best casino sites no deposit bonus By BILL BARROW, Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” ‘An epic American life’ Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. ‘Jimmy Who?’ His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and ‘malaise’ Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. ‘A wonderful life’ At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” ___ Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.They were sentenced to decades behind bars for their heinous crimes but now want their sentences cut These are the faces of six criminals who committed heinous crimes but now don't want to do the time as they try desperately to appeal their convictions. From shameful child killer Thomas Cashman who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years to shooter Connor Chapman, who killed Elle Edwards on Christmas Eve. At the time they committed their crimes, it is unlikely they paid much thought to the repercussions and now they can't face the prospect of possibly spending their whole life behind bars. Here the ECHO takes a look at some of the criminals who, since their incarceration, have lodged appeals to have their sentences cut or overturned completely and what the outcome was. Thomas Cashman Child killer Thomas Cashman was branded shameful over his attempts to appeal his sentence and conviction. Cashman , 35, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years in prison after a trial at Manchester Crown Court in March 2023. Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, died on August 22, 2022, after Cashman fired a bullet through the front door of her family home in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot , shortly after 10pm. The bullet hit her mum, Cheryl Korbel, in the wrist before striking the St Margaret Mary's Primary School pupil in the chest, causing catastrophic injuries. Cashman, formerly of Grenadier Drive in West Derby , had been attempting to kill convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee , now 36, before the hit went disastrously wrong. On November 15, 2023, Cashman had his second appeal bid crushed by the Court of Appeal. In July his application for permission to challenge his 42-year minimum term was rejected by a judge without a hearing. In November John Cooper, KC, representing Cashman, renewed an application to appeal his client's sentence after his initial written application was rejected. In oral arguments at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, watched over video-link by Olivia's family, Mr Cooper argued that trial judge, Mrs Justice Yip, had imposed too high a minimum term . He said: "The aggravating factors were too heavily relied upon to increase the minimum term. In particular, the emphasis on planning and surveillance was a relevant factor to take into account, of course, it was, but too much emphasis was placed onto it for its sophistication.” On November 20 of this year, the killer once again appeared before the Court of Appeal in a bid to overturn his conviction . But this was thrown out by presiding judges Lord Justice Holroyde, Sir Stephen Irwin and Mr Justice Hilliard. Cashman's counsel John Cooper KC told the court that it should order an investigation into allegations that members of the jury were provided with panic alarms by the police during their deliberations. Mr Cooper also told the judges that the police had "been in" to see the jury and informed the jury that there were things they should know. The police had produced a folder of evidence that the jury had not been privy to. The information was said to have been provided to Cashman's solicitor Thomas Keaney by an unknown caller, who said the information had been passed to him via a friend and his dad who had met a juror over a pint. However, the Court of Appeal judges said: "We find it impossible to conceive how such a visit would have gone undetected by court staff as it happened. We are also unable to accept the suggestion that all twelve jurors who were visited in that way and presented with material which was not evidence in the case, breached the obligations so sternly expressed to them in the jury notice and failed to bring that to the attention of court staff or the judge. "The jury will have been warned time without number that they must only decide the case on the evidence, and must ignore all other public comment, and private questions and opinions addressed to them. Yet it is inherent in the scenario advanced that they then not only received this material in an obviously clandestine and illicit way, but then suppressed that fact, all of them ignoring the repeated injunctions to decide the case only on the evidence given in court, not one of them choosing to report the intrusion into the jury room despite the instructions in the jury notice, and all of them changing their verdicts as a result." Connor Chapman Connor Chapman lost a challenge against his 48-year minimum life sentence at the Court of Appeal in February this year. Chapman fatally shot Elle Edwards, 26, on Christmas Eve in 2022. He was convicted of Elle's murder last year. Chapman, 23, hit Elle twice in the back of the head when he fired 12 shots from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral . A trial at Liverpool Crown Court last year was told five other people were injured in the shooting, with Chapman intending to murder two men Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld. The incident was said to be the culmination of a gang feud in Wirral, where there had been nine shootings in 2022. Trial judge Mr Justice Goose, sentencing Chapman, said: "You carefully planned a revenge attack in gang rivalry. You had no thought at all for anyone else, least of all to innocent people. The risk of all six being murdered by you was as substantial as it was obvious, but you didn’t care." At a hearing in London on Thursday, senior judges rejected Chapman's appeal against the length of his prison sentence. The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, who considered the case alongside Mrs Justice May and Mr Justice Foxton, said they concluded the sentence was "severe, but not manifestly excessive". Lucy Letby Since being behind bars Lucy Letby has twice tried to appeal her convictions. In May after a two-and-a-half-day hearing, Letby's lawyers asked senior judges for approval to bring an appeal against her convictions for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others. Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, refused Letby's request. In October of this year, Letby lost her bid to challenge her conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl. Letby’s lawyers asked senior judges for approval to appeal against her most recent conviction after being found guilty following a retrial in July of attempting to kill a newborn known as Child K. Lawyers for the former nurse told the Court of Appeal that the attempted murder charge should have been “stayed” as an “abuse of process” due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial and that the retrial should not have gone ahead. But three senior judges dismissed Letby’s bid following the hearing in London. Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan, said at the start of their ruling that they would “refuse permission” for Letby to challenge the conviction. Child serial killer Letby, 34, was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child. She was sentenced to a 15th whole life term for the attack on Child K. The offences took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where Letby worked as a nurse, between June 2015 and June 2016. Natalie Bennett In October of this year, Natalie Bennett applied for permission to appeal her 18-year minimum prison term for the murder of her boyfriend Kasey Anderson. Bennett was found guilty of murdering Kasey after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in November . The jury heard Kasey was killed a week before his 25th birthday in March last year after being slashed several times with a knife and suffering two stab wounds. A hearing was set to take place at the Court of Appeal in London, on October 24, before judges Lord Justice Holgate, Mrs Justice Stacey and Sir Nigel Davis. The Court of Appeal confirmed to the ECHO the hearing is over a "renewed application for leave to appeal against sentence and for a Representation Order". Bennett, who was aged 47 when she was convicted, plunged a knife into Kasey's heart before attempting to stab him in the head as he lay gravely injured in the neighbour's driveway and pleading for help, telling a 999 call handler that "he was dying". The Court of Appeal confirmed to the ECHO that Bennett's "application for leave to appeal against the sentence was "dismissed" by the court. Eddie Ratcliffe Eddie Ratcliffe, one of the teenagers found guilty of murdering Brianna Ghey, had his sentence appeal rejected after it was claimed it should be reduced due to a lack of consideration for his "maturity". Brianna, from Warrington , was just 16 when she was lured to Culcheth Linear Park by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe. The unsuspecting Birchwood Community High School pupil was stabbed 28 times and her body was left to be discovered by dog walkers. The teenage killers coordinated their crime through sinister messages on WhatsApp, fuelled by dark web content. Both 16 at the time, Ratcliffe and Jenkinson, were handed life sentences in February this year, with minimum terms of 20 years and 22 years, respectively, for their roles in the brutal killing. At a hearing today, Thursday, December 5, lawyers for Ratcliffe, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and selective mutism, argued the judge did not "sufficiently" consider his age and maturity when deciding his sentence. Richard Littler KC, representing Ratcliffe, stated at the London court: "It is culpability and maturity which are at the heart of this application. It is right to say that on any analysis of the applicant's maturity, he is closer to the starting point of a 14-year-old rather than a 17-year-old boy. The point we make is age and maturity were very important issues in this case and could very much affect the end result for this particular applicant." Mr Littler remarked that Ratcliffe had been found to have "poor social skills" and "immaturity", as well as "a lower-than-expected ability to express what he thinks or articulate his ideas", further commenting the sentence was "far too high". He said: "There is no doubt they were taken into account, but they were not taken into account fully." The Crown Prosecution Service contested the appeal and the Court of Appeal judges found that the "starting point of 20 years for the minimum term was correct". Delivering the ruling, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said the sentence imposed by Mrs Justice Yip in February was "neither manifestly excessive nor wrong in principle". She added: "The proposed grounds are not arguable. The applicant's application for leave to appeal against sentence is refused." Wearing a dark suit, shirt, and tie, Ratcliffe appeared at the hearing with his mum in the courtroom via video link. Brianna's family also followed proceedings remotely. Khairi Saadallah The family of murdered schoolteacher James Furlong welcomed his killer's failed Court of Appeal bid against his sentence. The 36-year-old from Liverpool was killed in a terror attack in Reading on June 20, 2020, by Khairi Saadallah. Saadallah also fatally stabbed Mr Furlong's friends, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39 - as the victims were enjoying a summer evening after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed. Three other people - Stephen Young, 51, Patrick Edwards, 29, and Nishit Nisudan, 34 - were also injured before Saadallah threw away the eight-inch knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer. Saadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders - and was sentenced to a whole life order by Mr Justice Sweeney in January this year - who described the incident as a "rare and exceptional" case. In October 2021, Saadallah appeared at the Court of Appeal in London via video link from Belmarsh Prison, wearing a dark jumper, to challenge the length of his sentence. However, after a hearing, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Mr Justice Henshaw, said his challenge had been unsuccessful. In a joint statement, the three men's families welcomed the upholding of his sentence after senior judges rejected Saadallah's appeal bid. The statement said: "While nothing can bring back James, David and Joseph it gives us some comfort to know that Saadallah will spend the whole of the rest of his life behind bars and that the public will be protected from this dangerous man. "The loss of James, Joseph and David has left a vast hole in all of our lives and not a day goes by that we don't miss them tremendously."

The Harvest Christian Academy Eagles’ Paul Ray spared his first two frames, then rolled 10 consecutive strikes to set a new high school single-game record on Thursday at Central Lanes Bowling Center in Tamuning. Although the Guam Bowling High School League is just underway, Ray, who rolled a 279, has emerged as one of the league’s top bowlers. Despite Ray’s record-setting performance, the Eagles couldn’t clinch the win as the Okkodo High School Bulldogs upset the previously undefeated Eagles. (Daily Post Staff)Rupee Depreciates 3 Per Cent In 2024, Manages To Remain Less Volatile Than Its Counterparts

Former US President Jimmy Carter Dead at 100It was no different for Jimmy Carter in the early 1970s. It took meeting several presidential candidates and then encouragement from an esteemed elder statesman before the young governor, who had never met a president himself, saw himself as something bigger. He announced his White House bid on December 12 1974, amid fallout from the Vietnam War and the resignation of Richard Nixon. Then he leveraged his unknown, and politically untainted, status to become the 39th president. That whirlwind path has been a model, explicit and otherwise, for would-be contenders ever since. “Jimmy Carter’s example absolutely created a 50-year window of people saying, ‘Why not me?’” said Steve Schale, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaigns and is a long-time supporter of President Joe Biden. Mr Carter’s journey to high office began in Plains, Georgia where he received end-of-life care decades after serving as president. David Axelrod, who helped to engineer Mr Obama’s four-year ascent from state senator to the Oval Office, said Mr Carter’s model is about more than how his grassroots strategy turned the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary into his springboard. “There was a moral stain on the country, and this was a guy of deep faith,” Mr Axelrod said. “He seemed like a fresh start, and I think he understood that he could offer something different that might be able to meet the moment.” Donna Brazile, who managed Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, got her start on Mr Carter’s two national campaigns. “In 1976, it was just Jimmy Carter’s time,” she said. Of course, the seeds of his presidential run sprouted even before Mr Nixon won a second term and certainly before his resignation in August 1974. In Mr Carter’s telling, he did not run for governor in 1966, he lost, or in 1970 thinking about Washington. Even when he announced his presidential bid, neither he nor those closest to him were completely confident. “President of what?” his mother, Lillian, replied when he told her his plans. But soon after he became governor in 1971, Mr Carter’s team envisioned him as a national player. They were encouraged in part by the May 31 Time magazine cover depicting Mr Carter alongside the headline “Dixie Whistles a Different Tune”. Inside, a flattering profile framed Mr Carter as a model “New South” governor. In October 1971, Carter ally Dr Peter Bourne, an Atlanta physician who would become US drug tsar, sent his politician friend an unsolicited memo outlining how he could be elected president. On October 17, a wider circle of advisers sat with Mr Carter at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss it. Mr Carter, then 47, wore blue jeans and a T-shirt, according to biographer Jonathan Alter. The team, including Mr Carter’s wife Rosalynn, who died aged 96 in November 2023, began considering the idea seriously. “We never used the word ‘president’,” Mr Carter recalled upon his 90th birthday, “but just referred to national office”. Mr Carter invited high-profile Democrats and Washington players who were running or considering running in 1972, to one-on-one meetings at the mansion. He jumped at the chance to lead the Democratic National Committee’s national campaign that year. The position allowed him to travel the country helping candidates up and down the ballot. Along the way, he was among the Southern governors who angled to be George McGovern’s running mate. Mr Alter said Mr Carter was never seriously considered. Still, Mr Carter got to know, among others, former vice president Hubert Humphrey and senators Henry Jackson of Washington, Eugene McCarthy of Maine and Mr McGovern of South Dakota, the eventual nominee who lost a landslide to Mr Nixon. Mr Carter later explained he had previously defined the nation’s highest office by its occupants immortalised by monuments. “For the first time,” Mr Carter told The New York Times, “I started comparing my own experiences and knowledge of government with the candidates, not against ‘the presidency’ and not against Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It made it a whole lot easier”. Adviser Hamilton Jordan crafted a detailed campaign plan calling for matching Mr Carter’s outsider, good-government credentials to voters’ general disillusionment, even before Watergate. But the team still spoke and wrote in code, as if the “higher office” were not obvious. It was reported during his campaign that Mr Carter told family members around Christmas 1972 that he would run in 1976. Mr Carter later wrote in a memoir that a visit from former secretary of state Dean Rusk in early 1973 affirmed his leanings. During another private confab in Atlanta, Mr Rusk told Mr Carter plainly: “Governor, I think you should run for president in 1976.” That, Mr Carter wrote, “removed our remaining doubts.” Mr Schale said the process is not always so involved. “These are intensely competitive people already,” he said of governors, senators and others in high office. “If you’re wired in that capacity, it’s hard to step away from it.” “Jimmy Carter showed us that you can go from a no-name to president in the span of 18 or 24 months,” said Jared Leopold, a top aide in Washington governor Jay Inslee’s unsuccessful bid for Democrats’ 2020 nomination. “For people deciding whether to get in, it’s a real inspiration,” Mr Leopold continued, “and that’s a real success of American democracy”.

Biff America: A mother’s giftFrench President Emmanuel Macron aims to name a new Prime Minister for France “within 48 hours”, party chiefs who met him yesterday told AFP, as he seeks to end political deadlock following the ouster of Michel Barnier. The president invited leaders from across the political spectrum, leaving out the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) who hold the key to France’s hung parliament. Macron’s initiative came as caretaker ministers scrambled to clarify France’s 2025 finances, after the last administration fell over its cost-cutting budget. Barnier had been supported by the conservative Republicans and Macron’s centrist camp. But the alliance was far short of a National Assembly majority and was brought down by the united left, including LFI, and Marine Le Pen’s RN. It was unclear how a broader base of support could be built for any new government. One of the president’s advisers said that at yesterday’s meeting Macron had noted “a unanimity among political forces to not depend on the RN”. Greens leader Marine Tondelier said as she left the meeting that the presidential camp was not ready for any “compromise or concession”, but that the president has stressed the need “to no longer rely on the RN to govern”. There is little hope for a quick resolution to the crisis. The Greens have ruled out joining a “national interest” government, while the Socialists said they would only serve under a left-wing premier — which has been ruled out by conservatives. Bringing together so many parties did mark progress from Macron’s first attempt to reach consensus after this summer’s snap election, commentator Guillaume Tabard wrote in conservative daily Le Figaro. “But if even a minimal deal is to be found ranging from the Republicans to the Communists, it will require an enormous labour of negotiation that will take days or weeks,” he added. Macron dissolved parliament in June after the far-right trounced his alliance in European elections, a decision for which he has since said he bears responsibility. He told party leaders yesterday that he did not want to do that again before the end of his presidential term in 2027, a person close to him said. Outside the talks, the RN again hailed its position as a political outsider. Le Pen said she relished being awarded the “medal of the opposition” while mainstream parties held “a banquet to share out jobs” in government. And LFI warned its left-wing allies that they would face consequences if they broke away. “Who thinks they can win a single seat without us?” party leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told AFP and other media in Redon, northwestern France. LFI struck seat-by-seat deals with the Greens, Communists and Socialists for this summer’s election to make sure left-wing candidates made it into second-round run-off votes. Related Story France's Macron calls for an end to arms exports used in Gaza and Lebanon Macron urges halt to arms deliveries to Israel for use in GazaMIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Cam Ward keeps rewriting the Miami record book. Ward, a Heisman Trophy contender who already holds the Hurricanes' single-season record for touchdown passes and is on pace to break the school marks for completion percentage, set two more school records on Saturday — both at Bernie Kosar's expense. Ward now has 3,774 yards on 268 completions this season. Kosar threw for 3,642 yards on 262 completions in 1984, and for the next 40 years nobody matched those numbers — until now. “Congrats #CamWard,” Kosar posted on social media. “U R Awesome.” Everyone seems to think so — except Ward, that is. He has made clear all season that personal accomplishments and stats are of little, if any, importance to him. “It really doesn't mean anything ... The receiving group that I have, the O-line that I have, any quarterback in this position could set records," Ward said. Ward's 13-yard completion to Damien Martinez with 1:27 left in the second quarter gave him 3,643 yards for the season and broke that record. And in the third quarter, Ward threw a 15-yard pass to Xavier Restrepo for his 263rd completion of the year — topping another of Kosar's marks. Ward is up to 34 touchdown passes this season; the previous Miami record was 29 by Steve Walsh in 1988. And with a completion rate of 67.2%, Ward is on pace to break Miami's single-season completion percentage mark of 65.8% set last year by Tyler Van Dyke as well as the Miami career mark of 64.3% set by D'Eriq King in 2020 and 2021. “He only cares about winning,” wide receiver Jacolby George said. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballGeorgia quarterback Carson Beck's college football career appears to be over. The Bulldogs released an ominous update Monday on the top NFL Draft prospect's elbow injury, which he suffered in the 22-19 win over Texas in Saturday's SEC Championship game. "Georgia quarterback Carson Beck suffered an elbow injury during Saturday's Southeastern Conference Championship game," it read. "He and his family are exploring treatment options and there is no current timetable on his return." Georgia also announced that punter Brett Thorson will require season-ending surgery after injuring the knee in his non-kicking leg on Saturday. "Carson and Brett are both fierce competitors and extremely hard workers," Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said, per the statement. "I'm confident they will attack their rehab with the same determination they exhibit in their daily habits. We will be here to support them every step of the way." Bill Belichick's typical response to criticism of 48-year age gap with girlfriend Tom Brady issues brutal one-word response to Bill Belichick's college coaching chances Beck injured the elbow in his throwing arm late on the last play of the first half. Smart said postgame that the Florida native couldn't grip the ball because of the impact of what's now believed to be a UCL issue. Georgia backup quarterback Gunner Stockton replaced the Florida native after the halftime break, only to get hurt on what would be the penultimate play of the Saturday overtime thriller. Beck checked back in before handing the ball to running back Trevor Etienne, who secured the conference title for the Bulldogs with a four-yard rush. There will be more to follow on this breaking news story and Mirror US Sports will bring you the very latest updates, pictures and video as soon as possible. Please check back regularly for updates on this developing story HERE. Get email updates on the day's biggest stories straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletters. Follow @‌MirrorUSSports on Twitter : The official Mirror Sports X/Twitter account for all the latest sports news as it happens in real time. Follow us on Google News , Flipboard , Apple News , , Facebook or visit The Mirror US homepage.

ATLANTA (AP) — Even when grappling with a four-game losing streak and the uncertainty generated by quarterback Kirk Cousins’ eight interceptions and no touchdown passes in that span, there is some solace for the Atlanta Falcons. They play in the NFC South. There is more good news: The Falcons' next two opponents, the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants, are tied for the NFL's worst record at 2-11. Coach Raheem Morris says he is sticking with Cousins for next Monday night's game at Las Vegas. Sunday's 42-21 loss at Minnesota dropped Atlanta to 6-7, one game behind Tampa Bay in the NFC South. The Falcons hold the tiebreaker advantage over the Buccaneers, so if they can take advantage of their cushy closing stretch of games that also includes Washington and Carolina, they could salvage their season. “We’re right in this thing,” right guard Chris Lindstrom said Monday before acknowledging he is “obviously not happy or satisfied with where we’re at." Lindstrom said he maintains "the ultimate belief in what we’re doing and everything that we have going on and everything is still in front of us.” Cousins and the Falcons must solve their red-zone woes to maintain hopes of the team's first playoff appearance since 2017. The Falcons rank eighth in the NFL with 371 yards per game but only 19th with their average of 21.4 points thanks to their persistent problems inside the 20. Even the forgiving NFC South can't make up for the scoring problems caused by penalties, turnovers and other persistent breakdowns. “You can't live with it at all,” Morris said Monday when asked about Cousins' recent streak of interceptions. Even so, Cousins remains the starter as first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. awaits his opportunity. “It’s for sure Kirk is our quarterback but I have no hesitations about what our young man has been doing and how he has been preparing and the things he is ready to do,” Morris said. “So if that time ever came I would have a lot of confidence in what Mike is able to do, but Kirk is our quarterback. Kirk is the guy who is going to lead us.” With four sacks against the Vikings, the Falcons may have finally solved their longtime pass-rush woes. Atlanta had five sacks in a 17-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 1, giving the team back-to-back games with at least four sacks for the first time since 2019. Outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie had one of Sunday's sacks, giving him four for the season. With nine sacks in the last two games, the Falcons have almost doubled their NFL-low total of 10 through their first 11 games. Even as the pass rush was productive, the Falcons' defense showed a sudden inability to prevent big plays through the air. Atlanta allowed four completions of more than 40 yards as Vikings receivers Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson combined to catch five scoring passes from Sam Darnold, who did not throw an interception. Morris said the Vikings' strategy was to avoid cornerback A.J. Terrell, “making other people make plays, and we didn’t go out there and make them.” Running back Tyler Allgeier had nine carries for 63 yards and a touchdown. Even while Bijan Robinson continued to produce with 22 carries for 92 yards and a score, Allgeier re-emerged as a strong complement with his second-highest rushing total of the season. Cousins has an unhealthy ratio of 17 touchdown passes to 15 interceptions. “Kirk was the guy who led us to the 6-3 record,” Morris said. “We’ve got to find a way to get out of the funk. ... For us, it’s going to be his opportunity to go out and right the ship and he has earned it.” 142: Wide receiver Darnell Mooney set a career high with 142 yards on six catches. It was the third game this season Mooney has led the Falcons in receiving yards. Former Atlanta quarterback Desmond Ridder is expected to start for the Raiders on Monday night after Aidan O’Connell's knee injury in Sunday's 28-13 loss at Tampa Bay. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflA fire at a Winnipeg hotel forced residents to leave the building Sunday morning. According to the city, the blaze broke out after 7:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Main Street. Crews fought the fire from inside and declared it under control a half-hour later. Firefighters searched the building to make sure no one was left inside. A Winnipeg Transit bus was deployed to provide temporary shelter to those who were evacuated. The city’s Emergency Social Services team was also at the scene supporting residents. No one was injured, but the hotel sustained water, smoke and fire damage. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

— Oct. 1, 1924: James Earl Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Georgia, son of James Sr. and Lillian Gordy Carter. — June 1946: Carter graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy. — July 1946: Carter marries Rosalynn Smith, in Plains. They have four children, John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl 3rd (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967. — 1946-1953: Carter serves in a Navy nuclear submarine program, attaining rank of lieutenant commander. — Summer 1953: Carter resigns from the Navy, returns to Plains after father’s death. — 1953-1971: Carter helps run the family peanut farm and warehouse business. — 1963-1966: Carter serves in the Georgia state Senate. — 1966: Carter tries unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. — November 1970: Carter is elected governor of Georgia. Serves 1971-75. — Dec. 12, 1974: Carter announces a presidential bid. Atlanta newspaper answers with headline: “Jimmy Who?” — January 1976: Carter leads the Democratic field in Iowa, a huge campaign boost that also helps to establish Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus. — July 1976: Carter accepts the Democratic nomination and announces Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota as running mate. — November 1976: Carter defeats President Gerald R. Ford, winning 51% of the vote and 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240. — January 1977: Carter is sworn in as the 39th president of the United States. On his first full day in office, he pardons most Vietnam-era draft evaders. —September 1977: U.S. and Panama sign treaties to return the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999. Senate narrowly ratifies them in 1978. — September 1978: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Carter sign Camp David accords, which lead to a peace deal between Egypt and Israel the following year. — June 15-18, 1979: Carter attends a summit with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna that leads to the signing of the SALT II treaty. — November 1979: Iranian militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages. All survive and are freed minutes after Carter leaves office in January 1981. — April 1980: The Mariel boatlift begins, sending tens of thousands of Cubans to the U.S. Many are criminals and psychiatric patients set free by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, creating a major foreign policy crisis. — April 1980: An attempt by the U.S. to free hostages fails when a helicopter crashes into a transport plane in Iran, killing eight servicemen. — Nov. 4, 1980: Carter is denied a second term by Ronald Reagan, who wins 51.6% of the popular vote to 41.7% for Carter and 6.7% to independent John Anderson. — 1982: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter co-found The Carter Center in Atlanta, whose mission is to resolve conflicts, protect human rights and prevent disease around the world. — September 1984: The Carters spend a week building Habitat for Humanity houses, launching what becomes the annual Carter Work Project. — October 1986: A dedication is held for The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. The center includes the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and Carter Center offices. — 1989: Carter leads the Carter Center’s first election monitoring mission, declaring Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega’s election fraudulent. — May 1992: Carter meets with Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the Carter Center to discuss forming the Gorbachev Foundation. — June 1994: Carter plays a key role in North Korea nuclear disarmament talks. — September 1994: Carter leads a delegation to Haiti, arranging terms to avoid a U.S. invasion and return President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. — December 1994: Carter negotiates tentative cease-fire in Bosnia. — March 1995: Carter mediates cease-fire in Sudan’s war with southern rebels. — September 1995: Carter travels to Africa to advance the peace process in more troubled areas. — December 1998: Carter receives U.N. Human Rights Prize on 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. — August 1999: President Bill Clinton awards Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom. — September 2001: Carter joins former Presidents Ford, Bush and Clinton at a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington after Sept. 11 attacks. — April 2002: Carter’s book “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood” chosen as finalist for Pulitzer Prize in biography. — May 2002: Carter visits Cuba and addresses the communist nation on television. He is the highest-ranking American to visit in decades. — Dec. 10, 2002: Carter is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” — July 2007: Carter joins The Elders, a group of international leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela to focus on global issues. — Spring 2008: Carter remains officially neutral as Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton battle each other for the Democratic presidential nomination. — April 2008: Carter stirs controversy by meeting with the Islamic militant group Hamas. — August 2010: Carter travels to North Korea as the Carter Center negotiates the release of an imprisoned American teacher. — August 2013: Carter joins President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton at the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and the March on Washington. — Oct. 1, 2014: Carter celebrates his 90th birthday. — December 2014: Carter is nominated for a Grammy in the best spoken word album category, for his book “A Call To Action.” — May 2015: Carter returns early from an election observation visit in Guyana — the Carter Center’s 100th — after feeling unwell. — August 2015: Carter has a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. He plans to receive treatment at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. — August 2015: Carter announces that his grandson Jason Carter will chair the Carter Center governing board. — March 6, 2016: Carter says an experimental drug has eliminated any sign of his cancer, and that he needs no further treatment. — May 25, 2016: Carter steps back from a “front-line” role with The Elders to become an emeritus member. — July 2016: Carter is treated for dehydration during a Habitat for Humanity build in Canada. — Spring 2018: Carter publishes “Faith: A Journey for All,” the last of 32 books. — March 22, 2019: Carter becomes the longest-lived U.S. president, surpassing President George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018. — September 18, 2019: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter deliver their final in-person annual report at the Carter Center. — October 2019: At 95, still recovering from a fall, Carter joins the Work Project with Habitat for Humanity in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s the last time he works personally on the annual project. — Fall 2019-early 2020: Democratic presidential hopefuls visit, publicly embracing Carter as a party elder, a first for his post-presidency. — November 2020:The Carter Center monitors an audit of presidential election results in the state of Georgia, marking a new era of democracy advocacy within the U.S. — Jan. 20, 2021: The Carters miss President Joe Biden’s swearing-in, the first presidential inauguration they don’t attend since Carter’s own ceremony in 1977. The Bidens later visit the Carters in Plains on April 29. — Feb. 19, 2023: Carter enters home hospice care after a series of short hospital stays. — July 7, 2023: The Carters celebrate their 77th and final wedding anniversary. — Nov. 19, 2023: Rosalynn Carter dies at home, two days after the family announced that she had joined the former president in receiving hospice care. — Oct. 1, 2024 — Carter becomes the first former U.S. president to reach 100 years of age , celebrating at home with extended family and close friends. — Oct. 16, 2024 — Carter casts a Georgia mail ballot for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, having told his family he wanted to live long enough to vote for her. It marks his 21st presidential election as a voter. — Dec. 29, 2024: Carter dies at home.

WATERBURY – Alexandria Hall-Mabrouk did not feel right. The 37-year-old mother-to-be at the time juggled two jobs, arriving at her prenatal checkup appointment overwhelmed. “I need help,” Hall said to her doctor. The doctor responded astounded, not sure what to do, Hall recalled. “I was looking for some sort of support during that time and just somewhere I could turn to and they had no answer for me,” she said. “It made me feel hopeless and inadequate. A lot of times you are downplayed and told you are fine and you are just pregnant. ‘That is normal aches and pains.’ ” Hall was not fine. She ended up changing doctors but her health continued to deteriorate, developing pre-eclampsia and having to deliver her baby via cesarean section six weeks early. She ended up in hospital several times after giving birth. She said she believes that had her doctors found support for her early on and listened to her concerns, maybe her child would not have been born premature. “If they had just validated my feelings and known where to refer me, my mental and emotional health would have improved and as a result, my child may have not been born prematurely,” she said. Hall joins many Black and multiracial women in the state and city who face significant health challenges in pregnancy. Those include a higher mortality rate than their white counterparts, an increased rate of Caesareans which raise the risk of unnecessary maternal and neonatal complications. and a higher rate of premature babies. “Waterbury is not faring well with the increase around Caesareans,” said Althea Marshall Brooks, executive director of Waterbury Bridge to Success. “That is a concern for Black women of color. It increases the likelihood of difficult outcomes. ” Brooks said Bridge to Success, a cross-sector partnership with over 250 community and civic leaders, educators, and organizations that work to improve outcomes for kids and families by prioritizing racial equity and Black maternal health, is working to provide more preventive health measures, to educate providers on implicit bias and to include Black women in education on the benefits of breastfeeding their babies. Breastfeeding can been shown to provide long-term health benefits to both mother and baby. The organization launched a campaign in 2021 to offer education, training, and support to Black pregnant women, who are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a survey of 105 women, Bridge to Success found that 56.3% of Black women delivered their last baby via cesarean, more than double that of white respondents and Latino or Hispanic residents. In 2021, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was more than double that of white women, at 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.6 times the rate for white women at 26.6 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the CDC. A 2024 March of Dimes report found that 9.3% of all babies born in the state were delivered before 37 completed weeks of gestation. However, the pre-term birth rate among babies born to Black mothers is 1.4x higher than the rate among all other babies, the report found. “The 2024 March of Dimes Report Card shows progress in reducing preterm birth rates in Connecticut, but disparities for Black birthing people remain unacceptable,” said Lisa Morrissey, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health. “While strides have been made in Medicaid expansion and paid family leave, achieving true equity requires ongoing investment and community collaboration.” The state also ranks 49th out of 52 states in the number of low-risk cesarean deliveries. In Connecticut, the latest data from the state Maternal Mortality Review Committee found there was an average of five pregnancy-related deaths every year from 2015 to 2020. An estimated 90% of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable, with more than half occurring a week or up to a year after giving birth. Of the 31 deaths, six were Black women, equating to about 19%. Their deaths are disproportionately high considering Black residents make up about 10.7% of the total Connecticut population. Medicaid patients and people without a bachelor’s degree were also overrepresented in the data. Black women were more likely to experience an outcome during labor and delivery that resulted in health complications down the line, known as severe maternal morbidity, according to the Connecticut Review Committee. Black women only accounted for 12.8% of all live births. In comparison, Hispanic and white women’s birth rates exceeded the death rates. Discrimination may have contributed to 70% of the deaths from 2018 to 2020, the review committee found. This can include negative patient-provider interactions, lack of care coordination, feeling dismissed, and cultural incompetence. “This national crisis demands immediate federal intervention to save lives and increase the quality of care women of color receive,” said Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, in an email. Hayes introduced the Social Determinants for Moms Act, which would establish a government task force to address the maternal health crisis, including funding ways to improve social determinants of health during and after pregnancy. The bill currently has 97 cosponsors but has not yet been voted on in the House of Representatives. Advocates from Bridge to Success said the lack of responsive care from health care providers stems from structural racism, which leaves Black women without a voice in their care in the health care setting: the most vulnerable place for many. “What the data shows us is the more we know about infant maternal health there is implicit bias that influences how patient outcomes are reflected,” said Dr. Brooke Redmond, chairwoman of pediatrics at Waterbury Hospital and medical director for Waterbury Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. “My mission is that we are taking that into account and trying to take better care in the neonatal ICU. Knowing that they exist is important so we can come up with ways to combat them.” Lauren Fruehan, lactation services and perinatal navigator at Waterbury Hospital, said she has been educating staff by calling out implicit bias. “We see moms who are not educated on the option of breastfeeding and the benefits for them,” she said. “It is assumed that they are going to use WIC and formula. Sometimes they will mark these mothers as mixed feeding without even asking what their preference is.” Fruehan said it is the implicit bias that Black women do not want to breastfeed. “When we speak about formula in history, Black women would breastfeed for their slave owners but their babies would be left to starve,” Fruehan said. “I think those biases still exist: the assumption that Black women are lazy and don’t want to pump or breastfeed” Brooks said. Breastfeeding has been cited for reducing the risk of hemorrhaging and the risk of reproductive breast and uterine cancer and diabetes, and prevents SIDS, said Fruehan. Reflecting on her pregnancy, Hall said she remembers when her epidural fell out and the immense pain she felt. Doctors again turned a blind eye, reminding her that childbirth is painful. It took her husband to lobby for attention to the matter. “I never thought I would have a premature baby,” Hall said. “It is important to rally for moms to take care of themselves and speak up if they don’t feel OK.”Winnipeg hotel fire forces residents to evacuateLake County mental health center for vets, first responders opens; ‘This center is really going to make a difference’

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.Jimmy Carter dies at 100: Tributes pour in, memorials planned for Atlanta, DCLiam Payne remembered with heartbreaking five-word tribute at London Jingle Bell Ball concertAidan Bouman, Quaron Adams rally South Dakota past Tarleton State 42-31 in FCS second-round duel

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation's top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-old Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy,” and pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have diverged from this path to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. The killing sparked widespread discussions about corporate greed, unfairness in the medical insurance industry and even inspired folk-hero sentiment toward his killer. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply refuted that perception after Mangione's arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald's restaurant in Pennsylvania spotted Mangione eating and noticed he resembled the shooting suspect in security-camera photos released by New York police. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.” Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather, Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report. Nick Mangione had 37 grandchildren, including Luigi, according to the grandfather's obituary. Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes, including Catholic organizations, colleges and the arts. One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesman for the lawmaker’s office confirmed. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media by Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.” Mangione, who was valedictorian of his elite Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press. He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication. His social media posts suggest he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations. The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. The children of some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have attended the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.” Story continues below video Mangione took a software programming internship after high school at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs on the hit strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, said it would not comment on former employees. He more recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, but has not worked there since 2023, the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company confirmed to the AP. From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Honolulu. Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin. “Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.” At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, including surfing, Ryan said. “He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym. Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment. An image posted to a social media account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into someone's lower spine. Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago. An X account linked to Mangione includes recent posts about the negative impact of smartphones on children; healthy eating and exercise habits; psychological theories; and a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti about the dangers of becoming “well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Mangione likely was motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by AP. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, based on a review of the suspect’s handwritten notes and social media posts. He appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown, asserting in his note that he is the “first to face it with such brutal honesty,” the bulletin said. Mangione called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski a “political revolutionary” and may have found inspiration from the man who carried out a series of bombings while railing against modern society and technology, the document said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore; Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Michael Kunzelman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.Justice Secretary says assisted dying ‘slippery slope to death on demand’

Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health News In April, just 12 weeks into her pregnancy, Kathleen Clark was standing at the receptionist window of her OB-GYN’s office when she was asked to pay $960, the total the office estimated she would owe after she delivered. Clark, 39, was shocked that she was asked to pay that amount during this second prenatal visit. Normally, patients receive the bill after insurance has paid its part, and for pregnant women that’s usually only when the pregnancy ends. It would be months before the office filed the claim with her health insurer. Clark said she felt stuck. The Cleveland, Tennessee, obstetrics practice was affiliated with a birthing center where she wanted to deliver. Plus, she and her husband had been wanting to have a baby for a long time. And Clark was emotional, because just weeks earlier her mother had died. “You’re standing there at the window, and there’s people all around, and you’re trying to be really nice,” recalled Clark, through tears. “So, I paid it.” On online baby message boards and other social media forums , pregnant women say they are being asked by their providers to pay out-of-pocket fees earlier than expected. The practice is legal, but patient advocacy groups call it unethical. Medical providers argue that asking for payment up front ensures they get compensated for their services. How frequently this happens is hard to track because it is considered a private transaction between the provider and the patient. Therefore, the payments are not recorded in insurance claims data and are not studied by researchers. Patients, medical billing experts, and patient advocates say the billing practice causes unexpected anxiety at a time of already heightened stress and financial pressure. Estimates can sometimes be higher than what a patient might ultimately owe and force people to fight for refunds if they miscarry or the amount paid was higher than the final bill. Up-front payments also create hurdles for women who may want to switch providers if they are unhappy with their care. In some cases, they may cause women to forgo prenatal care altogether, especially in places where few other maternity care options exist. It’s “holding their treatment hostage,” said Caitlin Donovan, a senior director at the Patient Advocate Foundation . Medical billing and women’s health experts believe OB-GYN offices adopted the practice to manage the high cost of maternity care and the way it is billed for in the U.S. When a pregnancy ends, OB-GYNs typically file a single insurance claim for routine prenatal care, labor, delivery, and, often, postpartum care. That practice of bundling all maternity care into one billing code began three decades ago, said Lisa Satterfield, senior director of health and payment policy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists . But such bundled billing has become outdated, she said. Previously, pregnant patients had been subject to copayments for each prenatal visit, which might lead them to skip crucial appointments to save money. But the Affordable Care Act now requires all commercial insurers to fully cover certain prenatal services. Plus, it’s become more common for pregnant women to switch providers, or have different providers handle prenatal care, labor, and delivery — especially in rural areas where patient transfers are common. Some providers say prepayments allow them to spread out one-time payments over the course of the pregnancy to ensure that they are compensated for the care they do provide, even if they don’t ultimately deliver the baby. “You have people who, unfortunately, are not getting paid for the work that they do,” said Pamela Boatner, who works as a midwife in a Georgia hospital. While she believes women should receive pregnancy care regardless of their ability to pay, she also understands that some providers want to make sure their bill isn’t ignored after the baby is delivered. New parents might be overloaded with hospital bills and the costs of caring for a new child, and they may lack income if a parent isn’t working, Boatner said. In the U.S., having a baby can be expensive. People who obtain health insurance through large employers pay an average of nearly $3,000 out-of-pocket for pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker . In addition, many people are opting for high-deductible health insurance plans, leaving them to shoulder a larger share of the costs. Of the 100 million U.S. people with health care debt, 12% attribute at least some of it to maternity care, according to a 2022 KFF poll . Families need time to save money for the high costs of pregnancy, childbirth, and child care, especially if they lack paid maternity leave, said Joy Burkhard , CEO of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, a Los Angeles-based policy think tank. Asking them to prepay “is another gut punch,” she said. “What if you don’t have the money? Do you put it on credit cards and hope your credit card goes through?” Calculating the final costs of childbirth depends on multiple factors, such as the timing of the pregnancy , plan benefits, and health complications, said Erin Duffy , a health policy researcher at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. The final bill for the patient is unclear until a health plan decides how much of the claim it will cover, she said. But sometimes the option to wait for the insurer is taken away. During Jamie Daw’s first pregnancy in 2020, her OB-GYN accepted her refusal to pay in advance because Daw wanted to see the final bill. But in 2023, during her second pregnancy, a private midwifery practice in New York told her that since she had a high-deductible plan, it was mandatory to pay $2,000 spread out with monthly payments. Daw, a health policy researcher at Columbia University, delivered in September 2023 and got a refund check that November for $640 to cover the difference between the estimate and the final bill. “I study health insurance,” she said. “But, as most of us know, it’s so complicated when you’re really living it.” While the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover some prenatal services, it doesn’t prohibit providers from sending their final bill to patients early. It would be a challenge politically and practically for state and federal governments to attempt to regulate the timing of the payment request, said Sabrina Corlette , a co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. Medical lobbying groups are powerful and contracts between insurers and medical providers are proprietary. Because of the legal gray area, Lacy Marshall , an insurance broker at Rapha Health and Life in Texas, advises clients to ask their insurer if they can refuse to prepay their deductible. Some insurance plans prohibit providers in their network from requiring payment up front. If the insurer says they can refuse to pay up front, Marshall said, she tells clients to get established with a practice before declining to pay, so that the provider can’t refuse treatment. Related Articles Health | Which health insurance plan may be right for you? Health | California case is the first confirmed bird flu infection in a US child Health | Your cool black kitchenware could be slowly poisoning you, study says. Here’s what to do Health | Does fluoride cause cancer, IQ loss, and more? Fact-checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims Health | US towns plunge into debates about fluoride in water Clark said she met her insurance deductible after paying for genetic testing, extra ultrasounds, and other services out of her health care flexible spending account. Then she called her OB-GYN’s office and asked for a refund. “I got my spine back,” said Clark, who had previously worked at a health insurer and a medical office. She got an initial check for about half the $960 she originally paid. In August, Clark was sent to the hospital after her blood pressure spiked. A high-risk pregnancy specialist — not her original OB-GYN practice — delivered her son, Peter, prematurely via emergency cesarean section at 30 weeks. It was only after she resolved most of the bills from the delivery that she received the rest of her refund from the other OB-GYN practice. This final check came in October, just days after Clark brought Peter home from the hospital, and after multiple calls to the office. She said it all added stress to an already stressful period. “Why am I having to pay the price as a patient?” she said. “I’m just trying to have a baby.” ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100Robert Way I think it’s fair to say that investors in Alibaba Group Holding Limited ( NYSE: BABA ) have seen the stock go “nowhere” over the past month, as the market digested mixed signals from China’s policymakers. For China’s leading A Unique Price Action-based Growth Investing Service We believe price action is a leading indicator. We called the TSLA top in late 2021. We then picked TSLA's bottom in December 2022. We updated members that the NASDAQ had long-term bearish price action signals in November 2021. We told members that the S&P 500 likely bottomed in October 2022. Members navigated the turning points of the market confidently in our service. Members tuned out the noise in the financial media and focused on what really matters: Price Action. Sign up now for a Risk-Free 14-Day free trial! JR Research is an opportunistic investor. He was recognized by TipRanks as a Top Analyst. He was also recognized by Seeking Alpha as a "Top Analyst To Follow" for Technology, Software, and Internet, as well as for Growth and GARP. He identifies attractive risk/reward opportunities supported by robust price action to potentially generate alpha well above the S&P 500. He has also demonstrated outperformance with his picks. He focuses on identifying growth investing opportunities that present the most attractive risk/reward upside potential. His approach combines sharp price action analysis with fundamentals investing. He tends to avoid overhyped and overvalued stocks while capitalizing on battered stocks with significant upside recovery possibilities. He runs the investing group Ultimate Growth Investing which specializes in identifying high-potential opportunities across various sectors. He focuses on ideas that has strong growth potential and well-beaten contrarian plays, with an 18 to 24 month outlook for the thesis to play out. The group is designed for investors seeking to capitalize on growth stocks with robust fundamentals, buying momentum, and turnaround plays at highly attractive valuations. Learn more Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of AMZN, GOOGL, PDD either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.CTV National News: Trump's dig at Canada

A moratorium on special-use permits for first-time, non-owner-occupied short-term rentals – such as Airbnb – is now in effect in parts of the City of Buffalo for the next 60 days. Buffalo lawmakers approved an immediate temporary halt on permits for such short-term rentals in specific residential and single-family zones in the city. A separate resolution calls for changes to the city’s Green Code to codify additional regulations. Buffalo Common Council members, seen at a May meeting, voted Tuesday whether to apply more stringent regulations on short-term rental properties in some parts of the city The moratorium, approved Tuesday, does not apply to owner-occupied short-term rental properties, the renewal of any previously granted non-owner-occupied short-term rentals or first-time applicants for non-owner occupied short-term rentals if the owner of the rental property resides in the city. The moratorium resolution – which was sponsored by Council Members Mitchell P. Nowakowski, David A. Rivera, Leah Halton-Pope and Bryan J. Bollman – is in response to the proliferation of short-term rentals throughout the city that are causing tensions and controversy in many neighborhoods, particularly Allentown, Elmwood Village, the Delaware District and Days Park. Longtime city residents question how many STRs in a neighborhood are too many, and they criticize the city for not having a clear policy or control. The proliferation of short-term rentals throughout the city is causing tensions and controversy in many neighborhoods, particularly Allentown, Elmwood Village, the Delaware District and Days Park. According to Council members, there may be as many as 800 short-term rentals in Buffalo, but only about 1 in 3 is licensed by the city, as required by law. Those that aren’t licensed are now being told by the city to “cease all operations” immediately. During the moratorium, Buffalo’s Corporation Counsel will draft an ordinance amendment for the Council to consider. It would prohibit people or businesses from obtaining special-use permits for non-owner-occupied short-term rentals for more than two properties or four total rental units. In addition, such rentals will not be allowed in specific residential and single-family zones under the city’s Green Code, a community-driven development guide. However, applicants who want to operate such rentals within the specified zones may seek variances from the city’s Planning Board and/or the Zoning Board of Appeals. If approved, the applications will go to the Council for final review. Within the city’s historic districts, no more than 5% of the properties located within each respective district can be non-owner-occupied short-term rentals. Applicants for special-use permits for such rentals must live in the city or hire a property manager who lives in the city. And, at the time of the application for a special-use permit, the person must provide proof he or she owns the property or has written permission from the property owner stating that the applicant may use the property as a non-owner occupied short-term rental. The short-term rental giant announced that it’s enforcing tighter restrictions on certain bookings, aiming to prevent disruptive, unauthorized gatherings that have previously turned quiet streets into raucous scenes. The ordinance amendment also would require businesses that own non-owner occupied short-term rental properties to provide a list of all people with ownership interest in the business and up-to-date contact information for the business and all its owners. In addition, owners of a business must disclose whether they have previously obtained a special use permit for such rentals. And before any application for special-use permits for non-owner-occupied short-term rentals are submitted to the Council, the city’s department of permit and inspection services will determine whether the applicant has been charged with or convicted of any housing-related violations in the city. The information will be included in the application submission. Delaware Council Member Joel P. Feroleto voted against the moratorium, citing the cease-and-desist letters sent by the city to owners of short-term rentals that are not licensed by the city. “The city told them to apply at City Hall for a license,” Feroleto said. “Many applied, and I think those should be voted on instead of being placed on hold.” North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. also voted no and exempted his district from the moratorium. University District Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt voted in favor of the moratorium, but exempted his district, stating the University District does not have the same problems with short-term rentals as other districts do. The Common Council will talk about a moratorium on granting special-use permits to first-time, non-owner-occupied short-term rentals. Tuesday’s actions are the latest efforts by Council members to manage the proliferation of short-term rentals in the city. In 2019, the Council enacted a local law that established a framework for licensing non-owner-occupied short-term rentals through a special-use permit. Under the ordinance, hosts of short-term rentals must register their properties, undergo safety and code inspections and pay fees to cover inspection costs. But the situation “completely changed drastically,” Nowakowski said. In October 2023, the Council placed an immediate, temporary moratorium on issuing special-use permits for all short-term rentals in the Fillmore, North and South districts through Dec. 31 of that year. Then, in February 2024, the Council increased some fees . First-time certificates for owner-occupied rentals rose to $500, up from $150. Annual renewals were set at $200, up from $75. First-time certificates for non-owner-occupied units went from $250 to $1,000. The price for annual renewals increased to $400, up from $150. In addition, fines for operating a short-term rental without a license, exceeding capacity and violating the conditions of the license were set at $500. By Deidre Williams News Staff Reporter Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! 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Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100 (copy)Francis Scott Key High School hosts robotics tech challenge in Carroll County

Pay first, deliver later: Some women are being asked to prepay for their babyJimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100