s 80 90
Navy Day 2024: Spectators to witness `Operational Demonstration` on Dec 4
Woman seriously injured in October house fire dies in hospital, Ottawa police sayIn the final hours before University of Mississippi student Jimmy “Jay” Lee disappeared , sexually explicit Snapchat messages were exchanged between his account and the account of the man now on trial in his killing, an investigator testified Thursday. Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr., 24, of Grenada, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder in the death of Lee, who vanished July 8, 2022. Lee, 20, of Jackson, Mississippi, was a gay man well known in the LGBTQ+ community at Ole Miss and in Oxford, where the university is located and Herrington's trial is being held. Lee's body has never been found, but a judge has declared him dead. Herrington maintains his own innocence. Herrington “was not openly in the LGBTQ community,” but evidence will show he had a relationship with Lee and is responsible for the death, assistant district attorney Gwen Agho said during opening arguments Tuesday in Oxford. Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, told jurors that prosecutors have “zero” proof Lee was killed. University Police Department Sgt. Benjamin Douglas testified Thursday that investigators used search warrants to obtain cellphone records, information from social media accounts belonging to Lee and Herrington and information about Herrington's internet searches on the day Lee disappeared until Herrington was arrested two weeks later. One of Lee's friends, Khalid Fears, testified Tuesday that he had a video call with Lee just before 6 a.m. on July 8, 2022. Fears said Lee mentioned a sexual encounter with a man hours earlier, which ended badly. Lee was leaving his own on-campus apartment to go see the same man again, Fears said. Douglas testified Herrington's Snapchat account sent a message to Lee's account at about 5:25 a.m. saying: “Come back.” People using the two accounts then argued, and Lee's account sent a message at 5:54 a.m. saying he was on the way over. Douglas said that at 6:03 a.m., Lee's account sent its final message: “Open.” Google records obtained through a warrant showed that Herrington searched “how long does it take to strangle someone” at 5:56 a.m., Douglas said. An officer from another police agency, the Oxford Police Department, testified that starting on 7:18 a.m. the morning of Lee's disappearance, a car matching the description of Lee’s black sedan was captured on multiple security cameras driving through Oxford. A camera showed the car entering a parking lot at the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex at 7:25 a.m., Lt. Mark Hodges testified. The same camera showed a man jogging out of the parking lot moments later, turning onto Molly Barr Road. A witness, Kizziah Carter, testified Wednesday that he was driving home from work about 7:30 that morning and saw Herrington jogging along Molly Barr Road. Carter said he knew Herrington and honked to greet him, and Herrington flagged him down to ask for a ride. Carter said he drove Herrington to Herrington’s apartment in another complex. Lee's car was towed from Molly Barr Trails later that day. Both Herrington and Lee had graduated from the University of Mississippi. Lee was pursuing a master’s degree. He was known for his creative expression through fashion and makeup and often performed in drag shows in Oxford, according to a support group called Justice for Jay Lee. Prosecutors have announced they do not intend to pursue the death penalty, meaning Herrington could get a life sentence if convicted. Mississippi law defines capital murder as a killing committed along with another felony — in this case, kidnapping.
The D3football.com Region 5 football team was announced Wednesday, and the Quad-Cities region was well represented. Among the local selections were three Augustana College standouts. Running back Mike DiGioia was a second-team offensive selection and teammates Joren Clem (kicker) and Breyden Smith (wide receiver/return man) were second-team specialists. Three former area prep standouts — Tucker Kinney, Kade Tippet, and Tevin Baker — played their way back onto the all-region team again this fall. NCAA Division III realigned Division III football into six regions in 2021. Region 5 includes the American Rivers Conference, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), the Midwest Conference and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Kinney, a former Central DeWitt High School standout who is now a fifth-year senior at Wartburg, was a first-team offensive tackle selection. It was the third straight season he was named a first-team all-region selection. People are also reading... He helped the American River Conference champion Knights to a 10-2 mark this fall, their season ending last Saturday in a 24-14 home NCAA Division III playoff loss to Bethel University. Tippet, a senior on the Central College team and former North Scott High School prep, was selected as a second-team selection at offensive tackle, helping the Dutch to an 8-2 record. He was a third-team All-Region 5 selection last season. Baker, a fifth-year senior at Monmouth College from Kewanee, was a repeat second-team selection as a defensive end. The Midwest Conference Defensive MVP helped the Fighting Scots to an 8-3 record this fall as he finished with seven sacks, 16 TFLs and 11 pass breakups. Vikings shine This season marked the second in a row Augustana (4-6, 3-6 CCIW) had three players earn all-region spots. “Congrats to Mikey, Joren and Breyden,” Augie coach Steve Bell said in a social media post. “Tremendous men and so glad they got recognized for their outstanding talent on the field. Game changers for Augie football.” DiGioia (senior, Schaumburg, Illinois) was the CCIW's top rusher this past season, finishing with 1,055 yards and the only player in the CCIW to surpass the 1,000-yard mark. He also led the league in yards per game at 105.5 and was second in rushing touchdowns with 10. DiGioia is the first Augustana running back in 19 seasons to earn all-region honors. Clem (senior, Columbus, Ohio) is the first Augustana punter/kicker since 2011 to land all-region honors. He was 10-for-12 on field goals and had a long of 45 yards this year. He also served as the team's punter and was second in the CCIW in punts inside the 20-yard line with 14. Smith (junior, Arlington Heights, Illinois) led the CCIW in both total punt return yards (217) and punt return average (18.1) and was sixth in kick return yardage (440/23.2 yards per kick). On offense, Smith was top 10 in the conference in nearly all receiving categories, including fourth in both receptions (59) and receptions per game (5.9). CCIW Stalwarts There were 31 players from CCIW schools represented on the All-Region 5 team. Those selections included a pair of North Central standouts who earned both the offensive and defensive Region 5 Player of the Year honors. Cardinals’ quarterback Luke Lehnen earned the D3football.com 2024 All-Region 5 offensive honor for the second year in a row, and defensive tackle John Sullivan was the Region 5 Defensive Player of the Year. Lehnen (fifth-year, Chatham, Illinois) has completed 152 of 220 passes for 2,589 yards and 33 touchdowns against five interceptions. He has added 845 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 68 carries, averaging 12.4 yards per carry. Sullivan (junior, Lake Villa, Illinois) has recorded 131⁄2 tackles for loss, six quarterback hurries and five sacks for the Cardinals this season. He has 50 total tackles, 28 of them solo, as well as a forced fumble and a fumble recovery for a defense allowing 12.4 points per game this season. North Central coach Brad Spencer, who has led the Cardinals to a 12-0 record and another trip to the Division III national quarterfinals where they host Springfield College at noon Saturday, is the Region 5 Coach of the Year. It’s his first selection as a D3football.com regional Coach of the Year. DiGioia Smith Clem Kinney Tippet Baker Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! sports writer/golf editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Trump Wants U.S. Control of the Panama Canal. Here’s Three Things to Know.WASHINGTON — The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate Nov. 14 in Palm Beach, Fla. The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers have only a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. A Republican congressman from Michigan who served from 1993 to 2011, Hoekstra was ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term. “In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice. “He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.” Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
'Socialism' in India means 'social welfare state': Supreme Court
India vs Australia Live Score Updates of 4th Test 2024 Day 2: Get Live Commentary and Full Scorecard Online of IND vs AUS Cricket Match
Can a Muscle Car be electric?The city of Busselton announces several recipients for this year’s community funding scheme
Intech Investment Management LLC Purchases Shares of 50,756 Banc of California, Inc. (NYSE:BANC)Buccaneers looking to beat NFC South-rival Panthers and bolster hopes for a playoff berth
News junkies will find much to love in “September 5,” a fictionalized account of ABC’s live coverage of the hostage crisis during the 1972 Munich Olympics . There are spirited debates about reporting with only one source, use of words like “terrorism” and what to do if violence breaks out during a live shot. There are negotiations with rival networks over satellite usage, disguises and fake badges made to get reels of 16mm film in and out of the locked down Olympic village and plenty of confused men (and a few women) trying to keep up with an ever-escalating situation. The film is a moment by moment retelling of how a group of sports broadcasters brought this story to the world in real time, despite the technical limitations and their own inexperience across a confusing 22 hours. Everyone came to the studio that night ready for breaking sports news, scores and pre-packaged interviews. Even that was going to be a test for the man running the control room for the first time. Geoffrey Mason, portrayed by John Magaro , was a 28-year-old coordinating producer. Someone wonders about his experience and is assured that he’s covered minor league baseball games. But in the early hours of Sept. 5, 1972 , eight members of a Palestinian group called Black September broke into the Olympic village and attacked the Israeli delegation killing wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossi Romano. Some escaped, but nine others were taken hostage. While the tragedy of the Munich Olympics has certainly been told many times, writer and director Tim Fehlbaum saw an opportunity in the team behind the live broadcast. And he commits fully to staying in the newsroom, with all of its glorious old technologies, from the walkie-talkies they used to stay in touch and to taking time to show how they had to manually add text to the screens. He and his screenwriter were able to reconstruct the events almost minute-by-minute, which helped shape the screenplay. The players are many in this large ensemble. Peter Sarsgaard , who’s looked right in a newsroom since “Shattered Glass,” gives gravitas to Roone Arledge, then-president of ABC Sports, and Ben Chaplin is operations engineer Marvin Bader. Leonie Benesch is Marianne Gebhardt, a German-speaking interpreter who is the only person there able to understand the language of the country. She might be a bit of a composite who checks off a lot of boxes as both an entrepreneurial woman and a younger German offering perspective and insight into what this moment might mean for the country trying to put on a good front in the aftermath of World War II. An actor (Benjamin Walker) plays broadcaster Peter Jennings, and real archival footage of anchor Jim McKay from that day is used in the film. And while they all rise to the occasion, mistakes are made – including a rather big one at the end, following imperfect secondhand information from the Fuerstenfeldbruck airfield. They don’t call it the first draft of history for nothing, after all, and it may be illuminating for audiences to see how it’s handled. The film looks of its time, but it also feels fairly modern in its sensibilities which makes it always seem more like a re-telling than an in-the-moment experience. This may be to its detriment, yet it’s still an undeniably riveting and compelling watch. The word thrilling doesn’t seem appropriate, however. This is not “Apollo 13” after all. The end is not a happy one. But at time when trust in the media is in crisis, this film is a great humanizer, reminding audiences that the media is far from a monolith, but a group of individuals under immense pressure to get the story right, get the story out and go back and do it again the next day. “September 5,” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language. Running time: 94. Three stars out of four.
Innovative Industrial Properties: 8.1% YTM Bonds Offer Best Bet On CannabisStock market today: Wall Street gets back to climbing, and the Nasdaq tops 20,000
Protests in the streets, turmoil at City Hall, corruption trials galore, historically bad baseball and a massive influx of buzzing arthropods unlike any seen since the 1800s. No wonder so many Chicagoans sought peace at the sidewalk altar of a once-airborne rodent that imprinted itself into a slab of concrete — and into the city’s heart. In a year that had the national spotlight squared on Chicago, the Sun-Times saw it all. Here’s how we’ll remember 2024. Chicago shines for DNC Even Chicago’s famously mercurial weather cooperated through all four days of the Democratic National Convention , which went off without a hitch despite weeks of intraparty uncertainty heading into the spectacle. Mayor Brandon Johnson earned high marks for shepherding a smooth week for thousands of delegates and media from around the world, while Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling enjoyed rave reviews for keeping a reasonable lid on massive protests that mostly focused on the war in Gaza. The made-for-TV pep rally took on heightened excitement following President Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the race, while some local flair was injected into the national conversation. The party’s new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, vetted Gov. JB Pritzker as her potential running mate . Pritzker fell short of the ticket and Harris fell short of the White House, leaving Democrats scratching their heads — just like some local business owners, who felt left out of the convention’s much ballyhooed economic boost . Brandon Johnson’s sophomore slump The DNC provided a rare highlight for the first-term mayor, who could warrant his own top-10 list for bad news cycles in 2024. Fault lines started showing early in the year when voters rejected Johnson’s Bring Chicago Home referendum, nixing higher taxes on expensive real estate transactions — money that would have been used to help shelter the city’s unhoused population — and delivering the first major roadblock to his progressive agenda. Johnson saw his City Council support erode as he moved to shut down the city’s controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, and again when he had to defend elevating a top aide with “a history of calling the police “f---ing pigs.” A revolving door on the fifth floor of City Hall included Johnson’s firing of a longtime confidant and spokesman accused of sexual harassment and antisemitism. And don’t forget Johnson’s pick for school board president who lasted all of one week before a troubling history of social media posts — inexplicably missed by Johnson’s office during the hiring process — led to a swift ouster . The political chaos came to a crescendo late in the year as an emboldened Council, by a stunning 50-0 vote, shot down the $300 million property tax hike Johnson had included in his proposed 2025 budget — breaking a campaign promise not to raise them. After a series of budget concessions, Johnson scrapped any property tax hike to win Council approval for a budget that relies heavily on one-time revenues and nickel-and-dime fee increases. Meanwhile, Johnson worked for months to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez out of his post , installing an entire school board that voted Dec. 21 to fire him — before the city’s first-ever elected board members had a chance to weigh in. The move raised fresh questions about the overwhelming influence of the Chicago Teachers Union. Preparing for Trump’s return Donald Trump’s resounding victory to retake the White House put officials on notice in Democratic-dominated Illinois, where the Republican president-elect saw a marginal uptick in voter support . Advocates for Illinois’ thousands of undocumented residents braced for the wave of legal questions raised by Trump’s promise of mass deportations, as the incoming administration’s border czar declared Chicago ground zero immigration enforcement raids. The city’s LGBTQ community grappled with similar concerns about the effect of a second Trump term on marriage and parental rights , while health care providers prepared for Illinois to take on an even greater role as the Midwest’s main island of abortion rights . Officials also raced to lock up key federal transit funding for an extension of the CTA Red Line, the type of assistance from Washington that Democrats say Trump may be keen on withholding from the city that has served as his preferred political punching bag. Landmark corruption cases One multi-generational poster boy of Chicago politics saw his federal corruption case come to a head while the fate of another hung in the balance to close out 2024. Ed Burke reported to a downstate prison to begin serving his two-year sentence for racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion convictions , tied to the longtime 14th Ward alderman’s strong-arming of developers to hire his private law firm. Mike Madigan spent weeks in a courtroom listening to federal prosecutors map out his sprawling web of influence as speaker of the Illinois House for jurors who will soon be tasked with deciding if Madigan wielded it to squeeze companies for payments to his political cronies. Natural wonders Cicadas and tornadoes and geomagnetic storms, oh my! Mother Nature kept things interesting for Chicagoans with the first dual-emergence of periodical broods of cicadas in more than 200 years, inundating some parts of the area with the very noisy , mostly harmless and debatably tasty insects. They crawled out of the ground shortly after the latest solar eclipse bedazzled the Midwest, drawing thousands of people to the path of totality that just narrowly missed the city. Some of the freshly unearthed cicadas were still around for the first in a series of rare aurora borealis displays powered by intense solar storms, igniting the northern lights over Lake Michigan even downtown. But the natural marvels weren’t all friendly. Thirty-one Chicago-area tornadoes in July set a new record as more frequent bouts of heavy rain and flooding provided a sobering reminder of the looming impacts of climate change. Up-and-down year for CPD It was a mixed bag for Snelling in his first full year at the helm of the Chicago Police Department. Overseeing a seamless DNC earned the freshman superintendent a growing drumbeat of support from Council members across the political spectrum, especially with his department on pace for fewer than 600 homicides , the lowest yearly toll since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the killing of 26-year-old Dexter Reed in a hail of 96 bullets during a traffic stop raised new questions about the use of force in the ranks, and a federal monitor last month reminded officials that the department is far behind in its long-running reform effort, reaching full compliance with just 9% of the steps laid out in a consent decree . Domestic violence questions Horrific murder cases put officials’ handling of domestic violence under the microscope, highlighting issues that advocates say have persisted for decades. After 11-year-old Jayden Perkins was killed while defending his mother from an ex-boyfriend who’d been released on parole a day earlier, Gov. Pritzker pushed out two Illinois Prisoner Review Board members and tried to bolster that panel’s domestic violence training . Dozens of elected officials have joined a chorus calling for the reassignment of the Cook County judge who could’ve detained a man before he allegedly killed his wife, Lacramioara Beldie , in Portage Park. Advocates say there has been a spike in such attacks in the past year , increasing the lawmakers’ urgency to pass long-stalled legislation that would require law enforcement to promptly remove firearms while serving orders of protection. Ebb in new arrivals of asylum seekers The influx of thousands of migrants from the southern border that once overwhelmed the city’s social safety net slowed to a trickle under tighter Biden administration deportation policies, ending months of acrimony over city spending that highlighted racial divides in Chicago. Concerns over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending busloads of migrants to Chicago to embarrass the city during the DNC never materialized. By year’s end the city had closed its migrant landing zone completely as it merged shelter systems for newly arrived asylum seekers and homeless people who have long lived on Chicago’s streets and in its alleys, parks and viaducts. Chicago teams struggle inside and outside the stadium White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf threw his hat in the public financing ring with a splashy pitch for a new South Loop ballpark , but got shut out by state lawmakers who have rejected giving a dime to either them or the Bears — who rolled out their own renderings of a shiny new lakeside dome . That sent the McCaskeys back to the drawing board to consider the old Michael Reese Hospital site, or Arlington Heights, where the team finally reached a property tax deal with local school districts that could grease their suburban wheels. Neither team helped make their case on the field, either, with a pitiful Sox lineup recording the worst season in modern Major League Baseball history and the Bears firing a coach midseason for the first time while squandering what was supposed to be a competitive rookie season for quarterback Caleb Williams , who was drafted first overall in April. Rat hole Rat hole ( noun ) — rodent-shaped imprint on a Roscoe Village sidewalk that drew hordes of curious onlookers for several months in 2024 to the glee of Chicago social media users and chagrin of neighborhood residents. The latest entry into the Chicago lexicon was inscribed in January when photos of the four-legged sidewalk stamp — which some argue was actually left by a squirrel — went viral online, drawing tourists to the 1900 block of West Roscoe with offerings of coins, and prompting at least one couple to tie the knot . The city removed (but preserved) the pseudo-sacred sidewalk in April at the request of nearby residents none too pleased with round-the-clock foot traffic. What’s next for the rat hole? We’ll see in 2025. Other major 2024 stories CTA President Dorval Carter ’s seat got hotter as head of a transit agency beset by long wait times, understaffing and looming budget crises. The city mourned Chicago police officers Luis Huesca and Enrique Martinez , killed on duty in separate shootings. Tipped workers saw their minimum base wages increase en route to eventual parity with the standard minimum wage, in a win for Mayor Johnson and his progressive allies and a loss for restaurant owners . Plans moved forward to transform the long-vacant U.S. Steel South Works into a sprawling quantum computing campus as Illinois positions itself as the Silicon Valley of the nascent technology. Hackers stole the personal data of more than 800,000 people in a cyberattack on the Lurie Children’s Hospital network, causing months of headaches for patients and their families. Chicago rap star Lil Durk was charged in a California murder-for-hire plot. The Illinois Supreme Court overturned actor Jussie Smollett ’s conviction for staging a hate crime, sparing him five months’ jail time. And Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s south suburban media circus played on, with federal investigators circling her push for no-bid contracts to a construction company linked to multiple corruption investigations, among other questionable spending.( MENAFN - EIN Presswire) David Correa Allied Market Research +1 800-792-5285 email us here Visit us on social media: Facebook X What Sets Us Apart ? - Allied Market Research Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above. MENAFN26122024003118003196ID1109033946 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
- Previous: okada solaire 80jili promo philippines
- Next: s 80 mix