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More than a month has passed since Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison, and the WNBA star is "stressed" as she waits for news on her appeal process or a possible prisoner exchange, her lawyer tells PEOPLE. With no new updates on her next possible steps, "Brittney is stressed and very much concerned with the future," her lawyer Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners, says. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 4 on charges of smuggling drugs into the country, just below the maximum sentence of 10...

President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans. Their outlook appears better after notching a string of legislative...

George Szamuely and Peter Lavelle sat down for one The Gaggle's regular conversations with Scott Ritter. Much of the highly informative discussion focused on what took place in Kharkov last week.

Article Excerpt:SNIP___"ENERGYA strike could have a significant impact on the energy industry, and could hurt consumers who would likely end up paying more for gasoline, electricity and natural gas. Refineries might have to halt production if they can’t get the deliveries they need, or if they don’t have access to rail to ship gasoline.No one wants to risk leaving flammable chemicals stranded on the railroad tracks if a strike occurs. That’s why railroads began curtailing shipments of hazardous materials on Monday to protect that dangerous cargo.Roughly 300,000 barrels of crude oil move by rail each day, which could supply about...

[H/T Farcesensitive]Almost 115,000 rail workers are set to go on strike Thursday at midnight, absent intervention from the government, as a mandatory “cooling off” period comes to a close. As negotiations stall between rail unions and rail carriers, nearly 40% of long distance trade hangs in the balance.Although only two of the twelve rail worker’s unions have failed to reach deals with the industry’s bargaining committee, all twelve unions agreed to walk off the job if even a single union fails to secure a contract.It is estimated any strike will cost the US economy as much as $2 billion per...

If abortion is legal in every state because every state has decide to make abortion legal, even if only for the health of the mother, doesn't that the feds the legal right to set the standards for abortion? This is just a question of legality when I ask this question. I do not support abortion myself and I have learned the value of enjoying the company of a woman without the need to have sex with them.

Federally mandated cooling-off period ends Friday, opening possibility of nationwide strike or lockoutA national railroad strike could derail critical deliveries of chlorine to wastewater treatment plants and coal to utility plants, among other potentially crippling disruptions, prompting senior White House aides on Tuesday to review contingency options for protecting the nation’s drinking water and energy supply.White House aides are looking at how to ensure essential products carried by rail — such as food, energy and key health products — could still reach their destinations, even in the event of a strike. Senior officials have looked at how highways, ports and...

The first statement made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her annual State of the European Union address on Wednesday was not verbal, but visual. Clad in bright blue and yellow alongside other senior politicians, she showed support for Ukraine's battle with Russia, making clear even before the speech began that the war would top the agenda. With Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska in Strasbourg for the occasion, von der Leyen pledged Europe's "unshakeable" commitment to Kyiv, sending a defiant message to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "Putin will fail and Europe will prevail," the chief...

Can't You Hear Me Knocking (2009 Mix) · The Rolling Stones

Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has blocked a joint resolution sponsored by Senator Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.) that would avert a freight-rail strike. Wicker and Burr introduced a resolution that would adopt the recommendations of the presidential emergency board (PEB) appointed by President Biden as binding for a new, national, freight-rail labor contract. The PEB recommended a 24 percent pay increase over the five-year span of the contract, the largest pay increase in the history of national bargaining. Sanders said, “Rail workers have a right to strike for reliable schedules. They have a right...

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Over the weekend, we learned that a group of Russian officials in the Moscow area had issued a statement calling on Vladimir Putin to resign. A second group in St. Petersburg went a bit further, calling on the State Duma to charge Putin with high treason over his decision to invade Ukraine. So whatever happened to those guys? None of them have been subjected to defenistroika yet (Ed Morrissey came up with that, by the way, not me), at least that we know of. They haven’t even tragically “fallen into the sea” as people sometimes do in Russia these days....

This summer the San Francisco Chronicle polled 1,600 residents about the state of the city and yesterday the paper published a series of articles summarizing the results. As you can probably guess, the results were not good. The Chronicle described it as a “pervasive gloom” about the city’s future. And that is leading more than a third of residents to say they plan to leave.Roughly one-third of the respondents said they were likely to leave within the next three years. A large majority, 65%, said that life in the city is worse than when they first moved here. Less than...

“Homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s,” the Coalition for the Homeless reports.After decades of failure, New York City homelessness keeps getting worse. The only people who appear to be benefiting are the ones who make a pretty penny “serving” the homeless. The homeless–an ever expanding group in our major cities–are still sleeping rough and dying of overdoses.New York City’s homeless population has surged in recent years to 80,000 people, according to The Bowery Mission, a 150-year-old agency serving the hungry and homeless, citing federal data.This despite the fact that...

The radical left is at it again. In the latest liberal effort to silence conservatives, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James leaked a confidential list of my policy group’s supporters to the mainstream media. Now we’re asking the Department of Justice to investigate the New York AG’s office. If DOJ refuses, that says the Biden administration is completely fine with illegally targeting conservatives. This is more than just a gross violation of state and federal law — it’s a glaring sign of the left’s win-at-all costs mentality. Liberals are willing to do anything to beat conservatives, and...

The overdose death of a student at Bernstein High School in Hollywood Tuesday night added to an already troubling trend of increasing youth overdoses linked to Fentanyl. At least two other students were hospitalized after police say they ingested pills they believed were Percocet.

A man who was seen crushing a Metropolitan Police Department officer in a door frame during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been convicted of nine offenses, seven of them felonies, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Patrick McCaughey III, 25, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, and two others were convicted on multiple charges in a bench trial by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of former President Trump. Tristan Chandler Stevens, 26, of Pensacola, Florida, and David Mehaffie, 63, of Kettering, Ohio, were found guilty of five felony charges and two felony charges, respectively. On Jan. 6, 2021, "the three defendants...

New study raises concerns about diet sodasWednesday, a new study was published in the BMJ:Artificial sweeteners and risk of cardiovascular diseases: results from the prospective NutriNet-Sante cohortThe researchers found a potential link between the consumption of artificial sweeteners and heart disease. The study involved over 100,000 adults in France.The researchers concluded that "the findings from this large scale prospective cohort study suggest a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption (especially aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose) and increased cardiovascular disease risk. Artificial sweeteners are present in thousands of food and beverage brands worldwide, however they remain a controversial topic...

Fox News host Jesse Watters confronted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on air over the timing of his bill to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks. In the tense exchange, during which the senator raised his voice as he defended his actions, Watters pressed Graham to respond to Republicans who are "angry" at him for giving Democrats an "out" when they were faced with bad inflation numbers. The senator said he has no apology, arguing he refuses to sit idly by while, in his view, the United States takes a stance on abortion as extreme as that in China and North...

Count LeBron James among those who felt Suns owner Robert Sarver got off easy. The NBA suspended Sarver for a year and fined him $10 million after an investigation revealed that Sarver, allegedly repeating statements made by others, said the “N-word” at least five times. The 60-year-old Suns owner was also found to have made inappropriate comments about women and their physical appearances that were sex-related. Further, the report said that Sarver had inappropriate physical contact with men and was verbally abusive to employees. James expressed his displeasure with the ruling on Twitter on Wednesday. “Read through the Sarver stories...