As Jan. 6 panel pauses, the U.S. faces a fourth fall of Trump (with a fifth in view) – NPR
As Jan. 6 panel pauses, the U.S. faces a fourth fall of Trump (with a fifth in view) – NPR

Then-President Donald Trump is seen on the screen above the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Thursday in outtakes from his Jan. 7, 2021, video in which he refused to say he had lost the election.

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Then-President Donald Trump is seen on the screen above the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Thursday in outtakes from his Jan. 7, 2021, video in which he refused to say he had lost the election.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Even before Liz Cheney made her announcement this week, another autumn of Donald Trump dominating the political scene seemed inevitable.

But now, it’s official.

Cheney, the vice chair of the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6 Attack on the Capitol, made a great deal of news in the panel’s public hearing Thursday night — not least by revealing the hearings would resume after the August recess.

“See you all in September,” the Wyoming Republican said.

Truth is, even if the committee had wrapped this week, the former president would still be looming over the fall landscape like a rising harvest moon.

The House committee has had much to do with that, serving up the cream of its evidence in eight hearings that might have been episodes in a streaming TV series. The season-ender Thursday night was a three-hour special and arguably its most dramatic to date.

Mixing live testimony and riveting videotape, the panel took us back to the 187 minutes of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump, then still president, refused to do anything to halt the invasion.

Even as the protesters became rioters, breaching the closed Capitol and shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” and even as Pence’s Secret Service detail feared for their lives, Trump sat in a dining room off the Oval Office. He watched the mayhem while phoning senators he thought might still help him overturn the results of the election he had lost.

We also saw the president struggling to tape a video the next day, complaining: “I don’t want to say the election’s over.”

Returning soon to a screen near you

So the panel’s Season Two will drop in a matter of weeks. But even if the hearings were over and done, the consequences would only be beginning.

There would still need to be a final report and a decision on making a criminal referral. That would leave the question of indicting the former president in the hands of the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland (who might also indict based on Justice’s own investigation).

The latest polling indicates more than half the country is paying at least some attention to the January 6 panel’s prosecutorial presentations. And while relatively few Americans expected to see Trump indicted before the hearings began (and 6 in 10 still don’t), half the country now says he should be. That’s the key takeaway from the latest NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll this week.

If Trump is indicted, the process of his arraignment, pleading, pretrial motions and trial will be as big a news story as a presidential election. And it may drag on nearly as long, or seem to.

If he is not indicted, Trump will declare himself exonerated and treat the entire episode as a triumph. Wags have suggested he might even propose making Jan. 6th a holiday. But short of that, he could call what happened “legitimate political discourse” – the phrase actually used this spring by the Trump-dominated Republican National Committee.

Trump claimed exoneration when he was twice impeached by the House but not convicted by two-thirds of the Senate. That was also his reaction to the report from independent counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe in 2019.

Mueller had been assigned by the Justice Department in 2017 to look into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He found plenty, but said the evidence of direct involvement by Trump’s campaign was not sufficient to indict.

As for other crimes, such as obstruction of justice, Mueller cited a Justice Department opinion that the president could not be indicted while in office.

Trump promptly labeled the troubling Mueller report a “total exoneration” because it found no “collusion” – a term Mueller had never used. It is not hard to imagine Trump doing something similar if none of the current Jan. 6 probes results in his being indicted for a crime.

Certain to dominate

But even without the legal drama, there are other reasons Trump will be as prevalent as pumpkins this fall – in fact, thousands of reasons.

Trump himself will not be on the ballot, but all 435 seats in the House and 35 seats in the Senate will be. There will also be scores of statewide offices and thousands of state legislative seats to be determined around the country. Trump has been active in the primaries in dozens of states, endorsing some Republicans and not others, hailing some as heroes and ripping others as RINOs.

With his signature high volume and profile, Trump will largely define the autumn ambience. Trump and Trumpism will connect all these separate contests, much as they have in the last three election cycles (2016, 2018 and 2020) and as they could do again in 2024. That would be the fifth federal cycle in a row to be certifiably Trumpified.

Trump has said he has made his decision regarding another presidential campaign and is now deciding when to announce it. But it is possible the atmosphere around the panel’s first eight hearings could alter the former president’s timetable. If he were to announce early, before the midterms, would that change the calculus for Garland?

Earlier this week, the attorney general referred to a legal memo associated with his predecessor, William Barr, regarding the “political sensitivities” of investigating candidates at certain times. But later in the week, Garland made a clear statement that “no one is above the law.”

Either way, Trump’s real or potential criminal exposure is not the focus GOP strategists would prefer for the 2022 midterms, which by all that’s normal should be about the current president. That would be President Joe Biden, currently suffering from a case of COVID, historically low approval ratings and historically high gas prices.

It is a longstanding presumption that midterm elections are referenda on the president and the party holding the White House. That is partly because the “out” party has less to defend and everything to attack. But there have been exceptions.

In 2002, President George W. Bush managed to turn the midterms into a test of Democrats’ willingness to green light his “war on terror,” including what became a war in Iraq (and a new Department of Homeland Security where staff would not have their usual employee rights).

In 1998, President Bill Clinton made the midterms a test of public sentiment on his own pending impeachment. House Republicans who counted on a big win that November got a modest setback instead.

Right now, Trump is threatening to change the subject from Biden’s travails to his own grievances about 2020.

By one accounting, more than 120 Republicans who have actively promoted Trump’s fictions about the 2020 election have already won their primaries for offices that would give them a say in conducting the elections in 2024 and thereafter.

They include Dan Cox, a hardcore conservative state legislator who won the gubernatorial primary in Maryland last week. Cox is a 2020 election denier endorsed by Trump. He defeated a woman who ran with the blessing of the state’s current Republican governor, Larry Hogan, a longtime Trump antagonist who has talked of running for president himself.

Another prominent example is State Sen. Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, who won that state’s GOP nomination for governor. Mastriano was prominent on an “alternative slate” of Trump electors who tried to be counted in the Electoral College. He has made his role in that episode a part of his campaign.

Keeping the pot boiling

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to harass election officials around the country about the 2020 results.

This past week, he called the Republican speaker of the Assembly in Wisconsin to demand the legislature there “decertify” the 2020 election. Trump had heard the Wisconsin State Supreme Court had outlawed some of the drop-off boxes for absentee ballots in this fall’s coming election and assumed, or asserted, that meant all the drop-box votes from 2020 would be thrown out.

Trump will have plenty of help keeping the pot boiling this fall. There will be more hearings, and Cheney promised there will be still more revelations because “doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break.”

Moreover, the stream of literature that continues to highlight the worst aspects of Trump’s effect on the American body politic shows little sign of abating. Next up is Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, whose book due in August will argue the last 25 years of Republican Party politics set the stage for Trump and Jan. 6.

Waiting on deck are some other heavy hitters who have been assessing the Trump phenomenon. They include the formidable team of Peter Baker (New York Times) and Susan Glasser (The New Yorker), whose book is due in September, and the Times’ Maggie Haberman, the reporter perhaps best known for her long-running contact with Trump through his career.

What more can these books tell us? We will await their appearance. But beyond adding to the pile of Trump tomes, they will be expected to add to the pyre that will be burning through the fall.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/07/24/1113026626/donald-trump-midterms-2024-elving

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Ukraine News: Russia Seeks to Rally Support From African Allies – The New York Times
Ukraine News: Russia Seeks to Rally Support From African Allies – The New York Times

Maksym Butkevych made his name in Ukraine as a journalist and human rights activist, campaigning on behalf of refugees and internally displaced people and serving on the board of Ukraine’s chapter of Amnesty International.

At the end of June, he was captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine, and that hard-earned reputation became a potentially dangerous liability.

Russian propaganda began bragging about Mr. Butkevych’s detention almost as soon as he was taken hostage, in an ambush on his platoon during the battle for the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. His family and friends chose initially to stay quiet, hoping silence would hasten the process of bringing him home.

But as pro-Kremlin media outlets have denounced Mr. Butkevych in wild terms — as both a “British spy” (he once worked for the BBC) and a “Ukrainian nationalist,” both “a fascist” and a “radical propagandist” — his colleagues and loved ones have come to fear for his life, and have decided to speak publicly about him to set the record straight.

The man they know, they say, is the opposite of the one portrayed on Russian television.

“He never accepted either the extreme-right views or the extreme left,” said his mother, Yevheniia Butkevych. “He took shape as a person who is absolutely alien to extreme positions, which, as a rule, are aggressive.”

In fact, said Ms. Butkevych, her son was a pacifist who had maintained after Russian proxies invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 that the best use of his talents was as an activist. But that changed on Feb. 24, when Russian missiles went crashing into his hometown, Kyiv, and cities and towns across the country.

The same day, Mr. Butkevych, 45, reported to a military recruitment center.

“He said, ‘I will leave my human rights work for a while, because now it is necessary, first of all, to protect the country, because everything I have worked on all these years and everything that we all worked for, the rules of our lives and of our society are now under threat,’” said Ms. Butkevych of what her son, her only child, had told her.

He was called up on March 4 and became a platoon commander around Kyiv, before being sent in mid-June to try to reinforce the army as it fought to keep Sievierodonetsk.

On June 24, Ms. Butkevych said, a volunteer called to tell her that there was a video circulating online of her son in captivity. His platoon had lost connection with their commanders. When two men went looking for water, she said, they were captured, and then they lured the rest of the group into a Russian trap.

“There has never been a worse period in my life,” Ms. Butkevych, 70, said.

Her son is one of an estimated 7,200 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the custody of Russia and its proxies in eastern Ukraine. It is a number that dims the prospect of a swift exchange.

“The situation is very complicated, because we have fewer prisoners of war than Russia,” said Tetiana Pechonchyk, a co-founder alongside Mr. Butkevych of the human rights nonprofit organization Zmina. “Russia also captures civilians and holds them as hostages, and we need to exchange those people, too. It’s a direct violation of human rights international law.”

Mr. Butkevych’s public profile may help him stay alive, but it may also make him vulnerable to ill-treatment. In an interview with The New York Times, the prominent Ukrainian medic Yulia Paievska detailed torture and relentless beatings during her three months in Russian custody. She was also dragged in front of television cameras and used as a prop in an attempt to paint Ukrainians as “Nazis,” one of the Kremlin’s justifications for the invasion.

She said that as hard as her treatment was, she feared that male prisoners faced “far worse.”

Mr. Butkevych last spoke with The Times in May, on the day that the Kyiv Opera reopened; he had come from his barracks to attend the first performance.

“It is a kind of promise that we will prevail. Life will go on, not death,” he said. “It is important not to forget that this is what we are fighting for.”

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting.

— Valerie Hopkins

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/24/world/ukraine-russia-war

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9-year-old survived Iowa campground shooting that killed family, mayor says – The Washington Post
9-year-old survived Iowa campground shooting that killed family, mayor says – The Washington Post

As of late Saturday, a GoFundMe fundraiser for Arlo Schmidt had drawn more than 2,000 donations amounting to more than $100,000. “Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can,” said Beth Shapiro, the fundraiser’s organizer, who said she was Sarah Schmidt’s cousin

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/24/iowa-campground-shooting-schmidt-family/

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Why is insulin still so expensive for diabetes patients in the U.S.? – NBC News
Why is insulin still so expensive for diabetes patients in the U.S.? – NBC News

Nicole Smith-Holt’s son, Alec, died in 2017 from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that occurs when the body doesn’t have enough insulin.

Alec had Type 1 diabetes. The 26-year-old had been recently removed from his parents’ health insurance plan and was about $300 short of the $1,300 he needed to pay for his insulin medication, his mother said.

In a bid to wait until his next payday to purchase the medication, he rationed the insulin he had left. 

“Unfortunately, his body was found three days prior to payday,” said Smith-Holt, of Richfield, Minnesota. 

Nicole Smith-Holt with her son Alec.Courtesy Nicole Smith-Holt

In the five years since Alec’s death, not much has changed: The high cost of insulin remains a significant barrier to care for many Americans.

A study published this month in the journal Health Affairs found that 14% of people who use insulin in the United States face what is described as a “catastrophic” level of spending on the medication, meaning that after paying for other essentials, such as food and housing, they spend at least 40% of their remaining income on insulin.

The study’s estimate, which covered 2017 and 2018, didn’t include other costs related to diabetes care, such as glucose monitors, insulin pumps or other medications.

Though drugmakers often offer programs that can lower the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for both insured and uninsured patients, the financial burden can still be devastating for some.

People without insurance can shell out hundreds of dollars a month or more for the medication, which usually requires multiple vials per month, said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientist for the American Diabetes Association, an advocacy group for patients with diabetes.

To save money, some patients will ration or skip doses of their medication, said Krutika Amin, associate director of the Affordable Care Act program at the nonprofit KFF, also known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. But this approach eventually leads to higher costs, she said, when they are hospitalized or sent to the emergency room.

Why insulin remains unaffordable

But why does insulin — a medication that’s been around for more than 100 years — remain unaffordable for many people in the U.S.?

The high cost can be attributed in part to “evergreening,” a process in which drug companies make incremental improvements to their products that can extend the life of their patents, said Dr. Kevin Riggs, a physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. He co-wrote a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 that described the century-long history of the drug.

The improvements may include tinkering with a molecule or changing the delivery system, such as using insulin pens instead of vials.

Extending patents can discourage generic drugs from being developed, Riggs said, allowing drugmakers with exclusive rights to their insulin to charge whatever the market will bear. And as supply chains have become more complicated over the years, costs have ballooned.

“And so that means those prices have gone up crazy,” he said. 

And even when the patents do expire — as many have — Riggs said that the large investment it takes to get insulin manufactured and approved by U.S. regulators may make the venture less appealing to generic drugmakers.

Eric Tichy, division chair of pharmacy supply solutions for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, agreed, saying the barrier to entry to produce insulin is “pretty high.”

“Insulin is a protein molecule, so it’s a lot more complicated than small molecules,” Tichy said. “So, there’s only a couple of companies that make it and if more companies enter the market, then that would sort of drop the prices.”

Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi dominate the market for insulin in the U.S., but that still hasn’t stopped other groups from trying to produce their own. 

Sanofi Lantus brand insulin pens. Alex Flynn / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx announced in March that it planned to make and sell generic versions of insulin to consumers at no more than $30 per vial and no more than $55 for a box of five pen cartridges. 

Most recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this month that he had approved a budget that would allocate $100 million to allow the state to begin making its own low-cost insulin. 

Details of the state’s plan to make insulin are still sparse, but Tichy compared it to tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, which offers certain generic drugs at discounted prices, by selling medications at a fixed markup of 15% plus a $3 flat fee. The pharmacy offers medications for diabetes but does not sell insulin.

Meanwhile, state and federal lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would lower the out-of-pocket cost for patients on insulin.

There are at least 22 states that have passed laws that cap co-payments for insulin at $100 or less for a 30-day supply, according to the American Diabetes Association.

In March, the House passed legislation that would cap the monthly out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 for those with private health insurance, though the legislation has since been criticized by advocacy groups because the policy would not lower the list price of insulin.

While those policies are great, they don’t really help people who are uninsured, Smith-Holt said.

She is pushing for more states to adopt the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act, which provides an emergency 30-day supply of insulin to patients for $35. The bill has already been signed into law in Minnesota, where Smith-Holt lives.

She also mentioned another proposal in the Senate that has not gone up for a vote yet that would seek to push drug companies to lower the list price of their medications, thus lowering the out-of-pocket for people who are uninsured.

No one should be “forced to make the decision between life or death,” she said.

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/why-insulin-so-expensive-diabetes-united-states-rcna39295

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World’s Key Workers Threaten to Hit Economy Where It Will Hurt – Bloomberg
World’s Key Workers Threaten to Hit Economy Where It Will Hurt – Bloomberg

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Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-24/world-s-key-workers-threaten-to-hit-economy-where-it-will-hurt

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California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns nearly 12,000 acres and forces thousands to evacuate outside Yosemite National Park – CNN
California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns nearly 12,000 acres and forces thousands to evacuate outside Yosemite National Park – CNN

By Jason Hanna, Rebekah Riess, Sara Smart and Andy Rose, CNN

Updated 2:52 AM ET, Sun July 24, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/us/oak-fire-mariposa-county-yosemite/index.html

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 151 of the invasion – The Guardian
Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 151 of the invasion – The Guardian

  • Two US citizens recently died in the Donbas region, CNN reported on Saturday, citing a US state department spokesperson. The spokesperson, not named in the report, did not provide any details about the individuals or the circumstances of their deaths but said the US administration was in touch with the families and providing “all possible consular assistance,” according to CNN.

    • Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/24/russia-ukraine-war-what-we-know-on-day-151-of-the-invasion

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    Trump and DeSantis fight for the heart of the GOP in Florida – POLITICO
    Trump and DeSantis fight for the heart of the GOP in Florida – POLITICO

    “If I announced I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop,” Trump said at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. “But that’s what they want me to do. And you know what? There’s no chance I do that.”

    Several recent polls have shown Republican voters moving away from Trump and inching toward DeSantis. The Florida governor, who has repeatedly said he is focusing on his 2022 re-election bid, is also beating Trump at fundraising.

    In Hollywood, Fla., on the state’s Atlantic Coast, the Republican Party of Florida held its annual Sunshine Summit, a two-day event largely funded by money DeSantis raised for the Florida GOP. State Republicans including DeSantis gathered at the Seminole Hard Rock, where some of the state’s most prominent Republican officials held formal party business just yards away from bikini-clad hotel guests and gamblers playing slot machines.

    More than 250 miles away, in Tampa, the conservative student organization Turning Point USA also held a summit that featured speeches from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Trump, among others. The former president’s appearance came just a day after he held a rally in Prescott, Ariz., to support Kari Lake in her bid for governor there.

    “We’re going to take back our liberty,” Trump said during his nearly two-hour-long speech in Tampa. “We’re going to take back our liberty. We’re going to take back our destiny. We’re going to take back, very soon, our country.”

    The audience for Trump’s event was mostly young people from all over the country, and cheered and clapped throughout his speech. He received his biggest applause when he hinted he would run for election though he didn’t provide any specifics.

    “Everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their control over the American people,” Trump said to the estimated 5,000 people in attendance. “They want to damage me in any form so I can no longer represent you. Obviously, they want me not to be the candidate because they never talk about anybody else.”

    DeSantis delivered a speech to the same Tampa crowd on Friday.

    The Florida Republicans event in Hollywood, Fla. was much smaller than the Turning Point conference and was influenced heavily by DeSantis.

    For the first time in the event’s seven-year history, it limited which media could attend, giving inside-the-room access to right-wing outlets that give the governor positive coverage. Traditional party figures were also largely replaced by the conservative social media influencers with massive followings who have recently moved to Florida and become some of DeSantis’ most vocal backers, with conservative commentator Dave Rubin and Fox News personality Lisa Boothe among them.

    “We in the state of Florida are not going to allow legacy media outlets to be involved in our primaries,” DeSantis said in remarks opening the Florida GOP event on Saturday. “I’m not going to have a bunch of left-wing media people asking our candidates gotcha questions.”

    The possible clash between the two is one of the major tension points within national Republican circles, as DeSantis, who rode a Trump endorsement in 2018 to win his party’s nomination for Florida Republican governor, has seen his popularity skyrocket, as was evidenced by his fans at the state Republican event.

    “I love President Trump, but he is the boogeyman that Democrats use to run against. Without him they have nothing. No platform,” said James Lefebvre, an attendee at the Sunshine Summit, who was sitting at one of the Hard Rock’s restaurants asking passersby if they support DeSantis for president.

    “I like an asshole as president, I really do, so it has nothing to do with that,” he added. “I just think DeSantis can unify people a bit more, and without him the Democrats have nothing.”

    He said fights DeSantis’ picks at the state level have resonated with him and conservatives nationally, most notably pushing Florida’s Republican-led Legislature to strip Disney of its self-governing status after it expressed opposition to DeSantis-championed legislation banning lessons about gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms up to third grade. Opponents branded the bill “Don’t Say Gay.”

    Trump’s presence over a state he won by more than three-points in 2020, however, is not gone. Even those who said they support DeSantis running in 2024 wouldn’t bash the former president. Despite near-daily negative press over the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol that left at least five people dead, Republicans still seem unwilling to let go of Trump.

    Diana Jimenez, a 25-year-old New Jersey resident who attended the Tampa Turning Points USA event, said she was impressed with DeSantis but wasn’t ready to support him for president.

    “I was really close to him, I got to talk to him personally,” she said. “I don’t think he should go to D.C., he should just stay down here”

    She said instead that Trump should run for president.

    Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/23/trump-and-desantis-fight-for-the-heart-of-the-gop-in-florida-00047576

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    Parents, 6-year-old girl fatally shot in tent at Iowa park – The Associated Press – en Español
    Parents, 6-year-old girl fatally shot in tent at Iowa park – The Associated Press – en Español

    A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.

    The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.

    Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety’s division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.

    “We don’t know what led up to this, what precipitated it,” he said, adding that so far, “the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.”

    Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidt’s brother, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed it was a “completely random act.”

    Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green, who said he is a neighbor of the Schmidts, posted on Facebook on Friday that the couple’s 9-year-old son, Arlo, “survived the attack, and is safe.” The post did not say whether Arlo was in the tent or even at the campsite when the shootings happened, and the mayor told the AP he didn’t have those details.

    Morehouse confirmed Arlo was on the family’s camping trip, but said he did not know exactly where the boy was at the time of the shooting or know specifics about how it unfolded.

    “He is with family and he is OK, but I have not had any interaction with him,” Morehouse said Saturday. “As far as I know, he was uninjured physically.”

    By Saturday evening, more than $75,000 had flowed into a GoFundMe page created for Arlo. The page, organized by a cousin, Beth Shapiro, said: “Arlo is a strong boy, surrounded by family and friends who are supporting him as best we can.” The page says the fund will help Arlo now, and help fund his future education.

    The killings prompted the evacuation of the park and campground, including a children’s summer camp. After the evacuations, Sherwin was the only person unaccounted for, Mortvedt said.

    He said that during the course of the investigation, authorities learned Sherwin was armed and “that of course heightened our awareness.” Iowa allows people with permits to carry firearms virtually anywhere in the state. Officials did not say if Sherwin had a permit and provided no information about the firearm used to kill the Schmidts.

    The Des Moines Register reported that Sherwin was from La Vista, Nebraska. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the newspaper that Sherwin lived in an apartment complex with his parents and had no history of criminal conduct.

    Felicia Coe, 35, of Des Moines, was at the campground Friday morning with her boyfriend and his two sons, ages 11 and 16. She said the 16-year-old went out early to go running, and she was talking with someone at the park at about 6:30 a.m. when two park rangers dressed in helmets, vests and carrying what looked like automatic rifles told them to leave the campground.

    More law enforcement and an ambulance showed up as Coe went to find her boyfriend’s teenage son.

    At the time, Coe did not know what happened. But she recalls seeing a little boy standing near the paramedics.

    “He was in his pajamas. I distinctly remember he had one blue tennis shoe,” she said. She later saw a picture of the Schmidt family online and said she recognized the boy she saw as Arlo.

    “He’s got this really cute, floppy-curly, moppy, strawberry-blond hair that’s really distinguishable,” Coe said. “He was in these super cute little pajamas, like a cotton T-shirt and shorts that matched. … He was just standing there. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t distraught. But he also wasn’t being comforted. He was just standing there by himself.”

    She said the campers got little information about what happened and she began piecing it together on the drive home.

    “It’s hard to be so grateful that it wasn’t your family, when you know that another family, is just being ripped apart — multiple families,” she said.

    Green, the Cedar Falls mayor, said Sarah Schmidt worked at the city’s Public Library, which was closed Saturday.

    “Like many of you just hearing the news, I’m devastated,” Green wrote on Facebook. “I knew Sarah well, and she & her family were regular walkers here in the Sartori Park neighborhood. I was working with her this week on a public library tech presentation for 7/26.”

    Morehouse said Tyler Schmidt’s parents live in the Cedar Falls area, and Sarah Schmidt’s family members are scattered around the country, but were heading to Iowa. He said Tyler and Sarah lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for a time, where Sarah worked at the University of Kansas. Tyler was an IT software engineer. At one point, he said, Sarah worked on a project about monarch butterflies, and the couple were huge Kansas Jayhawks fans.

    In 2018, the Schmidts moved to Cedar Falls and had been active in the community ever since, Morehouse said. He said they loved the outdoors, and just got four pairs of snowshoes for Christmas.

    “The best way to describe all four of them was the quintessential Midwestern family. They gave everybody everything they possibly could. They loved family … They enjoyed the outdoors, enjoyed the hiking — and this is just a question mark of ‘Why that campground and that campsite on that night?’”

    ___

    Forliti reported from Minneapolis.

    ___

    An earlier version of this article misspelled Lula Schmidt’s first name.

    Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/iowa-nebraska-des-moines-sarah-schmidt-79dc29d592802e9f3cade5c093aa4559

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    California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns nearly 12,000 acres and forces evacuations outside Yosemite National Park – CNN
    California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns nearly 12,000 acres and forces evacuations outside Yosemite National Park – CNN

    By Jason Hanna, Rebekah Riess, Sara Smart and Andy Rose, CNN

    Updated 11:21 PM ET, Sat July 23, 2022

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/us/oak-fire-mariposa-county-yosemite/index.html

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    Erdogan Remains a Headache for Biden, Even After Ukraine Deal Help – The New York Times
    Erdogan Remains a Headache for Biden, Even After Ukraine Deal Help – The New York Times

    A Pentagon official recently added to the American warnings.

    “We strongly oppose any Turkish operation into northern Syria and have made clear our objections to Turkey,” Dana Stroul, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, said this month at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “ISIS is going to take advantage of that campaign.”

    Some of Mr. Erdogan’s harshest critics warn of an endless cycle, in which the Turkish leader wins concessions from the United States and other NATO allies, such as new fighter jets and a tougher line against Kurdish militia fighters, only to escalate his demands in the future.

    “This dance around the F-16 — it’s jet fighter diplomacy, and that is a mask of what’s truly at play here,” said Mark Wallace, founder of the Turkish Democracy Project, a group highly critical of Mr. Erdogan and his turn to authoritarianism. “A good ally — much less a good NATO ally — doesn’t use blackmail to get what it wants at key moments in the alliance’s history.”

    Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Aspen, Colo.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/us/politics/turkey-nato-ukraine-russia.html

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    After conviction, Bannon says he’s willing to go to jail over support for Trump – Axios
    After conviction, Bannon says he’s willing to go to jail over support for Trump – Axios

    Former White House adviser Steve Bannon lashed out on Friday at the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, hours after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the committee’s investigation.

    Driving the news: “I support Trump and the Constitution and if they want to put me in jail for that, so be it,” Bannon told Fox News host Tucker Carlson during Friday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight.

    What he’s saying: In his remarks, Bannon implied there would be retribution for those involved with the bipartisan commission.

    • “I will tell the Jan. 6 staff right now, preserve your documents, because there’s going to be a real committee and this has to be backed by Republican grass-roots voters,” Bannon said.

    Catch up fast: Bannon was found guilty Friday of two counts of contempt of Congress after he failed to comply with a subpoena from the Congressional select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

    • Bannon was not working for the administration on the day of the riot, but the committee wanted his testimony because he was in communication with other key officials in the lead up to Jan. 6, and it believed his podcasts contributed to what occurred that day, the Washington Post reports.
    • Bannon’s lawyers argued the Department of Justice’s case against him was politically motivated.

    What’s next: Bannon’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 21.

    • Each misdemeanor count could result in a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as fines up to $100,000 per count. Bannon’s attorneys said they would appeal the decision, the Post reports.

    Go deeper: Inside Trump ’25: How former president could gut federal bureaucracy in second term

    Source Article from https://www.axios.com/2022/07/23/steve-bannon-jail-donald-trump

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    State Department ‘bureaucrat’: ‘I prefer high gas prices’ because of less emissions – Fox News
    State Department ‘bureaucrat’: ‘I prefer high gas prices’ because of less emissions – Fox News
    Video

    Gas prices are dropping because oil speculators anticipate a recession: Jackie Deangelis

    Fox News contributor David Webb, former Congressman Sean Duffy, and FOX Business reporter Jackie Deangelis weigh in on President Biden’s progressive mishandling of inflation amid a slow lowering of gas prices.

    A State Department official is drawing criticism after tweeting that he prefers high gas prices because it means less driving and less carbon emissions.

    “I prefer high gas prices = less driving, less CO2,” Senior State Department Foreign Service Officer Alan Eyre tweeted on Friday in response to a tweet from President Biden claiming American families are paying less per month on average than they were during “peak prices.”

    Eyre describes himself as a “gov’t bureaucrat” in his Twitter bio along with the phrase “kindness, always kindness.”

    Eyre’s tweet was widely criticized on social media including from former Republican California state senate candidate Ron Bassilian who called Eyre a “ghoul” and pointed out that gas demand is “inelastic.”

    KARINE JEAN-PIERRE BOASTS ABOUT FALLING GAS PRICES IN WHITE HOUSE TWITTER VIDEO: ‘THIS IS SO EXCITING, GUYS’

    (Twitter @AlanEyre1)

    “Perhaps, but I don’t think it is inelastic and I remember in the 1970s the oil embargo led to a massive increase in renewables,” Eyre responded along with the hashtag #BeKind.

    Basilian responded with criticism that was echoed by several other Twitter users pointing out that gas prices have caused significant struggles for Americans across the country.

    MEDIA LOVE BIDEN’S HIGH GAS PRICES WHILE ORDINARY AMERICANS STRUGGLE WITH PUMP RECORDS

    “Be kind?” Basslian said. “Perhaps be kind to the billions of people left high and dry in this situation you praise. Saying a famine is a good way to start a diet is not kind.”

    LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND- MARCH 18: Alan Eyre, left, the Persian language spokesman for the US State Department speaks with Iranian reporters during the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 18, 2015. 
    (Credit: Carol Morello/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)

    The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

    Following the publication of this article, Eyre’s Twitter account appears to have been deactivated or deleted.  

    Eyre’s comment comes shortly after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg faced criticism for suggesting that higher prices at the pump were actually beneficial for transitioning to electric vehicles.

    BIDEN, WITH COVID, MAKES UNSCHEDULED VIRTUAL APPEARANCE TO TALK ABOUT GAS PRICES

    During an interview on a radio program earlier this month, Buttigieg said the Biden administration was trying to cut the cost of electric vehicles “because when you have an electric vehicle, then you’re also gonna be able to save on gas, but you’ve got to be able to afford it in the first place.” 

    “The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles,” the former presidential candidate added while testifying before Congress recently. 

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on ABC’s “The View” on April 8, 2022 and discussed high gas prices and inflation. (Screenshot/ABC)
    (Screenshot/ABC)

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    The national average gas price, as of Thursday, was around $4.40. While the price is down about 20 cents from last week’s average, it is still over a dollar higher than prices this time last year and two dollars more than when Biden first took office.

    Fox News’ Bradford Betz and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

    Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-department-bureaucrat-prefer-high-gas-prices-because-less-emissions

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    Alleged Lee Zeldin attacker arrested on federal assault charge – POLITICO
    Alleged Lee Zeldin attacker arrested on federal assault charge – POLITICO

    According to federal prosecutors, Jakubonis extended a keychain with two sharp points toward Zeldin and grabbed his arm. A struggle then ensued, during which Jakubonis said several times to Zeldin, “you’re done,” prosecutors said.

    Jakubonis was initially arrested and charged with attempted assault in the second degree, arraigned in local court and released on his own recognizance — prompting criticism from Republicans who said it was a sign New York’s bail reforms had gone too far.

    Zeldin, who was uninjured, described the weapon as a kind of self-defense instrument someone might carry on a keychain, with “two holes for him to put his fingers through, kind of like as you see with these brass knuckles,” and “two sharp, pointy edges coming out of that weapon.”

    Jakubonis, an Army veteran who served one tour in Iraq, appeared Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Rochester. He is being held in custody pending a July 27 hearing.

    New York Republicans say the alleged attack proves their campaign pitch that Democrats’ progressive criminal justice policies are putting the state in danger. President Joe Biden denounced the attack “in the strongest terms” Friday.

    Anna Gronewold and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/23/suspect-in-zeldin-00047570

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    New England Neo-Nazi Group Holds Rally Near Mass. Civil War Memorial – NBC10 Boston
    New England Neo-Nazi Group Holds Rally Near Mass. Civil War Memorial – NBC10 Boston

    A New England-based neo-Nazi group held a brief rally early Saturday afternoon at the Soldiers Monument in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

    Apparent members of the group, whose name is reminiscent of the original Nazi party’s full name, gathered wearing face masks near the Civil War memorial, and began chanting “off our streets.”

    The rally comes just weeks after a demonstration on July 4 weekend by dozens of apparent white supremacists who marched on Boston’s Freedom Trail and allegedly attacked a Black man

    According to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, a book reading event was occurring in the area where Saturday’s protest began.

    “It is clear that Boston is a way point in the crusade of hate launched five years ago in Charlottesville,” Hayden said in a written statement. “The presence of white supremacists at a Jamaica Plain book reading today, like their downtown march earlier this month, is at once a disgrace and a warning.”

    “Society everywhere is targeted by these groups, and society everywhere must reject them,” Hayden said.

    Local

    In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.

    Boston Police officers were present to monitor the protest. Witness video showed Chris Hood, the 23-year-old founder of the group from Pepperell, Mass., being taken away by Boston Police in handcuffs.

    Per the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office, three arrests have been made at the rally, including Hood. Two counter protesters were also arrested, including 21-year-old Tobias Walker and 27-year-old Seth Rosenau, both of Jamaica Plain. Both were charged with disturbing the peace; in addition, Walker was charged with disorderly conduct and intent to commit a crime while Rosenau was charged with affray. It is unclear if any of the arrestees have an attorney.

    Hood and Rosenau were fighting, according to Boston Police.

    Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a statement following the rally.

    “It’s no coincidence that these cowardly groups from outside our city continue to target Boston as we showcase how representative leadership, empowered communities, and bold policies can have immediate impact,” Wu said. “We are prepared and will not be intimidated in our work to make Boston a city for everyone. We remain ready for citywide deployment of extra public safety resources with a zero tolerance approach to any groups looking to intimidate or harass residents in our city.”

    Ricardo Arroyo, a City Councilor from District 5, said that his community stands united against hate.

    “We are proud of our diverse communities here in Boston and our LGBTQ+ residents are loved here,” Arroyo said. “Cowards who attempt to make our residents afraid and alone will never succeed.”

    Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, issued a tweet in response to the rally.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/new-england-neo-nazi-group-holds-rally-near-mass-civil-war-memorial/2787529/

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    Second tornado confirmed in Saturday mornings severe weather – WGN TV Chicago
    Second tornado confirmed in Saturday mornings severe weather – WGN TV Chicago

    The National Weather Service has confirmed a second tornado occurred Saturday as part of the severe weather that moved through the Chicago suburbs.

    The second tornado occurred in Crest Hill and was tracked into Joliet before lifting, the NWS tweeted.

    Interactive Radar: Track Showers & Storms here

    “This tornado has been assigned a preliminary EF-0 rating with peak estimated winds of 70 mph,” the Weather Service said.

    The first tornado Saturday was confirmed in Naperville. It also had a preliminary rating of EF-0, according to the National Weather Service.

    Powerful thunderstorms erupted in the early morning hours of Saturday. The storms produced huge rainfall totals over a swath of the Chicago area. The vast majority of these rains fell in the predawn hours of Saturday morning. The lightning with the morning storms was dramatic — a common occurrence when the responsible storms are being fueled by an incoming supply of warm, humid air, as was the case overnight.

    The tornado threat eased around 6:30 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

    Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

    More showers and storms are possible Saturday night. Warnings have been issued.

    Suggest a Correction

    Source Article from https://wgntv.com/news/south-suburbs/second-tornado-confirmed-in-saturday-mornings-severe-weather/

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    California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns more than 9,500 acres and forces evacuations outside Yosemite National Park – CNN
    California’s fast-moving Oak Fire burns more than 9,500 acres and forces evacuations outside Yosemite National Park – CNN

    A wildfire raging for a second day Saturday in central California’s Mariposa County outside Yosemite National Park has burned more than 9,500 acres and forced evacuations of rural communities, fire officials said. The fire still has 0% containment as of Saturday evening.

    The fire began Friday in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near the small community of Midpines, roughly a 9-mile drive northeast of the county seat, the town of Mariposa, state fire officials said.

    Flames tore through trees and sent thick smoke into the sky Friday, and in at least one rural area burned close to homes and parked vehicles, video from CNN affiliates KFSN and KGO showed.

    “(Authorities) came by … and told us everybody’s got to go,” Wes Detamore, a resident of the Mariposa Pines area, told KFSN Friday.

    Electricity service in the area stopped at about 4 p.m. Friday, “and the fire has been coming towards us faster and faster,” Detamore said.

    The fire has destroyed at least 10 structures and damaged another five, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Saturday. The blaze is threatening 2,000 other structures, Cal Fire said.

    It had burned 6,555 acres by Saturday morning, Cal Fire said. Fire activity was extreme, and emergency personnel were working to evacuate people and protect buildings, the department said.

    Eleven fire crews with more than 400 personnel, as well as 45 fire engines and four helicopters, have been assigned to fight the flames, Cal Fire said.

    Nick Smith told CNN his parents’ home burned down as a result of the fire. His parents, Jane and Wes Smith, lived in their Mariposa home for 37 years, he said.

    “It’s pretty sad to see the house that I grew up in and was raised in gone,” he said. “It hits hard.”

    Smith told CNN that his father is a Mariposa sheriff and was working on the fire when his mother, Jane, had to evacuate. She had time to load their horses and get out of the area, according to Smith.

    “They had just the clothes on their back and the shoes on their feet,” he added.

    In the meantime, the couple is staying with friends and family. Smith created a verified GoFundMe to support his parents and help them overcome their loss.

    “They lived in their home for over 37 years, and now have lost everything,” Smith wrote on the GoFundMe. “37 years of memories, generations of family treasures, and countless more sentimental things. Although these are materials, it is devastating to lose everything literally in the blink of an eye without notice.”

    Evacuations have been ordered for certain areas in Mariposa County south and east of the fire, as shown in an online map. The evacuation zones did not include the town of Mariposa.

    A Red Cross evacuation center has been established at an elementary school in Mariposa, Cal Fire said.

    The blaze is a few dozen miles southwest of Yosemite National Park’s southern edges, though the park is closer when measured by a straight line.

    The Oak Fire is the largest of California’s currently active wildfires of note, which numbered at least six Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire.

    The second-largest, the Washburn Fire, has burned in and near southern Yosemite National Park for more than two weeks. It had burned more than 4,850 acres and was 79% contained by Saturday morning, according to InciWeb, a US clearinghouse for fire information.

    CNN’s TIna Burnside contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/us/oak-fire-mariposa-county-yosemite/index.html

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    Man suspected of attacking GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin is arrested on federal assault charge – NBC News
    Man suspected of attacking GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin is arrested on federal assault charge – NBC News

    A man suspected of attacking Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., earlier this week has been arrested and federally charged with assaulting a member of Congress using a dangerous weapon.

    A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York told NBC News that David Jakubonis, 43, had his initial court appearance Saturday.

    Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was attacked Thursday night by a man wielding a sharp object at a campaign event in the town of Perinton.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey, who is handling the case, described the object as “a keychain with two sharp points.”

    Video of the attack shows a man onstage with Zeldin, grabbing his arm before they fall to the ground.

    “You’re done,” the man can be heard repeating in the assault, which unfolded at around 8 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Perinton.

    The attack ended after the suspect was restrained by people in the audience as well as members of Zeldin’s campaign, video recorded by NBC affiliate WHEC of Rochester shows.

    No one at the event, including Zeldin, suffered any injuries as a result of the attack.

    Jakubonis is also facing state charges. Earlier this week he was charged with attempted assault in the second degree, a felony.

    He is currently being held pending a detention hearing on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.


    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-suspected-attacking-gop-rep-lee-zeldin-arrested-federal-assault-ch-rcna39712

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    Suspected attacker of GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin arrested on federal assault charge – CNN
    Suspected attacker of GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin arrested on federal assault charge – CNN

    The man accused of attempting to stab New York gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin onstage at a campaign event has been arrested on a federal assault charge, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York said, after he was released on his own recognizance shortly following an initial arrest Thursday.

    David Jakubonis, 43, was arrested Saturday and charged with assaulting a member of Congress with a dangerous weapon, according to Barbara Burns, a Department of Justice spokesperson. Jakubonis made his first court appearance before US Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson in Rochester on Saturday, according to court documents, and the weapon involved was described in court records as a self-defense keychain.

    Jakubonis was already facing state charges over the alleged attack Thursday. He had been charged with attempted assault in the second degree after being accused of confronting Zeldin, a Republican, while he was giving a speech in Fairpoint, New York. Jakubonis “attempted to stab” Zeldin, a statement from the campaign said, and the GOP lawmaker “grabbed the attacker’s wrist to stop him until several others assisted in taking the attacker down to the ground.” Zeldin was not injured.

    CNN has attempted to reach the public defender assigned to Jakubonis for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

    According to the criminal complaint filed Saturday, Jakubonis, an Army veteran, allegedly told authorities he had consumed whiskey on the day of the campaign event and “must have checked out” as he walked on the stage and asked if Zeldin was disrespecting veterans. Jakubonis told authorities he did not know who Zeldin was at the time.

    Jakubonis is next scheduled to appear in court on the federal charge on Wednesday.

    Following his initial arrest Thursday, Jakubonis was held for six hours before his arraignment, where he was released on his own recognizance, according to Monroe County sheriff’s deputy Brendan Hurley. He had travel restrictions limiting him to Monroe County and an order of protection was also issued for him to stay away from Zeldin, according to court paperwork.

    Due to the class of felony allegedly committed, under New York law, the presiding judge couldn’t have set bond even if they wanted to, Hurley previously told CNN. In 2019, New York’s bail reform law eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges, and Class E is the least serious class of felony.

    Republicans expressed outrage over Jakubonis’ quick release.

    Zeldin, who has made New York’s rising crime rate a central focus of his campaign’s attacks on incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, on Friday condemned the state’s bail system following Jakubonis’ initial release. He said that changes to the state’s cashless bail system are necessary and that judges should have discretion when considering who should remain in police custody.

    “My first and foremost concern about cashless bail and the need to overhaul it is dangerousness,” he said. “The judges should have discretion to weigh dangerousness. It’s about the victim,” Zeldin, who was unharmed in the attack, said at a rally in Onondaga County, New York. “But even if you were having a conversation with the strongest advocate of cashless bail, I would challenge them on this point: I would argue that they’re doing a disservice to the person who attacked us on stage last night because they rush – they have to, by law – they have to rush to get him released.”

    Zeldin said he believes cashless bail should be repealed and that there “should also be a certain minimum set where certain cases, certain suspects, defendants, they have to remain behind bars.”

    Hochul had tweeted Thursday evening that she was “relieved to hear” Zeldin was not injured in the incident.

    “My team has informed me about the incident at Lee Zeldin’s campaign event tonight. Relieved to hear that Congressman Zeldin was not injured and that the suspect is in custody. I condemn this violent behavior in the strongest terms possible – it has no place in New York,” Hochul wrote.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/politics/zeldin-suspected-attacker-federal-assault-charge/index.html

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    President Joe Biden likely has BA.5 variant but Covid-19 symptoms ‘continue to improve,’ doctor says – CNBC
    President Joe Biden likely has BA.5 variant but Covid-19 symptoms ‘continue to improve,’ doctor says – CNBC

    President Joe Biden likely has the BA.5 Covid-19 variant but his symptoms “continue to improve,” according to the White House.

    “His primary symptoms, though less troublesome, now include sore throat, rhinorrhea, loose cough and body aches,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memorandum on Saturday.

    The president on Friday completed his second full day of Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviral pill that can reduce the risk of hospitalization for Covid-19 patients, O’Connor said.

    While the president is responding to the therapy “as expected,” he has likely contracted the Covid-19 BA.5 variant, which is currently responsible for 70% to 85% of U.S. infections.

    Biden, who is fully vaccinated and received two booster shots, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday and has reported “very mild symptoms.”

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/23/president-joe-biden-likely-has-covid-19-bapoint5-variant-symptoms-improving-.html

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    Thousands ordered to flee California wildfire near Yosemite – The Associated Press – en Español
    Thousands ordered to flee California wildfire near Yosemite – The Associated Press – en Español

    WAWONA, Calif. (AP) — A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California’s largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

    The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday morning had rapidly grown to 10.2 square miles (26.5 square kilometers), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.

    Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

    “Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters,” Cal Fire said in a statement Saturday morning that described the Oak Fire’s activity as “extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.”

    By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said. The blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road — blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.

    More than 400 firefighters, along with helicopters, other aircraft and bulldozers, battled the blaze, which was in a sparsely populated, mostly rural area of the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

    Hot weather, low humidity and bone dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades was fueling the blaze and challenging fire crews, Patterson said. California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.

    “The fire is moving quickly. This fire was throwing embers out in front of itself for up to 2 miles yesterday,” Patterson said. “These are exceptional fire conditions.” The cause of the fire was under investigation.

    Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Friday afternoon and there was no indication when it would be restored. “PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment,” the utility said.

    A shoeless older man attempting to flee the blaze on Friday crashed his sedan into a ditch in a closed area and was helped by firefighters. He was safely driven from the area and did not appear to suffer any injuries. Several other residents stayed in their homes Friday night as the fire continued to burn nearby.

    Meanwhile, firefighters have made significant progress against a wildfire that began in Yosemite National Park and burned into the Sierra National Forest.

    The Washburn Fire was 79% contained Friday after burning about 7.5 square miles (19.4 square kilometers) of forest. It was one of the largest fires of the year in California, along with the Lost Lake Fire in Riverside County that was fully contained in June at 9 square miles (23 square kilometers)

    The fire broke out July 7 and forced the closure of the southern entrance to Yosemite and evacuation of the community of Wawona as it burned on the edge of Mariposa Grove, home to hundreds of giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees by volume.

    Wawona Road is tentatively set to reopen on Saturday, according to the park website.

    ___

    Gecker contributed from San Francisco.

    Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-fires-california-evacuations-department-of-forestry-and-fire-protection-3b924a9d041b37acdc57e4b4eb8a64fe

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