Category: Security

It’s been going on for decades.

Every few years, a southern Illinois congressman sends out a news release, announcing that Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Co. has been awarded a multimillion-dollar government contract to make boots for the military. The size of orders vary, along with boot types — jungle or desert, lightweight or waterproof, assault or training.

The announcements always describe the company as the “oldest and leading manufacturer of boots for the U.S. military,” and they always tout the potential for jobs and other economic impacts.

“I’ve worked on a bipartisan basis to support domestic military equipment manufacturing, and I look forward to continuing to support the important work happening in Belleville,” U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat from Illinois’ 13th District, stated last month when announcing a new $7.8 million contract.

Boot orders from the U.S. Department of Defense have helped keep Belleville Shoe in business since at least World War II. How much do those contracts benefit the city of Belleville today, given that the company has two other factories in Arkansas and one in Missouri?

Belleville Shoe, rebranded as Belleville Boot Co. in recent years, is the city’s fourth-largest employer, according to the business data-gathering organization Intersect Illinois. That’s after Memorial Hospital, Southwestern Illinois College, which is just outside city limits; and Allsup.

Yvonne Coffey, Belleville Shoe’s director of human resources, said about 200 of the company’s 700 employees now work in Belleville. That compares to 250 at its factory in DeWitt, Arkansas, and 125 each at factories in Forrest City, Arkansas, and Carthage, Missouri.

“We fluctuate so much,” Coffey said, noting that workforce size at any one time is dictated by military contracts.

The company also contributes to the economy by paying St. Clair County property taxes. Its bill came to $144,821 this year for a 155,488-square-foot metal factory building and land on Premier Drive, county records show.

All of that tax money goes to the city of Belleville because the property is in the TIF 3 tax-increment-financing district, said Jamie Maitret, director of finance.

Eric Schauster, assistant director of economic development, planning and zoning, noted that Belleville Shoe is an anchor for Belle Valley Industrial Park, off Illinois 158, on the east side of town.

“It helps our employment rate, and it also helps with Belleville’s diversity in terms of what’s available here,” he said. “We’re not just an industrial hub. We’re not just a retail center. We’re not just a bedroom community. We’ve got all of those things, (and that) helps us get through some of those tougher times, when you have a downturn in the economy.”

Starting with boys shoes

William Weidmann, son of German immigrants, co-founded Belleville Shoe in 1904 after persuading four friends to invest in the company. He was unemployed after manufacturing farm machinery and serving as assistant postmaster, according to a history prepared by his grandson, the late Homer W. “Bill” Weidmann, for “The History of St. Clair County, Illinois, Vol. II,” published in 1992.

William Weidmann had apparently met a Massachusetts visitor who thought a shoe factory would be a successful operation in Belleville due to good transportation, a favorable labor market and proximity to raw materials, such as leather from Chicago and Wisconsin tanneries.

The other four investors were Adolph Knobeloch, Henry E. Leunig, Joseph B. Reis and James Rentchler. The company incorporated with $15,000 in capital stock. It leased the former Rentchler machine shop at the northeast corner of East B Street and Delmar Avenue.

“It was just a time when it didn’t take a lot to establish a manufacturing operation,” said Bob Brunkow, historian for Belleville Historical Society.

The company bought the burned-out Jordan Shoe Co. site at Main and Walnut streets in 1909 to build a new factory. It added men’s footwear during World War I and sent shoes to relief agencies in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles during the Great Depression.

The company got its first contract to produce shoes for the military in 1940, according to Homer Weidmann’s history.

“Out of 96 factories which made military shoes during WWII, Belleville Shoe was one of only three installations awarded the Army-Navy ‘E’ for Excellence, and the only factory never late in delivery to the Armed Forces,” he wrote.

A video on the Belleville Shoe website and many publications have referenced military contracts during World War I, but Brunkow and Will Shannon, curator for St. Clair County Historical Society, haven’t found documentation through news clippings or other records.

In 1953, Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. of St. Louis contracted with the company for baseball, football, soccer, track and golf shoes, boosting shoe and boot production to 2,500 pairs a day. Legend has it that St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial was a regular customer.

In the decades that followed, the U.S. market experienced a “massive penetration” of imported footwear, leading to the closing of domestic factories and prompting Belleville Shoe to focus almost exclusively on equipping the military, according to Homer Weidmann’s history.

The factory in Belle Valley Industrial Park opened in 1986. The company had about 1,300 employees (650 in Belleville and 650 in DeWitt) at the time of its 100th anniversary in 2004, when it was turning out 8,000 pairs of boots a day.

Members of the Weidmann family managed the operation until the 2010 retirement of the late Eric Weidmann, William Weidmann’s great-grandson. That’s when current President Mark Ferguson took the reigns.

Today, Belleville Shoe remains a private company whose shareholders are descendants of William Weidmann.

“We’ve all been very proud of the company’s contribution to military supplies,” said Carolyn “DeDe” Farquhar, William Weidmann’s great-granddaughter. “But it is the men and women who are working and have worked at Belleville Shoe who deserve the credit for the excellent product they produce.”

Worldwide name recognition

Beyond economic factors, Belleville Shoe has made the city’s name part of daily life for men and women in all branches of the U.S. military throughout the world. The company stamps it on many of its more than 50 styles of military and tactical boots. Some soldiers call them “Bellevilles” for short.

Boot boxes feature a logo patterned off the American flag that incorporates the letter “B,” as well as the company’s slogan, “Arm Your Feet,” and a reference to its founding in 1904.

“Belleville Boots are tough, strong and perform in any environment — just like the men and women we’re proud to supply,” the website states. “At Belleville, we invite you to walk a mile in our boots, actually walk fifty miles, and you’ll discover what footwear with a purpose feels like.”

Boots can be purchased by law enforcement and the general public at www.bellevilleboots.com. Prices range from $90 to $319.

At least one pair of the company’s boots are displayed in a museum. Tan leather desert combat boots worn by U.S. National Guardsman Andre Jones during the Iraq War are part of an exhibit at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Belleville Shoe did $30 million in sales, Eric Weidmann told the BND at the time. This month, the company declined to provide a comparable figure for current sales.

The contract announced by Congresswoman Budzinski in September is an order for 5,634 to 56,340 pairs of temperate-weather combat boots for the U.S. Army with a maximum dollar value of $7.8 million and a two-year ordering period, according to Mikia Muhammad, spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency, which buys supplies for the U.S. Department of Defense.

“They will all come through Belleville (for at least part of the production process),” Coffey said.

The most recent contract is one of six active contracts between Belleville Shoe and the Defense Logistics Agency, awarded in the past 18 months. Muhammad listed the other five:

—A contract for 10,938 to 164,034 pairs of temperate-weather boots for the U.S. Air Force with a maximum dollar value of $23.6 million and a three-year ordering period, awarded in August 2023.

—A contract for 17,196 to 310,386 pairs of hot-weather combat boots for the U.S. Army with a maximum dollar value of $26.9 million and a three-year ordering period, awarded in June 2023.

—A contract for 10,000 to 100,000 pairs of cold-weather combat boots for the U.S. Army with a maximum dollar value of $29.1 million and a three-year ordering period, awarded in September 2022.

—A contract for 10,152 to 119,520 pairs of hot-weather steel-toe boots for the U.S. Air Force with a maximum dollar value of $17.6 million and a three-year ordering period, awarded in August 2022.

—A contract for up to 88,826 pairs of I-5 steel-toe boots (plus two option periods for up to 73,200 pairs) for the U.S. Navy with a maximum dollar value of $31 million, awarded in April 2022.

Belleville only unionized plant

Belleville Shoe’s three out-of-state locations occupy former shoe or apparel factories that the company leased or bought after they closed.

The first expansion to DeWitt, Arkansas, in 2002 resulted from increased demand for military supplies and equipment following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Coffey said. That factory is known as Belleville Boot South. Belleville Boot Mid-South opened in 2008 in Forrest City, Arkansas, and Belleville Boot Carthage opened in 2020 in Carthage, Missouri.

The Belleville location is the company’s only unionized factory. Production employees are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 655, based in St. Louis.

In 2005, when Belleville Shoe announced it was laying off 40% of its workforce due to the end of two military contracts, some Belleville employees blamed it on the DeWitt expansion.

“I think it’s a little bit of both — the contracts ending and jobs going down South,” one employee said at the time. “Some of the boots we’ve been doing here have been going down there. I know they’ve been taking some of our machines down South, too.”

The following year, the company hired back about 100 of the 260 people it had laid off, thanks to a new $25.6 million contract to make 445,000 pairs of desert combat boots for the Army National Guard.

At times, Belleville Shoe has struggled to find people to work at its Belleville factory because of other metro-east job opportunities, according to Local 655 President David Cook.

“Shoe-manufacturing jobs are not the highest-paid jobs in the world,” he said. “With the intense competition from overseas, the wages are not spectacular.”

The average wage for shoe and leather workers and repairers in the United States was $34,600 a year in May 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cook noted that it’s one of the few industries where many employees still get paid a per-piece rate.

The current labor contract for Belleville Shoe employees expires next month.

Union officials are always happy when the company gets a new military contract, even if some of the work is completed in out-of-state, non-unionized factories, Cook said.

“It will allow them to continue making high-quality military boots in Belleville with good union labor. It will ensure employment, jobs and a stable workforce for the future,” he said.

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(c) 2023 the Belleville News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

There’s history on every corner in Marietta, Ohio’s oldest town, created years before the state was founded in 1803.

And in between those corners? Popular restaurants and fun shops, elegant houses, interesting museums and waterfront views.

You might even encounter a ghost.

Founded in 1788 at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, Marietta was the capital of the Northwest Territory, the vast region west of Pennsylvania that eventually became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Fast forward 235 years, and Marietta today is a charming combination of past and present, a lovely place to spend an afternoon or a long weekend.

Some of the buildings in town date back to the city’s earliest days and are among the state’s oldest structures, including the Ohio Company Land Office, where early surveyors plotted the distribution of nearly 1 million acres of land, and the home of Rufus Putnam, an early settler who is considered the father of the Northwest Territory.

Both structures are part of the Campus Martius Museum, built in 1928 on the site of the original stockade, which protected members of the Ohio Company during the Ohio Indian Wars.

The museum, operated by the Ohio History Connection, offers a well-rounded introduction to the region’s history, with artifacts from the state’s earliest days, including surveying equipment, Continental Congress currency and a sword presented to Putnam by George Washington in 1792. Also here: the French dress coat presented by Marquis de Lafayette to Israel Putnam as gesture of gratitude for Putnam’s service during the Revolutionary War.

The French connections run deep in Marietta, which was named to honor Queen Marie Antoinette for France’s support of the colonies during their fight for independence.

Marietta, with a population of about 13,400, is an easy 2 ½ hour drive from Cleveland, just off I-77 before you cross the Ohio River into West Virginia.

The two rivers define the town – and occasionally flood it. Markers along the Muskingum are a visible reminder of the region’s most devastating floods, including a March 1913 disaster that swept away 120 homes.

Visitors can take a boat tour of both rivers aboard the Valley Gem sternwheeler, a modern replica of a Victorian-era paddleboat. The 90-minute narrated sightseeing tour takes passengers around 3-mile-long Buckley Island, once a quarantine location for smallpox patients, then a small amusement park, and now part of Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

The 290-passenger Valley Gem cruises through December 31, with a variety of tours, including lock and lunch cruises, murder mysteries and holiday-themed sailings. Prices vary; for information: valleygemsternwheeler.com

Looking for more activities in Marietta? Here are some highlights of Ohio’s most historic town:

Campus Martius Museum: In addition to the early Ohio artifacts, the museum features exhibits on the Civil War, American Indian life and “Paradise Lost and Found,” an interactive exploration of the migration patterns that brought rural Ohioans to the state’s urban centers starting in the late 19th century. See mariettamuseums.org/campus-martius/

Nearby: The Ohio River Museum, located a block from Campus Martius on the east bank of the Muskingum, remains closed while the Ohio History Connection completes plans to rebuild it. Agency spokesman Neil Thompson said construction on the new museum should begin early in 2024, although no completion date has been set.

Mound Cemetery: This historic cemetery in the center of town is the final resting place of 37 Revolutionary War veterans, many of whom moved here after receiving federal land grants for their military service. The cemetery is home to the highest number of burials of Revolutionary War officers in the nation, including generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper, among others. The cemetery’s history, however, predates American independence by a couple of thousand years. In the center of the cemetery sits a large mound, 30 feet high and 375 feet in diameter, built by the Adena culture between 800 B.C. and A.D. 100. Forty-six steps lead visitors to the top, where several benches offer an opportunity for rest and reflection.

The cemetery is located a few blocks north of downtown, near Marietta College, and surrounded by some of the community’s most historic homes, including a lovely residence called the House of Seven Porches, built in 1835, the same year the college was founded.

Also nearby: The Castle, a Gothic Revival house open for tours (mariettacastle.org); the Peoples Mortuary Museum, featuring historic hearses, caskets and other funeral memorabilia (cawleyandpeoples.com/peoples-mortuary-museum); and the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Assumption, worth a stop to peek inside, designed in the early 1900s by Cleveland architect Emile Uhlrich.

Ghost tours: Hidden Marietta guides have been offering night-time ghost tours of the city for more than a decade, with stops throughout town, including at the historic Lafayette Hotel, built in 1918 and reportedly a hotbed of paranormal activity. The tour company also offers guided and self-guided tours of the historic, haunted 23-room Anchorage Mansion, built in 1859 and currently being renovated by the Washington County Historical Society. Information: hiddenmarietta.com

Downtown stroll: Marietta’s small downtown packs a punch, with numerous shops (Clutch Collective, the Cook’s Shop, Schafer Leather Store and others), plus places to dine, drink and be merry. But be warned: Many restaurants and shops are closed on Sundays.

Don’t miss downtown’s Peoples Bank Theatre, which opened in 1919, closed in 1985 and reopened in 2016 after a full-scale renovation, and currently hosts a range of movies, concerts and special events (peoplesbanktheatre.com).

Where to eat: You’ll need to spend more than a weekend to try all the options in town. Among the possibilities: Levee House Bistro, the Galley and the Riverfront Bar and Grill at the Lafayette Hotel. For breakfast, don’t miss the Busy Bee, a popular diner in Harmar Village, the historic neighborhood across the Muskingum River from downtown Marietta.

Where to stay: Options include the Hackett Hotel, with five well-appointed, oversized rooms in a 1899-era building; and the 77-room Lafayette Hotel, with rooms overlooking the Ohio River.

In the region: Ohio River Scenic Byway, Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, Wayne National Forest

Information: mariettaohio.org

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© 2023 Advance Local Media LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday as the U.S. grappled with rising tensions with the world’s second-largest economy and the Democratic governor worked to navigate a challenging diplomatic landscape on a trip meant to promote climate cooperation.

The meeting at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing came as China’s top diplomat announced plans to visit to Washington on Thursday, and weeks before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco where President Biden may meet with Xi — signals that both sides could make efforts to improve what’s become a frosty relationship.

It was Newsom’s second meeting with a foreign government leader in less than a week after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Friday — an extraordinary foray into international affairs for a governor who has no authority on global matters. Though he has repeatedly said he is not planning a run for president, Newsom’s sudden pivot to international diplomacy allows him to build experience that could help in a future run for higher office.

In Beijing, where Chinese handlers tightly controlled media access, American reporters were not allowed into the meeting between Newsom and Xi.

Talking with reporters afterwards, Newsom said he spoke with Xi about climate change, trade and tourism, and the fentanyl crisis that has gripped the United States, areas where he hopes the two nations can cooperate.

On fentanyl, Newsom said the two men discussed so-called “precursor chemicals” that make their way through the black market from China to Mexico and then into the U.S. as deadly pills.

“We talked about the importance of this issue and how it’s played an outsized role as the leading cause of death for 18-to-49-year-olds in the United States,” Newsom said. “It’s taking the life of one-plus person every single day in San Francisco.”

He described fentanyl as an issue that “should scare every parent out there” because of how many young people are dying from taking pills that they don’t know contain the drug.

“This is a big, big issue,” Newsom said.

Before his talks with Xi, Newsom met with three other Chinese officials. American media were allowed to cover just a few minutes of each of those meetings as Newsom and the Chinese dignitaries made introductory remarks.

Newsom said he talked with them about issues including human rights abuses in Hong Kong, his desire to see a two-state solution in Israel and his hope that China will release David Lin, a California resident who has been detained in China for many years.

“We hope David Lin comes back. We hope he’s released,” Newsom said. “He’s 67 years old, he’s a man of faith, and he’s being held. … On the basis of what I know, and with humility, but with what I know, he should be released.”

Newsom said he sees discussions about cooperating to fight climate change as a way to open the door to broader alliances between nations, noting that “we all breathe the same air.”

A tense geopolitical climate has loomed over Newsom’s voyage to promote cooperation on climate-friendly technologies such as electric vehicles and wind energy. Relations between the U.S. and China were already strained before this month’s eruption of war between Israel and Hamas presented a new potential wedge between the world’s two superpowers.

China and Russia announced last week that they intend to work together to create an alliance that could attempt to counter U.S. support for Israel. The Pentagon reported recently that China is building up its nuclear weapons arsenal faster than previously projected and is likely studying Russia’s war in Ukraine to get a sense of how a conflict over Taiwan could play out. China immediately fired back that the report is false, and blasted the U.S. as the world’s “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability,” citing America’s recent actions to help Israel and Ukraine.

All that comes on top of disagreements between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights and the militarization of the South China Sea. In February, the U.S. shot down a Chinese balloon that flew over sensitive military installations. In August, Biden signed an executive order to block and regulate U.S. investments in Chinese tech companies.

Newsom said he urged Xi to come to San Francisco for the APEC conference next month but said it was up to the Chinese president to announce if he will make the trip.

Newsom is the first U.S. governor to visit China since 2019. His visit could help improve dynamics between the two nations, said Susan Shirk, a political scientist who is the founding chair of the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego.

“Right now the U.S. and China are in a downward spiral in their relationship. It’s really quite dangerous and we’re not going to prevent further deterioration of relations — or even the risk of war — unless our decision-makers talk to one another,” Shirk said.

“So diplomacy is really important.”

Newsom began the day in Beijing on Wednesday by signing a clean-energy agreement with the leader of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, which oversees the country’s economic development plans. Then he met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is traveling to Washington this week to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

It was Newsom’s meeting with Vice President Han Zheng that showed the personal dimension of political relationships built over time. Zheng recalled meeting Newsom almost 20 years ago when he was the mayor of Shanghai and Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco. As sister cities, San Francisco and Shanghai developed longstanding economic and cultural exchanges that Zheng called “a good example of China-U.S. subnational cooperation.”

China-U.S. relations are “the most important bilateral relations in the world, and subnational cooperation [plays] an indispensable part to facilitate a sound and steady growth of China-U.S. relations,” he said through an interpreter.

“National-level relations must also include the relations between states, between sectors of society and between the business communities. Only by doing this can we bring the relations back to the right channel of development.”

Newsom paid tribute to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein in his remarks to the vice president, recalling her work to establish the sister-city relationship with Shanghai when she was San Francisco mayor in the 1980s:

“I cannot impress upon you more how indelible her memory and her mentorship is in relationship to maintaining the relationship to China,” Newsom said. “It’s the foundation that was built that reminds me of how important it is to continue to advance this spirit that unites us here today.”

Shirk at UC San Diego said it’s risky for American politicians to engage with Chinese officials. But, she said, it’s also beneficial.

“China’s going to be there forever, even after Xi Jinping,” she said. “So, it’s really good to maintain relations at the people-to-people level.”

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Party-list lawmaker France Castro (ACT Teacher) on Tuesday filed before the Quezon City Prosecutors Office a criminal complaint against former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Castro filed a complaint of Grave Threat under Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for the statements he made over a television program at Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) where he talked about the confidential fund of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.

Castro was among the lawmakers who criticized the granting of P650 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education, which Duterte also sits as head.

The House of Representatives eventually stripped the OVP, DepEd and three other agencies of confidential funds. The stripped amount was eventually given to security agencies protecting the West Philippine Sea.

In his Gikan sa Masa, Para sa asa Program at SMNI that aired October 11, 2023, Duterte said his daughter intends to use the confidential funds for a soft revival of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. (ROTC) program.

He said he advised his daughter to be frank to Congress, particularly Castro that she needs the CF fund to stop the communist insurgency.

Duterte said: “I told Inday (Sara) to be direct, tell them that the intelligence fund is meant to prepare the minds of the Filipinos, to address the insurgency that is taking a long time to end. And the ROTC so that we are prepared for war, especially in this situation, if we do not have soldiers, then we will have the youth who can take care of their respective barangays,” he explained.

“But your first target there, using your intelligence funds, is you, France, you communists who I want to kill. I asked her to tell them that, but she refused, saying, ‘You know Pa, if I did that, they might harass the PMTs (Philippine Military Training institutions),’” he added.

Duterte’s program was also posted on SMNI’s social media accounts, which already have 7,500 views, 540 reactions, and 78 comments.

In her complaint, Duterte made several insinuations linking her to the communist armed movement without any proof.

“Though factually baseless and clearly malicious, I cannot merely dismiss Respondent Duterte’s red-tagging and accompanying grave threats as either figurative, joking, or otherwise benign,” Castro said as she pointed out that many red-tagged individuals were eventually arrested, detained, or killed.

Castro said all the key elements of Grave Threats, as mentioned under the Revised Penal Code and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, are present in her complaint, specifically that threat, which is considered a crime upon her person.

“The threat was not made to any condition, and it was committed using information and communication technologies,” Castro said.

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(c) 2023 the Asia News Network

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas has escalated, raising the number of civilian casualties counted in the thousands, Worcester Congressman Jim McGovern has been increasingly alarmed at the U.S. State Department’s lack of progress getting American citizens out of Gaza.

“I’m deeply concerned and also frustrated,” McGovern, D-2nd District, said Wednesday. “There hasn’t been a day gone by we haven’t been on the phone with the State Department trying to advocate for them and push the administration to do everything humanly possible to get them out.”

Among McGovern’s constituents are a Medway family — Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their 1-year-old son Yousef Okal — who were visiting relatives in Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The family has endured an increasingly dangerous and dire situation sheltering in the southern community of Rafah as airstrikes have escalated and supplies including food and water have diminished.

Okal, who has communicated with MassLive primarily through the texting app WhatsApp, has described being forced to wean his son off of milk and his efforts to soothe his child amid explosions at night.

“Today is day 18 of the war and we’re still stranded in Gaza,” Okal said in a three-minute voice recording published by MassLive speaking of his family’s experiences. “We’ve been trying to stay strong but it hasn’t been easy.”

Okal has described being told by the State Department that the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be open on three occasions and each time not being allowed through.

For McGovern, who has been in contact with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joshua Harris and U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power, he doesn’t understand why the family hasn’t been able to leave yet.

“For the many days we have been advocating for this family we’ve heard all kinds of reasons why it is challenging,” McGovern said.

At first, McGovern said the State Department had indicated that Egypt didn’t want to open the passage because they were afraid of a large influx of people. Once that was resolved, the State Department said Israel had to agree not to perform military action in the area. After that, he was told there was no assurance that Hamas wouldn’t interfere.

“I don’t even know what it is today,” McGovern said. “I don’t know what the reason is why this hasn’t happened.”

In a press conference on Monday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that negotiations have been ongoing about both getting aid into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing between the two countries, as well as getting U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals out.

“We were in conversation with the Government of Egypt, as we have been for some time, about being able to process those American citizens if they were able to get through the Gaza side and to the Egyptian side of the crossing. None of them were able to because the reports we were given on the ground is that Hamas was there blocking anyone from coming through the gate from the Gaza side out to the Egyptian side,” Miller said.

In a statement to MassLive, a State Department spokesperson provided a statement that the department “has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.”

“We have made thousands of phone calls and sent thousands of emails to U.S. citizens in Gaza, their immediate family members, and their loved ones who are inquiring with us on their behalf. We continue to work urgently in partnership with Egypt and Israel to facilitate the ability of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members to exit Gaza safely and travel via Egypt to their final destinations. We are providing the best information we have about shifting conditions to allow U.S. citizens to make their own decisions regarding their safety and security in an incredibly difficult and fluid situation,” the statement read.

The spokesperson said they could not confirm exactly how many Americans are trapped in Gaza. McGovern said the number was in the hundreds.

McGovern said he was particularly worried that if Americans were not allowed to leave soon, it would become more difficult to get them out if Israel executes a ground invasion of Gaza, something they have threatened to do.

While State Department officials had previously indicated that citizens would have to find their own way from the border to Cairo — a five-hour drive away — McGovern said the most recent information he’s heard is that there would be transportation from the border to Cairo available to American citizens.

McGovern is among the small group in Congress that has pushed for a ceasefire in the region. Last week, McGovern joined fellow Congresspeople Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Greg Casar of Texas, Barbara Lee of California, Joaquin Castro of Texas, Veronica Escobar of Texas and Jesús G. “Chuy” García of Illinois in calling for an “immediate ceasefire, or at minimum a temporary cessation of all hostilities in Israel and Gaza to save civilian lives.”

“I get that Israel has a right to defend itself, but we’re now at a point where the humanitarian crisis demands a ceasefire,” McGovern said Wednesday. “The bombing needs to stop and again we need t ofocus on getting all the Americans out of Gaza safely.”

More than a dozen Congresspeople have joined the call for a ceasefire — including Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley.

Massachusetts’ two U.S. Senators — Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey — have not signed on to the effort to call for a ceasefire.

Markey had previously called for “de-escalation” at a pro-Israel rally earlier this month, and was booed by those in attendance following that remark.

In a statement sent to MassLive, Warren addressed the situation at the Rafah border crossing.

“Humanitarian aid is beginning to trickle into Gaza, and the situation on the ground remains dire. I continue to actively work with the State Department to help American citizens come home as soon as possible, including the Medway family,” Warren wrote in the statement.

McGovern said his office is “not going to rest” until the Medway family is safely back in the United States.

“My heart aches for them,” McGovern said. “They have a little baby, and we heard about the baby having a fever at one point…. We are pressuring our government as strongly as we can to get them out now, whatever it takes.”

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© 2023 Advance Local Media LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

It’s not every day you come across ruins in an Oregon forest.

On this week’s episode of Peak Northwest, we explore the old military batteries – concrete bunkers built after the Civil War – that still stand at state parks at the mouth of the Columbia River.

From the massive complex at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon to the many batteries at Cape Disappointment and Fort Columbia state parks in Washington, the structures offer a different way to tour the spectacular area.

Whether you’re a history buff or just looking for a different kind of state park attraction, these old batteries are a fascinating attraction.

Here are some highlights from this week’s show:

• What exactly are these things?
• What’s it like to tour an old military battery?
• Fort Stevens State Park is a great place to get the history.
• Cape Disappointment has two interesting batteries and so much more to see.

Here’s the full episode:

Subscribe to Peak Northwest on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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© 2023 Advance Local Media LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A federal trial opened Thursday with allegations that the conservative group True the Vote intimidated Georgia voters through 250,000 unverified challenges to their eligibility before runoffs that decided control of the U.S. Senate in early 2021.

True the Vote countered that it didn’t threaten anyone when it followed a Georgia law that allows citizens to question whether a voter still lives where they’re registered.

The lawsuit filed by Fair Fight asks a judge to banish Texas-based True the Vote from operating in Georgia and from disputing voter eligibility in the future. Fair Fight, which was founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams, contends that True the Vote violated the Voting Rights Act’s protections against voter intimidation.

Voter challenges targeted many legitimate voters who were “forced to jump through hoops,” leave the line to vote and in some cases wait for hours, Uzoma Nkwonta, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in his opening statement.

“The challenge list from True the Vote was thrown together and haphazard, and the result was an unmitigated disaster,” Nkwonta told U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in a Gainesville courtroom. “Their only offense was that they dared to vote.”

But True the Vote, the force behind the debunked conspiracy movie “2000 Mules,” argued that its voter challenges were “a responsible middle path” between wild accusations and a government that was unable to verify voters’ authenticity in the weeks before the runoffs. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won the runoffs, tipping control of the U.S. Senate.

“Many people were not living where they were registered to vote,” said Cameron Powell, an attorney for True the Vote. “Everything is better when people vote in the right place.”

Ultimately, county election boards rejected the vast majority of the voter challenges, which relied on huge spreadsheets that listed voters who had submitted change-of-address forms with the U.S. Postal Service.

The voter challenges harmed those who wanted their mail forwarded but remained Georgia voters with full voting rights, including members of the military, students and relocated workers, Nkwonta said.

After the Senate runoffs, the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly expanded the state’s voter challenge law, making it explicit that anyone could contest the eligibility of an unlimited number of voter registrations.

The new law came after Republican President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and repeatedly claimed there was rampant fraud in Georgia and other states that he didn’t win. Multiple recounts and investigations confirmed Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Under the new law, conservative activists have filed over 100,000 more voter challenges, primarily in Atlanta-area counties with large numbers of Democratic voters.

The legality of Georgia’s voter challenge laws isn’t being questioned in Fair Fight’s lawsuit. Instead, Fair Fight is arguing that True the Vote and its allies used the law in a reckless way that intimidated voters.

The lawsuit also accuses True the Vote of offering “bounty” money to support voter challengers and recruiting Navy SEALs to monitor polling places.

True the Vote’s attorneys said the group never contacted voters when it filed challenges to their eligibility with county election boards. They said voters couldn’t have been intimidated by True the Vote if the group followed state law and eligible voters were able to cast their ballots.

Witnesses in the trial, which is expected to last one or two weeks, could include True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht, legitimate voters who had to fight eligibility challenges, and Georgia residents who filed the challenges against them.

Jones, who was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama, will likely rule on the case in the weeks after the trial concludes.

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© 2023 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Trump’s trials. Israel and Gaza. The House speaker debacle. Another Disneyland price hike. If only there was something else to scare us … or at least distract us from the true terrors of 2023.

The goal of this list is to help you find that sweet, spooky spot among the ghoulish obstacle course of television programming in October. Many of the releases mentioned below are available now to stream, or you’ll be able to watch them in their entirety by the time Halloween rolls around. There is one docuseries mentioned that does not come out until early November, but given the waning number of new shows arriving due to the writer’s and actor’s strikes, you’ll thank me for this creepy gem about a mom-and-pop cult disguised as an online dating site.

Or you can always watch the news.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

Streaming on Netflix

Think of this fantastically creepy offering as “Succession” with metaphysical twists, a wicked sense of comeuppance and blood. Lots of blood. This eight-part Netflix series from Mike Flanagan (“The Haunting of Hill House,” “Midnight Mass“) is loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name, but its eat-the-rich themes are evergreen. It follows the obscenely wealthy and corrupt founders of a pharmaceutical company, conniving twins Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell). We meet them just as Roderick’s greedy and loathsome offspring are dying one by one in barbaric and gruesome fashions. Could it be payback for Fortunato Pharmaceutical pushing addictive painkillers on an unsuspecting public, or is there something even more sinister behind the success of the company and its CEOs? Look toward a mysterious woman from their past, Verna (Carla Gugino). She’s everywhere, all the time, and her name happens to be an anagram of the word raven.

‘Shining Vale,’ Season 2

New episodes air Fridays and stream on Starz

Is Pat having a mental breakdown or is there really a ghost in her new house that’s telling her to kill? Starz’s half-hour dark comedy “Shining Vale” has fun with every horror trope imaginable while exploring mental illness through the lens of a haunting. “Women are roughly twice as likely as men to suffer from depression,” says the series in an opening disclaimer. “Women are also roughly twice as likely to be possessed by a demon.” Enter Patricia Phelps (Courteney Cox), a bestselling novelist whose follow-up book is way past overdue. Suffering from severe writer’s block and a stale marriage, she and her family move from New York City to the quaint suburb of Shining Vale where she hopes to finish her manuscript and mend her relationship with her emotionally stunted husband, Terry (Greg Kinnear). But the old mansion and it’s resident ghoul (Mira Sorvino) have other plans. Now in its second season, this sharp-witted series from Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan reimagines the many tales of male authors suffering for their craft (“The Shining,” “Misery”) and puts a harried mom and her host of medications at the center of the story.

‘The Enfield Poltergeist’

Premiering Friday on Apple TV+

When America had “The Amityville Horror,” England had the Enfield hauntings. A single mum, Peggy Hodgson, and her four kids were terrified by the violent activity in their modest council house on a London estate, and their story would later become the basis of “The Conjuring 2.” But this docuseries from Apple TV+ takes a closer look at the terrifying yet suspicious events that made headlines by mining the 200-plus hours of audio logs made in the home between 1977 and 1978, and comparing old and new interviews with witnesses who claimed to have been rattled by shaking walls, banging doors and flying chairs. This four-part series from MetFilm and Concordia Studios goes as far as to re-create the Hodgson family home on a soundstage, replete with drab beige wallpaper and aging mid-century appliances. As actors lip-sync along to the actual recordings, cracks appear in the story, and that’s where things gets interesting. They scrutinize the late paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse’s findings, calling into question what really caused all the activity that made Hodgson an overnight celebrity in the British press.

‘The Devil on Trial’

Streaming on Netflix

Like “The Enfield Poltergeist,” this documentary looks at the conflicting stories behind a boy’s alleged demonic possession in 1980’s Brookfield, Conn. — a case that would mark the first time in U.S. judicial history that a demonic possession was used as a defense in a murder trial. Interviewed here are the folks who actually lived to tell the tale, including David Glatzel, who was 11 years old at the time his family claimed he was possessed (he’s now in his 50s), and his siblings. Together they recall when their brother’s erratic behavior caught the attention of celebrity demonologists and paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, known for their inquiry into the alleged haunting in Amityville, New York, and how the chaos in their home led to a homicide that some still blame on a hellish entity. But their conflicting narratives shed new light on the case, and the validity of the first devil-made-me-do-it defense.

‘Bodies’

Streaming on Netflix

It’s 2023 when Det. Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) finds a dead body in London’s Longharvest Lane. The corpse is an unidentified naked man with a gouged out eye and a curious tattoo. Det. Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller) finds the same body, in the same spot, in 1890. So does Det. Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in 1941, and Det. Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas) in 2053. They eventually learn that their John Doe’s death is caused by someone traveling backward in time, but why? I’d love to drop a spoiler about this British crime thriller right here, but I won’t because I still don’t fully understand what’s happening in the story that’s based on the DC Vertigo graphic novel of the same name, but that hasn’t stopped me from immersing myself in it’s unnerving and ominous world. But expect gruesome autopsy scenes from various time periods because bone-snapping gore never goes out of fashion.

‘Living for the Dead’

Streaming on Hulu

Finally, a ghost hunting show with something entertaining to lean on when uncooperative apparitions don’t materialize. Hulu’s half-hour reality show follows five queer ghost hunters — a tarot card reader, a witch, a tech guru, a psychic and a paranormal researcher — as they launch investiGAYtions into paranormal activity at various haunted stops across the county. From executive producer Kristen Stewart, who narrates, and the creators of “Queer Eye,” this colorful spin on an old concept aims to “push past boundaries to bring acceptance to the misunderstood — living and dead,” while looking fabulous in the process.

’30 Coins,’ Season 2

New episodes stream Mondays on Max

Now in it’s second season, this biblical, terrifying series from Spain follows exiled priest Father Vergara (Eduard Fernández), an exorcist and ex-convict trying to escape his past in the small Spanish village of Pedraza. But the townfolk begin experiencing supernatural activity of a hellish nature, and it’s linked to an antique coin in Father Vergara’s possession. The silver piece is one of those paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus and handing him over to the Romans, so suffice to say it’s a bad penny. Enter demons, Vatican conspiracies, animals acting strangely and doomsday deadlines. This season, the battered population of Pedraza faces a new enemy played by Paul Giamatti. Director Álex de la Iglesia describes the villain as “someone so perverse that even the devil fears him.”

‘American Horror Stories,’ Season 3

Premiered Thursday on FX on Hulu

Wait, didn’t “American Horror Story” just return for it’s 12th season last month? It did, but this is a spinoff of the Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck hit anthology series, its differences connoted in the last few letters of the shows’ titles. The Halloween special offers a different tale of horror with each new episode, and there are four here to fear. A trailer for the episode titled “Tapeworm,” featuring actor and former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Lisa Rinna, explained what to expect in this splashy logline: “An up-and-coming model will stop at nothing in her hunger for success.” It’s probably best not to snack while watching.

‘Escaping Twin Flames’

Premiering Nov. 3 on Netflix

OK, so maybe this three-part documentary drops after Halloween, but a good cult story is evergreen. This series from director Cecilia Peck goes behind the scenes of a controversial dating site that attracts an online community of mostly single women by guaranteeing it will help them find, and keep, their true soulmate, aka their “twin flame.” The site is run by the husband-and-wife team Jeff and Shaleia Ayan, and the series features the firsthand accounts of women who allege abusive indoctrination methods, encouragement to stalk their desired flame, and manipulative tactics that made them doubt their very gender and sexual identities. The Twin Flames Universe is still actively recruiting new members, so here’s a chance to witness the horror without paying thousands of dollars in class fees to the Ayans.

Bonus watching: Suspenseful series and Hammer Films

In case you missed these September releases, “The Changeling” (Apple TV+) and “The Other Black Girl” (Hulu) spin the the unfortunate realities of postpartum depression and racism in the workplace (respectively) into suspenseful tales of gas lighting terror.

And if you are in the mood for a movie instead, try streaming at least one classic Hammer horror film before handing candy out on the 31st. “Dracula A.D, 1972,” “The Mummy” and “The Devil Rides Out” are just a few of the gothic, often groovy gems that were made by the British Hammer production house throughout the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. You’ll find them on Max, Amazon Prime and lots of other platforms where Anglophiles appreciate the sinister charisma of Christopher Lee and the gentlemanly ghoulishness of Peter Cushing.

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Governator wants a younger generation of politicians to run the United States — since he can’t do it himself.

“Terminator” star and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shared his thoughts on the next chapter of American leadership in an interview with the BBC. More than a decade after his seven-year turn representing the Golden State, Schwarzenegger said, “I feel like I would make a great president.”

“Everything that I’ve accomplished was because of America,” Schwarzenegger told the BBC’s Colin Paterson. “The only thing that I can’t do is run for president, I’m not going to complain about that.”

Schwarzenegger, 76, was born in Thal, Austria, and moved to the United States in 1968 to pursue his bodybuilding and power-lifting career, and eventually work in Hollywood. The United States Constitution says that presidential candidates must be natural-born U.S. citizens, making Schwarzenegger ineligible.

Americans won’t vote for their next president until next November, but the 2024 presidential race has been long underway. Among the official candidates are President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

With the presidential candidates’ ages in mind (Biden is 80, Trump is 77), Schwarzenegger says he “hope(s) that America finds some really young blood.”

He added: “It is a little bit odd that we are having a battle between people today in the late 70s and early 80s rather than people that in the 40s and 50s or maybe even younger and have them have a chance at this great, great job.”

Schwarzenegger spoke to the BBC amid the release of his memoir, “Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.” For The Times, Charles Arrowsmith wrote that the self-help book “is a raw deal, a hollow PR exercise filled with precepts and quips but devoid of self-awareness or humility.”

Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger revealed that he underwent a botched open-heart surgery in 2019. In a video shared to his YouTube channel in August, he said doctors “made a mistake and poked through the heart wall.”

“It was a disaster. I was in the middle of a disaster,” he recalled. He also highlighted his positive attitude and the support system that aided him in his recovery.

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) accused Hamas terrorists of operating a secret military base beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility.

During a Friday press conference, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, stated, “Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital — and other hospitals in Gaza — with a network of terror tunnels. Shifa is not the only hospital — it is one of many. Hamas’ use of hospitals is systematic.”

The IDF released images and detailed graphics to support the claim, showing what the IDF alleges to be an extensive command post beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, which serves as a critical healthcare center with 1,500 beds and over 4,000 staff members, according to Fox News.

READ MORE: 2 American hostages released by Hamas terrorists: Report

In response to the IDF’s claim, a senior Hamas leader, Izzat al-Rishq, vehemently denied these accusations, labeling them “baseless” and a pretext for aggression. Al-Rishq linked his claims to previous incidents, including the Oct. 17 explosion at the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which U.S. intelligence suggested was likely caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket malfunction, though Hamas has attempted to accuse Israel of responsibility.

The IDF’s assertion echoes long-standing Israeli concerns about the use of civilian structures for military purposes by terrorist organizations, according to Fox News. This strategy complicates military responses and often leads to civilian casualties during conflicts.

The IDF’s recent operations, including an airstrike that killed Madhath Mubashar, a Hamas battalion commander accused of orchestrating attacks against Israeli targets, highlight the ongoing challenges in this densely populated area.

Hagari also noted Friday that the number of hostages currently held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza has increased to 229.

This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.