text
stringlengths 10
159k
| url
stringlengths 19
865
| crawl_date
timestamp[s]date 2022-02-01 01:02:23
2024-12-02 05:16:38
| lang
stringclasses 1
value | lang_conf
float64 0.65
1
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Waco, Tx (FOX44) – A 47-year-old man is facing multiple charges of animal cruelty, and is accused of leaving dogs abandoned in a house he was renting.
The charges and arrest came as a result of an investigation which started Saturday – when deputies responded on a call requesting a residence be checked in the 100 block of Flying Heart Road, just outside of south Waco.
While on the scene, deputies observed abandoned dogs left in the home without air conditioning. An arrest affidavit stated the residence was closed up and there was not adequate ventilation. They noted the temperature was 101 degrees at the time.
Deputies learned the residence had been rented by 47-year-old Juan Villareal since 2017, according to the owner of the property.
In the affidavit, Villareal was accused of abandoning the dogsm causing “injustified or unwarranted pain or suffering.”
Following the investigation, warrants were obtained and Villareal was arrested Wednesday and booked into the McLennan County Jail on five counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals, abandonment.
He remained in the jail on Thursday in lieu of a $10,000 bond.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/man-charged-with-abandoning-dogs-in-house/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:27
|
en
| 0.980255
|
It’s always a shame when a vintage diner with its classic chrome and steel streamlined railroad-dining-car design and art-deco interior shuts down. It happened, sadly, last Sunday to Bishop’s Fourth Street Diner in Newport right after our recent August vacation there.
In Hartford, the 1940s landmark and long-vacant Aetna Diner (a.k.a, the Comet, Oasis, and Dishes) met the same fate in the early 2000s. Other Connecticut models have survived, including: Zip’s Diner in Dayville, Aero Diner in North Windham, O’Rourke’s Diner in Middletown, Collin’s Diner in Canaan, and the Quaker Diner in West Hartford — where you can still sit on a stool, have a refillable coffee, a toasted blueberry muffin, and a home-cooked meal.
We discovered Bishop’s by chance a year ago. While rounding a rotary leading to the beach we spotted it, located on an isolated patch of land beside the roundabout and far from the crowded tourist destination of downtown Newport.
So we stopped. It had the best breakfasts, delicious New England clam chowder, a delectable Fisherman’s Platter and clam strip plate, fried scallops with shrimp, and spaghetti and meatballs, among other treats, all for under $20, and most under $10. It was a “find,” and we ate there two days in a row, also taking home bowls of clam chowder. And we planned this summer’s jaunt counting on more meals in this humble joint.
So it was an unexpected surprise to hear longtime waitress Kim Ratosa mention while serving our bacon-and-egg breakfasts that a nearby construction company had bought the land and would demolish the diner in just a few days. Can’t they move it? we asked. It would cost millions to move and update the kitchen to satisfy building codes, she said.
So the owners decided that the 55-year Newport life of this archetypal example of diner culture would expire the following Sunday.
“It’s sad,” said Ratosa, who’s worked there for two decades. “I won’t see everybody, the regulars I’ve seen every day for 22 years.”
What will you do? I asked her. “I’m going to Florida for a while and visit my twin sister,” she said. “Then I’ll come back and figure it out.”
Chef Bill ran the kitchen for 10 years. “It’s sad,” he said. “That’s about it.” What’s next? “Vacation.”
The Bishop’s diner has a typical history: It was manufactured in the ’50s, in New Jersey by O’Mahony Diner Co., a diner-maker since 1917.
It opened in Swansea, Massachusetts, then moved to Newport a stone’s throw from the Newport Naval Base in 1967, renamed the Fourth Street Diner for a street that was never paved. In 1998 Steve Bishop and his former wife purchased it, and renamed it Bishop’s Fourth Street Diner.
Like many such diners, Bishop’s has historic items in its aluminum interior — a signed snapshot of Steve with former Tonight Show TV host Jay Leno, photos of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and New England Patriots players, and signs touting motorcycles, Coca Cola, and Sunbeam bread.
Under one photo in a booth Michael Caruba, 61, a 20-year regular, was eating his usual cheeseburger, fries, and root beer.
“It’s a travesty, “ he said,
contemplating the diner’s doom. “It’s iconic. I’m nostalgic already.”
Ratosa won’t see him, her
fellow workers, and the other
“It’s sad saying goodbye,” she told me, “and I don’t like goodbyes. So I’ll just say,
Reach out to Harlan and let him know your questions, issues, and concerns as a consumer; send him an email at [email protected]
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/living/leave_it_to_levy/bishop-s-fourth-street-diner-beloved-piece-of-americana-closes-its-doors/article_535eefda-1f0c-11ed-8954-b715ba64aec8.html
| 2022-08-18T20:00:32
|
en
| 0.957
|
AUSTIN / WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – Three of Texas’ 10 Most Wanted offenders are back in custody following their recent arrests – one of them is from the Waco area.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release on Thursday that 50-year-old Rodney Eugene Hunter was arrested on August 9 at a location in south Waco by Special Agents. He is a high-risk sex offender.
DPS says Hunter was wanted since February 2022 – when the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest for forgery. In July 2022, the Waco Police Department issued a warrant for his arrest for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
Hunter was convicted of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and two counts of burglary of a habitation in 1992, according to Texas DPS. He received three nine-year sentences to be served concurrently.
In 1997, Hunter was convicted of two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact following incidents involving a seven-year-old girl. He received two 15-year sentences in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facility.
For more information, you can view Hunter’s captured bulletin.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/wanted-fugitive-from-waco-captured-by-texas-dps/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:33
|
en
| 0.984368
|
During these economically challenging times, municipal leaders must act to bring tax dollars back into our communities. I’d like to thank Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Senate Pro Tempore Martin Looney and the Bond Commission for sending $500,000 back to Coventry for parks and facilities improvements.
Some years ago, Coventry had a vision that Miller Richardson Park would become a multi-use community facility where people of all ages and abilities could enjoy recreation activities. While the vision was committed to design plans on paper, we just couldn’t afford to make it happen.
In 2018, the Town Council established the Softball Fields Study Committee in order to equal the playing field for youth softball. That committee worked tirelessly to bring forward the best location. In an outpouring of support last November, Coventry voters approved borrowing in order to construct the first of two planned softball fields at Miller Richardson.
But the Town Council’s vision and goals go further. I asked Town Manager John Elsesser to work with our town staff to update the earlier master plans so we could make our case to the Governor’s office. Since Gov. Lamont had already publicly supported equaling the playing field and is a champion for equity, we knew he’d understand the value of completing the full project.
We successfully demonstrated that the upgrades to our parks and facilities will elevate our youth softball program, make needed safety improvements including for our youth baseball players, provide increased access for those with disabilities, and create more comprehensive opportunities for our entire community. This is a wonderful moment for our town.
The writer is chairwoman of the Coventry Town Council
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter-to-the-editor-a-thank-you-from-coventry/article_20b53666-1f0c-11ed-b3a0-bb4bf5377f78.html
| 2022-08-18T20:00:38
|
en
| 0.954859
|
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – A local Republican Party in Alabama is being scrutinized after a photo that appeared to contain Ku Klux Klan imagery was shared on its Facebook page.
Sunday night, a post was made on the Lawrence County Republican Party’s page, thanking the group’s former chairman and welcoming the new chairman, Shanon Terry. The post, shared on Twitter by Alabama House minority leader Anthony Daniels, initially included a photo of a “GOP elephant” that used the white space between the elephant’s legs to create what appears to be hooded figures.
The post was taken down later that night and then reposted with a different GOP elephant image, but not before Facebook users noted the Ku Klux Klan imagery.
Some have even called on the new chairman to resign from the county’s school board.
Terry apologized Monday, saying, “I would like to offer a deep and sincere apology for a picture that temporarily appeared on this page last night. A Google search picture of a GOP elephant was used and later found to have hidden images that do not represent the views or beliefs of the Lawrence County Republican Party. The picture was then immediately replaced. As chairman I take full responsibility for the error.”
In a statement to Nexstar’s WHNT, Terry said he will not resign from his elected seat.
“The voters of District Four elected me to represent them and I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration over the past six years. I look forward to continuing to strive to give every student in Lawrence County the best opportunity to be successful.”
Terry went on to say that he regrets the mistake, calling it “unintended.”
“The image posted by me on a political Facebook page was not done with any malicious or harmful intent,” he explained. “Once made aware of the negative portion of the picture I immediately replaced it and followed up with an apology/explanation the next day. My error was rushing to post a thank you note to the outgoing chairperson, in doing so I did not properly review a cut and paste image used in that post from an internet search for a ‘GOP elephant’. I do not support or agree with any hate group agenda and certainly would not try to further their cause.
The image, created by Woody Harrington, initially appeared in a 2020 Mother Jones article “about the hate, bigotry and racism hidden within Trump’s GOP.” The freelance illustrator addressed Terry’s use of the image on Instagram Wednesday, saying, “[It has] come to my attention that the Hate Elephant has been given new life (without permission or credit of course) in not one, but two republican campaigns.”
Alabama House minority leader Anthony Daniels was also critical of the post, saying on Twitter that the use of the image was “disgusting.”
The Lawrence County NAACP is scheduled to host a press conference about the incident and to call for Terry’s resignation on Friday.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/alabama-gop-shared-kkk-imagery-by-mistake-chairman-says/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:39
|
en
| 0.971371
|
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — When JD Vance founded “Our Ohio Renewal” a day after the 2016 presidential election, he promoted the charity as a vehicle for helping solve the scourge of opioid addiction that he had lamented in “Hillbilly Elegy,” his bestselling memoir.
But Vance shuttered the nonprofit last year and its foundation in May, shortly after clinching the state’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, according to state records reviewed by The Associated Press. An AP review found that the charity’s most notable accomplishment — sending an addiction specialist to Ohio’s Appalachian region for a yearlong residency — was tainted by ties among the doctor, the institute that employed her and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin.
The mothballing of Our Ohio Renewal and its dearth of tangible success raise questions about Vance’s management of the organization. His decision to bring on Dr. Sally Satel is drawing particular scrutiny. She’s an American Enterprise Institute resident scholar whose writings questioning the role of prescription painkillers in the national opioid crisis were published in The New York Times and elsewhere before she began the residency in the fall of 2018.
Documents and emails obtained by ProPublica for a 2019 investigation found that Satel, a senior fellow at AEI, sometimes cited Purdue-funded studies and doctors in her articles on addiction for major news outlets and occasionally shared drafts of the pieces with Purdue officials in advance, including on occasions in 2004 and 2016. Over the years, according to the report, AEI received regular $50,000 donations and other financial support from Purdue totaling $800,000.
Longtime Ohio political observer Herb Asher cast the charity’s shortcomings, including Satel’s links to Big Pharma, as a “betrayal.”
“A person forms a charity presumably to do good things, so when it doesn’t, for whatever reason, that really is a betrayal,” said Asher, an emeritus professor of political science at Ohio State University. “That’s something voters can get their arms around.”
Vance’s campaign said the nonprofit is simply on temporary hold during Vance’s Senate run against Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan. It also said Vance was unfamiliar with Satel’s connection to Purdue when she was selected for the residency.
“JD didn’t know at the time, but remains proud of her work to treat patients, especially those in an area of Ohio who needed it most,” the campaign said in a statement.
In an email to the AP this week, Satel said that she “never consulted with” or ever “took a cent from Purdue” and that she didn’t know that Purdue had donated money to AEI because the institute maintains a firewall between its scholars and donors. She said she relies “completely on my own experience as a psychiatrist and/or data to form my opinions.”
Phoebe Keller, spokesperson for AEI, said the institute’s scholars “have academic freedom to follow their own research to conclusions without interference from management.”
Purdue Pharma did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Vance has described Our Ohio Renewal’s mission variously over the years as “to bring interesting new businesses to the so-called Rust Belt,” “to fill some of the (area’s) treatment gaps in mental health” and “to combat Ohio’s opioid epidemic.”
He has acknowledged at points that the charity fell short of his vision, though he has more recently suggested it remains active — including listing himself on a financial disclosure filed this week as “honorary chairman” of the canceled organization.
In his book, Vance recounts the hardship and heartbreak he and his family experienced as a result of his mother’s battle with drug addiction, which ravaged Appalachian areas of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia when the 38-year-old was growing up. She used both OxyContin and heroin.
Ohio remains one of the hardest-hit states for deadly drug overdoses, with about 14 people dying each day, according to the most recent statistics.
Vance expressed hopes in media interviews about the time Satel arrived in struggling Ironton, Ohio, in September 2018, that she would use her experience to develop better treatment methods for addiction that could be “scaled nationally” or perhaps to produce “a paper or book-length publication” detailing her findings. She has yet to do either.
“I am working on a book,” Satel told the AP in an email exchange this week, nearly three years after she wrapped up her residency.
D.R. Gossett, CEO of the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, who helped oversee Satel’s roughly $70,000 residency, said she “helped people who were struggling in southern Ohio” and “to this day, people are thankful for her presence.” That included treating an unspecified number of patients in a region long designated a health care shortage area and what Gossett described as “community planning efforts.”
After the residency ended, Satel’s public remarks suggested she remained as convinced as ever that addiction stems from combined behavioral and environmental forces — not the documented overprescribing and aggressive marketing of OxyContin and other opioids that helped families and state, local and tribal governments ultimately secure a $6 billion national settlement against Purdue in March.
“The data are completely clear that the decline in opioid prescribing had no effect on the overall opioid overdose rate,” she said in the email to the AP, blaming the number of growing overdoses on heroin and fentanyl.
It’s a familiar position for Satel, whose opinion columns in national publications included an October 2004 Times article, “Doctors Behind Bars: Treating Pain is Now Risky Business,” a February 2018 Politico article, “The Myth of What’s Driving the Opioid Crisis – Doctor-prescribed painkillers are not the biggest threat” and the March 2018 Slate article, “Pill Limits Are Not a Smart Way to Fight the Opioid Crisis.”
Jack Frech, a senior executive in residence at Ohio University who headed an Appalachian Ohio welfare agency for more than 30 years, said there is no doubt that the region was targeted with prescription opioids in the early days of the epidemic. He said the path to addiction to heroin and fentanyl for many residents “started with the overabundance of easily accessible pain pills.”
Ryan and his allies are already targeting Our Ohio Renewal in television ads, citing recent Business Insider reporting that called into question the charity’s payments to a Vance political adviser and on public opinion polling.
A year after Satel finished up her residency, a friend emailed Vance in October 2020 to express concern that Satel was headlining an AEI event on the origins of the U.S. opioid crisis “without a splash banner saying how much money AEI takes from Purdue Pharma.”
“Yeah. It’s not good,” Vance replied, according to a copy of the email obtained by the AP. “I have a minor affiliation with AEI. Thinking about dropping it because of this and other things.” He did. Keller, the AEI spokesperson, said Vance ended his nonresident fellowship at the institute that year and did not renew the affiliation.
Medical professionals and others on the front lines of the drug crisis say the scourge of addiction in Appalachia still needs advocates.
“There’s definitely still a major problem,” said Trisha Ferrar, who directs The Recovery Center in Lancaster, at the edge of Appalachian Ohio. “Things are very tough and people who are sick are having a lot of challenges. There’s just a lot of uncertainty in the world right now that kind of adds to that.”
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/08/18/vances-anti-drug-charity-enlisted-doctor-echoing-big-pharma/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:24
|
en
| 0.966444
|
This op-ed is in response to a tremendous article written in the Journal Inquirer dated Tuesday, Aug. 9, “Keeping church and state apart,” which was a breath of fresh air. It was good to see two local Pastors who had the courage to address one of the biggest problems in America today, which is the mixing of politics with religion.
Many national Christian leaders have been silent on this issue due to the fear of not wanting to offend their politically minded parishioners.
Most religions are built upon a foundation of Truth in their belief system, and negative politics will only inject lies and division into people’s minds, causing hatred toward another group of people.
Some Evangelical Pastors today are preaching a Christian-based message of brotherly love, mixed with an unbiblical political message of division concerning bashing the LGBT community or other negative hot-button political topics that will keep their people coming back to Church on Sunday mornings.
So again, I am glad to know that I am not alone in my fight against keeping churches and politics separated because if the Truth is eroded in our houses of worship based on lies from corrupt politicians, anything becomes possible.
The mixture of church and politics is a toxic mixture that will only cause division and violence in our society. We need more Pastors to speak out boldly on this very important subject because who would want to join a house of worship that believes in a political party or their candidates more than they believe in God?
So, we must get back to checking our politics at the door on Sunday mornings and loving each other unconditionally for the rest of the week!
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter-to-the-editor-beware-of-mixing-politics-with-religion/article_0083ec7a-1f0c-11ed-96b8-bf6ef7d3af3f.html
| 2022-08-18T20:00:45
|
en
| 0.969745
|
CLEVELAND (WJW) – A settlement has been reached between Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and the NFL.
Nexstar’s WJW has learned the agreement is for 11 games and a $5 million fine. The NFL confirmed the agreement Thursday morning.
As part of the settlement, Watson may return for the Browns’ game on Dec. 4 in Houston.
Two weeks ago, NFL officials decided to appeal a six-game suspension a disciplinary officer imposed on Watson. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell designated Hon. Peter Harvey to hear the appeal.
Watson and the NFL players union did not appeal the suspension.
Harvey is the former attorney general of New Jersey, served as a federal prosecutor, and has “deep expertise in criminal law, including domestic violence and sexual assault,” the NFL said.
Twenty-four women filed lawsuits against Watson alleging sexual misconduct during massages. All but one of those lawsuits have been settled.
The NFL initially asked for an indefinite suspension of at least a year during Watson’s three-day disciplinary hearing. The NFL argued for an unprecedented punishment and wanted to fine Watson at least $5 million, a person familiar with the discussions told the AP on condition of anonymity because the hearing was private.
Watson, who previously denied the allegations against him, apologized last week “to all the women I have impacted.”
“Look, I want to say that I’m truly sorry to all of the women that I have impacted in this situation,” Watson said in a pregame TV interview. “The decisions that I made in my life that put me in this position I would definitely like to have back, but I want to continue to move forward and grow and learn and show that I am a true person of character and I am going to keep pushing forward.”
Watson has continued to practice and played in Cleveland’s first preseason game against Jacksonville last week, going one-for-five for seven yards. Cleveland traded three first-round picks to Houston for Watson in March and signed him to a five-year, $230 million contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/deshaun-watson-receives-11-game-suspension-5m-fine-nfl/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:46
|
en
| 0.981316
|
By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — A woman who has been central to R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades testified Thursday that the R&B singer sexually abused her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was 15.
Jane — the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old woman at Kelly’s trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges — told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She said he first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was around 14 at a Chicago recording studio, and that around that time, he “started penetration” at his home at his North Side Chicago home. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse. Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.” Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”
Kelly, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for his conviction in a New York this year on federal charges alleging he used his fame to sexually abuse fans, is standing trial in his hometown of Chicago on several other federal charges. Among the most serious is conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on state child pornography charges stemming from a purported video of him and Jane having sex when she was underage.
Prosecutors say Kelly paid off and threatened Jane to ensure that she didn’t testify at that trial. She didn’t, and he was ultimately acquitted.
Kelly is also standing trial on charges of producing child pornography and enticing minors for sex.
Unlike at the 2008 trial, Jane cooperated with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a pivotal witness.
During opening statements Wednesday, prosecutor Jason Julien sought to prepare jurors for the testimony of accusers including Jane, reminding them that a core issue at trial remained the exploitation of often scared and confused children — even though the accusers who would speak to jurors are now grown adults.
Speaking softly and tentatively when she first took the stand Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had tagged along to Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.
As her testimony continued, Jane sounded calmer and steadier, answering questions matter-of-factly.
Prosecutors have said Kelly shot the video of Jane in a log cabin-themed room at his North Side Chicago home between 1998 and 2000. In it, the girl is heard calling the man “daddy.” Federal prosecutors say that she and Kelly had sex hundreds of times over the years in his homes, recording studios and tour buses.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told the parents and Jane to leave Chicago, paying for them to travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. When they returned, prosecutors say Kelly sought to isolate Jane, moving her around to different hotels. When called before a state grand jury looking into the video, Jane, her father and mother denied it was her in it.
Tears streamed down his faced on June 13, 2008, when he was acquitted on all counts of child pornography. Some of the jurors told reporters after the trial that they weren’t convinced that the female in the video was who state prosecutors said she was.
Before the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a duffle bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went for years, but some tapes later went missing, according to court filings. In the 2000s, bootleg copies of some videos appeared on street corners throughout the U.S.
In the early 2000s, the aunt showed the parents a copy of a video she said depicted their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them, “You’re with me or against me,” a government filing says.
The parents took it as a threat.
Kelly, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex — one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
Prosecutors told jurors that the evidence includes at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they also have denied wrongdoing.
___
Follow AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/08/18/woman-describes-frequent-abuse-by-r-kelly-before-she-was-18/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:48
|
en
| 0.985623
|
In 1989, I wanted to burn Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” But I couldn’t afford to buy a copy, even if only to set it ablaze without reading it. I was a teenager in Kenya, a Muslim with the righteous convictions of the young, eager to obey the edicts of the highest religious authorities. When Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of “The Satanic Verses” author, I thought he was standing up for Islam — and for me. So, a group of us did the best we could: We scribbled the book’s title on a piece of cardboard and burned that.
If Rushdie had been murdered then, I would have been happy.
Now that he has been nearly killed in a knife attack, I am shattered.
In the intervening years, I came to realize that the religion of my youth was an oppressive, dangerous version of the faith. Forced into marriage in the early 1990s, I fled to the Netherlands, where I successfully sought political asylum. There, I studied political science, later becoming a member of parliament. And I watched with mounting anger, and horror, as radical Islam pursued its war on modern civilization — perhaps these words can still be said, on Western civilization.
I cherish the freedoms afforded by Western civilization, and I especially cherish the freedom to speak freely. That is why the attack on Rushdie, beyond the terrible fact of his injuries, is so abhorrent.
The freedom to speak out — to challenge and even to offend — is the driver of every form of progress. The advance of science, the emancipation of women, revolutions that have taken down monarchies and corrupt regimes - these achievements, at their core, were driven by free expression.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, Rushdie wrote: “The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women’s rights, pluralism, secularism, short skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex.”
Speaking as a former teenage believer, I concur: Islamic fundamentalism is a wholesale assault on the foundational principles of the West. We must not only protect but also stand alongside those whose lives are threatened by theocracy merely for what they say or write.
When someone attempts to take Rushdie’s life, what’s at stake is not just the inventive language and far-sighted vision of one person. Also at stake is our freedom to share ideas: the lifeblood of Western civilization.
But in place of the courageous confrontation and unified defense that such an assault demands, I see around me today far too much shuffling of feet and mumbling. What ought to have prompted simply a resounding defense of free speech has stirred, from some on the left, criticism of the act itself, but hollowed out by caveats: I believe in free speech ... but not if this or that minority is offended.
When free speech is under assault, we risk losing the precious values that countless people around the world have bled for — that Rushdie’s blood was spilled for last week. Enough of the tired declarations of sympathy and outrage. It is time to act in defense of our ideals. This means calling out the evils committed in the name of Islam, supporting dissident Muslims fighting to reform their faith, being unafraid and unapologetic in championing Western freedoms and ideals, and fearlessly standing up for free expression — in our universities, as everywhere else.
Yes, many of us are scared. We who live with the fundamentalists’ threats — in the West and in the Muslim world — live with fear, and have done so for years. But we cannot let fear cow us into silence.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and founder of the AHA Foundation. He wrote this for the Washington Post.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/other_commentary/ayaan-hirsi-ali-i-once-wanted-to-burn-the-satanic-verses-now-i-weep-for/article_98b92e8a-1f05-11ed-bc5a-676b37f4d94a.html
| 2022-08-18T20:00:51
|
en
| 0.966554
|
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The Justice Department’s investigation into whether former President Donald Trump illegally stored classified records at his Florida estate – and potentially violated the Espionage Act – is still “in its early stages,” a top national security prosecutor said Thursday.
The revelation by Jay Bratt, a top national security prosecutor, was the clearest indication yet that the Justice Department is directly scrutinizing Trump’s conduct and is moving forward in its criminal investigation after the FBI seized classified and top secret information during a search at Mar-a-Lago last week.
The details about the investigation were laid out Thursday during a court hearing after several news organizations, including The Associated Press, asked a federal judge to make public the affidavit supporting the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search Trump’s Florida estate.
The government contends that releasing the information would compromise its investigation.
Unsealing the affidavit would provide a “road map” of the investigation – which is in its “early stages” – and would expose the next steps to be taken by federal agents and prosecutors, said Bratt, the chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section.
He argued it was in the public interest for the investigation, including interviews of witnesses, to go forward unhindered.
As the hearing kicked off, a small caravan of vehicles with Trump flags drove past the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. An attorney for Trump, Christina Bobb, was in the courthouse on Thursday but said she was only there to observe the court proceeding.
The media companies argue the affidavit’s release would help the public determine if the Justice Department had legitimate reasons for the search or if it was part of a Biden administration vendetta against Trump, as the former president and his backers contend. Trump, in a Truth Social post last week, called for the release of the unredacted affidavit in the interest of transparency.
“The matter is one of utmost public interest, involving the actions of current and former government officials,” wrote attorney Carol Jean LoCiero, who is representing the Times and others. “President Trump decried the the search as an ‘assault that could only take place in Third World Countries,’ asserted agents ‘even broke into my safe,’ and otherwise challenged the validity of the search.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart – the judge who authorized the warrant and presided over Thursday’s hearing – said in court that he was “inclined” not to seal the whole affidavit and told the Justice Department to submit a copy of the affidavit with proposed redactions for the information it wants to keep secret.
After the government submits that proposed version by next Thursday, the judge said he would review it and may meet lawyers for the government and give them a chance to make an argument for why specific information should be withheld.
Justice Department attorneys have argued in a court filings that the investigation into Trump’s handling of “highly classified material” is ongoing and that the document contains sensitive information about witnesses.
A recent filing by Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney in Miami, and Bratt, a top Justice Department national security official, says making the affidavit public would “cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”
“If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps,” they wrote.
FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, removing 11 sets of classified documents, with some not only marked top secret but also “sensitive compartmented information,” according to a receipt of what was taken that was released Friday. That is a special category meant to protect the nation’s most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause “exceptionally grave” damage to U.S. interests. The court records did not provide specific details about information the documents might contain.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/federal-judge-inclined-to-release-redacted-affidavit-for-mar-a-lago-search/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:53
|
en
| 0.966696
|
By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — A woman who has been central to R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades testified Thursday that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was 15.
Jane — the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old woman at Kelly’s trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges — told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She said he first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was around 14 at a Chicago recording studio, and that around that time, he “started penetration” at his home at his North Side Chicago home. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse. Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.” Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”
Kelly, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence for his conviction in a New York this year on federal charges alleging he used his fame to sexually abuse fans, is standing trial in his hometown of Chicago on several other federal charges. Among the most serious is conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on state child pornography charges stemming from a purported video of him and Jane having sex when she was underage. Among other things, prosecutors say Kelly paid off and threatened Jane to ensure that she didn’t testify at that trial. She didn’t, and he was ultimately acquitted.
Kelly is also standing trial on charges of producing child pornography and enticing minors for sex.
Unlike at the 2008 trial, Jane cooperated with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a pivotal witness.
Speaking softly and tentatively when she first took the stand Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had tagged along to Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.
Prosecutors have said Kelly shot the video of Jane in a log cabin-themed room at his North Side Chicago home between 1998 and 2000. In it, the girl is heard calling the man “daddy.” Federal prosecutors say that she and Kelly had sex hundreds of times over the years in his homes, recording studios and tour buses.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told the parents and Jane to leave Chicago, paying for them to travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. When they returned, prosecutors say Kelly sought to isolate Jane, moving her around to different hotels. When called before a state grand jury looking into the video, Jane, her father and mother denied it was her in it.
Tears streamed down his faced on June 13, 2008, when he was acquitted on all counts of child pornography. Some of the jurors told reporters after the trial that they weren’t convinced that the female in the video was who state prosecutors said she was.
Before the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a duffle bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went for years, but some tapes later went missing, according to court filings. In the 2000s, bootleg copies of some videos appeared on street corners throughout the U.S.
In the early 2000s, the aunt showed the parents a copy of a video she said depicted their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them, “You’re with me or against me,” a government filing says.
The parents took it as a threat.
Kelly, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex — one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
Prosecutors told jurors that the evidence includes at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they also have denied wrongdoing.
___
Follow AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/08/18/woman-describes-frequent-sex-with-r-kelly-before-she-was-18/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:54
|
en
| 0.986833
|
MIDDLETOWN — Jimmy Titus loves baseball.
The 24-year-old has lived a dream through the game, from Little League star when he helped his hometown of Stafford to its first District 8 U-12 tournament championship, to high school standout at East Catholic where he became Connecticut’s only two-time Gatorade Player of the Year, to a solid career at Bryant University and to being selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 22nd round of the 2019 Major League draft.
But love hurts, and not just from the pain from the injuries he’s endured. It’s been almost a year since his goal of reaching the majors was stymied when he was released by the Mets organization.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Titus said Tuesday. “I accepted it for what it was because I knew that I put in the work every single day and I did everything that I could so I don’t feel like I left anything on the table. I don’t have any ill feelings towards baseball or my journey. I loved it. It brought me to where I am now and I’m happy about that.”
Titus was at Palmer Field Tuesday but could only cheer on his Vernon Orioles teammates due to a hamstring injury. The East Hartford Jets completed a run through the losers bracket to capture their third straight Greater Hartford Twilight League playoff title with a 5-4 win over the O’s.
He might be the league’s MVP after ranking No. 1 in average (.471) and home runs (4) and third in RBIs (18) so in some ways baseball is still in love with him. It’s just his goals have changed in the last year.
“We’ve been playing together since we were six or seven years old,” Orioles catcher and Stafford native Alex Hoss said. “He’s a great teammate. He’s hurt and he’s still here. He’s brought a new attitude to the team, a professional attitude that’s nice to have.”
Titus’ professional career began well as he hit. 296 with six home runs, 23 RBIs, and 27 runs scored in 40 games with the Dodgers’ rookie affiliate in Ogden, Utah in 2019.
But the 2020 minor-league season was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead of building on what he’d done in Ogden he was home and coaching the Manchester Eagles of the Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League alongside Stafford Little League teammate and Miami Marlins’ prospect Josh Simpson.
“Obviously for everyone that’s a big what-if, especially for guys in the minor leagues in my situation,” Titus said.
“But what it was is that the Dodgers took a redshirt sophomore in the 22nd round hoping I could be a diamond in the rough. I did perform well that first year but to prove that it wasn’t a fluke I needed the next year to do well and I didn’t get that chance. Coming back in 2021 … It just didn’t work out.”
He was traded to the Mets’ organization on April 21, 2021 and played sparingly for their Class A affiliate St. Lucie in the Florida State League. In 38 games and 129 at-bats, he hit .233 with a home run, 17 RBIs, and 22 runs scored. On Aug. 10 he was assigned to the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones of the South Atlantic League.
The promotion, though, proved to be a part of the fall. Over the next two weeks he played in four games and went 0-for-9 at the plate with five strikeouts.
“That whole season was the first time in my career I struggled, really,” Titus said. “It was hard to get into rhythm not playing all of the time. But I was doing all right considering the circumstances.
“I started to heat up at St. Lucie, but when I got called up it was surprising to me. I also knew they had the draft a month earlier and they would be assigning guys to different spots. Some guys were put on the St. Lucie roster. I figured with the way I was playing in the limited time that I got, it was a matter of time that they’d put me on the phantom IL or release me. It’s all a part of it.”
On Aug. 26, Titus met with a player development official and was released.
“They brought me into the office after I didn’t play in two games of a doubleheader and said, ‘Hey, unfortunately we have guys that are healthy now and we don’t have a spot for you anymore,’ ” Titus said. “There wasn’t even a good luck or anything, just ‘See ya.’ Everyone always says that baseball is a business and I, someone who has played at different levels, can agree 100 percent.
“It was definitely the hardest time of my life. I’ve been though a lot of stuff. I loved the Dodgers organization and playing with some good friends. When I got released it was like, ‘Well, now what?’ This was something that I poured my entire life into, something I did every day because I loved to do it. But then there was an understanding that it may be time to move on.”
Some teams did reach out to Titus’ agent and Titus did try to reinvent himself as a pitcher, throwing 92 mph with his fastball. But an elbow injury brought an end to that.
So he moved on.
“I never lost the love for the game,” Titus said. “But I wanted to be a big leaguer. I know it’s a goal everyone has. I got to see hundreds of minor league guys that probably won’t get there. It’s a tough road. Once I saw my road would get tougher after my injuries, COVID, getting traded, it was probably not in the cards for me.”
He decided to play the hand he was dealt.
Titus completed work on his bachelor’s degree in applied economics at Bryant in the spring as a Dean’s Scholar with a 3.4 grade-point average. He does private instruction and hitting lessons with high school and college players and is the hitting coordinator for the Connecticut Capitals program based in Hartford.
Where he’ll be in five years he’s not sure, but he’s optimistic baseball will be part of his life.
“There are a lot of ways that I could go,” Titus said. “Maybe at some point I’ll keep grinding in the player development area and a major league team will give me a chance. Maybe a college job opens up. That would be cool for me but right now I’m working to carve my space out in the baseball world. I want to give back for everything I was given. I wasn’t the most naturally talented kid. I had to work hard to get where I was. Maybe I can help someone like me.”
But could there be one more comeback in his bones, perhaps?
“Never say never,” Titus said with a smile. “But my body’s gone through a lot in 24 years. I enjoy staying local and having fun.”
True love never dies.
Carl Adamec is a Journal Inquirer staff writer.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/adamec-jimmy-titus-love-affair-with-baseball-taking-a-new-turn/article_9b38f28c-1f12-11ed-9af7-cb8d5d7488fa.html
| 2022-08-18T20:00:57
|
en
| 0.985384
|
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — When Seneca Landry booked a weekend stay through Airbnb for her sister’s bachelorette party earlier this year, the online listing said they would have the entire Rhode Island home to themselves.
But on the final day of their stay in May, after some of the women thought they heard voices coming from the basement of the Providence home, Landry said a man followed her from outside and tried to force his way in.
“He told me, ‘I live in the basement and I need to check the electric meter,'” Landry told WPRI. “I was like, ‘No one lives in the basement — we have the whole house.’ And he started to get irate, accusing me of lying.”
The women said they barricaded themselves in the top part of the home and called the police to report a break-in as he repeatedly tried to open the door. Providence Police Department body-worn camera footage obtained by WPRI shows several officers responding.
The officers opened a window at the back of the home so one of them could crawl through and open a locked door. With guns drawn, the officers moved through the basement area, eventually arriving at a closed door, where they heard voices on the other side.
“Open the door,” one of the officers shouted, as he banged on the door.
“Why do I need to open the door for you?” A woman yelled back. “You don’t have a [expletive] warrant.”
“I don’t need a warrant, someone broke in here,” the officer responded.
“Nobody broke in here!” the woman screamed. “I live here!”
A police report shows the officers later spoke with a property management company, Michie House, listed as working for the homeowner, and they confirmed the basement floor was rented out to a tenant.
But Landry said that information was never disclosed on the Airbnb listing, and the website showed no mention of the basement tenant. The property was listed as being available as an entire home.
“The basement was locked off, and we should trust that we have the house to ourselves and it’s safe,” Landry said.
Michie House and the homeowner didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. An Airbnb spokesperson said the online booking giant fully refunded Landry after she reported the incident, and the company has since decided to take further action in response to what happened.
“On our platform, we hold our hosts to high standards in terms of providing accurate, quality listings, and when they fall short of those standards, we take appropriate action,” the spokesperson said. “Based on our investigation to date, we have deactivated these listings and are in the process of removing this host from our platform.”
Despite the basement apartment, the property is listed as a single-family home, according to the city assessor’s office. It’s also zoned in a neighborhood where homes must be owner-occupied to be rented out as short-term rentals.
Providence spokesperson Andrew Grande told WPRI that the city’s inspections department had received leases showing the property was no longer a short-term rental. But Airbnb provided a list of links to other online booking platforms that showed the home was still available for rent.
When WPRI attempted to book the property using different dates, some worked and others did not.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is vetting these properties,” Landry said.
Landry and her bachelorette party’s experience is a symptom of what some lawmakers have argued is a largely unregulated and untracked multibillion-dollar industry led by companies such as Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com and others.
For several years, state lawmakers, including Rep. Lauren Carson, D-Newport, have called for the creation of a statewide registry to track short-term rentals, which she argues are businesses and should be treated as such.
“These properties that are engaged with third-party hosting platforms are businesses,” Carson said, adding that law enforcement would have an easier time responding to issues like the one in Providence if they had better information about the properties.
The Rhode Island General Assembly passed a law last year to create a registry, much to the chagrin of third-party platforms, property owners and Gov. Dan McKee, who vetoed the legislation last July.
“I cannot support this bill because it will create additional burden for property owners,” he wrote in his veto message at the time. “Short-term rental concerns, like other property/land use and small business matters, are more effectively addressed at the municipal level.”
In January, the General Assembly voted to override McKee’s veto, with Sen. Dawn Euer, also a Newport Democrat, arguing the short-term rental industry is “thriving,” especially in seaside communities like the one where she lives.
“In places like our districts in Newport, investors have been buying up housing to rent in this way, and the state is not tracking where these businesses are operating,” Euer said at the time. “It’s impossible to ensure safety or compliance with laws when we don’t even know where the rentals are.”
Last month, the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulations issued a set of draft rules to create the registry, which is slated to begin on Oct. 1. According to the rules, each short-term rental would need to register and owners would have to provide details, including contact information, number of rooms for rent and the intended use of the space.
Every owner would also have to pay a two-year, $50 registration fee for “each property advertised for short-term rental.” DBR currently estimates there are about 3,680 short-term rentals listed across the state, meaning the registry would also generate about $184,000 every two years if every owner complied.
For Landry, she said the stay in Providence was a bad experience that caused her so much anxiety that she missed two days of work.
“We did so many great things, but if you mention my sister’s bachelorette, it’s always going to have that dark cloud,” she said.
Maggie Wayland, a Boston resident who also attended the party, described it as “one of the scariest things that had ever happened.” She hopes action can be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
“We want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to another bachelorette party,” she said.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/i-live-in-the-basement-airbnb-stay-turns-chaotic-for-bachelorette-party-in-rhode-island/
| 2022-08-18T20:00:59
|
en
| 0.977863
|
When it comes to sliding down Bernie Brewers’ slide, you can count out Brewers President of Baseball Operations David Stearns.
“I may avoid (sliding) now,” Stearns said Thursday, after seeing Dodgers reporter David Vassegh get injured while attempting to slide earlier this week.
99% of movies don’t have a better ending than this 😂 pic.twitter.com/YXaMhPPfVc
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 18, 2022
“I have not gone down the slide and that’s exactly why,” Stearns joked on Wis. Morning News. “You go down really fast and (a crash) can happen.”
The slide is very popular among reporters from visiting clubs. The Rays’ Tricia Whitaker had a recent mis-hap.
My ear & left side of my head is unwell but otherwise no regrets https://t.co/cu2EZBtBQK
— Tricia Whitaker (@TriciaWhitaker) August 10, 2022
The Brewers’ mascot, Bernie, slides down the slide every time the Crew hits a home run. These recent ‘slide fails’ are just another reason to appreciate the mascot’s ability, according to Stearns.
“Bernie’s a pro. We need lessons from him before we try it ourselves.”
|
https://wtmj.com/homepage-showcase/2022/08/18/brewers-david-stearns-staying-away-from-bernies-slide-after-dodgers-reporter-mishap/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:01
|
en
| 0.902166
|
STORRS — One of the things that convinced quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson to transfer to the UConn football team was the opportunity to help transform the long-suffering program into a consistent winner.
To make his mark on the field, though, the redshirt sophomore must first beat out Tyler Phommachanh, Zion Turner, and Cale Millen to win the starting quarterback job.
Mora gives an update on the four-man quarterback competition. #UConnfootball pic.twitter.com/GhGc3AMBf2
— Kyle Maher (@KyleBMaher) August 17, 2022
“Why are you playing football if you are not coming out and competing every day?” Roberson said Saturday after the team’s scrimmage on the outdoor practice fields on campus. “Competing with our brothers, the guys we love, it's been really fun.”
All four players rotated in and out throughout the team’s scrimmage Saturday and practice Wednesday, with Roberson taking the majority of the first-team reps as he has since he joined the Huskies last spring. Turner, a true freshman, and Phommachanh, a redshirt freshman from Stratford, split reps with the second team.
“No matter what position you are on the depth chart, you always have to have that ‘you're the starter’ mentality because at the end of the day you never know what may happen,” Roberson said Saturday.
Roberson sees his fellow signal-callers as great teammates.
“I'd say we're pretty close,” Roberson said Saturday. “In the locker room, we're joking, we're laughing. It's just a brotherhood.”
The 5-foot-11 Roberson played in four games for Penn State in 2021, completing 11 of 28 passes for 85 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions and also running 12 times for 24 yards.
Roberson didn’t know much about UConn when he entered the transfer portal, but he was sold on joining the Huskies after talking to Jim Mora and hearing the new coach’s plan to rebuild the program. He arrived in Storrs in December.
“This is exactly what I was looking for,” Roberson said Saturday. “I was looking for somewhere that is a brotherhood. I've told Coach Mora and Coach Charlton plenty of times, within about a week or two, I felt like I've been here for a year or two. It's a brotherhood and a bond within that locker room. I believe if you have a brotherhood and a bond in the locker room, everything else is going to take care of itself.
Steven Krajewski, UConn’s primary signal caller in 2021, transferred to Georgia State May 17, leaving the position wide open. Roberson had split first team reps with Krajewski in spring practice, giving him a head start in offensive coordinator Nick Charlton’s offense as Turner and Millen hadn’t yet arrived on campus and Phommachanh’s activity was limited while he recovered from the ACL tear that ended his 2021 season.
Roberson has impressed the Huskies coaching staff with his mobility and strong arm but is still prone to making poor decisions with the ball.
“With (Roberson) we talked about critical errors in the spring, but he would do some outstanding things because he is very gifted,” Charlton said Saturday. “He is one of the best throwers of the football purely that I have been around. But in terms of understanding the game, (he needs to know) when to eat it when the play isn’t there.”
Roberson is also working on taking velocity off of some of his throws in order to improve his accuracy.
“As a football player and as a quarterback, specifically, you can never be complacent,” Roberson said Saturday. “You always can improve on little things and in everything.”
Roberson has built a strong rapport with Charlton, the former head coach at Maine, and feels comfortable running his high-powered attack.
“Coach Charlton is a very down to earth guy,” Roberson said Saturday. “He cracks jokes, but he is also a good coach when it's time to lock in. I respect him, he respects us. He's a really great coach.”
Extra points
Linebackers Jackson Mitchell (wrist) and Ian Swenson (groin) were both full participants in practice after being held out of training sessions last week with minor injuries. … Mora said he and his staff are “getting really ready to make a decision” on who the starting quarterback will be for UConn’s Week 0 matchup with Utah State, but added that it will not be announced publicly.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/college/penn-state-transfer-roberson-on-inside-track-for-starting-uconn-qb-job/article_a538a9bc-1ea9-11ed-8bf2-93039fff0518.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:03
|
en
| 0.980993
|
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — It’s the preferred hairstyle of champion golfer Cameron Smith and is perhaps best known for Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart”-era look. Whether you call it a Kentucky waterfall, Mississippi mudflap or a Missouri compromise, the mullet is now more than just a haircut – it’s a national competition.
Meet two central Ohio boys who have made it into the top 25 of the 2022 USA Mullet Championships, Kid’s Division.
Jameson Redd, of Delaware and William Dale Ramsey, from Pataskala, Ohio, are both currently listed on the Division Finalists’ page of the contest’s website. Getting into the top 25 is quite an accomplishment for the pair, as the Kids Mullet Championships is a national competition with children from all over the country vying for 1st place.
Redd’s mother, Amber Munday, wrote Nexstar’s WCMH when her son became a finalist.
“Jameson has been through a lot this past year and winning this will make his whole world,” read Munday’s email. “The boy has had a mullet most of his life and rocks it like no other!”
In a follow-up note, Munday added that her 4-year-old is “a firecracker,” and delved into the “backstory” of his special hairstyle.
“The mullet started off because of his dad who said ‘every kid needs a mullet at some point in their life,'” she explained. “Well fast forward 2 and a half years later Jameson loves his hair and will cry if you tell him you’re going to cut it off lol.”
Ramsey’s mother, Ashley Ramsey, messaged the station about her son’s plan for the 1st place prize money if he wins.
“He would like to make a donation to Catch A Dream,” Ashley revealed. “They send terminally ill children on hunting and fishing trips and that is something he personally loves. He has the biggest heart of gold!!!”
The 8-year-old Ramsey also had the distinction of having his photo featured in a “TMZ” story about the mullet competition, which his mother commented on in a social media post writing, “TMZ COVER!!! Mind blown”
Online voting in the 2022 Kids Mullet Championships ends Friday, Aug. 19, according to the website. The 1st place prize is the $2,500 “Mullet Mega Money Pot,” and 2nd and 3rd places receive “Mullet Champs Gift Sets.”
The USA Mullet Championships started as a competition for adults in Michigan in 2020. It has now expanded nationwide with multiple divisions.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/kids-mullet-championship-2022-young-finalists-keep-business-up-front-party-in-the-back/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:05
|
en
| 0.972994
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40444821
| 2022-08-18T20:01:07
|
en
| 0.738227
|
The mayor of County Clare, Ireland is in Milwaukee and he has a message for Wisconsinites: “We’re open for business.”
“We want to let people know we’re open,” Tony O’Brien told WTMJ while visiting Solly’s Grille in Glendale. “All of our attractions and scenery are open. Everyone is most welcome.”
O’Brien’s delegation will spend the weekend at Irish Fest promoting County Clare as a tourist destination. He will also be in New London, Wisconsin on Thursday night.
“We are going to formalize our sister city relationship with New London,” O’Brien said. “Pop’s Irish Pub (in New London) has the best corned beef and cabbage.”
If you’re headed to Irish Fest stop by and say hello, O’Brien urged.
“I’ve got a great love of Wisconsin,” he said.
Listen to Wis. Morning News on Friday for more from the mayor!
|
https://wtmj.com/homepage-showcase/2022/08/18/county-clare-mayor-to-wisconsin-we-are-open-for-business/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:07
|
en
| 0.946222
|
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is facing scrutiny from a Connecticut judge, who began hearing testimony Wednesday on whether the lawyer should be disciplined for giving other attorneys for Jones highly sensitive documents, including medical records of relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Attorney Norman Pattis is representing Jones in a defamation lawsuit filed by Sandy Hook families against Jones for calling the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax. Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed.
The Connecticut trial is separate from a trial in Texas that ended earlier this month with a jury awarding more than $49 million to the parents of one of the slain children. There’s also a second lawsuit against Jones in Texas by Sandy Hook families over the hoax claims.
Pattis, who did not testify Wednesday, has denied violating Judge Barbara Bellis’ order in the case to not disclose confidential documents to unauthorized people. Pattis said he was “confident in our defense” in a brief response to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, Christopher Mattei, testified Wednesday that Pattis sent him a text in which Pattis said he may have violated the document disclosure order. After a couple hours of testimony before Bellis in Waterbury, Connecticut, the hearing was continued to next week.
Jury selection before Bellis is set to resume Thursday for a trial on how much in damages Jones should pay the families. Bellis found him liable for damages last November.
According to court documents, Pattis sent a large number of records from the Connecticut defamation case within the past month to the lawyer representing Jones in Texas in the similar lawsuits by Sandy Hook parents over the hoax claims, as well as a bankruptcy case for one of Jones’ companies.
It hasn’t been made clear what documents Pattis allegedly sent. But from what has emerged from court documents, lawyer comments and the Texas lawsuit, they appear to have included confidential medical records of some of the Sandy Hook victims’ relatives as well as texts from Jones’ cell phone.
Jones’ attorneys in Texas mistakenly sent the last two years’ worth of texts from Jones’ cellphone an attorney for a Sandy Hook family. In the recently completed Texas case, Jones had said he didn’t have any texts about Sandy Hook. Legal experts say that episode could open Jones up to a possible perjury charge.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/alex-jones-lawyer-faces-disciplinary-hearing-in-connecticut/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:07
|
en
| 0.97076
|
STORRS — The UConn football team will begin the 2022 season with a new voice calling the plays defensively.
Defensive coordinator Lou Spanos has taken a leave of absence and will step away from his duties for personal reasons, the team announced Thursday. The length of his absence was not immediately clear.
Spanos, 51, was in attendance at the start of the team’s practice Wednesday but appeared to have left early.
The announcement comes just over a week before UConn begins its second season as an independent on Aug. 27 at Utah State. The Huskies are coming off a 1-11 season and haven’t had a winning campaign since 2010.The program is 4-32 in in last three seasons (it did not play in 2020 because of the pandemic) and hasn’t finished with more than three wins since 2015.
Spanos served as interim head coach for the final 10 games last season after Randy Edsall abruptly left the program. He was previously UConn’s defensive coordinator from 2019 through the start of last season.
Mora retained Spanos as defensive coordinator. Spanos previously served as Mora’s defensive coordinator with UCLA in 2012 and 2013.
Spanos also coached in the NFL with Pittsburgh, Washington, and Tennessee. He was a defensive analyst with Alabama in 2018 before joining Mora’s staff at UConn.
UConn’s defense allowed 38.5 points per game last season — ranking 123rd of 130 FBS programs in the country.
For daily updates on high school sports in JI's coverage area, follow Kyle Maher on Twitter: @KyleBMaher, Facebook: Kyle Maher, and Instagram: @KyleBMaher.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/college/uconn-defensive-coordinator-lou-spanos-taking-leave-of-absence/article_c4aa162e-1f11-11ed-b270-87bcf2f3b24e.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:09
|
en
| 0.974916
|
(NEXSTAR) – One of the world’s largest known moths has been reported for the first time in the United States, and experts are now asking residents to report any other sightings of the insect.
Entomologists in Washington state confirmed the discovery of an atlas moth in Bellevue, located west of Seattle, earlier this month. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said the moth, found on the side of a garage, was reported by a University of Washington professor in early July.
After confirming the species with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, experts now believe this is the first time the moth has been detected in the U.S.
The atlas moth is a native of Asia, primarily from India to the Philippines and south to Indonesia, according to the California Academy of Sciences. Its wingspan of 10 inches is second only to the white witch moth of Central and South America, which has a wingspan of 14 inches.
Its wings are also mesmerizing to some and serve as protection from birds looking for a snack. When open, the atlas moth’s wings may appear to instead be two cobra heads, deterring predators.
Despite its size, the atlas moth doesn’t live long. As London’s Natural History Museum explains, the moth’s proboscis – what butterflies and moths use to drink nectar – is very small and unusable. Because it has no way to eat, the moth typically lives only one to two weeks.
The moth gains much of its sustenance as a caterpillar. During this phase, they will eat leaves of cinnamon, citrus fruit, guava, and Jamaican cherry trees. Moth caterpillars produce silk, and the cocoons they leave behind are sometimes used as purses, according to the Museum.
The atlas moth is a federally quarantined pest in the U.S., according to Washington State officials. This means it is illegal to have or sell live atlas moths, regardless of their stage in life, without a permit from the USDA.
This is the only atlas moth reported in Washington so far, meaning there is no evidence a population has been established in the state. Without a known way to trap the moth, officials are now relying on reports from the public to determine if there are more in the state.
Officials haven’t explained how the moth may have found its way to the U.S.
Because it is a tropical species, Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the state’s Department of Agriculture, says its unclear whether the atlas moth could even survive the conditions of the Pacific Northwest.
“USDA is gathering available scientific and technical information about this moth and will provide response recommendations, but in the meantime, we hope residents will help us learn if this was a one-off escapee or whether there might indeed be a population in the area,” Spichiger said in a statement.
If you spot this mesmerizing moth, you are encouraged to take a photo of it, note where you spotted it, and notify your state or local agriculture department.
This rare sighting comes as officials on the other side of the country are warning residents to kill a stunning but invasive bug that could drastically impact certain trees and even grape and wine industries.
Measuring about one inch in size, the spotted lanternfly, with its spots and pair of bright red wings, was first detected in the U.S. in 2014. It has since spread to 11 states, primarily across the Northeast. The spotted lanternfly is a native of China and feasts off of fruit, ornamental, and woody trees, especially the tree of heaven, a fellow invasive species native to China, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
If allowed to spread, experts say the spotted lanternfly “could seriously impact the country’s grape, orchard, and logging industries.”
The Department of Agriculture considers most states at risk of being impacted by the spotted lanternfly. Using the department’s Pest Tracker, you can determine if your state could be a suitable home for the invasive bug, as well as 20 other “targeted Hungry Pests.”
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/one-of-the-worlds-largest-moths-has-been-spotted-in-the-us-for-the-first-time/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:11
|
en
| 0.960873
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40445267
| 2022-08-18T20:01:13
|
en
| 0.738227
|
UPDATE: All lanes of Highway 145 have reopened.
ORIGINAL STORY
MILWAUKEE – Highway 145 Northbound was completely shutdown on Thursday afternoon for reports of a shooting.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office tweeted just after noon that deputies were investigating a report of shots being fired from one vehicle to another.
No injuries were reported.
INCIDENT ALERT: A full freeway closure is underway on NB Hwy-145, with all traffic diverted off at Fon du Lac Ave, while MCSO investigates a reported shooting from one vehicle into another. No injuries have been reported. Deputies are on the scene seeking evidence.
— Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (@MilwCoSheriff) August 18, 2022
|
https://wtmj.com/homepage-showcase/2022/08/18/highway-145-northbound-closed-for-reported-shooting/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:13
|
en
| 0.962704
|
(The Hill) – Scientists at Northwestern University say they have devised a method for breaking apart some of the infamously unbreakable toxins known as “forever chemicals.”
These chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), earned the “forever” qualifier due to their propensity to linger in the human body and the environment. There are thousands of types of PFAS, none of which are naturally occurring and many of which can take decades to degrade.
But a group of chemists at Northwestern say they have developed a simple method that employs low temperatures and inexpensive reagents to break down two major classes of PFAS, while leaving behind only harmless byproducts.
They published their findings — which they acknowledged as a “seemingly impossible” but potentially “powerful solution” — in Science on Thursday afternoon.
“PFAS has become a major societal problem,” lead author William Dichtel, a professor of chemistry at Northwestern, said in a statement. “Even just a tiny, tiny amount of PFAS causes negative health effects, and it does not break down.”
Scientists have already found connections between PFAS exposure and a long list of illnesses, including testicular cancer, thyroid disease and kidney cancer.
Notorious for their presence in jet fuel firefighting foam and industrial discharge, PFAS are also found in many household products, including nonstick pans, waterproof apparel and cosmetics.
“We can’t just wait out this problem,” Dichtel said. “We wanted to use chemistry to address this problem and create a solution that the world can use. It’s exciting because of how simple — yet unrecognized — our solution is.”
The reason that PFAS are usually so indestructible is that they are made up of many carbon-fluorine bonds, which are the strongest such bonds in organic chemistry, the authors explained.
But the researchers said they identified a weakness that enabled them to disrupt this formidable attachment.
While PFAS contain long “tails” of powerful carbon-fluorine bonds, at one end of these molecules is often a “head group” of charged oxygen atoms, the authors explained.
By heating the compounds in a solvent called dimethyl sulfide with a common reagent called sodium hydroxide, the scientists said they “decapitated the head group” — exposing a vulnerable, reactive PFAS tail.
“Although carbon-fluorine bonds are super strong, that charged head group is the Achilles heel,” Dichtel said.
This head group “falls off and sets off a cascade of reactions that ultimately breaks these PFAS compounds down to relatively benign products,” the professor explained at a live-streamed press conference this week.
The byproducts include fluoride ions and “small carbon-containing products that are in many cases found in nature already and do not pose serious health concerns,” he added.
Dichtel’s team successfully degraded 10 types of PFAS from two classes: perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids — PFCAs — and perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids, or PFECAs.
Among the compounds they were able to break down were perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and GenX — two of the most infamous types of PFAS.
“The importance of this understanding is that it really provides for the first time a way to map these reactions out,” Dichtel said at the press conference.
Dichtel and first co-author Brittany Trang, who recently completed her PhD in his laboratory, worked alongside Ken Houk, an organic chemistry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and Yuli Li, a student at China’s Tianjin University, who employed powerful computational methods to simulate PFAS degradation.
Understanding the path to degradation, according to Dichtel, is important to the future development of “actual practical methods to remove these pollutants” from contaminated water.
Dichtel said he could envision this type of technique being integrated in the future with technologies that extract PFAS from water, such as reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis pulls contaminants out of water by forcing the offending molecules through a semi-permeable membrane — and while this process purifies the water, the PFAS is left behind as waste.
But an approach like the one devised in Dichtel’s laboratory could be applied to this waste stream and break down concentrated quantities of PFAS, he explained.
Acknowledging that other PFAS degradation methods have been emerging, Dichtel said that the uniqueness of their method lies in its inexpensive nature and low temperature requirements.
Now that they’ve successfully broken down these 10 types of PFAS, the scientists said they plan to test out the strategy on others.
They next plan to focus on another large class of PFAS called perfluoroalkyl sulfonates, which include common compounds like perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, according to Dichtel.
With each class, however, comes a different head group that the scientists need to figure out how to decapitate. But if they “can knock that sulfonated head group off the molecule,” the compounds should degrade through similar pathways, the professor explained.
Although it’s difficult to anticipate exactly what will be required to eliminate that head group, Dichtel said that they are exploring several different possibilities. And identifying that mechanism would be one step closer to figuring out how to break down the thousands of types of PFAS that are lurking in the environment.
“PFAS pollution is so pervasive, and it is in it is in more than just drinking water,” Dichtel added. “It’s in soils, it’s in dust, it’s airborne — we really polluted the whole world with this stuff.”
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/scientists-unveil-method-to-destroy-certain-forever-chemicals/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:14
|
en
| 0.957504
|
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon appears to be getting the TikTok bug, joining other companies seeking to hold consumers’ attention by introducing replicas of the popular social platform.
The e-commerce giant has been testing a feed on its app that enables shoppers to scroll through TikTok-like photos and videos of products posted by other users.
Using the feature, called Inspire, customers can like, save and share posts of products, and purchase items directly from the feed, according to Watchful Technologies, an Israeli-based artificial-intelligence firm that analyzes apps and has tracked the feature.
The test doesn’t mean Amazon will roll out the widget to the public in its current form — or at all. Alyssa Bronikowski, an Amazon spokesperson, declined to say if the company has plans to introduce the feature to all its customers. In a statement, Bronikowski said the company is “constantly testing new features to help make customers’ lives a little easier.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the test. Citing an anonymous source, the Journal also said the company is testing the feature among a small number of Amazon employees.
Amazon often experiments with new features, sometimes even targeting its tests to specific regions. Amid regulatory pressure about its private-label business, the company had been testing how to identify its brands in search results by tagging them with badges such as “Amazon brand” or “Exclusive to Amazon,” the research firm Marketplace Pulse discovered earlier this year.
In its current form, the experimental TikTok-like feed mostly shows photos, said Daniel Buchuk, a researcher with Watchful Technologies. But if the feature is rolled out, Buchuk suspects the feed will be video-heavy as Amazon sellers create content to make it more engaging for customers.
The corporate parents of Google and Facebook, the two biggest sellers in digital advertising, already have been pushing their own TikTok clones in bids to keep eyeballs glued to their services so they can continue to boost their revenue.
Google’s YouTube video service rolled a “Shorts” feature limited to clips of a minute or less last year in the U.S. after initially testing it in India during 2020. By June of this year, Google said YouTube Shorts was attracting more than 1.5 billion logged-in users each month, although analysts believe TikTok’s popularity is undercutting ad sales at the video site.
Those concerns were elevated by Google’s latest quarterly results, which revealed YouTube’s year-over-year growth in ad sales had slowed to its slowest pace since public disclosures of the site’s revenue began.
Meanwhile, Facebook now offers its own take on TikTok, a short-form video feature called Reels, on its Instagram app as well as its main social networking service, which are now operate as part of Meta Platforms. Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Reels accounted for more than 20% of the time that people spend on Instagram.
But it’s not clear that engagement is helping to drive ad sales after Meta recently reported its first year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue since Facebook went public a decade ago.
___
AP Business Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/amazon-testing-tiktok-style-feed-on-its-app-ai-firm-says/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:14
|
en
| 0.961494
|
GLASTONBURY — Thanks to DNA testing and a history of clean drug tests, a criminal charge has been dropped against a Glastonbury man whose 3-year-old daughter showed up at daycare with a bag of marijuana in her lunchbox last year.
Andre Christopher Lefrancois, 31, of 214 Shoddy Mill Road, had been charged with risk of injury to a child in the incident.
The charge was nolled this week in Manchester Superior Court, records show.
Staff members at Our Children’s Place at 30 Quarry Road found the bag of marijuana in the girl’s lunchbox on June 10, 2021, police said when Lefrancois was arrested a year ago.
Lefrancois’ lawyer, Mark L. Goodman of New Haven, said Wednesday that, at his request, the state Forensic Science Laboratory did DNA testing on the bag that contained the marijuana. He said the testing found so much DNA that it wasn’t possible to make an identification.
Moreover, Goodman said, Lefrancois had been taking drug tests in connection with his job, which had come back negative.
With that information, Goodman said, he convinced the prosecutor that Lefrancois wasn’t the person who put the marijuana in the lunchbox.
“His reputation is important to him,” Goodman said of Lefrancois.
Lefrancois was free on $5,000 bond while the case was in court.
For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/glastonbury/charge-dropped-in-daycare-pot-case/article_730ff226-1f01-11ed-8428-e343d27faa68.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:16
|
en
| 0.969453
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40445509
| 2022-08-18T20:01:19
|
en
| 0.738227
|
CLAY COUNTY, Iowa (KCAU) – An Iowa woman found dead in a ditch outside her home died as the result of multiple dog bite injuries, authorities have confirmed.
According to a release from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, authorities received a 911 call Monday afternoon from a person who believed he had come across a motorcycle incident south of Rossie, Iowa.
The caller said he found a woman in the ditch but could not get close to her due to several big dogs near her. Deputies arrived and found the woman, identified as 43-year-old Mindy Kiepe, dead. Kiepe, 43, was a resident of rural Rossie, Iowa.
The incident occurred just a short distance from her farm residence driveway, authorities said.
Kiepe was taken to the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. The State Medical Examiner ruled on Wednesday that Kiepe’s death was due to multiple dog bite injuries and not a motorcycle crash.
After further investigation, it was determined that five Great Danes owned by Kiepe had caused her death. With the assistance of a veterinarian, the five dogs were euthanized.
Additional details about the incident, including what may have prompted the dogs to fatally bite Kiepe, have not been released. The Sheriff’s Office declined to provide further information to Nexstar’s KCAU.
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/sheriff-5-dogs-euthanized-after-iowa-woman-found-dead-in-a-ditch-with-multiple-bites/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:20
|
en
| 0.984973
|
Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
This is an artist's conception of the 44-unit apartment building that Vessel Technologies Inc. wants to build on a vacant lot of less than an acre at 51 Kreiger Lane in Glastonbury.
GLASTONBURY – Representatives of the development company that wants to put up a 44-unit apartment building in a commercial area of town under Connecticut’s affordable housing law have met with town staff members, who expressed no health, safety, or welfare concerns, the developers’ lawyer said Thursday.
The lawyer, Peter J. Alter, made the comment at a morning meeting of the Plans Review Subcommittee of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, held via Zoom teleconference.
Jonathan Mullen, a planner in the town’s community development office, also participated in the meeting. He didn’t dispute Alter’s comment about the staff reaction to the proposed apartment building, which the developer wants to build on a vacant lot of less than an acre at 51 Kreiger Lane.
Alter’s point was important because Connecticut’s affordable housing law permits the courts to uphold a denial of an affordable housing proposal only if the local zoning commission proves the denial “is necessary to protect substantial public interests in health, safety or other matters which the commission may legally consider.”
The law exempts affordable housing proposals from most other zoning restrictions. The Kreiger Lane lot is in a “planned commerce” zone, where multifamily housing isn’t ordinarily permitted. But under the affordable housing law that isn’t a basis for a denial.
The proposal is at a very early stage. The developer, Vessel Technologies Inc. of New York, hasn’t even submitted a formal proposal to the town yet.
But the lack of health, safety, and welfare objections from town staff members at the initial meeting suggests that there are no obvious issues standing in the way of approval at this point.
Alter said the developer had brought the proposal to the Plans Review Subcommittee to get feedback on the plan before filing a formal application. But he didn’t get any. Neither of the subcommittee members participating in the meeting, Chairman Robert Zanlungo and member Sharon H. Purtill, had any questions or comments on the apartment plan.
The building is to contain 44 one-bedroom apartments, with 14 set aside as “affordable” for 40 years – seven meeting affordability criteria for people making up to 80% of the area’s median income and seven meeting those criteria for people making up to 60% of the median.
As to the 30 apartments not subject to those restrictions, Josh Levy, the executive vice president of Vessel Technologies, says they are expected to start “hundreds of dollars below” the starting rent of $2,160 per month in the nearby Tannery apartment complex.
Alter told the Plans Review Subcommittee that the building will be “completely sustainable,” with solar panels on the roof – and that tenants won’t receive electric bills.
He said the building is served by public water and sewers “with adequate capacity for both.”
Alter said the building is aimed at the “missing middle” of the housing market, working people like police officers, teachers and town employees who make too much to qualify for government subsidized housing but not enough to afford to buy a house.
He said the colors on the exterior of the building can be changed and that there is “some flexibility” in landscaping but that the building design is “not amenable to architectural changes.”
That’s because Vessel uses a standardized design with prefabrication and modular construction.
“While the time periods vary based on individual municipalities and their inspection processes and timelines, a typical building can be constructed in as little as 6-months,” Levy said in an email. “A typical building can be delivered on as few as 5 trucks.”
For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.
Alex covers Glastonbury, as well as Hartford Superior Court, the federal courts, and the appellate courts, and handles freedom-of-information cases. Alex joined the JI in September 1985. He graduated from Brown University, and enjoys bicycle riding.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Your town's guide is inside
Available July 15, 2022 - The annual Journal Inquirer Discovery edition features an in-depth summary of all 18 towns' services, schools, contacts, clubs, and important locations - plus articles and art!
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/glastonbury/no-problems-seen-with-glastonbury-affordable-apartment-plan/article_549a373a-1f0f-11ed-a9f6-6f9820083641.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:22
|
en
| 0.946912
|
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Anne Heche died from inhalation injury and burns after her fiery car crash and the death was ruled an accident, according to coroner’s results released Wednesday.
Heche, 53, also had a fractured sternum caused by “blunt trauma,” according to information on the website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.
A full autopsy report was still being completed, the coroner’s office said.
The Emmy-winning film and television actor was removed from life support Sunday at a burn center. She was injured when her car jumped a curb and smashed into a West Los Angeles home on Aug. 5. The car and the home burst into flames. Only Heche was injured.
Heche suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury” caused by a lack of oxygen, according to a statement released last week on behalf of her family and friends.
She was declared brain-dead but was kept on life support until her organs could be donated.
Detectives looking into the crash had said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche. However, police ended their investigation after she was declared brain-dead.
The coroner’s office listed Aug. 11 as her date of death.
Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” in the late 1980s before becoming one of the hottest stars in Hollywood in the late 1990s. She was a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films opposite actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/anne-heches-death-ruled-accidental-after-fiery-car-crash/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:21
|
en
| 0.98646
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40445776
| 2022-08-18T20:01:25
|
en
| 0.738227
|
PLAINS, Ga. (WRBL) – Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary. They are the longest married presidential couple in history. The former president says his “biggest secret is to marry the right person if you want to have a long-lasting marriage.” He also says they never go to bed angry and they read the Bible together every night.
WATCH: Carter 75th Anniversary Celebration
Trending now
Central Texas Events
Close
Thanks for signing up!
Watch for us in your inbox.
Subscribe Now
|
https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/watch-carter-75th-anniversary-celebration/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:26
|
en
| 0.970813
|
MANCHESTER—The Board of Directors Tuesday night approved parts of the Charter Revision Commission’s final report, including a direct race for mayor rather than having the top vote-getter take the seat, but rejected some others.
The board voted along party lines to accept the bulk of the report, including changing the title of General Manager to Town Manager and the expansion of the Planning and Zoning Commission to a total of nine seats.
Five other items were also voted on, with the board rejecting the elimination of the joint annual meeting between the Board of Directors and Board of Education; compensation changes for members of the Board of Directors; and how nominations are made to boards and commissions. The direct election of the Mayor and changes to residency requirements for top administrative officers were approved.
The Board spent the bulk of its time deliberating revisions on how directors may nominate individuals to boards and commissions, ultimately rejecting the change in a 5-4 vote.
If adopted, the revision would have required that nominations for minority party vacancies be made by a member of the Board of Directors of the same political party affiliation. It would have also required the majority party to not make more nominations than the maximum allowed.
Deputy Mayor Sarah Jones, Secretary Tim Bergin, and directors Pamela Floyd-Cranford, Jessee Muñiz Poland, and Dennis Schain, all Democrats, voted against the revision.
Republican directors said the revision would protect the power of the minority party to fill its seats on boards and commissions.
Bergin said he supported requiring nominations for minority party vacancies to be made by directors of the same party, but felt that the latter part of the revision was an overreach.
“There’s no instance I can think of in which the minority party was not allowed to nominate someone for a position,” Bergin said.
Mayor Jay Moran, the lone Democrat in favor, said he was unsure of how to vote as he felt the revision would be overridden by state statute, but that the Charter Revision Commission deemed it worth recommending.
Compensation changes for Board of Directors members, meanwhile, were rejected in a 5-4 vote. Bergin, Floyd-Cranford, Jones, Poland, and Schain voted against the revision.
The proposal called for increasing compensation of the Mayor to $7,500 and other directors to $5,000 and to adjust compensation every other year by the most recent Consumer Price Index.
Director Jacqueline Crespan, the Republican minority leader, said she voted in favor as a “compromise.”
Jones said she was not opposed to raising compensation of the minority leader, but that such a position with extra compensation should be enumerated in the charter.
Director Zachary Reichelt, a Republican, said he felt it would be more appropriate if all directors received $5,000, equally.
The revision to eliminate the required annual joint meeting between the Board of Directors and the Board of Education was rejected 6-3 along party lines.
Jones said she was disappointed by the suggestion that the meeting requirement was unnecessary.
“It was not our thinking that it was an undue burden on the boards, but rather a sign of good governance,” Jones said.
The revision to provide for the direct election of the Mayor was approved 7-2 without any discussion.
If incorporated into the Town Charter, the change would allow a candidate to run directly for the seat, instead of the top vote-getter being appointed Mayor. The Mayor would remain a member of the Board of Directors, and the unsuccessful mayoral candidate would be in the running for the Board of Directors using the same votes, as long as they had enough to earn a seat.
Reichelt and Republican Director Peter Conyers voted against the revision.
The removal of residency requirements for certain administrative positions, including the school superintendent, police chief, fire chief, public works director, and water and sewer superintendent, was approved 5-4, with Bergin, Conyers, Reichelt, and Schain voting against. Those in support cited the difficult job market, while those against felt such employees should be a part of the community they are entrusted with running.
Joseph covers East Hartford and South Windsor. He joined the JI in July 2021. Joseph graduated from the University of Connecticut and he is an avid guitarist and coffee enthusiast.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/manchester/directors-ok-some-charter-revisions/article_f5221c3e-1f0c-11ed-b1dc-23e6ce46cb2a.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:28
|
en
| 0.976204
|
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Bank of America said the recent debate over whether the U.S. economy is technically in a recession or not is missing the point. What matters is that current economic conditions are negatively impacting those who are most vulnerable.
“Recession is a word. Whether we are in a recession or not is really not the important thing. It’s what it feels like for the people going through this,” Brian Moynihan told The Associated Press during an interview at the Bank of America Tower in midtown Manhattan, where he talked about inflation and the current state of the economy, as well as the health of the U.S. consumer.
The issue of whether the U.S. economy is in recession has become politicized heading into the 2022 mid-term elections. While inflation is at a level not seen since the early 1980s and U.S. consumer confidence is falling, other measures of the economy, such as the monthly jobs report, are still strong. In response to high consumer and wholesale prices, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates aggressively in hopes of taming inflation while not causing too much economic damage.
Moynihan, who has been BofA’s CEO since 2010, would not say the U.S. economy is in recession, saying that declaration will have to come from “a bunch of people in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” a reference the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonpartisan organization that determines when recessions begin and end.
However, Moynihan cited two major issues negatively impacting average Americans — gas prices and rent — as reasons to be concerned. The national average for a gallon of gasoline ballooned to just over $5 in June before falling back below $4 last week. Moynihan appeared more concerned about the rising cost of rents, tend not to fluctuate like gas prices.
“Gas prices are coming back down, but rents are going up 10, 12, 15 percent. And rent can end up taking 40% of these households’ income,” Moynihan said. Rent accounts for about one-third of the government’s Consumer Price Index, which showed a year-over-year increase of 8.5% in July.
“We are worried about, for the U.S. broad-based consumer, is the increased rents as we go into the natural turn of rents (typically in the fall with school year),” he added.
The average U.S. consumer entered this period of high inflation and economic turbulence in healthy financial shape. The U.S. government spent trillions of dollars to extend unemployment benefits and other forms of pandemic relief. In response, Americans were paying down debts faster than historic norms and had higher than normal levels of savings. Those economic programs largely ended last year.
Moynihan said he still believes, as he’s said in previous interviews, that overall the American consumer is still in good shape and able withstand the economic turbulence. He says Americans who have a fixed-rate mortgage largely have locked in low borrowing costs and that credit card balances, while climbing, are still lower as a percentage of household income.
“We see no deterioration in consumer behavior from the beginning of the year until now,” he said. He did say there’s been some slowdown in the amount of money Americans are saving, which is likely due to rising costs.
Moynihan said companies are still raising wages as well, which is helping Americans cope. Bank of America itself has raised wages to help its 200,000-plus employees counter rising costs. The company gave raises to employees making less than $100,000 of as much as 7%, depending on longevity. That does not include the company’s typical merit raise cycle as well.
“(The raises) are helping people deal with this,” he said.
___
AP Financial Literacy Writer Adriana Morga contributed to this report from New York.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/bofa-ceo-struggling-americans-feel-they-are-in-a-recession/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:28
|
en
| 0.975088
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40445977
| 2022-08-18T20:01:31
|
en
| 0.738227
|
VERNON — The Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to appoint Karen Colt as the newest Board of Education member.
Ben covers Vernon and Stafford for the Journal Inquirer.
Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
VERNON — The Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to appoint Karen Colt as the newest Board of Education member.
Colt, a Democrat, will replace Jennifer Buckler, and serve the rest of her term through Nov. 2023.
Buckler resigned on August 1 because she was moving to Tolland, said Town Democratic Chairwoman Nicole Bornhorst on Wednesday.
Colt, a resident of Rockville since 1976, has worked with children and adolescents with mental health and substance abuse issues for over 20 years, according to her resume.
“I feel excited,” Colt said Wednesday, adding, “I’m honored to have been appointed and I’m excited to contribute.”
According to Colt’s resume, she has worked since 2013 as Program Director of the Rivereast Treatment Center at Natchaug Hospital, and has also served as a social worker with the Eastern Connecticut Health Network.
In addition to her work, Colt also served on the Advisory Board of Manchester Community College’s Drug and Alcohol Recovery Counseling Program from 2012 to 2015, and has volunteered with Vernon’s fire department as a junior advisor.
Colt said Wednesday that she raised her children in Vernon, and was involved in their school activities as they were growing up.
She also said that now, she intends to learn more about what goes into the education of children in Vernon. She added that she would also like to focus on children’s mental health in her role on the school board, and be an advocate for children.
“I just hope to be an honest voice,” Colt said on Wednesday.
Ben covers Vernon and Stafford for the Journal Inquirer.
Reporter
Ben covers Vernon and Stafford for the Journal Inquirer. He joined the JI in September 2021 and graduated from UConn. In addition to reporting, he is an avid hiker and guitarist, with his prized possession being his Fender Jazzmaster.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Available July 15, 2022 - The annual Journal Inquirer Discovery edition features an in-depth summary of all 18 towns' services, schools, contacts, clubs, and important locations - plus articles and art!
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/vernon/colt-appointed-to-vernon-school-board/article_8f5f6b8a-1f0d-11ed-8747-4731d822b00e.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:34
|
en
| 0.968058
|
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation and homeowners of the houses built by the program, in an area of New Orleans among the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, have reached a $20.5 million settlement.
The Times-Picayune ‘ The New Orleans Advocate reported Wednesday that, pending approval by a judge, each of the program’s 107 homeowners will be eligible to receive $25,000 as reimbursement for previous repairs of the shoddy homes. Under the settlement reached Tuesday evening, the remaining money is to be divided up according to the condition of each of the structures.
The settlement represents a major milestone in the long-running saga of homes bleaguered by leaks, rot and other defects.
In 2007, two years after Katrina devastated Louisiana’s most populous city, the Hollywood celebrity founded the futuristic housing development organization. The goal was to replace lost housing in the city’s flood-ruined Lower Ninth Ward with 150 avant-garde dwellings that were storm-safe and energy-efficient. The homes were made available at an average price of $150,000 to residents who received resettlement financing, government grants and donations from the foundation itself.
The project was praised initially, but 10 years and more than $26 million later, construction had halted. Residents reported sagging porches, mildewing wood and leaky roofs.
Make It Right acknowledged flaws in the architecture at least twice. First, in 2015, lawyers representing the organization sued the manufacturer of an ecologically friendly, water-resistant wood for $500,000, when the product proved to be no match for south Louisiana weather.
In 2018, Make It Right lawyers sued its own managing architect over what it said where millions of dollars in design defects. In 2021, the organization also sued its former executive director along with the former treasurer and other officials, accusing them of mismanaging the project.
As residents’ complaints mounted, they filed a class-action lawsuit against Make It Right in 2018. The suit alleged that many of the houses were poorly built with inadequate materials. According to the suit, some of the homes suffered from rain leakage that caused rot, structural damage and mold. The suit also catalogued faulty heating, problems with cooling and ventilation systems, electrical malfunctions and plumbing mishaps.
Tuesday’s settlement papers point out that responsibility for the defects to the homes has been “vigorously” contested. Attorney Ron Austin, who represented residents in the suit against Pitt and his charitable organization, framed the outcome in David versus Goliath terms.
“This is one of those scenarios when the impossible became possible,” Austin said.
The distribution of settlement funds to individual houses will be overseen by Global Green, a California-based nonprofit organization devoted to ecological concerns. The Times-Picayune ‘ The New Orleans Advocate reached out to Global Green for comment.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/brad-pitt-foundation-reaches-settlement-over-louisiana-homes/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:34
|
en
| 0.967214
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40446087
| 2022-08-18T20:01:38
|
en
| 0.738227
|
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
The Big Ten’s new $7 billion media rights deal will string the conference’s top football games across three major networks each week, creating an NFL-style television schedule on Saturdays.
The Big Ten announced Thursday it has reached seven-year agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC to share the rights to the conference’s football and basketball games.
The deals go into effect in 2023, expire in 2030 and eventually will allow the conference’s soon-to-be 16 member universities to share more than $1 billion per year, pushing the total value of the agreements past $7 billion, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Big Ten and network officials were not disclosing financial details publicly, but the deal is believed to be the richest ever on an annual basis for a college sports property. The large increase in revenue to the conference won’t kick in until the third year of the deal and gradually will increase over the final five years.
“I think what it does, it affords us the opportunity to make sure that we can continually do the things we need to do to take care of our student-athletes, to fortify our institutions, to build our programs,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren told the AP.
The deal sets a new benchmark in the college sports arms race, which is based heavily on TV money. The Southeastern Conference has a deal with ESPN that starts in 2024 and is also worth upward of $7 billion, but over 10 years. That deal was announced before the conference moved to expand to 16 schools with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma.
The Big Ten currently has 14 members, stretching from Rutgers and Maryland on the East Coast to Nebraska across the Midwest, and covering some of the biggest media markets in the country, including New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
In 2024, Southern California and UCLA are scheduled to join the Big Ten, adding the Los Angeles market to its footprint.
Former Fox Sports President Bob Thompson said adding teams from the second-largest media market in the country (5.8 million homes) had to make the conference even more appealing to TV networks.
Plus, the West Coast schools should help increase what conference can make off its cable network in that part of the country.
“The economics of that alone are rather large,” Thompson said. “If you get 3 million people all of sudden get the Big Ten network as part of their expanded basic (cable package), that’s $3 million a month. Compared to what they had been getting which is like $3 million a year.”
With ESPN out of the equation for Big Ten football after a 40-year relationship, the league is set to lock down three prominent time slots with its network partners.
Fox, which has shared the rights to the Big Ten with ESPN since 2017 and owns a majority stake in BTN, will continue to feature noon Eastern time as its primary game of the day.
Fox and its cable network FS1 will have the rights to more than two dozen football games, at least 45 men’s basketball games and women’s basketball games.
CBS, starting in 2024, will replace the Southeastern Conference game of the week at 3:30 p.m. Eastern — that is moving to ABC — with a Big Ten game.
CBS will carry 14-15 Big Ten football games a season from 2024-29, including a Black Friday game. Unlike with its longtime SEC deal, CBS will not be guaranteed the first selection of football games each week with the Big Ten. Fox, CBS and NBC will hold a draft for games, allowing each network some opportunities for first selection in a given week.
In 2023, CBS will carry seven Big Ten games while it still has the SEC on CBS at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The network will continue to be the home of Big Ten men’s basketball, including the conference tournament semifinals and finals, and it will begin airing the women’s basketball tournament championship.
“When we did our financial analysis, and looked at the major markets — even before USC and UCLA — and the national footprint of the Big Ten, it was a very attractive deal for us,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. “And I think the money is fair. It’s unprecedented. They’re the largest deals in the history of college football.”
Starting in 2023, NBC will launch “Big Ten Saturday Night” in prime time and broadcast 15-16 games per season. The agreement with NBC also includes eight football games and dozens of men’s and women’s basketball games per season to be exclusively streamed on Peacock, the network’s online subscription service. NBC also has a separate, longstanding broadcast deal with Notre Dame, which remains unaffiliated with a conference.
Each network will air the Big Ten’s championship football game at least once during the length of the deals, with Fox securing the rights to four (2023, ’25, ’27 and ’29).
Warren spent more than two decades working as an executive in the front office of three NFL teams. He said the Big Ten’s vision for its new broadcast deal was modeled after an NFL Sunday, with three consecutive marquee games across three different networks, airing from noon to nearly midnight Eastern.
“I just thought where we were in the Big Ten, we had a very unique opportunity because we have the institutions that could do it,” Warren said. “We have the fan avidity. We have the breadth, we have the historical foundation, that we were in a position to really do something unique with three powerful brands in Fox, CBS and NBC.”
The Big Ten’s alignment with three traditional networks shows that while streaming might be the future, linear television is not dead.
“It may be dying in certain aspects. You could say things like scripted dramas. Sitcoms. But for sports and news, it’s never been stronger,” Thompson said.
“The conferences or leagues are a little reticent to make that big of a jump from the wide, wide distribution of broadcast television,” he added. “Now you’re going to jump to the streaming service, which in the big scheme of things, the numbers are still relatively small in terms of how many people watch and use them.”
___
Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/b1g-deal-big-ten-lands-7-billion-nfl-style-tv-contracts-6/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:16
|
en
| 0.96665
|
VERNON — Vernon will hold two free vaccine clinics, today and Aug. 24, officials announced.
Both clinics will be held at 375 Hartford Turnpike from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. No appointments are necessary, and all eligible ages are welcome to receive a vaccine or booster shot, officials said.
Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be available at the clinics.
The North Central District Health Department and Griffin Health will hold the clinics, officials said.
“This is a great opportunity for parents who want to get their children vaccinated before school begins,” said Communication Specialist Dave Owens.
Ben covers Vernon and Stafford for the Journal Inquirer.
|
https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/vernon/vernon-to-hold-vaccine-clinic-thursday-next-week/article_d81d9662-1f0d-11ed-96a3-7b587376c2d4.html
| 2022-08-18T20:01:40
|
en
| 0.93466
|
BOSTON (AP) — Doctors and other staffers at Boston Children’s Hospital are being threatened with violence over its surgical program for transgender youths, administrators said, and other U.S. children’s hospitals are also being harassed online.
Boston Children’s is home to the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States. It became the focus of far-right social media accounts, news outlets and bloggers last week after they found informational YouTube videos published by the hospital weeks ago about surgical offerings for transgender patients.
The hospital swiftly removed the videos. It said in a statement Tuesday that it is working with law enforcement to protect its staff and patients and to “hold the offenders accountable,” adding that it rejects the “false narrative” spreading online.
Some of the same social media accounts are now shifting their attention — and that of their millions of followers — to similar gender care programs at children’s hospitals in Pittsburgh and Phoenix. Those hospitals did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.
Transition treatment is under attack in many states, with some labeling it a form of child abuse or barring Medicaid coverage. Critics argue that safety should be well established before subjecting youths to potentially irreversible treatments.
But many medical groups support allowing varying types of medical treatment for transgender youths, citing evidence that it can improve their well-being, although rigorous long-term research on benefits and risks is lacking.
Republican candidates have also been disparaging transgender people in midterm election campaigns in a strategy designed to motivate the conservative base and sway swing voters, political observers say.
C.P. Hoffman, senior policy counsel at the National Center for Transgender Equality, said this is the first time they’ve heard of intense, targeted online attacks on children’s hospitals, though other organizations that provide services to trans people have faced significant harassment.
“It really makes one worry about the safety of trans youth and their families and the individuals who provide services to them,” they said.
The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition also condemned the attacks as baseless claims continuing an assault on trans youth and trans health care that is spreading across the U.S.
“Attacking children and those who care for them for seeking appropriate medical care is an indefensible position and at its core, an ill-fated attempt to erase transgender people from public life,” the coalition said in a statement.
The critics cited the videos and snippets of previous language on the hospital’s website to claim that Boston Children’s Hospital was improperly performing gender-affirming surgeries, such as hysterectomies, on minors and “young” children. The response was swift and relentless, with a barrage of users demanding the hospital be shut down and calling the surgeries “mutilation,” “barbarism” and “child abuse,” while accusing its doctors of engaging in malpractice or illegal activity.
The hospital said it has received “a large volume” of hostile online messages, phone calls and harassing emails, including the threats of violence.
“We are deeply concerned by these attacks on our clinicians and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community,” the hospital said in its statement.
The hospital has updated language across its websites to emphasize that to qualify for most gender-affirming surgical procedures, patients must be at least 18 and meet certain criteria, including undergoing intensive medical and mental health evaluations and submitting letters of support.
Some of the online critics pointed to information that once appeared on the hospital’s website that said to qualify for vaginoplasty at Boston Children’s, one must be at least 17 and meet certain criteria, as well as language for chest reconstruction and breast augmentation that remains on the website that says patients must be at least 15 and meet certain criteria.
Vaginoplasty is the creation of a vagina from existing genital tissue. A gender-affirming hysterectomy is the removal of the uterus and fallopian tubes, which can precede a phalloplasty, the surgical creation of a penis.
The hospital said it does not perform genital surgeries as part of gender-affirming care on a patient under age 18. It said that for surgical consultation, a patient must be 17 years old and 18 to 35 years old at the time of surgery.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a global group that sets standards for medical care of trans youths and adults, recently lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition treatment, including sex hormones and surgeries.
The new standards support starting hormones at age 14, two years earlier than before, and some surgeries at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment.
The Endocrine Society generally recommends starting those treatments a year or two later but is also updating its guidance. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association are among other groups that support allowing medical treatment for transgender youths but don’t offer age-specific guidance.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/childrens-hospitals-harassed-over-transgender-care-programs/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:42
|
en
| 0.955146
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/articles/40446218
| 2022-08-18T20:01:44
|
en
| 0.738227
|
PARIS (AP) — After a summer of drought, heat waves and forest fires, violent storms are whipping France and neighboring countries and have flooded Paris subway stations, snarled traffic and disrupted the president’s agenda.
Winds over 100 kph (60 mph) were recorded at the top of the Eiffel Tower during a flash flood Tuesday, and similar winds were forecast Wednesday in the southeast.
Hail hammered Paris and other regions in Tuesday’s sudden storm. Rainwater gushed down metro station stairwells and onto platforms, and cars sloshed along embankments where the Seine River broke its banks.
In southern France, thunderstorms overnight and Wednesday flooded the Old Port of Marseille and the city’s main courthouse and forced the closure of nearby beaches.
As scattered storms swept across Belgium on Wednesday, one flooded parts of the historic town of Ghent following weeks of unrelenting drought.
London and other parts of southern England were lashed with torrential rain and thunderstorms after one of the driest summers on record which gave the country its first-ever 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) temperature last month.
There was widespread flash flooding as the downpours fell on parched ground.
Despite the rain, much of Britain is still officially in drought. Thames Water, which supplies 15 million people in and around London, says a ban on watering lawns and gardens will take effect Aug. 24.
Much of Western Europe has experienced a season of extreme weather that scientists link to human-made climate change.
Amid the storm warnings, French President Emmanuel Macron postponed an event Wednesday on the French Riviera to mark the 78th anniversary of a key Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. It was rescheduled for Friday.
The dramatic downpours put an end to weeks of historic heat that left much of France parched, rivers dry and dozens of villages without running water.
Across much of Europe this summer, a series of heat waves has compounded a critical drought, creating prime wildfire conditions.
Rainfall in recent days has eased the burden on firefighters facing France’s worst fire season in the past decade, though emergency authorities said scattered wildfires continued to burn Wednesday in southwest France.
___
Follow all AP stories about the environment at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/first-drought-now-downpours-as-storms-slam-france-england/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:49
|
en
| 0.954151
|
82°
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
News
All News
Ideas & Voices
Business
Elections
Ohio
Nation & World
Local News
All Local
Crime
Hamilton
Middletown
West Chester & Liberty Twp
Fairfield
Oxford
Butler County
Warren County
Weather
Traffic
Coronavirus
Life
All Lifestyles
In Your Prime
Homes
Health
Celebrations
Latest Videos
Latest Photos
Sports
All Sports
High Schools
OSU Buckeyes
Miami RedHawks
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Obituaries
Legal Notices
© 2022 Journal-News. All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about
Careers at Cox Enterprises.
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
X
Businesses cope with inflation and staffing issues
© 2022 Journal-News.
All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about Careers at Cox Enterprises.
Back to Top
|
https://www.journal-news.com/local/businesses-cope-with-inflation-and-staffing-issues/S5GN3MKZORAGXCENUXZK2E7RD4/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:42
|
en
| 0.741581
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/articles/40446592
| 2022-08-18T20:01:56
|
en
| 0.738227
|
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Thundering gas-powered muscle cars, for decades a fixture of American culture, will be closing in on their final Saturday-night cruises in the coming years as automakers begin replacing them with super-fast cars that run on batteries.
Stellantis’ Dodge brand, long the performance flag-bearer of the company formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, is officially moving toward electricity. On Wednesday night, Dodge unveiled a battery-powered Charger Daytona SRT concept car, which is close to one that will be produced in 2024 as the sun sets on some petroleum models.
Stellantis says it will stop making gasoline versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and the Chrysler 300 large car by the end of next year. The Canadian factory that makes them will be converted to electric vehicles. Other automakers are moving — or have moved — in the same direction.
General Motors has said it will build an all-electric Chevrolet Corvette. Tesla says its Model S Plaid version is the fastest production vehicle made, able to go from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) in under 2 seconds. Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and other European automakers already have high-performance electric models on sale. And Polestar, an electric-performance spinoff from Volvo, just announced a new Polestar 6 roadster for 2026.
One reason for the industry shift is that electric vehicles are simply faster off the starting line. Their handling is typically better, too, because their heavy batteries create a low center of gravity.
Stricter government pollution requirements are another factor, too. As automakers in the U.S. face more stringent fuel-economy requirements adopted by the Biden administration and produce a broader range of EV vehicles, they will have to jettison some of their gas-fueled muscle-car models.
Tim Kuniskis, CEO of the Dodge brand, said the possibly of government fines for not meeting gas-mileage requirements hastened the shift to the electric Charger. “Compliance fines and things like that associated with a big cast-iron supercharged V8, yes, it’s tough,” he said.
Still, it will take a few years for the gas-powered classics to go away.
“Over the next several years, I think we’ll continue to have some internal combustion stuff, probably through most of the decade,” said Sam Abuelsamid, a research analyst at Guidehouse Insights. “But increasingly, the focus is going to be on the electric ones.”
Under new gas-mileage standards that were unveiled in April, the fleet of new vehicles will have to average around 40 miles per gallon in 2026, up from 25.4 mpg now, the EPA says. The standards are likely to become even stronger in the future, a trend that will compel U.S.-based automakers to shed some gasoline muscle cars if they are to avoid fines.
Of all major automakers, the EPA says, Stellantis had the lowest average fuel economy — 21.3 miles per gallon — and the highest average carbon dioxide emissions. So the company likely will have to eliminate some models to avoid fines. Its limited-edition Charger SRT Widebody, with a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi Hellcat V-8, for instance, gets only 12 mpg in city driving and 21 mpg on the highway.
To many gearheads, the thought of a muscle car without noise and smells is heresy. But Kuniskis says Dodge is working hard to make the electric experience match internal combustion. The Charger, he said, will generate its own air flow to make an exhaust noise that rivals gas performance cars. And the transmission will shift gears.
When the electric Charger was driven through a garage door and entered a building Wednesday night at a racetrack in Pontiac, Michigan, it roared just like a gas muscle car.
Electric vehicles, Kuniskis said, have the potential to perform better than gas muscle cars with fast acceleration. But he said they are kind of sterile. “It doesn’t have the emotion. It doesn’t have the drama. It doesn’t have the kind of dangerous feeling that ICE (an internal combustion engine) has when it’s loud and rumbling and shifting and moving the car around.”
Kuniskis wouldn’t say how fast the electric Charger will go from zero to 60 mph, but said it would be faster than the company’s current petroleum performance cars. He also wouldn’t say the range-per-charge for the new Challenger, but added that range isn’t as important as making it a true muscle car.
Rick Nelson, the owner of Musclecar Restoration & Design in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, near Springfield, cautioned that switching from loud fuel-burning engines to quiet electricity may be a hard sell to old-timers who grew up with the sounds and smells of racing.
Nelson, 61, said he restored his first car while a teenager and spent hours at drag strips. He acknowledged that the switch to electricity is inevitable and is needed to attract a new generation that has become used to quiet speed. Still, he said, electric muscle cars won’t have manual shifters, and he’ll miss the smell of racing fuel at the track.
Already, Nelson said, businesses are cropping up to put electric powertrains in classic muscle cars. He has been in touch with an engineer at Tesla about retrofitting batteries and electric motors into some classics.
“Guys like me are just going to frown on it and laugh at it,” Nelson said of electric muscle cars. “But this isn’t about my generation.”
Kuniskis says the shift to electricity doesn’t mean the end of the muscle car. It’s just a new era.
“It’ s OK,” he said. “Let us show you what the future looks like.”
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/gas-powered-muscle-cars-drive-into-the-sunset-turn-electric/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:56
|
en
| 0.953165
|
By WILL WEISSERT and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection.
That optimism may be short lived, at risk if and when former President Donald Trump announces another White House campaign. But for now, the “Will he or won’t he” Washington parlor game appears to be on hold.
“I think the naysayers are pretty quiet right now,” said former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “I think they’ve seen reality.”
In just the past several weeks, Biden has signed into law a climate and prescription-drug package that accomplishes many of his party’s long-held objectives; Congress has sent him bills that impose strict limits on guns and set out a plan to boost U.S. high-tech manufacturing. A drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, average gasoline prices have fallen back below $4 per gallon and there are signs that inflation — while still white-hot — may finally be cooling.
All that has eased a debate over Biden’s future that was spreading. Fellow Democrats running for reelection were struggling to answer whether America’s oldest president should seek another term. But now they have a fresh agenda they can campaign on heading into the November midterms.
The president has increased his Democratic fundraising efforts, and next week in Maryland he’s holding his first rally for the party of the fall campaign season. He also plans to travel aggressively to boost candidates.
As a former senator, Biden knows some lawmakers may need to create distance from him to best win their races — but also that others could benefit from joint appearances. Aides say Biden may prove most useful amplifying Democrat-championed issues that are broadly popular, like lowering prescription drug costs and protecting abortion rights.
Cedric Richmond, one of Biden’s closest White House advisers before leaving for a senior Democratic National Committee job, said he wasn’t sure the spate of positive news would put an end to 2024 questions, “but it should.”
For “tried and true Democrats, the answer was a simple, ‘Yes, he should run. Yes he’ll be our nominee. Yes he’ll win.’”
But comments like that don’t make the news, said Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman. “So the only story was when somebody waffles or blows the question.”
Those have included New York Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler both declining during a recent primary debate to say if Biden should seek a second term. In a subsequent statement, Maloney said she’d support Biden “if he decides to run,” then drew still more scrutiny while appearing on CNN by imploring Biden: “I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running.”
Not all lingering doubt can be attributed to awkward answers, though.
Swing-district Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said he didn’t want Biden to run in 2024. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, whose about-face revived the climate and prescription drug legislation, has refused to say if he’d support a second Biden term. Stars of the progressive left, like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, have similarly been noncommittal.
But Biden hasn’t been abandoned. Prominent Democrats, including New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, openly praise him during campaign appearances. In an interview, Jeffries ticked off the president’s recent wins and included administration successes going back to last year’s infrastructure spending and stimulus spending packages, as well as ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
“If someone were to say that a president had a record of accomplishment that I just described, without putting a time frame on it, the logical response would be: That person had a successful two-term presidency,” Jeffries said.
Still, other Democrats say a few positive headlines won’t be enough.
“Biden will have good and bad weeks in the news, but the fundamentals remain adverse,” said Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction.org. His progressive activist organization, already frequently critical of the president, has launched a “Don’t Run Joe” effort.
Solomon wants Biden to announce he’s not running, freeing him to take bigger political risks and achieve a more successful one-term presidency. He suggested that White House advisers who worry about making Biden a lame duck are engaging in a “significant degree of whistling past the political graveyard.”
White House allies stress that the 2024 decision will ultimately be Biden’s alone. He’s on track to follow a similar timeline to former President Barack Obama, who declared for 2012 reelection in April 2011, aides say.
No modern incumbent president has faced such hesitation within his own party, nor been realistically threatened in a primary. Intra-party challengers, if they emerge, could weaken both the president and his party.
Some Biden observers see the president, who came out of political retirement because he believed himself best able to take on Trump in 2020, as less likely to seek reelection if his predecessor ultimately opts not to run.
If Biden runs, he’ll have to level with voters about his age — convincing them he’s really up for a second term that wouldn’t end until he’d be 86. Still, Richmond said such discussions could actually help Biden.
“I’m not going to let people, all of a sudden, say wisdom and experience is a bad thing,” he said. “The president of the United States, leader of the free world, that’s exactly what you want.”
While Biden’s age is unprecedented — so, too, would Trump’s at 82 — there’s almost as little tradition of presidents not seeking reelection after just four years in office. The last one was Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.
Texas Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a civil rights attorney expected to win an open House seat in Dallas, said if Biden “decides he wants to run, we’ve got to unite behind that.” But she also said the president hasn’t fought to preserve voting rights aggressively enough.
“From a public standpoint, especially when it comes to Black folks, it was not taken too kindly that they did not see or hear more coming from the president,” Crockett said. “If Black people come out and vote, Democrats win. If Black people stay at home, Democrats lose.”
Biden insisted last month that Democrats “want me to run.” But a Quinnipiac University poll in July found that only 24% of Americans overall, and 40% of Democrats, said that. The president’s approval rating has dropped below 40% for two straight months.
For positive reinforcement, Biden could look to a president at the opposite end of the political spectrum: Ronald Reagan, who took office in 1981 at age 69, making him the country’s then-oldest president.
With inflation spiking by the fall of his second year, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 6 in 10 Americans said Reagan shouldn’t run again, and his approval ratings sank to 35% by the following January. The next year, Reagan romped to reelection, winning every state but Minnesota and the District of Columbia.
McAuliffe, who was beaten in his bid to reclaim the governorship last November by Republican Glenn Youngkin despite Biden having carried Virginia by 10 points the previous year, said the president and Democrats have already seized momentum and “age doesn’t matter.”
“He’s at the top of his game. And this party, which a year ago was in disarray, and different elements of our party fighting one another,” McAuliffe said. “Now you’ve got a party that is united, fired up and legislative accomplishments that every American has wanted for many years.”
___
Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Brooklyn, New York, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/breathing-room-for-biden-big-summer-wins-ease-2024-doubts/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:44
|
en
| 0.968209
|
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to put forward proposed redactions as he committed to making public at least part of the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's estate in Florida.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart gave prosecutors a week to submit a copy of the affidavit with proposed redactions for the information it wants to keep secret after the FBI seized classified and top secret information during a search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate last week.
The hearing was convened Thursday after several news organizations, including The Associated Press, sought to unseal additional records tied to last week’s search, including the affidavit. It is likely to contain key details about the Justice Department’s investigation examining whether Trump retained and mishandled classified and sensitive government records.
The Justice Department has adamantly opposed making the affidavit public, arguing that doing so would compromise its ongoing investigation, would expose the identities of witnesses and could prevent others from coming forward and cooperating with the government.
The attorneys for the news organizations, however, argued that the unprecedented nature of the Justice Department's investigation warrants public disclosure.
“You can't trust what you can't see,” said Chuck Tobin, a lawyer representing the AP and several other news outlets.
In addition to ordering the redactions, the judge agreed to make public other documents, including the warrant's cover sheet, the Justice Department's motion to seal the documents and the judge's order requiring them to be sealed.
Those documents showed the FBI was specifically investigating the “willful retention of national defense information,” the concealment or removal of government records and obstruction of a federal investigation.
Jay Bratt, a top Justice Department national security prosecutor, had argued that the affidavit should remain hidden from the public. Unsealing it, he said, would provide a “road map” of the investigation — which is in its “early stages” — and expose the next steps to be taken by federal agents and prosecutors.
He argued it was in the public interest for the investigation, including interviews of witnesses, to go forward unhindered.
As the hearing kicked off, a small caravan of vehicles with Trump flags drove past the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. An attorney for Trump, Christina Bobb, was in the courthouse Thursday but said she was only there to observe the court proceeding.
Bratt argued in court that even a redacted version of the document could reveal investigative steps or create the ability for sleuths or those being eyed in the investigation to identify witnesses in the case. He also contended that the Justice Department had already gone to rare lengths to bring transparency, including making a request for the court to unseal the warrant and property receipt, which were made public last week.
“There is heightened interest," he conceded. "This is likely an unprecedented situation.”
Trump, in a Truth Social post last week, called for the release of the unredacted affidavit in the interest of transparency.
Reinhart gave the government until next Thursday to submit its version with the proposed redactions. He said he would then review it and may meet lawyers for the government and give them a chance to make an argument for why specific information should be withheld.
Justice Department attorneys have argued in a court filings that the investigation into Trump's handling of “highly classified material” is ongoing and that the document contains sensitive information about witnesses.
A recent filing by Bratt and Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney in Miami, says making the affidavit public would “cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”
“If disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps,” they wrote.
FBI agents searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, removing 11 sets of classified documents, with some not only marked top secret but also "sensitive compartmented information," according to a receipt of what was taken that was released Friday. That is a special category meant to protect the nation's most important secrets that if revealed publicly could cause "exceptionally grave" damage to U.S. interests. The court records did not provide specific details about information the documents might contain.
___
Balsamo reported from New York.
___
More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
Credit: Lynne Sladky
Credit: Lynne Sladky
Credit: Jon Elswick
Credit: Jon Elswick
Credit: Steve Helber
Credit: Steve Helber
Credit: Lynne Sladky
Credit: Lynne Sladky
Credit: Lynne Sladky
Credit: Lynne Sladky
|
https://www.journal-news.com/nation-world/judge-appears-willing-to-unveil-some-of-mar-a-lago-affidavit/A6DWMPMDUZDLNNDJYNNLS6NOOY/
| 2022-08-18T20:01:58
|
en
| 0.964789
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/articles/40446621
| 2022-08-18T20:02:02
|
en
| 0.738227
|
TOKYO (AP) — Designer Hanae Mori, known for her elegant signature butterfly motifs, numerous cinema fashions and the wedding gown of Japan’s empress, has died, her office said Thursday. She was 96.
Mori symbolized the rise of Japan as a modern, fashionable nation and the rise of the working woman. She died at her Tokyo home Aug. 11, a few days after developing a mild fever, according to the Hanae Mori Office. She had been examined by a doctor at her home, but no specific cause of death was given.
Empress Masako wore a Hanae Mori wedding gown adorned with rose-petal patterns when she married Emperor Naruhito, then the crown prince, in 1993. Mori also designed uniforms for Japan Airlines flight attendants, bank clerks, high school students and the Japanese team at the Barcelona Olympics. The uniforms were not flamboyant like her runway designs, but tastefully professional, appropriate for their roles.
With her motto, “You feel decent, no matter where in the world you wear them,” Mori wanted to give confidence and dignity to those wearing her designs. Her umbrellas and scarves, often decked with colorful butterflies, were a status symbol with working women.
She opened her studio in 1951 and was a pioneer of a generation of Japanese designers who became globally prominent. Her first New York show, held in 1965, was acclaimed as “East meets West.”
She opened her Paris studio in 1977 and built an international business that extended to perfumes, handbags and publishing as well as fashion.
Reputed for infusing Japanese elements inspired by the kimono, Mori designed costumes for hundreds of Japanese films, in the 1950s and 1960s, dressing star actresses like Mie Kitahara, Sayuri Yoshinaga and Shima Iwashita, in some of the most renowned cinematic pieces the era produced.
The elaborate costumes she designed for singer Hibari Misora are also well-known among fashion buffs. She also designed for the opera, including “Madame Butterfly” in Milan in 1985, and the Noh theater. In 2002, she was awarded the Legion of Honor from the French government.
She is survived by two sons, who have their own business, a daughter, seven grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren, the Hanae Mori office said. Her husband Ken Mori died in 1996. Her grandchildren Izumi Mori and Hikari Mori are fashion models. A funeral service was held among family. A public memorial service may be held, but details are undecided.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/hanae-mori-designer-for-films-empress-dies-reports-say/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:03
|
en
| 0.979394
|
Instagram and Facebook suspended Children's Health Defense this week after the anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr. repeatedly violated rules prohibiting misinformation about COVID-19.
A nonprofit, Children's Health Defense is one of the most influential anti-vaccine organizations active on social media, where it has spread misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures designed to control the pandemic.
In a statement, Kennedy compared Facebook's actions to government censorship, even though Facebook is a private company that can set and enforce its own rules about misinformation.
“Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies,” Kennedy said.
Children's Health Defense had hundreds of thousands of followers at the time of the suspension, according to a statement from the organization, which also noted that it has sued Facebook over its moderation policies.
Public health advocates and misinformation experts have criticized Facebook for not acting more swiftly to contain potentially harmful misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.
Karen Kornbluh, director of the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund, said too many groups like Children's Health Defense have been allowed to flourish on social media for too long. She noted that the group remains on Twitter.
“Today's step is too late and too little,” Kornbluh said, adding that tech companies must address the reasons misinformation spreads so readily on social media.
Facebook and Instagram confirmed the company action on Thursday in a statement to The Associated Press.
“We removed these accounts for repeatedly violating our policies,” a spokesman for Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, told the AP. Under the platforms' policies, suspensions are typically only enforced after multiple violations.
Several state affiliates of Children's Health Defense remain on Facebook and Instagram despite the ban of the national organization. Kennedy was kicked off Instagram last year but continues to keep an active account on Facebook.
Credit: Patrick Semansky
Credit: Patrick Semansky
|
https://www.journal-news.com/nation-world/rfk-jrs-anti-vaccine-group-kicked-off-instagram-facebook/23EJSKXNSBFAROJ3OYZBDAMYOE/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:05
|
en
| 0.946008
|
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
|
https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/articles/40446674
| 2022-08-18T20:02:08
|
en
| 0.738227
|
82°
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
News
All News
Ideas & Voices
Business
Elections
Ohio
Nation & World
Local News
All Local
Crime
Hamilton
Middletown
West Chester & Liberty Twp
Fairfield
Oxford
Butler County
Warren County
Weather
Traffic
Coronavirus
Life
All Lifestyles
In Your Prime
Homes
Health
Celebrations
Latest Videos
Latest Photos
Sports
All Sports
High Schools
OSU Buckeyes
Miami RedHawks
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Obituaries
Legal Notices
© 2022 Journal-News. All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about
Careers at Cox Enterprises.
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
X
Industrial Tube and Steel in West Chester
Credit: Journal News
Combined Shape
Caption
Industrial Tube and Steel in West Chester
Credit: Journal News
© 2022 Journal-News.
All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about Careers at Cox Enterprises.
Back to Top
|
https://www.journal-news.com/news/industrial-tube-and-steel-in-west-chester/5241a30b-e938-42d6-8881-08b2f3da6c67/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:11
|
en
| 0.732153
|
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Heavy rain continued to pelt New Zealand on Thursday, causing further disruptions and road closures from a storm that has already forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.
Residents in the northern part of North Island found themselves isolated after landslides, fallen trees and floodwaters blocked highway access. The stormy weather also forced some schools to close, airlines to cancel flights and business to shutter.
The storm sunk at least one sailboat near Auckland and caused a home to slip down into a gully in the town of Tāhunanui.
About 230 homes in the town of Nelson were evacuated Wednesday and remained off-limits overnight after the Maitai River flooded. The military patrolled the area overnight.
Resident Robin Reichert told news outlet Stuff that she was “utterly shocked” when her street turned into a raging torrent.
“Within minutes it’s a river,” she said. “That’s how fast it happens.”
Another 160 homes in the town of Westport were also temporarily evacuated with residents later allowed to return.
Roads throughout the nation were closed due to flooding and landslides.
In the Buller region, Mayor Jamie Cleine told reporters that the rain had so far been lower than forecast but there was more rain on the way.
“Right across the district I believe we have got away relatively unscathed,” Cleine said. “A few people that did choose to self-evacuate last night have been told today that it’s reasonably safe, if they feel OK, to head back to their properties today to check them out while we have this lull.”
Cleine warned that more rain was forecast.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/heavy-rains-pelt-new-zealand-forcing-hundreds-to-evacuate/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:11
|
en
| 0.981755
|
By ROB MAADDI and TOM WITHERS
AP Sports Writer
BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will serve an 11-game unpaid suspension, pay a $5 million fine and undergo professional evaluation and treatment as part of a settlement with the NFL following accusations of sexual misconduct by two dozen women.
The league had sought to ban Watson for at least one year for violating its personal conduct policy. He was accused of sexually harassing and coercing the women during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Houston Texans.
Watson signed a $230 million guaranteed contract after being traded to the Browns in March. The three-time Pro Bowler will lose $632,500 in salary this season while serving the suspension, which takes effect Aug. 30.
The settlement ends months of speculation and headed off a ruling from former New Jersey attorney general Peter C. Harvey, who was appointed by Commissioner Roger Goodell after the league appealed a six-game suspension issued by disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson.
As part of the settlement between the league and the NFL Players Association, Watson will have to be evaluated by behavioral experts and follow their treatment program, the NFL said.
Watson, who recently apologized for the first time since the allegations surfaced, spoke to reporters after the settlement was issued. He offered more contrition, but also maintained he’s never been inappropriate with women.
“I’ve always stood on my innocence and always said that I’ve never assaulted anyone or disrespected anyone and I’m continuing to stand on that,” he said. “But at the same time, I have to continue to push forward with my life and my career, and for us to be able to move forward, I have to be able to take steps and put pride to the side.
“I’m going to continue to stand on my innocence and keep pushing forward, and I’ve always stood on not disrespecting or sexually assaulting anyone.”
As part of the settlement, Watson may return for the Browns’ game on Dec. 4 in Houston.
Along with his $5 million fine, the league and Browns are donating $1 million each to a fund that will support nonprofit organizations across the country to educate young people on “healthy relationships, promote education and prevention of sexual misconduct and assault, support survivors, and related causes.”
Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam, who have been widely criticized for trading for Watson, stood by the QB. They said they expect him to learn and grow from the experience.
“Since Deshaun came into our building in April, he has done everything we have asked of him and more,” Jimmy Haslam said at a news briefing with his wife and Browns general manager Andrew Berry. “And he has been the person, the leader that we expect him to be and I think he understands where he is in his life, it’s a pivotal point, and we as an organization are going to do everything we can to help him not only be the best football player he can be but more important to be the best person he can be.”
On Aug. 1, Watson was suspended six games by Robinson, a former federal judge jointly appointed by the league and union to act as an independent disciplinary officer.
Robinson found the 26-year-old Watson violated the league’s personal conduct policy after reviewing an investigation into his actions and called his behavior “egregious” and “predatory.”
Believing the suspension was too light, the league appealed and pushed Watson’s case back to Goodell, who had handled all player discipline in the past. The league previously pushed for an indefinite suspension and hefty fine.
Per the 2020 collective bargaining agreement, Harvey’s decision would have constituted “full, final and complete disposition of the dispute.”
At the owners’ meetings this month, Goodell said the league’s pursuit of a yearlong ban was warranted following its investigation and Robinson’s findings.
“She reinforced the evidence,” Goodell said. “There were multiple violations that were egregious, and it was predatory behavior.”
In her conclusion, Robinson cited Watson’s lack of remorse as a factor in her decision. Watson apologized for the first time “to all the women that I have impacted” before making his Browns’ debut Friday in an exhibition in Jacksonville.
Watson was accused of being sexually inappropriate with the women during massage therapy sessions from March 2020 to March 2021 in Texas. In civil lawsuits filed in Texas, the women accused Watson of exposing himself, touching them with his penis or kissing them against their will. One woman alleged Watson forced her to perform oral sex.
Two separate grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson, who has denied any wrongdoing. He recently settled 23 of 24 lawsuits.
For now, the suspension ends months of speculation about whether Watson would play in 2022 for the Browns, who outbid several other teams, traded three first-round draft picks to the Texans in March and signed the QB to a five-year contract.
Watson’s case sparked strong opinions while raising questions about the league’s handling of player discipline and its spotty record of supporting women.
The Browns believe Watson could make them a Super Bowl contender. Without him, they could struggle to simply contend in the AFC North against defending conference champion Cincinnati along with Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
The suspension also means Watson will be idle longer. One of pro football’s elite QBs, he sat out last season in Houston after demanding a trade and before the sexual allegations surfaced.
In her 16-page ruling, Robinson found that the league proved its case that Watson violated three provisions of the conduct policy: sexual assault as defined by the league, posing a genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another and undermining or putting the league’s integrity at risk.
Robinson also pointed out flaws in the league’s conduct policy, saying it was unfair to “identify conduct as prohibited only after the conduct has been committed, just as it is inherently unjust to change the penalties for such conduct after the fact.”
Her punishment was criticized by several organizations, including The National Organization for Women, which called it “unacceptable, insulting and dangerous — but not surprising. The NFL and the multibillion-dollar sports industry have a vested interest in enabling sexual misconduct, assault and violence.”
Attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents all 24 women who sued Watson, and Ashley Solis, the first woman to go public with allegations against Watson, decried the original six-game suspension at a news conference in Houston in early August.
Watson has continued to practice while his case made its way through the league’s process.
All along, the Browns’ plan was to turn their offense over to veteran Jacoby Brissett, who has made 37 career starts, during Watson’s suspension. But it’s now possible Cleveland will explore other options at quarterback.
___
Maaddi reported from Florida.
__
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/browns-qb-deshaun-watson-settles-for-11-game-suspension-3/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:04
|
en
| 0.97728
|
82°
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
News
All News
Ideas & Voices
Business
Elections
Ohio
Nation & World
Local News
All Local
Crime
Hamilton
Middletown
West Chester & Liberty Twp
Fairfield
Oxford
Butler County
Warren County
Weather
Traffic
Coronavirus
Life
All Lifestyles
In Your Prime
Homes
Health
Celebrations
Latest Videos
Latest Photos
Sports
All Sports
High Schools
OSU Buckeyes
Miami RedHawks
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Obituaries
Legal Notices
© 2022 Journal-News. All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about
Careers at Cox Enterprises.
News
Coronavirus
Life
Sports
Obituaries
Legal Notices
X
Smiles & tears mix as Miami freshmen move in
Credit: Journal News
Combined Shape
Caption
Credit: Journal News
© 2022 Journal-News.
All Rights Reserved.
By using this website, you accept the terms of our
Visitor Agreement
,
Privacy Policy
,
CCPA
, and understand your options regarding
Ad Choices
.
Learn about Careers at Cox Enterprises.
Back to Top
|
https://www.journal-news.com/news/smiles-tears-mix-as-miami-freshmen-move-in/26126403-134a-48de-9621-0e0ab264ab5e/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:17
|
en
| 0.729856
|
LAGRANGE, Ga. (AP) — A man was arrested Wednesday in connection with three separate shootings that took place earlier in the day along Interstate 85 in Alabama and Georgia. One man was seriously wounded.
Jerel Raphael Brown of Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested in LaFayette, Alabama, after shootings were reported in Montgomery and Auburn in Alabama and near Hogansville, Georgia, according to sheriff’s deputies in Troup County, Georgia.
The Auburn Police Department said Brown has been charged with attempted murder and shooting into an unoccupied vehicle. He is being held without bond, the police department said.
Officials had asked people to look for a 1996 white Cadillac Fleetwood after three shootings were reported. In the Auburn shooting, a 45-year-old Prattville, Alabama, man was seriously wounded by a gunshot that officials said appeared to enter from the rear of the man’s vehicle. The victim was taken by helicopter to a Montgomery hospital.
A stretch of Interstate 85 in Auburn was closed for hours while police investigated.
No one was injured in the Georgia shooting. No details on the Montgomery shooting were immediately released.
Brown is charged in Georgia with aggravated assault, possessing a gun while committing a felony and first-degree criminal damage.
Deputies in western Georgia’s Troup County said they identified the suspect vehicle using a traffic camera, allowing information about the car to be broadcast around the region. Authorities said that led to a Chambers County, Alabama, sheriff’s deputy pulling Brown over and arresting him. Brown was later handed over to Auburn police.
Troup County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Stewart Smith said investigators can’t say at this time what motivated the shootings. He said that while Troup County has filed charges, he expected Brown would be jailed in Alabama and would be prosecuted first in that state.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/man-arrested-in-3-highway-shootings-in-alabama-georgia/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:18
|
en
| 0.983982
|
ROME (AP) — Italian environmental activists staged a second museum protest in as many months, gluing their hands Thursday to the base of one of the Vatican Museums’ most important ancient sculptures, the Laocoon.
The statue wasn’t damaged, said the environmental group Last Generation. Vatican gendarmes removed the three protesters and they were processed at an Italian police station. It wasn’t clear if Vatican criminal prosecutors would eventually take up the case since they have jurisdiction in Vatican City.
The protesters are demanding the Italian government increase its solar and wind power and stop exploring for natural gas and reopening old coal mines in Italy. They affixed a banner to the statue’s base reading “No gas, no coal.”
Last month, protesters glued their hands to the glass window protecting Sandro Botticelli’s painting “Spring” in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. In that case, they were detained and ordered to stay out of Florence for three years, Italian media said.
Last Generation said the group targeted the Laocoon statue, which is believed to have been carved in Rhodes in 40-30 B.C., because of the symbolic story behind it.
According to legend and the Vatican Museums’ own website, Laocoon warned his fellow Trojans against accepting the wooden horse left by the Greeks during the Trojan War. The group said the climate crisis is the modern-day warning that is being unheeded by political leaders.
___
Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/climate-protesters-target-the-vaticans-laocoon-statue/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:22
|
en
| 0.959767
|
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A legal battle over abortion rights pitting one of the reddest states in the nation against the U.S. government has dozens of states and major medical associations seeking to weigh in.
Twenty states, Washington, D.C., the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and others are among those to have filed “friend of the court” briefs as of Wednesday, siding with the federal government’s claims that Idaho’s near-total abortion ban violates federal health care law.
“It will really place physicians in a lose-lose situation,” said Jeff Dubner, the deputy legal director for Democracy Forward, the legal team representing the coalition of medical associations.
Physicians who follow the federal law will be at risk of criminal prosecution and the loss of their medical license, said Dubner, and those who follow state law could damage patients’ health and place themselves and their hospitals at risk of federal fines or loss of funding.
The Idaho abortion ban makes performing nearly any abortion a felony, but allows physicians to defend themselves in court by showing that the procedure was necessary to save a patient’s life. The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires Medicaid-funded hospitals to provide “stabilizing” treatment to patients experiencing medical emergencies, and the U.S. Department of Justice says that includes some abortions.
The Justice Department sued Idaho earlier this month in federal court and asked a judge to stop the abortion ban from taking effect.
Idaho’s neighbors in Oregon and Washington were among the states that joined to file another friend-of-the court brief, saying they fear the “spillover effect” the abortion ban could create as Idaho patients with ectopic pregnancies or other emergencies are sent to hospitals in Seattle or Portland for treatment.
States that are further away, like North Carolina, point out that their own pregnant residents could be at risk of death or harm if they happen to fall ill while visiting Idaho.
“Women’s lives are at risk because politicians are trying to take away their right to get the medical care they need,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. “States are trying to ban abortions in all cases, including rape, incest and when the mother’s health is in danger. Denying women health care when their life or health is at risk violates federal law. I’m taking these actions to help North Carolinians who may need urgent care in other states as well as other women across our nation.”
Even if the federal government wins the case, it’s likely that most abortions will remain outlawed in Idaho, where three major abortion bans have been enacted in the last two years.
In court documents, the medical organizations argued that the ban’s “life of the mother” provision is too narrow to apply to real-life medical situations and fails to account for how quickly a pregnancy complication can turn deadly.
In the case of a pregnant patient with severe bleeding, “how many blood units does she have to lose? One? Two? Five?” the organizations wrote in court documents. “How fast does she have to be bleeding? Soaking through two pads an hour? Three? How low does her blood pressure need to be?”
Other professional organizations signing on to the friend-of-the-court brief include the American Medical Association, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, National Medical Association, National Hispanic Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Public Health Association. The American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges wrote a separate brief also supporting the Justice Department.
The states, meanwhile, pointed out in court documents that abortion bans in other states have already led to delays or denials of emergency medical care.
One patient traveled to Michigan after being denied care for an ectopic pregnancy in her home state because the fetus still had detectible cardiac activity — making an abortion potentially illegal under so-called heartbeat laws, according to the brief.
In Missouri, one hospital required special pharmacist approval to dispense medications needed to stop severe bleeding that occurred after patients gave birth, leading to delays in care. And a Wisconsin patient who was having a miscarriage was bleeding in the hospital for 10 days before the hospital would remove the fetal tissue because of confusion about the legality of the procedure, the states said.
California, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington state and Washington, D.C., all signed on to the friend-of-the court brief.
Attorneys representing the state of Idaho and the Idaho Legislature have argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade gave states the right to determine if or how abortions will be handled, and that the state law, dubbed the 622 Statute, doesn’t actually present any risk to patients or providers.
“The Government’s picture of a conflict between (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) and the 622 Statue is fabricated and false, without any foundation in fact,” attorney Daniel Bower wrote for the Legislature.
Treating an ectopic pregnancy is not actually an abortion, and so isn’t barred by the state’s ban, the Legislature contends. Abortions performed to save the life of the mother won’t be affected by the law, wrote Bower, and any other emergency abortions that might be affected are extremely rare.
When they do occur, the doctors won’t be prosecuted, Bower wrote in the brief.
“This State’s prosecuting attorneys, in the standard and ordinary exercise of their prosecutorial discretion, will not second-guess the judgments and decisions of the involved medical professionals,” Bower said.
___
Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Raleigh, North Carolina. Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/medical-groups-20-states-weigh-in-on-idaho-abortion-lawsuit/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:25
|
en
| 0.95452
|
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Bourbon Street Extravaganza, a free concert held in New Orleans amid Southern Decadence — one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ events — has been canceled over monkeypox concerns, organizers said Wednesday.
The concert was scheduled to return Sept. 3 for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down Decadence in 2020. It normally attracts up to 20,000 people to the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann streets in New Orleans’ French Quarter outside the bar Napoleon’s Itch.
The concert’s producer, Chuck Robinson, called off the concert in light of the rapidly spreading monkeypox virus, news outlets reported. The virus, which seems to disproportionately affect gay and bisexual men, is spread by prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
“I regret that we can’t do the show, but monkeypox just came out of the blue, and quickly,” Robinson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “My concerns have to be the safety of the artists and the production team.”
He added there were plans to bring in stars from Australia and England and yet the virus has “stats that frighten me.”
“It’s spread by touch and closeness, not by droplets like COVID and I did not feel, in all good conscious, that I could be responsible for an event that could become a mass spreader,” he said.
The Washington Post first reported on the Bourbon Street Extravaganza’s cancelation as part of a story about the growing threat of monkeypox. There have been concerns about the lack of availability of the monkeypox vaccine in Louisiana, which has 120 confirmed cases, state health officials said.
Earlier this month, the Louisiana Department of Health said it was in contact with Southern Decadence organizers to get people vaccinated before the event scheduled to run Sept. 1-5 over the extended Labor Day holiday weekend.
Since 1972, Southern Decadence has grown from an informal gathering to an annual blowout that draws thousands of revelers to New Orleans over the long holiday weekend. In 2019, an estimated 225,000 people attended various events and the wide-ranging street party. An even larger crowd was expected this year.
The Bourbon Street Extravaganza has been part of Southern Decadence since 2004, the year Robinson and co-founder Ron Julian opened Napoleon’s Itch at 734 Bourbon. Robinson and Julian launched the concert on an outdoor stage in part as a way to promote their new bar, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Over the years, Jeanie Tracy became a frequent, and favorite, performer at the concert.
“It has grown into the largest event of Southern Decadence,” Robinson said. “It’s our gift to the city.”
Robinson said the concert will return in 2023.
“I pray for everyone’s safety, but this is what I had to do,” he said of the decision to cancel.
Other Southern Decadence events and promotions are still on as scheduled.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/monkeypox-cancels-free-concert-held-at-southern-decadence/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:32
|
en
| 0.959727
|
By STEVE MEGARGEE
AP Sports Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) — David Vassegh thought it would be make good TV to take a ride on Bernie Brewer’s slide before the Los Angeles Dodgers played in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
It didn’t go quite according to plan.
The Dodgers television and radio reporter said he broke two bones in his right wrist and cracked six ribs when he tumbled and crashed into the padding at the end of his slide down “Bernie’s Chalet,” where Brewers mascot Bernie Brewer takes up residence behind the American Family Field left-field stands. Bernie celebrates Milwaukee homers with trips down the giant, white slide.
“I’ll learn not to do my own stunts from now on,” Vassegh quipped before the Dodgers’ Thursday afternoon game in Milwaukee.
Vassegh is the host of the “Dodger Talk” show that follows Dodgers radio broadcasts and periodically works as a reporter on Los Angeles’ telecasts as well. He was working in his television capacity when he went down the slide twice about four hours before the Dodgers’ Wednesday night game.
The first time, he was filmed at the top of the slide, and everything went fine. Then he went down again, so he could get footage of him coming down.
That’s when the problem occurred. Vassegh went sideways, and his right arm crashed into the padding.
“That time, it went a lot faster,” Vassegh said. “It was a lot slicker the second time. That’s where it got a little out of control at the end.”
Vassegh went to an urgent care facility and was back at work by the fifth inning. Vassegh had his right arm in a cast as he conducted a postgame interview with Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes.
“That one was for you,” Barnes told Vassegh after homering in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory. “I know you had a little accident today on the slide, so we all rallied for you.”
Vassegh was back on the job Thursday, though he says he probably will need surgery when he gets home.
Bernie Brewer greeted him with flowers and a sign that read “0 Days Since Last Incident.” He also gave Vassegh a “Slide Instruction Manual” that read “It’s really not that hard.” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner sent out a tweet poking fun at Vassegh over the situation.
Vassegh said he received over 200 texts from friends and players since taking his tumble.
“It’s been an outpouring of support — and also comedy at the same time,” Vassegh said.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/dodgers-tv-reporter-injured-sliding-down-bernies-chalet-2/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:28
|
en
| 0.975777
|
DENVER (AP) — Denver’s district attorney says she is opening a grand jury investigation into the actions of three police officers who wounded six bystanders while shooting at an armed suspect in a crowded downtown Denver nightlife zone last month.
The officers had already been placed on administrative leave pending a separate internal investigation into the July 17 shooting, which happened as dozens of patrons left bars that were closing for the night in the city’s Lower Downtown neighborhood.
“The public’s interest in this particular shooting incident is understandably high,” District Attorney Beth McCann said in a statement announcing the new investigation on Tuesday. “For the community to trust in the outcome from this incident, it is important that independent members of the community review the facts, evidence and law regarding whether these officers should be criminally charged.”
Police have said the three officers, whose names have not been made public, fired seven times in the confrontation with suspect Jordan Waddy, who police say was armed. The gunfire erupted as a nearby group of partygoers left a bar and gathered at a food truck.
The officers were following Waddy, 21, after they saw him punch another man during a fight, police have said.
Bodycam footage released by Denver police on Tuesday appears to show Waddy holding a pistol and throwing it to the ground as the officers opened fire. Police previously said Waddy was holding a firearm before the shooting.
At least one officer shot at Waddy while facing a crowd of people gathered behind the suspect, the footage shows. When the shots were fired, the crowd scattered. Some people fell to the ground in a rush to escape and others ducked behind the food truck or crawled on all fours.
Waddy, who suffered non life-threatening injuries, was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and possession of a handgun by a previous offender. Court records said he is represented by a lawyer from the public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases.
Six bystanders were injured and authorities have said all received hospital treatment for non life-threatening injuries.
Siddhartha Rathod, an attorney representing the injured bystanders, welcomed the investigation announced by McCann.
Willis Small IV, 24, said in an interview that he was near the food truck when he felt a bullet or bullet fragment penetrate his left foot. Small looked down to see a hole through his shoe, hopped to his car and drove to the hospital.
Yekalo Weldehiwet, 26, was outside the bar after celebrating his fiance’s brother’s 23rd birthday when a bullet shattered a bone in his upper arm. His right arm went limp, “like a noodle,” he said, and he held it with his left arm as he sprinted away.
Bailey Alexander, 24, who was waiting in line at the food truck with her boyfriend, said she felt blood rushing down her body after a bullet or bullet fragment went through her upper back and exited her right arm. Alexander’s boyfriend held her up by the waist as they fled.
Speaking to reporters last month, Denver police Cmdr. Matt Clark said that officials “are deeply concerned for those who were injured during the incident and are working to provide all resources and support to them as they heal.”
___
Jesse Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Bedayn on Twitter.
|
https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/probe-opened-into-denver-police-shooting-that-injured-6/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:39
|
en
| 0.984218
|
By HARRIET MORRIS
Associated Press
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia’s foreign minister on Thursday defended his country’s decision to bar Russian tourists, saying they are shirking their “moral responsibility” to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its “genocidal war” in Ukraine.
The small Baltic country, which shares a 300-kilometer (190-mile) border with Russia, stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians months ago, and as of Thursday no longer accepts those previously issued.
“Our idea is to give a signal to all our European partners, all our Western community partners, to close down our borders to Russian citizens, except humanitarian cases,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told The Associated Press in an interview in Tallinn. “Russian citizens are not welcome in Europe. Their country is committing a genocidal war against an innocent people.”
Despite bans on air travel from Russia to the European Union, Russians have been able to vacation in western Europe this summer by traveling by land through Estonia and other neighboring countries with tourist visas that are valid throughout Europe’s border-free travel zone.
Reinsalu said “hundreds of thousands” of Russian citizens passing through Estonian soil posed an “evident security threat” and dismissed concerns that the visa ban could backfire by turning ordinary Russians against Europe and the West.
He said the legal responsibility for the war in Ukraine lies with Putin and his inner circle, “but there is also a … moral responsibility of Russian citizens as citizens of (the) aggressor state.”
“They have to wake up and protest against the regime’s atrocities. Their tax money literally is used to buy rockets and bombs to kill children in Ukraine,” he said.
Exceptions to the entry ban include diplomats and Russians visiting close relatives in Estonia. It doesn’t affect Russians with visas issued by other EU countries or those allowed to enter Estonia on humanitarian grounds, but Estonian officials said they were working on proposals to also bar Russians with tourist visas issued by other EU countries.
Estonia, Finland and other EU countries bordering Russia have been pushing for an EU-wide ban on Russian tourists, but some leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have dismissed the idea as counterproductive.
“This is not the war of the Russian people. It is Putin’s war and we have to be very clear on that topic,” Scholz said.
A Russian Foreign Ministry official said Thursday that Moscow is not ruling out the possibility of an EU-wide ban and will respond in any case.
“These steps will not go unanswered by the Russian side. You’ll know about (retaliatory measures) soon,” Ivan Nechaev, deputy head of the ministry’s communications department, told reporters.
Reinsalu mocked concerns that the “peaceful lives” of Russians would be disrupted by denying them the chance to visit tourist attractions like the Louvre museum in Paris, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin or the canals of Venice.
“I think that there is no peaceful life in Ukraine, and our perspective is ending the genocidal war – this is a strategic aim,” he said.
Estonia and its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania endured five decades of Soviet occupation and have been strong advocates in the EU for harsh sanctions against Russia and robust military aid to Ukraine.
Reinsalu also defended the government’s decision to dismantle remaining Soviet-era monuments, including a tank removed this week from a memorial to Red Army soldiers killed during World War II from the eastern city of Narva on the Russian border. The government said such monuments could be used by the Kremlin to sow divisions in Estonia, which has a significant ethnic Russian minority.
“The one thing we have learnt from the past (is) that you have to act decisively and not let the tensions rise,” Reinsalu said.
——
Associated Press writer Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
|
https://wtmj.com/national/2022/08/18/estonian-minister-defends-visa-ban-against-russian-tourists/
| 2022-08-18T20:02:40
|
en
| 0.957621
|
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 186