#canton first monday

[freetacocandy]

Canton First Monday Vendors: The Heartbeat of a Texas Tradition

Every month, the tiny town of Canton, Texas, transforms into a bustling marketplace where vendors from all over the country converge to sell their wares. This tradition, known as Canton First Monday, has been a staple of the community for over a century, drawing visitors from near and far to experience the unique atmosphere and diverse array of goods.

The history of Canton First Monday dates back to the late 1800s when the town's merchants would gather on the first Monday of each month to sell their goods. Over time, the event grew in popularity, attracting vendors from neighboring towns and eventually from across the country. Today, Canton First Monday is one of the largest flea markets in the United States, spanning hundreds of acres and featuring thousands of vendors.

What sets Canton First Monday vendors apart from other flea markets is its focus on handmade and one-of-a-kind items. Visitors can find everything from handmade furniture and home decor to vintage clothing and collectibles. The event also features a wide variety of food vendors, offering everything from traditional Texas barbecue to international cuisine.

One of the most unique aspects of Canton First Monday is the sense of community that it fosters. Many of the vendors have been coming to the event for years, and they have developed a loyal following of customers who return month after month to see what new treasures they have to offer. The event also provides an opportunity for local artisans and craftsmen to showcase their talents and connect with customers who appreciate their work.

For many vendors, Canton First Monday is more than just a marketplace; it's a way of life. Some vendors travel from state to state, following the flea market circuit and setting up shop at events like Canton First Monday along the way. Others are local residents who have turned their passion for crafting or collecting into a thriving business.

In addition to the economic impact that Canton First Monday has on the town of Canton, it also plays a significant role in preserving and promoting the region's cultural heritage. The event showcases the creativity and ingenuity of the people who call East Texas home, and it provides a platform for them to share their traditions and stories with visitors from all over the world.

As Canton First Monday continues to grow and evolve, it remains a testament to the enduring appeal of the flea market experience. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just looking for a unique souvenir to take home, Canton First Monday offers something for everyone. So next time you find yourself in East Texas on the first Monday of the month, be sure to stop by and experience the magic of Canton First Monday for yourself.

[companion-showdown]

Showdown 2k24 Nominations!

alright, redoing this post now that I can give a concrete start date of Monday the 15th of January!

Nominations for the tournament are open up until the start date, and you can submit anyone who could reasonable be considered a companion, either by sending me an ask or by filling out

this form.

If you make your nomination via the form you can also submit some propaganda to go alongside the poll. Anyone who was considered a regular at any point in the last year will automatically be included, as well as anyone who was in the original tournament (+/- a couple I might miss or misremember as being a regular because I don't have old lists anywhere). The exception to this is last years winner, Rose Tyler, she will not be getting a place in the main tournament, however after the final I will run a poll to see if our new winner can beat her. (oh and also maybe I'll leave the TARDIS out but not fully decided yet)

The tournament is going to be run in the same way I did @adventure-showdown, meaning I'll keep companions from different periods of the show and different mediums segregated at first so the nicher ones don't immediately get knocked out, and slowly get mingled together. The exact details are going to depend on just how may characters get included.

Errm yeah, so go wild, nominate whoever you like (as long as they are a companion). If they are from teh TV show they have to be on this list to qualify, and for EU companions I'm going with them needing a TARDIS wiki page, and also I will give them a quick proof read to make sure they pass, the bar is low but it is there

if you want to submit an alternate version of the character sorry but main version only unless you can give a really good reason, eg regenerations of a time lord

also, if they are primarily from another franchise that'll be a no

The full list of contestents is under the cut and will be updated as nominations come in. Its sorted by medium and then to be alphabetical by first name. if an eu companion exists in multiple mediums i just sort of picked one or I put them under the other category, people who exist in real life are also sorted into their own category. There are some characters under Classic Who/NuWho who were not companions on TV but were in the EU. Companions who's names are in green have had propaganda submitted for them, if they're not in green then they don't, and just because someone has propaganda doesn't mean i wont accept more

Classic Who

Ace McShane

Adric

Barbara Wright

Ben Jackson

The Brigadier

Chang Lee

Dodo Chaplet

Grace Holloway

Harry Sullivan

Ian Chesterton

Jamie McCrimmon

Jo Grant

K9

Kamelion

Katarina

Leela

Liz Shaw

Mags

Mel Bush

Mike Yates

Nyssa

Peri Brown

Polly Wright

Romana I

Romana II

Sabalom Glitz

Sara Kingdom

Sarah-Jane Smith

Sergeant Benton

Steven Taylor

Susan Foreman

Tegan Jovanka

Turlough

Vicki Pallister

Victoria Waterfield

Zoe Heriot

NuWho

Adam Mitchell

Amy Pond

Bill Potts

Canton Everett Delaware III

Clara Oswald

Dan Lewis

Donna Noble

Graham O'Brien

Grant Gordon aka the Ghost

Handles

Inston-Vee Vindor

Jack Harkness

Karvanista

Kate Stewart

Martha Jones

Mickey Smith

Missy

Nardole

River Song

Rory Williams

Rose Noble

Ruby Sunday

Ryan Sinclair

Wilfred Mott

Yasmin Khan

Audio

Alex Campbell

Anya Kingdom

Bliss

C'rizz

Cass Fermazzi

Charley Pollard

Cousin Eliza: Christine Summerfield: Horus

Dalek Test Subject 2

Erimem

Evelyn Smythe

Helen Sinclair

Hex Schofield

Iris Wildthyme

Liv Chenka

Lucie Miller

Mark Seven

Molly O'Sullivan

Narvin

Oliver Harper

Sheena (The Starship of Theseus)

Tania Bell

Novels

Anji Kapoor

Anna (Good Companions)

Badger

Barusa

Bernice Summerfield

Business woman (Time on a Vine)

Catherine “Cat” Broome

Chris Cwej - have propaganda but in conjunction with another contestant

Cinder

Claudia Marwood

Compassion

Dorothy (The Wonderful Doctor of Oz)

Fitz Kreiner

Guinevere Winchester

Hector (All Flesh is Grass)

Homunculette

Ikalla

Irving Braxiatel

Jack McSpringheel

Larna

Marie (Alien Bodies)

Milena

Patience

Penelope Gate

Peter Summerfield

Rosie Taylor

Roz Forrester - have propaganda but in conjunction with another contestant

Ruth Leonidas

Sam Jones

Serena

Sibling Different aka Mae

The Mortimer Family (Ida, Alan, Helen, George)

Trix MacMillan

V.M.McCrimmion

Wolsey the Cat

Zeleekhà

Comics

Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer

Angus ‘Gus’ Goodman

ARC

Chantir

Child Master (The Then and the Now)

Cindy Wu

Dave Lester

Destrii

Duh

Flanx

Fey Truscott-Sade

Frobisher

Gabby Gonzalez

Gillian & John Who

Grayla

Hattie Munroe

Izzy Sinclair

Jayne Kadett

John Jones

Josie Day

Kroton

Ly Chee the Wise

Majenta Pryce

Maxwell Edison

Olla

Rose-the-cat

Shayde

Ssard

The Squire

Weeping Angel (Origins)

Real Life

Alan Turing

Claudia Winkleman

John Lennon

Jules Verne

Mary Shelley

Peter Cushing

Other

Alison Cheney

Andy Davidson

Antimony (Death Comes to Time)

Brian the Ood

Dormouse (The Red and the Blue)

Emma (curse of fatal death)

Koschie

Romana (Battle for the Universe)

Splinx

Susan Who

Tom Campbell

[beardedmrbean]

Switzerland's right-wing conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) made gains in a federal election, winning more seats in parliament, final results showed on Monday.

The SVP consolidated its position as Switzerland's leading political party, winning almost 29% of the vote, giving it 62 seats in the 200-member National Council, nine more than before.

Switzerland's second-biggest party, the left-leaning Social Democrats (SP), also slightly increased its vote share to 18%, adding two more lawmakers to total 41.

The results were unlikely to affect the composition of the Federal Council, which is made up of seven members from four different parties, including two from the SVP.

Swiss politics shifts right

The results signal a rightward turn in Europe after victories or electoral gains by conservative parties in Greece, Sweden, and Italy over the last year.

Environmentally minded factions were the biggest losers: The Greens lost five seats in parliament's lower house and will now have 23, while the more centrist Liberal-Greens lost six and now will have 10.

Lisa Mazzone, a Green lawmaker seeking re-election, said the poll results showed "a context of fear, and clearly when we are afraid, we forget hope".

The SVP said it was clear the cost of living and immigration in Switzerland was the biggest concern amongst voters. 

"The situation in Switzerland is serious: we have mass immigration, we have big problems with people seeking asylum. The security situation is no longer the same as before," Thomas Aeschi, head of the SVP parliamentary group, told the AFP news agency.

"There are many people in Switzerland who fear the situation will get worse." The party ran an ad campaign that was branded "xenophobic" by the Federal Commission Against Racism because it focused on crimes perpetrated by foreigners.

The SP said it was concerned about the country's move to the right.

"It will be more difficult to fight for the cost of living, equality and climate policy," re-elected Social Democrat co-president Cedric Wermuth said.

Voting in Switzerland

The new members of parliament will appoint the Swiss federal government in December.

The lower house, the National Council, is elected by proportional representation.

Meanwhile, the upper house or Council of States is largely elected by majority vote.

The first two seats in the upper house were won by the newly formed party The Center.

One of them was a candidate who was elected unopposed and the other was elected earlier in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden by the Landsgemeinde — a form of direct democracy where people gather in the town square and raise their hands.

The parliamentary election is one of two main ways that Switzerland's population of 8.5 million have their say. The other is through regular referendums that are usually held four times per year.

[mariacallous]

Bosnia’s authorities will investigate several police officers and a judge who failed to issue a restraining order against Nermin Sulejmanovic, a gunman who livestreamed his wife’s murder over Instagram, after which he killed two more people and wounded another three before commiting suicide. 

The investigations were announced as a result of public pressure over the brutal femicide, which happened after the victim, 38-year-old Nizama Hecimovic, reported family violence to the authorities in the small town of Gradacac in northeastern Bosnia. 

“The investigation teams of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton are conducting extensive operational and investigative actions related to events before, during, and after the triple homicide and attempted murder of three individuals in Gradacac on Friday, August 11,” Almir Arnautovic, Tuzla Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson, said on Monday. 

According to Bosnian media, the Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, VSTV, has initiated proceedings against Judge Lejla Numanovic from Gradacac, who refused to issue a restraining order against Sulejmanovic on August 7. 

Hecimovic reported Sulejmanovic for domestic violence, but was too afraid to testify. According to the judgment, despite being afraid to testify, Hecimovic sought restraining order, due to fear for her safety and life. 

The violence began when Sulejmanovic, a bodybuilder with a criminal record, first killed his ex-wife on a livestream on Instagram.

Sulemajnovic started his livestream by saying that viewers “will see what a live murder looks like”, then took a gun and shot dead his ex-wife. Thousands have watched his livestream. The Interior Ministry in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Federation entity said it will investigate people who voiced approval on social media for Nermin’s action. 

After police staged a man hunt to track him down, Sulejmanovic committed suicide in front of police officers.

According to media reports, the authorities will also investigate how the information on Hecimovic’s hidden location was leaked, which led to Sulejmanovic finding her. 

Hecimovic will be buried on Monday. Her family asked government officials not to attend the ceremony. A mourning day has been declared in Tuzla Canton, one of ten in Bosnia’s Federation entity.  The government of Bosnia’s other entity, Republika Srpska, has declared a day of mourning on Wednesday, August 16. 

Bosnia’s state-level government, the Council of Ministers, did not vote on Monday to declare a day of mourning on the territory of the country after two ministers from Republika Srpska, Stasa Kosarac and Nenad Nesic, voted against the decision. Bosnia’s deputy Human rights Minister, Duska Jurisic, wrote on her official Facebook that this was “a poor, pitiful attempt to undermine the state”. 

The murders happened on the day of the opening of 29th Sarajevo Film Festival in the country’s capital. The festival did not commemorate the victims since the opening on Friday night. 

Over the past seven years, 60 women have lost their lives through violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with eight cases in 2022.

The figure could potentially be higher because of the lack of official statistics on femicides in Bosnia. Protests have been announced in the biggest cities in Bosnia, demanding stricter penalties for femicide.

[asharestupid]

stores poor ppl actually go to bc tv shows dont know us (this is mainly for writers btw):

- places like Walmart, spring market, brookshires

- Dollar stores (dollar tree, dollar general, family dollar, etc)

- thrift stores (goodwill is a stretch bc even though its technically a thrift store its quite expensive. the one near me is anyway)

- garage sales (i freaking love garage sales)

- pawn shops (this is where my dad got most of his tools, our lawn mower, etc)

- first monday trades days (if you live near canton tx youve seen the chaos of this place. if you dont know what it is, its basically a big flea market. me and my family used to go here just to walk around. We'd park in a nearby stores parking lot and then make our way through it, eventually stopping at dog alley. If you know how to negotiate you can get things from nik-naks to full furniture sets here.)

I've never even been in a Sears ya stupid tv ppl.

[dankusner]

Troy Aikman ‘never lost at anything.’ He’s just now starting to enjoy it.

DALLAS — After he’s revved the room and made his pitch, Troy Aikman walks to the back and starts tending bar.

“What can I get ya?” he asks, flashing that famous half-smile over and over, probably because he knows the only beer on tap is his.

It’s a Monday afternoon, late summer, just north of Dallas.

Inside the events room at Andrews Distributing, employees of the biggest beer distributor in Texas are not merely allowed to enjoy a cold one at the end of the workday; they’re encouraged.

Aikman, the Dallas Cowboys icon, Hall of Famer and “Monday Night Football” analyst, has just wrapped a raucous sales rally for Eight, the beer company he founded in 2022, and now he’s manning the tap.

“How about that pour?” Aikman says, serving one up.

He knows he doesn’t have to be here, playing celebrity bartender, posing for photos, signing autographs, sharing stories about how Jimmy Johnson’s urgency shaped his Cowboys teams and how his own father’s work ethic shaped him.

He’s calling a game in Canton in three days and has a trip to New York to celebrate his daughter’s birthday in between.

A video message would’ve sufficed.

But that’d be too easy.

He hates easy.

He and his team worked on the recipe for two years.

Cases would show up on his doorstep from Oregon State University’s fermentation science program, which he partnered with, and they’d do blind taste tests over Zoom.

“Can we make it cleaner?” Aikman kept asking.

He was never going to just slap his name on the label.

He respects the business too much.

Aikman’s first gig in the beverage industry came in college, after his coach at Oklahoma, Barry Switzer, lined him up a summer job before he transferred to UCLA.

Imagine this scene today:

One of the most talented quarterbacks in the nation spending his offseason loading trucks, delivering cases, stocking shelves and building out displays in grocery stores across the state.

“My NIL deal,” Aikman jokes.

Star athlete or not, working wasn’t a choice.

Kenneth Aikman had his son shingling the roof at 12 and clocking in for his first job at 13.

“He treated me as a man from the time I was 6,” Troy says.

In high school he’d spend his Friday nights on the football field and his Saturday mornings installing tires, changing out dead batteries and fixing window units at the Western Auto down the road.

A lesson he learned then is printed on every can of his beer now:

No shortcuts.

Aikman believes it to be the spine of his success: without that wiring, there are no Super Bowls, no 23-year broadcasting career, no booming business ventures.

On paper, his was the archetype American success story, the country kid who made good because he was raised right. GQ once put him on the cover above the headline, “God’s Quarterback.”

But there’s another side to the story that God’s Quarterback rarely talks about.

The success everyone saw masked the inner turmoil no one knew about.

Aikman’s wrestled with it for decades, warring against his own happiness, chasing a finish line he isn’t even sure exists.

Then one day he looked up and realized his second marriage was crumbling.

“A failure,” Aikman calls it. “That was my rock bottom.”

Even now, years later, he’s embarrassed talking about it.

“For me,” he says over breakfast one morning in Dallas, “contentment was always a four-letter word. I never wanted to be content. I didn’t wanna be around anyone who was content. That’s just not a place I could land.”

He’s 57.

He hasn’t taken a warm shower in years.

He starts each morning with a cold one and a 20-minute walk in low-level sunlight to set his circadian rhythm.

He’s in bed by 9 p.m. unless he’s calling a game.

He lifts four days a week and adheres to a recovery routine that would probably make half the starting quarterbacks in the league feel guilty: cold plunges, stints in the sauna and hyperbaric chamber, plus regular red-light and plasma therapies.

For years Aikman jogged every summer afternoon at 3 p.m. — when it’s typically pushing 100 degrees in Dallas — partly because he craved the challenge, partly because he liked how it felt afterward.

He needed to hurt.

“If I didn’t keep myself in shape,” he says, “I’d feel like a fraud.”

He tracks his sleep.

He reads about biohacking.

“I’m obsessed,” he admits.

He carries around a gallon jug of water everywhere he goes, filling it up three times a day.

Wanting more flexibility, he took up yoga this spring, and for the first three months it absolutely wrecked him.

“It’s a b—-,” he says. “Hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Class would finish and he’d just lie there, soaked in sweat, unable to move.

The quarterback who once finished a game as a rookie after being knocked out cold — Aikman had blood dripping from his ear on the sideline — couldn’t even muster the strength to stand.

He’s come to love it.

“I feel like I can do everything I did when I was in my 30s,” he says.

Even play in an NFL game?

“If I had to, yeah,” he says.

The work is what always separated him.

He didn’t have Dan Marino’s arm or Steve Young’s improvisation.

But the work never scared him.

The punishment, either.

Daryl Johnston, a teammate for 11 seasons in Dallas, remembers Aikman walking up to him during the 1993 NFC Championship Game against the 49ers, looking confused. “38-21?”

Aikman asked, reading the scoreboard aloud. “How’d we get on them so quick?” Johnston stood there, stunned.

The starting quarterback didn’t even know the score?

Then, after he watched Aikman slip an ammonia cap under his nose and inhale, Johnston put it together.

The QB had taken a vicious shot to the head early in the game.

Ninety minutes of his memory was gone.

The Cowboys won their second straight Super Bowl seven days later.

“I’ve always felt that my success as an athlete, and as a broadcaster, is not because I’m the most talented guy in the room,” Aikman says.

“It’s because I’m willing to do what most people are not.”

He’s also willing to say what others won’t.

It’s why Aikman remains one of the top TV analysts in sports: he not only prepares like he’s still playing, but he’s blunt when others tend to back away, unafraid to call it like he sees it.

He’s at his best when he says what the fans at home are thinking.

“Troy might be the most honest guy ever,” says Norv Turner, his former offensive coordinator in Dallas.

The routine never changes.

Aikman needs it.

After the game ends Monday night, he takes notes while he watches a replay on his flight home — Aikman owns his own jet and flies private to and from every game — then starts prep for the following week first thing Tuesday morning.

He designed his own spotting boards before his first year in the booth, back in 2001, and he’s been using them ever since.

He prints them out on Thursdays, color codes them, then adds notes all the way up until kickoff.

He refuses to go into a game anything less than completely prepared.

“It took me about a week of us working together to realize why the guy had won three Super Bowls,” says his on-air partner and close friend, Joe Buck.

The pair are the longest-tenured broadcast team in NFL history.

Their 23rd season together begins Monday night outside San Francisco, where they’ll call 49ers-Jets.

A few years ago, Aikman sent the spotting boards he uses for broadcasts to Greg Olsen, who was taking his old job at Fox; this spring, he sent them to Tom Brady. (Courtesy of ESPN)

In March 2023, after Aikman and Buck’s first year at the network, ESPN replaced a director and producer on the MNF team.

Rumors swirled that Aikman was behind the decision; not true, says a company source.

With its first Super Bowl broadcast looming in February 2027, ESPN wanted and needed a better fit for the duo it’s paying a combined $33 million annually.

Execs learned Aikman wanted to be coached hard, no different than when he was growing up in Oklahoma or suiting up for the Cowboys.

The personalities simply hadn’t meshed.

Aikman’s style isn’t for everyone.

He knows this.

But he’s not above showing others what works for him: a few years ago, Aikman sent his spotting boards to Greg Olsen, who was stepping into his old job at Fox; this spring he did the same with Tom Brady, who’ll slide into Olsen’s seat beginning Sunday.

It was important to Aikman to pay it forward. It’s what John Madden did with him.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

How Tom Brady prepared for his Fox NFL broadcasting debut

He doesn’t know how Brady will do as a broadcaster, but he expects the transition will take time.

“It’s not an easy thing to settle into right away,” Aikman says.

Analysts live in 15 to 20-second soundbites.

Then the ball is snapped.

Someone told Aikman early on that calling a game is like a prizefight — “Body blows, body blows, body blows,” he explains, “then every once in a while you have a chance at a knockout punch.”

It took years for him to learn that.

“There’s this idea that ‘I have this wealth of knowledge about the game, and now I get to take people behind the curtain,'” Aikman says.

“You don’t have that kind of time.

And it’s gotten harder over the years because teams are playing faster.

“Whether it’s Tom or Greg or Tony (Romo), you sort of figure that out as you go.”

Aikman also doesn’t downplay the competitive juices simmering in an industry that has seen salaries explode in recent years.

It’s there, whether it’s discussed publicly or not.

Two years after Romo made headlines, signing an extension with CBS that pays $18 million a year, Aikman jumped to ESPN on a similar deal. Brady hasn’t even called a game yet and is already the highest-paid commentator in history, starting a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox.

“That’s the competitive nature of me, and I know these guys are competitive as well,” Aikman says.

“Every one of us wants to be the best. But whether it’s a new guy coming in or other guys being well-received, it doesn’t affect or change my approach. I go about it the same regardless.”

Maybe it doesn’t change his approach.

But Romo’s deal, Olsen’s popularity, the hype surrounding Brady’s debut … it’s caught his attention, right?

Buck, who knows Aikman about as well as anyone, has no doubt.

“We’ve never really talked about this, but it’s only natural. It’s what drives him to watch all that film.”

He’s raging on the sideline at Texas Stadium during a loss late in his career, ripping into his offensive line. “That’s a f—— embarrassment!” he screams. “F—— junior league!”

He’s standing next to an assistant coach, fuming about how far they’d fallen. “

I’m tired of being the guy who’s gotta run down everybody’s throat all the time … why don’t we have a coach who does that?”

Aikman hates these clips.

“Man, I don’t want my daughters seeing that stuff,” he’ll tell his old teammates.

“Troy,” Johnston will remind him, “that was part of your greatness.”

Most only remember the trophies.

Aikman remembers how much the beginning humbled him and how much the end hurt.

He went 0-11 as a rookie and used to walk off the field grumbling, “What’s it take to win a game in this league?” Two years later, fully healthy, he stood on the sideline and watched Steve Beuerlein start the first playoff game of the Jimmy Johnson era.

Turner had met him a year earlier. Aikman’s arm was in a sling.

The Cowboys’ new OC decided to make a joke to lighten the mood.

“We gotta get you to get the ball out a little quicker,” Turner told him.

Aikman didn’t laugh.

Even as the dynasty took off, he struggled to enjoy parts of the climb.

Aikman still remembers the visitor’s locker room at Candlestick Park, just after they’d beaten the 49ers to advance to their first Super Bowl.

Johnson stood on a table and screamed “How ’bout them Cowboys!”

Players yelled.

Players hugged.

The QB walked to the shower, muttering under his breath, “Well, if we don’t win in two weeks, this won’t mean sh–.”

He felt an immense weight before the game, mindful of how it’d shape his legacy.

He knew there was no going back.

“In three and a half hours,” Aikman told himself on the field, “this is either going to be the greatest day of my life or the worst.”

He carved up the Bills’ secondary for four touchdowns in a 52-17 rout.

A few hours later, the game’s MVP couldn’t find anyone to celebrate with.

Aikman walked into the Cowboys party with his girlfriend at the time, looked around, saw nothing but fans wanting autographs and sponsors wanting photos — “Jerry (Jones) making money,” he says — and walked out.

He went back to the hotel, looking for his teammates.

His girlfriend fell asleep.

He called room service and ordered some beer.

He called his parents’ room.

No answer.

Called his sister’s room. No answer.

“No way in hell I was going to bed,” he says.

He ambled down to the lobby, bumped into some members of the Dallas media and threw back beers with them until the sun came up.

He showed up to his MVP press conference the following morning having not slept a wink, head still ringing, “trying not to say anything stupid.”

He decided he was in charge of the Cowboys’ Super Bowl parties from there on out.

“We got better as we went along,” he says with a laugh.

He was the first quarterback to win three Super Bowls in four seasons, and his story was irresistibly American: he was the son of a rancher from Oklahoma, the No. 1 pick with the icy demeanor who’d stand in the pocket, take the hit and fire it on the money.

His name seemed dreamed up by the Football Gods.

He was Clint Eastwood in shoulder pads.

But there always seemed to be a joylessness to him.

He was so … robotic.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once said that fans would write him letters, asking why his star quarterback didn’t have more fun on the field.

“I wasn’t out there to be anybody’s friend,” Aikman says.

By the time they won their third title, in January 1996, Aikman knew they were slipping.

“Hanging on by a thread,” Johnston says.

They escaped Super Bowl XXX with a 27-17 win over the Steelers largely because Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O’Donnell tossed two errant second-half interceptions.

Aikman barely threw for 200 yards.

The Cowboys were lined up in victory formation for the final snap when Steelers linebacker Kevin Greene let them hear it.

“You know we kicked your ass!” Greene screamed from across the line of scrimmage.

“You know we should’ve won this game!”

Aikman smirked.

“Yeah, well guess who’s getting the trophy?” he shouted back.

“Set hut!”

But in postgame interviews, he could barely allow a smile.

“Relief” was the word he kept using.

Johnson had been gone for two years, following a nasty falling out with Jones, two men wrestling over credit while their egos destroyed a dynasty from within.

Everything the coach had built — everything Aikman had bought into — was slowly unraveling.

His father had taught him there was a certain way of doing things; Johnson had done the same.

No shortcuts, remember.

Now Aikman was realizing that without that drive, he was miserable.

He once fumed when Switzer, hired to replace Johnson after the second title, called off practice when half the wide receivers room showed up hungover.

“What am I supposed to do, cut Michael Irvin?” Aikman remembers Switzer asking him.

“No, you don’t cut Michael Irvin,” Aikman told him. “But you cut that guy, and that guy, and that guy.”

By 2000, Aikman’s last year in Dallas, he was taking pain-killing shots before every game just to slog through another beating.

The Cowboys went 5-11.

He decided midway through the season he’d never play for them again.

It wasn’t the back issues.

It wasn’t the concussions.

He was disgusted at what America’s Team had become.

What pissed him off most — and what still irritates him to this day — is that it wasn’t the 49ers or Packers that dethroned them.

The NFL’s team of the 90s sabotaged themselves.

“Not one time did you ever read Michael Irvin complaining that he wasn’t getting enough credit, or Emmitt Smith complaining he wasn’t getting enough credit, or me complaining I wasn’t getting enough credit,” Aikman says, getting a bit heated over breakfast.

“Every player on those teams did what we had to do to win.

“And yet the two guys who led the organization couldn’t do it. That’s the part that was bullsh–.”

Turner puts it this way: “Deep down, Troy thinks they could’ve won a couple more.”

Ask Aikman which of the current coaches he’d like to play for, and his answers aren’t all that surprising: Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LeFleur.

Then he thinks about it a little more, and his response is telling.

“Tom (Brady) is gonna laugh at this,” he finally says. “But I would have loved to play for Bill Belichick.”

Dad would always ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and Troy would always give him the same answer: professional athlete.

As a kid, he’d spend nights alone in his bedroom, practicing his signature, perfecting it for the day he started getting autograph requests.

Kenneth Aikman took no issue with his son’s ambition — he just wanted him to know what it’d require.

Around the house, he was rigid and unrelenting.

When he laid down orders, he didn’t repeat himself.

“In some ways it was really good for me,” Troy says. “But you give up a lot of childhood in the process.”

The family moved from California to Oklahoma when Troy was 12.

His dad hired two carpenters and built their house from the ground up.

“A modern-day Wyatt Earp,” Troy has called him in interviews.

“He instilled the fear of God in me growing up.”

His older sisters, too.

Once, after one of them left a rotting banana peel on the kitchen counter, dad grew furious.

“If I find another one,” he warned, “you’re gonna eat it.” Not long after, he did. And he stuck to his word.

It’s not a story Aikman tells often.

He was actually better at baseball than football growing up, and he wasn’t even planning on going out for the high school team until his dad asked him about it. “You know football sign-ups are today, right? You’re signing up, right?”

Troy didn’t have it in him to tell him no. He needed to show the toughest man he knew that he was tough, too.

The resolve he built as a teenager never eased. Time and success only hardened it. He’d play half the NFC Championship Game with no memory of it. He’d unload on coaches and teammates when the standard wasn’t being met. He’d get pain-killing shots just so he could be on the field for a five-win team.

Even in retirement he felt a pull, like there was more to prove. He almost came back three times. He was ready to play for the Chargers in 2001; San Diego signed Doug Flutie instead. Then-Eagles coach Andy Reid called him in 2002 after Donovan McNabb broke his leg; Philadelphia was 7-3 and needed a quarterback for the playoff push. Aikman mulled it overnight but decided against it. A year later, the Dolphins thought they were a quarterback away. Turner was calling the plays. Aikman was in. He started training. Ultimately, Miami general manager Rick Spielman couldn’t get comfortable with Aikman’s injury history.

Broadcasting scratched an itch, but slowly Aikman learned the void would never again be filled. “You know the thing about this business that kills me?” he told Buck their first year together. “There’s no scoreboard.”

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

2024 NFL media preview: What to expect from Tom Brady, Netflix and Bill Belichick

He poured himself into other pursuits. A restaurant. A car dealership. For a time he was part-owner of the San Diego Padres, then a NASCAR team. He quit golf for a while because it drove him nuts. “I can run a little hot sometimes,” Aikman says.

He moved on to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing. It was all he knew to do. Standing still scared him to death.

“There have been times when I’m like, ‘Bro, just chill, you don’t have to chase all this stuff,'” Buck says. “But any idea of him just drifting into a peaceful retirement, sitting on a beach somewhere, that’s just the furthest thing from his mind.”

Years passed. The more Aikman ran from contentment, the more it robbed him of his own happiness. His first marriage fell apart. Then his second. So he went to work on himself, trying to balance something that took years for him to accept: the traits that made him a Hall of Famer were the same ones keeping him from life’s simple joys.

He started meditating daily. He learned he could skip one workout a week and not beat himself up over it. He realized everyone doesn’t think like a quarterback, and that being content wasn’t a sign of weakness — or worse yet, a character flaw.

“It’s taken decades,” Aikman admits. “Not to get weird on you, but it’s taken a lot of personal work … finding it within myself to give myself grace. There was a lot of, ‘Why do I feel this way?’ There’s also been a curiosity that’s allowed me to unlock a lot of locked doors.”

That doesn’t mean the man’s lost his edge. A few years ago, he and Buck were standing on the sideline during a Cowboys walkthrough, prepping to call a game the next day. One of the coaches asked Aikman if he wanted to take a few snaps with the scout team. Are you kidding? He stepped into the huddle, on the wrong side of 50, determined to torch Dallas’ first-team defense.

“I’m gonna challenge them,” he told Buck. “You don’t run the scout team to be bad.”

Buck and Aikman kick off Year 23 of their partnership Monday night. (Courtesy of ESPN)

Aikman’s newest venture taps into some of the same competitive urges. Eight’s launch in 2022 was the biggest of any independent beer in the history of the state. But Aikman wasn’t thrilled with Year 2, so he spent a month recruiting Dave Reny, who at the time was working for Yuengling, to be his new CEO.

At first, Reny hesitated. He liked where he was at.

“Dave,” Aikman told him, “I’ve never lost at anything in my life. I’m not about to lose at this.”

In between the beer and the booth, Aikman devotes his time to his two 20-something daughters, Jordan and Alexa. “He couldn’t be a better dad,” Buck says. He’s got a soft side, his on-air partner vows, even if most don’t believe it. The tough-as-nails, fire-breathing quarterback who’s bitingly honest when he’s calling a game is actually an easy cry. When Aikman gave a speech at Buck’s wedding a handful of years ago, the entire room was left in tears, Aikman included.

Buck still remembers the first time they spoke, back in 2001, a few weeks after Fox paired them together. He nervously called up his new partner. “I know we don’t know each other real well, but I’ve got my St. Louis Children’s Hospital charity golf tournament coming up,” Buck said, “and I don’t know if there’s any chance you could come …”

“I’ll be there,” Aikman told him.

“That side of him’s never changed,” Buck says.

The loyalty runs both ways. During Aikman’s negotiations with ESPN in 2022, the two spoke every day. Aikman made it clear: he wasn’t making the move unless they made the move together.

“He lost a lot of sleep thinking he was going to have to start over,” Buck says. “Fox flashed Olsen and Brady at me before I left. I told them, ‘I’m sure Greg’s gonna be great. I’m sure Tom’s gonna be great. But I know what I’ve got with Troy.’

“We get along. We fit. We genuinely like each other, and that’s a really comforting feeling when you’re doing a Super Bowl for 115 million people.”

Aikman’s never had a problem fighting for his own. Last winter — after resisting for almost 30 years — Jones finally relented and inducted Johnson into the Cowboys Ring of Honor. What few knew was how central a role Aikman played behind the scenes. His coach deserved it. It was a wrong Aikman needed to see righted.

Back at the beer distributor in Dallas, Aikman finishes bartending and slips out the back. His plane’s waiting for him. After a busy summer traveling and promoting Eight, he’s anxious to get back to the rhythms of the season. He’s learned to enjoy it more than he did in the past.

More than that, he’s learned he’s allowed to enjoy it.

“I’ve found contentment, if you can believe it,” Aikman says. “And it’s a really good feeling.”

For him peace was a process, long and aggravating, thrilling in moments but draining in others, a journey littered with the triumphs everyone saw and the inner storms no one knew about. Only now does he know one doesn’t come without the other.

That would’ve been too easy, anyway. Troy Aikman’s always hated easy.

[swissforextrading]

Swiss Federal Railways reports lower profit, higher punctuality

At CHF50.8 million ($59 million), Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) made only half as much profit in the first half of 2024 as in the same period of the previous year. According to SBB, the main reasons for this were lower revenue in freight transport and higher costs for infrastructure and regional transport. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox At the same time, SBB recorded a record number of passengers, as SBB announced on Monday. Every day, 1.34 million passengers traveled on SBB trains. This is 0.7% more than in the same period last year. According to the press release, SBB's passenger trains were more punctual in the first half of the year than ever before in a first semester. Some 93.8% of trains arrived on time. + SBB makes profit for first time since pandemic According to SBB, punctuality improved in Western Switzerland and the southern canton of Ticino in particular. Some 98.9% of connections were guaranteed. Translated from German by DeepL/jdp How we ... https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-made/sbb-profit-in-the-first-half-of-the-year-only-half-as-high-as-in-the-previous-year/87516021?utm_source=multiple&utm_campaign=swi-rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=o (Source of the original content)

[sa7abnews]

Michigan father of 2 shot and killed after dispute with neighbor over mulch: 'A gentle soul'

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/michigan-father-of-2-shot-and-killed-after-dispute-with-neighbor-over-mulch-a-gentle-soul/

Michigan father of 2 shot and killed after dispute with neighbor over mulch: 'A gentle soul'

A Michigan father of two was shot and killed Saturday after a confrontation with his neighbor turned deadly, police said. The violence unfolded just before noon in a quiet residential neighborhood in Canton. One neighbor told FOX 2 the neighborhood had never had an episode like this in the more than three decades he had been living there. Canton police officers were dispatched to the 200 block of Cornell Street in response to an apparent confrontation between two neighbors. Responding officers found the victim with gunshot wounds. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died. The shooting suspect, later identified as 47-year-old Devereaux Christopher Johnson, barricaded himself inside his home before eventually surrendering to police. “This was a senseless act of violence toward the victim,” Canton Police Chief Chad Baugh said in a statement. “The Canton Police Department sends our deepest condolences to the victim’s family, and to the neighbors who may have witnessed this tragic event.” NORTH CAROLINA SHERIFF HUNTING ‘CHRISTMAS DAY KILLER’ KNOWS HIM PERSONALLY, WARNS HE HAS ‘NOTHING TO LOSE’The victim was identified as Nathan Morris, a 35-year-old engineer at Ford Motors and a father of two. A GoFundMe page set up by Morris’ family described him as a “family man first and foremost [who] was active in the community and ran for the Canton School Board recently.” Michigan RNC Committeewoman Hima Kolanagireddy said Morris got involved in politics when Ford mandated COVID-19 vaccines. She said she “worked closely with him as the former Chair of the MI-6th CDRC, and as a member of the Wayne 6th CDRC, of which he was a secretary.” “On Saturday, while taking a stroll with his family in his neighborhood, his daughter touched the mulch of one of the neighbors. The neighbor took a gun out and started threatening the family,” Kolanagireddy said. “Nathan sent his family home and said that he would try and defuse the situation, but instead was shot and killed.”Kolanagireddy described Morris as “a gentle soul” who was “near perfect.” “He would do no harm and think no harm,” she wrote. Johnson was arraigned Monday in the 35th District Court on first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a weapon. Judge James A. Plakas remanded Johnson to be held at the Wayne County jail without bond. Johnson’s next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23.

[journeyman-jack-in-ecuador]

14MAY24- "In the last three days from Friday to Monday, May 13, there have been four massacres that left more than 20 people murdered. The crimes have been concentrated in three coastal provinces, where violence does not let up: Manabí, Guayas and Santa Elena.

These are the same provinces that were among the five that President Daniel Noboa included in the state of exception , decreed on April 30. The argument behind the measure focused on the need to address the increase in violence, although without providing further details in this regard. El Oro and Los Ríos were also on the list. However, on May 10, the Constitutional Court did not endorse the decree and declared it unconstitutional.

READ: Former police commanders in Ecuador linked to controversies and alleged corruption

This occurs in a context in which the Government affirms that homicides have decreased. Last week, the Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia, in an interview on Contacto Directo assured that there had been a 26% reduction in violent deaths compared to the previous year, which is true in general terms. However, why does violence persist in certain provinces? Here the details.

Flourish logoA Flourish chart

VIOLENCE PERSISTS ON THE COASTAL PROFILE, THE DRUG ROUTE

If we compare the evolution of violent deaths until May 2023 and 2024, the results agree with those provided by the Minister of the Interior: a slight reduction has been observed, minus 17%. Until this month last year, 2,548 violent deaths were recorded in Ecuador. In contrast, this year, to date, 2,094 homicides have been reported nationwide.

However, provinces like Manabí show a less encouraging trend. In recent days, there has been a significant increase in violence.

In a period of just 24 hours , two massacres were recorded that left a tragic death toll of eight victims . On Sunday, during the celebration of Mother's Day, the first event occurred in Tosagua , where four people lost their lives when a group of individuals opened fire inside a beauty salon in the center of the canton.

READ: First year of the GAD: four mayors murdered, one fined and several political twists

On Monday, the violence continued in the province with another incident. Four men were shot outside a mechanical workshop in Manta. Authorities found 28 bullet casings at the scene, evidence of the violent attack.

With this, the province has a total of 309 violent deaths, exceeding the 276 registered in the same period of the previous year.

A similar episode occurs in the province of Santa Elena, where early this Saturday, May 11, eight people were murdered in an armed attack at the El Ídolo bar in the Pechiche compound, in the Chanduy parish.

According to local media , with this massacre there are 76 violent deaths so far this year in the peninsular province. While until this date in 2023, 71 homicides were recorded.

On Sunday, in addition to the massacre in Tosagua, another was also recorded in the canton of Daule, in the province of Guayas, where five people were murdered. Among the victims were a man and his son, who were traveling on a bicycle.

Although until April, the province of Guayas did register a significant reduction in violent deaths from 925 to 791, there is a common factor that these provinces share, they are all located on the coast.

READ: The list of the government's military objectives raises questions

According to Jean Paúl Pinto, a specialist in security and intelligence issues, the coastal area has become the epicenter of violence due to its relevance as an entry and exit route for drugs. "What it tells us is that the business continues and does not stop," says Pinto.

"In this period, we have observed an increase in the fight for territorial control. The business continues to be profitable, and it is precisely in these areas where the killings are concentrated," adds the expert.

In recent statements, Minister Palencia highlighted that, despite the fact that the Constitutional Court did not approve the new state of exception, the Police are implementing other strategies to combat the violence that persists in these territories:

Quote

"THERE ARE FIVE PROVINCES THAT CONTINUE TO PRESENT PRIORITY PROBLEMS, WHICH WERE THE ONES THAT THE PRESIDENT HAD DECLARED IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY. NOW THAT WE DO NOT HAVE THIS TOOL, WE ARE WORKING HARD ON INVESTIGATIONS, EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION AND THE CONFIGURATION OF TWO GROUPS (FICE AND FIAC), PALENCIA.

What explains the new massacres is a resurgence of violence, which according to the expert, reaffirms that the apparent period of calm that followed the declaration of the internal armed conflict was only temporary.

Regarding militarization, according to Pinto, this has not been a lasting solution to reduce violence in these provinces. He points out that security problems are structural and that, as long as no project is started to alleviate unemployment and the lack of access to education for young people, increases in violence will continue."

https://www.ecuavisa.com/la-noticia-a-fondo/violencia-persiste-cuatro-masacres-en-una-semana-perfil-costanero-GC7316811

[cityseeker789]

Unveiling Ambala's Hidden Gems, History, and Thrills!

Ditch the Taj Mahal and Golden Temple crowds and dive into Ambala, India, tourist attractions. Colonial bungalows whisper tales in the cantonment, ancient temples echo with devotion, and vibrant bazaars burst where you can buy all those beautiful patiyala suits, eat authentic punjabi food, and quench your thirst with ambala whiskey. Beyond the usual tourist trail, Ambala offers wildlife encounters at Chhatbir Zoo, serene gardens in Pinjore, and the soulful chants of Anarkali Darbar Sahib. So, pack your bags, lace up your shoes, and discover the unexpected beauty of Ambala. From history buffs to adventure seekers, this Indian city promises an unforgettable experience. Don't wait; Ambala awaits!

History First!

The city is divided into two parts: Ambala Cantonment and Ambala City, each offering a unique glimpse into India's past. Ambala Cantonment, established during the British era, still retains its colonial charm with well-preserved architecture and wide avenues. The old bazaars in Ambala City exude an ancient aura, showcasing the city's deep-rooted connection to Indian history. Stroll Ambala Cantonment's quaint lanes, dive into history at the ancient Shiv Mandir and Kali Devi Temple, then escape to Pinjore Gardens' Mughal magic. Cross the city divide to Ambala City, where bustling bazaars burst with life and the iconic railway station's arches tell tales of a bygone era.

Spots You Can't Miss!

For a serene spiritual experience, the Badshahi Bagh Gurudwara stands as a testament to religious harmony amidst tranquil surroundings. Then there is Rani Ka Talab, a historic tank enveloped in lush greenery that offers a peaceful escape from urban chaos. For devotees seeking solace, the Bhawani Amba Temple, dedicated to the goddess Bhawani Amba, is a haven known for intricate carvings and a deeply spiritual ambiance.

Hidden Gems!

Escape the mainstream, explore Ambala's untrodden paths, and discover its captivating whispers. Seek solace in Sheikh Chilli's Tomb, a kaleidoscope of vibrant tiles and local lore. Gurudwara Manji Sahib, nestled away from the tourist mainstream, presents a serene haven for worship. Then you can pay a visit to the serene Anarkali Darbar Sahib, where communal meals and peaceful chants nourish both body and soul. For nature lovers, the Herbal Garden promises a fragrant wonderland, while the tranquil banks of the Ghaggar River offer a haven for birdwatchers.

Chhatbir Zoo: A Wildlife Extravaganza

No trip to Ambala is complete without a visit to the Chhatbir Zoo. For nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts, a visit to this destination is an absolute must. Located approximately 20 kilometers from Ambala, this zoo is a haven for diverse flora and fauna. Home to over 85 species of animals, including majestic lions, graceful tigers, playful monkeys, and various exotic birds, Chhatbir Zoo promises an unforgettable experience. Chhatbir Zoo's timings are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except Monday and national holidays. The best time to explore the zoo is during the morning hours, when the animals are most active. So, pack a picnic lunch and make a day of it amidst the lush green environs.

Shopper’s Paradise

Get straight to the bustling Sadar Bazaar in Ambala, which is a haven for traditional handicrafts, aromatic spices, and vibrant fabrics. Cloth Market entices with its exquisite textiles, showcasing the city's rich textile heritage. From intricate jewelry to locally woven textiles and delicious street food delicacies, experience the warm hospitality of the Ambalawasi.

Author Name Megha Sharma

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Monday, 9th October

Welcome, 안녕하세요, Välkommen, Bienvenida 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 9th October through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

9th October 2019 🗓️ : Event - 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria Turkey begins its military offensive in north-eastern Syria. "The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring (Turkish: Barış Pınarı Harekâtı) by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and later..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0? by Rr016

9th October 2017 🗓️ : Death - Jean Rochefort Jean Rochefort, French actor (b. 1930) "Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort (French: [ʒã ʁɔʃ.fɔʁ]; 29 April 1930 – 9 October 2017) was a French actor. He received many accolades during his career, including an Honorary César in 1999...."

Image licensed under CC0? by Hans van Dijk for Anefo

9th October 2013 🗓️ : Death - Solomon Lar Solomon Lar, Nigerian educator and politician, 4th Governor of Plateau State (b. 1933) "Chief (Dr.) Solomon Daushep Lar (4 April 1933 – 9 October 2013) (Walin Langtang) was a Nigerian politician who has held various offices at the National level for over 50 years. He was a member of the first national parliament when Nigeria gained independence in 1960. He was elected governor of..."

9th October 1973 🗓️ : Birth - Fabio Lione Fabio Lione, Italian singer-songwriter and keyboard player "Fabio Tordiglione (born 9 October 1973), known professionally as Fabio Lione, is an Italian singer and lyricist who has worked with many bands in the metal genre. He was known for being the singer of Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire for 21 years. He later formed his own band..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by S. Bollmann, derivative work Lämpel

9th October 1923 🗓️ : Birth - Donald Sinden Donald Sinden, English actor (d. 2014) "Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor. Sinden featured in the film Mogambo (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including The Cruel Sea (1953), Doctor in the House (1954), Simba (1955), Eyewitness (1956)..."

Image by Unknown authorUnknown author

9th October 1820 🗓️ : Event - Guayaquil Guayaquil declares independence from Spain. "Guayaquil (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡwaʝaˈkil] ; Quechua: Wayakil), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is located on the west bank..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Berposen, Wikivinny, Michael Shick, Charles Pence, Padaguan, Sageo, Andrew Magill.

9th October 🗓️ : Holiday - World Post Day "World Post Day is an international day that occurs each year on October 9, the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which started in 1874 in Switzerland. The UPU was the start of the global communications revolution, introducing the ability to write letter to others all over the world...."

Image by Uploaded by User:Nickpo

[vivecmilkfinger]

Also my sister went to the First Monday Trade Days in Canton and someone was selling these so she got them for me! Really cool that she found the Adoring Fan in Texas lol

The artists Instagram is

https://instagram.com/gildedmagnoliastudio?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== btw

[mariacallous]

The family of Nizama Hecimovic, whose livestreamed murder in August 2023 in the town of Gradacac sparked angry protests, appealed on Monday to the Federal Police Administration to open a new internal investigation into alleged policing errors that could have cost the victim’s life.

“We… have the right to the truth and we demand that higher authorities conduct a thorough investigation into why the police forces in Gradacac and other parts of the Tuzla Canton did not take prompt action that could have surely prevented the murder of Nizama Hecimovic,” said a letter signed by Hecimovic’s aunt and uncle, Zijada and Samir Pamukovic, along with members of a campaign group from Gradacac.

On August 11 last year, Nermin Sulejmanovic, a bodybuilder with a criminal record, broke into the house where his ex-partner Hecimovic was hiding, forcibly took her away to an unknown location where he first tortured her and then shot her dead while streaming live on social media platform Instagram.

Later that day, Sulejmanovic also killed father and son Denis and Cengiz Onder and wounded three other people, including a police officer, before taking his own life.

The letter said that after he seized Hecimovic, Sulejmanovic was hiding “just two minutes away from the police station, a fact well-known to the police, as well as the danger posed by her killer, who the same police allowed to roam the city for years with a weapon without a permit”. The letter claimed that despite the fact that the killer was nearby, it took more than 40 minutes before the police arrived at the location.

Hecimovic had previously made domestic violence allegations against her ex-partner.

An internal investigation already conducted by the Police Administration of Tuzla Canton, one of ten cantons in Bosnia’s Federation entity, said that no mistakes were made by the police in providing protection to the victim after she reported the domestic violence.

But the family and campaigners want the Federal Police Administration, a higher authority, to scrutinise the police’s conduct again.

“The family and the public in Gradacac have not received any statement except that it’s been stated in the media that they have determined that none of the police officers is guilty. The family has also not received any explanation or apology,” said the letter.

However, according to Bosnian law, the Federal Police Administration will not be able to open a new internal investigation because the Cantonal Appeal Department is responsible for such matters.

Meanwhile Bosnian news channel N1 has reported that a municipal court judge in Gradacac, Lejla Numanovic, who refused to impose a restraining order on Sulejmanovic, is currently facing disciplinary action.

The appeal for renewed scrutiny of the police’s conduct in the Gradacac killing comes less than two weeks after the murder of another woman in the city of Tuzla.

An off-duty police officer on annual leave, Elvis Custendil, killed Amra Kahrimanovic with 16 shots from his duty weapon. The Federal Police Administration, the supervising body for all cantonal police administrations, has taken over the internal investigation in this case.

So far, despite calls from campaigners, no police official has resigned over either case.

[crimechannels]

By • Olalekan Fagbade My aide was robbed, killed by ‘soldiers’, Senator  finally reveals   The chairman of the Senate committee on appropriations, Solomon Adeola, has revealed how his aide, Adeniyi Oluwatosin Sanni, was allegedly robbed and killed by soldiers operating checkpoints around the Ikeja axis of Lagos state on Saturday, August 5, 2023. In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, the senator said Sanni was stopped at a checkpoint around the Ojodu-Berger area of Lagos on his way to his home at Isheri by “security agents.” He said the deceased was asked to provide the documents of the car he was driving, which he did through a call to his wife who sent all the documents to his phone through a WhatsApp message. The senator noted that when the wife called a while later, the late husband told him soldiers were still checking the vehicle’s particulars. It was gathered that that was said to have been their last conversation before she was informed of the discovery of Sanni’s corpse, riddled with bullets, at the Toyota Bus Stop area of Oshodi, close to a military barrack. Adeola said: “I am of the firm belief, based on available facts at the disposal of the Police that my aide was killed by a syndicate of soldiers operating under the newly deployed Commander of 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment of the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Nsikan John Edet, through mounting of checkpoints and robbing of lone occupants of cars. “Top police sources familiar with the investigation informed me that a similar brutal killing and armed robbery occurred around the same Ojodu- Berger late Thursday night of August 17, 2023, resulting in the killing of another Nigerian whose body was discovered around Iyana-Ipaja after he was taken away by soldiers from the checkpoint. “Unknown to the soldiers, the occupant of the car they killed and took away his car was the second car in a convoy of two heading towards the same destination. The first car passed the soldiers checkpoint but the second car was stopped to check his vehicle’s papers. “On noticing the absence of the second car after a while, the occupant of the first car (name withheld) placed a call to his colleague in the second car who informed him that he was being taken to Iyana-Ipaja by the soldiers at the checkpoint. Senator Adeola further stated: “That was the last he heard from him and his dead body was later discovered dumped on the road just like Mr. Sanni. “The survivor in the first car reported the case to the Police and a pattern of armed robbery and killing in the area involving men in Army uniform was established.” Adeola, therefore, called on the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja, to direct the fishing out of the killers of his aide for further investigation, prosecution, and justice for the deceased. He said such a pattern of killings and armed robbery had been established against soldiers mounting late-night checkpoints around Ikeja with similar unreported incidents in recent times around Ikeja. He added that the Nigerian Army cannot be seen to condone or harbour rogue elements robbing and killing innocent Nigerians within its fold. According to him, “Till date, the black Toyota Camry of Mr. Sanni, his phones, and other valuables are yet to be recovered.” #Aide #robbed #Senator #Soldiers

[swissforextrading]

Rail freight transport faces major challenges in Switzerland

Railway construction work next year will cause the temporary closure of various lines in Switzerland, resulting in major challenges for rail freight operators. Sections of the Simplon line from canton Valais in southern Switzerland to Milan, Italy, are to be completely closed on the Italian side for up to three months next year, Swiss public radio SRF reported on Monday. The situation will also be complicated in August for freight traffic on the Gotthard line: the marshalling yard in Chiasso will be rebuilt and at Bellinzona there will only be one track available at the same time. In addition, construction work is planned north of the Alps in summer. A list from the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) reveals a total of 15 construction projects on the north-south axis, many involving “full closures”. “The operating situation in freight transport is and remains difficult,” says Andreas Windlinger from the FOT. + First passenger train safely through Gotthard tunnel Construction is... https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/rail-freight-transport-faces-major-challenges-in-switzerland/48937358?utm_campaign=swi-rss&utm_source=multiple&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=o (Source of the original content)

[unitedstatesmailboxvirtual]

United States Mailbox | Post Office | Virtual Mail Delivery: World Cup 2022: USA earns a draw in first global match since 2014 - KRCR

United States Mailbox | Post Office | Virtual Mail Delivery: World Cup 2022: USA earns a draw in first global match since 2014 - KRCR United States Mailbox | Post Office | Virtual Mail Delivery World Cup 2022: USA earns a draw in first global match since 2014 - KRCR by United States Virtual Mailbox Digital Mail, Diego Canton on Wednesday 23 November 2022 12:31 AM UTC-05 | Tags: #unitedstatesmailboxpostofficevirtualmaildelivery united-states-mailbox-post-office-virtual-mail-delivery On Monday, team USA's men's soccer team played their first World Cup match in over 8 years.People packed into the Post Office in downtown Redding, ... Mobile AL Hempstead NY Michigan Ohio Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana November 22, 2022 at 07:13PM Tags: #unitedstatesmailboxpostofficevirtualmaildelivery united-states-mailbox-post-office-virtual-mail-delivery Dousman Wisconsin Castroville Texas Katie Oklahoma Goodfield Illinois Virtual Mailbox November 22, 2022 at 11:43PM