THIRD WORLD U$A

Food Stamp Eligibility To Expand as White House Nutrition Conference Announces New National Strategy

Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy
Sun, October 2, 2022 

Evan Vucci / AP

The White House held the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health — the first such conference in 50 years — on Sept. 28 to address hunger and diet-related diseases. The event comes amid a U.S. economy experiencing red-hot inflation, with food at home prices rising 13.5% over the last year.

See: What Is the Highest Income for Food Stamps in 2022?

Food Stamps Schedule: When Can I Anticipate October 2022 SNAP Payments?

“With this gathering of elected officials; advocates and activists; and leaders of business, faith, and philanthropy from across America, we are mobilizing the will to meet a bold goal: to end hunger in America and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The administration also announced a national strategy organized around five pillars.

“The Biden-Harris Administration envisions an America where no one wonders whether they will have enough money to put food on the table, where the healthy food choice is the easier choice, and where everyone has the same opportunity to be physically active,” the White House statement read, in part.

The administration’s five pillars include improving food access and affordability, by providing Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) benefits to more children and expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility to more underserved populations. The administration said it will also work with Congress to expand access to healthy, free school meals for 9 million more children by 2032, according to a report.

In addition, it intends to integrate nutrition and health, including expanding Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries’ access to nutrition and obesity counseling.

It will also help consumers have access to healthy choices, including by expanding incentives for fruits and vegetables in SNAP. The last two pillars of the plan include supporting physical activity for all and enhancing nutrition and food security research.

The White House said that in 2021, 1 in 10 households experienced food insecurity, and 4% of households experienced very low food security. In addition, it noted that diet-related diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. It added that these challenges disproportionately impact communities of color, people living in rural areas, people living in territories, people with disabilities, older adults, LGBTQI+ people, military families, and veterans.

Democrats' Troubles in Nevada Are a Microcosm of Nationwide Headwinds


Primary voters in June in Las Vegas. This November, Democrats are facing potential losses up and down the Nevada ballot. (NYT)

Jennifer Medina and Jonathan Weisman
Mon, October 3, 2022 

LAS VEGAS — The Culinary Workers Union members who are knocking on doors to get out the vote are on the cursed-at front lines of the Democratic Party’s midterm battle.

Most voters do not open their doors. And when some do answer, the canvassers might wish they hadn’t.

“You think I am going to vote for those Democrats after all they’ve done to ruin the economy?” a voter shouted one evening last week from her entryway in a working-class neighborhood of East Las Vegas.

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Miguel Gonzalez, a 55-year-old chef who described himself as a conservative Christian who has voted for Republicans for most of his life, was more polite but no more convinced. “I don’t agree with anything Democrats are doing at all,” he said after taking a fistful of flyers from the union canvassers.


Those who know Nevada best have always viewed its blue-state status as something befitting a desert: a kind of mirage. Democrats are actually a minority among registered voters, and most of the party’s victories in the last decade were narrowly decided. But the state has long been a symbolic linchpin for the party — vital to its national coalition and its hold on the blue West.

Now, Democrats in Nevada are facing potential losses up and down the ballot in November and bracing for a seismic shift that could help Republicans win control of both houses of Congress. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto remains one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the country. Gov. Steve Sisolak is fighting his most formidable challenger yet. And the state’s three House Democrats could all lose their seats.

The Democratic juggernaut built by former Sen. Harry Reid is on its heels, staring down the most significant spate of losses in more than a decade.

The party had in recent years relied on the state’s changing demographics, capitalizing on the workers who flocked there in search of an attainable path to middle-class dreams. But Nevada Democrats are learning that demographics alone are not destiny. The state’s transient population has made building a reliable base of voters difficult, with would-be voters leaving in search of work elsewhere, as more children of immigrants in the state reach voting age. And with Reid’s death last year, Democrats are missing the veteran leader who never hesitated to twist arms to get donors and activists on board.

The vulnerabilities in Nevada reflect Democrats’ challenges nationwide, most acutely in the West. Worries over inflation and the economy overshadow nearly every other concern, particularly for the working-class and Latino voters the party has long counted on. And Republicans believe that voters blame the Democrats in power for the dour economic outlook.

“It’s the purest example of a referendum election you have more than anywhere else in the country,” said John Ashbrook, a consultant who is working with the campaign for Adam Laxalt, the Republican Senate candidate. Frustrations over inflation, he added, “created an electorate that simply wants change.”

While the economy might be the most challenging hurdle for Democrats this year, it is not the only one: Republicans and nonpartisan voters make up nearly 60% of the Nevada electorate, which historically has lower turnout in midterm elections.

The Republican challengers were narrowly leading Sisolak and Cortez Masto in a new poll from the Nevada Independent and OH Predictive Insights, though the leads were within the margin of error. Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to a hold rally for the Republican candidates in the northern part of the state this week.

Even the most fervent Democratic backers acknowledge the steep challenges at a time when many people are still struggling to pay for basic needs, such as rent, gas and groceries. Both parties are trying to attract the state’s working-class voters, who are less affluent and less likely to hold college degrees than in many other swing states.

Nevada remains firmly reliant on tourism to fuel hospitality and service jobs, which were temporarily wiped out by the pandemic. And while the resorts on the Las Vegas Strip are bustling once again, international travel and conferences have yet to rebound, and thousands of people are still out of work. The state’s minimum wage has risen to $10.50 an hour, but rents have increased far more steeply.

“There is a significant amount of nervousness and fear about the economy and especially about the cost of housing. Your gas costs more; your rent costs more,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, which represents thousands of housekeepers, bartenders and cooks and has played a key role in electing Democrats in Nevada. “Working families are hurting.”

While Republicans believe that the sour economic views have given them a chance to mount an aggressive offense, Democrats do not believe they have to be entirely defensive either. Instead, the party’s candidates are trying to deliver a carefully crafted message, acknowledging voters’ worries while suggesting that the economy is already improving and will get even better soon, as the pandemic fades.

For months now, Republicans have blamed Democrats for the sputtering slog to return to economic normalcy. During an event targeting small-business owners, Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of the Las Vegas area who is running for governor, shared the stage with Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador. She recalled the initial pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and argued that Republican mayors had more effectively balanced the need to keep people safe with the need to keep them employed.

“We suffered the most here because we have all our eggs in one basket,” Lombardo said, echoing the frequent refrain of the need to diversify the state’s economy. He called for more programs to create a steady pipeline of electricians, plumbers and truck drivers. “We need workforce development because those are quality jobs.”

Republicans are especially confident such messages will help the party peel off support from Latino voters, who make up roughly 20% of the electorate. Polls show the majority of Latino voters still favor Democrats, but if more than 30% of those voters cast their ballots for Republicans, the GOP could gain the edge to win.

“The path to victory all runs through the Hispanic community,” said Xochitl Hinojosa, a Democratic consultant who has worked in the state. “Democrats are finally realizing, we’ve invested in Black voters significantly over decades, and we’ve been successful, but we’ve assumed Hispanics will turn out for us, and that’s not been the case.”

Democrats also believe they can make inroads with independent and moderate voters who favor abortion rights. They have attacked Lombardo for repeatedly shifting his views on abortion and portray Laxalt as a reliable supporter of a federal abortion ban.

Rep. Susie Lee pointed to a libertarian streak in voters that was activated by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“Nevada voters don’t want government messing with their personal choices, which I think is a big issue and one that’s going to play out in this election,” she said.

Nevada has four House districts, with three occupied by Democrats — Lee and Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus. All are considered deeply at risk. David Wasserman, the House analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Democrats in the state Legislature took a high-risk, high-reward strategy when redrawing the state’s House seats, draining Democratic voters from Titus’ central Las Vegas district to shore up the outlying districts. Now, the state map has three districts that lean slightly Democratic.

Horsford’s new district lines are slightly more Democratic than the others, and his Republican opponent, Sam Peters, a conspiracy-minded conservative who has repeatedly called the 2020 election stolen, is the easiest to paint as an extremist. Wasserman said he expected this week to adjust his forecast in Horsford’s favor, from a pure tossup to a race that leans Democratic.

Titus, an experienced political hand who taught political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before winning a House seat in 2008, has not faced a real race in more than a decade. Her opponent, Mark Robertson, has a military record, a mild persona and strong ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a powerful force in Nevada.

Lee might have the toughest Republican opponent, April Becker, whose soft-focused positive advertising has insulated her from Democratic attacks, many of them from Lee’s well-funded campaign.

“Susie’s ad is about April, and April’s ad is about April,” said Jeremy Hughes, a campaign aide for Becker. “She missed an opportunity to reintroduce herself to people.”

Now the Las Vegas media market, one of the most expensive in the country, is cluttered with advertising from the House races as well as three statewide races, including the battle for secretary of state. Breaking through the din in the final weeks could be next to impossible for individual House candidates trying to reach voters who might not know whose district they live in.

“It’s a difficult market,” said Ben Ray, communications director for Emily’s List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights. “You’ve got a lot of voters that you need to talk to at odd hours. They’re not going to catch the 6 o’clock news because that’s when their shift starts.”

As they have in the final weeks during other election cycles, national Democratic groups are preparing a rescue mission. The House Majority PAC, which is affiliated with Democratic leadership, has reserved more than $11 million in advertising slots in the Las Vegas market for a final blitz.

The group has just released an online ad in English and Spanish, hitting Robertson on abortion, and began sending bilingual mailers attacking Becker for the “extremists” who support her campaign. Another direct mail effort from the PAC is going after Peters for his 2020 election denial and accusing him of wanting to “defund public education.”

The advantage of incumbency allows Lee to talk up provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that address Las Vegas’ chronic water shortages. But because Nevada has such a transient population, incumbency matters less.

“I always run in a district that’s a tough district, so I never go into an election with confidence,” she said. “I go in fighting to make my case in front of my voters. This is no different, for sure.”

© 2022 The New York Times Company

UK
Dame Kelly Holmes says she was scared of going to jail over being gay

Sam Moore
Mon, October 3, 2022 

Kelly Holmes
British middle distance athlete and Olympic gold medallist

Kelly Holmes has discussed being gay in the military. (ITV)

Dame Kelly Holmes has said that she was scared about coming out as gay because she feared she would be sent to prison.

Before becoming a professional athlete, Holmes enlisted in the British Army where it was illegal to be gay before 2000.

Appearing on Loose Women, Holmes talked about how that fear impacted her life: "I was scared that if I ever came out and admitted being gay while I served, that I could still go to jail.

Read more: Dame Kelly Holmes self-harmed after Army career left her terrified of coming out

"That was how my head had created this wall and barrier."

Before becoming an athlete, Kelly Holmes served in the British Army when they had a ban on gay soldiers. (Getty Images)

The Olympic gold medallist added: "I was scared witless. When I came out in June this year publicly, I had to resolve these issues that had been in my life."


Holmes continued into answering what would have happened if the military had found out she was gay: "I would not have been a double Olympic champion because it would have ruined my life. I wouldn’t have become a member of the British Empire, an award from the British Army.

"I wouldn’t have been many of these things. There’s so many people who could have done so much more with their lives, but lives have been ruined."

Kelly Holmes at Pride in 2022. (Getty Images for Pride In London)

Holmes also discussed the Army's since reneged ban on gay people serving in the military: "That’s so many people – your grandparents, your parents, your aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers… they could have suffered this. You might still not know, because they still might not be out. It could be your colleagues, your friends... People that have served have lived with this in their DNA for so long. I want people to now come out, because I’m finally free of that. It took a lot of years."

Holmes has been calling for past gay members of the military to come forward to talk about the ban and how it affected them.

An independent review is set to take place to look into the ban which was in effect from 1967 to 2000.

Around 500 former members of the military have submitted their testimony for the review.

During Loose Women, Holmes revealed that the independent panel had found stories of blackmail, abuse, homelessness and unemployment.

Watch below: Dame Kelly Holmes attends first London Pride since coming out as gay.

A COUNTRY OF WHITE PEOPLE
Switzerland has 'systemic' racism issues, UN experts say



Mon, October 3, 2022 at 8:13 AM·2 min read
By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - Switzerland has a serious systemic problem with racism against people of African descent, according to a report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, giving a broad range of examples from police brutality to a children's game.

The U.N.-appointed working group noted positive measures taken by Switzerland but still voiced concerns about the prevalence of racial discrimination and highlighted several incidents following a visit to the country this year.

"The ubiquity and impunity of this misconduct indicates a serious systemic problem exists," it said.

Switzerland's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva broadly accepted the findings in comments to the council, although questioned the experts' use of a limited number of examples to draw wider conclusions.

Landlocked Switzerland was never a colonial power but its banks, traders and municipalities invested heavily and benefited from the transatlantic triangular trade, the report said.

It noted efforts to raise public awareness about aspects of Swiss history, such as a petition and debate around the removal of the statue of a banker whose fortune relied on exploitation of enslaved Africans, in the canton of Neuchatel.


However, others remained valorised such as Louis Agassiz, an advocate of scientific racism, who has an Alpine peak named after him.

Swiss playground games persist such as "Who is afraid of the Black man?", which have a racially discriminatory effect, the experts said.

The report also noted "shocking" police brutality, noting the deaths of several Black men in the Vaud canton.

"Switzerland agrees with your observation that racism and racial discrimination - including against people of African descent - are problems that must be tackled as a matter of urgency," Jurg Lauber told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Monday.

He stressed that new measures had been implemented to address the issues, including cantonal consultation centres for victims of racial discrimination and pointing to improvements in police training programmes.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, editing by Ed Osmond)

 

Black Lives Matter protest in Zurich

DEFENDING CELIBACY AT ALL COSTS

Portugal abuse cases mount amid questions over Nobel bishop

BARRY HATTON
Mon, October 3, 2022 

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Clergy sexual abuse cases are casting a pall over the Catholic Church in Portugal, ensnaring senior officials even as authorities scramble to explain why shelter was given to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning bishop at the center of sexual misconduct allegations.

Senior Catholic leaders apologized over the weekend for decades of abuse and cover-up — current estimates number around 400 cases — with the archbishop of Lisbon begging the faithful to not lose faith in the church.

“Be confident that for our part we will do our best, with respect to the law and the Gospel,” Archbishop Manuel Clemente said after Sunday Mass.

A spotlight fell on Portuguese church authorities, as well as the Vatican, last week when the Holy See’s sex abuse office confirmed a Dutch media report that in 2020 it had secretly sanctioned Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor, a small former Portuguese colony in East Asia. Belo, who has been living in Portugal, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.

Other unwelcome revelations for the Portuguese church have piled up in recent days, just as Portugal seeks to gain momentum for its hosting of World Youth Day next year in Lisbon. Pope Francis is due to attend the event, which is a major occasion on the Catholic calendar.

Portugal’s attorney general’s office confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that the head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, Bishop José Ornelas, is being investigated on suspicion he covered up for abuser priests in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony.

Ornelas, who presides over Portugal’s world-famous shrine at Fatima, has denied any misconduct or wrongdoing and has promised to cooperate with any investigation, but the inquiry added to the pressure on Portuguese church authorities.

Ornelas flew to Italy at the weekend for a private meeting at the Vatican with Francis, who also received his ambassador to Portugal. The Vatican provided no details about the meetings.

Ornelas’ visit to the pope came two months after the archbishop of Lisbon, Clemente, went to meet the pontiff amid a deluge of allegations of child sex abuse by priests and alleged cover-ups by senior members of the Portuguese church.

The scandals have come against a backdrop of revelations published by a lay committee looking into historic church sexual abuse cases in Portugal. Since January, it has unearthed around 400 alleged cases. Previously, church officials had said they knew of only a handful of cases.

On Saturday, the diocese of Braga in northern Portugal issued an apology for the “pain and suffering” caused by allegations of sexual abuse leveled against a local priest by men and women in the area. The abuse allegedly occurred in the 1990s, and victims complain that nothing happened after they sounded the alarm after the turn of the century.

Many unanswered questions remain about Belo's time in Portugal. The Salesian missionary order to which he belongs said it took him in at the request of its superiors. His current whereabouts are unclear.

The Vatican prohibited Belo from having contact with minors or with East Timor, based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019.

The East Timor Embassy in Lisbon didn’t immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on a Portuguese media report that, following last week’s revelations, it picked him up from a Salesian property in Lisbon and took him to an undisclosed location.

Belo has said he retired in 2002 for health reasons and to give the newly independent East Timor different church leadership. But within a year of his retirement, Belo had been sent by the Vatican and the Salesians to Mozambique to work as a missionary priest. Portugal maintains close ties with the African country.

There, Belo has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.”

The United Nations and advocates for victims have called on Francis to authorize an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Belo's 2002 retirement, when he was 20 years shy of the normal retirement age, and why he was sent to Mozambique.

Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of East Timor, sings along with participants at the National Catholic Gathering for Jubilee Justice held on the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles, on July 17, 1999. Belo has been accused in a Dutch magazine article of sexually abusing boys in East Timor in the 1990s, rocking the Catholic Church in the impoverished nation and forcing officials at the Vatican and his religious order to scramble to provide answers. 

(AP Photo/Neil Jacobs, File)

Justice Jackson, on her first day in the US Supreme Court, pushes back on a lawyer trying to gut the Clean Waters Act.


Mon, October 3, 2022 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, on her first day as a Supreme Court Justice, pushed back on a lawyer trying to gut the Clean Waters Act. In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the extent of the EPA’s regulations will be affected, especially in regards to wetlands. If the court rules in favor of the Sackett’s, the couple that brought the case to the Supreme Court when they were ordered by the EPA to not build on their purchased wetlands in Idaho, then the EPA could be limited in the kinds of wetlands and streams that the Clean Waters Act protects from pollution.

JACKSON: “Isn't the issue what Congress would have intended with respect to adjacency and there was a regulation that defined adjacency to include neighboring. And as far as I know, Congress used the term adjacency and didn't adjust it to try to make clear the touching requirement that you say was intended by the term.

LAWYER: “Yes, Justice Jackson, every single time that argument has been advanced by the government it has been rejected by this court. In Rapanos, the plurality opinion rejected out hand the idea that 404 G represents a ratification of the courts broad understanding of adjacency. Justice Kennedy's opinion doesn't even give it consideration. Swank, for its part, said 404 G is “unenlightened” as to the meaning of waters of the isles.”

JACKSON: “Let me, let me, let me try to bring some enlightenment to it by asking it this way. You see the question is which wetlands are covered, which I agree with. But I guess my question is why would Congress draw the coverage line between a budding wetlands and neighboring wetlands when the objective of the statute is to ensure the chemical, physical, and biological Integrity of nation's waters. So are you saying that neighboring wetlands can't impact the quality of navigable waters?”

LAWYER: “Justice Jackson, not at all.”

Jackson is active questioner as she hears first argument as Supreme Court justice



John Kruzel
Mon, October 3, 2022 

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court’s newest justice and the first Black woman to hold the position, proved one of the most active questioners on the bench Monday during her first argument at the High Court as the justices kicked off a new term.

Bedecked in the customary black robe, Jackson occupied a seat at the far end of the bench, in keeping with the court’s traditional seating arrangement based on seniority, with Chief Justice John Roberts at the center.

Jackson, a former judge on two lower federal courts in Washington, is expected to round out the court’s three-member liberal wing on a bench now dominated by six Republican-appointed justices pursuing an aggressive conservative legal agenda.

The court opened its term with a major environmental dispute over the federal government’s reach in protecting the nation’s waterways under the Clean Water Act.

Jackson took her turn among the justices in posing questions to the lawyers who argued the dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency and Idaho landowners. The landowners have urged the court to narrow the government’s authority over wetlands to encompass only those with a visible surface connection to U.S. waters.

“You say the question is which wetlands are covered, which I agree with,” she told a lawyer for the property owners. “But I guess my question is, why would Congress draw the coverage line between abutting wetlands and neighboring wetlands when the objective of the statute is to ensure the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters?”

The tenor of Jackson’s questions hewed closely to the purpose of the Clean Water Act, which turns 50 this month, and the underlying facts of the dispute.

As the court’s only former public defender, Jackson is expected to bring a unique perspective to her new role, though she will not fundamentally alter the court’s conservative tilt.

She fills the seat vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she once clerked, following his retirement this summer and a grueling Senate confirmation process earlier this year.

Jackson, responding to a question during her Senate confirmation hearing in March, said her judicial methodology cannot be easily defined — a sharp departure from the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who labeled herself an “originalist” who would approach the task “in the mold of Justice Scalia.”

Shying away from “a particular label” to define her style, Jackson said she adheres to a methodology that begins with assuming a position of neutrality, proceeds with various interpretive tools toward a transparent ruling “without fear or favor,” and studiously abides by judicial constraints.

Man who went viral saving cat from hurricane floodwaters now raising funds for displaced pets

Tomas Rodriguez, Naples Daily News

Mon, October 3, 2022 

NAPLES, Fla. – As Hurricane Ian plowed through Florida's Gulf Coast, Michael Ross waded into rising floodwaters to save a furry friend in distress, prompting a viral video and thousands of dollars in donations.

As the storm arrived, Ross, 29, was with his family in Bonita Springs, he said. That’s when he saw the endangered kitten.

"We expected it to be flooded out, so we evacuated there to Bonita Beach where my parents live, right on the beach," Ross said. "We were there when storm surge was up about 6 feet."

Ross said he and his family looked out the window and saw the cat clinging on for its life.

"I was able to go out there and get it, and it's a good thing I did," Ross said. "After that video was taken, the water came up like another 6 feet. And that air conditioner he was sitting on was underwater."

Ross said the winds and water washed the house away.

More: Camera goes underwater, then viral as Hurricane Ian floods Fort Myers Beach: 'RIP Cam 9'

More: With grit and determination, wiener dogs race for glory and treats at Florida festival

Michael Ross, 29, of Naples, Florida, was in Bonita Springs at his parents' place when Hurricane Ian plowed through, leading him to save a cat from drowning at a nearby flooding home.

"The cat would have surely died," Ross said.

The Ross family hasn't been able to find the owner.

"If we can't find one, I'm gonna keep it."

Unlike no other hurricane

Ross said he's lived through many hurricanes.

"This one was by far the most terrifying," Ross said. "Everyone considers the storm surge in terms of how high it's gonna get. But no one really considers the force of the water moving."

Ross was staying at his parents' house, which got severely damaged.

"It's a wreck," Ross said. "My parents' house is unlivable for probably the next several months."

Ross said he and his family expected the hurricane to be "bad, but not quite as devastating."

"It's like something you see on TV, and you never think it'll happen to you until it does," Ross said.

More: Sanibel Causeway severely damaged by Hurricane Ian, cutting off access to barrier island

"It's a warzone," Ross said. "It's the worst I've ever seen."

Funding animal rescues

Ross said they didn't seek attention with the video.

"This thing has gotten real popular and we're trying to take advantage of that by raising money," Ross said.

Cruz Scavo and Ross started a GoFundMe page to support displaced pets and people in need.

A path of destruction: Photos show Hurricane Ian's damage in Cuba, Florida, Carolinas

As of noon Monday, the couple raised over $20,000.

"I feel for the people that are in a worse situation," Ross said.

Ross said other houses where his parents live, in the Bonita Beach area, are gone.

"It's just important that everybody helps each other out, I think, right now."

You can reach Tomas Rodriguez on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Man who saved cat on AC unit during Hurricane Ian helps other pets

U.S. Supreme Court spurns coal executive's challenge to mine-explosion conviction


 A memorial to honor the 29 West Virginian Coal Miners that lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster on April 5th, 2010 is seen along Route 3 near Whitesville

Mon, October 3, 2022 at 9:09 AM·2 min read
By Nate Raymond

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away former Massey Energy Co CEO Donald Blankenship's bid to overturn his conviction on a charge of criminal conspiracy stemming from a 2010 West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 coal miners.

The justices declined to hear an appeal by Blankenship, who served a one-year sentence after being found guilty in 2015 of a single misdemeanor charge, of a lower court's rejection of his arguments that the conviction should be tossed due to prosecutorial misconduct. Blankenship, 72, had faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over to his lawyers before the trial evidence he considered favorable to his defense.

Once dubbed West Virginia's "king of coal" for his working-class background and tough approach to business, Blankenship helped build Massey into Appalachia's largest coal producer, with more than 7,000 employees and more than 40 mines.

A jury found him guilty of a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards while opting not to convict him on other charges. Blankenship, who also was fined $250,000, was released from prison in 2017. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

A fire caused by a methane or natural gas leak likely set off the April 2010 blast at Massey's now-closed Upper Big Branch mine, located about 40 miles (65 km) south of the West Virginia city of Charleston, according to federal investigators. The death toll was the highest in a U.S. mine accident since 91 workers died in a 1972 Idaho silver mine fire.

Massey was acquired in 2011 by Alpha Natural Resources Inc for about $7 billion.

Blankenship in 2018 sought to overturn his conviction after completing his prison term and while preparing for his Senate campaign, noting that prosecutors belatedly turned over evidence that he should have received before the trial.

Those records included citing memos summarizing interviews with high-ranking Massey employees and internal U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration documents that prosecutors had not turned over to his lawyers before trial as required.

The U.S. Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility conducted an investigation and concluded that prosecutors committed professional misconduct, exhibited "poor judgment" and were "deficient" in performing their duties.

A federal magistrate judge in 2019 recommended that Blankenship's conviction be overturned, saying the federal prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights to a fair trial by withholding the evidence.

A U.S. trial judge rejected that recommendation and upheld the conviction, as did the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021, finding that the withheld evidence would not have affected the verdict.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)

As the Fertilizer Crisis Bites, Farmers Take Drastic Steps



Megan Durisin and Elina Ganatra
Sun, October 2, 2022

(Bloomberg) --

Ditching oilseed crops for peas, preparing to cut herds and splashing out on tractor gadgets. That’s what European farmers are doing to try to cope with a worsening fertilizer crisis.

The lengths they’re going to in order to apply less of the nutrients vital for growing staples like wheat and rapeseed highlights the continued threat the crunch poses to food output. Many of Europe’s fertilizer plants have closed as Russia’s war in Ukraine squeezes supplies of gas that nitrogen fertilizer is derived from.

Some farmers secured fertilizer for this year’s harvest before prices soared, but now face much bigger bills as they start planting for next year’s crop. Plus, high energy costs are making it more expensive to run tractors and dry grain, risking more food inflation.

“It’s impossible to plan,” said Adam Nowak, a farmer south of Warsaw in Poland.

Here’s how farmers are trying to cope:

Different Crops

The European Union’s grain output shrank 9% this year as a drought ravaged corn fields. While it’s too early to know how plantings for next year’s harvest will fare, farmers will likely shift some land to crops that need less fertilizer, Strategie Grains analyst Vincent Braak said.

One example is Poland’s Nowak, who’s shunning rapeseed that typically covers a third of his farm and opting for less-intensive legumes, like peas. Farmers in the UK and Finland also said they’re sowing more legumes.

Less Bread, More Fodder

European wheat and barley is mainly sown in autumn and needs most fertilizer in spring to meet requirements for use in bread and beer. If farmers don’t have enough nutrients or grain prices are too low to justify the cost, they may raise the crops at a lower quality for animal feed.

“Do we just put fertilizer on the best crops and leave the rest with less?” said Max Schulman, a farmer in Finland. “It will be much harder to predict which way the European crop will go.”

Fewer Cows

The crisis is also a headache for livestock farmers, as many apply fertilizer on forage or pastures for animals. Because meat prices have underperformed grains, grazing land may see a steeper drop in usage, said James Webster, a senior analyst at UK-based adviser Andersons Centre.

Welsh dairy farmer Aled Jones has bought three-quarters of his needs for 2023 pastures -- at triple last year’s price -- and hopes to book the rest later. Cows produce less milk without the proper diet, and he’s worried he may have to sell some of his 500-strong milking herd if feed yields fall too far.

Tech Solution?

British farmer Richard Bramley cut nitrogen fertilizer use in the past two seasons, and hopes new equipment will help reduce usage further. He spent about 23,000 pounds ($24,950) -- subsidized by the government -- for a tractor-mounted sensor that detects plant health and only applies nutrients where it’s needed most.

Bramley booked supply in May to ensure enough for next year, but is still waiting for some to arrive.

“It’s very expensive, but if I’m going to grow a crop, I need to make sure I can grow it right,” he said.

Delivery Worries

Spending a lot more on fertilizer is one problem, another is if it even arrives on time. Finland’s Schulman booked supplies for spring, but is unsure when it will come with tight availability across Europe.

Next year’s EU fertilizer usage hinges on farmers stocking up now, and purchases are 30% to 50% below last year, Fabien Santini, deputy head of the bloc’s DG Agriculture unit, said earlier this month.

“They still have time,” he said. “Of course, the closer you get to the moment you apply the fertilizers, the more risky it is to wait to buy.”

PHOTO ESSAY
Record inflation squeezes Turkish tobacco workers, owners

EMRAH GUREL and SUZAN FRASER
Mon, October 3, 2022 

CELIKHAN, Turkey (AP) — Mehmet Emin Calkan begins work harvesting a tobacco field in rural Turkey before dawn, then has another shift skewering and stringing the tobacco to dry under the sun.

The 19-year-old, who hopes to study electronic engineering, has undertaken the strenuous work to help support his family and pay for books he needs to prepare for the university entrance exam. His family cannot afford to send him to schools that prep students for the test.

“Sometimes I work until 9 p.m.,” Calkan said.

While he labors, his boss, tobacco grower Ismail Demir, says rising costs from fuel to fertilizers have seriously affected his livelihood.


“The vehicle I use to go to and from the field burns 300 Turkish lira ($16) of diesel. Last year, we were commuting for 50 Turkish lira ($3),” he said. “In short, when we add up the costs, we don’t have much left to live on.”

Both landowner and worker in the tobacco-growing district of Celikhan squeezed between mountains in southeast Turkey are among millions grappling with the country's economic turmoil, including record inflation and a weakening currency.

Yearly inflation came in at a 24-year high of 83.45% on Monday, according to official government figures — the highest among the Group of 20 major economies. Independent experts, however, say the rate is much higher, with the Inflation Research Group putting it at 186.27%.

The sharpest increases in annual prices were in the transportation sector, at 117.66%, followed by food and non-alcoholic drink prices at 93%, according to the statistical institute’s data.

While countries worldwide have been grappling with an increase in food and fuel prices stoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, economists say Turkey’s woes are mostly self-inflicted.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has espoused an unorthodox belief that higher borrowing costs lead to higher prices — a theory that runs contrary to established economic thinking.

Pressured by Erdogan, the Turkish central bank has been moving in the opposite direction of world economies that have been rapidly raising interest rates to cool soaring inflation. Last month, the bank cut its key rate by 1 percentage point, to 12%.

The Turkish lira weakened to record lows against the dollar following the move and has lost more than 50% of its value since the central bank began cutting rates last year.

Erdogan, who faces elections in June, says his government is prioritizing economic growth and exports in a bid to achieve a current account surplus — Turkey’s transactions with the rest of the world — insisting that his economic model has helped save 10 million jobs.

He has signaled more rate cuts in the coming months, insisting that the reduced borrowing costs will help tame inflation in the new year.

“You have a president right now whose biggest fight, whose biggest enemy is (high) interest rates,” Erdogan said in a speech last week. “We’ve reduced the interest rate down to 12%. Is it enough? It isn’t enough. It has to go down further.”

Erdogan added, “I hope that after the new year, this inflation will come down due to the low interest rate. I believe that this inflation will come down with low interest. That’s what I’m pushing for.”

The government has introduced several relief measures to help cushion the blow from rising inflation, including increasing the minimum wage in December and in July, announcing a 25% cap on rent increases and reducing taxes on utility bills. It also has announced a major housing project for low-income families.

Still, many people are struggling to meet basic needs.

In Celikhan, Ibrahim Suna another tobacco grower, worries that he will not be able to support his family with this year’s harvest.

“Tobacco is our only means of living, and we have no other income,” the father of five said. “This year, I expect to harvest 400 kilograms of tobacco. What I’ll earn is about 100,000 Turkish lira ($5,400), but half of it will go to expenses.”

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Zekariya Cektir, 75, collects tobacco leaves in a field near Kurudere village, Adiyaman province, southeast Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. Official data released Monday Oct. 3, 2022 shows consumer prices rise 83.45% from a year earlier, further hitting households already facing high energy, food and housing costs. Experts say the real rate of inflation is much higher than official statistics, at an eye-watering 186%. 

(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)