Patients in charge of the asylum: Another Challenge to New York’s Gun Law: Sheriffs Who Won’t Enforce It

The New York Times.

Another Challenge to New York’s Gun Law: Sheriffs Who Won’t Enforce It

Jesse McKinley and Cole Louison – October 9, 2022

Sheriff Robert Milby in his office in Lyons, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2022. (Lauren Petracca/The New York Times)
Sheriff Robert Milby in his office in Lyons, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2022. (Lauren Petracca/The New York Times)

LYONS, N.Y. — Robert Milby, Wayne County’s new sheriff, has been in law enforcement most of his adult life, earning praise and promotions for conscientious service. But recently, Milby has attracted attention for a different approach to the law: ignoring it.

Milby is among at least a half-dozen sheriffs in upstate New York who have said they have no intention of aggressively enforcing gun regulations that state lawmakers passed last summer, forbidding concealed weapons in so-called sensitive areas — a long list of public spaces including, but not limited to, government buildings and religious centers, health facilities and homeless shelters, schools and subways, stadiums and state parks, and, of course, Times Square.

“It’s basically everywhere,” said Milby, in a recent interview in his office in Wayne County, east of Rochester. “If anyone thinks we’re going to go out and take a proactive stance against this, that’s not going to happen.”

On Thursday, a U.S. District Court judge blocked large portions of the law, dealing a major blow to lawmakers in Albany who had sought to blaze a trail for other states after the Supreme Court in June struck down a century-old New York law that had strictly limited the carrying of weapons in public. Between the court challenge and the hostility of many law enforcement officers, New York’s ambitious effort could be teetering.

The judge, Glenn T. Suddaby, agreed to a three-day delay of his order to allow an emergency appeal to a higher federal court. But even before Suddaby ruled, a collection of sheriffs from upstate New York were already saying they would make no special effort to enforce the law, citing lack of personnel, an overbroad scope and possible infringements on the Second Amendment.

Nationwide, conservative sheriffs have been at the front line of an aggressive pushback on liberal policies — often framing themselves as “constitutional sheriffs,” or as self-declared arbiters of any law’s constitutionality. Sheriffs in other states have also been part of efforts to prove a fallacious conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

In New York, dissent has walked a fine line between loud complaints and winking resistance, including pledges of selective — and infrequent — enforcement.

“I have to enforce it because I swore to uphold the laws, but I can use as much discretion as I want,” said Richard C. Giardino, the Republican sheriff in Fulton County, northwest of Albany. “If someone intentionally flouts the law, then they’re going to be handled one way. But if someone was unaware that the rules have changed, then we’re not going to charge someone with a felony because they went into their barbershop with their carry concealed.”

Such criticism has been heard from Greene County, in the Hudson Valley, to Erie County, home to Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city, as well as from groups like the New York State Sheriffs’ Association, which called the new law a “thoughtless, reactionary action” that aims to “restrain and punish law-abiding citizens.”

“We will take the complaint, but it will go to the bottom of my stack,” said Mike Filicetti, the Niagara County sheriff, who appends a Ronald Reagan quote to his emails. “There will be no arrests made without my authorization and it’s a very, very low priority for me.”

The law took effect Sept. 1, and, at least anecdotally, has been used only sparingly since. Jeff Smith, the sheriff in mostly rural Montgomery County, west of Albany, said his office has had no calls for enforcement of the new law, noting that “almost every household” in his jurisdiction had some sort of gun.

Smith, a Republican, said he understands the motives of lawmakers to quell violence and mass shootings, but that the gun law inadvertently targeted lawful gun owners.

“The pendulum swung way too far,” he said.

An element of the New York law makes it a crime to carry a firearm onto any private property, including homes, unless there is “clear and conspicuous signage” indicating that the owner allows such weapons. Some sheriffs have printed their own signs and distributed them to gun-friendly businesses and residents.

“I don’t think you could find one case in this country, in United States history, where a sign said ‘SCHOOL ZONE NO GUNS PERMITTED,’ and it stopped an active shooter,” said Giardino.

For supporters of the law, the opposition is insincere, considering that sheriffs’ demands for law and order are often coupled with complaints that the state is in disarray, that crime is rampant and that the Legislature has empowered lawbreakers.

“To turn around and say, ‘For the laws that we don’t like, or we may disagree with politically, we will refuse to enforce,’ to me is the height of hypocrisy,” said state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat who voted for the bill.

John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said sheriffs weren’t just endangering the public, they were also “endangering their colleagues in law enforcement.”

Myrie added that if sheriffs are angry, they should direct their ire at the Supreme Court, noting that the majority decision in the case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, was written by Justice Clarence Thomas, an avowed conservative — and specifically noted a historical basis for restrictions in “sensitive places.”

Kelly Roskam, the director of law and policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said that the Supreme Court left many unsettled questions that lower courts must address. One particular challenge is a lack of clarity in the court’s test for constitutionality: whether a sensitive place is identical to or sufficiently similar to one that existed at the time of the Second Amendment’s adoption in the late 18th century.

“We face different problems with firearms than those who ratified the Constitution did,” she said. “You’re likely to see challenges to these laws, and different judges will come to different conclusions.”

The nation has a long history of banning guns in certain places, said David Pucino, the deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center, which seeks to stem gun violence, with dozens of states restricting concealed weapons in places like airports, courthouses and locations that serve alcohol.

“The statements that we’ve been seeing here are ideological statements,” Pucino said of the sheriffs. “And that’s not an appropriate basis for a sheriff to enforce or not enforce laws.”

The dispute evinces a larger rift between Democratic lawmakers in Albany — heavily represented by downstate liberals — and more conservative law enforcement and elected officials upstate. The schism was intensified by the pandemic, with some sheriffs defying COVID-19 occupancy rules for Thanksgiving dinners in 2020, while other Republican county officials refused to abide by mask mandates in schools.

“The people who are doing this, a lot of them are New York City legislators and they don’t have a clue,” said Todd Hood, the sheriff of Madison County, east of Syracuse, who says that “firearms are what made our country great.”

“There are different people up here,” said Hood, a Republican. “It’s run totally different.”

Jeffrey A. Fagan, a law professor at Columbia University, said that Albany lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, performed a critical test of the Bruen decision’s limits, even if the law is overturned.

“What New York did in response to Bruen was just about as strong or any other state in the country,” he said. “The governor and the Legislature were sticking their chins out in service of making a very important point.”

For her part, Hochul says she and her staff consulted with a raft of state and county law enforcement officials before the gun bill’s passage. “It was an intense process, but it was necessary,” Hochul said in late August, on the eve of the law taking effect.

The rollout was not without hiccups, including concerns from some military re-enactors who have canceled events out of fear of running afoul of the new law. Officials in Adirondack Park, the 6-million-acre swath of greenery and small towns in the state’s North Country, also pressed Hochul on whether guns would be allowed there.

For his part, Milby, a Republican elected in November, reiterated that his officers, fewer than 100 in a county of nearly 100,000 people, would not be actively pursuing offenders of the new law, although they would respond to calls about concealed weapons if they came in.

More than anything, he said his office is getting “an awful lot of calls” from residents confused by the law, many of whom are “very pro-Second Amendment.”

“It’s basically been clear as mud since Sept. 1,” he said.

And as for who was to blame, Milby said the opinions in Wayne County were crystal clear long before Thursday’s decision.

“There’s a very strong sentiment in this county that the governor has just thumbed her nose at the Supreme Court, in what’s being touted as an unconstitutional conniption fit,” he said. “She’s absolutely overstepped.”

Huge lines as drivers wait to cross damaged Crimea bridge

Reuters

Huge lines as drivers wait to cross damaged Crimea bridge

October 9, 2022

STORY: A flagship project for Russian President Vladimir Putin, built at a reported cost of $3.6 billion, the bridge was damaged in a powerful blast on Saturday.

The blast, which officials said killed three people, hit a crucial supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine.

Thousands of motorists were stranded in the queues.

“We got here at 11:10 in the morning and we’ll have to stay here because we need to get back home. I think we will cross the bridge by midnight,” one of the drivers, Artyom Babak, told Reuters.

Another motorists estimated the queue was about 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) long and would take up to 10 hours to pass.

Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the bridge in 2018 after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

‘They Are in a Panic’: Ukraine’s Troops Size Up the Enemy

The New York Times

‘They Are in a Panic’: Ukraine’s Troops Size Up the Enemy

Carlotta Gall – October 7, 2022

Ukrainians walk past a destroyed Russian tank in the recaptured village of Yatskivka, Ukraine, Oct. 4, 2022. (Ivor Prickett/The New York Times)
Ukrainians walk past a destroyed Russian tank in the recaptured village of Yatskivka, Ukraine, Oct. 4, 2022. (Ivor Prickett/The New York Times)

STAVKY, Ukraine — Racing down a road with his men in pursuit of retreating Russian soldiers, a battalion commander came across an abandoned Russian armored vehicle, its engine still running. Inside there was a sniper rifle, rocket propelled grenades, helmets and belongings. The men were gone.

“They dropped everything: personal care, helmets,” said the commander, who uses the code name Swat. “I think it was a special unit, but they were panicking. It was raining very hard, the road was bad and they drop everything and move.”

After months of static fighting and holding the line under withering Russian artillery barrages, Ukrainian soldiers are exulting over their smashing of Russian lines in the northeast three weeks ago, and their recapturing of swaths of territory seized by Russian troops earlier this year. They have almost retaken the whole of Kharkiv province, as well as territory in each of the four regions that President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed for Russia.

There has been little time for reflection for the Ukrainians as they press their counterattack, focused on keeping the pressure on the retreating Russian army to prevent it from regrouping. Yet after months in the trenches never seeing the faces of the enemy, Ukrainian soldiers and commanders have now engaged the Russians up close and gotten a chance to size up their opponent.

“We have the strength to do this,” Swat said. “Because right now they are in panic, they really are in panic.”

A 58-year-old career soldier, Swat came out of retirement to join the Carpathian Sich, a volunteer battalion, taking over command after his predecessor was killed in battle near Izium in June.

The battalion has been in the forefront of the fighting, providing flanking support in battles for the strategically important cities of Izium and Lyman in recent weeks. Four days ago the battalion seized another town farther east, helping secure a series of dams and the last settlements of northern Donetsk province for Ukraine.

The battles have been fast moving, and in the flight from Izium, produced a great deal of panic on the Russian side. After the capture of Izium, Swat said, his unit pursued Russian troops for 15 miles down the road in one day. A few more days and Ukrainian troops were at the gates of Lyman, 30 miles south of Izium; Swat’s group moved east to block any attempt by the Russian army to send reinforcements.

The day Lyman fell, his battalion was attacking another town farther east. He asked for security reasons not to disclose the location. His units captured the town in a day, without losses, although nine soldiers were wounded. By the third day they had searched and secured the town and handed it over to another group so they could pull back and recharge.

Then after three weeks of sweeping success and minimal losses, the battalion lost five men in a Russian missile strike and Swat lost a close friend when their car hit a mine. Swat was driving but survived with a concussion.

Tearing up when he talked of his friend in an interview, he asked that a reporter not sugarcoat events of the war with only success stories.

In the battle for Izium, Swat was preparing his assault when he saw Russian troops suddenly falling back, he said. Ukrainian brigades attacking from the north had taken a main highway, cutting Russian troops’ supply lines, his deputy commander said.

They moved up the timing of their assault and the unit raced in from the south and seized a high point in the city.

Russian armored vehicles were defending, firing machines guns, Swat said. “But people were so excited, no one stopped,” he said. “I was running with a pistol. It’s like a small feeling of victory. It’s unbelievable, you feel it inside, you are happy.”

“We get this hill,” he said, “It was happiness, everyone jumping, shooting, hugging each other.”

The men were firing off their weapons, not listening when he ordered them to cease fire, he said. It was just a minor firefight, given that the Russians were already withdrawing, but the capture of Izium gave them a huge boost of confidence. It was vindication, he said, for three months of grueling fighting defending positions under Russian artillery and airstrikes that cost them many lives, he said.

As they raced down the road south from Izium after retreating Russian troops, they captured some enemy soldiers who were sleeping off lunch in a camp in the forest. “They were surprised, seven of them,” he said. “No one expected that after lunch we would advance on a forest line.”

Some of the Russians, demotivated and scared, and some hungry, were ready to give themselves up, he said. But some kept fighting, believing Russian indoctrination that the Ukrainians would torture and kill them if they allowed themselves to be captured.

On one occasion a Russian soldier pulled the pin of a grenade and killed himself, saying he would never let himself be taken prisoner, Swat said. “We jumped to him but we were too late,” he said. “So they are also brave soldiers, and they are afraid.”

His battalion has taken more than 30 Russians prisoner in seven months of fighting, 23 of them in the counterattack, he said. “We just get information from them, give them water, food, warm clothes and send them to a higher level,” he said.

It has been a steep learning curve for his men, not only in survival but in humanity. A 27-year-old American platoon commander from his battalion, who uses the code name Boris, said one of his most intense moments of the war came when he held a cup of water for a Russian prisoner to drink.

But the fighting units had little time to chase deserters.

In some places local residents told them they were sheltering Russian soldiers who had either fled their posts or been left behind, but Swat said he did not have time to stop. And in the past few days, he said, Ukrainian air reconnaissance tracked Russian units pulling out on foot through the forests using good military tactics — spreading out, moving slowly — but again his units were too tied up to pursue them.

The platoon commander named Boris said their units had carried out several assaults on Izium from the southwest in the weeks before the counterattack, luring the Russians into reinforcing in that direction. When the full force of the counterattack came from the north, they were not expecting it, he said.

That does not mean there was not resistance.

The Russians were often set up in well dug-in machine gun nests, several Ukrainian commanders and soldiers said. And once Russian troops pull back, there can be heavy bombardment from Russian planes, artillery and long-range missiles. A powerful missile strike demolished a former Russian command post in the town they seized recently, killing five of his men, he said.

“It was like a cold water shower,” Swat said. Referring to the five who died, he said: “For two days I was like, crazy. They were young guys.”

For all the recent defeats, he said, he does not think the Russian army is by any means broken. “They will fight, they continue to fight,” he said. “It’s the Slavic mentality: to fight for your friends. They also have friends who died.”

He and his men all voiced concern about the mobilization in Russia, and the new strength it would bring to the Russian side.

The Ukrainian army is growing stronger, but it is not yet where it needs to be, Swat said. “For all these small victories, it was a very, very tough time,” he said of the last seven months of the war. “Slowly we recover, but we are not there yet. And Russia has a lot of power, and it is unlimited in its weapons.”

In the village of Stavky, some 10 miles from the front line, the sounds of the Russian bombardment of recently recaptured settlements to the east were loud enough for soldiers and civilians to stop talking and listen.

But commanders and soldiers seemed to agree that Ukrainian troops should keep pushing before the Russian side could regroup.

“We have only one month to do this right now, because right now they are in panic,” Swat said. And winter was closing in. “Now we need to get winter clothes, and we are going to have mud.”

Research Shows Lung Health May Be the Number One Indicator of Living a Long, Healthy Life

Parade

Research Shows Lung Health May Be the Number One Indicator of Living a Long, Healthy Life—Here’s How To Improve Yours

Kaitlin Vogel – October 7, 2022

We all know the importance of brain health, gut health, and heart health, but when it comes to lung health, it’s probably not something many of us think too much about.

But according to research, your lung health can predict how long you live. One study that involved a 30-year follow-up found that there is a direct link between lung function and mortality.

In 1960 and 1961, researchers looked at 2,273 men and women between the ages of 15 and 96, gathering data on lifestyle, health and lung function. In 1990, a follow-up study showed which participants had died and their cause of death. Results showed that the 20 percent of men with the poorest lung function at the start of the study were more than twice as likely to have died compared to men with the best lung function. Women with the poorest lung function were more than one-and-a-half times more likely to have died.

Since lung health is key to living a long life, here are ways to keep yours healthy.

Why Lung Health Is Important

“Your lungs don’t just help you breathe—they also help to deliver oxygen to every organ in your body,” says Dr. Robert Goldber, MD, a pulmonologist with Providence Mission Hospital. “Plus, they help to remove carbon dioxide as you exhale—this is incredibly important to your overall health. And your lungs help to protect your airways from harmful irritants and substances.”

Having healthy lungs also helps to reduce your risk of developing severe complications of any illnesses that enter your respiratory system, such as the common cold, Dr. Goldberg adds. That’s why it’s important to keep them healthy by not smoking and avoiding exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants that can cause respiratory damage, such as secondhand smoke and other chemicals. Get plenty of exercise and avoid outdoor activities on days when there is poor air quality.

Related: 13 Signs Your Lungs May Not Be Healthy

Signs of Poor Lung Health

One of the most important signs of poor lung health is having trouble breathing—this is incredibly serious, especially in older adults. It’s extremely important to contact your doctor immediately if it continues to be tough to breathe, as it could be a sign of asthma, lung cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Dr. Goldberg explains.

COPD, which is a group of diseases including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, can cause a blockage in your airway and other breathing-related challenges.

Other poor lung health symptoms include a chronic cough or chest pain, wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing up blood. If you have any of these systems, make an appointment with your doctor, Dr. Goldberg adds.

How To Improve Your Lung Health
Steer clear of toxic pollutants

Healthy lungs can stay healthy by avoiding toxic inhalational agents including smoke, dust and other pathogens, Dr. Thomas Yadegar, MDpulmonologist, Medical Director of the ICU, Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, explains.

Engage in regular exercise and practice deep breathing techniques

Exercise and deep breathing exercises also promote healthy lung function. 4-7-8 breathing, where patients inhale deeply for four seconds, hold for seven seconds and exhale slowly for eight seconds, is a simple tool to help recruit more oxygenation, Dr. Yadegar states.

Wash your hands regularly

You can help to prevent respiratory infections, especially during cold and flu season, by regularly washing your hands with soap and water, avoiding large crowds and getting an annual flu shot, Dr. Goldberg explains. And, if do catch a cold or the flu, make sure to stay home to avoid exposing others to your illness.

Next up: The Best Foods for Healthy Lungs—And the Ones You Should Avoid

Sources
  • Chest: “Pulmonary function is a long-term predictor of mortality in the general population: 29-year follow-up of the Buffalo Health Study”
  • Dr. Robert Goldberg, a pulmonologist with Providence Mission Hospital
  • Dr. Thomas Yadegar, pulmonologist, Medical Director of the ICU, Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center

Putin’s Own Allies Turn On Him as Ukraine Unleashes Hell in Stolen Russian Tanks

Daily Beast

Putin’s Own Allies Turn On Him as Ukraine Unleashes Hell in Stolen Russian Tanks

Dan Ladden-Hall – October 7, 2022

Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

Hot on the heels of embarrassing reports of Russian recruits fighting each other and Moscow loyalists calling for Kremlin ministers to kill themselves, it seems the rage against Vladimir Putin’s handling of his invasion of Ukraine is now openly being conveyed to the man himself by members of his own inner circle.

A report Friday—which is Putin’s 70th birthday—said that one of the despot’s closest allies had openly challenged the disastrous way the war was being conducted. The landmark challenge was even significant enough to be included in U.S. President Joe Biden’s daily intelligence briefing, according to anonymous officials cited by the Washington Post.

Although the individual who voiced the dissent was not identified, their discontent was said to center around mistakes being made by those directing the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russians Terrified by Putin’s Bunker Mentality as He Turns 70 With His Finger on the Nuclear Button

“Since the start of the occupation we have witnessed growing alarm from a number of Putin’s inner circle,” a Western intelligence official told the Post. “Our assessments suggest they are particularly exercised by recent Russian losses, misguided direction and extensive military shortcomings.”

Analysts of the war don’t have to look far to find examples of such shortcomings, with embarrassing battlefield blunders clocking up at a rate as alarming as the number of Russians currently seeking to dodge Putin’s draft by fleeing the country.

As well as the embarrassing leak from U.S. officials, British intelligence also gave Putin an unwelcome birthday surprise with a mind-blowing report on the staggering number of captured Russian tanks and armored vehicles currently being used by Ukraine.

“Repurposed captured Russian equipment now makes up a large proportion of Ukraine’s military hardware,” the report from the U.K.’s defense ministry said. “Ukraine has likely captured at least 440 Russian Main Battle Tanks, and around 650 other armored vehicles since the invasion. Over half of Ukraine’s currently fielded tank fleet potentially consists of captured vehicles.”

“The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline,” the report added.

The Kremlin’s latest ignominies come after a series of crushing military setbacks in Ukraine, which has seen Moscow’s forces kicked out of key areas in territory that Putin is claiming to formally control after signing treaties to annex huge swathes of Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

Having plunged his nation into chaos and sparking fears about nuclear weapon use the world over, Putin is said to be working on his birthday this year where he would have once spent the day with an old comrade fishing in Siberia. It’s probably just as well, as you’d be hard pressed to find many up for a hearty rendition of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”

I love living in Florida, but the sun-and-surf lifestyle eventually exacts a price

Miami Herald

I love living in Florida, but the sun-and-surf lifestyle eventually exacts a price

Ana Veciana -Suarez – October 7, 2022

For those who have spent most of their lives in Florida, as I have, the apocalyptic photos that emerged after Hurricane Ian are painfully familiar. The flooded roadways. The shattered storefronts. The flattened landscapes. The unending miles of debris. And more than 100 dead in my state alone.

I remember those horrors too well. I survived Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5, packed into a walk-in closet with seven other family members, including four terrified children. During that interminable night, I discovered that few things sound as scary as howling winds and splintering roof trusses. However, that wasn’t the worst part of the experience.

Rebuilding was. Gusts subsided and water receded but putting a life — and a home — back together took much longer. After Andrew, we were out of our house for almost seven months. The kitchen wasn’t done when we moved back, but I was desperate to return. I was very pregnant with my youngest and needed the semblance of a routine.

It would take well over a decade for my wider neighborhood to recover, and the experience marked me for life. I came away with a renewed respect for the wonder — and danger — of nature.

We’ve been through other hurricanes since 1992. Wilma, a Category 3, tore through the roof of our old house in 2005. That same year two other hurricanes — Rita and Katrina — slapped us hard, too. Then, in 2017, Irma flooded a trailer home we own on the state’s west coast. But none matched the fury of Andrew. I hope none ever do.

Nonetheless, Ian has been particularly difficult for me to process. Part of that dread, I think, is the path it was predicted to take. A son and a brother live in St. Petersburg, both a short walk from Tampa Bay. Another son lives south of Orlando. All would’ve gotten slammed had Ian not made landfall elsewhere.

They suffered minimal damage — water seeping through windows, a gate fence blown away — but nothing like the devastation in counties farther south. Some of our friends, on the other hand, weren’t so lucky. Those in Fort Myers and Naples have suffered huge property losses, and one farther inland in Bartow reported several trees down. We suspect that the quaint spots we like to visit on that side of the coast may never reopen. After all, calamities have a way of rearranging the map of entire towns.

So, yes, news of this kind should unsettle me, but there’s more to my disquiet than that. These hurricanes and several near-misses have forced me to reassess not only how I live but also where and why.

I claim residence in what one expert called “the most hurricane-ravaged state in the country.” There’s a good reason for that. We have 1,350 miles of coastline, second only to Alaska in that department. We also happen to stick out like a middle finger into warm, hurricane-feeding ocean waters. In short, we’ve got a target on our back.

That target — at least in terms of numbers — has only gotten bigger. Florida’s population has grown 60% since Hurricane Andrew, and most newcomers have settled along the coasts, where the scenery is amazing but also where hurricane forces can be most destructive. That sun-and-surf lifestyle eventually exacts a price.

Knowing this, I must ask myself the inescapable questions. Should I continue to live in a place where experiencing a monster storm (again) is just a matter of time? Are there better ways to build in the Sunshine State? How much risk am I willing to assume for a slice of paradise?

Arriving at the answers is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought.

Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city near nuclear plant

Associated Press

Russian missiles slam into Ukrainian city near nuclear plant

Adam Schreck – October 6, 2022

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched missiles that hit apartment buildings in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, a local official said Thursday, killing three people and wounding at least 12 in a region that houses Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant and which Moscow illegally annexed.

The two strikes, the first before dawn and another in the morning, damaged more than 40 buildings, local authorities said. The attacks came just hours after Ukraine’s president announced that the country’s military had retaken three more villages in another of the four regions annexed by Russia, the latest battlefield reversal for Moscow.

The Zaporizhzhia region’s governor, Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram that many people were rescued from the multi-story buildings, including a 3-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Photos provided by the Emergency Service of Ukraine showed rescuers scrambling through rubble in the wreckage of a building looking for survivors.

Starukh said of Russia: “The terrorist country has shown its beastly face by converting defense weapons into offensive weapons and killing peacefully sleeping people.”

Zaporizhzhia is one of the regions of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed as Russian territory in violation of international laws and is home to a nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.

The head of the U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Putin signed a decree Wednesday declaring that Russia was taking over the six-reactor facility.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called the move a criminal act and said it considered Putin’s decree “null and void.” The state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it would continue to operate the plant.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to discuss efforts to set up a secure protection zone around the facility, which has been damaged during Russia’s war in Ukraine and seen staff, including its director, abducted by Russian troops.

Grossi plans to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials after his stop in Ukraine.

The U.S. government sent its international development chief to Kyiv on Thursday, the highest-ranking American official to visit Ukraine since Russia illegally annexed the four regions.

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, was holding meetings with government officials and residents. She said the U.S. would provide an additional $55 million to repair heating pipes and other equipment.

USAID said the United States had delivered $9.89 billion in aid to Ukraine since February. A spending bill signed by U.S. President Joe Biden last week promises another $12.3 billion directed both at military and public services needs. Power said Washington plans to release the first $4.5 billion of that funding in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, leaders from more than 40 European countries met in Prague on Thursday to launch a “political community” aimed at boosting security and prosperity across the continent.

“What you will see here is that Europe stands in solidarity against the Russian invasion in Ukraine,”further land grabs in Ukraine.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that “certain territories will be reclaimed, and we will keep consulting residents who would be eager to embrace Russia.”

The precise borders of the areas Moscow is claiming remain unclear, but Putin has vowed to defend Russia’s territory — including the annexed Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine — with any means at his military’s disposal, including nuclear weapons.

The deputy head of the Ukraine president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said 10 people were killed in the latest Russian attacks in the Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. It was not clear if that number included those killed in the morning strikes in Zaporizhzhia.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian army recaptured three more villages in the Kherson region. Novovoskrysenske, Novohryhorivka, and Petropavlivka are all situated northeast of Kherson.

Ukrainian forces are seizing back villages in Kherson in humiliating battlefield defeats for Russian forces that have badly dented the image of a powerful Russian military and added to the tensions surrounding an ill-planned mobilization. They have also fueled fighting among Kremlin insiders and left Putin increasingly cornered.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian military said the Ukrainian flag was raised above seven Kherson region villages previously occupied by the Russians. The closest of the liberated villages to the city of Kherson is Davydiv Brid, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.

Ukraine also was seeking to press a counteroffensive in the Donetsk region, which has been partly controlled by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014 yet remains contested despite Putin’s proclaimed annexation.

When Russian troops pulled back from the Donetsk city of Lyman over the weekend, they retreated so rapidly that they left behind the bodies of their comrades. Some were still lying by the side of the road leading into the city on Wednesday.

Lyman sustained heavy damage both during the occupation and as Ukrainian soldiers fought to retake it. Mykola, a 71-year-old man who gave only his first name, was among about 100 residents who lined up for aid on Wednesday.

“We want the war to come to an end, the pharmacy and shops and hospitals to start working as they used to,” he said. “Now we don’t have anything yet. Everything is destroyed and pillaged, a complete disaster.”

In his nightly address, a defiant Zelenskyy switched to speaking Russian to tell the Moscow leadership that it has already lost the war that it launched Feb. 24.

“You have lost because even now, on the 224th day of full-scale war, you have to explain to your society why this is all necessary.”

He said Ukrainians know what they are fighting for.

“And more and more citizens of Russia are realizing that they must die simply because one person does not want to end the war,” Zelenskyy said.

Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report.

I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid for an abortion or if he blew up the planet Alderaan

USA Today

I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid for an abortion or if he blew up the planet Alderaan

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY – October 6, 2022

There’s a report that Herschel Walker, the staunchly anti-abortion Republican running in Georgia’s Senate race, got a woman pregnant then paid for her abortion back in 2009.

Like other staunchly anti-abortion Republicans, I have one thing to say about that: DON’T CARE!

Dana Loesch, a conservative radio host and former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, put it best this week when she said: “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.”

Abortions are unacceptable – except for this one 

Amen, sister. Abort those eagle babies! Like Loesch, I believe deeply in the sanctity of life and oppose all abortions – except for this one, which I will accept to prevent it from costing my party control of the Senate.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at a rally in Athens, Ga., in May 2022.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at a rally in Athens, Ga., in May 2022.

The right to control our own fates is at stake: Can suburban women save it?

Republicans should have been ready: Dumping Roe may backfire on abortion opponents

The report came from The Daily Beast, and all they had to back it up was: a receipt from the abortion provider; a canceled check Walker sent to the woman five days after the procedure; and the get-well card Walker sent the check in. Walker denies the whole thing and claims he doesn’t know the woman, who, as The Daily Beast reported Wednesday, is also the mother of one of his children.

I’m going to have to side with Walker on this one, because I want my party in power and believe it’s a sin to use the word “hypocrisy.”

Control of the Senate is what matters here, and he played football!

As a matter of fact, I don’t think Loesch went far enough in defending Walker with her hypothetical eagle abortion clinic.

Like the many Republicans who’ve rushed in to stick up for Walker in the wake of the abortion news, I don’t care if the former football star is an ancient, trans-dimensional, shape-shifting entity of pure evil that takes the form of a clown named Pennywise and terrorizes a small town in Maine. I want control of the Senate, and I’m sure Walker regrets any past desire to feed on humans.

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker signs memorabilia for supporters in Columbus, Ga.
Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker signs memorabilia for supporters in Columbus, Ga.

Iran’s Gen Z is fed up: Protests aren’t just about hijab, they’re about regime change

Americans want stricter gun safety measures: Gen Z will help us get there

The destruction of a planet or two is fine if it leads to power

Heck, I don’t care if Walker oversaw the construction of a moon-size space station that blew up the 2-billion-person planet of Alderaan, then later got in an argument with his son and chopped his right hand off. We have to secure that Georgia Senate seat so we can stop President Joe Biden’s immoral agenda!

I’m not the least bit bothered if Walker, in the year 1219, let loose the Mongol hordes on the Khwarazmian Empire in Persia after the shah, Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, broke a treaty. Control of the Senate is of tantamount importance to the moral fabric of our nation.

Ruling Mordor isn’t so bad when you think about it

The possibility Walker may have been described in the epic Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” as the monster Grendel, “accursed of God, the destroyer and devourer of our human kind,” doesn’t bother me a whip if it leads to a Republican becoming Senate majority leader. And the additional claims that he slaughtered the inhabits of the mead hall of Heorot, built by King Hrothgar? A minor detail if the power to cut corporate taxes is in play.

Student loan relief: Biden’s fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants approach creates huge mess

Children’s mental health: Alarm has been ringing for decades. Too few have listened.

No, I see no logical or moral inconsistency between my firmly held religious beliefs and the lack of concern I would feel if I learned Walker had remained a noncorporeal evil for centuries before rising again in the land of Mordor and building the dark fortress Barad-dûr not far from Mount Doom. And if he gathered massive armies of orcs and trolls then tricked the elven-smith Celebrimbor into forging the Rings of Power? Well that’s a small price to pay to defeat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is a pastor and has probably never paid to abort endangered baby eagles.

Basically, nothing matters as long as we win

The discovery that Walker is, in fact, the Dark Lord Voldemort, “He Who Must Not Be Named,” and is plotting, with the help of Death Eaters, to rid the world of Muggles, would in no way impact my support for a candidate whose qualifications include being somewhat famous.

The dark wizard Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) lords over the wizarding world in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I."
The dark wizard Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) lords over the wizarding world in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.”

I want control of the Senate. Getting Herschel Walker elected is key to that end. And if that means being OK finding out he once snapped his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and instantly wiped out half of all life in the universe, well … so be it. I’m not about to let the morality I use to disguise my craven thirst for power get in the way of my craven thirst for power.

Court Screwup Reveals Mar-a-Lago Judge’s Latest Legal Absurdity in Trump Case

Daily Beast

Court Screwup Reveals Mar-a-Lago Judge’s Latest Legal Absurdity in Trump Case

Jose Pagliery – October 6, 2022

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast
Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast

First, she stopped FBI special agents from even glancing at the classified documents they recovered from Mar-a-Lago. Then she appointed a special court referee that former President Donald Trump wanted to slow down the investigation over his mishandling of classified documents.

But now, it’s clear District Court Judge Aileen Cannon already knew the Department of Justice was ready to hand Trump back a ton of personal records six days before she claimed the former president was suffering “a real harm” by being “deprived of potentially significant personal documents.”

The “medical records” she worried the feds might leak to the press—what she called a “risk of irreparable injury” to the former president—were actually a doctor’s note Trump himself made public when running for the White House in 2016 as part of a publicity stunt.

A description in court records indicates the feds were trying to return an addendum to the infamous, eye-rolling letter that a Manhattan doctor quickly typed up emphatically declaring, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Those details were made public when the court screwed up Tuesday night and posted a sealed DOJ filing on the public docket, which was quickly caught by Bloomberg reporter Zoe Tillmann.

Judge Cannon’s Latest Mar-a-Lago Ruling Just Got Benchslapped

The Aug. 30 letter to the judge, which is marked “sealed,” lays out the abundantly cautious way the DOJ treated its raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier that month. The FBI had a “privilege review team” of agents and lawyers conduct an initial sweep and sort through evidence to put aside anything that could taint an eventual prosecution of the former president—such as confidential letters between him and any of his 35 different lawyers.

In the letter, a DOJ lawyer representing that “taint team” explained that three weeks after the seizure of goods at the oceanside Florida estate, the team was ready to return 43 items that had nothing to do with the investigation: legal documents ranging from his confidential settlement with the Professional Golfers’ Association to invoices from his attorney Alina Habba.

The revelation makes even more obvious how far Cannon went to appease the president who gave her a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. And it’s only adding to what’s become a resounding consensus from legal scholars that Cannon is squarely on Trump’s side.

Trump lawyers, who’ve gone judge-shopping for her in the past, seemed to do it again when they filed this lawsuit to freeze the FBI investigation. Avoiding the South Florida magistrate judge who initially approved the search warrant and was already overseeing the matter, Trump’s lawyers marked the case as unrelated to other pending litigation—diverting this over to another judge and ending up with Cannon.

At the very first court hearing, Cannon signaled deep distrust of the DOJ and journalists. She expressed a belief that the FBI’s investigation of Trump for mishandling “top secret” records was somehow distinct from the federal government’s damage assessment over whether the nation’s secrets were put at risk. Legal analysts Teri Kanefield, Harry Litman, and others agonized over Cannon’s bizarre legal reasoning.

At every turn since, she has granted Trump’s lawyers exactly what their client wants most: time to burn.

“She’s just giving him the delay that he’s asked for,” said Peter M. Shane, a legal scholar at New York University’s law school. “She has obvious sympathy for Trump’s contention that, as a former president, he deserves super-consideration.”

Trump Pick Raymond Dearie Appointed as Special Master in Mar-a-Lago Case

Trump’s lawyers wanted to hit the brakes on the FBI investigation. Cannon forbade the agents from reviewing the classified documents.

They wanted to appoint a “special master” to micromanage the DOJ and review whether any seized document could be considered a privileged presidential record or attorney-client communication. Cannon didn’t just appoint one—she picked the semi-retired judge they wanted.

Then, when Raymond Dearie turned out to be a no-nonsense arbiter who wanted to speed this process along—dangerously cornering Trump’s lawyers by telling them to formally explain whether Trump actually declassified these records—Cannon came swooping in out of nowhere to dial him back.

“This is how a judge would behave… if her motivation was simply to be helpful to Trump,” Shane told The Daily Beast.

The DOJ has already been moderately successful at appealing her decisions. The Eleventh Circuit, despite its conservative leaning, restored the FBI’s ability to keep reviewing the classified government records taken from Mar-a-Lago. And on Wednesday, the federal appellate court in Atlanta granted the DOJ’s pleas and agreed to expedite the appeal that could scrap the entire “special master” ordeal.

Trump Went Judge Shopping and It Paid Off in Mar-a-Lago Case

But while the case makes its way through that process, legal scholars worry Cannon will continue to micromanage her chosen micromanager.

“She seems to be cooperating quite well with the former president,” said Carl Tobias, a law school professor at the University of Richmond.

Dearie was once the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn and went on to become a federal judge, including a seven-year stint on the coveted and hyper-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is where the feds ask for judicial approval to conduct some kinds of spying on foreigners. His role in this case could keep it moving forward fairly, although some legal scholars are starting to worry whether he’ll stick around.

“This is a person who spent 38 years building his enormous reputation. If I were a judge for 38 years… I wouldn’t want to be ordered around by someone who’s a lackey to Trump,” Tobias said.

But her potential to harm the FBI’s investigation is far from over. Dearie’s role is merely to be a temporary referee to shepherd the potentially privileged document review process. His decision’s aren’t even final. Any conclusion he makes will still be submitted for approval to Cannon, who’s 37 years his junior and was a newborn in Colombia when he was already leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York while the crime rate was soaring.

The Justice Dept. Just Eviscerated the Trump-Appointed Judge in the Mar-a-Lago Case

Tobias stressed that every day the case remains with Cannon is a step in the wrong direction, noting that she should have done the right thing: recognized that this case was already an extension of the Mar-a-Lago search and transferred it back to Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who approved the search warrant.

“I just don’t think she ever had jurisdiction,” Tobias said. “She could have kicked this back to the magistrate. To the extent this case had any validity, it belonged there—rather than have this. They forum-shopped to get her. It raises all kinds of issues.”

Hurricane Ian: residents return to battered homes as death toll rises

The Guardian

Hurricane Ian: residents return to battered homes as death toll rises

Richard Luscombe in Miami – October 6, 2022

<span>Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP</span>
Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Residents of south-west Florida were on Thursday returning for a first look at damage wreaked on their homes by Hurricane Ian, as the storm’s death toll continued to rise and details emerged about the victims.

Related: Florida mayor not offended by Biden’s ‘salty language’ on live microphone

Inhabitants of Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island were among the first to get a glimpse after authorities still searching for survivors from the 28 September storm gave the go-ahead for civilians to return.

A steady stream of residents arrived, mostly on small chartered motorboats, after sections of the Sanibel and Pine Island causeways, the only road links to the mainland, were swept away by 150mph winds and a 12ft (3.6 metres) storm surge.

“We feel, as a community, that if we leave the island, abandon it, nobody is going to take care of that problem of fixing our road in and out,” said a Pine Island resident, Leslie Arias.

The number of storm-related deaths rose to at least 101 on Thursday, eight days after the storm made landfall in south-west Florida. According to reports from the Florida medical examiners commission, 98 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia.

Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland US in the 21st century after Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the US was the Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people.

But Ian’s fury makes it the deadliest storm to strike Florida since the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 claimed more than 430 lives.

The oldest victim of Ian was a 96-year-old man found trapped under a car in high water in Charlotte county, the medical examiners’ report said.

A 73-year-old man in Lee county “shot himself after seeing property damage due to the hurricane”.

In Manatee county, a 71-year-old woman died after being blown over: “The decedent was outside her residence smoking a cigarette when a gust of wind from the hurricane blew her off the porch and she subsequently struck her head on a concrete step.”

Most victims drowned, underlining that the storm surge was the deadliest part of the hurricane.

Not included in the report are five deaths in North Carolina, one in Virginia and three in Cuba, when Ian swept across the west of the island two days before gaining power in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and slamming into the south-western Florida coast.

Authorities in Florida have been criticized for issuing evacuation orders too late, although Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, and county officials have defended their actions.

DeSantis has claimed, falsely, that Lee county was not yet included in the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) forecast track 72 hours before the storm hit, and that it was predicted instead to strike Tampa, about 120 miles north.

The NHC “cone of uncertainty” included parts of Lee county during that time frame, including Cayo Costa, where Ian made first landfall.

More than 215,000 customers remained without power across Florida, authorities said, while thousands of workers sought to repair grids.

On Pine Island, piles of rubble and debris have replaced many homes, power lines and wooden poles littering yards and roadways.

In a visit to the worst-hit areas on Thursday, Joe Biden promised the resources of the federal government would be available “as long as it takes”. Some estimates have calculated the damage at $55bn.

The president met local residents, small business owners and relief workers in Fort Myers, praising the cooperation between state and federal agencies.

Noting that the recovery could take months or years, he said: “The only thing I can assure you is that the federal government will be here until it’s finished. After the television cameras have moved on, we’re still going to be here with you.”

DeSantis, seen as a potential rival to Biden in the 2024 presidential election, also struck a conciliatory tone.

“We are cutting through the red tape and that’s from local government, state government, all the way up to the president. We appreciate the team effort,” he said.

  • The Associated Press contributed to this report