ReportWire

Tag: n

  • Biden administration seeks to ban Chinese, Russian tech in US autonomous vehicles

    Biden administration seeks to ban Chinese, Russian tech in US autonomous vehicles

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — The Commerce Department said Monday it’s seeking a ban on the sale of connected and autonomous vehicles in the U.S. that are equipped with Chinese and Russian software and hardware with the stated goal of protecting national security and U.S. drivers.

    While there is minimal Chinese and Russian software deployed in the U.S, the issue is more complicated for hardware. There are more Chinese parts on U.S. vehicles than software, and software can be changed much faster than physical parts.

    Replacing hardware also could require complex engineering and assembly line changes. That’s why Commerce officials said the prohibitions on the software would take effect for the 2027 model year and the prohibitions on hardware would take effect for the model year of 2030, or Jan. 1, 2029, for units without a model year.

    The measure announced Monday is proactive but critical, the agency said, given that all the bells and whistles in cars like microphones, cameras, GPS tracking and Bluetooth technology could make Americans more vulnerable to bad actors and potentially expose personal information, from the home address of drivers, to where their children go to school.

    In extreme situations, a foreign adversary could shut down or take simultaneous control of multiple vehicles operating in the United States, causing crashes and blocking roads, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on a call Sunday.

    “This is not about trade or economic advantage,” Raimondo said. “This is a strictly national security action. The good news is right now, we don’t have many Chinese or Russian cars on our road.”

    But Raimondo said Europe and other regions in the world where Chinese vehicles have become commonplace very quickly should serve as “a cautionary tale” for the U.S.

    Security concerns around the extensive software-driven functions in Chinese vehicles have arisen in Europe, where Chinese electric cars have rapidly gained market share.

    Imported Chinese-owned vehicle brands had 7.6% of the market for electric vehicles in Europe in 2023, more than doubling from 2.9% in 2020, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. The share of all electric vehicles imported from China is still higher when Western-owned brands manufactured in China, such as BMW and Tesla are included: some 21.7%.

    “Who controls these data flows and software updates is a far from trivial question, the answers to which encroach on matters of national security, cybersecurity, and individual privacy,” Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on the council’s website.

    Vehicles are now “mobility platforms” that monitor driver and passenger behavior and track their surroundings.

    A senior administration official said that it is clear from terms of service contracts included with the technology that data from vehicles ends up in China.

    Raimondo said that the U.S. won’t wait until its roads are populated with Chinese or Russian cars.

    “We’re issuing a proposed rule to address these new national security threats before suppliers, automakers and car components linked to China or Russia become commonplace and widespread in the U.S. automotive sector,” Raimondo said.

    It is difficult to know when China could reach that level of saturation, a senior adminstration official said, but the Commerce Department says China hopes to enter the U.S. market and several Chinese companies have already announced plans to enter the automotive software space.

    The Commerce Department added Russia to the regulations since the country is trying to “breathe new life into its auto industry,” senior administration officials said on the call.

    The proposed rule would prohibit the import and sale of vehicles with Russia and China-manufactured software and hardware that would allow the vehicle to communicate externally through Bluetooth, cellular, satellite or Wi-Fi modules. It would also prohibit the sale or import of software components made in Russia or the People’s Republic of China that collectively allow a highly autonomous vehicle to operate without a driver behind the wheel. The ban would include vehicles made in the U.S. using Chinese and Russian technology.

    The proposed rule would apply to all vehicles, but would exclude those not used on public roads, such as agricultural or mining vehicles.

    U.S. automakers said they share the government’s national security goal, but at present there is little connected vehicle hardware or software coming to the U.S. supply chain from China.

    Yet the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a large industry group, said the new rules will make some automakers scramble for new parts suppliers. “You can’t just flip a switch and change the world’s most complex supply chain overnight,” John Bozzella, the alliance’s CEO, said in a statement.

    The lead time in the new rules will be long enough for some automakers to make the changes, “but may be too short for others,” Bozzella said.

    Commerce officials met with all the major auto companies around the world while it drafted the proposed rule to better understand supply chain networks, according to senior administration officials, and also met with a variety of industry associations.

    The Commerce Department is inviting public comments, which are due 30 days after publication of a rule before it’s finalized. That should happen by the end of the Biden Administration.

    The new rule follows steps taken earlier this month by the Biden administration to crack down on cheap products sold out of China, including electric vehicles, expanding a push to reduce U.S. dependence on Beijing and bolster homegrown industry.

    _____

    AP Business Writers David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Prince Harry says harms of social media have created an ‘epidemic’ for today’s youth

    Prince Harry says harms of social media have created an ‘epidemic’ for today’s youth

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — Prince Harry said today’s youth is in the midst of an “epidemic” of anxiety, depression and social isolation due to negative experiences online, as he brought his campaign to help children and their parents navigate cyberspace to this week’s Clinton Global Initiative.

    “These platforms are designed to create addiction,” Harry, 40, said in remarks Tuesday in New York City. “Young people are kept there by mindless, endless, numbing scrolling — being force-fed content that no child should ever be exposed to. This is not free will.”

    Beyond supporting parents and youth throughout this advocacy, The Duke of Sussex stressed the need for corporate accountability. He asked why leaders of powerful social media companies are still held to the “lowest ethical standards” — and called on shareholders to demand tangible change.

    “Parenting doesn’t end with the birth of a child. Neither does founding a company,” said Harry, who revealed that his smartphone lock screen is a photo of his children, five-year-old Prince Archie and three-year-old Princess Lilibet. “We have a duty and a responsibility to see our creations through.”

    Harry’s remarks arrive as pressures continue to mount on tech giants like Meta, Snap and TikTok to make their online platforms safer, particularly for younger users. Many children on these platforms are exposed to content that is not age appropriate, such as violence, or misinformation. Others face unrealistic beauty standards, bullying and sexual harassment.

    Companies have made some changes over the years — with Instagram, for example, announcing last week that it would be making teen accounts private by default in a handful of countries. But safety advocates have long-stressed that there’s more work to be done. Many also maintain that companies still put too much responsibility on parents when it comes to keeping children safe on social media.

    Harry’s contribution to this year’s CGI annual meeting was part of the “What’s Working” theme, in a panel that included former President Bill Clinton, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton and World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres.

    The Archewell Foundation, which Harry founded with his wife, Meghan Markle, to carry out their philanthropic work recently launched an initiative supporting parents whose children have suffered or died due to online harms. Harry highlighted the work of that initiative, called The Parents Network, in his speech Tuesday.

    The foundation has also partnered with the World Health Organization and others to end violence against children, an issue he and Meghan outlined during a recent trip to Colombia. Harry on Tuesday pointed to the inaugural Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, which is set to take place in Bogotá this November. He said that this meeting could result in the first global agreement for prioritizing child safety and protection online.

    His CGI address was part of a string of appearances for Harry in New York at the growing number of humanitarian and philanthropic events that run alongside the United Nations General Assembly Week.

    On Monday, he appeared at an event for The HALO Trust, where he discussed how the work of the landmine clearing charity was influential on his late mother, Princess Diana, as well as at the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit, where he spoke with winners of The Diana Award.

    “The HALO Trust’s work in Angola meant a great deal to my mother,” he said. “Carrying on her legacy is a responsibility that I take seriously. And I think we all know how much she would want us to finish this particular job.”

    Harry’s message on Tuesday was generally well-received at the conference.

    Nia Faith, 22, co-founder of the Canadian nonprofit Revolutionnaire, which works to empower youth and uses social media to mobilize members, said she saw his presentation as a “call to action” on an issue that does not get enough attention.

    “I was incredibly moved by Prince Harry’s speech,” she said. “At Revolutionnaire, we use digital advocacy and social media to empower youth to make a positive impact. We also recognized that social media is being used in a way that is harmful and detrimental to the mental health of young people.”

    Faith hopes that Harry’s work will convince companies and governments to take action to protect children while encouraging the use of platforms to drive more positive action.

    Ashley Lashley, 25, whose Ashley Lashley Foundation works to address environmental challenges in her native Barbados by motivating young people to take action in their communities, said she was impressed by his remarks, even though she also worries about the digital divide in her country.

    “His message really hit home that parents, teachers, and students really need to unite to educate each other about the safe usage of digital technology,” she said. “I really believe that there needs to be a multi sectorial approach. That’s what we’re seeing here at CGI where different persons from different sectors — from governments, from private sectors, from philanthropy organizations — can really work together to ensure that there is peace and equity across all social media platforms.”

    ________

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Tearful Caroline Ellison gets 2 years in prison over her role in FTX fraud

    Tearful Caroline Ellison gets 2 years in prison over her role in FTX fraud

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.

    Ellison, 29, could have faced a much tougher sentence, but both the judge and prosecutors said she deserved credit for talking extensively with federal investigators, pleading guilty and ultimately testifying against Bankman-Fried for three days at his trial last November.

    U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “remarkable.”

    But he said a prison sentence was necessary because she had participated in what might be the “greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else” or at least close to it.

    Ellison was ordered to report to prison Nov. 7.

    FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV ad and its extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022.

    U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of looting customer accounts on the exchange to make risky investments, make millions of dollars of illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials and buy luxury real estate in the Caribbean.

    Ellison was chief executive at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman-Fried.

    “I’m deeply ashamed with what I’ve done,” she said at the sentencing hearing, fighting through tears to say she was “so so sorry” to everyone she had harmed directly or indirectly.

    She did not speak as she left Manhattan federal court, surrounded by lawyers.

    In court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon called for leniency, saying Ellison’s testimony was “devastating and powerful proof” against Bankman-Fried, 32, who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

    Attorney Anjan Sahni asked the judge to spare his client from prison, citing “unusual circumstances,” including her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried and the damage caused when her “whole professional and personal life came to revolve” around him.

    Judge Kaplan agreed that Ellison’s willingness to work with prosecutors was extraordinary.

    “I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years here. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison,” he said.

    But he said that in such a serious case, he could not let cooperation be a get-out-of-jail-free card, even when it was clear that Bankman-Fried had become “your kryptonite.”

    Bankman-Fried also testified at the trial, portraying himself to the jury as inexperienced and bumbling but not a criminal. He acknowledged making mistakes, but said he didn’t defraud anyone and wasn’t aware that Alameda Research had amassed billions of dollars in debt.

    Sassoon, the prosecutor, described that testimony in court Tuesday as “evasive, even contemptuous.”

    As the business began to falter, Ellison divulged the massive fraud to employees who worked for her even before FTX filed for bankruptcy, trial evidence showed.

    Ultimately, she also spoke extensively with criminal and civil U.S. investigators.

    Sassoon said prosecutors were impressed that Ellison did not “jump into the lifeboat” to escape her crimes but instead spent nearly two years fully cooperating.

    Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in extensive charity work, written a novel and worked with her parents on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students, according to her lawyers.

    They said she also now has a healthy romantic relationship and has reconnected with high school friends she had lost touch with while she worked for and sometimes dated Bankman-Fried from 2017 until late 2022.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • California becomes latest state to restrict student smartphone use at school

    California becomes latest state to restrict student smartphone use at school

    [ad_1]

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — School districts in California will have to create rules restricting student smartphone use under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday.

    The legislation makes California the latest state to try to curb student phone access in an effort to minimize distractions in the classroom and address the mental health impacts of social media on children. Florida, Louisiana, Indiana and several other states have passed laws aimed at restricting student phone use at school.

    “This new law will help students focus on academics, social development, and the world in front of them, not their screens, when they’re in school,” Newsom said in a statement.

    But some critics of phone restriction policies say the burden should not fall on teachers to enforce them. Others worry the rules will make it harder for students to seek help if there is an emergency or argue that decisions on phone bans should be left up to individual districts or schools.

    “We support those districts that have already acted independently to implement restrictions because, after a review of the needs of their stakeholders, they determined that made the most sense for their communities with regards to safety, school culture and academic achievement,” said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association. “We simply oppose the mandate.”

    The law requires districts to pass rules by July 1, 2026, to limit or ban students from using smartphones on campus or while students are under the supervision of school staff. Districts will have to update their policies every five years after that.

    The move comes after Newsom signed a law in 2019 authorizing school districts to restrict student phone access. In June, he announced plans to take on the issue again after the U.S. surgeon general called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people.

    The governor then sent letters to districts last month, urging them to limit student device use on campus. That came on a day that the board for the second-largest school district in the country, Los Angeles Unified, voted to ban student phone use during the school day beginning in January.

    Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican representing Folsom, introduced the bill with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are also parents.

    Phones are restricted where Hoover’s children — ages 15, 12 and 10 — attend school. Many of the students don’t always like the policy, which is in part a reflection of how addictive phones can be, he said.

    “Anytime you’re talking about interrupting that addiction, it’s certainly going to be hard for students sometimes,” Hoover said. “But I think overall they understand why it’s important, why it helps them focus better on their classes and why it actually helps them have better social interaction with their peers face to face when they’re at school.”

    Some parents have raised concerns that school cellphone bans could cut them off from their children if there is an emergency. Those fears were highlighted after a shooting at a Georgia high school left four dead and nine injured this month.

    The 2019 law authorizing districts to restrict student phone access makes exceptions for emergencies, and the new law doesn’t change that. Some proponents of school phone restrictions say it’s better to have phones off in an active shooter situation, so that they don’t ring and reveal a student’s location.

    Teachers have reported seeing students more engaged since the Santa Barbara Unified School District began fully implementing a ban on student phone use in class during the 2023-24 school year, Assistant Superintendent ShaKenya Edison said.

    Nick Melvoin, a Los Angeles Unified board member who introduced the district’s resolution, said passing the policies at the district or state level can help prevent students from feeling like they’re missing out on what’s going on on social media.

    Before student cellphone use was banned during the school day at Sutter Middle School in Folsom, students had been seen recording fights, filming TikTok challenges and spending lunchtime looking at online content, Principal Tarik McFall said. The rule has “totally changed the culture” of the school so that students spend more time talking to one another, he said.

    “To have them put away, to have them power off and that be a practice, it has been a great thing,” McFall said.

    Teachers have become more reliant in recent years on technology as a learning tool for students, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mara Harvey, a social studies teacher at Discovery High School in the Natomas Unified School District.

    The district, which is in Sacramento, provides students in the first through 12th grades with a Chromebook, where they can access online textbooks and Google Classroom, a platform where teachers share class materials. But if a student forgets their Chromebook at home, their smartphone becomes “the next viable choice for them to access the curriculum,” Harvey said.

    ___

    Austin 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 Austin on X: @sophieadanna

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions

    OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions

    [ad_1]

    A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether OceanGate felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.

    Amber Bay, director of administration for the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible, insisted Tuesday that the company would not “conduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need.”

    But she agreed that the company wanted to deliver for those who paid $250,000 and were encouraged to participate as “mission specialists.”

    “There definitely was an urgency to deliver on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,” she told a Coast Guard panel.

    OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.

    The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

    On Tuesday, Bay pushed back at earlier testimony from Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate contractor who said Bay told her “you don’t seem to have an explorer mindset” after she raised safety concerns. Bay said Wilby’s concerns were noted at the time and treated with respect. Bay added that her own duties did not include engineering or operations.

    She later broke down in tears when discussing the tragedy, which was personal, because she knew the victims.

    “I had the privilege of knowing the explorers lives who were lost,” Bay said through tears. “And there’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and the loss.”

    Earlier in the hearings, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

    Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

    On Tuesday, submersible pilot and designer Karl Stanley of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration testified to provide perspective about deep-sea submersible operations and safety. He said the phenomenon of “billionaires courting scientists” has upset the economics of the industry.

    Stanley also said he viewed OceanGate’s characterization of paid passengers as “mission specialists” to be an attempt to avoid accountability.

    “It’s clearly a dodge with trying to get around U.S. regulations with passengers,” Stanley said.

    Additionally, the company’s “entire business plan made zero sense,” Stanley said. He also said he felt the implosion ultimately stemmed from Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.

    “There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everyone who had access to a little bit of information,” Stanley said.

    The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

    Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, said during testimony Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.

    “This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” he said.

    Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

    OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

    During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

    When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

    OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • NTSB engineer says carbon fiber hull from submersible showed signs of flaws

    NTSB engineer says carbon fiber hull from submersible showed signs of flaws

    [ad_1]

    The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard on one of the dives the year before the tragedy, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

    Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard panel there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the pressure hull of OceanGate’s Titan submersible. Two different types of sensors on Titan recorded the “loud acoustic event” that earlier witnesses testified about hearing on a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.

    Hull pieces recovered after the tragedy showed substantial delamination of the layers of carbon fiber, which were bonded to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.

    OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded in June 2023.

    Kramer’s statements were followed by testimony from William Kohnen, a longtime submersibles expert and key member of the Marine Technology Society. Kohnen emerged as a critic of OceanGate in the aftermath of the implosion and has described the disaster as preventable.

    On Wednesday, Kohnen pushed back at the idea the Titan could not have been thoroughly tested before use because of its experimental nature. He also said OceanGate’s operations raised concerns among many people in the industry.

    Kohnen said “I don’t think many people ever told Stockton no.” He described Rush as not receptive to outside scrutiny.

    “This is not something where we don’t want you to do it. We want you to do it right,” Kohnen said.

    The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the submersible’s carbon fiber construction, which was unusual. Other testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company.

    Another Wednesday witness, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, testified about his review of the OceanGate submersible’s development. He expressed particular concern about the sub’s window.

    “This is consistent with something on the path of failure,” Kemper said.

    Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

    Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

    Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

    The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

    The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.

    OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

    During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

    One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

    When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Evacuation order remains in effect for Ohio town where dangerous chemical leak occurred

    Evacuation order remains in effect for Ohio town where dangerous chemical leak occurred

    [ad_1]

    WHITEWATER TOWNSHIP, Ohio (AP) — An evacuation order remained in effect Wednesday for residents in an Ohio community as crews continued to work at the scene of a dangerous chemical leak.

    Styrene, a toxic and flammable chemical that is used to make plastic and rubber, began leaking Tuesday afternoon from a railcar in Whitewater Township, a community of about 6,000 people just west of Cincinnati. The Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency advised anyone within a half-mile (about 800 meters) of the area near U.S. Route 50 and the Great Miami River to leave immediately.

    Tom Ciuba, a spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana, which operates the tracks, said Wednesday that the railcar was no longer venting, He said crews worked overnight to put water on the car, but it hadn’t been removed from the tracks and wouldn’t be until officials determine it is safe to do so. He said air and water quality continue to be monitored, and that several roads near the area will remain closed indefinitely.

    The White House said President Biden has been briefed on the leak and was in touch with state and local officials. The Federal Railroad Administration and Environmental Protection Agency officials are at the scene assisting with hazmat operations and air quality testing.

    The President has directed his team to provide any resources that may be needed. We urge residents to heed the warnings of emergency personnel, especially those instructed to evacuate.’

    It isn’t clear when the evacuation order might be lifted. The area has a mix of businesses, homes and large swaths of undeveloped land.

    Several are schools were closed after the leak and remained shuttered Wednesday. No injuries have been reported.

    Authorities have said a pressure release valve on the railcar was leaking the styrene, which can cause headaches, nausea and respiratory issues in the short term and more serious health problems including organ damage in the long term.

    Last year a train derailment in East Palestine, on the other side of Ohio, caused hazardous chemicals to leak and burn for days. The February 2023 derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border led to new safety rules and increased scrutiny of the rail industry.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Aaron Hernandez ‘American Sports Story’ series wants to show a different view of the disgraced NFLer

    Aaron Hernandez ‘American Sports Story’ series wants to show a different view of the disgraced NFLer

    [ad_1]

    From a podcast to multiple documentaries, the rise and fall of the once revered NFL star Aaron Hernandez is certainly well documented. An FX limited series is latest to rehash the saga, attempting to go beyond the headlines and dig deeper into his story.

    “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” stars Josh Andrés Rivera as the New England Patriots tight end. It details Hernandez’s troubled childhood with an abusive father who demanded his son play football and project masculinity and toughness to the world. Secretly, Hernandez also struggled with his sexuality.

    He played college ball at the University of Florida and was drafted by the Patriots. Over time, the series shows how Hernandez’s behavior grew increasingly erratic. He was convicted of murder and died by suicide in 2017 while serving a life sentence. After his death, research showed Hernandez’s brain showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

    “What we tried to do with this show — is take a tabloid headline, take some story that you think you know about Aaron Hernandez … and go behind it and see what it’s like to walk in the shoes of all the people who are part of this,” said Brad Simpson, one of the series’ executive producers, in an interview.

    Hernandez’s life, crimes and death have been detailed before in long-form writing, documentaries including Netflix’s “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez,” and the podcast “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.,” which is the basis for “American Sports Story.”

    Rivera, known for his supporting roles in the recent “Hunger Games” prequel and 2021’s “West Side Story,” said playing the former tight end was a “responsibility that you have to approach with a certain level of sensitivity.”

    Once he started learning more about Hernandez’s life, diving into recordings of phone calls he made from prison and watching clips from his interviews, Rivera said he began to see the layered intricacy of Hernandez’s life. And he only became more eager to play him.

    “To a lot of people, he was very charming and very charismatic and easy to get along with. There were not a small amount of people who felt that way, so that was interesting because you have to dissect the ‘why,’” Rivera said. “There’s clearly a magnetism there, disguising an inner life that’s very complex.”

    Rivera said he enjoyed the challenge of that character work, calling Hernandez “a chameleon.”

    “There was variations on the amount of tenderness and even the frankness, or the amount of swagger he would use from person to person, so I tried to incorporate that to a core essence,” he said.

    Transforming into Hernandez was also a physical commitment for Rivera, who described getting into NFL shape as “meathead summer,” where he increased his food intake and worked with trainers to build muscle. The hardest part, though, of the transformation for Rivera, was getting inked up.

    His mobility was often limited when filming to preserve the tattoos, which he said he initially found frustrating, but ultimately, the “oppressive feeling” of not being able to move freely was something he channeled into his character’s frustration.

    Rivera stars alongside Jaylen Barron as Hernandez’s high school sweetheart and later fiancé, Shayanna Jenkins, Lindsay Mendez as his cousin, Ean Castellanos as his brother and Tammy Blanchard as his mother. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Hernandez’s college teammate Tim Tebow, Tony Yazbeck plays former Florida coach Urban Meyer and Norbert Leo Butz plays former Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

    With the first sports-focused season of the “American Story” franchise, producers said they are interested in dissecting the “American religion of football.” They also hope viewers question the preconceptions they had about people involved in stories that captured the nation, like that of Hernandez.

    “We can use this story to challenge certain perspectives or to just add a little bit of nuance for people who maybe don’t know much about it or have a fixed mindset about it,” Rivera said. “It’s an interesting opportunity.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Rapper Fatman Scoop died of heart disease, medical examiner says

    Rapper Fatman Scoop died of heart disease, medical examiner says

    [ad_1]

    HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) — Hip-hop artist Fatman Scoop, who collapsed onstage while performing in Connecticut last month, died of heart disease, the state medical examiner’s office has determined.

    The official cause of death for the performer, born Isaac Freeman III, was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a spokesperson for the Connecticut medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.

    Fatman Scoop, 56, collapsed while performing in Hamden on Aug. 30 and was taken to a hospital.

    His family said later on Instagram that “the world lost a radiant soul, a beacon on stage and in life.”

    A New York City-born rapper and hype man, Fatman Scoop was known for his single “Be Faithful,” which topped charts in Europe in the early 2000s, and for his contributions to hits by Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey and others.

    His family cherished him as “the laughter in our lives, a constant source of support, unwavering strength and courage,” his relatives said.

    “His music made us dance and embrace life with positivity,” his family members said. “His joy was infectious and the generosity he extended to all will be deeply missed but never forgotten.”

    __________

    This story has been corrected to note that Fatman Scoop was 56, not 53.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • UNLV QB to sit out season after agent says $100,000 promised for transfer has not been paid

    UNLV QB to sit out season after agent says $100,000 promised for transfer has not been paid

    [ad_1]

    The convoluted way college athletes are paid for the use of their name, image and likeness and a dispute between player and coaches over money appears to have cost an undefeated team its quarterback three games into the season.

    UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka has decided to sit out the rest of the season over a $100,000 NIL payment that was promised but never paid after he agreed to transfer to the Rebels from Holy Cross last winter, Sluka’s agent told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

    “I think there was some kind of breakdown in communication,” Bob Sluka, Matthew’s father, told AP.

    Sluka’s decision sent shockwaves throughout major college football, where the old rules of amateurism have fallen, leaving schools and the NCAA grappling with how to regulate the way players can be paid. Just how much regulation is part of a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement agreement involving the NCAA and the nation’s top conferences that is before a federal judge in California.

    Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, said Sluka was promised $100,000 by a UNLV assistant coach who recruited the quarterback last winter when he agreed to transfer in January.

    Both Cromartie and the company that runs UNLV’s NIL collective, which would be responsible for paying school athletes, acknowledge there was no signed agreement between the player and the organization for $100,000.

    UNLV issued a statement accusing Sluka’s representative of making “financial demands upon the university and its NIL collective in order to continue playing.”

    “UNLV athletics interpreted these demands as a violation of the NCAA pay-for-play rules, as well as Nevada state law,” the school said. “UNLV does not engage in such activity, nor does it respond to implied threats. UNLV has honored all previously agreed-upon scholarships for Matthew Sluka.”

    Bob Sluka and Cromartie insisted Matthew Sluka was not looking for anything more than was promised.

    UNLV (3-0) is scheduled to host Fresno State (3-1) in a big Mountain West game on Saturday, with both schools hoping a strong season could put them in consideration for a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. The Rebels have already beaten two power conference schools but now will proceed without their starting QB.

    Sluka’s transfer

    Equity Sports represents numerous NFL and college players, including Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes. Bob Sluka told AP his son signed with Equity Sports when Matthew Sluka declared his intent to switch schools and entered the NCAA transfer portal in December.

    During a recruiting trip to UNLV with his son, Bob Sluka said a discussion about NIL payments came up with offensive coordinator Brennan Marion and the Slukas informed him those could be had with Equity.

    Cromartie said he spoke with the assistant coach by phone and a promise of $100,000 was made but because Sluka was still completing his degree at Holy Cross, the quarterback could not sign a contract with a collective until after he enrolled at UNLV. Sluka did not join the team until preseason practice in August.

    Friends of Unilv, the collective that works with UNLV athletes, does not sign deals with athletes until they are enrolled, said Bob Sine, whose company Blueprint Sports oversees and operates that collective and dozens others around the country.

    But, Sine said, it is not uncommon for representatives of athletes to open discussions with the collective about NIL opportunities before the athlete is enrolled. Sine said a payment of $3,000 was made to Sluka over the summer, but nothing else.

    Things fall apart

    “In July, there was no NIL payments. There was no $100,000, I guess you could say zero dollars. He was given a $3,000 relocation fee and that was it,” said Cromartie, who added head coach Barry Odom was not involved in the initial discussions.

    Sine said the first time they heard from Cromartie was on Aug. 29 via email, and on Sept. 19 there was another email communication during which the collective offered a potential deal that would pay Sluka $3,000 per month.

    Sine said Cromartie was not registered as an agent in Nevada or with the school. They informed him he needed to do that to move forward. Sluka’s father said Cromartie was directed to speak with Odom and director of player development Hunkie Cooper.

    Cromartie said he suggested payments of $10,000 a month over the next five months and even $5,000 per month and was declined.

    Cromartie said Sluka was offered $3,000 per month by Odom and Cooper in a phone call last week.

    “At that point I think Matt felt lied to. At that point he just wanted to stand up for himself,” Cromartie said.

    Bob Sluka said his son went to see Odom on Monday before practice and the coach refused to talk to Matthew about the NIL arrangement. Bob Sluka said Matthew returned to the coach’s office after practice, but Odom was gone. Odom declined to speak with reporters following practice Wednesday.

    “It’s just the tone that they took. It didn’t have to happen. All you had to do was give Matt a hug and say, ‘Hey, Matt, we’re going to work this out with you,’” said Bob Sluka, who lives in Locust Valley on New York’s Long Island. “You’re letting your starting quarterback walk out the door. And they didn’t care. Did Barry not call the collective and say, ‘Holy crap, I’m losing my kid.’ No, he said, ‘Take it or leave it.’”

    NCAA redshirt rules allow players to retain a year of eligibility if they play four or fewer games in a season. Sluka, who played four seasons (2020-23) at Holy Cross, still has one more year of eligibility that he could use at another school next season. NCAA rules do not allow players to play for two schools within the same season.

    “I committed to UNLV based on certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld after I enrolled,” Matthew Sluka posted on X late Tuesday. “Despite discussions, it became clear that these commitments would not be fulfilled in the future. I wish my teammates the best of luck this season and hope for the continued success of the program.”

    NIL headaches

    The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes being compensated for things like endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2021, but had very few detailed rules on how schools can regulate payments beyond saying the compensation cannot come directly from the school.

    State laws have created different standards around the country, and college sports leaders, including NCAA President Charlie Baker, have been lobbying Congress for a federal law to help get a handle of an unruly system that lacks transparency. The NCAA settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits includes a plan for a new revenue-sharing system, which would allow schools to begin making direct NIL payments to athletes as soon as next year.

    “The NCAA fully supports college athletes profiting from their NIL, but unfortunately there is little oversight or accountability in the NIL space and far too often promises made to student-athletes are broken,” NCAA senior vice president for external affairs Tim Buckley said in a statement. “Positive changes are underway at the NCAA to deliver more benefits to student-athletes but without clear legal authority granted by the courts or by Congress, the NCAA, conferences and schools have limited authority to regulate third parties involved in NIL transactions.”

    The current way this all works has caused headaches for everyone involved.

    Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada, who committed to play for Florida out of high school, is suing Gators coach Billy Napier and one of the school’s top boosters after a $14 million NIL deal fell through. Rashada never played for Florida. He was released from his scholarship agreement in 2023, transferred to Arizona State where he played last year and then transferred to Georgia this offseason.

    “They’re going to have to figure out a system, just like anything else — make sure contracts are signed, or the language is done the right way,” Mahomes, who has become involved in the NIL collective at Texas Tech, his alma mater, said Wednesday when asked about Sluka’s situation.

    What now?

    UNLV went 9-5 last season and played for the Mountain West Conference championship, but the quarterback who led that team to the program’s best season in nearly 40 years, Jayden Maiava, transferred to Southern California of the Big Ten.

    Sluka was one of the top quarterbacks playing in Division I’s second tier, known as the Football Championship Subdivision. Holy Cross reached the FCS playoffs in 2021 and ’22 with Sluka as the starter.

    After a coaching change at Holy Cross — head coach Bob Chesney left to take over at James Madison — Sluka also moved on. after setting a host of school records and rushing for an NCAA Division I quarterback record 330 yards in a loss to Lafayette in 2023. Sluka has completed 21 of 48 passes for 318 yards, six touchdowns and one interception for the Rebels this season. He has also rushed 39 times for 286 yards and a touchdown, helping the Rebels beat Kansas and Houston to go 2-0 against Big 12 teams.

    Neither Sluka’s father nor his agent completely ruled out the possibility of a resolution that could have Matthew Sluka back with UNLV, but neither voiced any optimism.

    “At the end of the day, $100,000 for a quarterback that’s in a Top 25 program is actually probably on the lower tier,” Cromartie said. “The fact that he hasn’t gotten that or anything in between just speaks to the point he’s getting done unjustly and unfairly.”

    ___

    AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

    ___

    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and College football ‘ Latest News & Updates

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Top Muslim-voter organization endorses Harris as Middle East conflict escalates

    Top Muslim-voter organization endorses Harris as Middle East conflict escalates

    [ad_1]

    LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest Muslim American voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign since many Muslim and Arab American organizations have opted to support third-party candidates or not endorse.

    Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group “recognizes the responsibility to defeat” Donald Trump in November.

    The group, based in Washington, D.C., operates in eight states, with a significant presence in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The organization will now focus its ongoing voter-outreach efforts on supporting Harris, in addition to down-ballot candidates.

    “This endorsement is not agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, in a statement. “While we do not agree with all of Harris’ policies, particularly on the war on Gaza, we are approaching this election with both pragmatism and conviction.”

    The endorsement follows months of tension between Arab American and Muslim groups and Democratic leaders over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Many of these groups, including leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement focused on protesting the war, have chosen not to endorse any candidate in the presidential race.

    The conflict in the Middle East has escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed approximately 1,200 people. Israel’s offensive in response has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

    Israel in recent days also has expanded its air campaign against Hezbollah, with strikes on Lebanon killing at least 560 people, including many women and children, making it the deadliest bombardment since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

    In an interview ahead of Emgage Action’s formal announcement, Alzayat described the decision to back Harris as “excruciatingly difficult,” noting months of internal discussions and extensive meetings and outreach with Harris’ policy team and campaign.

    Ultimately, the group found alignment with many of Harris’ domestic policies and is “hopeful” about her approach to the Middle East conflict if elected, Alzayat said.

    “We owe it to our community, despite this pain, despite the emotions, that we are one organization that is looking at things in a sober, clear-eyed manner and just giving our voting guidance,” Alzayat said.

    In Wednesday’s statement, Emgage Action endorsed Harris to prevent “a return to Islamophobic and other harmful policies under a Trump administration.”

    Many in the Muslim community cite Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban,” which is how many Trump opponents refer to his ban on immigrants from several majority-Muslim countries, as a key reason for opposing his return to the White House.

    Trump’s campaign dismissed the significance of the endorsement.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    “Once again, national organizations’ endorsements aren’t matching up to what the people suffering from four years of Kamala Harris believe,” Victoria LaCivita, Trump’s communications director for Michigan, said Wednesday. She added that Trump had won the endorsement of Democrat Amer Ghalib, the Muslim mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan.

    “Voters across the country know that President Trump is the right candidate for ALL Americans, and he will ensure peace and safety in our country and around the world,” LaCivita said.

    Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager, noted in a statement that the endorsement comes “at a time when there is great pain and loss in the Muslim and Arab American communities.”

    Harris will continue working “to bring the war in Gaza to an end such that Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination,” she said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Joker is back, this time with Lady Gaga — and songs

    Joker is back, this time with Lady Gaga — and songs

    [ad_1]

    VENICE, Italy (AP) — “ Joker ” is a hard act to follow. Todd Phillips’ dark, Scorsese-inspired character study about the Batman villain made over a billion dollars at the box office, won Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar, dominated the cultural discourse for months and created a new movie landmark.

    It wasn’t for everyone, but it got under people’s skin.

    Knowing that it was a fool’s errand to try to do it again, Phillips and Phoenix pivoted, or rather, pirouetted into what would become “ Joker: Folie à Deux.” The dark and fantastical musical journey goes deeper into the mind of Arthur Fleck as he awaits trial for murder and falls in love with a fellow Arkham inmate, Lee, played by Lady Gaga. There is singing, dancing and mayhem.

    If Phillips and Phoenix have learned anything over the years, it’s that the scarier something is, the better. So once again they rebelled against expectations and went for broke with something that’s already sharply divided critics.

    As with the first, audiences will get to decide for themselves when it opens in theaters on Oct. 4.

    “HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET JOAQUIN PHOENIX TO DO A SEQUEL?”

    Any comic book movie that makes a billion dollars is going to have the sequel talk. But with “Joker” it was never a given that it would go anywhere: Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t do sequels. Yet it turned out, Phoenix wasn’t quite done with Arthur Fleck yet either.

    During the first, the actor wondered what this character would look like in different situations. He and the on-set photographer mocked up classic movie posters, like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Yentl” with the Joker in them and showed them to Phillips.

    “Sometimes you’re just done with something and other times you have an ongoing interest,” Phoenix said. “There was just more to explore. … I just felt like we weren’t done.”

    So Phillips and his co-writer Scott Silver got to work on a new script, one that leaned into the music in Arthur Fleck’s head. Then his dreary Arkham life turns to Technicolor when he meets and falls for Lee, a Joker superfan.

    “Joaquin Phoenix is not going to do a line drive. He’s not going to do something that’s fan service,” Phillips said. “He wanted to be as scared as he was with the first movie. So, we tried to make something that is as audacious and out there and hopefully people get it.”

    LADY GAGA FINDS LEE’S VOICE, AND LOSES HER OWN

    One decision that’s already sparking debate is casting someone with a voice like Lady Gaga’s and not using that instrument to its full power. Phillips, who was a producer on “A Star is Born,” wanted someone who “brought music with them.” But Lee isn’t a singer.

    Actor Lady Gaga and director Todd Phillips delight in returning to Venice Film Festival with “Joker: Folie à Deux,” as Gaga reveals why she sings differently in the eagerly anticipated sequel. (Sept. 5)

    “Singing is so second nature to me, and making music and performing on stage is so inside of me. Especially this music,” Gaga said. “I worked extensively on untraining myself for this movie and throwing away as much as I could all the time to make sure I was never locking into what I do. I had to really kind of erase it all.”

    Phoenix, who wasn’t quite sure what it would be like working with someone who has such a larger-than-life superstar persona, found Gaga to be refreshingly unpretentious and available. And as an actor, he admired her commitment to the character.

    “Her power is in singing and singing a particular way,” he said. “For her to sacrifice that through character, to do something that people would call a musical, but to not be performing it in the way that would sound best as a singer but to approach it from the character was a very difficult process. I was really impressed with her willingness to do that.”

    In addition to writing a “waltz that falls apart” for the film, Gaga is releasing a companion album, “Harlequin” on Friday with song titles including “Oh, When the Saints,” “World on a String,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “That’s Life.”

    Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix at the Venice Film Festival. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

    SORRY PUDDIN’, THIS AIN’T MARGOT ROBBIE’S HARLEY QUINN

    Much like Phoenix’s Joker isn’t Heath Ledger’s or Jack Nicholson’s, Gaga’s Lee is not the Harley Quinn of “Birds of Prey.”

    “We’re never going to outdo what Margot Robbie did,” Phillips said. “You have to do something 180 degrees in the other direction.”

    Sure, Lee will still casually light something on fire to get some time alone with Joker, but the tumult is more internal. And Gaga threw herself into making Lee something new: A real person, grounded in a reality that came before her.

    “I spent a lot of my time on developing her inner life (which) for me had a lot to do with her storm and what thing was always making her about to explode,” Gaga said. “There’s a particular kind of danger that she carries with her, but it’s inside and it’s kind of explosive.”

    “DO YOU JUST WANT A BRUTE?”

    Image

    Phoenix and Brendan Gleeson, background center, in a scene from “Joker: Folie à Deux.” (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

    Brendan Gleeson didn’t have much hesitation about joining the ensemble. He’d worked with Phoenix before on “The Village” and was in awe of what he’d done on the first movie.

    “He has an absolute relentless integrity and curiosity and drive,” Gleeson said. “He won’t just plough the same furrow for its own sake.”

    But he also didn’t want to play the simple version of an Arkham prison guard.

    “I said, look, do you just want a brute? Because I’m not sure I just want to do a brute,” Gleeson said. “He wanted something more. We tried to find layers in this guy.”

    CREATING MAYHEM

    Anyone who has worked with Phoenix knows that he likes to keep things fresh. That may mean something as small as changing the location of a prop or as big as throwing out choreography that you’ve been rehearsing for months at the last minute.

    “I think we both love mayhem and not just in movies but on the set,” Phillips said. “It had to feel like anything can happen.”

    Image

    Gaga, director Todd Phillips, and Joaquin Phoenix at the Venice Film Festival. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)

    With the crew 95% the same as the first, everyone was ready to be flexible. Gaga, too, dove right in, suggesting that they sing live on camera.

    “It changed the whole making of the film,” Phillips said. “We were not only singing live, we were singing live differently every take.”

    THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT?

    Since Arthur killed Robert De Niro’s talk show host Murray Franklin on live television in the first film, he’s become a kind of icon and curiosity thanks in no small part to an oft referenced, but never seen, television movie that was made about him. Now, the trial is going to be televised as well.

    “Underneath it all, there’s this idea of corruption and how everything is corrupt in the system, from the prison system to the judicial system to the idea of entertainment, quite frankly,” Phillips said. “This idea that in the States at least, everything is entertainment. A court trial could be entertainment, and a presidential election can be entertainment. So, if that’s true, what is entertainment?”

    NO LONGER A COMPLETE WILD CARD

    It’s easier to be to the insurgent, not the incumbent, Phillips said. Although a Joker film is never going to fly completely under the radar, the spotlight is undoubtedly more intense this time around.

    “You do feel like you have a larger target on your back,” Phillips said.

    While much of the film was made on Warner Bros. soundstages in Los Angeles, the production did go back to New York to film again on the Bronx staircase (which now come up on Google Maps as the Joker Stairs) and outside a Manhattan courthouse. The production staged a massive protest scene, with Gaga, almost concurrently with the media frenzy around the Donald Trump hush money trial as if there weren’t enough eyes on them already.

    Some are also handwringing about the sequel’s bigger budget and whether it can match the success of the first. But Phillips has learned to take it in stride.

    “There’s a different amount of pressure, but that just comes with making movies,” he said. “You can’t please everybody and you just kind of go for it.”

    Gleeson has an even sunnier outlook.

    “It has kind of arthouse movie integrity on a blockbuster scale. It’s great news for cinema, is the way I look on it,” Gleeson said. “If these event movies can continue to have depth and can be so conflicting like this one, is we needn’t worry about the future of cinema.”

    SO, IS IT A MUSICAL?

    Image

    Phoenix and Lady Gaga in a scene from “Joker: Folie à Deux.” (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

    One thing Phillips didn’t mean to do was ignite a discourse about what is and isn’t a musical. He’s just trying to manage expectations.

    “People go, ‘what do you mean it’s not a musical?’ And it is a musical. It has all the elements of a musical. But I guess what I mean by it is all the musicals I’ve seen leave me happy at the end for the most part, ‘Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ not being one of them. This has so much sadness in it that I just didn’t want to be misleading to people.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Reality TV star Julie Chrisley resentenced to 7 years in bank fraud and tax evasion case

    Reality TV star Julie Chrisley resentenced to 7 years in bank fraud and tax evasion case

    [ad_1]

    ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday resentenced Julie Chrisley to seven years in prison for her conviction on bank fraud and tax evasion charges, declining the reality TV star’s request for less time in prison than was originally imposed.

    Chrisley and her husband, Todd Chrisley, gained fame on their show, “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their tight-knit family and extravagant lifestyle. A jury in 2022 found them guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans. The Chrisleys were also found guilty of tax evasion by hiding their earnings.

    A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June upheld the Chrisleys’ convictions but found a legal error in how the trial judge had calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence by holding her accountable for the entire bank fraud scheme. The appellate panel sent her case back to the lower court for resentencing.

    Julie Chrisley’s attorney, Alex Little, asked the judge to reduce his client’s sentence to no more than five years. He argued that she was a minor player in the crimes, that her “scattered offenses” were “dramatic mistakes.” He also noted that she has behaved well and taken advantage of enrichment opportunities during her 20 months in prison so far, receiving more than 70 certificates.

    In a court filing, Little had argued that Chrisley’s two youngest children are struggling with “day-to-day functioning” because of their mother’s absence.

    Federal prosecutor Annalise Peters urged the judge to reimpose the seven-year sentence. She argued that prosecutors had been conservative in charging the Chrisleys, that Julie Chrisley was a “core part” of a fraudulent scheme and that she had not apologized, shown remorse or admitted wrongdoing.

    Chrisley’s good behavior in prison does not cancel out an “11-year journey of fraud after fraud after fraud,” Peters said.

    Peters said she felt sympathy for Chrisley’s family but that their suffering was “a natural consequence of this defendant’s criminal choices.”

    Chrisley, dressed in a navy blue prison uniform and with her formerly blond hair now dark brown, addressed the judge.

    “I apologize for my actions and what led me to where I am today,” she said, later adding that her time in prison has been “the most difficult time in my life” and has been hard on her family.

    “I cannot ever repay my children for what they have had to go through, and for that I am sorry,” she said.

    Before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans, prosecutors said during their trial. They accused the couple of spending lavishly on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel, and using new fraudulent loans to pay off old ones. Todd Chrisley then filed for bankruptcy, according to prosecutors, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.

    U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross said that when she originally sentenced Chrisley she took into account her age, health and the fact that she was a caretaker for young children and elderly parents. Ross said she imposed a sentence that fell below the guidelines for Chrisley’s crimes and situation and below what prosecutors had requested. That departure from the guidelines was not based on the loss amount or the number of years that Chrisley was involved, so her sentence will not change, Ross said.

    The judge noted that many people she has sent to prison have children and most don’t have the resources or the support system the Chrisleys have.

    “It saddens me every time I see children going through that,” Ross said, later adding that she reminds herself, “I am not the one who made the choices to put the children in that situation.”

    Two of Chrisley’s adult children, Savannah and Chase, attended the hearing. Savannah Chrisley, who spoke in support of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy at the Republican National Convention in July, told reporters outside the courthouse that the prosecution and sentencing of her parents was politically motivated.

    “That’s what you get with an Obama-appointed judge,” she said as her mother was led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals. Ross was appointed to the bench by then-President Barack Obama and took the bench in November 2014.

    She said her mother will appeal the new sentence.

    Todd Chrisley is serving a sentence of 12 years behind bars. The couple was originally ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution, but Ross said Wednesday that the amount now stands at $4.7 million.

    Todd Chrisley, 56, is at a minimum security federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, with a release date in September 2032, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website. Julie Chrisley, 51, had been held at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, and is expected to return there.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The Latest: Candidates try to counter criticisms in dueling speeches

    The Latest: Candidates try to counter criticisms in dueling speeches

    [ad_1]

    Derided by Donald Trump as a “communist,” Vice President Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist. Attacked by Harris as a rich kid who got $400 million from his father on a “silver platter,” Trump is leaning into his raw populism.

    The two presidential candidates delivered dueling speeches Wednesday that reflect how they’re honing their economic messages for voters in battleground states. Both are trying to counter criticism of them while laying out their best case for a public that still worries about the economy’s health.

    Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

    Here’s the latest:

    Speaker Johnson demands Zelenskyy remove Ukraine’s ambassador to US after Pennsylvania visit

    House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fire his country’s ambassador to the U.S. as Republicans criticize the war-torn leader’s visit to a swing-state Pennsylvania site producing munitions for the Russia-Ukraine war as a political stunt.

    The Republican Johnson’s demand Wednesday came as Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations in New York on the eve of his visit to Washington, D.C., where he has plans Thursday to brief senators on Capitol Hill about the war effort before meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House.

    “The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelenskyy.

    Johnson said no Republicans were invited to the plant tour arranged by Ambassador Oksana Markarova to Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is Biden’s hometown.

    Johnson called the visit an “intentionally political move” and said it “has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately.”

    Read more here.

    Majority of Chinese Americans plan to vote this November

    More than three-fourths of Chinese Americans say they plan to vote in the upcoming general election, according to a survey conducted by the Committee of 100 and the NORC Center for Public Affairs at the University of Chicago.

    Potential voter turnout is one of several findings released Wednesday from the survey of 504 Chinese American adults. Other questions examine the threats and discrimination members of the community face, along with concerns over the impact of China-U.S. relations on the community.

    Chinese Americans make up more than a quarter of the Asian American population, the fastest growing segment in the U.S., the survey said. In an election expected to be decided by just thousands of votes in a small number of states, voter turnout will be critical.

    Vivien Leung, an assistant professor of Political Science, Santa Clara University, who worked on the report estimated that the Chinese American turnout was 55 percent in 2020. She said the turnout was lower than for other Asian American Pacific Islander groups. “Understanding the mental health, discrimination and political perspectives of Chinese Americans is essential to create inclusive and informed policies,” said Cindy Tsai, Interim President, Committee of 100. The Committee of 100 is a New York-based advocacy group for Chinese Americans.

    A Democratic group is setting aside money to give to states for post-election litigation

    The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State says it’s setting aside $5 million to give to states’ top elections officers for post-election litigation.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    The group is launching a legal defense fund to help the Democratic Secretaries of State in Maine, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina with expected litigation over the results of the 2024 election. The step comes as former President Donald Trump has signaled that he’ll challenge a possible loss in court.

    “This effort will help ensure that Secretaries of State can do their jobs of administering free and fair elections, and ensure that voters have their voices heard at the ballot box,” Travis Brimm, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

    Trump’s campaign says he’ll hold a rally in town that was site of July assassination attempt

    Trump next month plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was struck by a bullet in an assassination attempt.

    The former president’s campaign said Wednesday that Trump will hold a rally Oct. 5 at the same place he did during the July 13 attack.

    The Republican presidential candidate plans to honor Corey Comperatore, the ex-fire chief who was shot and killed at the July rally, along with two other attendees who were injured by the shooter.

    “After not one, but two attempts on his life in the past nine weeks, President Trump is more determined than ever to see his mission through to the end,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement.

    Biden’s advice for Harris to win the election is for her to ‘be herself’

    President Joe Biden said his advice to Vice President Kamala Harris for winning the November election was to “be herself.”

    Biden was in New York on Wednesday and sat down with the co-hosts of ABC’s “The View.” He fielded a range of questions about the presidential race, ending his reelection campaign and tensions in the Middle East.

    Biden endorsed Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination and said she is “smart as hell.”

    “She has the energy. She has the intelligence. She has the grit. She has the stamina, and she has the guts to do the right thing,” he said.

    Biden, 81, also said he was “at peace” with his decision to end his campaign but remained confident he could have defeated Republican Donald Trump.

    Harris will visit the US-Mexico border on Friday

    Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign increasingly tries to make the issue of immigration more of a strength.

    That push could counter a line of attack from Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump.

    Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the trip but insisted on anonymity Wednesday to confirm details that had not been announced publicly.

    Trump has built his campaign partly around calling for cracking down on immigration and the southern border, even endorsing using police and the military to carry out mass deportations should he be elected in November.

    Since taking over for President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Harris has leaned into her experience as a former attorney general of California, saying she frequently visited the border and prosecuted drug and people smuggling gangs in that post.

    As she campaigns around the country, the vice president has also frequently criticized top Republicans for voting down a sweeping, bipartisan immigration package in Congress earlier this year after Trump opposed it.

    — By Zeke Miller and Colleen Long

    Wisconsin mayor says he did nothing wrong when he removed an absentee ballot drop box

    The mayor of a central Wisconsin city who ran for office on his opposition to absentee ballot drop boxes said Wednesday he did nothing wrong when he put on work gloves, donned a hard hat and used a dolly to cart away a drop box outside City Hall.

    Wausau Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city’s lone drop box that had been put outside City Hall around the same time late last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters.

    “This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there,” Diny said Wednesday. “I’m a member of staff. There’s nothing nefarious going on here. I’m hoping for a good result.”

    The move, which prompted a protest in the city Tuesday night and anger among drop box advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow absentee ballot drop boxes. Several Republican-run municipalities, including six in Milwaukee County, two in Waukesha County and three in Dodge County, have opted against using drop boxes for the presidential election in November, while they’re being embraced in heavily Democratic cities including Milwaukee and Madison.

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court, then controlled by conservatives, banned the use of drop boxes in 2022. But in July, the now-liberal controlled court reversed that decision and said drop boxes could be used. However, the court left it up to each community to decide whether to install them.

    Vance says the war in Ukraine has taken resources ‘at a time when Americans are suffering’

    Vance says the “biggest problem” with the Russia-Ukraine war is that it “has distracted and consumed a lot of resources at a time when Americans are suffering.”

    During a call Wednesday with reporters about union support for the Trump-Vance campaign, the GOP vice presidential nominee echoed Trump’s claims that “Russia would have never invaded Ukraine” if Trump, not Biden, had been in office.

    And if Trump is returned to the White House, Vance said “everything is going to be on the table, but I think that nothing is going to definitively be on the table” in terms of Trump’s approach to negotiating an end to the war.

    Vance did not respond directly when asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent criticism of him as “too radical” in an interview with The New Yorker. The Ohio senator has criticized U.S. support for Ukraine in the war, saying in his speech at the Republican National Convention this summer that there should be “no more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

    Vance says he doesn’t think he needs to prepare as much as Walz is for the debate

    Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance says he’s not planning to have a debate camp because “we have well developed views on public policy.”

    Speaking to reporters on a call with union supporters Wednesday, the Ohio senator said he feels no pressure to do “anything similar” to the debate preparation being done by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

    “I don’t think we have to prepare that much” because “we don’t have to hide our record from the American people,” Vance said.

    Vance also said former President Donald Trump supports the rights of workers to unionize and collectively bargain, but he demurred from full-throated support by also saying states should choose their own labor laws that can support or reduce unionization efforts.

    Trump’s supporters gather at a manufacturing plant ahead of speech

    Trump was set to address a relatively small crowd inside a massive Charlotte-area manufacturing plant.

    The Republican former president’s supporters gathered among metal machines and and palettes of red, white and blue tubing. Trump’s podium was flanked by rows of work stations, metal beams and a large campaign sign that proclaimed, “JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!”

    Harris will do a sit down interview with MSNBC

    Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

    The Democratic candidate is visiting the city to give a speech on the economy and manufacturing.

    Harris has faced criticism for avoiding media interviews during her abbreviated campaign for the presidency. The conversation with Ruhle will be her first one-on-one interview with a national network since becoming her party’s nominee. Harris previously sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate.

    Top Muslim-voter organization endorses Harris as Middle East conflict escalates

    Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest Muslim American voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign since many Muslim and Arab American organizations have opted to support third-party candidates or not endorse.

    Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group “recognizes the responsibility to defeat” former President Donald Trump in November.

    The group, based in Washington D.C., operates in eight states, with a significant presence in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The organization will now focus its ongoing voter-outreach efforts on supporting Harris, in addition to down-ballot candidates.

    A tale of crushing security lapses and missed chances to stop the man who shot Trump

    The acting director of the Secret Service was incensed at what had happened that July evening. “What I saw made me ashamed,” Ronald Rowe Jr. said. “I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

    The unguarded roof, easily within shooting distance of the rally stage, is just one of the myriad questions behind the worst Secret Service security failure in decades. The more that investigators unpack from that day, the more missed opportunities that could have prevented the attack are revealed.

    As the United States grapples with a second attempt on Donald Trump’s life, in Florida, there remains a reckoning to be done from the Pennsylvania shooting on July 13 that killed one man and wounded three — the ex-president among them.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Tupperware lifts the lid on its financial problems with bankruptcy filing

    Tupperware lifts the lid on its financial problems with bankruptcy filing

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — The company behind Tupperware, the plastic kitchenware that revolutionized food storage after World War II and became inextricably linked to the parties where women seeking a measure of financial independence and fun in midcentury America sold the colorful products, has filed for bankruptcy.

    Tupperware Brands, the Orlando, Florida-based consumer goods company that produces the iconic line of containers, said it was seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling to revitalize its core business and failing to secure a tenable takeover offer.

    Despite enjoying the same cultural ubiquity as Kleenex, Teflon and other brands whose trademarked names are eponymous with entire product categories, Tupperware has suffered from waning sales, rising competition and the limitations of the direct-to-consumer marketing model that once defined its success.

    The company said Tuesday in its bankruptcy filing that consumers shifting away from direct sales, which make up the vast majority of its sales more than a quarter-century after the first Tupperware parties, has hit the storied business hard.

    The company also cited growing public health and environmental concerns about plastic, internal inefficiencies that made it challenging to operate globally, and the “challenging microeconomic environment” of the last several years for its financial straits.

    Tupperware said it planned to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and would seek court approval for a sale “in order to protect” the brand.

    Tupperware’s roots date to 1946. As the company tells it, chemist Earl Tupper found inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory. He set out on a mission to create an airtight lid seal — similar to the one on a paint can — for a plastic container to help families save money on food waste.

    The brand experienced explosive growth in the mid-20th century, particularly with the rise of direct sales through Tupperware parties. First held in 1948, the parties were promoted as a way for women to earn supplemental income by selling their friends and neighbors the lidded bowls for holding leftovers.

    The system worked so well that Tupperware eventually removed its products from stores. It also led Tupper to appoint Brownie Wise, who came up with the house party idea, as a company executive, a position that was rare for a woman at the time.

    In the decades that followed, the brand expanded to include canisters, beakers, cake dishes and all manner of implements, and became a staple in kitchens across America and eventually, abroad as well. A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a footman in Buckingham Palace captured pictures of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast table of Queen Elizabeth II.

    The story behind the company also showed up on TV screens and on stage, with depictions in PBS’ 2004 film “Tupperware!” and the play “Sealed for Freshness.”

    “For more than 70 years, Tupperware Brands has centered on a core purpose – to inspire women to cultivate the confidence they need to enrich their lives, nourish their families, and fuel communities around the world,” Tricia Stitzel, the company’s first female CEO, wrote as recently as 2018. “And we continue to make decisions, from our innovative products to our strategic growth strategy, which reflect this purpose.”

    In the 2000s, Tupperware also diversified beyond its containers by acquiring beauty and personal care companies, most of them direct-selling brands like Avroy Shlain, Fuller Cosmetics, NaturCare, Nutrimetics and Nuvo.

    Financial analysts, however, criticized Tupperware in recent years for sticking with the direct sales model and failing to evolve with the times, most notably the large number of women who work outside the home.

    “The reality is that the decline at Tupperware is not new,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in Wednesday commentary. “It is very difficult to see how the brand can get back to its glory days.”

    The company’s sales improved some during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Americans were cooking and eating more at home. But overall sales have been in steady decline over the years due to rising competition from Rubbermaid, OXO and even takeout food containers that consumers recycle. Vintage Tupperware also remains in demand as a collectible.

    Overall, sales for food storage supplies are up 18% compared to before the pandemic, according to figures from market research firm Circana. But despite that growth – and the ongoing popularity of food storage videos on social media – the troubles for Tupperware remained.

    Saunders explained that many consumers have migrated to less expensive home storage brands they can find at Target and Walmart. Amazon, the king of online retailers, also has its own line.

    Historically, Tupperware marketed its products as higher-quality durable items. But consumers who are looking for durability are interested in more sustainable materials, such as glass and stainless steel, said Jennifer Christ, manager of consumer and commercial research for the Freedonia Group, a market research company.

    “There’s less brand loyalty than there used to be,” Christ said.

    In the past few years, Tupperware tried a few things to expand its reach and attract new customers. It started selling its products on Amazon as well as in stores at Target and Macy’s. In 2019, the brand also launched a line made with sustainable materials and expanded it two years later.

    But financial troubles continued to pile up.

    Last year, the company sought additional financing as it warned investors about its ability to stay in business and its risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

    The company received an additional non-compliance notice from the NYSE for failing to file its annual results with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year. Tupperware continued to warn about its ability to stay afloat in more recent months, with an August securities filing pointing to “significant liquidity challenges.”

    Shares for the company have fallen 75% this year.

    In Tuesday’s bankruptcy petition, Tupperware reported more than $1.2 billion in total debts and $679.5 million in total assets. It said Tupperware currently employs more than 5,450 employees across 41 countries and partners with over 465,000 consultants who sell products on a freelance basis in nearly 70 countries. Particularly in India, Tupperware was introduced as a way for women to own their own businesses.

    Many Tupperware sellers market the products online, but many also make their sales during Tupperware parties at their homes or neighborhood gatherings. In the announcement of the filing, the company maintained that there were no current changes to Tupperware’s independent sales consultant agreements.

    Tupperware also pointed to aims to “further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company,” possibly signaling a move toward increased reliance of sales on the brand’s website or perhaps more online-focused marketing, although the company did not provide exact specifics.

    In a statement, Tupperware President and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman acknowledged Tupperware’s recent financial struggles and said that the bankruptcy process is meant to provide “essential flexibility” as the company pursues this transformation. The brand, she maintains, isn’t going anywhere.

    “Whether you are a dedicated member of our Tupperware team, sell, cook with, or simply love our Tupperware products, you are a part of our Tupperware family,” Goldman said in a statement. “We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process.”

    The company’s bankruptcy filing, though, faces opposition from Tupperware’s new lenders, who want the petition dismissed or converted it to a Chapter 7 case, which would liquidate the company. Alternatively, they’re asking the court for permission to take action against the company, which could allow them to collect debt they’re owed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Not-so-great expectations: Students are reading fewer books in English class

    Not-so-great expectations: Students are reading fewer books in English class

    [ad_1]

    Chris Stanislawski didn’t read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary. Students were given detailed chapter summaries for every novel they discussed, and teachers played audio of the books during class.

    Much of the reading material at Garden City Middle School in Long Island was either abridged books, or online texts and printouts, he said.

    “When you’re given a summary of the book telling you what you’re about to read in baby form, it kind of just ruins the whole story for you,” said Chris, 14. “Like, what’s the point of actually reading?”

    In many English classrooms across America, assignments to read full-length novels are becoming less common. Some teachers focus instead on selected passages — a concession to perceptions of shorter attention spans, pressure to prepare for standardized tests and a sense that short-form content will prepare students for the modern, digital world.

    The National Council of Teachers of English acknowledged the shift in a 2022 statement on media education, saying: “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.”

    The idea is not to remove books but to teach media literacy and add other texts that feel relevant to students, said Seth French, one of the statement’s co-authors. In the English class he taught before becoming a dean last year at Bentonville High School in Arkansas, students engaged with plays, poetry and articles but read just one book together as a class.

    “At the end of the day, a lot of our students are not interested in some of these texts that they didn’t have a choice in,” he said.

    The emphasis on shorter, digital texts does not sit well with everyone.

    Deep reading is essential to strengthen circuits in the brain tied to critical thinking skills, background knowledge — and, most of all, empathy, said Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCLA specializing in dyslexia research.

    “We must give our young an opportunity to understand who others are, not through little snapshots, but through immersion into the lives and thoughts and feelings of others,” Wolf said.

    At Garden City Middle School, students are required to read several books in their entirety each year, including “Of Mice and Men” and “Romeo and Juliet,” Principal Matthew Samuelson said. Audio versions and summaries are provided as extra resources, he said.

    For Chris, who has dyslexia, the audio didn’t make the reading feel more accessible. He just felt bored. He switched this fall to a Catholic school, which his mother feels will prepare him better for college.

    Even outside school, students are reading less

    There’s little data on how many books are assigned by schools. But in general, students are reading less. Federal data from last year shows only 14% of young teens say they read for fun daily, compared with 27% in 2012.

    Teachers say the slide has its roots in the COVID-19 crisis.

    “There was a trend, it happened when COVID hit, to stop reading full-length novels because students were in trauma; we were in a pandemic. The problem is we haven’t quite come back from that,” said Kristy Acevedo, who teaches English at a vocational high school in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

    This year, she said she won’t accept that students are too distracted to read. She plans to teach time-management strategies and to use only paper and pencils for most of class time.

    Other teachers say the trend stems from standardized testing and the influence of education technology. Digital platforms can deliver a complete English curriculum, with thousands of short passages aligned to state standards — all without having to assign an actual book.

    “If admins and school districts are judged by their test scores, how are they going to improve their test scores? They’re going to mirror the test as much as possible,” said Karl Ubelhoer, a middle school special education teacher in Tabernacle, New Jersey.

    For some students, it’s a struggle to read at all. Only around a third of fourth and eighth graders reached reading proficiency in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, down significantly from 2019.

    Leah van Belle, executive director of the Detroit literacy coalition 313Reads, said when her son read “Peter Pan” in late elementary school, it was too hard for most kids in the class. She laments that Detroit feels like “a book desert.” Her son’s school doesn’t even have a library.

    Still, she said it makes sense for English classes to focus on shorter texts.

    “As an adult, if I want to learn about a topic and research it, be it personal or professional, I’m using interactive digital text to do that,” she said.

    Teachers fit books in with other ‘spinning plates’

    Even in well-resourced schools, one thing is always in short supply: time.

    Terri White, a teacher at South Windsor High School in Connecticut, no longer makes her honors ninth-grade English class read all of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She assigns about a third of the book and a synopsis of the rest. They have to move on quickly because of pressure for teachers to cram more into the curriculum, she said.

    “It’s like spinning plates, you know what I mean? Like it’s a circus,” she said.

    She also assigns less homework because kids’ schedules are so packed with sports, clubs and other activities.

    “I maintain rigor. But I’m more about helping students become stronger and more critical readers, writers and thinkers, while taking their social-emotional well-being into account,” she said.

    In the long run, the synopsis approach harms students’ critical thinking skills, said Alden Jones, a literature professor at Emerson College in Boston. She assigns fewer books than she once did and gives more quizzes to make sure students do the reading.

    “We don’t value the thinking time that we used to have. It’s all time we could be on our phone accomplishing tasks,” she said.

    Will Higgins, an English teacher at Dartmouth High School in Massachusetts, said he still believes in teaching the classics, but demands on students’ time have made it necessary to cut back.

    “We haven’t given up on ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ We haven’t given up on ‘Hamlet’ or ‘The Great Gatsby,’″ Higgins said. But he said they have given up assigning others like “A Tale of Two Cities.”

    His school has had success encouraging reading through student-directed book clubs, where small groups pick a book and discuss it together. Contemporary authors like John Green and Jason Reynolds have been a big hit.

    “It’s funny,” he said. “Many students are saying that it’s the first time in a long time they’ve read a full book.”

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • WNBA awards Portland an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2026

    WNBA awards Portland an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2026

    [ad_1]

    The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon’s biggest city getting an expansion team that will begin play in 2026.

    The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who also own the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League. They paid $125 million for the franchise.

    “This is huge for Portland. We are so honored and humbled to be the vessel that delivers this WNBA franchise to Portland,” Bhathal Merage said. “And that’s really how we consider ourselves. Portland is this incredibly diverse, enthusiastic community. We saw the passion first-hand when we started looking into the Portland Thorns and this is Basketball City. So we’re very excited about the future.”

    Some 300 invited guests attended a kickoff event at Portland’s Moda Center on Wednesday afternoon with the Bhathals, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and other state and local officials. Afterward, there was community-wide event outside the stadium.

    The Bhathals started having conversations with the WNBA late last year after a separate bid to bring a team to Portland fell through.

    The city is well known for its embrace of women’s sports. In addition to the Thorns, who are drawing more than 18,000 fans on average to each home game, Portland is home to the nation’s first bar exclusively for women’s sports, the Sports Bra, which opened in 2022 and recently announced plans for additional franchises.

    “It really wasn’t our intention when we came to the Portland community, but we saw the opportunity, the stars aligned and here we are. We are at the epicenter of women’s professional sports,” Bhathal Merage said.

    It’s the third expansion franchise the WNBA will add over the next two years, with Golden State and Toronto getting the other two. The Golden State Valkyries will begin play next season and Toronto in 2026.

    “We’ve been working on Portland for a while, so when we did our original data analysis, I guess two and a half years ago, Portland was one at the top of the list, after the Bay Area,” Engelbert said. “So I’ve had my eye on Portland.”

    Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was unable to attend at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, but issued a statement.

    “The decision to choose Portland for the next WNBA team is just as much a recognition of our past as it is about faith in our future,” Kotek said. “Portland has an unequivocal love of women’s sports. ”

    Engelbert has said she hopes to have more teams by 2028 but doesn’t think that the league will be adding any more that will start playing before 2027.

    Portland had a WNBA team, the Fire, from 2000 until it folded in 2002. That franchise averaged more than 8,000 fans when games were played at the Rose Garden. The new franchise will play at the same arena, now known as the Moda Center, and the Bhathals plan to build a dedicated practice facility for the team as well.

    In addition to the Thorns, the Bhathal family has been a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings since 2013. The Bhathals added to their sports portfolio earlier this year when they bought the women’s soccer team for $63 million.

    “When you look at our numbers, not just the Thorns’ off-the-charts attendance, which is incredible, what you’ve seen, in Eugene, what you’ve seen in Oregon State, we knew that this was going to be one of the great moments in sports for Oregon,” Wyden said. “We saw, February of 2023, what was possible. So I can tell you that right now there are women playing in Portland. They’re rebounding in Roseburg, they’re hooping in Hermiston. Every nook and cranny of our state is into this.”

    The new Portland WNBA team is not yet named. The Bhathals said they wanted to tap into the community to select one.

    ___

    AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson in Oregon contributed to this report.

    ___

    AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Court reinstates Arkansas ban of electronic signatures on voter registration forms

    Court reinstates Arkansas ban of electronic signatures on voter registration forms

    [ad_1]

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court has reinstated an Arkansas rule prohibiting election officials from accepting voter registration forms signed with an electronic signature.

    The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday afternoon issued an administrative stay of a preliminary injunction that a federal judge issued against the rule adopted earlier this year by the State Board of Election Commissioners. An appeal of the preliminary injunction is still pending before the court.

    The board in April said Arkansas’ constitution only allows certain state agencies, and not elections officials, to accept electronic signatures. Under the rule, voters will have to register by signing their name with a pen.

    The rule was adopted after nonprofit group Get Loud Arkansas helped register voters using electronic signatures. Get Loud said the board’s decision conflicts with a recent attorney general’s opinion that an electronic signature is generally valid under state law. The group filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s decision.

    “This rule creates an obstacle that risks disenfranchising eligible voters and disrupting the fundamental process of our elections,” Get Loud said in a statement following the 8th Circuit order. “The preliminary injunction recognized that this irreparable harm must be avoided.”

    Chris Madison, director of the state Board of Election Commissioners, told county clerks on Monday that any voter registrations completed before the stay was issued Friday were eligible to have electronic signatures.

    Madison asked the clerks to identify any registration applications Saturday or later that used electronic signatures and to make every effort to contact the voter as soon as possible to give them a chance to correct their application.

    Madison in April said the rule was needed to create uniformity across the state. Some county clerks had previously accepted electronic signatures and others had not.

    The Arkansas rule is among a wave of new voting restrictions in Republican-led states in recent years that critics say disenfranchise voters, particularly in low-income and underserved areas.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Delaware judge sets parameters for trial in Smartmatic defamation lawsuit against Newsmax

    Delaware judge sets parameters for trial in Smartmatic defamation lawsuit against Newsmax

    [ad_1]

    The judge presiding over a defamation lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election set several parameters for an impending trial Monday.

    Superior Court Judge Eric Davis also told attorneys for Florida-based Smartmatic and cable network Newsmax to narrow their list of potential witnesses ahead of a trial that is set to begin Sept. 26 with jury selection and could last up to four weeks.

    Smartmatic claims that Newsmax program hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements in November and December 2020 implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results and that its software was used to switch votes.

    Newsmax, also based in Florida, argues that it was simply reporting on serious and newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.

    During a daylong pretrial conference on Monday, Davis considered several motions by each side asking him to limit or prohibit evidence the opposing side sought to present.

    The judge, for example, narrowly granted Smartmatic’s motion to limit evidence by Newsmax regarding a federal criminal investigation that led to indictments last month against three current and former Smartmatic executives. The charges involve an alleged scheme to pay more than $1 million in bribes to put Smartmatic voting machines in the Philippines. Newsmax argued that the investigation and indictment should be presented to jurors as alternative reasons for any purported reputational harm or economic loss that Smartmatic blames on Newsmax.

    “What government procurement official is going to continue to do business with a company that is under indictment?” asked Newsmax attorney Howard Cooper. Cooper also suggested that Smartmatic’s purported damages were calculated by a small cadre of executives who “pulled numbers from thin air.” Smartmatic initially pegged its damages at $1.7 billion, a number that has since been adjusted to about $370 million, according to statements during Monday’s conference.

    The judge denied Smartmatic’s motion to prohibit Newsmax from mentioning evidence regarding Smartmatic witnesses who have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Davis said that issue will have to be decided on a “question-to-question” basis at trial.

    Davis sided with Smartmatic in ruling that Newsmax could not defend itself by pointing to statements about the 2020 election being published by other media outlets at the time. The judge also said non-expert witness testimony about the scope of the First Amendment would be prohibited.

    In a ruling for Newsmax, Davis said he would not allow Smartmatic to bolster its presentation to the jury by suggesting that policy changes made at Newsmax in January 2021 after being notified about the allegedly defamatory statements are evidence of previous wrongdoing. Similarly, evidence regarding attorney disciplinary investigations of Trump allies Powell and Giuliani also may be inadmissible, the judge said.

    “I don’t think I’ve see the evidence that Newsmax caused Jan. 6,” Davis added, referring to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021. “It’s only inflammatory.”

    As far as Smartmatic trying to prove that Newsmax violated journalism standards or guidelines, Davis said any such testimony would have to come from expert witnesses, unless Smartmatic can show that individual Newsmax officials were presented with guidelines relevant to their specific jobs and chose to ignore them.

    The judge also indicated that he will closely scrutinize the alleged defamatory statements published by Newsmax to determine whether some are clearly opinions or speculation, versus factual assertions.

    “If it’s just opinion, I may take it away from the jury,” he said. “I have some concerns that they’re not all going to make it through.”

    The Delaware lawsuit, which takes issue with Newsmax reports over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several stemming from reports by conservative news outlets following the election. Smartmatic also is suing Fox News for defamation in New York and recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the One America News Network, another conservative outlet.

    Dominion Voting Systems similarly filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. Last year, in a case presided over by Davis, Fox News settled with Dominion for $787 million.

    On Monday, Davis granted a motion by Newsmax to exclude any reference to the Dominion-Fox settlement, noting that the motion was not contested by Smartmatic.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

    Judge rejects former Trump aide Mark Meadows’ bid to move Arizona election case to federal court

    [ad_1]

    PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona’s fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court.

    In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn’t offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president.

    Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump’s favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It’s unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows’ attorneys.

    While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia.

    In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

    The decision sends Meadows’ case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court.

    In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump’s chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law.

    Arizona prosecutors said Meadows’ electioneering efforts weren’t part of his official duties at the White House.

    Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling.

    The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy.

    Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case.

    Meadows’ attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or “seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president’s campaign.”

    In denying the former chief of staff’s request, Tuchi said Meadows wasn’t indicted for facilitating communications to and from the president or staying updated on what was going on in Trump’s campaign.

    “Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” the judge wrote. “Few, if any, of the State’s factual allegations even resemble the secretarial duties that Mr. Meadows maintains are the subject of the indictment.”

    In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona’s fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president.

    In August, Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

    The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona.

    Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

    The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried the state.

    A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

    Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

    [ad_2]

    Source link