ace hardware wild bird seed
It’s been years since my last time skiing, a sport I learned late in life. I’ve traveled with pals for getaways to ski the slopes of both Utah and Colorado. Closer to home, our farm friends the Wappels, Debbie and Larry, who live just down the road, have often talked about a Michigan mountain ski resort much closer. Boyne Mountain Resort, located five hours to the north in tiny Boyne Falls, Michigan, is a destination I’ve also heard described by my longtime editor Crista Zivanovic, who skied there years ago with husband Jim after they married. It was in 1947 when Michigan Sen. William Pearson entertained the idea of Detroit businessman Everett Kircher to purchase 40 mountainous wooded acres to create his vision to build Boyne Resorts. Sen. Pearson found the idea ridiculous, offering to make the proposed sale of acreage for just $1 and his now famous retort: “Anybody damn fool enough to want to build a ski hill? I’ll just give you the property.” What was unveiled for the opening launch was just one ski run with a single chairlift and a small warming hut. Today, the still family-owned property offers nine lodging options, multiple dining destinations, a mini Alpine village, an 88,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, seven terrain parks and 60 runs with a total of 500 vertical feet. In early November, I drove up for a quick day visit to Boyne Resort, pre-ski season, and discovered it continues to remain an iconic tourist attraction known for its innovation and “firsts.” When the ski attraction first opened, the owners acquired the first chairlift ever built, originally created for the legendary Sun Valley Resort in Idaho (constructed by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1936 for what was then its new resort in Sun Valley). The lift was dissembled and moved to Boyne Mountain, where portions of the original parts and pieces and components are still in use today. Between 1948 and 1992, Boyne Mountain ranked as the innovator in chairlifts, unveiling the world’s first triple-passenger chairlift in 1963, then the world’s first quad chairlift in 1965 and the country’s first six-passenger chairlift in 1992. Details and further history are included at www.boyneresorts.com and www.boynemountain.com . Something added and unveiled in October 2022 is the new SkyBridge Michigan at the top of Boyne Mountain. In the fall, it’s intended to give an unmatched view of fall’s changing foliage. During winter months, the bridge is ablaze in holiday lights. At 1,200 feet in length, it ranks as the world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge. Nestled amidst the picturesque peaks of McLouth and Disciples Ridge at Boyne Mountain Resort, SkyBridge Michigan continues lit in holiday splendor through Feb. 28. Beaming designs by Zoro’s Lights of Livonia, Michigan, this pedestrian bridge boasts more than 200,000 twinkling lights, which is an increase of 50,000 lights from last year I’m told. While during the day resort guests dine, ice skate and enjoy zip-lining, by night, it’s the photo ops across the bridge and the scenic surroundings that capture attention at the 118-foot-high walking bridge. The Boyne Mountain Annual Holiday Open House on Dec. 14 has free activities and live entertainment with contrasting hosts Santa paired with the Grinch, as well as bonfires and special holiday treats. A March 8, 1937 Life magazine touts the first ski chair lift, as displayed in the Stein Eriksen restaurant at Boyne Mountain Resort in Boyne Falls, Michigan. (Philip Potempa/for Post-Tribune) Boyne Resort also includes a namesake restaurant located in the village clock tower building christened decades ago in honor of Olympic skier Stein Eriksen, the alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Norway and star at the 1952 Winter Olympics held in Are, Sweden. Following his racing career, Eriksen became a ski instructor at Sun Valley Resort and then in 1955 at Boyne Mountain Resort. This year, at both Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Boyne Resort is offering a special holiday-themed multi-course menu event hosted at Erikeon’s namesake restaurant. Eriksen died at age 88 in December 2015. Boyne Resort founder Everett Kircher died in January 2002 at the age of 85. Today the resort is owned and operated by his son Stephen Kircher, 61, continuing his father’s legacy. Olympic legend Stein Eriksen loved recipes with fresh salmon and also venison. Personally, I’ve never been partial to deer meat, since I wasn’t raised on it and my mom never cared for it. With deer season now in full bluster around our farm, the sound of hunters is heard often in the distance. Last weekend, my 24-year-old great-nephew Landen (grandson of my oldest sister Carol) snagged a very large 4-year-old buck with a 10-point antler rack and a weight tipping the scales at more than 200 pounds. All of the deer meat will be processed and used, especially for venison sausage, which my 95-year-old dad Chester loves. Venison is the key protein in the chili recipe of Stein Eriksen shared here today, which ranked as his favorite way to warm up and satisfy his appetite while on the slopes. Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at Philip.M.Potempa@powershealth.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374. Stein Eriksen’s Venison Chili Makes 8 servings 2 tablespoons olive oil or corn oil 1/2 pound buffalo, diced in 3⁄4 inch cubes 1/2 pound elk or venison, diced in 3⁄4 inch cubes 1/2 pound wild boar or pork, diced in 3⁄4 inch cubes 1 onion, medium diced 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1/2 tablespoon black pepper 2 tablespoons pasilla chile powder 2 tablespoons New Mexican chili powder 1/2 cup coffee, brewed 1 bay leaf 9 ounces tomato juice 18 ounces canned diced tomatoes 1 1/2 cups beef stock or one 12-ounce can of beer 4 cups water Sour cream for garnish Green onions for garnish Directions: 1. Mix all the dry spices together and use half the mixture to season the meat. 2. Heat oil in pan and brown meat 10–15 minutes in the pan. 3. Add onions and garlic, sauté 3-4 minutes. 4. Add coffee, tomato juice, bay leaf, diced tomatoes, remainder of spice mixture, stock or beer, and water. 5. Simmer for 2-3 hours, until meat is tender. 6. You may have to adjust consistency with more stock or beer and check seasonings. 7. Garnish with sour cream and green onions.10 Vegan Cocktails to Make This New Year’s EveMITCHEL FIELD, N.Y., Dec. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Frequency Electronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEIM), will hold a conference call to discuss results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2025, ended October 31, 2024, on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 4:30 PM Eastern Time. This call is being webcast by Issuer Direct Corporation and can be accessed in the Investor Relations section of Frequency's web site at www.freqelec.com . Investors and analysts may also access the call by dialing 888-506-0062. International callers may dial 973-528-0011. Callers should provide participant access code: 685880 or ask for the Frequency Electronics conference call. A telephone replay of the archived call will be available at 877-481-4010 (domestic), or 919-882-2331 (international), for one week following the call (replay passcode: 51761). Subsequent to that, the call can be accessed via a link available on the company's website through March 10, 2025. About Frequency Electronics Frequency Electronics, Inc. (FEI) is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of high precision timing, frequency generation and RF control products for space and terrestrial applications. FEI's products are used in satellite payloads and in other commercial, government and military systems including C4ISR and electronic warfare, missiles, UAVs, aircraft, GPS, secure communications, energy exploration and wireline and wireless networks. FEI-Zyfer provides GPS and secure timing capabilities for critical military and commercial applications; FEI-Elcom Tech provides Electronic Warfare ("EW”) sub-systems and state-of-the-art RF and microwave products. FEI has received over 100 awards of excellence for achievements in providing high performance electronic assemblies for over 150 space and DOD programs. The Company invests significant resources in research and development to expand its capabilities and markets. www.frequencyelectronics.com FEI's Mission Statement: "Our mission is to transform discoveries and demonstrations made in research laboratories into practical, real-world products. We are proud of a legacy which has delivered precision time and frequency generation products, for space and other world-changing applications that are unavailable from any other source. We aim to continue that legacy while adapting our products and expertise to the needs of the future. With a relentless emphasis on excellence in everything we do, we aim, in these ways, to create value for our customers, employees, and stockholders.” Forward-Looking Statements The statements in this press release regarding future earnings and operations and other statements relating to the future constitute "forward-looking statements” pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, our inability to integrate operations and personnel, actions by significant customers or competitors, general domestic and international economic conditions, reliance on key customers, including the U.S. government, continued acceptance of the Company's products in the marketplace, competitive factors, new products and technological changes, product prices and raw material costs, dependence upon third-party vendors, other supply chain related issues, increasing costs for materials, operating related expenses, competitive developments, changes in manufacturing and transportation costs, the availability of capital, the outcome of any litigation and arbitration proceedings, and failure to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting. The factors listed above are not exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024, filed on August 2, 2024 with the Securities and Exchange Commission includes additional factors that could materially and adversely impact the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, as such factors are updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are accessible on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. Moreover, the Company operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict the impact of all these factors on the Company's business, financial condition or results of operations or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not rely on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. Any or all of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release and any other public statement made by the Company or its management may turn out to be incorrect. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Contact information: Dr. Thomas McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer; Steven Bernstein, Chief Financial Officer; TELEPHONE: (516) 794-4500 ext.5000 WEBSITE : www.freqelec.com
GloRilla Named Billboard’s Top Female Rapper Of 2024, Sparking Social Media DebateLeading Vietnamese maritime-logistics operator Haivanship (HVS) is growing its Konecranes fleet with two Lloyd’s-certified Generation 6 Konecranes Gottwald ESP.9B crane on barge. The order for the first crane was booked in Q3 2024 and the second in Q4, with both to be delivered at the end of 2025. Haivanship is currently providing coal transshipment using two Konecranes Gottwald HPK 7400B cranes at transshipment buoys in Go Gia, Ho Chi Minh City, servicing power plants in southern Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta. The Vietnamese operator specializes in bulk handling of coal imported from Australia and Indonesia. Coal is still a critical energy resource in Vietnam, fueling approximately half of the nation’s electricity supply. HVS is now expanding its coal transshipment business in northern Vietnam, starting a project at the South Cat Ba Deep Water Anchorage, with a depth of approximately 20 meters for vessels up to 210,000 DWT (near Haiphong port and Hon Mieu, Cam Pha Anchorage of Quang Ninh), using two Lloyd’s-certified Generation 6 Konecranes Gottwald ESP.9B crane on barges. “Our experience working with Konecranes equipment in the south has been very positive. The cranes are efficient and have consistently delivered reliable performance. Now this new Konecranes equipment will play a key role in handling coal transshipments on the open sea and expanding our services into the north,” says Tran The Vinh, General Manager at Haivanship. The Generation 6 Konecranes Gottwald ESP.9B Mobile Harbor Crane is fully certified for barge operations under the Lloyd’s Register Code for Lifting Appliances in Marine Environments. Engineered to perform in demanding open-sea environments, the crane can withstand wind speeds reaching 24 meters per second and wave heights up to 2.5 meters. The cranes come equipped with Konecranes TRUCONNECT remote monitoring, providing HVS with vital crane data for predictive maintenance planning. “Haivanship is a valued partner in Vietnam and we’re very pleased to add to their fleet with our Generation 6 technology. Supporting the company’s expansion is perfectly aligned with Konecranes’ goal of growing our business in the country,” says Holger Wagner, Sales Manager for Asia-Pacific at Konecranes. A strong focus on customers and commitment to business growth and continuous improvement make Konecranes a material handling industry leader. This is underpinned by investments in digitalization and technology, plus our work to make material flows more efficient with solutions that decarbonize the economy and advance circularity and safety. Source: Konecranes
HOUSTON (AP) — Kavion McClain scored 14 points as Texas Southern beat Texas A&M-Kingsville 80-72 on Wednesday. McClain added six assists for the Tigers (2-5). Grayson Carter scored 13 points, shooting 6 of 7 from the field. Kenny Hunter and Alex Anderson both added 12. The Javelinas were led by Isaiah Payne, who recorded 18 points and four assists. Texas A&M-Kingsville also got 16 points from Allen Singleton. Nate Lacewell also had 13 points and seven rebounds. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Boothby scores 16, William & Mary beats Navy 82-76
Stock market today: Wall Street inches higher to set more recordsAP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:08 p.m. ESTBy BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Related Articles Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.
On Dec. 4, U.S. intelligence officials and the FBI announced a hacking campaign affecting at least eight U.S. telecommunication firms, including Verizon and AT&T. In response, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with domestic and international partners, issued guidance for telecommunication companies to strengthen their security. Recommendations include implementing measures like end-to-end encryption to safeguard both company and customer data. Several news outlets reported that officials are advising against sending unencrypted text messages in the aftermath of the hack, so bad actors can’t read them. VERIFY readers Barbara and Joseph asked us if Chinese hackers can actually read people’s text messages. Here’s what we can VERIFY about protecting your text message privacy. THE QUESTION Can hackers intercept and read some types of text messages? THE SOURCES Joint guide from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), the FBI and other international partners published Dec. 3 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Apple Google WhatsApp , Signal and Telegram SoCRadar and How-To Geek , technology blogs McAfee THE ANSWER Yes, hackers can intercept and read some types of text messages. But there are ways to protect them. Sign up for the VERIFY Fast Facts newsletter here . WHAT WE FOUND Messages sent between Apple and Android devices, as well as some types of messages sent between multiple Android devices, can be susceptible to hackers. But there is a type of protection that can ensure no hackers can read your texts. It’s called encryption. Encryption uses an algorithm to scramble information, like text messages, that can only be un-scrambled by the recipient’s device. This layer of protection ensures that even if hackers or scammers intercept your texts, they can’t access the content. When text messages aren’t encrypted, they travel across networks in plain text, making them vulnerable to interception, the SoCRadar and How-To Geek technology blogs explain. It’s like sending a letter without an envelope . Encrypted messages aren’t plain text. They’re transformed into what’s called ciphertext , which appears across a network as a scrambled, unreadable string of characters. Hackers can use tricks like creating fake cell towers or spying on public wireless networks to capture the messages. Without protection, text messages can be read and other personal information can be stolen. So, hypothetically, if a hacker is monitoring a network and you send a message in plain unprotected text that says, “Meet at my house at 123 Elm Street, the door will be unlocked.” That is the message a hacker can read, leaving you (and your home) vulnerable. But, if you send it as an encrypted message, a hacker would only see gibberish, like "Ff8g$%qLq9d@8z.” Your intended recipient, though, would receive the real message. Cellular providers don’t directly provide end-to-end encryption automatically, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says , but the device manufacturers and independent messaging apps often do. Here’s how some devices work and tips to protect yourself. For Apple users : iMessages sent between Apple devices – the messages that appear in blue bubbles – are encrypted from end to end. However, messages sent from an Apple device to a non-Apple device – the messages that appear in green – are not encrypted. For Android users : For Android users using Google Messages , there is a feature known as Rich Communication Services. If that feature is turned on ( here’s how ) on both devices, the messages are encrypted. Cross-platform messaging and third-party applications: Text messages sent between Apple gadgets are encrypted, as are those exchanged between users of Google Messages, but text messages between Android and Apple devices are not encrypted, CISA says . That’s where third-party applications come in. Apps like WhatsApp , Signal and Telegram encrypt messages automatically and work between any device. WhatsApp describes their encryption technology like having a key that is exchanged between recipients. The technology locks (encrypts) a message before it leaves a device, turning it into a jumbled code. Only the recipient’s device has the unique "key" to unlock (decrypt) it and make it readable again. Stay secure with updates While the use of these technologies is important to understand, you should also keep your software updated, McAfee , a security company, says. These security updates for devices and applications patch vulnerabilities that hackers or scammers exploit. On an Android device, go to settings and click on software update. On an iPhone, go to settings, then general and then continue to software updates. For more tips on protecting yourself from scammers and hackers, visit VERIFY’s website .ST. LOUIS — Sam Fox, who rose from humble beginnings in rural Missouri to found a billion-dollar investment firm, bankroll Republican political campaigns and serve as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, died Monday. He was 95. He was born in 1929 in Desloge, about an hour south of St. Louis, as the youngest of five children of immigrants from Belgium and Ukraine. The house had no indoor bathrooms until he was 8. But he would later look back fondly on his Lead Belt hometown as idyllic, close-knit and tolerant. He spent his high school summers in Illinois in pea- and corn-canning factories, earning money he would later use to make his way to St. Louis and Washington University, a place he said opened his eyes to the world "as if someone had pulled back a curtain." He graduated with a business degree in 1951 and got a job with a chemical company shortly after. In 1953, he married Marilyn Widman, a fellow Washington U. student and his wife for the next 70 years. In the 1970s, he went into business for himself, founding Harbour Group, which grew into a holding company of diverse manufacturing businesses, with billions of dollars in annual revenue. As his business took off, Fox took an active role in numerous civic institutions, such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Art Museum. He also served as a trustee at his alma mater and joined Civic Progress, the group of local corporate chiefs that once wielded significant political power. Fox was modest about his success, though. "We like to think that we're smart enough to have made that happen,” Fox told the Post-Dispatch in 2003. “But the fact of the matter is that being in the right place at the right time and being lucky has a heck of a lot to do with it.” He and his wife also gave generously to numerous causes and established a family foundation to help people with the basic needs of food and shelter. Fox credited his parents with teaching him the importance of giving back, recalling the traditional Jewish tzedakah box they had in their home. Whenever Fox got a few nickels and dimes, he dropped them in the box. "We never had much money, but there was always something for people in need," Fox said. "That's just the way it was." In 2005, Washington U. named the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts in his honor. He also chaired the university's capital fundraising campaign for six years. "Sam was one of WashU's most loyal alumni," Chancellor Andrew Martin said in a statement Wednesday. "We benefited greatly from his savvy leadership and decades of transformational support." Over the years, Fox became a prolific donor to Republicans locally and on the national stage. He gave generously to Missouri Republican figures, from Gov. Mike Parson to former Gov. and Sen. John Ashcroft, as well as President George W. Bush, who made Fox his ambassador to Belgium from 2007-2009. During Bush's tenure, Fox was known in the White House as "Foxy," a nickname the president himself would often use. Fox also was an occasional hunting partner of then-Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2006, Fox and his wife hosted First Lady Laura Bush at their Clayton home for a Republican fundraising event. “Sam was a massive and generous figure for every Republican candidate in this state for many decades,” said John Hancock, a former state Republican Party chairman. “He was kind, insightful, highly regarded and respected by all.” He also had some friends on the other side of the aisle, at least locally. Former St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, who enjoyed Fox's support in at least one of his City Hall campaigns, called Fox “a phenomenal St. Louisan.” “He's going to be greatly missed,” Slay said. The Jewish Federation of St. Louis said in a statement that Fox's dedication to philanthropy and his impact on local organizations "have left an indelible mark on our Jewish community and beyond." The federation said Fox and his wife, who died last February, were committed to the principle of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. The federation also cited the Fox Family Foundation, which the couple established in 1986. Among Fox's survivors are three children and 15 grandchildren. Funeral services are scheduled for 1:15 p.m. Sunday at Congregation Temple Israel in Creve Coeur.TROY, Ala. (AP) — Amir "Primo" Spears led UTSA with 29 points, including a three-point play with 25.8 seconds left, as the Roadrunners knocked off Merrimack 76-74 on Wednesday. Spears added five rebounds for the Roadrunners (2-3). Jonnivius Smith scored 11 points while shooting 5 of 7 from the field and added 20 rebounds. Marcus Millender went 3 of 9 from the field (2 for 6 from 3-point range) to finish with 10 points. Adam Clark led the way for the Warriors (1-6) with 28 points, six rebounds and four steals. Devon Savage added 15 points for Merrimack. Bryan Etumnu finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. The loss was the Warriors' sixth in a row. Damari Monsanto put up eight points in the first half for UTSA, who led 37-36 at halftime. Spears scored a team-high 24 points for UTSA in the second half. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .By BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.
Article content Calgary remained under a snowfall warning on Saturday, with wintry conditions leading to transit detours, long waits for towing services and multiple snowfall records. Up to 15 cm of snow was expected to fall in Calgary on Saturday, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada, with stormy conditions not expected to subside until Sunday morning. “There will be shovelling and slow driving on your weekend to-do list as an (Alberta storm) means heavy snow,” the federal weather agency stated on social media. Eastern parts of the province were the snowiest, with some regions slated to receive as much as 35 cm of accumulation by Sunday. Other parts of Alberta under the snowfall warning were expected to receive as much as 25 cm in total. The fast-falling flakes led to a handful of snowfall records being broken in Calgary, as reported by the Calgary Weather Records social media account. With 24 cm of snow cover by 1 p.m., Saturday saw the deepest amount of snow that Calgary has had on Nov. 23 since record-keeping began in 1955. “Today’s 24 cm of snow cover brought Calgary within six cm of the deepest ever recorded during fall,” the account stated. And with a total of 14 cm of snowfall by 1 p.m., Nov. 23 was also the city’s snowiest date since March 20. Challenging driving conditions prompted the City of Calgary to activate transit detours on Friday evening that will likely remain in effect all weekend. Information on those detours is posted at calgarytransit.com/snowdetours “These routes help us steer clear of places where buses often get stuck, while maintaining coverage and allowing us to keep buses moving,” the city said in a news release, anticipating that the detours aren’t expected to be lifted until Monday morning. If it isn’t safe to do so, buses will not stop on hills to pick up or drop off customers, the city noted, adding that transit operators may choose instead to only stop at the top or bottom of the hill. As of 3 p.m. on Saturday, AMA’s website was predicting a 24-hour wait for towing or winching services in Calgary, and a six-hour wait for a battery boost, flat tire fix or fuel delivery. Battery tests or replacements were also seeing a six-hour wait. AMA was experiencing twice as many requests for towing and winching services as usual, a company spokesperson told Postmedia, though calls for battery-related services were typical. The association encourages motorists to slow down when navigating wintry conditions, allow for a safe following distance between vehicles and to plug in their block heaters for at least four hours before driving in temperatures below -15 C. Drivers are also urged to install winter tires if they have not done so already; ensure their tires are inflated to the appropriate PSI (as most tires lose one PSI for every five-degree drop in temperature); and keep vehicle windows and roofs clear of snow and ice. “We want people to get back in the habit of safe winter driving: that means using winter tires, increasing your following distance, and plugging in before hitting the road,” said Brandon Klassen, AMA’s manager of operations, in a statement. “Many people assume that newer vehicles don’t need to be plugged in. But in severe temperatures, it’s incredibly hard on an engine if the block heater hasn’t been engaged.”
Canadian men win RAN Sevens tournament, qualify for World Rugby Challenger SeriesMcClain's 14 lead Texas Southern over Texas A&M-Kingsville 80-72British Museum chief says Marbles deal with Greece 'some distance' away