Thousands in North Carolina still without water days after Helene's destruction

 Tens of thousands of North Carolina residents remained without running water on Wednesday, six days after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida and carved a destructive path through much of the U.S. Southeast, killing more than 180 people.

The powerful storm inundated the western part of the state with catastrophic flooding, destroying pipes, damaging water plants and cutting off power.

One-fifth of the 1 million residents in the western half of North Carolina either had no water at all or low system pressure on Wednesday, according to an online state database. About 1 million homes and businesses across five states remained without electricity, according to website Poweroutage.us.

In hard-hit Asheville, the municipal water supply system, which serves more than 150,000 people, was badly damaged. Many residents have been warned to expect dry faucets for days or even weeks while pipes are repaired; those with water have been urged to boil it before consuming.

A steady stream of people were filing on Wednesday into Pack Square Park, where the city had set up a food and water distribution hub.

A dozen volunteers distributed drinking water from a makeshift tap system with PVC pipes attached to a tanker truck. Nearby, volunteers distributed donated ready-to-eat meals and plastic water bags to those who had no containers or jugs.

David Shoham, a professor from East Tennessee State University who was waiting for supplies, has been without water and power since Friday.

He had filled up his bathtub ahead of the storm but has since drawn down his reserve after washing dishes.

"It's just the reality," he said. "There's nothing we can do about it individually. We just have to trust that our institutions are going to step up and get services restored. Yeah, it's frustrating. But who am I going to complain to? The man upstairs?"

Jordan Lance, owner of Buxton Chicken Palace, and three of his chefs filled multiple buckets and containers, hauling them away in a wagon. The group is preparing hot meals three times a day at a nearby food hall.

"We're gonna be doing big batches of jambalaya coming up, steaming some rice, getting some hot food out for folks," Lance said. He got choked up when asked how his business would fare without running water, possibly for weeks.

People in North Carolina obtain their water from a patchwork of sources, depending on where they live. In major cities, water comes from large water plants, while in remote areas some residents are served by small neighborhood systems or rely on private wells.

Water distribution sites have been set up at several locations. Both the county and the city paid for private supplies of water to be trucked in, and the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have supplied drinking water for distribution around the area.

DESPERATE FOR WATER

Helene came ashore in Florida late on Thursday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane before turning its fury on much of the Southeast, as flash floods destroyed homes and ripped victims away from their families.

The storm washed out both the main pipes and backup pipes at North Fork, one of three water treatment plants serving the Asheville watershed, officials said. Another plant, DeBruhl, could not be reached after the storm blocked the access road with debris.

Both the state's National Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are helping to return the plants to normal operations, city officials said. The system's third main plant, Mills River, was struggling at reduced capacity.

At least 61 people died in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, according to authorities.

That elevated the death toll to at least 189 people in six states, according to CNN.

Rachel Simpson, 33, felt lucky to have weathered the storm with only minor damage to her Asheville home.

But she said it has been difficult with no water to bathe, wash clothes or flush toilets.

"The city says it'll be at least four weeks before the water comes back on," she said. "Right now we're getting by the best we can. All the water we have now we're getting from friends."

Harrison Fahrer, 37, co-founder of the west Asheville brew house Cellarest Beer Project, knows his problems pale in comparison to those of people whose houses and businesses didn't survive. But he's not sure how he'll make it without water.

"You turn on the spigot and all it does is hiss," he said. "If we can't brew, we can't pay our bills, our loans, our rent, utilities."

BIDEN, HARRIS SURVEY DAMAGE

As search-and-rescue teams continued to comb through wreckage for the missing and deliver water, food and aid to residents, President Joe Biden visited the state to survey the washed-out roads, smashed bridges and felled power lines.

Vice President Kamala Harris, in the middle of a presidential campaign against Republican former President Donald Trump, traveled to Georgia on Wednesday, two days after Trump visited the state.

The water crisis has impeded businesses, hospitals and schools in and around Asheville as locals try to get back to normal.

"The biggest concern for getting students back to school is water," Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman said at a press conference on Wednesday. "Without water, we just simply cannot bring students back or staff back into our building."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/helene-storm-survivors-piece-lives-100924515.html

'US prosecutors show new details of Trump's bid to overturn election loss'

  Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday that offers new evidence from the landmark criminal case against the former president.

The filing from special counsel Jack Smith's team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial. Although a months-long congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump's efforts to undo the election, the filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump's closest aides to paint a portrait of an “increasingly desperate” president who, while losing his grip on the White House, “used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.”

“So what?” the filing quotes Trump as telling an aide after being advised that his vice president, Mike Pence, had been rushed to a secure location after a crowd of violent Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to prevent the counting of electoral votes.

“The details don't matter,” Trump said, when told by an adviser that a lawyer who was mounting his legal challenges wouldn’t be able to prove the false allegations in court, the filing states.

The brief was made public over the Trump legal team’s objections in the final month of a closely contested presidential race in which Democrats have sought to make Trump’s refusal to accept the election results four years ago central to their claims that he is unfit for office. The issue flared as recently as Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, lamented the violence at the Capitol while a Republican opponent, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, refused to directly answer when asked whether Trump had lost the 2020 race.

The filing was submitted, initially under seal, following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office, a decision that narrowed the scope of the prosecution and eliminated the possibility of a trial before next month's election.

The purpose of the brief is to persuade U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the offenses charged in the indictment were undertaken in Trump's private, rather than presidential, capacity and can therefore remain part of the case as it moves forward. Chutkan permitted a redacted version to be made public, even though Trump's lawyers argued that it was unfair to unseal it so close to the election.

Though the prospects of a trial are uncertain, particularly if Trump wins the presidency and a new attorney general seeks the dismissal of the case, the brief nonetheless functions as a roadmap for the testimony and evidence prosecutors would elicit before a jury. It is now up to Chutkan to decide which of Trump's acts are official conduct for which Trump is immune from prosecution and which are, in the words of Smith's team, “private crimes” on which the case can proceed.

“Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,” Smith’s team wrote, adding, “When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the brief “falsehood-ridden” and “unconstitutional” and repeated oft-stated allegations that Smith and Democrats were “hell-bent on weaponizing the Justice Department." Trump, in a separate post on his Truth Social platform, said the case would end with his “complete victory.”

The filing alleges that Trump “laid the groundwork” for rejecting the election results before the contest was over, telling advisers that in the event he held an early lead he would “declare victory before the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.”

Immediately after the election, prosecutors say, his advisers sought to sow chaos in the counting of votes. In one instance, a campaign employee described as a Trump co-conspirator was told that results favoring Democrat Joe Biden at a Michigan polling center appeared accurate. The person is alleged to have replied: “find a reason it isnt” and “give me options to file litigation.”

Prosecutors also alleged that Trump advanced claims of fraud despite knowing they were false, recounting how he conceded to others that allegations of election irregularities made by attorney Sidney Powell were “crazy” and referenced the science fiction series “Star Trek.” Even so, days later, he promoted on Twitter a lawsuit she was about to file.

In demonstrating his apparent indifference to the accuracy of the election fraud claims, prosecutors also cite an account of a White House staffer who after the election overheard Trump telling his wife, daughter and son-in-law on Marine One: “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”

The filing also includes details of conversations between Trump and Pence, including a private lunch on Nov. 12, 2020, in which Pence “reiterated a face-saving option” for Trump, telling him, “Don’t concede but recognize the process is over.”

In another lunch days later, Pence urged Trump to accept the election results and run again in 2024.

“I don’t know, 2024 is so far off,” Trump told him, the filing states.

Prosecutors say that by Dec. 5, the defendant was starting to think about Congress’ role in the process.

“For the first time, he mentioned to Pence the possibility of challenging the election results in the House of Representatives,” it says, citing a phone call.

But, prosecutors wrote, Trump “disregarded” Pence “in the same way he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states — including those in his own party — who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false.”

Pence chronicled some of his interactions with Trump, and his eventual split with him, in a 2022 book called “So Help Me God.” He also was ordered to appear before the grand jury investigating Trump after courts rejected claims of executive privilege.

Prosecutors also argue Trump used his Twitter account to spread false claims of election fraud, attacking “those speaking the truth” about his loss and exhorting his supporters to travel to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, certification.

They intend to use “forensic evidence” from Trump’s iPhone to provide insight into Trump’s actions after the Capitol attack.

Of the more than 1,200 Tweets Trump sent during the weeks detailed in the indictment, prosecutors say, the vast majority were about the 2020 election, including those falsely claiming Pence could reject electors even though the vice president had told Trump that he had no such power.

That “steady stream of disinformation” culminated in his speech at the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, where Trump “used these lies to inflame and motivate the large and angry crowd of his supporters to march to the Capitol and disrupt the certification proceeding,” prosecutors wrote.

His “personal desperation was at its zenith” that morning as he was “only hours from the certification proceeding that spelled the end,” prosecutors wrote.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/prosecutors-trump-resorted-crimes-losing-195338245.html

'Musk funded right-wing political non-profit years before he endorsed Trump, sources say'

 Elon Musk secretly funded a conservative political group in recent years, according to four people familiar with his donations, illustrating quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur in July endorsed former President Donald Trump's bid for re-election.

Two of the people familiar with the donations told Reuters that Musk's contributions to the organization, Building America's Future, had started by 2022. One of those people and a third source said the donations amounted to millions of dollars, significantly boosting a group whose advertisements and social media campaigns have criticized the Biden administration and progressive political platforms of the sort that Musk himself has increasingly denounced.

Reuters was unable to determine a precise amount and timeline for the contributions or identify documentation linking the organization's finances to Musk. Earlier on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had financed other pro-Republican groups.

Musk didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

A spokesperson for Building America's Future didn't respond, either.

The magnate behind ventures including carmaker Tesla, space contractor SpaceX and the social media platform X, Musk for many years was careful to avoid suggestions that he favored either major U.S. political party. As recently as March, months before he publicly backed Trump and announced plans to finance a political action committee to work against Democrats, he wrote on social media: "Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President."

Donations to Building America's Future, however, would show he was already using his vast resources to fund right-wing causes. As a non-profit 501(c)(4) group, the organization isn't required by federal law to disclose its financial backers.

Although such groups aren't allowed to finance candidates' political campaigns, they can espouse political causes. As such, they are commonly referred to as "dark money" groups – used by political operatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, to hide the financial origins of influence campaigns.

In Musk's case, the four people familiar with his donations told Reuters, the contributions to Building America's Future remained closely guarded. Three of the people were briefed on the donations by executives at or linked to the organization and the fourth was consulted on the matter by a Musk aide.

All spoke with Reuters on the condition that they not be identified by name.

"STOP CACKLING KAMALA"

Revenues at Building America's Future, according to government data, climbed from some $11 million in 2021 to about $53 million in 2022, the year two of the people said Musk had already started his donations. The figures are the most recent available from the Internal Revenue Service, which requires tax-exempt organizations to disclose their revenues.

It's unclear whether Musk still funds the organization or how much in total he may have donated.

Over the last two years, Building America's Future has attacked the Biden administration on a host of topics, including illegal immigration, an issue that Musk frequently comments on. One recent anti-immigration video posted online by the group claims that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the November election, "led the invasion" of migrants across the Mexican border and has always "put illegals first."

Building America's Future also recently launched a $10 million advertising campaign meant to undermine Black support for Harris, according to an August report by NBC News. The campaign criticizes the White House's effort to ban menthol cigarettes. Research shows the cigarettes, long marketed to African-Americans, are even more dangerous to smokers' health than regular tobacco.

"Instead of focusing on important issues," one video says, "Biden's priority is banning menthol cigarettes," trying to tell adults "what they can and cannot do."

Musk's political leanings have moved rightward in recent years.

Although he has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates including Biden and Hillary Clinton, Musk became an outspoken critic of the current administration, claiming the White House gave a "very cold shoulder" to Tesla and SpaceX. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world's richest individual, has also become a fierce critic of identity politics. He has used his frequent posts on X to propagate demonstrably false conspiracy theories about Jewish people, immigrants and looming "civil war" in Britain.

After Musk's recent embrace of Trump, the former president said if elected he would put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission.

America PAC, a political action committee Musk recently said he is financing, as of this week has spent $77 million on a get-out-the-vote campaign to encourage infrequent voters to support Trump, according to federal electoral filings. Musk's exact financial contribution to America PAC is unclear.

In addition to their Musk link, America PAC and Building America's Future overlap in terms of personnel, according to electoral filings and people familiar with the operations of both groups. One of those people is Generra Peck, a former campaign manager for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and now one of the key leaders at America PAC. Peck didn't respond to a request for comment.

Like Building America's Future, America PAC's messaging has featured aggressive personal criticisms of Harris. Flyers distributed by the group in Arizona, reviewed by Reuters, feature photos of the vice president laughing and read: "stop cackling Kamala."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-musk-funded-wing-political-201322648.html

At least six killed in Israeli strike on central Beirut

 At least five people have been killed and 11 have been injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a Hezbollah rescue facility in Bachoura, a district located in the center of Beirut. Journalists and witnesses reported loud explosions, marking the second Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital this week.

Yesterday's key developments:

• Israel vowed retaliate to an attack by Iran during which Tehran fired around 200 missiles towards Israeli territory. “"We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully," an Israeli military chief said.

• After the US pledged support for Israel in the wake of Iran’s attack, President Joe Biden ruled out supporting an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. The US will try to align perspectives with Israel on an appropriate response over the coming days, a senior official said.

• Israel’s military and Hezbollah reported a series of clashes in southern Lebanon as Israel continues what it describes as a "limited" ground operation in the area. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in combat losses in Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/live-least-six-killed-israeli-234051592.html

Prosecutors Seek Indefinite Delay In Trial Of Alleged Trump Assassin Over "Complex" Evidence

 Federal prosecutors on Wednesday requested an indefinite delay in the upcoming trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, claiming that a massive trove of evidence has emerged in recent weeks rendering the case "complex," ABC News reports.

According to a Wednesday filing with Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors have gathered too much evidence to proceed to trial - including hundreds of witness interviews, 13 search warrants, and the seizure of "multiple electronic devices" from locations in Florida, Hawaii, and North Carolina. The overwhelming amount of digital data to review - around 4,000 terabytes - allegedly led to the request.

The FBI also continues to conduct forensic tests on other evidence, including "ballistics testing, and fingerprint and DNA comparisons," which will likely require them to prepare several expert witnesses to testify about in advance of Routh's eventual trial.

The filing states Routh's defense attorneys did not oppose the government's request to indefinitely delay his trial date.

Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday for his arraignment on attempted assassination charges. Routh's lawyers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. -ABC News

The delay request came just one day after Judge Cannon had set a tentative trial date of November 18. But with prosecutors still awaiting over 100 subpoena responses and conducting forensic analysis, including ballistics and DNA testing, the government says their case is far from ready to proceed.

Routh allegedly staked out the Trump International Golf Course in Florida for 12 hours on September 15, waiting for the former president to arrive. According to prosecutors, his attempt was thwarted when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle poking through the golf course fence. Routh was later apprehended on I-95.

The incident echoes a previous attempt on Trump's life just two months prior, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks' attack injured Trump and left one attendee dead.

h/t Post Millennial

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/prosecutors-seek-indefinite-delay-trial-alleged-trump-assassin-over-complex-evidence 

Student Wearing Black Paint On Face Isn't Protected By First Amendment: Judge

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A middle school student who wore black paint on his face during a California football game is not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, according to a federal judge.

The student, dubbed J.A. in court papers, his parents, and his lawyers have not shown that wearing the black paint is expressive conduct shielded by the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez said in a Sept. 30 ruling.

J.A. said he put on the paint during the game to show team spirit, but that doesn’t meet the bar established in other rulings, including a 2019 decision that found “First Amendment protection is only granted to the act of wearing particular clothing or insignias where circumstances establish that an unmistakable communication is being made,” Lopez wrote.

“Based on the current record, it is not likely that [the] plaintiff can prevail on the merits of his First Amendment claim, nor are there serious questions about it. It ‘is possible to find some kernel of expression in almost every activity a person undertakes,’ such as ‘walking,’ ’meeting one’s friends,‘ or ’coming together to engage in recreational dancing‘ and other sports, ’but such a kernel is not sufficient to bring the activity within the protection of the First Amendment,'” she added later, citing from other rulings.

J.A. was suspended for two days by Muirlands Middle School, which said he was wearing blackface despite the black paint being used often by athletes, and accused him or his friends of uttering racial slurs during the October 2023 game.

Lopez was denying a request for a preliminary injunction that would have in part removed J.A.’s two-day suspension from school records. The final ruling in the case has not yet been handed down.

The game was at a different school, whose officials forwarded concerns about the incident to Muirlands Middle School officials.

“Just three years ago, the Supreme Court held that schools can only punish students for their off-campus speech in very limited circumstances not present here. The district court never addressed this threshold problem with Muirland Middle School’s actions,” Karin Sweigart, a lawyer with Dhillon Law Group who is representing J.A. and his parents, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“There was no disruption of any kind that would have warranted punishing my client under binding Supreme Court precedent, and that would be true even if my client HAD engaged in a racist act, which he did not. My client had the right to engage in expressive activity by wearing eye black to show spirit on the sidelines of a football game, and we believe he will ultimately be vindicated as the facts come out in this case moving forward.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/student-wearing-black-paint-face-isnt-protected-first-amendment-judge

Media Uses Hurricane Helene To Promote "Global Warming" Agenda

 by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

Even as the death toll from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, pundits in the mainstream media are rushing to use the disaster as an excuse to promote their narrative that “global warming” is real.

As reported by Just The News, a number of prominent anchors, commentators, and other television personalities have used the occasion of the hurricane to spread lies about so-called “global warming,” also referred to as “climate change.”

“We are living in an era of extreme weather that requires new language,” said CBS News’ Major Garrett.

He went on to falsely claim that the world has seen an increase in the number of every kind of natural disaster, despite this having been debunked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

CNN’s Angela Fritz declared that Hurricane Helene was caused by “fossil fuel pollution,” claiming with no evidence that “the atmosphere, warmed by more than a century of fossil fuel pollution, is hotter now than it was in pre-industrial times.”

However, studies have shown that carbon dioxide emissions are created by just about every single process in existence that provides basic necessities to the population, including the shipping of materials and products, ranging from food to clothing.

Fritz went on to further claim that “More than 90% of warming around the globe over the past 50 years has taken place in the oceans, and it’s making storms more likely to undergo these rapid intensification cycles.”

But this claim has also been disproven, with Dr. Matt Wielicky, former assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, explaining how two consecutive similar tropical storms that impacted North Carolina in 1916 were even worse than Helene despite lower carbon emission levels overall.

“The 1916 event occurred even though atmospheric CO2 levels were approximately 120 ppm lower than they are today,” Wielicki confirmed.

“Blaming the fossil fuel industry for all weather-related disasters overlooks the complexity of natural climate variability and the role of poor urban planning in flood-prone regions.”

The subject of global warming was brought up at the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, with CBS News’ moderators blaming global warming for the hurricane.

After both candidates gave their answers on the statement, the moderators falsely claimed that the “scientific consensus” is that global warming is real, even though there is no such consensus.

The overall death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to 139.

The storm impacted the southeastern United States, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/media-uses-hurricane-helene-promote-global-warming-agenda