When Ryan Brook was nine, he opened a Christmas present that changed his life.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Author: alaskaadmin
The US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
Ramesh lives in fear every day. A police siren is enough to alarm him.The Latest News from the UK and Around the World | Sky News
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
In a Friday hearing, members of the Alaska Senate spoke critically about a proposed new ferry terminal in Juneau, questioning why the project would be worth its multimillion-dollar cost.
Earlier this year, state legislators planned to divert $62 million from a variety of transportation projects in order to pay for the state share of federal transportation grants worth between $500 million and $600 million.
Lawmakers included the diversion in their budget for the year, but Dunleavy vetoed the maneuver, saying that the “funding is either still obligated in the original project or has been fully expended and is unavailable for reappropriation.”
That left legislators’ spending plan partially unfunded.
One of lawmakers’ biggest targets this past spring was DOT’s plan to build a new ferry terminal in Juneau, roughly 30 miles north of the existing terminal in Auke Bay, in Juneau at a place called Cascade Point, which would shorten ferry runs to Haines and Skagway.
Legislators sought to divert $37 million from an account intended to fund that new terminal, but Dunleavy vetoed the transfer and the Department of Transportation subsequently signed a $28.5 million contract for work on the terminal.
In October, the state’s ferry advisory board concluded that the project likely did not make economic sense.
“Do you agree with that study?” asked Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, during Friday’s hearing of the Senate Transportation Committee.
“Can you please make the case to the Alaska people why you think investing this money … in the Cascade Point project makes fiscal sense for Alaskans?”
Anderson responded that “as a public agency, we’re more than economics. In this case, there’s this idea of saving people time with a much shorter run, saving money, the cost of operating that ship, we’re saving fuel. It’s less carbon emissions. I mean, there’s a lot of good benefits to shorter ferry runs.”
Lawmakers don’t have the votes to override the governor’s vetoes, which means that when they reconvene in January, they’ll have to come up with a new way to fund construction work this summer.
According to documents presented to the committee on Friday, the Alaska Department of Transportation has “deferred” about 25 projects 1-3 years “to remain within available match.”
Without new money, “fewer projects will move to contract award, limiting construction activity.”
Ryan Anderson, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, told the transportation committee that his agency is prioritizing “shovel ready” projects, those that are about to go to construction.
“As we go and prioritize projects through this year, we’ll continue that action, and we’ll be ready. That’s really how we’re looking at this program,” he said.
NOTN- Capital City Fire Rescue responded to its first ice-related emergency of the season after a person broke through thin ice on Mendenhall Lake on Tuesday, authorities said in a Facebook post.
The individual fell through the ice but was able to climb out without assistance and was treated for hypothermia, according to a CCFR statement.
The incident comes as Juneau is experiencing cold weather this week.
Officials say that ice conditions remain highly variable and unpredictable across the lake, particularly near the glacier, creek mouths and areas of moving water.
“People ask, ‘When is the lake safe?’ We will say never, as we respond all winter long for people that went through the ice,” CCFR wrote in their post.
The National Weather Service advises that ice thickness can vary dramatically over short distances on Mendenhall Lake and warns that early-season ice is especially unreliable. Even with freezing temperatures, officials expect cycles of thawing and refreezing through the winter.
Roughly 1 in 5 Americans live in rural areas – places the federal government defines based on small populations and low housing density.
Yet many people understand rural America through stereotypes. Media and political conversations often use words or terms such as “fading,” “white,” “farming,” “traditional” and “politically uniform” to describe rural communities.
In reality, rural communities are far more varied. Getting these facts right matters because public debates, policies and resources – including money for programs – often rely on these assumptions, and misunderstandings can leave real needs neglected.
We are rural demographers at Louisiana State University and Syracuse University who study the causes and consequences of well-being in rural America. Here we outline six myths about rural America – a few among many – highlighted in our recent book “Rural and Small-Town America: Context, Composition, and Complexities.”
Myth 1: Rural America is disappearing due to depopulation
Many people think rural America is emptying out. The story is more complicated. It’s true that from 2010 to 2020 most rural counties lost population. But about one-third grew, especially those near cities or those with lakes, mountains and other natural attractions. And there have been times, like in the 1970s and 1990s, when rural populations grew faster than cities – periods called “rural rebounds.”
An important thing to know about rural population change is that the places defined as “rural” change over time. When a rural town grows enough, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget reclassifies it as “urban.” In other words, rural America isn’t disappearing – it’s changing and sometimes urbanizing.
Myth 2: Most rural Americans live on farms
Farming is still important in many rural places, but it’s no longer the way most rural Americans make a living. Today, roughly 6% of rural jobs are in agriculture. And most farm families also have members who work off-farm jobs, often for access to health insurance and retirement benefits.
A bigger source of employment in rural America is manufacturing. In fact, manufacturing plays a larger role as a share of jobs and earnings in rural areas than in cities. That also means that deindustrialization – steady job losses in manufacturing over the decades – has been especially painful in rural America. Unlike large cities with lots of employers, rural communities rely on just a few. When a rural plant or factory closes, the local impacts are often devastating.
The largest share of rural jobs today is in service-sector work, such as retail, food service, home health care and hospitality. These jobs often pay low wages, offer few benefits and have unstable hours, making it harder for many rural families to stay financially secure.
Myth 3: Only white people live in rural America
People often picture rural America as mostly white, but that’s not the full story. About 1 in 4 rural residents are nonwhite. Hispanic and Black people make up the largest shares, and Indigenous people have a greater portion of their population living in rural areas than any other racial group.
Rural America is also getting more racially and ethnically diverse every year. Young people are leading that change: About 1 in 3 rural children are nonwhite. The future of rural America is racially diverse, even if popular images don’t always show it.
Myth 4: Rural America is healthier than urban America
Many people imagine rural life as healthier than city life. But the opposite is true. People in rural areas die younger and at higher rates than people in cities. Scholars call this the “rural mortality penalty,” and it has been widening for years. The COVID-19 pandemic made the gap even larger due to higher death rates in rural communities.
This isn’t just because rural areas have more older people. Rural working-age people, ages 25 to 64, are dying younger than their urban peers, and the gap is growing. This trend is being driven by nearly all major causes of death. Rural residents have higher rates of early death from cancers, heart disease, COVID-19, motor vehicle crashes, suicide, alcohol misuse, diabetes, stroke and pregnancy-related complications.
Myth 5: Rural families are more traditional than urban families
Images of rural life often evoke households in which married couples are raising children in traditional family structures. Historically, rural children were more likely to live with married parents. But that’s no longer the case.
Today, rural children are less likely than urban children to live with married parents and are more likely to live with cohabiting unmarried parents or in the care of grandparents or other relatives. Partly as a result, rural child poverty rates are higher than urban rates, and many rural families rely on safety-net supports such as the food aid program SNAP. Rural families are diverse, and many are economically vulnerable.
Myth 6: A new ‘rural revolt’ gave Donald Trump his presidential victories
Many rural voters have supported Donald Trump, but this didn’t happen overnight.
For much of the 20th century, Democrats drew major support from rural areas due to the party’s alignment with the working class and 100 years of single-party rule in the South spanning Reconstruction to the civil rights era.
However, social class and regional flips in voting patterns have meant rural voters have been shifting toward Republicans for nearly 50 years. The last time rural and urban residents voted within 1 percentage point of each other was in 1976, when Georgia peanut farmer and former governor Jimmy Carter was elected.
The partisan gap between rural and urban voters averaged 3 percentage points in the 1980s and 1990s, before growing to 10 percentage points in the 2000s and 20 percentage points in recent cycles. So, Trump’s support in rural America was not a new “revolt” but part of a long-term trend.
And in 2024, the key geographic story wasn’t rural voters at all – it was the sharp drop in turnout in big cities. Both candidates got fewer urban votes than in 2020, with Kamala Harris capturing over 10 million fewer votes in major and medium-sized cities than Joe Biden had four years earlier.
Tim Slack has received funding from the NSF, USDA, NIH, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Energy, Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources, and Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.
Shannon M. Monnat receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health at Syracuse University.
Politics + Society – The Conversation
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In case you’re blissfully unaware of his existence, Nick Fuentes is a smug far-right troll who basically antagonizes people for a living.
The best thing we can say about him is that he does seem rather passionate about his work, taking obvious satisfaction in trolling even people who mostly agree with his views, like the late Charlie Kirk.
You might think you’ve seen the likes of Nick Fuentes before, as rage-baiting pundit provocateurs have been around for generations.
But this guy is the sort of figure that could only rise to prominence in the era of Trump.
After all, can you imagine Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly publicly admitting that they’ve never had sex?
Yes, during a new interview with Piers Morgan, Fuentes spewed his usual misogynistic nonsense before admitting that he’s a full-blown virgin.
“Are you actually attracted to women?” Morgan asks in the clip below.
“I am attracted to women,” Fuentes confirmed.
“You’re not gay?” Morgan followed up.
“No, but I will say that women are very difficult to be around, so there’s that,” replied Fuentes.
Morgan then asked if Fuentes believes that women should have the right to vote, and he proudly replied in the negative.
Now, Fuentes is a Holocaust denier and a proud white nationalist, who’s previously made remarks like “a lot of women want to get raped.”
So it’s not surprising that no one wants to have sex with him.
It is, however, somewhat surprising that he’s willing to admit as much on live television.
Of course, Fuentes’ audience is comprised largely of angry incels, so whether it’s the truth or not, claiming to be a 27-year-old virgin might be a sound strategy in terms of strengthening his bond with his audience.
Yes, the people influencing America’s young men are claiming to be neo-Nazi superhumans while also admitting that they’ve never known the touch of a woman.
And it’s possible that they’re lying about clinging to their V-cards, as a clout-accumulating tactic!
We know that pretty much every human being in history has believed that they were living in the weirdest possible times, but folks, you can’t overstate how bizarre this year has been.
Nick Fuentes Says He’s a Virgin, and Women Should NOT Have the Right to Vote was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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Chalk it up to humor, to politics, to suspense or, let’s be honest, to a bunch of girl-on-girl action. But here’s the bottom line:
The Hunting Wives is a massive hit for Netflix.
Based on May Cobb‘s novel of the same name, the hit soapy drama chronicles a woman named Sophie (Brittany Snow) as she finds herself wrapped up in socialite Margo’s (Malin Åkerman) somewhat slimy and shady (and interesting!) world.
Sophie befriends Margo’s circle of housewives, but their dangerous secrets lead to a stunning murder with Sophie as the prime suspect.
In addition to Åkerman and Snow, The Hunting Wives Season 1 featured Katie Lowes, Dermot Mulroney, Evan Jonigkeit, Chrissy Metz, Jaime Ray Newman and George Ferrier.
Looking ahead, what can fans expect from Season 2?
For starters, John Stamos, Cam Gigandet and Dale Dickey will all be joining the cast.
Lowes, of course, will not be coming back because (SPOILER ALERT!) her character was killed off last season.
Chrissy Metz, who appeared as Starr, doesn’t have a character to embody either on Season 2, either; but Evan Jonigkeit will be returning as Sophie’s estranged husband, Graham.
Snow, for her part, has teased what she is hoping would get explored for Sophie — especially after she killed someone before season 1 was over.
“I think that that’s something that she probably hasn’t even wrestled with within herself, as far as why she’s comfortable keeping herself in that box and also keeping secrets from herself. That’s a dark night of the soul situation that we would only be seeing in season 2,” the actress teased to Collider in July 2025.
“I don’t know how she’s going to get there. Therapy? Maybe a really good therapist and a lot of time…
“The thing that I love about the character of Sophie, and I feel like what I loved about reading all eight scripts, was that Sophie ends up, at the end of episode 8, exactly where she was probably in the flashback before we even see her. She’s had this full circle transformation of finding herself again, and yet here we are. Her true self is a mess.”
We also know that Season 2 kicks off with Sophie and Margo “on the outs.”
“But soon enough, old secrets and new foes force them back together,” the official synopsis reads. “As they play their dangerous games the question arises. Are they the hunters or the hunted?”
Michael Aaron Milligan, meanwhile, portrayed Margo’s brother, Kyle, on Season 1. And was run over to wrap up the finale. Right?!?
“I’m so grateful to have worked on this project. Everyone was so amazing, lovely and wonderful to work with on a daily basis and whatever. So [I would love] to get a call [about season 2] — or maybe some spooky adventures with the ghost of Kyle,” Milligan joked to Us Weekly in August 2025.
“I’m sure they can get very, very creative. I am very much looking forward to hearing from the team and seeing what they [could] have in store ideas wise for Kyle.”
Netflix has not yet announced a premiere date for The Hunting Wives Season 2.
The Hunting Wives Season 2: Who is Joining the Cast? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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Marciano Brunette is suing Demi Engemann after she accused him of sexual assault.
He is also boasting on social media about “getting even.”
The Vanderpump Villa personality’s lawsuit against the The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star accuses her of lying about what he claims was a consensual relationship.
She’s not the only target of his lawsuit. But is his post about revenge striking the right tone?
Marciano Brunette is suing Demi Engemann
This week, Marciano Brunette took an apparent dig at Demi Engemann without saying her name.
He shared an Instagram Reel, playing existing Dr. Phil audio while lipsyncing to it.
“So you believe in getting even? Hell to the yeah,” the voiceover states.
Again, he did not directly refer to Demi during the post.
But, in context, it certainly sounds like he’s referring to the lawsuit that he just filed.
Marciano’s post emerged just one day after TMZ reported on his lawsuit against Demi.
The filing accuses the The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star of defamation.
He also alleges that the Hulu series itself has damaged his reputation by calling him a “sexual predator” and accusing him of sexual assault, both of which he denies.
Relatedly, Marciano is suing SLOMW producer Jeff Jenkins for damages.
He accuses the show of only showing Demi’s side of the story (because she is part of the cast), and of amplifying her allegations at the expense of his reputation.
Their accounts of events do not match up with each other
As The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives viewers are well aware, Demi Engemann spoke throughout Season 3 about her sexual assault allegations against Marciano Brunette.
In August of 2024, they were both filming Vanderpump Villa in Italy.
Marciano claims that he and Demi merely shared a kiss off-camera, which he says was consensual.
He says that Demi has intentionally mischaracterized this as sexual misconduct.
Her motive, he alleges, was to give herself a SLOWM storyline.
In terms of evidence, Marciano claims that he possesses text messages from Demi following their filming in Italy.
That said, he says that their ongoing communication should debunk her allegations of sexual assault.
“That behavior confirms a continued relationship, not a person reacting to sexual assault,” Marciano argues in the filing.
He also alleges that the allegations have harmed his career.
Marciano claims that he was going to appear on Perfect Match, only to find out that casting was going “in a different direction.”
What will the court decide?
“Everything that happened in Vanderpump Villa was so consensual, she was so for it,” Marciano Brunette claimed of Demi Engemann on the Boyfriend Material podcast.
“All of the flirtatiousness was mainly on her part and I was just feeding into it,” he alleged.
Marciano has also claimed that Demi has changed her story, and implied that Demi’s marriage is a motive in what he calls false allegations.
We do not know how this court battle will end. Only time will tell, though perhaps we will all see the evidence that comes out in court.
In the meantime … we are not Marciano’s attorney. If we were, we would probably strongly advise that he not post about “getting even” or attempt to litigate his case on podcasts.
Marciano Brunette Sues Demi Engemann After Sexual Assault Allegations, Boasts About … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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We have tragic news to report from the world of music today.
Grammy-nominated opera singer Jubilant Sykes was found stabbed to death inside his home in Santa Monica on Monday.
He was 71 years old.
Opera singer’s son arrested in connection with his death
Police arrived on the scene after receiving a 911 call from Sykes’ wife shortly after 9 pm on Monday night.
According to Lt. Lewis Gilmour of the Santa Monica Police Department, officers arrived to find Sykes suffering from “significant injuries.”
Members of the Santa Monica Fire Department performed CPR, but the injuries proved too severe.
Sykes was pronounced dead on the scene, and his 31-year-old son, Micah Sykes, was arrested.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives believe this was an isolated incident contained within the household,” Gilmour said, according to the New York Post.
Sykes was nominated for a Best Classical Album Grammy in 2010.
Over the course of his iconic career, he performed at some of the world’s best-known venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Kennedy Center.
A longtime neighbor who was living in a rental property owned by Jubilant alleged that Micah Sykes had a history or erratic behavior.
“It’s just devastating. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. He was a little weird,” the neighbor said of the son, who was living at home with his parents in the years leading up to the alleged attack.
“I had been warned that something like he was on drugs, but it was more like something mentally was not there,” the neighbor added (via the Post).
“He was laying right there on the ground one night, sleeping,” the neighbor continued, indicating the street near Sykes’ home. “Like something — something was not right. But he [Jubliant] even warned me about it.”
Micah Sykes is currently in police custody, but the charges against him have not yet been revealed.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Our thoughts go out to Jubilant Sykes’ loved ones during this enormously difficult time.
Jubilant Sykes: Grammy-Nominated Singer Stabbed to Death In Home; Son Arrested was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip