Latest news with #Snyder
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Maui's biggest celebration kicks off this weekend. What you need to know
WAILUKU, Hawaii (KHON2) — Aloha Maui Pride kicks off June 1 with a full lineup of celebrations for World Pride Month. The Opening Ceremony on June 1 and the special events through the next couple of weeks lead up to its biggest event, the Maui Pride Festival, on June 14 in Wailuku. The two-week celebration is expected to draw thousands from across Hawaiʻi and beyond. 'We've been working on this festival since last year's festival ended,' said Sheri Snyder, spokesperson for Aloha Maui Pride. 'Last year, our attendance doubled from the year before. So, if we double this year, it's going to be a little crazy down Market Street. But it'll be fun.' The events are coordinated by Aloha Maui Pride and the Maui AIDS Foundation. 'We do a lot of Pride Month celebrations,' Snyder said. 'The pride festival on the 14th, we do in partnership with Maui AIDS Foundation. So, we're 50/50 partners with them for festival day.' was able to catch up with Commissioner Joe Tolbe who represents Maui on the Hawai'i State Commission on LGBTQ+ Affairs. 'I'm Proud and Honored to represent Maui! I've watched the AMP committee pull together to make this year's events bigger and better than last year,' said commissioner Tolbe. 'They each have grown and added their own ideas and creative talents to this year events ' Visitors and residents are invited to take part in a series of gatherings that celebrate visibility, diversity and communit, from a family night to a beach barbecue and a sunset cruise. 'We're celebrating unity, or lōkahi,' Snyder said. 'A big portion of the people that attended the festival last year were not only the LGBTQ+ community, but the community of Maui.' Here's what to know and how to prepare. The official opening blessing will take place Sunday, June 1 during the PRIDE Brunch at Nalu's in Kihei from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The blessing begins at 9:15 a.m. The Pride flag will be raised at the Kalana O Maui County Building on Wednesday, June 4 at 10 a.m. This will be followed by a no-host lunch at 808 Old Town Deli & Bistro. Youth and Family Night returns Friday, June 6 at Kalama Park Pavilion in Kihei from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. 'We do a party for the kids over at Kalama Park and the pavilion there,' Snyder said. 'We have a bouncy house, and we have face painters. And we have games and crafts and all kinds of things. And we get pizza from Pizza Madness; so, they have something to eat while they're playing.' On Saturday, June 7, Aloha Maui Pride hosts a sunset cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation that departs from Māʻalaea Harbor at 5 p.m. 'We take about 100 of our best friends out on a boat and put on some dance music and have some food,' Snyder said. 'It's a really great little party before the festival.' Sunday's beach BBQ will be held June 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kamaole III Beach Park in Kihei. The event offers a casual gathering to rest, reflect and recharge. On Friday, June 13, local music legends Amy Hānaialiʻi Gilliom and Eric Gilliom take the stage at Nalu's in Kihei from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The sibling duo brings soulful mele and cultural pride to an evening of kanikapila. The Pride Festival on Saturday, June 14 runs from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Market Street in Wailuku, with a closing blessing to end the evening. Festivalgoers can expect live entertainment, drag performances, a fashion show, vendors, food trucks and a new jumbo screen. 'We have all kinds of entertainment,' Snyder said. 'There's a hula group coming and just all kinds of things, and we're going to have an LCD screen at the opposite end of the street.' Snyder said the screen allows people to see the stage even while browsing vendors or grabbing food. 'We're trying to take care of our attendees a little better so that they don't miss anything while they're shopping or eating,' Snyder added. Pride isn't complete without amazing entertainment. Here's what Aloha Maui Pride as planned. 3 p.m. will feature Dance music from Sound man Justin. 3:30 p.m. will be the Blessing. 3:40 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. is the opening act. 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will feature Hula Hālau Kauluokalā led by Kumu Hula Uluwehi Guerro. 5:35 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. you can watch a performance by JRoq & Melani. 6:35 p.m. to 6:55 p.m. features performances from ManCandy Productions. 7:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. will be the Full Flava Band. The celebration continues Saturday night at Da Playground at the Māʻalaea Harbor Shops from 8 p.m. to midnight. 'Come out to thank each member of the AMP committee by showing up and spreading the word,' said commissioner Tolbe. 'It can and will be a success when we ALL come together to show our pride on our island of MAUI!' Maui Pride is more than a celebration. 'We're celebrating unity,' Snyder said. 'We're celebrating community.' To learn more about schedules, events, venues and entertainment, click . You can also follow them on . Get news on the go with KHON 2GO, KHON's morning podcast, every morning at 8 From blessings to beach days, Aloha Maui Pride said they are focusing on this as a time to uplift each other and honor the island's spirit of inclusion. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Newsweek
6 days ago
- Health
- Newsweek
Moment Gen Z Mom in Labor Realizes Midwife Isn't Arriving in Time
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Gen Z mom from Georgia had a shocking realization just minutes before she was about to give birth. Auna Snyder, 25, had planned a homebirth with her midwife, but she was unaware that she was just minutes away from doing it all without her. Instead, Snyder, a traditional birth doula, had to talk her husband through how to help her deliver their baby. Auna Snyder sitting on a birthing ball explaining to her husband off camera how to help her deliver their baby. Auna Snyder sitting on a birthing ball explaining to her husband off camera how to help her deliver their baby. @informed_beginnings "She was on her way but we both didn't realize how fast it would be," Snyder told Newsweek. She shared her cool and calm instructions to her husband Josh Snyder in a clip on TikTok (@informed_beginnings). "You don't have to do anything besides handing the baby, like, up through," Snyder said to Josh, explaining how she would be positioned over the birth pool. "Just bring the baby to my chest." Viewers can hear Josh in the background tentatively asking, "Like, hand the baby this way?" Snyder explained that she needed Josh to bring the baby underneath her legs, rather than around her body due to the obstruction caused by the umbilical cord. Planned home births can be safe for healthy pregnancies when attended by a licensed midwife or certified professional with emergency training. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG), home births are safest when: the pregnancy is low-risk, labor begins at term (37-42 weeks), a trained, certified midwife is present and there is a clear emergency plan and access to a hospital transfer if needed. When she found out that their midwife wasn't going to make it, Snyder told Newsweek that she didn't really react to that information. "I just knew what I had to do and did it!" she added. The pre-home birth footage has been viewed 1.8 million times on TikTok. The hundreds of users who commented were in awe of Snyder's calm demeanor. "HOW are you speaking in full sentences at this stage of labor," one user questioned. "This is amazing, I wish I had the strength to do something like this!" another wrote. A third commenter wrote, "We'd be pulling up YouTube videos so fast." "I shared the video to empower moms that they can take control of their birth and they don't necessarily need help," Snyder said. Snyder was in labor for two hours and 20 minutes. The mom of four told Newsweek that Josh did an "amazing" job. "He helped me guide the baby up [and] we are all doing well," she said.
USA Today
6 days ago
- USA Today
Could Newark's trouble affect your summer travels? Here's what to know
Could Newark's trouble affect your summer travels? Here's what to know | Cruising Altitude People, understandably, keep asking me if they need to worry about flying to, from or through Newark Liberty International Airport this summer. The airport has been in the news for disruptions for a month now, and travelers are worried about what those high-profile headaches mean for their trips. If you, too, are wondering what to do this summer if you're planning a trip that involves the East Coast, here's what you need to know. The good news is, you probably don't need to be as concerned as you may think. Problems at Newark So, how did we get here? Newark has had a month of delays and cancellations because of a number of overlapping issues. 'The most acute problem right now is the runway construction that's going on there,' Brett Snyder, author of the blog Cranky Flier and owner of the travel agency Cranky Concierge, told me. Newark is down one runway, which limits the airport's flexibility. On top of that, a series of radar and radio outages prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to further reduce the number of flight operations at the airport, partly because a handful of controllers took trauma leave after briefly losing contact with planes in April. Those flight reductions are meant to keep passengers safe. The FAA wants to ensure that controllers have the bandwidth and tech capabilities to handle the amount of traffic they're responsible for. 'The only way to ensure safety is to bring the volume down so we're not at that tipping point,' Sheldon Jacobson, professor of computer science at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, previously told me. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed sweeping technology upgrades for the FAA to address the agency's aging infrastructure, but those proposals haven't yet been funded by Congress, and they'll take years to implement even once the money is secured. 'It's absurd that it's been so difficult to get a modernized system that they've been talking about for more than 25 years,' Snyder said. In the meantime, the agency will keep chugging along on old infrastructure. Is Newark still a safe airport? Experts agree that despite the issues and aging technology, Newark remains a safe hub for travel. 'I don't think I would be overly concerned on the safety issues, but I would have real concerns about the on-time issue,' Snyder said. Last week's Cruising Altitude: Why an airline pilot's training is 'similar to a specialist surgeon' Are more disruptions in the Northeast likely? Another cause for optimism is that airlines are rearranging their schedules ahead of the summer crush. The FAA announced new caps on operations at Newark, and United Airlines, which is the largest carrier at the airport, significantly cut back its schedule already. That means that there's a plan in place to try to keep disruptions to a minimum this summer, but it doesn't mean it's guaranteed smooth sailing. Snyder said that in some ways, the flight reduction at Newark could make flying in the Northeast a little easier for everyone this summer. 'It could actually benefit the rest of the system in the Northeast, because there are fewer aircraft trying to use that airspace,' he said. 'You will have fewer airplanes that they need to try and sequence. That may be a stretch, but it's possible.' Jacobson warned, however, that as equipment across the FAA's air traffic control organization ages, disruptions like those happening at Newark could become more frequent at other facilities as well. 'This could have happened anywhere. It happened to happen at Newark,' he said. 'The question is what's so special there? The chances are others are going to start to experience other breakdowns.' How to avoid problems on your own trip While travelers may be thinking more about the possibilities for disruption to their flight plans this summer, given the news cycle, experts say the situation is less extraordinary than it seems. 'If you look at travel delays and travel cancelations, the primary reason continues to be due to weather,' Jacobson said. 'We cannot control the weather. When a storm system comes through the New York City area, you're going to end up with delays.' Snyder agreed that weather remains a major concern for summer travel, and the usual advice for dealing with that applies. 'It's no different than any other summer. If you can fly nonstop, fly nonstop, it makes your life easier. If you have a connection in a place that is potentially likely to be impacted by weather or whatever it may be, just give yourself a buffer on your connection time, and just be patient,' he said. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Feds increase oversight of Medicaid benefits for ‘non-citizens'
May 27 (UPI) -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is increasing its oversight of states to prevent misuse of Medicaid funding to provide services for those who unlawfully entered the United States. Federal Medicaid funding is only available for emergency medical services for "non-citizens with unsatisfactory immigration status" when they otherwise would qualify for Medicaid coverage, the Health and Human Services Department said in a news release shared with UPI. Some states, though, "have pushed the boundaries" and made taxpayers liable for benefits that are not allowed by federal law. "Medicaid is not and cannot be a backdoor pathway to subsidize open borders," CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said. "States have a duty to uphold the law and protect taxpayer funds," Oz added. "We are putting them on notice - CMS will not allow federal dollars to be diverted to cover those who are not lawfully eligible." CMS is increasing federal oversight of Medicaid at the state level to identify and stop unlawful spending through: Focused evaluations of state Medicaid spending reports. In-depth reviews of states' financial management systems. Assessments of eligibility rules and policies to close loopholes. "Medicaid funds must serve American citizens in need and those legally entitled to benefits," said Drew Snyder, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid & CHIP Services. "If states cannot or will not comply, CMS will step in," Snyder said. Any unlawful spending of Medicaid dollars by states on "non-citizens" is subject to recoupment of the federal share of such expenses, according to the HHS Department. Snyder on Tuesday notified respective state officials of the increased oversight in a letter with the subject, "Ending taxpayer subsidization of open borders." He cited President Donald Trump's Feb. 19 executive order requiring federal agencies to uphold the rule of law, thwart the waste of taxpayer dollars and protect benefits for U.S. citizens. CMS "is committed to faithfully implementing the president's executive order," Snyder said. "The plain text of federal law ... generally prohibits illegal aliens from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits," he wrote. Federal law makes it national policy that "'aliens within the nation's borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs,'" and "'it is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits,'" Snyder said. He encouraged all states to review their policies, systems and internal controls to ensure each legally complies with federal law when claiming medical assistance and administrative expenditures. The Congressional Budget Office in October reported that the Biden administration's open-border policy cost taxpayers more than $16.2 billion to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services for "illegal aliens" after President Joe Biden took office.
UPI
6 days ago
- Health
- UPI
Feds increase oversight of Medicaid benefits for 'non-citizens'
Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz on Tuesday cautioned states to ensure they comply with federal law regarding Medicaid benefits for people who have not legally entered the nation. File Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo May 27 (UPI) -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is increasing its oversight of states to prevent misuse of Medicaid funding to provide services for those who unlawfully entered the United States. Federal Medicaid funding is only available for emergency medical services for "non-citizens with unsatisfactory immigration status" when they otherwise would qualify for Medicaid coverage, the Health and Human Services Department said in a news release shared with UPI. Some states, though, "have pushed the boundaries" and made taxpayers liable for benefits that are not allowed by federal law. "Medicaid is not and cannot be a backdoor pathway to subsidize open borders," CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said. "States have a duty to uphold the law and protect taxpayer funds," Oz added. "We are putting them on notice - CMS will not allow federal dollars to be diverted to cover those who are not lawfully eligible." CMS is increasing federal oversight of Medicaid at the state level to identify and stop unlawful spending through: Focused evaluations of state Medicaid spending reports. In-depth reviews of states' financial management systems. Assessments of eligibility rules and policies to close loopholes. "Medicaid funds must serve American citizens in need and those legally entitled to benefits," said Drew Snyder, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid & CHIP Services. "If states cannot or will not comply, CMS will step in," Snyder said. Any unlawful spending of Medicaid dollars by states on "non-citizens" is subject to recoupment of the federal share of such expenses, according to the HHS Department. Snyder on Tuesday notified respective state officials of the increased oversight in a letter with the subject, "Ending taxpayer subsidization of open borders." He cited President Donald Trump's Feb. 19 executive order requiring federal agencies to uphold the rule of law, thwart the waste of taxpayer dollars and protect benefits for U.S. citizens. CMS "is committed to faithfully implementing the president's executive order," Snyder said. "The plain text of federal law ... generally prohibits illegal aliens from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits," he wrote. Federal law makes it national policy that "'aliens within the nation's borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs,'" and "'it is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits,'" Snyder said. He encouraged all states to review their policies, systems and internal controls to ensure each legally complies with federal law when claiming medical assistance and administrative expenditures. The Congressional Budget Office in October reported that the Biden administration's open-border policy cost taxpayers more than $16.2 billion to provide Medicaid-funded emergency services for "illegal aliens" after President Joe Biden took office.
