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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Amy Pope, newly elected director general of the International Organization for Migration, about the U.S.-Mexico border, and global attitudes toward migrants.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Amy Pope, newly elected director general of the International Organization for Migration, about the U.S.-Mexico border, and global attitudes toward migrants.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-05-25T10:14:48+00:00 | kcbx.org | https://www.kcbx.org/2023-05-25/amy-pope-new-head-of-the-iom-wants-to-change-the-conversation-about-migrants |
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — This April, the U.S. Army updated policies for parents and families with a new Parenthood, Pregnancy and Postpartum Army Directive. A soldier at western Washington's Joint Base Lewis-McChord was part of the working group that made it happen. This shift came following grassroots efforts by Army parents in a Facebook group, discussing how to overcome the challenges many of them face.
Sgt. Carrie Vargas, a Human Resources Sergeant with the 508th Military Police Detention Battalion of the 42nd Military Police Brigade, is also a mom of three.
"I love being a mom because literally they are the love of my life," Sgt. Vargas said. "They drive my motivation and making it work with the Army is having a balance between duty and hey, I'm going to be gone this time for parental duties."
Sgt. Vargas says she learned over time how to balance work and life as well as she could.
"When I'm doing Army things, I'm doing Army things, I'm not worried about wearing my mom hat," Sgt. Vargas said. "And when I'm doing mom things I'm not worried about the Army- I'm worried about my kids and spending time and making memories with them, which was a really hard balance to learn throughout my career."
But there were still challenges to parenthood, and through conversations with other Army parents in a Facebook group, she learned that she wasn't alone. Parents had realized a number of problems that could be addressed through formal policy changes.
"We had seen some heartbreaking stories about miscarriages and family care plan issues and different stuff like that, so we collaborated over and over again about how we can make this better because we can't just keep going forward like this, we have to make a change," Sgt. Vargas said.
Some of the changes were updates to existing policies, while others were completely new directives. The Army said changes include a "stipulation that one parent will be deferred for one year from deployments, operations, and training in excess of one duty day in order to remain with their newborn."
There is also a measure standardizing leave for a soldier and their spouse who experience pregnancy loss and a provision giving pregnant soldiers a year-long exemption from physical fitness tests after their pregnancy. You can read more about them here.
"[The directive] makes the command relationship about family care plans more open and a lot more understanding," Sgt. Vargas said. "The miscarriage policy, allowing soldiers to have that grieving process, definitely important because you can't replace that loss and that loss is devastating, but what the Army can do is provide you time to cope with that."
Sgt. Vargas said there are also crucial provisions that allow for soldiers to continue their training and work toward promotions, and prevent penalties as a result of taking accommodations for new parenthood.
Lt Col Emil J Kesselring, Commander of the 508th Military Police Detention Battalion and Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, says the policies are important for all parents, including the thousands of enlisted single mothers and fathers.
"We recruit soldiers but we retain families and if a family's taken care of they'll stay with the military and that's our biggest asset and resource," Lt Col Kesselring said.
Sgt. Vargas says she was inspired by the chance to be a part of the group- which worked together to create change for families.
"I think the parenting plan as a whole will improve our retention," Sgt. Vargas said. "Parents are now not having to choose between my career and my family, they're able to work better with both." | 2022-05-09T01:55:58+00:00 | king5.com | https://www.king5.com/article/news/national/military-news/army-parents-empower-policies-parenthood-pregnancy-postpartum/281-f5431535-cb48-4153-b965-2652b213f638 |
NEW YORK, Aug. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InvestorsObserver issues critical PriceWatch Alerts for DRUG, FUTU, ZH, TME, and IQ.
To see how InvestorsObserver's proprietary scoring system rates these stocks, view the InvestorsObserver's PriceWatch Alert by selecting the corresponding link.
- DRUG: https://www.investorsobserver.com/lp/pr-stocks-lp-2/?symbol=DRUG&prnumber=082620222
- FUTU: https://www.investorsobserver.com/lp/pr-stocks-lp-2/?symbol=FUTU&prnumber=082620222
- ZH: https://www.investorsobserver.com/lp/pr-stocks-lp-2/?symbol=ZH&prnumber=082620222
- TME: https://www.investorsobserver.com/lp/pr-stocks-lp-2/?symbol=TME&prnumber=082620222
- IQ: https://www.investorsobserver.com/lp/pr-stocks-lp-2/?symbol=IQ&prnumber=082620222
(Note: You may have to copy this link into your browser then press the [ENTER] key.)
InvestorsObserver's PriceWatch Alerts are based on our proprietary scoring methodology. Each stock is evaluated based on short-term technical, long-term technical and fundamental factors. Each of those scores is then combined into an overall score that determines a stock's overall suitability for investment.
InvestorsObserver provides patented technology to some of the biggest names on Wall Street and creates world-class investing tools for the self-directed investor on Main Street. We have a wide range of tools to help investors make smarter decisions when investing in stocks or options.
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SOURCE InvestorsObserver | 2022-08-26T14:05:31+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2022/08/26/thinking-about-buying-stock-bright-minds-biosciences-futu-holdings-zhihu-tencent-music-entertainment-or-iqiyi/ |
PARIS (AP) — French authorities say that the beluga whale that was stranded for days in the Seine River has died.
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MOST POPULAR | 2022-08-10T11:01:27+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Alert-French-authorities-say-that-the-beluga-17363740.php |
Request unsuccessful. Incapsula incident ID: 261000680070994459-39373429803389188 | 2023-07-28T14:52:26+00:00 | bizjournals.com | https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/07/28/courier-100-dinsmore.html |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Benjamin Franklin was so busy as an inventor, publisher, diplomat and U.S. founding father that it’s easy to lose track of his accomplishments.
Add one more to the roster: his early work in printing colonial paper currency designed to counter a constant threat of counterfeiting.
Franklin was an early innovator of printing techniques that used colored threads, watermarks and imprints of natural objects such as leaves to make it far harder for others to create knockoffs of the paper bills he printed. A team at Notre Dame University has shed new light on his methods via advanced scanning techniques that reveal some of Franklin’s methods in greater detail — along the way, also providing one more reason Franklin appears on the $100 bill.
The new research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes data gathered with techniques such as spectroscopy, which uses laser light to identify particular elements in test samples, and electron microscopy for imaging fine details. The intent, said lead author Khachatur Manukyan, a Notre Dame associate professor of physics, was to learn more about the materials used by Franklin and his network of affiliated printers and how they served to distinguish their bills from cheaper knockoffs.
The work examined Franklin’s penchant for including watermarks, tiny indigo-dyed threads and “fillers” of special crystal in printed bills to create barriers to copycats. It also highlighted Franklin’s use of “nature printing,” a technique by which he transferred the detailed vein patterns of tree leaves to printing plates.
These techniques raised numerous barriers to would-be copycats. Counterfeiters naturally sought to keep their costs low, and thus were loath to invest in improving their own printing techniques. Franklin’s fillers served to make bills hardier and thus extend their life considerably over the cheaper paper preferred by criminals, while his indigo-dyed threads added another production barrier.
Similarly, Franklin’s nature-printed images involved such detail that it was particularly difficult for less skilled printers to duplicate.
The Revolutionary War, however, brought on such a surge of counterfeiting — much of it provided by the British army — that the new United States government shunned paper bills in favor of coinage for decades. It didn’t reconsider until the onset of the Civil War in 1861, when the federal government first authorized the printing of dollar bills called “greenbacks.”
Colored threads were later included in the U.S. banknotes printed a century later. | 2023-07-17T20:12:24+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-how-benjamin-franklin-laid-groundwork-for-the-us-dollar-by-foiling-early-counterfeiters/ |
Chimpanzees share experiences with each other, a trait once thought to be only human
A chimpanzee doesn't hesitate to make it clear when it wants attention. The closest cousin of humans, this species of great ape has effective ways of communicating what it needs.
Researchers have often observed captive chimps pointing to an object they want their caregivers to give them or young chimps in the wild having tantrums to get attention from their mother.
Until now, these behaviors have only been observed when a chimpanzee wants something. Recently, however, scientists documented footage of a wild adult chimpanzee showing her mother a leaf, apparently just to share the experience with her, according to a study published Monday in the journal PNAS.
More examples of such interactions are needed to better understand the intention behind the gesture, the study's researchers said, but the observation could demonstrate chimpanzees possess a social behavior once thought to be specific only to their human relatives.
"Critically, she didn't seem to want her mom to do anything with the leaf. ... She seems to be showing it just for the sake of showing it. It's like, 'look, look, this is cool, isn't it?' And that is very humanlike and something that we thought was fairly unique to our species," said study coauthor Katie Slocombe, a professor of psychology at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
The mother-daughter chimps, called Sutherland and Fiona by researchers, are part of the Ngogo chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park in Uganda. Slocombe and her colleagues were studying Fiona and her infant as part of a separate project on their wider social group, when they captured the footage of Fiona holding the leaf out to her mother before taking it back again once she had Sutherland's attention.
"This is the first promising kind of suggestion that this (behavior) might not be uniquely human, and that chimpanzees might be capable and motivated to do this," Slocombe said.
Show-and-tell
Fiona had been engaged in what researchers call "leaf grooming," a common behavior in which a chimpanzee will stroke and manipulate a leaf. The reasoning behind the behavior is a mystery, but Slocombe and her colleagues suspect it could be to inspect an ectoparasite, such as a tick, on top of the leaf. Often, surrounding chimpanzees will also become engrossed in the action, intently watching the leaf being groomed.
"When Fiona was doing this, (Sutherland) didn't really seem interested; she wasn't watching and wasn't giving her any attention. Fiona is then showing her the leaf to say, 'look at it,'" Slocombe said. "She is really persistent with trying to get her mom to look at it, and it's only when her mom really visibly dropped her whole head to orient to the leaf that (Fiona) then seems satisfied."
The researchers examined 84 video clips of chimpanzees grooming leaves near at least one other individual to search for possible explanations for the divergence from typically observed behavior. The sample had a wide age range, with male and female chimps observed.
In over 75% of the cases, another individual had either approached the leaf groomer or had watched very closely, the study team found. The vast majority of the clips showed that leaf grooming did not initiate social activity — such as grooming one another, playing together or even eating the leaf — during or following the action, which caused the researchers to believe Fiona was simply looking to share an experience with another ape.
"Human infants, from about 10 months of age, will start to bring things that they find interesting to their caregivers. ... Very much like Fiona did, they will extend their arm with the object in their hand out toward the face of their caregiver. If the caregiver doesn't react, they'll readjust and they'll persist until the caregiver looks at it," Slocombe said.
Slocombe and her team always maintain a 23-foot distance when observing the chimpanzees in the wild, so as to not disturb them. This standard practice rules out the possibility that the behavior was learned from humans.
"Chimpanzees have been observed to place ectoparasites, found while grooming, on leaves and try then to smash them. In the clip, I can't tell whether this is the case, but Fiona seems to take (something) out of her mouth and then places it on the leaf and 'shows' it to her mother," said Simone Pika, head of the research group Comparative BioCognition at the University of Osnabrück in Germany.
Pika was not involved with the work, but her team also observes chimpanzees in Ngogo and plans to continue to look for further evidence and clarification.
"We are still at the beginning to fully understand the communicative complexity of chimpanzees and the implications for the evolution of human language and cognition," Pika said. "We need much more data to clearly evaluate whether indeed chimpanzees in the wild use declarative gestures and what the function is."
This study is the first documented observation of this behavior in the wild to suggest apes have the motivation to share experiences with one another, Slocombe said. She hopes it will encourage those who work with chimpanzees, in the wild or in captivity, to look out for more examples.
"What I'm really hopeful of is that the publication of this result will kind of catalyze other people who studied chimps for a long time, maybe that have loads of video footage of them, to think, 'Oh, hang on. I've seen chimps do something like that before, but I just didn't really think it was significant,'" Slocombe said.
"Maybe then, we can actually start to get multiple examples to really better test whether the motivation of the chimps is similar to humans." | 2022-11-19T00:52:46+00:00 | kcra.com | https://www.kcra.com/article/chimpanzees-share-trait-once-thought-only-human/42006685 |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matt Holliday heard from agent Scott Boras that his son was about to be picked first in baseball’s amateur draft, and the 2007 batting champion didn’t let on.
“That was kind of cool,” Jackson Holliday said later. “He’s like, ‘All right, you’re just going to find out.’ That was really, really neat, and something I’ll probably never forget.”
Jackson watched on television about 30 seconds later Sunday when baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Baltimore chose the 18-year-old shortstop first overall.
The only other son of a major leaguer to be a top pick was Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987.
Druw Jones, the son of All-Star Andruw Jones, had been projected first, but the 18-year-old outfielder went to Arizona with the second selection.
“It’s like a video game, honestly,” Holliday said. “Like every video game you play, you’re the first pick.”
Texas used the third pick on Kumar Rocker, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who failed to sign with the New York Mets after being selected 10th overall last year. Rocker will be reunited with Rangers minor league pitcher Jack Leiter, his teammate on Vanderbilt’s 2019 NCAA baseball championship team. Texas chose Leiter with the No. 2 pick last year.
MLB said this draft marked the first in which four of the first five picks were Black.
Family matters in this year’s draft. Justin Crawford, a son of four-time All-Star Carl Crawford, was taken by Philadelphia at No. 17. Daniel Susac, a University of Arizona catcher who is a brother of former big leaguer Andrew Susac, was picked 19th by Oakland.
Holliday and Jones, both represented by Boras, have agreements for signing bonuses in excess of $8 million, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deals have not been announced.
Boras was on the phone with Matt Holliday while a member of his staff spoke to Druw Jones.
“A tough decision,” Orioles general manager Mike Elias said. “I would liken it to deciding what to order at a five-star restaurant.”
Holliday, a left-handed hitter from Stillwater High in Oklahoma, is 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds — quite a bit smaller than his 6-foot-4, 240-pound father. He hit .685 and with 89 hits in 41 games and broke a national record for hits in a high school season that had been held by J.T. Realmuto.
His dad was a seven-time All-Star in a big league career from 2004-18, including 2009-16 with the Cardinals. Holliday earned the 2007 NL batting title.
“I remember being in the clubhouse ever since he got to St Louis,” Jackson said. “So I feel like it’s definitely an advantage and I’ve gotten to see what it takes to get to the major leagues and how players, even when they’re at the top of their game, how hard they still work to maintain it.”
Jackson will head to the minors instead of attending Oklahoma State, where the baseball team is coached by his uncle Josh, Matt’s older brother.
“I’m about as prepared as you can be to take on this lifestyle,” Jackson said.
Jones is a 6-foot-3 18-year-old from Wesleyan High in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. He hit .570 with 13 homers, 39 RBIs, 72 runs, 33 walks and 32 stolen bases this year. He also went 10-1 as a pitcher, though he is projected as an outfielder.
His father was a five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner.
“We’re probably almost exactly the same,” Druw said. “I try and make it my own game and be able to pursue and keep my career going and not really worry about what he did back in past but to be able have my own name and play my own way.”
With his father away from home playing ball during much of his youth, Druw learned to hit from his mom’s father, J.D. Derick. Ahead of the draft, Druw was met with chants of “Over-rated!” from about 75 fans when Wesleyan played at Decatur High on May 3. In his third at-bat, Druw homered off Brady Jones, who committed to attend Georgia State.
“It was one of those moments that you’ll remember forever,” Druw said. “I enjoyed that moment, but I’ll probably never have that moment again.”
Rocker, a 22-year-old from Georgia, failed to sign last year after the Mets became concerned over his physical. He had shoulder surgery last September and pitched this year for the independent Frontier League’s Tri-City ValleyCats as a showcase ahead of the draft.
“We’re extremely comfortable with the medical review that our team has done, our medical team,” Rangers general manager Chris Young said.
Rocker was 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in five starts at Tri-City.
“My talent speaks for itself,” Rocker said.
Baltimore had five of the top 81 picks as the big league team has rebounded after five straight losing seasons. The Orioles recovered from an 8-16 start to enter the All-Star break at 46-46, just 3 1/2 games back of a wild-card berth.
“They’re heading in the right direction and I’m excited to be a part of it,” Holliday said.
Pittsburgh used the fourth pick on second baseman Termarr Johnson of Mays High in Georgia, a product of baseball’s Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities program. The top pick present for the broadcast, Johnson said the Pirates were getting “the best player in the draft.”
Washington used the fifth selection on outfielder Elijah Green from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
In contrast to other sports, baseball draft picks take time to reach the majors. Catcher Adley Rutschman, taken by the Orioles with the top overall pick three years ago, made his debut this May 21 and is hitting .222 with five homers and 16 RBIs.
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Chase Silseth was the first of last year’s selections to reach the majors. Taken in the 11th round and 321st overall, he debuted this May 13.
The first 80 picks were scheduled for Sunday, when the draft was held outdoors for the first time at LA Live, its second year taking place in conjunction with the All-Star Game. The draft resumes with the start of the third round on Monday and 616 players in all are to be selected.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport | 2022-07-18T15:16:38+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/national-sports/jackson-holliday-matts-son-taken-by-orioles-with-top-pick/ |
TORONTO, June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PokerStars, part of Flutter Entertainment, announced today it has been granted a full registration to operate in the Canadian province of Ontario, by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).
The registration provides for a regulated offering to the community in Ontario, across PokerStars' three verticals of poker, casino, and sport, featuring many of the gaming products that players know and love, while presenting a localised schedule and offering, as well as experiences and benefits that only PokerStars can offer. With more than 5,000 games, poker, blackjack and much more, available 24/7, the in-app and online experience provides consumers with a variety of exciting ways to play and be rewarded.
"In many respects Ontario is our home market, given the first ever hand of PokerStars was played here over 20 years ago, so we are thrilled about the new regulated environment within which our players can play", said Tom Warren, MD - Marketing. "A lot has changed in that time, but our commitment to offering our players the most epic and thrilling experience in the market hasn't – and we can't wait to get started."
To mark the launch of the new PokerStars CAON platform, PokerStars will be hosting a special launch series, the Ontario Platinum Series, exclusively for those in Ontario from July 10 -18, offering a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool.
There is much more ahead in Ontario this summer with epic events and experiences in the works for players who join the PokerStars family, including a fantastic rewards programme, which will give players double rewards throughout July and August, in addition to a new weekly flagship event, known as the New Sunday Majors, which will be a special Sunday tournament with a $100k guaranteed prize pool.
PokerStars is also looking forward to working closely with its gaming partner Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to provide players with epic rewards, opportunities, and experiences.
For any further information, please contact press@pokerstars.com.
Play Responsibly! For more information on responsible gaming please visit our website at https://www.PokerStars.net/about/responsible-gaming/
CONTACT: press@pokerstars.com
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SOURCE PokerStars | 2022-06-28T15:13:14+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/06/28/pokerstars-officially-launches-hometown-ontario/ |
GCN+ to stream all four NCL Cup Invitationals in Miami Beach, Atlanta, Denver, and Washington D.C, starting on April 8 2023
MIAMI, March 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Cycling League (NCL), the first of its kind professional sports league built around 21st century values of diverse ownership, gender equality, technology, and sustainability, today announced a three-year broadcast partnership with GCN+.
GCN+ is solely focused on bringing cycling fans the best of international racing, analysis and original documentaries, broadcasting more than 300 calendar days of live road racing, cyclocross, track, and mountain biking each year. Led by some of the most experienced and engaging commentators in the industry, GCN+ is the premier international hub for coverage of professional cycling. One-day and stage races are available live, on demand and as highlights, with subscribers gaining access to exclusive documentaries about the most iconic, inspiring and controversial riders, teams and brands.
All racing coverage (subject to territory restrictions) and exclusive documentaries are available year-round on GCN+ via the GCN App, all web browsers, Amazon FireTV, Samsung Smart TV, AndroidTV, Chromecast, Apple AirPlay and Apple TV. Racing fans can use the GCN app to interact with NCL coverage through polls, quizzes and other bitesize content such as course previews and start lists.
"We fully believe the future appeal of professional sports will be driven by our foundational values built around three dimensions of diversity, equity, and inclusion, across ownership, teams & fans, unleashing the full volume of global audience adoption and consumption. The National Cycling League's innovative race format live streaming on GCN+ delivers the blueprint for that global vision, through a partner that shares those values, directly to millions of race fans' connected devices," said NCL Co-Founder and CEO, Paris Wallace. "We're looking forward to showcasing the incredible female and male talent of the NCL peloton and the excitement of the first American professional cycling racing league to a new global audience of cycling fans."
Daniel Lloyd, Director of Racing, GCN+, said: "My ears instantly pricked up when I first heard about the National Cycling League. The criterium scene in the US has been going from strength to strength in recent years, and that continues with the addition of this brand new series, which you'll be able to watch live on GCN+. The NCL features a brand new format, and will commence in 2023 with four rounds in prime locations - Miami, Atlanta, Denver and Washington. We are guaranteed a lot of action, in part because of what's on the line; the NCL has the largest prize pot ever seen in criterium racing. For traditional road racing fans, there's no doubt it will be a departure from the norm, but things need a shakeup on occasion, and I'd predict that the NCL will do exactly that."
With on-site commentary from veteran criterium racing broadcasters, fans on-site and around the world will get real-time insights on the racing action as well as behind-the-scenes stories on the teams and athletes. Modeled on successful broadcast styles from prime-time sports leagues, NCL coverage will feature extensive pre-game and post-game shows.
NCL Co-founder and Forbes ranked most powerful NFL agent, David Mulugheta, commented, "As we build the National Cycling League to rival the major U.S. sports leagues, we need to create great media products for fans on-site and around the world. Knowledgeable, long-time cycling fans who watch GCN+ will immediately realize NCL races belong alongside coverage of The Classics and Grand Tours."
ABOUT THE NATIONAL CYCLING LEAGUE
The National Cycling League, Inc. is revolutionizing professional cycling in the United States by building the professional sports league of the future – a league with foundational values of diverse ownership, gender equality and inclusion, technology, and sustainability. Featuring a new cycling league format, racing on iconic circuits, in the most iconic cities. Men and women will compete on the same team, on the same course, in a way that respects their differences yet weighs their performances and values their contributions equally.
The NCL will launch in 2023 with 10 teams (invite-only) of professional cyclists competing for a record-setting $1 Million prize purse across a series of criterium-style races in four major markets: Miami Beach, Fla. – April 8th; Atlanta, Ga. – May 14th; Denver, Colo. – August 13th; and Washington D.C. – September 17th. In 2024, the National Cycling League will expand to a planned eight (8) cities across the U.S.
Visit www.nclracing.com. Follow on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Paris Wallace
Paris is a co-founder and serves as the CEO of the NCL. A recognized expert on entrepreneurship and DE&I, he is currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Harvard Business School and previously lectured at MIT and Wharton. Prior to the NCL, Paris founded and served as the CEO of Ovia Health, the nation's leading women's health and technology company, which he sold to LabCorp in 2021. Paris also founded Good Start Genetics, a genomics technology company focused on fertility and reproductive health, which was acquired by Invitae.
David Mulugheta
David is a co-founder of the NCL and considered one of the most influential figures in sports, earning the title of the No. 1 NFL agent in the world by Forbes for his work negotiating several record-breaking contracts. David was not only the first African American to receive that distinction, he is also the youngest person to ever sit atop the coveted list. To date, he has negotiated NFL contracts valued in excess of $2 billion.
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SOURCE National Cycling League, Inc. | 2023-03-14T12:46:09+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2023/03/14/national-cycling-league-announces-broadcast-partnership-with-gcn/ |
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NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department's effort to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster isn't just a showcase for the Biden administration's tougher approach to corporate consolidation, it's a rare moment for the publishing industry itself to be placed in the dock.
Through the first week of an expected two- to three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, top publishing executives at Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and elsewhere, along with agents and such authors as Stephen King, have shared opinions, relived disappointments and revealed financial figures they otherwise would have preferred to discuss privately or confide on background with reporters.
“I apologize for the passionate language,” Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle testified about correspondence exhibited in court that reflected tensions between him and other Penguin Random House executives. “These are private text messages to my closest collaborators in the company."
The government is trying to demonstrate that the merger will lead to less competition for bestselling authors, lowering their advances and reducing the number of books. The Justice Department contends that the top publishers, which also include Hachette, HarperCollins Publishers and Macmillan, already dominate the market for popular books and writers and have effectively made it near-impossible for any smaller publisher to break through.
Penguin Random House and others argue that the market is dynamic and unpredictable, with competitors from university presses to Amazon.com capable of turning out bestsellers.
Like any other self-contained community, book industry professionals speak in a kind of shorthand and follow customs that are instinctive to them and at times unclear to outsiders. For U.S. District Court Judge Florence Y. Pan and for lawyers on each side, the trial has been in part a translation project.
It is also been a chance to hear some of the industry’s leaders under oath.
William Morrow Group's president and publisher, Liate Stehlik, confided that she only made a limited effort to acquire fiction by Dean Koontz, who has published with Amazon.com, because his sales have been declining.
Award-winning author Andrew Solomon explained that he chose to publish his acclaimed “Noonday Demon” with Scribner, a Simon & Schuster imprint, in part because Scribner has the kind of sales and marketing resources that smaller companies lack.
The president and publisher of Penguin Books, Brian Tart, agreed with the judge's suggestion that profit and loss assessments for possible book acquisitions are “really fake” and do not reflect actual costs. Tart also testified that he passed on bidding for Marie Kondo's million-selling “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” because he "didn't know what to make of it.”
Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp acknowledged that a popular industry term, “mid-list writer," long associated with a broad and intrepid corps of noncommercial authors, a kind of publishing middle class, is essentially fictitious and a polite way of not labeling anyone a “low-list" writer.
Questioned by the judge, Karp also said that while publishers value all the books they acquire, books obtained for an excessive advance — money guaranteed to the author no matter how the book sells — do require special attention.
“If you really love the book, you have to jump through hoops," he said.
At times, a glossary might have been needed to follow some common industry terms:
—Earning out. This is when a book sells enough to recoup the advance paid and the author can begin collecting royalties, although some books can make a profit for the publisher even when not earning out. (Most new books, executives acknowledged, do not earn out.)
—Backlist. This refers to older books, an invaluable resource for publishers, who rely on them as steady sources of revenue.
—Beauty contest. This is when two or more publishers are offering similar advances and nonfinancial terms such as marketing skills or the appeal of working with a particular editor determine who wins.
—10% topping. This refers to when an agent asks the publisher not just to match the highest competing offer, but add 10% more.
—All access books: As defined by Dohle, these are books so inexpensive, such as those Amazon.com offers through its e-book subscription service Kindle Unlimited, that they damage the industry overall by forcing down prices and, inevitably, author advances.
Witnesses from Dohle to Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch spoke at length of their love for the business and of what they said was the higher mission of bringing ideas and stories to the public. But publishing is a profit-making business and even the most idealistic of authors and executives are alert to the bottom line.
Through internal emails, depositions, and both live and videotaped testimony, the trial has bared internal rules and strategies about the acquisition of books and the letdowns when a desired book goes elsewhere.
At Simon & Schuster, editors must submit “justification" reports to senior management to gain approval for deals worth $200,000 to $250,000 or more. At the William Morrow Group, a HarperCollins division, the number is $350,000. Tart also requires approval for deals $250,000 and higher, while Dohle testified that he must sign off on deals of $2 million or higher.
Publishers love to share stories of favorite acquisitions. Pietsch's range from David Foster Wallace to Keith Richards. Karp's include the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Bruce Springsteen.
But the trial has highlighted disappointments and missed chances — a source of “gallows humor,” as Tart called it. He not only passed on Kondo's book but on Delia Owens' blockbuster “Where the Crawdads Sing.” At Hachette, they keep a list of “The Ones That Got Away," deals for which the publisher bid $500,000 or more but still lost.
Karp testified that Simon & Schuster was outbid by Hachette on a new book by Ben Carson, the famed neurosurgeon who was former President Donald Trump's housing secretary. At one point, the Justice Department cited internal emails to point out that Simon & Schuster had lost three bidding competitions to Penguin Random House in a single week.
Karp also spoke of a book he did acquire, an anticipated work by a spiritual leader with a substantial following.
“Unfortunately, his followers didn’t follow him to the bookstore,” Karp said.
___
AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-08-06T13:28:19+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Antitrust-trial-puts-book-publishing-industry-in-17356253.php |
St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol didn’t realize there were no Latino general managers left in Major League Baseball after the Detroit Tigers fired Al Avila.
Marmol himself is one of only three Latino on-field managers, along with Boston’s Alex Cora and Washington’s Dave Martinez. There were four when the season started, but the Toronto Blue Jays fired Charlie Montoyo last month.
“That’s outrageous,” Marmol said Thursday, when going over the short list of Latino managers.
While roughly 29% of the players on big league rosters to start this season were Latino or Hispanic, and the percentage of coaches was just a tick higher, that hasn’t translated to similar numbers in management positions on and off the field for the 30 MLB teams.
Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny was aware of Avila’s firing, but like Marmol was unaware that Avila was baseball’s only Latino GM.
“He had a great run. He’s a good baseball man,” Matheny said. “Certainly, we have at least one third of our players are Latino. I know how valuable it is to have that connection in our clubhouse and with our staff. You can see the need to have representation in leadership.”
Asked how that could change, he responded, “That’s a great question. I don’t know.”
With Avila out after seven years as Detroit’s GM, MLB has even fewer minorities in leading front-office positions.
Chicago White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams is the only Black leader of baseball operations for any club, Miami Marlins GM Kim Ng is the only woman and Asian-American in that role, and San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who is of Pakistani descent, is the only Muslim.
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida in May released its annual study of diversity hiring in MLB. The report said of 975 big league players on April 1, that 278 of them (28.5%) were Hispanic or Latino. That has been at least 25% each year since 1998. The four Latino managers at the beginning of the season matched the most — like the three previous seasons, as well as 2004 and 2011.
Arte Moreno, who has owned the Los Angeles Angels since 2003, is the only Hispanic or Latino majority team owner.
Avila was fired Wednesday by the Tigers, who were in a rebuilding process when he got the job and are still struggling. They haven’t been to the playoffs since Avila was promoted to GM on Aug. 4, 2015, after serving as Dave Dombrowski’s assistant.
The 36-year-old Marmol is the youngest manager in the majors, and the youngest for the Cardinals since 1951. The New Jersey native, who traces his lineage to the Dominican Republic, also is only the franchise’s second minority manager.
Marmol has been with the Cardinals organization since being picked in the sixth round of the 2007 amateur draft. He never played above Class A but became a coach and manager in the minors, then joined the Cardinals’ big league staff in 2017.
“An important word for me is ‘access.’ For me, I give a lot of credit for being in this seat because of the access I was given,” Marmol said Thursday. “If you look at some of the places I grew up, you’re not exposed to the things you need to be exposed to allow you to have those seats.
“So a lot of it is early-on access to being equipped with a way of thinking, communicating, managing, handling personalities — all of the things that other people, honestly, have access to that a lot of Latin communities don’t,” he said. “I think that’s where it starts.”
___
AP freelancers Mike Cranston and David Smale contributed to this report.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-08-12T15:49:21+00:00 | fox59.com | https://fox59.com/sports/ap-sports/no-latino-gms-in-mlb-after-avila-firing-only-3-managers/ |
BRUSSELS (AP) — Zelenskyy says Ukraine, EU fighting together against Russia, which is "the most anti-European force" in the world.
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CAIRO (AP) — A representative of BBC staff in Cairo on a three-day strike for equal pay with colleagues across the Middle East accused the broadcaster of “gross discrimination” Tuesday. The North African country is in the midst of spiraling economic crises, with inflation running at a record high and the currency depreciating.
According to Khaled el-Balshy, the strikers’ spokesperson and head of Egypt’s journalism union, 75 staff members from the broadcaster’s Cairo bureau are demanding to be paid in dollars or receive a significant pay rise in the local currency, like other BBC employees in the region, including Beirut and Istanbul.
The union leader said the disparity amounted to “gross discrimination against the Cairo staff.” The walkout began Monday and is set to finish Wednesday.
The BBC’s office in London said it had been planning on “increasing salaries by 27% between March and July” to mitigate inflation and was continuing “to engage with them (the staff) to find a resolution whilst acting within our market pay policy which is applied consistently across” the broadcaster.
El-Balshy said, the 27% pay rise was inadequate, given Egypt’s economic situation.
Over the past year, the Egyptian pound has lost over 50% of its value against the dollar, with annual inflation reaching 36.8% in June, up from 33.7% recorded in May. The economy is reeling from years of government austerity measures, the coronavirus pandemic and fallout from the Ukraine war. Egypt is a top wheat importer from Russia and Ukraine.
The Associated Press previously said the BBC’s Istanbul staff were paid in dollars, based on information from the strikers’ representative. He later clarified that they were paid in Turkish lira, something that was later confirmed by the BBC’s press office. | 2023-07-19T15:26:24+00:00 | wboy.com | https://www.wboy.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-representative-of-striking-bbc-cairo-staff-accuses-broadcaster-of-gross-discrimination/ |
How to Watch the Dodgers vs. Astros Game: Streaming & TV Channel Info for June 24
The Houston Astros and Kyle Tucker hit the field in the second game of a three-game series against Will Smith and the Los Angeles Dodgers, on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
Sign up for Fubo to watch this matchup and make sure you don't miss any of the action all season long!
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Dodgers vs. Astros Live Stream, TV Channel and Game Info:
- Date: Saturday, June 24, 2023
- Time: 7:15 PM ET
- TV Channel: FOX
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Venue: Dodger Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
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Explore More About This Game
Dodgers Batting & Pitching Performance
- The Dodgers rank third-best in MLB action with 119 total home runs.
- Los Angeles' .443 slugging percentage ranks fourth-best in baseball.
- The Dodgers rank 19th in MLB with a .241 batting average.
- Los Angeles has the No. 5 offense in MLB play, scoring 5.3 runs per game (396 total runs).
- The Dodgers' .327 on-base percentage ranks 11th in baseball.
- The Dodgers' 8.9 strikeouts per game rank 18th in MLB.
- The 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings put together by Los Angeles' pitching staff ranks 15th in the majors.
- Los Angeles' 4.51 team ERA ranks 23rd across all MLB pitching staffs.
- The Dodgers have the eighth-lowest WHIP in the majors (1.255).
Astros Batting & Pitching Performance
- The Astros have hit 87 homers this season, which ranks 14th in the league.
- Houston ranks 18th in the majors with a .399 team slugging percentage.
- The Astros' .244 batting average ranks 18th in the league this season.
- Houston has scored the 14th-most runs in the majors this season with 338 (4.4 per game).
- The Astros have the 21st-ranked on-base percentage in MLB this season (.314).
- The Astros have shown patience at the plate this season with the fifth-best rate of strikeouts per game (7.9) among MLB offenses.
- Houston strikes out 9.4 batters per nine innings as a pitching staff, fifth-best in MLB.
- Houston pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.50 ERA this year, first-best in baseball.
- The Astros have a combined 1.257 WHIP as a pitching staff, ninth-lowest in MLB.
Dodgers Probable Starting Pitcher
- Bobby Miller gets the start for the Dodgers, his sixth of the season. He is 3-1 with a 2.83 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings pitched.
- In his last outing on Sunday against the San Francisco Giants, the right-hander threw 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven earned runs while surrendering seven hits.
- Miller has registered three quality starts this year.
- Miller is looking for his sixth straight appearance lasting five or more innings. He averages 5.6 frames per appearance on the mound.
- He has made two appearances this season in which he did not allow an earned run.
Astros Probable Starting Pitcher
- The Astros' Ronel Blanco (1-0) will make his fourth start of the season.
- The right-hander gave up five earned runs and allowed seven hits in 5 2/3 innings pitched against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
- In three starts this season, he's earned one quality start.
- Blanco has three starts in a row of five innings or more.
- In 12 appearances this season, he has finished six without allowing an earned run.
Dodgers Schedule
Astros Schedule
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-24T19:57:35+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/sports/betting/2023/06/24/dodgers-vs-astros-mlb-live-stream-tv/ |
UPS reaches contract with 340,000 unionized workers, averting potentially calamitous strike
NEW YORK (AP) — UPS has reached a tentative contract agreement with its 340,000-person strong union, potentially averting a strike that threatened to disrupt logistics nationwide for businesses and households alike.
The agreement was announced after UPS and the Teamsters came back to the negotiating table Tuesday to talk over remaining sticking points in the largest private-sector contract in North America. Both sides had already reached tentative agreement on a host of issues but remained at odds on things like pay for part-time workers who make up more than half of the UPS employees represented by the union.
The Teamsters called the tentative agreement “historic” and “overwhelmingly lucrative” in a prepared statement. It includes, among other benefits, higher wages and air conditioning in delivery trucks.
“Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and to UPS and our customers,” Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer, said in a written statement. “This agreement continues to reward UPS’s full- and part-time employees with industry-leading pay and benefits while retaining the flexibility we need to stay competitive, serve our customers and keep our business strong.”
The company said the five-year agreement covers U.S. Teamsters-represented employees in small-package roles and is subject to voting and ratification by union members.
The union, which had long threatened a strike, boasted about the “historic wage increases” for its members, saying existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract.
It said the agreement includes provision to increase starting pay for part-time workers to $21 per hour, up from $16.20 today. It also reiterated prior concessions it got from the company, such as making Martin Luther King Day a full holiday for the first time and ending forced overtime on drivers’ days off.
Members of the Teamsters, angered by a contract they say was forced on them five years ago by union leadership, clashed with UPS over pay as profits for the delivery company soared in recent years. Union leadership was upended last year with the election of Sean O’Brien, a vocal critic of the union president who signed off on that contract, James Hoffa, the son of the famous Teamsters firebrand.
The two side had reached a tentative agreement early on safety issues, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning equipment. Under the agreement, UPS said it would add air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after Jan. 1, 2024.
Profits at UPS have grown more than 140% since the last contract was signed as the arrival of a deadly pandemic drastically transformed the manner in which households get what they need.
Unionized workers argued that were the ones shouldering growth at the Atlanta company and appeared dead set on righting what they saw as a bad contract.
The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.
Member voting begins Aug. 3 and concludes Aug. 22.
UPS has the largest private-sector contract with workers in North America, and the last breakdown in labor talks a quarter century ago led to a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers that crippled the company.
If a strike occurred, logistics experts had warned that other shipping companies wouldn’t have had the capacity to handle all the packages that would flow their way. Customers who shop online could have faced more shipping fees and longer waits.
The deal averts a big crisis in shipping just as merchants were in the throes of the back-to-school shopping season, the second largest sales period behind the winter holidays.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a national retail trade group that counts retailers like Best Buy, CVS Health and Kohl’s as members, called the tentative pact “an enormous relief to retailers, who have been navigating the possibility of a strike and the associated uncertainty for weeks.”
“We’ve learned all too well over the last several years the impact supply chain disruptions can have,” the group said in a statement. “We’re grateful that this challenge, which would have had a price tag in the billions of dollars and a long runway for recovery, was avoided.”
_______
Matt Ott contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. and Anne D’Innocenzio contributed from New York City.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-25T17:29:43+00:00 | wfsb.com | https://www.wfsb.com/2023/07/25/ups-reaches-contract-with-340000-unionized-workers-averting-potentially-calamitous-strike/ |
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday his country is ready to open a consulate in Shusha, a city that Azerbaijan took from Armenian forces in a war in 2020.
Erdogan made the comment during a visit to Azerbaijan at the start of his third term in office following presidential elections last month.
“We are ready to open our consulate whenever you wish,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as telling Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other officials at the start of bilateral talks.
“If we can open a consulate in Shusha, this would be a message to the world and especially to Armenia,” he said.
Shusha, a center of Azeri culture for centuries, came under Armenian control in 1992 in fighting over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region. Its retaking by Azerbaijan’s forces in 2020 was of symbolic and strategic importance because it sits high above the region’s nearby capital, Stepanakert.
Turkey actively supported Azerbaijan in the last conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, in which Azerbaijan regained control of much of the region and Armenian-held surrounding territories. More than 6,000 people were killed in six weeks of fighting.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have close ethnic and cultural bonds. It is traditional for newly elected Turkish leaders to visit Azerbaijan following a trip to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the island nation’s north. Erdogan was in northern Cyprus on Monday.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP | 2023-06-13T12:29:57+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/nation-world/turkey-says-its-ready-to-open-consulate-in-city-that-azerbaijan-took-from-armenian-forces/3PYXW65QKJGNFARXCRSPGKK2LU/ |
When was the last time you flew too high on a swing and lost your stomach, or busted out laughing so hard that you started crying?
If it's been awhile since you've had this kind of fun, you're not alone.
A lot of us are still recovering from antisocial habits formed in the pandemic. And these days, events outside of our control are taking a serious toll on our health. Last fall, 76% of adults surveyed by the American Psychological Association said stress from politics, race relations, violence and inflation has affected their health. They report experiencing headaches, fatigue, depression, nervousness and exhaustion.
But the antidote may be hiding in plain sight. Two recent books argue that making room for more fun in your life could counteract both the stress and the tendency to escape it by zoning out online.
In The Fun Habit: How The Disciplined Pursuit of Joy And Wonder Can Change Your Life, published in January, psychologist Mike Rucker makes the case that pursuit of fun experiences may be even more valuable than seeking the sometimes abstract goal of happiness.
"Happiness is a state of mind," Rucker writes. "But fun is something you can do. It doesn't require education, money or power. All it requires is intentionality. If happiness is a mirage, fun is your backyard oasis."
And science journalist Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, published in 2021, has a similar view. (She took a break from her latest interest, online blues piano lessons, to take my call.)
"We really trivialize fun and we are so casual and sloppy about how we use the word," Price says, but it is "essential for our happiness and health."
And fun can be so many things. Last year, when NPR asked readers to share what they're really into, more than 1,500 of you responded with a deliciously wide range of pursuits, from hula hooping to home brewing beer to raising reptiles. And more than 800 said you do these activities just because they're fun.
Here's advice from Price and Rucker — and inspiration from NPR readers — for ways to build more fun into your life.
1. Stop worrying about how happy you are
As a founding member of the International Positive Psychology Association, Rucker has put many teachings of happiness science into his life, like keeping a gratitude journal. But after his brother died unexpectedly in 2016, Rucker felt burned out and lonely. He began to feel that the more he pursued happiness, the more elusive it became.
"Happiness is really an evaluation," he says. You are constantly asking yourself what is going right and what is going wrong. It can become a trap, he warns.
People who highly value happiness may end up feeling "disappointed about how they feel, paradoxically decreasing their happiness the more they want it," wrote the authors of a 2011 study in the journal Emotion.
In contrast, fun is relatively easy to achieve yet many adults are conditioned to believe that it isn't important, and experience very little of it. For Rucker, seeking lighter moments helped him through his loss.
"Even if you're not happy, you can have fun, even if that's just having coffee with a friend," he says. "For me, it was certainly going to comedy clubs [after my brother died]. I wasn't happy, but I was really enjoying the jokes."
Science has just begun to study the importance of fun and play, so there's not a strict definition. But Rucker writes that fun generally involves doing something active and intentional (as opposed to mindlessly watching TV), often includes other people, is something you choose for yourself, and can give a thrill that transcends the ordinary.
NPR audience member Lynn Braz found that when she started taking flying trapeze classes at age 42: "Now, at age 61, I am flying every weekend throughout the warmer months. Flying trapeze is the hardest, scariest, most exciting and most fun thing I've ever done."
Price, who also is the founder of ScreenLifeBalance.com, defines fun as a state in which we experience playfulness, connection to others, and flow – that feeling where you lose track of time because you're "in the zone" and not worried about how you look or how well you perform.
2. Find your 'fun magnets'
If you're not sure where to start, Price recommends you ask yourself: What are my "fun magnets?"
"Put your phone away for a while and come up with three to four memories when you had real fun," she advises.
Look for common threads, like which people are involved, what kinds of activities you enjoy, where do they take place. Are there activities that would be fun that you'd like to try? Are there activities you can get rid of that are not fun?
Fun can be many different things, Rucker says. It's really whatever tickles your sense of delight.
NPR's audience shared hundreds of ideas about what turns them on.
Tara Fisher described her love of building and fighting with robots. "It's a great way to learn lots of STEM skills and meet fun, intelligent people," she wrote. "Plus, it's fun to smash each other's 'toys.'"
Nicole Diekow told NPR, that for her, it's thrift shopping. She's been doing it since the 1980s when she and her mom were on a tight budget. "This sparked a fascination that has stuck around my whole life ... You never know what treasures you might find or what friends you may meet."
2. Put fun on the calendar
Once you identify what fun is to you, you can start to schedule more of it. "It's like going on a diet by figuring out what kinds of foods you love, and then eating more," says Price.
I know – groan. Scheduling fun? Isn't it supposed to be spontaneous? And aren't we overscheduled already?
But fun comes more easily when you're young, says Price. When you're older, you don't find yourself in the kind of unstructured environments conducive to fun, like a playground full of kids you don't know.
Sometimes people you could have fun with are waiting for an invitation. "It's like romance," she says of scheduling fun. "You need to light some candles, set the scene."
But it's well worth it. People who take a vacation return to their work less stressed and possibly more creative, and the benefits could extend to smaller adventures.
When you put something fun like a hike on the calendar, you open up to moments of "awe and wonder," like the surprise appearance of a deer on the path, for example, Rucker says. These moments can improve mood and lower stress levels, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Scheduling fun doesn't have to be arduous or expensive. When Price was working on her book during the height of the pandemic, she recruited a virtual group of people — a Fun Squad — to bounce ideas around with.
One Fun Squad friend said that a Taco Tuesday night she held with her friends was the highlight of her week, Price says. For herself, she regularly jams with a group of musicians.
NPR reader Nancy Lomini-Perretta decided to try a beginning mahjongg class for seniors at her local college in 2019. Now she plays every Monday with a group of women she met in that class. They call themselves "The Fabulous Five" or "The Mahvelous Mahjongg Madams."
"Taking this class ... brought five women together who happen to have the same sense of humor and just plain enjoy each other's company," she says.
3. Unplug (no, but seriously!)
Pay attention to how much of your leisure time is spent scrolling on a phone or passively watching TV, Rucker advises. That's "yielding to the nothing," he says, and is a deceptively easy escape from feelings of boredom or discomfort.
Most of us have control over at least two hours of our day for leisure activities, and some of us have up to five hours. But the average American uses up more than two hours on social media per day. Consider using your time instead to do "just one thing that used to bring you joy," suggests Rucker.
Technology can be the enemy of fun. If you're always connected to your phone, checking that one last email or text, you're not present. Rucker says. "We need to "stop being 'on' all the time."
When Rucker realized he was checking his phone often while watching his daughter take gymnastics class, he decided instead that they should take a dance class together. "Now we have amazing memories," he says.
Real fun usually involves sensory experiences and, often, interactions with other people.
NPR listener Rachel Maryam Smith fell in love with making giant soap bubbles when she was in college. She soon started making them in public, eventually hosting events with up to 300 people. She loves that bubbles put a smile on everyone's face.
"Big bubble making [is] more than the jaw-dropping aesthetics, but a reminder that life is brief and beautiful," she wrote.
Action seeker and NPR fan says Mike Ferris practicing handstands "feels like flight at 33 years old." He encourages others to try it too: "Who hasn't tried a handstand once in their life, at least as children? It's simply fun to do a move that our bodies aren't designed to do to survive."
5. Share the fun and amplify it
Another tip Price swears by for more fun is sharing what brings you delight with someone else. Price now has running text chains with several friends who send her photos of upbeat moments throughout their day. Just for fun, she recently sent some friends $10 disco balls she discovered on Amazon so they could delight in their own dance parties.
She borrowed the idea from poet Ross Gay, who wrote an entire book of essays on delights, including odes to handmade infinity scarves, loitering and weeds.
NPR listener Kami Koontz shares her source of fun whenever she can. She bought a ukulele in early 2014 on a whim and taught herself to play it.
"I have since started a local uke group, a local uke band, and have raised money to donate Ukes to schools and libraries," she writes. "Doing all of these things has brought a variety of charming people into my life, a little music family of sorts."
Like any new habit, fun takes practice, as well as trial and error. Experts say start small and build.
"It's harder to get to spontaneity if you have to schedule it on your calendar, but once you do, you're creating more opportunity for spontaneity to happen," Rucker says.
Carmel Wroth contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-02-04T10:49:16+00:00 | kpcc.org | https://www.kpcc.org/npr-news/2023-02-04/heres-why-you-should-make-a-habit-of-having-more-fun |
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a report released last week, dozanü innovations examines five big-name brands' recent marketing campaigns from the previous year. The report , "The State of Accessible Marketing in 2023," looks at how well each brand adhered to accessibility factors such as authentic representation, universal access, and accessible imagery components.
"Using our exclusive Accessible and Universal Marketing Checklist which is incorporated into every stage of our campaign planning, we evaluated five brands based on authenticity (including diverse representation), universal access (including barrier-free design), and accessible imagery components (including use of storytelling)," said Katherine Lees, co-founder and co-owner.
Inclusivity has been at the forefront of dozanü innovations's mission since its inception – striving towards curating a message that a world where no one is left behind. Each section features a brand that has excelled within accessibility measures as well as a glance at how each brand remained committed to their diversity and inclusion initiatives. According to our findings, lack of diversity continues to be an issue in advertising and marketing - both offline and online - with marginalized populations often left behind. Additionally, we noted that many brands rely too heavily on stock images or inaccessible design elements in their campaigns.
While many brands are making strides when it comes to inclusive marketing initiatives - including Degree®, L'Oréal®, Diageo®, Kohls',® Apple® - lack of diversity continues to be an issue in advertising and marketing with marginalized populations often left behind. How do these brands measure up? They've set the standard for inclusive and accessible marketing, and we believe that all businesses can learn from their example.
The report highlights Degree's Metathon, the first-ever virtual marathon that included personalized avatars that represent identities beyond the usual yellow skin tone; L'Oreal's HAPTA makeup applicator, a precision makeup tool for people with limited mobility; Diageo's commitment to transforming tis work culture to a diverse and inclusive space; Kohl's new lines of adaptive clothing that now includes adults; and Apple's recent commercial, "The Greatest," that featured how technology only takes down barriers for people with disabilities, but also enriches everyone's environment so that we are capable of all having access to the same information.
Let's make 2023 accessible for everyone in your marketing. To find out how you can join these brands, head to www.dozanu.com/accessible-marketing-2023 and download the Special Report.
About dozanü innovations
Your one-stop marketing team specializing in alternative perspectives delivering innovative, modern marketing and business strategies that focus on inclusion. Services include creative marketing, digital marketing, social media, business development, and strategic campaigning. To learn more about how dozanü innovations curates unique messages and empowers brands, visit www.dozanu.com.
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SOURCE dozanü innovations, llc | 2023-02-02T00:11:16+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2023/02/01/dozan-innovations-releases-state-accessible-marketing-2023-report/ |
On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report on the train derailment earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio. Also, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in town.
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Abigail Bottar, a reporter and producer with Ideastream.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-02-23T18:24:07+00:00 | kosu.org | https://www.kosu.org/2023-02-23/ntsb-releases-report-on-east-palestine-train-derailment |
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Washington Lottery's "Match 4" game were:
09-13-20-24
(nine, thirteen, twenty, twenty-four)
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Washington Lottery's "Match 4" game were:
09-13-20-24
(nine, thirteen, twenty, twenty-four) | 2022-11-30T05:51:52+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Match-4-game-17619969.php |
If you think living in bright blue Washington keeps you safe from theocratic Republican fuckery, then congratulations! You really have successfully checked out of the news cycle and started prioritizing yourself and your needs after a long period of isolation. Love that for you.
But if you didn’t have to set down your “Abort the Court” protest sign to read this, then it’s time to check back in. We have some news.
If this year’s elections go the way election nerds think they could go, a red wave will crash over the Cascades and give the GOP one more seat in Congress, control of the Washington State House, and near parity in the state Senate.
Goodbye, expanded abortion access and more LGBTQ+ rights! Hello, police state, drug war, election deniers, anti-vaxxers, corporate tax cuts, loud prudes, recalcitrant trolls, and the general stampede of nightmares that our state’s Democratic majorities barely keep at bay.
But we do not have to bring back that much of the early aughts. We can have boot-cut jeans, bucket hats, and our civil liberties. All we have to do is pick the strongest candidates to advance through the upcoming August 2 primaries. If we do that, then we can actually slightly increase progressive majorities in Olympia and stop the Congressional bleeding ... a little. We'll at least be doing our part.
Luckily for you, the Stranger Election Control Board has already done 99.9% of that work. We’ve grilled all the serious candidates running for state and federal offices, dug into their records, endlessly debated amongst ourselves, and produced the list of the candidates who can halt this red wave and start to turn the tide in favor of justice, bodily autonomy, and lower fucking rents.
All we ask in return is that you vote precisely the way we tell you to, donate to an abortion fund, and, if you have any money left over, contribute to our efforts to save you enough time to vote and pound a khachapuri in a single afternoon. (Sure, it's a lot of cheese for lunch. But live a little!)
Below, you’ll find all our arguments in favor of each candidate. But if you’re in a hurry, consult our trusty Cheat Sheet.
If you are registered to vote in King County, then your ballot should be in the mail at this very moment! Look for it to arrive by Monday, July 18. If it doesn’t arrive, then call King County Elections at 206-296-VOTE (8683) to see what’s up. If you’re not registered to vote for some reason, then register here. If you’re uncertain, then check your status on VoteWA.
When the mail carrier drops the ballot in your mailbox, rip open the envelope, fill out the ballot with a pen, stuff it in its little envelope, and then mail it back ASAP — no need for a stamp. If you’d like to stretch your legs, then drop it in a nearby dropbox no later than 8 pm on August 2.
And if your friends are black-pilled on voting because blah blah blah, then pump their fucking stomachs. Tell them we’ve never had the democratic system they’ve already lost faith in – we’re still building it. Tell them voting isn’t the only way to fix society’s problems, but it is one VERY EASY way to help — thanks mostly to people VOTING for politicians who fight to expand ballot access. And tell them their silence only helps the status quo that they hold responsible for ruining everything in the first place. And if they’ve got a problem with any of that, tell them they can talk to us.
The Stranger Election Control Board is Matt Baume, Will Casey, Jas Keimig, Hannah Krieg, Charles Mudede, the tide pool that Jenny Durkan dropped her phone in, and Rich Smith. The SECB does not endorse in uncontested races, in races where only two candidates filed (those go straight to the general election! we’ll endorse in those races in October!!), or in races we forgot.
By reading our endorsements, you accept the SECB’s terms of service. SECB endorsements are legally binding.
United States Senator
Patty Murray
Long-time incumbent Democrat Sen. Patty Murray and her Republican challenger, Tiffany Smiley, have been engaging in some mom-on-mom crime. Smiley claims to be the “new mom in town,” an obvious jab at Murray for constantly calling herself a “mom in tennis shoes” to relate to the peasantry.
At least here in Seattle, we know that being a mom with a “couple of kiddos” is really powerful stuff. But we ask that you refrain from voting strictly based on your mommy issues. This race is not about who is more mommy – the mommy dommy, if you will – but rather which one of these candidates will protect your right not to become one.
Smiley is proudly anti-choice. After the Supreme Court pursued its forced-birth agenda, Smiley seemed glad that the states would get to decide how much they should deprive people with uteruses of essential health care. She also tried to paint Murray as some radical, pro-abortion extremist.
We wish Murray was the extremist that Republicans believe she is. The senator has been in office since the 1990s. Though she’s defended abortion at the highest levels the whole time, Democratic majorities never codified Roe.
Murray did help pass the American Rescue Plan, though, which, among other things, gave Americans the third stimulus check. That vote brought the total direct aid to a whopping $3,200, which, as we all know, has kept everyone afloat to this very day.
If we elect her, she’ll continue to defend the right to choose, even if a red wave overtakes the Senate. She’s a little dependent on this idea of “voting harder” to keep abortion rights, but she said if we elect her and a bunch of other Democrats, we can worry a little less about defending abortion from Republicans, and she’d have a better chance at getting her bill to expand access to childcare off the ground. Vote Murray.
United States Representative
Congressional District 1
Suzan DelBene
As chair of the conservative New Democrat Coalition, Rep. Suzan DelBene leads the party’s corporate drones down the path of mealy-mouth centrism and inefficient incrementalism. That bloc has yet to find a universal program it didn’t want to means-test to death, nor a civility norm it didn’t cling to.
For instance, the GOP already packed the Supreme Court, and DelBene is over here with this brave take on Court expansion: “You could expand the Court, but so could the Republicans if they’re in the White House….What happens if one side does and the other side does, too, how does that play out?” Good question! We said we’d call her after the Republicans take the Senate and do whatever the fuck they want anyway.
That said, it’s not like DelBene has done nothing good during her decade in office. Last session, she led the charge to cut child poverty by increasing and expanding the child tax credit in one of the COVID relief bills. In 2020, she pushed through a landslide preparedness bill that shoveled more money into early detection systems and better topographical maps. With another two years, she’ll work with the probable Republican majority to stop insurance companies from delaying care to seniors on Medicare and to expand a tax credit to help build more affordable housing.
Of course, as the Representative from Microsoft, we expect DelBene to continue fighting to slow down good anti-trust bills and to protect tech companies from civil lawsuits when they violate our rights. But she’s leaps and bounds better than all her challengers — insane Republicans to a man. The guy with the most money in the race is a culture war cop who writes pissy blog posts about the importance of upholding the gender binary. Vote DelBene.
United States Representative
Congressional District 7
Pramila Jayapal
As chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, it’s up to Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapal to save the Democrats from themselves. Since she clearly has much more work to do, we need to send her back to DC to keep building the progressive caucus — which swelled to more than 100 members during her tenure — and to keep pushing power players to change.
We need her to keep pressing President Biden to enact his own agenda via executive order, so long as he refuses to play hardball with President Manchin. We also need her to keep pressing Biden to cancel student debt. And we need her to keep the ball rolling on Medicare for All, as she did when she convinced her colleagues to hold the first-ever hearing on the bill.
But we also need her to keep winning for Washingtonians and other people across the country. In the last few years, she got Biden to sign a bill that freed upwards of 60 million workers from contract language forcing them into arbitration to settle complaints of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. Along with Sen. Patty Murray and Leah Griffin, who happens to be running for a State House seat in the 34th Legislative District this year, she also got Biden to sign legislation that increases access to sexual assault examiners.
Locally, she hounded Transportation Secretary Booty-Judge Judy Buttigieg to secure $11.2 million for the West Seattle Bridge, and she got $20 million for other transportation improvements in the infrastructure package. Not a bad haul alongside the $4 million in pork “community project funding” she brought back last year from the appropriations store. That money will help turn the Pacific Apartments into actual apartments for the homeless, fund restorative justice programs in south King County, and build a community center for the Coast Salish, among other things.
And unlike SOME members of the progressive caucus, Jayapal doesn’t just play a progressive on TV. She uses her clout and her fundraising skills to fund progressive races in open seats across the country, and she’s even boosting moderates on the ropes. A no-brainer: Vote Jayapal.
United States Representative
Congressional District 8
Kim Schrier
Those who aim to stop the red wave in Washington should start knocking doors for Rep. Kim Schrier.
She decisively snatched the central WA district from the clutches of commercial real estate robot Dino Rossi back in 2018, but the place still looks purple as ever. Her support slipped by a point in 2020, and all forecasting bodies rate this year’s race a tossup. With that much blood in the water, the contest for the 8th has drawn the most “serious” Republican challengers of all the other races.
Anti-choice Republican King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn leads the red team in terms of name recognition and nepotism; his mom used to represent the district in Congress. Jesse Jensen and Matt Larkin, a doof and a kook, respectively, are neck-and-neck in fundraising. Recently, Jensen spread false information on his YouTube page about the state’s capacity to “detain you or your family for anything regarding the Covid vaccine.” Larkin wouldn’t tell the Seattle Times whether he believed Joe Biden won the election.
Meanwhile, Schrier is a pro-choice pediatrician who bends over backwards to work across the aisle. She’s hosted “almost” 100 town halls to hear concerns from all over the district. Trump and Biden have signed measures she’s worked on – mostly moderate tweaks on health care issues.
To direct her pork-barrel spending requests, she said she convened an advisory board that included “Democrats, Republicans, business owners, environmentalists, and former mayors.” That bipartisan process returned $11 million to the district in the form of funding for water treatment facilities, repairs to a senior center in Enumclaw, and $700,000 for a treatment and mental health resource center in Auburn.
No matter who’s holding the gavel next year, Schrier wants to focus her energies on creating sustainable forests and making relatively small but important changes to our broken health care system. We might not love Schrier’s slow, bipartisan approach, but we like it a hell of a lot more than Republican goonery. Vote Schrier.
United States Representative
Congressional District 9
Adam Smith
Before you burn down our office building, hear us out. Yes, we are endorsing Adam Smith’s 14 millionth term in office. No, we are not happy about it.
In fact, after we finalized the initial vote, chaos reigned. One member of the SECB threatened to remove their name from the entire endorsement package. Another did something worse: he convened a follow-up meeting.
Though we ideologically aligned with Smith’s lefty challenger, teacher and union leader Stephanie Gallardo, she did not demonstrate a strong command of the policies that get us up in the morning, nor did she produce realistic plans for navigating Congressional gridlock. After more than a year on the campaign trail, we were looking for a little more than bromides about needing to build the movement.
And though it makes us cringe to say this, we think that cutting off the head of the powerful House Armed Services Committee at this particular moment would probably make American foreign policy more hawkish.
Assuming Rep. Rick Larsen continues his bid for leadership on the Transportation Committee, Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney would probably take Smith’s place as the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee due to seniority. Courtney is known regionally as “Two-Sub Joe” for bringing home two submarines to the base in his district. Unlike Smith, Two-Sub Joe is not even nominally in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. And unlike Smith, Two-Sub Joe voted for the unconscionable $23.9 billion increase to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the defense spending authorization bill that “must pass” every year.
If 2022 looked to be the year progressives finally rose to power in Congress, giving them the ability to shake-up committees and move legislation, then encouraging you to vote Gallardo would be worth the risk of Two Sub Joe. But right now, we’re looking at an 87% chance of a red wave crashing into Congress, so we’d rather back an experienced negotiator to run interference in a powerful committee than a green dove starting up the ladder in some other committee.
So, vote Smith this year. But let’s make one thing clear: Adam Smith is a weasel.
In his capacity as chair of Armed Services, every year he leads negotiations on that defense package, and every year he finds some way to evade responsibility for the death and destruction it authorizes.
Though its price tag has risen by $30 billion during his tenure as chair, Smith only wants to take credit for the good stuff in the packages, including policies to reduce sexual assault in the military, to rechristen bases named for Confederate traitors, to create a paid family leave program for federal employees, and so forth.
This weaselly disposition finds its purest expression in his foreign policy philosophy. He draws a nonexistent distinction between “domination” and “deterrence” when it comes to increasing the size of our arsenal. He agrees that we use sanctions “way too much” but believes they’ll work on Russia, who continues to grind Ukraine to a pulp each day despite heavy sanctions. He supports strong policy to end U.S. complicity with the Saudi war on Yemen when that policy is doomed to fail, but he hems and haws when quick action could be decisive.
His weasel mode also extends to domestic policy. Though he’s a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he’s also been a member of the conservative New Democrat Coalition. Sure, he sponsors the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, but he does nothing meaningful to move those bills.
Unlike his colleague, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, he fails to use his influence to build a progressive majority in Congress that would actually pass those bills. Roe’s death? Don’t blame him — he’s only been in Congress the last 25 years. Right-wing extremists taking over elections? He’s got nothing but a penchant for tone policing.
Ultimately, Smith is a standard Democrat in “progressive” clothing, but he knows which levers to pull to get some good stuff out of that miserable chamber. Vote Smith.
Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
We want Steve Hobbs to keep his job as Secretary of State because we want him as far away as humanly possible from the Senate Transportation Committee. His decision to hold up key climate legislation in that committee slowed the state’s attempts to hit emissions reduction targets, which hurt Mother Nature!!!
Luckily for the state’s election infrastructure, Hobbs actually has relevant experience to fill this role effectively. As a lieutenant colonel in the Washington State National Guard, he’s got experience running large operations and combating security threats. As someone who studied at the Department of Defense’s information school, he’s equipped with the skills to squash misinformation and disinformation circulated by GOP nutjobs and Russian trolls with cute usernames. And as an extremely centrist lawmaker, he knows how to move legislation through Olympia and who to call when it stops.
Though he’s only held the job for a little while, he’s already acted on some good ideas to improve turnout, including a text messaging program that contacts people with rejected ballots and a trusted-messenger program to increase voter outreach statewide. He says he’s also mostly defused a Republican conspiracy theory about Albert sensors, tools counties use to track election data.
The other candidates are far-right Republicans, but nonpartisan candidate Julie Anderson’s years of experience overseeing elections as Pierce County’s auditor showed through in her thorough answers to our questions. However, we part ways when she starts stumping for the biggest plank in her platform: creating more nonpartisan races for election offices.*
Though her emphasis on creating more “nonpartisan” races sounds like a smart way to reduce tribalism, it’s not. A 2007 study found nonpartisan races benefit the minority party. Since Republicans represent a minority in WA, switching couple one statewide race to “nonpartisan” and working to increase nonpartisan prevalence down-ballot the number of nonpartisan county auditors, as Anderson says she wants to do, would effectively help the GOP.
And when people don’t see a D or an R next to a candidate’s name, white supremacy fills the information gap. Just ask WA State Supreme Court Justice Steven González. In 2012, 43% of voters in his ~nonpartisan~ race chose a totally unqualified opponent just because he had a white-sounding name.
You know what else helps the GOP? Testifying against a bill to add ballot drop boxes to college campuses, which Anderson did back in 2013. Suddenly, Anderson doesn’t seem so “nonpartisan” to us. Vote Hobbs.
* This endorsement originally misstated Anderson's view on increasing the number of statewide nonpartisan races. She only wants to make the Secretary of State nonpartisan. We regret the error.
Legislative District No. 5
Representative Position No. 1
Bill Ramos
Many expect this year to hurt for down-ballot Dems, but Rep. Bill Ramos plans to overcome with the strategy that landed him in this east King County seat during 2018’s blue wave: knocking as many doors as possible.
Ramos could probably win support at the doors simply by standing there and projecting the Boy-Scout-Troop-Leader energy that beams out of him, but he won’t. He’ll point to his support for some suburban-friendly transportation measures, including pushing for funding to expand Highway 18 (yuck) and pushing for pedestrian safety improvements on Maple Valley’s Highway 169 (nice).
He may not be a dyed-in-the-wool Seattle progressive, but this one’s not complicated–especially because he’s running against a Loren Culp stan, a Dino Rossi acolyte, and a guy who besmirches the good name of elves by identifying as a member of “The Elven Way Party” and calling for us to “coagulate into well regulated communities of fervent character growth.” No thanks! Vote Ramos.
Legislative District No. 30
State Senator
Claire Wilson
While she portrays herself as a common sense-oriented consensus-builder, Claire Wilson isn’t afraid to draw a line in the sand against the increasingly deranged assaults on basic human decency coming from today’s Republican party. She absolutely refuses to tolerate any attempts to roll back abortion rights or villainize the LGBTQ+ community, which seems like a low bar to clear, but this is the world we live in.
Wilson understands that one reasonable reaction to a housing crisis is to repair the social safety net to meet people’s basic needs, not throw them away because visible poverty makes homeowners uncomfortable. To that end, she wants to double down on investing in crisis recovery centers. She also wants to prioritize funding for a public health approach to people with substance use disorders instead of returning to the failed policies of the War on Drugs. Plus, if you check out her personal Facebook page, she documents her door-belling trips across her district with idyllic pictures of yonic rocks and landscaping, which is pretty cool.
And all of that is certainly more than we can say for her opponents. One of them wants to turn people without housing into scapegoats for Federal Way’s perceived increase in crime, and the other blames the teachers in Uvalde for failing to secure their school. We’ll take a Senator with some basic human decency any day of the week–and twice on Election Day. Vote Wilson.
Legislative District No. 30
Representative Position No. 1
Jamila E. Taylor
House Rep. Jamila Taylor has only worked in the Legislature for two years, but she’s quickly risen up the ranks.
Last year, her colleagues elected her chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, where she helped organize legislative victories while also steering her colleagues through the Legislature’s “toxic” work environment, to borrow a phrase from former Rep. Kirsten Harris-Talley, who declined to run for reelection this year due to the bullshit she faced from a system built for people with gobs of time and/or money.
In light of all that, Taylor aims to leverage her burgeoning clout to pass progressive taxes that balance our tax code on the backs of the wealthy rather than the poor, restore the safety net she says the pandemic “set on fire,” and build more housing to give people in marginalized communities a foothold in the market.
We trust her to deliver on some of that stuff because she’s already made a habit of keeping her promises. In 2020, she promised to protect renters in the Legislature, and in 2021 she supported bills to extend just-cause protections statewide and to provide rental assistance and mediation programs to hold off an eviction tsunami. She also spearheaded a couple common-sense bills to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities.
A handful of doofuses have challenged her, including a Republican veteran who implies that he’s afraid to go shopping “after dark,” a cop who apparently wants to contribute to the woeful shortage by spending his winters in Olympia, and someone who has raised zero dollars. Big yawns all around. Vote Taylor.
Legislative District No. 30
Representative Position No. 2
Kristine Reeves
Kristine Reeves should return to her post in the State House as a representative of Federal Way because she boasts the most experience in this race, and because her views on tenant protections have finally come into alignment with her district’s views–or so it appears.
Though Reeves couldn’t be bothered to back modest eviction protections during her 2.5 terms in the House, she’s since changed her tune. She now supports bills that would lift the statewide ban on rent control and cut down on rent-gouging, which makes sense given Federal Way’s overwhelming support for renter protections.
As for increasing housing supply and therefore housing affordability: She wants to sanction cities that consistently fail to meet affordable housing targets, but she’s only “open to the concept” of legalizing more housing within 1/2 mile of rapid transit. Not exactly the line we were looking for, but not a flat-out denial.
First AME Church Pastor Carey Anderson, on the other hand, supported legalizing apartments everywhere statewide, and he convinced us that he’d stand up for the district’s working poor. However, he struggled to think of concrete policies that would actually expand and protect abortion rights. Reeves quickly ticked off a handful. She wants to close scammy “crisis pregnancy” clinics across the state and push for guaranteed universal Plan B access. We want that, too. Vote Reeves.
Legislative District No. 32
State Senator
Jesse Salomon
Shoreline progressives, set your calendar reminders for January 2026. Do it now, we’ll wait.
Back? Great. You’ve got four years to find a better butt to fill your Senate seat than Jesse Salomon. Hell, if you’re a candidate from a neighboring district who sees an opportunity here, send the SECB an email and at least one of us will help you move. Jesse Salomon sucks, and he’s only getting the nod because his opponent came across as wholly unprepared for the job during our endorsement interview.
Aside from protecting salmon habitats, Salomon doesn’t have much to point to as proof of his effectiveness in Olympia. He sponsored a pretty good psychedelic mushroom legalization bill that got turned into a task force. He also sponsored a decent bill that would set some statewide standards for how police departments investigate serious misconduct. HOWEVER. He didn’t do the work to calm the nerves of uneasy organized labor groups who perceived that bill as a threat to collective bargaining, so it died in committee. If he gets that thing passed, we’ll repent. But we’re skeptical. After all, he’s the only former public defender we’ve ever heard begin a sentence with the phrase “When I talk to police officers…” and not end it with a profanity-laced tirade. Vote Salomon, but only because the SECB doesn’t believe in leaving any race on your ballot blank.
Legislative District No. 34
State Senator
Joe Nguyen
The State Legislature should be overjoyed that Joe Nguyen lost to Silver Fox Dow Constantine in the race for King County Executive. After all, he’s proven himself to be a pretty progressive lawmaker, and he’s one of the few elected officials at the Capitol who knows how computers work, which was clutch during the remote sessions.
In office, Nguyen passed a bill to make the state’s welfare program slightly more generous when unemployment is bad, signed onto the Working Families Tax Credit, and helped push the capital gains tax. If reelected, he hopes to pick up where he left off. Name any progressive cause–eliminating single-family zoning, moving to even-year elections, decriminalizing simple possession of all drugs–and he’s supported the bill to do it!
Those of you who question his commitment to the district after his unsuccessful run for King County Executive should know his competition is pretty weak. Freshy's Cafe owner Amber Bennett put her name in the hat for the position as a fiscally conservative, socially liberal independent. When we spoke with her, she didn’t take a clear stance on almost any question, and said she needed to do more research. The competition only gets worse from there. No offense, Goodspaceguy. Vote Nguyen.
Legislative District No. 34
Representative Position No. 1
Emily Alvarado
The endorsement meeting for this West Seattle seat got pretty heated. No two candidates approached the SECB meeting with as much intensity and expertise as former Seattle Office of Housing Director Emily Alvarado and librarian and advocate Leah Griffin. Not much separates the two candidates on the issues, but they occupy different niches.
Griffin is a longtime advocate for survivors of sexual violence. She helped Rep. Tina Orwall address the state’s rape kit backlog, and she inspired Sen. Patty Murray to introduce the Survivors’ Access to Supportive Care Act. Parts of that bill got slipped into the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which President Biden signed in March.
She brings a unique, near-abolition approach to combatting sexual violence, which would serve as a strong counter to Republicans constantly using rape victims as a pawn in their never-ending quest to put more people in jail.
Alvarado demonstrates a keen focus on housing, and though at times she slipped into bureaucratic nothingspeak to describe her policy ideas, she impressively got down to brass tacks real quick when pressed.
Sure, she worked for Durkan, but she played an active role in pushing Seattle and the state to ban evictions during the pandemic. The SECB has previously demanded that Washington voters transform one-third of the Legislature into Rep. Nicole Macri clones, and Alvarado has the potential to be another Macri.
While Griffin said she would champion the same housing policies Alvarado proposed, Alvarado said she would champion the same survivor policies Griffin proposed. Washington’s housing crisis pushed us over the edge. Vote Alvarado.
Legislative District No. 36
Representative Position No. 1
Julia G. Reed
The Ballard-area Democrats could not get their shit together before the filing deadline, and so the SECB had to choose between four Pod Save America types with nearly identical policy positions–and also Waylon Robert, a gay union booster with an unplaceable drawl and the vibe of a guy who is one personal tragedy away from packing up his bindle and hopping on the next freight train to god knows where for god knows how long, but, man, sometimes, when that railroad calls you answer.
Robert loves the cops and cop unions, so we passed. (But god bless and keep rollin’, brother.) Jeff Manson and Tyler Crone opposed eliminating single-family zoning statewide, so we eliminated them from consideration. (Crone: We mustn't “disrupt the fabric of our neighborhoods.” Yuck.)
Of the remaining candidates, Julia G. Reed, an equity consultant who worked in Durkan’s policy shop (before the war), won out.
Like Nicole Gomez, a Universal Health Care Commissioner who’s lobbied on good health care bills in Olympia, Reed wants to tax the rich, lift the ban on rent control, pass anti-rent-gouging legislation, decriminalize simple possession of all drugs, decriminalize sex work, protect abortion access, and set up a universal health care system yesterday. But Reed sold her support of those policies with more gusto, and we think that skill will (hopefully) help her garner more sponsors in the House.
Unlike Gomez, however, Reed apparently sold herself to the Seattle Times Editorial Board as a legislator who would make “business a part of the solution,” and who wished the Democratic party didn’t beat up on the Catholic church so much, according to her opponents. In a follow-up interview, she assured the SECB that she wanted to include businesses in the solution but also tax them. She added that her defense of the Church did not extend to all the child rape and anti-abortion stuff. That explanation was enough for most of us.
At the end of the day, we need more people in the Legislature like Reed, who is not afraid to draw attention to her own burp at an endorsement meeting. Vote Reed.
Legislative District No. 37
Representative Position No. 2
Chipalo Street
Chipalo Street is a Microsoft tech manager and landlord who drew an endorsement from former seat-warmer Rep. Eric Pettigrew. So, uh, yeah, no one is more surprised about this pick than we are. But during our endorsement meeting, Street wouldn’t stop giving us the best answers to our questions.
Though he’s a landlord, he supports lifting the statewide ban on rent control and passing anti-rent-gouging legislation. One of his properties drew a complaint from the City of Bonney Lake, but when we looked into the issue we ended up blaming the City for its lazy code enforcement. (The City stopped by 1.5 months after Street bought a trashed place and cited him for the previous owner’s shit.) Moreover, the legal fallout from that complaint only revealed to Street the difficulties of adding units to a home, which reaffirmed his stance on increasing density statewide and thus our faith in him.
Though he’s now a tech manager, he says he’s also been a union member who once participated in a work stoppage.
And though he’s not an abolitionist like former Rep. Kirsten Harris-Talley, who held this seat last year, he grounds his support for more police accountability in his experience of getting beaten by the cops in college for not showing them his ID.
The other candidates have lived and learned experience that would serve the Legislature well, too. Andrew Ashiofu is an HIV+ Nigerian immigrant who has experienced homelessness and who now serves as chair of Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission when he’s not working as a flight attendant. Then there’s instructor and consultant Nimco Bulale. She said her mother and eight siblings came to Seattle as refugees and experienced the housing affordability crisis firsthand as disaster gentrification pushed them out of the city to Burien. We also admired King County Equity Now’s Emijah Smith, a longtime advocate for the community who wants to tax the rich.
The fact that we have four good candidates running in this district but have to settle for the Larry Springers of the world elsewhere (see below) makes us feel bad on the inside, but Street edges out the others. Adding another House Democrat who knows how computers work will help that creaky institution function more efficiently. We also expect his experience to add to non-tech policy conversations in meaningful ways. During our discussion, for example, he proposed passing legislation to secure data privacy for users of period-tracking apps.
Vote Street, but if he slips up and starts working in his own class interest, then any of his competitors would be worthy of knocking him out in a couple years.
Legislative District No. 41
Representative Position No. 2
My-Linh T. Thai
You wouldn’t expect a Bellevuer representing Mercer Island to be a lefty, but Rep. My-Linh Thai has given the 41st Legislative District a good name for the past four years.
Since the last time we endorsed her, Thai has been busy becoming the U.S. Supreme Court's worst nightmare. Before the Democrats started begging for our vote by promising to protect and expand abortion access post-Roe, Thai passed a bill requiring student health plans to cover abortion if they already cover maternity care. She also led the charge on the Affirm Washington Abortion Access Act, which extended the right to abortion to people of all genders and incentivized trained, qualified health care workers to offer abortion care. But she’s far from a one-trick pony. Thai also sponsored the Working Families Tax Credit, a law returning between $300 and $1,200 in taxes to very low-income residents. That bill passed after over a decade of hard work from her and her predecessors.
If elected, Thai wants to expand health care access and mental health coverage, address behavioral health problems in school, and help renters afford to live where they want to live. Vote Thai.
Legislative District No. 45
Representative Position No. 2
Larry Springer
Rep. Larry Springer suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Since he first started representing Kirkland in 2004, he has consistently served the interests of corporations and the landed gentry. Remember that time he sponsored a bill to give tax breaks to people selling private planes? We’ll never forget. And we’re still waiting for our invitation to drink at his wine bar, “The Grape Choice.”
During his (understandably) reluctant interview with the SECB, he argued his case for reelection by declaring himself the most bipartisan legislator in the state. Not exactly a winning argument for us, especially when the other partisans want to force pregnancy, watch the acid seas rise, read bad novels constantly, etc.
It’s not like he’s done nothing good in a bipartisan fashion, though. With unanimous ~bipartisan support~ last session, he passed a bill to spend $125 million every two years in perpetuity for wildfire suppression, mitigation, recovery and forest health. That’s good! However, he also told Rep. Jessica Bateman to chill out on her “missing middle” housing bill to avoid causing a “civil war” with critics in rural areas. That’s not good.
If we elect him, he’ll work with Bateman to pass a compromise housing bill, do something about our regressive tax system (he was lukewarm on the wealth tax and gave a firm "no" on raising the estate tax, lol, but he suggested cutting sales taxes in half), and he’ll do something to protect salmon.
Still, he’s SOMEHOW better than his competition. One challenger is a no-name Republican with no funding, and the other is QAnoner Amber Krabach, who received her greatest political honor when Daily Kos named her “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” last July.
Springer said Stranger readers should vote for him because he’s not them. Compelling stuff. Vote Springer.
Legislative District No. 46
State Senator
Javier Valdez
Rep. Javier Valdez is a Democrat with a sunny disposition, an earnest commitment to racial justice, and a love of Ezell’s fried chicken that matches the SECB’s own.
But that’s about all the nice stuff we have to say about him.
The big legislative accomplishments he bragged about took carceral approaches to fighting hate crimes, preventing swatting, banning high capacity magazine production, and attempting to ban assault weapons. While he doesn’t regret backing that legislation, he’s since found religion on restorative justice approaches, and he agrees that increasing jail time for crimes doesn’t do much to deter them. We hope he keeps the faith, but we’ll see.
He’s also wishy-washy on hard decisions he’ll have to make as a senator. He made incomprehensible mouth noises when asked how to address the state’s 200,000-unit affordable housing deficit, and while he was generally amenable to taxing the rich, he deferred all details to work groups.
While he doesn’t want to legalize apartments on all lots statewide “yet,” he would vote for the “missing middle” bill to expand housing options near transit, which is a start.
All that said, Valdez boasts more relevant experience and qualifications for the position than his challenger, Matt Gross, a King County Prosecutor who is singularly focused on housing policy. We agreed with most of Gross’s positions, but his ideas for funding sources were half-baked, he was a little too cautious on anti-rent-gouging legislation, and we didn’t love his Nordic model leanings on sex work decriminalization. Vote Valdez.
Legislative District No. 46
Representative Position No. 2
Darya Farivar
You know that feeling you get when you flip your pillow to the cold side in the middle of the night? That’s how we feel about Darya Farivar. Refreshed. Rejuvenated. Relieved.
The competition in the 46th Legislative District, which covers northeast Seattle, was stiff. The candidates agreed on most issues. But Lelach Rave, a pediatrician who boasts an endorsement from the disaster that is Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson, lost us when she started sympathizing with “mom-and-pop landlords” and asking for “more nuance” on legalizing all housing options statewide. On the other end of the spectrum, Melissa Taylor impressed us with her deep knowledge of the issues, especially when it came to addressing the state’s affordable housing deficit. We also liked Nancy Connolly, a doctor who expressed real frustration with the Legislature’s lack of urgency on fixing the very fixable issue of homelessness.
But Farivar, the director of public policy for Disability Rights Washington and the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled to the US during the revolution, rose above the other candidates when the SECB asked if the state should ban assault weapons. In our previous endorsement meetings, Democrats usually gave an easy “yes,” but Farivar pushed our question further, adding that this type of gun control policy shouldn’t make exceptions for police. We agreed. The other candidates jumped on board with Farivar’s proposal, but her willingness to push milquetoast Democrat policies further spoke to how she would legislate in Olympia. Vote Farivar.
Legislative District No. 47
State Senator
Claudia Kauffman
Back in 2006, this south King County district elected Claudia Kauffman to serve as the first Native American woman in the state Senate. We want her back in Olympia because she proved herself to be more knowledgeable on the issues than her Democratic competition, Kent City Councilmember Satwinder Kaur.
We also think Kauffman’s positions on those issues will make the 47th a greener, more affordable place to live. Unlike Kaur, Kauffman supported ending new highway construction and lifting the statewide ban on rent control.
Kauffman also managed to refrain from apparently lying to our faces, which was a nice touch!
During an interview, Kaur tried to evade responsibility for voting to put cops back in Kent schools. At first, she twice told us that the Kent City Council did not have any “jurisdiction” over that decision. When a slightly baffled Kauffman pointed out that the council did, in fact, have jurisdiction over the decision, and that they did, in fact, decide to use that power to unanimously approve a contract that would return cops to the classroom, Kaur walked back her statement and confirmed the obvious and widely reported truth.
Kaur added that she wasn’t “100% in support of” cops in schools, but she voted for the contract anyway because “it’s something that parents and families here in the 47th have asked for.” That statement may be true, but more than 1,000 participants—including “parents, students, teachers, district staff and community residents,” according to the Kent Reporter—responded to a school survey asking for input on the matter. Most of the “eight themes that emerged” from that survey supported alternatives to police when dealing with disciplinary action in schools. So some “parents and families” in the 47th asked the district not to spend money cuffing their kids in the lunchroom, too–Kaur just did not want to represent those voices. Which is fine! But there’s no need to suggest those other parents didn't exist.
Now, the contest in this purple district will be tough. Republican Bill Boyce is a compelling candidate. He rose up from segregated schools in North Carolina, and now he works as the first Black man elected to the Kent City Council. He is also very conservative. He loves cops and he hates WA Cares, a first-in-the-nation benefit that helps the elderly afford nursing homes and at-home caregivers. With plenty of money and GOP establishment backing, he’ll likely advance through the primary. To defeat his campaign, the 47th will need a strong challenger who doesn’t mince words. Vote Kauffman.
Legislative District No. 47
Representative Position No. 1
Debra Jean Entenman
Rep. Debra Entenman said her votes in support of comprehensive sex education and gun safety were “difficult” to take in her arguably swingy district, but she took them anyway because she believed they were right. That’s the kind of courage we want to see walking the halls of the Capitol.
We also want her to finish the work she started on police accountability. After a cop murdered George Floyd, she sponsored the bill to create the state’s Office of Independent Investigations. That agency will deploy independent investigators to check out deadly force incidents, preventing (recent or current) cops from covering for their comrades.
Though constitutionality concerns slowed her roll on a bill to create an independent prosecutor to go after cops who kill, she plans to propose legislation that passes legal muster soon.
While we strongly disagree with Entenman’s support for charter schools, her Republican opponents suck on that score and every other. On his truly demented website, Jessie Ramsey calls Entenman a “Democrat potato.” What? Meanwhile, the Republican establishment is throwing burgeoning perennial candidate Kyle Lyebyedyev at the wall again to see if he sticks. Don’t let him. Vote Entenman.
Legislative District No. 47
Representative Position No. 2
Shukri Olow
Shukri Olow, who runs the Seattle Human Services Department’s youth and family empowerment division, comes out ahead of her major competitor, Auburn City Councilmember Chris Stearns, mostly because of her commitment to a moratorium on climate-killing highway expansions. Though Stearns also impressed us with his green bona fides, we must stop adding highway miles to this state, and Olow promises to stand against that.
But our choice didn't hinge on that threshold question alone. Her emphasis on creating more affordable housing, fully funding public education, and cutting childcare costs are all rooted in personal and professional experience, and the Legislature desperately needs the expertise she’s developed while working on those issues within city and county departments.
Plus, if Democrats want to hold this district, they’ll need to knock on as many doors as possible. Republican banker Carmen Goers currently leads the fundraising in this race by a mile, thanks to major contributions from the state House Republicans, commercial landlords, landlord-landlords, banks, and other groups who profit from the exploitation of the poor. Olow’s current campaign operation outshines Stearns’s, giving us the confidence that she’ll have the stronger campaign going into the general. Vote Olow. | 2022-07-31T19:10:48+00:00 | thestranger.com | https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2022/2022/07/14/76423221/the-strangers-endorsements-for-the-august-2-2022-primary-election |
The First Modern Disposable Speculum with Superior Benefits for Clinicians and a Comfortable Design for Patients
PORTLAND, Ore., June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceek Women's Health, an award-winning medical device company, is proud to introduce the Nella Single-Use Vaginal Speculum with Integrated Sidewall Retractors and LED Light. This innovative speculum was designed by women for women, along with trusted clinicians to enhance patient comfort, while providing clinicians with cervical visualization and a reliable and easy-to-use tool for gynecological exams and procedures.
The Nella Single-Use Vaginal Speculum is a unique product that combines several features into one easy-to-use device. The speculum has a quiet operating mechanism, includes an LED light on the upper bill so light is not blocked by fluids, and features integrated sidewall retractors that allow for optimal visualization during exams and procedures. The narrow bills improve patient comfort for a better patient experience. Because the speculum is single-use, it also eliminates the risk of cross-contamination.
"We are thrilled to introduce the Nella Single Use," said Fahti Khosrowshahi, founder and CEO of Ceek Women's Health. "This modern Nella Single-Use is a game-changer for gynecological exams, as it combines several features into one easy-to-use device to improve patient comfort while giving clinicians the cervical visualization and access they need. The Nella Single-Use fits perfectly into our portfolio of products and establishes Ceek as a leader in developing a modern speculum for daily use on patients, during gynecological exams and procedures."
The Nella single-use speculum has 7 key superior benefits:
- Quiet Operation to help reduce patient anxiety.
- Narrow bills for a more comfortable patient experience.
- Integrated sidewall retractors for improved cervical visualization and access.
- One-size fits most, for simpler SKU Management.
- Integrated LED light on the upper bill for direct illumination of the vaginal walls and cervix without the risk of blocking due to blood and fluid.
- Made from a strong, premium material to help improve patient safety.
- Ergonomically designed for clinicians.
"We understand that clinicians are busy and need reliable tools that are easy to use," said Khosrowshahi. "The Nella Single-Use Vaginal Speculum with Integrated Sidewall Retractors and LED Light has been carefully designed over a 4-year period to take advantage of the latest in material science to give clinicians an ergonomically modern tool that is both user-friendly and patient friendly."
The Nella Single-Use Vaginal Speculum is now available for purchase. For more information, please visit nellaspec.com.
Ceek Women's Health is a medical device company focused on creating modern tools that improve quality of care and patient comfort. Founded in 2018, Ceek was born out of founder and CEO Fahti Khosrowshahi's personal experience enduring infertility treatment. Realizing that many of the devices used in gynecological care are antiquated, Fahti started Ceek to develop modern tools and help women receive the care they deserve. Ceek's process is to understand the user experience from both the patient and clinician perspectives and uncover opportunities often overlooked by others.
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SOURCE Ceek Women's Health | 2023-06-06T21:25:14+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2023/06/06/ceek-womens-health-introduces-nella-single-use-vaginal-speculum-with-integrated-sidewall-retractors-led-light/ |
Check out our Art's Cameras Plus picture of the day. If you want to share a photo for TV then send it to us with a little information at pictures@themorningblend.com
Check out our Art's Cameras Plus picture of the day. If you want to share a photo for TV then send it to us with a little information at pictures@themorningblend.com | 2023-03-21T18:05:31+00:00 | tmj4.com | https://www.tmj4.com/shows/the-morning-blend/its-the-arts-cameras-plus-picture-of-the-day-for-march-21 |
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s annual inflation reached a new 24-year high of 83.45% in September, according to official data on Monday, pushing the cost of essential goods higher and further hitting households already facing high energy, food and housing costs.
Experts say inflation is much higher than official statistics, and the independent Inflation Research Group on Monday put the annual rate at an eye-watering 186.27%.
Last month, Turkey’s central bank delivered another interest rate cut, lowering the benchmark rate to 12% despite rising prices, a plunging lira and an unbalanced current account. The lira has lost over 50% of its value against the U.S. dollar since the central bank began cutting rates last year.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the lira’s decline have stoked inflation. Economists say rising inflation in Turkey is fueled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox belief that high borrowing costs lead to higher prices — the opposite to established economic theory.
The government says it hopes to lower interest rates to boost production and exports in a bid to reach a current account surplus. Erdogan has said he expects inflation to fall in the new year.
The sharpest increases in annual prices were in the transportation sector, at 117.66%, followed by food and non-alcoholic drinks prices at 93%, according to the statistical institute’s data. | 2022-10-03T08:57:54+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/turkeys-annual-inflation-hits-new-24-year-high-at-8345percent/2022/10/03/634e0eb0-42ef-11ed-be17-89cbe6b8c0a5_story.html |
A federal judge has agreed to postpone a trial for the former leader of the Proud Boys and other members of the group who are charged with attacking the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed Wednesday to move the start of a trial from Aug. 8 to Dec. 12 for former Proud Boys national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four other men charged with seditious conspiracy.
Defense attorneys for several of the men argued that their clients couldn’t get a fair trial by an impartial jury so soon after televised hearings by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.
On the first day of the public hearings, a filmmaker who was embedded with the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 testified about his interactions with the group.
Nick Quested said members started walking toward the Capitol prior to then-President Donald Trump finishing his speech at a nearby rally. He said he then witnessed the crowd become violent. Part of the hearing featured video that Quested's crew shot on Jan. 6.
The public Jan. 6 commission hearings are expected to continue into July. | 2022-06-22T21:23:51+00:00 | kivitv.com | https://www.kivitv.com/news/national/proud-boys-riot-trial-delayed-due-to-committee-hearings |
LINCOLN, Neb. — An investigation into the theft this summer of several semitrailers loaded with frozen beef from Nebraska has led to arrests and uncovered a multimillion-dollar theft ring targeting meatpacking plants in six Midwestern states, federal authorities said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported Tuesday that the discovery of the Miami-based theft ring began in June with a Nebraska investigation into the theft of semitrailers loaded with nearly $1 million in frozen beef from areas near Grand Island and Lincoln.
The investigation, led by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office in Nebraska and Homeland Security’s Major Crimes Task Force in Omaha, determined that the theft ring was targeting beef and pork packaging plants in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
Charging documents say federal investigators used phone records and GPS tracking devices on trucks being driven by three men from Miami to place the men in and around meatpacking plants where trailers of meat products were stolen. The documents don’t say what the men did with the meat. Lancaster County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Peschong said Wednesday that officials are still investigating those details.
“We haven’t nailed down the exact details on where all the meat stole ended up yet,” Peschong said.
Investigators said they have identified approximately 45 thefts that occurred across the six Midwest states totaling $9 million in loss.
On Oct. 20, investigators arrested 38-year-old Yoslany Leyva Del Sol, 37-year-old Ledier Machin Andino, and 39-year-old Delvis L. Fuentes, all of Miami, in south Florida. Online court documents show they are charged with transporting stolen goods and money laundering in Florida’s federal court.
Lopez was released on bond last Friday and plans to plead not guilty, according to his attorney, Omar A. Lopez of Miami. Del Sol’s bond hearing is set for Thursday, said his attorney, Alfredo Izaguirre of Coral Gables, Florida. Del Sol also plans to plead not guilty, Izaguirre said.
An attorney for Andino did not immediately return a phone message left for her. | 2022-10-27T20:58:58+00:00 | albertleatribune.com | https://www.albertleatribune.com/2022/10/feds-theft-of-frozen-beef-in-nebraska-uncovers-crime-ring/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive as the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches.
Also Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government continued its crackdown on alleged corruption. The government dismissed several high-ranking officials, prominent lawmaker David Arakhamia said.
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform in a country long gripped by graft. The latest allegations come as Western allies are channeling billions of dollars to help Kyiv fight Moscow and as the Ukrainian government is introducing reforms so it can potentially join the European Union one day.
Ukraine’s Security Service said on the Telegram messaging app that an operation on Wednesday targeted “corrupt officials who undermine the country’s economy and the stable functioning of the defense-industrial complex.” It identified one of them as a former Defense Ministry official accused of embezzling state funds through the purchase of nearly 3,000 bulletproof vests that would inadequately protect Ukrainian soldiers.
On the battlefront, the Kremlin’s forces were expelling residents near the Russian-held parts of the front line so they can’t provide information about Russian troop deployments to Ukrainian artillery forces, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said.
“There is an active transfer of (Russian troops) to the region and they are definitely preparing for something on the eastern front in February,” Haidai said.
The Institute for the Study of War said late Tuesday that “an imminent Russian offensive in the coming months is the most likely course of action.”
A new offensive might coincide with the invasion anniversary on Feb. 24.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported Wednesday that Russia was also concentrating its efforts in neighboring Donetsk province, especially in its bid to capture the key city of Bakhmut.
Donetsk and Luhansk provinces make up the Donbas, an industrial region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a goal for takeover from the war’s outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Russian shelling of Bakhmut, from which most residents have fled while others spend much of their time in cellars, killed at least five civilians and wounded 10 on Tuesday, Ukraine’s presidential office said Wednesday.
The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, posted images of the aftermath of the shelling, showing huge black holes in residential buildings in the embattled city. He said Russia is “actively deploying new military personnel to the region.”
Donetsk was one of four provinces that Russia illegally annexed in the fall, but controls only about half of it. To take the remaining half, Russian forces have no choice but to go through Bakhmut, the only approach to bigger Ukrainian-held cities. Russian forces have been trying for months to capture Bakhmut. Moscow-installed authorities in Donetsk claimed Russian troops are “closing the ring” around the city.
But the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary group headed by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Wednesday denied that Bakhmut was encircled. “When the city is taken, you will certainly know about it,” Prigozhin said in an online post.
Ukraine is keen to secure more Western military aid to fend off the much larger Russian forces. It has already won pledges of tanks and now wants more.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described media reports about new U.S. military assistance to Ukraine expected to be announced soon as “a direct path to inciting tensions and taking the escalation to a new level.”
“It will require additional efforts on our part, but it won’t change the course of events,” he said in a conference call with reporters.
The Western allies are trying to broaden their coalition in support of Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday in Tokyo that he sought stronger cooperation and more “friends” for the alliance in the Indo-Pacific region.
In other developments Wednesday:
— David Arakhamia, the head of the parliamentary faction of Ukraine’s Servant of the People party to which Zelenskyy belongs, said several senior officials were targeted in the government’s anti-corruption drive. Among those dismissed were Yuri Sotnik, who served as First Deputy Chairman of the State Forest Agency; Alexander Shchutsky, First Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Service; and Andrei Lordkipanidze, Deputy Chairman of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Arakhamia said. In addition, the deputy head of the customs service, Ruslan Cherkassky, has been suspended, according to Arakhamia.
The Security Service of Ukraine said in its announcement that two officials from a customs office in northern Ukraine were placed under house arrest on accusations that they helped illegally import ambulances without paying customs fees. A third target was the former management of oil producing company Ukrnafta and oil refiner Ukrtatnafta. They were accused of tax evasion and “legalization of funds obtained through criminal means,” the Security Service said.
Ukrainian media reported that high-profile anti-corruption raids targeted oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and former interior minister Arsen Avakov.
—Ukraine’s anti-corruption drive is expected to be on the agenda when the European Union’s two top officials, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel, meet with Zelenskyy on Friday. Ukraine’s long road toward potential membership of the EU will be a key issue under discussion, with stamping out corruption a key condition of membership.
— The presidents of Bulgaria and Serbia launched construction of the Bulgarian part of a gas link designed to diversify the energy supplies of a region that until recently was almost fully dependent on natural gas deliveries from Russia.
—Authorities in Russia’s western Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine, reported power outages after a Ukrainian rocket allegedly fell near an oil pumping station. No one was reported hurt. Putin met with officials to discuss alleviating damage from such cross-border attacks. Gov. Alexander Bogomaz told Putin that in the Bryansk region, Ukrainian shelling has killed four people, wounded 22 and damaged 235 houses since the conflict started. Kursk Gov. Roman Starovoit said 23 apartment buildings and 379 private houses in his region have been damaged. Putin said “the priority task is to liquidate the possibility of shelling,” repair damaged buildings and infrastructure, and compensate residents. Ukrainian officials have kept mum about most cross-border attacks, but emphasized their right to strike Russian territory.
—-At a news conference in Kyiv with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Zelenskyy condemned Austrian businesses, which “do not leave Russia and continue to support the terrorist state.” He mentioned Raiffeisen Bank, which he said not only pays taxes but announced a tax holiday for mobilized Russian troops. “This is unacceptable in today’s realities,” Ukraine’s president said. The bank didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Austrian media quoted Raiffeisen Bank as saying they’re required under Russian law to provide the tax holiday.
___
Raf Casert in Brussels, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | 2023-02-01T21:01:17+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/world-news/ap-international/ap-russia-focuses-on-eastern-ukraine-for-possible-new-offensive/ |
Transaction establishes Arcadia as the community solar market leader in Oregon
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcadia, the technology company enabling the global energy transition, today announced it has acquired leading community solar provider Oregon Shines. With this transaction, Arcadia becomes the largest manager of community solar projects in the state of Oregon.
The acquisition includes Oregon Shines' subscription portfolio of nearly 84 MWdc, which serves a balanced mix of large and small businesses, along with residential subscribers, including low-income subscribers.
Terms of the transaction, which closed on May 22, 2023, were not disclosed.
"With this acquisition, we are excited to take on management of the largest community solar portfolio in Oregon, bringing Arcadia's industry-leading technology and operations to the state's solar asset owners, and best-in-class customer experience and service to subscribers," said Joel Gamoran, Arcadia's Vice President and General Manager of Energy Services.
"We founded Oregon Shines on the idea that solar power should be an option available to anyone, regardless of their income or whether they own a home," said Troy Snyder, co-founder of Oregon Shines. "Arcadia shares that belief, and shares our commitment to customers. We're confident that they will continue to deliver outstanding service to subscribers."
Arcadia is the largest community solar manager in the United States and manages over 1.6 GW of community solar capacity across more than 500 projects in 14 states.
About Arcadia
Arcadia is a climate technology company enabling a zero-carbon economy. By unlocking high-fidelity, global energy data for the first time, the Arc platform combines easy-to-use data and APIs under one roof to allow any company to act on its environmental impact and build the next generation of energy products and climate tech solutions. Arc democratizes access to data from thousands of utility providers in 52 countries, covering more than 95% of US residential and commercial utility accounts.
Founded in 2014 on the belief that everyone deserves access to clean energy, Arcadia also manages the nation's largest community solar portfolio, helping to tackle energy injustice while spurring economic growth with more than 1.6 GW of solar under management. Join us in our mission and find out how you or your business can help achieve the vision of a 100% zero-carbon future at www.arcadia.com.
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SOURCE Arcadia | 2023-06-21T17:12:37+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2023/06/21/arcadia-acquires-oregon-shines/ |
House lawmakers on Wednesday voted to approve legislation crafted by two members of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack committee that seeks to protect elections from interference by lawmakers.
The Presidential Election Reform Act reaffirms that the vice president’s role in certifying the election is purely ceremonial, and drastically increases the number of lawmakers in each chamber needed to object to the certification of electors from one member to one-third of the body.
It also targets other actions taken by former President Trump in the lead up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, making explicit the role governors play in the electoral process. The bill takes aim at the faux election certificates crafted by Trump’s team and the pressure campaign in various states to replace their electors with those who would vote for then-President Trump.
The bill passed in a 229-203 vote, with nine Republicans joining all Democrats present in supporting the measure: Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.), Peter Meijer (Mich.), Tom Rice (S.C.), John Katko (N.Y.), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio) and Chris Jacobs (N.Y.).
During debate on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) — a sponsor of the bill and a member of the Jan. 6 select committee — said the legislation “will make it harder to convince people that they have the right to overthrow the election.”
“Ultimately, this bill is about protecting the will of the American voters, which is a principle that is beyond partisanship. The bottom line is this — if you want to object to the vote, you better have your colleagues and the Constitution on your side. Don’t try to overturn our democracy,” she added.
Cheney, the second sponsor of the bill and one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel, argued that the measure would “prevent Congress from illegally choosing the president itself.”
After reading a host of conservative commentary praising the legislation, the Wyoming Republican urged her GOP colleagues to support the measure.
“If your aim is to prevent future efforts to steal elections, I would respectfully suggest that conservatives should support this bill. If instead your aim is to leave open the door for elections to be stolen in the future, you might decide not to support this or any other bill to address the Electoral Count Act,” Cheney said.
House Republican leadership began whipping against the bill Tuesday afternoon, urging members of the conference to vote against the “flawed” measure, and arguing that it “tramples on state sovereignty and opens the door for destructive private rights of action that will only delay results and inject more uncertainty into our elections.”
Republicans during debate also pounced on the bill for the speed at which it was brought to the floor — Lofgren and Cheney, who have been working on the bill since shortly after Jan. 6, introduced the measure on Monday, and it faced a final vote on Wednesday.
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, during debate on Wednesday argued that Democrats are trying to put a spotlight on Trump just weeks away from the midterm elections.
“Why rush such a significant piece of legislation when the next presidential certification won’t happen for over two years? It’s pretty simple, Madam Speaker: the midterm elections are just weeks away, and the Democrats are desperately trying to talk about their favorite topic, former President Trump,” he said.
Also during debate, Democrats criticized Republicans for failing to back legislation they say largely reaffirms principles laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
“To all those who oppose this legislation, I ask you: how could anyone vote against free and fair elections, a cornerstone of our Constitution? How could anyone vote against our founders’ vision, placing power in the hands of the people? How could anyone vote against their own constituents, allowing radical politicians to rip away their say in our democracy?” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said.
The Presidential Election Reform Act, which adjusts the 1887 Electoral College Act, is the first of a number of legislative proposals that could stem from the House Jan. 6 committee’s review. The panel has been tasked with investigating the events of the Capitol riot and presenting improvements to ensure that a similar event does not occur in the future.
The passage of the bill comes as the Senate has plans to review bipartisan legislation introduced in July that would also reform the Electoral College Act.
That bill, though similar, would require just a one-fifth vote in each chamber for lawmakers to raise objections to a state’s election results.
During a House Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday, Lofgren signaled an openness to discussing the threshold needed to raise an objection to a state’s electors.
“We selected one-third, and I thought it was a reasonable amount, but to some extent it’s an arbitrary number. Now in talking to [Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)], they had a formula that they had in mind, they have a smaller number. Maybe they’re right, I don’t know, so I think we need to have some further discussion with the Senate on that point, and I’m sure that will be productive,” she said.
Another departure from the Senate bill is a provision in the Presidential Election Reform Act that seeks to prevent any future attempt to delay an election — making clear only scenarios like natural disasters could be considered a “catastrophic event” used to extend voting.
Cheney said the provision was designed to ensure against future situations where “false claims of fraud could be made to allow a state to refuse to certify valid votes.”
The bill drafted by Lofgren and Cheney may be the only formal legislation to come out of the committee.
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters Wednesday that he’s unsure if any of the committee’s recommendations from its final report will be crafted into legislation by the panel.
“I think in terms of what we have before us now, that will probably be the only complete legislation introduced, but that is not in stone. But the discussion up to this point has been recommendations” for the final report, he said. | 2022-09-21T23:58:57+00:00 | ourquadcities.com | https://www.ourquadcities.com/hill-politics/house-passes-jan-6-election-reform-bill/ |
Andrew Delbanco is a professor of American studies at Columbia University. This is adapted from the Jefferson Lecture he delivered in October.
Reparations must be reimagined in a way that could turn aspiration into action.
First, we must contend with the kind of questions that have stalled such efforts in the past: What connection should one feel to acts committed or omitted before one was born? How can the cost be calculated of living at the mercy of a person who claims to own you, and of knowing that the same will be true for your children and their children? Even if one could compute the cost, who would fund the reparations, and to whom should they be paid? Would they be subject to means-testing and paid on a graduated scale? Who would decide who qualifies?
Adjudicating these questions — and there are many more — would no doubt open more cracks in our already fractured country. But evading them, as the phrase goes, is not an option.
Over the centuries, many voices have been raised in an effort to move America toward confronting these issues squarely and honestly.
Years before the first shots were fired in the Civil War, Black writer and abolitionist Martin Delany called for a “national indemnity … for the unparalleled wrongs, undisguised impositions, and unmitigated oppression” endured by Black people since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the 17th century.
After the war, the idea of money reparations began evolving into the idea that the federal government should provide formerly enslaved persons with grants of free land. That might sound like a radical plan out of Mao Zedong’s China or Fidel Castro’s Cuba — but there were precedents in 19th-century America. In 1862, on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, which had been captured by Union forces early in the war, the federal government granted to former slaves free housing, modest wages and basic rations in exchange for cotton cultivation on small plots of land. Three years later, Gen. William T. Sherman issued his famous Field Order 15 assigning ownership of hundreds of thousands of abandoned acres along the coast from Charleston to Florida to some 40,000 former slaves.
But these were wartime measures. As soon as peace returned, the “poetry” of the idea, as W.E.B. Du Bois put it, collided with “prose” reality. With the return to power of a federal administration friendly to the White South, promises to the freedmen were revoked, property returned to former Confederate landowners, and the dream of Black homesteads “melted quickly away.” Toward the end of his life, Frederick Douglass bitterly remarked that “when the serfs of Russia were emancipated, they were given three acres of ground upon which they could live and make a living.” But America’s slaves were “sent away empty-handed, without money, without friends and without a foot of land upon which to stand.”
Land, of course, was not the only essential asset of which Black people had been deprived. Education was another. “Let us atone for our sins,” wrote the leaders of the American Missionary Association, “by furnishing schools and the means of improvement for the children, upon whose parents we have inflicted such fearful evils.”
This, too, proved to be a dream deferred. After federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877, Black children were subjected to what can only be called a terrorist campaign. Parents who dared send their children to school were fired by their White employers. Teachers and students were beaten. Schools were torched. And even when terror abated, Black schools were grossly underfunded. By 1950, in Mississippi, Black public schools received approximately $32 of state support per student while White schools received roughly four times as much.
And so the debt owed by White America to Black Americans continued to accrue. It grew through the sharecropping system that locked agricultural workers into inescapable cycles of debt. It was compounded by the system of convict labor by which Black men were snatched off the streets for such putative crimes as “vagrancy,” and forced to work unpaid in factories or mines. It persisted into the 20th century as the United States built the semblance of a welfare state from which millions of African Americans were excluded. The signature program of the New Deal, the Social Security Act of 1935, exempted agricultural and domestic laborers who, in the South, were overwhelmingly Black. Black military veterans were excluded, too, not de jure but de facto, from the G.I. Bill. At just the moment when a college degree began to supplant the high school diploma as the minimum credential for entering the middle class, most Black veterans, who came overwhelmingly from the South, failed to qualify because their schooling had been negligible, or because most colleges wouldn’t admit them.
These larcenies were measurable forms of theft that help explain why Black Americans have owned so little that could be passed on to their children, and why the median assets of Black families today trail so far behind — by about 700 percent — those of White families.
But there is another list of immeasurable injuries: frat boys posing in blackface; Black men shoved aside so White women might pass on the sidewalk; beaches segregated; and, of course, the ghastly regularity of beatings and lynchings. These pathologies haunted Black writers such as Richard Wright, who wrote of them with icy rage, and James Baldwin, who wrote of them with sorrow and pity, as when, flying to Atlanta over woodland, he imagined that the “rust-red earth of Georgia ... had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.”
This appalling history makes the moral case for some form of reparations irrefutable. But it doesn’t answer the political question of whether reparations in any conventional sense are conceivable.
Through the 19th and into the mid-20th century, Black Americans issued impassioned calls for recompense, even sometimes proposing dollar amounts per person or per family. By and large, these demands were dismissed, ignored or, as in the case of Callie House, leader of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association, silenced by imprisonment.
But around the middle of the 20th century, propelled by two historical events, the reputation of reparations began to change. The first event took place abroad: the campaign to exterminate the Jews of Europe, led by Germany. The second took place here in the United States: the movement to secure basic civil rights for millions of Black Americans.
It is always dangerous to go down the road of analogies. There are no scales by which to weigh the worth of Jews sent by rail to the gas chambers versus Africans sent by sea into oblivion. In thinking about history, differences are always more salient than commonalities. Yet the fact that post-Nazi Germany was trying to own up to its crimes was not lost on those who, in the 1950s, began to press the United States to do the same.
The most celebrated champion of racial justice in midcentury America, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is not usually counted among them. As far as I know, he never used the term “reparations.” But he knew that, in the absence of redress, time alone does not erase past injustice. And so, in 1964, we find him writing that:
The ancient common law has always provided a remedy for the appropriation of the labor of one human being by another. This law should be made to apply for American Negroes. The payment should be in the form of a massive program by the Government of special, compensatory measures which could be regarded as a settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common law.
Construing such a “settlement” in monetary terms was encouraged not only by the German precedent, but also by homegrown efforts in the United States. In 1946, Congress created the Indian Claims Commission as a mediator between Native Americans and the federal government. Since then, from Alaska to North Carolina, several billion dollars have been paid out by federal and state governments in settlement of land claims; it’s a big-sounding number but, in aggregate, it amounts to less than $1,000 per person.
Another official act of reparation occurred in 1988, when Congress, with bipartisan support, passed the Civil Liberties Act, by which the United States officially apologized to Americans of Japanese descent who had been thrown into detention camps during World War II. Almost 50 years after the internment, payments of $20,000 were authorized for living individuals.
Today, some advocates of reparations propose distributing trillions of dollars to everyone who can demonstrate descent from an enslaved ancestor and who, for some designated period, has identified as Black. Heartfelt as they might be, such purely monetary approaches face overwhelming obstacles: competing claims by other groups, rivalry and discord among prospective beneficiaries, not to mention the mind-boggling price tag attached to any meaningful attempt to give back what was taken away.
And yet, inspired in part by a powerful essay published by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic not quite a decade ago, the question of slavery reparations has been gaining attention across a swath of American life. Apologies are flowing from universities, municipalities and businesses for their complicity not only in slavery but also in subsequent forms of racial exploitation. Reps. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that would provide federal loan guarantees and education subsidies to descendants of Black World War II veterans who were denied their G.I. Bill benefits. House Resolution 40, first introduced more than 30 years ago, calls for a commission to design a national reparations plan, and has now garnered more than 200 co-sponsors. Depending on one’s point of view, these are either baby steps or signs that the dam is breaking.
At stake in all these efforts is what might be called the sins-of-the-fathers question, addressed by authors from Sophocles and Aeschylus to Nathaniel Hawthorne and William Faulkner. Edmund Burke, in the wake of the French Revolution, decried the idea of holding individuals responsible for what he called a “pedigree of crimes” committed in the past by some class, party or sect to which they may belong. But Burke also wrote that society “is a partnership … between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” If history confers on people in the present neither credit nor blame for what happened in the past, what kind of partnership exists across time?
Our nation is badly overdue in facing this question. But seeking a consensual answer is like wading into quicksand. I suspect that most people believe both the nay and the yay of the matter — that no one living today is to blame for the sins of the past, but that everyone has a responsibility to help redress them.
In pondering what this might actually mean, I came upon a book, “Reconsidering Reparations,” published a few months ago by a young scholar at Georgetown University, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, who speaks of reparations not as payback or getting even or settling scores but as what he calls a “construction project.” “What if building the just world,” he asks, “was reparations?” He means, I think, that we must proceed with full awareness that the dire challenges of our time — climate change, disparities in health care and education amplified by the coronavirus pandemic, gun violence, state violence in the form of bad policing, misused and inequitable incarceration, to name just a few — all have disproportionate effects on persons left vulnerable by history, notably but by no means only Black persons. This version of reparations does not gloss over penalties exacted in the past by racial cruelty, but it looks to a future in which human dignity will count for more and more and race will count for less and less.
King shared this view. Back in the 20th century, when our politics were positively congenial compared with today, he understood that targeted reparations solely for Black Americans were a political impossibility. He correctly predicted that “many white workers whose economic condition is not too far removed from the economic condition of his black brother, will find it difficult to accept a ‘Negro Bill of Rights,’ which seeks special consideration to the Negro … and does not take into sufficient account of their plight (that of the white worker).”
But this did not dissuade King from the principle of redress itself. On the contrary, he envisioned something more daring, more ambitious, and more inclusive — an idea of reparations that was not post-racial but cross-racial. “It is a simple matter of justice,” he said, “that America, in dealing creatively with the task of raising the Negro from backwardness, should also be rescuing a large stratum of the forgotten white poor.”
Today, a great many White Americans feel as demeaned and discarded as Black Americans, and just as forgotten. In the grim metrics of poverty rates, infant mortality and maternal deaths in childbirth, Black Americans and Native Americans continue to hold the lead. But in the distribution of suffering, as measured by other markers such as opioid addiction, alcoholism and suicide, the racial gap is closing.
This multiracial reality can be addressed only with a multiracial response of the sort envisioned by King. Beginning with a robust defense of the right to vote, such a response must include subsidized housing for low-income Americans; improved access to health care; investments in public transportation; expanded child tax credits; preschool and wraparound services for all children of the sort that affluent families take for granted. It must include renewed investment in community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, tribal and regional public colleges, where low-income White students as well as Black, Hispanic and Native American students are likely to enroll. At elite private colleges, it should mean less dependence on the blunt instrument of standardized testing, and more bridge programs for recruiting and preparing children from low-asset families, White as well as non-White. All this might sound like a fanciful wish list, and a partial one at that — but it is no departure from the American creed of equal opportunity, in which both parties profess to believe. I have no doubt that a racially inclusive approach to repairing our society stands a better chance than any effort that is racially exclusive.
Reparations narrowly conceived will stoke anger and resentment, but reparations broadly imagined can be a force for unity and reconciliation. This is the dream by which King was possessed: to repair what he called the broken “network of mutuality” that was, according to his religion, both the origin and destiny of humankind. The reconstructed world he imagined — still, for now, a dream world — will be a place where anyone’s remediable suffering is an affront to us all. | 2022-11-21T16:17:43+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/21/reparations-black-americans-reimagined/ |
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas police have arrested a suspect in connection with a shooting that wounded three women in a hair salon in the city’s Koreatown and federal officials have launched a hate crime investigation, authorities said Tuesday.
The Dallas Police Department said the suspect is being interviewed and processed, and Chief Eddie Garcia is expected to release additional information about the arrest later in the day.
Garcia has said the shooting last Wednesday at Hair World Salon could be connected to two other shootings at businesses run by Asian Americans in the area.
Also Tuesday, the FBI said it has opened a federal hate crime investigation along with federal prosecutors in Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division.
Dallas FBI spokeswoman Melinda Urbina said agents are working with city police "to thoroughly investigate this incident” but that she couldn't provide further information because the probe is ongoing.
The shooting in Dallas occurred a few days before a white gunman killed 10 Black people Saturday at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a gunman who authorities said was motivated by political hatred for Taiwan killed one person and wounded five Sunday at a southern California church where mostly elderly Taiwanese parishioners had gathered.
In Dallas, authorities have said a man dressed all in black opened fire at the salon, then drove off from the shopping center in a maroon minivan. Garcia said investigators found that a similar vehicle had been reported as involved in two other recent shootings. Someone opened fire in an April 2 drive-by near the salon and Garcia said the minivan was also linked to a May 10 shooting about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of there. No one was injured in either of those shootings.
The three women who were shot at the salon Wednesday were taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening.
Jane Bae, the daughter of one of the wounded women, told The Associated Press last week that her mother said she didn't recognize the gunman who calmly walked into the salon, opened fire then left.
“He was calm. He just walked up to it and then stood there — didn’t walk around — but stood there and shot like 20 shots and then just calmly went out,” said Bae, who wasn’t there but had spoken with her mother.
The salon is in the heart of Koreatown, which is in a part of the city that was transformed in the 1980s from an industrial area to a thriving district with shopping, dining, markets, medical offices and salons.
Anti-Asian violence has risen sharply in recent years. Last year, six women of Asian descent were among the eight killed in a shooting at massage businesses in and near Atlanta, heightening anger and fear among Asian Americans.
___
Associated Press writer Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
Credit: Rebecca Slezak
Credit: Rebecca Slezak
Credit: Rebecca Slezak
Credit: Rebecca Slezak
Credit: Jamie Stengel
Credit: Jamie Stengel
Credit: Jamie Stengel
Credit: Jamie Stengel | 2022-05-17T16:20:55+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/nation-world/fbi-investigating-dallas-koreatown-shooting-as-hate-crime/3CHLFYUHSREK7B4LJJMNQPX42Q/ |
Junior Alexander is finally home.
This isn’t the first stop in Seattle for the redshirt freshman Washington wide receiver. As a four-star prospect from Auburn, Alexander excelled at the nearby Kennedy Catholic High School, helping the Lancers advance to the 4A state playoff quarterfinals as a sophomore in 2018.
But despite growing up a Huskies fan, Alexander felt under-recruited by then-wide receivers coach Junior Adams and the UW coaching staff.
“I just felt like, honestly, I wasn’t getting recruited hard enough by the previous [receivers] coach, Junior Adams,” Alexander said. “I decided that moving on and going somewhere else to make a name for myself would have been better for me.”
As Washington failed to keep the blue-chip commitment in its own backyard, Alexander instead announced his 2020 commitment to Arizona State.
When Alexander entered the transfer portal last winter, however, the new UW coaching staff didn’t overlook him.
“When [Ryan Grubb] recruited me, when I entered the transfer portal, same with coach [Kalen] DeBoer because those were the two that recruited me, they recruited me with love and affection,” Alexander said. “Once I found out coach [JaMarcus Shephard] was coming, it was just another addition to the greatness that we’re going to be having in this state.”
Two years from his initial commitment, Alexander is back home, with mere weeks until he suits up in the purple and gold for game action.
Sure, it took a new coaching staff to lure him here, and ASU’s turmoil likely didn’t hurt either, but Alexander is back nonetheless, and UW’s new wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard is happy to have him.
“He was certainly swimming, probably drinking out of a firehose this spring, and I think it was to his benefit completely,” Shephard said. “I think the guys have really bought into him and his personality, and he’s kind of gravitated towards the guys, so I think that now with him feeling like he has a true role, I think he’s really starting to turn his game up to the next level. He’s getting better every day.”
Alexander would admit that his arrival onto the field wasn’t quite as smooth as he would have hoped. But as the offseason progressed, Alexander became accustomed to the new offense and elevated his game.
“It was kind of sketchy at first, trying to just remember plays and hand signals, all of that,” Alexander said. “Having the summer workouts and being around the team in the offense and everything, coming into fall camp it felt like I really knew everything, and I’ve been feeling a lot more comfortable and been able to focus on my game more instead of figuring out which hand signal is which, where to line up and stuff like that.”
Perhaps Alexander’s most noteworthy moment of the offseason came in the public eye, with the April 30 spring preview serving as an unofficial “Homecoming” party for Alexander.
On a contested ball thrown down the sideline, Alexander gained a step, then stuck his left arm out around the 30-yard line and came down with the ball for a 37-yard gain.
The quarterback on the play? Washington’s redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Huard, who threw passes to Alexander during historic seasons at Kennedy Catholic High School.
The mention of Huard prompts a wide smile from Alexander, who has fond memories with Huard from years back.
“He’s my best friend,” Alexander said. “We’ve been friends since we were in fifth grade, and it never stopped. He continued to support me even when I went to ASU, and we talked weekly.”
So when Alexander was looking for a new college last winter, it was only natural for Huard to contribute to the recruiting sweepstakes.
“When I told him I was going into the transfer portal, he was one of the first guys on the radar like ‘Look, we’ve gotta get you home, we’ve gotta get you to be a Dawg,’” Alexander said. “I was like, I feel better at home. I feel more comfortable being around my family, but not only family, the friends I grew up with as well. So [Huard] was definitely a big part of that recruiting process when I was in the transfer portal.”
The coaching staff, evidently, was another main component to Alexander’s decision to give UW another look and ultimately commit to the hometown team. And from day one, Alexander has felt authenticity from the coaching staff, and feels that this time, he’s been embraced by Washington.
“They opened their arms up with love and affection, and they brought me into the family and I’ve been fitting in ever since,” Alexander said. “Coach DeBoer, he’s been a really good coach and mentor. So has Coach [Shephard], he brings a lot of energy to our room and he’s the one that really gets us going.”
In a crowded wide receivers room featuring established sophomores Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze, as well as redshirt freshman Ja’Lynn Polk, among others, it’s unclear exactly where Alexander sits on the wide receiver pecking order. But one thing is clear: Shephard and the coaches see a role for him in the offense.
“Junior Alexander, I believe, has taken a big jump,” Shephard said. “Obviously he started from ground zero, because he arrived here two days before we started camp. Now going into fall camp I think he’s done a pretty decent job of establishing himself as a guy who can contribute to this football team.”
Washington is happy to have Alexander, and likewise, Alexander is happy to be back in Washington. Well, minus the gloomy winter climate, at least.
“Actually being able to witness, and see how beautiful Seattle and everything is, in the summer and everything, I know it’s about to be crappy here in a few weeks, in a few months,” Alexander said. “I’m really just embracing it, enjoying it, seeing how beautiful the skyline is. I can see the skyline from where I live. It’s beautiful, it’s amazing. Being on the water, this is my first time ever this summer since I’ve been living here that I’ve been on Lake Washington, so that’s pretty cool.”
Husky Stadium is just a short way from Alexander’s home in Auburn. And while his arrival to UW was much more prolonged, he finally feels back at home.
Reach Sports Editor Ethan Kilbreath at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @EthanArles
Like what you’re reading? Support high-quality student journalism by donating here. | 2022-08-18T20:57:37+00:00 | dailyuw.com | https://www.dailyuw.com/sports/with-new-uw-coaching-staff-junior-alexander-feels-back-where-he-belongs/article_d08183d6-1f27-11ed-98cc-67a150c26a21.html |
- Third quarter 2022 Total Revenue increased 29% year-over-year to $216.8 million, and year-to-date 2022 Total Revenue increased 27% year-over-year to $590.6 million
- Total Members as of September 30, 2022 increased 7% year-over-year to 2.6 million
- Third quarter 2022 Written Premium increased 16% year-over-year to $222.1 million, and year-to-date 2022 Written Premium increased 15% year-over-year to $614.6 million
- Net exposure of $10.0 million from Hurricane Ian demonstrates successful risk management
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Nov. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagerty, Inc. (NYSE: HGTY), an automotive lifestyle brand and a leading specialty insurance provider focused on the global automotive enthusiast market, today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022.
"We delivered accelerated revenue growth of 29% during the third quarter despite a weakening macroeconomic environment," said McKeel Hagerty, Chief Executive Officer of Hagerty. "These impressive results were powered by 16% written premium growth, higher quota share in Hagerty Reinsurance, as well as solid revenue contribution from the recently acquired Broad Arrow Group."
Mr. Hagerty continued, "The collector car transaction market is a large and growing opportunity for our Marketplace platform. The team transacted over $55.3 million in total vehicle sales at Motorlux in Monterey during the third quarter, validating the synergies across the Hagerty ecosystem and we expect to leverage our many owned and operated events in 2023 to build on this success. We also recently launched our online auction platform, which should enable us to leverage Hagerty's hard earned position as the trusted brand for auto enthusiasts to capitalize on the opportunity."
"We are also investing methodically in value-added and best-in-class services for our members, which we believe will allow us to grow our loyal base of car lovers and provide them with the necessary resources to enjoy their passion. Excellent customer service drives our industry leading net promoter scores and high retention rates which are the foundation for future growth. We expect our strong top-line momentum to continue, and we are focused on prudently managing our cost structure to drive enhanced profitability and cash flow generation in 2023."
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
- Third quarter Total Revenue increased 29% to $216.8 million compared to $168.1 million in the prior year period, and year-to-date Total Revenue increased 27% to $590.6 million compared to $464.7 million in the prior year period.
- Third quarter Written Premium increased 16% to $222.1 million compared to $192.1 million in the prior year period, and year-to-date Written Premium increased 15% to $614.6 million compared to $533.9 million in the prior year period.
- Hagerty's year-to-date loss ratio of 46.8% includes the $10.0 million impact from Hurricane Ian (3.4%) as well as the Company's decision to increase accident year 2022 loss reserves by $6.5 million (2.2%) due to higher liability claims within Hagerty Re. These higher reserves are being being managed by rate filings taking effect now and over the coming months.
- Net losses from Hurricane Ian were limited to $10.0 million due to successful risk and reinsurance management.
- Third quarter Net Income was $24.3 million compared to $(0.5) million of loss in the prior year period, and year-to-date Net Income was $34.6 million compared to $5.1 million of income in the prior year period.
- Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA was $(10.0) million compared to $7.6 million in the prior year period, and year-to-date Adjusted EBITDA was $0.1 million compared to $28.0 million in the prior year period.
- Third quarter Operating Income was a loss of $21.2 million compared to $1.8 million of income in the prior year period, and year-to-date Operating Income was a loss of $31.8 million compared to $10.9 million of income in the prior year period.
- Third quarter Basic Earnings per Share was $0.18 and Diluted Earnings per Share was $0.07, and year-to-date Basic Earnings per Share was $0.44 and Diluted Earnings per Share was $0.03.
- Third quarter Adjusted EPS was $(0.06), and year-to-date Adjusted EPS was $(0.10).
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
- Reached 2.6 million total members and 1.3 million paid members as of September 30, 2022.
- Digital and technology teams are progressing through the testing phase and regulatory approval process for the State Farm partnership.
- U.S. and U.K. reinsurance quota share increased to 70%, further increasing our share of profit.
- Acquired the Broad Arrow Group and executed our first live auction at Motorlux in Monterey with $55 million in total vehicle sales, helping drive year-to-date Marketplace revenue of $8 million. This acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings in 2022 and the Company has identified significant adjacent market opportunity that has been demonstrated by over 300,000 vehicles transacting for approximately $12.5 billion through Hagerty's insurance book over the twelve months ended September 30, 2022.
- Acquired Speed Digital, which establishes relationships with their dealer partners and facilitate growth in Hagerty's Marketplace products; augments our automotive intelligence data; and allows Motorious.com to drive audience engagement, content distribution and advertising revenues.
- Developed Classifieds and enhanced HDC Membership offerings with the ultimate platform for car enthusiasts to buy and sell the things they love, creating the backbone for our recently launched online auction platform.
- Acquired RADwood and hosted multiple events serving 12,000 attendees, including at the Detroit Concours.
- Hagerty announced a new partnership with Hendrick Motorsports focused on integrated content development, event access, facility use, and the inclusion of top Hendrick Motorsports personalities.
- Environmental, Social and Governance program assessment completed and prioritized Impact initiatives.
The definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are provided under the heading Key Performance Indicators and Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures at the end of this press release.
The Company has excellent business momentum in 2022, with year-to-date revenue growth of 27%, and is excited about and focused on our ongoing efforts to position the Company for strong and sustainable long-term organic growth and profitability over the coming years. We are confident that the opportunities we have identified to monetize our significant addressable market will expand our share and position us to grow. We plan to invest further in our capabilities in 2022 to capitalize on these opportunities to drive future growth, and are thoughtfully prioritizing growth initiatives into 2023 to profitably grow our business.
Hagerty Marketplace. Earlier this year, we launched Hagerty Marketplace, completed the acquisition of Broad Arrow Group, and announced the development of a proprietary digital platform to support our Marketplace activities. We believe auto enthusiasts will find our new services extremely valuable, including new trust-based platforms for buying, selling and financing collector vehicles.
MGA Insurance. We expect to continue to launch strategic partnerships with major carriers longer-term. We also plan to deepen our penetration into services and data analytics in order to support our existing partnership customer base.
Reinsurance. We continue to benefit from our contractual quota share arrangements with the U.S. and U.K. 2022 share increasing to 70%. We also will look to continue to methodically grow our international share of underwriting profit over the coming years.
Membership. We look forward to increasing our paid member penetration through an enhanced value proposition for our customers. We also expect to increase conversion of our legacy insurance book to HDC and to integrate our multiple digital platforms.
Media & Entertainment. These efforts build our brand and drive network effects that fuel our businesses. We will continue to push forward with our strategy to expand our digital audience and focus on owned and operated events including Concours and Touring events, as well as RADwood and Concours d'Lemons to reach growing and new auto segments.
State Farm Update. Our digital and technology team is nearing completion of the development work and have moved into the testing phase of the project. There are currently over 460,000 eligible policies, and based on recent adoption rates, we are anticipating up to 75% HDC adoption on new insurance policies over time and an average annual revenue per customer of $85-$110. We expect to begin activating State Farm's 19,200 agents to sell classic car policies during the first half of 2023 on a state by state basis.
Hagerty will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results today at 10:00 am Eastern Time. A webcast of the conference call, including the Company's Investor presentation highlighting third quarter and year-to-date 2022 financial results, will be available on Hagerty's investor relations website at investor.hagerty.com. The dial-in for the conference call is (877) 423-9813 (toll-free) or (201) 689-8573 (international). Please dial the number 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.
A webcast replay of the call will be available at investor.hagerty.com for 90 days following the call.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements reflect Hagerty's current expectations and projections with respect to its expected future business and financial performance, including, among other things: (i) expected operating results, such as revenue growth and increases in earned premium; (ii) changes in the market for Hagerty's products and services, (iii) Hagerty's plans to expand market share, including planned investments and partnerships; (iv) anticipated business objectives; and (v) the strength of Hagerty's business model. These statements may be preceded by, followed by or include the words "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "goal," "intend," "likely," "outlook," "plan," "potential," "project," "seek," "target," "can," "could," "may," "should," "would," "will," the negatives thereof and other words and terms of similar meaning.
A number of factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: (i) Hagerty's ability to compete effectively within its industry and attract and retain members; (ii) its dependence on a limited number of insurance distribution and underwriting carrier partners; (iii) Hagerty's ability to prevent, monitor and detect fraudulent activity, including its reliance on a limited number of payment processing services; (iv) disruptions, interruptions, outages with its technology platforms or third-party services; (v) the limited operating history of some of Hagerty's membership products and the success of any new insurance programs and products; (vi) adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and current and future variants of the virus; (vii) the cyclical nature of the insurance business including through any periods of recession, economic downturn or inflation; (viii) unexpected increases in the frequency or severity of claims; (ix) compliance with the numerous laws and regulations applicable to Hagerty's business, including state, federal and foreign laws relating to insurance and rate increases, privacy, the internet and accounting matters; (x) whether investors or securities analysts view Hagerty's stock structure unfavorably, particularly its dual-class structure; (xi) the fact that Hagerty is a controlled company; and (xii) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in documents filed or to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") by Hagerty.
The forward-looking statements herein represent the judgment of Hagerty as of the date of this release and Hagerty disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. This press release should be read in conjunction with the information included in the Company's other press releases, reports and other filings with the SEC. Understanding the information contained in these filings is important in order to fully understand Hagerty's reported financial results and our business outlook for future periods.
Based in Traverse City, Michigan, Hagerty's purpose is to save driving and car culture for future generations and its mission is to build a global business to fund that purpose. Hagerty is an automotive enthusiast brand offering integrated membership products and programs as well as a specialty insurance provider focused on the global automotive enthusiast market. Hagerty is home to Hagerty Marketplace, Broad Arrow Group, Hagerty Drivers Club, Hagerty Drivers Club magazine, Hagerty Drivers Foundation, Hagerty DriveShare, Hagerty Valuation Tools, Hagerty Media, MotorsportReg, Hagerty Garage + Social, The Amelia, the Concours d'Elegance of America, the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, the California Mille, Motorlux and more. For more information on Hagerty, please visit www.hagerty.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
More information can be found at newsroom.hagerty.com.
Hagerty, Inc.
Key Performance Indicators and Certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Key Performance Indicators
In addition to the measures presented in our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, we use the following key performance indicators and certain non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends in our business against planned initiatives, prepare financial projections and make strategic decisions. We believe these financial and operational measures are useful in evaluating our performance when read together with our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. The following tables present these metrics as of and for the periods presented:
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio
We define Contribution Margin as total revenue less operating expenses adding back our fixed operating expenses such as depreciation and amortization, general and administrative costs and shared service salaries and benefits expenses. We define Contribution Margin Ratio as Contribution Margin divided by total revenue.
We present Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio because we consider them to be important supplemental measures of our performance and believe that these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors for period-to-period comparisons of our business and in understanding and evaluating our operating results.
We caution investors that Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio are not recognized measures under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, and that Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio, as we define them, may be defined or calculated differently by other companies. In addition, both Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio have limitations as analytical tools because they exclude certain significant recurring expenses of our business.
Our management uses Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio to:
- analyze the relationship between cost, volume and profit as revenue grows;
- measure how much profit is earned for any product or service sold; and
- measure how different management actions could affect the Company's total revenue and related cost levels.
The following table reconciles Contribution Margin and Contribution Margin Ratio to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, which are Operating income (loss) and Operating income (loss) margin (Operating income (loss) divided by Total revenue), respectively:
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) (the most directly comparable GAAP measure) before interest, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), adjusted to exclude changes in fair value of warrant liabilities, stock-based compensation expense, gains and losses from asset disposals and certain other non-recurring gains and losses. We present Adjusted EBITDA because we consider it to be an important supplemental measure of our performance and believe it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry.
Our management uses Adjusted EBITDA:
- as a measure of operating performance of our business on a consistent basis, as it removes the impact of items not directly resulting from our core operations;
- for planning purposes, including the preparation of our internal annual operating budget and financial projections;
- to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our operational strategies;
- to evaluate our capacity to expand our business;
- as a performance factor in measuring performance under our executive compensation plan; and
- as a preferred predictor of core operating performance, comparisons to prior periods and competitive positioning.
By providing this non-GAAP financial measure, together with a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, we believe we are enhancing investors' understanding of our business and our results of operations, as well as assisting investors in evaluating how well we are executing our strategic initiatives. However, Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and should not be considered in isolation, or as an alternative to, or a substitute for net income (loss) or other financial statement data presented in our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements as indicators of financial performance. Some of these limitations include:
- Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our cash expenditures, or future requirements for capital expenditures, or contractual commitments;
- Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;
- Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our debt;
- Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our tax expense or the cash requirements to pay our taxes; and
- although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future and such measures does not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements; and
- other companies in our industry may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.
The following table reconciles Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, which is Net income (loss):
Net income (loss) and Adjusted EBITDA include $10.0 million of estimated net losses related to Hurricane Ian. Additionally, we strengthened reserves for U.S. auto liability by $6.5 million for the 2022 accident year. Both of these events adversely impacted the 2022 results compared to the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.
We incurred $6.0 million and $7.6 million during the three months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and $24.1 million and $23.3 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively, for certain pre-revenue costs related to scaling our infrastructure, newly-developed digital platforms and legacy systems, human resources and occupancy to accommodate our alliance with State Farm and other potential distribution partnerships as well as to further develop our Hagerty Marketplace initiatives. These costs were not included in the Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation above.
Pursuant to a defined set of activities and objectives, these expenses are adding entirely new capabilities for us, integrating our new and legacy policyholder, membership and Hagerty Marketplace systems with State Farm's legacy policy and agent management systems and other third-party platforms. In addition to onboarding a third-party project management system related to these initiatives, we leased a new member service center in Dublin, Ohio and added several hundred new employees as of September 30, 2022 to meet the expected transactional volume from these initiatives. These costs commenced in 2020 and will reduce our operating profitability until we start to produce adequate revenue to cover the ongoing costs, primarily associated with serving State Farm customers.
Adjusted EPS
We define Adjusted Earnings (Loss) Per Share ("Adjusted EPS") as consolidated Net income (loss) attributable to both our controlling and non-controlling interest, less the change in fair value of our warrants and the revaluation gain on previously held equity method investment, divided by our outstanding and total potentially dilutive securities. The total potentially dilutive securities includes (1) the weighted-average issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock, (2) all issued and outstanding non-controlling interest Hagerty Group Units, (3) all unexercised warrants and (4) all unvested stock-based compensation awards.
In the third quarter of 2022, we began removing (1) the change in fair value of our warrants and (2) the revaluation gain on previously held equity method investment from consolidated Net income (loss) attributable to both our controlling and non-controlling interest for purposes of calculating Adjusted EPS. While this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q does not include references to prior periods' non-GAAP measures, as revised, our Adjusted EPS for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 are $(0.06) and $(0.10), respectively, as compared to $0.07 and $0.10, respectively, under the prior formulation of Adjusted EPS. We believe this updated presentation of Adjusted EPS enhances investors' understanding of our financial performance from activities occurring in the ordinary course of our business.
The most directly comparable GAAP measure is basic earnings per share ("Basic EPS"), which is calculated as Net income (loss) attributable to controlling interest divided by the weighted average of Class A Common Stock outstanding during the period.
We present Adjusted EPS because we consider it to be an important supplemental measure of our operating performance and believe it is used by investors and securities analysts in evaluating the consolidated performance of other companies in our industry. We also believe that Adjusted EPS, which compares our consolidated Net income (loss) (which includes our controlling and non-controlling interest) with our outstanding and potentially dilutive shares, provides useful information to investors regarding our performance on a fully consolidated basis.
Our management uses Adjusted EPS:
- as a measure of operating performance of our business on a fully consolidated basis;
- to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our operational strategies;
- to evaluate our capacity to expand our business; and
- as a preferred predictor of core operating performance, comparisons to prior periods and competitive positioning.
We caution investors that Adjusted EPS is not a recognized measure under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, including Basic EPS, and that Adjusted EPS, as we define it, may be defined or calculated differently by other companies. In addition, Adjusted EPS has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered as a measure of profit or loss per share.
The following table reconciles Adjusted EPS to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, which is Basic EPS:
View original content:
SOURCE Hagerty | 2022-11-10T13:01:45+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/11/10/hagerty-reports-third-quarter-2022-results/ |
Barry Wade has been one of the busiest men in Murfreesboro this week.
Tennessee High’s 53-year-old athletic director has kept close tabs on 64 athletes from his school since the TSSAA Spring Fling began earlier this week in the middle of the state.
Just check out his itinerary on Tuesday when Tennessee High had kids competing in track and field, baseball, softball and tennis at different facilities.
“I started the day Tuesday morning watching two of our freshmen female athletes in the triple jump [Chase Wolfenbarger]and pole vault [Fairyn Meares], finishing second in the triple jump and fourth in pole vault,” Wade said. “I then grabbed some lunch with [teacher and assistant volleyball, girls basketball coach] Charlie Tiller and then headed to watch our tennis team play.
“Then tennis was delayed due to a shower on that side of town, so I rushed over to catch the baseball game. I then left baseball, grabbed some dinner with our principal Kim Kirk and her granddaughter and then caught the tail end of the track meet where I saw Zoe [Arrington] finish runner-up in the 3,200 and our 4x400 relay team finish second.”
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Wade put some miles on the odometer and some wear in his shoes, but he did it all with a smile on his face.
“It was a long day, but an awesome day,” Wade said. “Athletics is about competition and our kids competed very well.”
A caravan of fans wearing maroon-and-white also made the trip.
“Fan support has been great,” Wade said. “We have had a lot of families that have come to games and events and we have a few former Vikings that live in this area that have come to our games. The crowds for us have been surprising.”
Tennessee High’s Class 3A baseball tournament elimination game against Covington on Thursday was postponed due to rain. The teams will play today at 11 a.m. (CDT) and the Vikings must win twice to reach the state finals.
Meanwhile, tennis standouts Keona Fielitz and Ellyson Kovacs of the Vikings will play at 11 a.m. (CDT) today as well as they try to win the state doubles crown.
Wade’s busy docket is not completed yet.
“Our kids have been unbelievable down here in Murfreesboro,” Wade said. “You can see that the nerves have kicked in a little for our younger athletes but our seniors have shown great leadership.”
thayes@bristolnews.com | Twitter:@Hayes_BHCSports | (276) 645-2570 | 2022-05-27T00:17:09+00:00 | heraldcourier.com | https://heraldcourier.com/sports/ths-barry-wade-has-a-busy-schedule-at-tssaa-spring-fling/article_b8a506e6-dd4d-11ec-b704-9f70a80aaf48.html |
You might notice on election night that one candidate starts with a big lead, only to lose. How election officials count votes oftentimes can have a major impact on how the public views results.
While some of former President Donald Trump’s supporters claimed that these changing numbers meant the election was rigged, the reality was the results were largely expected.
One major culprit is the timing of when mail-in and early voting figures are added to the election count.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, nine states and the District of Columbia cannot begin processing ballots until Election Day. Those states include Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Maryland doesn’t allow ballots to be processed until after Election Day.
Ohio and Connecticut leave the decision on when to count ballots to local election boards. All other states can begin processing ballots before Election Day.
Ten states allow officials actually to count ballots before Election Day. Twenty-three states can begin counting ballots on Election Day before polls close. Sixteen states don’t allow ballots to be counted until after polls close.
In Ohio, many counties opted to tabulate these ballots first. Trump won Ohio by 8% in 2020. Early on election night, however, Biden was actually in the lead.
Early votes accounted for 3.5 million of Ohio’s nearly 6 million ballots. In Mahoning County where Trump narrowly won in 2020, Democrats were three times more likely to vote early than Republicans.
In the state’s most populous county, Franklin, Biden won by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, but Trump actually had more votes on Election Day itself.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is a state that counts its mail-in votes last. In 2020, the result was that Trump appeared to have a large lead on election night, only to see it slowly evaporate. Four days after votes were cast, Biden was declared the winner of the state by the Associated Press.
With Pennsylvania and Wisconsin expected to have tight Senate races, the result of these laws could mean it could take several days to know which party will control the Senate.
While the pandemic might have caused a sharper divide between how Democrats and Republicans cast ballots, Democrats are still more likely to use early voting options. According to data compiled by TargetSmart, Democrats have been 20% more likely to vote early in this year's midterm election.
To understand how each state counts its early ballots, click here. | 2022-11-01T19:17:40+00:00 | koaa.com | https://www.koaa.com/news/national/you-might-notice-results-change-on-election-night-heres-why |
CA Reno NV Zone Forecast for Friday, April 28, 2023
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134 FPUS55 KREV 291031
ZFPREV
Western Nevada-Eastern Sierra-Northeast California Zone Forecast
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National Weather Service Reno NV
331 AM PDT Sat Apr 29 2023
This is an automatically generated product that provides averaged
values for large geographic areas and may not be representative
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of a specific area. To get a more specific forecast for your area,
please visit www.nws.noaa.gov/wtf/udaf/area/?site=rev
CAZ072-NVZ002-300300-
Greater Lake Tahoe Area-
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Including the cities of South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, Truckee,
Markleeville, Stateline, Glenbrook, and Incline Village
331 AM PDT Sat Apr 29 2023
...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING...
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.TODAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 65 to 75. Light winds becoming southwest 10 to
15 mph in the afternoon.
.TONIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows 38 to 48. Southwest winds 10 to
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15 mph.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 60 to 70. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to
30 mph in the afternoon.
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.SUNDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly
cloudy. Lows 32 to 42. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to
30 mph in the evening. Ridge gusts up to 60 mph.
.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers and thunderstorms in
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the afternoon. Snow level 7500 feet. Highs 48 to 58. Southwest
winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph in the afternoon. Ridge
gusts up to 50 mph.
.MONDAY NIGHT...Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers and
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thunderstorms in the evening, then chance of showers after
midnight. Lows 26 to 36.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers in the morning, then
chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs 42 to
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52.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows
25 to 35.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers in the
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morning, then chance of showers and thunderstorms in the
afternoon. Highs 46 to 56.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows
27 to 37.
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.THURSDAY...Chance of showers in the morning, then showers likely
and slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs 40 to
50.
.THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of
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showers. Lows 27 to 37. Highs 44 to 54.
$$
CAZ070-300300-
Surprise Valley California-
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Including the cities of Cedarville, Eagleville, and Fort Bidwell
331 AM PDT Sat Apr 29 2023
...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING...
.TODAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs 78 to
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83. Light winds becoming southwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.
.TONIGHT...Clear in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. Lows
42 to 47. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs 74 to
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79. South winds around 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph with
gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows 38 to 43. Southwest winds
10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the evening.
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.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers in the afternoon.
Highs 62 to 67. Light winds becoming south 10 to 15 mph in the
afternoon.
.MONDAY NIGHT...Showers likely and slight chance of
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thunderstorms. Lows 35 to 40.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Highs 66 to
71.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Slight chance of showers in the
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evening. Lows 37 to 42.
.WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of
showers. Highs 68 to 73. Lows 38 to 43.
.THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...Showers likely. Highs 56 to 61. Lows
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35 to 40.
$$
CAZ071-300300-
Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra Counties-
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Including the cities of Portola, Susanville, Westwood,
Sierraville, and Loyalton
331 AM PDT Sat Apr 29 2023
...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING...
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.TODAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs 76 to
86. Light winds becoming southwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.
.TONIGHT...Clear. Lows 41 to 51. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
Gusts up to 30 mph in the evening.
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.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs 70 to 80. South winds 10 to
20 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph in the afternoon.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly
cloudy. Lows 34 to 44. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to
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35 mph in the evening.
.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy. Chance of showers in the afternoon. Snow
level 6500 to 7000 feet. Highs 57 to 67. Southwest winds 10 to
15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon.
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.MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows
31 to 41.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers in the
morning, then chance of showers and thunderstorms in the
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afternoon. Highs 59 to 69.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers in the
evening. Lows 30 to 40.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers and
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thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs 62 to 72.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY...Showers likely. Lows 32 to 42.
Highs 52 to 62.
$$
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CAZ073-300300-
Mono County-
Including the cities of Bridgeport, Coleville, Lee Vining,
and Mammoth Lakes
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331 AM PDT Sat Apr 29 2023
...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING...
.TODAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 65 to 75. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
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.TONIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Lows 33 to 43. Southwest winds 10 to
15 mph.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 62 to 72. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
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.SUNDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly
cloudy. Lows 30 to 40. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to
30 mph in the evening. Ridge gusts up to 55 mph.
.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning, then partly cloudy with a
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chance of snow showers, slight chance of showers and
thunderstorms in the afternoon. Snow level 8500 feet. Highs 51 to
61. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 40 mph in the
afternoon. Ridge gusts up to 65 mph in the afternoon.
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.MONDAY NIGHT...Breezy. Partly cloudy. Chance of snow showers,
slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, then
slight chance of snow showers after midnight. Lows 23 to 33.
.TUESDAY...Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of snow showers
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in the morning, then chance of showers and thunderstorms in the
afternoon. Highs 45 to 55.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of showers.
Lows 24 to 34.
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.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of snow showers in the
morning, then chance of showers and thunderstorms in the
afternoon. Highs 45 to 55.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Lows
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23 to 33.
.THURSDAY...Chance of showers in the morning, then snow showers
likely with possible showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Highs 43 to 53.
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.THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of
showers. Lows 22 to 32. Highs 46 to 56.
$$
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Copyright 2023 AccuWeather | 2023-04-29T11:55:15+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/ca-reno-nv-zone-forecast-17950186.php |
GLENDALE, Ariz. — A Glendale, Arizona, husky is quickly becoming the talk of the town, gaining massive attention online and from onlookers.
“A lot of people love her, honestly,” says Nala's owner Jason Camarena. “They want to take pictures of her every time they see her.”
Camarena says he believes Nala is their family’s watchdog.
“One person actually came and knocked on our door and thought she was a statue. Because she just stood there. She did not move at all.”
Nala scales her backyard balcony to her roof and enjoys running up and down the top of her home.
“She jumped on our HVAC system too,” laughs Camarena.
When other family members couldn’t provide the space and backyard Nala needed, Camarena and his mom offered their home two years ago — and Nala liberally took that freedom, says Camarena.
“Now she’s very happy and outgoing,” Camarena laughs.
She’s become so popular that her owners have to post on social media that she’s not stuck on the shingles — she wants to be there — but that doesn’t stop the gawkers or even law enforcement from showing up.
“At the end of the day, she’s just enjoying the view up there,” Camarena smiles.
Nala’s neighbors gave her the nickname Pigeon.
“They even have a security camera, but I think that’s better than a security camera," neighbor Mark Hunt said.
Camarena said the dog is allowed on the roof for 20 minutes in the middle of the day and grabs some shade underneath the roof’s HVAC system.
She also has a pool in her backyard where she loves to take swimming breaks. | 2022-09-15T23:00:52+00:00 | kgun9.com | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/arizona-husky-becomes-neighborhood-roof-watchdog |
COEUR D`ALENE, Idaho (AP) _ Hecla Mining Co. (HL) on Tuesday reported first-quarter profit of $4.2 million.
The Coeur d`Alene, Idaho-based company said it had net income of 1 cent per share.
The precious metals company posted revenue of $186.5 million in the period.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HL | 2022-05-10T10:26:45+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Hecla-Mining-Q1-Earnings-Snapshot-17161372.php |
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A coalition of faith and immigration advocacy leaders is calling on the Biden administration to drop a proposed rule forcing asylum-seekers to apply for protection while remaining in countries where their lives are at risk.
The administration last month published the rule pending a 30-day review and public comment period. The rule and recent remote-application requirements for Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans are meant to restore order to a Southwest border where migrants were coming across the river and lining at the border wall by the thousands every day. Regulations also require asylum-seekers to secure a financial sponsor in the U.S. before coming.
The advocates have reviewed the rule and fear it will presume to be ineligible for asylum anyone who comes to a U.S. port of entry without an appointment, even if they’re literally “running for their lives abroad.” Those who cross the border between ports of entry also will be disqualified, barring extraordinary circumstances.
“We are here to speak up unanimously against the rule,” said Bilal Askaryar, of the Welcome with Dignity Campaign. “Like during (President) Trump, this rule will block them from asylum and asylum hearings through expedited removal.”
The advocates spoke of numerous instances in which migrants were unable to petition for an appointment using the CBP One app, which offers only a few appointments per day, is not available in many languages and has had numerous technical glitches.
“These new rules proposed by our administration don’t recognize the needs of people who are running for their lives. They seem to think we can just get online, arrange for a sponsor and have all those who are fleeing sit back until it happens,” El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz said.
Seitz said church leaders in El Paso have set up a Border Refugee Assistance Fund that has provided more than $500,000 to shelters in Juarez, across the border from El Paso.
“We knew our responsibility to our immigrant brothers and sisters did not end at the border and that the need would be so much greater in Mexico, where the resources would be so much less,” he said.
Seitz said helping those fleeing danger in their home countries, sometimes alone but often with their families in tow, is a moral obligation and a policy that has distinguished the United States as “a beacon of hope” for many decades.
“This country is capable of so much more. This is not simply a problem for those who are fleeing other countries; this is a problem for us, for the soul of America,” he said.
This country is capable of so much more. This is not simply a problem for those who are fleeing other countries; this is a problem for us, for the soul of America.”
El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, went further, comparing the Trump and Biden migration policies to edicts issued long ago in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The two cities of Judeo-Christian lore were not only known for their depravity but also for their cruelty to strangers they thought were only coming to benefit from their resources, Jacobs said.
“They (inflicted) wanton cruelty against foreigners and punishment against anyone who offered relief. We are becoming like Sodom,” she said. “We refuse to callously send our fellow human beings back to the dangers they are trying to flee. We are going to be loud in our insistence that every single person deserves safety and dignity until there is a just and transparent system to let asylum seekers into the United States.”
Jacobs said 15 rabbis visited El Paso and Juarez late last year and witnessed “the horrible treatment of asylum-seekers.” That included families being turned back at ports of entry and having to cross the Rio Grande sometimes carrying small children.
“They saw with their own eyes the injustices of an asylum system that forces them to pursue dangerous and sometimes deadly paths to safety,” she said. “Our rabbis stood and watched as people walked through the river, sometimes holding their children to get to safety because that was what they had to do to protect their families. I join faith communities and people of conscience in United States to condemn this asylum ban.” | 2023-03-03T00:52:47+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/news/national/religious-leaders-want-biden-to-reverse-asylum-travel-ban/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Martin Truex Jr. won NASCAR’s return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for its season-opening exhibition race — a sloppy Sunday night extravaganza in which the Wiz Khalifa halftime show might have been the most entertaining part of the event.
Truex took the lead with 25 laps to go in the Busch Light Clash, a 150-lap race that was moved from Daytona International Speedway last year to the Coliseum. NASCAR built a temporary quarter-mile track inside the iconic venue in a bold attempt to try something radically different.
Truex, who contemplated retirement during last year’s winless season, won for the first time since Sept. 11, 2021.
“Last year was a pretty rough season for us with no wins, and to come out here and kick it off this way, really proud of all these guys,” Truex said.
Last year’s race was considered a smashing success based on the new fans drawn to the event and excitement over the progressive approach to creating a brand new type of racing.
NASCAR knew it was going to be difficult to duplicate the success in its return and the racing Sunday wasn’t great — there were 25 cautions, and laps under yellow didn’t count. There were only five cautions in last year’s race.
“Last year’s show I felt like was relatively clean and good racing, some bumping, some banging, but we could run long stretches of green flag action,” said Kyle Busch. “Today was, I would call it a disaster with the disrespect from everybody of just driving through each other.
“But it’s a quarter mile. It’s tight-quarters racing. Actually this is probably how it should have gone last year, so we got spoiled with a good show the first year. Maybe this was just normal.”
Truex put Joe Gibbs Racing in victory lane to start 2023 after a horrible close to last year. Coy Gibbs, who essentially ran his father’s race team, passed away in his sleep the night before the November season finale. Coy Gibbs’ death came just hours after his son, Ty, won NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series championship.
Austin Dillon and Busch, in his debut for Richard Childress Racing, finished second and third for RCR. They joined Truex on a podium for a NASCAR-first medal ceremony held below the Coliseum’s famed peristyle.
Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson went fourth and fifth for Hendrick Motorsports, and Tyler Reddick was sixth in his debut for 23XI.
“It’s tough when it takes 45 minutes to make like six laps,” Bowman said of the messy race. “That was pretty bad when we were just crashing and crashing and crashing.”
Ryan Preece, in his debut race for Stewart-Haas Racing, led 43 laps until a late electrical issue took him out of contention. Before Sunday night, Preece had led a total of 25 laps in 115 Cup races over five seasons. Preece finished seventh.
Bubba Wallace was dominant early for 23XI but was spun late by Dillon and then banged into Dillon after to show his displeasure. He finished 22nd after leading 40 laps.
“I hate it for Bubba, he had a good car and a good run,” Dillon said. “But you can’t tell who’s either pushing him or getting pushed. I just know he sent me through the corner and I saved it three times through there, released the brake and all kinds of stuff, and then when I got down, I was going to give the same. Probably was a little too hard.”
LCQ’s
The format of the exhibition Clash included heat races and a pair of 50-lap “last chance qualifiers” to help drivers make the 27-car field. Three drivers from each of the LCQ’s advanced: Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Todd Gilliland advanced from the first race, and Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, and AJ Allmendinger advanced from the second.
Those who did not advance to compete in the main event were Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton of The Wood Brothers, Corey LaJoie and Ty Dillon of Spire Motorsports, and Cody Ware and J.J. Yeley for Rick Ware Racing, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. of JTG Racing and B.J. McLeod of Live Fast Motorsports.
JOHNSON SCHEDULE
Jimmie Johnson made his return to NASCAR on Sunday as team co-owner of Legacy Motor Club, which fields two cars for Erik Jones and Noah Gragson. The seven-time NASCAR champion spent the past two years racing IndyCar and will run a limited scheduled this season that includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Johnson was already entered in the Daytona 500 later this month, then said Sunday he will also enter NASCAR’s first-ever street course race, scheduled for downtown Chicago in July.
UP NEXT
The Cup Series opens Daytona International Speedway a week from Wednesday to begin preparations for the Feb. 19 season-opening Daytona 500.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-02-06T04:21:56+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/auto-racing/truex-wins-nascars-sloppy-return-to-los-angeles-coliseum/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As the referees went to the replay monitor to determine whether Draymond Green should be ejected for his hard stomp, the Sacramento Kings took that time to regroup and make sure they didn’t lose focus down the stretch.
De’Aaron Fox and crew took over from there and delivered the Kings a 2-0 series lead that has the defending NBA champions reeling.
Fox scored 24 points and made a backbreaking 3-pointer that led the playoff newcomer Kings to a 114-106 win Monday night for their second straight victory over the Golden State Warriors.
“I think that brought us together,” Fox said. “We huddled up and were like, ‘We have to win this game.’ Everybody thought he’d be ejected. When that happens, usually that team comes together and goes on a run. But we were able to negate that.”
The Kings closed the game strong after Green was ejected for a flagrant foul against Domantas Sabonis. They became the first team to take a 2-0 series lead over the Warriors in the Stephen Curry era.
The Warriors will try to get back into the series when it shifts less than 90 miles southwest to San Francisco for Game 3 on Thursday night.
“Got to embrace it,” Curry said. “You do this for as long as we have … we have to stay together and locked in.”
The game got heated in the fourth quarter when Green stomped on Sabonis’ chest with 7:03 to play, leading to an ejection for a flagrant foul
During the review, fans in Sacramento yelled derogatory chants toward Green, who egged them on by waving his hands, holding a hand to his ear calling for louder cheers and standing on a chair.
“My leg got grabbed,” Green said. “Second time in two nights. Referees just watch it. I’ve got to land my foot somewhere. I’m not the most flexible person, so it’s not stretching that far. … I can only step so far.”
Sabonis finished the game but coach Mike Brown said he was undergoing X-rays afterward to make sure there wasn’t damage to his ribs or lungs.
Now it will be up to the NBA to determine whether an ejection is all that was warranted or if Green will face a possible suspension.
“It was a flagrant-2 for sure,” Brown said. “It’ll be interesting to see with what the NBA does after they review it.
The Warriors fought back to tie the game before the Kings went on a 17-8 run to run away with it to the delight of the towel-waving crowd.
Fox’s 3-pointer made it 107-101 with 2:17 to play and the Kings were in control from there. Davion Mitchell put it away with another 3 that made it 112-103 with 1:18 left.
“The big 3 in the corner was honestly the nail in the coffin,” Fox said of Mitchell’s shot.
Sabonis added 24 points for Sacramento, and Malik Monk scored 18 off the bench.
Curry led the Warriors with 28 points but shot just 3 of 13 from 3-point range as Golden State struggled to get going offensively. The Warriors committed 22 turnovers.
“They played better than we did down the stretch,” coach Steve Kerr said. “They played more physical than us tonight.”
The crowd in success-starved Sacramento wasn’t quite as loud at the start as in the series opener when fans celebrated the franchise’s first playoff game following a record drought of 16 seasons.
The crowd started to get into it in the second quarter thanks to another spark off the bench from Monk, who scored 32 points in the opener. Monk hit three 3-pointers in the first 2:04 of the period to help fuel a 23-8 run that turned a six-point deficit into a nine-point lead.
Golden State fought back and tied it on a 3 by Curry before allowing the final six points of the quarter to trail 58-52 at halftime.
The Kings built the lead to 14 points in the third quarter before the Warriors scored eight in a row. Sacramento led 83-75 heading into the fourth.
SLOPPY START
The teams got off to a sloppy start with each committing nine turnovers in the first quarter. The 18 combined turnovers in the first period were the most in any game in more than six seasons and the most in a playoff game since at least the 2001-02 season.
The Kings also missed their first 11 3-pointers before Fox made one late in the first.
TIP-INS
Warriors: Andrew Wiggins was back in the starting lineup in his second game back following an absence of more than two months to deal with an undisclosed family matter. Wiggins scored 22 points. … Golden State committed five fouls in the first 1:42 of the third quarter.
Kings: Sacramento’s 41 points in the second quarter marked the eighth time a team scored at least 40 in one quarter of a playoff game against the Warriors in Kerr’s tenure.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-04-18T16:45:29+00:00 | wjhl.com | https://www.wjhl.com/sports/us-world-sports/kings-beat-warriors-114-106-to-take-2-0-series-lead/ |
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — At the end of a hearing for a bill that would further expand coverage for gender-affirming medical care, transgender rights advocate Brooke Maylath shifted her focus from the majority-Democratic senators before her to the Republican governor who likely will decide the bill’s fate.
“This bipartisan support has been described as ‘The Nevada Way,’” Maylath said, repeating Gov. Joe Lombardo’s mantra coined during his January inaugural address. In the speech, Lombardo vowed broadly to push conservative tenets like school choice and bolster criminal penalties while working with the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
Four months later, little more is known about how Lombardo will respond to several ambitious policy proposals advancing in the Legislature. He has declined to comment publicly on most bills, setting the stage for last-minute deals and conflicts as the final month of the session nears.
The stakes are high in one of the few Legislatures meeting every other year. Nevada lawmakers adjourn in early June, and the final stretch will further define Lombardo — the only Republican to unseat a Democratic governor in the 2022 election.
As his counterparts in the GOP push anti-transgender rhetoric and vow to curtail transgender healthcare on the campaign trail, Lombardo steered a more moderate path. He stayed away from anti-transgender rhetoric and touted his position as Clark County sheriff to build an ethos among conservatives.
The Democratic sponsor of the gender-affirming care bill contends it’s worth a shot with Lombardo. If he ultimately approves the bill, Nevada would join some states led by Democrats in carving out safe havens amid a flurry of conservatives moving to ban or limit transgender care.
“They know that this is not a political stunt,” state Sen. Melanie Scheible said. “I’m not trying to give them a bill to veto just so I can complain about it later.”
Nevada is one of 10 states with executive and legislative branches split in different parties — the lowest number since 1952, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
While the two major parties become more polarized, national party identity has become a stronger driver of voting patterns, said Jesse Richman, an associate professor of political science at Old Dominion University, who researches the topic. State-level parties have less room to differentiate themselves.
Single-party control is producing substantial changes on hot-button issues, such as abortion rights, access to gender-affirming care and gun control.
Other states with dual-party control have seen gridlock.
Democratic Govs. Tony Evers in Wisconsin and Katie Hobbs in Arizona recently set their state’s records for vetoes. In North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s influence has appeared to wane after a House member switched parties in April, giving Republicans veto-proof supermajorities in both legislative chambers.
In Nevada, a bill is still in play that would establish trust fund investments for the children of families who receive Medicaid, known as “ baby bonds.” Another bill would expand Medicaid or similar programs to undocumented children and pregnant parents. Other measures, including a trio of gun control bills and a measure to criminalize fake electors, have advanced through one chamber.
Lombardo declined an interview request from The Associated Press.
“As hundreds of bills work through the legislative process, our office has chosen to only engage on legislation when we feel necessary,” his spokesperson Elizabeth Ray said in an email. “As bills are presented to Governor Lombardo in their final form, our office will comment and respond appropriately.”
Lombardo’s win over incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was part of a series of tight, split-ticket races in Nevada’s midterms last year that cemented the state as solidly purple.
Still, Democrats won a supermajority in the state Assembly and are one seat short of achieving a supermajority in the state Senate.
While Lombardo has given few early predictors of his stance on certain bills, he has broken away from the GOP by indicating he’d sign a bill to codify his predecessor’s executive order to protect out-of-state abortion patients and in-state abortion providers from prosecution and penalties. It’s a marked shift from an early campaign promise to repeal the protections, on which he switched course later in the campaign. Overall, he has maintained an anti-abortion stance.
The Nevada Republican Party said Chairman Michael McDonald was away on Friday and unavailable to comment on Lombardo’s position. But it previously chided two GOP senators who voted to advance the measure to the Assembly.
Democratic lawmakers advancing bills that have riled conservatives elsewhere said Lombardo’s office has been open to talking about them.
Those conversations will likely narrow down a bill expanding state health programs to undocumented children and pregnant women, said Democratic Sen. Fabian Doñate, the bill’s sponsor.
Lombardo’s bills haven’t always gotten a warm reception from Democratic leadership, who called his proposals for voter identification and a partial rollback of the state’s universal mail-in ballot system a “non-starter.” But the state Assembly recently advanced one of his bills to strengthen certain disciplinary policies in schools, and an Assembly committee held a long, contentious hearing for his school choice measures.
“I am imagining that he’s going to — and we can use Las Vegas parlance here — lay that bet on the table,” said Sondra Cosgrove, a professor of history at Southern Nevada College and executive director of Vote Nevada, a civics education nonprofit. “And say, ‘OK, this is what I want. If I don’t get it, don’t expect to get what you want.’”
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Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed reporting.
___
Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter: @gabestern326. | 2023-04-30T10:13:32+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/politics/nevada-governors-support-for-ambitious-bills-is-uncertain/ |
Thrivent, together with its clients, organized 1 million volunteer teams and contributed over 90 million hours of community service since the program began in 2014
MINNEAPOLIS, April 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Thrivent, a Fortune 500 diversified financial services organization, announced today it crossed a significant generosity milestone, successfully raising $1 billion in funds for communities across the country through one million client-led volunteer teams, also known as Thrivent Action Teams. Thrivent Action Teams began in 2014 to provide Thrivent's clients with funding, tools and resources to support the causes and programs most important to them and their communities.
Thrivent Action Teams were built in 2014 after the organization heard from clients that many people don't lead volunteer efforts because of barriers in organizing and funding. Thrivent filled this crucial gap by providing clients with toolkits of marketing resources, "Live Generously" volunteer t-shirts and up to $250 in seed money. This enabled its clients to kickstart volunteer activities with their network of friends, family and neighbors. In the last nine years, one million Thrivent Action Teams have convened to hold food drives for neighbors in need, fundraise for non-profits with global impact and more, reflecting the diverse ways Thrivent clients give back.
"Thrivent was founded over 120 years ago as a faith-based membership-owned organization, and we're unmatched in our focus on generosity and service to the community. We built Thrivent Action Teams as a way to reimagine community giving, in partnership with our clients, through community engagement programs that are easier, more impactful and repeatable," said Carolyn Sakstrup, Chief Growth and Generosity Officer, Thrivent. "Raising $1 billion through one million Thrivent Action Teams speaks to the very heart of what Thrivent is about: empowering our clients to lead lives of purpose, service and faith. These volunteer efforts reflect the compassion and care our clients have for those who need it most in their local communities."
Thrivent's one millionth Action Team was led by Thrivent client Donna Aufdenberg, a horticulturist who has provided nearly 1,000 plants to community gardens in southeast Missouri with Thrivent's support. Every year, she provides vegetable seedlings to community gardens for people who don't typically have access to fresh produce. She became a Thrivent member in 2016 when she received a surprise inheritance and wanted to work with a financial services organization that shared her values of leading with purpose and generosity. Today, hundreds of people in her community have directly benefitted from her efforts over the years. Hear more from Donna here.
For more information about Thrivent Action Teams, click here.
About Thrivent
Thrivent is a diversified financial services organization that helps people achieve financial clarity, enabling lives full of meaning and gratitude. Thrivent and its subsidiary and affiliate companies serve more than 2.3 million clients, offering advice, insurance, investments, banking and generosity products and programs over the phone, online as well as through financial advisors and independent agents nationwide. Thrivent is a Fortune 500 company with $162 billion in assets under management/advisement (as of 12/31/22). Thrivent carries ratings from independent rating agencies which demonstrate the strength and stability of the organization, including an A++ rating from AM Best; an Aa2 rating from Moody's Investors Service; and an AA+ rating from S&P Global Ratings. Ratings are based on Thrivent's financial strength and claims-paying ability, but do not apply to investment product performance. For information on these ratings, visit the rating agency's website. For more information about Thrivent, visit Thrivent.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter .
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SOURCE Thrivent | 2023-04-17T13:56:45+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2023/04/17/thrivent-celebrates-1-billion-funds-raised-through-its-thrivent-action-teams-program/ |
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Sunday began enforcing an order requiring all female TV news anchors in the country to cover their faces while on-air. The move is part of a hard-line shift drawing condemnation from rights activists.
After the order was announced Thursday, only a handful of news outlets complied. But on Sunday, most female anchors were seen with their faces covered after the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry began enforcing the decree.
The Information and Culture Ministry previously announced that the policy was “final and non-negotiable.”
“It is just an outside culture imposed on us forcing us to wear a mask and that can create a problem for us while presenting our programs,” said Sonia Niazi, a TV anchor with TOLOnews.
A local media official confirmed his station had received the order last week but on Sunday it was forced to implement it after being told it was not up for discussion. He spoke on condition he and his station remain anonymous for fear of retribution from Taliban authorities.
During the Taliban’s last time in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, they imposed overwhelming restrictions on women, requiring them to wear the all-encompassing burqa and barring them from public life. and education.
After they seized power again in August, the Taliban initially appeared to have moderated somewhat their restrictions, announcing no dress code for women. But in recent weeks, they have made a sharp, hard-line pivot that has confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and further complicated Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
Earlier this month, the Taliban ordered all women in public to wear head-to-toe clothing that leaves only their eyes visible. The decree said women should leave the home only when necessary and that male relatives would face punishment for women’s dress code violations, starting with a summons and escalating to court hearings and jail time.
The Taliban leadership has also barred girls from attending school after the sixth grade, reversing previous promises by Taliban officials that girls of all ages would be allowed an education. | 2022-05-22T13:10:15+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/nation-world/taliban-enforcing-face-cover-order-for-female-tv-anchors/6TWQMMOY2RBX7KTF3KN7X7M6SY/ |
Ugo Fiorenzo expands his role as Managing Director U.S. & Canada and Melanie Batchelor is appointed Managing Director Sales & RARE for Campari America
NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Campari America, the sixth-largest spirits company in the world, today announces two leadership changes for managing directors Ugo Fiorenzo and Melanie Batchelor effective January 2, 2023, that will carry the organization into the new year.
Following a successful seven-year tenure as Managing Director for the United States, Ugo Fiorenzo will now take on the new title of Managing Director for the United States and Canada. Fiorenzo's scope will now extend to the Canadian market, where he will be responsible for leading growth and delivering at high levels for the company. An experienced veteran, Fiorenzo has led Campari's profitable growth in the U.S. business while building a high performing and talented team. He was also recently appointed as Chairman of the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
This appointment comes in conjunction with another significant leadership evolution for Melanie Batchelor, who, after three years in her role as Managing Director for Canada, will be appointed Managing Director of Sales & RARE for Campari America.
In this expanded role, Batchelor will report to Ugo Fiorenzo where she will be responsible for the design and execution of all commercial strategies for the U.S. Market, as well as leading the relationship with commercial partners and stakeholders. She will also oversee the recently launched RARE division, which aims to unlock and accelerate the growth of a select range of super-premium and above alcohol brands.
With more than 11 years in the Campari Group family, Batchelor has held many positions within the organization including her role as Campari America's Vice President of Marketing overseeing the company's portfolio of brands encompassing advertising, public relations, digital integration and influencer relations, and Global Marketing Lead for Spirits Brands prior to that.
"The appointments of both Ugo and Melanie are a strong demonstration and testament to the exciting growth happening in the U.S and Canadian markets," said Mauro Caneschi, BU managing directors Americas. "We're proud to elevate these leaders – both of whom have dedicated many years to the Campari organization – and look forward to the long-term benefit that they will both provide to the business, as they work to expand the brand, culture and support the people working around them in their new roles."
Campari Group is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands, spreading across Global, Regional and Local priorities. The Group was founded in 1860 and today is the sixth-largest player worldwide in the premium spirits industry. Campari Group has a global distribution reach, trading in over 190 nations around the world with leading positions in Europe and the Americas. Campari Group is headquartered in Sesto San Giovanni, Italy, and owns 22 plants worldwide with its own distribution network in 23 countries. The shares of the parent company, Davide Campari-Milano N.V. (Reuters CPRI.MI - Bloomberg CPR IM), have been listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001.
Campari America LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Davide Campari-Milano N.V.
Campari America has built a portfolio unrivaled in its quality, innovation and style, making it a top choice among distributors, retailers and consumers. Campari America manages Campari Group's portfolio in the US with such leading brands as SKYY® Vodka, SKYY Infusions®, Grand Marnier®, Campari®, Aperol®, Wild Turkey® Kentucky Straight Bourbon, American Honey®, Russell's Reserve®, The Glen Grant® Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Forty Creek® Canadian Whisky, BULLDOG® Gin, Cabo Wabo® Tequila, Espolón® Tequila, Montelobos® Mezcal, Ancho Reyes® Chile Liqueur, Appleton® Estate Rum, Wray & Nephew® Rum, Coruba® Rum, Ouzo 12®, X-Rated® Fusion Liqueur®, Frangelico®, Cynar®, Averna®, Braulio®, Cinzano®, Mondoro® and Jean-Marc XO Vodka®.
Media Contact: Elisabeth Denil, elisabeth.denil@hkstrategies.com
PO# 422612188
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SOURCE Campari America | 2023-01-04T17:26:34+00:00 | kwtx.com | https://www.kwtx.com/prnewswire/2023/01/04/campari-group-announces-americas-leadership-changes-kick-off-2023/ |
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)– Have you ever wondered how your Amazon package gets to your doorstep?
It’s the busiest time of the year for Amazon drivers. And with this week’s weather, it’s presenting delivery drivers with some extra challenges.
Lucas Jearld Vandenberg is strapping on his ice cleats to start another busy Amazon delivery route. But the freezing rain will make that job more difficult.
“The challenges are making sure you are very attentive to other drivers because as much as you can drive for yourself, you’ve got to be cautious of other drivers and any other obstacles that may occur during a normal time you have to be okay with,” said Vandenberg.
This year was the biggest holiday season Amazon has ever had, and workers are feeling the affects.
“People start ordering three, four, five, six, packages at a time rather than their normal one, and it goes through Christmastime. So December and the end of November are pretty high volume times for us,” said Vandenberg.
20,000 to 25,000 packages leave this delivery station every day and are delivered to Sioux Falls and surrounding communities. They expect by this time next year, that number will continue to increase.
“Right now, on any given day, we run about 40 delivery vans, plus a fleet of flex vehicles depending on the demand of the day,” said Nic Hoch, station manager. “Then starting later this week actually on Thursday, that’s going to go up. That will go 45 immediately on Thursday, all the way until February we will continue to grow routes until we get to probably 60 routes.”
Braving the winter weather to make sure your holiday gifts arrive on time.
“I really like being able to get out there and you know, the whole Amazon thing is the smiles, delivering smiles, people get really excited when their deliveries show up, being able to make somebody’s day every day is pretty nice,” said Vandenberg.
With it being their busy season, they work later into the evening in the dark, so make sure that if you are expecting a package to leave your porch light on and make sure your walkways are shoveled and salted. | 2022-12-14T17:08:42+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/delivering-smiles-no-matter-the-weather/ |
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Lotto" game were:
12-21-22-28-47-54
(twelve, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-eight, forty-seven, fifty-four)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Texas Lottery's "Lotto" game were:
12-21-22-28-47-54
(twelve, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-eight, forty-seven, fifty-four) | 2022-11-22T05:11:22+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Lotto-game-17602850.php |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes strolled through Arrowhead Stadium without any issues with his injured right ankle on Thursday, and the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback expects to practice fully in the next 10 days leading up to the Super Bowl.
“It was a physical game. My whole body was a little sore. But I don’t think I had any step backward, a reaggravation of the ankle,” Mahomes said. “A little pain playing with it but other than that, I feel like I’m in a good spot.”
The Chiefs sustained a number of other injuries during their 23-20 win over the Bengals, though. They lost three wide receivers — Mecole Hardman reinjured his pelvis, JuJu Smith-Schuster had swelling in his knee and Kadarius Toney sprained his ankle — while cornerback L’Jarius Sneed was in the concussion protocol and Willie Gay Jr. hurt his shoulder.
Gay was the only one that returned to practice on an unseasonably mild February day in Kansas City.
Coach Andy Reid did say that Toney did the morning walk-through and “he’s close and doing well,” while Smith-Schuster “is in a good place. The main thing is we let that calm down. We’re very optimistic right now.”
The news wasn’t as positive for Hardman, who first hurt his abdominal area in November. The Chiefs later began to classify it as a pelvis injury as Hardman neared his return from injured reserve, but he wasn’t able to make it back onto the field until the AFC title game. He was hurt while getting wrapped up after a catch and did not return.
“Very courageous effort,” Reid said, “and my heart goes out to the kid. He is hurting today.”
While the Chiefs remained thin at wide receiver, they did have Justin Watson back on the practice field. He was ruled out before kickoff against Cincinnati with an illness, forcing Marcus Kemp to come up from the practice squad.
The Chiefs also are hopeful that Sneed will clear the concussion protocol in the two weeks between games.
In a defense featuring three rookie cornerbacks and a rookie safety, Sneed is often tasked with covering the opposition’s best wide receiver. It would have been Ja’Marr Chase against the Bengals, but Sneed was hurt on the game’s fourth play and did not return; it will likely be A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith if he can play against the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Reid also said there’s a possibility Clyde Edwards-Helaire, their 2020 first-round pick, will be activated for the big game. Edwards-Helaire had already ceded the No. 1 running back job to rookie Isiah Pacheco before a high ankle sprain landed him on injured reserve in late November, but his versatility could be helpful against a tough Eagles defense.
“He’ll practice. We’ll see where he’s at,” Reid said. “We’re just taking it day by day, seeking out how he’s feeling, not only during practice but after practice. He’ll work today.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | 2023-02-02T20:30:36+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/chiefs-patrick-mahomes-gets-back-to-work-for-super-bowl/2023/02/02/d55f65ce-a331-11ed-8b47-9863fda8e494_story.html |
Migrant repatriations continue as Florida steps up patrols
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 273 migrants to Matanzas, Cuba, over the weekend following interdictions off the Florida Keys.
While more than 4,400 migrants from Cuba and Haiti have made their way by boat to the state since August, more than 700 migrants arrived in the Florida Keys over New Year’s weekend, officials said. Many arrived on makeshift, motorized rafts used to make the dangerous 100-mile (160-kilometer) journey from the communist island across the dangerous Florida Straits.
That led Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday to mobilize the Florida National Guard. The National Guard did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the mobilization.
However, the governor said in a statement Friday that the state will deploy airplanes, helicopter and marine patrols to the area “to support water interdictions and ensure the safety of migrants attempting to reach Florida through the Florida Straits.”
There was no official word on the number of migrants landing in the Florida Keys over the weekend.
In a statement sent Monday, the ACLU of Florida condemned the governor’s actions, saying the migrants are taking to the sea to flee “extreme political and economic distress in their home countries.”
“As migrants arrive at our shore, our number one priority as a state should be to ensure that every person is safe, healthy, cared for, and treated humanely,” Tiffani Lennon, the ACLU’s executive director, said.
“Instead of politicizing the issue, elected officials must work with groups on the ground and assist organizations that have stepped up to welcome and support migrants and people seeking asylum,” Lennon said.
On Friday, DeSantis criticized Democratic President Joe Biden and the federal government’s immigration policies and response to the migrants landing in the Keys.
The governor’s statement made no mention of the Biden administration’s announcement Thursday of a new policy to start turning back Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans at the Texas border, along with Venezuelans, who arrive illegally. The administration also said it would offer humanitarian parole for up 30,000 people a month from those four countries if they apply online, pay their airfare and find a financial sponsor.
More than 4,400 migrants, mostly Cubans with some Haitians, have arrived by boat in Florida since August as those two countries face deepening and compounding political and economic crises. Because Washington and Havana do not have diplomatic relations, it is problematic for the U.S. government to send Cubans back once they arrive in Florida.
Those who are stopped at sea are already taken back, since Cuba will accept those people. Almost 8,000 Cubans and Haitians have been intercepted since August — about 50 per day compared with 17 per day in the 2021-22 fiscal year and just two per day during the 2020-21 fiscal year. Officials said at least 65 migrants have died at sea since August.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2023-01-09T18:54:56+00:00 | kob.com | https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/migrant-repatriations-continue-as-florida-steps-up-patrols/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The 180-page screed being attributed to a white supremacist charged in Saturday’s shooting rampage that targeted African-Americans at a Buffalo grocery reads like an operational manual for others to copy, said an expert on domestic terrorism and extremism. He believes parts of the document were plagiarized.
Federal authorities continue to investigate the hate-filled document.
An 18-year-old Southern Tier teenager surrendered at the scene, and is charged with the mass shooting at the Tops market on Jefferson Avenue that left 10 people dead and three more injured.
The teenager wore military-style clothing, including a bulletproof vest, and the screed states that he used a Bushmaster XM-15, a weapon used by fighters in the Iraqi Civil War against ISIS. He had been seriously working on his violent plan since January, the screed states, but he spent years buying ammunition, surplus military gear and practicing shooting.
Jon Lewis, a research fellow for the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said individuals who commit these acts of racism not only want to be memorialized, but they also want like-minded people to copy the horrific acts of violence.
“They want individuals to say, you know what, if this guy can do it with a couple thousand dollars and a map of the store and no real training and whatever, then so can I,” Lewis said. “The goal for individuals like this is violence and they’re often not really picky with who does it, they just want more violence because in their minds, violence begets violence, violence leads to more violence, and they are all hoping to be the ones who kind of do the most violence to start what they view as the collapse of the whole system.”
Lewis said the author of the document plagiarized portions of a similar screed written by the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.
The document allegedly belonging to the Buffalo shooter, which was obtained by News 4 Investigates, describes in chilling detail how the attack would be carried out and that the racist shooter chose the Masten District Tops grocery because it was the closest neighborhood in New York with the highest percentage of Black residents.
The ZIP Code 14208 is almost 80% Black and the shooter traveled more than three hours from Conklin in the Southern Tier to kill as many Black people as he could, the screed states. The author also wrote that he chose a neighborhood in New York because of its “heavy gun law”, which helped “ease” him knowing that anyone legally armed that he might encounter during his rampage would be limited to a maximum of 10 rounds.
The document includes a hand-drawn sketch of the grocery and details of how he would live-stream the massacre, which he did on Twitch, a streaming platform popular with gamers.
“If you read the manifesto, he intended to make sure that other people would see what happened in real time here so they would consider other acts as well,” said Governor Kathy Hochul. “That’s what has to shut down right now.”
The screed mentions how the shooter planned to leave the grocery and drive south on Jefferson Avenue to shoot more random Black people on the streets. The document is riddled with white supremacist notions, including the so-called great replacement theory embraced by far-right talk show hosts such as Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and politicians such as U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and JD Vance, the Republican nominee to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate.
Lewis said the great replacement theory is a white supremacist idea that Jewish people are conspiring around the world to replace the white, European race with non-whites.
“And it ties into the debate around immigration, around gun control, around antisemitism and it’s important to think of all those kinds of pieces as pretty connected, and these are all things as the manifesto indicates that clearly motivated this individual to action,” Lewis said.
“And so when you look at his postings online on Discord and in several other places, you see this kind of continued path from around the time Covid started all the way through the attack where he is increasingly online, he’s increasingly in these spaces that again foster these extreme viewpoints and show individuals that this kind of rabbit hole that goes deeper and deeper and deeper where all the sudden you’re at the end of it and you think, you know what, the great replacement theory is probably true.”
The U.S. Justice Department said it continues to investigate the incident as a hate crime and act of racially motivated violent extremism.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed to conduct a “thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting” and seek “justice for these innocent victims.” | 2022-05-17T02:49:24+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/news/racist-screed-linked-to-buffalo-mass-shooter-plagiarized-portions-from-christchurch-mosque-shooter-expert-says/ |
The Cowboys and Sooners will both play at home this weekend, hosting Arizona State and Kent state, respectively.
On Arizona State, OSU head coach Mike Gundy said the Sun Devils are skilled and can make the necessary plays.
"They've traditionally always had speed on the perimeter," Gundy said. "This will be a good game for us to kind of figure out where we are."
The Cowboys kick off against the Sun Devils at 6:30 on Saturday in Stillwater.
Brent Venables, head coach for the Sooners, said Kent State is a quality team.
"They played for their conference championship a year ago and are a favorite to win it again," Venables said. "They've done a great job."
The Sooners host the Golden Flashes in Norman 6 p.m. on Saturday. | 2022-09-08T09:00:57+00:00 | news9.com | https://www.news9.com/story/6318844820ae38072e29beac/cowboys-sooners-prepare-for-saturdays-games |
Biden to present Air Force team with football trophy
Published: Apr. 28, 2023 at 11:45 AM CDT|Updated: 34 minutes ago
(Gray News) - President Joe Biden will reward members of the Air Force with a trophy for winning a football rivalry.
The president will present the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy to the Air Force Falcons during a ceremony at the East Room of the White House on Friday.
The Air Force football team beat the Army team 13-7 during a tournament back in November, assuring the Falcons of their 21st trophy, the Associated Press reported.
The trophy is given as part of a three-team rivalry between the Army, Navy and Air Force service academies and is awarded to the football team with the best record.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-28T17:20:23+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/2023/04/28/biden-present-air-force-team-with-football-trophy/ |
Jane Fonda: Nonprofit’s work ‘far more important’ after Roe
By ALEX SANZ
Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Jane Fonda says the work of the Georgia-based nonprofit organization she founded to prevent teenage pregnancies has become “far more important” in the months since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Fonda is in Atlanta to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential with a birthday fundraiser. She told The Associated Press that one of the organization’s growing areas of focus is adolescent boys and reaching them through trusted messengers in their communities. | 2022-11-10T07:01:33+00:00 | localnews8.com | https://localnews8.com/news/ap-national/2022/11/09/jane-fonda-nonprofits-work-far-more-important-after-roe/ |
Sexual abuse trial delayed for ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge postponed on Monday the trial for a former “Dances With Wolves” actor indicted in state court on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for a decade in the Las Vegas area.
Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny said the trial in the case of Nathan Chasing Horse will begin May 1 in Las Vegas to give prosecutors and Chasing Horse’s public defenders more time to iron out pending motions in the case. His trial had previously been scheduled for April 17.
A Clark County grand jury indicted Chasing Horse, 46, in late February on 19 counts that include charges of sexual assault of a child younger than 16, kidnapping, lewdness and child abuse. Chasing Horse, who is widely known for his portrayal of Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning film, has pleaded not guilty and invoked his right to a trial within 60 days of his indictment.
The former actor, who has been in custody since his Jan. 31 arrest, is due back in court Wednesday morning for a hearing on a motion asking Kierny to dismiss the sweeping indictment. Chasing Horse and his lawyers argued in their motion that two women identified as victims in Nevada wanted to have sex with him.
Prosecutors and police have said the abuse allegations against Chasing Horse date to the early 2000s and span two countries and multiple states. He also faces criminal charges in U.S. District Court in Nevada and British Columbia, Canada, as well as on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.
Chasing Horse is accused of using his position as a self-proclaimed medicine man to gain access to vulnerable Indigenous women and girls and take underage wives. Authorities have described him as the leader of a cult known as “The Circle,” whose members believe he has healing abilities and can communicate to higher beings.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-03T22:25:22+00:00 | newschannel6now.com | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/04/03/sexual-abuse-trial-delayed-dances-with-wolves-actor/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An investigation of a centuries-old monastic complex in Ukraine’s capital and other religious sites has underscored Ukrainian authorities’ suspicions about some Orthodox Christian clergymen they see as loyal to Russia despite Moscow’s nine month-old war on the country.
The search by security service and police personnel at the Pechersk Lavra monastery, one of the most revered Orthodox sites in Kyiv, was unusual but did not happen in isolation.
The Ukrainian counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism service reported Wednesday that its agents searched more than 350 church buildings in all — also including sites at another monastery and a diocese in the Rivne region, 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Kyiv.
And the service, known by its Ukrainian initials SBU, accused the bishop of yet another diocese of pro-Moscow activity last week after searching church premises and finding materials that allegedly justified the Russian invasion.
The SBU said the effort is part of its “systematic work to counter the subversive activities of the Russian special services in Ukraine.”
Orthodox Christians are the largest religious population in Ukraine. But they have been fractured along lines that echo political tensions over Ukraine’s defense of its independence and its Western orientation amid Russia’s continued claim to political and spiritual hegemony in the region — a concept sometimes called the “Russian world.”
Many Orthodox leaders have spoken fiercely in favor of Ukrainian independence and denounced the Russian invasion. But the recent searches show that authorities suspect places like Pechersk Lavra — a UNESCO World Heritage Site revered as the cradle of Orthodox monasticism in that region — of being nests of pro-Russian sentiment and activity.
Ukrainian authorities investigated some clergy earlier in the war but have largely shown deference until now, said Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, a professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at Sankt Ignatios College, University College Stockholm.
That deference has now subsided with many Ukrainians feeling that church officials should “be as equal in front of the law as all of us,” said Hovorun, an Orthodox priest and native of Ukraine.
“Some key metropolitans of the Ukrainian church were quite famous and notorious for supporting publicly the ‘Russian world’ ideology,” he said. “It’s not a secret.”
The SBU said Wednesday that in this week’s operations, more than 50 people underwent in-depth “counterintelligence interviews, including using a polygraph.” It said they included some Russians and other foreigners, including some without valid passports.
It also said it detected “pro-Russian literature, which is used during studies in seminaries and parish schools, including for propaganda of the ‘Russian world’.”
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukrainian authorities of “waging a war on the Russian Orthodox Church.”
But the Rev. Mykolay Danylevich, who has often served as a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church disputed Peskov’s characterization on the Telegram social media site, asserting that the UOC is not Russian. The UOC declared its independence from Moscow in May.
“The UOC is the same ‘Russian Church’ as Kherson is a ‘subject’ of the Russian Federation,” he wrote, referring to the city liberated by Ukrainian troops after Russia illegally annexed it.
The SBU operation follows a Nov. 12 service at the Pechersk Lavra complex where a Ukrainian Orthodox priest was filmed talking about the “awakening” of Russia. Songs praising the “Russian world” were sung, it said.
“Those who, in the conditions of a full-scale war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, are waiting for the ‘awakening of Mother Rus’ should understand that this harms the security and interests of Ukraine and our citizens. And we will not allow such manifestations,” said the SBU’s leader, Vasyl Maliuk.
Separately, the SBU said last week that it had exposed “subversive activities” by Metropolitan Jonathan of the diocese of Tulchin and Bratslav in western Ukraine.
The service alleged that he stored printed materials justifying Russia’s invasion in his church and planned to distribute them. It said the material called for “seizure of state power and changing of the borders of our country.”
Metropolitan Jonathan denied the allegations, saying they “do not represent the truth.”
The SBU said on its Facebook page it is following legal procedures. It said it “adheres to the principle of impartiality to the activities of any religious creed and respects the right of every citizen to freedom of secularism and religion.”
The “Russian world” term serves as a flashpoint in a culture war underlying the shooting war. It portrays Moscow as the protector and cultivator of a shared, millennium-old Orthodox Christian culture across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Moscow Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has justified the war as part of a “metaphysical struggle,” with Russia acting to protect Ukraine from the liberal encroachment of the West, manifested in such things as gay pride parades.
Orthodoxy in Ukraine is divided.
The historic branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has officially been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church since the 17th century. But after breakaway groups organized under the name Orthodox Church of Ukraine, they received recognition in 2019 as an independent church by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian church fiercely rejects that move as illegitimate.
And three months after the war began, the part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that had remained loyal to Moscow then declared its own independence.
But that church’s relationship to Moscow remains ambiguous.
“Its status is now unclear,” added John Burgess, author of “Holy Rus’: The Rebirth of Orthodoxy in the New Russia” and professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
“There’s some division within that church,” with priests and other leaders “that are very vocally pro-Moscow,” he said. But in other dioceses, priests are no longer mentioning Kirill by name in public prayers — a ritually potent snub in the Orthodox tradition, where such prayers are routine as an expression of church unity.
Ukrainians’ search of Pechersk Lavra is sensitive. Dating to the 11th century, it includes a labyrinth of caves, tombs of saints and Baroque churches, according to UNESCO.
“From an American pluralism point of view, you’d say, ‘Really? You’d raid a church because somebody sang a song?’” Burgess said. “But it’s wartime. There’s so much anger toward Russia and so much anger with anything that seems to be associated with Russia. We’ll see if the security forces really came up with anything.”
___
Smith reported from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. AP journalist Inna Varenytsia in Kyiv contributed.
__
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | 2022-11-24T11:58:44+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/news/world-news/ap-with-searches-ukraine-focuses-suspicions-on-orthodox-clergy/ |
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Help Gestalt make a positive impact on families in local communities.
SPOKANE, Wash., Jan. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Gestalt Diagnostics is honored to host the fundraiser, Heating Homes Across America. This charity event aims to help offset the costs of heating a home. Many of our communities have experienced a large increase in key costs – which includes the cost to heat our homes this winter. We feel strongly that those who need basic needs, like heat, should have access to support and funds to pay for it if they are unable to and as such, we want to help our neighbors and those in communities across America.
Many families are at home more than ever before so the cost increase in heat is felt even more acutely. According to the Energy Information Administration1, heating costs are slated to increase by 18% this year leaving many lower-income families struggling to meet these needs.
The funds raised will be equally donated to the Community Action Partnership programs in Washington, Idaho, and Massachusetts (where the 3 offices of Gestalt are located). Our goal is to raise as many funds as possible to aid our community programs and help offset the ever-rising costs of heating a home this winter.
You can help us meet this goal by:
- Making a donation
- Purchasing Apparel showing your support (a portion of the proceeds will go directly to the fundraiser)
- Engaging with Gestalt on LinkedIn
- Sharing our Webpage
This fundraiser will run from January 9, 2023, to February 13, 2023. Please join us in bringing warmth, comfort, and joy to homes across America.
Gestalt Diagnostics transforms pathology through an intelligent, configurable, vendor-neutral, and AI-driven digital workflow that provides true interoperability enabling pathologists to diagnose* diseases faster and more efficiently. Our PathFlow solution is a cloud-based digital pathology enterprise platform that can easily be customized based on your specific preferences. Our platform consists of professional, education, and research modules for ease of mixing and matching the digital needs of your facility in a single solution, freeing pathologists from tedious, repetitive, and manual tasks allowing them to focus on their expertise, providing invaluable expertise where it matters most. To learn more, visit www.gestaltdiagnostics.com and follow Gestalt on LinkedIn and @Gestalt122 on Twitter.
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SOURCE Gestalt Diagnostics | 2023-01-12T18:23:41+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2023/01/12/gestalt-announces-an-impactful-fundraiser-help-heat-homes-across-america/ |
TAIPEI, Jan. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2023, one of the largest automotive trade shows in Asia – "TAIPEI AMPA", "AUTOTRONICS TAIPEI", and "2035 E-Mobility Taiwan" combined, will be the annual industry event that presents a comprehensive range of exhibitors from automotive and motorcycle aftermarket parts, automotive electronics, to hardware, software, and peripherals for electric and autonomous vehicles, and even EVs.
Taking place next April 12 to 15 in Taipei, the upcoming 2023 TAIPEI AMPA will focus on the latest automotive ecosystem developments, including a look into what the future of the road looks like. TAIPEI AMPA will continue to feature automobile and motorcycle parts and accessories, as well as a glimpse of producer's customizing services capable of producing parts for different models around the world. New to 2023 is that "TAIPEI AMPA" will be held along with "AUTOTRONICS TAIPEI" and "2035 E-Mobility Taiwan", presenting the entire industry's present and future under one roof. Along with exhibited products, many forums, seminars, and startup activities will also combine knowledge and experience as the industry moves forward.
Sourcing for AM and OEM parts?
While the global automotive industry had a dip in production, Taiwan saw a 30% increase in exports based on its ability to customize auto parts, aftermarket parts and a heavy investment in smart production, with the United States as the largest exporting nation. In addition, this increase coincides with a rise in demand for vehicles and its related products, and TAIPEI AMPA will also expand its exhibits, from gas to electric vehicle parts, to accommodate this trend.
The Pioneer of E-Mobility
Taiwan is not only known for the high-quality custom manufacturing and OEM automotive aftermarket parts, but also has a strong R&D ability of ICT industry, where you can find the suppliers of Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and Fisker. To focus on trends of C.A.S.E (Connectivity, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified), 2023 Taipei AMPA, AUTOTRONICS TAIPEI and 2035 E-Mobility Taiwan, three shows consolidate IoV, EV, 5G and C-V2X as highlights, displaying the future to the automotive industry transformation.
About TAIPEI AMPA
Began in 1984, TAIPEI AMPA has become Asia's 2nd largest automotive trade show, and also the only show in Asia that connects automobile and motorcycle industry in one place.
TAIPEI AMPA presents the latest products of aftermarket, OEM auto parts, the trends of C.A.S.E with the latest IoV, EV, 5G applications and solution and fleet management system (FMS) that keeps you ahead of the curve in 2023. Where you can meet the strongest industries in Taiwan - automotive lighting, automobile electronic and auto parts aftermarket (AM) all at the show ground.
AMPA is the pioneering automotive hybrid trade fair in ASIA, which brings a satisfying purchase experience with no boundary, no time difference, ONSITE and ONLINE.
Register NOW. For Visiting Taipei AMPA on April 2023.
Check https://www.taipeiampa.com.tw/en/news/51F11B298E15905C/info.html for more information and keeping up with all these innovative companies in aftermarket and automotive electronics industries.
- Taipei AMPA 2023 will take place on April 12 to 15 physically at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall 1, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Online show will begin from April 10 to 23 on: www.ampaonline.com.tw/en/index.html
- Following AMPA official website and social media for more updated!
Official website: www.taipeiampa.com.tw/en/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TaipeiAMPA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taipeiampa
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SOURCE Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) | 2023-01-09T13:49:54+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2023/01/09/taipei-ampa-2023-all-in-one-sourcing-exhibition-platform-automotive-motorcycle-e-mobility-industries-creating-new-rules-success/ |
After a 5-year hiatus, Oreo is bringing back this flavor
Fall doesn't start for seven more weeks, but it has already begun for Oreo.
Oreo's "Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies" are hitting store shelves on Aug. 15, marking their return following a five-year hiatus. The limited-edition flavor features two golden Oreo cookies with a "festive pumpkin spice flavored cream" sandwiched in the middle.
Pumpkin-flavored items have become synonymous with fall, with companies launching them in August to capture the excitement. Bud Light Seltzer and Samuel Adams beer have pumpkin-flavored beverages, Cup Noodles sells pumpkin-flavored ramen and both Starbucks and Dunkin' infuse the flavor into drinks every year.
Seasonal items are an important marketing tool for the food industry, according to Alexander Chernev, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. For food brands, which rely on familiarity, holiday items can offer consumers some variety.
"You need consistency because that's the brand mantra," Chernev previously told CNN Business. "But no matter how much you like something, consuming something different ... increases the enjoyment of what you consumed before."
Oreo regularly releases limited-time flavors to spark customer excitement, such as chocolate confetti cake for its birthday and a Lady Gaga flavor. Owned by Mondelez, the 110-year-old Oreo brand continues to grow. Releasing unique flavors is part of the company's goal to increase sales of the brand by $1 billion in the next year.
The company recently announced it's divesting its gum business, including Dentyne and Trident, in developed markets like North America and parts of Europe. It will hold onto its gum business in emerging markets. | 2022-08-03T23:44:08+00:00 | wyff4.com | https://www.wyff4.com/article/after-a-5-year-hiatus-oreo-is-bringing-back-this-flavor/40795698 |
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court convicted and sentenced to death two Islamic militants for killing 13 people in a suicide attack last year in the country’s northwest, police said Monday.
Senior police officer Zeeshan Asghar told reporters in the garrison city of Abbottabad that Judge Sajjad Ahmed Jan announced the verdict in the high security prison on Friday, after months of trial.
He said the court awarded 13 death sentences to Mohammad Hussain and Mohammad Ayaz for killing nine Chinese engineers, two paramilitary troops and two other locala, plus a 10- year prison term for each of the 32 people wounded in the attack. The judge also imposed heavy fines.
Hussain and Ayaz were found guilty of orchestrating the July 14, 2021 suicide attack on a bus on a mountainous road in the Kohistan region. The bus was carrying Chinese engineers working on the Dasu dam project in the region. Nine Chinese were killed and 27 wounded in the attack as the blast toppled the bus a deep ravine. Two Pakistani troops escorting the Chinese and two others were also killed.
Pakistani officials initially said a gas leak caused the explosion.
But the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said the bus had been attacked, and Pakistan later found traces of explosives at the site.
The court acquitted four other suspects for a lack of sufficient evidence against them. Six suspects were still at large.
Asghar, the police officer, said a search was ongoing for the missing suspects and an appeal would be filed against the acquitted four suspects.
An attorney for the convicted men was not immediately available for comment.
Pakistan’s northwestern region borders Afghanistan and has long been a scene of tension by Islamic militants known as Pakistani Taliban, a separate group from the Afghan Taliban. | 2022-11-14T18:54:35+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/pakistani-judge-sentences-two-islamic-militants-to-death/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday afternoon's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Midday Daily 4" game were:
3-5-6-2
(three, five, six, two)
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday afternoon's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Midday Daily 4" game were:
3-5-6-2
(three, five, six, two) | 2022-09-28T17:49:07+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Midday-Daily-4-game-17473030.php |
SINGAPORE, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- XT.COM, the world's first socially infused trading platform, is pleased to announce the latest listing of MOFT token (Mobius Strip Finance). With this addition, XT aims to offer a wide range of unique tokens to its users, while supporting MOFT to reach out to a larger global community.
Users can effortlessly trade MOFT tokens on the XT trading platform. The tokens act as a collateral for lending and borrowing purposes. Users also have the privilege to stake the tokens and use them to trade NFT assets.
About the MOFT token
Mobius Strip Finance's utility token, MOFT, is deployed on Binance Smart chain as a BEP-20 token. MOFT tokens can be used as collateral on their DeFi Lending platform for interest-free loans, leveraging features, a store of value for game assets, distributed as treasure & rewards for game asset valuation, and the preferred currency and membership system for the NFT marketplace.
About Mobius Strip Finance
Mobius Strip Finance was launched as a hybrid gaming ecosystem which supports integrating in-game NFT assets into a decentralized borrowing and lending platform. It is also the first lending platform that has a leveraging feature for interest reduction and interest-free loans for the users of the native MOFT tokens.
The platform focuses on developing technologies that would further encourage the adoption of DeFi technologies with a lending/borrowing feature. This would also make it easier for user onboarding while providing them with an easy experience without having to own multiple wallets.
The expansion plans of the Mobius Strip Finance ecosystem includes the integration of governance mechanism, integration of fiat interface and payment gateway, development of a P2P marketplace and the development of a mobile app.
Website: https://mobius-finance.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/Mobiusfinance1
About XT.COM
By consistently expanding its ecosystem, XT.COM is dedicated to providing users with the most secure, trusted, and hassle-free digital asset trading services. Our exchange is built from a desire to give everyone access to digital assets regardless where you are.
Founded in 2018, XT.COM now serves more than 6 million registered users, over 500,000+ monthly active users and 40+ million users in the ecosystem. Covering a rich variety of trading categories together with an NFT aggregated marketplace, our platform strives to cater to its large user base by providing a secure, trusted and intuitive trading experience.
As the world's first social-infused digital assets trading platform, XT.COM also supports social networking platform based transactions to make our crypto services more accessible to users all over the world. Furthermore, to ensure optimal data integrity and security, we see user security as our top priority at XT.COM.
Website: https://www.xt.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/XTsupport_EN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/XTexchange
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SOURCE XT.com | 2022-10-19T06:54:28+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/10/19/moft-listed-xtcom-with-tether-trading-pair/ |
By CHRIS MEGERIAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s presidential dreams were undermined by her use of a private email server that included classified information.
Donald Trump has risked criminal charges by refusing to return top-secret records to the government after leaving the White House.
And now misplaced files with classified markings could cause a political headache for President Joe Biden.
The three situations are far from equivalent. But taken together, they represent a remarkable stretch in which document management has been a recurring source of controversy at the highest levels of American politics.
For some, it’s a warning about clumsiness or hubris when it comes to handling official secrets. For others, it’s a reminder that the federal government has built an unwieldy — and perhaps unmanageable — system for storing and protecting classified information.
“Mistakes happen, and it’s so easy to grab a stack of documents from your desk as you’re leaving your office, and you don’t realize there’s a classified document among those files,” said Mark Zaid, a lawyer who works on national security issues. “You just didn’t hear about it, for whatever reason.”
Now Americans are hearing about it all the time. Political talk shows have been clogged with conversations about which papers were stashed in which box in which closet. Voters are getting schooled in intelligence jargon like TS/SCI, HUMINT and damage assessments.
Clinton’s email server was a dominant storyline of her presidential campaign, and the criminal investigation into Trump has clouded his hopes of returning to the White House. Republicans who recently took control of the House are now poised to examine Biden’s own document practices as well, especially after a second batch of classified material was found.
“The American people are very well aware of issues involving classified documents in part because we’ve been talking about them for almost eight years,” said Alex Conant, a Republican political consultant.
That’s when a House Republican committee investigating the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, discovered that Clinton had used a private email account while serving as secretary of state. The revelation led to a federal investigation that didn’t result in any charges, but 110 emails out of 30,000 that were turned over to the government were determined to have had classified information.
Trump, who pummeled Clinton over her handling of the emails, won the election and swiftly demonstrated carelessness with secrets. He memorably discussed sensitive intelligence with the Russian ambassador to the United States, leading to concerns that he may have jeopardized a source who helped foil terrorist plots.
After disputing the results of his election defeat, Trump left office in haphazard fashion, and he brought boxes of government documents with him to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. Some of them were turned over to the National Archives, which is responsible for presidential records, but he refused to provide others.
Eventually the Justice Department, fearing that national security secrets were at risk, obtained a search warrant and found more top secret documents at the resort.
A special counsel was appointed to determine whether any criminal charges should be filed in the case or a separate investigation into Trump’s attempts to cling to power on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol.
Larry Pfeiffer, a former intelligence official, said the situation with Trump’s documents is far different than ones he encountered while working in government.
During the time that Pfeiffer was CIA chief of staff, classified files turned up in the wrong place in presidential libraries a handful of times, he said.
“It just happens,” said Pfeiffer, now director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University. “Mistakes get made, and stuff gets found.”
He said that seems more likely to be the case regarding the documents with classified markings that were found at an office used by Biden at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement after his term as vice president ended.
Biden’s personal lawyers discovered the documents and contacted the White House counsel’s office, and the National Archives picked up the records the next day.
The situation appears like “an average, run-of-the-mill mistake” that’s “being handled in a by-the-book, textbook fashion,” Pfeiffer said.
However, he said it would be wise for the government to review its practices for managing documents during transitions between administrations. It’s been six years since Biden left the vice president’s office, meaning classified records have been in the wrong place for a long time.
“That’s not a good thing, no matter how anyone is playing it,” he said.
In addition to the files that were found at the Penn Biden Center, more classified material was identified in another location, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. It was unclear when or where the documents were found. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.
Attorney General Merrick Garland asked a U.S. attorney to review the matter after the initial discovery, and House Republicans have said they will investigate as well.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday saying that his panel will be investigating Biden’s “failure to return vice-presidential records — including highly classified documents.”
“The Committee is concerned that President Biden has compromised sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents,” Comer wrote.
Biden said this week he was surprised to learn about the documents, which were discovered in November but whose existence only became public this week. He said he didn’t know what kind of information they contained, and he said his team “did what they should have done” when they were found.
Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman who worked for Biden’s National Security Council last year, said it’s unlikely that such an episode would have made the news if it wasn’t for the concurrent Trump investigation.
“The Penn Biden Center would have turned this stuff in, it would have gone to the Archives, and that would have been the end of it,” he said.
Miller said the situation is a reminder that “the government classifies way too many documents.”
“There’s not a good process for declassifying them,” he said. “And when you create this structure, you’ve unnecessarily widened the universe of classified documents that could unintentionally be mishandled.”
It’s not a new problem, and it’s a concern that’s even shared by Biden’s top intelligence adviser, Avril Haines. In a letter to senators last year, Haines said there are “deficiencies in the current classification system,” calling it “a fundamentally important issue that we must address.”
However, Miller said, “no one has figured out a good answer to this problem.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2023-01-13T21:56:44+00:00 | wtmj.com | https://wtmj.com/national/2023/01/11/in-washington-classified-is-synonymous-with-controversy/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a group of individuals, firms and vessels connected to an oil smuggling outfit said to benefit the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
More than a dozen companies, six individuals and 11 vessels flagged from around the world — from Djibouti to Panama — are included in the sanctions package, for allegedly participating in a scheme that included blending and exporting sanctioned Iranian oil.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Viktor Artemov, Edman Nafrieh, Rouzbeh Zahedi, Mohamed El Zein and others used dozens of companies to conduct illicit activities.
The move comes after the State Department in September designated two Chinese companies, and Treasury penalized a network of companies based in Hong Kong, Iran, India and the United Arab Emirates for playing a critical role in shipping sanctioned Iranian oil.
The sanctions deny parties access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S.
“The individuals running this illicit network use a web of shell companies and fraudulent tactics including document falsification to obfuscate the origins of Iranian oil, sell it on the international market and evade sanctions,” said Brain Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Nelson said vendors and buyers “should be vigilant” about Hezbollah and the Iranian regime’s attempts to generate revenue from oil smuggling.
The U.S. has ramped up sanctions against Iran and individuals and firms that do business with the country — especially after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.
She was detained because she didn’t properly cover her hair with the mandatory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.
Her death set off protests in dozens of cities across the country, and the government responded with a fierce crackdown, blaming the protests on foreign interference. | 2022-11-04T17:23:54+00:00 | kron4.com | https://www.kron4.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-hezbollah-iranian-oil-smuggling-network-hit-with-sanctions/ |
Two-year project will connect tribal households to critical services and resources
MCLEAN, Va., June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kajeet®, a leading wireless connectivity and device management provider for education, government, and enterprise markets, is proud to announce a transformative partnership to build a hybrid fiber and wireless network for the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. This deal aims to bridge the digital divide and empower the tribe through delivering reliable internet access to hundreds of residents while laying the foundation for a future-proof and scalable network infrastructure, enabling residents to connect, communicate, and thrive in the digital age.
Kajeet's extensive experience in wireless connectivity, along with its commitment to bridging the digital divide, aligns with the goals of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. According to Durell Cooper, tribal chair for the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, "Expanding our residents' access to educational resources, telehealth services, e-commerce opportunities, and remote work capabilities will help foster innovation and economic development within our community. The Kajeet team shares our belief that connectivity provides opportunities for our members to thrive."
The multi-phased project is expected to last two years and is funded by a grant awarded to the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP), a $3 billion grant program for tribal governments to bring high-speed internet to tribal lands. It supports telehealth, distance learning, affordability, and digital inclusion initiatives.
"We are honored to partner with the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma to deliver broadband connectivity to their tribal lands," said Derrick Frost, senior vice president of Private Networks at Kajeet. "Access to reliable internet services is vital in today's interconnected world, and we are committed to promoting digital equity. This collaboration will empower their community, providing them with the tools and opportunities necessary for continued success."
Kajeet Private Wireless solutions include complete turnkey services for customers. Projects include grant application assistance, environmental studies, design and RF planning, installation, and management-as-a-service once the system is operational. Kajeet takes special care to include Native nations throughout the process to create workforce opportunities while developing skill sets in advanced technology for members.
For more information about Kajeet's private network initiatives and solutions, please visit: Kajeet Private Wireless
About Kajeet:
Kajeet provides optimized IoT connectivity, software, and hardware solutions that deliver safe, reliable, and controlled internet connectivity to businesses, schools, districts, state and local governments, and IoT solution providers. With a proven track record since 2003, Kajeet has connected over a million devices worldwide, offering private network solutions and an IoT management platform, Sentinel, that provides real-time data usage visibility, policy control management, custom content filters for added security, and multi-network flexibility.
Media Contact: Linda Jennings, Director of Corporate Communications
Phone: 248-521-3606
Email: ljennings@kajeet.com
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SOURCE Kajeet | 2023-06-06T15:09:52+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2023/06/06/kajeet-partners-with-apache-tribe-oklahoma-deliver-broadband-connectivity/ |
Latest platform version enhances end-to-end automation; New Contract Writing solution simplifies government acquisition
SAN DIEGO, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Appian (Nasdaq: APPN) today announced the release of the latest version of the Appian Platform for process automation. The new release introduces AI Skill Designer, a low-code way to build, train, and deploy custom machine learning (ML) models. The release also features enhancements in automation and total experience, plus further-streamlined data management via the Appian Data Fabric.
Appian AI Skill Designer enables developers at all levels to easily operationalize AI and automate repetitive tasks, freeing up their workforce and eliminating the risk of human error in data classification and extraction. The low-code design allows developers to quickly incorporate AI to optimize business functions while leveraging the Appian Platform's native AI/ML services to provide an integration of AI capabilities automatically. The Appian Platform provides three out-of-the-box native AI Skills for content processing: document classification, email classification and document extraction.
Appian customer Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) uses the document classification AI Skill to help address labor disputes faster and increase process automation.
"Appian AI Skill Designer helps us get real value from AI without needing a team of data scientists to figure it out," said Matt Richard, CIO, LiUNA. "The low-code design made it quick and easy for our developers to incorporate AI into our existing applications."
"AI is an essential component of the end-to-end automation that businesses need to gain efficiency and market differentiation. Other AI tools are complex and lack data privacy, prohibiting most organizations from gaining value from AI," said Michael Beckley, CTO and Founder, Apian. "We are removing these barriers of complexity so anyone can train custom AI models without special skills, while also ensuring AI training data is secure and compliant with regulations."
This new release elevates total experience across all users with new features for Portals, Sites, and interfaces that make development faster and easier. New features include:
- Expanded page navigation on Sites and Portals. You can now add up to 10 pages to a Site or Portal, giving the flexibility to provide a robust and engaging experience to users. As more pages are added, the navigation is optimized for a simplified view.
- Customize Portals domains. Now you can configure your Portals with a custom domain to match existing web addresses.
- Build Portals for healthcare with HITRUST certification. Portals are now included under the Appian Platform's HITRUST certification and can be used to capture protected health information at industry standard.
Appian Data Fabric stitches together data from any system into a single virtual data model, while keeping data where it is. This release includes Data Fabric enhancements to reduce the time and effort needed to build powerful applications, including:
- Capture and display business events. Data and how users interact with it is the heart of the enterprise. Record events enable tracking that identifies who took action on a record and when. As events are captured, they are displayed in the event history list component to generate a timeline and snapshot of business operations.
- Simplified record action security. This release wraps up Appian data security features with the introduction of codeless record action security. Now, you can use familiar low-code security rules to determine who can see your actions and when.
- Integrate with any database supporting the JDBC protocol. This release provides the flexibility to connect to even more databases. Now, users can seamlessly connect to any external database that supports the JDBC protocol.
New Solution: Appian Contract Writing
Appian helps more than 200 government organizations achieve end-to-end automation for faster and more efficient services and programs. Today's announcement also includes the launch of Appian Contract Writing, a powerful solution that complements the Appian Government Acquisition Management solution set, Appian Contract Writing allows federal agencies to digitize and automate the contract complete writing process, reducing the time and cost associated with manual contract creation. The solution includes a visual drag-and-drop interface, pre-built templates, and an automated approval process that ensures compliance and reduces errors. With Appian Contract Writing, agencies benefit from faster time to value while maintaining flexibility to adapt and extend the solution for their specific needs using Appian's low-code design.
Appian Government Acquisition Management solutions can be deployed and easily modified in the FedRAMP-certified, IL4/IL5-compliant Appian Cloud, and leverage all of Appian's critical capabilities—data fabric, process automation, total experience, and process mining—to modernize and accelerate procurement workflows and processes.
Follow these links to learn more about the Appian Platform and Appian Contract Writing.
About Appian
Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimize even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organizations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimize operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences. For more information, visit www.appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]
Follow Appian: Twitter, LinkedIn.
Follow Appian UK: Twitter, LinkedIn.
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SOURCE Appian | 2023-05-03T13:50:22+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2023/05/03/new-appian-platform-democratizes-ai-process-automation/ |
New Mexico had the 7th highest gun death rate in the country in 2020 and firearms were the leading cause of death among children and teens from 2016 to 2020, according to Ari Davis from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, who was speaking to the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting Tuesday at the New Mexico Legislature.
The committee discussed a number of proposals to address the alarming rise in gun violence.
Aryan Showers, director of the Office of Policy and Accountability of the Department of Health outlined the creation of a new violence prevention unit which is set to implement interventions designed to prevent gun violence in collaboration with hospitals, cities, tribes and other groups.
Lawmakers also gave a presentation about a bill set to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session in January which would create a state office of gun violence prevention, whose director would be appointed by the Department of Health.
However, in discussion of the effectiveness of existing measures, speakers raised serious concerns about implementation. Earlier this year, the legislature passed House Bill 68, which mandated training for police on several skills including de-escalation and crisis intervention.
Sheriff Glenn Hamilton, of Sierra County, who is legislative liaison to the New Mexico Sheriffs' Association, said that for rural police forces with a small number of deputies, it was unrealistic for police to conduct so much training because they cannot be spared from their duties.
Hamilton also highlighted weaknesses in background checks for firearm purchases. Since 2019, New Mexico has required a background check to purchase a firearm. But Hamilton said the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) relies on states voluntarily reporting information to the FBI.
He said that there are gaps in what gets reported to those departments. For instance in New Mexico, only about a third of police departments are currently reporting their data as they are meant to.
Hamilton told KUNM this worries him.
“Since it's being used primarily for either the approval or the denial of an individual purchasing a firearm illegally, it's a huge concern,” he said, adding that it should be a priority that the relevant data be reported diligently.
“You hear it all the time, how did that individual purchase a firearm when he had this, that or the other thing?”
According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the FBI estimates that, on average, about 3,000 people pass a NICS background check each year despite being prohibited under state or federal law from purchasing a gun.
This reporting was made possible by the WK Kellogg foundation, and KUNM listeners. | 2022-07-27T05:02:06+00:00 | kunm.org | https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2022-07-26/lawmakers-hear-challenges-of-addressing-rising-gun-violence |
NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Levi & Korsinsky, LLP notifies investors in Co-Diagnostics, Inc. ("Co-Dx" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: CODX) of a class action securities lawsuit.
CLASS DEFINITION: The lawsuit seeks to recover losses on behalf of Co-Dx investors who were adversely affected by alleged securities fraud. This lawsuit is on behalf of a class of all persons and entities who purchased the publicly traded securities of Co-Dx during the period of May 12, 2022 through the close of the market on August 11, 2022 (4:00 p.m. ET). Follow the link below to get more information and be contacted by a member of our team:
CODX investors may also contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500.
CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that defendants made false statements and/or concealed that: (i) demand for the Company's Logix Smart™ COVID-19 test had plummeted throughout the quarter ended June 30, 2022, and (ii) as a result, defendants' positive statements about the demand for its Logix Smart™ COVID-19 test lacked a reasonable basis.
WHAT'S NEXT? If you suffered a loss in Co-Dx during the relevant time frame, you have until October 17, 2022 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.
NO COST TO YOU: If you are a class member, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out-of-pocket costs or fees. There is no cost or obligation to participate.
WHY LEVI & KORSINSKY: Over the past 20 years, the team at Levi & Korsinsky has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. Our firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States.
CONTACT:
Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
Joseph E. Levi, Esq.
Ed Korsinsky, Esq.
55 Broadway, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10006
jlevi@levikorsinsky.com
Tel: (212) 363-7500
Fax: (212) 363-7171
www.zlk.com
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SOURCE Levi & Korsinsky, LLP | 2022-09-08T10:17:57+00:00 | wafb.com | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/09/08/codx-lawsuit-alert-levi-amp-korsinsky-notifies-co-diagnostics-inc-investors-class-action-lawsuit-upcoming-deadline/ |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police: 5th victim dies after Louisville bank shooting that gunman livestreamed.
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Macronix OctaBus MX25UW51245G NOR Flash Provides Boot Memory to Renesas R-CAR S4 SoC-based VC4 Vehicle Computer Reference Designs
TAIPEI, July 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Macronix International Co., Ltd. (TSE: 2337), a leading integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market, today announced that its MX25UW51245G Serial NOR Flash memory has been selected by Renesas Electronics Corporation for reference designs based on the Vehicle Computer Generation 4 (VC4) chipset. The high-performance MX25UW51245G will provide the VC4 platform, based on Renesas R-Car S4 system on a chip (SoC), with critical memory that enables fast boot-up times in automotive-computing designs.
Fast, reliable flash memory is essential to rapidly booting VC4-based systems, allowing them to adhere to real-time computing requirements. The MX25UW51245G, which can achieve up to 400MB/s read throughput and features low random latency, provides VC4 reference boards the flash storage needed for initial boot of the R-Car S4 SoC.
"Macronix and Renesas continue to enjoy a collaborative relationship, and we're once again joining forces to bring our respective technologies together and empowering designers with advance automotive-electronics solutions," said Macronix Vice President of Marketing F.L. Ni. "The VC4 evaluation platform featuring our MX25UW51245G will help unleash the power of the R-Car S4 SoC and VC4 in next-generation automotive systems."
"The Renesas VC4 evaluation platform streamlines the development of automotive gateway and zone controller systems that can leverage the performance and safety features in both R-Car S4 SoC and MX25UW51245G," said Takashi Yasumasu, Vice President of Automotive Core Technology Development Division at Renesas.
A core member of Macronix's highly efficient NOR flash memory line featuring its OctaBus™ interface, the MX25UW51245G features 512Mb density, an Automotive Grade 1 temperature range of -40 ℃ to +125 ℃ and provides functional safety up to Automotive Safety Integrity Level D (ASIL D). The memory's quality and performance are enhanced substantially by Macronix's high efficient technology and know how.
The VC4 system is based on a complete Renesas chipset, the centerpiece of which is the R-Car S4 with 8x Cortex®A55 cores which features 8MB of SRAM, advanced cybersecurity and a rich selection of automotive interfaces. The VC4 provides functional safety up to ASIL D, along with the capability for simulating a wide range of connectivity inside the vehicle thereby allowing developers a rich environment for rapid prototyping. It offers an three-port Gigabit Ethernet switch and an integrated RH850 MCU functionality, which drastically reduces the customer's bill of material.
Macronix and Renesas have a rich history of complementary products and evaluation solutions. Macronix is also a member of Renesas RZ Partner Ecosystem Solutions program and the R-Car Consortium, and a broad range of its flash memory products are represented in several Renesas RZ evaluation boards, including the OctaBus, ArmorFlash™ and e.MMC™ families.
For more information on the Macronix MX25UW51245G, please go to https://www.macronix.com/en-us/products/NOR-Flash/Serial-NOR-Flash/Pages/spec.aspx. For more information on the Renesas Vehicle Computer Generation 4, please go to www.renesas.com/eu/en/application/automotive/gateway-domain-control/vehicle-computer-generation-4#overview.
About Macronix
Macronix, a leading integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market, provides a full range of NOR Flash, NAND Flash, and ROM products. With its world-class R&D and manufacturing capability, Macronix continues to deliver high-quality, innovative and performance-driven products to its customers in the consumer, communication, computing, automotive, networking and other market segments. Find out more at www.macronix.com.
OctaBus, ArmorFlash and e.MMC are trademarks of Macronix International Co., Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Editorial contacts
Macronix HQ:
Michelle Chang
Director, Corporate Communication Office
Macronix International Co., LTD.
Tel: +886-3-578-6688 ext. 71233
Fax: +886-3-666-3169
Email: michellechang@mxic.com.tw
US:
Jerry Steach
CommonGround Communications (for Macronix)
Tel: +1-415.222.9996
Email: jsteach-cgc@att.net
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SOURCE Macronix | 2022-07-06T17:08:42+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/prnewswire/2022/07/06/macronix-octabus-flash-memory-selected-renesas-vc4-automotive-computing-development-platform/ |
Polestar is offering an over-the-air software update that boosts output of dual-motor versions of the Polestar 2—for a one-time $1,195 fee.
The new software increases output by 68 hp and 15 lb-ft of torque to 476 hp and 502 lb-ft, Polestar said in a press release. This reduces the manufacturer-estimated 0-60 mph time to 4.2 seconds, but Polestar claims the performance boost will mostly be felt at speeds between 44 and 80 mph. With the update, 50-75 mph acceleration drops by half a second, to 2.2 seconds, according to Polestar.
This puts the dual-motor Polestar 2 in the same vicinity as the Tesla Model 3 Performance. Anecdotally, the upgrade makes no dent to efficiency or range, Polestar says.
That doesn’t necessarily suggest that with the upgrade the Polestar 2 might achieve the same EPA-cycle results—and this is new ground for how such an example will be treated. The dual-motor Polestar 2 is currently EPA-rated at 260 miles of range and 100 MPGe combined.
Polestar confirmed to Green Car Reports that the upgrade can be applied to any dual-motor Polestar 2—including models from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 model years.
Like Tesla, Polestar has shown that it can deploy fixes for recall issues quickly, over the air. It did just that in 2021 to fix a powertrain issue in some of the earliest Polestar 2 EVs shipped to the U.S. Like that fix, the new performance software can be downloaded and installed over the air without a visit to a service center. Polestar has also resisted the temptation to make the software into a monthly subscription, so customers only have to pay a one-time fee.
The Polestar 2 dual-motor is already a lot of fun to drive, without the upgrade. Polestar also has more powerful models in the works. The future Polestar 5 will be a performance flagship, with 884 hp and an 800-volt architecture. Based on the Precept Concept revealed in 2020, it’s due to go on sale in 2024 as a rival to the Tesla Model S, Lucid Air, and Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan—as well as the Porsche Taycan to some degree.
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- Tesla confirms megawatt charging tech for Cybertruck, Semi | 2022-12-08T14:44:44+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/automotive/internet-brands/polestar-2-offers-permanent-performance-boost-over-the-air-for-1195/ |
For employers banking on a surge of workers returning to the office this summer, Microsoft would like a word.
The Redmond tech giant, which has probably gamed out the back-to-office challenge as carefully as any organization, says the stream of workers coming back to its own offices has grown steadily since April 4, when the company began requiring work to be in person at least 50% of the time unless employees have permission from their managers.
“We can watch things like badging data, and it continues to go up for us,” says Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of modern work, who advises CEO Satya Nadella on hybrid work strategy. The company had roughly 57,000 employees in Redmond, Bellevue and Seattle in 2021.
Still, Microsoft won’t say exactly how close it is to hitting its back-to-office goals, other than to warn that it’s probably not imminent. To the contrary, Spataro says it could be six to nine months — early 2023, in other words — before Microsoft has a clear idea what a post-pandemic workplace “equilibrium” looks like. He also thinks many other office-based employers face a similar wait, despite some forecasts of a back-to-office surge by fall.
One factor: Microsoft thinks employees with kids will need to get through several months of the 2022-23 school year before they can settle into “a predictable rhythm of work patterns,” Spataro says.
“I don’t think summer will give us a good view,” he added.
As important, even employers convinced that productivity has suffered under remote work may need more time selling that rationale to workers who think the pandemic proved otherwise.
Workers “are not the same people they were two and a half years ago,” Spataro said. “They don’t buy the argument that they can’t have any flexibility.”
Microsoft’s ultracautious approach fits with its well-known obsession with measuring everything. But it also reflects the slower-than-expected pace of the broader back-to-office trend, which has seen office occupancy stuck under 45% for months, according to one widely watched tracking website. And office workers expect to spend an average of 2.7 days a week in the office, according to a recent survey by a commercial real estate company.
As important, Microsoft’s go-slow approach jibes with its fears of losing high-skilled employees to more flexible rivals or of being unable to hire enough new workers to keep pace with its booming sales — in, among other things, remote-work technologies.
In May, Microsoft said it was boosting salaries and stock compensation as part of retention efforts.
But the impacts of Microsoft’s go-slow back-to-office strategy go well beyond its own offices. Since the start of the pandemic, many other employers have taken their cues from Microsoft’s cautious approach to the office and likely will be watching closely as the company stages its long-awaited return.
Microsoft’s success or failure over the next six to nine months “could set a precedent,” says economist Hart Hodges, co-director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University. And central to that outcome, he says, is how effectively Microsoft can internally “market or ‘sell’ the need for workers to return.”
Selling the office is clearly key to Microsoft’s hybrid work strategy.
The company has been quick to supply its employees with copious research data on the complicated impacts of remote work. That includes a massive study by Microsoft researchers, published last fall in the journal Nature Human Behavior, suggesting that remote work’s blunting effects on collaboration and communication could “impact productivity and, in the long-term, innovation.”
Despite that data-driven certainty, however, Microsoft is taking something of a soft approach that minimizes top-down dictates and emphasizes the evolving, bottom-up nature of its actual hybrid strategy.
Although the company sets the strategy’s broad outlines, day-to-day details are left to managers and workers, Microsoft says.
Flexibility is the watchword. Managers and workers will be allowed to figure out where workers do their best “focused” work, though Microsoft will provide managers with training and tools to handle that complicated task. Geography is no longer as important: Workers hired remotely from other locations may be allowed to stay remote, a shift that has “allowed us to tap into new labor markets in ways that we haven’t been able to previously,” Spataro says.
Microsoft is also leaning on existing internal norms and performance metrics that reward collective behavior. For example, Microsoft has found that more recent hires are more eager to be the office to network and learn “the culture and the feel of this new organization,” Spataro says. That in turn has allowed Microsoft to push other employees by saying, “We need … you in [the office] so that we can create that” culture, Spataro says.
But the pandemic has also highlighted the limits of conventional corporate norms, not least around what Microsoft employees call “the deal,” or employment terms. Although salary and other financial compensation is a key part of that deal, workplace flexibility is growing in importance, Spataro says. “How, when and where you work … is going to be a permanent feature of the labor market going forward.”
Spataro thinks Microsoft has a good sense of what that new deal needs to be, and that the mix of broad corporate goals and street-level flexibility can hold onto their talent. “We’ve already seen the labor market respond well to that,” he says.
That optimism is shared by many business observers, for now. Hodges thinks Microsoft’s emphasis on productivity and flexibility probably gives it an edge in getting people back, and could “provide a road map for other firms.”
If Microsoft loses workers or has to adjust its goals, other companies may shift their own strategies, Hodges says.
But if Microsoft can reach its 50% goal without losing a lot of talent or slowing its hiring, Hodges says, “I think others will follow.” | 2022-06-23T14:03:11+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/at-microsoft-a-back-to-office-normal-may-not-happen-this-year/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
BOGOTÁ, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) ("Ecopetrol" or the "Company") announces that, at the Extraordinary General Shareholders' Meeting held on June 17, 2022, the Company's Shareholders approved the modification of the:
i) deadline for the payment of dividends to the Nation, approved in the ordinary session of March 30, 2022, from September 30 to October 31, 2022.
ii) change in the destination of the Company's occasional reserve that had been constituted in the General Shareholder's Meeting held on past March 30, in order to distribute it as an extraordinary dividend of one hundred and sixty-eight Colombian pesos per share (COP$168), as follows:
The payment of the dividend for minority shareholders will be made in a single installment on June 30, 2022, and for the majority shareholder, the total dividend payment will be offset with the receivable account within the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (FEPC for its acronym in Spanish) with Ecopetrol S.A. no later than June 30, 2022, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 90 of Law 2159 of 2021.
Ecopetrol is the largest company in Colombia and one of the main integrated energy companies in the American continent, with more than 18,000 employees. In Colombia, it is responsible for more than 60% of the hydrocarbon production of most transportation, logistics, and hydrocarbon refining systems, and it holds leading positions in the petrochemicals and gas distribution segments. With the acquisition of 51.4% of ISA's shares, the company participates in energy transmission, the management of real-time systems (XM), and the Barranquilla - Cartagena coastal highway concession. At the international level, Ecopetrol has a stake in strategic basins in the American continent, with Drilling and Exploration operations in the United States (Permian basin and the Gulf of Mexico), Brazil, and Mexico, and, through ISA and its subsidiaries, Ecopetrol holds leading positions in the power transmission business in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, road concessions in Chile, and the telecommunications sector. This press release contains business prospect statements, operating and financial result estimates, and statements related to Ecopetrol's growth prospects. These are all projections and, as such, they are based solely on the expectations of the managers regarding the future of the company and their continued access to capital to finance the company's business plan. The realization of said estimates in the future depends on the behavior of market conditions, regulations, competition, the performance of the Colombian economy my and the industry, among other factors, and are consequently subject to change without prior notice.
This release contains statements that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or in future filings or press releases or orally, address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, including in respect of the Company's prospects for growth and its ongoing access to capital to fund the Company's business plan, among others. Consequently, changes in the following
factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward -looking statements: market prices of oil & gas, our exploration, and production activities, market conditions, applicable regulations, the exchange rate, the Company's competitiveness and the performance of Colombia's economy and industry, to mention a few. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
For more information, please contact:
Head of Capital Markets
Tatiana Uribe Benninghoff
Email: investors@ecopetrol.com.co
Head of Corporate Communications
Mauricio Téllez
Email: mauricio.tellez@ecopetrol.com.co
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SOURCE Ecopetrol S.A. | 2022-06-21T12:28:07+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/06/21/partial-distribution-occasional-reserve-modification-dividend-payment-schedule-majority-shareholder/ |
Vietnam veteran Robert Churchfield will be presented an honorary diploma from Midland High School on Monday.
The Midland Public School Board of Education will grant this action item during its regular board meeting at 7 p.m. in the District Administration Center. The meetings are broadcast in a live streaming feed on YouTube.
Several Boards of Education will be meeting on Monday, Aug. 15 just before the upcoming school year, including Bullock Creek.
Midland Public Schools agenda
In business, an external vendor will be considered to provide repair services for student devices. The District Administration recommends entering a three-year contract with Stratix Corporation as the provider for repair services for a total cost of $738,210.
The board also plans to accept a gift from the Duane Spyker estate. A total of 10 violins are gifted in honor of the late man who developed his love for music and playing violin in the orchestra at Midland High. Gifts totaling to $4,900 are as follows:
- Chestnut Hill (PTP) granting $3,000 for the purchase of classroom magazines
- CommunityGives (sic) Youth Service Program granting $1,000 for girls' swim and dive teams at Dow High equipment
- Becky Vosler and Jason F. Cryderman providing $500, in addition to the Kendall Group providing $400, to Dow High School's Trap Shooting Team
MPS Staffing updates
The Midland Public School District has a few updates on staffing before the upcoming year.
Teacher Kyle Wood has attained tenure status, which will be effective at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
The hiring of Zakaria Zostom, Electronic Learning Facilitator, took effect on July 25. The following list will take effect on Aug. 15:
- Teachers Kayla Booms, Mark Guerin, Scott Little, Troy Lynch, Teacher Chenwei Scherzer and Jenae Turner
- Nicholas Doyon, Teacher and Electronic Learning Faciliator
- Social Worker Jennifer Salowitz
Midland High Paraprofessional Leslie Benoit announced retirement, which took effect in May. The following staff members have resigned with effective dates in May:
- Jeffry Ames, Central Park Elementary Paraprofessional
- Plymouth Elementary Teacher Lauren Birnbaum
- Amy Kelly, Central Park Elementary Paraprofessional
- Jaclyn McLean, Teacher at Chestnut Hill Elementary
- Woodcrest Elementary Teacher Aspen Peavey
- Chloe Sheler, Paraprofessional at Central Park Elementary
Bullock Creek Board of Education agenda
The Bullock Creek Public School District will meet at 7 p.m. on Monday in the high school.
For business, the Bullock Creek School Board will consider the adoption of student handbooks for Bullock Creek High School, Bullock Creek Middle School, and all three elementary schools.
Staffing updates in Bullock Creek
- Jon Danna is retiring as a Middle School Teacher.
- Paraprofessionals at Bullock Creek Elementary, Rochelle Bornemann and Rose Haines have resigned
The following staff members will be considered for employment approvals:
- Angela Guest as a "Lunch/Library/IT Paraprofessional" at Bullock Creek Elementary.
- Robin Erickson as a Young Fives Paraprofessional at Bullock Creek Elementary.
- Carie Terrill as a Young Fives Teacher at Bullock Creek Elementary.
- Maria Morgan as a Kindergarten Paraprofessional at Bullock Creek Elementary.
- Melissa Czolgosz as a Paraprofessional for the middle and high school bands.
- Crystal Benson as an Art Teacher at Bullock Creek Middle School.
- Patti Byce as the Middle School Library and Technology Paraprofessional.
- Camela Wentworth as a Special Education Health Aide at Floyd Elementary.
- Sierra Wheeler as a Special Education Paraprofessional at Floyd Elementary.
- Jerri Frederick as a Special Education Paraprofessional at Floyd Elementary.
- Hope Krotzer as a Nature Kindergarten/Lunch and Recess Paraprofessional at Floyd Elementary.
- Stacey Ebenhoeh as a Food Service worker at Bullock Creek High School and Natalia Gutierrez-Dowd as a food service worker at Bullock Creek Middle School.
- Cindy Baker, Rachel Dice, Cierra Stephens and Amanda Dixon as bus aides. | 2022-08-12T22:44:55+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Vietnam-Veteran-to-be-granted-an-honorary-diploma-17369331.php |
GENEVA (AP) — One hundred days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war has brought the world a near-daily drumbeat of gut wrenching scenes: Civilian corpses in the streets of Bucha; a blown-up theater in Mariupol; the chaos at a Kramatorsk train station in the wake of a Russian missile strike.
Those images tell just a part of the overall picture of Europe’s worst armed conflict in decades. Here’s a look at some numbers and statistics that — while in flux and at times uncertain — shed further light on the death, destruction, displacement and economic havoc wrought by the war as it reaches this milestone with no end in sight.
THE HUMAN TOLL
Nobody really knows how many combatants or civilians have died, and claims of casualties by government officials — who may sometimes be exaggerating or lowballing their figures for public relations reasons — are all but impossible to verify.
Government officials, U.N. agencies and others who carry out the grim task of counting the dead don’t always get access to places where people were killed.
And Moscow has released scant information about casualties among its forces and allies, and given no accounting of civilian deaths in areas under its control. In some places — such as the long-besieged city of Mariupol, potentially the war’s biggest killing field — Russian forces are accused of trying to cover up deaths and dumping bodies into mass graves, clouding the overall toll.
With all those caveats, “at least tens of thousands” of Ukrainian civilians have died so far, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday in comments to Luxembourg’s parliament.
In Mariupol alone, officials have reported over 21,000 civilian dead. Sievierodonetsk, a city in the eastern region of Luhansk that has become the focus of Russia’s offensive, has seen roughly 1,500 casualties, according to the mayor.
Such estimates comprise both those killed by Russian strikes or troops and those who succumbed to secondary effects such as hunger and sickness as food supplies and health services collapsed.
Zelenskyy said this week that 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are dying in combat every day, with about 500 more wounded.
Russia’s last publicly released figures for its own forces came March 25, when a general told state media that 1,351 soldiers had been killed and 3,825 wounded.
Ukraine and Western observers say the real number is much higher: Zelenskyy said Thursday that more than 30,000 Russian servicemen have died — “more than the Soviet Union lost in 10 years of the war in Afghanistan”; in late April, the British government estimated Russian losses at 15,000.
Speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday to discuss intelligence matters, a Western official said Russia is “still taking casualties, but … in smaller numbers.” The official estimated that some 40,000 Russian troops have been wounded.
In Moscow-backed separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine, authorities have reported over 1,300 fighters lost and nearly 7,500 wounded in the Donetsk region, along with 477 dead civilians and nearly 2,400 wounded; plus 29 civilians killed and 60 wounded in Luhansk.
Ukraine’s ambassador in Geneva, Yevheniia Filipenko, said for her, the 100-day mark was more about the faces of children who lost parents or homes, or the faces of fleeing mothers than about any particular count.
“It’s not about the numbers,” she said in an interview, “it’s about the feelings and the sufferings of Ukrainians.”
THE DEVASTATION
Relentless shelling, bombing and airstrikes have reduced large swaths of many cities and towns to rubble.
Ukraine’s parliamentary commission on human rights says Russia’s military has destroyed almost 38,000 residential buildings, rendering about 220,000 people homeless.
Nearly 1,900 educational facilities from kindergartens to grade schools to universities have been damaged, including 180 completely ruined.
Other infrastructure losses include 300 car and 50 rail bridges, 500 factories and about 500 damaged hospitals, according to Ukrainian officials.
The World Health Organization has tallied 296 attacks on hospitals, ambulances and medical workers in Ukraine this year.
FLEEING HOME
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR estimates that about 6.8 million people have been driven out of Ukraine at some point during the conflict.
But since fighting subsided in the area near Kyiv and elsewhere, and Russian forces redeployed to the east and south, about 2.2 million have returned to the country, it says.
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration estimates that as of May 23 there were more than 7.1 million internally displaced people — that is, those who fled their homes but remain in the country. That’s down from over 8 million in an earlier count.
LAND SEIZED
Ukrainian officials say that before the February invasion, Russia controlled some 7% of Ukrainian territory including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and areas held by the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. On Thursday, Zelenskyy said Russian forces now held 20% of the country.
While the front lines are constantly shifting, that amounts to an additional 58,000 square kilometers (22,000 square miles) under Russian control, a total area slightly larger than Croatia or a little smaller than the U.S. state of West Virginia.
THE ECONOMIC FALLOUT IN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE …
The West has levied a host of retaliatory sanctions against Moscow including on the crucial oil and gas sectors, and Europe is beginning to wean itself from its dependence on Russian energy.
Evgeny Gontmakher, academic director of European Dialogue, wrote in a paper this week that Russia currently faces over 5,000 targeted sanctions, more than any other country. Some $300 billion of Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves in the West have been frozen, he added, and air traffic in the country dropped from 8.1 million to 5.2 million passengers between January and March.
Additionally, the Kyiv School of Economics has reported that more than 1,000 “self-sanctioning” companies have curtailed their operations in Russia.
The MOEX Russia stock index has plunged by about a quarter since just before the invasion and is down nearly 40 percent from the start of the year. And the Russian Central Bank said last week that annualized inflation came in at 17.8 percent in April.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has reported suffering a staggering economic blow: 35% of GDP wiped out by the war.
“Our direct losses today exceed $600 billion,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said recently.
Ukraine, a major agricultural producer, says it has been unable to export some 22 million tons of grain. It blames a backlog of shipments on Russian blockades or capture of key ports. Zelenskyy accused Russia this week of stealing at least a half-million tons of grain during the invasion.
… AND THE WORLD
The fallout has rippled around the globe, further driving up costs for basic goods on top of inflation that was already in full swing in many places before the invasion. Developing countries are being squeezed particularly hard by higher costs of food, fuel and financing.
Crude oil prices in London and New York have risen by 20 to 25 percent, resulting in higher prices at the pump and for an array of petroleum-based products.
Wheat supplies have been disrupted in African nations, which imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine in the years immediately before the invasion. The African Development Bank has reported a 45% increase in continental prices for the grain, affecting everything from Mauritanian couscous to the fried donuts sold in Congo.
Amin Awad, the U.N. crisis coordinator in Ukraine, said 1.4 billion people worldwide could be affected by shortages of grain and fertilizer from the country.
“This war’s toll on civilians is unacceptable. This war has no winner,” he told reporters in Geneva via video from Kyiv on Friday. “Today we mark a tragic milestone. And we know what is needed the most: An end to this war.”
___
Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | 2022-06-03T17:52:46+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/explainer-at-100-days-russia-ukraine-war-by-the-numbers/ |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Health officials in Wisconsin have dropped a fine against a dance studio that staged a performance of “The Nutcracker” in December 2020 despite COVID-19 restrictions on mass gatherings.
Public Health Madison and Dane County canceled the penalty pending against A Leap Above Dance on June 22, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday. The studio is located in Oregon, a Madison suburb.
The health department has alleged that 119 people attended the performance even though the department had banned mass gatherings to slow COVID-19’s spread.
It’s unclear how much the fine totaled. With each of the 119 counts in the department’s complaint punishable by $200, it could have come to $23,800. But Morgan Finke, a spokesperson for the health department, told the State Journal on Wednesday that the maximum would have been $3,200.
Studio owner Natalie Nemeckay said fewer than 100 people were involved in the performance and they were divided into groups of 10 at the most. Photos show performers also wore masks.
The studio joined a lawsuit in February 2021 in which two parents alleged the health department’s order limiting mass gatherings inhibited their children’s ability to participate in indoor sports. The department’s gathering restrictions ended a few months later in June 2021.
The state Supreme Court upheld the health department’s ability to limit gatherings in July 2022 and sent the case back to Dane County Circuit Court. Finke said the court didn’t receive the case until last month after the department’s restrictions had expired and the national COVID-19 emergency had ended. She said it wasn’t in the public interest to continue pursuing the fine. | 2023-07-06T20:32:59+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/wisconsin-health-officials-drop-fine-for-nutcracker-performance-during-covid-restrictions/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news |
Justice Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for justices in response to increased scrutiny of their activities beyond the bench.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Alito said in an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal opinion pages. An account of the interview, which the paper said took place in New York in early July, was published Friday.
Democrats last week pushed Supreme Court ethics legislation through a Senate committee, though the bill’s prospects in the full Senate are dim.
All federal judges other than the justices already adhere to an ethics code that was developed by the federal judiciary. But the Supreme Court’s unique status — it’s the only federal court created by the Constitution — puts it outside the reach of those standards that apply to other federal jurists.
Democrats first sought to address that after ProPublica reported earlier this year that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in lavish vacations and a real estate deal with a top Republican donor — and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify before the committee about the ethics of the court.
Since then, ProPublica also revealed that Alito had taken a luxury vacation in Alaska with a Republican donor who had business interests before the court. The Associated Press reported in early July that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade.
The 73-year-old Alito, who joined the court in 2006, has rejected the idea that he should have disclosed the Alaska trip or stepped away from cases involving the donor, hedge fund owner Paul Singer. Alito penned his own Wall Street Journal op-ed, which was published hours before ProPublica posted its story.
Alito said that he is unwilling to leave allegations unanswered, though he acknowledged judges and justices typically don’t respond to their critics.
“And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself,” he said in the newest column.
While no other justice has spoken so definitively about ethics legislation, Roberts has raised questions about Congress’ authority to oversee the high court.
In his year-end report in 2011, Roberts wrote that the justices comply with legislation that requires annual financial disclosures and limits their outside earned income. “The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court. The Justices nevertheless comply with those provisions,” Roberts wrote.
The justices have so far resisted adopting an ethics code on their own, although Roberts said in May that there is more the court can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct, without providing specifics.
The column is co-written by James Taranto, the paper’s editorial features editor, and David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer. Rivkin represents Leonard Leo, the onetime leader of the conservative legal group The Federalist Society, in his dealings with Senate Democrats who want details of Leo’s dealings with the justices. Leo helped arrange Alito’s trip to Alaska.
Rivkin, in a letter Tuesday to leading Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the request was politically motivated and violates Leo’s constitutional rights. Rivkin also wrote that a congressionally imposed ethics code for the Supreme Court would falter on constitutional grounds. Separately, Rivkin represents a couple whose tax case will be argued before the court in the fall.
Alito talked with the Taranto and Rivkin for four hours in interviews in April and July, they wrote. They published an account of the earlier interview in April.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-28T21:32:32+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/28/justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-power-impose-an-ethics-code-supreme-court/ |
Walgreens extended its push into more comprehensive health care with its VillageMD unit acquiring another urgent and primary care chain, Summit Health-CityMD, in a deal worth close to $9 billion.
Walgreens and rival CVS, two retail chains with thousands of locations, have evolved in recent years with a greater focus on overall care for customers, trying to help them avoid chronic health conditions and expensive hospital stays. That goes far beyond their historic focus on store sales and filling prescriptions.
The deal to combine VillageMD and CityMD arrives just two months after CVS Health said it would pay about $8 billion to acquire Signify Health, a technology company that sends doctors and other care providers to people’s homes to assess how they are doing and what help they might need.
Walgreens Boots Alliance, which has a 53% controlling interest in VillageMD, will invest $3.5 billion in debt and equity in support of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
In what the companies are calling a “strategic collaboration,” Evernorth, a subsidiary of health insurance giant Cigna Health, is also making an undisclosed investment in the deal and will become a minority owner of VillageMD.
Overall health has also taken on more emphasis with insurers and employers, who must foot medical bills.
Walgreens, which has about 13,000 retail pharmacy locations worldwide including 9,000 in the U.S, has invested billions of dollars in Village MD and is opening primary care practices next to its drugstores so that pharmacies and physician offices can more easily work together.
Village Medical provides primary care for patients at its traditional stand-alone practices, through its Village Medical at Walgreens practices, at home and through virtual visits. Chicago’s VillageMD and Village Medical operate in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Florida and Georgia and Kentucky, with more than 1.6 million patients.
Summit Health and CityMD have more than 2,800 providers at more than 370 locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Central Oregon. Summit is based in New Jersey.
Walgreens, which has its headquarters outside of Chicago, also is developing centers across the United States that use automated technology to fill prescriptions and deliver them to pharmacies, giving pharmacists more time to work with customers.
When Walgreens released details of its annual financial performance last month, CEO Rosalind Brewer proclaimed it was the first year of Walgreens’ “transformation to a consumer-centric health care company.”
Citing the combination of VillageMD and CityMD, Walgreens raised its 2025 U.S. health care sales goal to between $14.5 billion and $16 billion, up from the previous forecast range of $11 billion to $12 billion.
Walgreens shares rose more than 2% Monday. | 2022-11-07T20:31:40+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/business/ap-business/ap-walgreens-push-into-comprehensive-care-picks-up-momentum/ |
Try them for free when Tillamook takes over iconic bagel shops nationwide, for one day only
TILLAMOOK, Ore., March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), we believe our cream cheese spreads are the best-tasting option out there. But that's just our humble opinion (based on a century of dairy-making expertise and a whole bunch of international awards), and our lawyers told us we had to be clear about that.*
That said, we're so convinced that bagel and cream cheese lovers everywhere will agree with us that we're inviting you to try our spreads. Free. For one day only on Wednesday, March 29, Tillamook will take over four iconic bagel shops across the country. Get the details on the Tillamook Taste-Over events at BetterCreamCheese.com, or read on…
Made with no gums and no fillers, Tillamook Cream Cheese Spreads are thick and creamy, with bold, cream cheesy flavor. Our spreads are also made without artificial preservatives and artificial flavors. Did we mention we only use ingredients that you can pronounce? In fact, our Original flavor cream cheese spread is made with just four ingredients: cultured pasteurized milk and cream, whey protein concentrate, skim milk and salt. It's that simple, which is why it's so simple to see why our spreads are the best.*
*(Pesky legal disclaimer again – that's just our opinion, but it might have something to do with why Tillamook Cream Cheese Spreads are the fastest-growing soft cream cheeses in the country, out-pacing Philadelphia®, Kite Hill®, and private-label brands.1 Just sayin'.)
Bring on the bold!
At Tillamook Taste-Over events, breakfast lovers will be greeted with the opportunity to sample all five Tillamook Cream Cheese Spread flavors, and the option to swap their usual spread for a free bagel with Tillamook Cream Cheese Spread.
Tillamook Taste-Overs will take place on March 29 at each of the following locations:
- Zucker's Bagels Bryant Park in New York City at 1065 6th Avenue from 8am to Noon ET
- Kismet Bagels in Philadelphia at 1700 Samson Street (Rittenhouse Square) from 8am to Noon ET
- Holey City Bagels in Charleston at 43 Cannon Street from 8am to Noon ET
- Solomon's in Sacramento at 730 K. Street from 9am to 1pm PT
"When the team at Tillamook asked us about taking over our bagel shop for the day, it was easy for us to say yes!" said Jacob and Alexandra Cohen, Founders of Philadelphia's Kismet Bagels. "We're all about using the best possible ingredients in our bagels. And Tillamook is one of our favorite cheese brands, so we knew their cream cheese spreads were going to be amazing. Although we typically make our own cream cheese spreads in-house, with Tillamook disrupting the cream cheese aisles in stores, we were glad to partner with them. The bold flavors from Tillamook are a delicious match with our crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside bagels…if we do say so ourselves!"
We got your bagel covered. Literally.
Bagel and cream cheese fans who can't make it on March 29 can visit BetterCreamCheese.com to download a buy-one-get-one coupon for Tillamook Cream Cheese Spread to use at their local grocery retailer. Tillamook is also offering free shipping on all orders that include cream cheese spread at Shop.Tillamook.com through April 30.
"Yes. A lot of brands can say their stuff tastes better than the other guys. But really, that decision comes down to the real experts – the consumers," said Kate Boltin, Vice President, Brand Marketing, TCCA. "So, we are excited to create this opportunity for bagel and cream cheese fans to try us out and we're even more excited for them to share with us what they think. We think they'll find that our cream cheese spreads taste the way cream cheese should taste."
Step-up your spread!
Tillamook Cream Cheese Spreads are available now in five bold flavors: Original, Seriously Strawberry, Very Veggie, Chive & Onion and Jalapeño Honey. Judges at national cheese contests love our spreads too, with Seriously Strawberry taking top honors in the Spreadable Natural Cheese Category at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest this year, and Chive & Onion and Very Veggie receiving Gold Awards at the International Cheese and Dairy Awards in 2022.
Tillamook Cream Cheese Spreads are available across the country at Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway and many other grocery stores. Find Tillamook Cream Cheese Spreads at a store near you at Tillamook.com/where-to-buy or shop online at Shop.Tillamook.com.
1 % sales increase, Soft Cream Cheese, Brands >$10K in sales, Total US, Latest 52 Weeks ending 2-26-23, IRI POS.
About Tillamook County Creamery Association
Founded in 1909 as a farmer-owned cooperative, Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) recently achieved the distinction as a Certified B Corporation® (B Corp™) and prides itself on its commitment to bringing to market the most consistent, best tasting, highest quality dairy products made in the most natural way possible. Guided by the belief that everyone deserves real food that makes them feel good every day, Tillamook® produces internationally recognized, award-winning cheese as well as exceptional ice cream, butter, cream cheese spreads, yogurt, and sour cream, made with unwavering values that never sacrifice or compromise quality for profit. TCCA is owned by a group of farming families, primarily based in Tillamook County, Oregon. TCCA operates production facilities in Tillamook and Boardman, Oregon and employs more than 900 people throughout the state. The Tillamook Creamery is the largest tourist attraction on the coast of Oregon and one of the most popular in the state, attracting more than one million visitors each year. For more information on TCCA and Tillamook, visit Tillamook.com.
Media Contacts:
Jenna Faller, FleishmanHillard
jenna.faller@fleishman.com
Austin Blythe, Tillamook
ablythe@tillamook.com
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SOURCE Tillamook County Creamery Association | 2023-03-28T22:02:27+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2023/03/28/tillamook-cream-cheese-spreads-just-taste-better/ |
Free App Carries All Five Q India Channels and Is Designed for "Frictionless Download and Play" on Smart TV's and Mobile Phones
Q PLAY is an Initial Move Into India's Massive Direct To Consumer Market Estimated to Reach $100B by 2025
TORONTO & MUMBAI, India, Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - QYOU Media Inc. (TSXV:QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF) announced today that The Q India, with it's rapidly expanding media business has officially launched its first direct to consumer app, Q PLAY. The free app will be offered from the Google Play store and directly on Smart TV's and mobile devices and offers all five Q India channels along with all new future content offerings from The Q India. The Q PLAY app is ad supported and does not require any registration or effort other than simply downloading and launching the lightweight wrapper app.
India's Direct To Consumer (D2C) industry has exploded in growth over the last several years. It is expected to grow exponentially and reach a value of $100 Billion by 2025. Much of this is being driven by mass adoption of social media and the use of influencer marketing as direct conduits to young Indian consumers. The Q India currently reaches over 125 million viewers weekly via Q branded content channels.
Q PLAY is designed to begin to leverage that audience scale to employ a direct relationship between the company and its user base. Q PLAY will additionally leverage both the large number of blue chip advertiser relationships enjoyed by the company along with the recently announced data initiative to mine data from all sources of distribution. The goal is to drive stronger monetization via more targeted content and ad campaigns.
Q PLAY currently carries The Q (flagship mass entertainment Hindi channel), The Q Marathi (regional content), Q Kahaniyan (animated content), Q Comedistaan (comedy focused) and the most recently launched QGameX (live gaming). All channels feature content that is based upon The Q's unique programming approach highlighting the best content from social media creators and digital media stars. With Q PLAY, all of this unique, fresh, relatable and exciting content will be found in one app with many more new channels set to be added in the future.
A video teaser for the app can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p1XB3RTslw
QYOU Media CEO and Co-Founder Curt Marvis, commented, "In less than 2 years we have grown the audience for Q India branded content from single digit millions to over 125 million every week. This is a major accomplishment that is driving much of our product development in 2022 and beyond. We call it our "loudspeaker" and we fully intend to use it to deepen our engagement directly with our followers. This also increases our ability to deliver interactive and more targeted content & brand offerings to ultimately monetize our audience as effectively as possible."
Q India COO and head of digital initiatives Krishna Menon added, "We are thrilled to get Q PLAY launched into the market. This will open up a myriad of new possibilities for us that simply are not possible when you are exclusively relying on third party platforms for distribution. It will take us time to build and grow our user base, but this app is the tip of the spear around our digital objective to create a growing one on one customer relationship with our brand."
One of the fastest growing creator-media companies, QYOU Media operates in India and the United States producing, distributing and monetizing content created by social media influencers and digital content stars. In India, under our flagship brand, The Q, we curate, produce and distribute premium content across television networks, streaming platforms, mobile phones, smart TV's and app-based platforms. We now have 5 emerging content destinations engaging over 125 million Indian households weekly – The Q (mass entertainment), Q Marathi (regional content), Q Kahaniyan (animated content), Q Comedistaan (comedy focused) and our latest Q-GameX (live gaming). Our influencer marketing company, Chtrbox, has been a pioneer in India's creator economy, leveraging data to connect brands to the right social media influencers. In the United States, we power major film studios, game publishers and brands to create content and market via creators and influencers. Founded and created by industry veterans from Lionsgate, MTV, Disney and Sony, QYOU Media's millennial and Gen Z-focused content reaches more than one billion consumers around the world every month. Experience our work at www.qyoumedia.com, www.theq.tv and www.theqyou.com and www.chtrbox.com.
Join our shareholder chat group on Telegram: http://t.me/QYOUMedia
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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SOURCE QYOU Media Inc. | 2022-10-11T13:03:49+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2022/10/11/q-india-launches-q-play/ |
HERNDON, Va. (AP) _ EPlus Inc. (PLUS) on Wednesday reported net income of $24.2 million in its fiscal fourth quarter.
On a per-share basis, the Herndon, Virginia-based company said it had profit of 91 cents. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and non-recurring costs, were $1.01 per share.
The computer products reseller posted revenue of $451.5 million in the period.
For the year, the company reported profit of $105.6 million, or $3.93 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.82 billion.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PLUS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/PLUS | 2022-05-25T21:54:47+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/business/article/EPlus-Fiscal-Q4-Earnings-Snapshot-17198910.php |
By The Associated Press
Trailblazer was a word used by many to mourn the passing of actor Nichelle Nichols, who died Saturday at age 89. Nichols broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, and paved the way not just for future television actors of color but astronauts as well. Tributes from fellow actors poured in on social media Sunday. Her “Star Trek” co-star George Takei said he would have more to say soon but that his heart is heavy. Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Uhura on the current “Star Trek” wrote that, “She made room for so many of us.”
—-
“I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89. For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend,” George Takei, Nichols’ “Star Trek” co-star who played Sulu, on Twitter.
“She made room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.” Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Uhura on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” on Twitter.
“Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again. May she Rest In Peace.” Kate Mulgrew, “Star Trek: Voyager” cast member, on Twitter.
“Before we understood how much #RepresentationMatters #NichelleNichols modeled it for us. With her very presence & her grace she shone a light on who we as people of color are & inspired us to reach for our potential. Rest well glittering diamond in the sky.” Wilson Cruz, “Star Trek: Discovery” actor, on Twitter.
“Many actors become stars, but few stars can move a nation. Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. Thank you, Nichelle. We will miss you.” Lynda Carter, “Wonder Woman” star, on Twitter.
“One of my most treasured photos – Godspeed to Nichelle Nichols, champion, warrior and tremendous actor. Her kindness and bravery lit the path for many. May she forever dwell among the stars.” Stacey Abrams, politician, on Twitter.
“Nichelle Nichols told us that we belonged in outer space. We are limitless. The heavens have gained an Uhura today.” Colman Domingo, actor, on Twitter.
“My love for the original Star Trek is profound. Nichelle Nichols was a ground-breaker and a glorious ambassador for her show, her role and science all her life. And a truly lovely person. May she have a wonderful adventure to the final frontier.” Jason Alexander, actor, on Twitter.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2022-07-31T23:47:07+00:00 | wtmj.com | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/07/31/star-trek-alums-more-react-to-death-of-nichelle-nichols/ |
2023 Genesis Scottish Open Betting Odds, Favorites & Insights – Round 3
Rory McIlroy currently leads the way (-10, +200 to win) after two rounds of play at the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open .
Want to place a bet on the Genesis Scottish Open? Use our link for a special offer when you sign up with BetMGM Sportsbook!
Genesis Scottish Open Third Round Information
- Start Time: 2:00 AM ET
- Venue: The Renaissance Club
- Location: North Berwick, United Kingdom
- Par/Distance: Par 70/7,237 yards
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Genesis Scottish Open Best Odds to Win
Rory McIlroy
- Tee Time: 4:12 AM ET
- Current Rank: 1st (-10)
- Odds to Win: +200
McIlroy Round by Round Results
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Tyrrell Hatton
- Tee Time: 4:12 AM ET
- Current Rank: 2nd (-9)
- Odds to Win: +400
Hatton Round by Round Results
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Scottie Scheffler
- Tee Time: 3:50 AM ET
- Current Rank: 7th (-7)
- Odds to Win: +650
Scheffler Round by Round Results
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Sam Burns
- Tee Time: 4:01 AM ET
- Current Rank: 5th (-8)
- Odds to Win: +1400
Burns Round by Round Results
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Byeong-Hun An
- Tee Time: 4:01 AM ET
- Current Rank: 2nd (-9)
- Odds to Win: +1600
An Round by Round Results
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Genesis Scottish Open Odds (Rest of Field)
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-15T01:53:13+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/sports/betting/2023/07/15/genesis-scottish-open-pga-tournament-betting-odds-round-3/ |
American singer and actress Selena Gomez has many awards to her name, but now she’s added another feat to her already long list of accomplishments.
The entertainer has become the first woman to reach 400 million followers on Instagram, surpassing Kylie Jenner (who has 382 million followers) as the most-followed woman on the social media platform.
Gomez immediately took to Instagram and posted a photo dump of herself and her fans to celebrate the enormous achievement.
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“Wish I could hug all 400 million of you,” she wrote.
Gomez's 400 million followers comes in the midst of her taking a social media break.
Entertainment News
The 30-year-old star recently told Vanity Fair that she no longer has Instagram on her phone and that her team primarily posts for her on the app. Gomez said her break is due to the “specific and mean” comments that caused her anxiety.
“There are wonderful things about social media – connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories. But usually, that's filtered through [for me now],” Gomez said.
“I created a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As far as comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.”
Despite the break, Gomez is still soaking in the major milestone. Behind Instagram's brand account (620 million followers), Gomez is third, trailing behind two soccer stars who hold the top two spots. Cristiano Ronaldo leads the way with 564 million followers, while Lionel Messi has 444 million followers. | 2023-03-21T21:58:03+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/selena-gomez-becomes-most-followed-woman-on-instagram-with-400-million-followers/3100486/ |
Colorado's oldest living veteran receives long-overdue Silver Star 8 decades late
Colorado's oldest reported living veteran was just honored with the country's second-highest military honor for his service and sacrifice nearly 80 years ago in World War II
Harold Nelson, 107, of Denver was awarded the Silver Star in a ceremony at Fort Carson on Tuesday. Nelson received recognition for six death-defying amphibious landings during the war, FOX 31 Colorado reported.
Nelson started his tour in North Africa and ended it in the infamous bloody battles that rendered Anzio, Italy a living hell. Nelson and his unit saw more than 600 days of combat during the war in which he was shot three times narrowly escaping death.
Nelson had also earned two Purple Hearts for sustaining injuries during the war. He earned his Silver Star roughly 8 decades ago, but because a military records facility had burned in a fire in the '70s, he was unable to receive the recognition he deserved.
"His paperwork was lost in a fire. A big military records facility burned down in the ’70s and his records were destroyed," said Maj. Gen. Charles Costanza, commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division.
But that didn't stop Nelson's daughter from fighting for her father's honor.
"I can’t tell you how many people we, my family, have contacted to try to get this, and personally we kind of gave up on it. Somehow this whole thing went through and we’re here today," Carolee Soden, Nelson’s daughter, told FOX 31.
More than 160 friends, family, Army soldiers, and colleagues were in attendance for the long-overdue award.
"I hope I deserve it. Took a long time to get it, but I finally did," Nelson said. | 2022-10-05T20:18:33+00:00 | fox29.com | https://www.fox29.com/news/colorados-oldest-living-veteran-receives-long-overdue-silver-star-8-decades-late |
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators on Tuesday approved the first gene therapy for hemophilia, a $3.5 million one-time treatment for the blood-clotting disorder.
Drugmaker CSL Behring announced the $3.5 million price tag shortly after the FDA approval, saying its drug would ultimately reduce health care costs because patients would have fewer bleeding incidents and need fewer clotting treatments. The price appeared to exceed that of several other gene therapies priced upwards of $2 million.
Like most medicines in the U.S., most of the cost of the new treatment will be paid by insurers — not patients — including private plans and government programs.
After decades of research, gene therapies have begun reshaping the treatment of cancers and rare inheritable diseases with medicines that can modify or correct mutations embedded in people’s genetic code. Hemgenix is the first such treatment for hemophilia and several other drugmakers are working on gene therapies for the more common form of the disorder, hemophilia A..
“Today’s approval provides a new treatment option for patients with hemophilia B and represents important progress in the development of innovative therapies,” said the FDA’s Dr. Peter Marks.
The agency did not specify how long the treatment works. But CSL Behring said patients should benefit— in terms of reduced bleeding and increased clotting — for years.
Hemophilia almost always strikes males and is caused by mutations in the gene for a protein needed for blood clotting. Small cuts or bruises can be life-threatening, and many people need treatments once or more a week to prevent serious bleeding. Left untreated, the condition can cause bleeding that seeps into joints and internal organs, including the brain.
Hemgenix delivers a working gene for the clotting protein to the liver, where it is made.
Hemophilia B affects about 1 in 40,000 people and accounts for roughly 15% of those with the disease, according to the FDA.
The FDA said it granted approval based on two small studies, including one that showed those taking the drug had increased levels of the clotting protein, reduced need for standard treatment and a 54% drop in bleeding problems.
Earlier this year, European regulators approved a similar gene therapy for hemophilia A. That drug, from drugmaker BioMarin, is still under review at the FDA.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | 2022-11-23T00:20:16+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/35m-gene-therapy-for-hemophilia-gets-fda-approval/2022/11/22/f00c5746-6abb-11ed-8619-0b92f0565592_story.html |
Jennifer Cobb and her husband planned on staying four days in their vacation rental in the San Bernardino Mountains. A week later, and they're still there — trapped by a relentless series of storms that has piled snow so high they can barely see out the windows.
When they try to shovel themselves out, it just snows again. They're thinking of walking to a main road to see if they can hitch a ride down the mountain so they can get home to their teenage daughter and Cobb’s elderly father in San Diego County.
“We hear the phantom sounds of plows, but they never come,” she said. “Being stuck up here in this beautiful place shouldn’t be awful, but it is.”
Cobb and other beleaguered Californians weathered yet another storm Tuesday, as blizzard warnings blanketed the Sierra Nevada range in the northern half of the state, more snow was on its way to the southern mountains like the San Bernardino range, and forecasters warned that any travel was dangerous.
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On the eastern flank of the Sierra, the Mono County Sheriff’s Office bluntly tweeted: “The roads are closed. All of them. There is no alternate route, back way, or secret route. It’s a blizzard, people.”
San Bernardino County has declared a state of emergency, with mountain residents trapped in their homes and motorists stranded. More snow was expected in many communities where residents, unable to drive through deep snow on roads that were closed anyway, largely got around on foot.
The latest storm in California was one of two bookending the country, with snow closing or delaying the opening for hundreds of schools in the Northeast, which saw the most significant snowfall Tuesday of what has been a mild winter.
And Michigan again fought a battle with ice after a storm Monday left thousands of customers without power in the central part of the state. To the southeast, around Detroit, some customers still lacked power for a sixth day after a prior storm.
The storms have delayed travel, shuttered schools and overwhelmed crews trying to dig out of the snow and repair downed power lines. Nationwide, there were about 500 commercial flight cancellations and more than 2,000 delays on Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com.
In the West, the weather was expected to last into Wednesday, with winter storm warnings stretching from the Oregon coast to many of Southern California’s already-snow-laden mountains.
In the San Bernardino Mountain community of Crestline, Michael Johnstone said his family’s grocery store was running low on key inventory even though they stocked up before the storm. Authorities are escorting two full grocery trucks up to the mountain community, Johnstone said — just in time for the new storm to add as much as a foot of snow.
“We’re completely out of bread. Milk is getting really light. We’re almost completely out of produce,” said Johnstone, of Goodwin and Sons Market. “Beer — domestic beer — is really, really low.”
With 5 feet of snow on the ground, Johnstone said many of the store's employees can't make it to work, so he has been using a plow truck to shuttle them to and from work for limited hours. Most customers are coming in on foot.
For California's skiiers and snowboarders, the parade of storms was too much of a good thing. Most resorts around Lake Tahoe suspended operations Tuesday. Big Bear Mountain Resort opened, but all roads leading there remained closed. Mount Baldy Resort on the massive peak that looms over greater Los Angeles opened but anticipated an early closure.
In the Northeast, parts of Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island had heavy snow forecast through Tuesday afternoon.
The snow complicated the morning commute on Boston-area highways and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority reported power losses that affected signals on multiple lines and stations. It was unclear if the problem was related to the weather.
Two to 5 inches of snow fell across New York City, depending on the borough. The Albany, New York, area saw less snow than expected — 2 to 5 inches — but enough to close schools.
In some communities, as much as 7 or or 8 inches (18 to 20 centimeters) of snow fell, which drove residents to seek out ice melt and shovels and repair snowblowers, said Harry Craven, the owner of Highland True Value Hardware and Bike Shop in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
“We’ve had no winter until now,” Craven said. “By our standards this hasn’t been a blockbuster storm, but I’m happy with it.”
___
Taxin reported from Orange County, California, and Pratt from suburban Boston. Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Dave Collins in Connecticut, Julie Walker in New York City and John Antczak in Los Angeles, along with other AP journalists around the country.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2023-02-28T20:55:59+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/while-california-wearies-of-snowstorms-northeast-greets-one/article_5a877e53-33b2-5441-bdeb-91570984074a.html |
Toyota’s CEO said last week that it will be a challenge to boost sales of electric cars to levels anticipated by some U.S. states—including the state of California, which plans to outlaw sales of vehicles not powered by electricity by the middle of next decade.
From Volvo and Bentley to Cadillac and Buick, a number of luxury and niche brands have already declared an end to development of gas-powered vehicles by 2030. Even some mass-market brands like Chevrolet plan to wind down sales of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
That said, automakers, regulators, and U.S. states are split over whether California’s all-out ban of non-plug-in vehicle sales by 2035 is realistic. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda is one of the few executives of a large automaker to speak out against the U.S. goal of 50% zero-emissions vehicles by 2030—reportedly calling it “very difficult” at a meeting with dealers last week.
Toyoda reportedly told its dealers that EVs “are just going to take longer than the media would like us to believe,” and he said that the automaker will continue to offer the “widest possible” array of powertrains.
Even as other automakers have ratcheted up EV plans and gasoline retirement dates, Toyota has kept to a May 2021 roadmap that suggests 85% of its U.S. vehicles in 2030 will still have tailpipes.
“That’s our strategy and we’re sticking to it,” said Toyoda, who referred to Toyota as being like a department store with all sorts of powertrains.
Through a translator, Toyoda said that regulations “tend to narrow the options available for solutions toward carbon neutrality,” according to Automotive News.
Toyoda sees not just hydrogen fuel cells but hydrogen combustion as a viable option, longer-term, while in the shorter term hybrids will produce the greatest benefit, he argued, noting that with the batteries that go into a 320-mile electric vehicle, Toyota can produce eight plug-in hybrid models, effectively saving up to eight times the carbon emitted.
In 2019, Toyota was one of the automakers that joined a Trump administration–backed attempt to challenge California’s Clean Air Act exemption, and its precedence in regulating vehicle emissions. Toyota was one of the last automakers pushing back, and it just in August signaled that it would end the fight and recognize the state’s emissions authority.
As these recent comments suggest, that doesn’t mean that Toyota won’t dig its heels in against any of these targets.
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- Review: 2023 Audi Q4 E-Tron SUV and Sportback go for practicality more than punch | 2022-10-04T03:31:47+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/automotive/internet-brands/toyota-ceo-us-target-of-50-evs-by-2030-very-difficult/ |
DETROIT (AP)The Detroit Red Wings have signed center Dylan Larkin to an eight-year, $69.6 million contract, banking on their captain being a key player in the next phase of their rebuilding plan.
The Red Wings announced the deal on Wednesday, two days before the NHL trade deadline.
Larkin’s new contract will pay him an average of $8.7 million per year.
Also on Wednesday, the Red Wings acquired a conditional first-round pick and a 2023 second-round pick from Vancouver for defenseman Filip Hronek and a 2023 fourth-rounder. The first-rounder is the Islanders’ pick from the trade for Bo Horvat, which is top-12 protected.
The Red Wings have lost three in a row after consecutive losses to the Ottawa Senators earlier this week and are attempting to end their lengthy playoff drought. They enter Wednesday five points behind Pittsburgh for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Red Wings, who haven’t reached the postseason since the 2015-16 season, will try to make up ground as they host the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Larkin, a three-time NHL All-Star, leads the Red Wings with 22 goals and 57 points in 59 games this season. The 26-year-old has 169 goals and 415 points since making his NHL debut in Detroit during the 2015-16 season.
Larkin, who is from Waterford, became first Michigan native to be a Red Wings captain when he was given that honor two years ago.
Detroit drafted the University of Michigan product with the No. 15 pick overall in 2014 and he has given the franchise a dependable, two-way player during a string of lackluster seasons followed its run of 25 straight postseason appearances.
On Tuesday, Detroit signed defenseman Jake Walman to a three-year, $10.2 million contract.
—
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports | 2023-03-02T21:04:33+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/sports/nhl-hockey/red-wings-sign-dylan-larkin-to-8-year-69-6m-deal/ |
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning that the GOP may not win back control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections — a cycle that typically would be favorable to the party not in power — as a political action committee linked to McConnell stages a rescue effort in the Ohio Senate race.
Asked Wednesday by reporters in Kentucky about his midterm predictions, McConnell said there’s “probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate.”
“Senate races are just different, they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” he said, according to NBC News.
In a year when Republicans should have the advantage over Democrats, especially as President Biden’s approval ratings sag and inflation remains high, the GOP is facing surprisingly tight Senate races in several states — even with Republican groups providing huge sums of money to aid struggling candidates.
On Wednesday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee associated with McConnell, is investing $28 million in radio and television ads in Ohio in support of Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
The new pro-Vance ads will start rolling out after Labor Day, according to the newspaper, which noted the ad buy marks a significant increase from the estimated $5 million that national Republicans have invested in the Ohio race so far. In 2020, Trump won Ohio by about eight percentage points.
Still, polls have shown a remarkably close race between Vance, a venture capitalist and the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” and his Democratic opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan, as they vie for retiring Sen. Rob Portman’s (R) seat. Vance’s primary race was in part financed by billionaire Peter Thiel, who previously employed Vance at his venture capital firm. But Vance was outraised 4 to 1 by Ryan in the second quarter of 2022.
Ryan, a 10-term congressman who ran for president in 2020, is an experienced campaigner and moderate Democrat willing to break with party leadership on some policies, most notably trade and China.
In response to the GOP spending, Ryan tweeted, “If they’re so focused on our race, that means we must be doing something right. Here’s my message for Mitch McConnell, JD Vance, and the rest of the GOP: Bring it on.”
Mitch McConnell's super PAC just announced they're dumping $28 MILLION into Ohio to tear down our campaign. If they're so focused on our race, that means we must be doing something right.
— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) August 18, 2022
Here's my message for Mitch McConnell, JD Vance, and the rest of the GOP: Bring it on.
Ryan also sent out a fundraising appeal alluding to the GOP investment and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign appearance Friday with Vance, writing, “National Republicans are PANICKING after *multiple* polls showed this race in a deadlock — and we’re expecting DeSantis to attack me personally. This is the beginning of Mitch McConnell’s new strategy to tear down my campaign.”
Republicans need to gain one seat to capture the majority in a 50-50 Senate in which Vice President Harris is the tiebreaking vote. The significant investment in a GOP-leaning state for a Republican-held seat is surprising for the party 82 days to Election Day. And while the GOP is still favored to hold the Ohio seat in November, the close race is forcing the party to spend money defensively, funds that could otherwise be invested contesting Senate seats held by Democrats, such as Nevada and Colorado.
So far, the Senate Leadership Fund has also spent large amounts of money in the Georgia and Pennsylvania Senate races, investing $37 million and $34.1 million, respectively. But those races are considered more competitive for Republicans.
In Georgia, Republicans are seeking to unseat Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D), whose victory in January 2021 helped Democrats achieve their narrow majority in the Senate. However, GOP candidate Herschel Walker — who has come under scrutiny for past falsehoods and the revelation of several children who had not previously been publicly disclosed — trails Warnock in the polls.
In the Senate race to replace retiring Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R), recent polls show Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) holding a double-digit lead over Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, a celebrity television doctor. Oz’s campaign has spent much of the last week fending off attacks about how many houses he owns and withstanding online ridicule over a recently resurfaced video in which Oz botches the name of a local grocery store chain while supposedly buying ingredients for “crudités.”
The spending by the McConnell-tied group comes as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is shifting its TV ad spending in several battleground states, canceling millions of dollars in ad reservations with plans to rebook the investments through coordinated spending with campaigns.
A Democrat who is tracking media buys, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide the data, said the NRSC this month has cut its TV ad reservations by more than $7 million in Pennsylvania, nearly $3 million in Arizona and more than $2 million in both Wisconsin and Nevada. Another Democrat tracking media buys confirmed similar numbers. The ad reservation changes were first reported by the New York Times earlier this week.
The shift comes as GOP Senate candidates in some of those states have lagged behind their Democratic opponents in fundraising, potentially hindering their ability to keep up on the airwaves and promote their own candidacies. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson (R) raised about $7 million to Democratic nominee Mandela Barnes’s roughly $2 million in the second quarter of the year, before Barnes’s primary rivals dropped out.
This week, Barnes held a slight lead over Johnson, a Marquette Law School poll found.
Barnes has a 51 percent to 44 percent lead over Johnson in the poll, larger than Barnes’s two-point margin in June. The poll has an error margin of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
Democrats see the Wisconsin race as one of their top opportunities to pick up a Senate seat.
Hannah Knowles contributed to this report. | 2022-08-18T20:42:57+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/18/mcconnell-senate-gop-ohio/ |
BEIRUT (AP) — Iraqi officials announced Saturday that Baghdad has won an international arbitration case that will halt oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region by way of Turkey.
Officials in Baghdad and Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have long been at odds over sharing of oil revenues. In 2014, the Kurdish region decided to unilaterally export oil through an independent pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Baghdad called the move “smuggling” and “robbery” and filed a case against Turkey in the International Court of Arbitration, arguing that Turkey was violating the provisions of the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline agreement signed in 1973.
The central government considers it illegal for Irbil to export oil without going through the Iraqi national oil company, while Kurdish authorities have said the practice is meant to compensate for budget transfers withheld from the Kurdish region by Baghdad.
Iraq’s ministry of oil said in a statement that the ministry, via the national oil marketing company, SOMO, “is the only entity authorized to manage export operations through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.”
In the wake of the ruling issued in Paris on Thursday, the ministry said it will “discuss the mechanisms of exporting Iraqi oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan with the concerned authorities in the region and with the Turkish authorities… in a manner that guarantees the continuation of oil exports and the fulfillment of SOMO’s obligations.”
The Kurdish region’s ministry of natural resources said in a statement that the regional government will not “give up on the constitutional rights of the Kurdistani people” and that the ruling will not harm its relations with the central government.
The region’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said recent discussions with Baghdad “have laid the groundwork for us to overcome the arbitration ruling today” and that a team from the regional government will travel to Baghdad on Sunday for talks. | 2023-03-26T03:20:03+00:00 | cbs42.com | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ruling-halts-oil-exports-from-iraqs-kurdish-area-via-turkey/ |
Beefy Potato Taco Casserole (Slow Cooker)
This is a large batch slow cooker recipe, but it doesn’t have to cook all day. I got this recipe from another writer who writes a “tried and true” recipe column.
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1 oz. pkg. taco seasoning mix
- 32 oz. frozen hash brown potatoes
- 16 oz. processed cheese, cut into small cubes
- 2 c. shredded cheese
- Favorite taco toppings
Brown ground beef and garlic. Drain well. Spoon into slow cooker and stir in taco seasoning mix. Add potatoes, cheese cubes and 1 c. shredded cheese. Stir all ingredients together and top with remaining shredded cheese. Cook on high for 2 – 2½ hours or low for 4 hours. If possible, stir one time halfway through cooking. Before serving, stir thoroughly to mix in all of the cheese. Serve with favorite taco stopping. Serves 8.
Fudge Crinkle Cookies (cake mix)
We made crinkle cookies when we were kids. This cake mix recipes makes them so easy – and tasty!
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- ⅓ c. vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 t. vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- Granulated sugar for coating cookies
- Powdered sugar for coating cookies
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Beat eggs in bowl, then add cake mix, oil, vanilla and salt. Stir well, until all ingredients are combined. Dough will be stiff. Refrigerate 15 to 30 minutes until dough is solid enough to roll. Shape dough into 1 to 1½ inch balls. Roll lightly in granulated sugar, then roll in powdered sugar to completely coat. Place on prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet about 3 minutes, then remove to foil to cool completely.
Robin Richey, Eureka, was a home economic instructor in south central Illinois and retired as the children’s librarian at the Eureka Public Library. | 2023-04-15T16:02:39+00:00 | pantagraph.com | https://pantagraph.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/cooking-from-home-beefy-potato-taco-casserole-fudge-crinkle-cookies/article_30be7718-ca4f-11ed-b6be-231ea0858b62.html |
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and his Republican opponent, former football star Herschel Walker, faced off on Friday night for their first and likely only debate, using the face-to-face meeting to make their cases to voters just a few weeks before Election Day.
The debate came amid a hectic final push by the two candidates to win over the moderate and swing voters who could very well decide which party will control the Senate. While most polls show Warnock with a narrow lead over Walker, neither candidate is scoring the majority support needed to win the Senate seat outright.
Here are five takeaways from the debate between Warnock and Walker.
Walker holds his own
Weeks before the debate, Walker began lowering expectations for a standout performance, saying that he’s “not that smart” and predicting that Warnock would “show up and embarrass” him.
But Walker largely avoided the kind of embarrassment he had teased. While Warnock landed several punches, Walker frequently went on offense, pummeling Warnock as a rubber stamp for President Biden’s agenda and an out-of-touch politician.
Of course, Walker has been preparing for the debate for weeks, and his expectation-setting ahead of the face-off meant that he had to clear a lower bar. Still, he appeared intent on soothing the concerns of voters who may have been uneasy about electing to the Senate a former football player with an at-times questionable personal and business history.
“For those of you who are concerned about voting for me, I’m not a politician,” Walker said. “I want you to think about the damage politicians like Joe Biden and Raphael Warnock have done to this country.”
That’s not to say Walker didn’t make some blunders. At one point, when addressing the cost of insulin, Walker said that people “gotta eat right.” And in the most memorable and bizarre moment of the night, Walker was reprimanded by the debate’s moderator for brandishing a prop badge in response to remarks that he once claimed to have worked for law enforcement.
Warnock keeps his cool
Even before the debate, Warnock had established a reputation as a cool and compelling speaker — a reputation earned through his years as a pastor.
That sense of ease was on display on Friday as Warnock delivered a careful, yet firm, defense of his record in the Senate, never stumbling over his own words, even in the face of several interruptions by Walker.
That’s not to say that Warnock spent the entire night on offense. He was forced to fend off questions about his stance on abortion rights and how best to address towering inflation. Still, he managed to put Walker on defense as well, accusing his Republican rival of having a tenuous relationship with the truth.
“We will see time and time again tonight what we’ve already seen: that my opponent has a problem with the truth,” Warnock said. “Just because he says something doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Biden dominates — for better or worse
If there was one consistent theme in Walker’s debate performance, it was his repeated effort to tie Warnock to Biden and turn the election into a referendum on the president.
Time and again, Walker brought his remarks back to Biden, seeking to draw attention away from himself and the controversies that have roiled his campaign. He made clear in his opening remarks that the Senate contest shouldn’t be treated as a personality contest.
“This race ain’t about me,” he said. “It’s about what Raphael Warnock and Joe Biden have done to you and your family.”
Warnock, meanwhile, largely defended Biden and his party’s priorities, touting the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — a massive tax and climate change bill signed into law earlier this year — and boasted that he pressed Biden to implement some sort of student loan forgiveness.
That’s not to say Warnock embraced Biden entirely. Asked whether Biden should run for a second term in the White House in 2024, Warnock demurred.
“I’ve not spent a minute thinking about what politician should run for what in 2024,” Warnock said.
Walker allegations fade into the background
Walker’s campaign has found itself mired in controversy repeatedly over the past year. One of the most explosive instances came last week, when The Daily Beast reported that Walker had paid for his now-ex-girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009.
That allegation — which Walker has vehemently denied — flew in the face of his ardently anti-abortion campaign stance. Walker has said that he would support a national ban on the procedure without any exceptions.
But that allegation received little attention on Friday night, allowing Walker to go relatively unscathed on a matter that Democrats see as a potentially fatal weakness for him.
Asked about the abortion allegation during the debate, Walker said that he has been transparent about his personal life, but once again denied the account.
“I say that was a lie,” he said. “And I’m not backing down.”
And the debate didn’t linger on the topic. Instead, it gave way to a conversation about abortion rights that pivoted more on policy and ethics than on Walker’s own alleged behavior. Warnock, for his part, demurred in attacking his opponent over the allegations as well.
The debate’s not likely to change the race much
With Warnock and Walker running only a few points apart in polling ahead of the election, the debate offered the two candidates a chance to sway voters to their respective sides.
That likely didn’t happen.
While both Warnock and Walker sought to assuage any concerns about their candidacies, neither said much to reach out to voters still on the fence. Walker highlighted his anti-abortion stance, talked about his friendship with former President Trump and railed against the idea of student debt forgiveness.
For his part, Warnock leaned into his party’s key talking points. He hammered Republican efforts to ban or severely curtail abortion access, touted Democrats’ legislative record and lamented a Georgia election law that critics say makes it harder for people to vote.
In short, if voters weren’t swayed by either Walker’s or Warnock’s message before Friday, the debate probably didn’t do much to change that. | 2022-10-15T02:10:53+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/hill-politics/five-takeaways-from-the-warnock-walker-debate-in-georgia/ |
Tensions between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are simmering, with considerations about the 2024 presidential election creeping into view as Republicans hope for big wins in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Trump over the weekend took his most direct swipe at DeSantis to date during a rally in Pennsylvania, when he dubbed the governor and potential GOP primary opponent “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
But the former president dialed back the rhetoric after it received a lukewarm reception, urging Floridians on Sunday to vote for DeSantis on Tuesday.
The timing of Trump’s attack on DeSantis raised eyebrows from a number of conservatives, including some who are traditionally Trump allies, who felt it was counterproductive to go after a GOP governor who is on the ballot this week.
“Trump is getting what he wanted out of it with coverage, but it is also a weak attack,” said one former Trump campaign adviser, who called it “petty” to do it so close to Election Day.
One Florida-based GOP strategist said the attack showed Trump is aware of the momentum around a possible DeSantis presidential bid and was seeking to address it head on.
The former president appeared to be firing a warning shot to any would-be challengers in a 2024 GOP presidential primary during the Saturday rally, which was intended to boost Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
As a screen in the background displayed polling numbers Trump had picked out that showed him leading among voters over potential primary challengers, Trump noted he had 71 percent in one poll, while “Ron DeSanctimonious” was at 10 percent.
The budding Trump-DeSantis rivalry was already being discussed after Trump announced a rally in Miami on Sunday for GOP candidates that did not include the governor, who is seeking a second term and who earned Trump’s backing in 2018.
But the rivalry did not escalate on Sunday. DeSantis held a separate event in Sun City Center, Fla., where he did not directly mention the former president as he touted his record on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.
Trump, for his part, directly encouraged voters to back DeSantis.
“You’re going to reelect the wonderful, the great friend of mine Marco Rubio to the United States Senate, and you are going to reelect Ron DeSantis as your governor,” Trump told supporters.
Friction between Trump and DeSantis had reportedly been growing in recent months, as the Florida governor saw his star rise as he fought the Biden administration on the use of masks in schools, immigration and other culture war issues.
Trump has prodded at DeSantis in the past, but not as directly or in front of a crowd of supporters like he did on Saturday. And the Florida governor has previously shrugged off talk of a rift between the two men as a media creation.
“I think this is what the media does,” DeSantis said in January when asked about his relationship with Trump. “You cannot fall for the bait . . . you know what they’re trying to do, so just don’t take it. Just keep on keeping on. We need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022.”
But the two men appear to be on a collision course.
Trump is likely to announce a 2024 presidential bid before the end of the month, according to sources in his orbit, and DeSantis has the backing of a number of conservatives who are eager to move on from Trump out of concern he is the one candidate who could lose the general election.
One former Trump White House official argued DeSantis’ weak spot is that he would eventually have to go after the former president, who in many ways helped fuel DeSantis’ political rise in Florida.
“Once that happens, the Trump base will turn on him,” the former official said.
But many Republicans are hoping any looming Trump-DeSantis battle will remain on hold at least until after Tuesday.
Both men have a lot riding on the midterm results. For Trump, wins for his hand-picked Senate candidates in Arizona, Ohio, Georgia and Pennsylvania could strengthen his grip on the GOP and give him momentum to ride into a potential 2024 announcement.
DeSantis, meanwhile, could win his re-election contest handily and tout GOP gains in Congress in Florida as a result of his leadership of the state, bolstering his own case to be the next face of the party.
“The reality is, regardless of if Blake Masters wins [in Arizona], regardless of if Oz wins [in Pennsylvania], Ron DeSantis is winning by a record amount,” said Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign. “And that’s going to continue his upward trajectory toward being able to win the nomination in 2024. Donald Trump is the front-runner, but he’s not a formidable front-runner.” | 2022-11-07T22:29:18+00:00 | wate.com | https://www.wate.com/hill-politics/trump-desantis-tensions-simmer-away-ahead-of-election-day/ |
Texas ‘is being overrun by our own federal government,’ governor says
By BETHANY BLANKLEY
THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR
(The Center Square) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday he is deploying a tactical border force ahead of the public health authority Title 42 ending on Thursday.
The plans were unveiled on the tarmac of the Austin Bergstrom International Airport.
As he spoke, the new Texas National Guard Tactical Border Force Unit began loading up behind him into black helicopters and C-130 military planes.
“President [Joe] Biden is laying down a welcome mat to people across the entire world saying that the United States border is wide open and it will lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally,” Gov. Abbott said, which will “cause a catastrophic disaster in the United States.”
Citing Biden administration estimates that 13,000 foreign nationals are expected to cross the southern border illegally every day, he said that amounts to about 4.7 million people who “will be coming across the border illegally,” or more “than there are residents of the massive city of Chicago.”
In response, he said, “Texas is doing more than any other state in the United States of America to defend the southern border.”
Adjutant General of the Texas Military Department Major General Thomas Suelzer said the Texas National Guard has executed a multiphase response to Title 42 ending. Phase 1 began last month and is complete, he said, involving shifting troops to hot spots along the border. Last month, 200 additional troops were deployed to El Paso and they also erected 22,000 miles of concertina wire barriers to block illegal entry between ports of entry.
“Yesterday two quick reaction forces were deployed,” Gen. Suelzer said to opposite ends of the Texas-Mexico border. One is currently deployed in El Paso. Another is arriving in the Rio Grande Valley later Monday, he said.
“What you are seeing behind you is phase 3,” he said. The tactical border unit is comprised of 450 personnel who are being deployed to El Paso and to the RGV. The same operation will occur again with over 200 personnel leaving for the RGV Tuesday, he said, completing phase 3 of the operation.
This is in addition to Texas having already deployed 10,000 National Guard troops and 1,200 Texas DPS troopers to the border.
Gen. Suelzer also said he “had the honor of eating dinner with these troops last night. I can tell you the morale is high among the troops and their dedication to the state of Texas is inspirational.”
Despite Texas troops effectively blocking illegal entry between ports of entry south of El Paso, the city declared a state of emergency after thousands arrived at ports of entry believing the border is open and were released into the community by Border Patrol agents. With no money and no means for transportation or plans, people from all over the world have taken over and set up tents on sidewalks downtown and in surrounding areas.
In the RGV in Brownsville, guardsmen last week shut down a major crossing between ports of entry, Gov. Abbott said. The same tactic will be deployed elsewhere where troops will use aircraft, boats, night vision equipment, and riot gear “to prepare for anything they may encounter as they are protecting and securing our border,” he said.
Their efforts are different from the 1,500 military personnel deployed by the Biden administration tasked with assisting Border Patrol agents with processing foreign nationals into the U.S.
“They’re doing paperwork,” Gov. Abbott said. “They’re not actually going to be on the border to secure the border. The goal of the president is not to stop the people from coming across the border illegally. Our job and what we’re focused on, is trying to stop the people coming across illegally.”
The governor said there wouldn’t be any “entanglement” between Texas troops and those the president deployed “because the president is not going to have his troops down there trying to secure the border.”
“Texas has the ability to secure the border,” Gov. Abbott said in response to a reporter inquiry. “If we were acting in isolation, we would have secured the border. We are doing everything possible to try and stop people from crossing the border. At the very same time the president of the United States is putting out the welcome mat. The cartels know it’s the federal government that controls the immigration process. The cartels are working in collaboration with President Biden and the federal government to facilitate that illegals cross the border.”
Referring to Texas, he said, “we are being overrun by our own federal government. Texas is being undermined by our own federal government and our efforts to secure our border. It’s only Joe Biden and his open border policies that’s hindered out ability to secure the border.” | 2023-05-10T14:17:37+00:00 | newspress.com | https://newspress.com/abbott-deploys-new-border-force-to-fight-catastrophic-disaster-as-title-42-ends/ |
LONDON (AP) — King Charles III has made his youngest brother the Duke of Edinburgh, passing on a title held by their late father, Prince Philip.
Buckingham Palace said the title was conferred on Prince Edward on Friday, his 59th birthday.
Edward is the youngest of the four children of Philip and the late Queen Elizabeth II. His wife Sophie will now be known as the Duchess of Edinburgh, and their 15-year-old son James becomes Earl of Wessex, the title Edward previously held.
Prince Philip was made Duke of Edinburgh when he married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, and he held the title until his death in 2021 at the age of 99. It had been Philip’s wish that Edward should get the dukedom after he and the queen had both died. Elizabeth died in September at age 96.
One of Philip’s legacies is the Duke of Edinburgh awards, a popular youth activities program set up in 1956.
The palace said that “the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are proud to continue Prince Philip’s legacy of promoting opportunities for young people of all backgrounds to reach their full potential.”
The announcement comes after another title change this week when Prince Harry and Meghan began officially using the titles Prince and Princess for their children Archie and Lilibet. | 2023-03-10T13:33:38+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/entertainment-news/uk-has-new-duke-of-edinburgh-as-king-gives-his-brother-title/ |
Illuminating your outdoor space
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- Outdoor String lights
- Hampton Bay 3-Tier LED Landscape Lights
- Westinghouse Remington Solar Bronze LED Lights
If you’ve put time and money into creating the perfect garden, you have something beautiful to gaze upon all day long. If you install garden lights, you can appreciate your favorite outdoor space long after the sun goes down.
Garden lights create a warm ambiance when they’re strategically placed throughout your outdoor space. You can highlight a blooming raised garden bed or you can illuminate the walkway to your vegetable and herb garden.
Wondering which garden lights you should buy? Here’s everything you need to know, including some recommendations.
What do I need to know about garden lights?
Perks of garden lights
Garden lights add more than aesthetic appeal to your outdoor space.
- Garden lights enhance ambiance, making an outdoor space warm and inviting. They offer a modest amount of light to nighttime outdoor gatherings.
- Many people install garden lights to boost curb appeal if they’re planning on listing their house for sale. While the lights don’t officially add dollars-and-cents value to a house, they may contribute to its overall attractiveness to buyers.
- Garden lights are helpful for illuminating paths so you can always see where you’re going if you’re taking out the garbage or taking the dog for a walk.
- Some people feel garden lights function as crime deterrents, especially those with motion sensors.
Brightness
According to Energy Star, brightness, or light output, is expressed in lumens as opposed to watts. The higher the lumens, the brighter the light.
If you’re wondering how to choose the right brightness in garden lights, most manufacturers indicate the intended uses and locations for outdoor lights on packaging. Motion sensor lights, for example, are generally brighter than path, step or string lights.
Color
Garden lights are available in a variety of colors that range from warm to cool colors. Light color is expressed in Kelvin units on a spectrum of 2200K to 6500K. Energy Star indicates that the lower the number, the warmer the light. Conversely, the higher the number, the cooler it appears.
Warmer light may be used for mood lighting because it exudes an inviting tone. Cooler light, on the other hand, is closer to natural daylight and has a clean, crisp appearance.
In terms of choosing the best color for garden lights, it boils down to preference. There aren’t any hard and fast rules on light colors, though many consumers agree that the right light color dramatically improves ambiance.
Power
Garden lights are often battery- or solar-powered, though there are some lights that either require electrical wiring or access to an A/C outlet. Here’s how they compare:
- Solar garden lights are considered low-maintenance and energy-efficient. They’re also affordable long-term because you don’t need to purchase replacement batteries.
- Battery-powered lights require more upkeep with the ongoing cost of battery replacements, making them less popular than solar lights.
- Lights that require access to an A/C outlet, like string lights, may require outdoor extension cords. For some people, this may create logistical challenges.
- Some lights, such as spotlights or security lights, need to be hardwired. Installation is a bit more complicated with these and may require a licensed electrician.
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What types of garden lights are there?
Solar garden lights
Solar garden lights are installed in sunny spots around gardens and outdoor spaces. They automatically turn on when it gets dark outside. Unfortunately, some solar lights aren’t very bright.
LED garden lights
LED garden lights remain popular for their bright, clear light. They’re energy-efficient and suitable for most areas around the garden. Their brightness, however, may be intrusive or bothersome to neighbors.
Adjustable garden lights
Adjustable garden lights, also called spotlights, offer customizable lighting options. They’re low-profile so as not to detract from the natural beauty of a garden. One of the pitfalls of spotlights is that you’ll need several to achieve the lighting effect you desire.
Others types of garden lights
Other garden lights include deck, string, fiber optic or step lights. You’ll also find lamp posts, pond lights and fountain lights in this category. Given their diversity in color, brightness and design, you may need to put effort into planning and design to achieve the best lighting effect.
Best garden lights
Hampton Bay 3-Tier LED Landscape Lights
These LED lights are perfect for illuminating pathways with 3100k cool white light. The lights have a frosted plastic lens that creates a soft, blurred light.
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Westinghouse Remington Solar Bronze LED Lights
Affordable and attractive, this set of path lights can light up longer walkways on a budget. They have extra-long stakes to keep them stable and tilt-free.
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Mr. Beams Motion-Sensing LED Step Lights
These reactive lights are suitable for porch and deck steps. The battery-powered lights last through a year of use or more with an average of eight activations per day.
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GAMA SONIC Royal Bulb Series LED Solar Post Light
This stately solar light remains a customer favorite for its regal design. It features durable construction with weather- and rust-resistant cast aluminum.
Sold by Home Depot
Classy Caps Oxford White Integrated LED Post Cap Lights
These low-profile deck lights are used with raised garden beds with 6- by 6-foot posts. They’re equipped with high-performance solar lights that stay lit for up to 12 hours.
Sold by Home Depot
Deck Impressions LED Rock Spotlight
If you’re searching for garden lights that blend in, try these rock spotlights. They give you two light color options as well: warm white or green.
Sold by Home Depot and Amazon
Commercial Electric Outdoor/Indoor LED Rope Light
These versatile rope lights are flexible enough to mount virtually anywhere, from gazebos to raised garden beds. They come with a mounting kit for easy installation.
Sold by Home Depot
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-11T20:46:33+00:00 | wboy.com | https://www.wboy.com/reviews/br/home-br/decor-br/illuminate-your-outdoor-space-with-these-garden-lights/ |
PHOENIX (AP) — Rihanna is putting in the work ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show, focusing so hard on what she promises will be “a jam-packed show” that her upcoming birthday and Valentine’s Day almost slipped her mind.
“The setlist was the biggest challenge. That was the hardest, hardest part. Deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate — that’s what this show is going to be. It’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could have put it together,” Rihanna said.
At a media preview Thursday ahead of Sunday’s matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, the music superstar and new mom said her appearance — her first live event in seven years — feels “like it could have only been now.”
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world, you can do anything. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages of the world,” Rihanna said. “There’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.”
A nine-time Grammy Award-winner, Rihanna has 14 No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.” She and rapper A$AP Rocky recently welcomed her first child.
“At the end of the day, if it flops or it flies, my name has to stand by that. And so I really get involved with every aspect of anything I do,” she said.
Halftime performance sponsor Apple Music held a moderated event Thursday, but moderator Nadeska Alexis was the only journalist allowed to ask Rihanna questions.
Rihanna joins a list of celebrated entertainers who have played during Super Bowl halftime shows, including Beyoncé, Madonna, Coldplay, Katy Perry, U2, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and The Weeknd. Last year, hip-hop was celebrated with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar all performing.
The singer had previously declined to perform in the 2019 halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. But she has said that the timing and circumstances this time around were right for her.
Country music star Chris Stapleton will sing the national anthem, while R&B legend Babyface will perform “America the Beautiful.” Actor-singer Sheryl Lee Ralph will also perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” When asked who they were cheering for on Sunday, Ralph said she was rooting for the Eagles while Stapleton and Babyface said they were backing Rihanna.
Oscar winner Troy Kotsur will perform the national anthem in American sign language. Colin Denny will sign “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be signed by Justina Miles.
Apple Music this year replaced Pepsi, which sponsored the show for the past 10 years. Terms were not announced, but analysts had expected the league to get at least $50 million per year for the rights.
___
For more coverage of this year’s Super Bowl, visit: www.apnews.com/SuperBowl | 2023-02-09T19:38:49+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-rihanna-promises-a-jam-packed-super-bowl-halftime-show/ |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group of women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault and were dismayed when he had his conviction overturned and left prison are trying again to seek justice in the courts, by urging states to give them more time to pursue civil damages.
More than a dozen women have sued the actor and comedian since his June 2021 release, including nine who brought cases Wednesday in Nevada, weeks after successfully lobbying to eliminate the statute of limitations for adult survivors in the state.
They join advocates who battled the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other institutions in the debate over how long adult victims should have to file suit. That debate has intensified in the years since the #MeToo movement exploded onto the national scene, as some states extend deadlines for lawsuits, eliminate them altogether or enact so-called lookback laws establishing windows of a year or two to sue.
Nevada dropped its statute of limitations on May 31. In New York, lawmakers enacted a one-year window for anyone abused as an adult to sue that runs through November. And at least three states have abolished deadlines for people who were abused as children to sue.
Cosby has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 60 women but was only arrested in one case given the shorter time frames that many states have for pursuing criminal charges.
“When Cosby was in jail, there was a sense of justice, even if it wasn’t for what individually happened to them,” said lawyer Jordan Rutsky of New York, who represents 13 Cosby accusers with suits pending in Nevada, New York and New Jersey.
“(Then) he was not only released but took the position that he was exonerated … and there was a feeling of justice being robbed,” Rutsky said. “And so when these laws have been changed, this has been a way for these women to finally seek the justice that has been denied them.”
Their efforts echo the fight to give child sex assault victims more time to come forward and decide whether or not to sue. More than 10,000 such suits were filed in New York alone during a two-year window.
One of the first to file during New York’s one-year window for adult victims was writer E. Jean Carroll, whose claim against former President Donald Trump went to trial and recently resulted in a $5 million judgment in her favor.
Cosby, now 85, was freed from state prison the day the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out a jury verdict that found he had drugged and sexually assaulted a Temple University women’s basketball staffer after inviting her to his home in 2004.
The decision stemmed from a long-running court fight over whether the prosecutor in the 2015 case was bound by his predecessor’s verbal promise in 2005 not to charge the comedian. Cosby — once admired for breaking racial barriers in the 1950s as a Black actor and later known as “America’s dad” for his 1980s sitcom work — served nearly three years in prison of a three- to 10-year term.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt on Thursday blasted the Nevada accusers and their lawyers, in part for filing the lawsuit just before the June 19 Juneteenth holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
“It is disappointing to see that these alleged distractors are able to monetize false allegations against Mr. Cosby,” Wyatt said in a statement. “Mr. Cosby continues to invoke his constitutional rights by saying ‘Not Guilty’ and vehemently denying all of these alleged allegations waged against him.”
Cosby settled a 2005 lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand, the lone accuser in the later criminal trial, after giving a damaging deposition in 2006. His insurer settled a defamation lawsuit in Massachusetts involving seven women while he was in prison.
And the Nevada case follows a flurry of suits since his release, including one filed in California by a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was 16. That case settled for $500,000.
Plaintiff Lise-Lotte Lublin said she worked to change the law in her native Nevada so she too could have her day in court. She accuses Cosby of spiking her drink and raping her at a Las Vegas hotel in 1989. The new law, passed by unanimous vote, rescinds what had been a two-year deadline to sue.
“We prevailed through determination, by showing up and testifying, by pouring our hearts out to the senate and assembly and revealing our darkest moments of fear and anguish,” she said Thursday. “We all fought to ensure that survivors’ voices could be heard (for) generations to come.”
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, said he hoped the new law would bring some closure to victims.
“It doesn’t fix it, but it helps,” Lombardo said, according to KVTN-TV. “With the passage of time people tend to forget the victim, but the victim never forgets.” | 2023-06-16T11:34:57+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/national/cosby-accusers-seek-to-expand-time-frames-for-lawsuits-by-sex-assault-victims/ |
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