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Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City Recognized by U.S. News & World Report
Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City was recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “High Performing Hospital”.
The 33rd annual “Best Hospitals” rankings and ratings, are designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive care for challenging health conditions or for common elective procedures.
Baptist Memorial-Union City Administrator, Skipper Bondurant, said the recognition from U.S. News and World Report as a “High Performing Hospital” was a great honor and compliment.
For the 2022–2023 rankings and ratings, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals, using a measure for survival rates, complication rates, patient experience and level of nursing care. | 2022-09-02T16:35:40+00:00 | thunderboltradio.com | https://www.thunderboltradio.com/baptist-memorial-hospital-union-city-recognized-by-u-s-news-world-report/ |
Which fog machine is best?
Trying to pick out the best fog machine can be a little daunting for some, especially if you aren’t exactly sure how you plan to use it. Still, most buyers can find a fog machine model within their price range, once they identify what they plan to do with the unit.
The AGPTEK Fog Machine is nontoxic, comes with two wireless remotes and 13 colors with effects, all of which make it our top pick.
What to know before you buy a fog machine
Fog machine power
Whether you plan to use it for Halloween or for live events such as weddings, shows or dances, the best fog machines are sorted by their wattage. Generally speaking, fog machines tend to range between 400 and 1,000 watts, with a number of industrial and professional-use fog machines drawing even more power.
Fog machine reservoir
Fog machines include a reservoir with varying volumes, and while most average users can use units with the smallest reservoirs, others who plan to use their fog machines for long periods of time should purchase a model with a large fog reservoir.
Preferred fog-deployment modes
While some cheap fog machines may only include a single manual mode that requires the user to press a button to dispense fog, many buyers find it helpful to purchase fog machines that have timers or the inclusion of remote controls for deploying fog as needed from afar.
What to look for in a quality fog machine
Quiet
Some that plan to use their fog machines as a decorative touch, like Halloween fog machines or those for quiet acoustic concerts, may prefer units that don’t operate at very loud volumes. While it’s a little tough to quantify exactly how loud a given unit is, looking at reviews can be helpful. In addition, mid and high-tier fog machines usually tend to be a little quieter – with the exception of industrial units – while cheap fog machines often make a lot of noise during operation.
Fog machines with a timer
Many buyers specifically seek out fog machines with some kind of timer mechanism, since this can usually make it easier to automate how a given model dispenses fog. Most fog machines with a timer simply let you set the intervals between each fog deployment, so you can customize how foggy it gets overall.
Lights and other features
You can find fog machines with a wide range of helpful and additional features, with one of the most coveted being the inclusion of lights. Fog machines aren’t all that incredible on their own, but once you direct beams of light (especially in color) at them, they begin to illuminate in incredible patterns and displays. As a result, many fog machines include built-in lighting, some in color and some in just white light – with some even offering DMX controllable lighting rigs that can bring any atmosphere to life.
How much you can expect to spend on a fog machine
The price of fog machines varies significantly depending on the quality and intended use of a given unit. Most of the time, you can find cheap fog machines for $30-$50, while others designed for professional use or with other features may cost up to $300 – and sometimes more.
Fog machine FAQ
Is it safe to breathe in the fog made by fog machines?
A. The fog created by fog machines is safe to breathe, although running low-quality fog machines for long periods of time can cause other chemical byproducts, which may not be quite as safe as the fog itself. For this reason, it’s important to turn off your fog machine when not in use and between needs on long days of usage.
How do you clean and maintain your fog machine?
A. Most fog machines advise cleaning the fog nozzle and hoses every 40 hours of use. To clean a fog machine, you can separately buy a fog machine cleaning liquid that you run through the machine for about five minutes at a time.
What ARE the best fog machineS to buy?
Top fog machine
What you need to know: This machine has 13 different colored lights with effects and two wireless remotes.
What you’ll love: The manufacturer claims this machine is more energy efficient than most comparable machines on the market. It’s durable and made with sturdy materials and the fog is nontoxic.
What you should consider: A few users reported the machine broke after one or two uses.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top fog machine for the money
Rockville R720L Fog/Smoke Machine
What you need to know: This fog machine unit from Rockville features one of the fastest start times among comparable fog machines and is lightweight.
What you’ll love: It is compact and easy to move around to different locations.
What you should consider: Some users were dissatisfied with the LED lights, claiming they were too dim. Others recommend using a fluid other than what is provided for thicker fog.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Theefun 400-Watt Smoke/Fog Machine With 2000CFM and Wired or Wireless Remote
What you need to know: This fairly-priced unit includes both a wired and wireless remote control, with up to 2,000 CFM of fog coverage.
What you’ll love: Simple and effective, this unit will get the job done for those who just need a long-lasting, basic fog machine. Whether you’re using it as a Halloween fog machine or for live events and atmosphere, this simple unit is straightforward and durable.
What you should consider: Those who wanted built-in lighting on their fog machines will be disappointed with this unit.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2022-05-29T08:59:34+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/best-fog-machine/ |
GROUNDBREAKING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MOLLY SMITH WILL RETIRE IN 2023
AFTER 25 YEARS OF REDEFINING AND CELEBRATING AMERICAN THEATER IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL
WASHINGTON , June 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater today announced that Artistic Director Molly Smith has decided to retire in July of 2023. The Arena Stage Board of Trustees will conduct a nationwide search to appoint a new Artistic Director to build on the pioneering legacy of Smith and Arena's Founder Zelda Fichandler.
Smith took the helm of this historic, internationally recognized theater—the first integrated theater in Washington, D.C.—at a time when women artistic directors of leading theaters were few and far between. For 25 years and under her leadership, Arena Stage has produced more than 200 productions, championing the work of countless emerging and established playwrights.
Smith regularly infused new life into classic American musicals such as South Pacific, Anything Goes, and Oklahoma!, while also developing and/or producing multiple Broadway successes, including Tony Award winners Dear Evan Hansen and Next to Normal. In addition, more than 150 new works that originated at Arena, including The Originalist and Destiny of Desire, have been produced around the United States.
"I came to Washington 25 years ago with an important mandate: we needed to focus Arena on American plays, American voices, and American artists," says Smith. "In that process, we mined a rich vein of talent for our stages. It was a bold move that led to our audiences and programming becoming as diverse as America. And I was fortunate to be able to do it with a remarkably talented, fully committed staff who excel at bringing dreams to life."
Smith also drove the design and development of The Mead Center for American Theater—one of the most distinctive buildings in Washington, D.C.—as a home for all American voices, past, present, and future. "With its glass walls around all three theaters and soaring 65' roof, the Mead Center is built for American artists, who I always tell to 'hit the roof' with their performances," said Smith. "In fact, Zelda Fichandler called it the 8th Wonder of the Theater World. Today, our groundbreaking Mead Center contributes to our community long after the stage lights have dimmed, as it continues to drive development on D.C.'s Southwest Waterfront."
Smith's theatrical innovations included showcasing American history through the ambitious Power Plays Initiative which, by 2024, will have commissioned 25 plays over 10 years. Arena's Power Plays include works by Lawrence Wright (Camp David); Eduardo Machado (Celia and Fidel); Aaron Posner (JQA); John Strand (The Originalist); Craig Lucas (Change Agent); Kenneth Lin (Exclusion in the upcoming 2022/23 Season); and Nathan Alan Davis (The High Ground, also in the upcoming 2022/23 Season).
Edgar Dobie, Arena's Executive Producer, has worked with Smith for 13 seasons, and calls their day-to-day balance of ambition and capacity "an amazing run for any partnership, especially when spent with an artist and executive like Molly who knows her heart and mind, and remains a pioneer." He continues, "With her talent and innate instinct for building a legacy worth protecting but also sharing, Molly is nothing short of spectacular."
Decker Anstrom, Chair of Arena's Board of Trustees, proffered a touching salute to Smith: "Molly Smith has built an indelible legacy of excellence, creativity, inclusion, and bold leadership during her remarkable 25 years as Arena Stage's Artistic Director. Arena Stage, our Greater D.C. community and, indeed, all of American theater will be forever the better for what she has accomplished."
Born into a family of actors, Smith's early years in the theater have long since become industry lore. After earning her undergraduate degree at Catholic University and her graduate degree at American University in Washington, D.C., she launched Perseverance Theatre in her hometown of Juneau, Alaska. "At the age of 19, I was crazy enough to think I could start theater in Alaska. At 26, we dragged 50 used theater seats across the country and, by sheer force of will, Perseverance Theatre was born."
"When I think about Molly Smith, these words come to mind: visionary, community builder, artist, provocative, influential, feminist, activist, and leader," said Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, activist, and artist, Eve Ensler. "Arena Stage is a model for American theater in the way it supports writers, actors, and artists and sustained working relationships with them over time. She has built a magnificent community in Washington, D.C. by her bold ideas, diverse programming, and awe-inspiring risks. She imagined a grand new building and the Mead Center for American Theater was born. She will be sorely missed!"
"Molly Smith literally changed my life and the lives of so many others with her brilliant guidance, impeccable wisdom, infectious laughter, and true joy," said theater, television and film artist Charles Randolph-Wright, recipient of Arena's 2022 "American Artist" Award, and co-creator of Arena's upcoming world-premiere musical American Prophet, which will kick off its 2022/23 Season. "Her influence is global, her loyalty is unwavering, and her heart belongs in the Smithsonian for the love she truly has given the world with her exemplary artistry."
Randolph-Wright continued, "The past two years have seen a much-needed reckoning and hopefully a seismic shift culturally, but Molly has been at the forefront of inclusion her entire time at Arena and before. She has always demanded diverse, intriguing, difficult, and important work, specifically American work and voices and, in doing so, she helmed a revolution. She forced us all to become braver and stronger artists. Thank you for seeing, hearing, and loving us, Molly!"
A long-time citizen activist, Smith's deep commitment to the community has touched over a quarter of a million lives through creative programming, including the Voices of Now Festival for young artists, and Camp Arena Stage. "Even during COVID-19, we continued to innovate, making five films. These included May 22, 2020, a time capsule of D.C. during a day in life of 10 people during COVID [sic], and The 51st State, a film about the Black Lives Matter uprising in D.C. and a conversation about D.C. statehood."
Smith's many accolades and honors include being a Creative Advisor to the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab multiple times between 1999 and 2004; named to American University's Alumni Hall of Fame in 2003; named "Washingtonian of the Year" in 2011; and awarded Director of Distinction by The Academy of Arts, Cairo, Egypt, in November 2019. She made her Broadway debut in 2014 with The Velocity of Autumn, where Estelle Parsons was nominated for a Tony Award.
Smith received the Governor's Award for the Arts from the Alaska State Legislature in 1998 and was inducted into the Washington, D.C., Hall of Fame Society in 2018. She holds honorary doctorates from both American and Towson Universities. In addition to her many artistic accomplishments, Smith and her partner Suzanne Blue Star Boy, along with a group of Facebook friends, organized the March on Washington for Gun Control after the Sandy Hook Massacre.
Watch a video statement from Molly Smith on her decision to retire after her 25th Arena Stage season here.
Read Molly Smith's directing credits at Arena Stage here.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. Arena Stage produces plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays and impacting the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement. Now in its eighth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. arenastage.org
Connect with us:
facebook.com/arenastage
twitter.com/arenastage
instagram.com/arenastage/
youtube.com/user/arenastage1
arenastage.org/
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SOURCE Arena Stage | 2022-06-10T17:36:46+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/06/10/molly-smith-retire-arena-stage-2023/ |
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until November 7, 2022 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT), if they purchased the Company's shares between June 8, 2019, and May 25, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.
If you purchased shares of Medtronic and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-mdt/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by November 7, 2022.
Medtronic and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.
On May 26, 2022, the Company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2022, and provided guidance for fiscal year 2023, disclosing that as a result of the company's need to improve its quality control system and its expectation that the MiniMed 780G model - which Defendants had repeatedly identified as crucial to future growth - would not be approved in 2023, the company expected revenues from its Diabetes Group to decline between 6% and 7% in fiscal year 2023.
On this news, shares of Medtronic fell $6.10 per share, or nearly 6%, from a close of $105.54 per share on May 25, 2022, to close at $99.44 per share on May 26, 2022.
The case is The Trustees of the Welfare and Pension Funds of Local 464A – Pension Fund, The Trustees of the Local 464A United Food & Commercial Workers' Union Welfare Service Benefit Fund, and The Trustees of the New York-New Jersey Amalgamated Pension Plan for Acme Employees v. Medtronic plc, et al., Case No. 22-cv-02197.
KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients – including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors – in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
Contact:
Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner
lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com
1-877-515-1850
1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200
New Orleans, LA 70163
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SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC | 2022-10-15T03:20:17+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/10/15/medtronic-shareholder-alert-by-former-louisiana-attorney-general-kahn-swick-amp-foti-llc-reminds-investors-with-losses-excess-100000-lead-plaintiff-deadline-class-action-lawsuit-against-medtronic-plc-mdt/ |
NIIGATA, Japan (AP) — The financial leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations will meet in Japan beginning Thursday as a standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling looms as one of the biggest potential threats to the global economy.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said one of her priorities in Niigata, a port city on the Japan Sea coast, would be to emphasize the importance of resolving the standoff over the national debt.
“I will underscore the importance of Congress acting to resolve the debt limit to maintain America’s economic leadership and protect the global economy,” Yellen said in a tweet Thursday.
Yellen also is bound to be seeking to reassure her counterparts over recent bank failures that have raised worries over risks for the global financial system.
The finance ministers and central bank governors are meeting for three days ahead of a G-7 summit later this month in Hiroshima.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he and congressional leaders had a “productive” meeting Tuesday on trying to raise the nation’s debt limit. They will meet again Friday to try to avert the risk as soon as June 1 of an unprecedented government default if lawmakers in the divided Congress don’t agree to raise the debt ceiling.
Biden said he was “absolutely certain” that the country could avert a default, declaring that failure to meet America’s obligations, upon which much of the world’s finances are based, “is not an option.”
Biden said it was “possible but not likely” that he would need to postpone his trip to Japan, Australia and Papua New Guinea later this month.
Yellen said in remarks prepared ahead of Thursday’s meetings that strengthening the global financial system is a key G-7 priority. So is a renewed show of support for Ukraine as a coalition of over 30 countries seeks to impose heavy economic costs on Russia for its war.
She said Biden’s “historic” investments in modernizing U.S. infrastructure were a step toward improving the resilience of an economy whose reliance on global supply chains was sorely tested during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are taking a broad range of individual and joint actions to bring down inflation, sustain growth, and help mitigate the impact of external shocks, including to developing countries,” she said.
The Federal Reserve said in a report this week that U.S. banks raised their lending standards for business and consumer loans in the aftermath of three large bank failures that were in part brought on by the central bank’s sharp increases in interest rates to beat down inflation that surge to four-decade highs after the pandemic.
The Fed surveyed 65 U.S. banks and U.S. branches of 19 foreign banks in late March and early April, well after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed in early March, touching off the latest round of bank turmoil. First Republic Bank failed earlier this month in the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
Rate increases are meant to slow lending and borrowing but can overshoot their goal, tipping the economy into recession. Moves by banks to further limit lending could further squeeze businesses and consumers.
Inflation has remained stubbornly high. Consumer prices in the United States rose 0.4% in April, up sharply from a 0.1% rise from February to March, and measures of underlying inflation stayed high, a sign that further declines in inflation are likely to be slow and bumpy even though the annual increase of 4.9% was the smallest in two years.
Other G-7 economies are contending with even higher surging prices, obliging their central banks to raise interest rates that went to record lows in the early days of the pandemic.
G-7 financial leaders met just a month ago, in Washington during the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, where they reiterated t heir commitment to helping economies cope with the impact of the war in Ukraine, to help heavily indebted countries resolve their financial vulnerability, fortify global health systems and help to tackle climate change.
G-7 nations include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Others invitees to the meetings in Niigata include the European Union, IMF and World Bank, and the finance ministers of Brazil, Comoros, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore. | 2023-05-11T04:05:12+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/business-news/g7-finance-ministers-tackle-global-economic-challenges-as-yellen-seeks-to-reassure-on-debt-standoff/ |
NAIROBI – The heavily armed men appeared around the small farming village in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, frightening residents already on edge after recent clashes between government troops and rebels.
“The militants assured us that they will not touch us. They said they are not after us,” resident Nur Hussein Abdi told The Associated Press. “But in reality, they were surrounding our whole village for a deadly massacre. What happened the next day was a total bloodbath.”
Abdi escaped by hiding on a rooftop, a horrified witness to one of the worst mass killings in Ethiopia in recent years. Hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Amhara, were slaughtered in Tole village and the surroundings on June 18 in the latest explosion of ethnic violence in Africa’s second most populous nation.
Multiple witnesses told the AP they are still discovering bodies, with some put in mass graves containing scores of people. The Amhara Association of America said it has confirmed 503 civilians killed. Ethiopian authorities have not released figures. One witness, Mohammed Kemal, said he has witnessed 430 bodies buried, and others are still exposed and decomposing.
Kemal begged Ethiopia’s government to relocate the survivors, saying the armed men had threatened to return.
“They killed infants, children, women and the elderly,” resident Ahmed Kasim said. The Amhara Association of America said the dead include a 100-year-old and a one-month-old baby, and some people were killed in a mosque where they had tried to hide.
Residents and Oromia regional officials have blamed the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed group that Ethiopia’s government has declared a terrorist organization. An OLA spokesman denied it, alleging that federal troops and regional militia attacked the villagers for their perceived support of the OLA as they retreated from an OLA offensive.
Again, Ethiopians are left wondering why the federal government failed to protect them from the violent side of the country’s ethnic tensions — and why ethnic minorities in a federal system based on identity are left so vulnerable.
Teddy Afro, Ethiopia’s much celebrated pop star, released two songs this week highlighting the crisis that has worsened in the past four years and dedicating his songs to civilians who have lost their lives.
“It’s never an option to keep quiet when a mountain of death comes in front of me,” one of his lyrics says.
On Friday, thousands of students at Gondar University in the neighboring Amhara region protested the killings and demanded justice.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has said security forces have launched a military operation against the OLA, but many Ethiopians appear skeptical after seeing the deadly cycle play out in the past.
The president of the Oromia region, Shimelis Abdisa, on Thursday acknowledged that it will be difficult to arrange security in every location, but said the current operation “will cripple the enemy’s ability to move from place to place.”
Ethnic Amhara are Ethiopia’s second-largest ethnic group but have found themselves under attack in some areas where they are in the minority. Several dozen were killed in attacks in the Benishangul Gumuz and Oromia regions over the past three years alone.
“Ethnic Amharas who live outside of their region do not have legal and political representation, which results in no protection,” said Muluken Tesfaw, a community activist who tracks abuses against the Amhara. “There were even speeches by Oromia region government officials that seek to reduce Amharic-speaking people.”
“An anti-Amhara narrative has been spreading for over 50 years now,” said Belete Molla, chairman of the opposition NaMA party. “The Amhara living in Oromia and Benishangul are hence being targeted.” He also accused some members of the Oromia region’s ruling party of “working for or sympathizing with the Oromo Liberation Army.”
The latest mass killings brought international alarm. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has urged Ethiopian authorities to hold “prompt, impartial and through” investigations. The U.S. State Department called on Ethiopians to “reject violence and pursue peace.”
Ethiopia continues to struggle with ethnic tensions in several parts of the country and a deadly conflict in the northern Tigray region that has severely affected the once rapidly growing economy, but the prime minister is adamant that better days are ahead.
“There is no doubt that Ethiopia is on the path of prosperity,” he declared in a parliament address this month.
But Ethiopians who escaped the latest attack seek answers.
Nur Hussein said he and other Tole villagers had called nearby officials about the appearance of the armed men shortly before the violence exploded. “Their response was muted. They said there were no specific threats to respond to. But look at what unfolded,” he said. “God willing, we will get past this, but it is a scar that will live with us forever.” | 2022-06-25T13:34:30+00:00 | wsls.com | https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2022/06/25/total-bloodbath-witnesses-describe-ethiopia-ethnic-attack/ |
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A fire set off by stored gasoline in a residential building killed 21 people Thursday evening in a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, the territory’s Hamas rulers said, in one of the deadliest incidents in recent years outside the violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The blaze erupted on the third floor of a three-story building in the crowded Jabaliya camp, according to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. No one inside the house survived.
The Civil Defense in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, attributed the cause of the fire to gasoline that was being stored in the building. It was not immediately clear how the gasoline ignited. Officials said an investigation was underway.
Flames were seen spewing out of the windows of the burning floor as hundreds of people gathered outside on the street, waiting for fire trucks and ambulances.
Gaza, ruled by Hamas and under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade, faces a severe energy crisis. People often store cooking gas, diesel and gasoline in homes in preparation for winter. House fires have previously been caused by candles and gas leaks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered condolences to the families of the dead and declared Friday a day of mourning.
Tor Wennesland, the United Nations’ Middle East peace envoy, expressed “heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families, relatives and friends of those who died in the accident; the Government, and the Palestinian people.”
Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian Authority official, called on Israel to open its border crossing with Gaza to allow for the evacuation of those injured who need advanced medical care to Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It was later confirmed that all in the house had died.
COGAT, the Israeli body controlling the Erez Crossing with the Gaza Strip, did not comment.
But Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz sent his condolences to the Palestinians, writing on Twitter that “we have offered our assistance in evacuating injured civilians to hospitals via COGAT. The State of Israel is prepared to provide life-saving, medical aid to Gaza residents.” | 2022-11-18T16:31:23+00:00 | ksn.com | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-palestinian-officials-say-house-fire-in-gaza-strip-kills-21/ |
Preparing Valentine’s Dinner at home is a cozy and romantic way to celebrate the holiday of love. In the spirit of Feb. 14, a sweet treat following the main course is a must. You can be prepared to make a tempting dessert with the guidance of BestReviews baking expert Andrea Boudewijn. As a Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef, she offered pro-level tips about what it takes to make desserts that are as special as they are delicious.
In this article: Wilton 55-Piece Master Cake Decorating Tip Set, Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan and a KitchenAid Classic Series Stand Mixer.
Boudewijn’s favorite desserts for Valentine’s Day
Most days of the year, any dessert will do. Boudewijn said that Valentine’s Day is a holiday when you want to indulge in something special.
“I love to make something rich and sumptuous, something sexy. If I’m not making my honey’s favorite dessert, I lean toward chocolate,” she said, adding that she loves a warm five-nut brownie made with coconut oil for a little flavor flair topped with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Boudewijn has another dessert choice that’s unique and great for Valentine’s Day. “It’s the American version of the famous French dessert, the Opera Cake. This involves baking an almond cake, soaking it with dark rum simple syrup, and layering it with ganache and French mocha buttercream in between. Stunning,” she said.
Make it special
Do you want to take your Valentine’s Day desserts to the next level? Boudewijn recommended some simple yet elegant ways to make your sweet delicacies stand out:
- Sprinkle on some edible gold flakes to add a touch of pizzazz.
- Top off baked goods with white sanding sugar so they sparkle.
- Make a simple syrup to add a burst of flavor to your favorite dessert.
- Use 5 parts simple syrup to 1 part alcohol for best results
Boudewijn included a recipe for a simple syrup that will make an excellent addition to your special desserts for Valentine’s Day and beyond.
“Simple syrup can be used over a bowl of ice cream, to soak a cake, to glaze a pie or brownies or even just as a decoration on the plate under a slice of something amazing,” she said.
Simple syrup (rum, Grand Marnier and rye variations)
- 2 cups of water
- 2 cups of sugar
Method:
Place sugar and water and bring just to a boil. Take it off the heat, cool and store it in the freezer.
When you want to mix flavor into your simple syrup, blend 5 ounces of simple syrup with 1 ounce of the alcohol. Don’t add more alcohol than that or it will create a bitter, overpowering flavor of alcohol and will cause you to lose the delicate sweetness of your dessert. If you need more simple syrup than that, double or triple your amounts.
Boudewijn’s favorite products for Valentine’s Day desserts
Wilton 55-Piece Master Cake Decorating Tip Set
Boudewijn recommended a comprehensive cake decorating kit for creating beautiful cakes for your Valentine’s Day dessert. We love this one by Wilton for its 55 well-made pieces that can be cleaned in the dishwasher.
Sold by Amazon
If you want to serve chocolatey goodness this Valentine’s Day, you need a brownie pan. It’s the unique maze pattern of this pan that ensures your brownies will have nice crispy edges. They’ll also slide off the nonstick surface with ease.
Sold by Amazon
KitchenAid Classic Series Stand Mixer
If you want a tool that makes it possible to mix dessert ingredients to perfection, you need one of the best stand mixers. “To make everything sweet and savory with the perfect consistency, use a KitchenAid,” advised Boudewijn.
Sold by Amazon
Godiva Chocolatier Signature Truffles
Boudewijn said there is a simple way to make a cake extra special for your Valentine. “Chocolates are never a bad idea, and Godiva is the best. Place some of these chocolates on or around the sides of a special cake.”
Sold by Amazon
Nomeca 12-Color Cake Food Coloring Set
If you want to make a cake with the colors of Valentine’s Day, this food color set includes 12 colors that will bring out your culinary creativity. Boudewijn said the right colors can be used to create a beautiful red velvet cake for the holiday.
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Nostalgia Chocolate Fondue Fountain
Chocolate-covered strawberries are a classic Valentine’s Day treat. You can make your own at home when you have a chocolate fountain that turns chocolate into a dippable delicacy.
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Parrish’s Magic Line Round Cake Pan
“If you’re baking a personal cake for the two of you, Parrish’s is the best brand out there. Consider getting a 6-inch round for two people, or this 8-inch round model if you want leftover cake,” Boudewijn said.
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Amazon Commercial Nonstick Silicone Spatula Set
Don’t forget the silicone spatulas for stirring, spreading, serving and more. This set includes four spatulas in two sizes for a variety of needs.
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Fox Run Polished Marble Rolling Pin
This rolling pin is constructed of marble that’s nonstick and produces even results, which is exactly what you need when preparing dough for cookies or pies.
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For an extra-special treat, Boudewijn recommended investing in an ice cream maker, “If you’re feeling ambitious, try making your own specialty ice cream just for your valentine,” she said.
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Worth checking out
- A well-made ice cream scoop like this stainless steel tool by Midnight Scoop is a must-have if you’ll be serving ice cream.
- If you are making pies, Boudewijn said, use quality pie pans like this pair by Pyrex.
- Don’t forget a topping, such as the delicious whip cream you can make with the Isi Gourmet Food Whipper.
- Boudewijn said that homemade cotton candy is a memorable Valentine’s Day treat. The Cotton Candy Express is our favorite budget-friendly machine.
- “Silicone baking mats (such as this set of two by Silpat) greatly reduce the odds of burning your baked goods like cookies,” she said.
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2023-02-14T21:04:56+00:00 | siouxlandproud.com | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/bakeware-baking-tools-br/cooking-dinnerbestreviews-baking-expert-shares-what-youll-need-to-make-valentines-day-dessert/ |
The two candidates for governor in New York, Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin, have close associations with the current and former presidents of their parties, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Both candidates have drawn on their relationships with Biden and Trump to benefit themselves—and criticize each other.
During the one and only debate of the 2022 New York governor’s race, held by Spectrum News, Hochul was given the opportunity to ask Zeldin a question. She homed in on Zeldin’s association with former President Donald Trump.
“Is Donald Trump a great president?” Hochul asked Zeldin. “Yes or no?”
Zeldin, who held a fundraiser with Trump in July and who has been endorsed by the former president, hesitated. He praised Trump for some policies, including securing the southern border and handling the pandemic. But he did not directly answer the question.
“I will take that as a resounding yes,” Hochul finally said. “And the voters of New York do not agree with you.”
Zeldin was an early supporter of Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
The July fundraiser with Trump gained Zeldin a significant amount of donations that helped him become competitive with Hochul in television ads.
And on Jan. 6, 2021, Zeldin sided with other Trump supporters in Congress and voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. He said his objections were narrowly focused on potential voter irregularities in two states, allegations later shown to be false.
While Trump is popular with some New Yorkers, he’s disliked by the majority of voters in the state, including many independent voters who Zeldin would need to win the governor’s seat.
As a result, Zeldin downplayed the endorsement.
“It shouldn’t have been news,” Zeldin said on Oct. 14. “He’s supported me before this weekend.”
Hochul, in ads, uses Zeldin’s ties to Trump to portray him negatively to voters.
One ad features footage of Trump at an April 2022 event at Mar-a-Lago saying, “Lee fought for me very, very hard.” Zeldin is seen standing nearby.
Zeldin’s voice is also featured.
“President Trump, I stand with him, I support him,” Zeldin says in the ad.
“Zeldin voted with Trump too, nearly 90% of the time,” the narrator continues.
The ad also shows Trump giving Zeldin a friendly tap on the shoulder, and a photo of the two men, smiling.
Zeldin has said most New Yorkers no longer care about a past president. He said they’re focused on the future and how New York will deal with rising crime and a faltering economy.
“As I travel around the state … at no point am I coming across people who say, ‘What will decide my vote for governor is based off of who the last president was,’” Zeldin said. “It doesn’t happen.”
Hochul, meanwhile, has highlighted her close relationship with President Joe Biden. During the debate, she mentioned the president twice, saying she was consulting him on how to handle New York’s immigration crisis caused partially by Republican governors from other states flying or busing immigrants to New York. Hochul also said she’ll support Biden for re-election.
“He has delivered for the people of this country in ways that we still don’t know the benefits,” she said.
Hochul cited the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure package as examples.
On Thursday, Hochul met Biden in Syracuse, where he toured the site where Micron Technology plans to build a microchip processing plant that is projected to lead to as many as 50,000 direct and support jobs.
“President Joe Biden. I want to thank him for coming to town, not for a law school reunion, but a reunion of upstate with the glorious past of its manufacturing legacy,” Hochul said. “We've waited our lives for this … to have that sense of hope again.”
Biden returned the favor.
“You’ve been a great partner to me and a great leader for the state,” said Biden, who credited Hochul for landing the Micron deal. “You signed a law to make New York even more welcoming.”
Biden is more popular than Trump in New York. He has an overall 53% approval rating, according to the latest Siena College poll, with 83% of Democrats saying they like the job that he is doing in office. He is underwater with independent voters, though with 47% approving and 51% disapproving of his performance.
Before Biden arrived, Zeldin held an event in Syracuse, where he characterized the presidential visit as an act of political desperation.
“Twelve days out from the election, this is a political visit,” Zeldin said.
And he said Hochul’s close associations with the president won’t help her on Election Day.
“If she wants to campaign with Joe Biden every day, between now and Nov. 8, I don’t care,” said Zeldin, who added he’s not running against Biden, but against Hochul.
“Kathy Hochul hasn’t yet realized that she’s running against Lee Zeldin,” the congressman said. “She thinks that she’s running against somebody else.”
It’s a little over a week until Election Day, with early voting beginning Saturday. | 2022-10-28T20:37:45+00:00 | wbfo.org | https://www.wbfo.org/2022-10-28/how-trump-and-biden-are-shaping-new-yorks-governor-race |
Fiscal Third Quarter Total Revenues of $1.60 Billion, Up 20.5% Year Over Year
Subscription Revenues of $1.43 Billion, Up 22.3% Year Over Year
24-Month Subscription Revenue Backlog of $8.62 Billion, Up 21.1% Year Over Year
Total Subscription Revenue Backlog of $14.10 Billion, Up 28.5% Year Over Year
PLEASANTON, Calif., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced results for the fiscal 2023 third quarter ended October 31, 2022.
Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter Results
- Total revenues were $1.60 billion, an increase of 20.5% from the third quarter of fiscal 2022. Subscription revenues were $1.43 billion, an increase of 22.3% from the same period last year.
- Operating loss was $26.3 million, or negative 1.6% of revenues, compared to an operating income of $23.9 million, or 1.8% of revenues, in the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $314.2 million, or 19.7% of revenues, compared to a non-GAAP operating income of $332.2 million, or 25.0% of revenues, in the same period last year.1
- Basic and diluted net loss per share was $0.29, compared to basic and diluted net income per share of $0.17 in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per share was $1.01 and $0.99, respectively, compared to non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per share of $1.15 and $1.10, respectively, in the same period last year.2
- Operating cash flows were $408.7 million compared to $384.7 million in the prior year.
- Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $5.49 billion as of October 31, 2022.
Comments on the News
"We delivered another solid quarter, demonstrating how our cloud finance and HR solutions are vital for global organizations navigating today's changing world," said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder, co-CEO, and chairman, Workday. "There is no question that the current macro environment presents increased uncertainty, but, due to the great work of our employees and our continued innovation, we are confident in the long-term opportunity and our ability to navigate the road ahead."
"Our strong third-quarter results illustrate how global organizations are continuing to choose Workday as the backbone of their digital transformation in the face of constant change," said Chano Fernandez, co-CEO, Workday. "As we look ahead, we will continue to focus our efforts on industry investments and driving innovation with our open and connected partner ecosystem, which are critical to our customers' success."
"We delivered solid third-quarter results, a testament to strong execution across the company as well as the strategic and mission-critical nature of our solutions," said Barbara Larson, chief financial officer, Workday. "Our updated outlook reflects the ongoing momentum in our business and the power of our business model, while continuing to balance the current environment. We are raising the low end of our fiscal 2023 subscription revenue guidance to a range of $5.555 billion to $5.557 billion, or 22% growth. We are also raising our fiscal 2023 non-GAAP operating margin guidance to 19.2%, reflecting our commitment to delivering healthy growth and profitability."
Recent Highlights
- Workday announced that its Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program, with a term of 18 months, to purchase up to $500 million of shares of its Class A common stock.
- Workday announced its vision for a more open and connected partner ecosystem, which includes the launch of Industry Accelerators, a new industry program that accelerates customer enterprise cloud transformations with partners.
- Workday announced new technology and user experience innovations aimed at helping customers meet evolving business and employee needs, including low-code/no-code app development functionality in Workday Extend, the Company's app building solution that helps developers to more quickly and easily build apps on Workday.
- Workday introduced next-generation skills technology, built on an AI/ML foundation, that allows organizations to easily and securely bring skills data in and out of Workday to deliver more personalized employee experiences.
- Workday was named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises for the seventh consecutive year and positioned the highest for overall Ability to Execute.3
Earnings Call Details
Workday plans to host a conference call today to review its fiscal 2023 third quarter financial results and to discuss its financial outlook. The call is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET and can be accessed via webcast. The webcast will be available live, and a replay will be available following completion of the live broadcast for approximately 90 days.
Workday uses the Workday Blog as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
1 Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin exclude share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, and amortization expense for acquisition-related intangible assets. See the section titled "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in the accompanying financial tables for further details.
2 Non-GAAP net income per share excludes share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, amortization expense for acquisition-related intangible assets, and income tax effects. See the section titled "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in the accompanying financial tables for further details.
3 Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises," by Sam Grinter, Chris Pang, Jeff Freyermuth, Ron Hanscome, Helen Poitevin, Ranadip Chandra, John Kostoulas, Emi Chiba, Rania Stewart, October 31, 2022.
Gartner Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
About Workday
Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, helping customers adapt and thrive in a changing world. Workday applications for financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics have been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.
© 2022 Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday and the Workday logo are registered trademarks of Workday, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to Workday's financial results as determined in accordance with GAAP are included at the end of this press release following the accompanying financial data. For a description of these non-GAAP financial measures, including the reasons management uses each measure, please see the section of the tables titled "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures." A reconciliation of our forward outlook for non-GAAP operating margin with our forward-looking GAAP operating margin is not available without unreasonable efforts as the quantification of share-based compensation expense, which is excluded from our non-GAAP operating margin, requires additional inputs such as the number of shares granted and market prices that are not ascertainable.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding Workday's full-year fiscal 2023 subscription revenues and non-GAAP operating margin, our intended share repurchases, growth, innovation, opportunities, demand, momentum, and investments. These forward-looking statements are based only on currently available information and our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. If the risks materialize, assumptions prove incorrect, or we experience unexpected changes in circumstances, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not rely on any forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to: (i) our ability to implement our plans, objectives, and other expectations with respect to any of our acquired companies; (ii) the impact of recent macroeconomic events on our business, as well as our customers, prospects, partners, and service providers; (iii) breaches in our security measures or those of our third-party providers, unauthorized access to our customers' or other users' personal data, or disruptions in our data center or computing infrastructure operations; (iv) service outages, delays in the deployment of our applications, and the failure of our applications to perform properly; (v) our ability to manage our growth effectively; (vi) competitive factors, including pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors and new applications, advancements in technology, and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (vii) the development of the market for enterprise cloud applications and services; (viii) acceptance of our applications and services by customers and individuals, including any new features, enhancements, and modifications, as well as the acceptance of any underlying technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence; (ix) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (x) the regulatory, economic, and political risks associated with our domestic and international operations; (xi) the regulatory risks related to new and evolving technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence; (xii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; and (xiii) changes in sales, which may not be immediately reflected in our results due to our subscription model. Further information on these and additional risks that could affect Workday's results is included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including our Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2022, and our future reports that we may file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Workday assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
Any unreleased services, features, or functions referenced in this document, our website, or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Workday's discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Workday services should make their purchase decisions based upon services, features, and functions that are currently available.
About Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To provide investors and others with additional information regarding Workday's results, we have disclosed the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share. Workday has provided a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure used in this earnings release to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. Non-GAAP operating income (loss) and non-GAAP operating margin differ from GAAP in that they exclude share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, and amortization expense for acquisition-related intangible assets. Non-GAAP net income (loss) per share differs from GAAP in that it excludes share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, amortization expense for acquisition-related intangible assets, and income tax effects.
Workday's management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to understand and compare operating results across accounting periods, for internal budgeting and forecasting purposes, for short- and long-term operating plans, and to evaluate Workday's financial performance. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures reflect Workday's ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparisons and analysis of trends in Workday's business. Management also believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating Workday's operating results and prospects in the same manner as management and in comparing financial results across accounting periods and to those of peer companies.
Management believes excluding the following items from the GAAP Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations is useful to investors and others in assessing Workday's operating performance due to the following factors:
- Share-based compensation expenses. Although share-based compensation is an important aspect of the compensation of our employees and executives, management believes it is useful to exclude share-based compensation expenses to better understand the long-term performance of our core business and to facilitate comparison of our results to those of peer companies. Share-based compensation expenses are determined using a number of factors, including our stock price, volatility, and forfeiture rates, that are beyond our control and generally unrelated to operational decisions and performance in any particular period. Further, share-based compensation expenses are not reflective of the value ultimately received by the grant recipients.
- Other operating expenses. Other operating expenses includes employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions and amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. The amount of employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions is dependent on our stock price and other factors that are beyond our control and do not correlate to the operation of the business. For business combinations, we generally allocate a portion of the purchase price to intangible assets. The amount of the allocation is based on estimates and assumptions made by management and is subject to amortization. The amount of purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of its related amortization can vary significantly and are unique to each acquisition and thus we do not believe it is reflective of ongoing operations. Although we exclude the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets from these non-GAAP measures, management believes that it is important for investors to understand that such intangible assets were recorded as part of purchase accounting and contribute to revenue generation.
- Income tax effects. We utilize a fixed long-term projected tax rate in our computation of the non-GAAP income tax provision to provide better consistency across the reporting periods. In projecting this long-term non-GAAP tax rate, we utilize a three-year financial projection that excludes the direct impact of share-based compensation and related employer payroll taxes, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, and amortization of debt discount and issuance costs. The projected rate considers other factors such as our current operating structure, existing tax positions in various jurisdictions, and key legislation in major jurisdictions where we operate. For fiscal 2023 and 2022, we determined the projected non-GAAP tax rate to be 19%, which reflects currently available information, as well as other factors and assumptions. We will periodically re-evaluate this tax rate, as necessary, for significant events, based on our ongoing analysis of the 2017 U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, relevant tax law changes, material changes in the forecasted geographic earnings mix, and any significant acquisitions.
The use of non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share measures have certain limitations as they do not reflect all items of income and expense that affect Workday's operations. Workday compensates for these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Further, these non-GAAP measures may differ from the non-GAAP information used by other companies, including peer companies, and therefore comparability may be limited. Management encourages investors and others to review Workday's financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.
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SOURCE Workday Inc. | 2022-11-29T22:10:01+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/11/29/workday-announces-fiscal-2023-third-quarter-financial-results/ |
Police find 45 bags containing human remains in Mexico
JALISCO, Mexico (CNN) - A total of 45 bags containing human remains have been discovered in a ravine in a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico, according to the state prosecutor’s office in Jalisco.
The Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office investigating the deaths said it has preliminary information that the body parts “match the physical characteristics” of seven missing call center employees.
The employees were reported missing between May 20 and May 22 in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara in western Mexico.
Luis Joaquín Méndez Ruíz, a Jalisco prosecutor, said they found the human remains inside bags thrown on a lot with a very steep slope.
Forensic experts have yet to determine the number of victims and their identities.
The Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences is working with the families of those missing to determine the identification of the human remains.
The country has been troubled by an epidemic of disappearances, with more than 100,000 Mexicans and migrants still missing.
In March, after four Americans were kidnapped in Mexico, resulting in the deaths of two of them, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argued that Mexico is a safer country than the United States.
Kidnapping and human trafficking are also not unusual in parts of Mexico, particularly in border areas, and Mexico’s overall homicide rate is among the highest in the world.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-02T15:12:19+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/2023/06/02/police-find-45-bags-containing-human-remains-mexico/ |
As the generative artificial intelligence (AI) industry booms, the 2024 election cycle is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the technology’s role in political campaigns.
The proliferation of AI — a technology that can create text, image and video — raises concerns about the spread of misinformation and how voters will react to artificially generated content in the politically polarized environment.
Already, the presidential campaigns for former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) have produced high-profile videos with AI.
Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, said the proliferation of the AI systems available to the public, awareness of how simple it is to use them and the “erosion of the sense that creating things like deepfakes is something that good, honest people would never do” will make 2024 a “significant turning point” for how AI is used in campaigns.
“I think now, increasingly, there’s an attitude that, ‘Well, it’s just the way it goes, you can’t tell what’s true anymore,’” Barrett said.
The use of AI-generated campaign videos is already becoming more normalized in the Republican primary.
After DeSantis announced his campaign during a Twitter Spaces conversation with company CEO Elon Musk, Trump posted a deepfake video — which is a digital representation made from AI that fabricates realistic-looking images and sounds — parodying the announcement on Truth Social. Donald Trump Jr. posted a deepfake video of DeSantis edited into a scene from the television show “The Office,” and the former president has shared AI images of himself.
Last week, DeSantis’s campaign released an ad that used seemingly AI-produced images of Trump embracing Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“If you proposed that 10 years ago, I think people would have said, ‘That’s crazy, that will just backfire,’” Barrett said. “But today, it just happens as if it’s normal.”
Critics noted that DeSantis’s use of the generated photo of Trump and Fauci was deceptive because the video does not disclose the use of AI technology.
“Using AI to create an ominous background or strange pictures, that’s not categorically different than what advertising has long been,” said Robert Weissman, president of the progressive consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen. “It doesn’t involve any deception of voters.”
“[The DeSantis ad] is fundamentally deceptive,” he said. “That’s the big worry that voters will be tricked into believing things are true that are not.”
Someone familiar with DeSantis’s operation noted that the governor’s presidential campaign was not the only campaign using AI in videos.
“This was not an ad, it was a social media post,” the person familiar with the operation said. “If the Trump team is upset about this, I’d ask them why they have been continuously posting fake images and false talking points to smear the governor.”
While proponents of AI acknowledge the risks of the technology, they argue it will eventually play a consequential role in campaigning.
“I believe there’s going to be new tools that streamline content creation and deployment, and likely tools that help with data-intensive tasks like understanding voter sentiment,” said Mike Nellis, founder and CEO of the progressive agency Authentic.
Nellis has teamed up with Higher Ground Labs to establish Quiller.ai, which is an AI tool that has the ability to write and send campaign fundraising emails.
“At the end of the day, Quiller is going to help us write better content faster,” Nellis told The Hill. “What happens on a lot of campaigns is they hire young people, teach them to write fundraising emails, and then ask them to write hundreds more, and it’s not sustainable. Tools like Quiller get us to a better place and it improves the efficiency of our campaigns.”
As generative AI text and video become more common — and increasingly difficult to discern as the generated content appears more plausible — there’s also a concern that voters will become more skeptical about all content AI generates.
Sarah Kreps, director of the Cornell Tech Policy Institute, said people may start to either “assume that nothing is true” or “just believe their partisan cues.”
“Neither one of those is really helpful for democracy. If you don’t believe anything, this whole pillar of trust we really on for democracy is eroded,” Kreps said.
ChatGPT, which is OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, burst onto the scene with an exponential rise in use since its November launch, along with rival products like Google’s Bard chatbot and image and video-based tools. These products have the administration and Congress scrambling to consider how to address the industry while staying competitive on a global scale.
But as Congress mulls regulation, between scheduled Senate briefings and a series of hearings, the industry has been largely left to create the rules of the road. On the campaign front, the rise of AI-generated content is magnifying the already prevalent concerns of election misinformation spreading on social media.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, released a blog post in January 2020 stating it would remove “misleading manipulated media” that meets certain criteria, including content that is the “product of artificial intelligence or machine learning” that “replaces or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic.”
Ultimately, though, Barrett said the burden of deciphering what is AI-generated or not will fall on voters.
“This kind of stuff will be disseminated, even if it is restricted in some way; it’ll probably be out in the world for a while before it is restricted or labeled, and people have to be wary,” he said.
Others point out that it’s still too difficult to predict how AI will be integrated into campaigns and other organizations.
“I think the real story is that new technologies should integrate into business at a deliberate and careful pace, and that the inappropriate/almost immoral uses are the ones that are going to get all the attention in the first inning, but it’s a long game and most of the productive useful integrations will evolve more slowly and hardly even be noticed,” said Nick Everhart, a Republican political consultant in Ohio and president of Content Creative Media.
Weissman noted that Public Citizen has asked the Federal Election Commission to issue a rule to the extent of its authority to prohibit the use of deceptive deepfakes.
“We think that the agency has authority as it regards candidates but not political committees or others,” Weissman said. “That would be good, but it’s not enough.”
However, it remains unclear how quickly campaigns will adopt AI technology this cycle.
“A lot of people are saying this is going to be the AI election,” Nellis said. “I’m not entirely sure that’s true. The smart and innovative campaigns will embrace AI, but a lot of campaigns are often slow to adopt new and emerging technology. I think 2026 will be the real AI election.” | 2023-06-20T00:50:28+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/hill-politics/how-ai-is-changing-the-2024-election/ |
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A bicyclist was taken to a hospital after being hit by a truck Monday evening in Harlingen, authorities say.
Officers with the Harlingen Police Department responded 4th Street and Tyler Avenue in reference to an auto-pedestrian accident.
A woman claimed to be hit by an older man in a truck while riding her bike, authorities say. The truck driver stopped to help and called to police to the scene.
Responding officers closed the northern portion of the street to help the bicyclist.
The woman was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. | 2023-03-14T03:48:26+00:00 | valleycentral.com | https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/bicyclist-hospitalized-after-being-hit-by-vehicle/ |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Hoosier Lotto" game were:
05-11-35-37-38-45
(five, eleven, thirty-five, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, forty-five)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Hoosier Lotto" game were:
05-11-35-37-38-45
(five, eleven, thirty-five, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, forty-five) | 2022-12-15T05:22:13+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Hoosier-Lotto-game-17655384.php |
Food-Tech Startup, Zero Egg, is Making it Easier Than Ever for Foodservice Operators and Manufacturers to Serve Plant-Based Eggs
NORTH RIVERSIDE, Ill., Sept. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Food-tech startup Zero Egg has announced that it will soon release a game changing new product: Zero Egg Scoopable Scramble – the world's first ready-to-eat frozen plant-based scrambled egg.
Using cutting-edge technology, Zero Egg has developed a frozen scrambled egg that has the same taste and texture as an ordinary egg. This innovative product is set to be a game changer for the foodservice and manufacturing industries, making it easier than ever to offer plant-based eggs to the mainstream.
"Our customers are seeking plant-based egg solutions that are easy for them to use, highly nutritious and delicious. We've been engaged with them since day one, listening to them, hearing the hardships they're facing, including unprecedented labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inflated costs. We created Zero Egg Scoopable Scramble to make it easier than ever to serve up delicious and nutritious plant-based egg dishes and meet their needs, as well as the needs of their patrons. In fact, one of our customers, The Grey Dog, with 5 locations throughout New York City, has seen incredible success since adding Zero Egg to their menu. The Grey Dog's plant-based Zero Egg Breakfast Burrito is the #3 best-selling breakfast item across all of their locations – that includes ordinary egg dishes as well. We are so proud to make the serving of a better-for-all egg easier than ever," said Liron Nimrodi, Zero Egg's CEO & Co-Founder.
"Our new frozen ready-to-use Scoopable Scramble is a must-have for industrial food manufacturers and foodservice operators everywhere. Whether you're looking to manufacture an easy plant-based scrambled egg, a vegan breakfast burrito, or frozen breakfast bowl, Zero Egg Scoopable Scramble is the perfect solution," says Zero Egg's Corporate Chef, Scott Lamphere.
Zero Egg Scoopable Scramble will be available to foodservice operators and food manufacturers in the United States through DOT Foods. The new innovative product is made with a proprietary blend of plant proteins and is preservative free, gluten-free, non-GMO, low in calories and fat, and has zero cholesterol.
Compared to ordinary eggs, Zero Egg products use radically less land, water, and energy to produce, as well as emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases. Zero Egg Scoopable Scramble comes chef-ready and has a 100% yield, resulting in zero product waste and 100% usable scrambled eggs. Zero Egg is transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, one bite at a time.
For information on adding Zero Egg to your menu, visit ZeroEgg.com.
Animal friendly, sustainable, and a healthier alternative, Zero Egg is the plant-based egg for everyone. Founded in 2018, the company believes the plant-based egg should be an everyday choice and is on a mission to make plant-based food accessible to everyone. With a feather-light footprint, Zero Egg offers the taste and texture of an ordinary egg, has better-for-you attributes, and is easy on the planet. It is made of plant proteins including soy, potatoes, peas, and chickpeas. Manufacturing Zero Egg uses radically less land, water, and energy, and produces significantly less greenhouse gas emissions than eggs from hens. Zero Egg is determined to meet the growing demand for egg alternatives that taste, cook, and function like traditional eggs, specifically in foodservice and food manufacturing. In addition to the United States, Zero Egg is also distributed in Israel and Europe. The company received early accolades at launch, including Calcalist's 2019 Food Innovation competition in Israel. More at www.zeroegg.com, Instagram and Linkedin.
Media Contacts:
Joseph Loria, media@zeroegg.com; 631-456-3073
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SOURCE Zero Egg | 2022-09-26T14:55:29+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2022/09/26/zero-egg-introduces-first-ready-to-eat-plant-based-scrambled-egg/ |
Detroit Tigers game score v. Tampa Bay Rays: Time, TV, starters for Lou Whitaker's big day
Detroit Tigers (42-66) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (57-49)
When: 6:10 p.m. Saturday. (Lou Whitaker's No. 1 will be retired in a pregame ceremony.)
Where: Comerica Park in Detroit.
TV: Bally Sports Detroit.
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1) (Tigers radio affiliates).
Probable pitchers: Tigers RHP Garrett Hill (1-3, 5.88 ERA vs. Rays LHP Shane McClanahan (10-4, 2.07 ERA).
First-pitch forecast: Sunny, high-80s.
BACK IN THE LINEUP? Tigers icon Miguel Cabrera, his ailing right knee and an uncertain future
HEART AND HUSTLE:Detroit Tigers catcher Eric Haase wins award; Tarik Skubal, Eduardo Rodriguez updates
Lineup: TBA.
Game notes: We’re not saying the Tigers won’t break through on offense today against the Rays, but it’s a tougher task than usual — which is saying something for a squad that’s averaging an MLB-worst 3.19 runs per game — as Tampa Bay sends lefty Shane McClanahan to the mound.
McClanahan, the 2018 No. 31 overall pick (30 after the Tigers took Case Mize and 224 picks before Tarik Skubal) out of USF, has been one of baseball’s best since debuting in the 2020 postseason, including striking out 158 and walking 23 over 122 innings this year. That ace status was cemented with a start in last month’s All-Star Game, in which he gave up two runs on four hits in the opening inning.
FRIDAY'S LOSS:Tigers pitchers issue 13 walks, blow early lead in 5-3 loss to Rays
That’s a far cry from what he did earlier this season against the Tigers: McClanahan dominated Detroit for seven innings on May 17, allowing one run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts on just 90 pitches. (The lone run came on a homer by Jeimer Candelario in the fifth inning.)
"He's a really good pitcher," manager A.J. Hinch told reporters that night in St. Petersburg after McClanahan picked up 63 strikes, including 18 whiffs. "He's got plus pitches across the board. His track record has been to generate a lot of swing and miss. Once he established that he was going to throw strikes, he got a few chases and did what he did."
So what pitches should the Tigers be watching out for? Start with McClanahan’s four-seam fastball, which he uses 34.7% of the time, blazing it in at an average of 96.7 mph. It’s a moving target, too, with a wild 10.8 inches of horizontal movement, 4.3 inches and 65% better than the league average this year. The four-seamer isn’t McClanahan’s most effective pitch though; that would be his curveball, which he averages throwing at 81.6 mph for a minus-11 run value — best in the majors — as it drops 2.6 inches more than the league average. (By comparison, Alex Lange’s curve checks in with a minus-8 run value, good for fifth.)
McClanahan’s curve has a 30.5% whiff rate and a 42% strikeout rate, just ahead of his third pitch, the changeup, which has a 41.2% strikeout rate. The lefty goes to that 87.6 mph offering 24.8% of the time, getting whiffs 46.4% of the time and a minus-7 run value (tied for fifth in the majors with, among others, the Tigers’ Beau Brieske). Finally, the Florida product can fall back on a slider (sorry, Javier Báez), getting batters to whiff on his 88.8 mph offering 47.7% of the time he throws it.
Tigers starter Garrett Hill, making his sixth big-league start, doesn’t have as many superlatives, with whiff and strikeout rates below 20% on all five of his pitches (four-seamer, sinker, slider, curve and changeup); he pitches to contact, getting the most success from his sinker. He throws that pitch so hard (91.5 mph) that he doesn’t get much break (17.4 inches, 28% less than the league average), but hitters are slugging just .192 against it.
The Tigers and Rays wrap up the four-game set Sunday at 1:40 p.m. as Matt Manning makes his second start since returning from the injured list. Both squads have Monday off; the Tigers then welcome Cleveland to town for three games, Tuesday-Thursday, while the Rays head to Milwaukee for a pair of games on Tuesday-Wednesday.
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Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter. | 2022-08-06T09:42:03+00:00 | freep.com | https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2022/08/06/detroit-tigers-game-score-tampa-bay-rays-updates/10253835002/ |
MAUMEE, Ohio, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN) announced today that it has been named to the inaugural list of "America's Greatest Workplaces 2023" by Newsweek magazine. Dana was the only Tier One supplier focused primarily on mobility markets to make the list.
In cooperation with research firm Plant-A Insights Group, Newsweek conducted an independent study to find America's Greatest Workplaces. The study determined the results through a large-scale independent survey of over 389,000 company reviews completed by employees working for U.S. companies with a workforce of at least 1,000 or more.
"At Dana, we value people by celebrating diversity, treating others with respect, and putting safety, inclusion, sustainability, and integrity at the heart of everything we do," said Maureen Pittenger, senior vice president and chief human resources officer for Dana. "Being named one of America's Greatest Workplaces validates our efforts to provide a place to work where our people and culture can both flourish."
Nancy Cooper, global editor in chief of Newsweek, added: "How do you find a great workplace – one that treats employees respectfully, pays them fairly, provides training and advancement opportunities, and supports a healthy work-life balance? Newsweek and market-data research firm Plant-A Insights are proud to introduce 'America's Greatest Workplaces 2023,' highlighting companies that are committed to offering a positive working environment."
Dana has also been recognized throughout the past year by Newsweek as one of "America's Most Responsible Companies" for the fourth consecutive year, "America's Greatest Workplaces for Diversity," and "America's Greatest Workplaces for Women."
In addition, the company has been recognized as one of the "World's Most Ethical Companies," by Ethisphere; as a Top Employer or Great Place to Work in 13 countries where it operates; and as one of "America's Climate Leaders 2023" by USA Today.
About Dana Incorporated
Dana is a leader in the design and manufacture of highly efficient propulsion and energy-management solutions that power vehicles and machines in all mobility markets across the globe. The company is shaping sustainable progress through its conventional and clean-energy solutions that support nearly every vehicle manufacturer with drive and motion systems; electrodynamic technologies, including software and controls; and thermal, sealing, and digital solutions.
Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, the company reported sales of $10.2 billion in 2022 with 42,000 people in 31 countries across six continents. With history dating to 1904, the company is driven by a high-performance culture that focuses on valuing others, inspiring innovation, growing responsibly, and winning together, earning it global recognition as a top employer. Learn more at dana.com.
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SOURCE Dana Incorporated | 2023-07-13T12:04:11+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2023/07/13/dana-named-one-americas-greatest-workplaces-by-newsweek-magazine/ |
Graphic: FBI agent found not guilty in 2020 shooting aboard Metro train
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (WJLA) - An FBI agent has been acquitted of attempted second-degree murder in a 2020 non-fatal shooting on board a Metro train in Maryland.
“We were doing some, some tearing up as well because this was a very special client who never, ever, ever should have been put in this position,” attorney Robert Bonsib said.
A Maryland jury found Bonsib’s client, FBI agent Eduardo Valdivia, not guilty in the shooting of a man aboard a Metro train.
The confrontation was caught on camera,
“It was 100% self-defense. He was trying to save his life,” Bonsib said.
According to authorities, Valdivia was heading to work aboard a Metro Red Line train in December 2020 when a panhandler, identified as Steven Slaughter, confronted him and threatened to hurt him if he did not hand over money.
While there’s no audio on the surveillance footage, authorities said the two exchanged words.
Authorities said Valdivia then shot Slaughter twice, who did survive his injuries.
“We are disappointed with the verdict, but we respect the jury verdict in this case,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.
McCarthy admitted it was a tough case to prosecute, but one he believed in since it was Valdivia who ultimately chose to use extreme force.
“The victim was unarmed. He never touched the defendant, as you can see from the video,” McCarthy said.
Valdivia, who worked in domestic terrorism for the federal government, has spent the last couple of years in limbo.
“It’s two years of a life that he can’t get back,” Bonsib said.
Bonsib stressed that public service continues to be a core part of his client’s life.
“He’s still an agent. He’s going to go back and do what he’s always done,” he said.
The man Valdivia shot is currently incarcerated.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2022-12-03T17:02:41+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/2022/12/03/graphic-fbi-agent-found-not-guilty-2020-shooting-aboard-metro-train/ |
NEW YORK, April 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ENGWE, the global electric bike manufacturer, is proud to celebrate its 9th anniversary with a special sale and giveaway event. To mark the occasion, ENGWE is offering a lucky spin wheel giveaway where participants have a chance to win 1 of 999 gifts, including the ENGWE M20, ENGWE Engine Pro, and ENGWE EP-2 Pro with only $0.90. In addition, customers can also enjoy the bottom price of ENGWE eBikes in 2023, with the most powerful promotion of up to $200 off.
Over the past nine years of steady development, ENGWE Electric Bicycles keeps revolutionizing the urban transportation, providing innovative and cost-effective electric bicycles, and has gained more than 500,000 satisfied customers worldwide. The brand's high-quality and reliable products have been awarded over 20 patents, reflecting its commitment to invention and creativity. Also, ENGWE's excellent product quality and design have also been recognized by Forbes, BikeRadar, Electrek, and Bicycling. Especially, the new model- ENGWE M20 launched in March this year, because its appearance resembles the Super 73, with powerful performance providing 1000W Peak Power with a maximum mileage of 75+75 kilometers. But the price is less than half of Super73, and it has won unanimous praise from customers.
Looking forward to the future, ENGWE promises to continue to bring users more secure and excellent services. In celebration of its ninth anniversary, the company is proud to announce its upcoming launch of fully functional flagship stores in key European locations including Poland, Italy, and Germany. The stores will offer customers the chance to test ride, shop, and seek expert advice on assembly and maintenance. In addition, ENGWE's global call center covers more than 30 countries, ensuring excellent after-sales services for all customers, no matter their location.
"We are thrilled to celebrate our 9th anniversary with our customers, who have displayed unwavering support for us over the years," said an ENGWE spokesperson. "We remain committed to providing eco-friendly, convenient, and efficient eBikes as a solution for short trips, reducing the carbon footprint of urban dwellers, and we look forward to continuing to explore a new way with our customers for many years to come."
ENGWE's 9th anniversary sale and giveaway event is live now and will continue for a limited time. To learn more about the ENGWE electric bikes, visit the official ENGWE US and EU websites.
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SOURCE ENGWE | 2023-04-10T14:56:21+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2023/04/10/engwe-celebrates-its-9th-anniversary-with-bottom-price-big-giveaway/ |
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Activate your digital account | 2022-06-21T23:43:23+00:00 | detroitnews.com | https://www.detroitnews.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.detroitnews.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Funiversity-michigan%2F2022%2F06%2F21%2Fwe-best-zak-zinter-sees-improvement-michigans-offensive-line%2F7686734001%2F |
CHICAGO, May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SPLICE Software, a customer engagement company specializing in automated communication workflows and opt-in management, is proud to announce another successful partnership with Mutual Benefit Group (MBG), a long-standing insurance carrier with a reputation for exceptional customer service.
MBG, a leading insurance provider for automobiles, homes, and businesses, has partnered with SPLICE Software to enhance its customer experience during the claims process. MBG integrated SPLICE's automated text messaging solution into its claims platform communication workflow, allowing for personalized messages to be sent to policyholders at 13 touchpoints throughout the claims process.
SPLICE's automated solution, integrated with the Duck Creek OnDemand claims platform, enables MBG to collect and manage customer consent for automated messaging and send personalized text messages to those who opt-in or who are opted-in. The solution also provides MBG with an easy way to respect customer communication preferences and simplify compliance with consumer privacy regulations across jurisdictions.
After the success of the first program, MBG integrated SPLICE's Thrive™ survey and Net Promoter Score (NPS) application, which allows policyholders to provide feedback on the claims process and their experience with MBG. The applications empower MBG to create their own tags and report on them in real time, enabling the company to drill down on the most important metrics in a single click.
MBG's NPS score of 84 suggests the brand's commitment to delivering a great customer experience is paying off. With SPLICE's automated messaging and survey services, MBG can engage policyholders throughout the customer journey and create a strategic communications program.
"We are very excited to be able to offer this communication channel option to our customers and further enhance the MBG Experience," said Shannon Davis, Assistant Vice President - Claims, MBG.
"Within the last two years nearly everyone has made adjustments to their policyholder experience, so adding a more comprehensive approach to NPS just makes sense," says Tara Kelly, CEO of SPLICE Software.
For more information on MBG's success story with SPLICE, please see the MBG Client Story.
Thrive™ is available now, and to learn more about the upgraded Dialog Suite™ and request a demo, visit here.
For more information on SPLICE, visit our website, connect via LinkedIn or follow us on Twitter at @SPLICESoftware.
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SOURCE SPLICE Software | 2023-05-04T14:04:38+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2023/05/04/splice-software-helps-mutual-benefit-group-enhance-measure-customer-experience-engagement-through-automated-text-messaging-survey-applications/ |
Fly Eagles fly.
Philadelphia maintained its spot atop the NFC with a 35-10 win Sunday over the Tennessee Titans.
OPEN THE TITANS-EAGLES PHOTO GALLERY HERE
And while the Eagles didn’t clinch a playoff spot on Sunday, they will have an opportunity to do so in Week 14.
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Here are some of the more interesting post-game facts, per Eagles PR:
- Philadelphia, which owns the best record in the NFL this season, has improved to 11-1 for just the fourth time in franchise history, having previously done so in 1949, 1980 and 2004.
- Nick Sirianni (20-9 regular-season record with the Eagles) is the sixth coach since the 1970 merger to start 11-1 or better in their first or second career year as a head coach, joining Sean McVay (2018 Rams), Jim Caldwell (2009 Colts), Steve Mariucci (1997 49ers), George Seifert (1990 49ers) and Red Miller (1977 Broncos).
- Jalen Hurts (24 years, 119 days) is the fourth-youngest QB to start 11-1 or better since the 1970 merger, behind Dan Marino in 1984 (23 years, 64 days), Dak Prescott in 2016 (23 years, 125 days) and Jared Goff in 2018 (24 years, 49 days).
- Hurts completed 29-of-39 (74.4%) attempts for 380 yards (9.7 avg.), 3 TDs, 0 INTs and a 130.3 passer rating while also adding 12 yards with 1 TD on 5 carries (4 total TDs).
- Hurts became the first player in Eagles history to produce 350+ passing yards, 3+ passing TDs, and 1+ rushing TD in a single game. In combining for 4 total TDs, Hurts set a new career high (29 total TDs through 12 games) (previously 26 TDs in 2021).
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- A.J. Brown (119 yards, 2 TDs) and DeVonta Smith (102 yards, 1 TD) became the first Eagles duo to post 100+ receiving yards each since Nelson Agholor (116 yards, 1 TD) and Zach Ertz (110 yards, 2 TDs) accomplished the feat on 12/23/18 vs. Houston.
- Brown, who finished the game with multiple 25+ yard receiving TDs (40 and 29 yards), leads the league with 8 receiving TDs dating back to Week 6. Overall, he has registered 950+ receiving yards and 9 TDs through the first 12 games of the season.
MORE NFL:
- NFL Draft 2023: Giants, Jets, Eagles land defensive studs in latest 1st-round mock
- Eagles Hall of Famer Terrell Owens defends actions in fight with ‘aggressor’
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. | 2022-12-05T11:13:06+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/eagles/2022/12/eagles-maintain-lead-in-nfc-close-in-on-playoff-spot-photos.html |
‘You’re Native, right?’ Student says school staff member made racist comment caught on audio
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (WKBT) - A Ho-Chunk student is speaking out after she said a school staff member made a racially derogatory comment toward her.
The Black River Falls School District confirms the staff member is currently on administrative leave.
The family said change needs to happen because racial discrimination toward Native Americans is all too common.
Naomi Thunder’s lunchtime Monday was like any other day, hanging with friends while doing some schoolwork.
She had a question, so she asked a staff member she sees every day for some help, someone with whom Naomi said she, to this point, had only had positive interactions.
The answer was captured on Naomi’s phone.
“You don’t care. I don’t care if you get a D minus. You’re Native, right? So just ... collect a check, don’t give two [expletive] about your future? So why should I care?” the staff member is heard saying.
“I just looked over at my friend who heard the whole thing. She was pretty shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do,” Naomi said.
She sent the video to a few friends, who spread it even more, reaching Naomi’s uncle Christian McClure by Wednesday.
“It just needed to be seen. You don’t talk like that to kids,” McClure said.
McClure posted the clip to his Facebook page, saying if he hadn’t, “it wouldn’t have gotten shared. It would have been brushed off. It would have blown over. Nobody would’ve acknowledged this because it happens all the time.”
The video has gone viral in the Black River Falls community, one whose high school student population is more than 20 percent Native American.
But the comments hint at a larger problem.
“I’ve gotten like six people coming out about different teachers - ‘Was it this teacher because this teacher did this?’ ... It’s gross. I’m probably going to be out of here by the time my kids are in high school,” McClure said.
The school district said it is conducting an investigation and placed the staff member on administrative leave.
All week, classmates and other teachers have offered Naomi support.
“I know this is only going to make her stronger,” McClure said.
And for Naomi, it’s a chance to make sure no one else faces discrimination again.
“I want things to change because people who look at people of color look at them different,” Naomi said.
The family identified the staff member as Laura Sahr, who’s listed as a special education program aide.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, her teaching license is currently under investigation.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2023-02-10T15:31:21+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/2023/02/10/youre-native-right-student-says-school-staff-member-made-racist-comment-caught-audio/ |
An IRS policy governing the audits of tax returns filed by U.S. presidents is under new scrutiny after a report published by a congressional panel found the agency failed to perform the mandatory inspection of Donald Trump's returns until Congress pressed for information about the process.
The three-point policy states that individual returns for the president and the vice president are subject to mandatory review, “should always be kept in an orange folder,” should be kept from the eyes of IRS employees and “should be locked in a secure drawer or cabinet when the examiner or reviewer is away from the work area.”
The report released Tuesday by the Democratic majority on the House Ways and Means Committee said the process, which dates to 1977, was “dormant, at best” during the early years of the Trump administration. Democrats in Congress are responding by introducing legislation that would codify the IRS policy into law with more stringent requirements.
Tax experts say the failure to launch the audit earlier is emblematic of a larger problem regarding the IRS’ capacity to examine high-income taxpayers’ returns — and a reminder of Trump as a norm-defying president.
John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner during both the Obama and Trump administrations, said the policy has been out of the public eye because presidents have traditionally released their tax-return summaries to the public.
“It only became an issue with a president who refused to release his tax returns,” Koskinen said. “If Trump had been releasing his returns, nobody would have raised this issue.”
Trump’s tax returns being handed over to Congress recently is the culmination of a yearslong legal fight between Trump and Democratic lawmakers.
Steve Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said the IRS’ failure to audit Trump is a showing that “the mandatory auditing program is broken, we cannot rely on the current system to fairly audit the president, and there’s a general problem of the IRS auditing sophisticated taxpayers.”
Rosenthal added: “This is a much larger problem than Donald Trump — yes, he makes bad things worse, but the situation was bad to begin with.”
A new $80 billion infusion of funds through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act is supposed to remedy the beleaguered agency's low staffing levels, outdated technology and host of other issues. Republicans who are poised to take control of the House in less than two weeks, however, have said they want to cut that funding.
Tuesday's committee report revealed that the IRS only began to audit Trump’s 2016 tax filings on April 3, 2019, more than two years into Trump’s presidency and just months after Democrats took control of the House. That date coincides with Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the panel chairman, asking the IRS for information related to Trump’s tax returns.
The report's findings prompted lawmakers to recommend a statutory requirement for the mandatory examination of the president's taxes, with “disclosure of certain audit information and related returns in a timely manner.”
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he will work to pass the bill through the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would “move swiftly” to advance the legislation.
The issue highlights frustration with the so-called tax gap, which is the difference between how much money is owed to the federal government and how much is paid. IRS data released in October projects that for 2017 to 2019, the estimated average gross tax gap will be $540 billion per year.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in August, and has repeated at various speaking engagements, that the new funds allocated by Congress would be used to increase audits on high-wealth individuals, firms and complex pass-throughs.
“This is challenging work that requires a team of sophisticated revenue agents in place to spend thousands of hours poring over complicated returns, and it is also work that has huge revenue potential,” she told former IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in August.
In an application of the IRS policy on mandatory presidential audits, well-trained agents, forensic experts, tax attorneys and others would be required to oversee a presidential audit as complicated as Trump's, which included hundreds of businesses, properties and complex business interests.
The congressional report highlighted the lack of staffing and availability of experts to examine Trump's taxes. The report states that the IRS believed that accuracy of his filings was ensured because he had legal counsel and an accounting firm representing him.
The question of whether presidential tax documents should be disclosed is another matter of debate among tax experts and advocates.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said Congress would be setting a “dangerous new precedent” by releasing the presidential records. Koskinen said that “it's a significant serious precedent for a committee to seek returns and then release them."
“I see two big issues here — what is the IRS going to do to ensure presidents are audited regularly, and what's the rationale for releasing these returns," Koskinen said.
Rosenthal said he thinks presidential returns should be publicly disclosed to ensure proper oversight.
“When this information is made public, the president is going to be more wary about cheating on their taxes and making them public — the results would put both the IRS and president on their best behavior,” he said. | 2022-12-22T14:17:51+00:00 | kjrh.com | https://www.kjrh.com/news/national/irs-mandatory-presidential-audit-policy-goes-under-spotlight |
Friday's Amazing Oklahomans are graduates from three different Edmond high schools with one thing in common.
These students have pledged to enter the teaching field and in turn the district will offer support and mentorship however they can.
Congratulations, graduates! | 2022-05-14T17:14:47+00:00 | news9.com | https://www.news9.com/story/627f2085b97bac0193a9b2bc/amazing-oklahomans:-edmond-graduates |
Heavy Gunfire Erupts at the Texas-Mexico Border in Terrifying Video
An intense gunfight broke out yesterday at the US-Mexico border.
Newsweek reports the shooting began around 3:00 pm on Wednesday (May 10) at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, which is near McAllen. The video was shared on Twitter yesterday evening and has already racked up over a million views.
In the video, you see a man hunkered down behind a line of trucks lined up at the border as gunfire erupts in front of him. You then catch a glimpse of a couple of pickups passing by the bridge on the ground. One of the trucks appears to be militarized with a machine gun mounted in the back.
While Newsweek was unable to independently verify the claims, a tweet by Mexican news network AND 40 claimed the shooting was between "elements of the army and armed civilians." Three criminals allegedly lost their lives in the gunfight.
As someone with family living on the US-Mexico border, the video is troubling to say the least. The clip looks as if it were shot in a straight-up war zone. Hopefully, they’ll get things under control down there. But I’m not holding my breath. | 2023-05-11T18:34:21+00:00 | newstalk1290.com | https://newstalk1290.com/gunfire-texas-mexico-border/ |
McCartan's achievements include designing Hightower's thought leadership and digital marketing program for advisors
CHICAGO, May 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hightower, one of the nation's largest registered investment advisors (RIAs), today announced that Meghan McCartan, Managing Director and Head of Marketing, has been named to Crain's New York Business' 2022 list of Notable Leaders in Advertising, Marketing and PR. One of 45 individuals named across multiple industries, McCartan was honored for designing and building an in-house marketing infrastructure dedicated to equipping Hightower advisors to drive new business leads and grow assets.
"Meghan and her team have built a highly effective marketing program for Hightower advisors, including our 'Content Community' of original, targeted thought leadership materials for different client demographics," said Hightower Chairman and CEO Bob Oros. "The program makes it simple for advisors to distribute and promote blogs, podcasts, social posts, infographics, white papers or webinars, and use them to strengthen relationships and bring in new business. Meghan's ideas and leadership have directly contributed to driving organic growth. I want to congratulate Meghan on this well-deserved accolade."
Hightower advisors who implemented a targeted content strategy grew 3.2 times as fast as their peers in 2021. Advisors implementing live/virtual events for prospects grew twice as fast as their peers, while advisors implementing podcast/TV/radio and social media strategies, grew at 1.8 times and 1.7 times, respectively. At Hightower overall last year, the firm's organic growth rate was an annualized 9%.
Hightower's advisor marketing programs are highly scalable. McCartan played a key role in selecting TIFIN Clout, part of TIFIN Wealth, to serve as Hightower's automated digital marketing platform, which supports advisors in moving clients and prospects through all the steps of the client journey, and measuring results.
Darrell Grant, chief experience officer at Hightower Advisors | St. Louis remarked: "In just a few years, Hightower has significantly evolved its marketing capabilities across all touchpoints—including more and improved content, access to branding and design support and advanced analytic tools—to help me engage with clients and prospects and grow my business. Meghan has been instrumental in driving this evolution. I view her as a 'phoenix' who has remade Hightower's marketing program into the gold standard for the RIA and wider wealth management industry."
In addition to the Crain's award, earlier this year, McCartan was named a 'Top Women CMO in Wealth Management' by Wealth Solutions Report and was included in WealthManagement.com's Ten to Watch list in 2019.
About Hightower
Hightower is a wealth management firm that provides investment, financial and retirement planning services to individuals, foundations and family offices, as well as 401(k) consulting and cash management services to corporations. Hightower's capital solutions, operational support services, size and scale empower its vibrant community of independent-minded wealth advisors to grow their businesses and help their clients achieve their vision of "well-th. rebalanced." Based in Chicago with advisors across the U.S., the firm operates as a registered investment advisor (RIA). Learn more about Hightower's collaborative business model at www.hightoweradvisors.com.
Securities offered through Hightower Securities, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. Hightower Advisors, LLC is a SEC registered investment advisor.
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SOURCE Hightower | 2022-05-23T16:04:38+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/05/23/crains-new-york-business-names-meghan-mccartan-hightower-head-marketing-notable-leader-advertising-marketing-pr/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The money that President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve for Ukraine is designed to help with a range of needs — military equipment for the immediate fight, economic aid for the future and much more.
Altogether, Biden is seeking $33 billion. Here’s a look at how the White House says such aid would be used:
WEAPONS
The president is requesting $20.4 billion to keep weapons and ammunition flowing to Ukrainians defending Kyiv and for shoring up defenses in nearby countries. That money would pay for additional artillery, armored vehicles and anti-armor and anti-air capabilities, which the White House says could continue to move into Ukraine uninterrupted.
The package also would allow for increased cyber capabilities and advanced air defense systems in Ukraine, and increased intelligence support. Approval would mean more money to clear landmines and improvised explosive devices, the White House says, and allow the Ukrainian government to better address threats related to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials.
Additionally, the money seeks to support U.S. troop deployments on NATO territory, covering the costs of U.S. personnel’s transportation and equipment, temporary duty, special pay, airlift and medical support.
BASIC UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Some $8.5 billion in the package is designed to go toward economic assistance to help Ukraine’s government respond to the immediate crisis of the war, and to continue to provide basic services to its people. That would ensure the government can keep meeting minimum food, energy and health care needs as the country’s businesses close and economy contracts — causing tax revenue to fall sharply, the White House says.
The money would allow Ukraine’s state energy company to make natural gas purchases and would support agrobusinesses during the fall harvest. It also seeks to combat disinformation and propaganda that the White House says Russia is responsible for, while supporting journalists, defending freedom of expression and helping to hold Russian forces accountable for human rights violations.
GLOBAL FOOD EFFORTS
The proposal calls for $3 billion for food and humanitarian programs around the world and seeks to shield other countries from price shocks caused by war-related problems in the global supply chain. That means providing wheat and flour to developing nations hurt by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House says, as well as money for agricultural systems in those places.
The aid would also buy medical supplies, thermal blankets, emergency health kits, safe drinking water and shelter materials for displaced Ukrainians. It also has financial support for job training, trauma counseling and funding for school districts in the U.S. that are educating Ukrainians coming to the country.
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION
The president’s request has an additional $500 million to bolster U.S. production of domestic crops that have been in short supply due to the war, like wheat and soybeans. Higher rates of lending and crop insurance incentives would help ensure more access to credit and less risk for farmers growing such crops, while also potentially lowering costs to American consumers, according to the White House.
The proposal would also seek to use the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of critical minerals, including materials for use in finished products like defense systems and cars — another step designed to ease U.S. prices.
And the request seeks more money for enforcing U.S. sanctions against Russia and people for actions related to the war. | 2022-04-29T00:51:32+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/news/business-news/a-look-at-what-bidens-requested-aid-for-ukraine-might-buy/ |
SEATTLE — Lias Andersson’s first goal of the season for Los Angeles snapped a tie early in the third period and the Kings beat the Seattle Kraken 5-3 Wednesday night.
With a playoff spot and their first-round pairing against Edmonton already clinched, the Kings rested a handful of their regulars on Wednesday. Among them were team points leader Anze Kopitar (66 on 19 goals and 47 assists), and leading goal scorer Adrian Kempe (34).
“We had a lot of guys stepping into the lineup or maybe it was their first game back in a couple weeks,” Vilardi said. “They came out better than us in the first period – we weren’t very hard to play against. But Quickie made some big saves because that’s what he does, and it gave us a chance to come back.”
Jared McCann, Ryan Donarto, and Jordan Eberle scored for the Kraken, who lost their third in a row. Philipp Grubauer finished with 21 saves.
On the go-ahead goal, Brendan Lemieux picked up a loose puck behind the Seattle net, and sent it out in front to Andersson, who was rushing toward the net and sent it past Grubauer to give the Kings a 4-3 lead at 2:39 of the third.
Seattle had a power play for 4 minutes, 43 seconds late in the third period, including 1:18 of a 5-on-3 advantage. But the closest it could come to the equalizer was a shot by Daniel Sprong that hit the left post.
Athanasiou had an empty-netter with 1:06 left to seal the win.
McCann gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with 1:01 left in the opening period with his team-leading 27th goal of the season. Seattle made it 2-0 just 2:24 into the second on Donato’s 16th.
Los Angeles tied it with two goals just 3 1/2 minutes apart. Vilardi made it 2-1 at the 10:11 mark, ripping a shot past Grubauer from the upper part of the left circle, his fourth. Then at 13:41, Danault tallied his 27th.
“I don’t think we should have put ourselves in that situation” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of the two-goal hole. “I don’t think we played with any purpose in that first period. It was like we played because the game was scheduled, and that was really it. We had a lot to talk about (between periods). After that, I thought we began to play with some purpose.
“They totally responded, and I would have been disappointed if they hadn’t,” McLellan added. “That was expected of them. They’ve done that for seven months now.”
The Kraken needed just 48 seconds to go back in front when Eberle stickhandled his way to directly in front of Quick and slapped it past him for his 21st.
Moore’s tip-in of a hard shot by Matt Roy got the Kings back into a 3-3 tie at 17:15. That was Moore’s 17th.
“We’ve got to be able to take teams like that on,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “Certainly, there are areas where we don’t quite match up yet on every single shift. But even in those area, we have to be able to take on that battle and take on that fight, even if it’s not the perfect matchup. You can abdicate and walk away from that or you can take it on. We need to keep looking for people who are willing to take on that battle every single time.”
NOTES: Wednesday was the third time in the last four games that the Kraken built a 2-0 lead, only to wind up losing. The first two were 6-3 at Minnesota last Friday and 3-2 at Dallas last Saturday. … The Kings won the season series, 3-1. ... With the assist on Jordan Eberle’s second-period goal, Matty Beniers now has a point in seven of his first eight NHL games.
UP NEXT
Kings: Play at Vancouver on Thursday night.
Kraken: Host San Jose on Friday night. | 2022-04-28T05:49:16+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/amdersson-scores-early-in-3rd-kings-beat-kraken-5-3/2022/04/28/b68cc538-c6af-11ec-8cff-33b059f4c1b7_story.html |
Large fire at zoo leaves 1 animal dead
MOSELEY, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - Chesterfield Fire and EMS crews responded to a fire at Metro Richmond Zoo after reports of several buildings engulfed in flames.
Fire crews received the call at approximately 9:50 p.m. on Sunday.
Crews arrived on the scene to find several buildings on fire, including several maintenance buildings and a veterinary clinic. Chesterfield Fire was notified about animals that may have been lost within those buildings.
Fire crews and zoo employees worked quickly to remove the animals from the buildings. All zoo employees are safe.
According to a statement from the Metro Richmond Zoo, the fire began in the zoo’s workshop area and spread to the animal hospital, feed storage room and zoo keeper service area, leaving the buildings completely destroyed.
There were 10 animals in the buildings at the time of the fire, and nine were rescued. A meerkat who was receiving care at the animal hospital has died. Zoo officials say a necropsy will be performed.
In addition to building damage, there was one animal enclosure fence destroyed, and a temporary fence has been installed. All of the animals inside the enclosure have been accounted for, and there are no others in danger.
“We are immensely grateful for the first responders who came to the zoo’s aid,” the zoo said in a statement.
The zoo will be open regular hours on Monday.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Copyright 2023 WWBT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-05T11:14:50+00:00 | wnem.com | https://www.wnem.com/2023/06/05/large-fire-zoo-leaves-1-animal-dead/ |
Grifol believes Anderson can win 'multiple batting titles' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Tim Anderson is back.
After missing the majority of last season requiring surgery on a sagittal band in his left middle finger, Anderson is back with the White Sox in spring training.
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And Pedro Grifol is excited about it.
"He's got capabilities of hitting some homers," Grifol said. "We all know what he can do with the bat and he's a magician with the bat. He can win multiple batting titles. He's a pretty damn good hitter."
RELATED: Tim Anderson focused on positive energy for 2023 season
Local
Anderson already has one batting title to his name. He won one in 2019, leading the league with a .335 batting average.
Unfortunately, as aforementioned, Anderson didn't get to show much of his bat after going down with a hand injury in early August. Anderson admitted on the White Sox Talk podcast he could've returned late in the season, but there was no point to rush a return without the chance of a playoff berth.
Before he went down, he slashed .301/.339/.395 from the plate. He hit six home runs and knocked in 25 runs while scoring 50 of his own in 79 games. He was awarded an All-Star nod before going down with the injury.
Anderson will return to his leadoff spot in 2023, showing off those "lightning hands" and on-base capabilities Grifol alludes to.
"He's got great hands and he's wiry, strong," Grifol said. "He's got like lightning hands. And he's got great hand-eye coordination. He's got all the attributes to be a pretty damn good hitter."
Along with being a versatile, on-base hitter, Anderson can hit for power. Between the 2017-19 seasons, Anderson averaged just under 19 home runs per season.
"But there's some power in there, too," Grifol said. "So I think that's the one thing that he's been working on and it's shown. Not so much in balls over the fence. It's the way he's attacking the baseball and the way he's using the ground too." | 2023-02-23T04:28:00+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/pedro-grifol-believes-tim-anderson-can-win-multiple-batting-titles/3079167/ |
ATLANTA (AP) _ The Home Depot Inc. (HD) on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $4.34 billion.
On a per-share basis, the Atlanta-based company said it had net income of $4.24.
The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.11 per share.
The home-improvement retailer posted revenue of $38.87 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $37.93 billion.
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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 HD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HD | 2022-11-15T11:53:50+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Home-Depot-Fiscal-Q3-Earnings-Snapshot-17585634.php |
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) —
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Monday appointed a caretaker government ahead of another round of parliamentary elections in early October in a bid to stave off the country’s political and economic crisis.
The move comes after the three largest political groups failed to find common ground for a viable coalition to settle the European Union and NATO member’s latest political impasse amid soaring tensions with Russia.
The collapse of the reformist coalition in June, helped pave the way toward a new election – the fourth since April 2021 – which analysts expect will bring a stronger presence of nationalist and pro-Russia groups into a fragmented parliament.
With another decree, President Rumen Radev dissolved the National Assembly and set the date for early parliamentary elections on Oct. 2.
Radev also appointed former labor minister Galab Donev to lead the interim government as the European Union’s poorest member is struggling with a surging inflation and energy supply shortages.
The new administration is widely expected to try to allay people’s fears of grappling with the winter cold amid fuel supply issues, as well as to reconsider the country’s stand on Russian gas imports which were cut off in April after officials refused a demand by Moscow to pay gas bills in rubles. | 2022-08-01T18:18:39+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/bulgaria-caretaker-government-until-october-early-election/ |
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Adrian Nelson scored 20 points and Youngstown State defeated Detroit Mercy and Antoine Davis 71-66 in the Horizon League Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday night with Davis coming up short of Pete Maravich's NCAA Division I career scoring record.
Davis, in his fifth year with the eighth-seeded Titans (14-19), finished with 22 points, three points shy of the record 3,667 Maravich scored in three seasons at LSU (1967-70). Davis was 7-of-26 shooting, including 4 of 16 from 3-point range. He missed his final seven shots.
Nelson's jump hook with 1:29 remaining gave the top-seeded Penguins (24-8) the lead for good at 66-64. Davis made two free throws after a technical on Youngstown State with 10.9 seconds left to get within three but Nelson made two free throws and Davis missed a final 3-point attempt.
Dwayne Cohill scored 17 points and Brandon Rush 15 for the Penguins.
Marcus Tankersley had 14 points, A.J. Oliver 13 and Gerald Liddell 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Titans.
Davis has 159 3-pointers this season, three short of Stephen Curry's record set at Davidson (2007-08).
Youngstown's 24 victories ties the program record and is the first time the Penguins won that many in Division I. The Penguins swept all three meetings with the Titans this season, but this was the closest margin.
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Credit: AP | 2023-03-03T05:11:17+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/ohio/youngstown-state-beats-detroit-mercy-davis-short-of-record/5CIZUALJDJG6DK4JM62DIFHDNE/ |
- New data in Cohort 3 using pivotal program dose level demonstrates largest median reduction in CSF GAGs, continuing to approach normal levels at 48 weeks
- RGX-121, a one-time gene therapy for MPS II, continues to be well-tolerated with no drug-related SAEs across three dose levels
- Positive interim data supports recently announced plan to file Biologics License Application in 2024 using the accelerated approval pathway
ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX) today announced additional positive interim data from the Phase I/II/III CAMPSIITE™ trial of RGX-121 for the treatment of patients up to 5 years old diagnosed with Mucopolysaccharidosis Type II (MPS II), also known as Hunter Syndrome. The results were presented at the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (SSIEM) Annual Symposium.
"We are pleased to share new, positive interim data from our Phase I/II/III CAMPSIITE trial that continues to demonstrate encouraging reductions of CSF GAGs and supports the selection of dose level 3 for our pivotal program," said Steve Pakola, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of REGENXBIO. "This interim data of Cohorts 1-3 demonstrate dose-dependent reductions in CSF GAGs, key biomarkers of I2S enzyme activity, in additional patients and at longer timepoints than previously presented. RGX-121 has also demonstrated positive impact on neurodevelopmental function. We believe the data supports our plan to advance RGX-121 as quickly as possible using the accelerated approval pathway with the aim of providing a much-needed new treatment option for the MPS II community."
"RGX-121 continues to demonstrate compelling data showing its potential to impact the neurodevelopmental decline of MPS II patients, which remains an unmet need for most affected individuals," said Roberto Giugliani, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Genetics, UFRGS, Medical Genetics Service, HCPA, Porto Alegre, Brazil. "A successful gene therapy with the potential to provide advantages over current standard of care is something that could provide a meaningful treatment option to the MPS II patient community. I look forward to continuing to follow this trial as the recently announced pivotal program progresses."
RGX-121 is an investigational, one-time gene therapy designed to deliver the gene that encodes the iduronate-2-sulfatase (I2S) enzyme using the AAV9 vector. Data presented at SSIEM was from the Phase I/II portion of the CAMPSIITE trial where the primary endpoint is to evaluate the safety of RGX-121. Secondary and exploratory endpoints include cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), neurodevelopmental assessments, caregiver reported outcomes and systemic biomarkers. RGX-121 is administered directly to the central nervous system (CNS). As of August 1, 2022, patients had been treated across three dose levels, 1.3x1010 genome copies per gram (GC/g) of brain mass (n=3), 6.5x1010 GC/g of brain mass (n=7), and 2.9x1011 GC/g of brain mass (n=4).
As of August 1, 2022, RGX-121 is reported to be well-tolerated across all cohorts with no drug-related serious adverse events (SAEs) in 14 patients dosed with RGX-121. Time of post-administration follow-up ranges from eight weeks to two years. Eleven patients have completed the 48-week immunosuppression regimen per study protocol. Twelve patients were receiving weekly, intravenous enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) at the time of enrollment, per standard of care; three of these patients have discontinued ERT, per investigator discretion, as allowed in the protocol.
Biomarker data from patients in all three cohorts indicate encouraging, dose-dependent reductions of CSF GAGs following one-time administration of RGX-121. Heparan sulfate (HS) and D2S6, a component of HS closely correlated with severe MPS II, are GAGs that are key biomarkers of I2S enzyme activity and are being measured in the CSF at baseline and after administration of RGX-121. GAGs in the CSF have the potential to be considered a surrogate biomarker that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit in MPS II disease under the accelerated approval pathway, as buildup of GAGs in the CSF of MPS II patients correlates with clinical manifestations, including neurodevelopmental deficits.
The majority of patients in all three cohorts demonstrated reductions of HS in the CSF following RGX-121 administration at the last time point available with dose-dependent reductions seen at Weeks 8, 24, and 48 post RGX-121 administration. At Week 48, median reduction of CSF HS from baseline was 33.5% in Cohort 1, 52.9% in Cohort 2 and 62.5% in Cohort 3.
Similarly, dose-dependent reductions of CSF HS D2S6 were observed at last time point available following RGX-121 administration in the majority of patients, with Cohort 3 patients approaching normal levels at 48 weeks. All three cohorts demonstrated reduction in HS D2S6 with dose-dependent reductions seen at Weeks 8, 24, and 48. Median reduction from baseline of 31.9% in Cohort 1, 69.4% in Cohort 2 and 83.1% in Cohort 3 was seen at Week 48.
In addition, I2S protein concentration in the CSF, which was undetectable in all patients prior to dosing, was measurable in Cohort 2 and 3 patients after RGX-121 administration.
As previously reported at the 2022 WORLDSymposium™, improvements in neurodevelopmental function and caregiver reported outcomes in Cohorts 1 and 2 demonstrated CNS activity up to 2 years after RGX-121 administration. Additionally, evidence of systemic enzyme expression and biomarker activity was observed in patients across all three cohorts following RGX-121 administration. The majority of patients demonstrated increases in I2S protein concentration levels in plasma following administration of RGX-121. Total urine GAG measures demonstrated evidence of a systemic effect of RGX-121, independent of ERT treatment.
The study findings presented at the SSIEM Annual Symposium will be available under the Presentations & Publications page in the Media section of REGENXBIO's website located at www.regenxbio.com.
About the CAMPSIITE™ Trial
CAMPSIITE is a multicenter, open-label trial enrolling boys with MPS II, aged 4 months up to five years of age. CAMPSIITE is expected to enroll up to 10 MPS II patients to support the BLA filing using the accelerated approval pathway, with the potential to enroll additional patients. These patients will receive a dose of 2.9x1011 GC/g of brain mass of RGX-121, which is the same dose being evaluated in Cohort 3 of the Phase I/II trial. The pivotal program is using commercial-scale cGMP material from REGENXBIO's proprietary, high-yielding suspension-based manufacturing process, named NAVXPress™. In addition to measuring GAGs in the CSF, the trial will continue to collect neurodevelopmental data and caregiver-reported outcomes.
CAMPSIITE is a global trial, which is expected to include sites in the United States, Brazil and Canada. REGENXBIO has begun dosing patients in the pivotal program.
RGX-121 is designed to use the AAV9 vector to deliver the human iduronate-2-sulfatase gene (IDS) which encodes the iduronate-2-sulfatase (I2S) enzyme to the central nervous system (CNS). Delivery of the IDS gene within cells in the CNS could provide a permanent source of secreted I2S beyond the blood-brain barrier, allowing for long-term cross correction of cells throughout the CNS. RGX-121 has received orphan drug product, rare pediatric disease and Fast Track designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
MPS II, or Hunter Syndrome, is a rare, X-linked recessive disease caused by a deficiency in the lysosomal enzyme iduronate-2-sulfatase (I2S) leading to an accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), including heparan sulfate (HS) in tissues which ultimately results in cell, tissue, and organ dysfunction, including in the central nervous system (CNS). MPS II is estimated to occur in 1 in 100,000 to 170,000 births. In severe forms of the disease, early developmental milestones may be met, but developmental delay is readily apparent by 18 to 24 months. Specific treatment to address the neurological manifestations of MPS II remains a significant unmet medical need. Key biomarkers of I2S enzymatic activity in MPS II patients include its substrate heparan sulfate (HS), which has been shown to correlate with neurocognitive manifestations of the disorder.
REGENXBIO is a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy. REGENXBIO's NAV Technology Platform, a proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene delivery platform, consists of exclusive rights to more than 100 novel AAV vectors, including AAV7, AAV8, AAV9 and AAVrh10. REGENXBIO and its third-party NAV Technology Platform Licensees are applying the NAV Technology Platform in the development of a broad pipeline of candidates, including late-stage and commercial programs, in multiple therapeutic areas. REGENXBIO is committed to a "5x'25" strategy to progress five AAV Therapeutics from our internal pipeline and licensed programs into pivotal-stage or commercial products by 2025.
This press release includes "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements express a belief, expectation or intention and are generally accompanied by words that convey projected future events or outcomes such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "assume," "design," "intend," "expect," "could," "plan," "potential," "predict," "seek," "should," "would" or by variations of such words or by similar expressions. The forward-looking statements include statements relating to, among other things, REGENXBIO's future operations and clinical trials. REGENXBIO has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and assumptions and analyses made by REGENXBIO in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors REGENXBIO believes are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will conform with REGENXBIO's expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timing of enrollment, commencement and completion and the success of clinical trials conducted by REGENXBIO, its licensees and its partners, the timing of commencement and completion and the success of preclinical studies conducted by REGENXBIO and its development partners, the timely development and launch of new products, the ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of product candidates, the ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for product candidates and technology, trends and challenges in the business and markets in which REGENXBIO operates, the size and growth of potential markets for product candidates and the ability to serve those markets, the rate and degree of acceptance of product candidates, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or similar public health crises on REGENXBIO's business, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of REGENXBIO. Refer to the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of REGENXBIO's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and comparable "risk factors" sections of REGENXBIO's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings, which have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements contained or referred to herein. The actual results or developments anticipated may not be realized or, even if substantially realized, they may not have the expected consequences to or effects on REGENXBIO or its businesses or operations. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to rely too heavily on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, REGENXBIO does not undertake any obligation, and specifically declines any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Dana Cormack
Corporate Communications
dcormack@regenxbio.com
Investors:
Chris Brinzey
ICR Westwicke
339-970-2843
chris.brinzey@westwicke.com
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SOURCE REGENXBIO Inc. | 2022-08-31T12:11:50+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/08/31/regenxbio-presents-additional-positive-interim-data-phase-iiiiii-campsiite-trial-rgx-121-treatment-mps-ii-hunter-syndrome-society-study-inborn-errors-metabolism-ssiem-annual-symposium/ |
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Bureau of Elections recommended Thursday that the state’s election board give final approval to a potential ballot initiative seeking to enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution.
The Bureau of Elections said in a staff report that after examining petition sheets and a random sample of signatures, state officials determined that the petition contains 596,379 valid signatures –- close to 150,000 more than was required.
The report came after the Reproductive Freedom for All campaign turned in 753,759 signatures last month, a record-breaking number of signatures for a ballot initiative in the state. The Reproductive Freedom for All ballot initiative would affirm into Michigan’s Constitution the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference.
During a meeting next Wednesday, the state Board of Canvassers is expected to make a final determination on whether the proposed amendment will be on the November ballot.
Abortion remains legal in the state after a state judge’s ruling last week, but a more permanent decision on the legality of abortion in the state is expected to come from either the Michigan Supreme Court or from voters in the fall.
Michigan is one of four states that could have votes in November on abortion access, and the state’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have made abortion rights a centerpiece of their reelection campaigns.
The Bureau of Elections’ report also addressed an anti-abortion group’s challenge to the proposed amendment last week, which claimed that lack of spacing in the amendment’s text created “strings of gibberish” and made the amendment “impossible to understand.”
The report said that staff made “no recommendation as to the merits of these legal arguments,” but added that the amendment’s text contained the same words that were approved by the state Board of Canvassers in March even if “certain portions of the petition have smaller spaces between words.”
“Courts in Michigan have found that the board’s duty is limited to determining whether the form of the petition substantially complies with the statutory requirements and whether there are sufficient signatures to warrant certification of the proposal,” the Bureau of Election staff report stated.
The Reproductive Freedom for All campaign said in their response to the challenge that spaces are included in the full text of the proposed amendment and that those who signed the petition understood it.
The Bureau of Elections recommended in a separate report that the Board of Canvassers also approve a ballot question that would expand voter rights by allowing nine days of in-person early voting, state-funded absentee ballot postage and drop boxes in every community.
In response to the recommended approval of both proposals, Fred Wszolek, a GOP consultant working to oppose both measures, said the Board of Canvassers should “take their oaths of office seriously and reject these flawed proposals.”
The Board of Canvassers is made up of two Republicans and two Democrats. It received widespread national attention in 2020 when Norm Shinkle, a Republican board member who has since resigned, abstained from voting to certify the state’s results of the presidential election won by President Joe Biden.
—
Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | 2022-08-26T15:29:28+00:00 | wdtn.com | https://www.wdtn.com/news/u-s-world/ap-us-news/ap-michigan-panel-recommends-abortion-proposal-for-ballot/ |
WFO AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, December 11, 2022
_____
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio TX
235 AM CST Sun Dec 11 2022
...Strong thunderstorms will impact portions of eastern Fayette
County through 300 AM CST...
At 235 AM CST, Doppler radar was tracking strong thunderstorms along
a line extending from near La Grange to 8 miles west of Fayetteville
to near Schulenburg. Movement was northeast at 30 mph.
HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph and half inch hail.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around
unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is
possible.
Locations impacted include...
La Grange, Schulenburg, Fayetteville, Round Top, Carmine, Swiss Alp,
Dubina, Rutersville, Warrenton, High Hill, Waldeck, Rabbs Prairie,
Ellinger, Walhalla, Willow Springs, Ammannsville, Winedale, Rek Hill,
Mullins Prairie and Nechanitz.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.
Torrential rainfall is also occurring with these storms and may lead
to localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded
roadways.
Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with these storms.
Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe
shelter inside a building or vehicle.
LAT...LON 2963 9687 2963 9703 2983 9688 2999 9697
3016 9669 3015 9668 3015 9665 3008 9663
2996 9657
TIME...MOT...LOC 0835Z 244DEG 25KT 2995 9687 2987 9682 2968 9695
MAX HAIL SIZE...0.50 IN
MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | 2022-12-11T09:59:31+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-AUSTIN-SAN-ANTONIO-Warnings-Watches-and-17646090.php |
MILWAUKEE — Sources tell The Athletic there is "optimism" about Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo's return to the court for Game 2 of the playoffs.
The Athletic's Shams Charania tweeted Monday, citing unidentified sources: "There is optimism surrounding Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo (back) availability for Game 2 vs. Miami on Wednesday, sources say."
There is optimism surrounding Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo (back) availability for Game 2 vs. Miami on Wednesday, sources say. From Run It Back on @FanDuelTV: pic.twitter.com/E6GpFdxjaC
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 17, 2023
Previous reporting:
As the Associated Press previously reported, Giannis Antetokounmpo drove to the basket and took a hard fall.
And just like that, the championship aspirations of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks got quite a bit more precarious.
Antetokounmpo landed hard on his backside after getting fouled in the first quarter and left the Bucks' Eastern Conference playoff opener for good early in the second quarter on Sunday. Milwaukee lost 130-117 to the Miami Heat.
“There was an X-ray that was clear here,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll monitor him and see how he does, see how he wakes up, how he feels the rest of tonight and tomorrow.”
Game 2 of the series is Wednesday in Milwaukee, and the Bucks will hope the two-time MVP is feeling better by then.
“We have to wait and see what the doctors say, most importantly what Giannis says," Budenholzer said. “Certainly we've been blessed with him being resilient and quick to heal, but you’ve just got to take it day by day, see how he’s doing and see how he feels.”
Antetokounmpo got up slowly but remained in the game to take his free throws after getting fouled by Miami’s Kevin Love with 4:13 left in the first quarter. He stayed in the game until picking up his second foul about 2 1/2 minutes later.
After getting removed from the game, Antetokounmpo went to the locker room. He returned with 9:56 left in the second quarter but exited again with 8:33 left in the half and didn't return.
“Didn't look comfortable, confident,” Budenholzer said. “It felt like the right thing (to keep him out).”
Antetokounmpo had six points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.
The Heat had their own injury concerns. Miami's Tyler Herro broke his right hand late in the second quarter, putting his status for the rest of the postseason in question.
This marks the second straight season the Bucks have suffered a key injury early in their playoff run.
Three-time All-Star Khris Middleton sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Game 2 of the Bucks' opening-round series with the Chicago Bulls last season and missed Milwaukee's final 10 playoff games. The Bucks ended up losing a seven-game series to the Boston Celtics in the East semifinals.
Two years ago, Antetokounmpo hyperextended his left knee and missed the last two games of the East finals. He returned from that injury and was named the MVP of the NBA Finals after scoring 50 points in the title-clinching Game 6 victory over the Phoenix Suns that gave the Bucks their first championship in a half-century.
The Bucks are hoping Antetokounmpo shows his resilience once again.
“That’s our guy," Middleton said. “We hope he’s going to be well, he’s going to be back out there with us Wednesday, but we've just got to focus on who's out there at the same time. They had a guy go down also, and they continued to compete and play well. Same mindset we tried to have. It sucks when our guys go down or can't return but we’ve still got a job to do out there.”
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more. | 2023-04-17T20:21:48+00:00 | tmj4.com | https://www.tmj4.com/sports/basketball/milwaukee-bucks/will-giannis-play-in-game-2-of-the-playoffs-one-report-says-there-is-optimism |
NEW YORK , July 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Unilever PLC (NYSE: UL) between September 2, 2020 and July 21, 2021, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 15, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Unilever securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Unilever class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=7063 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 15, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that in July 2020, Ben & Jerry's board passed a resolution to end sales of its ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory" as well as the risks attendant to the board's decision. Additionally, Unilever's s description of its legal risks was materially false and misleading because Unilever acknowledged that complying with all applicable laws and regulations was important but omitted discussing Ben & Jerry's boycott decision, which risked adverse governmental actions for violations of laws, executive orders, or resolutions aimed at discouraging boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel adopted by 35 U.S. states ("Anti-BDS Legislation").
On July 19, 2021, Unilever and its hand-picked Ben & Jerry's CEO, finally "operationalized" the Ben & Jerry's board's resolution to boycott. Ben & Jerry's announced on its website and through its Twitter account that, upon the expiration of the current licensing agreement by which its products had been distributed in Israel for decades, Ben & Jerry's would end sales of its ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory" but Ben & Jerry's would purportedly continue to sell its products in Israel.
Ultimately, the states of New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, and Arizona announced decisions to divest their pension fund investments in Unilever due to violations of their Anti-BDS Legislation.
When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Unilever class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=7063 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | 2022-07-09T17:48:32+00:00 | kcbd.com | https://www.kcbd.com/prnewswire/2022/07/09/rosen-leading-investor-counsel-encourages-unilever-plc-investors-with-losses-excess-100k-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-securities-class-action-ul/ |
No team in the NBA is hotter than the New Orleans Pelicans.
At 8-2, they are tied with the Boston Celtics for the best record over the last 10 games — even though the Pelicans have played without multiple starters for most of that time.
They will be without second-leading scorer Brandon Ingram (toe) for a fifth consecutive game and fellow starter Herbert Jones Jr. (ankle) will be doubtful when they host the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.
CJ McCollum returned to the lineup from the health and safety protocols right after Jones was injured.
“We have a lot of depth,” said forward Zion Williamson, who has led the Pelicans’ surge to second place in the Western Conference standings. “I say it a lot, and I don’t just say it because they are my teammates; I say it because I mean it. This is a special team.”
Williamson cited the fact that backup center Willy Hernangomez was the MVP in the Euro League but is averaging just 9.9 minutes with New Orleans.
“He understands the name of the game and that we have a deep team,” Williamson said. “Whenever his number is called, he steps up.”
Another prime example of the team’s depth is guard Jose Alvarado, who joined the team as a rookie undrafted free agent before last season and has become a key contributor off the bench. He scored a career-high 38 points and made a career-high eight 3-pointers in a 121-106 win over visiting Denver on Sunday.
Alvarado has been taking advantage of scoring opportunities that arise because of the attention defenses have to pay to Williamson, who is averaging 23.6 points after missing all of last season because of foot surgery.
The Pistons began a three-game trip with a 116-96 victory at Miami on Tuesday night. It was their second victory in six games.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 28 of his 31 points in the second half as the Pistons pulled away to their largest margin of victory this season. Their 14-point victory against Golden State on Oct. 30 was their only other victory by more than seven points.
“Second half, we wanted to play faster and move the ball a little bit,” Bogdanovic said. “I hit a couple 3s and everything opened up.”
Alec Burks added 18 points (12 in the second half), Saddiq Bey scored 14, Isaiah Stewart had 11 points and 11 rebounds, Cory Joseph scored 11 and Jaden Ivey 10.
“It’s a huge team win,” Bogdanovic said. “We held a great offensive team under 100 points.”
Detroit, which entered the game allowing the second-most points in the league (118.2), improved to 4-3 when holding its opponent to 109 or fewer points. The Pistons are 3-16 when they allow 110 or more.
That statistic will be put to the test against the Pelicans, who have scored at least 110 points in eight of their last 10 games.
Cade Cunningham, the Pistons’ second-leading scorer, has missed the last 14 games because of a shin injury.
–Field Level Media | 2022-12-07T14:46:49+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/sports/nba-basketball/pistons-face-big-challenge-at-surging-pelicans/ |
Reckitt recalls select batches of infant formula. Here's what to know
Parents – check your pantries for baby formula.
Reckitt announced on Sunday that it was voluntarily recalling two select batches of ProSobee 12.9 oz.
In a press release, it was noted that Simply Plant-Based Infant Formula is being recalled out of an abundance of caution due to "a possibility of cross-contamination with Cronobacter sakazakii. All product distributed went through extensive testing and tested negative for the bacteria."
The product, which was distributed nationwide in retail stores in the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico, was manufactured between August and September 2022.
You can identify these batches of formula by a number that is found on the bottom of the can.
"Recalled product batches are ZL2HZF and ZL2HZZ both with a UPC Code of 300871214415 and a “Use By Date” of “1 Mar 2024," the press release stated.
Approximately 145,000 cans of the formula are impacted by the recall.
Reckitt says no other products are impacted and no illnesses have been reported.
"The batches in question tested negative for Cronobacter and other bacteria and this is an isolated situation. After a thorough investigation, we have identified the root cause, which was linked to a material from a third party. We have taken all appropriate corrective actions, including no longer sourcing this material from the supplier."
If you bought the ProSobee Simply Plant-Based Formula in question, check the can to identify if it's from an affected batch. You can also contact the company at consumer.relations@rb.com for assistance.
For more information, click here. | 2023-02-20T17:24:36+00:00 | wmur.com | https://www.wmur.com/article/plant-based-infant-formula-recalled/42993203 |
Jayda Cheaves is the it girl to know on social media. Far beyond the trope of the typical social media baddie, Cheaves effortlessly demonstrates personality, substance, and humor in her Instagram lives and TikTok as she allows her fans into a glimpse of her world with get-ready-with-me-style videos before the final snapshot of the viral photos on her feed.
In addition to slaying in photoshoots and exuding natural beauty, Cheaves has been able to monetize her online brand through the foundation of Amour Jayda and Waydamin, a loungewear brand with essentials for every boss babe working from home, on the go, and in between. “I really make sure that all my pieces aren’t just for petite girls. I go all the way up to 3X, and my plus-size models are phenomenal looking snatched as f*ck. I really take pride in that, because it really is for every body type,” she told HelloBeautiful.
In an exclusive chat with HelloBeautiful, the influencer, and entrepreneur opened up about her definition of self-care, what she’s teaching her son about inner beauty, and the beauty products that she swears by to keep her skin right.
HB: A lot of people on social media oftentimes worry about the comment section, the likes, and how many shares we get, but how do you make sure to stay grounded and true to who you are in the midst of everything that’s going on on the internet?
Jayda: I would say I’m still working on that because I don’t have everything figured out. I’m really tapping into myself [and] realizing what makes me happy. If I like my outfit, I’m going to post it because I like it. I’m not going to let three negative comments steer me away from how I really feel about what I put on that day. It’s all about being grounded and honestly being happy within, to know whatever this person’s saying, that can’t affect me. That’s how that person feels. Move on, next. Let go, let God.”
HB: What is something that you want to teach Loyal about inner beauty and staying true to himself?
Jayda: The main thing I instill into Loyal is ‘Never change who you are because of how other people treat you.’ He’s in school now, but it’s been situations where someone will do something mean to him, and of course, we’ll talk about the situation. I let him express his feelings, and I’m always like, ‘You just always be yourself. Don’t try to be mean to someone because they’re mean to you. Always remain who you are. Don’t let negative people make you negative’. That’s one of the main things I always teach my son.”
HB: How have your own wellness routines and boundary-setting practices evolved over time?
Jayda: Oh, please. It’s a totally different person from Amore Jayda to now. I know how to set boundaries. I know how to stand my ground. I know how to speak my truth without putting somebody down. I know how to be soft. I know how to be gentle, and I know how to get my point across without shitting on the next person. I really could stand true to myself. I don’t got to throw shade at nobody to make myself look better, or say, ‘Look at me, don’t look at this person.’ I really stand true in who I am, and I just do me.”
HB: What are three beauty products that you swear by?
Jayda: My jade roller.
My exfoliating heart pads are super essential. They’re flat, and once you put the water on them, they puff up. I really live by those.
Honestly, ever since I’ve been using them I’ve seen a total change in my skin. My jade roller, my heart exfoliant pads, and my HydroGrip face primer by Milk is absolutely the best face primer in the whole world. It keeps my skin snatched.”
HB: What would you say are three essential pieces that every woman should have in their closet?
Jayda: Black leggings, a black mini dress, like a cute long-sleeve dress – above the knee for sure. Just loungewear, and that’s what Waydamin basically is. Our best pieces are loungewear [and] everybody needs loungewear. We all like to just throw on leggings and a shirt with some boots, and run to the store. That’s my specialty over at Waydamin.
HB: What’s something you wish people would stop asking you about?
Jayda: My child’s father. That’s the biggest thing. Why y’all keep asking me about it?
HB: What do you wish people would ask you more of?
Jayda: I wish people would ask me more about mental health, and how I overcame certain situations and things that were meant to break me. Like, ‘How the f*ck did she bounce back from that?’ I’ve been through a lot publicly on social media. That sh*t really will f*ck with you; f*ck with your mental. If you’re not strong, there’s no way you going to make a comeback from that.
I’ve been dealing with stuff like that since I was 16. Didn’t even know what blogs were, for real. I’m going viral for situations, and the whole time I’m just growing up, learning, going through life. I guess it’s more important because I had this amount of followers, or I was doing this. Going through life in front of so many people, you really got to stay sane through it all because shit is going to happen. Nobody’s life is perfect. As I’m getting older, I know how to handle a situation differently than how I did back when I was 16 years old. That just comes with growth and maturity.”
HB: What are some of your wellness goals for 2023?
Jayda: Absolutely getting rid of that negative voice in my head. If I’m like, ‘I’m about to have a good day,’ then that voice comes like, ‘What if this happened? What if you do that?’ My ultimate goal of 2023 is absolutely coming to a state where I am high vibrations only. I’m tuning out that negative thought. I call it a roommate. It’s just that negative piece of energy that’s just there to fuck up your vibrations. I’m really trying to just tune that out so I could always be positive, or at least try to be positive because I try to be a positive person. Every day I wake up, I try to put that into my friends, the people I’m around. Sometimes I get triggered by certain things, and I’m trying to get triggered less, but moving over into 2023, I’ll pray to not get so triggered all the time.
HB: If Jayda Wayda now could tell Amour Jayda a piece of advice, what would she tell her?
Jayda: Honestly, I don’t know. I will honestly just tell her, to stay grounded because you’re too caught up in the internet. You’re too caught up in the stuff that don’t matter. I feel like Amour Jayda was very materialistic. She was doing it for social media and not for herself, so just maturity [and] growing up. I felt like I was always that person that I am now, I just was lost, and young and not really open-minded to knowing [that] none of this shit matters like the cars, the jewelry, the clothes. It makes you feel good for the moment, but realistically, that stuff do not matter. I feel like back then, I would probably just tell Amour Jayda, you’re too caught up in the wrong shit. What really makes you happy? Because back then I wasn’t happy.
RELATED STORIES:
The Real Jayda Wayda: Jayda Cheaves Talks Influence, Popularity, And Her Definition of Beauty
Jayda Cheaves Oozes Glamour At Her Grind Pretty Magazine Cover Dinner
Jayda Cheaves Wishes People Would Ask Less About Her Child’s Father And More About Her Mental Health was originally published on hellobeautiful.com | 2023-02-23T02:22:25+00:00 | wtlcfm.com | https://wtlcfm.com/3455865/jayda-cheaves-wishes-people-would-ask-less-about-her-childs-father-and-more-about-her-mental-health/ |
MINNEAPOLIS, May 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Proterra Investment Partners LP ("Proterra") today announced that Mark O. Decker, Jr. will be joining the firm to lead Proterra Real Estate Partners, a newly formed partnership to invest in real estate opportunities. Mr. Decker is joining Proterra after stepping down as CEO of Centerspace (NYSE:CSR), where he substantially repositioned the company from a diversified real estate company to a focused owner operator of apartments over the last six years.
Mr. Decker has over 25 years of experience in real estate and capital markets. He was named Chief Executive Officer of Centerspace in April of 2017 after joining in August 2016 as President and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Decker led the reconstitution of the executive team, board of directors, balance sheet and portfolio, including a renaming of the Company.
In addition to vastly improving the Company's earnings quality and financial flexibility, Mr. Decker and his team built an outstanding culture of performance that was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Star Tribune, the Honor Roll for Women in Leadership by the Twin Cities Business Journal, and in 2022 received the National Apartment Association's Inaugural Award for the Leading Organization in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Prior to joining Centerspace, Mr. Decker spent his career as an investment banker serving the needs of real estate owner-operators, real estate services companies, lodging, and private equity. In his last role, Mr. Decker was Group Head for US Real Estate Investment Banking for BMO Capital Markets. During Mr. Decker's banking career he built several successful practices and worked on over 300 capital markets and advisory transactions valued at over $93 billion.
"We are thrilled to have Mark join Proterra. His considerable experience, knowledge, and network will be incredibly valuable to our team as we navigate the launch of a real estate investment strategy that leverages the substantial success we have had investing in both private credit and real assets," said Proterra Managing Partner Rich Gammill.
Mr. Decker commented, "I am excited to join such an outstanding firm. This is a great time to launch a real estate investment strategy given the dislocations that are occurring across the broader real estate debt and equity markets. I feel my background is tailor made for the moment. I've known and respected Rich for many years and I'm excited to be part of driving the business forward."
About Proterra: Proterra Investment Partners is an alternative investment manager focused on private capital investments in both companies and real assets across the food value chain with over $4 billion in assets under management. Proterra has offices in Minneapolis, London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Shanghai, and Sydney.
Contact Mark Decker with questions:
+1 612 225 2586
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SOURCE Proterra Investment Partners | 2023-05-15T19:27:20+00:00 | wafb.com | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/05/15/proterra-investment-partners-launch-real-estate-investment-strategy-with-accomplished-industry-veteran/ |
(NEXSTAR) – A giant seaweed belt twice the width of the United States has its sights set on Florida, where it could wreak havoc as it washes ashore.
The 5,000-mile-wide bloom is a belt of sargassum, a floating brown algae that usually floats in the Atlantic. The problems start when it comes on land and starts to rot. As it decays, sargassum lets off hydrogen sulfide and smells like rotten eggs, explains the Florida Department of Health. It can irritate people’s eyes, nose and throat, and trigger breathing issues for people with asthma.
Some sargassum has already started washing up in Florida, the health department said Friday, but the worst is unfortunately still to come. Scientists are closely monitoring satellite imagery to identify areas where beaching may occur.
“The motion, extent, and density of Sargassum is very complex – it grows, sinks, and moves according to ocean currents, winds, and waves,” explained NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Library in an update posted Tuesday.
It’s tricky to predict the exact timing of the seaweed’s movement, but the sargassum is expected to really start washing up in late spring and early summer, said Chuanmin Hu, who tracks the belt as a researcher at USF’s College of Marine Science.
Brian Lapointe, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, told CNN he believes the activity will peak in July.
When it does start to arrive en masse, the biggest impact will be to the southeast coast of Florida, from Miami to Palm Beach, and the ocean side of the Florida Keys, Hu said. Florida’s western side will be mostly spared, Hu explained.
“Only the portion between Panama City and Mobile Bay may receive some variable amount of seaweed, and this will be later in the year (perhaps May) if it does happen,” Hu told Nexstar.
In the Gulf of Mexico, there are two sources of sargassum, NOAA researchers explain. The first is local blooms, which typically peak in April and May. The second source is in the Caribbean Sea, and usually peaks in late summer.
But this year, there is already quite a bit of sargassum in the Caribbean Sea, and currents are pulling it onto beaches in Florida, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Since 2011, the seaweed’s geographic area has massively expanded. While the sargassum belt is now about 5,000 miles long, it isn’t “a continuous blanket of seaweed,” Hu said. The seaweed is scattered throughout the belt and covers about 0.1% of the ocean’s surface.
But even 0.1% of the ocean’s surface is still a lot of seaweed. The mass can be seen in satellite images taken from space (below).
For beachgoers who observe sargassum washing up on shore, the Florida Department of Health recommends they avoid touching or swimming near the seaweed. The small creatures that live inside it, like jellyfish larvae, could sting or cause your skin to itch.
The department also suggests using gloves if you have to handle sargassum and closing windows if you live near the beach to avoid breathing issues and bad smells. | 2023-03-22T16:10:08+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/massive-seaweed-belt-still-on-track-to-hit-us-when-will-it-arrive/ |
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And if our Pie Week isn't enough for you, how about a new pie every day?
EVAN KLEIMAN, BYLINE: I said that I was going to make a pie a day all summer. Everybody's ears pricked up.
MONTAGNE: Evan Kleiman is the host of GOOD FOOD, a program from member station KCRW in Santa Monica.
KLEIMAN: All my producers at the radio station said: You know, you really have to do this now. And I just started. And it was sort of this free-flowing thought process of I would make a pie, and then I would criticize it.
MONTAGNE: Now, for the fourth summer in a row, Kleiman is getting ready to make a daily pie. She'll post recipes and photos of her pies online, including her failures.
KLEIMAN: The worst example was what I now refer to as the shrinking toupee pie, where I made a meringue. It looked absolutely beautiful sitting atop the lemon filling. And then as the day wore on, it kept shrinking, shrinking, shrinking until finally, there was just this little bit of fluff in the center of the pie. It looked like a balding man.
MONTAGNE: Hmm. Well, we asked Evan Kleiman: Why pie?
KLEIMAN: Cooking and baking, for a lot of us, is something that we do that creates a Zen moment, like an island in the craziness of life. I think David Mamet has been quoted saying: "Stress cannot exist in the presence of pie."
MONTAGNE: Evan Kleiman is the host of KCRW's GOOD FOOD. This summer's pie-a-day project kicks off tomorrow and goes through the first week of September.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | 2022-07-27T13:13:39+00:00 | kgou.org | https://www.kgou.org/2012-07-04/kcrw-celebrates-summer-with-a-pie-a-day |
Pamlico County man facing 11 charges after drug raid
PAMLICO COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - A Pamlico County man is facing nearly a dozen charges after a raid on his house last week.
Deputies arrested Brandon Peltier of Vandemere on Tuesday after a three-month investigation into drug selling in Pamlico County.
During the search, deputies say they seized crack cocaine, marijuana, 11 guns, body armor, digital scales, and other drug paraphernalia.
The 34-year-old man was charged with four counts of possession with intent to manufacture/sell/deliver Schedule II controlled substances, two counts of selling Schedule II controlled substances, two counts of delivery Schedule II controlled substances, maintaining a vehicle for controlled substance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, and possession of drug paraphernalia not for marijuana.
Peltier was jailed on a $50,000 secured bond and deputies expect more drug and weapons charges in the case.
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Copyright 2022 WITN. All rights reserved. | 2022-08-22T15:37:38+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/2022/08/22/pamlico-county-man-facing-11-charges-after-drug-raid/ |
Man suspected of shooting and injuring Dallas-area doctor was then shot and injured by police
CEDAR HILL, Texas (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and injuring a doctor at a Dallas-area medical building was shot and injured Tuesday by police officers after his vehicle was involved in a crash with another vehicle and officers could see he had a long gun, police said.
Police in Cedar Hill, located just southwest of Dallas, said that officers were dispatched at 12:17 p.m. to Methodist Family Health Center after getting a call about a person with a gun in the building. A minute later, the dispatcher heard a gunshot.
The first officer arrived at 12:21 p.m. and saw a doctor on the ground in front of the building with a gunshot wound, police said. Police said that another officer saw a man with a long gun leaving the scene, police said. Police said that the officer then relayed the suspect’s vehicle information to other officers. At 12:22 p.m., the suspect’s vehicle was involved in a crash just down the road.
Police said that after the crash, the suspect still had the long gun and five officers fired their weapons toward him.
The doctor who was injured was in stable condition at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, while the suspect was in critical condition, police said. The driver of the car the suspect’s vehicle was in a collision with was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Last fall, a man fatally shot a nurse and a social worker Methodist Dallas Medical Center after accusing his girlfriend, who had just given birth, of infidelity. Also last fall, a visitor was killed in a hospital shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In June 2022, a gunman killed his surgeon and three other people at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before killing himself.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-26T15:59:59+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/2023/07/26/man-suspected-shooting-injuring-dallas-area-doctor-was-then-shot-injured-by-police/ |
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was in a strong position to remain in power after her Social Democrats won the most votes Tuesday in Denmark’s election and a center-left bloc in Parliament that backs her appeared set to retain a majority by just one seat.
The result was preliminary and based on the assumption that a vote count in Greenland expected early Wednesday would give the autonomous Danish territory’s two seats to the center-left bloc.
“I am so thrilled and proud. We have gotten the best election result in 20 years,” Frederiksen told supporters early Wednesday in Copenhagen.
Despite the success, Frederiksen, who heads a Social Democratic minority government, said she would resign as prime minister and try to form a new government with broader support across the political divide, something she had said suggested before the election.
“It is also clear there is no longer a majority behind the government in its current form. Therefore, tomorrow I will submit the government’s resignation to the queen,” said Frederiksen, adding that she would meet with other parties about forming a new government.
Frederiksen was forced to call the vote earlier this month amid the fallout from her government’s contentious decision to cull millions of minks as a pandemic response measure. The cull and chilling images of mass graves of minks have haunted Frederiksen since 2020 and eventually led to cracks in the center-left bloc.
The Social Democrats remained Denmark’s top party with 28% of the vote, but it remained unclear long into the night whether the center-left parties together would reach the 90 seats needed for a majority in the 179-seat Parliament. Exit polls suggested they would fall short, but the decisive seat flipped at the very end of the vote count.
Before that former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen appeared set to become kingmaker. His newly formed centrist party won 9% of the vote for 16 seats, according to the preliminary results.
Løkke Rasmussen said he too wanted to Mette Frederiksen to try to form a government but he would not point at her “as prime minister.”
A two-time government leader who lost the 2019 election to Frederiksen and abandoned the center-right Liberal party following an internal power struggle, Løkke Rasmussen, wouldn’t say whom he would back as the next prime minister or whether he saw that role for himself.
“I know for sure that Denmark needs a new government, “ he told jubilant supporters in Copenhagen. “Who is going to sit at the end of the table we do not know.”
Denmark may be a small, tranquil country known for having some of the happiest people on Earth, but its politics is filled with intrigue that will be familiar to fans of the fictional Danish TV drama series “Borgen.”
Before the election, Frederiksen, 44, floated the idea of a broader alliance that would also include opposition parties, but was rebuffed by opposition leaders Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberals and Søren Pape Poulsen of the Conservatives, who both ran as candidates for prime minister in a center-right government.
Even though the election result suggested she could ostensibly carry on as prime minster with only center-left support, Frederiksen said she would keep her ambition to also reach out to opposition parties.
“The Social Democrats went to the election to form a broad government,” she said. “I will investigate whether it can be done.”
Denmark’s more than 4 million voters could choose among over 1,000 candidates — the most ever — from 14 parties. Four of the 179 seats in the Danish legislature, Folketinget, are reserved for the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, which are autonomous Danish territories.
Concerns about rising inflation and energy prices linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine and a shortage of nurses in the public health care system were key themes in election campaigns.
“What I feel is important and is a worry to many are the soaring prices, whether it be electricity, bread or gasoline,” said Inge Bjerre Hansen, 82, after casting her vote in Copenhagen. “My son is reducing the number of his visits because it has become expensive to fill the tank (of his car).”
Unlike in previous elections, immigration received little attention. Denmark has some of Europe’s strictest immigration laws and there is broad agreement among the major parties to keep it that way.
That and internal squabbles help explain the collapse of the populist Danish People’s Party, which spearheaded Denmark’s crackdown on immigration two decades ago. Once polling over 20%, the party recorded its worst parliamentary election result since its creation in 1995, with around 3% of the vote, the results showed.
The Danish People’s Party faced competition for nationalist voters from new right-wing parties. Among them are the Denmark Democrats, created in June by former hardline immigration minister Inger Støjberg. In 2021, Støjberg was convicted by the rarely used Impeachment Court for a 2016 order to separate asylum-seeking couples if one of the partners was a minor.
She was eligible to run for office again after serving her 60-day sentence. The official results showed her party getting 8%.
Frederiksen, who became Denmark’s youngest prime minister when she took office at 41 more than three years ago, teamed up with the opposition to hike NATO-member Denmark’s defense spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her steadfast leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was partly overshadowed by the mink-culling episode.
The decision to slaughter up to 17 million minks to protect humans from a mutation of the coronavirus was taken in haste and without the required legislation in place. It dealt a devastating blow to Danish mink farmers, even though there was no evidence the mutated virus found among some minks was more dangerous than other strains.
___
Ritter reported from Stockholm. Associated Press journalists and Aleksandar Furtula and Anders Kongshaug in Copenhagen contributed to this report. | 2022-11-02T11:09:38+00:00 | wjhl.com | https://www.wjhl.com/news/international/ap-danish-election-heading-toward-nail-biting-finish/ |
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower Wednesday as traders prepared for a possible sharp interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve to cool inflation.
Shanghai, Hong Kong and South Korea declined. Tokyo and Sydney advanced. Oil prices were little changed, staying below $100 per barrel.
Wall Street tumbled Tuesday after Walmart warned that inflation that has spiked to a four-decade high of 9.1% is hurting American consumer spending.
Investors worry aggressive action against inflation by the Fed and central banks in Europe and Asia might derail global economic growth.
The Fed is expected to announce a rate hike Wednesday of up to three-quarters of a percentage point, triple its usual margin. That would match a similar increase last month, the U.S. central bank’s biggest in 28 years.
“The main risk at this stage is in fact an inflation ‘overkill’ with monetary tightening too abrupt, unnecessarily pushing up the unemployment rate,” Thomas Costerg of Pictet Wealth Management said in a report. Costerg said most economic indicators and lower commodity prices already point to slower inflation ahead.
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 3,274.37 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.3% to 27,728.93. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 1.5% to 20,590.46.
The Kospi in Seoul retreated 0.4% to 2,401.78 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.1% to 6,814.00.
India’s Sensex opened up 0.3% at 55,418.55. New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta advanced while Singapore declined.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1.2% to 3,921.05. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 31,761.54. The Nasdaq composite closed 1.9% lower at 11,562.57.
Walmart slumped 7.6% after the retail giant cut its profit outlook for the second quarter and the full year late Tuesday. It said rising prices for food and gasoline are forcing shoppers to cut back on more profitable discretionary items, particularly clothing.
The retailer’s profit warning in the middle of the quarter is rare and raised worries about how the highest inflation in 40 years is affecting the entire retail sector.
Other major chains also fell. Target dropped 3.6%, Macy’s slid 7.2% and Kohl’s fell 9.1%.
Tech stocks retreated. Microsoft fell 2.7%, Amazon slid 5.2% and Facebook owner Meta Platforms dropped 4.5%.
General Motors fell 3.4% after its second-quarter profit fell 40% from a year ago. U.S. sales fell 15% after shortages of processor chips and other components left the company unable to deliver 95,000 vehicles during the quarter.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 32 cents to $95.30 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.72 on Tuesday to $94.98. Brent crude, the price basis for international oils, added 6 cents to $99.52 per barrel in London.
The dollar rose to 137.01 yen from Tuesday’s 136.00 yen. The euro gained to $1.0151 from $1.0120. | 2022-07-27T23:01:31+00:00 | cenlanow.com | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/asian-stocks-follow-wall-st-lower-before-likely-us-rate-hike/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Open Society Foundations said Wednesday that they plan to limit new grantmaking until February, as the nonprofits transition to a new operating model run by billionaire investor George Soros’ son, Alex. A spokesperson for the foundations said that the pause will not affect current grantees.
In a letter addressed to “friends and partners,” Open Society Foundations President Mark Malloch-Brown wrote, “Technological, environmental, political, and socioeconomic shifts are challenging open society ideals around the world. This flux demands that we reimagine our philanthropy.”
Part of that reimagining will cut OSF’s global staff of 800 in 20 countries by 40%, which Malloch-Brown called, “painful news for all concerned.” It also means changes to the length of OSF grants.
“This will often mean multiyear commitments enabling our partners to invest in ambitious, long-term action—with clear, measurable goals that would not be met without Open Society’s involvement,” wrote Malloch-Brown, who said OSF would honor existing financial commitments, but may not renew some of them.
Major changes at important foundations are never easy for grantees, said Kathleen Enright, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations.
“When foundations are open and transparent, keep funding flowing as much as possible, and give grantees time to plan, it’s a bit easier,” she said. “Given that it’s not just individual organizations that are affected, but often a whole ecosystem of nonprofits, foundations going through major change ask themselves: How can we be a good partner and maintain the strength of this field?”
Some current grantees worried about the impact the staffing changes and new model will have on their funding, saying the uncertainty itself has a cost especially for small organizations. OSF are one of the largest funders of human rights organizations and also have funded nonprofits that advocate for free speech, work on treatments and policies for drug addiction and more recently climate justice.
OSF donated $1.5 billion globally in 2021, the most recent year that has full data available. That included $401 million in the United States and $209 million in Europe and Central Asia.
Malloch-Brown also unveiled OSF’s new executive leadership team, which includes vice presidents, Pedro Abramovay and Binaifer Nowrojee, and vice president and chief operating officer, Sandra Breka. Alex Soros was elected OSF’s chairman of the board in December.
_____
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. | 2023-07-20T23:49:59+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/news/business-beat/ap-business/ap-george-soros-open-society-foundations-plan-to-limit-their-grantmaking-until-february/ |
Roughly six months after Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the House, he negotiated a bipartisan bill to lift the debt ceiling and avoid default — which passed overwhelmingly with 300 votes.
Copyright 2023 NPR
Roughly six months after Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the House, he negotiated a bipartisan bill to lift the debt ceiling and avoid default — which passed overwhelmingly with 300 votes.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-06-01T22:14:05+00:00 | wqcs.org | https://www.wqcs.org/2023-06-01/speaker-kevin-mccarthy-is-celebrating-after-the-house-passed-the-debt-ceiling-bill |
At 101, Dorothy Zehnder left a legacy of advice for family, friends and fans
Michigan lost a business icon when beloved restaurateur Dorothy Zehnder — who put Frankenmuth on the map with the Bavarian Inn Restaurant she ran with husband, Tiny Zehnder, and helped set the stage for the city’s ascent as a top tourist draw in the town that celebrates Christmas every day — died July 9.
When someone is that age (she turned 101 on Dec. 1), it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they finally transition.
But somehow it did.
Her passing elicited accolades from folks like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Congressman Dan Kildee, as well as countless folks on social media who posted memories of meeting the diminutive, engaging woman known for her work ethic, skills as a cook and who loved her family, staff and community.
“Dorothy was a Michigan icon,” Whitmer told me. “She has had such lasting impact on our state as an author and as a leader at Bavarian Inn where her hospitality and chicken dinners are the stuff of legend.”
Added Kildee, “For over eight decades, Dorothy dedicated her life to putting a smile on the faces of others through her cooking, baking and hospitality. Her career is simply remarkable, starting as a waitress at the restaurant and eventually running the Bavarian Inn’s many successful ventures.”
Dorothy was a woman ahead of her time, who embraced change and never lost her faith. She inspired people, something I found out firsthand in 2017 when she visited me in CBS Detroit’s studio to tape a ‘‘Michigan Matters” show featuring seniors who defied stereotypes about aging.
She had just turned 96, written her third cookbook and was still working six days week. So, what did she do on her one day off? Spent time in the kitchen working on new recipes. (That episode featured another inspiring senior, the late Ed Pobur, who was one of Cadillac’s top selling salesman in the nation into his '80s. Kindred spirits, they hit it off like they had known each other for years.)
Dorothy brought me a copy of her latest cookbook. She signed all 20,000 copies with a personalized message. In mine, she wished me good health and good baking — something she came up with after we talked on the show and after.
I had lamented to her that I couldn’t bake to save my life. My chocolate chip cookies were more fitting as hockey pucks than something anyone, including me, would want to ingest. Hence, I gave up trying. She encouraged me to try again, giving me advice including making sure my oven was calibrated to the right temperature, using real butter, etc.
Dorothy loved to teach and inspire — which she did with many, including her staff. She showed them the right way to make a killer pie or chicken sandwich. In her final visits to the restaurant, she took delight in talking with her staff and former employees who came back once word came out she was stopping by, her granddaughter, Martha Zehnder Kaczynski said.
Her imprint grew as their business grew. Dorothy was inducted in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame three years ago, was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game in 2017, dropped a puck at a Saginaw Spirits hockey game, was even a social media sensation for a bit as she was seen dancing with her staff in the kitchen of Bavarian Inn Restaurant to "Harlem Shake."
The family business grew from the restaurant she and Tiny ran once, known as Fischers Hotel. They doubled-down on German food, changed décor to full scale Bavarian and its name to Bavarian Inn Restaurant. (Tiny passed away in 2006; the couple had been married 63 years.)
Dorothy created almost everything on the menu as Bavarian Inn serves over 900,000 dinners each year and is ranked among the top 100 independently owned restaurants in the U.S., according to the National Restaurant Association.
There are seven family members representing three generations among its 1,000 employees. The company also includes the Bavarian Inn Lodge, Covered Bridge Shop, Frank’s Muth, and numerous retail stores within Frankenmuth River Place Shops and Frankenmuth Cheese Haus.
In our last conversation in December, just after her 101st birthday, she reflected about a few things.
She was most proud of her family as they continue to work together in business, without the drama that sometimes happens in family companies.
She lived in the same home she and Tiny bought over 70 years ago and raised their three children in. (The couple had 10 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.)
She talked about the recent passing of her oldest child, Judy Zehnder Keller, who worked in the family business, and was a trailblazer, too, as the first female city councilwoman elected in Frankenmuth. Keller died of cancer in October.
Both women were diagnosed with cancer within 18 months of each other.
“You never want to see your child sick, no parent should outlive their child," Dorothy told me, adding her faith carried her through, knowing, “Judy is home.”
As we wound down our conversation, I asked if there was anything she might have done differently.
“I wouldn’t change a thing because with all the good and bad things that happened, it made me who I am today. I learned from it all and wouldn’t change a thing,” she added.
She lived a wonderful life, touched many people and leaves Michigan a better place. God bless you Dorothy Zehnder, as you head home.
More:At 101, Dorothy Zehnder is a Michigan legend and marvel
More:At 99, Dorothy Zehnder still loves what she does for the family's Frankenmuth businesses
Contact Carol Cain: 248-355-7126 or clcain@cbs.com. She is senior producer/host of “Michigan Matters.” | 2023-07-15T11:33:50+00:00 | freep.com | https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/carol-cain/2023/07/15/at-101-dorothy-zehnder-left-a-legacy-of-advice-for-friends-and-family/70409058007/ |
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union regulators hit Google with fresh antitrust charges Wednesday, saying the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its lucrative digital ad business is by selling off parts of the tech giant’s main moneymaker.
The unprecedented decision to push for such a breakup marks a significant escalation by Brussels in its crackdown on Silicon Valley digital giants, and follows a similar move by U.S. authorities seeking to bust Google’s alleged monopoly on the online ad ecosystem.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, said its preliminary view after an investigation is that “only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services” would address the concerns.
The 27-nation EU has led the global movement to crack down on Big Tech companies — including moving closer to groundbreaking rules on artificial intelligence — but it has previously relied on issuing blockbuster fines, including three antitrust penalties for Google worth billions.
It is the first time the bloc has told a tech giant that it should split up key parts of its business over violations of the EU’s strict antitrust laws, though details on what that could look like are not clear following the preliminary finding.
Google can now defend itself by making its case before the commission issues its final decision. The company said it disagreed with the finding and “will respond accordingly,” adding that the EU’s investigation focused on a narrow part of its ad business.
“Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” said Dan Taylor, Google vice president of global ads. “Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector.”
The commission’s decision stems from a formal investigation that it opened in June 2021, looking into whether Google violated the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of rival publishers, advertisers and advertising technology services.
Online display ads are banners and text that appear on websites such as newspaper home pages and are personalized based on an internet user’s browsing history.
European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager says Google is dominant on both sides of the ad-selling market. Google abused that position by favoring its own ad exchange, reinforcing its ability to charge a high fee for its services, the commission said.
“Google is representing the interests of both buyers and sellers. And at the same time, Google is setting the rules on how demand and supply should meet,” she said at a news conference. “This gives rise to inherent and pervasive conflicts of interest.”
Vestager added that if Google sold off, for example, its real-time marketplace for buying and selling ads or a tool for publishers to manage their ads, “we would put an end to the conflicts of interest.”
The commission is seeking a forced sale because past cases that ended with fines and requirements for Google to stop anti-competitive practices have not worked, allowing the company to continue its behavior, “just under a different disguise,” she said.
“This is a big deal” and a sign that the commission has “lost all trust in Google and lost all trust in those behavioral remedies” mandating changes to the way it operates, said Rich Stables, CEO of rival search engine Kelkoo, which was involved in two of the EU’s previous Google antitrust cases.
Google’s ad tech business is also under investigation by Britain’s antitrust watchdog and faces litigation in the U.S. that calls for the company to divest its digital ad tools.
European and U.S. authorities are acknowledging that “the only way to address this egregious conflict of interest is to force Google to divest part of its business,” said Max von Thun, director of the Europe office of the Open Markets Institute, a proponent of stronger antitrust enforcement.
The commission’s move is “a clear illustration of the power competition authorities have when they work in parallel,” he said.
Brussels has previously hit Google with more than 8 billion euros (now $8.6 billion) worth of fines in three separate antitrust cases, involving its Android mobile operating system and shopping and search advertising services. The company is appealing all three penalties.
EU regulators can impose penalties worth up to 10% of annual revenue and also could fine Google alongside any sale order.
Google brought in $54.5 billion in ad sales and YouTube earned nearly $6.7 billion in ad sales in the first three months of the year, but that marked a back-to-back slump as companies spend more cautiously.
___
Chan reported from London. | 2023-06-15T02:34:58+00:00 | localsyr.com | https://www.localsyr.com/news/business/ap-business/google-should-break-up-digital-ad-business-over-competition-concerns-european-regulators-say/ |
CHICAGO (AP) — Army recruiters struggling to meet enlistment goals say one of their biggest hurdles is getting into high schools, where they can meet students one on one. But they received a recent boost from a recruiting advocate whom school leaders couldn’t turn away: the secretary of the Army.
During three days of back-to-back meetings across Chicago last month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth spoke with students, school leaders, college heads, recruiters and an array of young people involved in ROTC or junior ROTC programs. Again and again, she asked, what can the Army do to better reach young people and sell itself as a good career choice.
In blunt sessions, recruiting leaders told her they need more and better access to high school students. But they also said the atmosphere can at times be unfriendly — or worse — with school leaders, many of whom are skeptical that the Army offers a good career option for their students. “I’m going to use the word hostile,” one recruiter told her. “There’s no other word to use.”
It’s not unusual for the Army’s top civilian to travel the country, pitching the Army message and checking in on recruiting progress. But the Chicago trip came on the heels of the Army’s worst recruiting year in recent history, when it fell 25% short of its 60,000 enlistment goal. It’s up to Wormuth and other Army leaders to find creative new ways to attract recruits and ensure that the service has the troops it needs to help defend the nation.
All the military services are strugging to compete for young people in a tight job market where private companies are often willing to provide better pay and benefits. Two years of the coronavirus pandemic shut down recruiters’ access to public events and schools where they could find prospects. And, according to estimates, just 23% of young people can meet the military’s fitness, educational and moral requirements, with many disqualified for reasons ranging from medical issues to criminal records and tattoos.
Army leaders say their surveys show that young people don’t see the Army as a prime career choice, often because they don’t want to die or get injured, deal with the stress of military life or put their lives on hold.
What Wormuth heard in her Chicago sessions was a litany of challenges, from the issue of school access and competition with colleges to confusing Army websites, limited social media and a general lack of public knowledge about the jobs and opportunities that military service can provide.
In a meeting with Pedro Martinez, the chief executive for Chicago’s public schools, Wormuth noted the recruiters’ frustrations and she pressed for answers on how to fix things.
Martinez agreed that when recruiters try to work with individual schools, and a new recruiter comes in or a counselor leaves, “there’s not always a warm handoff.” He suggested working with the central district office instead.
Swiveling to Lt. Col. Shane Doolan, the recruiting battalion commander for Chicago, Wormuth asked if the team deals well with the central office.
“No, we really don’t have a relationship. And that’s what we’re working on here,” Doolan replied, adding that two years of COVID-19 restrictions hampered those efforts. He also said recruiters found a lack of understanding about the Army.
Doolan and other recruiters told Wormuth that they face resistance from teachers’ unions and school board members who don’t see the value in offering students the military as a career option. In some cases, school officials view the military through a post-Vietnam era lens.
Martinez and other school officials acknowledged there is a knowledge gap, but added that for security reasons, principals and counselors are cautious about who gets access to their schools and students.
They also warned that a recruiter who is good at speaking to students may not be as prepared to deal with school leaders. Recruiters, they said, must be able to explain the benefits of military service to those who are gatekeepers to the students.
High school access isn’t the only hurdle.
Speaking with college leaders, Wormuth stressed that the Army should not be viewed as their competitor for young people.
“The Army is facing a recruiting challenge. That’s what brought me here,” Wormuth told a large group of college presidents and leaders at the University of Illinois Chicago. But, she added, “it doesn’t have to be a choice for kids between the Army and college. Some kids benefit from a little time doing something else.”
In some cases, she said, soldiers return to college after serving, or while continuing to serve, and are better prepared to be good students.
Students offered their own views.
In small sessions with members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and the junior ROTC, students laid bare the gaps the Army must bridge to attract others in their generation. They said young people don’t know the benefits offered by Army service, which include a wide array of career choices or free college tuition. They said students have little exposure to service members and that for every positive mention of the military or the Army online, there are five negative ones.
Gathered around tables and in their uniforms, they spoke glowingly about their ROTC experiences: the camaraderie, the support, the leadership skills they get and the confidence they build.
But all too often, they said, their friends question their choices, and, as one said, “assume I’m going to war.” Some noted that at times their parents are reluctant and had concerns about their safety.
In a crowded auditorium at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, Wormuth came face to face with those perceptions. Young students peppered her with questions about sexual assaults in the Army, homeless veterans, and the use of the military during racial unrest after the police killing of George Floyd.
Flying home after three days jammed with such sessions, Wormuth said the questions from the Whitney Young students, along with similar issues raised in other meetings, reinforce the need for the military to solve some it its more difficult problems.
“They asked about sexual harassment. They asked about, are they going to be safe? They asked about barracks, in addition to wanting to know what the benefits are,” Wormuth said. “That, to me, underscores the importance of us finding ways to solve those problems. Those are real issues and the market research we’ve done speaks to that.”
She said that she and Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, realize it will take time to fix the recruiting shortfall.
“I don’t think we’re going to build back our recruiting numbers to the level that Gen. McConville and I would feel comfortable with in one year,” she said.
Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, head of Army Recruiting Command, said some new incentive programs are already working and enlistment numbers for recent months are higher than last year.
Army leaders are pinning their hopes on a new advertising campaign that will launch this week and bring back a tried and true Army slogan from the 1980s: “Be all you that can be.”
In the Whitney Young auditorium, Wormuth said the slogan speaks to the variety of careers the Army offers.
“If coding is your thing, we have a place for you in the Army,” she told the students. “If jumping out of planes or helicopters is your thing, or if you’d rather fly them, you can become an aviator or go airborne in the United States Army. If you want to speak different languages and travel the world, you could become a linguist or a foreign country expert in the army. ”
And, she added, if hip hop is their passion, they can become an Army rapper, since two vocalists just joined the Army band of rappers.
“People remember people who take risks and try to do something in service of something bigger than themselves,” she told the classes. “People remember those who choose to be all that they could be.” | 2023-03-05T21:33:51+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/national/army-boss-mission-persuade-schools-to-welcome-recruiters/ |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with U.S. counterpart Jill Biden.
Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flew alongside American ones on Pennsylvania Avenue as Zelenska headed for her first announced event in the United States, the meeting with Blinken.
The State Department announced and then canceled a planned brief appearance by Blinken and Zelenska before photographers there. The low-key arrival reflects that Zelenska is not traveling as an official representative of the government of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenska studied architecture in college but worked as a comedy scriptwriter, including for Zelenskyy, who was a comedian with a popular television show before winning the presidency in 2019.
During the war, Zelenskyy has won admiration from Ukrainians and Ukraine's supporters abroad by staying put in the capital, Kyiv, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine i n February.
Zelenska largely disappeared with the couple's two children during the first months after the invasion. In an interview with Time magazine this month, she described the war forcing her to shelter away from Zelenskyy for security reasons from the first hours of Russia's bombing. Their children, like other Ukrainians, largely have seen Zelenskyy since then in nightly video addresses he makes to the country.
Zelenska emerged from seclusion May 8 to greet Jill Biden, who was making an unannounced visit to western Ukraine.
The two first ladies met then at a school, where they hugged, talked, and joined schoolchildren making tissue-paper bears as gifts for Mother's Day.
Zelenska has taken a higher public profile since that meeting. That includes giving more newspaper interviews about Ukraine's struggles and about her projects during the conflict. She has promoted counseling for the millions of Ukrainians now dealing with grief and trauma.
She meets with Jill Biden on Tuesday and will speak in the congressional auditorium at the Capitol to lawmakers on Wednesday. Her husband received standing ovations from congressional members in a video address to lawmakers in the same auditorium earlier in the war.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the schedule of her visit.
___
Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova contributed from Kyiv. | 2022-07-18T19:35:50+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Out-of-wartime-hiding-Ukraine-s-first-lady-makes-17312695.php |
Then-Vice President Joe Biden stood at a podium in the South Court Auditorium of the White House nearly 10 years ago as the leader of a task force formed to find solutions after a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In 2016, Biden spoke to a group of Sandy Hook families and expressed hope that change was on the horizon with gun laws, noting it took him seven years of pushing as a senator before a decadelong assault weapons ban was enacted in 1994.
Wednesday will mark 10 years since the Sandy Hook massacre, but gun violence is as central to Biden’s politics as ever.
Perhaps more than any other issue, Biden has used his bully pulpit as president to push Congress to address gun violence, calling repeatedly for lawmakers to reimpose a ban on assault weapons as mass shooting after mass shooting devastates the country on a regular basis.
“Together, we’ve made some important progress: the most significant gun law passed in 30 years, but still not enough. Still not enough,” Biden said last week at the 10th annual Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence.
White House officials and advocates believe the nation is in a different place in its ability to fight gun violence than it was 10 years ago, largely because of the work done by groups after the Sandy Hook shooting that have helped shift public attitudes and make incremental legislative progress.
But the regularity with which Biden issues statements after mass shootings — in Boulder, in Buffalo, in Uvalde, in Tulsa, in Highland Park, in Raleigh, in Colorado Springs — shows how much work there still is to do.
“One benefit of Biden’s long career in Washington is that we all know what issues animate him, and it’s clear that gun violence is at the top of that list,” said Eric Schultz, a former deputy press secretary in the Obama White House.
The Sandy Hook shooting led Congress to coming the closest it has in decades to reinstituting an assault weapons ban. But when it came to a vote in 2013, it only garnered 40 Senate votes because several Democrats from swing states voted against it.
Congress also failed to pass universal background checks in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. The 20-year-old shooter in Newtown, Conn., used a semi-automatic rifle and other guns legally purchased by his mother.
In the decade since, through executive action and legislation, the federal government has made progress on gun violence in other ways. Obama signed a package of executive orders after Sandy Hook with the help of Biden and his task force.
Biden has signed executive orders aiming to crack down on the use of ghost guns, which are more difficult to track and trace when they are used in crimes.
And Congress earlier this year passed bipartisan legislation bolstering red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to confiscate weapons from dangerous individuals, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole and enhancing background checks for those ages 18-21.
Groups like Everytown, Sandy Hook Promise, March for Our Lives and others have emerged in recent years to provide a counterbalance to the gun lobby. And polling has repeatedly shown stronger background checks and outlawing some semi-automatic weapons are popular with a majority of Americans.
Aides say the issue is personal for Biden, who has met with scores of survivors of gun violence and family members of victims during his time in government. In a 2016 speech to Sandy Hook families, he lamented that they shared something in common: They belonged to a “lousy club” of parents whose children had died before them. Biden lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
“He is consistent on this issue, and he’s been consistent for decades,” said Stefanie Feldman, a senior adviser on the White House Domestic Policy Council. “Because of that, he carries with him so many stories of people who have been directly impacted. He knows an assault weapons ban works. He knows other strategies to reduce gun violence work.”
Biden has talked at fundraisers and economic events, such as the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, about banning assault weapons. A White House official said Biden will sometimes ask that a reference to banning assault weapons be added to speeches if it is not already included.
Biden traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, following shootings at a grocery store and an elementary school, respectively. The president is expected to mark the Sandy Hook anniversary on Wednesday, and it is likely to renew attention on what still needs to be done to prevent future mass shootings.
Gun violence prevention advocates agree that not enough has been done to curb violence in the decade since the shooting at Sandy Hook. But, they say, progress has been made.
“The last 10 years have seen remarkable progress in building an effective social movement, the gun and safety movement, virtually from scratch. We have achieved more, I think, from a political advocacy standpoint than you might have expected when we first set out,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords.
“We’re hopeful that in the next decade that we’re going to be able to start seeing more of the effects of the policies that have been put in place and, more importantly, we’re going to be able to do more,” he said.
Zeenat Yahya, March For Our Lives policy director, said the uptick in gun violence since Sandy Hook is a clear indicator the problem persists.
“I don’t think enough has been done to curb gun violence in America, and particularly what’s really scary to me … what has really indicated that, obviously, is the fact that gun violence has increased so much over the years,” she said.
What gives advocates hope is the support for the gun violence prevention law that Biden signed in June.
Ambler called the gun control bill insufficient and narrow in scope but “an important validation of our strategy and our work over the past decade.” And it sets the stage for another 10 years of growth.
While Biden said as recently as last month that he was counting the votes to see if an assault weapons ban could pass Congress, the White House hasn’t given an update on if he has talked to lawmakers and its path to passage is unclear.
An assault weapons ban would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. Democrats will increase their majority next Congress to only 51 seats, while Republicans will hold a narrow majority in the House.
Advocates think that Biden should continue pushing for an assault weapons ban, even if he doesn’t have the votes.
“We need him to be able to do everything in his power possible to really apply pressure to Sen. [Charles] Schumer and to the Senate Dems, to get everybody on board and really just kind of go for it,” Yahya said. | 2022-12-13T12:52:30+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/hill-politics/how-biden-keeps-focus-on-gun-violence-10-years-after-sandy-hook/ |
President Biden set to visit Kentucky alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - President Joe Biden is set to visit the Ohio and Kentucky border on Wednesday. The visit is expected to be a bipartisan celebration of sorts over newly-secured funding to upgrade a critical bridge connected the two states.
The roughly 60 year-old Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio, carries about double the amount of traffic it was originally designed to carry. Local officials say it’s in desperate need of an upgrade.
The Biden administration recently announced a more than billion dollar grant to help build a second bridge, and rehab the current one.
The federal grant is made possible by the $1.6 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that was passed in 2021. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) helped pass the legislation. His office also says the senator directly advocated for the grant for the Brent Spence Bridge.
Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear and Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine are also expected to join President Biden and Senator McConnell on Wednesday.
Copyright 2023 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | 2023-01-04T01:28:59+00:00 | fox5vegas.com | https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/01/04/president-biden-set-visit-kentucky-alongside-senate-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell/ |
(KTLA) — If you’ve ever been on a peaceful afternoon walk through Santa Monica, California, or Northeast Los Angeles, you may have seen them fly overhead or heard them squawking in their communal roosts.
Thousands of non-native parrots call Los Angeles home, much to the enjoyment of the local community of bird enthusiasts.
While no extant species of parrot are native to the continental U.S., experts say there are as many as nine species of parrot found in the Los Angeles area, introduced decades ago and continuing to grow in population.
But how exactly did they get there, and is their presence having a negative impact on the local ecosystem?
Luke Tiller is president of the Pasadena Audubon Society, a collection of bird watchers and enthusiasts with ties to the national organization of the same name.
He said rumors about how the parrots ended up in Los Angeles have been running rampant for years.
“There were like a million stories about how they got here,” Tiller said. “Like that there was a crate to LAX that they escaped from or that some were released during the L.A. riots. And there’s probably some element of truth to all of those stories. But there’s not one story that’s ‘the reason’ that they’re here.”
There have also been persistent rumors that the birds once lived at the Van Nuys Busch Gardens and escaped when the theme park shuttered its doors in the 1970s.
Despite no definitive answer for one flashbulb moment, experts agree that the parrots ended up in L.A. through the pet trade, either released intentionally or beloved pets that escaped their cages.
“They can be actually quite destructive around the house as a pet,” Tiller said. “I think people get them as pets and then kind of maybe second guess that, and that’s one of the ways they get into the population.”
Regardless of how they were introduced, the parrots seem to be thriving.
Red-crowned parrots, which are among the largest of Amazon parrots roaming the skies of L.A., are actually doing better as a species in California than in their native homeland in Mexico, Tiller said.
“The red-crowned parrot is actually listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as endangered, which essentially means that it’s at high risk of extinction in the wild,” Tiller said. “So they now think that there are probably more red-crowned parrots in Los Angeles than there are in its native range in Mexico.”
Habitat loss and the pet trade are leading factors in the struggles facing the red-crowned parrots. But in L.A., they’re breeding — very successfully — with their communal roosts and breeding spots a popular stop for birdwatchers. Tiller himself lives just across the street from where some parrots have been known to roost during breeding season.
The American Birding Association considers red-crowned parrots to be “established” in L.A., meaning their population will continue to replenish itself and grow.
In a strange twist of fate, the parrots laying down roots in Southern California could end up going a long way in helping their fellow birds back home. In the event that their numbers drop off significantly in their native range, Tiller said, scientists might be able to pull from the L.A. flocks to reintroduce the birds back into their ancestral homelands.
“One of the big problems with reintroduction of birds when their numbers have dropped very low … is having adult birds that kind of know how to behave in the wild,” Tiller said.
Scientists have tried to reintroduce various endangered birds raised in captivity back into their native ranges, but the results have been mixed. Many of those birds raised in captivity couldn’t recognize danger and lacked the “street smarts” to make it in the wild. That’s not a problem for L.A. parrots that have shown they have what it takes to survive in the City of Angels.
With thousands of non-native birds taking up residence in Southern California, you would think there would be concerns about clashes with other bird species or negative impacts on the local ecosystem. Surprisingly, that doesn’t really seem to be the case.
“The thing about them is that they are mostly really confined to kind of fairly urban areas of Los Angeles,” Tiller said. “I don’t think ornithologists are that concerned about their impact.”
There are some small-scale nest feuds between the various parrot species and some larger woodpeckers, and parrots might steal some nuts and fruits from backyard gardens, but their impact to the local ecosystem seems to be mostly minimal.
We contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding these non-native birds to see if that hypothesis was accurate, and it appears to be the case. Their wildlife conflict specialists have not received any reports regarding problem parrots.
“With parrots being part of the pet trade industry, CDFW doesn’t really have any knowledge or management of parrot populations,” a California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson said. “That could change if parrots demonstrated a negative impact on another species or habitat that do fall under our management.”
Instead, these non-native birds have shown to be model citizens. They stay out of trouble (aside from the occasional ear-shattering squawking) and offer bird enthusiasts or curious passersby the chance to witness something uniquely L.A.
“Personally, I love them,” Tiller said. “The parrots seem to be fairly innocuous, and when you see them in these communal roosts in the winter, it’s spectacular, and that’s something that I recommend every Angeleno tries to do… It really is amazing.”
The Pasadena Audubon Society does regular field trips and walking tours to see the parrots in their roosts. The trips are accessible for people of almost all abilities and you don’t have to be an expert to take something away from them, Tiller said.
Whether you hold the same affinity for these birds as Tiller, or if their screeching and squawking is more “nails on a chalkboard” rather than music to your ears, it matters not. The birds have made Los Angeles their home and they don’t appear to be going anywhere.
Like many Angelenos, these parrots are transplants, drawn to Los Angeles by its idyllic weather and seemingly boundless opportunity, looking for love and taking things day by day. | 2023-06-12T15:46:35+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/national-news/why-are-there-so-many-parrots-in-los-angeles/ |
PASAY CITY, Philippines, Jan. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SM is heading into 2023 with optimism, pushing forward with expansion and growth to reach more communities.
"We are investing in the future growth of the Philippines as it continues to present tremendous potential," SM Investments Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Frederic C. DyBuncio said
SM has been increasing its focus in provincial areas where local economies are growing faster. Over 80 percent of SM's new retail stores are in provincial areas where a good chunk of growing overseas remittances flow into. SM Retail, the retail arm of SM Investments, currently operates over 3,300 department stores, groceries and specialty retail stores.
Also gearing up to focus on further expanding into the provinces, particularly to cover most of Northern Luzon, Visayas and the progressive cities in Mindanao is SM Prime Holdings Inc., the property development arm of SM Investments.
In 2022, SM Prime opened four malls--SM City Roxas, its first mall in Capiz Province; SM City Tanza in the historic province of Cavite; SM City Sorsogon in the Bicol peninsula as the gateway of Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao regions; and most recently, SM City Tuguegarao in Cagayan Province, its 82nd mall in the Philippines. To date, SM Prime has 58 malls in the provincial areas and 24 malls in Metro Manila.
"Our businesses are still operating in many highly underpenetrated sectors and we intend to serve Philippine communities in more regions nationwide," Mr. DyBuncio said.
With the improvement in employment, SM Development Corporation, SM Prime's residential arm is also poised to grow and expand in the provinces which is also seen to help narrow the housing gap. The Philippines also has a young population that is offering more growth opportunities as they enter and invest in real estate.
As of 2022, SMDC has 18 residential developments in key provincial cities. In 2022 alone, SMDC launched Vail Residences in Cagayan de Oro, Now Residences in Pampanga, and Zeal Residences in General Trias, Cavite, integrated into SM Prime's malls and transport terminals for the convenience of communities.
"The potential of the Philippines remains enormous with a young, energetic, service-oriented and still growing population. SM remains optimistic on Philippine growth driven by this market," Mr. DyBuncio said.
SM also continues to invest in the tourism potential of the Philippines through its hotels and conventions business. SM Hotels and Convention Centers Corporation operates nine world-class properties situated in key cities nationwide, namely Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City, Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club and Pico Sands Hotel in Batangas, Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu, Conrad Manila in Pasay City, and Park Inn by Park Inn by Radisson hotels in North Edsa, Clark, Davao, Iloilo and, Bacolod.
SMX Convention Center, the conventions business of SM Hotels recently launched its convention center in Clark, Pampanga, strategically located beside Park Inn by Radisson Clark across SM City Clark and near Clark International Airport. This facility strives to contribute to making Northern Luzon one of the premiere destinations for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions or MICE in the country, further boosting tourism prospects in the provinces.
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SOURCE SM Investments Corporation | 2023-01-27T12:33:43+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2023/01/27/sm-invests-growth-through-expansion-reach-more-communities/ |
- Telit Cinterion is one of the first NVIDIA technology partners to validate 5G networking for the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin™ and NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX system-on-modules
- Industrial-grade, M.2 data cards deliver fiber-like mobile broadband connection for Jetson-powered AI devices operating under public or private networks, including millimeter wave with FN980 modules
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Telit Cinterion, a global leader in the internet of things (IoT), today announced it has completed verification of its 5G FN980 and FN990 series data cards for use with NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Xavier™, Jetson AGX Orin and Jetson Orin NX modules. Based on the 3GPP Release 15 and 16 standards respectively, the FN980 and FN990 modules are ideal for high-performance and bandwidth-intensive applications enabled by NVIDIA Jetson modules— the world's smallest, most powerful and energy-efficient AI supercomputers built for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and machines, as well as for edge computing.
Extensively certified for use in 5G networks around the world, the 5G industrial-grade, M.2 data cards deliver fiber-like mobile broadband connection for devices operating under public or private networks as well as millimeter wave with FN980 modules. To learn more, visit: https://www.telit.com/5g-data-card-sample/.
Telit Cinterion is one of the first IoT technology providers to validate 5G networking for NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX, a new generation of the Orin family designed for applications including autonomous robotics, smart cameras, computer vision and other applications that require AI and/or machine learning (ML) at the edge. Jetson Orin NX modules deliver up to 100 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of AI performance in the smallest Jetson form factor, with power configurable between 10W and 25W. Jetson Orin NX enables 3x the performance of Jetson AGX Xavier and 5x the performance of Jetson Xavier NX, making it ideal for small-form-factor, low-power products like drones and handheld devices. It features an NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU and 8-core Arm® Cortex®-A78AE CPUs, along with next-generation deep learning and vision accelerators. High-speed interfaces, faster memory bandwidth and multimodal sensor support provide the ability to feed multiple concurrent AI application pipelines.
The FN990 and FN980 series 5G data cards enable high-speed commercial deployments for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), system integrators and service providers. The 4G/5G multimode operation allows new product concepts to be tested and deployed quickly everywhere long-term evolution (LTE) is available as 5G rollouts continue. The industrial-grade M.2 form factor provides an easy 5G migration path for end-products already in the M.2 market with 3G and 4G solutions. It is suitable for enterprise routers and industrial gateways, high-speed fixed wireless access Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), private LTE/5G networks, video broadcasting and surveillance.
"As a member of the NVIDIA Partner Network, we are contributing our 5G cellular adapter modules to the Jetson ecosystem," said Marco Contento, VP of product management, mobile broadband, Telit Cinterion. "We are keeping pace with the speed of innovation while anticipating needs and leading innovation. When it comes to engineering solutions for AI devices and AMRs — which require networking that is reliable, low latency and high speed — our partners can trust Telit Cinterion."
Both NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and the Telit 5G data cards are now available globally. The 16GB version of the Jetson Orin NX will be available in mass production as of January 2023. To learn more, visit: https://www.telit.com/telit-nvidia-jetson-platform/.
For a live demo, meet the team at CES 2023 in booth # 10844.
About Telit Cinterion
Telit Cinterion simplifies onboarding connected 'things' with a portfolio of enterprise-grade wireless communication and positioning modules, cellular MVNO connectivity plans and management services, edge and cloud software and data orchestration, IoT and Industrial IoT platforms, and custom IoT projects and solution design services. With over two decades of experience pioneering IoT innovation, Telit Cinterion delivers award-winning, secure and integrated IoT solutions for many of the world's largest enterprises, OEMs, system integrators and service providers so they can connect and manage IoT at any scale.
For more information, follow us on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook or visit Telit.com.
Copyright © 2023 Telit IoT Solutions Holding Ltd. and/or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Telit Cinterion, Telit, OneEdge, Cinterion, and all associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Telit Communications S.p.A, Telit Communications LTD, Telit IoT Solutions Holding Ltd. and/or their affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Media Contacts
Leslie Hart
Telit Cinterion
+1 919-415-1510
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SOURCE Telit Cinterion | 2023-01-06T15:55:08+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/prnewswire/2023/01/06/telit-cinterion-5g-fn980-fn990-series-data-cards-validated-use-with-nvidia-jetson-xavier-jetson-orin/ |
Quarterback Justin Fields’ status remains cloudy as the Chicago Bears prepare for this weekend’s road game against the New York Jets.
The Bears returned to practice Wednesday afternoon at Halas Hall with Fields cleared by the team’s medical staff to participate.
However, Bears coach Matt Eberflus said Wednesday’s session would only be a walk-through and that Fields would be a limited participant with an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Eberflus again labeled Fields as “day to day” and confirmed the quarterback’s injury is not season-ending.
As for whether Fields might play Sunday against the Jets, Eberflus offered little clarity and said the team will have to assess how Fields is feeling as the week progresses.
“(It’s) what the medical staff is saying to him and to us every single day,” Eberflus said. “And then it’s how he’s feeling — how he’s feeling when he’s moving, when he’s throwing and when he’s going about his business of operating as a quarterback.”
Fields injured his left shoulder on the first play of the Bears’ final drive Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, landing awkwardly when tackled near the sideline by cornerback Dee Alford at the end of a 1-yard run. Fields played the final two snaps after that injury and threw an interception that sealed the Bears’ 27-24 loss.
Smart money says the Bears would be wise to err on the side of caution with Fields if he is significantly limited or deemed to be vulnerable in any fashion.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Eberflus said. “We’ll see. (Thursday) will be more of a faster-paced (practice). We’ll see when he’s moving full speed during that time and during our drill work. We’ll be able to tell.”
Eberflus declined to provide details on Fields’ injury, not willing to say whether the quarterback suffered a shoulder dislocation, separation, sprain or something else entirely. He also wouldn’t say if Fields would wear a harness on his left shoulder for protection.
Eberflus instead emphasized that Fields was given the green light to try practicing. The next step will be determining if he can be thrown back into game action.
“If he’s ready to play, he’s going to play,” Eberflus said. “He feels that way, we feel that way. If he’s ready to go and feels good about it, he’s going to play the game. … We’re trying to win. We want to win the game. There are a lot of great things to getting the experience of playing a game, every single game we can. That’s an important part to this season.”
Still, Eberflus understands the Bears have to be cognizant of prioritizing their long-term interests over short-term competitive desires. Thus the internal discussions inside Halas Hall in the coming days will be important as the coaching staff and front office work to be on the same page.
Eberflus was asked what would happen if his wishes for Fields to play were in conflict with those of general manager Ryan Poles.
“There’s a big argument then,” he said with a laugh. “We have disagreements like that sometimes and we would just have to put our heads together and make a common-sense decision.”
Eberflus said the Bears will monitor Fields’ pain tolerance and look for indications that he is able to play without any obvious limitations.
“He’s got to be full go, ready to do everything,” Eberflus said.
If Fields isn’t able to play Sunday, backup quarterback Trevor Siemian will start. Ideally, the Bears would love to get Siemian first-team reps in practice if that’s the direction they sense things are heading.
“Your backup always has to be ready,” Eberflus said. “Trevor has been outstanding in the meetings. He has great functional intelligence to be able to operate the offense. And he’s familiar with the offense.”
Eberflus believes the team will know much more Thursday once they’ve had a chance to assess how Fields looked Wednesday.
Eberflus also acknowledged Fields’ mental and physical toughness plus his competitive desire could complicate their evaluations with the quarterback likely to push to play.
“Once the player says, ‘Yes, I’m good to go,’ the last hurdle is, because of who this guy is, is he really, truly ready to go?” Eberflus said. “Can he go full speed? Can he operate? That’s up to the player and the coaches’ eye.”
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Danielle Demetria East, Executive Director of the local non-profit East Lubbock Art House, interviewed on KLBK Bright & Early about an upcoming family-friendly event on Juneteenth.
The East Lubbock Art House is set to host Father’s Day on the East side on Sunday June 19th from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It is a free event that will include a soul food cookoff, vendors, a bounce house, youth open mic event, art exhibition, arts and crafts, yard games, and educational resources.
Vendors are invited to apply to be a part of the event till June 18th. Artists, nonprofits, educational resources, and small businesses are welcome. Youth are invited to sign up for the open mic event as well.
The art house is funded by community donations, and you can help with donations through CashApp: $eastlubbockarthouse, Venmo: eastlubbockarthouse or Paypal.me/eastlubbockarthouse.
For more information about the work East Lubbock Art House does, click the video above. | 2022-06-09T15:13:23+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/community-invited-to-enjoy-free-food-games-and-more-at-fathers-day-on-the-east-side/ |
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — A woman has been injured following a hit-and-run collision at a BP gas station on East Gate City Boulevard.
The victim is 51-year-old Dionne Baker.
Baker was walking in the parking lot of BP around 10:00 p.m. on Monday when a white four-door Jeep Wrangler suddenly sped through the parking lot and struck her. The driver then immediately sped out of the parking lot and onto Interstate 40 West.
“She had just picked up my brother from work and she was going to pick up some Powerball tickets for my grandfather.. the usual routine,” said Baker’s son, Deandre.
He never anticipated getting a phone call from his brother, frantically telling him their mother had been hit and was lying on the ground.
“It’s unexplainable to do something like that to a mother in front of their child and leave them there with no remorse.”
Deandre is still trying to come to terms with Monday night’s events, he has not left his mother’s side since she has been in the hospital.
“It’s unforgivable so this person needs to be caught.”
Baker suffered a broken leg and broken collarbone as a result of the collision, she got out of surgery on Tuesday.
Greensboro police say they have gotten 1,906 calls about hit and runs this year. They also received 3,737 calls of that nature in 2021.
Police do not have any leads on a suspect at this time. Pictures of the suspect vehicle have been released as part of the search effort.
The vehicle is described as the following:
- 4-door Jeep Wrangler SUV
- White in color
- With a white removable hard top
- Possible minor damage to the front bumper/hood
The driver is described as the following:
- Black man
- Short hair
- Approximately 50 years old
If you know the identity of the individual(s) involved or have any information concerning this incident, please contact Crime Stoppers at (336) 373-1000. You can also download the mobile P3tips app to submit a mobile tip or go to P3tips.com to submit a web tip. | 2022-07-28T23:21:06+00:00 | myfox8.com | https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/greensboro/woman-injured-in-east-gate-city-boulevard-hit-and-run-in-greensboro/ |
Voting rights restored for Minnesota felons
MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - People across the state are celebrating, now that Minnesota has passed a new law restoring voting rights for people who are not currently incarcerated.
This new law will extend voting rights for 55,000 people across the state, including Antonio Williams, who has been working toward this goal for a long time.
“You know, I feel I feel like it’s a. Step in the right direction. Right. A big step, but I feel like there’s more to do. There’s more to come. I’m celebrating this big win this big. For me personally, I know the importance of why it’s, you know, very crucial for us to be involved in our democracy, especially utilizing our voice and our vote,” said Williams.
Minnesota has now joined 22 other states in giving felons the opportunity to vote.
“I think in today’s day and age, with the importance of voting and voting rights and and getting everybody’s vote to count, I would say that yes, other leads, other states will move for that,” said Jaci Kopet.
Antonio Williams is the founder of the T.O.N.E U.P Organization, which focuses on resourcing and investing in the educational development surrounding incarceration.
“We want people to be educated about the issues, about the people running right and and then you know. Maybe take it a step further. Let’s see people you know beginning. To run for office. Let’s see people, you know who. For once, you know saying you know what, my my voice never matter. My vote never counted. Anyway, let’s see people you know, starting to lift other people up and educate other people giving them that, that political education that’s going to equip them with the real power,” said Williams.
Copyright 2023 KEYC. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-14T01:55:12+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/07/13/voting-rights-restored-minnesota-felons/ |
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – Memorial Day weekend is expected to be warmer than average in western Massachusetts.
The average high temperature for this time of year at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee is 75 degrees and our average low temperature is 51 degrees.
Skies will be mostly sunny with highs in the upper 60s Thursday afternoon. It will be a breezy day with north winds gusting over 20 mph at times. There’s a chance for some frost in some areas late Thursday into Friday morning.
A Frost Advisory is in effect for northern Berkshire County from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. Friday.
Friday will be another nice day with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. It’s looking like the sunshine and warmer temperatures will be with us through Memorial Day weekend.
7 Day Forecast
According to AAA, over 42 million Americans are expected to travel for Memorial Day Weekend. | 2023-05-25T13:41:53+00:00 | wwlp.com | https://www.wwlp.com/weather/weather-news/weather-forecast-in-massachusetts-memorial-day-weekend/ |
Gina Lollobrigida melted the hearts of major stars in the 1950s and 60s: Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. She was a voluptuous brunette with captivating brown eyes.
Copyright 2023 NPR
Gina Lollobrigida melted the hearts of major stars in the 1950s and 60s: Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. She was a voluptuous brunette with captivating brown eyes.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-01-18T13:29:07+00:00 | mainepublic.org | https://www.mainepublic.org/2023-01-18/a-remembrance-of-italian-film-actress-gina-lollobrigida-who-died-at-the-age-of-95 |
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Keaira Hudson’s last cry for help was a Facebook video she posted calling out to her followers to see the abuse she faced a week before her estranged husband Adam Bennefield allegedly shot and killed her while on cashless bail.
Her murder has left the community heartbroken and wondering why Bennefield wasn’t red-flagged in the first place, which would have caused his weapons to be confiscated.
“The fact that she had a videotape that showed that he was being violent towards her… it's hard to imagine that a judge presented with a red flag petition would not have issued a red flag order,” attorney Barry Covert said.
Red flags occur when someone petitions a court to remove firearms from a person who may be a danger to themself or others.
But Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says, in this case, he didn’t believe a red flag was the answer.
"A red flag in this was not was not going to change the manner and the course,” he said. “We do everything we could to locating this individual.”
Law enforcement would only be able to confiscate firearms at Bennefield’s home and Gramaglia said that was already searched, so he believes enacting this law would not have prevented the homicide.
“It's very easy for individuals to get weapons from other sources, shotguns or rifles, from friends, relatives, people who may not know that there is an order in place that prevents an individual from having access to weapons,” Covert said.
While red flags may not have been the solution, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says this all could have been prevented if New York joined the other 49 states in allowing judges to consider dangerousness when setting bail — which he believes would have prevented Bennefield’s cashless bail in this case and kept him on a tighter leash.
“You can keep bail as it is, and you add in one sentence that says that judges have the ability to assess that the defendant’s dangerousness,” Flynn said.
Adam Bennefield is in police custody after being charged with murder. He's due back in court on November 15th. | 2022-10-13T13:02:19+00:00 | wgrz.com | https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/legal-experts-looking-into-red-flag-laws-that-may-have-prevented-the-murder-of-keaira-bennefield-adam-bennefield-buffalo/71-534bc8dd-2dcb-4ceb-9f58-48f5f6265098 |
BERLIN (AP) — The head of this year’s United Nations climate talks called Thursday for governments and businesses to tackle global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all regions and sectors if they want to stop the planet from passing a key temperature limit agreed on more than seven years ago.
Sultan al-Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, who also heads one of the country’s state oil companies, told senior officials from Europe, Canada and China gathered in Brussels that record-breaking heat seen across the world recently shows the need for urgent action to curb emissions.
Laying out his strategy for the upcoming COP28 global climate talks in Dubai this fall, al-Jaber said that leaders “must be brutally honest” about what has caused the sharp rise in temperatures since pre-industrial times and how to stop them from climbing further.
While many fossil fuel companies have pledged to reduce direct and indirect emissions from their operations — known as scope 1 and 2 — many have refused to take responsibility for so-called scope 3 emissions resulting from sources they don’t own or control, such as consumers using their gas. The latter make up the majority of emissions, and cutting those effectively means reducing demand for fossil fuels.
“We need to attack all emissions, everywhere. One, two and three,” al-Jaber said, adding that he plans to bring together governments, major energy producers and heavy emitting industries to develop a practical plan for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Scientists say achieving this target requires halving global emissions by 2030 and current efforts are far off track. Al-Jaber urged governments to come forward with more ambitious national targets for cutting emissions in the next few months.
Climate campaigners cautiously welcomed the plan.
“This is a much-needed kick up the backside from Sultan al-Jaber, to get counties to upgrade their climate targets by September,” said Illari Noriega of the anti-poverty group Christian Aid.
“The climate is showing that we need to be acting far far quicker than the current slow progress,” she said. People are dying due to terrible drought in East Africa, more than 100 million people are now under a heat warning in the United States and a road worker in Italy became the latest fatality of a lethal heat wave across Europe this week.
But some expressed concern at al-Jaber’s call to phase down “unabated fossil fuels” and promote “clean energy solutions” — terms they fear are designed to leave loopholes for oil and gas companies to keep up production.
Al-Jaber said the world must “use every emission-busting tool available, including nuclear, battery storage and carbon capture and removal technologies, especially for the hardest-to-abate sectors.” Experts have expressed skepticism that carbon capture technology touted by the fossil fuel industry and some governments can deliver the reductions necessary to meet that goal in the near term.
“What we need to see at COP28 is a commitment by governments to phasing out all fossil fuels, since that is the only way to keep the 1.5 degree target alive,” said Petter Lydén of the campaign group Germanwatch.
Al-Jaber reiterated calls for a sharp increase in renewable energy production and funds to help developing countries make the transition away from polluting fuels and cope with the impacts of climate change.
The European Union’s top climate official, Frans Timmermans, warned that more public and private funds were still spent on fossil fuels than on preventing and adapting to climate change.
“We are subsidizing an attack on all of humanity,” he said. “We’re investing in a worse future, not a better one. We’re paying to put our children and grandchildren in harm’s way.”
Timmermans warned that with global warming picking up faster than feared, disrupting weather patterns across the planet and hitting the vulnerable hardest, governments need to show they have a credible plan to tackle the crisis.
“The one thing we need to avoid, and we’re very close, we’re very close, is that our citizens fall into despair about the climate crisis,” he said.
Timmermans said that the EU wants to commemorate the victims of the climate crisis each year on July 15, the anniversary of a deadly flood that claimed more than 200 lives in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands two years ago. | 2023-07-13T15:13:26+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/science/ap-science/ap-climate-talks-chief-who-also-heads-oil-company-says-world-must-attack-all-emissions-everywhere/ |
LONDON (AP) — A trove of previously unseen photos taken by Paul McCartney as The Beatles shot to global stardom will go on display in London this year.
The National Portrait Gallery announced Wednesday that the exhibition, titled “Eyes of the Storm,” will help mark the gallery's reopening in June after a three-year refurbishment.
Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan said McCartney, approached the gallery in 2020 saying he had rediscovered a batch of photos from late 1963 and early 1964 that he had thought were lost.
Cullinan said they were an “extraordinary” set of images of “such a famous and important cultural moment … taken by someone who was really, as the exhibition title alludes, in the eye of the storm.”
“Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of The Storm” opens June 28 and runs to Oct. 1.
The gallery is due to reopen June 22. Other exhibitions slated for this year include a retrospective of the 20th-century English photographer Yevonde, a show of drawings by David Hockney and an exhibition of portraits by Black artists from the U.S. and Britain. | 2023-01-25T11:26:56+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/nation-world/london-gallery-to-show-mccartney-photos-from-beatlemania-era/W5N6LRN2DRDSRJDPPDGA3ZYE5Q/ |
Free COVID-19 home tests now available at county health departments
If you are homebound, you can order tests for delivery through www.covid.org.
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Starting Monday, July 25, free at-home COVID-19 tests will be available at all Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) county health departments.
Each family can receive eight tests (four packages) of BinaxNOW antigen rapid self-tests per month. No doctor’s note or documentation of any kind is necessary. The tests are not for resale.
Tests may be picked up without an appointment during regular health department hours.
To find hours of operation of a county health department near you, visit HealthyMS.com/locations.
If you are homebound, you can order tests for delivery through www.covid.org.
As always, if you have a positive home test result, you should report it to MSDH online at HealthyMS.com/positive. Reporting test results helps MSDH monitor COVID-19 activity in the state.
For questions regarding at-home testing or reporting positive results, call the COVID-19 hotline at 877-978-6453.
Want more WLOX news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Copyright 2022 WLOX. All rights reserved. | 2022-07-22T23:04:40+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/2022/07/22/free-covid-19-home-tests-now-available-county-health-departments/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Looking to get outside and get active this summer? Independent Health is kicking off its 11th season of Fitness in the Parks next month.
Fitness in the Parks, the largest and longest running outdoor fitness program in Western New York, officially returns starting June 1, offering 14 types of fitness classes at 25 different parks and other outdoor locations. Over 500 free fitness classes will be offered during this year's program.
The free fitnesses classes are held in partnership with YMCA Buffalo Niagara and the Jamestown YMCA, offering a wide variety of fitness classes including yoga, pilates, zumba, kickboxing, cardio dance and more. Over the course of the summer, classes will be held at multiple locations throughout Western New York, including Wilkeson Pointe, Delaware Park and Chestnut Ridge Park.
Registration is not required, all you have to do is show up to one of the free outdoor classes.
"Fitness in the Parks is a wonderful way to get out there and experience scenic and fun locations that are some of the best that Western New York offers! All ages and skill levels are encouraged to join us to get fit and have some fun," said Michelle Carbery, senior corporate wellness specialist at Independent Health.
"This community-based program is designed to encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyles by offering free fitness classes in unique spaces – providing easy access and opportunities for you to start or continue your health and wellness journey."
You can view the full 2022 schedule and class descriptions by clicking here.
RELATED VIDEO: | 2022-05-26T13:38:14+00:00 | wgrz.com | https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/free-outdoor-fitness-program-fitness-in-the-parks-returning-this-summer-western-new-york/71-183b15ac-01d8-4748-ab9f-6f2d535de15a |
The gas gauge on the Orioles’ bullpen was already closer to empty than full entering Monday’s game against the Texas Rangers.
When starting pitcher Kyle Bradish exited in the second inning after taking a line drive to his right foot, it appeared as if the fatigued Orioles bullpen, which combined for 13 2/3 innings of relief this past weekend, was in store for a long night.
But Tyler Wells, expected to start Tuesday’s game, came to the rescue — not just for the health of the bullpen, but also to lead the Orioles to victory.
Wells pitched five innings of scoreless, no-hit ball in unexpected relief to guide Baltimore to a 2-0 win over the Rangers. The 6-foot-8 right-hander was hyper-efficient — tossing just 47 pitches, walking none and striking out two in his five frames. He retired 15 of 16 batters he faced, with the only one to reach base coming on an error.
Left-hander Danny Coulombe originally replaced Bradish with two outs in the second after the right-handed starter suffered a right foot contusion on a 104 mph liner from Rangers catcher Jonah Heim. Coulombe, whom the Orioles acquired from the Minnesota Twins last week, got a strikeout to end the second then pitched a scoreless third. Closer Félix Bautista retired the side in order in the ninth for his second save of the season.
Bradish attempted to walk it off as manager Brandon Hyde and head athletic trainer Brian Ebel visited the mound, but he was quickly pulled after throwing one warmup pitch and limped off the field. The Orioles announced that Bradish’s preliminary X-ray was negative for a fracture.
The 26-year-old retired the side in order in the first inning, averaging 96 mph on his fastball and striking out two batters on his slider. He allowed an infield single — the lone hit the Orioles surrendered in the win — and a walk in the second before the comebacker, which resulted in an out after the ball ricocheted to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. Bradish ended his 2023 debut with no runs and one hit allowed in 1 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out two.
The Orioles (2-2) recorded only four hits on offense, but two of them went over the fence. In the fourth inning, Gunnar Henderson launched a 408-foot blast to left-center field for his first home run of the season. Jorge Mateo then followed suit in the fifth with a 433-foot homer.
Bradish’s exit complicates an already-taxed Orioles bullpen, which combined for 13 2/3 innings of relief in the three-game series against the Boston Red Sox this past weekend.
Last season, Bradish missed a month with inflammation in his right shoulder. He had a 7.38 ERA at the time of the injury in late June, but in his 13 starts after returning, he posted a 3.28 ERA and was perhaps the club’s best starter down the stretch.
It’s unclear whether Bradish will need to miss time, but the Orioles have several options if he does.
Austin Voth, who spent spring training building up to be a starter, is in Baltimore’s bullpen and could be a spot starter if needed. The Orioles also have several starters in Triple-A with either major league experience or top prospect pedigrees. Spenser Watkins and Bruce Zimmermann combined to start 33 games for the Orioles in 2022. Left-hander DL Hall, the Orioles’ No. 2 prospect, started one game and relieved 10 others in the majors last season, but he’s still building up to be a starter after a slow start to camp with a lower back injury. Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, the club’s top pitching prospect, is also in Triple-A after not making the Orioles’ starting rotation out of camp.
Rodriguez, Watkins and Zimmermann started for Norfolk this past weekend, while Hall and Drew Rom are expected to start Tuesday and Wednesday.
This story will be updated.
Orioles at Rangers
Tuesday, 8:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
() | 2023-04-04T03:41:12+00:00 | bostonherald.com | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/04/03/orioles-one-hit-rangers-2-0-as-kyle-bradish-leaves-with-injury-tyler-wells-steps-up/ |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland will formally ask Russia to return seven paintings now in a leading Moscow museum that were looted during World War II by the Soviet Red Army, the Polish culture minister said Wednesday.
But Piotr Glinski also said that about 20 previous requests to Moscow for the return of thousands of other items stolen during WWII have fallen on deaf ears. The previously requested items included archives of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, paintings by Old Masters such as Durer, Holbein or Cranach and manuscripts by Polish authors.
“Until this day (Russia’s) government has not reviewed any of the claims,” Glinski told a press conference. He added that Russia is the only among several countries approached so far to have failed to even respond to Poland on the subject.
Poland’s historically strained ties with Russia hit a new low following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February. A former satellite of the Soviet Union, Warsaw supports Kyiv and is pushing for more sanctions against Moscow.
The new request concerns seven paintings by Italian artists that are now at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. They date from the 14th to the 18th century and include “Two Saints” by Spinello Aretino and “Adoration of the Child” by Lorenzo di Credi.
Before the war they were in the collections of the Czartoryski family in Goluchow, at the Wilanow Palace, and in Poznan, Wroclaw and Lodz.
Glinski said it is hard to estimate how much of Poland’s art and culture was destroyed or looted by occupying Nazi German and Soviet troops during the war, but at the time it was believed that Polish museums had lost about 50% of their collections.
“Traces of hundreds of thousands of items lead to the Russian Federation and to the former Soviet republics,” Glinski said.
He said Poland “will never stop searching for … cultural items that were looted” during the war.
Since 2016 alone, Poland has retrieved more than 600 looted cultural artifacts, but none of them from Russia, Glinski said.
Among them are the paintings “Madonna under the Fir Tree” by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which had ended up in Switzerland, and “Jewish Woman Selling Oranges” by Polish 19th century painter Aleksander Gierymski, which was returned from Germany. | 2022-09-15T04:33:31+00:00 | ksn.com | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-poland-wants-russia-to-return-paintings-looted-during-wwii/ |
Veteran Nike Product Innovator Will Oversee Development of TRX's Connected Product Ecosystem; New Hire Further Bolsters Prominent Executive Team Poised To Revitalize Iconic Fitness Brand
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., June 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TRX®, the global leader in functional training products and world-class training content, has added former Nike innovator, Matt Browne, to its executive team as Senior Vice President of Engineering. Reporting directly to TRX CEO, Jack Daly, Browne joins an esteemed group of experienced and savvy business-minded executives to continue the brand's dramatic revitalization and ongoing evolution toward a digital ecosystem where innovative technology meets world-class products.
In his role as SVP of Engineering, Browne will be responsible for leading the ongoing development of TRX's connected ecosystem for all of its functional fitness products. TRX is currently engaged in the integration of digital and data-driven technology within its flagship product, the TRX Suspension Trainer. Browne will play a key role in driving the development of the connected-strap initiative to production, coordinating hardware-development upgrades to support connected devices, and owning future product development to update and improve TRX's existing lineup of world-class fitness products.
"Our connected fitness initiative is essential to the future of TRX, and Matt will provide invaluable leadership for all things mechanical and electrical that are core to that initiative. In addition to developing and bringing connected products from concept to reality, Matt will spearhead numerous redesigns to the existing product lineup, along with ideation and implementation of new products," said TRX CEO, Jack Daly. "Matt has an incredible background in successfully ushering physical products into the digital world, and we're confident he will be a valuable member of the TRX family and a needle mover within our senior leadership team."
Prior to joining TRX, Browne spent more than a decade with Nike working in product development, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, and sustainable engineering. Browne brings a wealth of knowledge and experience launching many successful products, including Wi-Fi-connected consumer electronics devices, automotive subsystems, and web-based services.
"Joining a truly iconic fitness company with as much tradition and history as TRX is truly an honor," said Browne. "TRX is a renowned global fitness brand, and I'm excited to bring my expertise in product design, engineering, and manufacturing to bear for the brand's critical new product and technology-driven initiatives. Ultimately, the notion of delivering game-changing products to the masses is incredibly motivating."
Browne joins a TRX Senior Leadership Team that has been significantly revamped since Daly and Founder, Randy Hetrick reacquired the brand in 2022. With the goal of being nimble and efficient, TRX has built a team of proven veterans, including Hetrick, Chief Revenue Officer, Rick Cusick and SVP & General Counsel, Alain Villeneuve. Grounded by these long-time TRX leaders, Daly and Hetrick have tapped a variety of specialists with proven track records in brand-building and innovation, including Browne, Chief Technology Officer Quincy Carroll, formerly of Crunchyroll, Chief Financial Officer Doug Greef, Formerly of Revlon, and Senior Vice President of Operations & Supply Chain Jeff Woodhouse, formerly of Nike and Nautilus.
This well-established management team will work closely with an all-star Board of Directors, including Mark Fields, formerly of Ford, Susan Kilrain, formerly of NASA, Frank McGuigan, formerly of Uber Freight and Daniel Tiemann, formerly of KPMG. Together, this group of industry-leading talent will bring the TRX brand to new heights through hard work, dedication, and innovation.
For more information on TRX, including the TRX Training Club, and its exceptional lineup of Functional Training products, including TRX HOME2, TRX PRO4, TRX Rip Trainer, TRX Bandit, and Functional Training Tools, please visit TRXTraining.com.
About TRX®
Founded in 2004, TRX® was built on the revolutionary idea that fitness can be achieved with one radically simple design—Suspension Training®, the iconic black and yellow straps found in gyms across the globe that power your training with bodyweight-based movements and exercises. Today, TRX is the leader in functional training solutions for both consumers and professionals, offering a complete line of highly effective, versatile, and portable fitness equipment for unparalleled full body workouts that can be performed at home, at the gym, or on the road. With the recent launch of TRX Training Club®, the company is now omnichannel and offers digital content, ranging from daily live classes to on-demand workouts, all led by world-class trainers. A top-tier professional education destination, TRX has certified over 300,000 trainers and is trusted by pro athletes, pro trainers, and physical therapists, with a loyal community of millions of fitness enthusiasts across the world. With offices in Florida, the U.K. and Japan, as well as sales in more than 30 countries, TRX has truly become a worldwide fitness phenomenon. For more details, go to www.trxtraining.com.
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SOURCE TRX | 2023-06-20T16:19:50+00:00 | wsfa.com | https://www.wsfa.com/prnewswire/2023/06/20/trx-announces-hiring-matt-browne-senior-vice-president-engineering/ |
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STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Cameron Brink had 21 points, a season-best 17 rebounds, six blocked shots to match her career high and a key 3-pointer before the third-quarter buzzer that gave Stanford much-needed momentum, and the second-ranked Cardinal rallied past Tennessee 77-70 on Sunday.
Haley Jones contributed 19 points and 12 rebounds while Hannah Jump scored 19 points and knocked down a decisive 3 with 1:15 left as Stanford (11-1) overcame long scoring lapses coming off a two-week break for final exams to win its sixth straight.
Jordan Horston had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Rickea Jackson scored 14 points while Sara Puckett added 11 with three 3s for Tennessee (7-6), which had won three straight and five of six.
The Cardinal went 6 minutes, 8 seconds without a field goal in the third then Brink's 3 to end the period put Stanford just five points down heading into the final 10 minutes. Her layup with 7:58 to play put Stanford ahead 59-58 then Jump hit from deep the next time down.
Brink grabbed seven of her rebounds and blocked two shots in the first quarter. But Stanford missed seven straight shots in the third quarter going more than four minutes without scoring as Tennessee capitalized with an 10-0 run. Brink returned to the floor with 3:37 left in the third and hit two free throws at 3:04 to end the drought.
Stanford won the fourth straight in this rivalry. The Cardinal's lone loss this season came to No. 1 South Carolina 76-71 in overtime on Nov. 20 — then Tennessee became only the second team to reach 70 points against Stanford so far.
Puckett hit consecutive 3-pointers midway through the opening quarter as Tennessee grabbed a 10-6 lead. But the Lady Vols missed seven of eight shots late in the period and Jump got going.
REUNION TIME
At halftime, Stanford honored the 1992 national champion team 30 years later. The program has three national titles: 1990, 1992 and 2021.
BIG PICTURE
Tennessee: The Lady Vols played a clean game with just five turnovers while scoring 21 points off Stanford's 14 turnovers. ... Tennessee, which is 7-10 all-time at Stanford, received an administrative technical foul with 5:21 left in the first. ... Horston — 1,092 points, 561 rebounds, 376 assists — is trying to become only the fourth Lady Vols player to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists. ... F Jasmine Franklin fouled out with 3:11 remaining.
Stanford: Brink has blocked six shots six times in her career. ... The Cardinal held a 54-37 rebounding advantage. ... Stanford shot 1 of 7 from deep in the first half and 5 for 20 overall. Brink, Jones and Jump combined to shoot 21 of 40. The rest of the team was 6 for 24, with Brooke Demetre missing all six of her attempts including five 3s.
UP NEXT
Tennessee: The Lady Vols have an extended holiday break before hosting Wofford College on Dec. 27.
Stanford: Hosts Creighton on Tuesday night in the final nonconference game before opening Pac-12 play vs. Bay Area rival California at home on Friday.
___
AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | 2022-12-18T22:53:42+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/Brink-delivers-on-both-ends-Stanford-rallies-17662877.php |
North Americans playing in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League have been put in a difficult position amid calls from the U.S and Canadian governments for them to leave the country because of the war in Ukraine.
The Canadian government has advised its citizens to leave Russia while commercial means are still available, cautioning anyone holding a Russian passport could be subject to call-up for mandatory military service. Earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued the same security alert for Americans in Russia, urging them to leave.
The moves come a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin called to mobilize more troops to fight in Ukraine and almost two months since American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted of drug possession and smuggling. She was sentenced to nine years in prison for the vape cartridges of cannabis oil police said they found in her luggage Feb. 17 upon landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
According to Elite Prospects, which tracks player movement around hockey, 13 Americans and 43 Canadians have either signed a new contract or re-signed to play in the KHL since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, sparking a war that shows no signs of abating. Not all of them play for teams based in Russia because the KHL also has teams in Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The KHL responded to the U.S. Embassy’s alert by saying anyone who is not a Russian citizen is not subject to military conscription and that mobilization orders do not void any contracts.
Allain Roy, an agent who represents eight North American players in the KHL, said he was still processing the latest call for U.S. and Canadian citizens to leave and said it was “definitely a concern.” He added he would be discussing the matter with each client individually.
Ritch Winter, who represents three Canadians in the KHL, defended his clients’ ability to calculate the “risk-reward analysis” that comes with playing there.
“There isn’t a single client that I represent that didn’t wrestle with this decision,” Winter said. “I haven’t heard anybody concerned about their safety. … Nobody that is there now and has been there in the past has noticed any significant difference in the way of life there, so they’re there. They’re playing and they’re comfortable. Now, if the situation changes dramatically, I expect some of them potentially could reconsider, as players did last (spring).”
Travel to and through Russia has been in the spotlight since Griner was detained in February, put on trial and jailed amid pleas for her release and U.S. talks to free her.
William E. Pomeranz, director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and author of a book about Russian legal evolution, said trouble could arise out of the blue for Americans or Canadians playing in Russia. He said the presence of Capitals star Alex Ovechkin and other Russians playing in the NHL in North America would not be a deterrent.
“The fact that Ovechkin’s in Washington I don’t think will have any impact on some poor Canadian hockey player if they decide that they want to make him an example,” Pomeranz said. “I don’t think anyone should think that just because they’re a hockey player and there are Russian hockey players in the United States that somehow you can’t get caught up in the Russian legal system, because if you get caught up in the Russian legal system, there’s no way out.”
Multiple other agents who represent North American players in the KHL declined comment or did not respond to messages seeking comment.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-10-01T03:58:51+00:00 | wearegreenbay.com | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-north-americans-in-russias-khl-face-difficult-decisions/ |
Golden Knights vs. Stars Stanley Cup Semifinals Game 1: Odds, total, moneyline and other Vegas lines
The Vegas Golden Knights host the Dallas Stars in the first game of the Stanley Cup Semifinals on Friday, May 19, starting at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN and ESPN+. The Golden Knights have -125 odds on the moneyline against the Stars (+105).
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Golden Knights vs. Stars Game Info
- When: Friday, May 19, 2023 at 8:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN and ESPN+
- Where: T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
Golden Knights vs. Stars Total and Moneyline
See the favorite, total and moneyline for this matchup available at multiple sportsbooks.
Golden Knights vs Stars Additional Info
Golden Knights vs. Stars Betting Trends
- In 54 of 93 matches this season, Vegas and its opponent have combined to finish above 5.5 goals.
- The Golden Knights are 11-4 when favored on the moneyline this season.
- The Stars have been the underdog seven times this season, and upset their opponent in four of those games.
- When it has played with moneyline odds of -125 or shorter, Vegas is 11-4 (winning 73.3% of the time).
- Dallas is 2-3 when it is underdogs of +105 or longer on the moneyline.
Golden Knights Player Props
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Stars Player Props
Golden Knights Recent Betting Performance
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Stars Recent Betting Performance
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-19T21:27:25+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/sports/betting/2023/05/19/golden-knights-stars-stanley-cup-semifinals-game-1-nhl-odds-total-moneyline/ |
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access.
Pending bans at varying stages of pregnancy in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida — states that had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure — are threatening to further delay abortions as appointments pile up and doctors work to understand the new limitations.
“There’s really going to be no way for the whole abortion-providing ecosystem to manage it all,” said Jenny Black, the president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
Black, who oversees the organization’s work in North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and parts of Virginia, said providers have had to quickly determine how to comply with the pending laws amid the “decimation of abortion access across the South.” She expects new restrictions will compound the stressors on a system that was already seeing lengthy waiting periods in North Carolina driven by an influx of patients from Georgia and Tennessee.
Abortion is severely restricted in much of the South, including bans throughout pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. In Georgia, it’s allowed only in the first six weeks.
A report released in early April by the Society of Family Planning found rising numbers of abortions in states near those with the deepest restrictions but where abortion had remained largely legal. Florida and North Carolina were among the states with the biggest increases — and among those where new restrictions are pending.
Most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina beginning July 1 and a six-week ban in Florida will take effect only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld by the state Supreme Court.
South Carolina had also proven to be a key destination for people seeking abortions. Provisional state Health Department data showed larger numbers of out-of-state patients after the state’s highest court overturned previous restrictions and left abortion legal through 22 weeks.
A new ban after around six weeks that awaits the South Carolina governor’s signature will change that status, according to Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College. Myers, who studies the effects of reproductive policies, said limited evidence suggests about half of the people who want abortions won’t be able to make the six-week threshold.
“It’s likely to end up sending a lot of desperate people seeking abortions even farther distances and result in even greater congestion at the facilities that are left to receive them,” Myers said.
The action comes as many state legislatures convene for their first regular sessions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck federal abortion protections. Over the past two months, Republican officials in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have pushed Virginia closer to being a regional outlier as a place with relatively permissive access.
The tide of state-level activity has been welcomed by anti-abortion groups who had long chipped away at access. Caitlin Connors, the southern regional director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, celebrated the recent legislative changes as victories made possible by last summer’s ruling.
“We are officially in an era where states who have tried to pass pro-life legislation — laws that would protect unborn children, laws that would also implement services for moms and families and babies — to finally be able to be enacted and not be under the chokehold of the Roe v. Wade decision,” Connors said.
That shifting landscape has also heightened uncertainty among providers that has kept them from expanding services, Myers said, and likely will prevent some patients from getting abortions as doctors weigh what is and isn’t permissible.
Erica Pettigrew, a family medicine doctor in North Carolina, said the new restrictions will make it much more difficult for her to help patients navigate the system. Although North Carolina Republicans pitched the new 12-week limit as a middle-ground change, Pettigrew pointed to other provisions that make it much more restrictive.
New hurdles require that women make in-person visits to a medical professional at least 72 hours before the procedure. The three-day waiting period could previously be initiated over the phone. The law also requires a doctor to schedule a follow-up visit for women who have a medically induced abortion, increasing the hardship on those who travel from other states.
Those regulations will make it harder to advise patients on their options, she said, especially when waiting periods already spanned two to four weeks in some cases.
Other delays may result from what Pettigrew called unclear exceptions for certain life-threatening conditions.
“Now we’re in this horrible purgatory of trying to figure out how to interpret it, how we can comply with the law,” Pettigrew said. “There’s so many unknowns.”
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Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed to this report from Raleigh, North Carolina. Schoenbaum and Pollard are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | 2023-05-25T11:27:11+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/health/ap-pending-abortion-restrictions-strain-providers-in-us-southeast/ |
CA Reno NV Zone Forecast for Thursday, January 26, 2023
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863 FPUS55 KREV 271131
ZFPREV
Western Nevada-Eastern Sierra-Northeast California Zone Forecast
National Weather Service Reno NV
331 AM PST Fri Jan 27 2023
This is an automatically generated product that provides averaged
values for large geographic areas and may not be representative
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-NVZ002-280300-
Greater Lake Tahoe Area-
Including the cities of South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, Truckee,
Markleeville, Stateline, Glenbrook, and Incline Village
331 AM PST Fri Jan 27 2023
.TODAY...Sunny in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs
41 to 46. West winds 10 to 15 mph.
.TONIGHT...Clear. Lows 10 to 20. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SATURDAY...Sunny. Highs 38 to 43. Light winds becoming southwest
around 10 mph in the afternoon.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows 16 to 26. Southwest winds
10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph after midnight.
.SUNDAY...Snow likely. Highs 24 to 29. Southwest winds 10 to
15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph shifting to the northeast in the
afternoon.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Cloudy with a chance of snow. Lows 3 to 13.
.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 18 to 23.
.MONDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows 2 below to 8 above zero.
.TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Highs 28 to 33. Lows
6 to 16.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs 35 to 40.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY...Mostly cloudy. Lows 15 to 25.
Highs 36 to 41.
$$
CAZ070-NVZ005-280300-
Surprise Valley California-Northern Washoe County-
Including the cities of Cedarville, Eagleville, Fort Bidwell,
Empire, and Gerlach
331 AM PST Fri Jan 27 2023
.TODAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs 41 to
51. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon.
.TONIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows 17 to 27. Northwest winds 10 to
15 mph.
.SATURDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs 35 to 45. Light winds becoming
southwest around 10 mph in the afternoon.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening, then mostly
cloudy with a slight chance of snow after midnight. Lows 14 to
24. West winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snow. Highs 26 to
36. North winds 10 to 15 mph increasing to northeast 15 to 25 mph
in the afternoon.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Brisk. Partly cloudy in the evening then
clearing. Lows 1 to 11.
.MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT...Clear. Highs 21 to 31. Lows 3 to 13.
.TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Highs 30 to 35. Lows
10 to 20.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs 35 to 40.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY...Mostly cloudy. Lows 15 to 20.
Highs 39 to 44.
$$
CAZ071-280300-
Lassen-Eastern Plumas-Eastern Sierra Counties-
Including the cities of Portola, Susanville, Westwood,
Sierraville, and Loyalton
331 AM PST Fri Jan 27 2023
.TODAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Highs 40 to
50. Light winds becoming west around 10 mph in the afternoon.
.TONIGHT...Clear. Lows 13 to 23. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SATURDAY...Sunny. Highs 40 to 45. Light winds becoming southwest
around 10 mph in the afternoon.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening, then mostly
cloudy with a slight chance of snow after midnight. Lows 16 to
26. West winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Highs 24 to 34.
North winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows zero to 10 above zero.
.MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT...Clear. Highs 20 to 30. Lows zero to
10 above zero.
.TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Highs 29 to 39. Lows
7 to 17.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly cloudy. Highs 33 to 43.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY...Mostly cloudy. Lows 13 to 23.
Highs 38 to 43.
$$
CAZ073-280300-
Mono County-
Including the cities of Bridgeport, Coleville, Lee Vining,
and Mammoth Lakes
331 AM PST Fri Jan 27 2023
.TODAY...Sunny. Freezing fog. Highs 32 to 42. West winds 10 to
15 mph.
.TONIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming clear.
Freezing fog. Lows 2 to 12. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
.SATURDAY...Sunny. Freezing fog. Highs 32 to 42. Light winds.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing.
Freezing fog. Lows 8 to 18. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts
up to 35 mph after midnight. Ridge gusts up to 50 mph.
.SUNDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly
cloudy. Patchy freezing fog in the morning. Chance of snow. Highs
24 to 29. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph in the
morning. Ridge gusts up to 55 mph in the morning.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...Cloudy with a chance of snow. Lows 2 below to
8 above zero.
.MONDAY...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of snow in the morning.
Highs 15 to 25.
.MONDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Lows
8 below to 2 above zero.
.TUESDAY...Sunny. Highs 24 to 34.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Lows
3 to 13.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming sunny.
Highs 31 to 41.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming
mostly cloudy. Lows 9 to 19.
.THURSDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly
cloudy. Highs 34 to 44.
$$
_____
Copyright 2023 AccuWeather | 2023-01-27T11:54:13+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/weather/article/ca-reno-nv-zone-forecast-17745794.php |
A South Florida man is in jail after police say he lured a young girl, trafficked her and forced her to get a tattoo.
Johnny Gibbs Jr., 38, of Miami, was arrested June 1 after the victim's mother came forward to police.
The victim met Gibbs at the CVS pharmacy on 10th Street and Washington Avenue in South Beach, where he told her she could help him sell yachts and make a lot of money doing it, police said in an arrest report.
So when they met up again, police say he lured her in with a Ferrari, ultimately giving her drugs and alcohol before taking her to a hotel room, where she was left with the driver.
Stay informed about local news and weather during the hurricane season. Get the NBC 6 South Florida app for iOS or Android and pick your alerts.
The man tried to have sex with her, but she was eventually able to talk him out of it, police said.
Then Gibbs allegedly ordered her to give him the money and police say he threatened to get a gun.
The report says Gibbs didn’t stop trying to reach the victim. She agreed to meet with him fearing he would track her down again – that's when police say he brought her to a home and forced her to get a tattoo.
Local
The girl eventually told her mother, who reported the crimes to police.
Gibbs was later arrested on Miami Beach. He remains in Miami-Dade jail under no bond and faces multiple human trafficking charges. | 2022-06-07T23:22:23+00:00 | nbcmiami.com | https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/man-accused-of-trafficking-branding-young-girl-miami-beach-police/2779205/ |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler stood just outside the third base dugout at Citizens Bank Park for the national anthem on Monday, taking a break on Memorial Day from his protest against the direction of the nation.
Kapler, who began his protest Friday, stood by himself at the railing of the Giants dugout during the playing of taps during the holiday ceremony, which was followed by a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by a military bugle company. A few other San Francisco players stood on the chalk line past the third-base bag during their stretching exercises.
“Today, I’ll be standing for the anthem,” Kapler wrote earlier Monday on his blog. “While I believe strongly in the right to protest and the importance of doing so, I also believe strongly in honoring and mourning our country’s service men and women who fought and died for that right. Those who serve in our military, and especially those who have paid the ultimate price for our rights and freedoms, deserve that acknowledgment and respect, and I am honored to stand on the line today to show mine.”
Kapler announced on Friday that he intended to remain in the clubhouse during the anthem to protest “the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents” following the shootings that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“The way I see it is anything that sparks thoughtful conversation is good,” Kapler told reporters on Monday.
Kapler said he was not ready to announce whether his protest will resume on Tuesday night.
“The days move really fast,” he said. “We’re going to come out and talk about Giants and Phillies today and we’ll get into the game and then we’ll spend some time trying to get away from the game. Then the game starts the next day. I want to have my thoughts perfectly formulated. I will formulate them and I will share them. I just don’t have them right now.”
Joe Girardi replaced Kapler as Philadelphia’s manager following the 2019 season
“Everyone has a choice in this country, right?” Girardi said. “I mean that’s what America is founded on. It’s not the choice that I’ll make. But with all the choices we make in life there are consequences, no matter what you do, so you have to be prepared to explain why you do things in this world. And it’s not something that I would do.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-05-31T16:44:03+00:00 | valleycentral.com | https://www.valleycentral.com/sports/giants-kapler-pauses-protest-stands-for-national-anthem/ |
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday.
These survivors, and other concerned Southern Baptists, repeatedly shared allegations with the SBC’s Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC,” said the report.
The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for a probe by outsiders.
“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.
“In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” the report added.
The report asserts that an Executive Committee staffer maintained a list of Baptist ministers accused of abuse, but there is no indication anyone “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches.”
The most recent list includes the names of hundreds of abusers thought to be affiliated at some point with the SBC. Survivors and advocates have long called for a public database of abusers.
SBC President Ed Litton, in a statement Sunday, said he is “grieved to my core” for the victims and thanked God for their work propelling the SBC to this moment. He called on Southern Baptists to lament and prepare to change the denomination’s culture and implement reforms.
“I pray Southern Baptists will begin preparing today to take deliberate action to address these failures and chart a new course when we meet together in Anaheim,” Litton said, referring to the California city that will host the SBC’s national meeting on June 14-15.
Among the report’s key recommendations:
— Form an independent commission and later establish a permanent administrative entity to oversee comprehensive long-term reforms concerning sexual abuse and related misconduct within the SBC.
—Create and maintain an Offender Information System to alert the community to known offenders.
— Provide a comprehensive Resource Toolbox including protocols, training, education, and practical information.
—Restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements and civil settlements which bind survivors to confidentiality in sexual abuse matters, unless requested by the survivor.
The interim leaders of the Executive Committee, Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, welcomed the recommendations, and pledged an all-out effort to eliminate sex abuse within the SBC.
“We recognize there are no shortcuts,” they said. “We must all meet this challenge through prudent and prayerful application, and we must do so with Christ-like compassion.”
The Executive Committee is set to hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the report.
The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News documenting hundreds of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.
Last year, thousands of delegates at the national SBC gathering made clear they did not want the Executive Committee to oversee an investigation of its own actions. Instead they voted overwhelmingly to create the task force charged with overseeing the third-party review. Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, appointed the panel.
The task force had a week to review the report before it was publicly released. The task force’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s findings will be presented at the SBC’s meeting in Anaheim.
The report offers shocking details on how Johnny Hunt, a Georgia-based pastor and past SBC president, sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife during a beach vacation in 2010. In an interview with investigators, Hunt denied any physical contact with the woman, but did admit he had interactions with her.
On May 13, Hunt, who was the senior vice president of evangelism and leadership at the North American Mission Board, the SBC’s domestic missions agency, resigned from that post, said Kevin Ezell, the organization’s president and CEO. Ezell said, before May 13, he was “not aware of any alleged misconduct” on Hunt’s part.
The report details a meeting Hunt arranged a few days after the alleged assault between the woman, her husband, Hunt and a counseling pastor. Hunt admitted to touching the victim inappropriately, but said “thank God I didn’t consummate the relationship.”
Among those reacting strongly to the Guidepost report was Russell Moore, who formerly headed the SBC’s public policy wing but left the denomination after accusing top Executive Committee leaders of stalling efforts to address the sex abuse crisis.
“Crisis is too small a word. It is an apocalypse,” Moore wrote for Christianity Today after reading the report. ”As dark a view as I had of the SBC Executive Committee, the investigation uncovers a reality far more evil and systemic than I imagined it could be.”
According to the report, Guidepost’s investigators, who spoke with survivors of varying ages including children, said the survivors were equally traumatized by the way in which churches responded to their reports of sexual abuse.
Survivors “spoke of trauma from the initial abuse, but also told us of the debilitating effects that come from the response of the churches and institutions like the SBC that did not believe them, ignored them, mistreated them, and failed to help them,” the report said.
It cited the case of Dave Pittman, who from 2006 to 2011 made phone calls and sent letters and emails to the SBC and Georgia Baptist Convention Board reporting that he had been abused by Frankie Wiley, a youth pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church when he was 12 to 15 years old.
Pittman and several others have come forward publicly to report that Wiley molested and raped them and Wiley has admitted to abusing “numerous victims” at several Georgia Southern Baptist churches.
According to the report, a Georgia Baptist Convention official told Pittman that the churches were autonomous and there was nothing he could do but pray.
The report also tells the story of Christa Brown, who says she was sexually abused as a teen by the youth and education minister at her SBC church.
When she disclosed the abuse to the music minister after months of abuse, she was told not to talk about it, according to the report, which said her abuser also went on to serve in Southern Baptist churches in multiple states.
Brown, who has been one of the most outspoken survivors, told investigators that during the past 15 years she has received “volumes of hate mail, awful blog comments, and vitriolic phone calls.”
After reading through the report, Brown told The Associated Press that it “fundamentally confirms what Southern Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors have been saying for decades.”
“I view this investigative report as a beginning, not an end. The work will continue,” Brown said. “But no one should ever forget the human cost of what it has taken to even get the SBC to approach this starting line of beginning to deal with clergy sex abuse.” | 2022-05-23T13:45:25+00:00 | kron4.com | https://www.kron4.com/news/top-southern-baptists-stonewalled-sex-abuse-victims-investigation-finds/ |
For congressional candidate Shrina Kurani, cryptocurrency is not only the future of money, it’s a transformative technology that could revolutionize campaign funding and attract a new generation of voters.
She is among a vanguard of candidates courting campaign contributions in digital currencies such as Bitcoin.
“We are a campaign that is speaking to a large part of the population, especially younger people,” said the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants, who is on Tuesday’s primary ballot as she seeks the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat east of Los Angeles.
Kurani’s foray into digital currency to help fund her campaign would not be possible if she were running for the California Legislature or some other office within the state. While the federal government allows political donations in cryptocurrency, California does not, having banned the practice four years ago.
The difference underscores not just the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies but also how regulation varies widely across the U.S.
Some states, including Arkansas and North Carolina, also don’t allow for cryptocurrency donations in state races under existing campaign finance laws. Others have followed federal rules for congressional candidates and allow donations with disclosure requirements and contribution caps, typically set at $100. Still other states, including Hawaii, Idaho and South Dakota, have adopted no specific policies around digital currency donations.
Digital currencies offer an alternative that does not depend on banks. Instead, transactions are validated and recorded on a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain.
Perianne Boring, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a trade association representing the blockchain industry, likened the use of cryptocurrency in politics to former presidents Barack Obama using smartphone technology and Donald Trump leveraging social media.
“Blockchain technology can increase participation in the political process in a very positive way,” Boring said, noting that is particularly true for younger people and members of minority groups who might be skeptical of traditional monetary methods.
Critics say the potential downside is lack of transparency — not knowing who is ultimately behind the donation.
Beth Rotman, director of the Money in Politics and Ethics Program for the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause, worries that traceability is more difficult with cryptocurrency.
“In campaign finance, you want disclosure. You need backup information,” Rotman said. “I know (cryptocurrency) is sexy and signals to people that you’re a hip new candidate, but there has to be a better way to do it than compromise the other parts of the campaign finance system.”
Timothy Massad, a former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also is concerned about disclosures.
“The danger is that this is still, in my mind, a sector where there is insufficient regulation, particularly on the risk of illicit activity and money laundering,” said Massad, currently a research fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Cryptocurrency donations have been permitted in federal races for years, after the Federal Election Commission allowed their use in a 2014 opinion.
The commission said political committees should value digital currency contributions based on the market value at the time the donation is received. Candidates also must return contributions that come from prohibited sources or exceed contribution limits.
In the 2017-18 election cycle, cryptocurrency donations reported to the Federal Election Commission came to just over $1.2 million. They have hit about $500,000 so far in the current cycle, which has months to go before the general election.
Shortly after the Federal Election Commission allowed cryptocurrency donations, then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat, began soliciting them. Now governor of Colorado, Polis is seeking similar contributions as he runs for reelection, with donations in cryptocurrency capped at $100.
“Through campaigns accepting cryptocurrency donations, we can show the security, accessibility and the opportunity of using crypto in different types of transactions and also help send the message that Colorado is a home of innovation,” said Amber Miller, Polis’ campaign spokesperson.
As the popularity of digital currencies grows, some states that prohibited cryptocurrency contributions are reassessing.
Jay Wierenga, spokesperson for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said the agency will reexamine its ban later this year.
“The commission is always seeking to keep up with and get ahead of the changing universe around political activity,” Wierenga said.
Oregon is one of the more innovative states in elections, having been the first to institute vote-by-mail. But in 2019, Oregon banned candidates campaigning for offices within the state from accepting cryptocurrency donations. That was despite former Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, a Republican, saying they should be considered as “a new and innovative way to expand participation.”
Two months after Richardson died of cancer in 2019, the Oregon Legislature closed the door to such donations. As the Senate prepared to vote, state Sen. Jeff Golden, a Democrat, said: “One of the widely shared objectives of this legislative session is to increase the transparency of money in politics, and cryptocurrency tends to go in the opposite direction.”
That feeling isn’t unanimous. One of the few state lawmakers who opposed prohibiting cryptocurrency donations was Republican Rep. Bill Post. He said a lot of people in the Legislature simply didn’t understand it.
“I don’t want (us) to sound like a bunch of old fuddy-duddies here,” he said. “Let’s get up to speed on the 21st century.”
Jesse Grushack, 30, is one of those voters fond of cryptocurrencies and who supports using them for political contributions. The New Yorker donated to the campaign of Democrat Matt West, a fellow cryptocurrency enthusiast who had a failed bid for an Oregon congressional seat this year.
“At this point in American politics, anyone who’s pro-crypto is someone I want to support,” Grushack said.
Kurani, 29, said her embrace of cryptocurrency is more than just a chance to display her tech credentials. It’s also a way to reach those for whom the digital alternatives to U.S. dollars are becoming their legal tender of choice.
She downplays concerns about donor secrecy, saying her campaign converts crypto donations into dollars and pursues the same information — name, address, employer, occupation — that it would for any donor.
“We are really making sure that we can represent American people who are participating with new kinds of digital currency,” she said.
___
Associated Press data journalist Camille Fassett in Oakland, California, and AP writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report. | 2022-06-06T15:14:38+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/national-news/digital-currencies-flow-to-campaigns-but-state-rules-vary/ |
Which Spongebob hoodies are best?
Spongebob Squarepants is a beloved cartoon character from the Nickelodeon show that bears his name. He lives in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his pals where he works as a fry cook and goes on quirky adventures with other talking sea creatures. The show is so popular that it’s now the fifth-longest running animated show in American TV history. There have since been several movies, spin-off shows, video games and tons of merchandise for fans to collect.
The best Spongebob hoodie is the Best Buds Hoodie which shows Spongebob, Patrick Star, Squidward and Gary the snail all together in a single Polaroid-style photo with the hashtag Best Buds.
What to know before you buy a Spongebob hoodie
Spongebob’s personality
The fact that Spongebob is an actual sea sponge isn’t the only thing that his fans like about him, but it does add to his adorable personality. Spongebob is delightful in many ways. He’s extremely lovable, outgoing, friendly and kind. On top of these personality traits, he’s also quite goofy and loves a good laugh. Even though he’s known to be clumsy, he’s actually an excellent fry cook at Krusty Krab. In most Spongebob hoodies, you’ll find him smiling and having fun at work or hanging with his pals.
Spongebob’s friends
The group that surrounds Spongebob is equally as endearing and entertaining as he is. His best friend is Patrick Star who is a giant pink starfish. He’s not only Spongebob’s best friend, but his neighbor as well, although he lives in a hollowed-out pineapple and Patrick lives under a rock. Spongebob has a pet named Gary who’s a slow-moving and basically oblivious snail. His boss at Krusty Krab is a crab named Mr. Krabs. They’re often visited by Spongebob’s other neighbor, Squidward for a nice Krabby Patty meal.
Merchandise
Spongebob has not only found success on the front of hoodies and other apparel, but he can be found on all sorts of merchandise. In fact, fans have spent billions of dollars on Spongebob merchandise since the show started in 1999. Given the popularity of the show, many brands have partnered with Spongebob to create unique items with the sponge’s beloved face. This includes a Spongebob Monopoly and Yahtzee game, McDonald’s Happy Meals and even a Spongebob Toyota Highlander. For more great Spongebob merchandise, check out our guide on the best Spongebob toys.
What to look for in a quality Spongebob hoodie
Size variations
You may think that most Spongebob hoodies only come in child’s sizes. But, Spongebob has fans of all ages and the merchandise reflects his wide demographic. If your whole family is a fan of the show, you can purchase hoodies for each size. Plus, most hoodies are unisex, so you don’t have to worry about them fitting poorly. Adult Spongebob hoodies range from small to XL, while youth hoodies go from 7-20. There are even toddler sizes that start at 4 and go up to 6.
Nickelodeon-approved
Nickelodeon owns all the rights to Spongebob Squarepants and his underwater friends. Therefore, if you’re looking for the best hoodie available, it’s best to stick with officially licensed Nickelodeon hoodies. You can go straight to the source by shopping through the Nickelodeon website or their official Amazon store. These hoodies will always be of a better quality than unofficial merchandise. Nickelodeon Spongebob apparel is made with polyester and cotton blends and features graphics pulled straight from the show.
Costume hoodies
Costume hoodies are a relatively new type of merchandise that offer a mix between cosplay and comfort. Cosplay usually entails fully dressing up as a character from head to toe. What Nickelodeon has done with costume hoodies is take the idea of cosplaying, but keep it to just a hoodie. The Spongebob costume hoodies put the faces of Spongebob, Squidward and Patrick on the front, with the base color being the same as the characters themselves. For Patrick’s costume hoodie, the entire garment is pink and all you see is Patrick’s smiling face on the front.
How much you can expect to spend on a Spongebob hoodie
Spongebob hoodies cost between $17-$50.
Spongebob hoodie FAQ
What video games does Spongebob appear in?
A. Spongebob has been appearing in video games since 2001 with the GameBoy Color game Legend of the Lost Spatula. From there he’s starred in over 50 video games of his own, along with being featured in dozens of Nickelodeon crossover games.
Does the ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ TV show still air on Nickelodeon?
A. Yes, “Spongebob Squarepants” is still being developed for Nickelodeon. The original show starring the sea sponge will continue to be renewed on the network along with various spin-off shows on Paramount Plus.
What’s the best Spongebob hoodie to buy?
Top Spongebob hoodie
What you need to know: This cozy hoodie features all your favorite characters from “Spongebob Squarepants” in a selfie-style photo.
What you’ll love: The front chest image shows a photo with Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward and Gary the snail. It’s no surprise that Spongebob and Patrick are smiling, while Squidward doesn’t seem too happy to be there. Under the photo is a Sharpie-style graphic that reads #BestBuds. The left sleeve includes the Spongebob logo down the arm.
What you should consider: This hoodie only comes in a black base color.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Spongebob hoodie for the money
What you need to know: This unique hoodie splits Spongebob into two different versions of himself in black and white.
What you’ll love: The front graphic features Spongebob split in two. One side is mostly white and shows him with his glasses on and a smile, while the other side is mostly black and shows him looking surprised with his mouth agape. There are many sides to Spongebob and this hoodie shows two hilarious versions.
What you should consider: The different base colors also are made with varying materials.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This youth hoodie is as close to a Spongebob costume as you can get while still wearing a hoodie.
What you’ll love: There are three varieties to this hoodie: Spongebob, Patrick and Squidward. Each hoodie is colored in the same tone as the body of each character. For Spongebob, the hoodie is completely yellow with Spongebob’s face on the chest area. You can also see the top part of his body with his white collar shirt, red tie and brown slacks.
What you should consider: This hoodie only comes in youth sizes.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan Beliles writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2022-05-28T18:57:57+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/outerwear-br/best-spongebob-hoodie/ |
Cheerleader with Down Syndrome participates in Citrus Bowl pregame ceremony
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) - The college football post season continues today with the Citrus Bowl being played in Orlando, Florida . A cheerleader from West Alabama will be part of the pre-game festivities.
WBRC spoke to Markeceia Erby and her mom Carolyn Roshell-Erby before they left for the Citrus Bowl. “Kecie”, which is short for Markeceia, is a senior who attends Tuscaloosa’s Bryant High School. The 18 year-old was born with Down Syndrome and she has participated in cheerleading since middle school. Kecia was part of the 2022 Alabama Special Olympics Unified Cheerleading Team that competed in Orlando in July.
Monday morning, she’ll participate in another unified cheerleading event to get fans excited before the game. “I’m so excited. This is my first opportunity to be in the Citrus Bowl. Cause it’s just like we’re all really excited about being there so we can show spirit,” Markeceia said.
The family drove from Tuscaloosa early Friday morning to get to Orlando in time for cheerleading practices for the game.
“It does my heart good. She is one who really performs when people really give her that opportunity and someone puts forth the effort to make sure that she’s doing her best,” Carolyn Roshell-Erby said.
The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl kicks off at noon today in Orlando.
Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.
Copyright 2022 WBRC. All rights reserved. | 2023-01-02T13:28:10+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/2023/01/02/cheerleader-with-down-syndrome-participates-citrus-bowl-pregame-ceremony/ |
Red sox first. Tommy Pham singles to left center field. Rafael Devers walks. Tommy Pham to second. J.D. Martinez walks. Rafael Devers to second. Tommy Pham to third. Alex Verdugo singles to right field. J.D. Martinez to second. Rafael Devers to third. Tommy Pham scores. Christian Arroyo singles to right center field. Alex Verdugo to second. J.D. Martinez to third. Rafael Devers scores. Eric Hosmer singles to shallow left field. Christian Arroyo to second. Alex Verdugo to third. J.D. Martinez scores. Kike Hernandez out on a sacrifice fly to deep left field to Tucupita Marcano. Christian Arroyo to third. Alex Verdugo scores. Reese McGuire grounds out to shallow infield. Eric Hosmer out at second.
4 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Red sox 4, Pirates 0.
Red sox second. Jarren Duran grounds out to shallow infield, Oneil Cruz to Kevin Padlo. Tommy Pham singles to center field. Rafael Devers strikes out swinging. J.D. Martinez walks. Tommy Pham to second. Alex Verdugo reaches on error to deep center field, advances to 2nd. J.D. Martinez to third. Tommy Pham scores. Fielding error by Bryan Reynolds. Christian Arroyo grounds out to shallow infield, Mitch Keller to Kevin Padlo.
1 run, 1 hit, 1 error, 2 left on. Red sox 5, Pirates 0.
Pirates eighth. Greg Allen pinch-hitting for Bligh Madris. Greg Allen pops out to shallow right field to Christian Arroyo. Jason Delay singles to center field. Tucupita Marcano walks. Jason Delay to second. Kevin Newman singles to left center field. Tucupita Marcano to second. Jason Delay to third. Bryan Reynolds called out on strikes. Ben Gamel doubles to deep right field. Kevin Newman scores. Tucupita Marcano scores. Jason Delay scores. Josh VanMeter pinch-hitting for Kevin Padlo. Josh VanMeter flies out to left field to Tommy Pham.
3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Red sox 5, Pirates 3. | 2022-08-17T03:42:21+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/Boston-Pittsburgh-Runs-17378379.php |
Teen returns to football field 8 months after cancer diagnosis
MOUNT ORAB, Ohio (WXIX/Gray News) – A student-athlete played his first football game of the season Friday night, just eight months after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Hunter McKinzie is a junior defensive tackle at Western Brown High School, one of the top division III teams in Ohio.
In March, doctors diagnosed the teen with stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“It was shocking,” Hunter told WXIX. “I felt like I got punched right in the heart. When you’re young, you don’t expect something like that to happen to you.”
“When we first saw the scans in January, it didn’t look good,” head coach Nick Osborne said. “We were told he needed a miracle.”
Hunter’s fight looked daunting, but he wasn’t fighting alone. Through it all, he kept his head up.
“You wouldn’t even know he was in the hospital battling for his life,” Osborne said. “He was always worried about other people and doing things for his team. It’s special, man. He’s a special kid.”
Hunter itched to get back in his pads, but doctors told him he had to wait. Still, six months after his diagnosis, he was cleared to return to the practice field.
He put his helmet on for the first time in his junior season just two weeks ago.
“This is all I wanted to do since I was diagnosed is just play on the field with them,” Hunter said of his teammates. “I couldn’t think of anything else but playing with them and supporting them.”
Now he’s more than a key cog in the middle of Western Brown’s run defense. He’s a source of inspiration, empowerment and positivity.
“It motivates me to push myself and everybody else,” he said of his battle. “Because not everything is promised for you.”
Hunter’s perseverance has had a lasting impact on his coach as well.
“It’s an amazing story,” Osborne said. “It’s something I’ll live with forever because even when times get hard, I’ll think back and know Hunter’s been through this ... and more than this.”
Copyright 2022 WXIX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2022-10-10T16:19:46+00:00 | wnem.com | https://www.wnem.com/2022/10/10/teen-returns-football-field-8-months-after-cancer-diagnosis/ |
WWE star Sara Lee dies at 30
Published: Oct. 9, 2022 at 12:03 PM EDT|Updated: 21 minutes ago
(CNN) – WWE wrestling star Sara Lee is dead at the age of 30, according to a social media post from her mother.
Lee’s last Instagram post indicated she was feeling well enough to go to the gym, after suffering from a sinus infection.
The wrestler came to prominence after winning the WWE reality competition series “Tough Enough.”
Lee was married to former WWE wrestler Westlin Blake and they had three children together.
Her family has not released information on her cause of death and has asked for privacy while they mourn.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2022-10-09T16:25:31+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/2022/10/09/wwe-star-sara-lee-dies-30/ |
(NewsNation) — Crime has remained a significant issue in the minds of voters since the beginning of the year. It’s why President Joe Biden addressed the issue in his State of the Union address in March and why it’s ranked as one of the most popular topics on a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll earlier this month.
And for good reason: According to an October report from WalletHub released Thursday, homicide rates have risen by an average of nearly 10% in 50 of the most populous U.S. cities between the third quarter of 2021 and Q3 of 2022, and they are still rising.
It’s something Republicans have attempted to use to their advantage by airing an estimated 53,000 commercials on crime, up from the 29,000 crime ads they aired in August, according to AdImpact.
WalletHub ranked the cities with the highest increase in homicide rates, comparing per capita homicide data from the largest U.S. cities in Q3 2022 to the same figures for Q3 2021 and Q3 2020.
While cities such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles often receive the brunt of the national glare when discussing crime, the study shows crime has risen in cities beyond the country’s very largest metropolitan areas.
Cities with the highest increase in homicide rates
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Detroit
- St. Louis
- New Orleans
- Milwaukee
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Philadelphia
- Norfolk, Virginia
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Oakland, California
The report also found that blue cities have a higher homicide rate increase than red cities.
View the full report and your city’s rank here. | 2022-10-24T18:44:55+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/news/national/surprising-study-shows-cities-with-highest-homicide-rate-increases/ |
(The Conversation) – In many parts of the U.S., the winter months bring frigid temperatures and drier conditions that can wreak havoc on the skin.
The primary role of the skin, as the largest organ in the body, is to act as a physical barrier to the external environment. When your skin is healthy, it helps protect you from allergens and infections. But in winter, when the outside temperature and humidity drop, skin can become especially irritated.
We are a dermatologist and a medical student who study a broad range of common skin conditions and the effects of the environment on skin health.
Heading into the winter months, a handful of common dermatological conditions can develop or worsen in response to the cold. These include eczema, chilblains, Raynaud’s phenomenon, cold urticaria and cold panniculitis. All are conditions that can be irritating and uncomfortable, and some are harder to treat than others. So it’s helpful to know when to manage these conditions on your own and when to see a dermatologist.
Eczema
Eczema is an inflammatory skin condition that causes dry and itchy skin and may be triggered by soaps and detergents, environmental or food allergens, hormonal changes and skin infections. There are numerous types of eczema, which often have overlapping symptoms.
Asteatotic eczema, also known as winter itch, is common in older adults. During the winter months, skin can become drier and, in some instances, cracked, fissured and inflamed.
Severe dryness may lead to itchiness and scratching. In turn, this can create open wounds that may allow allergens and bacteria to penetrate the skin and cause a rash or an infection.
This type of eczema typically occurs on the lower legs, but eruptions can occur anywhere on the skin, such as the trunk, arms and hands.
Keeping the skin hydrated is the primary treatment. Water-based lotions may worsen skin drying, so applying moisturizers with a high oil content – like petroleum jelly, mineral oil or Vaseline – on wet or damp skin is recommended. Hypoallergenic and anti-itch moisturizers designed specifically for eczema are also available.
Other tips include replacing long hot baths with quick warm showers, switching to a milder soap, and using a room humidifier if the climate is dry. If itchiness and dryness persist, seek care from a dermatologist, who may prescribe a topical steroid.
Hand eczema may also worsen in the winter as your hands are frequently exposed to cold, dry air. Scaling, fissuring and bleeding on the hands is common. Minimizing exposure to hard or antibacterial soaps, along with using gentle cleansing products followed by applying a petroleum-based unscented moisturizer can improve symptoms.
Chilblains
Chilblains, also known as pernio, are small, itchy patches that can occur when the skin is exposed to cold and damp weather, resulting in swollen and painful bumps that affect the fingers, toes, ears and face. Poor circulation, blood vessel constriction, a history of autoimmune disease and being underweight may predispose people to chilblains.
Afflicted areas are painful, itchy, swollen and usually have a blueish to purple hue. In severe cases, blisters and ulcers may occur. But for most people, the condition tends to spontaneously resolve within one to three weeks.
Until that happens, it’s important to keep affected areas protected from the cold. If the sensitive area starts to blister, or if fevers, muscle aches and chills develop, it’s best to see a dermatologist or physician.
Pseudo-chilblains, also known as “COVID toes,” can be caused by COVID-19 infection. Chilblains associated with COVID-19 resemble the rash in chilblains – painful red to blue-colored nodules on the toes – but it is not specific to winter.Dry, cracked skin can lead to infections.
Raynaud’s phenomenon
Like chilblains, Raynaud’s phenomenon is a skin condition characterized by an significant constriction of blood vessels in the fingers and toes in response to cold exposure. The digits may turn red or blue, but they quickly flush red upon rewarming. Afflicted areas may also be numb or painful, and when severe, may develop ulcers.
To treat Raynaud’s phenomenon, it’s necessary to avoid cold-weather exposure. Ideally patients with Raynaud’s should dress for the cold in layers. At a minimum, make sure to wear gloves and insulated footwear. Avoid tobacco, caffeine and decongestants; they may cause blood vessels to constrict more. If symptoms don’t improve quickly – Raynaud’s due to cold typically gets better after only a few minutes – see a dermatologist or your physician, as Raynaud’s phenomenon can also be a manifestation of a more serious systemic disease, including cancer, infections and/or trauma.
Cold urticaria
Cold urticaria is a skin rash believed to be triggered by an autoimmune response, which leads to the release of inflammatory molecules, including histamine.
Soon after the skin is exposed to sudden drops in temperature, wheals – also known as hives – may develop. These are reddish, itchy and swollen areas of skin. Such episodes can last for approximately two hours. Occasionally, other symptoms accompany the outbreak, including headache, chills, shortness of breath, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
People can test for cold urticaria using the ice cube test. This is done simply by placing an ice cube on an area of skin for five minutes; if you have cold urticaria, the skin will raise and itch within five to 15 minutes. Treatment involves avoiding cold exposure and using over-the-counter antihistamines.
For those who have experienced cold urticaria, swimming in cold water can be dangerous, as it can lead to loss of consciousness and drowning.
Cold panniculitis
Cold panniculitis – which appears as enlarged, red and painful nodules on the skin – develops 12 to 72 hours after cold exposure.
Cases of cold panniculitis have been documented in children eating Popsicles and in adults undergoing whole-body cryotherapy, which is often used as treatment for chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, or for improving post-exercise recovery.
Cold panniculitis is more common during childhood and usually resolves on its own by avoiding cold exposure and direct contact with frozen products.
Symptoms from winter skin conditions are often self-limiting and resolve on their own with adequate protection from the cold. But if symptoms do not resolve, you should see a licensed dermatologist, as cold-induced rashes may be a sign of a more concerning underlying health condition.
If visiting your dermatologist in person proves difficult, you may consider seeing a dermatologist virtually, as many academic medical centers and private practices now offer telehealth dermatology. | 2023-01-21T22:44:20+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/news/cold-weather-brings-itchy-irritated-dry-and-scaly-skin-heres-how-to-treat-eczema-and-other-skin-conditions-and-when-to-see-a-doctor/ |
Female-owned fashion brand, Love, Bonito, aims to embrace Women's mental health through art and reflection
NEW YORK, March 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This International Women's Day, Love, Bonito, a female-founded fashion brand, inspires women to embrace self-love and reflection by placing 20 mirrors throughout Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. Each mirror carries a message of empowerment written across the reflective surface to encourage commuters to embrace their own journeys of self-love.
According to the Women's Confidence Report, three out of four women in the U.S. lack self-confidence. Furthermore, Women in diverse communities such as Asian American, Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+, scored the lowest in self-love. Love, Bonito aims to help increase awareness of these critical mental health issues by inspiring women all over New York City to reflect and spread joy in their everyday journeys.
"We believe that community can be embraced through fashion and that there is a direct connection to looking good and feeling confident," says Stephanie Seow, the Head of North America, Love, Bonito. "Our installation aims to spread self-love in everyday moments and remind ourselves that, even on our best days, sometimes we all need a little extra self-care."
The mirror installation takes place for only 24 hours, but that does not mean the impact will be short lived. As Love, Bonito makes plans to expand their U.S. footprint, initiatives such as LBCreate, a global social impact program focused on bringing Women's issues to the forefront will remain an accessible resource for diverse women in the U.S. This installation also foreshadows Love, Bonito's first pop-up store to come to the U.S. this summer.
More information about Love, Bonito can be found in the fact sheet linked HERE. Installation photos will be available the morning of March 8, 2023.
About Love, Bonito
Designing for the key moments and milestones of a woman's life, Love, Bonito's comprehensive assortment features stylish and comfortable pieces for the modern Asian woman at home, work and play. Love, Bonito is the largest vertically integrated, omnichannel womenswear brand in Southeast Asia today. They remain committed to relationship building and nurturance, imbuing soul into innovation with thoughtful design and dedicated community outreach.
For more information, please visit https://www.lovebonito.com/intl/
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SOURCE Love, Bonito | 2023-03-08T15:15:06+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2023/03/08/soho-mirror-installation-reflects-self-love-international-womens-day/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Work requirements for federal aid programs have emerged as a sticking point in ongoing negotiations over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and President Joe Biden has signaled openness to a possible compromise even as many in his party have balked.
Legislation passed by the House in April would impose new or expanded work requirements for three federal programs — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food aid formerly known as food stamps; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which offers aid to low-income families with children; and Medicaid assistance for adults without dependents.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is insisting that the proposed work requirements be part of negotiations with Biden over raising the debt limit and avoiding a national default. While Biden has signaled that making any changes to benefits for Medicaid is a non-starter, he has been less clear when asked about House GOP proposals to strengthen work requirements for SNAP and TANF.
Asked Wednesday about his openness on work requirements, Biden told reporters “there could be a few others” but “not anything of any consequence.”
A look at the work requirements, who they could affect and the politics behind them:
THE HOUSE BILL
Republicans have for years tried to boost work requirements for federal aid and Democrats have been mostly successful in holding them off. McCarthy has said that there will be no deal this time if Democrats don’t agree to changes.
Creating new work requirements for Medicaid would create the most savings out of the GOP work proposals, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — $109 billion over the next decade. The Republican proposal would require for the first time that some able-bodied Medicaid recipients without dependents participate in work-related activities for at least 80 hours a month.
Biden said on Sunday that he will not accept anything that takes away people’s health care coverage.
“I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now, but for Medicaid it’s a different story,” he said, referring to 1996 welfare reforms passed when he was in the Senate. “And so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is.”
On SNAP, the bill would save $11 billion over 10 years by raising the maximum age for existing standards that require able-bodied adults who do not live with dependents to work or attend training programs. While current law applies those standards to recipients under the age of 50, the House bill would raise the age to include adults 55 and under. The bill would also decrease the number of exemptions that states can grant to some recipients subject to those requirements.
Lastly the House legislation would save a small amount — under $10 million, according to CBO — by boosting work requirements for some adults on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
WHO WOULD BE AFFECTED
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 600,000 Medicaid recipients could become uninsured, 275,000 SNAP recipients could fall off the rolls each month and that the TANF changes could “reduce state grants slightly” if the GOP proposal became law.
Democrats and anti-hunger groups have strongly objected. They say the changes could cause needy Americans to lose benefits without saving the government much money or putting many people back to work.
“There’s no evidence that this is going to make people better off, it just takes their food assistance away from them,” says Dottie Rosenbaum, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has analyzed the effects of the cuts.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNBC that it is “entirely unreasonable” to consider new work requirements in the context of a default, especially since “there are already significant work requirements that exist under law.”
POSSIBLE COMPROMISE?
Rebuffed for years — even when they controlled both chambers of Congress — Republicans believe this is the moment they can achieve new work standards for the aid programs.
“Let’s help people get lifted out of poverty into jobs,” McCarthy said Wednesday, laughing off Biden’s comments that he wouldn’t support anything of consequence.
McCarthy has repeatedly noted that Biden voted for the 1996 welfare overhaul and that then-President Bill Clinton had signed it. That law created the TANF program and the work rules for food stamps.
“This is a senator who voted for work requirements,” he said of Biden.
Biden’s stance on the full package of work requirements — and whether he would accept any of the changes — is so far uncertain. After seeming to draw a red line on the Medicaid cuts over the weekend, leaving the other work proposals as an open question, he tweeted Monday that the GOP bill “would put a million older adults at risk of losing their food assistance and going hungry. Rather than push Americans into poverty, we should reduce the deficit by making sure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes.”
On Wednesday, Biden said he is not going to accept any new requirements in those programs that impact “the medical health needs of people.”
“I voted years ago for the work requirements that exist,“ Biden said. “But it’s possible there could be a few others, but not anything of any consequence.”
PARTY PUSHBACK
While trying to keep the country from a devastating default, Biden is also navigating his own party politics. Democrats are pressuring him to draw a hard line with McCarthy on any new requirements that could cut benefits.
“I can’t believe we’re talking about using poor people as hostages” over the debt limit, said Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. “I’m not having any of that.”
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the cuts “would harm people, people in rural areas, black, brown, indigenous folks.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been quieter on the subject, deferring to Biden. But the New York Democrat told reporters on Tuesday that “you know the feelings of my caucus on work requirements.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he has faith in Biden but doesn’t see how it will get resolved in time.
“The president always wants to try to find common ground. That’s why he won his election,” Murphy said. “I appreciate that about him. I think the size of the asks on the table from House Republicans make it pretty hard to get a deal in time to stem the crisis.”
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. | 2023-05-17T23:51:10+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/news/national-world-news/ap-new-work-requirements-for-federal-aid-gop-pushes-proposals-in-debt-talks/ |
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: You cant ask for much better football weather than this. Cool and comfortable temperatures with no rain in sight for football games this week.
FRIDAY NIGHT: A few clouds, mostly clearing out before sunrise Saturday morning. Temperatures dip into the upper 40s and low 50s.
WEEKEND OUTLOOK: Behind Friday’s front comes some cool, Fall air. High temperatures will be 8-10 degrees lower over the weekend, and Sunday morning temperatures will start in the mid 40s, with some colder pockets in the valleys of North Alabama potentially starting in the 30s.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The weather for the two big games this week will be absolutely perfect. Temperatures will be in the 70s at kickoff for the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry in Athens, as Auburn looks to bounce back against #2 Georgia at 2:30. Temperatures will be in the 60s by the time that game wraps up. #1 Alabama then takes on Texas A&M at 7:00 in Tuscaloosa, which is a game both teams have had circled since Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher had a war of words earlier this year. The weather for the late game will definitely have that Fall feel to it, with temperatures in the low to mid 50s by the time the game ends. UAB will have cool but fantastic weather for homecoming, with temperatures at kickoff in the low 70s and plenty of sun through the day for all the festivities.
TROPICS: Tropical Storm Julia has formed north of Columbia, and will continue westward towards Nicaragua over the weekend, likely becoming a hurricane before landfall. Beyond landfall, it’s possible that the remnant low with this storm could re-emerge near the Bay of Campeche. If it does so, it could help funnel additional moisture into Central Alabama by the middle of next week, helping bump rain chances here. We won’t see direct impacts from Julia in Alabama.
RAIN NEXT WEEK: We’ve had our eye on a mid-week cold front next week for a while as our next rain producer. That looks more likely today, as models are a bit more bullish on moisture ahead of this front thanks to the remnants of Julia adding a little more moisture across the Gulf Coast states. There have been some recent operational (meaning just one solution) model runs showing a lot of rain with this front, but ensembles (average out a lot of model runs, and a bit more reliable this far out) would suggest totals around or less than an inch would be more likely. We’ll keep an eye on it, but often when we’re in a dry stretch like this those operational model runs can be a bit too aggressive with rainfall totals. Expect at least some rain Wednesday into Thursday of next week, but we’re still fine-tuning exactly how much to expect.
Storm Team 7 Day
Be sure to follow the CBS 42 Storm Team:
Follow Us on Facebook: Chief Meteorologist Ashley Gann, Meteorologist Dave Nussbaum, Meteorologist Michael Haynes and Meteorologist Alex Puckett | 2022-10-07T21:08:59+00:00 | cbs42.com | https://www.cbs42.com/weather/fall-feel-to-weekend-rain-returns-next-week/ |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Ryan Redington on Tuesday won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, bringing his six dogs off the Bering Sea ice to the finish line on Nome’s main street.
Redington, 40, is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., who helped co-found the arduous race across Alaska that was first held in 1973 and is known as the “Father of the Iditarod.”
“My grandpa, dad and Uncle Joee are all in the Mushing Hall of Fame. I got big footsteps to follow,” Ryan Redington wrote in his race biography. He previously won the Junior Iditarod in 1999 and 2000. His father, Raymie, is a 10-time Iditarod finisher.
Redington, who is Inupiat, becomes the sixth Alaska Native musher to win the world’s most famous sled dog race. After crossing the finish in Nome around 12:15 p.m., he said it has been a goal of his since he was “a very small child to win the Iditarod, and I can’t believe it. It finally happened.
“It took a lot work, took a lot of patience. And we failed quite a few times, you know? But we kept our head up high and stuck with the dream,” he said.
Redington won the Iditarod in his 16th try. He scratched from seven of those races, but his performance this decade has been the best of his career. He finished ninth last year, seventh in 2021 and eighth in 2020 — his only other top 10 finishes before this year’s race.
The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race started March 5 in Willow for 33 mushers, who traveled over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and on the Bering Sea ice. Since then, three mushers have scratched. A fan-friendly ceremonial start was held in Anchorage the day before.
It was the smallest field ever to start a race, one short of the first race run.
Among those who scratched was defending champion Brent Sass, who was leading when he withdrew Saturday over concerns for his health. because of periodontal issues.
He was doing OK and resting in the community of Unalakleet, he posted on Instagram Sunday. The Iditarod was caring for his dogs, he said.
Sass said he had been sick the entire race with a bad cold. Then on Friday “some cracked teeth started giving me issues and over a 12-hour period turned into nearly unbearable pain,” he said. “My body basically shutdown and for two runs I just hung on. Ultimately I couldn’t care for the dogs.“
He said the colder temperatures, dipping to minus 30 F (minus 34 C), were making his dog team stronger, but it made him weaker.
For the first part of the race, mushers dealt with high temperatures, causing some to alter their strategies.
Redington will earn about $50,000 for winning. The exact amount won’t be calculated until the total number of finishers are known to split the prize purse.
The two mushers who were chasing him to Nome are also Alaska Natives, Pete Kaiser, who is Yup’ik and won the 2019 Iditarod, and Richie Diehl, who is Dena’ina Athabascan. Redington won the race in 8 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds. Kaiser finished second, more than an hour behind Redington. Diehl was third, finishing about an hour behind Kaiser.
Redington splits his time between Alaska and Wisconsin. He trains his dogs in Brule, Wisconsin, in the fall and winter. He races in Alaska and Minnesota beginning in December. In the summers, he has a sled dog tour for tourists in the ski community of Girdwood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Anchorage.
In January 2022, Redington was training in northern Wisconsin when a snowmobile driver veered into his dog team, injuring two dogs, before speeding off.
One of the dogs, Wildfire, suffered a broken rear tibia, fibula and femur but recovered after multiple surgeries and started this year’s race. However, Redington dropped him at the checkpoint in Skwentna a day after the official start.
“His heart was there, but he was just a little sore,” Redington told the Iditarod Insider webpage.
___
Associated Press journalist Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report. | 2023-03-15T12:34:35+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/national-sports/grandson-of-race-co-founder-wins-the-iditarod-sled-dog-race/ |
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Academy Software Foundation – the motion picture industry's premier organization for advancing open source software development across image creation, visual effects, animation, and sound technologies – today announces the Digital Production Example Library (DPEL) as its newest hosted project.
The DPEL project grew out of the industry's long-standing need for production-grade sample content in order to thoroughly test hardware and software in development and ensure that it can scale to the demands of the film and TV content creation process. Such content is normally locked inside each studio, with legal, copyright and policy barriers that make it difficult to distribute to developers, researchers and educators. The goals of DPEL are to encourage, curate, and publish production-grade sample assets that will be of value to the broader community. Providing a vendor-neutral platform along with a uniform license agreement will help make it easier for studios to contribute content.
One of DPEL's first hosted assets is the American Society of Cinematographer's Standard Evaluation Material II (StEM2), which comprises an entire 17-minute short film, The Mission, carefully designed to stress-test modern image processing and exhibition systems, including high dynamic range and high frame rates.
Additional assets hosted by DPEL at launch include:
- Animal Logic's ALab Phase 2: A full production scene with over 300 production quality assets, two animated characters, and baked procedural fur and fabric all provided as a part of the first open-sourced USD scene and shot context from a studio.
- Intel's Volumetric Clouds Library: A collection of 30 VDB cloud assets, including both dense and sparse clouds, at resolutions ranging from quite small (< 1 MB) to quite large (> 8 GB).
- Noa character from Amazon Web Services (AWS): A complete animatable main character, with rig, geometry, textures, and hair groom, represented in Maya. Noa is the hero of the short film Spanner, created by AWS's in-house production team FuzzyPixel.
"When production assets are made available to the community, everyone benefits: software and hardware developers can better test and demonstrate their products, researchers can validate their ideas and be inspired, and so in turn, filmmakers get better and more robust tools to use," explained Eric Enderton, Director of Film Rendering Technology at NVIDIA and the chair of DPEL's Technical Steering Committee. "When Disney released the Moana Island dataset, it generated a lot of excitement. We want to encourage more of these generous donations, and broaden what's available."
DPEL started as the Assets Repository Working Group within the Academy Software Foundation, as members worked to establish the ASWF Digital Assets License, a uniform license agreement that balances the intellectual property concerns of the asset donors with the needs of the users. For developers, it eliminates the hurdle of getting legal approval for each new piece of content while also making it easier for studios to contribute production-grade content to the broader community through DPEL. The ASWF Digital Assets License was formally adopted in January 2022 and is used for all DPEL assets.
"Establishing a vendor-neutral repository of production-class assets is a huge milestone for our industry: it will enable more robust software development for studios and software vendors and will help end users better understand the scale of real-world production," said David Morin, Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation. "The Digital Production Example Library is one of the first projects to come out of our Foundation Working Groups, and I am very much looking forward to seeing DPEL expand and diversify into all types of production content."
Future development of DPEL will be guided by its Technical Steering Committee. Developers, artists and others interested in learning more or contributing to the DPEL project can get involved here.
Companies interested in supporting the mission of the Academy Software Foundation can learn more and join at aswf.io/join.
About Academy Software Foundation
Developed in partnership by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, the Academy Software Foundation was created to provide a world-class home for open source software developers in the motion picture and broader media industries to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound. The Academy Software Foundation is home to DPEL, MaterialX, OpenVDB, OpenColorIO, OpenEXR, OpenCue, OpenTimelineIO, Open Shading Language, rawtoaces and Rez. For more information about the Academy Software Foundation, visit https://www.aswf.io/.
Media Contact:
Emily Olin
Academy Software Foundation
eolin@linuxfoundation.org
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Academy Software Foundation | 2022-08-08T18:43:34+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/08/academy-software-foundation-launches-digital-production-example-library-newest-project-house-production-grade-content/ |
Updated December 30, 2022 at 11:47 AM ET
Former President Donald Trump's tax returns from 2015 through 2020 have been made public by the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee — concluding a years-long political battle by Democrats to obtain and share the documents.
The committee released the tax returns Friday morning on its website and provided no new additional information or statements.
Today, the Committee released the final piece of supporting evidence in our investigation into the IRS's mandatory audit program under the prior administration.
— Ways & Means Committee (@WaysMeansCmte) December 30, 2022
Find Attachment E here ⬇️ https://t.co/i8iuviZaYe
The move comes over a week after the panel voted to release the former president's tax returns and announced that the Internal Revenue Service did not audit Trump in 2017 or 2018 when he was in office — something the IRS is required to do annually for the president and vice president.
"A president is no ordinary taxpayer," committee Chair Richard Neal said in a statement last week, following the announcement. "They hold power and influence unlike any other American. And with great power comes even greater responsibility."
The initial announcement was paired with a report from the nonpartisan congressional committee the Joint Committee on Taxation, which detailed the top findings from the six years of obtained tax returns from the former president and his wife, Melania Trump.
Notably, the report highlighted that the former president paid $0 in federal taxes in 2020 and just $750 in 2016 and 2017. In contrast, in 2018, he paid $999,466 and $133,445 in 2019.
It also found that Trump documented no taxable income in his joint returns for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020. Plus, there were millions of reported losses from the former president's business and personal income while in office.
Present on each year of Trump's tax returns was additional income in the form of related-party loans to several of Trump's children, totaling approximately $51,000 annually from 2015 to 2019 and $46,000 in 2020.
In a statement within an hour of the release Friday, Trump condemned the move by Democrats, saying they had "weaponized everything," adding, "that is a dangerous two-way street."
President Donald J. Trump:
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) December 30, 2022
“The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The great USA divide will now grow far worse. The radical, left Democrats have weaponized…
Friday's release marks the end of a legal battle between Trump and the Democratic-led panel dating back to 2019. The nature of Trump's taxes has been in question since his 2016 campaign when he refused to voluntarily release the information, something previous presidential candidates have done.
This fall, Trump continued his attempts to halt the release of the information, requesting the Supreme Court bar the Ways and Means Committee from making the tax returns public. The high court blocked the request last month.
The release marks one of the final offensive moves for House Democrats before they lose a majority in the chamber come January, a move Republican opponents were aware of in the lead-up to Friday's announcement.
In a briefing to reporters Thursday morning, GOP aides argued that Democrats' decision to release the report could have political consequences, including the potential of future partisan-led investigations into public officials' finances.
"This is not what serious oversight looks like," a GOP aide told reporters, adding, "We're worried about a cycle of political retribution that might come from this and one that will make our politics even more divisive. We think folks will come to regret this. We think Democrats will come to regret this, and I think they may regret it sooner than they think."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2022-12-30T20:27:24+00:00 | iowapublicradio.org | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2022-12-30/house-democrats-release-trumps-tax-returns |
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PHOENIX (AP) — Pavin Smith and pinch-hitter Jordan Luplow homered in a five-run sixth inning to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals 8-6 on Tuesday night.
Daulton Varsho and David Peralta also homered for the Diamondbacks, who have won five of their last six and have 15 homers in that stretch, including seven in a 10-6 victory against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field last Friday.
MJ Melendez homered, doubled and drove in three runs for Kansas City, which has lost six in a row and eight of 10.
Melendez’s RBI double sparked a three-run sixth inning capped by rookie Dairon Blanco’s two-run single for a 6-3 lead before the Diamondbacks scored five two-out runs in the last of the inning for reliever Joe Mantiply (2-0).
Amir Garrett gave up a walk and a single before being replaced by Taylor Clarke (1-1), who gave up a game-tying three-run homer to Luplow, a 408-footer that hugged the left field line.
Varsho doubled and Smith followed with a 415-foot shot to right, his second in as many games, for an 8-6 lead. Arizona had six homers in sweeping the two-game series and leads the NL with 60 homers.
Whit Merrifield had two hits for the Royals, who have lost leads of six, four and three runs in their last three games.
Mark Melancon pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances.
Arizona starter Zac Gallen entered the game with a 1.14 ERA but gave up six runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He had not given up more than two runs and five hits in any of his previous seven starts.
WHAT A RELIEF
Diamondbacks relievers Mantiply, Ian Kennedy, and Noe Ramirez lead the NL lead with 21 appearances after each pitched Tuesday. Mantiply, 2-0 with two saves and an 0.51 ERA, has been scored upon once.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said he was “very concerned” about the usage. “I don’t want any of our guys to have 80 appearances this year," he said, "That’s way too many. We embrace close games. We need our horses to go out there protect those games when we are ahead. We’ll be mindful of that. I have to make sure I don’t get anybody hurt.”
BOBBY WITT JR. RETURNS
Bobby Witt Jr. attended Arizona’s clinching Game 7 victory over the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series at Chase Field and rode in victory parade the next day, although the memories are a little fuzzy. Then again, he was only 16 1/2 months old.
“There are pictures out there with me and the trophy, but I don’t remember any of that,” Witt Jr. said.
Witt’s father Bobby, who was 4-1 with Arizona in 2001 in the final year of his 15-year major league career, was at the games this week.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: C Salvador Perez (left thumb sprain) worked in the batting cage Tuesday and “is trending in a good direction,” manager Mike Matheny said. There is no timetable for Perez’s return. … 3B Emmanuel Rivera (illness) and CF Kyle Isbel (illness) were late scratches. … OF Michael Taylor (covid protocol) missed his sixth straight game.
Diamondbacks: 3B Josh Rojas (left hand contusion) missed his third straight game. … RHP Zach Davies (right leg contusion) was to have a C-T scan Tuesday after being struck by a line drive Monday … C Jose Herrera was activated from the covid list and C Grayson Greiner was optioned to Triple-A Reno in a corresponding move.
UP NEXT
Royals: LHP Daniel Lynch (2-3, 4.01 ERA) is scheduled to oppose Minnesota RHP Joe Ryan (5-2, 2.28) in the opener of a four-game road series Thursday. Lynch gave up four runs in 3 2/3 innings in a 6-4 loss to the Twins in Kansas City last Friday.
Diamondbacks: RHP Humberto Castellanos (3-1, 4.29) is to pitch the opener of a four-game home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday . The Dodgers have not announced a starter.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-05-25T06:54:51+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Smith-s-tie-breaking-homer-lifts-Arizona-past-KC-17197118.php |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Shortly after being hired as head coach of the Carolina Panthers 28 years ago, Dom Capers was asked what he planned to do once he reached retirement age.
Capers smiled and replied, “I want to still be coaching.”
And he still is, coincidentally enough, with the Panthers.
The 72-year-old Capers is back for his second stint in Carolina, this time as a senior defensive assistant where he’ll be scouting upcoming opponents’ tendencies and helping defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero formulate a weekly game plan.
And he can’t wait.
“I enjoy the competitiveness, the X and O part of the game,” Capers said Wednesday. “I don’t think there is anything that matches Sunday afternoon for three hours after you put in all that work during the week. There is no in between — you either feel real good (if you win) or you don’t feel very good at all (if you lose).
“I don’t know what you find to match that when it is all over,” he added.
It is a full-circle moment for Capers.
He returns to a franchise he helped usher into the league in 1995 as an expansion team and took to the NFC championship game in just its second season. He spent four seasons in Carolina, compiling a 30-34 record before being fired — a decision that then-owner Jerry Richardson would later say he regretted.
Capers is now settling back into the stadium where he once spent numerous nights sleeping on a cot in his office after a long day of coaching and game-planning. He’s looking forward to returning to the Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away from the stadium, where he would spend his few free moments eating and reading the newspaper in a private booth in the back corner.
And he’s eager to getting started working for head coach Frank Reich, the Panthers starting quarterback to open their inaugural season.
Since that one season together, Capers and Reich have stayed in touch and remained friends while developing a mutual respect for one another.
“I’m not overly sentimental, but that is pretty special,” Reich said of Capers’ return.
But Reich was quick to add that Capers’ homecoming should not be misconstrued as a “sentimental hire.”
“Not even close,” Reich said. ”This guy is still vibrant with football knowledge, passion and experience. He and Ejiro have an unbelievable relationship and trust and that is just going to benefit our team.”
Evero first met Capers in 2016 in Green Bay when he was a defensive quality control coach working directly under Capers, the Packers defensive coordinator at the time. Evero would later move on, but left an impression on Capers because of his work ethic.
Evero never forgot what Capers meant to him either, and when he landed the Denver Broncos defensive coordinator job he called Capers and asked him to join his staff. The Broncos finished ninth in the league in defense in 2022.
When Evero joined the Panthers earlier this month, Capers agreed to join him.
“Even though you feel like you’re prepared for the job, there are things you don’t know until you get in that seat,” Evero said of being an NFL defensive coordinator. “Coach Capers is an incredible guide in terms of how to do the job, and do it at an elite level. He’s someone to bounce ideas off of as well. He’s a man of great character.”
Evero and Capers inherit a Carolina defense that finished 22nd in the league last season, but is still considered the strength of the team with core players such as defensive end Brian Burns, defensive tackle Derrick Brown, linebacker Shaq Thompson, safety Jeremy Chinn and cornerback Jaycee Horn.
They’ll be installing a base 3-4 defense, but plan to play to the strengths of their players.
“This is not my defense,” Evero said. “This is me, our coaches, especially Dom’s influence, the players — we are all putting this thing together and we are collaborating to make this the best defense possible. And Dom will be a huge part of that.” | 2023-02-23T16:13:16+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/sports/carolina-panthers/dom-capers-comes-full-circle-with-return-to-panthers/ |
How to Watch the Cavaliers vs. Knicks: Streaming & TV Channel Info for NBA Playoffs Game 1
Published: Apr. 15, 2023 at 11:32 AM CDT|Updated: 41 minutes ago
The Cleveland Cavaliers will play the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the opening round of the NBA Playoffs.
Keep reading for everything you need to know about this matchup between the Cavaliers and Knicks, including how to catch the action live with a free trial to Fubo.
Watch live sports and TV without cable on all your devices with a seven-day free trial to Fubo!
Cavaliers vs. Knicks Game Info
- When: Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 6:00 PM ET
- Where: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio
- TV: ESPN
- Watch Cavaliers vs. Knicks with Fubo
Watch the NBA and tons of other live sports without cable! Use our link to get a free trial with Fubo.
Cavaliers Stats Insights
- The Cavaliers make 48.8% of their shots from the field this season, which is 2.6 percentage points higher than the Knicks have allowed to their opponents (46.2%).
- In games Cleveland shoots higher than 46.2% from the field, it is 39-19 overall.
- The Knicks are the second-ranked rebounding team in the league, the Cavaliers sit at 25th.
- The Cavaliers score only 0.8 fewer points per game (112.3) than the Knicks give up (113.1).
- Cleveland is 33-12 when scoring more than 113.1 points.
Knicks Stats Insights
- The Knicks are shooting 47% from the field, 0.2% higher than the 46.8% the Cavaliers' opponents have shot this season.
- New York is 29-15 when it shoots better than 46.8% from the field.
- The Cavaliers are the 20th best rebounding team in the league, the Knicks rank third.
- The Knicks' 116 points per game are 9.1 more points than the 106.9 the Cavaliers give up.
- New York has put together a 39-23 record in games it scores more than 106.9 points.
Cavaliers Home & Away Comparison
- The Cavaliers are averaging 113.2 points per game this season in home games, which is 1.9 more points than they're averaging in road games (111.3).
- Cleveland is allowing 105 points per game this year when playing at home, which is 3.8 fewer points than it is allowing on the road (108.8).
- At home, the Cavaliers are draining 0.6 more three-pointers per game (11.9) than in road games (11.3). However, they own a worse three-point percentage at home (36.6%) compared to in road games (36.8%).
Knicks Home & Away Comparison
- In 2022-23 the Knicks are scoring more points at home (117.3 per game) than on the road (114.8). And they are conceding less at home (113) than on the road (113.2).
- New York allows 113 points per game at home, and 113.2 away.
- At home the Knicks are picking up 23.5 assists per game, 1.1 more than away (22.4).
Cavaliers Injuries
Knicks Injuries
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-15T17:16:22+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/sports/betting/2023/04/15/cavaliers-vs-knicks-nba-playoffs-game-1-live-stream-tv/ |
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