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Haze returns to Puget Sound, but not nearly as bad as before KING5.com
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologized Wednesday to Sarah Collins Rudolph, a survivor of a Ku Klux Klan bombing that left her severely injured and killed four Black girls, including her sister, in 1963.
In a letter sent to Collins Rudolph's lawyers, Ivey offered a "sincere, heartfelt apology" for the "racist, segregationist rhetoric used by some of our leaders during that time."
Ivey said there should be no question that Collins Rudolph, who was 12 when Klan members bombed 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham 57 years ago, and the four other girls "suffered an egregious injustice that has yielded untold pain and suffering over the ensuing decades."
Lawyers for Collins Rudolph had said in a letter to Ivey this month that, while hard-line segregationist officials like Gov. George Wallace didn't place the bomb next to the building, they played an "undisputed role in encouraging its citizens to engage in racial violence."
Collins Rudolph lost her right eye in the bombing. Glass fragments remained in her left eye, her abdomen and her chest for years after, according to The Associated Press.
Her sister, Addie Mae Collins, 14, was killed. So were Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, also 14, and Denise McNair, 11.
"She has born the burdens of the bombing for virtually her entire life, and we believe her story presents an especially meritorious and unique opportunity for the State of Alabama to right the wrongs that its past leaders encouraged and incited," the letter to Ivey said.
The lawyers, who are from the Washington, D.C., firm Jenner & Block and are representing Collins Rudolph pro bono, had asked for an official apology as well as compensation.
Ivey's letter doesn't specifically address compensation, noting that the Legislature would have to be involved, and it says "other questions" raised by the lawyers will need to be reviewed.
"It would seem to me that beginning these conversations — without prejudice for what any final outcome might produce but with a goal of finding mutual accord — would be a natural extension of my administration's ongoing efforts to foster fruitful conversations" about race, Ivey said.
Rudolph Collins' lawyers, Ishan Bhabha and Alison Stein, said in a statement that they were "gratified" by the apology and that they looked forward to future talks about compensation.
DURANGO, Colo. (CBS4) – The location of a new permanent weather radar for the Four Corners region has been announced. The site will eventually fill a gap in radar coverage that has always existed in southwest Colorado.
La Plata County and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe said Monday they plan to build the radar tower on tribal lands about 15 miles south of Durango. The radar system is expected to fill a notorious blind spot for weather and radar modeling.
A temporary Doppler radar sits on Missionary Ridge in southwest Colorado. (credit: Thomas McNamara, La Plata County OEM)
The existing radars that surround the Four Corners are located too far away for adequate coverage. For instance, the height of the radar beam from the radar located in Grand Junction, Colorado, is so high by the time it reaches the Four Corners that it cannot locate storms below 28,000 feet. This means weather forecasters miss many incoming storms around Cortez and Durango and especially Pagosa Springs and other towns in the region around the San Juan Mountains.
The new radar will join the existing network of 159 high-resolution weather radars operated by the National Weather Service. The new site has been in the works for several years.
During the 416 Fire near Durango in 2018, a temporary radar was installed on Missionary Ridge as a interim tool to fill the coverage gap. That radar was removed from the site following the fire.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
SF Docfest may have wrapped up a few weeks ago, but those eager for more non-fiction cinema will be pleased to learn San Francisco’s Roxie Theater has them covered. The Roxie has added four new documentaries to their streaming menu, and there’s a little something for everybody amongst the offerings.
I have to admit I was skeptical about Peter D. Hutchison’s Healing From Hate, an examination of the efforts of former Nazis and white nationalists to “deradicalize” their Aryan brothers. Though I’m a pacifist, I must confess to having vicariously enjoyed that viral video of Richard Spencer getting punched in the face, and I came to the film bearing little sympathy for men with swastika tattoos.
It’s a tribute to Hutchison — and the “formers” who run the organization Life After Hate — that the film successfully humanizes people we generally consider monstrous. Bringing life to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dictum “hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that”, the film documents Jews, Sikhs, African-Americans, and others offering forgiveness and compassion to those who perhaps least deserve it.
While Healing From Hate offers ample proof of the power of Dr. King’s statement, it’s important to remember we live in a veritable Augean stable of white nationalism. America is only at the beginning of this story, and whether or not there’s enough forgiveness and compassion to go around remains an open question. Kudos to those fighting the fight.
I spent the majority of my working life as a bookseller, and doubtless sold countless copies of Oliver Sacks’ book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat to my customers. The late neurologist became a prominent pubic intellectual during the 1980s and ‘90s, and his books were never far from the bestseller list.
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life recounts the medico’s journey from suburban London to late-in-life international renown. I have to admit to knowing less than nothing about him prior to watching this film — while I may have been selling his books, I never cracked one open, probably out of a misguided belief that they were too popular to be good — but whether or not you’re familiar with his work, you’ll likely find plenty of food for thought herein.
I was hoping to learn something new from Chuck Berry: The Original King of Rock ’n’ Roll, but perhaps there’s not much left to learn about the enigmatic pop music pioneer. The familiar stories are retold, including his lifelong reliance on pick-up bands, his Mann Act charges, and his immeasurable influence on The Rolling Stones and others.
That said, rock fans will still find plenty to enjoy in the film – even though it does feature far, far too much Gene Simmons for my liking (at least Bono doesn’t show up). Berry’s family, largely in the shadows throughout his career, finally speak about him on camera, including son Charles Junior and widow Themetta (they were married for 68 years). There’s also fascinating stuff about Chuck’s interest in land and property investments: this is probably the only rockumentary in which a real estate attorney gets screen time.
Finally, Space Dogs offers a baffling tribute to Moscow street dogs and Soviet-era space exploration, which famously began with the journey of a pup named Laika into the cosmos aboard Sputnik-2. The film blends contemporaneous footage of strays prowling Russian streets with archival footage of scientists preparing canines for their big moment. Scenes of experimentation and the brutal death of a cat make for uncomfortable viewing, rendering CineVue’s description of the film as “like Disney…directed by Andrei Tarkovsky” quite apt indeed.
-By Wayne Gates
A Hamersville woman is getting four consecutive life sentences for raping four children under the age of ten.
26 year old Amber Brewer pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree felony rape in Brown County Common Pleas Court on Sept. 18.
Her victims were three, four, six and eight years old. Three of the victims are her own children.
Brewer appeared very calm during the proceedings, with her voice betraying no emotion as she said the word “guilty” four times, one for each count.
Prior to her sentencing, Brown County Prosecutor Zac Corbin addressed the court.
“I can tell you judge, without question, this is the worst offense I have seen in my entire career in the criminal justice system.”
Corbin also discussed how Brewer and her co-defendant Billy Sheeley would make videos of sex acts with the children and send them back and forth to each other and discuss their activity in text messages.
Other activity that Corbin referenced that Brewer pleaded guilty to could not be quoted verbatim for publication.
The father of one of the victims also read a letter that the victim wrote to her mother.
“”Why did you do what you did to me? I hate you for what you have done. I don’t love you anymore. I wish I could kick your butt to the sky so you could never ever come back and touch me again. You will never touch me again. Goodbye,” the letter read.
Common Pleas Judge Scott Gusweiler then proceeded to sentencing.
“The age of the victims are of severe concern to this court, the harm that was visited upon these victims cannot be fully fathomed and certainly cannot be understated,” Gusweiler told Brewer. “Getting your boyfriend to go ahead and violate these children along with you is reprehensible.”
Gusweiler then sentenced Brewer to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Sheeley has attempted to commit suicide three times in the Brown County Jail since his arrest. He was recently found competent to stand trial after his attorney suggested that he was insane.
Sheeley has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for next month.
Brewer and Sheeley of Winchester were indicted by a Brown County Grand Jury on June 4.
Brewer was indicted on 32 charges, including ten counts of Rape, which is a first degree felony. The other charges were second degree felonies and include four counts of Endangering Children, ten counts of Illegal Use of a Minor in Nudity-Oriented Material or Performance, five counts of Pandering Sexually-Oriented Material Involving a Minor and three counts of Felonious Assault with a Sexual Motivation specification. All but the four rape charges that Brewer pleaded guilty to were dismissed as a result of her guilty plea.
Sheeley is facing 29 charges, including six counts of Rape, which is a first degree felony. The other charges are second degree felonies and include three counts of Endangering Children, eleven counts of Illegal Use of a Minor in Nudity-Oriented Material or Performance, five counts of Pandering Sexually-Oriented Material Involving a Minor and three counts of Felonious Assault with a Sexual Motivation specification.
Sheeley also faces a second degree misdemeanor charge for Sexual Conduct With an Animal.
“All of the counts of Rape are involving children under the age of ten,” said Corbin in July. “Each one of those counts could carry the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole” (for Sheeley).
The case came to the attention of local authorities earlier this year after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
“These agencies will sometimes identify child pornography materials and link them to Brown County,” Corbin said.
“They flagged a couple of images and worked back through the IP addresses and linked them to a couple of accounts belonging to Brewer and Sheeley. That led them to some online communications where these materials were being sent back and forth.”
The case then moved into the local area.
“This tip originally came into the Mount Orab Police Department and was handled by Detective Ryan Gregory. He quickly learned that this was expanding out into the county and contacted (Brown County Sheriff’s Department) Detective Quinn Carlson. The two of them worked together until it led into Adams County, who then joined in the investigation,” Corbin said.
“A search warrant was issued on Brewer’s home and from there, the identity of Mr. Sheeley was determined. He was taken into custody the same day in Adams County.”
Both Sheeley and Brewer were arrested in May of this year.
Sound Transit is proceeding in partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to implement new bus rapid transit (BRT) service along I-405, a portion of SR 518, and along some local city streets consistent with the I-405 Master Plan. As part of the I-405 BRT program, Sound Transit proposes to construct the following BRT facilities:
Other elements of Sound Transit’s proposal include roadway improvements for transit speed and reliability at the Burien Transit Center, Tukwila International Boulevard BRT Station, South Renton Transit Center, Brickyard BRT Station, and the Lynnwood City Center Transit Station. A variety of bicycle and pedestrian improvements are also associated with some of the parking facilities and station locations. Other components of the I-405 BRT program have been reviewed by and will be implemented by WSDOT.
The Gallatin Galleries will present The Tuba Thieves, a video installation by artist Alison O’Daniel, on 24-hour display from Oct. 14 through Nov. 20 (1 Washington Place [at Broadway]). Inspired by a series of thefts from Los Angeles area high school marching bands in 2012, The Tuba Thieves is an ongoing project that includes an in-progress feature-length film, as well as performances and mixed-media installations.
When she learned about the thefts, O’Daniel, who is based in Los Angeles, understood the loss of their sound in the marching bands as akin to her own lived experiences as a person with binaural hearing loss and of having to fill in the gaps in conversations.
“My work internalizes and studies the details of what it means not to have total access to sound,” says O’Daniel. “I use that as a starting point to play with how representing aural experiences and sonic elements can be misleading and elusive in a hard-of-hearing or deaf person’s life.”
The installation will be complemented by online discussion featuring the artist on Wed., Oct. 21 (details below).
Scenes in the film highlight both the presence and absence of sound by sharing how marching band students resolved the missing sound of the tuba in their ensembles. O’Daniel weaves together the stories of the deaf drummer Nyke Prince for a near-mystical experience in the woods, the premiere of John Cage’s 1952 composition of 4’33”, and the last-ever punk show at San Francisco’s Deaf Club in 1979.
To create the script for The Tuba Thieves, O’Daniel inverted traditional screenwriting processes, commissioning musical compositions from hearing, hard-of-hearing, and deaf composers and writing scenes from those compositions. In this process, O’Daniel collaborated with deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim, who produced the soundtrack for the film, hearing painter and musician Steve Roden, and the hearing composer Ethan Frederick Greene.
The installation may be seen continuously from the 1 Washington Place sidewalk beginning Monday mornings beginning at 8:30 a.m. through Friday evenings at 5 p.m., until Nov. 20. The exhibition may also be viewed on the galleries' website.
Images from the installation be downloaded below (courtesy of Alison O’Daniel):
Nyke Prince, a Deaf drummer based in Los Angeles, experiences the silence of nature.
The audience at the premiere of John Cage’s 4’33”.
The singer of the punk band at the 1979 final punk show at the Deaf Club in San Francisco.
Alison O’Daniel (b. 1979, Miami, FL) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work spans narrative, sculpture, installation, and performance. She holds an MFA from UC Irvine, a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, and a Postgraduate Diploma from Goldsmiths College at the University of London. O’Daniel’s work has been presented at Centre Pompidou, Art in General, Knockdown Center, The Nightingale (Chicago), MOCAD (Detroit), NYU, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Jurassic Technology and other venues. She has received grants from the California Community Foundation, Franklin Furnace Fund, Center of Cultural Innovation, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, and The Art Matters Foundation and is the recipient of the 2019 Louis Comfort Tiffany and Creative Capital awards.
O’Daniel uses her own experiences with hearing loss as a productive narrative tool in expanding the definitions of audio, sound, and captioning. In her work, O’Daniel reckons with sound both conceptually and as a medium, studying audience reactions to sound or the absence of it. The artist collaborates with hearing, hard-of-hearing, and deaf composers, performers, athletes, and musicians in order to highlight the loss or re-creation of information as it passes through various channels. Through her work, O’Daniel attempts to reveal the often hidden politics inscribed within a culture that takes hearing for granted and elevates the visual over the aural. She looks at captions as a third narrative space next to sound and visuals and hopes that more filmmakers will utilize them.
Discussion of The Tuba Thieves
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 12:30 p.m.
With Alison O'Daniel, Mara Mills, and curator Keith Miller.
For more information and to RSVP, please visit the event's web site.
Mara Mills is associate professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, where she co-founded and co-directs the Center for Disability Studies. Her most recent publication is the edited volume Testing Hearing: The Making of Modern Aurality (Oxford University Press, fall 2020). For more information about her publications and other work, visit her website at maramills.org.
Keith Miller has been the curator of the Gallatin Galleries since it opened in 2008. Prior to that he was the founding curator of the SAC Gallery at Stony Brook University from 2001 to 2008 and has curated over 40 thematic gallery and museum exhibitions. His curatorial practice begins from the premise that the gallery is a site for engaged political conversation. He has been a part-time professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU since 2006 and was awarded the Gallatin School Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014. He is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2014 Jerome Fellow and works as a filmmaker, artist, and curator. His paintings and videos have been shown in various solo and group shows throughout the world.
The event is co-sponsored by the NYU Center for Disability Studies.
Contact:
Keith Miller, Curator
The Gallatin Galleries
km96@nyu.edu
212.998.7322
1 Washington Place
New York, NY 10003
Sound Transit is proceeding in partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to implement new bus rapid transit (BRT) service along I-405, a portion of SR 518, and along some local city streets consistent with the I-405 Master Plan. As part of the I-405 BRT program, Sound Transit proposes to construct the following BRT facilities:
Other elements of Sound Transit’s proposal include roadway improvements for transit speed and reliability at the Burien Transit Center, Tukwila International Boulevard BRT Station, South Renton Transit Center, Brickyard BRT Station, and the Lynnwood City Center Transit Station. A variety of bicycle and pedestrian improvements are also associated with some of the parking facilities and station locations. Other components of the I-405 BRT program have been reviewed by and will be implemented by WSDOT.
LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. (WTVQ) – Four Roses employees gathered Tuesday for the distillery’s fourth annual Salt River Clean Up. Employees volunteered to help maintain the riverbank around the Salt River, since natural water resources are at the core of the Commonwealth’s Bourbon industry.
The 150-mile spring-fed Salt River flows beside the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg. According to Four Roses Distillery officials, limestone-rich water from the Salt River is one of the distillery’s primary ingredients in handcrafting its Bourbons.
“This river is important to Four Roses for sure, but it’s also important to all of Kentucky as a valuable natural resource,” said Four Roses Master Distiller Brent Elliott. “We want to help preserve this waterway for today, tomorrow and the future.”
Distillery officials say the group removed debris from the dam and concrete area, as well as the highway where it forks on each side of the river, and along the roadway.
For more information on Four Roses’ community involvement, click HERE.
Elected officials, non-profit organizations, community groups, local businesses, and trail advocates from King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties today announced the formation of Leafline, a coalition to connect Central Puget Sound with an integrated, equitable network of regional trails.
The Leafline Trails Coalition will advocate for investments to expand and connect existing trails to:
"Leafline will achieve what Central Puget Sound has needed for generations: a regional trails network connected to high-capacity transit for the benefit of our people, our economy, and our environment,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “The founding coalition members have the shared vision and determination we need to unify our trails and realize the potential for healthy, reliable, equitable transportation and recreation.”
Many of the signature projects – including Centennial Trail, Eastrail, Foothills Trail, Interurban Trail, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail, Sound to Olympics Trail, and Whitehorse Trail – are ready now for federal infrastructure investments that will stimulate equitable economic growth throughout the region.
There are nearly 450 miles of trails in the four-county region – including more than 300 miles in King County – but there has never before been a concerted effort to integrate trails across jurisdictional boundaries and Puget Sound.
The Leafline symbol, which represents trails as a “Living Connection,” is the unifying marker representing the four-country trails network. The brand itself shows how various parts of the system can connect to create a living, vibrant whole, reflecting themes communicated during the community engagement process. Leafline is optimistic, nature inspired, inviting, inclusive and timeless. Under one name, Leafline unifies the trails network to connect place to place, to nature, neighbors, communities.
The coalition has four objectives:
Evolving from the King County Regional Trails Summit in October 2018, the Leafline Trails Coalition is inspired by and modeled after a national movement of trail coalitions that harness their collective impact by leveraging resources, fostering partnerships, and growing public awareness of trails.
The founding members of the coalition are:
As congressional leaders consider opportunities for economic growth, the Leafline Trails Coalition has identified 11 projects that are ready for investment in planning, design, and construction:
Infrastructure investments in regional trails have produced positive, lasting results for decades in the Central Puget Sound region. Major employers – including REI Co-op and Facebook, who recently contributed $2 million to connect the Eastrail – have located near trails in part because they offer healthy, reliable commuter options. Knitting together a four-county network of regional trails will better connect communities that are currently excluded from economic opportunities.
The Leafline Trails Coalition will also connect more residents to high-capacity transit. The emerging 42-mile Eastrail – one of the north-south pillars of Leafline – will connect to four of the 10 Link light rail stations that Sound Transit will open on the Eastside in 2023.
Multiple studies have quantified the benefits of regional trail investments in the state:
Leafline will achieve what Central Puget Sound has needed for generations: a regional trails network connected to high-capacity transit for the benefit of our people, our economy, and our environment. The founding coalition members have the shared vision and determination we need to unify our trails and realize the potential for healthy, reliable, equitable transportation and recreation.
Trails give people reliable, healthy, and fun transportation options. With Leafline you can walk, bike, or roll to transit, and use trails for your entire trip.
We can strengthen the local economy with trails by providing jobs and tourism, and making it easier for customers or commuters to get to their destinations.
With trail use at record levels during the pandemic, the need for more trail options is clear. Working together as a broad-based four-county coalition, we can get more done to connect our trails and make them more accessible to everyone.
High-quality regional trails are an important part of making the outdoors and active transportation accessible to everyone no matter where they live. Leafline Trails will improve connections between communities and provide a gateway for all to enjoy improved quality of life, healthy lifestyles, economic development, and safe commute options.
Trail use has doubled nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic. People are showing that they value trails to improve mental and physical health. That's a major reason why expanding the trails network in Central Puget Sound is key to recovering from the pandemic and associated economic downturn.
Trails are where we connect to take a walk and join a movement. In the footsteps of a civil rights legacy, GirlTrek is a national health movement that activates thousands of Black women to be change makers in their lives and communities — through walking.
Chad Lewis, Department of Natural Resources and Parks, 206-263-1250
Claire Martini, Leafline Trails Coalition Manager, 206-620-0470
WASHINGTON — The first debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden was a slugfest led by the president's incessant interruptions and misinformation, with scattered moments of substantive discussion.
The showdown, hosted in Cleveland by Chris Wallace of Fox News, came as Biden, the Democratic nominee, led Trump by 8.1 percentage points in the NBC News National Polling Average.
It was unclear that Trump made up ground in an evening during which he put his brash and petulant style on full display, with the apparent intention of appearing dominant and making Biden look weak. Trump's approach to date has hemorrhaged support among seniors, suburban women and white college graduates, and those constituencies are likely to decide the election.
Here are four takeaways from the evening:
The president came out swinging, with constant interruptions and attempts to throw Biden off-balance, primarily with frequent attacks on his son Hunter, which threw the debate off track and eventually sparked pushback from Wallace to let his rival speak.
Biden didn't shrink from the moment, repeatedly knocking Trump as a "clown" and a "liar" who wouldn't stop "yapping," responding with an antagonistic smile and once telling him to "shut up." He repeatedly defended his son and dismissed Trump's claims as having been discredited. Biden also tried to rattle Trump by mocking his past remarks proposing the injection of bleach to combat the coronavirus and nuking hurricanes to short-circuit storms.
First-term presidents tend to perform poorly in first debates, out of practice at being on the same footing with an opponent. It was clear that Trump is used to being able to control the conversation, which he repeatedly tried to do.
In a debate during which Biden called Trump a "racist" to his face, one of the most significant moments came when Wallace asked the president whether he was willing to condemn white supremacists and "militia" groups.
Trump appeared irritated and demanded to know whom he was being asked to condemn. When Wallace mentioned the neo-fascist Proud Boys, Trump said: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what. Somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left. Because this is not a right-wing problem."
As Trump later faced condemnation on cable news and social media for his comments, the Proud Boys celebrated his response.
Appearing on CNN after the debate, former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Wallace knew the question was a trap for Trump because the president doesn't like to "say something bad about people who support him." Santorum called Trump's response a gaffe that hurt him.
Throughout the debate, Trump sprinkled in attacks on Biden for having spent four decades in public office and having failed to fix many of the problems he now says he's running for president to tackle. "The people understand, Joe — 47 years. You have done nothing," the president said.
At one point, the tactic sparked a flash of exasperation from Biden. "You're the worst president America has ever had," he said. "Come on."
It was part of Trump's playbook to paint Biden as a do-nothing politician, and he made his case on the economy, the one top-tier issue on which the president maintains an edge in polls. He misleadingly claimed that Biden is determined to shut down the country again.
"We built the greatest economy in history. We closed it down because of the China plague," Trump said. "He will shut it down again. He will destroy this country."
Biden responded by saying the U.S. "can't fix the economy until you fix the Covid crisis." He said Trump benefited from the Obama-Biden administration's economic record: "We handed him a booming economy. He blew it."
Biden did his best to distance himself from the left throughout the debate. He repeatedly denounced the Green New Deal — "no, I don't support the Green New Deal," he said — and referred instead to his own climate plan, which includes less aggressive emission-reduction targets.
Early on, Biden said that he was "not opposed to" Trump's Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett, and that she "seems like a very fine person" before criticizing her past remarks about the legality of the Affordable Care Act and saying American voters should decide who picks the next justice. He punted when asked whether he supports the progressive push to expand the Supreme Court.
Biden also went out of his way to make it clear that he opposes calls from some left-wing activists to "defund the police," and he disputed a false claim from Trump that he supports "Medicare for All," noting that he defeated its leading proponent, Bernie Sanders, in the primaries.
The remarks reflected Biden's larger strategy, which is not to bet the election on turning out young and progressive voters but rather to bring seniors and college-educated whites with more moderate views into his coalition.
While it foreshadows governing tension with progressives if he's elected, the strategy has been paying off electorally, if the polls are correct, with Election Day just 35 days away.
The sonic boom of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier reverberated through the French capital Paris and nearby suburbs on Wednesday, the Paris police prefecture said on Twitter.
The shockwave rattled windows, made birds fly up and was heard in every part of the city, leading to a surge in phone calls to police.
It was not immediately clear why a fighter plane was flying over Paris. A defense ministry spokesman confirmed it was a sonic boom but did not immediately offer further comment.
The police urged people not to call emergency services.
Paris has been tense since a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Friday.
Voting Donald Trump out of office has always been a woefully insufficient solution to the Trump problem. He needs to be voted off the island. Off the planet. And last night, he helped ensure that he will be voted out—well, out of office, at least.
Trump is losing the election, according to the polls. He needs additional support in order to change the trajectory. So which swing voters did Trump’s performance win over? He already had the Klan and the Proud Boys, whose support he gratefully acknowledged and encouraged. He probably nailed down any stray Cossack still pining for a pogrom, not to mention the terrorists of AntiCoh—members of the anti-coherence conspiracy who disrupt sequential thought on the streets of our cities.
Branch out just slightly into larger groups of swing voters, and Trump didn’t do as well. Women, for one, may have been reminded of their interactions with angry, overbearing, out-of-control men. Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, if they noted Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacy and his call to his backers to flock to polling places to keep people like them from voting, may have experienced a frisson of anxiety. Americans who, as Trump believes, moved to the suburbs for a less stressful life, may have found his rage and divisiveness—and the prospect of four more years of it—to be an unwelcome death knell of civic peace. And so on.
As Senate races these days tend to match voters’ presidential preferences, Republicans in tight races across the country this year likely experienced significant tummy turmoil while watching Trump rant.
If last night had been a party, both host and guests would have reacted to Trump by saying, “Who let him in?” Actually, we know the answer. The Electoral College let him in, and if that’s not a convincing case for its abolition, I don’t know what is.
Given the circumstances of trying to participate in a debate against a guy participating in a demolition derby, Joe Biden acquitted himself reasonably well. He occasionally got to talk policy, particularly on his plans to deal with climate change, though his presentation was no more than a quick tour of bullet points. Still, that was as close as anyone got to laying out a vision for the future. Biden spent most of his time taking it to Trump on the pandemic and the economy, making the case that the shuttered economy is the result of Trump’s failure to develop a plan to deal with the pandemic. There wasn’t time for much else. Biden also won points for being the far more normal human being on the stage, which has never mattered in any of our previous 57 presidential elections as much as it matters in this one.
The media, seemingly more miffed at the lack of decorum than the substance, spent the postgame shows openly calling for no more debates to be held. But after last night, it’s not likely that all that many Americans will tune in anyway. Perhaps Mike Bloomberg can offer to pay any remaining swing voters substantial sums of money to watch them, in the expectation that the more who watch, the more who will vote to remove Trump from office. After last night’s performance, Sheldon Adelson is probably contemplating paying swing voters not to watch.
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A fighter jet breaking the sound barrier resulted in a major blast noise in Paris on Wednesday, reportedly even shaking buildings in parts of the city.
The cause behind the blast was unknown until the Paris Police Prefecture posted a tweet announcing the fighter jet as the source.
“Don't clutter up the emergency lines!” it stated.
Some residents in the French capital said the blast caused their buildings to shake, while others reported hearing the noise in nearby suburbs, according to Reuters.
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There were no immediate reports of damage.
The explosion also temporarily interrupted a French Open tennis match, as a video showed Dominik Koepfer preparing to serve a ball to Stan Wawrinka before pausing and looking up into the sky in confusion.
It’s the only competitive race for a spot on the council dais, and each of the four people still pursuing the at-large seat spoke to the Herald about their plans for the city.
Justin LaRocque, a restaurateur who owns The Spud Jr. on DeMers Avenue and runs Rockin’ Up North Fest, said he was inspired to run during the coronavirus pandemic. He said he felt East Grand Forks’ city government was generally more passive than Grand Forks’ and did not seek or disseminate information about the virus, the Paycheck Protection Plan and other aid for businesses hampered by it, as quickly or readily as their neighbors across the Red River.
“But the problem was a lot of the answers . . . were coming from the North Dakota side, which, obviously, we could not take advantage of,” LaRocque said Thursday. “Grand Forks did a very good job at leading and making sure that people had the information that they needed. I was making calls, I was getting calls, I was trying to gather as much information as I could. And I just thought that, you know what, if I'm going to do this on my own time, why can’t I do this on a bigger scale?. . . And there's no bigger scale on getting information to the community like the local city government.”
His broader pitch to voters is reminiscent of that of Brandon Bochenski, the recently elected mayor of Grand Forks, who campaigned on promoting citywide growth. LaRocque said he’d try to “showcase” East Grand Forks and draw businesses and new residents there, perhaps via tax incentives for first-time homebuyers, who typically seek a home in the kind of older neighborhood that was wiped out by the 1997 flood.
Restaurants and other hospitality-minded businesses in East Grand Forks are fantastic for a town the size of East Grand Forks, LaRocque said.
“As a community, I think we have to be marketing ourselves every single day because, just like a business, if we're not growing, we're dying,” he said. “Any good business needs a marketing plan. . . . How can we be better? And how can we attract new clientele or new residents to our community, and what do we have to offer and help them really showcase what we have to offer?”
Brian Larson, a construction manager at UND and former member of East Grand Forks’ Parks and Recreation Commission, said he hopes to represent families that are similar to his own: two working parents with young kids who play sports, are active in Cub Scouts and so on.
“I think we could benefit from more representation from some of the younger families that have kids actively involved in some of the sports and things like that,” Larson told the Herald.
Larson said facilities management is a passion of his, and he hopes to refine the city government’s long-term budget plans for large-scale improvements.
“I would be a strong voice at the table, trying to make that a priority, ensuring that we have capital investment funds for all of our facilities and all of our responsibilities,” he said, referring particularly to East Grand Forks’ deliberations on the scope – and cost – of renovating its baseball diamonds and hockey rinks, which were prompted by the looming failure of their outdated refrigeration systems. “These are city facilities, and we just don’t have that savings fund built up ready to make those investments.”
He also said he’d reconsider the city’s assessment policy, which presently requires property owners to pay for the entirety of most large-scale street maintenance projects in their neighborhoods. East Grand Forks administrators and officials reconsidered that policy last year and left it as-is, which has presented the city with a conundrum on a multiblock segment of 20th Street Northwest, where total estimated maintenance costs outstrip the city’s budget for street repairs and adjacent property owners’ willingness to pay out of their own pockets.
Larson stopped short of advocating for a dedicated fund for that type of street maintenance, but said he’d want to take a “deep dive” into the assessment policy if he were elected this November.
“Has it served us well? Yes or no,” he said. “If the answer’s no, what can we do to tweak this thing?”
Larson also said he’d try to push for more affordable childcare in the city. It’s unclear how much he’d be able to do from the council dais, but if elected, he said he’d try to lobby other local and state leaders to make it happen. Larson’s children just aged out of childcare, he said.
“It’s unbelievable how expensive it can really be,” he said. “And that really hampers some of the adults' ability to continue to progress their career at the same time that their kids are in childcare.”
Mohamed Mohamed, a translator and interpreter, filed the paperwork to run for the at-large Council seat on Aug. 11, but he recently decided to stop pursuing it because two members of his family have fallen ill, which means he often has to travel to the Minneapolis area to help care for them.
“I wanted to have a representative, a voice for people of color in my community. Since we’re here, we need to have a voice in how the city runs,” Mohamed, who moved to East Grand Forks about six years ago, told the Herald. “I’m not someone who’s leaving this city. I’m going to be here for a long time. If things work out, in the future I’m interested in being involved at a later time.”
Per Wiger, a Grand Cities musician and writer, said he sees an “epidemic” of short-term thinking in East Grand Forks City Hall and beyond on issues ranging from mosquito control to housing.
“We spray, and then, two days later, we have a mosquito problem again,” he said. “It costs a lot of money, it kills off pollinators, it’s just not a good long-term solution. It’s not a solution at all to the problem of mosquito overpopulation. It’s at best a temporary bandage even though there are actual solutions available.”
The University of Minnesota, Wiger said, has developed a treatment that inhibits mosquitoes’ first generation in a given season, which he suspects would ultimately be cheaper than regular sprays and wouldn’t harm the region’s dragonfly or bee populations.
But Wiger’s misgivings about the city’s mosquito control program is just an example of the sort of myopathy he sees. Wiger said there’s a shortage of “next-level” and affordable housing in East Grand Forks and said the city needs to figure out how to address that problem, which might mean a program in conjunction with local credit unions to ensure residents can borrow money on favorable enough terms to secure housing, or encouraging developers to create “truly” affordable homes.
“Not just upper middle class housing developments,” Wiger said.
He claimed that developers frequently build homes that are of a modest quality and sell them for significantly more than they’re worth, which he said leads to a dearth of housing for people who need it most: “The low and middle-income families who we would like to keep here because that’s the bulk of the community,” Wiger said.
He added that he’d like to work on “community resiliency,” a concept he said has become top-of-mind during the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires that have devastated swaths of the West Coast. Wiger said he’s thinking of ways a community can produce its own food and noted that some U.S. cities have community gardens, wood-fired ovens and grain mills.
“I see no reason to believe that our vast, highly complicated system of food delivery is . . . going to be robust and functional in even the middle future,” Wiger said. “Certainly, it’s not a sky-is-falling, we-have-to-change-everything-now sort of situation. I’m not saying it’s doomsday upon us. But I don’t think that it is unreasonable to look at the pressures that we’ve faced in the past year and the data points that we can extrapolate toward the future and say our communities need to be more internally resilient.”
Frank Wirsing is a funeral director who said his top priority, if elected, would be establishing a municipal internet service provider in a style similar to the city’s water and light utility.
That, he argues, would help students learn remotely, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, and establish a better technology backbone that would attract businesses to town.
“It's getting to the point where access to internet should be more utility based as well,” Wirsing said. “Upgrade the technology of the area because, by doing so, it helps to bring in other businesses, and other businesses that make everything a lot more appealing to the more modern crowd, especially when we have things coming up in Grand Forks like (Grand Sky) and stuff like that. We need to start moving forward and lifting things up, especially technologically wise.”
Hundreds of cities in the United States have set up their own internet service providers of some variety. Bagley and Barnesville, Minn., which are relatively close to East Grand Forks, both offer city internet service alongside telephone service and other utilities. A state law signed in 1915 and updated in 1991 stipulates that a city cannot set up a telecom service where one already exists without a referendum in which at least 65% of voters OK the idea.
Beyond a municipal internet provider, Wirsing said he’d hope to attract businesses to East Grand Forks in other ways.
“The easiest way to do so is always tax liens,” he said. “But you can't just say, ‘You don't have to pay taxes.’ Of course, there has to be caveats to that thing. We’ll give you a tax lien if you bring in a business for X amount of years and X amount of jobs and X amount of what have you. But there’s always financial incentives. Everything in business comes down to the bottom line.”
Election day in East Grand Forks and beyond is Nov. 3. Minnesota residents can vote early or vote by mail, as well.
(Reuters) - Gold fell on Wednesday and was on track for its biggest monthly decline in nearly four years, as the dollar benefited from caution that crept into financial markets after the first U.S. presidential debate.
Spot gold fell 0.7% to $1,883.62 per ounce by 0944 GMT, declining 4.3% so far in September, setting it up for its worst monthly performance since November 2016.
U.S. gold futures were down 0.8% at $1,888.10 per ounce.
“I think from gold’s perspective, it (the election debate) was a non-event and all we saw gold doing was honouring its inverse relationship with the U.S. dollar,” said independent analyst Ross Norman.
He said gold still had momentum but had probably made most of its gains.
“Gold is in a consolidation pattern, but within a bull trend,” he said.
For the quarter, bullion is on track for its eighth straight gain.
A chaotic first U.S. presidential debate turned investors cautious and drove them to seek refuge in the dollar, reducing gold’s appeal for other currency holders. The dollar index was set for its best month since July 2019.
Gold also failed to take advantage of retreating U.S. stock futures after Trump cast doubt on whether he would accept the election’s outcome.
“If you do get a situation where Trump refuses to acknowledge the result of the election because he lost, then I think that would be very beneficial for gold,” said Natixis analyst Bernard Dahdah.
Such an event would raise questions over the U.S. political and economic system and therefore benefit gold, he added.
Investors also tracked progress on a new U.S. coronavirus relief bill.
Silver fell 2.1% to $23.66 per ounce and platinum slipped 2% to $866.97. Silver was on track for its first monthly contraction since March, falling more than 16%, and Platinum was set to post its biggest fall since March, declining 6.6%
Palladium fell 0.3% to $2,301.61 per ounce but was up 2.7% for the month.
Reporting by Nakul Iyer in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis
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