Paradise News

Tag: General News

  • San Jose Sharks prepare for Boston Bruins after loss to Carolina

    SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks players huddled together on the ice near the end of Wednesday’s practice for a few minutes. There wasn’t any grand, fiery speech – at least nothing discernable from a few dozen feet away — and it ended after a short while with the group sharing a small laugh.

    Players after practice were hesitant to say what the meeting was about. Perhaps the theme, though, was to remain unified even though the Sharks are off to an 0-2-1 start, one year after they began the season with five straight regulation-time losses.

    “When you lose a few games, you have to come together,” Sharks goalie Kaapo Kahkonen said. “You can’t blame each other. You can’t point fingers.”

    Kahkonen will start Wednesday night when the Sharks face the Boston Bruins to end their season-opening four-game homestand, and job No. 1 for the skaters in front of him is to cut down on the number of shots their goaltender has to face.

    The Sharks allowed a combined 94 shots in losses to the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively. Before the start of the third period on Tuesday, the team’s media relations department made a point to announce that Mackenzie Blackwood had stopped more shots through two games to begin a season than any other goalie in Sharks history.

    That’s impressive for Blackwood, but not exactly a point of pride for everyone else wearing a teal uniform.

    Certainly, coach David Quinn expressed his dismay, saying after the 6-3 loss to Carolina, in which San Jose broke down and allowed four unanswered goals in the third period, that, “We’ve just got to be harder to play against and tonight wasn’t good enough. Way too soft and way too slow.”

    Wednesday’s practice, with greater emphasis on forechecking and battle level, tried to rectify those issues before they became bad habits.

    “We haven’t established any forecheck. Our O-zone play has been bad,” Quinn said Wednesday. “We just haven’t given our defenseman a chance to create gaps.

    “I get the level of competition we’ve had, but I can’t do anything about it, and neither can (the players). But they can get to the spots they need to get to as quickly as possible with the intention of playing through people. The minute we touch somebody, we start looking for a puck, and then we’re losing these battles that just shouldn’t be lost.”

    Lacking the star power they had last season with Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier, the Sharks have little chance to compete on a nightly basis if they’re unwilling to move their feet, win battles, and be more physical. Those items must be non-negotiable if the Sharks want to improve upon last season’s 22-44-16 record, the fourth-worst mark from a points percentage standpoint in team history.

    “We were turning too many pucks over in the neutral zone. We didn’t establish a forecheck at all. We weren’t physical at all,” Sharks forward Luke Kunin said. “In practice, there was a lot forechecking, a lot of getting flesh and body first, and that’s kind of got to be our identity.

    ‘If we don’t have that, we’re not going to create a lot in the (offensive) zone.”

    Having forwards get in opposing forecheckers’ way would also help take some of the pressure off the defensemen on breakout attempts. In the attacking zone, Kunin and Quinn both said there has to be predictability to what each skater is doing without guys freelancing.

    “A forecheck is all about three guys fighting to be F1,” Quinn said. “Because once that happens, there’s the three-man forecheck and then it turns into a five-man forecheck. because the (defensemen) can stay connected near the forwards.

    “When one guy goes and F2 and F3 kind of look and there’s hesitation, there’s just too much spacing between people and that’s what’s been happening. We haven’t had that five-man gap where everybody’s skating to gap to sustain zone time.”

    LABANC IN: Forward Kevin Labanc said he’s ready to play after he was scratched for the first three games, and he’ll get that opportunity against the Bruins. Quinn said he has liked the way Labanc has practiced in recent days, and it appears the winger will start on a line with Thomas Bordeleau and Filip Zadina.

    “If he hadn’t been practicing that way he had, he wouldn’t have been in the lineup today, so he’s put himself in a good position,” Quinn said of Labanc. “This is a guy that’s an established NHLer, and he’s going to be a big contributor this year as well. I’m banking on it, pun intended.”

    DEFENSIVE SWITCH: The Sharks reassigned defenseman Henry Thrun to the Barracuda on Wednesday morning. That creates a roster spot for Nikita Okhotiuk, who began the season on the injured non-roster list and is an option to play Wednesday and make his Sharks debut, Quinn said. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Ty Emberson are also available to play, Quinn said.

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  • NSCDC Shuts Down Private Security Companies For ‘Threatening National Security’

    Justigo-security-and-allied-services

    Operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, on Wednesday, sealed three private security companies operating illegally in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

    The security companies were sealed by the Private Guards Directorate on Wednesday for various offences ranging from threat to national security and public interest, failure to register as a private guard company, refusal to be subjected to licensing authority, use of dual uniforms and failure to renew their operational licenses.

    According to the NSCDC, this contravenes the Private Guards Act of 2004 which mandates private security companies to obtain regulatory approval and license for operations.

    The act also mandates security companies to seek requisite approval before employing security guards.

    The sealed security companies include Ochacho Security Nig. Ltd. located at Idu Industrial layout , Justigo Security and Allied Services in Gwarimpa and Maco Security Service and consult Ltd. at Wuse 2, Abuja

    Maco Security Service and consult Ltd.

    The NSCDC FCT Commandant, Olusola Odumosu, who led the operation, said the command had invited the affected security companies over the infractions but they refused to respond.

    Odumosu noted that private security companies formed a major part of Nigeria’s internal security system which necessitated the need for monitoring and enforcement.

    “This is a matter of serious security concern which cannot be compromised so we can’t allow quacks or miscreants to handle our security so this effort will be sustained.

    “Security operations is not an all-comers affair because we are already facing too many security challenges and that is why we will not allow any operation that is illegal.

    “Under the leadership of the Commandant General, Ahmed Audi, we will not condone such illegalities and threat to national security,” the Commandant said.

    He, however, said that once all sealed PGCs fulfil the necessary operational requirements, their companies will be unsealed and given operational approval.

    Ochacho Security Nig. Ltd
    Justice-security-and-allied-services
    Justigo Security and Allied Services

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  • Fact Check: No evidence Democrats want to accept ‘1 million’ Gaza refugees

    Israeli Defense Forces told people in north Gaza, an area that’s home to about 1 million people, to evacuate as Israel prepared to respond to attacks by Hamas.

    Now, some conservatives are using that figure to falsely claim the Democratic Party is broadly advocating to take them all in as refugees.

    “Democrats want to bring one million to the US,” conservative news website The Gateway Pundit posted Oct. 15 on X.

    “Democrats want the USA to take in half of Gaza, including up to 1 million ‘refugees,’ at your expense, because Israel is destroying their homes,” read another X post from the same day, this one from a radio show host. “Prediction: Biden will find a way to do this.”

    U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said something similar on X on Oct. 16: “The Democrats’ push to take in a million Palestinian refugees is absurd. Even other Middle Eastern nations recognize the fact that terrorist cells could disguise themselves as refugees fleeing war.” 

    Biggs linked to a clip of an interview he gave to radio show host James T. Harris. “We were talking about how we had a move by the Democrats to try to get Palestinian refugees over in America,” Harris said. “How serious are the Democrats?”

    “They are pretty serious about that,” Biggs replied. “These Democrats, a lot of them are finding sympathy with Hamas and the Palestinian movement — not with Israel, who was attacked ruthlessly.”

    We contacted a Biggs spokesperson to ask for his evidence that the Democratic Party has sought to allow 1 million refugees from Gaza to the U.S.

    “He is referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s calculation that more than 1 million Palestinians have already been displaced from their homes in just one week. Additionally, he is referring to Israel’s evacuation order to 1 million Palestinians,” Biggs spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told PolitiFact in an email. Tragesser said “many Democrats” including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,  “have publicly supported bringing in the Palestinian population via the refugee resettlement process to the United States.”

    We asked Tragesser to point to specific statements by the two lawmakers showing they called for 1 million refugees from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez have made broad statements supporting refugees, but we found no statements showing they called for 1 million to come to the U.S.

    Comments by two members do not represent the entire party.

    Bowman and AOC expressed support for taking refugees

    Some social media posts making the 1 million claim linked to an Oct. 14 New York Post article headlined, “Progressives call for US to take in some of the expected 1 million Gaza refugees.” But the story quotes only one Democratic lawmaker — Bowman — and he didn’t call for a specific number of refugees to enter the U.S. 

    Bowman said that “50% of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas.” 

    We contacted Bowman’s office to ask whether that was his full statement or whether he has said how many Gaza refugees he thinks the U.S. should receive. We got no response.

    In an Oct. 16 CNN interview with Ocasio-Cortez, host Abby Phillip played a clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who said he opposed allowing any refugees from Gaza into the U.S. and said “all” of them are anti-Semitic. Phillip asked Ocasio-Cortez if the Arab countries should take on the “lionshare of the burden to absorb what could be over 1 million if not more refugees from Gaza.” 

    Ocasio-Cortez said she supports accepting refugees, but cited no number.

    “I think there’s something to be said about the region’s partners being able to support and step up Palestinians,” she said. “However, that does not abdicate the United States from our historic role that we’ve played in the world of accepting refugees and allowing people to restart their lives here.” We contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s press office to ask whether she made any statements calling for a specific number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response.

    Biden previously raised the refugee cap, but nowhere close to 1 million

    Even if there were any evidence to the claim that Democrats are advocating to accept such a sizable number of refugees into the U.S., current policies would not allow that.

    Receiving refugee status is a difficult process that can take years. 

    Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to set annual refugee admissions at 125,000 and seek to raise it over time. We gave Biden a Promise Kept in July for raising the refugee cap to 125,000. 

    But in the federal fiscal year ended in September, the U.S. let in about half the allowable amount: 60,014, including 56 Palestinians, according to the Refugee Processing Center within the State Department. 

    There is another path for people fleeing difficult situations including war: humanitarian parole. Unlike refugee status, parole does not include a path to citizenship but does allow people to live and work in the U.S. for two years. Biden has extended parole to people from Afghanistan, Ukraine and some Latin American countries.

    Through Aug. 31, more than 211,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans had arrived lawfully under the humanitarian parole processes, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

    But PolitiFact found no evidence that Democrats are widely advocating for 1 million people to enter through that process, either.

    A spokesperson for the National Security Council, which advises President Joe Biden on national security and foreign policy, told PolitiFact that there are no plans for any new refugee programs or granting parole. That matched what National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Oct. 12.

    Spencer Tilger, a spokesperson for the International Refugee Assistance Project, a legal aid group, said Palestinian refugees have historically faced hurdles — and they do now as well.

    “Given that there are no airports in Gaza, and the territory’s Egyptian and Israeli borders are sealed, a more pressing concern is that Palestinians displaced by Israeli military action actually have no safe place to go or safe way to get there,” Tilger said. 

    Our ruling

    Biggs said the Democrats are pushing “to take in a million Palestinian refugees.”

    That’s how many people in north Gaza have been told to leave: 1 million.

    Two Democrats — Reps. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez —  said the U.S. should accept some refugees, but neither mentioned a number. They talked about other countries doing their part, too.

    The U.S. would not be able to take in 1 million refugees from Gaza — that’s eight times the cap for all refugees.

    We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

    RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Israel and Gaza



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  • Killer in Rashell Ward murder named – Paradise Post

    RED BLUFF — The killer in the Rashell Ward case has been named.

    On Facebook, Jessica Criss, Ward’s niece, announced this morning that the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office had identified Johnny Lee Coy as the killer. Coy had been in prison since 1989 and died in 2019 while imprisoned, according to Criss’ post.

    Ward was killed in 1984 at age 14. She was kidnapped and picked up on her way to Seventh Day Adventist School on South Jackson Street. At the time, it was reported that somebody saw a young girl matching her description in the killer’s car. Her body was later found in the Pine Creek area of Butte County.

    Barbara Fullem, a resident who has been interested in the case for years, said when law enforcement discovered Ward, they found her hands tied behind her back. She had been shot execution-style in the back of the head.

    The press conference will take place 2 p.m. at the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office.

    This story will be updated as new information becomes available from the press conference.

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  • No Teaching Materials In Over 60% Public Classroom In Borno, Three Other States-UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Fund has disclosed that over 60 percent of classrooms of public Junior Secondary School in Borno, Kano, Kaduna and Kebbi have no teaching materials.

    Chief of Education of UNICEF Nigeria, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan , disclosed this at a 2-day National Conference on the Learning Crisis in Nigeria on Wednesday.

    Panday-Soobrayan also disclosed that the learning gaps persist in the country which is most severe in the Northern part of the country, adding that only 10 percent of 7 to 14 year olds in North West and 12 percent in the North East demonstrate foundational literacy.

    “Nigeria’s learning crisis begins in Children’s earliest years as only half of Nigeria’s children are developmentally on track in early childhood. And only 60 per cent participate in organised pre-primary learning,” she said.

    UNICEF’s Chief of Education, also lamented that the quality of teachers in the country is limited by poor pedagogical skills and lack of teaching and learning materials, disclosing that only 84 percent of Primary School teachers and 59 of JSS teachers are qualified.

    She disclosed that the teacher workforce in the country suffers from severe shortfalls, adding that Nigeria has a shortfall of approximately 195,000 teachers at the primary level.

    She also stated that under-investment in quality education in Nigeria has affected effective action, saying that domestic education financing is chronologically low.

    Panday-Soobrayan noted that the aforementioned educational deprivation and learning poverty has stalled progress on achieving all other goals, noting that Sub-Saharan Africa has achieved just 41 percent of SDG 4 commitment.

    She stated that a structured pedagogy will improve learning outcomes including scripted lesson plans, teacher support, training and monitoring.

    “Structured pedagogy programmes have the largest and most consistent positive average effects on learning outcomes. Pedagogical interventions that tailor teaching to students’ skills are consistently recommended,” she stated

    Also speaking, UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Cristian Munduate, emphasized the need for targeted efforts to address the learning loss in the country, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

    She noted that the pandemic worsened the existing education crisis in the region, with many children losing access to education due to the closure of schools.

    “For Nigeria, convening a conference on the learning crisis is opportune as the government defines its priorities for the education sector in the new Ministerial Strategic Plan. Just as Nigeria has galvanized significant support around the out-of-school problem, so too must it give attention to the learning crisis that is fueling the out-of-school problem in Nigeria,” she said.

    Also speaking during the event, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrazaq AbdulRahman, called for a state of emergency in the education sector specifically targeting the basic level.

    The chairman who was represented by the Vice Chairman of the Forum and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde however stated that there was need for immediate action to bridge the learning gaps observed at the elementary school level.

    “You must provide the resources and look at all the issues that are working against achieving sustainable growth. It is one thing to declare a state of emergency and another thing to put all the resources and elements that will allow us achieve that. I support putting in place the resources, even if you don’t declare a state of emergency to allow us to move faster in that sector,” he said.

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  • Fact Check: Good Enough to Be True: Lego donated model MRI scanners to comfort children

    Undergoing a medical procedure, such as an MRI scan, can be scary, especially for children. Lego is here to help.

    Fans of the Danish company’s colorful building blocks might have seen social media posts about a Lego model of a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine, that was created to reassure children who need to have MRIs.

    An Oct. 8 Instagram post shared a photo of the Lego MRI scanner and said, “Lego donates model MRI kits to hospitals to help children understand the procedure and reduce their anxiety.”

    (Screengrab from Instagram)

    We learned this toy story is Good Enough to Be True: the Lego MRI scanner is real and the models have been distributed to 600 hospitals worldwide.

    Our occasional Good Enough to Be True stories are intended to highlight social media claims about uplifting news that would earn a True rating on our Truth-O-Meter.

    Lego’s model MRI scanner started in 2015 as a passion project for Lego chemical technician Erik Ullerlund Staehr and the radiology department at Odense University Hospital in Denmark, Lego said in a February 2022 press release.

    MRI is a noninvasive, painless test doctors use to diagnose a variety of medical conditions. The machine uses a strong magnetic field and radio wave energy pulses to produce detailed pictures of a person’s organs and internal body structures, according to Radiology Info, an information website managed by the American College of Radiology and the Radiological Society of North America.

    The Lego MRI scanner model consists of 500 pieces and measures 5 inches wide, 10 inches long and 4 inches high, the company said. And because Legos are made of plastic — and are therefore not magnetic — this toy would be considered safe to have near the MRI machine.

    MRI scanners make a lot of noise, and to have accurate results, patients must lie still during the exam, which can take up to an hour depending on which body parts are being scanned, Ulla Jensen of Odense University Hospital’s radiology department said in Lego’s press release.

    Staehr said in the release that the children he’s seen interact with these MRI models usually feel more relaxed before their scans, “turning an often highly stressful experience into a positive, playful one.”

    Since the first prototype was made, Lego said the radiology department at Odense University Hospital has used the Lego MRI scanners to help more than 200 children, ages 4 to 9, annually.

    The Lego Foundation, which owns 25% of the Lego Group, said in 2022 that it would expand the project by donating 600 MRI models to hospitals with existing pediatric MRI scanning facilities. Lego also developed training videos that show physicians how to incorporate the model in their interactions with children and their families.

    We rate the claim that Lego donated model MRI scanners to help children undergoing the procedure feel comfortable Good Enough to be True!

    See a post that might make a great Good Enough to Be True story? Send it to [email protected]. We choose claims that pique our curiosity and fit our Truth-O-Meter definition of True.



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  • ‘I was becoming irrelevant,’ no longer root for SF Giants

    With the 10-year anniversary of their last championship, the third in a magical five-year run, around the corner, the San Francisco Giants’ World Series era is only fading further into the rearview mirror, and now the architect of those clubs says he no longer roots for the organization.

    “Do I have any ill feelings? No. But do I root for the Giants? I can’t say that I do,” Brian Sabean said during a recent appearance on “The Krueg Show.”

    Sabean, 67, joined the Giants’ front office in 1993 and spent the bulk of his career running their baseball operations, overseeing the club’s first World Series title in San Francisco in 2010 and delivering two more in a span of four years, until Farhan Zaidi took over after the 2018 season.

    Sabean departed the organization last January to become an adviser to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, an opportunity he said “was always on the table” and “should’ve seen … sooner.” Transitioning to an executive vice president role in Zaidi’s front office, Sabean’s official responsibilities were described as “working on strategic initiatives as a senior advisor and evaluator,” but he said upon taking the Yankees job that he had “expected to be more involved” than he was.

    “I probably overstayed my welcome,” Sabean said on the podcast. “I didn’t see the forest through the trees. New regime. I didn’t see as things developed, a path to being wanted and needed. …  I was kind of becoming irrelevant and I didn’t like that feeling. I had to move on.”

    While there are a few holdovers from the previous regime — most notably assistant GM Jeremy Shelley and VP Yeshayah Goldfarb — Sabean said that “I really don’t have much contact with hardly anybody there because, really, nobody’s left. They’ve pretty much pushed the people that were involved in building our situation there either to the side or have retooled.”

    The one current member of the front office Sabean named was scouting director Michael Holmes, whom he described as a “rising star.” Sabean spent his final four years in San Francisco primarily assisting Holmes with amateur draft prep.

    When Zaidi took over, the Giants were coming off consecutive losing seasons, and they added a third in 2019 in Bruce Bochy’s final year as manager. They had traded away prospects such as Bryan Reynolds and Zack Wheeler, and Baseball America ranked them 26th out of 30 teams in organizational talent at the start of 2018.

    Sabean said it was “understandable” that the current regime had moved on in a different direction.

    Of Bochy, who’s back in the manager’s seat with the Texas Rangers and in the ALCS, Sabean said, “he didn’t go out on his own terms.” But Bochy, who announced before the 2019 season that it would be his last, has never said as much publicly — only that it took the right situation to pull him out of a happy retirement in Nashville.

    Maybe Bochy’s success (with, it should be noted, a ball club far more talented than the Giants’ current group) or Sabean’s comments have you yearning for yesteryear. The Giants have an opening at manager and an opportunity to go in a different direction than the analytical approach under Gabe Kapler, in lockstep with the front office.

    But even Sabean understands the game has changed.

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  • Guinea Insurance, Jaiz Bank Shares Gain As NGX Investors Made N15.2bn

    Trading on the Nigerian Stock closed bullish on Wednesday with market capitalisation closing at N37trn from N36.98trn.

    The upward increase in the shares of Guinea Insurance, Eterna Plc, Unity Bank and Jaiz Bank pushed the All-Share Index 0.43 per cent to 67,353.23 points from the 67,326.12 points recorded on Tuesday.

    Data analysed from the Nigerian Exchange Ltd shows that N15.2bn was added to the market capitalisation.

    The shares of Guinea Insurance rose 9.09 per cent from N0.22 to N0.24 after projecting that it’s gross premium is expected to grow to N2.65bn while its profit will hit N520.37m by the end of the year.

    Eterna Plc shares rose 6.86 per cent from N13.85 per share to N14.8 reflecting a trend it has maintained in the last three days.

    Unity Bank 5.49 per cent from N0.91 to N0.96 per share which led to an uptick of its market capitalisation to N11.2bn.

    Similarly, Jaiz Bank shares rose 5.26 per cent from N1.52 to N1.6 per share, leading to its market capitalisation rising to N55.2bn.

    On the flip side, CWG Plc emerged as the biggest loser closing 10 per cent. Another company RT BRISCOE Plc’s shares also fell 8.77 per cent, Africa Prudential Plc closed 7.14 per cent while FTN Cocoa shares fell 6.29 per cent.

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  • Fact Check: Lawmaker estimated there were six transgender athletes competing in Wis. sports, but lacks evidence

    During a public hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports in Wisconsin, bill co-author Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, was asked if she knew how many transgender athletes were competing in Wisconsin K-12 sports.

    “I heard (there) were about a half a dozen of them,” she responded during the Oct. 4 hearing. “Whether there are more than that, I do not know.”

    But the only thing that’s clear about the number of transgender athletes in Wisconsin is that the actual number is uncertain.

    Let’s dive in.

    Dittrich’s response

    In a series of email exchanges, Dittrich spokeswoman Meagan Matthews initially said the complaints were from “about six different teams.” Matthews then said the complaints were from six individuals whose identities she kept confidential “to guard their privacy.” 

    Matthews finally said Dittrich had heard six individuals connected to six different teams complain about their daughters having to compete against transgender athletes.

    “Hope that’s clear enough for you,” Matthews added.

     

    But that just amounts to a restating of the claim.

    Indeed, the number of trans athletes competing in Wisconsin youth sports is unclear. It could be more, it could be less.

    No concrete numbers exist

    The six complaints Dittrich cited during her testimony were from 2021, Matthews said in an email. Dittrich first cited such complaints after she introduced a previous version of her bill more than two years ago. 

    When asked if any of the six complaints about transgender athletes were specifically regarding high school sports, Matthews said Dittrich “doesn’t recall” and cited the two-year gap.

    At the time, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked for examples of transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin that Dittrich was citing. Her office provided two unnamed athletes and their races, but a Journal Sentinel report from May 2021 found both athletes were adults who were not competing in school sports and would not be affected by the bills.

    Officials with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association estimated in the Journal Sentinel report they had received a few dozen inquiries from schools about transgender athletes since the mid-2010s, of which four were about athletes seeking to transition to female.

    A WIAA spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel in 2021 he couldn’t recall a transgender athlete ever competing in a state tournament. 

    More: Wisconsin transgender athletes face ban from women’s sports under proposed bills, which would affect few, if any, sports officials say

    The WIAA’s Transgender Participation Policy says districts should contact the association if they have a student athlete participating in WIAA sport opposite their sex assigned at birth. 

    But Todd Clark, WIAA communications director, told us the WIAA has no way of confirming the number of trans athletes participating in interscholastic athletics in Wisconsin because it does not track notifications sent to its office.

    He added that, according to staff, there were “very few” notifications sent to the office.

    As for complaints, Clark said the WIAA has not received “true complaints” about transgender athletes, but has had a few calls to the office expressing concerns “more so about the policy and potential impact” of allowing transgender athletes to compete in the division that matches their gender.

    The WIAA couldn’t speculate on whether the concerns were based on a specific athlete, he added.

    We did our own search for any recent reports of transgender athletes. We found only one potential example of a transgender student competing in Wisconsin high school sports in Green Bay, though the instance was based on parent complaints. 

    Lori Blakeslee, director of communications and public relations for the Green Bay Area School District, said the district does not require students to identify themselves and is therefore unsure how many, if any, transgender athletes compete in school sports.

    Our ruling

    During a hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports, Dittrich claimed there are “about a half a dozen” transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin K-12 schools.

    The number she cited referenced complaints made to her office more than two years ago when the bill was originally introduced. But she only provided two specific examples at the time, and both were found to be adults not competing in school sports.

    In the wake of the new claim, her office had no new specifics.

    The WIAA has heard some concerns and “very few” notifications about transgender athletes. But the organization does not keep records of the number of transgender athletes, and it’s unclear from the concerns how many transgender athletes compete in Wisconsin high school sports.

    Based on the information available to us now, and the lack of evidence from Dittrich, we rate this claim Mostly False.

     



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  • Stefanik’s Distorted U.S. Energy Production Claim

    In her speech nominating Rep. Jim Jordan as House speaker, Rep. Elise Stefanik distorted the facts about U.S. energy production and the reasons for higher gasoline prices and utility bills.

    Stefanik, who is the House Republican Conference chair, made her case for Jordan on Oct. 17, during the first roll call vote for speaker, which ended with Jordan falling well short of the necessary votes to become speaker.

    The New York Republican claimed that Jordan is the right person “”for such a time as this” — a quote from the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. She claimed, among other things, that “American energy production has been crushed by Joe Biden’s radical, failed far left policies, causing seniors, farmers and families to pay more at the pump and struggle with skyrocketing utility bills.”

    In fact, U.S. oil production has increased since Biden took office. Gasoline and utility prices have gone up, too, but experts have told us the reasons have little to do with Biden.

    In 2020, before Biden took office, domestic crude oil production averaged 11.3 million barrels per day in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration. In the last 12 months, crude oil production averaged about 12.5 million barrels per day, EIA data through July shows. That’s an increase in oil production of roughly 10.7%.

    And the EIA projects that production will average 12.92 million barrels a day in 2023 and 13.12 million barrels a day in 2024. Both averages would exceed the record set in 2019.

    As for gasoline prices, the national average price of regular gasoline was $2.379 the week of Jan. 18, 2021, and $3.576, as of the week of Oct. 16. That’s an increase of a whopping 50% during Biden’s presidency.

    Likewise, average electricity prices increased from 10.66 cents per kilowatt-hour, or kwh, in 2020 to 13.21 cents per kwh in the third quarter of 2023, according to EIA historical data. That’s an increase of nearly 24%.

    However, the price at the pump depends on the cost of crude oil, which is set on the global market and based largely on worldwide supply and demand, as the EIA explains on its website. Experts have told us that the global supply has struggled to keep pace with the demand after the pandemic-induced economic shutdowns and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    Utility prices, too, are determined by the price of “feeder fuels,” which is set on the global marketplace, Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, told us.

    “President Biden has no more control over retail electric, natural gas, heating oil or gasoline prices than did President Trump,” Wolfe said in an email. “‘Feeder fuels’ such as natural gas and coal to produce electricity and petroleum to produce gasoline are set in [the] marketplace rather than by ‘fiat’ by the White House.”

    The House was scheduled to resume voting on a speaker Oct. 18.

    Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. 

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