#Washington County News

[notepok]

Washington County News | Chatom Alabama

Washington County News | Chatom Alabama

Washington County News | Chatom Alabama Washington County News | Chatom Alabama Washington County News | Chatom Alabama https://twitter.com/wcn_hct    

[reasonsforhope]

"Around the capital beltway or Washington’s famous Rock Creek Park, you may see a group of people ripping up vines along the treeline beside the roads.

If you have then you’ve glimpsed superheroes who traded in their capes for gardening gloves and their time for the satisfaction of terminating an invasive species and saving a native tree.

Washington D.C’s “Weed Warriors” are a group of volunteers going back to 1999 that work for free to keep hundreds of species of invasive shrubs, vines, and climbers from taking over native ecosystems.

Among the 600 or so non-native invasive plant species found in and around our nation’s capital, some like Polygonum perfoliatum, also known as “mile-a-minute” vine, can be devastating. Suffocating trees by overgrowing the leaves in their canopy branches, mile-a-minute can kill thousands of trees every year.

Since 1999, Weed Warrior volunteers have logged over 135,000 hours of time weed whacking in Montgomery County alone. Anyone can become a Weed Warrior; the group works in units for two-hour spaces removing weeds or planting native species in their place.

These invasive species management events are led by specially-trained volunteer Weed Warrior Supervisors and/or staff from the Montgomery Parks Dept. Warriors can get certified to de-weed in their spare time, or lead events on their own. They can even have their own unique patch of ground in the D.C.-Metro area to control.

Why would anyone want to trade their free time or laboring hours away for free doing something our tax dollars are supposed to do for us? The answer is simple: it’s addicting.

“If I have any good mental health, it’s due to Weed Warrioring,” said 74-year-old area resident Barbara Francisco. “You have a sense of accomplishment.” ...

The Weed Warriors website states that non-native, invasive plant species (NNIs) can alter the complex webs of plant-animal associations that have evolved over thousands of years to such a degree that plants and animals once familiar to us are eliminated...

Anyone who feels this is something they want to contribute their time to can go to the Montgomery County Parks website here and look at the upcoming Weed Warrior events—the next one is October 21st."

-via Good News Network, October 12, 2023

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Internal Secret Service emails obtained by CREW show special agents in close communication with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, while failing to acknowledge the group’s ties to white nationalists and clashes with law enforcement.

In September 2020, a Secret Service agent sent an email to others within the agency, informing them that he had just spoken to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes about an upcoming visit by then-President Trump to Fayetteville, NC. The agent, who referred to himself as “the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official),” described the group as “primarily retired law enforcement/former military members who are very pro-LEO [law enforcement officer] and Pro Trump. Their stated purpose is to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups.” He went on to say that Rhodes, “had specific questions and wanted to liaison [sic] with our personnel” and shared Rhodes’s cell phone number.

The emails obtained by CREW as part of an ongoing public records request offer only a snapshot of the communication between the Oath Keepers and the Secret Service. As they focus solely on the time period around the Fayetteville event, the extent of the contact Stewart Rhodes had with the agency remains unknown. The agent “inching towards” being the “official” liaison for Oath Keepers suggests a more longstanding relationship with Rhodes.

Another Secret Service agent spoke to Rhodes and informed the other agents that “their desire is to assist those attending the event make it to and from their cars safely. They are NOT there to demonstrate or push a political agenda.” In October 2022, a former member of the Oath Keepers testified that Rhodes had spoken to the Secret Service to coordinate around the rally, but an agency spokesman told CNN that, “The US Secret Service doesn’t have enough information to say whether or not this call actually took place.” These emails show that it did.

When one agent requested intelligence about the Oath Keepers another responded: “General searches revealed news articles that touched on the background of the founder Stewart Rhodes and the group. Rhodes has denounced White Nationalists ideals while sharing his dislike for ANTIFA…The group claims it is a local community response team for natural or civil disorders.” Agents also noted that a Facebook account associated with the group “contained pro-gun content, commentary on racism in the US, and news articles about politics,” but failed to find anything else.

There was plenty of other publicly available information about Rhodes and the Oath Keepers at the time that should have easily raised alarm.

In 2014, Oath Keepers traveled to Ferguson, Missouri with assault rifles claiming they were providing security for businesses in the area after the grand jury decision not to indict the white police officer who killed Michael Brown. The St. Louis County Police Department had to demand that the Oath Keepers stop patrolling the city, explaining in a statement that members were walking on rooftops of businesses holding semi-automatic rifles, breaking the county’s ordinance regulating security officers and guards. The police reportedly threatened arrest, and the Oath Keepers began protesting the authorities.

On the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s shooting, Oath Keepers again arrived in Ferguson with assault rifles and flak jackets, apparently intending to “protect” businesses and right-wing journalists, including an employee from InfoWars. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar called their presence “both unnecessary and inflammatory.” This was also covered extensively by national media.

The group has also compared Hillary Clinton to Hitler on its website, and on May 5, 2015, Rhodes was recorded saying that then-Sen. John McCain should be tried for treason, convicted and “hung by the neck until dead.” A long list of former Oath Keepers allegedly cut ties with the group by 2017, citing concerns with Rhodes’s leadership.

Rhodes’s conduct outside of the Oath Keepers had also repeatedly come into question. In October 2015, the Montana Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel recommended that Rhodes be disbarred for violating his attorney oath following a number of ethics and conduct complaints against him, joining Arizona, which admonished Rhodes in 2012 for practicing without a license.

While the nearly all-white Oath Keepers themselves are purportedly not a white nationalist organization, and Rhodes may have “denounced” white nationalist ideals, Oath Keepers have repeatedly worked alongside white supremacist and white nationalist groups. In 2016, as neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups such as the National Socialist Movement, factions of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Freedom Party deployed members at polling sites, the Oath Keepers advised its members to do the same undercover. The Washington Post reported in 2017 that white supremacists in the alt-right scene “seem to have a lot in common with the Oath Keepers,” but that the Oath Keepers were not as racist or radical as certain far-right white nationalists would “prefer.” The Oath Keepers have repeatedly been highlighted in national articles as part of the landscape of white supremacist militias, and are often tied to their public ally the Proud Boys, a group that has been categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Proud Boys similarly are allied with the American Guard, a white nationalist group according to SPLC.

Rhodes is now best known for his role in organizing significant turnout of insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, just a few months after he was in contact with the Secret Service. Rhodes and other Oath Keepers planned to participate in violence at the Capitol—against Secret Service protectees, no less—and he gave followers instructions like “stay fully armed” and “get ready to fight” leading up to the attack.

In November 2022, Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a jury for his role in the attempt to keep Donald Trump in power, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May—the longest of any convicted January 6th defendant so far. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Rhodes’s role in January 6th amounted to terrorism and said that he presents “an ongoing threat and peril to this country.”

[smilingpepperonisgirl]

The New York Times sent people to figure out the citizens of Clallam County.

[rabbitcruiser]

Bibliomania Day

Stephen Blumberg loved books. It has been written that “it was his habit to read constantly through the night, cat-napping, walking, reading, dozing, waking, reading again, never fully sleeping.” Stephen Blumberg didn’t just love books, he was a bibliomaniac. Bibliomania is when someone has a strong love of books, where they collect them to the point of hoarding, and social relations and health may suffer. Symptoms may include acquiring more books than would be useful for any reason or getting many copies of the same book. The term was coined by John Ferriar, who published a poem in 1809 with the word as its title, for his friend Richard Heber, who had the condition. The term became used to describe obsessive book collectors. That same year, Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin published Bibliomania; or Book Madness. Bibliomania is different from bibliophilia, which is a healthy form of love for books.

On March 20, 1990, Stephen Blumberg’s bibliomania caught up with him. He was arrested for stealing more than 23,600 books (weighing 19 tons) from 268 libraries, universities, and museums. It had taken him over 20 years to steal them, and he got them from 45 states, Washington D.C., and Canada. After originally being thought to be valued at around $20 million, the value of the books was estimated at $5.3 million. He is known as the number one book thief in American history and became known as the Book Bandit. The books he stole, which included a first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin among other rare books, became known as the “Blumberg Collection.”

An acquaintance of Blumberg, Kenneth J. Rhodes, turned him in for a $56,000 reward. During Blumberg’s trial, a psychiatric doctor let it be known that Blumberg had gone through psychiatric treatment as an adolescent. The defense claimed that Blumberg had stolen the books because of psychiatric issues beyond his control. According to the defense, Blumberg had thought he was saving the books from destruction by stealing them. He thought that the government was trying to keep them so that everyday people wouldn’t have them, and he thought he was acting as custodian of the books and doing something good. Because he was well-intentioned, he said he would have never sold any of the books for a profit, and hoped they would go to another person who would take good care of them after he was gone. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to 71 months in prison and given a $200,000 fine, and insanity or psychology wasn’t factored into the decision. He was released on December 29, 1995, and has since been arrested for burglary multiple times.

On Bibliomania Day, we remember Stephen Blumberg and his remarkable feat of stealing over 23,600 books. Could you buy, steal, or gather together that many books? Probably not, but you aren’t the world’s most famous bibliomaniac. Perhaps on Bibliomania Day, you could at least try.

How to Observe

Celebrate the day by getting as many books as possible. It’s probably best not to steal them as Stephen Blumberg did, but that’s a decision you will have to make for yourself. You could start by getting some books about bibliomaniacs, such as A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books or The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. After that your options are limitless. As bibliomaniacs tend to collect any and all books, regardless of their value, you could just start trying to gather up any books you can find. But maybe it’s best to start by getting some of the best fiction or non-fiction books of all time.

Source

[petnews2day]

Washington, Illinois, couple launches Poop Busters dog cleanup service

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/QMhve

Washington, Illinois, couple launches Poop Busters dog cleanup service

“Who you gonna call?” Poop Busters. Allie Howarter of Washington was cleaning up dog waste in her landlady’s yard in exchange for discounts on her rent. That’s when she and her husband, Christopher Dykes, saw the potential for extra income. “I figured more people will be interested in it,” Howarter said. “I know people work […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/QMhve #DogNews #Il, #Activity, #Animal, #AnimalProductsU0026Services, #Article, #ArticlePlus, #Business, #Businesses, #County, #Dogs, #Homes, #Illinois, #Local, #LocalBusinessActivity, #Management, #Neutral, #New, #NewBusinesses, #Overall, #OverallNeutral, #Pets, #Plus, #Products, #Services, #Small, #SmallBusinesses, #Tazewell, #TazewellCounty, #U0026, #Washington, #Waste, #WasteManagement, #Yard, #YardWaste

[hiphopvibe1]

Delonte West looks unrecognizable in mugshot after latest arrest Continue reading Untitled

[thenewdemocratus]

Early Start With Kasie Hunt: 'You're Lying': George Conway Clashes With Republican Commentator Over Donald Trump Guilty Verdict'

Source:CNN with a George Conway vs Scott Jennings live TV debate. Source:The New Democrat “Lawyer George Conway and CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings joined “CNN This Morning” to discuss Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his criminal hush money case.” From CNN I’m not going top try to play mindreader and argue that Scott Jennings is lying here. He just might be complete idiot when it…

[spookyfoxdreamer]

[conandaily2022]

US Marshals arrest Washington Heights, New York's Jamaal Wade in Florida

Jamaal Wade, 26, of Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States is a cruise ship dancer. From 2018 to 2019, he was a dancer for Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines. A Mustard Lane profile published on February 7, 2020 indicated that Wade was “in rehearsals for the National Tour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” at the time. On February 18, 2020, he was…

[spokanefavs]

Spokane Aims to Reduce Homelessness by 40% with Regional Authority

Crosscut

Mai Hoang

[therealefl]

Derby County Confirm Bumper Double Signing

Derby County have officially announced the free transfer of Sonny Bradley from Luton Town and the signing of attacker Conor Washington from Rotherham United for an undisclosed fee, over on the official club website.  Sonny Bradley has made 450 appearances in club football, playing in all of the various divisions in the EFL. Conor Washington has made just under 500 club appearances, netting 161…

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Justice Department investigators have obtained a Trump campaign-commissioned report that debunked voter fraud claims days before then-President Donald Trump used those claims to pressure officials to help him overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is currently in the crosshairs of several potentially damaging legal cases: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, as well as the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probes into Trump’s mishandling of classified information under the Espionage Act and his conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of Donald Trump’s effort to overturn election results in Georgia.

While the Daniels case seems poised to result in the first indictment of Trump, the other cases continue to chug along and produce major developments like the blockbuster report that the DOJ has obtained a study that the Trump campaign commissioned that could be damaging to Trump.

In his infamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) Trump said, “So dead people voted, and I think the number is close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number, and a minimum is close to about 5,000 voters.”

But as Washington Post‘s Josh Dawsey reports, the Justice Department now has the report that contradicts that claim directly:

"But a report commissioned by his own campaign dated one day prior told a different story: Researchers paid by Trump’s team had “high confidence” of only nine dead voters in Fulton County, defined as ballots that may have been cast by someone else in the name of a deceased person. They believed there was a “potential statewide exposure” of 23 such votes across the Peach State — or 4,977 fewer than the “minimum” Trump claimed.

…

The “Project 2020” report conducted by the Berkeley Research Group has now been obtained by prosecutors investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. A copy was reviewed by The Washington Post, and it shows that Trump’s own campaign paid more than $600,000 for research that undercut many of his most explosive claims. The research was never made public."

The report is yet another strong piece of evidence that Trump’s claims of voter fraud, which incited the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, were not just false but knowingly and deliberately false.

[newwaveconstruction]

New Construction Homes Washington County Utah

Looking for new construction homes in Washington County, Utah? Look no further than New Wave Construction! Our expert team of builders and designers specialize in creating beautiful, custom homes that are tailored to your unique style and needs.

Located in the heart of Washington County, our homes are built with quality materials and attention to detail, ensuring that you get a home that is both beautiful and durable. We work closely with you throughout the entire construction process, from design to finishing touches, to ensure that your home is everything you've dreamed of and more.

At New Wave Construction, we understand that buying a new home is a big decision, which is why we offer a range of customizable options to make your new home truly your own. Whether you're looking for an open floor plan, custom cabinetry, or energy-efficient features, our team can make it happen.

We are proud to offer new construction homes in some of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Washington County, including St. George, Hurricane, and Santa Clara. With easy access to outdoor recreation, shopping, and dining, our homes are the perfect choice for those looking for the best that Utah has to offer.

So why wait? Contact New Wave Construction today to learn more about our new construction homes in Washington County, Utah. We can't wait to help you build the home of your dreams!

[swingleftnewsjunkie]

Thurston County inspectors have shut down a Happy Teriyaki restaurant near Lacey, citing many food safety violations.

Inspectors visited the restaurant at 8205 Martin Way East on Feb. 7 and inspection notes were recently added to the county’s food safety website. Its menu includes Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine.

“Due to severity of risk observed and lack of managerial control, facility closed to the public,” the inspection notes read.

The restaurant received a score of 180 red points and 26 blue points, according to the inspection notes. Red points denote violations that are most likely to cause food-borne illness. Blue points relate to the overall cleanliness and condition of the operation.

Sammy Berg, senior environmental health specialist for Thurston County, said the county reinspects restaurants 10 to 14 days after they score 45 points or more. The county only moves to close a restaurant if its red points reach 100.

“When we get at or above 100 red points, one of the things that we’re concerned about is that means there’s a lot of different violations going on,” Berg said. “And it implies there’s just no one really in charge of making sure that food safety is really being addressed.”

This is the first such closure of 2023, Berg said. According to data shared by Berg, there have been seven closures due to high violation points over the past six years, including two in 2017, one in 2019, two in 2021, one in 2022 and this one.

The county currently has six inspectors that review about 1,000 food facilities a year and 300 temporary food vendors, Berg said.

Happy Teriyaki did not respond to The Olympian’s request for comment on Friday.

A closure due to a high score lasts at least 72 hours but it may last longer depending on what corrective action a restaurant needs to take, Berg said.

In this case, Berg said management and employees must undergo retraining, and management must show county inspectors how they plan to improve their policies and procedures.

“They’re still closed because we are working with them,” Berg said. “We don’t expect the employees to be perfect all the time, they’re people, but the owner or managers should be there to reinforce.”

The restaurant may reopen later this month if it passes a two-hour inspection, Berg said, but the reopening date is dependent on when the restaurant informs the county they are ready to move forward.

“They are earnest in their desire to make things better,” Berg said. “We applaud that. But they are the ones that have to put all the hard work in consistently and that’s what we’re going to look for.”

Once it reopens, Berg said inspectors will visit the restaurant weekly to review its progress. If those initial inspections go well, inspectors may move visits to every two weeks instead.

“They’re basically going to be on probation for a year and we’re going to just keep reinforcing and seeing how they’re doing,” Berg said. “The better they do, then the less frequent we’ll need to be back there until we’re back on better footing.”

Inspection notes for Happy Teriyaki at 8205 Martin Way listed deficiencies in 19 areas.

The person in charge reportedly did not maintain active managerial control, meaning multiple high-risk violations occurred without adequate intervention. This person was also cited for not taking corrective action or demonstrating knowledge of the associated risks.

An employee did not properly wash their hands in the kitchen upon returning from active food preparation. The notes indicate they washed their hands in the restroom sink instead.

The kitchen hand sinks could not be used during the inspection because they were obstructed. The first kitchen sink had used utensils in its basin and the second sink contained raw chicken buckets and other foods.

An employee used their bare hand to check the temperature of food. The restaurant must have proper barriers in place to prevent bare hand contact of food that’s ready to eat.

The restaurant could not verify parasite destruction for certain menu items.

Multiple food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned and sanitized. Additionally, the inspector observed in-use woks being stored on the kitchen floor as well as pots and pans stored on used egg cartons. These items were not cleaned before use.

Raw chicken was stored above ready-to-eat foods in the walk-in refrigerator.

Proper cooling procedures for certain foods were not followed. The inspector observed food stored in covered containers that were greater than 2 inches in depth in the walk-in refrigerator. Cooling food also was placed in bins greater than 2 inches in a rear storage room. Lastly, food was observed cooling at room temperature on the bottom shelf of a steel preparation table.

Hot foods, including cooked chicken and cabbage, were improperly held at temperatures below 135 degrees.

The operator did not have accurate records of food preparation times or a written plan for time as a control. In-use cooked meats were observed on a counter without proper temperature control.

Some foods were improperly stored in cold hold units with temperatures above 41 degrees.

Thin tip and unit thermometers were absent from the facility.

Boxes of raw chicken were observed thawing at room temperature on various surfaces. Frozen in-house cooked meats were also thawing at room temperature on the floor.

Workers had no sanitizer during the time of inspection.

In-use utensils were stored in standing water.

Utensil handles were wrapped with after-market rubber “tape,” making them not smooth and difficult to clean.

An ice machine had a mold-like substance.

Plumbing was not properly maintained, causing leaks and dripping.

Floors in the walk-in freezer and food storage area were dirty with excessive debris and/or grease.

Anyone with safety concerns about a facility or vendor that serves food can submit a report online or call 360-867-2667.