Off to a banging start. Miller is going to need plastic surgery after that one…

Florida Woman also died in the crash


Grady Judd: Florida woman accused of going 100 mph before triple fatal crash

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Who pissed all over them? It’s been so stupidly unreliable lately. Budget cuts hitting them hard?

Sadly, kills one person and injured several more.

Really, just think about it.

In 2024 there is still fighting and killing all over the world. For what?

And much of it is religious conflict. How ****ing stupid is that?

Just a shame.

Had to do this as a kid and pretty sure I stopped after college.

If we make the bed it's sometime during the day when we're cleaning up the room. But most days we don't.
Oddly, I always make it the day the maids arrive.

Four-time indicted former president Donald Trump suffered arguably his worst loss(es) in any criminal matter this week when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence. By contrast, the judge largely granted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s motions to exclude evidence for trial that Trump believed might be exculpatory. That does not bode well for Trump’s chances to avoid conviction when the case goes to trial, likely in a few weeks.


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Trump, for example, moved to exclude testimony of former fixer Michael Cohen on the grounds Cohen is “a liar.” The court rebuked this desperate move: “This Court has been unable to locate any treatise, statute, or holding from courts in this jurisdiction, or others, that support Defendant’s rationale that a prosecution witness should be kept off the witness stand because his credibility has been previously called into question.” Trump’s lawyers can cross-examine Cohen at trial.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...d=mc_magnet-optrumpindict_inline_collection_1

Fair’s fair: Trump should be able to appeal the judgment against him

Jack Smith and Fani Willis have a secret weapon: Donald Trump
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=mc_magnet-optrumpindict_inline_collection_20

Trump also tried to keep back evidence of his intent to influence the 2016 election (a material part of Bragg’s case) and his intent to defraud. Having already ruled on these issues, Merchan scolded Trump’s counsel: “Rearguing this Court’s prior rulings in this manner is procedurally and professionally inappropriate and a waste of this Court’s valuable resources.” These motions were denied.



Trump also wanted to exclude evidence regarding a meeting in which Cohen, Trump and David Pecker (onetime head of American Media Inc.) discussed the “catch and kill” scheme to keep evidence of Trump’s sexual transgressions from voters. Since this evidence is directly germane to the issue of Trump’s intent to defraud, this motion also failed.


Merchan rebuffed Trump’s attempt to block the testimony of two people with damaging stories to tell about him. While excluding any of the lurid details of Trump’s interaction with them, Merchan nevertheless found: “The steps taken to secure the stories of [Dino] Sajudin and [Karen] McDougal complete the narrative of the agreement ... stemming the flow of negative information that could circulate about Defendant before it reaches the public eye.” He continued, “Locating and purchasing the information from [Stormy] Daniels not only completes the narrative of events that precipitated the falsification of business records but is also probative of the Defendant’s intent.” Evidence of Daniels’s polygraph test was excluded (although there is no indication Bragg intended to use it).
Likewise, the judge rejected Trump’s effort to exclude evidence including the “Access Hollywood” tape (the scandal that precipitated Trump’s effort to silence other women), Trump’s violation of federal campaign finance law (one rationale for elevating the crimes to felonies), Cohen’s guilty plea (although it cannot be used to prove Trump’s intent) and classification of the hush money as “promotional” expenses for AMI. Merchan also rejected Trump’s attempt to reargue that he and his organization were distinct entities.



Most important, Merchan refused to exclude more than 100 Trump statements since these can be classified as “admissions against interest.” Despite Trump’s plea, he will also allow in Allen Weisselberg’s notes, if the prosecutor shows they are business records.
In sum, the lion’s share of the evidence that Trump views as damaging will be heard by the jury. This underscores the quantity and strength of the facts that implicate Trump. It surely explains why he has been desperate to avoid trial.
Even worse for Trump, the judge granted the prosecutor’s key motions to exclude evidence and arguments that Trump hoped would sway the jury in his favor. Merchan knocked out most of Trump expert Bradley Smith’s potential testimony. “The People’s motion is granted to the extent that Smith may not testify as a lay (fact) witness; offer opinion testimony regarding the interpretation and application of federal campaign finance laws and how they relate to the facts in the instant matter, nor may Smith testify or offer an opinion as to whether the alleged conduct in this case does or does not constitute a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.” (He can testify generally about what the law does.)



In addition, Trump will not get to introduce evidence that the Southern District of New York prosecutors and the Federal Election Commission declined to bring charges against him. Nor will he get to air his complaint about “selective prosecution” (a favorite excuse from Trump, who whines he is singled out by left-wing prosecutors). He will be barred from offering hearsay evidence about federal prosecutors’ opinions about Cohen’s credibility and from presenting evidence in support of a “reliance on counsel” (or “presence of counsel”) defense. The judge reserved for later the determination as to whether to admit evidence of Trump’s efforts to intimidate and harass witnesses as “consciousness of guilt.”
It is hard to see how the proceedings could have gone any worse for Trump (although some issues regarding “prior bad acts” were reserved for trial). Although commentators critical of Bragg knocked his case as “novel” or doubted he could introduce evidence of violation of federal campaign, Merchan found otherwise. Merchan’s orders confirm that this in many ways is potentially a traditional white-collar crime, in which falsification in furtherance of other crimes elevates the charges to felonies. The upshot is that Bragg will get to put on his case with evidence he thinks will support a guilty verdict. The jury will not hear some of Trump’s familiar excuses.
Merchan showed himself to be a serious judge who will not indulge Trump’s antics nor allow the trial to devolve into a spectacle. The case will be tried on straightforward law, and on the mound of evidence Bragg has accumulated. Based on these rulings, Trump should be quaking in his boots.

The draft is only for those age 25 and older. Between draft dodging and Ukraine's unwillingness to draft 18-24 year old men, it will be hard for other countries to convince their populace to send their own troops to fight.

Republicans will bear the blame if Putin wins, and the west will be forced into WWIII to stop his next conquests. Deplorable does not begin to describe their irresponsibility. Their cowardice and betrayal are beyond reprehensible:

As Ukrainian officials plead for more Western arms and a U.S. aid package remains stalled in Congress, Russia is advancing on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, seizing new territory and intensifying attacks to capture the town of Chasiv Yar and others in the Donetsk region.

Away from the front line, Ukraine’s dwindling air defense capabilities are showing vulnerabilities, as more Russian missiles and drones are able to hit targets such as critical infrastructure facilities.

Outside Kyiv — considered Ukraine’s best-protected city — the largest power plant serving the capital was destroyed Thursday, stoking concerns that Ukraine might be running out of surface-to-air missiles to counter the Russian airstrikes.
“We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.


For months, Ukrainian military personnel have described the battlefield situation as dire due to a shortage of weapons and soldiers amid a renewed Russian offensive. They have reported increased Russian bombardment using guided air bombs, dropped from their planes onto Ukrainian military positions.



With resources running low, this assault in eastern Ukraine could threaten larger towns and cities such as Kostiantynivka, just west of Chasiv Yar — potentially advancing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region, which he has already declared, illegally, to be annexed by Russia.

Chasiv Yar — west of the city of Bakhmut, which Russia’s Wagner mercenaries captured and occupied nearly a year ago — is now the new focus of Moscow’s forces, commanders fighting in the area said.
“They systematically try to advance,” said a deputy battalion commander in the 24th Separate Assault Battalion, better known as Aidar. The Washington Post agreed to identify the commander by his call sign, Chichen, in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol.

“We now see, due to their assaults, a large number of [Russian] armored vehicles knocked out on the outskirts,” Chichen said, adding that on Friday morning, some 20 units of heavy equipment were part of the Russian assault.


“Literally six months ago, this did not happen here,” he said. “Now there is a lot of burned-out

Ukraine’s worsening battlefield situation has coincided with Republicans in Congress blocking, for more than six months, $60 billion in security aid for Ukraine proposed by President Biden. During that time, Russia has regained the offensive initiative, initially by overtaking the town of Avdiivka in February.

Moscow’s forces have continued to advance past Avdiivka in the southern part of the Donetsk region. And on a separate axis, they are now encroaching on Chasiv Yar — a two-pronged attack.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are concerned that Russia is preparing to mobilize hundreds of thousands more soldiers for another potential offensive in the northeast, toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Kharkiv in recent weeks has been pummeled repeatedly by missiles, and strikes on energy infrastructure have disrupted electrical service.


Elsewhere in the southeast, Ukrainian forces have been fighting to maintain the few gains they made during a counteroffensive last summer, towns such as Robotyne, south of the city of Zaporizhzhia.



Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that without the U.S. support — particularly in providing air defense and artillery ammunition — Ukraine’s defense along the front line could crumble
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. general overseeing military operations in Europe, warned U.S. lawmakers this week that Russia is expected to hold a 10-1 advantage on artillery shells “within weeks.”
Oleksander, a Ukrainian battalion commander fighting on the left flank of Chasiv Yar, said Russians are now assaulting the town directly as well as other villages at its edges. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

In recent days, the Russians had reached the outskirts of the town, he said, and he predicted that if Ukraine does not withdraw from Chasiv Yar the end of the month, fighting will probably already be taking place in the town’s center.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan appeared deeply skeptical during a hearing Monday morning about claims by Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his hush money criminal trial, and said the case would go to trial April 15.

Trump’s lawyers said a late release of more than 100,000 pages of potential evidence should delay the case significantly, and they asked that the prosecutors be sanctioned. Merchan, raising his voice at times, admonished Trump’s attorneys for making what he called very serious allegations without legal backup. He also questioned why the defense did not seek the records from federal officials sooner.

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Here's what to know​

The trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday, was pushed back until at least mid-April after the judge said lawyers needed more time to review the large number of documents turned over this month.
Prosecutors argue that no more than 300 pages are significant to the Trump case, in which the former president is accused of using his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay for the silence of adult-film star Stormy Daniels about an alleged past sexual liaison.

True scale of US retail bloodbath revealed: How a 5,500 shops have closed in just one year... and even big names Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Nike have suffered.​

• Stores like Signet Jewelers announced closures amid poor sales after Covid
• Some major home and office retailers went into bankruptcy and shut locations
• Others like Walgreens pointed to escalating theft to explain poor sales

US retailers shut a total of almost 5,500 stores in 2023 - with major brands like Bed Bath & Beyond, Walgreens and Rite Aid leading the pack.

The closures affected a whole range of sectors, from clothing stores to discount stores and drugstores, as American commerce increasingly takes to the internet.

But the home and office sector was hit hardest, accounting for more than 30 percent of all closures - more than twice the amount in 2022.

Driving the high tally was that many retailers, such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Tuesday Morning, went bankrupt in 2023 and closed almost all stores as a result. Other retailers, like Signet Jewelers, announced closures amid generally poor sales.

Many retailers, like Walgreens, pointed to escalating theft as an explanation for their dwindling profits and decision to close locations.

Total closures were 5,463, according to the latest estimates from advisory firm Coresight Research. That is a 30 percent increase on 2022.

Bed Bath & Beyond reported it would shut 866 stores, far more than any other retailer, according to the report.

That high count is because it filed for bankruptcy in April and liquidated all locations within months.

Its closures accounted for around half of the total that affected the home and office sector.

Walgreens came in second, having closed some 505 stores and bringing its total down to 8,880.

In June, the drugstore reported poor earnings in the face of reduced consumer spending and revenue from Covid vaccines.

CEO Rosalind Brewer said at the time the company would be 'taking immediate actions to optimize profitability for our US healthcare segment,' which would include the shutting of stores.

Rite Aid also closed 470 locations last year. Like Bed Bath & Beyond, those came shortly after a bankruptcy filing in October.

CVS shut 279 stores, bringing its total store count to 7,501. Almost 100 of last year's closures were made by wedding dress seller David's Bridal.

Other major retailers to have closed stores include: 7-Eleven, Foot Locker, Signet Jewelers, Christmas Tree Shops, Party City, Office Depot, Big Lots, Bath & Body Works, Sally Beauty, Save A Lot, Petco and Shoe City.

All three of the mainstream dollar stores shut significant numbers of stores last year.

Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, both owned by Dollar Tree, Inc., closed a total of 209 stores. Separately-owned Dollar General shut 99.

However, their closures were overshadowed by an avalanche of openings. The three retailers together accounted for 1,599 openings last year.

While closures in 2023 reached their highest level since the pandemic, openings were also well up. Last year, retailers opened a total of 5,837 - more than the total closures.

Bed Bath & Beyond - 886 closures​

After Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy early last year, its intellectual property was purchased by Overstock.com for $21.5 million, which said it would continue operating the brand as a digital operation.

Around 120 Buybuy Baby locations were also affected in the process.

Bed Bath & Beyond sold the brand to New Jersey-based babywear designer Dream on Me Industries - which has one small store and an e-commerce site.

Since the sale only included intellectual rights to the company, Buybuy Baby's brick-and-mortar locations closed.

Christmas Tree Shops - 82 closures​

Party City - 65 closures​

Signet Jewelers - 95 closures​

Walgreens - 505 closures​

RANKING OF MAJOR US STORE CLOSURES IN 2023



The Bden economy is worsening by the minute.

Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Betty Ford,
Laura Bush are the gals who belong on
Mt Rushmore of First Ladies. This list includes
only the 20th and 21st century. My apologies
for any inconvenience this may have caused.
This post was edited on 3/18 1:55 PM by LuteHawk

apparently did the same thing at the U of Toledo. All of the assaults were reported to the Title IX officer. WTF are they not doing their jobs. WTH are they there for. This old perp was raping 19-21 year old girls and no one seemed to give two s** about it.

In March, Niger suspended its military cooperation with the US after military government leaders severed ties with France last year.​

At a protest in Niamey, a man holds up a sign demanding that soldiers from the United States Army leave Niger [AFP]
Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets of Niger’s capital to demand the departure of United States troops, after the military government further shifted its strategy by ending a military accord with the US and welcoming Russian military instructors.

Marching arm in arm through central Niamey on Saturday, the crowd waved Nigerien flags in a demonstration that recalled anti-French protests that spurred the withdrawal of France’s forces from Niger last year after the army seized power in a coup.

One hand-written sign in English read “USA rush out of Niger”, in a show of support for the military government and its decision in mid-March to revoke an accord that had allowed around 1,000 US military personnel to operate on its territory out of two bases.

“We’re here to say no to the American base, we don’t want Americans on our soil,” protester Maria Saley told the Reuters news agency on the sidelines of the march.

The crowd was also heard chanting “Down with American imperialism” and “The people’s liberation is on the march.”

Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of France and the US, which used it as a base as part of international efforts to curb a decade-old rebellion in West Africa’s Sahel region.

In March the country suspended its military agreement with the US. The US military had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The US military operates a major airbase in the Niger city of Agadez, some 920km (572 miles) from Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations.

A drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez was also built at a cost of more than $100m. Since 2018 the base has been used to target ISIL (ISIS) fighters and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region.

Ties with Russia​

Meanwhile, France also agreed to withdraw its troops last September in the wake of the July coup that overthrew democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

The new authorities in Niger joined military-run governments in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS and also fostering closer ties with Russia.

The arrival on Wednesday of Russian military instructors and equipment was further evidence of the military government’s openness to closer cooperation with Moscow, which is seeking to boost its influence in Africa.

A few Russian flags were visible at the protest, but some citizens told Reuters on Friday they did not want the welcome Russian defence assistance to lead to a permanent presence in Niger.

“We must not subsequently see the implementation of Russian foreign military bases,” said Abdoulaye Seydou, the coordinator of the M62 coalition of civil society groups that led anti-French protests last year.

His concerns were echoed by student Souleymane Ousmane: “This is how the French and the Americans and all the other countries settled in Niger – from military cooperation, they ended up occupying large parts of our country,” he told Reuters.

It is still unclear, however, if or when the US troops will leave.

1-2 NL hold em. Stop paying the rake at Meadows.

.

For the Sunday April 7, 2024 National Championship game vs South Carolina:

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For the Friday April 5, 2024 Final Four NCAA tournament game vs UConn:

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For the Monday April 1, 2024 Elite 8 NCAA tournament game vs LSU:


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For the Saturday March 30, 2024 Sweet 16 NCAA tournament game vs Colorado:

The Iowa-Colorado NCAA women’s basketball tournament regional semifinal averaged 3.6 rating and 6.87 million viewers on ABC, trailing only last year’s LSU-Iowa final (9.92M) as the most-watched women’s tournament game since 1995.

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For the Monday March 25, 2024 2nd Round NCAA Tournament game vs West Virginia:

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For the Sat March 23rd, 2024 1st Round NCAA Tournament game vs Holy Cross:

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Former Hawkeye.
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Do the eyes and numbers continue with CC gone? A lot of people say she has transformed the game but these big numbers were to see her. What will the future hold? More than before but not quite like this years run?

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What an absolute bum. Guy has taken nearly half his presidency on vacation as is so the lack of effort should hardly be surprising I suppose but good lord. How does anyone honestly believe he is prepared for 4 more years of being president when he's already not up to the workload?

Surprised this isn't getting play around here. The Atlantic Piece is at bottom of post.

Britain Is Leaving the U.S. Gender-Medicine Debate Behind​

The Cass report challenges the scientific basis of medical transition for minors.
By Helen Lewis


In a world without partisan politics, the Cass report on youth gender medicine would prompt serious reflection from American trans-rights activists, their supporters in the media, and the doctors and institutions offering hormonal and surgical treatments to minors. At the request of the English National Health Service, the senior pediatrician Hilary Cass has completed the most thorough consideration yet of this field, and her report calmly and carefully demolishes many common activist tropes. Puberty blockers do have side effects, Cass found. The evidence base for widely used treatments is “shaky.” Their safety and effectiveness are not settled science.


The report drew on extensive interviews with doctors, parents, and young people, as well as on a series of new, systematic literature reviews. Its publication marks a decisive turn away from the affirmative model of treatment, in line with similar moves in other European countries. What Cass’s final document finds, largely, is an absence. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress,” Cass writes. We also don’t have strong evidence that social transitioning, such as changing names or pronouns, affects adolescents’ mental-health outcomes (either positively or negatively). We don’t have strong evidence that puberty blockers are merely a pause button, or that their benefits outweigh their downsides, or that they are lifesaving care in the sense that they prevent suicides. We don’t know why the number of children turning up at gender clinics rose so dramatically during the 2010s, or why the demographics of those children changed from a majority of biological males to a majority of biological females. Neither “born that way” nor “it’s all social contagion” captures the complexity of the picture, Cass writes.

What Cass does feel confident in saying is this: When it comes to alleviating gender-related distress, “for the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way to achieve this.” That conclusion will now inform the creation of new state-provided services in England. These will attempt to consider patients more holistically, acknowledging that their gender distress might be part of a picture that also includes anxiety, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, or past trauma.

This is a million miles away from prominent American medical groups’ recommendation to simply affirm an adolescent’s stated gender—and from common practice at American gender clinics. For example, a Reuters investigation found that, of 18 U.S. clinics surveyed, none conducted the lengthy psychological assessments used by Dutch researchers who pioneered the use of medical gender treatments in adolescents; some clinics prescribe puberty blockers or hormones during a patient’s first visit. Under pressure from its members, the American Academy of Pediatrics last year commissioned its own evidence review, which is still in progress. But at the same time, the group restated its 2018 commitment to the medical model.

The Cass report’s findings also contradict the prevailing wisdom at many media outlets, some of which have uncritically repeated advocacy groups’ talking points. In an extreme example recently noted by the writer Jesse Singal, CNN seems to have a verbal formula, repeated across multiple stories, to assure its audience that “gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care.” On a variety of platforms, prominent liberal commentators have presented growing concerns about the use of puberty blockers as an ill-informed moral panic.

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Probably could’ve waited for the documentary after trumps hissy fit next election.

The 20-by-10-foot sign that proclaims “JESUS ♥ STRIPPERS” on the back of a flatbed truck parked outside Club Omaha near 120th Street and West Center Road on Friday was hard to miss.
Shane Harrington, the strip club’s owner, said the sign is the culmination of months of frustration after trying to reach deals with local advertising agencies to promote a car giveaway.
“We were going to do a commercial with a local TV station, rent billboards, work with a mass text company,” he said. “But they canceled, or wouldn’t return our calls.”

Harrington is no stranger to controversy. He sued over Nebraska liquor laws for his gentlemen’s club in Hastings and later staged a protest at a busy intersection in Omaha with dancers wearing ... not much.

​

Calls to churches in the area about the sign’s claim were not returned Friday afternoon.

The nearby Jesus Christ Soul Therapy Center, which advertises “Shambhala meditation healing tools, soul therapy meditation systems, and vibrational therapies to support body, mind and spirit,” and was founded by the Sanat Buddha Maitreya Kumara did respond to a World-Herald inquiry about the sign.
Maitreya Kumara, who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, said in a statement: “The response to does Jesus love strippers is: God names Jezebel for a reason. Jezebel is a demon found in strippers, prostitutes, sex workers only fans, things like that, so no, Jesus does not like strippers.”





A truck with a 20-by-10-foot sign stating “JESUS ♥ STRIPPERS” was parked in front of Club Omaha near 120th Street and West Center Road on Friday. Club owner Shane Harrington said he made the sign in response to local advertisers refusing to work with him.
MIKE BELL, THE WORLD-HERALD
Harrington said he understands the sign will be controversial.
He said he plans to buy another sign for a truck in Lincoln. The sign-truck will drive through town, especially during large events such as concerts and Husker games, he said.

“Other people who have been bullied will embrace it, I think,” he said.