Morning Headlines - Monday, Oct 3, 2022

U.S. and World Headlines

How Hurricane Ian Caught So Many Off Guard

Hurricane Ian was a nightmare of a storm to forecast, and experts say the tools meteorologists used to assess and communicate its likely path were part of the problem.

With the death toll mounting, meteorologists, emergency managers and others are asking how they could have done a better job making clear the storm would devastate the Ft. Myers area — and what lessons they can learn for the next storm.

Biden Admin Announces More Than $300M In Mental Health Funding In Part From Bipartisan Gun Bill

The Biden administration on Monday announced more than $300 million in new mental health funding, via awards and grants, with much of the money coming from the bipartisan anti-gun violence law passed this summer by Congress.

The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is rolling out the roughly $314 million for health professionals in schools and in emergency departments.

The new funds allocated under annual appropriations as well as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) -- which was passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in June -- are intended to help create healthier and safer learning environments for children, with the DOE granting some $280 million in competitive grants to schools to aid mental health staffing, it said Monday.

Ukraine Retakes A Key City Putin Claimed To Have Annexed. Here's Why It Matters

The recapture of Lyman represents a symbolic and strategic victory for Kyiv, which vowed its forces would push deeper into occupied territory after forcing Moscow's military into its latest bloody and humiliating retreat. Western officials and observers said Russia’s loss of a logistics hub key to the supply of forces in the south and east was a significant development that could pave the way for more.

"Lyman is cleared fully," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced early Sunday, hours after Russia's Defense Ministry said it was withdrawing its troops to more favorable defensive positions after facing likely encirclement.

“Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags in Donbas has increased. There will be even more in a week’s time,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday in an evening address.

"They Cheat Like Hell, These People": Trump Airs 2020 Grievances In Michigan, Weeks Before Midterm Elections

For the first seven minutes of his Michigan rally Saturday, former President Donald Trump stuck to two familiar issues Republicans are running on this November: inflation and the rising cost of living under President Biden, and immigration and the southern border.

Then, he turned to a topic that's been occupying him since November 2020: that the presidential election had been "stolen" from him.

He claimed John James, now a congressional candidate for Michigan's 10th District, had won his last race for U.S. Senate in 2020. He did not. James lost to Sen. Gary Peters by over 92,000 votes. Trump accused Democrats of obliterating "election integrity." He said America is a "third world country" because of how ballots are counted, and he praised France for using paper ballots.

Five Cases To Watch As A Conservative Supreme Court Begins Its New Term

When the Supreme Court starts its new term Monday, the six Republican-appointed justices are expected to resume the project they began last term of remaking U.S. constitutional law in a conservative image.

With many Americans are still reckoning with a term that eliminated the federal abortion right in the Dobbs decision, expanded Second Amendment and religious rights and shrank the U.S. government’s power to curb climate change, the 6-3 conservative majority court has chosen a set of highly combustible cases that court watchers believe are likely to break along ideological lines.

“In most of the high-profile cases besides Dobbs, we saw 6-3 decisions, with Republican-appointed justices on one side and Democratic-appointed justices on the other,” Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute, said recently of the court’s prior term.

Wisconsin Headlines

Wisconsin Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Sex Trafficking Of An Adult & A Minor

A federal judge in the Western District of Wisconsin sentenced Cory Hereford, 51, Beloit, Wisconsin to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and related charges. Hereford was convicted after a four-day trial in February 2022 of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, maintaining a property for the purposes of distributing and using controlled substances and of having committed sex trafficking of a minor while being a person previously convicted of a crime that required registering as a sex offender. The Court additionally imposed 20 years of supervised release.

The government presented evidence at trial that Hereford conspired with co-defendant, Tonyiel Partee, of Janesville, Wisconsin to recruit an adult victim struggling with drug addiction, to engage in commercial sex. He also enticed a minor victim, who was 16 years old at the time, with access to drugs. In some instances, he threatened to withhold the heroin to induce withdrawal sickness as a means of compelling the victims to engage in prostitution for his profit.

State Dem Party Has Financial Edge Over GOP Counterpart Heading Into Fall

The state Dem Party had $7.3 million in the bank between its state and federal accounts at the end of August, compared to the $1.8 million held by its GOP counterpart.

The Dem Party reported raising $1.8 million through its main state account between July 26 and Aug. 31. It spent $3.2 million during that period and had $2.1 million in the bank.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman gave the party $500,000, while California Dr. Karla Jurvetson donated $450,000 and California grant maker Quinn Delaney contributed $250,000.

The party also had $5.2 million in its federal account at the end of August.

The state GOP raised $423,693 through its main state account, spent $372,997 and had $169,047 in the bank.

Of what it raised, $301,516 was from committees, most of that from GOP campaigns. Louis Gentine, president of Sargento Foods, also donated $50,000.

The state GOP also had $1.7 million cash on hand through its federal account.

Amid Soaring Energy Costs, Public Pushes Back Against We Energies' Proposed Rate Hike

As heating costs climb this winter, some residents are bucking plans by Wisconsin’s largest utility to raise electric and gas rates beginning next year.

During public hearings Wednesday, people weighed in on an 8.4 percent increase in electric rates and a 10.7 percent hike in gas rates proposed by Milwaukee-based We Energies. Residents in the utility’s service territory would pay an extra $5 to $6 on their monthly electric bills while natural gas customers would pay around $6 more each month.

Those costs are on top of roughly $20 to $30 more each month that customers are expected to face this winter. Heating bills are slated to increase 17 percent due to soaring natural gas prices stemming from Russia’s war in Ukraine. The utility has no control over changing market prices and those costs are directly passed on to ratepayers.

Paul Chryst Out As Head Coach, Leonhard Steps In As Interim Head Coach

Paul Chryst has been fired as the head football coach at Wisconsin. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard is now the team's interim coach.

The university's director of athletics, Chris McIntosh, announced the move Sunday night.

During a news conference held Sunday night, McIntosh said it was an incredibly difficult decision to make and one he did not take lightly. McIntosh called it an incredibly tough day for the program.

Rodgers, Crosby's OT FG Lead Packers Past Pats, Zappe 27-24

Aaron Rodgers threw two second-half touchdown passes and led an overtime drive that resulted in Mason Crosby's 31-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the Packers to a 27-24 victory on Sunday.

The dramatic finish came after Rodgers went 4 of 11 for 44 yards for an 11.2 passer rating in a first-half performance that included New England's Jack Jones scoring on a 40-yard interception return, lifting the Patriots to a 10-7 halftime lead.

"I settled in and usually don't have two terrible halves, so I kind of returned to the form I expect from myself, and we started moving the football," said Rodgers, who went 21 of 35 for 251 yards.