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To me, being a conservative Republican means you value pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, lower taxes, and limited government. These are beliefs that Ive held my whole life, and my vote has reflected that in every election. It is because of those values that I voted for Donald Trump both times. In fact, in at least the last 25 years, Ive never voted for a single Democrat in a partisan race.Until this one.I did not vote for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2016. I did support Adam Laxalt in his bids for attorney general and governor respectively. However, in this election, I will vote to re-elect Cortez Masto.Now, Im not switching my party affiliation, and I continue to be a proud conservative. And though Catherine and I may disagree on a number of issues, I know one thing for sure: Catherine is a proud Nevadan, and cares about the success of our state. Catherine always has Nevadans best interests top of mind. In my experience, Catherine has a strong desire to support rural counties in Nevada. She listens to leadership and constituents alike to find solutions. Thats not something I can say about the other candidate in this race.I served on the Lyon County Commission for eight years and spent three years as its chairman. During that time, I worked closely with Catherine, and was very impressed with the care she puts into her work, especially when it comes to rural Nevada.Some politicians I worked with were more interested in talking about themselves than hearing about what we need in the rural communities. Catherine is the exact opposite. She sits down with us individually, whether we voted for her or not, takes time to listen to our unique challenges, and then she puts in the work to address them.With the Navy looking to expand Naval Air Station Fallon, Catherine comes into the community and listens to everyones perspective so she can prioritize the needs of the people out here. She blocked the initial proposal for the expansion because it didnt represent all local stakeholders fairly, and she has made sure to push the Navy to get everyone to collaborate on a new proposal, including the Tribes, ranchers, sportsmen and officials in the surrounding counties. Shes always going to look for the best outcome for Nevada and our national security.Catherine doesnt just make herself available to us when we have specific projects she is focused on. In my experience, when I would reach out to Catherine or her team for assistance or support, my calls were answered, and the needs of Lyon County were given attention. In addition, she would provide whatever resources we needed to deliver for our community.I spent the last 15 years focused on serving Lyon County and the best interests of rural communities in Nevada. I have done so while being guided by my conservative principles. Ultimately my vote is given to whom I think will do their best to serve my community and my state party affiliation aside. I know that we can count on Cortez Masto to deliver for us in Lyon County as well as in Nevada. I know this because I have witnessed her diligent work for those regardless of party affiliation. For that reason, Catherine will receive my vote this November.Bob Hastings was a Lyon County commissioner from 2013 to 2021.

Link:
Bob Hastings: Why I'm voting for a Democrat for the first time in over 25 years - Nevada Appeal

The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Despite her property being in the district, a Democratic nominee for a state House seat in Ohio was forced to withdraw because of her official address.

Abby Kovacs, who has worked around the world for a non-profit and has a masters degree in political science, was cut out of her district by mere feet.

She was ready to take on state House Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, a Republican from Ashtabula, this November for the 99th District seat.

I was like, wow, it really happened!' Kovacs said about winning her primary. And, you know, to have that taken away is really I didnt get to give it the chance that it deserved.

There was some interest from other Ashtabula County residents to run for the seat, but Kovacs ended up being unopposed during the August 2 primary.

But the candidates mailbox was just 20 feet in the wrong direction, she said.

Her familys home has historically been in the 99th District. Now it is in the 65th.

Although she references how much she was cut out by as 20 feet, that isnt entirely accurate. Her property extends acres across the line, but her official mailing address disqualifies her from the race.

I told party leadership about it, and theyre like, Dont worry, it wont be a big deal, well figure it out,' she said.

She was able to run in the primary, trusting that information and bouncing around until August, but realized she wouldnt have enough funds to continue. So, eight days after she won, she announced her withdrawal.

A teacher from Ashtabula, Stephen Michael Kellat, said she is just another victim of the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

Over the course of drawing Map 3, they use of all the candidate names and addresses, which were settled in February, Kellat said. That gave the map drivers one heck of an advantage.

The Democrat filed in the 99th, which the first two maps placed her in, on Feb. 2. Months later, Map 3, which was declared unconstitutional twice by the Ohio Supreme Court before being approved by a federal district court, was implemented.

RELATED: Trump-appointed federal court judges end Ohios redistricting battle, side with GOP

She tried to reach out to Ashtabula County to give her the authority to stay, but was told by John Mead, a Democrat and the director of the board of elections, that the timeline was nearly impossible to get everything done.

She would then have to go and jump through all the hoops of getting that trailer or a tent or anything acknowledged as a residency, Mead said. So unfortunate for Abby that she was so close. So close but yet so far away as they say.

She also cant run in 65th District, because that isnt where she initially filed to vote. She filed under the impression that she was in 99th because that was the map at the time.

To make the situation even more complicated than it already is, her competitors husband is the chairperson of the Ashtabula County Board of Elections.

It seems a little bit deliberate to be cut out like 20 feet, she said.

Mead reassured everything had been ethical.

I can see where Abby would feel that way but in reality that that was not the case, he said. [Isaac Arthur] always abstains on anything associated with his wife.

Kovacs doesnt believe that citing she knew she was a threat to Fowler Arthurs seat.

To hear a state representative coming out and saying things that, we support teaching the Holocaust from the perspective of Nazis, its just how out of touch and ill equipped to be a leader she is, the Democrat said.

After theexclusive News 5 storyon Fowler Arthurs comments on the Holocaust went international, Kovacs said she watched the backlash rake in. She even sent out her own Tweet about it.

RELATED: Comments about the Holocaust from representative sponsoring divisive concepts bill raise concerns

If someone had no problem saying children should be taught both sides of the Holocaust, Fowler Arthur or the GOP probably did this purposefully, she added.

Also, it is possible that the immense backlash the Republican faced caused the mapmakers to try to get rid of the competition, the Democrat hypothesized.

To be clear, this is all just thinking from Kovacs and other Democrats. There is no evidence of Fowler Arthur or the Ohio GOP purposely sabotaging Kovacs chance. Fowler Arthur was not on the ORC, nor did she make any draft maps.

Were all aware of the unconstitutional issues and the complications associated with the maps, Mead said. I understand they essentially start in Columbus and kind of work their way out in concentric circles. And by the time you get up to Northeast Ohio, the farthest corner in the state, theres not a lot of wiggle room of moving lines around.

News 5 reached out to Fowler Arthur for a comment, but she did not respond.

Luckily for the Democrats, because Kovacs was in the primary, they got to appoint a new candidate. Kathy Zappitello, the executive director of the Conneaut Public Library, is taking her spot.

Kovacs is really happy for Zappitello, and said she will do a great job, but she cant help but feel distraught about the situation.

Its unfortunate that I didnt even get the opportunity, she said.

Kovacs could have tried to fight it, but that would have cost her money she didnt have, she said.

Both she and Mead said they reached out to Sec. of State Frank LaRose to try to find a way to make this work, since her property is legitimately in the district.

Unfortunately, the reality is that in order to fight it, it would be a legal battle, she said. And the Democrats in my area just dont have the funding to be able to fight that battle. So we just have to, I dont know, bend over.

She tried to find a loophole, but kept getting stuck.

LaRoses team said Ashtabula is the one who would need to handle this concern, not them.

The ultimate result of redistricting has changed district boundaries, Rob Nichols, LaRoses spokesperson, told News 5. Yet, all this has to be decided at the local level.

However, Ashtabula said they had to follow him and his directives.

We do have a very strong centralized Secretary of States office, and they are very strict on a number of items as they should be, Mead said. And one of those very strict items is the notion of qualified electors as it relates to the address associated with your domicile.

The Ashtabula Auditor technically could have given her a new address code, Nichols confirmed, but at this point, it is too late. She already stepped down.

The Redistricting Commission sets the districts, he said. Its the local level that is deciding matters like this.

It is a shame that more people arent paying attention to redistricting and this whole mess, Kovacs said.

This is just insane, like the things that they put me through and that the party has put me through, she said, sighing.

FollowWEWSstatehouse reporter Morgan Trau onTwitterandFacebook.

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Democratic House nominee in Ohio drawn out of district by a few feet, must withdraw from race - Ohio Capital Journal

David Kay, a weapons expert who famously led an inspection team into Iraq in 2003 to search for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and faced the ire of the Bush administration after he reported he did not find any nuclear arms or other WMDs, died on Aug. 13 at 82.

Kay died in Ocean View, Del., and the cause was cancer, according to an obituary written by his loved ones. The Washington Post first reported the news.

Before he traveled to Iraq in 2003, Kay served as a chief weapons inspector for the United Nations (U.N.) Special Commission from 1991 to 1992 and as an agent with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Kay led multiple expeditions into Iraq after the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991. He was tasked with determining if the Middle Eastern country was developing WMDs in violation of a U.N. agreement.

The weapons inspector found evidence of uranium enrichment processes, which are used to develop nuclear weapons, located a major assembly plant for the creation of nuclear arms and seized key documents about the Iraqi weapons program.

In one famous incident, during a sweep of Iraq in the 1990s, Kay was stuck in a parking lot for four days as a hostage after seizing documents from a building in Baghdad. Iraqi forces would not let him and his team walk out of the parking lot with the documents in hand.

In a 1999 interview with PBS Frontline, Kay recalled how he tried to make the Iraqis more uncomfortable than he was.

It was dangerous, from our point of view, for us, but you forget, it was also dangerous for the Iraqis. Here they had a group of 43 inspectors stuck in a parking lot, not letting them go, Kay said. We kept trying to emphasize to them that they didnt know how, and that it could be dangerous for them.

The inspection team was eventually released after it used a satellite phone to communicate with the outside world, including media outlets such as CNN. The Iraqi soldiers grew concerned that military action could take place if they did not let the team go.

Kay told PBS that his work in Iraq in the 90s was a huge milestone in holding nations accountable for violating peace accords.

I think we were able toaccomplishsomething that, even in retrospect, Im still amazed at, he said. We were able to uncover a clandestine weapons program.

But Kay is best known as the man who led a team to Iraq in 2003 to search for nuclear weapons and the development of WMDs and finding no evidence of such activity.

The Bush administration had claimed ahead of its March 2003 invasion of Iraq that then-leader Saddam Hussein had violated the post-Gulf War U.N. agreement by developing nuclear weapons and other WMDs. In June 2003, Bush tasked the CIA with finding hard evidence of weapons in the country.

Given his experience, the CIA appointed Kay as the head of a 1,400-member task force known as the Iraq Survey Group. In January 2004, Kay submitted a report that determined Iraq did not have any such weapons in the country.

His findings rankled the CIA and the White House and spurred congressional investigations into U.S. intelligence prior to the Bush administrations invasion.

In a 2011 interview with NPR, shortly after the U.S. announced it would pull troops out of Iraq for the first time since the 2001 invasion, Kay reflected on his controversial role in the war.

What I miss most are the friendships that were shattered by that; just had staked too much of their career on there being weapons of mass destruction, he said. And not only didnt we find them, we found they didnt exist prior to the war.

Kay was born in Houston. He graduated from the University of Texas and earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

He served with the Department of State and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in addition to his service as a weapons expert.

Kay also taught at universities and was a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He won anIAEA Distinguished Service Award and a commendation medal from the secretary of State.

View post:
David Kay, inspector who did not find nuclear weapons in Iraq, dies at 82 - The Hill

Around 4,000 years ago, this pale, hard-packed spit of Iraqi desert was the centre of civilisation. Today the ruins of the great city of Ur, once an administrative capital of Mesopotamia, now sit in a barren wasteland near Iraq's most notorious prison. In the shadow of the towering prison fences, Abo Ashraf, the self-proclaimed caretaker of the archaeological site, and a handful of tourists are the only signs of life for miles. At the end of a long wooden walkway, an impressive ziggurat is nearly all that remains of the ancient Sumerian metropolis.

To get here, I'd been packed into the backseat of a taxi hurtling through the desert for hours, until I began to see the city's famed monument looming in the distance: the Ziggurat of Ur, a 4,100-year-old massive, tiered shrine lined with giant staircases. A tall chain link fence barricading the entrance and a paved parking lot were the only hints of the modern world.

The very first ziggurats pre-date the Egyptian pyramids, and a few remains can still be found in modern-day Iraq and Iran. They are as imposing as their Egyptian counterparts and also served religious purposes, but they differed in a few ways: ziggurats had several terraced levels as opposed to the pyramids' flat walls, they didn't have interior chambers and they had temples at the top rather than tombs inside.

"A ziggurat is a sacred building, essentially a temple on a platform with a staircase," said Maddalena Rumor, an Ancient Near-East specialist at Case Western Reserve University in the US. "The earliest temples show simple constructions of one-room shrines on a slight platform. Over time, temples and platforms were repeatedly reconstructed and expanded, growing in complexity and size, reaching their most perfect shape in the multi-level Ziggurat [of Ur]."

The Ziggurat of Ur was built a bit later (about 680 years after the first pyramids), but it is renowned because it is one of the best-preserved, and also because of its location in Ur, which holds a prominent place in history books. According to Rumor, Mesopotamia was the origin of artificial irrigation: the people of Ur cut canals and ditches to regulate the flow of water and irrigate land further from the Euphrates River banks. Ur is also believed to be the birthplace of biblical Abraham and, as Ashraf explained while he walked us through the ruined walls of the city, the home of the first code of law, the Code of Ur-Nammu, written around 2100 BCE 400 years before Babylonia's better-known Code of Hammurabi.

Go here to read the rest:
Iraq's answer to the pyramids - BBC

Congress is urging the administration of US President Joe Biden to enhance engagement with Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government over "a range" of ongoing disputes, while condemning Iran's "blatant violations of Iraqi sovereignty".

Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government's escalating disputes over natural resources have threatened Washington's investment in "supporting a stable, sovereign and democratic Iraq free from malign foreign influence", Michael McCaul, Republican leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The natural resources dispute has been exacerbated by infighting among Iraq's political parties, which have failed to form a government since elections in October last year.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi pose for a photo after reviewing the honour guard during a welcome ceremony in Tehran. All photos: EPA

"Meanwhile, the Iraqi people suffer, lacking a government that represents their interests and unable to reap the full benefits of revenues from Iraqs oil, gas and other natural resources," Mr McCaul wrote.

Mr McCaul also called for a "robust" administrative response to Iran's actions in the region, condemning recent missile attacks from Tehran as "blatant violations" of Iraq's sovereignty. In an unprecedented assault in March, Iran attacked the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, appearing to target the US and its allies.

Adding to the sense of instability, anger in Iraq has continued to fester after Baghdad accused Washington's Nato ally Turkey of being behind a July attack in the Kurdish district of Zakho that killed at least nine people.

Mr McCaul's letter on Monday highlighted the more than $12.7 billion in foreign, security and humanitarian aid Washington has sent to Iraq since 2014.

"These investments of taxpayer dollars must be accompanied by a commensurate diplomatic push to urge Iraqs leaders in Baghdad and Erbil to negotiate with each other and make the political decisions necessary to protect Iraqs sovereignty and prosperity to benefit the Iraqi people," Mr McCaul wrote.

The minority leader sent the letter weeks after the US embassy in Baghdad expressed concern over the Kurdish government using violence against demonstrators protesting against unpaid state salaries as well as Turkish incursions into border areas.

Non-profit organisation the World Resource Institute's Fragile State Index ranks Iraq as "extremely vulnerable" to collapse, with a score of 100 out of 120.

A woman inspects damage in a children's room following an overnight attack in Erbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. All photos by AFP

Updated: August 22, 2022, 11:38 PM

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Biden must engage with Iraq and Kurds to end range of disputes, Congress says - The National