spinph5
MGX DEADLINE MONDAY: ROSEN, A TOP RANKED LAW FIRM, Encourages Metagenomi, Inc. Investors to Secure Counsel Before Important November 25 Deadline in Securities Class Action – MGXPope Francis kicks off a yearlong Jubilee that will test his stamina and Rome's patience VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has opened the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. The ceremony kicks off the 2025 Holy Year. It's a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome. And it will test the pope’s stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them. This begins the Christmas Eve Mass. The ceremony inaugurates the once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee. Francis has dedicated the 2025 Jubilee to the theme of hope. Bethlehem marks a second subdued Christmas Eve during the war in Gaza BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Bethlehem is marking another somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza. Manger Square lacked its usual festive lights and crowds of tourists on Tuesday. Instead, the area outside the Nativity Church was quiet. The church was built atop the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born. The war, the violence in the occupied West Bank it has spurred and the lack of festivities has deeply hurt Bethlehem's economy. The town relies heavily on Christmas tourism. The economy in the West Bank was already reeling because of restrictions placed on laborers preventing them from entering Israel during the war. Heavy travel day starts with brief grounding of all American Airlines flights WASHINGTON (AP) — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne Tuesday about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop, which prevented planes from taking off. American said in an email that the problem was caused by vendor technology in its flight operating system. Aviation analytics company Cirium said flights were delayed across American’s major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time. Nineteen flights were cancelled. Haiti gangs fire on journalists covering a planned hospital reopening, leaving casualties PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Suspected gang members have opened fire on journalists in Haiti’s capital as they were covering the attempted reopening of the country’s largest hospital, wounding or killing an unknown number of people. The country's interim president, Leslie Voltaire, said in an address to the nation that journalists and police were among the victims of the vicious Christmas Eve attack. He did not specify how many casualties there were, or give a breakdown for the dead or wounded. Radio Télé Métronome said earlier on Tuesday that seven journalists and two police officers were wounded in the shooting. Street gangs have taken over an estimated 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Middle East latest: Israeli raid and airstrikes in West Bank kill at least 8 Palestinians The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least eight people were killed by Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank. The ministry said three of the dead were killed by Israeli airstrikes. The attacks took place around the city of Tulkarem and nearby refugee camps. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of some uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid. Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian city of Bethlehem was marking a somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of the war in Gaza. Most festivities were cancelled and crowds of tourists were absent. Caitlin Clark honored as AP Female Athlete of the Year following her impact on women's sports Caitlin Clark has been named the AP Female Athlete of the Year after raising the profile of women’s basketball to unprecedented levels in both college and the WNBA. She led Iowa to the national championship game, was the top pick in the WNBA draft and captured rookie of the year honors in the league. Fans packed sold-out arenas and millions of television viewers followed her journey on and off the court. Clark's exploits also put other women's sports leagues in the spotlight. A group of 74 sports journalists from AP and its members voted on the award. Other athletes who received votes included Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and boxer Imane Khelif. Clark’s only the fourth women’s basketball player to win the award since it was first given in 1931. NFL players who use platform to share their faith say it's their duty to spread their love of Jesus ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Jake Bates was standing on the turf in his hometown of Houston when asked to reflect on an unlikely journey from learning how to sell bricks to making game-winning kicks for the Detroit Lions. Bates used his platform as an NFL player to spread his love of Jesus. A month later, Bates told The Associated Press it is a duty to share his faith. The NFL is filled with players and coaches who feel the same way, such as Houston's C.J. Stroud, Atlanta's Kirk Cousins, and Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens. Major storm pounds California's central coast, blamed for man's death and partially collapsing pier SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A major storm has pounded California’s central coast bringing flooding and high surf that was blamed for fatally trapping a man beneath debris on a beach and later partially collapsing a pier, tossing three people into the Pacific Ocean. The storm was expected to bring hurricane-force winds and waves up to 60 feet Monday as it gained strength from California to the Pacific Northwest. Some California cities have ordered beachfront homes and hotels to evacuate early Monday afternoon. Forecasters have warned that storm swells would continue to increase throughout the day. Medellin Cartel victims demand truth and justice as cartel boss Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — The return of the notorious drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia, following his deportation from the United States, has reopened old wounds among the victims of the Medellin cartel, with some expressing their dismay at the decision of Colombian authorities to let the former mafia boss walk free.Some of the cartel victims said on Tuesday that they are hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history, and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning.
Mr Carter, a former peanut farmer, served one term in the White House between 1977 and 1981, taking over in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the end of the Vietnam War. After his defeat by Ronald Reagan, he spent his post-presidency years as a global humanitarian, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. His death on Sunday was announced by his family and came more than a year after he decided to enter hospice care. He was the longest-lived US president. His son, Chip Carter, said: “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and unselfish love. “My brothers, sister and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. “The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honouring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” World leaders have paid tribute to Mr Carter, including US President Joe Biden, who was one of the first politicians to endorse Mr Carter for president in 1976 and said the world had “lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian”. He said: “Over six decades, we had the honour of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia. — The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) “With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. “He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe.” Irish President Michael D Higgins said Mr Carter was “a principled man who dedicated his life to seeking to advance the cause of peace across the world”. He added: “On behalf of the people of Ireland, may I express my sympathies to President Carter’s children and extended family, to President Joe Biden, to the people of the United States, and to his wide circle of colleagues and friends across the globe.” Mr Carter is expected to receive a state funeral featuring public observances in Atlanta and Washington DC before being buried in his home town of Plains, Georgia. A moderate democrat born in Plains in October 1924, Mr Carter’s political career took him from the Georgia state senate to the state governorship and finally, the White House, where he took office as the 39th president. His presidency saw economic disruption amid volatile oil prices, along with social tensions at home and challenges abroad including the Iranian revolution that sparked a 444-day hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. But he also brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, which led to a peace treaty between the two countries in 1979. After his defeat in the 1980 presidential election, he worked for more than four decades leading the Carter Centre, which he and his late wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope”. Under his leadership, the Carter Center managed to virtually eliminate Guinea Worm disease, which has gone from affecting 3.5 million people in Africa and Asia in 1986 to just 14 in 2023. Mrs Carter, who died last year aged 96, had played a more active role in her husband’s presidency than previous first ladies, with Mr Carter saying she had been “my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished”. Earlier this year, on his 100th birthday, Mr Carter received a private congratulatory message from the King, expressing admiration for his life of public service.ATLANTA — President Jimmy Carter’s work making the world a better place will continue because of his faith, a dogged determination to leave a mark on the planet and a curious late-night dream. He left the White House in bitter disappointment and frustration in early 1981 at not having a second term because of the ascendance of Ronald Reagan. The ambitious Carter was not content to build a presidential library and rest on the laurels of a Mideast peace treaty, a nuclear arms deal with the Soviet Union, expanding national parks and reemphasizing human rights in American foreign policy. There was much left undone, in his estimation, but how to go about it now that he was out of the bully pulpit? He and his wife Rosalynn decided to leverage the prestige of his being a former president into opening doors and continuing work addressing poverty, illnesses and democracy around the world. Carter said in a 2009 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they realized there could be advantages in working without the shackles of congressional approvals, presidential protocols or inter-party politics. He and Rosalynn would later talk about whether he was able to accomplish more in the world through the Carter Center than he would have as a second-term president. “I think yes,” Carter told the AJC. He reemphasized his satisfaction with his decision during an August 2015 press conference. He said, in retrospect, given the choice between winning a second term or founding the Carter Center, he would have chosen the Carter Center. The well-funded and globally respected nonprofit will carry his work and ideals well into the future. The Carters dived — freelance and sometimes to the chagrin of the White House — into brokering peace between warring groups, addressing global health, shoring up human rights, freeing hostages, spreading democracy and increasing food production. It led to a passel of recognitions and awards — including his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. The idea for the center came to him in a night-time dream of cabins built on a patch of wooded land, incongruously, within the shadows of Atlanta’s skyline, Carter told the AJC. His center was to be a re-creation of the wooded presidential retreat at Camp David, the location where he orchestrated, through stubborn refusal to accept “no” from either side, the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. He found a patch of land east of downtown, but he had to plead with his former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, who was then mayor of Atlanta, to spare the land from a proposed highway project. The Israel-Egypt peace deal was a foreign-policy coup in the Mideast that no one has come close to replicating, and Carter’s hopes of re-creating the highlight of forging peace between implacable enemies grew into the ever-evolving Atlanta institution. The Carters wrestled with what the center’s other roles should be before turning to their personal experiences with poverty in south Georgia during the Great Depression. They recalled small-town values of neighborly help and their deeply held Christian values and applied those to Carter Center work. At the center’s founding, his work focused on mediating peace between warring groups, such as helping end a conflict between Ethiopia and its breakaway region of Eritrea. “And we still do some of that,” Carter said, but the focus of the center’s work changed and shifted with world need. They looked for causes few others were working on and used their status to leverage donations and attention, ultimately tipping the balance in battles against various human ills. The Carters’ work moved into fostering democracy by monitoring national and village level elections. Carter and his staff monitored more than 113 elections in 39 countries. As president, he helped normalize relations with China, and its government invited him in the 1990s to help standardize the vast array of electoral procedures in rural areas. The Carters adopted mental health issues, something Rosalynn had worked on since their days in the Georgia governor’s mansion, as well as press freedoms, human rights and government transparency. They threw themselves into food production programs in African villages, something Carter had worked on as president. But it was a visit from an old Georgia friend and former White House staffer Dr. Peter Bourne that opened the former president’s eyes to the issues on which a lion’s share of Carter Center money is spent: the eradication of little-known but devastating diseases. Bourne continued working on world health issues after leaving the White House, but the former president had him come to the Carter Center in May 1985 to talk about Guinea worm disease. Bourne and others believed it could be wiped out, which would make it the second human disease in history to be eliminated, after smallpox. Later that year, Bourne and the Carters were together in Wales indulging in one of their favorite pastimes, fishing. Bourne told them that others had some success eradicating Guinea worm at local levels in Africa and south Asia, where about 3.5 million people were affected. They knew that once the parasitic, water-born cycle was broken, it would be wiped from the earth. But those working on it didn’t have the political clout to convince countries to get involved at the highest levels. Carter could bring that, Bourne told them. Carter thought about it a few weeks, then called Bourne to say he was in. “He has been the driving force in getting the political will necessary ever since,” Bourne said. With Carter raising the profile of the illness and money — the center’s assets were more than $925 million according to its 2020 annual report — governments and nonprofits got behind it. Guinea worm was down to 14 reported cases in 2021 in four African countries, the center said. “We analyzed every human illness on earth to ascertain which ones of those might theoretically be ... eradicated,” Carter said. And they chose four others in addition to Guinea worm. River blindness was found in Africa and parts of Central and South America. By 2015, the center’s work coordinating nonprofits and governments pushed the disease into a few isolated deep-jungle spots in Venezuela and Brazil. With a great deal of optimism, the center moved in 2014 to declare a war on eradication of river blindness in Africa, where more than 100 million people are at risk. The center also began programs for trachoma, an infectious eye disease causing blindness; two diseases carried by parasitic worms, elephantiasis and schistosomiasis; and malaria in the Caribbean. The center will carry the couple’s work well past their demise. “I think 100 years from now we will still have the Carter Center as an independent entity,” Carter said. “I hope they are still doing the kinds of good things we have done so far.” ©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Locals sick of promises of ‘next year’ for council funding in Limerick village
Buddy Cheff’s family has been raising cattle on a spectacular piece of the Montana landscape for five generations — about as long as the fictional Dutton clan, who are the center of the hit show “Yellowstone.” But Cheff isn’t the head of a politically powerful — and brutally ruthless — family with a spread the size of Rhode Island. He’s a 36-year-old father and husband who runs a small herd of about 100 cattle on his 600-acre ranch south of Ronan, Montana. Since taking over from his father nearly a decade ago, Cheff said he has “loved every second” of running his family’s ranch. But he “worries,” he said, about his future in rapidly changing western Montana. In part, that rapid change is a result of the show “Yellowstone” itself, Cheff said. The contentious dynamic depicted on Paramount Network’s series “Yellowstone” — between ranchers who are trying to maintain their way of life and out-of-staters who want to develop their agricultural land into new housing — is a real struggle. And it has been hastened by the spotlight the popular show has shined on Montana, Cheff said. “Everybody has seen ‘Yellowstone,’” he said. “They want the Montana lifestyle.” And more than 50,000 of them have come to get it since the show debuted in 2018. Their arrival has the in Montana’s cities and towns. It also has increased the cost of agricultural land — and made it more difficult for ranchers to access the wide-open spaces their cattle require. “I try to budget all the time and think about purchasing more ground,” Cheff said. But that’s a daunting prospect, as Montana’s population has grown, bringing in newcomers and driving up the cost of land. “We’ve had a lot of turnover on some of my neighbors in the area, small properties, and I think that increases the prices,” Cheff said. “Everybody buys it for a high price, and they ask a little more, which is understandable. “But it definitely hurts the local guys when they’re looking to grow or (for) more grazing or whatever. It’s harder. Those prices are just out of reach for us.” The romantic view of ranching portrayed in “Yellowstone” has contributed to a reordering of Montana’s ranching landscape for the state’s actual ranchers. While Cheff is committed to making it work in the Flathead, some of his fellow ranchers have set out for greener — or at least cheaper — pastures in eastern Montana, said Monty Lesh, a Miles City real estate and rancher who also serves as the Montana Stockgrowers Association’s Southeast District Director. “In the last five years, we’ve seen more interest from people from western Montana that are experiencing a lot of population growth,” Lesh said. “And they’re considering moving to this area because they can sell out up there for a lot of money and come down here and buy something else.” But that intrastate migration has started to decline, according to Lesh, in part because the cycle of new arrivals ramping up land prices has spread to more areas of the state. “That swap used to be fairly attractive,” Lesh said. “It’s not as attractive today because the land values here have increased from what they were like five years ago.” Those rising land prices in eastern Montana have combined with other economic forces that have undermined ranchers’ bottom lines. “The challenge has been the cost to operate,” Lesh said. “I mean, it’s been twofold. We had a rapid rise in interest rates, and most of agriculture is very capital-intensive — you know, uses a lot of capital and leverage to operate and expand. And then the other thing is just general operating expenses: fuel, insurance, labor, parts. Everything is significantly higher than it was four or five years ago.” But while the economics of agriculture have changed in eastern Montana, Lesh said one constant has remained: People are trying to make a living off the land, despite the challenges. “In our area here, the people that we deal with, 99% of them are farmers and ranchers,” Lesh said. “We don’t see a very large number of investor types buying properties. There are a few, but they are farmers and ranchers, maybe in other states, and they’re just diversifying their holdings by buying land in Montana. But it still stays in production. “They don’t come in and sell all the cows and want to raise elk or deer or whatever — recreation,” Lesh said. “They’re experiencing that a lot in central Montana and western Montana.” Some of the forces of change being felt by Montana ranchers have been gathering since well before “Yellowstone” aired its first episode. Gilles Stockton, 78, has seen a lot change in the half-century he’s raising cattle and sheep near the Fergus County town of Grass Range. He takes a long — and expansive — view of ranching, informed by his experience working in livestock policy development in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world. Stockton said the “biggest change” to U.S. ranching occurred in the 1980s as a result of deregulation during the Reagan administration that led to consolidation and that squeezed profit margins for ranchers. But in recent years, he’s seen ranches consolidate, and he’s seen them change hands. “My newest neighbor,” he said, “sold out from the Flathead region and bought the land right next to me. They’re fine people. They’re farmers and ranchers. ... They sort of ran away from the problems there in western Montana.” But Stockton, a district director with the Montana Cattleman’s Association, isn’t as enthused about everyone who has moved in. To the north of his ranch, the has amassed 138,000 acres of land and leased another 337,000 as it seeks to create one of the nation’s largest nature reserves and a home for free-ranging buffalo. To the south, Stockton’s neighbors are the Texas-based billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks, who have long drawn the for reducing public access to their vast landholdings in the West. Count Stockton among those who resent how the Wilks brothers have handled their massive, 200,000-acre since buying it. “They’ve essentially locked up the land and manage it for elk hunting for themselves and their rich buddies,” Stockton said. “Well, the overpopulation of their elk spills over into my land. But immediately after hunting season starts, all the elk retreat to the N Bar Ranch, and nobody, nobody can have access to them. “And the Wilks Brothers have got a number of smaller copycats surrounding,” Stockton continued. “So this, you might say, prime hunting region that runs from Grass Range to the Snowy Mountains is pretty much all now locked up by out-of-state, wealthy people.” Efforts to reach a representative of Wilks Ranch for comment were unsuccessful, but the Wilks Ranch touts its network of ranch holdings as “a top-of-the line cattle operation.” While Stockton said the hired hands who now work the N Bar “get along fine” with the neighbors, the owners have “iced out all the locals,” undermining the tradition and community that has long defined his part of the world. Stockton, who is “pretty much retired” himself, said he’s not sure if ranching can survive the change he’s seeing around Grass Range. “Without major policy change, I think it’s going to be a continual movement towards outsiders buying this country for recreational purposes,” Stockton said. “I know a lot of the existing ranchers are going to survive by leasing the grass from these out-of-staters. So they’ll be able to continue, sort of dwindling over time.” Jake Korell has been in the real estate industry for 56 years, but he said the demand for Montana’s agricultural land from out-of-staters doesn’t “make much sense,” even to him. “These prices are just hard to comprehend, for me, that people will pay that kind of money for this grassland out here,” said. “I don’t get it, but it’s selling.” And the typical Montana rancher has a hard time competing in a market like that, Korell said. In one case, he said, he had some graze land priced at $1,200 an acre. He said two neighbors made offers below the asking price, at a cost they could make back running cattle. “And the seller said, ‘I’m not selling for that price,’” Korell said. “So there you go. Yeah, they’re interested, but they’re priced out. And those are users. ... They’re having a hard time expanding, because to expand, it costs too much money. If it costs you a million dollars to add on to run another 40, 30 cows ... Does that work? No, it doesn’t work.” But it does work for ultra-wealthy, out-of-state, cash buyers who are looking to “park their money in dirt,” instead of in a bank — and who also get a piece of prime recreation land out of the deal, he said. “Now, somebody back East that’s got a $300, $400 million portfolio, that’s peanuts,” Korell said of ranches that are out of reach to locals. “‘And it’s got elk and bear and antelope and that’s stuff that I like to hunt. Hell, I’ll buy it. What the hell.’ That’s the type of buyer that buys those.” John Fahlgren said he sees the same thing in Valley County, where he is a county commissioner and rancher and where many ranch buyers aren’t relying on the property to produce any income. “They have the money to buy it outright and then rent it out, hold on to it, or maybe use it to come and hunt on it and that sort of thing,” said , a district director with the Montana Cattleman’s Association. “So (there’s) a lot of pressure on the price of land because of some of that outside-of-the-area money that comes in to join the glory of the ‘Yellowstone’ reality, so to speak.” Wally Congdon’s family has deep roots in Montana’s ranching community — and a lot of experience trying to adjust to the pressures that community has faced. Three decades ago, his family gave up land along the Clark Fork River’s Alberton Gorge and near Arlee, north of Missoula, and moved to Dell, in a remote area of southwestern Montana. So he knows firsthand what it’s like to try to outrun the forces of change. “What we didn’t count on when we did that was who our neighbors became,” Congdon said of his family’s move to Dell. “Paul Allen, Joachim Kepin, Peggy Rockefeller, Hewlett Packard, Remington Arms, British Petroleum. Want me to keep going?” Congdon has since pulled up stakes again, moving his operation back closer to the Clark Fork and Missoula. But he hasn’t been able to escape the specter of development. One of his hay meadows, he said, was recently “graded, bulldozed and leveled.” “It is no longer a meadow,” he said. “It’s all houses.” Congdon, a district director with the Montana Cattleman’s Association, laments all the pressure placed “on the customs, culture, history and heritage of the West, of agriculture.” For it to survive, he said, “We have to kind of rethink the economics of what that is and do it.” That may mean ranchers rely more heavily on public lands for grazing, pursue more sustainable practices and graze fewer cattle per acre, Congdon said. But some of those changes may already be underway as producers try to adapt to the state’s rapidly shifting landscape and shrinking herd. More than 2.6 million cows roamed Montana in 2017. This year, the count was down by nearly a fifth, to some 2.1 million head. Joel Schumacher, a Montana State University , said the drought conditions in 2021 and 2022 were the cause of this drop. With less precipitation, he said, there was “very little grass for forage and very low hay production, which meant the hay that was available was quite expensive.” “One of the main tools that farmers had was simply to sell down the size of their herd to match the amount of forage that they had available,” Schumacher said. “So that’s really what you saw.” With fewer cows available for sale, their price has shot up — and those strong prices, Schumacher said, “may be limiting how quickly herds are being rebuilt.” Nick Courville, who works a day job as an animal nutrition consultant and who operates a small ranch in Charlo, Montana, is among the producers who have taken advantage of strong cattle prices. This fall, he sold half his herd because there’s a “cash incentive right now” to do so, said Courville, who chairs the Montana Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmer and Rancher Committee. He’d like to build his herd back up, Courville said, but that’s hard, in part because of what he calls the “‘Yellowstone effect.’” While Courville says there are “far-fetched” elements to the show, he argues that it “put some light on some actual, real problems that we have.” “The battle between neighbors, I think, sometimes could be real,” he said. “The battle for land and people owning that agricultural landscape. The pretty views that we have, the clean water that comes with it, the beautiful tall grass that’s waving in the wind. “I mean, they want to buy it because they like that. And then they put a house on every 40 that we used to run cows on.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!“We’re aware of the civil allegations and Jay-Z’s really strong response to that,” NFL (National Football League) commissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday after the conclusion of the league’s winter meetings. “We know the litigation is happening now. From our standpoint, our relationship is not changing with them, including our preparations for the next Super Bowl.” A woman who previously sued musician Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging she was raped at an awards show after-party in 2000 when she was 13 years old, amended the lawsuit on Sunday to include a new allegation that Jay-Z was also at the party and participated in the sexual assault. Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, said the rape allegation made against him is part of an extortion attempt. The 24-time Grammy Award winner called the allegations “idiotic” and “heinous in nature” in a statement released by Roc Nation. The NFL teamed up with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019 for events and social activism. The league and the entertainment company extended their partnership a few months ago. Kendrick Lamar will perform the Super Bowl halftime show at The Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on February 9. Roc Nation and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show. Beyonce, who is married to Jay-Z, will perform at halftime of the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game at Christmas. “I think they’re getting incredibly comfortable not just with the Super Bowl but other events they’ve advised us on and helped us with,” Mr Goodell said. “They’ve been a big help in the social justice area to us on many occasions. They’ve been great partners.”Who are the oldest living US presidents?
Biden Dumps Student Loan Forgiveness Plans: What It Means For Borrowers, Loan Providers Like SoFiBeyoncé trolls Netflix over buffering issues ahead of NFL Christmas Gameday halftime show
Round-the-clock aerial surveillance, drug detection fuel beefed-up border planFORESTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A major storm moving through Northern California on Thursday toppled trees and dropped heavy snow and record rain after damaging homes, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands in the Pacific Northwest. Forecasters warned that the risk of flash flooding and rockslides would continue, and scores of flights were canceled at San Francisco's airport. In Washington, more than 320,000 people — most of them in the Seattle area — were still without power as crews worked to clear streets of electrical lines, fallen branches and debris. Utility officials said the outages, which began Tuesday, could last into Saturday. Meanwhile on the East Coast, where rare wildfires have raged, New York and New Jersey welcomed much-needed rain that could ease the fire danger for the rest of the year. The National Weather Service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco as the region was inundated by the strongest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land — this season. The system roared ashore Tuesday as a “bomb cyclone,” unleashing fierce winds . Communities in Washington opened warming centers offering free internet and device charging. A number of medical clinics closed because of power outages. “I’ve been here since the mid-’80s. I haven’t seen anything like this,” said Trish Bloor, who serves on the city of Issaquah’s Human Resources Commission, as she surveyed damaged homes. Up to 16 inches (about 41 centimeters) of rain was forecast in southwestern Oregon and California's northern counties through Friday. The Sonoma County Airport, in the wine country north of San Francisco, received 6.92 inches (17.5 centimeters) Wednesday, breaking a record dating to 1998. In nearby Forestville, one person was hurt when a tree fell on a house. Small landslides were reported across the North Bay region, including one on State Route 281 on Wednesday that caused a car crash, according to Marc Chenard, a weather service meteorologist. Rain slowed somewhat, but “persistent heavy rain will enter the picture again by Friday morning,” the weather service's San Francisco office said on the social platform X. “We are not done!” Dangerous flash flooding, rockslides and debris flows were possible, especially where hillsides were loosened by recent wildfires, officials warned. Scott Rowe, a hydrologist with the weather service in Sacramento, said that so far the ground has been able to absorb the rain in California's Butte and Tehama counties, where the Park Fire burned over the summer. “It’s not necessarily how much rain falls; it’s how fast the rain falls,” Rowe said. Northern Mendocino and southern Humboldt counties received between 4 and 8 inches (10 and 20 centimeters) of rain in the last 48 hours, and similar amounts were expected over the next 48 hours, forecasters said. Wind gusts could top 50 mph (80 kph). The storm system, which first hit the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, reached the status of “ bomb cyclone ,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), with 15 inches (38 centimeters) of snow possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (121 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said. Sugar Bowl Resort, north of Lake Tahoe near Donner Summit, picked up a foot (30 centimeters) of snow overnight, marketing manager Maggie Eshbaugh said Thursday. She said the resort will welcome skiers and boarders on Friday, the earliest opening date in 20 years. “And then we’re going to get another whopping of another foot or so on Saturday, so this is fantastic,” she said. Another popular resort, Palisades Tahoe, is also opening Friday, five days ahead of schedule, according to its website. The storm already dumped more than a foot of snow along the Cascades in Oregon by Wednesday night, according to the weather service. Forecasters warned of blizzard and whiteout conditions and nearly impossible travel at pass level. Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across western Washington, killing at least two people. A woman in Lynnwood was killed when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, and another in Bellevue died when a tree fell on a home. More than a dozen schools closed in the Seattle area Wednesday, and some opted to extend the closures through Thursday. In Enumclaw, east of Seattle, residents were cleaning up after their town clocked the highest winds in the state Tuesday night: 74 mph (119 kph). Resident Sophie Keene said the powerful gusts caused transformers to blow out around town. “Things were exploding, like, everywhere,” Keene told the Seattle Times. “Like the transformers over by the park. One blew big, it looked like fireworks just going off.” Ben Gibbard, lead singer of the indie rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service, drove from his Seattle neighborhood Thursday morning to the woods of Tiger Mountain for his regular weekday run, but there were too many trees blocking the trail. “We didn’t get hit that hard in the city,” he said. “I just didn’t assume it would be this kind of situation out here. Obviously you feel the most for people who had their homes partially destroyed by this.” In California, there were reports of more than 20,000 power outages on Thursday. Only 50 vehicles per hour were allowed through part of northbound Interstate 5 from 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Redding to 21 miles (34 kilometers) south of Yreka due to snow, according to California's Department of Transportation. Transportation officials also shut down a two-mile (3.2 kilometer) stretch of the famed Avenue of the Giants, a scenic drive named for its towering coast redwoods, due to flooding. About 150 flights were delayed and another two dozen were canceled early Thursday at San Francisco International Airport after hundreds of delays and dozens of cancelations the previous day, according to tracking service FlightAware. Parched areas of the Northeast got a much-needed shot of precipitation Thursday, providing a bit of respite in a region plagued by wildfires and dwindling water supplies. More than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain was expected by Saturday morning in areas north of New York City, with snow mixed in at higher elevations. “Any rainfall is going to be significant at this point,” said Brian Ciemnecki, a weather service meteorologist in New York City, where the first drought warning in 22 years was issued this week. “Is it going to break the drought? No, we’re going to need more rain than that.” ___ Har reported from San Francisco, and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Hallie Golden and Gene Johnson in Seattle; Martha Bellisle in Issaquah, Washington; Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C.; and Michael Hill in Albany, New York, contributed. Godofredo A. Vásquez, Janie Har And Christopher Weber, The Associated Press
Jefferson keeps seeing double as Vikings aim to stay focused on overall offensive production
Don't drink and drive: Family of man killed by alleged drunk driver urge precaution
- Previous: spin ph 6
- Next: spin ph net
