Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Tina Smith, 35, of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced on September 26, 2022, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.&nbsp; United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Smith to 57 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system.&nbsp; After her release from prison, she will begin a three-year term of supervised release.

Beginning in February 2019, and continuing through May 2019, law enforcement utilized a confidential informant to purchase methamphetamine from Smith and her co-defendant, Taylor Brown, in McCook, Nebraska. Smith was found responsible for at least 30 grams of actual methamphetamine.

Brown is scheduled to enter a plea of guilty on October 13, 2022.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the McCook Police Department.

By United States AttorneyActing United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Tina Smith, 35, of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced on September 26, 2022, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.&nbsp; United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Smith to 57 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system.&nbsp; After her release from prison, she will begin a three-year term of supervised release.Beginning in February 2019, and continuing through May 2019, law enforcement utilized a confidential informant to purchase methamphetamine from Smith and her co-defendant, Taylor Brown, in McCook, Nebraska. Smith was found responsible for at least 30 grams of actual methamphetamine.Brown is scheduled to enter a plea of guilty on October 13, 2022.This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the McCook Police Department.

Denver woman sentenced in McCook methamphetamine conspiracy   

By PAUL HAMMEL Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Public hearings have 
been set in October in the state’s three congressional districts for the
 ballot initiatives that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/06/minimum-wage-voter-id-petitions-qualify-for-nebraskas-november-ballot/">two initiatives that will be decided</a> by voters are:

• Voter ID Constitutional Amendment: Initiative Measure 432, which 
would require the Nebraska Legislature to adopt laws requiring 
presentation of valid photo identification prior to voting. • Minimum Wage Initiative: Initiative Measure 433, which would raise 
the state minimum wage from the current $9 an hour to eventually $15 an 
hour.

State law requires the Secretary of State’s Office to hold public 
hearings in each of the state’s three congressional districts to educate
 voters about initiative petition measures that have qualified for the 
general election ballot.

Informational pamphlets about the ballot measures will be available 
at each hearing and are available in county and state election offices.

• Oct. 6,&nbsp;1 to 4 p.m. on the minimum wage initiative 
and&nbsp;4 to 7 p.m. on voter ID, at&nbsp;Mid-Plains Community College South 
Campus, McDonald Belton Theater, 601 W. State Farm Road, North Platte. • Oct. 11, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. for voter ID and 6 to 9 p.m. for minimum wage, at the Thompson Alumni Center, 6705 Dodge St., Omaha. • Oct. 18, from&nbsp;1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (CDT) on the 
minimum wage initiative, and 6 to 9 p.m. on voter ID, at the Nebraska 
State Capitol, Room 1525, Lincoln.

Early ballots for the November election will&nbsp; be sent out starting Monday.

Information about the initiatives can be found on the secretary of state’s website: <a target="_blank" href="https://sos.nebraska.gov/">https://sos.nebraska.gov/</a>

By PAUL HAMMEL Nebraska ExaminerLINCOLN — Public hearings have 
been set in October in the state’s three congressional districts for the
 ballot initiatives that will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.The <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/06/minimum-wage-voter-id-petitions-qualify-for-nebraskas-november-ballot/">two initiatives that will be decided</a> by voters are:• Voter ID Constitutional Amendment: Initiative Measure 432, which 
would require the Nebraska Legislature to adopt laws requiring 
presentation of valid photo identification prior to voting. • Minimum Wage Initiative: Initiative Measure 433, which would raise 
the state minimum wage from the current $9 an hour to eventually $15 an 
hour.State law requires the Secretary of State’s Office to hold public 
hearings in each of the state’s three congressional districts to educate
 voters about initiative petition measures that have qualified for the 
general election ballot.Informational pamphlets about the ballot measures will be available 
at each hearing and are available in county and state election offices.The hearings are scheduled:• Oct. 6,&nbsp;1 to 4 p.m. on the minimum wage initiative 
and&nbsp;4 to 7 p.m. on voter ID, at&nbsp;Mid-Plains Community College South 
Campus, McDonald Belton Theater, 601 W. State Farm Road, North Platte. • Oct. 11, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. for voter ID and 6 to 9 p.m. for minimum wage, at the Thompson Alumni Center, 6705 Dodge St., Omaha. • Oct. 18, from&nbsp;1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (CDT) on the 
minimum wage initiative, and 6 to 9 p.m. on voter ID, at the Nebraska 
State Capitol, Room 1525, Lincoln.Early ballots for the November election will&nbsp; be sent out starting Monday.Information about the initiatives can be found on the secretary of state’s website: <a target="_blank" href="https://sos.nebraska.gov/">https://sos.nebraska.gov/</a>

Public hearings set for Nebraska ballot initiatives

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced a new initiative Monday that would eventually allow consumers to see a more complete price on airline tickets — including baggage and change fees — before they buy, as the White House continues to search for ways to lower costs for Americans amid persistently&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-economy-prices-f2270f4c6ac55c084108d57cc1aec53a">high inflation</a>.

The White House says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/AirlineAncillaryFeeNPRM" target="_blank">the proposed rule</a>&nbsp;from the Transportation Department will prevent airlines from hiding the “true cost” of airline tickets, which would help consumers save money up front and encourage more competition among airlines to offer better fares. The requirement will apply not only to airlines directly but also to third-party search sites such as Kayak and Expedia.

“You should know the full cost of your ticket right when you’re comparison shopping,” Biden said Monday, citing fees charged by airlines to check luggage or to seat families together. The new rule, the president said, will help consumers “pick the ticket that actually is the best deal for you.”

Airlines made nearly $5.3 billion in baggage fees and nearly $700 million on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-travel-transportation-pete-buttigieg-ef15613d7b2eeedf72b4494a6d3a0255">cancellation</a>&nbsp;and change fees last year, according to Transportation Department figures. Airlines charge a variety of other fees for extra legroom and other perks that are not tracked by the government.

A trade group for the largest U.S. airlines said carriers already disclose terms and the total cost of a ticket. “This includes transparency regarding taxes and government fees on airline tickets, which account for more than 20% of many domestic one-stop, roundtrip tickets,” said Katherine Estep, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America.

The proposed rule seeks to target a typical situation faced by consumers where a ticket price is listed on an airline or search website, but with information often listed elsewhere about any additional airline fees, such as for checking or carrying on a bag, getting a guaranteed seat next to your child or changing or canceling a flight — fees that vary widely by airline and could quickly tack on up to hundreds of dollars more to a price of a ticket after the initial purchase. Under the proposal, that information would be made available upfront when the quoted airfare is first displayed.

The fare information would be required for all commercial flights to, within, and from the United States.

The proposal dates back to the Obama administration and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2b0d800ccd7641ea9f448fd93006c7be">was scrapped in 2017</a>&nbsp;by then-President Donald Trump after airlines complained that it was unnecessary and would incur significant costs. It must now go through a 60-day comment period before final approval.

The proposed rule comes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pete-buttigieg-government-and-politics-airlines-transportation-c3ebc7fbe4bcfb6402e67e0d626365a0">as tension grows between the Biden administration and the airlines</a>, with each blaming the other for an increase in canceled and delayed flights this summer.

The Transportation Department also began posting information to help consumers learn what each airline provides when flights are canceled or delayed for reasons within the airline’s control. That prompted several airlines to update policies around finding a new flight and covering hotel and meal expenses for stranded travelers.

Biden made the announcement on Monday afternoon at a meeting of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-economy-prices-consumer-prices-7ea68c9157a0c72403a8e3da5fae8bcc">White House Competition Council</a>, established last year as a way for his administration to find cost-saving measures for consumers. It was the third meeting of the group, chaired by National Economic Council director Brian Deese.

“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism,” Biden said at the event, held in the State Dining Room at the White House. “It’s exploitation.”

At the meeting, Biden also pushed other federal agencies to take similar cost-saving actions, particularly by increasing transparency on hidden fees that can balloon the true cost of goods and services.

One example is a proposal from the Federal Communications Commission that would require internet service providers to better outline fees and charges on what the administration calls a “broadband nutrition label.” And the Agriculture Department on Monday will also unveil new actions meant to encourage competition in various agricultural markets.

The administration has taken similar actions when it comes to bank and credit card fees, which the White House says have saved consumers $3 billion annually compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced a new initiative Monday that would eventually allow consumers to see a more complete price on airline tickets — including baggage and change fees — before they buy, as the White House continues to search for ways to lower costs for Americans amid persistently&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-economy-prices-f2270f4c6ac55c084108d57cc1aec53a">high inflation</a>.The White House says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/AirlineAncillaryFeeNPRM" target="_blank">the proposed rule</a>&nbsp;from the Transportation Department will prevent airlines from hiding the “true cost” of airline tickets, which would help consumers save money up front and encourage more competition among airlines to offer better fares. The requirement will apply not only to airlines directly but also to third-party search sites such as Kayak and Expedia.“You should know the full cost of your ticket right when you’re comparison shopping,” Biden said Monday, citing fees charged by airlines to check luggage or to seat families together. The new rule, the president said, will help consumers “pick the ticket that actually is the best deal for you.”Airlines made nearly $5.3 billion in baggage fees and nearly $700 million on&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-travel-transportation-pete-buttigieg-ef15613d7b2eeedf72b4494a6d3a0255">cancellation</a>&nbsp;and change fees last year, according to Transportation Department figures. Airlines charge a variety of other fees for extra legroom and other perks that are not tracked by the government.A trade group for the largest U.S. airlines said carriers already disclose terms and the total cost of a ticket. “This includes transparency regarding taxes and government fees on airline tickets, which account for more than 20% of many domestic one-stop, roundtrip tickets,” said Katherine Estep, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America.The proposed rule seeks to target a typical situation faced by consumers where a ticket price is listed on an airline or search website, but with information often listed elsewhere about any additional airline fees, such as for checking or carrying on a bag, getting a guaranteed seat next to your child or changing or canceling a flight — fees that vary widely by airline and could quickly tack on up to hundreds of dollars more to a price of a ticket after the initial purchase. Under the proposal, that information would be made available upfront when the quoted airfare is first displayed.The fare information would be required for all commercial flights to, within, and from the United States.The proposal dates back to the Obama administration and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2b0d800ccd7641ea9f448fd93006c7be">was scrapped in 2017</a>&nbsp;by then-President Donald Trump after airlines complained that it was unnecessary and would incur significant costs. It must now go through a 60-day comment period before final approval.The proposed rule comes&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pete-buttigieg-government-and-politics-airlines-transportation-c3ebc7fbe4bcfb6402e67e0d626365a0">as tension grows between the Biden administration and the airlines</a>, with each blaming the other for an increase in canceled and delayed flights this summer.The Transportation Department also began posting information to help consumers learn what each airline provides when flights are canceled or delayed for reasons within the airline’s control. That prompted several airlines to update policies around finding a new flight and covering hotel and meal expenses for stranded travelers.Biden made the announcement on Monday afternoon at a meeting of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-economy-prices-consumer-prices-7ea68c9157a0c72403a8e3da5fae8bcc">White House Competition Council</a>, established last year as a way for his administration to find cost-saving measures for consumers. It was the third meeting of the group, chaired by National Economic Council director Brian Deese.“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism,” Biden said at the event, held in the State Dining Room at the White House. “It’s exploitation.”At the meeting, Biden also pushed other federal agencies to take similar cost-saving actions, particularly by increasing transparency on hidden fees that can balloon the true cost of goods and services.One example is a proposal from the Federal Communications Commission that would require internet service providers to better outline fees and charges on what the administration calls a “broadband nutrition label.” And the Agriculture Department on Monday will also unveil new actions meant to encourage competition in various agricultural markets.The administration has taken similar actions when it comes to bank and credit card fees, which the White House says have saved consumers $3 billion annually compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.___

White House: New rule will show ‘true cost’ of plane tickets

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s plan for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-forgiveness-biden-plan-d9c8e18774a744187c9af634bf4eb728">student debt cancellation</a>&nbsp;will cost the federal government about $400 billion over the next 30 years, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

The figures were released Monday in response to a request from Republican lawmakers who oppose Biden’s plan in large part because of its costs. They were quick to cite the estimates as evidence that the plan will “bury” taxpayers, passing along the costs to huge numbers of Americans who never went to college.

The Biden administration previously estimated the plan would cost about $24 billion a year over the next 10 years — about $240 billion for the decade — while other estimates put the total cost at $500 billion or more over the decade.

On Monday, the White House noted that the CBO’s estimated cost in the first year — $21 billion — is actually lower than the administration’s early estimate of $24 billion.

To reach the CBO’s $400 billion figure, officials looked at the immediate cost of cancellation along with the longer-term impact, including lower monthly repayments that would have been higher if not for the cancellation.

The office separately estimated that Biden’s latest extension of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-payment-moratorium-extended-d54907ea99a6745dc9f832435beda751">student loan pause</a>&nbsp;will cost an additional $20 billion. Monthly payments on federal student loans have been frozen since the first weeks of the pandemic. Biden in August continued the pause through the end of the year, calling that the final extension.

Biden has played down the cost of the cancellation plan, saying it would be offset by other measures to reduce the federal deficit, including his landmark&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-congress-climate-and-environment-63df07e15002c01fb560a6f0e69fcb03">Inflation Reduction Act</a>. On Monday, the White House defended the plan, saying it will provide relief to struggling borrowers, allowing them to start businesses, buy homes or just pay their bills.

“It’s a stark contrast to the Trump tax bill, which ballooned the deficit by nearly $2 trillion and provided the vast majority of benefits to big corporations and the wealthiest individuals,” White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said.

The administration is expected to release its own detailed cost estimates in coming weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who supported debt cancellation, said they don’t agree with some of the assumptions underpinning the CBO estimates. But a joint statement from the senators said the estimates show that “millions of middle class Americans have more breathing room” thanks to Biden’s plan.

“Rather than working with Congress to bring down college costs, President Biden has opted to bury the American people under our unsustainable debt,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, the top Republican on the House education committee.

Biden’s plan promises to cancel $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers with incomes of less than $125,000 per year or households making less than $250,000. Those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college would get an additional $10,000 erased.

An application to receive the benefit is expected by early October. The fate of the plan largely depends on whether it can survive legal challenges that conservatives have promised to bring.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, out of 37 million Americans who have federal student loans, about 95% meet the income limit for $10,000 in relief. About 65% also received a Pell Grant, making them eligible for a $20,000 cancellation.

The office warned that its estimates are “highly uncertain” because it’s hard to know exactly how much borrowers would have paid in the future without Biden’s action. Some borrowers probably would have gotten their debt canceled anyway using payment plans that promise to cancel remaining debt after 10 or 20 years.

The estimates are based on everything that’s known about Biden’s plan now, but some details have yet to be hashed out. The office said it may revise its estimates as details emerge.

The $400 billion total notably does not include a separate loan payment plan that Biden proposed to help lower-income borrowers in the future. The new plan would be similar to existing plans that limit monthly bills based on a borrower’s income, but with more generous terms.

It would limit borrowers’ payments to 5% of their discretionary income, down from 10% now, and it would forgive any remaining balance after 10 years, down from 20 years now.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1660739578417.png" alt="The Biden administration previously estimated the plan would cost about $24 billion a year over the next 10 years -White House photo&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>The Biden administration previously estimated the plan would cost about $24 billion a year over the next 10 years -White House photo&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s plan for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-forgiveness-biden-plan-d9c8e18774a744187c9af634bf4eb728">student debt cancellation</a>&nbsp;will cost the federal government about $400 billion over the next 30 years, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Biden’s $300 billion student loan handout will fuel inflation and do nothing to actually lower the cost of higher education. My full statement below. <a href="https://t.co/NYRuDheaCL">pic.twitter.com/NYRuDheaCL</a>&mdash; Senator Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryMoran/status/1562547995228266496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The figures were released Monday in response to a request from Republican lawmakers who oppose Biden’s plan in large part because of its costs. They were quick to cite the estimates as evidence that the plan will “bury” taxpayers, passing along the costs to huge numbers of Americans who never went to college.The Biden administration previously estimated the plan would cost about $24 billion a year over the next 10 years — about $240 billion for the decade — while other estimates put the total cost at $500 billion or more over the decade.On Monday, the White House noted that the CBO’s estimated cost in the first year — $21 billion — is actually lower than the administration’s early estimate of $24 billion.To reach the CBO’s $400 billion figure, officials looked at the immediate cost of cancellation along with the longer-term impact, including lower monthly repayments that would have been higher if not for the cancellation.The office separately estimated that Biden’s latest extension of a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-payment-moratorium-extended-d54907ea99a6745dc9f832435beda751">student loan pause</a>&nbsp;will cost an additional $20 billion. Monthly payments on federal student loans have been frozen since the first weeks of the pandemic. Biden in August continued the pause through the end of the year, calling that the final extension.Biden has played down the cost of the cancellation plan, saying it would be offset by other measures to reduce the federal deficit, including his landmark&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-congress-climate-and-environment-63df07e15002c01fb560a6f0e69fcb03">Inflation Reduction Act</a>. On Monday, the White House defended the plan, saying it will provide relief to struggling borrowers, allowing them to start businesses, buy homes or just pay their bills.“It’s a stark contrast to the Trump tax bill, which ballooned the deficit by nearly $2 trillion and provided the vast majority of benefits to big corporations and the wealthiest individuals,” White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said.The administration is expected to release its own detailed cost estimates in coming weeks.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who supported debt cancellation, said they don’t agree with some of the assumptions underpinning the CBO estimates. But a joint statement from the senators said the estimates show that “millions of middle class Americans have more breathing room” thanks to Biden’s plan.Republicans didn’t see it that way.“Rather than working with Congress to bring down college costs, President Biden has opted to bury the American people under our unsustainable debt,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, the top Republican on the House education committee.Biden’s plan promises to cancel $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers with incomes of less than $125,000 per year or households making less than $250,000. Those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college would get an additional $10,000 erased.An application to receive the benefit is expected by early October. The fate of the plan largely depends on whether it can survive legal challenges that conservatives have promised to bring.The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, out of 37 million Americans who have federal student loans, about 95% meet the income limit for $10,000 in relief. About 65% also received a Pell Grant, making them eligible for a $20,000 cancellation.The office warned that its estimates are “highly uncertain” because it’s hard to know exactly how much borrowers would have paid in the future without Biden’s action. Some borrowers probably would have gotten their debt canceled anyway using payment plans that promise to cancel remaining debt after 10 or 20 years.The estimates are based on everything that’s known about Biden’s plan now, but some details have yet to be hashed out. The office said it may revise its estimates as details emerge.The $400 billion total notably does not include a separate loan payment plan that Biden proposed to help lower-income borrowers in the future. The new plan would be similar to existing plans that limit monthly bills based on a borrower’s income, but with more generous terms.It would limit borrowers’ payments to 5% of their discretionary income, down from 10% now, and it would forgive any remaining balance after 10 years, down from 20 years now.___

GOP: $400B estimated cost of student debt plan will bury taxpayers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard ship on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across a guided missile cruiser from China, officials said Monday.

But it turned out the cruiser wasn’t alone as it sailed about 86 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island, on Sept. 19.

The patrol boat, known as a cutter called Kimball, later discovered there were two other Chinese naval ships and four Russian naval vessels, including a destroyer, all in single formation.

The Honolulu-based Kimball, a 418-foot (127-meter) vessel, observed as the ships broke formation and dispersed. A C-130 Hercules provided air support for the Kimball from the Coast Guard station in Kodiak.

“While the formation has operated in accordance with international rules and norms, we will meet presence with presence to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska,” Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander said.

The Coast Guard said Operation Frontier Sentinel guidelines call for meeting “presence with presence” when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters.

The Kimball will continue to monitor the area.

The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to questions about the incident from The Associated Press.

The Chinese and Russian formation came a month after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned about China’s interest in the Arctic and Russia’s military buildup there.

Stoltenberg said Russia has set up a new Arctic Command and has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including deep-water ports and airfields.

China has declared itself a “near Arctic” state and plans to build the world’s largest icebreaker, he said.

“Beijing and Moscow have also pledged to intensify practical cooperation in the Arctic. This forms part of a deepening strategic partnership that challenges our values and interests,” Stoltenberg said in a visit to Canada’s north.

This wasn’t the first time Chinese naval ships have sailed near Alaska waters. In September 2021, Coast Guard cutters in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean encountered Chinese ships, some about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Aleutian Islands.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664245346407.png" alt="In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crew-member observes a foreign vessel in the Bering Sea, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across the guided missile cruiser from the People's Republic of China, officials said Monday, Sept. 26. (U.S. Coast Guard District 17 via AP)" />
 <figcaption>In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crew-member observes a foreign vessel in the Bering Sea, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across the guided missile cruiser from the People's Republic of China, officials said Monday, Sept. 26. (U.S. Coast Guard District 17 via AP)</figcaption>
 </figure>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard ship on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across a guided missile cruiser from China, officials said Monday.But it turned out the cruiser wasn’t alone as it sailed about 86 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island, on Sept. 19.The patrol boat, known as a cutter called Kimball, later discovered there were two other Chinese naval ships and four Russian naval vessels, including a destroyer, all in single formation.The Honolulu-based Kimball, a 418-foot (127-meter) vessel, observed as the ships broke formation and dispersed. A C-130 Hercules provided air support for the Kimball from the Coast Guard station in Kodiak.“While the formation has operated in accordance with international rules and norms, we will meet presence with presence to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska,” Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander said.The Coast Guard said Operation Frontier Sentinel guidelines call for meeting “presence with presence” when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters.The Kimball will continue to monitor the area.The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to questions about the incident from The Associated Press.The Chinese and Russian formation came a month after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned about China’s interest in the Arctic and Russia’s military buildup there.Stoltenberg said Russia has set up a new Arctic Command and has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including deep-water ports and airfields.China has declared itself a “near Arctic” state and plans to build the world’s largest icebreaker, he said.“Beijing and Moscow have also pledged to intensify practical cooperation in the Arctic. This forms part of a deepening strategic partnership that challenges our values and interests,” Stoltenberg said in a visit to Canada’s north.This wasn’t the first time Chinese naval ships have sailed near Alaska waters. In September 2021, Coast Guard cutters in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean encountered Chinese ships, some about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Aleutian Islands.

Coast Guard spots Chinese, Russian naval ships off Alaska 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.

The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit.

Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious — Dart’s radio signal abruptly ceased — it will be days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid’s path was changed.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/astronomy-space-exploration-science-asteroids-ee5f1594906d9666d0bee18209666102">The $325 million mission</a>&nbsp;was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.

“No, this is not a movie plot,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted earlier in the day. ”We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high,” he said in a prerecorded video.

Monday’s target: a 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid named Dimorphos. It’s actually a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid five times bigger that flung off the material that formed the junior partner.

The pair have been orbiting the sun for eons without threatening Earth, making them ideal save-the-world test candidates.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nasa-dart-spacecraft-asteroid-1f351c9ce5890c275f1f9b2c884a0278">Launched last November</a>, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — navigated to its target using new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission manager.

Dart’s on-board camera, a key part of this smart navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour before impact.

“Woo hoo,” exclaimed Johns Hopkins mission systems engineer Elena Adams. "We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”

With an image beaming back to Earth every second, Adams and other ground controllers in Laurel, Maryland, watched with growing excitement as Dimorphos loomed larger and larger in the field of view alongside its bigger companion.

A mini satellite followed a few minutes behind to take photos of the impact. The Italian Cubesat was released from Dart two weeks ago.

Scientists insisted Dart would not shatter Dimorphos. The spacecraft packed a scant 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms), compared with the asteroid’s 11 billion pounds (5 billion kilograms). But that should be plenty to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.

The impact should pare 10 minutes off that, but telescopes will need anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The anticipated orbital shift of 1% might not sound like much, scientists noted. But they stressed it would amount to a significant change over years.

Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given enough lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth. Multiple impactors might be needed for big space rocks or a combination of impactors and so-called gravity tractors, not-yet-invented devices that would use their own gravity to pull an asteroid into a safer orbit.

“The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program to help them know what was coming, but we do,” NASA’s senior climate adviser Katherine Calvin said, referring to the mass extinction 66 million years ago believed to have been caused by a major asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or both.

The non-profit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, has been pushing for impact tests like Dart since its founding by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago. Monday’s feat aside, the world must do a better job of identifying the countless space rocks lurking out there, warned the foundation’s executive director, Ed Lu, a former astronaut.

Significantly less than half of the estimated 25,000 near-Earth objects in the deadly 460-foot (140-meter) range have been discovered, according to NASA. And fewer than 1% of the millions of smaller asteroids, capable of widespread injuries, are known.

The Vera Rubin Observatory, nearing completion in Chile by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Energy Department, promises to revolutionize the field of asteroid discovery, Lu noted.

Finding and tracking asteroids, “That’s still the name of the game here. That’s the thing that has to happen in order to protect the Earth,” he said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — In the first-of-its kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg">Click here to watch</a>

A spacecraft named Dart will zero in on the asteroid Monday, intent on slamming it head-on at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). The impact should be just enough to nudge the asteroid into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion space rock — demonstrating that if a killer asteroid ever heads our way, we’d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.

“This is stuff of science-fiction books and really corny episodes of “StarTrek” from when I was a kid, and now it's real,” NASA program scientist Tom Statler said Thursday.

Cameras and telescopes will watch the crash, but it will take days or even weeks to find out if it actually changed the orbit.

The $325 million planetary defense test began with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nasa-dart-spacecraft-asteroid-1f351c9ce5890c275f1f9b2c884a0278">Dart’s launch last fall</a>.

The asteroid with the bull’s-eye on it is Dimorphos, about 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) from Earth. It is actually the puny sidekick of a 2,500-foot (780-meter) asteroid named Didymos, Greek for twin. Discovered in 1996, Didymos is spinning so fast that scientists believe it flung off material that eventually formed a moonlet. Dimorphos — roughly 525 feet (160 meters) across — orbits its parent body at a distance of less than a mile (1.2 kilometers).

“This really is about asteroid deflection, not disruption," said Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist and mission team leader at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the effort. "This isn’t going to blow up the asteroid. It isn’t going to put it into lots of pieces.” Rather, the impact will dig out a crater tens of yards (meters) in size and hurl some 2 million pounds (1 million kilograms) of rocks and dirt into space.

NASA insists there’s a zero chance either asteroid will threaten Earth — now or in the future. That’s why the pair was picked.

The Johns Hopkins lab took a minimalist approach in developing Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — given that it’s essentially a battering ram and faces sure destruction. It has a single instrument: a camera used for navigating, targeting and chronicling the final action. Believed to be essentially a rubble pile, Dimorphos will emerge as a point of light an hour before impact, looming larger and larger in the camera images beamed back to Earth. Managers are confident Dart won’t smash into the larger Didymos by mistake. The spacecraft’s navigation is designed to distinguish between the two asteroids and, in the final 50 minutes, target the smaller one.

The size of a small vending machine at 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms), the spacecraft will slam into roughly 11 billion pounds (5 billion kilograms) of asteroid. “Sometimes we describe it as running a golf cart into a Great Pyramid,” said Chabot.

Unless Dart misses — NASA puts the odds of that happening at less than 10% — it will be the end of the road for Dart. If it goes screaming past both space rocks, it will encounter them again in a couple years for Take 2.

Little Dimorphos completes a lap around big Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes. The impact by Dart should shave about 10 minutes off that. Although the strike itself should be immediately apparent, it could take a few weeks or more to verify the moonlet’s tweaked orbit. Cameras on Dart and a mini tagalong satellite will capture the collision up close. Telescopes on all seven continents, along with the Hubble and Webb space telescopes and NASA’s asteroid-hunting Lucy spacecraft, may see a bright flash as Dart smacks Dimorphos and sends streams of rock and dirt cascading into space. The observatories will track the pair of asteroids as they circle the sun, to see if Dart altered Dimorphos’ orbit. In 2024, a European spacecraft named Hera will retrace Dart’s journey to measure the impact results.

Although the intended nudge should change the moonlet’s position only slightly, that will add up to a major shift over time, according to Chabot. "So if you were going to do this for planetary defense, you would do it five, 10, 15, 20 years in advance in order for this technique to work,” she said. Even if Dart misses, the experiment still will provide valuable insight, said NASA program executive Andrea Riley. “This is why we test. We want to do it now rather than when there’s an actual need,” she said.

Planet Earth is on an asteroid-chasing roll. NASA has close to a pound (450 grams) of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/az-state-wire-asteroids-business-science-3210a89afa93601b008a3df1fe8a2608">rubble collected from asteroid Bennu</a>&nbsp;headed to Earth. The stash should arrive next September. Japan was the first to retrieve asteroid samples, accomplishing the feat twice. China hopes to follow suit with a mission launching in 2025.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-asteroids-solar-system-0c6eebb11448dd42329e7f77bee13e76">NASA’s Lucy spacecraft</a>, meanwhile, is headed to asteroids near Jupiter, after launching last year. Another spacecraft, Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, is loaded into NASA’s new moon rocket awaiting liftoff; it will use a solar sail to fly past a space rock that’s less than 60 feet (18 meters) next year. In the next few years, NASA also plans to launch a census-taking telescope to identify hard-to-find asteroids that could pose risks. One asteroid mission is grounded while an independent review board weighs its future.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/spacex-space-exploration-science-technology-asteroids-89670faaeff6db0690904920d345d257">NASA’s Psyche spacecraft</a>&nbsp;should have launched this year to a metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, but the team couldn’t test the flight software in time.

Hollywood has churned out dozens of killer-space-rock movies over the decades, including 1998′s “Armageddon” which brought Bruce Willis to Cape Canaveral for filming, and last year's “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo DiCaprio leading an all-star cast. NASA’s planetary defense officer, Lindley Johnson, figures he’s seen them all since 1979′s “Meteor,” his personal favorite “since Sean Connery played me.” While some of the sci-fi films are more accurate than others, he noted, entertainment always wins out. The good news is that the coast seems clear for the next century, with no known threats. Otherwise, “it would be like the movies, right?” said NASA’s science mission chief Thomas Zurbuchen. What’s worrisome, though, are the unknown threats. Fewer than half of the 460-foot (140-meter) objects have been confirmed, with millions of smaller but still-dangerous objects zooming around. “These threats are real, and what makes this time special, is we can do something about it,” Zurbuchen said. Not by blowing up an asteroid as Willis’ character did — that would be a last, last-minute resort — or by begging government leaders to take action as DiCaprio’s character did in vain. If time allows, the best tactic could be to nudge the menacing asteroid out of our way, like Dart.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664234470063.png" alt="NASA image" />
 <figcaption>NASA image</figcaption>
 </figure>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/21X5lGlDOfg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit.Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious — Dart’s radio signal abruptly ceased — it will be days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid’s path was changed.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/astronomy-space-exploration-science-asteroids-ee5f1594906d9666d0bee18209666102">The $325 million mission</a>&nbsp;was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.“No, this is not a movie plot,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted earlier in the day. ”We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high,” he said in a prerecorded video.Monday’s target: a 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid named Dimorphos. It’s actually a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid five times bigger that flung off the material that formed the junior partner.The pair have been orbiting the sun for eons without threatening Earth, making them ideal save-the-world test candidates.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664234411114.png" alt="Celebration moments after impact -image courtesy NASA" />
 <figcaption>Celebration moments after impact -image courtesy NASA</figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://apnews.com/article/nasa-dart-spacecraft-asteroid-1f351c9ce5890c275f1f9b2c884a0278">Launched last November</a>, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — navigated to its target using new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission manager.Dart’s on-board camera, a key part of this smart navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour before impact.“Woo hoo,” exclaimed Johns Hopkins mission systems engineer Elena Adams. "We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”With an image beaming back to Earth every second, Adams and other ground controllers in Laurel, Maryland, watched with growing excitement as Dimorphos loomed larger and larger in the field of view alongside its bigger companion.A mini satellite followed a few minutes behind to take photos of the impact. The Italian Cubesat was released from Dart two weeks ago.Scientists insisted Dart would not shatter Dimorphos. The spacecraft packed a scant 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms), compared with the asteroid’s 11 billion pounds (5 billion kilograms). But that should be plenty to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.The impact should pare 10 minutes off that, but telescopes will need anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The anticipated orbital shift of 1% might not sound like much, scientists noted. But they stressed it would amount to a significant change over years.Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given enough lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth. Multiple impactors might be needed for big space rocks or a combination of impactors and so-called gravity tractors, not-yet-invented devices that would use their own gravity to pull an asteroid into a safer orbit.“The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program to help them know what was coming, but we do,” NASA’s senior climate adviser Katherine Calvin said, referring to the mass extinction 66 million years ago believed to have been caused by a major asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or both.The non-profit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, has been pushing for impact tests like Dart since its founding by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago. Monday’s feat aside, the world must do a better job of identifying the countless space rocks lurking out there, warned the foundation’s executive director, Ed Lu, a former astronaut.Significantly less than half of the estimated 25,000 near-Earth objects in the deadly 460-foot (140-meter) range have been discovered, according to NASA. And fewer than 1% of the millions of smaller asteroids, capable of widespread injuries, are known.The Vera Rubin Observatory, nearing completion in Chile by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Energy Department, promises to revolutionize the field of asteroid discovery, Lu noted.Finding and tracking asteroids, “That’s still the name of the game here. That’s the thing that has to happen in order to protect the Earth,” he said.___CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — In the first-of-its kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg">Click here to watch</a><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664188855767.png" alt="llustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact at the Didymos binary system.&nbsp;Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben" />
 <figcaption>llustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact at the Didymos binary system.&nbsp;Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben</figcaption>
 </figure>A spacecraft named Dart will zero in on the asteroid Monday, intent on slamming it head-on at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). The impact should be just enough to nudge the asteroid into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion space rock — demonstrating that if a killer asteroid ever heads our way, we’d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.“This is stuff of science-fiction books and really corny episodes of “StarTrek” from when I was a kid, and now it's real,” NASA program scientist Tom Statler said Thursday.Cameras and telescopes will watch the crash, but it will take days or even weeks to find out if it actually changed the orbit.The $325 million planetary defense test began with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nasa-dart-spacecraft-asteroid-1f351c9ce5890c275f1f9b2c884a0278">Dart’s launch last fall</a>.ASTEROID TARGETThe asteroid with the bull’s-eye on it is Dimorphos, about 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) from Earth. It is actually the puny sidekick of a 2,500-foot (780-meter) asteroid named Didymos, Greek for twin. Discovered in 1996, Didymos is spinning so fast that scientists believe it flung off material that eventually formed a moonlet. Dimorphos — roughly 525 feet (160 meters) across — orbits its parent body at a distance of less than a mile (1.2 kilometers).“This really is about asteroid deflection, not disruption," said Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist and mission team leader at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the effort. "This isn’t going to blow up the asteroid. It isn’t going to put it into lots of pieces.” Rather, the impact will dig out a crater tens of yards (meters) in size and hurl some 2 million pounds (1 million kilograms) of rocks and dirt into space.NASA insists there’s a zero chance either asteroid will threaten Earth — now or in the future. That’s why the pair was picked.DART, THE IMPACTORThe Johns Hopkins lab took a minimalist approach in developing Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — given that it’s essentially a battering ram and faces sure destruction. It has a single instrument: a camera used for navigating, targeting and chronicling the final action. Believed to be essentially a rubble pile, Dimorphos will emerge as a point of light an hour before impact, looming larger and larger in the camera images beamed back to Earth. Managers are confident Dart won’t smash into the larger Didymos by mistake. The spacecraft’s navigation is designed to distinguish between the two asteroids and, in the final 50 minutes, target the smaller one.The size of a small vending machine at 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms), the spacecraft will slam into roughly 11 billion pounds (5 billion kilograms) of asteroid. “Sometimes we describe it as running a golf cart into a Great Pyramid,” said Chabot.Unless Dart misses — NASA puts the odds of that happening at less than 10% — it will be the end of the road for Dart. If it goes screaming past both space rocks, it will encounter them again in a couple years for Take 2.SAVING EARTHLittle Dimorphos completes a lap around big Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes. The impact by Dart should shave about 10 minutes off that. Although the strike itself should be immediately apparent, it could take a few weeks or more to verify the moonlet’s tweaked orbit. Cameras on Dart and a mini tagalong satellite will capture the collision up close. Telescopes on all seven continents, along with the Hubble and Webb space telescopes and NASA’s asteroid-hunting Lucy spacecraft, may see a bright flash as Dart smacks Dimorphos and sends streams of rock and dirt cascading into space. The observatories will track the pair of asteroids as they circle the sun, to see if Dart altered Dimorphos’ orbit. In 2024, a European spacecraft named Hera will retrace Dart’s journey to measure the impact results.Although the intended nudge should change the moonlet’s position only slightly, that will add up to a major shift over time, according to Chabot. "So if you were going to do this for planetary defense, you would do it five, 10, 15, 20 years in advance in order for this technique to work,” she said. Even if Dart misses, the experiment still will provide valuable insight, said NASA program executive Andrea Riley. “This is why we test. We want to do it now rather than when there’s an actual need,” she said.ASTEROID MISSIONS GALOREPlanet Earth is on an asteroid-chasing roll. NASA has close to a pound (450 grams) of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/az-state-wire-asteroids-business-science-3210a89afa93601b008a3df1fe8a2608">rubble collected from asteroid Bennu</a>&nbsp;headed to Earth. The stash should arrive next September. Japan was the first to retrieve asteroid samples, accomplishing the feat twice. China hopes to follow suit with a mission launching in 2025.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-business-asteroids-solar-system-0c6eebb11448dd42329e7f77bee13e76">NASA’s Lucy spacecraft</a>, meanwhile, is headed to asteroids near Jupiter, after launching last year. Another spacecraft, Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, is loaded into NASA’s new moon rocket awaiting liftoff; it will use a solar sail to fly past a space rock that’s less than 60 feet (18 meters) next year. In the next few years, NASA also plans to launch a census-taking telescope to identify hard-to-find asteroids that could pose risks. One asteroid mission is grounded while an independent review board weighs its future.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/spacex-space-exploration-science-technology-asteroids-89670faaeff6db0690904920d345d257">NASA’s Psyche spacecraft</a>&nbsp;should have launched this year to a metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, but the team couldn’t test the flight software in time.HOLLYWOOD’S TAKEHollywood has churned out dozens of killer-space-rock movies over the decades, including 1998′s “Armageddon” which brought Bruce Willis to Cape Canaveral for filming, and last year's “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo DiCaprio leading an all-star cast. NASA’s planetary defense officer, Lindley Johnson, figures he’s seen them all since 1979′s “Meteor,” his personal favorite “since Sean Connery played me.” While some of the sci-fi films are more accurate than others, he noted, entertainment always wins out. The good news is that the coast seems clear for the next century, with no known threats. Otherwise, “it would be like the movies, right?” said NASA’s science mission chief Thomas Zurbuchen. What’s worrisome, though, are the unknown threats. Fewer than half of the 460-foot (140-meter) objects have been confirmed, with millions of smaller but still-dangerous objects zooming around. “These threats are real, and what makes this time special, is we can do something about it,” Zurbuchen said. Not by blowing up an asteroid as Willis’ character did — that would be a last, last-minute resort — or by begging government leaders to take action as DiCaprio’s character did in vain. If time allows, the best tactic could be to nudge the menacing asteroid out of our way, like Dart.___

🎥 Defend Earth: NASA spacecraft crashes into asteroid in test

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections, a partisan practice that has been legal for over a century but became much more fraught after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">a violent mob</a>&nbsp;of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">attacked the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;last year.

In an effort to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-presidential-constitutions-congress-ba742c9f4c67c5189a6a6c9f8531721e">bills moving through the House and the Senate</a>&nbsp;would make it harder to lodge those objections when Congress counts the electoral votes in a joint session after every presidential election. The move to curtail the objections is part of a larger effort to overhaul the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act and safeguard the integrity of the vote after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;tried to persuade his Republican allies in Congress to vote against&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">Democrat Joe Biden’s victory</a>&nbsp;and overturn his 2020 defeat.

Under current law, only one member of the House and one member of the Senate has to challenge a state’s results to trigger votes on that state’s electors in each chamber. If a simple majority in each chamber votes to sustain the objection, that state’s votes can be thrown out.

The House and Senate bills would each raise that threshold substantially, with the House bill requiring a third of each chamber to object and the Senate bill requiring a fifth of each chamber to object. The House legislation,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-presidential-constitutions-election-2020-32c6ea94829f95d11f7696d2cba542b6">passed last week</a>, would also lay out new requirements for the grounds for an objection.

“It is just too easy to trigger an objection when it only requires one person in each chamber,” says Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican co-sponsor of the Senate version. Eleven GOP senators have signed on to the legislation, which is up for a vote in a Senate committee on Tuesday.

If the bills are consolidated into one measure that becomes law, it will do away with a tradition that has become increasingly popular as Congress has become more polarized.

Democrats have objected the last three times that Republicans were elected — twice against George W. Bush and once against Trump — but in each of those cases the Democratic candidate had already conceded the election.

The stakes were raised considerably in 2021, when Trump and his allies were actively trying to thwart Biden’s win, with a strategy to throw out Biden electors in Congress and the support of a violent mob that broke into the Capitol, interrupted the joint session and threatened the lives of lawmakers and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mike-pence-electoral-vote-d27490021b4203087043df1939b82f8b">Vice President Mike Pence</a>.

House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of California, the Democratic sponsor of the House bill with Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said the bill would protect the voters’ will from “frivolous” objections and more sinister efforts.

“If you want to object to the vote, you better have your colleagues and the Constitution on your side,” Lofgren said just before the bill passed. “Don’t try to overturn our democracy.”

At the 2021 joint session, two GOP senators —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-2022-midterm-elections-biden-presidential-texas-b87d4001f2d03df10fa050af5b0b1239">Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri</a>&nbsp;— joined a larger group of House Republicans in objecting to Biden’s electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, two swing states that Trump had won in the 2016 election but lost in 2020. Both the House and the Senate voted to certify Biden’s win in those states in the hours after the rioters had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/docs-expose-depth-january-6-capitol-siege-chaos-fd3204574c11e453be8fb4e3c81258c3">injured police officers</a>, rampaged through the Capitol and sent lawmakers running for their lives. But eight senators and almost 140 members of the House voted to sustain the objections.

Congress had only held such votes twice since the enactment of the Electoral Count Act 135 years ago. In 1969, two Democratic senators joined a member of the House to object to the vote of one elector in North Carolina during the certification of Republican Richard Nixon’s victory. In 2004, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, objected to President George W. Bush’s electors in Ohio over what they said were voting irregularities.

In both cases, the House and the Senate rejected the objections.

In several other instances, members of the House have lodged objections without the support of a senator. In 2000, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus objected to Bush’s electors in Florida after the Supreme Court had forced a halt to vote-counting in that state and decided the election. Vice President Al Gore, whom Bush had defeated, gaveled the objections down as he presided over the session.

In 2016, several Democrats stood and objected to Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton but no senator joined, and Vice President Joe Biden dismissed them. Like Gore, Clinton had already conceded defeat.

Members on both sides of the Capitol have been working on the revisions to the Electoral Count Act since the 2021 insurrection, saying the law’s vague language was not robust enough protection against Trump’s overt attempts to subvert the will of the people. The bills would also clarify that the vice president’s role is solely ceremonial and try to prevent states from creating slates of illegitimate electors, as Trump’s allies tried to do.

The House bill is more expansive than the Senate bill, and the two sides will eventually have to resolve their differences into a single measure. That includes the House language with new grounds for any objection, which would restrict the process even further.

Under the House legislation, no member could make an objection unless it fell under a strict set of parameters that relate to the Constitution — that the state is not validly a state, if the state submits too many electoral votes or if a candidate is not eligible, for example.

House Republicans argued against the legislation by saying it was a political attack on Trump, noting the frequent Democratic objections over the years. It only received nine Republican votes, all from members who are not returning to the House next year.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., responded that if lawmakers believed there had been too many objections in the past, “you should absolutely be supporting this legislation.”

Hawley, who was photographed raising a fist to pro-Trump protesters outside the Capitol ahead of last year’s joint session, said in an interview that he is “skeptical” of the effort to change a law that has been in place for so many years.

“My concern is that it’s going to look like to Republican voters that Democrats can object as much as often as they want,” the Missouri Republican said, noting the objections in 2000, 2004 and 2016.

“As soon as Republicans do, they change the law,” Hawley said. “I can promise you, that will be the perception.”

Still, 11 Republican senators have signed on to the Senate bill, enough to break a filibuster and pass the bill in the 50-50 Senate.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring, was the latest GOP senator to sign on to the legislation last week.

“The poor drafting of the 1887 Electoral Count Act endangered the transition of power from one Administration to the next,” Toomey said when he announced his support.

“Unfortunately, in the over 100 intervening years, individual Democratic and Republican members of Congress have occasionally attempted to exploit the ambiguities in this law to cast doubt on the validity of our elections, culminating in the debacle of January 6, 2021," he said. "It is past time Congress act.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1609956651601.png" alt="Former Vice President Mike Pence as he presided over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s election victory-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Former Vice President Mike Pence as he presided over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s election victory-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections, a partisan practice that has been legal for over a century but became much more fraught after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">a violent mob</a>&nbsp;of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">attacked the U.S. Capitol</a>&nbsp;last year.In an effort to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-presidential-constitutions-congress-ba742c9f4c67c5189a6a6c9f8531721e">bills moving through the House and the Senate</a>&nbsp;would make it harder to lodge those objections when Congress counts the electoral votes in a joint session after every presidential election. The move to curtail the objections is part of a larger effort to overhaul the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act and safeguard the integrity of the vote after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Trump</a>&nbsp;tried to persuade his Republican allies in Congress to vote against&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">Democrat Joe Biden’s victory</a>&nbsp;and overturn his 2020 defeat.Under current law, only one member of the House and one member of the Senate has to challenge a state’s results to trigger votes on that state’s electors in each chamber. If a simple majority in each chamber votes to sustain the objection, that state’s votes can be thrown out.The House and Senate bills would each raise that threshold substantially, with the House bill requiring a third of each chamber to object and the Senate bill requiring a fifth of each chamber to object. The House legislation,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-presidential-constitutions-election-2020-32c6ea94829f95d11f7696d2cba542b6">passed last week</a>, would also lay out new requirements for the grounds for an objection.“It is just too easy to trigger an objection when it only requires one person in each chamber,” says Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican co-sponsor of the Senate version. Eleven GOP senators have signed on to the legislation, which is up for a vote in a Senate committee on Tuesday.If the bills are consolidated into one measure that becomes law, it will do away with a tradition that has become increasingly popular as Congress has become more polarized.Democrats have objected the last three times that Republicans were elected — twice against George W. Bush and once against Trump — but in each of those cases the Democratic candidate had already conceded the election.The stakes were raised considerably in 2021, when Trump and his allies were actively trying to thwart Biden’s win, with a strategy to throw out Biden electors in Congress and the support of a violent mob that broke into the Capitol, interrupted the joint session and threatened the lives of lawmakers and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mike-pence-electoral-vote-d27490021b4203087043df1939b82f8b">Vice President Mike Pence</a>.House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of California, the Democratic sponsor of the House bill with Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said the bill would protect the voters’ will from “frivolous” objections and more sinister efforts.“If you want to object to the vote, you better have your colleagues and the Constitution on your side,” Lofgren said just before the bill passed. “Don’t try to overturn our democracy.”At the 2021 joint session, two GOP senators —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-2022-midterm-elections-biden-presidential-texas-b87d4001f2d03df10fa050af5b0b1239">Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri</a>&nbsp;— joined a larger group of House Republicans in objecting to Biden’s electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, two swing states that Trump had won in the 2016 election but lost in 2020. Both the House and the Senate voted to certify Biden’s win in those states in the hours after the rioters had&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/docs-expose-depth-january-6-capitol-siege-chaos-fd3204574c11e453be8fb4e3c81258c3">injured police officers</a>, rampaged through the Capitol and sent lawmakers running for their lives. But eight senators and almost 140 members of the House voted to sustain the objections.Congress had only held such votes twice since the enactment of the Electoral Count Act 135 years ago. In 1969, two Democratic senators joined a member of the House to object to the vote of one elector in North Carolina during the certification of Republican Richard Nixon’s victory. In 2004, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, objected to President George W. Bush’s electors in Ohio over what they said were voting irregularities.In both cases, the House and the Senate rejected the objections.In several other instances, members of the House have lodged objections without the support of a senator. In 2000, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus objected to Bush’s electors in Florida after the Supreme Court had forced a halt to vote-counting in that state and decided the election. Vice President Al Gore, whom Bush had defeated, gaveled the objections down as he presided over the session.In 2016, several Democrats stood and objected to Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton but no senator joined, and Vice President Joe Biden dismissed them. Like Gore, Clinton had already conceded defeat.Members on both sides of the Capitol have been working on the revisions to the Electoral Count Act since the 2021 insurrection, saying the law’s vague language was not robust enough protection against Trump’s overt attempts to subvert the will of the people. The bills would also clarify that the vice president’s role is solely ceremonial and try to prevent states from creating slates of illegitimate electors, as Trump’s allies tried to do.The House bill is more expansive than the Senate bill, and the two sides will eventually have to resolve their differences into a single measure. That includes the House language with new grounds for any objection, which would restrict the process even further.Under the House legislation, no member could make an objection unless it fell under a strict set of parameters that relate to the Constitution — that the state is not validly a state, if the state submits too many electoral votes or if a candidate is not eligible, for example.House Republicans argued against the legislation by saying it was a political attack on Trump, noting the frequent Democratic objections over the years. It only received nine Republican votes, all from members who are not returning to the House next year.Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., responded that if lawmakers believed there had been too many objections in the past, “you should absolutely be supporting this legislation.”Hawley, who was photographed raising a fist to pro-Trump protesters outside the Capitol ahead of last year’s joint session, said in an interview that he is “skeptical” of the effort to change a law that has been in place for so many years.“My concern is that it’s going to look like to Republican voters that Democrats can object as much as often as they want,” the Missouri Republican said, noting the objections in 2000, 2004 and 2016.“As soon as Republicans do, they change the law,” Hawley said. “I can promise you, that will be the perception.”Still, 11 Republican senators have signed on to the Senate bill, enough to break a filibuster and pass the bill in the 50-50 Senate.Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring, was the latest GOP senator to sign on to the legislation last week.“The poor drafting of the 1887 Electoral Count Act endangered the transition of power from one Administration to the next,” Toomey said when he announced his support.“Unfortunately, in the over 100 intervening years, individual Democratic and Republican members of Congress have occasionally attempted to exploit the ambiguities in this law to cast doubt on the validity of our elections, culminating in the debacle of January 6, 2021," he said. "It is past time Congress act.”

Bills would curtail objections at future Jan. 6 vote counts

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mining company that wants to extract an assortment of rare elements from southeast Nebraska has announced an agreement that will provide up to $285 million to help cover the roughly $1.1 billion cost of building the mine.

In addition to the acquisition of a special purpose acquisition company called GX Acquisition Corp. II that NioCorp announced Monday, the Centennial, Colorado, company also signed letters of intent to borrow up to $81 million more from Yorkville Advisors Global. So NioCorp could get as much as $366 million to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-united-states-environment-nebraska-6f820e066c12ad04853fc832e674a33e">finance the project</a>.

NioCorp CEO Mark Smith said “these transactions have the potential to put NioCorp on the fast track to obtain the required project financing.”

The main element NioCorp plans to produce at the mine about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Omaha near the town of Elk Creek is a heat resistant element called niobium along with scandium and titanium. The company has said analysis of samples from the site shows there is also a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-united-states-nebraska-omaha-30977658a2fd9b19ad94bf9858e5e5f4">significant amount of rare earth elements</a>&nbsp;there like the ones President Joe Biden wants to produce more of domestically. But it’s not yet sure whether it will be economically feasible to also produce some of those elements that are used to create the strong magnets used in a variety of high-tech products such as electric vehicles and cell phones.

Biden has said the United States needs to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers of critical minerals. China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earth elements.

Dean C. Kehler, Co-Chairman and CEO of GXII said NioCorp should be able to help with Biden’s goal if it can raise the rest of the money it needs to begin producing niobium, scandium and possibly rare earth elements.

“We believe NioCorp is well-positioned to be a reliable, US-based supplier that will produce these products on a sustainable basis,” Kehler said.

It won't be clear exactly how much money this transaction will give NioCorp until closer to when the deal is expected to close early next year because some investors could pull their money out of the GXII fund before closing.

GXII is a one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/financial-markets-charlotte-705dbc9454023c64daf41e2024086c77">risky shell companies</a>&nbsp;known as SPACs that became popular on Wall Street in recent years before many of them fell out of favor and had to be liquidated without ever completing a transaction. A SPAC is essentially a blank check company created solely to merge with another business to invest in it.

While SPACs are often used to help companies go public, NioCorp is already a publicly traded company, but this deal is expected to give it a listing on the NASDAQ, which would help it attract more investors. NioCorp has been actively exploring the Nebraska site for more than seven years, and since 2013, it has raised more than $80 million to pay for its efforts.

The proposed mine is expected to create over 400 jobs if it is ever built.

The U.S. imports all the niobium and scandium and most of the titanium and rare earths that NioCorp hopes to produce. There is only one American mine that produces rare earths now at a site in California. NioCorp says its deposit of rare earth elements is second only to that Mountain Pass mine that MP Materials runs in California.

By Associated PressOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A mining company that wants to extract an assortment of rare elements from southeast Nebraska has announced an agreement that will provide up to $285 million to help cover the roughly $1.1 billion cost of building the mine.In addition to the acquisition of a special purpose acquisition company called GX Acquisition Corp. II that NioCorp announced Monday, the Centennial, Colorado, company also signed letters of intent to borrow up to $81 million more from Yorkville Advisors Global. So NioCorp could get as much as $366 million to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-united-states-environment-nebraska-6f820e066c12ad04853fc832e674a33e">finance the project</a>.NioCorp CEO Mark Smith said “these transactions have the potential to put NioCorp on the fast track to obtain the required project financing.”The main element NioCorp plans to produce at the mine about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Omaha near the town of Elk Creek is a heat resistant element called niobium along with scandium and titanium. The company has said analysis of samples from the site shows there is also a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-united-states-nebraska-omaha-30977658a2fd9b19ad94bf9858e5e5f4">significant amount of rare earth elements</a>&nbsp;there like the ones President Joe Biden wants to produce more of domestically. But it’s not yet sure whether it will be economically feasible to also produce some of those elements that are used to create the strong magnets used in a variety of high-tech products such as electric vehicles and cell phones.Biden has said the United States needs to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers of critical minerals. China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earth elements.Dean C. Kehler, Co-Chairman and CEO of GXII said NioCorp should be able to help with Biden’s goal if it can raise the rest of the money it needs to begin producing niobium, scandium and possibly rare earth elements.“We believe NioCorp is well-positioned to be a reliable, US-based supplier that will produce these products on a sustainable basis,” Kehler said.It won't be clear exactly how much money this transaction will give NioCorp until closer to when the deal is expected to close early next year because some investors could pull their money out of the GXII fund before closing.GXII is a one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/financial-markets-charlotte-705dbc9454023c64daf41e2024086c77">risky shell companies</a>&nbsp;known as SPACs that became popular on Wall Street in recent years before many of them fell out of favor and had to be liquidated without ever completing a transaction. A SPAC is essentially a blank check company created solely to merge with another business to invest in it.While SPACs are often used to help companies go public, NioCorp is already a publicly traded company, but this deal is expected to give it a listing on the NASDAQ, which would help it attract more investors. NioCorp has been actively exploring the Nebraska site for more than seven years, and since 2013, it has raised more than $80 million to pay for its efforts.The proposed mine is expected to create over 400 jobs if it is ever built.The U.S. imports all the niobium and scandium and most of the titanium and rare earths that NioCorp hopes to produce. There is only one American mine that produces rare earths now at a site in California. NioCorp says its deposit of rare earth elements is second only to that Mountain Pass mine that MP Materials runs in California.

Proposed Nebraska mine raises up to $366M of $1.1B it needs

&nbsp;WASHINGTON —Pfizer Inc.&nbsp;and&nbsp;BioNTech SE&nbsp;on Monday announced they have completed a submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a 10-µg booster dose of the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age, according to a statement from the company.

The request for Emergency Use Authorization of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine in this age group is supported by safety and immunogenicity data from the companies’ Omicron BA.1-adapted bivalent vaccine, non-clinical and manufacturing data from the companies’ 10-µg Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine, and preclinical data from the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine. 

Earlier this month, the&nbsp;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;endorsed the reformulated COVID-19 vaccine booster by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use in people ages 12 and older. The agency also endorsed the use of Moderna’s bivalent booster in adults ages 18 and older.

The companies have also initiated a Phase 1/2/3 study (<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=w0ykE0ip4Xlc-0tV6qe4-Wfp_QdMf3zjmuNE0KYuYEygfRYq7qBtV2XdDDGnMaotHZzoiIGm939UX_5iHP7lkJfp5aoyIQDb4QWnceRNTV4IKC1byaDRx6ghFQQd4MFw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NCT05543616</a>, C4591048) to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of different doses and dosing regimens of the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in children 6 months through 11 years of age. This pediatric study is consistent with regulatory guidance and follows a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=SrqULrivkP9OFE-84gLKoNljlZz4RebTxQ9u4Rcmf7kwbHjUwTZcTJTpkf58SUn5b27GBjYbSJ3TiNffQafMnprmA8lLLRsoeGBKbpMBH_2f9qBI3MrZJRHqn0JkiES6ljRp8X_kWswaU5iPJv4k2GmRomJosLF4pqImGrwk8nM1hzJYbyKLeOhtEQGRFecquKsfKCvBEfx1A5sHMQqWvQ==" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">previous</a>&nbsp;Phase 1/2/3 trial involving these age groups that demonstrated the original Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is well-tolerated and offers a high level of protection against COVID-19, measured at a time when the Omicron BA.2 strain was highly prevalent.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech is the Marketing Authorization Holder for BNT162b2 (COMIRNATY®) in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries, and the holder of emergency use authorizations or equivalents in the United States (jointly with Pfizer) and other countries. Submissions to pursue regulatory approvals in those countries where emergency use authorizations or equivalent were initially granted are planned.

About the Study The Phase 1/2/3 pediatric clinical study will have four substudies examining different bivalent COVID-19 vaccine dose regimens and dose levels across different ages, including:

U.S. INDICATION &amp; AUTHORIZED USE PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE, BIVALENT (ORIGINAL AND OMICRON BA.4/BA.5) AUTHORIZED USES&nbsp;

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5)&nbsp;is FDA-authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in individuals 12 years of age and older as a single booster dose administered at least 2 months after either:

*Monovalent refers to any authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccine that contains or encodes the spike protein of only the Original SARS-CoV-2 virus&nbsp;

COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) INDICATION COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is a vaccine approved for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 12 years of age and older.

COMIRNATY®&nbsp;AUTHORIZED USES COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is FDA-authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to provide:

PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE AUTHORIZED USES&nbsp;

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is FDA&nbsp;authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in individuals 6 months and older to provide: Primary Series

Emergency uses of the original and bivalent vaccines have not been approved or licensed by FDA, but have been authorized by FDA, under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) in:

The emergency uses are only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of the medical product under Section 564(b)(1) of the FD&amp;C Act unless the declaration is terminated or authorization revoked sooner.&nbsp;

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5),&nbsp;COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine

Tell your vaccination provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you:

Seek medical attention right away if you have any of the following symptoms:&nbsp;difficulty breathing, swelling of the face and throat, a fast heartbeat, a bad rash all over the body, dizziness, and weakness&nbsp;

Side effects that have been reported with these vaccines include:&nbsp;

These may not be all the possible side effects of the vaccine. Call the vaccination provider or healthcare provider about bothersome side effects or side effects that do not go away.

&nbsp;WASHINGTON —Pfizer Inc.&nbsp;and&nbsp;BioNTech SE&nbsp;on Monday announced they have completed a submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a 10-µg booster dose of the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age, according to a statement from the company.The request for Emergency Use Authorization of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine in this age group is supported by safety and immunogenicity data from the companies’ Omicron BA.1-adapted bivalent vaccine, non-clinical and manufacturing data from the companies’ 10-µg Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine, and preclinical data from the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine. Earlier this month, the&nbsp;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;endorsed the reformulated COVID-19 vaccine booster by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use in people ages 12 and older. The agency also endorsed the use of Moderna’s bivalent booster in adults ages 18 and older.The companies have also initiated a Phase 1/2/3 study (<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=w0ykE0ip4Xlc-0tV6qe4-Wfp_QdMf3zjmuNE0KYuYEygfRYq7qBtV2XdDDGnMaotHZzoiIGm939UX_5iHP7lkJfp5aoyIQDb4QWnceRNTV4IKC1byaDRx6ghFQQd4MFw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NCT05543616</a>, C4591048) to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of different doses and dosing regimens of the companies’ Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in children 6 months through 11 years of age. This pediatric study is consistent with regulatory guidance and follows a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=SrqULrivkP9OFE-84gLKoNljlZz4RebTxQ9u4Rcmf7kwbHjUwTZcTJTpkf58SUn5b27GBjYbSJ3TiNffQafMnprmA8lLLRsoeGBKbpMBH_2f9qBI3MrZJRHqn0JkiES6ljRp8X_kWswaU5iPJv4k2GmRomJosLF4pqImGrwk8nM1hzJYbyKLeOhtEQGRFecquKsfKCvBEfx1A5sHMQqWvQ==" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">previous</a>&nbsp;Phase 1/2/3 trial involving these age groups that demonstrated the original Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is well-tolerated and offers a high level of protection against COVID-19, measured at a time when the Omicron BA.2 strain was highly prevalent.The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech is the Marketing Authorization Holder for BNT162b2 (COMIRNATY®) in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries, and the holder of emergency use authorizations or equivalents in the United States (jointly with Pfizer) and other countries. Submissions to pursue regulatory approvals in those countries where emergency use authorizations or equivalent were initially granted are planned.About the Study The Phase 1/2/3 pediatric clinical study will have four substudies examining different bivalent COVID-19 vaccine dose regimens and dose levels across different ages, including:<ul>
 <li>Substudy A (ages 6 through 23 months who are COVID-19 vaccine-naïve):&nbsp;Phase 1 dose-finding study will evaluate 3-µg, 6-µg and 10-µg dose levels of the bivalent vaccine. Based on Phase 1, participants in the Phase 2/3 will receive the selected dose as a three-dose primary series, followed by a booster dose.</li><li>Substudy B (ages 6 months through 4 years who previously received 2-3 doses of original COVID-19 vaccine):&nbsp;Those who have received two doses of the original COVID-19 vaccine prior to enrollment will receive both a third and fourth 3-µg dose of the bivalent vaccine. Those who have previously received three doses of the original vaccine will receive a 3-µg booster (fourth) dose of the bivalent vaccine.</li><li>Substudy C (ages 6 months through 4 years who previously received 3 doses of original COVID-19 vaccine):&nbsp;Phase 1 dose-finding study will evaluate 6-µg and 10-µg dose levels of the bivalent vaccine as a fourth dose. Based on Phase 1, Phase 2/3 will receive the selected dose as a fourth dose.</li><li>Substudy D (ages 5 through 11 years who previously received 2-3 doses of original COVID-19 vaccine):&nbsp;Participants will receive the bivalent vaccine as either a third or fourth 10-µg booster dose.</li>
 </ul>U.S. INDICATION &amp; AUTHORIZED USE PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE, BIVALENT (ORIGINAL AND OMICRON BA.4/BA.5) AUTHORIZED USES&nbsp;Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5)&nbsp;is FDA-authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in individuals 12 years of age and older as a single booster dose administered at least 2 months after either:<ul>
 <li>completion of primary vaccination with any authorized or approved monovalent* COVID-19 vaccine; or</li><li>receipt of the most recent booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>*Monovalent refers to any authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccine that contains or encodes the spike protein of only the Original SARS-CoV-2 virus&nbsp;COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) INDICATION COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is a vaccine approved for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 12 years of age and older.COMIRNATY®&nbsp;AUTHORIZED USES COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is FDA-authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to provide:Primary Series<ul>
 <li>a third primary series dose to individuals 12 years of age and older who have certain kinds of immunocompromise</li>
 </ul>PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE AUTHORIZED USES&nbsp;Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is FDA&nbsp;authorized under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in individuals 6 months and older to provide: Primary Series<ul>
 <li>a 3-dose primary series to individuals 6 months through 4 years of age</li><li>a 2-dose primary series to individuals 5 years through 11 years of age</li><li>a third primary series dose to individuals 5 years through 11 years of age with certain kinds of immunocompromise</li>
 </ul>Booster<ul>
 <li>a single booster dose to individuals 5 through 11 years of age who have completed a primary series with Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine</li>
 </ul>EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATIONEmergency uses of the original and bivalent vaccines have not been approved or licensed by FDA, but have been authorized by FDA, under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) in:<ul>
 <li>individuals 6 months of age and older (original vaccine)</li><li>individuals 12 years of age and older (bivalent vaccine)&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>The emergency uses are only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of the medical product under Section 564(b)(1) of the FD&amp;C Act unless the declaration is terminated or authorization revoked sooner.&nbsp;IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATIONPfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5),&nbsp;COMIRNATY®&nbsp;(COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 VaccineTell your vaccination provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you:<ul>
 <li>have any allergies</li><li>have had myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) or pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart)</li><li>have a fever</li><li>have a bleeding disorder or are on a blood thinner</li><li>are immunocompromised or are on a medicine that affects the immune system</li><li>are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding</li><li>have received another COVID-19 vaccine</li><li>have ever fainted in association with an injection</li><li>COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5) may not protect all vaccine recipients.&nbsp;</li><li>You should not receive Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5) if you have had a severe allergic reaction to after a previous dose of COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) or the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 Vaccine or had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in these vaccines&nbsp;</li><li>There is a remote chance that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5) could cause a severe allergic reaction. A severe allergic reaction would usually occur within a few minutes to 1 hour after getting a dose of the vaccine. For this reason, your vaccination provider may ask you to stay at the place where you received the vaccine for monitoring after vaccination. If you experience a severe allergic reaction, call 9-1-1 or go to the nearest hospital</li>
 </ul>Seek medical attention right away if you have any of the following symptoms:&nbsp;difficulty breathing, swelling of the face and throat, a fast heartbeat, a bad rash all over the body, dizziness, and weakness&nbsp;<ul>
 <li>Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart) have occurred in some people who have received COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA) or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. The observed risk is higher among adolescent males and adult males under 40 years of age than among females and older males, and the observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age. In most of these people, symptoms began within the first week following receipt of the second primary series dose or first booster dose, with most booster doses administered at least 5 months after completing primary vaccination. The chance of having this occur is very low.&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>Side effects that have been reported with these vaccines include:&nbsp;<ul>
 <li>Severe allergic reactions&nbsp;</li><li>Non-severe allergic reactions such as rash, itching, hives, or swelling of the face&nbsp;</li><li>Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle)&nbsp;</li><li>Pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart)&nbsp;</li><li>Injection site pain&nbsp;</li><li>Tiredness&nbsp;</li><li>Headache&nbsp;</li><li>Muscle pain&nbsp;</li><li>Chills&nbsp;</li><li>Joint pain&nbsp;</li><li>Fever&nbsp;</li><li>Injection site swelling&nbsp;</li><li>Injection site redness&nbsp;</li><li>Nausea&nbsp;</li><li>Feeling unwell&nbsp;</li><li>Swollen lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy)&nbsp;</li><li>Decreased appetite&nbsp;</li><li>Diarrhea&nbsp;</li><li>Vomiting&nbsp;</li><li>Arm pain&nbsp;</li><li>Fainting in association with injection of the vaccine&nbsp;</li><li>Unusual and persistent irritability</li><li>Unusual and persistent poor feeding</li><li>Unusual and persistent fatigue or lack of energy</li><li>Unusual and persistent cool, pale skin</li>
 </ul>These may not be all the possible side effects of the vaccine. Call the vaccination provider or healthcare provider about bothersome side effects or side effects that do not go away.<ul>
 <li>Individuals should always ask their healthcare providers for medical advice about adverse events. Report vaccine side effects to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The VAERS toll-free number is 1‐800‐822‐7967 or report online to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html</a>. In addition, individuals can report side effects to Pfizer Inc. at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pfizersafetyreporting.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.pfizersafetyreporting.com</a>&nbsp;or by calling 1-800-438-1985</li>
 </ul>

Pfizer: Emergency request for COVID omicron booster in kids

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/26/nu-regents-to-vote-on-innovation-hub-project-that-expands-unmc-campus/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

OMAHA — A favorable vote this Friday 
would trigger full-throated transformation of an old steel mill 
operation into the Catalyst, a $60 million entrepreneurial tech hub 
meant to expand the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.&nbsp;

Various enterprises are to be housed 
at the retrofitted, enlarged and infilled structure west of Saddle Creek
 Road, including new branches of UNeMed and UNeTech, which help spark 
health care startups.

UNMC is to own an anchor chunk — 
about a quarter — of the Catalyst’s 160,000 square feet or so of 
business and office space. The medical center also owns the land 
underneath it all.

So the vote to be cast Sept. 30 by 
the University of Nebraska Board of Regents is needed to launch major 
construction of the redevelopment vision that’s been years in the 
making. (Cleanup, site preparation and design work has been ongoing.)

More specifically, said an NU 
spokesperson, the Regents’ action during their meeting in Kearney&nbsp;would 
approve final details such as the ground lease, ownership arrangement 
and $29 million in UNMC costs.

“The Catalyst project will transition
 the Saddle Creek campus from industry to innovation,” says a statement 
prepared for the Regents by UNMC and architect Alley Poyner Macchietto.

“The redevelopment is a one-of-a-kind
 opportunity to symbolically take a keystone of Omaha’s 20th century 
heavy industry and reinvigorate it into a cornerstone of Omaha’s 21st 
century healthcare industry.”

The Catalyst development team 
foresees the new “innovation-centric space” fueling further growth of 
Omaha’s medical industry by attracting researchers, inventors and 
investors to the former Omaha Steel Works tract, built in the early 
1900s.

The steel plant in younger years 
helped build the State Capitol; produced integral parts for the railroad
 and World War II efforts. Some know the area also for the wood shop 
that operated at the site after the steel business moved to Wahoo.

The Catalyst project — which also is 
to include a food hall and market, plus event space — is key, but it’s 
only a portion of a larger, roughly 25-acre site west of Saddle Creek 
Road that’s expanding the UNMC footprint.&nbsp;

An administrative tower complex 
spanning about 350,000 square feet and reaching as high as 17 floors is 
planned southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street. It is to house
 work and office space for clinical faculty as well as shops and retail 
bays.

The roof of that facility’s low-rise 
parking garage is to bridge east over Saddle Creek Road, serving as a 
landscaped pedestrian crossing that links to the existing UNMC campus.

A UNMC official has said that when 
the broader redevelopment site is built out in a decade or two, it could
 contain 1.75 million square feet of new building space for the medical 
center.

Hotel rooms and housing also could 
sprout on the public-private redevelopment site, which is surrounded by 
many private real estate ventures developed separately but spurred by <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/01/26/unmc-sparks-long-term-shifts-on-corridor/">UNMC’s growth boom</a> over the last several years.

The private development team leading 
the 3-acre Catalyst initiative pairs Omaha’s GreenSlate Development and 
Denver’s Koelbel and Co.

GreenSlate’s Jay Lund and Matt Dwyer 
said the goal is a health care and technology “ecosystem” where 
like-minded tenants congregate and stimulate new ideas, ventures and 
patents that advance medicine. They see physical structure and 
environment as a big lure.&nbsp;

“You can’t replicate these old 
structures in new construction,” Lund said. “Weaving that into the new 
architecture and design is going to provide a building like no other.”

He said the local Catalyst is 
estimated to be a $60 million investment overall, and is modeled after 
Koelbel’s Catalyst project in Denver’s RiNo (River North) District. The 
Denver project was designed to be an epicenter of advancements in 
wellness.&nbsp;

Planning documents presented earlier 
to the City of Omaha said the Catalyst is expected to bring up to 670 
full-time jobs to the area, about half of which would be relocated and 
the rest newly created from expansions and startups. The city has 
approved the project for $8.1 million in public tax-increment financing.

UNeMed and UNeTech would be moving 
from outdated space elsewhere to the UNMC-owned space within the 
Catalyst and would be joined by other tenants.&nbsp;

Michael Dixon, CEO of UNeMed, expects
 Omaha will see more national entrepreneurs drawn to the midtown campus 
and collectively more contributions to medicine. He said the project 
should also grow the local tax base.

“Ultimately the big winner is Omaha and our biotechnology ecosystem,” said Dixon.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664197919080.png" alt="The “Catalyst” project west of Saddle Creek Road would expand the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus and be a business hub for innovators in health care. (Courtesy of APMA and GreenSlate Development)" />
 <figcaption>The “Catalyst” project west of Saddle Creek Road would expand the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus and be a business hub for innovators in health care. (Courtesy of APMA and GreenSlate Development)</figcaption>
 </figure>By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/26/nu-regents-to-vote-on-innovation-hub-project-that-expands-unmc-campus/">Nebraska Examiner</a>OMAHA — A favorable vote this Friday 
would trigger full-throated transformation of an old steel mill 
operation into the Catalyst, a $60 million entrepreneurial tech hub 
meant to expand the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.&nbsp;Various enterprises are to be housed 
at the retrofitted, enlarged and infilled structure west of Saddle Creek
 Road, including new branches of UNeMed and UNeTech, which help spark 
health care startups.UNMC is to own an anchor chunk — 
about a quarter — of the Catalyst’s 160,000 square feet or so of 
business and office space. The medical center also owns the land 
underneath it all.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664198005987.png" alt="The Catalyst project west of Saddle Creek Road is to house techie and entrepreneurial businesses that will advance the UNMC mission. (Courtesy of GreenSlate and APMA)" />
 <figcaption>The Catalyst project west of Saddle Creek Road is to house techie and entrepreneurial businesses that will advance the UNMC mission. (Courtesy of GreenSlate and APMA)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Green light to construction</h2>So the vote to be cast Sept. 30 by 
the University of Nebraska Board of Regents is needed to launch major 
construction of the redevelopment vision that’s been years in the 
making. (Cleanup, site preparation and design work has been ongoing.)More specifically, said an NU 
spokesperson, the Regents’ action during their meeting in Kearney&nbsp;would 
approve final details such as the ground lease, ownership arrangement 
and $29 million in UNMC costs.“The Catalyst project will transition
 the Saddle Creek campus from industry to innovation,” says a statement 
prepared for the Regents by UNMC and architect Alley Poyner Macchietto.“The redevelopment is a one-of-a-kind
 opportunity to symbolically take a keystone of Omaha’s 20th century 
heavy industry and reinvigorate it into a cornerstone of Omaha’s 21st 
century healthcare industry.”The Catalyst development team 
foresees the new “innovation-centric space” fueling further growth of 
Omaha’s medical industry by attracting researchers, inventors and 
investors to the former Omaha Steel Works tract, built in the early 
1900s.<h2>History-filled site</h2>The steel plant in younger years 
helped build the State Capitol; produced integral parts for the railroad
 and World War II efforts. Some know the area also for the wood shop 
that operated at the site after the steel business moved to Wahoo.The Catalyst project — which also is 
to include a food hall and market, plus event space — is key, but it’s 
only a portion of a larger, roughly 25-acre site west of Saddle Creek 
Road that’s expanding the UNMC footprint.&nbsp;An administrative tower complex 
spanning about 350,000 square feet and reaching as high as 17 floors is 
planned southwest of Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street. It is to house
 work and office space for clinical faculty as well as shops and retail 
bays.The roof of that facility’s low-rise 
parking garage is to bridge east over Saddle Creek Road, serving as a 
landscaped pedestrian crossing that links to the existing UNMC campus.A UNMC official has said that when 
the broader redevelopment site is built out in a decade or two, it could
 contain 1.75 million square feet of new building space for the medical 
center.Hotel rooms and housing also could 
sprout on the public-private redevelopment site, which is surrounded by 
many private real estate ventures developed separately but spurred by <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/01/26/unmc-sparks-long-term-shifts-on-corridor/">UNMC’s growth boom</a> over the last several years.<h2>Health-tech ecosystem</h2>The private development team leading 
the 3-acre Catalyst initiative pairs Omaha’s GreenSlate Development and 
Denver’s Koelbel and Co.GreenSlate’s Jay Lund and Matt Dwyer 
said the goal is a health care and technology “ecosystem” where 
like-minded tenants congregate and stimulate new ideas, ventures and 
patents that advance medicine. They see physical structure and 
environment as a big lure.&nbsp;“You can’t replicate these old 
structures in new construction,” Lund said. “Weaving that into the new 
architecture and design is going to provide a building like no other.”He said the local Catalyst is 
estimated to be a $60 million investment overall, and is modeled after 
Koelbel’s Catalyst project in Denver’s RiNo (River North) District. The 
Denver project was designed to be an epicenter of advancements in 
wellness.&nbsp;Planning documents presented earlier 
to the City of Omaha said the Catalyst is expected to bring up to 670 
full-time jobs to the area, about half of which would be relocated and 
the rest newly created from expansions and startups. The city has 
approved the project for $8.1 million in public tax-increment financing.<h2>Big winner</h2>UNeMed and UNeTech would be moving 
from outdated space elsewhere to the UNMC-owned space within the 
Catalyst and would be joined by other tenants.&nbsp;Michael Dixon, CEO of UNeMed, expects
 Omaha will see more national entrepreneurs drawn to the midtown campus 
and collectively more contributions to medicine. He said the project 
should also grow the local tax base.“Ultimately the big winner is Omaha and our biotechnology ecosystem,” said Dixon.&nbsp;

Regents to vote on project to expand Neb. medical center campus

If you want solar panels, be very careful when evaluating 
installation offers. Con artists use misleading sales tactics and 
outright lies to trick homeowners out of money and personal information.
 If you've received an offer for "free solar panels," it's likely a 
scam. Here's what you should know.

Someone contacts you through email, phone, social media, or even in person, as in many cases reported to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>.
 They are pretending to be a solar company salesperson. The 
"representative" has a special offer: they can install solar panels on 
your home for a very low cost – or even free. The amazing deal is only 
available for a limited time, so you must act now!

From here, the scam can take several turns. In some versions, the 
scammer is after your personal information. They ask you to fill out 
forms with your banking details "to see if you qualify." Other times, 
the "solar representative" claims you need to pay upfront costs, which 
they promise will be reimbursed by a (non-existent) government program. &nbsp;

<a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/">BBB Scam Tracker</a> has 
seen numerous reports of this kind of scam. One homeowner was approached
 by a door-to-door salesperson "claiming he could get me a new roof plus
 solar equipment, with a government rebate for 26% off cost, essentially
 paying for the new roof." After doing their research, the homeowner 
found that while a government rebate program existed, the salesperson 
was misrepresenting it to make a sale.

In another case, a homeowner spoke on the phone to a "solar engineer"
 after being approached in person. "The engineer claimed they could make
 it cost-free for us. He said they had finished their installations in 
our neighborhood and met their quota but would try to squeeze us in." 
However, the conversation took a strange turn when the "solar engineer" 
started asking for personal information. When the homeowner declined to 
answer, the conversation got heated. "We ended the conversation, and I 
received a nasty text… It was completely unprofessional."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579883951052.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BBBIf you want solar panels, be very careful when evaluating 
installation offers. Con artists use misleading sales tactics and 
outright lies to trick homeowners out of money and personal information.
 If you've received an offer for "free solar panels," it's likely a 
scam. Here's what you should know.<h2>How the scam works</h2>Someone contacts you through email, phone, social media, or even in person, as in many cases reported to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>.
 They are pretending to be a solar company salesperson. The 
"representative" has a special offer: they can install solar panels on 
your home for a very low cost – or even free. The amazing deal is only 
available for a limited time, so you must act now!From here, the scam can take several turns. In some versions, the 
scammer is after your personal information. They ask you to fill out 
forms with your banking details "to see if you qualify." Other times, 
the "solar representative" claims you need to pay upfront costs, which 
they promise will be reimbursed by a (non-existent) government program. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/">BBB Scam Tracker</a> has 
seen numerous reports of this kind of scam. One homeowner was approached
 by a door-to-door salesperson "claiming he could get me a new roof plus
 solar equipment, with a government rebate for 26% off cost, essentially
 paying for the new roof." After doing their research, the homeowner 
found that while a government rebate program existed, the salesperson 
was misrepresenting it to make a sale.In another case, a homeowner spoke on the phone to a "solar engineer"
 after being approached in person. "The engineer claimed they could make
 it cost-free for us. He said they had finished their installations in 
our neighborhood and met their quota but would try to squeeze us in." 
However, the conversation took a strange turn when the "solar engineer" 
started asking for personal information. When the homeowner declined to 
answer, the conversation got heated. "We ended the conversation, and I 
received a nasty text… It was completely unprofessional."<h2>How to avoid solar panel scams </h2><ul>
 <li>Do your research. Genuine incentive programs and <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/26112-bbb-tip-a-consumers-guide-to-going-solar" target="_blank">reputable solar energy contractors</a> do exist. Before you accept an unsolicited offer, do some research on solar companies in your area. <a href="https://www.bbb.org/search" target="_blank">Investigate each company's reputation</a> and business practices before you consider signing a contract for services. </li><li>Don't give in to high-pressure sales tactics. Con 
artists want to provoke an emotional reaction that would cause you to 
give in to their requests without thinking it through. Take your time 
and know that a legitimate company won't pressure you to act. If someone
 is using aggressive sales tactics on you, it's best to cut off 
communication immediately. </li><li>Get competing bids. Contact several solar 
installers if you plan on going solar and get bids from each company. If
 someone is pulling a con, they will be much easier to spot this way. </li><li>Ask plenty of questions and consider the answers. Ask
 questions about any aspect of a contract or proposal you don't 
understand. If the company gets upset about your questions, refuses to 
answer them, or is vague with their answers, consider it a red flag.</li>
 </ul>