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cuthian · 4 years

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Dancing in the Rain Chapter One

Welcome to the piece you've all been waiting for so very patiently!

This piece /can/ be read as a standalone piece, but should you have any questions if you do, be sure to ask in the comments, I'll reply as soon as I can :)

This entire work has been written and edited already, and will be updated on Mondays :D

As always, much thanks to Juulna for putting up with me!

Lots of love, Annaelle

Dancing in the Rain

Life is not about how you survive the storm It is about how you dance in the rain —Unknown author

Chapter One

REBECCA BARNES RESIGNS AS EARTH’S AMBASSADOR TO ASGARD AFTER PREGNANCY LEAK

Move comes only days after The New York Times published an article ‘outing’ Rebecca Barnes’ pregnancy, based on the say-so of Barnes’ former obstetrician, who says she was fired after Barnes filed a baseless complaint about the care she provided.

In a move that was predicted by several political experts following the tell-all article, Rebecca Barnes confirmed today that she would be resigning from her post as Earth’s Ambassador to Asgard—less than a year after her initial appointment. […]Ambassador Rebecca Barnes’ decision today came after several politicians from across the globe expressed their concern about Barnes’ ability to remain impartial and to represent Earth.

Barnes released a pre-recorded statement, in which she confirms that she is, indeed, pregnant, and that she will be stepping down from her post as ambassador. […]also distances herself from the statements made by her former obstetrician, confirming she chose to switch to a different doctor due to irreconcilable differences in opinion.

“I have always taken [her duties as ambassador] very seriously,” Barnes said in her statement, “and it is with a heavy heart but a clear conscience that I now resign from those duties. My relationship with the Aesir now runs far deeper and more intimately than anyone thought it would, and as such, there would always be a fear that my opinions and actions would be biased. This can be a very good thing, but it’s also only right that we do the correct thing and have an Earth-focused ambassador. Someone focused on the big picture instead of… well, instead of the small, the personal.”

[…]mixed response to Barnes’ announcement and resignation. Various media outlets have latched onto the story and have begun spinning various iterations of the same question: now that Barnes is—most likely—expecting long-term boyfriend and Prince of Asgard’s first child, will the couple finally be tying the knot? And, if so, does that make Barnes the first human princess of Asgard? Will their child(ren) be recognized as an heir to the Asgardian throne?

“[…]must be something in the water over at the Avengers Tower,” talk show host Jay Leno also joked during his latest broadcast. “First Potts, now Barnes—what’s next, Captain America going for his daily Central Park run with a stroller?”

Leno’s remarks were likely partially inspired by recent pictures of Captain America reading “What to Expect when You’re Expecting” and other varied baby books in several coffee shops and parks across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and tweets by Pepper Potts detailing the Captain’s dedication to helping her out however he can, more so than even her own partners.

[…]not clear when a replacement ambassador will be elected. There is much discussion amongst the various governments of the world about which government, if any single one, should be allowed to elect one of their own, or if the many governments of the world should form a council of representatives not unlike the European Union or the United Nations solely dedicated to communications and relations with extra-terrestrial nations.

—Max Colchester and Jason Douglas, The New York Times, “Rebecca Barnes Resigns as Ambassador”, January 2016

——————

Chicago, Illinois, United States of America April 12

, 2016 Steve

“Captain America!”

“Captain America, a statement, please?”

“Captain America, anything to say to reports that the Avengers orchestrated this attack to be able to save the day again, to get good press going for them?”

“Captain, any word on why Thor hasn’t joined the fight today?”

“Captain, captain, is it true Thor has threatened to cut ties with Earth if Rebecca Barnes’ child really is yours instead of his?”

There were a passel of shouting reporters standing by the barricades, barely held back by several police officers in—somehow—pristine blue uniforms, cameras flashing and microphones held out as far as they were able to reach.

Steve heaved a sigh, unclipping his helmet and running a hand through his dirty, sweat-soaked hair before he chanced a look at himself. He was covered from head to toe in fine dust and dirt, splashes of blood streaking across his thighs and chest—that seemed about right.

The giant insects that some wannabe supervillain had set loose on an unsuspecting Chicago had been hardy and mean, and it had taken him and the other Avengers—minus Becca, who’d been benched as soon as they all learned she was pregnant and was now holed up in the Tower with Pepper, shouting at them over the comms, and Thor, who had been called back to Asgard—well over seven hours of constant fighting to exterminate them all, even after Natasha had gotten her hands on said wannabe supervillain.

He was tired, he was sweaty and covered in dirt and blood, and all he wanted was to go home to the Tower and take a hot shower and then sleep for twelve hours—but someone had to talk to the media, and it looked like it was going to be him.

He sighed again and trudged towards the reporters, mentally trying to brace himself for the vastly inane questions he’d be getting about his supposed love affair with Becca that had now culminated in her pregnancy and his passionate tryst with Pepper, that had somehow also resulted in pregnancy.

Because apparently, in the twenty-first century, it seemed entirely implausible to the reporters that people actually remained faithful to their partners, rather than sleep around with the first reasonably attractive person in the near vicinity.

It was ridiculous.

Pepper had told him to ignore the rumours, that they’d go away as soon as the next big news broke, but it bothered him nonetheless. He didn’t like that people thought he was the kind of person that was okay with cheating on his friends, didn’t like that people thought him capable of something like that—and he hated most of all that the media still insisted on pairing him only with women.

It wasn’t like he was being subtle, or that his bisexuality was a secret.

He went to Pride parades dressed in a Captain Bi-merica suit every year, volunteered at several LGBT+ shelters and donated almost half of his Avengers income to various charities dedicated to at-risk LGBT youth. Everyone in his life knew that he and Bucky had been together, and everyone in the war had known too—even Peggy had known.

It’d been the worst kept secret in the U.S. Army—Captain America and Bucky Barnes were queer for each other, and entirely unapologetic about it too.

He wasn’t sure how that tidbit of knowledge had gotten lost over time when they remembered the fucking song.

The shouting got more frantic the closer he got, and he narrowly resisted the urge to turn on his heel and run the other way as fast as his serum-enhanced legs could carry him.

“Everybody,” he said, raising his voice just enough to be heard over the din. “I don’t have much time before I’m needed back, but I can tell you that we have successfully contained the threat and have taken the culprit into custody. We are currently coordinating relief efforts for affected families with local authorities. We expect displaced families to be able to return to their homes sometime tomorrow.”

“Captain,” one of the bottle-blonde women with far too much make-up caked on her cheeks demanded, “Is it true this attack was orchestrated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers to round up more sympathetic press in the wake of your scandalous affair and love child with Rebecca Barnes and Pepper Potts?”

Steve blinked at her.

“Tell me you're shitting me,” he deadpanned, barely even registering the way all of the reporters gasped. “Fifteen people lost their lives today,” he continued, maintaining direct eye contact with the woman who’d asked this fucking stupid question. “Fifteen people. Do you even know their names? I do. And I’m going to remember them for the rest of my life, because we didn’t get here fast enough—and not because of some imaginary sex scandal that exists absolutely nowhere but in your imagination, but because we’re only human too. We’re not here for better press, we’re here to make sure that those fifteen people are avenged. We’re here to make sure that no one else falls victim to one person’s greed, one person’s anger. Not because you’ve somehow got it in your head that I’ve been sleeping with the girl that may as well have been my own niece, if Bucky hadn’t died and if I hadn’t gone in the ice, and if I’d been allowed to keep the love of my life.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in, even for him, and though he wanted to groan and curse himself for losing his temper, he stood by his words.

He'd pretended to be their perfect little soldier—a dancing monkey—long enough.

He was fucking done.

He shot the wide-eyed, stunned woman an icy glare and said, “No further comment,” before he turned on his heel and walked away the way he’d come.

——————————

Cuthian:

Uuuhhhmmm… So tell me someone else saw this interview with Cap today?!?! @juuls, @betheflame ARE YOU SEEING THIS?

juuls:

YES @cuthian, I’m definitely seeing this. HOLY CRAP. We called it—we SO called it.

betheflame:

I SAID he’d slip it in during an interview! I WIN THE BET!

KlaudiaForPresident:

I’m so glad that we have someone as good and morally strong as Steve Rogers to represent us finally, but can we please talk about the way he was basically bullied into coming out of the closet?

There’s no way he felt comfortable sharing something so personal like this—just look at his face at 4:33, he said it in the heat of the moment, not because he was planning to tell us; and why would he?

It’s not like the media has been kind to him about his personal relationships since he’s been in the future. He’s been linked to nearly everyone he’s ever had a conversation with, and we need to acknowledge that that’s not cool.

Imagine how UNCOMFORTABLE it must be for him to constantly have to defend that he’s not sleeping with a girl he sees as a little sister, or a cousin—family.

Let’s just let him have his privacy, okay?

Even if we’re all ecstatic that he’s admitted his—potential—bisexuality, let’s not forget that he still lost the person he saw as the love of his life. He’s probably still grieving.

Let’s allow him to grieve and not push.

#Captainbimerica #stucky #totallycalledit #birepresentation #thisismycaptain #captainamerica #psa #leavethepoormanalone #mediasucks

——————

Lagos, NigeriaApril 15

, 2016 Steve

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he told Becca after he’d switched his comm to their private channel, watching as Wanda, Nat, and Pietro moved into position on the small square between the Center of Infectious Diseases and the local police station. “Feels too easy.”

Becca hummed in agreement, and Steve didn’t need to see her to know she was sitting cross-legged on one of the extra-wide, extra-comfortable desk chairs Tony had designed especially for Pepper and Becca, frowning at her screen, keeping an eye on the security footage the same as him. She’d been on desk duty since she’d hit twelve weeks in the pregnancy, when the small but unmistakable baby bump became visible to everyone.

Thor had—understandably—been entirely unable to focus on the battles they fought while Becca was still in the field with them, and after he’d taken a harpoon to the arm because he’d been too busy covering Becca to cover his own ass, the rest of the team had voted unanimously to have Becca on desk duty for the rest of her pregnancy.

Becca, while grumpy, had not put up much of a fight about it.

“I’ve ran all the background checks imaginable on our informant though,” she replied calmly. “Nat and I went over all of the intel with a fine-tooth comb. It’s legit, Steve, you know that.”

Steve harrumphed grumpily and crossed his arms over his chest. “That doesn’t mean it’s not a trap,” he retorted, watching as Wanda ordered a cup of tea, keeping her—by now recognisable—face covered with the clever sweep of her hair and the slightly dramatic make-up she and Natasha had spent almost an hour applying. Pietro was hovering just out of sight in the alleyway, nearly vibrating out of his skin, as he always did when he had to stand still for longer than a few minutes.

“Oh, it’s definitely a trap,” Becca said in his ear cheerfully. “But that just means we’re making them nervous—means we’re closer than we thought we were.”

Steve sighed.

She was right, of course. The intel had come rather unexpectedly—while they’d been able to clear Sharon of the murder she’d been accused of, it’d been more by chance than by design of any kind. They’d stumbled across footage of Sharon at a gas station nearly forty miles away at the time of the murder, and through the footage several witnesses who swore she’d been there.

The matter had been dropped relatively quickly after that.

Still, whoever was running this show was good—good enough that Tony’s various algorithms and even J.A.R.V.I.S. hadn’t been able to pick up on much more than the vague pattern that Natasha had initially noticed. There were more cases like Sharon’s, and though the investigation against her had been dropped, and she had clearly had a lot of fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and all of the Avengers in her corner, there were a lot of rumors still flying around about Sharon’s supposed involvement with her informant’s untimely and rather gruesome death.

Steve still wasn’t sure how it’d benefit a shadowy terrorist organisation to discredit one agent—no matter how good Sharon was—but he assumed there was a reason.

There were at least half a dozen other cases that J.A.R.V.I.S. and Nat had flagged as suspicious that hit mysterious dead ends: one former A.I.M. scientist turned S.H.I.E.L.D. informant who’d been on the verge of revealing something big vanishing off the face of the Earth; a STRIKE team getting massacred after being given faulty information on an infiltration mission that should’ve been easy; and a U.S. senator who’d been known for her progressive style changing her tune entirely seemingly overnight…

Even the sudden suicide of a popular, if somewhat reclusive, wealthy murder mystery writer had pinged on their radars—the man had been researching the inner workings of police stations and its politics, and had, one week prior to his apparent suicide, rewritten his will to leave his entire family out of it, donating his entire estate, worth an estimated 60 million dollars, at least, to assorted police stations in his home state, and several police officers specifically.

Something was going on, on a large and likely unprecedented scale, and Steve wasn’t sure they were ready to figure out just how big this thing was.

They even had a mole in S.H.I.E.L.D.

One relatively high up the chain of command too, if the sort of information they had access to was any indication—Sharon’s real identity had been classified to hell and back for years. Her deep-cover missions were more intense than Natasha’s half the time, and she hadn’t gone by her own name for longer than a few weeks since she’d joined S.H.I.E.LD.

“All set,” Becca said quietly, breaking him from his musings, drawing his attention back to the security footage, showing Natasha having moved into position too.

“Okay,” Steve nodded. “Here we go.”

He switched back to their shared comms channel and watched as Wanda added a sugar packet to her teacup with calculated, graceful movements, stirring the spoon in the hot liquid before she sipped, taking the time to glance around the square surreptitiously as she did.

He barely suppressed a proud smile as she clocked several hidden gunmen—two of which he hadn’t noticed himself—and whispered their location to her brother, who moved to get them out of the way before anyone could so much as blink.

“Alright,” he said into the comms as soon as Pietro had taken the men out of commission. “Good job, guys. Wanda, keep going; what do you see?”

“Standard beat cops,” Wanda said slowly, talking into her cup so no one would see her lips move. “Small station, quiet street. Pretty good target, I can see why they picked it.”

Steve nodded. “There’s an ATM in the south corner, which means…”

“Cameras,” Wanda finished, glancing briefly towards the aforementioned corner before she returned her attention to the building in front of her. The info they’d gotten pointed to either the little police station or the Center for Infectious Diseases being hit by the as-of-yet nameless terrorist group they’d been chasing for the past six or so months.

Steve personally thought it’d be the CfID, not the little police station, but since the intel hadn’t been clear on it, they couldn’t risk losing their only chance to get their hands on whoever was planning this.

Especially considering they couldn’t find anything more concrete than a vague suspicion that things weren’t adding up. They—Pepper—had negotiated their presence there with the Nigerian government, keeping their interference on the absolute downlow.

Not even S.H.I.E.L.D. had been told.

“Both cross streets are one way,” Becca added over the comms, and Steve watched as Wanda and Pietro, once again hidden in the shadows, checked the street reflexively.

“Compromised escape route,” Pietro muttered, accent thicker still than his sister’s.

Steve nodded along. “Yep. Means our guy doesn’t care about being seen—not afraid to make a mess on the way out. A big departure from their usual M.O.”

It was true—these guys seemed to operate entirely from the shadows in every other way, and Steve wasn’t sure what it meant for them if they decided they were ready to step out of said shadows.

“It’s suspicious,” Becca insisted. “See that Range Rover halfway up the block, Wanda?”

“Yeah, the red one?” Wanda sipped her tea again. “It’s cute.”

Nat chuckled across the comms and said, “It’s also bulletproof. Probably private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for someone—probably us.”

“Plates aren’t registered,” Becca piped in. “J.A.R.V.I.S. is hacking into a few more databases to see if he can find that make and model listed anywhere, but it’s slow-going.” She huffed in annoyance. “There’s way too many red Range Rovers in Nigeria, what the hell.”

“Eyes on the target,” Steve reminded them sternly. “This is the best lead we’ve had in months. I don’t want to lose it.”

“Aye aye cap’n,” Natasha quipped semi-seriously, and Steve laughed along with the others despite himself.

“Tony’s almost there, in case you guys need him,” Becca reminded them, “and he’s being whiny about not being on the same comms channel, so if I let him in, will you play nice?”

Steve gasped playfully. “Why, Becca, I’m offended by the implication. I always play nice.”

“You’re a little shit, Rogers,” Becca told him, before something clicked and Tony’s voice became audible. “—and I mean, I can totally dig the seriousness of this mission, I’m cool, I’m just saying a little AC/DC never hurt anyone.”

“A little AC/DC would definitely hurt now,” Steve replied, eyeing the street before him again.

“Capsicle!” Tony exclaimed. “Congrats on the coming out! Papers are all over it. The U.S. is losing its shit. I applaud you, my good man. I’ll order you a cake when we get home. Bi-pride colors and everything. We can invite Aunt Peg and Aunt Becky. Also, I think FOX News is having a meltdown. Or going on lockdown. Not sure which would be more entertaining, honestly,” he hummed happily.

Steve stopped short. “What?”

“What?” Natasha and Wanda and Pietro echoed.

“Right,” Becca said slowly. “You left right after Chicago.”

Steve’s stomach sank. “Oh, fuck,” he said empathically.

Tony gasped theatrically. “Captain, language.”

“Shut up, Tony,” Steve bit out, before sighing and rubbing a hand over his forehead. “How much of a headache is this gonna be? It just kinda slipped out.”

“Eh,” Tony said, surprisingly gentle. “I’ve caused bigger headaches. I think the conservative, racist part of the country is having a meltdown, because they can’t use you as a poster-boy for their ass backwards shit anymore, but most people are cool with it. Applauding you for being brave enough to come out for who you and Barnes were—and talking shit about the reporter that bullied you into making that grandiose speech in the first place.”

Steve groaned.

“Steve,” Becca said quietly. “You’re fine. No one is going to judge you, and people that do are really not worth your time or your consideration.”

“Uh,” Tony said. “While I totally agree, and hate to break up the moment… There’s a large group of people moving in the CfID—like abnormally. I can only see heat signatures, but I’m willing to bet these guys are armed. I’m thinking our terrorists might already be here.”

“Becca,” Steve barked, moving out the door and down the stairs of their look-out apartment before Tony had even stopped talking.

“Hacking into security cams now,” Becca replied immediately.

“Pietro, get Natasha and Wanda inside,” Steve ordered. “Then come back for me. Don’t be seen.”

“Yep,” Pietro said shortly, and Steve heard the slight rush of fast-moving air as the boy started moving.

By the time Steve’d reached street level, the other three were gone, and he barely had time to blink before Pietro blurred back into sight before him, grinning wildly. “Ready, Captain?” he asked, before putting his hands on Steve’s shoulders and moving.

The world blurred and moved, and his head spun wildly before Pietro came to a stop, hidden behind a large pillar, only a few feet from where Nat and Wanda stood, readying themselves for a fight.

Nat’s Widow’s Bites were sparking, and Wanda’s hands were already encased with that tell-tale ominous red energy. Steve checked that the straps of his shield were tight enough on his arm, and then nodded at the two women. “Definitely body armor. Possibly AR-15s—likely hand guns and knives too. I make seven hostiles,” he whispered, glancing towards the men dressed in black tac gear.

Natasha huffed and moved forwards, launching herself into the air by a graceful jump off a chair—she landed on two of the men, taking them down in a tangle of limbs and electric current, their choked off screams echoing eerily in the building.

Steve moved before the other men had had the chance to react to Nat’s sudden attack, lobbing the shield towards two of the other men, who had raised their guns to Nat immediately, knocking both of them clean off their feet. The man that stood next to them shouted in alarm, but before he could do so much as raise his gun, he was tackled to the ground by a blur of movement, and then fastened in place by an eerie red glow that spread, quickly, to encompass all other men, freezing their limbs in place.

“Good job,” Steve told Wanda when she appeared from behind the relative safety of the pillar, eyes glowing as red as the mist encompassing her hands.

“I can’t hold them long,” she told him calmly. “Natasha, you should cuff them so I can let go.”

Natasha was already moving, pulling handcuffs from wherever she managed to stash them in her skin tight outfit, when someone let out a strangled, “Stop!”

Steve spun around, finding one of the men had managed to move enough to pull his helmet off, revealing—

“Brock?” Steve said incredulously.

“What?” Becca demanded in his ear, as Natasha stepped up beside him, eyeing Brock Rumlow, who was held immobile by Wanda’s red magic in what looked like a very uncomfortable position, with a considering expression.

“What the fuck?” the other man demanded when Wanda released him after Steve nodded at her, collapsing on his knees before he managed to steady himself. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” Natasha countered. “No one is supposed to be here.”

“We got a tip,” Rumlow spat. “Jesus, Romanoff, we’re meant to catch some terrorist group that the higher ups are really interested in. You better fucking hope you didn’t scare them away! Now fucking let my STRIKE guys loose.” He glared at Wanda, who bit her lip and looked at Steve first, waiting for his approval before she did as Rumlow said and released the other men.

A chorus of groans and muffled curses followed their release, and a small part of Steve felt a little smug that Wanda had been able to keep at least ten guys—a full fucking STRIKE team—down without visibly breaking a sweat.

Take that, every asshole who ever dared imply she didn’t deserve her spot on the team.

“He’s telling the truth,” Becca said hesitantly. “I’ve got the paperwork here. J.A.R.V.I.S. just hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers. Orders came straight from Maria—probably from Fury or Pierce before it came to her. It looks legit, Steve. They got the same tip we did.”

Steve exchanged a glance with Natasha, who had her arms crossed over her chest, staring down each of Rumlow’s STRIKE guys with a blank expression that he knew was tailor-made to scare the shit out of even the bravest of men. Judging by their expressions, Rumlow’s guys may not be the bravest of men.

She just lifted one eyebrow at him, and Becca suggested, “Maybe tell him some of the truth?”

Steve exhaled slowly.

“We also got a tip,” he told Rumlow. “Couple of hours ago. It came directly to us, seemed urgent. We contacted the Nigerian government directly and flew in. We didn’t want to risk losing these guys.”

Rumlow scoffed. “So urgent you couldn’t notify S.H.I.E.L.D. at all?”

“Tell him we told Fury,” Tony butted in. “Becca, J.A.R.V.I.S. will make it happen.”

Steve didn’t question their decision to fudge the truth. They’d established Avengers Black Op on this entire mission for a reason, and much as Steve enjoyed beating the man up during his mandatory hand-to-hand combat sessions, Brock did not make the cut for trusted individuals.

Not even Sharon had made the cut.

“We notified Fury,” he said, shrugging. “Didn’t hear back from him, and the Nigerian government had already given us permission to be here, so…”

“Damn it. They should’ve run it through us, man,” Brock grumbled. “Could’ve saved us this whole thing.” He glanced toward the two men Steve had knocked to the ground and the man Nat had tased with her Widow’s bites, and groaned. “Paperwork’s going to be a bitch.”

Steve hung his head.

He hated to say it, but Brock was right, damn it.

“Get them out,” Rumlow told Rollins, who Steve had worked with on occasion, and a fresh-faced kid who was likely a new recruit, gesturing to the three men that were still on the floor. “Make sure they get medical attention and that you’re not seen.” He glanced towards Steve and the others and heaved a sigh, “tell Hill we got back up from the Avengers.”

“Actually,” Becca drawled, “Hill just sent me an Avengers Assemble alert. Looks like there’s… something going on a couple of miles from where you guys are. Some guy called…” she hesitated and then snorted, “Killmonger? I dunno, he’s American special ops, but he called in for help not even a minute ago, something about a crazy man with voodoo powers taking out his whole team. We’re the closest back-up he’s got.”

Steve groaned. “Alright. Tony, fly ahead, scope out the situation, see what’s what. Pietro—”

“Aye aye, Cap,” the young man quipped, before pressing a lightning quick kiss to his sister’s cheek and blurring out of sight.

“We got an Assemble alert,” he told Rumlow reluctantly. “Becca’s informed S.H.I.E.L.D. you need more back-up, but if anything goes sideways, hail us, yeah? Pietro or Stark can be here before you can even blink if you need them.”

Rumlow nodded. “Yeah. Let’s hope we haven’t managed to chase away our mark.”

“Let’s hope not,” Steve agreed, before turning to Nat and Wanda, nodding his head towards the exit.

He wasn’t sure how they’d managed to get their wires crossed so intensely, because he could’ve sworn J.A.R.V.I.S. had checked S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database for similar tips beforehand, but there wasn’t anything for it now. There was possibly something more going on, someone playing them all, pulling on their strings like they were nothing but puppets, but he didn’t have time to figure it out now.

Someone needed their help.

Rumlow, S.H.I.E.L.D., and everything else could wait.

———————

Fox News (@FoxNews) 36 min.

BREAKING: Captain America comes out of the closet? Has this national hero been lying to the country, or did he simply misspeak? Surely @captainRogers will clarify this misunderstanding soon.

Steve Rogers — Captain America (@CaptainRogers) 2 min.

@FoxNews Did I fucking stutter?

———————

Brooklyn V.A. Medical center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

April 20

, 2016Steve

Steve just barely managed to squeeze himself into the tiny little bathroom stall of the V.A. center with Becca, gamely holding his breath as well as Becca’s hair as she retched into the toilet after an unfortunate incident involving the snack table for the meeting and a stray sandwich with blue cheese.

“Ugh,” Becca groaned miserably, leaning back and wiping her mouth on a wad of toilet paper before dropping it in the toilet and flushing it. “I thought this part was supposed to be over.”

Steve smiled lightly and tugged her close so her head could rest back against his shoulder.

“From what I remember,” Steve said slowly, keeping his voice level and calm to help Becca calm down—because he remembered how much throwing up triggered Becca sometimes, and he knew how difficult the first few weeks of the pregnancy had been for her, how relieved she’d been when the morning sickness had finally abated—rubbing his hand over the swell of her stomach softly. “It can come up any time. My mom used to say it was because your senses are heightened, primed to notice anything that could be a danger to the baby.”

“That’s a nice thought, actually,” Becca nodded. “I don’t think I mind being sick if it keeps the baby safe.”

Steve smiled and leaned his cheek against Becca’s temple. “Well, I hope for your sake that you don’t have to be sick anymore.”

“Me too,” Becca hummed.

They sat quietly for a few more minutes before Becca gasped, suddenly, looking down at her belly with wide eyes. “Look,” she told him urgently, tugging on his arm urgently until he moved, and they were sitting opposite one another with their backs against the walls of the stall, Becca’s legs curled underneath her and Steve’s awkwardly stretched out.

Becca pulled up her shirt a little, revealing the pale expanse of her stomach, littered with little silvery stretch marks and a few dark, puckered marks that she tended to hide otherwise. Today, though, the marks seemed the last thing on Becca’s mind, because she grabbed his hand and pressed it to her stomach again, just next to her belly button. “Look,” she insisted.

Steve dropped his eyes to her stomach as well, and he couldn’t really stop the gasp that fell from his lips when, suddenly, the outline of what was clearly a tiny foot pressed out into Becca’s skin just above his fingertips, remaining there for a few seconds before it disappeared again. “Shit,” he laughed, looking up at his friend with a grin, “that’s so weird. And cool.” He looked down again, but the little foot did not make another appearance. “You’re actually growing a person in there,” he added breathlessly.

Becca snorted and shoved at him. “What, did you think I stuffed a watermelon under my shirt before now? You’ve felt them kick before.” She elbowed him in the side and chuckled, “You’ve read more of the parenting books than any of us have.”

“Well,” Steve spluttered, a little embarrassed, “yeah. But this is different.”

Becca laughed again, but it wasn’t mean or mocking, and Steve grinned too, despite himself.

“Steven? Rebecca?”

Thor’s voice was loud enough to drift through the walls even when he was clearly trying to be quiet, and Steve grinned at Becca when she perked up immediately.

“In here,” Steve said, raising his voice just a little—Thor’s hearing was just as good, if not better than Steve’s—as he moved to help Becca back to her feet.

Thor pushed open the door to the bathroom and leaned on the doorjamb, smiling at them lightly, although his forehead was creased into a slightly concerned frown. “Everyone alright?” he asked casually, reaching out to Becca as soon as she was within reach.

Becca grimaced but nodded, leaning into Thor’s touch gratefully. “Blue cheese,” she said, nose wrinkling in disgust, and Thor made a small sound of comprehension, needing no further explanation after the last time Becca had encountered blue cheese in the common room of the Tower, and instead rubbing his hand over her back in a soothing gesture.

“You ready, Steve?” Becca asked, turning back to him with a grin.

“Born ready,” he said confidently.

——————

Steve was absolutely not ready.

He fidgeted, his hands trembling just shy of imperceptibly when he took the microphone from Sam. The room was about as filled as it usually was for the Thursday V.A. meeting, but the thought of ‘sharing’ still reminded him of the feeling he’d had when Senator Brandt had first thrust him into the spotlight on a stage somewhere in Philadelphia, when he’d wanted nothing more than to run away, to hide so no one could see him ever again.

He’d been wishing to be seen for most of his life at that point, had wished that people would see and notice him, but it’d been nothing like he’d thought it would be.

He’d made a promise to Sam though, and he wasn’t going to back out.

Becca and Thor were tucked into a corner of the room, Thor’s hands absently rubbing across Becca’s belly while Becca smiled encouragingly. She’d shared with the group the previous week, and it’d broken Steve up to hear, first-hand, the things people had done to her—before, during and after her capture—but she hadn’t been the only one.

There’d been a young man, too young to have the same kind of shadows lingering behind his eyes that they all seemed to, who came up to her afterwards, who thanked her for sharing, and for reminding them that… that it was possible to build a life afterwards.

That it was possible to learn how to live and be happy again.

Steve had diligently pretended Becca wasn’t crying when they walked home, but he’d held her hand and hugged her close when she’d asked him to anyway.

He’d told himself that sharing what had happened to him might help someone else. He’d told Sam the same, and Sam had held him to it, inviting him up to speak after everyone who’d volunteered had had their chance to speak, because “No one wants to follow your act, Rogers.”

Steve swallowed thickly and glanced at the expectant, curious faces of their group. “Hi,” he finally said, voice cracking with nerves. “I’m sure all of you know who I am.” He grinned lightly and added, “I usually lurk in the back with my friend, eating all of the donuts, like the creepers we actually are.”

That got a couple of scattered laughs, and Becca shot him a thumbs up from her corner.

Steve exhaled and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the lectern that stood at the front of the room. “I’m Steve,” he began. “I’m thirty-two, and I went to war when I was twenty-four, and sometimes it feels like I’ve never left it behind. Sometimes it feels like I never will.” There were a few understanding murmurs, and something loosened slightly in his chest.

He could do this.

“I went to war because I had to,” he continued, chewing on his lower lip. “Because there were good, healthy people dying on the front lines every day, fighting to defend us, our families, and I was dying anyway, so what right did I have to do any less than them?” He swallowed thickly. “I was dying anyway, and I wanted my death to have more meaning than my life had.”

The room had gone utterly silent, and Steve didn’t dare look up, for fear he’d lose his nerve.

“It’s a funny thing,” he continued, “to be so aware of your own mortality. I wasn’t even very angry about the unfairness of it anymore. Buck—my—the love of my life,” he admitted, still a little shy to be so public about something so private, “he was angry. He was the sweetest guy you’d ever meet, charming and handsome and kind, but he was so fucking angry at God and the universe and whatever else there was, because I was dying, and there was nothing anyone could do about it… and then they called him to war too.”

Steve blinked back a tear, a little startled by how emotional he felt, by how hard recalling the memories was. “And he went,” he said. “He went, and what else could I do than everything I could to either follow him, or to die trying?” He looked up, briefly catching Becca’s shiny eyes before his gaze fell to Sam. Sam, who’d supported him, who hadn’t let their rough start at a friendship get in the way—who understood in a way even Becca never had.

“The machine they used to give me all of this—” He gestured vaguely at his body. “It looked like a coffin.”

There were a few gasps from the group, but no one interrupted when he continued, “And I thought it would be mine. There had been seventeen test subjects before me.” He looked down. “I was the only one to ever survive, but I didn’t know that when I went in. I thought I was going to be number eighteen, the one they could hopefully learn from, so they could help people.”

“Obviously,” he said with a weak smile, “it worked. And I went, and I fought, tooth and nail, for the life I’d been real eager to leave behind, for Bucky and his sisters, for his family—my family. I fought for everyone that couldn’t, for everyone we’d already lost, and for once, I felt like a hero.” He stopped and looked down, noting that his hands were shaking so bad he could barely hold the microphone without hitting himself in the face.

“When Bucky—the mission we were on—” He shook his head and lowered the microphone, breathing in deeply to regain some measure of composure. Because, while no one here would judge him, he wouldn’t be able to finish if he let himself cry now. “He saved my life, like he always did, like he’d been doing since we were both four feet tall and getting into fights with people twice our size. I got knocked down and he picked up my shield, and—” Steve choked lightly, tears running down his cheeks despite his best efforts to hold them at bay. “We were both nearly blown off the side of the train,” he said hoarsely. “I thought—God, for a second, I thought I had him. He managed to hang on by a railing, and I was so close. His—his fingers brushed past mine when it broke off and he fell.”

The room was deathly silent, and when he looked up, he saw that several other people were nodding, crying, knowing. “I almost fell,” Steve admitted. “I almost fell too. Sometimes I wish I had.”

He was quiet for a few seconds before he whispered, “Grief… Grief is a funny thing. Grief shatters something inside of you that you didn’t know could shatter, and it seeps into the cracks, like water that slowly freezes, slowly expands into ice until it’s all you can feel—until you can’t even remember what it felt like to live without the cracks, without the grief filling up that space. I didn’t… after Bucky fell, I lost my mind a little. I froze… long before I put the Valkyrie in the ice. I fought, and I killed, and I didn’t care that I was doing it, because every single Hydra soldier was one that was responsible for the love of my life dying alone at the bottom of a ravine. The Valkyrie…” He shook his head and sighed. “Putting down the Valkyrie was a relief, because at least it meant that whatever was going to happen, Bucky would be waiting for me on the other side.”

He swallowed. “And then I woke up here. And whatever soul, whatever heart I had left, it shattered further; the grief, the ice spread further, because everyone was gone. Everyone I’d ever known, everyone I’d ever loved—even the country I’d died for. Everything.”

He exhaled shakily and looked up, meeting Becca’s teary gaze, and managing a weak smile.

“I made it through. I made it through because I still had family that needed me, that missed me, that knew me, and that refused to give up on me even when I had.” He deliberately looked at every member of their group. “Including the Valkyrie, I tried to take my own life six times. I tried to leave, tried to give up what Bucky had died to give me—and I still think about it sometimes. I’m not always okay. I sit out missions that I know will trigger me, I have three different therapists, and I have an unrelenting support network. I’m lucky—so many of us don’t have all of that. But I want you, at least, to know that you do as well. I’m just one man, even with my name and reputation, and there’s only so much I can do—but when any of us, any of you need support, even if it’s just a shoulder to cry on…”

He shrugged one shoulder and smiled. “They’re a lot bigger and stronger than they used to be. I promise there’s room to help you shoulder your burden. I want you to know that you have that support. I thought I had no one for the longest time, even surrounded by friends and family, and I don’t wish that feeling on anyone.”

He looked down again and sighed. “The ice… the grief doesn’t go away,” he admitted. “Not really. But you learn. You learn to breathe with it, rather than against it, you learn how to cope, even when you can’t understand, and that’s all anyone can ask of you. Even on days when it feels like you’ll never leave the war behind, even when things are at its bleakest, there’s going to be better days. There’s always people that’ll care, that’ll miss you, that’ll need you.”

He squared his jaw and promised, “And when you have no one, I’ll be your someone. We will be your people. We’ll miss you. We’ll need you, and we’ll drag you through hell, to show you how good life is on the other side. You’re never alone.”

——————

Start from the beginning:

In Hell We Stand By You:

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Never Feel Alone:

(1) (2)

Decisions: (1)

Dancing with a Limp:

(1) (2)

Chances:

(1)

Starting Over:

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Or read it HERE on AO3 :D Find the next chapter HERE on Tumblr :)

#IHWSBY sequel #Dancing in the rain #DitR #Stucky fanfiction #stucky #Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #Thor #Rebecca Barnes #Tony Stark #Natasha Romanov #Pepper Potts #Avengers Family #my writing #Lisa writes

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beautyisyours · 4 years

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GNAWING AT THE BONES

After my breakup with Betty Boop, I was pretty down in the dumps for a while. I went on dates with a few girls, but nothing serious. That is, until the day of “The List.”

In case you didn’t already pick up on it, I’m a little OCD. So I really like lists. I list the times, places, and locations I need to be every single day. Before the show, I list segments that we are going to do in order of how good I think they will be. After the show, I change that list and list them in order of how well they went on air. I list my favorite soaps. I list my favorite teas. So of course I had a list of pretty girls I wanted to come on my radio show.

Rachel Reinert, one part of the three-member hit country band Gloriana, was definitely on The List. In fact, she might have been at the top of it. When we did a bit on air where we picked the ten most beautiful women in country (given the classy title “The Bones’ Babes”), I put Rachel at number one. (People magazine had just come out with their “Most Beautiful” issue and didn’t pick anyone from the country world, which I found annoying. But the real inspiration behind the segment was my newly single status. As I said on air, “I’m putting a bunch of girls who I would want to date on this list.”)

I didn’t think it would actually work, of course! But shockingly, it did, because the day after we aired this list, with Rachel on top, her people called up the show and asked if I wanted the singer-songwriter to come to the studio the following day. No way! I thought to myself. How embarrassing. But my rule is, the more embarrassing something is for me, the more the listeners will probably enjoy it. And of course I thought it would be funny to strike out on the air with a beautiful girl who I knew wouldn’t want to date me. So I agreed. I even made the whole experience even more embarrassing by writing

her a song, which I imaginatively called “Rachel,” that I played for her in the studio. It could have won the Grammy for Song of the Year. Here, let me show you:

Rachel, I think you are so pretty

When I see you, you make my heart all giddy. Rachel, I got you that trophy

Do you like guys like me that are dopey?

She smiled and laughed uncomfortably as I performed the whole thing for her, as if I were a creepy stalker. As you can see, my song stylings have met with varying responses when it comes to the ladies. Luckily, the tunes I cowrite for my band the Raging Idiots get a better reception. But at the end of her visit I got her cell number. Well . . . I had a friend tweet her friend to get me her cell number. I’m a total ladies’ man, you know. Anyway, Rachel and I started seeing each other fairly soon after. That’s right! She agreed to go out with me. It was very casual at first, as she was on the road a lot and I woke up at 3 A.M. But it turned into a strong relationship.

Rachel was fun to be around. I was just coming off my four-year relationship with Betty, probably the best human I had ever met, and she was a tough act to follow. But going out with Rachel was not only different, but equally good. Betty, who worked in sales, helped me find balance. She was great at that work-life thing, with a successful career and a strong circle of friends and close family.

Rachel, who had signed her first publishing deal in her teens and moved to Nashville soon after, was a lot like me—i.e., a workaholic. You have to be if you want to make it in the music business. She was always on the road with Gloriana, which had toured with Taylor Swift and won the Academy of Country Music’s award for Top New Vocal Group and a Teen Choice award for Choice Country Group. I would have given her an award, too (oh wait, I did: the Bones’ Babes #1 Hottest Country Singer Award). She was one of the greatest singers I’ve ever heard face-to-face. I would just ask her to play stuff around the house so I could hear her sing. Unfortunately, she never asked me to just tell jokes.

Her talent as a performer was only one aspect of Rachel’s appeal. She was also very open-minded in a climate that, in my opinion, can be too judgmental.

Rachel was just cool, but there was never any kind of country music “power couple” thing between us. First of all, I don’t go to many industry events because I’m a freaky, antisocial dude who feels like everyone at those parties either wants to use me or doesn’t like me. (I know, fun.) I didn’t perceive myself as half of any “celebrity relationship,” as some gossip sites called us. I also never really thought of Rachel as famous. She was super talented and driven, and I was attracted to that. Yet I also saw the grind of her job from the inside: the long bus rides, the program directors you have to drive all over the country to talk to in order to get your song on the radio, the many, many struggles of being a recording artist.

Struggling, which we all do, whether you’re a truck driver or a country music star, is what brought a common humanity not just to Rachel but to all the good and talented folks I’ve met in Nashville. Recognizing that beneath the makeup, four-hundred-dollar distressed jeans, and perfect hair (or steamed baseball cap—seriously, I’ve seen some country music dudes get that done to their hats before they go onstage), we’re all just the same. Knowing this to be true is what’s helped me most with my on-air interviewing of celebrities.

Most people, even those in the media, get intimidated by famous folks. Often interviewers are so worried about making celebrities uncomfortable or unhappy in any way that they ask the same questions as every other journalist, which means the famous person gives the same answer over and over until it becomes muscle memory. I think having to say the same thing again and again is the most annoying thing ever for anyone, famous or anonymous. I’m not in the business of making musicians uncomfortable or annoyed (at least, I don’t think I am). So if I can break the verbal rut they’re in, there’s no telling where I can go. Awful or awesome, either way is great.

The way I do this is by humanizing people who don’t seem human to others because of their larger-than-life status. “What did you eat for breakfast?” “Did you have a dog, growing up?” “What kind of underwear do you wear?” I ask about simple stuff that celebrities don’t usually get asked.

I do interviews constantly, in a medium where the conventional wisdom is that they’re not good for ratings. But I’ve always felt that listeners tune out when they hear interviews because most people on the radio or television aren’t doing interesting interviews. We once were given research that compared The Bobby Bones Show to other morning national shows, and what they found was that while other hosts gushed over their guests just for

showing up, my interviews were more of a back-and-forth between peers.

I was happy the research bore out what I hope comes through on my show. Not only do I feel the peer-to-peer quality of my questions makes for more interesting radio, but I do believe it also puts the artist at ease. When Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert split up, I was the first one who got him to talk in any real way about his divorce, because I talked to him in, well, a real way. Instead of asking him a fawning nonquestion, like “It must be so hard for you,” or making an accusation, like “Was there someone else?” I went at the angle, “You’re famous, and she’s famous. And you guys kept it secret until it was finalized. Now, all personal things aside, how did you do that?” With that Blake was able to separate himself a bit, talk about the law, and then he kind of just went, “Our whole thing was, we are going to be cool about this. It is what it is . . . we’re buddies.” That might not seem like big news to you (and it wasn’t to me), but that interview was picked up by every media outlet from the Today show to CNN to the Christian Post.

Even celebrity listeners, like Tim McGraw, liked what we were doing on the show. Although now we’ve done a few specials together for TV and radio, the first time he was on our show was when he called in to our request line! The country superstar said he was just a fan of the show and that he listened every day as he drove his kids to school. It was so crazy that honestly we didn’t believe it was him, and so we asked him a lot of trivia questions to see if it was really him. (Obviously, he passed with flying colors.) When I moved to Nashville, I had been told, “Tim is really quiet and doesn’t warm up quickly to people.” But that’s not what I found at all. When he found out that I’d never owned or worn a cowboy hat, he gave me the black one he’d worn throughout his whole Las Vegas run. Tim even sent me a murse (man purse) that he had bought but was too embarrassed to wear.

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paulbenedictblog · 4 years

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%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Usa today Rare yellow cardinal sighted, escaped goat caught, fossilized bear skull found: News from around our 50 states

Usa today

Usa today Alabama

Opelika: Development has begun on a novel skate park that will cater to residents of Opelika and Auburn, which will seemingly be partnering on the project. The Opelika-Auburn News reported that Auburn is to blame of the improvement of the project, nonetheless is splitting the value with Opelika. Day after day upkeep will seemingly be Auburn’s accountability, nonetheless renovation and restore charges will seemingly be split between the cities. The park is being constructed on the discipline of some used tennis courts at Indian Pines Golf Route. The target is for the park to be executed by early next year.

Usa today Alaska

Fairbanks: An escaped goat that eluded authorities for nearly about two days became caught after a hunt racy requests for public assistance and sightings shared on social media, officers acknowledged. The goat became within the custody of Fairbanks North Big name Borough Animal Regulate on Tuesday night, The Fairbanks Day after day News-Miner reported. The male goat became reported missing Monday morning. Animal preserve an eye on officers asked the public to contact a legislation enforcement phone number in a social media post that became shared extra than 500 instances. Two inform troopers transported the animal after the goat became caught by of us come a avenue “leaping into web page online web page online visitors and inflicting some considerations,” acknowledged Ken Marsh of the Department of Public Safety. Facebook users who adopted the trek updates named the goat Curry. The proprietor, who became no longer identified, planned to in the beginning return the goat to the herd “so he can heal from this journey. The herd he grew up in will bring him some comfort,” Fairbanks animal preserve an eye on operations supervisor Sandy Hill acknowledged.

Usa today Arizona

Chinle: The Navajo Division of Transportation has closed Chinle Airport’s runway till additional ticket on story of of existing asphalt deterioration. Authorities acknowledged the division’s Avenue Upkeep and Airports Management departments assessed the Chinle Community Airport on Monday. They acknowledged the overview indicated that the south slay of the runway has deteriorated a good deal; vast cracks exist, precipitation is leaking via the cracks into the subgrade and the present pavement is raveling. Authorities acknowledged the runway is closed indefinitely whereas the Navajo Division of Transportation determines improvement plans. Nonetheless, the airport’s tarmac will dwell originate for helicopter scientific transport.

Usa today Arkansas

Hiwasse: The inform has started engaged on multimillion-buck construction tasks to entire its portion of Interstate 49. Motorway Commissioner Phillip Taldo acknowledged when I-49 is accomplished, this can motivate the financial system of northwest Arkansas. The freeway will bustle from the Gulf Soar come Novel Orleans to Canada. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that officers broke ground Tuesday on a project to entire the Bella Vista Bypass, recognized because the Arkansas/Missouri connector, 2.5 miles from the inform line. The quite quite a lot of project is to severely change a roundabout to a single-level city interchange in Bentonville. The director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation acknowledged the Bella Vista Bypass has been talked about for on the least 25 years. Taldo acknowledged extra funds are wanted to entire the final portion from Alma to Texarkana.

Usa today California

Anza: Authorities acknowledged they seized illegal marijuana with a street tag of $1 million after stopping a van on a Southern California street on story of a passenger wasn’t carrying a seatbelt. The California Motorway Patrol acknowledged an officer smelled an scent of pot after stopping the van Monday in Anza, an unincorporated neighborhood in Riverside County. The Riverside Press-Enterprise acknowledged the van became elephantine of trash bags and intelligent containers that the driver acknowledged contained marijuana. The CHP acknowledged it chanced on 335 kilos of pot. Marijuana use is authorized in California nonetheless some cultivation and transportation of the plant remains illegal.

Usa today Colorado

Pueblo: A marijuana grower offered it lost tens of millions of bucks all the scheme via a cold storm after half of of the vegetation froze sooner than harvest. The Marijuana Industry Day after day reported Wednesday that Pueblo-based Los Sueños Farms lost about 20,000 vegetation in hours of subfreezing temperatures and several other inches of snow all the scheme via an October storm. Company workers acknowledged the damage is predicted to have an affect to your entire inform’s marijuana provide. Employees acknowledged outlets and processors would possibly face elevated wholesale hashish prices, nonetheless extractors are expected to motivate by having salvage entry to to additional plant subject materials to earn items such as infused merchandise, edibles and concentrates. Employees acknowledged they tried salvaging the plants by maintaining them with blankets and utilizing sizzling water to preserve the roots warmth. Los Sueños owns dozens of acres for out of doors manufacturing.

Usa today Connecticut

Stamford: 5 law enforcement officers are suing Stamford, alleging city officers left out accurate scores on the sergeants’ exam and overpassed them for promotions. The Stamford Recommend reported that officers are promoted to sergeant if they salvage the head three scores or ranking within 5 components of the head ranking on the sergeants’ exam. Court docket paperwork point out that the officers who bought the head three scores were chosen for promotion. The plaintiffs acknowledged they were handed over for promotion in settle on of affiliates who scored decrease on the promotion exam. They snarl town violated civil-provider rules and town charter. Then bolt smartly with is such as a criticism filed final year by city firefighters. A city attorney acknowledged she would possibly no longer observation on the bolt smartly with.

Usa today Delaware

Wilmington: Chipotle offered a program Tuesday that enables workers to pursue a college degree debt-free at 5 institutions all the scheme via the country, including Wilmington University. Thru a partnership with Guild Schooling, a company that works as an middleman between companies and workers to present education advantages, Chipotle is maintaining all charges upfront for 75 industrial and expertise levels. The very best rapid out-of-pocket expense is books. Wilmington University declined an interview set a question to Wednesday. When asked via email how and why Wilmington University partnered with Guild and Chipotle, the college’s president Dr. LaVerne Harmon acknowledged in an announcement, “Wilmington University is tickled to be a segment of Chipotle’s imaginative and prescient to abet workers reach their tutorial targets and make stronger their lives via education.” At Wilmington University, Chipotle workers can pursue levels connected to marketing, laptop science and organizational and industrial management. Chipotle has six areas in Novel Citadel County and eight all the scheme via Delaware. With about 25 workers per location, in accordance with Chipotle’s annual shareholder represent, the corporate workers roughly 200 of us in Delaware.

Usa today District of Columbia

Washington: Yahoo no longer too long ago offered that it plans to roll motivate the performance of its Yahoo Groups web page, which is a novel tool damaged-down for discussing neighborhood components within the district, WUSA-TV reported. Dozens of neighborhoods from Tenleytown to Anacostia use the Yahoo Groups web page to make online forums for locals to bring consideration to policy components, crime and even missing pets and capabilities. In accordance with Yahoo, on Oct. 28, users will no longer be ready to upload divulge onto the discipline. Then, on Dec. 14, all previously posted divulge on the discipline will seemingly be completely removed. As smartly as, all public groups on the web site will seemingly be made non-public. Nonetheless, users will tranquil be ready to keep in touch with varied users within existing groups via email. Yahoo has urged group users assign any conversations, photos or hyperlinks that they need from their neighborhood forums sooner than they delete them in December.

Usa today Florida

Port St. Lucie: A rare yellow northern cardinal with a genetic color mutation became seen and photographed in Port St. Lucie on Saturday morning. Tracy Workman, who teaches pictures at a homeschooling group in Port St. Lucie, acknowledged she first seen the rooster in her backyard Oct. 3. Nine days later, Workman saw the rare rooster but again, following it for 5 minutes and utilizing her Canon T5i camera to clutch some photos. Geoffrey Hill, a professor and curator of birds at Auburn University and an knowledgeable on rooster coloration, acknowledged the rooster in Workman’s photos is an adult male northern cardinal with a rare genetic mutation chanced on within the species. Hill acknowledged the mutation chanced on within the northern cardinal species acts as a “knockout of the redness pathway” within the rooster’s DNA, blocking the conventional purple pigment and replacing it with brilliant yellow color. Most productive three yellow cardinal sightings are reported a year, making the rooster’s look a rare “one in a million” discovering, Hill acknowledged. The mutation is such as albinism chanced on in folks, Hill acknowledged. Love folks, all birds have DNA that is subject to mutations. The rooster became chanced on within the discipline of Prima Vista Boulevard and Floresta Power, nonetheless Workman did no longer want to present the actual location for bother of an expand in enraged rooster watchers coming to her apartment. Workman gave the yellow cardinal the nickname “Sunny,” she acknowledged. Thomas Webber, a sequence supervisor of the Division of Ornithology on the Florida Museum in Gainesville, acknowledged the yellow cardinal makes up “smartly below 1 percent” of your entire cardinal inhabitants.

Usa today Georgia

Covington: Town has asked a company that sterilizes scientific units to briefly hand over work over air quality checks that demonstrate elevated ranges of a carcinogen that leaked from the capability final month. News shops reported Covington officers need Becton Dickinson to close operations till extra emissions controls are applied and checks demonstrate they’re efficient. A city observation acknowledged preliminary air quality take a look at outcomes confirmed elevated ranges of ethylene oxide. The Nationwide Institute for Occupational Safety and Properly being sid publicity to the colorless gasoline can discipline off nausea, headaches, respiratory difficulties, exhaustion and varied negative outcomes. Cobb County no longer too long ago paused the operations of one other company, Sterigenics, on story of of considerations over the equivalent chemical. Becton Dickinson released an announcement that acknowledged the chemical can come from many sources.

Usa today Hawaii

HIlo: The Hawaii County Council committee has popular a proposed ban on utilizing herbicides on county property, news experiences acknowledged. The Agriculture, Water, Vitality and Environmental Management Committee voted Tuesday to forward the invoice to the first of two required council hearings. The invoice subsidized by Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas would ban herbicide use for four years in several categories of property owned by the county. The invoice known as for a transition period beginning in January and a entire ban applied by 2024. The ban would observe to county companies that preserve public areas including parks, roadsides, sidewalks, trails, drainageways, and waterways. Deepest property home owners would no longer be affected, officers acknowledged. The proposal gains a long list of particular chemical substances to be banned, along with examples of merchandise that enjoy the substances, such as weed killers with glyphosate. Glyphosate’s connection to cancer in folks remains a subject of scientific and authorized debate. The invoice would require the public works department to rent a consultant to coach work crews, acknowledged Director David Yamamoto.

Usa today Idaho

Coeur d’Alene: Employees on the Coeur d’Alene Public Library have confirmed on the least one person is intentionally hiding books going via components historically assigned to extra liberal political platforms. Books selling LGBTQ rights, discussing gun preserve an eye on policies and criticizing President Donald Trump were chanced on hidden in areas all the scheme via the library, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported Wednesday. Library Director Bette Ammon is ride the teach is no longer an accident or miscommunication after receiving an anonymous observation card. Books on varied matters were also moved, including readings on impeachment, white privilege and girls voting rights, workers participants acknowledged. For every guide that is hidden, the library spends up to $20 for a replacement and hours of time to hit upon the common copies. Books are hidden about 5 instances per week to 10 instances a month, she acknowledged. They're normally recovered days later in spots the farthest from workers vantage components.

Usa today Illinois

Chicago: Mayor Lori Lightfoot is pushing two choices for a Chicago on line casino. One requires a on line casino owned by town and the inform, and the varied requires a privately-owned on line casino. Lightfoot pitched the proposal to Illinois lawmakers. She acknowledged either would require the Legislature to approve taxes decrease than these written into expanded gambling legislation enacted earlier this year. A look for by Las Vegas-based Union Gaming particular that with an efficient tax rate of 72% – including a third of earnings earmarked for city police and firefighter pensions – on top of charges, no developer would possibly right financing for the improvement of a on line casino. Democratic inform Gain. Greg Harris of Chicago acknowledged Lightfoot will have a laborious time getting a tax alternate. He acknowledged the tax structure for a Chicago on line casino is segment of a kit for existing casinos and 6 novel ones.

Usa today Indiana

Indianapolis: The naming of a downtown Indianapolis post office in honor of used U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar has now been popular by each and every houses of Congress. The Rental urged the proposal in a unanimous express vote on Wednesday after the Senate popular it in July. All 9 of Indiana’s Rental participants and each and every senators joined together on legislation naming the postal department a couple of blocks north of Monument Circle within town the assign aside Lugar became mayor sooner than his 36-year Senate tenure. The proposal follows Lugar’s death in April at age 87. Democratic Gain. Andre Carson praised the Republican Lugar’s bipartisan work, most prominently helping spur the post-Wintry Battle dismantling of thousands of used Soviet nuclear weapons.

Usa today Iowa

Des Moines: The Marine Corps has corrected the identification of one other of the men who were photographed raising the American flag at Iwo Jima all the scheme via World Battle II. The Marines acknowledged in an announcement Thursday that after questions were raised by historians who studied photos and flicks, it particular that Cpl. Harold P. Keller – who has family members residing in Brooklyn in central Iowa – became amongst the six men who raised the flag. The Marines acknowledged Pfc. Rene Gagnon had helped within the convey nonetheless for a long time became mistakenly identified by the Marines as one among the flag-raisers. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal shot the iconic photograph atop Mount Suribachi all the scheme via an intense fight between American and Eastern forces in 1945. In 2016, the Marines corrected the identification of one other man within the photograph after historians raised questions. NBC News, which first reported on the Marines’ possibility, acknowledged Keller died in 1979 in Grinnell. “He by no come spoke about any of this when we were rising up,” Keller’s daughter, Kay Maurer, 70, instructed NBC News. “We knew he fought within the battle, we knew he became wounded within the shoulder at one level. ... But he didn’t expose us he helped lift the flag on Mount Suribachi.”

Usa today Kansas

Emporia: Two sisters chanced on a partially fossilized endure cranium whereas kayaking the Arkansas River in south-central Kansas. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks acknowledged in a news beginning that sisters Ashley and Erin Watt made the invention in August after flooding interestingly dislodged the cranium. They posted their safe on Facebook, which caught the consideration of a sport warden. Two Sternberg Museum of Natural History paleontologists then took a look. Regarded as a few of the paleontologists, Mike Everhart, acknowledged the cranium became washed out of the equivalent river sediments the assign aside Ice Age-expertise bison remains were chanced on. It’s believed to be either a up-to-the-minute grizzly or an older species. There are several historic accounts of grizzlies in Kansas. But they are believed to have died out within the inform by the mid-1800s.

Usa today Kentucky

Louisville: A boy present process chemotherapy who asked for playing cards for his 10th birthday has bought extra than 2,000 to this point. News shops reported Carter Matthew Willett grew to turn out to be 10 on Thursday and has several weeks left of his original bout of chemotherapy. Willett became identified final year with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare earn of cancer. A Facebook web page following his narrative acknowledged Willett has had a bump on his head since he became 4 months venerable. It acknowledged the bump in actual fact began to peril him final year and it became removed around Thanksgiving. It acknowledged the family realized days later that the bump had been a cancerous tumor. Most up-to-date photos posted on the web page confirmed the family receiving dozens of letters and capabilities, with Willett even posing with some mail carriers. If you tranquil would decide to send a card or present, send it to 2825 Elam Power, Louisville, Ky., 40213.

Usa today Louisiana

Novel Orleans: Tulane University has offered plans for a famous guide festival to be held per annum between Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The famous Novel Orleans E-book Festival at Tulane University will seemingly be March 19-21. A news beginning acknowledged extra than 40 authors have signed on to this point, including Fox News Channel commentator Donna Brazile, humorist Roy Blount, Jr., novelist John Grisham and Novel Yorker workers creator Malcolm Gladwell. University spokesman Roger Dunaway acknowledged rather a lot of the festival will seemingly be free, with a restricted possibility of ticketed events. The common Novel Orleans E-book Festival became created in 2010 as a one-day young of us’s festival, increasing from 2015 via 2017 into an all-around guide festival. It became based by Cheryl Landrieu when her husband became Novel Orleans’ mayor. She’s co-chair of the novel festival.

Usa today Maine

Augusta: Recount officers acknowledged they obtained’t give driver’s license and inform identification card facts, including citizenship location, to federal officers looking for to incorporate it within the 2020 Census. The Portland Press Herald reported inform officers denied the Census Bureau’s set a question to in unhurried September. The bureau acknowledged it became looking for the records to expand census accuracy. All 50 states bought the set a question to. Patty Morneault, the deputy secretary of inform for the Bureau of Motor Autos, instructed census officers Maine doesn’t provide bulk facts that capabilities inside of most facts and lacks the capability for the month-to-month experiences requested. Morneault acknowledged the possibility adhered to Maine legislation “and the sacred belief of the electorate of Maine.” The U.S. Supreme Court docket dominated a particular quiz concerning citizenship can’t be included within the 2020 Census questionnaire.

Usa today Maryland

Annapolis: The Board of Public Works has popular the Maryland Stadium Authority’s authorization to convey novel bonds for a spread of the Ocean Metropolis Convention Heart. The board on Wednesday also popular MSA’s authorization to structure financing phrases for the project. Recount Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, who represents Ocean Metropolis, acknowledged the capability has long been a predominant economic driver for town and the inform. The expansion is decided to make extra than 600 jobs and recount in additional than $60 million to the inform. Carozza subsidized a invoice to authorize the MSA to convey $24.5 million in bonds for the expansion. Groundbreaking is decided for April, with a completion date of December 2021.

Usa today Massachusetts

Worcester: The 2d-largest city in Massachusetts is sticking with the Oct. 31 date for Halloween celebrations this year. The Worcester Metropolis Council made the possibility on Tuesday. Councilor Matthew Walley became pushing to completely alternate the holiday’s date to the final Saturday of October to guide particular of complications with midweek trick-or-treating. On Tuesday, Walley acknowledged it's too unhurried to earn the alternate for this year on story of many Halloween events within town had been planned, nonetheless he would decide to preserve in mind it for the future. The Telegram & Gazette reported many city councilors appear to haven't any passion in changing Halloween’s date, including longtime Councilor-at-Tidy Konstantina Lukes, who acknowledged, “let’s no longer rewrite historic past now.”

Usa today Michigan

Wayland: A Native American tribe is planning a $100 million expansion of its western Michigan on line casino that will embody including novel eating, leisure and gaming discipline. MLive.com reported Thursday that the Gun Lake Tribe acknowledged preliminary discipline work has started on the on line casino in Wayland. About 76,000 sq. feet of discipline will seemingly be added to the on line casino, which has been originate since 2011. The expansion will accommodate extra than 2,000 slot machines and 47 desk games and is predicted to originate within the summer season of 2021. The on line casino employs 1,100 of us and officers acknowledged the expansion will lead to an additional 125 hires. The announcement comes after the U.S. Supreme Court docket dominated final year it smartly ended a lawsuit over the tribe’s Michigan on line casino.

Usa today Minnesota

Minneapolis: The federal courthouse in Minneapolis is being named after a judge who is considered as a trailblazer within the Twin Cities authorized neighborhood. Resolve Diana Murphy became the first lady appointed to the federal bench in Minnesota in 1980, and later grew to turn out to be the first lady to sit down on the eighth Circuit Court docket of Appeals. She died final year on the age of 84. In a landmark case, Murphy dominated in 1994 that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe retained hunting and fishing rights outlined in an 1837 treaty. The inform of Minnesota appealed, nonetheless the U.S. Supreme Court docket upheld Murphy’s possibility. Margaret Chutich, a Minnesota Supreme Court docket justice who worked as a legislation clerk for Murphy within the mid-1980s, instructed Minnesota Public Radio News that Murphy consistently did the perfect she would possibly with the facts and legislation she had.

Usa today Mississippi

Gulfport: Near to $12 million from a inform public belief fund will bolt toward waterfront tasks and park enhancements along the inform’s Gulf Soar. Mississippi Secretary of Recount Delbert Hosemann presented the $11.74 million from the Public Belief Tidelands fund on Wednesday. The Biloxi Solar-Herald reported the money will finance novel boardwalks, boat ramps, park components, restoration initiatives, tutorial facilities and varied tasks along the shore. The belief is essentially funded via leases and in lieu of payments for on-shore casinos and varied companies that sit on inform-owned land. Some transport companies and utility companies also pay into the belief. Hosemann acknowledged about $6 million is decided aside for public salvage entry to tasks. One other $3.5 million will toughen the Department of Marine Sources operations and an additional $1 million is distributed for bond repayment.

Usa today Missouri

Jefferson Metropolis: Not up to half of of Missouri schoolchildren are performing at grade stage in English and math for the 2d straight year, in accordance with newly released inform facts that critics bitch makes it complicated to present how individual college districts are faring overall. At convey is that the Missouri Department of Traditional and Secondary Schooling didn’t provide district-stage annual performance represent scores when it released the records Thursday. These scores, which were a combination of measures that included take a look at scores, attendance and graduation charges, had been damaged-all the manner down to earn accreditation choices. In their location, the inform released statewide and district stage take a look at averages, along with a spreadsheet of color charts and scales that comes with a 77-web page guide. Cici Tompkins, of the nonprofit Children’s Schooling Alliance of Missouri, acknowledged that without the simplest composite ranking, it’s extra complicated to abet districts responsible, namely for families who are eligible to switch from unaccredited to authorized districts underneath inform legislation. Overall statewide take a look at scores demonstrate that 49% of faculty students within the public and charter colleges are proficient or evolved in English and 42% in math, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The worst-performing district became the provisionally authorized Normandy college system within the St. Louis discipline. Normandy Superintendent Charles Pearson acknowledged the district has “set issues in location to switch it forward,” including a novel early childhood heart.

Usa today Montana

Missoula: Two grizzly endure cubs had been killed by a order in northwestern Montana, utilizing the possibility of endure deaths toward final year’s file stage for the spot, inform officers acknowledged. The two cubs, one female and the varied of unknown intercourse, were chanced on Tuesday night along railroad tracks come the little city of Trego, about 30 miles south of the Canadian border, acknowledged Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks spokesman Dillon Tabish. A file 46 grizzly bears died in 2018 in a spot that capabilities Glacier Nationwide Park, the Bob Marshall Barren region and surrounding areas. The spot is home to extra than 1,000 bears. The 44 grizzlies killed or removed to this level in 2019 embody eight hit by trains, essentially the most recorded in a year. About half of of the bears had been killed by wildlife managers in accordance with bustle-ins with of us or livestock. Two bears listed on the mortality list were saved alive nonetheless moved, to enhance a varied inhabitants of the animals along the Montana-Idaho border. Grizzlies are protected as a threatened species all the scheme via the Lower 48 states. They're hunted in Alaska and parts of Canada.

Usa today Nebraska

Lincoln: Authorities acknowledged a person became rescued after being trapped in a storm drain for on the least 24 hours. Lincoln Hearth & Rescue Chief Michael Despain acknowledged Wednesday that any individual heard the man’s cries for abet at this time sooner than 6 p.m. Tuesday. First responders couldn’t straight away safe the man, so they unfold out. He became chanced on about three blocks northeast of the Capitol, inside of a 4-foot-vast pipe, with a bicycle. Despain acknowledged it took decrease than 30 minutes to salvage him out, and he became treated on the scene. It’s unclear how the man got into the drain. Despain acknowledged the man perceived to have psychological smartly being complications. His name hasn’t been released.

Usa today Nevada

Reno: A pilot interestingly escaped any serious damage in a little plane fracture north of Reno between Pyramid Lake and the California line. Washoe County sheriff’s spokesman Bob Harmon acknowledged hunters chanced on the plane wreckage Thursday morning. He instructed the Reno Gazette Journal the pilot attributable to this fact became accounted for and is OK. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor acknowledged a preliminary investigation indicated a little, single-engine Piper PA18 suffered vast damage when it crashed whereas landing in an originate field come Gerlach at about 4 p.m. Wednesday. It’s unclear the assign aside the plane took off from or the assign aside it became heading.

Usa today Novel Hampshire

Concord: The inform Department of Properly being and Human Products and companies acknowledged an adult from Laconia has examined certain for a mosquito-borne virus. The department acknowledged Wednesday the adult examined certain for the Jamestown Canyon virus, transmitted by infected mosquitoes. It’s the 2d time a case has been identified within the inform this year; it became identified in a Kingston resident in August. Experiences of Jamestown Canyon virus in folks are rare nonetheless have elevated over the final several years. Right here's Novel Hampshire’s eighth case since the inform’s first represent of the disease in 2013. The department acknowledged most diseases triggered by the virus had been light, nonetheless sensible-to-severe central anxious system involvement has been reported, including lethal infections.

Usa today Novel Jersey

Minute Egg Harbor: A inform appellate court has upheld a person’s conviction on an obscenity fee for watching porn movies on his iPad whereas sitting in his automobile out of doors a rapidly-meals restaurant. Minute Egg Harbor police replied to the restaurant in April 2014 after getting a criticism about 53-year-venerable David Lomanto’s actions. Authorities acknowledged he in the beginning refused to leave his automobile, then but again and but again refused to demonstrate the officer his license or varied identification. Lomanto became charged with obstruction, and a depend of public communication of obscenity became later filed. He became convicted in Would perchance well well 2017 and sentenced to 2 concurrent one-year phrases of probation and 5 days in jail, which he has served. Lomanto claimed the definition of “publicly communicates” within the obscenity legislation is overly famous and that watching porn within the privacy of his automobile is protected underneath the U.S. Structure.

Usa today Novel Mexico

Albuquerque: Dozens of environmental groups and scientists are asking U.S. wildlife managers to rethink how they knowing to be particular that that the survival of Mexican gray wolves within the Southwest. Following a loss in federal court, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Provider is engaged on crafting a novel rule to guide the management of the endangered predators in Novel Mexico and Arizona. The coalition acknowledged that rule have to be based on “an fully novel come” that accommodates the perfect science whereas acknowledging the restoration effort’s past shortcomings. The groups on Wednesday despatched a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and federal wildlife managers. They’re asking that the course of to revise the management rule be public and that a vast differ of likely choices be belief about since this system has faltered over time.

Usa today Novel York

Novel York Metropolis: Lawmakers voted Thursday to close the notorious Rikers Island jail complicated, which has turn out to be synonymous with violence and neglect, and change it with four smaller jails intended to be extra fashionable and humane. The Metropolis Council voted 36-13 to interchange the complicated with four smaller jails located nearer to town’s famous courthouses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. Rikers is scheduled to shutter by 2026, ending a decades-long bustle as one among the arena’s largest jails. Mayor Invoice de Blasio and varied Democrats toughen the knowing, which has a value of additional than $8 billion, in segment on story of of a perception that in an age of falling crime charges, gigantic jails are segment of the public security scenario in preference to segment of the reply. The vote on the knowing became disrupted by anti-jail activists who chanted “If you salvage it they'll occupy it” and threw flyers from the balcony. Metropolis officers acknowledged a steep descend within the jail inhabitants has made it feasible to close Rikers, a complicated of 10 jails on an island between Queens and the Bronx that essentially houses inmates expecting trial. Backers of the jail overhaul acknowledged they set a question to town’s jail inhabitants will preserve losing on story of of criminal justice reforms. Critics of the knowing acknowledged fewer cells would possibly unbiased mean extra violent criminals on city streets.

Usa today North Carolina

Durham: The inform Department of Labor has issued extra than $21,000 in fines to a few companies taking into account a lethal natural gasoline explosion. News shops reported PSNC Vitality and two subcontractors were cited for the April 10 explosion in Durham that killed two of us, injured 25 and destroyed buildings. Optic Cable Abilities became fined $14,000 for 2 security violations. The department acknowledged Optic didn’t hit upon underground pipes sooner than drilling and didn’t straight away name authorities after the gasoline line ruptured. PS Splicing LLC became fined $2,100 for no longer performing traditional inspections of the discipline. PSNC, segment of Dominion Vitality, became fined $5,000 for “ineffective response procedures.” The department acknowledged the responding employee wasn’t carrying maintaining gear and parked his automobile come the leak. The utility acknowledged it disagrees with the findings.

Usa today North Dakota

Bismarck: Recount regulators acknowledged drillers discipline a file for oil manufacturing in August. The Department of Mineral Sources acknowledged the inform produced an average of 1.47 million barrels of oil day to day in August. That’s up from the old file of 1.44 million barrels a day in discipline in July. North Dakota also produced a file 3 billion cubic feet of natural gasoline per day in August, up from 2.9 billion cubic feet in July. Statewide, companies flared 19% of all gasoline produced in August, which is smartly above the 12% goal. There had been 15,942 wells producing in August, down a dozen from the file discipline in July. The August totals are essentially the most fashionable figures accessible. There had been 60 drill rigs working Thursday, down two from the August average.

Usa today Ohio

Cleveland: Mayor Frank Jackson offered a dedication of up to $1 million yearly for the next 10 years to occupy up town’s tree canopy. Jackson made his announcement all the scheme via the outlet of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit on Wednesday. The mayor acknowledged the efforts came from a conference he had attended a decade ago that analyzed what would possibly very smartly be executed to reply to the affect of the recession. The mayor realized any reply must incorporate sustainability and replenishing the tree canopy falls within that. The knowing would commit town to plant novel bushes to boot to bewitch away unnecessary or diseased ones for several advantages, including entertaining air pollution and lengthening property values within the discipline.

Usa today Oklahoma

Oklahoma Metropolis: Visitation is being reinstated at two extra Oklahoma prisons locked down after one inmate became killed and three dozen were injured all the scheme via coordinated violence that officers acknowledged resulted from tear-based gang tension. The Department of Corrections acknowledged Thursday that visitation will resume this weekend on the minimal-security Jim E. Hamilton and Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Centers. Visitation became suspended and all inform prisons were locked down after fights in six prisons final month. Afterward, Gov. Kevin Stitt issued an executive uncover to crack down on contraband cellphones he acknowledged were damaged-all the manner down to facilitate the violence. Traditional operations have returned to a host of prisons no longer too long ago, nonetheless the DOC acknowledged the inform-bustle North Fork Correctional Heart, Dick Conner Correctional Heart and Mack Alford Correctional Heart and the three non-public prisons dwell locked down.

Usa today Oregon

Salem: Environmental regulators acknowledged pesticide ranges in some Oregon waterways have dropped to fractions of used concentrations on story of of voluntary changes by farmers. The Capital Press reported Wednesday that the inform Department of Environmental Quality chanced on that growers who altered spray regimens helped make the water quality enhancements. Officers acknowledged about 50% of waterway web sites examined underneath an interagency “pesticide stewardship partnership” program confirmed growth in pesticide detections and concentrations. Areas with reductions included the Walla Walla watershed and Waco basin. The checks when compared outcomes between 2015 and 2017 to the old two years. Officers acknowledged about 27% of examined web sites confirmed declines in water quality from pesticides, whereas 23% confirmed no alternate. Officers divulge the monitoring targets streams the assign aside pesticides had been detected, whereas waterways without occurrences were dropped.

Usa today Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: Gov. Tom Wolf is scaling motivate a proposal to lengthen time beyond regulation pay eligibility to thousands of workers in Pennsylvania and is striking it on a path to a vote next month. Wolf’s administration submitted its proposed regulation Thursday for a inform rule-making board’s Nov. 21 meeting. The 5-member board has a 3-2 majority of Democratic appointees. Wolf, a Democrat, first unveiled the proposal in early 2018. The revised rule would segment within the expand over three years and require in 2022 that salaried workers earning up to $45,500 a year salvage time-and-a-half of pay for anytime they work extra than 40 hours in per week. Industry groups oppose it. Pennsylvania’s original threshold is $23,660 a year. Wolf’s administration acknowledged the rule will expand time beyond regulation pay eligibility to 82,000 workers who earn above a federal threshold that’s rising to almost $36,000.

Usa today Rhode Island

Providence: An economist acknowledged evolved industries such as biotech and records analytics in Rhode Island are improving after the inform’s financial system became hit laborious by the recession. The Boston Globe reported Bruce Katz presented a summary of his upcoming represent on Rhode Island’s long-time period economic knowing to the inform Economic Vogue Planning Council on Tuesday. Katz became hired to interchange the inform’s knowing after writing a represent in 2016 urging the governor to level of curiosity on evolved trade sectors, including biomedical innovation, cybersecurity and records analytics, and maritime expertise and manufacturing. The elephantine represent is due by the slay of the year. Katz acknowledged Rhode Island truly experienced an industrial give scheme not like any varied inform, and now would possibly be coming motivate. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor acknowledged he’s pleased with the growth, nonetheless there’s extra work to make.

Usa today South Carolina

Greenville: Furman University college students returned from tumble fracture to envision swastikas and “sexually particular” feedback and drawings in one dormitory. University officers acknowledged the graffiti became chanced on Tuesday on whiteboards that dangle on dorm room doors at Blackwell Hall, a co-ed dorm for freshman college students. “It became rude, offensive language,” Clinton Colmenares, a spokesperson for the faculty, acknowledged. Colmenares acknowledged the messages have since been erased. In an email despatched out to the campus neighborhood, Chief Differ Officer Michael Jennings acknowledged the graffiti became executed sometime between Oct. 11 and Oct. 15, when the college became on tumble fracture. Jennings also acknowledged vandalism motivated by bias in opposition to “tear, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identification” violates inform and federal authorized guidelines. Colmenares acknowledged campus police are tranquil investigating the incident and they've no longer but identified who became to blame. Melinda Menzer, a Jewish professor of English at Furman, acknowledged she became no longer a good deal surprised by the graffiti. Menzer, a member of Temple of Israel in Greenville, acknowledged for her and others on campus, the graffiti is no longer one thing that can’t be brushed aside as a joke. She acknowledged she does not in actual fact feel that Furman is unfamiliar or extra dangerous than varied campuses on story of of the incident, nonetheless that the graffiti is a reflection of the upward thrust in white supremacy worldwide.

Usa today South Dakota

Sioux Falls: A jury has convicted a person of stalking Mayor Paul TenHaken. The Minnehaha County jury convicted 58-year-venerable Christopher Bruce after deliberating nearly about three hours Wednesday. Bruce declined to observation after his conviction. He faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 magnificent. TenHaken instructed the Argus Leader he is tickled with the choice. Bruce became accused of sending a series of threatening emails to TenHaken between November 2018 and June 2019. Bruce instructed jurors Tuesday the emails weren't threats of violence. TenHaken testified that of the many of of emails he has bought from participants of the public since taking office in Would perchance well well 2018, handiest Bruce’s have referenced firearms and his family members, who embody his fogeys in Worthington, Minnesota.

Usa today Tennessee

Memphis: FedEx officers confirmed the corporate has filed a constructing permit for its novel kit sorting facility and world hub. The Memphis Industrial Enchantment reported the $212 million permit filed Tuesday indicated the corporate would possibly rapidly launch work on the Exclaim World Hub on the Memphis World Airport, a famous portion of a spread project offered in 2018. The permit known as for a four-stage constructing with areas of work, maintenance outlets and a cafeteria. FedEx officers offered in August the corporate will seemingly be investing an additional $450 million into the modernization project, for an expected entire funding of additional than $1 billion. The newspaper reported Gov. Invoice Lee signed a invoice this year giving FedEx extra than $20 million in tax breaks for the hub. It’s scheduled for completion in 2025.

Usa today Texas

San Antonio: Federal prosecutors acknowledged a carrying items retailer violated the legislation by selling an AR-15-vogue rifle and big-capability magazine to a person who damaged-down them to damage extra than two dozen worshippers at a Texas church. The Department of Justice acknowledged Tuesday in a San Antonio court lag that Devin Kelley presented a Colorado driver’s license at an Academy Sports actions + Commence air retailer in Texas to buy the rifle and ammunition. Prosecutors acknowledged federal legislation requires Academy to conform with Colorado statutes that would have prohibited the sale. Academy declined observation Thursday. Prosecutors want so to add Academy as a to blame third birthday party in an ongoing lawsuit. Kelley fired on the least 450 rounds within the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs in November 2017. Authorities acknowledged he shot himself to death.

Usa today Utah

Salt Lake Metropolis: A inform trooper is being praised as a hero after saving a person stranded on order tracks. A dashcam video tweeted on Wednesday by the Utah Motorway Patrol confirmed officer Ruben Correa working toward a automobile that had crashed on the order tracks and pulling the driver out minutes sooner than a order barreled into the automobile. The boys jumped away from the automobile unbiased because the order hit it at elephantine tempo. No person became injured. Utah Motorway Patrol Col. Michael Rapich known as Correa’s actions “brave” and acknowledged they are grateful for the assign. The incident triggered web page online web page online visitors delays for a couple of hours on Interstate 15 and triggered delays in FrontRunner order provider.

Usa today Vermont

Charlotte: The Lake Champlain Transportation Company changed its agenda at one crossing on story of of high winds. The corporate acknowledged the Charlotte-to-Essex, Novel York, route has one boat provider Thursday. The ferry departed on the hour from Vermont, as a replacement of every half of-hour. Departures out of Novel York were on the half of-hour. The corporate acknowledged the crossing from Immense Isle, Vermont, to Cumberland Head, Novel York, became working as scheduled. A nor’easter brought high winds and rain to the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. The extremely efficient storm has left many of of thousands of of us without vitality within the spot.

Usa today Virginia

Richmond: Virginia Recount University has reinstated its marching band after an investigation into allegations of hazing. News sources reported college spokeswoman Pamela Tolson acknowledged the faculty’s investigation particular that participants of a campus social group conducted what college leaders known as “actions in violation of the University’s Anti-Hazing policy.” Tolson acknowledged final week that a few of the valuable hazing allegations were substantiated nonetheless did no longer make clear on what the allegations were. The group, named Drum Phi, has been positioned on suspension for on the very least three years. The college acknowledged participants of the group who participated in hazing had been disciplined underneath the college’s Student Code of Behavior. In accordance with the findings, the faculty acknowledged the Trojan Explosion Marching Band has been reinstated and would possibly resume performing.

Usa today Washington

Tukwila: Authorities have fined three companies taking into account a crane give scheme that killed four of us in Seattle in April extra than $100,000 blended. The inform’s Department of Labor and Industries released the implications of its investigation on Thursday. It chanced on, as consultants have suspected, that the crane toppled on story of workers who were disassembling it prematurely removed pins securing the sections of the crane’s mast. Sections of the crane landed on the novel Google constructing the assign aside it had been damaged-down and on the web site online web page online visitors below, striking six autos. Two ironworkers on the crane were killed as were two of us in autos. Officers acknowledged the largest magnificent, $70,000, became going to Morrow Equipment Co., which supplied the crane to total contractor GLY. GLY became fined $25,000 and Northwest Tower Crane Provider Inc. became fined $12,000.

Usa today West Virginia

Morgantown: A fraternity has revoked its chapter at West Virginia University, citing extra than one violations of alcohol and menace management policies. WBOY-TV reported the national Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity’s board of directors unanimously voted to revoke the chapter’s charter following an investigation. SigEp CEO Brian Warren’s observation acknowledged the national headquarters offered toughen to abet make a undeniable custom, nonetheless original participants have “squandered this assistance” and seem extra in being a “difficult club.” The chapter replied on Twitter that it's “saddened” by the possibility. It acknowledged participants had been held to high standards and participated in several actions to abet the neighborhood nonetheless were met with “disdain and mistreatment” by the national headquarters.

Usa today Wisconsin

Madison: A sunless security guard at a Madison Faculty District high college who became fired after he acknowledged he repeated a racial slur after telling a teen now to not utilize it has filed a criticism looking for his job motivate. Faculty District officers have zero tolerance for workers announcing racial slurs. But, Marlon Anderson acknowledged he became unbiased attempting to protect himself after a disruptive pupil unleashed a possibility of obscenities. The Wisconsin Recount Journal acknowledged West Excessive Main Karen Boran despatched an email to families Wednesday afternoon announcing that racial slurs are no longer acceptable in colleges, no subject context or circumstance. Anderson instructed the Recount Journal, “We’re combating this.” The Madison teachers’ union filed a criticism on behalf of Anderson with the district. It’s no longer recognized whether or no longer the pupil faces disciplinary circulation.

Usa today Wyoming

Jackson: Immense Teton Nationwide Park officers have offered plans to launch doing away with nonnative mountain goats from the park by lethal and nonlethal come. The Jackson Gap News & Files reported Tuesday that the final knowing from park officers contains hunting, capturing and relocating the goats. Park officers acknowledged the goats migrated from the Snake River Differ into the differ of native bighorn sheep and must tranquil unfold diseases that can damage off the native herd. Officers acknowledged the Teton Differ is home to a little herd of about 100 bighorn sheep. Officers acknowledged mountain goat meat from the nonnative goats also will seemingly be donated or dispensed for consumption.

Read or Part this narrative: https://www.usatoday.com/narrative/news/50-states/2019/10/18/rare-yellow-cardinal-sighted-escaped-goat-caught-fossilized-endure-cranium-chanced on-news-around-states/40336145/

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Schools Spy on Kids to Prevent Shootings, But There’s No Evidence It Works

It was another sleepy board of education meeting in Woodbridge, N.J. The board gave out student commendations and presented budget requests. Parents complained about mold in classrooms. Then, a pair of high schoolers stepped up to the podium with a concern that took the district officials completely off guard.

“We have students so concerned about their privacy that they’re resorting to covering their [laptop] cameras and microphones with tape,” a junior said at the October 18, 2018 meeting.

Woodbridge had recently joined hundreds of other school districts across the country in subscribing to GoGuardian, one of a growing number of school-focused surveillance companies. Promising to promote school safety and stop mass shootings, these companies sell tools that give administrators, teachers, and in some cases parents, the ability to snoop on every action students take on school-issued devices.

The Woodbridge students were not pleased.

“We just want to ask again: How are you going to assure our right to privacy when we have been having these problems and we have so many fears because of GoGuardian, and the fact that they can monitor everything that we see and we do?” the student asked the school board.

After a pause, board president Jonathan Triebwasser responded: “A very fair question. I don’t know enough about GoGuardian to give you a fair answer.” He asked the district’s superintendent to look into it.

The capabilities of software programs like GoGuardian vary, but most can monitor the user’s browsing history, social media activity, and location, and some even log keystrokes. That surveillance doesn’t stop at the school doors, but continues everywhere children carry their school-issued computers and whenever they log into school accounts.

The companies that make this software—popular brands include Securly, Gaggle, and Bark—say that their machine learning detection systems keep students safe from themselves and away from harmful online content. Some vendors claim to have prevented school shootings and intervened to save thousands of suicidal children.

There is, however, no independent research that backs up these claims.

The few published studies looking into the impacts of these tools indicate that they may have the opposite effect, breaking down trust relationships within schools and discouraging adolescents from reaching out for help—particularly those in minority and LGBTQ communities, who are far more likely to seek help online.

“I’m sure there are some instances in which these tools might have worked, but I haven’t seen the data and I can’t verify in any way that what they’re saying is correct, or that there weren’t other ways available to get that information without subjecting the entire school to that surveillance,” said Faiza Patel, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s liberty and national security program, who researches surveillance software.

School spying software has spread quickly as districts have increasingly put personal laptops and tablets in the hands of students. Meanwhile, school officials are under intense pressure to protect their wards from explicit online content and, even more urgently, detect early signs of potential school shootings.

Bark says that its free monitoring software for schools protects more than 4 million children. Its tools have “prevented” 16 school shootings and detected more than 20,000 “severe self-harm” threats, according to the company’s homepage. From January through August 2018 alone, Bark claims, it identified five bomb and shooting threats, nine instances of online predators contacting children, 135,984 instances of cyberbullying, 309,299 instances of students using school accounts to talk about or buy drugs, 11,548 instances of children expressing desires to harm themselves or commit suicide, and 199,236 instances of children sharing explicit content.

Numbers like that are understandably convincing to district administrators and parents, especially when companies offer their products to schools for free. Bark spokeswoman Janelle Dickerson said Bark makes its money from the $9-per-month version of its tool that it sells to families. The paid version currently covers 200,000 children, a small fraction of the 4 million children watched by the free version in schools.. Securly offers a paid premium product with more features than its free tool. Both companies categorically denied profiting from the data they collect on millions of students through their free offerings.

Upon closer inspection, the numbers Bark touts for its school software appear much more like marketing copy than legitimate data.

For one thing, the company’s numbers don’t always appear to be consistent. Earlier this year, Bark told TV stations in North Carolina and South Carolina that from May 2018 to May 2019, it had identified 14,671 instances of students expressing desires to harm themselves or commit suicide in those states alone.

When compared to the national statistics on its website, that would mean that the two states—which include just 50 of the more than 1,200 K-12 districts Bark claims as customers—produced a huge proportion of the incidents Bark flags across all 50 states.

The numbers suggest that during a 12-month period the company identified significantly more instances of kids contemplating self harm in the Carolinas (14,671) than it did nationwide during an overlapping nine-month period (11,548). Similarly, the 50 districts in the Carolinas apparently produced 88,827 instances of cyberbullying during that year, equivalent to 65 percent of the 135,984 cyberbullying cases detected in all 1,200 Bark districts across the country during that same period. The rest of the data shared with the Carolina TV stations is similarly disproportionate.

Statistics like these have prompted academics and school policy officials to question the integrity and consistency of digital surveillance companies’ data.

“What is particularly challenging about this issue is the tremendous urgency school districts are being faced with to do something and do something now [about suicide and school shootings] … combined with a tremendous lack of evidence that these tools do what they say they do,” said Elizabeth Laird, the senior fellow for student privacy at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

“If there is evidence or research that is available, it’s provided by the vendor. It’s not provided by an independent researcher.”

Bark’s claims also dwarf those of some of its larger competitors, suggesting a severe lack of consistency across the industry when it comes to defining what constitutes a threat.

For example, Securly, which also offers many of its products to schools for free, says it serves more than 10 million kids across 10,000 districts. During the last school year, its artificial intelligence systems and human monitors detected a comparatively miniscule 465 “imminent threats” to students—86 percent of those cases involved instances of potential self-harm, 12 percent violence toward others, 1 percent cyberbullying, and 1 percent drug-related comments, according to Mike Jolley, a former North Carolina school principal who now serves as Securly’s director of K-12 safety operations.

Asked what evidence Bark relies on to determine whether its products make schools or students safer, a company spokeswoman responded: “The primary evidence is the testimonials we receive from parents and schools daily.”

She added that Bark has never participated in an independent study of its services because “We do not retain data nor would we share user data with a third party.” However, the company does retain data for the purpose of publishing aggregate marketing statistics.

Other companies, like GoGuardian, don’t publicize their threat detection statistics as part of their marketing material. GoGuardian did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or written questions.

Motherboard signed up for Bark’s free service, giving the company access to an email account, Twitter, Spotify, Google Drive, and web browsing history. Inexplicably, the monitoring extension for the Chrome browser didn’t appear to work, even after Motherboard verified it was installed correctly with a Bark representative. During the course of the month-long experiment the extension didn’t flag a single issue, despite a reporter visiting numerous sites that included the same keywords and content that Bark flagged in emails.

During the month of the experiment, Bark flagged 78 potential issues, which were summarized in daily emails sent to a Motherboard account registered as a parent. The vast majority of the flagged content came from daily email roundups from news outlets—including the Washington Post, MIT Technology Review, and others. This echoes a complaint made by students in Woodbridge and other school districts—that surveillance software often blocks access to legitimate news and educational websites.

After filtering out the newsletters, there were a few remaining activities that may have caused some parents of minors genuine concern: Drake lyrics, and an email conversation with a catering company that included a wine and beer order.

But most of what was left merely demonstrated the limits of language analysis algorithms when it comes to understanding context. Bark flagged a retweet about the U.S. withdrawing troops from Syria as hate speech and cyberbullying. It deemed a Seamless ad for the restaurant Jerk off the Grill to be sexual content.

Slightly humorous miscategorizations like these may be warnings of more significant issues with algorithms designed to detect violent or worrying behavior.

Natural language processing algorithms have been shown to be worse at recognizing and categorizing African American dialects of English. And popular tools used to screen online comments for hate speech and cyberbullying tend to disproportionately flag posts from African Americans.

“One of the things to kind of understand about surveillance software is that it’s going to have a huge number of false positives,” Patel said. “The question becomes: Well, what do you do when kids are flagged and how does the school react to that? We know that school discipline disproportionately targets African American and Latino youth, regardless of the offense.”

Several school surveillance software companies claim that their algorithms go beyond simple keyword identification—such as flagging when a student writes “bomb” or “gun”—and analyze the context of the message along with recent web activity. How they do that, though, is considered a proprietary secret.

“With sentiment analysis, a student can say ‘I can’t take this anymore, I want to end it all’ … something that’s just looking for keywords may not catch that,” said Jolley, the Securly director of K-12 security.

But the task becomes much more difficult when you consider LGBTQ students, or those from other marginalized groups, who rely on the internet for health information and positive communities.

Valerie Steeves, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa, has researched the effects of school surveillance on children extensively. She’s currently gathering data from students exposed to similar tools in Eastern and Central Canada.

“The trans and LGBTQ kids we talk to … they articulate very clearly that these kinds of technologies (internet forums and social media) have been great for them because they need some kind of place to find community and someplace to go to find health information,” Steeves told Motherboard. “And yet, they find they’re under so much surveillance that it affects them in ways that shuts them out of those resources. They learn not to look. They learn not to trust online public spaces.”

Jolley acknowledged that Securly is grappling with just that problem.

“It’s hard because students do use derogatory slang … and they say ‘Johnny you’re gay,’ and they may mean that in a bullying aspect,” he said. “We are actively working on ways to continue [improving our algorithms]. We have made efforts.”

“I feel like we’re doing a lot of positive things for student learning and how things are working at the school but I don’t have hard data,” he added.

There is no definitive study proving students perform worse when schools monitor their web activity and personal messages—nor are there any that show monitoring makes them safer, according to experts.

But there are real incidents that justify students’ fears—like the ones that prompted Woodbridge high schoolers to stick tape over their webcams. Woodbridge Superintendent Robert Zega initially agreed to an interview for this article, but did not speak to Motherboard before publication.

Nine years before the Woodbridge students spoke at their local board of education meeting, sophomore Blake Robbins was called into an assistant principal’s office in nearby Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. She accused him of dealing drugs. The evidence: a photo of Robbins sitting in his room with brightly colored pill-like objects that was taken when the district remotely activated his school-issued laptop’s webcam using device monitoring software called LANrev.

The picture was part of a cache of 56,000 photographs that the district took of students without their knowledge. It included sensitive material like Robbins standing shirtless in his room.

The “drugs” in the picture turned out to be candy. Following a federal class action lawsuit, the Lower Merion School District settled for $610,000. Robbins received $175,000 and a second student who joined the case received $10,000. The rest of the settlement covered their lawyers’ fees.

But the spyware that enabled the covert surveillance was bought and rebranded by Vancouver-based Absolute Software. It is the precursor to software that is now tracking devices in a number of school districts, including Baltimore Public Schools.

Egregious invasions of students’ privacy, like in the Lower Merion case, will grab headlines. But school communities should be equally worried about the long-term effects of using surveillance software on children, said Andrew Hope, a sociologist at Federation University, in Australia, who studies youth surveillance.

“Our contemporary surveillance technologies indoctrinate our students, our citizens … into a culture of observation in which they learn to be watched and are accepting of unremitting surveillance as a norm,” he said. “There is a behavioral modification that happens, but we’re not entirely sure what the outcomes of such a modification might be. Are we teaching them to be surveilled? To be producers of data in a surveillance economy?”

Schools Spy on Kids to Prevent Shootings, But There’s No Evidence It Works syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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