It looks like Ron Watkins, a prominent figure in the QAnon movement who many believe is Q himself, filed paperwork indicating he might run for Congress from Arizona on Thursday.

If he goes through with it, Watkins would be by far the most prominent QAnon figure to run for office in the U.S., further evidence of how much the conspiracy theory-based movement has become intertwined with the modern Republican Party.

Watkins appears to have filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office a “statement of interest” in running for Arizona’s first congressional district against Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran on Thursday. That’s not a formal declaration of candidacy, but is a necessary first step so he can begin acquiring petition signatures to appear on the ballot.

Watkins didn’t respond to requests for comment either from the email address associated with the paperwork or another one which VICE News has previously used to communicate with him.

President Joe Biden will embark on a three-leg trip to Europe starting at the end of October that will include a Vatican meeting with Pope Francis, the White House announced Thursday.

The president and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to Rome in conjunction with the G-20 summit on Oct. 30-31. While there, Biden will also hold bilateral meetings with other world leaders, details of which the White House said would be made available closer to the event.

Prior to the G-20 summit, Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, will visit the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis. The confab will cover “working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor,” according to the White House.

Francis has publicly embraced Covid-19 vaccinations at a time when some religious conservatives have raised moral qualms with the vaccines — primarily due to remote links to abortion-derived cells during the development process. Earlier this week, the archbishop of the U.S. military said Catholic service members could refuse the mandatory vaccination on religious grounds, highlighting the ongoing split within the church.

Washington State Ferries announced late Wednesday afternoon it will impose cuts indefinitely to at least five routes, after failing to overcome a chronic lack of crew.

…snip…

The ferry system doesn’t have a short-term plan ready to alleviate crew shortages, but Sterling said one tool may be to invite retired ferry workers to return temporarily.

In addition to the maritime worker shortage, a state ferry can be canceled if even a few shifts go unfilled — for instance, a deckhand can’t replace an engine-room oiler, and an engineer can’t replace a mate who navigates.

The ferry system says it hired more than 150 new operating employees this year, but that training has been hampered by the pandemic. The agency also uses an antiquated system where entry-level workers are on call with unstable schedules. Also, reassignments are done through hundreds of phone calls by dispatchers on deadlines, rather than through an easier software system.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/amid-crew-shortages-washington-state-ferries-to-cut-sailings-on-some-routes-by-half/

For decades, the Columbus Day Parade in New York City has been a must-stop destination for politicians and aspiring politicians — so much so that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s decision to skip it in 2002 drove headlines for days.

This year’s gathering, even factoring in the growing controversy around the holiday, appeared to be no different: Mayor Bill de Blasio showed up and sustained some taunts. Gov. Kathy Hochul and some would-be primary rivals were in attendance. Curtis Sliwa, the long-shot Republican mayoral contender, also made his way along the Manhattan route.

But Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City and the Brooklyn borough president, did not attend the parade on Monday. His whereabouts was unclear: Mr. Adams did not release any kind of public schedule that day.

Indeed, Mr. Adams, who secured the Democratic mayoral nomination in July and is virtually certain to win next month’s general election, has been a relatively rare presence on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/nyregion/eric-adams-public-schedule.html?smid=tw-share

(CNN)A geomagnetic storm triggered by a flare of solar energy hit Earth on Monday, making the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, light up the sky at lower latitudes than usual.

More people will be able to see the dazzling display, with auroras visible in Scotland and the north of England and as far south as New York, Wisconsin and Washington states, according to United States and United Kingdom authorities.

The effects are expected to continue Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the UK's Met Office, which said there could be a "rather active period of geomagnetic activity."

Geomagnetic storms are large disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field caused by changes in the solar wind and the structure of the interplanetary magnetic field. This latest storm was triggered on Saturday by a strong coronal mass ejection -- a hugely energetic explosion of light, solar material and energy from the Sun.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center said this geomagnetic storm was a "moderate" one, calling it a "G2" event on its 1 to 5 scale. The US agency also noted that the storm's impact would be felt above 55 degrees latitude, and it was possible that power grid fluctuations could occur.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/world/geomagnetic-storm-northern-lights-scn/index.html