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jili k.o NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A scruffy little fugitive is on the lam again in New Orleans, gaining fame as he outwits a tenacious band of citizens armed with night-vision binoculars, nets and a tranquilizer rifle. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt that's mostly terrier, has become a folk hero, inspiring tattoos, t-shirts and even a ballad as he eludes capture from the posse of volunteers. And like any antihero, Scrim has a backstory: Rescued from semi-feral life at a trailer park and adopted from a shelter, the dog broke loose in April and scurried around the city until he was cornered in October and brought to a new home. Weeks later, he'd had enough. Scrim leaped out of a second-story window, a desperate act recorded in a now-viral video. Since then, despite a stream of daily sightings, he's roamed free. The dog’s fans include Myra and Steve Foster, who wrote “Ode to Scrim” to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s 1961 hit, “I’m a Travelin’ Man.” Leading the recapture effort is Michelle Cheramie, a 55-year-old former information technology professional. She lost everything — home, car, possessions — in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in the aftermath, found her calling rescuing pets. “I was like, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Cheramie said. “I was born to rescue.” She launched Zeus’ Rescues, a nonprofit shelter that now averages 600 cat and dog adoptions a year and offers free pet food to anyone who needs it. She helped Scrim find the home he first escaped from. It was Cheramie's window Scrim leaped from in November. She's resumed her relentless mission since then, posting flyers on telephone poles and logging social media updates on his reported whereabouts. She's invested thousands of dollars on wildlife cameras, thermal sensors and other gear. She took a course offered by the San Diego Zoo on the finer points of tranquilizing animals. And she's developed a network of volunteers — the kind of neighbors who are willing to grid-search a city at 3 a.m. People like writer David W. Brown, who manages a crowd-sourced Google Map of all known Scrim sightings. He says the search has galvanized residents from all walks of life to come together. As they search for Scrim, they hand out supplies to people in need. "Being a member of the community is seeing problems and doing what you can to make life a little better for the people around here and the animals around you," Brown said. And neighbors like Tammy Murray, who had to close her furniture store and lost her father to Parkinson's Disease. This search, she says, got her mojo back. “Literally, for months, I’ve done nothing but hunt this dog,” said Murray, 53. “I feel like Wile E. Coyote on a daily basis with him.” Murray drives the Zeus' Rescues' van towards reported Scrim sightings. She also handles a tactical net launcher, which looks like an oversized flashlight and once misfired, shattering the van's window as Scrim sped away. After realizing Scrim had come to recognize the sound of the van's diesel engine, Murray switched to a Vespa scooter, for stealth. Near-misses have been tantalizing. The search party spotted Scrim napping beneath an elevated house, and wrapped construction netting around the perimeter, but an over-eager volunteer broke ranks and dashed forward, leaving an opening Scrim slipped through. Scrim's repeated escapades have prompted near-daily local media coverage and a devoted online following. Cheramie can relate. “We’re all running from something or to something. He's doing that too,” she said. Cheramie's team dreams of placing the pooch in a safe and loving environment. But a social media chorus growing under the hashtag #FreeScrim has other ideas — they say the runaway should be allowed a life of self-determination. The animal rescue volunteers consider that misguided. “The streets of New Orleans are not the place for a dog to be free,” Cheramie said. “It’s too dangerous.” Scrim was a mess when Cheramie briefly recaptured him in October, with matted fur, missing teeth and a tattered ear. His trembling body was scraped and bruised, and punctured by multiple projectiles. A vet removed one, but decided against operating to take out a possible bullet. The dog initially appeared content indoors, sitting in Cheramie's lap or napping beside her bed. Then while she was out one day, Scrim chewed through a mesh screen, dropped 13 feet to the ground and squeezed through a gap in the fence, trotting away. Murray said Cheramie's four cats probably spooked him. “I wholeheartedly believe the gangster-ass cats were messing with him,” Murray said. Cheramie thinks they may have gotten territorial. Devastated but undeterred, the pair is reassessing where Scrim might fit best — maybe a secure animal sanctuary with big outdoor spaces where other dogs can keep him company. Somewhere, Murray says, “where he can just breathe and be." Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96

Hegseth meets with moderate Sen. Collins as he lobbies for key votes in the Senate

American and European stock markets mostly rose on Wednesday after inflation data cemented expectations that the US Federal Reserve will trim interest rates next month. While the Dow fell slightly, the other two major US indices advanced, led by the tech-rich Nasdaq, which piled on almost two percent to close above 20,000 points for the first time. The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 2.7 percent last month from a year ago, up slightly from 2.6 percent in October. "With the CPI numbers broadly in line, it is likely that the Fed will not be derailed and will cut rates again next week," Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. "The data is not a showstopper for the current bull run on Wall Street," he added. Ahead of the data, investors priced in an 86 percent chance the Fed will cut interest rates next week by a quarter percentage point. That rose to more than 98 percent after the CPI data was published. Stocks in Paris and Frankfurt rose ahead of the European Central Bank's own interest rate announcement on Thursday, with analysts expecting another cut as it seeks to boost eurozone growth. Investors are also eyeing political developments in France, where officials said President Emmanuel Macron aims to name a new prime minister "within 48 hours" as he seeks to end political deadlock following the ouster of Michel Barnier. In company news, shares in German retail giant Zalando shed more than four percent on Frankfurt's DAX index, after it acquired domestic rival About You in a deal worth around 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). Shares in Zara owner Inditex slid more than six percent after a record quarterly profit for the group fell short of market estimates. Among US companies, Google parent Alphabet earned 5.5 percent as it announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date. That added to gains after Google also announced Tuesday details of a breakthrough quantum chip. Shares in Shanghai rose but Hong Kong gave up an early rally to end in the red. Traders were keeping tabs on China to see if it will announce further measures to support its struggling economy as leaders were to gather Wednesday for a conference to hammer out next year's agenda. President Xi Jinping and other top leaders on Monday announced their first major shift in policy for more than a decade, saying they would "implement a more active fiscal policy and an appropriately relaxed" strategy. Those remarks sparked hopes for more interest rate cuts and the freeing up of more cash for lending. New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 44,148.56 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 6,084.19 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 20,034.89 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 8,301.62 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,423.40 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 20,399.16 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: FLAT at 39,372.23 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 20,155.05 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,432.49 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0498 from $1.0527 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2752 from $1.2771 Dollar/yen: UP at 152.40 yen from 151.95 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.31 from 82.42 pence Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.8 percent at $73.52 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $70.29 per barrel burs-jmb/mlm

Exclusive-Fund manager Bessent scores double on Trump victoryStock market today: Wall Street gets back to climbing, and the Nasdaq tops 20,000

Brainy, 'normal guy': the suspect in US insurance CEO's slayingBrainy, 'normal guy': the suspect in US insurance CEO's slaying

We have seen it many times: the mindless, reflexive recitation of a woke catechism that has no basis in reality. Still, the performance feels different now. In fact, it almost seems as if the oblivious performer has somehow traveled to our time from the recent past. Tuesday on social media platform X, conservative commentator Megyn Kelly excoriated Caitlin Clark of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever for the latter’s “sad” decision to acknowledge her own “white privilege” as the biggest superstar in a league dominated by black players. “Look at this. She’s on the knee all but apologizing for being white and getting attention. The self-flagellation. The ‘oh pls pay attention to the black players who are REALY the ones you want to celebrate,’ ” wrote. “Condescending. Fake. Transparent. Sad,” the longtime journalist and popular conservative podcaster concluded. Look at this. She’s on the knee all but apologizing for being white and getting attention. The self-flagellation. The “oh pls pay attention to the black players who are REALY the ones you want to celebrate.” Condescending. Fake. Transparent. Sad. — Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) appeared Tuesday in Time Magazine, which named her its Athlete of the Year. “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege,” she said. The WNBA’s 2024 then elaborated on that false and disgusting core tenet of critical race theory. “A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that,” she said. Unfortunately, Time’s story also quoted two of peers, both black. Temi Fagbenle, Clark’s teammate on the 2024 Fever and now a member of the expansion Golden State Valkyries, insisted that nothing has changed in the United States since its inception. “America was founded on segregation, and to this day is very much about black and white,” Fagbenle said. Likewise, three-time WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson attributed Clark’s popularity to skin color. “It doesn’t matter what we all do as black women, we’re still going to be swept underneath the rug,” Wilson compained. “That’s why it boils my blood when people say it’s not about race, because it is.” In some ways, of course, all of these young women qualify as victims of . They have heard that kind of nonsense so often in schools and popular culture that they repeat it uncritically. Does Fagbenle really believe that nothing has changed in America since 1960, let alone the nation’s inception? And does Wilson really believe that she has the power to read others’ hearts with such clarity that the mere denial of race-based motives actually causes her blood to boil? In the days of segregation, many white men did hold positions of authority that they did not earn or deserve. And they held those positions because of sex and skin color. Americans eventually recognized that as wrong. It was equally wrong, however, when Vice President , despite her myriad as a thinker and speaker, was chosen as President Joe Biden’s running mate she is ( ) a black woman, and it was equally wrong when Justice , despite her and near-total ignorance of the Constitution, was chosen for the Supreme Court she is a black woman. Those things happened, too. Far from sweeping black women “underneath the rug,” Americans have elevated some unworthy individuals solely on account of sex and skin color, just as they once did with white men. Wilson’s “swept underneath the rug” comment, therefore, reflected not only a lie, but the opposite of truth. And Clark endorsed that lie — uncritically, mechanically, as if programmed to do so. Kelly, of course, had it right. She did not, however, tell the whole story. President-elect victory in the 2024 election felt like the end of this nonsense. It signaled that the majority of Americans have had enough and now refuse to play the woke racists’ game. Thus, Clark’s “self-flagellation” seemed to belong more to the oppressive atmosphere of 2020, as if Clark either teleported here from the dark recent past or simply ignored the memo that we are not doing this anymore. That alone gives cause for hope. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. .

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info With nine first-team players free to move on at the end of the season, Hearts boss Neil Critchley says he will know when the time is right to open up talks about new deals. The Gorgie gaffer arrived on the scene too late to influence Lawrence Shankland ’s contract negotiations, but he will be integral in deciding if there is a future at Tynecastle for the likes of Scotland keepers Craig Gordon and Zander Clark, as well as Barrie McKay, Liam Boyce and Jorge Grant, who have tumbled down the pecking order. Youngster James Wilson, who made his first start in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Dundee, is another in need of a new contract, while decisions will have to be made over loan signings Gerald Taylor and Andres Salazar as the season progresses, with the club enjoying the option to buy both, if desired. Asked if he would prefer to see more done to keep his captain Shankland, who ended his scoring drought at the weekend, Critchley said that was between the player and the board, with his mind focused on other things as the games come thick and fast. “Everyone's fully aware that his contract's running down and he'll be out of contract in the summer,” said the man who is looking to wrap up European progress with a win against Copenhagen on Thursday. “I know there were talks prior to me being here but obviously I've just been concentrating on trying to help Lawrence to find the form [he showed] in the last couple of seasons. “That's my main focus at the moment and he's the captain of the team. He's been playing up to the penalty area and he's been playing very well and contributing, he's just missed that final little bit. I think it's gone on slightly longer this year but he hasn't scored many goals at a similar period of last season. so I'm hoping...he can have a really strong second half of the season. “[The situation] is different for every individual and we also have to be mindful that they're contracted to play and contribute for Hearts. That's what they get paid to do so we have to protect ourselves. “We also think that if we know [we want them to stay or go] and it's right for that individual then at some point you sit down and have those conversations face to face and explain the reasoning for the decisions you make. At this moment in time we're in a busy period of fixtures so everything else is further down the line.”‘People can be pushed only so far’: Warren reacts to killing of health care CEO

Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, jailed for sexting child, eyes political comeback in New York City CouncilReport: Hornets F Grant Williams (knee) out for season