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~Love conquers all, as new survey data by the Sandals Institute of Romance reveals couples will prioritize relationships, intimacy, and time away in 2023~
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, Feb. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Couples are optimistic about their relationships and intend to make more time for their partners in 2023 according to a recent survey by the Sandals Institute of Romance – Sandals Resorts' trend-house responsible for analyzing and spotting the latest global news in modern love, relationships, and intimacy. Surveying more than 1,000 adults across the United States in partnership with Wakefield Research, the data points to major trends, expectations, and other factors impacting relationships, passion, and connection in the year ahead.
The trend report revealed that romantic experiences remain a top priority despite an uncertain economic outlook and the hard reality of inflation. People expect to be far busier in 2023 than they were in 2022, and they're making difficult choices about how much they spend, prioritizing immediate needs over frivolous ones. And yet, when it comes to spending their ever-shrinking dollars on romance, a majority say they don't plan to forfeit gifts, getaways, and activities that strengthen connections and fuel intimacy.
What will romance look like in 2023?
For starters, couples are cozying up to a new year with optimism, with 89% saying their relationship will get better or stay the same in 2023. According to the survey, 4 out of 5 Americans 18 and older (80%) plan to make more time for romance, and nearly 3 in 5 (58%) say rising costs won't derail their plans for a romantic vacation, as most Americans intend to find the time as well as the funds.
For many, what is considered romantic has evolved and changed over time, with 81% percent saying that they find romance has changed in the last decade. As for what's romantic in today's modern world, two-thirds (67%) say a getaway for two would be a particularly romantic gift and the top choice for partners in 2023.
The survey went on to reveal that more than gifts, sharing experiences is proving to be the ultimate love language. Watching the sunset (55%), trying new restaurants and shops (52%), and adventurous outings (51%) also top the list of what's most romantic.
"The definition of romance varies from couple to couple, but there's a common thread to a thriving relationship and that is to be intentional about making the time for connection," said Marsha-Ann Donaldson-Brown, Sandals Resorts' Director of Weddings & Romance. "The findings from our latest love study are invigorating and compelling, as Americans confirm their commitment to nurturing their relationships in the coming year – which is why we're celebrating 2023 as the 'Year of We.' Getting away from daily life, free from distractions and stresses, inspires people to focus on what matters most, with the majority of couples agreeing they feel closest to each other while on vacation – and moreover, how this time away energizes the relationship beyond the trip."
The Sandals State of Romance in 2023 survey went on to reveal much about the romantic pulse of America this year. See the full report here, with findings including:
Couples Plan to Make Time for Romance in 2023, Despite Tight Schedules
- 80% of respondents expect to be busier in 2023, with 2 in 3 (66%) acknowledging it is challenging to find the time for romance. Still, the vast majority (80%) are committed to making more time for it in 2023, with 31% strongly agreeing.
- The top obstacles for romance are finding the right setting (41%), financial constraints (38%), work (34%), social obligations (24%), and children (23%).
- For Boomers, finding time for romance isn't as difficult, with 45% saying it is not challenging, compared to 32% of Gen X, 24% of Millennials, and 25% of Gen Z.
- 76% of parents say it is challenging to find time for romance. Even in light of this, 88% of parents say they will make more time for romance in 2023, compared with 75% who are not parents.
In Lean Times, Many Say Romantic Getaways Are Non-Negotiable
- 58% of respondents wouldn't let inflation stop them from taking a romantic vacation, and 42% say that romantic activities would be among the last things to cut back during an economic downturn. Moreover, almost two-thirds of those who have been on a romantic vacation in the past year (64%) refuse to let economic factors stop them from taking one in the future.
- To help eliminate obstacles, at least temporarily, and create more time for romance, Americans are ready to pack their bags, with the majority saying a getaway is long overdue. Of the 63% who say they are likely to take a romantic vacation in 2023, Millennials are the most restless; 79% say they are likely to take a romantic trip in 2023.
Vacations Are Key to Connection and Intimacy
- A majority of Americans (51%) say the closest they've felt to their romantic partner is when they're on vacation together.
- When it comes to romantic vacations that deepen connection, Americans prefer a relaxing beach vacation (67%), especially women (72%) and Gen X (74%).
- 49% view 5 to 7 days as an ideal amount of time for a romantic vacation. Over a week-long romantic vacation, 30% would anticipate being intimate with their partner 3 or 4 days during the trip, and more than a quarter (26%) anticipate being intimate each day of the trip.
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) say intimacy is more satisfying when they're on a romantic getaway. And, that satisfaction doesn't end when the vacation ends: 80% prioritize intimacy with their partner upon returning home from a romantic trip.
- 48% of Millennials say romantic vacations impact their intimacy by making them more adventurous, compared to 28% of Gen X, and 23% of Boomers.
Surveying past guests as well as global travelers in committed relationships, the Sandals Institute of Romance's data is designed to drive the development of integrated on-resort programming, innovative partnerships geared towards enhancing the guest experience, and expert relationship guidance for couples before, during and after their Luxury Included® vacation.
About Sandals® Resorts
Sandals® Resorts offers two people in love the most romantic, Luxury Included® vacation experience in the Caribbean. With 16 – and soon to be 17 – stunning beachfront settings in Jamaica, Antigua, Saint Lucia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, and Curaçao, Sandals Resorts offers more quality inclusions than any other resort company on the planet. Signature Love Nest Butler Suites® for the ultimate in privacy and service; butlers trained by the Guild of Professional English Butlers; the Red Lane Spa®; 5-Star Global Gourmet™ dining, ensuring top-shelf liquor, premium wines, and gourmet specialty restaurants; Aqua Centers with expert PADI® certification and training; fast Wi-Fi from beach to bedroom; and Sandals Customizable Weddings are all Sandals Resorts exclusives. Sandals Resorts is part of family-owned Sandals Resorts International (SRI), founded by the late Gordon "Butch" Stewart, which includes Beaches Resorts and is the Caribbean's leading all-inclusive resort company. For more information about the Sandals Resorts Luxury Included® difference, visit www.sandals.com.
About Wakefield Research
Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) is a leading, independent provider of quantitative, qualitative, and hybrid market research. Wakefield Research supports the world's most prominent brands and agencies, including 50 of the Fortune 100, in 90 countries.
Contact:
The Decker/Royal Agency
sandals@deckerroyal.com
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SOURCE Sandals Resorts International | 2023-02-09T18:28:44+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2023/02/09/trend-report-sandals-resorts-takes-romantic-pulse-america-coins-2023-the-year-we/ |
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Alleged shooter at Washington state music festival was stationed at US Army base
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — The alleged gunman who fired into a crowd killing two people at a Washington state music festival Saturday was stationed at a U.S. Army base in Western Washington, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
James M. Kelly, 26, of Joint Base Lewis-McChord was booked into the Grant County Jail Tuesday on investigation of two counts of murder, two counts of assault and one count of domestic violence assault, Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete said in a Facebook post. Law enforcement officers shot him Saturday and he was being treated at a hospital until Tuesday, the sheriff said.
The shooting killed two people and wounded two others in an area where people were camping for the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre.
The two people killed were Seattle residents Brandy Escamilla, 29, and Josilyn Ruiz, 26, Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison said Tuesday. Escamilla died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Ruiz died from a gunshot wound to her torso, Morrison said. The two were engaged to be married, according to a fundraising campaign by family members.
Lily Luksich, 20, of Mill Creek, Washington, and 31-year-old Andrew Cuadra of Eugene, Oregon, were shot and wounded, according to the sheriff.
A private security officer responding to the report of shots fired was struck by a bullet that deflected off her eyeglasses, causing bruising and lacerations, the sheriff said.
The sheriff’s office said it received a report of a shooting around 8:20 p.m. Saturday at the camping area at the amphitheater near the small city of George, 149 miles (240 kilometers) east of Seattle. The shooting happened several hundred yards from the music festival.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord Lt. Col. Mike Burns told KXLY-TV in a statement Tuesday that the command is aware of the allegations against Kelly.
“We take all allegations seriously and are fully cooperating with the appropriate authorities,” his statement said.
Burns said Kelly is a joint fire support specialist assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment at the military base. It wasn’t immediately known if Kelly has a lawyer to comment on his behalf.
The North Central Washington Special Investigation Unit is investigating the shooting of Kelly by law enforcement officers. The names of the officer or officers who fired at Kelly haven’t been released.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-21T05:57:50+00:00 | kwtx.com | https://www.kwtx.com/2023/06/21/alleged-shooter-washington-state-music-festival-was-stationed-us-army-base/ |
BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — The unsolved JonBenét Ramsey homicide will go before state cold case experts next year, investigating authorities announced on Wednesday.
The Colorado Cold Case Review Team includes investigative, analytical and forensic experts from across the state and meets two to four times a year. Investigating agencies in the Ramsey case announced Wednesday that it will go before the review team in 2023.
“This crime has left a hole in the hearts of many, and we will never stop investigating until we find JonBenet’s killer,” Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said in a statement. “That includes following up on every lead and working with our policing partners and DNA experts around the country to solve this tragic case. This investigation has always been and will continue to be a priority for the Boulder Police Department.”
Ramsey, 6, was reported missing from Boulder on the day after Christmas in 1996. Her family reported finding a ransom note in their 15th Street home where the girl’s body was found in the basement, dead from strangulation.
Investigators said the case could benefit from an outside review.
“The murder of JonBenet Ramsey is a terrible tragedy and sparked years of unanswered questions and theories. Our office has successfully prosecuted other cold case homicides and many murder cases,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. “In every one of those cases, it was the evidence that proved the defendant(s) guilty. Whether it is DNA or other evidence, more is needed to solve this murder. I appreciate the collaboration with CBI, the FBI and the Boulder Police Department.”
DNA evidence is limited in the case, and each analysis could consume an entire sample, investigators said Wednesday. They said discussions will continue with private DNA labs on the viability of continued DNA testing and genetic genealogy analysis, with additional analysis expected once proven forensic technology is available for the samples in the case.
According to the Boulder Police Department, investigators have received, reviewed or investigated more than 21,000 tips, letters and emails. They have traveled to 19 states as part of their investigation and have interviewed or spoken with more than 1,000 individuals.
As of December 2021, the evidence included the analysis of nearly 1,000 DNA samples. CBI has updated over 750 reference samples with the latest DNA technology
Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to contact the BPD tip line at 303-441-1974, send an email to BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov , or contact Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.nococrimestoppers.com.
KDVR’s Dara Bitler contributed to this report. | 2022-11-10T19:27:16+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/news/national/jonbenet-ramsey-case-to-get-renewed-look-from-cold-case-team/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles sold the winning ticket for the Powerball jackpot worth an estimated $1.08 billion, the sixth largest in U.S. history and the third largest in the history of the game.
The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24.
The winner can choose either the total jackpot paid out in yearly increments or a $558.1 million lump sum before taxes. Winners don’t have to come forward publicly but their names and the disposition of the money are public records, according to the California Lottery.
The winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market, which will receive a $1 million bonus from the lottery. Lottery officials presented a giant symbolic check to store owner Navor Herrera and his family, and hung signs saying “billionaire made here.”
Asked about his million-dollar windfall, Herrera set his sights on the future.
“I have to make more bigger store, more items, good service for the people. That’s my thing now,” he said.
“The store is small” but the luck there is “big,” Herrera joked.
Located in the city’s Fashion District, the narrow minimarket is a few blocks from Skid Row’s scenes of homelessness and distress where thousands of people live in makeshift shanties that line entire blocks of the neighborhood.
The 107-block district is both a center of the West Coast apparel industry as well as a low-income area where small stores offer clothing, accessories and fabrics that spill onto sidewalks. Bargain-seekers flock to the district, but many storefronts are shuttered.
The winner must come forward to the California Lottery to claim the prize — and should consider hiring financial and legal advisers, spokesperson Carolyn Becker told reporters.
“And then we have to spend time vetting the winner to make sure it is the right person,” Becker said. “Integrity and transparency are incredibly important to us, so we will probably not know for months and months.”
A crush of reporters descended on the narrow minimarket, creating an early morning stir.
Lucy Jamil, who works nearby, came to the market after hearing the jackpot news.
“I’m very excited — very, very excited,” said Jamil, an employee at a store selling items such as backpacks, strollers and makeup boxes. “This morning when I woke up I was praying to God, you know, God willing it’s gonna be somebody who works over here.”
Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $1 billion to $1.08 billion at the time of the drawing, moving it from the seventh largest to the sixth largest U.S lottery jackpot ever won.
The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players.
The largest Powerball jackpot ever was $2.04 billion in November, also in California, making Thursday the second time in less than a year that someone in Los Angeles County has become a Powerball billionaire.
The last time anyone won the Powerball jackpot was on April 19 for a top prize of nearly $253 million.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
___
Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed.
___
This story has been updated to correct the name of the store owner to Navor Herrera, not Nabor Herrera. | 2023-07-20T23:30:18+00:00 | ktalnews.com | https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/ap-the-wait-is-over-as-powerball-finally-has-a-winner-for-its-estimated-1-billion-jackpot/ |
President Biden delivered his second State of the Union address Tuesday amid the customary pomp and circumstance — and to loud acclaim from Democrats.
But the speech also came as Biden struggles with mediocre approval ratings, the realities of a divided Congress and the looming start of the 2024 election campaign.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the official GOP response.
Here are the main takeaways from the night.
Pitched battle between Biden and GOP
The high point of bipartisanship came in the first few sentences of Biden’s speech.
He congratulated Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on his new role, turning around to shake the hand of the smiling Californian.
“I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you,” Biden joked.
To judge from the rest of the speech — and the Republican reaction to it — there won’t be much unity to come.
Despite pledges from McCarthy to uphold decorum, Republicans made their dismay vocally obvious at several points. It was a far more aggressive display of dissent than the simple silence the opposition party has traditionally deployed during past State of the Union addresses.
Biden offered some areas where there might be hope for bipartisan agreement, such as fighting the opioid epidemic and bolstering mental health care. But he also leaned hard into a Democratic wish-list.
He proposed an assault weapons ban, the codification of abortion rights, a new tax on billionaires and labor union protections — none of which has any realistic chance of passage while the GOP holds the House majority.
There may have been promises of unity and propriety, but Tuesday night was all about underscoring battlelines.
Biden will likely draw them even more starkly if he announces a bid for second term, as he’s expected to do soon.
In many ways, Tuesday’s speech was his opening salvo.
A raucous chamber
Fourteen years ago, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) received widespread criticism after he shouted, “You lie!” at then-President Obama during an address to a joint session of Congress.
American politics is in a different era now, as Tuesday made clear.
Biden was heckled repeatedly by Republicans during his address. One of the louder examples came when Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) accused him of being to blame for the estimated 70,000-plus American deaths per year from fentanyl.
“It’s your fault,” Ogles shouted. He confirmed his shouted remark at Biden to The Hill after the address.
At another point, Biden stared out into the crowd of lawmakers, clearly dismayed, after something — inaudible to television viewers — was shouted as he spoke about immigration.
The new GOP House majority takes pride in its staunch opposition to Biden and the party has been amplifying firebrand voices for some time.
Perhaps the most prominent such voice in the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), was among Biden’s hecklers on Tuesday.
High emotion over Tyre Nichols
A very different moment came in the midst of the partisan back-and-forth.
Biden’s comments about the death of Tyre Nichols, made as Nichols’ mother and stepfather looked on from the gallery, resonated in an appropriately somber chamber.
Biden recalled how he had never had to have “the talk” with his children— commonplace among Black Americans, in particular — about how to minimize the dangers if they were to be stopped by police.
The president recounted some of the advice often given in such conversations, such as keeping hands on the steering wheel and turning on the vehicle’s interior lighting immediately.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died Jan. 10 after being severely beaten by Memphis police officers three days previously. Five officers, all of whom are also Black, have been charged with second-degree murder and fired from the city’s police department.
Biden’s remarks on Nichols had a political point — he called on Congress to “finish the job” on police reform.
But the moment was extraordinary for its visceral emotional force rather than its politics.
Biden snares GOP in a trap on Medicare and Social Security
Biden’s boosters insist that the president’s political skills are repeatedly underestimated.
Another example came Tuesday when Biden appeared to set a trap for the GOP — and have them walk right into it.
The issue was the possibility of cutting Social Security and Medicare. Both are highly expensive but highly popular.
Biden laid out his case that some Republicans wanted to “sunset” the programs — Congress-speak for allowing legislation to lapse.
The president was clearly alluding to a plan from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), released last year, which did indeed call for all federal legislation to either be reauthorized every five years or lapse.
Biden’s mention of the Scott plan caused a near-uproar from Republicans — perhaps because Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had disavowed Scott’s proposal virtually as soon as it was issued.
But Biden then used the GOP’s reaction to emphasize his point that no cuts at all should be made to the programs. He said he would protect the programs but added wryly, “apparently it’s not going to be a problem.”
There are, in fact, Republicans who argue that the programs should be reformed or amended.
But Biden’s wily move boxed them in, at least for now, in dramatic fashion.
Giving GOP response, Sarah Huckabee Sanders hits hot-button issues
Sanders, newly inaugurated as Arkansas’ governor but better known to many Americans as former President Trump’s White House press secretary, delivered a fiery response for the GOP.
Sanders let rip on hot-button cultural issues and other sensitive topics — including Biden’s age. She noted pointedly that she is the youngest governor in the nation whereas Biden, at 80, is “the oldest president in American history.”
Huckabee went on to allege that the president is, for several reasons, “unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.”
She also accused the administration of being in thrall to “woke fantasies” and having been “completely hijacked by the radical left.”
The choice between Republicans and Democrats “is between normal or crazy,” she said.
The GOP base is sure to love Sanders’ no-holds-barred approach. Whether it will persuade any moderate voters is a more open question.
One line from Sanders was interesting in a different way.
“It’s time for a new generation of Republican leadership,” she said.
Presumably her 76-year-old former boss, seeking to become the GOP presidential nominee for the third time, would disagree.
Emily Brooks contributed to this story. | 2023-02-08T06:17:11+00:00 | siouxlandproud.com | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/hill-politics/five-big-takeaways-from-president-bidens-2023-state-of-the-union-address/ |
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Authorities have identified three people who died when a vehicle drove off a Milwaukee viaduct following a short police pursuit. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office says 28-year-old Corey Owens, 34-year-old Johnny Brown-Witherspoon and 44-year-old Kendrick L. Miller died in the Thursday crash. Police say the chase lasted less than a minute after an attempted traffic stop for an alleged drug transaction. The driver struck a pedestrian, who suffered minor injuries, before crashing through a safety fence. The car then drove off the bridge onto West Canal Street and burst into flames.The medical examiner’s office has not listed the causes of deaths.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2022-10-08T17:38:55+00:00 | wtmj.com | https://wtmj.com/news/2022/10/08/police-identify-3-people-who-died-when-car-drove-off-viaduct/ |
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Elaine Hsieh Chou about her recent essay in Vanity Fair, which addresses how Hollywood perpetuates Asian stereotypes.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Elaine Hsieh Chou about her recent essay in Vanity Fair, which addresses how Hollywood perpetuates Asian stereotypes.
Copyright 2022 NPR | 2022-06-26T21:23:19+00:00 | nprillinois.org | https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-06-26/what-happens-when-white-women-hypersexualize-asian-women-onscreen |
COLORADO SPRINGS — The first in a series of public comment sessions for the draft Colorado wolf reintroduction plan was just held in Colorado Springs.
It is the lead-up to a final okay by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission.
The plan needs to be finalized because the narrowly voter-approved Proposition 114 requires that Gray Wolves be introduced back into Colorado by the end of 2023.
“My concerns are with lethal control,” said one commentator.
The portion of the draft getting the most comment has to do with the policies for when lethal measures can be used to deal with wolf-caused threats.
The draft contains parameters for both lethal and non-lethal management.
Related to the control issue is compensation to ranchers or anyone who loses animals to a wolf attack.
Ranchers say the $8,000 cap will often leave them in the hole, especially if prize stock is killed.
“One of the animals taken by a wolf, ten thousand dollars is not going to replace that steer of heifer,” said a rancher who drove from the Gunnison Valley to comment.
Most members of a volunteer advisory group made up of wolf supporters, ranchers, and other diverse stakeholders say the plan will never please everyone but will work.
“One thing is when we worked through those meetings, no one really got what they wanted,” said former Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture and rancher, Tom Kourlis, “I think we all got kind of something we could live with.”
Major Highlights of the Plan include:
Livestock conflicts and compensation
- CPW will reintroduce 30 to 50 wolves in total over the next 3 - 5 years (10-15 animals per year).
- Wolves will likely be sourced from populations in the northern Rockies in cooperation with the respective state wildlife agencies.
- Captured wolves will be reintroduced onto state and cooperating private lands in select areas west of the Continental Divide with a 60-mile buffer from neighboring states.
Legal Status Monitoring and Management
- Wolves are both Federally and State protected as an Endangered Species in Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is engaged in a process to designate the Colorado wolf population as Experimental under Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act. As wolf populations grow, Colorado’s gray wolf protection status may be downlisted from a State Endangered species to a State Threatened species. Wolves would no longer be included on the Colorado State Threatened and Endangered Species List should the population be recovered to 150 wolves for 2 successive years or 200 wolves with no time constraint.
- CPW will place GPS monitoring collars on reintroduced wolves, and monitor wolf packs as they develop in the coming years.
- The draft plan describes an impact-based management philosophy. Wolves will have both positive and negative impacts in the state. If wolves are causing a negative impact, CPW will utilize multiple management tools including education, nonlethal tools, and in rare cases involving wolf depredation lethal management to resolve the problem.
- Wolves will be managed within Colorado using a phased approach, based on the number of animals present in the state.
- The plan does not permit a regulated wolf hunt.
Restoration logistics
- CPW’s Draft Conflict Minimization Program may provide temporary conflict minimization materials to livestock owners which include turbo fladry, shell-crackers, propane cannons and fox lights to prevent depredation incidents.
- Wolf-livestock conflicts will be addressed on a case-by-case basis using a combination of appropriate management tools, including education, non-lethal conflict minimization techniques, damage payments and lethal take of wolves in rare cases specifically involving depredation.
- If a depredation incident is confirmed by CPW, livestock owners can be reimbursed the fair market value of the animal, up to $8,000. The plan allows for reimbursement of veterinarian costs for the treatment of injured livestock or guard/herding animals.
- In large open range settings, livestock owners will have the option of compensation for some production losses or indirect costs like decreased conception rates and other indirect losses on a case-by-case basis.
- By statute, wolf depredation reimbursements will not be sourced from hunting and fishing license fees or associated federal grants.
Click here to see the draft plan and learn about future wolf restoration public comment session
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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching. | 2023-01-20T16:38:43+00:00 | koaa.com | https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/finalizing-colorados-wolf-reintroduction-plan |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has been charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon and has reached an agreement with the Justice Department, according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
As part of the agreement, made public Tuesday, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and is expected to reach an agreement with prosecutors on the felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user. It is somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time the charges are filed in court, though it is not totally unheard of.
The deal ends a long-running Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden. It also averts a trial that would have generated days or weeks or distracting headlines for a White House that has strenuously sought to keep its distance from the Justice Department.
Christopher Clark, a lawyer for the younger Biden, said in a statement that it was his understanding that the five-year investigation had now been resolved.
“I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” Clark said. “He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”
The news comes as congressional Republicans pursue their own investigations into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances. It also comes days after a 37-count indictment came down against former President Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents on his Florida estate, another case with even more dramatic political implications.
Joe Biden has also faced questions about his son’s business dealings and drug addiction.
The gun charge states that Hunter Biden possessed a handgun, a Colt Cobra 38 special, despite knowing he was a drug user for 11 days in October 2018. The count carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but the Justice Department says Hunter Biden has reached a pretrial agreement on that charge. Full details were not immediately available.
The White House had no immediate comment on the case. | 2023-06-20T14:08:34+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/hunter-biden-charged-with-failing-to-pay-federal-income-tax-and-illegally-having-a-weapon/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre filed lawsuits Thursday in Mississippi, accusing the state auditor and two national sportscasters of defaming him in public discussions about the misspending of welfare money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation.
The lawsuit against Auditor Shad White says the Republican "has carried out an outrageous media campaign of malicious and false accusations against Brett Favre — the Hall of Fame quarterback and native son of Mississippi — in a brazen attempt to leverage the media attention generated by Favre's celebrity to further his own political career."
In a separate lawsuit against former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, Favre said Sharpe made "egregiously false" statements about him on the Fox Sports talk show "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed," including that Favre "stole money from people that really needed money."
And in another lawsuit against retired NFL player Pat McAfee, Favre said McAfee had used "outrageous falsehoods" that included calling Favre a "thief" who was "stealing from poor people in Mississippi."
Favre is not facing criminal charges in the Mississippi welfare scandal, but he is among more than three dozen people or businesses the state is suing to try to recover misspent money through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Favre has repaid $1.1 million he received for speaking fees from a nonprofit group that spent TANF money with approval from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. White said Favre never showed up to give the speeches.
In December, the state Department of Human Services made a new demand of up to $5 million against Favre and a university sports foundation, saying welfare money was improperly used to pay for a volleyball arena at Favre's alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi.
Favre's daughter started playing volleyball at the university in 2017. The volleyball facility was a pet project of the retired quarterback, and he pledged to lead fundraising efforts for it. Previous filings in the state's civil lawsuit show text message exchanges between Favre and others about directing money to the volleyball facility from a nonprofit organization that had Department of Human Services contracts.
The Associated Press sent an email to a representative of McAfee and left phone messages for Sharpe on Thursday, seeking comment about the defamation lawsuits. They did not immediately respond.
The lawsuit Favre filed against the auditor Thursday accuses White of "shamelessly and falsely attacking Favre's good name" to gain attention for himself, "including appearances on television shows on CNN and HBO, a popular ESPN podcast, as well as interviews for print and online media. None of these national media outlets would have paid White the slightest attention had he not been attacking Favre."
Fletcher Freeman, a spokesman for White, said in a statement: "Everything Auditor White has said about this case is true and is backed by years of audit work by the professionals at the Office of the State Auditor. It's mind-boggling that Mr. Favre wants to have a trial about that question."
Freeman also said that Favre has called White and the auditor's team liars, despite repaying some of the money the auditor's office demanded from him.
"He's also claimed the auditors are liars despite clear documentary evidence showing he benefitted from misspent funds," Freeman said. "Instead of paying New York litigators to try this case, he'd be better off fully repaying the amount of welfare funds he owes the state." | 2023-02-10T03:00:15+00:00 | denver7.com | https://www.denver7.com/news/national/brett-favre-sues-auditor-sportscasters-in-defamation-case |
BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Baghdad on Monday to denounce a draft elections law that would increase the size of the country’s electoral districts, potentially undermining independent candidates.
The current legislation, under which the 2021 election was held, breaks up each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts. The law, which was a key demand of mass anti-government protests that kicked off in late 2019, was seen as giving independent candidates a better chance at winning.
Last week, Parliament debated the draft, which would return Iraq to having one electoral district per governorate. Independent lawmakers who objected to the proposal, walked out of the session, which ended early due to losing its quorum.
The Parliament was set to discuss the proposed law again in its session on Monday, but lawmakers voted to postpone the discussion until Saturday.
The return to a single district per province is backed by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed parties that forms the majority bloc in the current parliament, and which brought Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power last year.
Monday’s protests took place as heavy security forces surrounded the Parliament and closed off Joumhouriya Bridge on the Tigris River that leads to the government areas of the heavily fortified Green Zone. | 2023-02-28T17:26:17+00:00 | fox59.com | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-hundreds-protest-new-proposed-election-law-in-baghdad/ |
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday called for a broad bipartisan deal to protect the solvency of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, popular programs that face serious funding issues over the next few decades.
“You’re going to get your financial house in order. We cannot live with this crippling debt,” Manchin, whose pivotal vote both delayed and helped pass big pieces of President Biden’s agenda, told Fortune’s Alan Murray at a CEO conference.
“If we don’t look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether they be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones — there are tremendous problems right now,” Manchin said when asked where he sees areas of potential compromise in Washington after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
“If we can’t come to grips of how we face the financial challenge that this country has, then we’re all going to be paying a price that we can’t afford,” he said.
Manchin, who sank Biden’s ambitious $3 trillion Build Back Better agenda in December, has often talked about the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicaid.
The Social Security Administration announced last year that it is not projected to have the funds to pay full benefits past 2033.
In February, Manchin proposed addressing that shortfall by increasing the amount of income subject to taxation to fund Social Security from $147,000 to $400,000.
And Manchin pushed back hard against Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) effort to expand Medicare to include vision, dental and hearing benefits by arguing that the core program itself was in danger because of the soaring federal debt.
“My big concern right now is the 2026 deadline [for] Medicare insolvency and if no one’s concerned about that, I’ve got people — that’s a lifeline. Medicare and Social Security is a lifeline for people back in West Virginia, most people around the country,” Manchin told reporters in October of last year.
If Manchin continues to push for a bipartisan deal to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare, he could have a negotiating partner in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has proposed broad entitlement reform on several previous occasions.
After Republicans captured the Senate majority in the 2014 midterm election, McConnell decried what he called the “unsustainable growth rate” of Social Security and Medicare and warned “we need to adjust these popular programs or they won’t be there in the next generation.”
In October of 2018, when Republicans controlled the White House, the Senate and the House, McConnell said that entitlement spending, not the Republican push to cut taxes, was the main driver of the federal deficit.
“It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future,” he told Bloomberg News at the time.
Manchin, who appeared Thursday before a room full of CEOs via video link, urged the audience to stop making political donations to members of Congress without getting solid commitments to improve the nation’s governance in return.
“Quit writing checks to everybody,” he said.
He argued that successful CEOs build good companies because they expect return on their investment, yet too often, they write checks to lawmakers in Washington without expecting anything of real substance in return.
“The investments you’ve made in politics from the Democrat side and the Republican side by asking nothing in return is a foolish investment,” he said.
“Why don’t you do this? Tell a politician when they come to you, say, ‘Listen, I’m sorry I don’t give checks, I don’t give a donation or contribution to any politician, but I’m willing to make an investment. What should I expect from you? What are you going to do?’” Manchin advised.
He said too many donors are “giving checks to bad behavior” by supporting candidates and officeholders who are happy to let partisan gridlock rule the nation’s capital. | 2022-11-04T01:16:34+00:00 | wdtn.com | https://www.wdtn.com/hill-politics/manchin-calls-for-deal-on-social-security-medicare-medicaid-in-new-congress/ |
MADRID (AP) — Four people accused of hanging an effigy of Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior off a highway bridge were released from custody Thursday while still under investigation for perpetrating a hate crime.
A Spanish judge in Madrid prohibited the four people from attempting to communicate with Vinícius. They also have a temporary restraining order banning them from a 1-kilometer (0.62-mile) area around Madrid’s stadium and training facilities and from coming within the same distance of any soccer stadium between four hours before and four hours after a Spanish league game.
The court statement said the four people are also being investigated for trying to damage the moral integrity of Vinícius. It added that the four opted not to answer the judge’s questions in their first court appearance, in line with their constitutional rights.
Also Thursday, Spanish league president Javier Tebas said the league could end racism in six months if given more sanctioning powers, and Valencia player Mouctar Diakhaby refused to pose with the anti-racism banner along with the other players ahead of a Spanish league game. Diakhaby, who is Black, accused an opponent of racism in 2021 but nothing was done because officials said at the time there was not enough evidence showing he was abused.
The incident of the effigy occurred on Jan. 26 in the buildup to a derby match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. But it wasn’t until Tuesday when police made the arrests amid a public uproar that has engulfed Spain following the latest episode of racial abuse being targeted at Vinícius.
Police on Tuesday also detained three people accused of verbally abusing Vinícius with racist slurs during a match on Saturday in Valencia at Mestalla Stadium, which will have parts of stands closed for the next five games. Those three were also released from custody.
The 22-year-old Vinícius, who is Black, has been subjected to repeated racist taunts since he arrived in Spain five years ago from his native Brazil.
In Spain, hate crimes are typically punished with one-to-four years of prison time, while crimes against a person’s moral integrity are punished with six-to-24 months behind bars.
Tebas reiterated the need for the league to gain more sanctioning powers to fight racism. He said the league has asked for an urgent change in the laws so it can act more proactively.
“I’m convinced that if we are given authority, in six months we can end (racism),” he said in a news conference.
Currently, the league can only denounce cases but not punish anyone. Tebas acknowledged it might have been a mistake not to make the request for more sanctioning powers earlier.
Tebas said Vinícius was being targeted because he is a great player and compared the racial abuse against him to the insults sustained by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when they played in the Spanish league, the first with homophobic slurs and the Argentina star with insults about disabilities.
Tebas also said he would encourage Vinícius and Madrid to leave the field in the future if another case of racism happens.
He claimed that the league had been acting alone in the fight against racism until now, being the only soccer institution taking part in the legal proceedings in cases involving Vinícius.
He noted that only lawyers from the league were present on Wednesday in the proceedings involving the four men arrested for hanging the effigy of Vinícius. No one representing Real Madrid or any other institution was there, he said.
Tebas listed a series of cases in which the league denounced racism to authorities even before Sunday’s incident in Valencia, with many of them being shelved by prosecutors. He said the league changed strategies and started going directly to the courts to try to get more cases admitted.
Tebas reiterated his apology after criticizing Vinícius for the player’s attack on the league following the latest case of abuse against him on Sunday.
“I didn’t mean to criticize Vinícius,” he said. “I understand that Vinícius is frustrated. But I was frustrated, too. I was trying to explain that we have been doing a lot to fight racism.”
Tebas said he went through some of his “worst days” after being accused of being racist because of his comments toward Vinícius.
“We all love Vinícius,” he said. “I hope that he remains in Spanish soccer. We will show that this organization fights against racism.”
The president said he was “obviously concerned” with the image of the league and hoped that it would not affect the nation’s bid with Portugal and Morocco to host the 2030 World Cup. He said the league proactively contacted sponsors after Sunday’s incident with Vinícius.
“Spain is not racist and Spanish soccer is not racist,” Tebas said. “We have to keep working hard to keep racist acts away from our stadiums.”
He said the introduction of loss of points for clubs in cases of racism could help combat the problem.
Also Thursday, Spain’s Ombudsman Office asked the country’s Higher Sports Council, the government’s authority for sports, for more information about the racist abuse targeted at Vinícius during the game in Valencia. The office said it had received complaints from “two Brazilian civil society organizations” regarding the abuse and that it was in contact with its counterpart in the South American country.
In a statement, the Ombudsman Office stated that Spanish law prohibits any acts of racism, xenophobia or intolerance during sports events.
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Wilson reported from Barcelona.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-05-25T23:40:55+00:00 | kron4.com | https://www.kron4.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-4-people-accused-of-hanging-vinicius-junior-effigy-released-from-custody/ |
Republicans in Congress are splintering over how aggressively to run interference for former president Donald Trump as he faces potential criminal prosecution, with only his closest allies planning to directly attack the Department of Justice investigations now under the purview of special counsel Jack Smith.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s staunchest allies who will be the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee next year, said he was less interested in going after the Justice Department for the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol or the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified information.
“I don’t see an interruption of an ongoing investigation into Trump, that’s going to play itself out one way or the other,” Graham said in an interview, focusing instead on President Biden’s son. “But I think DOJ and FBI need to be asked questions about what they told Facebook, Twitter and other media outlets about the Hunter Biden story.”
By contrast, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the current ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are taking on the Trump investigations more directly, raising questions about the appointment of a special counsel for Trump but not for Hunter Biden or probes related to Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails in 2016.
The lawmakers said they have been approached by whistleblowers objecting to political considerations inside the FBI, which could serve to reinforce Trump’s claims of being unfairly targeted. Incoming House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio is poised to press the Justice Department on the decision to search Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., home as well.
The strategy resembles how Trump allies worked to undermine the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by seizing on the FBI’s use of a dossier produced as Republican and Democratic opposition research.
“It’s an easy crutch for them to grasp and they’re grasping it because they can’t actually defend what he’s potentially going to be indicted for,” said one House GOP staffer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “They lean on this as opposed to defending him on the facts, which they can’t do.”
Jordan’s counterpart on the House oversight committee, however, recently said in an interview that following up an investigation into classified documents found at Trump’s private club and estate in Florida “will not be a priority.” Incoming chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has been conducting the minority party’s own investigation into the August search warrant executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate but has indicated he favors prioritizing investigations next year examining Twitter’s handling of Hunter Biden reporting before the 2020 election and the origins of the coronavirus.
Despite the varying degrees of focus — or lack thereof — on Trump, Republicans are nevertheless still poised to pursue lines of inquiry that may overlap with the theme of politicization at the Justice Department. In an all-caps post to his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump alleged an unprecedented “WEAPONIZATION” of federal law enforcement, reaching back to the government’s surveillance of foreign contacts with some people connected to Trump’s campaign in 2016.
Republican lawmakers and aides said the grab-bag of inquiries reflects less a coordinated strategy than a reflex after years of Trump scandals. A longtime Republican congressional investigator said the approach has become almost formulaic and gains traction within the feedback loop between right-wing media and Republican lawmakers.
“When the investigators give you an answer you don’t like, investigate the investigators,” the investigator said. “The members get invested, and then the base gets invested and even if things turn out to be really stupid things they are investigating, they’ll get a lot of Fox News out of it.”
In a fractious conference with a slim majority next year, some House Republicans have raised concerns about the relentless attacks on the FBI, especially after a Trump supporter tried to storm the Cincinnati field office in August.
“The rhetoric has got to be toned down,” a Republican member of the oversight committee said. “Sure, I’ve got questions and concerns about the DOJ and the FBI, but man, some of the tweets you’re seeing is just for dramatization. And if you want to be taken seriously, you have to treat the issue seriously.”
The lawmaker added: “The question is can Comer control some of the potential new members — like the woman from Georgia — that care less about substance and more about their Twitter profile?”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who’s vying for a seat on the oversight panel, has said she wants to examine the treatment of people charged in connection to the pro-Trump assault on the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy — who is trying to secure the votes to become House speaker by shoring up his support with far-right members like Greene — has signaled he wants to re-examine the work of the House select committee investigating the attack. McCarthy boycotted the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked two of his appointments.
Neither effort would totally fulfill Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation of the 2020 election, which he insists without any evidence was stolen from him. He and his associates also face a federal investigation of efforts to organize phony electors claiming Trump won, a probe that is now also under Smith’s authority.
Trump and his most outspoken surrogates in right-wing media are more explicitly trying to draw a through-line from earlier scandals, continuing to build on the same counterattacks they marshaled against the investigation into Russian interference.
In 2018, a memo by House intelligence committee staff led by then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) raised allegations about the FBI’s handling of the early stage of the Russia investigation, attempting to bolster Trump’s evidence-free charge that the Obama administration had wiretapped his phones. The Nunes memo led to his recusal from the panel’s Russia investigation — he later left Congress and became the head of Trump’s embattled media venture — but it formed the basis for years of Republican attacks that culminated with John Durham, another special counsel. Durham eventually charged two people with false statements in connection with the investigation; both were acquitted.
“In 60 seconds, let’s go from Russiagate to the laptop,” former Trump aide Kash Patel said Monday on the “War Room” online talk show hosted by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, referring to the Russia investigation and the materials about Hunter Biden. “It’s Russiagate on replay, on a monumentally bigger scale.”
Republican efforts to discredit the current Trump investigations have revolved around a former agent who they have described as involved in both. In May, Grassley identified Timothy Thibault, then a special agent in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, as making social media posts that appeared critical of Trump. Thibault retired from the bureau in August and FBI director Christopher A. Wray, under questioning from Senate Republicans, acknowledged that the allegations were “deeply troubling” while wanting to avoid interfering with a specific personnel matter.
“Our folks need to make sure that they’re not just doing the right thing, that they’re doing it in the right way and that they avoid even the appearance of bias or lack of objectivity,” Wray said.
Several oversight letters from Grassley have described Thibault’s social media posts as tainting the criminal investigations of Trump, much as Republicans attacked the motivations of individual FBI officials in the Russia investigation. In a statement, Thibault’s lawyers said he was not involved in the search at Mar-a-Lago and did not supervise the investigation of alleged tax violations by Hunter Biden, which was handled by the FBI’s Baltimore office. Thibault is cooperating with an investigation of his social media posts by the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates alleged violations of the Hatch Act limiting certain political activity by federal employees.
Republicans have also seized on the role of Jim Baker, a top lawyer for the FBI during the Russia investigation who went on to a senior legal position at Twitter. The social media company’s new owner and CEO, billionaire Elon Musk, said he fired Baker after releasing information about the company’s internal handling of materials about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election. On Tuesday, Comer sought testimony from Baker and two other former company officials.
“The American people deserve to know why Twitter took down the Hunter Biden laptop story even when your colleagues were questioning the rationale for suppressing the story,” Comer wrote, referring to a New York Post story that was briefly suppressed on Twitter over concerns about its provenance.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency would review the oversight letters.
Congressional Republicans are especially interested in contacts between Twitter and the FBI or other government officials about election misinformation. That focus could build on an ongoing lawsuit by the Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri alleging that federal officials conspired with Twitter to suppress information about the pandemic and the election. The attorneys general have already deposed an FBI agent and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony S. Fauci, and a deposition with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is scheduled for later this month. The Missouri attorney general, Eric Schmitt, was elected to the Senate and will take office in January.
Jordan has said his investigations are being guided by the accounts of 14 FBI whistleblowers who have contacted the committee with allegations ranging from investigating parents speaking at school board meetings, handling of Jan. 6-related investigations and treatment of employees who hold conservative views.
The pursuit of whistleblowers recalls former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s statements ahead of the 2016 election claiming he’d heard from current and former FBI agents about an impending development in the Clinton emails investigation. Giuliani later told the Justice Department’s inspector general that he only heard “gossip” and wasn’t in touch with anyone with direct knowledge about the probe.
“We’re focused on how political our Justice Department has become — they’re making decisions on a political basis, we’re going to look at all that,” Jordan said in a November news conference. “We’re concerned about anything that is being done in a political fashion at the Justice Department.”
Trump has previewed other defenses to the documents investigation, including claims that he declassified the materials and misrepresentations about other presidents’ post-White House record-keeping. He has repeatedly referenced George H.W. Bush’s storing documents in a Chinese restaurant and bowling alley, which the National Archives has said is not true, and also a court decision about Bill Clinton’s interview tapes that at one point were held in a sock drawer.
“Under the Presidential Records Act and the very well established Clinton Socks Case, the raid of Mar-a-Lago by the FBI, and the taking of documents and many other items, was ILLEGAL,” Trump said Friday on Truth Social. “Everything should be returned, at once!” | 2022-12-11T13:59:51+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/12/trump-investigations-republicans-congress/ |
Which brown lipsticks are best?
If you’ve had your fill of pink, red and coral lip color, it’s time to change up your look with a brown lipstick. While it might not be the first color you reach for, you might be surprised at how many flattering shades there are.
Like other lipstick colors, there are countless brown lipstick shades. The color is well-received as a neutral option, and for many wearers, brown becomes their signature shade. MAC Matte Lipstick in Velvet Teddy, for instance, is of the bestselling shades on the market.
What to know before you buy a brown lipstick
Popular brown lipstick shades
Like other lipstick colors, brown lipsticks have an impressive shade range. Some of the most popular shades include sand, beige, taupe, caramel, toffee, coffee and chocolate brown. Other shades are more complex with pink, plum, red or purple undertones. If you research some of the lipsticks you already wear, you may be surprised to find that they have brown undertones. Brown is actually a more common lipstick shade, in some form or another, than most people think.
Why you should wear brown lipstick
If you’re looking for a new neutral lipstick, brown emerges as a formidable option that can be worn with a wide variety of makeup looks. Medium-toned browns, like toffees and caramels, are bold options that are both sophisticated and modern. Deeper brown lipsticks include some statement-making shades that often become the focal point of makeup looks.
What to look for in a quality brown lipstick
Formula varieties
Most brown lipsticks are available as bullet, liquid and lip stain formulas. Generally speaking, you’ll find more through-and-through brown shades in classic bullet lipsticks. However, liquid lipstick continues to grow in popularity, and it’s common to find a few shades of brown in many brands’ collections. There are some, but not many, lip stains that come in brown. If anything, you’ll usually find brown-toned pink or red lip stains.
Finish
The most common finishes for brown lipsticks are cream, matte, satin and metallic. Cream and satin lipsticks both have glossy, shiny finishes that reflect light. Matte lipsticks, on the other hand, have flat, one-dimensional finishes that are often preferred for dramatic looks. Metallic finishes, which have an edge to them, are multidimensional finishes with shiny gold, silver or rose gold undertones.
Long-wearing brown lipsticks
While it might be easy for fading red or pink lipstick to go unnoticed between touch-ups, brown lipstick is pretty apparent. For that reason, many people prefer long-wearing brown lipsticks. Depending on the formula, they stay put anywhere from 8-24 hours. They also tend to have more saturated color than regular lipsticks. Generally speaking, most matte bullet and liquid lipsticks have longer wear times than other formulas and finishes.
How much you can expect to spend on brown lipstick
Most brown drugstore lipsticks cost $5-$12, with a few outliers. Lipstick minis from premium beauty brands start at $14, whereas full-size brown lipsticks cost $21-$58.
Brown lipstick FAQ
Is brown lipstick more popular during colder months?
A. Not necessarily. While many people gravitate toward brown-toned lipsticks during the fall and winter months, they often find that certain shades are suitable to wear for spring or summer. Light brownish-pink shades, for instance, tend to be more popular in warmer weather. Deeper browns, like terra-cotta or coffee, are often preferred in colder weather. More than anything, it’s a matter of personal preference.
How do I find a flattering shade of brown lipstick?
A. If you’ve never worn brown lipstick before, be prepared to try on several shades before finding the right one. It’s helpful to wear them with a few different makeup looks, as well. Another option is to head to the beauty counter and speak with an experienced makeup artist to help you find the best options for your complexion. It’s also worth experimenting with different finishes and formulas; if you normally wear matte red shades, try a cream brown lipstick to achieve a totally different look.
What’s the best brown lipstick to buy?
Top brown lipstick
MAC Matte Lipstick in Velvet Teddy
What you need to know: Velvet Teddy, a deep-toned beige, is one of MAC’s bestselling matte shades of all time.
What you’ll love: The long-wearing lipstick lasts all day with minimal touch-ups, if any at all. It’s an understated beige shade that works well with natural and heavier makeup looks. The formula is a true matte lipstick that photographs well.
What you should consider: Some people indicated the formula was unusually drying and required reapplication.
Where to buy: Sold by Ulta and Macy’s
Top brown lipstick for the money
NYX PROFESSIONAL MAKEUP Lip Lingerie XXL Matte Liquid Lipstick in Deep Mesh
What you need to know: NYX’s Deep Mesh, a dark chocolate brown, is well-received as a rich, sultry color that is universally flattering.
What you’ll love: The teardrop-shaped applicator offers precision application, including around the bow and corners of the mouth. It lasts for up to 12 hours and won’t transfer during eating or drinking. While it has a high color payoff, it’s a lightweight, comfortable formula.
What you should consider: The long-wearing formula may require a waterproof makeup remover to take it off.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon, Ulta and Macy’s
Worth checking out
Clinique Even Better Pop Lip Colour Foundation Lipstick in Cuddle
What you need to know: This is a medium-deep chocolate lipstick that is suitable for daytime and nighttime wear alike.
What you’ll love: The creamy formula is infused with vitamin E to keep lips soft and moisturized. Because it’s a neutral color, it works well with many neutral or dark-toned lip liners. The formula is free of harsh chemicals like gluten, alcohol and laureth sulfate.
What you should consider: The lipstick may have a shorter wear time than matte lipsticks, which means more frequent touch-ups.
Where to buy: Sold by Ulta
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2022-06-12T18:20:08+00:00 | siouxlandproud.com | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/lip-makeup-br/best-brown-lipstick/ |
Contest Awards $10,000 Donation to a Golf Fundraiser Plus Exclusive Golf Membership & Prizes to Nominator
LINCOLN, Neb., May 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GolfStatus, the leading technology platform for nonprofit and charity golf fundraisers, is teaming up with its giving partners at Dormie Network and Dormie Network Foundation for the Play It Forward campaign to give back to organizations that are using golf to drive impact.
Now in its third year, the campaign is a unique opportunity to "play" it forward. Individuals nominate a charity or nonprofit using golf to raise money to receive a $10,000 donation to its golf fundraiser, and get the chance to win a one-year honorary membership to Dormie Network, a national network of private golf clubs, plus a $10,000 credit toward onsite golf and lodging.
"Golf has deep ties to philanthropy and helps power nonprofits and charities addressing important causes in communities everywhere," said Brian Schenk, Chief Philanthropy Officer at Dormie Network Foundation. "Play It Forward celebrates these organizations using golf as a force for good."
Play It Forward began in 2021, awarding $10,000 to the Cameron Steinberg Foundation and its inaugural golf fundraiser. The annual golf event has raised $100,000 for research into congenital heart disease and to help families affected by these defects.
In 2022, two nonprofits were selected for $10,000 donations, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia, Delaware, and Susquehanna Valley and Sisters Across America. Make-A-Wish's Pro-Am for Wishes raises money to grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Sisters Across America provides support and mentoring for young minority women pursuing professional golfing careers and teaching juniors to grow the game, raising money through two annual golf fundraisers.
The giveaway launches May 29 and nominations will be accepted through July 4. Winners will be announced via press release and on GolfStatus' and Dormie Network's social media channels in August.
Visit golfstatus.org/playitforward for official rules and to submit a nomination.
About GolfStatus
GolfStatus helps nonprofits leverage the giving power of golf to raise more dollars, engage supporters, and do more good. Its robust golf event management platform streamlines golf tournaments from start to finish to save time and enhance the overall event experience for golfers, sponsors, and golf facilities. GolfStatus combines powerful technology with practical golf fundraising resources and industry-leading support to make charity golf tournaments easy, approachable, and efficient for organizations of all types and sizes. Learn more at golfstatus.org.
About Dormie Network and Dormie Network Foundation
Dormie Network is a national network of private destination golf clubs that includes ArborLinks in Nebraska City, Nebraska; Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke, Virginia; Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas; Dormie Club in West End, North Carolina; Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey; Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana; and GrayBull Club in Maxwell, Nebraska, with a planned opening of 2024. Each offers a premier golf experience in a relaxing and accommodating environment ideal for business or leisure. The Dormie Network Foundation supports nonprofits through in-kind donations and direct cash grants, and seeks to build long-term relationships with its nonprofit partners to help them raise the bar on fundraising opportunities. Learn more at dormienetwork.com.
Media Contact:
Ashley Watson
ashley@dormienetwork.com
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SOURCE GolfStatus | 2023-05-26T14:12:01+00:00 | kwtx.com | https://www.kwtx.com/prnewswire/2023/05/26/golfstatus-amp-dormie-network-foundation-team-up-third-annual-play-it-forward-campaign/ |
The Chinese military held large-scale joint combat strike drills starting Sunday, sending war planes and navy vessels toward Taiwan, both the Chinese and Taiwanese defense ministries said.
The exercises coincided with the visit of a group of German lawmakers who landed in Taiwan on Monday morning. Leading the delegation is the Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who leads the German Parliament’s Defense Committee.
The German lawmakers will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, as well as Taiwan’s National Security Council head and the Mainland Affairs Council, which handles issues related to China.
China has stepped up its pressure on Taiwan’s military in recent years by sending warplanes or navy vessels on an almost-daily basis toward the self-ruled island. China claims sovereignty over the island, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war.
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Sunday's exercises have continued into Monday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said, monitoring Chinese warplanes and navy vessels on its missile systems.
China’s actions “have severely disrupted the peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding waters,” the ministry said.
Over the course of 24 hours between 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday morning, China's People's Liberation Army flew 57 warplanes and four ships toward Taiwan, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement Monday morning. Twenty-eight of those planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary that both sides had previously stood by.
U.S. & World
China announced the drills around 11 p.m. Sunday, saying their “primary target was to practice land-strikes and sea assaults,” according to a statement from Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA's Eastern Theater Command.
At the end of December, China sent a record 71 planes and 7 ships toward Taiwan, the largest such scale exercise in 2022.
Taiwan will hold its annual two-day military drills starting Wednesday. The exercise ahead of Lunar New Year holidays is aimed at showcasing its defense capabilities. | 2023-01-09T07:49:21+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/china-holds-joint-strike-drills-with-57-planes-aimed-at-taiwan/3040050/ |
Two people were shot and killed inside a bar in Uniontown, Fayette County, early Wednesday morning, according to reports from KDKA, WPXI and TribLive.
The incident occurred at around 12:30 a.m. at the Sails Inn, located along North Gallatin Avenue.
WXPI reporter Pete DeLuca tweeted that the two victims have been identified by police as Darrell Gregg, 32, and Tommy Stargell Jr., 28.
Both state and Uniontown police are involved in the investigation. The Fayette County coroner was also sent to the scene, according to TribLive.
Additional details are not yet available.
READ MORE: Cumberland County man among 4 killed when planes collide mid-air | 2023-03-08T13:19:18+00:00 | pennlive.com | https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2023/03/2-men-shot-killed-inside-pa-bar-reports.html |
DEAR ANNIE: My husband and I are low-income, but he doesn’t want his adult children to know. Sadly, he lost an enormous amount of money about 12 years ago (to bad investments) and is quite embarrassed by it.
We have been married for over 10 years and have been able to sustain our lifestyle by using my savings and what money I brought into the marriage, but his children don’t know this.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of transparency, his children live under the assumption that I am riding on his coattails and that they will receive an inheritance. I have been sick about this for years now, but my husband is insistent that they not be told that he is dependent on me or about his financial losses. What should I do to regain my sense of self-esteem while also honoring my husband’s wishes? -- Low Income and Low Self-Esteem
DEAR LOW INCOME AND LOW SELF-ESTEEM: If your husband does not want to tell his children about his financial losses, then you should respect his choice. So long as he isn’t perpetuating any gossip about you or misleading his children into thinking they have an inheritance, then there’s no need for you to waste your time making assumptions about what his children may or may not think. If you are struggling to communicate with your husband about finances, then the two of you should seek the help of a couples counselor.
***
MORE FROM DEAR ANNIE:
Dear Annie: Divorcee is on the rebound and possibly making a fool of herself
Dear Annie: I painfully watch our daughter-in-law tease and belittle her pre-teen children
Dear Annie: Woman wakes the neighbors with her horn honking ritual
Dear Annie: Man wears hearing aids when watching TV but not when conversing with his wife
Dear Annie: Empty nester consumed by wanderlust fears he’ll never visit the places he’s hoped to see
***
“How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology -- featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation -- is available as a paperback and ebook. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information.
Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM | 2023-07-20T16:21:47+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/advice/2023/07/dear-annie-my-husband-and-i-are-low-income-and-he-doesnt-want-his-adult-children-to-know.html |
Disrupting the Auto Industry Customer Experience through Digitalization
TEMPE, Ariz. and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DriveTime, the largest privately owned used car sales and finance company in the country, is proud to announce that it can now verify income for the majority of customers in seconds. No longer the days of printing paystubs and other stipulations, DriveTime has created a process for customers to digitally upload their documents and receive a review response within seconds through the use of AI – based optical character recognition (OCR) technology.
This significant customer experience upgrade has been achieved through a partnership with Informed.IQ, a technology company used by financial institutions to instantly and accurately verify loan origination data. Informed.IQ has become the fastest-growing supplier of automation software to the auto finance industry and now counts the majority of the country's top auto lenders as customers.
For several months, the two companies have collaborated to implement the cutting-edge software, allowing DriveTime customers to electronically upload their required documents for an auto loan application, eliminating burdensome paperwork and vastly reducing the amount of time needed to get their loans approved. Typically, the auto loan application process can take anywhere from hours to days. With DriveTime's new process, customers can expect that time to be reduced to mere seconds, making it more convenient to get their loans approved quickly so they can drive away happily in their new cars.
"At DriveTime, we continuously request feedback from our customers. Simplifying the stip upload and income verification process has been at the top of their list. DriveTime is proud to offer this digital capability to allow customers of all financial backgrounds to seamlessly get their auto loan application reviewed and approved in a fast, easy manner," said Brandon Kreitinger, Vice President at DriveTime.
"It's been a wonderful working with the dedicated team at DriveTime to bring this new venture to life," said Justin Wickett, CEO of Informed.IQ. "Gone are the days of having to obtain physical composite documents to complete sales. We are proud to support DriveTime as it continues to find ways to support its diverse customers across the country."
Over the past 25 years, DriveTime has made a name for itself as a leading innovator in the U.S. auto industry. The company guarantees a car-buying experience like no other, boasting 99.9% approval odds, no-pressure sales advisors, personalized financing options, and 135+ dealerships. Customers can view thousands of vehicles on the company's website and get personalized financing terms with the click of a button. This new functionality of offering a digital stip upload process with real time income verification is another big leap forward in disrupting the auto-buying experience and transforming the customer journey.
Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, DriveTime is the largest privately owned used car sales and finance company in the country. With more than 135 dealerships, 3 operation centers, and 15 reconditioning centers across the nation, DriveTime's 4,000+ employees are focused on getting the right customer in the right car, at the right terms. Starting with selection at auction, DriveTime sources over 200 different vehicle makes and models. Each vehicle is then sent to reconditioning centers for inspection before being delivered to the dealership. Once on the lot, DriveTime's no-haggle pricing model and belief in transparency provide a pressure-free sales environment for every customer. Using its proprietary scoring technology and financing model, DriveTime helps customers get into the car that's right for them, regardless of their credit situation.
Informed.IQ uses AI and ML to instantly verify income, assets, residence, insurance, auto and credit stipulations, and more, enabling real-time, reliable credit decisions without bias. Our models process hundreds of document types and consumer-permissioned data sources, automating stipulation clearance. In 2021, Informed processed over 3.4 million credit applications, automating $110+ billion in loan originations to date. The solution automates verifications with 99% accuracy in seconds with no humans-in-the-loop.
Originally focused on auto lending, where six of the top ten auto lenders use Informed, financial institutions now use Informed for mortgages, credit cards, personal and student loans, and automated bank account openings. Visit informediq.com and follow Informed on LinkedIn.
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SOURCE InformedIQ | 2022-10-11T14:26:35+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/10/11/drivetime-informediq-partner-automate-revolutionize-car-buying-financing-experiences/ |
Portions of a Rhode Island state driver's manual — including a section advising drivers not to assume that a traffic stop by police was based on their gender or race — are being eliminated following objections from activists, officials said this week.
Civil rights advocates had also objected to language in the manual advising drivers who have been pulled over by police to turn off their engines and “if in use, turn off your cell phone and radio” — saying it appears to discourage drivers from documenting police actions.
Individuals have the right to take video of encounters they may have with police, including when it might be in their best interest to do so, according to Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island.
Another section that the ACLU took objection to instructs drivers to “avoid any assumptions that the stop was based on gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.” The section goes on to tell drivers to “wait for the officer’s explanation. All officers know that this type of traffic stop violates federal civil rights laws.”
Brown said the language assumes that all drivers have similar experiences when dealing with law enforcement.
“It just didn’t belong in a driver’s manual in the first place and certainly did not speak to the lived experience of many black and brown drivers who the data shows are disproportionately stopped by police,” Brown said.
Paul Grimaldi, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Revenue, which oversees the DMV, said Monday that the entire portion of the publication that includes the language questioned by the ACLU has been removed.
The 78-page manual is co-produced by Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles, the Community College of Rhode Island’s Driver Education Program, the Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
It is intended to be used as a “guideline for the user to develop helpful procedures for safe and law abiding driving skills” according to the handbook’s creators. It includes information about basic driving skills, what different road signs mean and how to avoid distracted driving and road rage.
The ACLU helped spearhead the effort to have the sections removed from the handbook.
Brown said there were other questionable instructions included in the manual which have since been struck, including the recommendations that drivers “provide a straight, honest explanation” to police and “answer the officer’s questions to the best of your knowledge.”
The instruction ignores the fact that individuals have the right not to answer questions from police, he said.
Advocates also objected to other sections in the manual including recommendations for parents about how to talk to their children about interactions with police.
“Teach your children to respect and speak to law enforcement officers when they meet them in the community. Help them understand that police officers serve and protect everyone in the community. We must continue to pass on respect for professional law enforcement officers,” the manual suggested.
Advocates say the recommendation ignore the experiences of many Black, indigenous, and people of color have with police and can seen as skewed toward supporting law enforcement.
“Such language comes across as condescending and dismissive of the apprehension that such individuals may legitimately experience during these incidents,” Brown said in letter to the DMV in 2021, when the ACLU first raised questions about the language in the handbook. | 2023-03-29T14:55:23+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/rhode-island-dmv-revises-manual-over-civil-rights-17866441.php |
Operating Expenses improved 38%
Cash increase over Q2 of 2022
DENVER, Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF), Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company"), the market leader in full-spectrum hemp extract wellness products, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.
"We've made significant progress this year realigning resources to strengthen Charlotte's Web for long-term growth by executing on our strategic imperatives around innovation, expanding channels and distribution, growing our international presence, and furthering potential FDA pathways," Jacques Tortoroli, Chief Executive Officer of Charlotte's Web, said. "Importantly, we have also restructured our sales organization and streamlined operations, which reduced expenses by 38%, now below $70 million on an annualized run rate. We believe this positions us for sustained improvement in topline growth and profitability as our key initiatives continue to gain traction."
Business highlights
Charlotte's Web significantly expanded its U.S. coverage, adding several new distributors and entering new channels:
- SBM LLC: A new vertical and industry first for CBD, through this employer-sponsored benefit plan, US employers can now confidently provide employees and their pets with coverage and access to Charlotte's Web products as an alternative health and wellness therapy.
- Cardinal Health: Wholesale distribution agreement covering thousands of pharmacies and retail chain customers.
- Hanson Faso Sales and Marketing: Leading brokers across the Central U.S. with thousands of retail customer locations across specialty, grocery, natural, specialty, food service, and alternate channels.
- Southern Glazer: CW product line added to America's leading wine and spirits distribution company in 44 states.
- Stark Foods: A chief distributor of European specialty food and beauty products to grocery and retail in the US servicing almost 15,000 doors through its multi-broker network.
During the third quarter, Charlotte's Web announced a new product line for the sports channel and in October, unveiled the first product "Charlotte's Web Sport – Daily Edge™" broad spectrum oil tincture – the first and only broad spectrum CBD oil to be certified NSF for Sport®. The line provides athletes and consumers with safe, natural options to support recovery, help keep calm under pressure, and maintain healthy sleep cycles and focus.
Charlotte's Web was named the "Official CBD of Major League Baseball" on October 12, 2022, which coincided with the launch of Daily Edge. This marked the first major professional sports league to form a strategic partnership agreement with a CBD company. Charlotte's Web commends MLB's recognition of the broad interest and value of CBD for supporting the daily health and wellness of its players and fans.
"The MLB partnership is a home run for Charlotte's Web and CBD. We expect its well established and trusted profile to positively influence consumers, government regulators and Congressional leadership. The partnership has already paid significant dividends through the awareness and education enabled by the enormous exposure that MLB provides through its base of 180 million fans throughout the year. This partnership can be the first domino in a series of high profile moves within the CBD category among leading organizations," added Mr. Tortoroli.
Executing on its asset-light model for international markets by partnering with leading local market partners, on November 2, 2022, Charlotte's Web announced a strategic alliance with Tilray Brands for manufacturing and distribution in Canada. For the first time, Canadians will have the ease of nationwide availability of Charlotte's Web full spectrum CBD products through Tilray's distribution network. First availability is expected in early 2023 for hemp extract oil tinctures, followed by gummies and topicals.
Q3-2022 Financial Review
For the three-month period ended September 30, 2022, net revenue was $17.0 million, a decrease of 28.1% versus $23.7 million in Q3-2021. The decrease was primarily due to lower comparable customer shipments, ongoing consumer shifts from tinctures to lower-priced gummies and formats, and lower relative traffic to the Company's e-commerce store.
Direct-to-consumer e-commerce net revenue was $11.8 million, a decrease of $3.4 million or 22.5% due to lower year-over-year traffic. Charlotte's Web maintains the largest e-commerce business in the CBD industry and e-commerce represents the largest channel in the industry with an approximate 40% industry market share according to the Brightfield Group.
Business-to-business net revenue was $5.3 million, a decrease of $3.3 million, or 38.1%, lower year-over-year primarily due to lower comparable shipments to some of the Company's largest retail customers. Several new distributors were added during the quarter as a result of a strategic transition from direct-sales to a distributor model, however, these take time to develop and did not materially impact sales in the quarter. Charlotte's Web holds the number one share position across major retail channels including food/drug/mass retail, and natural grocery & vitamin retailers, based on market share data from leading third-party analysts such as The Nielsen Company (total xAOC), SPINS (SPINS Total US), and Brightfield Group, respectively.
Gross profit was $8.9 million, or 52.5% of revenue versus $14.9 million and 62.9% of revenue respectively in Q3-2021. The decrease was primarily related to lower net revenue and sales mix with consumer trend shift from oil tinctures to lower-cost gummies.
Total selling, general and administrative ("SG&A") expenses were $11.0 million, including an Employee Retention Credit ("ERC") tax benefit of $4.1 million, due from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, recorded in the third quarter of 2022. Excluding the ERC, SG&A expenses were $15.1 million, a 37.7% year-over-year reduction as compared to SG&A expense of $24.3 million in Q3-2021. The net improvement reflects restructuring activities earlier this year lowering personnel costs, a decrease in media marketing spend, and increased operating efficiencies resulting from actions implemented year-to-date. The recently signed MLB sponsorship agreement did not impact SG&A during the third quarter and will not have a significant impact on a full-year basis.
An operating loss of $3.9 million in the third quarter of 2022 improved by $5.5 million, or 58.3%, as compared to an operating loss of $9.4 million in Q3-2021. The improvement, despite lower revenue, was primarily attributable to reduced operating expenses and the ERC. The net loss for the quarter was $7.6 million, or ($0.05) per share on a basic and diluted basis, compared to a net loss of $0.8 million, or ($0.01) per share, on a basic and diluted basis, in Q3-2021. Q3-2022 included a negative change in the fair value of the Company's SBH Purchase Option of $4.0 million, versus a positive change of $5.7 million in Q3-2021, for a non-cash net difference of $9.7 million year-over-year for the period. In addition, the Company's warrant liabilities were revalued in Q3-2021 resulting in a non-cash gain of $2.6 million.
Adjusted EBITDA1 for the third quarter of 2022 was positive $0.6 million, an improvement of $5.5 million as compared to Adjusted EBITDA of negative $4.8 million in Q3-2021.
Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
Net cash used from operations for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2022, was $2.6 million as compared to $23.3 million for the same period in 2021. The Company's cash and working capital at September 30, 2022, were $16.5 million and $61.0 million, respectively, compared to $19.5 million and $75.6 million at December 31, 2021, and $14.8 million and $64.6 million at June 30, 2022.
Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis
The Company's unaudited condensed consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021 and the unaudited condensed consolidated Statements of Operations, Shareholders' Equity, and Cash Flows and accompanying notes for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021 and related management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations ("MD&A") are reported in the Company's 10Q filing on the Securities and Exchange Commission website at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://investors.charlottesweb.com.
Conference Call
Management will host a conference call to discuss the results on November 15, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. To participate in the call, please dial 1-416-764-8659 or 1-888-664-6392 approximately 10 minutes before the conference call and provide confirmation number 24797121 or listen to the live webcast online.
A recording of the call will be available through November 22, 2022. To listen to a replay of the earnings call please dial 1-416-764-8677 or 1-888-390-0541 and provide conference replay ID 797121. A webcast of the call will also be accessible through the investor relations section of the Company's website for an extended period of time.
About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.
Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands that includes Charlotte's Web™, CBD Medic™, and CBD Clinic™. Charlotte's Web whole-plant CBD extracts come in full-spectrum and broad-spectrum (THC-free) options, including the world's only broad-spectrum CBD certified NSF for Sport®, which is the official CBD of Major League Baseball©. Founded by the seven Stanley Brothers, ignited the CBD industry when they came to global prominence with the coverage of a young girl's astounding reaction to their hemp extract. Their advocacy changed laws, public perception, and research around the vast health potential of plant-based solutions. The Stanleys built their business with the mission to bring safe, botanical options to health seekers worldwide. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are American farm-grown using organic and regenerative cultivation practices. The Company's hemp extracts have naturally occurring botanical compounds including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial compounds. The Company's CW Labs R&D division advances hemp science at a center of excellence in Louisville, Colorado. Charlotte's Web product categories include CBD oil tinctures (liquid products) CBD gummies (sleep, stress, exercise recovery), CBD capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as CBD pet products for dogs. Through its vertically integrated business model, Charlotte's Web maintains stringent control over product quality and consistency with 20+ product lot testing for quality assurance. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 15,000 retailers, over 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.charlottesweb.com.
Charlotte's Web was founded by the seven Stanley Brothers with a mission to unleash the healing powers of botanicals through compassion and science, benefiting the planet and all who live upon it. Charlotte's Web is a socially and environmentally conscious company and is committed to using business as a force for good and a catalyst for innovation. The Company weighs sound business decisions with consideration for how its efforts affect employees, customers, the environment, and diverse communities. The rate the Company pays for agricultural products reflects a fair and sustainable rate driving higher quality yield, encouraging regenerative farming practices, and supporting U.S. farming communities. Management believes that its socially oriented and environmentally responsible actions have a positive impact on its customers, suppliers, employees and stakeholders. Charlotte's Web donates a portion of its pre-tax earnings to charitable organizations.
Shares of Charlotte's Web trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol "CWEB" and are quoted in U.S. Dollars in the United States on the OTCQX under the symbol "CWBHF". As of November 10, 2022, Charlotte's Web had 151,628,652 Common Shares outstanding.
© Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com.
Forward-Looking Information
In the interest of providing the shareholders and potential investors of Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. with information about the Company, certain information provided herein constitutes forward-looking statements or information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "plan", "intend", "target", "believe" and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Although these forward-looking statements are based on assumptions the Company considers to be reasonable based on the information available on the date such statements are made, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results, levels of activity, and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on certain assumptions and analysis by the management of the Company in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future development and other factors that it believes are appropriate.
Specifically, this press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, but not limited to: : our beliefs that we are positioned for sustained improvement in growth and profitability beginning in 2023; our expectations regarding the positive influence of our MLB partnership on consumers, regulators and government officials and as a first domino in endorsements of CBD products by high profile organizations; our expectations regarding the availability of our products in Canada through the Tilray relationship; rebuilding online traffic and conversion; progress continuing in key international markets; our products continuing being allowed to be sold in the UK; the expectation that we will have our first bulk product shipment in the second half of the year; that we continue to steward use of cash while furthering our product rationalization to lower complexity and costs across our operations; anticipated consumer trends and corresponding product innovation; anticipated future financial results; international expansion activities and strategy, including partnerships in Greater China, harvest and planned product sales in Canada, and expansion in UK and EU; sales volume, product, channel and international expansion plans; growth of the Company's market share position; that the reorganization right-sized our operating expenses to our revenue; the impact of certain activities on the Company's business and financial condition; suggested regulatory developments; and the Company's anticipated trajectory, long-term growth expectations and shareholder value creation.
The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking statements herein include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the regulatory climate in which the Company currently operates and may in the future operate; successful sales of the Company's products; the success of sales and marketing activities; there will be no significant delays in the development and commercialization of the Company's products, including in relation to supply chain disruptions; outcomes from R&D activities; ability for the Company to leverage R&D and brand recognition for product sales; the Company's ability to deal with adverse growing conditions (due to pests, disease, fungus, climate or other factors) in a timely and cost-effective manner; there will be no significant reduction in the availability of qualified and cost-effective human resources; new products will continue to be added to the Company's portfolio; demand for the Company's products will grow in the foreseeable future; there will be no significant barriers to the acceptance of the Company's products in the market, including in international markets; the Company will be able to maintain compliance with applicable contractual and regulatory obligations and requirements; there will be adequate liquidity available to the Company to carry out its operations and business plans; the Company will have sufficient capital to pursue its sales volume, product, channel and international expansion; and products do not develop that would render the Company's current and future product offerings undesirable and the Company is otherwise able to minimize the impact of competition and keep pace with changing consumer preferences.
The Company's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the Company's operations, supply chain, distribution chain, and to the broader market for the Company's products; revenue fluctuations; nature of government regulations (both domestic and foreign); economic conditions; loss of key customers; retention and availability of executive talent; competing products; common share price volatility; loss of proprietary information; product acceptance; internet and system infrastructure functionality; information technology security; available capital to fund operations and business plans; crop risk; international and political considerations; regulatory changes; and including but not limited to those risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2021 available on www.sec.gov and www.sedar.com, and other risk factors contained in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on www.sec.gov and filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities available on www.sedar.com. The impact of any one risk, uncertainty, or factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as these are interdependent, and the Company's future course of action depends on management's assessment of all information available at the relevant time.
Except as required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. All forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company or persons acting on the Company's behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.
(1) Non-GAAP Measures
The press release contains non-GAAP measures, including EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. Please refer to the section in the tables captioned "Non-GAAP Measures" below for additional information and a reconciliation to GAAP for all Non-GAAP metrics.
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SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. | 2022-11-15T02:56:17+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/11/14/charlottes-web-reports-2022-third-quarter-financial-results/ |
Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza gets an official return date after selling out
IRVINE, Calif. - Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza is permanently returning in mid-September, according to company officials.
The Yum Brands-owned taco chain officially shared on Tuesday that its beloved menu item will return to menus nationwide on Sept. 15.
The announcement came after a recent interview with Taco Bell CEO Mark King, in which he shared about its "permanent" return.
"It’s going to be relaunched mid-September and it’s going to be a permanent item," Taco Bell CEO Mark King told Fortune Magazine in an article published on Sunday. "I had more feedback—hate mail!—over the removal of Mexican pizza [than any other time]."
Taco Bell previously eliminated its Mexican Pizza from the menu in 2020, citing a desire to create a faster and "more seamless" restaurant menu and experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It was time-consuming to make," King recalled. "It also had a number of specific items that were only for the Mexican pizza. When we went into COVID-19, we simplified the menu…trying to make it simpler for the team members."
Since then, the popular menu item has had quite the ride.
Didn’t Taco Bell already bring back the Mexican Pizza?
After Taco Bell cut the Mexican Pizza in November 2020, there was a continuous outcry from fans on social media.
The public response was so strong that the chain eventually brought it back for a six-month run in May 2022 and even made a satirical musical about the Mexican Pizza — starring Dolly Parton, among others — to celebrate.
"The marketing team made it bigger than life," King told Fortune Magazine. "One of the big advantages of Taco Bell versus our competitors really has been marketing brilliance over a very long period of time."
But soon after the relaunch, Taco Bell said it severely "underestimated" demand and quickly sold out.
Taco Bell said in late May that it was working to restock the Mexican Pizza ingredients, and the item has been temporarily off the menu.
The Mexican Pizza is made up of two crispy flour shells, layered with beans, pizza sauce, seasoned beef, tomatoes and a melted three-cheese blend. There is also a vegetarian version without the seasoned beef.
Taco Bell first introduced the Mexican Pizza in 1985 as the "Pizzazz Pizza," King said in a previous statement.
RELATED: Man to eat only Taco Bell in 30-day health experiment
This story was reported from Cincinnati. | 2022-08-02T17:36:52+00:00 | fox35orlando.com | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/taco-bell-mexican-pizza-return-date-september-2022 |
SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian man was convicted on Tuesday of murdering his wife 40 years ago after a renewed police investigation that was triggered by a popular podcast.
Christopher Dawson, 74, faces a possible life sentence. He opted for a trial by judge instead of a jury in the New South Wales state Supreme Court due to his notoriety from “The Teacher’s Pet” podcast, which 60 million people have listened to since 2018. The podcast set out a circumstantial case that Dawson had murdered his wife, Lynette.
Justice Ian Harrison found that Dawson killed his wife in 1982. At the time, Dawson was a high school teacher who was in a sexual relationship with a teenage former student and babysitter for his two daughters, identified in court as J.C.
The judge found the husband killed his wife because he feared losing his lover.
Harrison rejected the possibility that the wife abandoned her husband and children to vanish without a trace. He also dismissed claims the wife had been seen alive after January 1982 or that she had contacted her husband.
“The whole of the circumstantial evidence satisfies me that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she died on or about Jan. 8, 1982 and that she did not voluntarily abandon her home,” the judge said.
The wife had a strong attachment to her husband and daughters, was no “shrinking violet,” and had limited funds to support herself. This led the judge to reject the idea that she had left with only the clothes on her back.
“The proposition is ludicrous,” the judge said.
In his reasons for the guilty verdict, Harrison found that Dawson had lied about phone calls he claimed to have received from his wife after her disappearance.
J.C. and Dawson married in 1984 and separated in 1990.
Outside court, Lynette’s brother, Greg Simms, appealed to his brother-in-law to reveal the location of her body.
“The journey is not complete. She is still missing. We still need to bring her home. We would ask Chris Dawson to find it in himself to finally do the decent thing and allow us to bring Lyn home to a peaceful rest,” Simms said. | 2022-08-30T18:25:54+00:00 | wate.com | https://www.wate.com/technology/ap-technology/ap-podcast-leads-to-australians-conviction-in-wifes-murder/ |
(KTLA) – Prestigious Hollywood talent agency CAA announced on Monday it has stopped representing the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The famed agency is just the latest to reportedly part ways with the artist now known as “Ye,” following antisemitic comments posted to social media.
Ana Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, and the magazine have also cut ties West, according to Page Six. Wintour and the fashion magazine follow French fashion house, Balenciaga, and J.P. Morgan. The Gap and Ye went their separate ways in September.
Ye’s record deal with longtime label Def Jam has reportedly ended too. However, his name and albums remain on the label’s website.
Adidas, the German athletic wear behemoth, has been quiet regarding the issue thus far, despite mounting pressure.
There is currently a petition calling for Adidas to cut ties. As of Monday, over 85,500 people have signed the petition.
Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, author Jessica Seinfeld, urged her 578,000 followers to sign the petition.
In a controversial appearance on the podcast “Drink Champs,” Kanye West said: “I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?” The clip is from the Oct. 16 episode, which has since been taken down.
On Oct. 10, the Anti-Defamation League published a letter urging Adidas “to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”
Over the weekend, a hate group hung a banner from a 405 freeway overpass in Inglewood, California in support of West’s comments.
“Kanye is right about the Jews,” the sign read.
This was one of two antisemitic acts over the weekend in the Los Angeles area.
The action sparked many big names to speak up against hate speech, including Kim Kardashian, Ye’s ex-wife, who took to her Instagram story on Monday to issue a statement.
“Hate speech is never OK or excusable,” Kardashian wrote. “I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.”
Her sister Khloe Kardashian, reposted a message to her Instagram stories, penned by Seinfeld that reads: “I support my friends and Jewish people.”
Earlier this month, the artist tweeted he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” according to internet archive records, making an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.
His antisemitic rhetoric prompted him to be locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts. | 2022-10-24T20:11:28+00:00 | cbs4indy.com | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/hollywood-talent-agency-caa-cuts-ties-with-kanye-west-adidas-pressured-to-do-the-same/ |
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – El Paso remains the epicenter of irregular migration into the United States, with as many or more individuals trying to evade apprehension than those turning themselves in to seek asylum.
That means smugglers are recruiting U.S. residents willing to drive migrants who make it over the border wall to stash houses and pick up points for transportation to the country’s interior. Those approached often are teenagers tempted with easy money and given advice that could lead to tragedies – as it has in the past.
That’s the nightmare scenario Scott Good wants to spare El Paso parents from experiencing with their children.
“They are told not to stop for law enforcement, to drive fast, to drive erratically, drive on the wrong side of the road. When all these things happen, accidents happen,” said Good, the new U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector chief agent. “It really is scary. If you are a parent, please have those tough conversations with your children to not get involved.”
The teens and young adults hired by cartel middlemen often don’t realize what they’re driving the migrants into, he said. They’re not dropping them off at a nonprofit that’ll give them a box lunch, kind words of welcome and free bus tickets; they’re taking them to criminals who will pack them into cramped quarters and often abuse them.
“The smugglers are taking advantage of these vulnerable populations. They’re extorting them, they’re kidnapping them, they’re using them for sex trafficking. These are terrible things. […] It’s really unfortunate, it’s scary to think that somebody’s child can be convinced to drive a loaded vehicle into one of those situations,” Good said.
The worst that could happen is for those young people to go to the hospital. The next worst thing is they make it through, they do get paid and then they’re part of a transnational criminal organization.
“It’s not just a one-time thing. A lot of times kids think, ‘Just this time and I will make a bunch of money.’ But once TCOs have a hold of you, it’s really hard to get out. You’re playing with your life and it’s not going to go well. It’s going to end badly,” he said.
Good came to El Paso last month after leading the Border Patrol’s Havre Sector, which includes Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The 22-year agency veteran also has worked in Laredo, California, North Dakota, Arizona and Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Good has been everything from a patrol agent to a humanitarian counselor to the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Kentucky native describes himself as a man of faith.
The new chief admits he found it surprising that the men and women of the Border Patrol in El Paso remain confident and “in such good spirits” while being at the center of the current, prolonged surge.
He credits his predecessors, including former El Paso Sector Patrol Chief Gloria Chavez with forging partnerships with local law enforcement and the community to manage any potential crisis.
“I walked into a great situation where previous chiefs had set up these great (partnerships) with the community and I plan to continue that,” he said of coordination with the City of El Paso and El Paso County, both of which have stepped up to assist migrants released on parole. “I’ve yet to work in a place where everybody says, ‘Hey, we have enough staff and resources.’ But everybody (in El Paso) comes together.”
And while the city and county help the Border Patrol manage lawful migrant flows, law enforcement agencies from the Texas Department of Public Safety to the El Paso Police Department and El Paso County Sheriff’s Office help them fight smugglers.
“We have busted 165 stash houses just this fiscal year (from Oct. 1 to date), with 2,400 people held there. Those are crazy numbers. Recently in Socorro we’ve taken down a sex trafficking ring,” he said. “When we talk about (what’s) going through, people might think migrant farmer, but that’s typically not the case.” | 2023-04-29T00:03:49+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/border-report/border-patrol-concerned-about-american-youths-driving-migrants-for-cartels/ |
Saving $1 million for retirement just doesn’t cut it anymore, at least for the average retiree in Denver and 146 other metro areas in the country, according to a new study from LendingTree.
Based on the average amount a retiree receives in Social Security payments, and their average annual spending, LendingTree determined how much a retiree would need to pull from a retirement portfolio to cover the spending gap, including taxes. That portfolio size was based on the 4% rule, which says no more than 4% should be removed from a retirement portfolio in a given year.
In metro Denver, the typical retiree makes $25,504 from Social Security a year, spends $58,992 a year, which implies the need to earn $75,245 before taxes. A retirement portfolio would need to provide $49,741 to meet that demand. Following the 4% rule, a Denver area retiree would need to set aside $1,243,532 at the time of retirement.
“Ultimately, each metro is unique and will have its own quirks that can make it more or less expensive,” said LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel in comments contained in the report. “Anyone thinking about retiring in a given area should thoroughly research it before packing their bags and moving. Don’t let your preconceived notions or vague ideas about an area dictate whether you choose to live there.”
Out of the 384 metro areas that LendingTree examined, metro Denver had the 13th largest retirement portfolio requirement, between Washington, D.C., and Santa Maria, Calif. Areas, where people needed the most money to cover retirement expenses were San Francisco at $1.37 million, New York at $1.32 million, San Diego at $1.3 million, Honolulu at $1.29 million, and San Jose and Los Angeles in California at just over $1.27 million each.
For those who haven’t saved much for retirement, the best bargains were Johnstown, Pa., at $779,765; Cumberland, Md., at $802,988; and Danville, Ill., at $804,301.
As for retirees wanting to stay in Colorado, the study found that a retirement nest egg of $1.16 million was needed in Boulder; $1.08 million would work in Colorado Springs; $1.12 million in Fort Collins; $1.02 in Grand Junction, and $1.09 million in Greeley. The only metro in Colorado with a nest egg requirement below $1 million was Pueblo at $943,742.
The study looked at the average amount that a retiree spent in each area. One way to make do with smaller savings is to spend less or take more out of a smaller portfolio.
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BOWIE, Maryland — With back to school season right around the corner, you may be wondering is it too late to pursue a higher education? A 72-year-old woman from Maryland is proving it's never too late.
Diane Allen Tate went back to school at age 65, but kept her education journey a secret from even her family and friends for the last seven years.
In those years, Tate served as a primary caregiver for her mother while secretly balancing higher education classes online.
But now the secret is out of the bag--and Tate's family couldn't be prouder of her.
Tate graduated with honors and a PsyD in Behavioral Health Leadership from Walden University on Saturday.
This was the first time Tate attended an official graduation despite having an undergraduate and masters degree. She gradated Boston University in 1972 with a psychology degree. Three years later, she took home a masters degree in development psychology from Boston University. But because of the Vietnam War and her romantic pursuits, Tate was unable to walk across the stage.
Dr. Tate's family shared a few photos from the celebration, which they said they wanted to "make a big deal out of" since she kept it a secret for so long. | 2023-07-31T13:02:44+00:00 | wtsp.com | https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/senior-citizen-receives-doctorate-keeps-education-secret-from-family/65-d1b76026-8705-42ba-a4d0-a6288ce7c023 |
BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Joe Budd, on June 15th, officially announced his campaign for Florida's newly drawn Congressional District 23. According to the Cook Political Report, this open seat only gives the democrats less than a 5% advantage.
In just 15 days, Joe managed to outraise all his Republican challengers for the quarter ending June 30th, 2022. Not only has Joe quickly taken the lead in fundraising, but he has accumulated some incredibly significant support like our former Congressman, Allen West. Additionally, Joe earned endorsements by the Broward County Police Benevolent Association, Florida Family Action, Tom Sheehan – President of the Sheehan Companies, Dr. Mary Drabik – President of South Florida Bible College, and Andrew Pollack – father of Parkland victim Meadow Pollack.
Joe is the only candidate who has won a general election. He defeated a popular three-term incumbent in 2016 while having been outspent 26-1! Winning while being outspent 26-1 is an important note since the Democrat frontrunner has already amassed a significant lead in fundraising. In 2020, Joe won re-election in a landslide with 73% of the vote. His consistent messaging and leadership have endeared him to the community he serves.
In addition to Joe's successful political experience, his real-life experiences have given him a unique ability to empathize with those going through the everyday issues life throws at you. Joe has faced and conquered some significant setbacks while remaining true to his character and the moral values he holds. When you turn your back on common decency and embrace evil over good, you are turning your back on the rich heritage and history which made America great.
We encourage you to read Joe's story, priorities, and endorsements on his website at www.VoteJoeBudd.com. Watch his videos on his YouTube channel at Vote Joe Budd or dialogue with him on his social media pages @VoteJoeBudd.
Vote by mail ballots have been mailed out. We are asking you to vote for Joe Budd to secure the best opportunity at flipping this seat RED!
Joe believes America is and will continue to be that shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope throughout the world, and that God's blessings are still on this great country. It only takes a proverbial sling and a stone to be victorious when you are doing the right thing. Remember, this Budd's for you!
Joe Budd, Florida Congressional District 23
Founder and President, www.Club45USA.com
Media contact: Media@votejoebudd.com
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SOURCE Joe Budd for Congress | 2022-08-01T16:58:17+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/joe-budd-congress-showing-significant-momentum/ |
This is a sponsored segment by Water World and the Sun Bus.
This week’s ‘Cool Kids of the Week’ are Sam and Lilly Vidal.
Know a ‘Cool Kid’? Submit a photo of your kid having Summer fun! It could by anything – hiking, swimming, or just enjoying Colorado. You could win a Summer prize package provided by Water World and the Sun Bus. Plus, win a live one minute interview or mention on Great Day Colorado! | 2023-06-16T20:23:07+00:00 | kdvr.com | https://kdvr.com/great-day-colorado/sponsored-gdc/gdc-cool-kids-of-the-week-sam-lilly-vidal/ |
Unmatched: Bicycle Bob’s
Bicycle Bob’s became a fixture of Santa Barbara and Goleta after four decades of good business practices and community service. A whole following of riders grew around Bob Zaratzian’s kindness and support. Bicycle Bob’s 31 years as “Best of Santa Barbara” is a testament to how Bob treated his customers and community through personal engagement and outreach. From customer service to cycling events, the true sincerity Bob extended to the cyclists of the “Goodland” and beyond created a cammraderie maybe not matched elsewhere.
I submit we should express our gratitiude for a man who showed us how to engage our community and run a business that serves its contituents in the best way possible. Bob showed us how to ensure “The Goodland” continues to be “The Goodland.”
Cheers, Bob! Happy grandfatherhood! | 2023-01-17T01:00:36+00:00 | independent.com | https://www.independent.com/2023/01/16/unmatched-bicycle-bobs/ |
NEW YORK (PIX11) – The Fourth of July is just a week away, and a new survey puts New York City as the third best place to be to celebrate Independence Day.
The number two spot went to San Francisco, and the number one spot to celebrate Independence Day is in Los Angels.
New York was ranked number three due to cost and the weather. However, it still scored high in the number of celebrations and activities you can do on the day of the founding of our nation.
Across the water in New Jersey, Jersey City ranked number 76th on the list but got first place for safety. | 2023-06-27T23:38:32+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/study-finds-two-california-cities-beat-nyc-for-fourth-of-july-celebrations/ |
New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern gives rousing farewell speech: ‘You can lead. Just like me’
By Helen Regan, CNN
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said farewell to politics Wednesday with a rousing speech that assured other nerds, criers, and huggers that they too could one day lead.
“You can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve, you can be a mother or not, you can be an ex-Mormon or not, you can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger — you can be all of these things,” she said, tearfully.
“And not only can you be here; you can lead. Just like me.”
Ardern announced her shock resignation in January, saying she had “no more in the tank” after five years in power and would not seek reelection in the October polls.
When Ardern became prime minister in 2017 at the age of 37 she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the youngest leaders in the world. Within a year, she had become only the second world leader to give birth in office.
In her Wednesday speech, Ardern said the role was one “I never thought I was meant to have” when seven weeks out from a general election she was nominated leader of the Labour Party.
“It was a cross between a sense of duty to steer a moving freight train and being hit by one, and that’s probably because my internal reluctance to lead was matched only by a huge sense of responsibility,” she said.
Ardern’s time in power was defined by multiple crises, including the 2019 Christchurch terror attack — which killed 51 people at two mosques — a deadly volcanic explosion and a global pandemic that prompted unpopular lockdowns.
Ardern said she found herself “in people’s lives during the most grief-stricken or traumatic moments” and that “their stories and faces remain etched in my mind and likely will for ever.”
Her speech to parliament was also deeply personal. Ardern shared her anxieties in the job — of feeling like she would need to “harden up” and “change dramatically” to survive in politics.
She described herself as a “crier and hugger,” as well as a “worrier” but said “while I convinced myself that you cannot be a worrier and be in this place, you can.”
“I didn’t change. I leave this place as sensitive as I ever was, prone to dwell on the negative, hating question time so deeply that I would struggle to eat most days beforehand, and I am here to tell you, you can be that person and you can be here.”
Ardern also spoke about her struggle to conceive and “being afraid that I was choosing a path that meant I wouldn’t get to have children.” After experiencing a failed round of IVF treatment when she became leader of the Labour Party, she said she distracted herself by campaigning to become prime minister.
“Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later I discovered I was pregnant,” she said. “I leave knowing I was the best mother I could be. You can be that person, and you can be here.”
Ardern quickly became a progressive global icon, remembered for her empathy while steering New Zealand through its worst ever terrorist attack and taking her baby daughter to the United Nations General Assembly.
Though at home, her popularity ebbed amid the rising cost of living, housing shortages and economic anxiety. She faced violent anti-lockdown protests in the capital Wellington and had threats made against her.
Front and center in her speech was climate change and she referenced the deadly floods that devastated the country’s northeast earlier this year.
She called on parliament to “please take the politics out of climate change” to reduce the emissions necessary to limit global warming. “We have what we need to make the progress we must,” she said.
Looking back on her time in office and her legacy, Ardern pointed to the issues that made her join politics: “climate change, child poverty, and inequality.”
“The reasons I came here, they never left me either,” she said. “I’ve always believed this to be a place where you can make a difference. I leave knowing that to be true.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-06T07:13:08+00:00 | keyt.com | https://keyt.com/news/national-world/cnn-asia-pacific/2023/04/05/new-zealands-jacinda-ardern-gives-rousing-farewell-speech-you-can-lead-just-like-me/ |
President Joe Biden will be in Connecticut on Friday for a national gun safety summit at the University of Hartford. Sen. Chris Murphy will be hosting the National Safer Communities Summit. It marks the one year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety bill passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. Murphy, a Democrat, talked with Morning Edition’s Lori Mack about the event.
Lori Mack: You were very instrumental in getting this federal legislation passed. First remind us what actually passed in the Safer Communities Act?
Sen. Chris Murphy: Well, this was the first major gun safety bill in 30 years that has passed Congress. Even with the opposition of the NRA and the gun lobby, we were able to get Republicans and Democrats to finally come together and do something meaningful about this epidemic of gun violence. It's not everything we need to do. But boy, it's a really good start. Included in this bill is $15 billion for mental health, school safety, community safety – that's a lot of money, that money will save lives. It creates a waiting period and a new enhanced background check for young buyers who are buying assault weapons. It makes gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time, it helps states like Connecticut pass and strengthen red flag laws, and it takes guns away from all domestic abusers. Whether you get convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, you can't have guns, if you have been convicted of a domestic violence crime. All those things are groundbreaking. None of those could have happened just three or four years ago, but the movement has become strong enough that we were able to get this passed last year.
Mack: As you mentioned, this bill didn't accomplish everything you wanted. But talk about how you were able to get this legislation passed.
Murphy: It's really a story about the strength of the gun safety movement. The fact of the matter is, when Sandy Hook happened, there really wasn't a gun safety movement. The NRA was really strong, they blocked everything that tried to pass Congress. For 10 years, we've built up moms and dads, kids, and community members to tell Congress inaction is not acceptable. Finally, last year after Uvalde, that movement really sent a clear message to my Republican colleagues that, if you're going to do nothing this time, you're not coming back to Congress. And luckily, a group of Republicans reached out and said let's get something done. I am really proud of the bipartisan product we produced. I'm grateful for the role that President Biden played. He was instrumental in getting it passed as well. You can't get a gun safety bill passed without a President who is willing to sign it and I'm glad that he's going to be joining us.
Mack: I know you'd like to see more in the way of gun violence prevention. I'm sure you hear from people all the time who are appalled that it's taken this long to even move the needle on any meaningful gun legislation. As you've pointed out, many Republicans believe there should be certain types of gun restrictions, but they also know if they support gun control and then go back to their states, they're likely to be voted out, so realistically, how is this going to change?
Murphy: I actually don't think that that is true. I think increasingly, if you vote against these common sense measures, you're going to lose your race. And I think the reason that Republicans joined us last year is that they are coming to the conclusion that they are better off politically being with us instead of against us. Universal background checks, which have yet to pass, I hope that's the next thing we vote on, that's supported by 90% of Americans. That is true in red states and in blue states. So we just have to continue to build our political movement, we have to continue to get voters to prioritize this issue when they cast their votes, and I really believe that what we did last year is just the beginning. I think over the course of the next five to 10 years, we're going to be consistently passing measures that are going to strengthen our nation's gun laws and we're going to do it in a bipartisan way.
Mack: Connecticut has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. President Biden has chosen to come to our state to talk about this issue. What will Biden focus on during the summit?
Murphy: There's still far too much gun violence, even in a state like Connecticut, but Connecticut has one of the lowest gun violence rates in the nation. We're right up there with states like Massachusetts and California. And the reason that we have less gun violence is because we have tougher laws. We make sure that dangerous people, people with serious mental illness, don't get guns in Connecticut. We don't sell those assault weapons. And so we're really proud to host this summit in Connecticut and have President Biden join us because we're proof that if you tighten your laws as a state or as a nation, you will get results. I think President Biden will talk about Connecticut's law. I think he will talk about the progress we've made with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and I think he'll very clearly say, it's not enough, pass an assault weapons ban, pass universal background checks, I think he'll probably deliver all of those messages tomorrow.
Mack: What are you hoping to accomplish at this summit?
Murphy: I want people to know that we've made a difference. I think sometimes in this movement, people do get discouraged, but we did something really important last year. There's some preliminary data from the first five months of this year suggesting that gun violence rates are coming down, all across the country. We'll see if that's a blip or whether it's a real trend but it could be that the law is making a difference already. So I want people to feel good about the fact that their advocacy, their membership, is part of this movement, their decision to call their member of Congress or join a gun violence prevention group is actually making change possible. So we'll highlight what we've done. We'll talk about how they can get involved and make sure that their communities get some of this funding. We’ll obviously be inspired by the President and hopefully, we'll end this summit with people having more information about how to make sure this law works for them, but also feeling empowered to continue to stay part of this fight.
This interview has been edited. Connecticut Public Radio's Jeni Ahrens contributed to this report. | 2023-06-15T16:56:53+00:00 | mainepublic.org | https://www.mainepublic.org/2023-06-15/sen-chris-murphy-talks-gun-control-in-advance-of-president-bidens-friday-visit-to-ct |
Christina will lead Aktion's Multi-Industry Division
MAUMEE, Ohio, March 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Aktion Associates, Inc., a national software reseller and IT infrastructure provider focused on the Architectural Engineering & Construction, Distribution and Manufacturing industries, has promoted Christina Birmingham to the position of Vice President, Multi-Industry (MI) Division. Aktion's MI Division has established itself as one of the largest Acumatica Value-Added Resellers (VAR) within the Acumatica ecosystem, providing sales and consulting services for both new and existing clients within the Construction, Distribution, and Manufacturing industries.
"I have complete confidence in Christina to lead the MI Division and its rapidly growing team and customer base," said Aktion CEO Scott Irwin. "This division is well positioned for accelerated growth and has already established itself as the leading Acumatica VAR in North America," Irwin added.
Christina will oversee a workforce of more than 50 personnel in the MI Division, including corporate support staff, sales representatives, application consultants, and network and software engineers. As part of her new role, she is responsible for developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with our customers and suppliers. Christina will have overall P&L responsibility for the division.
Concurrently, Aktion has made the following leadership changes. All application consultants will report to MI Division Practice Manager Jennifer Kinzel and Managing Consultant Colette Bashir will provide leadership to divisional technical resources. Additionally, VAR veteran and Aktion Director of Services Gary Kirstein will assist with current and future customer acquisition integration activities.
Christina served as Sales Leader for the MI Division before being promoted to Vice President. Prior to joining Aktion in 2022, Christina was the Major Partner Channel Manager at Acumatica for nearly four years, and Enterprise Sales and Client Development Manager at Viewpoint for 14 years. Preceding a career transition into technology, Christina founded and owned MEC Construction in Texas. Christina attended Liberty University where she studied Business Administration with a focus on Business Leadership.
About Aktion
Aktion Associates delivers industry-specific and market-leading application solutions to the Architecture & Engineering, Construction, Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing industries. The principal solutions Aktion delivers to these industries include Acumatica, Deltek, Infor and Sage. As a result of our success in reselling and supporting these solutions, Aktion has achieved premier partner status with each provider. We combine our expertise in these applications with proven business process transformation skills to deliver the best Net Promoter Scores in the ERP industry for small and medium-sized businesses. Our investment in a company-owned cloud and managed services platform is what further allows us to deliver the total solution with award-winning speed and cost-effectiveness. With a customer base of 6500 strong and a workforce of 230 employees, we have the scope and scale to manage an ERP cloud migration. Visit www.aktion.com.
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SOURCE Aktion Associates, Inc. | 2023-03-14T20:17:33+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2023/03/14/aktion-associates-inc-promotes-christina-birmingham-vice-president/ |
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NEW YORK, June 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of Beyond Meat, Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) between May 5, 2020 and October 13, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important July 10, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Beyond Meat common stock during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Beyond Meat class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16090 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than July 10, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Beyond Meat was unable to manufacture its meat substitutes at scale to the specifications of its business partners; (2) Beyond Meat suffered from widespread scaling issues, particularly misalignment and delayed decision-making, which led to corresponding production delays; (3) such issues were exacerbated by Beyond Meat's disjoined production lines; and (4) these problems led some business partners to balk at the high price of Beyond Meat's products and express doubts about the Company's ability to produce them at commercial scale. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Beyond Meat class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16090 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | 2023-06-05T19:52:22+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2023/06/05/globally-recognized-rosen-law-firm-encourages-beyond-meat-inc-investors-with-losses-excess-100k-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-securities-class-action-bynd/ |
PHILADELPHIA (AP)Bryce Harper lobbed Philadelphia’s first recruiting pitch over the summer when the injured All-Star used a guest stint in the broadcast booth to advocate for the future free agent and his former Washington teammate.
”Trea Turner, he’s my favorite player in the league,” Harper said. ”Not even close.”
Harper and Turner have been reunited by the National League champion Phillies for the upcoming season and well beyond. Turner’s $300 million, 11-year contract with the Phillies was finalized Thursday, a deal that’ll take the 29-year-old shortstop and 2021 NL batting champion into his 40s.
A long-term risk, perhaps, for the Phillies, but one owner John Middleton and president Dave Dombrowski were willing to take with the Phillies’ championship window open for the next few seasons. Harper still has nine years left on his $330 million, 11-year free-agent deal, though he could miss at least two months as he recovers from elbow surgery.
Turner can certainly help steady a lineup that lost a combined a no-hitter to the Houston Astros in the World Series and lost in six games – and likely from the top of the order, knocking free-swinging NL home run champ Kyle Schwarber down a spot or two.
Schwarber, who struck out 200 times, did steal a career-high 10 bases. Turner, though, has led the league in steals twice and had 27 last season.
”He stole a lot of bases last year. He’s kind of coming around there,” Turner said with a laugh. ”I don’t know if I want to kick him out of there.”
Turner hit .298 with 21 homers and a career-high 100 RBIs this year in his first full season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also scored 101 runs.
”We pictured playing with Bryce and Schwarber and a lot of those guys on the team now,” Turner said at Citizens Bank Park. ”It just seemed like a lot of things added up and pointed us in this direction.”
A lot of things. Like money. Turner gets salaries of $27,272,727 in each of the next 10 seasons and $27,272,730 in 2033. He also will make a $100,000 annual contribution to Phillies charities. His deal includes a full no-trade provision.
Turner and his family met with Dombrowski, general manager Sam Fuld and manager Rob Thomson last month in Florida. Turner had other suitors and turned down at least one richer offer to sign with Philadelphia.
”This place is fun to play,” Turner said. ”I watched a lot of playoff games and this place was rocking.”
Dombrowski downplayed the decision to spend so much money on Turner, especially deep into his 30s, when players are traditionally on the downside of their careers.
”I do think sometimes you have to differentiate between a normal big league player and an elite athlete,” Dombrowski said. ”I do think there are some differences in that regard, too. We have done a lot of research in that regard. An elite athlete can last longer at the performance level than, say, other individuals can.”
Bigger bases and restrictions on defensive positioning coming to the game next year likely enhanced the free-agent market for Turner, because those are two changes that make his athleticism and defensive versatility more valuable.
He turned down a $19.65 million qualifying offer from the Dodgers in November, joining a stellar group of free-agent shortstops that also included Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson.
Turner broke into the majors with Washington in 2015. The two-time All-Star hit .300 with 192 steals in six-plus seasons with the Nationals, winning the World Series in 2019.
Turner and ace right-hander Max Scherzer were traded to the Dodgers in a multiplayer deal at the 2021 trade deadline. Turner hit .338 with 10 homers and 11 steals down the stretch, and Los Angeles made it to the NL Championship Series before being eliminated by Atlanta.
Turner is a .302 hitter with 124 homers, 434 RBIs and 230 steals in 849 games. He has spent most of his career at shortstop, but he also has made starts at second base and in center field.
He would earn $50,000 each for making the All-Star team, winning a Gold Glove or earning a Silver Slugger. He would get $500,000 for winning an MVP award, $50,000 for placing second and $25,000 for third. Turner also would earn $100,000 for a World Series MVP award and $50,000 for an NLCS MVP designation.
Turner and Harper played with the Washington Nationals from 2015-18. Harper, who won an NL MVP award with each team, texted Turner in the offseason and served as a sounding board for questions he had about Philly.
Turner had one on Thursday: Where’s the best place to eat? He’ll have 11 years to sample all of Philly’s cuisine.
—
AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
—
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports | 2022-12-09T06:23:55+00:00 | siouxlandproud.com | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/mlb/ss-trea-turner-phillies-finalize-300m-11-year-contract/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alarmed by a dramatic increase in reported sexual assaults in the military, defense leaders said Thursday they want to beef up prevention, but they are struggling to find people to hire and are still developing programs they think can work, after nearly two decades of trying.
The idea of preventing a sexual assault before it happens isn’t new. The military services have been casting about for ways to do it for years and appear to have made little progress. But this year, officials said they are bolstered by an infusion of $479 million to hire as many as 2,400 personnel for a new “prevention workforce.”
The latest assault numbers show how much prevention programs haven’t worked. Overall, the number of reported sexual assaults involving members of the military jumped by 13% last year, driven by significant increases in the Army and the Navy.
At the same time, nearly 36,000 service members said in a confidential survey that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact — a dramatic increase over the roughly 20,000 who said that in a similar 2018 survey. The conclusion, said officials, is that more service members than at any time before are experiencing some type of unwanted sexual contact, and far fewer are reporting it.
“The decline in the reporting rate,” said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., “suggests trust and faith in the military is on the wrong trajectory.” Speier, who heads the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, said she plans to hold a hearing in the coming weeks on the issue.
The survey found that military units that have poor command climates or have instances of gender discrimination or sexual harassment are more likely also to see more serious sexual assaults. So one prevention effort is focused on better assessing military commanders at all levels, and using command climate surveys to weed out poor leaders.
Army leaders — who saw an increase of nearly 26% in reported assaults last year — said they realized last summer that the numbers were trending badly. Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston said the service had been spending most of its energy on responding to assaults, rather than how to prevent them.
As a result, the Army is improving how it does command climate surveys, including randomly selecting soldiers to provide feedback and using those surveys in determining promotions.
“I expect our leaders to maintain positive command climates where our soldiers feel safe and can thrive,” said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, adding that the Army is committed to focusing more on prevention and reforming the systems.
Another program the Army started involves more immediate training for younger recruits as they move to their first duty posts.
Grinston said the new training, done in the first 72 hours of a soldier’s arrival, involves vignettes and role-playing to instruct troops on proper behavior and what to do if something bad starts to happen. He said that at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, where the program is in use, the number of sexual assault cases to date this fiscal year is about half of what it was last year.
Other bases, including Fort Hood in Texas, are doing similar training, teaching soldiers how to identify problems and react better and more quickly. Moving the training to earlier in a soldier’s first job puts greater emphasis on it and is designed to set the tone for behavior going forward.
Building a new prevention workforce, however, is only slowly getting off the ground. A key challenge is the tight labor market, said Beth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s office of force resiliency.
“That’s been a challenge for us,” said Foster. “It is difficult in the labor environment in this country right now to hire specialized personnel.”
She said the department is developing a recruitment plan and hopes to tap into colleges and universities and also seek professionals who are military spouses or veterans. She said it’s difficult to say how many — if any — people have actually been hired because the various military services are doing that themselves.
Once in place, the money and the hiring will “go a long way toward funding and sustaining change over time,” said Nate Galbreath, acting director of the Pentagon’s sexual assault prevention and response office.
More than half of those in the survey said they were not satisfied with the response of their chain of command or law enforcement to their particular incident, and 30% to 40% were unhappy with the assault response staff. Those totals, said department officials, showed a sharp, and unusual, decline in trust since 2018, when the survey was last conducted.
The distrust was far greater among women.
For example, just 39% of women said they trusted the military to treat them with dignity and respect, and 40% didn’t trust that the military would ensure their safety after the assault incident.
Ashlea Klahr, director of health and resilience research for the Pentagon, said some of the decline may reflect a broader distrust in the military and other government organizations that has deepened in recent years.
“We also see declining retention intentions, and declining confidence in potential recruits and in their influencers in terms of whether or not the military is doing a good job of addressing sexual assault,” she said.
In addition, assault prevention and response staff — including victims’ advocates, lawyers and response coordinators — reported a sharp spike in stress, job burnout and fatigue. They complained about the impact of the pandemic on their ability to treat people and do their jobs.
Unwanted sexual conduct — which includes everything from rape to touching — increased across the board last year in the military. In addition to the Army’s nearly 26% jump, the increase in Navy reports was about 9%, the Air Force was a bit more than 2% and the Marine Corps was less than 2%.
The big increases come as all the services — particularly the Army —- are struggling to meet recruiting goals this year. Officials agree that increased sexual assaults can hurt recruiting, as parents and other influencers become more wary of allowing young people to serve. | 2022-09-02T16:26:28+00:00 | myfox8.com | https://myfox8.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-sexual-assault-spike-spurs-military-to-focus-on-prevention/ |
If you're still holding out hope for a Good Burger sequel after 25 years, Kenan Thompson has some news for you. On Wednesday, the Saturday Night Live star teased a potential sequel to the 1997 Nickelodeon film -- which featured Thompson alongside Kel Mitchell in the lead roles -- during an appearance on The Tonight Show.
Host Jimmy Fallon -- alongside co-host Demi Lovato -- asked the 44-year-old about a joint Instagram post he made with Mitchell last month, celebrating the film's 25th anniversary.
"Happy 25th Goodburger!!! I love this movie and everyone who worked on it," Thompson captioned the nostalgic post. "So proud to be a part of something so many generations of people have come to love as well!!! ‘Sup wit that Part 2?!"
"Are you saying that Good Burger 2 is happening?" Fallon asked.
"I would like it to!" Thompson replied, sharing that he and his frequent '90s co-star are "working harder on it than ever."
"It's about meeting the numbers, letting them numbers match up. 'Cause I need them numbers," he joked.
Good Burger was born from a sketch led by Mitchell on Nickelodeon's iconic kids' comedy series, All That. Mitchell's character, Ed, a lovable yet dimwitted employee at the fast-food joint, often unintentionally terrorized various characters from the show, including Thompson's oft-impatient straight-man figures.
Thompson later starred in the film version of Good Burger alongside Mitchell, where he played high-school student Dexter Reed, who gets a summer job at the restaurant. The two eventually team up to help bring down a competitor burger chain led by a greedy corporation, and become best pals in the process.
When asked by Fallon what he thinks their characters would be up to today, Thompson joked, "I feel like Ed should have, like, a million kids. And then [Dexter] coming out of jail for something that [Ed] put [him] in jail for."
Earlier this year, Thompson hit a record milestone in his 19th season on SNL. The comic shared a post on his Instagram page celebrating that, after the March 5 show, he has officially starred in over 1500 "all-time career sketches" on the sketch comedy series.
The Emmy winner's milestone sketch featured him playing DIY "expert" Gus Van Tant, the host of In Over Your Head, a show about people who tried (and terribly failed) to do home repairs themselves, with disastrous results. The sketch sees Gus visited by several guests, including Felix Cruz, played by episode host Oscar Isaac, who electrocuted himself trying to install his own circuit breaker.
"Beyond blessed!! 1500?! 🤯🤯🤯," the 44-year-old captioned his post. "@nbc and @nbcsnl has been my home for 19 years and counting!!! Love everyone that’s helped me get to this amazing milestone!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️"
Thompson has been a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy series since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He's been nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on SNL four times, winning once. He's also starring in his NBC sitcom, Kenan, which he was also nominated for an Emmy Award last year.
In June, ET spoke to Thompson at the 2022 Apollo Spring Benefit in New York City about his future on the sketch comedy show after a season that saw major cast exits in Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney.
"I mean, not that I know of," Thompson said when asked if he was planning to depart SNL. "I know we at least trying to get to the 50th, 'cause that's gonna be a special year, you know what I mean? And then after that, it's like, I don't know exactly how long I can do it."
With SNL approaching its 48th season, that means Thompson will have to stick around for three more seasons to hit that major milestone, but he's already hit one of his own, earning the title of the longest-running cast member in the show's storied history.
What keeps Thompson coming back? The funnyman says the show keeps asking him to.
"What keeps me coming back is them asking me to come back," he said. "If I felt like I was overstaying my welcome, or unwanted, then I would like to show myself the door, but yeah, it's also a one-of-a-kind place."
For more on Thompson, check out the video below.
RELATED CONTENT | 2022-08-19T01:17:16+00:00 | 9news.com | https://www.9news.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/kenan-thompson-has-some-ideas-for-possible-good-burger-sequel/603-0c53d1ab-f67f-4e9d-8a6b-5648b3bcbb14 |
Recent dog flu outbreaks force shelters to pause adoptions
As the U.S. flu season continues to get worse, it's not just humans that have to worry about respiratory illness.
According to a recent story published on Dec. 2, by the New York Times, veterinarians are sounding the alarm on a few versions of dog flu which are forcing animal shelters to pause adoptions.
Dog parks are also a risk factor since the viruses spread through the air, according to the report. The Times reported that canine influenza cases in Texas South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee are on the rise.
"We had a bit of a quiet period during the first couple years of Covid," Dr. Silene St. Bernard, the regional medical director for Southern California at VCA Animal Hospitals told the Times. "While people were home, their pets were home. And we didn’t see as many of these contagious viruses spreading around."
There are currently two known strains of canine influenza. The first – H3N8, which originated in horses – was first detected in Florida in 2004.
H3N2 has been the culprit for the most recent outbreaks, however. This strain originated in birds and was first detected in 2007, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, health officials said Friday that 7.5% of outpatient medical visits last week were due to flu-like illnesses. That’s as high as the peak of the 2017-18 flu season and higher than any season since.
Los Angeles, CA - September 07: Dog walker Richard Harris shares the shade with some dogs on a hot day at the Sepulveda Basin Off Leash Dog Park in Encino, CA. Wednesday September 7, 2022. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily Ne
The annual winter flu season usually doesn’t get going until December or January, but this one began early and has been complicated by the simultaneous spread of other viruses.
The measure of traffic in doctor’s offices is based on reports of symptoms like coughs and sore throats, not on lab-confirmed diagnoses. So it may include other respiratory illnesses.
That makes it hard to compare to flu seasons from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Other years also didn’t have this year’s unusually strong wave of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly.
Meanwhile, 44 states reported high or very high flu activity last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
That may not bode well for the near future. It’s likely there was more spread of respiratory viruses during Thanksgiving gatherings and at crowded airports, experts say.
The dominant flu strain so far is the kind typically associated with higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in people 65 and older.
The CDC estimates there have been at least 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from flu so far this season. The deaths include at least 14 children.
Flu shots are recommended for nearly all Americans who are at least 6 months old or older.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. | 2022-12-08T00:48:16+00:00 | fox29.com | https://www.fox29.com/news/recent-dog-flu-outbreaks-force-shelters-to-pause-adoptions |
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AARP members can take advantage of several benefits now available from new and existing providers. The wide-ranging list of benefits include savings and an enhanced offer from AARP® Real Estate Benefits from Realogy, and five new providers: Freshly, AARP® Moving Services powered by Shyft, Schlotzsky's, McAlister's Deli, and AARP Online Fitness powered by LIFT session.
"We are continuously looking for opportunities to expand benefits for AARP members and we are eager to share the new ways members can save this summer," said John Larew, AARP Services President and CEO. "From access to trusted real estate agents, to weekly meal plan subscriptions, to moving services, these benefits touch on categories that are important to AARP members and their needs."
- AARP® Real Estate Benefits from Realogy – An enhanced offer from AARP® Real Estate Benefits from Realogy allows members to receive $300 - $7,200 money back based on the sale purchase of your home. This member benefit recently increased from $300 - $5,500, making the program even more advantangeous for AARP members who buy or sell a home. Members have access to real estate agents from Realogy's trusted real estate brands, including Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, Century 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Corcoran Group, and ERA® Real Estate. There is no fee to sign up, and depending on the location of your home, you will receive your benefits as cash, as a gift card, or as a commission reduction.
- Freshly – AARP members receive a 20% discount on a weekly meal plan subscription from Freshly. Members can select from fresh (never frozen), fully prepared meals that are delivered to their door and ready to eat in three minutes or less.
- AARP® Moving Services powered by Shyft – AARP members save up to $250 when they book moving services through Shyft. Dedicated Shyft Move Managers are trained to compare multiple pricing options among verified moving companies, lock in a rate upon booking, and help oversee your move.
- Schlotzsky's – AARP members save 10% at all participating Schlotzsky's locations in-store and for online orders when they link their AARP membership to their Schlotzsky's Rewards account.
- McAlister's Deli – AARP members save 10% at all participating McAlister's Deli locations in-store and for online orders when they link their AARP membership to their McAlister's Rewards account.
- AARP Online Fitness powered by LIFT session – AARP Online Fitness powered by LIFT session is a digital fitness program designed by experts and geared toward people 50-plus. The program offers free webinars presented by a wide variety of health professionals, including nutritionists and registered dieticians, psychiatrists, and top fitness instructors. The subscription service offers a wide selection of live and on-demand workouts, instructional videos on proper technique, a personalized fitness plan and access to one-on-one coaching and small group training. AARP members save 50% off the annual subscription and 20% off personal coaching.
For more information about the benefits AARP members have access to, visit aarp.org/viewbenefits. AARP commercial member benefits are provided by third parties, not by AARP or its affiliates. AARP and its affiliates do not employ real estate agents and do not endorse the agents or brokerages made available by Realogy.
Realogy is moving the real estate industry to what's next. As the leading and most integrated provider of U.S. residential real estate services encompassing franchise, brokerage, relocation, and title and settlement businesses as well as a mortgage joint venture, Realogy supported approximately 1.5 million home transactions in 2021. The company's diverse brand portfolio includes some of the most recognized names in real estate: Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, Corcoran®, ERA®, and Sotheby's International Realty®. Using innovative technology, data and marketing products, high-quality lead generation programs, and best-in-class learning and support services, Realogy fuels the productivity of its approximately 196,700 independent sales agents in the U.S. and approximately 136,700 independent sales agents in 118 other countries and territories, helping them build stronger businesses and best serve today's consumers. Recognized for ten consecutive years as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies, Realogy has also been designated a Great Place to Work four years in a row, named one of LinkedIn's 2021 Top Companies in the U.S., and honored on the Forbes list of World's Best Employers 2021.
Freshly is a weekly subscription service delivering fresh, chef-cooked meals directly to customers' doors that can be heated and served in three minutes. All that is needed is a microwave and fork to get a satisfying lunch or dinner on the table. With a corporate mission to break down the barriers to healthy eating, Freshly believes that taste and health don't need to be compromised for convenience. Freshly's food philosophy is centered on less sugar, less processed ingredients, and more nutrients. Developed by chefs and nutritionists, the menu features better-for-you versions of classic comfort foods with smart ingredient swaps. Freshly makes eating better easier than ever, one box at a time. Headquartered in New York, Freshly has operations in Phoenix, Arizona; Savage, Maryland; Linden, New Jersey; Commerce, California; and Austell, Georgia. To learn more about Freshly, visit www.freshly.com.
Shyft is a fintech-powered marketplace for the global moving industry. Our technology has automated and redefined the end-to-end moving process - using video technology to create a contactless, yet thoughtful moving experience for customers around the world. Shyft works with over 400 verified moving companies and has provided a safe and secure move to customers from 68 different countries.
To learn more about Shyft or to book your move, please visit www.shyftmoving.com.
Schlotzsky's® is a fast-casual restaurant franchise that started in 1971 and is home to The Original® oven-baked sandwich. The brand started in Austin, Texas and the made-to-order menu options still include bold flavors and fresh ingredients inspired by the food scene in Austin. Schlotzsky's has more than 320 restaurants across 24 states that are serving delicious hot sandwiches on sourdough buns baked from scratch each day, specialty pizzas and fresh salads. Plus, many locations offer warm, oven-baked Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls. Check us out online at www.schlotzskys.com to find a store near you.
Founded in 1989, McAlister's Deli® is a fast casual restaurant chain known for its genuine hospitality, sandwiches, spuds, soups, salads, desserts and McAlister's Famous Sweet Tea™. In addition to dine-in and take-out service, McAlister's Deli also offers catering with a selection of sandwich trays, box lunches, desserts, a hot spud bar and more. With numerous industry accolades, the McAlister's Deli brand has more than 470 restaurants in 27 states. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. For more information, visit McAlistersDeli.com.
LIFT session, part of the LifeSpeak Inc. family of companies, is a digital fitness platform that helps wellness providers offer premium digital fitness services to their clients. With LIFT session's best in-class video on demand, virtual personal training, virtual group training and wellness broadcast services LIFT session is capable of extending its partner's service offering beyond their physical locations and make their service offerings available to clients anywhere. By offering services through wellness providers and businesses, LIFT session offers its online fitness platform to millions of customers globally. To learn more, follow LIFT session on Instagram (@liftsession) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/lift-session) or visit www.liftsession.com.
AARP Services, founded in 1999, is a wholly-owned taxable subsidiary of AARP. AARP Services manages the provider relationships for and performs quality control oversight of the wide range of products and services that carry the AARP name and are made available by independent providers as benefits to AARP's millions of members. The provider offers currently span health products, financial products, travel and leisure products, and life event services. Specific products include Medicare supplemental insurance; credit cards, auto and home, mobile home and motorcycle insurance, life insurance and annuities; member discounts on rental cars, cruises, vacation packages and lodging; special offers on technology and gifts; pharmacy services and legal services. AARP Services also engages in new product development activities for AARP and provides certain consulting services to outside companies.
AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org, www.aarp.org/espanol or follow @AARP, @AARPenEspanol and @AARPadvocates, @AliadosAdelante on social media.
CONTACT: Elizabeth Bement – 703-915-5830, elizabeth.bement@finnpartners.com
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SOURCE AARP Services | 2022-06-15T15:22:31+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/15/new-member-benefits-announced-this-summer-aarp-members/ |
Renewed Emphasis of the Group's Mission aiming to provide financial security and literacy for Highly Skilled Professionals
NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Savarick Group of Wells Fargo Advisors unveiled its practice concentration that focuses specifically on the financial needs of medical professionals.
Evan Savarick, Managing Director – Investments and Senior Portfolio Manager, provides industry specific financial insights to medical professionals. This includes asset and liability protection, investment management, student debt strategies, retirement planning, tax planning strategies, and practice incorporation.
This medical concentration has been a part of The Savarick Group for nearly a decade. "Nearly half our clients are in the medical field and this client base has grown substantially via referrals from one doctor to another. This will allow us to further cultivate current client relationships and expand resources for future clientele," said Savarick.
Evan continues, "We realized there was a substantial unmet need, as medical professionals often don't receive any formal financial education. For many, over a decade of their lives is spent learning their craft, and essentially none of that time is focused on financial literacy. Our team takes this opportunity to educate and empower them."
The Savarick Group employs a client-centric approach - providing white glove wealth management services, while always prioritizing their clients' best interest. The team gets to know each of their clients personally, then builds and executes comprehensive investment plans and investment strategies founded on each client's specific financial goals and needs. Their holistic approach is designed to empower clients to feel more confident and achieve financial prosperity.
"We pride ourselves in taking exceptional care of all of our clients and their families," said Savarick. "We feel privileged to have the opportunity to care for to those who work so diligently to maintain our health and wellbeing."
The Savarick Group team includes Evan Savarick and Roy Savarick, Senior Vice President - Investments, along with Molly Pacheco, Associate Financial Advisor, Matthew Savarick, Senior Registered Client Associate and Jennifer Harley, Senior Client Associate.
About Wells Fargo Advisors
With $1.88 trillion in client assets as of March 31, 2022, Wells Fargo Advisors provides advice and guidance to help clients maximize all aspects of their financial lives. Our vast network of financial advisors, one of the nation's largest, serves investors through locations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wells Fargo Advisors is a part of Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management (WIM), a division within Wells Fargo & Company and one of the largest wealth managers in the U.S. WIM provides financial products and services through various bank and brokerage affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, Members SIPC, separate registered broker-dealers and non-bank affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. All data includes Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, as of March 31, 2022. www.wellsfargoadvisors.com
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in 3 U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market banking provider in the U.S., We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune's 2021 rankings of America's largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. Additional information may be found at wellsfargo.com | Twitter: @WellsFargo
Contact Information
Shea Leordeanu
Wells Fargo Advisors
Shea.Leordeanu@wellsfargoadvisors.com
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SOURCE Wells Fargo Advisors | 2023-01-12T16:55:08+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2023/01/12/savarick-group-wells-fargo-advisors-offers-resources-dedicated-medical-professionals/ |
(AP) — The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. on Tuesday and released a guidebook summarizing laws it deems discriminatory in each state, along with “know your rights” information and resources to help people relocate to states with stronger LGBTQ+ protections.
Sounding the alarm about the current political environment, the nation’s largest organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans said advisories warning against travel to dangerous places aren’t enough to help people already living in so-called hostile states.
Just a few days into Pride Month, the campaign said it’s taking action in response to an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory legislation sweeping state houses this year, with more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced and more than 70 signed into law so far in 2023 — more than double last year’s number. In a report released Tuesday called “LGBTQ+ Americans Under Attack,” it says the new laws are a result of coordinated Republican efforts, supported by “well-funded extremist groups.”
A recent Associated Press analysis found that many bills seeking to ban or restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, who have been the primary targets of state legislation this year, sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a few powerful conservative interest groups.
The HRC guidebook, meanwhile, provides information about filing complaints for civil rights violations and points to resources for financing moves and finding employment, particularly in the 17 states with a trifecta of Democratic leadership in both legislative chambers and the governor's office. It also offers tips on how to engage in local advocacy and how to navigate tough conversations about LGBTQ+ policies with friends and family.
The guide aims to help millions of vulnerable people, "whether they’re planning summer travel through regions that are becoming increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ people, or whether they already live in a state where legislative assaults and political extremism are continuing to put a target on our backs," said HRC president Kelley Robinson.
The emergency declaration is the first in the 40-year history of the HRC, which encompasses a foundation focusing on research, advocacy and education, national and state lobbying campaigns and a political action committee that supports and opposes candidates for office. It comes as Republican-dominated legislatures around the country have passed bills restricting various aspects of transgender existence, from pronoun usage and bathroom access to medical care and more.
Among the latest, one of a series of bills nearing final passage in Louisiana would broadly ban K-12 public school employees in Louisiana from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom. The legislation is similar to the Florida law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” | 2023-06-06T15:58:50+00:00 | fox17online.com | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national-news/human-rights-campaign-declares-state-of-emergency-for-lgbtq-americans |
Canton, Massachusetts, native Bill Burr will make history when he steps up to the mic at Fenway Park this summer.
The comedian will be the first to do so in the iconic ballpark’s long history when he brings his Bill Burr (Slight Return) Tour to the home of the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, August 21.
Fans looking to see the comedian, which has starred in everything from Netflix shows to TV series, is excited going back to the city where it all began.
“I started doing stand-up in Boston 30 years ago,” Burr said in a press release. “Never imagined it would lead to Fenway. Kind of speechless, which is rare for a big mouth like me.”
Fans looking to get to the show can shop around for tickets at StubHub, VividSeats and TicketNetwork.
TicketNetwork seats were starting at $113 as of Aug. 10, StubHub seats were going for $98, while VividSeats seats were going for $67 as of the same date.
Fenway has already been a busy place all summer long and it’s not just be for baseball. Check out the remaining concerts at or around Fenway below:
- Bad Bunny: Thursday, August 18: StubHub, VividSeats
- Lady Gaga: Friday August 19: StubHub, VividSeats
- Imagine Dragons, Macklemore, KINGS ELLIOT: Saturday, August 20: StubHub, VividSeats
- Aerosmith: Thursday, September 8: StubHub, VividSeats
- Red Hot Chili Peppers: Saturday, September 10: StubHub, VividSeats | 2022-08-10T13:51:53+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/entertainment/2022/08/bill-burr-at-fenway-park-buy-tickets-for-local-comedians-historic-stop-at-home-of-the-red-sox.html |
(The Hill) – Former President Donald Trump announced early Saturday morning that he will not call Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “Meatball Ron” following reports that he used the insulting nickname privately.
“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” he said on conservative social media site Truth Social.
“Meatball Ron,” a nickname The New York Times reported that Trump had used to describe the governor in casual conversations, is apparently a dig at DeSantis’ appearance and Italian heritage.
Dismissing the nickname did not stop the former president from criticizing DeSantis’ tenure as governor, however, as a potential presidential primary battle is on the horizon.
Trump has also used “Shutdown Ron” to describe DeSantis, referring to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Times.
“His beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak,” Trump said in his Saturday post.
DeSantis is seen as the leading challenger to Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. While DeSantis has not yet announced whether he will officially enter the race, polls generally show him and Trump in close competition.
Trump has lobbed a number of attacks at the Florida governor in recent months. Earlier this month, the former president promoted a social media post alleging DeSantis was “grooming high school girls with alcohol” as a teacher when he was in his 20s. That follows reports that he partied with former students at a Georgia private school 20 years ago.
DeSantis derided Trump’s posts as a smear.
Trump announced his campaign for a second term in November, and has usually referred to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious.” Trump also famously uses derogatory nicknames for his other political opponents, as well. | 2023-02-18T19:02:51+00:00 | wwlp.com | https://www.wwlp.com/news/national/trump-slams-desantis-but-says-no-to-meatball-ron-nickname/ |
YARDLEY, Pa., Aug. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCK) (Crown) (www.crowncork.com) has published its 2021 Sustainability Report to share progress against its dedicated Twentyby30 sustainability strategy and other key environmental, social and governance (ESG) achievements during fiscal years 2019 through 2021. Launched in 2020, Crown's comprehensive Twentyby30 program includes 20 measurable sustainability goals to be completed by or before the end of 2030, all set against a 2019 baseline. The program includes five distinct pillars of action – Climate Action, Resource Efficiency, Optimum Circularity, Working Together and Never Compromise – which are supported by the Company's robust governance and ethics principles and practices.
"We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made one year into the implementation of our Twentyby30 program," said John Rost, Ph.D., Vice President, Global Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs at Crown. "Our strategy focuses on several key issues including emissions reduction, product lifecycle and recyclability to slow the pace of climate change, transitioning to renewable electricity, prioritizing water preservation, enhancing employee and product safety, and increasing workforce diversity. We are mindful that sustainability is not a linear journey and remain committed to continuous process and product innovation and exploring how we can accelerate progress by collaborating with our customers, suppliers and the industry at large."
Some of the tangible advances made by the Company toward its Twentyby30 program goals (as of December 31, 2021) include:
The report is available on the sustainability section of Crown's website and has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Core Standard and adheres to the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which Crown recently signed onto as a participant. The report also maps Crown's progress to indicators defined by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Containers & Packaging standard and key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Company's climate reporting also follows the guidelines of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The 2021 report includes the Company's GRI index as well as its SASB and TCFD disclosures.
Crown's 2021 Sustainability Report received independent assurance from Lucideon CICS Limited related to its total 2021 data for GHG emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories) and 2021 water usage data. Lucideon also provided GRI verification to the GRI Core Index, Limited Verification.
About Crown Holdings, Inc.
Crown Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a leading global supplier of rigid packaging products to consumer marketing companies, as well as transit and protective packaging products, equipment and services to a broad range of end markets. World headquarters are located in Yardley, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.crowncork.com.
For more information, contact sustainability@crowncork.com
For editorial inquiries: Emily Hogan, Senior Account Executive, FINN Partners; Tel: +1 630 248 5232; Email: emily.hogan@finnpartners.com
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SOURCE Crown Holdings, Inc. | 2022-08-22T20:35:03+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/22/crowns-new-sustainability-report-emphasizes-forward-momentum-toward-achieving-twentyby30-goals/ |
As in all things Marvel, a terrific movie cannot be allowed to remain a terrific movie: It must be sequelized, blown up, padded out and lengthened to create way too much of a good thing. In the case of “Across the Spider-Verse,” that means a movie that is an immersive, mesmerizing delight to watch while being something of a chore to sit through. At two hours and 20 minutes, this crammed, crazed, visually stunning bricolage of a film marks yet another entry into the Movies Are Too Damn Long sweepstakes; for Spider-Man aficionados primed to appreciate the rapid-fire barrage of inside jokes and Easter eggs, “Across the Spider-Verse” would be a trippy, fan-friendly pleasure at any running time. Others dragged along for the ride are encouraged to stop trying to follow an alternately chaotic and trite narrative (there’s that pesky multiverse again!) and bathe in images that shimmer, pop, glitch and mutate with mind-bending imagination and speed.
You’re going to ask me what “Across the Spider-Verse” is about, aren’t you? Here goes: A year after the events of “Into the Spider-Verse” Miles, now 15, is going to high school and missing his friends Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy while suffering the usual pangs of adolescent rebellion and anxiety over soon separating from his warm and understanding parents Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) and Jeff (Brian Tyree Henry). Oh, and he’s busy saving the world — as the movie opens from a new supervillain called the Spot, who insists that he’s Spidey’s new nemesis.
This setup transpires after another setup: a borderline incoherent prologue during which Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) does her thing as Spider-Woman, doing battle with a drawing from Renaissance Italy in the Guggenheim. (“Yeah, I think it’s a Banksy,” a nonchalant museum-goer remarks while overlooking the carnage.) Gwen, looking edgy in a pink-tinged undercut and punk-rock scowl, is going through her own struggles with Dad — her father, like Jeff, is a policeman — so is ripe for recruitment when a mysterious group of Spidery superheroes invite her to join their elite strike force. For the next couple of hours and through various portals, alter egos and parallel dimensions, Gwen and Miles travel through multiple universes to try to right wrongs, fend off cosmic collapse and heal personal wounds.
At least I think that’s what they’re doing? Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson from a script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callahan, “Across the Spider-Verse” is a frenetic, world-hopping carnival ride of a film, its word-happy dialogue and constantly expanding cast of characters leaving garden-variety viewers in the dust of dazed confusion. And, as is now required of every Marvel movie, “Across the Spider-Verse” is nothing if not self-referential: Callbacks and clever, audience-pleasing cameos are rife in a film that makes snarky fun of canon-worship even as it practices it at nearly every turn.
For non-Marvelites, it all feels a bit desperate, the self-congratulation going from winkingly playful to unbecoming. Miles and Gwen are still thoroughly appealing as protagonists — Moore delivers a particularly nuanced performance as a conflicted teenager bristling with equal parts insecurity and anger — and we’re introduced to some equally promising new characters, voiced by Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni and Amandla Stenberg. Their performances, married to reality-adjacent rendering on screen, make for characterizations that are more fully rounded than in most live-action movies.
Still, for all of “Across the Spider-Verse’s” disorienting action and cut-happy editing, it remains stubbornly inert and, considering the real-life humans behind the animated avatars, strangely uninvolving. The real draw here is, well, the drawing: a visual language that explodes with expressiveness and imagination, taking gloriously full advantage of every palette, mode and mash-up at its disposal. From lyrical, sunset-toned washes of lavenders, pinks and oranges to pen-and-ink chiaroscuro; vintage Ben-Day dots and Legos to nods toward F.W. Murnau and Jeff Koons; Ab Ex newsprint collage to computer games, “Across the Spider-Verse” provides a whirligig tour, not just through comic book history but Art with a capital A: It’s an extravagant, very cool love letter to graphic design, executed with superb draftsmanship and giddy, infectious joy.
It’s just this impressive amalgamation of realism and stylization that allows “Across the Spider-Verse” to transcend its narrative shortcomings: Even at its most obscure or muddled, it’s never less than a pleasure to watch. By the time it reaches it cacophonous, absurdly overdetermined climax — ending in the tantalizing promise of a next installment — it will barely matter if you have no idea what’s happening or why. You’ll want to stay in this world forever.
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains sequences of animated action violence, some strong language and mature thematic elements. 140 minutes. | 2023-05-31T15:11:47+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2023/05/31/spiderman-across-the-spiderverse-movie-review/ |
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman’s wife told CNN on Tuesday that the candidate may not return to the campaign trail until July after suffering a stroke and disclosing the full extent of his heart condition.
“I think he deserves a month break to come back as strong as ever,” Gisele Fetterman said. “This is going to be a tough race and a really important race. I want him to be fully ready for it.”
When asked by the outlet if he would return to the campaign trail in July, she said “I think so.”
John Fetterman announced that he had experienced a stroke on May 15, two days after the medical event occurred. Four days after his stroke, Fetterman won the party’s nomination to compete for the Keystone State’s seat in the upper chamber.
Since then, Fetterman has undergone a procedure to receive a pacemaker with a defibrillator, which the campaign said would address Fetterman’s atrial fibrillation.
Earlier this month, Fetterman released a statement disclosing that he failed to follow up with his medical team after being diagnosed in 2017 with cardiomyopathy, a disease that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood throughout the body.
The campaign also released a letter from Fetterman’s cardiologist saying that the candidate’s health conditions shouldn’t pose any risk to Fetterman’s ability to campaign, so long as he follows his doctors’ advice.
Fetterman has not appeared in public since the stroke.
Gisele Fetterman pushed back on suggestions that her husband had not been transparent about his health, adding that the campaign was not opposed to the release of more information by Fetterman’s doctors, but Lancaster General Hospital has a policy of not talking about patient care.
“I think we’ve been incredibly transparent,” she told CNN.
Gisele Fetterman, who serves as Pennsylvania’s second lady, has stepped into the spotlight since her husband’s stroke, taking a central presence on the campaign trail since the candidate was temporarily sidelined for his health.
The Hill has reached out to the hospital for comment.
John Fetterman will face Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in November’s race, which is among the most closely watched contests of the 2022 midterm elections.
Republicans are defending the seat after Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) announced his retirement, and Democrats have eyed the race as a prime pickup opportunity in a state that President Biden only narrowly carried in 2020. | 2022-06-07T19:23:35+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/2022-united-states-senate-election-in-pennsylvania/pa-senate-race-fetterman-may-not-return-to-campaign-trail-for-another-month-per-wife/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano rumbled to life again this week, belching out towering clouds of ash that forced 11 villages to cancel school sessions.
The residents weren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on the towering peak. Every time there is a sigh, tic or heave in Popocatepetl there are dozens of scientists, a network of sensors and cameras, and a roomful of powerful equipment watching its every move.
The 17,797-foot (5,426-meter) volcano, known affectionately as “El Popo,” has been spewing toxic fumes, ash and lumps of incandescent rock persistently for almost 30 years, since it awakened from a long slumber in 1994.
The volcano is 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City, but looms much closer to the eastern fringes of the metropolitan area of 22 million people. The city also faces threats from earthquakes and sinking soil, but the volcano is the most visible potential danger — and the most closely watched. A severe eruption could cut off air traffic, or smother the city in clouds of choking ash.
Ringed around its summit are six cameras, a thermal imaging device and 12 seismological monitoring stations that operate 24 hours a day, all reporting back to an equipment-filled command center in Mexico City.
A total of 13 scientists from a multi-disciplinary team take turns manning the command center around the clock. Being able to warn of an impending ash cloud is key, because people can take precautions. Unlike earthquakes, warning times can be longer for the volcano and in general the peak is more predictable.
On a recent day, researcher Paulino Alonso made the rounds checking the readings at the command center run by Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center, known by its initials as Conapred. It is a complex task that involves seismographs that measure the volcanos internal trembling, which could indicate hot rock and gas moving up the vents in the peak.
Monitoring gases in nearby springs and at the peak — and wind patterns that help determine where the ash could be blown — also play a role.
The forces inside are so great that they can temporarily deform the peak, so cameras and sensors must monitor the very shape of the volcano.
How do you explain all of this to 25 million non-experts living within a 62-mile (100-kilometer) radius who have grown so used to living near the volcano?
Authorities came up with the simple idea of a volcano “stoplight” with three colors: green for safety, yellow for alert and red for danger.
For most of the years since the stoplight was introduced, it has been stuck at some stage of “yellow.” The mountain sometimes quiets down, but not for long. It seldom shoots up molten lava, and is more the “explosive” type, showering out hot rocks that tumble down its flanks and emitting bursts of gas and ash.
The center also has monitors in other states; Mexico is a country all too familiar with natural disasters.
For example, Mexico’s earthquake early alert system is also based at the command center. Because the city’s soil is so soft — it was built on a former lake bed — a quake hundreds of miles away on the Pacific coast can cause huge destruction in the capital, as happened in 1985 and 2017.
A system of seismic monitors along the coast sends messages that race faster than the quake’s shock waves, and can give Mexico City residents up to a half minute of warning once the sirens start blaring, to get to safety, usually on the streets outside. | 2023-05-19T10:16:59+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/news/science/air-and-space/ap-threatening-22-million-people-mexicos-popocatepetl-is-a-very-closely-watched-volcano/ |
Shopper Intelligence Leader's Data Insights Show Sharp Increase in OTC Flu and RSV Treatment Unit Sales as Prices Rise
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. "tripledemic" is in full swing causing unit sales of over the counter (OTC) treatment categories to rise by as much as 69%, according to Catalina's Shopper Intelligence Platform. New COVID variants, an early and more serious flu season, plus a sharp uptick of respiratory virus infections (RSV) contributed to OTC cough, cold, RSV, and flu symptom-related products climbing an average of 19% for October-November 2022 compared to the same period a year ago. These categories were outliers to the overall OTC category, which fell 3% for the same period.
Source: Catalina Shopper Intelligence Platform, Oct-Nov, 2022 vs. Oct-Nov, 2021
Shoppers mostly stick to brand names to fight 'tripledemic' symptoms
The average price for these categories rose 12%, trending higher than the overall U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 7% for November 2022. Overall, inflation and related price increases have had little impact on virus product categories. The percentage of units sold that are private label decreased slightly for several OTC categories compared to the prior year. Exceptions are Children's Analgesics and Children's Cough & Cold, which saw slight increases for private label during a period when several news organizations have been reporting shortages around the country, likely fueling a small flurry of panic buying.
In looking at Google Trends, searches pertaining to flu and respiratory virus infections started to increase significantly in October, mirroring unit sales of potential treatments and remedies. Interestingly, searches related to COVID were relatively flat as sales within the at-home testing kit/face mask category dropped 45%.
"Sales of home COVID testing kits may have dropped as consumers become less vigilant about spreading the virus and the federal government continues to provide free home kits. Following the large social gatherings that accompany yearend holidays, Catalina expects to see an uptick in kit purchases when an expected surge in cases follows in January," said Sean Murphy, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Catalina. "While RSV rates have started to fall, the flu season is expected to last through February 2023, so the overall 'tripledemic' will continue to have an impact on OTC shopper behavior well into the New Year."
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SOURCE Catalina | 2022-12-21T17:03:09+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2022/12/21/catalina-reports-impact-tripledemic-sales-over-counter-flu-respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv-remedies/ |
SEATTLE — Like the tobacco, oil, gun, opioid and vaping industries before them, the big U.S. social media companies are now facing lawsuits brought by public entities that seek to hold them accountable for a huge societal problem — in their case, the mental health crisis among youth.
But the new lawsuits — one by the public school district in Seattle last week, with a second filed by a suburban district on Monday and almost certainly more to come — face an uncertain legal road.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month over the extent to which federal law protects the tech industry from such claims when social media algorithms push potentially harmful content.
Even if the high court were to clear the way for lawsuits like Seattle's, the district has a daunting challenge in proving the industry's liability.
And the tech industry insists there are many ways social media's effects on teen mental health differ from, say, big pharma's role in pushing opioid addiction.
“The underlying argument is that the tech industry is to blame for the emotional state of teenagers, because they made recommendations on content that has caused emotional harm,” said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of the tech industry trade association NetChoice. “It would be absurd to sue Barnes & Noble because an employee recommended a book that caused emotional harm or made a teenager feel bad. But that's exactly what this lawsuit is doing.”
Seattle Public Schools on Friday sued the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, alleging they have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children. The Kent School District south of Seattle followed suit on Monday.
The districts blame the companies for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media and providing additional training to teachers.
“Our students — and young people everywhere — face unprecedented learning and life struggles that are amplified by the negative impacts of increased screen time, unfiltered content, and potentially addictive properties of social media,” Seattle Superintendent Brent Jones said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We are confident and hopeful that this lawsuit is a significant step toward reversing this trend for our students.”
Federal law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 — helps protect online companies from liability arising from what third-party users post on their platforms. But the lawsuits argue the provision, which predates all the social media platforms, does not protect the tech giants’ behavior in this case, where their own algorithms promote harmful content.
That's also the issue in Gonzalez v. Google, the parent company of YouTube, set for argument at the Supreme Court on Feb. 21. In that case, the family of an American woman killed in an Islamic State group attack in Paris in 2015 alleges that YouTube's algorithms aided the terror group's recruitment.
If the high court's decision makes clear that tech companies can be held liable in such cases, the school districts will still have to show that social media was in fact to blame. Seattle's lawsuit says that from 2009 to 2019, there was on average a 30% increase in the number of its students who reported feeling “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row” that they stopped doing some typical activities.
But Szabo pointed out that Seattle's graduation rates have been on the rise since 2019, during a time when many kids relied on social media to keep in touch with their friends throughout the pandemic. If social media were truly so harmful to the district's educational efforts, the graduation rate wouldn't be rising, he suggested.
“The complaint focuses on only how social media harms kids, and there might be evidence of that,” said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law in Silicon Valley. “But there’s also a lot of evidence that social media benefits teenagers and other kids. What we don’t know is what the distress rate would look like without social media. It’s possible the distress rate would be higher, not lower.”
The companies have insisted that they take the safety of their users, especially kids, seriously, and they have introduced tools to make it easier for parents to know whom their children are contacting; made mental health resources, including the new 988 crisis hotline, more prominent; and improved age verification and screen time limits.
“We automatically set teens’ accounts to private when they join Instagram, and we send notifications encouraging them to take regular breaks," Anitigone Davis, Meta's global head of safety, said in an emailed statement. “We don’t allow content that promotes suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, and of the content we remove or take action on, we identify over 99% of it before it’s reported to us.”
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed internal studies in 2021 showing the company knew Instagram negatively affected teenagers by harming their body images and worsening eating disorders and suicidal thoughts. She alleged the platform prioritized profits over safety and hid its research from investors and the public.
Even if social media benefits some students, that doesn't erase the serious harm to many others, said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay for Kids, a nonprofit working to insulate children from commercialization and marketing.
“The mental health costs to students, the amount of time schools have to spend monitoring and responding to social media drama, is exorbitant,” Golin said. “It is ridiculous that schools are responsible for the damages caused by these social media platforms to young people. Nobody is seeing the kinds of cumulative effects that social media is causing to the extent school districts are.”
Both cases were filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, but they are based on state public nuisance law — a broad, vaguely defined legal concept whose origins date back at least to 13th century England. In Washington, public nuisance is defined, in part, as “every act unlawfully done and every omission to perform a duty” which “shall annoy, injure or endanger the safety, health, comfort, or repose of any considerable number of persons.”
Most famously, public nuisance claims helped prompt the tobacco industry’s $246 billion, 25-year settlement with the states in 1998. But public nuisance law also has been at least part of the basis for litigation by state, city, county or tribal governments seeking to hold oil companies responsible for climate change, the gun industry for gun violence, the pharmaceutical industry for the opioid crisis and vaping companies like Juul for teen vaping.
Much of the litigation is ongoing. Juul Labs last month agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits — including 1,400 from school districts, cities and counties — for a reported $1.2 billion.
The Seattle litigation has the potential to enact massive change, prompting questions about the appropriateness of addressing big societal issues in court rather than through lawmaking. Yet there is little risk to the school district because a private law firm filed the complaint on a contingency basis in which the firm is paid only if the case succeeds.
Jolina Cuaresma, senior counsel for privacy and tech policy at Common Sense Media, which aims to make media safer for children, said she was thrilled to see a school district make a public nuisance claim against the tech companies.
“Folks have become tired of waiting for Congress to do something,” she said. | 2023-01-11T11:27:24+00:00 | wthr.com | https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/schools-sue-social-media-companies/507-3fcdc58b-deaa-4f84-8594-57d1cda667b0 |
Akorn Pharmaceuticals CEO Douglas Boothe told workers earlier this week that the company was ending all U.S. operations, laying off workers without severance pay and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The company, based in Gurnee, Illinois, filed its first documents toward that end in federal court Thursday.
According to Akorn's petition, management estimates that after any administrative expenses are paid, no funds will be available to unsecured creditors. The company estimated it has between 50,0001 and 100,000 creditors and approximately $500,000,001 to $1 billion in assets.
For its liabilities, the company estimated between $100,000,001 and $500 million.
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The company submitted a copy of omnibus resolutions adopted by Akorn's Board of Directors at a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21 as part of its bankruptcy filings.
According to those resolutions, board members "determined that the companies do not have sufficient capital to continue their operations" and determined it was in the best interests of "stakeholders, creditors, and other interested parties" to terminate all employees.
The board authorized management to let employees know they were being terminated in connection with the bankruptcy petitions, "including the provision of any and all notices that are required by law or otherwise deemed advisable, including under "Warn" or similar laws, rules, or regulations," the resolutions read.
Also on Thursday, a group of workers in Decatur filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging it violated the federal WARN Act by conducting a mass layoff without adequate notice. A separate, but similar, class action lawsuit from a former Akorn employee was also filed as part of the bankruptcy case.
Below are key documents filed in the case so far.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Decatur workers file class action lawsuit against Akorn
- Akorn workers begin to chart path forward at layoff assistance workshop
- Millikin, area companies welcome former Akorn employees
- A timeline of Akorn Pharmaceuticals in Decatur
- OUR VIEW: Akorn news a slap in the face
- READ: Akorn layoff letter to employees
- State to investigate Akorn's handling of Illinois site closures | 2023-02-24T19:51:19+00:00 | herald-review.com | https://herald-review.com/news/local/read-the-documents-akorns-chapter-7-bankruptcy-filing/article_2099f3c2-b469-11ed-ba54-cb2d041071db.html |
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Jan. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IndiaCast Media Distribution Pvt. Ltd., the multi-platform content asset monetization entity jointly owned by TV18 and Viacom18, has partnered with Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV, to launch Desi Play TV, the network's first FAST channel in HD with the best Hindi Entertainment shows on Sling and Plex. The free-to-view channel features Indian TV shows with English subtitles like, "Uttaran", "Na Aana Is Des Laado", "Dev", "Tu Aashiqui", "Kitchen Champion", "Mahakaali" along with a local USA-based food show - "Dine With Colors". Desi Play TV connects with the shared tastes of South Asian viewers, their values & culture with a variety of shows across genres like Drama, Cookery, Comedy, Lifestyle, Crime and Mythology. Aptly named Desi Play TV, the free Indian channel aims to reach out to the desi audience worldwide, who can watch desi Hindi serials online for free.
Baskar Subramanian, Co-founder and CEO of Amagi, said, "At Amagi, we cherish every opportunity we can get to bring great content closer to its intended audience. Our partnership with IndiaCast in launching their first Free Ad-supported Streaming TV channel has been a gratifying experience for us. Gaining access to IndiaCast's rich content library on FAST will bring great cheer to the Indian diaspora in the USA."
Commenting on the launch, Govind Shahi, Executive VP & Head, IndiaCast International Business, said "It's a huge step for us to launch the network's first FAST channel at a time of significant growth in this space, with viewers willing to experiment and adopt newer and convenient options of content consumption. We are extremely delighted to partner with Amagi for this launch. With more platform launches scheduled in the coming months, combined with our rich library of content on the channel, we are sure that Desi Play TV will be widely accepted by our South Asian viewers."
Visit the website www.desiplaytv.com for more information about the channel. The channel is available on Sling in USA and Plex across US and Canada
Connect: Aanand Iyer – aanand.iyer@indiacast.com | +91 9833148141 & Abhishek Denzil – abhishek.denzil@indiacast.com | +91 9372805295
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1983124/Desi_Play_TV.jpg
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SOURCE DESI PLAY TV | 2023-01-13T14:27:22+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2023/01/13/indiacast-amp-amagi-bring-best-premium-hindi-entertainment-free-with-desi-play-tv-across-usa-canada/ |
There are a few key rule changes coming to Major League Baseball this season, but one in particular already is throwing players for a curve.
Spring training games underway in Florida and Arizona have featured a new pitch clock, which gives pitchers a set amount of time before they have to throw the ball.
The timer is set to 15 seconds if the bases are empty or 20 seconds if there are runners on base, and the hitter has to be in the batter's box with eight seconds left on the clock.
MLB officials say the pitch clock can help reduce the length of games, which have averaged more than three hours long in recent years. But the new rule has drawn some criticism, and over the weekend it caused bewilderment on the diamond.
On Saturday, during a spring training matchup between the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox, Braves hitter Cal Conley was called out for failing to get into the batter's box on time. The game — which was in the bottom of the ninth inning with a full count, two outs and the bases loaded — ended in a tie. Conley reacted with shocked laughter.
Bottom of the ninth. Tie game. Bases loaded. Full count. The dream scenario. And ... Cal Conley didn't get set in the batter's box with 8 seconds left on the pitch clock.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 25, 2023
Umpire calls an automatic strike. At-bat over. Inning over. This is the new reality. pic.twitter.com/Bv5k2xJ06j
The pitch clock isn't the only new rule popping up this season.
First, second and third bases have grown in size from 15 inches square to 18 inches square, which the MLB says will reduce player injuries. The league is also requiring two infielders on each side of the second-base line before a pitch is thrown, preventing them from crowding one side or another in a defensive maneuver known as the "infield shift."
League officials say the rule changes didn't come out of left field but rather were developed in response to feedback from players and umpires, and were first tested in the minor leagues.
"These steps are designed to improve pace of play, increase action, and reduce injuries, all of which are goals that have overwhelming support among our fans," MLB commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said in a statement in September, when the new rules were approved.
"Throughout the extensive testing of recent years, Minor League personnel and a wide range of fans – from the most loyal to casual observers – have recognized the collective impact of these changes in making the game even better and more enjoyable," Manfred added.
For example, last year in the minor leagues the pitch clock helped reduce the average length of a game by 25 minutes, and the larger bases led to a 13% reduction in "injury events" near the bases, the MLB said.
That teams will be able to get used to the new rules — particularly the pitch clock — during spring training. And despite the pushback, some pitchers have suggested the new timer may actually give them an advantage.
"I can work extremely quickly, or I can work extremely slow," New York Mets star pitcher Max Scherzer told reporters after his first spring training start. "There is another layer here to be able to mess with the hitter's timing."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-02-27T18:04:22+00:00 | wlrn.org | https://www.wlrn.org/2023-02-27/how-a-new-mlb-rule-could-change-baseball-games-this-season |
NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Gaia, Inc. (NASDAQ: GAIA) between December 27, 2017 and November 7, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important February 21, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Gaia securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Gaia class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9917 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than February 21, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose, among other things, that: (1) the Company's first quarter 2019 subscriber count was overstated; (2) the Company lacked adequate internal controls; (3) as a result, defendants had a heightened risk of regularly scrutiny and ultimately subject to an SEC investigation and action; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the truth emerged, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Gaia class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9917 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm.
Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm's attorneys are ranked and recognized by numerous independent and respected sources. Rosen Law Firm has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for investors.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | 2023-01-04T21:46:26+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2023/01/04/rosen-leading-national-firm-encourages-gaia-inc-investors-with-losses-excess-100k-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-first-filed-securities-class-action-initiated-by-firm-gaia/ |
A rare kitten considered the ‘unicorn’ of cats has just been adopted
(Gray News) – A rare kitten experts call the “unicorn” of cats has been adopted from a Nevada animal shelter.
The Animal Foundation, located in Las Vegas, announced the adoption of Comet in a Facebook post.
Comet is a male tortoiseshell kitten, according to the shelter.
They said many in veterinary medicine can work years, even decades, without ever coming across a male tortie in person.
Tortoiseshell cats are usually female and rarely male. This is because two X chromosomes are required to produce the coloring of black, orange and yellow or gold, according to cattownoakland.org. Male cats usually only have one X and one Y chromosome. Male torties have an extra X chromosome, making them a rare XXY.
Only about 1 out of 3,000 tortoiseshells are male, and these males are usually sterile, according to the website.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2022-06-07T19:45:19+00:00 | kttc.com | https://www.kttc.com/2022/06/07/rare-kitten-considered-unicorn-cats-has-just-been-adopted/ |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ex-Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs told a judge Tuesday he will admit that he drove drunk at speeds up to 156 mph, causing a fiery crash that killed a woman. The plea deal could send the 24-year-old first-round NFL draft pick to state prison for three to 10 years.
Ruggs waived a long-delayed preliminary hearing with the agreement to admit that he drove under the influence of alcohol causing death, a felony, his lawyers said. A six-month sentence for a guilty plea to misdemeanor manslaughter will be folded in with the total.
Ruggs spoke only to acknowledge for Justice of the Peace Harmony Letizia that he understands the terms of the agreement. Prosecutor Eric Bauman told the judge the Clark County District Attorney's office endorsed the deal.
"This is the first step toward a fair resolution to this matter and we look forward to closure for all parties involved,” Ruggs' attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement handed to reporters. They and their client and several people with them declined additional comment in the court hallway.
Ruggs’ lawyers lost a bid to prevent prosecutors from presenting evidence that Ruggs had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16% — twice the legal limit in Nevada — after the predawn rear-end wreck that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her pet dog, Max.
An attorney who has represented Tintor's family members at earlier court appearances did not respond to email and telephone messages to him and his media representative about Ruggs’ plea.
Ruggs' sentencing is scheduled for May 10 in state court in Las Vegas. Other charges will be dismissed, including felony reckless driving, driving under the influence causing substantial injury to Ruggs' girlfriend, Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, and a misdemeanor gun charge. Police said they found a loaded handgun in Ruggs' demolished Chevrolet Corvette after the crash.
Ruggs was released by the Raiders shortly after the Nov. 2, 2021, crash. He could have faced more than 50 years in prison if convicted of all the charges at trial, District Attorney Steve Wolfson had said.
Ruggs posted $150,000 bail to be freed from jail after leaving the hospital and has remained on house arrest for 18 months with strict conditions including alcohol checks.
Bauman said outside court that Ruggs would remain on house arrest pending sentencing, and his minimum three-year sentence cannot be reduced by converting that to time already served.
Kilgo-Washington and Ruggs have a daughter together, and Kilgo-Washington was not cooperative with prosecutors as a victim in the substantial injury charge. Her attorney, Peter Christiansen, lost a bid to block prosecutors from getting Kilgo-Washington’s medical records on privacy grounds.
Prosecutors said Ruggs suffered a leg injury and Kilgo-Washington underwent surgery for an arm injury.
Ruggs had been emerging as a star wide receiver for the Raiders before the crash, and records showed he owned a $1.1 million home not far from the crash scene. He had signed a four-year rookie contract reported to be worth more than $16 million. | 2023-05-02T18:30:23+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/sports/article/ex-raider-ruggs-taking-plea-deal-prison-in-fatal-18073928.php |
Bowling Green (1-2) at Mississippi State (2-1), Saturday, noon ET (SEC Network)
Line: Mississippi State by 30 1/2, according to FanDuel.com Sportsbook.
Series: Mississippi State leads 1-0.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Mississippi State looks to bounce back from its 31-16 loss at LSU in which it surrendered 21 straight points in the fourth quarter. Bowling Green seeks to follow up its 34-31 overtime win over Marshall, which upset then-No. 8 Notre Dame the previous week.
KEY MATCHUP
Bowling Green QB Matt McDonald vs. Mississippi State QB Will Rogers. They’re obviously not going head to head, but the game figures to be a passing contest with both tied for fourth nationally with 10 touchdowns each. McDonald has tossed at least four TDs in two straight games, including a career-best five against Eastern Kentucky in a 59-57 seven-overtime loss. Rogers leads the nation with nearly 34 completions per game and is sixth with almost 326 yards per game. He seeks to rebound from a 214-yard outing at LSU that marked his lowest total since his freshman season.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Bowling Green: LB JB Brown has made his presence felt all over the field for the Falcons. He’s second on the team with 19 total tackles (15 solo), including 2.5 for loss and a sack. Brown is also tied for third nationally with two forced fumbles. The Falcons rank seventh nationally with 12 sacks, and 10 players have at least a half a sack.
Mississippi State: WR Rara Thomas is close to surpassing his freshman numbers while leading the Bulldogs receiving corps. He has 14 catches for a team-high 211 yards (10th in the SEC) with two TDs. He caught 18 passes for 252 yards and five TDs last season. Thomas is averaging 15.1 yards per catch and has seven TDs in his past eight contests.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Bowling Green is facing a SEC opponent in consecutive seasons for the first time since playing Florida and Mississippi State in 2012-13. ... BGSU is 4-9 against the SEC. ... MSU managed just 289 yards against LSU, 214 passing. ... Bulldogs WR Austin Williams has played in a school-record 53 games and is tied for sixth all-time with 14 TD catches. ... MSU will honor Frank Dowsing Jr. and Robert Bell as its first African-American varsity players on the 50th anniversary of when they last dressed for the Bulldogs.
___
More AP college football:
https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25
Credit: Tyler Kaufman
Credit: Tyler Kaufman
Credit: Tyler Kaufman
Credit: Tyler Kaufman | 2022-09-22T14:25:04+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/ohio/mississippi-st-in-bounce-back-mode-when-bowling-green-visits/VIEKTPCCINF6JPDFHCUKKGCVEU/ |
Rising temperatures offered some hope Friday for frustrated Texans days after they lost power — and in many cases heat — in a deadly winter storm, while a new wave of frigid weather rolling into the Northeast led communities to close schools and open warming centers.
Wind chills in some higher elevations of the Northeast could punch below minus 50 (minus 45 Celsius) as an Arctic front swept in from Canada, forecasters said.
In Texas, Austin officials compared damage from fallen trees and iced-over power lines to tornadoes as they came under criticism for slow repairs and shifting timelines to restore power. More than 240,000 customers across the state lacked power early Friday, down from 430,000 on Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us.
“Our heat source is our fireplace ... and we’ve been in bed, snuggled up under like five or six blankets,” Edward Dahlke, of Spring Branch, southwest of Austin, told KSAT-TV. “Just think that our utility companies need to do a better job making sure our infrastructure is maintained properly.”
Pauline Frerich, also of Spring Branch, told KSAT that she had no way to prepare a meal without electricity, and that she worries about the cost of replacing hundreds of dollars of spoiled food. As the storm swept over this week, the indoor temperature fell to 29 degrees (-1 Celsius), and the sounds of tree limbs breaking unsettled her.
“And you didn’t know, was it on the roof, was it just in the yard?” Frerich told KSAT. “But it’s very nerve-wracking.”
Power failures were most widespread in Austin. Impatience rose there among nearly 123,000 customers days after the electricity first went out.
Thursday night, officials backtracked on early estimates that power would be fully restored by Friday evening. Damage was worse than originally calculated, they said, and they could no longer provide an estimate.
The outages recalled the 2021 blackouts in Texas, when hundreds of people died after the state’s power grid was pushed to the brink of total failure because of a lack of generation. There have been no reports of deaths from this week's power outages, though the storm and freeze have been blamed for at least 12 traffic fatalities on slick roads in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
In New England, temperatures began plunging Friday morning.
“The worst part of the upcoming cold snap is going to be the wind,” which has already topped 80 mph (129 kph) in higher elevations, said National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec. Frigid wind chills — the combined effect of wind and cold air on exposed skin — are expected Saturday.
The worst wind chills in the populated areas of the Northeast shouldn’t go lower than minus 40 (minus 40 Celsius), he said.
Wind gusts as high as 40 mph raised the prospect of power outages in Maine, and communities began opening warming stations.
Even cold-weather sports were curtailed. Some ski resorts scaled back operations, eliminating night skiing and reducing lift operations. A popular weekend pond hockey tournament was postponed, and the National Toboggan Championship pushed Saturday’s races back by a day.
Schools closed Friday in Boston and in Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city. “In these conditions, frostbite can develop in as little as 30 minutes," an announcement on the Manchester district's website read. "This is simply too cold for students who walk home.”
Some of the most extreme weather was expected atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the Northeast's highest peak and home to a weather observatory, where winds gusted to nearly 100 mph (160 kph) and wind chills could reach minus 100 (minus 73 Celsius).
The system is expected to move out of the region Sunday. | 2023-02-03T15:39:51+00:00 | wsfltv.com | https://www.wsfltv.com/news/national/texas-power-woes-linger-as-new-england-girds-for-deep-freeze |
EDITOR’S NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider, NJ.com’s B2B cannabis industry trade journal and events vertical, is hosting a business meetup Jan. 18 in Jersey City. Tickets are limited.
People 21 and older have been allowed to buy weed from licensed dispensaries in New Jersey since April. But they are not legally permitted to consume it in public like patrons in a bar or restaurant may order and down a cocktail.
Cannabis consumers can expect the rules to change this year, however, as the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission has drafted rules that will allow the opening of “consumption areas” — lounge-like settings that are attached to dispensaries where weed is sold.
The commission on Tuesday published the proposed licensing and operational rules for the lounges in the New Jersey Register, a bi-weekly journal of proposed and approved state regulations.
The rules would apply to dispensaries selling recreational marijuana. There are 21 across the state open to recreational users and nine that serve only patients registered with the state medicinal program.
There are some distinct differences from how bars serving alcohol operate. People who operate or patronize consumption areas should expect to follow a lot of regulations.
The most controversial rule is the ban on dispensaries selling food or drinks of any kind. Patrons may bring their own snacks, and even have a meal delivered to the lounge, according to the proposal. Booze and tobacco product consumption are also prohibited.
Jennifer Cabrera, counsel at multi-state cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg, said the decision by the state Legislature to not allow a meal, a coffee or a muffin to be sold in the consumption lounges is a major missed economic opportunity.
“It’s a stupid restriction,” Cabrera said.
She noted that New York doesn’t prevent coffee shops and other eating establishments from partnering with a consumption lounge as it works to start up its legal cannabis market. “The hospitality industry is all over on-site consumption in New York,” she said.
Cabrera said because the food ban was written into the law legalizing marijuana, the commission is powerless to change it. She said the commission “did the best it could” for patrons by allowing them to order in or bring their own food.
“If the law changed and you were able to have dispensary with a restaurant associated with it, I think they would do incredible business. That is what we are going to see across the river in New York,” she said. “These could be nice, welcoming places where you could consume cannabis locally.”
Before the lounge is allowed to open, owners must get approval from both the state commission and the local governing body, which must pass a separate ordinance. Local officials will have the right to define whether the proposed lounge is a “reasonable minimum distance from schools, child daycare facilities, playgrounds, and places of worship,” the proposal said.
Municipal officials must deny or approve the license within 28 days of receiving the application, according to the proposal.
Jersey City and Atlantic City have already approved an ordinance allowing for a consumption lounge at a yet-to-open retail shop.
Dispensary and lounge employees will have the right to determine how much cannabis is sold and consumed in the lounge and will be trained to spot over-consumption. Whatever is left over will be secured in a resealable bag, the proposed regulations say.
Illegally obtained weed products are not welcome. “The rules require that cannabis retailers make a good faith effort to ensure that consumers and patients bring only regulated cannabis into cannabis consumption areas,” according to the proposal.
The lounges may be indoor or outdoor, but they all must be accessible through the dispensary, and located in a separate area from the sales floor.
Indoor lounges must “comply with all ventilation requirements applicable to cigar lounges,” the proposal said. Outdoor lounges must not be visible from the street, and must be outfitted with a ventilation device to ensure any smoke does not migrate to any indoor public place or workplace, the proposal said.
Legislation exists in 10 states, including New Jersey and New York, that allow social consumption lounges, according to Leafly, a cannabis use and education website. California, Nevada Illinois, Alaska and Colorado are among the states with open lounges.
The rules also appear to create a lane for hotels and other lodging facilities to get in on cannabis tourism. Cannabis products may be used “in a guest room at a hotel, motel, or other lodging establishment...that permits such consumption, smoking, vaping, or aerosolizing,” the proposal said.
New Jersey’s Smoke-Free Air Act of 2006 banned smoking in most indoor workplaces but hotels and motels are allowed to dedicate 20% of its rooms to smoking patrons, according to the state Department of Health website. Smoking is also allowed in Atlantic City casinos in designated areas.
Toni-Anne Blake, the commission’s spokeswoman, said the marijuana legalization law does not prohibit cannabis consumption in hotels and motels.
“Hotels are private property and can allow consumption at their will. They should, however, be mindful of any legal or local restrictions and they cannot sell any cannabis products,” Blake said.
The commission, which approved the proposed rules at its December meeting, will accept written comments on its proposal until March 18 and may choose to revise the rules based on public feedback. Once the final rules are adopted, a dispensary may apply for a consumption area license.
People who wish to comment on the consumption lounge rules may submit them electronically by March 18 to www.nj.gov/cannabis/resources/cannabis-laws or by regular mail to Dave Tuason, Deputy Counsel, New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission,225 East State Street, 2nd Floor, Trenton, NJ 08608.
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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. | 2023-01-18T01:06:01+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/marijuana/2023/01/nj-will-allow-consumption-lounges-for-legal-weed-but-there-will-be-rules-lots-of-them.html |
Amazon's checkout page stops working for some users
Thousands of customers looking to purchase an item on Amazon early Wednesday encountered an error message on the e-commerce site's checkout page, a rare issue for a platform that has become even more of a central shopping hub for countless households during the pandemic.
There were more than 9,000 user reports of issues with Amazon.com as of 9:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, according to outage-tracking site DownDetector. The most commonly-reported issue by far was related to checking out on the site, per the DownDetector data.
Some customers attempting to check out on the site saw the following the error message: "An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed. We apologize for the inconvenience."
"We're sorry that some customers may be experiencing issues while shopping," Betsy Harden, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement provided to CNN Business on Wednesday morning. "We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue."
By a little past 10 a.m. ET, the number of issue reports on DownDetector had soared to more than 14,000, though the number of new reports appeared to be leveling off. | 2022-12-07T16:07:28+00:00 | wesh.com | https://www.wesh.com/article/amazon-checkout-page-outage/42177023 |
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country and closed schools, teacher shortages were a problem. In 2016, Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group, estimated that American schools were short more than 100,000 teachers. The group's "A Coming Crisis in Teaching?" report found that between 2009 and 2014, enrollment in teaching education programs had dropped 35%, which resulted in approximately 240,000 fewer new teachers entering the workforce.
HeyTutor cited data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to examine the impact of the pandemic on teacher shortages and to explore new policies and initiatives school districts have implemented to counter this issue.
The pandemic worsened the problem as more teachers left the profession, worn out by low wages, the unique difficulties of remote learning, and political fights over what they can teach in schools. They worried about their health and the health of others in their families. School shootings added further tension.
Approximately 300,000 public school teachers and other staff quit the field between February 2020 and May 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from the BLS: That's a decrease of almost 3%. At the start of this school year, 44% of public schools had vacancies for full- or part-time teaching positions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In more than 60% of schools with at least one vacancy, the openings resulted from resignations related to COVID-19.
Federal assistance came in multiple forms: The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund was distributed in three waves—most recently as a portion of the American Rescue Plan. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds pumped billions into the public school system to ease teacher shortages, bolster in-classroom safety protocols, and provide technical support to students transitioning to remote learning.
Still, shortages remain, and the national public school system is attempting to address the shortage of new teachers entering the classroom while reinvigorating its employees—teachers and support staff alike. | 2023-01-16T19:38:29+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/how-the-pandemic-impacted-teacher-shortages-and-ways-schools-are-adapting/article_ff2236eb-ae7f-5997-bc66-abfe5e8ffa74.html |
(Editor's Note: This year Yellowstone National Park celebrates its 150th Birthday. In honor of that historic milestone we're bringing you a new series called "Yellowstone Revealed." These reports will offer a glimpse into the park's colorful history and stories that you've likely never heard before. The fourth and final report - "The Draper Natural History Museum" - tells the story of the museum in Cody, Wyoming, that has drawn worldwide attention to the world's first National Park.)
CODY, WYOMING - A museum focused entirely on Yellowstone has hosted and inspired heads of state, world-renowned conservationists, movie stars, and millions of visitors since it opened in 2002.
The Draper Natural History Museum in Cody celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, but it almost wasn’t built.
Even the groundbreaking was larger than life, with the 80-year-old donor driving a huge yellow backhoe that eclipsed the traditional shovels in the ground ceremony.
Nancy Carrol Draper gave $13 million to help fund the construction of the museum.
African wildlife conservationist and world-renowned anthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey was the keynote speaker at the museum’s grand opening in June 2002.
Actor Clint Eastwood toured the first Natural History Museum of the 21st Century.
It was not just the first, but the first of its kind. It exhibited the sights, sounds, and smells of Yellowstone Country.
The man who designed the exhibits and wrote the descriptive labels, and even took many of the pictures in the Draper, had a new idea.
In 2002, Founding Curator Dr. Charles Preston explained: “We are integrating many different ways to experience nature and to explore nature.”
Museum representatives from around the country and the world came to study the new immersive institution.
Preston recalls the museums: “ The Smithsonian, the Utah Museum of Natural History, the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.“
The Draper hosted travel programs in Yellowstone Country and as far away as the Galapagos.
In 2011, the Draper debuted a new live raptor program, whose birds have educated and inspired thousands at the center and in schools and communities across the region.
And in 2013, the Draper's scientific partnership with the University of Wyoming and the Prince of Monaco Foundation brought the royal to Cody. That collaboration gave $300,000 to three scientific studies in the Greater Yellowstone region.
At a ceremony in Cody in 2013, Prince Albert II of Monaco said: “We’re very happy to have this partnership with Buffalo Bill Center for the West, and the Draper Natural History Museum.”
The Draper’s own long-term study of Golden Eagles in the Big Horn Basin drew national attention as the subject of a PBS documentary "Golden Eagles, Witnesses to a Changing West."
But there was fierce opposition at first to the construction of the Draper.
The trustees of the Buffalo Bill Center were concerned about the construction and operating costs of the Draper, but board chair Alan Simpson, Trustee Willis McDonald, and a presentation by founding curator Charles Preston persuaded the board to build the Draper.
MORE: YELLOWSTONE REVEALED | 2022-12-02T19:47:51+00:00 | krtv.com | https://www.krtv.com/news/montana-and-regional-news/yellowstone-revealed-the-draper-natural-history-museum |
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) _ Choice Hotels International Inc. (CHH) on Thursday reported second-quarter profit of $106.2 million.
On a per-share basis, the Rockville, Maryland-based company said it had profit of $1.89. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $1.43 per share.
The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.47 per share.
The hotel franchiser posted revenue of $368 million in the period, beating Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $327.3 million.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CHH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CHH | 2022-08-04T13:30:49+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/business/article/Choice-Hotels-Q2-Earnings-Snapshot-17350831.php |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday moved to reduce children’s exposure to lead, proposing stricter limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child-care facilities.
Declaring that “there is no safe level of lead,” the administration estimates that the proposed rule would reduce lead exposure for approximately 250,000 to 500,000 children under the age of six each year.
That’s important because health scientists have said for some time there is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Lead’s damage to the brain is well known: It takes points off IQ, deprives kids of problem-solving abilities, and can make it harder to learn to read. But it also affects other organs, including the liver and kidneys.
“This proposal to safely remove lead paint along with our other efforts to deliver clean drinking water and replace lead pipes will go a long way toward protecting the health of our next generation of leaders,” Janet McCabe, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said in New Jersey, where the proposal was announced.
Paint that contains lead was banned in 1978, but because paint is applied in layers and then chips off or is sanded off during remodeling, more than 30 million American homes are believed to still contain it.
The proposed rule targets levels of lead dust. Currently 10 micrograms per square foot is considered hazardous on floors, and a concentration 10 times that high is considered hazardous on window sills. The new rule brings both of those down to no detectable lead.
Apart from what constitutes a hazard, the proposed rule would reduce what’s allowed when a lead contractor, often called a lead abatement contractor, finishes work on a property where lead has been a problem. These levels would be 3 micrograms per square foot on the floor and 20 micrograms per square foot for sills.
Some public health experts celebrated the announcement.
Dr. Philip Landrigan noted the government has gradually been reducing the standard for what counts as poisonous levels of lead in the blood of children, with the most recent change occurring two years ago. But the EPA announcement marks an effort to take more preventive action, he said.
“When you are relying on the blood lead level in children to indicate whether there is lead in the environment, we are basically using the children as canaries in the mine,” said Landrigan, a Boston College biology professor who directs the schools Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good.
“This way we actually dealing with the source, as opposed to the consequences of exposure,” he said.
He called the proposed rule “a very big deal, very much needed, and long overdue.”
David Rosner, a public health historian at Columbia University and expert on the history of lead regulation in the United States, applauded the rule as an overdue overdue recognition that no level of lead exposure is safe for children.
Rosner expressed surprise at the announcement, given that new environmental regulations have become more difficult and controversial in recent years. “It’s nice that they are trying to move at least on this one, obvious, long-term problem that we’ve had for a century,” Rosner said.
Bruce Lanphear, a lead poisoning expert at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, said the current standard “was based on what was thought to be feasible rather than on science,” and this corrects that.
But Rosner also noted it is currently just a proposal and will likely face opposition from landlords and others who will likely lament the cost of more aggressive cleanups.
“It will be interesting to see what politics play out,” Rosner said.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | 2023-07-12T20:54:42+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/epa-moves-to-reduce-childhood-exposure-to-lead-based-paint-dust/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
The Global Lifestyle Brand Tops List of Upper Upscale Hotels
ORLANDO, Fla., July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts ranks first among Upper Upscale Hotel Brands*, according to the J.D. Power 2023 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study, released today. The annual study analyzes over 33,754 guest responses to survey questions and benchmarks 102 hospitality companies across nine market segments to measure guest satisfaction, advocacy, and loyalty.
"It is an honor to have Margaritaville ranked #1 in guest satisfaction" said Dan Leonard, President of Hospitality at Margaritaville. "We are proud of the team members across our properties that work to make the traveler experience unique and memorable. They are true ambassadors of the Margaritaville state of mind and aim to create an environment for our guests that is synonymous with high-quality fun and escapism. This award is a reflection of those collective efforts."
With an array of offerings in its rapidly-expanding portfolio, Margaritaville reaches consumers across the U.S. and beyond who are looking to be transported to a vacation state of mind, regardless of their current latitude. The brand features over 40 lodging locations across boutique hotels, all-inclusive resorts, branded real estate, RV destinations, gaming properties and a cruise line. In addition to restaurants and consumer lifestyle products, the brand also recently introduced the License to Chill Podcast on SiriusXM, home to Radio Margaritaville, and the title sponsorship of Major League Pickleball, branding the league MLP by Margaritaville.
For more information on the J.D. Power 2023 North America Guest Satisfaction Study, visit here. To learn more about Margaritaville, visit www.margaritaville.com.
*Tied in 2023. For J.D. Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards.
About Margaritaville
Margaritaville, a state of mind since 1977, is a global lifestyle brand inspired by Jimmy Buffett, whose songs evoke a passion for tropical escape and relaxation.
Margaritaville features over 40 lodging locations and over 20 additional projects in the pipeline positioned across a variety of full-service and boutique hotel and resort brands, branded real estate, premium RV destinations, and gaming properties, all complemented by an extensive suite of food and beverage concepts, including Margaritaville Restaurant, award-winning JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill, and LandShark Bar & Grill. Hotel brands include Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts, Compass by Margaritaville, Margaritaville Beach House, Margaritaville St. Somewhere, and the all-inclusive product, Margaritaville Island Reserve. Further elevating experiences, Margaritaville's branded real estate includes Latitude Margaritaville, "55 and better" active adult brand; Margaritaville Cottages, Villas and Residences; One Particular Harbour Margaritaville; and Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham.
The newest brand additions to Margaritaville's properties includes the rapidly-growing Camp Margaritaville RV Resorts and Margaritaville at Sea, which debuted in 2022 with its first ship, Margaritaville at Sea Paradise. Additionally, consumers can escape every day through a collection of lifestyle products including apparel, footwear, frozen concoction makers, home décor, a SiriusXM radio station, and more.
More than 20 million travelers and consumers every year change their latitude and attitude with Margaritaville. For more information, visit www.margaritaville.com and follow Margaritaville on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About J.D. Power
J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.
J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.
CONTACT:
FINN Partners
Margaritaville@finnpartners.com
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SOURCE Margaritaville | 2023-07-26T18:00:59+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2023/07/26/margaritaville-ranks-1-guest-satisfaction-coveted-jd-power-study/ |
We have a Red Sox vs. Brewers prediction as Milwaukee looks to extend its winning streak to five games. At 14-5, the Brewers are tied for the best record in the National League with the Atlanta Braves.
Freddy Peralta will start for the Brewers as he makes his fourth start of the season. The right-hander is coming off a poor outing on the road against the Padres, in which he allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings of work.
The Red Sox counter with Nick Pivetta, who’s still searching for his first win. Pivetta received a no-decision his last time out when his team bailed him out after he allowed six runs in four innings.
- Check out our expert’s ranking of the best sports betting apps
Both pitchers will be looking for a bounce-back performance, but which one should you back at the betting window? We’ll share our thoughts on how we’re approaching this matchup.
Red Sox vs. Brewers odds
Odds provided by BetMGM
Moneyline: BOS (+145) vs. MIL (-175)
Spread: BOS +1.5 (-135) vs. MIL -1.5 (+110)
Total: Over 8.5 (-120) | Under 8.5 (+100)
Red Sox vs. Brewers pick
Brewers F5 RL -0.5 (-125)
Probable pitchers and analysis
Red Sox - Nick Pivetta (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Brewers - Freddy Peralta (2-1, 3.18 ERA)
I’m a bit more aggressive with my power ratings of the Brewers. My model makes them closer to a -204 favorite despite the bookmakers sending Milwaukee out with an opening number of -180.
And while I have an edge at the current number, I’m not in a rush to lay a 2-to-1 price.
According to our Action Labs database, favorites with odds of -175 or higher are 54-26 on the moneyline despite bettors showing a loss of -1.34 units. As a result, I’d prefer to isolate Pivetta and look to fade him on the first five run line.
We still see a decent amount of regression with Pivetta’s advanced metrics. Per FanGraphs, he has a 5.77 FIP and 6.08 xERA.
Pivetta has also struggled with his command, as evidenced by a 5.14 BB/9 ratio. As a result, he’s falling behind hitters and having to utilize his fastball more in hitter-friendly counts.
His fastball usage (52.8%) is his second-highest since his first year in the majors.
The Brewers will likely be patient and force Pivetta to pitch inside the strike zone. Milwaukee has the fifth-highest walk rate in the league at 10.6%.
Peralta’s advanced numbers align with his traditional ERA. He has a 3.10 FIP and a 3.50 xERA.
Peralta could take advantage of the Red Sox having only 10 plate appearances against him, hitting .222 with a .102 xBA and a .134 xSLG. In contrast, Milwaukee is much more familiar with Pivetta from his time in the National League with the Phillies.
In 48 plate appearances against Pivetta, Milwaukee is hitting .256 with a .342 xWOBA and a .500 xSLG.
The good news for Brewers fans is that Peralta’s poor outing came on the road. In 12 innings at home this season, he’s allowed only one run.
Moreover, Pivetta has a 3.21 career ERA at home vs. 4.49 on the road. When you pair Peralta’s home-away splits with a Red Sox team that hasn’t covered the first five run line in three straight road games, I think the Brewers are well worth a look in this spot. | 2023-04-21T17:07:52+00:00 | chicagotribune.com | https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/betting/ct-red-sox-vs-brewers-prediction-odds-20230421-3wr7x6kfabe4da4dt6lbnh2fr4-story.html |
More than $200 billion in COVID-19 aid may have been stolen, federal watchdog says
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years.
The numbers issued Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office’s previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs were to fraudsters, particularly during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
The inspector general’s report said “at least 17 percent of all COVID-EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors.” The fraud estimate for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is more than $136 billion, which represents 33 percent of the total money spent on that program, according to the report. The Paycheck Protection fraud estimate is $64 billion, the inspector general said.
In comments attached to the report, a senior SBA official disputed the new numbers. Bailey DeVries, SBA’s acting associate administrator for capital access, said the inspector general’s “approach contains serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud and unintentionally mislead the public to believe that the work we did together had no significant impact in protecting against fraud.”
The SBA inspector general had previously estimated fraud in the COVID-19 disaster loan program at $86 billion and the Paycheck Protection program at $20 billion.
The Associated Press reported June 13 that scammers and swindlers potentially swiped about $280 billion in COVID-19 emergency aid; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. The bulk of the potential losses are from the two SBA programs and another to provide unemployment benefits to workers suddenly unemployed by the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic. The three initiatives were launched during the Trump administration and inherited by President Joe Biden. Combined, the loss estimated by AP represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.
The SBA inspector general, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, said in a statement Tuesday that the report “utilizes investigative casework, prior (inspector general) reporting, and cutting-edge data analysis to identify multiple fraud schemes used to potentially steal over $200 billion from American taxpayers and exploit programs meant to help those in need.”
Ware, in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, said that these latest fraud figures won’t be the last ones issued by his office.
“We will continue to assess fraud until we’re finished with the investigations on these things,” Ware said. That could be a long while. Ware’s office has a backlog of more than 90,000 actionable leads into pandemic relief fraud, which amounts to nearly a century’s worth of work.
SBA previously told The Associated Press the federal government has not developed an accepted system for assessing fraud in federal programs. Previous analyses, the agency said, have pointed to “potential fraud” or “fraud indicators” in a manner that conveys those numbers as a true fraud estimate when they are not. For the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the agency said it’s “working estimate” found $28 billion in likely fraud.
Han Nguyen, a spokesman for the SBA, said in a statement Tuesday that it is “vital to clarify that 86% of the likely fraud in the PPP and COVID-EIDL programs occurred in the first nine months of those programs when, as the (inspector general) has often noted, the rush to get funds out led to unwise decisions to pull down anti-fraud guardrails.”
Fraud in pandemic unemployment assistance programs stands at $76 billion, according to congressional testimony from Labor Department Inspector General Larry Turner. That’s a conservative estimate. Another $115 billion mistakenly went to people who should not have received the benefits, according to his testimony.
The Biden administration put in place stricter rules to stem pandemic fraud, including use of the “Do Not Pay” database. Biden also recently proposed a $1.6 billion plan to boost law enforcement efforts to go after pandemic relief fraudsters.
“I think the bottom line is regardless of what the (total fraud) number is, it emanates overwhelmingly from three programs that were designed and originated in 2020 with too many large holes that opened the door to criminal fraud,” Gene Sperling, the White House American Rescue Plan coordinator, said in an early June interview.
Bob Westbrooks, a former executive director of the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, said in an interview the $200 billion number is “unacceptable, unprecedented and unfathomable.” Westbrooks published a book last week, “Left Holding the Bag: A Watchdog’s Account of How Washington Fumbled its COVID Test.”
“The swift distribution of funds and program integrity are not mutually exclusive,” Westbrooks said Tuesday. “The government can walk and chew gum at the same time. They should have put basic fraud controls in place to verify people’s identity and to make sure targeted relief was getting into the right hands.”
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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-27T18:51:49+00:00 | atlantanewsfirst.com | https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/06/27/more-than-200-billion-covid-19-aid-may-have-been-stolen-federal-watchdog-says/ |
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Five Iranian border guards were killed in a clash with an unknown armed group trying to enter the country near the Pakistani border, state TV reported Sunday.
The fighting happened in the town of Saravan in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, some 1,360 kilometers (850 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. The report said the militants fled the area with casualties, but did not elaborate.
State TV originally reported that six guards were killed but later said there were five fatalities. Two border guards were also wounded in the clash. It did not blame the attack on any group and no group immediately claimed responsibility. There were no additional details.
The area is one of the least developed parts of Iran. The relationship between the predominantly Sunni residents of the region and Iran’s Shiite theocracy has long been fraught.
On Thursday, the top leaders of Pakistan and Iran inaugurated the first border market as relations warm between the two countries.
Located in the remote village of Pashin in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, the marketplace is the first of six to be constructed along the Pakistan-Iran border under a 2012 agreement signed by the two sides.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also inaugurated an electricity transmission line, which will provide some of Pakistan’s remote regions with Iranian electricity. | 2023-05-21T13:59:46+00:00 | kfor.com | https://kfor.com/news/international/ap-state-tv-says-armed-group-kills-5-iranian-border-guards-in-clash-near-pakistani-border/ |
DALLAS, June 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: BHR) ("Braemar" or the "Company") today announced details for the release of its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.
Braemar plans to issue its earnings release for the second quarter after the market closes on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, and will host a conference call on Thursday, August 4, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET. The number to call for this interactive teleconference is (201) 389-0920. A replay of the conference call will be available through Thursday, August 11, 2022, by dialing (412) 317-6671 and entering the confirmation number, 13730709.
The live broadcast of Braemar's quarterly conference call will be available online at the Company's website, www.bhrreit.com, on Thursday, August 4, 2022, beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. The online replay will follow shortly after the call and continue for approximately one year.
Braemar Hotels & Resorts is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing in luxury hotels and resorts.
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SOURCE Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. | 2022-06-22T20:39:59+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2022/06/22/braemar-hotels-amp-resorts-sets-second-quarter-earnings-release-conference-call-dates/ |
DENVER, Jan. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Board of Trustees (the "Board") for the Clough Global Dividend and Income Fund (the "Fund") has declared a monthly cash distribution of $0.0597 per common share, payable on the dates noted below. The Fund's managed distribution policy is to set the monthly distribution rate at an amount equal to one twelfth of 10% of the Fund's adjusted year-end net asset value per share ("NAV"), which will be the average of the NAVs as of the last five business days of the prior calendar year.
The following dates apply to the distributions declared:
Ex-Date: January 19, 2023
Record Date: January 20, 2023
Payable Date: January 31, 2023
Ex-Date: February 16, 2023
Record Date: February 17, 2023
Payable Date: February 28, 2023
Ex-Date: March 16, 2023
Record Date: March 17, 2023
Payable Date: March 31, 2023
A portion of the distribution may be treated as paid from sources other than net income, including but not limited to short-term capital gain, long-term capital gain and return of capital. The final determination of the source of all distributions, including the percentage of qualified dividend income, will be made after year-end.
The Fund is a closed-end fund with an investment objective of providing a high level of total return. The Fund seeks to pursue this objective by applying a fundamental research-driven investment process and will invest in equity and equity-related securities as well as fixed income securities, including both corporate and sovereign debt, in both U.S. and non-U.S. markets. The Fund's portfolio manager is Chuck Clough. As of December 31, 2022 the Fund had approximately 171.4 million in total assets. More information, including the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan, can be found at www.cloughglobal.com or call 877-256-8445.
Clough Capital Partners L.P. is a Boston-based investment advisory firm which manages approximately $1.6 billion in assets: $564 million in hedge fund and institutional accounts; $35 million in open-end mutual funds; and $963 million in three closed-end funds (as of November 30, 2022) – Clough Global Dividend and Income Fund (GLV), Clough Global Equity Fund (GLQ), and Clough Global Opportunities Fund (GLO).
An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain an annual report or semi-annual report which contains this and other information visit www.cloughglobal.com or call 877-256-8445. Read them carefully before investing.
The Clough Global Dividend and Income Fund is a closed-end fund and closed-end funds do not continuously issue shares for sale as open-end mutual funds do. Since the initial public offering, the Fund now trades in the secondary market. Investors wishing to buy or sell shares need to place orders through an intermediary or broker. The share price of a closed-end fund is based on the market's value.
Forward-looking statements are based on information that is available on the date hereof, and neither the fund manager nor any other person affiliated with the fund manager has any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could affect actual results to differ from these statements include, among other factors, material, negative changes to the asset class and the actual composition of the portfolio.
ALPS Portfolio Solutions Distributor, Inc, FINRA Member Firm.
Clough Global Dividend and Income Fund (NYSE MKT: GLV)
1290 Broadway, Suite 1000
Denver, CO 80203
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SOURCE Clough Global Dividend and Income Fund | 2023-01-10T23:00:29+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/prnewswire/2023/01/10/clough-global-dividend-income-fund-declares-monthly-cash-distributions-january-february-march-2023-00597-per-share/ |
AMENDT, John H. "Jack"
March 12, 1930 - February 10, 2023
92, of Dayton, departed this world on February 10, 2023, and joined his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in a far better place. He was born March 12, 1930, in Lancaster, Ohio, to Ruth and Neil Amendt.
Jack was a loving husband and father, who is survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of 71 years, Mary Lou. Also surviving are their three children: Susan (Gary) Avery, John (Peggy) Amendt, Jr., Marianne (Rich) Hill; 6 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and 1 great-great-grandchild. Jack is survived by his sister, Carol Jean McClure. His brother Charles is predeceased. | 2023-03-05T07:10:58+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/obituaries/amendt-john/WOPN2QUTWVF57GMPKDYKU45Q74/ |
DAMASCUS – Israeli airstrikes targeted residential areas in Syria's capital Damascus early Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 15, Syrian state news reported.
The strikes come amid a wider shadow war between Israel and its archenemy Iran, a close ally of Syria's President Bashar Assad in the country's ongoing war.
Loud explosions were heard over a central area of Damascus around 12:30 a.m. local time.
Syrian state media agency SANA reported that air defenses were “confronting hostile targets in the sky around Damascus.” Citing a military source, it reported that five people had been killed, among them a soldier, and 15 civilians wounded.
The news agency also said that the strikes destroyed several residential buildings and damaged areas connected to Damascus' famous medieval citadel and an applied arts institute housed there.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported that 15 people, including a woman, were killed in strikes targeting sites connected with Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The group said the strikes hit sites in the capital's Kafr Sousa neighborhood, including an Iranian school there, and outlying areas of the city.
There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack. A spokesperson for the Israeli military declined to comment.
Samer Abdo, an engineer living on an upscale residential street in Kafr Sousa that was struck by missiles, was picking through shattered glass and broken wood in his apartment Sunday morning. Abdo told The Associated Press that his family had woken up in terror to the building shaking.
“We thought at first that it was an earthquake like the one that happened two weeks ago,” he said.
Mohamad Dulo, another resident of the neighborhood, said, “All the windows fell into the street, and people ran down to the streets as well."
Dulo said he did not understand why the area was targeted. “It's a residential area,” he said. “There is nothing (military) here.”
Director General of Antiquities and Museums Mohamad Awad told the AP that the damaged buildings around the Damascus Citadel were arts and heritage institutes, as well as the offices for managing the historical site.
“It will cost a lot to rebuild or restore some of the buildings that were destroyed in the attack,” Awad said, adding that the strike destroyed “rare and expensive” equipment and machinery that has been hard to obtain due to sanctions and the country’s economic crisis.
An official with an Iran-backed group denied media reports that the strike on Kafr Sousa targeted Iranian or Palestinian officials.
The strike hit a parking garage under a building and killed 10 civilians and troops all of them Syrians, he said. He denied that there had been any Iranians or Hezbollah members killed.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
An official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed militant group, warned Israel in a statement Sunday that there would be “a decisive response without delay to any assassination attempt (on) the leaders of the resistance,” and in particular its senior official Akram “Abu Mohamad” Ajouri, whose home in Damascus has previously been targeted by airstrikes.
Israeli airstrikes frequently target sites in the vicinity of Damascus, but it is rare for them to target residential areas in the city. The Saturday night strikes were the first since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, coming “at a time when Syria was healing its wounds, burying its martyrs, and receiving condolences, sympathy, and international humanitarian support in the face of the devastating earthquake.” It called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn it.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency Sunday said no Iranian nationals were harmed in Israel’s strike on Damascus. It said one of the rockets hit the same place where former Hezbollah commander Imad Moghnieh was killed in 2008.
The last reported attack on Damascus was on Jan. 2, when the Syrian army reported that Israel’s military fired missiles toward the capital's international airport, putting it out of service and killing two soldiers.
The attack came amid Israeli fears that the Damascus airport was being used to funnel Iranian weaponry into the country.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support President Assad’s forces.
While he did not directly mention the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel would continue to defend itself from what it sees as Iran’s aggression.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and we will not allow it to entrench itself along our northern borders. We are doing everything and we will do everything to protect our citizens and we respond with intensity to the attacks against us,” he said.
___
Associated Press journalists Abdelrahman Shaheen in Damascus, Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report. | 2023-02-20T02:26:42+00:00 | wsls.com | https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2023/02/19/syrian-state-media-israeli-airstrikes-kill-5-in-damascus/ |
(The Hill) — Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 100th day on Friday, a bloody milestone that serves as a testament to the resilience of the Ukrainian forces against a vastly larger foe.
An unprecedented diplomatic campaign in the lead up to Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 failed to prevent war. But the weeks of meetings, led by the U.S., succeeded in repositioning the global order in one of the greatest shifts to occur since World War II.
European nations including Germany, Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of cautious military policy to more fully join the U.S. and allies to deliver Ukraine the military means to fight, impose wide-ranging sanctions, shore up their own defenses and work to sever energy ties from Moscow.
While Ukraine and its supporters have declared victory in the battle for Kyiv, which U.S. intelligence had first predicted would fall within 72 hours, Moscow’s forces maintain key advantages in the fight for Ukraine’s eastern territory.
Russia has gained control of a key port city, Mariupol, and is inching closer to dominating Severdonetsk. Ukrainian President Zelensky said Thursday that Russia controls about one-fifth of his nation.
“We’re in a situation now where obviously the Ukrainians are having a difficult time,” said Angela Stent, an expert in U.S. and European relations with Russia. “I’m not saying the tide is turning, but it’s becoming more difficult for the Ukrainians to sustain the counteroffensive.”
With the Russian’s slow progress in mind, the U.S. is stepping up its weapons shipments, sending advanced rocket systems for the first time to help the Ukrainians more effectively repel Russian advances.
“I think the weapons are significant, but they will only be significant when they reach the backfill when they’re needed,” Stent said, adding that it could take time for the U.S. to transfer the rocket systems to Ukraine because of the limited number of routes to do so. “A lot could happen, and the Ukrainians could face more challenges from the Russians.”
Zelensky, speaking to a European security conference on Thursday, said the fight could reach a “turning point” if all nations increase their military, economic and political support for Ukraine.
“We are grateful for the help we already receive, to everyone who helps us. But arms supplies need to be increased. Because it is on the battlefield in Ukraine that it is decided whether freedom in Europe will be preserved for all nations without exception,” he said.
“Right now, these days, when Russia will lose the war against Ukraine, the freedom of Europeans will win for decades to come.”
The Ukrainian president’s remarks showcase his transition over the past 100 days from a leader under military siege and at risk of assassination — who rejected an offer by the U.S. to flee Kyiv in the early days of the assault — to a powerful global voice.
The Biden administration on Thursday announced another tranche of sanctions on Russian government officials and business elite, part of an international effort to further squeeze the Kremlin as Russian President Vladimir Putin presses on into the fourth month of his unprovoked invasion.
There’s still plenty of uncertainty about how the war will end, with a negotiated solution of some kind appearing far off.
Ukrainian officials, grappling with the horrors of civilian deaths and alleged Russian war crimes — from extrajudicial executions, rape and forced migration — are loath to come to the table or concede territory to the Russians.
“Russia attacked us. It’s them who are trying to occupy as much as possible, destroy and kill, rape and torture. So we will defend ourselves and we will not surrender,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova told The Hill.
Biden administration officials say that their ultimate goal in imposing sanctions and supplying military aid is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand at the negotiating table, which is where Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday the conflict was likely to end.
“We can’t predict how this is going to play out, when this is going to play out. As best as we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict,” Blinken told reporters. “It’s a moving picture.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday following a meeting with President Biden, Vice President Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underscored the need for the alliance to prepare to keep up support for Ukraine for a long period.
“Wars are by nature unpredictable, and therefore we just have to be prepared for the long haul,” he said.
Meanwhile, the war is threatening a global food crisis as Russia has staged a blockade on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, preventing the country from exporting grain, fertilizer and other goods, driving up prices.
The United Nations has taken the lead in efforts to get food exports moving but has yet to offer concrete progress.
Blinken told reporters Wednesday that U.S. sanctions on Russia have exemptions for banking services related to food and food exports.
“We’ve had one of our senior officials go around the world to make that very clear to other countries and to help them with any questions they may have. This is on Russia,” he said.
The conflict has also exacerbated already high gas prices, which in the U.S. reached a new record high of $4.67 a gallon nationally this week.
The American public is worried about the effects of the war, posing significant political risks for the White House.
A Pew Research Center study released last month found that 59 percent of U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned that Russia might invade other countries in the region, while half said they are extremely or very concerned about the prospect of the U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine leading to war between the U.S. and Russia.
According to the poll, 45 percent of U.S. adults approve of the Biden administration’s handling of the response to Russia’s invasion, while 34 percent said they disapproved.
Michael Sawkiw, executive vice president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, warned against complacency while marking the 100th day of war.
“The world has been witness to the unspeakable bestiality levied by Kremlin forces in Ukraine. And, while the United States and its allies have provided Ukraine tremendous resources, diminished attention to the war must not derail our common resolve to prevail in this ultimate fight,” he said. “The 100th day of the war reminds us that democracy worldwide is in peril should Ukraine lose this crucial battle against evil.”
Still, there’s concern that unity among European nations in support of Ukraine is waning.
While the European Union agreed to reduce 90 percent of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, exemptions that benefit countries such as Hungary underscore fractures within the bloc that Moscow can seek to disrupt and exploit.
Benjamin Schmitt, research associate at Harvard University and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the EU’s partial embargo on Russian oil “undoubtedly was meant to send a major signal to the Kremlin that Brussels remains willing to increase costs on the Putin regime” but is still holding back from imposing all available pressure on Russia.
“Reports have suggested that the wind-down period toward implementation of this partial oil embargo — which would limit about two-thirds of Russian imports to the EU by the end of the year — will still allow the Kremlin to cash in on its remaining oil sales to Europe in the short term,” Schmitt told The Hill.
But Europe’s dependence on Russian energy makes it impossible for nations to wean themselves off quickly.
Stent said the U.S. has done almost all it can do by way of sanctions, noting that the administration has also had to balance the strength of sanctions with maintaining unity with allies and minimizing domestic and global concerns about the impacts of the penalties.
“That’s the dilemma. You can do just so much,” she said. | 2022-06-03T10:29:39+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/national/100-days-of-war-where-ukraine-stands-in-its-fight-against-russia/ |
The barstool on the far left at Norton's Restaurant shouldn't be empty.
Every week, 88-year-old Stephen Straus filled the seat with his jovial personality, making fast friends with strangers at the fixture in Highland Park, Illinois.
"Norton's is our version of 'Cheers' in Highland Park. Everyone knows your name and all are welcomed with open arms," said Courtney Smith Weinberg, who lives two blocks away.
"My husband Steven and I had a great night at the bar at Norton's just a little over a week ago with this amazing man, Stephen Straus. That night we made a new friend! He shared stories about his workout routines, how he still rode a bike several miles a day," she said.
"The three of us shared laughs together as we ate and drank. I remember how animated and sweet he was ... and totally engaged in life."
Just two days later, Straus and six others were inexplicably gunned down at a Fourth of July parade a few blocks away.
Since then, the restaurant where he brought so much joy has become an epicenter of support for those young and old seeking comfort amid despair.
'My job here is to make people happy'
The blur darting between the kitchen, bar and patio is Israel "Izzy" Velez. He's part bartender, part server and occasional fill-in manager. But Velez prefers a much simpler job description:
"My job here is to make people happy."
On this night, his job is needed more than ever. It's the day after staff and regulars learned of Straus' death.
It's also Wednesday -- a night when Straus and Velez would typically catch up under the backdrop of the Chicago sports paraphernalia covering the blond brick walls.
Velez gazed at the empty barstool where his longtime friend should be sitting.
"It's hard," Velez said, growing emotional. "He was a very, very, very nice man."
But then Velez quickly composed himself. He wanted to give customers a sense of comfort -- a friendly refuge from the grief enveloping the city.
"I have to put on my happy face," he said.
From across the restaurant, he started greeting customers.
"That's Michael. That's Bobby," he said, as he waved toward the opposite corner.
And soon he was off, reconnecting with those who needed a cold Old Style or Corona, a "Norton" burger or a plate of ribs -- and the warmth of a familiar face.
To heal, the support must go both ways
Jonathon Levin and his daughter, Becca, wanted to get close to the epicenter of the attack -- not to see the overturned lawn chairs and abandoned strollers that littered the crime scene, but to support impacted businesses close by.
"We didn't know what was open or not. So we literally said, 'Let's drive towards Norton's and see what's open because everything's been blocked off,'" Levin said.
"When we saw it was open, we said, 'We have to come here. We've got to support our community. We have to be here.'"
Though Levin has visited Norton's many times, an eerie feeling washed over him as he got closer to the area where so many lives were viciously taken.
"As a resident, it's scary. It's sad. But we've got to move on. We've got to keep going," Levin said. "And part of keep going is to hug everybody, support everybody, and encourage everybody one step at a time."
'Make sure you have shoes that you're able to run in'
On Norton's patio just a few blocks from the massacre scene, Maya Stolarsky is celebrating her 15th birthday.
She lives in nearby Deerfield, but her family has deep ties to Highland Park. Maya's mother, Amy, grew up here. Her younger sister, Eden, 12, loves going to the downtown pancake house now cordoned off by police tape.
It was near that beloved restaurant where a gunman, perched atop a roof, sprayed bullets from a semi-automatic rifle onto a crowd packed with families.
Tragedy has left Maya hesitant about going to public gatherings -- whether a parade, a mall or a concert.
"It would be unsettling," the teen said. "I would definitely be thinking about it. It would be always in the back of my mind."
Shortly after Monday's massacre that also left dozens injured, Amy Stolarsky knew it was time to give her daughters some grim advice about going to public events.
"What did I say?" Stolarsky quizzed her girls at the table.
"To always make sure you have shoes that you're able to run in," Maya replied.
Stolarsky never imagined giving her girls that counsel. "It's a disgusting thing that I felt like I had to say out loud," she said.
But if a parade packed with families and children can devolve into a scene of carnage, her daughters must be prepared for any scenario.
Eden, the 12-year-old, said she understands the importance of taking precautions. But she's not going to live her life in fear.
In fact, Eden's already thinking about going to the Highland Park Fourth of July parade next year -- "to be there in the same place and support" the community.
Highland Park residents mourned other victims of mass shootings ... and now their own
Just a few blocks from Norton's, a memorial honoring victims of gun violence sits in front of The Art Center.
For weeks, Highland Park residents have walked past the exhibit, which opened last month, and grieved for those senselessly killed across the country.
No one imagined such horror would soon happen at home. But the gruesome attack in the idyllic suburb north of Chicago proved yet again that no American community is immune.
"When you see these things happen, especially with mass shootings, I keep thinking: 'This one's gonna be the end. This news will end this cycle,'" Stolarsky said after Maya blew out the candle on her birthday sundae.
"And it hasn't happened yet. I'm still waiting for that to happen."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | 2022-07-10T13:30:43+00:00 | albanyherald.com | https://www.albanyherald.com/news/after-a-massacre-took-one-of-their-own-the-cheers-of-highland-park-has-turned/article_1c355dd7-12c9-5aeb-a862-c6e024858cd1.html |
These days Chevrolet uses the ZR2 badge for off-road trucks, but it once adorned a rare Corvette variant.
Scheduled to cross the block at a Mecum auction in Indianapolis on May 20, this 1971 Corvette ZR2 coupe is one of just 12 built, and is thought to be the last to roll out of the factory.
The Corvette ZR2 was a one-year-only affair for 1971, and was sold alongside the Corvette ZR1 that had been introduced for the 1970 model year. The only difference between the two track-focused Corvette models was the engine. The ZR1 had Chevy’s original LT1 V-8, while the ZR2 had the LS6, displacing 454 cubic inches and producing a factory-quoted 425 hp.
Chevy built 188 Corvettes with the LS6 engine for 1971, but only 12 had the $1,741 ZR2 package. The car featured a Muncie M22 “Rock Crusher” close-ratio 4-speed manual transmission, heavy-duty power brakes, an aluminum radiator with metal fan shroud, transistorized ignition, and upgraded suspension with model-specific springs, shocks, and stabilizer bars. Intended as a hardcore track special, the ZR2 also did without conveniences like power steering and air conditioning.
The ZR2 up for auction left the factory in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 28, 1971, making it the last documented ZR2 built, according to the auction listing. It was built as an export car and was originally shipped to Golden Mile Chevrolet-Oldsmobile in Toronto. Later repatriated, it was at one point treated to a body-off restoration by specialist Corvette Repair Inc. It now wears factory-correct Brands Hatch Green paint with a Dark Green vinyl interior.
Mecum expects this ZR2 coupe to sell for between $475,000 and $600,000 at auction. Keep in mind that one of just two 1971 ZR2 convertibles sold for $962,500 at Mecum’s 2022 Indianapolis auction, coming in just below a pre-auction estimate of $1 million to $1.2 million. The convertible was also painted Brands Hatch Green, so perhaps the same bidder will return this year to get a matching set.
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- 2024 Porsche 911 S/T spy shots and video | 2023-05-16T00:06:04+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/automotive/internet-brands/1971-chevrolet-corvette-zr2-heads-to-auction/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Monday that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, an operation he said delivered justice and hopefully “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The president said in an evening address from the White House that U.S. intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday.
Al-Zawahri and the better-known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in operation carried out by U.S. Navy SEALs after a nearly decade-long hunt.
As for Al-Zawahri, Biden said, “He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens.”
“This terrorist leader is no more,” he added.
The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.
The strike was carried out by the CIA, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Neither Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA’s involvement in the strike.
Biden, however, paid tribute to the U.S. intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a success.
Al-Zawahri’s death eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped al-Qaida, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor. Together, he and bin Laden turned the jihadi movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil — the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.
The house Al-Zawahri was in when he was killed was owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s death.
On Tuesday morning, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “there was nobody on the ground in uniform when this strike occurred.” Sullivan added that the U.S. government is “in direct communication with the Taliban on this, and I’m not going to telegraph our next moves, but the Taliban well understand the United States is going to defend its interests.”
Over the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the U.S. targeted and splintered al-Qaida, sending leaders into hiding. But America’s exit from Afghanistan last September gave the extremist group the opportunity to rebuild.
U.S. military officials, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said al-Qaida was trying to reconstitute in Afghanistan, where it faced limited threats from the now-ruling Taliban. Military leaders have warned that the group still aspired to attack the U.S.
After his killing, the White House underscored that al-Zawahri had continued to be a dangerous figure. The senior administration official said al-Zawahri had continued to “provide strategic direction,” including urging attacks on the U.S., while in hiding. He had also prioritized to members of the terror network that the United States remained al-Qaida’s “primary enemy,” the official said.
The 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon made bin Laden America’s Enemy No. 1. But he likely could never have carried it out without his deputy. Bin Laden provided al-Qaida with charisma and money, but al-Zawahri brought tactics and organizational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells in countries around the world.
U.S. intelligence officials have been aware for years of a network helping al-Zawahri dodge U.S. intelligence officials hunting for him, but didn’t have a bead on his possible location until recent months.
Earlier this year, U.S. officials learned that the terror leader’s wife, daughter and her children had relocated to a safe house in Kabul, according to the senior administration official who briefed reporters.
Officials eventually learned al-Zawahri was also at the Kabul safe house.
In early April, White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Biden’s homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall were briefed on this developing intelligence. Soon the intelligence was carried up to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan brought the information to Biden as U.S. intelligence officials built “a pattern of life through multiple independent sources of information to inform the operation,” the official said.
Senior Taliban figures were aware of al-Zawahri’s presence in Kabul, according to the official, who added the Taliban government was given no forewarning of the operation.
Inside the Biden administration, only a small group of officials at key agencies, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, were brought into the process. Through May and June, Biden was updated several times on the growing mound of intelligence that confirmed al-Zawahri was hiding out in the home. Over the last few weeks, Biden brought together several Cabinet officials and key national security officials to scrutinize the intelligence findings.
On July 1, Biden was briefed in the Situation Room about the planned operation, a briefing in which the president closely examined a scale model of the home al-Zawahri was hiding out in. He gave his final approval for the operation on Thursday. Al-Zawahri was on the balcony of his hideout on Sunday when two Hellfire missiles were launched from an unmanned drone, killing him.
Al-Zawahri’s family was in another part of the house when the operation was carried out, and no one else was believed to have been killed in the operation, the official said.
“We make it clear again tonight: That no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” Biden said.
Al-Zawahri was hardly a household name like bin Laden, but he played an enormous role in the terror group’s operations.
The two terror leaders’ bond was forged in the late 1980s, when al-Zawahri reportedly treated the Saudi millionaire bin Laden in the caves of Afghanistan as Soviet bombardment shook the mountains around them.
Al-Zawahri, on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, had a $25 million bounty on his head for any information that could be used to kill or capture him.
Al-Zawhiri and bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida.
Photos from the time often showed the glasses-wearing, mild-looking Egyptian doctor sitting by the side of bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri had merged his group of Egyptian militants with bin Laden’s al-Qaida in the 1990s.
“The strong contingent of Egyptians applied organizational know-how, financial expertise, and military experience to wage a violent jihad against leaders whom the fighters considered to be un-Islamic and their patrons, especially the United States,” Steven A. Cook wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations last year.
When the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan demolished al-Qaida’s safe haven and scattered, killed and captured its members, al-Zawahri ensured al-Qaida’s survival. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions.
He also reshaped the organization from a centralized planner of terror attacks into the head of a franchise chain. He led the assembling of a network of autonomous branches around the region, including in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Somalia, Yemen and Asia. Over the next decade, al-Qaida inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in all those areas as well as Europe, Pakistan and Turkey, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.
More recently, the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen proved itself capable of plotting attacks against U.S. soil with an attempted 2009 bombing of an American passenger jet and an attempted package bomb the following year.
But even before bin Laden’s death, al-Zawahri was struggling to maintain al-Qaida’s relevance in a changing Middle East.
He tried with little success to coopt the wave of uprisings that spread across the Arab world starting in 2011, urging Islamic hard-liners to take over in the nations where leaders had fallen. But while Islamists gained prominence in many places, they have stark ideological differences with al-Qaida and reject its agenda and leadership.
Nevertheless, al-Zawahri tried to pose as the Arab Spring’s leader. America “is facing an Islamic nation that is in revolt, having risen from its lethargy to a renaissance of jihad,” he said in a video eulogy to bin Laden, wearing a white robe and turban with an assault rifle leaning on a wall behind him.
Al-Zawahri was also a more divisive figure than his predecessor. Many militants described the soft-spoken bin Laden in adoring and almost spiritual terms.
In contrast, al-Zawahri was notoriously prickly and pedantic. He picked ideological fights with critics within the jihadi camp, wagging his finger scoldingly in his videos. Even some key figures in al-Qaida’s central leadership were put off, calling him overly controlling, secretive and divisive.
Some militants whose association with bin Laden predated al-Zawahri’s always saw him as an arrogant intruder.
“I have never taken orders from al-Zawahri,” Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of the network’s top figures in East Africa until his 2011 death, sneered in a memoir posted on line in 2009. “We don’t take orders from anyone but our historical leadership.”
There had been rumors of al-Zawahri’s death on and off for several years. But a video surfaced in April of the al-Qaida leader praising a Indian Muslim woman who had defied a ban on wearing a hijab, or headscarf. That footage was the first proof in months that he was still alive.
A statement from Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed the airstrike, but did not mention al-Zawahri or any other casualties.
It said the Taliban “strongly condemns this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” the 2020 U.S. pact with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of American forces.
“Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region,” the statement said.
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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Ellen Knickmeyer, Zeke Miller, James LaPorta, Michael Balsamo and Darlene Superville in Washington; Rahim Faiez in Islamabad; and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed reporting. | 2022-08-02T20:21:52+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/news/national-world-news/biden-to-speak-on-operation-against-al-qaida-in-afghanistan/ |
LAKEMONT, Ga., June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Great Outdoors Fund (TGOF) facilitated a public-private partnership to improve recreation access and infrastructure on the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. The project kicked off with the partners transforming a decommissioned campground into a quality recreation area where people can picnic and enjoy themselves while visiting Oakey Mountain OHV Area anytime between sunrise and sunset.
TGOF forged the partnership between the USDA Forest Service, Georgia Recreational Trail Riders Association (GARTRA), and Yamaha Motor Corporation which provided funding from its Outdoor Access Initiative (OAI). Yamaha also encouraged its employees, companywide, to participate in the six (6) volunteer workdays scheduled through the last Saturday in June.
The project started with the Forest Service and GARTRA committing money and volunteer services to repurpose the decommissioned campground. TGOF was then able to secure funding from Yamaha's OAI which the Forest Service further leveraged by acquiring a Recreational Trail Program (RTP) grant from Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The additional funding grew the size and scope of the project to include trail maintenance, parking improvements, a new loading ramp, and interpretive educational kiosks throughout the area.
"We are excited to welcome an increasing number of visitors to national forests. These trends enable us to provide equitable and high-quality access and safe recreation opportunities to evermore members of the public," said Michelle Mitchell, Director of Recreation, Heritage, and Volunteer Services for the Forest Service's Southern Region. "Volunteers and partnerships help maintain the public's lands and foster a sense of shared stewardship in communities. These benefits are all components of this project and top priorities for us. We appreciate Yamaha, The Great Outdoors Fund, and all of the individual volunteers who made this success possible!"
"My family and I, along with other people that visit Oakey Mountain, specifically asked the Forest Service to repurpose and reopen this area," said GARTRA's President Bill Shilling. "So, we're delighted to see the investment of money, time, and energy to help clear the brush and install new infrastructure which is all compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."
"We continue to see a huge funding gap to maintain or enhance our outdoor spaces," said TGOF Founder Lori McCullough. "It's estimated there is more than $100 billion in backlog maintenance, nationwide, which is why public-private partnerships like this are critical to ensuring people of all ages and abilities can access and enjoy our great outdoors."
"It was important to have a project like this, in Georgia, where we could put the funding from the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative together with our corporate commitment to volunteerism and give our employees an opportunity to give their time and energy into a local riding area," said Mike Martinez, President of Motorsports at Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. "Our ongoing partnership with The Great Outdoors Fund is a case study in public-private enterprises benefitting public outdoor spaces to ensure access for motorized recreation for generations to come."
"There are so many benefits to being outside," McCullough noted. "And it's up to us to steward these lands, ensuring that future generations can enjoy them as much as we have."
To support these types of projects or TGOF's mission, please visit thegreatoutdoorsfund.org.
For more information about Yamaha's Outdoor Access Initiative, go to: http://www.YamahaOAI.com
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SOURCE The Great Outdoors Fund | 2022-06-29T13:51:32+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/06/29/partners-leverage-resources-enhance-recreation-access-opportunities-georgia/ |
SALEM, Va. (AP) — Julianne Sitch became the first woman to coach a men’s soccer team to an NCAA championship, guiding the University of Chicago to the Division III title.
Chicago defeated Williams College 2-0 on Saturday for the Maroons’ first NCAA men’s soccer title in program history. The title capped an undefeated season (22-0-1) and set a school record for wins in Sitch’s first year as head coach.
Robbie Pino scored a shot from 28 yards out in the 66th minute and Ryan Yetishefsky added a late goal for the Maroons.
“The credit goes to the team,” Sitch said. “I mean, these guys have never had a female coach before, and they embraced me as one of their own. For me, that will forever be a grateful moment.”
The 39-year-old Sitch was an assistant coach for the Chicago women’s soccer team from 2015-17. She played college soccer at DePaul, setting career records in goals and assists. She also played for several teams in the NWSL, including the Chicago Red Stars.
Sitch is one of only two women coaching a men’s NCAA soccer team in Division III, joining New York University’s Kim Wyant.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | 2022-12-05T06:04:59+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/sports/ap-julianne-sitch-1st-woman-to-coach-mens-soccer-to-ncaa-title/ |
Republican candidate J.D. Vance, who received former President Trump’s endorsement in a crowded primary race earlier this year, was projected Tuesday to win the Ohio Senate race.
NBC News and ABC News both called the race.
Vance defeated 20-year Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who represents Akron and Youngstown, and made the contest surprisingly close by appealing to swing voters in eastern Ohio.
Republican J.D. Vance was projected to win the Ohio Senate race against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). (Associated Press)
Trump played a key role in the race by endorsing Vance in the Republican primary, where he came from behind to defeat former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and businessman Mike Gibbons.
Vance, the author of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” was stuck in single digits in the polls and third place before he stormed to the front of the pack in the primary, buoyed by Trump’s endorsement and the damage that Mandel and Gibbons inflicted on each other with personal attacks.
Vance has criticized Trump in the past, telling interviewer Charlie Rose in 2016 that he was “a Never Trump guy” and “never liked him.”
But Vance decided to embrace Trump during the primary and praised him in April as “the best president of my lifetime.”
Trump has reveled in Vance’s turnaround.
“J.D. is kissing my ass; he wants my support so much,” Trump quipped at a recent campaign rally in Youngstown.
Vance, who was a vocal critic of former President Trump’s in the past, embraced him wholeheartedly during his Senate campaign. (Associated Press)
Vance has taken shots at other Republican leaders and embraced Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“I think the fundamental problem is we had a massive effort to shift the election by very powerful people in this country,” he told Spectrum News in January. “I don’t care whether you say it’s rigged, whether you say it’s stolen, like, I’ll say what I’m going to say about it.”
He declared at a rally with Trump in April that “we’ve got a ridiculous leadership even on the Republican side that tries to undo some of the best things that Donald Trump did over the past four years.”
Vance declined to commit to voting for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) when asked about a potential Senate leadership race at a Fox News town hall event, only saying: “We’ll see what happens when I get to Washington, D.C.”
McConnell, however, raised millions of dollars for Vance through an aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which poured more than $30 million into the Ohio Senate race.
Another group affiliated with McConnell, One Nation, announced a $3.8 million multiweek ad buy in August to help Vance.
The influx of spending from outside groups helped offset Vance’s lackluster fundraising performance.
The Ohio Senate race remained tight through much of the fall, but Vance expanded his lead in the days leading up to the election. (Associated Press)
Vance raised $12.8 million during his Senate campaign while Ryan raised $48.1 million, according to the most recent public data posted online by the Federal Election Commission.
The fundraising discrepancy drew criticisms from Republican strategists in Washington who wondered why Vance wasn’t raising more money and doing better in the polls.
The race was close to even for much of October, with the two candidates in a statistical dead heat, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.
Vance appeared to widen his lead in the final week of the campaign with polls by Republican-leaning Trafalgar Group and Democratic-leaning Data for Progress both showing Vance ahead by 10 points.
He pledged last week to accept the outcome of the Ohio race, which he said he expected to win.
“I expect to win,” Vance said at a town hall event in Columbus. “But of course, if things don’t go the way that I expect, I’ll support the guy who wins and I’ll try to be as supportive as possibly can, even accepting that we’re going to disagree on some big issues.” | 2022-11-09T06:22:30+00:00 | wearegreenbay.com | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/hill-politics/trump-backed-vance-wins-ohio-senate-seat/ |
BOISE, Idaho (AP)Oakland Fort came off the bench to score 15 points, burying a 3-pointer at the buzzer to rally No. 9 seed Northern Arizona to an 81-80 victory over top-seeded Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament on Sunday night.
Xavier Fuller finished with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Lumberjacks (11-22), who stunned the regular-season champions. Nik Mains added 16 points and five rebounds.
Steele Venters led the Eagles (22-10) with 21 points and five assists. Ethan Price added 13 points and four assists, while Angelo Allegri also scored 13.
The game was tied at 35 at halftime. Eastern Washington shot 57% overall and made 9 of 24 from beyond the arc, but the Eagles sank only 13 of 20 free throws and missed some costly ones down the stretch.
Northern Arizona advances to play the winner between Montana and Idaho State in the semifinals on Monday.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. | 2023-03-06T16:57:30+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/scoreboard/northern-arizona-stuns-eastern-washington-in-big-sky-tourney/ |
After visiting the site of Monday’s mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Ill., Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban.
Harris previously planned to be in Chicago on Tuesday for the National Education Association annual meeting. She added a visit to Highland Park, about 25 miles north of Chicago, following Monday's massacre that left seven dead and dozens wounded.
She credited Congress for passing its first significant gun legislation in 30 years but said the bill does not go far enough.
“We have more to do,” she told educators on Tuesday. “And Congress needs to have the courage to act and renew the assault weapons ban.”
“Let’s talk about what an assault weapon is designed to do,” she added. “An assault weapon is designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly. There is no reason that we have weapons of war on the streets of America. We need reasonable gun safety laws.”
The United States had a 10-year assault weapons ban passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994. Congress did not renew the ban in 2004, allowing citizens to own these firearms.
While there are varying definitions of assault weapons, they generally include semi-automatic rifles with a detachable magazine and pistol grip. These types of firearms were used in several recent mass shootings.
There has been significant GOP opposition to renewing an assault weapons ban.
While no federal assault weapons ban is on the books, Highland Park passed such an ordinance nearly a decade ago. The law was challenged to the Supreme Court, but justices rejected hearing the case. | 2022-07-06T13:03:45+00:00 | kjrh.com | https://www.kjrh.com/news/national/vp-harris-calls-for-assault-weapons-ban-following-parade-massacre |
NEW YORK (AP) _ Revlon Inc. (REVRQ) on Tuesday reported a loss of $152.8 million in its third quarter.
On a per-share basis, the New York-based company said it had a loss of $2.77. Losses, adjusted for restructuring costs and non-recurring costs, were $2.71 per share.
The beauty products maker posted revenue of $468.4 million in the period.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on REVRQ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/REVRQ | 2022-11-08T22:13:50+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Revlon-Q3-Earnings-Snapshot-17568822.php |
Weeks before the May 7th and 8th Indianapolis Clay Studio Crawl, Fountain Square Clay Center was already a busy place. Classes were underway as owner, Chris DePrez, worked on a large pot and talked to a reporter about how he was pulling clay up from the base to create the large piece.
During the Clay Studio Crawl, the public will have the opportunity to visit a handful of Indianapolis clay studios, meet artists in their creative environments, and purchase original ceramic works.
“So we call it a crawl, but you do have to drive,” DePrez quipped as he walked through his expansive Fountain Square studio. “It’s not like a bar crawl, but we’re calling it a crawl since the idea is you’ll be hopping from place to place, hopefully, and seeing some of the different studios.”
In addition to Fountain Square Clay Center, Alley Cat Ceramics, Beech Grove Clay Works, Gravesco Pottery, and Yellow Door Ceramics Studio will be open from 11 AM to 4 PM on both May 7th and May 8th.
You can start your crawl at any of the studios. The crawl is free, but you will be eligible for a drawing if you register.
For more information and to register, visit indianapolisclaystudiocrawl.com. | 2022-05-04T19:08:22+00:00 | wishtv.com | https://www.wishtv.com/lifestylelive/indianapolis-clay-studio-crawl-happens-this-weekend/ |
Things to watch in Week 4 of the Southeastern Conference:
BEST MATCHUP
No. 10 Arkansas (3-0, 1-0) versus No. 23 Texas A&M (2-1, 0-0) in Arlington, Texas. This is practically a pick ‘em game with the Aggies favored by 2-1/2 points. Texas A&M rebounded nicely from a loss to Appalachian State with a 17-9 victory over No. 25 Miami. In an effort to jump-start a sputtering offense, Jimbo Fisher turned to LSU transfer Max Johnson at quarterback in that game. The Aggies still have a lot of work on that side of the ball. The Razorbacks have been clicking better on offense behind quarterback K.J. Jefferson and the SEC’s leading rusher Raheim Sanders (440 yards in three games). Jefferson ranks behind only Georgia’s Stetson Bennett in total offense at 313 yards a game.
IMPACT PLAYER
Zach Evans, RB, Mississippi. The TCU transfer has lived up to the billing and then some. Evans and freshman Quinshon Judkins have produced a terrific 1-2 rushing combo for a team that had to replace its top three tailbacks. Evans is averaging 105.7 rushing yards with three touchdowns, while gaining 6.47 yards a carry. He’s the league’s No. 2 rusher, one spot ahead of Judkins, who has 289 yards, three TDs and a 6.72-yard average.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Auburn is one of four FBS teams that hasn’t forced a turnover, along with Fresno State, Notre Dame and Temple. ... Richardson ranks last among SEC starting quarterbacks in passing yards (423). ... Tennessee has sold out back-to-back games at Neyland Stadium for the first time since 2016. ... Georgia is averaging a league-best 7.9 yards per play and leading the SEC in passing at 376.7 yards a game. ... Alabama has won 22 consecutive meetings with Vanderbilt, which visits Saturday night. ... Mississippi State will wear throwback uniforms to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its first Black varsity football players, Frank Dowsing, Jr. and Robert Bell. ... Kentucky is trying to extend its nation-leading, 18-game nonconference win streak against Northern Illinois. ... LSU’s last two opponents, Southern and Mississippi State, have converted just 5 of 24 third-down attempts. ... South Carolina and Charlotte are set to meet for the first time despite being separated by just 107 miles on Interstate 77.
UPSET WATCH
Auburn is a 7 1/2-point favorite over Missouri, per FanDuel.com, making its first venture into Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn has committed eight turnovers without forcing a single one and likely needs to turn that around to avoid an upset. Both teams have been blown out in their lone game against a Power Five team. Auburn is coming off a 41-12 loss to No. 14 Penn State, while Missouri fell 40-12 to Kansas State two weeks ago. Auburn’s quarterback situation doesn’t appear settled after three weeks of starting T.J. Finley while also playing the more mobile Robby Ashford. Finley has been intercepted four times while throwing for just one touchdown. Ashford also only has one TD pass but has thrown a pair of picks. Coach Bryan Harsin has deflected questions about who would start.
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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25 | 2022-09-22T07:22:47+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/no-20-florida-versus-no-11-tennessee-highlights-sec-action/2022/09/22/fae8cf88-3a45-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Dog abandoned at the airport finds forever home with airline captain
SAN FRANCISCO (Gray News) – A dog abandoned at the airport in San Francisco has found its forever home with a United Airlines captain.
The dog named Polaris arrived at the airport with someone traveling from an international destination, but the flyer chose to continue without his animal, according to a news release from the San Francisco SPCA.
United Airlines worked to make sure the puppy was cared for and completed the necessary requirements to enter the United States, including a quarantine period.
“From the moment Polaris landed in our care, our entire SFO United team cared for him 24/7 until we were able to get permission to keep him safely in the U.S.,” said Vincent Passafiume, director of customer service at United, in the news release.
Polaris was adopted by United Captain William Dale and his family.
The airline hosted a celebratory adoption party at the airport and donated $5,000 to the SF SPCA to support their efforts to help animals all year long.
“It’s a great feeling to see this story come full circle and that Polaris will have a loving home with United Airlines Captain Dale and his family - just in time for the holidays,” Passafiume said.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2022-12-26T14:24:42+00:00 | wbrc.com | https://www.wbrc.com/2022/12/26/dog-abandoned-airport-finds-forever-home-with-airline-captain/ |
DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A spokesperson for Greg Lindberg provided the following update regarding the exit of his North Carolina insurance companies from rehabilitation:
- Lindberg states that there is a "ready and willing" buyer for his NC insurance companies who has offered to pay "several hundred million dollars" for these companies so that they can be sold and exit rehabilitation immediately. At the time of sale, policyholders will be able to access all their benefits, Lindberg says. "The North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) has yet to respond to a Letter of Intent from a highly qualified buyer for my North Carolina insurance companies," Lindberg says. "My insurance companies successfully exiting rehabilitation utilizing our recommendations will prove that the allegations about liquidity and questions about our financial strength have been false since day one," Lindberg says.
- Lindberg also reports that he has authorized the "immediate sale" of several of Global Growth's portfolio companies that will generate well over $1 billion of proceeds that can be used to purchase affiliated assets from the North Carolina insurers as part of the rehab exit plan. "We are not waiting for the NCDOI," Lindberg says. "We are proceeding now with sale transactions that will result in the immediate rehab exit of my North Carolina insurers." Lindberg notes that the proposed 7-year rehab plan by the NCDOI is being litigated in court. "7 years is unacceptable," Lindberg says. "The way I see it, everyone wants these companies out of rehab now so policyholders can access their benefits immediately," Lindberg says.
- Lindberg also says that third party lenders are "ready and willing" to provide financing that will result in the immediate paydown of over $150 million in affiliated loans to the North Carolina insurers. "Blocking these loans directly impacts policyholders and keeps the North Carolina insurers from exiting rehabilitation," Lindberg says.
- Lindberg says that his North Carolina insurers would have reduced their percentage of affiliated assets below the new 10% North Carolina statutory limit way back in December of 2018 had the governing parties been actually interested in protecting policyholders. "In August of 2018 Global Growth was very close to closing an $600 million financing that would have paid down affiliated assets below 10% of total assets," Lindberg says. "In fact, the lender that was providing this $600 million loan expressed to the NCDOI that the financing was looking "strong" and there were already "orders in the book." Unfortunately, this financing, along with several other financing attempts, were withdrawn or halted as a result of the investigation.
- Lindberg says that at the end of 2018, his team was in discussions with another large lender to provide up to $1 billion in financing as part of this lender's purchase of his North Carolina insurers. "In December of 2018 however, I was informed that someone from 'the government' called this lender and told them not to underwrite any loans to us," Lindberg says. "This type of behavior only serves to undermine Global Growth and none of this helps policyholders," Lindberg says.
- Despite these challenges, Lindberg says that the Global Growth companies have worked diligently to re-establish credit market access. Global Growth companies have closed over $1.2 billion of third-party financing so far this year, Lindberg reports. "Through it all, Global Growth has proven its resiliency, businesses are performing very well, and lenders are making loans to Global Growth companies," Lindberg says.
Lindberg notes that Mike Causey ran for the position of North Carolina Insurance Commissioner five times before winning by less than 1% of the vote. Lindberg says that he had supported Causey's opponent. "From my perspective, the root of this problem is politics. All my insurance companies were seeking was fair and equitable regulation," Lindberg says.
After the government accused Lindberg of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously agreed that his conviction violated his Constitutional rights and must be vacated.
Lindberg says he will "continue to fight until every policyholder is paid out."
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SOURCE Greg Lindberg | 2022-09-16T12:21:32+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/greg-lindberg-sets-record-straight-rehab-exit-his-north-carolina-insurers/ |
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — This has been a good week in North Texas for Scott Stallings, first qualifying for the U.S. Open that will be played less than an hour from where he was born and now sharing the lead at Colonial with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler.
Stallings shot a 6-under 64 without a bogey on a relatively calm Friday at Hogan’s Alley. That put the Massachusetts-born and 206th-ranked player in the world at 9-under 131 with Dallas-area resident Scheffler and Hossler, both former University of Texas golfers who had bogey-free 65s.
Scheffler, in one of the last groups of the day after Stallings and Hossler played in the morning wave, tied them with a 14-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and saved par at No. 18 after his final drive went left into the rough.
“I think I needed to put up a good score with the wind being real low and the greens being not crazy firm,” said Scheffler, without a bogey so far this week. “Yeah, I love that stat. It’s a lot of fun. … I kept the stress off myself for the most part.”
It was calm pretty much throughout the day Friday. But hot and breezy conditions are expected for the weekend rounds at the Charles Schwab Classic, with gusts around 30 mph and temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s in the forecast.
Scheffler and Hossler were among the Colonial-record eight players to share the 18-hole lead at 66. Stallings began the second round as one of the seven others within a stroke of that.
Patrick Reed matched his opening 66 with another and was alone in fourth place at 8-under 132. Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk (67), the 2015 Colonial champion who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since, were at 133.
After missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship like Scheffler did, the 37-year-old Stallings went to Dallas to play in a 36-hole qualifier Monday for the U.S. Open next month in Brookline, Massachusetts. He shot 8 under and placed 11th to get into his third U.S. Open and 12th major overall.
“That was a huge goal, probably the biggest goal I had of the year, is to play the Open up there,” Stallings said Friday. “Probably the only time in my career I’ll have an opportunity to play a major championship in New England where at least half my family lives, my sister lives just down the road.”
Stallings had eight birdies and five bogeys in his first round at Colonial. There were no bogeys on Friday, and no birdies until four in the middle of the round — at Nos. 8, 9, 11 and 12. The three-time PGA Tour winner added another at No. 14, then finished by rolling in a 28-foot birdie putt.
Having the momentum of qualifying for the U.S. Open “carry over into the week was nice to see, and take advantage of a day that we definitely haven’t seen very often here,” said Stallings, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, but now lives in Tennessee, where he went to school at Tennessee Tech.
Jordan Spieth, another local favorite and No. 9 in the world, shot 66. He birdied his first two holes and had a 35-foot birdie putt when finishing on the ninth hole. Spieth was tied for 12th at 5 under.
The 2016 Colonial winner, Spieth was the runner-up at Hogan’s Alley for the third time last year, when he led after each of the first three rounds before a final-group showdown with Jason Kokrak the last day. Defending champ Kokrak is even par through two rounds this year.
Fifth-ranked Justin Thomas missed the cut at 3 over a week after winning the PGA Championship for the second time. His 72 on Friday included going 6 over in a four-hole stretch midway through the round — bogeys at No. 7, 8 and 10, and triple-bogey 7 at No. 9 without going in the water.
It is the second year in a row the PGA winner played the following week at Colonial and missed the cut. Last year it was Phil Mickelson.
Hossler, in his 136th PGA Tour event and still looking for his first victory, had a more steady second round after his exciting finish Thursday, when he had two eagle 2s his last four holes, though both hole-outs came immediately after bogeys.
“Certainly, yesterday was more of an up-and-down round. Today felt frankly, never really stress-free, but as stress-free as it’s going to get,” Hossler said. “It felt like I was in play. I never was that out of position.”
Nick Taylor, ranked 244th in the world, took the solo lead for the second day in a row. The Canadian dropped into a share of the first-round lead with a bogey on his final hole, and Friday shot 6-over 41 on his final nine holes after five birdies in his first nine holes to make his turn at 9 under.
__
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-05-28T19:18:40+00:00 | pahomepage.com | https://www.pahomepage.com/sports/colonial-lead-cut-from-8-to-3-scheffler-stallings-hossler/ |
Pieces brings its predictive analytics directly to the Epic Patient List to enable early interventions and reduce manual effort for front-line staff
DALLAS, Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pieces, a healthcare AI company, announced that it is now available in the Epic App Market Gallery as an App Blossom. The application auto-generates physician-driven insights and predictions to enable early interventions, including clinical summaries of patients, projected discharge dates, and barriers to discharge directly within the Epic Patient List.
"The ongoing national labor shortage is contributing to higher costs and capacity constraints, and health systems are continually challenged to do more with less. Pieces uses AI to get things done for busy physicians, nurses, and case managers." says Ruben Amarasingham, MD, founder, and CEO of Pieces.
Pieces, who already works with Epic customer sites, will be live with this more advanced integration in health systems this year.
"Pieces Predict optimizes the systems and processes that constitute a large portion of the clinician's day and having Predict in the Patient List will deliver critical insights directly into the care team's current workflow in real time, enabling more proactive care without added chart review. We can help hospitals alleviate resource pressures while maintaining a high quality of care for patients," added Amarasingham.
Pieces Predict enables care teams to intervene early and efficiently. By reducing manual effort, providers and care managers can work more efficiently within hospitals and healthcare systems. Predicting outcomes leads to early detection and intervention to prevent adverse events and improvement on capacity issues impacted by excess length of stay and readmissions.
Pieces Predict helps care teams more proactively care for their patients. The application uses natural language processing, predictive modeling, and machine learning technology to garner insights from the EHR, structured and unstructured, that helps providers identify and manage clinical and non-clinical barriers to discharge throughout the patient's stay. The application has supported institutions in reducing their excess length of stay by as much as 88%. For more information, or to request a demo, visit www.piecestech.com.
Pieces, Inc. is a healthcare artificial intelligence and data science company that addresses clinical and social determinants of health through intelligent software and services. Using cloud-based artificial intelligence with clinically based natural language processing (NLP) and physician-supervised machine learning, our tools help streamline clinician workflows and improve patient outcomes.
Epic and App Market are registered trademarks or trademarks of Epic Systems Corporation.
Contact:
Lindsey Duda,
Pieces
lindsey.duda@piecestech.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Pieces, Inc. | 2022-10-12T13:28:31+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/10/12/pieces-predict-now-available-epic-app-market/ |
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — The Danville Police Department is investigating after a 3-year-old girl died early Thursday morning from a supposed fall down a flight of stairs.
Deputy Chief Joshua Webb said officers were notified of a girl with serious injuries at OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center just after midnight on Thursday. Despite doctor’s efforts to provide treatment, the girl was unresponsive and ultimately died from her injuries. Preliminary medical reports suggest blunt force trauma as the cause of death.
Webb said the girl’s family members told officers she was injured after falling down the stairs at her home. Danville Police are investigating the incident and the nature of the girl’s injuries.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone who can provide information about what happened is asked to call Danville Police at 217-431-2250 or Vermilion County Crime Stoppers at 217-446-8477. | 2023-01-20T17:53:00+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/danville-police-investigating-after-3-year-old-dies/ |
It drew to a close with two minutes of silence observed across the United Kingdom. The attendees then sang the national anthem.
Monday has been declared a public holiday in honor of Elizabeth, who died Sept. 8 — and hundreds of thousands of people descended on central London to partake in the historic moment. Long before the service began, city authorities said viewing areas along the route of the funeral's procession were full.
Millions more had been expected to tune into the funeral live on television, and crowds flocked to parks and public spaces across the U.K. to watch it on screens. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby noted during the funeral that "few leaders receive the outpouring of love we have seen" for Elizabeth.
On the evening before, Charles issued a message of thanks to people in the U.K. and around the world, saying he and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, have been “moved beyond measure” by the large numbers of people who have turned out to pay their respects to the queen.
Following the funeral, the coffin — accompanied by units of the armed forces in dress uniforms and members of her family — was brought through the capital's streets.
At Wellington Arch near Hyde Park, it will be placed in a hearse to be driven to Windsor Castle — where Elizabeth spent much of her time — for another procession before a committal service in St. George’s Chapel. She will be laid to rest with her late husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.
U.S. President Joe Biden was among leaders to pay their respects at the queen’s coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the funeral.
Biden called Queen Elizabeth II “decent” and “honorable” and “all about service” as he signed the condolence book, saying his heart went out to the royal family.
People across Britain paused for a minute of silence at 8 p.m. Sunday in memory of the only monarch most have ever known. At Westminster Hall, the constant stream of mourners paused for 60 seconds as people observed the minute of reflection in deep silence.
In Windsor, rain began to fall as the crowd fell silent for the moment of reflection. Some camped overnight outside the castle in order to reserve the best spots to view the queen’s coffin.
Jilly Fitzgerald, who was in Windsor, said there was a sense of community among the mourners as they prepared to wait hours to see procession carrying the queen’s coffin.
“It’s good to be with all the people who are all feeling the same. It’s like a big family because everyone feels that … the queen was part of their family,” she said.
___
Associated Press journalists Sylvia Hui, Samya Kullab and David Keyton contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
Britain's King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at the Westminster Abbey for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Britain's King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at the Westminster Abbey for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Credit: Phil Noble
Gentlemen at Arms, the Queen's bodyguard take part in the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Ben Stansall/Pool via AP)
Credit: Ben Stansall
Gentlemen at Arms, the Queen's bodyguard take part in the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Ben Stansall/Pool via AP)
Credit: Ben Stansall
Credit: Ben Stansall
This photo issued by Buckingham Palace on Sunday Sept. 18, 2022, shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II photographed at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, in May 2022. (Ranald Mackechnie/Buckingham Palace via AP)
Credit: Ranald Mackechnie
Credit: Ranald Mackechnie
This photo issued by Buckingham Palace on Sunday Sept. 18, 2022, shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II photographed at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, in May 2022. (Ranald Mackechnie/Buckingham Palace via AP)
Credit: Ranald Mackechnie
Credit: Ranald Mackechnie
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is carried into Westminster Abbey for her funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, Pool)
Credit: Bernat Armangue
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is carried into Westminster Abbey for her funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, Pool)
Credit: Bernat Armangue
Credit: Bernat Armangue
Britain's Queen Elizabeth's coffin is carried inside the Westminster Abbey, during her funeral in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Britain's Queen Elizabeth's coffin is carried inside the Westminster Abbey, during her funeral in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Credit: Phil Noble
British Prime Minister Liz Truss takes her seat for the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Ben Stansall/Pool via AP)
Credit: Ben Stansall
British Prime Minister Liz Truss takes her seat for the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Ben Stansall/Pool via AP)
Credit: Ben Stansall
Credit: Ben Stansall
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at the Westminster Abbey on the day of Queen Elizabeth II funeral, in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at the Westminster Abbey on the day of Queen Elizabeth II funeral, in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Credit: Phil Noble
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is carried into Westminster Abbey ahead of her State Funeral, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Gareth Cattermole/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Gareth Cattermole
Credit: Gareth Cattermole
The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is carried into Westminster Abbey ahead of her State Funeral, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (Gareth Cattermole/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Gareth Cattermole
Credit: Gareth Cattermole
Members of the armed forces march during the funeral procession for Queen Elizabeth II in London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Rupert Frere/Ministry of Defence via AP)
Credit: Rupert Frere
Members of the armed forces march during the funeral procession for Queen Elizabeth II in London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Rupert Frere/Ministry of Defence via AP)
Credit: Rupert Frere
Credit: Rupert Frere
Britain's King Charles II, Prince William and Prince Harry attend the state funeral and burial of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Britain's King Charles II, Prince William and Prince Harry attend the state funeral and burial of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Guardsmen take their positions ahead of the Queen Elizabeth II funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, Pool)
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
Guardsmen take their positions ahead of the Queen Elizabeth II funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, Pool)
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
British Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Credit: Frank Augstein
British Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Credit: Frank Augstein
Credit: Frank Augstein
Britain's Kate, Princess of Wales, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive at the Westminster Abbey for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Britain's Kate, Princess of Wales, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive at the Westminster Abbey for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Monday Sept. 19, 2022. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Phil Noble
Credit: Phil Noble
A person holding a Paddington Bear stuffed toy stands with members of the public outside Buckingham Palace waiting to watch Queen Elizabeth II funeral procession, in central London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Pool)
Credit: Christophe Ena
A person holding a Paddington Bear stuffed toy stands with members of the public outside Buckingham Palace waiting to watch Queen Elizabeth II funeral procession, in central London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Pool)
Credit: Christophe Ena
Credit: Christophe Ena
King Charles III waves as he is driven to Westminster Abbey for the funeral of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in central London Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Credit: Alberto Pezzali
King Charles III waves as he is driven to Westminster Abbey for the funeral of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in central London Monday Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Credit: Alberto Pezzali
Credit: Alberto Pezzali
Britain's King Charles III and Princess Anne salute during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Britain's King Charles III and Princess Anne salute during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Credit: Hannah Mckay
King Charles III and Princess Anne follow the coffin of their mother Queen Elizabeth II to Westminster Abbey for her funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, Pool)
Credit: Petr David Josek
King Charles III and Princess Anne follow the coffin of their mother Queen Elizabeth II to Westminster Abbey for her funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, Pool)
Credit: Petr David Josek
Credit: Petr David Josek
People make their way along the Long Walk towards Cambridge gate outside Windsor Castle to lay flowers for the late Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor, England, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. The Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four full days before her funeral on Monday Sept. 19. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Credit: Gregorio Borgia
People make their way along the Long Walk towards Cambridge gate outside Windsor Castle to lay flowers for the late Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor, England, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. The Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for four full days before her funeral on Monday Sept. 19. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Credit: Gregorio Borgia
Credit: Gregorio Borgia
Police officers take positions ahead of the Queen Elizabeth II funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, Pool)
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
Police officers take positions ahead of the Queen Elizabeth II funeral in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, Pool)
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
Credit: Vadim Ghirda
A woman cries in Hyde Park while watching the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on giant screens, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in London. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Credit: Lewis Joly
A woman cries in Hyde Park while watching the State Funeral Service of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on giant screens, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in London. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Credit: Lewis Joly
Credit: Lewis Joly
The crown lies on the coffin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as it is carried into the Westminster Abbey, during her funeral in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
The crown lies on the coffin of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as it is carried into the Westminster Abbey, during her funeral in London Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)
Credit: Hannah Mckay
Credit: Hannah Mckay | 2022-09-19T12:03:10+00:00 | springfieldnewssun.com | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/nation-world/queen-elizabeth-ii-mourned-at-funeral-by-britain-and-world/U7FXKZGSYREVJFHIOVIPAVSMEY/ |
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Browder began her writing in earnest in 2012 when she enrolled in a fiction writing program at Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Louisville, Ky. She accumulated numerous awards and recognitions for her short stories, and she was published in many literary publications and magazines.
Becky Moore Browder grew up in Clinton,S.C.She met her future husband, Glen Browder, at Presbyterian College, also in Clinton. Becky had a knack for writing, even as a child, and was able to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree later in life.
JACKSONVILLE — When Becky Browder died in September 2021, she left behind an unpublished book of short stories about an interest of hers: bad men, foolish women and lost children. The theme is common in Southern literature, and despite it also being universal, she understood the Southern view because she had been raised in mill villages in small Southern towns in South Carolina, towns that, in days gone by, were characterized with people earning low wages and working in unhealthy conditions. Alcohol abuse, family violence and desperation sometimes characterized the people living there.
Becky’s husband, the now-retired U.S. Rep. Glen Browder, will speak about his wife’s book that was published posthumously, “Sorry Men in Southern Literature: 21 Original Short Stories.” An event is set for 2 p.m., Saturday, March 18, at the Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County. The area’s shelter for victims of domestic violence, 2nd Chance, Inc., is sponsoring the event. | 2023-03-12T23:23:09+00:00 | annistonstar.com | https://www.annistonstar.com/features/entertainment/books/a-loving-husband-promotes-late-wife-s-book/article_bf180220-c100-11ed-b286-a777a576a662.html |
The Patriots offseason program just got shorter.
According to a source, the Patriots are losing two days of OTAs after violating offseason rules. The team already canceled Thursday’s practice, which was supposed to be open to the media. The Patriots will also lose a day of OTAs next week. They were initially scheduled to practice next Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
ESPN was the first to report the news of the team’s violation.
Although the Patriots violation isn’t known at this time, history suggests that OTA violations typically center around player contact in what should be non-contact practices.
The Patriots were originally set for 13 practices this spring – 10 days of OTAs and three days of minicamp. That’s the standard set for all NFL teams. This violation will cut them down to eight days of optional OTAs to go with their three-day minicamp.
- Related: Mobile sports betting is live in Massachusetts on FanDuel. Get started with $200 in bonus bets
OTAs, also known as organized training activities, started this week across the NFL. The Patriots practiced on Monday and Tuesday. They were scheduled for one more, on Thursday, but the team canceled that session around 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
This period marks Phase Three of the NFL offseason workout program. It’s the first time in the offseason where teams can practice with the offense going up against the defense in 11-on-11, 9-on-7 and 7-on-7 drills. However, no contact is allowed. Players are also not allowed to wear pads during this period.
The Patriots aren’t the first team to be docked a spring practice for a violation. Last year, the Chicago Bears lost one day of OTAs after having a live-contact practice in May. According to ESPN, an NFLPA representative witnessed the on-field contact and reported the violation.
In 2021, the NFL fined the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers for OTA violations - those infractions were never announced.
In 2018, the Baltimore Ravens lost two days of OTAs and their head coach, John Harbaugh was fined $50,000 for an undisclosed violation of offseason rules. In 2016, the NFL brought down the hammer on the Seattle Seahawks. They were docked a future fifth-round pick and lost a week of OTAs for the next offseason after having “excessive contact” in their offseason workouts.
Seattle was also disciplined in 2012. In that offseason, they were docked two days of OTAs after the NFL discovered the team engaged in live contact during a practice session.
- Massachusetts online sports betting is here. Learn more about the top sportsbook operators in MA such as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM. | 2023-05-25T01:55:10+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/patriots/2023/05/patriots-lose-two-days-of-otas-after-violating-nfl-rules-source.html |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Panel del 6 de enero aprueba emitir citación a Trump para que rinda testimonio; debe "responder por sus acciones", dice.
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It might sound strange, but goats are being credited with helping stop the spread of a wildfire in California.
A fire burned a little more than an acre in the Salinas Riverbed south of the Niblick Bridge in Paso Robles in the northern part of California on Tuesday afternoon.
Fire officials say crews could quickly contain the fire because of goat and sheep grazing that was recently completed in the area. The animals are used as a fuel abatement technique, eating up potentially hazardous grass and brush.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but fire officials say it started next to an encampment where people are experiencing homelessness.
In June, National Geographic highlighted how authorities in California and Arizona have embraced using goats to clear land of vegetation and have had success using the technique, which has been around for quite a while. The technique has been used in places like Greece and Australia, which use herbivores to clear dry brush and prevent fires.
Goat herds are being contracted out to clients in need of animals that can eat unwanted vegetation and plants which can be fuel for wildfires.
Alissa Cope, the owner of California's Sage Environmental Group said, “When we got started it was for habitat restoration, and I just got tired of dumping gallons of herbicide on everything," she told National Geographic.
She explained that once a goat eats vegetation, the seeds can't continue to be spread, which is an added benefit.
“When goats eat the seed, it goes through their digestive tract, and it becomes nonviable. It doesn't grow after it comes out the other end, which is really amazing,” she said.
This story was originally published by KSBY in California's Central Coast. | 2022-07-27T01:30:20+00:00 | tmj4.com | https://www.tmj4.com/news/national/firefighters-credit-goat-grazing-for-quick-containment-of-brush-fire |
Jessie Diggins became the first-ever U.S. skier to win an individual world title Tuesday in Slovenia. She's already the most decorated American cross-country skier ever — even before this latest win.
Copyright 2023 NPR
Jessie Diggins became the first-ever U.S. skier to win an individual world title Tuesday in Slovenia. She's already the most decorated American cross-country skier ever — even before this latest win.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-03-01T00:27:49+00:00 | nepm.org | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2023-02-28/skier-jessie-diggins-becomes-first-american-to-win-an-individual-world-title |
Xander Bogaerts came in ninth place and Rafael Devers finished in 14th place for the 2022 American League MVP.
Aaron Judge, who set an AL record with 62 homers, won with 28 of 30 first-place votes. Shohei Ohtani, who came in second place, received the other two first-place votes.
Bogaerts received one fourth-place vote, two sixth-place votes, two seventh-place votes, two eighth-place votes, seven nine-place votes and five 10th-place votes.
Devers received one seventh-place vote, one eighth-place vote and three 10th-place votes.
Bogaerts opted out of his contract’s remaining three years, $60 million to become a free agent Nov. 7, after the World Series ended. He batted .307 with a .377 on-base percentage, .456 slugging percentage, .833 OPS, 15 homers, 38 doubles, 84 runs and 73 RBIs in 150 games (631 plate appearances).
Devers batted .295 with a .358 on-base percentage, .521 slugging percentage, .879 OPS, 42 doubles, 27 homers, one triple, 88 RBIs and 84 runs in 141 games (614 plate appearances) in 2022. He’s eligible for free agency after the 2023 season. | 2022-11-18T01:26:50+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2022/11/red-soxs-xander-bogaerts-rafael-devers-receive-al-mvp-votes-aaron-judge-wins.html |
WFO AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, April 23, 2023
_____
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
Severe Weather Statement
National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio TX
603 AM CDT Sun Apr 23 2023
...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 615 AM CDT
FOR CENTRAL MAVERICK COUNTY...
At 603 AM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 8 miles northeast of
Chula Vista, or 9 miles east of Eagle Pass, moving east at 20 mph.
HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to
roofs, siding, and trees.
Locations impacted include...
Eagle Pass, Chula Vista, Rosita, Las Quintas Fronterizas and Eidson
Road.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a
building.
Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to
flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.
...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central DeWitt and
southeastern Gonzales Counties through 645 AM CDT...
At 606 AM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near
Westhoff, or 10 miles north of Yorktown, moving northeast at 25 mph.
HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and half inch hail.
IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around
unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is
possible.
Cuero, Yoakum, Cheapside, Westhoff, Hochheim, Dreyer, Edgar, Sample,
Hamon, Concrete, Wrightsboro and Cost.
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.
This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio
stations and available television stations for additional information
and possible warnings from the National Weather Service.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 200 PM CDT for
south central Texas.
LAT...LON 2899 9733 2911 9762 2912 9762 2947 9754
2938 9724 2921 9707
TIME...MOT...LOC 1106Z 215DEG 20KT 2914 9749
MAX HAIL SIZE...0.50 IN
MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH
_____
Copyright 2023 AccuWeather | 2023-04-23T11:59:54+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/weather/article/tx-wfo-austin-san-antonio-warnings-watches-and-17913420.php |
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