will be respected.”\n\nThis is not the first time titles have proved controversial for the family. The Queen’s husband, Prince Henrik, said he did not want to be buried in a plot intended for his wife at Roskilde Cathedral, because he had not been given the title of king.\n\nThe French-born prince, who died in 2018, had been unhappy with his title since being named prince consort – rather than king consort – upon the couple’s marriage in 1967.", "authors": ["Lianne Kolirin"], "publish_date": "2022/09/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/uk/king-charles-coronation-intl-gbr-scli/index.html", "title": "Coronation of King Charles III to take place May 2023 | CNN", "text": "London CNN —\n\nThe coronation of King Charles III will take place on May 6 next year at Westminster Abbey in London, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.\n\nThe service will be a more modern affair than previous royal coronations and will “look towards the future,” the palace said in a statement. It added that the occasion will still be “rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.”\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will conduct the ceremony, which will see Charles crowned alongside his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort.\n\nDuring the event, the King will be “anointed, blessed and consecrated” by the Archbishop of Canterbury – a role which has conducted most royal coronations since 1066, according to the statement.\n\nThe palace added: “The Ceremony has retained a similar structure for over a thousand years, and next year’s Coronation is expected to include the same core elements while recognising the spirit of our times.”\n\nCharles, 73, became Britain’s monarch last month following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nDays after her death, Charles was formally confirmed as the new King of the United Kingdom in a ceremony at St. James’ Palace.\n\nHowever, his coronation has been scheduled for next year to allow an appropriate period of time to mourn the previous sovereign and to plan the ceremony.\n\nCharles and Camilla, Queen Consort greet wellwishers as they arrive at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast on September 13. Niall Carson/AFP/Getty Images\n\nThe palace has not revealed specific details about the coronation, but some have wondered if the King intends to make it more inclusive while reflecting his vision of the future monarchy.\n\nCharles previously said he sees Britain as a “community of communities” and this understanding has made him realize that he has an “additional duty” to “protect the diversity of our country.”\n\nLater this year, he is expected to sign a proclamation formally declaring the date of the coronation at a meeting of the Privy Council, which is a panel of royal advisers.\n\nTo get updates on the British Royal Family sent to your inbox, sign up for CNN’s Royal News newsletter.", "authors": ["Max Foster Sugam Pokharel Sana Noor Haq", "Max Foster", "Sugam Pokharel", "Sana Noor Haq"], "publish_date": "2022/10/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/02/spain-king-juan-carlos-abdicates/9858223/", "title": "Game of thrones: Spain's Juan Carlos abdicates", "text": "Ana Trivino and Meritxell Mir\n\nSpecial for USA TODAY\n\nMALAGA, Spain — Spanish King Juan Carlos always said that he would die wearing his crown but he unexpectedly stepped down Monday in favor of his son Crown Prince Felipe, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced in a nationwide television broadcast.\n\nThe abdication 39 years after Juan Carlos ascended to the throne, a period when the king oversaw Spain's transition to democracy in the wake of the nation's notorious dictator Francisco Franco, comes as corruption scandals have dogged the royal family, and as the monarchy has seen renewed calls for its disbandment.\n\nJuan Carlos, who turned 76 in January, said that he was handing power to Prince Felipe, 46, in order to \"open a new era of hope combining his acquired experience and the drive of a new generation.\" Prince Felipe, the monarch's only son, is considered to be well-liked.\n\n\"Younger people with new energies (are required) to undertake the reforms that the present juncture demands of us,\" Juan Carlos said, speaking of his decision to abdicate. \"My son Felipe embodies stability,\" he said.\n\nSome Spaniards said they had been waiting for it.\n\n\"This is part of an expected chronology (of events),\" said Alberto Garzon, a lawmaker in the Spanish parliament and author of the book The Third Republic — about a future Spain without a monarchy.\n\nJuan Carlos has enjoyed high popularity for decades but in the past few years his approval ratings fell sharply after a series of personal blunders. He took an expensive African safari during the height of the euro crisis. His daughter, Princess Cristina, has been indicted for embezzlement and her husband stands accused of tax evasion and money laundering.\n\nWhile other European monarchs have come under scrutiny for excessive spending, including the British royal family, none have so far come under pressure to abdicate. The Spanish king's relinquishing of power drew no immediate response from royal families across Europe on Monday.\n\nEven though the debate as to whether he should step down has raged for some time, most Spaniards expressed astonishment at the announcement.\n\n\"I always thought he would die with his boots on,\" said Gabriel Camino, 36, from Barcelona.\n\n\"It was a surprise but this was a good moment (for his abdication) as there are no elections in sight because that would have made things more complicated,\" said Javier Tajadura, a professor of constitutional law at the University of the Basque Country.\n\nHowever, his departure comes during a period of upheaval for Spanish politics. The results of the May 25 European Parliament elections left Spain's two major political parties battered. Smaller parties won seats for the first time and more than 2.9 million Spaniards voted for political parties expressly in favor of eliminating the Spanish monarchy.\n\n\"(Both big parties) are afraid of those results as they are the only parties in parliament that are truly in favor of the monarchy,\" said Garzon, the author. \"They didn't even get 20% of the total population and they see the writing on the wall.\"\n\nAs soon as the abdication was announced, Podemos, Izquierda Unida and other smaller political parties and civic associations began demanding a referendum to decide whether to ditch the monarchy.\n\nThousands of people later demonstrated to abolish the monarchy. More than 5,000 people protested in Barcelona, and about 10,000 in Madrid. Smaller rallies were held elsewhere across the country.\n\nAlthough Rajoy said he was \"convinced this is the best moment for change\" he also said \"the process will take place in a context of institutional stability.\"\n\nStill, even with some in favor of eliminating the monarchy it is not clear if that is likely to happen.\n\n\"I think (any) referendum (on abolishing the monarchy) will be blocked in parliament, but I believe that societal pressure, with the demonstrations this evening, can be a very powerful symbol,\" said Garzon.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/06/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/08/politics/biden-queen-elizabeth-ii/index.html", "title": "Biden joins world leaders in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nUS President Joe Biden and leaders around the world mourned Queen Elizabeth II, following her death earlier Thursday at the age of 96.\n\nThe President and first lady Jill Biden expressed their condolences at the British Embassy in Washington, where they made an impromptu stop to sign a condolence book.\n\n“We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady. We’re so delighted we got to meet her,” the President told embassy staff.\n\nThe first lady also presented a bouquet of flowers to British Ambassador to the US Karen Pierce, who greeted them at the embassy.\n\nThe President and the first lady said earlier in a joint statement that the Queen – the longest-reigning British monarch whose rule spanned seven decades – “defined an era.”\n\n“Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief,” the White House statement said. “We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.”\n\nAmerican flags at the White House, other federal buildings, military facilities and embassies overseas will be flown at half-staff “until the day of internment,” according to a proclamation by President Biden on the Queen’s death.\n\nThe first couple, in their statement, called the Queen “a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her.”\n\n“Supported by her beloved Prince Philip for 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example. She endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead,” the White House statement continued.\n\nThe Queen, the Bidens added, “was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States.”\n\n“She helped make our relationship special,” the statement said, referring to the UK’s “special relationship” with the United States – a term coined by Winston Churchill. The Bidens also said they look forward to continuing “a close friendship” with King Charles III and the Queen Consort.\n\nRecalling their time spent together, the Bidens wrote that they first met Queen Elizabeth in 1982 as part of a Senate delegation traveling to the UK.\n\nBiden and the Queen last spoke and saw one another during the President’s visit to the UK in June 2021, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Thursday.\n\nWorld leaders mourn\n\nCondolences from leaders across the UK, the Commonwealth and around the world have poured in following the news of the Queen’s death.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Queen was “loved and admired” by the people of Scotland.\n\n“And by all accounts, Her Majesty was rarely happier than when she was here in Scotland at her beloved Balmoral,” Sturgeon continued, referring to the castle where the Queen died.\n\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Queen was “a constant presence in our lives – and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country’s history.”\n\n“As we look back at her life and her reign that spanned so many decades, Canadians will always remember and cherish Her Majesty’s wisdom, compassion, and warmth,” he continued.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in a statement that the monarch had lived a “long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service,” noting that “it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia.” As head of state, the Queen visited Australia 16 times.\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern remembered the Queen in a national address after her passing, saying that she had come to define “notions of service, charity, and consistency.”\n\nArdern also announced that New Zealand would be moving into a period of official mourning. Flags will be flown at half-staff. Preparations for a state memorial are under way, and will be held after the Queen’s official funeral in the UK.\n\nLeaders in Asia woke on Friday to the news of her passing.\n\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement that he had “memorable meetings” with the Queen, writing, “During one of the meetings she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture.”\n\nPrime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, a Southeast Asian former British colony, said he was “deeply saddened” by her passing. In public statements shared on his official social media accounts, Lee said: “Her Majesty left a significant mark on Singapore’s history and our longstanding close relations with the United Kingdom. Her passing is greatly mourned by everyone in Singapore.”\n\nSouth Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday shared his condolences. “Her kind heart and good deeds will remain in our memories,” he tweeted. “She had a strong belief in the cause of human freedom and left great legacies of dignity.”\n\nJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the Queen had helped strengthen ties between Britain and Japan, which is home to the world’s oldest continuous monarchy. “The passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who has led Britain through a tumultuous global period, is not just a major loss for the citizens of the UK but for the international community,” Kishida told reporters on Friday.\n\nIn Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen praised the Queen as a “backbone of global democracy” and extended her “deepest condolences to the British government and the Royal Family.”\n\nTaoiseach of Ireland Micheál Martin called her passing “the end of an era,” saying her “dedication to duty and public service were self-evident and her wisdom and experience truly unique.”\n\nPope Francis praised the Queen as a “steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ” in an open letter to the new King.\n\n“Commending her noble soul to the merciful goodness of our Heavenly Father, I assure Your Majesty of my prayers that Almighty God will sustain you with his unfailing grace as you now take up your high responsibilities as King,” the Pope wrote.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron wrote that the Queen “embodied the British nation’s continuity and unity for over 70 years. I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century.”\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, “It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the people, we extend sincere condolences to the @RoyalFamily, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the Queen “was a role model and inspiration for millions, also here in Germany. Her commitment to German-British reconciliation after the horrors of World War II will remain unforgotten. She will be missed, not least her wonderful humour.”\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said in a release, “The most important events in the recent history of the United Kingdom are inextricably linked with the name of Her Majesty.”\n\n“For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage,” Putin continued. “I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss.”\n\nStatements of condolence have come in from dozens of other nations, ranging from Panama to Pakistan.\n\nFormer US presidents send condolences\n\nFormer American presidents have also issued condolences following her passing.\n\nGeorge W. Bush, who welcomed the Queen to the US during his time in office, recalled spending time in Buckingham Palace and meeting her famed corgis.\n\n“Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty – and her corgis – is among our fondest memories of the presidency,” Bush wrote. “Queen Elizabeth ably led England through dark moments with her confidence in her people and her vision for a brighter tomorrow. Our world benefited from her steady resolve, and we are grateful for her decades of service as sovereign.”\n\nDonald and Melania Trump wrote in a statement that “her leadership and enduring diplomacy secured and advanced alliances with the United States and countries around the world. However, she will always be remembered for her faithfulness to her country and her unwavering devotion to her fellow countrymen and women.”\n\n“(We) will always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor. What a grand and beautiful lady she was – there was nobody like her!” Trump wrote.\n\nThe Obamas remembered the Queen as a leader who made the role “her own.”\n\n“Her Majesty was just 25 years old when she took on the enormous task of helming one of the world’s great democracies. In the decades that followed, she would go on to make the role of Queen her own – with a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic, defying the odds and expectations placed on women of her generation,” they wrote.\n\nAnd Bill and Hillary Clinton marked the passing by remembering her as a someone with “unfailing grace, dignity, and genuine care for the welfare of all its people.”", "authors": ["Maegan Vazquez Cnn"], "publish_date": "2022/09/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/europe/dutch-prime-minister-apologizes-slavery-netherlands-intl-scli/index.html", "title": "Slave trade apology: Dutch prime minister apologizes for the ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized Monday for the Netherlands’ “slavery past,” which he said continues to have “negative effects.”\n\nRutte’s comments were part of the Dutch government’s wider acknowledgment of the country’s colonial past, and an official response to a report entitled “Chains of the Past” by the Slavery History Dialogue Group, published in July 2021.\n\n“For centuries under Dutch state authority, human dignity was violated in the most horrific way possible,” Rutte said during a speech at the country’s National Archives in The Hague.\n\n“And successive Dutch governments after 1863 failed to adequately see and acknowledge that our slavery past continued to have negative effects and still does. For that I offer the apologies of the Dutch government,” the Dutch prime minister said.\n\nRutte also spoke briefly in English on Monday, saying: “Today, I apologize.”\n\nThe country profited immensely from the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Peter Dejong/AP\n\n“For centuries, the Dutch state and its representatives facilitated, stimulated, preserved, and profited from slavery. For centuries, in the name of the Dutch State, human beings were made into commodities, exploited, and abused,” Rutte said.\n\nHe said that slavery must be condemned as “crime against humanity.”\n\nRutte acknowledged that he had experienced a personal “change in thinking” and said that he was wrong to have thought that the Netherlands’ role in slavery was “a thing of the past.”\n\n“It is true that no one alive now is personally to blame for slavery. But it is also true that the Dutch State, in all its manifestations through history, bears responsibility for the terrible suffering inflicted on enslaved people and their descendants,” he said.\n\nIn early 2020, the Dutch government returned a stolen ceremonial crown to the Ethiopian government.\n\nThe country profited greatly from the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries; one of the roles of the Dutch West India Co. was to transport slaves from Africa to the Americas. The Dutch didn’t ban slavery in its territories until 1863, though it was illegal in the Netherlands.\n\nDutch traders are estimated to have shipped more than half a million enslaved Africans to the Americas, Reuters reports. Many went to Brazil and the Caribbean, while a considerable number of Asians were enslaved in the Dutch East Indies, which is modern Indonesia, the agency wrote.\n\nDutch children are however taught little about the role Netherlands played in the the slave trade, Reuters added.\n\nConversations about the country’s attitude to race have long-surrounded one of its holiday traditions. The character of “Black Pete” typically sees a white person wearing full blackface, an Afro wig, red lipstick and earrings, and is often part of the Netherlands’ St. Nicholas festivities in December.\n\nRutte in 2020 said the country his views on “Black Pete” had undergone “major changes” – but he wouldn’t go as far as banning it.", "authors": ["Alex Hardie Sharon Braithwaite", "Alex Hardie", "Sharon Braithwaite"], "publish_date": "2022/12/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/12/uk/queen-elizabeth-death-monday-intl-gbr/index.html", "title": "King Charles walks behind Queen's coffin in procession through ...", "text": "London CNN —\n\nKing Charles III was joined by his siblings – Princes Andrew and Edward, and Princess Anne – as they briefly held vigil around Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Monday evening. The royal family mounted their guard of the coffin at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it will lie until Tuesday evening.\n\nHundreds of mourners were queuing outside the cathedral to pay their respects on Monday evening. The cathedral will remain open to the public overnight, according to guidance issued by the Scottish Government.\n\nEarlier Monday, a short service of thanksgiving took place at the cathedral following a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The 73-year-old monarch and his siblings walked behind the hearse, while Camilla, Queen Consort, traveled in a car behind.\n\nFrom left, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew, King Charles III, Camilla, the Queen Consort, Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, look on as the Duke of Hamilton places the Crown of Scotland on the coffin during the prayer service at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP\n\nCharles wore full day ceremonial uniform with the rank of Field Marshal, and carried the Field Marshal Baton given to him by his mother when he was awarded the rank in 2012.\n\nThe procession moved through crowds of onlookers standing in near-total silence on Edinburgh’s streets.\n\nElizabeth’s coffin was draped in the Royal Standard in Scotland and was dressed with a wreath of flowers, which includes dried white heather from Balmoral.\n\nThe hearse was flanked by a bearer party of the Royal Regiment of Scotland as well as a detachment of the King’s bodyguard in Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers.\n\nKing Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew walk behind the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Phil Noble/Pool/Reuters\n\nAfter processing along the Royal Mile, the coffin received a guard of honor from the Royal Company of Archers at the cathedral.\n\nThe royal family then attended a short service of prayer and reflection, joined by a congregation made up “from all areas of Scottish society,” according to Buckingham Palace. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, were also present.\n\nFollowing the service, the King had an audience with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, in addition to a meeting with the presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament. He also went to the Scottish Parliament to receive a motion of condolence.\n\n“I know that the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland share with me a profound sense of grief at the death of my beloved mother,” said Charles in an address to parliament. “My mother felt as I do, the greatest admiration for the Scottish people for their magnificent achievements, and their indomitable spirit.”\n\nSturgeon said that Elizabeth had been “the anchor of our nation” during a speech at the parliament.\n\n“Your Majesty, we stand ready to support you, as you continue your own life of service – and as you build on the extraordinary legacy of your beloved mother, our Queen,” Sturgeon told Charles.\n\nEarlier, the King vowed to continue the Queen’s “dedicated service” to the British people in his first address to the UK Parliament in London.\n\nThe Queen Consort accompanied Charles on his first visit to the Palace of Westminster since becoming King. In the ancient Westminster Hall, both Houses of Parliament offered their condolences on his mother’s death.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback King Charles III says he feels 'the weight of history' in first Parliament address 04:01 - Source: CNN\n\n“We gather today in remembrance of the remarkable span of the Queen’s dedicated service to her nations and people,” the King said. “While very young, her late Majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people.\n\n“This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion. She set an example of selfless duty which, with God’s help and your councils, I am resolved faithfully to follow,” Charles continued.\n\nAs he concluded his short speech, a rendition of “God Save the King,” the British national anthem, was played.\n\nFollowing the visit, the monarch and his wife flew to Edinburgh, where the Queen had been lying at rest since Sunday. The pair headed straight to the Palace of Holyroodhouse for the Ceremony of the Keys – a tradition whereby the Lord Provost offers the monarch the keys to the city.\n\nTo get updates on the British Royal Family sent to your inbox, sign up for CNN’s Royal News newsletter.", "authors": ["Lauren Said-Moorhouse Jack Guy Max Foster Arnaud Siad", "Lauren Said-Moorhouse", "Jack Guy", "Max Foster", "Arnaud Siad"], "publish_date": "2022/09/12"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_15", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/07/covid-vaccine-variant-cdc-world-health-organization/7576680002/", "title": "COVID vaccine rates fall, putting Biden's July 4 goal in jeopardy", "text": "The rate of vaccinations around the country has sunk to new lows in recent weeks, threatening President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of American adults with at least one dose by July 4.\n\nTrends over the past week, based on data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show the U.S. vaccinations are on track to reach only 67% of adults, a USA TODAY analysis shows.\n\nThe CDC reported last week that 63% of adults had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, up only slightly from the 62% the week before. Twelve states, including Utah, Oklahoma, Montana, the Dakotas and West Virginia, have seen vaccinations sink to 15 daily shots per 10,000 residents; Alabama had just four people per 10,000 residents get vaccinated last week, according to data from The Washington Post.\n\nThe “low-hanging fruit – those people who absolutely want to get vaccinated without you telling them anything” have already been vaccinated, which has led to the slowdown, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top expert on infectious diseases, said on a White House-organized call with community leaders last week, according to the Post.\n\nThe White House has already made plans to combat the slowdown. Biden announced last week a monthlong effort to encourage more Americans to roll up their sleeves for a shot.\n\nAlso in the news:\n\n►Airline and airport executives from the US and UK are pushing for the lifting of restrictions that have limited travel between both countries, pointing out they're both among the world leaders in vaccination rates.\n\n►Dr. Jeff Duchin, the chief health officer for Seattle and King County, told The Seattle Times that 97% of recent COVID-19 cases there have occurred in unvaccinated people.\n\n►Carnival Cruise Line said it will require passengers to have completed their COVID vaccinations two weeks before boarding for the company's first U.S. trips after reopening, departing from Texas in July.\n\n►Dr. Michael Ryan, the emergencies chief for the World Health Organization, says global vaccination coverage of more than 80% is needed to significantly lower the chance that an imported coronavirus case could generate new cases or spawn a wider outbreak.\n\n►During the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents, weary of monitoring their children's online classes, yearned for schools to reopen. Then vaccines expanded, schools reopened in many cities, and teachers returned – but huge numbers of students didn't.\n\n📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 33.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 597,700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: Over 173.3 million cases and over 3.73 million deaths. More than 138.9 million Americans have been fully vaccinated – 41.9% of the population, according to the CDC.\n\n📘 What we're reading: What does the end of COVID-19 in America look like? Perhaps no end at all, but a resigned acceptance of a bearable level of death. Read the full story.\n\nKeep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.\n\nUK may delay June 21 reopening as Delta variant fuels rise in infections\n\nBritish Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Delta variant first identified in India is 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant that it's on the way to replacing as the dominant strain in the U.K.\n\nHancock acknowledged Sunday that the rise in Delta variant cases may delay the government’s plan to lift most remaining lockdown restrictions on June 21. Coronavirus infections have doubled in the last week and there's some concern this could mark the beginning of a third wave of cases.\n\n\"It is more difficult to manage this virus with the new Delta variant,” said Hancock, adding that vaccines have proven effective against it.\n\nBecause of the U.K.'s high vaccination rate -- half of adults are fully inoculated and three-quarters have had at least one shot -- deaths and hospitalizations are not expected to rise dramatically. But with millions still unvaccinated, keeping some restrictions in place to avoid virus transmission may be necessary.\n\nModerna vaccine could be available for kids soon\n\nModerna said Monday it has requested authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents with Health Canada – and will file for emergency use authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration \"for this important, younger-age population.\" The FDA expanded its emergency use authorization for Pfizer's vaccine to include people 12 to 15 last month.\n\nModerna also said it has filed data for a conditional marketing approval in the 27-nation European Union to expand use of its vaccine to children. Last month, the European drug regulator approved the shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech for children 12 to 15.\n\nNew York state could drop most restrictions within days\n\nNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state will lift its remaining COVID-19 restrictions in most settings when 70% of its adult population has been at least partially vaccinated, a benchmark that could be within reach in days. Currently, 68.6% of New Yorkers ages 18 and over have received at least one shot, an increase from 64.4% on Thursday.\n\nCuomo said that upon reaching the 70% figure, the state's emergency social distancing, health screening and cleaning mandates will be rescinded for most businesses and social situations. Businesses will have the option to keep the COVID protocols in place or remove them.\n\n“We have never been in a better position vis-à-vis COVID-19 than we are today,” Cuomo said. “But we have to work to bring New York back. This is not an automatic recovery.\"\n\n-- Sarah Taddeo, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle\n\nChina locks down city of 18 million to combat outbreak\n\nThe southern Chinese city of Guanzhou was placed in lockdown Monday following an outbreak of coronavirus that has sickened dozens of people in recent days. Anyone who is given permission to leave must show a negative test for the virus taken in the previous 48 hours. The same rule applies to anyone seeking to leave the surrounding province of Guangdong. The city also is restricting indoor dining, conducting mass testing and banning residents in high-risk neighborhoods from leaving their homes. At least two districts in the city of 18 million people have been closed off entirely.\n\nThe variant causing the Guangzhou outbreak – the delta variant first identified in India – is reportedly more infectious because those who have it are slower to display symptoms while carrying more virus particles.\n\nFauci, first lady promote vaccinations at Harlem church\n\nFirst lady Jill Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci toured a vaccination site at a historic Harlem church Sunday in a promotional appearance aimed at re-energizing the lagging national vaccination drive. Biden, Fauci and Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, watched as people got their shots in the basement of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. The church first started offering vaccine doses in January in an effort to boost the vaccination rates in New York City’s Black and Hispanic communities.\n\nBiden asked a teenager about to get his shot how old he was, and when he said he was 14, she responded, “You’re 14, that’s exactly what we want! Twelve and over.”\n\n'No excuse': Mississippi last in nation for fully vaccinated people\n\nFor months, Mississippi Health Officer Thomas Dobbs has been pleading with Mississippians to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Mississippi is last in the nation for fully vaccinated people. As of Friday afternoon, over 911,000 people were fully vaccinated in Mississippi, or 29% of the population, lagging well behind the nation's average of 41%. For multiple weeks, Dobbs has reiterated it: Mississippians will either get vaccinated against the virus or they will suffer its effects.\n\n“There’s no excuse for that,” Dobbs said during a livestreamed talk with the Mississippi State Medical Association. “I will personally drive up to your house to give you one.”\n\n– Sarah Haselhorst, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger\n\nMilwaukee college students working to overcome COVID-19 vaccine barriers\n\nWhen Sarah Farhan walked up to people at Milwaukee's Eid al-Fitr festival following Ramadan last month and asked them whether they'd gotten the COVID-19 vaccine yet, many looked skeptical. Then Farhan switched to speaking Arabic.\n\n\"Then they just exploded with words,\" she said. \"They were like, 'Oh, OK, so can you tell me this and that?'\"\n\nFarhan, who is set to attend the Medical College of Wisconsin in the fall, was working her new summer job as a vaccine educator for the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition. The coalition hired eight college students who speak languages common in Milwaukee's Muslim community, such as Arabic, Somali, Rohingya and Urdu, to encourage hesitant people to get the vaccine while dispelling fears and misinformation about it.\n\n\"When you’re able to communicate in the language that they’re most familiar with, there becomes a sense of comfort and familiarity, and I think that there's more confidence in going and getting the vaccine,\" women's coalition president Janan Najeeb said.\n\n– Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel\n\nGroup effort in rural Georgia to help others get vaccinated\n\nA growing group of volunteers in Randolph County, Georgia, is doing its part to reenergize the country's flagging vaccination effort, going door to door to help people get inoculated against COVID-19 and answering their questions. The four who began the effort built off their experience canvassing with the Randolph County Democratic Committee. What began as a focused effort to register seniors without Internet for the vaccine grew into a larger operation.\n\nLocated in southwest Georgia, Randolph is one of the state's poorest counties, and its rural location makes residents more vulnerable to the coronavirus. According to the CDC, people in rural areas are at a higher risk of hospitalization. In addition, those without a mode of transportation or Internet connections find it harder to access vaccines.\n\nThat's where the group that developed out of Neighbor 2 Neighbor steps in. Joyce Barlow told CNN that not only is it about helping people get inoculated, but it is also about listening to them and their concerns about COVID-19 and the vaccines.\n\n\"We want to get everyone protected,'' she said. \"We are, after all, our brother's and sister's keepers.\"\n\nContributing: Janie Haseman, USA TODAY; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/03/25/covid-variants-vaccines-cases-biden/6989348002/", "title": "COVID updates: Vaccines for all adults by April 15 in 3 biggest states", "text": "The U.S. coronavirus death toll could have stayed under 300,000 if by last May the nation had adopted firm mask, social distancing and testing protocols while waiting for vaccines to vanquish the crisis, a University of California, Los Angeles economics professor estimates.\n\nThe report was released Thursday, the same day President Joe Biden set a new target of 200 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office, double his initial goal.\n\nThe U.S. death toll exceeds 545,000 and continues to rise. UCLA Professor Andrew Atkeson projects a final fatality level of around 672,000. Without a vaccine, 1.27 million would have died, Atkeson estimated in a report released Thursday at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity conference.\n\n“Public efforts at disease control can save a lot of lives over the long run by controlling disease while we wait for a vaccine or a cure,” Atkeson told The Brookings Institution. “We have a tremendous opportunity to learn from international experience with COVID on how to do that without tanking the economy.”\n\nThe report comes as America's long stretch of declining daily coronavirus cases appears to be ending – and some states are seeing rapid increases even as one-third of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccination shot.\n\nAlso in the news:\n\n►Despite warnings from health experts that the U.S. could be headed for a spring surge in coronavirus cases, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is prohibiting government mask mandates and allowing bars and nightclubs that were closed for months to open their doors without restrictions. Limits on gatherings of 50 or more people also were lifted.\n\n►The CDC said 26.3% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 14% has completed vaccination. The country's seven-day average for daily new cases increased over the last two weeks from 56,315 on March 10 to 57,531 on Wednesday.\n\n►Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday reduced the coronavirus social distancing requirements for K-12 classrooms in the state from 6 feet to 3 feet as more schools begin to open up. New CDC guidelines approve that reduction.\n\n►New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans Thursday to set up vaccination sites for Broadway performers and theater workers to ensure shows can make a return to the city this fall. Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, 2020.\n\n►AstraZeneca released updated information on its COVID-19 clinical trial late Wednesday, showing an effectiveness rate of 76% instead of the 79% rate it claimed earlier in the week.\n\n📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has over 30 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 546,300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 125.3 million cases and 2.75 million deaths. More than 169.2 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 133 million have been administered, according to the CDC.\n\n📘 What we're reading: A growing share of Americans would feel safe resuming activities such as dining out or flying within a few weeks of their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but 25% to 30% would wait until the nation reaches herd immunity, according to a Harris Poll survey for USA TODAY. Read the full story.\n\nUSA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.\n\nJoe Biden doubles down, targets 200M shots for first 100 days\n\nPresident Joe Biden opened his first formal news conference by setting a new goal of administering 200 million COVID vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office. Biden’s original goal was to administer 100 million shots in that period. The U.S. passed that goal last week and is already on track to reach 200 million shots by the president’s first 100 days. The U.S. is now averaging about 2.5 million doses per day; 133 million shots have already been given, though some before Biden took office Jan. 20.\n\n“I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal,” Biden said Thursday. “But no other country in the world has even come close. Not even close to what we're doing. I believe we can do it.”\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nCalifornia to open vaccines for all 16 and older April 15\n\nCalifornia, the nation's most populous state with 40 million people, will make all residents 16 and above eligible for COVID-19 vaccines starting April 15. In addition, those 50 and older will become eligible April 1.\n\nThat doesn't mean vaccine appointments will be available right away, but state officials expect supply to increase substantially in the coming weeks as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine becomes more widely distributed.\n\nAccording to the Los Angeles Times, California expects to get about 2.5 million doses per week in the first half of April and more than 3 million later in the month. That's a major leap from the 1.8 million expected doses this week.\n\nWith California and Florida announcing Thursday they're dropping age requirements in the coming weeks, the country's three largest states by population will make COVID-19 vaccines available to all adults by no later than mid-April. Texas plans to do so Monday.\n\nUS to aid world vaccination effort –after inoculating Americans first\n\nWealthy countries that have secured large amounts of COVID-19 vaccine doses, including the U.S., have come under increasing pressure to share their bounty.\n\nTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, reiterated that point recently, noting that as long as the pandemic rages out of control anywhere, variants can emerge and pose risks to those thought to be immune.\n\n\"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage,'' he said. \"It’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.\"\n\nThe Biden administration has vowed to contribute to the global vaccination effort and has pledged $4 billion toward that cause, but wants to take care of Americans first.\n\n\"The president has stated his No. 1 priority is to make sure we prioritize vaccination in this country,'' said Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response. \"We've suffered over 540,000 deaths, more than anywhere else in the world.\"\n\n– Karen Weintraub\n\nRutgers among first universities to require COVID vaccine for fall students\n\nRutgers University in New Jersey said Thursday that all students who take on-campus classes in the fall term will be required to be vaccinated for COVID-19, while faculty and staff members are \"strongly urged\" to get one of the available vaccines.\n\nRutgers is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, universities to impose that mandate, although school officials don't have data to confirm that.\n\nVaccination availability in New Jersey has been limited to those who are 65 and older or who have a preexisting condition, such as asthma or diabetes, as well as smokers. But state officials have said they expect to get additional supplies and ramp up vaccinations in the next few weeks.\n\n-- Abbott Koloff, Bergen Record\n\nSchools prepare for spring break rule-breakers\n\nSpring breakers are back, but this time schools are more prepared for COVID-19 rule breakers. After a year of pandemic schooling, districts and colleges warned students to avoid travel. Some canceled spring break altogether. Even further, some schools put protocols in place to prevent traveling students from coming back to in-person school. They will be required to quarantine or finish the semester virtually. Schools have punished students who break COVID-19 restrictions on school grounds. Punishment for travel is trickier.\n\n\"Most institutions don't have the power to lock down their students,\" Christopher Marsicano, a professor of higher education practice at Davidson College in North Carolina, told USA TODAY. \"They just don't have the money to have adequate testing to make sure everybody returning to campus after spring break doesn't have COVID-19.\"\n\n– Dustin Barnes\n\nInfection rate again rising: 'I don't think you can declare victory'\n\nThe U.S. is reporting a seven-day average of about 55,000 new cases per day, up 3% from the previous week, the CDC reports. The country is also reporting about 4,600 new hospitalizations and nearly 1,000 deaths per day. And the U.S. surpassed 30 million coronavirus cases Wednesday afternoon, once again reaching a dubious milestone much faster than any other country.\n\n\"When you’re at that level, I don’t think you can declare victory,\" Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a briefing. \"We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to be turning that corner remains to be seen.\"\n\nThere are positive signs. About 2.5 million Americans are being vaccinated each day, according to Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response. And the CDC reported that more than 133 million vaccine shots have been administered, and 18% of the U.S. adult population is completely vaccinated.\n\nFlorida, North Carolina join list of states allowing all adults to get vaccinated\n\nFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he will eliminate the age restriction for COVID-19 vaccines as of April 5. And starting Monday, anyone 40 and up can make an appointment for the vaccine. President Joe Biden has instructed states to allow all adults access to vaccines by May 1.\n\nNorth Carolina also said Thursday that it would open up vaccine eligibility for all residents 16 and older, starting April 7.\n\nLouisiana announced this week it will provide access to anyone 16 and older starting Monday, and Idaho Gov. Brad Little said eligibility will be open to all state residents 16 and up starting April 5.\n\n– Jeffrey Schweers, Florida Capital Bureau\n\nBillions from relief bill heading to states, health centers for vaccines\n\nCommunity health centers will receive more than $6 billion from the federal government to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, testing and treatment for vulnerable populations, the administration announced Thursday. An additional $3 billion will be distributed to states, territories and some large cities for initiatives intended to increase vaccine access, acceptance and uptake. Another $330 million will go directly to support community health workers.\n\nThe funding comes primarily through the recently passed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n34% of US adults have had at least one shot; half the others don't want it\n\nIn the U.S., 34.1% of adults report having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and those who aren't vaccinated and would get the shot say they are relatively brand agnostic, according to a new poll by Survey Monkey on vaccine hesitancy.\n\nMeanwhile, 66% of people willing to get the shot would be up for the Moderna vaccine, while 70% are willing to get the Pfizer vaccine and 67% are willing to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But just 51% of people still unvaccinated say they would get a vaccine if offered to them.\n\nReports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo's family got priority testing early in pandemic\n\nIn the early months of the pandemic, when COVID-19 tests were scarce, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to make the testing available to those most in need. Turns out that included his family members and other well-connected people close to his administration, according to reports Wednesday night.\n\nBoth The Washington Post and the Times Union in Albany reported that Cuomo's office arranged coronavirus testing for his family, including his CNN anchor brother, Chris Cuomo, and other influential people with close Cuomo ties.\n\nThe testing was conducted at times at people's homes and in part by Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who was a special adviser to the state Health Department, the reports said, citing unnamed sources. The Times Union, which first reported the details, said Adams' trips included going to the Long Island home of Chris Cuomo, who announced in late March 2020 that he was positive for COVID-19 and detailed his battle with the virus nightly on his show – on which the governor often appeared last year.\n\nThe governor's office did not deny the reports but said the state was trying to test as many people as possible.\n\n– Joseph Spector, Democrat and Chronicle\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/health/vaccine-effectiveness-bivalent-boosters-cdc/index.html", "title": "Updated boosters add limited protection against Covid-19 illness ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nUpdated Covid-19 boosters that carry instructions to arm the body against currently circulating Omicron subvariants offer some protection against infections, according to the first study to look at how the boosters are performing in the real world. However, the protection is not as high as that provided by the original vaccine against earlier coronavirus variants, the researchers say.\n\nDr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the new data “really quite good.”\n\n“Please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible to protect yourself, your family and your community,” Fauci said at a White House briefing Tuesday.\n\nUptake of the bivalent boosters, which protect against the BA.4/5 subvariants as well as the original virus strain, has been remarkably slow. Only 11% of eligible Americans have gotten them since they became available in early September.\n\nThe new study found that the updated boosters work about like the original boosters. They protect against symptomatic infection in the range of 40% to 60%, meaning that even when vaccine protection is its most potent, about a month after getting the shot, people may still be vulnerable to breakthrough infections.\n\nThat’s in about the same range as typical efficacy for flu vaccines. Over the past 10 years, CDC data shows, the effectiveness of the seasonal flu vaccines has ranged from a low of 19% to a high of around 52% against needing to see a doctor because of the flu. The effectiveness varies depending on how similar the strains in the vaccine are to the strains that end up making people sick.\n\nThe authors of the new study say people should realize that the Covid-19 vaccines are no longer more than 90% protective against symptomatic infections, as they were when they were first introduced in 2020.\n\n“Unfortunately, the 90% to 100% protection was what we saw during like pre-Delta time. And so with Delta, we saw it drop into the 70% range, and then for Omicron, we saw it drop even lower, to the 50% range. And so I think what we’re seeing here is that the bivalent vaccine really brings you back to that sort of effectiveness that we would have seen immediately after past boosters, which is great. That’s where we want it to get,” said Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles, an epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nVaccines are only one tool to stay well\n\n“This protection is not 100%, but it is something,” Link-Gelles said. “Especially going into the holidays where you’re likely to be traveling, spending time with elderly relatives, with vulnerable people. I think having some protection from infection and therefore some protection from infecting your loved one is better than having no protection at all.”\n\nLink-Gelles says it also means that people should continue to adopt a layered approach to protection, utilizing rapid tests, good-quality masks and ventilation as a comprehensive approach, rather than relying on vaccines alone.\n\n“This should be sort of one of the things in your toolbox for protecting yourself and your family,” she said. “Personally, we’re my family is all vaccinated up to date, but I think if we go to the airport tomorrow, we’ll be wearing our N95 [masks] because we’re seeing elderly relatives this weekend. And while we of course trust the vaccines, and I’m not super worried about a mild infection in myself or my healthy husband, we certainly would not want to infect his grandmother.”\n\nLink-Gelles added that she expects that vaccine protection against severe outcomes from Covid-19, like hospitalization and death, will be higher, but that data isn’t in yet.\n\nThe study, which was led by CDC scientists, relied on health records from more than 360,000 tests given at nearly 10,000 retail pharmacies between Sept. 14 and Nov. 11, a period when the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were causing most Covid-19 infections in the US. The study included people ages 18 and up who had Covid-19 symptoms and were not immunocompromised.\n\nThe study looked at how effective the boosters were in two ways: Researchers calculated a value called absolute vaccine effectiveness, which compared the odds of symptomatic infection in people who received bivalent boosters with those who reported being unvaccinated. They also calculated relative vaccine effectiveness, which looked at the odds of symptomatic infection in people who received updated bivalent boosters compared with those who had two, three or four doses of the original single-strain vaccine.\n\nCompared with people who were unvaccinated, adults 18 to 49 who had gotten bivalent boosters were 43% less likely to get sick with a Covid-19 infection. Older adults, who tend to have weaker immune function, got less protection. Those ages 50 to 64 were 28% less likely, and those ages 65 and up were 22% less likely to get sick with Covid-19 than the unvaccinated group.\n\nThe relative vaccine effectiveness showed the added protection people might expect on top of whatever protection they had left after previous vaccine doses. If a person was two to three months past their last vaccine dose, the bivalent boosters added an average of 30% protection for those who were ages 18 to 49, 31% more protection if they were 50 to 64, and 28% more protection if they were 65 or older. At 3 months after their last booster, people ages 50 and older still had about 20% protection from Covid-19 illness, CDC data show. So overall, the updated boosters got them to around 50% effectiveness against symptomatic infection.\n\nIf a person was more than eight months away from their last vaccine dose, they got more protection from the boosters. But Link-Gelles said that by eight months, there was little protection left from previous shots against Omicron and its variants, meaning the vaccine effectiveness for this group was probably close to their overall protection against infection.\n\nThose ages 18 to 49 who were eight months or more past their last dose of a vaccine had 56% added protection against a Covid-19 infection with symptoms; adults 50 to 64 had 48% added protection, and adults over 65 had 43% added protection, on top of whatever was left from previous vaccinations.\n\nShort, modest protection from boosters\n\nJohn Moore, an immunologist and microbiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said it boils down to the fact that that boosters will probably cut your risk of getting sick by about 50%, and that protection probably won’t last.\n\n“Having a booster will give you some additional protection against infection for a short term, which is always what we see with a booster, but it won’t last long. It’ll decline, and it will decline more as the more resistant variants spread,” said Moore, who was not involved in the new research.\n\nThe immunity landscape in the United States is more complex than ever. According to CDC data, roughly two-thirds of Americans have completed at least their primary series of Covid-19 vaccines. And data from blood tests shows that almost all Americans have some immunity against the virus, thanks to infection, vaccination or both.\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\nA new preprint study from researchers at Harvard and Yale estimates that 94% of Americans have been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 at least once, and 97% have been infected or vaccinated, increasing protection against a new Omicron infection from an estimated 22% in December 2021 to 63% by November 10, 2022. Population protection against severe disease rose from an estimated 61% in December 2021 to around 89%, on average, this November.\n\nAll of this means the US is in a better spot, defensively at least, than it ever has been against the virus – which is not to say that the country couldn’t see another Covid-19 wave, especially if a new variant emerges that is very different from what we’ve seen, if immunity continues to wane or if behavior shifts dramatically.", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/11/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/09/22/flu-vaccine-rates-after-covid-shot-concerns/70924839007/", "title": "Has distrust in COVID vaccines caused same skepticism in flu shots?", "text": "As flu season ramps up, public health officials are urging everyone 6 months and older to get vaccinated.\n\nLess than half of all US adults received their flu vaccine last flu season (47.4%), but that rate is slightly higher compared to the same time in March a year prior (45.4%).\n\nVaccination is vital to protect individuals, communities and to avoid burdening already overtaxed health care systems. Last season, people vaccinated against the flu were about 40% to 70% less likely to be hospitalized because of flu illness or related complications, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC.\n\nWhile vaccine rates of adults remained steady during the ongoing pandemic, this rate faltered among other people in other age ranges.\n\nPregnant people and kids see a decline in vaccination rates\n\nFlu vaccination protection among pregnant people is down more than 16 percentage points since 2020, according to CDC data.\n\nAs of spring 2023, 48.9% of pregnant people were protected against the flu, compared to 65.5% during the beginning of the pandemic.\n\nAmong kids younger than 18, the rate of flu vaccination was roughly 55% as of April 2023, down from 62% at the start of the pandemic.\n\nFloridians unsure:Florida health officials say most people shouldn't get new COVID shot, contradicting CDC\n\nOlder patients continue to have higher vaccination rates\n\nAlmost 75% of adults 65 and older were protected against the flu as of last spring.\n\nA little over 50% of all adults aged 50 to 64 were vaccinated against the flu,\n\nWhile only 36% of adults aged 18 to 49 received a flu vaccine.\n\nFlu vaccination coverage for adults 65 and older is higher compared to their coverage at the same time last year.\n\nHow have COVID vaccine rates changed?\n\nWhen the COVID-19 vaccination first became available to the public in early 2021, about 80% of adults received their initial series of vaccinations, according to the CDC. Only 20% of adults got last year’s COVID-19 booster vaccine.\n\nFlu season is here:CDC announces flu shot recommendations\n\nWhat causes vaccine skepticism?\n\nHelen Maser, a Walgreens pharmacist based in New York said people may have reservations about getting vaccinated because of the fear of the unknown: “It's all about education. People are afraid of what they don't know,” said Maser. “If you come and ask a question, we can give you the knowledge, so you can make a good decision based on your own personal care that empowers you to take care of yourself and your family.”\n\nA UCLA study from 2022 found that adult flu vaccination rates dropped in the same states that had low rates of COVID-19 vaccination. The study’s findings suggest factors that cause low COVID-19 vaccine rates such as mistrust in the vaccine, concerns about side effects and a lack of trust in government are connected to declines in flu vaccine rates, compared to pre-pandemic years.\n\nWidespread online misinformation about the coronavirus and the vaccine caused many Americans to distrust public health expert’s recommendations on getting vaccinated. Some government officials have even contradicted the CDC, refusing to endorse the updated COVID booster shots, leading to more mistrust.\n\nHow can I prepare for flu season?\n\nSeptember and October remain the best times for most people to get their flu vaccine, according to the CDC.\n\nVaccination should continue after October and throughout the given flu season since “influenza activity might not occur in certain communities until February, March, or later.” The CDC also recommends vaccination \"as long as flu viruses pose a threat.\"\n\nIt is safe to get a flu and COVID-19 shot at the same time, experts say. The two were often administered simultaneously during the last two flu seasons.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/09/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/american-south/2021/07/20/covid-19-vaccinations-delta-variant-fuel-surge-cases-across-south/7967943002/", "title": "Low vaccination rates, Delta variant fuel surge in new COVID-19 ...", "text": "For months it felt like life had returned to normal. COVID-19 vaccines were readily available and as a result new case numbers were falling nationally.\n\nBut that sense of optimism has faded across the country as new cases linked to the highly infectious Delta variant are on the rise and disproportionately affecting unvaccinated populations.\n\nIt’s a precarious situation across several Southern states where health workers continue to battle rampant vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, resulting in some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.\n\nLess than 35% of the population in Alabama and Mississippi have been fully vaccinated as of July 19, according to data reported by their state health departments. Alabama had the lowest vaccination rate in the U.S. among adults averaging at about 33.4%. Arkansas, Wyoming and Louisiana are also among the top five states with low vaccination rates, with little more than 35% of adults vaccinated against COVID-19, according to state health data.\n\nOther Southern states are not much further along. In Tennessee, where the top vaccine official was recently fired, only 38.4% of people are fully vaccinated. Only about 39% of Georgians have received both doses, according to state health data.\n\nBy comparison, nearly 50% of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated as of July 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nMore:Tennessee fires top vaccine official as COVID-19 shows signs of new spread\n\nIn the last two weeks, health officials across the region have issued warnings to alert the public about the prevalent spread of the Delta variant, which is more virulent than earlier forms of the virus and therefore spreads more easily.\n\n“It feels very reminiscent of where we were in an early part of the pandemic,” said Mississippi’s state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers. “It feels like we’re in the same situation now with the Delta variant.”\n\nMississippi sees hospitalizations nearly double in early July\n\nMississippi reported 2,326 new cases between Saturday, July 17 to Monday, July 19, almost as many cases as the total seven-day cumulative total for all of last week according to data from theMississippi State Department of Health. The rise in numbers comes as health workers struggle to increase vaccination rates in the state. Over 1 million Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, accounting for about one-third of all residents, according to state health data.\n\nHospitalizations have also started to climb in recent weeks, said Mississippi’s state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs during a recent press conference. The number of people hospitalized with confirmed infections nearly doubled from 98 to 193 over a two-week period in early July, according to state health data.\n\nThe rise prompted the state’s health department to recommend adults over the age of 65 and people with chronic illnesses avoid indoor mass gatherings regardless of vaccination status for the next few weeks.\n\nMany of the outbreaks are linked to youth summer camps as well as nursing homes. Unlike previous waves, the current outbreak appears to be affecting younger unvaccinated people, Dobbs said.\n\n“Our collective under vaccination has put us all at risk especially, the most vulnerable among us,” he said.\n\nAlabama reports 4,300 cases in past two weeks\n\nThe Delta variant was first identified in Alabama in late April, according to testing conducted by the pathology lab at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. In the last two weeks nearly 70% of 48 samples tested showed the variant, according to lab manager and researcher Derek Moates.\n\n“I haven’t been too concerned about what I have been seeing until the past week-and-a-half to two weeks,” he said. “The number of delta variant cases is really starting to increase, and it is creating a dangerous situation for our state, which only has 33.3% of the population vaccinated.”\n\nAlabama has reported over 4,300 cases in the last two weeks, according to state health data.\n\nMore:Alabama officials urge COVID-19 vaccinations as delta variant spreads in U.S.\n\nThe growing number of new cases comes weeks after states have dropped most public health measures to contain the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, vaccination rates have stalled and even the most innovative health campaigns have failed to convince a larger percentage of the public to get vaccinated.\n\nOfficials in Alabama have organized mass drive-thru clinics, Talladega Nascar giveaways, shots-for-gift card clinics and even door-to-door vaccination campaigns for vulnerable communities. Major state figures such as the University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville released PSAs touting the vaccine. Local leaders organized town halls, and family doctors have held phone banks and Facebook Lives to address vaccine concerns and reduce hesitancy.\n\nAlabama Gov. Kay Ivey continues to publicly advocate for the vaccine, but a move toward increased restrictions despite the data seems unlikely.\n\nIvey, now campaigning in an active election cycle, has repeatedly said Alabama is “open for business,” signaling little interest in re-introducing restrictions or masking requirements should the state experience a new surge.\n\n“Vaccines are readily available, and I encourage folks to get one. The state of emergency and health orders have expired. We are moving forward,” Ivey said.\n\nArkansas has nearly 10,000 active COVID cases\n\nArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has taken a similar stand, despite the state currently reporting nearly 10,000 active COVID cases, according to the Arkansas Department of Health. Meanwhile, only about 35% of the adult population has been vaccinated.\n\nVaccine incentives have not worked, Hutchinson recently said in a statement.\n\n“The most powerful incentive is the reality that if Arkansas doesn’t significantly increase its rate of vaccinations, we won’t be getting rid of COVID-19 and its spinoffs anytime soon,” he said. “In Arkansas, we have chosen the path of personal responsibility. The state is wide open. We aren’t mandating masks or vaccinations.”\n\nLouisiana tries a variety of incentives to encourage vaccination\n\nEven in New Orleans, which has the highest percentage of fully vaccinated adults in Louisiana (63%), health officials recently said that measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 will likely be in place at large events through the fall.\n\nThis could include mask mandates or requirements that attendees be fully vaccinated or able to present a negative COVID-19 test, said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the health director for New Orleans.\n\nHealth workers have struggled to improve vaccination rates in Louisiana, where slightly over 35% of the population has been fully vaccinated. In recent months health workers have attempted a variety of incentives. For example, partnering with local businesses and faith-based groups to convince more people about the safety of the vaccine. Rates increased by about 14% last month following the announcement of a state-sponsored lottery for vaccinated individuals. However, this quickly leveled off, health officials stated.\n\nAvegno said last week that in about half of Louisiana’s 64 parishes only one-third of the population or less has had at least one dose of the vaccine.\n\n“It’s not surprising why the Delta variant is spread widely in Louisiana. It’s significantly more contagious and with large numbers of the population unvaccinated it has spread easily,” Avegno said.\n\nMore:Delta variant prompting concerns as Louisiana COVID-19 cases rise for third week\n\nAs a result, hospitalizations have started to increase over the last 12 days, including pediatric admissions, she said.\n\nThe statewide average of daily number of cases per 100,000 residents has increased 167% in that time period. The bulk of those new cases have occurred among younger unvaccinated adults in Louisiana, said Louisiana’s state health officer Dr. Joseph Kanter.\n\nCOVID-19 cases among unvaccinated individuals make up about 97% of all cases and deaths since February in the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.\n\nMore:The battle to increase COVID-19 vaccinations in Louisiana pushes creativity in New Orleans\n\nKanter said the state is about to experience another surge in cases and the only solution right now is to increase messaging about vaccinations across the state.\n\n“At this point I consider every single death to be preventable. During the previous three surges all we could do was weather it. Now we need to do as much as we can to add that protection,” he said.\n\nMaria Clark is a general assignment reporter with The American South. Story ideas, tips, questions? Email her at mclark@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @MariaPClark1. Sign up for The American South newsletter. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/health/flu-vaccine-fatigue/index.html", "title": "Vaccine fatigue is leaving the US vulnerable to flu | CNN", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe flu season ramped up early in the United States this year, but vaccination rates are far from keeping pace.\n\nFlu vaccines are always a tough sell for Americans. The US Department of Health and Human Services set a target vaccination rate of 70% in the Healthy People 2030 plan. But less than half of the population has actually gotten their annual flu shot each year for at least the past decade.\n\nPublic health leaders say it has been especially challenging to get people to get their flu vaccine this year because they’re growing tired of hearing about shots.\n\nWhat once was an annual push to get people vaccinated at the start of each flu season has become near-constant messaging about vaccines, with an announcement about new Covid-19 vaccine availability or eligibility seeming to come every couple of months.\n\n“There’s a great deal of vaccine fatigue out there. Asking people this year to get not just one vaccine but to get the annual influenza vaccine, as well as the Covid booster, has really been what I have called a hard sell,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.\n\n“There’s the old saying, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’ Well, perhaps that’s a bit strong, but familiarity does seem to breed a certain nonchalance,” he said.\n\nMillions fewer flu vaccine doses have been distributed this season compared with this point in seasons past, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just 26% of adults had gotten their flu shot by the end of October, a deadline that medical experts have long encouraged for optimal protection throughout the season. About 43% of children had gotten their flu shot by the end of November.\n\nReckoning with a new normal\n\nThe first year of the Covid-19 pandemic – the 2020-21 flu season – was a notable outlier, experts say.\n\nFlu vaccination rates soared higher than usual amid fears of a “twindemic,” with the coronavirus and flu circulating together.\n\n“The public health message – and I think we did it very effectively – was, you can’t protect yourself against Covid right now, but you can definitely take flu off the table,” said LJ Tan, chief strategy officer for the Immunization Action Coalition and co-chair of the National Adult and Influenza Immunization Summit, nonprofits dedicated to improving vaccination coverage in the US.\n\n“We were coming out of lockdowns, and people wanted to be active as opposed to passive. So when we told people at that time, ‘You don’t have a Covid vaccine, but you can certainly take flu off the table by getting a flu vaccine,’ people said, ‘Yeah, I’m doing that.’ “\n\nBut that double threat didn’t materialize. Flu seasons have been uncharacteristically mild for the past two years, and people have let their guard down, experts say.\n\n“I’ve almost had to remind people about influenza,” Schaffner said. “We’ve had two quite curtailed, very low influenza years. And of course, everyone’s been preoccupied with Covid, and they want to put Covid behind them and get on with their lives.”\n\nNow, continued messaging about a triple threat of viruses – flu, Covid and RSV – isn’t hitting in quite the same way. The urgency is real, as hospitals across the country stretch their capacity to record levels, but it’s not driving people to action.\n\n“It strikes me that people have gotten used to bad flu seasons for the elderly. So this is kind of just the same, with a few other viruses around. There’s a sense that this is what we’re going to expect and this is what we have to live with,” said Dr. Jesse Hackell, a pediatrician who co-authored a clinical report about countering vaccine hesitancy in 2016.\n\n“What we’re missing is the fact that kids and children’s hospitals are suffering in ways that we’ve never seen before.”\n\nNumerous studies have found that flu and Covid-19 vaccines significantly reduce the risk of severe outcomes for those who become infected, including hospitalization and death – thus reducing the burden on the health care work force.\n\nExacerbating the general vaccine fatigue is decision fatigue, Hackell said.\n\nPeople have to choose whether to get the flu vaccine each year – and more recently, they have to make decisions about Covid-19 vaccine updates. Each new decision opens the door for misinformation or disinformation to seep into the process.\n\n“If it were a vaccine like measles, where it is really effective and it’s not repeated, it might be different,” Hackell said. “But we have to compare it to Covid and flu vaccines, where the efficacy is less than dramatic, and when there’s a lot of controversy going on, I think that spills over.”\n\nHealth care professionals are worn out too, experts say.\n\n“I think there’s fatigue, moral injury, call it burnout on the part of providers as well. We’re not pushing it as hard,” said Hackell, who is also chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine. “It gets very difficult to keep having these unproductive conversations over and over again. And there’s so much more respiratory illness now that I don’t know that the time is there to have these long discussions when your office is packed with sick kids.”\n\nLinking Covid and flu\n\nUptake for the updated Covid-19 booster has also been lackluster: Fewer than 1 in 7 eligible people have gotten one since it was authorized in the fall, according to CDC data.\n\nOngoing messaging from the White House urges Americans to get their updated Covid-19 booster shot and the flu shot at the same time.\n\nBut despite the convenience of getting both shots at once, there’s evidence that linking the two isn’t the best way to boost coverage rates for either.\n\nThere has always been hesitancy around vaccination, but it has become highly politicized during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n“We still have plenty of people in this country who do not believe in the flu or the Covid vaccine that we haven’t been able to win over,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “Flu is serious in our country, and it kills a lot of people, and it hospitalizes a lot of people, and it attacks the young and old. And so we should pay more attention to it.”\n\nBut even when interest in booster shots was highest, it was rare for people to get both shots simultaneously.\n\nSelf-reports to the CDC’s V-safe monitoring system show that fewer than 1 in 10 people who got a Covid-19 booster between September 2021 and May 2022 got a flu shot at the same time.\n\n“We give multiple vaccines to our kids at the same time, but we haven’t typically done that for adults,” said Tan, former liaison to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee for the American Medical Association.\n\nTrying to persuade people to do something new can add to the hesitancy that’s already become so pervasive and make them less likely to come in at all. Instead, people seem to be much more likely to accept the offer of a flu vaccine at an appointment they scheduled to get a Covid-19 vaccine booster, or vice versa.\n\n“Some confidence is given by direct interaction with a health-care provider – in this case, the pharmacist or the physician or the clinician – who is able to reassure the patient that it’s safe,” Tan said. “In that personal conversation between the provider and the patient, the patient ends up being converted and getting the vaccine. It’s a testimony also to our remarkable health-care providers.”\n\nThe message might finally be sticking. At Walgreens locations, co-administration of the flu and Covid-19 vaccine is 70% higher this year than it was last year, according to data shared with CNN.\n\nBetter late than never\n\nTan says there have been signs of improvement in recent weeks.\n\nPharmacies are becoming significantly more popular than doctors offices among adults as they choose where to get the flu shot, and CDC data shows that the number of flu vaccines given in pharmacies this season is actually outpacing last year. It’s a sign that there are more opportunities to reach a broader group of otherwise healthy adults who are less likely to have a primary care provider, Tan said.\n\n“At least we’ve got the uptick now, as opposed to this continuous decline that we were seeing four weeks ago,” he said. “But while I’m sounding positive, I want to remind us all that we need to be better than we currently are.”\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\nAnd while battling vaccine fatigue is a challenge, it’s not an excuse to let vaccination rates lapse.\n\n“In many circumstances, we can overcome fatigue with access,” Tan said.\n\nIn public health, “we need to start looking outside the box to find out what messaging needs to change so that we can think out of the box and make people motivated to look for the flu vaccine again. Right now, it’s way too much of a vaccine of convenience.”", "authors": ["Deidre Mcphillips"], "publish_date": "2022/12/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/health/updated-boosters-omicron-imprint/index.html", "title": "Updated Covid-19 boosters offer protection, but new studies suggest ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe updated Covid-19 booster shots appear to work about as well against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants as the original boosters they replaced, according to two new studies from research teams at Harvard and Columbia universities.\n\nThe research suggests that our bodies have been well-trained to fight the original virus, which emerged from Wuhan, China, and that boosters mostly reinforce that response. Getting boosted this fall is still an important way to renew protection, even among people who were previously infected or vaccinated.\n\nBut the hope was that by tweaking the vaccine recipe to include currently circulating strains of the Omicron variant, it would help broaden immunity against those variants and perhaps offer better and longer-lasting protection.\n\nWhen the researchers compared the immune responses of people who got a booster dose of the original shot to people who got the updated bivalent boosters, they looked about the same.\n\n“We see essentially no difference” between the old boosters and the new about a month after the shot, said Dr. David Ho, professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia, whose team authored one of the studies.\n\nImmunologists say a vaccine against two strains may not be better than a single strain shot because of a phenomenon called immune imprinting. Scientists say imprinting may complicate efforts to stay ahead of new variants as the coronavirus continues to evolve, and it adds urgency to the development of new vaccine technologies to fight the virus.\n\nWhen the US Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorizations for new bivalent Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna at the end of August, it did so on the basis of studies in mice and previous human trials with a different two-strain booster formulation. Little was known about the how protective the shots might be in people; full data from clinical trials testing the BA.4 and BA.5 bivalent vaccines in humans hasn’t yet been made public.\n\nBut modeling data suggested that getting the boosters out in September could save tens of thousands of lives if the country had another winter surge, so the FDA authorized the shots, ahead of results from clinical trials, in order to get them to the public more quickly.\n\nThe updated shots contain instructions that show cells how to make spike proteins from the original virus that caused Covid-19, as well as spikes from the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. These spikes get assembled by our cells and displayed to our immune system so it can make antibodies to fight the real thing during an active infection.\n\nThe original strain of the virus, sometimes called the ancestral or wild-type strain, is no longer circulating, however. When we boost, we are mostly boosting antibodies against a virus that’s long gone.\n\nAs the virus has evolved, the vaccines have not kept pace. Each new variant has become more and more resistant to the antibodies we make against it, increasing the risk of breakthrough infections, hospitalizations and deaths.\n\nRight now, protection against infection begins to wane just a few months after each booster dose. Protection against severe outcomes – hospitalization or death from Covid-19 – lasts longer, but can also fade, especially for vulnerable groups such as people who are over 65, who have weakened immune systems or who have underlying medical conditions.\n\nSimilar immune responses\n\nThe studies have important limitations, and they aren’t the final word on the updated boosters.\n\nBoth studies were small. Ho’s study looked at the immune responses of 19 people who were boosted with a fourth dose of the original recipe vaccine and 21 people who got a fourth dose of the updated boosters. The other study, from Dr. Dan Barouch, a professor at Harvard and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, looked at 15 people who got the original booster and 18 people who got bivalent shots.\n\nBoth reports were posted as preprints, before scrutiny by independent experts.\n\nThe studies also measured immune responses over a short period of time – about three to five weeks after the fourth doses. Ho says these results could change with time, as immune cells mature.\n\n“We can’t say that a few months from now, there won’t be any difference,” he said. “We won’t know that until these individuals are followed for a longer period of time.”\n\nDespite these caveats, experts who were not involved in the research say that two studies from well-regarded labs arriving at roughly the same conclusions about the vaccines gives them confidence that the results are correct.\n\n“At least at this time point, there’s no discernible benefit” over the older boosters, Ho said.\n\nClinical trials being conducted by vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna involve hundreds of people who have had the updated boosters and are being followed for longer periods of time. Data from those studies are still coming.\n\nBoth companies declined to comment on Ho and Barouch’s studies, citing company policies not to weigh in on research they have not been involved in.\n\nIn comparing the immune responses of people who got the old boosters with those who got the newer ones, the researchers found that neutralizing antibodies spiked after both shots to about the same high levels, which was good news.\n\nIn Barouch’s study, antibody concentrations were 15 times higher after the original boosters, rising from 184 to 2,829. They were 17 times higher after the updated shots, jumping from 211 to 3,693. The difference in antibody levels between shots didn’t pass a statistical test, however, so the results may have been due to chance.\n\nMore importantly, that slight difference in antibody levels probably wouldn’t protect people any better in the real world.\n\n“We would not expect this to be clinically significant,” said Barouch, who worked on the development of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.\n\nBut the bulk of the antibodies generated after either shot were ones that would bind the original virus, with fewer directed specifically against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.\n\nBarouch’s team also looked specifically at T cells, which help the body hold the memory of germs it has been exposed to. These cells are thought to play a key role in how long immune protection lasts. Antibody levels naturally drop off over time, but T cells stick around.\n\nThe numbers of T cells didn’t budge much after either vaccine.\n\n“Unfortunately, neither one increased T-cell responses very much, and we believe that T-cell responses in addition to antibody responses are important for protection against severe disease,” Barouch said.\n\n‘A booster is a booster’\n\nDr. Eric Topol, who directs the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the study results “can be considered a disappointment,” especially because the US government raced to make them available and because there had been high hopes for an improved vaccine in time for a predicted winter Covid-19 surge.\n\nTopol also said it would be a mistake to skip these shots. They still work; they just may not be much of an improvement over the older ones.\n\n“A booster is a booster until proven otherwise and we are in great need of getting more of them in the US,” Topol, who was not involved in the new studies, wrote in an email to CNN.\n\nFewer than 20 million people – less than 10% of the population ages 5 and up – have gotten the updated booster, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nAfter waiting the recommended three months since his last Covid-19 infection, President Joe Biden got an updated booster Tuesday and urged eligible Americans to do the same.\n\n“Your old vaccine or your previous Covid infection will not give you maximum protection,” Biden said.\n\nPublic health officials had hoped that the rollout of the updated boosters would mark a turning point, where Americans might be able to get annual Covid-19 shots instead of boosters every few months.\n\nDr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, recently told Stat that he wasn’t sure whether the country had reached that point.\n\n“I would be lying to you if [I said] it doesn’t keep me up at night worrying that there is a certain chance that we may have to deploy another booster – at least for a portion of the population, perhaps older individuals – before next September, October,” he said.\n\n“I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but it’s what keeps me up at night, because we see how fast this virus is evolving.”\n\nImprinting may complicate quest for better immunity\n\nThe studies probably didn’t find any difference between the new and old boosters because of immune imprinting, says Michael Worobey, a professor at the University of Arizona who studies the evolution of viruses and the origins and control of pandemics.\n\n“Your body is on a hair trigger to create more antibodies of what it has a good memory of,” said Worobey, who was not involved in the new research.\n\nAt the beginning of the pandemic, our immune systems were blank slates when it came to the coronavirus. By now, most of us have been exposed to one version of the virus or another through the vaccine, an infection or both. That exposure programs cells called B cells to make specific kinds of antibodies, and more B cells get this programming during their first exposure to the virus than they do in subsequent brushes with it.\n\nThat’s the reason some strains of the flu may hit certain age groups harder than others, too. When viruses look more similar to the first infection or vaccine you had, your body tends to do a better job fighting them off.\n\nWorobey said that both new studies have limitations, “but I think when you put them together, they paint a pretty clear picture that that antigenic imprinting is causing issues here, for sure.”\n\nIt’s possible to break through immune imprinting, he said. Certain kinds of vaccine ingredients, or adjuvants – “things that just happen to really wake up the immune system” – can do it.\n\nBut it’s not easy to add the kind of adjuvants he’s thinking about to mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna’s. In this case, he says, judging by the study findings, it probably would have been better to update the vaccine by including only the components against BA.4 and BA.5.\n\n“For me, the take-home message is, if you want to boost and provide protection against Omicron, leave the original variant out of the vaccine.”\n\nDr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, says the new studies bear out data that was presented to the FDA’s advisers in June.\n\nHe says it’s one of the reasons he voted against the FDA requiring companies to add an Omicron strain to the boosters used in the US.\n\n“Certainly, the hope that this would be significantly better in terms of protection against the circulating strains, I think, is unlikely to be realized,” said Offit, who was not involved in the new studies.\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\nWorobey says that when the strains are combined as they are in the updated boosters, they actually end up competing. The body’s response to the original strain is so strong, it will end up blocking the updated portion of the vaccine from stimulating those blank slate B cells against the newer variants and reshaping the immune response.\n\nThus, imprinting will complicate efforts to keep up with the virus, he says. We may need different kinds of vaccine technologies if the virus ever changes so much that it outcompetes our immunity altogether.\n\nThat’s something the FDA’s Marks has considered, too.\n\n“I would love to see us have a very ecumenical look over all of the available vaccines and all of the vaccines in development to try to see what’s best moving forward,” he told Stat. “Not to diss the current mRNA vaccines but because we owe it to the population to see what might provide the greatest breadth, depth and duration of immunity against Covid-19.”", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/10/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/health/child-vax-rates-school-mandates/index.html", "title": "Covid-19 vaccines will be on the 2023 vaccine schedule, but that ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nCovid-19 vaccines will be part of recommended immunization schedules in 2023 for both children and adults, after a unanimous vote by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.\n\nThat doesn’t make the vaccines mandatory for anyone, a point that was emphasized in a discussion before Thursday’s vote. The board members addressed concerns from the public that adding Covid-19 vaccinations to the schedule would force schools to require the shots.\n\n“We recognize that there is concern around this, but moving Covid-19 to the recommended immunization schedule does not impact what vaccines are required for school entrance, if any,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, a committee member and director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\n“Indeed, there are vaccines that are on the schedule right now that are not required for school attendance in many jurisdictions, such as seasonal influenza. Local control matters, and we honor that. The decision around school entrance for vaccines rests where it did before, which is with the state level, the county level and at the municipal level, if it exists at all. They are the arbiters of what vaccines are required, if any, for school entry. This discussion does not change that.”\n\nIn fact, Covid-19 vaccines are explicitly banned from being included in school mandates in at least 20 states. Only California and the District of Columbia have announced that Covid-19 shots will be among mandated vaccinations for students, but those mandates were not implemented for this school year.\n\nIt’s been nearly a year since eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccine was expanded to include everyone in the US 5 and older, but coverage among children still lags behind that of adults. Even as these vaccines and the related mandates have become highly politicized over the course of the pandemic, experts say vaccine hesitancy among parents isn’t new.\n\nAlthough the Covid-19 shot will not become mandatory for school, all 50 states do have laws requiring specific vaccines for students – most of which include shots for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) and varicella.\n\nUptake for these vaccines, mandated by schools long before Covid-19, fell during the pandemic.\n\nIn the 2020-21 school year, vaccination coverage for kindergarteners fell to less than 94% – dropping below the overall target of 95% that was set as an objective by the US Department of Health and Human Services in the Healthy People project for the first time in six years.\n\nA CNN analysis of the latest CDC data suggests that students in states with stricter school vaccine requirements are more likely to have their shots.\n\nAll school immunization laws grant exemptions to children for specific medical reasons. But 44 states and Washington, DC, also grant religious exemptions, and 15 states allow philosophical or moral exemptions for children, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\n\nAccording to the CNN analysis, states that were stricter with exemptions were much more likely to still meet the 95% coverage target. In the 2020-21 school year, an average of about 96% of kindergarten students had their MMR vaccine in states that allowed only medical exemptions, compared with 92% of students in states that also allowed philosophical or moral exemptions.\n\nThe full effect of the pandemic on children’s routine vaccination rates isn’t clear: It will be another few months before the CDC shares national data for compliance rates for mandatory vaccinations in the 2021-22 school year, and schools are in the midst of outreach and programming to ensure that as many students as possible will continue through the 2022-23 school year up to date on their vaccines.\n\nVaccine hesitancy isn’t new\n\nCorrecting the drop in vaccination coverage in students will probably depend more on better access to care, information and outreach – and school vaccine mandates can help.\n\nWith many people who are hesitant, it’s “because of something they’ve heard or something they’ve read,” said Dr. Jesse Hackell, a pediatrician who co-authored a clinical report about countering vaccine hesitancy in 2016. “Most people [who are hesitant] have a very free-floating worry about vaccines. It’s not specific in most cases.”\n\nA small share of parents – about 2% or 3% – are adamantly opposed to vaccines, and that rate has stayed mostly consistent over the years, said Hackell, who is also chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine.\n\nOverall vaccination coverage fell among kindergarteners in the 2020-21 school year, but the share of students who had an exemption also declined from 2.5% to 2.1%, according to CDC data. The rate has changed by less than 1 percentage point over the past 10 years.\n\nAbout 3% of kindergarteners in the US – about 120,000 students – were considered to be out of compliance with mandatory vaccines in the 2020-21 school year.\n\n“Mandates may not do anything to those people who would pull their kids out of public school,” Hackell said. “But the vast majority of parents are not opposed. They’re hesitant, or they’re uncertain. And when there’s pressure to do it for another reason, such as getting your kid into school, they come around.”\n\nResponsibility for enforcing vaccine mandates falls to the education system, and practices vary by state. Some students are ultimately turned away because they aren’t up to date, but most states offer provisional enrollment periods that allow kids to stay in school if they are in progress with at least one shot in a series or evidence of an upcoming appointment.\n\nAccording to the CDC, “school officials may prefer to keep students in school where they have access to education, safe supervision, nutrition, and social services while working with parents or guardians to get children vaccinated.”\n\nAnd many states do their best to help students stay up to date on their immunizations, with vaccination drives and direct followup with parents.\n\n“I think that the drop in the past year or two is partly pandemic-related,” Hackell said. “What we’re seeing, I think, is a little bit of a disparity between kids who have a medical home and have a private [doctor] versus kids who get their immunizations from a public source” like a school clinic.\n\nA model of high vaccination: Mississippi\n\nMississippi is an impressive example of finding ways to keep child vaccination rates high, Hackell says. Public schools are the only option for many in the state, where poverty rates are higher than anywhere else in the US.\n\nDespite the large public need and additional resource struggles that the pandemic brought, 99% of kindergarteners in Mississippi met required vaccination coverage in the 2020-21 school year – better than any other state, according to the CDC.\n\n“They’ve done a tremendous job at that,” Hackell said, and it demonstrates the power of mandates. Mississippi is strict with exemptions – one of just six states allowing medical reasons only – and just 0.1% of kindergarteners were exempt in the 2020-21 school year.\n\nHackell says he would be most concerned if he sees a sustained drop in vaccination rates for highly transmissible diseases, especially measles and polio. And he’s worried about pockets of low vaccination rates in certain communities.\n\nSchools are public spaces with a level of control, and 95% vaccination coverage is a goal with intent.\n\n“We know it’s never going to be 100% because there are some people who cannot medically be vaccinated. But if you have 95%, that means in any given school classroom of 30 kids, there might be one unvaccinated kid. And so if that child brings a case of something into the class, there’s nobody else to give it to,” he said. “It stops there with one case.”\n\nAnd when it comes to adding Covid-19 vaccines to the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule, the focus is still on public health – not on adding another requirement.\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“I’ve had parents who come in my office, and I say, ‘What are you here for?’ And they say, ‘Well, we’re here for vaccines so that our kids can go to school.’ And I’ve said, ‘OK, I understand that, but really I’m not vaccinating so you can go to school, I’m vaccinating because I want to prevent serious disease and death in your kids,’ ” Dr. Matthew Daley, an ACIP member and senior investigator with the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said at Thursday’s advisory meeting.\n\n“And the fact that there’s a school immunization requirement helps because it brought you into the office, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to prevent serious disease.”", "authors": ["Deidre Mcphillips"], "publish_date": "2022/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/05/03/michigan-covid-19-vaccination-rate/4925916001/", "title": "Michigan hits COVID-19 vaccine milestone: 50% have at least one ...", "text": "Michigan hit a new milestone Monday in the race to end the COVID-19 pandemic: 50% of residents age 16 and older — about 4 million people — have gotten at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.\n\nHealth leaders have said it will take at least 70% of the population to be fully vaccinated to stop widespread outbreaks and protect the most vulnerable, though with more contagious variants of the virus circulating now in Michigan and nationally, that number may be higher.\n\n“There’s a debate about what constitutes herd immunity, is it 70%, 68%, 81%?\" President Joe Biden said Monday at a stop at Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, Virginia. He highlighted the wide availability of vaccines now in the U.S. as demand for the shots has begun to wane.\n\n\"The point is, right now, every single person 16 years or older doesn’t have to wait in line,\" he said. \"Just show up and get a vaccination now. I plead with everyone, get vaccinated now, please.\"\n\nBoth national and state data suggest the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations peaked in the second week of April.\n\nNationally, the seven-day average for vaccinations dropped 27% between April 11 and April 27 — from a weekly average of 3.3 million shots in arms to 2.4 million doses administered, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nIn Michigan, the decline has been more dramatic, falling 52% from the week ending April 10, when 667,698 Michiganders got COVID-19 vaccines, to the week ending May 1, when 302,395 got shots, according to state data.\n\nMore:Michigan Medicine opens clinics for adults, kids with long-haul COVID-19 problems\n\nMore:Detroit nurse was afraid to get COVID-19 vaccine. Then tragedy struck.\n\nGov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a plan last week that ties the easing of pandemic public health restrictions to specific COVID-19 vaccination thresholds, saying the state can't get back to normal unless people get their shots.\n\nThe plan would allow employees to return to in-person work in all sectors of the state's economy two weeks after 55% of Michiganders 16 and older (4.45 million people) initiate the COVID-19 vaccination process by getting at least one dose.\n\nWhitmer projected last week that the state could hit the 55% mark by the end of this week, \"meaning we could reach step one just two weeks later, before the end of May. But it's counting on all of us to keep pushing to make sure we get vaccinated.\"\n\nMore:Gov. Whitmer unveils plan to tie Michigan vaccination rates to easing COVID-19 rules\n\nMore:Starting Tuesday, Ford Field's mass COVID-19 vaccine clinic to switch to Johnson & Johnson\n\nTwo weeks after 60% of Michiganders 16 and older get at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Whitmer said her administration will:\n\nIncrease indoor capacity at sports stadiums to 25%.\n\nIncrease indoor capacity at conference centers/banquet halls/funeral homes to 25%.\n\nIncrease capacity at exercise facilities and gyms to 50%.\n\nLift the curfew on restaurants and bars.\n\nAnd two weeks after the state hits the threshold of 65% of residents who've gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Whitmer's plan would lift all indoor capacity limits, but still require social distancing. Limits on social gatherings at people's homes also would be relaxed.\n\nOnce two weeks have passed after the state hits its target of vaccinating 70% of the state's 16 and older population — 5,667,842 residents — the administration's plan would no longer require face masks or other mitigation measures except in \"unanticipated circumstances,\" which could include the spread of vaccine-resistant variants.\n\nOn Monday, the state's COVID-19 trends continued to improve, as the state's COVID-19 case rate, hospitalizations and percentage of positive tests continued to fall after the third surge peaked in mid-April. Since the pandemic began, nearly 850,000 Michiganders have contracted the virus and 17,771 have died.\n\nContact Kristen Jordan Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2021/09/27/iowa-poll-how-many-iowans-are-vaccinated-plan-to-get-covid-vaccine/5829127001/", "title": "Iowa Poll finds 25% of Iowa adults don't plan to get COVID-19 vaccine", "text": "© Copyright 2021, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.\n\nA quarter of Iowa adults do not plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.\n\nThe poll finds 65% of Iowa adults have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which matches Iowa Department of Public Health reporting.\n\nAnother 5% still plan to get vaccinated, with 4% not sure — showing a plausible path to a 70%-plus adult vaccination rate in the state.\n\nThe poll, conducted by Selzer & Co. Sept. 12-15, interviewed 805 adult Iowans and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.\n\nA majority of adult Iowans across demographic lines are either vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated, though it’s a narrow majority in some instances, the poll shows.\n\nAmong those who voted for President Donald Trump in 2020, 48% have received at least one shot, and another 4% plan to get it. Among self-identified evangelicals, 50% are at least partially vaccinated, and another 5% plan to get the vaccine. Among rural Iowans, 51% have received at least one dose, and another 6% plan to get it.\n\nAmong those with children under 18, it's also 51% who are at least partially vaccinated, and 7% plan to.\n\nIowa Poll on vaccine mandates:Feds shouldn't order employers to require COVID shots, 52% say\n\nPeople who identify as Democrats are the most likely group to say they are vaccinated or will be, according to the poll, with 95% saying they’ve had at least one shot and 4% saying they intend to get the vaccine. Among independents, 68% say they've been vaccinated or plan to be. Among Republicans, it's 58%.\n\nOlder Iowans are the next most vaccinated group, with 88% of those 65 or older having had at least one shot, and 80% of people 55 or older. That contrasts with 54% of those under 35 who have had at least one dose.\n\nThe poll results also reflect an urban-rural divide: 70% of Iowa's city dwellers and 75% of suburbanites say they’ve been vaccinated, versus 51% who live in rural areas.\n\nPoll respondent Angelique Smyth, 53, of Bondurant, waited a few months after the vaccine’s roll-out to get her shots. She and her family made the decision together and wanted to see scientific consensus and get their doctors’ advice on concerns about the vaccine's adverse reactions.\n\nThey decided by the summer, and Smyth remembers the freedom the vaccine provided as she got used to not wearing a mask in public.\n\nThen the delta variant of the coronavirus roared into the state, more Iowans started getting sick again, and the mask started going back on. Smyth and her family want to model appropriate behavior to minimize spread of the pandemic, she said.\n\nIs the worst of the pandemic behind us?\n\nSmyth worries that the worst of the pandemic is still to come if vaccination rates don't go up.\n\n\"For me (the worst thing) is people dying and they don't have to,” Smyth said. “Most of the people in the hospital are the ones who are not vaccinated. If everybody just stepped in and did what they were doing since we were younger and getting our shots, those numbers would go down.\"\n\nSmyth is one of the 19% of vaccinated Iowans who think the worst of the pandemic is to come. Most vaccinated Iowans, 55%, think the state is in the middle of it, and 20% think the worst is over.\n\nUnvaccinated Iowans have a considerably brighter outlook. Most, 56%, think the worst of the pandemic is over, while 28% believe the state’s in the middle of it, and just 7% think the worst is still to come.\n\nMore:'How long can the health care system hold up?' Iowa sets new 2021 high for COVID hospitalizations\n\nPoll respondent Dean Loutsch, 55, of Remsen, isn’t vaccinated and doesn’t plan to get the vaccine.\n\nHe believes that he and his wife caught mild cases of COVID-19 during the winter and have antibodies from that bout. He otherwise takes a live-and-let-live attitude toward the shots: “If people want to get it, go ahead and get vaccinated,” he said.\n\nHe thinks the worst of the pandemic was its effect on the economy.\n\n“As a whole thing in general, when everything was shut down, I thought that was really stupid,” Loutsch said. “And now that’s not happening, so that’s why I say the worst is behind us.”\n\nHospitalizations in Iowa surge again, but are far from peak\n\nOverall, 32% of Iowans feel the worst of the pandemic is over, down from 44% who felt that way in March — back when the number of new infections and hospitalizations were heading down after a brutal winter that stretched Iowa's health care system to its limits.\n\nFifteen percent of Iowans think the worst of the pandemic is still to come, up from 8% in March. A plurality of Iowans, 46%, believe the state is still in the middle of the pandemic, up slightly from the 43% who felt the same way in March.\n\nAlthough most Iowans believe we're either in the middle of the pandemic's impact or the worst is yet to come, most don't expect major changes in their home life (64%) or family relationships (72%) as a result of what they've experienced during the pandemic, the survey found.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 638 people were hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19, the most in a single day all year. It’s still far from the peak last November, when more than 1,500 people were hospitalized concurrently with the disease. More than 80% of current COVID-19 hospital patients are unvaccinated, according to state data.\n\nThe disease has killed more than 6,480 Iowans since March 2020. More than 440,500 Iowans, or nearly 14% of the state’s population, has tested positive for it over the last 18 months.\n\nMore:As delta variant fuels COVID surge in Iowa, here's what to know about vaccines, masks and symptoms\n\nAbout this poll\n\nThe Iowa Poll, conducted September 12-15, 2021, for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 805 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cell phone numbers supplied by Dynata. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age, sex and congressional district to reflect the general population based on recent American Community Survey estimates.\n\nQuestions based on the sample of 805 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Questions based on the subsample of 620 likely voters in the 2022 midterm election have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points or 3.9 percentage points, respectively. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age—have a larger margin of error.\n\nRepublishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to the Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.\n\nNick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/27"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_16", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/arts/2022/03/22/status-newfields-ceo-search-and-plan-year-after-job-firestorm/9376757002/", "title": "Status of Newfields' CEO search and plan a year after job firestorm", "text": "One year ago, Newfields' Board of Trustees promised change.\n\nThe changes were prompted by a February 2021 public outcry over an Indianapolis Museum of Art director job post that sought to maintain the organization's \"traditional, core, white art audience\" while diversifying patrons. The fallout included open letters from employees and the art community with lists of demands, the resignation of then-president Charles Venable and an apology signed by both boards.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/08/10/judge-bruce-reinhart-signed-off-search-warrant-trump-mar-lago/10289049002/", "title": "Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart faces political firestorm after ...", "text": "As he has done scores of times before, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart last week signed off on a search warrant.\n\nUnlike the countless others he has inked in his four-year judicial career, this one, allowing FBI agents to search Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach home of former President Donald Trump, ignited a political firestorm.\n\nMajor news outlets from Newsweek to Politico to Fox News to the London-based Independent, wrote stories, analyzing the 60-year-old Reinhart’s political contributions, his choice of clients, and other aspects of his professional life. Some reporters falsely claimed he was a Trump appointee.\n\nIn response to Reinhart’s newfound notoriety, his biography and his contact information were removed from the website of the U.S. District of Court for the Southern District of Florida.\n\nOfficials didn’t respond to an email asking why such unusual steps were taken. But Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said it was in response to threats Reinhart has received.\n\nMore:AG Merrick Garland: Justice Department files motion to unseal Mar-a-Lago search warrant\n\nFBI search:Donald Trump knows what FBI agents took from Mar-a-Lago and why they took it, experts say\n\nTrump and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach: How big is it, is it open to the public and security breaches\n\nVIDEO:See replay: After FBI search, supporters with signs, loud music cruise past Mar-A-Lago\n\n“I hear he's getting threats, that his information was taken down from the judicial directory, and he's the object of vitriol from supporters of the former president,” Aronberg said.\n\nThose who worked with Reinhart during the decade he worked as a federal prosecutor in West Palm Beach said they are stunned by the misinformation and the malice being heaped on a magistrate who was simply doing his job.\n\n“I just think it’s a total misdirection,” said Roger Stefin, who retired in 2020 after spending 32 years as a prosecutor for the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s office. “There’s no political equation that goes into (approving a search warrant).”\n\nWhat is a magistrate?\n\nMagistrates, who are hired by district judges to help them with routine matters, simply decide whether law enforcement agents have established probable cause that a crime has been committed and that the search would uncover evidence of that crime.\n\n\"Being a magistrate judge is not a political position,\" Stefin said. \"It's not whether someone's a Democrat or Republican.\"\n\nEllen Cohen, who worked with Reinhart when he was a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a magistrate, described her former colleague as meticulous.\n\n“Every time I brought a search warrant to him, and I brought many, he read it, digested it and asked questions,” said Cohen, who retired recently after a 41-year career as a prosecutor. “He wasn’t someone who would sign off on it just because the government presented it to him.”\n\nLike all magistrates, Reinhart has undoubtedly reviewed hundreds of search warrants since he joined the judicial ranks in 2018 when he was selected over 63 other lawyers who applied for the post.\n\n“That’s what he does every day whether it’s a crime of drug dealing, gun sales or whether it’s having possession of government documents or high-security documents you’re not supposed to have,” Cohen said.\n\nMore on Bruce Reinhart:West Palm Beach attorney Bruce Reinhart appointed U.S. magistrate\n\nSince the warrant involved the unprecedented request to search the home of a former president, she said the warrant would have been vetted at the highest levels of the Justice Department, including Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland said Thursday he \"personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant\" while announcing that the Justice Department had filed a motion to unseal the warrant and property receipt from the search.\n\nBut, she said, even knowing that, Reinhart wouldn’t have simply rubber-stamped it.\n\n“He reviewed it and did what he is legally responsible to do,\" Stefin agreed. \"He found probable cause based on the allegations in the affidavit.\"\n\nTama Kudman, a West Palm Beach defense attorney, echoed Stefin’s claims. “Knowing him, he would never let any politics or anything else influence his decision,” she said.\n\nJudge Bruce Reinhart has ties to Jeffrey Epstein case\n\nMany of the news stories about Reinhart have focused on his representation of associates of serial molester Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York City jail cell after being accused of trafficking dozens of young women for sex.\n\nAs part of the long and complicated case that began a decade before Epstein’s death, Reinhart was named in a lawsuit attorney Bradley Edwards filed on behalf of some of the Palm Beach financier's young accusers.\n\nIn it, they claimed federal prosecutors violated their rights by not telling them a plea deal had been approved that would allow Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges to avoid federal prosecution.\n\nSearch theories:Why did the FBI search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? 5 potential explanations\n\nReaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago:Reaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago: Anger from supporters, caution from critics\n\nIn court papers, Edwards claimed Reinhart used his position as a federal prosecutor to curry favor with Epstein. Then, when Reinhart left the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he immediately “joined Epstein’s payroll” by representing the politically-connected financier’s pilots and women who were accused of helping him recruit teenagers for sex, Edwards said in the lawsuit.\n\nSaying the “unfounded factual and legal accusations” hurt his reputation, Reinhart in 2011 asked U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to sanction Edwards. Marra declined, saying the dispute had nothing to do with whether federal prosecutors violated the women’s rights.\n\n“The Court cannot permit anyone slighted by allegations in court pleadings to intervene and conduct mini-trials to vindicate their reputation,” Marra wrote, in denying Reinhart’s request.\n\nCohen called Edwards' allegations against Reinhart offensive. “The whole idea that he quit (the U.S. Attorney’s Office) so he could become a lapdog for Epstein is nonsense,” she said.\n\nReinhart quit, after a nearly two-decade career as a federal prosecutor in West Palm Beach and Washington, D.C., to become a criminal defense attorney.\n\n“Good for him,” she said. “Just because you represent a murderer doesn’t mean you condone the murder.”\n\nReinhart, however, did acknowledge he encountered some ethical problems when he briefly represented then-Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty before she was formally charged in 2009 with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud by federal prosecutors.\n\nWhen he stepped off McCarty’s case, Reinhart told The Palm Beach Post that his former bosses told him that if he continued to represent McCarty he would be violating rules prohibiting him from representing defendants on matters he had dealt with as a federal prosecutor.\n\nWhile working as a criminal defense lawyer, Reinhart occasionally gave to political candidates, mostly Democrats, campaign finance records show.\n\nIn 2008, Reinhart contributed $1,000 to future Democratic President Barack Obama's election. That same year, he donated $1,000 to Jupiter attorney Bryan Miller, who lost his bid for the state house. In 2012, he gave $250 to Aronberg to boost the Democrat's first campaign for state attorney.\n\nIn 2015, Reinhart donated $500 to former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's failed presidential campaign. The Republican nomination went to Trump.\n\nJudge Reinhart is a Princeton graduate who got his law degree at Penn\n\nReinhart graduated from Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering and got his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked as a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice and was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury before joining the federal prosecutor’s office in West Palm Beach.\n\nTwo days before he was appointed as a magistrate, his wife Carolyn Bell, also a former prosecutor, was appointed to the Palm Beach County Circuit Court bench by then-Gov. Rick Scott. She currently presides in juvenile court.\n\nLike others, Aronberg said the uproar about the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and the attacks on Reinhart are unfortunate.\n\n“The whole backlash against him is unfair, and it’s really damaging for our judicial system to have people believe that when a judge issues a search warrant, it must be for some nefarious reason,” Aronberg said.\n\nBut, he said, there is no evidence any strings were pulled or corners cut.\n\n“By all indications, everyone involved in the search warrant process followed the law,\" he continued. \"There’s a process in place, and it was followed. Probable cause needed to be found. It was.”\n\nPalm Beach Post crime and safety reporter Hannah Phillips contributed to this story.\n\nJane Musgrave covers federal, civil and criminal courts for The Palm Beach Post. Contact her at jmusgrave@pbpost.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/08/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/11/14/norval-pollard-past-texas-tech-coaching-searches-joey-mcguire/6376902001/", "title": "Norval Pollard from past Texas Tech coaching searches to Joey ...", "text": "NORVAL POLLARD\n\nAnother Texas Tech football coaching search has concluded, and the excitement of the prospects of perennial winning seasons and bowl invitations now fills the air in Lubbock. The honeymoon period has begun for Joey McGuire. More on him later.\n\nThese safaris always spawn politics, rumors, revelations and second-guessing. That is what makes it so much fun and downright incredulous.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/10/judge-bruce-reinhart-signed-off-search-warrant-trump-mar-lago/10293403002/", "title": "Judge Bruce Reinhart signed off on search warrant of Trump's Mar-a ...", "text": "As he has done scores of times before, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Monday signed off on a search warrant.\n\nUnlike the countless others he has inked in his four-year judicial career, this one, allowing FBI agents to search Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach home of former President Donald Trump, ignited a political firestorm.\n\nMajor news outletsincluding Politico, Fox News and the London-based Independent, wrote stories, analyzing the Ivy-educated, 60-year-old Reinhart’s political contributions, his choice of clients, and other aspects of his professional life. Some reporters falsely claimed he was a Trump appointee.\n\nIn response to Reinhart’s newfound notoriety, his biography and his contact information were removed from the website of the U.S. District of Court for the Southern District of Florida.\n\nWhat's in the warrant?:While everyone speculates about the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, here's what we really know\n\nLatest updates:Trump takes the Fifth in NY deposition; questions swirl about Mar-a-Lago search\n\nOfficials didn’t respond to an email asking why such unusual steps were taken. But Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said it was in response to threats Reinhart has received.\n\nWhile the issuance of the warrant has been the subject of broad speculation and has touched off a cascade of angry responses from Trump's allies, few know what's in the document Reinhart signed.\n\nWhat is known is it contained details of what the FBI was after. Sources familiar with the matter have since confirmed to USA TODAY that the investigation is related to allegations Trump removed classified documents from the White House when he left office and brought them to his South Florida residence. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI have commented, or released details.\n\nFBI search:Donald Trump knows what FBI agents took from Mar-a-Lago and why they took it, experts say\n\nTrump and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach: How big is it, is it open to the public and security breaches\n\nVIDEO:See replay: After FBI search, supporters with signs, loud music cruise past Mar-A-Lago\n\n“I hear he's getting threats, that his information was taken down from the judicial directory, and he's the object of vitriol from supporters of the former president,” Aronberg said.\n\nThose who worked with Reinhart during the decade he served as a federal prosecutor in West Palm Beach said they are stunned by the misinformation and the malice being hurled at a magistrate who was simply doing his job.\n\n“I just think it’s a total misdirection,” said Roger Stefin, who retired in 2020 after spending 32 years as a prosecutor for the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s office. “There’s no political equation that goes into (approving a search warrant).”\n\nWhat is a magistrate?\n\nMagistrates, who are hired by district judges to help them with routine matters, must determine whether law enforcement agents have established probable cause that a crime has been committed and that the search would uncover evidence of that crime.\n\n\"Being a magistrate judge is not a political position,\" Stefin said. \"It's not whether someone's a Democrat or Republican.\"\n\nEllen Cohen, who worked with Reinhart when he was a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a magistrate, described her former colleague as meticulous.\n\n“Every time I brought a search warrant to him – and I brought many – he read it, digested it and asked questions,” said Cohen, who retired recently after a 41-year career as a prosecutor. “He wasn’t someone who would sign off on it just because the government presented it to him.”\n\nLike all magistrates, Reinhart has undoubtedly reviewed hundreds of search warrants since he applied for the position in 2018 and was selected over other lawyers who applied.\n\n“That’s what he does every day whether it’s a crime of drug dealing, gun sales or whether it’s having possession of government documents or high-security documents you’re not supposed to have,” Cohen said.\n\nMore on Bruce Reinhart:West Palm Beach attorney Bruce Reinhart appointed U.S. magistrate\n\nSince the warrant involved the unprecedented request to search the home of a former president, she said the warrant likely would have been vetted at the highest levels of the Justice Department, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.\n\nBut, she said, even knowing that, Reinhart wouldn’t have simply rubber-stamped it.\n\n“He reviewed it and did what he is legally responsible to do,\" Stefin agreed. \"He found probable cause based on the allegations in the affidavit.\"\n\nTama Kudman, a West Palm Beach defense attorney, echoed Stefin’s claims. “Knowing him, he would never let any politics or anything else influence his decision,” she said.\n\nJudge Bruce Reinhart has ties to Jeffrey Epstein case\n\nMany of the news stories about Reinhart have focused on his representation of associates of serial molester Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York City jail cell after being accused of trafficking dozens of young women for sex.\n\nAs part of the long and complicated case that began a decade before Epstein’s death, Reinhart was named in a lawsuit attorney Bradley Edwards filed on behalf of some of the Palm Beach financier's young accusers.\n\nIn it, they claimed federal prosecutors violated their rights by not telling them a plea deal had been approved that would allow Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges to avoid federal prosecution.\n\nSearch theories:Why did the FBI search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? 5 potential explanations\n\nReaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago:Reaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago: Anger from supporters, caution from critics\n\nIn court papers, Edwards claimed Reinhart used his position as a federal prosecutor to curry favor with Epstein. Then, when Reinhart left the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he immediately “joined Epstein’s payroll” by representing the politically-connected financier’s pilots and women who were accused of helping him recruit teenagers for sex, Edwards said in the lawsuit.\n\nSaying the “unfounded factual and legal accusations” hurt his reputation, Reinhart in 2011 asked U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to sanction Edwards. Marra declined, saying the dispute had nothing to do with whether federal prosecutors violated the women’s rights.\n\n“The Court cannot permit anyone slighted by allegations in court pleadings to intervene and conduct mini-trials to vindicate their reputation,” Marra wrote, in denying Reinhart’s request.\n\nCohen called Edwards' allegations against Reinhart offensive. “The whole idea that he quit (the U.S. Attorney’s Office) so he could become a lapdog for Epstein is nonsense,” she said.\n\nReinhart quit, after a nearly two-decade career as a federal prosecutor in West Palm Beach and Washington, D.C., to become a criminal defense attorney.\n\n“Good for him,” she said. “Just because you represent a murderer doesn’t mean you condone the murder.”\n\nJudge Reinhart is a Princeton graduate who got his law degree at Penn\n\nReinhart graduated from Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering and got his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked as a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice and was a senior policy advisor at the Department of the Treasury before joining the federal prosecutor’s office in West Palm Beach.\n\nTwo days before he was appointed as a magistrate, his wife Carolyn Bell, also a former prosecutor, was appointed to the Palm Beach County Circuit Court bench by then-Gov. Rick Scott. She currently presides in juvenile court.\n\nLike others, Aronberg said the uproar about the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and the attacks on Reinhart are unfortunate.\n\n“The whole backlash against him is unfair, and it’s really damaging for our judicial system to have people believe that when a judge issues a search warrant, it must be for some nefarious reason,” Aronberg said.\n\nBut, he said, there is no evidence any strings were pulled or corners cut.\n\n“By all indications, everyone involved in the search warrant process followed the law,\" he continued. There’s a process in place, and it was followed. Probable cause needed to be found. It was.”\n\nPalm Beach Post crime and safety reporter Hannah Phillips contributed to this story.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/08/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/health/how-pandemics-end/index.html", "title": "The Covid-19 emergency may end, but there's no rule to say when ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nPresident Joe Biden lit a firestorm of controversy this week when he said in an interview that “the pandemic is over”: Is it really over? How do we know? Who gets to decide?\n\nPandemics don’t have hard edges. Knowing where they start or stop is a judgment call, and there isn’t a clear authority that gets to make that decision.\n\nEpidemiologists recognize a pandemic as a disease outbreak that happens in many countries at the same time and affects more people than an epidemic. Pandemics are often caused by new viruses or a strain of a virus that hasn’t circulated among humans in a long time. These events are impactful, often leading to large numbers of deaths, social disruptions and economic hardship.\n\n“I think we were all a little bit shocked when President Biden said what he said on ’60 Minutes,’ but I also think that in many ways, he was reflecting what many Americans already think and feel,” said J. Alex Navarro, assistant director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.\n\nBut because a pandemic is a global event, no single country or leader can decide it’s over, he said.\n\n“Declaring a pandemic over is a little different than declaring a local epidemic over,” Navarro said. “To declare a pandemic over, you need to have various regions of the world having their epidemics over. So it looks a little bit different, I think.”\n\nThe world will probably have to reach an consensus, and that’s something that may come as a kind of acknowledgment from the World Health Organization – or it might not.\n\n“There’s not an official designation-holder,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health Security. “WHO will acknowledge that we’re in a pandemic, but it’s not as if somebody calls it a pandemic and then says the pandemic is over.”\n\nPandemics vs. public health emergencies\n\nBiden’s comment doesn’t change how the US or other countries are responding to Covid-19. For now, it remains a public health emergency in the United States, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, and it’s still a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, according to WHO.\n\nA PHEIC creates an agreement between countries to abide by WHO’s recommendations for managing the emergency. Each country, in turn, declares its own public health emergency – declarations that carry legal weight. Countries use them to marshal resources and waive rules in order to ease a crisis.\n\nWhen these designations are lifted, there will be changes that reverberate through governments and that reach individuals and families. In the United States, for example, the end of the public health emergency will have ramifications for health care coverage and cost-sharing of Covid-19 tests and treatments.\n\nSaying the pandemic is over might influence public perception, but it doesn’t materially change how the federal government or states are responding.\n\n“It’s separating out what is the formal legal definition versus what is just a popular discussion of saying, ‘hey, we kind of think this is over now, and hey, let’s move on,’ and there are implications for both,” said Rebecca Katz, who directs the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University.\n\nThe term “pandemic” carries a lot of weight. After they recognized the new coronavirus as a PHEIC in January 2020, it took WHO leaders more than a month to begin calling the situation a pandemic.\n\nIn March 2020, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was finally using the term because of the severity of the disease, how fast it was spreading and “alarming levels of inaction.”\n\n“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock,” Tedros said. “We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”\n\nIt was a shift in language that put the world on alert, but it came long after many public health experts had reached the same conclusion, and it didn’t change what WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other international health agencies were doing to respond.\n\nAt this point, WHO is not saying whether it will recognize an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n“WHO does not have a mechanism for declaring or ending a “pandemic,’ ” spokesman Tarik Jasarevik said in an email to CNN. Instead, he said, WHO will continue to assess the need for the public health emergency, and an expert committee meets every three months to do that.\n\nLast week, Tedros said the end of the pandemic “is in sight,” but he added that “we are not there yet.”\n\nAnd it’s not clear what “there” will look like.\n\n“That’s one of the challenges we have is, we don’t have a good definition of when the pandemic begins or when it ends,” said Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.\n\nHow an earlier pandemic ended\n\nIn the modern era, there’s no real precedent for closing the curtains on a pandemic.\n\n“We’re really in some new territory here,” University of Michigan’s Navarro said.\n\nThe last pandemic that approached this scale was the 1918 influenza pandemic. Back then, there was no federal response. President Woodrow Wilson “really didn’t say anything on influenza as far as we know,” Navarro said, nor was he expected to.\n\n“The pandemic response was then much more state and local, and so, citizens residents looked to state and local health officers for their guidance,” Navarro said. That guidance was typically communicated through local newspapers, which were widely read.\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\nDuring that pandemic, life mostly got back to normal after the devastating wave of fall illnesses in 1918.\n\nWith some exceptions, most mask orders, closures and social distancing orders were lifted by the beginning of 1919.\n\nBut waves of influenza continued until 1920, Navarro said. The United States continued to see cases and deaths, but “they did not consider that to be sort of an epidemic level.”\n\nPandemics can end when viruses mutate to become less deadly and people build up some immunity against them, Navarro said.\n\n“Eventually, we reach an equilibrium where we just sort of live with these microbes,” he said.\n\nWhether the world is there with Covid-19 still remains to be seen. Vaccines and treatments now offer some protection from severe disease and death, and cases are declining in most parts of the world.\n\nBut in the United States alone, there are still about 65,000 new cases reported daily, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and an average of about 400 people die from Covid-19 every day.", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/09/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/21/business/disney-chapek-florida-politics-legacy/index.html", "title": "Bob Chapek's tenure marked by political missteps inside and ...", "text": "New York CNN —\n\nBob Chapek was initially silent on Florida’s controversial bill barring discussions of gender identity in school classrooms. Now he’s saying “Goodbye, Disney (DIS).”\n\nChapek’s rocky two-and-a-half year tenure at the head of the entertainment giant had a few wins. He navigated the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered theme parks around the world and halted film production, grew Disney+’s subscriber base and held his ground against an activist investor.\n\nBut Disney made the surprise announcement Sunday that its revered former CEO Bob Iger is making a return as the head of the company.\n\nChapek, who served as chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products before taking over for Iger, will be stepping down immediately.\n\nWhy? Chapek’s downfall arose, at least in part, out of his bungled response to Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics. His decisions had far-reaching effects on both Disney’s reputation and on the company’s “favored nation” status in the state.\n\nEarly this year, Disney faced mounting criticism for not taking a public stance on the bill. The law bans educators from discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in some classrooms.\n\nChapek ended up igniting a political firestorm — despite his initial efforts to keep the company out of politics. (Iger had publicly condemned the bill on Twitter).\n\nLackluster response\n\nChapek addressed the issue in an email to staff but refused to issue a public statement against it in March. He defended that decision saying corporate statements “do very little to change outcomes or minds” and can undermine “more effective ways” of implementing change.\n\nChapek’s response marked a change in tone for Disney, which had previously been led by an outspoken CEO who had famously considered running for president.\n\nThe backlash was immediate, both within the company and in the public. Disney employees began staging walkouts, saying Chapek’s statements “utterly failed” to grasp the threat to LGBTQ communities.\n\nLater that same week, Chapek apologized for his public silence on the bill. In a letter to employees, the CEO said the issue was not just about “a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights …You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry.”\n\nAn apology too late\n\nChapek’s attempt to keep Disney out of politics quickly backfired. While the company began bracing for further walkouts and protests from progressives, Chapek’s eventual response led to a full blown battle between two Florida giants: the Walt Disney Company and the state’s Republican governor, Ron Desantis.\n\nDeSantis quickly ripped Disney after Chapek’s public condemnation, calling the company a “woke corporation” with questionable business interests in China during a private event.\n\nDisney is the main driver of Florida’s massive tourism industry and the state’s largest private employer. Before the public condemnation, Chapek told shareholders he had called Desantis to express his “disappointment and concern.”\n\nHe also announced a pause in political contributions in Florida (the company had previously donated $50,000 to DeSantis’ bid for reelection).\n\nThe feud eventually led to the Florida legislature revoking Disney’s special status to operate as an independent quasi-government around its Orlando-area theme parks.\n\nThe bill states the special designation, which also gives Disney significant tax advantages, won’t dissolve until June 2023. The Reedy Creek Improvement District, the entity that manages the Disney properties, argued it can’t be dissolved until Florida pays off its bond debts, essentially saying the special district can continue to operate as normal.\n\nIger vs Chapek\n\nThe fallout over the LGBTQ legislation created a rift between Iger and Chapek. CNBC reported that several Disney employees called Iger “to express their disappointment in Chapek.”\n\nIn June, it seemed that Chapek wasn’t going anywhere despite the public missteps – Disney announced a three year contract extension that would run into 2025.\n\n“Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob [Chapek] at the helm, our businesses — from parks to streaming — not only weathered the storm, but emerged in a position of strength,” Disney board chair Susan Arnold said in a statement, adding he was the “right leader at the right time.”\n\nDespite the public controversies and feuds, Chapek was dealt a lifeline with Disney+. The service’s subscriptions skyrocketed during the pandemic, and totaled more than 137 million at the time of Chapek’s contract extension.\n\nBut now economic uncertainty is looming over corporate America, and Chapek recently announced a hiring freeze and job cuts to manage costs, Reuters reported.\n\nStreaming success wasn’t enough to save Chapek’s tenure or his reputation, as the company lost $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter.\n\nInvestors celebrated Iger’s return as CEO, sending Disney shares up nearly 7% Monday after dropping roughly 38% this year.\n\n– CNN’s Frank Pallotta, Steve Contorno, Jamiel Lynch, Chris Boyette and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.", "authors": ["Ramishah Maruf"], "publish_date": "2022/11/21"}, {"url": "http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/12/04/michigan-state-president-lou-anna-simon-must-resign-lansing-state-journal-editorial/918958001/", "title": "Editorial: Lou Anna Simon must resign as Michigan State president", "text": "Lansing State Journal Editorial Board\n\nLou Anna Simon is no longer the right person to lead Michigan State University.\n\nWhile Simon’s 12-year tenure has been marked by numerous accomplishments, there is one stark and significant failure that now overpowers all else: MSU’s inability to keep women safe from sexual assault and harassment on campus.\n\nThat failure belongs to Simon and her team. The time has come to hold her accountable.\n\nFired MSU physician Larry Nassar — accused of assaulting more than 125 girls or women who have made complaints to police — has dominated recent headlines with his guilty pleas, but this is a problem deeper and more persistent than one man who is unquestionably a monster.\n\nMore:Facts, nuance should matter more in Al Franken rush to judgement\n\nMore:Sexual harassment and worse will plague politics until we get past tribalism\n\nThe year since Nassar was fired by MSU has been filled with other headlines of concern. Four football players were charged with sexual assault. Journalists revealed that a former football player was expelled from a graduate studies program in 2016 and banned from campus after being accused of assaulting a student. That woman sued MSU this month.\n\nStill more headlines chronicled other women and men who have sued over flaws in MSU’s Title IX process for investigating complaints of sexual assault, harassment and relationship violence. Those cases include instances where punishment meted out by a disciplinary board has been overturned by one of Simon’s vice presidents and others where the accused complain of lack of due process.\n\nAnd this all follows a 2015 finding by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights that MSU’s handling of Title IX complaints created a “sexually hostile environment.” Specifically, that report — written after review of MSU’s handling of 150 complaints received from 2009 to 2014 — stated:\n\n“The university’s failure to address complaints of sexual harassment, including sexual violence, in a prompt and equitable manner caused and may have contributed to a continuation of this sexually hostile environment.”\n\nWhen that report was released in September 2015, Simon told journalists: “We’re on board with the national conversation that one sexual assault is too many.”\n\nFast forward to April 2017, when Simon told her Board of Trustees: “I have been told it is virtually impossible to stop a determined sexual predator and pedophile, that they will go to incomprehensible lengths to keep what they do in the shadows.”\n\nThat comment — whether viewed as tone deaf or as a deliberate effort to distance the university from accountability — was incredibly inappropriate and set off a firestorm of reaction. Sexual assault victims launched an internet petition chastising Simon. The Washington Post’s editorial board paused from national politics long enough to make note of Simon’s comment and opine: “But Dr. Nassar was not in the shadows. He and his behavior were on full display, for years, waiting for administrators to take action. They chose not to listen, and they chose not to see.”\n\nLSJ’s editorial board earlier this year called upon MSU to spend less effort managing the appearance of these events and more on taking transparent steps to change campus culture.\n\nTo date, MSU’s most visible response to all of this has been to lawyer up. There are no less than five law firms engaged in providing various assistance to the university’s in-house counsel. As of last week, LSJ’s monitoring of legal billings showed well over $5 million has been spent.\n\nAnd while MSU officials and loyal Spartans resist comparisons to Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky scandal, one point worth potential comparison is the costs.\n\nSandusky, to refresh memories, was a retired assistant football coach who had access to campus facilities and was observed sexually abusing a young boy in an athletic department shower. The incident was reported to university officials, including then-president Graham Spanier, who agreed to bar Sandusky from campus facilities without contacting law enforcement or child welfare authorities.\n\nAfter Sandusky’s eventual conviction, Penn State paid $93 million to more than 30 victims of the serial pedophile. Its total costs — including legal bills and fines — reached a quarter billion dollars.\n\nEarlier this month, university spokesman Jason Cody disclosed that the FBI and MSU Police did a joint investigation into “whether any university employee other than Nassar engaged in criminal conduct.” The results went to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan and Cody said the university has “no reason to believe any criminal conduct was found.”\n\nThat may be intended to provide a sense of relief but, to date, Simon and the trustees have been publicly silent on details of what Simon knew and when. Regrettably, this is a case where not knowing until too late is as much a problem as knowing and doing nothing.\n\nMore than 140 women and girls have filed federal lawsuits against Nassar, with the university as a defendant in many of those cases. It seems reasonable to wonder whether Nassar’s actions may cost MSU an amount comparable to Penn State, if not more.\n\nSome 70% of MSU’s $1.3 billion general fund revenue comes from tuition dollars, with about 20% from state tax dollars and the rest from “other sources.” How will students, donors and taxpayers react if a quarter billion or more provided for education is instead funneled into compensating sexual assault victims and paying related expenses? How will the 552,000 Spartan alumni react?\n\nIn evaluating Simon’s future, the trustees will consider the breadth and importance of her achievements:\n\nThe Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a $730 million U.S. Department of Energy project under construction on campus, is a cutting-edge international research facility that should bring a new sector of scientific industry to the region.\n\nThe expansion of medical education in Grand Rapids, public health initiatives in Flint and work with “research corridor” partners Wayne State and the University of Michigan have pushed MSU’s economic impact across the state.\n\nEnrollment is above 50,000. Research funding in 2015-16 exceeded half a billion dollars. MSU’s Empower Extraordinary fundraising campaign reached its $1.5 billion milestone early.\n\nNearly three years ago, as Simon marked her 10th year as president, an LSJ article chronicled the progress under her tenure. Some compared Simon to John Hannah, the much revered and longest-serving MSU president who directed the transformation from an agricultural college into a respected research university.\n\nMore:Roy Moore response shows GOP deserves to die: Max Boot\n\nPOLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media\n\nLeadership requires bold vision for the future and relentless drive to succeed. No one can fault Simon for her vision or her drive, which have helped the university push into new frontiers of economic development and global engagement.\n\nYet leadership cannot be entirely forward focused. It also requires an astute sense of the present — situational awareness, if you will — and the ability to react appropriately to threats that endanger the organization and the people who support and depend upon it.\n\nBy failing to fully understand the threats posed by the escalating Nassar crisis and the long-term shortcomings of MSU’s Title IX efforts, Simon has demonstrated an acute lack of leadership in the present.\n\nThat failure already has cost MSU too much in dollars and reputation.\n\nThere have been some efforts to react in the wake of Nassar’s exposure, but those actions did not go far enough.\n\nNassar was fired in September 2016 only after victims began contacting journalists, who exposed the scope of his misdeeds. To date, two lower-level MSU employees have left their jobs over conduct related to Nassar. Gymnastics coach Kathy Klages chose to retire a day after being suspended for her handling of a team meeting to discuss Nassar. Physician Brooke Lemmen, a colleague of Nassar's, was allowed to resign after being told the College of Osteopathic Medicine was considering her termination for removing patient records from a university office at Nassar’s request. What about their supervisors?\n\nNassar had a contract that let him work for outside organizations without university supervision. After Nassar was cleared by a Title IX investigation in 2014, he was ordered to follow specific procedures to avoid future problems, but there was no follow up to check his compliance. This raises questions about the leadership of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.\n\nCourt filings show that youth and student-athletes interacting with Nassar brought concerns to Klages and other university athletic trainers multiple times, going back as far as 1997. The response was to reassure these girls and young women that they were getting care from a premier physician. That nobody felt compelled to seek investigation on their behalf raises concern about the leadership of athletic programs.\n\nAt a certain point, the accumulated weight of these problems rests directly on the shoulders of the person at the top: Simon.\n\nNassar has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He said in Ingham County court earlier this month that one reason he agreed to do so was to allow healing to begin for victims and the community.\n\nThat healing won’t be complete with Simon as MSU’s president. It’s time for her to resign.\n\nFailing that, MSU’s Board of Trustees should fire her.\n\nWith the magnitude of problems facing MSU, the board must exercise care in its interim leadership solution. None of Simon’s leadership team should be placed in charge during the presidential search, which could stretch over months.\n\nThere are alternatives.\n\nOne is to take a page from MSU’s history, going back to 1969 when economics professor Walter Adams served nine months as president after John Hannah left MSU, then returned to his professorship. His short tenure came at a critical time of social unrest across the nation and on the campus — a time of rapid cultural change. Adams fulfilled his presidential duties with gravitas and grace.\n\nAbsent a 21st century Adams, MSU’s trustees could turn to a distinguished alumnus with experience in high-level executive leadership, or perhaps bring in a recently retired president from another major research university. Such a temporary steward should steady the team while trustees conduct their search.\n\nLou Anna Simon has served MSU to the best of her considerable ability, but that does not include the skill needed to shepherd Spartan Nation through its sadness and anger, fix what’s broken and restore faith. Those challenges belong to an interim leader and a new president.\n\nFor MSU to move forward, the Simon chapter must end.\n\nThis editorial first appeared in the Lansing State Journal.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/12/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/22/year-in-review-biggest-stories-2015/77361602/", "title": "Year in Review: 50 stories from 50 states", "text": "Editors\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nBefore we usher in the new year, it's time for a retrospective of 2015.\n\nHere's our roundup of some of the biggest stories across the country, events that influenced national conversations on issues from police brutality to gay marriage, tragedies that shook our psyche and acts of heroism that showed Americans at their best.\n\nAlabama: Despite U.S. ruling legalizing gay marriage, gay adoption still a battle in the states\n\nIt’s a story chock-full of contention. Two lesbian mothers fight for custody of their three children. Two state courts are at odds over adoption rights for same-sex couples — or at least until the Supreme Court stepped in. But first, some background: When the women — identified only as “E.L.” and “V.L.” in court documents — were still together, they temporarily moved to Georgia to sidestep Alabama law, which wouldn’t allow V.L. to legally adopt the children (E.L. was their birth mother). Georgia, on the other hand, was fine with it. But when the couple split up, things got messy. E.L. decided Alabama had the right idea after all and denied V.L. parental rights. And V.L. wasn't having it. She took things all the way up to the Supreme Court, which blocked Alabama’s ruling on Dec. 14. If you need an explainer (we bet you do), we've got that here.\n\nAlaska: You may have to say goodbye to one of the biggest perks of living in Alaska\n\nBlame it on the oil. This December, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker called for the state's first income tax in 35 years. Alaska's the only state that has neither a state-level sales tax nor a personal income tax. For decades, it has been dependent on income from oil, but crude oil prices have been hovering at seven-year lows. So while you've been doing your happy dance at the pump, Alaska has been sinking further into debt. Walker's proposal is part of the state's New Sustainable Alaska Plan, which, paired with a budget proposal, is meant to close the state's $3.5 billion deficit.\n\nArizona: Just how low can Lake Mead go?\n\nLake Mead shrank to a historic low this year. The reservoir, on the Colorado River, stores water for parts of Arizona, Southern California, southern Nevada and northern Mexico — all of which have endured a 15-year drought. The record low signals that users are consuming more than the river provides. In other words, check-engine light.\n\nArkansas: The Duggars' 19 problems and counting\n\nIt was a year of turmoil for Arkansas' Duggar clan. TLC pulled the plug on the family's hit series, 19 Kids and Counting, following the revelation that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's son Josh sexually molested five young girls, including his own sisters. Other things Josh Duggar admitted to this year: having an Ashley Madison account. Being unfaithful to his wife. Other things that happened to Josh Duggar this year: rehab. Getting sued by a porn star.\n\nCalifornia: Nightmare in San Bernardino\n\nIt was a reminder that Islamist terrorism isn't just a boys' club. In San Bernardino, Calif., this December, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, burst into a social services center and opened fire, killing 14 people and setting off an intense manhunt that ended with their deaths. On the surface, they had all the makings of the American dream — he had a secure job, they lived in a nice neighborhood in a prosperous community, and they had a new baby girl. But apparently in their off hours, police say the couple, who authorities believe had been radicalized, stockpiled guns, ammunition and bombs in preparation for an attack aimed at killing as many people as possible.\n\nColorado: 'A warrior for the babies'\n\nPlanned Parenthood found itself in a firestorm of controversy this year after a militant anti-abortion group released secretly filmed videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors discussing how best to collect fetal tissue and organs for research. Abortion-rights groups said the footage led to a surge in violence against abortion clinics. Fast-forward to November, when a gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs (none of the victims actually worked there). Authorities said that after the five-hour standoff, Robert Lewis Dear, 57, mentioned \"no more baby parts.\" When Dear was in court to be formally advised of the 179 charges against him, he hollered, \"I’m a warrior for the babies.\"\n\nConnecticut: Syrian family finds home in America — just not where they planned\n\nThe family of refugees was destined for Indiana, but politics derailed that. Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy welcomed to his state in November a family of Syrian refugees diverted from Indiana because of security concerns raised by Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence. Pence was among dozens of governors who said they wouldn't allow Syrian refugees to settle in their states because of fears about terrorism. \"It is the right thing, the humane thing to do,\" Malloy said about welcoming the Syrian family. \"Quite frankly, if you believe in God, it’s the morally correct thing to do.\"\n\nDelaware: 'Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known'\n\nFormer Delaware attorney general Beau Biden might have been the son of a larger-than-life politician, but in his own way, he was a quiet force of nature. Biden was diagnosed in August 2013 with brain cancer and died in May. His father, Vice President Biden, said in a statement: \"Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.\" In October, the vice president ended months of intense speculation when he announced he wouldn't seek the presidency: \"As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others. It may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. ... I've concluded it has closed.\"\n\nFlorida: Search efforts for two teens lost at sea hit dead ends\n\nThe deepest fears of two Florida families came to fruition on July 24 when their 14-year-old sons, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, went missing at sea. The Coast Guard found their capsized 19-foot boat 67 miles off the coast of Daytona Beach two days later and spent a week scanning hundreds of miles of water before calling off the search. The families refused to give up hope that their sons survived and continued their private search funded through crowdsourced donations. Weeks later, when no credible evidence surfaced, the families were forced to end their search but vowed to \"never stop looking for our boys.\"\n\nGeorgia: Bobbi Kristina Brown dies after she was found unconscious in a bathtub, a demise eerily similar to that of mother Whitney Houston\n\nBobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of the legendary Whitney Houston, died in July in an Atlanta-area hospice, nearly six months after she was found unconscious in her Georgia home. She was 22. She never regained consciousness to explain what happened before she was found Jan. 31, facedown and unresponsive in her bathtub. Her death came three years after her mother's eerily similar demise, and sordid details about Brown's death unfolded throughout the year, including that a woman in charge of her care is charged with impersonating a nurse, accusations that Brown smoked pot and possibly crack, and documents that allege boyfriend Nick Gordon injected her with a \"toxic mixture\" before putting her, unconscious, into the bathtub. The double tragedy of Bobbi Kristina Brown and Whitney Houston is easily one of the most heartbreaking of the celebrity world.\n\nHawaii: Flying on sun power\n\nWe'll call this one down but not out. It's a solar-powered airplane that uses no fuel, can remain in the air indefinitely and which this year attempted a nearly 22,000-mile, round-the-world voyage — until it fried its batteries. Solar Impluse 2's journey, which began March 9 with a flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, included various stops around the world with the mission of showcasing what can be done using nothing but renewable energy. The plane landed in Hawaii in July after the longest, most dangerous leg, the eighth of 13. It'll be housed at the University of Hawaii hangar at the Kalaeloa airport on Oahu while repairs are made. It's due to continue its journey come April.\n\nIdaho: An injured hunter’s harrowing tale of survival\n\nJohn Sain thought he would die alone. While on a solo hunting trip in the Idaho wilderness, the 50-year-old snapped two bones in his right leg after an unlucky misstep. In pain and miles from the nearest trail, he considered ending his life. He even penned goodbye letters to his wife and two children. But he decided to fight. After almost four days of dragging himself through the dense wilderness toward the trail with little food or water, two men found him and called for help. Life Flight took Sain to a nearby hospital, where he reunited with his family and started his road to recovery.\n\nIllinois: Laquan McDonald and The Chicago Way\n\nSeventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke on Oct. 20, 2014 — thirteen of those shots were fired while McDonald was on the ground. You're reading about this story in 2015 because that's when explosive video of the shooting was made public. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration was forced by court order to release it. The city sat on the dashcam video, which is at odds with the narrative pushed by the Chicago Police Department, for more than a year. Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder hours before the footage was released. USA TODAY reporter Aamer Madhani wrote in a column this year that the McDonald case shows \"The Chicago Way — the city’s shorthand for its politics in which corruption, patronage and ineptitude have long been part of the landscape — is alive and well.\"\n\nWarning: This video has graphic content.\n\nIndiana: A 'religious freedom' law and a governor's regrets\n\nAt the end of March, Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed a law that allows businesses to assert a religious defense if they decline to provide services to a customer. These \"religious freedom\" laws have been described as necessary to allow, for example, a baker who has strong religious beliefs to say no to baking a cake for a gay wedding. But after the bill was signed, several large companies announced they wouldn't do business with Indiana because it was discriminating against gays. The state quickly passed an amendment to clarify the bill cannot be used to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. With a little hindsight, Pence said in May, \"If I have a regret, I regret that we didn’t spend more time listening before the bill got to my desk. My ambition is to be a better listener.\"\n\nIowa: Center of the political universe\n\nFrom the moment a campaign kicks off until the time the caucus winners are declared, there is no state more important to choosing our next president than Iowa — and that was never more true than in 2015. It was Hillary Clinton’s first destination after she kicked off her White House bid in the spring. Iowa made campaigns (see Scott Walker’s rise and Ted Cruz’s recent surge) and helped end them (see Walker’s fall after his Iowa numbers plummeted). And, of course, the state was the site of some of Donald Trump’s most memorable moments — from the free rides on his helicopter he gave kids at the Iowa State Fair in August to his controversial comments about John McCain in July. We’re a long way from knowing how it will end, but Iowa helped lay the foundation for what promises to be a presidential campaign we won’t soon forget.\n\nUSA TODAY's 2016 Presidential Poll Tracker\n\nKansas: Where is the water?\n\nGroundwater is disappearing beneath cornfields in Kansas. An investigation by USA TODAY and The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun reveals time is running out for portions of the High Plains Aquifer, which lies beneath eight states from South Dakota to Texas and is the lifeblood of one of the world’s most productive farming economies. The aquifer, also known as the Ogallala, makes possible about one-fifth of the country’s output of corn, wheat and cattle. But its levels have been rapidly declining, and with each passing year, more wells are running dry.\n\nKentucky: How a county clerk broke the law, miffed Jennifer Lawrence, got compared to Rosa Parks, met the pope\n\nShe was this year's Christian hero. Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis made national news after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, claiming it conflicted with her Christian beliefs. She spent five nights in jail and was allowed to return to work when she agreed not to interfere with the issuance of licenses. Jennifer Lawrence said Davis made her \"embarrassed to be from Kentucky.\" Syndicated Christian columnist Bryan Fischer wrote she's \"our Rosa Parks.\" Davis even met with Pope Francis during his U.S. visit. “I never thought I would meet the pope,” Davis said. “Who am I to have this rare opportunity? I am just a county clerk who loves Jesus and desires with all my heart to serve him.\"\n\nLouisiana: The gloves came off in the gubernatorial campaign\n\nDemocratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards was elected governor of Louisiana, defeating two-term U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, in an almost unthinkable upset in the ruby-red state. Edwards emphasized his conservative views, leveraged his appointment to West Point and used a TV ad to call out Vitter's involvement in a prostitution scandal. The ad shows Edwards \"answering his country's call\" in his Army Ranger uniform. Then it shows Vitter, on a cellphone, \"who answered a prostitute's call.\" The ad launched just in time for early voting. Edwards takes office Jan. 11.\n\nMaine: Man + dog + kindness of strangers = happiest ending\n\nNow that's puppy love. Joel Carpenter lives in Portland, Maine, and found the dog of his dreams on petfinder.com. The only problem was she was across the country in a Minnesota shelter. Carpenter could afford to get to Minnesota, but he didn't have enough money for the ticket home. It didn't matter. He flew to Minneapolis and rescued his girl, Sadie. \"I was just kind of following my heart,\" Carpenter said. Next began his odyssey to get back to Portland. That's when strangers, following their hearts, raised enough money for the two to return home.\n\nMaryland: Freddie Gray dies while in police custody; riots ensue; officers face trial\n\nOn April 12, a black man was taken into custody in Baltimore. A week later, his spinal cord nearly severed, he was dead. Freddie Gray, 25, died of a \"high-energy injury\" that likely occurred when the police van he was riding in suddenly slowed down, an autopsy showed. His death sparked \"Justice for Freddie\" protests in Baltimore, which later turned violent; a curfew was instituted, and the National Guard was brought in. Despite the riots, protesters had some significant defenders, including Orioles COO John Angelos. The six police officers involved in the arrest were charged in Gray's death. The first of their trials, of officer William Porter, ended in mistrial in December.\n\nMassachusetts: Deflategate dethrones Tom Brady\n\nHours after the New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts in January to reach Super Bowl XLIV, the Deflategate scandal broke. The NFL investigated whether Patriots employees — with the knowledge of quarterback Tom Brady — had lowered the air pressure of balls used by the team during the game. The scandal hung over the Patriots as they beat the Seattle Seahawks two weeks later to win their fourth title. Brady was eventually suspended four games by the league. That punishment was vacated by a federal judge before the start of the 2015-16 season. The case still lives on as the NFL has appealed the decision.\n\nMichigan: The Syrian refugee who moved Edward Norton, Obama and pretty much everyone else in America with his desire to do good\n\nA Michigan-bound Syrian refugee who lost his wife and daughter in a deadly attack became a worldwide viral sensation in December after sharing his story with Brandon Stanton, the creator of the popular photo blog Humans of New York. Among the thousands (President Obama included!) who followed the Facebook photo series about the unnamed scientist bound for a fresh start in Michigan: actor and filmmaker Edward Norton. He used his celebrity powers for good by launching an aptly named fundraising campaign for the man and his family called The Scientist, which has raised more than $455,000 and counting. That’s the power of social media for you, folks.\n\nMinnesota: The hunter becomes the hunted\n\nThat's what happens when you kill one of the world's most beloved animals. Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer is a big-game hunter who shot and killed Cecil the lion in July. Cecil was one of the most famous animals at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park. People flipped. Like, taping signs to Palmer's office door that read \"Killer\" and \"ROT IN HELL.\" Then people flipped some more because people were flipping out about a lion and not about other things, like Black Lives Mattering. More on that here. Palmer said he thought he was acting legally and deeply regretted taking Cecil's life. He returned to work in September. You can imagine what that looked like.\n\nMississippi: 17 arrested in case of burned-alive teen — but none charged yet in her death\n\nThe mystery of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers, found on a rural road, burned alive, unraveled throughout 2015. Chambers was doused with gasoline and set afire on Dec. 6, 2014, near Courtland, Miss., and officials spent the ensuing months interviewing more than 150 people and sorting through more than 20,000 phone records trying to find her assailant(s). That's when investigators turned up evidence of other suspected illegal activity ranging from narcotics sales, possession of stolen firearms and possession of counterfeit currency. FBI agents targeted suspected gang members and arrested 17 men on Dec. 15, though none is charged with killing Chambers. “This is not over by any stretch of the imagination,” said District Attorney John Champion.\n\nMissouri: About the First Amendment ...\n\nThe good news: Students were protesting racism at the University of Missouri, and their efforts led to the ouster of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe and University of Missouri-Columbia Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. The bad news: Students and two university employees — one a communications professor — blocked student journalists from covering the protests. Why was this a big deal? Just a little thing called the First Amendment, which protects the right to report in the same way it protects the right to protest.\n\nMontana: Listen to your grandma when it comes to bear attacks\n\nOne way to survive a grizzly bear attack? Shove your arm down the bear's throat. That was Chase Dellwo's technique when a bear, just as startled as he was, thrashed the elk hunter around in the Montana woods. \"I remembered an article that my grandmother gave me a long time ago that said large animals have bad gag reflexes,\" Dellwo said. The technique worked, and Dellwo, with bites on his head and leg, lived to tell his story.\n\nNebraska: This is what happens when your neighbor (state) smokes pot\n\nNebraska and Oklahoma are not fans of Colorado's legal marijuana system, saying it has created a flood of modern-day bootleggers who are buying pot in Colorado and then illegally crossing state lines. They sued Colorado, asking the Supreme Court to block Colorado's legal-marijuana system. The federal government asked the Supreme Court to stay out of it. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. argued that the Supreme Court generally avoids disputes between states, unless it's the states themselves at odds. In this case, Nebraska and Oklahoma sued Colorado over the actions of private citizens.\n\nNevada: High hopes dashed by Mayweather-Pacquiao fight\n\nWhat cost $99.95, lasted 36 minutes and probably put you to sleep? The pay-per-view battle royale in Las Vegas between boxing legends Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao on May 2. What was supposed to be an epic fight turned out to be more of an epic failure — it was all about the payout at best, For The Win’s Chris Chase reported. We hoped for a fight that would evoke the memories of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Sugar Ray, The Hitman and Hagler. What we got? Glorified sparring. Fingers crossed, their next rematch — if there is, in fact, one in the works — will be more a brawl and less of a bummer.\n\nNew Hampshire: Ben Carson made a map of the U.S. and put a bunch of states in the wrong place\n\nBeing president of the United States comes with a number of incredibly important responsibilities. Serving as commander in chief of our nation’s armed forces, navigating the tricky waters of foreign policy and, hey, knowing where the states are on a map. Unfortunately, Ben Carson can’t tick off that last box quite yet. The GOP presidential candidate’s campaign shared a map in November that misplaced five New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. His campaign deleted the Twitter and Facebook posts with the graphic.\n\nNew Jersey: Family terrorized by stalker called 'The Watcher'\n\nIn a story that sounds more like the plot of a twisted horror film than reality, a family was forced to forgo living in their New Jersey dream home after receiving threatening letters from a stalker called \"The Watcher.\" The individual wrote that the Westfield, N.J., home the family recently purchased has been \"the subject of my family for decades,\" and that he or she was \"put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming.\" The letters taunt the new owners and their children to the point that the family did not move in and is seeking damages for fraud and breach of contract. The family said the previous owners should have told them that the home was being watched before they purchased the property.\n\nNew Mexico: The knockout seen 'round the world\n\nNew Mexico native Holly Holm became an overnight sensation after doling out a devastating roundhouse kick to UFC superstar Ronda Rousey’s face. It was the knockout seen ‘round the world, and it left the previously undefeated Rousey seriously messed up. She won’t be able to eat an apple for three to six months. No, really — we're not kidding. Adding more drama to the mix, the stakes of the two powerhouse fighters' inevitable rematch are high. Rousey told ESPN the Magazine, \"either I’ll win and keep going or I won’t and I’ll be done with everything.” The Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch in May may have been a bust, but odds are the Rousey-Holms rematch will be epic.\n\nNew York: The prison break that wasn't 'Shawshank' that everyone was dying to call 'Shawshank'\n\nThe escape of two convicted murderers from a maximum-security facility in New York had all the plot points of a hit movie: a seemingly impossible getaway, insider help and few concrete leads on the escapees' whereabouts. So obviously it didn't take long for The Shawshank Redemption references to drop. But we were cautioned that these guys were no Andy and Red (good guys wronged who — spoiler alert — eventually got to live as BFFs forever on a beach in Mexico). Richard Matt and David Sweat, who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in June, were murderers who wouldn't hesitate to kill to get away. Nearly three weeks later, Matt was fatally shot. Two days after that, Sweat was shot and taken into custody.\n\nNorth Carolina: Santa Claus can speak in any language\n\nEven sign. This holiday season, 70 deaf and hard-of-hearing children from the Charlotte region got to tell Santa everything on their lists. Bicycles. Dolls. Video game systems. The usual. What was unusual was that they were able to talk to Santa themselves. \"It will be a memory they'll always remember for the rest of their lives,\" said Donna Katic with Deaf Services.\n\nNorth Dakota: U.S. Supreme Court will take up case on ‘deep-lung’ breath tests\n\nCan states charge motorists with a crime for refusing to take a breath test on suspicion of driving drunk when police lack a warrant? The Supreme Court will decide, after it said in December it would hear cases out of Minnesota and North Dakota in which drivers were charged with a crime after they refused to take \"deep-lung\" breath tests. Thirteen states make it a crime to refuse blood-alcohol tests. The Supreme Court has ruled in general that police cannot search a driver or vehicle upon arrest without a warrant unless it's for their personal safety or to preserve evidence. The court ruled in 2013 that police could not conduct blood tests for drunken driving without a warrant. Based on that, the challengers in the Minnesota and North Dakota cases said, refusing such tests should not constitute a separate crime.\n\nOhio: 'I didn't even do nothing'\n\nSamuel DuBose's final words echoed across the country as a national conversation about race and police brutality churned on: \"I didn't even do nothing.\" White University of Cincinnati Police officer Ray Tensing said he shot 43-year-old DuBose, an unarmed black man, during a traffic stop after being dragged by DuBose's vehicle. Then the video changed everything. Footage from Tensing's body camera showed a calm exchange. Tensing was fired and indicted on charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter. More examples of how video is becoming the new smoking gun in police shootings.\n\nOklahoma: Cop found guilty of serial rape\n\nA former Oklahoma City police officer was convicted in December of sexually assaulting women he preyed upon in a low-income neighborhood he patrolled. A jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw of four charges of first-degree rape and 14 other counts. He sobbed while hearing the verdicts on his 29th birthday. Holtzclaw could spend the rest of his life in prison: The jury's recommendation is that he serve 263 years.\n\nOregon: Terror strikes Oregon community college\n\nBefore opening fire, Chris Harper Mercer asked students in a classroom whether they were Christians. He targeted those who said yes. The 26-year-old was described as a bitter loner who acted \"like he was playing a video game and showed no emotion” as he gunned down nine people and injured nine more on Oct. 1 at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., before turning his gun on himself. From the chaos rose a hero. Army veteran Chris Mintz sprinted through the campus to warn others and physically blocked the door to a classroom of terrified students so Mercer couldn’t gain entry, getting shot five times in the process. More on him here.\n\nPennsylvania: Deadly Amtrak derailment snarls Northeast train traffic\n\nThe cause of a catastrophic Amtrak crash in Philadelphia that killed eight and injured 200 people on May 12 remains under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board determined Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling 106 mph through a curve with a 50-mph speed limit when it jumped the tracks. The engineer, Brandon Bostian, has told investigators he cannot recall what happened. The incident snarled traffic between New York and Philadelphia, one of the most heavily traveled train routes in the nation.\n\nRhode Island: Be thankful you don't have gonorrhea\n\nWatch where you Tinder. A recent rise in sexually transmitted diseases in Rhode Island could be, in part, due to social apps, the state’s Department of Health said this year. In a press release on the state’s website, the department states that “using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters” has contributed to the recent rise.\n\nSouth Carolina: A massacre in Charleston; an outcry against hate across the state\n\nOn June 19, hate walked into a Bible study at the historic black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and opened fire. Nine people were killed, including the church's pastor, a state senator. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man who flaunted symbols of white supremacy and was linked to hate groups, was arrested a day later. Roof joined the Bible study for an hour before shooting the parishioners, prosecutors say. Roof was indicted on 33 federal charges, as well as on federal hate-crimes charges and will be tried in July. As a direct response to the massacre, South Carolinians took up the issue of the Confederate battle flag on its Statehouse grounds; in July, state legislators passed the measure, and the flag, seen by many as a symbol of hatred and racism, was removed.\n\nSouth Dakota: A controversial peak\n\nIt's one of the nation's biggest naming controversies (now that Denali's name is settled once and for all). Harney Peak is a 7,244-foot-high South Dakota summit (once considered for the famous mountain carving of presidents that went to Mount Rushmore). Lakota Indians and their allies are fighting to get the federal government to change the name, which they find offensive. William S. Harney, its namesake, was a brutal Army general whom Lakota tribes blame for massacring 86 people — including women and children — under Chief Little Thunder's flag of truce in the Battle of Ash Hollow in 1855. The South Dakota Board on Geographic Names this year voted to retain the name. A final decision from the federal board probably won't come until next year.\n\nTennessee: N.J. man adopts Tennessee school after email mix-up and gives everyone the best feels\n\nIt's a tremendous story about kindness. Thad Livingston had never been to Mount Juliet (Tenn.) Elementary School. He had never even met anybody there. And he lives about 800 miles away. But the kids call him their “New Jersey grandfather.” An email blast from the school mistakenly went to Livingston in Eastampton Township, N.J., at the start of the school year. Instead of ignoring it, he started to help with small things he learned the school needed, and his charity helped launch a Random Acts of Kindness Challenge among students. \"When someone makes a big impression on you,” Mount Juliet fifth-grader Andrew Romer said, “it makes you want to do a lot of good in the world.” Livingston estimated he still gets one to two emails per week from the school, though nobody has been able to figure out why.\n\nTexas: The mysterious death of Sandra Bland\n\nJust what happened to Sandra Bland? It's the question her family has been asking since her death in a Texas jail cell in July. If you haven't heard of her, it may be useful to know that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders used her name in the same breath as Eric Garner and Freddie Gray. Authorities say she was arrested for getting confrontational during a traffic stop, went to jail and committed suicide in her cell a few days later. Her family doesn't believe it. A Texas grand jury hearing in December ruled it would not indict anyone in connection with the incident.\n\nUtah: A 100-year weather event\n\nUtah weather officials declared it the deadliest flooding in recorded state history. It was enough to qualify as a 100-year flood event — a flood that would have a 100-to-1 chance of happening in any given year. On Sept. 14, a seasonal storm system dropped heavy rains on mountains between the Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, prompting flash flooding that claimed several lives. Members of the polygamous community on both sides of the Utah-Arizona state line referred to the tragedy as their personal 9/11 because of its proximity to the anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks.\n\nVermont: Bernie Sanders has a big 2015\n\nIf you aren't from the Green Mountain State, you might not have heard of Bernie Sanders until this year. The Vermont senator, a 74-year-old known for his halo of white hair and thick Brooklyn accent, has had a big 2015. The self-described Democratic socialist proved himself a heavy-hitting contender for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race, going toe-to-toe with front-runner Hillary Clinton. Millennials love him. Scores of others #FeelTheBern. And Time magazine put him in the running for their \"Person of the Year” cover. Although he didn't win, 2015 has been good to Bernie. And if he’s voted into the White House, 2016 will be even better.\n\nVirginia: On-air killing of TV journalists leaves nation stunned\n\nA horror story unfolded the morning of Aug. 26 as two young journalists at Roanoke’s WDBJ 7-TV were fatally shot on live television by a disgruntled former colleague, who then posted video footage of the crime from his perspective to social media. Making Alison Parker and Adam Ward's murders all the more devastating, both were in serious relationships with colleagues. Ward's fiancée, a WDBJ producer, watched his murder live from the control room, while Parker's boyfriend, an anchor for the station, later revealed the couple had planned to get married. Despite the darkness of the day, it was not without a shining light: The newsroom endured and continued to broadcast amid tears, showing strength in the face of tragedy.\n\nWashington: A white woman identifies as black and baffles the nation on race\n\nThis is the saga of Rachel Dolezal, who resigned in June as president of the Spokane, Wash., chapter of the NAACP after it was revealed she lied about her racial identity. Dolezal publicly claims she's black. Her parents say she's white. The questions we were forced to ask: What constitutes race? And do you have the right to adopt a new identity if you haven't lived the experience? Bonus: Maya Rudolph's Dolezal impression.\n\nWest Virginia: Want to combat gender inequality online? Hire your own 'Wikipedian-in-residence'\n\nWest Virginia University wants to close Wikipedia’s gender gap. Since its founding in 2001, the free and openly editable encyclopedia has attracted more than 25 million registered users and more than 1,000 editors. But, according to a 2011 survey conducted by Wikipedia, only 8.5% of these editors are women. The ubiquity of Wikipedia use makes this gender disparity an issue of quality control. The university wants to help correct the imbalance with a one-year Wikipedian-in-residence position, designed to increase the number of Wikipedia articles about West Virginian women and gender studies by 25%, according to a press release issued by the university.\n\nWisconsin: Man plants 4-mile stretch of sunflowers and becomes 2015's biggest romantic\n\nDon Jaquish lost his wife, Babbette, to cancer last year, just before Thanksgiving. \"Her and I, what we had is as good as it gets,\" he said. Sunflowers were Babbette's favorite. In her memory, Don planted a 4½-mile ribbon of them along both sides of Wisconsin State Road 85. A gift to his wife, but also to a world of romantics. Millions of people saw Babbette's flowers — in person, online and on the news. Erin Renz, Babbette's daughter, on why the tale of the sunflowers captivated so many people: \"Who doesn't love a love story?\"\n\nWyoming: Town where Matthew Shepard was killed passes LGBT law, 17 years later\n\nIn 1998, 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Laramie. Seventeen years later, the town where he died adopted a non-discrimination ordinance declaring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and public facilities illegal in the city. The Laramie mayor said Shepard's death didn't influence the ordinance but he believes it will help alleviate perceptions people developed of Laramie as a result of Shepard’s murder. Earlier this year, the state tried to pass a non-discrimination act, but it failed. Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, told the Associated Press: “I’m thrilled that Laramie’s doing it, at the same time sort of saddened that the state of Wyoming can’t see fit to do that as well. Maybe the rest of Wyoming will understand this is about fellow human beings and not something that’s other than what they are.\"\n\nCompiled by Alia E. Dastagir. Contributing: Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/12/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/02/what-did-gov-mike-pence-get-rfra-pr-contract-blacked-out-pages-make-hard-tell/81181284/", "title": "What did Gov. Mike Pence get from RFRA PR contract? Blacked-out ...", "text": "Tony Cook, and Chelsea Schneider\n\nIndyStar\n\nA photo essay in a gay pride magazine. A crisis monitoring service called the “Radar.” References to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act scrubbed from press releases.\n\nThese are among the topics discussed in 1,100 pages of records released this week by Gov. Mike Pence's economic development agency in response to a request from IndyStar. The request — made nearly eight months ago — sought records related to Pence’s decision to hire and then abruptly terminate global public relations firm Porter Novelli in the wake of last year’s RFRA firestorm.\n\nDespite their breadth, the heavily redacted documents reveal little about what the state received in exchange for the $365,000 it paid the firm — or why Pence ended the contract prematurely.\n\nBut they do reveal the Pence administration’s depth of concern about the damage RFRA caused to the state’s reputation on Pence's watch — even as the governor publicly dismissed the controversy.\n\nThe documents were released to IndyStar after it filed a formal complaint with Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt. He found Tuesday that the Indiana Economic Development Corp. had violated the state’s public records law in taking so long to fulfill the request.\n\nHere’s what the documents show:\n\nThe state interviewed a who’s who of crisis PR firms\n\nThe state quickly lined up interviews with some of the world’s largest public relations firms shortly after the RFRA controversy erupted. A schedule shows back-to-back interviews with nine firms on a single day and provides a brief description of each firm’s experience in crisis management. Some examples:\n\nLevick: Gulf Oil Spill, Vatican.\n\nSitrick: Ground Zero Mosque, Orange County CA bankruptcy, Hostess Brands.\n\nEdelman: Penn State University.\n\nUltimately, the state chose Porter Novelli on April 10 — about two weeks after Pence signed RFRA into law.\n\nThe state — at the last minute — scrubbed all references to RFRA when announcing it hired Porter Novelli\n\nWhen the IEDC announced April 13 it was hiring the New York-based PR giant, there was not a single mention of RFRA in the press release. In fact, the IEDC’s Chris Cotterill publicly downplayed RFRA’s role in the decision to hire Porter Novelli.\n\n“The reason was there before,” he told a South Bend television station. “It's not to make up for something.”\n\nState drops $750K to rehab image after RFRA, with more expected\n\nBut that’s not what the IEDC’s press release draft said just 24 hours earlier.\n\nA “final press release” distributed internally referred to RFRA and to restoring the state’s reputation several times. There was even a quote from Indiana Secretary of Commerce Victor Smith that said, “we must acknowledge the recent political controversy surrounding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has damaged our reputation.”\n\nBut in the hours before the release was sent out, IEDC officials and Porter Novelli executives eliminated any references to RFRA or efforts to “restore” Indiana’s image. The portion of Smith’s quote that referred to the controversy was cut. So too was a sentence about assessing “the impact of the RFRA controversy.” And the word “restore” was replaced with “continue to strengthen” and “enhance.”\n\nWhen asked about the changes, IEDC Spokeswoman Abby Gras said Tuesday that “various word choices were considered in the development of this particular release. All of our press releases at the IEDC go through several rounds of edits; this is pretty standard.”\n\nShe declined to say who suggested the changes.\n\nThe national furor over RFRA erupted last year when concerns rose that the law would allow discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers. After several large companies and conventions threatened to boycott the state, Pence and lawmakers approved a RFRA \"fix\" that was intended to prevent the law from nullifying local protections against discrimination.\n\n9 CEOs call on Pence, legislature to modify 'religious freedom' law\n\nState officials considered paying $50,000 for an Indianapolis-themed photo essay in a gay pride magazine\n\nOne idea discussed in emails between IEDC officials and Porter Novelli: Sponsoring content in Pride Magazine, a publication distributed to about a million attendees at gay pride festivals across the nation.\n\nThe photo essay would have featured “committed LGBT couples at famous landmarks around Indianapolis” and “a welcome message from the Governor or whoever we wished prior to the essay,” according to an April email from IEDC Communications Director Katelyn Prentice.\n\nThe state also considered sponsoring the 2015 Silicon Valley Pride Festival.\n\n“On the face of it, could be a good step forward but also warrants a conversion (sic) ahead of reaching back to them for an email back or call,” Porter Novelli Senior Vice President Ryan Kuresman said in an April 17 email. “This is not a large event during pride celebration season. I suspect that several similar requests may come in…Should we convene on this Monday?”\n\nUltimately, the state decided against both sponsorship opportunities, Gras said Tuesday.\n\nBut the state did sponsor a 60-person National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference in Indianapolis, Gras said.\n\nIn an April 16 email pitch, one of the conference’s organizers said it had been “a difficult April for us. Several of our members have decided to boycott our festivities due to the initial passage of the RFRA.”\n\nPorter Novelli deployed a crisis monitoring “Radar” on behalf of the state\n\nThe PR agency provided the state with a daily “IEDC Radar” report that tracked print, broadcast and social media.\n\nMarked “confidential,” the reports provided a comprehensive summary of news stories and highlighted top social media “influencers,” including Republican pollster Christine Matthews, political strategist Donna Brazile and Huffington Post senior political reporter Amanda Terkel.\n\nThe reports also included brief analysis.\n\n“Traditional media remains neutral to negative in tone as attention has shifted to the price tag of the PR campaign,” an April 15 report said. “A number of opinion writers and LGBT community leaders believe spending $2 million in taxpayer money is unnecessary, and that the state should instead pass nondiscrimination laws.”\n\nA week later: “Social media conversation continues to remain decidedly negative as users continue to bash Indiana and Gov. Pence over the controversy and $2 million PR campaign.”\n\nTwenty minutes after receiving that assessment, the IEDC’s Cotterill emailed the company seeking a change to the radar report.\n\n“All of this is very focused on RFRA,” he wrote. “Is the radar broad enough to capture other sentiments about Indiana?”\n\nSoon after, Porter Novelli sent an email to state officials: “Note: We have expanded our search terms to pick up more coverage and conversation related to economic development and Indiana business. In addition, we are tracking for mentions of the Honest-to-Goodness summer campaign but as yet have not identified pick-ups on that topic.”\n\nThe documents are rife with redactions and 285 pages were withheld\n\nThe IEDC provided the records the day before Britt, the Public Access Counselor, found that the agency had violated the state’s public records law, which requires them to provide records in a “reasonable” amount of time.\n\nBritt noted that the IEDC had failed to provide the requested records for well over six months.\n\n“Simply put, a reasonable period of time has long since elapsed,” he wrote in an advisory opinion Tuesday.\n\nWhat the IEDC did provide includes hundreds of partially or completely redacted pages. It completely withheld another 50 documents, which included 285 pages.\n\nAs a result, it remains unclear what the state got in exchange for the $365,000 it paid to Porter Novelli.\n\nWhy did Pence abort RFRA-related PR contract?\n\nThere are references to focus groups, surveys, benchmark studies and research findings — but the IEDC withheld any documents describing the results of those efforts. Some were marked “deliberative,” others as “trade secret.”\n\nCotterill, the agency’s general counsel, said in a letter to IndyStar: “If, for example, the IEDC had to reveal all its marketing plans, then other states that are competing with Indiana for jobs would have Indiana’s playbook — more than that, they would have the underlying opinions and analyses that lead to the development of our ‘plays.’”\n\nThe documents also shed little light on why Pence suddenly terminated the state’s relationship with the company in July, only about halfway through the term of the contract.\n\nOn June 30, Porter Novelli executives and IEDC officials held a conference call to discuss “messaging,” but there are no records indicating what was discussed.\n\nAmong the final documents are a copy of the previously released July 1 termination agreement and a single, one-page invoice from Porter Novelli dated July 28.\n\nDescription: Public Relations Services.\n\nTotal due: $365,000.\n\nCall IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.\n\nCall IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.\n\nGov. Mike Pence signs 'religious freedom' bill in private", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/03/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2018/05/25/irony-ut-professors-reflect-strength-davenports-communication/633683002/", "title": "Why did Tennessee hire Beverly Davenport as UT chancellor in the ...", "text": "Beverly Davenport’s communication skills made her a standout in the trio of accomplished finalists vying for the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s chief post.\n\nAt least that’s what Bonnie Ownley remembers.\n\n“That is the irony of it all,” said Ownley, a professor of plant pathology at UT Knoxville who served on the chancellor search committee as a representative of the university’s Faculty Senate.\n\nThe very skills that Ownley applauded in Davenport upon her hiring tie into the skills, or lack thereof, that expedited her firing.\n\nWhile “her ability to communicate openly in describing her past experiences and what her vision was” for the institution impressed Ownley, by the end of her campus reign University of Tennessee System President Joe DiPietro branded as \"very poor\" her communication skills in one-on-one, small group and business transactions.\n\nIn what’s become widely viewed as a scathing termination letter DiPietro issued Davenport, he also noted, “You have failed to communicate to the campus a defined strategic vision of where you want to take the institution and a plan for its implementation.”\n\nMore:UT President DiPietro says Davenport firing was not personal, interim chancellor to earn $45.8K per month\n\nMore:Davenport fired: Do women higher ed leaders face more 'brutal and public' firings than men?\n\nDiPietro's one-year turnaround\n\nDiPietro once championed Davenport as a leader with the right makeup of skills and experience to steer UT Knoxville into its future.\n\n“During a comprehensive national search, Dr. Davenport rose to the top of the candidate pool because of her extensive experience and qualifications,” he said in a November 2016 announcement of her appointment. “She will be an excellent fit as the next leader of UT Knoxville.”\n\nHe also termed her “a proven higher education leader with a tremendous record of accomplishments across a wide array of initiatives that show her ability to achieve great things.”\n\nDiPietro declined a request for an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee about what propelled Davenport above the other two finalists in the running for the role of chancellor at the flagship school, instead standing by his initial words of praise for her, and how, exactly, she was vetted.\n\nA standard, but extensive search\n\nDavenport, who came from the University of Cincinnati where she had led the school as interim president, trumped 61 other applicants to become the first female head of UT-Knoxville at age 62.\n\nShe also brought higher education experience from Purdue University, where she filled the position of vice provost for faculty affairs, and from the University of Kansas, having served as dean of social sciences.\n\nShe was fired a little more than a year into the top job at UT-Knoxville, allowed to stay on as a professor in the College of Communication & Information – an offer that Ownley also pointed out as ironic given the criticisms directed at her.\n\nThe gamut of candidates included other interim college presidents and established presidents, provosts and executive-level administrators.\n\n“This is a highly qualified pool of individuals who were competing for that position and her qualifications put her up there among the very top candidates,” Ownley said.\n\nCompiling a set of viable candidates and vetting them entailed an exhaustive, months-long process steered largely by a search committee, whose members first met in July 2016. Davenport was officially named chancellor in November that year, succeeding Jimmy Cheek, who had stepped down to pivot into teaching higher education leadership as a faculty member.\n\nThe search committee, chaired by Steve Mangum, dean and professor of the UT Knoxville Haslam College of Business, brought together a spectrum of representatives from the university community – including professors, a student leader, then-UT Trustee Charlie Anderson, past-UT Trustee Vice Chairman Brian Ferguson, then-UT Alumni Board Past President Alan Wilson, then-UT Martin interim chancellor Bob Smith and other campus administrators.\n\nThe 13-person committee worked in tandem with Parker Executive Search, an executive search firm out of Atlanta specializing in higher education among other industries. The firm was paid $75,000 plus $7,500 in expenses.\n\nThe process largely consisted of two phases, recruitment and selection, Mangum said.\n\nDuring recruitment, “you’re trying to cast the net as widely as you can,” he said, noting what follows are efforts to narrow the search, though it’s important to not narrow that search too quickly.\n\nTo attract a breadth of applicants, the search committee tapped its own network, shared information about the job with colleagues across the university and asked them to help spread the word, and relied on Parker Executive Search to assist in drawing talent for consideration.\n\nThe firm was then tasked with following up with any chancellor prospects who surfaced and encouraging them to submit their applications.\n\nOften, Mangum said, most applications will arrive close to the deadline with confidentiality issues often conflicting those turning them in.\n\nLeaders of schools eyeing job opportunities at other public colleges and universities can be wary that “confidentiality might be compromised,” Mangum said, with the potential for their employer to find out they’re interested in an outside position before they even know if they’re a serious contender for that position.\n\nIt’s something of “a cat-and-mouse” process, he said.\n\nIt’s also a barrier for attracting some of the best of the best, said Ann Baker Furrow, the first woman who served on UT’s Board of Trustees and a golfer who became the first woman to play a men’s varsity sport at the institution. She's not on the board now.\n\nNew law on hiring confidentiality\n\nThe Sunshine Law “really does narrow the process,” Furrow said, insisting policy change is due so that chancellor candidates don’t face such high stakes after being placed on such a public platform.\n\nLegislation passed this year did change the confidentiality of the hiring process for college, university and university system presidents, but not for chancellors, according to Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.\n\nThe legislation mandates search committees name no more than three presidential finalists, rather than no fewer than three, meaning they could name only one or two finalists, Fisher said.\n\nAny finalist must be made public. The law will be in place for three years before it is automatically repealed, Fisher said, and a report will be produced examining how the law has worked.\n\nBut when it comes to chancellors, she said, a minimum of three finalists must still be named and put forth into the public spotlight.\n\nThree chancellor finalists\n\nOnce the search committee whittled down the initial body of applications and determined who to move forward with for the first level of interviews – usually 12 to 15 people – they scheduled “airport interviews,” Mangum said, noting a school generally flies applicants into an airport where the interviews are conducted.\n\nFrom there, the search committee decides which chancellor hopefuls to pursue more seriously, inviting them to campus typically as finalists.\n\n“It’s a fairly fluid process and there’s no way to predict in advance just how many finalists you’re going to have,” Mangum said, noting in some cases a finalist will commit to another job in the midst of a university search process.\n\nUT-Knoxville originally extended a campus invite to four individuals, one of whom did not end up coming to campus, though Mangum was not certain why.\n\nAlong with Davenport, who visited campus in early November 2016, University of Georgia Provost Pamela Whitten and then-provost and executive vice chancellor for the State University of New York Alexander Cartwright – now chancellor of the University of Missouri – stepped foot onto campus to share their visions for the university.\n\nUniversity leadership first denied that the three were finalists, even though they were the only candidates slated to come to UT Knoxville for campus-wide interviews. The News Sentinel challenged that assertion, submitting a public records request for the names and resumes of all candidates at the end of October 2016.\n\nThe university’s move to reverse its decision and frame the three as finalists fell on the seven-day deadline it had to respond to the News Sentinel.\n\n\"Given the strength of the three on-campus interview candidates and the fact that no new applications have been received in the last few weeks, I felt we needed to adjust our approach to move the search process along as efficiently as possible by the search committee naming them finalists,\" DiPietro had said in a statement to the News Sentinel. \"We will continue to encourage and receive feedback from faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders about all finalists through the remainder of the search process.\"\n\nLess than two weeks after Davenport’s first interview on campus, she returned for a second cluster of interviews before she was hired at a base salary of $585,000 annually plus additional compensation – the highest of any UT leader.\n\nThe search committee’s chief responsibility in the final stages of the vetting process centered on answering two questions for each finalist – whether they were acceptable and what their strengths and weaknesses encompassed – and passing that information along to UT System President DiPietro.\n\n\"Our job was done as a search committee when we provided to him those statements of strengths and weaknesses,” Mangum said.\n\nAlong with Mangum, Ownley and Heather Hirschfeld, a professor of English and former director of the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies who served on the search committee, expressed confidence in how extensive of a search the university conducted.\n\n'Nothing that could have been done better'\n\n“There’s absolutely nothing that could have been done better,” Ownley said.\n\n“The process was very thorough,” Hirschfeld said, emphasizing that the university invited input from the community along the way.\n\nThough, questions about the practices that the executive search firm UT-Knoxville partnered with surfaced in 2015 after the company helped with two controversial hires, as reported by Inside Higher Ed. Among them was the appointment of University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld, who disclosed that part of his resume was inaccurate.\n\nThe university has contracted with the company in past searches and has “a good track record with the university,” Mangum said would be his assumption.\n\nMangum had previously interacted with Parker Executive Search as a candidate when being considered to take over as business dean, but he was not involved in bringing the company on board for the chancellor search and was not aware of any of the controversies tied to the company.\n\nHe said he was not sure whether the university had known about the hiring scandals related to the company.\n\nParker Executive Search declined to comment on its role in UT Knoxville’s chancellor search, insisting the firm has a policy to not speak with media.\n\nWhy did Davenport stand out?\n\nWhen asked what elevated Davenport above Whitten and Cartwright, the chair of the search committee said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to expand on her strengths relative to the other contenders.\n\n“The decision as to why an offer was extended to her above other candidates…that’s not anything I have knowledge of,” Mangum said.\n\nHowever, he did note that the committee did not have any reason to doubt the capabilities of any of the three.\n\n“There was certainly nothing in the feedback that we received as part of this process that caused us any concerns about the qualifications and capabilities of any of the individuals that we recommended for further consideration by the president,” Mangum said. “All three were very strong candidates and checked out, if you will, in terms of their prior employment and accomplishments at other universities.”\n\nWhen Davenport visited campus to talk to students and faculty, she devoted part of a campus forum to drawing parallels between her goals and those of her audience and underlining her ambition to be at a place that shared her values and is “aspirational.”\n\nIt was clear that the prospective chancellor knew how important the institution’s established goals were and was keen on seeing them through, Hirschfeld said.\n\n“I think she displayed during that time a real grasp of UT’s aspirations,” Hirschfeld said, explaining she caught on quickly to Vol vision and was able to speak to the interests of various stakeholders in the university.\n\n“She brought a tremendous amount of energy and savvy to what had been UT’s clearly articulated long-term goals,” Hirschfeld said, though she couldn’t speak to what factors tipped the scales for Davenport’s selection.\n\nCarson Hollingsworth, president of the Student Government Association during the search, singled Davenport out from his first interaction with her.\n\n“Dr. Davenport was unequivocally the best candidate we interviewed,” he wrote in a text message to USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee. “From the moment I met her, I thought she was the candidate that would create the most positive change for our University and would always support our students.”\n\nHollingsworth, now an alumnus, stressed that “there are too many incredible qualities to list that set Dr. Davenport apart and ahead of our other candidates.”\n\nAmong them, he cited the wealth of experience she had, her genuine passion and care for her students and those she crossed paths with and said that “it was evident from the start that this was more than a job for her.”\n\nHollingsworth insisted that throughout Davenport’s time overseeing UT-Knoxville, she succeeded in catapulting positive change and supporting students.\n\nOwnley saw the same track record of student engagement on the part of Davenport, noting she reached out to students to develop relationships with them.\n\n“I think that’s one of the things that struck me more so than other chancellors that I’ve known,” Ownley said.\n\nThe professor also thought Davenport had an edge in her experiences developing entrepreneurial relationships with private industries for the sake of students wanting to kickstart their own businesses.\n\n“She had some experiences that were a little different from what you might normally see in a chancellor,” she said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/05/25"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_17", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/politics/title-42-immigration-biden/index.html", "title": "Title 42: Appeals court rejects bid by GOP-led states to keep Trump ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nA federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by several Republican-led states to keep the so-called Title 42 rule in force, after a district court struck the controversial Trump-era border policy down.\n\nThe new ruling from the DC Circuit US Court of Appeals sets the stage for the case to go to the Supreme Court. The Biden administration is set to stop enforcing Title 42 – which allows for the expulsion of migrants at the US-Mexico border – on Wednesday.\n\nThe Republican-led states previously indicated that if the appeals court ruled against them, they’d seek the intervention of the Supreme Court.\n\nIn the new order, the DC Circuit denied the states’ request to intervene in the case and dismissed as moot the states’ request that it put the lower court’s ruling on hold.\n\nThe unsigned order was handed down by a circuit panel made up of an Obama appointee, a Trump appointee and a Biden appointee.\n\nThey wrote that the “inordinate and unexplained untimeliness” of the states’ request to get involved in the case “weighs decisively against intervention.”\n\nThe case is a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union, representing several migrants brought In January 2021 challenging the program. The appeals court noted on Friday that the Republican-led states had long known that their interest in keeping the policy in force would diverge from the Biden administration’s approach to the case.\n\nThe appeals court wrote that “more than eight months ago, the federal government issued an order terminating the Title 42 policy.”\n\n“Yet these long-known-about differing interests in preserving Title 42—a decision of indisputable consequence—are the only reasons the States now provide for wanting to intervene for the first time on appeal,” the DC Circuit said. “Nowhere in their papers do they explain why they waited eight to fourteen months to move to intervene.”\n\nThe ACLU attorney representing the migrants praised the court’s decision.\n\n“The states are clearly and wrongly trying to use Title 42 to restrict asylum and not for the law’s intended public health purposes,” the attorney, Lee Gelernt, told CNN in an email. “Many of these states were vigorously opposed to past COVID restrictions but suddenly believe there is a need for restrictions when it comes to migrants fleeing danger.”\n\nWhite House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said after the ruling that the administration has a “robust effort underway” for managing the border following the policy’s expected lifting next week.\n\n“To be clear: the lifting of the Title 42 public health order does not mean the border is open. Anyone who suggests otherwise is doing the work of smugglers spreading misinformation to make a quick buck off of vulnerable migrants,” Hasan said in a statement. “We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws and work to expand legal pathways for migration while discouraging disorderly and unsafe migration. We have a robust effort underway to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 lifts as required by court order.”\n\nThe White House also urged Republicans in Congress to agree to more border funding and work on comprehensive immigration reform. The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $3 billion as it prepares for the end of Title 42 to help shore up resources for border management and technology.\n\nThe administration’s handling of Title 42, which the Trump administration put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been the target of litigation from both supporters and opponents of the program.\n\nLast month, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down the program. But Sullivan put his ruling on hold for five weeks so that the Biden administration would have time to prepare for the policy’s wind down. The administration has also appealed the ruling, arguing that the program was lawful, even if federal public health authorities have determined it is no longer necessary.\n\nAs the December 21 deadline for Sullivan’s ruling to go into effect approaches, officials have been preparing for a surge of migrants. More than 1 million migrants have been expelled under the rule, which is a public health authority the Trump administration began using at start of the Covid-19 pandemic to expel migrants before they went through the asylum application process.\n\nRepublican-led states, in their attempts to intervene in the case, allege that allowing the policy to terminate would “cause an enormous disaster at the border.”\n\nThey have argued that the “greatly increased number of migrants that such a termination will occasion will necessarily increase the States’ law enforcement, education, and healthcare costs.”\n\nThe Biden administration opposed the states’ attempt to intervene and their request to keep the policy in place, calling the requests untimely and unjustified.\n\n“The States could have sought to intervene after the CDC acted to terminate the Title 42 orders in April 2022,” the administration wrote.\n\nThe migrants who challenged the program in the case also opposed the states’ request, writing in a court filing that the states were “transparently interested in Title 42 as a restriction on immigration and asylum” rather than as a public health measure.\n\nThe Biden administration tried to wind down the Title 42 program earlier this year, but a coalition of mostly GOP-led states – in a separate case filed in Louisiana – successfully sued to block the Department of Homeland Security from ending enforcement.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional details.\n\nCORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the Biden administration announced its intention to end Title 42. It was in 2022.", "authors": ["Tierney Sneed"], "publish_date": "2022/12/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/politics/supreme-court-title-42/index.html", "title": "Title 42: Biden administration wants Supreme Court to allow Trump ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe Biden administration told the Supreme Court Tuesday that the justices should reject an emergency bid by a group of GOP-led states to keep the controversial Trump-era border restriction known as Title 42 in effect while legal challenges play out.\n\nBut it also asked for the court to delay the ending of Title 42 until at least December 27, citing ongoing preparations for an influx of migrants and the upcoming holiday weekend.\n\nThe administration said that the states, led by Arizona, do not have the legal right to challenge a federal district court opinion that had vacated the program and ordered its termination by Wednesday.\n\nChief Justice John Roberts temporarily froze that deadline on Monday, and asked the parties involved in the lawsuit, the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, to weigh in.\n\nUntil the Supreme Court issues an order – which can come at any time, although the court has no deadline – the authority will remain in place.\n\nSince March 2020, Title 42 has allowed US border agents to immediately turn away migrants who have crossed the southern border illegally, all in the name of Covid-19 prevention. There have been nearly 2.5 million expulsions – mostly under the Biden administration, which has been bracing for an influx of arrivals if the authority lifts.\n\nThe last-minute legal wrangling comes as federal officials and border communities have been bracing for an expected increase in migrant arrivals as early as this week as the issue of immigration continues to ignite both sides of the political divide. The Department of Homeland Security has been putting in place a plan for the end of the program that includes surging resources to the border, targeting smugglers and working with international partners.\n\nIn court papers Tuesday, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stressed that it would be highly unusual for the court to allow the states to step in at the last minute when they had not been an official party in the dispute at hand.\n\n“The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings,” Prelogar wrote.\n\nVideo Ad Feedback Large group of migrants cross into El Paso 02:46 - Source: CNN\n\n“The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem. But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification,” she wrote.\n\nLawyers for the ACLU, who are representing families subject to Title 42, also urged the justices to deny the states’ appeal.\n\n“The record in this case documents the truly extraordinary horrors being visited on noncitizens every day by Title 42 expulsions,” Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the families, wrote.\n\n“The States’ argument effectively boils down to an assertion that Title 42 – with no hearings and no access to asylum – is a better immigration control system from their perspective than the actual immigration statutes that Congress has enacted,” Gelernt added. “But again, that is a choice for Congress.”\n\nPreparing for end of Trump-era authority\n\nThe White House has been preparing for Title 42 to end, expecting a flow of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. In the Del Rio sector, for example, officials predicted that the number of migrant encounters could double from 1,700 a day to 3,500 a day when Title 42 ends, straining overwhelmed resources in a remote area of the border.\n\nDespite the freeze from Roberts’ Monday decision, the administration is moving forward with planning, CNN has reported.\n\n“We’re going on as if nothing’s changed,” a senior US Customs and Border Protection official told CNN, adding that policy discussions are still underway to provide other legal pathways to Nicaraguans, Haitians and Cubans who make up a large number of encounters.\n\nA group of migrants are waiting on the US side of the Rio Grande as the Texas National Guard blocked access to parts of the border with barbed wire and vehicles as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico con 20 December 2022. David von Blohn/CNN\n\nA DHS spokesperson told CNN in an email that officials along the southern border have moved over 9,000 migrants out of El Paso over the last week. US Border Patrol has also moved nearly 6,000 other migrants through to other sectors, the spokesperson said, and migrants have been placed in immigration proceedings “in addition to several measures that have been put in place over the last six months as part of the DHS Plan for Southwest Border Security and Preparedness.”\n\nCNN’s Ed Lavandera, reporting from El Paso on Tuesday, described soldiers from the Texas National Guard deploying fence and barbed wire in areas where migrants have been crossing. The city’s Democratic mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is looking for warehouse space to use as temporary shelter.\n\nJust across the border from El Paso in Ciudad Juarez, CNN’s David Culver has spoken with migrants who spent weeks traveling hundreds of miles, often on foot, and are now confused as they hope for asylum in the US.\n\nAs for what happens on Wednesday if the expiration is still on hold, one official said there may be a “mini surge.”\n\n“I think there’s some that probably haven’t gotten the message and won’t until they cross,” the official said. “There are some already committed who will cross.”\n\nLate Friday night, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the states, holding that they waited an “inordinate” amount of time before trying to get involved in the case. That order triggered the emergency application at the high court, which was addressed to Roberts.\n\nArizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich – who took the lead for the states – said Monday that “getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border,” adding: “Unlawful crossings are estimated to surge from 7,000 per day to as many as 18,000.”\n\nVideo Ad Feedback A Texas shelter works overtime trying to keep up with the surge in migrants crossing the U.S. border 04:07 - Source: CNN\n\nBrnovich had told the justices in court papers that they should put the lower court ruling on hold. As an alternative, he said that the justices should grant an “immediate” temporary injunction to maintain the status quo and also consider whether to skip over the appeals court and agree to hear arguments on the merits of the issue themselves.\n\n“Failure to grant a stay here will inflict massive irreparable harms on the States, particularly as the States bear many of the consequences of unlawful immigration,” Brnovich argued.\n\nIn the case at hand, six families that unlawfully crossed the US-Mexico border and were subject to the Title 42 process brought the original challenge.\n\nIn court papers, the ACLU previously argued that Covid-19 was always a thinly veiled pretense to increase immigration control. “There is no legal basis to use a purported public health measure to displace the immigration laws long after any public health justification has lapsed.”\n\nMeanwhile, although the Biden administration objects to the states’ attempt to intervene in the ongoing dispute and has said it is prepared to allow the program to end, it is still appealing the district court opinion to preserve the authority of the government to impose public health orders in the future.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional details.", "authors": ["Ariane De Vogue", "Preparing For End Of Trump-Era Authority"], "publish_date": "2022/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/politics/title-42-appeal-border-appeal/index.html", "title": "Biden administration appeals court decision that blocked ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nThe Biden administration has decided to appeal a federal court decision that blocked the use of a controversial Trump-era policy allowing for the swift removal of migrants at the US-Mexico border.\n\nLast month, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan blocked the authority, known as Title 42, but agreed to a Biden administration request that he pause his ruling for five weeks so that the government can prepare to comply with it.\n\nWednesday, the Justice Department told the court it planned to appeal.\n\n“The government respectfully disagrees with this Court’s decision and would argue on appeal, as it has argued in this Court, that CDC’s Title 42 Orders were lawful … and that this Court erred in vacating those agency actions,” the Biden administration said in a court filing.\n\nTitle 42 – which has been heavily criticized by public health experts and immigrant advocates – has largely barred asylum at the US-Mexico border, marking an unprecedented departure from traditional protocol.\n\nBut while its origins were in the Trump administration, Title 42 has become a key tool for the Biden White House as it faces mass migration in the Western hemisphere. Officials have been bracing for an influx of migrants when the authority lifts.\n\nThe new filing does not ask the court to reconsider the determination made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Title 42 is no longer needed, an administration official noted. Rather, the Justice Department has indicate it is seeking an appeals court ruling to establish that the CDC was within its legal authority in making such a determination.\n\nThe official also said that Department of Homeland Security is continuing with its preparations for Title 42 to lift on December 21, the expiration of the pause Sullivan placed on his ruling striking the policy down.\n\nSeveral Republican-led states have asked the court to let them intervene in the case striking down the Title 42 ruling, so that the states could defend the Trump-era policy.\n\nIn their request to intervene, the Republican states pointed to the separate litigation they had brought challenging the Biden administration’s efforts to end the authority, which resulted in a court order from a separate court blocking Title 42’s termination earlier this year.\n\n“Because invalidation of the Title 42 Orders will directly harm the States, they now seek to intervene to offer a defense of the Title 42 policy so that its validity can be resolved on the merits, rather than through strategic surrender,” they wrote.\n\nThe states seeking to defend the policy are Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.\n\nThe federal government’s approach to the Title 42 rule has been the target of litigation from both the policy’s critics and its supporters. Republican-led states previously filed their own lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s attempt to end the policy, and in April, secured an order from a federal judge in Louisiana halting that termination.\n\nThe Biden administration is preparing a regulation for notice and comment following the Republican states’ argument in that lawsuit, which claimed that the federal government did not give opportunity for those states to prepare for the end of Title 42. The new framework would also make the Louisiana case moot.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional details.", "authors": ["Priscilla Alvarez"], "publish_date": "2022/12/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/25/us-texas-immigration-border-mexico-migrants-lawsuit-doj-joe-biden-abbott-greg-governor/70461960007/", "title": "US v. Texas: Immigration lawsuit's risks for Greg Abbott, Joe Biden", "text": "Gov. Greg Abbott, in his first public comments after being sued Monday by the federal government over his border security initiatives, dismissively suggested the U.S. Justice Department was using \"some obscure statute\" to undermine the state's effort to combat unlawful immigration.\n\nBut a legal scholar with five decades of experience in environmental law said that while the statute at the crux of the federal action dates to the late 19th century, it has stood the test of time and could endanger the three-term Republican governor's latest initiative at the Texas-Mexico border.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/07/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2023/07/29/doug-burgum-says-texas-razor-wire-buoy-barrier-is-on-biden/70492637007/", "title": "Doug Burgum says Texas' razor wire, buoy barrier 'is on' Biden", "text": "BOONE, Iowa — President Joe Biden's inability to secure the nation's southern border is to blame for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial use of buoys and razor wire to stop migrants from entering the country, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said Saturday while campaigning for the Iowa caucuses.\n\n“I support what Gov. Abbott is trying to do. But Gov. Abbott shouldn't have to do this. This is a federal responsibility. And it's been completely abdicated by the Biden administration,” said Burgum, one of the Republican presidential candidates crisscrossing Iowa this weekend.\n\n“This is on Biden administration, not on Gov. Abbott,” Burgum told reporters after speaking to about 30 people at a Boone cafe Saturday.\n\nThe Biden Justice Department this week sued Abbott over the state’s floating barrier, saying it’s illegal and raises humanitarian, navigation and public safety issues, resulting in adults and children being severely cut during river crossings.\n\nThe battle over the Texas barrier comes as Customs and Border Protection says migrant encounters were down 30% in June, the first full month since new Biden administration immigration restrictions went into effect, the Associated Press reported.\n\nAs the leader of a \"big border state,\" Burgum said he's \"got a lot of empathy for what he's (Abbott) going through.\"\n\n\"If millions of people were piling into North Dakota from Canada, we’d be doing everything we can. But we’d be doing the job that belongs to the federal government,” he said.\n\nWhen asked if he would use tactics like razor wire to protect North Dakota, Burgum said “this is what we end up with” without a secure border.\n\n“Nobody wants to see a child that gets cut on razor wire, but why are people not entering (legally) through ports of entry,” said Burgum, who added that he would support changes to the U.S. immigration system to allow more migrants to enter the country legally.\n\n“We can have a discussion about legal immigration across all skill levels,” he said. “We can do that like other smart countries. Because we have a place that people want to get into,\" said Burgum, adding that \"Canada is poaching” highly skilled, foreign-born residents in the U.S. whose visas are expiring.\n\n“They’re advertising to get those people to move to Canada,” Burgum said. “They added like one million highly skilled people last year.\n\n“When we have 11 million jobs open in America, we’re hurting our economy, our long-term competitiveness by not being smart about how we’re going to do this,” said Burgum, who is campaigning on improving the nation’s economy, energy independence and national security.\n\n“But we can’t have a conversation in this country about immigration policy without … secure borders,” said Burgum, who was introduced by his wife, Kathryn.\n\nBurgum said he agreed with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' stand to not endorse a Republican candidate in Iowa's first-in-the-nation GOP caucus. Reynolds become a target of former President Donald Trump, who criticized her for failing to give him a nod, saying she wouldn’t be governor without his endorsement.\n\n“That’s the smart thing to do. That’s the right thing for Iowa,” Burgum said. “It’s her job to do the right thing for Iowa. … Go Iowa. Go Kim.”\n\nDonnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/07/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/27/supreme-court-blocks-biden-ending-title-42-migrant-expulsions/10930073002/", "title": "Supreme Court blocks Biden administration for now from ending ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – In a blow to the Biden administration's ability to set the nation's immigration policy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the government could not halt the expulsion of migrants for public health reasons under the controversial Title 42 program.\n\nThat program, which has been in place since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, must continue while courts assess a lawsuit filed by Republican officials in 19 states who say that unwinding the Title 42 policy would unleash a national \"catastrophe.\"\n\nThe emergency intervention from the high court came days after the Trump-era program was set to expire. The justices announced they will hear arguments about the program in the upcoming year, but limited their review to whether the conservative states may intervene in the litigation. Oral arguments are expected in February. In the meantime, expulsions will continue.\n\nThe high court's unsigned order noted that Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have denied the emergency request from the states and allowed the administration to lift the Title 42 policy.\n\nAssociate Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the court's ruling Tuesday, joined by Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The court's decision on the states' emergency request was \"unwise,\" Gorsuch wrote. \"The emergency on which those (Title 42) orders were premised has long since lapsed.\"\n\n\"The only plausible reason for stepping in,\" Gorsuch said, has to do with the states' concerns about immigration and the situation on the border.\n\n\"But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,'' Gorsuch added. \"And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.\"\n\nWhile the decision was a legal loss for President Joe Biden, the political implications were less clear: The administration's effort to lift Title 42 has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans and uncertainty from some Democrats who fear border communities were not prepared for an influx of migrants. The Supreme Court's decision appeared to defuse that situation for now, even as it left thousands of migrants in limbo.\n\nWhite House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the Biden administration would comply with the high court's ruling. She also said the administration is advancing its \"preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 eventually lifts and will continue expanding legal pathways for immigration.\n\n\"Title 42 is a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely,\" she added.\n\nTitle 42 permits Customs and Border Protection agents to expel migrants without the usual legal review to Mexico or to their home countries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in holding facilities. Title 42 has been used to expel migrants more than 2.4 million times since its implementation in 2020 and has bottled up tens of thousands of migrants in Mexican border cities who are waiting to request asylum in the United States.\n\nThe Biden administration announced in April that it intended to wind down the Title 42 policy because vaccines and therapeutics had eased the impact of the virus. Separately, a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled in November that the way the program was created violated the law and ordered the administration to end it by Dec. 21. That mandate was temporarily paused by the Supreme Court.\n\nBorder:El Paso readies for 'whatever happens' as humanitarian crisis persists\n\nAppeal:Conservative states ask Supreme Court to keep Title 42 policy in place\n\nStay in the conversation on politics:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter\n\nThe legal wrangling set up a potential humanitarian crisis for the White House and sowed confusion on both sides of the border, where many migrants waited for word about whether they could seek asylum in the United States. Some migrants in Juárez told The El Paso Times they had heard the border would \"close\" on Dec. 21; others that it would \"open.\" People staying in shelters shared stories of friends who had been expelled and others who had been able to stay in the U.S.\n\nDebate over Title 42 made its way to the Senate floor Dec. 22, as lawmakers raced to approve a $1.7 trillion spending plan before the holiday weekend. Two last-minute amendments that would have extended the program failed.\n\nBiden administration officials have said they have rushed resources to the border but have also called on Congress to spend more than $3 billion to speed up the processing of asylum claims and to move some migrants to less crowded facilities. \"We need Congress to give us the funds we've requested to do this in a safe, orderly, and humane way,\" White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.\n\nThe president, meanwhile, will travel to Mexico next month to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the White House said, and attend the North American Leaders' Summit. The long-running tension between Washington and Mexico City over migrants traveling through Mexico to the U.S. is certain to come up.\n\nContributing: Lauren Villagran, El Paso Times; Rebecca Morin, Sarah Elbeshbishi, Francesca Chambers, Maureen Groppe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/12/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/09/marthas-vineyard-migrant-flight-lawsuit-could-cost-florida-1-million/69782146007/", "title": "Martha's Vineyard migrant flight lawsuit could cost Florida $1 million", "text": "TALLAHASSEE — Florida has agreed to pay up to $1 million to two law firms to defend it following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial decision last summer to relocate nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.\n\nSo far, the state has paid nearly $112,000 to the firms Consovoy McCarthy and Campbell Conroy & O’Neil to represent DeSantis and other state officials in a class action lawsuit filed in Boston by attorneys representing the migrants.\n\nThis is on top of the nearly $1.6 million paid to Destin, Fla.-based aviation firm Vertol Systems Company, which the state contracted for the migrant flights.\n\nPost-flights overview:Revisiting DeSantis, Martha's Vineyard, and the migrant flight controversy\n\nAdministration's role on flights:Text messages reveal DeSantis officials worked closely for weeks on Venezuelan migrant flights\n\nWhen combined, it represents a cost of around $35,000 for each migrant relocated through the program.\n\nThe legal contracts were signed in late September, a couple of weeks after the flights, and they cap the fees the firms can charge at a half million dollars each. They have agreed to work for the state for as long as three years.\n\nThomas C. Frongillo of Campbell Conroy & O'Neil, who is listed as the state’s lead attorney for the Boston case, is charging $650 an hour. The hourly fee for partners at Consovoy McCarthy is also $650. But the charges vary depending on the employee, going as low as $150 per hour for junior paralegals at Campbell Conroy & O'Neil and $200 for paralegals at Consovoy McCarthy.\n\nBoths firms have Boston locations. Neither responded to media requests.\n\nU.S. News & World Report gives Campbell Conroy & O'Neil high rankings for class action lawsuit defense. Consovoy McCarthy, a conservative firm, has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, including representing former President Trump in a financial-records case and election law disputes.\n\nIván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Boston nonprofit Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the lawsuit in Massachusetts' federal court, accused Florida of using “scarce taxpayer dollars” on “DeSantis’ immigration theater.”\n\n“Florida's hard-working people are now on the hook for a million dollars for out-of-state lawyers to defend DeSantis' fraudulent scheme,” he said in a statement. “If you can't be fair, you should at least be frugal.”\n\nMore spending to come\n\nWhile opponents have called the transport a vicious political stunt, DeSantis has said his migrant relocation program is the \"most effective\" way to steer asylum seekers and other migrants away from Florida. He contended that it's more effective to intercept migrants at the Texas border than to track them down when they arrive in Florida.\n\n“If they get in a car with two other people, there's no way we're going to be able to detect that,” he said.\n\nState lawmakers gave the Florida Department of Transportation $12 million for the migrant relocation program. The money comes from interest earnings from Florida’s $8.8 billion portion of the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan. State spokespeople did not respond to questions about whether that money is being used for the legal costs.\n\nBut it is clear the state intends to spend all of it.\n\n\"I'll tell you this, the Legislature gave me $12 million,\" DeSantis said in September. \"We're going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we're protecting the people of the state of Florida.\"\n\nSo expect more taxpayer dollars to be spent on the relocations – especially as legal challenges mount.\n\nOn top of the Boston lawsuit, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other immigration organizations sued DeSantis over the flights in Miami federal court last month. A Democratic Florida state senator also filed suit. Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, also opened an investigation into how the migrants were “lured” to board flights from San Antonio to Martha's Vineyard.\n\nIn addition, the Treasury's Office of the Inspector General said it is examining whether DeSantis improperly used COVID-19 aid to fund the transport.\n\nWhen asked about whether he agreed with the cost of the program during a December press conference, House Speaker Paul Renner said he supported the governor’s efforts.\n\n“I think the cost of illegal immigration far, far exceeds the [$12 million] we appropriated, and I’m prepared this year to appropriate more,” he said.\n\nUSA Today Network-Florida government accountability reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. He can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com. Twitter: @DouglasSoule", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/01/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/29/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-lawsuit/index.html", "title": "Biden administration scales back student loan forgiveness plan as ...", "text": "Washington CNN —\n\nThe Biden administration scaled back eligibility for its student loan forgiveness plan Thursday, the same day six Republican-led states sued President Joe Biden in an effort to block his student loan forgiveness plan from taking effect.\n\nBorrowers whose federal student loans are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders will now be excluded from receiving debt relief. Around 770,000 people will be affected by the change, according to an administration official.\n\nThe Department of Education initially said these loans, many of which were made under the former Federal Family Education Loan program and Federal Perkins Loan program, would be eligible for the one-time forgiveness action as long as the borrower consolidated his or her debt into the federal Direct loan program.\n\nOn Thursday, the department reversed course. According to its website, privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29 in order to be eligible for the debt relief.\n\nBorrowers with privately held federal student loans who have not consolidated yet are currently out of luck, though the Department of Education said it “is assessing whether there are alternative pathways” to provide relief.\n\nBorrowers with privately held federal student loans represent a small portion of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers. There are about 4 million borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans, but not all of those people are likely eligible for the loan forgiveness plan, which also includes an income requirement.\n\n“Our goal is to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible, and this will allow us to achieve that goal while we continue to explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans, including whether FFEL borrowers could receive one-time debt relief without needing to consolidate,” the Department of Education said in an emailed statement.\n\n“Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who applied to consolidate their loans into Direct Loans before September 29, 2022 will obtain one-time debt relief. The FFEL program is now defunct and only a small percentage of borrowers have FFEL loans. This is a completely different program than Direct Loans,” the statement said.\n\nLawsuit argues forgiveness will hurt loan servicers\n\nThe lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa.\n\n“In addition to being economically unwise and inherently unfair, the Biden Administration’s Mass Debt Cancellation is another example in a long line of unlawful regulatory actions. No statute permits President Biden to unilaterally relieve millions of individuals from their obligation to pay loans they voluntarily assumed,” Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson’s office said in a news release.\n\nThe plaintiffs argued that student loan servicers – including the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, known as MOHELA – are harmed by Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. It argues that the plan creates an incentive for borrowers to consolidate Federal Family Education Loans owned by MOHELA into Direct Loans owned by the government, “depriving them (MOHELA) of the ongoing revenue it earns from servicing those loans,” according to the lawsuit.\n\nBut the Department of Education’s move to exclude borrowers with privately held federal loans from the student loan forgiveness plan could weaken that legal argument, said Luke Herrine, an assistant law professor at the University of Alabama who previously worked on a legal strategy pushing for student debt cancellation.\n\nThe White House continues to argue that its student loan forgiveness plan is legal.\n\n“Republican officials from these six states are standing with special interests, and fighting to stop relief for borrowers buried under mountains of debt,”said White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan in an emailed statement.\n\n“The President and his administration are lawfully giving working and middle class families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to resume loan payments in January,” he said.\n\nFederal student loan payments have been paused since March 2020, thanks to a pandemic-related benefit. The pause expires on December 31.\n\nEarlier this week, a public interest lawyer who is also a student loan borrower, sued the Biden administration over the student loan forgiveness plan, arguing that the policy is an abuse of executive power and that it would stick him with a bigger state tax bill.\n\nHow Biden’s plan will work\n\nUnder Biden’s plan, individual borrowers who earned less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 annually in those years will see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.\n\nIf a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness. Pell grants are awarded to millions of low-income students each year, based on factors that include their family’s size and income and the cost charged by their college. These borrowers are also more likely to struggle to repay their student debt and end up in default.\n\nThe administration is expected to roll out the first wave of student loan forgiveness in October.\n\nThe Congressional Budget Office estimated this week – before the administration excluded FFEL borrowers – that Biden’s plan could cost the government $400 billion but warned that the estimate relies on several assumptions and is “highly uncertain.”\n\nEstimating the cost of student debt forgiveness is complicated because loans are generally paid back over several years. The White House argues that the CBO’s estimate should be looked at over a 30-year time frame.\n\nUntested legal waters\n\nBiden announced the forgiveness plan in August, after facing mounting pressure from Democrats to forgive some student loan debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren repeatedly called on the President to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.\n\nBut canceling federal student loan debt so broadly is unprecedented and, until now, has yet to be tested in court. Biden initially urged Congress to take action to cancel some student debt, rather than wade into a murky legal area himself, but Democrats don’t have the votes to pass such legislation.\n\nIn a Department of Education memo released in August, the Biden administration argued that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 – or Heroes Act – grants the Education Secretary the power to cancel student debt to help address the financial harm suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe Heroes Act, which was enacted in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, “provides the Secretary broad authority to grant relief from student loan requirements during specific periods,” including a war, other military operation or national emergency, according to the memo.\n\nThe lawsuit filed Thursday argues that the Heroes Act does not grant the President such broad authority.\n\nWhat happens next\n\nAdditional lawsuits challenging Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be forthcoming. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has said he is working on developing the best legal theory to sue the administration over the action.\n\nA conservative advocacy group called the Job Creators Network is also weighing its legal options, planning to file a lawsuit once the Department of Education formalizes the student loan forgiveness plan next month.\n\nBut some legal experts are skeptical that a legal challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be successful.\n\nAbby Shafroth, staff attorney at the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center, previously told CNN that she believes the merits of the Biden administration’s legal statutory authority are strong and that it’s unclear who would have legal standing to bring a case and want to do so. Standing to bring a case is a procedural threshold requiring that an injury be inflicted on a plaintiff to justify a lawsuit.\n\nIf the standing hurdle is cleared, a case would be heard by a district court first – which may or may not issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the cancellation from occurring before a final ruling is issued on the merits of the hypothetical case.\n\nSeveral recent US Supreme Court decisions have touched on executive power, limiting the federal government’s authority to implement new rules. While the Supreme Court takes up a small number of cases each year, lower courts may look at what the justices have said in those cases when assessing the Department of Education’s authority.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional information.", "authors": ["Katie Lobosco"], "publish_date": "2022/09/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/white-house-border-title-42/index.html", "title": "Biden administration finalizing its plans as it braces for end of Title ...", "text": "Washington CNN —\n\nThe Biden administration is finalizing its response to Wednesday’s anticipated end of a Trump-era border restriction known as Title 42, according to officials familiar with the planning.\n\nOfficials said the plans, which may include the revival of a controversial asylum policy, could be announced within the coming days. But it appears the administration may end up with some more time to consider its plans after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday issued a temporary hold on the order lifting the policy.\n\nA surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border in recent days has already raised alarm among Democrats and Republicans, some of whom have called on the White House to find a way to extend the restrictions, and has placed immigration – a politically precarious issue – back at the forefront. The White House has said the administration is bound by a court order.\n\nBut Roberts paused that order in response to an emergency appeal by the leaders of several GOP-led states. In a brief order, signaling that the court wants to act quickly, Roberts asked the Biden administration to respond by 5 p.m. ET Tuesday to the appeal.\n\nThe brief order from Roberts does not necessarily reflect the final outcome of the case, but it means the policy that allows officials to swiftly expel migrants at US borders will stay in effect at least until the justices decide the emergency application.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security said in a statement following Roberts’ order that “as required by the Supreme Court’s administrative stay order, the Title 42 public health order will remain in effect at this time and individuals who attempt to enter the United States unlawfully will continue to be expelled to Mexico,” adding: “While this stage of the litigation proceeds, we will continue our preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when the Title 42 public health order lifts.”\n\nFor weeks, the administration has been bracing for the end of Title 42 that was invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and allowed officials to turn away migrants encountered at the US southern border. The lifting of the authority means a return to traditional protocols at a time of mass migration in the Western Hemisphere, stressing already-overwhelmed resources.\n\nOfficials have been weighing policies to try to stem the flow of migrants heading to the US southern border. Among them is a proposal that would bar migrants from seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border if they could have received refuge in another country they passed through, mirroring Trump-era asylum limits. The proposal is being finalized and is expected to be announced this week prior to the lifting of Title 42.\n\nThe new rules are likely to generate outcry and legal challenges from immigration advocates, who have pushed for an end to Title 42. Enacting a version of a Trump-era asylum rule could also pose political challenges for Biden, who vowed to enact a more humane immigration policy than his predecessor.\n\nThe Biden administration tried to wind down the Title 42 program earlier this year, but a coalition of mostly GOP-led states – in a separate case filed in Louisiana – successfully sued to block the Department of Homeland Security from ending enforcement.\n\nTitle 42 becomes a top White House concern\n\nInside the White House, the pause on the termination of Title 42 will not have any effect on what have been intensive behind-the-scenes preparations for the end of the authority, according to a White House official.\n\nWhile the Department of Homeland Security serves as the lead agency on the issue and has said their preparations continue, the looming end of the pandemic-era public health authority has been a central focus for the last several weeks inside the West Wing, with senior White House officials playing a significant role in the internal debates over policy options to address an expected surge of migrants at the border.\n\nThere are no plans to slow the ongoing effort, the official said, given the possibility any delay is only brief in nature. “We’ve always been aware of the role the courts have in this process, but it’s not something that changes the approach,” the official said.\n\nOfficials will also continue to press Congress to approve the inclusion of more than $3 billion in additional funding to assist their preparations at the border as part of the omnibus funding bill.\n\nThe looming end of Title 42 has been a source of heightened concern, particularly as numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border increased in the days ahead of the order’s expiration. Biden has come under fire from border-state lawmakers for his handling of the matter. His advisers have convened meetings almost daily to weigh their options.\n\nIn formulating their plans, officials have sought ways to bring order to the situation at the border, where images of long lines and crowded holding facilities have generated outcry. Their goal has been to deter migrants from crossing illegally while still preserving their ability to legally apply for asylum.\n\nWhether the new asylum policies can deter migrants from attempting to enter the US remains unclear. Large numbers of migrants have already arrived at the Mexico side of the border awaiting Title 42’s expiration. Administration officials have said many of them are being exploited by smugglers offering false promises related to the end of Title 42, and officials are doubtful those practices would be altered by new rules.\n\nAnd economic and safety conditions in the countries the migrants are leaving remain unstable and have worsened since the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring intelligence to try to determine how many migrants are moving toward the US southern border and where they’re heading, though human smuggling organizations often influence pathways.\n\n“It’s a cat and mouse game,” one senior Homeland Security official said.\n\nAn intelligence memo, from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, circulated last week underscored the concern within the administration over an increase in arrivals, citing human smuggling organizations adjusting their methods and how migrants may shift their calculus.\n\nOn the US side of the border, officials have been striking contracts to move migrants to other border stations for processing to avoid overcrowded facilities, the senior DHS official said. The administration has also identified cities within the United States to move migrants for processing – an idea that’s long been considered among officials – but no decision has been made yet.\n\nIn a document outlining border security preparedness, DHS broke down its six-pillar plan, which was released in the spring and has since been updated. It includes scaling up ground and air transportation capabilities to transport migrants for processing and remove them, leaning on a CBP One mobile application to process asylum seekers, and increasing referrals for prosecutions for repeat border crossers, the document said.\n\nWhite House pushes back against criticism\n\nThe White House has pushed back on calls for the administration to find a way to extend the controversial public health authority, saying it is bound by court orders.\n\nImages from the border have raised alarm among elected officials, some of whom have publicly questioned the Biden administration’s readiness and preparations to handle the expected influx of people trying to enter the United States.\n\nOver the weekend, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called on Biden to “use every bit of power he has as an executive to find a way or ask for an extension.”\n\nThe White House official declined to elaborate when asked whether Biden has the authority to secure such an extension.\n\nThe White House has insisted that the end of Title 42 does not mean that the US border will suddenly be open to all – and that there are existing processes in place to process the claims of asylum-seekers. The administration has also pointed to monthslong work that the Department of Homeland Security has been doing to prepare for the increase in migrants arriving at the border, while also calling on Congress to approve extra funding that the administration has requested to manage the situation.\n\nOver the weekend, a federal law enforcement source familiar with daily operations in South Texas told CNN that border authorities in the Rio Grande Valley have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily during the past two weeks.\n\nBiden to discuss migration with Ecuadorian president\n\nMigration in the Western Hemisphere will be discussed between Biden and Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Monday, according to a White House official, who stressed that Ecuador has been “setting an important example” on the issue.\n\nThe two leaders will also follow up on several issues discussed during this year’s Summit of the Americas, including an agreement to increase security cooperation to tackle drug-related gang violence, the official said.\n\nOver the summer, against the backdrop of the Summit of the Americas, Biden announced a regional partnership to address mass migration in the Western Hemisphere. The agreement, dubbed the Los Angeles declaration, was signed onto by multiple Western Hemisphere nations.\n\nUnder the declaration, governments are expected to commit to expanding temporary worker programs, bolstering legal pathways like refugee resettlement and family reunification, providing support to countries hosting large migrant populations, and cracking down on human smuggling networks.\n\nBiden and Lasso will revisit those efforts Monday, the official said.\n\nCORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the Biden administration announced its intention to end Title 42. It was in 2022.", "authors": ["Priscilla Alvarez Kevin Liptak Mj Lee Phil Mattingly", "Priscilla Alvarez", "Kevin Liptak", "Mj Lee", "Phil Mattingly"], "publish_date": "2022/12/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/19/aclu-texas-lawsuit-sb4/71972663007/", "title": "SB4 legal challenge: El Paso County sues Texas over immigration law", "text": "Texas civil rights organizations and El Paso County on Tuesday sued the Texas Department of Public Safety, challenging a new law that empowers state law enforcement to detain and deport migrants entering or living in the U.S. illegally.\n\nThe ACLU filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrant advocacy organizations, El Paso's Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways.\n\nIn the complaint, the ACLU calls Texas Senate Bill 4 \"patently illegal,\" and says it violates \"the federal government’s exclusive immigration powers and the sensitive foreign policy implications of these powers.\"\n\nThe Texas law takes \"control over immigration from the federal government\" and deprives immigrants of their rights under federal law, according to the complaint. The complaint asks the court to prevent enforcement of S.B. 4 before the law takes effect on March 5.\n\nTexas Gov. Greg Abbott didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Tuesday. The Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment on the lawsuit.\n\nAbbott on Monday signed Senate Bill 4 into law in Brownsville, Texas. He said it and two other laws dealing with border security will \"better protect Texas and America.\"\n\n\"President (Joe) Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,\" Abbott said in a statement on Monday. \"These laws will help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, add additional funding to build more border wall and crackdown on human smuggling.\"\n\nSenate Bill 4 passed both houses of the Texas Legislature in November. The legislation mirrors the federal law that makes illegal entry at the U.S. border a misdemeanor and illegal re-entry a felony.\n\nEl Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said the law will put a financial burden on the county. The county would be tasked with providing detention space for an expected increase in migrant detainees, arrested by state authorities. A new jail could cost upward of $40 million, he said.\n\n\"We feel its unconstitutional what they are doing, and it’s unlike us,\" Samaniego told USA TODAY. \"We want to continue to be us – humanitarian, above the fray of the political stuff.\"\n\nIn a county where interstate highways overlook the low skyline of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and thousands of people legally crisscross the U.S.-Mexico border daily, civil rights advocates say lawful residents and U.S. citizens will inevitably be targeted.\n\nMore than 80 percent of El Paso County residents identify as Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and many residents can trace their roots to Mexico within a generation or two.\n\nThe new Texas law is \"rooted in anti-immigrant sentiment,\" said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.\n\n\"We know in El Paso what that looks like. We’re the lucky ones who survived Aug. 3,\" she said, referring to the Aug. 3, 2019, racist mass shooting targeting Hispanics at an El Paso Walmart in which 23 people died.\n\nPenalties for violating the law against illegal entry range from a class-A misdemeanor to a second-degree felony, which could lead to a 20-year jail sentence.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_18", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/02/06/bag-full-drugs-kiwiberries-retiring-bulldog-news-around-states/41148029/", "title": "'Bag Full of Drugs,' kiwiberries: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey said Tuesday that the state must reinvent its corrections system as it grapples with a prison crisis and also called for borrowing $1 billion to fund improvements at public schools. The Republican governor detailed a wide-ranging agenda in her annual State of the State address, given on the opening night of the legislative session. Ivey said she is creating a group to study a lottery or casinos as a revenue source for the state, a move that could press the pause button on anticipated gambling debate in the Legislature. Prisons are expected to be a central focus on the legislative session after the U.S. Justice Department last year said violent and crowded conditions in Alabama prisons violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Ivey’s administration is exploring a plan to lease three new prisons and close most existing facilities.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: State highway officials are looking for mechanics and using department assets to find them. Electronic message boards set up along roads around Anchorage are displaying help-wanted messages calling for heavy-duty mechanics to apply to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, KTVA-television reports. The department has three heavy-duty mechanic positions open in Anchorage, says spokesperson Shannon McCarthy, and maintenance shops in Fairbanks, Valdez and Healy also have vacancies. McCarthy says it’s sometimes tough to attract and retain mechanics who can maintain construction equipment. The electronic signs urge potential applicants to call the department for more information.\n\nArizona\n\nTucson: A federal judge in Tucson has reversed the misdemeanor convictions of four activists, saying members of the humanitarian group No More Deaths were led by “sincere religious beliefs” when placing water and food for migrants in Arizona’s protected Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge near the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Rosemary Marquez wrote in the opinion filed Monday that Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick met the guidelines for establishing they acted on their beliefs. The four had appealed another judge’s ruling a year ago finding them guilty of federal misdemeanors. They were cited by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services officers in 2017 after driving a truck into the wilderness area and leaving bottles of water and other supplies for migrants who cross the region.\n\nArkansas\n\nBentonville: Benton County plans to appeal the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s decision not to help pay for the costs to clean up damages from two tornadoes that struck in October, officials said. The county was notified of the decision by letter Jan. 24, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The county has 30 days to appeal. The letter did not specify why the county was denied. But Robert McGowen, county public safety administrator, said it was because the county was short $124,134 of the threshold for assistance. Damage assessments from the October tornadoes totaled $6.5 million for uninsured public property, McGowen said. Most of the damage – $5.5 million worth – involved two electric companies. “For some reason, FEMA did not accept the preliminary damage assessment numbers we provided them and reduced the amounts that were submitted by the entities,” McGowen said.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: The governor revealed a plan Tuesday that would keep more water in the fragile San Joaquin River Delta while restoring 60,000 acres of habitat for endangered species and generating more than $5 billion in new funding for environmental improvements. The framework announced Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom is a unique approach to managing the state’s scarce water resources. Historically, California has governed water usage by issuing rules – often challenged in court by farmers or environmental groups. Those lawsuits can drag on for years and prevent programs designed to boost sagging salmon populations and other threatened species that live in the delta. Instead of issuing new rules, for the past year the Newsom administration has been negotiating with water agencies to come up with “voluntary agreements” between the two sides with “partnership and oversight from environmental groups.”\n\nColorado\n\nSteamboat Springs: A school district hired a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent to conduct an investigation into a high school’s culture related to student claims of sexual harassment or sexual assault. The Steamboat Springs School District hired Jane Quimby of Quimby and Associates in Grand Junction to investigate complaints that female students were not being heard or protected by administrators, The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports. District officials also announced Steamboat Springs High School Principal Kevin Taulman has been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation. Quimby served as an FBI special agent for 20 years and is an attorney and a former high school and college teacher, officials said. Quimby will report to the school district’s attorneys, Caplan & Earnest, and not to Superintendent Brad Meeks in order to strengthen the integrity of the investigation, officials said.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: A federal judge has dismissed nearly all claims in a lawsuit that sought to force all-male fraternities at Yale University to admit women, saying fraternities and sororities are specifically excluded from a federal law that bans discrimination based on gender in education. U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden in Bridgeport issued the ruling Jan. 30 in the lawsuit filed last year by three women who attend Yale. They sued nine fraternities and Yale in response to alleged sexual assault, harassment and discrimination at the all-male social organizations. The judge allowed only one claim against Yale to continue forward toward trial: an allegation that school officials failed to act when informed by one of the plaintiffs that she and other women had been groped against their will at a fraternity party in 2016.\n\nDelaware\n\nBridgeville: A year after moving the World Championship Punkin Chunkin from Delaware to Illinois, event organizers have made a plea to their fans here: “Bring us home.” “The biggest thing is to create the buzz. It’s a great tradition to try to keep continuing,” says Frank Payton, president of the World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association. While organizers said Illinois had better state protections against liability – a special focus after a 2016 malfunction left a person critically injured – it drew a much smaller crowd than back home. Payton estimates fewer than 15,000 people attended last year’s event in Rantoul, Illinois, over two days, down from the estimated 30,000 in 2016. At its height, the nonprofit Punkin Chunkin drew up to 100,000 wide-eyed spectators to Sussex County, raising more than $1 million through the years for local charities. Last year it managed to pull in just $1,500.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: A thief caught on surveillance video stole a mother’s vehicle while she was pumping gas and her child was sitting in the back seat. The mother was dragged Tuesday morning while trying to stop the thief, news outlets report. Video appeared to a show a man sneak into the SUV and drive away as the mother tried to stop the thief. Elroy Jacobs told news outlets he witnessed the woman being dragged for about a block before she was run over. He said he chased the vehicle and found the child still inside after the SUV was abandoned. “I saw this woman hollering, ‘My baby, my baby, they’re taking my baby,’ ” Jacobs said. “I’m not thinking about no weapon, if they have any weapon. I’m just thinking about the child.” It’s unclear whether the mother was injured. Police had not announced any suspects or arrests, news outlets report.\n\nFlorida\n\nMiami: Two men charged with drug trafficking could have done a better job hiding their wares than using a package labeled “Bag Full of Drugs,” authorities say. Ian Simmons and Joshua Reinhardt, both 34, were pulled over Saturday after a trooper clocked them going 95 mph on Interstate 10 in the Panhandle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report. The trooper determined Reinhardt was the subject of a felony warrant for violation of probation and requested backup. A Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputy arrived, and a K-9 alerted them to the presence of contraband in the vehicle, the report said. Authorities found about 75 grams of methamphetamine, 1.36 kilograms of the date-rape drug GHB, 1 gram of cocaine, 3.6 grams of fentanyl, 15 MDMA tablets and drug paraphernalia. “Note to self- do not traffic your illegal narcotics in bags labeled ‘Bag Full Of Drugs,’ ” deputies wrote on Facebook. “Our K-9’s can read.”\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp and state Superintendent Richard Woods announced a plan Tuesday to cut five mandatory standardized tests for public school students, including four in high school. The Republican officials are also trying to cut the length of state tests and evaluate local tests that Georgia’s 181 school districts give to evaluate student progress. Both Woods and Kemp oppose the current amount of testing, part of a national backlash to a system largely built by Republicans in Georgia. “When you look at the big picture, it’s clear Georgia simply tests too much,” Kemp said at a news conference. “On test days it’s making students physically sick because they’re worried they will not do well.” The biggest changes would come in high school. The economics test would be dropped, and the state Board of Education would decide which others would go – possibly geometry, physical science and American literature.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: A sick Hawaiian monk seal under the care of wildlife scientists is suffering from a parasitic infection often spread via feral cat feces, officials say. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials determined the seal was suffering from toxoplasmosis, The Honolulu Star-Tribune reports. The female seal, known as Pohaku, was taken from Ko Olina on Oahu to the agency for monitoring after reports she was “logging,” or lethargically floating on the water. There are an estimated 50,000 to 300,000 feral cats on Oahu, and they are a primary source of toxoplasmosis, a parasite that reproduces in the digestive system of cats, the agency says on its website. Hawaiian monk seals are exposed to the parasitic eggs when they consume contaminated prey or water, the NOAA says. Toxoplasmosis can destroy muscle, liver, heart and brain tissue and cause organ failure. Treatment options for infected seals are extremely limited.\n\nIdaho\n\nBonners Ferry: A long-closed road built through grizzly bear habitat in northern Idaho will reopen following national security concerns, federal agencies said. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the plan to reopen more than 5 miles of Bog Creek Road after years of discussion, The Spokesman-Review reports. The road was closed in the late 1980s to protect endangered grizzly bears roaming the area between Upper Priest Lake in Idaho and the Canadian border, officials said. The U.S. Border Patrol has asked the Forest Service since 2013 to reopen the road because of threats to border security. Neither agency specified those threats. The Forest Service is expected to install and repair culverts along the road and to cut back trees and other vegetation that has come close to or obstructed the road, officials said. The road will “not be open for public motorized use,” Forest Service officials said.\n\nIllinois\n\nJoliet: Police are searching for a man who caused thousands of dollars of damage in a Walmart in suburban Chicago by spraying disinfectant inside the store while wearing a surgical mask and a sign on his back declaring that he has the deadly coronavirus. Two men apparently in their 20s walked into the store in Joliet on Sunday. One of them put on the yellow surgical mask and started spraying Lysol on clothing, produce and health and beauty items, causing nearly $10,000 in damage, police said. “He was telling everyone the same thing, that he was protecting them from the virus,” Tony Prokes, a customer, told WLS-TV in Chicago. The man wore a homemade sign on his back that read, “Caution I have the Coronavirus.” The apparent prank comes amid growing worldwide concern about the virus that has killed hundreds of people, most of them in mainland China, and sickened more than 20,000 around the world.\n\nIndiana\n\nGary: A local man testified that a now-dead man gave him a video recording of his confession to killing five people in 2000, a crime for which another man is serving 300 years in prison. Cleveland C. Bynum, 37, was convicted of murder in 2001 for the shooting deaths of sisters Angela Wallace, 24, and Suzanne Wallace, 34, who were both from Gary. Bynum, then 22, was also convicted of killing 37-year-old Sheila R. Bartee and 24-year-old Anthony Jeffers, also from Gary, and Elizabeth Daily-Ayers, 37, of Hobart. Bynum’s attorney, Frances Watson, filed a successive petition for post-conviction relief in 2016 for Bynum, who maintains his innocence and is seeking to overturn his conviction. Lake Criminal Magistrate Natalie Bokota on Monday heard testimony for the relief, The Times of Northwest Indiana reports. Roger Shannon testified Gerald Mathews gave him a cellphone that contained a video recording of Mathews confessing to killing the five people.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Griff the bulldog, Drake University’s live mascot, will retire this summer, the university announced Wednesday. Drake anointed the former champion show dog as its live mascot in fall 2015. Now 7, Griff has since been a constant staple at thousands of Drake events, the Drake Relays and other sporting events, and graduations. Over the past year, he tried to meet as many presidential candidates as he could in the run-up to the 2020 Iowa caucuses. “Griff has been such a special part of our campus community,” Drake President Marty Martin said in a statement. Drake anticipates having Griff’s successor, Griff II, in place by July 1, the day after Griff is set to retire. Future live mascots will be christened Griff with an additional nickname. The school said Griff intends to enjoy long naps in retirement, mostly on his favorite oversized chair.\n\nKansas\n\nWichita: A collaborative effort is underway to preserve and make accessible historic television and radio programs produced by public media stations in the state. KMUW-FM and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting said in a news release Wednesday that the online collection will be digitized from deteriorating and obsolete formats. It will showcase statewide coverage of social issues, commentary, public reporting and history from more than 70 years of archival collections in the state. The Kansas collection consists of programs produced by KMUW, High Plains Public Radio, KPR, KPTS, KRPS, KHCC and Vietnamese Public Radio. These programs will be the first from Kansas contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Boston public media producer WGBH.\n\nKentucky\n\nHodgenville: The town where President Abraham Lincoln was born will host activities this month to commemorate his 211th birthday. Ceremonies will be held Feb. 12 in downtown Hodgenville and at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park, officials say. Local officials plan to attend the first ceremony, which will include a flag raising and wreath laying, according to the statement from Lincoln Days Celebration. The event at the national park will include a procession from the visitor center to the Memorial Building and a wreath laying. Afterward, a luncheon at the LaRue County Extension Building will feature Centre College President John Roush, who will speak about Lincoln’s leadership style and legacy.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: A group that was denied permission to march in the city of Natchitoches’ Christmas parade when it insisted on carrying Confederate battle flags asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to revive its lawsuit alleging constitutional violations. The permit for the Louisiana Sons of Confederate Veterans was denied in late 2015, months after the slayings of nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church by white supremacist Dylann Roof. Pictures on social media of Roof posing with Confederate battle flags led to renewed opposition to public displays of Confederate iconography around the nation. In Natchitoches, a nonprofit group that organized the annual parade denied a permit to the SCV after city officials expressed concerns that some in the city would be offended by the display of Confederate battle flags and that protests might disrupt the procession.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The state’s two U.S. senators are among a group of lawmakers pushing for the federal government to crack down on the use of dairy terms on plant-based products. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King want U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn to work with Congress to prevent what they see as misuse of dairy terms on products that contain no dairy. Collins and King joined a bipartisan group of seven senators in asking for Hahn’s help in late January. The senators said the use of dairy terms such as “milk” on “imitation products in the marketplace” is confusing for consumers. The International Food Information Council Foundation released survey results in 2018 saying that “three-quarters of Americans understand that plant-based ‘milk’ products do not actually contain cow’s milk.”\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Kimberly Klacik won special primaries Tuesday for the U.S. congressional seat that was held by the late Elijah Cummings. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 4 to 1, the Democratic nominee will be the heavy favorite heading into the April 28 special general election. The majority-black district includes parts of Baltimore’s inner city that have struggled with drugs and violent crime, as well as more well-to-do communities in the suburbs. Whoever wins the special general election will serve the rest of Cummings’ term through Jan. 3, 2021, and have to stand for reelection in November to keep the seat. For Mfume, who in 1996 stepped down to lead the NAACP after serving five terms as a district’s congressman, it’s a chance to regain the seat he held more than 20 years ago.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Commuters can expect several years of station gridlock at one of the city’s busiest train stations once major construction kicks off in late summer. Boston transportation officials have warned commuters who use South Station that they should add 5 to 10 minutes to their daily commute in anticipation of delays caused by the construction of an office tower and installation of fare gates. The number of doors that commuters use to get from the lobby to the platforms and back will be limited to five, down from the typical eight to 10, and a large area of the concourse will be cordoned off. The new configuration could come as early as July, The Boston Globe reports. A concrete extension will be added to the platform to allow more room for riders under the new construction configuration. New fare gates will also be installed on the outside area near the platforms.\n\nMichigan\n\nSaline: A public meeting called to address racist social media posts by students at a suburban Detroit high school turned volatile when a white parent asked a Hispanic parent, “Why didn’t you stay in Mexico?” The exchange Monday shocked many who had gathered for a community meeting at the Saline Area Schools district office. Parent Adrian Iraola said his son had endured racist name-calling by students in the district and described the impact it had on him, ultimately fueling him to earn a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. As Iraola described “the abuse that he was enduring in this school system,” another parent, Tom Burtell, interjected, “Then why didn’t you stay in Mexico?” Iraola responded that he lives in America because it is “the greatest country in the world.” In an MLive.com interview, Matthew Burtell, a 2014 Saline High School alumnus and Tom Burtell’s son, spoke out against his father’s “racist and xenophobic behavior.”\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: There’s time to protect the privacy of Minnesotans who vote in the Super Tuesday presidential primary March 3, Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon and a bipartisan group of lawmakers said Wednesday. Under current law, the state must provide the names and party preference of primary voters to the four parties with major-party status in Minnesota – Democrats, Republicans and two pro-cannabis parties. A bill rolled out Wednesday by Democratic Sen. Ann Rest, of New Hope, and Democratic Rep. Ray Dehn, of Minneapolis, would tightly restrict that data. The bill, which has some Republican support, would restrict the sharing of party preference data to the national party committees, and only for verification purposes. Otherwise the data would be private, with penalties for making it public. And voters could opt out of sharing their data.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: A plan to give teachers at least a $1,000 pay raise won state Senate approval Wednesday, and now it goes to the House. The pay bill easily passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said last week that he wants it to be part of a multiyear plan to increase some of the lowest salaries in the nation. Senate Bill 2001 would give $1,000 across-the-board raises to most teachers and to all teachers’ assistants. Teachers in the first two years of their careers would receive raises of $1,100 in an effort to boost the beginning salaries. The National Education Association says the average teacher salary in the U.S. was $60,477 for the 2017-18 school year. Mississippi had the lowest average that year, at $44,926. The average teacher salary in Mississippi for the 2018-19 school year – the most recent data available – was $45,105, according to the state Department of Education.\n\nMissouri\n\nJefferson City: Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to make grants available for potential builders of an ultrafast Hyperloop test track in the state. House members in a voice vote gave initial approval to a bill that would make a 10- to 15-mile test track eligible for public-private partnership grants. Hyperloop technology involves a tubular track through which a train-like pod carries passengers at speeds up to 640 mph. Missouri supporters envision connecting Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis with a system that could cut a roughly 4-hour drive across the state down to a 30-minute commute. They’re now advocating for a test track to be built in Missouri. “It would bring in investment dollars from around the world to make Missouri an innovative state,” bill sponsor Rep. Travis Fitzwater told colleagues on the House floor. It’s not cheap. Some estimates have put the cost at $25 million to $27 million per mile, excluding land acquisition.\n\nMontana\n\nBozeman: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it is removing a portion of a former wood-treatment facility in the state from its list of Superfund sites, despite concerns. The agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality determined that all the required cleanup of the facility is complete and that no additional work is needed to protect human health and the environment in the area, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. The Idaho Pole Company operated the facility near Cedar Street until 1997 and contributed to soil and groundwater contamination, officials said. It was designated a Superfund site in 1986. The Gallatin City-County Board of Health and the Gallatin Local Water Quality District have repeatedly voiced concerns and have said the federal agency did not adequately work with local government officials to ensure redevelopment is safe.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: American evacuees from the growing coronavirus outbreak in China will be flying into Omaha as soon as Thursday and be quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base, officials said Wednesday. The plane will be landing at Eppley Airfield and park at a remote spot. The passengers will not go inside the terminal, said a news release from Nebraska Medicine, and they’ll be taken to Camp Ashland, which sits about 30 miles southwest of the airport. Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson said he couldn’t yet say how many evacuees were headed to Omaha or when the flight was expected to land. Nebraska National Guard officials have been preparing to house evacuees in three buildings with 85 hotel-style rooms at the camp. Guard officials have said the evacuees won’t interact with guardsmen or employees there.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: The entry point to about 13,000 acres of scenic backcountry in the Lake Tahoe Basin will get an upgrade. The Tahoe Fund announced this week that it landed a $100,000 donation from the E.L. Cord Foundation among other gifts to jump-start the work in the Spooner Lake area of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park. The fund raised $300,000 through private donations for an amphitheater that is part of the project. But the fundraising is more important than the amount suggests because the money from private sources will be used to leverage $2.9 million in public funds, Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry said. The project by the Nevada Division of State Parks could break ground as soon as spring 2020, with phase one complete by the end of 2021.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nDurham: A University of New Hampshire expert on kiwiberries will give a crop overview and discuss best production practices and information on market potential on the grape-sized fruit in an event this weekend. The Kiwiberry Breeding and Research Development program is the first of its kind in the nation. Will Hastings, vineyard manager and research technician of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station’s program, will give a discussion Saturday at the NOFA-NH Winter Conference at Kearsarge Regional High School in North Sutton. The tropical-tasting, smooth-skinned relative of the fuzzy supermarket kiwi has been grown in backyards and private gardens in the region for more than 140 years. Despite its long history, though, virtually no commercial production exists. Hastings is co-author of “Growing Kiwiberries in New England, a Guide for Regional Producers.”\n\nNew Jersey\n\nToms River: Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has restored funding to one of two public assistance programs that help Ocean County senior citizens maintain their independence, Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari says. The county government is to receive $1.47 million for the Jersey Assistance for Community Caregiving program, up about $400,000 for the state fiscal year 2020, Vicari says. The program, which will serve about 225 seniors each month, offers an array of services for those who would otherwise be forced to reside in nursing homes. Those services include respite care, housekeeping, home delivered meals, personal emergency response plans, transportation, adult day care, special medical equipment or supplies, caregiver training and home health aide services. Applicants must meet certain income requirements, all according to county officials.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: The state House of Representatives approved a budget plan Wednesday to increase annual state spending by more than a half-billion dollars to expand early childhood education programs, boost teacher salaries and shore up health care for the poor. The House voted 46-24 along party lines with Democrats in support of the $7.6 billion general fund spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The bill now moves to the Senate, where a variety of amendments are likely. State economists are forecasting an $800 million surplus in state government income for the coming fiscal year that is linked closely to record-setting oil production in the state. Republicans in the House minority criticized the proposed $530 million, 7.5% increase as irresponsible and unsustainable in the event of an oil-sector downturn. They outlined their own plan that would increase spending by 4.3% and called for giving every New Mexico resident a $200 rebate.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: The state could ban retail pet shops from selling dogs, cats or rabbits as soon as mid-2021 under a Democratic state senator’s bill. The state would join Maryland and California and hundreds of municipalities nationwide that have taken a stand to outlaw sales of those pets, Deputy Senate Leader Mike Gianaris said Monday. Supporters including The Humane Society of the United States and the New York State Animal Protection Federation say the vast majority of New York pet stores already don’t sell cats, dogs or rabbits. But Libby Post, the executive director of the federation, says the proposal is an “opportunity for pet stores to rebrand themselves as compassionate businesses that put puppies over profits.” New Yorkers could still buy cats, dogs and rabbits directly from breeders.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Officials in the capital city approved the creation of a citizen advisory board Tuesday charged with reviewing the police department’s policies. Activists have called for greater oversight of the Raleigh Police Department’s procedures for years, despite pushback from some department employees and leaders, news outlets report. The calls were renewed following the fatal shooting of a man Raleigh police said was armed and “acting strangely” last week, as well as a traffic stop last month that prompted a use-of-force investigation, the outlets say. The board will consist of five members, but those people have not been announced, according to Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. She asked for people interested in serving on the board to reach out to their council member.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: A group is seeking to oust Burleigh County Commissioner Kathleen Jones through a recall petition due in part to her support for resettling refugees in the county. The petition against her, which lists a five-person sponsoring committee, calls for Jones to be recalled for “the reasons of contempt of the voters and negligence in office.” The county commission voted 3-2 in December to allow Lutheran Social Services to continue resettling refugees in Burleigh County. The meeting was prompted by an executive order from President Donald Trump that left the question up to states and counties. In January, the commission voted 3-2 not to put the question of future refugee resettlement before voters in the form of a nonbinding straw poll. State law limits recall petitions to one official. Recall organizer Robert Field said Jones “was the easiest target.” Jones, who has served since 2014, believes she is being targeted because of her gender.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: The Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame is seeking nominations to honor people who have continued to contribute to their communities after their military service. Nominees must be current or past Ohio residents who have been outstanding in volunteerism, advocacy, professional distinction, public service or philanthropy. Each year, the Hall of Fame inducts up to 20 former members of the U.S. Armed Forces based on recommendations from a statewide executive committee of veterans and approval by the governor. Nearly 900 veterans have been inducted since the hall’s 1992 inception. They include astronaut Neil Armstrong, actor Paul Newman and fast-food entrepreneur Dave Thomas. The state Department of Veterans Services encourages people to submit nominations before a deadline of June 1, 2020.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: The city will conduct a test excavation at an area cemetery as part of an ongoing effort to find remains of victims of a 1921 race massacre, officials say. The test excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery, planned for April, was announced during the city’s Mass Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee meeting Monday, the Tulsa World reports. The meeting came a little more than a month after investigators announced that geophysical surveys conducted in October had found anomalies consistent with possible graves. “We would see this as an intermediate step,” says Kary Stackelbeck, a state archaeologist. The massacre happened over the course of 16 hours, from May 31 to June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses. As many as 300 people were killed, hundreds more injured and thousands left homeless. Tulsa’s prosperous black business district known as Black Wall Street was destroyed.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: A state senator told demonstrators opposed to a plan to build a natural gas pipeline and marine export terminal in Oregon that he expects the battle to go to the courts if the Trump administration tries to ram the project through despite a lack of state permits. Gov. Kate Brown’s office said late Tuesday that she “would consider all available options” if the federal government tried to preempt state permitting processes. Demonstrators gathered outside the Department of State Lands on Tuesday to thank its director, Vicki Walker, for refusing to grant another extension to Pembina, an energy company based in Calgary, Canada, for a decision on a removal-fill permit. The permit is required to dredge sediment out of Coos Bay, on Oregon’s southern coast, for the marine export terminal and to construct a 230-mile feeder pipeline through and under waterways in southern Oregon.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: A bill that would provide millions in tax breaks for new construction of facilities to use natural gas extracted in the state to make fertilizers and other chemicals will be vetoed by the governor, his spokesman said Wednesday. The bill, which passed both legislative chambers this week by veto-proof majorities, authorizes the “energy and fertilizer manufacturing tax credit” for projects that require at least $450 million in construction and startup costs and create at least 800 jobs. The Revenue Department estimates the tax credit would be worth about $22 million annually, per plant. The tax break would expire at the end of 2050. Wolf “believes such projects should be evaluated on a specific case-by-case basis,” said his press secretary, J.J. Abbott. “However, if there was a specific project, he would be open to a conversation.”\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Inspectors found no evidence of black mold days after a General Assembly office was evacuated. The Joint Committee on Legislative Services offices were cleared after an employee reported finding mold under her desk, and aides to House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said last week that renovations began as a result. The work, which included the removal of filing cabinets, raised concerns because it coincided with a lawsuit involving the committee and a state police investigation. When the committee revealed that no official test had been done to check for black mold before the work began, state officials ordered one. The report, which was released Monday, found no black mold. The report did find a “moderate” level of mold spores in air samples from the office, but the technician who conducted the test told WPRI-TV it did not indicate a cause for concern.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nCharleston: Several downtown streets were closed Wednesday after construction crews found a Civil War artillery shell, police said. The crew called 911 about 10 a.m. to report the shell in downtown Charleston, just over a block from the Old Slave Mart where dozens of vendors sell merchandise, Charleston police said. The police department called the U.S. Air Force to dispose of the shell and closed several nearby roads for about three hours as a precaution. Investigators initially said the shell appeared to be newer than the Civil War, but after further investigation, they concluded it was left over from the war between the Union and the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865, police spokesman Charles Francis said in a statement. No injuries were reported.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nPierre: Small towns in the state say they are strapped for cash after historically bad flooding last year and are asking the Legislature to let them use money from gas taxes for road repairs. A bill from Sen. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, would use money from the state’s motor fuel tax and the Department of Transportation to create a $2.4 million fund that townships could tap for road repairs. But cities, counties, the Department of Transportation and other programs argue that it would take money away from repairs they need to make. The Senate Local Government Committee passed the bill on a 4-3 vote Wednesday. The bill would designate the funds for repairing culverts and small structures like bridges. Lawmakers said they want the full Senate to consider the proposal, hoping it would spark further discussion on how to help towns fund road repairs.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A Republican-led legislative panel has decided not to decide, for now, whether it thinks a bust of a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader should be removed from the Capitol. The House committee on Naming, Designating, & Private Acts voted Tuesday to delay consideration of the nonbinding resolution that favors removing the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest until the panel’s last meeting, likely months away. Republicans said the delay allows Tennessee’s Capitol Commission to weigh in first. The commission meets Feb. 20 and will allow public testimony on the bust, but officials don’t plan to hold a vote at that meeting. Removing the bust would require approval from the Capitol Commission and then the state’s Historical Commission, as laid out by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act.\n\nTexas\n\nFort Worth: An appeals court heard arguments Tuesday in the case of a mother who does not want a hospital to end life-sustaining treatment for her 1-year-old daughter. Texas’ Second Court Court of Appeals in Fort Worth is considering the case after a lower court said Cook Children’s Medical Center could remove Tinslee Lewis from life support. The appeals court has said the child will remain on life support until it makes a final ruling in the case. Doctors at the Fort Worth hospital have said Tinslee is in pain and will never recover. Her 20-year-old mother, Trinity Lewis, has said she doesn’t think Tinslee, who turned 1 on Saturday, is suffering. Lewis’ attorney, Joe Nixon, told the three appellate judges that Lewis has the right to decide whether her daughter lives or dies. Amy Warr, an attorney for Cook Children’s, said doctors have a right to decline care for a patient if that care “causes suffering without medical benefit.”\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: A resolution encouraging consideration of later high school start times has earned unanimous support from a state legislative committee. The nonbinding resolution was presented to the House Health and Human Services Committee by Democratic Rep. Suzanne Harrison, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The resolution will proceed to the full House for a vote. Harrison, a physician, offered research at the hearing showing the circadian rhythms that regulate the waking and sleeping cycles of teenagers are different from those of children and adults. While adults typically begin winding down about 9 p.m., the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is released about two hours later in teenagers, which is why their most productive sleep period is between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., Harrison testified.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The Democratic-led state House failed by one vote Wednesday to override a veto by Republican Gov. Phil Scott of a bill that would have established a paid family leave system in the state. The vote of 99 in favor of overriding the governor to 51 against came less than a week after Scott vetoed the bill because the plan included a $29 million payroll tax. Scott prefers a voluntary program. The bill would have guaranteed up to 12 weeks of paid parental or bonding leave and up to eight weeks of paid family care leave. Proponents have said the bill was needed to help recruit and retain workers in Vermont. When the bill passed the House last week, it was 11 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor’s veto. But some of those who voted “no” before changed their votes Wednesday.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: The capital city recorded a 10% increase in its homeless population during a winter survey, according to preliminary data from the count. The number of people sleeping in shelters or outside grew from 497 people in January 2019 to 549 last month, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, citing a regional survey conducted biannually. It’s the first such increase since 2011, the newspaper says. “The focus on serving households with more complex needs and higher barriers to housing is the primary driver of this increase,” Kelly King Horne, a director of the region’s homeless services, told the newspaper. Still, the numbers are a little under half of what was recorded a decade ago, when 1,150 people were counted as homeless, according to data from 2009.\n\nWashington\n\nSeaTac: The city will no longer issue exorbitant bills for free-speech demonstrations. An immigrant rights group called Families Belong Together-Washington Coalition sued SeaTac in 2018 after the city sent it a $37,000 bill for public safety costs related to a protest of President Donald Trump’s separation of migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border. The official who issued the bill said the city code required him to charge Families Belong Together for the actual costs of the event, which drew about 10,000 people June 30, 2018. Dozens of mothers who had been separated from their children were detained at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac at the time. But organizers said such a policy unlawfully chilled free speech rights under the U.S. and Washington Constitutions. The new policy says the city will not charge more than $500 for public safety costs and will waive the fees entirely if organizers demonstrate they are not able to pay.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: A resolution to prohibit the state’s court system from interfering in ongoing legislative action failed in the state Senate on Wednesday, the latest unsuccessful attempt to address a 2018 ruling that halted impeachment proceedings against several Supreme Court justices. The vote in the Senate was 20-13, but the resolution did not receive the required two-thirds support for passage. If it had passed both houses, the resolution would have gone before voters. Last October the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a decision by five acting state Supreme Court justices that prosecuting then-Chief Justice Margaret Workman in the state Senate would violate the state constitution’s separation of powers clause. That ruling was later applied to also halt impeachment proceedings against two other sitting justices who have since left the court: Robin Davis and Allen Loughry.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and advocates for victims of sexual assault made a last-ditch effort Wednesday to save a pair of bipartisan bills intended to prevent a backlog of untested rape evidence kits, blasting Republicans’ divisive substitute proposal as a partisan attempt to ensure nothing becomes law this session. The Republican-backed bill adopts the same kit submission and tracking protocols laid out in the original bills but contains provisions requiring police notify immigration officials if attackers are in the country illegally and allowing students assaulted by other students or teachers to enter the state’s school choice programs. Both proposals are nonstarters with Democrats. Gov. Tony Evers would almost certainly veto the legislation if it reaches him. “This bill is a mess,” Kaul told Republicans on the Assembly Health Committee during a hearing on the measure.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Project leaders are seeking names to include in a new memorial honoring military veterans from within the Wind River Indian Reservation. All military veterans who have lived within the boundaries of the Wyoming reservation could have their names included, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. That includes veterans from Riverton, a city of about 11,000 people that is encircled by the reservation but is not part of it. The “Path of Honor” memorial will be located outside the Frank B. Wise Business Center building in Fort Washakie and include a garden walkway and four massive stones listing the names of the veterans, organizers said. The four stones will form the shape of a buffalo, organizer and Eastern Shoshone Vietnam War veteran Scott Ratliff said. Organizers hope to complete the memorial sculpture garden by the summer. The deadline for submitting veterans’ names is Friday.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/02/06"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_19", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2024/01/03/willis-gibson-tetris-winner/72098422007/", "title": "'I can't feel my fingers': 13-year-old Tetris winner dumfounded after ...", "text": "Tetris is an old-school video game, released nearly 40 years ago. But a 13-year-old from Oklahoma just pulled off a new trick on the classic, being the first player to truly beat the game.\n\nWillis Gibson, 13, of Stillwater, Okla., recently earned the ultimate achievement in the game, developed by Russian scientist Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. He successfully manipulated the waves of falling shapes for more than 38 minutes until the game crashed, as can be seen in a video posted on his YouTube page, and reached the \"kill screen.\"\n\n“It’s never been done by a human before,” said Vince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship, told The New York Times. “It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago.”Tetris arrived on the video game world first as a PC game, but it exploded in 1989 when it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and bundled with the Nintendo Game Boy handheld. In the past, when players hit the 29th level of the game, pieces fell so fast players weren't able to catch up – only an artificial intelligence program had beaten the game, video game news site Polygon reported.\n\nHow did an Oklahoma teenager beat Tetris?\n\nYounger players have learned how to keep up with the game – and go to previously unforeseen levels – by using innovative technique such as \"hypertapping,\" where the player uses the directional arrows, not just the left and right buttons, so the controller moves faster, and \"rolling,\" engaging the buttons by drumming the underside of the controller, according to Polygon.\n\n“There’s a little D-pad on the controller that you can press down, and it will go left or right,” Willis told the Stillwater (Okla.) News Press. “Instead of manually just tapping each piece every single time, what you do is you hover your finger over the button just barely so it doesn’t cause an input left or right, and then you roll your fingers on the back of the controller. So each finger causes an input.”\n\nGibson wasn't just lucky. A gamer who competes using the moniker Blue Scuti (in honor of the universe's largest known star UY Scuti), he took third place at the recent 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship in October. But he made history on Dec. 21, playing long enough to get the game to crash.\n\n\"Please crash,\" he says just after passing the 38-minute mark on the video. At this point, Willis is at Level 157, but the displays \"Level 18\" because it was not developed to go that high.\n\nWhen the game crashes and locks up seconds later, Willis exclaims, \"Oh, oh, oh,\" and raises his hands to his head. \"Omigod. Yes. I can't feel my fingers.\"\n\nTeen Tetris player had some 'nerves' but kept his cool\n\nDuring an interview later with streamer ITZsharky on the Classic Tetris YouTube channel, Gibson said, \"my biggest struggle was when the nerves started kicking in after 30 minutes of play.\"\n\nHis mother, Karin Cox, posted on Facebook, \"It's crazy to think he is a professional Tetris player and one of the best in the world. He makes more money every month from this than I ever did as a teenager.\"\n\nWillis, who began playing Tetris at the age of 11, and other competitive gamers will now keep trying to reach the kill screen with more efficient, higher score, he said.\n\nHe dedicated his win to his dad, Adam Gibson, who passed away Dec. 14, at age 39, reported The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network.\n\nWhen asked by ITZSharky what message he might have for other young gamers, Gibson said, \"If you set your mind to something and you put work into it, most likely you will get it if you try hard enough.\"\n\nFollow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2024/01/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2024/01/04/trumps-profits-foreign-governments-iowa-school-shooting-thursday-news/72108488007/", "title": "Trump's profits from overseas, Iowa school shooting: Thursday's news", "text": "A report from House Democrats alleges Donald Trump made millions from foreign governments spending at his businesses while he was president. And a gunman shot six people, one fatally, at a high school in Iowa.\n\nHey, it's Spencer, filling in for Laura today. Let’s get to Thursday's news.\n\n🎮 But first, after nearly 40 years, someone finally beat Tetris.How a 13-year-old from Oklahoma made video game history.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here.\n\nTrump got millions from foreign governments, Dems allege\n\nFormer President Donald Trump unconstitutionally profited from the presidency during his tenure in the White House, reaping millions of dollars for his business empire from foreign governments, House Democrats alleged in an extensive report released Thursday. Trump’s businesses, according to the report, received at least $7.8 million from corrupt and authoritarian governments including China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The report notes that its findings document \"only a fraction of Trump’s harvest of unlawful foreign state money\" after Republicans took control of the House Oversight Committee last year and halted the investigation.\n\n1 dead, 5 injured in shooting at Iowa high school\n\nA sixth-grader was killed and five other people were injured when a gunman opened fire at a high school in Perry, Iowa, on Thursday. Officials said the gunman was also dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said the shooting was first reported shortly before classes at Perry High School were set to begin. The five people injured included four students and an administrator, according to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Assistant Director Mitch Mortvedt. Four were stable, and one was in critical condition but was expected to survive, Mortvedt said.\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\nEpstein documents highlight his sprawling connections\n\nNewly released court documents tied to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein reveal not just the names of high-power figures, they also highlight the way the accused sex trafficker’s influence reached across multiple states. The hundreds of pages released Wednesday are from a lawsuit brought by one of Epstein’s alleged victims and include the names of some of his associates, witnesses and victims for the first time. Many of the names have only a tangential connection to Epstein. As the nation learns more about the vast network of people associated with Epstein, the USA TODAY Network has documented a web of alleged associates, victims and local connections. Here's what we know.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2024/01/04"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/us/millennials-turning-40-shoichet-cec/index.html", "title": "Millennials like me turned 40 this year. And everything you think you ...", "text": "CNN —\n\nFor years I believed a lot of what I heard about millennials – those avocado-toast eating, latte-guzzling, selfie-taking narcissists who still live in their parents’ basements and can’t get their lives together.\n\nThen I realized something that surprised me: I’m a millennial, as are many of the people I know and love.\n\nI’d long assumed my friends and classmates were older and wiser than this much-maligned group. But when I started covering demographics for CNN, I learned that 1981 is the birth year many researchers identify as the beginning of the millennial generation.\n\nI was born in 1982. And this year, I turned 40. So did millions of other millennials in the United States.\n\nThat’s right: The generation long portrayed as young and naïve is entering middle age.\n\nIt’s a notable milestone, and a good opportunity to point out something important: the Myth of the Millennial is very different from the reality many of us are living.\n\nMyth 1: We only think about ourselves\n\nBack in May, my husband went out of town on a trip, and I was solo parenting our infant daughter for the first time. “I can do this,” I thought, trying to reassure myself. “It won’t be that hard.” Then one night, my daughter’s first two teeth started to poke through her gums. After watching on the baby monitor as she thrashed in her crib for what probably was only a few minutes, but seemed like an eternity, I ended up holding her in my arms for the rest of the night to comfort her.\n\nMillennials like me are too busy juggling our responsibilities at work and caring for others at home to be as self-obsessed as we’ve been portrayed all these years.\n\nIn the scheme of tough things new parents can go through, this was nothing major. But I was exhausted. And so was she.\n\nAs the sun rose, we sat bleary-eyed on the floor of her room together. Her pajamas were covered with the cherry-flavored Children’s Tylenol she’d spit out when I tried to give it to her the night before. But for a few minutes that morning, we were playing and she was smiling and it seemed like we’d made it through a marathon and finally could relax.\n\nThen my phone rang with devastating, unexpected news.\n\nMy mom had died that morning.\n\nI was shaken, stunned and sobbing. I looked at my daughter playing beside me. There were so many questions I wish I’d asked my mom about how to take care of her. Instead of calling my mom that day to ask for advice, I would race to Michigan to help plan her funeral.\n\nSuddenly, the same year I became a mother had become the year when I lost a mother, too.\n\nIt was less than two months before my 40th birthday.\n\nMillennials famously appeared on the cover of TIME magazine nearly a decade ago beneath the headline, “THE ME ME ME GENERATION,” cementing our self-obsessed image.\n\nThis Time cover from 2013 reinforced stereotypes about millennials as entitled and self-absorbed. From TIME\n\nBut for me and many others, what it really means to be a millennial these days is something quite different. We are the newest sandwich generation, feeling growing pressure between raising young children and caring for aging family members – or at least wanting to care for them, given all they’ve done to care for us, but struggling to know what to do.\n\nMillennials like me are too busy juggling our responsibilities at work and caring for others at home to be as self-obsessed as we’ve been portrayed all these years.\n\nLike every generation before us, we’re growing up. But the Myth of the Millennial has long been off the mark.\n\nFor years, for example, headlines have blared that millennials aren’t having kids. The reality, though, is more complicated, according to Kim Parker, director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center.\n\n“Women are having children later. But when we look at completed fertility, we haven’t seen that they’re necessarily having fewer children, just starting later,” Parker says. “It represents a lag, not necessarily a completely different way in approaching family life.”\n\nJason Dorsey, who’s written several books about millennials and made a career out of helping Corporate America better understand them, says the memes about selfish millennials simply don’t match up with reality.\n\n“The oldest millennials tell us they’re being pulled in three different directions,” says Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics. “They’re often taking care of a child or children. They’re frequently taking care of a parent or parents. And they’re trying to navigate their jobs. And so that pull, there’s a lot going on there, and it’s a very stressful time.”\n\nMy husband captured this moment on my 40th birthday this year, as I fed my daughter while we watched July 4 fireworks. Caring for her has changed the way I look at my life. Catherine Shoichet/CNN\n\nPast generations have entered this life stage, too, Dorsey says. But this time around, one thing is different.\n\n“What’s new is to do it at 40 years old,” he says, “with so many people having very young children.”\n\nMany middle-aged millennials like me are feeling this pressure even in our most joyous moments. And Dorsey says there’s plenty of research to be done still about how this shift is changing our society.\n\nHow will this shape the kind of parents we become, or the way we approach our jobs, or the choices we make in other parts of our lives?\n\nMyth 2: We all share the same experiences\n\nIt’s not necessarily surprising that for years I didn’t realize I was one of the more than 72 million millennials in the United States.\n\nSome experts argue that analyzing our society using generation labels is just about as reliable and scientific as using your horoscope.\n\nThey contend that many more factors can shape someone’s life than the year they were born – race and socioeconomic status, for example. And when you label and analyze a whole group of people without digging much into those details, important nuances about social change end up getting lost.\n\n“Drawing arbitrary lines between birth years and slapping names on them isn’t helping,” Philip N. Cohen wrote last year in a Washington Post opinion piece. The professor of sociology at the University of Maryland has been leading a group of academics pushing for the Pew Research Center and others to stop promoting generational labels altogether.\n\nAvocado toast has become an increasingly popular restaurant offering and a symbol of millennial culture. Adobe Stock\n\nI can see their point.\n\nSome of my younger millennial friends, who are in their late 20s, have looked at me wide-eyed when I talk about the videotapes I watched growing up, or what it was like hearing that delightful, high-pitched, staticky tone that meant your home computer was oh-so-slowly connecting to the internet via dial-up. Major events that shaped our world happened at very different points in our lives. I was in college on 9/11; they were in elementary school. I was in grad school and looking for work during the Great Recession; they were still living with their parents.\n\nSome argue that the split between us is so big that older millennials like me should actually get our own category (sometimes combined with younger members of Generation X). Our so-called micro-generation has been dubbed the Xennials, the Oregon Trail Generation, and – most recently, and controversially – Geriatric Millennials.\n\n“It’s important not to label those within a 20-year span as being the same,” says Erica Dhawan, a researcher, author and consultant who coined the “Geriatric Millennial” term in a piece for Medium last year. Like me, she says she just never felt like the millennial label suited her.\n\nAll the criticism of the millennials – we said it about every generation, but it was just amplified by the internet and social media. Lindsey Pollak, author and consultant\n\nTo make things even more confusing, there’s no concrete definition of when the millennial generation begins and ends. The 1991 book credited with introducing the term states that millennials were born in 1982. Widely cited definitions on the Pew Research Center’s website describe millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996. Other researchers have floated theories that millennials were born in the late 1970s and even up to the early 2000s.\n\nThe way we talk about groups of people born in any given period – and the names we use to describe them – can change over time. “Gen Y” used to be a more common way to label our generation, before “millennials” gained momentum.\n\nNo matter what name or definition you use, there’s a sizable age gap between the older and younger members of our generation, and a wide range of life experiences we’ve all had.\n\nCan there still be value in looking at things this way?\n\n“It’s a useful lens, but it’s not the only one,” says Parker of the Pew Research Center, “and it’s important to take into account all the other factors that are causing these differences rather than just being part of a generation.”\n\nNow that I know I’m a millennial, I’m not ready to give up the label just yet. But I do want to help set the record straight and shed these persistent stereotypes about our generation (full disclosure: I do love avocado toast).\n\nMyth 3: We don’t want to own homes\n\nThe question haunts my husband and I – popping up in conversations with friends, loved ones and even strangers.\n\n“Are you thinking of buying a house?”\n\nFor years that milestone didn’t matter much to either of us. We’ve house-sat, and rented, and focused our energy and finances on doing things we enjoy together in our free time.\n\nBut now that we have a daughter, buying a house feels like something we should have done already. It also feels like something that’s increasingly out of reach, as housing costs remain high and mortgage rates skyrocket.\n\nA real estate sign outside a home in Morgan Hill, California, on October 4, 2022. Housing prices in the US soared during the pandemic, making it harder for millennials to buy homes. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images\n\nWe’re not alone in feeling like we’re behind in taking this big step, according to Kevin Mahoney, a financial advisor in Washington who specializes in helping millennials.\n\n“People are really stressed about not being homeowners,” he says. “One thing I try to communicate to them is, it’s OK to rent. You’re buying yourself flexibility. You’re buying yourself time to figure out what you want your next 20 years or next 10 years to look like.”\n\nDespite frequent handwringing over millennials not buying homes, Mahoney also points out that plenty are. One reason for America’s housing crunch, he says, is that more millennials are now entering the housing market.\n\nIt’s gotten harder to buy a house if you don’t already own one, which makes it really hard to buy a house if you’re in your 20s or 30s and have rented for years. Gray Kimbrough, economist and professor\n\nOlder millennials aged 32-41 made up a quarter of homebuyers this year, according to a National Association of Realtors report, and millennials have been the largest share of homebuyers since 2014.\n\nBut as CNN has reported, many millennials are worse off than their parents.\n\nAnd millennials are less likely to own homes at this point in their lives than previous generations. There’s a good reason for that, says Gray Kimbrough, an economist and adjunct professor at American University who’s repeatedly taken to Twitter to dispel myths about millennials.\n\nHasbro in 2018 issued a cheeky Millennials edition of its classic Monopoly board game. Its game tokens included emojis and a hashtag. Courtesy Hasbro\n\n“It’s gotten harder to buy a house if you don’t already own one,” he says, “which makes it really hard to buy a house if you’re in your 20s or 30s and have rented for years.”\n\nNot to mention that millennials have faced a far bleaker financial picture than older generations, Kimbrough says.\n\n“It’s really hard to think about getting married, having kids, moving out with roommates, and making any of these transitions with the housing market like we have now,” Kimbrough says.\n\nMy husband and I are trying not to be too overwhelmed by this daunting reality.\n\nWe’re visiting open houses on most weekends and planning to meet with mortgage brokers soon.\n\nBy this time next year, we hope we’ll be living in a home that we own.\n\nMyth 4: We don’t take our jobs seriously and don’t stay in them very long\n\nJason Dorsey tells me he often asks a question when he’s invited to visit companies and speak with their employees: “How many of you are millennials?”\n\nGenerally, he says, just a few hands timidly go up.\n\n“They’re expecting it to be negative, because that’s unfortunately what we’ve been framed as for the last 15 years,” Dorsey says.\n\nThat’s around when Dorsey says he saw anti-millennial hype intensifying. Back in 2007, he appeared on a “60 Minutes” segment ominously titled, “The Millennials Are Coming.”\n\nReporter Morley Safer didn’t pull any punches in the piece’s introduction: “A new breed of American worker is about to attack everything you hold sacred: from giving orders, to your starched white shirt and tie.”\n\nHe went on to warn that “the workplace has become a psychological battlefield and the millennials have the upper hand,” describing a generation that can “multitask, talk, walk, listen and type, and text.”\n\n“They talked about us like we were space aliens,” Dorsey recalls.\n\nThis 2007 \"60 Minutes\" segment described millennials as \"a new breed of American worker (that) is about to attack everything you hold sacred.\" CBS\n\nI missed that segment when it came out; I was a newspaper reporter at the time, likely scrambling to cover breaking news on the weekend night shift that started my much-longer-than-40-hour work week.\n\nI think I would have found the premise problematic even then, but now, with the clarity of hindsight, the “60 Minutes” story seems almost cartoonish – another chapter in a tale as old as time. “Anxious Older Generation Worries Naïve Younger Generation Is Destroying Everything” could have been an equally fitting title.\n\nConsultant and author Lindsey Pollak, who advises companies on how to navigate multigenerational workplaces, thinks the rise of social media is partly to blame for millennials’ longstanding bad rap. Pollak says our generation came of age under a microscope unlike any generation before us.\n\n“All the criticism of the millennials – we said it about every generation, but it was just amplified by the internet and social media,” she told me.\n\nMillennials have not been uniquely more likely to job-hop earlier in their careers. Actually, they’re switching jobs less. Gray Kimbrough, economist and professor\n\nDorsey says that during his presentations, details about millennials often surface that surprise many people in the room.\n\n“It turns out they’re the largest generation in that company’s workforce,” he says.\n\nHe finds that many employees had bought into the stereotype and assumed millennials were slackers or flakes. But actually, he says, millennials are often among a company’s most successful workers and managers. And by the end of his presentation, all of them are raising their hands.\n\nKimbrough tells me millennials have been staying in jobs for just as long as previous generations.\n\nYoung professionals navigate Manhattan streets on March 31, 2022, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images\n\n“Obviously people earlier in their careers shift jobs at a higher rate than people later in their careers,” he says. “Millennials have not been uniquely more likely to job-hop earlier in their careers. Actually, they’re switching jobs less. There’s actually been a big decline in job-switching since about 2000.”\n\nIt’s been more than 12 years since I’ve switched jobs. And I’m hoping to stay in this one for many more.\n\nLike me, many of my friends have been working for their employers for more than a decade. Others would have stayed, but found themselves the victims of corporate restructuring.\n\nRepeatedly weathering economic crises is an important piece of millennials’ story, too.\n\n“So many times, millennials tell me they finally feel like they’re on the right track,” Dorsey says, “and then something happens that’s beyond their control.”\n\nMyth 5: We’re forever young\n\nI remember when my dad turned 40. The mere idea of it seemed ANCIENT to me. His coworkers taped black crepe paper around his photo and hung it around the office. I was 9, and gave him a framed poem I’d written about how he shouldn’t feel bad about getting old.\n\n“The gears in your head are still turning around,” I wrote, “and your brain still works, as far as I’ve found.”\n\nSo, yes, the idea that now somehow I’m 40 is something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. On most days, I still see myself as a young adult finding my way in this crazy, confusing world.\n\nBut when I commiserate with my husband about our ever-growing list of weird aches and pains, about how we don’t really like going to loud restaurants anymore, and about The Way Things Used To Be, I realize I’m not quite ancient, but I’m definitely more middle-aged than I’d care to admit.\n\nYes, the youngest millennials are in their mid-20s. But the oldest are approaching middle age. Shutterstock\n\nStill, when I first read last year that the oldest millennials were starting to turn 40, that detail jumped out at me. The concept seemed so surprising. For so long, we’ve seen the same picture painted of millennials over and over.\n\n“People talk about millennials as though it’s this universal term for young people…which it’s not,” Pollak says.\n\nSometimes, when I look at my daughter, this idea really sharpens into focus as I feel my age hurtling toward me like a ton of bricks.\n\nShe’s so much younger than I was at this point in my parents’ lives. Or, put another way, I’m already so much older than my parents were when they were raising me. I was nearly 39 years old when my daughter was born. My husband had just turned 41. When she graduates from high school and heads to college, we’ll both be nearly 60. And if she waits as long as we did to have kids – if she decides that’s right for her – we could be 80 when we become grandparents.\n\nThinking about things this way fills me with anxiety and a tinge of sadness.\n\nWe’ve grown up seeing ourselves … as the young upstarts, as the disruptors, as the people around whom culture, and especially youth culture, are shaped. Of course we’re going to feel fed up about the fact that we’re now middle aged. Amil Niazi, writer\n\nWriter Amil Niazi, who turned 40 this year and has two young children, describes it perfectly – talking about how she finds herself constantly doing this kind of math and “getting hung up on the numbers.”\n\n“Now that I have these tiny, sweet, loving kids, all I want is more time with them, to hit pause, not on their growing and changing, but on me and the version of myself as a parent that I am right now,” she wrote in a recent piece for The Cut, where she’s also explored how hard and confusing it is to be middle-aged. “To pause the back and knee pain that grows a little more sharply every year, to halt the gray hairs and the high cholesterol, skip over the inevitable medical scares and exhaustion that seem to envelop more and more of my days.”\n\nAs I struggle to come to terms with entering my 40s and think lofty thoughts about being an aging millennial, my daughter brings me back to earth by pointing to the woman on the cover of \"Look Great Over 50\" and shouting, \"Mommy!\" Catherine Shoichet/CNN\n\nNiazi, like me and so many other middle-aged millennials, has been coming to terms with what it means not to be young anymore.\n\n“My entire life … the cultural story has always been about our youth. And it’s always been about us as this sort of young disruptive generation that was too spoiled, that had arrested development, that was upending family life, retirement, housing, employment,” Niazi told me. “We’ve grown up seeing ourselves that way, as the young upstarts, as the disruptors, as the people around whom culture, and especially youth culture, are shaped. Of course we’re going to feel fed up about the fact that we’re now middle aged.”\n\nRecently, I stopped by a bookstore with my daughter to pick up a few gifts.\n\nShe’s almost 18 months old and walking now, and as soon as I put her down she bounded over to the magazine section, where there were plenty of things to explore right at her eye level.\n\n“Mommy!” she exclaimed as she gleefully pointed at the cover of a magazine and plucked it off the rack.\n\nA beaming brunette looked out at me from beneath the title, “Look Great Over 50.”\n\n“She does look pretty great,” I thought to myself, “but OVER 50?!”\n\nMaybe my daughter was just sharing her joy at browsing in the bookstore? Surely, she couldn’t think I was more than a decade older than I am already.\n\nBut as she wandered around the magazine section for the next 20 minutes, she kept coming back to that one, saying “Mommy” every time.\n\nI almost corrected her. “Oh, that isn’t Mommy,” was on the tip of my tongue when I realized it doesn’t matter if somehow she does see me on that magazine cover.\n\nThere is so much I’m still trying to figure out, so much all of us – millennials and non-millennials alike – are struggling with as we make our way through life.\n\nAs Niazi notes, the math is truly daunting. And as this year so painfully reminded me, we never know how much time we’ll have with the ones we love.\n\nWith all this uncertainty, there is one thing I know: My daughter and I are so lucky to be together right now, sharing an evening in a bookstore – something I did with my parents, and something I’d always dreamed of doing if I ever had a child of my own.\n\nAs I watch her toddle down the aisles of the store, I feel so proud of how happy and curious she seems to be.\n\nHer generation doesn’t even have a name yet – or at least not one we know will stick. No matter what we call them someday, I can’t wait to see what they do.", "authors": ["Catherine E. Shoichet"], "publish_date": "2022/12/31"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/11/economy/inflation-history/index.html", "title": "This is the worst inflation in nearly 40 years. But it was so much ...", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nUS prices for just about everything – from cars and gasoline to food and clothing – are rising at the fastest pace in decades.\n\nOverall, consumer prices rose in 2021 at the fastest pace in 39 years, meaning this is the worst inflation experienced by anyone not on the cusp of retirement or older.\n\nBut, as those older Americans can tell you, as unwelcome as it is for consumers, today’s price increases are nowhere near as bad as they were in the 1970s and early 1980s. And most importantly for policymakers trying to deal with today’s price hikes, what fed the double-digit prices increases in those days are not a factor today – nor are they likely to be ever again.\n\n“We learned our lessons from that experience,” said Louis Johnston, economics professor at College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota.\n\nPresidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, both tried and failed to bring prices under control. Ford’s efforts included a “Whip Inflation Now” or WIN campaign, complete with shiny red buttons, that did little to help with prices. Inflation hit 12.2% in late 1974, soon after he took office, nearly twice the annual pace of increase through November of last year.\n\nThe inflation rate hit a record high of 14.6% in March and April of 1980. It helped to lead to Carter’s defeat in that fall’s election. It also led to some significant changes in the US economy.\n\nToday the annual inflation rate stands at an unadjusted 7.1%, the highest 12-month change since June of 1982.\n\nHere’s some of the key factors different from today’s US economy and the economy of the 1980s:\n\nWages tied to prices\n\nOne of the major differences between inflation then and now is that a much greater percentage of the US population were unionized workers, and many of those workers had what was known as Cost of Living Adjustments, or COLAs, built into their contracts. That raised their wages automatically as prices increased. So higher prices led to higher wages, which put more money in the hands of consumers and raised costs for businesses. It created what was known as the “wage-price spiral” that fed higher prices.\n\nEven non-union employers would raise wages to keep pace with inflation or risk losing the workers to unionized employers – or risk giving an argument to union organizing campaigns at their companies.\n\nA close-up of a WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button, President Ford's symbol of the fight against inflation in 1974. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images\n\nToday, only about 12% of workers are represented by unions, about half the rate of 1983, the earliest year for which the government recorded that data. Today’s unionized workers are primarily government workers, such as teachers, police and firefighters. Only 7% of workers in the private sector are union members. And most of those don’t have COLA clauses in their contracts. During the extended period of low inflation over the past couple decades, unions were willing to give up COLAs in return for other improvements in wage and benefit.\n\nAbout the only widespread COLA now in effect is for Social Security recipients, and employers don’t feel a need set wages to compete with those benefits.\n\nWages are rising because of a record number of unfilled job openings and a shortage of workers. But even those wage increases are less than the rate of inflation, so it’s not likely to feed into higher prices.\n\nA global check on prices\n\nIn the 1970s and 1980s, higher costs could be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices more readily than now because competition from overseas imports wasn’t as great then as it is today.\n\nCompetition from overseas certainly existed then, but in many sectors of the economy, businesses only had to worry about domestic competitors. That’s not the case any longer.\n\nA surge in global trade has kept inflation in check in recent decades. Part of today’s inflation is being attributed to problems with the global supply chain, which has led to a worldwide increase shipping costs. So that has limited the supply of low-cost competition, which in turn has allowed even leading domestic companies to raise their prices as well.\n\nOil shocks hurt worse back then\n\nOne common factor between the record inflation of the 1970s and 1980s and today is rapidly surging energy prices.\n\nThe 1973 Arab-Israeli War prompted Arab members of OPEC to impose an embargo on oil shipments to the United States that lasted into 1974. And the Iran-Iraq war of 1979 choked off supply as well.\n\nPresident Jimmy Carter giving a speech on the economy and inflation in March 1980. Chuck Fishman/Archive Photos/Getty Images\n\nThe limited supply sent prices soaring. Drivers were hit with a 69% increase in gas prices in early 1980 compared to a year earlier, which was even worse than the 58% annual increase through November of this year.\n\nThis time, large percentage increases in oil and gas prices are partly due to comparisons to the very low prices of 2020, when stay-at-home orders and widespread temporary job losses created a glut of oil, and temporarily resulted in negative oil prices.\n\nThose lower prices prompted producers to cut oil output, and some refineries to close. When demand returned this year, the tighter supply and strong demand combined to drive up prices.\n\nAlthough oil and gas prices could very possibly stay or climb even higher in the months ahead, the good news is that the US economy is much less dependent on oil today than it was 40 or 50 years ago.\n\nMoving from an economy built around energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing to one driven by service industries has reduced the relative dependence on oil.\n\n“One of the most overlooked changes is the reduced energy intensity of the American economy,” said Johnston.\n\nComparing total energy consumption to gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a nation’s economic activity, shows the US economy uses about a third of the energy per inflation-adjusted dollar of economic activity that it did in 1970, and about 44% of what it used when inflation peaked in 1980.\n\nThe 1970s and 1980s oil shocks significantly reduced oil as a source of fuel for electricity generation to the point where it is well less than 1% today. And more importantly, much more fuel-efficient cars also limited oil consumption despite many more miles being driven. That means Americans are spending far less on oil compared to other items.\n\nDeregulation\n\nAnother significant change in the US economy is that the government is much less involved in setting prices than it was then.\n\nDeregulation of industries such as telecommunications, airlines and trucking all started partly as a response to the high prices of the 1970s and 1980s, said Johnston. Government-controlled prices generally limited competition and kept prices and services offered to consumers artificially high.\n\nAlthough the actual changes in the law didn’t take effect until after the inflation dragon had been slayed, the deregulation has worked to keep prices for many of those goods and services lower than they likely would have been otherwise.\n\nInflation finally did come under control, thanks largely to the Federal Reserve under chairman Paul Volcker jacking up the federal funds rate to a record 18.9%, sparking recessions in both 1980 and another in 1981-82. By the time the second recession ended, the inflation rate was down to 4.5% and it wouldn’t hit 5% again until 1990.", "authors": ["Chris Isidore"], "publish_date": "2022/01/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2023/02/08/lebron-james-nba-points-king-who-could-pass-scoring-record/11084850002/", "title": "LeBron James is NBA career points king. Who could pass scoring ...", "text": "Who could pass LeBron James someday as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer?\n\nJames passed Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, who held the record for nearly 40 years, and now has 38,390 after Tuesday's loss to Oklahoma City. James is going to keep adding points, putting himself in position to blow by 40,000 points.\n\nWill that be an unbreakable record – like Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game or Chamberlain’s 50.4 points per game in 1961-62 or even Scott Skiles’ single-game assists record of 30?\n\nJames benefitted from not spending at least one season in college whereas every player since the 2006 draft has needed to be one year removed from his high school graduating class to become draft eligible. That’s a season’s worth of points that James accumulated while players such as Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic had to wait.\n\nLet’s take a look at who could make a run at the all-time scoring record:\n\nKevin Durant, 26,684 career points\n\nDurant’s chances to become the all-time scoring leader have been thwarted by injuries. He played just 27 games in 2014-15, missed 2019-20 with an Achilles injury and played just 35 games the following season. Durant entered the league four years after James and trails him by nearly 12,000 points. At 34 years old and with just a handful of seasons left, it will be difficult for Durant to hit 40,000 points (which is where James will end up). Had he not missed all that time to injuries, he would likely be over 30,000 points with a better chance at passing James. Still, Durant – if healthy – will move into the top 10 in scoring next season and possibly pass Michael Jordan for a spot in the top five by the time his career is over.\n\nJames Harden, 24,233 points\n\nHarden has scored at least 20 points per game for 11 consecutive seasons, including an MVP-caliber stretch in which he averaged 30.4, 36.1 and 34.3 points in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. At 33, even if he were to score 2,000 points a season for the next seven seasons (highly unlikely given his scoring trajectory is on the downswing), he’d still be short of James. Harden is also hurt by low scoring totals his first two seasons.\n\nSteph Curry, 21,183 points\n\nNo one can question Curry’s skill as a scorer. But the occasional injury has hurt his chances to make a run at the all-time scoring record. He played in just 23 games in 2011-12 and five in 2019-20. At just over 21,000 points now, he will need another 19,000 to reach 40,000 – another unlikely scenario given Curry’s age (34). Don’t forget he was a three-year college player whereas James didn’t attend college and Durant spent just one season at Texas. Small guards (6-2 and under) are not represented in the top 25 in all-time scoring and cracking that would be a major accomplishment.\n\nLuka Doncic, 8,531 points\n\nDoncic is the most compelling case study. He entered the league as a scorer, posting 21.2 points per game in 2019-20 and hovered around 28 points per game for the next three seasons and is at 34 points per game this season. With 8,531 career points before the halfway mark of his fifth season, Doncic is on a great pace to become one of the game’s all-time leading scorers. But the all-time leading scorer? That’s more difficult. If Doncic played 70 games and averaged 28.1 points a season, he wouldn’t reach 40,000 points until his 20th season – in 2037-38. Plus, can Doncic manage his heavy workload for that long without impacting his scoring or health?\n\nUnknown player\n\nJames was not born yet when Abdul-Jabbar passed Chamberlain as the league’s all-time leading scorer in 1984. Abdul-Jabbar played another five seasons, padding his lead. Since then, five other players soared by Chamberlain. It’s quite possible and even likely that the person who breaks James’ scoring record – and don’t forget James probably will bust through 40,000 – isn’t in the league right now and might not even be alive. One thing is for certain. For a player to make a run at James’ record, he will benefit from the league eventually ending the one-and-done rule so that players can enter the league at 18 years old without spending a year in college – and start off averaging at least 20 points and have a career average of 27 points for 20 seasons. In other words, another once-in-a-generation player.\n\nFollow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/02/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2021/05/10/tristyn-bailey-what-we-know-death-st-johns-florida-teenager/5022972001/", "title": "What we know about the death of 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey", "text": "Staff\n\nThe Florida Times-Union\n\nThe body of Tristyn Bailey, 13, a seventh-grader at Patriot Oaks Academy in Saint Johns, was discovered Sunday, May 9, 2021, hours after the teenager was reported missing by her family.\n\nAiden Fucci, 14, has been arrested on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Tristyn. His trial is expected to begin in November.\n\nLATEST NEWS\n\nDays before the first anniversary of Tristyn Bailey's death, the St. Johns County teen accused of killing the 13-year-old girl appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing.\n\nCharged with first-degree murder, Aiden Fucci, 15, will stand trial in November, Judge Lee Smith said at Thursday's hearing. Fucci is set appear in court again on June 7 and Oct. 26 before his trial that is expected to begin on Nov. 7 and last for as long as two weeks.\n\nMore: To stay up to date on the case, download the Times-Union app today\n\nOne year later: How a community knitted together by tragedy supported a family in grief\n\nTHE CASE\n\nHow did Tristyn Bailey die?\n\nAccording to Chief Medical Examiner Predrag Bulic, the cause of Tristyn's death is \"sharp force trauma by stabbing.\" An autopsy revealed Tristyn had 114 \"stab or cutting wounds about her head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and back,\" according to an unredacted warrant affidavit released by the State Attorney on May 27.\n\nWhere was Tristyn Bailey found?\n\nTristyn's body was found Sunday evening, May 9, near a retention pond at the end of the cul-de-sac on Saddlestone Drive in the neighborhood in which she lived.\n\nWhat happened to Tristyn Bailey? Court records detail what happened the night she was killed\n\nLooking back:Before Aiden Fucci, these juveniles were charged as adults in high-profile Jacksonville-area cases\n\nWho is the suspect charged in Tristyn Bailey's death?\n\nAiden Fucci, 14, is an eighth-grader at Patriot Oaks Academy, the same school where Tristyn attended seventh grade.\n\nWhat is Aiden Fucci charged with?\n\nFucci was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. The charge later was upgraded to first-degree murder due to the severity of the crime — namely, the 114 stabbing wounds to the victim's body, said R.J. Larizza, state attorney for the circuit.\n\nCoping with loss:St. Johns County communities deal with killing of Tristyn Bailey\n\n'Our worst nightmare':Sheriff: Tristyn Bailey's death was the 'horrific, brutal murder of a 13-year-old child'\n\nWhat led to Fucci's arrest?\n\nInterrogation and surveillance video led to the 14-year-old boy's arrest, according to a redacted version of the arrest report released by the sheriff's office. \"The defendant's story changed several times but [he] ultimately made several admissions,\" according to the report.\n\nWhat about that Snapchat selfie?\n\nThe sheriff's office confirmed that a Snapchat selfie depicting the suspect in the back of a law enforcement vehicle on May 9 was, in fact, posted by the teen charged in Bailey's death. In the image, the suspect appears to be holding up a peace sign, with the caption: \"Hey guys, has inbody [sic] seen Tristyn lately.\"\n\nWhen the Snapchat was posted, the suspect was a witness being questioned in what was still a missing person case, according to the sheriff's office.\n\nPeople responded on Snapchat. One message read, \"You were with her Aiden u know what happened to her.\"\n\nWhat Sheriff Rob Hardwick said about the death of Tristyn Bailey\n\nSt. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick called the crime a \"horrific, brutal murder.\"\n\n\"This is one of those cases — I hate to use the words, but — it's our worst nightmare,\" Hardwick said in an interview with The St. Augustine Record. \"These kids both went to school together. ... It's going to be a long process to heal for our community.\"\n\nTristyn Bailey remembered as someone who brought 'light to everyone around her'\n\nThousands of friends, neighbors and classmates gathered for a \"Celebration of Life\" public memorial service to honor Tristyn Bailey Tuesday, May 18, at Celebration Church Arena in Jacksonville. Attendees were asked to wear white or aqua, the latter of which was Tristyn's favorite color. You can watch the service here:\n\nWhy was Aiden Fucci's mother arrested?\n\nCrystal Lane Smith, 35, was arrested Saturday, June 5, 2021, and charged with tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony charge. According to the felony warrant, video surveillance from Smith’s home shows her retrieving “what appeared to be a pair of blue jeans, taking the jeans to the adjacent bathroom, and appeared to be scrubbing the jeans in the bathroom sink,” according to the warrant. The video then showed Smith taking the jeans to her master bedroom “for a period of time,” the warrant said.\n\nWho are the witnesses in the case against Aiden Fucci?\n\nThe 7th Judicial State Attorney's Office has listed well over 200 witnesses for its case against Aiden Fucci, according to court documents. The list includes both of Fucci's parents; the county medical examiner; dozens of law enforcement officials and witnesses; residents in the Durbin Crossing neighborhood; staff from Patriot Oaks Academy, where Fucci and Bailey attended school; and others.\n\nWitnesses say Aiden Fucci talked about stabbing someone to death\n\nA student who said she was close with Aiden Fucci said he talked about killing people frequently, and she said that within a month before Tristyn Bailey's killing, he said he planned to murder someone by dragging a random person into the woods and stabbing them, according to a just-released St. Johns County Sheriff's Office report.\n\nThe friend also said that on occasion, Fucci \"would take his knife out and pretend to stab her with it.\"\n\nGoFundMe account will support memorial foundation\n\nA GoFundMe account has been set up for Bailey's family, which they say will be used to establish a memorial foundation in Tristyn's name. In the first week, the crowdfunding fundraising platform campaign had raised more than $52,000 from more than 1,400 donors. As of May 4, 2022, the campaign had raised more than $63,000.\n\nTimeline: Events in the disappearance, death of Tristyn Bailey\n\nSaturday, May 8\n\n11:45 p.m.: Bailey family returns home after an evening out.\n\nAround midnight: Tristyn Bailey last seen by a sibling and was supposed to be sleeping in her bedroom.\n\nSunday, May 9\n\n12:30 a.m.: Video shows Tristyn walking in the neighborhood\n\n1:14 a.m.: Two people, believed to be Tristyn and Aiden, were seen walking together\n\n1:45 a.m.: Video evidence from a home shows Tristyn and Aiden walking east on Saddlestone Drive\n\n3:30 a.m.: Video from the same home shows a person believed to be Aiden heading in opposite direction alone, carrying white Nike shoes. Moments, later, video shows Aiden entering his home carrying white Nike shoes\n\n10 a.m.: Tristyn's mother calls 911 to report the teen missing. Florida Department of Law Enforcement joins search\n\n4:49 p.m.: Florida Missing Child Alert issued for Tristyn\n\n6:06 p.m.: A resident who had been on a run called to report a dead body in the woods east of the cul-de-sac on Saddlestone Drive. After identifying the body as Bailey's, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office calls off their search\n\n8 p.m.: Sheriff's Office announces body found and preliminarily identified as Tristyn Bailey\n\n8:49 p.m.: Aiden and his parents are placed in a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office interview room\n\nMonday, May 10\n\n12:44 a.m.: Investigators search Fucci home, finding a Buck brand knife sheath; a pair of wet, white Nike shoes with blood on them; a T-shirt with blood on it; a white piece of paper with handwriting with possible blood on it; and a pair of wet blue denim jeans in a laundry basket. They also find blood and dirt on the drain in the bathroom sink next to Aiden's bedroom.\n\n3:30 a.m.: Aiden arrested on charge of second-degree murder\n\n11:30 a.m.: Sheriff's Office confirms identity of body found as that of Tristyn Bailey and announces arrest of Aiden Fucci, a 14-year-old classmate, on charges of second-degree murder\n\n8:30 p.m.: Candlelight vigil honors Tristyn at South Durbin Crossing Amenities Center\n\nTuesday, May 11\n\n8:30 a.m.: Fucci charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tristyn Bailey remanded to detention for at least 21 days in his first court appearance\n\n1:30 p.m.: Sheriff's Office reports that Chief Medical Examiner Predrag Bulic determined that the cause of Tristyn's death is sharp force trauma by stabbing and that video placed the pair walking near the scene in that time frame.\n\nMonday, May 17\n\nAnway \"Andy\" Snober, hired to represent the 14-year-old suspect by his family, files to withdraw from the case. A judge granted the motion.\n\nTuesday, May 18\n\n5 p.m.: The Bailey family holds a public memorial service for Tristyn at Celebration Church in Jacksonville.\n\nThursday, May 20\n\nJudge approves indigency motions filed on behalf of the parents of the 14-year-old suspect and announces the suspect will be represented by the public defender's office, led by St. Augustine-based attorney Joshua Mosley.\n\nThursday, May 27\n\nAccording to St. Johns County court documents, Fuc will face a first-degree murder charge and will also be charged as an adult.\n\nFriday, May 28\n\nDuring a first court appearance hearing, Judge Henry Maltz rules that Aiden Fucci be held without bail at an adult facility in St. Johns County.\n\nThursday, June 3\n\nAiden Fucci enters a plea of not guilty on the first-degree murder charge.\n\nSaturday, June 5\n\nCrystal Lane Smith, the mother of 14-year-old Aiden Fucci, is arrested on a warrant charging her with tampering with evidence following the killing of Tristyn Bailey.\n\nWednesday, July 14\n\nIn newly released documents, one of Fucci's friends said he talked about killing people frequently, and that weeks before Bailey's killing, Fucci said he planned to murder someone by dragging a random person into the woods and stabbing them.\n\nMonday, July 26\n\nCrystal Lane Smith pleads not guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence\n\nThursday, Oct. 28\n\nAiden appears in court. Judge Lee Smith grants a continuance filed by Aiden's attorney, Joshua Mosely, until Feb. 2\n\n2022\n\nWednesday, Feb. 2\n\nAiden Fucci appears in St. Johns County court for a pretrial hearing. Trial set for November.\n\nWHAT'S NEXT\n\nAiden Fucci is expected in court on Friday, May 5, 2022 for a pre-trial hearing.\n\nOther notable Jacksonville-area child abductions, murders\n\nNov. 6, 2019: Taylor Rose Williams, 5, is reported missing around 7:20 a.m. by her mother, Brianna Williams, at their Brentwood home. Days later, her remains were discovered in a wooded area between Demopolis and Linden, Ala., and her mother was arrested on charges of child neglect and giving false information to investigators.\n\nJuly 24, 2015: Lonzie Barton, 21 months, is reported missing at 2:20 a.m. by William Ruben Ebron Jr., the boyfriend of his mother, Lonna Lauramore Barton. Ebron said his car, with Lonzie inside, had been stolen from his apartment building’s parking lot and he was unable to chase it down. But residential security video later surfaced showing him staging the car theft, police said. Ebron lead police to the toddler’s body on Jan. 11, 2016. Ebron is in prison until 2040; Lonna Lauramore Barton was sentenced to five years in prison for her role in Lonzie’s death and another seven years on a drug charge.\n\nJune 22, 2013: Cherish Perrywinkle, 8, is abducted from a Jacksonville Walmart, raped and murdered. Perrywinkle’s body was found hours later and Donald James Smith, 56, a sexual offender with a history of crimes against children, was arrested. Smith was found guilty on Valentine’s Day 2018 and sentenced to death in December 2018.\n\nFeb. 10, 2010: Makia Ann Coney, 17, a student at University Christian School, is shot and killed by classmates Charles Roy Southern, 17, and Connor Julian Pridgen, 16, after school.\n\nOct. 19, 2009: Somer Thompson, 7, is last seen at 2:45 p.m. walking home from Grove Park Elementary School on Gano Avenue in Orange Park. Two days later, her body was found in a Georgia landfill. In March 2010, Jarred Harrell was arrested and charged with her murder. In February 2012, Harrell pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six life sentences.\n\nFeb. 10, 2009: Haleigh Cummings, 5, is reported missing at 3:17 a.m. from her parents’ home in Satsuma in Putnam County. After more than a decade, she is still missing.\n\nJuly 29, 2007: Tony Youmans, 12, is last seen at 4:30 p.m. on Hyde Park Road. He was found two days later in a nearby park dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities said he died “while playing around with the firearm.” Derrick Glover, 24, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling the gun that killed Youmans to him.\n\nNov. 3, 1998: Maddie Clifton, 8, is reported missing at 7 p.m. A week after disappearing, her body was found under the waterbed of her 14-year-old neighbor, Josh Phillips, by the boy’s mother. Phillips was arrested and charged with murder after telling police he accidentally hit Maddie with a baseball, then panicked because he feared getting in trouble. He said he then hit her with a bat and stabbed her to stop her screaming. Tried as an adult, Phillips was found guilty of murder in the first degree in July 1999 and sentenced to life in prison without parole a month later.\n\nJuly 10, 1998: Kamiyah Mobley is abducted hours after her birth at University Medical Center by a woman posing as a nurse. Nearly 19 years later, on Jan. 13, 2017, Kamiyah was found alive and well, living in South Carolina with her abductor, Gloria Williams. Williams pleaded guilty in May 2018 and later sentenced to 18 years in prison.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/08/08/hip-hop-version-of-walk-this-way-run-d-m-c-aerosmith-ultimate-crossover-hit-hip-hop-50th/70517385007/", "title": "Run-D.M.C.'s hip-hop take of 'Walk This Way' is the ultimate crossover", "text": "As the story goes, one day nearly 40 years ago, a precocious 22-year-old New York record producer named Rick Rubin heard one of his bands, the hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C., messing with a catchy riff on a turntable.\n\nBom-bah, bah-bom-bom bah.\n\n“You know what that is?” Rubin asked the group, who replied that it was just known in the hip-hop community as The Beat.\n\n“No, that’s Aerosmith’s song, ‘Walk This Way,’” Rubin said. Which generated a look that best translates to: What’s an Aerosmith?\n\nBut the song was destined to be a once and future hit, going from a radio staple for the Boston-based rock band in 1975 to a revamped crossover for Run-D.M.C. in 1986.\n\nThat summer, the culturally ascendant Run-D.M.C. – Joseph \"Run\" Simmons, Darryl \"DMC\" McDaniels and Jason \"Jam Master Jay\" Mizell (who passed away in 2002) – released their rap-meets-rock collaboration of “Walk This Way\" on their hot third album, \"Raising Hell.\"\n\nThe mash-up forever changed the lily-white nature of MTV and helped introduce a large swath of white America to hip-hop, a vibe, style and flavor that in the 50 years since its acknowledged debut has embraced and enveloped other genres with inimitable skill.\n\n“Walk This Way” also served as a demarcation point for both groups. It led to a fallow period for the rappers (who headline the 50th anniversary of hip-hop concert at Yankee Stadium Aug. 11) and a soaring rebirth for the rockers (who perform their final concerts this fall).\n\nRap version of 'Walk This Way' was a favorite on rock radio, ushering new fans to hip-hop\n\n“The reason this song is so important is not because it was Run-D.M.C.’s best song, because it’s not, but because it was played on white rock radio stations all over the country and introduced that sound to a new crowd,” says Geoff Edgers, author of “Walk This Way: Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith, and the Song that Changed American Music Forever.”\n\nEdgers says after “Walk This Way,” Run-D.M.C. stalled a bit, waiting two years to put out their next record, “an eternity in the hip-hop world.” Meanwhile, the revamped song convinced Aerosmith to work with outside writers, which led to their pop metal renaissance with 1987’s “Permanent Vacation.”\n\n“That song also deified Rick Rubin, opening up the door for him to do everything from metal to rap to Johnny Cash,” says Edgers, music writer for the Washington Post. “He’s now seen as a guy who can get the best out of any musician, and the root of that Rick Rubin mythology is his vision for ‘Walk This Way.’”\n\nTo watch the video of that version on YouTube is to see a perfect visual metaphor for its impact.\n\nBoth bands are rehearsing in adjoining studios, with Run-D.M.C. pounding on a shared wall to get Aerosmith to turn their amps down. When they resist, the rappers decide to play their rapped version of “Walk This Way” even louder.\n\nEventually, the wall between the two camps is literally broken down and they wind up on a stage together trading verses and riffs.\n\nFor Black youths who felt MTV 'wasn't watching me,' the video's popularity was a cultural breakthrough\n\n“I was 12 when it came out on MTV, which I was watching even though the channel wasn’t really watching me as a young Black kid,” says Dion Summers, vice president of programming for SiriusXM radio. “So that was a game changer.”\n\nHe says the song also presaged the sort of cross-genre collaboration “you see all the time now, whether it’s Jay-Z and Linkin Park, Nelly and Tim McGraw or Travis Scott and Bad Bunny.”\n\nSummers credits Rubin “for having the foresight to see where rap could go as a genre,” noting the song eventually led to a larger Black and hip-hop presence on the overwhelmingly white MTV. “I remember how fresh it all sounded,” he says.\n\nThere was indeed something mesmerizingly seamless in the way the totally distinct vocal performances blended into one sonic sandwich that instantly defined the changing times.\n\nThe revamping of 'Walk This Way' seemed unique in 1986, but hip-hop artists had been sampling its riff for years\n\nBut the mash-up was, in fact, not novel, says Dave “Davey D” Cook, a hip-hop scholar and professor of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University.\n\n“The dance with white folks had been going for a while before Aerosmith, and it seemed more genuine,” he says. “Before, there was the relationship between hip-hop and new wave and punk, with Blondie, the Clash, the Tom Tom Club. Those acts often asked rappers to come perform at their shows, and if the audience didn’t like them, they’d step to them and say, ‘These are our guys.’”\n\nCook particularly sites Blondie’s Debbie Harry rapping on the 1980 single “Rapture” as a watershed moment. But, he allows, “that Run-D.M.C. song was a swift kick. People who didn’t know about rap before then started to check it out.”\n\nEdgers says “Walk This Way” had long been a staple of the vinyl-scratching masters before the 1986 Run-D.M.C. effort, with none other than seminal rapper Grandmaster Flash sampling the infectious Perry two-bar opening riff during house parties.\n\n“I’m not even sure Run-D.M.C. knew that ‘Walk This Way’ had lyrics, because hip-hop only cared about that opening,” he says.\n\nNow iconic, the Run-D.M.C./Aerosmith collaboration could easily never have happened\n\nNot that either band had great interest in the collaboration, says Edgers.\n\n“Run-D.M.C. were more concerned with a rental car they had, which they worried had been stolen, and (Aerosmith singer) Steven Tyler and (guitarist) Joe Perry were so drugged out back then I’m not sure they were thinking straight and at most saw it as just a way to get a few bucks,” he says.\n\nIn Edgers' oral biography of the song's history, McDaniel says that Rubin gave the group a yellow pad to start writing out the hormonally driven lyrics to \"Walk This Way.\" That almost ended the affair.\n\n\"We go down to my basement and put on the record and then you hear 'Backstroke lover always hidin’ ’neath the covers' and immediately me and Joe (Simmons) get on the phone and say: “Hell no, this ain’t going to happen. This is hillbilly gibberish, country-bumpkin bulls---.”\n\nBut Rubin persisted and persevered. As unlikely as the musical meet-up between the disparate musicians was, the result was a moment that helped not only Aerosmith’s foundering career but pushed rap into a spotlight that only grew hotter with the decades to come.\n\n“Thank heavens they worked with a good song,” Edgers says with a laugh. “If they’d recorded a lesser song, or if Aerosmith had collaborated with lesser rappers, it would have never been as popular as it was. But it was one of those cosmic organic things that just came together beautifully.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/warriors/2016/06/20/warriors-nba-champions-timeline-stephen-curry-klay-thompson/85830936/", "title": "What could have been: Chronicling the Warriors near-perfect 2015 ...", "text": "AJ Neuharth-Keusch\n\nUSA TODAY Sports\n\nSo close, yet so far.\n\nJust one win away from capturing the NBA's most coveted crown for the second year in a row, the Golden State Warriors — the team that put together the winningest regular season in league history — have come up short.\n\nWith one of the most monumental losses in Finals history in the books, and nothing left but the sour smell of the champagne-soaked floors of the visiting locker rooms at Oracle Arena, we take a look back to where it all started, from the opening tip of the Warriors' 2015-16 season to the utter disappointment of the Finals.\n\nThe celebration\n\nDate: October 27, 2015\n\nRecap: The championship banner was raised, players were given their rings, and the Warriors — just four months removed from the franchise's first NBA title in 40 years — took the floor on opening night with something to prove. They beat the New Orleans Pelicans 111-95 behind 40 points from MVP Stephen Curry and sent a message to the league's 29 other teams in the process: They weren't going anywhere.\n\nThe 16-0 start\n\nDate: November 24, 2015\n\nRecap: After matching the previous record set by the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and the 1993-94 Houston Rockets for the best start in NBA history at 15-0, the Warriors trounced the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 of to set their own record of 16-0. But it was only the beginning ...\n\nThe end of a run\n\nDate: December 12, 2015\n\nRecap: The most dominant start in league history had to come to an end at some point, didn't it? After extending their 16-0 start to 24-0, the Warriors — playing the final game of a brutal seven-game road stretch — were finally handed a loss. With the 108-95 win, the Milwaukee Bucks became the first team in 186 days to beat the NBA champions.\n\nThe rematch\n\nDate: December 25, 2015\n\nRecap: The highly-anticipated 2015 Finals rematch finally happened on Christmas Day, and the Warriors — who entered the game with the best record in league history through 28 games (27-1) — had no plans of letting LeBron James and the Cavaliers exact their revenge. The defending champs snuck by with an 89-83 win in a knock-down drag-out defensive battle, led by Draymond Green's 22 points and 15 rebounds.\n\nThe return\n\nDate: January 22, 2016\n\nRecap: As if the Warriors winning 39 of their first 43 games wasn't impressive enough, they did it without head coach Steve Kerr on the sidelines as a result of complications from two offseason back surgeries. When he made his return and interim head coach Luke Walton slid back to assistant, the team didn't lose a step, and it all started with a 122-110 victory over the Indiana Pacers.\n\nThe visit\n\nDate: February 4, 2016\n\nRecap: A day after Curry manhandled the Washington Wizards (51 points, 11-of-15 from three) in the nation's capital, the Warriors took a trip to the White House for an honorary championship ceremony with President Barack Obama, who shed light on just how important the NBA's golden boys are to the game of basketball.\n\n“The point is, this is a great basketball team, but it’s a great organization, it’s a great culture,” he said. “And these are outstanding young men. They’re the kind of people you want representing a city, representing the NBA, and the kind of people that you want our kids to be rooting for.”\n\nOf course, they had a little fun, too.\n\nThe shot heard 'round the NBA\n\nDate: February 27, 2016\n\nRecap: If there was a single definitive moment from the regular season that represented just how absurd Curry's reign of terror from beyond the arc has been — this was it. With just a few seconds left in the first overtime of a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and with the score tied at 118, Curry took three dribbles to just beyond mid-court, fired up a prayer from 30-plus feet and watched his shot splash home with 0.6 seconds to go. The shot gave him 46 points on the night, tied the individual NBA record for three-pointers in a single game with 12, and gave the Warriors a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Did we mention that, with 24 games still left on the schedule, the three-point prayer broke his own record for three-pointers made in a season (288), too?\n\nThe NBA Twitter-verse responded accordingly.\n\nThe three-point record\n\nDate: March 26, 2016\n\nRecap: Not only did the Warriors become just the second team in NBA history to win 65 games in two consecutive seasons with their 128-120 win over the Dallas Mavericks, but they brought their three-point total to 938 makes on the season, passing the previous mark of 933 set by the Houston Rockets the year before.\n\nThe 73rd win\n\nDate: April 13, 2016\n\nRecap: With their 125-104 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on the final night of the season, the Warriors reached what was once thought to be unreachable: 73 wins, passing the previous record of 72 set by the Michael Jordan-led 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls. Curry knocked down 10 three-pointers on the night to finish the season with 402 makes, a whopping 116 more than the previous record.\n\nThe injury\n\nDate: April 24, 2016\n\nRecap: After returning from a two-game absence with an ankle injury, Curry suffered a Grade 1 MCL sprain in Game 4 of the Western Conference first-round series against the Rockets. Dub Nation watched nervously as he limped to the locker room, and although the Warriors went on to win the game to take a 3-1 series lead, the status of their almighty point guard still hung in the balance.\n\nThe second MVP\n\nDate: May 10, 2016\n\nRecap: After returning from his first-round injury in top form in the second round against the Portland Trail Blazers, Curry was once again given the NBA's highest individual honor for the second consecutive year. He finished the the regular season with averages of:\n\n30.1 points (1st in NBA)\n\n6.7 assists (10th in NBA)\n\n5.4 rebounds (3rd amongst point guards)\n\n2.1 steals (1st in NBA)\n\n50.4% shooting (1st amongst point guards)\n\n45.4% three-point shooting (3rd in NBA)\n\n90.8% free throw shooting (1st in NBA)\n\nNot only did he join the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Steve Nash as just the fourth guard in league history to win the award in back-to-back years, Curry became the first player to ever to win the award by unanimous decision.\n\nThe comeback\n\nDate: May 30, 2016\n\nRecap: Down 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals, the Warriors were one game away from watching their historic journey come to an end in heartbreaking fashion at the hands of the Thunder. Only nine of 232 teams down 3-1 in NBA history were able to come back and win the series, but the Warriors did just that. First was a 120-111 win at home in Game 5, then a 108-101 win led by Klay Thompson's 41-point outburst, and finally, back on the hallowed grounds of Oracle Arena, a 96-88 win to put the lid on what had the potential to be one of the greatest postseason runs in NBA history by the Thunder.\n\nThe slip up\n\nDate: June 16, 2016\n\nRecap: Up 3-1 in the series with a close-out Game 5 at Oracle Arena, the Warriors had the NBA championship at their fingertips. Then James and Kyrie Irving happened. Behind the high-powered dynamic duo, the Cavs won back-to-back games to tie up the series at three games apiece and force a do-or-die Game 7.\n\nThe imperfect ending\n\nDate: June 19, 2016\n\nRecap: The stage was set, the stakes couldn't have been higher, and the Warriors couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to end one of the most storied seasons in league history. All they had to do was outplay the Cavaliers for 48 minutes and the Larry O'Brien Trophy was theirs. That was a task that proved too tough, and when the final buzzer echoed through the silent confines of Oracle Arena, the Warriors' near-perfect season came to an imperfect end.\n\nFollow AJ Neuharth-Keusch on Twitter @tweetAJNK", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnists/carlos-monarrez/2022/10/28/michigan-footballs-beatdown-michigan-state-could-be-historic/69594649007/", "title": "Michigan football's beatdown of Michigan State could be historic", "text": "When I was 12 years old, I watched my best friend get beat up.\n\nHe and another boy in our class had some kind of beef that I didn’t understand. Sometimes the heart just hates. I tried to talk him out of fighting, but he was fearless despite being overmatched.\n\nSo he met the boy in a park after school and asked me to come along to make sure it was a fair fight. It was. After a few swings, my friend was down. The other boy was on top of him. I gave my friend a few moments to see if he could rally and get back to his feet. He couldn’t, so I stopped the fight.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/10/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2022/12/30/uc-bearcats-begin-aac-play-with-hard-fought-home-victory-over-tulane/69760454007/", "title": "Cincinnati Basketball: Bearcats beat Tulane for AAC win", "text": "The grind of league play has arrived for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats along with the reality that no lead is ever safe.\n\nThursday night at Fifth Third Arena, coach Wes Miller's Bearcats led by as many as 17, only to see Tulane cut the deficit repeatedly in the second half. Many of the 9,484 comfortable in their seats early were squirming when the Green Wave cut UC's lead to a bucket with just over seven minutes left.\n\nLanders Nolley II's 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring at 3:56 put the Bearcats up 9 points and they were able to fend off all late challenges from there, eventually beating Tulane 88-77. The Bearcats led for nearly 39 of the game's 40 minutes.\n\n\"Any league win is a good win,\" Coach Miller said. \"That's a really good basketball team, a terrific offensive basketball team. Finishing games out needs to be a bit better, but you did see some stops down the stretch, that's how you finish it.\"\n\nUC had five scorers in double figures led by redshirt senior Nolley with 23, senior Mika Adams-Woods with 18, grad senior David DeJulius with 13, redshirt sophomore Viktor Lakhin with 13 and senior Jeremiah Davenport with 10.\n\nNolley's old-school shot fakes were effective most of the night. His 23-point effort was second only to his 33-point outing in Maui against Arizona. Afterward, he admitted to working on his pump fakes in practice even when he's not guarded.\n\n\"Everyone on the team tells me to shoot more,\" Nolley said.\n\nSaid Miller, \"He does what good offensive players do. They have a weapon and they have a way to play off of it. He's such an elite shooter. There's sometimes he shot fakes and I want him to shoot it because every time he shoots it, I think it's going in.\"\n\nNolley canned five treys on the night, while Lakhin achieved a double-double for the fifth time this season, all Bearcat victories. He had 13 boards and the Bearcats outrebounded the Green Wave 38-31.\n\n\"I still think he's just scratching the surface of who he is as a player,\" Miller said of Lakhin. \"You're not seeing anyone close to their ceiling. He's going to keep coming and coming and coming.\"\n\nTulane was topped by juniors Kevin Cross with 22 points and Jaylen Forbes with 20. Coach Ron Hunter's Green Wave falls to 7-5. Preseason First Team All-League pick Jalen Cook was held to 15 points, with just two of those coming in the second half. He came in averaging 20.2. Credit DeJulius on the defense.\n\n\"I thought him fouling out had a huge outcome on their possessions down the stretch,\" Miller said. \"There were a couple offensive fouls that David drew beating him to the position. Those are humongous plays for our team.\"\n\nUnlike last year's meeting when the Bearcats dug a 26-point hole in the first half before trying to rally back, UC came out on target. In their lone game last season, Tulane hit 9-of-14 of their treys in the first half. On this night, they went 0-for-10.\n\nUC's biggest lead of the half was 17, but Tulane was able to cut it to 10 by the break, largely on free throws. Lakhin sat the final five-plus minutes of the first stanza with two fouls but was active on the boards with seven by the break. As hot as they were to start, the second half began ice cold as UC's double-digit lead was whittled to four by Tulane at the 15:39 mark. They would eventually make it a two-point game before the Bearcats found the accelerator, prevailing by 11 in the end.\n\nNolley II was 5-for-9 from the arc while Adams-Woods was 7-of-8 from the floor. The hard-driving lefty also dished out six assists.\n\n\"I know I need to step up and do whatever my team needs me to do,\" Adams-Woods said. \"Whatever it takes. Whether it's assists, scoring, guarding, that's my mindset going into conference play.\"\n\nThe 10-4 Bearcats ring in the new year in Philadelphia on Sunday when they take on 7-7 Temple at the Liacouras Center at 3 p.m. The Owls won their AAC opener Wednesday night at East Carolina, 59-57.\n\nSEEN IN THE GYM: Point guard recruit Jasper Johnson from Woodford County (Kentucky) shot some video courtside before the UC/Tulane game. He is a class of 2025 prospect.\n\nAlso, former Bearcat Mamoudou Diarra was in the front row for Thursday's action. Diarra finished his college career at Tennessee Tech.\n\nHUNTER NEAR HOME: Tulane coach Ron Hunter is from Dayton and played his college ball for Miami University. Before the game, he blew kisses to well-wishers behind the Green Wave bench. Prior to Tulane, he coached against UC for Georgia State in the NCAA tournament in 2018. The Bearcats won 68-53. Then-coach Mick Cronin's 31-win season would end two days later in the second round vs. Nevada. UC had won 18 of 20 against Tulane before the Green Wave outshot the Bearcats on Jan. 1 of last season.\n\nGOODBYE JOE, ME GOTTA GO: After being charter members of the old Metro Conference, Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference, the Bearcats will part ways with Tulane after this year's AAC tournament to join the Big 12. Trivia buffs may know Tulane was once a member of a Power Five conference as a charter member of the Southeastern Conference until 1966.\n\nCINCINNATI 45 43 88\n\nTULANE 35 42 77\n\nT -Holloway 1 0 2 Cross 7 6 22 James 3 5 12 Cook 6 3 15 Forbes 4 11 20 Pope 3 0 6]\n\nUC -Lakhin 4 5 13 Nolley 7 4 23 Adams-Woods 7 3 18 DeJulius 5 2 13 Davenport 3 3 10 Skillings 3 1 7 Oguama 2 0 4", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/12/30"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_20", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2018/10/05/tn-manhunt-news-latest-kirby-wallace-search/1532268002/", "title": "Kirby Wallace arrested: Manhunt for murder suspect ends in ...", "text": "A week-long manhunt ended peacefully Friday morning for Kirby Wallace, the 53-year-old suspect who authorities say killed two people and seriously injured a third during crimes at two separate Middle Tennessee homes.\n\nJust before 10:30 a.m., the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Kirby — who'd been on the lam for seven days — was in custody.\n\nWallace, wanted on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, aggravated arson, especially aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated robbery, especially aggravated burglary and theft of property, was captured without incident in Stewart County.\n\n\"It's been tough, we could've changed course. But we stayed the course because we knew...we would see an end to this,\" Stewart County Sheriff Frankie Gray said during an 11:30 a.m. news conference in Woodlawn which is in Montgomery County.\n\nGray said he was happy and relieved but sad for the victims' families.\n\n“This is an absolute victory,\" Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew said who with help from Cpl. Stacey Bostwick were able to ambush Wallace from a deer stand. \"Everyone came together.\"\n\nDuring the Friday morning search, Belew said that by \"sheer luck\" he came upon two deer stands about 50 yards apart.\n\nBostwick handles a blood hound, Rowdy, and had gotten a good track and direction of travel at about 2 or 3 or 3 a.m., Belew said Friday.\n\nThey found two elevated deer stands about 50 yards apart. Belew and Bostwick each got in one and waited.\n\nAt about 10:15 a.m. Belew saw Wallace coming toward him about 40 yards away.\n\n\"He walked right to us,\" he said.\n\nWhen Wallace was 25 yards away, Belew had an AR-15 trained on him.\n\nWallace started to surrender, but then stepped behind a tree and came back out with his hands near his waist. But then he put his hands back up and surrendered, Belew said.\n\n\"He decided not to (pull his gun) at the last moment,\" he recalled.\n\nWallace then stepped back out, went to his knees, and Bostwick handcuffed him.\n\nThey found a loaded handgun in Wallace's waistband, Bellew said.\n\n\"We are very fortunate we didn't end up in a shootout,\" Belew said of Wallace. \"He told us it crossed his mind.\"\n\nEarlier Friday\n\nAfter a \"credible sighting\" of Kirby Wallace in Stewart County earlier Friday morning, the search area was moved from Montgomery County to Stewart County.\n\nAuthorities said Wallace was spotted hiding behind a chicken pen on a family's property in Indian Mound.\n\nMitchell Allen said that sometime after dark, his neighbor spotted a man 600 to 700 feet from Allen's home, in the 100 block of Wild Creek Road.\n\n\"He was hunkered down beside of a chicken pen behind a truck,\" Allen told The Leaf-Chronicle.\n\nAllen's family was told to stay in the house as a SWAT team searched Allen's garage, his dad's barn and grandmother's shed. They cleared those areas and had several helicopters and officers searching the area.\n\nThe Cumberland City ferry has been shut down until further notice and all roads in Montgomery County were opened later in the morning.\n\nWallace: A TBI Most Wanted Fugitive\n\nOfficials had been searching Wallace, a TBI Top 10 most wanted fugitive, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 157 pounds, with gray and brown hair, hazel eyes, and possible facial hair.\n\nWallace was considered armed and dangerous. Authorities had been searching near the area of Cumberland City Road and Frankie Road and on Thursday the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said more than 400 tips had been called into the county's 911 center.\n\nOn Thursday, the reward for information leading to his capture increased to $20,000, and more than 400 tips had been received in the search.\n\nAuthorities had been asking residents to remain vigilant, lock windows and doors, and report any suspicious activity. The Tennessee Highway Patrol is warned residents not to try to confront Wallace, but to call 911 and wait for law enforcement to arrive.\n\nKIRBY WALLACE TIMELINE:The series of events leading up to Tennessee manhunt\n\nKIRBY WALLACE MANHUNT:Murder suspect spent childhood in woods, learning to survive\n\nThe biggest lead in Kirby Wallace search for days\n\nOn Wednesday, Stan Hembree, who lives in the Woodlawn area, found a dry sleeping bag and blanket on his property while on a perimeter check with authorities.\n\nHe said the authorities told him it was one of their best leads to date.\n\nFor Hembree, it was a worrisome development in a saga he wishes was over already. \"He just needs to turn himself in,\" he said of Wallace.\n\nWHO IS KIRBY WALLACE:For 10 years, Clarksville family welcomed him in\n\nKirby Wallace's victims\n\nGray said a man was found shot to death Monday, with his truck stolen, in the search area for Wallace in Montgomery County.\n\nThe man, whose identity has not been released, was found at the corner of Poplar Springs Road and Welker Road.\n\nThe man's Ford truck was stolen, and Wallace was later seen driving the truck, said Montgomery County Sheriff's spokeswoman Sandra Brandon.\n\nTBI said on Monday morning that the truck had been recovered, and they believed Wallace was on foot in the area of Cumberland City Road and Frankie Road.\n\nJust one day earlier, authorities say Wallace attacked a couple and set their home on fire, killing the wife and seriously injuring her husband.\n\nGray said Brenda Smith, 63, and her husband Teddy Smith came home from church Sunday to find a person in their home on Rorie Hollow Road. Gray said the couple was bound and the house set on fire.\n\nThe woman's husband, who managed to escape the home, was taken to Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville, where he continues to be treated on Monday.\n\nThe couple's son, who lives less than a quarter mile away, arrived at the house with a family friend who lived in the area. He had to break a glass window to get his mother out\n\nThe neighbor, Steve Downs of Indian Mound, said the woman's arms were tied with what appeared to be electrical wire.\n\n\"She was already dead,\" when they pulled her up the hill,\" Downs said.\n\nKIRBY WALLACE:Burglar ties woman to bed, takes credit card, TVs in Clarksville\n\nReach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/10/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/archives/2016/04/19/silent-no-more-murder-lillie-belle-allen/83215258/", "title": "1969 York, Pa. race riots: The murder of Lillie Belle Allen", "text": "Kim Strong\n\nYork Daily Record\n\nEditor's note: This article originally appeared in the York Daily Record on December 18, 2002.\n\n- From April 19, 2016: Allen's sister, Hattie Dickson, dies at age 70.\n\n- From 2003: As he lay dying: The murder of Henry C. Schaad​. (Kim Strong's companion piece to \"Silent No More.\")\n\n***\n\nOne crisp morning in April 2000, along a dusty road in East Manchester Township, Donnie Altland stopped running away.\n\n\n\nHe made peace with his family, asked God for forgiveness, pulled a .22 pistol out of his pickup and squeezed a bullet into his temple.\n\n\n\nThe secret he held for three decades was out.\n\n\n\nIt was an awful secret about belonging to a gang that drew a line around its neighborhood July 21, 1969, then grew bloodthirsty awaiting a carload of black people.\n\n\n\nLillie Belle Allen, the daughter of a Baptist minister, became the sacrificial lamb that hot summer evening. The 27-year-old divorced mother of two innocently stumbled into the middle of a city's civil racial war, just north of the Mason-Dixon Line.\n\n\n\nBut no one would win this war. Each side would blame the other; some would call it \"even,\" as one black woman and one white police officer lost their lives. After one week of fighting, the war ended, but a battle raged on in York.\n\n\n\nLives had been reshaped and recast, unalterably changed.\n\n\n\nHattie Dickson would never move far from where her sister Lillie Belle's blood spilled across York's railroad tracks, staining the hands of boys and men.\n\n\n\nDonnie Altland would return to the city every weekday to earn his keep. He and his wife would raise two daughters, and he would become a church-going man and homeowner, forever haunted by a night long passed.\n\n\n\nAnd one day, the name Lillie Belle Allen would move across the lips of a prosecutor, as single-minded as Altland and his friends.\n\n\n\nTom Kelley had been a kid growing up near Philadelphia when the riots occurred, raised by a mother who had encouraged him to study history's greatest leaders, men who had made the right decisions in tough times. As the second-in-command in the York County District Attorney's Office, he would be undeterred by the years that had passed since York's civil war, unfazed by the dirty secret many people wanted to keep hidden and unwavering in his determination to give a 30-year-old murder its day in court.\n\n\n\n\n\n1965 — The Follower\n\n\n\nDonald Eugene Atland peeks out from behind a row of boys in a photograph of his 10th-grade homeroom at William Penn High School. His short, dark hair and white button-down shirt reflect the times - 1965. And the single photograph of him in the yearbook reflects the 17-year-old boy who stayed in the background and would remain there most of his life.\n\n\n\nEven as a teenager, he was good with his hands, working on machines and fixing things. He just didn't find a place where he belonged in high school. He didn't join the football or basketball team. He didn't belong to the marching band or the foreign language club.\n\n\n\nHis friends didn't either.\n\n\n\nThe wind was shifting for teenage boys by 1965. Sonny and Cher's \"I Got You Babe\" and The Temptations' \"My Girl\" told one story of life in the '60s. But the times, they were a changin'. Young Bob Dylan and his contemporaries sang of war and peace, revolt and revolution, as conflict had become the American way of life.\n\n\n\nOn black-and-white television sets, the images of Vietnam - of America's sons - flickered right before their eyes.\n\n\n\nA fierce fight for territory was playing on the streets of American cities, too. The turf war between blacks and whites made the nightly news, as a young minister from the South led black folks out of the back seats and the colored bathrooms. Martin Luther King Jr. had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 with a message of change through peaceful means, but riots erupted anyway.\n\n\n\nThe Watts area of Los Angeles tangled in riots for six days in August 1965. Thirty-four people - most of them black - were killed.\n\n\n\nBut the message of change was quiet in predominantly white York. Equality? Tolerance? Hush now. Let's not talk about it, and maybe those contentious issues with the coloreds would go away.\n\n\n\nYoung black men and women, though, no longer accepted the place in which their parents were confined.\n\n\n\nAlthough York's city schools had completed their desegregation 10 years earlier, blacks and whites still lived in separate neighborhoods in 1965. Like pieces of a puzzle, they fit together in odd ways, but they were rubbing uncomfortably.\n\n\n\nDonnie Altland learned those territories as a city boy. He lived at 758 W. Poplar St., one of four children of John William and Margie Ellen Altland. Dad punched a timeclock at Borg-Warner as a sheet metal worker.\n\n\n\nA few blocks away lived another blue-collar family with a brood of boys well-known in the North Newberry Street neighborhood, the Messersmiths.\n\n\n\nBobby Messersmith and Altland were the same age, both in the Class of '68 at William Penn, both interested in shop more than math.\n\n\n\nTheir similarities ended there.\n\n\n\nMessersmith, like his dad, intimidated people. John Messersmith was abusive and a drinker. Classmates didn't see Bobby Messersmith pummel anyone, but they knew he could. More importantly, they knew he would.\n\n\n\nHe was the type of guy you either followed or avoided.\n\n\n\nAltland, meanwhile, blended into the background. Yeah, everyone was aware he was friends with Bobby Messersmith, but Altland wasn't a guy to be feared. He smoked and drank with the Newberry Street crowd, but he was harmless, easygoing actually.\n\n\n\nThe only thing to fear in Altland was his penchant for following the lead of Bobby Messersmith.\n\nMore:York's race riots were a war that left dozens injured and two people dead\n\n\n\n\n\n1966 — A Free Spirit\n\n\n\nHattie Dickson's free spirit couldn't fly far in 1966. A rambunctious child who had grown into an independent young woman of 20, she craved change from the country life where she had been raised.\n\n\n\nThe backdrop for Dickson's childhood was Aiken, S.C., a southern town where rich white folks had moved at the turn of the century to build their large homes in the country.\n\n\n\nDickson's parents, the Rev. James and Beatrice Mosley, raised their children in more humble surroundings. James Mosley worked at a funeral home by day, but his true vocation was as a Baptist minister. A deeply religious man, Mosley had strict standards for his children - no shorts or short-sleeved shirts and no dating until they were older teens. They couldn't attend basketball games at their all-black high school, and they weren't allowed in theaters or public places where they would be forced to sit in segregated areas.\n\n\n\nThe Mosleys shielded their children from much of the overt racism in Aiken, butHattie and her brothers and sisters knew it was there. They were called coloreds and, occasionally, niggers.\n\n\n\nDickson, married with two children in 1966, lived as exciting a life near the South Fork Edisto River as she could manage. She and her husband, Murray, rode to juke joints out in the woods or traveled to the stadium to watch rasslin'. But it wasn't enough. Dickson was a woman thrilled to travel where the wind blew, so when Murray Dickson's relatives in Pennsylvania suggested he bring his family north, they packed up for an adventure.\n\n\n\nMurray Dickson moved first, sending for his wife and children after he found a construction job.\n\n\n\nWhen Hattie Dickson arrived in York, she was excited to make friends and find new ways to plug into her social frame of mind. She danced through her house, singing with the sounds of Marvin Gaye and Rufus Thomas, raising her little ones, Todd and Joe. And she soon fell in love with life in a city of 51,000 people.\n\n\n\nShe knew that when her Aiken family traveled to visit her, she would have so much to show them in the bustling city of York, especially her effervescent oldest sister, the woman who Dickson saw as a second mother, Lillie Belle Allen.\n\n\n\n1968 — The Sacrifice\n\n\n\nIn 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad carried passengers from Philadelphia and New York City to points west, cutting through the middle of a tiny borough two stops from Philadelphia, called Narberth.\n\n\n\nAristocrats had ridden past the Narberth Train Station since the railroad opened to build their country estates along the Main Line. Instead of attracting wealthy Philadelphia commuters, Narberth housed the Irish and Italian Catholic laborers whose ancestors had built the railroad then later worked in local industry.\n\n\n\nThe borough in 1968 didn't reflect the diversity of Philadelphia or its rich culture because it was only a half square mile, only big enough for a small downtown, row houses and a variety of old Victorian homes.\n\n\n\nNarberth didn't replicate the race wars going on all over the country, and even if it had, Tom Kelley wouldn't have cared much. He was only 4 years old, and a more important battle to him was going on in his own home.\n\n\n\nTime and time again, Kelley watched his father physically abuse his mother.\n\n\n\nAnne Quinn Kelley, the one-time model and former college student, was a proud woman, feminine and loving but bold and determined. She taught her three children to be independent, raising them with the philosophy, \"The only way you learn is if you do it for yourself.\"\n\n\n\nShe wanted to live that theory, too, but she was caught. Surrounding Narberth were the most affluent areas of Pennsylvania, yet she and her hus band shared none of that prosperity. Without much money, getting out of an abusive relation ship would be difficult, and she had two daughters and a son to worry about.\n\n\n\nEach of the children was a handful, especially her boy. Tom looked like his father, but shared few other similarities. Much like his two older sisters, he reveled in the spotlight. Anne Kelley knew he would need firm discipline to seek the right path and the guidance of men more stable than his father.\n\n\n\nCould she handle raising Tom and the girls as a single woman? That wasn't the path many women chose in the 1960s. They didn't often divorce their husbands, fight for custody of their children, return to college and start a new life. Anne Kelley had taken the abuse long enough, yet she would take it for a few more years before she ended her marriage.\n\n\n\nWhen his mother finally took that leap, young Tom Kelley would learn that doing what is right can take great anguish and sacrifice.\n\n\n\n1968 — The First Riots\n\n\n\nLike many American cities, York was evolving.\n\n\n\nIn 1968, the National Commission on Urban Problems shared its study on the changes expected in America's cities over the next two decades. It found that cities would increasingly draw blacks and other minorities, while the white population would shift to the suburbs.\n\n\n\nThe chairman of President Johnson's Commission on Civil Disorders, former Sen. Paul H. Douglas, hoped the report was a wake-up call to suburban neighborhoods. They needed to absorb blacks in larger numbers because if black popula tions grew too large in cities, violence would follow, he told reporters.\n\n\n\nActually, the violence followed blacks' desire for change and the resistance to change - sometimes violent - from the white population.\n\n\n\nThe growth of the black population in York made the pieces of that strange city puzzle change their shapes and sizes. The chafing between them began to change the city, but change wasn't what city leaders wanted, and it wasn't what some of the residents wanted.\n\n\n\nIn York, city cops took barking dogs into black neighborhoods night after night. Black residents asked for the dog patrols to end almost from the time they started in 1962. Instead, Mayor John L. Snyder in 1968 increased the number of dogs along with the number of canine cops.\n\n\n\nIn the summer of 1968, riots began, rising and falling through July and August. Black residents had grown frustrated by the dog patrols and tired of racist cops picking on them. Black teenage boys would do much of the fighting, sparked initially by city police officers shooting into a pack of black teenagers.\n\n\n\nIn mid-July, boys threw stones at a car driving along East College Avenue. When police cars arrived, the boys bolted across a playground in a black section of town. Police Chief Leonard L. Landis said one officer shot once; neighbors who witnessed the shooting said more than one officer shot more than one time. No one was hurt.\n\n\n\nLandis agreed the patrolman who shot at the boys was wrong but defended the action by saying the police officer had shot above the boys' heads.\n\n\n\nHis words didn't ease the minds of the black community. About 50 black residents met at Penn Common one night later to talk about the city cops. When Landis arrived, they held nothing back.\n\n\n\nOne resident told him, \"What you don't seem to understand is that you have racists in your outfit. Definite racists. Bigots.\"\n\n\n\nLandis admitted he couldn't easily change the 90 men under his command. Yet he failed to see the warning signs that black residents had lost their patience.\n\n\n\nBlack folks knew which cops had a grudge against their race, but naming them publicly changed nothing. Black residents formed a committee to ease tensions between cops and teenagers. The mayor refused to meet with them.\n\n\n\nMayor Snyder downplayed what was happening in his city, calling the teenagers throwing bricks and rocks at passing cars just a \"few rabble-rousers.\"\n\n\n\nThe violence turned up a notch in the days that followed, as black teenagers began hurling bottles and rocks at cops and firefighters while they did their jobs. Black teenagers told newspaper reporters that police beat them with billy clubs and harassed them. Older black residents said they had faced years of job, education and housing discrimination in York. Complaining, they said, didn't work.\n\n\n\nChief Landis put cops on 12-hour patrols, sometimes 70 at a time.\n\n\n\nHe defended the police. The mayor defended the city. The black residents seethed at the defensive posture.\n\n\n\nThe violent episodes eased after a week, but the dogs continued to patrol, four cops named by black residents as racist instigators continued to walk the beat, and city leaders ignored the volatility of the problems bubbling under the surface.\n\n\n\nEarly Sunday morning, Aug. 4, 1968, Chester Roach, a 58-year-old white man who lived above Hoffman's Meat Market, 226 S. Penn St., burst from his apartment to yell at the black teenagers making noise on the sidewalk. He fired shots at the youths, injuring 11 people, 10 of them black.\n\n\n\nPolice charged him two days later with aggravated assault with intent to kill and aggravated as sault and battery.\n\n\n\nThe summer of tumult ended when the children returned to school. And despite significant property damage done primarily in the city's black neighborhoods, city leaders viewed that small leak in the city as patched.\n\n\n\n\n\n1969 — One of the Boys\n\n\n\nBobby Messersmith, Donnie Atland, Mike Berry, Stewy Aldinger and the guys who lived in the Gap, the North Newberry Street area, rotated through Art Morris' North End Cigar Store on Gay Street daily. Morris never minded the neighborhood guys hanging out in the back of his place because he made a mint off the cigarettes, candy and food he sold them.\n\n\n\nThe Newberry Street Boys considered Morris' business their headquarters. They would run into each other at the store, which sat beside a set of railroad tracks that broke the hill on North Newberry Street.\n\n\n\nThe club's first president, Bobby Messersmith, called meetings at a location north of the store, the Farquhar Park pavilion. Thirty or 40 boys gathered to talk about their organized activities, while Messersmith took notes. They talked about cleaning up gar bage along the neighborhood streets and railroad tracks, holding sub sales to add to the club's coffers and handling trouble stirred up by other gangs.\n\n\n\nWhen a new member wanted to join, he was asked to take a walk along a dirt path near the park as the members discussed whether the kid was nice, stayed out of trouble enough to keep the cops off their backs and was known in the neighborhood.\n\n\n\nGangs had evolved in the 1960s, some from social or athletic clubs. The Girarders grew out of the Girard Athletic Association in the city. The men wore satin jackets to display their affiliation to the club, so the boys followed. The Girarders sported gray windbreakers with dark letters.\n\n\n\nThe Newberry Street Boys had organized because they were tired of being chased down by Gi rarders in their own neighborhood. The NSBs wore maroon jackets with yellow letters - the club name across the back of the jacket and the gang member's name over the heart. A hardware store in York produced the jackets for about $15, a hefty sum for the teenagers. But territorial cliques needed easy ways to identify who was in, who wasn't. The jackets were a badge of honor.\n\n\n\nThe Newberry Street Boys patrolled the street where the Messersmiths lived. Their turf stretched from Philadelphia Street to Farquhar Park. The Girarders owned the area around Girard Park in the city's east end. The Swampers covered the Arch Street neighborhood. The Yorklyn Boys came from a neighborhood in Springettsbury Township.\n\n\n\nAnyone could walk through another gang's territory without fear of a scuffle. But if Swampers drank beer in Girard Park or chased a girl dating a Yorklyn Boy, the gangs fought.\n\n\n\nThey used their belts as whips and beat each other with baseball bats. They might even use crude weapons they had made at the York County Area Vocational-Technical School from chains and pipes. They left bruised and sore, but no one was knifed, no one was shot, no one was killed.\n\n\n\nOn warm summer nights, the Newberry Street Boys rode the loop - Philadelphia, King and three lanes on Market Street. East of the city, they would stop at Gino's, which served the first 15-cent hamburgers in town. Sometimes they drag-raced. Mostly they drank beer and hit on girls, although some of the gang members were into the harder stuff, marijuana, even acid when someone had it.\n\n\n\nAltland, a reserved guy, hovered close to his buddy Messersmith. Gang members either lead or follow. Most are followers, most want to belong to something powerful because individually they don't have much influence.\n\n\n\nIn January 1969, Richard M. Nixon had become the 37th president of the United States and offered this advice in his inauguration speech: \"We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.\"\n\n\n\nMartin Luther King Jr. had spoken softly.\n\n\n\nBobby Kennedy had spoken softly.\n\n\n\nBut their measured tones were silenced.\n\n\n\nNow, change was a thunder roaring through city after city, and resistance was trying to be heard over it.\n\n\n\nA music festival near Woodstock, N.Y., turned into a hippie drug fest and created a dissonant soundtrack for America's college-age generation. Sonny and Cher and the Temptations didn't represent these anti-war, pro-feminism activists, but the brash voices of Country Joe McDonald and Janis Joplin did. This young generation that watched the tug-of-war in Vietnam, race riots and the proliferation of illegal drugs wanted desperately to make a political statement all its own.\n\n\n\nThe German roots buried deep in York's soil shied away from dramatic reform. They avoided voting for the loudest candidate; they valued the politician with the subtle message. They depended on consistency and permanency. After all, many of them still lived in the same town where their parents and grandparents lived. They weren't always conservative in politics, but they were conservative in action.\n\n\n\nThey were watching with great interest America's plan to land on the moon. The disturbances of a year earlier had vanished from the minds of many of York's white residents.\n\n\n\nIn the summer of 1969, Donnie Altland, 21 years old, had a full-time job working on the city park crew.\n\n\n\nThe crew trimmed bushes, mowed lawns and dumped garbage. Altland, lean and muscular, drove a trailer with a hitch on the back, lugging the mower behind it.\n\n\n\nHe was nice and friendly to the guys on the crew, working hard and using his good mechanical skills on the job. He was rough around the edges, cursing and smoking a lot, but he wasn't intimidating. In fact, he didn't mention his connection with the Newberry Street Boys - until after the riots that summer.\n\n\n\nJuly 17, 1969, was a warm Thursday afternoon in York, as a 12-year-old black boy and his friend experimented with lighter fluid and matches. The boy burned his face and was taken to the hospit al. Questioned by police, he blamed the Girarders, the white gang at Girard Park.\n\n\n\nThe lie spread through the city in a flash.\n\n\n\nWhat had been a small flicker of anger and tension in the city turned into a raging blaze. The ease with which so many people had ignored the complaints and anger from black residents a year earlier wouldn't work this time. City leaders, city residents young and old, and the previously untouched in the suburbs and rural areas of York County would become swallowed up by the rage of boys and men.\n\n\n\nThe city would be forever changed, marked by fighting and conflict, black on white, white on black, boys on boys. And several uniformed police officers, charged with keeping the peace, would hide behind their badges as they cheered racist behavior by the city's impressionable teenagers.\n\n\n\nBobby Messersmith didn't need much encouragement to become involved in the city riots. His Newberry Street Boys had become a gang to be feared. They were tough and increasingly violent - because their leader was a hood, a ruffian.\n\n\n\nAlmost as soon as word spread about the young boy's lie, commotion between the races began. This time, the gang wars were white on black and black on white.\n\n\n\nThat night, TakaNii Sweeney, a black teenager, and another boy broke the windows out at Morris' North End Cigar Store. They knew the trouble they were stirring up. If the lie about the Girarders wasn't bad enough, the NSBs were really hot now about this intrusion on the sanctity of their headquarters.\n\n\n\nSweeney was in more danger than he was aware. He had toyed with Bobby Messersmith, whose father had an arsenal of firearms in the basement. Quick to anger and ready to do battle, Messersmith had a weapon in his hands before Sweeney left the area.\n\n\n\nWhen Detective George Smith stopped Sweeney for violating the city's youth curfew that evening, Messersmith hid in the shadows and shot the teenager in the back.\n\n\n\nPandemonium ripped through six blocks downtown. Blacks and whites huddled behind bushes and poles, throwing rocks at one another and shooting rifles until early the next morning.\n\n\n\nThe anger of a year earlier had exploded into hate from the city's young blacks. The response from young whites brought the sky down on all of them.\n\n\n\nBy the second day, Friday, July 18, firefighters and police officers worked around the clock, as young men firebombed city homes and businesses with Molotov cocktails.\n\n\n\nThe cops and firefighters would one day be labeled by the handful of overt racists among them, but many of these men bravely faced the dangers of the streets each day and night. Firefighters ar rived at fires prepared to wash away the flames, but boys shot at them from windows and rooftops. Police officers, prepared to chase teenagers from criminal acts, feared gang members would rise up against them.\n\n\n\nWhat was expected in a civilized society had been turned upside down in a number of city neighborhoods. Vigilantes created anarchy.\n\n\n\nFire alarms rang throughout the city, some at blazes, others false. A team of three city cops cruised the streets of York in Big Al, one of the city's two armored trucks. After protecting firefighters at a mattress fire in the middle of Hope Avenue, Big Al headed toward the shooting of a motorcyclist at Pershing and College avenues, where police had requested the armored vehicle.\n\n\n\nBig Al's exterior, the cops believed, would deflect bullets. But as the truck sped toward the scene, a steel-jacketed bullet punctured the steel wall of the truck and fractured into three pieces. All three pieces hit a young police officer sitting inside the truck.\n\n\n\nHenry Schaad, the 22-year-old son of a city detective, was paralyzed by one fragment that reached his spine. The bullet also hit his shoulder and ribs before he slumped to the floor. Still alive, Schaad told the other two cops, \"I've been shot.\" They rushed him and the injured motor cyclist to the hospital.\n\n\n\nThe heat rose in the city, as more firebombs hit businesses, more rocks hit windows, and the toll of injured climbed in the emergency room. Mayor Snyder declared a state of emergency for the city. Anyone 21 or younger had to stay inside between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. He closed liquor stores and taverns and restricted the sale of guns and gasoline.\n\n\n\nAs Schaad lay dying in York Hospital, state troopers joined city cops on the streets of York. Schaad was one of 27 people injured in the first four days of riots. Three of the injured were children.\n\n\n\nWhile York raged, much of the world grew still to watch something historic that Sunday. At 4:18 p.m., the Eagle landed. The first manned spacecraft touched down on the moon, and almost eight hours later, Neil Armstrong took the first steps on its surface.\n\n\n\nAmerican history beamed right into the homes of York residents. They watched the American flag pierce the moon's surface and heard Buzz Aldrin describe it as \"magnificent desolation.\" But many eyes in York searched the darkness that enveloped the city, drawing out criminals for the fourth night in a row.\n\n\n\nA meeting between the chief of police, the Community Progress Council, the district attorney and members of the black community that Sunday relieved none of the hysteria in the city. The chief wasn't willing to change how grievances with the police were handled or appoint a liaison to help those arrested find attorneys. Talk to the mayor or the public safety director, he said. He admitted that as many white folks were creating the violence as black.\n\n\n\nThat same day, several city cops cruised the streets of York, telling white gang members to meet at Farquhar Park for a rally. These guys always ran from cops, not toward them, but what had been normal wasn't anymore. They headed to the park.\n\n\n\nSeveral uniformed officers jumped out of their police cruisers to lead the young crowd of boys in a chant of \"White power!\" One of those men on the bandstand stage was a 35-year-old cop who many of the boys knew as Charlie.\n\n\n\nCharles Robertson, born and raised in York, typically had a congenial air about him. He coached city sports teams, invited boys over to his house to play sports, watch sports and even drink beer. Some of these guys knew him well.\n\n\n\nThe other cops were strangers to most gang members, men the boys had feared. But this time, they were on the same side, fighting the coloreds. The cops who led the white power chant were furious that one of their own was dying of his wounds.\n\n\n\nTake up arms in your neighborhoods, the cops told the boys. Protect your families. Then they added another layer of fear to the young boys: The Black Panthers were coming. The police had been watching the movements of the militant Black Panthers for several days, fearful the men would join what was already a city out of control.\n\n\n\nNorth Newberry Street had been a prime area for shootings. Several people walking along the road were shot over the weekend. Similar stories were told from the Penn Street-College Avenue area and Penn Common. Sometimes, reports of shootings would be called in to the police as a tactic to draw them into an area for an ambush.\n\n\n\nOne story of a light-colored car driving up North Newberry Street about 9 p.m. Sunday night would be frequently disputed. It was said that a black man was driving, the trunk popped open and a gunman fired a double-barreled shotgun. Boys later said they chased the car out of the neighborhood with rocks.\n\n\n\nThat same evening, the Cottage Hill Road home of Jimmy and Sherman Spells' mother was firebombed. Jimmy Spells learned from his white friends that the kings of Newberry Street had done it, Bobby Messersmith and his young brother, Artie.\n\n\n\nThe next morning, the Messersmiths' buddy, Donnie Altland, appeared for his shift with the parks crew.\n\n\n\nMonday, July 21, was hot, nearly 90 degrees.\n\n\n\nBarricades prevented traffic from entering city streets that had been under siege since Thursday. Only residents could pass through.\n\n\n\nNorth Newberry Street was one of those neighborhoods, but late in the afternoon on that Monday, Jimmy and Sherman Spells knocked on the door of John Messersmith's home. They talked to his son, Bobby.\n\n\n\nJimmy Spells told the NSB leader that his mother had nothing to do with the riots. Call off his boys, Spells said, or Messersmith would be held personally responsible if Spells' mother was hurt. Boys on the street that afternoon claimed the Spells brothers drove a white Cadillac into the neighborhood.\n\n\n\nAs the long July day began to grow dark, at least 100 boys gathered in the neighborhood known as the Gap, most out in front of the Messersmiths' 229 N. Newberry St. house, next to the railroad tracks at Gay Street. John Messersmith's basement held an array of rifles, guns and ammu nition, which many boys grabbed to await the Black Panthers or a light-colored car whose trunk might hold a gunman or Jimmy and Sherman Spells.\n\n\n\nBoys pointed their rifles out of the Messersmiths' second-floor windows or stood on the rooftop. Others lurked around the railroad tracks or hid in empty boxcars. They swarmed the street, darkened because they had shot out the street lights. They eyed a few cops down on Philadelphia Street stationed next to wooden barricades and directed to keep cars from traveling north on Newberry Street.\n\n\n\nDonnie Altland grabbed a rifle and took a position on the Messersmith roof with a few guys, including Gabriel Mark Barr, an immigrant from Ireland and NSB member.\n\n\n\nAs soon as a white Cadillac turned from Philadelphia Street onto Newberry, the boys began shouting, \"The niggers are coming. The niggers are coming.\"\n\n\n\nLike a ball bouncing up the road, those words reached each group of boys, at least one-third of them armed.\n\n\n\nAltland pointed his rifle at the car, as boys shouted for some of their sharpshooters to take aim. The car slowly reached the railroad tracks and inexplicably began turning around. As it stopped, straddling the tracks, a black woman stepped out of the back seat holding her hands in the air.\n\n\n\n\"Don't shoot,\" she called out.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nA gunshot punctured her chest, and she collapsed to the pavement.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nBoom.\n\n\n\nThe boys surrounding the car fired on it again and again.\n\n\n\nWhen the shooting ended, Barr turned to Altland, asking if he shot at the car.\n\n\n\nThe 21-year-old answered, \"Yes, once.\"\n\n\n\n1969, The 1970s and '80s — The Guilt\n\n\n\nLillie Belle Allen lay dying just outside Hattie Dickson's car door, moaning, \"Somebody help me. Would you please help me?\"\n\n\n\nHorrified, Hattie and Murray Dickson and James and Beatrice Mosley cowered in the car as bullets dug into the doors and trunk. Glass shattered on them. Windows burst. For one minute or more, gunfire followed gunfire. It felt like forever.\n\n\n\nThe boys closest to the Dicksons' white Cadillac could hear the screams from inside the car, so high, so piercing that they sounded like children.\n\n\n\nMurray \"Bubba\" Dickson, in the front passenger seat, tried to sit up and see what was happening. In the back with her husband, Beatrice Mosley cried for the oldest of her eight children. Lillie Belle was so near at that moment, yet Mama could do nothing for her.\n\n\n\nWhen the shooting paused, Hattie Dickson rose from the driver's seat, opened the door and began running down the railroad tracks. She wanted to run into the darkness, where no one could see her and hurt her. But she forgot that the car's lights shone toward her. She returned to the car to turn off the lights, and her husband pulled her into the seat, begging her to stay there where she might be safe.\n\n\n\nMore shots stung the car.\n\n\n\nWhen an armored truck arrived, a police officer jumped out, telling the boys to hold their fire. \"It's me, Charlie,\" Officer Charlie Robertson said to settle them.\n\n\n\n\"OK, Charlie, we won't shoot,\" someone shouted back.\n\n\n\nRobertson had been down this street before and talked to these boys. This was the man who had been with them one day earlier at a white power rally, whose fellow officers had told these white gang members to take up arms in their neighborhoods, to defend themselves against the Black Panthers.\n\n\n\nThe folks in the car were no Black Panthers.\n\n\n\n\"Is everybody all right?\" one of the officers asked, leaning into the car.\n\n\n\n\"My daughter was shot,\" Beatrice Mosley answered.\n\n\n\nAllen was taken to the hospital, and the officer told the family to drive the car out of the neighborhood.\n\n\n\n\"Keep your heads down, and get the hell out of here,\" he said.\n\n\n\nThe windows had been shot out. The lights had been shot out. The tires were flat. Hattie Dickson crouched so low in the driver's seat that she could barely see over the dashboard to return down the North Newberry Street hill where she had first seen the boys with the rifles pointed at her car.\n\n\n\nAll she had wanted to do that evening was take her parents and Allen, visiting from South Carolina, to J.M. Fields Discount Department Store. They needed a few supplies to go fishing the next day, and while they were on Loucks Road, Dickson had wanted to show them the grand fountain at the North Mall. But they never made it out of the city.\n\n\n\nHattie and Bubba rented a two-story brick house at 334 S. Pershing Ave., several blocks south of the Gap. Their house, where they had recently moved their five children, was sandwiched into a series of row houses, with no front yards and narrow back yards abutting an alley.\n\n\n\nThe Dicksons' front windows faced Penn Park. The Dickson children had played there on and off throughout the hot summer day with their cousins, Debra and Michael Allen, and their teenage aunt, Gladys Mosley, who were visiting from South Carolina.\n\n\n\nIt was long past dusk when 11-year-old Debra Allen heard a thumping sound coming up Pershing Avenue. Her grandparents, mother, aunt and uncle had taken much longer at J.M. Fields than the children had expected.\n\n\n\nThe children crawled to the window and peeked out. They saw a car creeping up the road. Thump. Thump. Thump. Then it slowed and stopped in front of the Dicksons' home. It was Uncle Bubba's Cadillac. The children moved away from the window and waited for the grown-ups to come inside.\n\n\n\nDebra watched as her grandmother, grandfather, aunt and uncle entered. Their hair glistened in the room's light.\n\n\n\nDebra waited for her mother to walk in the door. She must be out pulling packages from the car, Debra thought. But the door closed behind her relatives.\n\n\n\n\"Where's Mama?\" she asked.\n\n\n\nThe Mosleys told young Debra that Lillie Belle had a cut on her finger, and she was at the hospital. They wanted to clean up and leave for the hospital to see her. This time, they would take the Rev. Mosley's Cadillac.\n\n\n\nBut Lillie Belle never came home again. She would never hold her beautiful babies in her arms, never laugh with them or soothe them or wipe the tears from their eyes. When the Mosleys and Dicksons arrived at York Hospital, they learned that Lillie Belle Allen had been declared dead at 9:50 p.m. They returned home and told the children.\n\n\n\nJuly 21, 1969, slipped into July 22 as Allen's children, sisters, brother-in-law, nieces, nephews and parents rested together on the living room floor of 334 S. Pershing Ave., wrapped in each other's arms. They left the lights on all night.\n\n\n\nThe terror of that night would change the directions of their lives, each and every one. It would leave an impression that no love, no faith, no memory could erase, but they would all try.\n\n\n\nWhen the sun rose on the next day, York returned to its chaos. Vigilantes retaliated again and again.\n\n\n\nBut Lillie Belle Allen's family saw none of it.\n\n\n\nAs her lifeless body returned by plane to Aiken, S.C., for burial, her loved ones in York piled into the Rev. Mosley's Cadillac Tuesday evening - eight children, Hattieand Bubba, the Rev. Mosley and Beatrice. They sat on one another's laps, pulled together as they had the night before, taking comfort in the presence of one another.\n\n\n\nThe sky opened up that Tuesday, releasing rain onto the hot, sticky surfaces of York. The Rev. Mosley drove through the day and into the night in that rain, 600 miles to Aiken. He asked Hattie to drive. She tried but couldn't do it. She was drained, frightened and grieving.\n\n\n\nOne week later, a Sunday, the vivacious Lillie Belle Allen was laid into the ground at Pine Lane Memorial Gardens.\n\n\n\nWhen Hattie and Murray Dickson returned to York with their children, much had changed - for them and for the city they called home.\n\n\n\nThe fierce fighting that killed Dickson's sister had ended. It had filled seven days, required the assistance of National Guard troops and injured dozens of people, including children.\n\n\n\nThe toll on the City of York would be measured for decades to come. County residents, wary of conflict and impatient with radical behavior, would mark the city as a scary place to go, a place where the riots happened and could happen again. Cities all across the country suffered through riots in the 1960s, but in York County, the city would never fully recover.\n\n\n\nAnd neither would Officer Henry Schaad. After two weeks in the hospital battling his gunshot wounds, he, too, slipped away.\n\n\n\nDonnie Altland told his co-workers at the city parks crew that he was up on Newberry Street the night the black woman was shot. He had a rifle, he told them. They could see he was telling the truth, but he was clearly uneasy about it.\n\n\n\nThe woman who had suffered the loss of her sister didn't lock down her house. She didn't grow fearful walking to the store. She didn't close her children off from school or play.\n\n\n\nHattie Dickson carried on with her life.\n\n\n\nIt was not the life she had imagined, although she still smiled and laughed, still played soulful music in the house, still held her children tightly every night.\n\n\n\nShe was a changed woman. Guilt lived inside her.\n\n\n\nHer parents would never talk much about Lillie Belle's violent end, and Hattiewouldn't much either.\n\n\n\nIt ate at her, though, and threatened to eat right through her.\n\n\n\nThe early '70s ushered in a new era in the United States. Soldiers continued to pour into Vietnam, and record numbers died there. Peaceful marches to improve civil rights never returned to what they had been before King died, and the tide of violence that had come with cultural changes receded slightly.\n\n\n\nPresident Nixon lectured on global issues, and a new conservativism caught fire in the country.\n\n\n\nThe first half of the '70s was trying for Dickson. She spiraled into a dark place that she would never say much about. It affected her deeply. She wanted her kids to finish high school and go to college. She wanted her youngsters to have more opportunities than she had, but she became mired in her own life, falling fast.\n\n\n\nDickson had turned from the church. Her father exuded the ministry every moment of his existence. He was a spiritual man, a Baptist through and through. He sifted every message through the Bible and his faith when Hattie grew under his wing. Now, she had her own babies under her wing, yet she lost Jesus somewhere between here and there. She had turned down a road without a sanctuary.\n\n\n\nThe cross she bore in the early 1970s was her own, but she knew that everyone around was carrying it with her.\n\n\n\nDickson drew strength from her family and friends through those darkest moments of her life. They helped lead her back to God, and when Dickson finally opened the church door, faith and hope washed over her. Light replaced darkness, and Dickson began to rebuild her life.\n\n\n\nShe knew it was too late to save her whole family. Her children, Todd, Joe, Angelina, Stephanie and Toby, struggled sometimes in school. They got into fights and ran home for their mother's comfort. She was finally there, finally able to do something for them. She felt guilty that she had for so long failed in her duties as a mother.\n\n\n\nThe happy-go-lucky girl she was had evolved into a woman with responsibilities and concerns.\n\n\n\nDickson and her family moved from home to home in York. They struggled sometimes. But Dickson lived for family and church. She really knew very little of what was going on around her in the city or county.\n\n\n\nShe saw herself as a country girl from Aiken, never a piece of the community she lived in.\n\n\n\nJohn L. Snyder, the anachronistic mayor of York, had died in 1969 during emergency surgery. The York Charrette of 1970, credited with easing racial tensions in the city, passed without Dickson's involvement.\n\n\n\nThe Vietnam War ended after 11 years. More than 11,000 York County residents served in it, and 101 gave their lives.\n\n\n\nThe county became more diverse as Latinos began to migrate here, and the city elected its first woman mayor in 1977. Farmland had started to lose its dominance in the county.\n\n\n\nDickson moved in and out of jobs, working when Bubba wasn't — at the sewing factory, Danskin, the candy factory. But through the '80s, her favorite job was caring for elderly people. She cooked, cleaned and chauffeured them around town. She wanted to brighten their days, and she did so with a warm smile, a loving hug, and a gentle laugh.\n\n\n\nThe elderly have a wisdom she admired. They reminded her of her grandmother, who would tell rich, colorful stories of days gone by.\n\n\n\nIn the '80s, Dickson stopped voting — the politicians didn't deliver on their promises. She watched two of her children graduate from high school. Her children didn't go to college, as she had hoped. They didn't have easy lives. They had their dark times, too, but Dickson stayed true to them.\n\n\n\nThen, Dickson struggled with a question.\n\n\n\n\"What is hate?\" she asked God. She didn't feel it and didn't understand it, but she could see it around her, had felt its presence throughout her life. \"What do it do?\"\n\n\n\n1987 — The Idealist\n\n\n\nBy his final year at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Tom Kelley had a reputation for making friends easily. Gregarious, fun, handsome and smart, T.K., as he was known, appealed to many of his classmates. He had been president of Alpha Chi Rho, vice president of the interfraternity council, a football player, boxer and actor. He was also a good student, preferring to study for exams over the course of days rather than cramming in one night.\n\n\n\nSome people, though, were turned off. People, he learned, were either hot or cold on him and always would be. He was the guy for whom everything seemed to come easily.\n\n\n\nFar from it. After his parents' bitter divorce in the early 1970s, Kelley's father practically vanished from his life. His mother, Anne Kelley, had inspired him to be successful, teaching him to be a fighter. She lectured on holding to his ideals, pushing him to make something of his life.\n\n\n\nAnne Kelley supported her children by selling Revlon, then she returned to college. When Tom Kelley was considered for a football scholarship to a good private high school in Philadelphia, his mother told him to decline. She couldn't afford to supplement the high tuition, as she already had one daughter in a private school.\n\n\n\nThen, young Tom became a bit of a hell-raiser. Even Anne Kelley's boyfriends faced the teenage boy's cross-examination technique.\n\n\n\nPeople told Kelley he should be a lawyer because he was so argumentative.\n\n\n\nHe started looking at colleges. Dickinson, which he had heard created good lawyers, was the only place he applied as an undergraduate, and the college took care of him with a lot of financial aid.\n\n\n\nEventually, though, money grew scarce, and Kelley turned to the one thing in his corner: the law. He sued his father to help pay tuition at Dickinson and won.\n\n\n\nHe wouldn't open up to a relationship with the elderly Kelley for several more years, shortly before his father died of cancer.\n\n\n\nAfter four years dating the same girl, Kelley broke off the relationship. They were too much alike, both outgoing, both always wanting to be at the center of the stage. He needed someone to complement him, he knew, and he had law school ahead of him.\n\n\n\nHe was headed to the University of Richmond, where he would study the art of law. Money didn't lure him into the profession. He believed his mother when she told him that there's a difference between people with money and people with power. He had grown up surrounded by money, even though he had none of it himself. Cash never appealed to him but influence did.\n\n\n\nHe hoped that practicing law would help him change people's lives.\n\n\n\nThe 1990s — Spiritual Woman\n\n\n\nChurch and family anchored Hattie Dickson to the spinning world. Her parents had always shielded her from overt racism as a child, even though she knew it was there. Now, she ignored it, turned her back when it slapped her in the face. Her friends were black and white, old and young. She welcomed strangers with the love she had for friends. Bitterness and anger didn't find a place inside her.\n\n\n\nDickson traveled as often as she could to visit family. And her family came to York, too. A decade earlier, her younger sister, Gladys, had asked Dickson if she could move in with her family. Dickson told her to pack her bags, and they would make room for her. Gladys Oden lived with the Dicksons until she found a job and could move out on her own.\n\n\n\nDickson had never plugged into York politics, staying out of the machinations of her city.\n\n\n\nBut in the '90s, she would stand face to face with York's mayor.\n\n\n\nDickson stopped at a city Laundromat one day to do her wash. Her friend pointed out the tall, broad man doing his laundry as Charlie Robertson, the mayor of York.\n\n\n\nDickson lived in the city for most of her life, but she didn't know the mayor to see him and didn't recognize this man as the cop at the scene of her sister's murder two and a half decades earlier.\n\n\n\nWell what was the mayor of York doing in a Laundromat, she wondered. Intrigued by him, she stared. When she finally worked up her nerve, she approached him. With her friend by her side, she asked Mayor Robertson a question. He turned to answer and glanced past Dickson, directing his comments instead to the friend. They stood just so for several minutes, the mayor speaking to the friend and ignoring Dickson.\n\n\n\nShe turned her back. She knew what was happening. Her friend was white. The mayor was ignoring the black woman.\n\n\n\nHattie Dickson's independent spirit rejected discrimination. She turned away from him and let the moment go. The lessons of her parents stayed with her even as she passed the age of 50. They had protected her from racism. Now, she protected herself.\n\n\n\nDickson saw her mom and dad and siblings at Christmas and Thanksgiving, funerals and vacations. They all traveled to the Mosleys' for holiday gatherings, filling their Aiken home. The Rev. Mosley was by then training men at the funeral home and remained solidly a man of faith.\n\n\n\nHe never spoke of his eldest daughter's murder, nor did his wife.\n\n\n\nDickson didn't dwell on it much either, but she always avoided Newberry Street.\n\n\n\n1999 — Seeds of a Case\n\n\n\nA reporter called York County prosecutor Tom Kelley one summer day in 1999 with a question about the 1969 murder of Lillie Belle Allen.\n\n\n\nLillie Belle Allen?\n\n\n\nHe had never heard of her.\n\n\n\nSure, he knew that a young police officer named Henry Schaad was murdered in 1969, but how and why weren't clear to him. Kelley had been only 5 years old when whites, blacks, gangs and armored vehicles rolled over the streets of York. He knew nothing of the riots and nothing of a young black woman killed then.\n\n\n\nBut he would learn.\n\n\n\nHe had started his job at the District Attorney's Office two days before Christmas in 1991, driving his new Honda Civic, the first car he ever had. He had just married his University of Richmond sweetheart, Natalie, and just passed the bar. After Kelley prosecuted one of his first cases, York County Judge Sheryl Ann Dorney leaned over and said to District Attorney Stan Rebert, \"You won't keep him long.\"\n\n\n\nEight years later, Kelley, 35, was the first assistant district attorney and a York City councilman.\n\n\n\nCurious after the reporter's phone call, he asked his boss if he could pull the case file. Sure, Rebert said, but he wouldn't find much there.\n\n\n\nIn fact, all that existed in the county's Lillie Belle Allen file were Pennsylvania State Police reports from the summer and fall of 1969, interviews with suspects and witnesses. The case was never solved, never reopened, never prosecuted. Kelley scanned the thin folder and rested it on a filing cabinet in his office, where it would most likely gather dust.\n\n\n\nNeither the Allen nor Schaad cases had much to go on.\n\n\n\nOn June 25, 1999, the Daily Record published a retrospective on the riots and murders of 1969. One month later, The York Dispatch published its 30-year anniversary pieces on the riots.\n\n\n\nAll the secrets of 1969 had stirred quietly in a closet for 30 years, but the retrospectives published in the two newspapers knocked on that door hard enough that people started to open it. Calls began to trickle into the District Attorney's Office. They were tips, details, little pieces of evidence about the Schaad and Allen shootings.\n\n\n\nThe Allen file still might be sitting on Kelley's filing cabinet, if it weren't for those calls. He might have ignored two murders that were 30 years old, as prosecutors had for years before him. But the information leaking out of that closet couldn't be ignored. He had to open the door, had to let it out, had to see how deep that secret lay buried.\n\n\n\nHe would find it buried under guilty consciences, faded memories, dead witnesses, scarce evidence and a thick layer of fear and frustration. Some local folks felt that what had been left in the dark for so long should stay in the dark. He would be lambasted and admonished for taking on the case, and before it ended, he would wonder how he and his family survived it.\n\n\n\nHe and his wife, a part-time accountant, had two children, Connor, 3, recently diagnosed with a mild form of autism, and Quinn, 1.\n\n\n\nBut Kelley couldn't see the massive amount of work and anguish ahead of him as the case began. He was idealistic. He believed in justice. It was why he had become a prosecutor.\n\n\n\nHe fought hard to put child abusers in jail. He skewered rapists in the courtroom to move juries toward guilty verdicts. He was a passionate, intense man who had fought hard to become a prosecutor. The truth must be told, and when it came to light, everyone would see that he was doing the right thing, he believed.\n\n\n\nBoth 1969 murder cases opened up, as tips led the District Attorney's Office toward names and details. Much of the information trickling in began to pile up in the Schaad murder. Rebert and Kelley decided that they must separate the two cases and build their own teams. Rebert took Schaad; Kelley took Allen. They would work independently and at their own speed.\n\n\n\nThe first person Kelley chose for his team was Rodney George, a York County detective who had served on the York City police force. He had two things going for him: He was an excellent investigator, and he worked damn hard.\n\n\n\nGeorge became the guy who cleaned the closet, from top to bottom. He would ferret out every witness still living. He would search for every gang member he could locate, talk to every cop he could find who worked in 1969 and was still alive. In the beginning, he and Kelley rarely saw one another. George dropped his investigation reports in a box at the county's old Zion Lutheran Church property, and the assistant D.A. combed through them when he had time.\n\n\n\nDetective George started with the file Kelley already found: the 33 pages of Pennsylvania State Police reports from 1969. He would reinterrogate the people interviewed 31 years earlier. The state police had talked to boys who had been on the street July 21, 1969, as well as the people in the car with Lillie Belle Allen.\n\n\n\nGeorge and Detective Dennis Williams, one of several investigators enlisted to help with the Allen case, knew that Hattie Dickson was a crucial witness. She was the only person still alive who was in the white Cadillac with Allen the night of her murder.\n\n\n\nJames Mosley, her father, died in September 1994 of a heart attack. He was 72. Four months later, her mother, Beatrice Mosley, died of ovarian cancer. She, too, was 72. A year later, 71-year-old Murray Dickson died, after suffering with heart trouble and high blood pressure.\n\n\n\nOn Feb. 7, 2000, the detectives knocked on Hattie Dickson's door. They noticed her reticence as soon as they explained who they were and why they had come. Kelley, who met them back at his office, also noticed Dickson's defensive posture. Her sister's death was ignored for 30 years. She had grown cynical and distrustful of a system that had done nothing for her Lillie Belle, but she answered their questions anyway.\n\n\n\nHer statement to the men that day faltered little from the original statement she gave to the state police three weeks after her sister's death. At that time, she had told the police about fishing that day with her husband, parents and sister, stopping for a little food and returning home before heading to J.M. Fields.\n\n\n\nShe said: \"Just as I was going over the railroad, I saw the guys with guns. I got so scared I started to turn around. They (her family) wanted me to go straight ahead. When I turned, I had my head laid over. They said, 'Stop, you are going to hit the pole.' My foot was on the brake, but the car was moving. I stopped. I didn't cut the car off.\n\n\n\n\"Lillie said, 'Stop the car, and I'll take the wheel.' When I stopped, she got out of the back and went to open the front door. There was a shot fired. I put the car in park and pushed my door open and got out. Lillie was lying at the door. I could see her insides hanging out, and her head was toward the front of the car.\n\n\n\n\"I got up and started up the railroad track, and I saw the car lights were on. I came back to the car to turn the lights out. I started to get into the car and wasn't completely inside, and a second shot was fired. My husband pulled me back into the car down on the seat. There was more shots fired.\"\n\n\n\nApril 2000 — A Man's Conscience\n\n\n\nWhen one of Donnie Altland's old Newberry Street buddies would call his home, he wouldn't take the call. He had built a separate identity from the one he lived as a young man. Altland, 51, hadn't run with the guys in decades, and his old buddy Bobby Messersmith had moved to the Philadelphia area.\n\n\n\nAltland had married Cindy Bateson 25 years earlier, and they had raised two daughters in a home on Park Street in East Manchester Township. A century earlier, city residents had traveled by trolley to East Manchester Township, up this same road. Some would stay at their summer bungalows there and swim at the Conewago Creek.\n\nIn 2000, residents of Park Street owned or rented these homes, which had long ago been converted into four-season houses.\n\n\n\nAltland still enjoyed a social life but now north of the city. He worked as a mechanic at York's wastewater treatment plant and socialized at Mount Wolf Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Vigilant Social Club. He attended Ambassadors Bible Chapel.\n\n\n\nHe once stopped in at a reunion of the old Newberry Street guys, but he didn't talk to many of them. He hardly knew anyone. The Newberry Street Boys who Altland had seen emerge in the '60s continued cleaning the railroad tracks and playing ball games long after Altland and Messersmith moved on. Altland hadn't stayed in touch.\n\n\n\nAltland's life in the background continued through adulthood. He was seen as a friendly guy who stayed out of trouble, a good father and husband.\n\n\n\nThe only time a Northeastern Regional Police officer encountered Altland was when a construction company that had worked at Altland's home illegally dumped some of its trash. The police asked Altland if he could provide any information about the company. Altland, congenial and open, offered what information he could.\n\n\n\nHis next encounter with the police would be unexpected.\n\n\n\nOne spring morning in 2000, Cindy Altland answered the phone when a police detective called for her husband. He had questions about an incident 30 years earlier that Altland had witnessed on North Newberry Street.\n\n\n\n\"Oh, Bobby Messersmith,\" Cindy Altland responded. She told the detective that her husband had mentioned Messersmith being involved in a shooting back then.\n\n\n\nWhen Altland returned the call that afternoon, County Detective Rodney George asked him to drive down to the District Attorney's office to talk about the shooting.\n\n\n\nThe detective knew Altland had talked to the cops once before; he also knew someone had given Altland up to the police three decades earlier. George had copies of the state police reports and the interviews with gang members from 1969.\n\n\n\nOne of those reports involved a brag started by a Newberry Street Boy, Gabriel Mark Barr, to his father, Mark Barr. The younger Barr, a 1968 graduate of William Penn, had been home from military service when the riots occurred. He told his dad he had been at the shooting over at that Negro's murder in July and that she had a gun and fired it at the boys.\n\n\n\nHis father boasted to his co-workers at a used car lot of his son's involvement.\n\n\n\nArthur Murphy, one of those co-workers, didn't believe the story and told Mark Barr that his son was lying. Soon after, Gabriel Mark Barr called Murphy at work to repeat his story, unaware that Murphy had one of his co-workers listening on the other line. Two witnesses were better than one.\n\n\n\nThey called the police.\n\n\n\nBy the time an investigator was assigned to interview Barr, the boy had returned to military service at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. That's where Pennsylvania State Police troopers interviewed him on Sept. 3, 1969.\n\n\n\nYes, he told the troopers, he was on Newberry Street July 21. He had been there since about 5 p.m., hanging out at Bobby Messersmith's house. As the sun set, Barr heard shouts that the car was coming and someone yelled to Girarder Greg Neff, \"Get 'em Neff.\" The firing lasted about one minute. No, he wasn't one of them, but he stood on the roof of John Messersmith's house next to a guy who said he shot at the car: Donnie Altland.\n\n\n\nJust a couple of months later, Trooper Dale E. Allen asked Altland to meet him at the Pennsylvania State Police substation, 1195 Roosevelt Ave., the local barracks where 38 troopers worked.\n\n\n\nDonnie Altland had turned 21 just a month before the riots. He had moved out of his parents' home and was living at 573 W. Market St. when Allen interviewed him Oct. 14, 1969. Still friends with Bobby Messersmith, Altland wouldn't give the trooper any information about who was on Newberry Street that night or who had weapons. Unaware that Barr had snitched on him, Altland told his version of the story:\n\n\n\n\"I was in the alley, and it was about 9:15 p.m., and I heard a shot, then I heard a lot of shots, and I ran out front of the house. I saw the armored car go down the street. I guess they took the person away.\n\n\n\n\"I was carrying a baseball bat, and I didn't have any gun. I saw several boys with guns, but I don't remember their names.\n\n\n\n\"I was up on the roof earlier in the evening, and there were several persons there with guns, but I don't know their names. After the shooting, we stood out front of the Messersmith home and talked for a while and then a policeman came over and talked for a while and then I left the Messersmith home and walked to where I live. I think that was around 10 p.m.\n\n\n\n\"I can't remember too much about what happened that night. It was so long ago.\" That was just three months after the shooting.\n\n\n\nIn 1969, Altland had been a thin, muscular young man with dark hair. On April 10, 2000, his salt and pepper hair framed a wider face. He had become a big man with an easy smile, a nice guy, well-liked by most people who knew him.\n\n\n\nAltland had no idea that Gabriel Mark Barr had squealed on him to the police 31 years earlier. But the secret had been doomed to leak. So many people had known, so many of the boys that night had bragged about what they had done. But by now the gang members were older. Now they had children of their own. Now most of them saw that what they had done was nothing to brag about. They had shot at a frightened black family that had caused them no harm, held no gun, had no chance against their ambush.\n\n\n\nGabriel Mark Barr was dead, father of three taken by cancer in 1999, but his 1969 statement to police was on the record. He couldn't testify in court, but in his youthful past, he had offered the detectives the name of a man who would live most of his life quietly behind the scenes, Donnie Altland.\n\n\n\nIn the 90-minute interview in 2000 with detectives George and Williams, Altland broke. He ad mitted that he shot at the car's trunk that night. He told the police what he knew, but he implicat ed no one else. Something remained from that bond with the NSBs.\n\n\n\nGeorge now had a shooter, a credible man who admitted to being on Newberry Street that night. That was the piece he needed to help the case move forward.\n\n\n\nBut Altland was anguished. He returned home from the interview sweating. Donnie and Cindy Altland stayed up that night, talking about what happened. He felt sorry for what he did and wondered if it was his bullet that hit her.\n\n\n\nHis wife always knew Bobby Messersmith had been involved in the shooting, but she learned that her husband had his secrets, too. He feared what this investigation would do to his family. He might go to jail, and his two daughters would see that happen. He wondered how he could put them through such an ordeal.\n\n\n\nCindy Altland consoled him through the night. When she left for work in the morning, she assumed he was leaving for work, too. But before he left his home that day, he prepared two audio cassette tapes. One was for his family, telling them he was sorry for letting them down and explaining the days of rage that haunted him throughout his life. He gave them his love.\n\nThe other tape was for the police, his second admission of guilt.\n\n\n\nHe drove out of the Manchester area April 11 to a remote section of East Manchester Township near Brunner Island. He turned down Gut Road, a bumpy dirt road crowded by trees so thick that the wide Susquehanna River is impossible to see through them.\n\nA man driving over Gut Road about 10 a.m. was the first to notice Altland's body and called the police. A road crew traveling back and forth on the same road that morning told the police he couldn't have been there long because they had just been past.\n\n\n\nIndeed, Altland planned to take his life, and once he arrived at his destination - far enough from his home that his loved ones would never witness this tragedy - he acted without hesitation.\n\n\n\nDressed in blue jeans and a red flannel shirt, Altland rested on a mound of dirt, his gun underneath him. A pack of Marlboros sat next to the tapes in his truck, along with a note scrawled on a napkin, \"Forgive me, God.\"\n\n\n\n2000-2002 Bid For Justice\n\n\n\nAtland's death stunned Tom Kelley and Rodney George. This part-time investigation, this long-buried case meant a whole lot more to a number of people than it would have appeared from that thin file Kelley pulled out of the courthouse attic so many months earlier. Now a man had died for his crime, at his own hands.\n\n\n\nThere was no turning back.\n\n\n\nAs the investigation cranked up a notch, George asked Mayor Charlie Robertson, his former boss, if he could meet with him. George needed advice about how to proceed. Police from 1969 would need to be questioned, and George was sensitive to how his fellow men in blue would respond to the interrogations. These men shared a bond that broke through generations and police departments. His police department had already put a city detective on the case.\n\n\n\nRobertson was an affable man, a longtime public servant who had dreamed of becoming mayor since he was a small child growing up on York's streets. Although Robertson wasn't a brilliant politician, he hired people who wrote the budget and set his agenda and lured businesses into the city. He did little of that himself.\n\n\n\nWhat he was good at was what he had always been good at - being a friendly guy, shaking hands and showing up on time dressed in a suit. He was dependable and most of the people who lived in York all their lives knew just who he was.\n\n\n\nRobertson had watched the city grow and change and diversify from the same perch, the house in which he was raised on West Princess Street.\n\n\n\nPictures of his family and ball teams filled his living room. His parents, Milford and Margretta, were both dead. He never married or had any relationship that was publicly known. He lived alone most of his adult years.\n\n\n\nWhen George talked to Robertson, he hadn't known the mayor was anywhere near the scene of the Allen murder. Although he knew Robertson had worked that night, George hadn't been aware that Robertson was one of the first cops on the scene of the crime.\n\n\n\nBut what the detective began to learn in interview after interview was that a 30-year-old secret could be dusted off a little easier than it might have been shortly after it happened. People thought the case was so far in the past that it wouldn't hurt to tell the truth now.\n\n\n\nOne day in the District Attorney's Office, Bill Graff, a county prosecutor, suggested to Kelley that a grand jury be impaneled to aid in the investigation.\n\n\n\nGrand juries aren't like trial juries. They help ferret out information. In the grand jury room, jurors can ask questions of witnesses. In a trial, a prosecutor would be a fool to ask a witness a question that he doesn't already know the answer to. Unprepared prosecutors can damage their case if they use the witness stand as an investiga tive tool. In the grand jury room, though, the jurors are investigators, too.\n\n\n\nKelley liked the idea and moved on it.\n\n\n\nThis was an opportunity, one that hadn't been undertaken in York County in three decades.\n\n\n\nBut county natives were restless.\n\n\n\nThe mayor had gone on the attack. At a York City Council meeting in June 2000, Robertson said, \"Is it being done now for political reasons? I don't know. Is it being done now to embarrass the city? I don't know.\"\n\n\n\nThis was the same council forum in which Kelley, a Republican, had lambasted Robertson, a Democrat, for leasing a car with city funds and argued for limiting the mayor's ability to temporarily serve as a city department director.\n\n\n\nRegardless, Kelley was stunned to find Robertson, a former cop and head of the police department, disparaging the reopening of the murder cases.\n\n\n\nThe accusations stung.\n\n\n\nPolice Commissioner Herbert Grofcsik publicly declared that Robertson was not suspected of any wrongdoing in either homicide.\n\n\n\nThe District Attorney's Office retorted that no one had been exonerated in the case, and behind the scenes, they wondered why there was this public condemnation of their cases by law enforcement leaders. Unsolved crimes are reopened in cities across the country, some even older than this.\n\n\n\nBut Robertson was a study in contrasts. He bent with popular opinion or with the views of the people closest to him.\n\n\n\nThe county's prosecutors had no idea where Robertson's comments were coming from this time, but they would soon find out there might be more to it.\n\n\n\nThirty York County people were chosen by computer to serve on the grand jury, two days each month for up to 18 months in or near 1 Marketway West. There, in a room closed to the public, the all-white jury listened to testimony from every witness, suspect, cop or former cop who detectives could locate in both the Allen and Schaad murders. Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Uhler presided.\n\n\n\nKelley was the prosecutor inside the grand jury room, aided by other prosecutors. And another member was added to Kelley's team: Assistant District Attorney Tim Barker.\n\n\n\nBarker has a savvy mind for the law, a man whose brain never shuts off. He had known Kelley since their college days at Dickinson, Barker a freshman when Kelley was finishing his degree. Barker signed on to become the prosecution team's researcher, a behind-the-scenes role for now that would eventually draw him closer to the investigation and bind him to the Allen case for its length.\n\n\n\nHelping Detective George was Trooper Keith Stone, who the Pennsylvania State Police had offered as an investigator.\n\n\n\nWhile the grand jury started to see witnesses in the fall of 2000, politics overwhelmed the national news. The next president of the United States was anyone's guess, even after the polls closed. Democrat Al Gore didn't concede the presidential race to George W. Bush until Dec. 13, five weeks after the election ended.\n\n\n\nA political race for mayor of York began in the new year. It seemed like an uneven match from the beginning. The primary pitted Robertson, an eight-year incumbent lucky to have ridden on a good economy, against Ray Crenshaw, a city councilman who, if elected, would be the city's first black mayor. The winning Democrat was expected to face Republican Betty Schonauer, a former city school board member.\n\n\n\nInside the grand jury room, York County jurors heard Robertson's name come from witnesses. The first of them was shocking: former York Police Officer Dennis McMaster. On the stand, McMaster admitted he saw Robertson hand out ammunition to gang members. His implication of Robertson came not as the result of a question from Kelley, though. One of the grand jurors dug out this detail.\n\n\n\nWhen asked if other cops were involved, witnesses said that they were. Who were they? No one remembered.\n\n\n\nBut they remembered Robertson.\n\n\n\nHe was a victim of his own celebrity. Robertson coached boys baseball back in the '60s and refereed basketball games. Most boys growing up in York knew Charlie Robertson, and through the years, he never stepped from the spotlight. The boys who saw him in York in 1969 watched him become mayor in 1994.\n\n\n\nWhen Robertson took the stand in the grand jury room, he took the Fifth Amendment right not to testify.\n\n\n\nKelley wasn't a Robertson fan, but he cringed to hear evidence that the mayor might have done anything illegal when he was a cop. Kelley works with cops every day. His job as a prosecutor is to defend the investigations and actions of the police in solving crimes. If the grand jury handed down a recommended charge on the mayor, Kelley would have to prosecute a former cop. He thought it unlikely that Robertson would be indicted.\n\n\n\nWhen the recommended charges came from the grand jury, Kelley was surprised that 10 were there for the Allen case, one of those for Charlie Robertson.\n\n\n\nThe grand jury's affidavit said, in part: \"The grand jury found that based upon the evidence, the record supported a probable cause finding that Charles Robertson acted as an accessory before the fact in the crime of first-degree murder in the death of Lillie Belle Allen.\"\n\n\n\nBehind Kelley's back, rumors swirled that he was just an aggressive, politically savvy young man climbing the ladder to Rebert's chair. At one of her daughter's swimming lessons, Natalie Kelley sat beside a woman chattering away about how awful Tom Kelley was to prosecute the Allen case. Neither Kelley nor his wife knew the woman. While public opinion leaned heavily against the re-emergence of this case, Kelley felt vindicated by the unanimous decisions. The grand jurors - 30 local folks who saw the evidence - agreed that the case must move to trial. April 26, 2001, just over one year after Altland's suicide, Kelley had the first two men arrested for the murder of Lillie Belle Allen - Bobby and Artie Messersmith. The first assistant district attorney viewed Bobby Messersmith as the most culpable person in the crime. Bobby Messersmith had been arrested before - twice - for shooting people in York. Neither died. He served nine months for shooting TakaNii Sweeney the night the North End Cigar Store's windows were broken on July 17, 1969.\n\nThree years later, Messersmith shot 16-year-old Charles W. Keener Jr., a stranger, as he walked along Salem Road. He served six months in a mental hospital and nine months in jail for the crime. Arresting the Messersmith brothers first could make other people squawk, a tactic for confessions or pleas.\n\nBobby Messersmith talked. He blamed the shooting on someone who couldn't defend himself: Donnie Altland.\n\n\"I hate to do this. I hate to do this because he was a friend of mine, but Donnie Altland was the one who killed that woman,\" Messersmith said. Prosecutors didn't buy it. They believed Messersmith's shot ended Allen's life. Eight more men arrested in Allen's death marched into court one by one: Former Girarder Rick Knouse, former leader of the Girarders Gregory Neff, William Ritter, Clarence \"Sonny\" Lutzinger, former Newberry Street Boy Chauncey Curvin Gladfelter, former Yorklyn Boy Thomas Smith and, on May 12, 2001, Mayor Charlie Robertson. (Ezra Slick, who lived on Newberry Street, was arrested in July 2002. His arrest was slowed only because the prosecution team had been so busy.)\n\nThe District Attorney's Office timed the mayor's arrest to come after the primary, which he won over Ray Crenshaw. Kelley had received a letter from Richard Oare, one of Robertson's attorneys, warning him not to arrest the mayor before the election because the District Attorney's Office could be accused of tampering with the process. Charged with murder, a crying Robertson admitted only that he said \"White power\" at the rally in 1969. Before the end of May, Robertson dropped out of the mayoral race and gave up his political career. Kelley was drained. He had worked part time on this case for months, as had detectives George and Stone and prosecutor Barker. Kelley had taken every hit on the District Attorney's Office for a year.\n\nIn June 2001, one month after the mayor's arrest, a letter was sent to the York Daily Record and York Dispatch, their owners and then-Gov. Tom Ridge by some of the most powerful people in York County. In it, they expressed their displeasure with media coverage: \"We believe newspaper coverage has been entirely excessive as well as irresponsible. We believe that in the guise of covering the news the local papers have done and are doing a grave disservice to the community. We fear that this unrelenting attention to the tragedies of 32 years ago, if continued, will have grave social consequences which have already begun to be manifested.\"\n\nThe Daily Record printed the letter and the 94 names of the people who signed it. Prosecutors viewed it as York County's elite subtly nudging the District Attorney's Office to drop the case. The lawyers were astonished and unmoved. Between the arrests and the preliminary hearing, Kelley and Barker set the case aside. Their day in court was coming. But not before a motion was filed by defense attorneys to drop the charges because of the 32-year time delay in arresting defendants. It didn't work. The prosecution offered deals to some of the defendants to testify against other defendants, and pleas came from most of them. They offered Bobby Messersmith nothing. Two weeks prior to the trial in 2002, the prosecution team assembled its trial manuals - a Kelley staple - at a retreat site in the mountains west of Mifflinburg. In large, three-ring binders, Kelley organized all the notes taken on each witness who would be called to testify, and his co-counsel was expected to do the same. Included in his team now was Fran Chardo, a Dauphin County prosecutor who had offered to help with the case.\n\nEven this close to trial, the prosecutors were deciding which of the 400 witnesses the detectives had interviewed would be called to the stand. Too many witnesses would bore the jury. Too few could weaken their case. On the walls of their room, the lawyers hung photos, reminders of why they were there: Lillie Belle Allen. On Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002, the courtroom of Judge Uhler filled early. Guards stood at the door checking identification tags. When the doors closed and court began, no one could enter. Twelve white jurors and six alternates had been chosen to hear the trials of Robert Messersmith, Gregory Neff and Charles Robertson. Unlike Messersmith, Neff had been offered a plea deal. When he testified at the preliminary hearing that Allen had been armed on the night she was shot, his plea was revoked. Robertson's attorney would only consider a plea agreement if it meant no jail time. It wasn't offered. At the front of the packed courtroom sat the three defendants, each at his own table with one, two or three lawyers. Tom Kelley's team sat in front of the judge's bench - Tim Barker beside Kelley, Fran Chardo behind Kelley and Rodney George beside Chardo. The opening arguments set the stage for what would be a 13-day trial with nearly 100 witnesses.\n\nThe first witness was Debra Taylor, a graceful woman in her 40s and the daughter of Lillie Belle Allen. Holding back her tears, she described the night her mother never came home, the firecrackers she thought she heard in the distance that night and her Uncle Bubba's white Cadillac that she saw the following day on Pershing Avenue, covered with dings and holes. The next person to take the stand was a 56-year-old woman dressed in black with her hair piled behind her. Her jet-black hair was streaked with strands of white. Still a small-town girl from the South, Hattie Dickson was terrified of the witness stand. She told the same story she had told before - traveling down the wrong road at the wrong time, unaware of the danger ahead, trying to turn the car, her sister jumping out to take the wheel and the bullets that followed.\n\n\"I heard my sister,\" Dickson testified in her soft Southern voice. \"I heard her cry out to us. I heard her cry out. She said, 'Somebody, will you please help me?'\"\n\nThe witnesses who followed her told their own versions of the events that night. Philip Grosklos, a teenager in 1969 who lived on Atlantic Avenue, cried on the stand as he described the Mosleys and Dicksons screaming while bullets hit their car. Former cops took the stand. Former firefighters. Former gang members. Former residents of the Gap. Some forgot details. Some remembered vividly. The night of the shooting was no longer the black and white image many had of that night. It had become painted in with the rich strokes of men and women, some deeply affected by what happened, a few just as bigoted today as they were in 1969.\n\nIn the light of 2002, the picture became as clear as it could be 33 years after the fact. A woman died. One shot killed her. The man who prosecutors believed shot her had bragged of his deed, but the evidence of a fragmented bullet was gone, the memories of those he told hazy.\n\nFor his closing arguments, Robertson's attorney, William C. Costopoulos, clicked through a slide show of the riots, disturbing pictures of the National Guard rolling through town on personnel carriers and police officers in riot gear. He talked of his client's heroism in the riots and of the lack of evidence that he supplied ammunition to any gang members. Harry Ness told the jury that his client, Neff, was caught up in the times. He had used birdshot, nothing that could kill a woman.\n\n\"These kids on the bandshell that night (at Farquhar Park) were incited,\" Ness said. \"Had they (the police) done their jobs, no one would be here today.\" Kelley dramatically delivered his closing argument, shouting at times and quieting his voice to a hush at other times. \"These guys weren't protecting themselves,\" he said. \"They were trying to suck people into a war.\" He had the final word of the trial: \"Is it ever too late to do the right thing? Is it ever too late for justice? Go back there and do justice.\"\n\nWhen he retired to the prosecution's office, otherwise known as the squirrel hut, to await a verdict, Kelley was relieved. He hadn't seen his kids much over the last two months. He had read to them at night then retired to the basement of his spacious home to review his notes. Natalie Kelley had taken on the role of single parent while he handled this case. It took its toll.\n\nHe had dreamed about this trial and worried about what effect all of this would have on his life after the verdict. He would like to run for judge one day. He believed the answer from this jury would reflect the work he had done.\n\nOver the next couple of days, he and his team pondered questions that came from the jury, analyzing them and trying to read their meanings. The microsopic study frustrated the prosecutors, so they watched a \"Godfather\" marathon on television.\n\nThe jury returned with a verdict at 4:20 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Two hours were given for the judge, attorneys, defendants, families, friends and media to assemble in the courtroom. Robertson was the first person in the room, sitting at the table at about 4:30, but he was emotional. His lawyers took him out.\n\nAt 6:20 p.m., the doors closed, the judge spoke to the court's audience, then the jury entered. Some of them had been crying. They would say later that this was one of the hardest things they ever had to do.\n\nThe families of the defendants sat on the left of the courtroom, three, four and five rows back. Hattie Dickson and her family sat in the same row they had been in the whole trial, on the right side, with victim-assistance coordinators Missy Barker and Karen Fry.\n\nThe jury foreman was asked the verdict for Robertson. First degree murder. Not guilty. Second degree murder. Not guilty.\n\nFor Bobby Messersmith. First degree murder. Not guilty. Second degree murder. Guilty.\n\nFor Gregory Neff. First degree murder. Not guilty. Second degree murder. Guilty.\n\nThe defendants' families gasped, Robertson hung his head, weeping. Hattie Dickson leaned forward in her chair with a small smile on her face, shaking her head in affirmation.\n\nAbsent from the courtroom was Donnie Altland, betrayed even after his suicide by his closest Newberry Street friend, Bobby Messersmith.\n\nTom Kelley offered no emotion from the front of the courtroom. He watched, though, as guards handcuffed and led away Neff and Messersmith. It took him three agonizing years to reach this point, to bring these men to trial, to find justice for the murder of Lillie Belle Allen.\n\nTHE AUTHOR\n\n\n\nKim Strong is the editorial page editor and writing coach at the York Daily Record. In 2002, Strong won a first place Keystone Press Award for editorial writing and her editorial page and Comment section won a first place publishers' award. In 2001, the Daily Record won state and national awards - including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award- for the series \"Paper Shield: The Battered State of PFAs,\" whichStrong helped to edit. Strong has also edited \"Never to be Forgotten,\" \"Nine Months in York Town\" and \"Almost Forgotten,\" three local history books written by Daily Record Managing Editor James McClure. She speaks at national and state journalism conferences as well as individual newspapers about editing, coaching and writing. She serves on the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors' board of directors. A Penn State graduate, Strong initially worked as the police and court reporter at the Lewistown Sentinel, where she won state and regional journalism awards. She then worked for six years as the news adviser for Penn State's Daily Collegian.\n\nON SOURCES\n\nThis story was written without direct attribution, although every detail is taken from people, reports or historical documents. All of the direct quotes were taken directly from news and police reports. The following sources provided all the details: the Daily Record staff and archives; The Gazette and Daily; Tom Kelley; Hattie Dickson; Gladys Oden; Jennie Settles; Fred Flickinger; Tim Barker; York City Police reports; Pennsylvania State Police reports; FBI reports. The trial of Robert Messersmith, Gregory Neff and Charles Robertson; \"Never to be Forgotten\"; Daryl Albright, Northeastern Regional Police chief; Jim Hubley, a former editor at The Gazette and Daily; Dickinson College; Gary Sheaffer, a former president of the Newberry Street Boys; Jerry Francis, president of the Lower Merion Historical Society; William Penn High School's Tatler; the York County Heritage Trust; Debi Beshore of the York City School District; Jean Parks of the York County School of Technology; Jack Lewis of the Pennsylvania State Police. Missy Barker of the York County Victim Witness Program; Northern School District; Barre Shepp of York County Veterans Affairs; Manchester Union Cemetery; the Associated Press; the Seattle Times; The Independent in London.\n\n\n\nON THE COVER\n\nThe photograph at the top of the front cover taken in 2002 by the York Daily Record's Paul Kuehnel shows a van traveling up North Newberry Street, nearing the railroad tracks that run parallel to Gay Street. This westward view of the railroad tracks is the same direction Hattie Dickson stopped her husband's white Cadillac on July 21, 1969, minutes before her sister, Lillie Belle Allen, was killed. Just south of the railroad tracks is a small convenience store, known in 1969 as the Newberry Street Boys' headquarters.\n\n\n\nWHERE CASES STAND TODAY\n\nThe sentences Robert N. Messersmith: Scheduled to be sentenced today after being convicted of second-degree murder. His lawyer plans to appeal the verdict. Gregory H. Neff: Scheduled to be sentenced today after being convicted of second-degree murder. His lawyer plans to appeal the verdict. Arthur N. Messersmith: Sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in state prison for felony at tempt with the intent to kill, and a concurrent one to two years for misdemeanor criminal conspiracy to commit the unlawful act of first-degree murder. He was taken to county prison and is awaiting transfer to a state correctional institute. The other five men who entered guilty pleas to the misdemeanor conspiracy charge all can apply to the outmate work release program. Rick L. Knouse: Sentenced to nine to 23 months in county prison with a reporting date of Jan. 1. He also must perform 200 hours of community service and pay his share of the costs of prosecution. Knouse has asked that he be allowed to serve his sentence on house arrest because of health problems. Clarence 'Sonny' Lutzinger: Sentenced to nine to 23 1/2 months in county prison with a reporting date of Jan. 1. William C. Ritter: Sentenced to nine to 23 1/2 months with a reporting date of Jan. 2, a $500 fine, 200 hours of community service and his share of court costs. Thomas P. Smith: Sentenced to three to 23 1/2 months, a $500 fine, 200 hours of community service and a share of court costs. He reported to prison Friday. Chauncey Gladfelter: Sentenced to three to 23 1/2 months, a $500 fine, 200 hours of community service and a share of court costs. He reported to prison Dec. 10.\n\n\n\nAwaiting trial\n\n\n\nDefendant Ezra Slick , arrested in 2002, is scheduled to be tried separately, possibly in 2003. The affidavit for Slick's arrest indicates that Slick told investigators he fired four shots from a handgun in the direction of the Allen family's car. He is charged with criminal homicide.\n\n\n\nSchaad case\n\n\n\nYork Police Officer Henry C. Schaad was shot July 18, 1969, and died Aug. 1. Police arrested Stephen Donald Free land and Leon Forrest Wright on Oct. 30, 2001, and charged them in connection with Schaad's murder. On Nov. 19, 2001, Bucks County Senior Judge Edward G. Biester Jr. ruled the police and prosecution were not at fault for the 32-year delay in the arrests, and the charges would remain. Defense attorneys had argued that the delay made it impossible to mount an adequate trial defense. Judge John C. Uhler said he will rule before Christmas on requests by defense lawyers that include Freeland's motion for a separate trial and Wright's petition for the trial to be held outside York County. A trial date has not been set.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/04/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2021/06/05/who-bernard-goodwyn-man-who-shot-3-wilmington-officers-wednesday-night/7545232002/", "title": "Details emerge about the man who shot 3 Wilmington officers", "text": "The four-story stone-and-brick apartment building at 2450 N. Market St. in Wilmington was quiet Friday as local residents went about their day as usual.\n\nAside from what appeared to be two bullet holes in a concrete slab at the back of the building, the structure looked ordinary, a sign for Mary Herring Daycare posted in a first-floor window.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2022/10/24/till-statue-lin-manuel-miranda-buried-convertible-news-around-states/50868009/", "title": "Till statue, Lin-Manuel Miranda: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nRussellville: A northern Alabama community with large numbers of Hispanic immigrants is using federal COVID-19 relief money to fund an experiment to better serve students who are still learning English. They are hiring and certifying more local, Spanish-speaking staff. More than half of 2,500 students in the small Russellville city school district identify as Hispanic or Latino, and about a quarter are learning English. But the district at times has struggled to find the people and money necessary to help those students achieve. As part of a recent exercise to help the class learn English, a third grader pulled a block from a Jenga tower and read aloud a question written on one side. “Where,” the boy read, then slowly sounded out the other words: “Where would you like to visit?” “Disneyland,” one student said. “Space,” another chimed in. “Guatemala,” one girl said. Kathy Alfaro, a new English language teacher at Russellville Elementary, exchanged a few words with the girl in Spanish, then turned to the other students. “Do y’all know what she said?” Alfaro asked the class. “She said she has a lot of family in Guatemala because she was born there. And I told her that I was born here, but I also have a lot of family in Guatemala.” Districtwide, the percentage of students who met their language proficiency goals increased from 46% in 2019 to 61% in 2022. At the two elementary schools, proficiency jumped by nearly 30 percentage points.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, received a hero’s welcome Thursday when the Democrat gave the keynote address at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference in Anchorage. Those attending the largest annual gathering of Natives in Alaska showered her with standing ovations, spontaneous songs and gifts, including a bolo tie worn by her Republican predecessor, the late Don Young. Young’s daughter Joni Nelson presented the tie to Peltola, saying it was a passing of the mantle to her. The surprise presentation came after Young’s adult children joined Peltola on stage as she paid tribute to Young, who held Alaska’s sole seat in the House for 49 years until his death in March. Peltola defeated Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in an August special election to finish out Young’s term. Those three, along with Libertarian Chris Bye, are competing for a full two-year term in the November election. Another of Young’s daughters, Dawn Vallely, later said on stage that her father would have been happy with the results of the special election, won by Peltola. Nelson wore the white beaded tie – which features the state of Alaska in blue beads – onstage but removed it to place it around Peltola’s neck when she greeted the family.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: The state has sued the federal government to be able to keep more than 100 double-stacked shipping containers that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey had placed to fill in gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border near the southwestern desert community of Yuma. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Arizona on Friday asks that the state be allowed to take the unilateral action it believes necessary to defend its residents from migrants illegally crossing the border. Ducey complains the U.S. government is not doing enough to stop migrants from coming to Arizona, forcing the state to take action. The shipping containers went up in August. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week sent a letter telling Arizona to take down the containers, saying they are unauthorized and violate U.S. law. Arizona refused. The Cocopah Indian Tribe in southwestern Arizona also complained that some of the containers were placed on its reservation without permission. The Bureau of Reclamation also demanded that no new containers be placed, saying it hoped to prevent conflicts with federal construction contracts to fill the gaps in the wall near the Morelos Dam in the Yuma area.\n\nArkansas\n\nConway: Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended her avoidance of local media in her bid for governor Friday as she appeared in her only debate ahead of next month’s election. Sanders, the Republican nominee who is heavily favored in the November election, has conducted few local interviews during her bid for the state’s top office. Sanders had agreed to only one debate with Democratic nominee Chris Jones and Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington. Sanders said she’s been speaking directly to voters by campaigning around the state. “Freedom of the press is incredibly important, but with freedom of the press comes a great deal of responsibility,” Sanders said. “When they don’t live up to their end of the bargain, it forces some of us to go outside the box, which I have done every single day for the past two years.” Public polling has shown Sanders leading by double digits, and she’s shattered fundraising records in the predominantly Republican state. Early voting begins Monday in Arkansas. During her two year term as ex-President Donald Trump’s chief spokeswoman, Sanders scaled back televised news briefings after repeatedly sparring with reporters who aggressively questioned her. Sanders often sought to justify the lack of formal briefings by saying they were unnecessary when journalists could hear from Trump directly.\n\nCalifornia\n\nAtherton: Three decades after a car was reported stolen in Northern California, police are digging the missing convertible out of the yard of a $15 million mansion built by a man with a history of arrests for murder, attempted murder and insurance fraud. The convertible Mercedes Benz, filled with bags of unused concrete, was discovered Thursday by landscapers in the affluent town of Atherton in Silicon Valley, Mayor Rick DeGolia said, reading a statement from police. Although cadaver dogs alerted to possible human remains Thursday, none had been found more than 24 hours after technicians with the San Mateo County Crime Lab began excavating the car, DeGolia said. Police believe the car was buried 4 to 5 feet deep in the backyard of the home sometime in the 1990s – before the current owners bought the home. The car was reported stolen in September 1992 in nearby Palo Alto, he said. By Friday, the technicians had been able to excavate the passenger side of the convertible, which was buried with its top down. They also opened the trunk, where they found more bags of unused cement. Cadaver dogs were again brought back to the house and again “made a slight notification of possible human remains,” DeGolia said.\n\nColorado\n\nCastle Rock: Brewing beer, cooking food, and refilling water bottles with recycled wastewater could soon become standard practice in a state that’s synonymous with its pristine-tasting snowmelt and mountain springs. Last week, Colorado’s water quality agency gave unanimous preliminary approval to regulate direct potable reuse – the process of treating sewage and sending it directly to taps without first being dispersed in a larger water body. Pending a final vote in November, the state would become the first to adopt direct potable reuse regulations, according to state and federal officials. “Having well-developed regulations … helps ensure projects are safe and that project proponents know what will be required of them,” said Laura Belanger, water resources engineer with the non-profit Western Resource Advocates. As the state’s population explodes, and regional water supplies dwindle, recycling water for drinking is a significant opportunity for stretching a limited supply, said Kevin Reidy, conservation specialist for the Colorado Water Conservation Board. And he said it’s a game changer in a place like Castle Rock, a city of 75,000 just south of Denver nestled under its prominent namesake butte, that relies primarily on pumping finite groundwater for drinking.\n\nConnecticut\n\nEast Hartford: The grieving widows of two slain police officers gave tearful tributes to their husbands Friday during a funeral attended by thousands of law enforcement officers from around the country. Others who spoke at the service for Bristol Officers Dustin DeMonte and Alex Hamzy pleaded for an end to hatred and suspicion against the police. “To Alex and Dustin, you were both true heroes, amazing people, and you will be missed beyond words by everyone,” said DeMonte’s wife, Laura, who is pregnant with their third child. “I am so sorry this happened to you. Two of the very best humans. So kind, positive and fun-loving.” DeMonte, Hamzy and Officer Alec Iurato were shot Oct. 12 in what police believe was an ambush set up by a 911 call made by the shooter, Nicholas Brutcher. Iurato, who survived a gunshot wound to his leg, struggled to get behind a police cruiser and fired a single shot that killed Brutcher. Brutcher’s brother, Nathan, also was shot – possibly by his brother – and survived. DeMonte was a sergeant with 10 years’ experience on the force, and Hamzy was an officer for eight years. The funeral included formal, posthumous promotions of DeMonte to lieutenant and Hamzy to sergeant.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: The state auditor was sentenced Wednesday to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and complete 500 hours of community service for official misconduct and conflict of interest convictions. Auditor Kathy McGuiness avoided jail time for the misdemeanors, each of which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison, news outlets report. McGuiness maintains her innocence, and prosecutors sought a sentence of 30 days in prison for the Rehoboth Beach Democrat based on her lack of remorse. Her attorney argued that a $1,000 fine was sufficient. In July, a Kent County jury convicted McGuiness on three misdemeanor counts but acquitted her on felony charges of theft and witness intimidation. A judge later threw out a misdemeanor conviction for improperly structuring contract payments to a consulting firm, rejecting her request for a new trial. The conflict of interest charge involved the May 2020 hiring of her daughter Elizabeth “Saylar” McGuiness. Prosecutors alleged that Saylar McGuiness, 20, and a friend were hired even as other part-time workers in the auditor’s office left because of a lack of work during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities said McGuiness then allowed her daughter special privileges that were not available to other “casual-seasonal” workers.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: First lady Jill Biden will host a roundtable Monday on breast and cervical cancer, part of the administration’s “moonshot” effort to reduce deaths from cancer, the White House said. The event is one of many being launched by the American Cancer Society. Singer Mary J. Blige, an advocate for cancer screening, will participate in the roundtable with Biden. President Joe Biden announced in February his goal of halving cancer deaths in the next 25 years. The issue is personal for the president, whose son Beau Biden died in 2015 of brain cancer. Biden launched the cancer moonshot the following year when serving as then-President Barack Obama’s vice president.\n\nFlorida\n\nMiami: More than 230 pythons were removed from the Everglades as part of an annual competition to eliminate the invasive species from the South Florida wetlands preserve. Florida wildlife officials said Thursday that 1,000 hunters from 32 states and as far away as Canada and Latvia removed 231 Burmese pythons during the 10-day competition known as the Florida Python Challenge. Matthew Concepcion won the $10,000 top prize for removing 28 Burmese pythons. Another hunter, Dustin Crum, won a $1,500 prize for removing the longest python, a snake that measured over 11 feet long. Pythons became invasive in Florida after they were brought into the state as pets and then abandoned in the wild by their owners, wildlife officials say. Since 2000, more than 17,000 wild Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida, where they are a destructive presence for native species, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Every one of the pythons removed as part of the Challenge is one less preying on our native birds, mammals and reptiles,” said Rodney Barreto, the commission’s chairman.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: A beer garden near downtown Atlanta filled for a recent event hosted by Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock aimed at Latino voters. Some said they came to seek Warnock, who is seeking reelection in the midterm elections Nov. 8 against Republican challenger Herschel Walker. But others came to see a particularly high-profile Latino who would be speaking on Warnock’s behalf: composer, actor and filmmaker Lin-Manuel Miranda. “Who I’m really here to see is Lin-Manuel Miranda because I’m a really big fan of his,” said Camilla Estrada, of Atlanta, who described herself as liberal and said she plans to vote for Warnock. Georgia Democrats spent the first week of the state’s 19-day early voting period in frantic activity, as they implore supporters to vote in advance. Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams each held multiple events a day. Miranda also appeared with Abrams at a restaurant in suburban Lawrenceville on Wednesday, while the Abrams campaign later rolled out a recorded chat with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night. Almost 575,000 people had voted in Georgia by the end of Thursday, roughly on pace with the 2020 presidential election, when 5 million votes were cast in the state, buoying Democratic hopes that a big turnout might help them.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: Hawaiian Airlines will operate 10 cargo planes for Amazon.com starting next fall under a deal that could eventually involve more planes and give Amazon a 15% stake in the airline. The airline’s parent company, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., said Friday that it will fly and maintain an “initial fleet” of 10 leased Airbus A330-300 jets for the retail giant. The fleet could grow “depending on Amazon’s future business needs,” the company said. Hawaiian said it issued warrants that Amazon can exercise over the next nine years and acquire up to 15% of Hawaiian stock. Shares of Hawaiian Holdings jumped 13% in afternoon trading Friday. When travel plunged and consumer spending spiked early in the pandemic, airlines began carrying more cargo and demand for freighter planes grew. More recently, the cargo business has cooled off as consumer spending shifted away from goods toward services including travel, and airlines have been stuck with excess cargo capacity. Global demand for cargo fell 8.3% in August compared with a year earlier, the International Air Transport Association reported this month. Hawaiian said it won’t use any of its current planes to serve Amazon. Instead, Amazon’s air division will lease the first 10 planes -- which will be converted from passenger jets to freighters -- from leasing company Altavair.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: It’s not uncommon for Idaho wildlife officials to be called for help when a moose, mountain lion, black bear or other wild animals wander into one of the state’s rural communities. But Idaho Fish and Game officials are asking the public for help with a particularly unusual find – a 3.5-foot alligator that was discovered hiding in the brush of a rural neighborhood about 40 miles northwest of Boise. Southwest Region spokesperson Brian Pearson told the Idaho Statesman that a New Plymouth resident was walking their dog Thursday evening when they noticed something moving in the brush. Further investigation revealed the alligator – a creature commonly found in the coastal wetlands of the southeastern U.S., but certainly not native to Idaho. Pearson said the resident put the alligator in a nearby horse trailer until Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer could pick it up Friday morning. The department has the animal in captivity for now, but Pearson said it will be euthanized or given to a licensed facility unless the owner is located. Idaho Fish and Game officials are hoping members of the public will call the department if they have any information about the alligator’s origins.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Three young men were fatally shot and two more seriously wounded early Sunday during what police called a caravan of street racers involving about 100 vehicles that took over an intersection on the city’s Southwest Side. The shooting happened about 4 a.m. in Brighton Park after the caravan blocked streets leading to the intersection for illegal street racing, Chicago police Cmdr. Don Jerome said during a news conference. Those killed were between the ages of 15 and 20, Jerome said, adding that the two wounded are expected to survive. Police made no immediate arrests. Caravans blocking streets for drag racing, cars turning doughnuts and “drifting” are a “semi-recent phenomenon where they gather throughout different points of the city, and there were several others last night of no consequence … until this one,” Jerome said. The City Council member for the neighborhood where Sunday’s shooting happened said police and other city officials needed to act more aggressively to shut down such caravans. “This is not just fun and games on the street,” Alderman Raymond Lopez told reporters at the scene. “We are seeing gangs and criminality join into the drifting and drag racing.”\n\nIndiana\n\nCrown Point: A northwestern Indiana man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his 9-year-old daughter as he was talking to her two brothers about gun safety won’t serve any prison time for her 2017 death. A Lake County judge sentenced Eric S. Hummel, 38, on Thursday to one year to be served in the county’s community corrections program while living at home, followed by 31/ 2 years of probation. Judge Natalie Bokota accepted the Hobart man’s guilty plea to reckless homicide and neglect of a dependent charges in Olivia Hummel’s death, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports. Prosecutors had sought an 81/ 2 -year prison sentence for Hummel, but Bokota said she agreed with Hummel’s attorneys that incarcerating him would result in further trauma to his boys. According to court records, Hummel said he was showing a handgun to his sons and telling them to never play with it “because it can kill someone” when he accidentally shot and killed his daughter. Hummel told a 911 dispatcher he didn’t realize the gun was loaded when he pulled the trigger. He admitted in his plea agreement that he was talking to his sons about gun safety in a bedroom of his Hobart home in June 2017 when he pointed a handgun at the boys and pulled the trigger.\n\nIowa\n\nGrinnell: In a rare move, leaders of Grinnell College and the city appealed this month for the public’s help to put an end to racial harassment, slurs and graffiti that have shaken the campus community this fall. In an open letter to the public Oct. 16, Grinnell Mayor Dan F. Agnew and Grinnell College President Anne F. Harris asked residents to mobilize against the harassment against black citizens, students and community members and not be complacent to any racism they may witness. They urged residents to report any harassment or vandalism to police, tip police if they know any individuals who have been involved, and to enroll in bystander intervention training to help prevent future incidents. Grinnell police said Friday that they had only one formal incident report, and no arrests had been made. But in a statement to the campus community Oct. 12, the private college said there had been several incidents, including defacement of campus signs and vehicles with racist and white supremacist graffiti and harassment of community members by “unknown individuals screaming slurs from moving vehicles.” “We also know that additional incidents may not have been reported,” the statement said. Grinnell, routinely ranked as one of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges, has a diverse student body.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: Two years after her mate’s death, a female lion at the Topeka Zoo has grown a mane. The confident, sassy African lion named Zuri was always pretty much in charge of her three-member pride at the zoo, said her animal curator, Shanna Simpson. But staff members were still taken aback when, in the wake of her mate’s death two years ago, the aging lioness began growing what appeared to be a “mohawk” atop her head. That was followed by a rare and significant growth of the fur around Zuri’s head and neck, Simpson said. Zuri is intelligent, feisty and easy to train, Simpson said. The Topeka Zoo acquired Zuri and sister Asante in 2005 from the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, then in 2006 it acquired Avus from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, to mate with Zuri and Asante. Avus had a large mane. Female African lions are attracted to males with large manes, Simpson said. Those manes help protect the males as they fight with other lions and with predators such as leopards and hyenas, she said. Zoo staff suspect Zuri’s increase in fur was triggered by the death of Avus, which left she and her sister as the only remaining members of their pride, Simpson said. “She feels like she needs to protect her pride, so her testosterone increases,” Simpson said. “And boom, she’s got more fur around her neck.”\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: Local public transit workers have authorized a strike, but they aren’t walking out just yet. Union members with the Transit Authority of River City voted 95% in favor of the strike authorization Thursday, amid contentious contract negotiations. For now, buses will continue to run as scheduled, with no immediate plans to initiate a strike, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1447 President Lillian Brents said after the vote. The two sides are set to return to the bargaining table Nov. 2. Union leadership said workers want “a safe workplace and a fair contract.” The union is asking for a 6% raise for all workers after one year and 4% raises after years two and three, along with a cost-of-living adjustment of 1.25% every six months. TARC has offered a 3% raise for technical maintenance workers and radio room employees, a 2.5% raise for coach operators and a 1% raise for nontechnical maintenance workers, according to the union. The raises would take place in each year of the three-year contract. They do not include a cost-of-living adjustment. TARC claims the union’s salary demands are unrealistic and would exceed TARC’s annual budget, which is set by Louisville’s mayor and Metro Council.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: Prohibitions against nonunanimous jury convictions – outlawed by Louisiana voters in 2018 and, later, by the U.S. Supreme Court – do not have to apply retroactively to earlier convictions, Louisiana’s highest court ruled Friday. The ruling came in the case of Reginald Reddick, convicted of murder by a 10-2 jury vote in 1997, but the court acknowledged it had implications for hundreds of others convicted with 10-2 or 11-1 jury votes. In 2018, Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting nonunanimous verdicts in trials for crimes committed after Jan. 1, 2019. At the time, Louisiana was one of only two states allowing such verdicts. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that nonunanimous verdicts were unconstitutional, broadening the effect of the state constitutional amendment. But in 2021, the Supreme Court made clear in a case known as Ramos v. Louisiana that its decision against nonunanimous verdicts applied only to future cases and cases in which the defendants’ appeals had not been exhausted. Friday’s state high court majority ruling by Justice Scott Crichton cited the Ramos case and other jurisprudence in determining that neither federal nor state law required a retroactive application of the prohibition.\n\nMaine\n\nLewiston: A Republican congressional hopeful in a highly competitive race is spreading misinformation about the state’s housing policies, public housing directors said. Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, who narrowly defeated the Republican in 2018. During his campaign, Poliquin has relayed a story about a woman living in her car who allegedly told him she was taken off a housing list because of immigrants who are living in the country illegally. Poliquin, who has focused his campaign on issues such as curtailing immigration and protecting gun rights, used the anecdote as part of his argument for increased border security. The Maine Association of Public Housing Authority Directors rebuked the story on Thursday with a statement to the Bangor Daily News that did not name the candidate but came in response to his statements. The statement said: “Such misinformation erodes trust in the public housing system on which so many individuals and families depend for safe, quality affordable housing, and it cannot be left uncorrected.” Eligibility for federal housing assistance is limited to U.S. citizens and noncitizens who have eligible immigration status, federal rules state.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: A video shows Republican Dan Cox, who is running for governor, accepting a gift from a young man wearing a shirt with a Proud Boys insignia during the candidate’s primary victory party this summer. The video, obtained by The Washington Post, shows Cox accepting a comb from him. “Here, this is a present from Maryland Proud Boys to you,” the young man said in video footage publicly posted on Cox’s Vimeo account. Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, were involved in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After accepting the gift, Cox asked the man’s name and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you,” Cox said, before greeting other supporters. The Washington Post reports the clip was removed after the newspaper contacted Cox’s campaign, which responded with a statement denying an association with the young man. “In the noise of the victory celebration, it was hard to hear what was being said,” Cox said, adding that he was surprised by the man handing him something and that “frankly, I did not even keep the comb.” Cox has reiterated false claims that the 2020 presidential election “was stolen” from Donald Trump, and he volunteered to help decertify results in Pennsylvania. He has also issued denials and apologies about his conduct surrounding Jan. 6. Although he said he attended the “Stop the Steal” rally, he has said he left before the march to the Capitol.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nPlympton: A nearly three-week strike by truckers at New England’s largest wholesale food distributor has come to an end with a new labor agreement, the Teamsters union said. The five-year agreement includes an immediate $5 per hour pay raise, an $11 per hour raise over the course of the agreement, improved retirement benefits, and keeps drivers on the union health insurance plan, the Teamsters Local 653 said in a Facebook post Thursday. About 300 workers at the Sysco facility in Plympton south of Boston went on strike Oct. 1. “I’ve never been prouder to be a Teamster. This fight proves that we truly are the biggest, fastest, strongest union in the world,” Local 653 shop steward Kevin Whitten said. “This strike brought members together like never before and built solidarity that will continue for years to come.” An email seeking comment was left Friday with a spokesperson for Houston-based Sysco. More than a dozen picketers at the facility were arrested early Monday after blocking the exits with tractor-trailers and preventing some employees from leaving. Sysco, which has distribution facilities across the country, supplies food to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and other businesses. The Plympton facility remained operational during the strike with third-party drivers.\n\nMichigan\n\nDetroit: A teenager accused of killing four fellow students and injuring more at his high school is expected to plead guilty to murder this week, authorities said Friday. Ethan Crumbley had created images of violence during a classroom assignment last November but was not sent home from Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. He pulled out a gun a few hours later and committed a mass shooting. Authorities have pinned some responsibility on Crumbley’s parents, portraying them as a dysfunctional pair who ignored their son’s mental health needs and happily provided a gun as a gift just days before the attack. They also face charges. Crumbley, 16, is due in court Monday. “We can confirm that the shooter is expected to plead guilty to all 24 charges, including terrorism, and the prosecutor has notified the victims,” said David Williams, chief assistant prosecutor in Oakland County. A message seeking comment was left for the boy’s lawyers. Crumbley was 15 when the shooting occurred at Oxford High, roughly 30 miles north of Detroit.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Two former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death are heading to trial on state aiding and abetting counts, the third and likely final criminal proceeding in a killing that mobilized protesters worldwide against racial injustice in policing. J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have already been convicted of federal counts for violating Floyd’s civil rights and begun serving those sentences. Many witnesses expected to testify at their state trial have already done so at both their federal trial and at the state trial against their former colleague, Derek Chauvin. While much of the evidence in this proceeding will look similar, there will be some key differences. Jury selection gets underway Monday.\n\nMississippi\n\nGreenwood: Hundreds of people applauded – and some wiped away tears – as the community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager over accusations he had flirted with a white woman in a country store. “Change has come, and it will continue to happen,” Madison Harper, a senior at Leflore County High School, told a racially diverse audience at the statue’s dedication. “Decades ago, our parents and grandparents could not envision that a moment like today would transpire.” The 1955 lynching became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see the horrors inflicted on her 14-year-old son. Jet magazine published photos of his mutilated body, which was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The 9-foot-tall bronze statue in Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park is a jaunty depiction of the living Till in slacks, dress shirt and tie with one hand on the brim of a hat. The rhythm and blues song “Wake Up, Everybody” played as workers pulled a tarp off the figure. Dozens of people surged forward, shooting photos and video on cellphones.\n\nMissouri\n\nColumbia: Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a top Republican prospect for governor, wants to block public funding for library books that might appeal to the “prurient” – meaning sexual – interests of minors. Ashcroft proposed the new rule on libraries last week. It does not include a more-detailed definition or include examples of which specific books would be restricted as appealing sexually to children or teenagers. In a statement, the Missouri Library Association called Ashcroft’s rule “an infringement on the professional judgment of librarians, and an effort to further stoke division in the communities that libraries serve.” The group warned that small and urban libraries, which rely most on state funding, would face the greatest impact from the policy. Ashcroft on Friday said he didn’t propose the rule in response to any particular book but hoped it would prevent potential issues. “I know that a lot of Missouri libraries are doing a good job on this and reflecting the values of the taxpayers that paid for the materials,” Ashcroft said. “But I just think it’s good to have some guidelines to make sure that we’re reinforcing that parents are in control.” The proposal would require state-funded libraries to adopt policies on the age-appropriateness of literature, which is already common at both school and public libraries in the state. And under the rule, anyone could challenge access to books. The proposal is what’s known as an administrative rule, which would have the same effect as a law if enacted.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Two physician groups have asked state election officials to issue a correction to statements printed in a voter information pamphlet that they argue are false and and could confuse voters as they consider an abortion-related ballot measure. The complaint comes from two groups that oppose a referendum that would raise the prospect of criminal charges for health care providers unless they take “all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life” of an infant born alive, including after an attempted abortion. At issue is language in the pamphlet written by supporters that explains the proposed measure. Supporters say the referendum requires medical care to be provided if an infant is born alive after induced labor, cesarean section, attempted abortion or other method. The physicians say that supporters dropped a word from the language of the proposal and that the law, if passed, would also apply to an infant born as a result of natural labor, even if a fetus was born extremely preterm, and regardless of the infant’s prognosis or the family’s wishes. The complaint was made Friday by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology on Friday. They asked the Montana Secretary of State’s Office to issue a correction to statements.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Union Pacific delivered 13% more profit in the third quarter, but the railroad predicted Thursday that its customers will ship fewer items than it expected, confirming the economy is slowing down in the face of soaring inflation. The Omaha-based railroad said it now expects the number of shipments it handles to be up about 3% this year and match the third-quarter number. Previously, Union Pacific had predicted that volume would be up 4% to 5% this year. “I have no idea if we’re in a recession or one is looming,” UP CEO Lance Fritz said. “I do know that the economy is slowing down.” Union Pacific reported $1.9 billion profit, or $3.05 per share, in the quarter. That’s up from $1.67 billion, or $2.57 per share, a year ago, but this year’s results were weighed down because the new contracts the railroads agreed to with their 12 unions cost $114 million more than Union Pacific had been planning on. Without that one-time charge for the new contracts, which only half of the unions have approved, Union Pacific would have reported earnings per share of $3.19. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.06 per share.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: A rural county can start hand-counting mail-in ballots two weeks before Election Day, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday, but it won’t be allowed to livestream the tallying and must make other changes to its plans. The ruling came in response to an emergency petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which challenged several aspects of Nye County’s plan to start hand-counting votes this week. The ACLU said in its lawsuit that the plan risked leaking early voting results. It also said that rules on touch screens to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act were too vague and restrictive and that the county violated state law with its “stringent signature verification” for voter ID. Located between Las Vegas and Reno, rural Nye County was one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust in voting machines. Alongside the primary machine tabulation process, Interim County Clerk Mark Kampf’s plans to publicly hand-count all paper ballots. The hand count was first proposed to county commissioners by Republican secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant in response to false claims about Dominion voting machines. Sadmira Ramic, the ACLU of Nevada’s voting rights attorney, praised the ruling.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nKeene: A small plane crashed into a building, killing the two people on board and sparking a large fire on the ground, authorities said. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Saturday that a single-engine Beechcraft Sierra aircraft crashed into a building north of Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene on Friday evening. City officials said on their Facebook page that no one was injured in the building hit by the plane but that “those on the plane have perished.” “The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide additional updates,” the FAA said. Keene Mayor George Hansel told the Associated Press that two people on the plane died but that they have not been identified. He said the the plane hit a two-story barn connected to a multi-family apartment building. All eight people were evacuated from the apartment building due to the subsequent fire. At a morning press conference, Hansel said the plane was owned by Monadnock Aviation, which is based at the airport. He said it was unclear where the plane was headed, and no one answered the phone at Monadnock. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and the operations at the airport were not affected, he said.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: The state’s new K-12 public school mental health plan is facing lots of opposition from state lawmakers who say they won’t back its proposal to eliminate the decades-old School Based Youth Services program, which provides critical counseling and support for teens in low-performing districts. The School Based Youth Services program, set up in 90 of the state’s public schools, is scheduled to be eliminated by June 2023 to make way for NJ4S, New Jersey Statewide Student Support Service Network, an expanded and revamped system that would be available to all or most of the state’s 2,400 schools. Unveiled in October as a “first-in-the-nation” effort to centralize services and spread them beyond schools and into libraries, group homes and social service agencies, NJ4S was in the works for more than a year and created as a response to the pandemic’s teen mental health crisis under the guidance of Department of Children and Families’ Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer. But it was immediately met with intense criticism from educators and advocates who support expanding services but said the time-tested school-based programs must also stay.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: The U.S. Department of Agriculture will waive cost-sharing requirements for farmers and ranchers affected by the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján on Thursday announced that the agency will cover cost sharing for emergency forest restoration, conservation and other environmental improvement programs. The move follows the approval of a massive federal spending bill that included $2.5 billion in relief for those affected by the fire and post-fire flooding. That bill included a provision to waive cost sharing for all programs administered by the USDA. The wildfire was sparked by two government planned burns earlier this year. It ripped through hundreds of square miles of forest and grazing lands, destroying homes and the livelihoods of many of the rural residents. Through no fault of their own, Luján said, residents lost large swaths of cherished lands and will have to grapple with the effects for years. “Our farmers and ranchers, business owners and families deserve relief to recover,” he said in a statement.\n\nNew York\n\nBuffalo: The victims of a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket will be honored with a permanent memorial in the neighborhood, elected and community leaders announced Friday. The shooting “is part of the Buffalo story forever going forward,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “We want to do something that people remember. A place to come and reflect. A place to honor. And a place to say never again.” Former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother Ruth Whitfield was among the 10 Black people killed May 14, is among those appointed to a planning commission tasked with acquiring land, seeking input on the design, securing funds and maintaining the monument. Buffalo NAACP President Mark Blue will lead the effort. “It’s not going to take the place of my mother or the lives of the other loved ones that were lost here,” Whitfield said. “So we will forever miss them and honor their legacy by what we do going forward.” The officials did not specify a budget or timeline for the project’s completion. Brown said numerous businesses and people have offered to contribute. Payton Gendron, 19, has been charged with killing 10 and wounding three others at the Tops Friendly Market. Investigators said he drove 200 miles from his Conklin home intending to kill as many Black people as possible at the store, which he targeted because of its location in the predominantly Black East Buffalo neighborhood. He has pleaded not guilty.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nSalisbury: A man who was shot during a weekend concert at Livingstone College has been identified as a suspected shooter and is now facing charges, officials said Tuesday. The shooting took place Saturday during a performance featuring rapper Asian Doll at the historically Black college in Salisbury. Police are also asking for help identifying another person of interest. Salisbury police obtained a warrant charging Talib Latrell Kelly, 21, of Salisbury, with attempted first-degree murder, discharging a firearm on educational property and possession of a firearm by a felon, the department said. Kelly is not a Livingstone student, Salisbury police Capt. P.J. Smith said at a news conference. Officers were called to the campus about 11 p.m. and found gunshot victims and others who had been hurt as concertgoers fled the gunfire, city officials said in a statement. Video footage from the event shows that a fight broke out while Asian Doll was on stage. Two male victims were taken to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte with gunshot wounds, and officials also identified a woman who had a superficial wound to her neck, Smith said. None of the victims’ injuries were considered life-threatening, he said.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: A North Dakota farmer who had been detained in Ukraine since November 2021 on accusations he planned to kill his business partner is back home, the state’s two U.S. senators announced Friday. Kurt Groszhans, from Ashley, North Dakota, has ancestors from Ukraine and went there to farm in 2017. The relationship with his partner, law professor Roman Leshchenko, crumbled after Groszhans alleged that Leshchenko embezzled money from him. Groszhans and his assistant were arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate Leshchenko, who was then Ukraine’s agriculture minister. Groszhans said in a statement Friday that the Ukrainian officials made up the charges in an “effort to shut me up” after he discovered corruption “at the highest levels” of the government. “I am grateful to be home after this horrible ordeal,” Groszhans said in a statement. “My family and supporters worked tirelessly over a long period of time to make this happen and it was nice to be able to celebrate my birthday on North Dakota soil. The fact they refused to classify me as a wrongful detainee was an unfortunate and politically cowardly act that cost me almost a year of my life,” he said.\n\nOhio\n\nCincinnati: The state of Ohio will not require the COVID-19 vaccine for school students despite a recommendation from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel. A panel with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the federal government’s list of routinely recommended vaccinations. The panel’s decision, likely to be adopted by the CDC director, formally adds the shot to a list often used by schools and health officials in making vaccination requirements. Ohio leaders made it clear Friday that the vaccine would not be required for Ohio students. “The State of Ohio does not mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for school attendance. The ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) vote does not change Ohio law. The state’s list of required vaccines can only be changed through legislation,” Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said in a statement. Indeed, not every vaccine on the list has been adopted by Ohio as a requirement for schoolchildren, such as flu shots. A list of required vaccines for schools and child care in Ohio can be viewed on the Ohio Department of Health website.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: A private foundation has raised more than $6 million to build a residence for future Oklahoma governors and their families, under a plan that calls for the current mansion near the state Capitol to be used for official meetings and special events, according to Gov. Kevin Stitt and people involved in the project. Talks about building a new home on the mansion grounds predate Stitt’s inauguration in 2019 and grew out of concerns about the cost of renovating the century-old structure. Stitt told reporters on Wednesday that he and his family – who lived only temporarily in the mansion – would not live in the new residence if he wins a second term next month. “It will not benefit Gov. Stitt,” he said. The foundation, Friends of the Mansion, is expected to announce plans for the residence after the Nov. 8 election. The foundation was created in 1995 by former Gov. Frank Keating and former first lady Cathy Keating to pay for renovations and additions. The new residence is envisioned for land behind the current mansion. Plans would have to be approved by two zoning commissions that oversee the area near the Capitol.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: The mayor plans to ban camping on city streets and move unhoused people to designated campsites, as the growing homeless population has become the top concern for the vast majority of residents. “The magnitude and the depth of the homeless crisis in our city is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said Friday. “We need to move our scattered, vulnerable homeless population closer to the services that they need.” The resolution would establish at least three large, designated outdoor camping sites, with the first opening within 18 months of securing funding. Wheeler didn’t specify when the funding would be confirmed or how much the measure would cost. The designated camping sites would initially be able to serve up to 125 people and would provide access to services such as food, hygiene, litter collection and treatment for mental health and substance abuse, Wheeler said. The sites could eventually serve 500 people. Oregon’s homelessness crisis has been fueled by a housing shortage, the coronavirus pandemic and drug addiction. More than 3,000 people are living without shelter in Portland, a 50% jump from 2019, and there are more than 700 encampments across the city, Wheeler said.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: The state’s elections chief wants legal penalties against two Republican county officials and their lawyer for what she calls in a new court filing their “unprecedented, reckless decision” to give an outside group access to voting machines during pending litigation on that subject. Lawyers for acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman last week asked the state Supreme Court to hold in contempt the two Fulton County commissioners and to dismiss the litigation that had been scheduled for oral argument before the justices this week. Chapman was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. On Friday afternoon, the justices appointed Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer as a special master to gather evidence on the contempt request and make a report with recommendations by Nov. 18. During their long-running dispute with the state, Fulton County GOP Commissioners Stuart Ulsh and Randy Bunch had allowed one group, Wake TSI, access to voting machines as part of the failed effort to locate fraud that might overturn ex-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat. That prompted the Department of State to tell counties they “shall not” allow such access to voting machines. Ulsh and Bunch were moments away from permitting a second group, Envoy Sage, to inspect the machines in January when the state Supreme Court put that on hold. The inspection planned in January was to involve computers, electronic poll books, ballot scanners and possibly more.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: A lawsuit claiming that Brown University failed to protect female students from sexual harassment and assault can move forward in part, a federal judge ruled last week. Four former students filed a federal class action suit in August 2021 alleging that the university systemically and repeatedly failed to protect women from harm, including rape, despite knowing that sexual assault on campus is “endemic.” Two current students later joined the suit. The university moved to dismiss the suit in March. On Oct. 18, U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. allowed the plaintiffs’ claim for injunctive relief to go forward but denied their efforts to seek monetary relief. The plaintiffs were enrolled between 2018 and 2021. The plaintiffs can sue to force Brown to “ensure that the Title IX office receives, investigates and resolves complaints.” The plaintiffs must still prove that their suit meets the criteria for class-action certification. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or in activities that receive federal financial assistance.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: Months after accusing disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh of killing his wife and son, investigators and prosecutors have released few details about the evidence that they believe connect him to the shootings. That’s led Murdaugh’s lawyers to file a flurry of court documents requesting information from the prosecution, seeking to publicly weaken the case before the January trial has begun. The defense attorneys argue that there was unknown DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails. They also have a different suspect, Murdaugh’s friend Curtis Eddie Smith, arguing that he failed a lie detector test regarding the killings. Murdaugh has already admitted to asking Smith to arrange Murdaugh’s own death to defraud his life insurance company. Those defense documents even boosted a story from Smith that prosecutors later said had no evidence to back it up – that Paul Murdaugh killed his mother, Maggie, when he caught her with a groundskeeper at the family’s Colleton County hunting lodge, and the groundskeeper then shot the son. Alex Murdaugh, 54, has proclaimed his innocence ever since June 2021, when he found the bodies, each shot several times. He has said through his lawyer he “loved them more than anything in the world.”\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nVermillion: The University of South Dakota may welcome a new sorority chapter in the coming years. Alpha Pi Omega, the country’s oldest Indigenous Greek letter organization, could open doors on campus if enough students express interest, according to a flier circulated on social media promoting an informational session held Oct. 13. APO is a sisterhood of Indigenous women who are committed to each other, communities, tribes, families, academic excellence and self-empowerment, according to the flier. Its philanthropic cause is the National Indian Education Association. Hanna Delange, a spokesperson for USD, said nothing has been solidified yet with the sorority’s plans but confirmed the informational session took place as a chance for students to learn about the potential organization. Brooke Poppe, director of sorority and fraternity life on USD’s campus, said while there is no current timeline to open the sorority, the plan moving forward is on hold until there is enough student interest. It takes five or more students to start any student organization on campus. When or if Poppe receives a list of interested students, USD can move forward with the APO national organization in the expansion process. Poppe said her office hopes to have that potential list together by the end of the semester.\n\nTennessee\n\nChattanooga: Employees of Bess T. Shepherd Elementary School blasted a recent nighttime prayer meeting over the school’s exterior loudspeaker, although district officials said it was an accident. An unidentified neighbor who could hear the praying from inside his or her home Monday night posted a video on the Reddit website that recorded about two minutes of a speaker praying over the intercom, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. “This went on for 45 minutes,” the video caption said. The video included a woman’s voice repeatedly saying, “We need you in this school, God. We need you in every school, God.” She spoke of casting the things of hell “back to the abyss” and said: “You cannot rule in this school. You cannot rule in the hearts and minds of the children.” The speaker also prayed over staff members. District officials said the prayer meeting occurred about 6 p.m. Monday, although they were not aware of it until Thursday morning. “There were staff members inside the building praying who were unaware the external intercom system was enabled,” district spokesperson Steve Doremus said in an email. “As soon as they were made aware, the intercoms were turned off.”\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: The Texas Department of Public Safety fired an officer Friday who was at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre and becomes the first member of the state police force to lose their job in the fallout over the hesitant response to the May attack. The department served Sgt. Juan Maldonado with termination papers, spokeswoman Ericka Miller said. No details were offered about his role at the scene of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School or the specific reason Maldonado was fired. The firing comes five months after the mass shooting that has put state police under scrutiny over their actions on the school campus as a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two teachers. Maldonado could not be reached for comment Friday night. Body camera footage and media reports have shown the Department of Public Safety had a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest after the shooting. State troopers were among the first wave of officers to arrive but did not immediately confront the gunman, which experts say goes against standard police procedure during mass shootings.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: Gov. Spencer Cox hosted the first of what governors across the U.S. are planning to be a series of new discussions on how states could address mental health issues. Neither Cox nor other governors involved are proposing specific policy solutions so far, but that isn’t the point – the idea is to listen to physicians, pediatric psychologists, educators, parents and others to try to find areas of consensus. Cox, the vice chair of the National Governors Association, is among a bipartisan group of governors who have joined NGA chair Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, in forwarding the “Strengthening Your Mental Health” initiative, with the ultimate goal of finding nonpartisan policies that states everywhere might adopt. Over two days at a roundtable event in Salt Lake City, Cox, a Republican, and Murphy, a Democrat, hosted a series of conversations on the topic, hoping to hear experts’ opinions on potential solutions connected to prevention, early intervention and resilience building. “Youth mental health is an urgent issue in Utah and nationwide,” Cox said. “The (COVID-19) pandemic has heightened the problem, and it’s important that we be proactive in bolstering support resources and letting young people know that help is available.”\n\nVermont\n\nSt. Albans: A fired deputy who is the only candidate on the November ballot to become sheriff of the county where he served was charged Friday with simple assault for kicking a shackled prisoner, authorities said. John Grismore, 49, of Fairfax, was cited on the charge Friday through his attorney. He is due in court Monday in St. Albans to answer the charge, Vermont State Police said in a news release. Surveillance cameras recorded the prisoner being kicked Aug. 7. In the Aug. 9 primary, Grismore won the nominations of both Franklin County’s Republican and Democratic parties to have his name on the November ballot for sheriff. But after the video became public, he was suspended and then fired by outgoing Franklin County Sheriff Roger Langevin. The county Republican and Democratic parties gave their support to a write-in campaign by Sheriff’s department Lt. Mark Lauer, a 27-year Vermont State Police veteran who has been at the department for nearly a decade. Gale Messier is also running a write-in campaign. He spent decades in law enforcement including 20 years at the sheriff’s department in Chittenden County, Vermont’s most populous county. On Friday, Grismore said in an email that “the story is still the same” and that he had nothing new to add.\n\nVirginia\n\nFort Belvoir: A “barricade situation” drew the FBI and other law enforcement officials to a U.S. Army base outside the nation’s capital Sunday, according to the official Twitter account of Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia. The base tweeted shortly before 1 p.m. that its law enforcement officials, local police and the FBI had responded “to a barricade situation” Sunday morning. “The situation is ongoing, & we cannot comment further at this time,” the base tweeted. It provided no other details except to say some of the gates to the installation remained open. The situation was inside a home, WUSA-TV reports. Fort Belvoir sits on about 8,800 acres of land along the Potomac River in Fairfax County and is located about 20 miles south of Washington. The base is home to several Army command headquarters, elements of the Army Reserve and Army National Guard and nine Department of Defense agencies, according to a Department of Defense website that serves the military community. The installation has 2,154 family housing quarters and seven child youth service facilities, according to Fort Belvoir’s 2022 strategic plan.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Authorities said Friday that they arrested three suspects in the slayings of two people and shooting of a police officer after a daylong search on a tribal reservation in northeastern Washington. The Colville Tribes Emergency Services said on Facebook on Friday evening that the third suspect was arrested in Elmer City, one of several small communities on the rural reservation. Two others were arrested earlier in the day. The search for the suspects began after the Colville Tribal Police Department responded to a report of a shooting Thursday in Keller, a small community about 275 miles east of Seattle. Officers found two people dead, and an officer who came across a vehicle described as having left the scene was shot in the arm, according to the department. He was doing well after being transported for medical care, the department said in a news release. Police identified two of the suspects as Curry Pinkham and Zachary Holt. Robin Redstar, a Colville Tribal member and Nespelem resident, said she and other residents waited in their home for hours, and at one point one of the suspects was believed to be in a gully behind her house. Authorities eventually arrested a man in front of her home around 10 a.m. after he tried to enter her neighbor’s back door, Redstar said. Her neighbor, a hunter with guns, was able to detain the man and get him to the street, where a tribal police car was waiting, Redstar said. “It was pretty quick. Corbie (the neighbor) was giving him a good speech about morals,” she said.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Voters will get the final say on a ballot question that would amend the state constitution to give the Republican-dominated Legislature control over virtually every aspect of public schooling. The vote comes amid a fight raging nationally over the politicization of schools. West Virginia’s Republican leaders have joined politicians elsewhere in pushing to regulate how subjects such as race are taught in classrooms and funnel public money into alternative education options, including charter schools and voucher programs. Just this year, the state Board of Education joined a lawsuit against top Republicans over a school choice program – one of the nation’s most expansive – alleging it unconstitutionally drains money from public schools. The case went to the state Supreme Court, which sided with lawmakers. And in a state that once was a stronghold of organized labor, some see the proposed amendment as part of an effort to defang the most formidable center of union power left standing: public school employees. Four years after more than 30,000 school workers went on strike in one of the nation’s poorest states, igniting teacher walkouts nationwide, many say they’re overworked and exhausted.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMilwaukee: A Milwaukee County judge on Friday denied a Republican Party of Wisconsin request to stop the city of Milwaukee from continuing a get-out-the-vote effort that the city argues it neither runs nor funds. Judge Gwen Connolly wrote that the arguments made by the party and Milwaukee voter Elizabeth Burke were “deficient” and that issuing such an order would chill constitutionally protected free speech. The lawsuit was one of two filed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and other plaintiffs in the weeks after Mayor Cavalier Johnson made comments Sept. 12 about an initiative dubbed “Milwaukee Votes 2022” and referenced door-to-door canvassing funded by the “private sector.” Johnson’s spokesman then said the campaign conducting the canvassing is privately funded, and the city’s association was “limited to the mayor voicing support for the work.” The first lawsuit, which centered on an open records request, was dismissed earlier this month after the party said it had received the requested records from the Milwaukee Election Commission and Mayor’s Office related to the get-out-the-vote effort. In the second lawsuit, filed Sept. 28, Burke and Republicans argued that though Milwaukee Votes 2022 is a purportedly nonpartisan get-out-the-vote effort, the city would partner with an organization, GPS Impact, that openly works to elect Democratic candidates and advance progressive causes.\n\nWyoming\n\nPinedale: A hunter accidentally shot himself in the leg while trying to fight off a grizzly bear attack in west-central Wyoming – the second such attack in a week’s time, officials said. Lee Francis, 65, of Evanston, was taken to the University of Utah Health hospital for treatment after the encounter Friday, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said. Francis was hunting with his son in an area south of Grand Teton National Park on Friday evening when the bear attacked him. He was able to fire several rounds from his handgun, causing the bear to run away, but one of the rounds hit Francis in the lower leg, the sheriff’s office said. His son used a satellite phone to call for help just before 6 p.m., then began providing first aid. His son was able to help his father onto a horse, and they headed toward a nearby lake to meet search and rescue crews. Francis was eventually taken to the hospital via helicopter, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Wildlife officials had not located the grizzly bear, Sgt. Travis Bingham with the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday. Because it was snowing, Game and Fish planned to try to search for the bear again Monday, weather permitting, he said.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/10/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2022/11/02/uvalde-ofrenda-tulsa-graves-shrinking-salt-flats-news-around-states/50896331/", "title": "Uvalde ofrenda, Tulsa graves: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nTuscaloosa: Hundreds of Scouts from around west Alabama camped, played games, practiced skills and enjoyed the outdoor life at the Moundville Archaeological Park. The celebration, which marked the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th annual encampment, was held over the weekend at the park, one of the nation’s premier Native American Heritage sites. “We cover 12 counties. This anniversary is a testimony to Scouting’s relevance in today’s society. Go back a hundred years. It was relevant back then to young people, and it still is today,” said Bill Gosselin, CEO of the Black Warrior Council. Gosselin said he is excited about the future of Scouting. Membership in the various Scout organizations in west Alabama grew last year, and there were more than 700 people participating in the encampment. The kids participating Friday ranged from 5-year-olds in the Lion Cubs program to 20-year-old Venture Scouts. The 100th encampment included model rocket launch demonstrations, archery, sling shots, tomahawk throwing, camp cooking, ham radio demonstrations and the ability to visit the museum at the Moundville Archaeological Park.\n\nAlaska\n\nKipnuk: Students are learning remotely this week after an as-yet unexplained fight between a school district and tribal council led to a principal being banished from the village, Alaska Public Media reports. The Kipnuk Traditional Council last month barred students from attending in-person classes, pointing to safety concerns, and the Lower Kuskokwim School District said Monday that Chief Paul Memorial School would close. The council also formally banished Principal LaDorothy Lightfoot last week, saying she should be flown out by noon Friday. The causes of the developments remain unclear, according to Alaska Public Media.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: A federal judge on Tuesday ordered armed members of a group monitoring ballot drop boxes in the state to stay at least 250 feet away from the locations following complaints that people wearing masks and carrying guns were intimidating voters. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi said members of Clean Elections USA, its leader and anyone working with them are also barred from filming or following anyone within 75 feet of a ballot drop box or the entrance to a building that houses one. They also cannot speak to or yell at individuals within that perimeter unless spoken to first. The temporary restraining order was requested by the League of Women Voters of Arizona after Clean Elections USA encouraged people to watch 24-hour ballot boxes in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county. “It is paramount that we balance the rights of the defendant to engage in their constitutionally protected First Amendment activity with the interest in the plaintiffs and in voters casting a vote free of harassment and intimidation,” Liburdi said. A second set of defendants in rural Yavapai County – groups known as the Lions of Liberty and the Yavapai County Preparedness team, who are associated with the far-right anti-government group Oath Keepers – were dismissed from the case Monday after they pledged to stand down their operations.\n\nArkansas\n\nHorseshoe Bend: A man who was reported missing while hiking in the Ozark Mountains has been found alive after a four-day search, officials said. Clinton Preston Smith, 67, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was found “in good spirits” about noon Tuesday, according to a statement from the Buffalo National River, which is part of the National Park Service. He had been reported missing Oct. 27 after he failed to return home from a hike on a trail near the Buffalo National River in northern Arkansas, officials said. Crews found Smith near the river in the area of Horseshoe Bend, which is about 105 miles north of Little Rock. Newton County Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said Smith was sore, hungry and dehydrated but did not appear to have any serious injuries, Springfield, Missouri, TV station KY3 reports.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSanta Ana: A health emergency has been declared in Orange County due to rapidly spreading viral infections that are sending more children to the hospital, health officials said Tuesday. The county health officer issued the declaration Monday due to record numbers of pediatric hospitalizations and daily emergency room visits, the county’s health care agency said in a press release. The move allows the Southern California county of 3 million people to access state and federal resources and enlist assistance from non-pediatric hospitals to help care for sick children, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county’s health officer. “Our concern here is that it is reaching even record levels,” Chinsio-Kwong told reporters. “We want to make sure we are prepared to care for any sick child in the county who falls ill and requires hospital care.” The county has seen a growing number of children with respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause severe breathing problems for babies, while flu cases are also starting to rise. The situation is similar in much of the country, where doctors are bracing for the possibility that RSV, flu and COVID-19 could combine to stress hospitals. Last week, neighboring San Diego County’s public health agency sounded a similar alarm.\n\nColorado\n\nBoulder: Seeking a second term as governor, Democrat Jared Polis is referring to himself as a “happy dad” as he fends off attacks from Republican Heidi Ganahl, who is trying to channel the angst of parents worried about underperforming schools, drugs and post-pandemic crime with the campaign slogan “#MadMom.” “We have skyrocketing crime, out-of-control inflation, a huge fentanyl problem that’s killing our kids, and our kids can’t read, write or do math at grade level,” Ganahl said in a recent debate. All are nationwide issues. Polis, a wealthy tech entrepreneur and former U.S. representative, counters with a rosy picture of the state under his watch and insists Colorado’s best days are ahead as it emerges from the pandemic with a strong economy and healthy state revenues bolstered by federal relief spending. “My opponent identified herself as a mad mom. I identify myself as a happy dad, of two great kids, 11 and 8, raising my kids in the best state of all the states,” Polis responded at the debate. Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent, mother of four and successful entrepreneur, faces stiff odds but is undaunted in a state that has become increasingly Democrat-controlled in the past decade, said Dick Wadhams, a former state Republican Party chair. “Heidi is very competitive, but it’s a high bar,” Wadhams said.\n\nConnecticut\n\nKillingly: A scathing report from the state Department of Education found the Killingly school board engaged in apparent “deliberate indifference” when it came to addressing student mental health issues. “And it is that systemic indifference that distinguishes this from other school boards confronting these issues,” according to the report from Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker which accused the Killingly board of “repeated failure and refusal to implement reasonable interventions to address students’ clear mental health, socio-emotional and behavioral needs.” The 38-page report, which includes information obtained by sworn affidavits of district officials and others, is the culmination of a months­-long state investigation into a citizens’ complaint filed in the wake of the board’s rejection of a grant-funded school-based health center in March and its alleged failure to offer substantial alternative behavioral health options. The report – and its recommendation that the Connecticut Board of Education order an inquiry into the matter – was released Monday, just days before the state board was scheduled to discuss the topic. State education investigators upheld the complainants’ allegation that the Killingly board “failed or is unable to make reasonable provision to implement the education interests” of the state.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: While overall college enrollment is dropping nationwide, Delaware State University has set an enrollment record, topping 6,000 students for the first time in its 131-year history. Enrollment of 6,268 for the fall 2022 semester is a jump of nearly 11% from last year’s previous record of 5,649 and an increase of 33% since 2017, said DSU director of news services Carlos Holmes. This semester’s first-year class totals more than 1,400, also a record. Meanwhile, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported that undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. fell by 4.7%, with 662,000 fewer students in the spring 2022 semester than in 2021. Graduate and professional student enrollment dropped by 1% from last year. Delaware State University president Tony Allen said one of the goals in the DSU strategic plan is to reach 10,000 students by the end of the decade. He credits the success to a university-wide commitment to access and opportunity, including a stronger emphasis on online and graduate programs, enhancements to the state-funded Inspire Scholarship Program and expansion of its Early College School. Online enrollment soared by 56.8% compared to last year, while graduate enrollment rose by 5.7%.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Protesters opposed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights briefly interrupted arguments at the court Wednesday and urged women to vote in next week’s elections. It was the first courtroom disruption since the justices’ decision in June that stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. Three people stood up in the first few minutes of Wednesday’s session to denounce the abortion ruling. “Our right to choose will not be taken away,” one protester said. “Women, vote for our right to choose.” The justices did not appear to react to the disruption. The protesters did not resist when police led them away. The protesters, identified as Emily Archer Paterson, Rolande Dianne Baker and Nicole Elizabeth Enfield, were charged were violating a law against making a “harangue” in the Supreme Court building and another barring interference with the administration of justice, court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said by email. After a 19-month closure because of the coronavirus pandemic, the courtroom was reopened to the public in October. The last time Supreme Court arguments were interrupted was in 2015 when opponents of rulings that lifted limits on money in political campaigns voiced their protest and even managed to get a camera past court security.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: A national anti-discrimination group is now involved in a discipline case at a Leon County charter school. A lawyer from the Southern Poverty Law Center is representing the parents of a child who they say was wrongfully expelled from Florida State University School. “I think that the administration response has been ... completely disproportionate, and it has escalated this issue terribly,” said Cecilia Chouhy, the child’s mother. “They have shown no concern for the welfare of my child.” Chouhy said in October the school issued a “withdrawal without invitation,” which means her son has been removed from the school and not allowed back. The parents appealed the decision, and at a private hearing between the school and the child’s parents Friday, the school did not make a final decision. The parents said the school unfairly disciplined their 6-year-old son, who they say does not have a disciplinary record, after he threw a temper tantrum and allegedly hit a teacher after he took away the child’s Pokémon card. The school allegedly told the parents and their son, who are Latino, that administrators contacted law enforcement and that the child could be charged with a felony for the incident. Florida law, however, prohibits arrests of children younger than 7 years, except for felonies such as murder or manslaughter.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Mayor Andre Dickens announced Monday that he has appointed the city’s interim police chief to fill the position permanently. Darin Schierbaum, who has served as interim chief since June, has been with the Atlanta Police Department for two decades. Dickens said in a news release that Schierbaum shares his vision for public safety in Atlanta and was selected after a national search. “He has earned my trust, the respect of our community, and the support of the women and men of the Atlanta Police Department,” Dickens said. “A proponent of 21st Century Policing, Chief Schierbaum will continue building deep ties between the Atlanta police and the community they serve.” Schierbaum joined the department in 2002 after graduating as valedictorian in his police academy class. He had previously worked for 10 years with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois. During his career in Atlanta, he has led the Community Liaison Unit, the LGBT Liaison Unit, the Hispanic Liaison Unit and the Graffiti Abatement Unity, the release says. He has also been involved in training officers and has overseen public safety for major events in the city. “I thank Mayor Dickens for the opportunity to serve this city and the incredible men and women of the Atlanta Police Department,” Schierbaum said in the release.\n\nHawaii\n\nJoint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam: The Navy on Tuesday said it will ask the public how it should use a fuel storage facility in the hills above Pearl Harbor once it has finished draining petroleum from its massive storage tanks. The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water last year and sickened nearly 6,000 people, mostly those living in military housing. The Navy said it would seek permission from the Hawaii Department of Health to leave the tanks inside the hillside, where they were built during World War II. Meredith Berger, assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment, told reporters at a news conference that it would be safer for the environment to leave the tanks in place once they are cleaned. The Navy also said leaving them there would allow them to be put to another use. The Navy hasn’t determined what they will be used for yet, only that they won’t be used to store fuel again. The Navy plans to ask the public for ideas through meetings and webinars. One possibility is to use the tanks to store water for a pumped hydroelectric power facility.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The first confirmed case this year of chronic wasting disease has been detected in a deer in Idaho County, state wildlife officials said. Idaho Fish and Game last month said a white-tailed deer found dead along the side of the road tested positive for the disease. The agency said the cause of the deer’s death is unknown. The contagious and fatal neurological disorder was first detected in the state in the same area last fall. That area accounts for all seven detected cases in the state. The discovery of the disease last year prompted the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to designate a chronic wasting disease management zone. The disease found in game animals carries potential health concerns for hunters because it’s in the same family as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people not eat meat from animals with the disease, though it has never been documented to infect humans. The most recent deer testing positive was found in Fish and Game’s Management Unit 14, the only unit in Idaho where chronic wasting disease has been detected. All seven animals that have tested positive in the state were between the towns of Riggins and Grangeville.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: A collection of valuable Lincoln artifacts, some of which were recently displayed in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s Treasury Gallery, is no longer in Springfield. ALPLM spokesman Chris Wills confirmed Wednesday that the 1,500 or so items were picked up Monday by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, which had a relationship with the ALPLM until last year. The story was first reported by WBEZ-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate in Chicago. The private foundation had originally been set up as a fundraising arm of the ALPLM, but the acrimony between the two culminated over pieces in what is known as the Taper Collection and money still owed by the foundation on its purchase. Louise Taper is a southern California historian and author who sold the collection to the foundation for between $23 million and $25 million in 2007. Taper was awarded the Order of Lincoln in 2009. In the collection was a pair of bloody gloves that Lincoln was carrying and one of the two cufflinks on the shirt he was wearing when he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865. There was also a number of letters in Lincoln’s handwriting in the collection.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: The sidewalks of downtown spilled over with students visiting from across the country for the 95th annual FFA convention last week, with more than 69,000 in attendance over four days. “It actually felt like a pre-COVID year for our convention,” said Mandy Hazlett, the associate director of convention and events at the National FFA Organization. “We were able to bring back events in our convention that we were unable to in person last year.” The Indiana Convention Center hosted nearly 1.3 million visitors by the end of September, marking a near-complete recovery for one of the city’s most important industries. That’s about the same number the facility hosted in 2019 in that time and a big jump from the 230,000 the center hosted in 2020 and 840,000 in 2021. By the first months of next year, “Indianapolis will probably be able to proclaim 100% plus recovery from the pandemic,” said Chris Gahl, an administrator at the tourism nonprofit Visit Indy. Hotel occupancy still lags slightly behind the year before the pandemic. The economic impact of convention tourism in the first nine months of this year, some $855 million, is a huge jump from $519 million in that time frame last year, according to Visit Indy.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: A proposed massive development could turn the southwest corner of West Des Moines into a destination unlike any other in the state of Iowa. Developers announced plans Wednesday for The Grand Experience, a proposed $600 million, 226-acre entertainment district that could include a 100,000-square-foot indoor water park, a 400-room hotel and business conference center, a family entertainment center, a variety of dining options with different themes and experiences, new retail and office space, and 1,200 housing units with an emphasis on affordable homes for workers. The district would be located on Grand Avenue between 60th and 88th streets next to the future new campus of Des Moines University and the RecPlex. The Grand Experience would provide visitors to the newly opened sports and recreation complex with more options for entertainment nearby. “This is not scaled back,” said Riley Hogan, senior vice president for real estate services firm CBRE. “This is going big.” The centerpiece of the proposed development would be a water park two-and-a-half times the size of the Great Wolf Lodge water park in Kansas City, Kansas, and more akin to something found in the Wisconsin Dells, Hogan said.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: Tourists who seek out every state’s replica of the Liberty Bell would no longer be directed to a storage room of the Kansas Statehouse parking garage if the Docking State Office Building renovation goes through as proposed. “The staff members of the visitor’s center brought it to our attention that a must-see or a bucket list of a lot of people coming into the capitol or with a passport is they want to see the Liberty Bell,” said Sen. Elaine Bowers, R-Concordia. “And we would say, where’s the Liberty Bell at? Well, now we discovered that the Liberty Bell was on display. It was removed during renovation. We found it.” The bell is in a locked room on the first floor of the Statehouse parking garage. The bells were part of a U.S. Savings Bond campaign in the 1950s, with the federal government giving replicas to each state and a handful of other locations. They are commonly displayed at or around state capitol buildings. Such was the case in Kansas until extensive renovation efforts began two decades ago, evicting the bell to storage. “There’s 57 total. Kansas is the only one not on display,” Bowers said. “So you can imagine the folks’ disappointment when they come to the capitol wanting to see the Liberty Bell. With permission with the security guards, the Capitol Police, they will take visitors down to see the bell so they can mark it off their passport list.”\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Visibly frustrated lawmakers on Wednesday questioned subjects of a recent investigation on whether they are serving the reading needs of the state’s students. George Hruby, executive director of the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development, and Lindy Harmon, director of Reading Recovery in the state, appeared before the panel of lawmakers in a Capitol annex meeting room. The morning questioning lasted about 40 minutes. Lawmakers’ inquiries primarily focused on Reading Recovery, an intervention program under national scrutiny for its instructional methods. State Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, Sen. Steven West, R-Paris, and Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, each sat on the committee. The three legislators, who pushed through a new state literacy law earlier this year, said they were not satisfied with the testimony. “I think they talk in circles,” Bojanowski said after the hearing. “It’s kind of more of the same,” West said. “It’s frustrating,” Tipton said. “And it’s frustrating because we want to see improvement now.” Spring 2022 testing results show less than half of Kentucky’s third through fifth graders were considered proficient readers, while nearly 30% outright failed their exams.\n\nLouisiana\n\nShreveport: A new study claims Louisiana is one of the worst states for millennials to live based on affordability, political and social environment, employment, quality of life, health, personal finance and safety. Members of the millennial generation – typically born between 1981 and 1996 – are currently among the biggest contributors to the economy. They have experienced slower economic growth than the previous generations due to the multiple recessions hitting at peak times of their lives. There are a number of challenges that will influence millennials’ decisions on where to live and work. Scholaroo’s newest report on the best and worst states for millennials gathered data on 52 metrics that affect the generation’s decisions on where to live. Considerations like the cost of living, homeownership rate, unemployment rate and more were the driving factors of this study. Louisiana came in dead last for the overall score of the worst place for millennials to live, with the breakdown ranking the state 31st for affordability, 50th for political and social environment, 33rd for employment, 28th for quality of life, 48th for health, 48th for personal finance and 46th for safety. As of 2022, Louisiana sits at the No. 2 spot for the highest mental distress rate of millennials at 21.9%, right behind Arkansas’ 23.6%.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The federal government has outlined a strategy to try to protect an endangered species of whale while also developing offshore wind power off the East Coast. President Joe Biden’s administration has made a priority of encouraging offshore wind along the Atlantic coast as the U.S. pursues greater energy independence. Those waters are also home to the declining North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 340 in the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a draft plan this month to conserve the whales while allowing for the building of wind projects. The agencies said the ongoing efforts to save the whales and create more renewable energy can coexist. “As we face the ongoing challenges of climate change, this strategy provides a strong foundation to help us advance renewable energy while also working to protect and recover North Atlantic right whales, and the ecosystem they depend on,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries.\n\nMaryland\n\nHagerstown: The management of a former city pesticide plant could last decades. In 2015, a federal Environmental Protection Agency official said operators of the contaminated former pesticide mixing site along Mitchell Avenue in Hagerstown “couldn’t have picked a worse place” to run it. Bob Wallace, a remedial project manager for the EPA, said at the time that groundwater runs in all directions from the site. In an attempt to track any contamination leaving the 19-acre property, remediation crews injected dye into sink holes on the property to determine where it might flow. Wallace, who was among a number of EPA officials and others who gave an update of the cleanup of the site Tuesday, said dye showed up 2 miles to the east. It also appeared 4 miles to the west, 4 miles to the southwest and 3 miles to the north, Wallace said. But he said previously that just because dye shows up at a location doesn’t mean it’s contaminated, and he said Tuesday that analysis continues on any possible threats to nearby groundwater supplies. He said the work will probably continue at least for another year. In the meantime, project officials have constructed a facility that treats groundwater at the old industrial site. It started operation in July and has treated about 5.4 million gallons of water, Wallace said. Asked how long the plant might be needed to treat the groundwater, Wallace said it could be at least 30 years. “This is like a forever Superfund site,” Wallace said.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: The general manager of the region’s troubled public transit system, who shepherded the agency through the pandemic when ridership plummeted and has faced calls to resign during a federal safety review, announced Tuesday that he will step down early next year. Steve Poftak said in a letter to employees of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority that his last day on the job will be Jan. 3, just days before a new governor is sworn in. “Serving as MBTA General Manager has been the experience of a lifetime and it has been my honor and privilege to work with all of you,” he wrote. “While we have faced and will continue to face challenges, I believe in the strength and resilience of the MBTA. As I look back on my four years as General Manager, I take great pride in what we have accomplished together.” The letter did not say what his plans were. Poftak, who was appointed to the MBTA’s fiscal control board in 2015 by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, took over as general manager in December 2018 from Luis Ramirez, who spent just 15 months on the job. Baker’s term ends in January, and he is not seeking reelection.\n\nMichigan\n\nBenton Harbor: State officials said Wednesday that nearly all the lead pipes in Benton Harbor have been replaced roughly a year after a lead water crisis forced residents to avoid their tap water and use bottled water for simple tasks like cooking and drinking. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said last fall that the city would have its lead service lines replaced within 18 months, a fast pace for a process that often takes years or decades. Five months before the deadline, about 4,500 pipes have been replaced or confirmed not to contain lead. There are only about 40 more inspections to go, state officials said. “We are getting it done ahead of schedule,” Whitmer said in a statement. For three straight years, tests of Benton Harbor’s water system revealed lead levels in its tap water that were too high. Lead is a health hazard that can be especially harmful to young children, stunting their development and lowering IQ scores. Benton Harbor is a majority-Black community of just under 10,000 people. After complaints from activists last year that not enough was being done to combat the lead problem, officials said the city’s tap water should mostly be avoided and provided free bottled water to residents.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to threatening a U.S. senator, according to federal prosecutors. Brendon Daugherty, 35, of Coon Rapids, entered the plea to one count of interstate transmission of a threat during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Tuesday. According to court documents, Daugherty left two threatening voice mail messages for a senator who was unnamed but who lives outside Minnesota on June 11. In the first message, Daugherty said the senator and the Republican Party was pushing him to become a domestic terrorist, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. “Have a nice (expletive) day; can’t wait to kill ya,” Daugherty said. In the second message, Daugherty threatened to carry out “nefarious goals,” Luger said. “I also just wanted to note, thank God the Republican Party is against gun control laws because it would keep guns out of the hands of a person that was disabled and volatile like I am, but you guys are totally against that,” the message said.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday that he will ask legislators to approve about $240 million in state incentives for an economic development project in the northern part of the state. The Republican governor declined to name the company, saying he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. “Once we get through the legislative process and once we get final agreements signed, we will announce that the deal is done,” he said during a news conference. Reeves said the company is large and “has a long history of success.” Mississippi governors often have quick timelines to push incentives packages through the Legislature for large economic development projects, and it’s not unusual for them to try to keep company names secret until deals are complete. Some legislators have raised concerns about the special session that began Wednesday. “We don’t have many details at the moment, but we’re concerned that GOP leaders will try to push some kind of corporate welfare package through with little debate or oversight,” Republican state Rep. Dana Criswell of Olive Branch, a member of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus, said in an email Tuesday. Reeves announced Monday that he is calling legislators to the Capitol to consider incentives for a company that would create 1,000 jobs within the next few years. He said the average salary would be $93,000 – significantly higher than than the average pay for jobs in one of the poorest states in the U.S.\n\nMissouri\n\nSpringfield: With winter on the horizon, the city’s crisis cold weather shelters are preparing to house more than 230 unsheltered individuals this season. The crisis cold weather season is Nov. 1 through March 31. Shelters are only open when overnight temperatures are 32 degrees or below for four consecutive hours between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Shelters open around 8 p.m. each night and close at 7 a.m. the following morning. In previous years, folks were asked to visit the Veterans Coming Home Center to sign up for shelter access and eat dinner. Then, they’d be transported to an appropriate shelter. However, this year is different. According to Lisa Landrigan, Community Partnership of the Ozarks crisis cold weather shelter coordinator, a home base for crisis cold weather shelter signup, dinner and transportation has yet to be determined. “We are still looking,” she said. “We have several asks out, and hopefully something will come through.” Crisis cold weather shelters need about six volunteers each night, Landrigan said. Right now, these volunteers are “critically needed.” Landrigan said January is the busiest month for crisis cold weather shelters. Last November, crisis cold weather shelters were open only five nights. In January, the shelters were open for 24 nights.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Affordable housing and affordable food are the top two needs in the state, and mental health services is the third, according to the results of a statewide needs assessment released last week from Montana State University Extension. “The results of this needs assessment are already being used by our MSU Extension faculty and staff as they continue to offer programs and resources,” Carrie Ashe, MSU Extension associate director, said in a statement. MSU Extension works with local partners to examine and address emerging needs in the state, The Daily Montanan reports. In a phone call, Ashe said MSU Extension counts 90 faculty across the state working in county and tribal extension offices, and they’re already taking steps to work on housing. She said it’s the first time in roughly seven or eight years the organization has conducted such a survey. Nearly 2,500 Montanans from all counties and reservations completed the survey, according to MSU Extension. Additionally, more than 800 people participated in listening sessions. Housing affordability and availability are top issues in Montana as real estate prices have soared across the state and people and families find themselves homeless.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse won approval Tuesday from the University of Florida Board of Trustees to be the school’s next president despite vocal opposition from some faculty and students. Sasse, a Republican, was recommended for the top post by a unanimous vote of the trustees. A final vote to elevate Sasse as the school’s 13th president is set for Nov. 10 by the state university system Board of Governors. The recommended compensation package for Sasse comes to about $1.6 million, university officials said. That will also be finalized at the governors meeting. During a four-hour meeting Tuesday on the Gainesville campus, Sasse sought to allay concerns that he’s more a creature of politics than academia by saying he will take a “pledge of political celibacy” with regard to partisan issues. “I would have no activity in partisan politics in any way as I arrive at the University of Florida,” Sasse said, adding that his candidacy was not pushed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis or other Florida elected officials. “There is just tons and tons of learning and listening that I need to do.”\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: A Nevada judge on Wednesday set an April trial date for a former Las Vegas-area elected official who has pleaded not guilty to killing a veteran investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of him and his managerial conduct. Robert “Rob” Telles, a Democrat who was stripped by court order of his position as Clark County administrator, appeared with his attorney, Ryan Helmick, for a brief scheduling hearing before Judge Michelle Leavitt. Telles, 45, did not speak in court. He remains jailed without bail in the Sept. 2 stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German outside German’s home. Helmick declined to comment to reporters after the hearing. At trial, Telles could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, after Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said last month that he found no qualifying aggravating factors to make Telles’ trial a capital case. The April 17 trial date could be delayed pending a Nevada Supreme Court ruling about whether police and prosecutors can access German’s cellphone and electronic devices despite objections raised by his newspaper about revealing the slain journalist’s confidential sources. Attorneys for police, who have German’s cellphone and laptop computers, say the criminal investigation won’t be complete until those records are reviewed.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nExeter: Three major development projects bringing affordable housing to the Seacoast are receiving a financial boost this week to help make the projects a reality. The Gateway at Exeter, Epping Meadows and McIntosh Dover Apartments were among the 30 developments chosen to receive a combined $49,506,378 in grant money through the state’s InvestNH Housing Program. The Gateway at Exeter, which seeks to bring 56 affordable housing units to Epping Road across from the Mobil Station, was selected to receive $3 million. The McIntosh project will receive $2.8 million to help bring 52 new affordable units to Dover while Epping Meadows will receive $786,771 for 30 affordable units.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nAsbury Park: A grand jury has declined to bring criminal charges against a New Jersey police officer who fatally shot a knife-wielding man during a standoff at the Jersey Shore in 2020. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said late Tuesday that the actions of Asbury Park Police Sgt. Sean DeShader were justified under the circumstances, noting that Hasani Best held a knife throughout the 45-minute encounter with police and was not deterred by being shocked with a stun gun. A spokesman for Best’s family on Wednesday denounced the decision. “Attempts to demonize Hasani Best, who was unnecessarily murdered, and vindicate Officer Sean DeShader, who murdered this Black man immediately following the national civil rights reckoning in the post-George Floyd world, tells us nothing has changed,” said Randy Thompson, CEO of the advocacy group Help Not Handcuffs. “There continues to be no transparency when police, prosecutors and judges abuse their positions and there are no protections for civilians within critical processes such as abuses within grand jury proceedings,” he said.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: The New Mexico Supreme Court has cleared the way for the state’s largest electric utility to delay issuing rate credits related to the recent closure of a coal-fired power plant. State regulators in June had ordered Public Service Co. of New Mexico to begin issuing the credits since the San Juan Generating Station was shutting down. The utility challenged the order and requested a stay. The utility has said the cost of doing business has gone up and that delaying credits would mean smaller rate increases for customers in the future. Utility spokesman Ray Sandoval told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the utility was pleased with the decision. “All parties had the opportunity to fully present their views to the court, and the court fully considered those positions in deciding that the stay should remain in place,” Sandoval wrote in an email.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: A man has been arrested with the gun used in a shooting last month outside the Long Island home of Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, authorities said Tuesday. Noah Green, 18, was arrested Monday in Shirley on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced. Green’s possible involvement in the Oct. 9 drive-by shooting outside Zeldin’s house is still being investigated, the district attorney’s office said. Two 17-year-old boys were wounded in the shooting. Zeldin, who faces Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in next Tuesday’s election, was not at home when the shooting occurred but said his twin teenage daughters were in the kitchen doing homework and heard gunshots and screaming.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has quietly ended his litigation challenging the constitutionality of a powerful state commission that scrutinizes state agency rules, days before it was heading to court. Cooper’s private attorneys filed paperwork last Friday dismissing his August 2020 lawsuit against Republican legislative leaders. A hearing before three trial judges on the governor’s motion to have the composition of the 10-member Rules Review Commission struck down as unconstitutional was scheduled for Nov. 9. Cooper’s lawsuit alleged that a governor “lacks no meaningful control over” the commission because all of its members are picked by legislative leaders – five each by the recommendation of the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore – even though it acts like an executive branch agency. The lawsuit didn’t focus on a specific action by the commission, which decides whether to approve or reject temporary or permanent agency rules to carry out the details of state law. Rather, it examined broadly the commission’s actions in recent years and asked for a broad ruling throwing out the law. The lawsuit was dismissed “without prejudice,” which means Cooper could sue over the issue again – something that Cooper spokesperson Mary Scott Winstead could occur.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Gov. Doug Burgum rejected a plea Wednesday by North Dakota’s American Indian tribes to give them exclusive rights to host internet gambling and sports betting because it isn’t allowed under state law. “While we understand and appreciate the desire by some of the tribes to extend online gaming beyond their reservation boundaries, a clear legal path does not exist for the governor to grant such a broad expansion of gaming,” Burgum said in a statement. But Burgum did endorse the tribes’ appeal to lower the legal gambling age from 21 to 19 at the state’s five American Indian casinos, and let people use credit or debit cards to bet, spokesman Mike Nowatzki said.\n\nOhio\n\nEuclid: A white police officer who fatally shot a Black driver during a struggle inside a car in 2017 must pay his family $4.4 million. An Ohio jury made the award Tuesday, finding that Euclid officer Matthew Rhodes acted recklessly when he climbed into 23-year-old Luke Stewart’s car and shot him as Stewart drove away. The shooting had inflamed racial tensions in Euclid, a Cleveland suburb, and a grand jury declined to indict Rhodes after hearing evidence from prosecutors. The jury’s finding stemmed from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Stewart’s mother. The panel said Rhodes must pay Stewart’s family $3.9 million for the loss of his support and companionship and $500,000 for the pain and suffering he went through. But Rhodes will not have to pay punitive damages to the family or attorney’s fees.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: The search for remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has turned up 21 additional coffins in unmarked graves in the city’s Oaklawn Cemetery, officials said. Seventeen adult-size graves were located Friday and Saturday, Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said Monday. Additionally, the city announced Tuesday that four graves, two adult-size and two child-size, had been found. The coffins, then the remains, will be examined to see if they match reports from 1921 that the victims were males buried in plain caskets. “This is going to part of our process of discriminating which ones we’re going to proceed with in terms of exhuming those individuals and which ones we’re actually going to leave in place,” Stackelbeck said in a video statement. The work, by hand, was still under way. The types of coffins and gender of the victims have not been determined, according to the city’s statement.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an eco-activist to community service but no extra time in custody, rejecting the government’s call for a yearslong prison term for the Seattle man related to arsons decades ago. Joseph Dibee, 54, was a fugitive for more than a decade. In April, Dibee pleaded guilty to the 1997 arson of a slaughterhouse in central Oregon that butchered wild horses and sold the meat in Europe. He also pleaded to the 2001 arson of a Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral in Litchfield, California. As part of his plea agreement, federal prosecutors dropped arson charges in Washington state. He told U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken Monday by video in federal court in Eugene that he was truly sorry, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: Philadelphia police have announced the arrest of a fourth suspect in September’s ambush shooting outside a Philadelphia high school that killed a 14-year-old and wounded four other teenagers after a football scrimmage. Police said Monday the 16-year-old is the fifth person authorities have identified as believed to have been involved in the Sept. 27 shooting outside of Roxborough High School. One 16-year-old suspect identified in the case remains at large. Authorities said five people jumped from a parked SUV and opened fire on teens who were walking away from an athletic field at the high school. Nicholas Elizalde, 14, was killed and three other teens were wounded and rushed to a hospital. One was treated at the scene. Police have said they don’t believe Elizalde was one of the intended targets of the attack. They said one of the shooters chased a 17-year-old victim down the street, striking him with shots to the leg and arm, and tried to fire as he stood over the victim but the gun either jammed or was out of bullets. Police have said they were seeking a total of six suspects: five shooters and a driver. At the time they said four suspects had been identified, they said those suspects would face charges of murder, four counts of aggravated assault, firearms crimes and other counts.\n\nRhode Island\n\nCoventry: In what the the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island calls “a victory for religious freedom,” the Town of Coventry has granted a zoning permit to a small Wiccan church in the rural village of Greene. “We were relieved. It was a long process that probably went on longer than it should have,” said Gail McHugh, founder and high priestess of Horn and Cauldron, Church of the Earth. McHugh says the permit is a win not just for her church, but also for religions like hers across the country. “Minor religions are being squelched and discriminated against,” she said Tuesday.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: Gov. Henry McMaster has asked President Joe Biden to authorize a disaster declaration to help with Hurricane Ian recovery efforts in South Carolina, his office said Tuesday. The South Carolina Emergency Management Division and the Federal Emergency Management Agency found that 17 homes were destroyed, 232 homes had major damage and 82 had minor damage because of the storm which came ashore near Georgetown on Sept. 30 with much weaker winds than when it crossed Florida’s Gulf Coast earlier that week. Still, the storm left many areas of Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. It also washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two at Myrtle Beach. Ongoing assessments determined Ian cost state and local agencies more than $25 million. If the White House grants the request, the declaration would provide direct financial aid to residents who incurred uninsured damages to their property in Charleston, Georgetown and Horry counties through the FEMA Individual Assistance Program, according to the news release. State and local government agencies and eligible non-profits in Berkeley, Charleston, Clarendon, Georgetown, Horry, Jasper and Williamsburg counties also would qualify for reimbursement of some storm-related costs through the Public Assistance Program.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Republican Gov. Kristi Noem was looking to shore up support for her South Dakota reelection bid Wednesday through a series of campaign rallies with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Noem has risen to national prominence within the GOP during her term as the state’s first female governor but has shown some signs of political vulnerability, even in reliably-red South Dakota. The Republican governor has outspent her Democratic opponent, state lawmaker Jamie Smith, in the race by nearly six-to-one. Noem crisscrossed between the state’s largest cities for three rallies Wednesday. Smith, meanwhile, embarked on an RV tour that will circle the state in the week leading up to election day.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: More than 200 votes have been cast in the wrong races in Nashville since early voting began in Tennessee, election officials confirmed Wednesday. Davidson County election administrator Jeff Roberts said his office reviewed voter data throughout the night after The Associated Press first alerted officials Tuesday that voters were receiving conflicting information on what race they could vote in. That review determined that 190 voters cast ballots in a wrong congressional race, 16 cast votes in a wrong state Senate race and six cast votes in a wrong state House race. “The fix has been put in place,” Roberts said, adding he had sent the correct updates to the secretary of state’s office earlier Wednesday morning. He remained confident voters would receive the correct ballots for the last remaining two days of early voting in Tennessee. Officials say the votes that have been already cast will be counted for those races. Voters do not have an option to retract their vote.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: Families of some of the 19 children killed in the Uvalde school massacre commemorated the Day of Dead with a rally, procession and a decorated altar outside the Texas Capitol on Tuesday night. Relatives, who marched to the mansion of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott carrying the altar, chose the location to again demand tougher gun laws in Texas following the May shooting at Robb Elementary School. They have been most vocal about raising the age to purchase AR-15-style rifles from 18 to 21. Abbott, who is up for reelection, has pushed back on that, saying it would be “unconstitutional.” “We are here today celebrating our children’s lives,” said Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter Lexi Rubio died in the Uvalde shooting, “but also trying to reach out to parents on a personal, on a mom and dad level. Just if you care about your children, protect them, go out to vote for candidates who support sensible gun legislation.”\n\nUtah\n\nWendover: The Bonneville Salt Flats, a remnant of a prehistoric lakebed that is one of the American West’s many otherworldly landscapes, is growing thinner and thinner as the West suffers through its third decade of drought. Research has time and again shown that the briny water in the aquifer below the flats is depleting faster than nature can replenish it. As nearby groundwater replaces the mineral-rich brine, evaporation yields less salt than historic cycles of flooding and evaporation left on the landscape. It’s thinned by roughly one-third in the last 60 years. The overall footprint has shrunk to about half of its peak size in 1994. The crust keeps tires cool at high speeds and provides an ideal surface for racing – unless seasonal flooding fails to recede or leaves behind an unstable layer of salt. Racers struggle to find a track long enough to reach record speeds with only 8 miles of track compared 13 miles several decades ago. Scientists largely agree that years of aquifer overdraws by nearby potash mining have driven the problem, yet insist that there’s no hard evidence that simply paying the mining company to return water to the area will solve it amid detrimental human activity like extracting minerals or driving racecars.\n\nVermont\n\nJay: A Utah-based resort company has completed its purchase of Jay Peak Resort, the northern Vermont ski area that was at the center of a financial scandal involving its former owner and president. Pacific Group Resorts, which owns five other ski areas, announced Tuesday that the state of Vermont had approved the assignment of leases for ski terrain, allowing the sale to close. A federal judge in September approved the company’s $76 million bid to buy Jay Peak after it won an auction for the ski area. “The leadership and guests of Jay Peak are fortunate to have an experienced resort operator like PGRI take the helm from here,” said court-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg, who has been overseeing the resort for the last 61/ 2 years. Mark Fischer, PGRI’s executive vice-president and CFO, said in a statement that Jay Peak “is a highly respected resort property widely known for its prodigious snowfall and avid patrons” that fits into the company’s strategy of “geographic diversification.” He also said Jay Peak has dedicated staff that have created “a strong mountain culture.”\n\nVirginia\n\nManassas: A plan to redevelop a rural swath of northern Virginia into data centers has received approval after a marathon public hearing that stretched through the night. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted 5-2 Wednesday morning in support of the plan over the opposition of environmentalists and conservationists. Data centers that provide the backbone for the rapid increase in cloud computing have proliferated in northern Virginia, which has long been a technology hub. The data centers have proven to be a revenue boon to local governments, but neighbors have complained about noise and environmentalists have expressed concern about the massive amounts of electricity that data centers consume. In Prince William County, concern also centered around the viewshed for nearby Manassas National Battlefield Park. Supporters of the plan said it could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and that the plan is designed in a way to accommodate environmental concerns.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Two foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of Congo who pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle to participating in a smuggling ring that brought illegal ivory, rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales into the U.S. have been sentenced. Herdade Lokua was sentenced to 20 months and Jospin Mujangi was sentenced to 14 months in prison on Tuesday, the Justice Department said. They both in July pleaded guilty to two counts of an 11-count indictment alleging they worked with a middle man to facilitate shipments of poached items into Seattle. The court determined Lokua was the organizer of a trafficking operation involving more than five other co-conspirators whose goal was to ship a cargo container full of elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales to Seattle. Mujangi helped package the wildlife products and handled the financial details to process the payment.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: West Virginia Republican U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney is expected to breeze to victory in deep-red West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, and he’s all but completely ignored Democrat Barry Wendell, his opponent in next week’s election. Instead, he’s spending much of his energy on Sen. Joe Manchin, who endorsed Mooney’s opponent, outgoing Rep. David McKinley, during the state’s May primary. The two GOP congressmen were pitted against each other after population losses cost West Virginia a U.S. House seat, and Mooney won handily. Manchin has not yet officially announced whether he’ll run for reelection in 2024, and Mooney vows that his primary concern is seeing himself and other conservatives get elected and take back the majority in the U.S. House.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: A Wisconsin appeals court and a circuit judge this week shot down attempts backed by liberals seeking orders that local election clerks must accept absentee ballots that contain partial addresses of witnesses. The rulings come within days of Tuesday’s election and as more than 503,000 absentee ballots have already either been returned or cast in person. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are both up for reelection in the battleground state. Numerous lawsuits have been filed leading up to the election focused on which absentee ballots can be counted or rejected. The status quo for determining whether an absentee ballot has enough of a witness address to count remains as it has been for the past 56 years, Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas said in an order Wednesday. Wisconsin elections have been conducted, and absentee ballots counted, the past 56 years without a legally binding definition of what constitutes a witness address on a ballot, Colas wrote in his order.\n\nWyoming\n\nCheyenne: A southeastern Wyoming sheriff’s deputy was shot and a man was killed during an exchange of gunfire at a residence in East Cheyenne on Halloween night, marking the third fatal shooting involving law enforcement officers in Laramie County this year, officials said. Deputies responded to a residence to serve a warrant at about 8 p.m. Monday when shots were exchanged between deputies and a man at the residence, Sheriff Danny Glick said. The injured deputy was treated at the hospital and released Tuesday afternoon, KTWO-AM reported. The man died at the scene, Glick said. Officials have not released the names of either the man who was killed or the deputies involved. No one else was injured.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/11/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2020/03/05/golden-gate-bison-prisoner-paintings-dining-dogs-news-around-states/111395748/", "title": "Golden Gate bison, prisoner paintings: News from around our 50 ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMobile: The son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., as well as family members of a condemned inmate, is asking the governor to stop Thursday’s execution of the man convicted in the 2004 killing of three police officers but who was not the trigger man. Nathaniel Woods is scheduled to be executed by injection. Woods and co-defendant Kerry Spencer were convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisolm III and Charles R. Bennett. Spencer was also sentenced to death for the killings. Prosecutors said the officers were gunned down in an ambush as they tried to serve a misdemeanor warrant on Woods at a home where he and Spencer sold crack cocaine. Martin Luther King III sent Gov. Kay Ivey a letter Tuesday “pleading with you not to execute Nathaniel Woods.” King wrote on Twitter that the execution is an “injustice.”\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: Reports of felony sexual offenses are up nearly 20% across the state but on the decline in the Southeast region, the Alaska Department of Public Safety says. The department released its compilation of reported felony sexual offense numbers from 2018 last week, The Juneau Empire reports. Reports of felony-level sex offenses increased 19.5% in 2018 compared to 2017. More than 1,762 offenses were reported across Alaska in 2018, the department said. Western Alaska reported the highest rate of felony-level sex offenses statewide, while Southeast Alaska reported the lowest rate. The victims were 88% female, and 95% of the suspects were male. More than 55% of the victims were minors. Family members and acquaintances made up the largest portion of suspects at 93%, while 98% of suspects were known or related in cases involving victims under 11 years old.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Mayor Kate Gallego called Tuesday for a shared regional response to surging homelessness and lack of affordable housing in and around the city, saying more money and longer-term solutions are needed to tackle what she said is “a crisis situation.” “As the nation’s fifth-largest city, we’ve seen abundant opportunity come from our historic growth, but it’s also brought challenges,” Gallego said. “Two of these challenges, a lack of affordable housing and a growing issue with people experiencing homelessness, are deeply intertwined.” Gallego wants to add $3 million to the $20 million the city already spends annually on homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing but said other cities, Maricopa County and the state should provide more help. The Maricopa County Association of Governments said a one-night count in early 2019 found some 6,600 people in metro Phoenix did not have a home.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The chief administrative law judge for the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and wife of the state Republican Party chairman was elected Tuesday to the Supreme Court after a race that focused on her deep ties to the GOP. Barbara Webb defeated Pulaski County Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch in the race for the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Jo Hart, winning an eight-year term on the court. The race was the only statewide election on Arkansas’ ballot other than the presidential primaries. The state’s high court races are technically nonpartisan, but Webb faced scrutiny during her bid over her appeals to GOP voters. She had the backing of Sen. Tom Cotton and former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and had spoken to Republican gatherings around the state. Welch during the campaign criticized Webb over her ties, accusing her of talking to an “echo chamber of one political party.”\n\nCalifornia\n\nSan Francisco: Five young bison have joined Golden Gate Park, doubling the bison population in time for the park’s 150th anniversary. The 1-year-old female bison arrived at the park in the heart of the city Friday, bringing the total number of bison to 10 in the paddock that has existed since the 1892. The new humpbacked, shaggy-haired wild ox were brought from the Northern California ranch where they were born. They will be formally introduced to the public on April 4, the park’s anniversary, said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Besides more bison, the park will celebrate its anniversary with the opening of a 150-foot observation wheel, a kids carnival, community picnics, a large display of the iconic AIDS Memorial Quilt, live entertainment, and free entry into all park museums and cultural centers.\n\nColorado\n\nFort Collins: A controlled burn that became a wildfire was the result of weather conditions that were underestimated by fire personnel, state officials said. The Colorado Department of Public Safety Compliance and Professional Standards Office issued a report Sunday about the October fire in northern Larimer County. The fire burned less than 1 square mile outside the planned area but forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents in Glacier View, 35 miles northwest of Fort Collins. No one was injured, and one outbuilding was destroyed. The burn in complex terrain spread when weather conditions quickly turned drier, warmer and windier than anticipated, the state’s report said. The prescribed burn led by The Nature Conservancy on the private Ben Delatour Boy Scout Ranch was part of a forest restoration effort, the report said. Area residents were upset at the time that the prescribed burn was started despite the dry, windy conditions.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: Lawmakers are revisiting a proposal to greatly expand the gambling reach of the state’s two federally recognized tribes, but the governor expressed doubts Tuesday whether that’s the right approach this year. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, who previously sought a wide-ranging gambling agreement, said the General Assembly should instead support a simpler, competing bill that would authorize the tribes, the state’s lottery and existing off-track betting operators in Connecticut to conduct sports wagering. “It also builds upon the state’s existing partnership with the tribes, is more likely to withstand legal challenges from third party competitors, and promotes a fair and competitive sports betting market outside the tribes’ reservations,” Max Reiss, Lamont’s spokesman, said in a statement.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: It’s now legal to bring your dog to restaurants in the First State. Thanks to a bill that Gov. John Carney signed into law Tuesday, restaurants and beer gardens can now decide themselves whether to allow canine owners to bring furry companions to dine in outdoor seating areas. The law requires the pup to be leashed, and the restaurant still has to abide by health regulations. The bill comes after a minor controversy last summer when the Delaware Division of Public Health took a renewed interest in an existing state regulation that prohibited pets in food establishments, including the outdoor areas. The ban did not apply to service animals. “Many, including myself, had no idea this policy existed,” bill sponsor and House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, said in a statement Tuesday.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in other parts of the world could have an impact on attendance of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, WUSA-TV reports. The annual festival draws more than 1.5 million people over a four-week period to experience a wide range of events centered on the district’s Yoshino cherry blossom trees. “It’s really Washington’s grandest springtime tradition,” said Mike Litterst with the National Park Service. He said the park service is doing what it can to prepare in case there is a coronavirus crisis in D.C. While there have been no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the district, Maryland, or Virginia, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she fears tourism might take a hit for the festival. Festival organizers say two Japanese high school music groups have canceled plans to travel.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: Landlords wouldn’t be able to prohibit emotional support animals, but people who falsely claim to need one could face jail time, under a bill unanimously passed by the state Senate on Tuesday. Landlords could ask people with emotional support animals whose disabilities are not apparent to document the need. Health care professionals who certify the need for the animals would have to have personal knowledge of the renter’s disability. People wouldn’t be able to simply download a certification of need from a website. Democratic Sen. Kevin Rader of Boca Raton said he often hears complaints from condominium residents about people falsely claiming their pet is an emotional support animal, saying people are “getting phony baloney psychological papers saying they’re allowed to have animals in their communities.” A similar House bill is awaiting a full chamber vote.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: State employees would receive three weeks of paid time off when they become new parents under a proposal backed by Republican leaders in the Georgia House. Speaker David Ralston is among the influential GOP lawmakers supporting a bill that would grant paid parental leave to nearly 250,000 state workers, including public school teachers and employees of state-run universities. Private employers would not be affected if the measure becomes law. “Our goal is not to dictate to the private sector what they should and shouldn’t be doing because that’s not consistent with what any of us up here believe,” Ralston said at a news conference Tuesday. “But hopefully they will take inspiration from us.” Currently, state employees in Georgia are eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave when they have a new child, as required by federal law.\n\nHawaii\n\nWailuku: The island of Molokai could have its first movie theater in 12 years if the project is approved by local regulators. The owners of the RWH Chen Building in Kaunakakai plan to open a 48-seat theater, The Maui News reports. Brad and Grace Ellis recently renovated the space on the island in Maui County. The theater would be located in the third of three units in the building, sharing the structure with two apparel stores. “When we started renovating it, we were amazed at the number of people who were saying we could use a movie theater,” Brad Ellis said. The last movie theater on Molokai was the Maunaloa Town Cinemas, which closed in 2008 after the Molokai Ranch property with a lodge, golf course and cattle operations closed and laid off more than 120 employees.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The amount of money in the state’s rainy-day fund that serves as a cushion against a potential economic downturn would increase under legislation that headed to the governor’s desk Tuesday. The Senate voted 31-4 to approve the legislation that is in line with Republican Gov. Brad Little’s recommendation. It would increase the Budget Stabilization Fund from 10% to 15% of general fund revenues. State officials said the change plus deposits would get the fund to more than $600 million by next year. Backers said the extra money will shield the state from a recession. Opponents said the money could instead be used for education and other pressing matters long neglected. The legislation passed the House 64-2 last month.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Two police officers who were involved in the shooting of an unarmed man in a downtown train station last week should be completely stripped of their police powers for the time being, the head of the agency that investigates the city’s police shootings recommended Wednesday. The officers, whose names haven’t been released, were already placed on administrative duty until investigations into Friday’s shooting are completed, which is policy in cases of officer-involved shootings. But if the officers are stripped of their police powers, they would be relieved of their service weapons and would no longer have the authority to make arrests, said police spokesman Luis Agostini. Interim police Superintendent Charlie Beck was told the recommendation but didn’t immediately decide on the matter, Agostini said.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: After a tumultuous year in school accountability, Indiana schools got their report cards Wednesday, but the state-awarded letter grades used to rate schools – and, in some cases, intervene in cases of poor academic performance – arrived with little fanfare. The Indiana State Board of Education released the letter grades months later than normal and without comment. The grades were delayed while lawmakers crafted legislation that renders the grades moot, protecting schools from the impact of poor performance on the state’s new standardized test, the ILEARN exam, which was administered for the first time last spring. The law says that a school’s A-F grade for the 2018-19 school year may not be lower than that same school’s A-F grade for the previous year. In order to determine the final 2018-19 grade for each school, the Indiana Department of Education awarded schools the higher of the two grades.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Felons would be required to repay restitution to victims before they could get their voting rights restored under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate. Earlier in the day, Gov. Kim Reynolds for the first time indicated support for the measure after having previously stood firm that she didn’t want to make voting rights restoration more difficult. Currently, felons must apply to the governor individually, and Reynolds has required that they have at least a payment plan for court-ordered financial obligations but not total repayment to be considered. Senate Republicans are insisting on complete repayment to victims before they will consider passing a separate constitutional amendment that would automatically restore felon voting rights upon the completion of a sentence, a priority of Reynolds that Republicans failed to pass last year.\n\nKansas\n\nLawrence: The University of Kansas has settled an age discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of a former employee who said he was ousted in retaliation for raising the alarm that his department was told to fill job openings with mainly millennials and other young people. Under a consent decree agreed to last week with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of former school employee Jeffrey Thomas, the university pledged not to discriminate against job applicants or employees based on age and to give Thomas $144,000 in back pay and damages, KCUR-FM reports. Thomas worked for the school from July 2004 until December 2014. As part of the consent decree, the university was required to mail a letter of reference on behalf of Thomas noting that he was promoted and received an award for his performance as a supervisor.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: The state House passed a bill Tuesday requiring Kentuckians to present photo identification in order to vote. It would go into effect for the general election this fall. Senate Bill 2 passed by a 62-35 vote, with all present Republicans members voting for it and all but two Democrats voting against the legislation. Kentucky law currently allows eligible voters to cast a ballot if they present personal identification, but SB 2 would require government-issued identification that includes the voter’s photograph. Republican supporters of the bill – including new Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, who campaigned on the issue – say the bill is needed to combat voter fraud through impersonation and restore public confidence in the election system. Democrats and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky fear it would create unnecessary barriers to voting in order to stop a form of fraud that has never been a problem in Kentucky.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: As many as 31,000 of the state’s food stamp recipients could lose their benefits under a new Trump administration rule starting April 1 that enacts stricter work requirements on childless adults, according to estimates released Wednesday by the state social services agency. The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services will be contacting the affected people who get food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with information about how they can keep getting assistance. The new rule will limit work-eligible adults to three months of SNAP benefits in a three-year period unless they are working, volunteering or participating in a job training program for at least 80 hours a month. Exceptions are allowed for people with dependents, people who have a disability, students, pregnant women and certain other criteria.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The state Republican Party won the right Tuesday to collect signatures for a referendum drive to repeal ranked-choice voting in presidential races even as Portland residents voted to expand ranked-choice voting in local races. The GOP went to court after being denied the right to collect petitions at polling places in Portland. A judge granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday afternoon, allowing the GOP to begin collecting petitions at 3 p.m. In denying the GOP request, the city cited a state law prohibiting groups from trying to influence voters on an issue before them on the ballot. Ranked-choice voting is allowed in mayoral races in Portland; the proposal on the city ballot would allow ranked voting to apply to council and school board races. The GOP wants to roll back a ranked-choice voting law adopted by lawmakers last year to use ranked-choice voting in presidential races in Maine.\n\nMaryland\n\nSalisbury: The Salisbury Zoo has confirmed it lost its national accreditation during a standard five-year renewal process. The Association of Zoos & Aquarium cited the Salisbury Zoo for not meeting certain industry standards during its fall 2019 evaluation, said the zoo’s acting director, Leanora Dillon. The zoo’s level of deferred maintenance, inadequately maintained buildings and the lack of a full-time veterinarian all contributed to the zoo losing its standing. Representatives didn’t share further specifics on where the zoo fell short, but Dillon emphasized that none of the concerns had to do with animal welfare and that zoo is not in danger of losing any animals immediately. It must wait one year to reapply for accreditation while making progress toward fixing its citations. In the meantime, the zoo has been told it can maintain the animals it currently holds, such as Andean bears, otters, wallabies and jaguar.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Mayor Marty Walsh’s next chief of staff will be the first indigenous person to hold a Cabinet-level position at City Hall, officials said. Kathryn R. Burton, 43, will start in her new role March 9, Walsh’s office announced Tuesday. Burton has worked as director of operations for a housing development firm for the past four years. She also previously worked as chief of staff for former state treasurer Steve Grossman. Walsh’s office said in a statement that Burton will focus on implementing the mayor’s priorities and “ensuring the effectiveness of city services.” Burton is a member of the Gesgapegiag Mi’kmaq tribe in Quebec, Canada. She grew up on the Eskasoni First Nations reserve in Nova Scotia. “I look forward to helping Mayor Walsh achieve his ambitious goals for the city and being part of the team that is leading the charge in making Boston a better place for all,” Burton said in a statement.\n\nMichigan\n\nVanderbilt: The 108,000-acre Pigeon River Country State Forest is getting a nearly 600-acre addition in a land deal valued at more than $2 million, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. The property purchase, finalized last month, adds the Elk Forest at Black River, which is in Montmorency County, to the state’s public lands. The area is surrounded on three sides by existing state-managed land and includes public access to Walled Lake. “This spectacular place adds a gem to the crown of Michigan’s public lands,” said Debbie Begalle, DNR forest resources division chief. “The land will be open for hiking, hunting, fishing, elk viewing, skiing, snowshoeing, bird watching, mushroom hunting and berry picking, to name just a few activities.”\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Cloud: Men incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud presented paintings Wednesday to honor the three Minnesota National Guard soldiers killed in a December Black Hawk helicopter crash. Kao Xiong, Jason Ricci and Sergio Zapata did not have painting experience before taking a class at the prison, but the three worked together to create pieces honoring the guardsmen. “Words cannot express our deepest condolences,” Zapata said before the artists unveiled the work, saying the process was “an honor and privilege.” Each painting contained the name of one of the soldiers killed in the Dec. 5 crash – Sgt. Kort M. Plantenberg, 28, of Avon; Chief Warrant Officer 2 James A. Rogers Jr., 28, of Winsted; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles P. Nord, 30, of Perham. This was the first commission for the artists, although they paint on their own through classes at the prison, they said.\n\nMississippi\n\nBay St. Louis: The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation granted more than $2.8 million to The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi to expand its oyster reefs. The funding will be used to increase the existing oyster reef in Bay St. Louis by 20 acres, WLOX-TV reports. The reef is currently 10 acres. The project was expected to add more height to the reef so it can be stronger if there’s an influx of fresh water, such as what happened last year when the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened twice. Oysters help maintain water quality and provide habitat for several estuarine species. But sudden influxes of massive amounts of polluted fresh water can lower oxygen levels, killing oysters and other marine life.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: The state is denying severely disabled children full access to services and failing to prevent unnecessary placements in institutions, according to a federal lawsuit. The suit was filed Tuesday on behalf of nine children and teenagers with medically complex conditions who are enrolled in Medicaid – public coverage administered by the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Though the children have been approved for intensive in-home nursing care, the state is failing to arrange for the care or make sure the services are available, the suit alleges. Also listed as a plaintiff is the Caring for Complex Kids Coalition, an association of parents and caregivers of medically complex children in Missouri. A spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Social Services said in an email that the department does not comment on pending litigation.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: The state Supreme Court has upheld the certification of a class-action lawsuit against the city of Billings over franchise fees charged on residents’ water, sewer and garbage bills. The plaintiffs argue the fees, which were ended in mid-2018, constitute an illegal sales tax, and they are seeking reimbursement. District Judge Gregory Pinski certified the case as a class action involving up to 35,000 people last April. The city appealed, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling Tuesday. The wastewater class includes people who paid the franchise fee dating back to Jan. 18, 2010, and the garbage class paid fees dating back to July 1, 2012. Justices and the plaintiffs agreed the claims over the water franchise fees could date back only to February 2014 after the city argued that water is a “good” and that a four-year statute of limitations applies.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: People who are sexually assaulted could have a personal advocate to help them through the aftermath under a bill state lawmakers advanced Tuesday. Lawmakers gave the measure first-round approval on a 41-0 vote. It would create a sexual assault survivor’s bill of rights, giving survivors the right to have an advocate of their choosing present during medical exams and legal depositions. Survivors could also be interviewed by a law enforcement officer of the gender they choose. Sen. Kate Bolz, of Lincoln, said she introduced the measure to help people who have just experienced an extremely traumatic event. Some lawmakers questioned whether the measure could have unintended consequences but agreed to work on it before it receives final approval. Two additional votes are required in the Legislature before the bill goes to the governor.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: The city is making more than 100 homeless people leave an encampment along railroad tracks near a shelter in the downtown area. The city provided a week’s notice before police and other city workers began enforcing the order Wednesday. Those staying in the encampment had to pack up their belongings and take them with them, but some said they had nowhere else to go. Officials said the people were trespassing on railroad property and posed an extreme fire danger. According to the Washoe County Health District, the city had to dismantle the encampments because of health code violations. The Community Assistance Center is nearby but lacks space to house the people who have been staying in the encampment. City spokesman Jon Humbert, a city spokesman, estimated there were about 130 people in the tent encampment.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nCampton: Applicants are wanted for this year’s Artist in Residence program at the White Mountain National Forest and Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire. The program offers artists a chance to pursue their particular art form while being inspired by the surrounding forest and to engage members of the public with their work and artist process. The application deadline is March 15. One artist residency of at least three weeks will be offered between mid-July and the end of September. The artist will be provided accommodations on or near the forest, as well as a $2,000 stipend. Public programs may include demonstrations, exploratory walks or hikes, performances, interactive or participatory installations, group creative projects, or other programs based on the medium, interest and experience of the artist.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Gov. Phil Murphy had a tumor that is likely cancerous removed from his kidney Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver said in a statement. Murphy’s office did not disclose the hospital, beyond saying it was in New York, or who performed the surgery but said the partial nephrectomy was done by a urologist and a team of doctors. Murphy, 62, announced late last month that doctors had found a 3-centimeter-wide tumor on his left kidney during a CT scan. It’s unknown whether the tumor was cancerous, but kidney tumors usually are, according to the Mayo Clinic. The tumor was caught early enough, Murphy has said, that his prognosis was “very good.” He ceded all his authority, such as signing bills and declaring a state of emergency, to Oliver beginning Wednesday “until further notice.” He is expected to slowly return to a public schedule of events over the next several weeks.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nBandelier National Monument: The National Park Service says the popular loop trail at Bandelier National Monument will be getting a much-needed facelift this summer. Officials say the 1.2-mile paved path at the bottom of Frijoles Canyon is showing the effects of weather, time and tons of foot traffic. The trail provides access to dozens of archaeological sites. Acting Superintendent Dennis Milligan said visitors should expect rerouting, closures and delays. The work is scheduled to begin in May and will last from four to six months. Starting in May, visitors also will be required to take a shuttle bus from the White Rock visitor center to access the monument’s most visited area in Frijoles Canyon. The shuttle helps relieve the shortage of parking during the busy season. The shuttles will run daily from May 14 through Oct. 14.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: State senators moved to strengthen seat belt laws Tuesday and approved a bill that requires back-seat adult passengers to buckle up. The legislation, passed by the state Senate and Assembly, now moves on to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Current law requires front-seat adult passengers to be buckled, but the legislation would force adult back-seat passengers to use a seat belt too – a move supporters say will save lives and cut down on the risk posed to buckled-in front seat riders. “The simple fact is you’re not any safer in the back seat. So we have to make that message loud and clear by passing this legislation,” state Sen. David Carlucci said on the chamber floor Tuesday. Carlucci, a Democrat whose district includes Rockland County, said New York in the 1980s became the first state in the nation to require people in the front seat to wear a seat belt. But since then, dozens of other states have enacted back-seat belt laws, he said.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: Primary voters on Tuesday chose a Democratic former state legislator and Iraq War veteran to challenge Republican Sen. Thom Tillis this fall and the GOP lieutenant governor to try to unseat Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Cal Cunningham, who ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat 10 years ago, defeated party rival Erica Smith and three others to earn the Democratic nomination. As in 2010, he received the backing of Washington Democrats. His military career, centrist views and fundraising advantage propelled the waste-management company attorney to victory over Smith, who ran on a more liberal platform. GOP primary participants also chose Lt. Gov. Dan Forest over state Rep. Holly Grange for the gubernatorial nomination to take on Cooper. Primary voters decided dozens of nominations for federal, state government and legislative seats.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nJamestown: Area Republicans auctioned bottles of wine named for and signed by state Superintendent Kirsten Baesler just days after she was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. North Dakota District 12 and 29 Republicans held their Lincoln Day dinner last weekend. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert says that for years the dinner has included a wine auction as a fundraiser for candidates. Eleven bottles of “Baesler’s Bulldog Red” and “Superintendent Baesler’s Honor Roll White” were auctioned. Baesler signed the bottles before the dinner Saturday, the Bismarck Tribune reports. Baesler, 50, is seeking the North Dakota Republican Party’s endorsement for a third term. She was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk Wednesday night.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: A new effort to legalize recreational marijuana in the state got underway this week. Backers of a measure called the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Amendment submitted the initial petition and 1,000 signatures to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for review. A long process awaits the proposal, which backers want on the November ballot. The constitutional amendment would allow adults over the age of 21 to buy, possess and consume limited amounts of marijuana, including growing up to six marijuana plants. Voters in 2015 handily defeated a ballot issue to legalize marijuana in the state, though some opposition involved concern over exclusive rights that would have been given to initial growing sites under that proposal. The state’s current medical marijuana program, approved in 2016 and now just over a year old, would remain in place if the legalization effort passed.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The state House has backed a bill that would require hundreds of public buildings in the state to display the national motto, “In God We Trust.” The House voted 76-20 on Tuesday in favor of the bill, sending it to the Senate. Critics say the bill is an affront to the separation of church and state that could alienate nonreligious people. Rep. Collin Walke, D-Oklahoma City, suggested that the bill is an election year stunt. But the bill’s Republican sponsor, House Speaker Charles McCall, said it wasn’t intended to be a religious issue but rather to honor the nation’s history. The bill could cost the state an estimated $85,000 to place the signs in 342 state buildings. Others, though, say it could be more because the bill specifies that each displayed motto match the size and placement of the one in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: The capital city’s fourth annual Women’s March will be held Sunday, moving this year to a new date. “Women Rising” is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oregon State Capitol. In a release, march board chair Debbie Miller said the event was moved to a later date to avoid conflicts with Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, as well as to co-celebrate International Women’s Day, a global day for celebrating the achievements of women and advocating for equality. The mission of Women’s March Salem is to harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change, Miller said. The event will include a rally with speakers, booths, food and music, followed by a 1-mile march. Vanessa Nordyke, a city councilor and senior assistant attorney general with the Oregon Department of Justice, will serve as master of ceremonies. Organizers said the event will be free, peaceful and family-friendly.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: The City Council unveiled proposals Tuesday aimed at reducing the number of people in poverty in the city by 25%, with a goal of lifting at least 100,000 people above the threshold by 2024. A special committee released its poverty action plan with recommendations to address several areas including housing, education and guaranteed income for the city’s poorest residents through public initiatives and private partnerships. Some of the proposals include providing rent subsidies; guaranteed income; increasing the availability of adult education in every neighborhood; and streamlining the process to apply for federally funded benefits. A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2018 found about 400,000 Philadelphia residents – nearly 26% – live below the national poverty level. That percentage was more than double the national average and was the highest of the 10 most populous U.S. cities.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The state’s first health clinic for the LGBTQ community has opened to offer a variety of services including primary care, HIV prevention and treatment, and express screening for sexually transmitted infections. Open Door Health, an initiative of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute, opened Monday. It will fill an important role for members of the state’s LGBTQ community, who disproportionately experience poor health outcomes as well as a lack of access to culturally competent care, Executive Director Amy Nunn said. Tiara Mack, a member of the clinic’s community advisory board, said navigating the health care system as a black woman is already difficult, but it was compounded after she came out as lesbian. “I was excited to see that there is now an affirming place where my community won’t have fear of sharing their identity with their doctors,” she told The Providence Journal.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nCharleston: Plans are moving forward to construct a memorial to the nine African American worshippers killed at church in 2015. The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation announced Monday that Bank of America is giving the board a $250,000 grant toward the construction of a permanent memorial at the Mother Emanuel A.M.E Church in downtown Charleston, news outlets report. Construction is expected to cost about $10 million, which includes buying additional property. The foundation has raised over $7 million as of Monday, Foundation Board Co-Chair John Darby said. Plans for the memorial were designed by Michael Arad, the same architect who created the National September 11 Memorial in New York City. The Charleston site is set to include a marble fountain engraved with the victims’ names surrounded by two high-back benches facing each other that resemble “sheltering wings.”\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nPierre: A Senate committee on Tuesday advanced Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposal to revive the state’s riot laws with criminal and civil penalties for those who urge rioting. Native American groups opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline warned that the initiative would stoke tensions that could lead to situations similar to the stand-offs over the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. The bill will next be voted on by the full state Senate. It has already passed the House. Candi Brings Plenty, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the bill “sets the stage for a continuation of tensions.” Many tribal members spoke of their experiences of demonstrations at Standing Rock and described how law enforcement used violence and threats of incitement to riot charges against them. They argued that the bill represents another step in long-standing oppression of Native American people since the violation of treaties dating back to the 1800s.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: An elections administrator in the tornado-stricken county that includes the capital is praising voters for turning out on Super Tuesday despite damage to voting locations and treacherous driving conditions. More than a dozen voting locations in Davidson County were damaged and closed after a tornado swept through Nashville and surrounding areas in the early morning darkness Tuesday. Voters navigated road debris and street closures to reach precincts that were not damaged to cast ballots in the presidential primary election. Polls in Davidson County opened at 8 a.m., an hour later than originally planned. A couple of locations remained open until 10 p.m. Despite the adversity, voters still made it to the polls in respectable numbers, Davidson County elections administrator Jeff Roberts said Wednesday.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: A fourth area code has been approved for the Dallas area, the Public Utility Commission of Texas announced Tuesday. In a statement, the PUC said it had approved the addition of 945 as an overlay because of a looming shortage of telephone number possibilities for the 214, 469 and 972 area codes. Those codes are used by Dallas County and parts of Collin, Denton, Fannin, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman and Tarrant counties. The new code is to be implemented over the next nine months, and telephone numbers containing the 945 area code will be assigned once the numbers available for the other three codes are exhausted early next year. According to the PUC statement, the addition of the code should be simplified because callers within the region already are required to dial 10 digits.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The state is poised to study the disproportionate violence inflicted against Native American women and girls after the Legislature voted to create a task force. Indigenous communities gathered at the Capitol to celebrate Tuesday after the proposal passed the Senate unanimously, the Deseret News reports. It now heads to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert’s desk. Democratic state Rep. Angela Romero’s plan would bring together a nine-member task force of lawmakers, researchers, tribes, law enforcement and an advocate for victims. The task force will identify data-collection gaps in local, state and federal enforcement agencies. Nationwide, American Indian women face a murder rate more than 10 times the national average, according to federal statistics. Utah had the eighth-highest number of missing and slain indigenous women in a nationwide study of 71 cities completed by the Urban Indian Health Institute several years ago.\n\nVermont\n\nSouth Burlington: Voters in the city have overwhelmingly opposed a $209 million school bond proposal to build a new middle and high school. About 6,500 voted against the project, while roughly 1,700 voted for it, on Town Meeting Day on Tuesday. The school board said the project was needed because of overcrowding and aging infrastructure at the South Burlington High School and Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School. The board said that if the proposal were rejected, it would come up with another solution to address the concerns.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is set to open an exhibit that celebrates a century of female activism. “Agents of Change: Female Activism in Virginia from Women’s Suffrage to Today” is scheduled to open Sunday. The exhibit will feature artifacts from the museum’s collections, new acquisitions made through a major collecting initiative and rarely seen loans from private individuals. It is intended to honor change-makers who have brought about positive change in their communities, Virginia and the nation. In a news release, Museum Collections Curator Karen Sherry said the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 marked the culmination of a concerted fight for women’s suffrage and heralded a new age of female participation in American civic life. She said the stories in the exhibit underscore the importance of civic engagement.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: The Legislature on Tuesday approved a bill that reduces the crime of intentionally exposing a sexual partner to HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. Supporters of the change to the rarely used law say the current penalties don’t have an effect on reducing transmissions or improving public health. Opponents argue the move diminishes the significance of the impact on a person who is unknowingly infected. The measure now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee, who is expected to sign it. Democratic Sen. Annette Cleveland said that the bill modernizes criminal statutes and recognizes “advancements in medical science that have rendered HIV a treatable disease.” The legislation, requested by the state Department of Health, also calls for more intervention from local and state health officers, allowing them to recommend options ranging from testing to counseling. They could even mandate treatment for an individual determined to be placing others at risk.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Gov. Jim Justice urged state residents Wednesday to “live our lives” despite the emerging threat of the new coronavirus. Justice held a news briefing along with Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch at the Capitol to discuss steps West Virginia is taking and to give common-sense advice on how people should protect themselves. There are no known cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 thus far in West Virginia. The briefing came after Justice held a private roundtable with administration and medical officials to make “absolutely certain that we’re ready, God forbid, if we do have a situation here in West Virginia,” Justice said. Crouch said the risk that the virus will arrive in West Virginia is low, especially due to the very small number of international travelers coming to the state. But he predicted most states will see such cases “the way it’s moving.”\n\nWisconsin\n\nSuamico: Gov. Tony Evers gave out nearly $75 million Wednesday to help local governments around the state pay for 152 transportation projects and programs. The one-time funding was included in last year’s state budget as the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers sought to provide more money for transportation. The local funding will go toward projects and programs in 66 of the state’s 72 counties. “Think about tourism or farmers getting their products from point A to point B,” Evers said. “Folks getting to and from work, to school, and our state economy absolutely depends on having good roads, safe bridges and great highways.” He announced the grants at a news conference at the headquarters of the Howard-Suamico School District near Highway M in Brown County, which will receive $1 million for a widening project.\n\nWyoming\n\nCody: Sleeping Giant Ski Area will remain open after previously planning to suspend operations for the 2020-2021 season, Yellowstone Recreations Foundation said in a statement. The ski and recreational area was scheduled to close over financial concerns after reopening in 2009, the Cody Enterprise reports. The mountain initially closed in 2004 because of similar monetary issues. No changes have been planned for the summer zipline business, which could be affected if winter ski operations are shut down about 50 miles west of Cody, officials said. The mountain has operated at about a $200,000 loss most years since reopening but nearly broke even in 2013, foundation officials said. The mountain made about $335,500 profit in 2015, including volunteer contributions. Sleeping Giant is tentatively expected to remain open until March 22, depending on conditions.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2022/08/31/synagogue-fight-celebrity-burglaries-fast-food-workers-news-around-states/50663237/", "title": "Synagogue fight, celebrity burglaries: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Corrections officials apparently botched an inmate’s execution last month, an anti-death penalty group alleges, citing the length of time that passed before the prisoner received the lethal injection and a private autopsy indicating his arm may have been cut to find a vein. Joe Nathan James Jr. was put to death July 28 for the 1994 shooting death of his former girlfriend. The execution was carried out more than three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a stay. “Subjecting a prisoner to three hours of pain and suffering is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment,” Maya Foa, director of Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative, a human rights group that opposes the death penalty, said in a statement. “States cannot continue to pretend that the abhorrent practice of lethal injection is in any way humane.” The Alabama Department of Forensic Science declined a request to release the state’s autopsy of James, citing an ongoing review that happens after every execution. Officials have not responded to requests for comment on the private autopsy, which was first reported by The Atlantic. At the time of the execution, Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters that “nothing out of the ordinary” happened. Hamm said he wasn’t aware of the prisoner fighting or resisting officers. The state later acknowledged that the execution was delayed because of difficulties establishing an intravenous line but did not specify how long it took.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: Police in the city are trying to get DNA samples from people with certain past convictions to help fulfill the governor’s push to reduce a backlog of missing evidence across the state, Alaska Public Media reports. The ACLU of Alaska has raised concerns about DNA collection efforts and said it’s monitoring the situation.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Democratic attorney general candidate Kris Mayes is calling to investigate and potentially cancel the leases the State Land Department signed with a Saudi Arabian company that is pumping from Phoenix’s backup water supply in western Arizona. Mayes is also calling for the company to pay the state approximately $38 million for using the water in La Paz County, which sits in a basin that could be tapped as future water source for the Phoenix metro area. Mayes said the leases should be put on hold while they are investigated because they potentially violate the Arizona Constitution’s gift clause, as well as a clause that requires state land and its products to be appraised and offered at their true value. The Arizona State Land Department gave a sweet deal to a Saudi Arabian company called Fondomonte to farm areas in Butler Valley near Bouse, growing alfalfa to ship it back to the Middle East to feed its cows. Fondomonte pays only $25 per acre annually, which is about one-sixth of the market price for farm land in that area, according to experts and the state’s own mass appraisal for areas in and around Butler Valley. In addition, the water that is being pumped by Fondomonte is located in what’s called a transfer basin, meaning water sucked from the ground can be shipped to areas of the state where groundwater is regulated.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: A man who was beaten and held down by law enforcement officers during an arrest that was caught on a widely circulated video has filed a federal lawsuit against the officers. Attorneys for Randal Worcester filed the lawsuit Monday over the Aug. 21 arrest outside a convenience store in the small town of Mulberry that’s prompted state and federal criminal investigations. A bystander’s video shows one officer hold Worcester down as a sheriff’s deputy repeatedly punches and knees the 27-year-old man in the head before grabbing his hair and slamming him against the pavement. At the same time, a third officer also kneed Worcester repeatedly. All three officers – Mulberry Officer Thell Riddle and Crawford County deputies Zachary King and Levi White – are white. Worcester is also white, according to jail booking information. Worcester’s lawsuit accuses the officers, all of whom have been suspended, of violating his constitutional rights. The lawsuit also names the city of Mulberry, its police chief, Crawford County and its sheriff as defendants. “Any reasonable law enforcement officer should have known that his conduct violated clearly established federal law and was a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the lawsuit said.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: State lawmakers on Monday approved a nation-leading measure that would give more than a half-million fast food workers more power and protections, over the objections of restaurant owners who warn it would drive up consumers’ costs. The bill will create a new 10-member Fast Food Council with equal numbers of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives, along with two state officials, empowered to set minimum standards for wages, hours and working conditions in California. A late amendment would cap any minimum wage increase for fast food workers at chains with more than 100 restaurants at $22 an hour next year, compared to the statewide minimum of $15.50 an hour, with cost of living increases thereafter. “We made history today,” said Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry, calling it “a watershed moment.” “This legislation is a huge step forward for workers in California and all across the country,” she said as advocates offered it as a model for other states. The Senate approved the measure on a 21-12 vote, over bipartisan opposition. Hours later the Assembly sent it to Gov. Gavin Newsom on a final 41-16 vote, both chambers acting with no votes to spare.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Two minors and an adult face charges after a teenager was fatally shot in the head while filming a video for the popular social media platform TikTok earlier this month. Three minors were filming dance videos to post on TikTok in the southern Colorado town of Monte Vista when a Glock 19 pistol discharged Aug. 7, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by KRDO-TV. The victim’s identity has not been released. Emiliano Vargas, 21, has been arrested for allegedly permitting or providing a minor with a firearm. The two other minors who were at the scene were arrested for alleged reckless manslaughter and possession of a handgun by juveniles, according to a statement by the Monte Vista Police Department. According to the affidavit, one of the minors told police that she saw the other juvenile point and shoot the gun at the victim before throwing the pistol on a nearby bed. When asked if it seemed like an accident, the girl said to police that “it could be.” Vargas told police he was not at the scene when the shot was fired, according to the affidavit.\n\nConnecticut\n\nKillingly: A high school assistant principal this month was charged with bringing a handgun onto campus – more than a year after the incident occurred and three months after state police were directed to reopen the case. Rolando Navarro, 43, was charged Aug. 16 with possession of a weapon on school grounds, a felony, and released on a $1,000 non-surety bond pending his scheduled arraignment Wednesday at Danielson Superior Court, according to a state police criminal information summary. Navarro and Principal Rafael Calixto were placed on administrative leave in February, weeks after the state Department of Children and Families and state police announced an investigation into a report of a gun discovered at Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School last year. State police from the Central District Major Crime Squad in August interviewed a former student who said he was tasked June 8, 2021, with performing a tire rotation on Navarro’s personal vehicle inside the school’s automotive shop. The student and his shop teacher said they found a gun box in the vehicle’s rear tire well containing an unloaded semi-automatic pistol and magazine. Soon after the weapon was reported, Navarro retrieved the gun box and left, police said.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: State health officials announced Monday that they will soon include fentanyl test strips in naloxone overdose-reversal kits distributed to the public. The effort is aimed at preventing accidental overdoses due to fentanyl consumption, the Division of Public Health’s Office of Health Crisis Response said in a news release. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in Delaware, found in more than 80% of fatal overdoses, officials said. There were 515 overdose deaths in Delaware last year, an increase of 15% from 2020, according to Division of Forensic Science data. Fentanyl was found in 83% of those deaths. The test strips are highly sensitive, and marijuana, cocaine, meth, ecstasy and other substances can be tested for the presence of fentanyl, officials said. Most overdoses are unintentional, officials said, and people may not realize how strong a drug is or that it contains fentanyl, which cannot be detected by sight, taste, smell or touch. The Division of Public Health also distributes 10-pack fentanyl test strip kits through a free mail-order program.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: During her show at The Anthem concert hall Monday, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde caused a stir by telling the crowd she swam in the Potomac River, WUSA-TV reports. “The crowd is in SHAMBLES,” concertgoer Natalie Escobar said in a tweet. Escobar said the Grammy-winning artist told fans she did it to get a feel for D.C. Another Lorde fan said many in the venue booed. In video from the show, Lorde says she was lying in the river contemplating what to say to the crowd. “I love swimming in water where I’m playing,” said Lorde, 25. “It makes me feel like I know you a bit better.” The reaction on social media has been mixed. “She did what?!” one user wrote. Another joked that the musician is going to grow an extra limb. Others praised her gutsiness. Earlier this year, local leaders celebrated the progress made in cleaning the Potomac. “I think a lot of people still think that this river is not clean enough to swim, but we’ve been doing the testing for three straight years, every single week,” Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks said back in March. “And we’re finding that there’s plenty of days, and a lot of places more than 85% of the time, where it is safe to swim in this river. I swim in this river; my daughter swims in this river.” Swimming in the Potomac without a permit has been banned since 1932.\n\nFlorida\n\nFort Lauderdale: Four school board members appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in one of the state’s most Democratic counties were sworn into office Tuesday. They replace the elected Broward County board members DeSantis suspended after a grand jury investigating the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School found widespread wrongdoing. The Florida Department of Education on Monday voiced “significant concerns” about the school system’s actions before, during and after the shootings of 17 people by Nikolas Cruz, a troubled former student who attacked the high school’s campus on Valentine’s Day in 2018. In a letter sent to Superintendent Vickie Cartwright, the state cited the grand jury’s finding of mismanagement of the $800 million voter-approved bond to renovate schools, the underreporting of criminal activity to the state, the district’s “almost fanatical desire to control student data” and use it to manipulate public perception, and the practice of allowing students with serious felonies back on school campuses. “Due to the gravity of the issues outlined above, the Florida Department of Education and the Office of Safe Schools will contact you to arrange an in-person meeting this week to investigate these major concerns,” wrote Tim Hay, who directs the state’s Office of Safe Schools.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: A prosecutor on Monday announced a sprawling indictment against members of what she said is a violent street gang that has been targeting the Atlanta-area homes of famous athletes, entertainers and others who flaunt expensive possessions on social media. Singer Mariah Carey, Marlo Hampton of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Atlanta United player Brad Guzan and the Atlanta Falcons’ Calvin Ridley all had their homes broken into, the indictment says. The 220-count indictment filed Aug. 22 charges 26 people, most of whom are accused of violating Georgia’s anti-gang and racketeering laws. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the crimes alleged in the indictment – carjacking, kidnapping, armed robbery, shootings, home invasions – were committed by members of the Drug Rich gang, which she said began to emerge in 2016 in a neighboring county. In addition to the celebrity targets, social media influencers were also victimized in home invasions and burglaries, Willis said. “What they do is target people who show their wealth on social media,” she said. “So I do have a message for the public: Where it is kind of fun to put your things on social media and show off, unfortunately these gangs are becoming more savvy, more sophisticated in the way that they target you.”\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The Hawaii State Capitol remained closed Monday after a power outage over the weekend. On Saturday morning, one of three high-voltage circuit breakers at the Capitol shorted, officials said. The cause is unknown. The Department of Accounting and General Services has been working with contractors to restore power as soon as possible, officials said in a statement Monday. Until the damaged equipment is repaired, the downtown Honolulu building will remain closed. The Hawaii Legislature adjourned in May. The 2023 session starts in January.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The University of Idaho wants to build the nation’s largest research dairy and experimental farm in south-central Idaho, the geographical heart of the sector. University President Scott Green and school officials said in a presentation to Gov. Brad Little and other members of the Idaho Land Board this month that the proposed Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment will help support growth of the dairy and other industries. “CAFE will be a leader (for) water usage and environmental quality challenges while supporting the continued growth of the dairy, livestock, cropland and food processing industries,” Green told the board. The dairy industry is Idaho’s top agricultural sector and ranks third in the nation behind California and Wisconsin. Idaho’s main dairy products are milk, cheese and yogurt. The school wants the Land Board to use $23 million from the 2021 sale of 282 acres, in Caldwell, of endowment land benefitting the University of Idaho’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to buy roughly 640 acres of farmland in Minidoka County north of Rupert. The $23 million is in a fund controlled by the Land Board. The presentation was informational, and the board is expected to take action on the plan in September.\n\nIllinois\n\nRockford: A federal judge sentenced a man to 55 years in prison Monday for the shooting death of a deputy U.S. marshal serving an arrest warrant for a series of downstate burglaries. U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly imposed the sentence on Floyd E. Brown, 43, of Springfield, for his April 8 conviction on charges of second-degree murder of a federal officer, attempting to kill additional federal officers, assault of federal officers and multiple firearm counts. Brown was acquitted of first-degree murder. Special Deputy U.S. Marshal Jacob Keltner, 35, was a McHenry County deputy working with a Marshal’s Service fugitive task force when he was killed March 7, 2019, at a Rockford hotel. When task force officers attempted to gain access to Brown’s third-floor hotel room, he fired 10 shots through the door and nearby walls, narrowly missing three deputy marshals, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said. Brown then jumped out a window and fired a shot that killed Keltner, who was positioned outside. Brown was arrested several hours later near Lincoln after a high-speed pursuit.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Abortion clinic operators filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block the state’s near-total ban on abortions. The lawsuit filed in a Monroe County court claims the ban, set to take effect Sept. 15, “strips away the fundamental rights of people seeking abortion care” in violation of the Indiana Constitution. It argues the law “will infringe on Hoosiers’ right to privacy, violate Indiana’s guarantee of equal privileges and immunities, and includes unconstitutionally vague language.” Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature approved the tighter abortion restrictions Aug. 5, making it the first state to do so since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections for abortions by overturning Roe v. Wade in June. The Indiana law includes exceptions, allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest within 10 weeks of fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly. Under the law, abortions can be performed only in hospitals or outpatient centers owned by hospitals, meaning all abortion clinics would lose their licenses. Any doctors found to have performed an illegal abortion would be stripped of their state medical licenses and could face felony criminal charges punishable by up to six years in prison.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Police are investigating a burglary from some unusual victims – endangered primates. Bonobos are considered humanity’s closest living animal relative, and a wooded research site in southeast Des Moines is home to seven of them out of only 250 alive in captivity. On Saturday morning, a staff member at the Ape Initiative reported an overnight burglary to Des Moines police. According to the organization’s Facebook page, the burglars did extensive damage and took a “considerable amount of tools and equipment that we use every day to keep the bonobos safe and healthy.” The investigation is active, and neither the group nor Sgt. Paul Parizek, the Des Moines Police Department’s spokesman, could share specifics of what was taken or how burglars gained access. Neither the bonobos nor the institute’s human staff were put at risk, and the animals remained safe, said Jared Taglialatela, the group’s director. The bonobos seem to be unaffected, Taglialatela said. As for the reported break-in, he said none of the scientific equipment or data on site was taken. Staff are now working on cleanup, repairs and paperwork, away from their normal responsibilities.\n\nKansas\n\nBurlington: Builders of a proposed electric line taking nuclear energy from Kansas to Missouri now have eminent domain power, but they will have to wait to use it until the final route is approved. Regulators say electricity consumers in the state will be better off in the long run from cost savings, despite having to help foot the bill for sending Kansas-produced electricity out of state. The Kansas Corporation Commission granted public utility status to NextEra Energy Transmission Southwest, which plans to build a 94-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line from the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant, near Burlington, to the Blackberry Substation in Missouri, north of Joplin. Now that NextEra has a certificate of convenience and necessity, it has eminent domain powers. But it can’t use them until it gets approval for the route, expected to run through Coffey, Anderson, Allen, Bourbon and Crawford counties. Instead of a longer route following highways in southeast Kansas, the proposal crosses large swaths of farmland, making it a shorter distance to the station. Several landowners objected to the power lines, which would require a 150-foot easement, during the regulatory proceedings. Anderson County farmer Mike Welding testified that he has no intention of allowing NextEra agents onto his property or to sign the easement contract.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: The state has received a $5million federal grant to help prevent wrong-way crashes on interstates, officials said. The funding will go toward implementing a pilot program that will use new technology to detect when someone goes the wrong way and then alert the wrong-way driver, other drivers and emergency responders, according to a statement Monday from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “Wrong-way driving is a major safety challenge,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “These funds will allow us to use innovative video technology to help monitor and bolster safety on corridors prone to these types of incidents.” Kentucky’s Wrong Way Driving and Integrated Safety Technology System will include digital and roadway signs, cameras and sensors. Locations in Fayette and Jefferson counties – home to Lexington and Louisville, respectively – will be chosen based on crash history and interstate ramp designs, and the system could expand into other counties, officials said. “In addition to implementing this new technological system, we’ll continue researching statewide opportunities to address wrong-way crashes, such as striping and signage,” Transportation Secretary Jim Gray said.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: Nearly 100 calls to report rapes this year have been quickly downgraded from emergency status, leaving survivors to wait hours for police – and, increasingly, to leave before officers arrive, a New Orleans newspaper and TV station report. The change is highlighted in a report that City Council crime analyst Jeff Asher plans to present to the council this week, WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate report. Other serious crimes, including armed robberies, carjackings, aggravated assaults and domestic disturbances, are also often being shifted from high to low priority before police arrive, Asher wrote. Advocates and officials are worried that the long waits raise the emotional cost for rape survivors and the chance that the reports won’t be investigated. The changes come at a time when the department has fallen from 1,300 officers to about 950. The reasons are not clear, but authorities appear to be trying to keep lights-and-siren treatment for still-unfolding emergencies, the news agencies report. So far this year, 98 aggravated rape reports – 40% of the total – have been reclassified from emergencies to nonemergencies while the call was being dispatched. The same happened with 1,486 domestic disturbances, 431 domestic batteries, 252 aggravated assaults and 74 armed robberies or carjackings, Asher wrote.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: Parents of children enrolled in religious schools fought for years – all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court – for the state to treat tuition reimbursements the same as other private schools. But only one of the religious high schools that stood to benefit has signed up to participate this fall, after Maine’s attorney general warned that the schools would have to abide by state anti-discrimination laws, including those that protect LGBTQ students and faculty. That development has frustrated the families who sued. “Their hands are tied. The state said you can take the money, but we’ll tie your hands,” said David Carson, whose daughter was a sophomore at Bangor Christian Schools when his family and two other plaintiffs sued in 2018. The Supreme Court ruled in June that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition for private education in rural towns where there are no public schools. Last year, 29 private schools participated in the tuition reimbursement program, enrolling more than 4,500 students, officials said. Those schools that meet the state’s criteria can get about $12,000 per student in taxpayer funding. So far, only one religious school has signed up to participate, and that application will go through a review process, said Marcus Mrowka, a state education spokesperson. Mrowka declined to identify the school. The deadline for applications is Thursday.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: Eva Cassidy may be the most famous musical artist ever to live in Annapolis, but it took 26 years and a mural dedication for the city to mount a tribute concert in her honor. Cassidy died in 1996 of metastatic melanoma. She was 33, beloved locally, with one solo album and countless gigs at Annapolis bars to her name. That album, “Live at Blues Alley,” has since sold more than 12 million copies, landing atop record sales charts around the world. No other artist who spent her recording career in the Washington area has enjoyed that level of success, with the caveat that Cassidy did not live to see it, the Capital Gazette reports. “That’s the thing about Eva: All of her success was posthumous,“ said fan Doug Gibson, who attended the recent dedication along with his girlfriend, an artist who knew Eva Cassidy through Annapolis art circles. Acquaintances, co-workers, friends, family, bandmates, roommates and even ex-boyfriends all were among the crowd of several hundred who attended the official dedication of “Maryland Songbird,” a portrait of Eva Cassidy painted on the rear of a Cathedral Street building in Annapolis. The mural was created by artists Jeff Huntington and Julia Gibb with help from local students and supported by their nonprofit Future History Now. More than 30 musicians performed at a tribute concert in the Eva Cassidy Lot.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nWorcester: The Worcester Housing Authority held a groundbreaking Monday for “A Place to Live,” a $7.7 million, 24-unit building that will provide permanent, supportive housing and wraparound care for people experiencing homelessness. “This will not only help people to achieve long-term housing,” Alex Corrales, executive director of the WHA, said during the ceremony Monday morning at the building site. “It will improve residents’ wellness.” The building is the first of its kind in the state and is based on the “A Place to Live” model first developed by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. The model offers permanent, supportive, micro-housing units for those who have been chronically homeless. The three-story, 13,340-square-foot building will include 24 fully furnished studio apartments – two of which are wheelchair accessible – as well as a unit for a resident manager and space for group meetings and individual meetings with service providers. Residents will be selected through a lottery system. “This is a sacred moment in which we are announcing and groundbreaking a project and, even more than that, a home,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said at the ceremony. “This supportive housing is loving and beautiful.”\n\nMichigan\n\nTraverse City: A judge began hearing evidence Monday to determine if five men will face trial for their alleged roles in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The proceedings in state court came six days after two men who were described as leaders of the scheme were convicted in federal court. Michael Null, William Null, Eric Molitor and Shawn Fix, all from Michigan, are each charged with providing material support for terrorist acts as well as a gun crime. Brian Higgins, of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, faces the same material support charge. Judge Michael Stepka must decide if there is probable cause to send the men to trial in Antrim County, a low bar at this stage of the case. The county is the location of Whitmer’s Elk Rapids vacation home. Fourteen people – six in federal court, eight in state courts – were arrested in 2020 and charged in relation to the kidnapping plot. Federal authorities said there was support to abduct Whitmer and spark a civil war, known as the “boogaloo, before the 2020 election. It’s a “version of anarchy,” FBI agent Hank Impola testified Monday. The Null brothers, Higgins and Molitor participated in trips to see Whitmer’s home, according to evidence.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Preparing for an unprecedented strike, hundreds of University of Minnesota service workers protested on campus Tuesday to demand an end to what they called poverty wages and abusive employment practices. “It’s shameful that the University of Minnesota has a billion dollars left over at the end of the year, coming off the backs of workers who are homeless and don’t have enough money for food,” Brian Aldes, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 320, said in a statement. “The State of Minnesota, UMN President Joan Gabel, and the Board of Regents need to understand that if our brothers and sisters at the university are forced to strike, the Teamsters are ready to take up this fight, no matter the cost.” The protesting service workers were joined by student and environmental groups, faculty members, community leaders and elected officials, including Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Local 320 represents 1,500 workers at UMN who clean buildings, service dormitories, maintain grounds, prepare food, maintain HVAC systems, care for research animals, drive trucks, and perform other activities across the university’s five campuses. Many of the workers are Black, including immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and other East African countries.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Hunters have set a new state record after killing a female alligator that measures more than 10 feet long, state wildlife officials said Monday. A pair of hunters killed the gator Sunday on the Pearl River near the Ross Barnett Reservoir northeast of Jackson, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said in a news release. It measured 10 feet, 2 inches long from head to tail, making it the longest female alligator harvested on record in the state. The catch would have tied a 1984 world record, but that record fell last year after a female alligator taken in Florida measured 10 feet, 6.75 inches, said Ricky Flynt, the department’s alligator program coordinator. Flynt said it’s possible the Mississippi alligator was 75 to 100 years old. The hunting season for alligators in public waters opened Friday and ends Sept. 5.\n\nMissouri\n\nJefferson City: The state Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner for mistakes made in the 2018 prosecution of then-Gov. Eric Greitens but agreed with an advisory counsel’s decision that suspension of her law license or disbarment was not merited. The brief ruling from the state High Court echoed a “joint stipulation” agreement reached in April by Gardner and the Missouri Office of Disciplinary Counsel. In that agreement, Gardner conceded that she failed to produce documents and mistakenly maintained that all documents had been provided to Greitens’ lawyers in the criminal case that played a pivotal role in the Republican’s decision to resign in June 2018. The agreement, stating that Gardner’s conduct “was negligent or perhaps reckless, but not intentional,” called for a written reprimand, but it was ultimately up to the Missouri Supreme Court to issue a ruling. In addition to the reprimand for violating rules of professional conduct, the court fined Gardner $750. Messages seeking comment from Gardner’s office weren’t immediately returned. She told the disciplinary panel in April that the mistakes were due to the fast-moving nature of the Greitens case. “Yes, we had a process. But unfortunately, that process came up short,” she said at the time.\n\nMontana\n\nKalispell: Authorities say a man shot two people, killing a woman and seriously injuring her husband, during a weekend altercation at a bar near Glacier National Park. Whisper Dawn Mari Sellars, 28, of Hungry Horse, died at the scene of the shooting outside of the South Fork Saloon in Martin City, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office said. A 40-year-old man from Kila was arrested at the scene and booked into the county jail for suspected deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide. He was due to make an initial appearance Tuesday afternoon in Flathead County Justice Court, officials said. Deputies responded early Saturday morning to a reported shooting at the saloon and found a woman had been killed and a man injured, the sheriff’s office said. Just before the shooting, Sellars and another woman allegedly got into an argument with the suspect after he found them taking pictures in a golf cart that he’d driven to the bar from a nearby party, the Hungry Horse News reports, based on accounts from witnesses. After the suspect pushed Sellars, her husband pushed the suspect, who fell, got up and allegedly started shooting, the newspaper reports. The victims had five children. Martin City has about a population of 460 people and is located about 20 miles northeast of Kalispell.\n\nNebraska\n\nTecumseh: A death row inmate who strangled his cellmate after complaining he talked too much died Monday at the state prison in Tecumseh. Officials said they have not determined how Patrick Schroeder, 45, died. Schroeder died about four years after he was sentenced to death for the strangulation death of his prison cellmate, Terry Berry. Schroeder admitted to killing Berry in 2017, saying his cellmate was too talkative. After Berry’s death, the state paid his family $479,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged the state was responsible for Berry’s death because officials put in him a cell with Schroeder, who had been convicted of murder in the 2006 killing of a 75-year-old farmer from Pawnee City. Berry, 22, of Scottsbluff, was nearing parole after being convicted of forgery. As is the case whenever an inmate dies in state custody, a grand jury will conduct an investigation of the death.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: The historic Sinai Mansion – also called the Howell House – will likely be torn down despite a proposal made last November to move it to a new location on the Truckee River. The Nevada Museum of Art, which owns the 106-year-old building, has started construction on a $60 million, 50,000-foot expansion that requires a commitment to move the house by October. It can be moved anywhere, but it can’t stay where it is next to the museum. “We know people who lived here and who grew up here at the Sinai Mansion – the Howell House – and I can tell you there’d be a lot of broken hearts in this community if this didn’t end up on its feet somewhere else,” museum executive director David Walker said by phone from the Sinai Mansion, where administrative staff are temporarily located during construction. One proposal to save the mansion comes from Reno attorney Nancy Gilbert, who submitted it to the city Nov. 2. Gilbert’s proposal would move the building 1.5 miles from its current spot to a city-owned property that’s been abandoned for over a decade. The plan is supported by the museum, the Historic Reno Preservation Society and the 1200 Riverside Drive Community Association. Gilbert envisions a coffeehouse, restaurant and event space incorporating both old buildings.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nPortsmouth: City officials have received a number of complaints from residents about supporters of ex-President Donald Trump who have been appearing regularly at Prescott Park. The complaints have prompted at least two City Council discussions about the issue, an investigation by the city’s Legal Department, and plans to implement more rules about the designated public forum area of the city-owned park that has long been dedicated to freedom of speech and expression. Robert Sullivan, an attorney for the city, said the complaints from citizens started last summer but “have been continuous all summer long” in 2022. He emphasized the group’s First Amendment rights to free speech, but there are questions about rules regarding the park’s designated public forum area. The pro-Trump group has also appeared downtown in front of North Church – a traditional public forum area that has seen countless political speeches, rallies and protests over the years. “We have been led to believe they are in the park nearly every day,” Sullivan said. “There’s a public forum area at Prescott Park in which constitutionally protected speech is not only allowed but encouraged. John McCain announced his candidacy for president in that very same location.”\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: The state is using $6.5 million of federal aid to help collect and digitize school blueprints for first responders, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday. The American Rescue Plan funds will help the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the state police devise maps for about 1,500 schools public and private schools. An additional 1,500 schools already have such digital graphics available, according to the administration. The maps are critical to help police and other responders react to emergencies in what could be unfamiliar environments, officials say. “With the epidemic of gun violence reaching every part of our communities, including our schools, we offer our families not empty promises, but concrete investments in tools and resources that will keep our students safe,” Murphy said in a statement. The announcement comes nearly a month after Murphy signed legislation requiring the state’s nearly 600 school districts to set up threat assessment teams aimed at stemming any violence in schools. The bill was introduced two days after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. That measure goes into effect in the 2023-2024 school year.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday pardoned six people for convictions ranging from fraud and larceny to burglary and drug trafficking. The pardons represent another round of clemency decisions for the first-term Democratic governor who is seeking reelection. She has pardoned 56 people overall. The governor’s office said nearly all of the pardoned offenses stem from crimes committed a decade or more ago, and all but one involved nonviolent offenses. Among those pardoned was Cynthia Jaramillo, who escaped from serial killer David Parker Ray in 1999. The governor’s office said Jaramillo, who had a drug trafficking conviction on her record, has since dedicated her life to supporting women facing homelessness and addiction. The others were Bridgette Yvette Tabor, Jack Ferguson, Travis Earl Gatling, Randall E. Johnston and Kathleen Woerter. The governor’s pardoning power extends to all crimes committed under state law except for impeachment and treason. A pardon restores certain rights, such as the right to vote and the right to hold public office.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: Amid the bright lights and electronic billboards across Times Square, city authorities are posting new signs proclaiming the bustling crossroads a “Gun Free Zone.” The sprawling Manhattan tourist attraction is one of scores of “sensitive” places – including parks, churches and theaters – that will be off limits for guns under a sweeping new state law going into effect Thursday. The measure, passed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June expanded gun rights, also sets stringent standards for issuing concealed carry permits. New York is among a half-dozen states that had key provisions of its gun laws invalidated by the high court because of a requirement for applicants to prove they had “proper cause” for a permit. The quickly adopted law, however, has led to confusion and court challenges from gun owners who say it improperly limits their constitutional rights. Under the law, applicants for a concealed carry permit will have to complete 16 hours of classroom training and two hours of live-fire exercises. Ordinary citizens would be prohibited from bringing guns to schools, churches, subways, theaters and amusement parks – among other places deemed “sensitive” by authorities. Applicants also will have to provide a list of social media accounts for the past three years as part of a “character and conduct” review.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nDurham: U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley pitched herself Monday as a bridge between law enforcement and the Democratic Party, appealing to moderate voters in one of the nation’s most competitive races for a seat in the narrowly divided chamber. Joined by more than a dozen current and former law enforcement officers at a news conference in Durham, Beasley announced new legislative priorities to strengthen public safety and mend the frayed relationship between her party and the police force. The Democrat committed to working with Republican lawmakers to secure funding for local law enforcement to train officers on deescalation techniques, mindful responses to behavioral health crises and alternatives to using force. She also told sheriffs she would fight for federal funding to help rural departments address officer shortages and the ongoing opioid crisis. With the Senate in a 50-50 deadlock, North Carolina is one of the few states where Democrats have strong potential to flip a seat this November. Beasley, former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, will face off this fall against Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who is endorsed by ex-President Donald Trump. Beasley distanced herself Monday from the “defund the police” movement – a progressive push to divest funds from police department budgets and reallocate them to social services and other community resources.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nFargo: A Fargo police officer was justified in fatally shooting a man at an apartment complex in July, state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Monday. Wrigley said Officer Adam O’Brien, a more than 10-year veteran of the department, fired his gun at 28-year-old Shane Netterville, of Jamestown, after Netterville ignored commands of officers and sped out of a garage in a stolen van, narrowly avoiding officers. Netterville suffered a chest wound and died at a hospital several hours later. The shooting came after a citizen report of three “possibly deceased” people in the van, Wrigley said. The men were alive and may have been sleeping in the van. When police arrived, Netterville “failed to company with lawful orders,” he said. Wrigley said the two passengers in the van said they heard police commands and were trying to convince Netterville to comply. Wrigley and Fargo police Chief David Zibolski showed dash and bodycam video of the incident during a press conference in Fargo. Wrigley previously rejected calls to release camera footage of the shooting. O’Brien was placed on paid administrative leave while the case was being reviewed by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Zibloski said O’Brien will return to full duty Sept. 7.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: The state Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would not take up an appeal of a $25 million judgment against Oberlin College in a business’ lawsuit claiming it was libeled by the school after a shoplifting incident involving three Black students. The court did not say why it would not hear the appeal. The 9th District Court of Appeals in Akron upheld the judgment in late March. Oberlin College said in a statement that officials are disappointed the high court did not hear the school’s appeal. “The issues raised by this case have been challenging, not only for the parties involved, but for the entire Oberlin community,” the statement said. Store owners Allyn Gibson and his son, David Gibson, sued Oberlin College in November 2017 claiming they had been libeled by the school, and their business had been harmed. The lawsuit was filed a year after David Gibson’s son, also named Allyn, chased and tackled a Black male student he suspected of having stolen a bottle of wine. Two Black female students who were with the male student tried to intervene. All three were arrested and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. The arrests triggered protests outside Gibson’s Bakery, where flyers were handed out, some by an Oberlin College vice president and dean of students, accusing the Gibsons of being racist.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has reinstated the murder conviction and life sentence of a man featured in the book and television series “The Innocent Man.” The court overturned a lower court decision that said prosecutors and police withheld evidence that could exonerate Tommy Ward, 61, of the 1984 murder of Donna Denice Haraway in Ada. The ruling, dated Friday, said the withheld evidence, which included witness interviews and police reports, had been available to Ward’s defense since 2003 and was not included in Ward’s direct appeal after his 1999 conviction. “Raising the same general categories on post-conviction that one raised on direct appeal, even if the basis is different, will result in a procedural bar,” according to the state court’s opinion. “He’s very disappointed that he’s still in prison for a murder he didn’t commit,” Ward’s attorney, Mark Barrett, said Tuesday. “We are pressing forward… exploring the possibility of going to federal court” with additional appeals. Barrett noted that the appeals court ordered the lower court to consider an additional claim regarding new evidence discovered in 2019. That evidence includes previously undisclosed suspects and whether police provided Ward with information about the victim’s blouse, which prosecutors said he had described.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: A federal judge has ruled that the Oregon State Hospital must impose strict limits on the length of time it treats patients accused of crimes who need mental health treatment. Judge Michael W. Mosman’s ruling seeks to ease the psychiatric hospital’s overcrowding, speed up patient admission and stop people waiting for admission from languishing in jail, The Oregonian/OregonLive reports. Effective immediately, the hospital must release “aid-and-assist” patients accused of misdemeanors within 90 days of admission and those accused of felonies within six months of admission. Aid-and-assist patients are those found by a judge to be unable to participate in their own defense at trial. The judge’s decision overrules an Oregon law that says the hospital can hold an aid-and-assist patient for up to three years, or the maximum amount of time that a person could have been sentenced to prison for their alleged crime, whichever is shorter. Disability Rights Oregon and Metropolitan Public Defenders requested the order after protesting the hospital’s lengthy admission delays. Disability Rights Oregon in 2002 won a court order that required the hospital to admit aid-and-assist patients within seven days so they can begin mental health treatment quickly.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: The state may not keep a cache of weapons seized from the parents of a gunman who killed one state trooper and permanently disabled another eight years ago, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The parents of Eric Frein sued after authorities refused to return 25 rifles, 10 pistols and two shotguns that were taken from their home in September 2014, days after Frein ambushed the troopers outside a state police barracks in the Pocono Mountains. Eugene Michael Frein and Deborah Frein were not charged in their son’s crime – for which he was convicted and sentenced to death – and none of their weapons were used in his deadly late-night assault. The Pike County district attorney, who was named as a defendant in the parents’ suit, had argued that authorities had the right to hold the seized weapons, saying they might be needed as evidence during Eric Frein’s state and federal appeals. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, saying in its ruling Tuesday that state authorities never used Michael and Deborah’s weapons as evidence at their son’s trial and violated the parents’ constitutional rights by holding on to the guns indefinitely.\n\nRhode Island\n\nNewport: A Jewish congregation in New York City has moved to evict Rhode Island congregants who worship at the nation’s oldest synagogue as part of a long-running dispute over control of the historic building. The New York-based Congregation Shearith Israel on Monday filed a motion in state District Court to take control of Touro Synagogue by removing its current tenants, the Newport-based Congregation Jeshuat Israel. Congregation Shearith Israel said in court documents that it sent a notice in October demanding that Congregation Jeshuat Israel leave the premises as of Monday. “CJI, and any others still in possession of the premises, must vacate the premises as of midnight on the termination date,” Shearith Israel wrote. Members of Congregation Jeshuat Israel released a statement Friday saying their goal was to have a long-term lease so the congregation could have the security of knowing they and future generations can continue to worship in the synagogue. They said they are willing to take full responsibility for maintaining the building and maintaining orthodox services, with the hope of expanding the congregation. “Touro Synagogue is our home, and the place where we have worshipped and been the sole caretakers, for almost 140 years,” members of the congregation wrote.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: “Cocky” will now be joined by “The General” at University of South Carolina football games this fall. The school announced Monday that its live, crowing rooster mascot will have a new name going forward. The bird had previously been called “Sir Big Spur,” but a dispute between its old and new owners led to the name change. Neither the university nor the athletic department owned rights to the former name. The rooster has had a perch at football and baseball games at South Carolina the past two decades. “The General” will be alongside human-sized mascot “Cocky” when the Gamecocks open the season against Georgia State on Saturday night. The new name comes from Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter, who was known as “The Fighting Gamecock.” South Carolina deputy athletic director Eric Nichols said when officials realized they’d have to change the name, it seemed fitting to go back to the Gamecock nickname’s origin. “We know Gamecock fans are passionate about our traditions, and seeing the live mascot at games and other athletics events is something they look forward to,” Nichols said. The athletic department worked with the rooster’s new owners, Beth and Van Clark, in picking a name. The school’s legal department discouraged keeping any part of the old name.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nAberdeen: Avera Health has announced plans to resize its organization, including eliminating jobs, in response to rising expenses. The higher costs for items that include paper products, common medical supplies, software technology and more mean a reduction is coming to the workforce across the Avera network, according to a statement released by the company Monday evening. “We are resizing our organization with an even greater focus on delivering high-quality patient care while redefining our core business focus around patient care. Sadly, this will mean a reduction in our nonclinical workforce across the Avera footprint, restructuring in areas and changes in services,” the statement said. Details were not shared about how many positions are being eliminated or what specific changes are in the works. While Avera is caring for more patients, inflation is a big reason for the change, per the statement. Because of those rising expenses, Avera said it is challenging itself to “be more efficient, focused and creative in looking at health care differently and less expensively, while leveraging innovation.”\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A South Korean tire manufacturer plans to add almost 400 jobs in a third expansion of its Tennessee operations. The state Department of Economic and Community Development said Hankook Tire & Technology Co. is planning to add the jobs over five years at its Clarksville campus. The company plans to finish a previous expansion to double U.S. production of passenger car and light truck tires. Hankook will invest $612 million in the third expansion, which will add the company’s first U.S. production line of truck and bus radial tires. Tire production at the new phases of the plant is expected to begin in the last quarter of 2024, then reach full capacity by early 2026. The company broke ground on the Tennessee facility in 2014. Hankook has relocated its North American headquarters to Nashville. The new Clarksville expansion will bring the company’s workforce to about 2,300 people across Tennessee.\n\nTexas\n\nUvalde: The Associated Press and other news organizations are suing local officials after months of refusal to publicly release records related to the May massacre at Robb Elementary School. The lawsuit filed Monday in Uvalde County asks a court to force the city, school district and sheriff’s department to turn over 911 recordings, personnel records and other documents. Newsrooms have requested them under Texas open records laws since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers May 24. More than three months after one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history, news organizations have turned to courts in an effort to obtain information and records that Uvalde officials and state police have argued they cannot release because of ongoing investigations. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has also ruled that Uvalde officials cannot withhold all records. Misleading and outright false statements by authorities about the police response in the initial hours and days after the attack on a fourth grade classroom – which lasted more than 70 minutes – have sowed distrust that remains among many Uvalde residents. “The obfuscation and inaction have only prolonged the pain of victims, their families and the community at large, all of whom continue to cry out for transparency regarding the events of that day,” the lawsuit says.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The state reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 3,143 new cases. That’s down 11.2% from the previous week’s tally of 3,539 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. Utah ranked 46th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 10.8% from the week before, with 654,873 cases reported. With 0.96% of the country’s population, Utah had 0.48% of the country’s cases in the last week. Across the country, 16 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. Across Utah, cases fell in five counties, with the best declines in Davis County, with 351 cases from 446 a week earlier; in Salt Lake County, with 1,294 cases from 1,376; and in Utah County, with 470 cases from 512. Within Utah, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in San Juan County with 157 cases per 100,000 per week; Tooele County with 116; and Salt Lake County with 112. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.\n\nVermont\n\nBurlington: The state will spend $3million in the coming year to attract more workers, continuing an effort that began in 2019 when the state offered to cover up to $10,000 in moving expenses for people willing to move to the Green Mountain State to work remotely. In 2020, the Legislature added a program offering up to $7,500 in moving expenses to workers who accepted jobs with Vermont companies in targeted positions such as cooks and servers, child care workers, registered nurses, construction laborers, delivery drivers, elementary school teachers and retail salespeople. In 2021, the state offered both incentives again. The $3 million commitment this year comes despite widespread opposition in the Legislature – especially in the state House – and a review by the Legislative Joint Fiscal Office that rejects the conclusions of a third-party study claiming the programs paid for themselves within two years. The review stated, among other things, that the report relied on “unrepresentative and misleading data to derive its most important conclusions.”\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: Hazing charges against five former members of a now-expelled Virginia Commonwealth University fraternity in connection with a freshman’s death from alcohol poisoning after a party have been dropped. Six of the 11 former Delta Chi members charged in the death of Adam Oakes, 19, have pleaded guilty or no contest, but a prosecutor in the case declined to say why the charges against the remaining five were dropped last week, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Last year, 11 former members of the fraternity were charged with hazing and seven of them with serving alcohol to a minor. VCU suspended the students, a defense attorney said last year, and the university permanently removed the fraternity from campus. Three of the six who pleaded guilty or no contest are eligible to have their charges dismissed if they meet the terms of their plea agreements. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Hollomon declined to comment on the dropped charges, citing the open case status of three defendants. Both charges in these cases are misdemeanors and carry no more than a year in jail and a fine of $2,500. None of the six received jail time. The police investigation found Oakes was told to drink a large bottle of whiskey in February 2021, and the freshman from Loudoun County was found dead the next morning.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Members of the Chinook Indian Nation rallied Monday on the steps of a federal building in Seattle to raise awareness for their long fight to get federal recognition. Chairman Tony Johnson, whose tribal name is Naschio, told KNKX Public Radio that his great-great-grandfather and other leaders first hired lawyers to sue for their lands back in the 1890s. Federal recognition would mean access to federal dollars for health care and housing for this group of tribes, which are based in southwestern Washington, particularly Pacific County. The rally was the start of a campaign by Chinook leadership, they said, to pressure U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to use their influence in Congress to get the Chinook recognized. For a brief time twenty years ago, the Clinton administration recognized the Chinook Indian Nation, but the Bush administration revoked that decision in 2002 after another Indigenous nation in Washington state, the Quinault, appealed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Johnson said during a speech Monday that the Chinook nation, which is made up of five tribes – the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkaikum and Willapa – refused to sign a treaty that would force them to lose their land and therefore was never moved to a reservation.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Two former teacher’s aides have been charged with failing to report the abuse of special needs students at an elementary school, the Kanawha County Prosecutor’s Office said. The charges were announced Monday in connection with a case involving former special education teacher Nancy Boggs, officials told news outlets. Boggs pleaded guilty in May to 10 misdemeanor counts of battery and was sentenced this month to 10 years in prison stemming from incidents in September 2021. The aides were charged under a state law that requires school employees to report to authorities when they have “reasonable cause” to suspect abuse or neglect or witness “conditions that are likely to result in abuse or neglect.” One aide pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance Monday, and the other postponed the arraignment until her lawyer could be present.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Gov. Tony Evers is allocating $90million more in federal pandemic funding for schools. Evers said the funds are aimed at helping school officials recruit and retain teachers, combatting staffing shortages that have emerged since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020. “Yes, they are federal funds, I understand that, but until there is a (state) budget, we need to make sure that the people that stand behind me can do the good work,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference at Leopold Elementary School in Madison. Evers is a former state superintendent and public school educator. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, both Republicans, did not react to the governor’s plan. Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels, who is challenging Evers in November, said the plan was political. “The fact that self-proclaimed ‘education governor’ Evers needs to make news on education with 70 days until Election Day shows that his anti-parents, pro-special interest education agenda isn’t resonating with Wisconsin voters,” Michels said. “Evers wants his big checks to make people forget his big failures, but his disastrous record speaks for itself.”\n\nWyoming\n\nJackson: At the Jackson Cupboard food bank, Ash Hermanowski oversees the distribution of about 1,200 free meals a day from a commercial garage after being forced from a previous site by a malfunctioning sprinkler. The food bank couldn’t afford any other place in town. Just across the street, The Glenwood, a collection of townhomes that will sell for millions, is nearing completion. “Unparalleled luxury,” its website says, in a “truly relaxing oasis.” It’s the “ultimate irony,” Hermanowski said. “The staff and I, we talk about it all the time. We all struggle to live here, and they’re building high-end residences. That dichotomy exists all over town, but people refuse to see it.” Inflation is particularly high in the town of Jackson and the surrounding Teton County, which, even before the pandemic erupted two years ago, was the wealthiest and most unequal place in the nation. The state of Wyoming has calculated that the cost of living in the county at the end of 2021 was 68% higher than in the rest of the state – with housing costs 130% higher. Roughly 85% of the food bank’s recipients have a job, often more than one, said Sharel Lund, executive director of one22, a nonprofit that includes Jackson Cupboard.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/08/31"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2014/12/30/year-in-review-united-states/20489635/", "title": "Year in review: 50 stories from 50 states", "text": "Compiled by Alia E. Dastagir\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nWhen the year ends, we reflect. We look back at the stories that changed the national conversation, the people who inspired us, the painful events we bore witness to, and the shifts in public opinion that showed us how America is evolving on issues both big and small.\n\nAs 2014 comes to a close, USA TODAY revisits one story from each state — the big news, the best investigations and the moments we still can't stop talking about.\n\nAlabama: 5-year-old fan sends $1 allowance to help save UAB football\n\nWhen 5-year-old Ohio State fan Bennett Williams found out that the University of Alabama at Birmingham would be shutting down its football program, he asked his parents how much money the university needed to keep it running. Bennett decided to write a note and send it to UAB, and he included his dollar allowance to help keep the Blazers on the field. The UAB athletics department sent Bennett a few gifts for his amazing act of kindness.\n\nAlaska: The Palin family brawl\n\nIt was a birthday party gone bad, starring former governor Sarah Palin and her family. According to reports, the clan got into a big fight at a party in Anchorage, and Palin was even said to have screamed, \"Don't you know who I am!?\" In October, Radar Online and Extra unearthed what they say is the police recording from the scene. Listen for yourself. Palin eventually addressed the brawl on Facebook, pointing us to her daughter Bristol's version of what went down. Bristol said someone messed with her little sister.\n\nArizona: Dreamers get to drive\n\nThe courts ruled and on Dec. 22 the Arizona Department of Transportation began accepting driver's license applications from young undocumented immigrants known as \"dreamers\" who qualify under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Gov. Jan Brewer had fought to keep driver's licenses out of the hands of dreamers since August 2012, when she issued an executive order denying licenses to anyone approved for President Obama's program.\n\nMore from Arizona:Veterans health care controversy began with whistle-blower allegations in Phoenix VA hospital\n\nArkansas: Voter ID law struck down\n\nIt was unanimous. The Arkansas Supreme Court in October declared the state's voter-identification law unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Arkansas Public Law Center had filed suit on behalf of four voters who argued that the photo ID requirement would disenfranchise them. The justices ruled that Act 595, which required voters to show government-issued photo identification, \"imposes a requirement that falls outside\" the four qualifications outlined in the state constitution.\n\nCalifornia: Storms put dent in state's drought\n\nNASA has said that about 11 trillion gallons of water is needed to end the historic drought in California. That's about 130,000 Rose Bowls full of water. Storms this December offered some relief, but they weren't nearly enough to end the multiyear drought. After the storms, the percentage of the state in the worst drought category — \"exceptional\" drought — dropped from 55% to 32%. That's the state's lowest percentage in six months.\n\nMore from California:Steve Ballmer buys Los Angeles Clippers from Donald Sterling; 'Six Californias' fails to make California ballot\n\nColorado: Lighting up the new year\n\nJan. 1 brought the first sales of legal recreational marijuana to Colorado and the state hasn't looked back. Three more states have now either begun or approved recreational sales, and tens of millions of dollars in new tax money is flowing into Colorado's coffers. The fast-growing industry in 2014 struggled to manage the vast piles of cash it's been generating, and state regulators clamped down on the popular pot-infused candies and treats known as edibles.\n\nConnecticut: Sandy Hook killer carefully planned attack\n\nIt's been two years since the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., shook the nation to its core. A Connecticut agency investigating the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre issued a report in November that found the killer, Adam Lanza, did not \"snap\" but was obsessed with mass murder and had carefully planned the attack. Lanza, 20, killed his mother at their home on the morning of Dec. 14, then went to the school he had once attended and gunned down 20 children and six staff members before killing himself.\n\nDelaware: Beauty queen dethroned for being too old\n\nHere's your dose of Miss America drama. A new Miss Delaware was crowned in June after the one selected earlier that month got the boot — for being too old. Brittany Lewis, 24, originally the contest's first runner-up as Miss Wilmington, got the sparkly crown lost by Amanda Longacre, who was also 24 when she competed. The Miss America Organization website says contestants must be 17 to 24 years old. Longacre was stripped of her crown because she was turning 25 in October. In July, Longacre sued the state and national scholarship pageant organizations.\n\nFlorida: Jeb Bush may ask you to extend his family's presidential dynasty\n\nThe Republican establishment likely has its first candidate for 2016. Jeb Bush made a surprise announcement this December that he will \"actively explore\" a 2016 presidential bid, giving his strongest signal yet about wanting to follow his father and brother to the White House (see how \"actively explore\" became the new \"conscious uncoupling\"). Bush was Florida's governor from 1999 to 2007.\n\nMore from Florida:Officials propose making 'South Florida' 51st state; Red-light camera abuses exposed\n\nGeorgia: Father indicted for murder in son's hot-car death\n\nImmediately after Georgia dad Justin Harris left his 22-month-old son in a hot car, where he died, people rallied around him. But then evidence started mounting that Harris may have actually left his son in the sealed car on purpose. Police found that Harris, 33, and his wife had researched hot car deaths and had two life insurance policies out on their son. In September, Harris was indicted for murder. His trial is scheduled to begin next month.\n\nHawaii: Lava flow is slow-motion horror story\n\nImagine you're kicking back at home and someone tells you that 2,000-degree Fahrenheit lava is flowing toward your house. That's been Hawaii's reality this year. Molten lava emerged from a vent in the Kilauea volcano in June, and a long stretch of the flow began slowly moving toward the town of Pahoa, in a rural region of the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes. In late October, the lava crossed a country road at the edge of town, covering a cemetery and claiming a home. Now, the lava is headed for a shopping center.\n\nIdaho: The saga of Bowe Bergdahl\n\nIt was a roller coaster of emotions in Hailey, Idaho. On May 31, the town learned that local boy Bowe Bergdahl, 28, had been released from Taliban captivity in Afghanistan after five years. But joy soon turned to shock. Calls and e-mails blasted locals for planning a celebration June 28 for the Army sergeant who may have walked off his post and whose release involved the Obama administration trading five Taliban leaders. Bergdahl has been accused by some members of his former unit of intentionally leaving his post before he was captured by Taliban insurgents in 2009. This December, the Army decided to forward the Bergdahl investigation for possible court-martial. For now Bergdahl remains assigned to a desk job at an Army headquarters unit in San Antonio.\n\nIllinois: Rahm to Hillary: 'Dead broke? Really?'\n\nHillary Clinton took a lot of heat this summer after she said in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer that she and Bill Clinton left the White House in 2001 \"dead broke.\" Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, her old political pal, didn't let the comment slide at an event in Chicago celebrating her memoir, Hard Choices. \"Hillary dead broke?\" Emanuel asked. \"Really?\" Clinton acknowledged to Emanuel that it \"may not have been the most artful way\" of talking about her finances.\n\nIndiana: Colts owner arrested\n\nIt was a tough year for Jim Irsay. The Colts owner was arrested in March for driving under the influence and illegal possession of prescription drugs. Commissioner Roger Goodell disciplined Irsay with a six-game suspension and a $500,000 fine — the maximum allowed under NFL rules. \"I acknowledge the mistake I made last March and stand responsible for the consequences of that mistake, for which I sincerely apologize to our community and to Colts fans everywhere,\" Irsay said in a statement. Irsay, 55, has battled drug addictions and alcoholism for decades.\n\nIowa: Farm families adapt to food-conscious America\n\nThe farm family, with deep community roots and generations living close to the soil, has found itself at the center of profound demographic, technological, economic and environmental change. The Des Moines Registerintroduced readers to four Iowa farm families navigating this changing world. And, in a journalistic first, invited readers to step into the century-old Dammann farm through 360-degree video and virtual reality.\n\nKansas: Sen. Roberts survives close call for GOP\n\nVeteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts survived a surprisingly strong challenge from independent Greg Orman in November, ensuring that Republicans would continue their 82-year string of U.S. senators from the Sunflower State. Orman, a 45-year-old millionaire businessman who has never held elected office, scared Republicans with his upstart campaign against the three-term, 78-year-old Republican.\n\nKentucky: Cars crash in an unlikely mishap\n\nA 40-foot-wide sinkhole at Kentucky's National Corvette Museum opened up in February and swallowed eight Corvettes. The museum owned six and General Motors owned two. GM's Bowling Green Corvette plant, the only factory that builds the cars, is across a highway less than a half mile from the museum. Security cameras caught the moment the cars slipped into the massive hole as the floor caved in.\n\nLouisiana: Smithsonian will honor family's civil rights efforts\n\n\n\nSmall communities like Bogalusa, La., often are overlooked in histories of the civil rights movement, but a new museum on the National Mall aims to change that. Charles Hicks said it \"feels good\" to know his native town's civil rights contributions will be recognized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Hicks' father, Robert Hicks, a legendary civil rights activist, died in 2010. The family's involvement in the civil rights movement will be part of an exhibit at the museum, scheduled to open in 2016.\n\nMaine: Unlikely lobsters caught days apart\n\nFirst, a rare sight landed in a lobsterman's trap in October. Jay LaPlante and his 14-year-old daughter, Meghan, caught a blue lobster about 10 miles southwest of Portland. The find is like winning the lottery: Oceanographers estimate that only 1 in 2 million lobsters is blue. Then, a week later farther up the coast, veteran lobsterman Joe Bates discovered what researchers consider a 1-in-100-million find: a white lobster.\n\nMaryland: Boardwalk pole dancer makes waves in Ocean City\n\nIt was a mixture of outrage and awe on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Md., this summer. A 27-year-old dancer raised First Amendment issues when she set up her own pole-dancing operation on one of the busiest tourist thoroughfares in America. The resort community's officials didn't like it, but thanks in part to two federal court decisions involving Ocean City, Chelsea Plymale's show is legal. That doesn't mean it hasn't riled people, including a nearby store owner.\n\nMore from Maryland:Ray Rice won his appeal, but it's likely he still lost his NFL career\n\nMassachusetts: Going back in time\n\nA time capsule buried in 1795 by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams was unearthed in Boston at the Massachusetts Statehouse this December, possibly the oldest such U.S. artifact ever uncovered. About the size of a cigar box, the copper container — green from oxidation and caked in plaster — was found in the cornerstone of the \"new\" statehouse on Beacon Hill, which was completed in 1798. The contents of the capsule will be unveiled on Jan. 6.\n\nMichigan: Detroit bankruptcy ends\n\nThe nightmare is over. The city of Detroit's historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy ended this December, setting in motion a sweeping plan to slash $7 billion in debt and reinvest $1.4 billion over 10 years to improve city services. Judge Steven Rhodes approved the city's restructuring plan, giving the city the authority to implement the grand bargain to help reduce pension cuts, preserve the Detroit Institute of Arts and start improving basic services. The Detroit Free Presslooks at how the case proceeded and where the Motor City goes from here.\n\nMore from Michigan:11-year-old hunter bags rare albino deer\n\nMinnesota:Toddler ignores military protocol\n\nCooper Waldvogel loves his mom way more than military protocol. The 3-year-old couldn't wait to be with his mother this September after she served nine months in Afghanistan with the National Guard's 114th Transportation Company based in Chisholm, Minn. He ran to her while she and her fellow soldiers stood in line waiting to be dismissed. \"I was longing to hold him, that's all that I thought about,\" said his mother, Kathryn Waldvogel, 25.\n\nMississippi: Southaven one of worst U.S. cities for LGBT rights\n\nAcross the United States, cities are increasingly embracing equal treatment and access for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. Ten years ago, gay marriage was explicitly legal in just one state — Massachusetts. Same-sex couples now can marry in 35 states. But there are many parts of the U.S. where LGBT citizens not only lack the right to marry but also lack other fundamental protections. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Southaven, Miss., is one of just five cities scoring zero on their 2014 Municipal Equality Index. Others are in Texas: Irving, Lubbock, McAllen and Mesquite.\n\nMissouri: Michael Brown sparks conversation on race in America\n\nMichael Brown's death in Ferguson this summer set off protests throughout the nation. Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was fatally shot by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Witness reports differ on whether Brown had his hands raised. Wilson said Brown became overpoweringly violent after the officer asked him to stop walking in the middle of a street. In November, a grand jury decided Wilson would not face charges in Brown's death, setting off riots. USA TODAY reporter Yamiche Alcindor was there from the beginning and was with Brown's family when they learned of the grand jury's decision. You can explore all our coverage of the shooting and its aftermath here.\n\nMontana: State women mark 100 years of voting\n\n\n\nThe suffragette torch passed to a new generation of Montanans this November at a celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. On Nov. 3, 1914, after decades of debate, marches and politicking, Montana male voters passed the suffrage referendum, with 53% in favor. It took six more years for women across the USA to get the right to vote.\n\nNebraska: Rare twin tornadoes devastate town\n\nTwo powerful tornadoes leveled about half the town of Pilger in June. The twin twisters touched down within a mile of each other, demolishing homes and businesses in their path. Meteorologists said two such tornadoes from the same thunderstorm system are extremely rare.\n\nNevada: Tesla heads to Reno\n\nAfter months of playing states against each other to boost tax incentives, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced on Sept. 4 that Nevada had beat out Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico for its planned $5 billion battery gigafactory to be built in the desert outside Reno. The project is expected to bring 6,500 jobs to an area still struggling to rebound from the recession.\n\nNew Hampshire: 'Father of video games' dies\n\nRalph Baer, the creator of the first home video game console system, died at 92 in December. While working as an engineer for New Hampshire-based company Sanders Associates, Baer created the Magnavox Odyssey, a battery-powered console that included a controller with two knobs players could twist to move horizontally or vertically.\n\nNew Jersey: The Bridgegate scandal\n\nNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie faced a scandal this year over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that gridlocked a town. The traffic jam became a major political liability for the possible Republican presidential prospect. Though a report in December suggests Christie's allies had the lanes closed because of political considerations, the New Jersey governor's role remains unknown.\n\nMore from New Jersey:Sayreville High School cancels football season after hazing scandal\n\nNew Mexico: DOJ and Albuquerque police reach deal on police use of force\n\nLess than three weeks before Michael Brown's fatal shooting in Ferguson opened a national debate on the use of deadly force by police, city and federal authorities in Albuquerque set forth a plan to transform a local law enforcement agency with a stunningly violent reputation. The Justice Department and the city of Albuquerque announced an agreement this October that will require the police department to transform its practice of \"routinely'' taking lethal action against its residents.\n\nNew York: NYC explodes with protests for Eric Garner\n\nDemonstrations erupted in NYC this December after a grand jury decided NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo would not face charges in the July death of Eric Garner, 43, an asthmatic who was subjected to a chokehold. Garner was suspected of selling cigarettes illegally. On a cellphone video of the incident, Garner is heard saying repeatedly, \"I can't breathe.\" A few weeks after the ruling, a gunman executed two New York Police Department officers in an apparent revenge killing for the deaths of Garner and Michael Brown.\n\nMore from New York:Buffalo Bills' famed quarterback Jim Kelly goes through cancer treatments; 14 troubled boys forsaken in life and deserted in death\n\nNorth Carolina:Charlotte's ex-mayor heads to prison\n\nPatrick Cannon went from mayor to inmate. Charlotte's former mayor was sentenced in October to three years and eight months in a federal corruption case that stunned North Carolina's largest city. In a deal with prosecutors, Cannon, a Democrat, pleaded guilty in June to one count of wire fraud. Prosecutors say Cannon accepted nearly $50,000 in bribes between January 2013, when he was a city councilman, and February 2014, three months after he was elected mayor.\n\nNorth Dakota: Where the jobs are\n\nIn North Dakota, where the gas and oil industries are booming, petroleum workers are needed. But so are the electricians, pipefitters, carpenters and others who build the infrastructure. By 2017, an estimated 2.5 million new, middle-skill jobs like these are expected to be added to the workforce, accounting for nearly 40% of all job growth, according to a USA TODAY analysis of local data from Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. and CareerBuilder. Take a deeper look at USA TODAY's investigation \"Where the Jobs Are.\"\n\nOhio: Lauren Hill inspires the nation\n\nBasketball player Lauren Hill is dying of cancer, but she's not letting that stop her. The 19-year-old freshman at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer and given a short time to live, but she has made a tremendous impact both on and off the court this season. She fulfilled her dream to play college basketball, starting a game with the Lions women's basketball team and scoring a basket (or two) in front of a sold-out arena. Most importantly, she began a massive effort to raise funds for cancer research. Hill is now an honorary coach with the Lions and she's not giving up her fight to live — or the fight to raise awareness.\n\nOklahoma: Death row inmates appeal lethal injection ruling\n\n\n\nCapital punishment in America is in a curious state. Manufacturers are cutting off supplies of lethal injection drugs because of opposition to the death penalty, and prison officials are improvising to make up the deficit — sharing drugs, buying them from under-regulated pharmacies or using drug combinations never employed before in putting someone to death. A group of Oklahoma death row inmates scheduled to die early next year filed notice in December that they intend to appeal the ruling of a federal judge in Oklahoma City who says the state's new lethal injection protocol is constitutional. The four condemned men who have pending execution dates, beginning with Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15, maintain the state's use of the sedative midazolam in a three-drug combination poses a substantial risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering.\n\nOregon: Brittany Maynard leaves a legacy\n\nBrittany Maynard, the 29-year-old face of the controversial right-to-death movement, died in November in Portland. When you're 29 years old, you typically don't think about your legacy. You think about the family you want to start, the house you want to buy, the promotion you want to get, the trip you want to take. You think about turning 30 and the amazing life that stretches before you. Maynard moved from California to Portland so she could have access to Oregon's Death With Dignity Act and die as she had planned – in her bedroom, encircled by family and friends. Oregon became the first state in the U.S. with a death-with-dignity law in 1997. Since then, four other states have followed suit.\n\nPennsylvania: One of FBI's Most Wanted captured\n\nIt was a lengthy manhunt that had Pocono Mountain communities near the search area on edge. Eric Frein, suspected of killing one Pennsylvania trooper and wounding another in a September ambush, was captured in October after 48 days on the run. In addition to first-degree murder charges, Frein is accused of terrorism for allegedly trying to start a revolution by shooting the two state troopers.\n\nRhode Island: Obama's sleepover makes history\n\nThe president made a little bit of history this October in Rhode Island — he spent the night there. The Providence Journal reported that the last sitting president to sleep in the nation's smallest state was John F. Kennedy, more than 50 years ago. Kennedy stayed at Newport's Hammersmith Farm, home of Jacqueline Kennedy's family, according to the Journal. Obama stayed overnight for a morning speech on the economy.\n\nSouth Carolina: Judge throws out black teen's conviction from 1944\n\nWhen George Stinney Jr., 14, was sent to the electric chair in June 1944, he was the youngest person in the country ever executed. In December, a judge threw out Stinney's conviction for the deaths of two white girls. Stinney was convicted of the grisly murders of Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, in Alcolu, S.C. The teen's prosecution had \"fundamental, constitutional violations of due process,\" Judge Carmen Mullen of South Carolina's 14th Judicial Circuit said in her ruling. Her decision effectively exonerates the teen. Stinney's supporters have said he was forced to confess.\n\nSouth Dakota: Case of missing girls solved after 40 years\n\nFinally, some closure. Authorities announced in April that the skeletal remains found inside a car belonged to two teens who had been missing for 40 years. Attorney General Marty Jackley said Pamela Jackson and Cheryl Miller died when their vehicle ran off the road while they were on their way to a party in rural Union County in 1971. Jackley said there was no evidence of foul play. The final results put an end to speculation in the decades-long mystery.\n\nMore from South Dakota:S.D. teen finishes flight around the world\n\nTennessee: Ex-Titans kicker Rob Bironas dies in crash\n\nOn the football field, kicker Rob Bironas became known for his strong leg and his ability to come through in clutch situations. In the locker room, he was a prankster. He was the guy who would throw the rookies' clothes in the cold tub every training camp. He was quick with a joke. He liked to make people laugh. The popular kicker died in September in a single-vehicle crash in Nashville. He was 36. A toxicology report revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.218%, well over the legal limit (0.08).\n\nTexas: Pipeline of children creates border crisis\n\nAccording to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children crossed the border into the U.S. this year. The pipeline carrying migrants ends at the Rio Grande, where the surge of thousands of women and children from Central America overwhelmed the Border Patrol in southern Texas. More than 70 percent are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, three Central American countries plagued by poverty and crime. The Arizona Republic'sweeklong investigative \"Pipeline of Children\" project looked at how gang violence, lack of opportunity and misinformation lead to a mass exodus north to the United States.\n\nMore from Texas:Rick Perry becomes first Texas governor in nearly 100 years to be indicted\n\nUtah: Mom admits killing 6 newborns because of meth addiction\n\nIt was hard to comprehend. A Utah woman admitted to police thatshe strangled or suffocated at least six of her newborns between 1996 and 2006, stuffed the bodies into cardboard boxes and hid them in the garage of her home. Megan Huntsman was arrested in April after police discovered the remains of the infants at a house in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where she lived until 2011. Police said she killed her newborns because she was addicted to methamphetamine and couldn't cope with caring for the children.\n\nVermont: Former FBI director in serious accident\n\nFormer FBI director Louis Freeh was seriously injured in a car crash in Barnard in August. He later said he had no recollection of wrecking his SUV. State police theorize that Freeh, 64, may have fallen asleep during the early afternoon accident. Freeh was the FBI's director from 1993 to 2001. Freeh conducted a nearly eight-month investigation into Penn State's handling of assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's misconduct.\n\nMore from Vermont:Local inventor battles unsafe drinking water in Africa\n\nVirginia: The murder of Hannah Graham\n\nThe nation was captivated by the search for the freckle-faced University of Virginia sophomore who vanished from the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Va., in the early morning hours of Sept. 13. Hannah Graham, 18, became everyone's sister, daughter, and friend. In October, her remains were found on an abandoned farm on Old Lynchburg Road, just 10 miles from the mall where she was last seen. Read more about her story here.\n\nMore:Ex-Va. governor Bob McDonnell guilty of public corruption; NASA rocket explodes during launch\n\nWashington: Massive mudslide sweeps over neighborhood\n\nThe country watched in disbelief as a devastating mudslide in March wiped out an entire neighborhood in the community of Oso about 60 miles from Seattle. Dozens of people died in the disaster that destroyed homes, completely covered State Route 530 and dammed up the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River. While rescuers were searching for survivors, Snohomish County officials said they could hear cries for help from people trapped under debris. President Obama toured the devastation in Oso in April and met with families who lost loved ones.\n\nMore from Washington:'Homecoming prince' opens fire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School\n\nWest Virginia: Shelley Moore Capito makes history\n\nRepublican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito won the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller in November. She called her victory \"a turning point\" for West Virginia. Capito became the first woman to represent West Virginia in the U.S. Senate and is also the first West Virginia Republican elected to the Senate since the late 1950s.\n\nWisconsin: Girls stab friend to please 'Slenderman'\n\nIt was a gruesome story that left many shaking their heads. Two Wisconsin girls who allegedly stabbed a classmate were trying to please the fictional horror character known as Slenderman. Anissa Weier, 13, and Morgan Geyser, 12, were charged as adults with attempted murder for a Memorial Day weekend attack that seriously wounded another girl in a park in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. The two told authorities that Slenderman required them to perform the crime in order to curry favor with him.\n\nWyoming: Wild cloud wows weather watchers\n\nA phenomenal shot of a massive cloud near Clareton made the rounds on social media this spring. The photo was taken in May by the Basehunters storm chasers group. It shows the rotating updraft of a supercell thunderstorm over eastern Wyoming, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Jon Erdman. Supercells are the largest, strongest and longest-lasting thunderstorms. They are most common on the Great Plains.\n\nContributing: Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/12/30"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_21", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2021/01/19/bubbakoos-burritos-fast-casual-c-hain-opens-first-louisville-location/4214540001/", "title": "Bubbakoo's Burritos fast-casual c hain opens first Louisville location", "text": "A New Jersey-based build-your-own burrito concept has opened its first Kentucky location in Louisville.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos is a fast-casual concept that serves burritos, tacos, bowls and quesadillas with 16 different protein options. The first Bluegrass State location opened in eastern Louisville at 12919 Factory Lane on Tuesday.\n\nFounded in 2008 by industry veterans Bill Hart and Paul Altero, the concept began franchising in 2016 and now has 45 locations in the U.S. The Louisville location is owned and operated by the Kentucky-based Patel family, who could open up to five in the area per a franchise agreement. In addition to Louisville, Bubbakoo’s Burritos has signed expansion deals in Georgia and New York.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos offers six kinds of chicken, three kinds of pork, three vegetarian options, and six \"premium\" proteins such as steak, shrimp or shredded barbacoa beef. There’s also an original recipe called \"The Chiwawa\" — a cheese-smothered panko-crusted fried rice ball — and “love chips,” which are tortilla chips dusted with powdered sugar and caramel syrup.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos co-founder Paul Altero called Louisville an exciting city “full of culture, flavor and Southern hospitality.”\n\nBubbakoo's also has a \"read it to eat it program\" where students can read five books and receive a free student meal in exchange.\n\nIt's open Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, visit bubbakoos.com.\n\nMore:Torchy's Tacos, a Texas specialty, is coming to the Louisville area\n\nDahlia Ghabour: 502-582-4497; dghabour@gannett.com; Twitter: @dghabour.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/08/bubbakoos-burritos-open-flagship-florida-restaurant-melbourne-wickham-road/5355218002/", "title": "Bubbakoo's Burritos to open flagship Florida restaurant in ...", "text": "Bubbakoo’s Burritos, a New Jersey-based fast-casual chain, plans to open its flagship Florida restaurant in September on Wickham Road in Melbourne.\n\n\"It's a great part of the world. It's definitely someplace where we want to be,\" said Bill Hart, Bubbakoo’s Burritos co-founder and co-owner.\n\n\"We have kind of like an East Coast surfer-skater scene and feel to our restaurants. We have surf and skate videos on the TVs, a little bit of rock and roll and reggae playing on our radios. Fun and family-friendly,\" Hart said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/main-street/whats-going-there/2022/04/15/bubbakoos-burritos-hazlet-nj-town-center/7311008001/", "title": "Bubbakoo's Burritos ready to open Hazlet Town Center restaurant", "text": "HAZLET - Get ready taco and burrito fans.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos, the Mexican food chain, opens a new restaurant at 3070 Route 35 Friday. The burrito joint is located at Hazlet Town Center and the hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.\n\n”Everyone’s always asking when are we opening?” said Wayne Jordan of Aberdeen, who along with friend and business partner Rob Stolker of Holmdel owns the franchise location. “In the northern part of Monmouth County, not two years ago, not a lot of people heard about Bubbakoo’s, but now it’s completely changed. Everybody has”\n\nBubbakoo’s offers Mexican food fused with American funkiness, such as burritos and tacos with Buffalo crispy chicken or sweet chili shrimp. It also features other menu items such as boneless chicken wings, tater tots and curly fries as well as its signature Love Chips, fried tortilla chips with powdered sugar and caramel. The Hazlet shop is the chain's 21st location in Monmouth and Ocean counties.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos:Founders aim for 500 restaurants in five years\n\nThe food and Bubbakoo's local roots were among the reasons Jordan and Stolker signed up with Bubbakoo's. The company, founded by Paul Altero and Bill Hart, opened its first restaurant, located in Point Pleasant, in 2008. \"The Mexican concept is definitely something that a lot of people love,\" Jordan said.\n\n\"It's really good food,\" Stolker said. \"It's fresh, healthy. It's what people want today.\"\n\nAnd Bubbakoo's is growing. The Hazlet restaurant will be the chain's 71st location overall and the pair say they plan to open a Bubbakoo's in Avenel as well.\n\nToo many ticks, bikes and dogs? Natco Park in Hazlet has potential, needs help\n\n\"We're just impressed by everything they're doing and what they're growing to be and how they're building as a brand,\" Stolker said. \"We think we're in early in what is going to be an exploding, great brand.\"\n\nJordan said he and Stolker will be focused on supporting the local community. They recently joined Hazlet's small business association. \"There's a lot of volunteer work, sponsorships, a lot of things we want to connect to the community,\" Jordan said.\n\nBubbakoo's is part of a rebirth of Hazlet Town Center. Once the home of giant empty Kmart and Pathmark stores, owner Woodbridge-based Onyx Equities has transformed the center, breaking up the big spots with tenants to make way for Burlington, Aldi and Planet Fitness.\n\nHazlet Town Center:Owner wants to create 'restaurant row'\n\nBubbakoo's is part of a remodeled space that was formerly Planet Fitness before the fitness club moved to another part of the center. Panera Bread is expected to open next door. A Wawa convenience store with fuel pumps has not yet begun construction.\n\nDavid P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for more than 20 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2019/08/28/louisville-restaurants-fast-casual-franchises-expanding/2132721001/", "title": "Louisville restaurants: Fast-casual franchises expanding", "text": "Bubbakoo's Burritos: 5 locations\n\nGarbanzo Mediterranean Fresh: 5 locations\n\nCousin Subs: 10 locations\n\nAs Louisville’s restaurant scene continues to grow, out-of-state fast-casual franchises are starting to take notice. In just a few weeks in August, three new restaurants announced plans to expand in Louisville, bringing 20 new fast-casual eateries to the city.\n\nWhether you’re looking for loaded burritos, healthy Mediterranean food or a Wisconsin cheesesteak sub, these new brands have something mouthwatering on the menu.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/08/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/main-street/2017/12/18/bubbakoos-burritos-opens-route-22-somerville/948807001/", "title": "Bubbakoo's Burritos opens on Route 22 in Somerville", "text": "SOMERVILLE - The Route 22 food court in the Somerville area has a new member.\n\nBubbakoo’s Burritos, a Jersey Shore-based eatery that serves Mexican food fused with \"American funkiness,\" has opened its 16th outlet, this one on eastbound Route 22 between Davenport and Bridge streets.\n\nIt's the same block as Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's and Taco Bell, which opened earlier this year. In the next block are Wendy's, KFC and Buffalo Wild Wings. Longtime Italian restaurant La Catena has closed and will be replaced tentatively by Smashburger and Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza.\n\nREAD: Brewpub may open in Somerville next summer\n\nREAD: Taco Bell opens on Route 22 in Somerville\n\nREAD: Zinburger Wine and Burger Bar coming to Bridgewater\n\nThat totals eight fast-food restaurants in a half-mile and within walking distance of Somerville High School.\n\nThe Bubbakoo’s Burritos in Somerville is owned and operated by Brandon Shamy, Jesse Allen and Amanda Taibe. The Somerville location is third not at the shore; the nearest one is on Easton Avenue in New Brunswick near the Rutgers campus.\n\n“I loved Bubbakoo’s food, and from a business perspective, I heard they were producing healthy numbers and had impressive systems in place,” Allen said.\n\nThe partners all have experience with restaurant franchises.\n\nAfter college graduation, at age 22, Shamy opened his first of three Smoothie King franchises.\n\nAllen and Taibe had careers in finance and interior design, respectively, before opening a Jersey Mike's.\n\n“We came together and knew that we not only made a great team, but with Bubbakoo’s, we will be able to produce a great product, provide great service and have a chance to give back to our community,” Shamy explained.\n\nBubbakoo’s Burritos, which opened its first outlet in Point Pleasant in 2008, has on its menu burritos, bowls, tacos, salad, nachos and quesadillas, with 16 different protein options — including fried chicken, barbecue pork, Buffalo shrimp and grilled steak, as well as some more unusual flavors such as ghost pepper chicken and sriracha pork.\n\nAnd if you're vegetarian, the choices include a bean-cheese-guacamole combo, batter-fried jalapeños and the Chiwawa, a cheese-smothered, panko-crusted fried rice ball.\n\nPaul Altero, who founded the chain with Bill Hart, told the USA TODAY Network earlier this year that he expects sales to come in at $13 million this year, up from $7 million a year ago.\n\nThe restaurant got its name because Bubbakoo was Altero's college nickname.\n\nStaff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/12/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/09/21/new-burrito-restaurant-bubbakoos-opens-morrisville-store/8260333002/", "title": "New burrito restaurant Bubbakoo's opens Morrisville store", "text": "Bubbakoo's now has two stores in Bucks County, as a new franchise for the make-your-own burritos company has opened in Morrisville.\n\nThe store is located at 227 Plaza Blvd. and is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.\n\nAnother Bubbakoo's Burritos opened about seven weeks ago at 252 N. West End Boulevard in Quakertown. \"The store is off to a great start,\" said Tom Mirabella, corporate spokesman.\n\nThe company opened its first store in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, in 2008 by founders Bill Hart and Paul Altero and has grown to 55 stores across nine states with many more in the planning stages.\n\nThe two men, veterans in the food service industry, shared a vision of offering \"the complete customization of entrees with fresh ingredients and a strong concentration on customer service. Bubbakoo’s Burritos has innovated a menu where customers can pick and choose what they want and create something different every time they visit,\" Mirabella said. Customers can download an app to help with selections.\n\nBubbakoo's is also dedicated to helping children read. Schools can sign up for the \"Read It to Eat It\" program. \"Students can read five books and in exchange, they receive a free student meal. Since the dawn of this program, hundreds of teachers have signed up to participate and together with Bubbakoo’s, they continue to incentivize education,\" Mirabella said. \"It's caught on wonderfully.\"\n\nEach location employs about 20 to 25 workers. The customers can order individual servings, which start at about $9. \"No customer touches the food. There's no sharing,\" he said. Catering packages for parties are also available.\n\n“We’re so excited to bring another location to Pennsylvania so a new group of people can discover Bubbakoo’s for the first time,” Hart said.\n\nTo contact Peg Quann, email mquann@couriertimes.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/dining/eat-my-words/2015/09/16/burrito-chain-has-eye-south-jersey/72333470/", "title": "Burrito chain has eye on South Jersey", "text": "Tammy Paolino\n\n@CP_TammyPaolino\n\nWhen you click onto the Web site for Bubbakoo's Burritos, a Shore-based line of burrito restaurants, it's sort of like walking into a tailgate party of a Jimmy Buffett concert.\n\nThat might not be exactly what the owners are going for, but it's close.\n\nAfter all, this isn't just a growing fast-casual burrito concept. It's a mind-set.\n\nI'll let co-owner Paul Altero explain for me, by way of an emailed mission statement:\n\n\"Bubbakoo's Burritos: (buh-buh-koos buh-ree-toh): Noun. A realm in which everyone is content, a place where friends gather to laugh and eat, where things get done well by people who are happy to do them, and where all the problems which have plagued our world for millennium no longer apply.''\n\nThat may be a tall order for any mere restaurant, but it certainly sounds like a cool place to hang out.\n\nAltero and business partner Bill Hart want to bring Bubbakoo's, which has eight locations in Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties (the newest one in New Brunswick near Rutgers) to hungry South Jersey burrito lovers.\n\nWhile Bubbakoo's will draw inevitable comparisons to Chipotle, they stand out with some unusual flavors such as Ghost Pepper Chicken Tacos, Sriracha Pork Burritos and a house special, the Chiwawa, a lightly fried, panko-crusted rice ball smothered with cheese and topped with a choice of 16 protein options and many homemade toppings.\n\nSince there is arguably some room for more burritos in the South Jersey dining landscape, it seemed worth a closer look.\n\nSpeaking from his home in Point Pleasant, the town where the restaurants first launched, Altero said he has his eyes on the Cherry Hill market for franchises.\n\n\"Bubbakoo's? I conjured that name up in college. It's more of a name that represents a lifestyle, a utopia, more than anything else.''\n\nA utopia that offers Crispy Buffalo Chicken Burritos, avocado walls, Bob Marley and extreme surfing on large video screens.\n\n\"It's an ethos and a utopia, it's our little utopia, our little world that we live in in our restaurants. We just like people to come in and get away from the ordinary, almost like they're on a short vacation.\"\n\nAltero says while he and his partner have no signed franchise deals yet, they are in serious negotiations in several parts of the state, with restaurant-rich Cherry Hill being a possibility.\n\n\"It really comes down to the real estate: Is it the right location?''\n\nAltero and Hart got their start working their way up through ranks in the Johnny Rockets chain, and they \"got promoted up together, built a friendship and a good relationship.''\n\nThey also do plenty of community outreach, and Altero hopes any future franchise owners would do the same.\n\n\"We're in schools,'' he said. \"We do a tremendous amount of donating and fundraising and food drops and gift cards for raffles,'' he said. \"We help the people who are helping out. It's a big part of the (Bubbakoo's) culture, and they'd need to understand the power in that. It really does pay back in dividends''", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/09/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2023/04/05/chipotle-national-burrito-day-deals/11598367002/", "title": "Chipotle, Taco Bell among restaurants with National Burrito Day deals", "text": "National Burrito Day is so much fun, Chipotle Mexican Grill started a day early.\n\nThursday, April 6, is National Burrito Day, and each year many Mexican food chains celebrate the made-up holiday with special deals and promotions.\n\nChipotle let burrito lovers get a head start on Wednesday giving away 20,000 burritos through Grubhub – burritos were the most ordered dish on the delivery service in 2022, Chipotle says.\n\nChipotle orders on Grubhub of at least $20 could get a free burrito, while supplies lasted – and that order was exhausted on Wednesday.\n\nOn Thursday, Chipotle is giving away 10,000 free burritos on Twitter. Throughout the day, free burrito codes will be posted on the @ChipotleTweets account and followers can text the code to 888-222 for a chance to win a free burrito.\n\nAlso on Thursday, all Chipotle burrito orders are delivered free with promo code \"DELIVER.\"\n\nIt's National Burrito Day!:Here's what you need to enjoy a tasty burrito at home\n\nHeinz heats up ketchup, steak sauce:There's three new hot ketchups – and Heinz Hot 57 steak sauce – to tingle your taste buds\n\nTaco Bell's National Burrito Day deal\n\nTaco Bell has extended Burrito Day deals: You can get a free Grilled Cheese burrito with a $20 minimum order in the Taco Bell App April 6-9 (limit one per user; you can substitute the beef in the Grilled Cheese burrito for a small fee).\n\nDelivery orders also can get a free burrito April 6-9 with a $20 minimum order on DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates and Grubhub (all burritos qualify).\n\nMoe's Burrito Day deal: Buy one, get one 50% off\n\nMoe’s Southwest Grill's Burrito Day Deal gets you second burrito for 50% off when you buy one on Moes.com, in the app or in stores, at participating locations nationwide.\n\nRubio's Burrito Day Deal: $7.99 Burritos\n\nRubio’s Coastal Grill will have every burrito on its menu – including its Shrimp and Bacon Burrito, Puerto Nuevo Burrito featuring Langostino Lobster, and the Chicken Burrito Especial – for $7.99. You can order multiple burritos for $7.99, and no additional purchase is necessary. Simply order online at Rubios.com, or through the app, and enter coupon code BURRITO at checkout, or scan the QR code at restaurants.\n\nFreebird's Burrito Day Deal\n\nTexas-based restaurant chain Freebirds World Burrito, is offering its first Burrito Day deal: $6 burritos online, in the Freebirds app or in restaurants.\n\nMaverik's National Burrito Day Deal\n\nConvenience store Maverik has half-priced burritos from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Maverik Adventure Club loyalty members with an upgraded Nitro card (limit 10 per customer).\n\nTo join the Adventure Club download the Maverik app and join the club. Go to a Maverik store and ask for a free Nitro card (you link your bank account for payments). Customers signing up for Nitro on April 6 will receive a free Bonfire burrito loaded to their Adventure Club account, which must be redeemed before receiving the half-off National Burrito Day offer.\n\nMaverik will also add a free burrito within the official app of 1,000 customers on April 6.\n\nEl Pollo Loco's Burrito Day Deal: BOGO burritos\n\nEl Pollo Loco will give new and existing Loco Rewards members on Thursday a buy one, get one free deal redeemable for all burritos. Customers who order via the app or El Pollo Loco website will get free delivery. Also starting Thursday through May 5, each day El Pollo Loco will be a Loco Rewards member one million points – making 30 Pollo Millionaires.\n\nBeyond National Burrito Day, new customers who sign up for the newly redesigned Loco Rewards program will get a free Original Pollo Bowl with any purchase, valid for 14 days.\n\nDel Taco's Burrito Day Deal\n\nDel Taco will give you a free burrito on Thursday with a $10 purchase. Buyers must be registered for Del Yeah! rewards to get the deal. Limit one offer per guest.\n\nPokeworks National Burrito Day Deal\n\nPokeworks is giving customers $3 off any regular “Poke Your Way” Burrito on Thursday with the code ‘BURRITO3’ in the Pokeworks app or online at order.pokeworks.com.\n\nBubbakoo's Burritos: 15 winners get burritos for a year\n\nBubbakoo’s Burritos, to celebrate National Burrito Day and its 15th anniversary, is giving 15 lucky winners free burritos for a year. Through April 6, you can enter to win by liking, commenting and sharing the brand’s posts on social media. The winners will be announced on April 7.\n\nPancheros' Burrito Day Deal: 10,000 free burritos\n\nPancheros Mexican Grill will give out 10,000 free burrito codes across its social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok).\n\nDog Haus Burrito Day deal: BOGO Breakfast Burritos\n\nDog Haus, which serves breakfast burritos all day, is offering a free breakfast burrito with the purchase of one, while supplies last. Only valid in-store for dine-in or takeout.\n\nFollow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/04/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant/2021/02/01/new-louisville-restaurants-and-bars-that-opened-january-2021/6638539002/", "title": "Tacos, pies and burgers: These 5 new restaurants opened in ...", "text": "The height of winter did not deter these Louisville restaurateurs from their plans. Though indoor dining is still limited to 50% capacity during the coronavirus pandemic, several concepts opened their doors this month, like the long-awaited PG & J Dog Bar on Baxter Avenue and a second location of Monnik Beer Co. in New Albany, Indiana.\n\nWith the COVID-19 vaccine being slowly administered throughout the commonwealth and many business owners glimpsing a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, more than a dozen concepts have already planned to open this year.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/dining/2020/06/08/coronavirus-nj-these-restaurants-opened-business-during-pandemic/5259872002/", "title": "Coronavirus NJ: These restaurants opened for business during ...", "text": "The coronavirus outbreak has caused restaurants nationwide to close their doors, temporarily and permanently. Yet, even though the future for the dining industry looks bleak, a bunch of new spots keep opening in North Jersey.\n\nThe main reason? Finances.\n\nRestaurants that signed leases before anyone ever heard of COVID-19 still have to honor their agreement.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/08"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_22", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:31", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/magnolia/taste/2017/10/22/wild-american-shrimp-just-taste-better/773700001/", "title": "Wild American shrimp just taste better", "text": "Robert St. John\n\nContributing Columnist\n\nOn an upcoming episode of our new television series, \"Palate to Palette with Robert St. John and Wyatt Waters,\" the artist and I learn how to catch shrimp with a third-generation shrimp boat captain on his rig. To find out how we did, you’ll have to tune in to Mississippi Public Broadcasting on an upcoming Thursday at 7 p.m., but I will let you know that it wasn’t much different than Forrest Gump’s early attempts on his boat, the Jenny.\n\nWild American Shrimp are one of this country’s greatest natural culinary resources. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico provide one of the greatest bounties of shrimp in the world. To be a restaurateur and to live only an hour away is truly a blessing.\n\nBiloxi was once called the “Seafood Capital of the World.” In the 1880s, immigrants from Croatia and Bosnia (“Croats”) settled along the Mississippi Coast and started fishing commercially. I still buy a lot of seafood from one of their descendants, Todd Rosetti.\n\nCommercial fishermen and seafood retailers are almost always family-run operations. Our captain on the television episode was Ronald Baker. We ventured out on his boat, the Doris Mae. He grew up in a house on Deer Island. His father was a shrimper, and his grandfather was a shrimper. As a kid, he took a boat to the mainland to get to school every day. Baker started working on various family boats at an early age.\n\nMore:Restaurants tell stories: The Coney Island Caf\n\nMore:Feeling blessed: Restaurant business is about people, not money\n\nRosetti is a third-generation seafood retailer. His family has been selling fresh shrimp, Gulf fish and crabmeat since his grandfather, Bruno Rosetti, set up shop in Biloxi decades ago. Todd has forgotten more about seafood than I’ll ever know.\n\nAt the Crescent City Grill we purchase more than 32,000 pounds of Wild American Shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico every year. We know shrimp. I love the fact that we are a family-run business being supplied by local families. It’s really at the heart of what we do. We believe in doing business locally, and have been buying “local” since 1987.\n\nThis year the shrimp haul is down. We had too much rain early on, and the water stayed warm to mid-July. There were a lot of small shrimp early, but the mid-size shrimp were scarce. White shrimp are being harvested this time of year, and that haul is also down from last year. Having a steady supply of shrimp on our plates is one of the things that we can sometimes take for granted. I never underestimate the importance of family shrimpers, fishermen, and seafood suppliers. Seafood seasons are always up and down. It’s been a down year for the family shrimpers, let’s hope next year is a record year.\n\nIt is important to know — and have a close, trusting relationship — with your seafood supplier. He or she knows the fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen. It’s also important to know from where your seafood comes. We ONLY use Wild American Shrimp, and we take that a step further and ONLY serve Wild American Shrimp from Gulf waters.\n\nMore than 90 percent of shrimp served in restaurants throughout the country are farm-raised and imported shrimp. The other 10 percent are wild caught and come from waters that are within a few miles of the Mississippi Coast. We use Wild American Shrimp because it’s the “right” thing to do, but also because they taste better due to the nutrient-rich Gulf waters from which they come.\n\nWild American Shrimp are healthier, too. They are always antibiotic free. The FDA only tests about 1 percent of farm-raised and imported shrimp. Wild American Shrimp are a true, sustainable crop, and the shrimp from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico just taste better. Always make sure that the restaurant where you eat shrimp — or the market where you purchase shrimp — uses only Wild American Shrimp.\n\nKnow, too, that Mississippi Gulf shrimp are safe with Waters and St. John at the helm of a shrimp boat.\n\nRobert St. John is a restaurateur, chef and author. Visit him online at robertstjohn.com. Follow him on Twitter @robertstjohn.\n\nShrimp Creole\n\nFrom the upcoming book “A Mississippi Palate\" by Robert St. John and Wyatt Waters”\n\nTo make the stock:\n\n4 tablespoons unsalted butter\n\n1 cup yellow onion, medium dice\n\n1 cup green bell peppers, medium dice\n\n1 cup celery, medium dice\n\n1 tablespoon garlic, minced\n\n1 bay leaf\n\n2 tablespoons Creole Seasoning\n\n1 tablespoon paprika\n\n3 cups Roma tomatoes, diced, juice reserved and used\n\n2 cups bloody Mary mix, preferably Zing-Zang\n\n1 tablespoon Worcestershire\n\n2 tablespoons Hot Sauce\n\n2 tablespoons cornstarch\n\n3 tablespoons cold water\n\nIn a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat and add onion, celery, and bell pepper; sweat 6-8 minutes until tender. Add garlic and seasoning, and cook for another 4–5 minutes. Add tomatoes and bloody Mary mix and bring to a simmer. Add Worcestershire and Hot Sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in water and add to simmering sauce. Bring back to simmer and immediately remove from heat.\n\nTo make shrimp creole:\n\n2 pounds fresh 31/35 count Wild American Shrimp, peeled and butterflied, tails removed\n\n1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning\n\n¼ cup olive oil\n\n1 teaspoon garlic, minced\n\n½ cup dry white wine\n\n1 cup green onions, chopped\n\n1 tablespoon Creole Seasoning\n\nCreole Sauce Stock (from above)\n\n6 cups cooked white rice\n\nIn a very large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and Old Bay seasoning. Cook until shrimp are almost done, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add green onions and Creole Seasoning and deglaze with white wine. Let wine reduce by half. Add Creole Sauce and bring to a heavy simmer. Remove from heat and serve over rice. Serve with toasted French bread.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/10/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/12/28/pensacola-restaurant-opened-2020-guide-eating-out/3955501001/", "title": "Pensacola restaurant that opened in 2020: Guide to eating out", "text": "While 2020 was far from ideal for the restaurant industry as it navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, it still produced dozens of entrepreneurs in the Pensacola area who made their restaurant dreams come true.\n\nMore:Twice as nice: Second Pensacola Chipotle coming to Cordova Mall this fall\n\nBelow are the 30-plus restaurants that started their journeys in Pensacola in 2020, listed in chronological order. Now you can head into the new year hungry and ready to patronize the many new local restaurants that endured pitfalls at one point or another this year.\n\nAddress: 3012 N. Ninth Ave., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-439-5247\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The fast-service, carryout-only restaurant on Ninth is run by three cousins with decades of restaurant industry experience among them. In January, Pizza Kitchen replaced a Wing Shop in a small plaza just north of East Hill. Pizza Kitchen hangs its hat on its gargantuan menu that includes 17 specialty pizzas, close to a dozen calzone varieties and almost 20 pasta items.\n\nMore:Pizza Kitchen carryout restaurant opens on North Ninth Avenue with extensive menu\n\nAddress: 5100 N. Ninth Ave., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-332-6988\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Cracking Crab, a Cajun seafood boil-in-a-bag restaurant with a full bar, opened at the Cordova Mall almost a year ago from the storefront next door to Red Robin.\n\nEach fresh-catch seafood boil is boiled in the restaurant's secret spices, then blended with one of Cracking Crab's signature seasonings and served in a bag to preserve flavor. Boil varieties feature blue crab, king crab legs, snow crab legs, lobster tail, crawfish, mussels, whole shrimp and much more. Each pound comes with potatoes and corn on the cob.\n\nMore:Cracking Crab seafood restaurant and bar opens outside of Cordova Mall on North Ninth\n\nAddress: 8102 N. Davis Highway, Suite 12, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-466-3104\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Replacing Tiger Sushi, this family-owned Vietnamese restaurant with a charmingly punny name serves 12 pho varieties, none of which contain any processed food or ingredients.\n\nSome of those varieties include Phở Real Đặc Biệt (special beef noodle soup), Phở Nạm Gan Sách (beef noodle soup with flank tendon) and Phở Đồ Biển (seafood noodle soup).\n\nMore:'Our whole life is in this restaurant:' Pensacola's newest restaurants brave the pandemic\n\nAddress: 460 Pensacola Beach Blvd., Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-677-3905\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Although it is currently closed because of damage sustained during September's Hurricane Sally, Laguna's opened a restaurant along with its revamped new adventure park on the beach, which rebranded and broke away from its former Premier Adventure Park name.\n\nThe Caribbean-inspired entrees at Laguna's Beach Bar & Grill consist of a fresh fish meal, a rum-marinated chicken dinner, beef tournedos and piri piri kabobs. Laguna's also does crab cake sandwiches, seafood tacos, jerk chicken sandwiches and a host of burgers. Breakfast at the adventure park is served between 8 and 10:30 a.m. every day.\n\nMore:Premier Adventure Park re-branding as Laguna's, adding Caribbean restaurant and tiki bar\n\nAddress: 3005 E. Cervantes St., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-857-8290\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This southern and New Orleans-style breakfast spot tries to make you feel like you're sitting down to eat at Grandma's house or at a bed and breakfast.\n\nAunt Katie's opened in February from inside a building that has been a revolving door for restaurants during the past decade. The property most recently belonged to Spyros' Authentic Greek Restaurant.\n\nMore:Aunt Katie's Welcome to Breakfast restaurant coming to East Pensacola Heights on Cervantes\n\nBenedicts are a staple item at Aunt Katie's, which also specializes in pancakes, biscuits and gravy, grits, French toast, signature omelets and even burgers and some lunchtime favorites.\n\nAddress: 1 New Market St., Cantonment\n\nPhone: 850-332-5040\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: During the past two years, Beef 'O' Brady's locations in downtown Pensacola and Gulf Breeze closed up shop for good, but a new one off Nine Mile Road opened early in the year and planted its flag in Cantonment.\n\nBenefiting from outdoor patio seating, Beef's sticks to the franchise's script, serving traditional pub fare amid a sports bar atmosphere.\n\nMore:Gulf Breeze Beef 'O' Brady's permanently closes, new Cantonment location opens\n\nAddress: 1350 S. Blue Angel Parkway, Suite A, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-466-2382\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Blue Angel Grill filled a void in family-owned west side restaurants when it opened in mid-March. The grill hangs its hat on teriyaki dinners, burgers and fries, fried shrimp options, a shrimp sandwich meal, jumbo chicken wings, salads and a kids menu. Most every item on the menu costs about $10, making the fast-casual restaurant an affordable one.\n\nMore:New burger and chicken restaurant Blue Angel Grill opens in west Pensacola\n\nAddress: 3041 E. Olive Road, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-741-2973\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Yes, Coastal County is a brewery, but this Ferry Pass brewery and tap room devoted a lot of attention to its recipes right out of the gate.\n\n\"Pub food with a little bit of flare to it\" is the way Coastal County describes its food. They serve a variety of sandwiches, burgers, tacos, salads and even brunch items on the weekend.\n\nMore:Coastal County Brewing Co. opens with craft brews, food and two-acre outdoor complex\n\nAddresses: 6890 Pensacola Blvd. and the Cordova Mall food court, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-525-1217 (Pensacola Blvd. location)\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: It was a big year for 3-D Eats & Tea, which has steadily grown its customer base with its food truck business during the past few years. But 2020 was about expanding for owner Sean DeSmet, who brought a 3-D to a former Burger King property on Pensacola Boulevard and another to the mall's food court. The latter of the two should open right around the new year.\n\nThe business is known for its creative and indulgent burger, sandwich, melt and loaded fry creations. The brand is also synonymous with inexpensive lunch combinations.\n\nMore:3-D Eats and Tea opening new location in Cordova Mall food court in October\n\nMore:3-D Eats & Tea opens brick and mortar location on Pensacola Boulevard\n\nAddress: 12 Via De Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-786-3675\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This high-end Japanese steakhouse with waterfront views opened May 6 on the beach. The experience the restaurant presents is rivaled only by its supreme-quality sushi, A5 Japanese wagyu, hand-rolled ramen noodles and the many items on its menu.\n\n\"Everything at Bonsai is about attention to detail,\" Bonsai Head Chef Omar Torres said in May. \"It's a completely different experience. Right now in our ramen noodles, the seafood one, we have a big jumbo prawn that is about 12 inches long. The thing is the size of a lobster. So it's just kind of unique things you won't see anywhere.\"\n\nMore:Bonsai high-end Japanese sushi restaurant opens at the Hilton Pensacola Beach hotel\n\nAddresses: 1674 E. Nine Mile Road, Suite A, and 5100 N. Ninth Ave., Suite E541-A\n\nPhone: 850-760-0558\n\nInfo: This is the first and last national chain restaurant to make this list, but Chipotle kind of had to make the list after years worth of hype from Pensacola foodies. A \"Bring a Chipotle to Pensacola\" Facebook page has been active for years, after all.\n\nThe fast-casual Tex-Mex restaurant opened in a shopping center near the University Parkway Publix in June. The Cordova Mall storefront Chipotle opened in September.\n\nMore:Chipot-yay: Pensacola's first Chipotle to open before the summer\n\nMore:Twice as nice: Second Pensacola Chipotle coming to Cordova Mall this fall\n\nAddress: 600 W. Garden St., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-857-8304\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The downtown Pensacola area's first Korean barbecue eatery was highly anticipated all winter, and in late May Kalbi Ichiban opened and began to deliver on its lofty expectations.\n\nThe 5,000-square-foot restaurant located at 600 W. Garden St. specializes in traditional cook-at-your-table Korean barbecue style lunches and dinners centered around kalbi, chicken kalbi, pork kalbi, pork belly and more. The extensive menu at Kalbi Ichiban also includes sushi, Japanese ramen, noodles, teriyaki entrees, sashimi entrees and much, much more. There's also a full bar and a full sake bar.\n\nMore:Kalbi Ichiban Korean barbecue restaurant to open on West Garden Street in 2020\n\nAddress: 601 E. Gregory St., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-786-3675\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Fin & Fork was one of Orange Beach, Alabama's favorite seafood restaurants before making an abrupt move across the Panhandle to Pensacola because of issues with the restaurant's previous landlord.\n\n\"Everything's 100% fresh,\" owner Matt Shipp said in May. \"We have steaks and seafood. Steaks are sort of the hidden little secret, we have a reputation for some of the best steaks on the market. I think it's a very successful concept, and the price points are good.\"\n\nMore:Fin & Fork bringing its seafood, steak and Sunday brunch to Pensacola from Orange Beach\n\nAddress: 5 Via De Luna Drive, Suite K, Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-565-4863\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Water Pig, which opened in June, constructed a menu built around its 4,300-pound smoker and the low and slow ribs, brisket and sausage that are cooked inside it.\n\nThe restaurant offers deck and stadium-style seating and boasts a full outdoor bar that overlooks the Santa Rosa Sound.\n\nWater Pig BBQ was rated as the No. 1 restaurant in the Florida Panhandle by Trip Advisor. The restaurant also was nominated for USA Today's Best New Restaurant in the nation. Those results will be revealed at the end of 2020.\n\nMore:Water Pig BBQ restaurant opening on Pensacola Beach, aims to make Florida's best barbecue\n\nAddress: 13700 Perdido Key Drive, Unit 106A, Perdido Key\n\nPhone: 866-507-4992\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Pizza lovers in the Perdido area should expect a thin-crust, New York-style pie from this carryout pizza spot that opened during the summer.\n\nPaul's is located inside of the Villagio Perdido Town Centre below the Jellyfish restaurant. It also offers pastas, salads, subs and gluten-free pizza.\n\nMore:Paul's Pizza Company, a new pickup and delivery spot, opening soon in Perdido Key\n\nAddress: 6707 Pensacola Blvd., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-474-3978\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Chicken 'N The Egg replaced the IHOP on Pensacola Boulevard in June. The American family-style restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner all day long.\n\nAlthough the concept is similar to IHOP, Chicken 'N The Egg owners promise a fresher, higher quality product on every plate. They also do omelets, build-your-own breakfast combinations and lunch options such as third-pound burgers and sandwiches.\n\nMore:Chicken 'N The Egg breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant replaces Pensacola IHOP\n\nAddresses: 1803 State Road 95A, Cantonment, and 1708 W. Fairfield Drive, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-860-2812\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Like 3-D, another ambitious food truck owner took a couple of big steps forward in 2020. Mark Garcia, owner of the Happy Taco food truck, opened his first brick-and-mortar in Cantonment during the summer.\n\nHappy Taco's authentic street tacos, trademark puffy tacos and quesadillas soon will be available in Pensacola at the former Bangkok Garden Thai restaurant. And it doesn't stop there for Garcia, who has aspirations to open two additional Happy Tacos in Northwest Florida by the end of 2021.\n\nMore:Happy Taco opening new Pensacola restaurant, plans to operate four in NWFL by 2021\n\nAddress: 655 Pensacola Beach Blvd., Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-677-8387\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Cumaru first opened as a bar in June, but quickly integrated its second phase as a restaurant serving dishes and sandwiches that fully complement its beach surroundings.\n\nItems like cheeseburgers, shrimp and mahi tacos, gumbos and sandwiches can be had at Cumaru, which switches up its menu often and is always offering daily specials.\n\nMore:Cumaru Bar opens at Pensacola Beach Marina as part of multi-phase restaurant and bar project\n\nAddress: 501 S. Palafox St., Pensacola\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Formerly known as Al Fresco, The Garden took about eight months to renovate, add a roof and freshen up its concept altogether. When it opened under its rebranding last summer, it did so with four food trucks, five kiosks and a new cornerstone bar called Perennial.\n\nCalavera Tacos, Esaan, Boca Latin Kitchen and Melt are the four food trailers, each of which are signed to three-year contracts. A new restaurant also is expected to open at The Garden in the near future.\n\nMore:The Garden food court opening on Palafox Monday with three new Airsteam food trailers\n\nAddress: 8084 N. Davis Highway, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-760-2089\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The Ferry Pass area lost a doughnut shop but gained a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean spot when owner AJ Dali made the switch in July.\n\nDali cited a desire to switch to a more sustainable restaurant concept during lean times early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Steak kabob, kofta kabob, chicken kabob and falafel meals highlight this menu chock full of authentic offerings.\n\nMore:Popular Pensacola bakery pivots, re-opens as In & Out Kitchen and Mediterranean\n\nAddress: 2805 W. Cervantes St., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-466-3648\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: Taste of Jerusalem was a favorite in Brownsville for years, so west Pensacola rejoiced when owner Ray Sehweil announced an expanded concept in a bigger west side building in 2019.\n\nThose goals came to fruition in July when Sehweil reopened the restaurant along with a dessert bakery, juice bar, hot grab-and-go station, old fashioned butcher shop, deli area and a grocery-style market.\n\nMore:Taste of Jerusalem moving to Cervantes in August, adding breakfast, deli, market and more\n\nAddress: 800 N. Navy Blvd., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-741-4900\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: A full restaurant, a grab-and-go cooler and a meal subscription service are all on the table at Clean Eatz, west Pensacola's newest health food eatery.\n\n\"We have kind of a fast-food feel with a lot cleaner ingredients,\" said Clean Eatz franchisee Sam Poppell. \"We have eight different wraps, we have a great smoothie menu. Bison burgers, turkey burgers. We recently underwent a menu change nationwide and added buffalo cauliflower, which I think is amazing.\"\n\nMore:Clean Eatz opens health food restaurant in west Pensacola, launches meal plan service\n\nAddress: 63 Via De Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-733-9311\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This specialty sub shop on the beach opened at the end of July from inside the popular beach plaza that rarely lacks foot traffic.\n\nHot subs and flatbread pizzas help drive the sales, and the carryout-friendly restaurant also sells wings, appetizers, salads, desserts kids meals and more.\n\nMore:The Reef specialty sub shop and pizza restaurant opens on Pensacola Beach\n\nAddress: 11 Palafox Place, Suite C, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-377-9874\n\nInstagram page\n\nInfo: The coffeehouse, breakfast café and home essentials store known as The Nest opened at 11 Palafox Place, Suite C, in the breezeway behind Blue Jay's in July.\n\nBreakfast sandwiches, breakfast scramble dishes, sweet or avocado toast, a red pepper panini, wild rice soup and The Nest's patty melt round out the light and flavor-filled options at the café-style eatery.\n\nMore:The Nest General Store opens in downtown Pensacola with coffee, breakfast and lunch options\n\nAddress: 7552 Navarre Parkway, Unit 14, Navarre\n\nPhone: 850-710-3370\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The owners of Navarre's New York Pizza Depot opened the New York Pizza District in August, bringing a new sit-down spot to the building that Vinny R's formerly operated in.\n\nThe family-friendly pizza restaurant offers more than 15 specialty pies, a create-your-own pizza option and pizza by the slice, starting at $2.99. The New York Pizza District also serves up calzones, pastas, gyros, salads and traditional starters like cheesy garlic bread, chicken wings, fried ravioli and more.\n\nMore:New Navarre pizza restaurant brings New York style slices to Santa Rosa County\n\nAddress: 13160 Sorrento Road, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850- 465-3133\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: \"Love at 900 degrees\" is the slogan at this wood-fired, Neapolitan-style pizza place in the Perdido area.\n\nThe simple and straightforward Pizzaluté menu centers on more than a dozen pizza options, with a handful of salads and sweets spliced in. The restaurant also has a self-serve beer and wine bay that features 21 beer taps and three wine taps.\n\nMore:Pizzaluté brings authentic Italian wood-fired pizzas to Perdido Key\n\nAddress: 12 Via De Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach\n\nPhone: 850-916-2999\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This poolside tapas and cocktail lounge at the Hilton Pensacola Beach doesn't play around with its mixed drinks, offering 40-ounce margaritas, and oversized, overstuffed milkshakes that you just have to snap a photo of for Instagram.\n\nIf you like some food with your booze, Sal de Mar head chef Omar Torres has you covered. Torres described the restaurant as an American-style eatery with a lot of Spanish flair and influence. It's somewhere you can play it safe by ordering a cheeseburger, or venture out a little with some octopus and shrimp ceviche or bombas.\n\nMore:Sal de Mar poolside Pensacola Beach restaurant opening at the Hilton\n\nAddress: 6233 N. Davis Highway, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-332-7333\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This family-friendly Mexican restaurant replaced O'Charley's at the end of the summer on North Davis.\n\nSeating more than 300 people, owner Ruben Chavez's restaurant features authentic Mexican food while benefiting from a full bar. Chavez plans to open a second Pedro's in Pace in 2021.\n\nMore:Pedro's Tex-Mex restaurant replacing Pensacola O'Charley's, Pace location coming this winter\n\nAddress: 4955 U.S. 90, Pace\n\nPhone: 850-994-5230\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This regional burger restaurant chain opened in September in Pace with a sporty, family-friendly style environment.\n\nMugshots grills up about a dozen specialty burgers to go along with its seven or eight original burgers. The Mississippi-based restaurant also serves sandwiches, hot dogs, pastas, salads, appetizers and much more.\n\nMore:Mugshots Grill & Bar coming to Pensacola and Pace, Ryan's in Pace to close by 2020\n\nAddress: 1124 W. Garden St., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-434-3193\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: This one isn't a new restaurant, but it is at a new location. Its fresh, Gulf Coast seafood dishes and sandwiches just moved a little closer to downtown.\n\nAfter spending 33 years next door to its parent business, Captain Joey Patti's Seafood Restaurant and Deli moved last fall into the property formerly occupied by Cypress and George Bistro.\n\nMore:Captain Joey Patti's seafood restaurant moving into former Cypress building this fall\n\nAddress: 11-B Palafox Place, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-706-0627\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: What was initially a pop-up noodle bar that opened inside Pot Roast & Pinot in October will become its own restaurant when it consumes Pot Roast & Pinot in early January.\n\nOwner Aimée Wilson said come January, 86 Forks will expand upon its design-your-own ramen noodle bowl concept and add a myriad of Asian-inspired small plates. The pop-up version of 86 Forks is open now, but the expansion is set for a Jan. 18 completion and opening date.\n\nMore:Pot Roast & Pinot to close in January, become 86 Forks small plates restaurant full time\n\nAddress: 1400 Barrancas Ave., Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-285-0564\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The sister restaurant of Xiscali Mexican restaurant in Gulf Breeze opened in December as a fast-casual alternative for West Garden area communities.\n\nThe new taqueria rolled out a simplified, taco-based menu with the same Tex-Mex style recipes and flavors cooked up in the kitchen of owner Reina Medina's Gulf Breeze sit-down restaurant.\n\nMore:Xiscali returning to Pensacola, will open taqueria on Barrancas Avenue before 2021\n\nAddress: 6209 Mobile Highway, Pensacola\n\nPhone: 850-741-3378\n\nFacebook page\n\nInfo: The former Krystal on Mobile Highway made way for this fast-service seafood restaurant, which is open until at least 2 a.m., seven days a week.\n\nFresh seafood options at Sam's — which opened its original location in Bradenton in the spring of 2019 — include snow crab trays, fish, shrimp, scampi garlic Cajun shrimp, calamari rings, crawfish, scallops, oysters, mussels and crab leg dinners.\n\nMore:Sam's Seafood & Grill opens Pensacola restaurant in place of Krystal on Mobile Highway\n\nJake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/12/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/lifestyle/2022/02/02/newports-commercial-fishing-industry-facing-challenging-times/6608436001/", "title": "Newport's commercial fishing industry is facing challenging times", "text": "By Bob Gulla\n\n“Different? How are things different? Just look at it.”\n\nGazing out over the water toward downtown Newport from a dock on Long Wharf, Denny Ingram, the burly captain of Blue Moon, is answering my question with a question.\n\n“Nothing’s the way it used to be. Nothing.”\n\nWe’re standing on the last remaining pier dedicated to the city’s commercial fishing industry. The view is crowded with pleasure boats, mid-rise condos and high-end hotels. When Ingram started fishing nearly 40 years ago, the scene was quite different. The city had an established and bustling working waterfront with bait shops, fueling stations, and a bunch of places to sell that day’s catch.\n\nToday, all of the businesses serving the commercial fishing industry have evaporated. You can’t even get ice locally. “We pooled our money and bought a commercial ice machine, made just for our needs, and we can’t even get the inspectors to sign off on it so we can turn the thing on,” Ingram says. As we shoot the breeze, a few lobster and gill net boats bob defiantly in place, roped to pilings, poised for another voyage.\n\nThese are interesting times for the local brotherhood of people who make their living on the water.\n\nThe Headwinds\n\nHistorically, Newport’s natural harbor, nearby ocean and neighboring Narragansett Bay all made for hospitable waters. They teemed with mackerel, fluke, tuna, haddock, flounder and perch. The harbor itself accommodated 150 wharves, making affordable local dockage easy to come by. Even as recently as the mid-1900s, Newport was a commercial fishing epicenter on a par with New Bedford, which is now the country’s most profitable fishing port.\n\n“When we first started fishing, Newport Harbor from south to north was filled with busy port activity for us.” says David Spencer, a member of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. Spencer has been lobstering locally on his boat, the Nathaniel Lee, since 1973. “There were freezers and boats and fuel and a bunch of places to sell our catch. It wasn’t so touristy, so we could make it work.”\n\nAnd work they did, until Newport became one of the premier tourist destinations in the country. Since that time, tourism, and the money it brings in, has exerted tremendous pressure for stakeholders to cash in on even the smallest sections of Newport’s waterfront. A fleet of aging trawlers couldn’t possibly pay the kind of money that dock owners get from the super-elite, million-dollar-plus pleasure boats that find their way here. “How can we possibly compete?” Ingram asks.\n\nIt’s safe to say that commercial fishing today has changed in every conceivable way. Newport’s importance as a fisheries hub has shrunken dramatically in the last half century, both literally and economically. Since 2011, Newport fisherman fishery landings have decreased almost 70 percent. Unlike New Bedford, Newport’s fishing industry does not provide much economic support to the city. Today, there are around a dozen and a half trawlers, all confined to the state-owned Long Wharf (also called Pier 9).\n\n“We wouldn’t even have this small piece of the waterfront if a group of lawyers hadn’t stepped in with a bridge loan on the real estate,” says Spencer. “If it weren’t for that loan, this land would have been sold right from under us. We know there was an offer on the table.” That loan allowed the commercial fishermen to buy enough time for the State of Rhode Island to purchase that waterfront parcel on their behalf, with the intention of retaining it exclusively for commercial fishing.\n\nWhile onshore matters have stabilized somewhat, offshore is a different story. Construction of a massive wind farm is underway, throwing another obstacle in the fishing industry’s path. “The fish don’t like it at all,” says Ingram. “That’s happening right out where we like to be, and you can go out there and there’s nothing. That’s definitely going to make things complicated. Even the ground tests they’re doing are disturbing the stocks.”\n\nDeclines in fish stocks have also occurred due to changes in the environment, including changing water temperatures, predation and pollution. Since 1898, overall fish yields have decreased by an astonishing 81 percent. Changes in wild shellfish include the disappearance of soft-shell clams, oysters and scallops, all of which were replaced by quahogs.\n\nGraying of the Fleet\n\nSpencer and Ingram are integral to the community of local fishermen, whose hard work and independent spirit helped to create a proud and successful tradition. Today, though, many of those once-proud fishermen are nearing retirement, and there are few, if any, of the younger generation willing to step up and take their place.\n\n“Nobody really has statistics,” says Sarah Schumann, a commercial fisherman and owner/principal of Shining Seas Fishery Consulting. “But you hear a lot of people express the view that there is a ‘graying of the fleet’ — a sharp increase in the average age of commercial fishermen nationwide.”\n\nToday, Ingram and Spencer are among the last of the fishermen who enjoyed the boom time of the 1980s, when they were able to take advantage of a 200-mile expansion of federally approved fishing waters. “For the longest time, it was a really good business,” says Ingram. “It was hard work, but it was worth it, especially if you wanted to be your own boss and make your own hours. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”\n\nAdds Spencer, “For whatever reason, the younger generations don’t want to do this kind of work. I understand that times have changed, but there’s still a real opportunity out there to make a good living.”\n\nSchumann says that fishermen in Newport have had to do everything they can just to hang in there. “There’s so much competition for waterfront space, it just makes it difficult to have a working waterfront in that location, like it used to be.”\n\nAll of the dealers — legendary places like Anthony’s on Spring Wharf, where fishermen would sell their catch — are gone. Time was the fishermen could come in, unload their haul, get paid, clean up, and live to fish another day. No longer. “The dealers all disappeared,” says Spencer, “so we needed a solution, an outlet for the guys to sell their catch.”\n\nIntroducing the Newport Lobster Shack, a modest outbuilding where the local boats can unload their catch. It opened in 2010 after the Department of Environmental Management put a stop to individual off-the-boat lobster and crab sales in Newport. Every captain who berths a boat on the pier is a member of the co-op and has a vote in any of the shack’s business decisions.\n\nLocal support for the establishment — where you can get a killer lobster roll, among other things — has been overwhelming. “If it weren’t for the lobster shack, I don't know if they would be there anymore,” says Schumann, referring to the fishing fleet. “From what many of them have told me, that’s really been their lifeline. During COVID, especially, when people were looking for local provisions, it really made a big difference.”\n\nSpencer agrees. “The shack is an anchor that helps to keep the commercial fishing fleet in Newport,” he says. “It’s really integrated the fishing community into the city, into the state. We’ve become part of the tourist trade here.”\n\nFishing for Answers\n\nContrary to what all of this sounds like — that the walls are closing in on commercial fishing — there are actually reasons for optimism. “In a lot of ways, fisheries are doing better than they ever have before,” says Schumann. “The management of those fisheries has reached an even keel finally, after a few turbulent decades, and the relationship between the fishermen and DEM has also stabilized and become much more productive.”\n\nBeyond the management aspects, there are also viable alternative pursuits that allow those commercially minded fishermen to make a living. Many turn to chartering their boats for day-tripping fishermen. “Consumers are more aware of the world they live in,” says Brian Combra, a fisherman from Tiverton who’s been on the water since he was a young kid. “They’re more into climate, conservation, knowing where your food is coming from. A lot of people want to catch fish, but they also want to do it the right way, experience the nature without killing it. The recreational side of it is such a big business.”\n\nAs captain of Newport Fishing Charters, Rob Taylor knows that fact pretty well. He runs one of Newport’s most successful charter enterprises. A biology graduate from Roger Williams, Taylor has done his share of commercial fishing, but now shares his passion and gift for sport fishing with paying customers. “Newport should be one of the sport fishing capitals of the world,” he says. A billowy beard, part of his persona, belies the 39-year-old’s youth and hides a confident smile. “You can fish anywhere out of Newport, Block Island, the Vineyard. I love it,” Taylor says. His enthusiasm is backed by a busy calendar. He’s often booked through the summer, two trips a day, and he’s even booked solid this October–December. “Don’t get me wrong, I love commercial fishing,” Taylor says. “But the price of seafood is so cheap right now, I find that it’s really hard work for not a lot of money. I’d rather catch a bunch of fish with people and watch them smile.”\n\nCombra recently decided to get off the water full time and buy into Ken’s Bait Shop in Middletown. “I saw the writing on the wall,” he says. “In general, I see commercial fishing as a dying industry. When you walk down the docks, you don’t see young guys running boats. If they do, their ambition is to go offshore where they can make more money.”\n\nCombra grew up fishing with gill nets and a few lobster pots. “I didn’t have any aspirations of getting rich, but I did like the lifestyle,” he admits. “Then this offer came along at the bait shop and it was a chance for me to change things up and be a little more secure.”\n\nTurning the Tide\n\nAs the world turns, many industries have succumbed to great change, and commercial fishing, like farming, is no exception. Lately, though, farming has experienced a resurgence, as interest in local food sourcing has exploded. Perhaps this will be the case with fishing, too. But it could all be in how it’s messaged. “Once you start talking about commercial fishing as a ‘dying industry,’” says Schumann, “it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy and a little scarier for a young person to invest in it, even if they desperately want to do it or if it’s been the family business.”\n\nThat said, it’s not enough to commit to it. The fishing infrastructure needs to be in place in order for it to make sense. Right now, in Newport, it’s not. “Even though we’re all extremely independent people,” Schumann says, referring to her own commercial fishing business, “nobody can do it alone. You need a functioning dock space, a place to sell your catch, a gear supply store, a fuel supply. You need all of those things. It’s one of the reasons why younger people aren’t getting involved.”\n\nIngram agrees. “The next generation isn’t picking up on it,” he says. “I had a couple of kids last season who just had trouble getting out of bed. I leave at 5 a.m. and they had a really hard time getting up.” As he talks, he’s rolling a blue plastic barrel off his truck and into a neat row. “To me, it’s never felt like a job, and you get paid at the end of it. I’ve had a helluva time,” he says, grabbing another barrel. “I’m on the back nine, and I don’t regret a minute of it.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/06/15/fish-seafood-sustainability/2412517/", "title": "Sustainability eludes the fishing industry", "text": "Dan Friedell\n\nUSATODAY\n\nAdvocates focus on best ways to use precious seafood resources.\n\nThe U.S. is second only to China in seafood consumption.\n\nSnakehead%2C an alternative fish%2C turns out to be tasty.\n\nHerman Melville's Captain Ahab of Moby Dick may have been the first fisherman to practice sustainability. The Pequod captain's quest to catch one whale is right in line with what advocates for a sustainable seafood industry believe today.\n\nModern-day examples of sustainable fishermen include harpooners who catch swordfish along the Atlantic coast of northern Canada and divers who use spear guns to snag lionfish in the South Atlantic and Caribbean. These fishermen have a one-fish-per-device limit that eliminates bycatch, the trapping of non-targeted species in nets or long lines.\n\nOf course, the Ahab comparison can also be seen in a negative way: Some fishermen have a single-minded quest to catch members of lucrative but dwindling species, like the bluefin tuna. The tuna sell for nearly $2 million every January and about $100,000 the rest of the year.\n\n\"That's the scarcity theory of value, the kind of thing that happens with elephant ivory or tiger skins,\" says Christopher Mann of the Pew Charitable Trusts' campaign for healthy oceans. \"That's why we have tended to focus on [making] unsustainable tuna fishing illegal. What we can hope to do is make the countries of the world unite around the idea that this is a crazy way to exploit a resource.\"\n\nAndrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, says the American consumer should be the No. 1 target for messages about preserving the oceans. The U.S. is second only to China in seafood consumption. Americans consumed 4.7 billion pounds of seafood in 2011, about 15 pounds per person.\n\n\"Sadly, slowing down this behemoth is almost impossible,\" Zimmern says. \"If we could eat two more or three more meals a week from the alternative protein bucket that includes small fish with the head on it, octopus and a whole range of seafood, we could self-correct the horrific damage we've done to our food system in America in about 18 to 24 months.\"\n\nOne of those alternative fish is the snakehead, a non-native species with no natural predators that has gained a foothold in the Potomac River around Washington, D.C. Its name and looks are unappealing, but the fish tastes good—really. And local chefs are now serving it in an effort to ease its effect on the region's native fish.\n\n\"A lot of the species are just not palatable,\" says John Rorapaugh of Profish, a major seafood vendor in Washington. \"But [snakehead] is a beautiful protein, just as good as rockfish, or maybe better.\" Profish now pays suppliers up to $5.50 per pound of snakehead, about 10 times more than it pays for catfish.\n\nPositive steps, but Zimmern says more needs to be done. \"We're going to lose species, wetlands, manageable oceans, so many things, and I think one of those things is going to end up getting everybody's attention and create the social movement necessary for real change to happen.\"\n\nThis article is excerpted from USA TODAY Green Living magazine. The special publication contains articles on sustainable living, green products, DIY projects, and people and companies helping to save the planet. Get an eco-friendly version for your tablet or computer at zinio.com/usatodaymags.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/07/07/haddock-chowder-winner-fishermen-and-hungry/7874378002/", "title": "Haddock chowder a winner for fishermen and the hungry", "text": "CHATHAM — When the pandemic hit last winter, restaurants and fish markets were among the first businesses to shut down.\n\nThe combination hit the region’s fishing fleet really hard, said Seth Rolbein, director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. May starts the new fishing year and summer is by far the industry's busiest season.\n\n“It took the legs out from under the fleet,” said Rolbein.\n\nAdditionally, fish processors in ports like New Bedford and Gloucester had the same issues as meat packing plants in the Midwest, Rolbein said. With employees working in close proximity, the fish processing plants weren’t built to contain the spread of the virus, said Rolbein, and they shut down too.\n\nWhile Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the federal fishery regulators moved to make it easier for fishermen to sell right off their boats, the Fishermen’s Alliance looked to create new markets and bring some needed money to struggling fishing families.\n\nThe third goal was to feed families in what quickly became a food crisis brought on by COVID, said Robert Vincent, assistant director of advisory services at MIT Sea Grant, which funded a pilot program to market the frozen haddock chowder that the Cape fishermen's alliance had developed.\n\nVincent and MIT Sea Grant helped the Cape chowder gain access to the Greater Boston Food Bank and to food banks across Massachusetts and New England, and into MIT food services.\n\nA year later, the haddock chowder program pioneered by the fishermen's alliance is a success, giving fishermen much needed cash flow during the pandemic, creating a market for \"snapper\" haddock that are plentiful but fetch a low price because they produce small fillets, and providing 800,000 meal-sized servings of chowder to those suffering through income loss and needing food assistance.\n\n\"It was a phenomenal thing,\" said Rolbein.\n\nPrivate grants underwrote most of the program's costs, but Rolbein is hoping to expand into institutional settings like colleges and university food services and to gain entrance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture food assistance programs, whose payments could make the chowder program fiscally sustainable, and potentially create new markets for other underutilized species like skate.\n\nThe Cape fishermen's alliance worked with Gloucester fish processor Great Eastern Seafood and Lowell food maker, the Plenus Group Inc., to produce the chowder. The measure of success in food pantries is when you have return customers for what you are putting out, explained Christine Menard, executive director of the Family Pantry of Cape Cod in Harwich.\n\nIt not only tasted good, but it was easy for clients to use, she said. They just had to open and reheat.\n\n\"This was resoundingly a winner, said Menard.\n\nThe fisheries alliance is focused on advocating for small boat fishermen. Smaller vessels, generally 50 feet and under, are the backbone of the Cape and Islands fleets. As popular and marketable inshore fish stocks declined, these vessels could not compete with larger fishing boats that could withstand the stormy offshore seas of the North Atlantic.\n\nSnapper haddock tend to be found closer to shore, said Cape hook fisherman Eric Hesse. Because of their size, they go into products like fish cakes and fetch a low price, as low as 60 cents per pound when plentiful, while larger haddock that produce marketable fillets can return $3 per pound to fishermen.\n\nHesse normally goes farther offshore to catch bigger fish in the winter but he estimated about a third of his catch this past winter was snapper haddock sold to the chowder program at a guaranteed price of $1.50 per pound. Funding helped the haddock chowder program to guarantee fishermen that price.\n\n\"It was a good, fair, equitable price for the effort,\" said Rolbein.\n\n\"It definitely helped in the winter when everyone was hammering on haddock,\" said Jim Ford who captains a 50-foot fish dragger, the only one remaining in Newburyport. \"It added quite a bit to our bottom line, especially when the haddock were thick.\"\n\nRolbein said it cost about $1 million to produce 276,000 pounds of chowder. Their biggest grant came from Catch Together, a Chatham-based non-profit looking to strengthen fishing communities and businesses, fisheries management and food security. Rolbein said the chowder program paid $295,000 to the 30 fishermen who participated.\n\nWhile the fishermen's alliance was initially focused on Cape fishermen, it expanded to other small vessels in other ports because the Cape boats couldn't catch enough haddock to meet the demand of the processor and the chowder maker.\n\nHesse, who is from Barnstable, fished out of Gloucester this winter. He has one of the few longline vessels remaining in New England. He deploys lines of baited hooks strung between two buoys to catch fish. Hesse said the winter haddock fishery off the Cape is usually dominated by large fish draggers.\n\nThe Cape small boat groundfish fleet is mainly gillnet vessels that use anchored upright panels of nets that ensnare fish by their gills. But the mesh size tends to be too large for snapper haddock, who can swim right through.\n\nChatham was once one of New England's top cod ports, but overfishing and climate change made it a scarce commodity. In recent years, the alliance has tried marketing what fishermen were catching including monkfish, skates and dogfish with limited success until the chowder experiment paid off.\n\nWhile there have been some signs that the haddock population may be declining, it still remains at levels far above what it was even a decade ago. Vincent said Sea Grant and the alliance are working to create a sustainable business model for undersized haddock that will provide some steady income for the region's small boat fishermen.\n\nLast month, U.S. Rep. William Keating sent a letter to Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack advocating that they incorporate more seafood like haddock chowder into their food assistance programs. Keating was particularly concerned about minimum volume amounts required by the USDA that precluded participation by smaller food producers like independent fishermen.\n\n\"This initiative ... features a sustainable new product that keeps family fishermen on the water and provides volumes of nutritious, affordable, ready-to-serve meals,\" Keating wrote.\n\nFollow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/05/04/shortage-maryland-blue-crab-pickers-causes-seafood-shops-shutdown-h-2-b-visa-lottery/577930002/", "title": "Shortage of blue crab pickers forces Maryland seafood shops to shut ...", "text": "Help cannot come quick enough for Harry Phillips.\n\nThe owner of Russell Hall Seafood on Hoopers Island has not had any workers to pick Maryland's finest crabs since the season started April 1.\n\n\"It puts us at a shutdown,\" Phillips said. \"If we don't have somebody to pick the crabs, what am I going to do with them? It's affecting hundreds of people.\"\n\nAnd he's not the only one. Four of the eight businesses on the Shore that utilize the H-2B visa program are essentially closed as many pickers could not make their yearly pilgrimage from Mexico to the Shore.\n\nIt's estimated that almost half of the workforce is missing, and the eight businesses process around 80 percent of the crabmeat, according to Jack Brooks, president of the American Seafood Jobs Alliance.\n\nFor the first time, the Trump administration awarded the visas in a lottery this year, instead of the usual first-come, first-served basis.\n\n\"Can you imagine a lottery that decides whose business lives and whose business dies? That's just horrible,\" said Brooks, who is also a co-owner of J.M. Clayton Co. in Cambridge. It was one of the four crab processors that received visa workers.\n\nThe lack of workers could put some out of business. Crab processors can't find willing American workers to fill the void, and experts are unsure of how it will affect the consumer market for crabmeat.\n\nMore:Get crabbing: Maryland season opens April 1\n\nMore:Blue crabs, bay grasses rallying as Chesapeake's health improves: report\n\nThe industry is expecting some relief as another lottery for 15,000 more H-2B visas, which is for seasonal workers in non-agricultural jobs, to be announced this month.\n\nMaryland Gov. Larry Hogan and U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the Republican who represents the Shore, have asked for an immediate raise to the visa cap.\n\n“Many businesses within Maryland’s First District depend on the H-2B visa program to hire seasonal workers,\" Harris said in a statement Thursday. \"While the imminent approval of 15,000 visas won’t fully satisfy current nationwide demand for seasonal workers, I am grateful for Secretary Nielsen and Secretary Acosta’s efforts to support the seasonal businesses of Maryland’s First District.\"\n\nBut why only 15,000, Brooks said he doesn't know. Even if workers arrived Monday, a month would have been lost, Brooks said. And it could take 30-45 days after a lottery to get workers into the country.\n\n\"From day one, we have to go as hard as you can since we only have 8 months,\" Phillips said.\n\nBrooks said companies have dealt with worker issues since 2005 but this year is going to be the worst yet.\n\nMaryland has 20 licensed crab processors but are about 200 employees short of the 500 that normally come through the program, according to Bill Seiling, director of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association.\n\nApplications more than doubled the allotted 33,000 jobs for work beginning in April, prompting the lottery approach to award visas.\n\nThe price of Maryland crabmeat could go up with a short supply, while the international selection will always set the low bar, Brooks said. More unpicked crabs will head to live markets for sale, lowering the price and quality because of the style and size.\n\n\"The live market, no matter what anyone says, just can't absorb all these crabs,\" Brooks said. \"The crab picking businesses have been absorbing so many crabs over the decades.\"\n\nThree of the four businesses without workers are on Hoopers Island, Brooks said, but Lower Shore processors still use local pickers to supply the market.\n\nMetompkin Bay Oyster Co. in Crisfield and Ocean Highway Seafood in Pocomoke City make do without visas.\n\nMany critics find it easy point out that American workers would solve the crab picking pickle, but the Eastern Shore is still steeped in that tradition whereas other parts of Maryland have desperately tried to keep up, Brooks said.\n\n\"We'd love to, but people are simply not taking these jobs,\" he said.\n\nIt's a tradition that has gone by the wayside, Phillips said. No one wants to do the tedious work that runs for only eight months of the year.\n\nAnd students look to the beach or something that will benefit them more after they finish school, he added.\n\n\"We've done everything we could to hire American workers,\" Phillips said.\n\nRussell Hall opened in 1992 and started with 12 workers from Mexico. Now they're closer to 50 and have second generation families coming from the south to work.\n\nPhillips gets text messages every day asking when the seafood company might open so that the workers can make money fast and send it back to their family.\n\nMore:H-2B visa logjam may put Shore employers in summer hiring bind\n\nMore:Is Andy Harris' House seat in danger of flipping?\n\nHe's seen businesses close year after year, knowing what missing a whole season could mean.\n\nHe fears for the future if the lottery stays and the shortage continues year after year. It trickles down from his employees to the truck drivers, dock workers, refrigeration companies and more.\n\nPhillips might have to make it work with a half of season. And after 25 years of hard work, he's hoping his luck will change.\n\n\"It's a shame,\" he said. \"These people are hardworking people.\"\n\nThis report includes information from the Associated Press.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/05/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/12/16/saving-nhs-fishing-industry-help-way-for-young-fishermen/8897060002/", "title": "Saving NH's fishing industry: Help is on the way for young fishermen", "text": "Angeljean Chiaramida\n\nnews@seacoastonline.com\n\nSEABROOK — Help is on the way for the region’s dwindling commercial fishing industry in the form of a half-million-dollar federal grant to train a new fleet of young fishermen to replace those who are retiring.\n\nSen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, recently announced the grant, which comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to Shaheen, the grant invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in recruiting, training and mentoring a new generation of fishermen with the goal of continuing the state’s 400-year-old fishing industry, which is in real danger of disappearing.\n\n“New Hampshire’s commercial fishing industry is critical to the cultural and economic identity of our coastal communities,” Shaheen said. “Unfortunately, the industry’s aging workforce poses tremendous challenges for our fisheries’ future. That’s why I’m proud to welcome nearly $550,000 to train and support a new generation of fishermen.”\n\nCommentary:A grievous assault on the lobster resource\n\nAccording to Shaheen, by investing in these training programs, New Hampshire’s coastal communities can thrive with better economic opportunities and expanded regional seafood access. Received by Seabrook’s Yankee Fishermen's Cooperative, the $540,753 three-year grant will create the New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, to be run by Andrea Tomlinson, co-author of the grant.\n\nTomlinson, who has been involved in the state’s commercial fishing industry for 20 years and currently runs New Hampshire Community Seafood, worked with Yankee Cooperative board member David Goethel and others when putting together the grant.\n\nTo be administrated by the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative, the $540,753 grant is backed with a soft match of $232,000 from in-kind services, bringing a total of $772,753 to tackle the problem of a seriously diminishing number of boats and licensed captains in the state’s once healthy small-boat fishing fleet.\n\nReplacing the aging fishing workforce\n\nThe problem isn’t just in New Hampshire, but throughout New England and the nation, according to Tomlinson, who said the average age of the New England groundfishing workforce is about 60 years old.\n\nIn Portsmouth:Al Bailey's 'Muppets' Christmas display has Ocean Road lit up\n\nIn 1990, when the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative was founded, there were dozens of active commercial fishing boats in the fleet, Goethel said. Today, he counts six boats still out there doing the job.\n\n“There are only four draggers and two gill net boats,” said Goethel, a 54-year veteran of commercial fishing. “Pretty much everyone else is retired. But there are people who want to become boat captains. They need the tools to be able to do it.”\n\nThe reason for the drastic reduction in the fleet are many, he said, including the fact that the usual generational aspect that replenished the fishing trade has broken down. For hundreds of years, he said, it was the offspring of fishermen – sons, grandsons, daughters and granddaughters – who became new boat captains, filling vacancies as the older generation retired.\n\nThat’s no longer the case, Goethel and Tomlinson said. Among the factors leading to the demise of the family traditions of the business, they said, are the increased cost of fishing boats and fishing permits, the difficulty getting loans from financial institutions, the cost of insurance and gear, and complex federal fishing restrictions and tight fish quotas. They are all converging to keep young would-be fishing boat captains on the docks instead of at sea, both said.\n\nWhat's behind this effort?:Greenland to hold NH's first vote on effort to ban voting machines\n\nGoethel said, with the right training and experience, it is still possible today for a man or woman to make a very good living in commercial fishing. They need to be physically fit, mentally tough and they need to know how to fish smart, he said, meaning understanding the complex regulations, the markets, where the fish are and how to catch them safely and at a profit.\n\n“In this business, you can’t afford to make mistakes,” Goethel said. “If you catch a halibut that’s smaller than regulation, that’s a $10,000 fine when you get to the docks. And there’s no place for bar rooms or drugs in commercial fishing. Those so-called reality shows like 'Wicked Tuna,' you need to forget those. If we fished the way they do on those shows, there wouldn’t be any fishermen left alive.”\n\nTraining the next generation\n\nTomlinson said she and others engaged in “dock talks” in 2019. They spoke with deckhands – those who work on fishing boats — and sternmen — those who work on lobster boats, who face putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy boats, gear and entry-level groundfishing or lobster permits with no quotas that start at $25,000.\n\n'Stay out of my way': Kittery woman, owner of Southern Maine Crabs, creates seafood niche\n\nThe cost of a boat loan, multi-species of groundfish permits or commercial lobster permit, couple with insurance, registration and dock fees, maintenance and equipment present an insurmountable hurdle for most young people interested in getting started in commercial fishing, she said.\n\nWhat was learned from these discussions, Tomlinson said, is what the next crop of potential young commercial fishermen – those 45 and younger – said they need to overcome these obstacles and become fishing boat captains.\n\nAnd it’s what came from these discussions, she said, that the grant monies fund: training programs in small business, fishing regulations and industry standards for increased sales; mentoring programs with established captains to learn the trade from those who ply it; as well as collaborative marketing techniques.\n\nIndependent of the grant funding, Tomlinson said, there will also be training in safety and collaborative research so new captains can understand existing, and collect new, fishing industry data.\n\nHow it will work\n\nFor the next three years, the New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance will recruit six trainees each year. These men and women will go through from six to nine months of training, both in a classroom and aboard boats with experienced captains as their mentors.\n\n“They’ll work on fishing boats during the day and earn income that way, and take the courses at night,” Tomlinson said. “We plan on the classes being somewhere along the Seacoast, but we haven’t nailed down exactly where yet. At the end of the training period, each trainee will receive a $5,000 stipend.”\n\nGoethel said the stipends are important, both to help these trainees survive financially, and to impress upon them that their time is valuable.\n\nTomlinson has lined up a number of trainers who are funded through the grant, many of whom understand the industry. For example, she said, doing the small business planning and training will be Christopher Duffy, a former fisherman himself, now with Rockingham Economic Development Center.\n\nThere will be others who’ll deal with marketing, food systems and even public speaking and presentation to show future fishing captains the skills they need to develop their businesses.\n\nTwo captains have already agreed to be mentors, Tomlinson said, and she’s sure there will be more.\n\nAn additional part of the program funded by the grant is a trip to Alaska by the trainees, she said, to learn from Alaska’s Young Fishermen’s Alliance. It’s one of the first programs of its kind in the country, she said, in one of the biggest fishing communities in the nation. She feels the recruits can learn a lot from that trip, as well as at the National Seafood Summit that will take place during the trip.\n\nGrowing the fresh fish market\n\nAnother important part of the grant helps ensure the market for fresh local fish grows so fishermen can sell their products to a reliable wholesale and retail marketplace. To that end, the grant funds ways to strengthen capacity and develop the regional food system.\n\nThat will be done with collaborative marketing and advertising, as well as working through distribution connections like New Hampshire Community Seafood and New England Food Hub.\n\nThe goal is to enhance distribution networks so at some point the fresh catch from New England and New Hampshire fishing boats can be delivered to restaurants, schools, hospitals, and even some retail outlets without the fish ever having to be frozen.\n\n“We also plan to collaborate with the NH Food Alliance Food Hub network, bringing more local seafood to several established Food Hub systems throughout the entire state, from Colebrook to Seabrook,” Tomlinson said. “What we want to do through these programs is keep the supply of local fresh seafood available for the New Hampshire consumer.”\n\nMarketing and advertising are time-consuming for fishermen who often spend 12 hours a day at sea. So Tomlinson, through her role as executive director of the New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, will work to properly market products through advertising and collaborations with food distribution systems.\n\nTomlinson is looking for office space to rent at a reasonable price for the headquarters of the operation. The Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative really doesn’t have the room, she said, but she’s hoping to find about 1,000 square feet or more along New Hampshire’s Seacoast highway, Route 1A, and set up shop.\n\nRent and the cost of equipment is covered in the grant along with cost of training, travel etc. for the next three years, she said, with the objective of bringing in 18 new young fishermen into one of the oldest and most historic industries of the Granite State.\n\nAfter that, Tomlinson is hopeful the organization will become financially self-sustaining and continue its mission for years to come.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2023/11/18/corner-cove-new-restaurant-hockessin-corner-michael-rocco-italian-food-oysters-seafood/71592466007/", "title": "Historic Hockessin building is new home to crabs, oysters and Italian", "text": "A long-vacant and cavernous hall in Hockessin Corner will soon come back to life — as a two-story restaurant and bar with local oysters, steamed crab, cheap beer, red-sauce pasta and flame-cooked pizza.\n\nMichael Rocco, a longtime veteran of Delaware restaurants whose most recent project was Bogle Cove Oyster House in Pike Creek, said he couldn’t believe what he saw when he walked into the 19th-century building that will soon be home to his restaurant, Corner Cove.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/22/fish-biting-southwest-florida-waters-after-irma/688546001/", "title": "Fish are jumping in Southwest Florida waters after Irma", "text": "Charter and commercial fishing captains gave a surprisingly positive report Thursday of their post-Irma waters around Captiva, Matlacha and Pine Island, Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach.\n\nThe consensus: boat and dock damage moderate to mild, and fishing heavy to hot. The biggest problem expressed by many? No customers.\n\n“Fishing will be wonderful this season,” predicted Fish Tale Marina owner Al Durrett on Fort Myers Beach. “The small bait fish are coming back into Estero Bay, and the big fish will follow.”\n\nCaptain Neil Eisner, who runs flats charters out of Durett’s marina, confirmed big snook are coming into the bay.\n\n“Mother Nature is a wonderful thing,” Eisner said. “The fish know what to do beforehand. Right before the storm they feel the pressure change and eat like crazy, then move to deep water for safety to wait the storm out.”\n\nBut while restaurants on the Beach are 99 percent back in business, Eisner’s first charter isn’t until Oct. 5.\n\n“The biggest thing affecting us right now is there’s no one to charter,” he said.\n\nFishing should be excellent for the next couple of weeks, agrees Captain Daniel Andrews, who plies the inshore waters around Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island.\n\n“What’s harder for fish to respond to are the Lake Okeechobee releases as a result of an exceptional rainy season followed by the hurricane,\" Andrews said. “It’s never good for the fishery, it underscores the need for Everglades restoration to move the water south.\"\n\nMy Captiva Fishing Guide’s Nelson Diaz, who's been fishing around Captiva almost every day since Irma, was surprised at how good it’s been.\n\n“I wasn’t expecting it because the water is dirty from the Lake O runoff,\" Diaz said. “It’s really sad when you can’t see the bottom in one and a half feet of water, but we’ve always dealt with that.\"\n\nCaptain Donnie Kish of Old Marco Charter Fishing has been scouting the backwaters of the Ten Thousands Islands, where he says very few local captains lost boats.\n\nKish finds “lots of trees downed by Irma that could be hazards for back country navigation, but they could also become structure for the fish.”\n\n“No trouble at all,” reported Captain Tony Stout, who moved his offshore charter rig to safety alongside his Cape Coral canal dock during Irma. A charter guide since 1984 — his wife Marilyn is a Cape Coral city council member — Stout’s base at Matanzas Marina on Fort Myers Beach has about 10 days’ worth of damages to repair at its dock before he can resume operations there, he said.\n\nAt Getaway Marina on San Carlos Island, Captain Rick Pitts was provisioning his scuba live aboard Ultimate Getaway for its first Dry Tortugas run since Irma.\n\nPitts, who’s been around Southwest Florida hurricanes since 1972, predicts things will be interesting for wreck divers and treasure seekers after Irma because “the bottom changes up after the storm.” His boat will have a head start on his competitors based in the Keys, where so much marina infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.\n\nOn the same waterfront, “exhausted,” is how Captain Don Rynn called it as he cleaned up a long line grouper boat, Chances R III, after attending to three of his own commercial vessels in St. Augustine.\n\n“Irma will have the same trickle-down effect on us as on other businesses,” Rynn said. “We had freezers and air coolers shut down, and lost a lot of inventory.”\n\nOwners Jeff Bonard and Doug Zipperer of Southern Faith, LLC had lost their freezer and $10,000 worth of bait, but they were still offering free ice to island residents who are living without electricity -- about $100,000 worth given away since Irma struck, Bonard estimated.\n\nFor commercial fishing crew like Shaun Olschewski, the next trip can’t come too soon. Between waiting for Irma to come, waiting for it to pass and waiting for other storms to clear out, he and others in the trade have been sidelined for close to a month.\n\nIsland Sea Food Market's Andy Fischer on Matlacha said his company’s fleet came through Irma fine and went fishing as soon as the storm cleared. The commercial vessels go out 70 to 80 miles for grouper and snapper seven days at a time, so the first ones are just returning.\n\n“When a storm comes through, the fish can’t feed, so they’ll be pretty hungry,” Fischer expects.\n\nFor the same reason, Island Crab Company on Pine Island reported an excellent post-storm blue crab harvest.\n\nAt the shrimp docks on San Carlos Island, Trico Shrimp Company’s retail outlet was slow Thursday, but not for lack of shrimp, Lynn Davis and daughter Bailey German said. before Irma hit, the fleet came in and unloaded their haul to waiting freezers; then headed offshore or to Texas to wait out the storm.\n\nCommercial operations on Marco Island took bigger blows.\n\nIn Goodland, Walker’s Coon Key Marina lost most of its docks and rack storage and sustained heavy boat damage.\n\nNear-neighbor Kirk Fish Co. lost refrigeration in its fish house.\n\nIn downtown Naples, the storm destroyed the Pure Florida cruise and charter dock at Tin City.\n\nHurricane Irma: Stan's in Goodland has extensive flooding and wind damage\n\nWithout taking away from what their harder-hit colleagues have been through, many captains were relieved to have Hurricane Irma come when it did, before tourist season resumes.\n\n“Mother Nature hit at the right time of year,” Fish Tale’s Durett said.\n\nFollow this reporter on Twitter @PatriciaBorns.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/09/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/06/02/rukes-smith-island-somerset-restaurant-ewell-business-crabcakes/28388141/", "title": "Landmark Ruke's Seafood Deck closes on Smith Island", "text": "Deborah Gates\n\ndgates@dmg.gannett.com\n\nIt was a question to pass the time for a young wife and entrepreneur hoping to draw new business to The Store.\n\nHad it not been for a storm that left her stranded on the mainland until it was safe to catch the ferry back home, Charlotte Middleton Dize likely would have not crossed paths with the sandwich maker.\n\n\"My mom went to the mainland and had seen a woman making subs,\" said Rukie Dize, recalling the story. \"She asked her how she made them, and the lady showed my mother how to make subs.\"\n\nSubmarine sandwiches were unheard of on offshore Smith Island in the 1960s, especially the recipe that called for slivers of steak, cheese and spices smothered in fried onions and piled on a soft bun.\n\nIt wasn't long before the Dize family grocery, The Store, expanded to include a successful restaurant that grilled the novel cheese steak sub.\n\nThe grill went cold last month. The Store, now known as Ruke's Seafood Deck, named for Dize's husband, Ruthman \"Ruke\" Dize, closed permanently after nearly a century as a business in the island village of Ewell.\n\nLocals and visitors have lost a landmark and a piece of island lore.\n\n\"A sad decision\"\n\n\"It's said because it's like an institution,\" said Jeff Staus, a resident of Baltimore. On their first visit to Ewell recently, Staus and his fiancee, April Nelson, dined at Ruke's on crab cakes and soft-shell crabs. \"We thought it would be there another 100 years, that we would be going back, taking the next generation — our children.\"\n\nPersonal family setbacks forced the closing, said Charlotte and Ruthman's son, Rukie Dize. He and his sister, Bernice Evans, bought the business from their elderly parents who lived on the island and continued to run the business until Ruthman took sick recently and they moved to the mainland for medical reasons.\n\n\"It closed because dad is in a nursing home and mom is not physically able,\" said Rukie, who lives on the mainland, in Fruitland. \"They were born and raised on the island. People loved going there. It was a sad decision.\"\n\nRuke's closes as locals and officials in Somerset County and the state work to chart a future course that builds and sustains the economic base for the three tiny island villages of Ewell, Tylerton and Rhodes Point.\n\nThere are other eateries and bed and breakfasts with meals scattered around the island of fewer than 300 people. But Ruke's, patrons say, was a social centerpiece.\n\nStill rustic\n\n\"Ruke's was the social center of the island,\" Rukie Dize said. \"People who are adults now were teenagers who grew up around Ruke's. They spent their teenage days there.\n\n\"People are brokenhearted about it,\" he said.\n\nNot much seems to have changed since The Store debuted in 1917, when island resident Robert Tyler built the wooden and rustic structure at the water's edge.\n\nThe business changed owners several times, and in 1960, Charlotte Dize and her mother, Willie \"Ma Willie\" Middleton, bought it. Soon after, Charlotte's husband, Ruke, joined the team, their son said.\n\n\"The lady showed my mother how to make subs; the idea was to make extra money,\" Rukie said. \"That's where Ruke's Subs come from.\"\n\nWord spread about Charlotte Dize's recipe for subs all the way across the Tangier Sound, some 14 miles, to the mainland. It wasn't long before orders were pouring in from the mainland, and the ferry boat captain would bundle sandwiches to fill orders at the Crisfield dock.\n\n\"They started having hamburgers, then cheeseburgers, and they were getting calls from the mainland to ship crab cakes and subs,\" Rukie said. \"That's how Ruke's restaurant got started.\n\nCheese steak subs\n\n\"Everybody ate crab cakes on the island,\" he said. \"Subs were a big thing.\"\n\nRuthman Dize joined the business after serving on a Navy destroyer during World War II. He and Charlotte married 68 years ago come June 11.\n\nRuthman returned after the war and became a waterman, supplying the restaurant with seafood \"caught right there in the bay,\" their son said.\n\n\"He supplied seafood to the store and my mother and her mom ran it,\" Rukie also said.\n\nRuke's Seafood Deck is still rustic in characteristic red paint with a red tin roof and an outdoor veranda overlooking the Tangier.\n\n\"A gentleman was saying that all the locals like to get the cheese steaks, but we got a crab cake and a softshell\" crab, said April Nelson, the visitor from Baltimore. \"We figured that well, we're on Smith Island and crabs are a big deal, so we decided to stick with the crab cake and softshell.\n\nOpen year-round\n\n\"They were both delicious,\" she said.\n\nJohn Delduco fell in love with Ruke's soon after he and his wife, Pamela, moved to Ewell from New York City. He volunteered a few hours a week at the business to help out Charlotte and Ruthman Dize, both in the 80s.\n\n\"There is a main restaurant here, Bayside Inn, and it's known as 'the big restaurant,' \" Delduco said. \"I helped out down there at Ruke's because it got me off the couch and gave me a purpose.\"\n\nUnique about Ruke's is that would be open year-round at times, and when it closed during the off season, it was for a short period of time, Delduco said.\n\n\"They opened a month earlier and closed a month later than\" the 'big restaurant,' \" Delduco said. \"This has affected people on the island. Most people are brokenhearted about it.\"\n\nRukie Dize hopes the restaurant will reopen some day.\n\n\"That's my prayer,\" he said. \"But we will sit vacant for a while.\"\n\ndgates@dmg.gannett.comOn Twitter@DTDeborahGates\n\nA taste innovation\n\nAs Rukie Dize recalls it, his mother went to the mainland in the 1960s, where a woman showed her how to make submarine sandwiches, unheard of at the time on tiny Smith Island. Shortly after that, the family business, The Store, later known as Ruke's Seafood Deck, added cheesesteak subs to its menu.\n\nPersonal setbacks\n\nRukie Dize and his sister, Bernice Evans, bought Ruke's Seafood Deck from their parents, Charlotte and Ruthman, who stayed on the island operating the eatery. They were forced to close now that Ruthman is in a nursing and Charlotte is physically unable to continue with the business.\n\nFrom the war to the water\n\nRuthman Dize joined the business after serving on a Navy destroyer during World War II. After the war he became a waterman, supplying Rukie's Seafood Deck with seafood \"caught right there in the bay,\" their son, Rukie, said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/06/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_23", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20240105_24", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2023/10/12/kahlil-bubba-floyd-plum-pit-food-truck-familiar-sight-across-wilmington-delaware/71050026007/", "title": "Hot oil burned him when a car struck his food truck in Wilmington ...", "text": "When Kahlil \"Bubba\" Floyd describes what happened to him last month in Wilmington's Trolley Square neighborhood, it's hard not to shudder at the scene he paints.\n\nThe chef was frying empanadas in his parked Plum Pit Food Truck for his final customers of the night when a car slammed into the rear of the 28-foot truck.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/29/us/border-patrol-tactical-unit-explainer-cec/index.html", "title": "A Border Patrol tactical unit killed the Texas gunman | CNN", "text": "CNN —\n\nWhen gunfire rang out at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, officials from Customs and Border Protection were among several agencies joining local and federal authorities at the scene.\n\nIt’s not unusual: Customs and Border Protection officials can operate within 100 miles of a US border, and have a major presence in many border communities, said Javed Ali, an associate professor at the University of Michigan and a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security.\n\nUvalde is about 80 miles from the Mexican border and therefore within Customs and Border Protection jurisdiction.\n\nAuthorities are still gathering details on the timeline of events leading up to the massacre, but have determined members of the Border Patrol’s elite team – the Border Patrol Tactical Unit – fatally shot the gunman nearly an hour after the shooter raided the school.\n\nBorder Patrol is under the umbrella of Customs and Border Protection, in the Department of Homeland Security.\n\nThe teenage gunman came out of a classroom closet and began firing when Border Patrol agents entered the room more than an hour after the shooter began his rampage, a source familiar with the situation told CNN Friday. The agents were part of a team that fatally shot the gunman, ending an attack that left 19 fourth-graders and two adults dead Tuesday afternoon.\n\nBefore the assault on the shooter, a group of 19 law enforcement officers stood in a hallway outside the classroom and took no action as they waited for room keys and tactical equipment, a state official said at a news conference.\n\nWhat’s BORTAC?\n\nThe US Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) was formed in 1984.\n\nIt was initially created in response to rioting at Immigration and Naturalization Service detention facilities, according to Customs and Border Protection officials.\n\nIt has since evolved into a highly trained tactical unit with operations both nationally and internationally.\n\n“BORTAC is unique in that it provides a global response capability. The unit has conducted training and operations with foreign and domestic law enforcement and military entities throughout the United States and around the world, including support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,” Customs and Border Patrol said.\n\nIt’s the equivalent of a SWAT\n\nTo be a part of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit is no small feat. The course lasts a month and candidates must pass grueling tests similar to the US Special Operations Forces’ selection courses. They have physical tests, including pushups, treading water, advanced weapon skills, defensive tactics, and airmobile operations.\n\nIt’s now considered the global special response team for the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Ali compared it to elite Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, the militarylike units within US police forces, using specialized or military equipment.\n\n“Its mission is to respond to terrorist threats of all types anywhere in the world in order to protect our nation’s homeland. Its agents are counted among the nation’s most dedicated and highly trained special operators,” Customs and Border Protection says.\n\nPeople leave the Uvalde Civic Center following the shooting at Robb Elementary School. William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News/AP\n\nIt’s been part of high-profile operations in the US\n\nBORTAC has played a key role in major US operations.\n\nDuring the 1980s, it worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration in the war on drugs in the United States. In the 1990s, it was deployed to Los Angeles after rioting broke out during the Rodney King trial. In April 2000, it was part of the raid at a Miami home that returned Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez to his family.\n\nAnd in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, BORTAC officials were deployed to help secure high-risk areas nationwide.\n\nCustoms and Border Protection has a local office in Uvalde\n\nLike many Texas towns in the border area, CBD has a checkpoint in Uvalde. It oversees 3,000 square miles of South Texas and conducts traffic checkpoint and freight train check operations. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorka said some of the agency’s officials live in Uvalde and surrounding communities.\n\nIt provides a supporting role\n\nIn incidents like the one Tuesday, where local authorities are in command of the scene, Border officials often serves in a support role and the agency on command will dictate what they do, a source told CNN, adding they try not to overrule the authorities.\n\nWhile the team would defer to the local command, if they felt there was a need to they could override it. There is no indication yet it occurred at the school this week.\n\nWhen US Border Patrol agents who belong to the specialized unit responded to the school around 12:15 p.m., the officer in charge had already made the determination it was a barricaded subject situation, according to a source familiar with the situation.\n\n“They showed up from where they were and put together the operation hastily,” the source added. “Some of the officers came from the field … and some who were off duty also sped in to respond.”", "authors": ["Faith Karimi"], "publish_date": "2022/05/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/05/29/turning-cincinnati/9735149/", "title": "Turning 14 in Cincinnati: 'I worry about surviving'", "text": "Krista Ramsey and Cara Owsley\n\nIntroduction by Managing Editor Laura Trujillo:On March 21, 14-year-old Jashawn Martin was shot as he passed by a fight on his way to see a friend. Eight days later – a day after she attended Jashawn's funeral – 14-year-old Tyann Adkins was shot to death as she waited to get her nails done. The boy who shot her was 14, as was the boy who called 911 and tried to save her. Not long after, a 14-year-old was part of a robbery at DeSales Market in Walnut Hills that left a father of two begging for his life.\n\nIn the newsroom, we routinely deal with crime – shootings and robberies, death and grief. But somehow these violent episodes crept into our heads and we couldn't get them out.\n\nIt was the number 14.\n\nAll three of us most closely connected to this project – editor, reporter and photographer – have children who are 14 or close to it. We thought we knew 14. But through Jashawn and Tyann, through kids who commit crimes and kids who are their victims, we realized 14 is not easily known.\n\nIn some neighborhoods, 14 is the sweet spot between childhood and adolescence, a time of unguarded emotion and untempered enthusiasm. In others, it's an abrupt introduction into a complex, confusing and sometimes even violent world.\n\nThis project, which we simply call \"14,\" is a rare chance to view three such neighborhoods – Avondale, Evanston and Walnut Hills – through the eyes of the 14-year-olds who live there.\n\nWe don't have the answers to the violence and hopelessness that has taken hold of some young people in those neighborhoods. Neither did the 14-year-olds we interviewed. But as they opened their lives to our questions, we understood that we will never find answers unless we listen better to them.\n\nSo this is our start. We invite you to enter the world of 14.\n\nMalik Nu'qman says the three things he values most in life are his brothers, his mother and his bike.\n\nHis family, in part because they're the buffer between him and the harsher realities of his Avondale neighborhood. His bike, because it's his means to get around it.\n\nAt 14, Malik feels a constant tension between wanting to venture into his community and the fear he'll be jumped or shot if he strays too far. It's not unfounded. This spring, Jashawn Martin and Tyann Adkins – both also 14 – were shot to death within eight days of each other, one in Avondale, the other in nearby Walnut Hills. Malik knew them both.\n\nOn a recent Friday afternoon Malik has just ridden his bike back from Bengals Park on Reading Road, where he spends weekends hanging with his friend Jordan until it gets dark and the park is no longer safe because of fights and drug-dealing. He walks the bike up the 24 steps leading to his house, which he says is slowly sliding down the hillside it sits on and will soon force his family to move. The bike can sit on the porch as long as Malik does, but at night it has to be stored in the living room beside the fish tank. In his neighborhood, he says, you don't leave out what you don't want to be gone.\n\nMalik, who is seriously annoyed by years of adults telling him he's smart and has potential, prides himself on not having to learn things the hard way. Since he was 6 or 7, he has studied TV crime shows to prepare himself for unexpected dangers. He has a plan for what he'll do if someone breaks into his home and comes after his family, which he says has never happened. He has a plan for dodging a drug-related shootout, which he says has happened several times. And he has a plan for staying out of fights that break out in front of him, which he says happen all the time. \"I've never gotten hit by a car, but if I did, I'd ball up. I'd have some damage but I wouldn't get killed,\" he says in his slow, deliberate way. \"I try to think of things before they hit me.\"\n\nThe approach didn't exactly work four years ago when he was 10 and riding his bike to the store to get chips and fruit punch. A bad group of kids was hanging on Reading Road – \"you could say there was a vibe I picked up\" – so he turned down Lexington, only to run into a second group who taunted him and started closing in. He flew his bike by them, got to the store and stayed inside for an hour, trying to decide what to do. When he came out, his bike was gone. He made the half-mile trip home on foot, hiding in backyards and dodging across streets in the dark. It took him two hours. \"All I remember is my heart was beating really fast. I had to get home.\"\n\nHome is where Malik feels the safest. Where he can watch Scooby-Doo and play his favorite video game, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (\"It takes my mind off other things because all I'm thinking is fight and kill.\") cook with his mother, and figure out how to deal with Ms. Watson, his 24-year-old math teacher who alternately frustrates and fascinates him. \"She's like a flickering light,\" he says. He resents that she sometimes blames him for the trouble caused by the boys who sit behind him. \"She points at me. 'Malik, why are you making farting noises?' in this shrill voice.\" Three times he has gone to the office to report her to the principal. \"He really didn't care.\"\n\nMalik admits that he talks too much, tries to \"keep things at average\" with his grades so people don't make fun of him and once was suspended five days for punching someone who was capping on him. \"It affected their face – I gave this person a black eye and a bloody nose.\" He was scared to tell his mother, who makes it her business to know where her son is at any given moment and who, after considering one of his ill-advised actions all night, simply walked into his bedroom the next morning and smacked him. This time, she only asked if he had won or lost. He said he believed he had won, and went to his room on his own to reconsider his behavior. \"I learned I had to control my temper. You can't get people to slow down and stop capping people and everything will be a happy place – it's never going to be like that.\"\n\nMaking peace with life's realities is something Malik is very good at. The day he stayed too long at the Avondale library, saw people emptying out of a car on Burnet Avenue and a man in a white T-shirt pulling a gun from his pants, he just rode his bike as fast as he could for home and said nothing about it to his mother. \"Probably because I was scared she wouldn't let me go outside anymore. I really like to be outside, just not outside to see that.\"\n\nOverall, Malik, whose name means \"the most high\" in Arabic, describes himself as calm, brilliant (he says the word slowly), short-tempered, funny, \"lazy but not lazy at the same time,\" kind, caring, loving. His mother says he's a social butterfly and a good boy who comes into her bedroom before he catches the 6:16 a.m. yellow bus to his Bond Hill charter school, asks if she wants a glass of water and goes downstairs to get her one.\n\nThat's Malik following his Third Rule for How to Treat Females: Always treat a lady like a lady. If she needs something, go get that need. His first rule is never hit a woman, even if she pushes you to the limit. His second is never use a woman and then drop her by the side.\n\nHe says if he ever has children of his own (he thinks he wants two), he will definitely be part of their life. \"If I wouldn't, how would that make their mother feel? That would be breaking all my rules at once.\"\n\nHe saw his own father for just two days when he was 12, he says. \"He gave me his number before he went back to Florida. He called and asked me if I wanted to talk to my sister. That's when I found out I had a sister. I talked to her. All I remember is I asked her favorite color and she said blue. I asked her name and she said Dazina, and then the phone went off. I think my father hung up the phone. I called back and nobody answered.\"\n\nMalik kept calling for the next two years. Then he deleted the number. Asked who the father is in his life today, he says, \"Nobody.\"\n\nWhen he says it, a shadow crosses his face. He says his face goes blank like that sometimes, like when he heard that Jashawn, a boy he used to shoot hoops with in Walnut Hills, had been shot and killed March 21. \"I didn't want him to be hurt. I didn't see him being hurt, but he's dead. I didn't want him to be dead.\" Malik doesn't cry at funerals, in part because there have been so many deaths in his neighborhood and family – including a cousin shot to death in prison – and in part because young males like him have to be smart about when to show their emotions.\n\n\"I have two different personalities. When I'm on the street, I turn ghetto so that I won't be beaten up. I try not to stand out. If I'm in a crowd, I try not to be the weird one. I'd look at someone, and if I knew you, I'd try not to show I knew you.\"\n\nHe slides down deeper into a chair on his front porch and hikes his feet up on a pillar. \"This is the real me,\" he says. \"I wish I didn't have to be two.\" His tone is resigned.\n\nHaving his feet elevated to eye level reminds him of one of two things he worries about: shoes. Girls cap on boys who have broken-down shoes, he says. He's asked his mother for a new pair but she works 60 hours a week providing home care for seniors and people with disabilities, and there are always bills to pay. He hopes this week there's something left in her paycheck.\n\nHis second worry is harder to address. \"I worry about surviving. If I make it through a day without getting hurt and it's a happy day, that's the best day of my life – and if nobody gets hurt. But you can't go a whole day without seeing fights or car crashes, or people getting jumped, shot, anything. If you can get through one day without seeing none of that, that's the best day.\"\n\nHis chances of living to adulthood, he says, are 50-50.\n\nAsked if this is hard to hear, his mother Khad'ja Touray, says, \"Not hard at all because I only have a 50-50 chance. So it's a reality check.\"\n\nLike many boys whose fathers are absent from their homes, Malik feels a responsibility to watch out for his family.\n\nWhen a boyfriend threatened his mother, Malik looked for something sharp to pass her to defend herself. \"I was little, but I did what I could do,\" he says. \"She'd tell me to hide but I wouldn't. It's not my nature to sit and hide.\"\n\nWhich brings Malik back to the matter of his bike, being 14 and his neighborhood. He likes the way the trees are planted in Avondale, how they line the streets. He likes all the colors of the houses. \"It's beautiful, but every day you have to survive. It's beautiful but these killings have to stop.\"\n\nSometimes, if he's unsure if it's safe to go somewhere, he'll cross the street to talk to his mother and make it seem he can't go rather than he's scared to go. \"But I am scared. Sometimes, not always.\"\n\nHe has rules for moving around his community . Never go anywhere a crowd is gathered. Don't go into certain apartment buildings, like the Poinciana on Reading Road, where Tyann Adkins was shot and killed in March – except that he goes there anyway to check up on his cousins who live there. And assume that in any gathering of teenagers, at least a third are carrying a gun. \"When you're in Avondale, they walk around like they're grown but they're not. Grown men have guns but they keep it close. But these guys walk around and flash it out. They want you to see their guns, like, 'If you're messing with me, I'm going to shoot you.'\"\n\nIt's one of the reasons his mother constantly reminds him to be careful and to keep his circle of intimates small. Just like violent things happened to these other kids, she tells him, they can happen to you. You are not exempt.\n\nMalik hears her. He says he starts each day not with prayer, but with hope. Prayer sometimes doesn't work, he says, but hope gets you through the day. Hope and your own best instincts.\n\n\"If I'm going to the store, sometimes I have to take another way to get there. If I go outside, I have to make my way to a point without getting shot or getting into a fight.\" He pauses. \"And I usually make it there. I mean, I'm here now.\"\n\nIt was a crime people couldn't stop talking about -- three teenagers in Halloween masks barging into DeSales Market in East Walnut Hills in the middle of the day, putting a pellet gun to the owner's head, reducing a customer to begging for his life, stealing their wallets and fleeing to a suburban mall to buy clothes with their credit cards.\n\nIt was a ruthless act that belied the boys's age. When their identities hit the street, the name of the youngest - a 14-year-old from Evanston - was passed along as a question.\n\nMalek Green?\n\nMalek Green, the freshman forward who scored 28 points to lift Taft over West High? Malek Green, who gets As and Bs and wants to be a math teacher? Malek Green, known for breaking up small fights and walking away from big ones?\n\nMalek, who didn't have a criminal record and whom nobody thought ever would?\n\n\"I thought it wasn't a really big deal at first. I didn't have to do anything. I was just there. They said, just come in there.\" Two days after his release from juvenile detention, Malek sits at his dinner table, trying to explain his actions. His head is mostly down. His voice is quiet. A monitor is attached to his ankle. His mother, who has made sure Malek has done everything the court asked and apologized to his victims, sits at his side.\n\nOne of his two worst moments, he says, was disappointing her. The second was seeing what they put their victims through. Of the customer, Malek says, \"He was scared and stuff. He said he had kids right there near. And I know a lot of things was going through his mind, like is he going to lose his life.\"\n\nOnly later did Malek realize how easily he could have lost his own.\n\nMalek says one reason teenagers commit crimes is they fear being viewed as a punk, \"getting looked at like a lesser person, or like they're afraid of things.\"\n\nHis mother gives him a long, serious look. \"I need to know the people who I be around,\" he says slowly, soberly. \"If I'm around somebody who's talking about negatives, or about doing something wrong, I need to find an excuse to to leave -- or just walk away.\"\n\nTerri Simpson remembers the moment she first told someone she was pregnant. She was 13, in a summer school program, and she told a friend at the top of a slide.\n\n\"She said, 'Quit lying!' and pushed me down the slide.\"\n\nTerri wouldn't mention her pregnancy again until she was too far along for an abortion.\n\nNow her son Terrion is a toddler who sleeps in her room. \"He doesn't usually stay up late, but I do be tired,\" says the ninth-grader from Avondale, who gets up at 5:10 a.m. to catch a bus to Withrow University High School, leaving her son with her father.\n\nFour days a week, she stays after school until 5 p.m. for tutoring. \"Then I go home, play with him for a minute, give him a bath, feed him, and then I've still got homework.\"\n\nShe says it matter-of-factly, and with a smile. On weekends, she relies on help from her vast group of siblings – \"I'm like the 14th kid.\" Her teachers are supportive and, overall, her friends have stood by her. But she admits having a baby and keeping up with ninth grade is harder than she thought.\n\n\"If I'm taking a test, and I think I can't do it, I think of my son and I think I can't give up. He motivates me.\"\n\nShe smiles again. \"But I don't play a lot.\"\n\nTony Hill knows things a 14-year-old shouldn't know.\n\nLike how it feels at age 10 to be sent outside because his mother had a boyfriend there. And to stay outside all night.\n\nLike what it's like to go to the refrigerator and find nothing – really nothing -- there to eat.\n\nLike breaking that news to his six younger sisters and brothers.\n\nLike breaking into cars and buildings to get money to feed them.\n\n\"When you finally hit that rock bottom, it's like, wow, I just don't care anymore,\" says the Taft eighth-grader who moves among Avondale, Over-the-Rhine and other neighborhoods. \"And your hands get sweaty, and you just do it. When I was breaking into cars, I didn't care whose stuff it was. It just needed to be mine, just so I could feed my family. The only thing that would have made me stop was money.\"\n\nHe's spent time at 2020, the Hamilton County youth detention center. He's been suspended from school for an altercation with a former girlfriend. But he says jail time isn't the answer for any kid. \"When you take somebody to jail, it's not stopping them. It's just making their minds go different – thinking how could I have tricked the cops, how could I have found a different way to run. It's like putting a cover on a fire – it's not going to put it out.\"\n\nWhat has put the fire out for Tony is an AAU basketball team called the Cincy Buckeyes and his coach, Jesse Cheatham, \"who is right at my shoulder telling me what's right.\"\n\nBasketball, he says, is \"my getaway key. When I play basketball, you can't do nothing but get better. As long as I have Coach Jesse, the chances of my being on TV doing something wrong are zero to none.\"\n\nAlexis Lindsay's best day of eighth grade was the first day of school, when her friends were excited to see each other and she got to meet new people.\n\nHer worst was the day she came to school knowing her best friend Jashawn Martin wouldn't be there.\n\nJashawn would walk Alexis home from school, meet up with her at Owl's Nest Park in East Walnut Hills to talk about people or a new song they both liked, and keep an annual Lazer Kraze date on her birthday. Most days they'd stop for a hug on the way to their third bell classes at Withrow University High School.\n\nOn March 21, Jashawn was shot to death at the corner of Essex Place and Taft Road in Walnut Hills. Police say he was on his way to see a friend but stopped to watch a fight.\n\nAlexis says she thought about Jashawn's decision recently, when she went back to Owl's Nest Park. \"I was sitting in a corner and these girls were arguing and then these boys jumped in. I was like, 'My friend just died from watching a fight. I'm going home.\"\n\nAt her school, she says, sometimes people stand on cafeteria tables to get a better view of a fight.\n\nAlexis has always been the steady, quiet friend who people talk to about their problems – so much so that sometimes she's smiled but not really listened. She's listening now.\n\n\"I want to help people,\" she says, wiping tears from her cheeks. \"I want to be there for them to talk to. I want to listen – cause it's hard out here these days.\"\n\nIt was the best moment of Armanie White's junior high football career. Maybe, he says, one of the best of his life. The sixth game of the season for the Withrow Tigers. The coach calls for Number 30. Long, lanky Armanie goes in and catches a Hail Mary pass – with one hand.\n\n\"Everybody was hurraying me, and hitting my shoulder pads and saying good catch.\" Armanie's practiced-passive gaze is gone and he breaks into a smile.\n\nAt 14, being known is an important thing in Avondale, and Armanie White is a kid everybody knows. As soon as he checks in at home after school, \"I leave back out,\" he says. He tries to stay out of the way of bad things, he says, but sometimes they find him. He has a July 5th court date for the theft of a bicycle. He's been to juvenile detention. He's had a warrant out for his arrest.\n\nHis parents warn him. A lot. They tell him bullets don't have names on them, that they can hit anybody. They tell him to be aware of what's happening around him. They tell him to not to hang out at certain spots.\n\n\"And I don't,\" he says. \"But sometimes I'm just there on accident.\"\n\nThat's what he believes happened to his friend Tyann Adkins, who was killed in an Avondale apartment on a Saturday afternoon, waiting to have her nails done. The two had gone to school together since preschool. He calls her \"my little baby.\"\n\nSometimes he hears gunshots when he gets up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. \"I think, somebody's getting shot. Or what if one day that was me? Or, I could get shot just being somewhere at the wrong time.\"\n\n\"Stuff happens anywhere,\" he says, shrugging his shoulders. \"But I'd like to live somewhere peaceful – if I could just find somewhere out there that's peaceful.\"\n\nGrady Chapel lives in Avondale but he hangs out elsewhere – Newport on the Levee, Downtown on Fountain Square, Tri-County Mall. And he always hangs with the same four guys. His brothers.\n\n\"I don't really have friends,\" he says. \"I think of them as associates. I don't think I should have friends. I don't trust nobody, really. You get close to somebody, and they turn their back on you.\"\n\nAt Hughes High School, where he's an eighth-grader, he's an outfielder on the baseball team and an offensive and defensive lineman in football. He says if he had to name an actual friend, he'd probably pick someone he plays sports with. But an incident last year at Bengals Park in Avondale convinced him that his mother was right about never letting your guard down.\n\nA group of teenagers \"came out of nowhere,\" and told Grady they wanted to fight him. An acquaintance who was with Grady said he wouldn't let the fight happen, but didn't have the power to stop it. Grady saved himself by running to a stranger and asking to use her phone to call his mother. \"It was her daughter's birthday, and she didn't want something bad to happen,\" he says.\n\nFor Grady, it was a turning point. \"I don't want to be in Avondale all my life. Nothing's really out there, and something's always happening,\" he says. \"My three oldest brothers have jobs. They're all trying to get money, and that's my plan – to get a job and get money. I trust my mama, my grandparents, my brothers, that's it. I don't really need friends.\"\n\n\"I don't understand how somebody can take somebody else's life.\"\n\nJalen Owensby says out loud what students at her school have been thinking since two of their Withrow classmates, Jashawn Martin and Tyann Adkins, were shot and killed in March.\n\nBut Jalen, who lives in Evanston, has been trying to make sense out of losing people to violence since she was six years old.\n\n\"My uncle came and picked up my cousin and me at school and took us to the hospital,\" the eighth-grader says, remembering back to 2006. \"I saw my brother in the room. I went over to hug him, and he didn't hug me back. And I realized he wasn't there any more.\"\n\nHer 20-year-old brother, Rodney Owensby Turnbow died a day after being shot by an acquaintance. His death came seven years after a cousin, Roger Owensby, died after a struggle with Cincinnati police officers – a death that led up to the 2001 riots. Last summer, another cousin, Justin Owensby, was found shot to death in Westwood.\n\n\"To me, it's a curse, because a lot of my family members are getting killed back to back to back,\" she says. \"If I got shot and killed, it would be hard on my parents. I'm the only kid in the house and my dad already lost one. I plan on moving to Atlanta. I don't want to live in Cincinnati because I don't want to be an innocent female who gets killed.\"\n\nSome of Jamir Parker's friends have started smoking. It's making him think he should be hanging around more positive people. Meanwhile, he's working on stuff of his own. \"I go to school to work on academics. I'm working on basketball and other sports, and on getting taller.\"\n\nJamir, a ninth-grader at Withrow, thinks people his age shouldn't have to act older. \"I mean, it's 14,\" he says. He likes roller skating, going to Kings Island and going to the movies – with females.\n\nDo females like him? His smile is immediate. \"Of course,\" he says.\n\nOne of Jamir's big dreams is getting his mother out of Evanston. He'd like to be a professional athlete, or maybe join the U.S. Army or start his own sporting goods company. \"The first paycheck I get is going to my mother.\"\n\nKids at school joke about selling weed to make money. Jamir says it's something he'll never do.\n\n\"I won't because my dad did it – he sold drugs. I haven't seen him half my life. He should be coming home (from prison) in a couple months or a year. I remember a couple times of seeing him.\"\n\nBut his mother, he says, has always been there. \"We talk all the time. I tell her everything I do in school – if I do something stupid or get in a fight. And I tell her what I'm going to do in my life so I don't turn out like my father.\"\n\nThe fourth Sunday of every month, young people at New Friendship Baptist Church are called to the front of the sanctuary, where they give an accounting of their grades and activities. Jazonee Burton never leaves the podium without a standing ovation.\n\nHer 3.8 grade-point average in double-accelerated classes and her acceptance at Walnut Hills High School bring tears to the eyes of some church members. They've been watching Jazonee grow up since the age of four.\n\nThey've lost neighborhood youth to drugs or violence, so Jazonee's success feels personal, like an answer to prayer.\n\nShe looks across the sanctuary where she regularly sings and performs what she calls \"praise dance.\" \"This church is very important to me. I've learned to know a lot of people here, and I love a lot of people here.\"\n\nJazonee, who lives in Evanston, doesn't hang out on the streets. She doesn't smoke or drink. She doesn't rebel against her mother. She doesn't have a boyfriend.\n\n\"A lot of boys at my school are pretty disrespectful with touching girls. I don't think it should be allowed. I try to keep myself distant from that. I have a lot of friends, but if a boy does something I think is inappropriate, I'll talk to him about and if he does it again, I'll go to an adult.\"\n\nWhat influenced her was one of her pastor's sermons. \"He said we should respect ourselves, to make sure others respect us.\"\n\nKimera Starnes' grandmother used to tell her that God gives his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers.\n\nShe smiles. \"So I thought, I'm the strongest soldier.\"\n\nThe crutches beside her are evidence of her newest battle, a hip fractured while running track for Clark Montessori. Her doctor said it could take weeks to heal; the seventh-grader started walking the next day.\n\nOther wounds, however, took longer.\n\nHer family still mourns the death of her sister, who was killed 11 years ago by her husband. Then two years ago, Kimera's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, her father with lymphoma, and a favorite aunt with diabetes. \"My family was kind of falling apart, and school just wasn't a priority. I got held back.\"\n\nThe tough little tomboy who'd take on kids who taunted her for being dark-skinned turned into a determined adolescent who \"knew how to deal with a setback.\" Kimera, who lives in Walnut Hills, entered therapy, caught up on her studies, ran track, played soccer and volleyball.\n\nNow, among her friends, she's known as a peacemaker. \"When somebody says something to one of my friends, they want to fight. But I'm the one who says, 'Let's just think what happens if you do this.' I come from a family where violence is kind of like a big thing.\"\n\nBy the time he gets to his Walnut Hills Metro stop for the 6:33 a.m. bus that takes him across town to Aiken College and Career High School, Lamon Owens has already put in a decent morning's work.\n\nUp at 5 a.m. three mornings a week and 4 a.m. the other two, the seventh-grader is in charge of getting his three younger siblings up and ready for school. He wakes them, tells them what they're supposed to wear, calls them down to breakfast, pours their cereal.\n\nBefore he and his 12-year-old brother walk out the door, they've done the dishes, wiped out the microwave, sprayed down the counter and swept the kitchen floor. The two switch additional bathroom and kitchen jobs every other week, and they both wash their own clothes.\n\nHis family and friends call Lamon \"Easy,\" and after seven family moves, he knows how to get along with almost anybody, and he's almost always exactly where he's supposed to be. Four nights a week that's at the US Bank Boys and Girls Club in Avondale, and the fifth, he's serving on the Avondale Youth Council.\n\nA part-time job at the council nets him up to $40 every two weeks. Earlier this year, after paying off the last $7 he owed on a bike he bought for himself, he got out of his mom's car at a Walnut Hills gas station, walked up to three homeless people on a nearby street corner and handed each one $10.\n\n\"My sister and brothers were in the car and the second oldest one was like, 'Dude, you could use that.' I was like, I've already gotten the bike I wanted. I don't need the rest.\"\n\nNayla Armstrong has thoughts about being 14, and she is happy to talk them out. She just has to do it quickly because she's leaving for a school field study.\n\nTo the Bahamas.\n\n\"We're studying marine life,\" she says, seated in the lobby of her school, Clark Montessori. \"But it's bittersweet – I'll be away from my family for 10 days.\"\n\nWhen it comes to the worlds of bitter and sweet, Nayla's life has largely been sweet. She's a \"sporty kind of girl,\" she says, who's been swimming and playing basketball since she was 6. Her biggest concern is grades. \"Honestly, I struggle with my grades because I have so much to do.\" Her biggest fans are her parents, 22-year-old sister and 2-year-old niece. \"Everybody in my family takes a part in my life. If they can't do much, they'll show up at a basketball game or a volleyball game. I feel blessed.\"\n\nNayla, who lives on the border of North Avondale and Avondale, is cautious – she calls her mom to tell her where she's going when she walks the family dog, Red – but she feels safe at home and school. \"If there's a conflict, teachers talk to the people who are angry separately, get both sides of the story, then settle it then and there. Usually people get along well here.\"\n\nWhile she loves athletics, she plans on being a veterinarian. \"Sports can get you educated, but it can't get you educated with a degree – and I want a degree.\"\n\nSavannah Howard doesn't it find it hard to picture herself at 19, holding down a job, living in an apartment and going to college at Xavier University or somewhere \"far out\" – which to Savannah means anywhere outside Cincinnati. \"I've never been far out to other places,\" she says somewhat shyly.\n\nWhat's harder for Savannah is figuring out how to navigate her world right now. Every morning she takes Metro bus 11 downtown from her home in Avondale, and catches the 34 to Withrow University High School, where she's a seventh-grader. Every afternoon, after track practice, she and her best friend Destiny reverse the process, hopping off at the Hirsch Recreation Center for dance practice or to rehearse for the Miss Hirsch Beauty Pageant.\n\nBut then comes a 15-minute walk home, during which the girls pass apartment complexes known for drug-dealing and violence.\n\n\"Sometimes when it's not crowds, I feel safe. But when it's crowds, I call my mama.\"\n\nSavannah knows that she is fortunate. Her family lives in a house, not an apartment. Savannah has only moved once in her entire life. And every time she calls, her mother comes for her.\n\nBut some days – not every day – Savannah is still scared in her neighborhood. \"I fear losing my life, losing my mama, my grandma, everybody in my family. I fear guns and knives. I've never seen a gun, except on TV, but I know people who have been shot. And my mom tells me, when the sun comes down, come in. Cause when the sun goes down, bad things happen.\"\n\nA closing note from Krista Ramsey\n\nAt some point in almost every interview Cara Owsley and I did for this project, these 14 year olds broke our hearts. They're programmed to hope, like any young teenagers, but they live in neighborhoods where hope is at best a gamble.\n\nWhat could save them is a community that provides the support, structure and safe spaces to help them save themselves. If you'd like to be part of that support, here are three things you can do:\n\nHelp with summer learning programs, service projects or everyday recreation at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, or help fund their programs. To volunteer, call 513-421-8909, ext. 19, or www.bgcgc.org. To give, make checks to Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, 600 Dalton Ave., Cincinnati 45203.\n\nChange two lives – a young person's and yours – by becoming a mentor with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. More than 977 kids are waiting on you. Or sign up to speak about your career or invite a teen to job-shadow. Call 513-363-5203.\n\nTutor, help with projects, donate or just hang out with kids at the Avondale Youth Council. Information, 513-281-0599. Checks payable to Avondale Youth Council, 3618 Reading Road, Cincinnati 45229.\n\nContact Krista at kramsey@enquirer.com. Read more of her stories here.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/05/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/10/20/2019-detroit-marathon-stories/4046327002/", "title": "2019 Detroit Marathon: These are our favorite tales from the race", "text": "Bill Laitner, Brandon Folsom, Wright Wilson\n\nDetroit Free Press\n\nMore than 26,000 runners participated in the Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon this weekend. Here are some of our favorite stories from Sunday's marathons:\n\n[ 2019 Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon results ]\n\nNewbie does it on new wheels\n\nHe was featured on Friday's front page of the Free Press. And to hear friends tell it, the entire towns of Flat Rock — where he grew up — and Woodhaven, where he trains, were pulling for Sallah Mohamed, 23, who battled back from paralyzing injuries from a 2017 motorcycle crash to make his marathon debut Sunday on a handcycle.\n\nBut not just any handcycle. It was a new $6,000 racer, the gift of Planet Fitness branches across Michigan, presented to Mohamed just three weeks ago at the Woodhaven branch of the fitness chain. That's where he has been a regular, training his upper body with weights while tooling around his neighborhood on a creaky, old-style handcycle. Still, he'd entered the Free Press event, and word of his goal reached the fitness franchise owners.\n\n\"This has been so great,\" he said, as family and friends encircled him outside the tent Disabilities Division athletes. Living up to expectations, Mohamed turned in a respectable 16th place with a time of 1:54:49 on the full marathon's 26.2-mile course.\n\nNow there are (just) two\n\nTwo amazing devotees of Detroit's marathon kept alive their amazing streaks for finishing every full marathon since the first one in 1978.\n\nEd Yee, 67, of Plymouth finished just a few yards ahead of Mark Bauman, 69, of Flushing, but Bauman actually beat his younger counterpart because they were in different staggered starts. Yee finished at 6:35:49, edged by Bauman at 6:24:10.\n\nBut at this point in their running lives, \"the time doesn't matter, not at all,\" Bauman said. Both were elated to finish their 42nd consecutive Free Press marathons. Yet, a bit sad too, that fellow streaker Garry Watson, 76, of Rochester Hills wasn't with them. Watson, reached Sunday night, said he'd entered but scratched, thinking a recent injury would lead to a DNF — did not finish.\n\n\"I'm hoping to get back in the saddle next year,\" he said.\n\nStill married after all those miles\n\nAt last year's Detroit marathon, they each collected serious hardware. No, not the finisher medals — wedding rings!\n\nAnd this year, they renewed their vows at — why not? — the halfway checkpoint. Running has been great for their marriage, said Whitney Phillips, 32, and Steven Phillips, 34, who live in Kentwood, outside Grand Rapids.\n\n\"It's a bonding thing,\" Steven said, sounding quite commitment-oriented, as they hugged at the finish line. Chiming in with an equally partner-enhancing comment, Whitney said: \"I couldn't do it without him. He slows down for me.\"\n\nPutting his race pride out there\n\nSome wear their hearts on their sleeves. Dave Maddix wears his marathon history.\n\nLettering in tattoo-blue makes it plain exactly how many marathons he's notched. And Maddix, 66, of Gaylord, said he's champing at the bit to add another hash mark following Sunday's finish in another full marathon.\n\n\"Everybody keeps saying, 'You're too old.' My wife's afraid I'm going to get hurt. I said, 'You want me to go back to smoking and drinking?' \"\n\nHe said he was limping a little but the satisfaction is well worth it — at the tattoo studio.\n\nPushing for a daughter\n\nTo finish a marathon or half-marathon, you've gotta be on the thin side, right? Wrong.\n\nAll it takes are the right shoes and determination, said Shanna Newbold, 38, of Toledo, Ohio.\n\nShe walked Sunday's half-marathon with a body type that's definitely not typical. But Newbold had a reason — a 13-year-old daughter at home, expecting her mom to return with a finisher's medal.\n\n\"I have a child with special needs and she's very self-conscious. I realized that, if I was going to teach her to love herself, I had to learn how to love myself, by example,\" Newbold said.\n\nNewbold said she knows that running, alone, isn't ideal for shedding weight, but said: \"That's not why I do it. I do it to teach myself to do hard stuff.\"\n\nShe's a big lady with big plans. \"I'm going to do my first half-Ironman, in Grand Rapids,\" she said. That means tacking a 1.2-mile swim and 60-mile bike ride in front of a half-marathon — not easy for any body type. Unless you add good shoes and determination.\n\nPack pickers\n\nAfter winning the international half-marathon, Juris Silenieks was in the middle of an interview with Fox 2 Detroit when Scott Lieberman hugged him from behind.\n\nSilenieks, 26, crossed the finish line in 1:06:24 to take home $2,000 in prize money. Lieberman, 24, placed third with a time of 1:07:38, which was a personal best for the Ann Arbor native and former Michigan State distance runner.\n\nWhen the two left Canada and crossed the Ambassador Bridge back into the U.S. on Sunday, they said they looked at each other and agreed to start picking off the pack.\n\n\"Let's go get the weak guys,\" Lieberman said of their plan. \"Juris got them all, and I was just one person short. It was super fun.\"\n\nSilenieks holds the world record for the fastest half-marathon completed while wearing dress shoes. He won the Hotlanta half-marathon with a time of 1:17:05 while wearing a pair of Wolf & Shepherd's Honey Captoes in 2016.\n\nLost in translation\n\nIt's amazing Russian runner Pelageya Budankova finished the race as quickly as she did.\n\nThe 33-year-old from Moscow thought she was signing up for the international half-marathon only to find out — at the Canadian border — that she had actually signed up for the U.S.-only half. Police saw her wearing the wrong-colored bib and demanded to see her visa.\n\nAfter about a five-minute talk, authorities realized the mishap and directed Budankova to the correct route. She finished the race in 1:13:10, which would have been fast enough to win the women's U.S.-only half had she not received a DNF in the official results.\n\nHer time was about 3 minutes faster than women's U.S.-only half winner Stephanie Pezzullo, of Ocala, Florida (1:16:19), who earned $800 for the victory.\n\n\"This morning, I talked in English, and (race administrators) said I can run,\" Budankova explained, thinking she was supposed to run the international race. \"(They said), 'Yes, it's OK, no problem.' \"\n\nAll in the family\n\nOnly one thing went wrong for Jordan and Amanda Eccleston as the husband-and-wife team completed their first half-marathon together.\n\nThe race emcee announced them as brother and sister when they crossed the finish line.\n\nThe Ann Arbor residents met when they were runners at Hillsdale College. They've been married for seven years.\n\nJordan, 29, grew up in Sterling Heights and has always been a distance runner, but Amanda, 29, from Tecumseh, was a miler on the track team.\n\nBoth were proud of their efforts on the international course.\n\nBloody finish\n\nClumpable cat litter\n\nMegan O'Neil had never competed in a race as long as the international half-marathon, but that didn't stop the former Central Michigan University runner from becoming the women's winner. Even if it led to her throwing up.\n\nAs soon as the 23-year-old crossed the finish line, race officials had to quickly spread cat litter on her vomit.\n\n\"It happens sometimes,\" the Stanwood native said. \"The longest distance race you do in college is a 10K on the track, so I've only built up to that. So it was a big jump.\"\n\n\"(Puking) happens when you're kicking really hard, or for me, it was doing this new distance. My body is not used to racing this long. I just got used to a 30-minute race in spring, so being out here for well over an hour is definitely something I'm still getting used to.\"\n\nShe finished in 1:18:12 but was trailing the lead pack for almost the entire race. During the final 5 miles, she started picking off runners. She got the final runner ahead of her in the last 600 meters.\n\n\"I'm a little bit shocked that I won because this was my first half,\" she said. \"It was really just about going out there and exploring the distance.\"\n\nA zip code away ...\n\nWith Christopher Kipyego finishing 11 minutes ahead of any other competitor, the real battle was for second place. That went to Bryan Burk, who clocked in at 2:30:30, 23 seconds ahead of Samuel Skeels.\n\nBoth Burk and Skeels were hoping to break 2:30, yet both were happy to get personal-best times. Neither of them ran together, and both moved up late in the race from farther back.\n\n“I felt really rough halfway through,” said Burk, 29, the women's cross-country and track coach at Spring Arbor University near Jackson. “I didn’t even know what place I was in until mile 18, and when they told me I was fifth, that’s when I just started going after some people.”\n\nA veteran of eight marathons, second is Burks' best finish.\n\n“Honestly, I was like top three would be sweet because I was fifth four years ago, so I’m super happy to be top five, and top three is incredible,” he said.\n\n“I was in seventh or eighth a couple of miles before Belle Isle,” said Skeels, 41, of Adrian. “I’ve always thought Belle Isle makes or breaks it here, and sure enough, coming off Belle Isle is when I ran a couple of guys down.”\n\nWhile the duo peaked late in the race, they were about 2 miles behind Kipyego at the finish — not even in the same ZIP code, literally.\n\n“That’ guy was haulin’, he’s good,” Burk said. “I didn’t even see him.”\n\nQuite the KONUNDRUM\n\nIt’s 7:45 in the normally quiet Indian Village. Do you pump up the runners or wake up the neighbors?\n\nThat’s a conundrum.\n\nBut if you’re Mick Robinson, you do both, because your entertainment handle is KONUNDRUM.\n\nThe 26-year-old Detroit DJ served an upbeat mix of techno, house and electronic music for the competitors as they passed by Mollicone Park.\n\nIt was a party atmosphere 17½ miles into the course — the point where runners begin battling mental fatigue, so any form of inspiration helps.\n\n“It’s a chill vibe, literally chill because it’s cold out here,” he said. “I want to pump them up a little bit, maybe have them dance a little bit while they stretch their legs out and take off to the next destination.”\n\nKONUNDRUM spins tunes full-time at raves, clubs, festivals and special events, but he said he’s more in tune with gigs that end late at night.\n\nDaddy-daughter dance\n\nMiranda Fraser is sure to remember her first trip across the Ambassador Bridge – she ran across it Sunday stride-for-stride with her dad, Rodney.\n\nThey crossed the finish line next to each other while clad in matching black singlets. The only variation was that Miranda’s said “Daughter – 1st Marathon,” and Rodney’s said “Father – 42nd Marathon.”\n\n“He’s been trying to convince me for a few years to run one; he finally broke me down,” said Miranda, 36, of Corunna, Ontario. “We did a couple halfs, but I’ve got two young kids and it’s the time, it’s the effort. I kept joking he caught me in a mental weakness when I agreed, and I had to commit to it,”\n\nNot only did the duo run the race together, they did all their training together as Miranda’s mom watched her kids during all the long runs.\n\n“Every long run I’ve ever done, I’ve done with my dad,” Miranda said. “It’s his determination, and the way he supports me is amazing.”\n\n“She did great,” the proud 63-year-old father said. “It was an awesome day, the weather was perfect, you couldn’t ask for anything better.\n\nScouting around\n\nIt’s hard to know who gets the bigger rush from the Indian Village aid station — the runners who grab water while passing by or the Girl Scouts staffing it.\n\n“It’s just the excitement of the girls, the runners, the excitement that they bring, the different age groups that’s out here running, the cyclers that come through,” said Caren Triggs, leader of the troop based at Detroit’s St. John Lutheran Church. “It just builds you up, makes you feel so good inside to come volunteer and donate your time. I’ve been coming here for 20 years now.”\n\nOver time, the Girl Scouts' mission has remained constant. On Sunday, they were stationed on Burns, in front of Detroit Waldorf School.\n\n“This is a good spot for us, because we like cheering them on, getting them excited, keeping them moving, keeping them going,” Triggs said. “We’ve also have had the last people that come through and they say we are the last station that’s still set up, so they’re excited. We’re still cheering them on all the way through the end.”\n\nEleven-year-old Clara Antaki, from a troop in Birmingham, enjoyed her first opportunity to work the marathon, even though she didn’t know any of the runners personally.\n\n“It’s different from what we’ve usually done, but we want to start doing things like this to help out more people and try to be more of a community,” she said.\n\nQuite the feet\n\nAs a resident of Detroit’s West Village, Penn Greene ran past his parents’ house and his own house.\n\nBut he didn’t think for one minute about grabbing a fresh pair of shoes.\n\nThe 31-year-old Greene ran the entire marathon route in sandals, finishing in 3:14:51.\n\n“My feet feel great,” he said. “I have all of my toenails, which is really nice.”\n\nA veteran of 11 Detroit Marathons, Greene started running in sandals several years ago.\n\n“I was running on the beach and loving the feeling of being kind of unburdened, but you can’t really run barefoot in the city because of broken glass,” he said. “They’re usually pretty good for summer running, fall running. They’re 40 bucks for a pair and I run through them, it’s good.”\n\nWhat does Greene look for in a running sandal?\n\n“Thinner is better, no arch support, cheap,” he said. “Once it starts snowing, I’ll switch into shoes.”\n\nDiving right in\n\nWhat did Adrianna Waack get for finishing 26.2 miles?\n\nA medal, a banana, a bouquet of roses — and a shower of glitter confetti from her Wayne State University swimming teammates.\n\n“It looks like the majority of my team came out to support me,” said the 20-year-old from Auburn Hills. “Swimmers don’t really run, so I definitely needed the support.”\n\nThe Warriors volunteer at the marathon — they staffed the first-aid station just before the 2-mile mark on Fort St. approaching Mexicantown — but Waack decided to take things several thousand steps farther.\n\n“It was fun just to be able to run past them at the beginning,” she said. “The first third I was definitely going too fast, but I felt really good and I might do it again. Toward like a little bit past halfway, I was thinking it’s hurting a little bit now. And then the hardest part might have been the last five miles.”\n\nWaack’s main event in the pool is the mile, so doing an endurance event is nothing new for her. There are several similarities.\n\n“I think it’s just being able to stay headstrong,” she said. “Swimming the mile does not take four hours, but you definitely have to know to pace yourself and stay strong, and you’ll finish.”\n\nWe are the world\n\nNicaragua and Lebanon are half a world away from each other, but they share many of the same struggles, two marathoners discovered Sunday.\n\nDanys Novoa, originally from Nicaragua but living in Grosse Pointe Woods, and Rami Haddad, originally from Lebanon but living in Novi, crossed the finish line flying the flags of their homelands. The men finished within minutes of each other before meeting for the first time.\n\n“We just came to participate in the race all the way from Nicaragua and here we are in Detroit having fun, and giving all the energy for my country,” Novoa said. “When we put the flag like this way (upside down), it’s a way to protest against our president, who’s a dictator, that’s how we spread the message of peace for Nicaragua. We’re going through a very difficult process of a revolution and I was persecuted in my country but I came to represent, and say we’re representing freedom.”\n\nHaddad said, “I’m running for Lebanon for sure today because we have over 1.5 million people on the streets right now. We’re going to Dearborn in one hour to protest against the corruption in Lebanon. We have billions of dollars in debt because we’ve had the same corrupt government (there) for over 20 years. I wish the best for Lebanon.”\n\nNovoa and Haddad had not met before Sunday’s race.\n\n“Our values are the things that connect us as humans, we all want to be healthy, we all want to be wealthy, we all want our country to be safe,” Novoa said. “This is why we’re running today. For peace, for harmony.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/03/06/iowa-tornado-recovery-winterset-ef-3-deadly-path-recovery-heal-mourn/9403118002/", "title": "Iowans help clean up, recover along 2022 tornado's deadly path", "text": "Editor's note: The Register is bringing back these stories around the anniversary of the Winterset tornado that killed six people on March 5, 2022.\n\nBetty Hope stood on the rubble of her home listening for the desperate whines of her missing cat.\n\nWhat remained of her worldly possessions — rugs, books, papers, family knickknacks — splayed out in all directions, items left strewn throughout her yard like pick-up sticks by Saturday night’s powerful tornado.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2019/10/16/monument-women-playground-scare-dali-theft-news-around-states/40325765/", "title": "Monument to women, playground scare: News from around our 50 ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nBirmingham: The National Park Service has named a superintendent to oversee new civil rights historical sites in Birmingham and Anniston. The federal agency says Kris Butcher will take over at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Freedom Riders National Monument starting Oct. 27. Both sites were created during the final days of the Obama administration, and both are undergoing work to get them ready for the public. The Birmingham site encompasses parts of the city’s historic downtown black business district, including the hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed during demonstrations in 1963. The Anniston site marks the bus station where interracial Freedom Riders were attacked in 1961. Their bus was attacked again and burned a few miles away.\n\nAlaska\n\nKodiak: Wildlife authorities have warned residents to be aware of Kodiak bears after multiple sightings and encounters were reported near residential areas. Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Friday that Alaska Wildlife Troopers confirmed at least three bears could be recognized as frequent visitors to areas inside Kodiak city limits. Troopers say Kodiak bears often break fences and gates and enter vehicles in search of food. Authorities say the animals are learning to break into unlocked vehicles by opening the doors with their teeth. Wildlife officials say Kodiak bears are a subspecies of brown bears and are known as the largest bears in the world. Officials say residents are urged to carry pepper spray and bells especially when hiking, walking a dog in the dark or on foggy days with low visibility.\n\nArizona\n\nGrand Canyon National Park: Invasive fish species have long been a challenge for scientists in the Grand Canyon because they attract fishermen but can devour threatened native species. Now, the National Park Service is ready to try a new approach to keeping things in balance: paying people to harvest one of the worst offenders, the brown trout. These invaders like to eat other fish, including the canyon’s endangered native species, the humpback chub. Anglers already have to have a fishing license, and many simply fish for sport, using the “catch and release” practice. The new plan would have them catch the fish and remove them – and pay for the effort. Also, according to a Park Service statement, tribal youth from the 11 tribes with cultural and historic ties to the Grand Canyon will be offered guided fishing trips to Lees Ferry Reach, where the incentives will be offered.\n\nArkansas\n\nNorfolk: State and local officials have dedicated a new historical marker at the Jacob Wolf House. The double-sided sign briefly explains the history associated with the structure, originally built by Jacob Wolf in 1829 to serve as the first permanent courthouse for what was then Izard County. The two-story structure was built overlooking the White and North Fork rivers in the now-defunct town of Liberty, whose land now is part of the modern city of Norfolk. The building has a central breezeway on the first level, often called a dogtrot. The large upper room that extends over the breezeway was used as a courtroom, while rooms on the ground level were used as the county clerk’s office and as a post office. In 2012, the National Park Service declared that the Wolf House was the last remaining two-story, dogtrot public structure left in the United States.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSan Francisco: Authorities say a brazen thief stole a Salvador Dali etching valued at $20,000 from a gallery, then walked off down the street with the work in his hand. KGO-TV says the etching entitled “Burning Giraffe” vanished Sunday afternoon from an easel at Dennis Rae Fine Art off Union Square. Gallery Director Angela Kellett says the 1960s etching was normally secured with a lock and cable, but they’re missing. It’s unclear whether the thief cut them off earlier or during the bare 30 seconds he was in the store before stealing the piece. Surveillance cameras caught the man strolling down Geary Street with the etching. Kellett says the limited-edition piece is very well known and unlikely to be sold online. Anyone with information on the theft can contact police.\n\nColorado\n\nFort Collins: A woman who was arrested outside her apartment complex by an off-duty Fort Collins police officer has sued both the officer and the city. Attorney David Lane filed the lawsuit Oct. 4 on behalf of 27-year-old Kimberly Chancellor seeking compensation and damages for physical injury, emotional distress, and other pain and suffering. Chancellor says officer Stephen Sparacio used excess force during the October 2017 arrest at a parking lot near Colorado State University. Authorities say Sparacio followed Chancellor on his motorcycle after reporting careless driving. Witnesses say Sparacio pinned her to the ground before calling on-duty officers. An internal police department review and a review by the Citizen Review Board determined Sparacio violated policies during the arrest but couldn’t say if he used unnecessary force.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: A preliminary report by investigators on the B-17 crash that killed seven people at the city’s airport this month does not shed light on the possible cause. The National Transportation Safety Board said in the report Tuesday that the wreckage has been kept for further examination. The World War II-era bomber crashed and burned after experiencing mechanical trouble on takeoff from Bradley International Airport the morning of Oct. 2. The plane was carrying 13 people, and the two pilots were among those killed. A third member of the flight crew and four passengers were seriously injured. Another passenger and one person on the ground suffered minor injuries.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: Some schools in the state have incorporated breath work, mindfulness and meditation practices into their everyday offerings. Delaware State News reports such techniques have made their way into districts that say the practices help both students and teachers. Smyrna School District Superintendent Patrik Williams says the district is incorporating mindfulness techniques in the hopes of supporting social and emotional learning in the classroom. He said such techniques reduce stressors and distractions while allowing participants to better concentrate. The Milford and Caesar Rodney school districts and the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County also have added the practices to their repertoire. Principal Karin Jakubowski, of North Star Elementary in Red Clay, says the practices are critical to the district, which has seen a drop in behavior referrals.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Public and charter schools in the district are set to get at least $20 million more in funding this academic year. The Washington Post reports the funding increase comes after the public school system struggled with a $25 million deficit in the fiscal year that ended last month. District Deputy Education Mayor Paul Kihn says all schools will get increased per-student funding in fiscal year 2020 as a way to prevent another budget gap. Kihn says the system reduced the gap through non-personnel savings and strategic hiring. He says officials will continue to work on resolving the gap, which Kihn says was influenced by the hiring of more experienced teachers than anticipated. The city has until Nov. 7 to finalize its books. District law bars agencies from carrying debt between fiscal years.\n\nFlorida\n\nDade City: Authorities say a Florida man repeatedly called 911 to report that his roommate had stolen his marijuana. A deputy for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office posted a Twitter response to the man’s calls Saturday night: Stop calling. Deputy Neal Zalva says in the Twitter video that he called the man back to tell him to quit contacting the sheriff’s office about his stolen marijuana. Zalva recorded the video as part of the agency’s #TweetAlong program, which allows viewers to get a behind-the-scenes look at the police work by the deputies. Recreational marijuana use remains illegal in Florida. A sheriff’s office spokesman says no charges were filed against the caller. Sheriff’s office communications director Kevin Doll said Tuesday they just wanted the man to stop calling about the stolen weed.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Alarmed by a rash of recent hospital closings, state lawmakers are requiring rural hospital executives to receive training on subjects including financial management and strategic planning. Nearly all of the scores of rural hospitals in the state must ensure their board members, CEOs and chief financial officers complete at least eight hours of classes by the end of 2020 or risk fines and the loss of a tax credit. The requirement included in legislation last year aims to improve their decision making. Health care experts say they are not aware of any other state that requires training solely for rural hospital officials. Many rural hospitals in the U.S. are struggling amid changes to health care markets. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 – seven in Georgia.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: State officials say an increase in sexually transmitted diseases to the highest numbers reported in decades can be linked to the prevalence of online dating. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have increased significantly in Hawaii. The state Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Services Branch says all three infections were at or near their highest rates in about 30 years. State health officials say more connections with many more people are made rapidly through online dating services. Officials also say there has been decreasing reliance on condoms or prophylactics for protection against acquiring or spreading STDs. Officials say the Hawaii figures correspond with the national rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections, which have risen for the fifth year in a row.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: A utility has reached an agreement involving paying homeowners who generate electricity with rooftop solar panels and other renewable energy methods. Idaho Power and the staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission have submitted the agreement to the commission for its possible approval. The Sierra Club, the city of Boise, the Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association and others also took part in the negotiations. An increasing number of Idaho Power’s 560,000 customers are generating power and being credited for extra power sold back to the utility. Idaho Power says the current system allows homeowners to sell power without paying their fair share to maintain the company’s vast electric grid. Solar power backers fear killing incentives for homeowners to produce clean energy. The agreement calls for the commission to hold public hearings.\n\nIllinois\n\nRockford: A local manufacturer’s polymer 3D printer has been declared the globe’s largest by the Guinness Book of World Records. The Rockford Register-Star reports Ingersoll Machine Tools’ printer dubbed MasterPrint was sold to the University of Maine. The school produced a boat measuring 25 feet long and weighing 5,000 pounds in less than 72 hours. That earned two more Guinness records: largest 3D-printed boat and largest 3D-printed object. Ingersoll engineer Nate Hang says the university intends to make molds for the boat-building industry. It will work with the federally sponsored Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create a plastic containing wood fibers. That’s safer for the environment than other materials. Ingersoll CEO Chip Storie says the primary goal for MasterPrint’s development was to create large aerospace tools.\n\nIndiana\n\nSouth Bend: The University of Notre Dame is shuttering its coal-fired power plant a year ahead of schedule thanks to a sustainable energy plan that’s seen the campus embrace renewable energy. Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins got behind the wheel of a truck Monday and dumped the final load of coal, which will likely burn through Wednesday. Jenkins announced in 2015 the school’s target of ending coal use at the plant by the end of 2020 and reducing its carbon footprint by at least half by 2030. Currently, Notre Dame has cut its carbon emissions by 50% from 2005 levels. The plant will be replaced by two 5.5-megawatt natural gas turbines, which Notre Dame started using earlier this year. Jenkins says it’s important to nurture the environment for future generations.\n\nIowa\n\nSioux City: The city has taken its first formal step to lift its ban on pit bulls. The City Council voted 4-1 on Monday for an ordinance that would remove the ban adopted in September 2008. It came after pit bulls or mixes accounted for a high number of dogs in the city that had been declared vicious or at risk. The current ordinance describes a pit bull as an American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, or any dog that looks like or has characteristics of being one of those breeds. Two more readings and votes on the new ordinance are required for the new policy. City staff research says animal control regulations across the country are moving away from breed-specific provisions.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: A handful of counties in the state are being urged to upgrade their voting machines to a voting system that creates a paper record of each vote. The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports the American Association for the Advancement of Science urged Geary, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Harvey, Sumner, Wallace and Wilson counties to upgrade to newer voting machines. Those eight counties currently use machines that record voter choices electronically without creating a paper record. Katie Koupal with the Kansas Secretary of State’s office says fewer than 10 of the state’s 105 counties use election equipment that doesn’t create a paper trail. She says several counties are planning to buy new equipment before next year’s presidential elections.\n\nKentucky\n\nRogers: An 18-foot replica of President Donald Trump’s border wall in the Red River Gorge area is being scaled not only by experienced mountain climbers but also by novices and young children. One climber even scaled it while juggling. “You don’t tell a climber that something can’t be climbed or that it’s impossible,” says Rick Weber, the 75-year-old mountain climber who built the replica. Weber, a retired engineer from Indianapolis, decided to create the wall after hearing Trump claim in September that a new section of the wall along the boundary with Mexico is “virtually impenetrable” and “can’t be climbed” because, the president said, 20 mountain climbers struggled to climb a prototype. So a skeptical Weber built his 18-foot wooden replica of the steel border wall at Muir Valley, a nonprofit nature preserve and rock-climbing park he founded along with his wife.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The city’s fire chief says chances of a rescue are diminishing as a search through unstable wreckage continues for a man missing since a hotel under construction collapsed Saturday. Chief Tim McConnell gave an update Tuesday, saying authorities are still hoping for the best. Parts of the 18-story Hard Rock Hotel gave way Saturday morning. Two workers died at the scene. Two construction cranes and the remaining part of the collapsed building remain in danger of toppling. The situation could take weeks to resolve. That means indefinite closure of two major thoroughfares, streetcar lines and bus routes adjacent to the French Quarter and business district. Among businesses affected are those operating in two 1920s-era historic sites: the opulent Saenger Theatre and the New Orleans Athletic Club.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Agriculture authorities say an invasive pest that can damage crops such as cabbage and broccoli has been found in the state for the first time. The pest is an insect called the Swede midge. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry says the UMaine Cooperative Extension made the discovery, the first confirmed appearance of the midge in Maine. The department calls the midge a “serious insect pest” because its larvae feed on the growing tips of plants and disfigure them or prevent their proper growth. It says there have been reports of broccoli damage in some parts of the state stemming from the pest. The Swede midge is native to Europe and Asia and was first found in the U.S. in New York in 2004.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: An education panel has voted to recommend updating the state’s funding formula between the state and local governments to phase in a major increase in money for schools. The work group is recommending that a state commission phase in new spending that will reach about $4 billion a year for K-12 a decade from now. Under the proposal, the state would contribute about $2.8 billion and local governments would contribute $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2030. The recommendations will go to the full Kirwan Commission, which has been working on investing in early childhood education and increasing teacher pay. It also has focused on implementing rigorous curricula, providing more support to struggling schools and creating accountability for underperformance. The commission will make recommendations to lawmakers this year.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nEastham: Cape Cod officials are expected to release a long-awaited report on ways the tourist destination can deal with a growing population of great white sharks. The Woods Hole Group will present its findings Thursday at Nauset Regional High School in Eastham. Cape Cod National Seashore officials, state lawmakers, town administrators and representatives from the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy will also be present to take public comments and answer questions. The Bourne-based Woods Hole Group was tapped for the $49,950 study after two shark attacks on humans last year, including Massachusetts’ first fatal attack in more than 80 years. The study is expected to examine a range of strategies including deploying sonar detectors, using aerial drones, installing shark barriers, and culling seals and sharks.\n\nMichigan\n\nDetroit: A City Council member is hosting a community forum on the use of facial-recognition technology by police. The event by Roy McCalister Jr., planned for Thursday at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall in Detroit, is expected to focus on how the software will be implemented. The city’s Board of Police Commissioners has approved the police department’s use of the technology to investigate crimes. Images from video surveillance are fed into software, which can search databases and social media for a possible match. The software has been used since 2018, but Chief James Craig had sought a permanent policy. Critics say facial recognition amounts to mass racial profiling in a city that is about 80% black.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: When former Gov. Mark Dayton’s official portrait is unveiled this week, it will feature the two-term Democrat in front of the Capitol building. Dayton tells Minnesota Public Radio he wanted a strong “supporting cast” in the painting to be unveiled Thursday, and the Capitol fit the bill. The building got a $300 million restoration during his time in office. Dayton told MPR the best advice he got on leaving office was to take six months to decompress before jumping into other commitments. He says he’s largely done that, enjoying time spent with his grandsons and feeling no urgency to do anything. Dayton did recently accept a fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He’s also being careful to stay out of politics, including staying neutral on the Democratic field running for president.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: The new Mississippi Lottery will start selling scratch-off tickets Nov. 25. That’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, slightly earlier than expected. The lottery corporation had said for months that the sales probably would begin by early December. The corporation, which announced the start date in a news release Tuesday, also is starting to let convenience stores and other retailers know they have been accepted to sell lottery tickets. Mississippi has been one of six states without a lottery, but lawmakers met in 2018 and authorized the games of chance to help generate money for highways. The Mississippi Lottery Corporation said in August that the Multi-State Lottery Association approved Mississippi for Powerball and Mega Millions. Sales for those games are expected to begin during the first three months of 2020.\n\nMissouri\n\nJefferson City: State officials are developing a public safety campaign aimed at making young people aware of the risks of vaping. Republican Gov. Mike Parson said at a news conference Tuesday that he is directing leaders of the state health, education and public safety departments to develop a statewide campaign within 30 days. The goal is to educate, warn and discourage vaping. State health director Randall Williams says there has been an “explosion” in the number of youths vaping in Missouri and across the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nationwide, vaping is now blamed on about 1,300 illnesses and at least 26 deaths. Missouri has reported nearly two dozen vaping illnesses and one death. Parson calls the campaign a “first step.”\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Authorities evacuated an elementary school Tuesday after officials found what they thought were the remnants of a homemade bomb that exploded, but it turned out to be a plastic bottle filled with nuts and bolts left in the schoolyard. School officials made the discovery shortly before classes began at Rossiter Elementary School. They blocked off the area and called 911, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said. An investigation found the plastic bottle wrapped in black electrical tape was full of washers, nuts and bolts, along with a non-flammable unidentified liquid, Dutton said. There was no detonator. A homeless person found the bottle at a construction site and left it at the playground, Dutton said. No threat had been made against the school, and there were no injuries or damage. “Pretty much it’s solved,” Dutton said.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Youths 15 and younger are encouraged to participate in this weekend’s statewide youth pheasant, quail and partridge season. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says rooster pheasants will be released on 14 wildlife management areas before the 2019 youth season this Saturday and Sunday. Special youth hunts will be held only on the management areas. The hunts are open to the public, and no registration or special permit is required. The management areas are Powder Creek, Oak Valley, Wilkinson, George Syas, Sherman Reservoir, Pressey, Cornhusker, Kirkpatrick Basin North, Branched Oak, Yankee Hill, Arrowhead, Hickory Ridge, Twin Oaks and Rakes Creek. Accompanying adults must be licensed hunters age 19 or older.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: A group of history buffs has formed Friends of Sutro Tunnel to restore the remains of the abandoned, deteriorating town of Sutro at the entrance to a 150-year-old, historic mining tunnel. “We’re restoring the buildings and grounds, not the tunnel,” Kit Carson Weaver, former Carson City assessor and a principal in the group, told the Nevada Appeal. “The tunnel is far too dangerous to allow anyone in there for a tour.” He said restoration is costly, so the group has scheduled a fundraising dinner for Friday. Skilled volunteers are needed, said Pam Abercrombie, a member of the Friends committee, including masons, plumbers, electricians, professional landscapers, equipment operators, contractors and engineers, along with people with less specific skills but a passion for Nevada’s mining history.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The head of the largest agency in the state’s government is heading to the private sector. Jeff Meyers has been commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services since early 2016, when he was appointed by former Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. In a letter to employees, Meyers said he will not seek reappointment when his term ends in January and instead will pursue private-sector opportunities. Meyers previous served as legal counsel to the state Senate, legal counsel to former Gov. John Lynch and director of intergovernmental affairs at the health department. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu on Monday called Meyers a tireless advocate for vulnerable children and praised him for overseeing expansion of the state’s Medicaid program and prioritizing improvements in its mental health system.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nVentnor: The high tides and strong winds that lashed the Jersey shore over the weekend took a piece of it with them. Conditions that pummeled the beaches from Thursday through Sunday morning caused beach erosion that varied in severity along the coast. Some saw large cliffs gouged into the side of what had been large beach berms during the summer. Stewart Farrell, a beach expert with Stockton University, says virtually all the state’s ocean beaches are flatter as a result of the wind and waves. “Sand was shifted seaward into about 10 feet of water,” he said. “These deposits will form offshore bars in a few weeks.” At least some of that sand is expected to be returned to the shoreline over the winter by wave action. Farrell, director of Stockton’s Coastal Research Center, said the northeast part of every barrier island in the state except Long Beach Island “took a hit of significant scale.”\n\nNew Mexico\n\nLas Cruces: The state is expected to lead the U.S. in pecan production this year as growers prepare for the upcoming harvest. The U.S. Agriculture Department’s statistics service says production in the Southwest state is forecast at a record-high 97 million pounds. That would mark a 6% increase over 2018. Production in Georgia is expected to hit about 76 million pounds, followed by Texas at 47 million pounds. Pecan production in the United States overall is expected to increase this year by more than 20%, with growers harvesting an estimated 281 million pounds. New Mexico agricultural officials say they’ve been working to build relationships with pecan buyers in other countries amid a tariff war with China.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: A pack of handsome brothers is getting settled at the Bronx Zoo. The foxlike wild dogs – called dholes – were born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2016. The trio, named Roan, Apollo and Kito, have brownish-red coats dappled with white markings, as well as bushy tails. Dholes are native to parts of southern and central Asia. The Wildlife Conservation Society says populations of the pups are endangered by development, hunting and diseases from domestic dogs. The society’s long-term plans include acquiring female dholes for a breeding program. An exhibit formerly occupied by polar bears has been repurposed for the dholes’s habitat. The Bronx Zoo’s last polar bear, Tundra, died in 2017 at age 26.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nCasar: A man says he plans to spend a night hunting for a fabled North American creature because he found a footprint that seemed to be larger than a human could make. Electrician Joe Scarborough tells WCNC-TV that he was working near Casar last week when he spotted what appeared to be fresh footprint about 13 to 14 inches long. “I was looking at that real close and … I said ‘Somebody’s got a big foot,’ ” he says. Scarborough says he now plans to spend the night in the area with some game cameras to see what happens – because “why not?” He says it’s hard to believe in any sort of supernatural finding until you see it for yourself.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nGrand Forks: A University of North Dakota political science major has been chosen to fill a Grand Forks House seat left open by the Republican incumbent who resigned to take a job in Minnesota. Twenty-one-year-old Claire Cory was chosen by party activists Friday to fill out the remainder of Jake Blum’s term, which ends next year. Blum was first elected in 2016. UND junior Cory says she has lived her entire life in House District 42, which covers northern Grand Forks. She says she will run to keep the seat in next year’s election. North Dakota law allows local party district organizations to choose a successor for an incumbent legislator who dies or resigns. Activists from the departing legislator’s own party are put in charge of finding a successor.\n\nOhio\n\nWhitehouse: A wildlife rehabilitation center says this year has been its busiest ever and is looking for more space. Nature’s Nursery near Toledo says it has taken in more than 3,000 animals this year. The nonprofit center gives medical care to injured and orphaned animals with the goal of releasing them back to the wild. Officials with the organization say they’ve outgrown their current location in Whitehouse and plan on beginning a search for a new location next year. They tell The Blade that the ideal location would be 3 to 5 acres in a country setting with an existing building or where a new facility could be built. The organization also is looking for corporate sponsorships to increase its funding, which largely comes from donations.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The board that sets the salaries of state lawmakers has voted to boost legislative pay by 35% next year, just two years after cutting lawmakers’ pay. Jake Lowrey, spokesman for the Office of Management & Enterprise Services, says the Legislative Compensation Board cut legislators’ pay by 8.8% in 2017. Board Chairman Wes Milbourn said at the time that Oklahomans were frustrated with the Legislature. But since then, the board membership has changed. The new board voted 7-2 Tuesday to authorize the raises from $35,021 to $47,500. The legislators’ first pay raise since 1997 will take effect Nov. 18, 2020. The legislative session typically runs for four months. The Legislative Compensation Board is appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate pro tem. The board also has two nonvoting members.\n\nOregon\n\nThe Dalles: Two Pacific Northwest tribes are calling for the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. The Lummi Nation and the Yakama Nation said Monday that the U.S. government violated a treaty from 1855 when it built the concrete dams on the lower Columbia River. The construction of the Bonneville, John Day and Dalles dams destroyed important native fishing sites and deeply impacted the migration of salmon. The Yakama traditionally fished for salmon along the river, and the Treaty of 1855 guaranteed the tribe access to those sites even after the tribes ceded 11.5 million acres to the United States. Salmon are also the preferred prey of endangered orcas, which were traditionally hunted by the Lummi Nation.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Gov. Tom Wolf is telling President Donald Trump he won’t be using state authority granted last month to refuse to accept refugees. The Democratic governor wrote Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday to say his state will continue to welcome those facing persecution and danger, including people whom other states won’t accept. Wolf’s letter says refugees have long improved communities, and he’s dismayed that the United States is “sharply reducing” its commitment to vulnerable families around the world. Trump, a Republican, last month slashed the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. and for the first time gave state and local governments the authority to refuse to accept them. The president’s order requires state and local officials to provide public written consent to receive refugees.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The mayor says he would consider moving a Christopher Columbus statue that was vandalized. Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza told WPRO on Tuesday that he’d entertain the idea of moving the statue from the city’s Elmwood neighborhood to the Federal Hill neighborhood, which is known for its Italian American community and Italian restaurants. His spokeswoman later said that any move would require input from the community. “It is a treasure,” Elorza said. “So if there’s a way that we can preserve it in a way that makes more sense and satisfies all the constituencies, then I’m all for that.” The statue was one of several Columbus statues around the nation vandalized with red paint and messages against the 15th-century Italian navigator Monday, when the U.S. holiday named for one of the first Europeans to reach the Americas was being celebrated.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The U.S. Supreme Court has shut down the state’s attempt to complete a nuclear fuel facility. The justices declined Tuesday to hear the state’s appeal of a ruling allowing the federal government to stop construction. The government has already spent $8 billion on the plant, under construction at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. The U.S. Energy Department has said it should cut its losses because the plant is over budget and decades away from completion. A federal appeals court ruled last October that the department could stop construction. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would have taken plutonium used in nuclear weapons and processed it into nuclear plant fuel. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says the government is still obligated to remove plutonium from the site somehow.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nRapid City: The Internal Revenue Service has hit Pennington County with more than $87,000 in penalties for mishandling payroll taxes. The Rapid City Journal says county auditor Cindy Mohler has asked the Pennington County Commission to authorize payment of the penalties. The IRS imposed the penalties this month after examining the county’s employment tax records from 2016 to 2018. Officials say the penalties are the result of a long-standing payroll-tax practice. Mohler says county employees have the option of being paid twice a month, instead of monthly. The IRS says the county wrongly did not withhold payroll taxes from the mid-month checks. Instead, the county waited until the end of each month to withhold payroll taxes from employees’ total monthly pay.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: The Memphis Zoo has introduced its first newborn jaguars in more than 25 years. The Daily Memphian reports the two sister jaguars were born Sept. 4, but their gender wasn’t revealed until last week. Head veterinarian Felicia Knightly said they’re in great shape and “look absolutely perfect.” The cubs’ parents, Philomena and Diego, are on loan for breeding as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for jaguars. The cubs’ progress will determine when they make their debut to the public. A contest will be held to decide names for the cubs. The zoo will post social media updates on the cubs’ development and is considering putting in a live webcam to show the cubs.\n\nTexas\n\nSan Antonio: A Native American group is calling on officials to slow down the renovation of the Alamo church, after archaeological reports showed human remains were found at the property. The Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation filed a federal lawsuit last month seeking to halt the $450 million makeover of the sacred shrine that’s on track to be completed by 2024. The San Antonio Express-News reports the group wants a say in what happens to unearthed human remains because many group members are descendants of people who lived near the site. Ramon Vasquez, an executive member of Tap Pilam, said Monday on Indigenous Peoples Day that the discovery of bones and bone fragments validate his group’s concerns. The Texas Historical Commission has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.\n\nUtah\n\nOrem: A state records committee has ruled that Utah Valley University Police can no longer charge student reporters for incident reports. The Daily Herald reports the committee unanimously voted in favor of making the incident reports free to UVU student journalists. Police used to provide the documents to student reporters for free but began charging them $5 per report in 2017. The Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists helped students at the UVU Review, the campus newspaper, challenge the move. Chapter President Eric Peterson said the decision will help students keep the public safe and informed. He said campus police shouldn’t “price reporters out of doing their jobs.” UVU spokesman Scott Trotter said the school respected the committee’s decision and would abide by it.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: A local middle school teacher is the state’s 2020 teacher of the year. The Vermont Agency of Education announced Tuesday that Elisabeth Kahn, a French and Spanish teacher at Main Street Middle School, has earned the title. Education Secretary Dan French says Kahn is an inspiring and talented teacher who is focused on the success of her students. He says she is also a leader working to help her colleagues implement best practices. Kahn will start her tenure as Vermont Teacher of the Year on Jan. 1. She says she is particularly excited to work with colleagues around the state to identify ways to help struggling students overcome barriers to education.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: About a thousand people filled Capitol Square on Monday for the dedication of statues honoring some of the state’s trailblazing women, part of a monument organizers say is unlike any other in the country. The new women’s monument, about a decade in the making, will eventually feature a dozen life-sized bronze statues dotting a granite plaza a short distance from the Capitol in Richmond. Girl Scouts pulled blue drapes off the seven figures being dedicated Monday, including Native American chieftain Cockacoeske and Jamestown colonist Anne Burras Laydon, as the women’s names were read aloud. Sculptor Ivan Schwartz called it “a new beginning, a deeply significant moment in the history of the nation, as we begin to address centuries-old sins of omission.” The women – who also include a frontierswoman, a dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, an entrepreneur, and educator and a suffragist – were chosen from more than four centuries of Virginia’s history.\n\nWashington\n\nBremerton: A man was charged with a felony assault after police say he attacked his roommate believing he acknowledged being a vampire. A Kitsap County court charged the 40-year-old Bremerton man Monday after he was suspected of using a metal rod to nudge his roommate in the chest. The roommate told county deputies that the suspect accused him of being a vampire, threatened to kill him and struck him with a metal rod. The roommate says he feared his life because the suspect has severe mental health issues and is physically larger. The suspect’s brother told deputies the roommate jokingly said, “Is that what the kids are calling me these days?” Authorities say the suspect believed the roommate acknowledged being a blood-sucking creature.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nMorgantown: Farmers more than quadrupled the state’s industrial hemp crop this year. Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt’s office says about 130 farmers grew 641 acres of industrial hemp in 2019, up from 155 acres in 2018. And more is coming: The department’s statement says more than 400 applications have been submitted for the 2020 growing season, double last year’s numbers. Licensed grower Mary Hastings told The Dominion Post that it’s great news for farmers, showing real potential for profit. Hemp is a type of cannabis from the same plant species as marijuana that mostly lacks intoxicating compounds. It’s used to make textiles, plastics and cannabidiol products.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The nation’s largest independent spice retailer is peppering Facebook with ads calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Wisconsin-based Penzeys Spices spent nearly $100,000 on Facebook ads last week calling for Trump’s impeachment, making it one of the largest social media spenders on impeachment to date. And the company plans to spend another $397,000 on Facebook posts encouraging the impeachment of Trump. Facebook says Penzeys already spent nearly $96,000 on ads supporting impeachment between Oct. 4 and Oct. 10. Penzeys CEO Bill Penzey says the attention his unusual stance is attracting will boost his company’s brand and lead to increased sales. House Democrats are pursuing an impeachment inquiry to investigate Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine investigate the business dealings of Joe Biden’s family.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: A recent analysis by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit RepresentWomen ranks the state 26th in the nation for gender parity in elected office. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that in a state known as the Equality State for being the first to give women the right to vote, women currently hold just 16% of the available seats in the Legislature and just 20% of all positions on the county commissions of the state’s five most populous counties. The state has made additional strides in recent years, including the election of the first female mayors in the history of two of its largest cities. However, Jen Simon of the Wyoming Women’s Action Network noted a relative dearth and recent decline of women in elected office at the state levels.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/10/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/02/19/arizona-water-dispute-heats-up-threatening-derail-drought-plan/2910994002/", "title": "Arizona water bill set aside, averting a showdown", "text": "Proposed water legislation that might have upended Arizona’s Colorado River drought plan was set aside by a leading Republican lawmaker following a day of tense debate.\n\nThe dispute over the bill pitted House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who introduced the measure on behalf of a group of farmers and ranchers, against the Gila River Indian Community, whose leader threatened to pull out of the drought deal if the bill went forward.\n\nBowers’ decision to yank the bill from consideration on Tuesday appears to clear the path for Arizona to take a series of steps to finish its piece of the Drought Contingency Plan, which involves taking less water out of Lake Mead to prevent the reservoir from falling to critically low levels.\n\nBut even with what had seemed a difficult snag now somewhat smoothed over, Arizona still needs to finish a list of about a dozen water agreements to make its piece of the Colorado River deal work. And Arizona’s top water managers said they expect completing those deals will take longer than a March 4 deadline set by the federal government.\n\nIf Arizona and California miss that deadline and don’t sign the Drought Contingency Plan, the seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River face an uncertain process. Federal officials have said they plan to ask the seven governors for input on steps that should be taken to prevent the levels of Lake Mead from continuing to fall. It’s not clear how that process would end, or whether it would spark more disagreements.\n\nOn Tuesday afternoon, though, one big potential obstacle appeared to be out of the way after Bowers announced at a House committee hearing that he was pulling House Bill 2476.\n\nThe legislation would have repealed the state’s water-rights forfeiture law, a measure often called \"use it or lose it,” under which water rights may be forfeited if water hasn’t been used for more than five years. The bill would have changed the law so that not using a water right wouldn’t result in automatic forfeiture.\n\nThe legislation was aimed at addressing the concerns of farmers and ranchers in the Upper Gila Valley in southwestern Arizona, where the Gila River Indian Community has filed forfeiture cases against some landowners.\n\nBowers said in a statement that he will not move forward with the bill but will “continue to fight” for landowners in the Upper Gila Valley. He said because the bill “has nothing to do with the Drought Contingency Plan, I refused to include it in those discussions.”\n\nBowers said he didn’t want to give the Gila River Indian Community “veto power” over water legislation, but that he also didn’t want to interfere with ongoing litigation that may affect well owners along tributaries of the Gila River. He said those factors, as well as the deadlines the state is facing, led him to hold the bill.\n\nBowers said he still thinks the bill focused on an important issue that has yet to be resolved.\n\n“The concept of forfeiture of water rights is a terrible possibility for these thousands of rural folks across Arizona,” Bowers said in a statement. “And it deserves the attention of the Arizona Supreme Court in seeking a just and reliable remedy.”\n\nWater rights are 'most important thing'\n\nHe pulled the bill after a committee hearing where farmers and ranchers spoke in support of the proposal and said cases brought by the Gila River Indian Community are hurting their livelihoods.\n\nTim Klump, a rancher who works in Cochise and Greenlee counties, said the legislation would help strengthen water rights in the state.\n\n“To me and my family, water rights are the most important thing a landowner can have in Arizona,” Klump said. “And no one should be able to take your water rights just because you don’t use your water. Just like you shouldn’t be able to take my truck if I don’t use my truck for five years.”\n\nMembers of the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee listened while Lois Reynolds stood at the microphone beside her husband, Leon, and explained their concerns. She said the Gila River changed course over the years and took over about 20 acres of their farmland. When they tried to move the water rights from that portion of the farm to adjacent land, they were denied.\n\n“Please repeal this law,” Reynolds said. “We will be losing everything if we’re next on the list to be sued by the Gilas in a forfeiture action.”\n\nAs she made her appeal, her voice quavered with emotion and tears welled in her eyes.\n\n“This not only affects us, but it affects our children and grandchildren,” Reynolds said, “who have farming in their blood and would love to continue our family farming operation.”\n\nBowers voiced support for the couple. He also took aim at an earlier remark by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community, who said the bill was introduced because his community sought to enforce the forfeiture law against a group of “powerfully connected parties.”\n\nBowers asked Reynolds: “I’ve met you. Is that a powerful connection?”\n\n“As much as I would like it to be, I don’t think so,” she replied, as laughter erupted in the room.\n\nBowers denounced the court cases that the Gila River Indian Community has brought against landowners under the forfeiture law.\n\n“Ladies and gentlemen, these and others in my view are the salt of the earth, and I do not understand, outside of vengeance, if there’s no water to be gained, why does this happen? Why now are people being sued?” Bowers said. He said nothing the legislation does should affect pending litigation. But in the future, he said, “I do not see how anyone is harmed by removing a law that has never been exercised except for vengeance.”\n\nEmphasizing his frustration with Lewis' description, Bowers also asked Greenlee County Supervisor Richard Lunt: “Do you as a supervisor feel that you’re a powerfully connected party?”\n\n“I hate to beat that drum, but it just grated me so bad,” Bowers said.\n\nWhen Lewis stood to speak, he said the legislation would represent an assault on his community’s water rights, which were secured in a 2004 settlement. He reminded the lawmakers that his late father, Rodney Lewis, helped win that historic settlement after a decades-long legal fight.\n\n“It's a matter of principle that we're talking about here. It's also a matter of law,” Lewis said. “We are a sovereign nation. We don’t take this lightly.”\n\nWhen Lewis took questions from the lawmakers, state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, asked him pointedly: “Gov. Lewis, would you say that you’re powerfully connected?”\n\nLewis paused, looking irritated by the question, then answered.\n\n“I would say that I am powerfully connected to our land and to our water, for over thousands of years,” Lewis told him. “Connected to our creator, yes.”\n\nSpeaking earlier Tuesday during a committee meeting focusing on the drought plan, Lewis called Bowers’ bill unconstitutional and said it represents a direct “attack” on the community’s water rights.\n\n“We view this as a slap in the face of the community,” Lewis said while Bowers listened several chairs away at the same table. “I am confident that the Arizona Legislature will do the right thing and reject this bill outright.”\n\n'Use it or lose it'\n\nLewis argued the bill would interfere with a 2017 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that a group of farmers and ranchers near Safford gave up rights to Gila River water under the law because they hadn't diverted the water for more than five years.\n\nLewis called the bill “the epitome of special-interest legislation that undermines critical principles of Arizona water law.”\n\n“The Community cannot be singled out for legislative attack by the most powerful members of the Arizona House of Representatives, and still view itself as a genuine partner in solving the state’s water crisis,” Lewis told the drought committee, which includes representatives of water districts, cities, farmers, tribes and businesses.\n\nHe said the bill was introduced because the Gila River Indian Community has sought to enforce the forfeiture law against a group of “powerfully connected parties” in the Gila River’s Upper Valley.\n\nLewis said the community has brought a limited number of cases so far to defend its water rights.\n\n“But I can no longer promise that we will hold back any longer,” he said. “My council and my people will not sit idly by while attacked in this way.”\n\nThe Gila River Indian Community’s involvement in the Colorado River drought plan is key because the community is entitled to about a fourth of the water that passes through the Central Arizona Project Canal, and it has offered to kick in some water to make the drought agreement work.\n\n'We have made a great plan'\n\nWhen Lewis had finished reading his statement, Bowers responded. He insisted the water legislation is a separate matter and shouldn't be linked to the proposed Drought Contingency Plan.\n\n“I am surprised at the use of this venue to make this the focus of what should be a more celebratory situation,” Bowers said.\n\nHe defended the bill, saying the forfeiture law has only recently begun to be enforced in Arizona, and it presents a “burden” for thousands of well owners.\n\nThe Mesa Republican said he still wants to see the completion of Arizona’s drought plan, which was negotiated during months of talks.\n\n“We have made a great plan,” Bowers said. “It is not connected with others, either legislative actions or priorities.”\n\nMarch 4 deadline for deal\n\nThe spat erupted just as Gov. Doug Ducey and other state officials were expressing optimism about putting the finishing touches on Arizona's plan for taking part in the Drought Contingency Plan along with California and Nevada.\n\nArizona’s Legislature passed a package of legislation on Jan. 31 approving the state’s participation in the plan. The deal would involve taking less water out of Lake Mead, which is now just 40 percent full, to prevent the reservoir from falling further.\n\nArizona officials are still working their way down a list of more than a dozen internal water deals that need to be signed to make the plan work. Two of those agreements would require the approval of the Gila River Indian Community.\n\nFederal Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman has been pressing for the states to finish the drought plan. She initially set a deadline for Jan. 31 for all the states to have the deal done. When that didn’t happen, she announced another deadline: March 4. If California and Arizona don’t finish drought plans by that date, Burman warned, the Interior Department will start receiving input from the governors of seven Western states about the steps it should take to prevent Lake Mead from falling to perilously low levels.\n\nBurman has said if all seven states are able to finish drought plans before then, the government would call off the process.\n\nBut that’s looking increasingly difficult. Arizona’s top water officials told Burman in a letter last week that while they are working as quickly as they can, they are unlikely to finish all the necessary agreements by that date.\n\n“We will do our utmost to complete all intrastate agreements as soon as possible, and some of them are very likely to be completed by March 4, but not because of any Federal deadline,” Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Ted Cooke of the Central Arizona Project wrote in the letter. “While deadlines can be useful to bring things to completion, the imposition of another deadline, March 4, is counterproductive and a potential distraction to completing the intrastate agreements within Arizona.”\n\n'A lot of fluidity'\n\nThe Colorado River irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmlands and supplies about 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles. Nineteen years of drought and chronic overuse, combined with the worsening effects of climate change, have pushed the levels of the river’s reservoirs lower and lower.\n\nA first-ever shortage could be declared in 2020 if federal officials determine this August that the lake is projected to be below elevation 1,075 feet at the start of the year.\n\nUnder the Drought Contingency Plan, Arizona's total use of Colorado River water would decrease by more than 500,000 acre-feet, or 18 percent of the state's legal entitlement, during the first year of a shortage. That will mean taking less water from Lake Havasu and pumping less into the 336-mile CAP Canal, which cuts across the desert, passes through Phoenix and ends in Tucson.\n\nFarmers in central Arizona face the biggest water cutbacks under the plan, and the Legislature has approved funding to help their irrigation districts drill new wells and build other infrastructure as they begin to rely entirely on groundwater.\n\nThe package of legislation that was passed last month appropriated $9 million for this groundwater fund for Pinal County growers.\n\nDuring Tuesday’s House committee hearing, lawmakers voted 8-4 to endorse a bill that would give an additional $20 million to the farmers' irrigation districts for groundwater infrastructure. The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, said the state money would be used as matching funds while the growers apply for federal grants.\n\nOne of the Democrats who voted against the measure was Rep. Andres Cano, D-Tucson, who called it “a lot of money” and said it would go against the terms of previous negotiations on the legislation that passed last month.\n\nArizona's plan for divvying up the water cutbacks during a shortage involves deliveries of “mitigation” water to help lessen the blow for some farmers and other entities, as well as compensation payments for those that contribute water.\n\nThose payments are to be covered with more than $100 million from the state and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which manages the CAP Canal. Much of the money would go toward paying for water from the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Gila River Indian Community — if the community doesn’t pull out of the deal.\n\nAfter Bowers announced he wouldn't move forward with his bill, Lewis said it was too soon to say what comes next.\n\n\"We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll see how much of a change it makes,\" he told reporters in front of the Legislature. \"It’s hard to say at this point. There is a lot of fluidity here.\"\n\nReporter Andrew Nicla contributed to this article.\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 azcentral and Arizona Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and at OurGrandAZ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/02/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/11/22/sequoia-toll-daffodil-project-ferret-release-news-around-states/49419721/", "title": "Sequoia toll, Daffodil Project: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: A television station has donated thousands of items including historic footage from the civil rights era to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, which will make the material available to the public. WSFA-TV in Montgomery announced it had given the agency materials dating to the 1950s, including footage from news conferences by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., coverage of the Freedom Riders in 1961 and original film from the “Stand in the School House Door” by then-Gov. George C. Wallace in 1963. The video also includes scenes from a visit to the NASA center in Huntsville by the President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson in 1962 and special reports on the death of former University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1983. As the TV station was planning to switch locations, managers determined it wasn’t practical to move the large numbers of delicate film reels and boxes full of video and other items. Steve Murray, the state archives director, said archivists had long suspected the WSFA studios held valuable content for historical preservation, and his department jumped at the opportunity to add to its collection when a phone call came in late 2019.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: Members of the Biden administration have launched a series of events aimed at exploring the Arctic’s potential to act as a “living laboratory of clean energy innovation.” Officials participating in the online event, billed as “ArcticX,” spoke of the challenges faced by remote communities in Alaska’s Arctic region, such as high energy costs and impacts from climate change. During the event’s broad discussions, they said they see opportunities for sustainable or renewable energy systems. Wednesday’s meeting was the first of four planned online events, with an in-person gathering set for May in Alaska. Among the speakers was U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Offices that fall under the department co-hosted the event. “We hope to combine the world-class expertise of our national labs, of our 17 national labs, with the know-how that Arctic communities have developed over centuries of innovation in the far north so together we can get new technologies out of the lab and into the field and onto the market and support communities in taking control of their own clean energy future,” Granholm said. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewable sources accounted for about 30% of Alaska’s electricity generation in 2019. Many rural communities rely largely on diesel electric generators for power.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: The state’s Motor Vehicle Division failed to notify more than 34,000 drivers that their licenses had been suspended, revoked or canceled and also lagged for months in alerting prosecutors. The MVD notified county attorney’s offices around the state of the problem Wednesday, saying in an email that notices weren’t mailed “beginning in late 2020 and ending in March.” A glitch with the agency’s mailing process was the cause. “When MVD discovered this issue in February 2021, the first step was to understand what caused the problem, the extent of customers affected and how to resolve the problem,” MVD spokesman Doug Parcey said in an email. “Once those were known, the affected customers were immediately notified.” Some prosecutors learned about the issue from defense attorneys. Potentially thousands of drivers might have been arrested and prosecuted or paid hefty fines because they unknowingly drove with a suspended license. Prosecutors in Maricopa and Pinal counties have already flagged more than 1,000 cases. Municipal and justice courts will also have to review cases involving suspended licenses. “Our first priority is to look at convictions,” said Rachel Mitchell, acting division chief of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. “We are focusing on prison. … It is certainly scary for me as a prosecutor.”\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: State lawmakers on Friday delayed a vote on whether to allow state-run health care facilities to require employees to get COVID-19 vaccines – a move officials say is needed to protect millions of dollars in federal funding. The Arkansas Legislative Council voted to delay considering the requests by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs for an exemption from a state law banning vaccine requirements by government entities. The law conflicts with a federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers issued by President Joe Biden’s administration that’s set to take effect in January. A group of Republican-led states, including Arkansas, have asked a federal judge to block its enforcement. UAMS could lose $600 million in Medicare and Medicaid funding and another $100 million in federal contracts if it doesn’t comply with the federal rule, Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson told the panel. Patterson said the exemption was needed to ensure that the university’s workers are in compliance with the federal requirement and that funding isn’t threatened. The panel did not set a date for considering the exemptions. But legislative leaders said they hoped to meet before Dec. 5.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLos Angeles: Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, leading to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday. Fires in Sequoia National Park and surrounding Sequoia National Forest tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias, which are the largest trees by volume. Nearby wildfires last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 giant sequoias that are only native in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range. Losses now account for 13% to 19% of the 75,000 sequoias greater than 4 feet in diameter. Blazes so intense to burn hot enough and high enough to kill so many giant sequoias – trees once considered nearly fireproof – put an exclamation point on climate change’s impact. A warming planet that has created hotter droughts combined with a century of fire suppression that choked forests with thick undergrowth have fueled flames that have sounded the death knell for trees dating to ancient civilizations. “The sobering reality is that we have seen another huge loss within a finite population of these iconic trees that are irreplaceable in many lifetimes,” said Clay Jordan, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: The Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after police stopped him on the street and put him in a neck hold two years ago, the city and family attorneys announced Friday. A federal magistrate judge accepted terms of the settlement after a mediation session, said Qusair Mohamedbhai, an attorney for McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain. Outside court, Sheneen McClain said she was glad to have the agreement finalized but noted the work of fighting for justice for her son just makes her miss him more. “The money is just the world’s way of saying, ‘We’re sorry,’ but it’s not going to help me heal the hole in my heart,” she said. The settlement amount was agreed to in July but not officially disclosed until now because of a dispute between McClain’s parents about how the wording of the agreement could affect their dispute over how the money should be divided. Sheneen McClain said Elijah’s father, LaWayne Mosley, was not involved in raising him. How the money will be divided will be addressed separately. In a statement, Mosley did not address the dispute but said he hoped the settlement would send a message to police. “I hope Elijah’s legacy is that police will think twice before killing another innocent person,” he said.\n\nConnecticut\n\nPlymouth: Officials believe nearly 40 drug overdoses across the state since July may be linked to marijuana laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl and are warning the public about the potential danger. State health officials said marijuana seized in Plymouth after an overdose in early October tested positive for fentanyl at the state crime lab. “This is the first lab confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” Dr. Manisha Juthani, the state’s public health commissioner, said in a statement Thursday. Officials had been investigating reports of people across Connecticut who overdosed and were revived with naloxone but denied using opioids. They told authorities they only smoked marijuana. There were 11 such overdoses in July, nine in August, nine in September and 10 from Oct. 1 to Oct. 26. No deaths were reported. Brian Foley, an aide to state public safety Commissioner James Rovella, said the state crime lab will now be testing all marijuana that police submit for fentanyl. An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in a recent one-year period – a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: In October, as the state allocated $78 million in federal money to health care facilities struggling with staffing shortages, hospitals received $25million total – only about one-third of what they requested. Health care workers, who have been fighting the coronavirus for nearly two years, have said they’re burned out and exhausted. Some chose to leave the hospital bedside or the profession entirely. Others declined financial incentives of several hundred dollars offered to fill shifts, citing mental health reasons. Many are jumping ship to other hospitals in Delaware or the Philadelphia area because health systems are providing hefty signing bonuses and significant increases in pay. Hospitals are also relying on travel nurses, who work in three-month shifts, to fill the gaps. Travel nurses can make twice as much or more what permanent hospital nurses take home in pay. ChristianaCare requested $40 million in federal aid, according to documents provided by the governor’s office. Instead, the state’s largest hospital and private employer received $12 million, the biggest sum any health system received. ChristianaCare, like others, continues to offer $10,000 signing bonuses for a number of open nursing positions.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to ease mask requirements in the nation’s capital has sparked a public debate about timing, with the majority of the D.C. Council pleading with her to reconsider. It’s a localized debate that reflects a broader national dynamic in the country’s coronavirus-mitigation stance, with some leaders and businesses pushing for more normalcy after the successful reopening of schools and others preaching caution against reckless pre-winter moves. Starting Monday, masks will no longer be required in many indoor spaces in D.C. They must still be worn in multiple settings, including schools, libraries, public transportation, ride-share vehicles, and group-living facilities like nursing homes, dorms and jails. Private businesses will still be able to require customers to wear masks. Bowser has cautiously hailed the step as a “shift in where we are with the pandemic,” saying the return of the mask mandate earlier this year helped blunt the late-summer surge of the delta variant. The nation’s capital originally lifted its indoor mask requirement for fully vaccinated individuals in May but reinstated it in late July as cases began to rise again. According to D.C. Health Department statistics, the current seven-day average of new cases is higher than it was in May but still well below the late-summer delta-variant peak.\n\nFlorida\n\nStuart: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed work on a $339 million Everglades restoration project aimed at cleansing water runoff before it flows into a troubled river. Corps and local officials held a ceremony Friday for the 12,000-acre project in Martin County known officially as the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area. It’s a key part of a broader effort to restore the vast Florida Everglades. The reservoir will capture, store and clean fertilizer-laden runoff from farms and development before it is routed into the St. Lucie River and ultimately the Indian River Lagoon. Both have been plagued by harmful algae blooms and other long-term problems associated with water pollution that threatens wildlife and human health. “I think it’s huge” for the east coast, said Chauncey Goss, chair of the South Florida Water Management District. “Not only symbolically, but it’s also going to be taking water, cleaning it up and helping to get rid of some of these discharges, which is really the goal of all of this.” The project can store 19.7 billion gallons of water, according to state water managers. It will use plants such as cattails to suck up about 35 metric tons of phosphorus every year before the water makes its way into the St. Lucie River.\n\nGeorgia\n\nCumming: Leaders with Forsyth County Schools, Congregation Beth Israel and the OneForsyth Council have planted 500 daffodil bulbs outside the school district’s new Forsyth County Arts and Learning Center as part of the Daffodil Project, a worldwide initiative aiming to plant the flowers all over in honor of each of the 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust. Thanks to the partnership, Forsyth County will now be home to 500 of those daffodils, which will bloom in the spring on Holocaust Remembrance Day. FCS Superintendent Dr. Jeff Bearden, Rabbi Levi Mentz with Congregation Beth Israel and OneForsyth Council Chair Kristin Cook all gave opening remarks at a Nov. 8 ceremony before county and school district leaders began planting each of the bulbs. Cook said she was proud to be there, speaking on behalf of OneForsyth, the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce’s diversity initiative, and modeling their guiding principles of uniting, celebrating and promoting inclusion in the county. “Our hope is that, by continuing to support events like these, we will all grow to appreciate the unique identities that embody us all,” Cook said. Metz said he was overjoyed to see the project coming to Forsyth County, his involvement feeling personal to him and his family since his grandfather was a survivor of the Holocaust.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering additional protections for waters off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. NOAA announced the proposal to designate oceanic areas of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which is already one of the largest protected natural areas in the world, as a national marine sanctuary on Friday. The agency opened the plan to public comment through January. The designation would build on existing protections meant to maintain marine habitats and wildlife. The new rules would apply only to oceanic areas, not the islands that are already part of the monument. “Papahānaumokuākea’s ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from threats such as marine debris, invasive species, and climate change,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state of Hawaii and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs currently co-manage the monument. Papahānaumokuākea is larger than all other U.S. national parks combined and is home to endangered Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles, seabirds and extensive coral reef ecosystems. The area is home to many species found nowhere else on Earth.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it. NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab on Friday put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade. “Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp,” Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a statement. If the effort is successful in supporting a sustained human presence on the moon, the next objective would be Mars. NASA says fission surface power could provide sustained, abundant power no matter the environmental conditions on the moon or Mars. “I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for power architectures for the moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the moon.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: A new store at the Illinois State Museum will feature products from the state, along with themed souvenirs, specialty foods and toys. The Shop opened to the public Saturday. Families were invited to attend an opening event in their flannel and fleece pajamas. The store is located in the first floor of the Illinois State Museum, which owns and operates the Shop to fund programs and research. Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the museum’s director, called the opening an important moment in the museum’s return to operations. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration shut down the museum in 2015 during an ongoing budget impasse. It reopened the following year but since then has seen closures related to the coronavirus pandemic. The museum was established in 1877 and has branch facilities in Lewistown and Lockport.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: A renewed push for the state to join more than two-thirds of states with some form of legalized marijuana use appears to face the same roadblock from Statehouse Republicans who have opposed such a step for many years. Legislative Democrats and the state Democratic Party united last week in urging approval of marijuana legalization during the legislative session that starts in January, arguing that it could benefit those wanting to use it for medical purposes, create new jobs and become an additional state tax revenue source. The Republican-dominated Legislature has not taken any action on bills submitted over the past decade for allowing medical marijuana or removing criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of the drug, even as recreational marijuana sales have won approval in Michigan and Illinois and as medical use is allowed in Ohio. Legalization advocates haven’t yet changed the minds of legislative leaders, who reject arguments that Indiana is losing money to neighboring states and point to pot still being illegal under federal law. “I think when you make the argument about having that substantial a public policy change just because you’re trying to chase dollars makes no sense to me, so I’m in the same place I’ve been,” Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said.\n\nIowa\n\nAmes: A city park will now be named Ioway Creek Park to align with the creek’s name change earlier this year. The Ames City Council voted unanimously last week to change the name of Squaw Creek Park to Ioway Creek Park. In February, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names changed the name of Squaw Creek, a 42-mile-long tributary of the South Skunk River, to Ioway Creek, as the original name is considered derogatory to Native Americans. The Ames Tribune reports that an Indigenous teen, Fawn Stubben, pushed for the change in the 1990s, but the proposal wasn’t considered until Ames resident Jasmine Martin applied to the federal board in 2019. The Ames City Council and Story County Board of Supervisors both voted in support of the change. The current name honors the Ioway, an Indigenous tribe that once lived in parts of Iowa. Creek sign names have since been adjusted around Ames, but there were still remnants of the former name, including Squaw Creek Drive. The street was renamed Stonehaven Drive as part of the meeting’s consent agenda. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: Next year, the state will start requiring employers, individuals and health insurance companies to pay some costs associated with coronavirus testing. The state Department of Health and Environment announced Friday that it will start phasing out free screening tests for people who aren’t showing COVID-19 symptoms or haven’t potentially been exposed. The agency said it expects the policy to begin in March 2022. The department said it can’t sustain having public health agencies cover the cost of all testing indefinitely. The agency said it initially allocated $141 million in federal funds to make coronavirus tests available and support commercial and university labs to expand processing and sampling capacity. But the department said infections from the delta variant depleted the funds faster than expected. “Testing has become an increasingly important way in which those who choose to be unvaccinated may still be able to work, attend events, and travel,” Ashley Goss, the department’s acting secretary, said in a statement. The changes will mainly affect programs used by employers to test 10% of their workers on a regular basis and programs by community organizations to offer free rapid tests.\n\nKentucky\n\nLexington: The city has received a perfect 100 score from the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, for its laws, policies, services and programs to protect and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The city received a total score of 106 for additional steps it has taken over the past few years to benefit the LGBTQ community. It’s the highest ranking of any city in Kentucky, though Louisville has received a perfect score for several years. A 100 is considered a perfect score, but cities can earn up to 122 additional points for programs and services. “We’ve worked hard to create an atmosphere welcoming all people,” Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said. “That hard work has resulted in the highest score received by a Kentucky city.” It’s the first time since the rankings began eight years ago that Lexington has earned a perfect score. In 2020, it received a 95 out of 100. Lexington received high marks despite Kentucky not having a statewide LGBTQ nondiscrimination law. The Human Rights Campaign evaluated more than 506 cities across the country. Other evaluated Kentucky cities include Berea, Bowling Green, Covington, Frankfort, Morehead and Owensboro. Covington’s score was 96. The lowest-scoring Kentucky city was Owensboro with 18.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: State lawmakers on Friday lambasted Louisiana’s temporary housing program enacted after Hurricane Ida, saying it continues to move too slowly to help people living in damaged homes and tents since late August. “We’re moving at a snail’s pace. It’s just unbelievable,” said Sen. Mike Fesi, a Houma Republican who represents Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, which were among the hardest hit by Ida. The state has spent $90 million in federal disaster aid on more than 2,000 trailers to provide temporary shelter to residents in southeastern Louisiana. Half have been placed on residents’ properties and other community housing sites, and 653 families have moved into the trailers so far, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told lawmakers. The program has received near-constant criticism about the time it’s taking to place trailers since Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration launched the Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program on Oct. 4. That critique spilled over into Friday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, as the homeland security agency asked lawmakers to approve $500 million in authority to spend federal disaster recovery aid. Director Casey Tingle defended the housing program, telling lawmakers: “We have a brand new program that’s never been done before.”\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The developer of a $1 billion electric transmission line is suspending construction at the request of the governor after she certified election results Friday in which residents firmly opposed the project. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had urged New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission LLC to stop construction on the 145-mile project until legal challenges are resolved. Thorn Dickinson, president and CEO of NECEC, said work will be temporarily halted until a judge rules on a request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit contending the referendum was unconstitutional. “This was not an easy decision. Suspending construction will require the layoff of more than 400 Mainers just as the holiday season begins,” Dickinson said in a statement Friday evening. Mills supports the project but said she also supports “the rule of law that governs our society and the will of the people that informs it.” Funded by Massachusetts ratepayers, the project would supply up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid. That’s enough electricity for 1 million homes. Critics said the project is damaging the woods and changing the character of a part of western Maine with little if any benefit for its residents.\n\nMaryland\n\nFrederick: With sailboats taking over Carroll Creek, a unique holiday tradition has returned to downtown Frederick for its sixth year. About two dozen sailboats were launched in the creek Saturday as part of the annual Sailing Through the Winter Solstice project. Volunteers rushed about Saturday morning, lowering the boats off the banks of the creek into the water. Some volunteers had the unenviable task of wading through the water on the chilly November morning to ensure the boats were anchored in place. Peter Kremers, who co-founded and serves as the chair of the event, said there were about 25 sailboats in and around the creek this year. Now in its sixth year, the project has quickly grown into a beloved part of the holiday season in the city. This year’s event has more sailboats than ever. “We started with one boat in ’16,” Kremers said of the project’s speedy growth. “I think last year we had maybe 19 in the water; this year we have 22 boats in the water and three on land.” The sailboats will stay on Carroll Creek until March, each fitted with lights and decorations to brighten up the dark nights of winter. But the goal isn’t just to make the downtown look nice. The project also helps raise a significant amount of money for a number of local charities.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A 48-foot white spruce chosen as the city’s Christmas tree has arrived from Nova Scotia as part of a decades-old tradition. This year’s tree was donated by L’Arche Cape Breton, a nonprofit that provides homes and work for people with disabilities. The 60-year-old tree was on the nonprofit’s property on Canada’s Cape Breton Island. A police escort brought the tree to Boston Common on Thursday, WCVB-TV reports. Nova Scotia donates a tree to Boston every year as a token of gratitude for relief efforts by Bostonians after a munitions ship exploded in Halifax Harbor in 1917, killing or injuring thousands of people. It will be lit Dec. 2. For Massachusetts residents buying a Christmas tree locally, finding the perfect one may prove difficult this year. Tree sellers are expecting one of their busiest and most challenging seasons yet, The Boston Globe reports. Last year, with many people cooped up at home during the pandemic, everyone wanted a tree – sometimes more than one, the National Christmas Tree Association said. Many local Christmas tree farms cut and sold trees they normally would have left in the ground. That means some sellers this year have fewer, shorter trees.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Pure Michigan is marketing the state’s upcoming winter season in an advertising campaign running in key regional and state markets. The Still Pure Michigan campaign is expected to run through the end of February and use broadcast and connected television, online video and digital ads, and social media, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said. Much of the focus of the tourism and marketing campaign will be on travel and shopping. Advertising spots will run in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Traverse City, Cadillac, Marquette and Alpena. They also will be seen in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky. This year’s total winter advertising budget tops $3 million. The launch of the Pure Michigan campaign comes just ahead of the opening of many of Michigan’s ski resorts for the year, according to the MEDC. “As winter approaches, adventure awaits us in the form of downhill skiing, fat-tire biking or snowshoeing epic backcountry landscapes,” Travel Michigan Vice President Dave Lorenz said.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: Farmers across the state who grow about 45 million turkeys annually will benefit from higher prices this year, according to agriculture experts. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture said the price of turkeys has steadily increased as demand has risen following a year when there were fewer family gatherings, and restaurant traffic was down due to the coronavirus pandemic. “USDA is actually predicting this year to be a record-high price for turkeys,” said Tim Petry, a livestock marketing economist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service. “From a price standpoint, these are the best prices they’ve seen for a number of years. So, you know, that’s good news for producers.” The good news on prices is tempered somewhat by rising costs to raise the birds on more than 500 farms in the state, Minnesota Public Radio News reports. Higher prices for corn and soybeans to feed the turkeys are cutting into profits, growers said. “Those are our two biggest ingredients, and and those prices were substantially higher than last year or past years,” said Jessica Westbrock, the president of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. While turkey prices are up 17 cents a pound from last year, Petry said consumers are still likely to find bargains, as many stores sell turkeys below cost.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: The Mississippi School Boards Association is joining a handful of other states in breaking ties with the National School Board Association after the nonprofit sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for federal support investigating harassment and threats of violence against school board members. Mississippi School Boards’ leadership wrote this week in a letter explaining the decision that the National School Boards Association’s “inflammatory language and the request for federal agencies to intervene in our communities, was just one in a series of lapses in governance.” It said Mississippi will end its relationship with the nonprofit NSBA on June 30, 2022, the end of the term for which the Mississippi School Boards Association has paid its dues to the national organization. Mississippi will then work with school board associations in other states to form a new organization that “will provide services to its member state school boards associations which are requested by and tailored to each member state school boards associations’ unique needs.” Local school boards across the country have become political battlegrounds over issues such as COVID-19-related mask rules, the treatment of transgender students, and how to teach the history of racism and slavery in America.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: A couple who gained fame after waving guns at protesters near their home in 2020 are seeking to keep their law licenses by arguing their actions were justified because they were defending their property from a violent and threatening mob. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both lawyers, made that claim in response to a complaint asking the Missouri Supreme Court to suspend their licenses. The demonstrators went past the McCloskeys’ home June 28, 2020, at the height of racial injustice protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The couple, who were eating dinner on the patio with their daughter, responded by waving two weapons at the protesters. No shots were fired, and no one was hurt. Their actions gained praise from conservatives, including then-President Donald Trump. Mark McCloskey is now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. They contend in their legal response that the demonstrations “involved significant unlawful and violent conduct,” KCUR reports. The response cites a report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association finding nearly 89% of protests in St. Louis in June 2020 involved unlawful activity, and 11% involved some level of violence. Still, special prosecutor Richard Callahan has said his investigation determined the protesters near the McCloskeys’ home were peaceful.\n\nMontana\n\nBillings: The Biden administration on Friday said it will consider new measures to protect greater sage grouse, a bird species once found across much of the West that has suffered drastic declines in recent decades due to oil and gas drilling, grazing, wildfires and other pressures. The announcement of a range-wide evaluation of habitat plans for greater sage grouse came after the Trump administration tried to scale back conservation efforts adopted when Biden was vice president in 2015. A federal court blocked Trump’s changes. But Biden administration officials said the attempt set back conservation efforts – even as the chicken-sized bird’s habitat was further ravaged by wildfires, invasive plants and continued development. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he believed Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning – a former aide to the lawmaker – would pursue a collaborative, balanced approach that will keep sage grouse from becoming an endangered species. But Gov. Greg Gianforte and Sen. Steve Daines criticized the action, saying states should be given deference to manage wildlife and federal lands kept open for energy exploration and grazing. Daines said state and local conservation efforts needs to be protected from “federal overreach,” while Brooke Stroyke, a spokesperson for Gianforte, said Montana already has a plan that balances conservation and rural economies.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: The state’s unemployment rate fell to a mere 1.9% last month – the lowest any state has reached since data collection began in 1976, according to labor statistics released Friday. The October rate reported by Nebraska’s labor department and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics marked the first time any state’s unemployment rate dropped below 2%. Spokespeople for both agencies confirmed that Nebraska’s rate is the country’s lowest on record. Nebraska has maintained its status as the state with the lowest rate through much of the pandemic. Its 1.9% rate for October was down slightly from the September rate of 2%. Nebraska Labor Commissioner John Albin said total nonfarm employment has risen by more than 30,000 from October of last year. The state reported 1,031,001 filled jobs in October, which was 10,718 more than the previous month. Nebraska has struggled with a chronic worker shortage since even before the pandemic, and it has driven up wages and made it difficult for employers to hire and expand. Earlier this month, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry released a survey of its members in which 92% said finding skilled workers was a top priority.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: A big southern Nevada sewage pumping facility failed last year, spewing an estimated 500,000 gallons of wastewater and leaking into a creek that leads toward the Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River, a television station investigation found. Officials want to spend $40 million to rehabilitate the Clark County Water Reclamation District wastewater lift station, where the January 2020 spill was blamed on a corroded underground pipe, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reports. Most of the spilled sewage was vacuumed up from land outside the Whitney Lift Station, KLAS-TV reports, citing documents, photos and emails obtained with a public records request. But an estimated 10,000 gallons – about enough water to fill an average kidney-shaped backyard swimming pool – went into a nearby creek that feeds the Las Vegas Wash. The wash flows to Lake Mead, the drought-stricken reservoir that provides about 90% of the Las Vegas-area drinking water supply. The Whitney Lift Station is one of 24 similar facilities operated by the reclamation district, which was formed in 1956 to reclaim wastewater from unincorporated Clark County, the largest jurisdiction in the Las Vegas area. The district treats nearly 106 million gallons of wastewater per day, according to its website.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: State lawmakers accepted $22.5 million in federal COVID-19 vaccine funding Friday that has sparked intense debate and angry protests for the past two months. The Joint Fiscal Committee had tabled a request from the Department of Health and Human Service in September to spend the money to hire new workers to promote the vaccines and help providers comply with the state’s new vaccine registry system. Meanwhile, the Executive Council, which approves state contracts, initially rejected the money before reversing course earlier this month. On Friday, three Republicans joined the committee’s three Democrats in voting to accept the money. Four Republicans voted no, with some citing concerns that language in the grant would require the state to follow future federal directives and mandates related to COVID-19. “The action we take today will be historic,” said Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren. “It will be historic because we will either reject the notion of subservience to government coercion, or it will be historic because we accede to that notion and violate the most fundamental premises of freedom upon which our state and nation were founded and which are imperiled as never before in our nation’s history.” Giuda predicted the vote would become a campaign issue next year. At least one audience member agreed, shouting at Sen. Chuck Morse, R-Salem: “Treason! You will never get elected again, Morse! You’re done!”\n\nNew Jersey\n\nJersey City: The decades­long odyssey to find the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, a tenacious leader of the Teamsters union, apparently has turned to land next to a former landfill that sits below an elevated highway in the Garden State. The FBI obtained a search warrant to “conduct a site survey underneath the Pulaski Skyway” last month, said Mara Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Detroit field office. She didn’t indicate whether anything was removed. The FBI’s disclosure is another turn in a mystery that has gripped law enforcement for more than 45 years. Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975, when he was to meet with reputed Detroit mob enforcer Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano at a restaurant in suburban Detroit. The focus now is in Jersey City, below a four-lane bridge where the sound of cars and trucks doesn’t stop. Wild overgrown brush thrives in the gritty industrial area, and green dumpsters abound. No one nearby at Interstate Waste Services offered a comment. “I’ve been assured that the body hasn’t been dug up yet,” journalist Dan Moldea said, referring to the FBI’s work in October.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: Internet problems continue to slow down many students in the state, but a pilot project using TV signals to transmit computer files may help. On Thursday, state public education officials distributed devices to eight families in Taos that allow schools to send them digital files via television. The boxes the size of a deck of cards allow digital television receivers to connect with computers using technology called datacasting. Many rural areas of New Mexico are too far from internet infrastructure such as fiber cables and cell towers but do get TV reception. In October, local broadcasting affiliates of New Mexico PBS finished testing the technology to make sure they could set aside bandwidth not taken up by TV show broadcasts and dedicate it to broadcast downloadable digital files. The pilot program in Taos relies on a broadcast from northern New Mexico PBS affiliate KNME, while two others are planning to roll out pilot programs in the cities of Silver City and Portales. Remote learning during the pandemic highlighted the digital divide for New Mexico students, many of whom had to learn using paper packets while their peers could participate in virtual lessons via video chat.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: The New York Assembly’s investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s conduct in office concluded the Democrat’s administration misrepresented how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19, according to a lawmaker who reviewed the committee’s still-secret report. Assembly Member Phil Steck was among the Assembly Judiciary Committee members who were able to review a copy of the approximately 45-page report Thursday and Friday in advance of its public release, possibly as soon as this week. The report, compiled by the New York City law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, covers a wide array of allegations of misconduct by Cuomo, including sexual harassment claims and the participation of his staff in writing his book on the coronavirus pandemic. Other topics include the Cuomo administration’s manipulation of data on COVID-19 deaths as presented to the public. Gaps in the state’s statistical accounting of fatalities include the administration’s decision to exclude from its nursing home death totals thousands of patients who died after being transferred to hospitals. The Davis Polk investigators confirmed press reports that the state Department of Health wanted to include those hospital deaths in the state’s nursing home fatality count.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nAsheville: A bear cub wandering around a neighborhood with a jug stuck on its head is running free in the forest again thanks to wildlife biologists and some observant residents. Wildlife biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission spent two days searching for the bear cub, according to a news release. The commission said the bear likely got stuck while going through some trash and was wandering around an Asheville neighborhood. District Biologist Justin McVey got the initial report about the bear Monday night. Commission officials reached out to the public to help identify its location. McVey said a combination of responses to a message posted to NextDoor by the commission and direct calls to biologists, local residents led personnel directly to the bear cub. The bear was anesthetized before the jug was taken off its head. Biologists performed a health check before relocating it to a remote area in western North Carolina.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nMedora: The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library has agreed to take a controversial equestrian statue of the 26th president that has stood on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1940. The bronze statue, designed by James Earle Fraser, was commissioned by the Board of Trustees of the New York State Roosevelt Memorial in 1929. The library opening next year in Medora will be getting it as a long-term loan. The statue, which depicts the former president on horseback with a Native American man and an African man flanking the horse, has been the subject of years of criticism that it symbolizes colonial subjugation and racial discrimination. Objections grew more forceful after the death of George Floyd sparked a racial reckoning and a wave of protests across the U.S. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to remove the statue in 2020, calling it “problematic,” which drew an angry response from President Donald Trump, who tweeted: “Ridiculous, don’t do it!” With the support of members of the Roosevelt family, the North Dakota library will establish an advisory council composed of representatives of Indigenous and Black communities, historians, scholars and artists to “guide the recontextualization” of the statue.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a map of new congressional districts Saturday that will be in effect for the next four years, despite objections from Democrats and voting rights groups. DeWine said in a statement that, compared with other proposals from House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, the Senate legislation he signed “makes the most progress to produce a fair, compact, and competitive map.” The redistricting measure cleared the Legislature along party lines with House approval Thursday after a breakneck sprint through both chambers, amid praise from majority Republicans. Democrats blasted the Republican-led mapmaking process as unfair, partisan and cloaked in secrecy. The Senate approved the bill Tuesday, only about 16 hours after the new map was released. The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade. The new law creates at most three safe Democratic districts out of 15 new U.S. House seats in a state where voters are split roughly 54% Republican, 46% Democratic. Populous Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties – home to Cleveland and Cincinnati, respectively – are divided three ways each. Franklin County, home to Columbus, is divided two ways, and the western Cleveland suburbs in Lorain County are part of a district that stretches to the Indiana border, a nearly 3-hour drive.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The state’s building code commission has undermined the efforts of its own committee tasked with reviewing energy conservation standards by shooting down proposed changes and completing a takeover of the committee itself. Last week’s actions leave green building in Oklahoma a dozen years behind, stuck in 2009, standing pat with current minimum standards, said Kelly Parker, chairman of the committee whose months of work was spurned. The committee started its work in May as part of a state-mandated code review every six years to update the state’s modified versions of various building codes. But committee members had not seen the commission’s recommendations on energy conservation until they were presented Tuesday. Commission Chairman Cary Williamson, Ardmore’s fire chief, wondered why and argued that the energy committee, effectively shut down in October, should have been allowed to do its job. Commissioner Kyle Lombardo, an architect with Rees Associates, complained that he was not given time to review the complex, technical recommendations, which will go to state lawmakers next year. The Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission further eroded efforts to make home construction in the state more environmentally friendly, Parker said.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: A man who was protesting outside the city’s federal courthouse when a federal law enforcement officer shot him in the face with a “less lethal” impact munition is suing in federal court. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the lawsuit filed by Donavan LaBella calls the unnamed officer’s actions “unprovoked, unjustifiable, and unlawful.” LaBella’s injury July 11, 2020, was captured on video and shared widely. The video depicts then-26-year-old LaBella holding a speaker over his head, pointed at the courthouse. Federal officers turn on a bright light, and then an officer fires a less lethal munition striking LaBella. Like other protesters who have tried suing federal law enforcement agencies over injuries at protests for racial justice, LaBella’s attorneys have struggled to identify the officers. The lawsuit names “John Does 1-10″ as unknown federal law enforcement officers, believed to be with the U.S. Marshals Service, present or responsible for shooting LaBella. Desiree LaBella, Donavan’s mother, said the people responsible for injuring her son need to be held accountable. “As much as we wish it didn’t have to come to this, he’s irreparably damaged,” she said. He now suffers from a debilitating, permanent frontal lobe brain injury that has negatively altered the course of (his) life,” the lawsuit says.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: Frozen vials labeled “Smallpox” that were discovered in a freezer at a vaccine research facility in the state “contain no trace of virus known to cause smallpox,” federal health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that testing showed the vials contain “vaccinia, the virus used in smallpox vaccine,” and not the variola virus, which causes smallpox. The CDC had said Monday that the vials “were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker” who was wearing gloves and a face mask while cleaning out the freezer. The CDC said no one was exposed to the contents. Mark O’Neill, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, told the New York Times that the vials were found at a Merck facility in Montgomery County. It was not clear why the vials were in the freezer. The CDC said it was “in close contact with state and local health officials, law enforcement, and the World Health Organization” about the findings. Smallpox is a deadly, infectious disease that plagued the world for centuries and killed nearly a third of the people it infected. Victims suffered scorching fever and body aches, followed by spots and blisters that would leave survivors with pitted scars.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is getting a $900,000 federal boost to develop plans for a high-capacity transit corridor to connect Central Falls to Warwick via Providence, according to the state’s congressional delegation. The corridor was one of five goals included in RIPTA’s Transit Master Plan for the next 20 years. The planning grant could enable RIPTA to complete the preliminary work needed to eventually bring a bus rapid transit or light rail project to the region. The $900,000 planning grant is made available through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity grant program, for capital investments in surface transportation that will have a significant impact on or directly benefit areas of persistent poverty. The state’s congressional delegation and RIPTA CEO Scott Avedisian have scheduled a news conference for Monday at the agency’s Chafee Transportation Center in Providence to discuss the study and its potential impacts.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nSeneca: One of the most wanted fugitives in the United States apparently died about four months ago in a South Carolina home about 16 years after he was first wanted in San Diego for sexually assaulting children, investigators said. Frederick Cecil McLean, 70, died of natural causes in July, but his body wasn’t found until Nov. 6, when someone asked deputies to check on a neighbor who hadn’t been seen in a while, Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis said. McLean has been on the U.S. Marshal Service’s 15 Most Wanted list since 2006, a year after the San Diego Sheriff’s Department issued arrest warrants for sexual assaults on a child and determined he was a high risk to continue attacking girls. One girl was assaulted more than 100 times before she turned 13, marshals said in a statement. McLean had been living in South Carolina for 15 years, going by the name of James Fitzgerald, marshals said. “The discovery of Frederick McLean’s body marks an end to the manhunt, but the investigation continues,” U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said. Investigators are now trying to determine if anyone helped McLean avoid being found by police. They have determined he used several other aliases and also lived in Anderson, South Carolina, and Poughkeepsie, New York.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nMcIntosh: The work of two wildlife management agencies has resulted in the release of 28 endangered black-footed ferrets on the South Dakota side of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which straddles the Dakotas. The push behind the effort by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is twofold: to maintain control of black-tailed prairie dogs in an area of the reservation used primarily for grazing and to save from extinction the black-footed ferret, considered the most endangered mammal in the U.S. They are yellowish-buff in color and weigh 11/ 2 to 2 pounds. The forehead, muzzle and throat are white, and the feet are black. They have a black mask around the eyes that is well-defined in young ferrets. The ferrets were released Oct. 20 in prairie dog towns between McIntosh and Bullhead, said Michael Gutzmer, ecologist with New Century Environmental, the Nebraska company that provides biological services to the tribe, The Bismarck Tribune reports. Prairie dogs make up 90% of the black-footed ferrets’ diet. The ferrets live in prairie dog burrows, and each eats a prairie dog about every three days, said Seth Gutzmer, biologist on the Standing Rock project and Michael Gutzmer’s son. The ferrets were considered extinct in the wild in 1987.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: Friends and associates of slain rapper Young Dolph handed out Thanksgiving turkeys at a neighborhood church Friday, two days after he was gunned down in broad daylight inside his favorite bakery. Known for acts of charity in his hometown, the hip-hop artist and label owner had helped organize the event at St. James Missionary Baptist Church and was going to participate before he was fatally shot Wednesday. Undaunted, members of his music label, Paper Route Empire, along with church volunteers and community activists, distributed dozens of turkeys, stuffing mix and cranberry sauce to people driving past the church. It was the type of event Young Dolph, who grew up in the Castalia neighborhood where the church is located, has been organizing for years, often without the reporters and cameras present Friday. Before the event, volunteers spoke quietly among themselves or sat in solemn reflection as his music played outside the church on the sunny afternoon. Label employee Bee Bee Jones, 38, helped hand out the food, honoring his friend of 30 years. “When I hear his music, I just break down,” Jones said. “The truth in all of it, and where he came from, that’s what really gets to me sometimes. This is what he would want us to do right here, still keep on giving. He came from nothing, but he wanted to make sure everybody got some.”\n\nTexas\n\nBig Spring: A pickup truck heading the wrong way on a West Texas highway slammed into a bus carrying members of a high school band, killing three people, officials said Friday. Two students from the bus were critically injured in the late Friday afternoon crash on Interstate 20 in Big Spring, about 250 miles west of Fort Worth, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The bus from Andrews High School was headed to a football game with 25 students aboard when it was hit by the wrong-way truck, which burst into flames, killing the truck’s driver, said DPS Sgt. Justin Baker. One of the adults from the bus was also pronounced dead at the scene, he said. A third adult and two students were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, 95 miles north of the crash site. The adult died at the hospital, and the two students were listed in critical but stable condition, Baker said. Other students were taken to the Scenic Mountain Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, he said. The football playoff game between Andrews and Springtown in Sweetwater was postponed.\n\nUtah\n\nBeaver County: Climate change has been making droughts more frequent and intense and limiting Utah farmers’ ability to grow crops. In the past two years, a growing number of farmers have signed up for a state program that helps fund projects to increase their water use efficiency, KUER-FM reports. Among them is Trent Brown, a longtime rancher and farmer in Beaver County who’s also the county assessor, since farming doesn’t pay all the bills. It’s a family tradition: His father and grandfather were ranchers and farmers and worked government jobs, too. Brown finished the switch from growing alfalfa to grass five years ago to save water, but it wasn’t enough to overcome this summer’s drought. Earlier this year, he used a grant from the state’s Water Optimization Program to replace the cement in a ditch that brings water from the nearby Manderfield Reservoir to him and other farmers in the valley. “The concrete ditch was put in in the ’60s, and it was just falling apart, failing,” he said. “We were losing a lot of water. We figure probably 20%.” Utah established the Water Optimization Program in 2020. It got $3 million in state funding that year and another $3 million in 2021. During the latest round, the program got 81 applications totaling $10.6 million – more than triple the money available to spend, according to the program’s director, Jay Olsen.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Captain Snowpants; Yo Bro, No Snow; Plow-A-Tron 6,000; and Jennifer Snowpez are among the names that will be on some of the state’s snowplows this winter. Vermont school students participated in the state transportation department’s Name a Plow contest to come up with names for the plows serving their communities. The entries ranged from “creative and clever to cute and silly,” the agency said. Participating schools got a visit from their newly named plows last week. One child was so upset she had missed the visit from the snowplow named Super Snow Storm that the driver and plow will visit again, said Amy Tatko, spokesperson for the Vermont Agency of Transportation. The full list of the Vermont names – including Snowbegone Kenobe, Plowy McPlowFace, Brr-rito and Steve – can be found on the transportation department’s website.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order Thursday aimed at improving how the state receives and evaluates input from tribal nations when making decisions about permits related to environmental, historical or cultural resources. The order directs four agencies to draft their own policies within 90 days for working with tribal nations before a permit is approved or denied. The Northam administration said this would help Virginia identify and understand concerns from tribal nations before finalizing permits, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The directive applies to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Historic Resources, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Northam’s executive order also directs the secretary of the commonwealth to appoint an ombudsman who can work with both state agencies and tribal nations. Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin will take office a month before Northam’s deadline and could potentially cancel the executive order. The Youngkin transition team didn’t immediately respond to the Times-Dispatch’s requests for comment.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: As lawmakers prepare for a new legislative session to craft and pass a supplemental budget, they’ll have more money to work with thanks to a steady increase of state revenues over the past year. Updated numbers by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released Friday show that projected revenue collections for the 2021-2023 budget cycle are $898 million above what had been originally forecasted in September. And projections for the next two-year budget cycle that ends in mid-2025 increased by more than $965 million. Revenues for the current budget cycle that ends mid-2023 are now projected to be $60.2 billion. And projected revenues for the next two-year budget cycle that starts July 1, 2023, are projected to be about $64 billion. Steve Lerch, the chief economist and executive director of the council, said compared to the first forecast this year in March, overall revenues increased $3.6 billion for the current biennium and $4.1 billion for the next. Republican legislative members of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council said in response to the strong growth, tax cuts should be part of any final plan. Democratic budget writers said nothing is off the table but expressed caution.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nBramwell: A 128-year-old church collapsed suddenly in the middle of the night Thursday, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. Bramwell’s historic Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, which has stood since 1893, caved in about midnight, Mayor Louise Stoker told the paper. The church’s original congregation included many of the town’s first residents, Stoker said. The Independent Bible Church later occupied the building before donating it to the town, which had been planning to conserve the historic structure. “I’ve been in dialogue with a preservation contractor,” Stoker said. “This week, in fact, we had sent him photos.” Workers clearing the debris noted things that could be saved such as large wooden beams and the old church bell. Some of the church’s Queen Anne-style stained glass windows were also mostly intact. Stoker said the town council will discuss what to do next, but it’s possible that a portion of the building that didn’t collapse will have to be taken down. Standing outside the church Friday, she pointed out six circular stained glass windows in the remaining structure. “Not one of them has a broken piece,” she remarked.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMilwaukee: As the state kicked off its 170th deer gun season Saturday, some hunters were feeling ill-equipped for the second straight year. A nationwide ammunition shortage due to the supply chain issues affecting other products has left hunters searching far and wide for ammo in the first place and then shelling out more money if they do find it. Randy and Tiffani Rogness, who own Paddock Lake Sporting Goods in Salem, had empty ammunition shelves Friday. When a new supply is delivered, it lasts two to three hours, even with a one-box limit per customer, they said. “We search everywhere. We’ve ordered so much, and it’s just not coming in,” Tiffani Rogness said. One of the nation’s biggest ammunition manufacturers, Vista Outdoor in Anoka, Minnesota, said it’s “ramping production ahead of schedule at its Remington facility to meet unprecedented demand.” The price of almost any caliber ammunition is double what it was a year ago. Manufacturers say the pandemic created new gun buyers, along with more hunters looking for something to do outside, WISN-TV reports. More than 570,000 deer hunters from around the world are expected to try their luck in this year’s nine-day season, Department of Natural Resources officials said. Wisconsin has more than 7 million acres of land open for hunting.\n\nWyoming\n\nGillette: For the past four months, people have been protesting the presence of sexual education and LGBTQ books in the children’s and teen sections of the Campbell County Public Library. The movement, part of a national trend, is being led by the Wyoming chapter of MassResistance, a national group headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, that prides itself on “pro-family activism.” The local chapter was formed in July. Since then, the group has worked to get its message out to the community that the library is actively corrupting the youth with its books, the Gillette News Record reports. “It’s been hard on the library staff,” said library director Terri Lesley. “It’s been a long time, and I’m very proud of them for how well they’re doing, how well they’re holding up. It’s not easy to be in the middle of a big controversy.” MassResistance’s goal is to protect “the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society.” It believes in marriage between a man and a woman and that people are not born homosexual. Library board member Charlie Anderson said he’s been called names, and Lesley said she and some of her staff have received angry emails and letters, some from out of state. Lesley said she’s also received a lot of support, which has helped balance out the calls for her resignation.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/06/17/deepening-droughts-saharan-dust-huge-forest-nest-news-around-states/117065366/", "title": "Deepening droughts, Saharan dust: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Money from a legal settlement will be used to provide funding to add charging stations for electric vehicles at 18 sites in seven Alabama counties. The governor’s office says grants totaling $4.1 million will help fund installing of chargers at fueling stations near interstates and other major highways. The money will provide as much as 80% of the cost of installing stations at existing sites in Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Calhoun, Cullman, DeKalb, Greene and St. Clair counties. Many of the chargers will be along Interstate 20 from the Georgia line to Tuscaloosa. The money is from a settlement involving Volkswagen and the Environmental Protection Agency over the automaker’s violation of the federal Clean Air Act. In a statement, Gov. Kay Ivey said the grants will help with state move toward electric vehicles. Auto plants located in the state already have started the transition toward vehicles powered by electricity, she said. “This program will have a range of positive impacts in Alabama from creating cleaner air to helping to sell more vehicles manufactured right here in Alabama,” said Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, which will administer the grants.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: The state House late Tuesday passed a state budget that would result in a $525 dividend to residents this year and leave in doubt funding for a number of programs and infrastructure projects after it failed to garner sufficient support on a key vote. House leaders left open the potential for continued talks or even possibly another vote as the special session neared its end. Special sessions can last up to 30 days. That limit would be reached Friday. “We’re gonna look for a resolution that we can all live with and be happy with, and the people of Alaska will be very grateful to us,” said House Speaker Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak. “My hope is that the talks don’t stop,” House Minority Leader Cathy Tilton told reporters after the floor session, adding later: “I would hope that we would come together and have serious conversations, where all voices are being heard.” Dividends typically have been paid using earnings from the state’s oil-wealth fund. But the budget agreement that advanced from a six-member conference committee Sunday cobbled together money for dividends of about $1,100 from various sources, including the constitutional budget reserve fund that requires three-fourths support in each the House and Senate to tap. That vote failed Tuesday night in the House. The last time the check was in the $500 range was in 1986.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday blocked a new Arizona State University policy that would have required unvaccinated students to submit to twice-weekly coronavirus testing and wear a mask, calling the decision “bad policy.” The Republican governor issued an executive order saying students at the state’s public universities and community colleges can’t be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine, submit vaccination documents, or be tested or forced to wear masks. ASU and the Board of Regents said they would comply with Ducey’s order. An ASU statement noted that it never issued a vaccine mandate but was following guidelines for universities from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by ensuring unvaccinated people continue to follow protocols like masking. Ducey’s order came after he criticized the policy in a series of tweets Monday night. He said that the rules for students attending class in person this fall have “no basis in public health” and that even the Biden administration has been more reasonable. But the governor also included a screenshot of a quote from the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, that appeared to contradict his own position. “It is the people who are not fully vaccinated in those settings, who might not be wearing a mask, who are not protected,” Walensky is quoted as saying.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday asked a federal judge to prevent the state from enforcing its ban on gender-confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. The ACLU requested a preliminary injunction against the new law, which is set to take effect July 28. It will prohibit doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the ban last month on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, as well as two doctors who provide the treatments. The ban is forcing some families of transgender youth to move out of state to continue their children’s treatments, if they can afford to do so, the filing contends. “The threat of harm to plaintiffs is concrete, imminent, and devastating, and far outweighs any conceivable cost to the state of maintaining the status quo while this case proceeds,” the filing says. Republican lawmakers enacted the ban in April, overriding a veto by GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson following pleas from pediatricians, social workers and the parents of transgender youth who said the measure would harm a community already at risk for depression and suicide.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Thousands of Central California farmers were warned Tuesday that they could face water cutoffs this summer as the state deals with a drought that already has curtailed federal and state irrigation supplies. The State Water Resources Control Board notified about 6,600 farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed who have rights to use water from the Central Valley estuary of “impending water unavailability” that may continue until winter rains come. “This is how dry things are,” water board Chairman Joaquin Esquivel told the Sacramento Bee. “The hydrology that we’re seeing is not there. … There will not be enough natural flow.” The state also must provide enough flow in the rivers to maintain populations of protected fish species in rivers while keeping “cities and communities from running out of water,” Esquivel said. It’s unclear when the allocations will be cut or whom it will affect. Some farmers have first crack at supplies under a complicated distribution system involving rights-holders. Many farmers already have been told they will get little or nothing from two large allocation systems, the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. “The 2021 water year for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin is currently the driest since 1977,” the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has warned.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Gov. Jared Polis said he will begin phasing out the executive authority he has been granted during the coronavirus pandemic after creating, amending and extending about 400 orders since March 2020. The Democrat told The Denver Post that he’s now ready to let go of his unprecedented authority. “The pandemic still exists,” he said, but “our hospital capacity is no longer threatened. We have 60% of the population vaccinated. So at this point, we would go to kind of regular order, which means the Legislature passes laws, I can sign laws, and you can see the phaseout of those executive powers over time.” Polis has continued to exert his executive authority through multiple emergency mandates, enacting 17 orders in March, 13 in April, 10 in May and six so far this month. “In general, the time for these emergency actions is over, or near over. I believe in a republic, and I believe in three branches of government,” Polis said. “It’s not the role of the governor to do that long-term. It’s the role of the governor to react in an emergency.” Polis’ promise to phase out his powers was well-received news among Republican state officials who have worked for months to remove his additional authority. Republican state Sen. Paul Lundeen said he will believe it when he sees it.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: The state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation for the second time in about a week that legalizes the recreational use of cannabis for adults. But Gov. Ned Lamont is threatening to veto the retooled bill, arguing it opens the industry up to tens of thousands of people previously ineligible to get priority for licenses. Shortly before the bill cleared the Senate on a 19-12 vote, Paul Mounds, the Democratic governor’s chief of staff, issued a statement promising Lamont would nix the bill in its current form. The House was scheduled to take up the same legislation Wednesday, but it was unclear what would happen given the veto threat. The legislation “simply put, does not meet the goals laid out during negotiations when it comes to equity and ensuring the wrongs of the past are righted,” Mounds said in a statement. “To the contrary, this proposal opens the floodgates for tens of thousands of previously ineligible applicants to enter the adult-use cannabis industry.” He said the bill, which was amended twice Tuesday, allows “just about anyone with a history of cannabis crimes” or a member of their family, regardless of their financial means, who was once arrested for possession of drugs to be considered an “equity applicant,” given the same weight as someone from a neighborhood hit hard by the war on drugs.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that would bar police from releasing juvenile mug shots for minor crimes. House Bill 243 by Rep. Franklin Cooke, D-New Castle, would apply to booking photos of children 17 or younger. According to the bill, mug shots could still be published if the juvenile is charged with a violent felony and if the mug shot is necessary to protect the public’s safety. The Delaware Police Chiefs Council, which represents all police departments in the state, supports the bill, according to its chair, Patrick Ogden. Jamie Leonard, president of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police, the officers’ union, said his organization has yet to take a stance on the bill. In a Statehouse where several lawmakers in both parties – including sponsor Cooke – are retired officers or affiliated with police, proposed changes to policing laws historically need support from the police themselves. Cooke has argued that, because information such as mug shots lives forever on the internet, teenage mistakes come back to haunt people in adulthood. “I think everyone can agree that in the vast majority of circumstances, there’s no benefit to publishing juvenile mug shots – only damage to young people,” Cooke said. “I’m committed to getting this bill passed this year and ending this practice.”\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: With all capacity limits and restrictions lifted in the district, plans for Fourth of July celebrations are back in full swing. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will host essential workers and military families on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s birthday, WUSA-TV reports. “D.C. is open and ready to welcome back visitors to celebrate the way we came together as a city and as a nation this year,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We have shown once again that when we come together, there is nothing we can’t do.” With the nation inching closer to Biden’s vaccination goal, the country is gearing up for an Independence Day celebration like no other. “We thank President Biden and his team for acting with urgency to get the vaccine to the American people so that we could save lives, get our country open and celebrate together once again,” Bowser said. The district will support the White House and host the annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration on the National Mall. The 17-minute display will be held Sunday, July 4, starting at 9:09 p.m. and will be launched from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The city also plans to celebrate the return of the Barracks Row and Palisades 4th of July Parades.\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: Sunsets across the state in the coming days could become even more spectacular, as clouds of dust from the Sahara desert sweep in across the Atlantic coast. The plume is expected to dampen storm activity but worsen air pollution, causing trouble for some people with allergies and other respiratory problems. Some health experts say symptoms could mimic those from COVID-19. NASA is monitoring the dust, which was swept off Africa by strong winds swirling across the deserts of Mali and Mauritania. Trade winds are carrying the plume across the ocean, with the leading edge expected to arrive in Florida in the coming days. “It’s going to be a major dust outbreak,” Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Prospero pioneered research into African dust clouds. Dry winds carrying the particles could help smother storm systems by drying out the humid tropical air that feeds turbulent weather across a well-traveled route for hurricanes, experts said. “It’s been moving across the Atlantic for the past several days, and it’s expected to be in the area around Friday or Saturday,” Sammy Hadi, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami, told the paper.\n\nGeorgia\n\nTrenton: A nursing home director in northwestern Georgia was charged with cruelty after a sheriff said authorities discovered the facility didn’t have working air conditioning and had only one staff member looking after residents. Dade County deputies arrested Kent Allen Womack on Monday night, news outlets report. The 55-year-old was in custody at the county jail, and Sheriff Ray Cross said more charges were pending. Authorities reported to Woodhaven Senior Living in Trenton after receiving a call from a family member about the residents, from 61 to 97 years old, being evicted and having an hour to pack their belongings. Deputies who went to the nursing home learned one staff member – who wasn’t a trained nurse – had been watching the residents for 32 hours straight, according to news outlets. Every other employee quit because of the conditions. It was also discovered that the air conditioning in the building only worked near Womack’s office. “We checked the temperature in one of the air units in there, and it registered over 100 degrees,” Cross said Tuesday. The sheriff said Womack smelled of alcohol when he arrived at the facility. Cross asked if he had been drinking, and the nursing home owner responded: “I didn’t drive here.” Authorities found two small bottles of alcohol in Womack’s pocket, Cross said.\n\nHawaii\n\nHilo: Eleven inmates at a state jail have asked a judge to release them early for public health reasons amid a COVID-19 outbreak. Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota granted five of the motions but denied or postponed the rest, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Most of the cases he denied were for offenders who had repeatedly violated probation in the past. As of Friday, nearly 200 inmates at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center had tested positive for the coronavirus since May 24. There were seven active cases among staff. The outbreak occurred as the jail struggled with overcrowding. The jail population exceeds operational capacity by more than 100 inmates. Deputy Public Defender Patrick Munoz, who represents some of the people asking to be released early, said the increasingly intolerable conditions at the jail represent an undue hardship for inmates. “Not only are individuals being exposed to the effects of this potentially life-threatening and long-lasting virus, but there’s also the effects on people being in an overcrowded prison afraid for their lives,” he said. “It’s like they’re on a sinking ship. Fear is overcoming them;people are beginning to panic.”\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Unemployed residents could get kicked out of a state benefits program if they don’t follow new job-seeking requirements that went into effect this month. People receiving unemployment benefits now have two business days to apply for a job opening after receiving a referral from the Idaho Department of Labor, the Idaho Statesman reports. If they don’t, they could lose their unemployment benefits. “Once a job is referred, the claimant must apply for the job or act on that referral,” Idaho Department of Labor director Jani Revier said. “In the past, when referrals were made, there were no consequences if they didn’t follow up.” State workforce consultants will check with the potential employer to verify that the person applied for the referred job. Previously, the labor department didn’t track whether people followed up on referrals. In March, there were 1.4 available jobs for every unemployed Idaho resident, Revier said. Property values and housing costs have climbed dramatically across much of the state in recent years, particularly during the pandemic. Idaho’s minimum wage of $7.25, meanwhile, hasn’t increased since 2009. A full-time minimum-wage worker would earn about $1,250 a month before taxes. Online rental agency ApartmentList.com says median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Boise is just over $900.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: A nonprofit formed to highlight the lack of leaders of color within the city’s arts and cultural systems is asking artists of color to imagine what the nation’s third-largest city could look like without stubborn inequities in art, theater and other institutions. The first phase of Enrich Chicago’s new program, called Imagine Just, begins this month. The series of brainstorming sessions will ask artists, performers and other Chicagoans to imagine what an equitable arts and cultural scene could look like. Nina Sanchez, co-director of Enrich Chicago, sees the project as an expansion of the organization’s focus on anti-racism training and education within Chicago’s arts and cultural community. The organization was founded in 2014 by former leaders of the influential Joyce Foundation and the Auditorium Theatre. It now counts more than 50 arts and cultural organizations as partners. But the coronavirus pandemic and widespread activism during the past year in response to George Floyd’s death highlighted stubborn inequities in all aspects of life, prompting conversations about what else the organization could do to force change in Chicago’s arts and culture community, Sanchez said. Imagine Just is the result, attempting to amplify the voices of artists of color and reach leaders of local institutions that can feel out of reach, she said.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Several teachers unions are seeking to block a new state law, set to take effect next month, that they say unfairly targets teachers and makes it harder for unions to collect dues. The unions representing Anderson, Avon and Martinsville school districts and the teachers that lead them filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Indiana’s federal Southern District court challenging Senate Enrolled Act 251. The law, which will go into effect July 1, sets out a new process for the collection of teachers union dues, requiring teachers to annually complete a three-step process to have union dues deducted from their paychecks. Jeff Macey, the attorney representing the teachers and their unions, said no other union or organization that allows for wage deductions is required to follow the same process. The law violates the constitutional rights of teachers, he said. “Why are teachers being singled out for these onerous restrictions?” Macey said. “No other union, no other charity, no other organization in the state has to do this to assign a portion of your wages to (them).” The lawsuit names Attorney General Todd Rokita, Secretary of Education Katie Jenner and Tammy Meyer, chair of the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board, as defendants.\n\nIowa\n\nLake City: A fire destroyed an internationally renowned western Iowa business that makes pipe organs for churches, schools and other customers around the world. The fire at Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City was reported about 4 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. Firefighters who arrived on the scene found the building engulfed in flames, which caused the building’s exterior walls to collapse. One employee of the company was burned when he discovered the fire and tried to put out the flames, according to authorities. The State Fire Marshal’s Office said it believes the fire was started by a malfunctioning fan that caused sawdust to ignite. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders was founded in 1974 by Lynn Dobson, a Carroll native who attended Wayne State College in Nebraska, according to the business’ website. During his years at the college, he built his first 12-top mechanical action organ in a shed on his family’s farm that he sold to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux City, where it is still played. Dobson opened the Lake City factory in a former farm implement dealership on the town’s square in 1974. The company installed its 98th organ this year at St. Christopher’s Church in Chatham, Massachusetts, according to its website, and planned its 99th for Saint James Church in Sydney, Australia.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: The Kansas Statehouse, often dubbed the people’s house, was missing one thing for the past year: the people. Lobbyists and staff joined elected legislators in the building for the January session, but pandemic-related limits on visitors meant no school groups, curious tourists or children standing in front of John Steuart Curry’s epic painting “Tragic Prelude,” a history book textbook brought to life before their very eyes. That changed Monday, when the Statehouse once again resumed tours, bringing a sense of normalcy back to downtown Topeka as a trickle of visitors to the seat of state government turned into a waterfall. Only one person showed up for a 9 a.m. tour, leaving staff wondering how many onlookers would show throughout the day. But almost two dozen visitors came for a tour two hours later – numbers that would have been above average even before COVID-19. Not everything is fully back to normal, though. Tours to the top of the Statehouse dome have yet to resume, with staff hoping to have them back up and running later this summer. And the four-times-a-day tours require juggling for workers, with many part-time guides still laid off.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: A 25-foot-tall nest is being pieced together on a massive scale at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, already home to a family of giant wooden trolls. Artist Jayson Fann is constructing his “Spirit Nest” creation as part of a new “Playcosystem,” a new 10-acre natural playground that stresses the importance of free play and connecting children with nature. The enormous nest’s spiraling branches resemble a prehistoric bird’s nest or a massive clock face to be ogled, climbed on and enjoyed. Fann is working on 12 Spirit Nests this year, with the pandemic slowing his output in 2020. An amphitheater made from salvaged forest wood will encompass the Bernheim nest, providing a place to educate and entertain visitors in the forest. A large drum made from the hollowed stump of a fallen maple tree will sit in the center of the nest. A percussionist himself, Fann’s goal is for the project to be a link to the Indigenous people and African Americans who have a history with the land at Bernheim. It is a nest for all people. “That’s what the nests are. They are storytelling spaces, to bring people together, in the spirit of community. Imagine a full moon and kids are here; maybe there is a campfire, and you’ve got people from different cultures sharing their life story, connecting and healing. That’s a space I want to hang out in,” he said.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: The state has created a framework for self-driving delivery robots to drop off packages and navigate streets, under a bill backed by lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards. The new personal delivery device law sponsored by state Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, took effect immediately after the Democratic governor signed the legislation. Grocery stores, pizza delivery restaurants and Amazon have started working on delivering items with self-driving robots. Ward told his colleagues he envisioned pharmacies, restaurants or other stores near local neighborhoods possibly using the devices to make short-distance deliveries. “Your constituents would be able to place an order for any number of things, and that personal delivery device would be able to pick that up from a store location and go throughout the neighborhood and deliver it along the way,” Ward told the House transportation committee when it debated and approved the measure. Under the new law, self-driving delivery robots must run at low speeds – up to 12 miles per hour in pedestrian areas and up to 20 mph in others. They must yield to pedestrians and can’t obstruct traffic or transport hazardous materials. Companies using the delivery vehicles must have lights on the front and rear of each device and maintain at least $100,000 of insurance on each one.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: A proposed constitutional amendment to require popular elections for Maine’s attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer has fallen short in the state House. A two-thirds majority is required in both chambers to send the proposed amendment to the voters for approval. The bill won 27-7 support on Monday in the Senate, which approved an amendment to ensure the use of ranked-choice voting. But the House, which previously narrowly approved the measure, rejected the amended version by an 81-62 vote Tuesday, the Bangor Daily News reports. Maine is among a handful of states that do not hold statewide general elections for so-called constitutional officers. The positions are chosen by the Legislature and typically are filled by the party in power. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage called for a similar change in 2015, when he was involved in a political dispute with then-Attorney General Janet Mills. But Republican support eroded with the ranked-choice voting provision. Republicans have decried the voting system since GOP U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin lost his reelection to Democrat Jared Golden despite winning the plurality of first-place votes. Golden was declared the majority winner after an additional voting round in the three-way race.\n\nMaryland\n\nOcean City: Videos showing police officers kneeing one Black teen and using a Taser on another on the beach community’s Boardwalk in separate confrontations that began over vaping are stirring criticism of the department’s use of force in such cases. On June 6, officers tried to stop a teen because he was vaping, police said in a statement. When he pulled away from an officer grabbing him in a “bear hug” and began threatening to kill them, an officer used a Taser, according to charging documents. Video of the encounter shows the teen with his hands up, but as one hand drops toward his backpack, an officer fires a Taser, and he falls to the ground. Other videos show the teen being carried away by officers with his hands and feet tied. Court documents state that the 18-year-old from Perryville teen is Black. A video of another Boardwalk confrontation Saturday shows another Black teen being held by several officers while another knees him repeatedly as a dozen officers and public safety aides hold back an angry crowd. One teen is taken into custody after lifting one of several police bicycles encircling the officers, and another is Tased as he struggles with officers. That confrontation began after officers approached a large group of people vaping to tell them it was prohibited, then returning when they saw one begin to vape again, police said.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A company that authorities say failed to deliver on a contract to supply 1 million N95 face masks to the state and then made false statements in connection with its obligation to refund the state has agreed to pay nearly $3.5 million to settle the allegations, the state attorney general’s office said Wednesday. The company, Salem-based Bedrock Group LLC, signed a $3.6 million contract with the state in April 2020 in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic to supply the masks, essential for health care workers, according to a statement from authorities. The state made the purchase after it was contacted by the company’s president with an offer to supply the masks, which the president said would come from a reputable manufacturer in China. The masks were supposed to be shipped to the state in mid-April 2020, but the order was terminated in June after fewer than 100,000 of the masks were delivered. Bedrock repeatedly acknowledged its obligation to refund the state but failed to do so, according to the attorney general’s office. “This company tried to take advantage of the state by holding onto millions of taxpayer dollars it owed for masks that it never delivered,” Attorney General Maura Healey said. In addition to repaying the money, Bedrock is not allowed to seek another state contract for five years.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: A school district that never returned to classrooms in the 2020-21 academic year will embrace online education again in the fall and open it to more students. Lansing said it will keep online classes as an option and invite families from other mid-Michigan districts to participate. The district also plans to open schools in a traditional way as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. “We had a number of students who were doing very well” online, said Superintendent Sam Sinicropi. “So we decided to explore what it would look like to offer a virtual option.” The district expects to enroll up to 600 students and hire 15 new teachers, who will teach solely online. Students will be allowed to participate in sports and other activities at Lansing schools. “There are some families that prefer this, and hopefully this will be the answer for them,” Sinicropi said. The capital city’s district has more than 10,000 students.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: A bankruptcy trustee’s search to recover assets linked to one of the largest financial crimes in state history has netted $722 million. Doug Kelley said his work to collect assets from Tom Petters’ $1.9 billion Ponzi scheme is nearly done 13 years after the search began. A motion filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis last week shows the amount recovered and returned to victims and creditors, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel here,” Kelley said. “It has been a long and arduous process that was at times bumpy, but I am quite pleased with the collective return of $722 million.” Petters, now 63, was indicted in 2008 on multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy for operating the scheme that spanned 26 countries, including the the Cayman Islands, Germany and Switzerland. A federal jury found him guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He is currently an inmate at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. Kelley said just four or five cases remain, including one filed against the Bank of Montreal in Canada.\n\nMississippi\n\nBooneville: Friends, family and former colleagues gathered in the city Monday to remember former Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy and unveil a sign that names a segment of a highway in his honor. McCoy was 77 when he died in 2019. The farmer from Rienzi was a self-described Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal Democrat who was first elected to the state House in 1979. McCoy was speaker during his final two terms, ending in 2012. McCoy – known for down-home turns of phrase and the occasional flash of temper – was instrumental in passing the 1987 Highway Program that led to construction of hundreds of miles of four-lane roads across Mississippi, including in rural areas struggling for economic development. Legislators in 2020 passed a bill naming segments of highways, including the stretch of U.S. 45 in Prentiss and Alcorn counties, in honor of McCoy. Both counties were in his House district. Democrat Steve Holland of Plantersville, who served in the House from 1984 to 2020, said McCoy would pick him up in an old blue Oldsmobile, and they’d ride the backroads of Mississippi together, stopping at country stores to see what was on people’s minds. “I don’t need a sign to remember him,” Holland said. “But, my goodness, what a wonderful way because the guy loved the roads. He loved riding them, and he loved seeing people.”\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: Two of the area’s largest employers have announced they will require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by fall. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports BJC HealthCare and Washington University both announced the requirements Tuesday. The decision comes at a time when demand for vaccines is waning in Missouri, a state that already lags the national average with its COVID-19 immunization rate. The St. Louis region’s three other major health systems – SSM Health, Mercy and St. Luke’s Hospital – have not issued vaccine requirements but said they were discussing the issue. Missouri Hospital Association President and CEO Herb Kuhn said hospitals across the state have “seen COVID-19’s devastation in lives and health lost,” and many are evaluating vaccine requirements. Washington University will require all faculty, staff and trainees to be vaccinated by Aug. 30. BJC will require employees to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 15.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: The state Department of Corrections will pay $250,000 to settle claims from a guard who claimed he was retaliated against after reporting rape allegations at Montana Women’s Prison. Daniel Root claimed he was passed over twice for a promotion after reporting in 2017 allegations of his supervisor’s sexual misconduct with inmates. The results of an investigation into the claims have not been released, but the lieutenant accused of having sex with an inmate resigned in 2019, the Montana State News Bureau reports. Root said in court filings that he was told filing lawsuits and talking to the press about issues of public concern reflected negatively on his chances for promotion. He resigned under the terms of the agreement. His attorney told the Montana State News Bureau that Root wanted to put the case behind him. Attorney Kevin Brown said he hopes the case will spur other corrections employees to step forward and report violations of rape reporting requirements. The Department of Corrections settled a separate retaliation claim from an agency employee earlier this year, also for $250,000. In that case, a former corrections employee said he faced discrimination and retaliation in 2016 for his post-traumatic stress disorder while working at the men’s state prison near Deer Lodge.\n\nNebraska\n\nSouth Sioux City: The City Council has approved a payment of $500,000 to settle its part in 16 lawsuits filed against the city and a now-defunct biogas plant by homeowners who accused the plant of sending rancid fumes through the city sewer system and ruining their homes. The settlement calls for the city, Big Ox Energy, three insurance companies and two other companies to pay a combined $1.75 million, which will be divided among the homeowners. The City Council approved South Sioux City’s portion Monday, the Sioux City Journal reports. Big Ox began operations in September 2016, separating solids from industry wastewater to create methane. The plant sold the methane and injected it into a nearby natural gas pipeline. Big Ox was subject to odor complaints soon after it began operations and was cited for numerous environmental violations until it shut down in 2019. Neither South Sioux City nor Big Ox, which have both denied the homeowners’ claims, admit liability in the settlement. After the complaints and lawsuit, Big Ox in turn sued two other companies. The first was former soybean processor CHS Inc., which it said illegally released acidic wastewater into the sewer system. The second was Olsson Inc., an engineering firm Big Ox said recommended wastewater from its plant be routed through a sewer main.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: A battery recycling company founded by a former executive at Tesla Inc. broke ground on 100 acres of land at an industrial park near the city as part of its expansion plan. Redwood Materials, founded in Nevada in 2017, is expecting its operations to continue growing with a boost in used battery packs from older electric vehicles. As a result, the company plans to expand its facilities and increase its workforce from just over 100 employees to more than 600 in the next couple of years. In addition to the acquisition at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, the company is also undertaking a major project in Carson City to expand its 150,000-square-foot facility to 550,000 square feet within the next two years. “We’ve been on the quiet side because we prefer to make progress and get things done,” Redwood Materials CEO JB Straubel said. “We felt it was time to connect a bit more with the local community and help raise awareness for hiring and make sure people realize this is a worthy and unique opportunity here as well.” Straubel is known for helping launch Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer that has been operating out of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center for nearly seven years. Tesla works with Panasonic to create battery packs from various components. Redwood Materials, Straubel’s new venture, does the reverse.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Budget negotiators in the state House on Tuesday went along with the Senate version of a provision that would prohibit teaching schoolchildren or public employees that one race is superior to another or that one inherently discriminates against another. The House had included language in its budget defining numerous “divisive concepts” that would be banned from being taught in schools or by public employers during diversity and inclusion training. The Senate overhauled the language in the face of opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu, framing it as an anti-discrimination measure that would not prohibit discussions about history or current events. But opponents have argued it still would limit First Amendment rights by banning discussions about important topics including racism and sexism. Rep. Lynne Ober, R-Hudson, who is leading the committee hashing out a compromise on the budget, said Tuesday that the House acceded to the Senate’s language. There was no debate. Work continued on the larger bill Wednesday.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nAtlantic City: State lawmakers are considering a bill that would fast-track offshore wind energy projects by removing the ability of local governments to control power lines and other onshore components. The bill, introduced last week and advanced Tuesday, would give wind energy projects approved by the state Board of Public Utilities authority to locate, build, use and maintain wires and associated land-based infrastructure as long as they run underground on public property including streets, though the BPU could determine that some above-ground wires are necessary. It appears to be an effort to head off any local objections to at least one wind power project envisioned to come ashore at two former power plants and run cables under two of the state’s most popular beaches. At a virtual public hearing in April on the Ocean Wind project planned by Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, and PSEG, a New Jersey utility company, officials revealed that the project would connect to the electric grid at decommissioned power plants in Ocean and Cape May Counties. The northern connection would be at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township; the southern connection would be at the former B.L. England plant in Upper Township.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: Democrat-backed efforts to expand voter access in the state are coming to fruition, with the rollout of same-day voter registration this month. The first trial run took place in a low-turnout special congressional election June 1, allowing voters to register at early voting centers in the final weeks of balloting and Election Day. In all, 2,012 residents took advantage of the opportunity to register during the final four weeks of the election, according to the New Mexico secretary of state’s office. Late-registering voters flocked primarily to the Democratic Party, accounting for about 53% of those registrations – and 50% of those on Election Day itself. About 32% of the later registrations aligned with the Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat, won the June 1 election with 60% of the vote to fill the 1st Congressional District seat held previously by Deb Haaland. Same-day registration is likely to be an option in future New Mexico elections, but it requires approval every two years by a panel of voting systems regulators. Approval is pending for the November local election to pick mayors in cities including Albuquerque and Santa Fe.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: A former Shake Shack manager has filed a lawsuit against the Detectives’ Endowment Association, the Police Benevolent Association, and about 20 unnamed New York Police Department officers accusing them of false arrest and defamation. Marcus Gilliam and other employees were accused by officers of serving them poisoned milkshakes last June. In a lawsuit filed Monday, Gilliam said the subsequent interrogation caused him “emotional and psychological damages and damage to his reputation.” Three officers complained that their shakes made them sick and had a bitter and unusual taste. Two hours later, 20 officers approached the establishment and began to treat the store as a crime scene, The New York Times reports. As the investigation unfolded, police unions announced on Twitter that officers were intentionally attacked. “Tonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack,” the detectives’ union tweeted. The Police Benevolent Association made a similar post later alleging that the drinks were intentionally spiked with “a toxic substance, believed to be bleach or a similar cleaning agent.” Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s chief of detectives at the time and now chief of the department, eventually tweeted that the investigation found “no criminality” by the employees.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: The state’s ban on most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy must remain unenforceable, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, rejecting arguments that the law should be left intact because prosecutors aren’t going after doctors who violate it. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld a 2019 lower-court decision striking down the prohibition, which has been on the books since 1973. The Republican-dominated Legislature in 2015 narrowed the scope of medical emergencies under which a woman would be exempt from the 20-week limit. That meant more abortions involving unviable fetuses could be considered criminal, raising the fear for abortion providers that they could face prosecution. A U.S. District Court judge in 2019 agreed and blocked the law’s enforcement in situations where the fetus would be considered not viable. State government lawyers representing some district attorneys and state health officials who were sued have argued the abortion providers lack legal standing to challenge the law. Their arguments for the law’s reinstatement are based on the fact that North Carolina has not charged any abortion providers under a pair of laws being challenged and that prosecutors currently have no plans to do so.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The number of wildfires this year in the state has increased significantly, officials say, citing extremely dry conditions. Data collected by the North Dakota Forest Service and the state Department of Emergency Services shows nearly 1,400 fires have consumed about 156 square miles since the beginning of the year. Last year, about 921 fires burned approximately 18 square miles. North Dakota has experienced some of the driest winter and spring months this year. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows more than two-thirds of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. State Forester Tom Claeys said limited moisture along with warm temperatures have increased the intensity and size of wildfires this year. “This year, it’s imperative that we all know how to mitigate against wildfires, especially as we make plans to enjoy the summer months by recreating outside with friends and family,” Claeys said. “With Independence Day right around the corner, we need to raise awareness now to reduce wildfire risk. We all can do our part to practice fire safety and protect property and lives.” Tribal, state and federal agencies responded to two large wildfires April 30 through May 2. The Roosevelt Creek Fire in the Little Missouri National Grassland and one on the Fort Berthold Reservation have each burned about 15 square miles or more.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Republican former Speaker Larry Householder was expelled from the state House in a vote Wednesday following his indictment in an alleged $60 million federal bribery probe – only the second time the Legislature has pushed out a member and the first time in 150 years. The Republican-led House voted 75-21 to remove Householder, of Perry County, approving a resolution that said he was not suited for office because of the indictment. The full House voted after lawmakers forced the measure to the floor instead of waiting for the expulsion resolution to work through the committee process. Reps. Brian Stewart and Mark Frazier, both Republicans representing districts that border Householder’s, encouraged their colleagues to “do the right thing” and vote to expel. “This has been a distraction. This has been a stain on the institution, and it is time for us to come together as one body,” Frazier said, adding that “this institution is greater than any one man.” Householder and four associates were arrested in July in an investigation connected to legislation containing a ratepayer-funded bailout of two Ohio nuclear power plants. The $1 billion rescue would have added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: A 24-member joint committee of state House and Senate members has been selected to consider proposals for Oklahoma’s share of funds from the latest federal coronavirus relief legislation. House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, both Republicans, announced the committee Wednesday. “This is an opportunity to address needs exposed by the pandemic and support economic recovery without growing state government’s financial obligations,” McCall said. Treat said the one-time funds provide “the opportunity to further strengthen Oklahoma’s position through targeted investments in projects across the state.” Gov. Kevin Stitt said the money can be used to improve the state’s infrastructure and workforce, as well as the health of residents. The state is to receive about $1.9 billion of the total $1.9 trillion in federal funds approved by Congress in March. The bill, among President Joe Biden’s top priorities in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and economic crises, was unanimously opposed by Republicans in Congress. The Oklahoma committee will be co-chaired by Sen. Roger Thompson and Rep. Kevin Wallace, both Republicans.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill passed by the Legislature legalizing human composting. The measure signed Tuesday will legalize what’s also known as natural organic reduction, KOIN-TV reports. It also clarifies rules surrounding alkaline hydrolysis, known as aqua cremation. The law goes into effect July 1, 2022. Rep. Pam Marsh, from in Southern Jackson County, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Brian Clem, said she decided to sponsor the bill because her constituents are interested in alternative after-death options. “My colleagues could see as well that in addition to providing families with a choice, it also is a business opportunity,” she said. Elizabeth Fournier, owner of Cornerstone Funeral Services in Boring, Oregon, and author of a green burial guidebook, provides “green” and eco-friendly after-death services and has given clients the option of natural organic reduction since it was legalized in Washington state in 2020. Fournier takes bodies to Herland Forest in Wahkiacus, Washington. It’s a natural burial cemetery about 100 miles east of Portland. In 2020, Fournier witnessed her first natural organic reduction and said seeing the process for herself made her more comfortable in talking to her clients about that option.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPittsburgh: A western Pennsylvania judge will mediate a dispute over a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus in a city park. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay declared an impasse in the dispute between the city of Pittsburgh and the Italian Sons and Daughters of America over the Columbus statue in Schenley Park, the Tribune-Review reports. McVay issued an order last week instructing the parties to identify who will participate from each side during the mediation. City crews last fall covered the 13-foot statue, which was erected in 1955, in advance of Columbus Day. The Pittsburgh Art Commission voted unanimously to remove the statue, and Mayor Bill Peduto agreed, but the Italian Sons and Daughters of America filed a lawsuit. McVay granted an injunction halting the removal but urged the parties to try to reach consensus, saying that “historical figures are people and necessarily come with heroic qualities along with character flaws” but also saying that “racism, slavery and prejudice must always be condemned and rejected by our city.” The group then asked the judge to remove himself, saying the court had adopted “its own beliefs” on settlement discussions that “are based on demonstrably false and biased recitations of history that are swiftly disproven by the primary sources of Columbus’s time.”\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: A doctor has been cited by federal labor officials for failing to take steps to protect his medical office staff from exposure to COVID-19 even after he and other employees contracted the coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Farina Jr. “willfully exposed” his workers to the virus when he decided to continue working. The agency said he also failed to fully implement safeguards such as cleaning and disinfecting regimens, screening all employees for symptoms, or mandating contact tracing or quarantining after exposure. Labor officials said they’d seek a $136,532 fine against Farina, who runs four medical practices: North Providence Urgent Care Inc., North Providence Primary Care Associates Inc., Center of New England Urgent Care Inc. and Center of New England Primary Care Inc. Farina’s lawyer, Michael Lepizzera, said his client will contest OSHA’s findings and proposed penalty, which he said is “legally excessive.” State officials in January suspended Farina’s license under emergency order, saying he posed a danger to the community, though they restored it the following month. Farina also faces federal allegations that he violated fair labor laws by failing to pay overtime to more than 100 employees.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: As the state nears its first execution in a decade, death penalty opponents are renewing calls for South Carolina to toss out its capital punishment statute. A group of faith leaders, academics, organizers and others delivered a letter Wednesday to Gov. Henry McMaster and the General Assembly calling for a halt to two upcoming executions and the repeal of the state’s death penalty law. Group members acknowledge it’s unlikely that the politicians who ushered in a new law aimed at restarting executions after an involuntary 10-year pause will now turn around and repeal that law. Their group, South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, was formed in light of two upcoming executions this month. “We don’t expect that we’re going to stop an execution,” said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group that helps local organizations oppose capital punishment. “What we do expect is that we’re going to create the organization that’s going to abolish the death penalty in this state. It might take two years, it might take 10 years, but that’s what this organization is designed to do.” State prisons officials are planning Friday to electrocute Brad Sigmon, 63, who has spent nearly two decades on death row after he was convicted in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem indicated Tuesday that she will try again to hold a fireworks display over Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day on the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement that the White House will be hosting its own “independence from the virus” bash. The National Parks Service in March denied the state’s application to hold the pyrotechnic display, reasoning that fireworks caused safety concerns at the monument, that local Native American tribes objected to the celebration being held on land they hold as sacred and that a mass gathering could still defy coronavirus precautions. In an effort to overturn that decision, the Republican governor has written a letter to the president, bashed Biden in the media and sued the U.S. Department of the Interior. All of those efforts have failed. But after Biden announced Tuesday that he would be encouraging nationwide celebrations to mark the country’s effective return to normalcy, Noem said on Twitter that she would resubmit a request to hold fireworks at the monument on Saturday, July 3. However, even if the federal government reversed its decision, the state would struggle to pull the event together with July Fourth weekend just weeks away. Noem’s administration previously said in court that the state would have to know by June 2 to have ample planning time.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: Amazon on Wednesday announced a commitment of $75million for developers to create affordable homes in the city near WeGo Public Transit high-capacity corridors. The company reported 800 homes will be built on private land, and the investment is part of Amazon’s more than $2 billion Housing Equity Fund to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable homes through below-market loans to housing partners, traditional and nontraditional public agencies, and minority-led organizations. The Music City is one of three cities hosting the company’s new headquarters, where Amazon hopes to infuse communities with cash and support over the next five years. Transportation and housing costs account for a significant portion of the average person’s expenses, said Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice president of Global Corporate Affairs. “We hope this will pave a path for more inclusive communities,” Carney said. WeGo, the primary regional transit agency operating bus and paratransit service across Nashville, serves close to 30,000 riders daily. Amazon will focus on affordable properties within a half-mile of transit stops and “prioritize opportunities to invest in minority-led organizations and racially and economically diverse communities,” the company reported.\n\nTexas\n\nDallas: The developer of a long-planned – and controversial – high-speed rail line that would get passengers from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes announced Tuesday that it signed a $16 billion contract with an Italian company to build the project, in what could be a step toward realization. Webuild, based in Milan, will oversee heavy construction of the planned 236-mile project for developer Texas Central, the companies said in a news release. Webuild will operate through U.S. subsidiary Lane Construction Corporation, based in Cheshire, Connecticut. Nearly half the distance the bullet train will cover – at speeds up to 200 mph – will be elevated to reduce the impact on property owners, the companies said. Residents have fought the high-speed train, which has been discussed for decades and would rely on acquiring land through eminent domain to construct the rail line. Trey Duhon, who heads a group called Texans Against High-Speed Rail, criticized Tuesday’s announcement, saying it was just the developer continuing to try to drum up support for an unpopular project. “Texas Central takes every opportunity to generate what sounds like progress to keep interest and investments alive,” said Duhon, who also is the highest-ranking elected official in Waller County, outside Houston.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The state’s ski resorts set a record for visitors this past winter despite coronavirus-related restrictions and a below-average snowfall, according to industry data released Tuesday. A news release from Ski Utah shows the 5.3 million skier days marked a major rebound from the previous winter, when the state registered 4.3 million after the season was cut short by the pandemic. The industry association said this winter’s figure also surpasses the previous record of 5.13 million skier days set during the 2018-19 ski season. Utah resorts were forced to implement COVID-19 safety protocols, including capacity limitations and mask mandates, but the industry association said those didn’t stop skiers and snowboarders from visiting. “Throughout the season it became clear that skiing provided a respite from the day to day realities of the pandemic and allowed an option for guests to safely socialize outside,” Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah, said in a statement. Utah’s big year mirrors a banner season for ski resorts around the country. The National Ski Areas Association’s said the 59 million skier visits nationally are the fifth-most overall.\n\nVermont\n\nBrattleboro: A refugee resettlement nonprofit has plans to start a new program in the state to relocate refugees in smaller, more rural communities across the United States. The Ethiopian Development Community Council, a nonprofit agency that partners with the State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S., wants to launch its program in Brattleboro because of the city’s support. The first families should arrive in the city before the end of the year if the program is approved by the federal government, Vermont Public Radio reports. The nonprofit has also chosen Wausau to test out the program, pending federal approval. The nonprofit is preparing for an influx of refugees because the Biden administration has promised to increase the number of refugees allowed in the country and reopen the refugee resettlement program on which the Trump administration imposed restrictions, the radio station reports. “If we want to create integration of refugees, having them only in big cities where they would be congregating among themselves, only, is not going to help long-term integration,” said Tsehaye Tefera, founder of the Ethiopian Development Community Council. Brattleboro town manager Peter Elwell said he knows there could be opposition to the program, but the plan is in line with the town’s priority to improve equity in one of the nation’s whitest states.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: Riders on the city’s transit system won’t have to dig into their pockets for another year. The board of directors of Greater Richmond Transit Company announced Tuesday that the system will remain fare-free through June 30, 2022. The system said in a news release that it has used state and federal COVID-19 relief funds since March 2020 in response to public health measures. GRTC also has sponsored the fare-free rides in the interest of economically distressed communities who rely on public transit to reach jobs, food and other resources. Free fares include rides on local buses, the Pulse, Express Bus, and CARE/Paratransit vans, the news release said. A spokesperson said workers who collected fares were offered other jobs within the company.\n\nWashington\n\nSpokane: Scientists have found a dead Asian giant hornet in Marysville, north of Seattle – the first so-called murder hornet discovered in the country this year, federal and state investigators said Wednesday. Entomologists from the state and U.S. agriculture departments said it’s the first confirmed report from Snohomish County and appears to be unrelated to the 2019 and 2020 findings of the hornets in Canada and Whatcom County, along the Canadian border, that gained widespread attention. The 2-inch-long invasive insects, first found near the U.S.-Canada border in December 2019, are native to Asia and pose a threat to honeybees and native hornet species. While not particularly aggressive toward humans, their stings are extremely painful, and repeated stings, though rare, can kill. The world’s largest hornet is much more of a threat to honeybees that are relied on to pollinate crops. They attack hives, destroying them in mere hours and decapitating bees in what scientists call their “slaughter phase.” How they got here from Asia is unclear, although it is suspected they travel on cargo ships. “Hitchhikers are a side effect of all the commerce we do globally,” said Sven Spichiger, an entomologist with the state Agriculture Department who is leading the fight to eradicate the hornets.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: Gov. Jim Justice’s nomination of a Republican Party operative to a public broadcasting oversight board has prompted concern about the appointee’s credentials and whether the GOP governor will use his political muscle to fill multiple expired seats. Members of the state Senate Confirmations Committee received notice Friday of the pending appointment of Greg Thomas to the state Educational Broadcasting Authority, which is the governing body of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier County, said Monday that Thomas’ background doesn’t make him a good fit for the authority. The pending appointment “stood out like a sore thumb,” Baldwin said. “You’ve got an outwardly partisan political operative being nominated to a position that doesn’t call for that at all.” Thomas has worked for several GOP politicians, including the campaign of convicted former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s failed U.S. Senate run in 2018. He also works for the nonprofit group West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The state is on track to scrap a requirement that has been a singular rite of passage for generations: the behind-the-wheel road test for teenagers. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled joint finance committee last week approved the state Department of Transportation’s proposal to continue its program of waiving road tests for 16- and 17-year-olds who have completed all driver’s education requirements. If approved as part of the budget by Gov. Tony Evers, the current pilot program would become a permanent part of how the Department of Motor Vehicles allocates licenses beginning July 1. DOT first began to pilot the waivers in mid-May of last year, citing its desire to reduce interactions between its employees and members of the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Department officials also said they hoped the waivers would allow DMV offices to focus on the backlog of adult driver’s tests that had accumulated amid the pandemic. Under state law, those over the age of 18 only require a passing multiple-choice knowledge test before taking the road test. The DMV has said these people cannot waive their road test because they are not required to complete a driver’s education course and behind-the-wheel training with an instructor.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Lawmakers are pursuing two possible hate crimes bills for next year’s legislative session. One bill to be drafted would require law enforcement to report hate crimes. The other would extend protections to more groups. “I want a starting point to move forward,” state Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, told other members of the Joint Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. At least 47 states have adopted hate crimes legislation since the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. National groups such as the Brennan Center for Justice do not classify Wyoming as having a hate crime law, though the American Civil Liberties Union does. The statute makes it a misdemeanor to deny anyone “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness or the necessities of life” due to their “race, color, sex, creed or national origin.” The statute does not require police to report hate crimes and does not protect all vulnerable populations, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing. Wyoming has recorded 13 hate crimes since 2015, but the number is believed to be underreported.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2016/08/26/lawmakers-eye-caps-changing-payday-lending-industry/87632062/", "title": "Lawmakers eye caps on changing payday lending industry", "text": "Jessica Masulli Reyes\n\nThe News Journal\n\nDelaware legislation passed in 2012 limited the number of payday loans a person could get each year.\n\nLenders responded by changing the types of loans they offer.\n\nDelaware had 142 stores registered in 2015 that offer short-term consumer loans.\n\nState lawmakers thought they were cracking down on predatory lending when they passed legislation in 2012 that limited the number of payday loans a person could get each year.\n\nBut payday lenders in Delaware and nationwide responded by changing the types of loans they offer to avoid strict laws that only apply to payday advances.\n\nThis means that, despite the state's efforts, thousands of Delawareans are still paying three- or even four-digit interest rates on loans that are supposed to help them in financial emergencies but can leave them in a cycle of debt.\n\nPaul Calistro, executive director of West End Neighborhood House, a Wilmington organization that offers a low-interest payday loan as an alternative, said it amounts to predatory lending.\n\n\"This is about greed,\" he said.\n\nTake, for example, Mary Tucker.\n\nShe is a single mother who has owned her one-story brick house in New Castle for nearly a decade. After falling behind on the mortgage payments, she applied for a loan from LoanMe, an online lender in California that advertises itself as a fast and easy way to get $2,600 to $50,000.\n\nShe was approved for an installment loan. Unlike a payday loan, which is meant to be paid back with a person's next paycheck, installment loans have higher dollar amounts and longer periods for repayment.\n\nTucker, who works part-time as a dietary aid and receives disability payments, immediately put the money toward the mortgage and repaid the loan in the first month to avoid paying high interest, she said.\n\nIt still wasn't enough to make her current on the mortgage, so she applied for a second loan in the spring.\n\nThis time, she was approved for $3,100 with an annual percentage rate, or APR, of 135 percent. She has up to 47 months to repay the loan – meaning that she will pay approximately $16,500 in principal, fees and interest if it takes her the entire time.\n\n\"I make monthly payments to make sure they are not coming after me, but with interest that won't do much,\" she said. \"Now I'm left with this bill, plus my mortgage. I'm in worse shape now.\"\n\nTo fight this loophole that is giving lenders free rein with installment loans, state Rep. Helene Keeley, D-Wilmington South, introduced a bill that would cap the APR for both payday and installment loans at 100 percent. Last year, the average APR on payday loans in Delaware was 532 percent, state data shows.\n\nAdvocates for reform said the rate ceiling doesn't go far enough to curb abuse. They think a 36 percent APR is more reasonable. Lenders said, either way, the legislation could put them out of business.\n\n\"Consumers lose any time the regulatory market place tries to impose arbitrary restrictions on them,\" said Jamie Fulmer, senior vice president of public affairs for Advance America, a lender with approximately 10 locations in Delaware. \"What I fear is going to happen is that the biggest winners will be the illegal actors who have long flouted the law and are not interested in providing the safe and reliable services we provide.\"\n\nWhen the bill is considered in January, lawmakers will have to weigh consumer protections with the interests of not only payday lenders, but the banking and credit card giants who have called Delaware home since former Gov. Pierre S. du Pont IV signed the Financial Center Development Act in 1981. The act eliminated caps on interest rates and fees for consumer loans – and immediately drew banks to Delaware, forever changing the skyline of Wilmington and providing a stream of jobs and revenue.\n\n\"I'm not trying to disrupt our usury laws here in the state,\" Keeley said. \"I don't believe any of those banks are charging 100 percent interest by any means, but there could be a bank that issues a credit card at 36 percent.\"\n\nDelaware: A payday lending island\n\nTucker's is a familiar story within the world of high-interest loans, where lenders view themselves as critical lifelines for those struggling to make ends meet, where their services help people when there are few other financial options.\n\nScattered along Delaware's main arteries and on street corners in low-income neighborhoods are neon signs for \"EZ Cash\" or \"CA$H Loans.\" Borrowers using these services span all races, ages and genders. They live in every county and earn on average approximately $33,000 a year.\n\nThe state had 142 stores registered in 2015 that offer short-term consumer loans.\n\nThe premise of each is the same. Customers need emergency cash. Their car broke down and needs to be repaired. Their children need uniforms and supplies for the start of school. Their electric bill doubled after one of the hottest summers on record.\n\nBut they have no credit card or way to get a loan from a family member or bank, and must turn to a payday lender. They show proof of income, a driver's license and fill out an application and, within 30 minutes, they have the money they desperately need.\n\nThe problem can come a few weeks later. If the customer does not have enough money to repay the loan, the lender can attempt to make automatic withdrawals from the person's bank account. This can incur bank overdraft fees or declined withdrawal fees.\n\nIn other cases, the customer may pay the loan off little-by-little, paying high interest, or may be the subject of court action if they fail to pay.\n\n\"Payday loans are debt traps by design,\" said Diane Standaert, state policy director at the Center for Responsible Lending. \"They put people in a worse financial position than when they started.\"\n\nThis has led 14 states, including the three states that border Delaware, to eliminate payday lending. Other states could follow.\n\nSouth Dakota voters will decide in November whether to cap APRs at 36 percent. Voters in Ohio, Arizona and Montana passed similar laws in recent years.\n\nThe lending industry has fought back. Lenders in Ohio switched to installment loans with equally high interest rates. They've hired Native American tribes to use tribal immunity to avoid rate cap laws in Pennsylvania. And, they've lobbied for legislation that would exempt installment loans from strict regulations.\n\nFinancial handcuffs\n\nThe Delaware legislature enacted modest reforms in 2012 that stopped borrowers from taking more than five $1,000 payday loans each year and created a database to track the industry.\n\nGov. Jack Markell said when he signed the bill that the new law would help remove the financial hand-cuffs that these loans can sometimes turn into, while also recognizing that some people still need immediate access to loans.\n\nProminent lawyer indicted in payday loan scheme\n\nJudge: $1,820 repayment on $200 loan ‘unconscionable’\n\nAs soon as the law went into effect, the number of short-term, payday loans plummeted – and has stayed low ever since. The number fell from 36,675 in 2013 to 6,219 in 2015, even though the number of lenders statewide held steady.\n\nThe state does not track the number of installment loans or limit those borrowers, but lenders and state officials confirmed that much of the decline can be attributed to the repackaging of payday loans as installment loans.\n\nDan Gardner, vice president of Atlantic Finance, a lender with six locations in Delaware, said he moved to installment loans in direct response to concerns his customers had about the new regulations.\n\n\"When Delaware citizens found out that they could only get five loans a year, that was a problem,\" he said. \"The fact that all their personal information had to be transmitted to the state when they applied for a loan also turned people off. Why should I try to push against that?\"\n\nThis installment loan practice in Delaware came under scrutiny in March when Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled in favor of Gloria James, a part-time housekeeper at the Hotel DuPont who sued a loan company that demanded she pay $1,820 for a $200 loan.\n\nLaster said in a 72-page court decision that it was \"unconscionable\" and a violation of the federal truth in lending act when National Financial LLC, a Utah company with a storefront called Loan Till Payday in Wilmington, charged James a 838.45 percent APR.\n\n\"When the vice chancellor wrote his decision and [House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf] and I read it, we both felt he was telling the General Assembly you made a good shot at this, but it really didn't do what you had intended to do and you need to take it a step further,\" Keeley said. \"If we don't do anything further we will continue to see these lawsuits from customers who are using these businesses for short-term loans.\"\n\nFilling the oil tank in winter\n\nThe legislation now under consideration would do two things. It would cap the APR at 100 percent for payday and installment loans and would prohibit lenders from repeatedly attempting to make automated withdrawals on short-term loans, unless the borrower authorizes another attempt in writing.\n\nAt the same time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency created in 2010 in response to the 2007 financial crisis, is seeking public comment until November on its recently proposed rules for payday loans. The agency is prohibited from enacting a rate cap, but is considering nationwide regulations that would require lenders to determine whether borrowers can afford to pay back a loan and create a mandatory cooling-off period before customers can get another loan.\n\nThese types of state and federal regulations could impact people like Kelly, a 45 year old from Newark who asked that her last name not be used in this article.\n\nShe and her husband both work, but because her husband's jobs as a mechanic and landscaper can be seasonal or unsteady, they frequently find themselves in need of cash before the next paycheck.\n\nThe reasons vary. One month it cost $700 to replace the clutch in her car. Another month it was that the oil tank needed to be filled in the middle of winter. And last year it was that her children needed school uniforms.\n\n\"I'm not going to say to my kids 'you cannot have new uniforms this year,'\" she said. \"I'm going to do whatever I have to to make it work.\"\n\nIn the past, Kelly turned to various payday loan shops in Delaware for the money. She always paid them back as quickly possible – usually within a few months to avoid high interest and other fees.\n\nWhy Millennials, minorities face greater debt risk\n\nFTC announces $54M in payday loan settlements\n\nBut now she hasn't been to a payday lender in over a year and relies on Loans Plus, a program at the West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington. The program offers payday loans backed by M&T Bank with a 9.99 APR.\n\nThe program has since 2007 provided 2,678 loans totaling over $1 million. The program also offers each customer assistance with creating a budget.\n\n\"People need access to credit,\" Calistro said. \"In today's world, a lot of jobs don't give you sick or vacation time. A lot of hardworking people are taking two jobs with no benefits.\"\n\nKelly borrows the maximum amount of $500 and makes three monthly payments of approximately $170 whenever she needs cash.\n\nLoans Plus has given her a different perspective on the high-interest payday loans she once relied on.\n\n\"It shouldn't be legal for people to get a loan that charges them so much interest that they cannot pay it back,\" she said. \"It is robbing people.\"\n\nThe difference in online lenders\n\nGardner said a model like Loans Plus is not sustainable for making a profit.\n\n\"There has to be some kind of an opportunity to make a living,\" Gardner said.\n\nIndustry lobbyists and lenders like Gardner panicked when Keeley introduced the rate cap bill on June 30, the last day of the legislative session. Gardner plans to fight House Bill 446 when the issue is raised next year.\n\nHe has been collecting letters from his customers that oppose the rate cap to send to lawmakers. A 100 percent rate cap, he said, means he would only collect $45 in interest on a $300 payday loan that is paid back in 14 days. That is not enough to pay the staff and bills, while also making a profit, he said.\n\nFulmer agreed.\n\n\"An arbitrary rate cap ... doesn't address the cost of offering the product,\" Fulmer said. \"You are going to arbitrarily cut the revenue of our stores in Delaware, but you are not going to reduce the rent we pay our landlords, an abatement in our utility bills or lower waters for our employees.\"\n\nHe and Fulmer said an end to payday lending would mean more money for banks who collect revenue from bounced check fees or over-draft fees from people when they cannot get emergency cash.\n\n\"In many cases, consumers decide our products are often the more financially attractive option for them given the higher costs they are faced with,\" Fulmer said. \"While [a rate cap] may sound good in theory, it is not a practical approach to properly regulating financial services product.\"\n\nGardner said that, as a \"local guy,\" his business operates differently than large national chains or internet payday lenders.\n\nHe focuses on building relationships with customers. Gardner only gives customers as much as they can afford to pay back and encourages them to pay the loan off sooner, he said.\n\nThe default rate at Atlantic Finance is about 15 percent, although many who default end up paying later through collections, payment arrangements or court filings. West End Neighborhood House's Loan Plus said their default rate is about 8 percent.\n\n\"Education is the thing,\" Gardner said. \"You have to have people start planning for the future and have people who make good decisions, but sometimes people make bad decisions and sometimes people make dumb decisions. And until the government can protect people from making those choices, there is a need for what we do.\"\n\nTucker is all too familiar with what it can be like to receive a loan from an online lender. The only reason she went with LoanMe was that they texted her constantly, she said, and her disability payments are not enough to cover the expenses for her and her 14-year-old son.\n\nTucker said that after the mortgage company threatened to lock her out of their house if she didn't pay, she signed up for LoanMe.\n\n\"You have to make choices,\" she said. \"When you are threatened by your creditors, the only option you have is a payday loan.\"\n\nThe decision put her even deeper into financial trouble – and even with coaching from Stand By Me, a free service offered by the state and United Way of Delaware, she is struggling to get out from under the debt.\n\nOne night this week, as she prepared dinner for her son, her phone rang. The number was from California, and she believes it was a LoanMe representative.\n\nShe didn't answer.\n\n\"I don't have enough money at the end of the month to cover all my bills,\" Tucker said. \"It is not that I don't want to pay my bills. It is just that I cannot. I just don't have it.\"\n\nContact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.\n\nBattle over payday loan industry begins\n\nGoogle to ban ads for payday loans\n\nBy the numbers: Payday loans\n\n36,675\n\nPayday loans in Delaware in 2013\n\n6,219\n\nLoans in 2015\n\n22.1\n\nDays, on average, Delaware borrowers took to pay off short-term loan in 2015\n\n2,614.76\n\nAverage gross monthly income of borrowers, in dollars, in 2015\n\n3,650\n\nMaximum percentage APR on payday loans in 2015\n\n100\n\nMaximum percentage APR proposed in House Bill 446", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/08/26"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_25", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2023/12/30/delaware-takes-on-princeton-following-davis-28-point-game/72065520007/", "title": "Delaware takes on Princeton following Davis' 28-point game", "text": "AP\n\nPrinceton Tigers (11-1) at Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (8-4)\n\nNewark, Delaware; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST\n\nFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -4; over/under is 143.5\n\nBOTTOM LINE: Delaware hosts the Princeton Tigers after Jyare Davis scored 28 points in Delaware's 88-85 overtime loss to the Rider Broncs.\n\nThe Fightin' Blue Hens are 2-1 in home games. Delaware is eighth in the CAA in rebounding with 35.5 rebounds. Christian Ray leads the Fightin' Blue Hens with 8.7 boards.\n\nThe Tigers are 5-1 on the road. Princeton scores 77.7 points and has outscored opponents by 15.1 points per game.\n\nDelaware scores 76.8 points, 14.2 more per game than the 62.6 Princeton gives up. Princeton averages 7.4 more points per game (77.7) than Delaware allows (70.3).\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Davis is scoring 19.6 points per game and averaging 6.7 rebounds for the Fightin' Blue Hens. Cavan Reilly is averaging 2.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Delaware.\n\nXaivian Lee is scoring 16.9 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Tigers. Matt Allocco is averaging 12.9 points and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 55.3% over the last 10 games for Princeton.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Fightin' Blue Hens: 6-4, averaging 74.3 points, 33.6 rebounds, 14.5 assists, 7.0 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.9 points per game.\n\nTigers: 9-1, averaging 79.0 points, 35.6 rebounds, 16.0 assists, 6.6 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 48.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2023/12/29/princeton-visits-delaware-after-davis-28-point-game/72055992007/", "title": "Princeton visits Delaware after Davis' 28-point game", "text": "AP\n\nPrinceton Tigers (11-1) at Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (8-4)\n\nNewark, Delaware; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST\n\nBOTTOM LINE: Delaware hosts the Princeton Tigers after Jyare Davis scored 28 points in Delaware's 88-85 overtime loss to the Rider Broncs.\n\nThe Fightin' Blue Hens have gone 2-1 in home games. Delaware is second in the CAA with 15.1 assists per game led by Jalun Trent averaging 3.3.\n\nThe Tigers are 5-1 on the road. Princeton ranks fourth in the Ivy League shooting 36.2% from 3-point range.\n\nDelaware averages 76.8 points, 14.2 more per game than the 62.6 Princeton allows. Princeton averages 7.4 more points per game (77.7) than Delaware allows (70.3).\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Davis is scoring 19.6 points per game and averaging 6.7 rebounds for the Fightin' Blue Hens. Cavan Reilly is averaging 2.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Delaware.\n\nMatt Allocco is averaging 13.6 points and 3.3 assists for the Tigers. Xaivian Lee is averaging 17.3 points over the last 10 games for Princeton.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Fightin' Blue Hens: 6-4, averaging 74.3 points, 33.6 rebounds, 14.5 assists, 7.0 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.9 points per game.\n\nTigers: 9-1, averaging 79.0 points, 35.6 rebounds, 16.0 assists, 6.6 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 48.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2024/01/05/pierce-and-princeton-host-harvard/72117205007/", "title": "Pierce and Princeton host Harvard", "text": "AP\n\nHarvard Crimson (9-4) at Princeton Tigers (12-1)\n\nPrinceton, New Jersey; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST\n\nBOTTOM LINE: Princeton hosts the Harvard Crimson after Caden Pierce scored 21 points in Princeton's 84-82 win against the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens.\n\nThe Tigers are 5-0 in home games. Princeton ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 15.5 assists per game led by Matt Allocco averaging 3.5.\n\nThe Crimson have gone 3-2 away from home. Harvard is fourth in the Ivy League with 25.0 defensive rebounds per game led by Justice Ajogbor averaging 5.3.\n\nPrinceton makes 47.6% of its shots from the field this season, which is 6.2 percentage points higher than Harvard has allowed to its opponents (41.4%). Harvard averages 8.1 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.6 more made shots on average than the 6.5 per game Princeton allows.\n\nThe matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Xaivian Lee is scoring 17.0 points per game with 4.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Tigers. Pierce is averaging 14.3 points and eight rebounds over the past 10 games for Princeton.\n\nMalik Mack is shooting 47.3% and averaging 20.1 points for the Crimson. Louis Lesmond is averaging 2.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Harvard.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 9-1, averaging 80.4 points, 35.9 rebounds, 16.6 assists, 6.2 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 47.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.8 points per game.\n\nCrimson: 6-4, averaging 70.7 points, 34.2 rebounds, 12.9 assists, 5.4 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.3 points.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2024/01/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ud/2023/09/05/delaware-blue-hens-biggest-wins-over-penn-state-nittany-lions/70604286007/", "title": "Listing Delaware Blue Hens' big wins over Penn State Nittany Lions", "text": "Saturday’s noon visit to Beaver Stadium marks a historic first for the University of Delaware football program.\n\nIn 131 previous UD football seasons dating to 1889, the Blue Hens and the neighboring, frequently ferocious Nittany Lions have never met.\n\n5 TAKEAWAYS:Blue Hens open in style at Stony Brook", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/09/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ud/2019/05/28/top-10-accomplishments-university-delaware-teams-2018-19/3745596002/", "title": "What was the No. 1 University of Delaware sports moment this year?", "text": "The University of Delaware’s athletic season closed last weekend when three track and field athletes competed in the NCAA East qualifying meet in Jacksonville, Florida.\n\nSenior pole vaulter Ashley Bailey out of Middletown High, junior 800-meter runner Michaela Meyer from Southbury, Connecticut, and sophomore discus thrower Myrissa McFolling-Young of Smyrna weren't able to nail down the top-12 finishes needed for the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/05/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ud/2017/01/18/hen-ncaa-field-hockey-champs-2016-dsba-team-year/96712894/", "title": "UD NCAA field hockey champs are 2016 DSBA team of year", "text": "Kevin Tresolini\n\nThe News Journal\n\nThe University of Delaware’s national success in field hockey will get the ultimate First State recognition next month.\n\nDelaware, which won the NCAA Field Hockey Tournament championship in November, has been voted the state’s 2016 Team of the Year by the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association.\n\nThe Blue Hens won out over several strong contenders, including first-ever state champion Woodbridge High football and Delmar High field hockey squads. The Team of the Year will be honored at the DSBA awards luncheon Feb. 20 at the Sheraton Wilmington South near New Castle.\n\nOther presentations include the Tubby Raymond Award to the state coach of the year, the Buddy Hurlock Unsung Hero Award to an athlete who has overcome difficulty, the Herm Reitzes Award for community service and the John J. Brady Award to Delaware’s 2016 Athlete of the Year.\n\nDelaware nipped North Carolina 3-2 in the NCAA championship game at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on Nov. 20.\n\nThe Blue Hens were playing in their second national title game in field hockey, but first since 1978. North Carolina, on the other hand, was making its 17th title-game appearance and had won six NCAA field hockey titles.\n\n“It’s a mix of unbelievable but also believable,” senior Meghan Winesett, who scored Delaware’s second goal, said after beating the powerful Tar Heels. “People [underestimated] us all season. I think beating Duke [in the quarterfinals] and beating Louisville [in the first round] proved people wrong, but I’m proud to beat a six-time champ.”\n\nDelaware’s seniors had lost 6-2 to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as freshmen.\n\n“It’s a tribute to Rolf,” senior Maura Zarkoski said of sixth-year coach Rolf van de Kerkhof. “We just trusted the process. I knew he had a vision and we all bought into what he had to say, including the classes before my senior class, and worked our butts off and fought to get here.”\n\nRanked eighth in the nation entering the tournament, Delaware also upset top-seeded Duke 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals and avenged a regular-season loss with another 3-2 decision over Princeton in the semifinals.\n\nDelaware won its final 19 games to finish 23-2.\n\nThe national championship was the 10th in UD athletic history. The previous nine were in football (six) and women’s lacrosse (three). Only one, however, was in NCAA Division I, the 1983 women’s lacrosse championship.\n\nIn December, sophomore Greta Nauck was voted recipient of the Honda Sport Award for Field Hockey as national player of the year. Nauck, from Krefeld, Germany, led the nation with 33 goals, a UD single-season record, including the game winners against Duke and UNC. Nauck’s 1.32 goals and 3.04 points per game and 76 total points also led the nation. Delaware’s only previous Honda Award winner was Elena Delle Donne in women’s basketball after her senior season in 2013.\n\nAnd in January, van de Kerkhof was voted Division I coach of the year by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. Van de Kerkhof is the first male to coach an NCAA field hockey champion.\n\nContact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.\n\nIf you go\n\nWhat: Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association annual awards luncheon.\n\nWhen: Monday, Feb. 20, noon.\n\nWhere: Sheraton Wilmington South Hotel, 365 Airport Road, New Castle.\n\nTickets: $35 each, with table of 10 available for $300 at www.delasports.org.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/01/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ud/2018/08/29/barn-provides-ud-students-own-tailgating-spot-football-games/1084453002/", "title": "'The Barn' gives UD students tailgating spot for football games", "text": "The University of Delaware’s efforts to improve school spirit now include selling spirits to students just a screen pass away from Delaware Stadium, where the Blue Hens’ football season starts Thursday night.\n\nConsidering UD was recently named the nation’s No. 1 party school by the Princeton Review, perhaps it’s a just reward.\n\nBut the new tailgating area branded “The Barn” is far from just a drinking establishment, UD officials insist.\n\nOther attractions include food, music, games and the chance to gather with friends and make new acquaintances.\n\nThe area, situated around Bob Hannah Stadium, Delaware’s baseball facility outside the north end zone, will have space for 2,000 students, many of whom will be under the legal drinking age of 21 and not able to purchase alcohol.\n\nA collaborative effort from numerous UD departments, The Barn was born primarily out of “student feedback and hearing what they wanted,” said Hannah Sirdofsky, UD associate athletics director for marketing and engagement.\n\n“Students came to us prior to this and were talking about how they wanted a place to tailgate. They didn’t feel there was a place for students down here on South campus.\n\n\"Students could come and tailgate and they knew that, but they would be around season-ticket holders or alumni. There wasn’t a place that was truly student-centric.”\n\nCATCH UP ON UD FOOTBALL\n\nThe time is now for UD football to return to prominence\n\nSenior Troy Reeder wants to go out a champion\n\n6 things that could make or break UD football season\n\nPregame revelry is a longstanding tradition at Blue Hens games in the parking lots surrounding Delaware Stadium at the David M. Nelson Sports Complex.\n\nIncreased police scrutiny, clearing of parking lots once games begin and greater attention to underage drinking have toned down some of the carousing and have drawn complaints from students.\n\nThe new facility allows for such merriment in a more controlled environment. The Barn will begin accepting visitors four hours before kickoff and be open for 3½ happy hours.\n\nMadisyn Steinberg, a UD junior marketing major who led some of those focus groups, said students had two main complaints that may have undermined their football attendance.\n\nOne was the distance to the athletic complex, a half mile from the southern edge of main campus, and the difficulty in getting to the games. The other was the cost and accessibility of food.\n\n“It was all about figuring out what students wanted and how we could get them to connect with each other and the university at the games,” said Steinberg, who spends football games playing the mellophone in Delaware’s marching band. “The food and transportation were really big things.”\n\nDelaware has increased bus transportation to the athletic complex from campus, with drop-off points close to The Barn. Ride-sharing service Lyft is also one of the sponsors with designated pickup areas.\n\nAs for food, it will be prevalent at The Barn with cheaper prices than at the concession stands, and students can use their meal-plan cards.\n\n“There was never really a space where students knew, ‘Am I able to drink? Where should I hang out if I’m not able to drink?’” Steinberg said. “That’s why they actually are offering alcohol in The Barn for students at an accessible price. What space can we create for students where they feel safe and they don’t feel micromanaged by staff?”\n\nEach game will also highlight a different university group at the barn, with Thursday being the Blue Hen ambassadors, the tour guides for prospective or admitted students and their families. That’s a way, said Steinburg, to attract students who may not normally attend football games.\n\nWhile students still sit in the South end zone, they will now be entering at the southeast rather than southwest corner and walking around the East grandstand from The Barn.\n\nWhile UD officials looked at how other schools handle student tailgating, Sirdofsky said “Our concept is unique as it relates to the college game-day experience.” Constitution Yards on the Wilmington Riverfront and the Creamery of Kennett Square provided inspiration for the site design, she said.\n\nThe Barn opened Sunday night for freshmen after an orientation event and was quite popular, Steinberg said.\n\nStudents attend football games for free, entering with their ID cards. Game attendance is not a requirement of visiting The Barn. The school’s agricultural roots — UD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is next to the athletic complex — are recognized in the site’s name.\n\n“We’ve designed a space where alcohol is not the central feature,” said Adam Cantley, UD’s interim dean of students. “There’s music stages on either end of the space, there’s food, there’s opportunity to play games, there’s opportunity to engage with your peers.\n\n“The overwhelming majority of our student population is not of age to purchase, so the space is created to engage all students and if a student chooses to drink, that’s why we have a policy that outlines how that would be distributed in that space. They’re going to be ID’d and carded and there’s a lot of rules and regulations to promote an environment that’s healthy as well as focused on school spirit.”\n\nContact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/05/10/delaware-gets-basketball-transfer-george-washington/314152001/", "title": "Delaware gets basketball transfer from George Washington", "text": "Delaware’s newest basketball rebuilding block is a big one.\n\nThe 6-foot-11, 227-pound Collin Goss is transferring to Delaware, he said, after two seasons at George Washington University. Goss must sit out the 2017-18 season and then will have two years remaining.\n\n“I decided to transfer because GW wasn’t the right fit for me,” Goss said. “It was more like the big men were just back-to-the-basket guys instead of [playing in] a free-flowing offense.”\n\nMany of Delaware’s recent additions have been for the backcourt. The incoming freshmen class consists of guards Chyree Walker, Ryan Allen and Kevin Anderson, which makes sense in coach Martin Ingelsby’s perimeter-oriented scheme.\n\nPHILLIES:Homecoming for \"Chooch\"\n\nHIGH SCHOOLS: Duarte sets lax scoring mark\n\nBut Goss’ addition deepens Delaware’s frontcourt while giving Ingelsby the type of post player he prefers – one who has the skills and smarts to also step away and face the basket, plus size that’s hard to find in the mid-major Colonial Athletic Association.\n\n“Free-flowing” has been used to describe Ingelsby’s offensive approach. It often includes four guards with the post player permitted to range away from the basket, not remain stuck underneath it.\n\n“That’s what I liked to do in high school, kind of pick and pop, stretch the floor a little bit,” Goss said. “When I came up for an unofficial visit [to Delaware] I got a chance to actually work out with the team and play pick-up with them. It was a really good time. I liked all the guys and how the offense was.”\n\nIn 2017-18, Delaware will have 6-8, 225-pound Derrick Woods, who transferred and sat out last season after starting 22 games as a freshman at St. Bonaventure in 2015-16, while welcoming back 6-9 Eric Carter, who’ll be a junior, and 6-8 senior-to-be Skye Johnson.\n\nGoss played sparingly in his two seasons at George Washington. He appeared in 31 games, all off the bench.\n\nIn 2016-17, Goss scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in 13 games (1.5 ppg/1.1 rpg) for the 20-15 Colonials. He shot 7-for-12 from the field and 6-for-8 at the foul line. He also blocked four shots.\n\nGoss is from Manassas, Virginia, and attended St. Stephens & St. Agnes High School. A hard-throwing pitcher, Goss attended GW with the intent to also play baseball but never did because of the offseason demands of basketball, he said.\n\nDelaware assistant coach Bill Phillips, then an assistant at CAA rival James Madison, had recruited Goss when he was in high school. Goss also knows Delaware assistant coach Corey McCrae from his days coaching the DC Assault AAU team. Goss played for Team Takeover, a frequent rival.\n\nIn seeking a transfer destination, Goss had also visited JMU and considered Colgate, but Delaware seemed an obvious choice.\n\n“From all the coaches, it was just a really good vibe,” said Goss, a criminal justice major. “I kind of grew up watching GW but it all comes down to just, you really want to play and I just don’t think this [GW] was the right spot for me.”\n\nShillinglaw 'overwhelmed'\n\nDelaware men’s lacrosse coach Bob Shillinglaw said he’s been “overwhelmed” by the many well wishes he has received, highlighted by his Colonial Athletic Association peers voting him CAA Coach of Year despite the Blue Hens 0-5 finish in league play.\n\n“I’ve just been honored and humbled,” Shillinglaw said. “I was kind of taken aback [by the coach of the year award] and it shows the respect of the coaches. I sent each an email thanking them and they all responded with how much they appreciated my mentorship.”\n\nShillinglaw is retiring after 39 seasons at Delaware, which followed three at Massachusetts Maritime. He coached an NCAA record 653 games. His Delaware teams made six NCAA tournaments, highlighted by the 2007 Final Four appearance, and won 16 conference titles.\n\nDelaware is in the process of searching for Shillinglaw’s successor. While no definite candidates have surfaced, North Carolina offensive coordinator Dave Metzbower has long been considered a logical prospect.\n\nMetzbower played for Shillinglaw at Delaware, graduating in 1986, and was a Blue Hen assistant coach from 1987-89. He then spent 20 years coaching at Princeton, three as a high school coach outside Philadelphia, two at Loyola and the last three at UNC.\n\nEight years ago, Metzbower turned down an offer to succeed Gene Tierney as Princeton coach when Tierney left for Denver. A suburban Philadelphia resident and father of two, Metzbower cited the long hours and time spent away from family but said he still aspired to be a head coach, The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, reported at the time.\n\nThere’s competition, as Michigan is also in the market for a new lacrosse coach. Cornell coach Matt Kerwick stepped down Monday but was replaced on an interim basis through 2018 by associate head coach Peter Milliman. The Delaware job is widely viewed as a plum because of the school’s location, academic reputation and potential to succeed nationally in lacrosse.\n\nNorth Carolina, the defending NCAA champ, visits Albany, coached by another former UD assistant Scott Marr, Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner meets the victor of Sunday’s first-round game between Maryland and Wednesday’s Bryant-Monmouth play-in survivor in the NCAA quarterfinals May 21 at Delaware Stadium.\n\nThe other game in the Delaware Stadium May 21 quarterfinal double-header matches victors from Saturday’s Towson-Penn State and Sunday’s Yale-Syracuse opening-round games. Yale coach Andy Shay is also a former Delaware assistant.\n\nWomen’s hoops update\n\nDelaware may be close to hiring its new women’s basketball coach.\n\nThe candidate it’s believed Delaware athletic director Chrissi Rawak originally hoped to target, Michigan assistant and ex-Notre Dame point guard Megan Duffy, was hired in early April by Miami of Ohio. Delaware announced Tina Martin’s departure April 28, which was billed as a retirement though Martin said she intends to keep coaching.\n\nDrexel associate head coach Amy Mallon is thought to be among the candidates to replace her. Interestingly, Martin could land on the staff at CAA rival UNC-Wilmington, where former Old Dominion coach Karen Barefoot is the new coach.\n\nHen scratch\n\nDelaware (25-20, 10-8) hosts Towson (17-29, 5-13) in three games this weekend with a chance to clinch a CAA Baseball Tournament berth. Sunday’s 5-4 win at North Carolina State was Delaware’s 500th under coach Jim Sherman. St. Mark’s grad Calvin Scott has a 15-game hitting streak that has hiked his batting average to .331.\n\nA three-game sweep of UNCW by 4-3, 2-1 and 1-0 scores, keyed by clutch pitching and timely hitting, put Delaware in the five-team CAA Softball Tournament. But the fifth-seeded Blue Hens lost 11-3 Wednesday to the No. 4 Seahawks (31-16-1) at James Madison in the opening game, putting Delaware in an elimination game later Wednesday.\n\nDelaware senior Marc Oliveri was named to the All-CAA golf second team. His 73.36 average round was third lowest in UD history. Oliveri placed seventh in the CAA Tournament.\n\nContact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/08/20/university-delaware-basketball-recruit-follows-dads-uncles-footsteps/2061959001/", "title": "University of Delaware basketball recruit follows dad's, uncle's ...", "text": "Much of what Andrew Carr learned about the University of Delaware could have come from his dad Phil or uncle Tim.\n\nBoth played basketball for the Blue Hens and served as senior co-captains, Phil in 1986-87 and Tim in 1982-83.\n\nBut Andrew, a 6-foot-9 forward entering his senior year at West Chester (Pennsylvania) East High, had to make the decision for himself, even though both had spoken in glowing terms about their UD days.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/08/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ud/2015/04/21/ud-womens-lacrosse-third-seed-caa-tourney/26148783/", "title": "UD women's lacrosse is third seed in CAA tourney", "text": "Kevin Tresolini\n\nThe News Journal\n\nAndi Slane, a red-shirt junior from Temecula, California, won the CAA women's golf title Sunday\n\nFormer Blue Hens Pat Devlin (Vikings QB) and Anthony Walters (Bears DB) were recently released by their NFL teams.\n\nNEWARK – The Delaware women's lacrosse team has two wins this year over nationally ranked teams, and another over three-time defending Colonial Athletic Association champion Towson.\n\nBut the Blue Hens also have lost six of their 17 games. While each has been to a team with a winning record, coach Kateri Linville easily pinpoints Delaware's primary mission when it seeks its first CAA title in the league tournament May 1-3.\n\n\"It's consistency. We've been all over the place,\" said Linville, a former UD player who became coach in 2011 and has overseen steady improvement.\n\n\"We still feel we have another level in us that ultimately, if we can watch some film and break down a few things in every aspect of our game, we get everything clicking, we can be in a great spot and really separate ourselves.''\n\nDelaware's regular season is complete and the Hens are the No. 3 seed for the CAA Tournament and face No. 2 James Madison (12-4) on May 1 at 7 p.m. at Delaware Stadium. No. 1 Hofstra (10-4) faces No. 4 Towson (8-7) in the first semifinal at 4 p.m. Winners return for the May 3 final at 1 p.m. with an NCAA Tournament berth up for grabs.\n\nAn early-season 17-5 rout of 16th-ranked Georgetown got Delaware in the national Top 20 and the Hens also nipped No. 11 Princeton 12-10. While only two losses were to Top 20 teams (Penn and JMU), Delaware's close games against CAA foes indicate the league playoffs are a toss-up. Delaware nipped Towson 6-5 in OT and lost 6-5 to Hofstra and 8-6 to JMU, which is now ranked 17th nationally.\n\n\"The games that we dropped, we haven't been patient and let the ball do the work,\" said Linville, who'd like to see the Hens take advantage of momentum in the playoffs. \"Against Towson, for instance, we were very deliberate in our game plan.\"\n\nThey'll certainly be more rested, since the other three teams each have one regular-season game left while Delaware does not.\n\n\"We see that as a competitive advantage right now,\" Linville said. \"We've been working really hard. Our opponents have to put in more games this week. For us, we can focus on just us instead of taking time to prepare for two other games. We can look at what we're doing – refine it, tweek it, polish it up – and then go into the next week with our normal game preparation. Here's an opportunity for us to get better.''\n\nDelaware is led by midfielder Caitlin McCartney and defender Erin Wein, seniors who are among the national leaders in caused turnovers. McCartney's 151 career goals are No. 6 all-time at Delaware.\n\nFor decades, Delaware has been seeking to reclaim its lost women's lacrosse glory, which stems from having won national AIAW Division II titles in 1981 and 1982, the NCAA Division I crown in 1983 and placing third in the 1984 NCAA Division I tourney. Since then, Delaware has made the NCAA Tournament just once – in 2000.\n\n\"Delaware has won seven conference championships,\" Linville said, \"but in all the years we've been in and out of the CAA [1993-95; 2002-now], we've never converted a CAA championship. So, for us, those two things are motivators: We're at home, and we want to do something no one's ever done before.''\n\nLeon makes Final Four\n\nDelaware women's basketball season ended in the CAA semifinals, but senior Stephanie Leon made it to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.\n\nLeon was one of 10 players, including five from Division I, chosen for the All-State Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Good Works Team for her community service. They were honored during Final Four festivities in Tampa.\n\nIn Leon's case, her off-the-court contributions went in numerous directions, including to Special Olympics, Urban Promise, Gilpin Manor Elementary School and Little Sisters of the Poor.\n\nAfter graduating in May, Leon will join Teach for America, which assists students in low-income rural and urban areas. Leon, from Northport, New York, will be stationed in the Orlando, Florida, area for at least two years.\n\nHen takes CAA golf title\n\nAndi Slane, a red-shirt junior from Temecula, California, won the CAA women's golf title Sunday at St. James Plantation in Southport, North Carolina.\n\nIt was the first collegiate tournament win of Slane's career and just the second for Delaware, which introduced women's golf in 2011-12 after it dropped men's cross country and track and field.\n\nHer 71-71-67–209 on the par-72, 6,066-yard layout made her a winner by eight strokes. Both Slane's three-round total and her final-round 67 were UD and CAA records. Slane actually began the final round behind by one stroke.\n\nSanders earns Fritchman grant\n\nMilford High graduate Alyssa Sanders of the UD women's swim team has earned the Kelly Fritchman Swimming Scholarship for the 2015-16 school year.\n\nFritchman was a 1998 UD graduate and swim team standout who died in 2009 at age 32 after battling cystic fibrosis. Funds for the scholarship are raised the through an annual 5K run held in Lewes.\n\nAccording to Delaware, the scholarship annually recognizes a male or female swimmer who displays \"courage, spirit, determination, strength, competitiveness and inspiration.\"\n\nSanders is the Blue Hens' record holder in the 100 (26.00) and 200 (54.69) backstroke.\n\nMen's lax closes at UMass\n\nTough overtime losses the last two Saturdays at Drexel, 9-8, and Fairfield, 12-11, will keep Delaware out of the CAA men's lacrosse playoffs for the third time in four years. The Blue Hens (4-10) close the season Friday night at UMass. It'll be Delaware's fourth straight losing season after its back-to-back CAA tourney titles in 2010 and 2011 that ended a run of four NCAA appearances in seven years highlighted by the 2007 Final Four.\n\nThe powerhouse Hill Academy of Ontario, Canada, that is playing Salesianum in lacrosse Thursday at 5 p.m. at Baynard Stadium includes at least 11 NCAA Division I signees. One is senior Campbell Parker, who is headed to Delaware next year. Another is Johns Hopkins-bound senior Kyle Marr, son of former Newark High and Blue Hens volleyball player Traci (Tomashek) Marr and her husband Scott, the former UD assistant in his 15th season as lacrosse coach at Albany.\n\nSallies also has a Delaware commit in junior Luke Bianchino.\n\nHen scratch\n\n•In CAA baseball, Delaware (15-14, 4-8) is in seventh place in the nine-team league heading into this weekend's home series against William & Mary (18-19, 9-6). The top six make the CAA playoffs. Saturday's 1 p.m. game features a reunion of Delaware's 1970 College World Series team, which will be honored. Red-shirt freshman pitcher Ron Marinaccio has the CAA's second best ERA (2.11)\n\n•Delaware's football team will hold its seventh annual Be the Match bone marrow drive Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Trabant University Center. Those who register simply fill out paperwork and provide a mouth swab in an effort to find donors in the National Bone Marrow Registry. Four people in previous drives have proven to be matches for those in need, including former UD linebacker Paul Worrilow, now with the Atlanta Falcons.\n\n•Former Blue Hens Pat Devlin (Vikings QB) and Anthony Walters (Bears DB) were recently released by their NFL teams.\n\nContact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/04/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_26", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2024/01/02/historic-claymont-steak-shop-to-be-developed-into-mixed-use-project/71969662007/", "title": "Iconic Claymont Steak Shop to be developed into mixed-use project", "text": "First things first: Don't panic.\n\nBut big changes are afoot at one of the oldest and greatest icons in the Delaware cheesesteak pantheon, the 57-year-old Claymont Steak Shop.\n\nIts owners, Basil and Demi Kollias, plan to tear down the old building and rebuild their restaurant in a brand new one, creating what they hope will be a better Claymont Steak Shop that can last another half century — expanded, spiffier, and maybe even with a patio and a sports bar. If they do it the way they've planned it, the steak shop wouldn't have to close for more than a week.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2024/01/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/11/07/delaware-joe-biden-win-calls-pasta-bobbie-ice-cream/6186223002/", "title": "In Delaware, a Joe Biden win calls for pasta, a Bobbie or ice cream", "text": "On this historic day in Delaware, residents celebrating Greenville's own Joe Biden being elected the 46th president of the United States are going to eat, drink and be merry.\n\nSo how do you imbibe Joe Biden-style?\n\nWell, we do know Biden won't be sipping any adult beverages.\n\nBiden is a well-known teetotaler. He says he's never touched an alcoholic beverage.\n\nBut a big win calls for raising a glass.\n\nA recent Washington Post story said Biden likes a cold glass of Diet Coke or Coke Zero. At least those beverages have some celebratory bubbles.\n\nToday is not really a day for foodies. Joe isn't exactly an epicurean. His tastes lean toward classic Italian-American with his favorite being angel hair pasta with red sauce.\n\nJill Biden tends to cook the traditional Italian dishes she was served at her paternal grandmother's family Sunday dinners.\n\nThis past February, she shared her Parmesan chicken recipe with Parade magazine.\n\nJill Biden said she serves with it with rigatoni and a green salad.\n\nJoe Biden and his family used to visit Katie's, an old Wilmington Italian restaurant known for its rich, thick Italian gravy and spaghetti. He also dropped into Pala's Cafe, a former Wilmington eatery that featured a jokey \"World's Worst Pizza\" sign on its outside wall.\n\nBoth establishments are long gone. In recent years, the Bidens have been known to frequent Piccolina Toscana in Trolley Square. Owner Dan Butler even catered daughter Ashley Biden's 2012 wedding reception at the Biden's Greenville home.\n\nThe meal was fresh tomatoes, arugula and house-made mozzarella, seared salmon and quinoa, and roasted chicken breast with grilled vegetables.\n\nThe meal also included penne with pomodoro sauce. That was especially for the then-vice president, Butler said.\n\n\"Joe always eats pasta when he comes to Toscana,\" Butler said.\n\nAt the end of the evening, as the Toscana staff began clearing tables, the vice president even began lending a hand.\n\n\"He was stacking chairs,\" Butler said, until one of the staffers asked Biden to stop. \"He said, 'I can't have my boss finding out you're stacking chairs.' [Biden] kind of chuckled.\"\n\nJoe and Jill also have dined in and gotten takeout from Bardea Food & Drink in downtown Wilmington.\n\nOwners Scott Stein and Antimo DiMeo said they've tried to entice Joe with some of their modern Italian dishes. But the president-elect has simple tastes.\n\nDiMeo made him a special off-the-menu dish of spaghetti and meatballs.\n\nWe've been hearing reports that \"Biden people\" have gotten takeout recently at Krazy Kat's in Montchanin.\n\nBut Joe being Joe, he might just be jonesing for his favorite Capriotti's sandwich, the Bobbie (also known as Thanksgiving on a roll), or maybe an Italian or turkey sub.\n\nBiden has been a patron of the flagship Capriotti's shop on Wilmington's Union Street for more than 40 years.\n\nAnd, yes, in Delaware we call them subs – not hoagies.\n\nAnother favorite Biden handheld food is pizza. In April 2019, after his early morning announcement that he would run for president in 2020, he dropped into Gianni's Pizza in Trolley Square for a few slices.\n\nJoe also is sentimental guy, who is known to celebrate his Claymont roots. Maybe he's sending someone out for takeout cheesesteaks from the original Claymont Steak Shop on Philadelphia Pike?\n\nSeveral pictures hang on the wall of the shop alongside a note signed by a customer, Joe Biden.\n\nThe Charcoal Pit is another longtime Biden favorite haunt. He's been going to the original location on Concord Pike since his Archmere Academy high school days for milkshakes, grilled cheese sandwiches and cheesesteaks.\n\nA historic day calls for dessert, and Biden's granddaughters, Maisy, Finnegan, Naomi and Natalie, know what their \"Pop\" is going to reach for first.\n\n\"He's always eating ice cream,\" they told PBS NewsHour in an August 2020 interview.\n\nBiden's favorite? A carton of Breyers half chocolate and half vanilla. His granddaughters joked he likes to eat in secret.\n\n\"He likes ice cream in hidden ways,\" Naomi Biden said, as the other girls laughed and agreed.\n\n\"Eating it in the freezer,\" added Natalie Biden, \"so my grandma doesn't see it.\"\n\nContact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/11/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2023/12/14/iconic-dog-house-has-new-owners-and-a-breakfast-menu-and-might-expand/71760278007/", "title": "Iconic Dog House has new owners and a breakfast menu and might ...", "text": "Chris Taggart and Brian Kirwin, stewards of The Dog House, one of Delaware's most iconic places to eat, have found acquiring a landmark Delaware roadside restaurant requires the proper amount of reverence and a heaping side of diplomacy.\n\nWhen the business partners purchased the 72-year-old Wilmington Manor business, near New Castle, three years ago this December, their goal was to honor and celebrate the legacy of the cash-only, hot dog palace that was used as the model for the original Charcoal Pit on Concord Pike.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/03/06/jackson-inn-now-closed-final-hurrah-march-25-michael-bands-music/69953382007/", "title": "Its history dates back to the 1700s. Why is Wilmington's legendary ...", "text": "The bar's corner 3 acre site just outside the city limits has been on the wish list of developers for a long time\n\nA final bash will be held March 25 with a dozen bands performing across 11 hours\n\nFor more than a month, the doors have been shut tight at the Jackson Inn, the legendary bar just over the city limits across from Cab Callaway School of the Arts.\n\nSince beer has flowed at the site dating back to the late 1700s and with the Jackson Inn becoming a live music hub in recent years for a new generation of customers, the sudden closure has shocked many and raised a lot of questions about what's going on.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/03/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2018/08/01/restaurants-classics-delaware-dining/791705002/", "title": "20 eateries (and more) that are Delaware classics", "text": "The loss of such landmark Delaware eateries as Leo & Jimmy's in Wilmington, Dover's Kirby & Holloway, and more recently Arner's Restaurant in New Castle had us thinking about longtime First State eating establishments still operating.\n\nWe've come up with a list of 20 (and really more) classic Delaware places that are cherished, hometown favorites.\n\nTo be clear, classic eateries don't necessarily mean the state's best restaurants. That's another list.\n\nThese cultural icons have endured for decades for several, sentimental reasons. Mainly, loyal standbys don't change much or worry about being trendy or hip. They emphasize the customer experience, appease regulars but still grow their base, and continue to create fond memories.\n\nDegnars Greenhill Deli & Pizzeria\n\n2501 W. Fourth St., Wilmington; (302) 656-3663\n\nThis city sub shop has been in operation since 1949. First located at Greenhill Avenue and Fourth Street, it moved to its present location more than 40 years ago. The Degnar family added their name to the business within the past five years or so.\n\nFamily photos clutter one wall of the tiny space, and the counter is shoulder level. There's no seating except for three umbrella-covered picnic tables on the sidewalk.\n\nThe slap-slap, clang-clang of spatulas hitting the flat top when someone makes a cheesesteak is the shop's soundtrack. You can get pasta as well as pizza and stromboli. \"A corner piece, please, dear,\" says a customer pointing to the tomato pie.\n\nRegulars don't even look at the posted menu for the hot and cold sandwiches packed into white paper bags, though they might glance at the daily, handwritten specials. The shop's hours are scribbled on a paper plate hanging at the counter.\n\nWhat to order? Homemade iced tea and lemonade, breakfast pizza, chicken salad, one of the daily BLT specials, cheesesteaks, Italian subs.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Takeout with outdoor seating also is the norm at Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Express, 103 N. Lincoln St. in Wilmington. It makes the same fried chicken created in 1973 by the late Harry W. Sheppard at his old Vandever Avenue shop.\n\nMrs. Robino's\n\n520 N. Union St., Wilmington; (302) 652-9223\n\nDiners have been twirling forks through plates of pasta and using bread to sop up the sauce at this vintage Italian-American \"red gravy\" restaurant since 1940.\n\nThe Grand Dame in the city's Little Italy neighborhood was founded by Tresilla Robino, who started the business in the basement of her Howland Street home. She later moved to Union Street.\n\nStill family-owned, Mrs. Robino's honors its longtime patrons, a group fiercely protective of their favorite establishment, by posting their photos near the front door.\n\nWhat to order? Wedding soup, chopped antipasto salad and a combination of homemade spaghetti and ravioli. Check out crab nights on Thursdays.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Ristorante Attilio, a family-owned Italian-American eatery at 1900 Lancaster Ave. in Wilmington since 1985. Get the crunchy hot peppers, spaghetti with white clam sauce, homemade lasagna and Tartufo dessert.\n\n2600 Concord Pike, Brandywine Hundred; (302) 478-2165\n\nGenerations of patrons have making pit stops at “The Pit” for more than 60 years. This archetypal hamburger and shake joint, founded in September 1956, was modeled after The Dog House in New Castle. Initially, it had a long counter with a view of Concord Pike and about four tables. It's grown over the years but hasn't changed much since saddle shoes were in style.\n\nPresident Obama came for a visit in July 2014 on the advice from Vice President Joe Biden and his late son Beau, who were frequent visitors. The only-in-Delaware touches include naming sundaes after area high schools.\n\nWhat to order? Onion rings; The Pit Deluxe charbroiled cheeseburger; a black-and-white milkshake; and the Kitchen Sink, a monster sundae with 20 scoops of ice cream.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Burgers are king at \"the Pit,\" and steak sandwiches are the stars of the Claymont Steak Shop. The flagship Claymont shop at 3526 Philadelphia Pike was founded by Greek cousins Bob Hionis and Sam Demetratos in 1966.\n\n510 N. Union St., Wilmington; (302) 571-8929\n\nEvery state has foods that it's known for: Maryland has crabs, Pennsylvania has the cheesesteak and Delaware has the Bobbie.\n\nThe iconic \"Thanksgiving on a roll\" was invented by the late Wilmington native Lois Margolet. She launched the Capriotti's Sandwich Shop chain in 1976 in the Little Italy neighborhood where she grew up. Margolet named the mom-and-pop sub shop after her grandfather Philip Capriotti.\n\nThe specialty sandwich that established Capriotti's is the famed Bobbie. It's made with pulled turkey, cranberry sauce, homemade stuffing and mayonnaise. The dish was a recreation of a sandwich served to the Margolets by their Aunt Bobbie. The national restaurant chain now has 106 locations in 17 states.\n\nWhat to order? The Bobbie, of course. We also recommend the turkey sub and the Capastrami, hot pastrami, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, and coleslaw on a roll.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Casapulla's shop at 514 Casapulla Ave. in Elsmere, has been making meaty Italian subs since 1956. It had been considered Capriotti's longtime rival, although the families were good friends.\n\n\"The only problem between us was that Capriotti's and Casapulla's almost sound the same,\" Lou Casapulla told The News Journal in 2017. \"What are you going to do?\"\n\nGrotto Pizza\n\n36 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach; (302) 227-3278\n\nSo much nostalgia, and debate, surrounds Grotto Pizza. We're convinced the best slice is served with a side of salty sea air. Go to the original Rehoboth Avenue home, a few steps from the ocean, to enjoy pies that feature a blend of cheeses (they won't say what kind) and tomato sauce applied in a signature swirl.\n\nOh, and in case you're wondering what those regulars are doing with the napkins, dabbing the top of a slice to soak up \"pizza juice\" is a Grotto's tradition.\n\nGrotto Pizza was founded in 1960 by Dominick Pulieri, along with his brother-in-law, Joe, and sister Mary Jean Paglianite. At the first take-out stand, pizza slices sold for 20 cents a piece. A second Grotto Pizza on the Rehoboth boardwalk opened in 1963. The chain now has more than 20 locations.\n\nWhat to order? A traditional oven pizza. Sizes include a 12-inch regular or a 16-inch large. For toppings, we'd go with pepperoni or Pennsylvania mushrooms.\n\nWhat's similar to it?Nicola Pizza at 8 N. First St. in Rehoboth has been around since 1971. Owner Nicholas Caggiano gave Delaware's pizza culture the Nic-o-Boli, the First State's version of the stromboli.\n\n2020 Naamans Road, Brandywine Hundred; (302) 475-3000\n\nOwner Xavier Teixido's classy, convivial restaurant is modern and innovative, but it also focuses on old-school classics. It offers the state's best prime rib, along with seafood, steaks and a wine list deeper than Barry White's dulcet tones.\n\nBuilt on the bones of old Admiral Inn, it has roots tracing back to 1939 when it was the Log Cabin. Harry's has been operating since 1988 with Teixido purchasing it after a split with a former partner in 1993. It's not named after a particular person. Teixido once joked, \"Who doesn't love a Harry?\"\n\nWhat to order? Oysters, hot crab and artichoke dip, aged steaks, prime rib au jus medium rare, soft shell crabs (seasonal), and lobster mashed potatoes.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Walter's Steakhouse at 802 N. Union St. Since the early 1990s, owner John Walter Constantinou has continued the legacy of his father George's long-gone Constantinou's House of Beef.\n\n1722 N. Scott St., Wilmington; (302) 658-8625\n\nOwner August Muzzi has been standing in front of the grill at this old-school lunch counter tucked into the city's Forty Acres neighborhood since 1967.\n\nIt's a cash-only establishment, though there is an ATM machine where the old candy counter used to be. Almost nothing changes at Angelo's and that's the way Muzzi and his longtime patrons like it. The last renovation was in the early 1990s when booths replaced tables. It's open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. It can be tough beating the regulars to one of the 12 counter stools.\n\nWhat to order? A fried egg and meat breakfast sandwich, grilled cheese and Campbell's tomato soup, Italian sausage sandwich, root beer float, Angie's burger.\n\nWhat's similar to it?Libby's Restaurant at 227 W. Eighth St. in downtown Wilmington is sometimes called \"the 'Cheers' of food.\" Breakfast is served all day at this cash-only establishment that's been in operation since 1982.\n\n1200 N. Dupont Highway, New Castle; (302) 328-5380\n\nLou Sloan and his three brothers opened The Dog House in 1952. At that time, the four-lane highway where the Wilmington Manor eatery sits at Stahl Avenue was only two lanes with trees growing in the median.\n\nThe Sloans are no longer the owners, but split, foot-long hot dogs, cooked on a flat-top grill remain The Dog House's signature dish.\n\nCustomers still find refuge at the cash-only roadside eatery that features the same long, throwback counter with 17 stools that has been in place for 56 years.\n\nWhat to order? A foot-long dog, a cheese dog with chili, a hot dog with sauerkraut or maybe even a cheesesteak.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Deerhead Hot Dogs has been a part of Delaware's eating landscape since 1935. We sometimes hit the 620 S. Maryland Ave. site in Wilmington for a double dog with \"secret\" sauce. There's also a Deerhead Hot Dogs food truck.\n\n4866 N. Dupont Highway, Smyrna; (302) 653-4200\n\nIf you see a line at Helen's, and you will because it's such a popular place, be patient and don't leave. It moves fast.\n\nHelen's home since 1983 has been a squat, white building with bars on the outside windows. Keep an open mind if this is your first visit. Some of the best eateries don't always impress at first glance.\n\nIt's home to the quintessential Delaware breakfast. While most people assume that's scrapple, and Helen's has it, but, as the name suggests, order the sausage. It's deep-fried and it's terrific.\n\nYou can take your meal to-go or sit in the small seating area decorated with Elvis Presley memorabilia. Helen's is an early morning establishment. Really early. It opens at 4 a.m. and the staff calls it a day at noon, Mondays through Saturdays.\n\nWhat to order? Double sausage sandwich with fried peppers and onions; scrapple and egg sandwich; bone-in jumbo pork chop sandwich; home fries.\n\nWhat's similar to it?Royal Treat in Rehoboth Beach is a family-run, cash-only, seasonal breakfast and ice cream parlor that's been at 4 Wilmington Ave., near the boardwalk, for almost 30 years.\n\n2216 Pennsylvania Ave., Wilmington, 302-575-9651\n\nClubby, warm and definitely old-school Wilmington, the Columbus Inn got its current name in 1953, but its roots go back to the 18th century.\n\nOnce considered \"a men's club for the clubless,\" a longtime joke has been that more business deals were made at the Columbus Inn bar than in offices\n\nRenovations in 2010 by the Capano family, after the restaurant was closed for three years, made it much more inviting and modern.\n\nIn a nod to the past, brass nameplates on walls honor longtime customers who have died. The tavern area still has the walnut, horseshoe-shaped bar where for 65 years a congregation of regulars has rested elbows, swapped gossip and sipped cocktails and brews.\n\nWhat to order? Corn and crab chowder, the tavern burger, house-cut fries, crab cakes, the 8-ounce filet.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Jessop's Tavern in Old New Castle is housed in a structure originally built in 1674. In the 1950s, it was known as Captain’s Log Restaurant and it became The Green Frog Tavern in the 1970s. It's been Jessop's since 1996.\n\n101 N. Maryland Ave., Richardson Park, Wilmington; (302) 655-8772\n\nIndia Palace was one of the first Indian restaurants in the state when the Kumar family-run business opened in 1991 not far from the Five Points Volunteer Fire Co.\n\nIt quickly developed a loyal following due to the graciousness of Pinky Kumar, who runs the front of the house, and her husband, Sushil Kumar, who makes the delectable homemade naan in a clay tandoor oven.\n\nThere’s a small lot out front of the brick building, but parking isn’t all that easy. The decor, old-fashioned pine paneling, and a mix of tables and booths for about 50 people looks as though it hasn’t been updated since the restaurant opened.\n\nWhat to order? The buffet lunch; roti (homemade bread), bayngan bhurta (roasted eggplant), marinated sliced lamb, and tandoori mixed grill.\n\nWhat's similar to it? India Palace helped change Delaware's dining scene in 1991 and so did Toscana, Dan Butler's Trolley Square eatery which opened the same year. Butler is credited with setting a new standard for high-quality Italian restaurants.\n\n42 W. 11th St., Wilmington; (302) 594-3154\n\nNo contest: The Green Room inside of the 1913 Italian Renaissance hotel in downtown Wilmington is the most majestic dining room in the state.\n\nWhile the historic Hotel du Pont is no longer owned by the DuPont Co., it is still considered one of the most lavish hotels of America's Gilded Age.\n\nSomehow, you sit up straighter when dining at the Green Room (which, incidentally, has a crimson decor). Sunday brunch is pretty awesome and afternoon tea isn't bad.\n\nThe Green name refers to a family, not the color of the dining room. The hotel has already undergone some changes since The Buccini/Pollin Group acquired the building in 2017, and The Green Room is expected to do the same.\n\nWhat to order? Foie gras, crab cakes, any dessert and definitely the macaroons, the restaurant's signature baked treat. Go for Sunday brunch.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Dan and Missy Lickle brought fancy, but not posh, dining to Hockessin in 1980 with the opening of the Back Burner Restaurant. For a more lavish experience, go to Lickles' Krazy Kat's at The Inn at Montchanin Village.\n\nThe Deer Park Tavern\n\n108 W. Main St., Newark; (302) 369-9414\n\nDespite the legend, Edgar Allen Poe never raised a glass here. But he did lecture at the nearby Newark Academy and, as the story goes, cursed the Deer Park after he fell in the mud outside of it. Poe's \"Raven\" is the DP's mascot.\n\nAn inn, built in 1747, once stood on the ground. The Deer Park was built in 1851 and was once a hotel, and later became a restaurant and popular watering hole for University of Delaware students and local residents.\n\nThe Ashby family acquired the Deer Park in 2001 and made major renovations. The scruffiness is gone, but the Ashbys kept \"the townie bar\" and other traditions such as the Sunday Bloody Mary bar and half-price nachos on Wednesdays.\n\nWhat to order? Nachos grande, burgers, New England clam chowder, fish and chips, eggs Benedict, Bloody Marys.\n\nWhat's similar to it?Klondike Kate's, another popular UD haunt at 158 E. Main St. in Newark, offers American fare and a colorful history tracing back 281 years.\n\n59 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach; (302) 227-3674\n\nBeach eats come and go like the tide, but the Back Pork Cafe has endured for 45 seasons. This funky place, with a Key West vibe, started out as the Hotel Marvel and expanded over the years.\n\nRegulars like its laid-back elegance, three decks, regular live music and terrific cocktails. The food is upscale and the service attentive. Locals and tourists both are catered to, and it's not unusual to see a well-behaved dog by its owner's feet on one of the decks. The seasonal eatery closes in October and usually reopens by April.\n\nWhat to order? Dark and stormy cocktails, anything with wild mushrooms, grilled octopus, rabbit bolognese, coffee drinks flamed tableside.\n\nWhat's similar to it? It's probably not surprising to hear some of the Back Porch's original owners in 1981 opened the Blue Moon. The stylish, theatrical 35 Baltimore Ave. eatery is located in a 1907 Sears Craftsman house.\n\n2 Jay Drive, off Basin Road, New Castle; (302) 328-9740\n\nFew places look like the Dairy Palace anymore. It is truly like stepping back in time at this very popular, old-fashioned New Castle ice cream shack. Leave your cellphone in your pocket and soak in the \"American Graffiti\" vibe.\n\nThe seasonal business has been in operation since it was founded in 1956 by Vince and Joyce Parker.\n\nThe couple's daughter and her family are continuing the cash-only, walk-up stand that offers soft serve ice cream with curls that Beyonce would envy. Don't want ice cream (and, uh, why not?) you can also order sloppy Joes, hot dogs and chili dogs.\n\nOn a warm summer night, when the neon lights blink on spelling out \"Dairy Palace,\" it almost feels like you could run into Sandy, Danny, Kenickie and the rest of the \"Grease\" gang.\n\nWhat to order? Pretty much anything, but our preference is a chocolate, vanilla or twist soft serve cone with sprinkles.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Since 1972, three generations of the King family have run King’s Homemade Ice Cream Shops. The flagship Milton is in the oldest commercial building, circa 1830, in Sussex County. The Lewes location has served scoops since 1981.\n\n120 Four Seasons Parkway (off Del. 896), Glasgow; (302) 738-9935\n\nFamily photos decorate the walls of the restaurant that has an atmosphere as Italian as the Trevi Fountain.\n\nFrank Sinatra croons from the speakers and the aromatic smell of tomato sauce and freshly made pasta drifting through the four dining rooms can make the stomach rumble.\n\nLa Casa Pasta was founded in 1978 by Giuseppe Martuscelli who emigrated from Santa Maria di Castellabate, near Salerno, Italy. The family also owns Klondike Kate's in Newark and the Chesapeake Inn in Chesapeake City, Maryland.\n\nWhat to order? Arancini, mussels in spicy marinara sauce, vitello Giuseppe, lobster fra diavolo, bronzino, tiramisu, ricotta cheesecake.\n\nWhat's similar to it?Vincente's Restaurant has moved a few times during its 47 year history. At its 5914 Kirkwood Highway home, chef/co-owner Dan Mancari presents showstopping, tableside Caesar salads and Bananas Foster.\n\n2038 Foulk Road, Brandywine Hundred; (302) 475-1887\n\nIt's hard to believe the building, dating back to the 1920s, has been known as anything but Stanley's Tavern. Still, when the state's best-known sports bar first opened in 1935, it was called Bill's Place.\n\nFormer Browntown resident Stanley Minakowski took over in 1947 and Stanley's Tavern was born. And 71 years later, it's still going strong.\n\nManaging partner Steve Torpey has been in the house since 1982. Stanley's has long been a favored spot to watch football (Philadelphia Eagles are the house team) or pretty much any televised athletic event. Walls are lined with sports-celebrity photos. Bartenders are friendly and chatty, and the beer is ice cold.\n\nThe restaurant has wide-ranging offerings and a popular salad bar.\n\nWhat to order? Chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, meatloaf, baby back ribs, cheese fries.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Wilmington's Kid Shelleen's Charcoal House & Saloon has been going strong since 1983. The 1801 W. 14th St. site, owned by Xavier Teixido, has continuously operated as a Wilmington restaurant since 1940.\n\n283 Front St., Leipsic; (302) 674-9724\n\nSambo's Tavern, founded by Samuel “Sambo” Burrows in 1953, sits alongside the 17-mile (or so) Leipsic River in Kent County where farms, marshlands and tidal streams converge.\n\nYou have to be at least 21 years old to enter. The establishment, run by Isaac and Elva Burrows, has a tavern license, not a restaurant license. It's also cash only, though there's an ATM machine on site.\n\nYou can call ahead and reserve a table. Try to get a window seat so you can watch watermen pull up and unload crab catches.\n\nOn summer weekends, the bar is full, pitchers of cold beer are flowing and crowds at newspaper-covered tables pick their way through batches of hot, steaming blue crabs. Visitors can go to a giant map that hangs on a wall and stick a pin on their hometown.\n\nWhat to order? Crabs, crabs, crabs. Oh, and the crab cake sandwich, French fries and potato salad.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Blue crab lovers also have been coming to Lestardo's, a relaxed crab house at Del. 273 and Prangs Lane in New Castle's Rambleton Acres Shopping Center since 1969.\n\n1406 Coastal Highway (Del. 1), Fenwick Island; (302) 539-7156\n\nBreakfast has been a tradition at Warren's Station since 1960, but if you want a Bloody Mary or mimosa, head somewhere else. The beach eatery doesn't serve alcohol. It's been that way since it was founded by turkey farmer Warren D. Johnson who then called the business Warren's Family Restaurant.\n\nJeff and Paula Mumford bought the restaurant in 1971 and have since slightly changed the name. They also remodeled and enlarged the site to resemble a replica of a United States Lifesaving Station. Other Mumford family members now work in the business that's still affable and affordable.\n\nWhat to order? Chocolate chip pancakes, Fenwick Island Beach Patrol Sandwich, roast turkey, crab imperial, Delmarvelous rotisserie chicken, any housemade pie.\n\nWhat's similar to it?The equally family-friendly Robin Hood Restaurant at 54 Rehoboth Ave. in Rehoboth has been operating in the beach town since 1968.\n\n5812 Kennett Pike, Centreville; (302) 656-9776\n\nBuckley’s Tavern is to Centreville what the Deer Park Tavern is to Newark.\n\nWhile its home is an upper-crust, affluent area, the egalitarian eatery holds a place in the hearts of Delawareans partly because its crowd has ranged from construction workers in jeans to bankers in suits. It’s been a place of character for characters.\n\nThe building, dating back to 1817, started as a private residence and became a taproom and ice store in the 1930s. Dennis Buckley ran it from 1951 until 1970. It closed for 10 months in 2012 while the restaurant's longtime owners Bob Bolling and Bob Applegate brought in new operators and renovated the historic building.\n\nThe new look keeps the spirit of the original Buckley's while maintaining the integrity of the space.\n\nWhat to order? Roasted garlic hummus, Thai noodle soup, crab Cobb salad, Buckley's burger, French dip, macaroni and cheese. Go for the Sunday pajama brunch where half-price discounts are offered to those wearing PJs.\n\nWhat's similar to it? Feby's Fishery, operating since 1974, moved from Elsmere to its Lancaster Pike location in 1984. Snapper soup is a signature offering and devoted followers like that owners Philip and MarySue DiFebo remain wedded to tradition.\n\nBy limiting the list to 20 we're sure we've neglected some eateries. Here are a few more honorable mentions: Doyle's Restaurant in Selbyville; Mr. Pasta in Holly Oak; Cosmos Diner in Wilmington; The Hearth in Odessa; and Knotty Pine in Wilmington.\n\nContact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.comand on Twitter @pattytalorico", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/01"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_27", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/10/16/rite-aid-bankruptcy-opioid-lawsuits/71202118007/", "title": "Rite Aid has filed for bankruptcy. What it means for the pharmacy ...", "text": "Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy Sunday and plans to close an untold number of stores across the United States as it battles slumping sales and a slew of opioid lawsuits.\n\nOne of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, Rite Aid has in recent years struggled to keep up with bigger drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens as it faces legal hurdles related to accusations that it helped fuel the raging opioid epidemic.\n\nRumors of its impending plans to file for bankruptcy began circulating at the end of August amid the company’s mounting billions of dollars of debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.\n\nHere’s what you need to know about the filing, the legal woes and Rite Aid’s plans to stay afloat.\n\nBoo Buckets:McDonald's brings back its Boo Buckets for Halloween this week\n\nWhat does Chapter 11 bankruptcy mean for Rite Aid?\n\nThe company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey.\n\nThe Chapter 11 filing means Rite Aid plans to stay in business while restructuring its debts through a court-controlled process. Rite Aid even said in a Sunday statement that it has raised $3.45 billion in financing from lenders as it continues to operate its stores while in bankruptcy.\n\nWhen the company last filed a financial report in June, it had $3.3 billion in debt, compared to the $135.5 million in cash it had on hand.\n\nIn the statement about Chapter 11 filing, Rite Aid laid out a restructuring plan that includes closing underperforming stores.\n\nUAW Strikes:How does autoworker union pay compare to other hourly jobs?\n\nWhat do we know about store closures?\n\nFounded in 1962, Philadelphia-based Rite Aid is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the nation with more than 2,000 stores in 17 states.\n\nMost customers won’t have to worry about the bankruptcy filing disrupting their ability to shop or fill prescriptions at their local stores — unless, of course, that store is now slated to close. Rite Aid, which has closed several stores in recent months, said in its media release that it's preparing to close more.\n\n\"Rite Aid regularly evaluates its store portfolio to ensure it is operating efficiently while meeting the needs of its customers, communities and associates,\" the company said in a statement. \"These efforts will further reduce the company’s rent expense and are expected to strengthen its overall financial performance.\"\n\nJoy Errico, a spokesperson for Rite Aid, declined to release further information about how many stores were slated to close or what the timeline for closures would be when reached Monday morning by USA TODAY.\n\nRite Aid said in the statement that it will communicate with customers of stores that will be closing and ensure they are able to get access to the services they need at other nearby locations. Employees at closing stores will also be transferred \"where possible,\" Rite Aid said.\n\nWhat other plans does Rite Aid have?\n\nRite Aid plans to use the bankruptcy to resolve its legal disputes and also sell some of its businesses, including prescription benefit manager Elixir Solutions that it bought in 2015 for $2 billion.\n\nAs part of the bankruptcy plan, Rite Aid appointed on Sunday a new CEO to lead restructuring, Jeff Stein, who will also serve as a member of its board. Elizabeth Burr had been serving as interim CEO since January and will remain on the company’s board, Rite Aid said.\n\nStein, the founder of financial advisory firm Stein Advisors, said in a statement the company plans to remain in business for the long term.\n\n“My priorities will include overseeing the actions now underway to strengthen the company’s financial position and further advance its journey to reach its full potential as a modern neighborhood pharmacy,” Stein said in the statement. “I have tremendous confidence in this business and the turnaround strategy that has been developed in recent months.”\n\nInflation:How inflation is reshaping what employees need from their benefits\n\nWhy is Rite Aid facing opioid lawsuits?\n\nRite Aid's legal troubles related to its alleged role in the nationwide deadly abuse of opioids only further contributed to its mounting debt.\n\nThe many lawsuits filed against Rite Aid accuse the company of knowingly filling prescriptions for the addictive painkillers that did not meet legal requirements. In March, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Rite Aid asserting that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling prescriptions for excessive quantities of prescription pain killers that had “obvious red flags.”\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rise in U.S. opioid overdose deaths can be tied to the uptick in opioid prescriptions starting in the 1990s. Drug overdose deaths from prescription opioids jumped from 3,442 in 1999 to 16,706 in 2021, according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.\n\nContributing: Bailey Schulz\n\nEric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/10/18/rite-aid-store-closures/71226847007/", "title": "Rite Aid closing 154 stores after bankruptcy filing: Here's where", "text": "Rite Aid's bankruptcy announcement earlier this week came with the promise that store closures would soon be imminent.\n\nIt was unclear at the time just how many of pharmacy chain's more than 2,000 locations would be targeted, but Monday court filings identified 154 underperforming stores that Rite Aid plans to shutter.\n\nRite Aid filed Sunday for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the beleaguered company faces slumping sales and battles a slew of lawsuits over its accused role in fueling the opioid epidemic by illegally filling prescriptions for painkillers. As part of the process, Rite Aid revealed its intention to close an untold number of its stores across 17 states.\n\nA Rite Aid spokeswoman did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to USA TODAY's request to comment on the court filing about the store closures, which includes 38 in Pennsylvania, 31 in California, 20 in New York and 19 in Michigan. However, Joy Errico previously told USA TODAY that the company would transfer patients' prescriptions to nearby pharmacies \"so there is no disruption of services.\"\n\nRite Aid, which has 45,000 employees, is also expected to give workers at closing stores the option to transfer to other locations \"where possible,\" Rite Aid said in a Sunday media release.\n\nClick on the state name to see the list of impacted stores or scroll below to see a full list of closures:\n\nCalifornia | Connecticut | Delaware | Idaho | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | New Jersey | New York | Ohio | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Virginia | Washington\n\nChipotle's Halloween Boorito deal:No costume, later hours and free hot sauce\n\nAlhambra: 920 East Valley Boulevard\n\nAtwater: 571 Bellevue Road\n\nBurbank: 935 North Hollywood Way\n\nCitrus Heights: 5409 Sunrise Boulevard\n\nCosta Mesa: 3029 Harbor Boulevard\n\nCovina: 139 North Grand Ave.\n\nCupertino: 20572 Homestead Road\n\nDana Point: 24829 Del Prado\n\nDowney: 7859 Firestone Boulevard\n\nIrvine: 8509 Irvine Center Dr.\n\nLaguna Niguel: 30222 Crown Valley Parkway\n\nLa Mirada: 15800 Imperial Highway\n\nLa Puente: 13905 Amar Road\n\nLong Beach: 4402 Atlantic Ave.\n\nLos Angeles: 4044 Eagle Rock Boulevard; 4046 South Centinela Ave; 959 Crenshaw Boulevard\n\nMenifee: 25906 Newport Road\n\nMonterey: 499 Alvarado St.\n\nOceanside: 3813 Plaza Dr.\n\nOntario: 3000 South Archibald Ave.\n\nOxnard: 720 North Ventura Road\n\nRamona: 1670 Main St.\n\nSacramento: 1309 Fulton Ave.\n\nSan Diego: 6505 Mission Gorge Road; 8985 Mira Mesa Boulevard\n\nSanta Ana: 1406 West Edinger Ave.\n\nSanta Clara: 2620 El Camino Real\n\nSanta Cruz: 901 Soquel Ave.\n\nVentura: 2738 East Thompson Boulevard\n\nYorba Linda: 19701 Yorba Linda Boulevard\n\nBethel: 289 Greenwood Ave.\n\nNewark: 25 Chestnut Hill Plaza\n\nWilmington: 3209 Kirkwood Highway\n\nBoise: 5005 West Overland Road\n\nMeridian: 1600 North Main St.\n\nBaltimore: 5624 Baltimore National Park, 5804 Ritchie Highway\n\nBel Air: 5 Bel Air South Parkway, Suite 1347\n\nElkton: 728 East Pulaski Highway\n\nGlen Burnie: 7501 Ritchie Highway, 7967 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard\n\nWebster: 80 East Main St.\n\nClinton Township: 35250 South Gratiot Ave., 36485 Garfield Road\n\nDetroit: 1900 East 8 Mile Road\n\nFarmington Hills: 25922 Middlebelt Road\n\nFlint: 2838 East Court St., 1124 North Ballenger Highway\n\nFremont: 924 West Main Street\n\nGarden City: 29447 Ford Road\n\nGrand Ledge: 715 South Clinton St.\n\nGreenville: 507 N. Lafayette St.\n\nJackson: 3100 East Michigan Ave.\n\nLansing: 2701 South Cedar St.\n\nMacomb: 15250 24 Mile Road\n\nManistee: 1243 US 31 South\n\nShelby Township: 51037 Van Dyke Ave.\n\nSt. Johns: 109 North Whittemore St.\n\nSturgis: 102 North Centerville Road\n\nWixom: 47300 Pontiac Trail\n\nTaylor: 9155 Telegraph Road\n\nMerrimack: 420 Daniel Webster Highway\n\nHaledon: 431 Haledon Ave.\n\nIrvington: 35 Mill Road\n\nLumberton: 1636 Route 38, Suite 49\n\nMantua: 210 Bridgeton Pike\n\nMullica Hill: 108 Swedesboro Road, Suite 20\n\nRobbinsville: 2370 Route 33\n\nSomerset: 773 Hamilton St.\n\nTinton Falls: 4057 Asbury Avenue, Suite 8\n\nToms River: 1726 Route 37 East\n\nWest Milford: 3 Marshall Hill Road\n\nWhiting: 86 B Lacey Road\n\nWilliamstown: 1434 S. Black Horse Pike\n\nBay Shore: 836 Sunrise Highway\n\nBellmore: 2784 Sunrise Highway\n\nBrooklyn: 2981 Ocean Avenue, 2002 Avenue U\n\nCheektowaga: 2887 Harlem Road\n\nCopiague: 901 Merrick Road\n\nEast Northport: 577 Larkfield Road\n\nFloral Park: 2 Whitney Ave.\n\nFlushing: 71-18 Kissena Boulevard\n\nHuntington Station: 695 East Jericho Turnpike\n\nKenmore: 2453 Elmwood Ave.\n\nLevittown: 3131 Hempstead Turnpike\n\nMedford: 700-43 Patchogue-Yaphank Road\n\nOceanside: 3199 Long Beach Road\n\nOyster Bay: 273 Pine Hollow Road\n\nPort Jeff Station: 593 Old Town Road\n\nRochester: 1567 Penfield Road\n\nSmithtown: 65 Route 11\n\nValley Stream: 198 West Merrick Road\n\nWest Patchogue: 397 Sunrise Highway\n\nBellefontaine: 230 South Main St.\n\nDayton: 146 Woodman Dr.\n\nMassillon: 3129 Lincoln Way East\n\nNew Carlisle: 120 South Main St.\n\nSpringfield: 401 West North St.\n\nYoungstown: 2701 Market St.\n\nPortland: 2440 SE Cesar E Chavez Boulevard\n\nAbington: 1441 Old York Road\n\nAllentown: 1628 South 4th St.\n\nArdmore: 169 W. Lancaster Ave.\n\nBethel Park: 5235 Library Road\n\nBethlehem: 2178 W. Union Boulevard\n\nChester: 2722 W. 9th St.\n\nConshohocken: 200 W. Ridge Ave., Suite 112\n\nErie: 2715 Parade St., 1709 Liberty St.\n\nExport: 4830 William Penn Highway\n\nGreensburg: 6090 Route 30\n\nHanover: 301 Eisenhower Dr.\n\nJohnstown: 300 Market St.\n\nLevittown: 8716 New Falls Road\n\nMechanicsburg: 7036 Wertzville Road\n\nMoon Township: 5990 University Boulevard, Suite 30\n\nNew Castle: 1730 Wilmington Road\n\nNew Kensington: 700 Stevenson Boulevard\n\nPennsburg: 350 Main St.\n\nPhiladelphia: 2401 East Venango St.; 6327-43 Torresdale Ave.; 5612 N. 5th St.; 4011 Cottman Ave.; 11750 Bustleton Ave.; 1315 E. Washington Lane; 2801 W. Dauphin St.; 8235 Stenton Ave.; 7941 Oxford Ave.; 136 N. 63rd St.; 5440 Lansdowne Ave.\n\nPittsburgh: 2501 Saw Mill Run Boulevard; 5410 Keeport Drive\n\nQuakertown: 1080 S. West End Boulevard\n\nRochester: 351 Brighton Ave.\n\nTitusville: 208 E. Central Ave.\n\nTobyhanna: 674 Route 196, Suite 14\n\nWest Pittston: 801 Wyoming Ave., Suite 9\n\nYardley: 657 Heacock Road\n\nYeadon: 950 E. Baltimore Pike\n\nChesapeake: 1458 Mount Pleasant Road; 833 North Battlefield Boulevard\n\nBellevue: 3620 Factoria Boulevard Southeast; 11919 NE 8th St.\n\nBurien: 110 SW 148th St.\n\nEverett: 10103 Evergreen Way\n\nGraham: 22201 Meridian Ave. East\n\nLacey: 8230 Martin Way East\n\nLynnwood: 2518 196th St. Southwest\n\nMill Creek: 3202 132nd St. Southeast\n\nRedmond: 7370 170th Avenue Northeast\n\nRenton: 601 South Grady Way, Suite P\n\nSeattle: 9600 15th Ave. Southwest\n\nFDA hair products ban:FDA proposes ban on hair-straightening, smoothing products over cancer-causing chemicals\n\nEric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2023/11/29/rite-aid-store-closures-grow/71744831007/", "title": "Rite Aid store closure list grows: Pharmacy shutters 31 more locations", "text": "Pharmacy chain Rite Aid is shuttering an additional 31 stores in a dozen states, according to a recent bankruptcy court filing.\n\nThe company announced more than 150 other store closures last month when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A Wednesday news release said it operates more than 2,300 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.\n\nRite Aid spokesperson Catherine Carter said the stores that will be closing have been underperforming and will be closed “to further reduce rent expense and strengthen overall financial performance.” The company plans to give workers at closing stores the option to transfer to other locations.\n\nWhy did Rite Aid file for bankruptcy?\n\nRite Aid, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, filed for bankruptcy in October as it faced slumping sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits accusing it of fueling the opioid epidemic by illegally filling painkiller prescriptions.\n\nThe company’s stock had dipped more than 95% over the past year and closed up 2.4% Wednesday at $0.22.\n\nOther pharmacies closing\n\nThe closures come as the U.S. pharmacy system as a whole struggles to operate efficiently with less staff. Pharmacists at some of the nation’s largest chains have started to protest deteriorating working conditions, with employees at Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS staging walkouts in recent months.\n\nOther pharmacy chains have also been shuttering stores. Walgreens in July said it planned to close 150 locations in the U.S. and another 300 in the United Kingdom, and CVS in 2021 announced plans to close 300 stores per year over the next three years.\n\nPrescription for disaster:America's broken pharmacy system in revolt over burnout and errors\n\nWhich Rite Aid stores are closing?\n\nCalifornia:\n\n1020 Al Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe\n\n11230 Donner Pass Road in Truckee\n\n1475 41st Ave. in Capitola\n\n49060 Road 426 in Oakhurst\n\n5747 Kanan Road in Agoura\n\n1350 North Vasco Road in Livermore\n\n4980 Freeport Blvd. in Sacramento\n\nConnecticut:\n\n66 Church St. in New Haven\n\nMaryland:\n\n1301 East State St. in Delmar\n\nMichigan:\n\n1301 West 14 Mile Road in Clawson\n\n3681 Shawnee Road in Bridgman\n\nNew Jersey:\n\n93 Atlantic Blvd. in Beachwood\n\n121 West Main St. in Moorestown\n\nNew York:\n\n335 Route 25A in Miller Place\n\n5825-35 Broadway in Bronx\n\nNevada:\n\n1329 U.S. Hwy 395 North, #1 in Gardnerville\n\nOhio:\n\n5033 Suder Ave. in Toledo\n\n4332 Cleveland Ave., NW in Canton\n\n501 Water St. in Chardon\n\nOregon:\n\n435 Liberty Street, N.E. in Salem\n\n785 South Columbia River Hwy in St. Helens\n\nPennsylvania:\n\n927 Paoli Pike in West Chester\n\n821 East Bishop St. in Bellefonte\n\n6200 Saltsburg Road in Pittsburg\n\n2545 Aramingo Ave. in Philadelphia\n\nVirginia:\n\n163 W. Ocean View Ave. in Norfolk\n\n7601 Granby St. in Norfolk\n\n4501 News Road in Williamsburg\n\nWashington:\n\n15801 Pacific Ave. in Tacoma\n\n1628 5th Ave. in Seattle\n\n691 Sleater Kinney Road SE in Lacey\n\nSpokesperson Carter said the company has not confirmed any decisions on additional store closures at this time.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/11/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/08/29/rite-aid-filing-bankruptcy/70704371007/", "title": "Why Rite Aid could be filing for bankruptcy", "text": "Rite Aid is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy to address a slew of opioid lawsuits.\n\nPhiladelphia-based Rite Aid’s stock price dipped more than 50% Friday after the reports on the pending bankruptcy filing were published by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.The Chapter 11 filing would allow the company to restructure its more than $3 billion debt load and help it address lawsuits alleging the company filled hundreds of thousands of opioid prescriptions unlawfully.\n\nWhen asked for comment on the reports, Rite Aid spokesperson Joy Errico said “we do not comment on rumors or speculation.”\n\nWhat is the Rite Aid opioid scandal?\n\nRite Aid is facing lawsuits alleging the company helped fuel the country’s opioid epidemic by knowingly filling prescriptions for painkillers that did not meet legal requirements.\n\nThe Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the company earlier this year, claiming that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by repeatedly filling prescriptions that had “obvious red flags.”\n\nThe Journal reports that the company also faces more than a thousand federal lawsuits that were consolidated in Ohio and other pending litigation in state courts.\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rise in U.S. opioid overdose deaths can be tied to the uptick in opioid prescriptions starting in the 1990s. Drug overdose deaths from prescription opioids rose jumped from 3,442 in 1999 to 16,706 in 2021, according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.\n\nWhy would Rite Aid file for bankruptcy?\n\nRite Aid has yet to agree on a settlement with the opioid plaintiffs to resolve liabilities in a potential bankruptcy filing, according to the Journal. A Chapter 11 filing would pause those lawsuits and allow the company to consolidate the claims.\n\n“It's one-stop shopping,” said Bruce Markell, a bankruptcy law professor at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. “Otherwise they would have to go into something like the multi-district litigation … with lots of different trials.”\n\nPharmaceutical companies including Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt and Endo Pharmaceuticals have already reached settlements for similar opioid-related claims in bankruptcy.\n\n“The downside of it, obviously, is the victims who are hurt get a limited day in court if they get a day in court at all,” Markell said. “They don't get to plead their case before a jury.”\n\nA bankruptcy filing could also impose a hard cap on Ride Aid’s aggregate liability exposure, said Ralph Brubaker, a law professor at the University of Illinois.\n\n“Companies are becoming very aggressive in using bankruptcy to try to get that hard cap on their liability, even if the litigation is not too much to handle,” he said.\n\nBrubaker pointed to Johnson & Johnson as a recent example. Its attempt to settle lawsuits from people claiming its talc-based powder caused cancer in bankrupcy court was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year because the company was determined not to be in financial distress.\n\nWhat does this mean for Rite Aid customers?\n\nWith more than 2,000 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states, Rite Aid is among the largest pharmacy chains in the country. But customers won’t have to worry about a potential bankruptcy filing upending their day-to-day interactions with the company.\n\nThe Chapter 11 process is “fairly invisible as far as customers are concerned,” Brubaker said. “The whole point of the Chapter 11 processes is to preserve the business operations and the value of that ongoing business to the greatest extent possible so that the payout to the claimants can be as large as possible.”\n\nMarkell said regular customers can expect their interactions with Rite Aid to continue as normal should the company file for bankruptcy.\n\n“Rite Aid has every incentive to continue to operate and serve its customers the way it has in the past,” he said. “If I had a long-term prescription at Rite Aid, I might not change it if they filed. If Rite Aid was the closest pharmacy for where I go to get band-aids, I wouldn't stop doing that.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/08/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/10/18/rite-aid-closing-154-stores-including-one-in-penfield-ny/71230927007/", "title": "Rite Aid announces closing date for Penfield NY store", "text": "Update, Oct. 19, 2023: A Rite Aid store at 1567 Penfield Road in Panorama Plaza will close permanently on Nov. 7, a Rite Aid spokesperson said, and provided this statement from the company:\n\n\"Like all retail businesses, we regularly review each of our locations to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers, communities and overall business. A decision to close a store is one we take very seriously and is based on a variety of factors, including business strategy, lease and rent considerations, local business conditions and viability, and store performance. For our customers, we make every effort to ensure they have access to health services, whether at another Rite Aid or other nearby pharmacy, and we work to seamlessly transfer their prescriptions so there is no disruption of services. We will also strive to transfer associates to other Rite Aid locations where possible. We will continue to keep our website updated with information about which stores are open.\n\nAdditional information can be found at riteaidrestructuring.com.\"\n\n***\n\nOriginal story, Oct. 18, 2023: Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 15 and plans to close 154 stores across the country — including one in the Rochester market — as it battles slumping sales and a slew of opioid lawsuits.\n\nThe store slated to close here is at 1567 Penfield Road in Panorama Plaza, according to court paperwork.\n\nStore closing dates have not been announced.\n\nMost of the targeted locations in New York state are in the New York City metropolitan area; other upstate stores include two in Erie County — one in Cheektowaga and one in Kenmore.\n\nIn May, Rite Aid closed its location at 535 Portland Ave. in northeast Rochester, citing among other things, “local business conditions and viability, and store performance.”\n\nOne of the largest pharmacy chains in the country, Rite Aid has in recent years struggled to keep up with bigger competitors like CVS and Walgreens as it faces legal hurdles related to accusations that it helped fuel the raging opioid epidemic.\n\nRumors of Rite Aid’s plans to file for bankruptcy began circulating at the end of August amid the company’s mounting billions of dollars of debt, declining sales and more than a thousand federal, state and local lawsuits claiming it filled thousands of illegal prescriptions for painkillers.\n\nReporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/14/coronavirus-store-closures-bankruptcy-covid-19-pandemic-retail/5124326002/", "title": "Coronavirus store closings: Can these 10 retailers avoid bankruptcy?", "text": "Get ready for what could be the biggest slate of store closures and retail bankruptcies in recent memory.\n\nFor every day that retailers are closed during the coronavirus crisis, the chances that they won't survive this pandemic grow larger.\n\nWhile some retailers are flourishing – namely chains with major grocery sales like Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco – others are trying to stave off doom. In many cases, these retailers were already in trouble already as Americans shopped increasingly online.\n\nForever 21 and J.C. Penny were hanging by a thread, while Sears and Kmart have been waiting for the final shoe to drop for years. Now these and other chains, including Neiman Marcus, David's Bridal and Ascena Retail Group, are losing cash rapidly while they await the chance to reopen their doors. But there’s no guarantee that customers will come flocking back to shop amid serious concerns about their finances and getting exposed to the still lingering virus.\n\nWhen are stimulus checks coming?:Money could roll out to Americans next week\n\nLooking for Lysol spray, Clorox wipes? COVID-19 wiped out disinfectants, but here’s when you can buy again\n\nU.S. retailers have already announced 2,184 permanent closures this year, most of which were announced before the pandemic began, according to retail analytics firm Coresight Research.\n\nPapyrus, Modell’s Sporting Goods and Art Van Furniture announced plans to liquidate all of 635 of their locations.That follows a year in which more than 9,700 stores closed, according to updated data released Friday by Coresight.\n\nWill these retailers reopen amid COVID-19?\n\nNow, chains like GNC, J. Crew and Rite Aid are fighting for their lives, according to analysts.\n\nCamilla Yanushevsky, a retail stock analyst for CFRA Research, said the fallout for retail will be “pretty striking” after several years of mass closures.\n\n“It’s a battle of who’s going to survive, who’s just going to close and who’s going to need to file for bankruptcy,” she said. “The companies that are most at risk at the ones that were already distressed before the crisis.”\n\nWhile the federal government’s $2.2 trillion stimulus package includes funds to ease the financial impact of the coronavirus on consumers, airlines and small businesses, Yanushevsky said it’s not likely to help large physical retailers much in the long run.\n\n“I think a lot of people are going to be more hesitant to go into stores, specifically malls or more closed areas, until a vaccine comes out,” Yanushevsky said. “We’ve already seen a big shift to e-commerce and that’s just going to proliferate more for safety reasons.”\n\nJim Van Horn, a bankruptcy attorney at Barnes & Thornburg who has handled retail restructuring cases, also predicted a wave of bankruptcies. But he said they won’t happen until the pandemic has somewhat ebbed, if only because retailers and their creditors wouldn’t want to risk a liquidation until going-out-of-business sales could occur.\n\n“Once we turn the corner on COVID-19 or when there is some general consensus of when things are going to get back to normal, there will be a tremendous amount of bankruptcy activity,” he said.\n\nSarah Wyeth, retail and restaurant sector lead for S&P Global Ratings, said about a quarter of retailers and restaurants tracked by S&P are now rating as having a 50% chance of defaulting on their debts. Failing to pay on time is often a precursor to restructuring or bankruptcy.\n\nIn 2019, which included the liquidation of chains like Payless ShoeSource, Gymboree and Charlotte Russe, more than 9,700 stores closed.\n\nHere’s a list of retailers that are trying to avoid the same fate, based on USA TODAY research, public data and analyst reports:\n\nForever 21\n\nForever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September with plans to close roughly 100 struggling stores and save the rest of the business. The company then finished a deal on Feb. 19 to sell most of its remaining assets to a group of investors led by Authentic Brands and mall owner Simon Property Group, which had previously used a similar model to rescue fashion retailer Aéropostale.\n\nTalk about tough timing.\n\nExactly a month later, while still deciding which stores to liquidate, the buyer temporarily closed all Forever 21 locations due to the pandemic.\n\nNow, the investment group has requested court permission for an extension on the deadline to decide which stores to close, according to a bankruptcy court filing.\n\nThe pandemic disruption threatens to derail Forever 21’s comeback before it even gets underway.\n\nJ.C. Penney\n\nThe department store chain's stock, which was already trading below 70 cents when March began, closed Thursday at 34 cents. With a total market value of about $108 million, J.C. Penney is running out of time to pull off its turnaround plan.\n\n“Before the coronavirus, I thought there was going to be some hope for J.C. Penney,” Yanushevsky said. “It did look like they had some good ideas brewing, but … this could be the final straw for them.”\n\nIn 2019, the Texas-based chain closed 27 stores, ended sales of appliances and furniture and placed the company's focus back on its bread and butter: compelling apparel and related merchandise. In 2020, the chain has already announced six additional permanent closures.\n\nWith a junk credit rating of CCC from S&P Global Ratings and an outlook of negative, J.C. Penney is scrambling to get traction.\n\nSears and Kmart\n\nThese sibling chains have been out of bankruptcy for about 14 months, but it was hard to envision a return to greatness before the pandemic, let alone after it.\n\nSears and Kmart have closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs over the last 15 years. After tumbling into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018, the chains narrowly escaped total liquidation after a last-minute sale in February 2019 to their parent company's longtime investor and former CEO Eddie Lampert.\n\nBut time is running out for Sears and Kmart to stabilize their businesses. In February 2020, another 51 Sears and 45 Kmart locations were set to close, leaving some 182 surviving stores.\n\nNeiman Marcus Group\n\nThe luxury department store chain completed a debt restructuring plan in 2019 that included what S&P Global Ratings considered to be a \"distressed\" exchange.\n\nAfter the move, S&P rated the company as a \"continued risk of restructuring.\"\n\nThat may come to fruition. Reuters reported April 2 that Neiman Marcus, whose stores include the Bergdorf Goodman chain, was preparing a potential bankruptcy filing.\n\nNeiman Marcus already announced in March that it would close the majority of its 22 Last Call stores. Now, the company is hoping to avoid the fate of luxury rival Barney's, which liquidated in 2019.\n\nDavid’s Bridal\n\nDavid’s Bridal survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy, emerging from the process in January 2019 and charting plans to cut prices, improve its digital operations and add additional selections.\n\nNow, weddings and receptions have been disrupted throughout the country, with many governments limiting the number of people who can attend.\n\nWhile normal weddings will likely resume after the crisis subsides, the economic effects of the pandemic could lead couples to delay plans or spend less on their big day.\n\nDavid’s Bridal has already announced plans for “a substantial reduction in expenses, capital expenditures and inventory commitments,” as well as pay cuts and furloughs for most store employees and more than half of its corporate workers.\n\nAscena Retail Group\n\nLike other apparel retailers with a heavy commitment to shopping malls, Ascena’s stores were grappling with declining foot traffic long before the pandemic. The company's brands include Lane Bryant, Justice, Loft and Ann Taylor.\n\nNow, hopes of a sudden influx of business in the wake of the pandemic seem especially dim.\n\nIn 2019, 62% of store closure announcements came in the apparel sector, according to global marketing research firm Coresight Research.\n\nRite Aid\n\nRite Aid was already stuck in an uncomfortable netherworld: not big enough to present a threat to drugstore rivals Walgreens and CVS but not agile or rich enough to reinvent itself.\n\nRite Aid also faces the additional threat of disappointing health care insurance reimbursement rates and generic drug costs, according to CFRA Research.\n\nA few bad breaks haven't helped: A merger deal with grocery chain Albertsons collapsed in 2018, leaving the company's path to reinvention unclear.\n\nNow, with $3.3 billion in liabilities, Rite Aid has the third most debt of any retailer rated as distressed by Moody's Investor Service, behind only J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus.\n\nGNC Holdings\n\nListed by Moody's as among the most distressed retailers, GNC has already announced 304 store closures this year, according to Coresight Research.\n\nOn March 20, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the nutrition products retailer's credit rating to CC due to the company’s “likely inability to repay debt.”\n\n“We believe conditions for GNC are deteriorating substantially due to the coronavirus pandemic, the anticipated macroeconomic downturn and the limited access to capital markets,” S&P reported.\n\nJ. Crew\n\nWith $1.4 billion in debt, J. Crew has the sixth-most debt among distressed retailers, according to Moody’s.\n\nThe long-distressed retailer announced on Dec. 2 that it had agreed to terms to separate its J. Crew stores and Madewell women's apparel business into independent companies.\n\nThe profitable Madewell brand was in solid shape and was set to be spun out in an initial public offering that will lead to \"sustainable capital structures\" for both companies, interim CEO Michael Nicholson said in statement Dec. 2.\n\nBut Bloomberg reported March 20 that the plan has been delayed indefinitely as \"J. Crew is no longer considering taking its most profitable brand public in the near future.”\n\nWith J. Crew stores closed indefinitely due to the pandemic like many other retailers, the chain’s future is becoming cloudier by the day.\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/12/20/a-i-rite-aid-ftc-facial-recognition/71985376007/", "title": "FTC bans Rite Aid from AI facial recognition use after unfair searches", "text": "The Federal Trade Commission has banned Rite Aid from using AI facial recognition technology, accusing the pharmacy chain of recklessly deploying technology that subjected customers – especially people of color and women – to unwarranted searches.\n\nThe decision comes after Rite Aid deployed AI-based facial recognition to identify customers deemed likely to engage in criminal behavior like shoplifting. The FTC says the technology often based its alerts on low-quality images, such as those from security cameras, phone cameras and news stories, resulting in \"thousands of false-positive matches\" and customers being searched or kicked out of stores for crimes they did not commit.\n\n\"Rite Aid failed to take reasonable measures to prevent harm to consumers from its use of facial recognition technology,\" the complaint alleges.\n\nTwo of the cases outlined in the complaint include:\n\nAn employee searching an 11-year-old girl after a false match. The girl’s mother said she missed work because her daughter was \"so distraught by the incident.\"\n\nEmployees calling the police on a Black woman after a false alert. The person in the image that triggered the alert was described as “a white lady with blonde hair.”\n\n“It has been clear for years that facial recognition systems can perform less effectively for people with darker skin and women,” FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya said in a statement. “In spite of this, we allege that Rite Aid was more likely to deploy face surveillance in stores located in plurality-non-White areas than in other areas.”\n\nThe FTC said facial recognition was in use between 2012 and 2020 in hundreds of stores, and customers were not informed that the technology was in use.\n\n“Rite Aid's reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violations put consumers’ sensitive information at risk,\" Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a Tuesday statement. “Today’s groundbreaking order makes clear that the Commission will be vigilant in protecting the public from unfair biometric surveillance and unfair data security practices.”\n\nA statement from Rite Aid said the company is pleased to reach an agreement with the FTC, but it disagrees with the facial recognition allegations in the complaint.\n\n\"The allegations relate to a facial recognition technology pilot program the Company deployed in a limited number of stores,\" the statement reads. \"Rite Aid stopped using the technology in this small group of stores more than three years ago, before the FTC’s investigation regarding the Company’s use of the technology began.\"\n\nThe ban is to last five years. If Rite Aid does decide to implement similar technology in the future, the order requires it to implement comprehensive safeguards and a “robust information security program” overseen by top executives. The FTC also told Rite Aid to delete any images collected for the facial recognition system and said the company must tell customers when their biometric information is enrolled in a database for surveillance systems.\n\nThe settlement comes as Rite Aid works its way through bankruptcy proceedings. The FTC’s order is set to go into effect once the bankruptcy and federal district court give approval.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/26/pharmacy-chains-dangerous-conditions-medication-errors/71153960007/", "title": "Prescription for disaster: America's broken pharmacy system in ...", "text": "Pharmacists with the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain felt dangerously burned out.\n\nIt was August 2020. The pandemic was in full swing, straining an already weary workforce hit by a decade of relentless budget cuts and rising demands.\n\nOne by one, the pharmacists dialed into a weekly conference call with their boss. He could have empathized with them or addressed the reality of their pressure-cooker environment – one that breeds medication errors and creates missed opportunities to prevent potentially deadly mistakes.\n\nInstead, CVS District Leader Khalil Haidar turned up the heat. He harped on his Texas-and-Louisiana-based team to hit corporate quotas: Sell more store memberships. Push for more prescription pickups. Vaccinate more people. He threatened discipline and staff cuts unless pharmacists convinced at least five customers that week to get a flu shot before flu season had even officially started.\n\n“If you get your goal, nobody will come after you,\" Haidar said on the call, one of several recorded and shared with USA TODAY. \"And many patients, they are ignorant. They don’t know what the flu is ... How are you going to convince them? How can you persuade them? That’s your job as a pharmacist.”\n\nPharmacists take an oath to hold patient safety in the highest regard when preparing and dispensing medication. But rising pressures inside the nation’s largest retail chains have forced pharmacists to choose between that oath and their job.\n\nThe situation was bad before the pandemic. COVID-19 made it worse. It has only gone downhill since then. Frustrations boiled over this autumn in a series of high-profile walkouts that left a string of CVS and Walgreens pharmacies shuttered or short-staffed. Those actions might have caught consumers off guard. But inside the troubled industry, it was the clarion call of a beleaguered workforce pushed to the brink.\n\nCorporations like CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart have consistently slashed pharmacy staffing levels while simultaneously saddling their frontline workers with a burgeoning list of additional duties.\n\nStores that a decade ago might have had two pharmacists and six pharmacy technicians filling an average of 500 prescriptions a day now may have half the staff and an even higher prescription volume – plus an endless crush of vaccine appointments, rapid tests and patient consultation calls.\n\nEvery task is timed and measured against corporate goals that reward speed and profits. Staff who do not fill prescriptions fast enough, answer the phones quickly enough or drum up enough vaccination business can face discipline, reassignment or termination.\n\nPharmacists said it’s nearly impossible to meet all the demands without cutting corners, and when corners get cut, patients can get hurt.\n\n“The public’s health is in danger,” said Oklahoma City pharmacist Bled Tanoe, who quit her job at Walgreens in August 2021 over what she considered unsafe staffing levels and an emphasis on hitting corporate targets. “The incidents of error are multiplied by infinity.”\n\nUSA TODAY interviewed four dozen current and former retail pharmacists from different chains across the nation and spoke with industry leaders, patient advocates and patients harmed by pharmacy errors. Many pharmacists spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs.\n\nThe media organization also reviewed more than 100 emails from chain pharmacists sharing their concerns; inspected internal emails, text messages, metric score sheets and coaching notes; and listened to more than five hours of recorded conference calls.\n\nThese interviews, audio recordings and documents – along with dozens of pharmacist workplace surveys, task force studies and state board of pharmacy reports – add up to a prescription for disaster.\n\n“I could cry as to what’s happening in my profession,” said Daniel A. Hussar, a professor and dean emeritus at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where he taught for 52 years before retiring in 2018 to focus on his family and his blog, The Pharmacist Activist.\n\nHussar lamented the transformation of a once-vaunted career into the equivalent of a fast-food job whose workers are pressured to upsell every customer and race through every order. Mistakes in that environment are not only common, he said, they’re potentially fatal.\n\n“At corporations like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid – the huge pharmacies – errors are a cost of doing business,” Hussar said. “I don’t think the boards of pharmacy or the colleges of pharmacy or the professional associations are doing enough to address the issues.”\n\nFor years, pharmacists have reported these problems to their state boards, complained to their professional organizations and warned the media. The New York Times wrote about how the dangerous workload imperils patient safety just before the pandemic hit U.S. shores.\n\nPromises were made and broken – documented by pharmacists themselves in state surveys that followed.\n\nIn California, 91% of chain pharmacists surveyed by the state Board of Pharmacy in 2021 said they lacked the staff needed to ensure adequate patient care. More than half of pharmacists polled by the Kansas Board of Pharmacy in 2022 said they didn’t feel they could perform their jobs safely; the biggest reasons cited were a lack of adequate staffing and employer-imposed metrics, like filling a specific number of prescriptions a day or providing service to customers within a set time.\n\nHundreds of pharmacists in Ohio responded to a 2020 callout from their state board about the toll of their workload on patient safety in a report made public in the next year.\n\n“I feel a mistake is breathing down my neck as I try to manage all the tasks that I am asked to perform,” one wrote. Another said they had left the profession because “the environment was set up for me to fail.”\n\nState regulatory bodies overseeing pharmacies have for years refused to intervene. Their role is mainly to protect consumers, not pharmacists, and they traditionally considered many of these complaints – staffing, metrics, workload – outside their purview. They were seen as business decisions, not consumer safety issues, said Karen Winslow, interim executive director of the Virginia Pharmacy Association.\n\nThat’s starting to change, but not without a fight.\n\nOhio proposed a series of rules this year aimed at improving pharmacy working conditions. Among them: A ban on quotas and requirements for sufficient staffing. The rules are currently pending a vote amid overwhelming support from pharmacists and opposition from retail pharmacy chains, including Walgreens and CVS.\n\n“The Board should stay focused on the regulation of the practice of pharmacy rather than the business of pharmacy,” wrote CVS Director of Regulatory Affairs John Long in opposing an early version of Ohio’s rules last year.\n\nVirginia passed emergency regulations in late September also banning production quotas and bolstering pharmacy staffing. Those rules are in effect until March 2025, giving the state time to develop and pass more permanent measures.\n\nEnforcing these rules could prove challenging. California, one of the first states to outlaw pharmacy production quotas and mandate minimum staffing, is coping with routine violations by retail pharmacies that then fail to provide records to inspectors seeking to verify complaints, state Board of Pharmacy minutes show.\n\nProfessional associations, meanwhile, have earned their members’ scorn for hosting workshops on resiliency rather than advocating for better working conditions. Many pharmacists told USA TODAY they feel like no one stands up for them.\n\nThat, too, is starting to change. In the wake of the CVS walkouts last month, the new head of the American Pharmacists Association, the industry’s largest professional organization, flew to Kansas City to meet with the organizers and committed to more aggressive leadership on these issues.\n\n“The APhA has been focused on longer-term fixes, and what we’ve heard loud and clear is we need to focus on the acute problems,” said Michael Hogue, the association’s chief executive officer and executive vice president. “That’s what we’re going to do.”\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Rite Aid for comment.\n\nRepresentatives of CVS and Walgreens generally acknowledged the challenges their pharmacists have faced in recent years but denied allegations of dangerous working conditions. They said goal-based metrics on measurable objectives such as quick prescription turnarounds, short telephone hold times and vaccination volumes are standard within the industry and meant to assess quality rather than penalize staff.\n\nCVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart all emphasized their commitments to patient safety and described their various efforts to continually reduce error rates.\n\n“Patient safety is our highest priority,” Amy Thibault, CVS Pharmacy’s lead director of external communications, told USA TODAY. “Our more than 30,000 CVS pharmacists approach this responsibility with seriousness and dedication and we work hard to earn the trust of our pharmacy patients.”\n\nCVS, Walgreens and Walmart also said they have invested in new technologies to streamline services, increased wages to better recruit and retain staff, and rolled out new initiatives to support their teams and reduce their workloads.\n\nThe major chains now provide half-hour lunch breaks for staff. Many also recently announced reduced pharmacy hours at locations nationwide. Walmart spokesman Tyler Thomason said reduced operating hours promote a “better work/life balance.”\n\nBut pharmacists told USA TODAY their workloads remain the same and that they’re pressured to work through lunch and stay late to finish everything. At locations where hours were cut, many pharmacists said, they’ve seen their salaries decrease accordingly.\n\n“I’ve given the company thousands and thousands of dollars in free labor,” said a CVS pharmacist who was on Haidar’s team during the pandemic-era conference calls. “Our bosses can log into the computer any time and tell how far behind we are. They will send group texts and say, ‘I see you’re trending behind. What are your plans to finish it tonight?’ Very intimidating comments. You fear for your job all the time.”\n\nHaidar, who now leads a different team, told USA TODAY the recordings must have been altered and that he never threatened staff with discipline for falling short of vaccination goals. He also said they are not an accurate depiction of his leadership. When asked if he would like to listen to the recordings, Haidar declined.\n\nMichael DeAngelis, CVS’ executive director of corporate communications, said it is not the company’s “policy or practice to penalize pharmacy teams regarding the number of vaccinations they administer” and that it “is committed to compensating our colleagues appropriately for the hours they work.”\n\nDeAngelis also said CVS recently reduced its pharmacy metrics by 50%, but he declined to provide additional details.\n\nWalgreens announced last year the complete elimination of performance-based metrics, the only major chain to have taken such a step. But interviews with pharmacists and documents provided to USA TODAY show the company continues to push staff to hit unrealistic goals.\n\nOne Walgreens pharmacist said she was reprimanded earlier this month for taking too long to verify prescriptions, even though her extra diligence had caught several serious mistakes.\n\nAccording to notes from her coaching session, shared with USA TODAY, she should take less than 30 seconds to verify the accuracy and appropriateness of every prescription, in addition to checking for potential problems like drug allergies or interactions.\n\n“I pray every day that I don’t miss something or cause a patient harm,” said the Tennessee-based pharmacist, who estimates she handles several hundred prescriptions daily. “I feel guilty knowing that I would want someone to double check the math on a prescription of antibiotics for my child, but I don’t have time to do that for their child.”\n\nMedication errors: A pharmacist's worst nightmare\n\nMedication errors are a pharmacist’s worst nightmare. Many told USA TODAY they lie awake at night wondering if, in their haste, they made a mistake that might hurt or kill someone.\n\nIn May 2021, that someone was Brenden Fisher.\n\nThe Sarasota, Florida, child overdosed on a newly prescribed anti-seizure medication after the CVS pharmacy near his home dispensed the drug with the wrong instructions on the label.\n\nBy the third dose, Brenden was lethargic, dazed and struggling to breathe. His parents, Paris Bean and Jason Fisher, rushed their then-2-year-old to the hospital, thinking he was dying.\n\nHospital staff didn’t know what was wrong with him, Bean recalled, until a nurse asked if he was taking his 1.2 ml of levetiracetam twice daily.\n\nWhen Bean told her the instructions said to give him 7.5 ml, “you could almost hear her jaw drop,” Bean recalled. “She said, ‘Did you give that to him?’ And I said, ‘Yes. Is that why we’re here?’ She said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised.’”\n\nBrenden still suffers from a full-body tic he first developed during the incident, his parents said. Dozens of times a day, he will suddenly stop whatever he is doing, clasp his hands together, clench his jaw and tense every muscle in his body while staring off into space. Each episode lasts anywhere from 5-10 seconds.\n\nHis parents haven’t been able to definitively link the tic to the overdose, but they said they have no other explanation for it.\n\nAnti-seizure medications like levetiracetam depress the central nervous system, Hussar said. Because nerves tell muscles when to contract and relax, he said, there could be a connection between the overdose and Brenden’s involuntary muscle contractions.\n\nBean said she blames CVS for the mistake but also herself: “I’m the one who physically administered it ... I could have killed him.”\n\nCVS declined to comment on the error.\n\nBean and her husband filed a lawsuit against CVS in February that was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. But they said they did not file a complaint with the Florida Board of Pharmacy.\n\nThat means it’s one of countless errors for which there’s no official tally or public record.\n\nDespite a widespread industry belief that medication errors are on the rise as a result of unsafe working conditions, there is no reliable or comprehensive public data to prove it.\n\nNo federal agency requires pharmacists to report medication errors, and few state boards of pharmacy mandate it. Many pharmacies and pharmacy chains track errors internally but do not share the numbers with the public. CVS and Walgreens both declined to share their data with USA TODAY.\n\n“There really is no way of knowing how many errors are actually out there,” said Larry Selkow, a retired California pharmacist who recently served on the American Public Health Association’s task force on pharmacy medication safety issues.\n\nThe group estimated U.S. pharmacies annually make 54 million dispensing errors, of which 2.3 million are potentially harmful. It recommended the establishment of a national pharmacy reporting system to collect data on errors and their underlying causes. Having such information, Selkow said, would allow pharmacies to adopt practices to prevent future mistakes.\n\nNumerous pharmacists told USA TODAY that errors are not consistently reported – even internally. Small mistakes and those caught early are routinely hidden.\n\n“Some pharmacists don’t report it especially if they’ve already had, like, five errors that year,\" said Shane Jerominski, a California pharmacist who worked for both Walgreens and CVS. \"For every error that gets found out, there will be an error that never gets caught.\"\n\nEven when they do report potentially fatal errors, some pharmacists said, no one from their companies investigates how they occurred or makes changes to prevent them from repeating.\n\nA former CVS pharmacy manager at a short-staffed, high-volume store in Georgia said he was horrified when one of his patients who was prescribed Bisoprolol for high blood pressure accidentally received a sleeping aid called Belsomra and got sick after she started taking it.\n\nThe pharmacist, who now works for Walmart, said he had hoped the error would be a wake-up call for higher-ups who might finally give his store adequate staffing. It didn’t work out that way.\n\n“They had me do that little report, but my manager, nobody ever followed up,” he said. “They were like, ‘OK, cool, see if she would like a gift card, and we’ll handle it from here.’ And that was it. It’s like they could care less. Like it didn’t even happen.”\n\nCVS did not comment on the incident, but Thibault said that the company’s first priority when it learns of any error is the patient’s safety. She said it then takes steps to correct the error and learn from it. Walgreens said in a statement that it’s mandatory for employees to report errors under the company’s “Continuous Quality Improvement Program.”\n\n“We take any prescription error very seriously and have a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks to minimize the rare chance of human error,” said Marty Maloney, Walgreens’ senior manager of media relations.\n\nPharmacists are personally liable for medication errors and risk fines, discipline and loss of license if investigated and found responsible by their state board. Many told USA TODAY they get little or no support from their company when mistakes happen, even if the conditions imposed by those companies contributed to the error.\n\nThe Nevada Board of Pharmacy in September fined and suspended the licenses of two CVS pharmacists who accidentally gave a pregnant woman the abortion drug misoprostol instead of the fertility treatment she was prescribed. The mistake, which was first reported by 8NewsNow in Las Vegas, ended the woman’s pregnancy.\n\nThe Nevada board also fined CVS $10,000 over the objections of company attorney William Stilling who argued CVS itself did nothing wrong.\n\n“The only allegation” against CVS, Stilling said, “is that they had these pharmacists.”\n\nPharmacy benefit managers played role in the current crisis\n\nRetail pharmacy wasn’t always this bleak.\n\nTwenty years ago the industry was thriving. CVS and Walgreens were opening new locations at a rapid clip. New pharmacy schools popped up to meet the needs of a profession in high demand. Meanwhile, Americans’ appetite for prescription drugs was soaring.\n\nIndependent and chain pharmacies alike were earning relatively healthy profits from drug sales and could afford to hire and retain enough staff to keep their operations humming.\n\nA constellation of factors contributed to the industry’s downturn. They include rising drug costs, changing consumer habits and the emergence of online pharmacies.\n\nBut none looms larger than the outsized influence of pharmacy benefit managers. These third-party administrators of health insurers’ prescription drug programs have eroded the profits of retail pharmacies to the point where they now lose money on many sales.\n\n“In today’s world, 7 out of 10 medicines dispensed by a pharmacy are dispensed at a loss,” Hogue said, referring to the non-generic drugs that represent pharmacies’ largest expense.\n\nPharmacy benefit managers, commonly referred to as PBMs, act as a middleman between the insurers, the drug manufacturers and the pharmacies. They negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, determine which drugs will be covered by insurance plans and set reimbursement rates for pharmacies that buy and sell the drugs.\n\nAs the power of PBMs rose over the years, they demanded bigger rebates from drug manufacturers and pocketed increasingly bigger shares of those savings instead of passing them along. They also lowered pharmacy reimbursement rates and tacked on hefty fees known as Direct and Indirect Remuneration.\n\nThe three largest PBMs – ExpressScripts, owned by Cigna; CVS Caremark, owned by CVS Health; and OptumRx, owned by the same company as UnitedHealthcare – control a majority of the market.\n\nWhile PBMs’ collective profits skyrocketed over the past decade, their tactics plunged retail pharmacies into financial distress and left them scrambling for alternative sources of revenue, like vaccinations, to stay afloat.\n\nThe Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry last year into PBM practices, which have already been the subject of several lawsuits.\n\nIndependent pharmacies have been hit especially hard. Not only are their reimbursement rates lower than those of chains, but their patients have been steered away by PBMs that insist they use a preferred chain pharmacy instead.\n\nCharles Thompson, a pharmacist and independent owner of Grove Park Pharmacy in Orangeburg, South Carolina, said he has lost countless customers who were told by their PBMs to use CVS and Walgreens instead. Between that and the lower reimbursements, he said, Grove Park had to diversify to stay open. It now offers an in-store medical clinic, hospice services and medical equipment rentals.\n\n“If I had to rely only on filling prescriptions,” Thompson said. “I would be out of business.”\n\nOther independent pharmacies simply closed. The United States has lost more than 3,500 mom-and-pop pharmacies in the past decade, according to data from the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents independent pharmacies.\n\n“The independents have been the canaries in the coal mine,” said B. Douglas Hoey, chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association.\n\nNow the chains are following suit. CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid all recently announced the closure of hundreds of pharmacies as they face slumping revenues and the fallout from multiple lawsuits for their alleged roles in the nation’s opioid crisis. Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.\n\n“It’s all coming home to roost,” Hoey said of the PBMs’ unchecked power and their practice of steering patients away from the independents and into the chains. “It has overloaded the system, and also that corporate mentally of just, ‘we’re going to work the workers to death,’ I think that’s coming home to roost, too.”\n\nPharmacists bleeding, crying, working alone\n\nLike the metaphorical frog boiling in the pot, Wendy Lear said she didn’t realize how bad her job at CVS had gotten until there were so few staff left that she was forced to work alone, even when she had no business being behind the pharmacy counter.\n\nLear’s stint with CVS started in 2009 when the chain bought the independent pharmacy where she worked in Lexington, Kentucky. The transition was dramatic but initially tolerable, Lear said, because CVS retained enough pharmacists and technicians to meet the patients’ needs.\n\nBut that changed over the years as CVS whittled away its staff while heaping more work upon the few who remained.\n\nOne time, Lear recalled, she went to work while miscarrying her first child because her boss couldn’t find anyone to cover her overnight shift and begged her to go in. Bleeding, cramping and emotionally distraught, Lear said, she fielded phone calls and filled prescriptions until she had to lie down on the floor.\n\nAnother time when she was sick with norovirus and vomiting in a trash can behind the pharmacy counter, Lear said, she was asked to keep working until her boss could find someone to replace her. Lear toughed it out for two hours before texting her boss for an update.\n\n“Any word???” she wrote. “I can’t stay here. I am so sick. I am going to have to close.”\n\nHer boss texted back, instructing Lear to have the store manager take care of patients in her absence.\n\n“That’s illegal,” Lear told USA TODAY of her boss’ request. “You have to have a pharmacist on premises to sell prescriptions. She was so frustrated I had to go home, and, it’s like, you have to have contingencies for when people fall ill during their shift.”\n\nEventually, Lear said, the demands of the job became too intense and the risk of errors too great – especially during solo shifts – that she quit CVS in 2021 and found a new job at an independent pharmacy, Remington Drug Co., in northern Virginia.\n\n“Answering phone calls, taking prescriptions at drop off, entering those prescriptions, verifying once, filling those prescriptions, verifying twice, running the register, giving vaccinations, making metric-monitored phone calls, all fell on one person,” she said of her job at CVS. “In a double-check system, who’s checking me? This is when patient safety is most compromised.”\n\nDeAngelis told USA TODAY it is not CVS’ policy or practice to require staff to work when they are ill.\n\nBut retail pharmacists from CVS and other chains across the country shared similar stories of corporate pressure and severe burnout:\n\n“All day long stuff’s blowing up and management is yelling at us because we can’t answer the phones fast enough and we’re not giving enough immunizations,” said a current Walgreens pharmacist in Arizona. “I’ve seen pharmacists cry back in the pharmacy because it’s so busy.”\n\n“This situation has slowly worsened, but the big turning point was when we started giving COVID shots,” said a current Walmart pharmacist in Iowa. “One day it was just me there, and I did 77 COVID shots.”\n\n“There was not a single week where I didn’t work 80 hours, but I was only paid 42,” said a former CVS pharmacist from Virginia. “We were behind on prescriptions the entire year. I was begging, ‘please can we get more hours?’ Instead, corporate would suggest we do these overnighters to get caught up.”\n\nThousands of retail pharmacists left the industry during the first two years of the pandemic, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported a 6% drop in employment numbers between 2019 and 2021.\n\nAlthough those numbers have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the latest data shows, overall interest in the profession has nosedived, raising questions about the future of pharmacy.\n\nApplications to U.S. pharmacy schools plummeted nearly 70% from their peak in the fall of 2009 to the fall of 2021, according to the most recent data published by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Those schools, which graduated nearly 15,000 students a year at their peak, are expected to produce just 11,000 new pharmacists annually by 2025, Hogue said.\n\nStuart Beatty, dean of Ohio Northern University’s Raabe College of Pharmacy, said his school is facing the same enrollment slump despite efforts to recruit students and reassure them of a bright future.\n\nIf he and his academic peers can’t reverse the tide, he said, the nation soon could face a severe pharmacist shortage.\n\n“It makes sense. Why would you go into a doctoral degree when all this is happening?” said Janan Sarwar, a Louisville-based pharmacist, publisher and career coach. “They want to help patients. They don’t want to enter a profession that oppresses their ability to help and do good in the world.”\n\nMistakes like this are why pharmacists say they're leaving\n\nShelby Richards blames chronic pharmacy understaffing for the medication error that cost her thousands of dollars.\n\nThe Memphis Walgreens she frequented was always “busy, low staffed, lines out the door,” Richards said, including the day in March 2021 when she retrieved a newly prescribed anti-anxiety medication to treat panic attacks after a car wreck.\n\nInside the bottle were two sizes of round, white pills. Richards said she assumed they were different doses of the same drug because her doctor had mentioned wanting to start her on 5 mg of Buspar before increasing it to 10 mg.\n\nSo she started taking the smaller of the two pills, not realizing it was a different drug altogether – a calcium channel blocker called amlodipine to treat high blood pressure.\n\nWithin days, Richards said, she began to feel nauseous, light-headed and her legs were swelling – all common side effects of amlodipine. Uninsured, she racked up $15,000 in bills from three hospital visits as doctors tried in vain to determine the cause, records show.\n\nIt wasn’t until her boyfriend took a closer look at her medication and noticed the different-sized pills that she had an answer.\n\n“I told her it … should always be a separate bottle,” said her now-husband Taylor Richards, who researched the two pills online and learned the one she had been taking was the highest dose of amlodipine available.\n\nThe couple called Walgreens to report the error and said they were dismissed without an apology. They tried to sue but missed the state statute of limitations, so they filed a complaint with the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy, which they provided to USA TODAY.\n\n“It seems like their staff is working like slaves,” Taylor Richards said. “There are usually two people back there, and it’s probably one of the busiest pharmacies around. I imagine they’re requiring them to fill so many prescriptions that it will continue to cause these types of errors.”\n\nWalgreens declined to comment on the error.\n\nPharmacists, meanwhile, said it’s a prime example of how working conditions put patients at risk and why so many of them are quitting the profession altogether.\n\nIt’s also why dozens of pharmacists recently walked out recently in protest. Another walkout is planned for Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Pharmacists are calling it Pharmageddon.\n\n“The primary reason is our concern for public safety,” said Corey Schneider, one of the CVS pharmacists who participated in the Kansas City walkout. “It’s also about basic decency. Pharmacists shouldn’t have to cry at work or go home worried that they made a mistake.”\n\nA few, like Tanoe, have funneled their frustration into advocacy. The former Walgreens pharmacist launched a public campaign in 2021 around the hashtag #PizzaIsNotWorking to highlight the dangerous working conditions that gestures such as free pizza from corporate won’t fix.\n\nSince then she has connected with thousands of retail pharmacy workers through her Facebook page, LinkedIn account and the online pharmacist advocacy community, RPhAlly, of which she is the vice president. She also helped organizers of the recent CVS and Walgreens walkouts share their messages and recruit participants and supporters.\n\nTanoe said it’s time the state pharmacy boards, professional organizations and corporate owners take these concerns seriously. If not, she said, the nation will see fewer pharmacies, fewer pharmacists and more incidents of patient harm.\n\n“For so long we have been told our patients come first – no matter what you do, your patient comes first,” Tanoe said. “Now, we are saying, no. We come first. We hold our patients’ lives in our hands. If we’re not well, they’re not well.”\n\nEmily Le Coz is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact her at elecoz@usatoday.com or @emily_lecoz.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/10/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/business/retail-bed-bath-beyond-party-city-rite-aid/index.html", "title": "These retail chains may not survive a recession | CNN Business", "text": "New York CNN Business —\n\nAmerica’s retail chains have proven surprisingly strong during the pandemic.\n\nBut a slowing economy may bring a fresh wave of store closings and bankruptcies. Retailers that sell mostly discretionary goods, cater to middle and lower-income consumers and have weak balance sheets will be most vulnerable.\n\nBed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Rite Aid (RAD), Party City (PRTY), Tuesday Morning (TUES), Joann and others currently have an elevated risk of bankruptcy, according to credit agencies, and will be most exposed if economic conditions deteriorate.\n\nOther struggling chains, such as Gap (GPS), may be forced to close hundreds of stores, analysts say. And e-commerce companies such as Wayfair (W)and Stitch Fix (SFIX) that have slashed jobs in recent months may have to cut further.\n\n“The companies that were skating on the edge before Covid had this brief reprieve. Now we’re going back to the old rules,” said Berna Barshay, an independent retail analyst.\n\nThese retailers and many others are currently grappling with a combination of forces that include higher costs, excess inventory, and financially-strapped customers.\n\nAs the pandemic has receded, consumers have been shifting their spending from goods to services such as travel and entertainment. Inflation is bearing down, causing a drop in consumer confidence and a pullback in discretionary areas such as furniture and apparel.\n\nThat’s why retailers’ inventories are bloated and companies are resorting to promotions to try to stimulate demand, chipping away at their profits.\n\n“We believe many will turn to aggressive discounting to solve their inventory problem, which is likely to spark a ‘race to the bottom,’” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report Monday. “This dynamic will weigh heavily on margins and fuel [an] earnings slowdown.”\n\nThe Federal Reserve is also quickly raising interest rates to combat inflation, which is likely to cause some economic pain and job losses. The Fed anticipates that the unemployment rate could climb to 4.4% next year, up from 3.5% in September.\n\nMany investors and economists are predicting a recession. Such a scenario would result in a downturn for the industry.\n\n“This will put highly-levered retailers and weak companies at risk,” said Raya Sokolyanska, an analyst at Moody’s. “We expect defaults among speculative grade retailers to increase.”\n\nThe sector has been resilient for much of the pandemic, a break from prior years of bankruptcies and store closings that became known as the “retail apocalypse.” The sector is actually in a stronger position than it was before the pandemic, analysts say.\n\nAt the beginning of the pandemic, stores temporarily closed to halt the spread of Covid-19 and retail sales tumbled. This pushed already struggling chains, such as JCPenney, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew, into bankruptcy. “That wave of defaults effectively flushed out a lot of debt and unprofitable stores from the sector,” Sokolyanska said.\n\nRetail sales quickly recovered thanks to federal stimulus checks, growing personal savings accounts and pent-up consumer demand.\n\nSupply was also tight, allowing many chains to sell their merchandise at higher prices for the first time in years. “This was a tide that lifted all boats. For many companies, 2021 was a year of record profits,” Sokolyanska said.\n\nRetail sales remain above pre-pandemic levels and more stores have announced openings than closings this year. Retail bankruptcies have also been at their lowest level in more than a decade.\n\nAlthough 2023 is expected to be a challenging year for the sector, it won’t be as dire as before the pandemic. Many companies are in better financial shape from previous restructurings and have closed their weakest stores.\n\n“We expect defaults to be below the prior peaks,” she said.", "authors": ["Nathaniel Meyersohn"], "publish_date": "2022/10/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/19/neiman-marcus-could-file-bankruptcy-week-report-suggests/5161817002/", "title": "Neiman Marcus could file for bankruptcy this week, report suggests", "text": "Neiman Marcus is reportedly ready to file for bankruptcy after the coronavirus crisis forced the American retailer to temporarily shut down dozens of its stores for the past month.\n\nThe bankruptcy could happen as soon as this week, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.\n\nIn March, the Dallas-based retailer temporarily closed 43 Neiman Marcus stores, along with its Last Call and Bergdorf Goodman locations, due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.\n\nNeiman Marcus is carrying nearly $5 billion in debt, and the company's monthly debt payments are in the millions. The retailer refrained from making some payments last week, Reuters reports. Among the payments skipped was one that gave it a few days to avoid default.\n\nUSA TODAY has reached out to Neiman Marcus for comment.\n\nThe checks are flowing:Here's how Americans are spending coronavirus stimulus payouts\n\nThe home button is back:Apple unveils updated $399 version of iPhone SE with Touch ID\n\nNeiman Marcus has approximately 14,000 employees; last month, the retailer announced furloughs and temporary pay cuts as a cash-saving measure during the pandemic.\n\nIt joins a long list of retailers that are bleeding cash rapidly while they await the chance to reopen their doors.\n\nChains such as GNC, Rite Aid and J. Crew with brick and mortar stores depend heavily on foot traffic. With widespread stay-at-home orders still in place, these companies might also be fighting for their lives in the wake of the outbreak.\n\nFollow Dalvin_Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_28", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/eagles/2016/02/26/paxton-lynch-goes-wing-t-prolific-passer/81010284/", "title": "Paxton Lynch goes from Wing-T to prolific passer", "text": "Martin Frank\n\nThe News Journal\n\nINDIANAPOLIS - Paxton Lynch wasn’t seen as a quarterback prodigy growing up in Deltona, Florida, mainly because he played at a high school that ran the Wing-T offense.\n\nWhile that would have warmed the heart of legendary University of Delaware coach Tubby Raymond, it hardly interested the major college football programs.\n\nLynch ended up at Memphis, and the team went 1-11 in his first season in 2010. Five years later, and Lynch turned into a prolific passer and is considered a first-round pick in the NFL draft. He’s someone who could interest the Eagles with the 13th overall pick – if he’s still available.\n\nLynch said Friday he met with the Eagles informally at the NFL Scouting Combine this week, and was likely to have a formal interview.\n\n“I didn’t throw the ball at all in high school,” Lynch said. “When I got to Memphis, that was the first time I started throwing the ball in general.”\n\nNFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.\n\nHe pretty much hasn’t stopped. Lynch, who’s 6-foot-7, 245 pounds, threw for 3,776 yards last season, with 28 touchdowns and just four interceptions in leading the Tigers to a 9-4 record. But Lynch is considered just behind the top-two rated quarterbacks in North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz and California’s Jared Goff.\n\nLynch said that might have to do with the fact that Wentz played well at the Senior Bowl last month and that Goff comes from one of the power-five conferences, the Pac-12.\n\nBut it could also have to do with Lynch’s final game, a 31-10 loss to Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl. Lynch was 16 of 37 for 106 yards and an interception. Another red flag could have come Thursday, when Lynch said his physical ran long because X-rays showed “an issue” with his knees and the AC joint behind his shoulder.\n\n“It spooked a team or two, I think,” Lynch said. “That’s why they requested the MRI and all that. But I didn’t miss a game or practice or single throw because of [the shoulder]. And none of those injuries bother me today. I’m 100 percent, so I was more than willing to do whatever they needed me to do.”\n\nAt the combine, that means doing all the drills, including throwing, along with Wentz and Goff, on Saturday. Lynch said he welcomes the competition.\n\n“This draft, there are so many good guys that are coming out,” Lynch said. “It’s so close with all the quarterbacks. There’s really no guy who’s standing out right now. Any little edge you can get to compete against these guys, whether it’s throwing or agility and all that stuff, you kind of want to take advantage of that … It was a no brainer for me that I was going to throw because I wanted to compete. I know those guys are going to compete, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”\n\nNo doubt, the Eagles, just like most NFL teams, will be watching intently.\n\nGrinnage ready for combine\n\nNewark High School’s David Grinnage said he’s enjoying the experience at the combine. He arrived Wednesday, went through physicals, testing and informal interviews with “at least 25 teams.”\n\nOn Saturday, the North Carolina State tight end will do his on-field testing. He said he hopes to run a “sub-4.7” seconds in the 40-yard dash. Grinnage said he won’t do the bench press, however, because of an elbow injury that hasn’t fully healed. He said he will save that for his Pro Day at N.C. State on March 21.\n\n“It’s a big opportunity,” Grinnage said. “I don’t feel overwhelmed. I’m just embracing it all and trying to have fun with everything.”\n\nGrinnage, who’s 6-5, 265 pounds, is projected as a mid-to-late round draft choice after having 25 catches for 296 yards and 3 TDs last season. But Grinnage said he has a lot to offer an NFL team because of his versatility.\n\n“From 2013 to 2015, I’ve done it all,” he said. “I’ve blocked at point of attack, I’ve blocked on the outside, played in the slot, played backside by myself, great route-running, great hands, and I basically have the full package. Catching passes would be my No. 1 thing. Coming out of high school, I played wide receiver. That was one of the best things I did.”\n\nGrinnage knows he’ll have to improve as a blocker. And he realizes that he’ll have to fight for his spot on the team, no matter where he’s drafted.\n\n“I’ll do anything to put myself on the field the first play of the first game, even if it’s kickoff, kickoff return,” Grinnage said. “Teams want to know you’re going to do everything to get on that field.”\n\nContact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/02/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/09/07/how-mr-celery-more-popular-than-ever-his-21st-year/7979213002/", "title": "How Mr. Celery is more popular than ever in his 21st year", "text": "Who's the biggest name in the Wilmington Blue Rocks organization?\n\nThat's easy.\n\nThere's only one with a rabid fan following, two outdoor bars named after him and is honored with his own section in the Frawley Stadium gift shop. Heck, there are even baseball jerseys available with his face plastered across it.\n\nIs he a star prospect? A legendary alumnus? Perhaps the team's founder? Strike one, two, three. You're out!\n\nIt's Mr. Celery, a celery stalk mascot with eyes, arms, legs and an open mouth that runs onto the field every time the Rocks scores a run.\n\nThe oddball team cheerleader has gone from a what-exactly-is-happening-here curiosity to a beloved part of the team, a \"friendly rival\" of official mascot Rocky Bluewinkle.\n\nNICE CAP: This Blue Rocks hat is one of the best selling in all of minor league baseball\n\nWith Mr. Celery turning 21 this summer, he's finally old enough to drink at his bars on the concourse at the Riverfront stadium, including one dubbed O'Celery's Ale House.\n\nOr he can try this season's newest addition: an exclusive Wilmington Brew Works beer dedicated to Mr. Celery made only for games dubbed Woo-Hoo Brew! served in green cans with Mr. Celery's face on the front. (This year's supply has already sold out.)\n\nLegend has it that the vegetable mascot costume was rescued from a Dumpster before team officials trotted Mr. Celery on the field for the first time in 2000.\n\nFrom the muck of a trash bin to the glory of cheers and high fives from fans, Mr. Celery has become one of the city's most recognizable, yet mysterious figures.\n\nEven Blue Rocks official Kevin Linton is stumped about why he's gained such a following: \"His popularity is just unexplained.\"\n\nMr. Celery's mystique\n\nWhat makes Mr. Celery so unique?\n\nIt's not just the uncanny nature of seeing an excitable piece of celery come out and dance on the field after every run. It's how under wraps he is for the Blue Rocks, a High-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.\n\nYou won't ever see him in the stands clowning around with fans like Rocky Bluewinkle. And he always passes on invitations for private events. There's only one place to see him: at the ballpark running out of the tunnel when the Rocks score.\n\nGREEKING OUT:Wilmington Greek Festival dishes up Mediterranean food and fun\n\nIf they are shut out, Mr. Celery stays sitting beneath the stands and doesn't appear at all.\n\nFans just love it.\n\n\"That adds to his mystique,\" said Mike Harff, a Mr. Celery fan. (Or should we say stalker?) \"And if he does come out, you only see him for like 15 seconds and then he disappears into that little hole there.\"\n\nAnd when Mr. Celery does appear, it's always accompanied by the 1997 hit \"Song 2\" by English rock band Blur with the repeated refrain, \"Woo hoo!\"\n\nThe \"woo hoo\" expression fits Mr. Celery perfectly since his mouth is a circular hole, making it look like he's always exclaiming...something.\n\nLinton, like the rest of the Blue Rocks staff and front office, knows that not everyone follows minor league baseball or comes to the ballpark just for baseball, necessarily. It's more than a game, it's a family event with theme nights, promotions and fireworks to keep people entertained and coming back.\n\nThat's one of the reasons Mr. Celery works so perfectly for the Blue Rocks: he's the star of their nightly sideshow.\n\nIf you think Mr. Celery is weird, the Blue Rocks sideshow has also included the popular Cowboy Monkey Rodeo in the past, featuring a capuchin monkey in a cowboy hat and chaps riding a border collie while herding sheep on the field.\n\n\"We're not just baseball. We have to entertain through marketing,\" Linton said.\n\nIn fact, the Blue Rocks puff their chests out a bit at conventions like the annual winter baseball meetings.\n\n\"I think we're the envy of a lot of teams when we say, 'We're the home of Mr. Celery,'\" he said. \"It's kind of like a genius invention that could have been invented by anybody. Our people were so focused on having something happen every time we scored a run and it just happened to be Mr. Celery.\"\n\nMr. Celery turns adults into kids again\n\nThe invention still works like a charm, possibly more now than ever, even after two decades.\n\nFans stream to the stadium for a two-night Celerybration each year with many coming early to last month's event to ensure they got their hands on a coveted Mr. Celery bobblehead, which was given to fans at the turnstiles.\n\nAmong them was Harff of Warminster, Pennsylvania, with wife Monica and their son Jared, 23.\n\nHarff has been coming since 2017 when he met a friend from Maryland there and saw Mr. Celery for the first time, drawn to the silly spectacle.\n\n60 YEARS AND COUNTING: Brandywine Festival of the Arts will have art you can see and taste\n\n\"The only games I've gone to since are Mr. Celery Days,\" Harff said, speaking about the crazy character with almost the same wonder as a child talking about Mickey Mouse. \"We have three of the bobbleheads now and won a silent auction for a Mr. Celery jersey so we have that with two of the players' signatures on it.\n\n\"It's goofy and we just love to have fun with it.\"\n\nIf you're at a Mr. Celery-themed game and the Rocks score, it'll be hard to miss Mike cheering on his hero. He leaps to his feet and cheers him on like he's a Bruce Springsteen fan and The Boss himself just appeared.\n\nAnd, no, he doesn't feel silly about cheering on an anonymous young man in a thick green costume.\n\n\"I don't care. I'm not a stick-in-the-mud curmudgeonly old man. I get up and cheer with the kids,\" said Harff, 55. \"My wife doesn't mind. She's not slapping me and telling me I'm embarrassing.\"\n\nHe's not alone. Over the years, fans of all ages have got into the act, whether it's teenagers with Mr. Celery spelled out on their painted chests or a group of young professionals who put on over-the-top celebrations wearing \"Celery Squad\" t-shirts.\n\nSome have even brought celery into the stadium to eat and throw when a run is scored.\n\nA dumpster and a brainstorm\n\nJust like most, one of Harff's first Mr. Celery-related questions was: \"How did this start?\"\n\nFor something that began only 21 years back, the origin story of Mr. Celery is pretty hazy and feels like more of a legend. But for years, club officials have stuck with his general timeline:\n\nBefore he made his debut on the field, the Mr. Celery costume was salvaged from a dumpster in 1999, the story goes. When a concessions company threw out a few costumes, including a hot dog, a peanut and popcorn, they rescued the celery costume.\n\nThere was something about the healthy alternative that sparked an idea in someone's head.\n\n\"They came up with this character out of the blue in probably one of their brainstorming meetings since they already had the costume,\" Linton said.\n\nBEAR DRIVE-IN: 'Business has been really good' so far\n\nThe next season, Mr. Celery made his debut. And just imagine how weird it must have been those first few games when fans saw the perpetually surprised-looking mascot run out.\n\n\"Is that...is that a piece of celery running on the field?,\" more than a few fans must have thought. (At a game a few years back, a confused fan was heard asking a friend, \"Is that a giant asparagus?)\n\nWhile some may not recognize Mr. Celery, he does get plenty of attention.\n\nA whole section of the gift shop is painted green with a \"Fresh Produce\" sign above where all sorts of Mr. Celery merchandise is available including a green \"Straight Outta the Garden\" T-shirt, green Mr. Celery baseball jerseys and plush Mr. Celery dolls.\n\nOver the years, Mr. Celery has had his fair share of attention from features in The News Journal to a 2006 interview with sports website Deadspin. In fact, baseball Hall of Famer George Brett just had to have his picture taken with Mr. Celery during a visit to Frawley Stadium when the team was a Kansas City Royals affiliate.\n\n'Is the name of the team The Celeries?'\n\nHis biggest rock star moment came on a rare night when Mr. Celery was out on the field when the Blue Rocks weren't playing. Chicago rockers Wilco were in Wilmington headlining a summer show at Frawley Stadium.\n\nThe band invited him on stage during the encore, eliciting a roar from locals and a buzz of confusion from Wilco fans who traveled from out-of-state for the concert.\n\nMr. Celery hopped on stage wearing a red Wilco cape as Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy declared, \"We like the celery!\"\n\nThe band wasn't quite yet done having fun, though. And neither were fans.\n\nSuddenly, stalks of celery came flying on stage – thrown by amazingly well-prepared Mr. Celery stans.\n\nBoth Tweedy and guitarist Nels Cline picked celery off the ground and took bites before asking for some dental floss. \"Is the name of the team The Celeries? Is it the Wilmington Celeries?\" Tweedy joked.\n\nA gimmick-turned-tradition\n\nWhether you're a rocker or baseball fan, Mr. Celery is oddly endearing and has a weird way of finding a little place in your heart.\n\nGil and Susan Mays of Media, Pennsylvania, also attended last month's Mr. Celery-themed weekend, bringing along their grandchildren and daughter and son-in-law.\n\nAnd the little ones weren't the only celeryheads in the group. Gil had a Mr. Celery face mask, and Sue was wearing a Mr. Celery \"Woodstalk\" tie-dye shirt.\n\nFor about 15 years, Gil has been coming to Wilmington for games, drawn not really by baseball, but by produce.\n\nLike Harff, he understands his fandom might be a bit much, especially when he describes it to people back home.\n\n\"I talk to people about the Blue Rocks games and the celery, tell them that it's great, show them a photo of Mr. Celery and they just look at me like, 'What are you talking about?'\" he deadpans.\n\nFor Mays, Mr. Celery isn't a gimmick. The mascot is a tradition that he now shares with three generations of his family.\n\nHe must be rubbing off on them: \"My grandson was all fired up for him and he's only 5.\"\n\nYes, he was Mr. Celery\n\nUsually there are a few outgoing sports marketing interns or assistants who fill the role of Mr. Celery each year. But in the age of COVID-19, there's only one this season. And because he's somewhat new, team officials declined to have him speak to a reporter.\n\nBut a former Mr. Celery, Mark Bailey, was open to chat. He was 18 and living in Newark when he performed for a few years including in 2010, the season celebrating Mr. Celery's 10th anniversary.\n\nNow living in Alabama and working as a sports agent with 1st Down Sports, Bailey said that back then, the human in the Mr. Celery suit was paid $35 per game.\n\nAnd yes, sure, it can be embarrassing to run out in front of 4,500 people dressed like a goof and doing a crazy dance.\n\n\"But there's a freedom of expression in nobody knowing it's you. There's such an adrenaline rush,\" Bailey said. \"Plus, you have courage at that age.\"\n\nBailey, now married with a daughter, still takes pride in seeing Mr. Celery flourish. He'd like to strap on the celery suit again one day if the team would let him, even though he wonders if he still has the moves.\n\n\"It was a cult following that has gone mainstream,\" he said.\n\nWe had to ask Bailey if there had been any behind-the-scenes points of intrigue with Mr. Celery that he's seen or heard about.\n\nDid Mr. Celery ever brawl with Rocky Bluewinkle?\n\nDoes Mr. Celery have a secret blue cheese addiction?\n\nMaybe he got intimate with a carrot in the locker room?\n\nNot really, Bailey assured. But he said there were three rules he had to follow as Mr. Celery:\n\nHe couldn't cross the team logo on the field to taunt the opponents. Climbing on the net behind home plate wasn't allowed. And he was forbidden from thrusting his hips.\n\nWho knew Mr. Celery and Elvis Presley had something in common?\n\nHave a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormierdelawareonline) and Twitter (@ryancormier).", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2015/10/02/ex-chief-medical-examiner-sentenced-probation/73199198/", "title": "Richard Callery, Delaware ex-chief medical examiner, gets probation", "text": "Esteban Parra\n\nThe News Journal\n\nDelaware's former chief medical examiner was sentenced to about a year probation Friday for using state workers and equipment to run his private consulting business.\n\nDr. Richard T. Callery, who headed the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for two decades, also must pay $100,000 in restitution for using the employees and supplies to run a private consulting business that did work in Rhode Island and other states. Callery, 62, spoke for nine minutes during the hearing, first thanking state police and prosecutors for treating him well during the investigation - despite prosecutors having asked that he receive prison time.\n\nHe also apologized to his wife and three sons, who were in the courtroom, as well as friends and former employees who were affected by his misconduct.\n\n\"I am remorseful,\" Callery said at his sentencing hearing. \"I was sloppy, and I didn't use common sense.\"\n\nCallery, who was prepared to pay the restitution Friday, was advised by his attorney not to comment following the hearing. But his attorney, Dan Lyons, said \"it was a fair sentence.\"\n\nCallery also will tender his medical license, but the state medical board will decide if he keeps his license, Lyons said.\n\nOver a four-year period ending in December 2013, Callery used several state employees, including an administrative aide, histologist, medical transcriptionist and at least one morgue assistant, as well as his state car, histology slides, histological equipment and paper, prosecutors said.\n\nA state police probe that begun in early 2014 found Callery engaged in a pattern of behavior that \"constituted the criminal misuse of state personnel and resources,\" prosecutor Joseph Grubb wrote in court documents, but poor record-keeping hampered the state's ability to determine the extent of his misdeeds.\n\nInstead, the state found that Callery committed the lesser crime of official misconduct because he illegally \"performed official functions in a way intended to benefit his own property or financial interests.\"\n\nGrubb wrote Callery \"failed to properly segregate his personal and professional business.\"\n\n\"Delaware always came second to his private practice,\" Grubb said during the Friday hearing, in which he asked Superior Court Judge Fred S. Silverman to exceed the sentencing guidelines and imprison Callery. Silverman declined to imprison Callery, saying that if prosecutors wanted him to go to prison they should worked that into the plea agreement or charged him with something else.\n\nCallery lost his $198,500-a-year state job as state probe focused on thefts of painkillers, heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances from the drug laboratory's evidence room. He was not involved in the thefts from the drug lab that has left the state court system reeling.\n\nThe state has spent $1.6 million to send drug evidence to an out-of-state lab and prosecutors dropped or reduced charges in 700 cases. Yet because oversight and controls were lacking, the state has been unable to hold anyone directly accountable for the thefts and tampering. Two lab employees were charged with felonies, but pleaded to lesser misdemeanors and had other charges dropped.\n\nContact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.\n\nProsecutors' sentencing memo:\n\nCallery agrees to repay Delaware $100,000 in plea\n\nDispute between Callery, others jeopardizes murder case\n\nCallery to plead no contest to official misconduct", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/10/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food/2016/06/21/classic-cocktails-menu-greenvilles-new-copperhead-saloon/86176232/", "title": "Classic cocktails at Greenville's new Copperhead Saloon", "text": "Patricia Talorico\n\nThe News Journal\n\nTom Houser takes the craft of a cocktail very seriously at The Copperhead Saloon, his elegant new bar and lounge in Greenville.\n\nTo create a $12 specialty drink he calls Ole Smokie, he uses a sprig of rosemary as a brush to first paint the inside of the glass with Laphroaig scotch whisky, giving the cocktail a rich, peaty aroma.\n\nThen, he carefully muddles orange slices and Azucar Morena brown sugar from Mexico and uses an eye dropper for the orange bitters. Tart, sour German cherries are added (never maraschino) along with a healthy 2 1/4-ounce pour of Maker’s Mark bourbon. A pre-smoked ice ball is plopped in the glass.\n\nWhile some might know the cocktail best as an old-fashioned, it’s the final, modernist twist that Houser adds that brings the wowsa factor.\n\nHe finishes the drink not with a swizzle stick, but points a smoking gun in the glass to create puffy white and gray clouds that further enhance the cocktail’s woodsy perfume. Lift the napkin off the top of the glass and it’s like you let a genie out of its bottle.\n\n“And this is why everyone who sees it starts ordering more,” Houser says of the theatrical display.\n\nThe Copperhead Saloon is a sophisticated bar, somewhat in the speakeasy-style vein, that quietly opened June 9 in The Powder Mill Square shopping center at 3826 Kennett Pike. Leave the kids at home, this is an adults-only establishment with a taproom license that only allows patrons to enter who are 21 and older.\n\nNeo speakeasies have been a hot trend of the American bar culture for almost 15 years. Some have unmarked doorways, such as Hummingbird to Mars, a speakeasy atop Catherine Rooney’s in Wilmington’s Trolley Square. You need to press the intercom at the 16th Street to enter.\n\nOthers are accessed by a password or by way of a secret entrance such as the phone booth door at PDT (Please Don’t Tell), a New York business within a hotdog establishment that was awarded a 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program.\n\nCopperhead Saloon is absent such kitsch, but still has an air of mystery. The simple Copperhead sign outside of the 1,731-square-foot building, the former Dagmar’s Reason spa and beauty salon, does little to explain that inside its doors is a modern day cocktail lounge open daily from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.\n\nThe only real ideas Copperhead borrows from other speakeasy operations are its use of fresh juices and boutique spirits. The menu does include drinks from the pre- and post-Prohibition era such as the Monkey Gland, which sounds like nothing you want to put in your mouth. But don’t let the name steer you away from giving it a try. The obscure $10 drink, made with gin, orange juice, homemade grenadine and absinthe, is delicious. Penicillin, a post-Prohibition cocktail, has blended scotch mixed with lemon, honey syrup and muddled ginger.\n\nBeer and wine are also available. A limited small plates menu has 10 items, which will change frequently, that now include cheese trays and charcuterie boards ($20), flamed goat cheese with olive and sundried tomato tapenade ($14), duck confit with gorgonzola grits and spicy tomato chutney ($18), bacon-wrapped dates ($10) and sweet & spicy bar nuts ($7). Discounts at happy hour, from 3 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, include $1 off draft beer and wine by the glass and $8 classic cocktails.\n\nHouser, a St. Louis, Missouri, native, attended the University of Oklahoma to study architecture. He soon fell in love with the bar culture and owned and managed beer and wine bars, gastropubs and a brewery in Norman, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, where he met his fiancee Erin Wallace, who grew up in Delaware and graduated from A.I. du Pont High School. The couple, who now have a 15-month-old son, Conner, moved to Delaware in 2014 to be near Wallace’s family and to open a business.\n\nHouser says he began scouting bar locations in 2014 and eventually settled on the site in Greenville’s Powder Mill Square. “I came in and looked at it and I loved the location. I like the charm of the place and its intimacy.” Houser says the area “really does remind me of St. Louis in some ways.”\n\nRenovations on the former beauty salon began in October. Wallace says she and Houser wanted the decor to feel somewhat like a comfortable, upscale living room. The sunny space is snug with 40 seats, including comfortable, black leather bar stools, some low tables and a few high-tops, along with a faux fireplace.\n\nThe beer tap handles are wooden sculptures of animals and figurines that Houser found in stores and websites. Some of the glasses were purchased from thrift stores and estate sales. The bar top is made from reclaimed oak planks, dating back to the 1970s, that were once the building’s flooring.\n\nPennies decorate the front and back of the bar as well as the restroom floors. It’s one of the few nods to another “speakeasy-style” style bar in the area. Philadelphia’s Hop Sing Laundromat, the four-year-old swanky bar on Race Street known for its meticulously made cocktails, has a vestibule whose floor is coated in pennies.\n\nHouser says he hopes Copperhead, which gets its name from the pennies, will become a traditional neighborhood gathering place with really good drinks and interesting conversation. Building relationships with the clientele is the best part of his job, he says.\n\n“This really is my idea of a cocktail party,” Houser says. “We might not know everyone when they come in, but we’ll know you when you leave.”\n\nContact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 orptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter@pattytalorico\n\nIF YOU GO:\n\nWHAT: The Copperhead Saloon is a new 40-seat bar and lounge offering classic cocktails (pre- and post Prohibition) as well as beers on tap, wine and a variety of small plates like bacon-wrapped dates ($10) and pork rillete ($16). Leave the kids at home. The business has a taproom license, meaning you must be 21 years or older to enter.\n\nWHERE: Powder Mill Square Shopping Center, 3826 Kennett Pike, Greenville.\n\nWHEN: Open daily from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.\n\nINFORMATION: Call (302) 256-0535 or visit The Copperhead Saloon Facebook page.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20240105_29", "search_time": "2024/01/05/23:32", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/traffic/2022/11/10/newark-delaware-i-95-896-interchange-traffic-project-construction/69625746007/", "title": "Newark I-95, 896 interchange to see major changes in traffic project", "text": "The I-95 and Route 896 interchange is looking pretty barren these days after swaths of trees were recently cut down.\n\nThe trees, from Iron Hill to surrounding retention ponds, have come down as construction workers make way for an estimated $165 million project that will reconfigure the interchange, adding flyovers and a pedestrian/bicyclist pathway that will connect Old Baltimore Pike to Welsh Tract Road.\n\nIt's the next major project for New Castle County \"with the near completion of the I-95 Restore the Corridor Project,\" said C.R. McLeod, a Delaware Department of Transportation spokesperson. \"From weave areas, to slowing and stopped traffic on 95, especially southbound approaching the interchange, drivers who have navigated through this interchange are aware of the difficulties it presents, especially during peak travel times.\"\n\nThe goal, McLeod said, is to make the area \"safer and easier\" for travelers.\n\nRestore the Corridor ending:Good news: I-95 'Restore the Corridor' restoration project on schedule to end next year\n\nHow will this help traffic?\n\nThe project, which is scheduled to run until late 2025, is expected to reduce congestion on I-95 and Route 896 and improve safety in that area that saw approximately one crash every other day between February 2017 and February 2020.\n\nRoute 896 crash:South College Avenue near Newark reopened Thursday afternoon after morning crash closed it\n\n\"When this interchange was originally built, the area south of Newark on Route 896 was primarily rural, and we’ve seen that change dramatically in the nearly 60 years since this was built,\" McLeod said. \"We need a modern interchange that can not only better manage the flow of traffic through this area, but also reduces the chances of crashes occurring due to slowing and stopped traffic or vehicles needing to cross lanes to reach their through direction of travel.\"\n\nPresently, motorists exiting south I-95 toward Glasgow must weave their vehicles onto south 896 where other drivers are either continuing south on the state road or merging to the right so they can get on the ramp that will take them to north I-95.\n\nTwo flyovers will help reduce the congestion created there.\n\nOne flyover will take motorists exiting I-95 south over Route 896, curve above the interstate and then exit them onto south lanes of Route 896 a bit past where the interchange currently is.\n\nThe other flyover will take motorists heading south on Route 896 from the Newark area over the interstate, curve left over Route 896 and exit them onto I-95 north.\n\nHow will this help pedestrians and bicyclists?\n\nAttached to a portion of this flyover will be a 10-foot-wide pathway for pedestrians and cyclists that will go over the interstate, connecting Welsh Tract Road to Old Baltimore Pike. A concrete barrier will separate the nearly milelong pathway from the roadway.\n\nNeither of these flyovers is expected to cut into Iron Hill Park itself, but there will be some impact on the slope’s northeastern section where a portion of the bridge heading to north I-95 will rest on a hill shelf. DelDOT also said a portion of the slope will need to be cut where the flyover from south I-95 connects to Route 896 south, also known as South College Avenue.\n\nBoth flyovers are expected to eliminate the weaving and merging that occurs on this portion of South College Avenue, where a 2016 DelDOT report found an average of more than 1,200 motorists use the ramps during peak morning and afternoon hours.\n\nWhat else does this project aim to address?\n\nOther improvements the contractor is slated to do include widening both directions of I-95 for new ramp acceleration and deceleration lanes, adding a second lane to the ramp connecting Route 896 north to I-95 north and creating a third through lane for Route 896 south that will go from the interchange, through Old Baltimore Pike and end just before the intersection with Glasgow High School.\n\n\"The department is committed to making multimodal improvements wherever we can with our projects and this interchange as it has existed has not provided a safe way to move through this area without a car,\" McLeod said, pointing to the new pathway for pedestrians and bikers as an example.\n\nHow is Delaware paying for it?\n\nNearly a third — $56.8 million — of the estimated $165 million for the project is coming from the Infrastructure For Rebuilding America grant, which is helping build and repair critical pieces of freight and highway transportation roadways.\n\nBecause the main construction contract has not been awarded, the estimated cost of the project could change. DelDOT hopes to award the project before the end of the year.\n\nContact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/11/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/traffic/2022/08/05/delaware-i-95-construction-project-scheduled-to-end-next-year/65389501007/", "title": "Delaware I-95 construction project scheduled to wrap up next year", "text": "This should be the last August motorists will experience the massive construction project on the portion of I-95 that cuts through Wilmington.\n\nThe nearly $200 million project, dubbed \"Restore the Corridor,\" is on budget and on schedule to wrap up next year, according to Delaware Department of Transportation officials.\n\n\"We currently expect major construction to be completed in early 2023 with traffic restored to its original alignment at that time,\" Charles “C.R.” McLeod, a DelDOT spokesman. \"We are planning for a September public meeting to provide an update on the project and activity that will be taking place through the end of the year.\"\n\nThe project began in early 2021, impacting businesses, nearby residents and drivers using the nearly 3 miles of roadway that is being refurbished. Had the repairs not taken place, it would have been more costly later on.\n\nWhen all is said and done, the project will get what DelDOT engineers have said is needed maintenance to the skeletal structures of the interstate's milelong viaduct that cuts through Wilmington and the numerous bridges that make up the 58-year-old artery. Construction crews will also have repaved the entire segment of highway between the Christina and Brandywine waterways, repair overpasses, replace signs and install new guardrails, among other smaller tasks.\n\nThere will also be safety improvements.\n\n\"DelDOT is very pleased with the project to date,\" McLeod said.\n\nThe change in traffic patterns, which included closing lanes and exits for months, did come with an increase in collisions. This includes a crash that killed a 25-year-old Wilmington Manor firefighter helping a crash victim.\n\nBackground:Wilmington Manor firefighter killed while trying to help driver after crash on I-95\n\nSo after a nearly 50% increase in crashes from 2019, transportation officials started an electronic speed monitoring program in the construction zone.\n\n\"This pilot Electronic Speed Safety Program (ESSP) has resulted in significant reductions in crashes, and in particular, injury crashes,\" McLeod said. \"In the first 4.5 months following the deployment of the ESSP, 95 total work zone crashes were reported, including 16 crashes resulting in personal injury.\n\nSpeed cameras:Why you may now get mailed a ticket for speeding in the Wilmington I-95 construction zone\n\n\"During the same timeframe in 2021, 209 total work zone crashes were reported, including 32 crashes resulting in personal injury. The 'after' crash data reflects a 55% reduction in total crashes and a 50% reduction in injury crashes.\"\n\nIn addition, McLeod said since the deployment of the cameras, the average daily speed in the work zone has decreased. Southbound has seen a 12.1% reduction in speed, while northbound has seen an 8.9% reduction to date.\n\nThe electronic speed safety devices began operating on Jan. 17, issuing warnings only. But as of April 17, first violations were still issued a warning and subsequent violations were issued citations.\n\nSince the program began, 45,959 warnings have been issued for speeding in the work zone between Jan. 17 and July 28.\n\n\"During the citation period which began on April 17, 2022 and is ongoing, 3,682 notices of civil violations have been issued to date for speeding in the work zone,\" he said. \"Currently this area of I-95 has 38,000 average trips daily.\"\n\nContact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/08/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/09/gulf-coast-discovery-center-quinn-street-marina-plans-hold/3402158002/", "title": "Gulf Coast Discovery Center, Quinn Street Marina plans on hold", "text": "The Navarre Beach Marine Science Center will have to wait a little bit longer to develop its long-awaited Gulf Coast Discovery Center, with Santa Rosa County Commissioners on Monday voting to re-prioritize certain RESTORE funding from the center to instead go toward effluent water treatment plants in Navarre and Milton.\n\nAs part of amending its multi-year improvement plan, or MYIP, the board also voted to table plans for improving the Quinn Street marina in order to redirect funds for the treatment plants.\n\nThe move came after lengthy presentations from Charlene Mauro, the Navarre Beach Marine Science Center's director, and a representative for Caldwell Architects, which won the bid to design the center's master plan and programming.\n\nThe presentations for the new Gulf Coast Discovery Center included designs for new animal exhibits, visitor center, parking, classrooms, an outdoor amphitheater, salt marsh, teaching stations, pavilions, boardwalks, observation decks and more.\n\nBut the final design would cost $10.5 million, or nearly $8 million more than center leaders originally estimated the project would cost in 2016, when it first received a RESTORE grant for $265,000. The center has already spent $100,000 of that grant for the planning of the new facility.\n\nThe center went before commissioners Monday to increase its RESTORE funding request to $7 million, saying it could get the additional $3.5 million for exhibits through fundraising efforts. But commissioners weren't comfortable increasing the amount, saying there were other projects in the county that were more critical than the science center.\n\n\"I love the discovery center and I want to see something happen there, but when I put it next to water quality and infrastructure, those are where my priorities sit,\" District 4 Commissioner Dave Piech said at the meeting.\n\nThe other commissioners agreed, eventually directing county staff to amend the MYIP to begin the process of re-allocating RESTORE funding from the discovery center and the Quinn Street marina to the water treatment plants. The amended MYIP calls for around $5 million for the Navarre wastewater treatment plant and about $2 million for the water treatment plant in Milton.\n\nMilton City Manager Randy Jorgensen attended the meeting and vouched for redirecting the funding from the marina to the wastewater treatment plant, saying the plant was a bigger priority for the city than the marina.\n\nUsing RESTORE money to fund part of the wastewater treatment facilities — which each have an estimated cost of $30 million — heightens the county's chance of getting state match funding for the wastewater projects.\n\nPiech said he wanted to continue exploring ways to fund the discovery center, and it isn't out of the running for RESTORE funding in the future.\n\n\"The highest priority to me is to get the treated effluent out of the Santa Rosa Sound,\" Piech said. \"Education is very important to me, my wife is a teacher. But when you have limited funds, you have to start looking at those priorities. I still want to work with the discovery center, but I look at things holistically.\"\n\nAnnie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/04/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/bergen/2019/10/29/bergen-county-nj-still-waiting-light-rail-promised-decade-ago/4063997002/", "title": "Bergen County still waiting for light rail first promised a decade ago", "text": "The light rail extension proposed for Bergen County more than a decade ago is still stuck in the gate, and some local officials say they are losing patience.\n\nLast year, Sen. Loretta Weinberg said NJ Transit had not received approval from the federal government to go ahead with the long-sought 10-mile extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and that the Federal Transit Administration had changed the cost-sharing formula, putting more of a burden on New Jersey.\n\nAnd now Nathan Rudy, a senior public information officer for the agency, said there are “no updates on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Northern Branch Corridor Project,” adding that the agency is still “committed to this project” and continues to work with the Federal Transit Administration on its review of the project’s environmental impact statement.\n\nWhat does that mean for residents and towns in Bergen County? More waiting.\n\nIn Palisades Park, Borough Administrator David Lorenzo said he has been talking with NJ Transit officials about the light rail plans for years, but nothing has come of his efforts.\n\n“As recently as three years ago, they came here and had meetings and looked at projected spots for the stop, but none of it has come to fruition,” he said. “For as many years as I’ve been in this position, I have heard about the light rail system. Through all administrations past and present we’ve been told that it’s coming in the very near future, for 10 years now.”\n\nLorenzo noted that “New York is and will continue to be our next-door neighbor,” and as a result, population and traffic will continue to grow.\n\nMass transit boost:PATH, AirTrain construction plans moved forward by Port Authority\n\nAmerican Dream:American Dream had more workers than visitors after its grand opening weekend\n\nThe proposed light rail extension would add stations in Ridgefield, Palisades Park, Leonia and Englewood, carrying thousands of passengers a day. It would connect to a line that now runs from North Bergen through Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City, and south to Bayonne.\n\nIts cost has been estimated at $2 billion, and New Jersey might have to foot as much as half of that.\n\nEnglewood Mayor Michael Wildes hopes that NJ Transit and government officials can “step it up,” because the long delays have been difficult and the project is a “perfect solution” to help restore the city’s business district.\n\n“It’s disheartening that all of our tax dollars do not allow for new technology and time to make travel to and from Manhattan more readily available and easy for residents,” Wildes said. “This would also benefit Englewood, because it would assist in getting car traffic off pedestrian streets.”\n\nLorenzo called the light rail “one of the last resources to help taxpayers and commuters in this area” and noted that Palisades Park has already identified a site for its stop, and would be “willing to work in cooperation with them to put in a facility and parking.”\n\n“It has just been a continuance of business as usual with overflowing traffic and inadequate transit programs,” he said. “We already know that NJ Transit’s existing means is not adequate to handle the needs of the area.”\n\nIn addition to easing traffic problems, Wildes said, the light rail would benefit Englewood in other ways.\n\n“This would be part of the new experience that our downtown needs, because it could help bring new energy to vacant storefronts,” he said. “People would be able to walk and shop door to door. Something like this is a game-changer.”\n\nConstruction of a light rail line in Jersey City started in 1996, and the first segment opened in 2000 through Hudson River waterfront communities. In 2009, Gov. Jon Corzine promised to break ground on a Bergen extension by the end of 2011.\n\nThe long-gestating plan would bring the light rail from its current terminus at Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, 2 miles short of the Bergen County line, up to Englewood Health, the hospital.\n\nNJ Transit projects more than 12,000 daily riders on the extension, which would operate from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. CSX would continue to operate freight trains on the line overnight.\n\nKatie Sobko is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.\n\nEmail: sobko@northjersey.com Twitter: @katesobko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/10/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2019/12/03/plans-riverwalk-near-hester-park-finalized-coming-months/2590558001/", "title": "Plans for Riverwalk near Hester Park to be finalized in coming months", "text": "ST. CLOUD — A new way to embrace the Mississippi River just north of downtown St. Cloud could be open to the public within the next two years.\n\nThe city of St. Cloud is wrapping its vision for a Riverwalk into scheduled improvements at the city's drinking water treatment plant along Fifth Avenue North.\n\nThe public is invited to attend an open house from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at Whitney Senior Center to give opinions on possible Riverwalk features.\n\nThe proposed Riverwalk site has changed since it was first proposed in 2015. Preliminary drawings showed an interactive river channel and swimming area, amphitheater space, a canoe launch and event buildings on the site of Cathedral High School's Rau Field.\n\nThe updated plans instead feature amenities near Hester Park — including the transformation of the green space on top of the water treatment plant, which is tucked under the turf.\n\nResidents at the open house will be asked about their preferences for the space. That could include music or performance space, benches, flexible lawn space, an athletic field, space for family and community events, and space for picnics, among other things. Landscaping could include a shelter or pergola, a wildlife habitat, a sculpture garden or other gardens.\n\nMatt Glaesman, community development director, said he expects the council to approve final plans and bids for the project in the coming months.\n\nThe overall plan also includes the relocation of two lift stations along Fifth Avenue North near Cathedral High School. That project is estimated to cost $1.4 million and is funded by sewer utility revenues.\n\nThe water treatment facility improvements are expected to cost $25 million, funded by a state revolving fund. Planned improvements include advanced treatment and disinfection systems.\n\nTracy Hodel, public services director, said the improvements are primarily related to water quality compliance. Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer and be completed by 2022.\n\nThe Riverwalk, which will connect the downtown Beaver Island Trail extension to Hester Park, is estimated to cost $5 million. It will be funded by $2 million in local-option sales tax revenues, $1 million from a grant and $2 million in private donations.\n\nThe Riverwalk project is a partnership between Mississippi Partners, Rotary Club of St. Cloud and the city of St. Cloud, among others.\n\n\"These are the three things coming together that are creating the corridor improvements,\" Glaesman said of the projects.\n\nThe Riverwalk project also provides an opportunity to restore the eroding shoreline of the Mississippi River — and fits with Mayor Dave Kleis' priority to spotlight the mighty river that runs straight through the heart of the city.\n\nThose efforts spurred the Beaver Island Trail bridge, a sloping bridge snuggled up against the downtown riverbank that connects the trail from River's Edge Convention Center to Fifth Avenue North. The bridge, which cost about $8.44 million, opened in October 2016.\n\nThe city's comprehensive plan also shows proposals for new riverfront restaurants and hotels along the east side of the Mississippi River.\n\nThe city and region has worked to embrace the river as an asset in recent years, with a 2009 regional plan earning St. Cloud the River Friendly City of the Year Award from Minnesota Waters.\n\n\"That established a regional vision for how we embrace the river and be good stewards while also using the river for redevelopment purposes,\" Glaesman told the Times in 2017. \"We've certainly made a concerted effort to re-engage the river.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/12/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/29/amtrak-gulf-coast-service-may-back-track/471466002/", "title": "Amtrak Gulf Coast service back on track", "text": "Buried in the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill that kept the government open through September and was signed by President Donald Trump last week is a bit of hope for those wanting to see passenger rail service return to the Gulf Coast — including to Tallahassee.\n\nThe law contains $20 million for a grant program aimed at initiating, restoring or enhancing passenger rail service, according to Bryan Gulley, a Senate Commerce Committee spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.\n\n\"The program, which Florida Sen. Bill Nelson helped establish in 2015, is competitive but it was created with the Gulf Coast service in mind,\" Gulley said in an email to the News Journal. \"For example, the grant program gives priority to restoring service on routes formerly operated by Amtrak. So, if the Gulf Coast line gets approval, the grant money could be used to help restore the line.\"\n\nThe bill also includes $592 million for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program, which contains $35.5 million to restore lost passenger service, according to the Southern Rail Commission.\n\nMore:Our opinion: Don't expect Amtrak back anytime soon\n\nCost to restore Amtrak to Gulf could limit future\n\nGulley said Sen. Nelson remains hopeful that progress will continue to be made on the project to restore passenger service to the Florida Gulf Coast.\n\nTallahassee City Commissioner Nancy Miller said news of the funding was a “Christmas gift” considering the long process involving several layers of government to get to this point. And she said the service won’t be resurrected overnight and the community can anticipate several years, if not longer, before the first ride takes off.\n\n“The bottom line is it’s in the budget and where do we go from here,” Miller said. “I’m hoping in the next couple of months we’ll find out the next steps.”\n\nThe funding comes as a turn around from when Trump considered cutting the service.\n\n\"We have come a long way from having Amtrak passenger service completely cut from the President's budget to $20 million toward Gulf Coast passenger rail restoration and $250 million for essential safety enhancements,\" said City Commissioner Scott Maddox. \"With this level of commitment, we are much closer to passenger rail serving our city.\"\n\nGulf Coast Rail Service Working Group, a partnership between the Federal Railroad Administration, Southern Rail Commission and 28 cities, regional planning councils and state departments of transportation including Florida, released a report to Congress in July urging the implantation of daily round-trip Amtrak service between New Orleans and Orlando.\n\nThe working group estimated the cost to restore the service at approximately $115 million, but CSX disputed that amount, saying it would instead cost $2 billion. The working group said it could not validate CSX's estimate without knowing the methodology behind the estimate.\n\nCSX told the Pensacola News Journal in an email that the company is selling two rail lines in the Panhandle, one from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee and the other from Chattahoochee to Pensacola.\n\n\"The decision to sell these lines was based on an ongoing evaluation of CSX’s network, operations and assets to ensure they’re delivering value that meets the company’s long-term business needs,\" the CSX email said. \"...Throughout this process, CSX is communicating with customers, union representatives and employees impacted by the potential sales, and we’re committed to working closely with regulatory agencies reviewing and approving the transactions.\"\n\nKnox Ross, vice chairman of the Southern Rail Commission, said the sale could help the effort to restore passenger service to Florida.\n\n\"(State and federal regulators) could make the passenger train a condition of sale,\" Ross said. \"That they have to maintain the line to at least current standard, and that they have to allow the (passenger) train.\"\n\nRoss said the Southern Rail Commission is trying to get twice-daily rail service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, that he said will help the effort to restore passenger service to the rest of the Gulf Coast.\n\n\"We've got a short-term opportunity to get something done,\" Ross said.\n\nRestoration of the full New Orleans to Orlando route will be more difficult, with federal regulations requiring new safety technology known as positive train control to be installed along passenger service route.\n\nRoss said most of the line from Pensacola to Orlando doesn't have positive train control.\n\nNelson's office said they secured funding for a $250 million program to award grants to install new positive control systems, which could be used for the restoration of the route.\n\nRoss said the effort to revive the route began with people calling their elected leaders and asking for it to come back, and he said if people still want to see it come back, they should keep calling their leaders.\n\n\"If people think it's important, then they should let their elected representatives know it,\" Ross said.\n\nJim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827. Tallahassee Democrat reporter TaMaryn Waters contributed to this report.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/03/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/08/16/rail-line-purchased-ecusta-trail-campaign-launched-fund-construction/8156737002/", "title": "Rail line purchased for Ecusta Trail; Campaign launched to fund ...", "text": "The long-awaited Ecusta Trail is one step closer to officially becoming a rail trail.\n\nOn Aug. 12, a subsidiary of Conserving Carolina completed the purchase of the 19.1-mile unused rail line to create the Ecusta Trail. With the purchase of the land complete, Friends of the Ecusta Trail and Conserving Carolina are now focused on raising funds for construction, according to a news release from Conserving Carolina.\n\nEcustaRails2Trail, LLC, a subsidiary of Conserving Carolina, purchased the corridor from Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, LLC, which is a division of WATCO Companies, for $7.8 million. The trail still has to be constructed and the corridor is not open to the public.\n\nThe purchase was made possible by a major grant from N.C. Department of Transportation, as well as significant funding from the Tourism Development Authorities of Henderson and Transylvania counties and a grant from the Community Foundation for Western North Carolina, according to the release.\n\nThe corridor has been “railbanked,” meaning that it can be used for a recreational trail until such a time that the line is needed again for rail transportation.\n\nHenderson County and the City of Brevard will manage construction for the trail, and have already begun seeking grants.\n\nConstruction of the Ecusta Trail is estimated to cost $31.1 million. The vast majority of this funding is expected to come from federal Department of Transportation grants, as well as other grant sources, according to Conserving Carolina.\n\nHowever, an estimated $6.5 million local match is required to leverage this grant funding. Conserving Carolina and Friends of the Ecusta Trail have launched a capital campaign to raise the match from local businesses and individuals.\n\n“The Ecusta Trail has the potential to pay for itself many times over. The case for support for the capital campaign cites findings that every $1 spent on conservation, including parkland, results in $4 of economic value,” the release says. “Additionally, every $1 spent on greenways results in $3 in health care savings every year. Greenways also improve local quality of life, support a healthy environment, connect people with the places they want to go, and provide safe routes for alternative transportation.”\n\nHow to donate\n\nDonations toward the construction of the trail may take the form of cash; pledges over a three- to five-year period; donations of securities, tangible personal property; real estate; and bequests and other types of planned gifts, according to Conserving Carolina. More information is available at conservingcarolina.org/ecusta.\n\nFriends of The Ecusta Trail was founded in 2009 as a volunteer organization to study, educate and advocate for the acquisition and development of the proposed Ecusta Trail. Their efforts over the past 12 years have included garnering endorsements for the trail from local governments in addition to nearly 50 other non-profits and organizations throughout Western North Carolina.\n\nConserving Carolina is a local land trust that has protected over 46,000 acres, primarily in Henderson, Polk, Transylvania and Rutherford counties and the Landrum, South Carolina area. The mission of Conserving Carolina is to protect, restore and inspire appreciation of the natural world.\n\nOfficials react to purchase\n\nConserving Carolina provided remarks from local leaders behind the project.\n\nHunter Marks, president of the Friends of the Ecusta Trail, says, “Our board, and many other community members, have invested countless hours over the last 10+ years to explore and encourage the idea of the Ecusta Trail. We’re excited to see it become a reality. We believe it will become a signature feature for our area, and be an economic catalyst for our communities.”\n\nRebekah Robinson, an assistant director at Conserving Carolina who led efforts to purchase the corridor, says, “We are thrilled to have reached this important milestone in the creation of the Ecusta Trail and look forward to the many economic, health, and environmental benefits the trail will bring to our communities once it is constructed.”\n\nBill Lapsley, Chairman of the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, says, “Trails and greenways are no longer viewed as just community amenities; they are essential infrastructure for quality of life, for economic development in our community, and for creating a tourism destination. The Henderson County Board of Commissioners was proud to take a lead step in ensuring the purchase of this corridor.”\n\nJim Fatland, Brevard’s City Manager, says, “Connecting Transylvania and Henderson counties with the 19-mile Ecusta Trail, a pipe dream for many years, now has traction on moving forward as a viable project. We are excited to see Conserving Carolina and City of Brevard as community partners in creating a tremendous recreational opportunity for our citizens.”\n\n“On behalf of everyone here at the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad and WATCO, we think this is such a great outcome for this unused asset,” said Laura McNichol, WATCO Senior Vice President, Government & Industry Relations. “We know and understand how important and beneficial these trails can be to communities with the added benefit of preserving the corridor for future rail use should that ever be needed. We truly appreciated working alongside the good folks at Henderson County and Conserving Carolina, as well as Friends of the Ecusta Trail.”\n\nChuck McGrady, former N.C. House Member and current NCDOT board member, says “The Ecusta Trail is more than a recreational amenity for local residents. It will contribute to the economy in our community in much the same way as similar trails like the Virginia Creeper or Swamp Rabbit Trail.”\n\nTo learn more about Conserving Carolina, visit conservingcarolina.org. For more information on the Friends of the Ecusta Trail, go to www.ecustatrail.org.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/23/tallahassee-storm-damage-underscores-need-utility-improvements/96954420/", "title": "Tallahassee storm damage underscores need for utility improvements", "text": "Jeffrey Schweers\n\nDemocrat staff writer\n\nSunday’s heavy storms left behind a mini-Hermine scale of destruction and served as a reminder of the Tallahassee electrical grid's vulnerability to high winds and fallen limbs.\n\nThe storms also gave officials a chance to see if any of the improvements they made to communicating with customers helped.\n\nSpawned by a massive tornado system that swept through the Southern U.S., the storms took three of the city’s 25 substations completely out of service and left 30,000 customers without power, Deputy City Manager Reese Goad said.\n\nThe substations were all on the east side: Substation 21 on Miccosukee Road, Substation 17 off of Mahan Road east of Interstate 10, and Substation 14 off Centerville Road north of Capital Circle NE.\n\n“That’s where we saw the bulk of the damage,” Goad said.\n\nUp to 70 mph winds knocked down trees and power lines, leaving 30,000 of the utility’s 118,000 customers without power. Power was restored to 23,000 by Monday morning, with 98 percent recovery expected by midnight Monday. The rest are expected to be completed overnight and into Tuesday, if necessary, Goad said.\n\nThe storms drew immediate comparisons to Hurricane Hermine, which blew through Tallahassee on Sept 1 with 55-64 mph winds, knocking eight substations offline and causing power outages to 100,000 homes and businesses. It took a week to restore power to 90 percent of the customers.\n\nAs with Hermine, the damage to the electrical grid Sunday was tree-related. “Trees enter the wires running from the substations and ultimately trip the stations offline until repairs can be made in each of those lines,” Goad said.\n\nAnd once again, the parts of the city hit hardest were around the medical corridor, midtown and Indian Head Acres.\n\nThe impact was shorter in duration but just as intense, Goad said.\n\nFor example, the storms revisited the area around Miccosukee and Fleischmann roads with heavy damage to power lines and poles. “We rebuilt all of that after Hermine and it was destroyed again,” Goad said. “They are rebuilding it from the ground up.”\n\nAfter Hurricane Hermine city and county officials discussed plans to improve communications with the public and coordinate with state officials post-storm.\n\nThe city kept customers updated via text message and email of progress getting power restored, and used Facebook and Twitter to let people know where line crews were working.\n\nThe city executed mutual aid agreements with four municipal utilities and coordinated debris cleanup with the state.\n\n“The mayor and governor had a good conversation enlisting the state in road clearing,\" said Commissioner Gil Ziffer, who was among those commissioners updating the public on Facebook.\n\nAnother recommendation was to upgrade the outage map in order to keep up with the demand. It was disabled Sunday.\n\nThe Sunday storms also underscored the need to implement three other recommendations made to the city commission at a recent workshop — creating an urban forest master plan, expanding a tree-trimming pilot program, and putting strategic power lines underground.\n\n“We adopted a more aggressive tree-trimming program,” Ziffer said.\n\nThe commission has also asked staff to come back with an idea of how much it would cost to bury power lines underground in strategic areas.\n\n“Trees are a big reason people live here, but when they’re in an area where they are continually causing problems we need to be looking at going underground where it’s feasible,” Ziffer said.\n\nPutting lines underground can relieve some of that initial impact to get critical services up and running again, Goad said. But it also would be expensive. Burying electrical lines in the five-mile medical corridor would cost an estimated $10 million, according to Goad.\n\nThe City Commission has already approved a project to build a backup generator at Substation 12, which supplies power to both the Tallahassee Police Department and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.\n\n“Construction could begin this summer and take a year to complete,” Goad said. “It will serve the hospital and the surrounding area.”\n\n\n\nContact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/01/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/09/05/september-flood-anniversary-colorado/15151647/", "title": "Recovering after rivers rage", "text": "Kevin Duggan\n\nkevinduggan@coloradoan.com\n\nIt's been a rough year for Rough'n It Wright.\n\nThe floor of the small, brown cabin named for the families that owned it for decades has sagged down and been left exposed since the Big Thompson River tore away the ground supporting it last September.\n\nSome of the cabin's contents slid out through the gap and were swept away. Other furnishings are still there: A washer and dryer hang on by power cords and a hot air ventilation pipe; mattresses cling to beds tilted toward the river.\n\nThe cabin looks like a shoebox, with the bottom peeled back from one corner. A beige carpet covers much of the slatted wooden floor, the edge of which rests on jagged white and gray boulders.\n\nPerched under a towering canyon wall halfway between Drake and Estes Park along U.S. Highway 34, the cabin has become an icon of the 2013 flood and the challenges residents and government officials face a year later.\n\nWhile progress has been made toward recovering from the devastating deluge, years of planning and construction work remain. Natural and bureaucratic barriers must be hurdled by agencies attempting to rebuild roads and bridges and families trying to rebuild lives.\n\nThe owner of Rough'n It Wright, Lynda Wright of Cypress, California, has not been to the cabin since the flood.\n\nMembers of her extended family were in the cabin and the cottage next door — Linger Longer — during the flood and were rescued by the local volunteer fire department.\n\nWright has only seen pictures of the devastation. But what she's seen has made her determined to rebuild Linger Longer.\n\n\"When I look at the pictures, I don't see what remains,\" she said. \"I see what it was before.\n\n\"I can visualize every single person I have known and loved who has been at that cabin over the years. And I am not going to give up on it.\"\n\nThe September 2013 flood ranks among the worst natural disasters in Colorado history. A storm system stalled over the Front Range beginning Sept. 9, dumping the equivalent of a year's worth of precipitation for some areas over five days.\n\nMountain rivers and streams rose to unprecedented levels. The fast-moving water tore out small dirt roads and major highways before spilling out onto the plains and inundating parts of Loveland, Greeley and Boulder. While Fort Collins saw relatively little damage, for a time, access in and out of the city was cut off by closures of flooded roads.\n\nNine deaths were attributed to the flooding, including two in Larimer County. An estimated 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed statewide, with damage to public and private property estimated at more than $2 billion.\n\nCaught in limbo\n\nRough'n It Wright was scheduled to be demolished by Larimer County in the spring. The building was so badly damaged by the flood, officials deemed it beyond repair and a potential hazard.\n\nIf it were to collapse into the river, the debris could damage facilities downstream. Wright gave the county permission to bring it down.\n\nThe only direct access to the property from the highway was a footbridge destroyed by the flood. Rebuilding the bridge was a low priority for county officials given the number of other bridges across the Big Thompson that needed to be replaced.\n\nIn May, a county-hired contractor brought in equipment to scrape the cabin from the riverbank and retrieve the pieces from the water. But by the time the operation was ready to go, the river had risen with the release of spring runoff from Olympus Dam and Lake Estes upstream. It was running too high and fast to safely do the job.\n\nThe project missed its window of opportunity by one day, said Eric Fried, the Larimer County building official. The footbridge might be replaced in October, Fried said, but it likely wouldn't handle the weight of excavation equipment.\n\n\"Until we know more, we're still in limbo,\" he said. \"We know we need to get that taken care of, but we're not sure how or when we are going to do it.\"\n\nSummer retreat\n\nRough'n It Wright was built in 1955. It replaced a cabin called Ever More, Wright said.\n\nLinger Longer was built in 1912 by Dr. Samuel Wright, a Loveland physician and great-grandfather of Wright's last husband, Richard. The property and cabins in Big Thompson Canyon served as summer retreat for the family for many years, with ownership passed along to succeeding generations.\n\nAt times, other families owned the portion of the 39-acre property where Rough'n It Wright and a one-room bunkhouse called Our House stand. But full ownership came back to the Wright family in 1988.\n\nThe cabin, which was heavily damaged in the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon Flood, was restored after many years of neglect and named Rough'n It Wright. The \"Rough\" refers to the family of Wright's sister-in-law, Jeri Rueff.\n\nBoth families live in Southern California and visited the property during summers. After the trauma of last year's flood, the Rueffs signed over their interest in the property to Wright.\n\nLynda Wright has been a regular visitor to the property since 1968. She was there the night of the 1976 flood, and still remembers the dreadful rumbling of the river and the shuddering of the ground. She and her family had to be rescued by helicopter.\n\nAnd yet she loves the rugged property, the canyon and the happy memories they hold.\n\nRough'n It Wright might be doomed, but Linger Longer can be refurbished, she said. Our House was not damaged in either flood.\n\nWright said it's heartbreaking to see what has become of her beloved, peaceful retreat on the banks of the Big Thompson. Passersby on the highway stop to gawk at the damage and take photos.\n\n\"I'm not going to let it stand as some kind of eyesore,\" she said. \"I want my neighbors to know I have every intention of going in there and cleaning it up ... But I have no way to get there.\"\n\nMuch work still needs to be done in flood-ravaged areas across Larimer County and the state. Torn-up roads and highways that were temporarily repaired during a flurry of activity last fall need permanent repairs, said Johnny Olson, regional director for the Colorado Department of Transportation, or CDOT.\n\nDesign work for permanent repairs to state highways along the Front Range is underway, with construction likely to be spread out over years. The goal is to build the highways \"better than they were\" and more capable of handling another flood, he said.\n\n\"We have 26 projects we are going to be working on over the next three years,\" Olson said. \"And local agencies have 83 projects they are going to be working on over the next five years.\"\n\nThe biggest and most expensive task is reconstruction of U.S. 34 through Big Thompson Canyon. Long stretches of the highway were destroyed by the flooding, often in the same locations where it was damaged during a flash flood in 1976 that claimed 144 lives.\n\nCDOT is working with federal transportation officials to come up with a design for the road that would prevent it from getting blown out by another flood.\n\n\"We have to look at the river and the roadway as a system,\" he said.\n\nCheck the boxes in the key next to before/after photos or Civil Air Patrol photos to get a closer look at the damage. Mobile users, visit http://noconow.co/floodanniversary to view this feature. Map created by CDOT.\n\nDesigning permanent repairs to U.S. Highway 36 between Lyons and Estes Park in the wake of the flood provided insight into how to build river-corridor highways to be more resilient.\n\nThe highway was moved away from the river where possible to give the river \"room to move\" during a high-water event, Olson said. Parts of the road were built on top of bedrock to provide stability.\n\n\"The other option was to build a wall up and down it,\" he said. \"But that doesn't serve Colorado, and that's not what Colorado is all about.\"\n\nU.S. 34 reopened at the end of November after crews worked around the clock on emergency repairs. In places, the road was built 6 to 10 feet lower than it was but with the intention of getting it through the spring runoff, Olson said.\n\nEmergency repairs cost about $30 million, according to CDOT. Permanent repairs are expected to cost about $50 million.\n\nConstruction is expected to begin in September 2015 and run through 2017. Olson said CDOT will work with communities along the river and advocacy groups in shaping the final design.\n\nFighting back\n\nRecovery work in hard-hit areas such as Estes Park, Drake, Glen Haven and Loveland began last fall before floodwaters receded. But the work is far from over.\n\nIn Glen Haven, residents and volunteers are going through the laborious process of repairing private roads that were ripped up by normally placid Fox and West creeks and the North Fork of the Big Thompson.\n\nIn places, the creeks took over the roads and scoured them down to the bedrock, leaving \"canyons\" 12 feet deep. Culverts and bridges were gone. Hundreds of downed trees clogged the streambeds, and many houses were inaccessible.\n\n\"Our community was gone ...\" said Tony Fink, president of the Glen Haven Area Volunteer Fire Department. \"We were pretty much devastated by just looking at the devastation here.\"\n\nBecause the area's roads are private, for the most part, they were not eligible for governmental repair funds. Residents were left to find their own solutions, Fink said. Help came through from nearby towns, local community foundations, faith-based organizations, and the residents themselves through donations of materials, equipment, money and labor.\n\nEstes Park donated material dredged from Lake Estes to fill in Glen Haven's road. The city of Loveland trucked in 1,700 loads of dirt and rock from the site of its destroyed Idylwilde Dam as road fill.\n\nThe work went on all winter, spring and summer. Fink estimated that about 90 percent of the flood debris has been cleared and 75 percent of the roadways restored.\n\nThe next step is to find $350,000 to hire a contractor to professionally apply and shape road base on top of the fill dirt. About 10 properties remain inaccessible, Fink said, and parts of the area need to be revegetated.\n\nBut otherwise, Glen Haven is in good shape thanks to the hard work of many people, he said.\n\n\"We feel like what we have been able to accomplish as a community has given the remainder of the community a lot of hope,\" he said.\n\nSadness still pervades parts of Big Thompson Canyon that saw heavy damage. At Cedar Cove, which is east of Drake, an open, rocky expanse marks an area that once held a small neighborhood. Only a few houses remain.\n\nTwo Cedar Cove residents — 60-year-old Patty Goodwine and 79-year-old Evelyn M. Starner — were killed when floodwaters surged through the area.\n\nA little way downstream, ribbons mark the trees where rescuers found Mike and Florence Horn trapped and desperately hanging on as the river raged below. The Horns were with Goodwine when her home broke apart.\n\nNeighbor Barb Anderson, who also survived the 1976 flood, said many area residents are struggling to put their lives back together.\n\n\"I worry about them, all of them,\" she said. \"I'm thankful that we were spared, but yet on the other hand, my heart goes out to them, too.\"\n\nMuch of the debris and silt that covered the area after the flood has been cleared. But full recovery will be \"a long time coming,\" Anderson said.\n\nUncertainty still plagues many areas hit by the flood, especially when it comes to finding financial help to restore private roads and residences, said Lori Hodges, director of emergency management and recovery for Larimer County.\n\nDealing with insurance companies and the rules of the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be daunting.\n\nColorado has received $262 million in disaster recovery funds from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development through its Community Development Block Grants program.\n\nLarimer County recently received $5.5 million in HUD funding to assist flood victims in rehabilitating their homes or find new housing. The program is being administered through the Loveland Housing Authority.\n\nWhether HUD funds may be used to help rebuild private roads remains to be seen. A waiver of program rules is needed.\n\nThe slow pace of recovery is frustrating, Hodges said. Resolving some problems, such as removing Rough'n It Wright from the riverbank, takes a lot of time.\n\n\"I don't think people understand how complicated some of these issues can get,\" she said.\n\nForecasters saw it coming — a large, wet mass of air making its way to Colorado.\n\nBut on Sept. 9, a Monday, it was hard to believe the big storm would bring anything but cool drizzle to Colorado. By Wednesday, the air mass was rapidly becoming a statewide deluge that within hours would sweep away roads, people and homes along the Front Range. What had started as a meteorological oddity had become something deadly, something historic.\n\nThe wet air mass that hit Colorado looked like an average summer monsoon, a rapidly moving system of wet air that triggers well-known short downpours in the state.\n\n\"But this was better than average,\" said Nolan Doesken, a state climatologist, in 2013. \"This was a particularly concentrated moist air mass, and the kind you associate with the remnants of a tropical storm. (But), I don't recall this being the remnants of a tropical storm.\"\n\nIn a matter of days, the storm dumped a year's worth of rain in parts of Colorado. The rain fell onto burn scars, into dams and rivers; and unlike a wildfire, it could not be mitigated or stopped, only endured.\n\nAs rivers raged, a river flow gauge was washed out along the Big Thompson River in Loveland, and the damage stacked up in Larimer County and across the state.\n\nBy the numbers: Flood damage in Larimer County\n\n47 – Houses destroyed\n\n7– Commercial buildings destroyed\n\n338 – Homes sustained significant damage\n\n25 – Businesses sustained significant damage\n\n13 – Buildings ordered demolished\n\n198 – Structures deemed substantially damaged\n\n80 – Structures in floodplains that will have to be removed, relocated or elevated\n\n$79 million – Estimated damage to county facilities, primarily roads and bridges\n\n$67 million – Potential reimbursement through state and federal sources\n\n$17.3 million – Expenditures to date\n\nThis map depicts the locations of flood-damaged homes in Larimer County. Mobile users, visit http://noconow.co/floodanniversary to view this feature.\n\nBy the numbers: Flood damage in Loveland\n\n$25 million – Total estimated damage to city facilities\n\n$11.5 million – Damage to water, sewer and electrical utilities\n\n$6.5 million – Damage to parks, open spaces and golf courses\n\n$5.5 million – Damage to roads and bridges\n\n$22 million – Expected reimbursement through insurance and federal funds\n\nBy the numbers: Colorado Department of Transportation\n\n118 miles – Damaged miles of state highways along the Front Range\n\n$450 million – Authorized funding to make temporary and permanent repairs to flood-damaged roads and bridges from the Federal Highway Administration\n\n$50 million – Estimated cost of permanent repairs to U.S. Highway 34 after $30 million was spent on emergency repairs\n\n$7.1 million – Estimated cost of permanent repairs to U.S. Highway 36 after $20 million was spent on emergency repairs\n\n$10 million to $20 million – Estimated cost of permanent repairs to Colorado Highway 7; emergency repairs cost $17 million\n\n$1 million to $4 million – Estimated cost of permanent repairs to Colorado Highway 119; emergency repairs cost $1.5 million\n\nBy the numbers: Road work ahead\n\nCounty Road 43 (Devil's Gulch: Drake to Estes Park): Construction is expected to begin this fall and take about a year. Cost: $40 million\n\nBig Thompson Canyon: Bridge replacements in 2015 and 2016. Cost: $4 million\n\nCounty Road 27 (Lower Buckhorn): Reconstruction underway with completion expected in 2015. Cost: $18 million\n\nCounty Road 44H (Upper Buckhorn): Construction in 2015. Cost: $4 million\n\nPinewood Springs (multiple projects): Repairs are expected to be finished this year or early 2015. Cost: $1.5 million\n\nCounty Road 47 (Big Elk Meadows): Reconstruction in 2015. Cost: $3 million\n\nCounty Road 63 (Fish Creek Road, Estes Park): Some utility work underway; road construction is expected in 2015. Cost: $15 million\n\nColoradoan environment reporter Ryan Maye Handy contributed to this report.\n\nThe September 2013 flood effectively cut off Estes Park from the Front Range with the closures of heavily damaged U.S. highways 34 and 36.\n\nColorado Highway 7 — the scenic Peak to Peak Highway — was closed for days, leaving the only route into town over Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park.\n\nFish Creek Road and the utilities buried beneath it were destroyed, leaving hundreds of homes without water and sewer service for weeks. Downtown businesses also were hammered by floodwaters, forcing the temporary closure of many shops and restaurants along Elkhorn Avenue.\n\nEverything inside Poppy's Pizza and Grill had to be replaced from \"four feet down\" because of water damage, said owner Rob Pieper.\n\nThe restaurant was closed for three months. Its sister business next door — Mama Rose's — was closed for one month.\n\nBoth restaurants bounced back this summer thanks to a lively tourist season, as have other businesses in town, Pieper said. But full recovery remains elusive.\n\n\"Personally, and I think as a community, we took quite a financial hit after the flood last year …\" he said. \"Even though business is back and we're all back doing what we do, we still have a lot of ground to make up.\"\n\nThe support from loyal customers was heart-warming, he said. Some took long driving trips from Fort Collins, the Denver area and Cheyenne, Wyoming, to patronize restaurants when they reopened.\n\nNorthwest of Estes Park along Larimer County Road 43, community support and volunteer work crews made a big difference in helping the Glen Haven General Store rebuild and recover.\n\nThe store's historic building was heavily damaged as flood water pushed the hamlet's \"town hall\" and tons of debris against its west side. Its lower level was demolished and filled with mud.\n\nThe rebuilt store opened in June. Business was brisk all summer, said co-owner Becky Childs, up about 10 percent from 2013, which was a good year until the flood hit.\n\nThe recovery process has been tiring and hard for the community, even with much-appreciated volunteers helping out, she said.\n\n\"I think everyone's ready to wind down after a year of hard work — seven days a week for the work crews,\" she said.\n\nAn inspection of the building found the extent of its damage fell within limits set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It could be rebuilt while other businesses along County Road 43 through the heart of Glen Haven wiped out by the flood could not.\n\nWhat property owners may do with land that's in the floodplain of West Creek remains to be seen, said Terry Gilbert, director of community development for Larimer County.\n\nA planning effort facilitated by a Colorado State University professor is expected to help shape a vision for the commercial area, Gilbert said. But any rebuilding would be dictated by county and federal regulations.\n\n\"One of problems is that we're not sure where the maps are going to say the floodplain is at this point,\" he said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/09/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2023/01/18/cota-to-spend-10-5-million-for-work-on-west-broad-bus-rapid-transit/69814525007/", "title": "COTA to spend $10.5 million for work on West Broad bus rapid transit", "text": "The Central Ohio Transit Authority will be spending another $10.5 million on engineering work toward a bus rapid transit line along nine miles of West Broad Street west of Downtown.\n\nThe COTA board of trustees on Wednesday approved the contract with AECOM, a Dallas-based company with Columbus offices, for this next phase of the work. A third phase will be done next year.\n\nConstruction on the rapid transit line is expected to perhaps finally begin as early as 2025, said Andrew Biesterveld, COTA's chief engineer and mechanical officer.\n\n\"We're near 30% design done, Biesterveld told The Dispatch.\n\nThe new work will include more surveying, property appraisal and acquisition assistance for right-of-way, and public engagement.\n\nThe bus rapid-transit line would be the first as part of the LinkUS initiative to build lines in several corridors in Franklin County, including along East Main Street east of Downtown, and a Northwest Corridor route along Olentangy River Road and ultimately to Dublin.\n\nBus rapid transit systems uses buses that are longer than traditional buses, with its own dedicated lanes so they are able to movw faster through traffic. Cities such as Cleveland and Minneapolis have created such lines, in part because they are less expensive to build and maintain than rail.\n\nA 2022 Ohio State University study showed that bus rapid transit lines helped improve values of nearby multi-family properties, including Cleveland.\n\nBiesterveld said the East Main rapid transit portion could begin seven months after work begins on the West Broad stretch.\n\nAt question, though, remains funding. In the summer of 2022, COTA officials decided not to place a 0.5% sales tax hike on the November 2022 ballot to raise $6 billion for bus rapid transit because of what one called \"economic challenges\" in the region. There are no plans yet to put it on a ballot.\n\nCOTA began applying for $300 million in grants in 2022 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help fund both the West Broad and East Main proposed corridors.\n\nAt that time, according to Kim Sharp, COTA's senior director of development, the projected build out for each in 2022 dollars was $251 million for West Broad Street and $265 million for East Main Street. Now, the cost, in projected 2027 dollars, is estimated to be $334 million for West Broad Street and $329 million for East Main Street, according to COTA spokesman Jeff Pullin.\n\nThe Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission is currently seeking public comment through Feb. 8 on 23 proposed projects in central Ohio that it proposes to direct $148 million in federal funds toward, including $13.1 million for construction of the West Broad Street BRT (bus rapid transit) corridor.\n\nIn other news, COTA this week finally restored COTA's website and its real-time tracking for buses for riders using either the Transit app or Google maps. The tracking service had been down since mid-December after COTA officials took all of its IT systems offline following a computer hack.\n\nCOTA spokesman Jeff Pullin said the next step is to restore Wi-Fi service on buses.\n\nDuring the meeting, a group of four from Sunrise Movement Columbus, a youth-led effort to stop climate change, asked the board to implement a free-fare system for COTA, an idea the COTA board has no plans to implement.\n\nJoseph Glandorf, one of the members from Marble Cliff, asked COTA to begin a one-free-weekday-a-week pilot program for two months.\n\n\"Columbus citizens deserve free public transit,\" he said.\n\nLocal developer and former COTA board member Bob Weiler has pushed free transit here for years.\n\nBut COTA revenue from fares is expected to be $12.8 million in 2023, just 6% of the $206 million in revenue COTA officials estimate to receive this year. Almost three-quarters of COTA's revenues — an estimated $151.7 million in 2023 — comes from COTA's 0.5% sales tax.\n\nWashington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C. plans to have fare-free buses beginning July 1. The transit system in Kansas City, Missouri, began its ZeroFare program in 2020.\n\nmferench@dispatch.com\n\n@MarkFerenchik", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2023/01/18"}]}