Colony church: Just one person makes a difference

COLONY — Bruce Symes gave the Communion meditation at Sunday’s Colony Christian Church service, a story from Richmond, Va., in 1866. The priest wasn’t allowed to serve Communion to only one person at a time. There had to be at least two people together, a belief based on Matthew 2:18-20.

After all the white parishioners had taken Communion, a lone black man came to the front, and the priest was at a loss of what to do. After a time, a white man made his way to the front and knelt beside the other man so he could take Communion.

This man was Robert E. Lee.

The story is a reminder that Christ came for all of us, Symes said. We must put aside feelings that divide us, and remember what a difference one man, or one woman, can make in the lives of others. We must always be prepared for action, to declare God’s love and grace to everyone.

Pastor Chase Riebel gave the sermon on “Broken & Remade”(continuing the series based on the movie “Overcomer.”)

Men’s Bible study is at 7 a.m. Tuesdays. Small groups are held Monday through Wednesday. The youth group meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

More than 220 pounds of methamphetamine seized

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say federal agents seized more than 220 pounds of methamphetamine in a drug trafficking bust in the Kansas City, Kansas, metro area.

U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release Monday that 14 defendants are charged.

“Opioids are often in the news,” McAllister said. “But methamphetamine remains our biggest drug problem in the Midwest.”

Court records show the 33-count indictment was unsealed last week. Charges include conspiracy, distribution, possession with intent to distribute and interstate communications in furtherance of drug trafficking.

The government says investigators found the methamphetamine when serving a search warrant at a house in Kansas City, Kansas, where one of the defendants lives.

Army officer says he raised concerns about Trump, Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army officer at the National Security Council who twice raised concerns over the Trump administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden, arrived in military uniform on Capitol Hill to testify today in the impeachment inquiry.

Alexander Vindman, an lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq and, later, as a diplomat, is prepared to tell House investigators that he listened to President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel, according to prepared testimony.

His arrival in military blue, with medals, created a striking image as he entered the Capitol and made his way to the secure briefing room behind closed doors.

“I was concerned by the call,” Vindman will say, according to the testimony obtained Monday night by The Associated Press. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”

Vindman is the first official who listened in on that call to testify as the impeachment inquiry reaches deeper into the Trump administration and Democrats prepare for the next, public phase of the probe. He’s also the first current White House official to appear before the impeachment panels.

The inquiry is looking into Trump’s call, in which he asked Zelenskiy for a “favor” — to investigate Democrats — that Democrats say was a quid pro quo that could be an impeachable offense.

Trump took to Twitter Tuesday to denounce the probe as a “sham,” adding: “Why are people that I never even heard of testifying about the call. Just READ THE CALL TRANSCRIPT AND THE IMPEACHMENT HOAX IS OVER!”

Vindman, a 20-year military officer and decorated veteran, testify that he first reported his concerns after an earlier meeting July 10 in which U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stressed the importance of having Ukraine investigate the 2016 election as well as Burisma, a company linked to the family of Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

Vindman says he told Sondland that “his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push.”

That account differs from Sondland’s, a wealthy businessman who donated $1 million to Trump inauguration and testified before the impeachment investigators that no one from the NSC “ever expressed any concerns.” He also testified that he did not realize any connection between Biden and Burisma.

For the call between Trump and Zelenskiy, Vindman said he listened in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and Vice President Mike Pence’s office and was concerned. He said he again reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel.

He wrote, “I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security.”

Vindman, who arrived in the United States as a 3-year-old from the former Soviet Union, served in various military and diplomatic posts before joining the NSC. He was the director for European affairs and a Ukraine expert under Fiona Hill, a former official who testified earlier in the impeachment probe. Hill worked for former national security adviser John Bolton.

At least one Trump ally sought to discredit Vindman ahead of his testimony by appearing to question his loyalty to the U.S. Former GOP Rep. Sean Duffy told CNN that the Purple Heart recipient has an “affinity” for Ukraine.

“It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense,” he said. “I don’t know that he’s concerned about American policy, but his main mission was to make sure that the Ukraine got those weapons.”

Vindman will be a key witness. He attended Zelenskiy’s inauguration with a delegation led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and he and Hill were both part of a Ukraine briefing with Sondland that others have testified irritated Bolton at the White House.

Vindman will testify that he is not the whistleblower, the still unnamed government official who filed the initial complaint over Trump’s conversation with the Ukraine president that sparked the House impeachment inquiry. He will say he does not know who the whistleblower is.

“I am a patriot, and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics,” wrote Vindman, who was wounded in Iraq and awarded a Purple Heart.

“For over twenty years as an active duty United States military officer and diplomat, I have served this country in a nonpartisan manner, and have done so with the utmost respect and professionalism for both Republican and Democratic administrations,” he wrote.

The testimony comes a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House will vote on a resolution to affirm the impeachment investigation, set rules for public hearings and outline the potential process for writing articles of impeachment against Trump. The vote is expected Thursday.

It would be the first formal House vote on the impeachment inquiry and aims to nullify complaints from Trump and his allies that the process is illegitimate, unfair and lacking due process.

Democrats insisted they weren’t yielding to Republican pressure. Pelosi dismissed the Republican argument that impeachment can’t begin without formal approval from the House and brushed off their complaints about the closed-door process.

“I do not care. I do not care. This is a false thing with them,” Pelosi said. “Understand, it has nothing to do with them. It has to do with how we proceed.”

Pelosi’s announcement Monday came just hours after a former White House national security official defied a House subpoena for closed-door testimony, escalating the standoff between Congress and the White House over who will testify.

Charles Kupperman, who was a deputy to Bolton, failed to show up for the scheduled closed-door deposition after filing a lawsuit asking a federal court in Washington to rule on whether he was legally required to appear.

 

Air Force’s mystery space plane returns after 2 years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Air Force’s mystery space plane is back on Earth, following a record-breaking two-year mission.

The X-37B landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Sunday. The Air Force is mum about what the plane did in orbit after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2017. The 780-day mission sets a new endurance record for the reusable test vehicle.

It looks like a space shuttle but is one-fourth the size at 29 feet.

Officials say this latest mission successfully completed its objectives. Experiments from the Air Force Research Laboratory were aboard.

This was the fifth spaceflight by a vehicle of this sort. No. 6 is planned next year with another launch from Cape Canaveral. The solar-powered plane is flown by remote control without a crew.

Gender reveal party turns deadly

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa family’s attempt at a gender reveal party for a soon-to-be-born baby went horribly wrong when a homemade device that was meant to discharge colored powder instead exploded like a pipe bomb, killing a 56-year-old relative.

The Marion County Sheriff’s office says Pamela Kreimeyer died instantly when debris struck her head Saturday before flying another 432 feet and landing in a nearby field in rural Knoxville, about 35 miles southeast of Des Moines.

Kreimeyer was 45 feet from the device when it exploded.

Authorities say family members had been experimenting with explosives in the hopes of posting a colorful announcement on social media.

Family members welded a metal cylinder to a stand and packed it with gunpowder that they thought would send the colored baby powder aloft. But authorities say tape covering the top of the cylinder caused it to detonate like a pipe bomb.

Utility: Power lines may have caused wildfires

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power lines may have started two wildfires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, the utility said Monday, even though widespread blackouts were in place to prevent downed lines from starting fires during dangerously windy weather.

The fires described in PG&E reports to state regulators match blazes that destroyed a tennis club and forced evacuations in Lafayette, about 20 miles east of San Francisco.

The fires began in a section of town where PG&E had opted to keep the lights on. The sites were not designated as a high fire risk, the company said.

Powerful winds were driving multiple fires across California and forcing power shut-offs intended to prevent blazes. PG&E said a contractor working in Humboldt County died in a vehicle accident during the power shutoff Friday.

More than 900,000 power customers — an estimated 2.5 million people — were in the dark at the height of the latest planned blackout, nearly all of them in PG&E’s territory in Northern and central California. By Monday evening a little less than half of those had their service back. But some 1.5 million people in 29 counties will be hit with more shut-offs starting Tuesday because another round of strong winds is expected, the utility said.

Southern California Edison had cut off power to 25,000 customers and warned that it was considering disconnecting about 350,000 more as Santa Ana winds return midweek.

PG&E is under severe financial pressure after its equipment was blamed for a series of destructive wildfires during the past three years. Its stock dropped 24% Monday to close at $3.80 and was down more than 50% since Thursday.

The company reported last week that a transmission tower may have caused a Sonoma County fire that has forced 156,000 people to evacuate.

PG&E told the California Public Utilities Commission that a worker responded to a fire in Lafayette late Sunday afternoon and was told firefighters believed contact between a power line and a communication line may have caused it.

A worker went to another fire about an hour later and saw a fallen pole and transformer. Contra Costa Fire Department personnel on site told the worker they were looking at the transformer as a potential ignition source, a company official wrote.

Separately, the company told regulators that it had failed to notify 23,000 customers, including 500 with medical conditions, before shutting off their power earlier this month during windy weather.

Before a planned blackout, power companies are required to notify customers and take extra care to get in touch with those with medical problems who may not be able to handle extended periods without air conditioning or may need power to run medical devices.

PG&E said some customers had no contact information on file. Others were incorrectly thought to be getting electricity.

After that outage, workers discovered 43 cases of wind-related damage to power lines, transformers and other equipment.

Jennifer Robison, a PG&E spokeswoman, said the company is working with independent living centers to determine how best to serve people with disabilities.

The company faced a growing backlash from regulators and lawmakers.

U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from Modesto, said he plans to introduce legislation that would raise PG&E’s taxes if it pays bonuses to executives while engaging in blackouts.

The Public Utilities Commission plans to open a formal investigation into the blackouts within the next month, allowing regulators to gather evidence and question utility officials. If rules are found to be broken, they can impose fines up to $100,000 per violation per day, said Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the commission.

The commission said Monday it also plans to review the rules governing blackouts, will look to prevent utilities from charging customers when the power is off and will convene experts to find grid improvements that might lessen blackouts during next year’s fire season.

The state can’t continue experiencing such widespread blackouts, “nor should Californians be subject to the poor execution that PG&E in particular has exhibited,” Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said in a statement.

Celebrating volunteerism

Prairie Rose 4-H members marked their 48 Hours of Volunteer event this month.  Club members made fleece blankets for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.; donated canned goods to a local food bank; and made chew toys and collected items to be used for rescue animals at the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility. The 4-H’ers are, front row from left, Raveyn Kegler, Sophia Heim, Natalea Elmenhorst-Heins, Cooper Scharff, Kyron Kegler, Kylee Resco, Doug Dix and Kason Botts; second row, Jenni Armstrong, Mallory Heim, Gracie Yoho, Bailey LaRue, Ty Scharff, Kendall Scharff, Kaden McVey, Dierks Kegler, Payton Scharff, Allison Heim and Zoi Yoho.  Not pictured was Kooper Welch. COURTESY PHOTO

A look back in time

70 Years Ago

October 1949

The Security Savings and Loan Association this morning opened its new office at 8 E. Madison, having moved over the weekend from the temporary quarters on the west side of the square which it had occupied since the Northrup building fire. The Henderson Realty Co. will also have its headquarters in the new office.

***** 

HUMBOLDT — Helena Weber, 15-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Weber of rural Humboldt, died of polio last night at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. She became ill in September and was taken to Wichita and had been in an iron lung for the past seven weeks.

al-Baghdadi death a ‘heavy blow’ to ISIS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eliminating the Islamic State group’s elusive leader gives President Donald Trump a new argument for leaving Syria, but the U.S. military campaign against the extremists is far from finished.

The killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces leaves the Islamic State without an obvious leader, a major setback for an organization that in March was forced by American troops and Kurdish forces out of the last portion of its self-declared “caliphate,” which once spanned a swath of Iraq and Syria.

But the militant group, which arose from the remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq after that group’s defeat by U.S.-led forces in 2008, has ambitions to regenerate again. And it remains a dangerous threat in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

“The bottom line is: This puts the enemy on its heels, but the ideology — and this sounds so cliched — it is not dead,” said Chris Costa, a former senior director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council in the Trump administration.

Key to the Islamic States is its “kill where you are” ethos, encouraging a far-flung network of followers, including those in the United States, to commit violence however and wherever they can. That jihadist message is likely to live on, even with the death of al-Baghdadi.

That means U.S. forces, perhaps in reduced numbers, will continue hunting and attacking key Islamic State targets, even as Trump says he’s committed to a 2016 campaign pledge to bring them home and end “endless wars” started under his predecessors.

Trump earlier this month went from declaring a near-complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria to deciding that some, perhaps several hundred, must stay to keep eastern Syria’s oil fields from falling back into the hands of the Islamic State. Trump also agreed to keep about 150 U.S. troops at a base in southern Syria.

In announcing on Sunday that al-Baghdadi had blown himself up after being cornered in a dead-end underground tunnel in Syria, Trump acknowledged that IS, which he often calls “100 percent” defeated, still has ambitions to make a comeback. The group is “very, very strongly looking to build it again,” he said.

This, he said, explains why Baghdadi was in the Idlib province of northwestern Syria, an area largely controlled by a rival group — the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — although other jihadi groups sympathetic to Islamic State are also there.

“Well, that’s where he was trying to rebuild from because that was the place that made most sense, if you’re looking to rebuild,” Trump said.

Trump suggested that other countries, including Russia, carry on the fight against IS, but there is no indication that U.S. forces will abandon the mission any time soon.

“Our job is to stay on top of that and to make sure that we continue to take out their leadership,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Rep. Mike Rogers, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said five years of U.S. and coalition effort inside Syria have not eliminated the Islamic State threat.

“While the death of its leader is a tremendous blow for the group, about 10,000 ISIS fighters remain in the region and will continue to carry out guerrilla attacks and seek new territory,” he said.

According to defense officials in Iraq and Afghanistan who study Islamic State and have watched its movements, the group is growing in power and numbers outside of Syria.

Its flagship affiliate is known as ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, and it is expanding into other countries, including Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Many of those affiliates have liaisons in the terror group’s hub in eastern Afghanistan.

In addition to conducting high-profile attacks inside Afghanistan, the official said the Islamic State has also already proven its ability to inspire and enable terrorist attacks outside Afghanistan, including a deadly one in Sweden.

It is this global reach that makes the Islamic State a continuing worry, including for U.S. officials seeking to protect the homeland.

Al-Baghdadi served as a direct inspiration for extremists in the United States, where multiple jihadists in the last five years invoked his name as they carried out deadly acts of violence.

Omar Mateen, the gunman who in 2016 killed 49 people inside an Orlando, Florida nightclub, pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi during a 911 call in which he identified himself as an Islamic soldier. Months earlier, Tashfeen Malik, who along with her husband killed 14 people at a San Bernardino, California, holiday party, took to Facebook after her massacre was already underway to declare her support for al-Baghdadi.

“That voice, the face associated with it — the name in particular — it’s all directly linked to those in the United States who have pledged allegiance to him so as to conduct attacks in the group’s name,” said Joshua Geltzer, a former senior counterterrorism official in the Obama administration.

The death of al-Baghdadi leaves the group without an equally brand-name successor and deprives would-be jihadists of a figurehead leader to rally behind. Counterterrorism experts say that leadership void is a significant loss for a terror group that had lost the vast stretches of the physical caliphate in Syria and Iraq it had once controlled. But they also caution that they expect the group’s ideology to endure beyond al-Baghdadi.

“I’ve always said, yes, I will celebrate when Baghdadi is dead, but at the same time, that celebration is quiet and quick, because there are other Baghdadis out there who have been radicalized,” said Costa, the former NSC official.

Still, Costa said, the raid was hugely significant in part because it shows the U.S. can use solid intelligence to carry out a successful military operation, no matter the current Syria policy.

“This impacts morale and that’s an important idea — the fact that the enemy is on the run. We can track them, and we can hunt them, and we can kill them.”

California wildfires burn in wine country

SANTA ROSA, California (AP) — Firefighters battled destructive wildfires north of San Francisco and in western neighborhoods of Los Angeles on Monday, trying to beat back flames that forced thousands to flee their homes.

Easing winds offered a chance of improved conditions for firefighters trying to control a huge fire in Sonoma County wine country north of San Francisco, but forecasters warned that another round of strong wind gusts could hit the area on Tuesday.

The fire has been burning since Wednesday, has grown to 85 square miles, destroyed 94 buildings and threatens 80,000 buildings, including parts of the city of Santa Rosa, state fire authorities said Sunday night.

In Los Angeles, a fire erupted before dawn Monday on the west side of Sepulveda Pass, where Interstate 405 passes through the Santa Monica Mountains, and roared up slopes into wealthy neighborhoods, threatening thousands of homes. Several homes could be seen burning and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James tweeted that he and his family had to evacuate his home.

Mount Saint Mary’s University evacuated 450 students from its Chalon campus near Getty Center arts and cultural complex. The Getty was built with special fire protection features and Los Angeles fire department Capt. Erik Scott said it was not threatened.

The prospect of more winds in Northern California raised the possibility that some of the millions of people who had been on track to get their electricity back after it was turned off in an effort to prevent utility equipment from sparking fires may not have power restored before another possible round of shut-offs.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. notified more than 1.2 million people that they may have their electricity shut off for what could be the third time in a week and the fourth time this month.

PG&E and other utilities in the state have been shutting off power in certain areas to prevent fires during strong winds.

Fire conditions statewide made California “a tinderbox,” said Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Of the state’s 58 counties, 43 were under red flag warnings for high fire danger Sunday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to the wildfires, powered by gusts that reached more than 102 mph.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, two grass fires briefly halted traffic on an interstate bridge. The flames came dangerously close to homes in Vallejo. Another grass fire closed a stretch of interstate that cut through the state capital as smoke obstructed drivers.

In the south, firefighters patrolled an area burned by a wildfire last week in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, to make sure winds didn’t cause it to rekindle. Eighteen structures were destroyed by the Tick Fire.

To prevent power lines from sparking in high winds and setting off more blazes up north, PG&E said Sunday that power was out to 965,000 customers and another 100,000 have lost electricity because of strong gusts, bringing the number of residents impacted by blackouts to nearly 2.7 million people.

The biggest evacuation was in Northern California’s Sonoma County where 180,000 people were told to pack up and leave. Some evacuating early Sunday had done so two years ago, when devastating wildfires swept through Sonoma and Napa and neighboring counties, killing 44 people.

At an evacuation center at Napa Valley College, Francisco Alvarado, 15, said he, two younger brothers and his parents decided to vacate their Calistoga home in advance of evacuation orders. Two years ago, the family had to flee, but in the middle of the night.

“I’m pretty mad that we have to keep evacuating,” he said. “I just want to be home. I’m trying to leave here tomorrow; I want to sleep in my bed.”

He said he wasn’t sure who, if anyone, to blame for the repeated fires, but said he didn’t fault PG&E for turning off the electricity to try to prevent them.

Rosa Schuth of Sebastopol stayed up late packing bags but didn’t think she would need to evacuate because the fires never reached her town in 2017.

She had been asleep for a half hour when she heard sirens telling residents to go. She got in her car and hopped on a country road that became jammed with evacuees.

“The wind is really something. It just rages and suddenly it stops, and you see a bird drifting by,” she said.

Electricity was expected to begin being restored by Monday, though the utility warned it might cut power again as soon as Tuesday because of another forecast of strong winds that are expected to last until Wednesday.

The fear that the winds could blow embers and spread fire across a major highway prompted authorities to expand evacuation orders that covered parts of Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 that was devastated by wildfire two years ago.

Hundreds of people arrived at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa by Sunday. Some came from senior care facilities. More than 300 people slept inside an auditorium filled with cots and wheeled beds. Scores of others stayed in a separate building with their pets.

Among them was Maribel Cruz, 19, who packed up her dog, four cats and fish as soon as she was told to flee her trailer in the town of Windsor, about 60 miles north of San Francisco. She also grabbed a neighbor’s cat.

“I’m just nervous since I grew up in Windsor,” she said. “I’m hoping the wind cooperates.”

A historic attraction outside Healdsburg was lost Sunday when embers carried by wind sparked a blaze that engulfed the Soda Rock Winery. Buildings included a general store and post office founded in 1869.

In the central California, a tree toppled in strong wind Sunday killed a woman and injured a man who was taken to a hospital, officials said.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, gusts knocked over a 30-foot (9-meter) tree at a farmers’ market in Martinez, injuring nine people, including a toddler. Six people left with injuries that were not life-threatening were taken to a hospital, police said.

During the 2017 fires, winds up to 90 mph (144 kph) lasted for about 12 hours. This time, the gusts were stronger and expected to last more than 36 hours, ending Monday night, said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Monterey office.

Parched vegetation from unseasonably hot weather and low humidity was already igniting elsewhere, and firefighters scrambled to keep up.

Two grass fires shut down a 6-mile (10-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 80, including a bridge between the cities of Crockett and Vallejo, and forced the evacuation of 200 people from California State University Maritime Academy. An ember from one fire possibly sparked the other.

Smoke from another grass fire Sunday forced the closure of a stretch of Interstate 80 running through Sacramento’s downtown. Meanwhile, fire officials spotted downed power lines in the area of a small fire that destroyed a building at a tennis club and three other structures in Lafayette, a leafy suburb in the east San Francisco Bay Area.

The city of Vallejo said the power blackout shut off its pumping station needed to access its well water, prompting an emergency. The city barred residents from watering yards and asked people to limit bathing and flushing toilets, reported The Vallejo Times Herald.