text stringlengths 80 124k | date_download stringdate 2022-04-02 20:48:07 2023-07-31 23:59:06 | source_domain stringclasses 387 values | url stringlengths 21 528 |
|---|---|---|---|
D Magazine honors Higdon among Dallas' top personal injury attorneys
DALLAS, Jan. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The trial firm Lyons & Simmons LLP is pleased to announce partner Stephen Higdon has been named to D Magazine's Best Lawyers Under 40, the annual listing of North Texas' leading young lawyers.
Higdon is honored for his personal injury work representing plaintiffs. This is his third selection to the annual listing.
The Best Lawyers Under 40 list is compiled based on peer nominations, followed by a close review from an independent panel of distinguished attorneys working in conjunction with D Magazine's editors. The 2023 edition is published as part of the magazine's January 2023 issue.
Higdon has extensive courtroom experience handling a wide range of civil litigation in cases involving catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and complex business litigation. He was part of the trial team that secured a recent $10.1 million medical negligence verdict against Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound and part of the firm's record-setting trial team that received the prestigious John Howie Award in 2021. He has been recognized by Thomson Reuters Super Lawyers on the Texas Rising Stars listing each year since 2019, as well as Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch since 2021.
Higdon earned his law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Southwestern University. He started his legal career clerking for the Hon. Michael H. Schneider in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas where he was responsible for hundreds of complex civil and criminal cases and participated in trials ranging from product liability to complex business disputes.
About Lyons & Simmons LLP
Dallas-based Lyons & Simmons, LLP is a trial boutique representing clients in wrongful death, personal injury, products liability, and complex "bet-the-company" business litigation matters across the country.
Media Contact:
Rhonda Reddick
800-559-4534
rhonda@androvett.com
View original content:
SOURCE Lyons & Simmons | 2023-01-10T21:51:12+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2023/01/10/lyons-amp-simmons-stephen-higdon-recognized-among-best-lawyers-under-40/ |
An SUV stolen Tuesday night with a baby in the back seat was recovered several hours later with the 3-month-old still inside, authorities said Thursday.
The SUV with a Texas license plate was stolen about 8 p.m. Tuesday from the 1100 block of Clinton Avenue in Irvington, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura.
Shortly before 11 p.m., sheriff’s officers recovered the vehicle abandoned in Newark’s South Ward with the baby safe inside, Fontoura said.
After the theft, Irvington police had alerted municipalities across the county that a child had been abducted.
Investigators from several agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, responded to help find the child, Fontoura said.
“When the Essex County Sheriff’s officers found the baby, it was awake and alert. The baby was taken by EMS to University Hospital (in Newark) for precautionary evaluation,” the sheriff said in a statement.
Fontoura said the thief remains at large, having fled the area after abandoning the baby and SUV.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office did not say why the baby was alone in the car without a family member or guardian when the vehicle was stolen.
No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office tips line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432.
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. | 2022-10-20T15:23:19+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/essex/2022/10/suv-stolen-with-3-month-old-baby-inside-found-in-newark-authorities-say.html |
In January 2011, the Chicago Tribune published a Q&A with Illinois’ five freshmen in the U.S. House. Among them was Republican Adam Kinzinger, who had run for Congress after three tours in Iraq. When the quintet were asked, “Whom do you admire from the other side of the aisle?” four of them offered names. Kinzinger did not. Instead, he gave an answer that, in retrospect, feels as if it were written by Sophocles: “Those who are committed to serving their country.”
Last week the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol published its final report and referred President Donald Trump for prosecution. It also referred John Eastman, who devised the legal framework for the attempted coup, to the Justice Department. After more than a thousand interviews, a million documents and countless hours, this chapter of the book of Trumpism is finally closed.
For the seven Democrats on the committee, the journey has been long, but at least they can finally go home.
But for the two Republican members, who chose country over party, “home” is now a complicated word.
This is particularly true for Kinzinger, who announced in 2021 that he was not seeking reelection after his district was redrawn — although it is worth mentioning that had he run again, he would have faced the wrath of Donald Trump for voting to impeach him. During the Jan. 6 investigation, Kinzinger sold his house in his home state of Illinois and temporarily moved his family to Texas. He’s now trying to decide where “home” is — both literally and figuratively.
“There are a lot of factors for us to consider,” Kinzinger told me this week, besides housing costs and schools. “I don’t know where we’re going to settle down. We’ll see.”
Yes, we shall.
About all of it.
While the committee’s lengthy final report provides damning evidence against the former president as well as his co-conspirators, its recommendation to the Justice Department is similar to that of the Mueller report, in that evidence is all it can provide. It is up to the Justice Department to decide what to do with it, if anything.
Kinzinger said the committee’s investigation was different from the one conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election, because the attorney general didn’t try to get out in front of the Jan. 6 committee’s messaging and its process was transparent. But the congressman does acknowledge he may have to live with the fact that charges won’t come.
“I always assumed everyone in politics had their version of a red line, that one thing they won’t do,” he said. “My faith in the people who become politicians has become really damaged. I now look more realistically at politics.”
I told him that sounded sad.
He said it was sad.
“It’s been a dark couple of years for me,” he shared. “This has been all-consuming. I went into this job at 32 as a Republican because I believed in the mission, and now I don’t know what the mission is. Ukraine is way more divided politically than we are. But you see what happens when their freedom is threatened. They are willing to die for it. We have what they are fighting for, and we are trying just as hard to get rid of it.”
Strong words from someone who voted for President Trump in 2020 and sided with his agenda more than 90% of the time.
And therein lies the rub with a political figure like Kinzinger. His participation in the Jan. 6 committee is appreciated by the left, but his voting record is pure right.
“Trump basically inherited a Republican agenda and went with it,” Kinzinger said of his own voting record. “I can’t think of any vote that I regret.”
Kinzinger voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Act but supported the Respect for Marriage Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last week, codifying federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriage.
Son of a third-grade teacher and the director of a Christian outreach program for the homeless, Kinzinger has out gay staffers and says he’s disappointed to see his party’s regression on the issue.
“I think to them it’s just about owning the libs,” he said. “If your neighbor is transgender, that’s not your issue. Let them be. At the end of the day, it’s America. Live your life however you want.”
As lovely as that sounds, it’s hard for me to see a congressman who so frequently sided with Trump as a “live and let live” kind of person. Nor would I characterize voting for Trump in 2020 — given everything we then knew him to be — as a “live and let live” vote. I pressed Kinzinger on that one.
“I was a big sissy,” he said. “I thought, [Trump] is not going to win Illinois anyway, so it wouldn’t matter. I didn’t vote for him in 2016 and was heavily criticized for it, so I voted for him in 2020 just to have one less thing people could come at me with.
“I’m telling you this because it’s important to tell people that there’s nobody that’s perfect in resistance or courage. Self-governance is the hardest form of government.”
Kinzinger was not aware just how far Trump’s rot had reached until Jan. 6, 2021. He was not aware how far people were willing to go to serve Trump until the investigation unearthed frightening details, like the never-issued executive order that would have seized voting machines.
Then there was the correspondence of Trump’s White House chief of staff.
“All of Mark Meadows’ text log was shocking, but the biggest personal shock was seeing how much Ginni Thomas was texting him,” he said of Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Virginia, a conservative activist. “Who saw that coming?”
Who saw any of this coming?
Back in 2011, when Kinzinger told the Tribune that he admired “those who are committed to serving their country,” who knew a decade later he would have this historic opportunity to prove it?
Of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Kinzinger said: “He disappointed me because I know him. I was friends with him. I used to think he was a great politician with a moral compass. I now see he’s just a politician without a moral compass.
“The day before impeachment I thought there would be 25 [Republican] yeses.”
And then, on Jan. 13, 2021, there were only 10 Republican votes in favor of impeachment.
“People would later call and say, ‘I just can’t do it’ or ‘I want to run for Senate’ or something like that. It was such a foreign way of thinking. It was a lesson about people for me.”
Where he will apply this hard-earned lesson is a mystery.
If you ever wondered why the forefathers feared a two-party system, look no further than Kinzinger, a decorated war hero who doesn’t have a party — or even a state — to call home.
Clearly the country is indebted to both him and the other Republican on the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney. Yet both were forced out of office by the business of two-party politics. There are many issues he and I disagree on. Where two hopeful fools like us find common ground is our unrelenting belief that America will fulfill her promise.
“I truly believe in this country,” Kinzinger said. “Democracy is not defined by the bad days, but how it recovers.” | 2022-12-23T16:14:32+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/the-lonely-exit-of-adam-kinzinger/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Catena Media provides exclusive sports betting content to NJ.com, including picks, analysis, tools and sportsbook offers to help bettors get in on the action. Please wager responsibly.
The NCAA Tournament is here and there are two incredible BetMGM March Madness bonuses to choose from:
BetMGM bonus code NJCOM50: How to claim $50 bonus bet and up to $1,000 in bonuses for March basketball
This NCAA basketball BetMGM March Madness bonus code is offering the following:
- $50 bonus after placing your first bet
- Up to $1,000 back if first bet loses.
Follow these steps to redeem the offer:
- Click our BetMGM bonus code link and hit Register.
- Fill in all required fields to register, including code NJCOM50. If you click our link, it will already be there.
- Deposit a minimum of $10 via your preferred method.
- Bet at least $10 on any March basketball market. If it misses, your losses are matched in bonus bets up to $1,000 to try again.
- $50 bonus bet, win or lose, after placing an opening wager.
This welcome offer only activates if your first bet loses. If it falls short, BetMGM reimburses 100% of the stake as site credit within 24 hours.
Whether you receive one or five bonus bets depends on the amount of your initial stake.
Get $50 + $1,000 first-bet bonus
If you wager $50 or more and lose, you’ll get five equal bonus bets. You’ll receive a single bonus bet if you stake $49 or less.
Bettors have seven days to use the site credit on any team, sport, or bet type.
BetMGM bonus code NJCOMSB: Bet $10, get $200 guaranteed on NCAA Tournament
Ahead of the big dance, BetMGM customers actually have a choice when it comes to a welcome bonus while signing up.
The above deal worth up to $1,050 is on the table, but so is a different one via this BetMGM bonus code NJCOMSB.
It involves $200 in guaranteed bonus bets when placing a $10 wager on college basketball.
After registering, depositing, and making an initial bet of $10 or more on the 2023 NCAA Tournament, customers will receive four $50 bonus bets to use within a week on the sportsbook menu.
Claim $200 guaranteed at BetMGM
Terms and conditions are available by clicking one of our BetMGM bonus code links.
BetMGM bonus code for 2023 NCAA March Madness odds: BetMGM NCAAB promotions
BetMGM is the perfect sportsbook for all your college basketball wagering needs.
It offers a wide array of bet types for college hoops games. You have standard options like spreads, totals, and same-game parlays.
The pressure is bundled on the favorites, including Houston, Alabama, Kansas, Purdue, UConn, and UCLA.
Claim $200 guaranteed at BetMGM
While one of the favorites is more likely to win the National Championship, this event is renowned for surprising results and underdogs advancing deep into the competition.
By signing up, you also gain access to some of the top weekly promotions in the industry, such as:
- Odds boosts: Tokens to increase odds of qualifying straight bets or parlays.
- Edit my bet: Change any straight or parlay bet that has a Cash Out available after the event has begun.
- $10 million bracket prize: This free-to-play bracket game provides the chance to win up to $100,000 if you have the most correct selections.
- Referral bonus: Earn $50 for each friend you send to BetMGM Sportsbook.
- BetMGM rewards: Redeem rewards for free bets or other benefits from BetMGM, including discounts in Las Vegas.
If you or a loved one has questions or needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit 1800gambler.net for more information.
MORE SPORTS BETTING STORIES | 2023-03-17T21:37:45+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/betting/2023/03/betmgm-bonus-code-for-2023-march-madness-get-up-to-1050-bonus-or-200-guaranteed.html |
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Chris Jans knows what it takes to close out basketball games.
Mental toughness. Confidence. The ability to stick together. Creating — and making — timely shots.
Jans and the Bulldogs appear to have the first three down. But the fourth just hasn’t happened yet.
Game after game, Mississippi State has struggled to knock down important baskets down the stretch. It happened at Georgia. At Auburn. Against Tennessee on Tuesday and Florida on Saturday. All four games resulted in losses.
A scuffling Bulldogs team has problems Jans doesn’t know how to rectify.
“If I knew the quick fix, I would have done it already,” he said Monday. “I’m not sure why. Certainly, that’s my job to know that.”
With a trip to No. 2 Alabama (17-2, 7-0 Southeastern Conference) at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Mississippi State (12-7, 1-6 SEC) doesn’t get a break anytime soon. MSU will proceed to host No. 11 TCU (15-4, 4-3 Big 12) on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, marking a tough week for a team that has lost most of its early-season goodwill.
The Bulldogs could have reclaimed some by beating Florida on Saturday, but falling behind by 16 points in the first half proved too much to overcome.
Mississippi State caught up twice late in the game but couldn’t sustain its production through the final buzzer.
“We played good enough — we certainly had mistakes — to win the game if you could match the execution and intensity in the second half compared to the first half,” Jans said.
To beat Alabama on Wednesday, MSU must put together two of its best halves this season.
The Bulldogs kept things close for 20 minutes in their first matchup with the Crimson Tide, trailing by four at the break before Bama pulled away for a 78-67 win.
Jans had high praise for coach Nate Oats’ team Monday, pointing to the youth of star freshmen Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney. Sophomore center Charles Bediako and freshman guard Jaden Bradley are also key contributors.
“It’s remarkable how good they are considering how young they are,” Jans said. “They certainly have some experienced guys, but some of their best players are new to college basketball.”
Miller averages nearly 20 points per game on 45.7 percent shooting from deep, while junior guard Mark Sears is second on the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game.
Alabama has five players — Miller, Sears, Bradley and guards Nimari Burnett and Jahvon Quinerly — averaging 33.3 percent shooting from 3 or better. Mississippi State has only two: Dashawn Davis and freshman Kimani Hamilton.
“They’ve got a bunch of guys who are shooting the ball at a pretty good clip,” Jans said of the Tide. “Some of the guys who weren’t earlier — guys who maybe you didn’t have to guard on the 3-point line — are now making 3s, which makes it even more difficult to defend them.”
As good as Alabama’s offense is, its defense is even better. KenPom.com ranks the Tide — winners of eight straight games — as the No. 3 team in the nation with the fifth-best defense and the 13th-ranked offense.
“They play with such confidence,” Jans said. “They play to who they are. They know who they are.”
Mississippi State has that confidence, too.
But it’ll take a lot more than that to get the Bulldogs a win Wednesday night.
Newsletters
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request. | 2023-01-25T10:46:58+00:00 | djournal.com | https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/scuffling-mississippi-state-begins-another-tough-week-with-trip-to-no-2-alabama/article_5da3f876-56df-53e2-a38b-38419d847acd.html |
SELMA, Calif. (AP) — A 24-year-old California police officer shot and killed this week had been on the force less than two years and was preparing to become a parent, authorities said Wednesday.
Officer Gonzalo Carrasco Jr. with the Selma Police Department was patrolling in the small Central Valley city around noon Tuesday when a woman flagged down his squad car and said there was a suspicious person in her yard, officials said.
As Carrasco left his car and approached the suspect, the man opened fire and shot the officer several times, according to a statement from the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. Carrasco died at a hospital.
The suspect was arrested a short time later, and a gun believed to have been used in the shooting was seized, the statement said.
Nathaniel Dixon of Selma faces multiple charges including murder, being a felon in possession of a gun and ammunition, as well as probation violation. It wasn't known Wednesday if he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Carrasco began his career with the Selma Police Department in May 2021. He is survived by his parents, brother, sisters and girlfriend, who is pregnant with their child, the sheriff's department statement said.
The killing is the first line-of-duty death for the police department, which was formed in 1893 in the city that is home to about 23,000 people.
“I’m absolutely outraged. I am horrified right now,” Selma Police Chief Rudy Alcaraz said during a Tuesday night press conference.
Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags at the State Capitol to flown at half-staff Wednesday in honor of Carrasco.
The motive for the shooting was under investigation.
Dixon, 23, was known to law enforcement and has a criminal record that included robbery and gun possession charges, and he was wanted by probation officers, authorities said.
Dixon is not eligible for bail because of the probation violation charge, officials said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday. | 2023-02-01T20:20:07+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/slain-california-officer-was-preparing-to-become-17757204.php |
The first major abortion-related ballot initiative since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade has failed in Kansas. The amendment would have greatly tightened abortion laws in the state.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The first major abortion-related ballot initiative since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade has failed in Kansas. The amendment would have greatly tightened abortion laws in the state.
Copyright 2022 NPR | 2022-08-03T09:53:11+00:00 | nepm.org | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2022-08-03/kansans-vote-to-keep-abortion-legal-in-the-state-reject-constitutional-amendment |
GOP lawmakers consider expelling Democrats over gun protest
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s GOP-dominated House is preparing to vote Thursday on whether to expel three Democratic members for their demonstration calling for gun control following the Nashville school shooting, an extraordinary move that the chamber has used only a handful of times since the Civil War.
Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson are the subjects of the ouster vote. Last week, just days after six people, including three children, were fatally shot at The Covenant School in Nashville, the trio chanted back and forth from the chamber floor with gun control supporters who packed the gallery.
Their possible expulsion has once again thrust Tennessee into the national spotlight, underscoring not only the ability of the Republican supermajority to silence opponents, but also its increasing willingness to do so. The move sends a chilling message just as lawmakers grapple with how to respond to the devastating shooting.
Even before the House proceedings began, thousands flocked to the Capitol, loudly chanting to show their support for the so-called “Tennessee three.” Many traveled from Memphis and Knoxville, areas that Pearson and Johnson represent, and stood in a line that wrapped around the Capitol building to get inside.
The three held hands as they walked onto the House floor and Pearson raised his fist to the crowd during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Protesters outside the chamber held up signs that said, “School zones shouldn’t be war zones,” “Muskets didn’t fire 950 rounds per minute” with a photo of George Washington, and “You can silence a gun ... but not the voice of the people.”
As the House began its proceedings on Thursday, Democratic Rep. Vincent Dixie stood before his colleagues and urged them to “not get distracted.” He mentioned the funeral for Mike Hill, one of the Nashville school shooting victims, which took place earlier in the week.
“I want us to keep in mind the sacrifice that he made to keep those kids safe,” Dixie said. “Each of us has power to make change.”
Before the expulsion vote, House members were set to debate more than 20 bills, including a school safety proposal requiring public and private schools to submit their building safety plans to the state. The bill did not address gun control, sparking criticisms from some Democratic members that lawmakers were only addressing a symptom and not the cause of school shootings.
Expulsions in the Tennessee General Assembly are extremely rare and considered an extraordinary action.
In 2019, lawmakers faced pressure to expel former Republican Rep. David Byrd after he faced accusations of sexual misconduct dating to when he was a high school basketball coach three decades earlier. Republicans declined to take any action, pointing out that he was reelected as the allegations surfaced. Byrd retired last year.
Last year, the state Senate expelled Democrat Katrina Robinson after she was convicted of using about $3,400 in federal grant money on wedding expenses instead of her nursing school.
Before that case, state lawmakers last ousted a House member in 2016 when the chamber voted 70-to-2 to remove Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham after an attorney general’s investigation detailed allegations of improper sexual contact with at least 22 women during his four years in office.
If Johnson, Jones or Pearson are expelled, the county commissions in their districts would get to pick replacements to serve until a special election in several months. The three would remain eligible to run in those.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-06T16:27:04+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2023/04/06/gop-lawmakers-consider-expelling-democrats-over-gun-protest/ |
Lab-grown meatball created with DNA from mammoth
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Throw another mammoth on the barbie?
An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real?
“This is not an April Fools joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”
Cultivated meat — also called cultured or cell-based meat — is made from animal cells. Livestock doesn’t need to be killed to produce it, which advocates say is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.
Vow used publicly available genetic information from the mammoth, filled missing parts with genetic data from its closest living relative, the African elephant, and inserted it into a sheep cell, Noakesmith said. Given the right conditions in a lab, the cells multiplied until there were enough to roll up into the meatball.
More than 100 companies around the world are working on cultivated meat products, many of them startups like Vow.
Experts say that if the technology is widely adopted, it could vastly reduce the environmental impact of global meat production in the future. Currently, billions of acres of land are used for agriculture worldwide.
But don’t expect this to land on plates around the world any time soon. So far, tiny Singapore is the only country to have approved cell-based meat for consumption. Vow is hoping to sell its first product there — a cultivated Japanese quail meat — later this year.
The mammoth meatball is a one-off and has not been tasted, even by its creators, nor is it planned to be put into commercial production. Instead, it was presented as a source of protein that would get people talking about the future of meat.
“We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different to potentially what we had before. That there are things that are unique and better than the meats that we’re necessarily eating now, and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter and get people excited about this new future,” Noakesmith told The Associated Press.
“But also the woolly mammoth has been traditionally a symbol of loss. We know now that it died from climate change. And so what we wanted to do was see if we could create something that was a symbol of a more exciting future that’s not only better for us, but also better for the planet,” he added.
Seren Kell, science and technology manager at Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products, said he hopes the project “will open up new conversations about cultivated meat’s extraordinary potential to produce more sustainable foods, reduce the climate impact of our existing food system and free up land for less intensive farming practices.”
He said the mammoth project with its unconventional gene source was an outlier in the new meat cultivation sector, which commonly focuses on traditional livestock — cattle, pigs and poultry.
“By cultivating beef, pork, chicken, and seafood, we can have the most impact in terms of reducing emissions from conventional animal agriculture and satisfying growing global demand for meat while meeting our climate targets,” he said.
The jumbo meatball on show in Amsterdam — sized somewhere between a softball and a volleyball — was for show only and had been glazed to ensure it didn’t get damaged on its journey from Sydney.
But when it was being prepared — first slow baked and then finished off on the outside with a blow torch — it smelled good.
“The folks who were there, they said the aroma was something similar to another prototype that we produced before, which was crocodile,” Noakesmith said. “So, super fascinating to think that adding the protein from an animal that went extinct 4,000 years ago gave it a totally unique and new aroma, something we haven’t smelled as a population for a very long time.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-03-29T17:06:00+00:00 | foxcarolina.com | https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/03/29/lab-grown-meatball-created-with-dna-mammoth/ |
BANGKOK (AP) — The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a United Nations report released Thursday.
In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar saw a 33% increase in cultivation area to 40,100 hectares (99,090 acres), according to the report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
“Economic, security and governance disruptions that followed the military takeover of February 2021 have converged, and farmers in remote, often conflict-prone areas in northern Shan and border states have had little option but to move back to opium,” said the U.N. office’s regional representative Jeremy Douglas.
The overall value of the Myanmar opiate economy, based on U.N. estimates, ranges between $660 million and $2 billion, depending on how much was sold locally, and how much of the raw opium was processed into heroin or other drugs.
“Virtually all the heroin reported in East and Southeast Asia and Australia originates in Myanmar, and the country remains the second-largest opium and heroin producer in the world after Afghanistan,” Douglas said. “There is no comparing the two at this point as Afghanistan still produces far more, but the expansion underway in Myanmar should not be dismissed and needs attention as it will likely continue — it is directly tied to the security and economic situation we see unfolding today.”
The so-called Golden Triangle area, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, has historically been a major production area for opium and hosted many of the labs that converted it to heroin. Decades of political instability have made the frontier regions of Myanmar, also known as Burma, largely lawless, to be exploited by drug producers and traffickers.
Most of the opium exported by Myanmar goes to China and Vietnam, while heroin goes to many countries across the region, Douglas said.
“It is really where the value is for traffickers,” he said. “Very high profits.”
The cultivation of opium had been trending downward in recent years before the military took control of the government in 2021.
Production estimates hit a bottom of 400 metric tons (440 tons) in 2020. After rising slightly in 2021, that spiked in 2022 to an estimated 790 metric tons (870 tons), according to the report.
Since it took control of the government, the military’s use of deadly force to hold on to power has escalated conflict with its civilian opponents to the point that some experts describe the country as now being in a state of civil war.
The costs have been high, with 2,810 people killed by government forces to date and 17,427 detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The violence has meant that the government has been unable to reach some areas to carry out drug eradication raids, and has also had to divert its resources elsewhere. Consequently, eradication efforts appear to have decreased substantially, with 1,403 hectares (3,467 acres) reported eradicated in 2022 — some 70% fewer than in 2021.
At the same time, as the conflict continues to take its toll on Myanmar’s economy, an increasing number of rural households have been pushed into relying more on opium cultivation for income, the U.N. said.
“The expansion of opium production that is underway is fundamentally about poverty and people in rural areas reacting to the economic situation,” Douglas said. “It has always been there in tough times. At the same time, the security situation is clearly difficult with increasing frequency and intensity of conflict, and those involved in the drug economy have been left largely unchecked.”
Its synthetic drug economy has also been surging for the same reasons, with reported regional seizures of methamphetamine and other drugs reaching record levels. In a single bust in September in Laos, for example, authorities seized 33 million methamphetamine tablets along with 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine. | 2023-01-26T22:06:55+00:00 | fox59.com | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-report-myanmar-opium-cultivation-surges-33-amid-violence/ |
TX Lake Charles LA Zone Forecast for Sunday, December 11, 2022
_____
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
508 FPUS54 KLCH 120915
ZFPLCH
Zone Forecast Product
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
National Weather Service Lake Charles LA
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
TXZ180-122215-
Tyler-
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Including the cities of Town Bluff, Fred, Hillister, Ivanhoe,
Spurger, Warren, and Woodville
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Cloudy. Highs around 70. East
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. Southeast winds 5 to
10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph.
.TUESDAY...A chance of showers with a slight chance of
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
thunderstorms in the morning, then showers with thunderstorms
likely in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be severe. Highs
in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to
30 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers likely with a chance of
thunderstorms in the evening, then a slight chance of showers and
thunderstorms after midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in
the evening. Lows in the mid 50s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
with gusts up to 30 mph, becoming northwest after midnight.
Chance of rain 70 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then mostly sunny with a
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Cooler. Less humid
with highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of
rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows in the
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
upper 30s. Highs in the lower 60s.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the lower 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of showers. Lows in the mid 30s. Highs in the lower 50s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
$$
TXZ201-122215-
Hardin-
Including the cities of Lumberton and Silsbee
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Cloudy. Highs in the lower 70s.
East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. Southeast winds 5 to
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then partly sunny with
showers with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Some
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
thunderstorms may be severe. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds
10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers and thunderstorms likely,
mainly in the evening. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
evening. Lows in the upper 50s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph with
gusts up to 30 mph, becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of
rain 70 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then mostly sunny with a
slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Cooler. Less humid
with highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of
rain 50 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows around 40.
Highs in the lower 60s.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
chance of showers. Lows in the upper 30s. Highs in the lower 50s.
$$
TXZ215-122215-
Jefferson-
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Including the cities of Beaumont, Sabine Pass,
and Sea Rim State Park
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Mostly cloudy. Highs around 70.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TONIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Near steady temperature in the mid 60s.
Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
.TUESDAY...Partly sunny. A chance of showers with a slight chance
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
of thunderstorms in the morning, then showers with a chance of
thunderstorms in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be severe.
Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to
30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely
in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after
midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the evening. Lows
in the upper 50s. South winds 10 to 15 mph, becoming northwest
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
5 to 10 mph after midnight. Gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain
90 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly
sunny. A chance of showers. A chance of thunderstorms, mainly in
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
the morning. Cooler. Less humid with highs in the mid 60s.
Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Much cooler with lows in the mid
40s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Highs in the lower 60s.
Lows in the lower 40s.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows around 40.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of
showers. Lows around 40.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers.
Highs in the lower 50s.
$$
TXZ216-122215-
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Orange-
Including the cities of Orange, Vidor, and Bridge City
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Mostly cloudy. Highs in the
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TONIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Near steady temperature in the mid 60s.
East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then partly sunny with
showers with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Some
thunderstorms may be severe. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds
10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely
in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after
midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the evening. Lows
in the upper 50s. South winds 10 to 15 mph, becoming west 5 to
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
10 mph after midnight. Gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain
90 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly
sunny. A chance of showers. A chance of thunderstorms, mainly in
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
the morning. Cooler with highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds
5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Much cooler with lows in the
lower 40s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Highs in the lower 60s.
Lows around 40.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
chance of showers. Lows in the upper 30s. Highs in the lower 50s.
$$
TXZ259-122215-
Northern Jasper-
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Including the cities of Holly Springs, Jasper, Kirbyville,
Magnolia Springs, Mt. Union, and Roganville
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Mostly cloudy. Highs in the
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
upper 60s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Lows around 60. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph
with gusts up to 20 mph.
.TUESDAY...A chance of showers with a slight chance of
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
thunderstorms in the morning, then showers with thunderstorms
likely in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be severe. Highs
in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to
30 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers and thunderstorms likely,
mainly in the evening. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the
evening. Lows in the mid 50s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph with
gusts up to 30 mph, becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
rain 70 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then partly sunny with a
slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Cooler with highs in
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain
40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows in the
upper 30s. Highs in the lower 60s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s.
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 50s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of rain showers. Lows in the mid 30s. Highs around 50.
$$
TXZ260-122215-
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Northern Newton-
Including the cities of Burkeville, Farrsville, Jamestown,
Newton, Wiergate, Bleakwood, and Call
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Mostly cloudy. Highs in the
upper 60s. East winds around 5 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Near steady temperature in the lower 60s.
Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then showers with
thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may be
severe. Highs in the mid 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely
in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after
midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the evening. Lows
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
in the mid 50s. South winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to 30 mph,
becoming west after midnight. Chance of rain 80 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly
sunny. A slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning. A chance
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
of showers. Cooler with highs in the lower 60s. Northwest winds
5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows in the
upper 30s. Highs in the lower 60s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the mid 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
cloudy. Lows in the mid 30s.
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 50s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of rain showers. Lows in the mid 30s. Highs in the upper
40s.
$$
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
TXZ261-122215-
Southern Jasper-
Including the cities of Gist, Buna, and Evadale
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Cloudy. Highs around 70. East
winds around 5 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Near steady temperature in the lower 60s.
Southeast winds around 5 mph. Gusts up to 20 mph after midnight.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then partly sunny with
showers with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Some
thunderstorms may be severe. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely
in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after
midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the evening. Lows
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
in the upper 50s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to
30 mph, becoming northwest with gusts up to 20 mph after
midnight. Chance of rain 80 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
sunny. A chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms.
Cooler with highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.
Chance of rain 50 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Lows around 40.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Highs in the lower 60s.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of showers. Lows in the upper 30s. Highs in the lower 50s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
$$
TXZ262-122215-
Southern Newton-
Including the city of Deweyville
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
315 AM CST Mon Dec 12 2022
.TODAY...Patchy fog this morning. Mostly cloudy. Highs around 70.
East winds around 5 mph.
.TONIGHT...Cloudy. Near steady temperature in the lower 60s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Southeast winds around 5 mph. Gusts up to 20 mph after midnight.
.TUESDAY...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers with a slight
chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then partly sunny with
showers with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Some
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
thunderstorms may be severe. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds
10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely
in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
midnight. Some thunderstorms may be severe in the evening. Lows
in the upper 50s. South winds 5 to 10 mph, becoming west after
midnight. Gusts up to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly sunny. A
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
chance of showers. A chance of thunderstorms, mainly in the
morning. Cooler with highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to
10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Much cooler with lows in the
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
lower 40s.
.THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT...Clear. Highs in the lower 60s.
Lows in the upper 30s.
.FRIDAY...Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.FRIDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear in the evening, then becoming partly
cloudy. Lows in the upper 30s.
.SATURDAY...Partly sunny. A slight chance of showers in the
afternoon. Highs in the mid 50s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent
chance of showers. Lows in the upper 30s. Highs in the lower 50s.
$$
_____
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | 2022-12-12T10:25:56+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/TX-Lake-Charles-LA-Zone-Forecast-17647593.php |
LONDON (AP) — American defense officials on Tuesday sought to dispel any doubt that Iran is supplying drones for Russia’s war in Ukraine, releasing photos and analysis of unmanned aircraft deployed in the conflict to demonstrate Tehran’s involvement.
During a briefing in London, analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency displayed photos of drones that attacked Ukraine alongside images of those previously traced to Iran. A comparison of design details such as tail fins, nose cones and landing gear shows that the weapons used in Ukraine are “indistinguishable” from Shahed-131 and -136 attack drones and Mohajer 6 unmanned aerial vehicles used in the Middle East.
The effort to “show the homework’’ is intended to help persuade governments or international agencies of Tehran’s involvement. Iran has said it supplied a “small number” of drones to Russia before the invasion of Ukraine but has denied providing any more since troops crossed the border last February.
The evidence proves otherwise, an official from the Defense Intelligence Agency said while speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
“Iran is a partner in the conflict with Russia,’’ the official said.
U.S. officials also suggested that Iran was gleaning valuable information by deploying its technology in Ukraine, including how the drones perform in different weather conditions, seeing how they can be used under different scenarios and getting real life feedback that allows them to make the weapons more effective.
For example, after learning that civilians were able to flee because they could hear the drones approaching, weapons designers are likely to make future models quieter, the official said.
“They are getting to see it used on a mass level,’’ the official said. “It’s a process for them. Iran is able to see this feedback and make adjustments.’’
The war in Ukraine also allows Iran to demonstrate the capabilities of its technology to other potential buyers.
“Iran sees this as a great marketing opportunity,’’ the official added.
The analysis was released a day after Britain presented evidence that Iran is supplying advanced weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Britain presented drones and missiles seized from vessels in the Gulf of Oman to the United Nations as evidence that Iran is violating Security Council resolutions barring weapons shipments to the Houthis.
The timing of the release suggests Western powers are hardening their stance on Iran, said Tobias Borck, a research fellow for Middle East security studies at the Royal United Services Institute.
For the last 20 years, Iran policy has been focused on limiting Iran’s nuclear program. But efforts to resuscitate talks on a nuclear deal are stalled, and officials in Washington, London and Brussels have begun to shift their messaging.
The idea that an agreement could be a confidence building measure paving the way to resolving other issues in the region is vanishing.
“We’re headed in a direction where the West writ large, the U.S. and Europe, will identify Iran as a bad actor,″ Borck said. “And the focus has to be on deterring and containing. And so that’s where the policy is headed.” | 2023-02-14T19:11:39+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/international/ap-us-officials-point-to-russia-using-iranian-drones-in-ukraine/ |
RICHMOND, BC, May 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The innovative and world-leading audio brand Edifier has picked up three awards at the prestigious Visual Grand Prix (VGP) 2022 in Japan: the brand new STAX Spirit S3 headphones were both a Gold Award and Special Prize Winner, whilst the NeoBuds Pro earbuds received the Grand Prize.
Known as the "Oscar in the Audio Industry", the Japanese VGP Awards is the largest, most authoritative audio-visual awards in Asia. It is held on an annual-basis by Ongen Publishing Co., ltd., one of the most prominent publishing companies in Japan with an expertise in audio/visual related devices and state-of-art technologies. Launched in 1987, the awards bring together respected reviews from dozens of countries, all to offer an authoritative reference guide for ordinary consumers looking to make informed purchases. The VGPs are often recognized as the highest authority award in Asia's audiovisual industry and mark a significant recognition for Edifier's groundbreaking work in the industry.
"It's always an immense privilege to receive accolades for our products, but receiving awards such as these, from a panel as prestigious as that found at the VGP Awards, is truly rewarding. As a company, we work extremely hard to be at the forefront of the audio-visual industry and our designers, testers and staff are incredibly proud to be recognized for this; especially when it comes from one of the most well-respected awards around," said Stanley Wen, Edifier's CTO.
Amongst the winners was the brand new STAX Spirit S3, Edifier's first premium Hi-Fi headphone designed for audiophiles and the first product in their new STAX Spirit product line – which revives the legendary 'Stax' name whilst achieving absolute audio fidelity suitable for Hi-Fi enthusiasts, music lovers, musicians and producers alike. The NeoBuds Pro similarly marks a significant innovation for Edifier; the buds were one of the first Hi-Res certified earbuds in the world and have garnered a sea of overwhelmingly positive reviews from respected press outlets and influencers.
The VGP awards recognize products that make a difference to the industry through state of the art technology and design; Edifier strives for excellence, pushing the boundaries and leading by innovation to ensure people can enjoy the best premium quality audio for personal entertainment and professional use. After another successful year at the ceremony, Edifier will continue to produce an award-winning range of products.
About Edifier
Edifier specializes in premium sound systems that showcase technological innovation and design elegance, which deliver outstanding audio experiences through a wide range of headphones, speakers and music systems, for personal entertainment and professional excellence. Established in May 1996 in Beijing, China, Edifier is the brainchild of a small group of enterprising music lovers. Guided by the principle "a passion for sound" over the past two decades, Edifier has emerged as a world-class designer and manufacturer of award-winning sound systems. Today, Edifier serves music lovers worldwide through their distributors in over 70 countries, with operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions.
Media Contact
Cedric Liu
Edifier International Limited
zy_liu@edifier.com
+86 (010) 8267 6888 ext 262
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Edifier | 2022-05-31T15:11:42+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/05/31/edifiers-stax-spirit-s3-neobuds-pro-take-3-prestigious-awards-vgp-2022-awards/ |
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese capital Beijing appears to have backed off a plan to launch a vaccine mandate for entry into certain public spaces after pushback from residents.
While not explicitly saying it had dropped the plan, a city official was quoted in state media late Thursday saying that people could enter venues with a negative virus test result and a temperature check, as has been the norm. They also said vaccinations would continue on the principle of "informed, voluntary consent.”
An unidentified official in the pandemic control office said residents of the city could enter any sort of public venue with a negative PCR test done in the last 72 hours and a temperature check, according to a short question and answer post from the official Beijing Daily, the main paper of the city government, published late Thursday night.
The city announced Wednesday that starting next week, people had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before they can enter some public spaces including gyms, museums and libraries. It drew intense discussion as city residents worried how the sudden policy announcement would disrupt their lives.
A phone call to the Beijing government's press office to confirm the policy change did not go through. The phone had been set to “do not disturb” mode according to a recorded message.
Online and offline, some criticized the policy, worrying that it would force those who weren’t vaccinated to get the shots, or lose out on access to many public spaces. The announcement was trending Thursday on the Chinese social networking service Weibo.
The government is concerned about the remaining numbers of unvaccinated people, especially those over age 60 who are vulnerable. In April, the Beijing government announced that over 80% of people over 60 had gotten a vaccine, some 3.4 million people.
___
Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report from Beijing. | 2022-07-08T14:39:28+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Beijing-appears-to-retract-vaccine-mandate-after-17291708.php |
ASPEN, Colo. (KDVR) – A skier was killed in an avalanche outside Aspen Highlands, Colorado, on Sunday afternoon a day after authorities recovered the body of another avalanche victim, authorities said.
According to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, three skiers were caught in Sunday’s avalanche, which occurred in the Maroon Bowl area of Highland Peak, outside the ski boundary of Aspen Highlands. Two others were able to escape, and rescue teams were working to get them out of the area.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said, “Maroon Bowl is a steep northwest-facing slope in the near treeline elevation band. The avalanche broke about 200 feet wide and ran approximately 5,000 vertical feet.”
No further details about the victim were immediately available.
Skier killed in avalanche outside town of Marble
On Friday, Joel Thomas Shute, 36, was buried in an avalanche southwest of the Colorado town of Marble in Upper Rapid Creek. His body was recovered Saturday.
He was with two other men who were rescued. One was taken out by helicopter and the other was able to dig himself out and was transported by ambulance.
Shute had been missing since Friday evening when the avalanche swept 2,400 feet (730 meters) down a mountainside as they were backcountry touring.
The avalanche was two to three feet (up to nearly 1 meter) deep where it began and up to 500 feet (150 meters) wide, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said. Rescue teams found the victim’s body buried in avalanche debris, the center said.
Recent storms have raised avalanche risks.
Nineteen people have been killed across the U.S. by avalanches so far this winter, including nine fatalities in Colorado. Avalanches in the winter of 2020-2021 killed 37 people nationwide, which was the most recorded by the avalanche center in records going back to 1950.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 2023-03-20T16:46:42+00:00 | pahomepage.com | https://www.pahomepage.com/uncategorized/2-killed-in-colorado-avalanches-just-days-apart/ |
The avalanche of change achieved by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority this term spans the breadth of American life, and its work draws comparisons to the most momentous decisions in the court’s history.
But the justices of what scholars say is one of the most conservative courts in decades did far more than that.
They continued a string of victories for conservative religious groups that dismantle the old rules regarding the role of religion in public life. After a decade of Supreme Court inaction, they expanded Second Amendment jurisprudence to bless the right to carry a weapon outside the home. And in a final flourish, the court’s dominant six-justice bloc limited the ability of government agencies to issue sweeping protections of health, safety and the environment without specific authorization from Congress.
“Going into the term, the biggest question was not so much in what direction the court was headed, but how quickly it was traveling,” said Gregory G. Garre, who represented President George W. Bush’s administration at the Supreme Court.
“Now we know: fast.”
With Justice Clarence Thomas, 74, the oldest member of the coalition and Amy Coney Barrett the youngest at 50, the term should be seen as much as the beginning of an era at the court as the culmination of years of work to solidify a conservative majority.
Already, the court has decided to revisit next term whether universities can use race as one factor in making admission decisions, something previous Supreme Courts have allowed repeatedly. It will decide whether a designer of wedding websites can tell same-sex couples she will not work for them. The dispute is billed as a free-speech case but was spurred by the designer’s religious beliefs about marriage.
And as the justices split for parts unknown Thursday, they dropped another bombshell. They will consider a case that would radically change the way states set rules for federal elections, giving state legislatures almost total control over drawing the congressional districts in which candidates run and the rules of voting, even if state courts think they violate the state constitution.
“The YOLO Court” is how University of Michigan law professor Leah M. Litman describes it — You Only Live Once.
Litman, who analyzes the court with equal parts humor and dread on the podcast “Strict Scrutiny” with other liberal law professors, said the court has shown its intentions in both the cases it selects and the broad decisions it reaches.
“This term has revealed the court to be in a hurry to tick off the Republican Party’s policy goals — especially the ones they’re unable to enact in the political process,” she said, adding that the justices “seem to be bending over backwards to address their pet issues.”
“They overruled Roe in a case where the petition for certiorari didn’t urge that position,” Litman said. “They resolve the EPA’s authority over climate change in a case involving a regulation that had never gone into effect and that didn’t obligate the parties to do anything.”
Conservatives have hailed the term as one for which they have waited years. But it was a discordant path.
The court’s landmark decisions were not handed down from the bench but posted on a webpage. The grand marble courthouse is off-limits to the public, the result of the pandemic and threats against the justices, who now work behind a high black security fence.
Inside, tensions reportedly are high, the result of a leak of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft decision in Dobbs and the investigation into how it happened. Police are positioned outside the justices’ homes, and a man has been indicted on charges he planned to kill one of them.
The purported target was Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, 57, nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed in 2018 after an explosive confirmation process that split the nation.
He now seems to occupy the most pivotal spot on the court.
“It’s pretty clear he is as close to a bellwether as any of the justices,” said University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck, who analyses the court’s voting records both in their decisions in argued cases and the “shadow docket” of rulings the court makes in emergency applications.
Kavanaugh was in the majority in 95 percent of the cases this term, and Vladeck said Kavanaugh has never been recorded on the losing side in one of the court’s emergency orders; he often is the deciding vote.
Kavanaugh has stepped into the role once played by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and that alone “shows how the court has shifted to the right,” Garre said. “Justice Kavanaugh now has enormous influence on how far the court goes. His separate concurring opinions [in Dobbs and the gun case] drew limits on the decisions that all but bind the court, for now, given his key role.”
Kavanaugh was a law clerk to Kennedy, and Kennedy’s support was instrumental in Kavanaugh’s elevation from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Nevertheless, Kavanaugh was also the key vote to overturning the compromise Kennedy had helped broker in 1992 that reaffirmed the right to abortion. And his replacement of Kennedy has made the court more receptive to gun rights, and to accept challenges to gun control laws.
The court’s liberals, in the final term of Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s four decades of judicial service, were largely sidelined. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan each were in the majority fewer times than last term, according to figures compiled by SCOTUSblog, and they vented in a series of sharply worded dissents.
“A restless and newly constituted court,” was Sotomayor’s description of her colleagues in one dissent. The majority “continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build,” she added in another.
Kagan accused the majority of inventing standards to achieve its goals in the EPA case, which limited the agency’s authority to regulate power plants in combating climate change.
“The current Court is textualist only when being so suits it,” Kagan wrote, again on the short end of a 6-to-3 decision. “When that method would frustrate broader goals, special canons like the ‘major questions doctrine’ magically appear as get-out-of-text-free cards.”
And the three liberals combined on a 60-page lament on the overruling of Roe. Previous courts, they wrote, thought the American public “should never conclude that its constitutional protections hung by a thread — that a new majority, adhering to a new ‘doctrinal school,’ could ‘by dint of numbers’ alone expunge their rights.” The quotes are from Planned Parenthood v. Casey, one of the abortion cases overturned. “It is hard — no, it is impossible — to conclude that anything else has happened here.”
Alito responded by quoting Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s dissent in the same case.
“The Judicial Branch derives its legitimacy, not from following public opinion, but from deciding by its best lights whether legislative enactments of the popular branches of Government comport with the Constitution.”
The proposition will be tested, as opinion polls show the decision to overturn Roe unpopular and a Gallup poll found the court’s approval rating plummeting.
It is the court’s reputation that has been Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s preoccupation, and he has pursued its protection in the past by advocating an incremental approach to change in many areas.
But on abortion, the most important decision of his career, he was unsuccessful. Although, like Kavanaugh, he prevailed in 95 percent of the court’s cases, he was unable to forge a compromise that would protect Roe while opening the door for increased restrictions on abortion.
Moreover, he was unable to draw either Kavanaugh or Barrett to his side earlier in the term, when the court confronted a Texas law that banned abortion after six weeks and was designed to avoid the court’s pre-enactment scrutiny.
Roberts wrote only for himself in the Dobbs case. But he wrote the EPA decision, and the court’s movement on religion cases has followed his lead.
“Roberts differs from the other conservatives only about how quickly the court is moving, not where it’s ending up,” said Vladeck. | 2022-07-02T10:53:50+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/02/supreme-court-conservative-majority/ |
LONDON (AP) - Results from English football:
Aston Villa 2, Leeds 1
Man United 2, Man City 1
Brighton 3, Liverpool 0
Everton 1, Southampton 2
Nottingham Forest 2, Leicester 0
Wolverhampton 1, West Ham 0
Brentford 2, Bournemouth 0
Chelsea 1, Crystal Palace 0
Newcastle 1, Fulham 0
Tottenham 0, Arsenal 2
Crystal Palace 1, Man United 1
Man City 4, Tottenham 2
Liverpool 0, Chelsea 0
Bournemouth vs. Nottingham Forest, 10 a.m.
Leicester vs. Brighton, 10 a.m.
Southampton vs. Aston Villa, 10 a.m.
West Ham vs. Everton, 10 a.m.
Crystal Palace vs. Newcastle, 12:30 p.m.
Leeds vs. Brentford, 9 a.m.
Man City vs. Wolverhampton, 9 a.m.
Arsenal vs. Man United, 11:30 a.m.
Fulham vs. Tottenham, 3 p.m.
Rotherham 4, Blackburn 0
Bristol City 4, Birmingham 2
Burnley 1, Coventry 0
Cardiff 1, Wigan 1
Hull 1, Huddersfield 1
Luton Town 2, West Brom 3
Middlesbrough 1, Millwall 0
Preston 0, Norwich 4
Reading 2, QPR 2
Sheffield United 3, Stoke 1
Sunderland 1, Swansea 3
Watford 2, Blackpool 0
Sheffield United 1, Hull 0
Burnley 2, West Brom 1
Coventry 2, Norwich 4
Birmingham vs. Preston, 10 a.m.
Blackpool vs. Huddersfield, 10 a.m. ppd
Bristol City vs. Blackburn, 10 a.m.
Cardiff vs. Millwall, 10 a.m.
QPR vs. Swansea, 10 a.m.
Stoke vs. Reading, 10 a.m.
Watford vs. Rotherham, 10 a.m.
Wigan vs. Luton Town, 10 a.m.
Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough, 7 a.m.
Coventry vs. Huddersfield, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Blackburn vs. Blackpool, 10 a.m. ppd
Huddersfield vs. Bristol City, 10 a.m. ppd
Hull vs. QPR, 10 a.m.
Luton Town vs. Cardiff, 10 a.m. ppd
Middlesbrough vs. Watford, 10 a.m.
Millwall vs. Burnley, 10 a.m. ppd
Norwich vs. Birmingham, 10 a.m. ppd
Preston vs. Coventry, 10 a.m. ppd
Reading vs. Sheffield United, 10 a.m. ppd
Rotherham vs. Sunderland, 10 a.m. ppd
Swansea vs. Stoke, 10 a.m. ppd
West Brom vs. Wigan, 10 a.m. ppd
Coventry vs. Huddersfield, 10 a.m.
Accrington Stanley 2, Bristol Rovers 0
Bolton 3, Portsmouth 0
Burton Albion 0, Shrewsbury 4
Cambridge United vs. Morecambe, 10 a.m. ppd
Charlton 2, Barnsley 0
Cheltenham 2, Derby 3
Exeter 1, Forest Green 1
Fleetwood Town 1, Oxford United 2
Ipswich 1, Plymouth 1
Milton Keynes Dons 0, Lincoln 0
Wycombe 0, Sheffield Wednesday 1
Port Vale 0, Peterborough 2
Barnsley vs. Accrington Stanley, 10 a.m.
Bristol Rovers vs. Wycombe, 10 a.m. ppd
Derby vs. Bolton, 10 a.m.
Forest Green vs. Milton Keynes Dons, 10 a.m.
Lincoln vs. Burton Albion, 10 a.m. ppd
Morecambe vs. Port Vale, 10 a.m. ppd
Oxford United vs. Ipswich, 10 a.m.
Peterborough vs. Charlton, 10 a.m. ppd
Plymouth vs. Cheltenham, 10 a.m.
Portsmouth vs. Exeter, 10 a.m.
Sheffield Wednesday vs. Fleetwood Town, 10 a.m.
Shrewsbury vs. Cambridge United, 10 a.m.
Accrington Stanley vs. Plymouth, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Bolton vs. Forest Green, 2:45 p.m.
Burton Albion vs. Peterborough, 2:45 p.m.
Cheltenham vs. Sheffield Wednesday, 2:45 p.m.
Exeter vs. Barnsley, 2:45 p.m.
Fleetwood Town vs. Portsmouth, 2:45 p.m.
Ipswich vs. Morecambe, 2:45 p.m.
Milton Keynes Dons vs. Shrewsbury, 2:45 p.m.
Port Vale vs. Derby, 2:45 p.m.
Wycombe vs. Oxford United, 2:45 p.m.
Charlton vs. Bolton, 7:30 a.m.
Burton Albion vs. Oxford United, 10 a.m.
Cheltenham vs. Port Vale, 10 a.m.
Ipswich vs. Accrington Stanley, 10 a.m. ppd
Lincoln vs. Cambridge United, 10 a.m.
Milton Keynes Dons vs. Exeter, 10 a.m.
Morecambe vs. Bristol Rovers, 10 a.m.
Peterborough vs. Portsmouth, 10 a.m.
Plymouth vs. Derby, 10 a.m. ppd
Shrewsbury vs. Forest Green, 10 a.m.
Wycombe vs. Fleetwood Town, 10 a.m. ppd
Barnsley vs. Sheffield Wednesday, 8 a.m. ppd
Oxford United vs. Barnsley, 2:45 p.m.
AFC Wimbledon 0, Bradford 0
Carlisle 2, Newport County 0
Crawley Town vs. Doncaster, 10 a.m. ppd
Gillingham 2, Hartlepool 0
Harrogate Town 1, Stevenage 1
Leyton Orient 0, Barrow 0
Mansfield Town 1, Crewe 1
Rochdale 1, Colchester 2
Salford 2, Sutton United 0
Stockport County 2, Northampton 0
Swindon 5, Grimsby Town 0
Tranmere 1, Walsall 1
Barrow vs. Salford, 10 a.m. ppd
Bradford vs. Carlisle, 10 a.m. ppd
Colchester vs. Gillingham, 10 a.m.
Crewe vs. Stockport County, 10 a.m. ppd
Doncaster vs. Tranmere, 10 a.m. ppd
Grimsby Town vs. Harrogate Town, 10 a.m. ppd
Hartlepool vs. Rochdale, 10 a.m.
Newport County vs. AFC Wimbledon, 10 a.m. ppd
Northampton vs. Mansfield Town, 10 a.m. ppd
Stevenage vs. Leyton Orient, 10 a.m.
Sutton United vs. Crawley Town, 10 a.m. ppd
Walsall vs. Swindon, 10 a.m. ppd
AFC Wimbledon vs. Walsall, 2:45 p.m.
Carlisle vs. Hartlepool, 2:45 p.m.
Crawley Town vs. Grimsby Town, 2:45 p.m.
Stockport County vs. Bradford, 2:45 p.m.
Swindon vs. Stevenage, 2:45 p.m.
Colchester vs. Salford, 2:45 p.m.
AFC Wimbledon vs. Stockport County, 10 a.m.
Barrow vs. Northampton, 10 a.m.
Crawley Town vs. Salford, 10 a.m.
Grimsby Town vs. Newport County, 10 a.m. ppd
Harrogate Town vs. Sutton United, 10 a.m.
Hartlepool vs. Colchester, 10 a.m.
Mansfield Town vs. Doncaster, 10 a.m.
Rochdale vs. Carlisle, 10 a.m.
Stevenage vs. Crewe, 10 a.m. ppd
Swindon vs. Gillingham, 10 a.m.
Tranmere vs. Leyton Orient, 10 a.m.
Walsall vs. Bradford, 10 a.m. ppd
Salford vs. Walsall, 2:45 p.m.
Carlisle vs. Barrow, 2:45 p.m.
Scunthorpe 0, Woking 2
Bromley 4, Yeovil 1
Wealdstone vs. Oldham, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Boreham Wood vs. Southend, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Torquay United vs. Bromley, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Altrincham 3, Maidenhead United 2
Barnet vs. Yeovil, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Dagenham and Redbridge vs. Eastleigh, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Solihull Moors 1, Aldershot 2
Wrexham vs. Chesterfield, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Boreham Wood vs. Torquay United, 10 a.m. ppd
Bromley vs. Aldershot, 10 a.m.
Eastleigh vs. York City FC, 10 a.m. ppd
Halifax Town vs. Wealdstone, 10 a.m. ppd
Gateshead FC vs. Dorking Wanderers, 10 a.m. ppd
Maidenhead United vs. Dagenham and Redbridge, 10 a.m. ppd
Maidstone United FC vs. Wrexham, 10 a.m.
Oldham vs. Southend, 10 a.m. ppd
Solihull Moors vs. Scunthorpe, 10 a.m. ppd
Woking vs. Barnet, 10 a.m. ppd
Yeovil vs. Altrincham, 10 a.m. ppd
Chesterfield vs. Notts County, 12:20 p.m. ppd
Boreham Wood vs. Dorking Wanderers, 2:45 p.m. ppd
Bromley vs. Dagenham and Redbridge, 2:45 p.m.
Chesterfield vs. Altrincham, 2:45 p.m.
Eastleigh vs. Barnet, 2:45 p.m.
Gateshead FC vs. Wrexham, 2:45 p.m.
Maidenhead United vs. Southend, 2:45 p.m.
Maidstone United FC vs. Aldershot, 2:45 p.m.
Oldham vs. York City FC, 2:45 p.m.
Solihull Moors vs. Notts County, 2:45 p.m.
Woking vs. Torquay United, 2:45 p.m.
Yeovil vs. Wealdstone, 2:45 p.m.
Halifax Town vs. Scunthorpe, 2:30 p.m.
Aldershot vs. Oldham, 10 a.m.
Altrincham vs. Boreham Wood, 10 a.m.
Barnet vs. Chesterfield, 10 a.m.
Dagenham and Redbridge vs. Yeovil, 10 a.m.
Dorking Wanderers vs. Solihull Moors, 10 a.m.
Notts County vs. Halifax Town, 10 a.m.
Scunthorpe vs. Bromley, 10 a.m.
Southend vs. Eastleigh, 10 a.m.
Torquay United vs. Maidstone United FC, 10 a.m.
Wealdstone vs. Gateshead FC, 10 a.m.
Wrexham vs. Woking, 10 a.m. ppd
York City FC vs. Maidenhead United, 10 a.m.
Aldershot vs. Boreham Wood, 2:45 p.m. | 2023-01-21T16:15:58+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/English-Results-17732627.php |
ORLANDO, Fla. – News 6 traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero answers viewer questions about the rules of the road every week, helping Central Florida residents become better drivers by being better educated.
Trooper Steve on Monday was asked by a viewer named Kate, “My tag is expiring and I renewed online. Waiting on the new sticker still, what should I do?”
[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider]
Trooper Steve said this is a great question because it hits right in the limbo stage.
“Oddly enough, I was in this direct situation just a little bit ago,” he said. “Technically, Kate, you can be pulled over because ‘visually’ that tag is expired.”
Law enforcement uses modern-day technology that runs in sync with state databases.
“With technology comes problems. We all experience this type of thing throughout our daily life,” he added.
“If your tag was visibly expired, you would need to print out the current receipt of the renewal and keep that with you until the new sticker arrives in the mail,” Trooper Steve said. “I understand you only know what you know and the law enforcement officer who may pull you over only knows what he or she knows. So having that receipt with your current expired registration and simply showing that it’s valid is much easier than getting frustrated.”
[STORY CONTINUES BELOW PREVIOUS ASK TROOPER STEVE VIDEO]
Trooper Steve said he learned a lesson from his situation.
“I need to hop on the internet a little sooner to renew my documents,” he said.
If you have a traffic question for Trooper Steve, email him at asktroopersteve@wkmg.com. | 2023-04-03T18:25:16+00:00 | clickorlando.com | https://www.clickorlando.com/traffic/2023/04/03/heres-what-to-do-if-youre-waiting-for-a-new-sticker-to-update-your-expiring-tag/ |
Cure53 and F-Secure audited ExpressVPN's macOS, Linux and Windows apps
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS, Nov. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading consumer privacy and security company ExpressVPN has validated the security posture of all its desktop apps through three new independent audits by respected cybersecurity firms, Cure53 and F-Secure. The three new audits come just weeks after KPMG's audit of ExpressVPN's no-logs policy, underlining ExpressVPN's dedication to third-party privacy and security verifications.
Cure53 tested both ExpressVPN's macOS and Linux desktop apps through white-box penetration tests and source code audits. The assessments confirm that the apps are secured against cyber security threats from malicious adversaries. This also validates the extensive work done by ExpressVPN's engineering and security experts in building a safer, more open internet for millions of people worldwide.
F-Secure also reviewed ExpressVPN's Windows v12 app through penetration testing and source code auditing, and found no significant weaknesses. The audit verifies that ExpressVPN's latest Windows desktop app cannot be manipulated to leak information, such as a user's IP address, outside the VPN tunnel. It also confirms that the app is not susceptible to remote code execution attacks.
Having all of ExpressVPN's desktop apps audited means that users can go online with the assurance that their privacy is protected, and do so confidently.
The full audit report by Cure53 for macOS can be found here and Linux here. F-Secure's audit of ExpressVPN's Windows v12 app is available here.
"As part of our continuous trust and transparency efforts, we're proud to announce that all of our desktop apps have now been audited," said Brian Schirmacher, penetration testing manager at ExpressVPN. "These audits are a testament to the efforts we put into improving and securing our product, and we're glad to receive the validation from Cure53 and F-Secure. We're committed to delivering audits on our mobile apps soon, and will continue to ensure privacy and security at every touchpoint of our product."
The full blog article can be read online via: https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/mac-linux-windows-v12-audits/
About ExpressVPN
Since 2009, ExpressVPN has empowered millions of users to take control of their internet experience. The company's award-winning consumer VPN service is backed by its open-source VPN protocol Lightway, delivering user privacy in just a few clicks. ExpressVPN's Keys password manager and Aircove router make digital privacy and security easy and accessible for all. With a commitment to transparency, ExpressVPN products have been audited by PwC, Cure53, and others.
ExpressVPN has been part of Kape Technologies (LSE:KAPE) since 2021. To learn more about ExpressVPN's industry-leading privacy and security solutions, visit www.expressvpn.com.
View original content:
SOURCE ExpressVPN | 2022-11-24T14:20:37+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2022/11/24/expressvpn-confirms-security-its-desktop-apps-with-three-new-independent-audits/ |
PORTLAND, Tenn. (AP) _ Shoals Technologies Group Inc. (SHLS) on Monday reported second-quarter earnings of $4.4 million.
On a per-share basis, the Portland, Tennessee-based company said it had profit of 4 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, were 7 cents per share.
The results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 7 cents per share.
The solar energy equipment supplier posted revenue of $73.5 million in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $73.7 million.
Shoals Technologies expects full-year revenue in the range of $300 million to $325 million.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SHLS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/SHLS | 2022-08-15T21:07:14+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/Shoals-Technologies-Q2-Earnings-Snapshot-17375105.php |
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Molina Healthcare of Ohio ("Molina"), in collaboration with Pacify Health ("Pacify"), will offer $8,000 in scholarships to minorities interested in a career as a lactation consultant. The Diversity in Lactation Consulting scholarship is designed to address the underrepresentation of minorities among lactation consultants. Each scholarship winner will receive $1,000 to help cover the cost of expenses, such as the fee for the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) exam.
According to the CDC, just one in four babies are breastfed during the recommended first six months after birth. Benefits for those who are breastfed can include reduced risks of asthma, obesity, Type 1 diabetes, severe lower respiratory disease, ear infections, and infant death syndrome. Breastfeeding can also help lower a mother's risk of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, as well as ovarian and breast cancer.
"We are proud to support efforts to improve mother and infant health in Ohio," said Ami Cole, plan president for Molina Healthcare of Ohio. "We are committed to connecting our members to providers who meet their clinical and cultural needs, and this is just one example of how we are fulfilling that commitment."
"Through partnerships with forward-thinking health plans like Molina, Pacify uses evidence-based strategies to increase member engagement, boost quality scores, improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of care," said Melanie Silverman, MS, RD, IBCLC, president and chief clinical officer of Pacify. "We are proud to partner with Molina in addressing inequities in the field of lactation. The lactation profession must prepare and train more IBCLCs with the goal of improving representation."
Those in Ohio interested in applying for the scholarship must fill out an application form by August 31, 2022. Applications will be reviewed and finalists interviewed by September 30, 2022. Winners will be announced and awarded the scholarships by October 17, 2022, before applicants apply in December to take the IBCLC exam in Spring 2023. Winners will also receive mentorship from women of color who are IBCLCs in the Pacify network.
Molina Healthcare of Ohio has been providing government-funded, quality health care since 2005. The Company serves members through Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare-Medicaid (Duals) and Health Insurance Exchange programs throughout Ohio. Through its locally operated health plans, Molina Healthcare, Inc., a FORTUNE 500 company (currently ranked 155), provides managed healthcare services under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. Molina Healthcare served approximately 5.1 million members as of March 31, 2022, located across 19 states. For more information about Molina Healthcare of Ohio, visit MolinaHealthcare.com.
Pacify is the leading health technology company that provides 24/7 clinical and social support to new and expecting parents. Pacify's network of 100+ lactation consultants, clinicians and registered nurses have helped more than 100,000 families, reducing costs and improving outcomes in partnership with managed care organizations, health systems, non-profit organizations and employers across the country.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Pacify Health | 2022-06-29T15:13:00+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2022/06/29/molina-healthcare-ohio-pacify-health-offer-scholarships-increase-diversity-lactation-consultants/ |
Dorothy J. Baumgartner
July 29, 1930-December 24, 2022
MASON CITY-Dorothy J. Baumgartner, 92 of Mason City passed away Saturday, December 24, 2022 at her home in Kentucky Ridge, Mason City.
Funeral Services will be held 2:30 p.m. Friday, December 30, 2022 at Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St. NE, Mason City, IA 50401 with Rev. Kent Mechler of Good Shepherd officiating. She will be laid to rest at Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery, Mason City.
Visitation and public viewing will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Dorothy Jean was born July 29, 1930 in Plymouth, IA the daughter of Marion H. and Clara (Pencook) Scarrow. She graduated from Plymouth High School. She was married to Leon “Shorty” Woodward, and the couple was blessed with four children, Gloria, Monty, Tim and Robyn. Dorothy worked at Northwestern Bell Telephone Company for 26 years as an operator and later as a supervisor until the company's closure. Leon died in March of 1993. On April 29, 1995 Dorothy married David W. Baumgartner in Waltham, MN and two families became one. She and Dave enjoyed traveling and spent time fishing all over the area.
Dorothy enjoyed being surrounded by others. Whether it was activities around town or at Kentucky Ridge. In her young years, she and Leon founded Woody's Bingo and enjoyed their community of people. Together they enjoyed their time with many card clubs around the area. Her most recent travels to the family reunion were thoroughly enjoyed. But, most of all, Dorothy loved her family. Time spent surrounded by those she loved, especially her beloved grandchildren, brought her great joy.
Those left to cherish her memory are her children, Gloria (Dennis Bailey) Rish, of Mason City, Monty (Sarah) Woodward of Nevada, Tim (Nanci) Woodward of Klemme, and Robyn (Mike) McCann of Mason City; step-children, Jodi (Jim) Thoma and Jim (Sheila) Baumgartner; grandchildren, Chris (Wendy) Rish, Kelly Rish, Scott (Jillian) Woodward, Jason Woodward, Susan Roush, Joseph (Mandy) McCulley, Eric Woodward, Amy (Josh) Hager, Katie Woodward, Molly (Lincoln Sanders) McCann, Shawn (Jaime) Torres, Zackary Kestner, and Lace Baumgartner; 8 great-grandchildren; sister, Shirley Snell; as well as numerous nieces, nephews and extended family members.
Preceding her in death are her husbands, Leon Woodward and David Baumgartner; parents, Marion and Clara; siblings, Pauline Chapin, Phyllis Helwig and Alta Mae Held; and son-in-law, Jim Rish.
Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapels. ColonialChapels.com. 641-423-2372. | 2022-12-28T06:33:43+00:00 | globegazette.com | https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/dorothy-j-baumgartner/article_c447e272-c724-5c7b-a39a-45d00230470f.html |
Published: Oct. 31, 2022 at 4:05 PM EDT|Updated: 3 hours ago
Total revenue up 23% year over year to new September quarter record
Broadband(1) revenue up 60% and Video SaaS revenue up 64% year over year
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced its unaudited results for the third quarter of 2022.
"The third quarter marks another period of strong financial performance for Harmonic, with 23% year over year revenue growth and solid operating profit," said Patrick Harshman, president and chief executive officer of Harmonic. "This was driven by a 60% rise in Broadband segment revenue and 64% Video SaaS revenue growth. Quarterly bookings grew 50% demonstrating our continued strong business momentum and confidence in our three year strategic growth plan."
Q3 Financial and Business Highlights
Financial
Revenue: $155.7 million, up 23% year over year
Gross margin: GAAP 50.5% and non-GAAP 50.9%, compared to GAAP 52.4% and non-GAAP 52.8% in the year ago period
Operating income: GAAP income $11.4 million and non-GAAP income $18.2 million, compared to GAAP income $5.4 million and non-GAAP income $11.8 million in the year ago period
Net income: GAAP net income $8.7 million and non-GAAP net income of $14.9 million, compared to GAAP net income $1.5 million and non-GAAP net income $9.5 million in the year ago period
Adjusted EBITDA: $21.2 million income compared to $14.8 million income in the year ago period
EPS: GAAP net income per share of $0.08 and non-GAAP net income per share of $0.13, compared to GAAP net income per share of $0.01 and non-GAAP net income per share of $0.09 in the year ago period
Cash: $105.3 million, down $23.2 million year over year
Business
CableOS® solution commercially deployed with 85 customers, up 25% year over year
CableOS deployments scaled to 10.9 million served cable modems, up 179% year over year
Tier 1 live sports streaming SaaS expansions and new wins drove 63.9% Video SaaS revenue growth year over year
Select Financial Information
Explanations regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures and related definitions, and reconciliations of our GAAP and non-GAAP measures, are provided in the sections below entitled "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations".
Financial Guidance
Conference Call Information
Harmonic will host a conference call to discuss its financial results at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET) on Monday, October 31, 2022. The live webcast will be available on the Harmonic Investor Relations website at http://investor.harmonicinc.com. To participate via telephone, please register in advance using this link, https://register.vevent.com/register/BIcb6f0c646052472a9304345609e1cfce. A replay will be available after 5:00 p.m. PT on the same web site.
About Harmonic Inc.
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtualized broadband and video delivery solutions, enables media companies and service providers to deliver ultra-high-quality video streaming and broadcast services to consumers globally. The company revolutionized broadband networking via the industry's first virtualized broadband solution, enabling cable operators to more flexibly deploy gigabit internet service to consumers' homes and mobile devices. Whether simplifying OTT video delivery via innovative cloud and software platforms, or powering the delivery of gigabit internet cable services, Harmonic is changing the way media companies and service providers monetize live and on-demand content on every screen. More information is available at www.harmonicinc.com.
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements related to our expectations regarding: net revenue, gross margins, operating expenses, operating income (loss), Adjusted EBITDA, tax expense and tax rate, EPS and cash. Our expectations regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include, in no particular order, the following: the market and technology trends underlying our Video and Broadband businesses will not continue to develop in their current direction or pace; the possibility that our products will not generate sales that are commensurate with our expectations or that our cost of revenue or operating expenses may exceed our expectations; the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our operations or the operations of our supply chain or our customers; the impact of general economic conditions on our sales and operations; the mix of products and services sold in various geographies and the effect it has on gross margins; delays or decreases in capital spending in the cable, satellite, telco, broadcast and media industries; customer concentration and consolidation; our ability to develop new and enhanced products in a timely manner and market acceptance of our new or existing products; losses of one or more key customers; risks associated with our international operations; exchange rate fluctuations of the currencies in which we conduct business; risks associated with our CableOS and VOS product solutions; dependence on various video and broadband industry trends; inventory management; the lack of timely availability or the impact of increases in the prices of parts or raw materials necessary to produce our products; the effect of competition, on both revenue and gross margins; difficulties associated with rapid technological changes in our markets; risks associated with unpredictable sales cycles; our dependence on contract manufacturers and sole or limited source suppliers; and the effect on our business of natural disasters. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Harmonic's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and Harmonic disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company reports its financial results in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP" or referred to herein as "reported"). However, management believes that certain non-GAAP financial measures provide management and other users with additional meaningful financial information that should be considered when assessing our ongoing performance. Our management regularly uses our supplemental non-GAAP financial measures internally to understand, manage and evaluate our business, establish operating budgets, set internal measurement targets and make operating decisions.
These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. The Company believes that non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with Harmonic's results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and that these measures should only be used to evaluate Harmonic's results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.
The Company believes that the presentation of non-GAAP measures, when shown in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and its historical and projected results of operations. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative to, the Company's reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP.
The non-GAAP measures presented here are: Gross profit, operating expenses, income (loss) from operations, non-operating expenses and net income (loss) (including those amounts as a percentage of revenue), Adjusted EBITDA and net income (loss) per diluted share. The presentation of non-GAAP information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and is not necessarily comparable to non-GAAP results published by other companies. A reconciliation of the historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this press release to the most directly comparable historical GAAP financial measures is included with the financial statements provided with this press release. The non-GAAP adjustments described below have historically been excluded from our GAAP financial measures.
Our non-GAAP financial measures reflect adjustments based on the following items, as well as the related income tax effects:
Stock-based compensation - Although stock-based compensation is a key incentive offered to our employees, we continue to evaluate our business performance excluding stock-based compensation expenses. We believe that management is limited in its ability to project the impact stock-based compensation would have on our operating results. In addition, for comparability purposes, we believe it is useful to provide a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of our core business and to facilitate the comparison of our results to the results of our peer companies.
Amortization of intangibles - A portion of the purchase price of our acquisitions is generally allocated to intangible assets, and is subject to amortization. However, Harmonic does not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle. Additionally, the amount of an acquisition's purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of its related amortization can vary significantly and is unique to each acquisition. Therefore, we believe that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the amortization of intangible assets provides investors and others with a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods.
Restructuring and related charges - Harmonic from time to time incurs restructuring charges which primarily consist of employee severance, one-time termination benefits related to the reduction of its workforce, lease exit costs, and other costs. These charges are associated with material business shifts. We exclude these items because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.
Non-cash interest expense and other expenses related to convertible notes and other debt - We record the amortization of issuance costs as non-cash interest expense. We believe that excluding these costs provides meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance and liquidity, along with enhancing investors' ability to view the Company's results from management's perspective. In addition, we believe excluding these costs from the non-GAAP measures facilitates comparisons to our historical operating results and comparisons to peer company operating results.
Gain and losses on equity investments - We exclude the gain and losses from the sale of our equity investments in calculating our non-GAAP financial measures. We exclude these items because we do not believe they are reflective of our ongoing long-term business and operating results.
Discrete tax items and tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments - The income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments relates to the tax effect of the adjustments that we incorporate into non-GAAP financial measures in order to provide a more meaningful measure of non-GAAP net income.
Depreciation - Depreciation expense, along with interest, tax and stock-based compensation expense, restructuring charges and amortization of intangible assets, is excluded from Adjusted EBITDA because we do not believe depreciation and the other items relate to the ordinary course of our business or are reflective of our underlying business performance.
The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc. | 2022-10-31T22:59:41+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/10/31/harmonic-announces-third-quarter-2022-results/ |
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s trade ministry on Friday said it has begun procedures to restore preferential trade status for South Korea, days after Seoul took a similar step for Tokyo and requested reciprocity, and more than three years after the countries downgraded each other during a bitter historical dispute.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said talks with South Korea this month showed that its controls over trade in sensitive materials with both civilian and military uses are now as effective as those used by Japan.
It said it has proposed as a result that South Korea be restored to the list of countries which receive preferential Japanese trading status, subject to a monthlong public comment period ending May 31. The list currently contains 26 nations including the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany.
The step would end a trade dispute that began in July 2019 when Japan removed South Korea from its “white list” of countries given fast-track approvals in trade, in apparent retaliation for South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate Korean workers for abusive treatment and forced labor during World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was a Japanese colony.
Japan also tightened export controls on key chemicals used by South Korean companies to make semiconductors and displays, prompting South Korea to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and remove Japan from its own list of countries with preferred trade status.
Friday’s decision comes days after South Korea formally restored Japan to its trade “white list.”
Seoul and Tokyo have been working to repair their relations as they deepen three-way security cooperation with Washington in response to growing regional threats from North Korea and China.
Their ties have improved rapidly since March, when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's government announced plans to use South Korean funds to compensate the forced laborers without requiring contributions from Japan.
Yoon also traveled to Tokyo for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and agreed to rebuild the countries’ security and economic ties.
After their talks, South Korea withdrew its complaint at the WTO and Japan simultaneously confirmed its removal of the export controls on chemicals seen as vital to South Korea’s technology industry. | 2023-04-28T12:36:46+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/politics/article/japan-to-restore-preferred-trade-status-for-south-17924640.php |
Co-Ownership Leader Facilitates Hassle-Free Second Home Ownership in Mexico by Offering Financing Options for American Buyers
SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacaso, the leading real estate marketplace that helps people buy and co-own a luxury second home, is excited to announce that Esperanza, its remarkable property in Los Cabos, has become the fastest-selling Pacaso home in the company's history. Prior to being officially listed on the marketplace, all eight ownership interests for Esperanza were sold during the presale phase. This milestone highlights the appeal of international real estate and co-ownership as a contemporary and sought-after approach to owning a luxury second home. Pacaso facilitates seamless American ownership in Mexico by handling the Mexican trust process and offers a unique solution to financing challenges.
Esperanza, located within the prestigious Punta Ballena gated community, is a recently renovated four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home that provides a resort-style living experience. The ocean-view property boasts a range of amenities, including a grill, private pool, jacuzzi, and comfortable lounge seating. The ensuite bedrooms on the first level open up to terraces, providing direct access to the outdoor-living area. The upper level features a primary suite, fully-equipped kitchen and light-filled great room that lead to shaded decks for the ultimate indoor-outdoor living experience. Homeowners have access to a beach club, conveniently located within a two-minute walk or short golf cart drive away, where they can enjoy a gym, restaurant, pool, and jacuzzi.
In direct response to buyer demand, a three bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom Cabo home will soon be available on the Pacaso marketplace. This condo-style home, to be expertly designed by the Pacaso in-house design team, is located on the ground floor of Las Ventanas, a Rosewood Resort in Los Cabos. Pacaso owners will enjoy access to the resort's exceptional amenities.
"At Pacaso, we understand that financing can be extremely difficult for homes in Cabo, and we offer a solution that not many others provide to make ownership in Mexico seamless," said Pacaso CEO and Co-Founder, Austin Allison. "Since our expansion into Cabo last year, we have warmly welcomed many happy families to their second home, and the continued strong demand for co-ownership, particularly in Mexico, comes as no surprise. Looking ahead, we're excited to introduce even more inventory to our marketplace, catering to those who are searching for their own slice of happiness."
Since its October 2020 launch, Pacaso has risen as the undisputed industry leader in co-ownership, transforming and streamlining the way in which people buy and own a second home with its tech-enabled marketplace. With a presence in 40 destination communities worldwide, the combined value of Pacaso homes has surged past an impressive threshold of $1 billion and over 1,500 owners.
Pacaso recently introduced a range of new homes in the United States within its leading co-ownership marketplace, including Home Run and Majestic in Lake Tahoe, West District in Jackson, Wyoming, a forthcoming home in Vail, and Southern California homes Pacific Place and Desert Ridge located in the greater Newport Beach and Palm Springs areas.
For more information about Pacaso and its properties, visit www.pacaso.com.
About Pacaso
Pacaso® is a technology-enabled marketplace that modernizes real estate co-ownership to make second homes possible and enjoyable for more people. Pacaso curates luxury listings with premium amenities and high-end contemporary interior design, offers ⅛ to ½ ownership with integrated financing, and, after purchase, professionally manages the home and supports seamless resale. Co-founded by Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff in 2020, Pacaso operates in 40 top second home destinations around the world. Pacaso has been certified as a Great Place to Work and is recognized as one of Glassdoor's 2022 Best Places to Work.
Learn more about Pacaso and view listings at Pacaso.com and connect with @PacasoHomes on Instagram and Twitter.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Pacaso | 2023-07-27T14:07:42+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2023/07/27/pacasos-esperanza-los-cabos-makes-history-fastest-selling-pacaso/ |
NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Levi & Korsinsky, LLP notifies investors in TuSimple Holdings Inc. ("TuSimple" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: TSP) of a class action securities lawsuit.
CLASS DEFINITION: The lawsuit seeks to recover losses on behalf of TuSimple investors who were adversely affected by alleged securities fraud. This lawsuit is on behalf of all persons who: (a) purchased or otherwise acquired TuSimple common stock pursuant and/or traceable to documents issued in connection with TuSimple's April 15, 2021 initial public offering; and/or (b) that purchased or otherwise acquired TuSimple securities between April 15, 2021 and August 1, 2022, both dates inclusive. Follow the link below to get more information and be contacted by a member of our team:
TSP investors may also contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500.
CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that defendants made false statements and/or concealed that: (i) TuSimple's commitment to safety was significantly overstated and defendants concealed fundamental problems with the Company's technology; (ii) TuSimple was rushing the testing of its autonomous driving technology in order to deliver driverless trucks to the market ahead of its more safety-conscious competitors; (iii) there was a corporate culture within TuSimple that suppressed or ignored safety concerns in favor of unrealistically ambitious testing and delivery schedules; (iv) the aforementioned conduct made accidents involving the Company's autonomous driving technology more likely; (v) the aforementioned conduct invited enhanced regulatory scrutiny and investigatory action toward the Company; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
WHAT'S NEXT? If you suffered a loss in TuSimple during the relevant time frame, you have until October 31, 2022 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.
NO COST TO YOU: If you are a class member, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out-of-pocket costs or fees. There is no cost or obligation to participate.
WHY LEVI & KORSINSKY: Over the past 20 years, the team at Levi & Korsinsky has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. Our firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States.
CONTACT:
Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
Joseph E. Levi, Esq.
Ed Korsinsky, Esq.
55 Broadway, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10006
jlevi@levikorsinsky.com
Tel: (212) 363-7500
Fax: (212) 363-7171
www.zlk.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Levi & Korsinsky, LLP | 2022-10-20T11:08:23+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/10/20/tsp-lawsuit-alert-levi-amp-korsinsky-notifies-tusimple-holdings-inc-investors-class-action-lawsuit-upcoming-deadline/ |
House Republicans on Wednesday approved a bill that seeks to increase congressional authority over the federal rulemaking process, a move that would usurp power from government agencies in favor of elevating elected lawmakers.
The legislation — titled the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS) Act — cleared the chamber in a largely party-line 221-210 vote. One Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (Maine) — broke from the party and supported the measure.
The measure was initially scheduled to be considered in the House last week, but the vote was delayed because 11 conservatives launched a revolt in the chamber that halted floor action for nearly a week. The GOP rebels were protesting the debt limit deal struck by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden, which was signed into law earlier this month to avoid a default.
The impasse, however, finally broke Tuesday when the 11 conservatives agreed to advance the REINS Act and four other bills to the floor, unleashing them for final votes.
Republicans have argued Congress should have control over the federal rulemaking process rather than federal agencies because the officials that run them are not elected by voters.
“It’s long past time we limit the rampant executive overreach that makes up the fourth branch of government and rein in the nameless, faceless bureaucrats in basements across Washington, D.C.,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), the sponsor of the bill, wrote in a statement following the vote.
The measure would require that all major rules proposed by federal agencies be approved by Congress before taking effect.
A “major rule,” according to the legislation, is any federal rule or regulation that may have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; leads to a significant increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies or geographic regions; or one that has a notably unfavorable effect on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation or the capacity of enterprises in the U.S. to compete with foreign initiatives.
Although the bill has little chance of being considered by the Democratic-led Senate, let alone signed into law by President Biden, it would represent a major shift in the federal rulemaking process and strip significant authority from the executive.
It could also undercut the influence of agency experts and outside advocates that contribute to the rulemaking process.
Federal agencies have broad authority to issue rules — but that power in many ways stems from Congress. Congress regularly calls on agencies to craft the regulations needed to carry out policies approved by lawmakers.
The rulemaking process requires a public notice and comment period, and agencies are required to show they considered the feedback from the public in crafting their final rule. Regulations also often include a cost-benefit analysis, requiring agencies to show regulations are needed despite any costs they may impose on the industry. The final rule generally takes effect no less than 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register by the agency.
The bill was opposed by pro-regulation groups, arguing the process is needed to protect consumers — from putting limits on polluting industries to ensuring the safety of food and medication.
But by requiring Congress to vote to approve regulations, advocates argue that inaction alone could be used to block needed guidance.
“By giving one chamber of Congress veto power over any new significant public health and safety protection, no matter how noncontroversial or sensible it may be, the REINS Act is designed to leverage the dysfunction and obstructionism that plague our political process to block agencies’ efforts to fulfill their statutory mandates to pursue public protections,” Elizabeth Skerry, a regulatory policy expert with Public Citizen, a left-leaning advocacy group, told Congress when it considered the bill in March.
The group also pointed to a train derailment in Ohio as a byproduct of inaction, noting the Trump administration chose not to move forward with a regulation that would have required updated braking systems.
The majority of the Democratic caucus also opposed the measure. During debate on the House floor Tuesday night, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the bill was “bad legislation” and warned about regulations Republicans could block after the recent floor revolt.
“We are considering this bill just a week after a splinter group of the far-right Republicans voted down a rule and held our legislative calendar hostage all to prove a point about a debt ceiling that already has passed Congress and has been signed by the president,” Nadler said. “Even before this radical move, I had no doubt that the REINS Act would grind to a halt the most impactful actions by our regulatory state.”
“But now after seeing what a handful of members will do to make a point, I am certain we cannot let bad measures like this move forward,” he added.
The Republican-led House has introduced multiple resolutions aimed at blocking Biden administration rules since taking the majority in January. On Wednesday, the chamber cleared a measure that seeks to block a Biden administration rule pertaining to pistol stabilizing braces.
And on Wednesday, the House voted to block a proposed rule from the Biden administration that governs efficiency requirements for gas and electric cooking appliances.
House Republicans included the REINS Act in their bill to raise the debt limit and implement spending cuts, which cleared the chamber in a largely party-line vote in April. It was not, however, incorporated in the debt limit agreement Biden and McCarthy struck, which angered conservatives.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) pointed to the exclusion of the measure from the debt limit agreement when discussing the conservative blockade floor last week.
“I’m not here for failure theater. I’m not here for just the performance of politics. I actually want to produce something for the American people,” Boebert said. “So when Limit, Save, Grow had the REINS Act, a great regulatory reform, included in it and that was ditched on the side of the road, completely surrendered, and then the next week we’re gonna show up to Washington, D.C., and vote on the REINS Act as a standalone bill where we know it’s dead on arrival in the Senate.”
“That is performative theater, and I am not here for that. I’m not doing messaging bills and show votes when we had an opportunity to pass real regulatory reform for the American people,” she added. | 2023-06-14T23:07:05+00:00 | wearegreenbay.com | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/hill-politics/house-gop-votes-to-increase-congressional-authority-over-federal-rulemaking/ |
The Seven Most Snake Infested Lakes In Texas
Somebody call Samuel L. Jackson and tell him I have the treatment for a sequel to "Snakes On A Plane" called "Snakes On The Lakes".
If you're planning to take your boat out soon or just plan on hanging out at the lake, you definitely need to know which lakes contain something you don't to mess with. Snakes....LOTS of them. Texas has more snake species than any other American state with more than 105 different species and subspecies of snakes, with only 15 being venomous or dangerous according to Texas Parks & Wildlife.
Many Reside In Texas Lakes...
With so many different breeds of snakes, chances are high you will see a snake near a lake depending where you are in Texas. According to A-Z Wildlife, lakes in some regions, such as the western, central, and southern parts of the state, have a lot more snakes than others.
Know Before You Go
Before we get into the list of lakes, here's a couple of things you need to know about visiting one of these "snake infested" lakes so you can stay safe:
- Check With Authorities Before You Swim
- If you Spot A Snake, Don't Get Close
- Stick To Clear Paths After Sundown
These rules generally apply to any and all snakes whether you come across one at a lake or just while walking so please be careful and be EXTRA careful if you find yourself around one of these 7 lakes packed with snakes in Texas. | 2022-11-02T13:30:31+00:00 | knue.com | https://knue.com/the-seven-most-snake-infested-lakes-in-texas/ |
Son confronts mom, testifies in doomsday plot murder trial
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The only surviving child of a woman charged in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival confronted his mother about his siblings’ deaths in an emotional phone call played for jurors on Tuesday in a trial that has touched on claims of evil spirits, zombie children and an additional murder charge in another state.
Prosecutors played the call shortly after Colby Ryan, Lori Vallow Daybell’s oldest child, took the stand in the bizarre triple murder case in Idaho. The call was made after the bodies of Ryan’s siblings, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were found buried in an eastern Idaho yard in 2020, and after Vallow Daybell was jailed in connection with the crime.
It starts with Ryan asking his mom if she thought she could keep hiding from him.
“I’m not hiding, why would you think I’m hiding?” Vallow Daybell responds.
“Probably because you murdered my siblings! Maybe you should understand,” Ryan continued, before his mother interrupted:
“I didn’t. I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said.
The call continued for several minutes, with Vallow Daybell insisting that Ryan can’t know what happened because he wasn’t there, but that JJ and Tylee were happy and all would become clear in the afterlife.
But Ryan said his mother lied to him multiple times while his brother and sister were missing, with someone even sending him texts from his sister’s phone as if they were from Tylee.
“To know that they’re gone, and you knew! And my phone is being texted by my little sister, who’s not even alive!” Ryan said, his voice rising. “My poor brother, who is the sweetest little kid ever — for what purpose? You tell me this is God’s will: For my whole family, including my stepfather, to be dead.”
Prosecutors say Vallow Daybell and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, espoused strange doomsday-focused beliefs involving demonic possession and “zombies” to further their alleged plan to kill the kids and his previous wife Tammy Daybell. They are also accused of collecting life insurance money and nearly $6,000 a month from the kids’ social security and survivor benefits due to the deaths of their fathers: Tylee’s father Joe Ryan died in 2018 and JJ’s father Charles Vallow died in 2019.
JJ was 7 years old and Tylee was a few days shy of her 17th birthday when the kids were last seen alive in September of 2019, and their bodies were found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard the following June. Tammy Daybell died in October of 2019 — just two weeks before Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell married — and an autopsy later determined she had been asphyxiated.
Both have pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy and grand theft charges, and they are being tried separately. Daybell’s trial is still months away.
Vallow Daybell has also been charged in Arizona in connection with the the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
He was shot and killed by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, outside of his Phoenix-area home in July of 2019. Cox told police the shooting was in self defense, and was never charged in the case because he died of natural causes later that year. Vallow Daybell has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea in the Arizona case.
Earlier in the trial, former friends of Vallow Daybell told jurors about the couple’s purported spiritual beliefs, which included the idea that evil spirits could take over a person’s body, forcing the person’s soul out and turning them into a “zombie.” The only way to get rid of the evil spirit was to kill the body, former friend Melanie Gibb told jurors.
Vallow Daybell called JJ and Tylee “zombies” several times before they died, Gibb told investigators.
The recorded phone call seemed to allude to some of Vallow Daybell’s beliefs, with Ryan telling his mother he was praying for her and warning her against blasphemy.
In response, Vallow Daybell laughed.
“I love you, I always will. One day you will see and one day you will understand,” Vallow Daybell told her son in the call, and said his dead siblings were “fine.”
“They love me and they are fine ... You can go ahead and judge me all day long,” she said.
Ryan cried on the stand when prosecutors showed him photos of Tylee and JJ, and told jurors about how the text messages Tylee regularly sent him changed in tone and punctuation in the weeks after she first disappeared but before she was reported missing.
He also said Tylee was receiving social security benefits from her father Joe Ryan’s 2018 death and would sometimes send him money, but after Tylee went missing the funds began coming from a different account under his mother’s name.
Charles Vallow’s death meant that JJ was also receiving Social Security benefits, a special agent with the Social Security Administration told jurors. Vallow Daybell never reported to the Social Security Administration that younger kids were missing or had died, Mark Saari said, though federal rules required her to do so.
The kids were receiving about $3,800 a month combined, and Vallow Daybell was also receiving roughly $1,900 a month in benefits following Charles Vallow’s death, Saari said.
The agency stopped all the payments in January of 2020 because the kids were missing, he said.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-18T22:34:25+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2023/04/18/son-confronts-mom-testifies-doomsday-plot-murder-trial/ |
Celebrate the Blooms with Inaugural National Sunflower Day on August 5
BISMARCK, N.D., July 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In late July and into August, vast fields of brilliant yellow sunflowers blanket North Dakota during the peak growing season and visitors are awed by the landscape awash in summery hues. This year, North Dakota Tourism invites visitors to celebrate these picturesque fields with the inaugural National Sunflower Day on August 5, 2023.
The National Day Calendar recognition, slated for the first Saturday each August, is a collaboration between the National Sunflower Association and North Dakota Tourism and recognizes the inherent happiness the sunflowers evokes and the prominence of North Dakota's agricultural industry in growing the cheerful blooms.
For visitors planning a picture-perfect road trip for National Sunflower Day and beyond, North Dakota Tourism has launched the state's 2023 Sunflower Blooms Guide detailing the location of more than a dozen stunning sunflower fields. Weekly bloom updates will highlight the progress of the seasonal color as it unfolds across the state making the map a perfect tool for making the most of the waning days of summer. North Dakota Tourism is also making an ideal road trip snack available to visitors with packets of savory sunflower seeds in mailboxes at select fields.
To capture the iconic blooms in photos and videos, keep the following tips in mind:
- In general, visitors are welcome to stop by fields included on the Sunflower Blooms Guide as long as they are respectful and don't enter or drive into the fields.
- Scout the field location early to capture that golden hour image or video just-after sunrise or just-before sunset. Visitors will want to set up early to take advantage of the golden hues.
- Keep in mind that cloudy days are often some of the best times to capture vibrant close-ups and more subtle variations in shadows.
- Tag your photos and videos on social media using #BeNDLegendary to celebrate your love of the sunny blooms.
- Fuel your photoshoot with a beloved North Dakota snack with Fargo's irresistible SunButter made from roasted sunflower seeds or Wahpeton's Giants Snacks with original and kettle roasted flavors of sunflower seeds.
As the top sunflower producing state last year, North Dakota farmers planted 702,000 acres of the beautiful blooms in 2022, and the state is the top producer of edible sunflower seeds in the U.S. More sunflower recipes, videos and little-known facts are available at Brighten Your Day with the Amazing Sunflower. For more on planning a trip to North Dakota, visit NDtourism.com.
Follow North Dakota Tourism on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TravelND, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/northdakotalegendary/ on or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NorthDakota and get tips on what to see and do all year long.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE North Dakota Tourism Division | 2023-07-31T21:05:44+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2023/07/31/north-dakota-landscape-awash-vibrant-yellow-sunflowers/ |
Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan is urging his fellow Democrats to “have some guts” after some of them refused to debate their Republican opponents in their respective midterm election races.
During an appearance on “CNN This Morning” on Thursday, co-anchor Don Lemon asked Ryan if more Democrats should appear on conservative news outlets to address tough questions and challenge their GOP opponents, mentioning Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’s refusal to debate her Republican opponent, Kari Lake.
Ryan had appeared at a Fox News-hosted town hall in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday with his Republican Senate opponent, J.D. Vance.
“Have some guts. Look, you have to lead. This moment right now is calling for leadership,” Ryan told Lemon. “It’s calling for citizenship. People are tired of the hate, tired of the anger, tired of the fear, tired of the division.”
The Ohio congressman said Democrats should not be afraid to go into an environment like Fox News and tout the importance of building reform and caring for one another, for the sake of future generations.
“And we have to make a decision right now in this election whether we’re going to give them a culture where they can have a conversation to solve problems, or we’re going to give them a culture where they have to hate each other, and you have the level of political violence we saw with Paul Pelosi, and that’s just not acceptable to me,” Ryan added, referring to the recent violent assault on the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “We got to ask citizens to step up.”
Ryan’s showdown with Vance is one of the most closely Senate races of the midterm election cycle. The candidates are vying to replace the retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R), who announced plans to step down last year.
During her own appearance on CNN’s new morning show a day earlier, Hobbs defended her decision not to debate Lake, saying the Republican, one of the most prominent backers of former President Trump’s false election claims, doesn’t want to have a conversation of substance.
Lake, Hobbs said, has “centered her entire platform around this election denialism. I didn’t want to give her a bigger stage to do that.”
“But additionally, she has shown that she’s not interested in having any kind of substantive conversation. She’s only interested in creating a spectacle.” | 2022-11-03T17:04:22+00:00 | kfor.com | https://kfor.com/hill-politics/tim-ryan-on-democrats-who-refuse-to-debate-ahead-of-midterms-have-some-guts/ |
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As the election for Louisiana's next governor creeps closer, all eyes are on Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy.
Potential GOP candidates have indicated that they are awaiting the congressman's decision on whether he will enter next year's race as they consider their own possible gubernatorial bids. Most recently, Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder said in a written statement Thursday that his decision to run for the state's highest position is dependent on Kennedy.
“John Kennedy is the kind of leader I can work with to fix the problems our Great State faces. Should he decide to run, I will run for re-election as Treasurer," Schroder said Thursday. "However, if Senator Kennedy chooses not to run, I plan to announce and pursue the title of Governor in 2023.”
Last month, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser told reporters that he planned to meet with Kennedy to hear what his possible gubernatorial plans were before making his own official announcement.
Louisiana’s highly anticipated 2023 gubernatorial race is expected to attract several strong GOP candidates because term limits prevent Gov. John Bel Edwards from seeking a third consecutive term. And though the state Legislature is dominated by Republicans, Louisiana is the only Deep South state with a Democrat for governor, opening a huge opportunity for Republicans hoping to capture the state’s top government post.
Although the election is less than a year away, so far the only person who has announced a bid is Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. A conservative Republican and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, Landry has already received an early endorsement from the Louisiana Republican Party.
In mid-November, Kennedy said he was “giving serious consideration” to a gubernatorial bid and would make an announcement soon. Nearly three weeks have passed since then.
Kennedy, who has mostly provided a safe Senate vote for Republicans and been a strong supporter of Trump, easily won reelection to Congress in November, fending off 12 challengers and securing a second six-year term.
The politician, who was endorsed by Trump, proved to be popular in Louisiana and on Capitol Hill, raising $36 million in his reelection bid — 10 times as much as his Democratic challengers combined. | 2022-12-02T00:01:34+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Possible-Louisiana-gov-candidates-await-Kennedy-s-17625159.php |
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A second 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the carjacking and shooting of a United Methodist Church leader in Memphis, Tennessee, police said.
The teenager was charged with first-degree murder, carjacking and other offenses after meeting with investigators Friday to discuss the killing of the Rev. Autura Eason-Williams, Memphis police told The Associated Press late Monday.
Another 15-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder, carjacking and other charges the day after the July 18 killing, which shook United Methodist Church members in Memphis and elsewhere. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with theft of property between $2,500 and $10,000.
Eason-Williams was found in her driveway with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Video footage showed that the pastor was approached by two males while she was in her Chevrolet Malibu. The teens pointed a gun at her and ordered her from the car, police said.
Eason-Williams was shot and a teen drove away in her vehicle, police said, citing the footage.
Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich said Monday that she is pursuing adult charges against the two teens charged with murder. Juveniles between ages 14 and 17 who are charged with serious crimes are eligible for transfer to adult court, Weirich said in a news release.
A Juvenile Court hearing has been set for Aug. 1 for both teens.
Eason-Williams was a wife and the mother of four children, according to a biography posted on her website. She was superintendent of the Metro District of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church.
She also was the pastor of Capleville United Methodist Church and a graduate of the Memphis Theological Seminary. | 2022-07-26T20:54:29+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/2nd-teen-charged-with-killing-united-methodist-church-leader/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Virtual Queuing Program Allows Passengers To Reserve A Slot For TSA Security for Stress-Free, Predictable Travel
QUEENS, N.Y., May 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CLEAR (NYSE: YOU) and JFKIAT, the operator of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, announced the launch of a free virtual queuing program at Terminal 4. JFK T4 Reserve powered by CLEAR allows travelers at JFK's T4 to plan ahead and reserve a dedicated security lane time slot for their party – giving them a more predictable and stress-free travel experience.
"This innovative program will help to ensure that we are continuing to provide an efficient, best-in-class experience for all traveling through Terminal 4," said Roel Huinink, President and CEO of JFKIAT. "JFKIAT is committed to integrating cutting-edge technologies that will bolster our operations, and we are proud to collaborate with CLEAR to introduce this initiative to our customers."
"The rebound of the travel industry means more people are heading to the airport this weekend, and CLEAR's technology is making traveling through JFK T4 more seamless and less stressful than ever," said CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker. "JFKIAT has been a fantastic, innovative partner that has always sought to elevate the customer experience, and we're proud to work with them to launch our Reserve powered by CLEAR lane."
How It Works
- Reserve: To use the free JFK T4 Reserve powered by CLEAR lane, just visit the dedicated website where you can enter your flight details, the size of your party, and find a reservation time that works for you.
- Confirm: Once you select your reservation time, finish booking by entering your email, and confirming your details. You'll receive a confirmation email and QR code.
- Go: When you arrive at airport security, look for signs pointing to the Reserve powered by CLEAR lane. Scan your QR code with our staff and enjoy the fast lane right to TSA screening and security.
Reservations can be made online up to 72 hours in advance of a flight's scheduled departure. Reservation times are available based on the passenger's selected flight; slots are available starting at least 60 minutes before domestic flights and at least 75 minutes before international flights. The dedicated JFK Reserve security entry point is open between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. – the security checkpoint's busiest time.
CLEAR first launched its free checkpoint reservation system at Orlando International Airport (MCO) in October 2021. In December, CLEAR acquired Whyline Inc., a leading provider of virtual queuing and appointment technology; today's launch marks the seventh airport to offer CLEAR's free Reserve program. Other airports offering Reserve include Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), and Calgary International Airport (YYC).
In addition to Reserve, CLEAR Plus expedited security lanes are available in Terminals 2 and 4 at JFK, as well as at EWR, LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Westchester County Airport (HPN). Subscribing CLEAR Plus members can use the company's network of 120+ dedicated lanes across 43 airports to verify their identity with their eyes, replacing the need to take out their wallet and driver's license. After verification, a CLEAR Ambassador escorts members through the dedicated lane and directly to TSA physical security.
About CLEAR
Founded in 2010, CLEAR's mission is to create frictionless experiences. With more than 12 million members and hundreds of partners across the world, CLEAR's identity platform is transforming the way people live, work, and travel. Whether it's at the airport, stadium, or right on your phone, CLEAR connects you to the things that make you, you - making everyday experiences easier, more secure, and more seamless. Since day one, CLEAR has been committed to privacy done right. Members are always in control of their own information, and we never sell member data. For more information, visit clearme.com.
About JFKIAT
JFK International Air Terminal, LLC. (JFKIAT) is the operator of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the most active air terminals in the New York area, serving 33 international and domestic airlines with an annual passenger volume of more than 21 million travelers in 2019. Terminal 4 is the first existing airport terminal in the U.S. to receive LEED Gold certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for operations and maintenance. The Terminal's expansive Retail Lounge offers an unparalleled experience for travelers with a wide range of food and beverage and retail options, from chic to upscale and from convenience stores, to electronics, accessories and gifts. Terminal 4 was the first air terminal in North America operated by a private management company. JFKIAT's managing member is Schiphol USA Inc., a U.S. affiliate of Royal Schiphol Group. Visit us at http://www.jfkt4.nyc, like us on Instagram and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE CLEAR | 2022-05-25T13:20:42+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/05/25/clear-launches-free-reserve-powered-by-clear-lane-terminal-4-john-f-kennedy-international-airport/ |
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Thousands of Israelis gathered Saturday for a weekly demonstration against the government’s contentious judicial overhaul plans, despite security concerns stemming from a surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put his overhaul on hold after mass protests against the plan, which has brought together large swaths of Israeli society in opposition to a series of bills that aim to weaken the country’s Supreme Court.
The main protest in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, was held less than two kilometers (a mile) from Friday’s attack, in which an Italian tourist was killed and five other Italian and British citizens were wounded when a car rammed into a group of tourists. In a separate incident, two British-Israeli women were shot to death near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
The spasm of violence in Israel and the West Bank has heightened fears of an even more intense surge, with the rare convergence of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, the Jewish Passover holiday and Easter currently underway.
Leaders of the grassroots protest movement against the judicial overhaul called for the weekly mass protest to continue as planned Saturday, with tens of thousands of people attending for a 14th consecutive week.
They portrayed the anti-government demonstration as a rally of solidarity with those killed and wounded in Friday’s attacks, as well as with Israelis living near the Lebanese border and the Gaza border affected by recent Palestinian rocket fire. In Tel Aviv, protesters held a moment of silence for the victims.
The protest organizers argue that the overhaul plans have diminished Israel’s national security by roiling the military and weakening the country in the eyes of its enemies.
Upon announcing the delaying of the proposed changes in Israel’s legal system, Netanyahu appeared to calm some of the tensions that have fueled three tumultuous months of unrest. But his announcement failed to address the underlying issues that have polarized the nation, and he has vowed to revive the plan in the coming weeks if negotiations on a compromise with the political opposition fail.
The plan would give Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and his allies the final say in appointing the nation’s judges. It would also give parliament, which is controlled by his allies, authority to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit the court’s ability to review laws.
Netanyahu’s supporters say the plan is needed to rein in the powers of unelected judges. Opponents say it will destroy a system of checks and balances by concentrating power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies in parliament. They also say that Netanyahu, who has been indicted on corruption charges, has a conflict of interest at a time when he is on trial. | 2023-04-09T10:43:57+00:00 | myfox8.com | https://myfox8.com/news/international/ap-international/israelis-protest-judicial-overhaul-despite-violence-surge/ |
Gavin Sheets Player Prop Bets: White Sox vs. Reds - May 5
Published: May. 5, 2023 at 3:29 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
On Friday, Gavin Sheets (.207 on-base percentage in past 10 games, 121 points below season-long percentage) and the Chicago White Sox face the Cincinnati Reds, whose starting pitcher will be Hunter Greene. First pitch is at 6:40 PM ET.
He had a hitless showing in his most recent game (0-for-3) against the Twins.
Gavin Sheets Game Info & Props vs. the Reds
- Game Day: Friday, May 5, 2023
- Game Time: 6:40 PM ET
- Stadium: Great American Ball Park
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Reds Starter: Hunter Greene
- TV Channel: Apple TV+
- Hits Prop: Over/under 0.5 hits (Over odds: -139)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/under 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +500)
- RBI Prop: Over/under 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +200)
- Runs Prop: Over/under 0.5 runs (Over odds: +150)
Looking to place a prop bet on Gavin Sheets? Check out what's available at BetMGM and sign up with this link!
Discover More About This Game
Gavin Sheets At The Plate
- Sheets is batting .263 with two home runs and six walks.
- Sheets has picked up a hit in 11 of 21 games this season, with multiple hits three times.
- In 21 games played this year, he has homered in two of them.
- Sheets has driven in a run in four games this season (19.0%), including two games with multiple runs batted in.
- He has scored in six of 21 games so far this season.
Ready to play FanDuel Daily Fantasy? Get in the game using our link.
Gavin Sheets Home/Away Batting Splits
Reds Pitching Rankings
- The Reds pitching staff is fourth in MLB with a collective 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings.
- The Reds' 4.98 team ERA ranks 25th among all league pitching staffs.
- The Reds rank 13th in baseball in home runs allowed (33 total, 1.1 per game).
- Greene gets the start for the Reds, his seventh of the season. He is 0-1 with a 2.89 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings pitched.
- The right-hander last pitched on Saturday against the Oakland Athletics, when he threw five innings, allowing no earned runs while giving up five hits.
- In six games this season, the 23-year-old has put up an ERA of 2.89, with 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Opponents are hitting .259 against him.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-05T21:30:22+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/sports/betting/2023/05/05/gavin-sheets-mlb-player-prop-bets/ |
Ukraine's Elina Svitolina earned a spot in the Wimbledon semifinals on Tuesday after knocking off world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland.
Svitolina defeated Swiatek in three sets in front of a packed crowd on Centre Court.
The Ukrainian, who has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, took a break from the tour last year, citing the emotional toll of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She later announced she was pregnant.
Svitolina gave birth to her baby girl Skaï in October, and returned to the tour in April.
Currently ranked 76th in the world, Svitolina needed a wildcard to get into Wimbledon.
"If at the beginning of the tournament, if someone would tell me that I would be in the semifinal by beating world No. 1, I would tell them they're crazy," Svitolina said after her quarterfinal victory.
SEE MORE: Wimbledon: No comment on Ukrainians not shaking hands with Russians
Svitolina has been vocal about representing her country in her comeback. She's come out in favor of banning Russian and Belarusian players from international competitions, including Wimbledon and the 2024 Olympics.
Wimbledon allowed Russians and Belarussian players to compete this year. They were banned from competing in the 2022 event.
In solidarity with players from her country, Svitolina has refused to shake hands with opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match.
The decision has often been met by "boos" from the crowd, many of whom may not know the reason for the snub.
SEE MORE: Ukrainian booed for not shaking Belarusian's hand at French Open
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | 2023-07-11T17:57:12+00:00 | krtv.com | https://www.krtv.com/ukrainian-defeats-world-no-1-at-wimbledon-9-months-after-having-baby |
SHANGHAI, June 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The fifth China International Import Expo will take place from November 5-10 this year.
Buoyed by its opening-up policy, continuous optimization of the business environment and strong economic resilience, China will remain a hot investment destination in the years to come, said global experts at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022 in Davos, Switzerland.
China's stable economic growth is of great significance to a global recovery, WEF President Borge Brende said in a recent interview. "So long and medium term, I'm quite bullish on China's economy," said the president.
In addition to China's own economic size, business leaders also agreed that China's approach and commitment to globalization also matter. Chinese leaders have repeatedly reaffirmed commitment to economic globalization and free trade, including during speeches at the WEF.
A major platform for international procurement, investment promotion, cultural exchanges and open cooperation, the China International Import Expo (CIIE) has been successfully held for four consecutive years and is widely regarded as an international public good for economic globalization and multilateral trading system, as well as a pivotal carrier for building an open world economy and a community with a shared future for mankind.
Since its inception in 2018, the expo has been growing in scale and influence. For example, the area of its business exhibition increased from 270,000 square meters in 2018 to 366,000 square meters in 2021, while the first three editions have helped channel about $30.5 billion in foreign investment into 622 projects.
According to a report on the business exhibition of the fourth CIIE, which took place from November 5-10, 2021, more than 2,900 companies from 127 countries and regions participated in the exhibition. Among them, 622 companies are from countries along the Belt and Road while 125 are from Central and Eastern Europe and 87 are from Africa. Companies from about 30 least developed countries were provided with free booths at the fourth CIIE.
The report also shows that 274 industry-leading companies, some of which are on the Global 500 list, attended last year's expo. During the fourth CIIE, $70.72 billion worth of tentative deals were clinched.
As the CIIE enters its fifth year, multinational exhibitors have continued to express hope in participating in the fifth edition of the trade fair in November.
At an online meeting held by the CIIE Bureau recently, 15 high-profile corporate executives from different industrial committees of the CIIE Enterprise Alliance expressed confidence in Shanghai's anti-epidemic fight and the resilience of the Chinese market.
"Facing changes unseen in a century, we see that China has never stopped the pace of implementing opening-up when confronting challenges of the pandemic or the turbulence of the global situation. It has steadily advanced the annual CIIE, which provides broader opportunities for industry exchanges and stronger confidence," said Jean-Christophe Pointeau, president of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group China during the online meeting.
Pointeau added that Pfizer's products became more accessible to ordinary people in China and brought benefits to many Chinese patients through the annual expo.
Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the fifth CIIE will be held from November 5 to 10 this year as scheduled.
The CIIE Bureau recently released several favorable measures to help exhibitors overcome difficulties in production and operation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.
For example, exhibitors that set up their own booths will be entitled to a 300-yuan ($45.14) subsidy for each square meter of their exhibition space. The subsidies, which shall be no more than the cost of setting up the booth, can be redeemed directly or used to offset booth fees at the sixth CIIE or costs incurred during the fifth CIIE, including costs for forums, activities, hotels and advertisements.
The registration deadline for the fifth CIIE has also been extended to July 31, 2022.
To date, more than 75 percent of the planned exhibition space of the 5th CIIE has been reserved. More than 250 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders, as well as most of the world's top 10 companies in the pharmaceutical, medical equipment and automobile industries have confirmed their participation in the expo.
Opening-up is the hallmark of contemporary China. The CIIE demonstrates China's resolve to expand high-level opening up, share development opportunities with the world and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all.
It is time to seize the myriad opportunities in the Chinese market through the CIIE. Be sure to sign up for the fifth edition this year. Click here to register: https://www.ciie.org/exhibition/f/book/register?locale=en&from=enpress
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE China International Import Expo (CIIE) | 2022-06-10T14:21:35+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/06/10/ciie-gearing-up-its-fifth-edition/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rep. David Valadao advanced Friday to a November runoff in a Democratic-tilting district in California's Central Valley, surviving a challenge from a fellow Republican who faulted the congressman for his vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
With most of the votes tallied in the 22nd District, Valadao had about 26% of the vote, several points ahead of rival Republican Chris Mathys.
Valadao’s advance to the November runoff against Democrat Rudy Salas, a state legislator, caps a list of competitive races in California districts that will play into the fight for control of Congress this year.
Valadao, who was never a Trump loyalist and highlights an independent streak, held his seat from 2013 until January 2019, lost it for a term, then won it back in a 2020 rematch with Democrat T.J. Cox, despite running in a strongly Democratic district.
His newly drawn district, the 22nd, has a similar, strong Democratic tilt. Mathys, an ardent Trump supporter, promised to oust Valadao for his impeachment vote. But Trump never significantly engaged in the race and Valadao, a dairy farmer and son of Portuguese immigrants, had the state GOP endorsement and the backing of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who is close to Trump.
Valadao didn’t support then-candidate Trump in 2016, but then backed his reelection four years later.
However, Valadao would break with Trump’s White House at times, including criticizing the administration for family separations at the border. He ran in 2020 as “an independent problem solver” and in one ad highlighted his work with former President Barack Obama on water issues critical the farm-belt region.
He has called Trump a driving force in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Trump’s “inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense,” Valadao has said.
Democrats are hoping to defend their fragile majority in the House in midterm elections that typically punish the party that controls the White House. President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have slumped as Americans contend with record-level inflation, a lingering pandemic and soaring gas prices.
Another of the state's marquee races will be in a Democratic-leaning district north of Los Angeles, where Republican Rep. Mike Garcia will have a rematch with the Democrat he defeated two years ago, former legislator Christy Smith.
In a closely divided coastal district in Orange County, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, a star of the party’s progressive wing, will face Republican Scott Baugh, a former state legislative leader.
In a diverse district anchored in Orange County, Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel, a South Korean immigrant, will face Democrat Jay Chen. The district, which includes the nation’s largest Vietnamese American community, is widely considered a toss-up. | 2022-06-25T02:27:22+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/California-GOP-Rep-Valadao-advances-in-US-House-17264746.php |
FLINT, MI -- Part of an $850,000 Charles Stewart Mott Foundation grant will help pay for a gun buy-back program in Flint -- one that’s designed to take specific types of automatic weapons out of circulation.
The city announced the grant in a news release on Tuesday, July 26, and said it would also pay for an expanded cold case resolution unit, development of a witness protection program, overtime pay for police officers, and funding for the police department’s intelligence center.
“I am thankful for the Mott Foundation’s support in addressing our urgent need to curb violent crime in our city,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said in a statement released by the city. “This grant provides crucial tools for increasing the capacity of our personnel and enhancing our public safety infrastructure.”
Neeley requested the grant following Memorial Day weekend after police responded to four shootings during a single 24-hour period.
As of July 10, homicides were down more than 40 percent in Flint compared to the same point in 2021, which was a near-record-breaking year, according to Flint crime statics. The overall violent crime in the city was down more than 24 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the July 10 report.
The city’s announcement Tuesday said homicide rates are currently down 20 percent compared to 2021 but that additional efforts are needed.
Neeley credited programs implemented during the past year, including the re-opening of five police mini-stations, for the reduction in violent crime this year compared to 2021.
Nearly a year ago, the mayor declared a state of emergency in Flint due to increasing gun violence, and earlier this year, Genesee County started a targeted crime enforcement initiative dubbed “Operation Arrowhead” in which county deputies respond to calls for help in Flint’s central business district and surrounding college campuses.
The gun bounty program had been announced by Neeley nearly two years ago, but the Mott grant will provide funding for the initiative developed by Flint police and the Detroit Crime Commission. The program will allow residents to sell specific types of automatic weapons with no questions asked.
Like guns confiscated by Flint police, the firearms will be destroyed rather than sold at auction.
In addition to the gun bounty, the Mott grant will pay for three police analysts in the department’s intelligence Center, as well as surveillance equipment such as wireless closed-circuit television cameras and drones.
Police have credited the center for assisting in the arrest of Paris Alexander, who was charged this month with threatening to carry out a mass shooting at a General Motors facility.
The center was established in 2017 and is used to analyze crime trends, but the Mott grant will allow it to operate around the clock, according to the city.
The cold case unit expansion will allow the city to hire retired police officers and detectives to focus exclusively on the resolution of cold cases and the witness protection program will be developed with Genesee County, according to the city.
Ridgway White, president and chief executive officer of the Mott Foundation, said the grant is in response to residents who “have repeatedly told us that public safety continues to be a top priority for them.”
Read more:
Flint will buy back guns as part of effort to combat rising violent crime
Flint police hope new intelligence center will slash response times
Flint mayor says city will destroy, not auction off guns seized by police
Sheriff’s ‘Operation Arrowhead’ could take over policing downtown Flint | 2022-07-26T18:34:23+00:00 | mlive.com | https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2022/07/flint-will-buy-back-guns-with-part-of-850k-mott-foundation-grant.html |
Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Google over digital advertising
Posted/updated on: January 24, 2023 at 12:32 pm(WASHINGTON) -- The Justice Department and eight other states filed a historic antitrust lawsuit Tuesday targeting Google over what they allege is the Big Tech giant's monopoly over the online advertising market.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, aims to have Google's dominance in the online ad marketplace broken up by having a court compel the company to divest its Google Ad Manager suite. They also seek an order from the court enjoining Google from further engaging in any of the anticompetitive practices outlined in their lawsuit.
"Having inserted itself into all aspects of the digital advertising marketplace, Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," according to the lawsuit. "The United States and Plaintiff States bring this action for violations of the Sherman Act to halt Google’s anticompetitive scheme, unwind Google’s monopolistic grip on the market, and restore competition to digital advertising."
DOJ is joined in the lawsuit by California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia.
"Competition in the ad tech space is broken, for reasons that were neither accidental nor inevitable," the DOJ wrote in the lawsuit. "One industry behemoth, Google, has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. | 2023-01-24T19:45:12+00:00 | ktbb.com | https://ktbb.com/post/?p=1196634 |
The White House on Thursday unveiled a much-anticipated national strategy to counter antisemitism, including more than 100 new actions the Biden administration says it will take to counter anti-Jewish hate. The administration also called on Congress and big tech to crack down on antisemitism online.
In a video message, President Biden called the strategy an historic step forward.
"It sends a clear and forceful message: In America, evil will not win. Hate will not prevail. The venom and violence of antisemitism will not be the story of our time," he said.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff — the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president — and other White House officials detailed the 60-page strategy in a virtual event on Thursday. It is the first-ever nationwide strategy on antisemitism produced by the federal government.
"At its core, antisemitism divides us. It erodes our trust in government institutions and one another. It threatens our democracy while undermining our American values of freedom, community and decency," Emhoff said.
"We cannot stay silent. I will not remain silent. I will not stand idly by and allow antisemitism to poison our society," he added.
The strategy consists of four pillars to target antisemitism: Increasing awareness and understanding of antisemitism; improving safety and security in Jewish communities; reversing the normalizing of antisemitism; and building solidarity across communities.
The strategy calls on Congress to hold social media companies accountable for hate speech spread on their platforms, and it includes 10 specific calls for big tech companies to crack down on antisemitism online, including instituting zero-tolerance policies on hate speech and ensuring online algorithms don't spread antisemitic content.
A 2021 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that five major social media platforms failed to remove 84% of antisemitic posts.
A 50-state survey released in 2020 found 63% of millennials and Gen Z Americans did not know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
SEE MORE: Antisemitic attacks jump to highest levels in decades, ADL finds
Outgoing White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice said the National Holocaust Memorial Museum will launch the first ever U.S.-based holocaust education research center next year. Also, the National Endowment for Humanities will expand investments in K-12 education on antisemitism.
Federal agencies will also incorporate information on antisemitic bias in their anti-discrimination training programs.
White House officials on Thursday also highlighted the need to improve community safety. White House National Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said that the Biden administration had increased its funding to improve security at Jewish synagogues and other buildings from $180 million two years ago to $305 million today, and is calling on Congress for $360 million in the next budget.
The strategy follows months of community and inter-agency talks led by Doug Emhoff, who traveled to Poland and Germany earlier this year to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day and to meet with special envoys from across Europe to discuss strategies to combat antisemitic hatred.
In December, more than 100 members of Congress sent a letter to Biden urging him to formulate a national strategy on antisemitism. In the months since, officials have continued to highlight record levels of antisemitic speech online and increased hate crimes being committed in the U.S.
On Monday, a 19-year-old Missouri man crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier near the White House.
The man, who was carrying a Nazi flag, said he wanted to "get to the White House, seize power and be put in charge of the nation," according to charging documents.
A coalition of 25 Jewish organizations praised the White House in a joint statement on Thursday for its "clarity and urgency" in releasing the strategy.
"We welcome the embrace of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is a continuation of longstanding U.S. policy and a critical tool in the fight against anti-Jewish hate and bias. We look forward to collaborating with the White House and Congress to ensure the implementation of this National Strategy," the statement said.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | 2023-05-25T22:03:15+00:00 | ksby.com | https://www.ksby.com/white-house-unveils-national-strategy-to-combat-antisemitism |
The genteel world of chess has been rocked by accusations of cheating made by the game’s leading player.
Magnus Carlsen, the world champion and a player widely considered one of the greatest ever, posted a statement on Twitter in which he said he believed 19-year-old American opponent Hans Niemann “has cheated more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted.”
Carlsen lost to Niemann two weeks ago at the over-the-board Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, after which Carlsen withdrew from the tournament.
The Norwegian then quit a game against Niemann at the online Julius Baer Generation Cup last week after making just one move.
“His over-the-board progress has been unusual,” Carlsen wrote about Niemann in his Twitter post late Monday, “and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.
People are also reading…
“This game contributed to changing my perspective.”
Carlsen offered no evidence of Niemann cheating.
“There is more that I would like to say,” Carlsen wrote. “Unfortunately, at this time I am limited in what I can say without explicit permission from Niemann to speak openly.”
Carlsen added he is “not willing to play chess with Niemann.”
Niemann has previously admitted to cheating when playing online chess when he was 12 and 16, but has denied ever cheating over the board.
“We must do something about cheating,” Carlsen said, “and for my part going forward, I don’t want to play against people that have cheated repeatedly in the past, because I don’t know what they are capable of doing in the future.”
In a statement published on Friday — three days before Carlsen’s accusations — the president of the International Chess Federation, Arkady Dvorkovich, said the governing body shared Carlsen’s “deep concerns about the damage that cheating brings to chess” and is prepared to investigate incidents “when the adequate initial proof is provided.”
However, Dvorkovich added about Carlsen’s conduct in leaving a game after one move: “We strongly believe that the world champion has a moral responsibility attached to his status, since he is viewed as a global ambassador of the game.
“His actions impact the reputation of his colleagues, sportive results, and eventually can be damaging to our game. We strongly believe that there were better ways to handle this situation.”
Niemann has not publicly responded to Carlsen’s accusations.
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-09-27T15:09:28+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/chess-world-rocked-by-cheating-accusation-made-by-carlsen/article_a0dfe2d1-7045-5496-b8a7-d20edf26cacd.html |
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Now we turn to your comments about our program.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And we've been getting a lot of them about yesterday's story from Linesville, Pennsylvania. Linesville says its spillway is the second most popular tourist attraction in Pennsylvania after the Liberty Bell. At that spillway, a mass of carp and mallard ducks fight over bites of Wonder Bread thrown by tourists. It's known as the place where ducks walk on the fish.
SIEGEL: Our story was about plans to end this tradition of feeding the animals. And it featured not only local voices, but an original song.
(Soundbite of song "Bread in the Water")
Mr. TIM FITE: (Singing) Grandma, Grandma Where's this river at? You know the one Where ducks be walking On the fishes back. Grandpa said I can have a piece of bread To break in little bits and throw it, Throw it over the edge
(Soundbite of people at the spillway)
Unidentified Child #1: There you go fishes.
Unidentified Man: And they just try and suck it all in.
Unidentified Child #2: I like to watch them fight.
Unidentified Man: And they're fighting over it. And then the ducks just walk on top of the fish because they're trying to get a piece of bread, grab it, and keep right on moving.
Unidentified Child #2: Whoa, Daddy.
BLOCK: Charles Tushling(ph) posted a comment on our Web site thanking us for the story. He calls it a lighthearted story that carried a heavier message about how people in power really blow it sometimes. It really cracked me up. And the song is absolutely brilliant. After this year, I needed the laugh.
SIEGEL: Well, many listeners agreed with Mr. Tushling's praise. But this email from Thomas Larson of Minneapolis also reflects a lot of comments we received. Mr. Larson writes, the tiniest of snippets of the reggae fishy bready lesson don't be happy, be worried song were bearable. But mining it for every last word and weak redundant sentiment had me gritting my teeth long before this tapeworm of a story finally slipped away for good. This one gets my vote for this year's most shining example of All Things Belabored.
BLOCK: Thanks for letting us know what you think. You can post comments below our stories at npr.org, or you can click on contact us at the top of the home page and send us a message. Either way, please make sure to tell us where you live and how you pronounce your name.
(Soundbite of song "Bread in the Water")
Mr. FITE: (Singing) In that town where ducks won't go fishing, Fa la la They're trying to put bread out of business. Fa la la ta ta But if we could sleep with a mission(ph). Fa la la ta ta Grandpa said I could have a piece of bread To break in little bits and throw it, Throw it over the edge.
SIEGEL: This is NPR, National Public Radio. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. | 2023-07-22T13:16:04+00:00 | kclu.org | https://www.kclu.org/2008-12-31/letters-fish-and-ducks |
Chemical recycling of waste plastics viewed as key approach in advancing sustainability of chemical industry
BEIJING, March 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ma Yongsheng, President of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, "Sinopec"), is calling for the inclusion of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects into China's voluntary emission reduction system.
CCUS is a key decarbonization technology with the potential to significantly reduce emission and be a key contributor on the path to achieve the "Dual Carbon" goals. While China's CCUS technology and projects are developing steadily, the scale of CCUS projects is still relatively small compared to the total emission volume, and certain gaps in core technologies, especially the high cost, are limiting the large-scale commercial application.
Ma's proposal of including CCUS projects into China's voluntary emission reduction system calls for the relaunching and building of the unified national CCER (China Certified Emission Reduction) market, so that more carbon reduction projects can participate in the carbon market and motivate companies to carry out emission reduction projects.
"In the meantime, it's crucial to conduct and publish CCUS methodology research at the national level, or accredit methodological research completed by companies and publish timely to promote the scaled development of CCUS projects," noted Ma.
He suggests amending the CCUS industry regulations, institutional and legal framework, and technical specifications to launch national standards of quantitative CCUS certification, and exploring the supporting policies such as CCUS tax preference and subsidy incentives towards achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.
Chemical recycling of waste plastics is a sustainable "waste to wealth" approach of advancing the green transformation of the refining and chemical industry and part of the circular economy roadmap to improve resource utilization rate and reduce GHG emissions. While China is carrying out technological research in sync with international peers, there are still challenges of difficulty in acquiring raw materials, lack of technology maturity and overall planning capabilities of the entire industry chain. It's imperative to establish industrial demonstration and chemical recycling industry chain as well as raw materials and product related standard systems.
Ma has proposed to accelerate top-level planning and promote companies to establish national innovation centers, continue to tackle core technologies, and strengthen commercial development and resources utilization under government guidance to further promote the green transformation of the industry.
For more information, please visit Sinopec.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE SINOPEC | 2023-03-13T13:25:55+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2023/03/13/towards-dual-carbon-goals-sinopec-calls-building-ccus-into-chinas-voluntary-emission-reduction-system/ |
Guest column: Hiring people with disabilities helps build a diverse workforce
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), and as a person with a disability (Type 1 diabetes) and as president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, I want to urge all employers to make a concerted effort to hire people with disabilities and adopt inclusive policies and practices in the workplace.
Why? The worker shortage is one reason. As our economy works to recover from the effects of the pandemic, companies have a critical need for skilled and reliable workers of all backgrounds. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that just only 22.5% of Americans with disabilities participate in the labor force. That compares with more than 67% of people in the general population who are working.
The need for great employees is another reason. People with disabilities make up a dependable and valuable workforce and have higher rates of employee retention, which reduces hiring and training costs. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that employers who have embraced disability as part of their talent and DEI strategy report:
- 90% increase in retention of valued employees.
- 72% increase in employee productivity.
- 45% increase in workplace safety.
- 38% reported saving workers comp and other insurance costs.
- 28% reported increased profitability.
- 90% of consumers surveyed say they would prefer to give their business to companies that hire individuals with disabilities.
A third reason is a commitment to DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — which is gaining much-needed attention. Hiring people with disabilities makes a workplace truly diverse and inclusive while ensuring equity is pursued and achieved.
Goodwill wants to ensure all Americans who want to work can, and have access to services enabling them to do so. That’s why Central Oklahoma Goodwill hires people with disabilities and partners with other nonprofits serving the disabled like NewView Oklahoma and Dale Rogers Training Center. Goodwill hires people like David, a store associate in Stillwater who is nearly blind, but comes to work each day faithfully with his guide dog and is a valuable contributor to his store’s economy. Or employees like Taneka, who lives victoriously and joyfully each day serving our Edmond store shoppers and participated this year as a fashion model in our annual Work The Runway fundraising event. Their stories can be seen on our website.
In 2021, local nonprofit Goodwill organizations, like ours, across North America placed more than 140,000 people with disabilities into employment. Goodwill also provides support services like rehabilitation programs for people with injuries or illnesses, occupational skills training, and job readiness and soft skills training.
If someone you know needs assistance in finding a job or moving up the career ladder, Goodwill can help. If you operate a business, large or small, and would like to consider hiring persons with disabilities, but don’t know where to start, Goodwill can help you, too.
Forty-two years ago, a law firm employed a young man with Type 1 diabetes as a trial lawyer. It was the career start he needed. You can give a career start to someone, too.
Jim T. Priest is the president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma. | 2022-10-26T16:37:29+00:00 | oklahoman.com | https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/2022/10/26/guest-column-why-employers-should-hire-people-with-disabilities/69568980007/ |
LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry has arrived at a London court ahead of his testimony against a tabloid publisher he accuses of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping.
The prince arrived at the High Court in a black SUV.
Harry has made a mission of holding the U.K. press to account for what he sees as its hounding of him and his family.
This is the first of several lawsuits to go to trial. He accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an “industrial scale” to get scoops.
The 38-year-old son of King Charles III will be the first British royal since the 19th century to enter a courtroom witness box. He will face cross-examination by a lawyer for the defendant, Mirror Group Newspapers. | 2023-06-07T04:04:46+00:00 | wivb.com | https://www.wivb.com/entertainment-news/prince-harry-arrives-at-high-court-for-testimony-in-phone-backing-case/ |
Michael P Stoddard Ft bought the property at 9 Sabin Street, Belchertown, from Home Bldrs Inc Laliberte on Jan. 25, 2023, for $739,000 which works out to $329 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an attached garage and sits on a 43,185 square-foot lot.
Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:
- In October 2022, a 1,794-square-foot home on Sabin Street in Belchertown sold for $400,000, a price per square foot of $223.
- A 2,484-square-foot home at 49 Sabin Street in Belchertown sold in November 2021, for $65,000, a price per square foot of $26.
- On Sabin Street, Belchertown, in November 2022, a 1,198-square-foot home was sold for $225,000, a price per square foot of $188.
Real Estate Wire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data. | 2023-03-14T22:43:05+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/realestate-news/2023/03/single-family-house-sells-for-739000-in-belchertown.html |
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Joan Cohrs missed her chance to grab a prescription at her usual drugstore by about 30 seconds.
Cohrs walked up to the counter of an Indianapolis CVS pharmacy shortly after a metal curtain descended, closing it for lunch. She didn't mind. The 60-year-old said she feels compassion for people in health care.
“They definitely need a break,” said Cohrs, who was working at an assisted living facility when COVID-19 hit.
A rush of vaccines, virus tests and a busy flu season started overwhelming pharmacies more than a year ago, forcing many to temporarily close when workers weren't available.
Major drugstore chains have raised pay and dangled signing bonuses to add employees. They’re also emphasizing the lunch breaks and sending routine prescription work to other locations to improve conditions in their pandemic-battered pharmacies.
Still, temporary closures persist, and experts say bigger changes are needed.
“There isn’t a shortage of pharmacists. There’s just a shortage of pharmacists who want to work in those high-stress environments that aren’t adequately resourced,” said Richard Dang, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California.
Drugstores rely on pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to fill prescriptions, answer phones, work the drive-thru window, administer vaccines and give tests.
They also ask them to manage a growing amount of patient health. Pharmacists in many stores now help people quit smoking and monitor their blood sugar. And companies like Walgreens are pushing them to work more with primary care doctors.
Pharmacists also can now test for COVID-19 and then prescribe medicine, a process that might take 20 minutes or more.
Giving pharmacists a chance to have a bigger impact on public health is “awesome,” said Stefanie Ferreri, a University of North Carolina pharmacy professor. But she added that “the workforce wasn’t quite ready.”
Pharmacies, like other businesses, were hurt earlier in the pandemic because employees who got COVID-19 — or those in close contact with someone who did — had to miss work for a few days. Stress also left many pharmacists and technicians feeling burned out and looking for other jobs, industry observers say.
The number of job postings for retail pharmacists rose 63% from 2020 to 2021, according to the Pharmacy Workforce Center, a non-profit that tracks openings.
Walgreens leaders said Thursday that they added a net total of 600 pharmacists in the recently completed fiscal first quarter. But staff shortages still force the chain to reduce hours at some pharmacies.
A company representative decline to elaborate, calling it a fluid situation.
In addition to employee shortages, drugstores also are dealing with thin prescription reimbursement. That makes it hard to raise pay to compete for employees, said Douglas Hoey, CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association.
“When just about everything goes up in price, pharmacies are still getting paid as if it was 2019 or 2018,” he said.
Walgreens is opening processing centers to help fill some of the routine prescriptions that stores get from patients with chronic conditions. Company leaders expect these centers to eventually take over about half the prescription volume from their stores.
The company also said in October it would eliminate all “task-based" measurements that are part of performance reviews for pharmacy employees.
CVS Health is trying to spread data entry and prescription verification work to different locations to ease the load at busy stores.
The company also started emphasizing the half-hour lunch breaks in February.
Those have limited value, according to Bled Tanoe, a former Walgreens pharmacist in Oklahoma City. She said customers often arrive just before the pharmacy closes, eating into the break time.
And store employees frequently catch up on work during that break.
Tanoe, 35, said she left drugstores in 2021 to work at a hospital because the demands were getting “impossible.” She and others say bolder steps are needed to improve the pharmacies. Pharmacists should have the ability to temporarily close counters or cancel some vaccination appointments when workloads get overwhelming, Tanoe said.
“A pharmacist whose license is on the line has to be the one to navigate and to dictate what is happening in the pharmacy on a daily function,” she said.
Dang noted that a relatively new California law prevents chain drugstores from establishing quotas for how many prescriptions a pharmacist must fill during a shift.
He also said drugstores simply need more employees behind the counter if they add services. He noted that the bigger chains are more prone to running drugstores with only one pharmacist.
At least one has to be on duty for a pharmacy to operate.
Ferreri would like to see more drugstores set appointments for regulars. That gives pharmacists predictable workloads and more time to fill and check prescriptions. It also reduces trips for customers and can help them keep track of refills.
These appointments ease stress, said Jessi Stout, owner of Table Rock Pharmacy in Morganton, North Carolina.
“It’s not like the patient’s in, waiting for you to fill 15 prescriptions at once,” she said.
One of Stout’s regulars, Debra Bowles, calls the free program “priceless.”
She refills about six prescriptions every month and has her mom enrolled in a similar program at another pharmacy.
“It makes taking care of people who cannot take care of themselves much easier,” the 65-year-old said.
While some pharmacies are changing how they operate, customers also can help. Ferreri recommends giving drugstores a few days to refill a prescription instead of waiting until the last pill.
Patience also is needed, said Brigid Groves, an executive with the American Pharmacists Association. She said they hear more about customers taking out their frustrations on pharmacy employees over delays or medicine shortages.
“I think on both sides of the counter, we need to all have grace and realize this is a very challenging and stressful time for everyone,” she said.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | 2023-01-07T15:33:57+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Drugstores-make-slow-headway-on-staffing-problems-17701455.php |
WACO, Texas (FOX44) – The Texas Workforce Commission and its local Workforce Solutions partners have named Ascension Providence as Texas’ Large Employer of the Year.
The announcement was made at the 25th annual Texas Workforce Conference going on this week in Dallas.
Ascension Providence was nominated by Workforce Solutions for the Heart of Texas, and is a founding member of the Greater Waco Advance Health Care Academy. The Academy, which provides high school students a pathway to the healthcare industry, upgraded the skills of 187 employees with a Skills Development Fund grant and participated in Workforce Solutions job fairs – hiring nearly 600 people in the past year.
“Business innovation is one of the key factors that make Texas the best state for business, and these awards highlight the achievements of employers and other Texas partners contributing to the vitality of the Texas labor market,” said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel. “Working together, we keep Texas the national workforce leader.”
The theme of this year’s conference was “25 years of Conducting Innovation.” | 2022-12-02T18:43:06+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/ascension-providence-named-texas-large-employer-of-the-year/ |
Gas prices now cheaper than one year ago
(CNN) - Gas prices soared to record levels in 2022, but after all that pain at the pump, fuel is now cheaper than it was a year ago.
According to AAA, the average cost of regular unleaded in the U.S. is now $3.33 a gallon.
This time last year, it was $3.34 a gallon.
The all-time record high came in June, with gas hitting just over $5 a gallon.
Since then, a slowing economy and recession fears have helped pushed down demand, resulting in a sharp drop in prices.
Average prices in the U.S. dropped by 14 cents in the past week and 47 cents in the past month.
Certain factors could push prices back up, including the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s potential response to Europe’s oil embargo and new price cap.
Also, OPEC could slash production again, and demand from China could rebound faster than expected.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2022-12-08T16:04:13+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/2022/12/08/gas-prices-now-cheaper-than-one-year-ago/ |
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him murdered.
In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press, Carolyn Bryant Donham says she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till, who lived in Chicago and was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted, killed and tossed in a river. Now 87, Donham was only 21 at the time. Her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were acquitted of murder charges but later confessed in a magazine interview.
The contents of the 99-page manuscript, titled “I am More Than A Wolf Whistle,” were first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, who said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP on Thursday.
Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation the agency concluded last year. He said he decided to make it public now following the recent discovery of an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for Donham in 1955 but never served.
“The potential for an investigation was more important than the archival agreements, though those are important things,” Tyson said. “But this is probably the last chance for an indictment in this case.”
A cousin of Till who leads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, Deborah Watts, said the memoir is new evidence that shows Donham’s involvement in the case and is particularly important when combined with the arrest warrant.
“I truly believe these developments cannot be ignored by the authorities in Mississippi,” she said.
In the memoir, Donham says she attempted to help Till once he’d been located by her husband and brother-in-law and brought to her in the middle of the night for identification.
“I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didn’t know what was planned for him,” Donham says in the manuscript compiled by her daughter-in-law. “I tried to protect him by telling Roy that ‘He’s not the one. That’s not him. Please take him home.’” She claims in the manuscript that Till, who had been dragged from a family home at gunpoint in the middle of the night, spoke up and identified himself.
Donham adds that she “always felt like a victim as well as Emmett” and “paid dearly with an altered life” for what happened to him.
“I have always prayed that God would bless Emmett’s family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was caused,” she says at the end of the manuscript, which is signed “Carolyn” but indicates that it was written by her daughter-in-law Marsha Bryant.
The memoir is remarkable not only because it’s the most extensive account of the sensational episode ever recorded by Donham, but also because it contains contradictions that raise questions about her truthfulness through the years, said Dale Killinger, a retired FBI agent who investigated the case more than 15 years ago.
For instance, Donham claims in the memoir to have yelled for help after being confronted by Till inside the family grocery store in Money, Mississippi, yet no one ever reported hearing her screams, Killinger said. Also, Donham never previously mentioned that she and Roy Bryant chatted about the abduction. In the manuscript, she says they did.
“That seems ludicrous,” Killinger said. “How would you have a major event in your life and not talk about it?”
The Justice Department closed its most recent investigation into the case in December and Mississippi authorities haven’t given any indication they plan to pursue the kidnapping warrant or other charges against Donham. But the Till family is pushing authorities to act.
Keith Beauchamp, a filmmaker whose documentary preceded the Justice Department probe in which Killinger was involved and that ended without charges in 2007, said the memoir shows that Donham “is culpable in the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Louis Till and to not hold her accountable for her actions, is an injustice to us all.”
“Our fight will continue until justice is finally served,” Beauchamp said.
It was Beauchamp, along with two of Till’s relatives, who discovered the arrest warrant with Donham’s name on it earlier this month in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse.
Tyson, the historian who provided the roughly 35,000-word manuscript to the AP, helped spur the government’s most recent investigation into the killing by publishing a book in 2017 in which he quoted Donham as saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. In the memoir, however, she claims Till did do those things. During the most recent investigation, Donham told the FBI she had never recanted, the Justice Department said.
Tyson said Donham’s statements in the memoir exonerating herself of wrongdoing need to be taken with “a good-sized shovel full of salt,” particularly her claim that Till identified himself to the men who took him from the family home and later admitted killing him.
“Two big white men with guns came and dragged him out of his aunt and great-uncle’s house at 2 o’clock in the morning in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. I do not believe for one minute that he identified himself,” Tyson said.
Neither Donham nor any of her relatives have responded to messages and phone calls from the AP seeking comment. It is unclear where Donham currently lives or if she has an attorney. Her last known address was in Raleigh, North Carolina.
___
This story has been edited to clarify that Tyson provided a copy of the manuscript to the FBI for an investigation that ended last year, not in 2007.
___
Reeves reported from Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity Team. | 2022-07-15T12:20:54+00:00 | wjhl.com | https://www.wjhl.com/news/national/emmett-till-accuser-in-memoir-denies-wanting-teen-killed/ |
(The Hill) – House Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said Monday he expects the Justice Department will ultimately charge former President Trump after the panel approved multiple criminal referrals for Trump.
“If the evidence is as we presented it, I’m convinced the Justice Department will charge former President Trump. No one, including a former president, is above the law,” Thompson said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper moments after the conclusion of the panel’s final public meeting on Monday.
Thompson and the panel’s other members took the unprecedented step of voting on four criminal referrals for Trump: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement as well as efforts to “incite,” “assist” or “aid or comfort” an insurrection.
The decision is a reversal from when Thompson in June indicated the committee would not make criminal referrals for Trump, telling reporters, “no, that’s not our job.”
The referrals serve as a symbolic gesture from the committee. The Department of Justice would need to ultimately move forward with charging the former president.
“The committee looked at it long and hard,” Thompson told Tapper on CNN.
“And from my vantage point, we couldn’t do anything except make the referral,” Thompson continued. “It was clear in our review, it was clear in evaluation of the evidence uncovered by our committee that those actions taken by former President Trump clearly created a problem for this country, and we were all concerned about it. But we’re concerned about it to the point, Jake, that we moved it to the Justice Department.”
Tapper also asked Thompson about two other crimes mentioned in the report, seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, that the committee did not formally vote on.
“It was inconclusive, from that point,” Thompson said of the evidence supporting those charges. “We feel very strongly about the four votes we took on these referrals, and we’ll go from there.” | 2022-12-20T01:32:11+00:00 | kdvr.com | https://kdvr.com/news/jan-6-chair-convinced-doj-will-charge-trump/ |
Twelve Republican representatives in a letter dated Thursday urged the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee to prioritize a bill funding a program that provides medical care for survivors of and responders to the 9/11 attacks, in light of an “impending funding shortfall” the program is facing.
“As you are aware, the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) is facing an impending funding shortfall due to a rise in medical costs and cancer rates over the last three years,” the lawmakers wrote to Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.).
They continued, citing an article by the New York Daily News: “WTCHP is rapidly approaching a deficit in funding that will force the program to have to ratchet down spending and bar any new sick responders or survivors by October 2024.”
Thursday’s letter followed up on another letter sent by the same group of representatives in July asking for Pallone’s bipartisan cooperation on the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act.
The bill, H.R. 4965, would bolster the WTCHP, a federal program that monitors the health of survivors and provides them with care for health conditions related to the 2001 attacks.
It would also establish a research program to determine the effects of the attacks on those who were 21 years old or younger when they occurred.
“H.R. 4965 not only addresses the current funding shortfall directly, but also ensures adequate funding for years to come,” wrote the 12 Republicans.
The lawmakers called on Pallone to allow for a full committee markup of the bill during the upcoming legislative period.
“If Congress does not quickly address this impending crisis, then the men and women who put their lives on the line and who survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks will lose health coverage to treat the physical and mental illnesses that they sustained on that fateful day,” they wrote, noting that no action had been taken since the letter sent in July “despite broad bipartisan support and the looming funding deficit.”
The lawmakers who signed the letter are Reps. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.), John Katko (N.Y.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.), Claudia Tenney (N.Y.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Dan Meuser (Pa.), David Joyce (Ohio), Jefferson Van Drew (N.J.) and Rodney Davis (Ill.).
“Congress has a responsibility to uphold our promises. We implore you not to turn a blind eye to the hardship 9/11 responders and survivors are facing and urge you to move this critical legislation forward without further delay,” they concluded. | 2022-09-13T00:12:50+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/politics/gop-reps-warn-program-providing-medical-care-for-9-11-survivors-faces-impending-funding-shortfall/ |
A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of sometimes-aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas.
The 15-minute run-in with at least three of the giant mammals forced the crew competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday to drop its sails and raise a clatter in an attempt to scare the approaching orcas off. No one was injured, but Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said in a video posted on The Ocean Race website that it was “a scary moment.”
“Twenty minutes ago, we got hit by some orcas,” he said in the video. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.”
Team JAJO was approaching the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea on a leg from the Netherlands to Italy when at least three orcas approached the VO65 class sloop. Video taken by the crew showed one of the killer whales appeared to be nuzzling the rudder; another video showed one of them running its nose into the hull.
Scientists have noted increasing reports of orcas, which average from 16-21 feet (5-6½ meters) and weigh more than 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), bumping or damaging boats off the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula in the past four years.
The behavior defies easy explanation. A team of marine life researchers who study killer whales off Spain and Portugal has identified 15 individual orcas involved in the encounters — 13 of them young, supporting the hypothesis that they are playing. The fact that two are adults could support the competing and more sensational theory that they are responding to some traumatic event with a boat.
The sailors were warned of the hazard.
“We knew that there was a possibility of an orca attack this leg,” Team JAJO on-board reporter Brend Schuil said. “So we had already spoken about what to do if the situation would occur.”
Schuil said there was a call for all hands on deck and the sails were dropped to slow the boat from a racing speed of 12 knots. The crew made noises to to scare the orcas off, but not before it had fallen from second to fourth on the leg from The Hague to Genoa, where it is expected to arrive this weekend.
“They seemed more aggressive/playful when we were sailing at speed. Once we slowed down they also started to be less aggressive in their attacks,” he said. “Everyone is OK on board and the animals are also OK.”
The Ocean Race involves two classes of sailboats at sea for weeks at a time, with the IMOCA 60 boats competing in a six-month, 32,000-nautical mile (37,000-mile, 59,000-km) circumnavigation of the globe. Boats have already contended with a giant seaweed flotilla, catastrophic equipment failure, and a collision that knocked the leader out of the decisive seventh leg.
Although the race course navigates around exclusion zones to protect known marine habitats, there have been previous encounters with whales in The Ocean Race and other high-speed regattas.
However, they usually involve the boats crashing into the animals, and not the other way around.
One of the boats in the around-the-world portion of this year’s Ocean Race triggered its hazard alarm after hitting what they suspected was a whale off the coast of Newfoundland in May; two crew members were injured in the collision. At the beginning of the 2013 America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay, a whale was reported in the bay and organizers were prepared to delay a race if it wandered onto the course. In 2022, the start of SailGP’s $1 million, winner-take-all Season 2 championship race on the same area of San Francisco Bay was delayed when a whale was spotted on the course.
In 2005, the first South African yacht to challenge for the America’s Cup hit a whale with its 12-foot keel during training near Cape Town, stopping the 75-foot sloop dead in the water, injuring two crewmembers and snapping off both steering wheels.
___
AP Sports Writer Bernie Wilson contributed to this story.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-06-24T00:03:10+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/sports/orcas-disrupt-boat-race-near-spain-in-latest-display-of-puzzling-aggressive-behavior/ |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Members of the United Nations adopted the first-ever treaty to protect marine life in the high seas on Monday, with the U.N.’s chief hailing the historic agreement as giving the ocean “a fighting chance.”
Delegates from the 193 member nations burst into applause and then stood up in a sustained standing ovation when Singapore’s ambassador on ocean issues, Rena Lee, who presided over the negotiations, banged her gavel after hearing no objections to the treaty’s approval.
Oceans produce most of the oxygen we breathe and absorb carbon dioxide, which makes them increasingly critical in reducing carbon emissions that fuel global warming. Yet, currently only 1% of the vast ocean areas are protected.
A treaty to protect biodiversity in waters outside national boundaries, known as the high seas, covering nearly half of earth’s surface, had been under discussion for more than 20 years, but efforts repeatedly stalled until March. That’s when delegates to an intergovernmental conference established by the U.N. General Assembly agreed on a treaty which was then subject to legal scrutiny and translated into the U.N.’s six official languages.
The new treaty will be opened for signatures on Sept. 20, during the annual meeting of world leaders at the General Assembly, and it will take effect once it is ratified by 60 countries.
The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas. It also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told delegates that the adoption of the treaty comes at a critical time, with the oceans under threat on many fronts.
Climate change is disrupting weather patterns and ocean currents, raising sea temperatures, “and altering marine ecosystems and the species living there,” he said, and marine biodiversity “is under attack from overfishing, over-exploitation and ocean acidification.”
“Over one-third of fish stocks are being harvested at unsustainable levels,” the U.N. chief said. “And we are polluting our coastal waters with chemicals, plastics and human waste.”
Guterres said the treaty is vital to address these threats and he urged all countries to spare no efforts to ensure that it is signed and ratified as soon as possible, stressing that “this is critical to addressing the threats facing the ocean.”
The treaty also establishes principles to share “marine genetic resources” discovered by scientists in international waters, a key demand of developing countries who insisted that the fruits of such discoveries could not be solely controlled by richer countries with money to finance expeditions to look for potentially new lucrative ingredients for medicine and cosmetics.
After the treaty’s approval, the Group of 77, the U.N. coalition of 134 mainly developing nations and China, called it “an exceedingly important day for biodiversity,” praising their successful struggle to achieve benefit-sharing in the final text as well as funding to help implement the treaty when ratified.
The Alliance of Small Island States, some of whose members fear that climate change and rising seas can obliterate their countries, said they have been championing a treaty for decades, and its adoption will have far-reaching implications “on our livelihoods, cultures and economies.”
But Russia said it “distances itself from the consensus on the text of the agreement” which it called “unacceptable,” saying it “undermines the provisions of the most important acting international agreements, including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
Sergey Leonidchenko, who heads the Russian Mission’s legal section, told delegates the treaty “does not reach a reasonable balance between conserving and sustainably using the resources of the ocean.” As an example, he said, “checks and balances against politicizing marine conservation areas have not made it into the text.”
The treaty’s adoption follows a separate historic accord reached by world governments in Montreal in December that includes a commitment to protect 30% of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030, known as 30 by 30.
Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance representing over 50 non-governmental organizations and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, praised countries “for moving one step closer towards putting this political accord into action in the water.”
“Countries must now ratify it as quickly as possible to bring it into force so that we can protect our ocean, build our resilience to climate change and safeguard the lives and livelihoods of billions of people,” she said.
Greenpeace’s Chris Thorne called the treaty “a win for all life on this planet.”
“The science is clear, we must protect 30% of the oceans by 2030 to give the oceans a chance to recover and thrive,” he said. | 2023-06-20T04:17:11+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/international/un-members-adopt-first-ever-treaty-to-protect-marine-life-in-the-high-seas/ |
GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) _ Public Storage (PSA) on Tuesday reported a key measure of profitability in its third quarter. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations.
The Glendale, California-based real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $727.4 million, or $4.13 per share, in the period.
The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of $4.05 per share.
Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.
The company said it had net income of $2.71 billion, or $15.38 per share.
The self-storage facility real estate investment trust, based in Glendale, California, posted revenue of $1.09 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.07 billion.
Public Storage expects full-year funds from operations in the range of $15.35 to $15.75 per share.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PSA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/PSA | 2022-11-01T21:13:25+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Public-Storage-Q3-Earnings-Snapshot-17550410.php |
The Georgia Bulldogs, led by quarterback Stetson Bennett, face the TCU Horned Frogs, led by quarterback Max Duggan, in the 2023 College Football Playoff national championship on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023 (1/9/23) at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California
WATCH COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES WITH A SUBSCRIPTION TO FUBOTV HERE
Fans can watch the Georgia vs. TCU game for free via a trial of fuboTV or DirecTV Stream. The game, which starts at 7:30 p.m. ET, can be seen on ESPN.
GET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TICKETS HERE: VIVD SEATS, STUB HUB, TICKETSMARTER
Fans who want to get TCU or Georgia playoff gear can do so at Fanatics here. On Fanatics, you’ll find College Football playoff shirts, hats, hoodies and more.
Fans who want tickets to the game can get them at Stub Hub, Ticketsmarter or Vivid Seats. According to Vivid Seats, ticket prices range from $628 to $248,790.
Here’s what you need to know:
What: NCAA Football, National Championship
Who: Georgia vs. TCU
When: Monday, Jan. 9, 2022
Where: SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Channel finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV, Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
Live stream: fuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial), Sling TV
***
Here’s a recent college football story, via the AP:
After the best semifinal day in the nine-year history of the College Football Playoff, the title game will match the defending national champion against the closest thing the sport has had in years to a Cinderella team.
It will be No. 1 Georgia (14-0) looking for its second straight championship against upstart and No. 3 TCU on Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The four-team playoff has been littered with lopsided semifinal games, but Saturday — and into early Sunday and the new year — delivered two thrillers and a combined 179 points.
The Bulldogs came from 14 points down in the second half to beat No. 4 Ohio State 42-41 in the Peach Bowl and advance to the CFP championship game for the third time under coach Kirby Smart.
“If we want any chance of winning a national championship, we have to play a lot better football than we played tonight, but we have to keep the resiliency and composure along with us,” Smart said.
The Bulldogs and Buckeyes played a classic that came down to a missed field goal by Ohio State with three seconds left. Amazingly, it was even better than the wild opener of the semifinal doubleheader between No. 3 TCU and No. 2 Michigan.
The Horned Frogs (13-1) upset the Wolverines 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl, the second-highest scoring CFP game ever.
“We’re going to celebrate it,” TCU quarterback Max Duggan said. “Obviously, we’re excited, but we know we got a big one coming up.”
TCU, the first Big 12 to win a playoff game, will be looking for its first national title since 1938. Under coach Dutch Meyer, the Horned Frogs beat Carnegie Tech 15-7 in the Sugar Bowl to complete a 10-0 season.
The Southeastern Conference champion Bulldogs opened as a 13 1/2-point favorites, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, in what will be the fifth meeting between the schools.
Georgia has won them all, including the last in the 2016 Liberty Bowl.
Coming off a 5-7 season in 2021 and picked to finish seventh in their conference before the season, the Horned Frogs have embraced the underdog role and thrived on being doubted.
“We know we’re going to hear it again. It’s not going to stop now,” first-year coach Sonny Dykes said. “We got to do what we did this game (against Michigan). We’ve got to answer that criticism and show up and do what we’re supposed to do.
“If we think that’s going away, I think you guys all know that’s not. That’s just the way it is.”
TCU would be the first team to win a national championship the year after having a losing season since Michigan State in 1965.
Georgia, No. 1 for most of the season, is looking for its third national title, trying to become the first back-to-back champion in the CFP era and the first since Alabama won the BCS in 2011 and ‘12.
It will be a matchup of Heisman Trophy finalist quarterbacks, with Duggan and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett.
Neither is a future NFL draft first-rounder, and both had ups and down in the semifinal but came through in the biggest spots.
Duggan ran for two scores and threw two TD passes as the Frogs held back a surging Michigan in the second half.
Bennett threw for 398 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including the game winner with 54 seconds left.
These Bulldogs rely more on Bennett and their offense than last year’s championship team, which fielded one of the best defenses college football has had in recent history. Georgia ranked fifth in the nation in yards per play (6.97) coming into the playoff.
The Frogs have have a powerful offense, too, with Duggan and star receiver Quentin Johnston, who had 163 yards on six catches against the Wolverines.
This is the penultimate season of the four-team version of the playoff before it expands to 12 teams in the 2024 season.
Before Saturday, only three of 16 semifinals had been decided by single digits, and all those blowouts helped fuel a desire to grow the field in the hope of creating some more interesting postseason games.
This New Year’s Eve, the four-team playoff turned out to be an eight-hour college football party.
After losing to TCU, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh summed up his team’s game, and as it turns out, the day.
“The winner,” he said, “was football.”
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust.
Ryan Novozinsky may be reached at rnovozinsky@njadvancemedia.com. | 2023-01-01T20:15:05+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/sports/2023/01/tcu-college-football-national-championship-gear-how-to-get-tcu-horned-frogs-football-gear-fiesta-bowl-champion-gear-online-jerseys-hats-t-shirts-hoodies-more.html |
BALTIMORE, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA, UAA) plans to release its first quarter fiscal 2023 (ended June 30, 2022) results on Aug. 3, 2022, at 6:55 a.m. Eastern Time (ET). Following the news release, Under Armour management will host a conference call at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET to review results.
This call will be webcast live and archived at https://about.underarmour.com/investor-relations/financials.
About Under Armour, Inc.
Under Armour, Inc., headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a leading inventor, marketer, and distributor of branded athletic performance apparel, footwear, and accessories. Designed to empower human performance, Under Armour's innovative products and experiences are engineered to make athletes better. For further information, please visit http://about.underarmour.com.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Under Armour, Inc. | 2022-07-20T21:19:16+00:00 | kmvt.com | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/20/under-armour-announces-first-quarter-fiscal-2023-earnings-conference-call-date/ |
‘Big lunch’ follows big coronation celebrating King Charles
LONDON (AP) — After the gilded spectacle of King Charles III’s crowning in an ancient religious ceremony, coronation festivities took a more down-to-earth turn Sunday with thousands of picnics and street parties held across the U.K. in his honor.
The community get-togethers, part of a British tradition known as the Big Lunch, were intended to bring neighbors together to celebrate the newly crowned king even as support for the monarchy wanes. Critics complained about the coronation’s cost at a time of exorbitant living expenses amid double-digit inflation.
Thousands of luncheons were organized as part of the celebrations Sunday, along with a nighttime concert at Windsor Castle featuring Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and 1990′s boy band Take That. Charles encouraged residents to engage in volunteer activities Monday, which was a holiday.
The king and Queen Camilla were not expected at any of the luncheons but planned to attend the concert that will include a speech by his son, Prince William, heir to the throne.
The king’s siblings, Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Anne, the Princess Royal, and their spouses took on lunch duty for the royal family. Edward was in Cranleigh and his sister hit an event in Swindon. The king’s nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the daughters of Prince Andrew, were to join a lunch in Windsor.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted U.S. first lady Jill Biden and her granddaughter Finnegan Biden at the Big Lunch party held in front of his office. Other guests included Ukrainian refugees and community activists.
As in other neighborhoods with street parties, Downing Street was decked out in Union Jack bunting for the occasion.
The lower-key events followed regalia-laden pageantry that saw the king and queen crowned together in Westminster Abbey. They were presented with centuries-old swords, scepters and a jewel-encrusted golden orb symbolizing the monarch’s power in a medieval tradition celebrated with liturgy, song and hearty cheers of “God save the king.”
The couple then paraded through the streets in a gilded horse-drawn carriage led by the largest ceremonial military procession since the coronation of Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years ago. Some 4,000 troops marched in formation through the streets, their scarlet sleeves and white gloves swinging in unison to the sound of drums and bugles from marching bands, including one group of musicians on horseback.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the route in the rain to see it in person. Nearly 19 million more watched on television in the U.K., according to ratings released by Barb, a research organization. That’s about 40% fewer viewers than had watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.
Charles and Camilla said Sunday in a statement that they were “deeply touched” by the celebration and “profoundly grateful both to all those who helped to make it such a glorious occasion – and to the very many who turned out to show their support.”
Not everyone was there to celebrate, though, and criticism continued Sunday over arrests of more than 50 protesters, including members of a republican group shouting “Not my king” and environmentalists aiming to end the use of fossil fuels.
Graham Smith, leader of Republic, a group advocating for abolishing the monarchy, said he was arrested as he planned peaceful protest and spent 16 hours in police custody.
“These arrests are a direct attack on our democracy and the fundamental rights of every person in the country,” Smith said. “Each and every police officer involved on the ground should hang their heads in shame.”
The Metropolitan Police acknowledged concerns over the arrests, but defended the force’s actions.
“The coronation is a once-in-a-generation event and that is a key consideration in our assessment,” Commander Karen Findlay said.
In addition to the lunch celebrations, hundreds of troops marched through the center of Glasgow on Sunday to celebrate the coronation.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-07T16:41:20+00:00 | wfsb.com | https://www.wfsb.com/2023/05/07/big-lunch-follows-big-coronation-celebrating-king-charles/ |
SINGAPORE, Dec. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In September of this year, blockchain media outlet, Cointelegraph, reported that cryptocurrency trading platform MEXC has ranked as the world's top liquidity provider. Recently, MEXC announced the growth of its contract business, and its average daily trading volume has reached an increase of 1,200%.
"Users first, MEXC's Changing for you" has always been the service philosophy that MEXC adheres to. The 'Zero Maker Fee' Event is set to launch to give back to MEXC's futures users. The activity starts on December 1st.
It is understood that to date, among the mainstream cryptocurrency trading platforms, MEXC is the only platform in the world that offers zero maker fee for futures pending orders. Andrew Weiner, VP of MEXC, said: "In 2022, we will focus on optimizing futures products and basic liquidity according to users' needs. Presently, our liquidity has reached rank 1 globally amongst the top 50 trading platforms by market value."
Since Q4 of 2018, MEXC has consistently launched and upgraded their futures products. In October 2022, MEXC upgraded the futures products and launched the second-level K-line function. These upgrades not only gave users a better trading experience but also met users' needs for more timely and intuitive transaction information - allowing users to experience real-time prices, trading volume, order depth, and more exciting and technical features.
In terms of consistently engaging with MEXC users, MEXC regularly launches Futures M-Day, Super X-Game, Contract Carnival Week, and other user-friendly activities that bring various rewards and bonuses to their users. This 'Zero Maker Fee' Event is a unique and one of many long-lasting and high-level activities featured on the platform.
MEXC's perpetual contract has launched more than 169 tokens and 179 trading pairs now, covering multiple focuses such as public chain, cross-chain, Layer 2, DeFi, and other sectors. MEXC's perpetual contract is the fastest performing function run on the entire network. It has the most abundant derivatives that can be traded, providing each user with various and precise choices.
About MEXC：
MEXC is the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platform, providing one-stop services such as futures, spot, ETF, NFT Index, etc., serving 10 million users worldwide with the philosophy of "Users first, MEXC's Changing for you". For more information, please visit the MEXC official website and off/CNW Telbec/ -icial blog, and follow MEXC Global and M-Ventures&Labs.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE MEXC Global Ltd. | 2022-12-02T09:53:08+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/12/02/1st-exchange-launch-zero-maker-fee-event-futures-orders-mexcs-changing-you/ |
NPR's A Martinez talks to Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about how AI can be developed responsibly, and if it should be regulated.
Copyright 2023 NPR
NPR's A Martinez talks to Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about how AI can be developed responsibly, and if it should be regulated.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-05-04T09:59:51+00:00 | kcbx.org | https://www.kcbx.org/2023-05-04/artificial-intelligence-comes-with-risks-how-can-companies-develop-ai-responsibly |
CLEVELAND, Ohio - A Big Ten college football fan base can finally exhale this week. Those fans waited anxiously for Jim Harbaugh to decide his coaching future. They needed him to stay in Ann Arbor.
We’re talking, of course, about Ohio State fans -- no, that is not a typo. Buckeye Nation may despise him, may scoff at his supposed loyalty to the Wolverines. They may have even been rooting for him to take an NFL job earlier this month. | 2023-01-19T18:11:39+00:00 | mlive.com | https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2023/01/why-harbaughs-return-is-best-thing-that-could-have-happened-for-ohio-state.html |
Mexico issues alert over social media tranquilizer ‘challenge'
MEXICO CITY - Health authorities in Mexico issued an alert Wednesday over an internet "challenge" in which groups of students at three schools in Mexico have taken tranquilizers vying to see who can stay awake longer.
The Health Department called on the public to report any store selling clonazepam, a tranquilizer, without a prescription.
The alert came one week after eight students at a Mexico City middle school were treated after taking a "controlled medication." Some were hospitalized.
RELATED: FDA warns not to cook chicken in NyQuil: ‘A Recipe for Danger’
The department warned about the social media challenge "the last one to fall asleep wins," calling it dangerous.
"The call is also for children and adolescents not to participate or promote challenges that put their lives at risk," the department wrote.
The second school in as many days was hit Thursday by the mass ingestion of tranquilizer pills that may be linked to the social media "challenge."
RELATED: Families sue TikTok after 2 girls die attempting controversial ‘blackout challenge,' lawsuit claims
Earlier last week, three students at another middle school near the northern city of Monterrey were treated for doses of clonazepam.
In 2022, five students at a middle school near the western city of Guadalajara were treated for consumption of what the state governor, Enrique Alfaro, described as "a strong tranquilizer." | 2023-01-26T02:04:33+00:00 | fox9.com | https://www.fox9.com/news/mexico-alert-social-media-tranquilizer-clonazepam-challenge |
(AP) – Post Malone apologized to his St. Louis fans Sunday for an on-stage accident that sent him to the hospital and shortened his set the night before at the Enterprise Center.
In the middle of a song Saturday, Malone fell into a hole on stage that moments before was opened to lower an instrument into.
In a video message posted on Twitter on Sunday, he said the fall, “Got me pretty good.” He said he’d just gotten back from the hospital, where he was prescribed pain medication.
“I just want to apologize to everyone in St. Louis,” Malone said. “Next time I’m around this way we’re going to do a two-hour show for you, so we can make up for the couple missed songs.”
Manager Dre London took to Instagram Sunday to say Malone bruised his ribs in the fall.
There should be no implications for the rest of the tour, which continues Sunday night in Columbus, Ohio. | 2022-09-19T00:03:45+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/news/national-news/post-malone-apologizes-for-on-stage-accident-in-st-louis/ |
CLEVELAND (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the Ohio Lottery's "Pick 4 Midday" game were:
8-7-0-5
(eight, seven, zero, five)
In Other News
CLEVELAND (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday afternoon's drawing of the Ohio Lottery's "Pick 4 Midday" game were:
8-7-0-5
(eight, seven, zero, five) | 2022-12-02T18:50:12+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio/winning-numbers-drawn-in-pick-4-midday-game/OJTKW66BPVEGPDUJA23XJ2T3TI/ |
One teen injured after drive-by shooting in Lompoc
LOMPOC, Calif. – On Wednesday, two juveniles were shot at from a vehicle while walking in the 900 block of North I Street around 4 p.m. One of those juveniles was hit, but has since been released after receiving medical care.
The 13-year-old was transported to a local hospital before he was later released details Lompoc Police Department.
The shooting is currently under investigaiton and anyone with information is asked to contact the Lompoc Police Department at 805-736-2341. | 2023-05-26T00:48:03+00:00 | keyt.com | https://keyt.com/news/santa-maria-north-county/2023/05/25/one-teen-injured-after-drive-by-shooting-in-lompoc/ |
SZA's "Conceited" hits like a much needed dance break after an epic meltdown. It's like snapping out of a stream of negativity and reminding yourself who you are, no more shame or self-pity. She isn't letting circumstances beyond her control — naysayers; who her ex is currently seeing — dictate her worth, even if only briefly. Fun, bouncy production by Cody Fayne, paired with poppy synth melodies allow her infectious, melodic rap flow to glow as she relishes in an unapologetic, cocky moment: "Feelin' like a billion / Feel I might drill on your ho / I'm just livin' my goals / Pressure make diamonds, can't fold," she sings, wielding her power. There's even an evocation of her labelmate Kendrick Lamar's "Count Me Out," taunting those who might bet against her. In the breezy cadences of "Conceited," SZA is being stingy with her energy, recognizing that having everything she needs might not be enough.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-01-05T07:17:44+00:00 | kosu.org | https://www.kosu.org/music/2022-12-17/sza-conceited |
Two years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a series of drive-by shootings targeting Democrats in New Mexico is a violent reminder that the false claims about a stolen election persist in posing a danger to public officials and the country’s democratic institutions.
While no one was hurt in the Albuquerque attacks, this latest outburst of political violence underscores how election denialism has become deeply embedded across much of the country and how it is driving grievance-filled anger over the nation’s politics and officeholders.
Over the past year, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was seriously injured in an attack in his home by an assailant who said he was sick of the “lies coming out of Washington D.C.,” election workers were intimidated and harassed, and prosecutors won convictions in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor.
Further sign of the unrelenting threat came this week when authorities arrested a Republican candidate for the New Mexico House who had refused to accept his loss in last fall’s election. Police said Solomon Peña hired four people to shoot at the homes of four Democratic lawmakers.
“I think we are really entering a new era where political rhetoric has gotten so heated and people with mental health issues or extreme conspiratorial viewpoints on the world have resorted to political violence,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who took office Jan. 1, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
He wants the Legislature to address political violence and said he plans to talk with the secretary of state’s office about ways to shield some information about elected officials or candidates from public disclosure.
Torrez noted that other countries have become destabilized when extremists use threats and intimidation rather than work through the institutions of government. He said such violence is destabilizing and needs to be dealt with forcefully.
“It is a threat to the very fabric and foundation of a democratic republic,” he said.
Lies by former President Donald Trump and his allies about the 2020 presidential election led to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as threats and harassment against state and local election officials. The insurrection in Washington also contributed to a drop in confidence in election results among Republicans.
Some election deniers ran last year for offices that oversee elections, as well as for governor and attorney general — all losing in battleground states. The turn to violence in New Mexico suggests the lasting impact of the campaign by Trump and his allies to discredit the 2020 race he lost and sow doubt about how elections are run.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the allegations “horrifying and shocking,” adding the Biden administration has “emphasized the dangerous ways in which conspiracy theories and disinformation can lead some individuals to violence.”
A large segment of Republicans, 58%, still believe Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was not legitimate, according to an October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Peña, a 39-year-old felon and self-proclaimed “MAGA king,” faces multiple charges in the Albuquerque-area attacks on the homes of two state lawmakers and two county officials, including one house where a 10-year-old girl was asleep. Peña had refused to accept his landslide loss in November when he won just 26% of the vote in a state House race in Albuquerque against the longtime Democratic incumbent, Rep. Miguel P. Garcia.
Peña parroted Trump’s rhetoric, claiming without evidence that the House race had been “rigged” against him. There has been no evidence of fraud or widespread problems in New Mexico’s election.
Peña, who is being held without bond, appeared briefly in court Wednesday on charges that include multiple counts of shooting at a home, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He spent nine years behind bars after his arrest in April 2007 for stealing electronics and other goods from several retail stores as part of what authorities described as a burglary crew. He was released from prison in 2016, and had his voting rights restored after completing five years probation in April 2021, corrections officials said.
Peña did not speak at the hearing, and a message to his attorney was not immediately returned.
The New Mexico Republican Party said in a statement that Peña should be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law” if he is found guilty.
There also was no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, and Biden’s win was affirmed after exhaustive reviews in the states where Trump disputed his loss. Dozens of judges — including some appointed by Trump — rejected lawsuits by Trump and his allies challenging the outcome, and Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, said the fraud claims were bogus.
Despite that, the conspiracy theories surrounding the presidential election have prompted a surge in threats and harassment of state and local election officials.
Cases like the one in New Mexico might seem random but are not, said John Farmer Jr., director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and a former New Jersey attorney general.
“They are the logical endpoint of this culture of challenging the legitimacy of our democratic processes,” he said.
Farmer said curbing that kind of political violence depends in part on filing the most serious charges possible and aggressively prosecuting cases.
David Levine, a fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a former elections official in Idaho, said extremism fueled by anti-democratic figures and conspiracy theories is an acute threat. He advocated for better information-sharing among intelligence and law enforcement agencies as well as changes to state laws to remove provisions that could be exploited by those seeking to spread election misinformation.
Congressional proposals to increase penalties for threatening election officials failed to advance last year, leaving state officials looking to their legislatures for support. Seven bills have been introduced so far in five states to protect election workers and their staff, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which tracks voting-related legislation in the states.
In Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Democratic legislative leaders announced plans this week for several election-related bills, including ones to increase penalties for threatening, harassing or revealing private information about election workers and for pressuring election officials to act illegally.
“We must do more to protect the people who protect democracy,” Benson, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Concerns of political violence have been growing in recent years.
Last month, the co-leader of the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before the 2020 election was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whitmer, a Democrat, was not harmed. Prosecutors said the defendants were upset about restrictions related to the COVD-19 pandemic and perceived threats to gun ownership.
In California, prosecutors said the assault of Paul Pelosi was part of a plot to kidnap the Democratic congresswoman and that the suspect also planned to target other politicians.
Members of Congress have seen a sharp rise in threats in the two years since the insurrection. In Kansas, a trial began this week for a man prosecutors say threatened to kill a Republican congressman.
New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez of Albuquerque, whose home was among those targeted in the recent shootings, said he was relieved by the arrest.
“These are the things that can happen when the rhetoric gets out of hand,” he told reporters on the opening day of the Legislature. “Anyone who takes the plunge to participate in our democracy, to get into the process, should never have to encounter that type of violence and have that kind of fear.”
___
Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan and Morgan Lee in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Colleen Long in Washington, D.C.; and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report. | 2023-01-19T15:20:32+00:00 | localsyr.com | https://www.localsyr.com/news/national/ap-new-mexico-shootings-follow-two-years-of-election-assaults/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman has accused former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson of raping her sometime in the early 1990s in a lawsuit filed in Albany, New York, this month.
The woman, who is suing for $5 million, said Tyson raped her in a limousine after she met him at an Albany nightclub and that she has suffered from “physical, psychological and emotional injury” in the years since then.
The woman's affidavit does not provide a date for the attack but says only that it happened in the early 1990s — around the same time that beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington said Tyson raped her in Indianapolis. Tyson was convicted of raping Washington on Feb. 10, 1992, and served three years in prison.
The legal action in New York was filed under the state's Adult Survivors Act, which gives sexual assault victims a one-year window to file lawsuits over assaults that happened years or even decades ago.
The woman said in her affidavit that she got in Tyson's limousine and the boxer immediately started touching her and trying to kiss her.
“I told him no several times and asked him to stop, but he continued to attack me,” the woman said. “He then pulled my pants off and violently raped me.”
The woman is seeking to maintain her anonymity because, she said, publication of her name "would certainly pose a risk to me of further mental harm, harassment, ridicule or personal embarrassment."
The woman's attorney, Darren Seilback, said in a separate filing that his office did not simply take the woman at her word but investigated her allegations and determined that they are “highly credible.”
Seilback said Tuesday he could not comment further on the case.
A message seeking comment from Tyson was sent to an agency that has represented him.
Brooklyn-born Tyson, 56, won adulation as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, but his life outside the ring has been turbulent.
Tyson's former wife, actor Robin Givens, said in divorce papers that their late-1980s marriage was characterized by “unprovoked rages of violence and destruction.” | 2023-01-24T19:08:46+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Woman-files-suit-accusing-Mike-Tyson-of-rape-in-17738685.php |
Hurricane Fiona rips through powerless Puerto Rico
HAVANA (AP) — Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico's southwest coast on Sunday as it unleashed landslides, knocked the power grid out and ripped up asphalt from roads and flung the pieces around.
Hundreds of people were evacuated or rescued across the island as floodwaters rose swiftly. Rushing rivers of brown water enveloped cars, first floors and even an airport runway in the island's southern region.
Forecasters said the storm threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain on Sunday and Monday, with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) possible in eastern and southern Puerto Rico.
“The damages that we are seeing are catastrophic,” said Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
The storm washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. Large landslides also were reported, with water rushing down big slabs of broken asphalt and into gullies.
People are also reading…
Bidens among thousands paying respects to Queen Elizabeth II
LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden paid his respects at Queen Elizabeth II's coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the queen's state funeral — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest gathering of world leaders for years.
People across Britain paused for a minute of silence at 8 p.m. in memory of the only monarch most have ever known. At Westminster Hall, where the queen is lying in state, the constant stream of mourners paused for 60 seconds as people observed the minute of reflection in deep silence.
In Windsor, where the queen will be laid to rest on Monday evening after her funeral at Westminster Abbey, rain began to fall as the crowd fell silent for the moment of reflection. Some have set up small camps and chairs outside Windsor Castle, with plans to spend the night there to reserve the best spots to view the queen's coffin when it arrives.
“Well, it’s just one night and day of our lives. Elizabeth gave us – you know – 70 years. So the rest of it is not a lot to ask, is it?” said Fred Sweeney, 52, who kitted out his spot with two Union flags on large flag poles.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden were among thousands of mourners — from locals and tourists to royals and world leaders — to pay their respects. The president made the sign of the cross and put his hand to his heart as he stood quietly near the casket in the ornate 900-year-old hall with his wife and U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley.
Zelenskyy promises no 'lull' in taking back Ukrainian towns
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised his country there would be no letup in the counteroffensive that has reclaimed towns and cities from Russian troops, as shelling continued Sunday across a wide stretch of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy ran through a list of towns that Ukraine has taken back in its lightning push across the northeast.
“Maybe now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull," he said in his nightly video address. "But this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series... Because Ukraine must be free — all of it.”
Ukraine’s military command said its forces secured the eastern bank of the Oskil River on Saturday. The river, which flows south from Russia into Ukraine, had been a natural break in the newly emerged front lines since Kyiv's counteroffensive began.
As Russian shells hit towns and cities over the weekend, the British defense ministry warned that Moscow is likely to increase attacks on civilian targets as it suffers battlefield defeats.
Biden: Classified documents at Mar-a-Lago raise concerns
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says the discovery of top-secret documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate raised concerns that sensitive data was compromised and called it “irresponsible.”
Biden, who rarely does interviews, spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday. He said that when he heard about classified documents taken from the White House, he wondered how “anyone could be that irresponsible.”
Biden added: “And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?”
The president said he did not get a heads-up before the Trump estate was searched, and he has not asked for any specifics “because I don’t want to get myself in the middle of whether or not the Justice Department should move or not move on certain actions they could take.”
The FBI says it took about 11,000 documents, including roughly 100 with classification markings found in a storage room and an office, while serving a court-authorized search warrant at the home on Aug. 8. Weeks after the search, Trump lawyers asked a judge to appoint a special master to conduct an independent review of the records.
They ended wanted pregnancies. Post-Roe, they face new pain.
Ashley Lefebvre hugs her unborn daughter’s urn each night. Sarah Halsey treasures the tiny hat worn by her baby who lived just 38 minutes. Abi Frazier moved away from her home with a furnished nursery.
All ended wanted pregnancies because of grave fetal medical problems.
It’s a side of abortion seldom discussed in national debates — the termination of pregnancies because of fetal anomalies or other often-fatal medical problems. These terminations often happen in the second trimester, when women have already picked out names, bought baby clothes and felt kicking in their wombs. They’re far different from the most common abortions, performed earlier in pregnancies.
Women say these terminations for medical reasons don’t feel like a choice — instead they are forced upon them by the condition of the fetus they carry. And the constant drumbeat of new abortion bans, rulings and news since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade has reopened raw wounds. Such abortions were already shrouded in secrecy and guilt, the women say. They fear the path will be even tougher for those who follow.
There are no recent statistics on the frequency of terminations for fetal anomalies — including genetic or chromosomal abnormalities — in the U.S., but experts say it’s a small percentage of total procedures. They typically occur later than the 93% of abortions performed at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy.
In world beset by turbulence, nations' leaders gather at UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Facing a complex set of challenges that try humanity as never before, world leaders convene at the United Nations this week under the shadow of Europe’s first major war since World War II — a conflict that has unleashed a global food crisis and divided major powers in a way not seen since the Cold War.
The many facets of the Ukraine war are expected to dominate the annual meeting, which convenes as many countries and peoples confront growing inequality, an escalating climate crisis, the threat of multiple famines and an internet-fueled tide of misinformation and hate speech — all atop a coronavirus pandemic that is halfway through its third year.
For the first time since the United Nations was founded atop the ashes of World War II, European nations are witnessing war in their midst waged by nuclear-armed neighboring Russia. Its Feb. 24 invasion not only threatens Ukraine’s survival as an independent democratic nation but has leaders in many countries worrying about trying to preserve regional and international peace and prevent a wider war.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the strategic divides — with the West on one side and Russia and increasingly China on the other — are "paralyzing the global response to the dramatic challenges we face.”
He pointed not only to the devastation in Ukraine from nearly seven months of fighting but the war’s impact on the global economy.
EXPLAINER: How the strong U.S. dollar can affect everyone
NEW YORK (AP) — The buck isn’t stopping.
The value of the U.S. dollar has been on a tear for more than a year against everything from the British pound across the Atlantic to the South Korean won across the Pacific.
After rising again Friday, the dollar is near its highest level in more than two decades against a key index measuring six major currencies, including the euro and Japanese yen. Many professional investors don’t expect it to ease off anytime soon.
The dollar's rise affects nearly everyone, even those who will never leave the U.S. borders. Here’s a look at what’s driving the U.S. dollar higher and what it can mean for investors and households:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY THE DOLLAR IS STRONGER?
First public global database of fossil fuels launches
A first-of-its-kind database for tracking the world's fossil fuel production, reserves and emissions launches on Monday to coincide with climate talks taking place at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels includes data from over 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries. That covers 75% of global reserves, production and emissions, and is available for public use, a first for a collection of this size.
Until now there has been private data available for purchase, and analysis of the world's fossil fuel usage and reserves. The International Energy Agency also maintains public data on oil, gas and coal, but it focuses on the demand for those fossil fuels, whereas this new database looks at what is yet to be burned.
The registry was developed by Carbon Tracker, a nonprofit think tank that researches the energy transition's effect on financial markets, and the Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks a variety of energy projects around the globe.
Corporations, investors and scientists already have some level of access to private data on fossil fuels. Mark Campanale, founder of Carbon Tracker, said he hopes the registry will empower groups to hold governments accountable, for example, when they issue licenses for fossil fuel extraction.
5 years after Maria, reconstruction drags on in Puerto Rico
LOÍZA, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jetsabel Osorio Chévere looked up with a sad smile as she leaned against her battered home.
Nearly five years have gone by since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, and no one has offered her family a plastic tarp or zinc panels to replace the roof that the Category 4 storm ripped off the two-story home in an impoverished corner in the north coast town of Loiza.
“No one comes here to help,” the 19-year-old said.
It’s a familiar lament in a U.S. territory of 3.2 million people where thousands of homes, roads and recreational areas have yet to be fixed or rebuilt since Maria struck in September 2017. The government has completed only 21% of more than 5,500 official post-hurricane projects, and seven of the island’s 78 municipalities report that not a single project has begun. Only five municipalities report that half of the projects slated for their region have been completed, according to an Associated Press review of government data.
And with Hurricane Fiona forecast to hit Puerto Rico on Sunday with torrential rains, more than 3,600 homes still have a tattered blue tarp serving as a makeshift roof.
Las Vegas Aces win first WNBA title, Chelsea Gray named MVP
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Las Vegas never had a professional sports champion — until Sunday.
Chelsea Gray scored 20 points to lead the Las Vegas Aces to their first WNBA title, and the city's first pro title, in a 78-71 road win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 4.
Gray went 9 of 13 from the floor, and was named Finals MVP after averaging 18.3 points in the series.
Vegas finished on an 8-0 run. As the buzzer sounded, league MVP A'ja Wilson, who played every minute of the game, grabbed the ball and stomped the floor before being mobbed by her teammates.
“We champs! We champs! We champs!” Wilson screamed at teammates as they pulled on their championship hats and T-shirts before the trophy ceremony. | 2022-09-19T02:24:42+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/ap-news-in-brief-at-9-04-p-m-edt/article_c1e567ac-45b0-5bfe-863f-ac9f29792557.html |
Sing for Hope Pianos Return to New Orleans' Parks and Public Arts Venues Until April 19th Featuring Key Locations Including City Park, City Hall, New Orleans Jazz Museum
NEW ORLEANS, March 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sing for Hope Pianos will take over the arts scene throughout the city of New Orleans, once again encouraging live music throughout the community. Debuting March 25th, Sing for Hope will display 11 Sing for Hope Pianos painted by local New Orleans artists which will be unveiled at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Part of the global Sing for Hope Pianos initiative, these uniquely colorful piano artworks will be available for anyone and everyone to play, listen to, interact with, and enjoy through April 19th. At the conclusion of their public residency, the Sing for Hope Pianos will be moved to permanent homes in schools and community-based organizations across the greater New Orleans area, where they will inspire lives for years to come.
"We are thrilled to be back in New Orleans for our second year in a big way debuting the 2023 Sing for Hope Pianos at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and bringing our global initiative to the local community and celebrating local artists," said Monica Yunus, Co-Founder of Sing for Hope.
Adds Co-Founder Camille Zamora, "The Sing for Hope Pianos act as creative hotspots for our communities, sparking moments of impromptu harmony between strangers and bringing joy to people of all ages! And after their time on the street, the pianos go on to their permanent homes in local hospitals, community centers and schools."
This year's Sing for Hope Pianos will feature original artwork designed by New Orleans-based visual artists and will appear at iconic locations throughout the area: the Jazz Museum, Ogden Museum, Audubon Park, City Hall, City Park, Clouet Gardens, Ashe Cultural Arts, French Quarter Visitor's Center, Royal Frenchman Hotel, The Brakeman Hotel and Royal Street Art Galleries.
"This year, we were overwhelmed with talented artists looking to participate in the program, and once again, excited to place these unique pianos within the community, so everyone can see them, play them and share the music we're most known for here in New Orleans," said Adam Lozoya, local New Orleans Sing for Hope Pianos Project Leader.
Added fellow Sing for Hope Pianos Project Leader and Creole Connection Founder, Kalli Padgett, "We're thrilled to see this program continue to boost the careers of local artists of New Orleans. Here in Louisiana, it's time to form our own modern twist on the 'Art World' out of the things that matter most."
Sing for Hope Pianos began in New York City in 2010. Today, it is one of the world's largest annually recurring public arts programs, with more than 600 one-of-a-kind piano artwork displays in public spaces spanning from The Bronx to Beirut, and from Aspen to Athens. After their public exhibition, the Sing for Hope Pianos will then be delivered to their "permanent homes" throughout New Orleans at locations like the Katrina National Memorial Foundation Museum, The Neiux Society, and Happyland Theater.
Here are the 2023 Sing for Hope New Orleans Presenting Artists:
- Journey Allen (Listen to My Soul)
- Sara Hardin (Swamp Songs)
- Chrissy Campo Horne (Winter in New Orleans)
- Kendrik James (Music to My Shell)
- Magic Moms - founder Erica Amrine (Musical Meanderings)
- Sophie Ormond (Uptown Wanderlust)
- Kalli Padgett (Contemporary Creoles)
- Andre Pellebon (Souls of the City)
- Stephanie Reed (Courturie Forest)
- Jason Rodriguez a.k.a. Art87r (Royal)
- Siphne Sylve (Remembering Hazel Scott)
"We are so excited to be partnering once again with Sing for Hope," said Greg Lambousy, Director of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. "Our work with Adam Lozoya and his team has been very rewarding. We were especially charmed by the artistic works. Having a piano outdoors in our courtyard for visitors to play resulted in many special moments."
Sing for Hope's work is made possible by the Sing for Hope Founders' Circle: The International Foundation for Arts and Culture (Dr. Haruhisa Handa, Chairman, Sing for Hope Global Patron), The Arnhold Foundation in loving memory of Sissy and Henry Arnhold, The Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, The Anna-Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation, Jacqueline Novogratz and Chris Anderson, The Seedlings Foundation, and Ann Ziff; The National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts; Fosun International; and the generosity of donors like you. Learn more at singforhope.org.
About Sing for Hope
Sing for Hope harnesses the power of the arts to create a better world. Our creative programs bring hope, healing, and connection to millions of people in hospitals, schools, care facilities, refugee camps, transit hubs, and community spaces worldwide. A non-profit organization founded in New York City in response to the events of 9/11, Sing for Hope partners with hundreds of community-based organizations, mobilizes thousands of artists in creative service, and produces artist-created Sing for Hope Pianos across the U.S. and around the world. The official Cultural Partner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Sing for Hope champions art for all because we believe the arts have an unmatched capacity to uplift, unite, and heal. Learn more at singforhope.org.
View original content:
SOURCE Sing for Hope | 2023-03-16T18:54:02+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2023/03/16/sing-hope-pianos-featuring-local-artists-launch-new-orleans-jazz-museum-march-25-2023/ |
Boom Supersonic celebrates groundbreaking while preparing for jet manufacturing
Share
Updated: 1:25 PM EST Jan 26, 2023
COMING UP. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, JACLYN, FOR THOSE UPDATES. NOW TO YOUR CRIME HEADLINES. WE NOW KNOW THAT A 20 YEAR OLD MAN HAS DIED AFTER HE WAS SHOT IN WINSTON-SALEM, WINSTON-SALEM POLICE SAY THAT NUMBER SEABROOK WAS SHOT OUTSIDE OF HIS HOME ON STOCKTON STREET LATE LAST NIGHT. FAMILY MEMBERS TOOK HIM TO THE HOSPITAL WHERE HE LATER DIED. POLICE HAVE NOT YET MADE ANY ARRESTS IN THIS INVESTIGATION. THIS IS THE CITY’S SEVENTH HOMICIDE IN 2023. THERE WERE TWO AT THE SAME TIME LAST YEAR. AND GREENSBORO VISITORS NEED YOUR HELP TO FIGURE OUT WHO FIRED SHOTS HITTING AN EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING. POLICE SAY THAT THE CHILD IS CURRENTLY IN CRITICAL CONDITION. THE SHOOTING HAPPENED EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING AT A HOME ON AUTUMN DRIVE. INVESTIGATORS TELL US THAT A BULLET PIERCED THROUGH HER BEDROOM WALL AND THEN HIT HER. SOME NEIGHBORS WE SPOKE WITH SAY THAT THEY ARE NOW QUESTIONING THEIR SAFETY. IT MAKES ME MORE ALERT. IT MAKES ME WANT TO GET OUT AND MOVE BECAUSE NOW I HAVE TO WATCH COMING IN AND OUT. EVEN WHEN I COME FROM CHURCH NOW, I CAN’T JUST JUMP OUT MY CAR AND GO IN. I SIT FOR A MINUTE JUST TO SEE IF ANYTHING’S MOVING. WELL, POLICE HAVE NOT RELEASED ANY DETAILS AT THIS TIME ON A POSSIBLE SUSPECT. A WOMAN IS NOW BEING CHARGED WITH MURDER, ACCUSED OF STABBING A MAN. THIS IS ACCORDING TO THE WINSTON-SALEM POLICE DEPARTMENT. CRYSTAL JAMES STABBED ARCHIE NASH AT A HOME ON NORTH CAMERON AVENUE. OFFICERS THERE FOUND JAMES’S BODY EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING. POLICE SAY THAT THE TWO DID KNOW EACH OTHER AND SAY THIS IS NOT A RANDOM ACT OF VIOLENCE. THERE’S A WOMAN ACCUSED OF THROWING HOT SOUP AT A RESTAURANT AND A YOUNG WORKER, RESTAURANT WORKER IN RURAL HALL AND NOW FACING ASSAULT CHARGES. THE EMPLOYEE’S MOTHER POSTED THIS VIDEO THAT YOU SEE NOW ON FACEBOOK. FORSYTH KELLY DEPUTIES SAY THAT SHANNON ADKINS WAS UNHAPPY WITH HER SERVICE AT THE MAYFLOWER RESTAURANT ON TUESDAY NIGHT. THIS IS WHEN INVESTIGATORS SAY THAT SHE THREW THE HOT SOUP THERE AT THE EMPLOYEE, WHICH YOU JUST SAW IN THE VIDEO THAT’S ON YOUR SCREEN. WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT THE WORKER D
Advertisement
Boom Supersonic celebrates groundbreaking while preparing for jet manufacturing
Boom Supersonic is celebrating a groundbreaking after recently announcing its new engine that will be used for the jets it plans to manufacture in Greensboro.The company plans to hold an event on Thursday in Greensboro. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Sen. Phil Berger, Piedmont Airport Authority leadership and other elected officials and community leaders will be at the groundbreaking celebration. In December, the company announced it found three partners to help develop its carbon-neutral engine for the jets that will help assist in manufacture and design. Top Stories:8-year-old girl shot in her sleep remains in critical conditionTeenage girl found unresponsive in the woods near a party, officials sayThe engine is called “Symphony.” It will eliminate maintenance and costs by adding 25% more time to the wing. That means the engine can keep the plane flying for longer before it needs to come down from the air. The engine will also reduce the costs of Supersonic flights by 10%, which will benefit customers. They said it will be the first supersonic engine in the world, an advancement over current sub-sonic engines.The company plans to invest $500 million and bring an estimated 2,400 jobs to the area. The goal is for production to start in 2024 and for its first jets in the air by 2029.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National News | Investigative | Politics | Sports | High School Sports | Health | Entertainment | News We Love | Upload
The company plans to hold an event on Thursday in Greensboro. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Sen. Phil Berger, Piedmont Airport Authority leadership and other elected officials and community leaders will be at the groundbreaking celebration.
Advertisement
In December, the company announced it found three partners to help develop its carbon-neutral engine for the jets that will help assist in manufacture and design.
The engine is called “Symphony.” It will eliminate maintenance and costs by adding 25% more time to the wing. That means the engine can keep the plane flying for longer before it needs to come down from the air. The engine will also reduce the costs of Supersonic flights by 10%, which will benefit customers. They said it will be the first supersonic engine in the world, an advancement over current sub-sonic engines. | 2023-01-26T18:36:57+00:00 | wxii12.com | https://www.wxii12.com/article/north-carolina-boom-supersonic-groundbreaking-jet-manufacturing/42673772 |
CLEARCREEK, Ohio (AP) — A police officer who was shot and critically wounded this week during a domestic violence call appears to be making progress but has "some hard work ahead of him” as he recovers, authorities said Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference, Clearcreek Police Chief John Terrill said Eric Ney was shot across his face Tuesday by Mark Evers, 65, who was then shot and killed by another officer, Sgt. Nicole Cordero, who had also responded to the call.
Cordero was not injured but has been put on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, which is standard procedure in police-involved shootings. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe.
Ney, a 14-year veteran of the force, remains hospitalized but regained consciousness Wednesday and was “up on his feet” Thursday, Terrill said.
Evers was shot multiple times and his injuries included a wound to his head and a torso wound, either of which may have caused his death, Terrill said. An autopsy will determine that and whether the death was a homicide, suicide or undetermined, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said.
Police were called to Evers' home because he reportedly had rammed his wife’s car with an ATV. Surveillance video shown at the news conference showed Cordero telling Evers to turn off the ATV and then telling him to put a gun away.
Moments later, Evers apparently shot Ney, who fell to the ground, and Cordero returned fire at Evers. An unidentified man then runs up to the shooting scene screaming “what did you guys do?” while Cordero tells him Evers drew a gun. | 2022-07-14T20:53:13+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Officer-critically-wounded-during-domestic-call-17305715.php |
WITH BREAKING NEWS. THE BREAKING NEWS IS JUST IN TO OUR NEWSROOM. FIREFIGHTERS SAY A POWER STRIP SPARKED A DEADLY FIRE AND A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN A MASON CITY HOME. FOUR YOUNG BROTHERS WERE KILLED. IT HAS BEEN RULED AN ACCIDENT. NOW THEIR FAMILY AND THE MASON CITY COMMUNITY ARE TRYING TO COME TO GRIPS WITH THE ON A IMAGINABLE TRAGEDY. KCCI SENIOR REPORTER TODD MAGEL IS IN MASON CITY FOR US TONIGHT. THIS IS A REALLY TOUGH STORY TO TELL. WE’RE IN MASON CITY IN THE 500 BLOCK OF WASHINGTON. THIS IS THE HOUSE WHERE THE FIRE BROKE OUT. YOU CAN SEE THE MARKS FROM THE FLAMES BURST THROUGH BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND FLOOR FLAMES THAT KILLED FOUR CHILDREN. WE HAVE FOUR CHILDREN TO BE VERY IT’S VERY HARD. DALE BRUNING IS IN SHOCK. HE LOST FOUR OF HIS GRANDCHILDREN IN A HOUSE FIRE. THE FIRE STARTED EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. IT BURNED THROUGH THE FIRST AND SECOND FLOOR. THAT’S WHERE THE BEDROOMS ARE. BY THE TIME FIREFIGHTERS GOT INSIDE, IT WAS TOO LATE. THEY FOUND THE BODIES OF FOUR CHILDREN. THIS MCCLURE FAMILY PHOTO WAS TAKEN JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO. JOHN MICHAEL MCCLURE WAS 12. ODEN WAS TEN. DRACO SIX. IN PHENIX, THREE YEARS OLD. THEIR FATHER, JOHN MICHAEL, WAS ABLE TO ESCAPE THE FIRE, ALONG WITH AN OLDER SISTER, RAVEN. THEY WERE HAPPY KIDS. AND THEN THIS TRAGEDY HAPPENED IN UNEXPECTED, YOU KNOW, ACCIDENTS HAPPENED. THAT’S THE REASON THEY’RE CALLED ACCIDENTS. THEY’RE ARE COUNSELORS AT THE MASON CITY SCHOOLS WHERE THESE KIDS WENT TO HELP THEM DEAL WITH THE TRAGEDY IN MASON CITY, TODD MAGEL KCCI 8 NEWS IOWA’S NEWS LEADER A GO FUND ME HAS NOW BEEN SET UP TO HELP THE FAMILY. THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE ON THE SITE. SEARCH FOR MCCLURE BOYS. THAT’S SPELLED IMSI C L U E ARE THE MCCLURE BOYS.
4 children killed, 2 others injured in Iowa house fire
Updated: 6:16 PM EST Nov 17, 2022
A house fire left four children dead and two people injured early Wednesday in northern Iowa.Mason City firefighters were called to the fire at about 5 a.m. in an older home in a neighborhood near the city's downtown.Crews who arrived could see flames in the first and second floors of the house, according to a news release from the Mason City Fire Department.The four children killed were identified as John Michael Mcluer, 12; Odin Thor Mcluer, 10; Drako Mcluer, 6; and Phenix Mcluer, 3.The fire department said John Michael Mcluer, 55, and Ravan Dawn Mcluer, 11, suffered burns and were treated at a hospital.Mason City Fire Chief Erik Bullinger said in a release that the origin of the fire was an electrical power strip on the main floor. The fire has been ruled accidental.Mason City is a community of about 27,000 people. It is in northern Iowa, 110 miles north of Des Moines.
MASON CITY, Iowa — A house fire left four children dead and two people injured early Wednesday in northern Iowa.
Mason City firefighters were called to the fire at about 5 a.m. in an older home in a neighborhood near the city's downtown.
Crews who arrived could see flames in the first and second floors of the house, according to a news release from the Mason City Fire Department.
The four children killed were identified as John Michael Mcluer, 12; Odin Thor Mcluer, 10; Drako Mcluer, 6; and Phenix Mcluer, 3.
The fire department said John Michael Mcluer, 55, and Ravan Dawn Mcluer, 11, suffered burns and were treated at a hospital.
Mason City Fire Chief Erik Bullinger said in a release that the origin of the fire was an electrical power strip on the main floor. The fire has been ruled accidental.
Mason City is a community of about 27,000 people. It is in northern Iowa, 110 miles north of Des Moines. | 2022-11-18T01:13:17+00:00 | wtae.com | https://www.wtae.com/article/iowa-house-fire-four-children-killed/41996930 |
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Thousands of police officers from around the country gathered in a football stadium in Connecticut on Friday for a joint funeral for two officers who were shot to death in an apparent ambush.
The service for Bristol officers Dustin DeMonte and Alex Hamzy was set to be held at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field — the University of Connecticut's 40,000-seat stadium in East Hartford. Major highway closures were announced for the processions of the two officers from funeral homes to the stadium.
DeMonte, Hamzy and Officer Alec Iurato were shot on Oct. 12 in what police believe was an ambush set up by a 911 call made by the shooter, Nicholas Brutcher. Iurato, who survived a gunshot wound to his leg, struggled to get behind a police cruiser and fired a single shot that killed Brutcher. Brutcher's brother, Nathan, also was shot and survived.
At the time of the shooting, DeMonte was a sergeant with 10 years experience on the force and Hamzy was an officer for eight years. They were promoted posthumously to lieutenant and sergeant, respectively.
Mourners including many police officers from New England and beyond streamed into the stadium hours before the service.
Sgt. Greg Dube of the New Hampshire State Police said it was important to show support in large numbers after such a tragedy.
“We’re all family,” he said. “We definitely feel their pain. The best way we can show our respect is in strength in numbers.”
“I might not have met them, but I understand it could have easily happened to me or my colleagues. You just can’t take any day for granted,” Dube said.
Authorities have not released a motive for the shooting. A preliminary report said Nicholas Brutcher fired more than 80 rounds as he attacked the officers from behind. The state inspector general also said in the report that it was evident Iurato's deadly use of force on Nicholas Brutcher was justified.
Calling hours for Hamzy on Wednesday drew hundreds of people, while a private wake for DeMonte was held Thursday. | 2022-10-21T14:08:05+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Thousands-expected-at-funeral-for-2-Connecticut-17524448.php |
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Kevin Obanor and Jaylon Tyson each scored 13 points and No. 25 Texas Tech overpowered Texas Southern 78-54 on Thursday night.
De’vion Harmon added 12 points for the Red Raiders (2-0).
Texas Southern (0-2) was led by Zytarius Morlte with 12 points while Davon Barnes added 10.
The Red Raiders made 28 of 60 shots, including 5 of 17 from 3-point range. Texas Tech built a 16-point lead at halftime and slowly pulled away thanks to a strong defensive effort that forced 19 turnovers.
Texas Tech pushed its lead to 54-35 midway through the second half on a dunk by Harmon. The lead eventually swelled to 32 at 76-44.
Tech took control midway through the first half, going on a 10-1 that extended its lead to 25-14 with 7:52 left.
The Red Raiders pushed the lead to 34-20 in the final three minutes of the opening half with a 9-2 run.
BIG PICTURE
Texas Southern converted only 4 of 18 from 3-point range and was unable to keep up.
UP NEXT
Texas Southern: Will host Arizona State on Sunday as part of the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series announced earlier this year.
Texas Tech: Complete a three-game homestand on Monday night against Louisiana Tech.
___
More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | 2022-11-11T04:30:38+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Obanor-Tyson-lead-No-25-Texas-Tech-past-Texas-17576265.php |
HOUSTON — A grand jury in Texas has declined to indict rapper Travis Scott in a criminal investigation after 10 people were killed during a crowd rush at the Astroworld music festival in 2021.
The decision came 19 months after Scott’s Astroworld festival left nearly a dozen people crushed to death and left hundreds of others injured, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The Houston Police Department and federal officials have been investigating Scott, Live Nation, and others over whether they had proper safety measures in places at the festival, according to The Associated Press.
“My client Travis Scott will not be charged with criminal charges or any wrongdoing for his involvement with AstroWorld festival. Today’s decision by the Harris County District Attorney confirms what we have known all along — that Travis Scott is not responsible for the AstroWorld tragedy. This is consistent with investigative reporting by numerous media outlets and federal and state government reports that have squarely placed the onus for event safety crises on organizers, operators and contractors — not performers. While waiting patiently for the District Attorney’s decision to not file charges, Travis Scott has been inaccurately and wrongly singled out, despite stopping the show three separate times and being unaware of the events as they were unfolding. Now that this chapter is closed, we hope for the government efforts to focus on what is most important — stopping future heartbreaking tragedies like AstroWorld from ever occurring again,” Scott’s attorney, Kent Schaffer, said in a statement obtained by the Rolling Stone.
On Nov. 5, 2021, people attending the concert went to the stage after 9 p.m. as the headliner, Scott started to perform, the Chronicle reported. It got dangerous as the crowd squished together leading to hundreds unable to move or breathe.
Officers saw warning signs but had difficulty for some time assessing the danger, the newspaper reported. Within about 30 minutes as fans fled the area, they were able to determine what had happened. Multiple people were trampled and others passed out.
Scott did not end his concert until around 10:10 p.m. which was about an hour after he began. Scott reportedly did not know anything until someone got on his headset and told him to end his show with his final song as Drake left the stage, Schaffer said, according to the Chronicle.
The newspaper says it is unclear what possible charges the grand jury had weighed in on.
Scott, Live Nation and ScoreMore are still facing billions of dollars in possible damages over hundreds of civil claims that allege wrongful death, personal injuries, and negligence, the Rolling Stone reported.
©2023 Cox Media Group | 2023-06-29T23:35:23+00:00 | wsbtv.com | https://www.wsbtv.com/news/trending/rapper-travis-scott-will-not-face-criminal-charges-over-deadly-crowd-rush-astroworld-2021/HZY3I64X2NAGVDHCMEIXKYUTP4/ |
Three men whose graves were found at the original site of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches were members of its congregation in the early 19th century, a team of archaeologists and scientists in Virginia announced Thursday.
The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people in Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. Members initially gathered in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating.
The church’s original brick foundation was uncovered in 2021 by archaeologists at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that now owns the land. The excavation of graves began last year in partnership with First Baptist’s descendant community.
More than 60 burial plots have been identified. Thursday’s announcement confirmed what oral histories had long told — that previous generations were buried on the land before it was paved over in the 20th century.
“Now we know they’re ours — they’re ours,” church member Connie Matthews Harshaw said Thursday. “Those people under that soil are of African descent. We go from there.”
Three sets of remains were chosen for examination. They underwent DNA testing, bone analysis and the evaluation of archaeological evidence that was found, including 19th century coffin nails. The wood from the hexagonal coffins is long gone.
Only one set of remains could provide adequate DNA, which can indicate race, said Raquel Fleskes, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut who conducted the analysis.
Those remains belonged to a Black man between the ages of 16 and 18 who stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall. His grave contained a clothing button that was made from animal bone and still carried some cotton fiber, said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s director of archaeology.
The young man’s grave appeared to be marked by an upside-down, empty wine bottle. His coffin was likely moved from a previous location based on the large number of nails — possibly used to reinforce the coffin — and the jumbled way his bones came to rest.
The young man’s teeth indicated some kind of stress, which could have been malnutrition or disease, said Joseph Jones, a research associate with William & Mary’s Institute for Historical Biology.
“Childhood health is a pretty good indicator of a population,” Jones added.
Michael Blakey, the institute’s director, added that few African Americans in Williamsburg were free at the time.
“It either represents the conditions of an enslaved childhood or far less likely — but possibly — conditions for a free African American in childhood,” Blakey said.
The two other sets of remains belonged to men between the ages of 35 to 45 and possibly older, based on the analyses of their bones and teeth.
One of them stood 5 feet, 8 inches and was possibly the oldest of the three. His remains were found with a copper straight pin that likely bound clothing or a funeral shroud.
The other man stood 5 feet, 7 inches and was buried in a vest and trousers. His leg bones indicated the repetitive use of certain muscles, suggesting the heavy labor of someone who was enslaved.
The graves in Williamsburg are among Black burial grounds and cemeteries that are scattered throughout the nation and tell the story of the country’s deep past of slavery and segregation. Many Black Americans were excluded from white-owned cemeteries and built their own burial spaces, often as a form of resistance.
Descendants are working to preserve these grounds and cemeteries, many of which are at risk of being lost and lack support.
“All over the country there has been reckless disregard for African American bodies,” said Harshaw, of First Baptist.
“We are now becoming an example to the rest of the country,” she said. “We’re getting interest from everywhere, with people saying, ‘Wait a minute, how do you guys do this?’”
The church’s original meeting house was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. First Baptist’s second structure, built in 1856, stood there for a century.
But an expanding Colonial Williamsburg museum bought the property in 1956 and turned it into a parking lot.
The museum tells the story of Virginia’s late 1700s capital through colonial-era buildings and interpreters. But it failed to tell First Baptist’s story.
Founded in 1926, the museum did not tell Black stories until 1979, even though more than half of the people who lived in the colonial capital were Black, and many were enslaved.
In recent years, Colonial Williamsburg has boosted its efforts to tell a more complete story, placing a growing emphasis on African-American history.
The museum plans to recreate First Baptist’s original meeting house on the land where it once stood, said Gary, the museum’s director of archaeology.
“A big part of that is to commemorate the space where the burials are located,” he said. | 2023-04-07T09:34:38+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/news/science/air-and-space/experts-link-graves-to-one-of-nations-oldest-black-churches/ |
LONE PINE, Calif. (AP) — The flames fade away. Firefighters extinguish the last embers. A final curl of smoke uncoils in the wind.
A wildfire in the California wilderness has come to an end, and what’s left behind is a blackened landscape of skeletal pines and leafless oaks, scorched meadows and ashen stumps where saplings once stood.
Then, slowly, life returns.
One year after a wind-whipped wildfire charged across a craggy mountainside above Lone Pine, California, flashes of new growth are emerging in this still-charred corner of the Inyo National Forest, a hiking, camping and fishing playground about 350 miles (563 km) southeast of San Francisco.
Tiny clusters of white and purple wildflowers stand out against denuded pines, many stripped of bark in the fire. Green shoots of horsetail as thin as yarn strands break from the ground below a tree’s barren branches. A fistful of new leaves emerges like a fresh bouquet from within an incinerated stump.
People are also reading…
It’s the start of a long recovery, and a cycle that’s being repeated more often across the West as climate change brings drier, hotter seasons and more wildland fires.
As it roars across the landscape, a fire burns at different intensities. Some of the towering trees on the hillside are dead, others only singed and can recover. The first plants to reappear after a burn typically have grown more resistant over time to the flames.
“Some of the shrub species and other grass species are more fire-adapted, and they can come back quicker,” said Todd Ellsworth, a post-fire restoration program manager with the U.S. Forest Service.
But it can be five years before the ground cover returns to what it was before the blaze. One stand of pinyon pines was heavily damaged – needles burned off the branches, their trunks torched black – and will not come back.
“The conifer trees don’t come back very quickly,” Ellsworth said, referring to certain pines and other trees that bear cones. Sometimes, it’s up to foresters to go in and replant them.
The tiny, fragile flowers and patches of fresh growth against a stark mountainside and slabs of gray rock were a reminder that wildfire is part of the ecosystem in California, including the eastern Sierra Nevada where the fire took place.
Firefighters said they used minimum-impact techniques to fight the blaze because “natural fire plays an important role in maintaining the landscape within these areas.”
Some species only flower after a wildfire.
The area of the blaze — not far from the trailhead to Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 meters) the highest mountain the contiguous United States — is home to Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, an endangered species, and to the whitebark pine, an endangered species candidate.
News reports and press releases from June and July 2021 attributed the wildfire to a lightning strike and said the nearly 600-acre (243-hectare) blaze fanned by winds forced evacuations and cut off access to nearby roads, hiking trails and campgrounds. Firefighters used helicopters to dump water on the fire, which burned across rugged terrain.
The effects of climate change can be significant on forest regeneration.
One 2018 study in the journal Ecology Letters that looked at nearly 1,500 wildfire sites found that because of hotter and drier climates, fewer forests are returning to their pre-burn tree mix, and in some cases trees did not return at all.
Camille Stevens-Rumann, an assistant professor at Colorado State University and co-author of the study, said wildfires have become larger and more intense, killing more trees, while also happening more frequently.
“We have a lot of places that are probably climatically different than when those (conifer) species were established," she said, which means they can struggle when trying to recover after a burn.
If a hotter, drier climate is unsuitable for those trees to come back, "they won't recover,” she added. | 2022-08-11T05:09:17+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/life-gradually-returns-a-year-after-fire-chars-sierra-nevada/article_050bdb4f-6bd5-535d-95fc-24b5e5182141.html |
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, May 21, 2022
_____
HEAT ADVISORY
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Binghamton NY
419 PM EDT Fri May 20 2022
...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 7 PM EDT SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Heat index values of around 95 expected.
* WHERE...Schuyler, Chemung, Tompkins, Tioga, Broome and Sullivan
counties. Mainly in valley locations.
* WHEN...From noon to 7 PM EDT Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat
illnesses to occur.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.
Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | 2022-05-20T21:32:23+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/weather/article/NY-WFO-BINGHAMTON-Warnings-Watches-and-17187793.php |
By EVENS SANON
Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Whoops of excitement echoed through the streets of Port-au-Prince early Saturday as gas stations opened across Haiti for the first time in two months after a powerful gang lifted a crippling fuel blockade.
“There’s gas now! There’s gas now!,” people yelled as they honked their horns and motorcycles zoomed past as Haiti’s capital slowly returned to its familiar cacophony.
Sweat rolled down people’s brows as they pushed their cars and motorcycles to the nearest gas station and lined up next to colorful mini buses known as “tap taps” emblazoned with messages including “Thank you Jesus.”
“I would call this the day that life begins again,” said Davidson Jean-Pierre, 35, who owns a small house-painting business.
He and his employees could finally get around Haiti with ladders and other bulky equipment that couldn’t be easily transported on the handful of motorcycles that remained in circulation during the blockade.
“My team is going to get back on their feet,” Jean-Pierre said.
Ever since a gang federation known as G9 seized control of an area surrounding a key fuel terminal in mid-September, life in Haiti became paralyzed, leaving millions of people like Jean-Pierre temporarily out of work.
The move — aimed at trying to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry after he announced a rise in gas prices — forced gas stations to close, hospitals to cut back on critical services and businesses including banks and grocery stores to limit their hours. It also worsened a cholera outbreak that has killed dozens and sickened thousands, with companies unable to distribute potable water.
Earlier this week, nearly 400 trucks lined up at the newly freed Varreux terminal in Port-au-Prince, filling up their tanks with fuel as a heavily armed police convoy escorted them to gas stations in the capital and beyond.
The truck drivers arrived after the G9 gang, led by former police officer Jimmy Cherizier — nicknamed “Barbecue” — announced a week ago that it was lifting the blockade days after clashing with police who sought to reassert control of the area.
While the truck drivers distributed 1.9 million gallons of diesel and 1.2 million gallons of gasoline, many on Saturday worried the fuel would soon run out as they waited for hours in line under a harsh sun.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to last,” said Arnel Fildor, 28, who also was concerned about high gas prices and a crushing economic crisis driven by double-digit inflation that has pushed this country of more than 11 million people into even deeper poverty. “Not everyone is equal. We don’t have the same ability to survive. We’re all dying slowly here.”
During the blockade, a rare gallon of gas on the black market was going for a minimum of 4,000 Haitian gourdes ($30), a price that Jean-Pierre refused to pay, worried it might have been mixed with other liquids.
On Saturday, he planned to buy gallons of water and fill up his propane gas tank, basic errands that were impossible during the blockade.
Meanwhile, tap tap drivers like Marc André, 40, said that while it was a relief gas stations reopened, they worried about high fuel prices and its impact on their livelihoods, with passengers unable to pay the full fare.
“They raised the gas at the wrong time, when the economy is not functioning,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty hard on the people who don’t have anything. The gasoline looks like a savior, but at the same time, it’s going to bring hardship for a lot of people.”
In mid-September, the prime minister announced that his administration could no longer afford to heavily subsidize fuel. As a result, a gallon of gasoline increased from 250 gourdes ($2) to 570 gourdes ($4.78), diesel from 353 gourdes ($3) to 670 gourdes ($5.60) and kerosene from 352 gourdes ($3) to 665 gourdes ($5.57) in a country where about 60% of the population earns less than $2 a day.
Tap tap driver Jean Joël Destin, 39, said the government doesn’t understand what he has to endure to make a living in Haiti.
“You don’t have anyone to turn to,” he said.
___
Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2022-11-12T16:28:49+00:00 | wtmj.com | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/11/12/gas-stations-in-haiti-reopen-for-1st-time-in-2-months/ |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Taylor Swift scored a 10 out of 10 as she became the first artist in history to claim the top 10 slots of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with tracks from her new record “Midnights.”
Billboard reported Monday that Swift surpassed Drake, who had held the previous record with nine of the top 10 songs for a week in September 2021.
“10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES,” the pop star tweeted Monday.
The new album came out Oct. 21 with both a 13-track standard release and a deluxe version with another seven bonus tracks. It has had one of the biggest album launches in nearly seven years. Billboard also reported that Swift now ties with Barbra Streisand for the female artist with the most No. 1 albums.
The No. 1 spot belongs to “Anti-Hero,” whose lyrics “It’s me/hi/I’m the problem/It’s me” have quickly become a TikTok trend. The other top 10 songs include “Lavender Haze,” “Maroon,” “Snow on the Beach,” “Midnight Rain,” “Bejeweled” and ”Question…?”
The numbers are for the week Oct. 21-Oct. 27. | 2022-11-01T17:18:01+00:00 | wwlp.com | https://www.wwlp.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-perfect-10-taylor-swift-sets-billboard-hot-100-first/ |
(WJW) – A group of avid Celine Dion fans gathered outside of Rolling Stone headquarters in Midtown Manhattan on Friday, protesting the magazine for excluding the five-time Grammy Award-winning diva from its “200 Greatest Singers of All Time” list.
Video shared online shows protesters chanting and singing songs outside the headquarters, carrying signs with messages including “How could you forget Celine?” and “Rolling Stone, you’ve hit an iceberg.”
The list, which was released on New Year’s Day, has caused plenty of social media uproar over its placement or exclusion of big industry names, most notably Dion.
Rolling Stone kicked off the list with a disclaimer that “this is the Greatest Singers list, not the Greatest Voices List.”
“In all cases, what mattered most to us was originality, influence, the depth of an artist’s catalog, and the breadth of their musical legacy,” the article goes on to say. “The singers behind it are here for one reason: They can remake the world just by opening their mouths.”
According to reports from Variety, the protesters made their way from Montreal to New York City for the demonstration. They’re part of the Dion fan club known as “The Red Heads.”
“We are here to express ourselves in the name of Celine because obviously you made a big mistake forgetting her name on the big list you published last week,” one of the protesters told a Rolling Stone reporter.
Rolling Stone responded to the backlash, but only to comment on some of the protester’s signs.
“Celine Dion devotees sang and shouted and held signs outside our offices today,” Rolling Stone tweeted Friday. “Our personal favorite? ‘“’Rolling Stone is Stoned,’”’ which also was a popular chant in-between songs.” | 2023-01-07T19:03:04+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/national/celine-dion-fans-protest-outside-rolling-stone-hq-after-snub-from-greatest-singers-list-video-shows/ |
Man in Louisiana for business trip goes missing; wife discusses details, fears
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) - About a week after a man disappeared, the Baton Rouge Police Department continues to ask the public for help locating him, as new evidence has surfaced in the case.
Nathan Millard of Walton County, Georgia, was last seen in Baton Rouge on Feb. 22.
Police said on Wednesday that video shows he was last seen walking away from the downtown Baton Rouge area the evening he disappeared. They added camera footage is being reviewed to help determine where he went.
Investigators said one person has been interviewed about the disappearance, and additional interviews are expected soon.
The missing man’s wife, Amber Millard, also said police were able to find his wallet at the Greyhound Bus Station on Florida Boulevard. She said his credit card was in the wallet but not an ID.
Newly-released photos captured from video surveillance show Nathan Millard leaving his downtown hotel. His wife said the man in the blue shirt pictured next to Nathan was his client, Josh, whom he was working with.
Amber Millard said her husband is her best friend. When he left for a business trip, she said she never imagined he would soon be reported missing.
“He called me; he said, you know, that they were going to go to a college basketball game, very just brief,” described Amber, which ended up being one of the last messages they shared before he went missing.
RELATED
- Walton County native reported missing in Louisiana
- REPORT: BRPD searching for missing Ga. man last seen in downtown BR on a business trip
She said her husband was working with a client on a property in Baton Rouge. The two went to an LSU basketball game, and afterward, they went to a bar downtown, Happy’s. The client told her and police that Nathan Millard left the bar around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, to head back to his hotel room at the Courtyard Marriott, just a block away.
“Well, I never heard from him. I woke up and I knew immediately, waking up during the night, and at least I would have a text. I know that. I was kind of like, ‘Huh,’” recalled Amber Millard.
Nathan Millard was supposed to meet with his client at the property site the next morning, but he never showed up. His client went back to the Courtyard Marriott and asked the managers to check Nathan Millard’s room. His belongings were still there, and the bed was still perfectly made.
“As time was ticking on, I started to reach out around 10 o’clock, and the phone was ringing. So, it was ringing and ringing and ringing. I started text messaging, you know, between calling, text message, calling … nothing,” explained Amber Millard.
The client and a hotel manager found Nathan Millard’s phone a few blocks away from the hotel, and that’s when they got in touch with his wife and filed a missing person report.
“And that’s just my biggest fear, locating his body,” added Amber Millard.
She said police have been looking at surveillance video and her husband’s debit card purchases since last week. She added his card was used twice Feb. 23, on Florida Street and at the Greyhound Bus Station.
“My understanding is that they have tried to get camera footage over and over. There is only one that has been returned back to them, and it shows a Black male using Nathan’s debit card,” explained Amber Millard.
The Millards have been married for nine years. They share a 7-year-old daughter, and he is a stepfather of two teenage boys, along with two other sons from a previous marriage. Amber Millard said it’s been extremely hard for all of them,
“My daughter, of course, I mean she is just our daughter. She is innocent, innocent. She knows daddy is lost, that she just doesn’t understand. So, we are just trying to keep it very simple for her,” said Amber Millard.
The investigation is still ongoing. If you know anything that can help the police, call Crime Stoppers at 344-STOP.
Copyright 2023 WAFB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-03-02T14:16:57+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/2023/03/02/man-louisiana-business-trip-goes-missing-wife-discusses-details-fears/ |
PARKER, Colo. (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife says it’s monitoring a deer with a plastic pumpkin stuck on its head in Parker, Colorado. Wildlife officers were first called to the Parker Vista area earlier this week after someone noticed the odd sight.
“It can see and it can breathe,” wildlife officer Katie Doyle said. “But it can’t eat or drink.”
Doyle said wildlife officers are considering multiple options, including tranquilizing the deer to remove the object.
“The problem is it’s still mobile. So it’s hard for us to keep up with it and get it in a situation where we can safely remove it,” she said.
Are your holiday decorations safe for wildlife?
Doyle said it’s a good reminder to be mindful of holiday decorations. She recommended hanging holiday lights and other decorations that could get tangled in antlers at least 8 feet off the ground.
She said fake cobwebs and other Halloween decorations should be placed in areas where animals couldn’t unknowingly walk through.
“It’s really important that people are aware that if they live around wildlife that they have objects taken inside or not put in places where wildlife will get into it,” she said. | 2022-10-31T13:31:01+00:00 | ksn.com | https://www.ksn.com/news/dont-miss-this/colorado-deer-gets-plastic-pumpkin-stuck-over-its-snout/ |
HERNDON, Va., May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Deltek, the leading global provider of software and solutions for project-based businesses, announced the release of its 14th annual Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study. The study is designed to identify industry performance benchmarks, impactful market conditions and the current market outlook, including specific analysis of top challenges impacting business development, project & risk management, finance & financial compliance, manufacturing, contract management & procurement, human capital management and information technology & security professionals.
Every year, Deltek analyzes survey responses from hundreds of government contracting leaders on their previous year's performance, uncovering insights on the entire government contracting market. The resulting report is a unique and trusted resource that helps performance-minded businesses identify areas to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, help set business goals, inform business development strategy and better understand how they compare to their competition.
This year, more than 700 government contractors responded to the survey, which comes at a key inflection point as government contracting firms are facing ongoing supply chain challenges, economic inflation and more. Despite these challenges, 88% of businesses reported revenue growth as the same or higher in 2022 and have developed strategies and tools to continue moving forward optimistically into 2023 with 93% reporting same or higher expected revenue. The Government Contractor Confidence Index (GCCI) calculated within the report also reflects this upward trend, increasing 1.6% from 2022, showing positive signs for recovery to – and even exceeding – pre-pandemic levels.
Several key themes arose from the survey that are applicable across a variety of government contracting sectors, including:
- Positive growth and revenue outlook: 49% of respondents reported increasing government sales revenue in 2022 while more than half expect increasing government sales revenue in 2023. 57% of respondents report the number of their overall federal contracts increasing.
- Cybersecurity investment: Cybersecurity tops the list of tech investment for government contractors, with 68% of respondents naming it a top concern for their IT teams.
- Small business vulnerability: Small businesses share the overall positive outlook found among respondents but are lagging larger competitors when it comes to growth and profit margins. Only 37% of self-reported small businesses reported growth in government contracts within the last year, compared to 49% overall and 58% of the largest companies.
- Internal process optimization: Business development challenges, such as a lack of face-to-face opportunities with decision makers, along with increased competition, have led respondents to focus on optimizing processes, specifically improving sales processes and effectiveness.
- Labor market challenges: 37% of respondents note that labor costs are seen as the most significant driver impacting their companies' business, with these costs being further compounded by inflation and a tightening market for talent.
Kevin Plexico, Senior Vice President of Information Solutions at Deltek commented, "This year, we found an optimistic outlook for increased government sales revenue and win rates in 2023, and the expectation to get back to, and possibly even exceed, pre-pandemic successes. The challenges companies are facing primarily relate to the labor markets, including shrinking headcounts and wage inflation making it difficult to deliver the best value on contracts, along with ongoing obstacles presented by evolving compliance requirements."
The full results are now available in the 2023 Deltek Clarity Government Contracting Industry Report. Watch this Clarity webinar to learn more about the industry market study.
About Deltek
Better software means better projects. Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for project-based businesses. More than 30,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek for superior levels of project intelligence, management and collaboration. Our industry-focused expertise powers project success by helping firms achieve performance that maximizes productivity and revenue. www.deltek.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Deltek | 2023-05-10T13:40:00+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2023/05/10/deltek-releases-its-14th-annual-clarity-government-contracting-industry-study-revealing-optimistic-outlook-revenue-growth-amid-market-challenges/ |
Merriam: Success of De Smet's boys basketball program hard to match
If my memory is correct it was the winter of 1982 when I got to witness the budding excellence of De Smet's boys basketball program first hand and had no idea what was about to hit me over the next four decades.
I was a freshman baseball player at Huron College in my hometown and as part of our fundraising efforts for our spring trip to Florida, we hosted a couple of junior high boys basketball tournaments in the middle of the winter. We officiated, ran the concession stand and did whatever else was needed to make sure the tournaments ran smoothly.
There was this seventh-grade basketball team from De Smet, some 30 miles east of Huron, with a coach (Marv McCune) who had played his college basketball at Huron College. McCune was a member of De Smet's first state Class B boys basketball championship teams in 1970 and 1971 before eventually finding his way back home to develop a high school program unmatched by few others across the state these past 40 years.
"Marv just deserves to be hanging around, enjoying retirement and telling stories these past two years," said current De Smet head coach Jeff Gruenhagen, who last week guided De Smet's boys to a third-straight State B title.
More:Making history: De Smet's boys collect third-straight State B hoops title
The Bulldogs became the first Class B team in the three-class system (1986-2023) to do that and joined Webster (1946-48) as the only Class B schools to accomplish the feat.
Before I talk more about the current Bulldogs, it's only fair that I should mention that Gruenhagen was a key member of that young De Smet team in 1982 that not only played but I'm sure dominated those Huron College tournaments. My apologies to those I forgot, but I remember Gruenhagen, Jeff Stoel and Doug Osthus among that group of seventh-graders that eventually won a state B championship under McCune's guidance as seniors in 1987.
Osthus later coached two daughters and led De Smet's girls basketball team to its first state title in 2019 and watched his son Rett became a key member of the Bulldogs' state B champion boys teams in 2021 and 2022.
Oh the ties just keep coming. It's the same for me as a sports writer who has covered or at least followed all of De Smet's state championship teams starting with the 1987 team. That included another State B title in 1995, a State A championship in 1999 and now the 2021, 2022 and 2023 State B champions. The streak could be longer. De Smet fell to Clark-Willow Lake in the 2019 State B championship and was favored to win in 2020 when the tourney was cancelled because of COVID-19.
"Last year was the first one without a McCune on the roster, either as a player or coach," Gruenhagen said.
The McCune family was heavily involved in the first six state titles with Marv playing on two and coaching three and grandson Ethan starting on the 2021 state championship team. About a month later, Marv McCune passed away after a battle with leukemia.
His spirit, his knowledge, his dedication and his emphasis on defense still very much remain. And they will for years to come.
Those characteristics were all very much a part of the 2022-23 Bulldogs, who wrapped up a 23-3 season by rallying to beat Viborg-Hurley 51-47, second-seeded Aberdeen Christian 46-31 and top-seeded Lower Brule 62-48 in a title-game rematch to win the 2023 state tournament.
With standouts Kalen Garry and Rett Osthus leading the way, De Smet's state titles in 2021 and 2022 were almost expected. Graduation losses not only included All-State standouts Garry and Osthus but also fellow classmates and regulars Tory Holland, Colt Wilkinson and Blake Van Regenmorter.
One really big piece was coming back and that was 6-10 senior center Damon Wilkinson, also an All-State honoree, but the rest of the state's Class B teams believed they had some hope. So did South Dakota's media, myself included, who only had the Bulldogs rated second in the final polls despite the fact that De Smet never lost to a Class B team for a third-straight year.
The Bulldogs were unfazed.
"Had our guys not grown up behind the household names of Garry, Osthus, Holland and others, everybody would have known them much sooner in their high school careers," Gruenhagen said of the 2022-23 Bulldogs. "George Jensen and Kadyn Fast were really the only other two players besides Damon who played last year."
More:De Smet's boys basketball team leads top performers for March 13-19
De Smet certainly centered most of its attack (both offensively and defensively) around Wilkinson. Early on, maybe the focus was too much on Wilkinson. Still, it was just a matter of time before 6-5 junior Jensen, 6-5 senior Kasen Janssen, senior guard Gannon Gruenhagen and junior guard Fast settled in along with a group of reserves highlighted by juniors Tom Augenbaugh and Trace Van Regenmorter.
The Bulldog faithful weren't worried, not even when they faced a 10-point halftime deficit in the first-round win over Viborg-Hurley.
"We knew the guys could do it (win the State B again), but we weren't sure how they would react to being in that pressure situation," said Gruenhagen. "That may have happened on Thursday, when the nerves were showing and the shots weren't falling at the start. The kids stuck with it."
As usual, defense was a big part of it. So was Wilkinson. But the real beauty is that basically every De Smet player who saw regular action in the state tournament had their big moments and/or big games in the state tournament.
Wilkinson has yet to determine his college plans and there's no doubt his loss will be felt along with fellow seniors Janssen and Gruenhagen. There's still a strong cast coming back and other talented players ready to step into bigger roles like Damon's brother, 6-8 freshman Grant.
It's a program thing. A Marv McCune thing. A history of success thing. And a family thing.
One that included bunch of memorable moments for the Gruenhagens, namely father Jeff and son Gannon.
"It's just a a special thing to win a state championship with your son," Jeff Gruenhagen said. "He earned his way into being a starter after seeing hardly any varsity minutes last year. It's always hard to be the coach's kid. So it was great to see him succeed."
Don't be surprised if the success isn't over for De Smet's boys basketball program.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on Twitter @PO_Sports. | 2023-03-24T14:41:09+00:00 | thepublicopinion.com | https://www.thepublicopinion.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/03/24/bulldogs-have-won-eight-state-championships-since-1970/70027338007/ |
Proceeds will accelerate a robust R&D pipeline, commercial partnerships and clinical activities led by leading institutional and strategic investors
CLEVELAND, June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Centerline Biomedical, Inc. (Centerline), a private medical technology company, announced the closing of a $33 million Series B equity financing led by Cleveland Clinic with participation by GE Healthcare, RIK Enterprises, JobsOhio, Jumpstart Ventures and G2 Group Ventures. This funding will help propel the company into new surgical applications, accelerate its commercial sales and add to its growing clinical evidence repository.
Centerline Biomedical's system improves visualization and guidance in endovascular procedures while reducing dependence on radiation and contrast agents with the goal of improving patient outcomes, as well as overall efficiency for clinicians. Its flagship product, IOPS® (Intra-Operative Positioning System) was developed in Cleveland Clinic's Heart and Vascular Institute and utilizes patented algorithms to generate a patient-specific vascular map combined with electromagnetic tracking and smart sensor-equipped surgical devices to provide real-time, 3-D color visualization and navigation of the human vascular system.
IOPS® is FDA 510(k) cleared and currently launching in the US at select sites. Expansion to Europe and other key markets will occur in 2023. This platform technology drives an active R&D pipeline, supported by four NIH (National Institute of Health) grants to date, and backed by a world-class scientific advisory board, with foundational programs to both expand and extend the capabilities in the vascular space and enter the structural heart space.
"We are excited about the potential for IOPS® solution to transform the imaging framework to improve safety, quality and cost of minimally-invasive vascular procedures while reducing radiation exposure of caregivers and patients during critical life-saving procedures" said Todd Schwarzinger, GM Cleveland Clinic Innovations. He also noted that Centerline is a success story for Northeast Ohio. "This technology, which was invented at Cleveland Clinic, represents another example of our region's success in supporting early-stage innovation within the MedTech startup space."
"The opportunity to invest in innovative technology like Centerline Biomedical's IOPS® solution aligns with GE Healthcare's mission of delivering more precise and efficient care. As the number of minimally invasive procedures for complex interventions increases, so does the need for advanced technology to enable clinicians to make faster, more precise and informed decisions to improve patient care. We look forward to working with Centerline Biomedical as well as clinicians to explore the possibilities of this technology, as well as how this can complement our imaging and guiding systems," said Arnaud Marie, General Manager for Global Interventional at GE Healthcare.
"Our technology is already yielding excellent clinical benefits and this funding will help realize our mission of improving the outcomes, radiation safety and accuracy in endovascular surgery," said Philip D. Rackliffe, CEO. "Successfully raising this capital given the challenging global environment is a resounding testament to this technology and incredible team at Centerline".
Founded in 2014, Centerline Biomedical is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The company's FDA-cleared technology platform enables dramatically improved visualization and guidance in endovascular procedures. Centerline is backed by Cleveland Clinic, GE Healthcare, RIK Enterprises, JobsOhio, Jumpstart Ventures and G2 Group Ventures. Visit www.centerlinebiomedical.com for more information.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Centerline Biomedical | 2022-06-27T12:44:37+00:00 | wafb.com | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/06/27/centerline-biomedical-raises-33-million-series-b-financing/ |
A “stable share” of Americans has participated in religious services in some way – virtually or in person – during the coronavirus pandemic, though in-person attendance is slightly lower than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center titled: “How the Pandemic Has Affected Attendance at U.S. Religious Services.” The poll surveyed 11,377 U.S. adults in November last year. Its margin of error for the full sample of respondents is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
The poll found that the share of U.S. adults typically attending religious services at least once a month dropped from 33% in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, to 30% in 2022. About 20% of Americans say they now attend in person less often than they did before the pandemic.
But the survey also found that the percentage of U.S. adults who take part in religious services in some way each month -- in person, virtually or both -- remained steady since the early days of the pandemic.
Researchers based their analysis on five surveys conducted since the start of the pandemic. They show that "a remarkably steady share of Americans – about 40% – say they have participated in religious services in the prior month one way or the other (either in person or virtually, i.e., by streaming online or watching on TV).”
When asked whether they now attend religious services more or less often than they did before COVID-19, more Americans say that their attendance has declined.
In San Francisco, the historic Old St. Mary’s Cathedral struggled to stay open during the pandemic. The 160-year-old Catholic church, which is heavily dependent on older worshippers and tourists, lost most of its revenue after parishes closed during the pandemic. The ranks of regular parishioners dropped from 300 before COVID-19, to about 200 now, said the Rev. John Ardis, who had to dismiss most of the lay staff and close the parish preschool.
“About 40% of our regular parishioners have chosen not to return,” Ardis said, adding that most parishioners are elderly and those who returned are still wearing masks at services. The pandemic “has been a big and continual hit,” he said.
Thomas Groome, professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, said he wasn’t surprised by the survey’s findings.
“There are some signs that attendance is coming back, but it’ll probably never come back to where it was before the pandemic,” he said.
“I think people learned how to nurture their spiritual lives and faith without necessarily going to their local church every Sunday," he added. "I know some of them went there virtually by Zoom…many read the scriptures themselves or they got together with neighbors or they bonded into family groups.”
By November 2022, 20% of respondents said they were attending in person less often, while 7% said they were going in person more often. And 15% said they were participating in services virtually more often, while 5% said they were watching services online or on TV less often.
At least 100 parishioners died from COVID-19 at the 17,000-strong Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church in New York City’s borough of Queens.
The number of parishioners who attended its regular services fell, but then rebounded and is now at the same or even higher than before the pandemic, said the Rev. Manuel Rodriguez, the pastor of the mostly Latino congregation.
“But that’s not the case, unfortunately, in other churches where attendance is falling,” he said.
The biggest decline in in-person attendance was found among Black Protestants, according to Pew. As of November, it found that 46% of them said they attended religious services at least once a month, down from 61% in 2019.
The report focused on major Christian and Jewish denominations. Pew researchers said the report could not analyze the attendance patterns of Buddhists, Hindus Muslims, and other smaller non-Christian religious groups due to sample size limitations.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | 2023-03-28T20:39:16+00:00 | ksat.com | https://www.ksat.com/news/national/2023/03/28/poll-religious-service-attendance-a-bit-down-after-pandemic/ |
GM Energy’s Ultium Home products provide backup power to your home in outage
General Motors' new business unit, GM Energy, will offer an initial vehicle-to-home group of products called the Ultium Home energy system for people who want a backup energy source.
The products will provide vehicle-to-home bidirectional charging technology, stationary storage and additional energy management products to residential customers through GM Energy. The products will give people more energy independence by enabling the use of an electric vehicle as backup power for essential home needs during a power outage.
“As GM Energy’s ecosystem of connected products and services continues to expand, we’re excited to provide customers with options for greater energy management beyond the vehicle,” said Wade Sheffer, vice president of GM Energy.
The Ultium Home products will be offered in bundle options so that customers can select what fits their needs and budget. But GM Energy is not releasing the cost or timeline for when all the products will go on sale, saying both will vary based on the bundle package.
"Certain Ultium Home product bundles are planned to be available for order in the fall of 2023," said Samantha Kennedy, spokeswoman. "More information on that, as well as information relating to how customers can order the initial Ultium Home products, will be made available in future updates."
GM announced the creation of GM Energy last October. The business unit consists of: Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial and Ultium Charge 360. The three products create a complete ecosystem for business, residential and EV customers to manage their energy usage.
GM introduced Ultium Charge 360 in April 2021 for residential EV customers and followed it up with a fleet option too. It is technology that ties GM's vehicle mobile apps to other products and services that make it easier for drivers to find charging stations and pay to charge their vehicles. As part of GM Energy, Ultium Charge 360 will expand its existing portfolio of integrated public charging networks, integrated mobile apps, and other products and services over time.
Here are the bundles that Ultium Home energy will offer when they go on sale in the future:
- Ultium Home V2H Bundle: Designed for customers seeking to leverage their compatible GM EVs for vehicle-to-home functionality. It includes GM’s PowerShift Charger and Ultium Home Vehicle-to-Home Enablement Kit.
- Ultium Home Energy System: Designed for customers who want to leverage their compatible GM EV for vehicle-to-home functionality and stationary storage. It includes GM's PowerShift Charger, Ultium Home vehicle-to-home Enablement Kit and GM's PowerBank.
- Ultium Home Energy Storage Bundle: Designed for customers who want to integrate stationary storage into their home, without the need for an EV. It includes GM's PowerBank, inverter or home hub.
A stationary energy storage system can store energy and release it in the form of electricity when it is needed.
More:Automakers' new crisis: Some 70,000 new cars are stuck at factories amid rail car shortage
More:GM CEO Mary Barra opens up on slow EV roll out, return to office
Additionally, customers looking to integrate solar energy can work with SunPower, which is GM Energy’s exclusive solar provider and a preferred EV charger installer. SunPower will deliver power to a home and vehicle with clean energy generated on the roof, GM Energy said.
Each of the Ultium Home products will be connected to the GM Energy Cloud, a software platform that lets customers manage the transfer of energy between GM Energy assets.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber. | 2023-06-28T15:21:21+00:00 | freep.com | https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2023/06/28/gm-energy-ultium-home-products-power-outage/70362257007/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials saw signs that the U.S. economy was weakening at their last meeting but still called inflation “unacceptably high’’ before raising their benchmark interest rate by a sizable three-quarters of a point in their drive to slow spiking prices.
In minutes from their July 26-27 meeting released Wednesday, the policymakers said they expected the economy to expand in the second half of 2022. But many of them suggested that growth would weaken as higher rates take hold. The officials noted that the housing market, consumer spending, business investment and factory production had decelerated after having expanded robustly in 2021.
Slower growth, they noted, could “set the stage’’ for inflation to gradually fall to the central bank’s 2% annual goal, though it remained “far above’’ that target. But the policymakers made clear that for now, they intend to continue raising rates enough to slow the economy.
In both June and July, the Fed sought to curb high inflation by raising its key rate by an unusually large three quarters of a percentage point twice. At their meeting last month, the policymakers said it might “become appropriate at some point to slow the pace of policy rate increases.’’
It remains unclear whether the Fed will announce yet another three-quarter-point rate hike when it next meets Sept. 20-21 or instead impose a more modest half-point hike then. Since the Fed’s meeting three weeks ago, the economy has sent mixed signals — unexpectedly strong hiring, a deterioration in the housing market and a surprising drop in inflation. Before the policymakers reconvene in September, they will see another monthly jobs report and another monthly report on consumer prices.
The minutes of the July meeting “suggest the Fed will remain on a tightening path, but there are signs some officials are getting a little nervous that they could end up going too hard and may need to reverse course eventually,″ said James Knightley, chief international economist at the financial firm ING.
Compounding the challenge for the central bank is that it was slow to respond to a resurgence of inflation in the spring of 2021 as the economy roared back from the 2020 pandemic recession. For many months, Chair Jerome Powell characterized high inflation as “transitory,” mainly a result of supply chain backlogs that would soon unsnarl and ease inflationary pressure. They didn’t, and year-over-year inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June before edging lower last month.
So the Fed has had to play catch-up with a series of sharp rate increases. It raised its benchmark rate in March and again in May, June and July. Those moves have raised the central bank’s key rate, which influences many consumer and business loans, from near zero to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, the highest since 2018.
Powell has said the Fed will do what it will take to tame inflation, and more rate hikes are expected. But many economists worry that the Fed will end up overdoing it in the other direction by tightening credit so much as to trigger a recession.
Concerns about a potential recession have been eased, for now, by the ongoing strength of the job market. Employers added a robust 528,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate has hit 3.5%, matching a half-century low that was reached just before the pandemic erupted in 2020.
In the minutes released Wednesday, the Fed’s policymakers acknowledged the strength of the job market. But they also noted that hiring tends to be a lagging indicator of the economy’s health. And they pointed to signs that the job market might be cooling, including an increase in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits, a drop in Americans quitting their jobs and a reduction in job openings. | 2022-08-17T20:54:46+00:00 | cbs42.com | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/fed-saw-evidence-of-a-slowing-economy-at-its-last-meeting/ |
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with vanity license plates. Some I've seen include OKFINE, MAAAAD with four As, and also, no offense (ph) - good when you cut somebody off. But the state of Maine finds some plates too expressive. Years ago, the state eliminated its review of license plate applications, but now the state is adding rules. Expletives and sexual references are inappropriate. Apparently, there was a bit too much FRESPCH. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | 2022-11-09T18:42:06+00:00 | kcbx.org | https://www.kcbx.org/2022-10-28/officials-in-maine-have-found-some-license-plates-too-expressive |
DETROIT (AP) — Thanks to a boost from the government, leasing — not buying — is becoming the most affordable way to get your hands on an electric vehicle.
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act provided a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 to use toward an EV. Under the rules, a dealer can apply that credit to any leased electric vehicle, no matter where it’s made, to reduce a customer’s monthly payment.
Not so for people who buy an EV.
For buyers, only EVs made in North America qualify for the full tax credit. And only 10 of the 49 electric vehicles for sale in the United States this year meet that requirement. Even then, the EV must contain certain percentages of battery parts from the United States or countries with which it has a trade deal for the buyer to receive a full $7,500 credit.
Why the distinction between leased and purchases vehicles?
The Treasury Department says that in establishing the tax credit, Congress classified leased — but not purchased — EVs as “commercial” vehicles. Under the law, commercial vehicles are exempt from the North America manufacturing and battery-content requirements. The result is that people who lease enjoy a much wider selection of EVs that qualify for the $7,500 credit.
“Lease affordability has surpassed purchase affordability” in a J.D. Power index that includes total cost of ownership, said Elizabeth Krear, vice president of the EV practice at J.D. Power.
Many consumers have become aware of the difference and are capitalizing on it. In April, Krear said, leases accounted for 41% of all U.S. EV deliveries — four times the percentage in December, before the new rules took effect.
Geoff Pohanka, president of a 21-dealership group in Maryland, Virginia and Texas, said he is anticipating an increase in leasing. Buyers, he predicts, will increasingly recognize that the tax credit will help defray the typically substantial cost difference between an EV and a similar gas-powered vehicle.
“It definitely makes sense,” he said. “Incentives can move the market if that narrows the affordability issue between gas and electric cars.”
Pohanka, whose group sells vehicles from multiple automakers, said the tax credits have just begun to lower the cost of leasing. Still, the rules governing the credit are complex enough that some buyers appear unsure if they would qualify for it. The rules not only make distinctions between leased and purchased vehicles. They also include income thresholds that disqualify some buyers.
To qualify for the tax credit, a car cannot cost more than $55,000. SUVs, pickups and vans can’t exceed $80,000. And a buyer’s gross income must be no more $150,000 if single, $300,000 if filing jointly and $225,000 if head of a household.
Given the confusion he has noticed among customers about qualifying for the tax credit, Pohanka said some EVs are sitting longer on dealer lots than they otherwise would.
“This disruption, I think, is very damaging to the momentum on electric vehicles,” he said.
Critics, including some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, say they regard the Treasury rules that allow many leased, but not purchased, EVs to receive the full tax credit to be an unfair loophole. They argue that it benefits automakers that produce all their vehicles overseas and have yet to build EV and battery factories in the United States. These foreign manufacturers, they say, can devote themselves to leasing EVs in the United States at the expense of domestic automakers.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and a key author of the tax-credit language, wanted the North American manufacturing requirement to help boost U.S. manufacturing jobs. He included the battery requirements to incentivize companies to build a domestic EV supply chain. But Manchin says the Biden administration is circumventing the law’s intent by allowing tax credits for vehicles manufactured overseas.
“The administration continues to ignore the purpose of the law, which is to bring manufacturing back to America and ensure we have reliable and secure supply chains,” he said in a statement.
Foreign automakers had complained that they were excluded from the tax credit for buyers despite doing what the bill intended — building U.S. battery and assembly plants.
The Treasury Department denies creating a loophole and says it was Congress that exempted commercial vehicles from the manufacturing and battery requirements. When a dealer buys a vehicle and leases it to someone, it amounts to a commercial transaction. The dealer or a finance company receives the tax credit and retains ownership of the vehicle.
“Eligibility for the commercial vehicle credit is a straightforward reading of the Inflation Reduction Act as written by Congress and application of longstanding tax law regarding leased assets,” Ashley Schapitl, a spokeswoman, wrote in a statement. “There was no room for Treasury interpretation.”
Hyundai, with three EV models made in South Korea and for sale in the United States, is among the beneficiaries of the leasing provision. A spokesman for the Korean automaker said that leases amounted to 30% of its U.S. EV deliveries in the United States from January through March. In 2022, that proportion was only 5%.
The average monthly ownership cost on an EV leased for three years has dropped $403 since December, largely because of the tax credits, J.D. Power found. By contrast, for an EV purchase financed over five years, the average monthly cost has declined by only $118.
Hyundai is offering to lease an Ioniq 5 SE rear-wheel-drive EV for $499 a month for three years, though the customer must put down nearly $4,000. Buying the same EV would cost $865 a month for five years at the average new-auto loan rate of 7%.
Though it may be cheaper, leasing won’t fit into everyone’s financial plans. Unlike with a purchase, monthly payments don’t end when a loan is paid off.
Experts note, too, that not everyone who leases an EV will receive the tax credit, even if they qualify for it. The automakers and dealers are allowed to decide whether to pass along the tax credit to their customers; they aren’t required to do so.
Krear said some companies are passing the entire $7,500 credit on to qualifying consumers, thereby reducing their monthly payments. Others are passing on only a portion of it.
Eventually, as automakers make adjustments to comply with the North American manufacturing and battery-composition requirements, buying an EV could cost less than leasing over the long run, Krear said, though there are too many variables to predict when that might happen.
“At that time, it will be a different playing field,” she said. | 2023-05-30T23:18:24+00:00 | wdtn.com | https://www.wdtn.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-the-easiest-way-to-get-a-7500-tax-credit-for-an-electric-vehicle-consider-leasing/ |
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Tuesday said that he’s not ruling out a third-party bid for the White House, after already having announced that he will not seek the Republican nomination in 2024.
“I have ruled out seeking the Republican nomination. And I haven’t ruled that out,” Hogan told ABC News of a potential third-party run. “But it’s not something I’m really working toward or thinking about.”
“The question keeps popping up more and more,” he added.
Hogan, who had been publicly mulling a run for the GOP nomination for several months, announced on Sunday that he would not launch a Republican bid for president.
“I did give it serious consideration and I talked to people everywhere and I talked to my family,” Hogan told CBS News. “And it was a tough decision. But I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.”
The former Maryland governor, who left office last year after being term-limited, said that former President Trump did not deter him from joining the race. Rather, Hogan said he wanted to give other candidates polling in the “single digits” a chance against Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I didn’t want to have a pile up of a bunch of people fighting,” he said. “Right now, you have Trump and DeSantis at the top of the field, they’re soaking up all the oxygen, getting all the attention. And then a whole lot of the rest of us in single digits and the more of them you have, the less chance you have for somebody rising up.”
However, if the 2024 election ends up being a rematch between Trump and President Biden, Hogan told ABC News on Tuesday that the centrist political group No Labels would launch a third-party bid as a last-ditch effort.
“I’m not sure we’re gonna get to that point. I don’t know that,” Hogan, who serves as an honorary co-chair of the group, said. “Frankly, I’m hopeful that Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee. And I’m going to work toward that goal. And I’m assuming Biden may be the nominee, but who knows? I mean, he’s 80 years old. And we got a long ways to go.”
While Hogan said he’s not “working toward” putting his name on such a third-party ticket, he isn’t closing the door to a run.
“I mean, look, if you got to an election when the nominees were Biden and Trump and 70 percent of America didn’t want that, you wouldn’t rule it out, right?” he added. | 2023-03-08T18:24:10+00:00 | cbs42.com | https://www.cbs42.com/hill-politics/hogan-not-ruling-out-third-party-white-house-bid/ |
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — If you’re looking to travel abroad and need a passport, you’re not the only one. Currently, the rush of applications has pushed the wait time to several months.
“We’re getting 500,000 applications a week for passports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said March 24, calling the renewed demand for travel “unprecedented.”
The State Department warns it is taking 10 to 13 weeks to receive a passport and the expedited process, which costs an extra $60, will take seven to nine weeks. Staffing shortages are being blamed for some of the delays.
Trying to get an appointment at one of the 20 passport centers in Clark County, Nevada is leaving some people frustrated. Applicants say they are being told that an appointment may not be scheduled for months, and if you plan to walk in to submit an application, be prepared to wait hours.
The Secretary of State reports in the 2022 fiscal year, a record 22 million passport books were issued and the government is on track to break that record in 2023.
Passport demand always increases from March through the summer as travel ramps up but this year is unusual. The U.S. Travel Association reports 52% of Americans plan to travel in the next six months and with around 500,000 passport applications being submitted weekly, it probably won’t slow down any time soon.
“The processing times had been going down for the last couple of months but with the surge again for the seasonal travel it has bumped back up. So the problem is just the backlog of the number of people coming in. I guess the system just can’t handle it,” Windmill Library branch Manager Theron Nissen said.
If you need to renew your passport, you can mail your passport with a DS 82 form (renewal application) and a photo.
If you need a passport for an emergency, you can find contact information for the U.S. Department of State at this link.
Passport services are offered at some post offices, libraries, and government buildings. | 2023-04-04T00:20:13+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/news/national-world-news/us-passport-application-delays-surge-amid-unprecedented-demand/ |
Department of Energy scientists announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Scott Hsu, lead fusion coordinator at DOE, about what this means for the future.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Department of Energy scientists announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Scott Hsu, lead fusion coordinator at DOE, about what this means for the future.
Copyright 2022 NPR | 2022-12-13T21:28:47+00:00 | wbfo.org | https://www.wbfo.org/2022-12-13/what-is-the-significance-of-the-fusion-breakthrough |
This article was originally published by Don Day in BoiseDev.
A top Micron Technology leader wouldn’t confirm if the company is looking to build a so-called “mega fab” in Boise. But he wouldn’t deny it either.
“Fab” is industry lingo for a fabrication plant.
Micron’s SVP and General Counsel Rob Beard told BoiseDev that with the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act passed by Congress last month, the Boise-based company would look to make a decision on where to build facilitates in the US in the coming weeks.
“We’ve wanted to build a mega-fab in the US for a long time. Now that this legislation is in place, we are able to make some investment decisions. We are looking at several different places and it’s a competitive process.”
As BoiseDev has reported since last fall, based on extensive reporting and questions of sources surrounding the company, Boise is one of the locations in the running for expansion. The US Commerce Secretary confirmed the reporting last month. But Micron has not.
In the running?
When we asked Beard if Boise is one of the sites in the running, he said it would be a “bad idea” to comment on any of the places and noted an announcement would come in the weeks ahead.
Last month, while pressing for passage of the CHIPS and Science bill, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told BoiseDev’s Margaret Carmel that Micron was looking to expand in Idaho. We asked if Raimondo was wrong.
“I would not want to criticize the Commerce Secretary. I wouldn’t do that,” Beard said. “We are looking at several different places. It’s a competitive process, and it runs best when we are careful about confidentially.”
He did say that the locations in the running do know they are part of the process and have for quite some time.
The potential for expansion in Boise first caught BoiseDev’s attention when Boise Mayor Lauren McLean was absent from a November 2021 Boise City Council meeting. The City of Boise’s spokesperson at the time told us she was on a business attraction mission for the city. Since that initial reporting, three sources with direct knowledge of the project have told BoiseDev that Boise is a potential site for expansion. And a large number of other sources wouldn’t deny it was.
The Idaho Legislature passed a bill, which Gov. Little signed, providing tax breaks to semiconductor makers to expand in Idaho.
The stakes for Boise and Idaho are high. Beard said the mega-fab site could contribute “thousands of jobs.”
“The mega-fab is a multi-phase concept where you’d start construction in the next few months and you’d take many years to build,” he said. “It would have many phases, many fabs, and lots of clean room space. It’s a big multi-phase project.”
Boise site possibilities
CNBC anchor Sara Eisen asked Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra about BoiseDev’s reporting last month.
“There are reports, I don’t believe you’ve confirmed them yet, that you are looking at building a fabrication plant in Boise, Idaho… is that true,” Eisen asked. What are your plans?”
“We have not confirmed the sites yet. We are evaluating multiple sites across the US in terms of site selection,” Mehrotra said. “Of course, Micron is headquartered out of Boise, Idaho. We of course, are looking at potential opportunity for manufacturing. But no decision is made yet, but the matter is of great urgency, as we’ll be making our decision in the next few months…”
Micron owns large land holdings near its campus on Federal Way near I-84. The JR Simplot Co. and JRS Properties also own large tracts of land in the area. JR Simplot was an early investor in Micron.
Micron Technology and the JR Simplot Co. are major landowners in the area near the Boise chipmaker’s campus. BoiseDev graphic
“We have more than 6,000 team members in Boise,” Bear said. “Boise has been R&D powerhouse of those companies, and we hope that continues to be true. We’re always thinking about what we could do at the Boise site and evaluating that, and no matter what we do in the future, we have options.”
Why Boise wants high-paying jobs
Earlier this year, on the BoiseDev Podcast, we asked McLean about possible Micron expansion. While she wouldn’t comment, she did talk about why the city works to attract high-paying jobs like a new fabrication plant might provide.
“Wages need to rise,” McLean said. “As more and more people bring their jobs here, and make it harder for Boiseans to buy homes — if we want to try and change that dynamic, we also have to do everything we can as a city to create more opportunity for our citizens because that will lift wages and help make homes more affordable.”
She said workers on traditional Boise-type salaries are now competing with people who might not be.
“We’re competing in this world where jobs are from everywhere,” she said. “My neighbor could be getting a San Francisco salary and be just fine in his home, we have Boise salaries, right? So we have to take steps from an economic development standpoint to help lift wages.”
McLean will be in DC for the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act Tuesday. She said the act will “bolster” the city’s work to attract employers. | 2022-08-08T23:32:50+00:00 | kivitv.com | https://www.kivitv.com/news/mega-fab-micron-official-wont-say-boises-in-the-running-for-expansion-but-wont-deny-it-either |
★½ (out of four) “Amsterdam” (R; 127 minutes): Sometimes, you go to a party that’s full of interesting people and nonetheless you can’t wait to go home, because the evening seems completely off. Such is the case with David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam,” a movie that’s so awkward to watch you’ll get social anxiety just from being in the same room with it. It looks great, it’s crammed with terrific actors, and it’s a mess. Full review here. Multiple theaters. — Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times movie critic
★½ “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” (PG; 106): The whole picture — about a singing (but nontalking) CG crocodile in New York — is an exercise in obvious effort, try, try, trying really hard to win the audience’s affection. However it only succeeds in trying the audience’s patience. It’s a trial. 106 minutes. Reviewed 10/7/22 by Soren Andersen. Feel the cheer. Heed the noise. Stagger out in stunned silence at the awfulness of it all. Full review here. Multiple theaters. — Soren Andersen, special to The Seattle Times
“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry“ (PG-13; 105 minutes): A.J. Fikry’s wife has died, his bookstore is in trouble and now his prized rare edition of Edgar Allan Poe poems has been stolen. However, when a mysterious package appears, its arrival gives him the chance to start his life over and see things anew. Varsity.
“To Leslie” (R; 119 minutes): Based on a true story, a West Texas single mother fights to rebuild her life after she squanders her lottery winnings. Meridian 16. | 2022-10-07T13:34:42+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/new-movies-in-seattle-area-theaters-this-week-amsterdam-lyle-lyle-crocodile/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
- Richter Group will receive hydrogen electric trucks, the required green hydrogen, and the refuelling infrastructure from Nikola and E.ON beginning in 2024 onwards
- The logistics service provider plans to transition their fleet of 160 trucks towards the Class 8 Nikola Tre hydrogen electric truck over the next four to five years
ULM, Germany, Feb. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nikola Corporation (Nasdaq: NKLA), a global leader in zero-emissions transportation and energy supply and infrastructure solutions, E.ON and Richter Group, today announced a Letter of Intent for an initial order of 20 Class 8, heavy-duty Nikola Tre hydrogen electric vehicles and the hydrogen needed to supply them.
Richter Group is a leading provider of individual logistics services comprising hub and direct transport solutions for courier, express and parcel clients. Located in Germany, it currently owns a fleet of over 160 diesel-powered trucks with loading and unloading points in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
Nikola and E.ON intend to help Richter Group decarbonize its vehicle fleet by providing hydrogen electric trucks, the required green hydrogen, and the refuelling infrastructure through the previously announced joint venture that is to be established in the upcoming weeks.
The initial order of 20 Nikola Tre hydrogen electric trucks are expected to be delivered to Richter Group in 2024. Richter Group intends to transition their entire fleet to Nikola Tre hydrogen electric trucks over the next four to five years. Richter Group also plans to work with their logistics partners to transition fleets to Nikola's zero-emission vehicles, which could equate to an additional 750 hydrogen electric trucks within that same timeframe.
The Nikola Tre hydrogen electric trucks in the European 6x2 variant will be manufactured by the joint venture between Nikola and Iveco Group (MI: IVG) at their facility in Ulm, Germany. Richter Group and its partners may acquire some or all Nikola Tre hydrogen electric vehicles through GATE - Green & Advanced Transport Ecosystem, IVECO's all-inclusive electric truck rental model. IVECO will provide the essential maintenance and service functions.
E.ON will provide Richter Group with green hydrogen and develop the refuelling infrastructure to meet the needs of the hydrogen electric vehicles brought to market. The first refuelling solution within the scope of this project will be located on the premises of Richter Group in Wesel, Germany. Both hydrogen supply and logistics will be supplied though the Nikola and E.ON joint venture once it is officially established.
Michael Lohscheller, President and CEO, Nikola Corporation, said, "The commitment from Richter Group is another example of how Nikola and E.ON are playing an essential role in helping Germany achieve the goal of decarbonizing the transportation sector. Implementing the initial order of 20 heavy-duty zero-emission trucks in place of existing diesel trucks, equates to avoiding the annual CO2 emissions from approximately 600 passenger cars."
Sylvio Richter, founder and CEO of Richter Group said, "We plan to introduce the Nikola hydrogen electric trucks and other services of Nikola and E.ON to many of our partners to further promote and grow decarbonization efforts in the European heavy-duty transport sector. This Letter of Intent is just the beginning. Through our technology subsidiary Sundronix GmbH, Richter Group will be working with Nikola and E.ON on technological solutions for the design and construction of a 700-bar refuelling infrastructure, hydrogen transport logistics, and hydrogen supply."
With a range of up to 800 km, the Nikola Tre hydrogen electric truck is expected to have among the longest ranges of all commercially available zero tailpipe emission Class 8 tractors while realizing weight savings when compared to battery-electric Class 8 trucks with similar range. The Tre hydrogen electric truck is well-suited for a variety of applications ranging from drayage and intermodal to metro-regional truckload and less than truckload to certain specialized hauling use cases.
ABOUT NIKOLA CORPORATION
Nikola Corporation is globally transforming the transportation industry. As a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure, via the HYLA brand, Nikola is driven to revolutionize the economic and environmental impact of commerce as we know it today. Founded in 2015, Nikola Corporation is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.nikolamotor.com or Twitter @nikolamotor.
ABOUT E.ON
E.ON is an international investor-owned energy company, which focuses on energy networks and customer solutions. As one of Europe's largest energy companies, E.ON plays a leading role in shaping a clean, digital, decentralized world of energy. To this end, around 72,000 employees develop and sell products and solutions for private, commercial and industrial customers. More than 51 million customers purchase electricity, gas, digital products or solutions for electric mobility, energy efficiency and climate protection from E.ON. E.ON is headquartered in Essen, Germany. For more information, please visit www.eon.com.
ABOUT RICHTER GROUP
Richter Group is a prominent provider of individual logistics services. These services include hub and direct transport solutions for clients in the courier, express, and parcels industries. Richter Group is committed to providing its customers with sustainable transport solutions that meet their environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria. Founded in 1987 Richter Group is headquartered in Wesel, Germany. For more information, visit www.richtertransport.de.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook," and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the company's expectations regarding its business, business model and strategy; the expected benefits of the company's joint venture with E.ON and LOI with Richter Group; the company's expectations regarding its projected truck builds and related specifications and the timing of delivery of hydrogen electric trucks; the company's expectations for its trucks and market acceptance of electric trucks; and market opportunity. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, including receiving a binding purchase order for trucks from Richter Group, and on the current expectations of Nikola's management and are not predictions of actual performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to general economic, financial, legal, regulatory, political and business conditions and changes in domestic and foreign markets; the potential effects of COVID-19; the outcome of legal proceedings to which Nikola is, or may become a party; the conversion of pre-orders into binding orders; risks related to the rollout of Nikola's business and the timing of expected business milestones; the effects of competition on Nikola's future business; the availability of capital; and the other risks detailed from time to time in Nikola's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 and other documents Nikola files with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and Nikola specifically disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Nikola Corporation | 2023-02-22T21:34:23+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/nikola-eon-sign-collaboration-agreement-with-richter-group-decarbonize-their-heavy-duty-fleet-germany/ |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.