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lyonrhodes · 6 years

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One Bad Day #10: Sober

Red Hood x OC, Batman/DC Fan Fic

Summary: Dora has lived in Gotham her whole life and is accustomed to the rampant crime and corruption. Her life gets worse when Black Mask takes over the city. She thinks all hope is lost but a new vigilante appears, calling himself the Red Hood. However, he’s not your typical knight in shining armor. Dora must decide: does she dare fall in love with a revenge-driven killer? (Romance, Crime, Action)

Chapter 10: Sober

“What the hell?” Dora untangled herself from Red Hood. She tumbled off the bed and looked around for her bra—her shirt, a pillow, a blanket... anything at all to cover her naked chest. “You don’t knock? What’s wrong with you?”

“The door was open!” Holly tried to contain the smile on her face, but couldn’t. She looked at Red Hood. “Who’s the cutie, Dee?”

“Um...” She couldn’t answer. Her mind was racing, trying to think of an excuse, trying to find something to wear. She gave up and just covered her breasts with her arms. “Just... get out of here, Holly!” But Holly just stood there, basking in her embarrassment with a stupid grin on her face.

“Don’t worry, she can stay. I have to go anyway,” Red Hood said. He found Dora’s top and handed it to her.

“Wait, no...” Dora said, slipping it on quickly. She realized it was sheer and on backwards, but she didn’t care. Where could he possibly have to be? A minute ago he had enough free time for sex, but now that Holly had cock-blocked him, he didn’t? “Hey, you don’t have to go... I can make her leave.” She held his hand tightly, trying to show him how much she wanted him to stay.

“Can’t be sure she wasn’t followed here.” He pulled his hand away.

A lame excuse. Dora feared she knew the truth. The interruption had sobered him up and made him reconsider revealing his identity to a desperate girl from the ghetto, with daddy issues. Not to mention she also had both an illegal immigrant and a hooker for best friends, as well as a drug runner for a sister.

Pissed off but not wanting to show it, Dora glared at Holly behind Red Hood’s back and gestured aggressively that she had to leave. Holly either didn’t notice or just ignored Dora’s signals. She stood there and ogled Hood, unabashed, as he slipped his jacket over his bare back. He reached into the collar and pulled out a detachable red hood large enough to conceal most of his face in shadow.

“It’s okay, Dora,” he said. “I’ll see you around.” He bent down and kissed her lips. It was surprisingly soft and tender, in contrast to their previous kisses. He lingered for a long moment, caressing her cheek with his thumb... then he placed her glasses back into her hands.

When their lips lost contact, Dora felt a magnetic pull. She wondered if he felt it too, and if it meant he would come back. He had to; he couldn’t leave her hanging like this.

He grabbed his gear and on the way out the door; he whispered something to Holly. She smirked, not looking him in the face, but down at his taut torso. “Sure thing, boss. Your secret is safe with me.”

Red Hood scoffed and left, zipping up his jacket without looking back. Dora ran across the room, and sealed the door. “What the fuck, Holly?” she shouted. “What the hell was that? Can’t you take a hint? Why didn’t you just leave?”

“And pass up the chance to check out my boss while he’s shirtless ? He’s a babe, isn’t he? And hey... you are too.” Her eyes lowered. “You’ve got nice tits, Dee. You should show them off more often. What’s your size? I’ve got some tops you can borrow if you’re ever in the mood.”

Dora crossed her arms, annoyingly reminded of Holly’s job. She stomped over to the sofa and fell into it, groaning. She was frustrated. Very frustrated.

“Blue tubes?” Holly asked, sitting down and putting Dora’s feet in her lap.

“Holly, just... Grrr!” Dora really hated her right now. “What the hell are you even doing here?”

“Carla was worried about you. You weren’t picking up your phone, so she called and asked me to check if you were still at the bar. She said you promised you’d be home hours ago.”

Groaning, Dora slapped her forehead. “Damn it, that’s right. I kinda lost track of time.”

Holly giggled, looking at the half empty bottle of whiskey. “Yeah, I see why. Can’t blame you. ... So are you and Red Hood, like, together now?”

“No.”

“Do you know his name?” Holly prodded.

“No.”

“Have you seen his face yet? I mean without that little mask on?”

“No.”

Holly smiled. “Oh, so it’s just casual?”

“No! I mean I don’t know!” Dora said, aggravated. “We were kinda figuring that out when you barged in.”

“Hey, I didn’t barge in.”

“You might as well have. Why didn’t you leave when I told you to?”

Holly shrugged. “C’mon, he was practically halfway out the door once he realized I was there. Sorry, but not sorry, Dee.”

“Oh, fuck off, Holly.” She was actually annoyed and angry with her.

“Hey, I’m game if you are. Seeing you two together kinda got my motor running.” She traced circles on Dora’s knee, and a mischievous smile spread on her face.

Dora slapped her hand away and blushed, embarrassed. “Stop!”

“Fine, fine!” Holly said, laughing. “So are you going home tonight?”

“No. I’m too fucking tired to walk five blocks.” Dora swung her legs off Holly’s lap and dragged herself to the bed. She kicked off her shoes and unbuttoned her jeans, glad for once her bra was already off.

“Mind if I crash here tonight too?” Holly said while typing up a text to Carla.

Dora didn’t say anything for a moment, considering it. “Fine,” she groaned. “Take the couch.”

Sprawling out, Holly smiled. “If I had left... you were going to rub one out, huh?”

Dora threw a pillow at her.

$3,000 for flooring. $6,000 for the new pool tables. $4,000 for the new bar counter and the shelf behind it. $3,000 for all the new booths, tables, and chairs. $4,500 more to renew the liquor license. $6,000 to restock all the liquor the LU had destroyed. Plus another dozen odds and ends eating away her funds. All of it was covered by the loan she had gotten for mortgaging the Montgomery building, but every invoice still cut deep. $8,000 monthly, for the foreseeable future, to pay it all back.

Dora brooded in one of those newly upholstered booths, with invoices and receipts spread out on the table in front of her, silently trying to keep her composure. The bar averaged about $20,000 in revenue a month—on a good month. With all the usual expenses coupled with her debt, she would barely break even every month, and probably not see a decent profit for years. She needed an accountant to be sure, to help trim the fat off her expenses and work out more efficient payment plans for all her loans. Her mother had kept books for the bar and the flats in the building for almost 20 years, but she was far and away from qualified despite the experience. Even if a CPA was willing to overlook all the extortion and laundering in the books, Dora didn’t think she could afford one.

What she really needed was her father. He would know what to do.

“Oye, mija, que vamos hacer? Estas segura con sus opciones?”

Dora snapped out of her thoughts and back into reality. The foreman of the contractors her mother had hired stood by the table, looking at her with an impatient expression. “I’m sorry, what?” Dora asked.

The foreman rolled his eyes and spoke to her in heavily accented English. “I want to ask you, are you sure you do not want marble? Looks better than wood.”

It was Dora’s turn to be annoyed. She had already told this guy she didn’t want marble countertops for the bar, she wanted wood. Marble was too expensive. “El madera, por cierto.”

“And for sinks? My men have the porcelain packed in the truck.”

Dora groaned. “Steel. I want the steel sinks.”

“Sorry, but is not whole point of remodel to make bar look better? You had wood counters before, had steel sinks before.”

“Listen, dude, I’m not made of money. If you want this job, then just do what I say and don’t argue with me. I could always find some Americans with licenses to do it.”

The man gave her a nasty look for a fraction of a second, but wiped it away just as quick. It still left Dora feeling ashamed. “Of course,” he said, and turned back to his men with a nod.

She hated to pull that card, not just because it was a complete bluff (she couldn’t afford licensed contractors), but more because it was undermining these immigrant workers who were as much Santa Priscan as her mother. She felt a bad taste in her mouth just having said those words.

She looked again at the papers strewn across the table. She had lost her train of thought, not that she had made any progress working out how to dig herself out all this debt. Right now the only plan was to just carry on, earn as much as she could, and chip away at the balance. Perhaps small, but regular payments would keep the debt collectors off their asses. The overhead left just enough for her family to get by, not as well off as before, but good enough—assuming her tenants upstairs didn’t keep moving out. With an exhausted sigh, Dora stacked up the papers. Her desk in the office hadn’t been big enough for her to work on, but at least it had provided her some privacy from the contractors. Maybe she could sneak in a nap while she was in there.

“Is there any room in all that left for me?”

“Rochelle!” Dora lit up at the sight of Rochelle’s bright green eyes and even brighter smile. She pulled her into a fervently tight hug. Dora hadn’t seen her since the night the LU trashed the bar, and in the wake of all that had happened, she forgot how much she missed her best friend. “I’m sorry I haven’t called you back, things have been crazy busy around here.”

Rochelle looked around at some of the unfinished parts of the bar—the bullet holes in the barshelf, the hole in the wall leading to restrooms—she seemed amused. “Yeah, I can see that. I leave you alone and everything goes to shit.”

Dora suppressed a laugh. “Why are you here?”

Rochelle’s forehead puckered but there was a smirk on her lips. “What the hell do you mean, ‘why am I here?’ I’m here to make certain I still have a job! The Alibi’s hosted three crime scenes within the last fucking year, two of those within the last bloody month—and I really mean bloody now, Dee. It’s been totally trashed. I heard from Holly that you sold the fucking place.”

“I didn’t sell it. I mortgaged it.”

“Dee, I don’t know what difference that makes here in the states... I don’t even know what to think. You haven’t called, you haven’t texted.”

“I’m so sorry, Rochelle. And of course you still have a job. Honestly, I just couldn’t find a minute...” Just thinking of all the distractions lately made her head spin. Applying for the loans, dealing with vendors and licensing, looking for cheap contractors, then all the renovation work, both what I have to oversee and what I have to do myself. And to top it all, Red Hood stopping by and causing a swirling wake of... feelings... and disappearing. Now that she thought of it, Dora realized what she really needed all this time was a friend, a confidante. She needed Rochelle.

“Wow, Dora,” Rochelle said, concern etching on her face as she studied her. “You really look like you need to relax.”

A bitter laugh broke out of Dora. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Rochelle hugged her tightly, and it took all of Dora’s self-control not to break out crying.

“Do you need help with anything?” Rochelle asked, rubbing her shoulder.

“Not really...” Dora looked around the barroom—at the floors, the furniture, the fixings—the hole still in the wall. There wasn’t much left that she or anyone else unskilled could do that the contractors couldn’t do better or quicker. She and Red Hood had taken care of all the small stuff last night.

“Well, the place is going to look better. Nevermind the shit that happened in here, it was due for an update anyway,” Rochelle said looking around. “You got new pool tables, I see.”

“Yeah, they cost me $3,000. Each.” Dora walked over to the nearby wall and flicked a switch, turning on the lamps hanging over the tables. Those were $75 each.

“Red felt?” Rochelle touched the fabric on top of one of the tables, her eyebrow arched.

“Figured it was a refreshing change from the usual green.”

“Is that all?” she asked with a knowing smirk. “Why not black or blue or purple?”

It didn’t occur to Dora why she had picked red felt over the other colors until just now. “It... matches the bricks.” She gestured at the walls. She didn’t feel too badly about the pool tables, knowing that they were a safe investment. Having two new and balanced pool tables with fresh untorn felt and a full set of balls would certainly attract customers. Especially here in Crime Alley, where the denizens liked to wager on everything. Her brain then began to whir thinking of the possibilities—if she struck a deal with a bookie and got two or three flat screens, maybe they could bring in a bit more customers... The cellar was a perfect place to host poker games... but she was getting ahead of herself. Would her father have approved of the Alibi becoming an underground casino?

“Yikes,” Rochelle eyeing Dora’s brain blast with concern. “It’s obvious you need to unwind a bit, so why don’t we play a game of 8-ball?” She didn’t wait for an answer and racked up. A game of rock-paper-scissors let Dora break. She made a solid in, so she lined up another shot. While she did that, Rochelle asked, “So this Red Hood guy...”

Dora’s cue hit the felt. She cursed. This game was meant to calm her down. “What about him? He’s the reason we’re in this mess, isn’t he?” She shot again but didn’t score.

“Oh, cut the act,” Rochelle said. “Holly told me everything.”

Dora pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. “Then there’s no point in me telling you.”

Rochelle took her shot. It went wide, but she didn’t seem to care. “I know what happened, Dee, but not how you felt about it.”

Being honest with herself, Dora felt like she was dying to see Red Hood again. She was anxious to hear his voice, to talk to him. Red Hood had hinted that he had grown up on Park Row like her, so she wanted to know who he was—his name, if they had met before—she was almost certain she had. But just as much... she wanted to see his face and his body again, and run her hands all over him—and she wanted his hands, his lips, and whatever else all over her body too. However, she was wary because she had been drunk at the time... and horny. It had been years since she was last intimate with a man and Red Hood stirred something within her that she was having trouble holding back.

She told as much to Rochelle, in less direct words.

“Wow, you’re really smitten, aren’t you?” Rochelle said.

“Smitten?” Dora wasn’t sure what she meant.

“I think you might be falling for this guy.”

Dora couldn’t deny that she was physically attracted to him, and interested in his identity, but... was she attracted to him emotionally? “How can I be? I don’t even know his name. I haven’t really seen his face. We’ve spent no time together.”

“There’s more behind the mask, behind the guns, and behind all the killing, Dee, and I think you know that,” Rochelle led Dora over to the window, careful not to let the contractors overhear. “There’s a who and a why under that red bucket, and it’s vibing with your who and why—name and face be damned.”

“You think so?”

“I ship it. I’m on board SS Red Hood x Dora,” Rochelle said with a smile. “When are you going to see him again?”

“I have no idea. We didn’t really get a chance to swap phone numbers or anything like that. I don’t have a bat-signal or anything like that to summon him. He just kinda... drops by whenever I need help.”

“Note to self, find a red searchlight.” Rochelle laughed. “Oh, and speaking of dropping by.”

The front door chimed as a tall old woman walked into the Alibi. Leslie Thompkins. There was a hard expression on her face that Dora was not used to seeing.

“Leslie? What are you doing here?” Dora went to greet her.

“I was passing by on my way to the clinic and I saw the construction. I was afraid you had sold the place until I heard you talking. Did I hear that right, Dora? Are you involved with the Red Hood?”

For a second, Dora was incredulous that she had been overheard, then she noticed that the window she and Rochelle were standing by had no panes on it. “I, uh...” Leslie’s glare of disapproval was scorching. It was precisely why Dora hadn’t told her mother, to avoid the same judgement.

“I’ll go tell the guys about this window,” Rochelle said, walking off. Dora looked at her desperately, urging her to stay with just the expression on her face, but Rochelle just mouthed, “Sorry.”

“Dora, what are you thinking? He’s a criminal. A murderer!”

“Leslie, listen, he’s not like that. He helped me out a few times—”

“Helped? How? By killing people?”

“It was self-defense,” Dora pointed out.

“Then why does he avoid the police? Why does he wear a mask? Would your bar be this demolished if it weren’t for him?!”

“I nearly died. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” she said, trying not to raise her voice. “He didn’t trash the bar, the the cartel did. Red Hood’s done nothing but help me.”

Leslie gripped the strap of her bag tightly. “At what cost, Dora?”

“What do you mean, it cost me nothing!” But as soon as she said that, a jolt of realization struck her.

Red Hood originally wanted 15% off her total revenue, but after he sold the cocaine Carla had been running, she was off the hook. How come she never thought of it before? The “cost” had literally been flooding Gotham with drugs, even if it was to bougie brats on the Upper West Side. As much as Leslie had a soft spot for low-income minorities, Dora wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Dora, think about what you’re doing,” Leslie urged. “Is the survival of this bar really worth getting in bed with a crime lord? Think of your family.”

With that last remark suspended in the air, Leslie left the bar, leaving Dora with a sinking feeling in her chest that was getting heavier by the second. Leslie couldn’t possibly know the truth, but her choice of words caused a thought to occur to Dora. What did Red Hood really want from her? Did he really care about her, or was his affection just a front? Was he seducing her so she would comply with his racket? With men, he had no choice but to use force and bribery to get his way, but with women... all he really needed was his charisma. Was she the only female business owner in Park Row he had wooed?

[v0.3.15.1]

#red hood #redhood #jason todd #jasontodd #dccomics #dc comics #batman #xreader #x reader #xoc #x oc #red hood x reader #red hood x oc #jason todd x Reader #jason todd x oc #fanfiction #fanfic

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thecomicsnexus · 6 years

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The Demon Lives Again!

Batman #244. September, 1972. By Dennis O’Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.

Batman and his small team have captured Talia after witnessing the death of her father Ra's al Ghul in their secret hideout. However, as they approach the cable car that would take them down from the snowy mountains, they are utterly shocked to see Ra's al Ghul coming after them. Ra's had been revived by the powers of the Lazarus Pit and Talia explains that after the process, his strength is extremely increased while his mind is struck by a fit of madness. True to her words, Ra's seems to be unable to control his actions and Lo Ling tries to stop him, but fails miserably. Knowing that Ra's could harm the others, Batman confronts the crazed man, but despite his best efforts, he is easily defeated by Ra's. With Batman knocked unconscious, Talia talks to her father, bringing some reason to his mind and she takes him to a secret hovercraft they had concealed in case of emergencies. When Batman recovers, he is informed about Talia and Ra's escape before he starts following their trail with Molly Post by his side. Using Molly's skiis, they follow the hovercraft and Molly reaches the vehicle first. She throws one of her poles to the engine of the vehicle and manages to bring it down, but the pole ricochets towards her and injuries her shoulder. Batman watches as Talia and Ra's make their escape by foot, but he can't give chase to them as he has to take Molly to a medical center.

After Molly and Ling are taken to medical centers for their injuries, Batman finds himself alone since Harris Blaine has decided to stay with the injured and Batman has to continue his quest to bring down Ra's alone. Batman starts by investigating the wreckage of Ra's hovercraft, where he finds a camel's bridle and he knows where to locate his dreaded enemy.

Far away from Switzerland, Ra's al Ghul and his daughter have gathered enough people and supplies on their desert hideout in order to rebuild many of the damages caused by Batman. While his men work endlessly, Ra's explains to Talia that he might no longer be able to use the Lazarus Pit to renew is life, since he has used it many times over the years and soon it will no longer work on his body. For this reason, he finds himself in need of hasten his plan to cleanse the world. At that moment, Batman breaks into Ra's tent, where he attempts to capture Ra's and bring him to justice. Ra's al Ghul is not intimidated by Batman's sudden appearance and he tells Batman that he is not going anywhere without a fight. Ra's then shows his respect and admiration for Batman by informing the "Detective" that he won't have him shot by his men if he is able to defeat him on a duel to death.

The final duel of the fates is to take place right then and there, and both adversaries prepare for their last stand. Ra's commands Talia to bring him his finest weapons and she delivers a couple of magnificent swords, one for each fighter. Ra's and Batman take away their upper garbs for the combat and then the battle starts, much to Talia's sorrow. Batman and Ra's are both skilled swordsmen and their fight is a sight to behold. For hours, they exchange attacks and counter-attacks, worthy of only the greatest duelists.

The fight continues for hours until twilight with no clear winner, until fate ends the fatal combat. While fighting on the hot sands of the desert, Batman's foot reaches a small, but deadly scorpion, which stings Batman's foot, making the Dark Knight unable to continue the duel. Ra's declares himself the victor and he decides to leave Batman to his eventual death by denying him the antidote for the scorpion's poison. As Ra's walks away from his defeated enemy, Talia approaches Batman and claims that she wants to give him one last kiss. However, Talia is really giving Batman the antidote to fight the scorpion's venom and a few hours later, Batman recovers from the deadly attack.

Batman starts walking alone in the desert night and follows the trail of Ra's al Ghul, back to his base of operations. When Batman appears once again in Ra's tent, Ra's al Ghul is utterly shocked to see Batman alive, deeming him as a supernatural being. With unprecedented rage, Batman knocks down Ra's al Ghul, who doesn't even try to evade Batman's attack. With Ra's unconscious, Batman wonders why the most dangerous of enemies he has faced, didn't try to resist and Talia tells him that perhaps Ra's recognized him as his superior. Finally, knowing that Batman will take Ra's to the authorities, Talia asks her beloved if she is to be imprisoned as well, to which Batman simply replies by holding her in his arms and giving her a long passionate kissing before parting. Talia then watches as Batman strides away, carrying Ra's along with him.

From DC Wikia

Morrison re-did this story when he had to explain Damian’s origin for the New 52, so that is why you may remember parts of this.

Duels to the death involving super-heroes cannot end well, and they are tricky to use, because we know nothing can happen to our hero (although, they started this saga by saying the story was happening after the other titles). And Batman mentions Robin as a possible successor (that was the reason not to bring him along). So I suspect readers of that time could have thought Batman was going to die. We did saw someone resurrect though, so even if he died, he could be brought back.

Almost all future encounters against Ra’s al Ghul would involve Batman losing his shirt, so it is impossible not to say this story is an epic classic.

Neal Adams takes Batman to an extra darkness as well, his “resurrection scene” looks amazing.

I give this story a score of 8.50.

#bronze age #batman #ra's al ghul #1972 #comics #review

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paulbenedictblog · 4 years

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Hartford: Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday canceled in-individual classes in any appreciate of the mumble’s Ok-12 public colleges for the rest of this school year amid the coronavirus pandemic, requiring districts to continue distance finding out for the final weeks. “It breaks my heart,” Lamont said sooner or later of his afternoon news briefing. “I desired to enact all the pieces I could maybe per chance also to accumulate some arrangement to discover the college year no no longer as much as partly originate, factual for about a weeks, some sense of conclusion for our students.” However Lamont said he and his education commissioner heard concerns from school superintendents, oldsters and lecturers a couple of real develop in COVID-19 infections in some ingredients of Connecticut and particular that “this became once no time to dangle that risk” of reopening colleges. Lamont’s reopening committee is anticipated to operate solutions in the arriving weeks about summer season school, which could maybe per chance also originate in July.

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Dover: Some small firms will be allowed to resume puny operations starting Friday, Gov. John Carney said Tuesday. The announcement is geared in opposition to step by step starting to make a decision restrictions the Democratic governor imposed bigger than seven weeks previously so that it's good to stem the unfold of the coronavirus. “I’ve heard the distress in the small-commercial dwelling owners’ voices about factual the commercial carnage that has visited on them and their workers and their firms in each nook of our mumble,” Carney said, describing the swap as a “toddler step” in opposition to a broader reopening of the economy while fastidiously monitoring the resolution of COVID-19 circumstances and hospitalizations. Beneath the new mumble guidelines effective Friday morning, outlets similar to division shops, tobacco shops, bookstores and thrift shops will be allowed to enact commercial the utilization of curbside pickup. Hair salons can resume operations by appointment, but thoroughly for of us that work at firms deemed “very critical.”

Usa today District of Columbia

Washington: The district has released neighborhood coronavirus data that shows the resolution of certain COVID-19 circumstances in articulate areas of the metropolis, WUSA-TV reports. Records from DC Health shows that the 16th Avenue Heights and Columbia Heights neighborhoods in Wards 4 and 5 comprise the ultimate numbers of circumstances, followed by Chinatown, Brightwood and Logan Circle/Shaw. Wards 2 and 3 continue to comprise the bottom rates of an infection in the metropolis, primarily based mostly on the neighborhood-articulate data, which the metropolis released so that it's good to computer screen key areas in the district that will possible be disproportionately tormented by the coronavirus, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.

Usa today Florida

Tallahassee: As the mumble slowly reopens, officers are genuinely contemplating what they'd per chance also unbiased restful enact if the coronavirus outbreak lingers into hurricane season, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. Storm season begins June 1 and on the total peaks from leisurely August through September. Florida is on the total a target for storms, forcing thousands of people to evacuate, with many fleeing to shelters. “This virus for hotfoot flourishes and transmits must you comprise conclude sustained contact with people internal an enclosed ambiance,” DeSantis said. “As you’re attempting at sheltering for a hurricane, you wish to discover that in mind.” Florida emergency administration Director Jared Moskowitz is working with the Federal Emergency Management Company on skill adjustments to how the mumble handles evacuations and sheltering. Moskowitz said that could maybe per chance also unbiased encompass shelters that thoroughly accept people contaminated with the virus, or orders for of us to shelter in mumble reckoning on the energy of the building and the vitality of the storm.

Usa today Georgia

Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp warned Tuesday that a rising coronavirus outbreak is stressing sources in northeast Georgia. Kemp has moved aggressively to allow firms to reopen even supposing infections are on the rise in some areas of the mumble. He made his remarks about northeast Georgia while touring a non permanent clinical pod in the southwestern metropolis of Albany, conception to be one of many mumble’s earliest and worst sizzling spots for COVID-19. The mumble Division of Public Health reports virtually 30,000 Georgians comprise had coronavirus infections confirmed by a test. About 1,300 in the mumble of 10.6 million people comprise died. Gainesville, a metropolis about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta that is synonymous with Georgia’s substantial poultry substitute, is readily becoming conception to be one of many mumble’s most affected areas.

Usa today Hawaii

Honolulu: A plug of bigger than two weeks of single-digit each day new circumstances of coronavirus is allowing the mumble to dangle your next step in reopening its economy, Gov. David Ige said Tuesday in asserting extra firms that will possible be allowed to operate. Starting Thursday, firms including some attempting division shops, good observatories, automobile washes and pet groomers could maybe per chance also unbiased reopen, Ige said. Buying division shops will be puny to retail and repair products and services, primarily based mostly on a supplementary emergency proclamation. Retail firms gained’t originate in Honolulu until Might maybe well also unbiased 15, and Maui County gained’t allow its attempting division shops to reopen yet, primarily based mostly on the proclamation. Patrons must apply social distancing and assign apart on fabric masks, Ige said. The governor previously allowed firms similar to golf lessons, some accurate estate products and services and automobile dealerships to reopen. Ige’s end-at-dwelling uncover that allowed for activities similar to originate air exercise will now be known as a “safer-at-dwelling” uncover, he said.

Usa today Idaho

Boise: The mumble will give coronavirus economic relief grants as much as $10,000 to small firms, and no other mumble in the country is placing up extra cash in relate cash make stronger for small firms. Gov. Brad Small announced the Idaho Rebound Grant program at a press convention final week. Idaho will expend $300 million of the $1.25 billion it received from the federal authorities during the Coronavirus Abet, Reduction, and Financial Security Act. “Tiny firms will be eligible to discover the Idaho Rebound Grants if they haven’t already received a Tiny Industry Administration grant (during the Paycheck Protection Program) or received no longer as much as $10,000,” Small said. The mumble will originate up the utility direction of Might maybe well also unbiased 11 for the rebound grants, that could maybe per chance also unbiased be bustle by the Reveal Tax Price.

Usa today Illinois

Springfield: Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday outlined a 5-phase conception for reopening the mumble because the risk from COVID-19 subsides, but there comprise been no surprises – the bustle with which people could maybe per chance also unbiased resume weak activities remains reckoning on vigilance in opposition to the coronavirus. Beneath stress to indicate indicators of a return to normalcy, the Democrat unveiled “Restore Illinois,” which indicates the mumble has already entered the conception’s second phase. It’s defined by loosened restrictions on the governor’s end-at-dwelling uncover, allowing extra social interplay while carrying face coverings. “All of us comprise a passionate desire to arrangement support to the sense of normalcy that we felt sooner than the realm knew of COVID-19,” Pritzker said in Chicago. “Here’s the truth, and I don’t love it any bigger than you enact: Unless now we comprise a vaccine, or an efficient remedy or enough in model immunity that new circumstances fail to materialize, the likelihood of returning to normalcy doesn’t exist.”

Usa today Indiana

Indianapolis: Hoosiers desires to be cautious of fake or misleading claims some firms are making about their potential to strive in opposition to the unfold of the coronavirus with disinfectants or cleaning products and services, mumble officers said. The Reveal of industrial of the Indiana Reveal Chemist said cleaning products and services and cleaning product producers comprise claimed they'll disinfect properties, places of work, hospitals, vehicles and other areas with merchandise that can particularly assassinate the coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19. “Firms are the utilization of a vary of promoting alternatives to advertise these claims – net sites, TV, radio, flyers, mailers and social media,” said Sarah Caffery, a pesticide product registration specialist with the Reveal Chemist’s mumble of industrial. Patrons are urged to hunt the advice of with the Reveal of industrial of the Indiana Reveal Chemist web living to accumulate an inventory of merchandise that are effective in opposition to the virus, primarily based mostly on U.S. Environmental Protection Company criteria.

Usa today Iowa

Des Moines: Des Moines Public Colleges has opened the door to in-individual graduation ceremonies after previously announcing ceremonies would be held on-line to diminish the aptitude unfold of contemporary coronavirus. “I very fundamental want us to comprise an in-individual, live graduation the assign our students can stroll at some stage in the stage and be acknowledged for his or her accomplishments,” Superintendent Tom Ahart said at a Tuesday night school board meeting. A final resolution on live graduations has no longer yet been made, “but we’re attempting,” Ahart said. The metropolis school district announced final week that it would discover virtual graduation ceremonies in June – a resolution that caused parent Uniz Ceballos to begin a Trade.com petition calling for live graduations that has garnered bigger than 1,600 signatures. Several districts in the Des Moines metro, including Ankeny and West Des Moines, comprise announced plans to discover in-individual graduations over the summer season.

Usa today Kansas

Mission: Taiwan is donating 100,000 surgical masks to Kansas to help clinical and meatpacking workers amid the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, announced Wednesday that the shipment of masks is anticipated to advance next week. The hotfoot comes as Taiwan seeks to be integrated in the upcoming World Health Assembly. Moran, who requested the masks, has been supportive of including Taiwan. He thanked the country’s President Tsai Ing-wen in a assertion, announcing it is “every other immense reminder that we are all on this collectively.” Four counties with meatpacking flora – Seward, Ford, Finney and Lyon – comprise a mixed 2,258 confirmed circumstances, 41% of the mumble’s total. And a pandemic at the mumble’s ultimate penal complex in Lansing has now contaminated 551 inmates and 88 group members. Most of the contaminated inmates don’t comprise indicators.

Usa today Kentucky

Frankfort: A penal complex has been hit by a complete bunch of coronavirus circumstances, prompting fade to separate inmates into housing units in step with their effectively being circumstances to strive to comprise the outbreak. Attempting out of inmates and group at the Green River Correctional Complicated in Central Metropolis printed bigger than 300 extra virus circumstances, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday. The penal complex accounted for virtually half the statewide total resolution of circumstances reported Tuesday, main to a one-day excessive for the mumble. Beshear known because it a “referring to self-discipline” as his administration takes steps to comprise the virus’s unfold at the western Kentucky penal complex. When factoring in previous coronavirus circumstances, the an infection rate has reached about 40% at Green River, he said. J. Michael Brown, secretary of Beshear’s govt Cabinet, said no no longer as much as least two people at the penal complex comprise died from COVID-19. A third loss of life final weekend is doubtlessly virus-associated, he said.

Usa today Louisiana

Baton Rouge: With fewer vehicles on the motorway on memoir of the coronavirus outbreak, the mumble’s transportation division is taking the opportunity to swish up those areas that are on the total filled with web site visitors. The company said its maintenance crews will utilize the next two weeks launching an intensive cleanup effort of on the total excessive-web site visitors mumble roadways. The crews will be deciding on up litter, placing off debris, trimming overhanging bushes and placing off overgrown vegetation. The Division of Transportation and Pattern is urging people that are using to make expend of caution when traveling during the work zone areas with crews and tool.

Usa today Maine

Augusta: Reveal lawmakers held an “emergency meeting” Wednesday to delve into delays in the processing of unemployment claims. Bigger than $200 million has been distributed to bigger than 70,000 Mainers since the international pandemic pressured the governor to tell an emergency and impose a end-at-dwelling uncover, primarily based mostly on the labor division. Since March 15, bigger than 100,000 claims comprise been filed, when in contrast with 35,000 for all of final year. The company is attempting to discover up with seek info from, said Jessica Picard, spokeswoman for the division, which enlisted a deepest call center to help address the broad quantity of calls. Meanwhile, a highschool in Norway, Maine, has arrangement up with a recent arrangement to discover graduation despite the pandemic. Oxford Hills Complete High School will discover its ceremony next month at a power-in movie theater. Families will be in a situation to bring one automobile, and the college will mail dwelling caps, gowns, sashes, cords and tickets, school officers announced.

Usa today Maryland

Baltimore: The mumble has neglected out on bigger than $60 million in income from its casinos being closed final month due to coronavirus, when in contrast to how fundamental the mumble generated final April. The mumble lottery said in a news originate Tuesday that the mumble’s six casinos generated no income in April. In April 2019, total income became once about $145.2 million. Contributions to the mumble in that month comprise been about $60.2 million. That entails $45.2 million situation apart for the mumble’s Education Have confidence Fund. Casino revenues also make stronger jurisdictions the assign the casinos could maybe per chance be found and Maryland’s horse racing substitute. The casinos comprise been closed March 16. “These are for hotfoot unparalleled cases,” Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica said. “The casinos generate critical income for the mumble, but we live centered on the effectively being and safety of the casinos’ patrons and workers as we conception for reopening.”

Usa today Massachusetts

Boston: The Boston Pops Orchestra has released a musical tribute to effectively being care workers, first responders, supermarket clerks and other severe personnel on the entrance lines of the coronavirus pandemic. The efficiency of “Summon the Heroes” released Tuesday became once restful by John Williams for the 1996 Olympic Games and entails an introduction from conductor Keith Lockhart, as effectively Williams himself, recorded at his dwelling studio in Los Angeles. The virtual efficiency entails 78 musicians taking part in from their living rooms, kitchens, basements and bedrooms. A recording engineer and a video engineer edited the piece from their properties. Williams when in contrast workers on the entrance lines of the pandemic to the athletes for whom the piece became once restful. “Web our good athletes, they are performing Olympic feats of their possess, tending to our effectively being and wellbeing, and by doing so lifting all our spirits during the care and compassion they indicate the realm each and each day,” he said in a assertion released by the Pops.

Usa today Michigan

Lansing: The Republican-led Legislature sued Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday, asking a think to tell invalid and unenforceable her end-at-dwelling uncover and other measures issued to strive in opposition to the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit, filed in the mumble Courtroom of Claims, says a 1945 regulation that offers the governor substantial emergency powers to uncover such restrictions governs local, no longer statewide, declarations love one which has been in mumble since March. A 1976 regulation offers Whitmer emergency authority thoroughly for a puny duration that expired when the Residence and Senate did no longer lengthen her emergency and peril declarations final week, primarily based mostly on the suit that alleges a “patent brush apart for the regulation.” Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown known as the suit a “partisan sport.” Whitmer’s “No. 1 precedence is saving lives,” Brown said. “She’s making decisions in step with science and data, no longer political or appropriate stress.”

Usa today Minnesota

Minneapolis: A coalition of hospitality organizations is urging mumble legislators to present an economic relief bundle to help assign the factitious’s firms. The coalition entails Hospitality Minnesota, the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Affiliation, the Neighborhood of Minnesota Resorts and the Craft Brewers Guild. A latest see by Hospitality Minnesota says bigger than half of hospitality firms will be pressured to conclude completely in the next two months on memoir of the results of the coronavirus and the mumble’s end-at-dwelling uncover. Minnesota Hospitality says federal relief thus far is no longer tailored to work for hospitality firms. The coalition said that as effectively as to reopening firms safely and without warning, many could maybe even need extra financial make stronger. “Hospitality firms and jobs are teetering on an economic cliff,” said Liz Rammer, President and CEO of Hospitality Minnesota.

Usa today Mississippi

Jackson: Reveal legislators will be support at work Thursday to dangle into consideration proposals to help firms which comprise been ruin by the coronavirus outbreak, Residence and Senate leaders said Tuesday. This could maybe per chance be the second time in no longer as much as a week for legislators to arrangement support to the Capitol after placing their session on discover in mid-March on memoir of the pandemic. They passed a invoice Friday to present the Legislature discover watch over over spending $1.25 billion that Mississippi is receiving from the federal authorities in a huge coronavirus relief bundle. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has known as that invoice a vitality dangle by the Republican-majority Legislature, announcing he’s ultimate positioned to utilize the federal money as wants come up. All the intention through a news convention Tuesday, Reeves talked about the likelihood that he would veto the invoice, establishing extra confrontation with lawmakers.

Usa today Missouri

O’Fallon: St. Louis and St. Louis County will each start easing end-at-dwelling orders starting later this month, but officers caution that the technique will be gradual for the gap of Missouri most ravaged by the coronavirus. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page each announced leisurely Tuesday that public effectively being restrictions would be decreased starting Might maybe well also unbiased 18. Page said Wednesday that the reopening direction of will be driven by metrics love hospitalizations, ventilator utilization, and rises or falls in confirmed circumstances. The metropolis and county are coordinating their plans, and Page and Krewson said particulars will be released quickly. However Page said the conception will encompass a tenet that workers assign apart on masks “and we are able to assign apart a question to every person out in public assign apart on masks, particularly when social distancing measures, being no no longer as much as 6 feet away from someone else, can’t be with out disaster followed.” The mayors of 25 St. Louis County municipalities want those particulars in the present day.

Usa today Montana

Helena: Gov. Steve Bullock on Tuesday announced $123 million in grants for small firms, nonprofits and mumble residents tormented by the coronavirus pandemic. The spending is the major phase of distributions of the mumble’s $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding. Applications will be submitted starting Thursday through covidrelief.mt.gov. “I are attempting to be obvious that here is factual an preliminary round of funding in step with the instantaneous wants acknowledged by Montanans, small firms,” Bullock said. The governor is establishing a $50 million grant fund for small firms who comprise misplaced income due to coronavirus and each other $50 million in rent or mortgage support for of us that comprise misplaced jobs or substantial profits. Different funding entails $10 million for nonprofit social carrier companies and $2 million for meals banks.

Usa today Nebraska

Lincoln: The mumble has opened a brand new lab to analyze the consequences of about 3,000 coronavirus tests per day and will originate extra attempting out sites previous those working in Omaha and onerous-hit Sizable Island, officers said Tuesday. CHI Health St. Elizabeth in Lincoln will attend because the mumble’s lab under the TestNebraska program, which mumble officers launched through a contract with a Utah startup. “Here is going to allow us to deal lengthen our attempting out,” Gov. Pete Ricketts said. Nebraska officers comprise sought to elongate the mumble’s attempting out capability to discover the next sense of the assign the coronavirus is and how mercurial it’s spreading. Beneath the $27 million, no-uncover contract with Nomi Health and other firms, Nebraska received 540,000 tests, plus gear wished to analyze them and web living make stronger to help people be part of. Ricketts said about 122,000 Nebraska residents comprise signed up thus far.

Usa today Nevada

Las Vegas: MGM Resorts World has announced that the furloughs of bigger than 60,000 workers resulted in by the coronavirus pandemic could maybe per chance also change into layoffs. Appearing firm CEO Invoice Hornbuckle despatched a appropriate be conscious Tuesday to workers announcing a tourism forecast predicts some furloughed workers could maybe per chance no longer be support for bigger than six months and some no doubt no longer. “After we first furloughed our workers, we hoped the unfold of the virus will be contained or that an efficient remedy would emerge mercurial,” Hornbuckle said. “In accordance with the new self-discipline, we now mediate that about a of our colleagues could maybe per chance also unbiased no longer return to work this year.” Workers will continue to exist furlough situation until Aug. 31, then the firm is allowed to begin layoffs. The awareness complies with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which is intended to be obvious that workers comprise arrangement be conscious sooner than fundamental layoffs.

Usa today New Hampshire

Harmony: Drive-through ceremonies with no handshakes, hugs or excessive-fives could maybe per chance also unbiased label the discontinue of highschool for about a of the mumble’s graduates. The Division of Education has released guidance to highschool districts about conception graduation ceremonies in gentle of the mumble’s prohibition on gatherings of bigger than 10 people. Officials said colleges could maybe per chance also unbiased restful dangle into consideration limiting viewers size to a maximum of two guests per scholar, reckoning on the flexibility to apply real social distancing. The division said one chance will be to comprise people end in their vehicles, parked in each other self-discipline, and graduates would exit in small, because it will be spaced groups, to discover their diplomas. Diplomas also will be distributed “power-up” model, or members will be unfold out among school rooms internal a faculty.

Usa today New Jersey

Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday extended the public effectively being emergency declaration stemming from the coronavirus outbreak for every other month. He first signed the declaration in March and renewed it in April. The declaration lets in the Democrat to invoke emergency powers, love ordering firms to conclude. Murphy said he made up our minds to elongate the declaration because it automatically expires after 30 days, and the underlying circumstances making it necessary haven’t changed. He also announced about 1,500 new certain circumstances, placing the total at about 132,000, along with 308 new deaths, for a loss of life toll of 8,549. No subject the mountain climbing loss of life toll and develop in certain circumstances, Murphy said the resolution of people in hospitals with the virus persisted to decline, as did the resolution of sufferers on ventilators.

Usa today New Mexico

Albuquerque: A rural sheriff has deputized about 20 church members at an in-individual church carrier, working around Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public effectively being uncover designed to strive in opposition to the unfold of the coronavirus. Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton said the state is set recruiting support and preparing for the worst, but he also notorious that regulation enforcement is exempt from the governor’s end-at-dwelling uncover, that intention people can now help future products and services, KOB-TV reports. Sierra County, about 140 miles south of Albuquerque, is conception to be one of many rural counties that on a conventional foundation expend regulation enforcement volunteers because there are no longer enough deputies to conceal the territory. “Have to restful revolt circumstances start new, could maybe per chance also unbiased restful civil disobedience, it'd be all the pieces from crowd discover watch over measures to as straightforward as administrative group duties,” Hamilton said. Hamilton has extended the deputization offer to all churches in Sierra County and expects extra to model in.

Usa today New York

New York: The immense majority of people being newly hospitalized with the coronavirus in New York either are retired or are unemployed and comprise been warding off public transit, primarily based mostly on a brand new mumble see, the major such ogle at people restful getting severely sick despite six weeks of severe social distancing. The see of 1,269 sufferers admitted to 113 hospitals over three latest days confounded expectations that new circumstances would be dominated by very critical workers, particularly those traveling on public transportation. Retirees accounted for 37% of hospitalizations sooner or later of the see duration. One other 46% comprise been unemployed. Practically three-quarters comprise been 51 years or older. Fully 4% weak public transportation in their each day existence, primarily based mostly on the see. “It reinforces what we’ve been announcing, which is intention of this comes down to what you enact to offer protection to your self,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his each day briefing. “Are you carrying a mask? Are you doing the hand sanitizer?”

Usa today North Carolina

Charlotte: The North Carolina Air National Guard will conduct flyover salutes to meals bank workers, clinical staffs and other entrance-line workers in the battle in opposition to COVID-19. The flyover Thursday will be performed by a C-17 airplane, primarily based mostly on a originate by the Guard. The deliberate route will start over Asheville in the western piece of the mumble sooner than heading to Wilmington and circling support to Charlotte. Alongside the model, the route will encompass clinical products and services in Morganton, Winston-Salem, Chapel Hill and Greenville. This could maybe per chance also unbiased high-tail over meals banks in Asheville, Raleigh and Charlotte, among other cities and products and services. The North Carolina flyover is piece of a mission known as Operation: American Resolve, and the Guard says this could per chance mark no extra taxpayer money.

Usa today North Dakota

Bismarck: Backers of paid family hotfoot away will again push legislation to build a program in the mumble, announcing the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of its need. “The coronavirus, or a effectively being crisis of any form, can assign apart a family in horrible financial scenario,” said Kristie Wolff, govt director of the North Dakota Girls folks’s Network. The nonprofit and the North Dakota AFL-CIO on Wednesday launched their renewed effort for a paid family hotfoot away regulation, announcing the mumble “must enact extra to offer protection to workers sooner or later of severe existence-altering circumstances.” Paid family hotfoot away legislation in North Dakota has been largely backed by Democrats but has failed in the Republican-controlled Legislature over time. That entails in 2019 with a invoice to make expend of $5 million of earnings from the mumble’s voter-authorized oil tax savings memoir to begin the program, to be paid off by contributions from workers and employers after 20 years.

Usa today Ohio

Columbus: Republican lawmakers frustrated with Ohio’s aggressive end-at-dwelling orders voted Wednesday in the GOP-controlled Residence to limit the authority of the mumble’s effectively being director. The hotfoot seeks to restrict obligatory closure and end-at-dwelling orders issued by the effectively being division to 14 days. After that, the orders would want approval from a legislative rule-making physique. Gov. Mike DeWine blasted the hotfoot, announcing his fellow Republicans desires to be centered on rising coronavirus attempting out, dealing with a $775 million budget deficit and reopening the economy. Republican backers said the measure became once an acceptable legislative test on the vitality of DeWine and his effectively being director, Dr. Amy Acton, who issued Ohio’s orders. Acton has gained praise for her aggressive decisions to strive in opposition to the coronavirus’ unfold, but people that think the mumble is shifting too slowly in reopening its economy comprise directed their madden in opposition to her in latest weeks.

Usa today Oklahoma

Oklahoma Metropolis: The mumble is reopening firms that comprise been closed due to coronavirus pandemic at the right time, U.S. Sen. James Lankford said Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s quickly. We’ve already received about 15 states in the identical direction of,” and even onerous-hit New York is absorbing about apply suit, Lankford said. “There'll repeatedly be second-guessing on the timing … it’s restful the right time.” Gov. Kevin Stitt in April announced plans to allow a phased reopening, first of firms similar to barbershops and hair and nail salons, followed by restaurants, division shops, gyms and churches. Stitt said the mumble has met White Residence criteria for reopening, including fewer new coronavirus circumstances and deaths, and a decline in hospitalizations. Oklahoma’s genuine count of people that comprise shriveled the coronavirus has topped 4,200, and the resolution of deaths due to COVID-19 has surpassed 250, the mumble Reveal Division of Health reported Wednesday.

Usa today Oregon

Portland: The first individual in the mumble to be identified with the new coronavirus has been discharged from the clinical institution bigger than two months after being admitted, the clinical institution said Tuesday. Hector Calderon spent many days in the intensive care unit, the assign he became once sedated and intubated, sooner than he recovered enough to be transferred to a professional nursing facility Monday, Kaiser Permanente Northwest said in a assertion Tuesday. Calderon, who's a janitor at an fundamental school in Lake Oswego, tested certain for COVID-19 in leisurely February. He became once listed because the mumble’s first confirmed coronavirus case Feb. 28, prompting the college the assign he labored to conclude for several days. Besides to being the mumble’s first confirmed case, he became once the second patient in the U.S. particular to comprise shriveled the virus through community unfold and no longer from relate contact with every other contaminated individual or from hotfoot back and forth to a rustic with a pandemic.

Usa today Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: The mumble reported every other 554 deaths from the coronavirus to hotfoot 3,000 total, while Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday that he is no longer committing to a articulate time table to make a decision end-at-dwelling pandemic restrictions in the mumble’s counties or areas. The substantial resolution of latest deaths reported Tuesday by the mumble Division of Health became once unfold out over the previous two weeks, the company said, because it reconciles its data with deaths being reported by local companies or hospitals. Easy, it became once as stark a figure because the mumble has reported since the major case of the new coronavirus became once detected in Pennsylvania in early March. It comes because the pronounce in circumstances looks to gradual down in many ingredients of Pennsylvania and as Wolf’s administration strikes to lighten its restrictions on fade and commercial exercise.

Usa today Rhode Island

Windfall: An investigation into possible unemployment benefits fraud associated to the coronavirus pandemic is rising with as many as 2,000 circumstances in the mumble, authorities said. Reveal and federal regulation enforcement companies are investigating improper unemployment insurance coverage claims submitted to the mumble Division of Labor and Coaching. The division has received roughly 2,000 reports thus far from people that articulate they've been the victims of “imposter fraud,” company spokeswoman Angelika Pellegrino said in an e-mail. Anyone who believes their deepest info has been weak to file or real a pretend claim is being requested to call the FBI’s Windfall mumble of industrial or the mumble Division of Labor and Coaching. Ellen Martin instructed WPRI-TV she received a letter final week informing her that her jobless benefits had been authorized even supposing she became once restful working.

Usa today South Carolina

Columbia: The University of South Carolina plans to arrangement support to on-campus classes in the drop, though with a ramification of adjustments to offer protection to students, professors and workers from the coronavirus. The college announced its device Wednesday, the identical day a neighborhood of education leaders met remotely to talk about broadly about what public colleges for younger people could maybe per chance also unbiased ogle love next drop – lecturers altering classes in mumble of scholars, younger people no longer going to the cafeteria for lunch, and most certainly fewer class periods and semester lessons in highschool. The key from each groups of educators became once flexibility. Whereas plans are to be support in the classrooms in August, plenty could maybe per chance also swap in three months. The University of South Carolina is the major major school in the mumble to announce a conception to reopen. President Bob Caslen said that relies on the flexibility to check any scholar or employee and, if they test certain, to put every person with whom they comprise been engaging.

Usa today South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Reveal effectively being officers on Wednesday reported 5 extra deaths from COVID-19, along with 58 new confirmed circumstances. All 5 deaths comprise been in Minnehaha County, which has viewed many of the infections in South Dakota. A complete of 2,779 circumstances of coronavirus comprise been confirmed statewide, but the actual resolution of infections is conception to be far elevated than the resolution of confirmed. Health officers reported that practically all people that comprise tested certain comprise recovered, but 29 people comprise died in South Dakota from COVID-19, the disease resulted in by the new coronavirus. A Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, the assign over 800 workers grew to alter into contaminated with COVID-19, is reopening this week. The mumble has tested virtually 2,500 people as piece of a mass attempting out tournament situation up for Smithfield workers and their relatives, which effectively being officers said will possible lead to every other spike in attempting out.

Usa today Tennessee

Nashville: Officials comprise reported the major loss of life of a mumble inmate who tested certain for the coronavirus: a individual who became once among the many virtually 1,300 inmates who tested certain at one penal complex. The mumble Division of Correction said Tuesday that the 67-year-weak man became once an inmate at Trousdale Turner Correctional Heart, bustle by the Tennessee-primarily based mostly deepest firm CoreCivic. The inmate became once taken to the clinical institution April 25, tested certain there and died Monday, the division said. The inmate had underlying effectively being circumstances, said mumble Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey. Officials articulate six inmates who tested certain in Tennessee’s penal complex system are hospitalized, including one in severe condition. In latest mass attempting out, virtually 1,300 inmates – about 50% of all prisoners – and 50 staffers tested certain at the potential, while 583 – or about 25% – of the Bledsoe County Correctional Complicated’s 2,322 inmates tested certain. Most had no indicators.

Usa today Texas

West Odessa: A bar proprietor and armed protesters comprise been arrested in western Texas after the bar reopened despite the governor’s orders to live closed amid the battle in opposition to the coronavirus pandemic. Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis instructed the Odessa American that authorities on Monday apprehended Gabrielle Ellison, the 47-year-weak proprietor of Colossal Daddy Zane’s Bar, in West Odessa for violating Gov. Greg Abbott’s uncover that prohibits ingesting institutions from opening until mid-Might maybe well also unbiased. Six men who had loaded “AR-15-form weapons” comprise been also arrested for possessing firearms on a certified property, Griffis said, adding that one observer became once detained for interfering with a peace officer’s duties. Bigger than 20 people participated in the reveal with support from Open Texas, an armed neighborhood that travels around the mumble attempting to help reopen the doorways of firms that Abbott deemed “nonessential.”

Usa today Utah

Provo: Dozens of workers tested certain for the coronavirus after two Utah County firms instructed workers no longer to apply quarantine guidelines and required people that tested certain to continue reporting to work, leaders said. Nearly half the workers at one commercial comprise been contaminated, authorities said. One establishment became once temporarily closed, and each comprise been required to apply strict cleaning and inspection necessities, the On each day foundation Herald reports. “Here is thoroughly unacceptable,” Utah County commissioners wrote in a Monday letter also signed by the mayors of all the cities in the county. A complete of 68 people tested certain, the letter says. Health division officers made the connections through contact tracing. Neither commercial became once named due to privacy concerns, said Carrie Bennett, chronic disease prevention program supervisor for the Utah County Health Division. She also declined to explain what products and services they present.

Usa today Vermont

Montpelier: The Vermont Division of Public Carrier is proposing a conception to present broadband web carrier to every person in the mumble. About 23% of the mumble, or 70,000 properties and firms, doesn’t comprise discover entry to to excessive-bustle web carrier. That’s defined as speeds of 25 megabits per second for discover and 3 megabits per second for add. “The catch is severe infrastructure that is very critical for Vermonters to end real when they shelter at dwelling sooner or later of a crisis, such because the COVID-19 emergency,” June Tierney, the commissioner of the Division of Public Carrier, said in a assertion asserting the conception. The worth estimate is roughly $300 million. The conception assumes that Vermont will discover an extra infusion of federal attend to make stronger recovery from the pandemic.

Usa today Virginia

Virginia Seaside: Mental effectively being experts articulate armed forces families and veterans are reaching out extra for support sooner or later of the coronavirus pandemic. The Virginian-Pilot reports clinicians providing support on-line comprise viewed requests skyrocket. Sarah Pitzen, the lead clinician at the Steven A. Cohen Armed forces Household Clinic at The Up Heart in Virginia Seaside, said group comprise needed to present extra make stronger to new customers because their “preexisting circumstances had worsened.” Pitzen said they’re also seeing a upward push in risks associated to domestic violence, suicide, minute one abuse, and drug and alcohol addiction. They’re also seeing extra stress, fear and despair. “There’s factual an elevated need for connection, to be somewhat appropriate,” she said.

Usa today Washington

Walla Walla: Some people are intentionally flouting effectively being solutions by exposing themselves and others to COVID-19 in Walla Walla County, officers said. Meghan DeBolt, director of the county’s Division of Neighborhood Health, instructed the Union-Bulletin this week that contact tracing has printed some are attending occasions with the premise that it is higher to discover in uncomfortable health with the virus and discover it over with. New certain test finally ends up in the county comprise resulted from such gatherings, she said. “We assign apart a seek info from to about contacts, and there are 25 people because: ‘We comprise been at a COVID celebration,’ ” DeBolt said. She known as the occasions irresponsible and unacceptable. Walla Walla Police Chief Scott Bieber notorious that disobeying Gov. Jay Inslee’s March 23 “Shield Dwelling, Shield Healthy” uncover is unlawful.

Usa today West Virginia

Huntington: Two cities are giving some workers a one-time extra cost for continuing to work with the public sooner or later of the coronavirus pandemic. Huntington Metropolis Mayor Steve Williams announced $900 will be awarded to all the members of unions representing metropolis police, firefighters and administrative workers who did no longer work remotely sooner or later of the virus outbreak. Nearly 285 workers will discover the extra-accountability pay in Might maybe well also unbiased. Administrative group who changed their time table for plenty away work will discover 50% of the cost, the metropolis said in a assertion. The larger than $200,000 wished for the extra payments will arrangement from the metropolis’s budget. In Charleston, the Metropolis Council on Monday authorized Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin’s assign apart a question to for $100,000 to check a $100,000 grant from the Kanawha County Price to head in opposition to cops, firefighters, and members of the refuse and recycling division.

Usa today Wisconsin

Madison: Nearly all hospitals must verify they'll sort out all sufferers with out crisis care in uncover for the major phase of Gov. Tony Evers’ coronavirus reopening conception to be met, mumble effectively being officers said Tuesday. Ninety-5 percent of the mumble’s hospitals would also wish to rearrange for attempting out for all symptomatic clinical group treating sufferers to meet the major phase under Evers’ conception. A third criteria – a downward pattern in COVID-19 circumstances among effectively being care workers calculated weekly – has currently been met, but it'd be reversed if circumstances start to elongate, said Wisconsin Division of Health Products and services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk. Different previously announced criteria for getting into the major phase of the reopening conception encompass fewer new diagnoses of coronavirus, fewer new reports of flu-love indicators, and a downward share of certain coronavirus tests over 14 days.

Usa today Wyoming

Jackson: Frustration and displeasure with adjustments in the foundations governing Wyoming antler attempting became once virtually unanimous in latest days among the many many a complete bunch of people that flocked to the wooded self-discipline adjoining to the National Elk Refuge, the Jackson Gap News & E-book reports. Most came from out of mumble, and their presence and inkling to continue an annual Jackson Gap custom became once an act of defiance and brush apart for requests to end dwelling while the contemporary coronavirus became once conserving the community largely closed. Gov. Trace Gordon had issued an unenforceable directive that instructed people crossing mumble lines sooner than Might maybe well also unbiased 8 to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Teton County regulation enforcement officers, who corral the shed hunters each spring, echoed that assign apart a question to over social media and in adverts for weeks main as much as the hunt. Riding the scenario became once COVID-19, which has hit Teton County worse on a per-capita foundation than anyplace else in Wyoming.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Read or Share this memoir: https://www.usatoday.com/memoir/news/50-states/2020/05/07/early-patient-discharged-placing-ritz-deputized-churchgoers-news-around-states/111670702/

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jwslw · 5 years

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d20 modern stats for the Serious Sam Universe Part 3: The Mercenaries

Simba

Species Traits

Ability Modifiers: -2Str, +2Dex, -2Con, +2Cha.

Creature Type: Simbas are humanoids with the Simba subtype.

Size Small: Simbas receive a +1 size bonus to Attack rolls and Defense, a +4 size bonus to hide checks, a -4 penalty to grapple checks and can carry ¾ as muchweight as a medium sized creature

Base Land Speed: 20ft.

Bonus Feats: Simbas receive Educated and Builder as bonus feats

Skills: Simbas receive a +4 species bonus to handle animal checks

Automatic Language: All Simbas begin play with 1 free rank in Read/Write Language (Simba) and 1 free rank in Speak Language (Simba)

Level Adjustment:+0.

Progress Level: Base line Human -3

Typical Simba CR2. Small Humanoid (Simba) Fast Hero1/Smart Hero1 HD:1d8-1 plus 1d6-1. HP. Mas9. Init:+1. Spd 20ft. Defense:15, Touch12, FF14(+1size, +1dex,+3Class). Bab+0. Grapl-5.Atk/Full Atk:+0melee(1d8-1 spiked club) or +2ranged (2d4 Zap gun). FS:5ftx5ft. R:5ft. SQ: Humanoid traits. AL: Tribe. Sv Frt-1, Ref+2,Wil+1. AP:2. Rep+1. Str9, Dex12, Con9, Int10 Wis11, Cha12.

Occupation: Rural (Handle Animal, Survival)

Skills: Craft (Structural)+5, Demolitions+4, Drive+5, Handle Animal+5, Listen+2, Pilot+5, Read/Write/Speak (Simba), Spot+2, Survival+4

Feats: Alertness, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Simple Weapons Proficiency

Talents: Evasion, Savant (Craft Structural)

Possessions: Zap gun (4lb), Spiked Club (8lb), various gear and personal possessions

Klawdovic

Traits

Animal Traits: Klawdovics have all traits common to animals

Detonate (Ex): Domesticated Klawdovics, can be feed a special diet of poisonous plants native to the Simba's home planet. While “posioned”, the Klawdovic will detonate after a successful slam attack, dealing 20d6 points of concussion damage to the Klawdovic and all creatures within 20ft, creature within the blast radius (but, not the Klawdovic or the target struck by the slam attack) may attempt a DC 20 Reflex save for half damage. The poison will work its way out of the Klawdovic's system after a week and must be renewwed. Training a Klawdovic to attack a designated target in this manner counts as 2 tricks.

Bonus Feat: Klawdovics have Weapon Finesse (bite) as a bonus feat

Klawdovic CR1/4 (CR1 when feed explosive plant matter). Small Animal HD:1d8.HP4. Mas10. Init:+1. Spd 10ft, fly40ft (average). Defense:12, Touch12,FF11(+1size,+1dex). Bab+0. Grapl-7.Atk/Full Atk:+2melee(1d2-3 bite) or -1melee(1d4-1 plus explosion Slam). FS:5ftx5ft. R:5ft. SQ: Animal traits, Detonate. AL: None or Master. Sv Frt+2,Ref+3,Wil+2. AP. Rep+.Str5, Dex13, Con10, Int2 Wis14, Cha6.

Skills: Listen+6, Spot+6

Feats: Weapon Finesse (Bite)

Advancement: None

Zorg

Species Traits

Ability Modifiers: +4Str, +2Dex, +4Con, -4int, -2Wis, -4Cha.

Creature Type: Zorg are considered Monstrous Humanoids with the Reptilian subtype.

Medium Size: Zorg receive no special bonuses or penalties for their size.

Darkvision (Ex): The Zorg have Darkvision out to a range of 60ft

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Zorg suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of effects or spells that duplicate bright sunlight (such as daylight).

Natural Weapons (Ex): Zorg have powerful bite attack (1d8), that can be used as a secondary attack in conjunction with manufactured weapons.

Base Land Speed: 30ft.

Bonus Feats: Zorg receive Archaic weapons proficiency and Educated (Streetwise and Tactics) as bonus feats

Skinless (Ex): Because of their species-wide previous choices, the Zorg have lost their outer layers of skin, imposes a -2 penalty to save made to resist the negative effects of extreme temperatures, but, grants a +4 species bonus to Intimidate checks.

Level Adjustment:+0.

Progress Level: Base line Human +2.

Zorg Mercenary CR4. Medium Monstrous humanoid (Reptilian) Strong Hero3/Soldier 1 HD:3d8+6 plus 1d10+2. HP30. Mas15. Init:+1. Spd 30ft. Defense:14,Touch14,FF13(+1dex,+3Class). Bab+3. Grapl+5. Atk/Full Atk:+5melee(1d4+2 unarmed strike or 1d8+2 bite) or +5ranged (3d8 RI;80ft laser rifle) or +1ranged (Laser rifle auto-fire). FS:5ftx5ft. R:5ft. SQ:Darkvision 60ft, Light Sensitivity, Skinless. AL: Zorg Empire, Mental's Horde. Sv Frt+5,Ref+3,Wil-1. AP4. Rep+0. Str15, Dex12, Con15, Int6 Wis9, Cha7.

Occupation: Military (Drive, Pilot)

Skills: Demolitions+1, Intimidate+2, Knowledge (Tactics)+1, Read/Write/Speak (Zorg)

Feats: Armor Proficiency (Light), Combat Martial Arts, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Power Attack, Simple Weapons Proficiency, Weapon Focus (Laser Rifle)

Talents: Extreme Effort, Improved Extreme Effort

Possessions: Laser Rifle (8lb) w/1d4+1 power cells, sun glasses, various gear and personal possessions

Zorg Commander CR6. Medium Monstrous humanoid (Reptilian) Charismatic Hero3/Personality1/Negotiator2 HD:4d6+12 plus2d8+6. HP43. Mas16. Init:+0. Spd 30ft. Defense:11,Touch11,FF11(+2Class). Bab+2. Grapl+4. Atk/Full Atk:+4melee(1d8+2 bite) or +2ranged (3d8 RI;80ft laser rifle) or -2ranged(3d8+2d8 Laser rifle burst fire). FS:5ftx5ft. R:5ft. SQ:Darkvision 60ft, Light Sensitivity, Skinless, Conceal Motive, React first, Unlimited Access. AL: Zorg Empire, Mental's Horde. Sv Frt+8, Ref+3,Wil+4. AP5. Rep+8. Str14, Dex10, Con16, Int10, Wis11, Cha12.

Occupation: Law Enforcement (Drive, Listen)

Skills: Bluff+7, Diplomacy+7, Drive+4, Intimidate+5, Listen+2, Perform (Oration)+6, Profession+4, Read/Write/Speak (Zorg), Spot+6

Feats: Advanced Firearms proficiency, Alertness, Burst fire, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Renown, Simple Weapons Proficiency

Talents: Coordinate, Inspiration

Possessions: Laser Rifle (8lb) w/1d4+1 power cells, sun glasses, Personal Force field (DR5) w/power back pack, various gear and personal possessions

Atlantean

Species Traits

Ability Modifiers: +2str, +2dex, -2int, -2cha.

Creature Type: Monstrous humanoid with the Aquatic subtype.

Amphibious (ex): Atlanteans can breath air and water with equal ease, Atlanteans can swim without making swim checks and receive a +10 species bonus in circumstances that force a check.

Natural Armor: +3

Natural attacks: Atlanteans have two long tentacles growing from their backs, these tentacles grant the Atlantean a reach of 10ft and deal 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage when used as an attack.

Medium Size (ex): Atlanteans receive no size based bonuses or penalties

Keen Sight (ex): Atlanteans have Darkvision out to a range of 60ft

Base Land Speed: 30ft, Atlanteans can also swim at the same speed.

Bonus Feats (Ex): Atlanteans receive Archaic weapons proficiency as a bonus feat

Starting Languages: Atlanteans begin play with 1 free rank in Read/Write language (Ancient Greek) and Speak language (Ancient Greek)

Level Adjustment:+0.

Typical Atlantean Warrior CR3. Medium Monstrousd humanoid(Aquatic) Strong Ordinary1/Fast Ordinary1/Tough Ordinary1 HD:2d8+4plus 1d10+2. HP20. Mas15. Init:+3. Spd 30ft, swim 30ft. Defense:24, Touch18, FF21(+3dex,+5Class,+3Equip,+3Nat). Bab+1. Grapl+3. Atk:+4ranged (3d10 RI; 80ft Plasma Rifle) or +0ranged (Plasma Rifle Auto-fire). Full Atk: -2melee(1d6+2, 2 Tentacle slaps). FS:5ftx5ft. R:5ft. SQ: Monstrous Humanoid traits, Amphibious, Darkvision 60ft. AL: Atlantis, Mental's Horde. Sv Frt+4, Ref+3,Wil+0. AP: N/A. Rep+0. Str15, Dex16,Con15, Int10, Wis10, Cha6.

Occupation: Law Enforcement (Diplomacy, Gather Information)

Skills: Climb+3, Diplomacy+0, Gather Information+2, Handle Animal+0, Hide+5, Move Silently+5, Read/Write/Speak (Ancient Greek), Spot+2, Tumble+6

Feats: Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (Light), Simple Weapons Proficiency, Stealthy

Possessions: Plasma Rifle (8lb) w/1d4+1 power cells, Studded leather armor (20lb), various gear and personal possessions.

#dnd #homebrew #croteam #video games #aliens

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nothingman · 6 years

Link

Sinclair Broadcast Group executives reprimanded and ultimately ousted a local news reporter who refused to seed doubt about man-made climate change and “balance” her stories in a more conservative direction.

Her account, detailed in company documents she provided to BuzzFeed News, offers a glimpse at the inner workings of a media giant that has sought to both ingratiate itself to President Donald Trump and cast itself as an apolitical local news provider — a position the documents undermine.

In one 2015 instance, the former news director of WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia, Len Stevens, criticized reporter Suri Crowe because she “clearly laid out the argument that human activities cause global warming, but had nothing from the side that questions the science behind such claims and points to more natural causes for such warming.”

In recent months, Sinclair has garnered intense national attention for forcing stations across the country to carry pro-Trump, “must-run” segments and instructing anchors to read statements touting conservative talking points. Sinclair, which owns local TV stations “affiliated” with name-brand networks like Fox or ABC, has defended the segments and noted they are a small part of its stations’ overall coverage — but Crowe’s experience as a general assignment reporter demonstrates how the parent company’s ideology can permeate throughout local news reporting.

She faced discipline for social media posts and restrictions in reporting on guns, white nationalism, and Liberty University, she said. Company documents do criticize some of her work as unfair and her behavior as unprofessional at times. Overall, the documents provide an unusually close look at one reporter’s experience working for a Sinclair station, and how the smallest details mattered and were recorded.

Crowe told BuzzFeed News that before the October 2015 climate change segment aired, she was ordered by Stevens to include Donald Trump’s opinion on the matter. “When I instructed you to balance the story, by including some of [the] other argument, you insisted there was no need to add such balance to the story,” he wrote in her Jan. 22, 2016, performance review.

"That was the moment where I realized how things were going to go there."

A veteran reporter who has worked at news stations in Texas and Virginia, Crowe said she viewed the story as environmental — not two-sided or political. “I was always covering the flu. I don’t remember a time when for balance I went out to a group of 20 people who are nut jobs that say flu shots kill,” she told BuzzFeed News. The scientific consensus is that climate change is real and humans are largely to blame, but Crowe ultimately read the updated, “balanced” script on air. “That was the moment where I realized how things were going to go there,” she said.

“The management team felt the story was one-sided — indicating that human activity is to blame for global warming — period,” said Stevens, who now works in the communications department at Liberty University, in an emailed statement to BuzzFeed News. “I understand most scientists agree with that assessment. I, myself, feel that human activity at least plays a role, but our opinions really shouldn’t matter. We were there to deliver news, not opinion. And there is NOT 100% agreement on this issue, even among the scientific community.”

Crowe was, in retrospect, struck that Trump’s thoughts were included before he was even his party’s nominee, but Stevens defended the decision. “It was simply a statement — in the headlines at that time — that provided some balance, some reference to the other side of the argument. That side does exist,” he said. “The same would hold true for any hot button issue — Gun Control, Abortion, the Death Penalty, etc.”

Crowe, 49, says she was badly shaken by her time at Sinclair. She left the news business but decided to speak on the record so other reporters and news consumers would know about what can happen when Sinclair takes over a local outlet. The largest owner of TV stations in the country, Sinclair is poised to expand even more through the $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media, which could grant it a foothold in major US cities like Los Angeles and expand its reach to 72% of American homes.

Last year, Crowe’s contract was not renewed and she was forced out of WSET, an ABC-affiliated TV station owned by the company. “We do not comment on individual cases regarding past employees,” said Ronn Torossian, a spokesperson for Sinclair. “We do always maintain high standards for balanced, fact-based reporting.”

“After I left, I just didn’t want to go back to news,” Crowe said. “Now I feel like I’m more committed to journalism than ever. We really have to fight for journalism — it’s worth the fight.”

Suri Crowe in Virginia on Thursday, April 19, 2018.

Matt Eich for BuzzFeed News

Crowe spent the early part of her reporting career in local markets in Texas in the 1990s, covering federal court cases, murders, drug trafficking along the border, and then-governor George W. Bush. “He was a pleasure to cover — a very kind and decent man,” Crowe said. “I enjoyed my relationship with that whole Republican changeup in Austin.”

She left journalism to work in pharmaceutical sales for Pfizer, but returned to other TV stations in Virginia before landing a three-year contract with WSET in 2014. At the time, Sinclair was in the process of acquiring a handful of stations owned by Allbritton, including WSET and the broadcaster’s flagship, WJLA, in Washington, DC. Though Crowe’s position fell in the medium-sized Roanoke-Lynchburg TV market, she was advised by a mentor at Sinclair that the company’s expanding footprint would set her up to move to a market like DC afterward.

"It’s always been a conservative station. We’re right in the Bible Belt. It went beyond that when Sinclair took over."

Former employees said that WSET’s coverage has long focused on the Lynchburg side of the area, where the station is located (unlike the rival broadcasters). “The market strategy was to really not fret about the western half of the market, but to own your backyard counties because there was no competition,” said one former staffer. “That is a far more conservative half — versus the Virginia Tech area.”

“It’s always been a conservative station. We’re right in the Bible Belt,” said another former employee. But Sinclair’s grip on local coverage became clearer to employees after the takeover. “It went beyond that when Sinclair took over,” the former employee said. “It became: ‘This is what we have to do.’ In our morning editorial meetings, anything that went against anything that corporate wanted was just shot down.”

Crowe, for her part, battled with her bosses over political and nonpolitical issues. Younger reporters counted Lynchburg as a “starter” market, but Crowe’s colleagues said she was an outspoken, experienced journalist who wanted to do nationally minded stories. She clashed with management, former employees said, particularly over what exactly constitutes balanced coverage.

“Your story on proposed gun legislation was not balanced,” Stevens wrote in Crowe’s performance review. “You wrote of the proposed gun restrictions, ‘Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, not to those in charge of passing new gun laws.’ And that tone is carried throughout the story. Another line: ‘Several polls show the majority of Virginians are in favor of tighter restrictions on gun purchases... But Republican lawmakers in Richmond... won’t go for it.’”

On another gun story about the state attorney general’s decision to revoke a reciprocity agreement with other states for concealed carry permits, Stevens wrote that the sum total Crowe offered the other side was a single sentence: “The NRA on the other hand released a statement condemning the attorney general’s decision.” Stevens added that Crowe “had access to the press release sent by the NRA, yet included nothing from the actual statement... This kind of approach damages our reputation as a fair and balanced news organization.”

"I would tell the reporters ‘just give me something I can defend,’ because I was the one who would take the angry calls from viewers."

“I would tell the reporters ‘just give me something I can defend,’ because I was the one who would take the angry calls from viewers if they felt we weren’t giving a fair treatment to ‘their side’ on a particular issue,” Stevens told BuzzFeed News. “When a story was balanced enough, I could simply read it back to the caller, word for word, and highlight to them how all sides were represented. Most often, the caller would agree, thank me for taking the time to explain, and promise to keep watching. Those interactions protected that newsroom’s credibility. Almost everyone there understood this need for balance, agreed with it, and followed through. Any reporter who would outright refuse to balance their stories would certainly get extra oversight and possibly remedial action.”

The review highlighted other complaints, including that Crowe had been late to news shoots and that she had acted unprofessionally with the Lynchburg Police Department. “[An] officer describes a pattern of inappropriate behavior in his time dealing with you, including: ‘overstepping bounds, drama, unprofessional texts, emails, calls, etc.,’” Stevens wrote. One officer had indicated Crowe had “looked very angry” and “looked irritated the entire time you were with him, that you ignored him, and that you got basic facts of the story incorrect.”

In a written response to her review, Crowe said that she was being unfairly targeted. Lots of stories, she told BuzzFeed News, got cut for space, diminishing time given to both sides. Crowe wrote in her response to Stevens that she had also “on multiple occasions reported on ‘pro-gun’ stories,” including a December 2015 pitch about Republicans in Campbell County wanting to pass a pro-gun resolution. “I didn’t have an anti–gun violence side there — and Mr. Stevens had no problem with that story.”

According to Crowe, her relationship with the police department was fine — at times adversarial, but that comes with being a reporter — and she felt horrified that station management would not come to her defense. Crowe’s response continued: “This appraisal is not really about my performance. This is really a character and professional assassination of me because I am a woman. A very good reporter who is not afraid to ask the difficult questions of a police department during a year when so many police departments have been under fire,” she wrote. “If you want me out so much, let me go without any restrictive covenants and I will start looking today for another job.”

Suri Crowe in Virginia on Thursday, April 19, 2018.

Matt Eich for BuzzFeed News

As Sinclair’s corporate control intensified, some employees at WSET began to quietly worry about the introduction of the company’s now infamous “must-run” clips. The segments, produced by the parent company, included a “Terrorism Alert Desk” rounding up terror incidents from around the globe, as well as political diatribes from former Trump official Boris Epshteyn. Inside the newsroom, employees who viewed the segments negatively mostly kept quiet. “We would see a must-run, and we would all glance at each other, but that was about it,” said a former staffer. Some reporters in the field chafed at the must-runs not for political reasons, but because it meant they had less time for their own stories.

The segments also exposed a generational divide. “Half of the newsroom was pretty vocal about drinking the Kool-Aid, and they were all the old people,” one of the former employees said. “I think the general consensus and attitude was that they were probably doing it because they liked their jobs. It was scary to watch.”

Earlier this month, Sinclair’s must-runs came under sharp national scrutiny when Deadspin stitched together a video showing dozens of local TV anchors delivering the same speech about media bias in unison. Critics said that the anchors looked like hostages. Journalism schools sent a letter to Sinclair blasting the video. The clip ricocheted around Hollywood, with liberal actor Amy Schumer canceling a planned interview with Sinclair’s DC station. Former Sinclair employees began speaking out — like one reporter in Florida who told Bloomberg he was ordered to conduct politically tinted “man on the street” interviews.

As the media storm intensified, Sinclair battled back. David Smith, Sinclair’s chair, emailed the New York Times that the must-runs were similar to stations running late-night shows from their affiliated network. The company then ran a banner on the websites of every one of its local stations linking to a YouTube video attacking CNN’s “hypocritical” coverage of the incident.

Despite her negative performance review, Crowe remained in her contract at WSET, and in April 2016, she won a Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters award for coverage of animal inspection violations at a roadside zoo. Crowe’s reporter “reel” from her time at WSET compiles some of her stories, from local weather events to political rallies to an investigation on why a local shelter euthanized a dog set for adoption.

Stevens, the news director from the Allbritton and early Sinclair era, joined Liberty University when he left WSET in 2016. But Crowe continued to feud with the new management, including news director Scott Nichols.

Crowe told BuzzFeed News that she pitched a story about the rise of white supremacists in the area who she said she could get on camera for an interview. According to Crowe, Nichols told her that he didn’t see the news value. The piece would have been prescient, Crowe now says, because she offered the idea well before the race-fueled clashes in nearby Charlottesville that would bring national attention to the region.

Nichols did not return a request for comment for this story.

Crowe also claimed she was called off from digging into potential Title IX issues at Liberty University, a topic that was later covered at length in the local media. Crowe attributed the decision to close ties between WSET at the evangelical university, which is led by Jerry Falwell Jr., an ardent Trump supporter.

“We leave Liberty alone,” said another former employee. “It’s like Liberty is untouchable.”

Stevens disagreed. “When I was in that newsroom, we treated Liberty the same as any other institution, sometimes drawing the ire of university leadership. We were tough but fair and we covered a lot of Liberty news,” he said. “In fact, in my current position at Liberty, I’ve noticed no drop-off in interest by WSET in Liberty-related stories of all stripes.”

By early 2017, Crowe said she believed that Sinclair executives were seeking to build a case against her — in writing — so that they could eventually force her out of the company.

On Jan. 24, Nichols emailed Crowe to reprimand her for two tweets posted on her personal Twitter account that were in violation of Sinclair’s social media policy. “With record unemployment, job creation, lower crime rates and booming stock markets — what America is @realDonaldTrump seeing?” Crowe quote-tweeted along with a Vanity Fair article about Trump’s “dark, raw, partisan” inaugural speech, which depicted an America in crisis. Crowe also quote-tweeted President Obama’s outgoing farewell tweet with three heart emojis.

“Someone could interpret your tweets and re-tweets as media bias because a majority of them are anti-Trump and pro-Obama,” Nichols wrote in an email. “It’s OK to hold those in power accountable. But your tweets and re-tweets should cover a wide breadth of topics, not just point out what some say President Trump is doing wrong. You say you are not biased, and I appreciate that. But you don’t want to have the ‘appearance’ of bias either.”

Crowe responded in an email: “I do tweet on a wide range of topics — I also put hearts next to a social media post regarding the Bushes recovering — am I to understand one positive for the GOP is okay — but certainly not for the other side?”

"What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t outright quit because I was in a contract."

On her social media accounts — particularly since she left the news business — Crowe frequently posts and retweets negative comments about the president and Republicans and in favor of liberal causes. Her politics are no secret. Crowe told BuzzFeed News that she recognizes by coming forward, critics will point to her personal beliefs, but she said that as a reporter her opinions were separate from her work. “People will say, ‘She’s so obviously liberal, she hates Trump, loves Obama,’” Crowe said. “This is the thing. I have never been accused of imbalanced reporting in my effing life until I got to that station.”

“Suri is a good journalist,” said one of her former colleagues. “It wasn't like she was trying to go out for the left. It boiled down to the corporate [structure] that we were under and also our area, where management is just thinking, ‘That's not going to fly here.’”

On Feb. 24 of last year, Nichols sent Crowe a “last chance agreement.”

“Certain aspects of your job performance have been unsatisfactory,” he wrote. Nichols reprimanded Crowe for an incident earlier that month where Crowe called animal control on a family while shooting a story about them. (Crowe said that she filed an anonymous tip because she viewed the situation as dangerous.) Nichols wrote that Crowe had left work early and also brought up incidents of “your apparent bias in your social media accounts.”

“What they were doing is manufacturing incidents to target me. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t outright quit because I was in a contract,” she said. Crowe had wanted to leave for some time, she said, but feared owing the company money or being blackballed from other stations for breaking an agreement.

Toward the end of the contract, Crowe said she was whisked into a room and told that the company had exercised an escape hatch to force her out early. It was her last day at Sinclair and, as it happened, her last day in the news business. She now works in the health and fitness industry.

“I believe the ire at me was politically tainted,” Crowe said. “If they perceived you as a liberal, or someone not going along with that whole credo, then you are done.” ●

via BuzzFeed - Politics

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walnutandcarrara · 7 years

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On the day of an annual vigil in Washington DC that honors the victims of American gun violence, congressional Republicans are expected to vote on a Trump-endorsed bill that would eviscerate local gun restrictions, removing states’ power to control who is allowed to carry a concealed, loaded handguns in their streets. Officials in New York and Los Angeles warn that the legislation would allow an unknown numbers of tourists – perhaps hundreds of thousands each year – to carry concealed handguns into America’s densest urban areas, including Times Square and the New York City subway. Big city police chiefs across the county have spoken out against the bill, calling it a law enforcement enforcement nightmare. The bill, which is the National Rifle Association’s “number one legislative priority” has prompted a renewed battle over states’ rights, with Democrats for once arguing against the power of the federal government, and Republicans hoping to use that federal power to undermine local control.

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reginaperes157 · 7 years

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James-Lankford-March-For-Life-Washington-DC-Jan-27-2017-Original

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President Donald Trump will extend the DACA amnesty beyond March 5 if Congress cannot pass replacement legislation, Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford told the Washington Post. According to the Post: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Trump told him he was willing to “give it some more time” to allow lawmakers to find a solution for “dreamers,” unauthorized immigrants brought to this country as children, if Congress does not pass legislation extending protections before time is up. “The president’s comment to me was that, ‘We put a six-month deadline out there. Let’s work it out. If we can’t get it worked out in six months, we’ll give it some more time, but we’ve got to get this worked out legislatively,’” Lankford said outside a town hall here Thursday night. The White House did not respond to the Washington Post, which published its report at 10:49 PM. On March 5, 2018, the two-year work-permits held by up to 690,000 young illegals will begin expiring because Trump has stopped the routine renewals. The last of the DACA work-permits will expire in 2019. Democrats and business allies say the expirations will be a disaster, even though they will open up new job opportunities for young Americans and help drive up wages for many Americans. Lankford has

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Concealed Carry News -> Rep. Thomas Massie introducing bill to recognize outside concealed carry permits in D.C.

Concealed Carry – HoaxAndChange.com

Citizen Concealed Carry – HoaxandChange.com

Lawmaker calls for pols from concealed-carry states to be allowed to pack heat in DC

A Republican congressman on Thursday introduced a bill that would allow any House member from a …

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Mark Kelly Renews Vow to Fight National Reciprocity After Shooting of Unarmed Congressman

GOP lawmakers responded to the shooting by stressing a renewed focus on national reciprocity, with …

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Rep. Thomas Massie introducing bill to recognize outside concealed carry permits in D.C.

Rep. Thomas Massie on Thursday said he’s introducing legislation that would recognize out-of-state …

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carry permits