The Norfolk Tides (69-47) fell to the Memphis Redbirds (59-58), 6-2, on Thursday night at AutoZone Park.

After a scoreless first to open play this evening, the Redbirds, the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, scored the first run of the game on a Chase Pinder RBI single to right field, giving Memphis the early lead over the Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.

In the following frame, Masyn Winn jumped on the first pitch he saw, losing the ball over the left-center field wall for a solo home run that gave Memphis a 2-0 lead in the third.

The Redbirds kicked off a three-run fifth inning with a Cesar Prieto double to right field. Nick Dunn collected a double of his own later in the frame to drive in another and Juniel Querecuto capped the scoring with a sac fly to center, extending the Memphis lead to five.

When the eighth inning rolled around, Heston Kjerstad and Joey Ortiz found their way on base, both moving into scoring position later in the inning which set the table for Coby Mayo who drove them both in with a single to left for their first runs of the series, cutting the deficit to three runs.

Memphis responded with an RBI single off the bat of Matt Koperniak to add an insurance run for the Redbirds in the home half of the eighth. Norfolk would go down in order in their final turn at bat and fell by a 6-2 score.

Norfolk is back in action tomorrow night against Memphis with first pitch scheduled for 8:05 p.m. Scheduled to take the hill for the Tides is LHP Bruce Zimmermann (3-5, 3.24) while RHP Sem Robberse (0-1, 8.59) is expected to make the start for the Redbirds.

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Devastating events like the one in Hawaii may cause considerable community stress or trauma, according to a disaster resilience expert at Virginia Tech.

Liesel Ritchie, an associate director of the Center for Coastal Studies, has traveled to disaster sites all over the world to work with communities after a disaster.

“The social upheaval associated with these natural and human-caused events is not only immediate, with the loss of lives, homes and livelihoods, but it is long-lasting and can take communities years to recover,” said Ritchie.

It’s not yet clear what caused the fires, but Ritchie’s research shows that when disaster events are caused by human actions or are worsened by human inaction, issues of blame and responsibility can hinder community recovery.

“There is potential for this in the case of the Hawaii wildfires, given that local officials decided not to activate the warning sirens, which might well have saved lives and property. It is also not clear as to the exact cause of the fires. There is some speculation that downed power lines sparked the initial flames, which further exacerbates uncertainty in the situation,” she said.

With all the uncertainty about what’s happened, Ritchie says research on other disasters suggests that we will see considerable community stress and trauma.

“This can become exacerbated over time, if attention is not paid to the emotional and mental health needs of those most directly affected,” said Ritchie. “We know based on experience and research that there is a high likelihood that there will be tension between those who want to build back quickly and others who want to “build back better.”

“It will be a balancing act, as the Lahaina community works to move forward not only with rebuilding its physical infrastructure, but with its social systems, as well.”

Tips for giving to Hawaii

Ritchie says it’s important to keep in mind that while this tragedy will soon be lost amidst coverage of other events in the news, the people of Maui will need support in the coming weeks, months and years to move beyond this disaster.

“Even after a natural disaster has ended people are going to need help; they’re going to need financial support, and they’re going to need social support,” said Ritchie.

The Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia offers tips and guidance to consumers wishing to help aid in the relief efforts in Maui.

• Visit Give.org to verify if a charity meets BBB Standards for Charitable Accountability. Take the time to find out how the organization will address immediate or long-term needs.
• Double-check crowdfunding sites. Keep in mind that some crowdfunding sites take precautions in carefully screening, vetting, and managing postings, while others may not. Review the crowdfunding site to find out about posting procedures, transaction fees, and other specifics. If a crowdfunding site claims to pass any collected funds to a charity, consider donating on the charity’s website directly.
• Be wary of “100 percent” claims. Watch out for claims that all donations will go to victims and their families. While a charity may be using other funds to cover administrative and fundraising expenses, that does not mean those costs don’t exist. Ask how much of your donation will assist victims directly.
• Use caution online. Never click on links to unfamiliar charity websites or in text messages or emails. These may take you to look-alike websites where you will be asked to provide personal financial information. Some websites could even download harmful malware onto your computer. Don’t assume that charity recommendations on social media have already been vetted.
• Check for government registration. Most states require charities to register with a state government agency before they solicit charitable gifts. While registration with a government agency does not mean the government is recommending or endorsing the charity, it does show the group has filed the appropriate required paperwork.

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We’ve finally found something that Republicans, Democrats and independents agree on: if a person is convicted of a felony, they should not be eligible to be elected president.

This, we find, from a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.

The backdrop here is, former president Donald Trump is facing multiple indictments with felony exposure for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and maintain classified documents following his single term in the White House.

Not surprising that Democrats (82 percent) and independents (67 percent) think a person (ahem, Trump) shouldn’t be eligible to be president with a felony conviction.

Republicans (58 percent), that’s another story.

But then you can think: the majority of Republicans there are probably thinking the current president, Joe Biden, must be guilty of something, and if he is, he shouldn’t be president, either.

Those same Republicans are still largely coalescing behind their indicted former POTUS, to the tune of 57 percent support for Trump to win the 2024 GOP nomination, per this week’s Quinnipiac poll.

Anti-“Woke” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the one-time heir apparent, is way, way back in second at 18 percent.

It would seem that the big issue for DeSantis is, he’s not facing any current indictments for trying to overthrow the government or keep classified documents for his personal use.

Republican voters, god love ‘em, don’t think Trump should be prosecuted for the coup (85 percent), though you can imagine they’d be all for prosecution if it was a Democrat.

That’s the one thing frustratingly missing from this poll: no questions about Hunter Biden.

The chatter on the right-wing interwebs has it that Hunter Biden’s crimes – two tax charges, a third involving not checking a box on a form – are infinitely more serious than those involving Trump trying to overthrow the government and sell government secrets.

It would be nice to have that quantified.

Maybe next poll.

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A group of Virginia and North Carolina U.S. House members are leading an effort to get the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s requested extension of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the Southgate project.

The certificate is needed for construction of a 73-mile proposed extension of the MVP that would span from southern Virginia into northwestern North Carolina.

A letter from Virginia Democrats Jennifer McClellan and Bobby Scott and North Carolina Democrats Valerie Foushee and Kathy Manning was signed onto by two dozen other House Democrats.

In the letter, the lawmakers points out the potential climate and environmental justice risks from the pipeline, including risks to drinking water quality.

According to the North Carolina Department of Environment Quality, MVP Southgate would impact 301,994 square feet of regulated riparian buffers, 13,986 linear feet of streams, and 12.4 acres of wetlands.

“As Members of Congress committed to addressing the climate crisis, we… urge the Commission to deny an extension of the Certificate for MVP Southgate,” the lawmakers wrote. “If built, this pipeline would lock homes and businesses in the Southeast into the long-term use of natural gas during a critical moment in which we must transition away from fossil fuels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”

Since the initial filing for Southgate, Congress has taken action to fight climate change and advance environmental justice through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The law invests billions of federal dollars to support residential and commercial alternatives to natural gas.

“In the five years since the Southgate extension was proposed, the energy landscape has continued to evolve, further diminishing the need for additional gas for residential purposes,” the lawmakers wrote. “Clean energy generation continues to grow, and home electrification has become more accessible through the passage of federal climate and clean energy legislation… Given this changed landscape, the Commission should not rely on its previous and now outdated determination that there is a market need for this pipeline.”

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The Biden administration is becoming increasingly alarmed by the rapid growth of AI, and the growing number of exploitable weaknesses in artificial intelligence-related products.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pushing AI companies to step up on the security front, before the terminators take over.

“While representing an important improvement upon the status quo, the voluntary commitments announced in July can be bolstered in key ways through additional commitments,” Warner wrote in a series of letters to tech companies including Apple, Midjourney, Mistral AI, Databricks, Scale AI, and Stability AI in which he requested a response detailing the steps they plan to take to increase the security of their products and prioritize transparency.

As AI is rolled out more broadly, researchers have repeatedly demonstrated a number of weaknesses in prominent products, including abilities to generate credible-seeming misinformation, develop malware, and craft sophisticated phishing techniques.

In July, the Biden administration announced that several AI companies had agreed to a series of voluntary commitments that would promote greater security and transparency.

The commitments were not fully comprehensive in scope or in participation, though, with many companies not publicly participating and several exploitable aspects of the technology left untouched by the commitments.

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You can’t go to Target, Walmart or the grocery store, it seems, without having Halloween stare you in the face, which is odd, given that, you know, Halloween is two and a half months away.

What’s going on with that?

Jadrian Wooten, an economics professor at Virginia Tech, explains what drives these early holiday displays.

Q: From an economics standpoint, why are we seeing Halloween appear in the stores as early as July?

“This is a great example of game theory in action. Retailers compete with each other to capture as much consumer spending as possible. By being the first to roll out their Halloween products, they’re trying to grab the early-bird shoppers and secure a bigger share of holiday spending. It’s a classic game of strategic timing — if one store puts stuff out earlier, others will likely follow to avoid losing out on those initial sales. If they’re late this year, they’ll be sure to make up for it next year.”

Q: Why is Halloween such big business?

“It’s a holiday that combines retail and entertainment — the ultimate spending combination. The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans spend around $10 billion on Halloween. It comes in just ahead of Fourth of July, Super Bowl, and St. Patrick’s Day.  People love to dress up, throw parties, and decorate their homes. Spending is practically built into this tradition and retailers are happy to offer shoppers everything from costumes and decorations to spooky-themed snacks. If retailers can have the holiday last for weeks, it gives businesses more time in those profits.”

Q: What role does spending on major holidays like Halloween play in the economy?

“Major holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are like mini-economic booms. They create spikes in consumer spending that are spaced out in regular intervals and can easily be tracked year-to-year.  That’s incredibly helpful for the retail and hospitality sectors.  The spending also creates a ripple effect to other adjacent industries. As holiday sales increase, businesses hire more employees who also spend more on stuff. There are also all the secondary industries impacted, like transportation, packaging, and advertising.”

Q: What about consumers who really go all out for Halloween?

“Holiday spending can provide excellent examples of the economic concept of conspicuous consumption — like that neighbor who’s always driving the newest car. In the context of Halloween, it’s really easy to see this with things like pet costumes: people like dressing their dogs up as superheroes and pumpkins. It’s a classic example of people spending money on things that showcase their social status or make a statement about having disposable income. It’s a reminder that our spending isn’t always about practicality. Sometimes people do things just to have fun and show off.”

Q: Is this sort of spending good or bad for the economy? 

“It’s like a double-edged sword. Holiday spending can help various industries and create seasonal jobs. It can boost consumer confidence — when people are out and about spending, it shows they’re feeling optimistic about their financial situations. If we’re looking at it from a consumerism angle, though, the downside is that increased holiday spending can take away from other important financial decisions like savings and investment. Also, I would argue that a bigger negative issue is that a lot of holiday-related products aren’t exactly environmentally friendly, which can have long-term consequences.”

Jadrian Wooten is collegiate associate professor with the Virginia Tech Department of Economics and is the author of Parks and Recreation and Economics. He has been featured in USA Today, Inside Higher Ed, WJLA ABC 7 Washington, D.C., and NBC News, among scores of other media outlets.

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Virginia politicians are, largely, staying away from the, count ‘em, fourth indictment of former president Donald Trump.

I could only find two on-the-record comments, both brief, from Virginia’s congressional delegation – one from a Democrat, Gerry Connolly, the NoVa Dem who is a senior member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, the other from a Republican, Bob Good, who maintained his perfect record for using a Republican criminality crisis as an opportunity to claim corruption on the other side.

“The President continues to weaponize the federal government against his political opponents to cover up his corruption,” Good, who represents the Fifth District in the U.S. House, said in a tweet.

For the record, the fourth indictment, announced late Monday night, is a state-level indictment, involving Trump’s efforts to try to get election officials to “find” 11,780 votes to give him Georgia’s electoral votes three weeks after the state had already certified its final results.

But, sure, that’s Biden weaponizing the federal government.

Connolly offered this statement:

“A fourth indictment for Donald J Trump. He and his band of misfits must be held accountable for their efforts to overturn an election. No matter the office one once held, criminal actions that threaten our democracy must be prosecuted.”

Strangely silent on the indictment was Sixth District Republican Ben Cline.

One of the 18 people indicted with Trump in the racketeering scheme in Georgia is Sydney Powell, who, as AFP contributor Gene Zitver noted in a short column on his ClineWatch website, Cline referred to as “my friend” in a social media post last year.

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President Joe Biden ended the COVID-19 public health emergency in the United States in May 2023, more than three years after the pandemic’s onset.

A new variant of COVID called EG.5 is narrowly surpassing other variants in 2023 to become the most common in the U.S.

However, as reported by The Washington Post, public health officials are not worried. While EG.5 appears more infectious, it is not virulent. Hospitalizations are increasing but remain near an all-time low. New booster shots expected to be available in the latter half of September are expected to prevent severe disease.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the new variant accounts for approximately 17 percent of COVID cases in the U.S., an increase of 12 percent of all strains from July 2023.

“At this time, there is no evidence indicating EG.5 is able to spread more easily, and currently available treatments and vaccines are expected to continue to be effective against this variant,” a CDC spokesperson told POLITICO.

POLITICO reported that the World Health Organization has not labeled EG.5 as a variant of interest or concern. Global hospitalizations have declined since January 2023, while slightly increasing this summer in the U.S.

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The Freedom to Vote Act is federal legislation that would build on many of Virginia’s successes to make it easier to vote.

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia announced her support of the legislation today, which would expand voting by mail, protect early voting and make additional reforms to improve ballot access for the American people.

“In recent years, Virginia has taken major steps in making popular reforms to our democracy — reforms that have made it easier for every voter to make their voice heard. The Freedom to Vote Act would protect Virginia’s progress and bring these reforms — as well as long overdue election standards — to every corner of America, no matter the zip code,” Spanberger said. “At a time when many state legislatures across the country want to go backwards, we need to protect our democracy from these partisan attacks, improve voter access, and promote confidence in our elections. This bill answers that call.”

Several provisions of the federal legislation have already been enacted in the Commonwealth, including automatic voter registration, online voter registration, same-day and Election Day voter registration, and no-excuse mail voting. Additionally, the Freedom to Vote Act elevates the voices of American voters by ending partisan gerrymandering, as well as by cracking down on the undue influence of secret money in U.S. elections.

The legislation is backed in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia.

The Freedom to Vote Act contains three sections:

Voter Access and Election Administration

• Automatic Voter Registration and Online Voter Registration: Enacts an automatic voter registration system for each state through the state’s motor vehicle agency and ensures voters in all states have access to online voter registration.
• Election Day Holiday:Makes Election Day a public holiday.
• Uniform Early Voting: Ensures voters have access to at least two weeks of early voting for federal elections, including two weekends, while accommodating small election jurisdictions and vote-by-mail jurisdictions.
• Same Day Voter Registration:Ensures every state offers same day registration at a limited number of locations for the 2024 elections and at all polling locations by 2026, allowing election officials, especially in rural areas, time to implement the new requirements.
• Federal Minimum Standards on Vote by Mail and Drop Boxes: Ensures all voters can request a mail-in ballot, improves the delivery of election mail, and puts in place minimum standards to ensure drop boxes are available and accessible to all voters.
• Strengthens Voter List Maintenance Standards: Requires that the removal of voters from the rolls is done on the basis of reliable and objective evidence and prohibits the use of returned mail sent by third parties to remove voters.
• Counting of Provisional Ballots: Requires provisional ballots to count for all eligible races within a county, regardless of the precinct they were cast in.
• Standards for Voter Identification: Promotes voter confidence and access by requiring a uniform national standard for states that require identification for in-person voting and allowing voters to present a broad set of identification cards and documents in hard copy and digital form. States that do not have a voter identification requirement would not be required to make any changes.
• Voting Rights Restoration for Returning Citizens: Restores the right to vote in federal elections for people who have served their time for felony convictions after they are released from prison.
• Expanded Voting Access Protections for the Disabled, Native Americans, Military, Overseas Voters, and Underserved Communities: Includes targeted protections to promote accessible voting to communities facing unique challenges.

Election Integrity

• Preventing State Election Subversion: Establishes federal protections to insulate nonpartisan state and local officials who administer federal elections from undue partisan interference or control.
• Protection of Election Records, Election Infrastructure, and Ballot Tabulation:Strengthens protections for federal election records and election infrastructure in order to protect the integrity and security of ballots and voting systems.
• Voter-Verified Paper Ballots, Reliable Audits, and Voting System Upgrades:Requires states to use voting systems that use paper ballots that can be verified by voters and to implement reliable post-election audits. Also provides grants for states to purchase new and more secure voting systems and make cybersecurity improvements.
• Non-Partisan Election Official Recruitment and Training: Tasks the Election Assistance Commission with developing model training programs to recruit a new generation of election workers and provides dedicated grants for training and recruitment.
• Comprehensive Voting System Security Protections: Puts in place election vendor cybersecurity standards, including standards for manufacturing and assembling voting machines, among other key security measures.
• Establishing Duty to Report Foreign Election Interference: Creates a reporting requirement for federal campaigns to disclose certain foreign contacts.

Civic Participation and Empowerment

• Non-Partisan Redistricting Reform and Banning Partisan Gerrymandering: Requires states to abide by specific criteria for congressional redistricting and makes judicial remedies available for states’ failure to comply. Allows states to choose how to develop redistricting plans, including the option of having an independent redistricting commission.
• Combatting Secret Money and Election Interference (DISCLOSE Actand Honest Ads Act): Requires super PACs, 501(c)(4) groups, and other organizations spending money in elections to disclose donors and shuts down the use of transfers between organizations to cloak the identity of contributors. Ensures that political ads sold online have the same transparency and disclosure requirements as ads sold on TV, radio, and satellite.
• State Election Assistance and Innovation Fund: Establishes a self-sustaining fund to finance critical investments in state-led innovations for our democracy and election infrastructure. The fund is financed through an additional assessment paid on federal fines, penalties, and settlements for certain tax crimes and corporate malfeasance. States would be allotted an annual distribution for eligible democracy and election-related investments. States could select to access their full distribution or a partial distribution, or roll over their distribution for future use.
• Nonpartisan Oversight of Federal Election Law: Improves the ability of the Federal Election Commission to carry out oversight and enforcement responsibilities.
• Stopping Illicit Super PAC Coordination: Creates “coordinated spender” category to ensure single-candidate super PACs do not operate as arms of campaigns.

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A Forest Service permit is necessary to dig ginseng on National Forest System lands in the United States.

Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia will begin selling ginseng permits for the 2023 harvest season on Monday, August 28. Permits may be purchases at ranger stations in Parsons, Petersburg, Richwood, Bartow, Marlinton or White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, or the Supervisor’s Office in Elkins, Mondays to Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A ginseng permit costs $20 each, and a separate permit is required for each district on the Forest. Permits are limited to one permit per person per district at a time this year, and each permit allows you to collect up to 95 plants from one ranger district during the West Virginia ginseng season, which is Sept. 1 through Nov. 30. Additional permits may be purchased for the same district after return of each completed permit, as supplies allow.

For harvest, ginseng plants must have three or more prongs and have produced fruit this year. When harvesting, plant the fruit on-site and keep the rest of the plant intact. Harvest no more than 24 plants per day and have no more than 24 plants in your possession while on national forest land.

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