Latest news with #JoshJohnson
BBC News
7 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
New deals for U's academy products
Oxford United have agreed new deals with 20-year-old academy products Josh Johnson and James Golding. Midfielder Johnson joined the club as a scholar and has made seven first team appearances in cup competitions since making his debut at 16, in addition to loan spells with Dartford, Welling, Banbury and Republic of Ireland under-19 centre-back Golding has featured for the senior side nine times since making his debut in 2021, including three times in League One, and had loan spells at Maidenhead and Southend last of football, Ed Waldron, told the club website, external: "It's really important for the club to have a strong core of young, promising players who have been developed within our system."Josh and James are two players who have shown real qualities over each age group and have since enjoyed strong loan spells at first-team level across the pyramid."We look forward to continuing to work with both as they aim to make an impact on our first team group."
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arkoma mayor says sewer rate hike is ‘unsustainable'
ARKOMA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The mayor of Arkoma is speaking out against a 300% increase in sewer rates from the City of Fort Smith, which treats Arkoma's wastewater. In February 2025, the Fort Smith Board of Directors approved a 3.5% annual increase in sewer rates, effective June 1, 2025, continuing through 2030. Arkoma initially anticipated its wastewater rate to rise from $2.69 to approximately $2.78 per hundred cubic feet (CCF), according to the town's mayor Josh Johnson. Instead, Arkoma was notified of a new rate of $8.75 per CCF, a more than 300% increase, charged at a retail rate typically for individual Fort Smith customers. As a wholesale customer, Arkoma handles collection and transmission for its residents and relies on Fort Smith for treatment. 'Arkoma is not a single household; we are a community of more than 600 wastewater customers… a retail rate [is] not only inappropriate, but unsustainable,' Johnson said in a statement. Fort Smith's rate increase will add about $2 monthly per customer for 30,000 locals, generating $45,000, while Arkoma's 600 residents face a $62,000 monthly increase, according to Johnson. Attorneys request hearing in Fort Smith FOIA response lawsuit Arkoma representatives attended a Fort Smith planning session on May 13. According to Johnson, these efforts were met with limited communication and no agreement. 'The Town of Arkoma cannot absorb this increase, nor can it reasonably pass it on to our residents without causing serious economic harm.' Arkoma claims it has invested nearly $2 million in wastewater system improvements over the past four years, funded through grants, a per capita investment it says exceeds Fort Smith's during the same period. Johnson also addressed claims related to unpaid balances stemming from a 2019 flood that increased metered flows. Arkoma reports reducing the outstanding balance from over $200,000 to approximately $120,000, with a portion attributed to late fees. 'Although Fort Smith has requested that we provide a formal payment plan, despite repeated outreach by our Administrator and City Attorney to establish a payment plan, we received no response from Fort Smith,' Johnson said. When the rate increase was approved in March, the City of Fort Smith said that 'these… adjustments are necessary to help fund Consent Decree projects and sustain the ongoing operations of the Water Utilities Department, including routine maintenance and debt service coverage.' KNWA/FOX24 has reached out to the City of Fort Smith for comment and have not yet received a response. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
NYT Connections Hints And Answers For Tuesday, April 29
Looking for Monday's NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here: Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to a fantastic start. Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to see stand-up comedian Josh Johnson live. Johnson has blown up over the last couple of years after he started uploading one of his timely performances to YouTube every week. His output is remarkable, as he's able to to take something that's happening in the news and turn it into an hour-long show within a few days (albeit with some tangents). It surely helps that he's also a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show. As an example of what he can do, just take this set about Blue Origin's recent flight to space with the likes of Gayle King and Katy Perry on board: The set I saw (the first of three sold-out shows Johnson had at the same venue that day) wasn't quite as news-driven. It was more of a mix of anecdotes from Johnson's life. Still, he had both my partner and I laughing all the way through. Johnson is such a terrific comedic storyteller and he seems to be a very thoughtful, warm person. I find him, his work and his approach to community building quite inspiring. This paragraph from a recent Rolling Stone profile (regarding Johnson's success and current Flowers Tour) really resonated with me: Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us. Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, April 29, are coming right up. Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app. You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part. There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them. Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay. Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap. If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed. Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query. Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them. Today's 16 words are... And the hints for today's Connections groups are: Need some extra help? Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory. Today's Connections groups are... Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers. This is your final warning! Today's Connections answers are... That's a 63rd win in a row for your ol' pal. Here's how I fared: 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 There are a bunch of baseball-related words here – BATTER, INFIELD, PITCHER and PLATE. I didn't think they'd form a group though. They felt a little too disjointed as two related to players and the others referred to parts of the field. I realized pretty quickly that BATTER would go with what turned out to be the rest of the yellows. Next up was a guess of CANDLESTICK, PLATE, PITCHER and SUIT, as in things you might see at a fancy dinner. I was close, but PLACEMAT turned out to be the right fourth word here, not SUIT. I then clocked that there was probably a baseball reference here after all. INFIELD, RHOMBUS and GEMSTONE can all be diamonds. I didn't see what else could go with them. However, after narrowing that down, I realized there were a bunch of things you could climb, thanks to LADDER. That gave me the blues. For a moment, I was confused. I didn't think I'd ever heard of a SUIT being called a diamond or vice-versa. But it finally dawned on me just as I was about to look it up. It's a reference to diamonds as a SUIT of cards. D'oh. That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Wednesday's game if you need them. P.S. I've been absolutely devouring everything I can about Electric Callboy over the last week or so. I've no idea how I was unfamiliar with them until now, but I'm absolutely in love with what they're doing. They've created a blend of pop, techno and metal that's just mesmerizing. I understand that their music won't be for everyone. So, instead of bringing you two of their songs in a row (after I served you all the brilliant "Ratatata" yesterday), I thought I'd share this super interesting behind-the-scenes look at life on tour with the band. YouTuber Ian Roberts, a.k.a TankTheTech, is a long-time roadie and has been working with Electric Callboy as a tour manager over the last couple of years. He's been vlogging his experience. I'm a few episodes into the series and I've found it fascinating. I've really enjoyed getting a sense of what it might be like to run a tour for a reasonably well-known artist. More importantly, I really like how much love everyone involved has for each other. It turns out it is possible to work professionally and respectfully with other people in a time-sensitive situation without tempers flaring. I wouldn't want to work with yellers, and it's cool to see that no one raises their voice here. Well, at least until the band members start screaming on stage: That said, if you're interested in joining me in going down the Electric Callboy rabbit hole, this is a fantastic reaction video from The Charismatic Voice, which was founded by singer, vocal coach and analyst Elizabeth Zharoff. The way Zharoff incorporates her pregnancy cravings into this analysis as not-so-subtle messages to her husband is incredibly endearing: Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love! Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. Also, follow me on Bluesky! It's fun there.
New York Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Josh Johnson Might Tell You a Joke, but He'll Never Tell You a Lie
Josh Johnson is exactly who you think he is. Or at least very close to the wry, deeply thoughtful, country-mouse-turned-city-mouse persona of his standup sets. In real life, which in this case is a sushi restaurant around the corner from the Comedy Cellar, he's wearing his stage uniform — fitted gray hoodie, jeans, sneakers, twists pulled back into a ponytail — and he's speaking in circles, only to arrive at a sometimes funny but always poignant conclusion. After a decade of 'up-and-coming' accolades, sets at major comedy venues, two hourlong specials and writing jobs on 'The Tonight Show' and 'The Daily Show,' the 35-year-old comedian is arriving right on time. Where once Johnson might have occasionally crossed your screen — take his superviral 'Catfishing the KKK' set from 2017, about a brief online friendship with a white supremacist — his timely, topical material and fast-growing fan base are now inescapable. 'I think a lot of stuff is kind of coming together,' said Johnson over lunch. 'Some of it is me choosing to read certain things, learn certain things and pull from different people in my life. And some of it is just the accident of luck.' His sudden rise can't be attributed solely to relentless touring or his ability to make people laugh. The fact is that no other working comedian is currently releasing the equivalent of new standup specials at the same clip: In 2024 alone, Johnson uploaded the equivalent of 28 hourlong specials to his social channels, and is on track to exceed that number this year, to the slight shock and complete awe of those who know him well. The comedian Jon Stewart returned to host 'The Daily Show' last year around the same time Johnson became a correspondent on the program, and sums up the younger comic's style this way: 'You know the things that are bouncing around in your mind that you have neither the time nor maybe the facility to draw together into coherent and then really funny and surprising thoughts? Yeah, this guy's doing it. He's doing it actually for you.' The subjects of a Josh Johnson set can range from pop culture ('Young Thug: The Longest Trial in History') to politics ('Why They're Turning on Elon') to social issues (''Adolescence' Is No. 1 on Netflix and It's Got the Manosphere Shook'), and last anywhere from 20 minutes to more than an hour, but millions are tuning in to each video no matter the topic. Johnson has no tight five. And yet his gamble on consistent, thought-provoking comedy has drawn 2.8 million new followers, or in his parlance, 'friends gained,' across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as well as a nearly sold-out 76-city tour. 'I feel like if you are completely honest with yourself throughout a creative process, you don't just come up with the best work that you're going to do, you come up with some of the most meaningful work that people can connect with,' Johnson said in his slightly nasal, Louisiana tenor. At the restaurant, over an array of hand rolls (no mayo or soy sauce for Johnson), the only thing missing is the wry swagger, like he can't even believe he's having to tell you this. Offstage, he speaks with genuine care and interest, and is exceedingly polite to fans and strangers alike. 'I think he goes through the world with authentic, natural curiosity,' Stewart said. 'Now, a lot of people do. He also has, though, the craft to be able to translate that natural curiosity and authenticity into real, viable content.' Between the traditional quick hits — 'Apparently, we got Jack the Ripper — some would say a little late.' — Johnson manages to draw out much deeper observations, not unlike an orator minus the self-importance. The 'punchline' of a recent set on a potential recession: 'Your future, I promise it's in your neighbor. There's no one that's going to take care of you like the people that are actually next to you.' 'We have fewer and fewer spaces and places where people all agree on what they've seen,' said the former 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah, who hired Johnson to open for him on his 2019 Loud and Clear tour. Whether Johnson is discussing the Super Bowl halftime show or the allegations against Sean Combs, 'his analysis provides something a little deeper that goes beyond just a quick bite or a quick reaction.' Born and raised in Alexandria, La., the only child of an educator, Johnson always considered himself an observer. 'I was this kid who was growing up around Black people but ended up going to this private Catholic school,' he said. 'So I know the movements and speech and I've been exposed to a little bit of the thinking around how people with money operate.' Through no fault of his own, Johnson often finds himself in situations that are bizarre, terrifying or downright silly, whether that's seeing a completely naked man come running out of the woods or having a neighbor who believed a drug addict was living in the walls of their building. 'You get so much out of that small interaction that you're like, oh I wish I could go deeper into your story or you had more time,' he said. Like his peers, he stores these interactions and memories on his phone, in voice memos or in handwritten notes, weaving them into sets that he might not perform for months. Turning those anecdotes into humorous but moving reflections is core to his creative process. A story about nearly drowning in a pool, for instance, becomes a thoughtful examination of why those who have always had less tend to best weather a recession. 'Every loop won't always close, and I think that's part of the fun of it, of what's going to happen next,' Johnson said. 'And if you're too formulaic and your process is too stringent, then you lose that. You lose that connection with your audience and you lose that connection with your creativity.' Fellow comics like Ronny Chieng and Ashley Gavin say Johnson is reinventing the traditional standup form — known for quick cuts, tight sets, repeated jokes — at a time when it seems impossible to hold viewers' attention. 'The internet traditionally is a short-form medium,' said Chieng, a fellow 'Daily Show' correspondent. 'So, the idea that you could release an hour and people would hang around and watch it every week, for standup comedy, he's definitely ahead of the game in that sense.' 'It's more than just raw talent or a skill that he's practiced,' said Gavin, a host, with Johnson, of the podcast 'What's News With You.' 'He is actually creating a genre, which is just as much why it's successful. It's really impressive.' Many comedians have let the unpredictable algorithms of the internet dictate how they work, she added, referring to the social media-driven crowd work trend that many comics hopped on last year. 'And now we're seeing Josh do this really innovative thing and you're like, 'Hm, how do I as an artist keep up with this? What do I need to be doing?'' So, where does Johnson go from here? He doesn't necessarily see his future in a network sitcom or Hollywood films. ('I've had friends become bigger and bigger, get a real raw deal,' he said.) As for those who might consider his current tour a multicity campaign to one day host 'The Daily Show,' Johnson said that he would be 'very, very excited' to take on that role, but that he was content to keep learning from Stewart and the other correspondents. Johnson isn't playing coy; he said he just wants to avoid putting too many walls between himself and his audience. 'I do think that as long as I am making a conscious effort to do things the way that they got you to the dance, then how can you fail, how can you not still be bringing quality when you keep putting that much intention into it?'
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Christian music's biggest tour coming to Brookshire Grocery Arena this weekend
BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Winter Jam Tour is set to hit the BGA this weekend with performances from several Christian music artists. Comedian Josh Johnson is coming to Shreveport Winter Jam will feature performances from Skillet, Anne Wilson, KB, Colton Dixon, Newsong, Micah Tyler and more. To enter, guests must make a $15 donation at the door or purchase a Jam Nation membership for early access. 'After the 2024 tour I wasn't sure how we'd top it for 2025, but this lineup that cametogether might be the best we've ever had,' said Newsong's Eddie Carswell. 'I really feel like we have something for everyone this year. I'm excited to get back out on the road and see what God will do with this tour!' The show will start at 6 p.m. on Saturday March 1 with doors opening at 5 p.m. for general admission and 4 p.m. for Jam Nation members at the Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City. For more information, please visit or call 855-484-1991. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
