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When Dereck Paul was training as a doctor at the University of California San Francisco, he couldn't believe how outdated the hospital's records-keeping was. The computer systems looked like they'd time-traveled from the 1990s, and many of the medical records were still kept on paper.
"I was just totally shocked by how analog things were," Paul recalls.
The experience inspired Paul to found a small San Francisco-based startup called Glass Health. Glass Health is now among a handful of companies who are hoping to use artificial intelligence chatbots to offer services to doctors. These firms maintain that their programs could dramatically reduce the paperwork burden physicians face in their daily lives, and dramatically improve the patient-doctor relationship.
"We need these folks not in burnt-out states, trying to complete documentation," Paul says. "Patients need more than 10 minutes with their doctors."
But some independent researchers fear a rush to incorporate the latest AI technology into medicine could lead to errors and biased outcomes that might harm patients.
"I think it's very exciting, but I'm also super skeptical and super cautious," says Pearse Keane, a professor of artificial medical intelligence at University College London in the United Kingdom. "Anything that involves decision-making about a patient's care is something that has to be treated with extreme caution for the time being."
A powerful engine for medicine
Paul co-founded Glass Health in 2021 with Graham Ramsey, an entrepreneur who had previously started several healthcare tech companies. The company began by offering an electronic system for keeping medical notes. When ChatGPT appeared on the scene last year, Paul says, he didn't pay much attention to it.
"I looked at it and I thought, 'Man, this is going to write some bad blog posts. Who cares?'" he recalls.
But Paul kept getting pinged from younger doctors and medical students. They were using ChatGPT, and saying it was pretty good at answering clinical questions. Then the users of his software started asking about it.
In general, doctors should not be using ChatGPT by itself to practice medicine, warns Marc Succi, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital who has conducted evaluations of how the chatbot performs at diagnosing patients. When presented with hypothetical cases, he says, ChatGPT could produce a correct diagnosis accurately at close to the level of a third- or fourth-year medical student. Still, he adds, the program can also hallucinate findings and fabricate sources.
"I would express considerable caution using this in a clinical scenario for any reason, at the current stage," he says.
But Paul believed the underlying technology can be turned into a powerful engine for medicine. Paul and his colleagues have created a program called "Glass AI" based off of ChatGPT. A doctor tells the Glass AI chatbot about a patient, and it can suggest a list of possible diagnoses and a treatment plan. Rather than working from the raw ChatGPT information base, the Glass AI system uses a virtual medical textbook written by humans as its main source of facts – something Paul says makes the system safer and more reliable.
"We're working on doctors being able to put in a one-liner, a patient summary, and for us to be able to generate the first draft of a clinical plan for that doctor," he says. "So what tests they would order and what treatments they would order."
Paul believes Glass AI helps with a huge need for efficiency in medicine. Doctors are stretched everywhere, and he says paperwork is slowing them down.
"The physician quality of life is really, really rough. The documentation burden is massive," he says. "Patients don't feel like their doctors have enough time to spend with them."
Bots at the bedside
In truth, AI has already arrived in medicine, according to Keane. Keane also works as an ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and says that his field was among the first to see AI algorithms put to work. In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an AI system that could read a scan of a patient's eyes to screen for diabetic retinopathy, a condition that can lead to blindness.
That technology is based on an AI precursor to the current chatbot systems. If it identifies a possible case of retinopathy, it then refers the patient to a specialist. Keane says the technology could potentially streamline work at his hospital, where patients are lining up out the door to see experts.
"If we can have an AI system that is in that pathway somewhere that flags the people with the sight-threatening disease and gets them in front of a retina specialist, then that's likely to lead to much better outcomes for our patients," he says.
Other similar AI programs have been approved for specialties like radiology and cardiology. But these new chatbots can potentially be used by all kinds of doctors treating a wide variety of patients.
Alexandre Lebrun is CEO of a French startup called Nabla. He says the goal of his company's program is to cut down on the hours doctors spend writing up their notes.
"We are trying to completely automate all this wasted time with AI," he says.
Lebrun is open about the fact that chatbots have some problems. They can make up sources, get things wrong and behave erratically. In fact, his team's early experiments with ChatGPT produced some weird results.
For example, when a fake patient told the chatbot it was depressed, the AI suggested "recycling electronics" as a way to cheer up.
Despite this dismal consultation, Lebrun thinks there are narrow, limited tasks where a chatbot can make a real difference. Nabla, which he co-founded, is now testing a system that can, in real time, listen to a conversation between a doctor and a patient and provide a summary of what the two said to one another. Doctors inform their patients that the system is being used in advance, and as a privacy measure, it doesn't actually record the conversation.
"It shows a report, and then the doctor will validate with one click, and 99% of the time it's right and it works," he says.
The summary can be uploaded to a hospital records system, saving the doctor valuable time.
Other companies are pursuing a similar approach. In late March, Nuance Communications, a subsidiary of Microsoft, announced that it would be rolling out its own AI service designed to streamline note-taking using the latest version of ChatGPT, GPT-4. The company says it will showcase its software later this month.
AI reflects human biases
But even if AI can get it right, that doesn't mean it will work for every patient, says Marzyeh Ghassemi, a computer scientist studying AI in healthcare at MIT. Her research shows that AI can be biased.
"When you take state-of-the-art machine learning methods and systems and then evaluate them on different patient groups, they do not perform equally," she says.
That's because these systems are trained on vast amounts of data made by humans. And whether that data is from the Internet, or a medical study, it contains all the human biases that already exist in our society.
The problem, she says, is often these programs will reflect those biases back to the doctor using them. For example, her team asked an AI chatbot trained on scientific papers and medical notes to complete a sentence from a patient's medical record.
"When we said 'White or Caucasian patient was belligerent or violent,' the model filled in the blank [with] 'Patient was sent to hospital,'" she says. "If we said 'Black, African American, or African patient was belligerent or violent,' the model completed the note [with] 'Patient was sent to prison.'"
Ghassemi says many other studies have turned up similar results. She worries that medical chatbots will parrot biases and bad decisions back to doctors, and they'll just go along with it.
"It has the sheen of objectivity: 'ChatGPT says you shouldn't have this medication. It's not me – a model, an algorithm made this choice,'" she says.
And it's not just a question of how individual doctors use these new tools, adds Sonoo Thadaney Israni, a researcher at Stanford University who co-chaired a recent National Academy of Medicine study on AI.
"I don't know whether the tools that are being developed are being developed to reduce the burden on the doctor, or to really increase the throughput in the system," she says. The intent will have a huge effect on how the new technology affects patients.
Regulators are racing to keep up with a flood of applications for new AI programs. The FDA, which oversees such systems as "medical devices," said in a statement to NPR that it was working to ensure that any new AI software meets its standards.
"The agency is working closely with stakeholders and following the science to make sure that Americans will benefit from new technologies as they further develop, while ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medical devices," spokesperson Jim McKinney said in an email.
But it is not entirely clear where chatbots specifically fall in the FDA's rubric, since, strictly speaking, their job is to synthesize information from elsewhere. Lebrun of Nabla says his company will seek FDA certification for their software, though he says in its simplest form, the Nabla note-taking system doesn't require it. Dereck Paul says Glass Health is not currently planning on seeking FDA certification for Glass AI.
Doctors give chatbots a chance
Both Lebrun and Paul say they are well aware of the problems of bias. And both know that chatbots can sometimes fabricate answers out of thin air. Paul says doctors who use his company's AI system need to check it.
"You have to supervise it, the way we supervise medical students and residents, which means that you can't be lazy about it," he says.
Both companies also say they are working to reduce the risk of errors and bias. Glass Health's human-curated textbook is written by a team of 30 clinicians and clinicians in training. The AI relies on it to write diagnoses and treatment plans, which Paul claims should make it safe and reliable.
At Nabla, Lebrun says he's training the software to simply condense and summarize the conversation, without providing any additional interpretation. He believes that strict rule will help reduce the chance of errors. The team is also working with a diverse set of doctors located around the world to weed out bias from their software.
Regardless of the possible risks, doctors seem interested. Paul says in December, his company had around 500 users. But after they introduced their chatbot, those numbers jumped.
"We finished January with 2,000 monthly active users, and in February we had 4,800," Paul says. Thousands more signed up in March, as overworked doctors line up to give AI a try.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-04-05T11:10:37+00:00 | kosu.org | https://www.kosu.org/news/news/2023-04-05/doctors-are-drowning-in-paperwork-some-companies-claim-ai-can-help |
Julie Pospisilova scores 1,000th point in Wisconsin basketball's victory over Valpo
MADISON – For a player who never considered herself a scorer before coming to Wisconsin, it was fitting that Julie Pospisilova’s 1,000th point started with her filling the stat sheet in another way.
The senior guard stole a pass with 3½ minutes left in the first quarter and pushed the ball ahead to Sania Copeland. Copeland then gave the ball back to Pospisilova as she approached the three-point line.
The native of the Czech Republic squared up and let her second shot of the night fly.
Splash!
With the bucket, Pospisilova became the 28th 1,000-point scorer in the history Badgers women's basketball program and the first international player to accomplish the feat. The play was the headline-grabbing moment of a 59-44 victory over Valparaiso at the Kohl Center on Wednesday night, a non-conference game that was rescheduled from December due to bad weather.
“I try to put the team first, but to accomplish something personal is cool and I will probably never forget this moment ever,” Pospisilova said.
Overall, the victory, which raised UW’s record to 7-14, was a marked by a slow start for the Badgers that the team turned around with sterling free throw shooting, their best game protecting the ball since their win over Minnesota Jan. 8 and defense, an effort punctuated by five shot-clock violations on the Beacons.
Pospisilova finished with 10 points, and though she didn’t shoot well, she contributed seven rebounds, three assists and four steals. Freshman forward Serah Williams finished with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting with seven rebounds and Copeland, a freshman guard, finished with nine points and 26 minutes, both season highs.
Stepping out of conference in the middle of Big Ten season can be a challenge and that appeared to be the case early. Valpo scored 12 of the first 14 points. Soon thereafter the Badgers kicked it in gear with a 20-0 run that turned that a 10-point deficit into a 22-12 lead with 7½ minutes left in the first half.
“It’s a tough week – Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday for the games – but at the same time I think our kids figured out in the second half, really kind of settled in a little bit and understood this is how they’re calling it and we’re here, let’s make sure we accomplish what we came here to do,” Wisconsin coach Marisa Moseley said.
Valpo cut that deficit to 24-22 at the half, but the Badgers steadily pushed that lead to 10 by the end of the third quarter. It was UW’s best shooting quarter of the game – 7 for 14 – and the worst for the Beacons, who hit 27.4% in the quarter (3 for 11) and was held to 31.3% for the game.
“We just needed to be better on the defensive side and force some stops," Pospisilova said. "We were successful, especially when we were in zone and just when you get stops, the offensive side is easier. That gave us a little bit of momentum and we were able to keep it up until the end.”
Williams reached double figures for the fifth straight game, a stretch in which she has averaged 16.6 points per game.
Copeland, meanwhile, had the most effective performance of her young career. She made three of her six shots, including two of five from three-point range.
“Sania has continued to grow with her confidence and I think in her shooting and her playmaking,” Moseley said. “I thought defensively she was locked in and understood what we’re trying to do. She brings a different dynamic to our team. She’s quick. She can get into passing lanes. She runs the floor well and I think when she has her feet set and she’s feeling good, shots are going in.”
Copeland also got the assist on Pospisilova’s 1,000th point, helping her teammate become the first Badger to reach the milestone since Imani Lewis two years ago.
Little did Pospisilova know it, but she is also the first player Moseley has coached to reach 1,000 points.
“I think it’s a testament to all the work she’s put into her game, understanding what her role is on this team and how she can impact it in a lot of different ways,” Moseley said. “A lot of people like to just score. Julie is willing to do whatever our team needs to win.” | 2023-01-26T05:21:37+00:00 | jsonline.com | https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/college/uw/2023/01/26/julie-pospisilova-reaches-milestone-wisconsin-basketball-beats-valpo/69838477007/ |
FT. MYERS, Fla. (AP) _ AliCo. (ALCO) on Monday reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $20.7 million.
On a per-share basis, the Ft. Myers, Florida-based company said it had net income of $2.74. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 6 cents per share.
The agribusiness and land management company posted revenue of $49.6 million in the period.
Alico shares have climbed 4% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Monday, shares hit $38.57, a rise of 25% in the last 12 months.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ALCO at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ALCO | 2022-05-09T20:53:51+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Alico-Fiscal-Q2-Earnings-Snapshot-17160232.php |
ShoalsFest announces lineup for 2022 festival
Published: May. 17, 2022 at 7:00 PM CDT|Updated: 27 minutes ago
FLORENCE, Ala. (WAFF) - The music lineup for one of the Shoals’ biggest festivals has officially been announced!
The 2022 ShoalsFest will be held at Florence’s McFarland Park on Oct. 1-2. This two-day electrifying event will feature popular artists including Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit.
The following artists will perform on Saturday, Oct. 1:
- Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
- Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
- Danielle Ponder
- In the round with Jason Isbell
- John Paul White
- Chris Tompkins and Gary Nichols
- Wanda Band
- Steve Trash
The following artists will perform on Sunday, Oct. 2:
- Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
- Driving N Cryin
- Amanda Shires
- John Moreland
- Billy Allen + The Pollies
- Steve Trash
Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. CST. For more details, visit shoalsfest.net
Copyright 2022 WAFF. All rights reserved. | 2022-05-18T00:28:06+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/2022/05/18/shoalsfest-announces-lineup-2022-festival/ |
Gary Gaines, coach of ‘Friday Night Lights’ fame, dead at 73
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - Gary Gaines, coach of the Texas high school football team made famous in the book and movie “Friday Night Lights,” has died. He was 73.
Gaines’ family said in a statement the former coach died Monday in Lubbock after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Gaines made many stops in West Texas during a 30-year coaching career, but was best known for a four-year stint leading the highly successful program at Odessa Permian. Gaines returned to Permian later in his career.
His 1988 team was chronicled in Buzz Bissinger’s bestselling book, which portrayed a program and school that favored football over academics and attributed racist comments to assistant coaches.
Gaines, who was played by Billy Bob Thornton in the 2004 movie, said he never read the book and felt betrayed by Bissinger after the author spent the entire 1988 season with the team.
The book, which portrayed Gaines as a compassionate coach caught in the win-at-all-costs culture of a high school program in football-crazed Texas, also was turned into a TV series.
Permian lost in the state semifinals in 1988, a season that included the loss of star running back James “Boobie” Miles to a knee injury during a preseason scrimmage. Miles’ character played a prominent role in the movie.
The book described scenes of “for sale” signs being placed in the front yard of Gaines’ home. His record from 1986-89 was 47-6-1.
Gaines led Permian to the fifth of the program’s six state championships with a perfect season in 1989, then left to become an assistant coach at Texas Tech.
He later coached two of Permian’s rivals, Abilene High and San Angelo Central, before returning to college as the coach at Abilene Christian. Another four-year run as Permian’s coach started in 2009, and Gaines also was a school district athletic director in Odessa and Lubbock.
“I just can’t find the words to pay respects,” retired coach Ron King, a former Permian assistant, told the Odessa American. “It’s a big loss for the coaching profession. There are a lot of coaches he took under his wing and mentored.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2022-08-23T04:39:11+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/2022/08/23/gary-gaines-coach-friday-night-lights-fame-dead-73/ |
Catcher Salvador Perez has been activated off the injured list by the Kansas City Royals and will be in the lineup against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
Perez missed nine games after suffering a sprained thumb in a game against the Chicago White Sox on May 17. He was placed on the IL the following day.
The seven-time All-Star was off to a slow start this season before the injury, batting just .206 with six home runs and 16 RBIs in 34 games. The 2015 World Series MVP led the majors with 48 homers and 121 RBIs last season.
In a related roster move, the Royals optioned catcher Sebastian Rivero to the minors. | 2022-05-28T16:50:30+00:00 | espn.com | https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33999404/kansas-city-royals-salvador-perez-returns-9-game-absence |
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabis Community College is pleased to announce the launch of its new online education platform, featuring high-value classes taught by industry experts. Students can take courses and get certified at their leisure with every course recording available on-demand. The platform also allows marketplace thought leaders from all over the world the opportunity to promote and sell their knowledge on a highly sophisticated, completely automated back-end system.
Cannabis Community College was specifically developed for job seekers, employees, and enthusiasts of the cannabis industry. The platform is one-of-a-kind, teaching every legal state's educational requirement to work in a licensed marijuana establishment, including state-specific compliance, standard operating procedures, and many essential courses developed to ensure that the students are properly trained with the necessary knowledge and technical skills to work in a variety of settings.
"We are kicking off the updated platform by showcasing our 5 Course Bundle titled "Cannabis Essentials" which was developed by some of the top names from several of the largest public and privately held, vertically integrated, multistate operators in the country," said Christi McAdams, CCC Chairman.
"We did this specifically for two reasons: first, to provide leverage to job seekers applying in a highly competitive market where a single job post easily produces hundreds of applicants, and second, to offer employers a simple and streamlined way to train newly hired staff."
The Cannabis Essentials 5 Course Bundle includes the following courses:
- The state-specific, Compliance Essentials course taught by industry experts, Nova Cobble and Conor Gorman and advised by Pieter Hoolboom and Mark Kimble.
- The Cultivation Essentials course taught by master grower, Evan Marder
- The Dispensary Essentials course taught by dispensary owner, Brenda Gunsallus
- The Production Essentials course taught by Lead Extract Technician, Jordan Annalora from Body and Mind
- The Cultivating A Cannabis Career course taught by HR leader, Bryan Olson
In an effort to reduce barriers to entry, Cannabis Community College is providing its Cannabis Essentials 5 Course Bundle to individuals for an introductory rate of $270, a fraction of the cost of traditional higher education. Payment plans and scholarships are available.
Students and graduates from Cannabis Community College also have access to their online community, various clubs such as the Global Cannabis Industry Networking Group, and live educational webinars. They can also participate in the Cannabis Intern Project, which helps place students at licensed facilities across the country.
For more information about Cannabis Community College, visit www.cannabiscommunitycollege.com
Media contact:
Rachelle Gordon
rachelle@dankwords.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Cannabis Community College | 2022-09-07T22:22:50+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/09/07/cannabis-community-college-announces-new-online-education-platform/ |
MT. LEBANON, Pa. — It really was never supposed to be my forever home.
Two years ago, I took one last look at what had been home for most of my adult life and decided to say thank you instead of goodbye.
Thirty-one years earlier, I crossed the threshold of 260 with a six-day-old infant and a boisterous 3-year-old.
Home is never really a place as much as it is a kaleidoscope of experiences that range from soaring highs to heartbreaking lows with plenty of ordinary in between. If you embrace those moments, they never go away, despite leaving the structure where you hung your hat every night.
My practical engineer father winced the first time he and my mother came to see the house. First, I dared to find a place to live outside the neighborhood they and both of my sisters did. And second, because the house was old, with old creaky windows, crooked floors and ancient plaster that dimpled the wallpaper the previous owner desperately used to cover its flaws.
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My father saw work; I saw potential. He saw endless trips with his toolbox; I saw a home ready to be loved. It took 31 years and a lot of elbow grease. Still, the wall-to-wall carpeting was torn out, the floors sanded, the wallpaper ripped down and every room painted a vibrant color to bring out the character.
It was here my daughter Shannon hit her first baseball over the top of the roof, kicked the soccer ball endlessly off the back of the foundation and fell asleep in her walk-in closet sitting straight up while listening to a yoga CD.
Also, it's where my son Glenn wore holes into two fence slats practicing pitching a baseball. He overshot the basketball hoop causing the ball to land on the bakery roof next door. He used to open the window to his bedroom and crawl out onto the sunroom roof to read a book.
All in all, a score of windows fell to the children playing a sport of some kind. My favorite moment is the roller hockey game in the driveway that led to a hockey puck sailing through the stained-glass front door window and landing at my feet in the living room.
It was the home both of the children's friends (sometimes the entire team) came to, to "carb up" with great big bowls of homemade pasta and sauce the night before the big game. It was here all the children's friends came after a big win or loss to celebrate or commiserate the moment.
I always thought it was funny that despite all the homes in Mt. Lebanon, they came to ours. There was no game room, fancy television or sofas in our basement; it was literally a basement with a couple of used couches pushed together.
My guess is they came for the food.
Things were tight in our home. We may have lived in one of Pittsburgh's wealthiest suburbs, but we didn't have much. Clothes shopping for them was not Abercrombie & Fitch at the mall; it was Goodwill. When they had soccer or baseball or football camps or tournaments to attend, my father kept a ledger of the times I had to borrow money and pay him back so they could attend.
There were plenty of times I would silently cry on the landing between the first and second floor when the children were asleep and after I paid the bills. I wondered how we were going to get by on the little amount left in the checkbook.
The children never complained about their clothes. They never complained when we couldn't always eat out after soccer or football games with the other families. And they kind of enjoyed looking for spare quarters to fill up the gas tank.
They never complained because we had this place called home. It was a place that, for 31 years, we hosted the Feast of the Seven Fishes for the entire extended family. It meant an early morning trip to the Strip District to get our fish from Wholey's and our Italian delicacies from Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., and great big cups of coffee from La Prima to keep us going.
Constructed in 1929, 260 is a Dutch colonial. The first owners were the Sumters, who lived a soap-opera life filled with infidelities, intrigue and a questionable suicide. It set the tone for scores of owners who never lasted longer than a few years.
The Bradfutes were one of the more extended owners. He was the local justice-of-the-peace and served as an air raid siren captain in the 1940s during World War II. In 2018 when I redid the attic, I found a portfolio of his daughter Carol's charcoal drawings — hundreds of them — done as a student at Carnegie Tech (presently called Carnegie Mellon University), revealing a very rare view of the 1930s Pittsburgh landscape and fashion.
When I left, I knew the only appropriate thing to do was leave them at 260 with the new owners. It didn't seem right to take them; they belonged there in all their historic beauty. They were part of the house, not part of my home.
My father was right: 260 was a lot of work.
I was right, too. She lived up to her potential; so much love passed that threshold, so many dreams realized, so many struggles, heartbreaks and failures, as well.
She gave shelter to the three of us for a very long time. She was a gracious host for proms, graduations, birthdays, family gatherings with uncles and aunts who have long passed. It also served as the place for an annual Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newsroom Christmas party and even several Burns Suppers.
It's the house where my son-in-law Michael picked Shannon up for their first date and where my son Glenn hugged me goodbye when he left for Colorado to make his way in the world.
The note he left me in the attic came to the new home, as did the memory.
My parents always taught me to leave a place better than how you found it. At the time, they weren't really talking about a house, but the sentiment applies.
They always taught me to be grateful and always show grace, no matter the situation. As I pulled away from 260 two years ago, I thanked her for letting us love her and for loving us back, and I told her to take good care of the new owners. | 2022-12-20T23:10:30+00:00 | magicvalley.com | https://magicvalley.com/opinion/zito-moving-from-a-house-youve-made-a-home-dont-say-goodbye-say-thank-you/article_50371f04-8068-11ed-a84a-571f79d8a3ae.html |
OTTAWA, ONTARIO (AP) — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday celebrated the close, “inseparable” U.S.-Canada relationship and vowed that the two nations remain committed to defending Ukraine as it tries to repel a Russian invasion that has no end in sight.
Biden and Trudeau met just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks for the first time since the start of the war. The Chinese and Russian leader agreed to deepen economic bonds between their two countries. But Biden argued that Western resolve remains stronger and warned Russia that the U.S., Canada and their allies would defend “every inch of NATO territory.”
The president also bristled at the notion that Russia has managed to expand a partnership with Beijing that is allowing Moscow to sustain its economy and war effort despite the U.S. lining up an international coalition to economically isolate Russia with a barrage of sanctions. China, however, thus far has refrained from providing Russia weapons since the start of the war, according to the White House.
“We have significantly expanded our alliances,” Biden said with Trudeau by his side during a joint news conference. “Tell me how in fact you see a circumstance where China has made a significant commitment to Russia? What commitment can they make?”
At an earlier appearance with Biden before the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau said his country — which has provided Kyiv with artillery, ammunition, armor and tanks — remained committed to Ukraine’s cause.
“As you well know, Mr. President, Canada will continue to stand strong with Ukraine, with whatever it takes,” Trudeau said.
The whirlwind visit by Biden — his first visit to Canada as president — was meant to showcase U.S.-Canada ties, and both leaders offered full praise of each other.
Biden, addressing Canada’s Parliament, even said the U.S. was “lucky” to have Canada as its neighbor as both countries grapple with the rapidly changing global economy, climate change, war in Europe and more.
“Today our destinies are intertwined and they are inseparable,” Biden said. “Not because of inevitability of geography, but because it’s a choice, the choice we made again and again.”
“Two people, two countries, in my view sharing one heart.”
On one often-difficult subject, immigration, Biden and Trudeau used the visit to announce an agreement aiming to stem the flow of asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings from the U.S. to Canada.
The accord eliminates a loophole under existing rules and will allow both countries to turn away asylum seekers at their borders. At the same time, Canada announced that 15,000 migrants from the Western Hemisphere will be given official slots to apply to enter the country.
The leaders also sat down with top aides for a private conversation. Besides Ukraine and defense spending, the wide-ranging talks touched on shared concerns about China’s aggressiveness and violence and political instability in Haiti.
Trudeau noted Beijing’s growing economic power and a need for the U.S. and Canada to work together to address it. To that end, Canada said Friday it was entering an arrangement with IBM to expand domestic research and development and advanced packaging of semiconductors — and planning an investment of up to $250 million to “improve North American competitiveness and supply chain resiliency, help cut pollution, foster economic and national security.”
Trudeau also spoke of a need to coordinate even more closely to combat climate change and grow both countries’ economies.
“We have to stick together,” Trudeau said. “We have to continue to face down authoritarian threats, both at home and abroad. We have to continue to defend what is right. This is not the time to compromise on our values.”
At their joint news conference later, Biden briefly veered away the day’s themes to send a warning to Tehran, after a suspected Iranian-made drone on Thursday killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeast Syria.
U.S. forces responded to the attack with airstrikes on sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Activists said the U.S. bombing killed at least four people.
“The United States does not, does not seek conflict with Iran,” Biden said. But he said Iran and its proxies should be prepared for the U.S. “to act forcefully to protect our people.”
The subject of difficult relations with China was an undercurrent of Biden’s visit.
Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, arrested in China in 2018, were in the balcony for the speeches in Parliament.
The two were taken into custody shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, technology company Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, on a U.S. extradition request. The Canadians were held for more than than two years in China before the Biden and Trudeau governments managed to win their release. Kovrig is a former diplomat, Spavor a businessman.
Regarding Haiti, Canada is being nudged by the U.S. and other allies to lead an international mission there to deal with the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis. Canada on Friday announced $100 million ($72.7 million U.S.) in new aid for support and equipment for the Haitian National Police.
Biden said the idea of deploying an international force was “not in play at the moment” but had not been taken off the table. Trudeau said the international community can have the most impact in the long term by being “there to support the capacity of the police in Haiti.”
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the country’s Council of Ministers sent an urgent appeal last October calling for “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the crisis caused partly by the “criminal actions of armed gangs.” But more than five months later, no countries have stepped forward. Canada’s top military official has suggested the country doesn’t have the capacity.
Biden endorsed Trudeau’s efforts to focus on capacity building but also noted the situation in Haiti remains fragile as “gangs have essentially taken the place of the government.”
“It’s a work in progress,” he said.
Friday’s meetings also included discussion of defense spending, an issue that’s in the spotlight after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that traversed part of Canada and the continental U.S. last month.
Canada has long faced calls to increase its defense spending to 2% of its gross domestic product, the agreed-upon target by NATO members. Ottawa spends about 1.2% now.
“Canada and the United States share a responsibility and a commitment to make sure NATO can deter any threat and defend against any aggression from anyone,” Biden said. “That’s the bedrock of the security of both our nations.”
The Trudeau government also announced plans for a $7.3 billion ($5.3 billion U.S.) project to upgrade and build infrastructure to support the arrival of a new fleet of F-35 fighter jets.
Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, closed the visit Friday night with a gala dinner in honor of Biden and first lady Jill Biden. | 2023-03-25T00:27:02+00:00 | cenlanow.com | https://www.cenlanow.com/politics/ap-politics/biden-trudeau-to-hold-talks-on-migration-haiti-and-more/ |
BEREA, Ohio – Deshaun Watson sprinted onto the field to a light round of cheers Saturday at the Cleveland Browns' first open practice of training camp.
The noticeably muted reaction reflected the uncertainty surrounding Cleveland’s controversial new quarterback.
Watson was the focal point as the Browns worked out in front of a near-capacity crowd at their suburban headquarters. He briefly waved while running to the middle of the practice fields, but did not speak with the media.
The 26-year-old quarterback is awaiting a decision from retired judge Sue L. Robinson. She's determining if Watson violated the NFL’s personal conduct policy after being accused of sexual misconduct by 24 massage therapists. A lengthy suspension is possible.
“I can’t wait for us to get to play together, whichever week we see him,” Cleveland tight end David Njoku said. “Hopefully, it’s sooner than later. I’m excited. I can’t wait.
“But it’s not hard, we just have to take each day as it is. Whoever we have, we have to put our best foot forward and just keep working.”
Watson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, signed a five-year, $230 million contract with the Browns after being acquired from Houston in exchange for three first-round draft picks in March. He was a member of the Texans during all of the alleged incidents.
Two separate Texas grand juries declined to indict Watson on any of the criminal complaints. He has settled 20 of the 24 civil lawsuits filed against him, and the attorney representing the women has said he hopes to take the other four to trial next spring.
There were no boos directed toward Watson at practice, but All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett and standout running back Nick Chubb were welcomed onto the field with much louder, prolonged ovations.
“You can tell by the turnout that people want to go all-out for the Browns, but I think fans are being cautious,” said Hans Schneider, a 21-year season ticket holder and mayor of Wellington, Ohio. “Once a decision is made with Deshaun, there will be clarity.
“I’m very respectful of both sides, but regardless of the decision, some people will be happy and some will be unhappy about it.”
Watson did interact with several dozen young fans following the 80-minute practice, patiently signing autographs and taking photos on the sideline. He also gave away his cleats as prizes for playing games of rock, paper, scissors.
The lucky winners were 10-year-old Tanner Hall and 9-year-old Barrett Radel, who were wearing Chubb and Garrett jerseys. Only a handful of adults sported Watson’s No. 4, but the No. 6 of former Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield was well represented.
“I’m going to keep this in my room with me,” Radel said, beaming as he cradled Watson’s autographed shoe.
The fan interaction evoked warm memories for safety Grant Delpit, Cleveland’s second-round selection in 2020. The New Orleans native attended Saints practices as a pre-teen and was given an autographed football by his grandmother.
“I remember going to Saints training camp and that was the coolest thing ever,” Delpit said. “It’s cool to see it go full circle. I’m excited.”
Because of COVID-19 restrictions the past two summers, the Browns limited camp access to the public. Delpit is eager to make up for lost time.
“I haven’t really been here with (full access to) fans before, so we’re going to have some fun, man,” Delpit said. “I’m going to meet some kids and make some kids’ day. We’re going to try and make some people’s day out here.”
NOTES: The players will have their first day off Sunday after starting camp with four lower-intensity practices. “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of dog days in training camp where the players aren’t going to like me much,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. …
Garrett’s chiseled 6-foot-4, 272-pound physique remains a popular subject with his teammates. “I don’t know what else could change, it can’t get much bigger,” Delpit said. “He’s not getting no smaller. He’s the same Jurassic Myles.” …
Rookie WR Isiah Weston (knee) was carted off the field, joining Anthony Schwartz (left knee strain) and rookie David Bell (foot) with camp injuries at the position.
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | 2022-07-30T23:22:30+00:00 | wsls.com | https://www.wsls.com/sports/2022/07/30/deshaun-watson-gets-muted-reaction-at-browns-open-practice/ |
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Experts on Wednesday raised concerns over a new policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria that heavily limits withdrawals of money in a push for a cashless economy.
The monetary policy, which applies to ATMs, banks and cash back from purchases, follows the launch of the West African nation’s newly designed currency notes to control the money supply.
The central bank limited weekly over-the-counter cash withdrawals to 100,000 naira ($225) for individuals and 500,000 naira ($1,124) for corporations, with a processing fee required to access more.
When the policy takes effect in Jan. 9, ATMs will no longer dispense Nigeria’s high denominations of 1,000 naira ($2.25) and 500 naira ($1.10) while withdrawals from ATMs and point-of-sale terminals also will be limited to 20,000 naira ($45) daily.
“In compelling circumstances, not exceeding once a month, where cash withdrawals above the prescribed limits are required for legitimate purposes, such cash withdrawals shall not exceed 5,000,000 naira ($11,236) and 10,000,000 naira ($22,471) for individuals and corporations, respectively,” said Haruna Mustafa, the bank’s director of banking supervision.
Policymakers say the withdrawal limits and recent monetary initiatives from the central bank would bring more people into the banking system and curb currency hoarding, illicit flows and inflation.
But analysts worry that with digital payments often unreliable in Nigeria, the initiative could hurt daily transactions that people and businesses make.
“The policy is intended to cause discomfort, to move you from cash to cashless because they (the central bank) have said they want to make it uncomfortable and expensive for you to hold cash,” economic analyst Kalu Aja said.
“That is a positive for the CBN (because) the more discomforting they are able to achieve, the more people can move,” Aja said.
In Nigeria, the majority of people work in the informal sector — mainly activities outside of the legal framework and government regulation such as farming, street and market trade, and public transport. The economy is heavily dependent on this sector, and cash is usually preferred for transactions because many lack bank accounts.
Only 45% of adults in Nigeria have accounts with regulated financial institutions, according to the World Bank. In the absence of bank accounts, point-of-sale terminals have emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas of financial inclusion in the country.
Through the withdrawal limits, the central bank is “directly attacking” such agency banking services and “people will essentially begin to hoard their money,” said Tunde Ajileye, a partner at Lagos–based SBM Intelligence firm.
“It is not going to drive people to start to try doing electronic transactions. On the contrary, it is going to move people away from the financial institutions,” he said. | 2022-12-08T11:47:27+00:00 | cbs4indy.com | https://cbs4indy.com/business/ap-business/ap-experts-raise-concerns-as-nigeria-limits-cash-withdrawals/ |
STOCKHOLM, July 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV) and (SSE: ALIVsdb), the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, and POC, a global leader in snow sports and cycling protection, have joined forces to study and develop bicycle and e-bike helmets equipped with airbag technology to improve head protection and reduce the consequences of an impact.
Head injuries alone account for half of the deadly bicyclist injuries. Although it is established that helmets are beneficial to head safety, the latest Bicycle Safety report by Swedish insurance company Folksam makes the case that helmet absorption efficiency could still be greatly improved, especially when collisions occur with a car at speeds above 20 km/h (12 mph).
POC and Autoliv have been working together to assess the potential of using airbag technology in helmets. The airbag would act as the initial energy absorber while the underlying helmet would be the following energy absorber.
After conducting a pre-study, conclusion from the Autoliv research team is that a cycle helmet with an integrated airbag can significantly improve protection and reduce the consequences of impacts to cyclists. The combination of both absorbing technologies enables a reduction of the peak linear head acceleration and significantly reduced head injury risk in impact tests. The pre-study also showed that the protection improvements could be reached without critically compromising the design, weight, or comfort of a helmet designed with integrated airbag technology.
"Autoliv is committed to the vision of Saving More Lives and to providing world class life-saving solutions for mobility and society. The safety of vulnerable road users, such as bicyclists and e-bike riders, is high on our agenda. Therefore, it was natural to collaborate on this initiative with POC, a leader in bicyclist safety, to explore how to improve helmet protection in current standard testing and more challenging scenarios, such as higher impact speeds," says Dr. Cecilia Sunnevång, Vice President Research, Autoliv.
The pre-study showed that the addition of airbag technology on top of the helmet can significantly contribute to enhanced safety performance, especially in linear impacts. It is estimated that the risk for a bicyclist to sustain moderate to fatal head injuries is reduced from 80% to 30% in a 20 km/h (12 mph) impact.
"Our safety mission drives everything we do, and we always challenge conventional thinking in order to improve protection. Helmets are tested and certified in a laboratory setting and can never fully address all the real-world variables of bike crashes. Together with Autoliv, who are world-renowned and have some of the most advanced testing and research facilities in the field, we have embarked on a development journey with airbag technology, asking ourselves what could be done to excel in current test scenarios and push the envelope towards even more shock absorbing capacity," says Oscar Huss, Chief Product Officer, POC.
Finding new ways to save lives
Boosted by the increased environmental consciousness and the emergence of e-bike commuting, the number of bicycle riders worldwide is increasing rapidly. This growth needs to be supported by an improved helmet protection, especially at higher speeds enabled by e-biking. During the pre-study, Autoliv and POC developed the initial concepts by advanced simulation tools and conducted correlated physical crash tests. The successful outcome of the pre-study will now lead to further testing and refinement with the objective of developing the concept further and potentially bringing a product to the market.
Autoliv has formed Mobility Safety Solutions (MSS) to extend its business into new market areas beyond light vehicles and occupant safety. By combining our core competence and industry experience, MSS develops and manufactures mobility safety solutions such as pedestrian protection, battery cut-off switches, connected safety services, and safety solutions for riders of powered two-wheelers.
Read more about our findings – https://campaign.autoliv.com/helmet-with-airbag.
Inquiries Autoliv:
Media: Gabriella Ekelund, Tel +46 706 12 64 24
Investors & Analysts: Anders Trapp, Tel +46 858 72 06 71
Investors & Analysts: Henrik Kaar, Tel +46 858 72 06 14
Inquiries POC:
Media: Damian Philips, POC, Head of Global PR and communication, damian.phillips@pocsports.com
mobile: +46 702 77 69 44
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
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SOURCE Autoliv | 2022-07-11T06:52:17+00:00 | wafb.com | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/11/autoliv-poc-join-forces-reduce-cyclist-head-injuries-helmet-with-an-integrated-airbag/ |
McCarthy preps House GOP debt deal to draw Biden into talks
By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy has convened House Republicans to unveil his proposal to raise the nation’s debt limit. The package would limit future federal spending increases to 1%. The closed-door session Tuesday is designed to test support for the plan ahead of a possible House vote as soon as next week. The Republican leader’s proposal has almost no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But McCarthy hopes it would serve to draw President Joe Biden into negotiations. First, though, the embattled speaker has to unite fractured House GOP factions and actually pass the legislation. Some Republicans remain deeply skeptical, showing the limits of McCarthy’s grip on his majority. | 2023-04-18T17:25:40+00:00 | kyma.com | https://kyma.com/news/2023/04/18/mccarthy-preps-house-gop-debt-deal-to-draw-biden-into-talks/ |
When NASA's Artemis I launches next week on a journey to the moon, no animals or people will be onboard, but it will still carry biology investigations to see how living things react to the deep space environment. The Orion spacecraft will carry items like yeast, algae, fungi and seeds rather than a traditional crew.
The findings from these experiments are essential in helping to pave a path toward the safe return of humans to the moon and an eventual crewed landing on Mars through future Artemis missions.
The Artemis team expects the inaugural mission to launch between 8:33 a.m. ET and 10:33 a.m. ET on Monday, August 29. After liftoff, the Orion spacecraft will set off on a 42-day journey, traveling farther beyond the moon than any spacecraft ever intended to carry humans has ventured, including the Apollo missions.
Experiments traveling with Orion, both inside and outside of the spacecraft, will be exposed to the radiation of the deep space environment that exists beyond low-Earth orbit, where the International Space Station is located.
This includes three mannequins riding inside of Orion. Two of the mannequins are wearing protective gear, including an improved flight suit and a vest. The many sensors attached to the mannequins will capture data on how much vibration and radiation they experience during the trip, among other exposure factors, that could help inform solutions to protect astronauts on upcoming missions.
These are just some of the experiments that will soon take flight on a lunar journey -- and their findings could change the future of space exploration.
Shoebox-size missions in space
Some of the most intriguing payloads tagging along on the Artemis I mission are 10 CubeSats. These small satellites are each about the size of a shoebox, and they carry and test out science and technology demonstrations. Each one weighs about 25 pounds (11 kilograms).
Despite their tiny size, some of the CubeSats will make a big impact by shedding new light on the lunar environment that will help sharpen the design of exploration systems, according to Jacob Bleacher, NASA chief exploration scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Once Orion is in space, the upper stage of the rocket will separate from the spacecraft. When this milestone happens, the CubeSats will set out on their own, each deployed for unique destinations on individual missions that could last from a few days to a couple of years.
Four of the space satellites will focus on the moon, three will analyze radiation, and two serve as technology demonstrations.
And then there's the 10th mini satellite, known as the Near-Earth AsteroidScout. Developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, this CubeSat will go on a roughly two-year cruise to capture images and study a small asteroid. When NEA Scout eventually reaches its target, it will be 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth -- and the first CubeSat to reach an asteroid.
A solar sail that measures 925 square feet (86 square meters) in area will propel the CubeSat. The thin reflective sail, which resembles aluminum foil, will test the sail as a primary propulsion system in deep space.
The four lunar-bound CubeSats are named Lunar IceCube, LunaH-Map, LunIR and OMOTENASHI.
Lunar IceCube will search for water and other elements in orbit around the moon. LunaH-Map will create high-fidelity maps of the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole, where future Artemis missions intend to land, and detect near-surface hydrogen. And LunIR will capture images of the lunar surface using infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency developed the OMOTENASHI, or the or the Outstanding MOon exploration TEchnologies demonstrated by NAno Semi-Hard Impactor experiment. It's considered to be the world's smallest lunar lander.
The tiny spacecraft will test out the technology and maneuvers needed to make a semihard survivable landing on the moon. As OMOTENASHI descends toward the moon, it will make a free fall. Its airbags and shock absorption mechanism serve as buffers to help the satellite survive the fall.
"I often like to say that science is our toolbox for survival during exploration," Bleacher said, noting that these experiments will aid in keeping future crew safe and optimizing hardware durability.
How life reacts to space
An array of sensors within the interior of the Orion spacecraft will detect how much radiation exposure future human crews may face. Capturing this data will allow NASA and its partners to work on the best ways to shield Artemis astronauts.
Inside Orion will be NASA's Biology Experiment-1, which will investigate the impact of radiation on the DNA repair of fungi, the adaptation of yeast, the nutritional value of seeds and the gene expression of algae.
"Each of these four experiments will help us understand a unique aspect of how biological systems can adapt and thrive in deep space," said Sharmila Bhattacharya, NASA program scientist for space biology, in a statement. "Gathering information like this and analyzing it after flight will eventually help us paint the full picture of how we can help humans thrive in deep space."
Traveling outside of Orion will be the CubeSat BioSentinel, developed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, where Bhattacharya is based. The satellite will carry single-celled yeast to measure what happens when living organisms experience radiation exposure for long periods of time.
BioSentinel will be the first long-duration biology experiment in deep space, according to NASA scientists. Once it swings by the moon, the satellite will orbit the sun for six to nine months.
The yeast cells, which have similar biological mechanisms as seen in human cells, will likely experience radiation damage. The CubeSat's biosensor technology will monitor growth and metabolic activity of the yeast cells throughout the journey.
The impacts experienced by the yeast microorganisms could help scientists better understand what humans may experience when they travel beyond low-Earth orbit.
"BioSentinel is the first of its kind," said Matthew Napoli, BioSentinel project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center, in a statement. "It will carry living organisms farther into space than ever before."
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Golf star Brooks Koepka got the best birthday present one could ask for when his wife, Jena Sims, announced the two were expecting their first child.
The four-time major winner and Sims married last June after dating for the previous five years.
Sims posted the photo of the couple at the beach with Koepka holding a sonogram and Sims showing off her tiny baby bump.
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"happiest birthday, the best is yet to come," Sims wrote on Instagram.
Sims also posted a shot of her husband kissing her stomach and another photo of a birthday cake that read "HBD daddy."
PATRICK CANTLAY HIRES TIGER WOODS' LONGTIME CADDIE JOE LACAVA AMID UNCERTAINTY FOLLOWING ANKLE SURGERY
Koepka drew controversy when he was one of golf's superstars to join the Saudi-backed LIV tour last year. He admitted during the Masters that his injuries had played a factor into the decision, but said he was content with the move.
The 33-year-old turned heads when he reverted to his 2017-2019 form when he was the 54-hole leader at the Masters last April, but Jon Rahm overcame the deficit to receive his first green jacket.
Koepka finished T-2nd, tying his best finish at Augusta from 2019 when Tiger Woods won the tournament for a fifth time. | 2023-05-03T23:19:12+00:00 | foxbangor.com | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/brooks-koepka-wife-jena-sims-announce-pregnancy/article_9ea5c337-d98f-56e0-ae93-39129e787302.html |
Community gathers for 'Stop the Violence' soul food cookout in Del Paso Heights
"Stop the Violence," that's the message organizers hope to spread as they bring the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento together for a soul food cookout.
People gathered on Sunday from 12-6 p.m.
"An event like this here helps because it creates unity," said Samuel Kinsey, an organizer of the event.
It featured food and music at Del Paso Park near Del Paso Heights Elementary School. The cookout is an annual get-together in the community but, Kinsey said, organizers wanted it to include the theme of "stop the violence" this year.
"The more we discuss it, the more awareness and the more people are getting involved in helping to stop it," Kinsey said.
Gloria Vice volunteered her time, serving up food to those who showed up.
"We gotta give out to the youngsters so we can bring the youngsters together to show them there's other ways to enjoy yourself than killing each other because that's all they're doing now. They're just killing each other and hurting each other. No, we gotta bring back to the community," Vice said.
When she talks about people turning their lives around, she speaks from experience.
"When I first got my first drugs, I ran out here to the Heights. So, I know how it is because I lost all my 20s and 30s in jail, but now I work for the state, 17 years," Vice said.
She explained that she works as a caregiver for the elderly.
"Don't say because you went to jail you can't change your life because I'm one of them that did," she said.
She said the key to that was surrounding herself with the right people, which is what the cookout is all about making positive connections in the community.
Kinsey said the cookout is something he looks forward to each year, where he can reunite with old friends and make new ones.
"This community means everything to me. I love this community," Kinsey said. | 2022-08-08T02:31:01+00:00 | kcra.com | https://www.kcra.com/article/community-gathers-stop-the-violence-soul-food-cookout-del-paso-heights/40828482 |
Keep your makeup from melting off no matter how high the temperature gets
From barbecues to days at the beach, there are plenty of things to love about summer. Makeup that fades or melts off definitely isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, with the higher temperatures and increased humidity, it can happen pretty easily.
But you aren’t doomed to melting, faded makeup just because the summer rolls around. If you use the right primer to hold your makeup in place, a high-quality powder to set your face products and a long-wearing lip stain to add color to your lips, your makeup can look fresh all summer.
If you’re tired of touching up every time you spend time in the sun, check out these top-rated makeup primers, powders and lip stains that can help you look fabulous in the hot sun.
Why does makeup melt in summer?
Makeup tends to melt and fade in summer because the higher temperatures and humidity levels make you more likely to sweat. Moisture always poses a problem for makeup, so melting foundation, running mascara and eyeliner and fading lipstick are all more common in the summer. Hot, humid weather can also cause your skin to produce more oil, and oily skin has more trouble holding onto makeup than normal or dry skin.
How to keep your makeup fresh in summer
Keep your makeup light
It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want your makeup to last on hot summer days, the key is to wear less of it. The more layers of makeup you have on your face — or the heavier your makeup is — the more likely it is to crease, cake and melt when exposed to heat and humidity. But if you wear less makeup, there’s a better chance it will stay in place.
For example, if you usually wear foundation to even out your skin tone, you may want to switch to a tinted moisturizer for summer. It offers a lightweight formula that absorbs more easily, so it isn’t just sitting on the surface of your skin where it can melt off. You can even skip all-over face makeup entirely and just use a concealer in the spots where you need some coverage.
Find a skin-friendly primer
No matter what type of makeup you choose for summer, you’ll always get better results if you start with a top-notch face primer. Primer creates a base for any makeup you put over it, so your foundation, tinted moisturizer, concealer, blush or bronzer has something to stick to for better staying power.
For summer, an oil-free primer is your best bet since you don’t want to add any more oil or moisture to your face. Formulas that contain silicone also work well because they can help fill in pores and other texture issues. It also provides a slightly tacky surface that grips the makeup and helps it stay in place all day.
Make powder your friend
Powder makeup products are usually better in summer because they can absorb oil and other moisture. That allows them to stay fresh longer than liquid or cream makeup. If you aren’t a fan of powder foundation, you can still use a liquid foundation or tinted moisturizer and then set it in place with a setting powder.
Layering powder and liquid products is another way to give your makeup longevity in summer. For example, you can use a light layer of liquid or cream blush and then dust a powder blush in a similar shade on top to lock in your cheek color.
Choose long-wearing formulas
Long-wearing makeup is always the go-to when you want your makeup to last all day. In summer, though, it may be a necessity. Longer-wearing formulas typically don’t have as much moisture as regular makeup, so they stand a much better chance of staying in place even in the face of heat and humidity.
For example, lip stains are an ideal choice for hot summer weather. They have a thinner, drier texture than lipstick or gloss, so they can stay in place for hours. Lip stains aren’t as drying or heavy as liquid lipsticks, though, making them more comfortable to wear when the weather is hot.
Long-wearing makeup is often waterproof, too. That means it not only withstands sweat, but you also can wear it around the pool or at the beach without worrying about it melting, running or fading.
Best makeup for primers, powders and lip stains for summer
Smashbox The Original Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Primer
This face primer is lightweight and oil-free, so it’s perfect for hot summer weather. It fills in pores and fine lines and provides a smooth canvas for your makeup. The finish is slightly tacky, too, so it grabs onto your makeup and keeps it in place all day.
Sold by Sephora, Ulta and Amazon
Milk Makeup Pore Eclipse Mattifying + Blurring Makeup Primer
Featuring a unique water cream formula, this lightweight primer provides a soft-matte finish that can keep your skin shine-free in summer. It contains all-natural lentil extract that regulates oil production and niacinamide to soften the look of pores. It’s also silicone-free for those with allergies.
Sold by Sephora
Urban Decay All Nighter Face Primer
This long-wearing primer grips your foundation and other face makeup, so it stays on even in the hot summer sun. It offers some hydration, though, making it ideal for dry skin. The formula is also vegan and cruelty-free.
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e.l.f. Cosmetics Power Grip Primer
This affordable foundation primer smooths the skin but also grips your makeup to help it last through the hottest summer days. It has a lightweight gel texture with a translucent finish and works well for all skin tones and types.
Clinique Stay-Matte Invisible Blotting Powder
This universal blotting powder absorbs excess oil and shine without disturbing the makeup under it. It leaves the skin completely matte and doesn’t impart any color, so all skin tones can use it. It’s oil-free and non-acnegenic, too.
Danessa Myricks Beauty Evolution Setting Powder
With a micro-fine texture and translucent, matte finish, this setting powder locks your makeup in place without getting cakey in the summer heat. It also helps absorb oil and controls shine throughout the day. It diffuses light to help blur the look of pores, too.
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NYX HD Finishing Powder Pressed Setting Powder
This silky soft setting powder has a matte finish that keeps your makeup in place all day. It also absorbs excess oil on the forehead, nose and shine and softens the look of pores and fine lines. It comes in a green shade that can color-correct redness and a banana shade to blur dark spots.
Yves Saint Laurent Tatouage Couture Liquid Matte Lip Stain
This lightweight lip stain provides rich color that lasts all day, even in the summer heat. Its thin texture doesn’t feather or fade and feels weightless on the lips. It comes in eight flattering shades, too.
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Fenty Beauty by Rhianna Poutsicle Hydrating Lip Stain
This unique lip stain goes on glossy but leaves a soft tint behind that wears all day. It also helps hydrate the lips and is extremely comfortable to wear. It won’t feather or bleed and comes in several bright, summer-ready shades.
L’Oreal Rouge Signature Lightweight Matte Lip Stain
With an ultra-thin formula, this lip stain delivers bold color but leaves your lips feeling completely bare. It has a matte finish that won’t budge all day and offers a unique precision applicator that makes it super-easy to apply. It’s available in 20 shades, too.
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2022-06-18T09:08:24+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/face-makeup-br/these-top-makeup-primers-powder-and-lip-stains-will-keep-your-makeup-fresh-in-the-hot-summer-sun/ |
The U.S. Army is offering the most significant bonus ever for new recruits. The maximum compensation in the past was $40,000, but new recruits who commit to six years of service can now receive a $50,000 bonus.
A competitive job market and schools closing have resulted in substantial challenges for Army recruiters. The pandemic decreased their ability to recruit at public events and in schools. In addition, high competition for workers provides more options for quality candidates.
The military branch hopes an additional cash incentive will attract more qualified young adults to sign up.
“We are still living the implications of 2020 and the onset of COVID, when the school systems basically shut down,” Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, head of Army Recruiting Command, told the Associated Press. “We lost a full class of young men and women that we didn’t have contact with, face-to-face.”
The Army will not offer the full bonus to all new recruits. Instead, incentive packages are based on a combination of factors, including the chosen career field, individual qualifications, length of the enlistment and the date a new recruit ships out for training.
For example, there are incentives ranging from $1,000 up to $40,000 for in-demand occupations. In addition, “Quick Ship” bonuses for those who agree to leave for Basic Combat Training within 90 days range from $2,000 to $9,000.
Other incentives, such as signing up for Airborne or Ranger schools, can net an additional $10,000 to $20,000. And for specific career paths, foreign language skills can be worth up to $40,000.
“This is an opportunity to entice folks to consider the Army,” Brig. Gen. John Cushing, who serves as the deputy commanding general for operations under Vereen at USAREC, said in a statement. “We’ve taken a look at the critical (military occupational specialties) we need to fill in order to maintain the training bases, and that is where we place a lot of our emphasis.”
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money. | 2022-09-09T17:18:23+00:00 | wkbw.com | https://www.wkbw.com/u-s-army-is-paying-signing-bonuses-up-to-50000-to-enlist |
HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday beat market expectations for revenue in its quarter ended June, even as revenue was nearly flat and the company continues to grapple with the fallout from increased regulatory scrutiny and slowing economy growth.
Alibaba reported revenues of 205.6 billion ($30.4 billion) for its quarter ended June, a 0.1% decrease from the same time last year. It was the first time that the company reported a contraction in sales. That was still better than the average analyst estimate of $30.09 billion, according to FactSet.
Net income plunged 50% to 22.7 billion yuan ($3.4 billion). Excluding one-time charges, adjusted earnings per ADS totaled $1.75, topping the average analyst estimate of $1.60 per share.
Its U.S.-listed shares rose 5% in early trading Thursday.
Alibaba had been hit hard in the last quarter as China locked down various cities around the country to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The decline in revenue was “mainly due to impacts from COVID-19 resurgence and restrictions that resulted in supply chain and logistics disruptions in April and most of May,” the company said in its earnings release.
Customers in the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, for example, were unable to shop online or even order food delivery during its two-month lockdown.
The Hangzhou-headquartered firm has also in recent years been scrutinized heavily by regulators, and has faced anti-monopoly fines. Its cloud business has also been linked to China’s largest cybersecurity breach, when a hacker online attempted to sell over a billion personal records purportedly from a Shanghai police database.
Alibaba is also facing fierce competition from rivals such as Pinduoduo, which has reported an increase in user numbers, as well as rival JD.com.
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission added Alibaba to a growing list of companies that could face delisting from the U.S. stock exchanges unless they give U.S. regulators unfettered access to their auditing processes and financial books.
Meanwhile, Alibaba is seeking a primary listing in Hong Kong by the end of the year that would allow mainland Chinese investors direct access to its stock as it seeks a more diversified investor base.
—
This story has been corrected to reflect that the decline in revenue was 0.1% in the second paragraph. | 2022-08-04T14:13:45+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Alibaba-revenue-beats-expectations-despite-17350908.php |
Ford on Wednesday announced plans to become a regular fixture at the Dakar Rally, starting in 2024.
The automaker will compete in the popular T1 class, initially using a custom rig resembling the previous-generation Ford Ranger. The class is open to non-production vehicles that meet FIA technical and safety standards, and typically includes vehicles with tubular chassis and composite bodies.
Ford last entered the Dakar Rally in 2014 with a custom Ranger powered by a 5.0-liter V-8 borrowed from a Mustang GT. That entry was run with Neil Woolridge Motorsport, a partnership that has been revived for the latest effort. Also involved is M-Sport, which has operated some of Ford’s rally programs, including in the World Rally Championship. M-Sport is also building the 5.4-liter V-8 for Ford’s new Mustang GT3 race car.
Ford’s contender, which is labeled the Ranger T1+, is powered by a turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6. It’s currently in the development stage and will make test runs during Spain’s Baja España Aragón and Morocco’s Rally du Maroc rallies in July and October, respectively, before entering the 2024 Dakar Rally.
The 2024 Dakar Rally will run January 5-19 in Saudi Arabia. The route will start in the thousand-year-old city of Al-Ula, crossing the country in the direction of the Empty Quarter, and finishing in Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea.
Ford said the 2024 rally will be used to gather data for future efforts, including developing a new vehicle for the 2025 rally that will resemble the redesigned 2024 Ranger Raptor performance pickup truck.
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- Ferrari takes historic 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans victory | 2023-06-15T00:09:36+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/automotive/internet-brands/ford-to-enter-2024-dakar-rally-with-wild-ranger/ |
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Nov. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alphyn Biologics, a clinical-stage dermatology company developing first-in-class multi-target therapeutics, announced today that it has completed the first cohort of its Phase2a clinical trial of AB-101a, a topical therapeutic candidate for mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis (AD) in adults and children as young as 2 years old. The first cohort enrolled AD patients without bacterial infection, which is sometimes associated with the disease. Top-line results are expected in approximately eight weeks.
The randomized, vehicle-controlled, double-blind trial is evaluating the treatment protocol of AB-101a across multiple sites using standard scales for assessing AD. Enrollment is ongoing in a second cohort of the trial, which uniquely is investigating the treatment in AD patients who are also suffering from bacterial infections, including staphylococcus aureus, or Staph, and MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant Staph. Alphyn anticipates AB-101a will be effective against non-infected AD and infected AD and expects it will offer patients and physicians a comprehensive, safe, and convenient treatment option.
AB-101a was developed using Alphyn's proprietary AB-101 platform. The platform has multiple bioactive compounds and, therefore, multiple mechanisms of action to potentially address multiple problems of any target disease. Alphyn began its clinical trial program in Phase 2 due to the strong safety profile of its AB-101 platform.
Alphyn Biologics is a clinical-stage dermatology company developing first-in-class multi-target therapeutics for severe and prevalent skin diseases based on its AB-101 platform. Its lead product candidate, AB-101a, is being developed as a topical treatment for atopic dermatitis (AD), the most common form of eczema. AB-101a has demonstrated a strong safety profile and is in development to uniquely target AD's immune system and bacterial components, making it ideal for treating non-infected and infected AD. Alphyn's AB-101 platform has multiple bioactive compounds and therefore multiple mechanisms of action to support a robust pipeline of dermatologic therapeutics that have potential safety, efficacy and regulatory marketing authorization advantages. Alphyn is based in Annapolis, Maryland and Cincinnati, Ohio, and has a wholly owned Australia subsidiary. The company became operational in 2020 and has raised approximately $6.9 million.
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SOURCE Alphyn Biologics | 2022-11-15T13:41:18+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/prnewswire/2022/11/15/alphyn-biologics-completes-first-cohort-phase2a-clinical-trial-topical-therapeutic-mild-to-moderate-atopic-dermatitis/ |
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
Kansas has cracked The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time in nearly 10 years after a huge win while South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 team.
The 22nd-ranked Jayhawks routed then 12th-ranked Arizona by 27 points on the road to break into the AP Top 25 released Monday.
The top five teams remained the same with the Gamecocks followed by Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame in voting by a 28-member national media panel.
Virginia Tech was sixth and will host the Fighting Irish on Sunday. Fellow ACC schools North Carolina and N.C. State were seventh and eighth.
UConn, which is beset with injuries, fell three places to ninth after losing at Maryland on Sunday. The Terrapins climbed five spots to 15th. UCLA moved up three spots to 10th.
Kansas, which is 9-0 for the fourth time in school history, last was in the poll on Jan. 14, 2013, when the Jayhawks were 23rd. They’ve been on the rise the last two years, finishing 21-10 last season for the program’s first 20-win season since 2012-13. Kansas lost to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
“We have 11 returners and four starters back from last year’s team so there were high expectations going into this year,” Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said. “We learned a lot in the NCAA Tournament. We just tried to upgrade our schedule in the non-conference. I feel like we’re a group that is pretty bought in on the defensive end right now. Still a ton of room for improvement on the offensive end.”
Schneider said he will address with his team their being ranked. The Jayhawks host Tulsa on Friday.
“More in terms of the trappings of complacency, and we’re still in the non-conference,” Schneider said. “We need to feel good about it in terms of the program’s validation. I think we talked about being a program on the rise and that the trajectory of our program is headed in the right direction.”
RISING UTES
Utah moved up to No. 13, the school’s best ranking since the Utes were 12th in 2008. Utah ‘s best ranking ever is 11th in 1998. The team opens Pac-12 play on Wednesday against Colorado.
TIP-INS:
Arizona fell to 20th after its loss to Kansas. … Michigan fell five spots to 19th after losing to Toledo. … Iowa State, which dropped four spots to 14th after falling to rival Iowa, will face No. 25 Villanova on Sunday in the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase game. … Columbia received votes in the AP poll for the first time in school history. The Lions have wins over Miami and UMass, who made the NCAA Tournament last season.
MILESTONE
Maryland coach Brenda Frese had a memorable week, earning her 600th victory in a buzzer-beating win over Purdue on Thursday. Her team then beat UConn for the first time on Sunday, also giving the coach her first victory against the perennial powerhouse. Frese coached at Ball State and Minnesota before taking over at Maryland in 2002. She’s 601-173 in her career.
___
AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2022-12-13T00:53:47+00:00 | wtmj.com | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/12/12/south-carolina-tops-womens-ap-top-25-kansas-cracks-poll-4/ |
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NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs no longer wants to be the bank for everyone.
The storied investment bank spent eight years attempting to expand its business beyond corporations and the wealthy. But in recent months, Goldman has signaled a partial retreat from those efforts by scrapping plans for a checking account broadly available to the public and mothballing its personal loan business. A popular savings account and a credit card business survive for now.
Last week, the bank disclosed that it had accumulated $3 billion in losses in its consumer banking franchise since 2020, mostly money set aside to cover potential loan losses in its Marcus personal loan business. Bank regulators are reportedly looking into whether the consumer business had proper safeguards in place as it grew larger.
The retreat in consumer banking comes as Goldman tries to refocus on its roots: advising corporations on deals, investing, and trading, and servicing the well-to-do. The firm's revenue from investment banking, trading and wealth management made up two thirds of total revenue last year.
“I think it became clear to us early in 2022 that we were doing too much, it was affecting our execution,” said David Solomon, Goldman’s chairman and CEO, in a call with analysts when the bank reported its results earlier this month.
Goldman’s push into consumer banking was one of the biggest changes in the firm’s 154-year history. The investment bank had to legally convert itself into a bank holding company in 2008 during the financial crisis to get access to the Federal Reserve’s emergency funding operations. That led to jokes within the industry that the Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs was going to issue something as commonplace as an ATM card.
The jokes became a reality when Goldman bought the assets of GE Capital and launched its online only savings account providing an above market interest rate. The savings account became an unexpected hit for Goldman, with waiting lists forming after its initial launch both in the U.S. and later in the U.K.
The online savings account is not going away, and is considered an asset by the firm, Solomon told investors. The firm now holds more than $100 billion in retail deposits, which is a cheap form of capital for the investment bank that historically hasn’t had access to such forms of financing.
The personal loan business, launched with great fanfare in 2016 with a broad advertising campaign under the brand Marcus, has been a trouble spot for the bank. Goldman Sachs executives acknowledged at the time of the launch that the Marcus brand was created to give Goldman — with its veneer of being a powerbroker between Washington and Wall Street — a much more friendly and reachable edge.
The unsecured personal loans, largely used by customers to consolidate credit card debt, became a burden during the coronavirus pandemic when millions of Americans could no longer pay their bills. The bank set aside billions of dollars to cover potentially bad loans and, unlike other big banks that were able to release those reserves in 2021 and 2022, Goldman largely had to keep adding to its reserves. New accounting standards that have required banks to model potential loan losses more aggressively also contributed to the decision to wind down the personal loan business.
The large losses have caught the attention of bank regulators, which have also been looking into Goldman’s personal lending operations. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Fed is investigating whether the firm had adequate safeguards around its personal loan business as it ramped up its lending.
“The Federal Reserve is our primary federal bank regulator and we do not comment on the accuracy or inaccuracy of matters relating to discussions with them,” a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said.
Investors have long questioned the need for Goldman to go into consumer lending. The bank kept the consumer banking operation under the umbrella of its wealth management division in its quarterly results, leading to criticism that Goldman was hiding Marcus’ losses from its investors.
“We have never understood the desire of (Goldman) to expand so much in consumer given such strength of its 150-year-old legacy franchise in capital markets,” wrote Mike Mayo, a long-time banking industry analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, in a note to investors.
One area Goldman isn’t retreating from is its relatively new credit card business, which the firm calls platform solutions. The firm is underwriter for the Apple Card, the popular credit card deeply embedded into Apple Pay that launched in 2019, as well as a co-brand credit card with General Motors. Goldman and Apple announced in October that they were extending their relationship until the end of the decade. Platform solutions also includes GreenSky, a fintech lender focused on home improvement loans, which the bank bought in 2021.
While the Apple Card and GM Card were major gets for Goldman, the new business has not been without its headaches for the firm.
The bank disclosed in August that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation’s financial watchdog was investigating its managing of credit card accounts, including issues with billing, credit reporting, dispute resolution and other routine credit card issues. | 2023-01-25T19:01:01+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/goldman-sachs-signals-partial-retreat-from-17741362.php |
Experts: Securing personal information is essential to protect yourself from fraud
A credit freeze is the best way to protection your financial data
InvestigateTV - Securing your personal data is essential to your financial well-being, as the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported that 47% of American adults have had their personal information exposed.
Whether it’s personal information comprised during data breaches or you unknowingly shared your data with scammers, security experts said there is information circulating online about each of us.
James Lee the COO of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) said credit monitoring is a great service that alerts you if a new account is opened under your name.
Lee suggested that in addition to credit monitoring, a credit freeze is something you should really consider since it’s the only thing that can stop a new account from being opened in your name.
He said credit monitoring has a place and you shouldn’t turn it down if it’s offered for free, but also warned it could lead to a false sense of security because monitoring alone doesn’t stop the crime from happening.
The ITRC has other suggestions for protecting your information including these top tips:
- Use a unique username and password at least 12 characters long for each online account
- Use multifactor authentication whenever possible
- Avoid public or unsecured WiFi networks
If you have been a victim of fraud, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) here.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-01-03T20:36:21+00:00 | kcbd.com | https://www.kcbd.com/2023/01/03/securing-your-personal-information-is-essential-protect-yourself-fraud/ |
The #1 Santa app globally announces a new personalized, interactive gift tag feature that brings the magic of Christmas to life
MONTREAL, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With less than a month until Christmas, the Portable North Pole (PNP) website and mobile app is gearing up for the holiday season with the launch of its new customizable Interactive Gift Tag for everyone to enjoy. Users can create a print-at-home personalized gift tag with a QR code for each of their loved ones. Scanning the QR code reveals their personalized video message from Santa – making for the ultimate Christmas gift-giving experience.
"Families from all over the world will be able to enhance the gift-giving experience with the brand-new Interactive Gift Tag, making the holidays even more memorable," said Alexandre Bérard, CEO of UGroupMedia Inc., the creators of Portable North Pole. "With PNP, parents can see their children's faces light up with the personalized gift tag and one-of-a-kind video message from Santa to keep the holiday spirit alive, especially for children and why not grown-ups too, year after year."
Included with the purchase of a Magic Pass, parents can create unlimited gift tags, tailoring each one to include the child's photo, name and a custom QR code that leads to a personalized video of Santa delivering the recipient's gift in their own living room.
In addition, Magic Pass users can also enjoy unlimited access to over 90 unique Premium video and call scenarios, adventure videos, audio and face-video calls from Santa, videos for multiple kids, reaction recorder, 1080 HD downloads, exclusive games, a singing and dancing contest, and more in the PNP mobile app. Each option is completely customizable and can be completed in just a few clicks.
Access amazing, personalized videos, calls, and more direct from Santa, along with the new Interactive Gift Tag feature by downloading Portable North Pole on the Apple App Store, Google Play or Amazon Appstore, or visit www.portablenorthpole.com.
About UGroupMedia Inc.
Parent company UGroupMedia Inc. (UGM), based in Montréal, Canada, specializes in making Christmas even more magical and publishing exclusively Portable North Pole digital experiences. Portable North Pole is available in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Italian.
Available on Google Play, the App Store, and the Amazon AppStore.
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Youtube • Twitter • TIK TOK
What is Portable North Pole: https://youtu.be/H37S-xErXhI
Media Contact:
Blaire Ritter
Bolt PR
(949) 995-1459
PNP@boltpr.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Portable North Pole | 2022-11-29T14:54:11+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/11/29/portable-north-pole-brings-santa-gift-giving-life-with-all-new-personalized-interactive-gift-tag/ |
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Department of Cultural Affairs | 2023-05-02T03:35:05+00:00 | kunm.org | https://www.kunm.org/tags/department-of-cultural-affairs |
In Sudan's capital Khartoum, Muhjah Khatib survived the first 10 days of fighting between two generals and their armies. Now, she makes her painful exodus to another country.
Copyright 2023 NPR
In Sudan's capital Khartoum, Muhjah Khatib survived the first 10 days of fighting between two generals and their armies. Now, she makes her painful exodus to another country.
Copyright 2023 NPR | 2023-05-09T10:45:06+00:00 | nepm.org | https://www.nepm.org/2023-05-09/a-single-mother-and-her-son-are-2-of-the-hundreds-of-thousands-fleeing-sudan |
ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Detroit Lions receiver Jameson Williams, suspended for the first six games of the season, said he was unaware of the NFL gambling policy that he violated.
“It hit me out the blue,” Williams told reporters Thursday. “And, it hit a couple other players around the league and on my team out the blue.”
The league suspended former Lions players Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore, along with Washington’s Shaka Toney, for the entire 2023 season in April for betting on NFL games last year, adding they may petition for reinstatement.
Williams, the No. 12 pick overall in 2022, and teammate Stanley Berryhill were benched for six games for betting on non-NFL games at a league facility.
“I wasn’t aware of this situation,” Williams said, insisting he didn’t recall what he bet on or where he gambled.
The former Alabama star, who missed much of his rookie season with a knee injury, said he was informed of the suspension a day before it was announced last month.
“I was sick,” he recalled. “I was hurt.”
Violations of the league’s gambling have been rare in recent years. Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entire 2022 season for gambling on NFL games and was later reinstated. In 2019, Arizona Cardinals cornerback Josh Shaw was suspended for gambling on an NFL game and he has not played in the league since.
“It’s an emphasis on the league right now,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “It’s a big thing. Our players know. We’ve tried to hammer it home. Certainly, we did after that point and a few more times and we’ll keep doing it.
Even though Williams said he was unaware of the NFL’s rules on gambling, he accepted responsibility for his costly actions.
“I broke a policy,” he said. “I pretty much looked past those things.”
NOTES: The Lions created a competition at kicker, acquiring Riley Patterson from Jacksonville for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2026 to push or perhaps replace Michael Badgley. … RB David Montgomery and LB Malcom Rodriguez left Thursday’s workout with injuries. Montgomery, signed in the offseason to an $18 million, three-year contract, appeared to hurt his lower left leg in a non-contact drill.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | 2023-05-26T12:56:55+00:00 | kdvr.com | https://kdvr.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-suspended-lions-wr-jameson-williams-says-he-wasnt-aware-of-nfl-rules-on-gambling-he-violated/ |
Over $200 Million in Lottery Prizes Won By Jackpocket Lottery App Users
NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Giaminh D. of Queens always told himself that if he ever won the lottery he would donate 10% to charity. Now this Mega Millions winner gets to make good on that promise. Today, Jackpocket, the leading third-party app in the U.S. to provide a secure way to order official state lottery tickets, announced its seventh millionaire in New York State, as Powerball tops $1.2 billion for Wednesday's drawing.
"When I think about winning, I'm usually thinking of $100 or even $1,000 but not that kind of money!" Giaminh said describing his reaction to finding out his Mega Millions ticket had won a $2 million prize.
The winner said he plans to donate to his favorite charity St. Jude's Children's Hospital. He will pay off his mortgage, make home improvements with the rest and then, "Who knows?"
Giaminh's ticket matched all five white ball numbers in the September 2nd drawing. The 2X Megaplier doubled his total prize.
A long time lottery player, Giaminh has been using the Jackpocket lottery app to order tickets for the last 3 months. Now that he's won big once, he hopes more wins are in his future. "You'll see me again!" he said.
"We're proud to facilitate this life-changing win for Giaminh," said Jackpocket Founder and CEO Pete Sullivan. "Jackpocket's mission is to make the lottery more accessible and convenient to play. As this historic Powerball climbs to $1.2 billion, it's easier than ever to play your favorite games from anywhere in New York."
In total, Jackpocket users in New York have won over $76 million in lottery prizes since the app's launch in the state in 2021. Nationwide, over $200 million in lottery prizes have been won on Jackpocket, and 20 individuals have won prizes worth $1 million or more to date.
Must be 18 or older to play. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY.
About Jackpocket
Jackpocket is on a mission to create a more convenient, fun and responsible way to play the lottery. The first licensed third-party lottery app in the United States, Jackpocket provides an easy, secure way to order official state lottery tickets. Jackpocket is currently available in Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and is expanding to many new markets. Download the app on iOS or Android and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Jackpocket | 2022-11-02T14:42:10+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/11/02/queens-man-celebrates-2-million-lottery-win-with-ticket-ordered-jackpocket-app/ |
More than 900 people in Colorado died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021. Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd talks with Denver District Attorney Beth McCann about the cases she’s seeing related to fentanyl in her city.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2022-10-14T19:16:58+00:00 | delawarepublic.org | https://www.delawarepublic.org/2022-10-14/a-colorado-district-attorney-on-how-fentanyl-is-affecting-her-city |
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:
9-4-3
(nine, four, three)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Numbers Evening" game were:
9-4-3
(nine, four, three) | 2022-05-02T04:17:36+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Numbers-Evening-game-17140721.php |
Pilgrim Rest Church of God in Unity is urged to 'Stay the course'
A pastor was honored Sunday for persevering through her journey to become a pastor after being called to lead God's people several years ago.
Pastor Gwendolyn Williams of Pilgrim Rest Church of God in Unity was the guest of honor at a service at the church held to celebrate her second anniversary as pastor of the church. Williams became pastor of the church, located at 1714 NE Eighth Ave., in 2020 during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I am thankful to be standing here today," Williams said. "Thank you to all who came here to celebrate with me today. This is kind of like the first celebration for me since the pandemic."
Williams said she answered the calling to be a pastor but never thought this day would come.
"It's been a long journey," she said. "I never thought I'd be a pastor. I strive to do God's will. I'm truly honored. God has supported me in this life. My heart is so full right now. I love you all."
The Pilgrim Rest COGIU praise ensemble sang four hymns then Deacon Raymond Daniels said the opening prayer.
"I thank God for all he's done," Daniels said. "Thank you for life, health and strength. Keep our flock together and let it be in faith and unity."
Deaconess Floretha Bryant shared an acronym which showed how much she loves Williams.
"P stands for perseverance," Bryant said. "Since the pandemic, she never missed a service. That means she is dedicated to the welfare of our church."
Bryant continued by saying 'A' stands for always active, 'S' for searching for answers, 'T' for trustworthy, 'O' for obedience to God's will and 'R' for running for her life.
"She is running for the prize which is the higher calling to praise Jesus Christ," Bryant said. "To God be the glory."
The church's youth department presented the pastor with a gift basket to show their appreciation for her time.
"Our pastor is giving and supportive and we want to take a moment to show her how much we appreciate her," Teah Leggon said.
First Lady Lana Green of Cohen Temple First Born Church of the Living God introduced her husband Bishop Timothy Green, pastor of Cohen Temple, who was the guest speaker during the service.
"Your reward will be determined by your labor," he said.
Timothy Green preached on the importance of pastors continuing the mission of the church regardless of popularity.
"Preach the word no matter if you have a large crowd," he said. "If you really love the people, you will preach. You can't be scared to tell the people to choose. Keep the word of God alive. "
He encouraged the congregation to open up to God's will to carry out their mission in life.
"I don't want to leave here with my works undone," he said. "Let God use you. Stay the course." | 2022-06-08T20:26:19+00:00 | gainesville.com | https://www.gainesville.com/story/lifestyle/2022/06/08/pastors-perseverance-fulfil-her-calling-preaching-honored-pilgrim-rest-church-god-unity-located-1714/7531094001/ |
BEIJING, Aug. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lingqiu County in north China's Shanxi Province has taken organic agriculture as an effective way to push forward the high-quality rural development.
Themed on "organic agriculture promotes high-quality rural development", the ninth China Datong Chehe International Organic Agriculture Forum was held on Saturday in Datong City, north China's Shanxi Province.
Nearly 100 well-known experts and scholars from home and abroad gathered together both online and offline to discuss the future development direction of organic agriculture.
The event was convened for the first time in 2014 and has been successfully held for eight consecutive sessions.
Ai Lingyu, deputy secretary of the CPC Datong Municipal Committee said at the opening ceremony of the forum that it is necessary to give full play to the forum's platform advantage, and constantly optimize the organic agricultural production system, policy system and marketing system in a bid to let "Datong organic food" shine brighter all over the country and gain a foothold in the overseas market.
Since 2013, Lingqiu County in Datong City has explored a new way of agricultural transformation and development and took organic agriculture as the basic task and development goal.
Meanwhile, Lingqiu has also adopted a development mode featuring the combination of organic agriculture, beautiful countryside, and eco-tourism. It has built six communities with the organic agriculture as the mainstay.
As the first village-level organic agriculture model in Lingqiu,Chehe Organic Community saw the per capita income increase from 2,300 yuan in 2013 to 21,500 yuan in 2020.
After nearly a decade of development, Lingqiu County boasts an organic agricultural production area of nearly 100,000 mu (about 66.67 square kilometers), 54 certified organic products, and more than 30 organic agricultural production businesses.
Experts at the forum also believed that organic agriculture can play a positive role in solving food safety problems, steadily increasing rural income levels,as well as improving ecological environment security.
Original link:https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/329422.html
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SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road | 2022-08-10T02:10:03+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2022/08/10/xinhua-silk-road-nchinas-lingqiu-county-takes-organic-agriculture-effective-way-promote-rural-development/ |
Just-reopened Belle Isle slide closes after riders bounce down it
Detroit — The historic giant slide that reopened Friday on Detroit's Belle Isle closed early on its first day back after people were seen bouncing on it while coming down too fast, officials said.
The slide's surface will be retouched with wax to slow down riders, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
"For this evening, we're giving it a little scrub down, and we will be back open at 11:00 tomorrow," said Joel Thomas, Belle Isle supervisor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
About 400 people rode down the slide on Friday.
"People were out there just having a ball today and it was really fun to watch," Thomas said.
When Kasey Chapple, 9, of Warren, caught her on the slide on Friday she thought: “Oh my God, I want to go down so bad.”
She went down and then: “Boom! Bounce. Bounce.”
Kasey would go down again, she said, but not on Friday. Maybe the next day.
The slide was “scary” to Donovan Harrison, 12, of Roseville. The wind made it “very shaky,” startling Harrison, who’s afraid of heights.
“It was fun, but I almost flew off the thing,” he said.
Max Maybee, 11, of Pleasant Ridge “got a bunch of air time on one of the jumps in the middle,” he said.
“Like I was flying through the slide and I came down like crazy.”
Max was there Friday with his mom, Nikki Maybee, who said the slide is “one of the best things to do” as a kid.
“It was terrorizing … and fun all at the same time," she said. "It’s just awesome to see the slide back open for another generation to enjoy. We love it. What a beautiful day out here on Belle Isle.”
The slide was closed in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.
"Now that some things for the public are being reopened and we got all the approval ... we decided to go ahead and run it," Thomas added. "Our plan is to run it through Labor Day weekend and hopefully every year after that."
The six-lane slide will continue to operate from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Labor Day.
The cost is $1 per slide.
It first opened in 1967 and had 1,400 sliders during its first two weekends.
Belle Isle representatives said this is a partnership with the park's Summer Youth Employment Program to expose kids to parks and natural environments through its work cohort, in hope that participants consider natural-resource based careers in the future.
Myesha Johnson and Robin Buckson contributed. | 2022-08-20T00:48:40+00:00 | detroitnews.com | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/08/19/reopened-belle-isle-slide-closes-after-riders-bounce-down/7847577001/ |
Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office discovers collection of narcotics during traffic stop
Published: Jun. 23, 2023 at 8:27 PM EDT|Updated: 12 minutes ago
SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office discovered a collection of narcotics after a traffic stop and vehicle search at North Washington and Northgate Boulevard on Friday.
Police seized fentanyl, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone pills, buprenorphine pills, five scales and narcotic packaging material and $3,335 in U.S. currency.
The search resulted in an arrest and six charges, including trafficking in fentanyl and cocaine, possession of methamphetamine and marijuana with intent to sell and possession of controlled substances oxycodone and buprenorphine.
Copyright 2023 WWSB. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-24T00:42:31+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/06/24/sarasota-county-sheriffs-office-discovers-collection-narcotics-during-traffic-stop/ |
MADRID (AP) — Voters in Spain braved soaring summer temperatures to cast ballots in a general election Sunday that could make the country the latest European Union member to swing to the political right.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers Party and its far-left partner, Unidas Podemos, took a severe beating in local and regional elections in May. Sánchez has been Spain’s head of government since 2018.
Portable floor fans, hand fans, and water bottles were ever-present in most polling stations, which are often public schools. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE set up some large screens near popular beaches so people trying to cool off could follow the results.
“We have the heat, but the right to exercise our vote freely is stronger than the heat,” said Rosa Maria Valladolid-Prieto, 79, in Barcelona.
The country’s 37 million eligible voters were tasked with electing 350 members to the lower house of Parliament, the Congress of Deputies, and 208 members to the Senate. Polling stations are due to close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). Near-final results were expected by midnight.
Most opinion polls have put the right-wing Popular Party, which won the May vote, ahead of the Socialists but likely needing the support of the extreme right Vox party to form a government.
Such a coalition would return a far-right force to the Spanish government for the first time since the country transitioned to democracy in the late 1970s following the nearly 40-year rule of dictator Francisco Franco.
A PP-Vox government would mean another EU member has moved firmly to the right, a trend seen recently in Sweden, Finland and Italy. Countries such as Germany and France are concerned by what such a shift would portend for EU immigration and climate policies.
Spain’s two main leftist parties are pro-EU participation. On the right, the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is also in favor of the EU. Vox, headed by Santiago Abascal, is opposed to EU interference in Spain’s affairs.
The election comes as Spain holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Sánchez had hoped to use the six-month term to showcase the advances his government had made. An election defeat for Sánchez could see the PP taking over the EU presidency reins.
Sánchez was one of the first to vote, casting his ballot in a polling station in Madrid.
Commenting later on the large number of foreign media covering the election, he said: “This means that what happens today is going to be very important not just for us but also for Europe and I think that should also make us reflect.”
“I don’t want to say I’m optimistic or not. I have good vibrations,” Sánchez added.
The Socialists and a new movement called Sumar that brings together 15 small leftist parties for the first time hope to pull off an upset victory. Sumar is led by second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, the only woman among the top four candidates.
Díaz called for everyone to vote, recalling that the freedom to vote didn’t always exist in Spain.
“A lot is at risk,” said Diáz after voting. “For people of my generation, they are the most important elections.”
At stake is “waking up tomorrow with more rights, more democracy and more freedom.”
The Interior Ministry said voter turnout at 6:00 p.m. local time stood at 53%, compared to 56% at the same point in the the country’s last national election, in November 2019.
The election was taking place at the height of summer, with millions of voters likely to be vacationing away from their regular polling places. However, postal voting requests soared before Sunday.
With no party expected to garner an absolute majority, the choice is basically between another leftist coalition and a partnership of the right and the far right.
For poll favorite Feijóo, “It is clear that many things are in play, what model of country we want, to have a solid and strong government.”
Vox’s Abascal said he hoped for “a massive mobilization (of voters) that will allow Spain to change direction.”
Alejandro Bleda, 45, did not say who he voted for but indicated that he was backing the leftist parties. “Given the polarization in this country, it’s to vote either for 50 years of backwardness or for progress,” he said.
The main issues at stake are “a lot of freedoms, social rights, public health and education,” Bleda said after voting in the Palacio de Valdés public school polling station in central Madrid with his wife.
Carmen Acero, 62, who voted for the Popular Party, compared Sánchez to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and said she voted because “to continue with Pedro Sánchez is hell.”
Acero, who sported a Spanish flag on her phone, accused Sánchez of being an “assassin” for allying with the small Basque regional party Bildu, which includes some former members of the now-defunct armed separatist group, ETA.
She identified “the unity of Spain, employment and security” as among her main concerns.
Sánchez’s government has steered Spain through the COVID-19 pandemic and dealt with an inflation-driven economic downturn made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But his dependency on fringe parties to keep his minority coalition afloat, including separatist forces from Catalonia and the Basque Country, and his passing of a slew of liberal-minded laws may cost him his job.
The right-wing parties dislike everything about Sánchez, saying he has betrayed and ruined Spain. They vow to roll back dozens of his laws, many of which have benefited millions of citizens and thousands of companies.
Coming at the tail of a month of heat waves, temperatures were expected to average above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in many parts of Spain.
The government said all polling stations ran as normal, although a tunnel fire forced the suspension of all trains entering and leaving the eastern city of Valencia and could have made it harder for people there to reach their voting station.
____
Associated Press journalists Aritz Parra, Renata Brito, Iain Sullivan, María Gestoso, Alicia Léon and José María García contributed to this report. | 2023-07-23T17:56:42+00:00 | ourquadcities.com | https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/international/ap-spaniards-vote-in-an-election-that-could-oust-a-leftist-coalition-and-herald-a-return-to-the-right/ |
NEW YORK – The mass layoffs that began in Amazon's corporate ranks this week will extend into next year, CEO Andy Jassy said Thursday.
In a note sent to employees, Jassy said the company told workers in its devices and books divisions about layoffs on Wednesday. He said it also offered some other employees a voluntary buyout offer.
“I’ve been in this role now for about a year and a half, and without a doubt, this is the most difficult decision we’ve made during that time (and, we’ve had to make some very tough calls over the past couple of years, particularly during the heart of the pandemic),” Jassy wrote in the memo.
Seattle-based Amazon, which has been cutting costs in various areas of its business in the past few months, is undergoing an annual review process to figure out where it can save more money. Jassy said this year’s review is “more difficult” due to the economic landscape and the company’s rapid hiring in the last several years.
Other tech companies — many of which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years — have also been trimming their workforce amid concerns about an economic slowdown. Among others, Facebook parent Meta said last week it would lay off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce. And Elon Musk, the new Twitter CEO, has slashed the company’s workforce in half this month.
On Tuesday, Amazon notified authorities in California that it would lay off about 260 corporate workers at various facilities in the state. The company has not publicly disclosed how many employees it laid off this week across its entire corporate workforce, though some based in Seattle said they've also been let go.
Jassy said the company hasn’t concluded how many other jobs will be impacted. He noted there will be reductions in certain divisions as the company goes through the annual review process, which will continue into next year. As they weigh job cuts, he said leaders at the company will prioritize what matters most to customers and the long-term health of the company.
Amazon is offering severance packages for employees who leave the company. But — unlike Meta, for example — it hasn't publicly provided details of the package.
The company employs more than 1.5 million workers globally, primarily made up of hourly workers. | 2022-11-18T01:30:10+00:00 | local10.com | https://www.local10.com/business/2022/11/18/amazon-ceo-says-layoffs-will-extend-into-next-year/ |
Allan Hancock College’s Student Health Services will partner with local community organizations to host a special forum on mental health on Thursday evening.
The forum, titled "#SafeSocial: Social Media’s Impact on Mental Health” will explore the intersection of social media and mental health. While social media enables connections and collaboration at an unprecedented scale, it can also lead to addiction, depression, harassment, and more.
The event will include a mental health resource fair and special guest speaker Bailey Parnell. Parnell is the Founder & CEO of SkillsCamp, a soft skills training company.
This event is free and open to the public. The forum will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Element Christian Church, located at 4890 Bethany Lane in Santa Maria.
To learn more and register to attend visit allianceformentalwellness.com. | 2023-03-09T19:28:26+00:00 | ksby.com | https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/allan-hancock-college-to-host-mental-health-forum |
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to provide scaffold users with a standing platform and gate to increase safety when working at higher levels," said an inventor, from King City, Ontario, Canada, "so I invented the SCAFFOLD SAFETY KIT. My design would help to prevent workers from falling off the scaffolding."
The patent-pending invention provides two safety products for secure attachment to any existing scaffolding. In doing so, it helps to prevent falls, potential injuries, or even death. As a result, it increases safety, efficiency and convenience and it could increase confidence when working at high levels. The invention features a practical design that is easy to attach and use so it is ideal for contractors, painters, etc. Additionally, a prototype is available.
The original design was submitted to the Toronto sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-TRO-752, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | 2022-12-23T16:49:19+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/12/23/inventhelp-inventor-develops-safety-kit-use-with-scaffolds-tro-752/ |
NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night's Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) Breaking Through Gala at Manhattan's historic Ziegfeld Ballroom was both inspiring and successful, raising more than $4 million for lupus research. More than 600 people turned out to recognize 2022 Gala honoree Leslie D. Hale, President & Chief Executive Officer at RLJ Lodging Trust, and LRA's Distinguished Service Awardee, former President & CEO Kenneth M. Farber. As Gala Honorary Co-Chair, Selena Gomez addressed the audience in a special message personally encouraging everyone to join her in supporting the LRA's mission.
Ms. Hale was presented with the 2022 Lupus Research Alliance Gala Honoree award by Art Collins, Founder and Managing Partner of theGroup and member of the RLJ Lodging Trust Board of Directors. Mr. Collins described Ms. Hale's intense drive for excellence and dedication to the company since joining in 2005 and subsequent meteoric rise. Ms. Hale is putting that same intensity toward the lupus cause on behalf of her sister Wendy Hale-Giles who lost her battle with the disease.
In accepting the award, Ms. Hale shared, "Now, every family event, every photo we take will always have a void. As a woman of color, I feel a tremendous sense of personal responsibility to help those most impacted by lupus. Working with the Lupus Research Alliance will be one of the most significant things I do in my lifetime to honor Wendy. It has given me the opportunity to help raise awareness about lupus – something I wish I had back then to help my sister. Supporting the LRA has given my family purpose to our pain."
In presenting the Distinguished Service Award to Kenneth M. Farber, Ira Akselrad, LRA Board of Directors Co-Chair and President of The Johnson Company, described his many accomplishments through his 20-year tenure with the organization. "Ken has led this organization from inception through a merger with two leading lupus organizations to build the current Lupus Research Alliance as the largest private funder of lupus research worldwide. We thank him for his unwavering commitment to lupus research."
"What makes this night so special is seeing so many people committed to the same goal that the LRA staff is committed to – funding research into the cause, the cure, the treatment and prevention of lupus and its many manifestations," noted Mr. Farber. Naming the many allies in the cause, Mr. Farber particularly praised LRA's new President and CEO Albert Roy. "The Board of Directors could not have made a finer choice. He's brilliant, enthusiastic, and tenacious, but most importantly he cares deeply about the struggles of people with lupus."
NBC's talk show host and long-time LRA friend Willie Geist hosted the evening with his inimitable charm, quick wit, and dedication to the cause. Hale also conducted a quick 'talk-show' live with lupus notables celebrating incredible strides being made in lupus research.
Philanthropist Michael R. Bloomberg expressed his continued support for the work of the LRA on behalf of his close friend LRA Board member Jennie DeScherer who has fought lupus for decades. Former LRA Board member Jerome Chazen was remembered for his endless generosity to the organization in time, expertise, and resources on behalf of his sister-in-law who had died from lupus.
LRA President and CEO Albert T. Roy thanked the many supporters who have made 2022 a year of discovery and diversity for lupus research progress. He noted, "It is with the same tenacity that Wendy lived her life, that the LRA will remain ruthlessly focused on identifying and investing in the most promising research to allow people living with lupus to become the best version of themselves. The LRA alone cannot achieve the laudable goals that have been shared this evening – it will take a village inclusive of everyone present tonight and joining virtually. We need everyone to continue in helping advance our collective mission because the people living with lupus are depending on us."
Mr. Roy recognized each of the 2022 Gala Co-Chairs for all their hard work. Lead Co-Chairs were Thomas J. Baltimore, JR., Chairman and CEO of Park Hotels & Resorts; Jennifer A. Dakin, Managing Director of Wells Fargo Bank NA; and Deborah L. Harmon, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Artemis Real Estate Partners. Many long-standing supporters also supported the event as Co-Chairs of the event: Board of Directors Co-Chairs Ira Akselrad, President of The Johnson Company and Richard K. DeScherer; as well as The Honorable Robert Wood Johnson, Chairman of the New York Jets and LRA founding chairman; LRA Board members and lupus advocates TV personality Brenda Blackmon and IBM Business Development Leader Veronica Vargas Lupo; and William J. Wolfe, Chairman of First Washington Realty, Inc.
In addition to Selena Gomez, Honorary Co-Chairs supporting the Gala were Michael R. Bloomberg, Lady Gaga, and 2021 Gala honoree Nadeem Meghji, Senior Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Americas Blackstone. Speakers also applauded all the people who showed what ManyOne Can accomplish for lupus research together – those who helped raise millions, those who advocated for more lupus research federal funding, those who helped educate others about the disease, and those who participated in the research needed to deliver new treatments and a cure.
Even NYC's historic Empire State Building did its part in highlighting the importance of lupus research by lighting up NYC's skyline in the colors of lupus awareness – purple and red. And the female tap dance band Syncopated Ladies stepped up, tapping into the hope of the hundreds gathered to support the LRA.
Last night's program can be viewed online here using the PIN LRA22. Continued donations are welcomed. The Lupus Research Alliance thanks the worldwide lupus community for their ongoing support of the innovative research needed to deliver new treatments and a cure.
Lupus is a chronic, complex autoimmune disease that affects millions of people worldwide. More than 90 percent of people with lupus are women; lupus most often strikes during the childbearing years of 15-45. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans are two to three times at greater risk than Caucasians. In lupus, the immune system, which is designed to protect against infection, creates antibodies that can attack any part of the body including the kidneys, brain, heart, lungs, blood, skin, and joints.
The Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) is the largest non-governmental, non-profit funder of lupus research worldwide. The organization aims to transform treatment by funding the most innovative lupus research, fostering diverse scientific talent, and driving discovery toward better diagnostics, improved treatments and ultimately a cure for lupus. Because the LRA board of directors funds all administrative and fundraising costs, 100 percent of all donations supports lupus research programs.
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SOURCE Lupus Research Alliance | 2022-11-22T19:47:48+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/11/22/lupus-research-alliance-2022-breaking-through-gala-raises-millions-transformative-lupus-research/ |
CALGARY ALBERTA CANADA, Alberta (AP) _ Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $2.45 billion.
On a per-share basis, the Calgary Alberta Canada, Alberta-based company said it had net income of $2.08. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $2.26 per share.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.94 per share.
The oil and natural gas company posted revenue of $9.58 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $8.43 billion.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CNQ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CNQ | 2022-05-05T20:15:45+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Canadian-Natural-Resources-Q1-Earnings-Snapshot-17151238.php |
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge in Phoenix on Friday refused to put on hold her order requiring phone records of the Arizona Republican Party leader to be turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, pending an appeal.
U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said state GOP Chair Kelli Ward had failed to show that she would suffer irreparable harm if congressional investigators for the records. And she again rejected Ward’s claims that her First Amendment rights would be chilled if investigators were able to learn whom she spoke with while trying to challenge former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat.
Humetewa said she found Ward’s “alleged concern speculative — and in light of disclosures made during oral argument — dubious.”
She noted that Ward’s lawyers pointed out at a Tuesday hearing that she had written a book about sending an alternate slate of fake presidential electors to Congress and filmed multiple videos of her actions and posted them on YouTube.
“These actions belie Ms. Ward’s concern that her communications with her constituents or colleagues will be chilled by (the phone company’s) possible disclosure of who she spoke with during that time,” Humetewa wrote.
The House committee investigating the Capitol attack is seeking phone records from just before the November 2020 election to Jan. 31, 2021. That would include a period when Ward was pushing for Trump’s election defeat to be overturned and Congress was set to certify the results in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were presidential electors who would have voted for Trump in the Electoral College had he won Arizona. Both signed a document falsely claiming they were Arizona’s true electors, despite Biden’s victory in the state.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the attorney representing the congressional committee noted that Kelli Ward had refused to answer questions during a deposition, citing her Fifth Amendment not to incriminate herself.
Ward’s attorney urged the judge to briefly block the subpoena while her appeal is pending. But Humetewa noted that the appeals court won’t get to the case until after the committee must dissolve when the current Congress ends Jan. 3, 2023.
Ward is a staunch Trump ally who has aggressively promoted the false claim that the election was stolen from him. In the days after the election, she pressured Republicans on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to investigate unsupported claims of fraud before election results were certified, according to text messages released by the county. | 2022-10-08T18:48:38+00:00 | wdtn.com | https://www.wdtn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-judge-wont-block-jan-6-panel-subpoena-to-arizona-gop-chair/ |
How to Watch the Yankees vs. Dodgers Game: Streaming & TV Channel Info for June 3
Gleyber Torres and the New York Yankees will hit the field at Dodger Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Freddie Freeman on Saturday.
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Yankees vs. Dodgers Live Stream, TV Channel and Game Info:
- Date: Saturday, June 3, 2023
- Time: 7:15 PM ET
- TV Channel: FOX
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Venue: Dodger Stadium
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
Bet on this matchup with BetMGM Sportsbook and use bonus code "GNPLAY" for special offers!
Yankees Batting & Pitching Performance
- The Yankees average 1.5 home runs per game to rank fourth in MLB play with 90 total home runs.
- New York ranks ninth in baseball with a .422 slugging percentage.
- The Yankees have the 22nd-ranked batting average in the league (.238).
- New York scores the 10th-most runs in baseball (277 total, 4.7 per game).
- The Yankees are 23rd in baseball with a .308 on-base percentage.
- The Yankees' 8.4 strikeouts per game rank 16th in the majors.
- New York's pitching staff is ninth in MLB with a collective 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
- New York has a 3.72 team ERA that ranks seventh across all MLB pitching staffs.
- Yankees pitchers combine for the No. 6 WHIP in the majors (1.233).
Dodgers Batting & Pitching Performance
- The Dodgers rank second in Major League Baseball with 100 home runs.
- Los Angeles ranks second in the majors with a .466 team slugging percentage.
- The Dodgers rank 19th in MLB with a .245 team batting average.
- Los Angeles has scored the third-most runs in baseball this season with 327.
- The Dodgers have an on-base percentage of .332 this season, which ranks fourth in the league.
- The Dodgers rank 19th in MLB in strikeouts per game with an average of 8.8 whiffs per contest.
- Los Angeles strikes out 8.4 batters per nine innings as a pitching staff, 23rd in MLB.
- Los Angeles has pitched to a 4.45 ERA this season, which ranks 20th in baseball.
- The Dodgers have a combined WHIP of just 1.256 as a pitching staff, which is the seventh-best in baseball this season.
Yankees Probable Starting Pitcher
- Gerrit Cole (6-0 with a 2.93 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings pitched) makes the start for the Yankees, his 13th of the season.
- In his last appearance on Sunday against the San Diego Padres, the righty went six innings, allowing five earned runs while surrendering four hits.
- Cole has collected seven quality starts this year.
- Cole will look to prolong a 13-game streak of lasting five or more innings (he's averaging 6.1 innings per outing).
Dodgers Probable Starting Pitcher
- Michael Grove (0-1) will take to the mound for the Dodgers and make his fifth start of the season.
- The right-hander's last appearance was on Thursday, April 20, when he threw three innings, giving up two earned runs while allowing five hits against the Chicago Cubs.
- Grove has started four games this season, and he's lasted five or more innings one time. He averages 4 innings per appearance.
Yankees Schedule
Dodgers Schedule
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-03T19:05:56+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/sports/betting/2023/06/03/yankees-vs-dodgers-mlb-live-stream-tv/ |
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, January 10, 2023
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AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY
Flood Advisory
National Weather Service Las Vegas NV
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1102 AM PST Tue Jan 10 2023
...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PST THIS AFTERNOON...
* WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is occurring.
* WHERE...A portion of southeast California, including the following
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county, Inyo. This includes Highway 395 in the Owens Valley from
Bishop to Independence.
* WHEN...Until 200 PM PST.
* IMPACTS...Water over roadways.
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* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- At 1058 AM PST, emergency management reported flooding in the
advisory area including along Highway 395 from Gerkin Road to
Old Sunland. Overflowing poor drainage areas have already
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caused minor flooding in the advisory area.
- Some locations that will experience flooding include...
Big Pine, Independence, Tinemaha Campground, Taboose Creek
Campground, Goodale Creek Campground, Baker Creek Campground,
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Sawmill Creek Campground, Glacier View Campground,
Independence Creek Campground, Wilkerson and West Bishop.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
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Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads.
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Copyright 2023 AccuWeather | 2023-01-10T19:51:11+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/CA-WFO-LAS-VEGAS-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17708237.php |
Putin calls Kerch Bridge attack "a terrorist act" by Kyiv
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russia President Vladimir Putin is calling the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian special services. In a meeting Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Putin said “there’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure.” His investigative chief said he had opened a criminal case into an act of terrorism. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, say a Russian missile strike on a southern city has killed 13 people and partially collapsed an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
'War crime:' Industrial-scale destruction of Ukraine culture
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia's invasion of Ukraine is being accompanied by the destruction, damaging and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale. Ukraine’s culture minister says Russian soldiers have helped themselves to artifacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums. If and when peace returns, the preservation of Ukrainian collections of art, history, and culture will be vital so that survivors of the war can begin rebuilding. Tens of thousands of museum pieces have been evacuated away from the front lines and combat-struck regions. But many others are missing. They include an exquisite, rare golden tiara from the era of 5th-century warrior Attila the Hun that was stolen by Russian soldiers from the Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
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'A time bomb': Anger rising in a hot spot of Iran protests
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anger among civilians is rising in a majority Kurdish district in northwestern Iran that has become one of the hotspots of protests. The Associated Press spoke to six activists in the northern city of Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the capital Tehran. They described an evolving protest movement that has shifted from mass gatherings to more scattered protests and other signs of civil disobedience amid a harsh government crackdown. Protests erupted after the burial of a 22-year-old woman who died in Iranian police custody and have persisted with protests in neighborhoods, schools, with burning tires and commercial strikes.
Noem's balancing act: Big ambitions, South Dakota reelection
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Many political watchers expected Gov. Kristi Noem to cruise to reelection this year in Republican-dominated South Dakota against a Democratic challenger without statewide experience. But Noem's frequent out-of-state travels on behalf of GOP candidates, as well as recent ethics stumbles, have given Democrats license to dream of an upset. Or perhaps make Noem's race against state lawmaker Jamie Smith close enough to raise questions about her viability on the national stage. Smith has cast himself as a moderate and so far has run a mostly upbeat campaign. The governor recently came out with an ad that tied Smith to President Joe Biden, who won 36% of South Dakota’s vote in 2020.
Florida school shooter may have been his own worst witness
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz may have talked himself into a death sentence. At his penalty trial last week, prosecutors played video recordings of jailhouse interviews Cruz had this year with mental health experts. He gave frank and sometimes graphic details about his 2018 murder of 17 at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his planning and his motivations. Lawyers not involved in the case say his statements may have caused some wavering jurors to vote for death. Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday. The panel will decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Thai town struggles with sudden loss of so many of its young
UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) — Paweenuch Supholwong sits on her mother’s lap and fidgets with her pigtails as her mother tells the remarkable story of how the 3-year-old wisp of a girl survived Thailand’s worst mass killing. She was the only child to emerge unscathed from a day care after a former police officer massacred preschoolers as they napped. Two dozen children were among the 36 people who were shot and slashed to death in an attack that shattered the serenity of the rural township, robbing the small farming community of much of its youngest generation in the blink of an eye.
Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead
LAS TEJERÍAS, Venezuela (AP) — Authorities say a landslide fueled by flooding and days of torrential rain has swept through a town in central Venezuela, leaving at least 22 people dead as it dragged mud, rocks and trees through neighborhoods. Dozens of people are missing. Residents of Las Tejerías in Santos Michelena, an agro-industrial town in Aragua state 54 miles (87 kilometers) southwest of Caracas, had just seconds to reach safety late Saturday as debris swept down a mountainside onto them. The official death toll rose to 22 after the recovery of 20 bodies on Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión on Sunday.
Senator: Dems back reparations for those who 'do the crime'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is asserting that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because, in his words, “they think the people that do the crime are owed that." The first-term Alabama Republican spoke at a Saturday evening rally in Nevada featuring former President Donald Trump, a political ally. Tuberville's comments are part of a broader critique in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election about how Democrats have responded to rising crime rates. But Tuberville’s remarks about reparations played into racist stereotypes about Black people committing crimes. The senator is falsely suggesting that Democrats promote crime and that only Blacks are the perpetrators.
Prosecutors seek prison for rioter's attack on AP journalist
Federal prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of approximately four years for a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to assaulting an Associated Press photographer and using a stun gun against police officers at the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss is scheduled to sentence Alan Byerly on Oct. 21 for his attack on AP photographer John Minchillo and police during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot. In a court filing Sunday, prosecutors requested a sentence of at least 46 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Byerly’s attorney has until Friday to submit a sentencing recommendation.
AP Top 25: UGA back at No. 1, Alabama slips to 3 behind OSU
Georgia has taken back the top spot in The Associated Press college football poll from Alabama. The Crimson Tide slid to No. 3. The Bulldogs received 32 first-place votes and 1,535 points in the Top 25 to easily reclaim No. 1 on Sunday after being just two points behind Alabama for the No. 2 spot last week. Georgia thumped Auburn 42-10 on Saturday. The Tide escaped an upset bid at home by Texas A&M with Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Bryce Young sidelined by injury. Ohio State moved up a spot to No. 2, receiving 20 first-place votes. | 2022-10-09T22:36:59+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/ap-news-summary-at-6-05-p-m-edt/article_30b75dee-7e93-5b90-95d9-e89d07686429.html |
Alabama Girls and Boys State Soccer schedules
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - The AHSAA State Soccer Championships begin Thursday with semifinal matchups. Championship matches are set for Saturday. Below are pairings for the event at John Hunt Park’s Soccer Complex.
*North Alabama teams listed in Bold.
THURSDAY, MAY 11
CLASS 6A
Randolph (12-3-1) vs. Homewood (21-5-1), Thur., May 11, Field 1, 11 a.m.
Briarwood Christian (16-4-1) vs. Montgomery Academy (16-3-1), Thur., May 11, Field 2, 11 a.m.
CLASS 6A Boys
Fort Payne (24-2-2) vs. Homewood (18-4-2), Thur., May 11, Field 1, 1 p.m.
Calera (13-3-1) vs. Montgomery Academy (20-2-1) , Thur., May 11, Field 2, 1 p.m.
CLASS 7A Girls
Sparkman (19-4-0) vs. Oak Mountain (21-3-0), Thur., May 11, Field 1, 3 p.m.
Auburn (13-4-0) vs. Fairhope (12-4-0), Thur., May 11, Field 2, 3 p.m.
CLASS 7A Boys
Huntsville (13-8-4) vs. Oak Mountain (22-2-2), Thur., May 11, Field 1, 5 p.m.
Dothan (23-3-1) vs. Daphne (15-3-2), Thur., May 11, Field 2, 5 p.m.
FRIDAY, MAY 12
CLASS 1A-3A Girls
Susan Moore (22-1-1) VS. Westminster-Oak Mountain (15-5-0), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 9 a.m.
Saint James (14-1-2) vs. Cottage Hill Christian (14-4-2), Fri., May 12, Field 2, 9 a.m.
CLASS 1A-3A Boys
Tanner (20-5-0) vs. Westminster-Oak Mountain (11-9-2), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 11 a.m.
Tuscaloosa Academy (19-5-1) vs. St. Luke’s Episcopal (20-5-2), Fri., May 12, Field 2, 11 a.m.
CLASS 4A Girls
Westminster Christian (13-4-1) vs. Westbrook Christian (16-4-1), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 1 p.m.
American Christian (12-4-0) vs. St. Michael Catholic (17-4-0), Fri., May 12, Field 2, 1 p.m.
CLASS 4A Boys
Westminster Christian (16-6-0) vs, Westbrook Christian (11-9-3), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 3 p.m.
Oneonta (16-7-2) vs. Bayside Academy (15-1-3 Fri., May 12, Field 2, 3 p.m.
CLASS 5A Girls
East Limestone (20-2-1) vs. Springville (19-2-0), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 5 p.m.
Marbury (20-2-0) vs. Gulf Shores (18-9-0), Fri., May 12, Field 2, 5 p.m.
CLASS 5A Boys
Guntersville (23-3-1) vs. John Carroll Catholic (18-7-3), Fri., May 12, Field 1, 7 p.m.
Elmore County (9-5-2) vs. Gulf Shores (22-6-0), Fri., May 12, Field 2, 7 p.m.
AHSAA STATE SOCCER FINALS
SATURDAY, MAY 13
CLASS 7A Boys: Saturday, May 13, Field 1, 9 a.m.
CLASS 6A Girls: Saturday, May 13, Field 2, 9 a.m.
CLASS 7A Girls: Saturday, May 13, Field 1, 11 a.m.
CLASS 6A Boys: Saturday, May 13, Field 2, 11 a.m.
CLASS 1A-3A Girls: Saturday, May 13, Field 1, 1 p.m.
CLASS 4A Girls: Saturday, May 13, Field 2, 1 p.m.
CLASS 5A Girls: Saturday, May 13, Field 1, 3 p.m.
CLASS 1A/3A Boys: Saturday, May 13, Field, 3 p.m.
CLASS 4A Boys: Saturday, May 13, 5 p.m.
CLASS 5A Boys: Saturday, May 13, 5 p.m.
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Copyright 2023 WAFF. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-11T16:51:27+00:00 | wsfa.com | https://www.wsfa.com/2023/05/11/alabama-girls-boys-state-soccer-schedules/ |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The European Union has warned Spain that it won’t tolerate renewed plans by regional politicians in the country’s south to expand irrigation near the prized Doñana wetlands, which scientists and ecologists say are in danger of drying up.
In a letter seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Florika Fink-Hooijer, the head of the EU’s Directorate General for the Environment, told Spain’s government that it is “necessary to immediately ensure the strict protection of Doñana’s exceptional natural treasures, especially taking into account that rainfall is increasingly scarce due to climate change.”
The Doñana wetlands are a UNESCO world heritage site and considered one of Europe’s key biospheres. Sitting on an estuary where the Guadalquivir River meets the Atlantic Ocean, their 74,000 hectares (182,000 acres) are a wintering site for a half-million waterfowl and a stopover spot for millions of other birds that migrate from Africa to northern Europe.
But the park’s lagoons and marshes are shrinking under pressure from local farmers, some of whom use illegal wells to tap its underlying aquifer. The situation has worsened because of a drought during a record-hot 2022 for Spain.
The conservative Popular Party that governs southern Andalusia, however, is again pushing forward a proposed law that would rezone more farmland near the park as irrigable. This comes a year after the party had shelved a similar initiative. Now they have it back on the agenda before municipal elections across Spain on May 28.
The European Court of Justice condemned Spain for neglecting the wetlands in 2021. That was followed by a first letter from Fink-Hooijer urging Spain to take action. The central government responded with a plan to speed up the closing of illegal wells near the park, a plan to reroute surface water from a nearby river basin, and by pledging 350 million euros ($377 million) to protect the reserve.
Fink-Hooijer warned in her second letter sent on Monday that Spain could face a fine this time if authorities continue to fail in their duty to safeguard Doñana.
Regional authorities for Andalusia who want to expand the irrigable lands say that the water for the 650 farmer they estimate would benefit from the plan would come from surface water, instead of wells.
However, other local farmers who legally use wells in the area have argued that any new water being piped into the area should go to them so that they can stop using wells, and thus help restore the aquifer.
The WWF said in a statement issued Tuesday that the water authorities “do not foresee any increase of available water” in the area.
“It is urgent and necessary to adopt measures to reduce the consumption of water and revert the poor status of the aquifer,” the environmental group said.
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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment ___
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. | 2023-03-21T21:08:38+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/science/ap-science/eu-warns-spain-over-expanding-irrigation-near-prized-wetland/ |
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If you have a glass shower door, you know how nice it feels when it looks crystal clear. Yet that perfect glass vibe doesn’t happen magically. It takes work. Bathrooms are subjected to an onslaught of elements that can cloud up glass surfaces, such as water mineral residue and soap scum.
When hard water hits a surface, like a glass door, repeatedly, mineral deposits in the water — usually calcium and magnesium — can build up. These stains don’t damage the glass and they aren’t bad for your health. But the chalky residue can be challenging to remove, especially if you let it build up over a long time, and may cause issues depending on where it lands.
While cleaning your glass shower door every day might help eliminate the haze, that may be unrealistic based on your lifestyle. Sometimes you’re in a hurry or aren’t able to make it a priority. Luckily, you can remove hard water stains using a combo of stain-fighting ingredients you probably already have and good old-fashioned elbow grease. Here are a few different ways to make that glass door sparkle again.
Remove Hard Water Stains With Vinegar
A water-vinegar mixture works just as hard as leading commercial brand window cleaners — and it does a number on hard water stains, too. Mix equal parts water and distilled white vinegar in a spray bottle and shake to combine. The Spruce suggests using cleaning vinegar because it is 20% stronger than white distilled vinegar.
Starting at the top of your shower door, spray the solution to coat the entire surface. Be sure to open a window or turn on your bathroom fan as the vinegar can smell pretty potent. Let it sit for up to 30 minutes before scrubbing the glass with a brush. Rinse the area with clean water and squeegee. Finish by wiping the surface dry with a microfiber cloth.
What makes this method effective is that the vinegar acts as a mild acid that breaks down the connection between the mineral residue and the glass. Depending on what tile you have, you may want to spread an old towel on the floor to catch any droplets because vinegar can cause etches in marble.
Use a Lemon
If the hard water stain won’t budge, try rubbing the surface with a lemon. It’s a fairly straightforward process. just cut a lemon in two, sprinkle it with salt and rub it across the stain. The combo of abrasiveness and acidity should disintegrate that stain on the spot. You can also spray lemon juice onto glass walls after cleaning to keep stains away longer.
Create a Baking Soda Paste
If the above doesn’t do the trick, try sprinkling your brush (or rag) with baking soda. It can be mixed right into the vinegar spray solution. Gently rub the door to loosen the stain. Just don’t scrub too hard because the abrasiveness of the paste can potentially scratch the glass.
Use the Magic Eraser Method
For stubborn stains, you could try using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (or another melanine sponge product) to wipe away the chalky deposits. Run it under water briefly to get it damp and wring it out to get rid of any excess water. Then rub it across the door with a small amount of pressure. Rinse the area with water and then squeegee.
How to Prevent Hard Water Stains
If you already know your home has hard water and you can’t seem to get a leg up on the issue, it might be time to consult a professional. You may want to invest in a water softener, which can help prevent spot buildup.
Since it can be time-consuming and expensive to remove hard water stains, prevention is the best tool. Next time you’re in the shower, take notice of where water is spraying. Something as simple as repositioning your shower head so less water hits the glass door can be incredibly helpful over the long run.
Since stains appear after the water has dried, squeegeeing the glass regularly can go a long way. It takes less than a minute. Use long streaks for the best results. However, if you’d rather not mess with squeegeeing, you could pick up a shower cleaner that’s meant to be used daily that doesn’t need to be wiped off. (Just examine the label before purchasing.)
After showering, leave the glass door open for a little bit. This will help with airflow and allow your shower to dry more quickly.
Giving your glass a quick spritz of the above vinegar solution, along with a quick towel dry, mentioned above, on a weekly basis, is also a good idea. While that might sound like a lot of work, we promise it only takes a few seconds. Once you start to notice how great your glass doors look week after week, you won’t mind the extra effort one bit.
Remember that whether you’re cleaning with chemicals or vinegar, it’s a good idea to protect your skin by wearing gloves.
Go the Extra Mile
Don’t overlook the joy of having clean shower door tracks. These don’t need to be cleaned as frequently, but keeping soap scum and gunk out of these areas can keep your doors functioning properly. Plus, once they’re sparkling, they can really add to the entire clean-bathroom ambiance. You can use the distilled white vinegar mixture and an old toothbrush to de-gunk the tracks. Wipe off the mess with a paper towel.
Having a clear, clean glass door makes getting into the shower 10 times more pleasant, doesn’t it? Now that you know how to make it sparkle, you can keep it looking good on a regular basis.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories. | 2023-05-11T20:16:48+00:00 | ktvh.com | https://www.ktvh.com/how-remove-hard-water-stains-glass |
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I'm a wound care coordinator and I wanted to create a more convenient way for patients to receive oxygen therapy," said an inventor, from Gadsden, Ala., "so I invented the PORTABLE OXYGENATED WOUND CARE. My design could help to effectively heal chronic wounds and it may reduce the cost associated with wound care."
The invention offers a portable way to provide oxygen therapy similar to a hyperbaric chamber. In doing so, it eliminates the need to travel to a wound treatment center. As a result, it saves time and effort and it could allow chronic wounds to heal more quickly. The invention features an effective design that is easy to use so it is ideal for homes, health care facilities and nursing homes. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.
The original design was submitted to the Birmingham sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-BRK-4113, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE InventHelp | 2022-08-29T18:47:38+00:00 | kwtx.com | https://www.kwtx.com/prnewswire/2022/08/29/inventhelp-inventor-develops-portable-oxygenated-wound-care-brk-4113/ |
As Republican governors ramp up their high-profile transports of migrants to Democratic-run jurisdictions, the practice is getting a mixed reaction from Christian faith leaders — many of whom, especially evangelicals, have supported GOP candidates by large numbers in recent elections.
Some depict the actions as inhumanely exploiting vulnerable people for political ends, while others say it’s a harmless way of calling attention to the impact of immigration on states near the southern border.
“Playing political games scores points — and the hypocrisy of the current immigration system is easy to point out,” Ed Stetzer, a professor, dean and executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center in Illinois, said in a statement.
“However, it does not solve the actual problems. … Let’s fix the system,” he added, “and stop turning people into pawns of political one-upmanship.”
But the Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Dallas and a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, who imposed restrictive immigration policies during his term, backed the transports.
“Government officials who refuse to fulfill their biblical responsibility to protect our borders should be made to feel the effects of their lawless policies,” Jeffress said via email.
“Busing illegal migrants to Washington D.C. or Martha’s Vineyard is not exactly the same as sending them to Siberia,” he continued. “Most Americans would love the opportunity to visit either destination.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew immigrants on two planes to the upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday, while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also dispatched migrants to cities with Democratic mayors. Most recently, on Thursday, two busloads from his state disembarked near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also has adopted the policy.
The Republican governors are trying to draw attention to what they contend is failed border policy under the Biden administration.
Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy agency, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said such actions “seem to be more about public relations.”
“We have called long for strengthened border protections and at the same time (for) folks who are coming into this country to be treated in a way that respects the imago dei (image of God),” he said.
Most Americans, including Southern Baptists, “want a solution to our broken immigration system,” Leatherwood added. “Let’s cut down on some of these actions and instead come to the table and figure out a solution that actually respects human dignity.”
Joshua Manning, pastor of the ethnically diverse Community Baptist Church in Noel, Missouri, a town of 1,800 with a large immigrant population, agreed that the transports are the wrong way to highlight a real problem.
“You shouldn’t be loading people up and treating them as political props — that’s dehumanizing,” Manning said.
He said, however, that immigration is a tricky subject. Places that have declared themselves in support of migrants and asylum seekers may not “see the difficulties of everything that’s associated with that,” he said.
In the mostly Latino neighborhood of Corona, in New York City’s Queens borough, the large congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church held a special service Wednesday to pray for the immigrants. In an interview, their pastor, the Rev. Manuel Rodriguez, called the transports a “horrible crime.”
“All of us are horrified about the steady violation of human rights by Gov. DeSantis and other governors who are so inhumane and unethical to keep sending human beings to places where they weren’t even informed that they’d be sent,” Rodriguez said.
“You don’t use human beings who are fleeing their homelands in fear, because of violence, hunger, persecution, because of the threat of rape … as tools, as objects to make political points,” he said.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | 2022-09-16T00:10:40+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/news/politics/ap-cruel-or-harmless-pastors-mixed-on-gop-migrant-transports/ |
- Northern Data Cloud Services to offer HPC cloud resources with NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core and RTX™ A6000 GPUs
- Northern Data Cloud Services offers companies a solution for rapidly growing HPC cloud computing, hosted from Europe, with total cost transparency
- Climate-neutral, highly efficient NVIDIA GPU cluster in advanced data centers situated in Norway and Sweden
FRANKFURT/MAIN, Germany, Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Northern Data Cloud Services has joined the NVIDIA Partner Network as a Preferred Partner for Cloud Services in Europe. Northern Data's (XETRA: NB2, ISIN: DE000A0SMU87) sustainable data centers provide a GPU compute infrastructure based on NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core and RTX A6000 GPUs, primarily targeting artificial intelligence (AI) and professional visualization development teams. Northern Data helps these teams solve research and development assignments that require high processing power as well as data-driven business models. This infrastructure creates the platform for automated and semi-automated workloads in fast-growing segments such as image, video and data analysis, natural language processing (NLP), rendering, and machine learning (ML).
Aroosh Thillainathan, CEO of Northern Data, states: "We are delighted to be an NVIDIA Partner Network Preferred Cloud Service Provider. The market is just getting started in the development of GPU cloud computing, yet we have the capability to offer large volumes of GPU computing power, tailored to the growing needs of our customers based on our own HPC data center infrastructure. We run our climate-neutral data centers in Scandinavia with a focus on the highest levels of energy efficiency. As a European supplier, we also guarantee our customers data sovereignty and security in line with European standards to meet their compliance requirements."
"Combining our powerful full-stack accelerated computing platform with Northern Data's user-friendly and climate-neutral concept marks a milestone in the European cloud services market," says Markus Hacker, Regional Director of Enterprise Business DACH at NVIDIA, and continues: "Together, we'll drive demand for these new, cloud-based HPC offerings."
A powerful overall package
With a large number of NVIDIA GPUs, Northern Data will provide start-ups, scale-ups, established companies and system integrators with massive computing capacity for data-intensive workloads on demand. With Northern Data, customers will benefit from a tech stack that guarantees high interconnectivity and absence of latency between individual GPUs, as well as within one tenant for maximum scalability and flexibility. In accomplishing this, Northern Data is relying on the latest networking technology from NVIDIA, all-flash storage solutions from PureStorage and an external, redundant 100 Gbit internet connection. High security standards, low complexity of the network configuration and the simple scaling of workloads thanks to the support of Cloud-init complete the offerings.
To simplify developer workflows and optimize performance on GPU instances, NVIDIA offers NGC™, a Hub of GPU-optimized AI and HPC software including enterprise-grade containers, frameworks, pre-trained models, Helm charts and industry-specific software development kits (SDKs) for data scientists, developers and DevOps teams to build and deploy solutions faster.
This end-to-end approach — from the choice of location to the construction and operation of the data center — and Northern Data's focus on cloud-native applications and the formulation of transparent flavors guarantee Northern Data customers cost-efficient use of sought-after HPC resources with no surprise follow-on costs. This is enabled by Northern Data's sustainable data centers with exceptionally high power usage effectiveness (PUE) in Sweden (PUE value: 1.04 in 2021) and Norway (PUE value: 1.15).
"The underlying technology and framework conditions in which it is provided are crucial for our offerings. NVIDIA GPUs speed up large, demanding workloads as they can process data volumes in the petabyte range much faster than traditional CPUs. With the exceptional performance of NVIDIA GPUs, large-scale simulations can also be processed faster than ever before," explains Christopher Yoshida, President and CFO of Northern Data.
Cost transparency for wide-ranging application scenarios
The current cloud offerings target a wide variety of application scenarios for GPU computing. For example, they include fast, efficient image and video analysis for media content creators, rapid rendering of complex models and 3D simulations for research and development teams, real-time analysis and evaluation of large data volumes for business decision-makers or even the accelerated training of AI and ML models.
Customers of Northern Data Cloud Services can reserve large processing capacity in advance as part of a transparent cost structure. Besides B2B customers, the company is also providing system integrators and AI consultants with a powerful, immediately available HPC offering that represents an intelligent addition to traditional solutions from classic hyperscalers.
Further information
Northern Data HPC Cloud Services
NVIDIA GTC
NVIDIA RTX A6000 graphics card
NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU
Partnership Announcement Video:
https://vimeo.com/746852249
PW: nvidiaXnortherndata2022
About Northern Data:
At Northern Data, we are convinced that High Performance Computing (HPC) will open up opportunities for research and development, business and ultimately human progress never seen before. Our multinational company is quickly becoming a globally significant provider of GPU and ASIC-based solutions through the development and operation of an efficient, environmentally-friendly HPC infrastructure. We combine intelligent, sustainable data centers, advanced, leading edge hardware and in-house, proprietary software for various HPC applications such as Bitcoin mining, blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data analytics, IoT and graphics rendering. We work in large, customized data centers and proprietary, mobile high-performance data centers which offer the ultimate scope of flexibility in the choice of location. The Northern Data Group employs around 220 members of staff in active in 7 countries.
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SOURCE Northern Data | 2022-09-21T05:20:10+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2022/09/21/northern-data-becomes-preferred-cloud-service-provider-nvidia-partner-network/ |
Hubert Hurkacz 2023 MercedesCup Odds
The MercedesCup field is dwindling in Stuttgart, Germany, as Hubert Hurkacz plays in a quarterfinal versus Christopher O'Connell. Hurkacz's odds are the third-best among the field at +400 to win this event at TC Weissenhof, Stuttgart.
Find all the latest odds for the 2023 MercedesCup and place your bets with a new user bonus from BetMGM.
Hurkacz at the 2023 MercedesCup
- Next Round: Quarterfinals
- Tournament Dates: June 9-18
- Venue: TC Weissenhof, Stuttgart
- Location: Stuttgart, Germany
- Court Surface: Grass
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Hurkacz's Next Match
In the quarterfinals on Friday, June 16 (at 4:00 AM ET), Hurkacz will play O'Connell, after defeating Yosuke Watanuki 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 in the last round.
Hurkacz is listed at -275 to win his next contest against O'Connell. Check out the latest odds for the entire field at BetMGM.
Hubert Hurkacz Grand Slam Odds
- Wimbeldon odds to win: +2800
- US Open odds to win: +4000
- MercedesCup odds to win: +400
Want to bet on Hurkacz? Head to BetMGM using our link for a bonus bet special offer for new players!
Hurkacz Stats
- In the Round of 16, Hurkacz was victorious 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 against Watanuki on Wednesday.
- Hurkacz is 34-20 over the past 12 months, with two tournament titles.
- Hurkacz has won one tournament over the past year on grass, with a record of 4-1 on that surface.
- Over the past 12 months (across all court surfaces), Hurkacz has played 54 matches and 30.6 games per match.
- Hurkacz, over the past 12 months, has played five matches on grass, and 31.4 games per match.
- Over the past 12 months, Hurkacz has been victorious in 18.2% of his return games and 85.0% of his service games.
- Over the past 12 months, in terms of serve/return winning percentages on grass, Hurkacz has won 89.7% of his games on serve and 20.3% on return.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-14T19:24:56+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/sports/betting/2023/06/09/hubert-hurkacz-mercedescup-betting-odds/ |
CHICAGO (AP) — On an early morning in June, Flower Nichols and her mother set off on an expedition to Chicago from their home in Indianapolis.
The family was determined to make it feel like an adventure in the city, though that wasn’t the primary purpose of the trip.
The following afternoon, Flower and Jennilyn Nichols would see a doctor at the University of Chicago to learn whether they could keep Flower, 11, on puberty blockers. They began to search for medical providers outside of Indiana after April 5, when Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a law banning transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and other hormone therapies, even after the approval of parents and the advice of doctors.
At least 20 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for trans minors, though most are embroiled in legal challenges. For more than a decade prior, such treatments were available to children and teens across the U.S. and have been endorsed by major medical associations.
Opponents of gender-affirming care say there’s no solid proof of purported benefits, cite widely discredited research and say children shouldn’t make life-altering decisions they might regret. Advocates and families impacted by the recent laws say such care is vital for trans kids.
On June 16, a federal judge blocked parts of Indiana’s law from going into effect on July 1. But many patients still scrambled to continue receiving treatment.
Jennilyn Nichols wanted their trip to Chicago to be defined by happy memories. They would explore the Museum of Science and Industry and, on the way home, stop at a beloved candy store.
Preserving a sense of normalcy, she decided — well, that’s just what families do.
——
Families in Indiana, Mississippi and other states are navigating new laws that imply or sometimes directly accuse parents of child abuse for supporting their kids in getting health care.
Some trans children and teens say the bans send the message that they cannot be themselves. That leaves parents looking for out-of-state medical care that can help their children to thrive.
“What transgender expansive young people need is what all young people need: They need love and support, and they need unconditional respect,” said Robert Marx, an assistant professor of child and adolescent development at San José State University. Marx studies support systems for LGBTQ+ and trans people aged 13 to 25. “They need to feel included and part of a family.”
Some families in Indiana have turned to the support group GEKCO, founded by Krisztina Inskeep, whose adult son is transgender.
“I think most parents want to do best by their kids,” Inskeep said. “It’s rather new to people, this idea that gender is not just a binary and that your kid is not just who they thought at birth.”
The perceptions of most parents, Marx said, do not align neatly with the extremes of full support or rejection of their kids’ identities.
——
On June 13, Flower and Jennilyn left Indianapolis with a care plan from Indiana University’s Riley Children’s Hospital, the state’s only gender clinic. The decision to start puberty blockers two years ago wasn’t one the family took lightly.
Jennilyn recalled asking early on whether her daughter’s gender expression was permanent. Ultimately, she listened to her daughter and learned that it was never in doubt.
Conversations between Flower and her mother are often marked by uncommon candor.
“Before I knew you and before I walked this journey with you,” Jennilyn told her, “I would not have thought that a kid would know they were trans or that a kid would just come out wired that way.”
Now, Jennilyn said her worries have shifted to Flower’s spelling skills or how she’ll navigate crushes, seeing her early anxieties as irrational.
Flower said she and her parents make medical decisions together because, “of course, they can’t decide on a medicine for me to take.”
“At the same time, you can’t pick a medicine that we can’t afford to pay for or that, you know, might harm you,” Jennilyn responded.
—— In Mississippi, a ban on gender-affirming care became law in the state on Feb. 28 — prompting a father and his trans son to leave the state at the end of July so the teenager can find health care in Virginia.
Ray Walker, a 17-year-old honor student, lives with his mother, Katie Rives, in a suburb of Jackson. His parents are divorced, but his father also lived in the area.
When Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill banning hormone therapy for anyone younger than 18, he accused “radical activists” of pushing a “sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids they’re in the wrong body.”
As the provision of gender-affirming care became scarce and was later outlawed, Walker’s father, who declined to be interviewed, accepted a job in Virginia. Rives, however, is staying in Mississippi with her two younger children.
Walker’s memories of the anguished period when he started puberty at 12 still haunt him. “My body couldn’t handle what was happening to it,” he said.
After a yearslong process of evaluations, then puberty blockers and hormone injections, Walker said his self-image improved. Then came the ban.
“Mississippi is my home, but there are a lot of conflicting feelings when your home is actively telling you that it doesn’t want you in it,” Walker said.
The family sees no alternative. As Walker’s moving date approaches, Rives savors the moments they share. She says she still feels lucky, as not all families are able to afford to travel out of state.
“We know that’s an incredibly privileged position to be in,” Rives said.
——
Flower’s favorite activities are often less inflected with politics than with her status as a soon-to-be teenager. She’s a Girl Scout who enjoys catching Pokemon with her 7-year-old brother Parker. Over a milk shake and vegan grilled cheese at a Chicago diner, she offered a joyful take on their itinerary.
“First of all, we’re going be able to chill at the hotel in the morning,” Flower explained. “Second of all, there’s a park nearby that we can have a lot of fun in. Third of all, we might have a backup plan, which is really exciting. And fourth of all: Candy store!”
The appointment the next day gave them another reason to celebrate: If care was not available in Indiana, they could get it in Illinois.
“Indiana could do whatever the hell they’re going to do,” Jennilyn said, “and we can just come here.”
___
Arleigh Rodgers reported from Chicago and Indianapolis. Michael Goldberg reported from Jackson. Rodgers and Goldberg are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. | 2023-07-12T18:13:28+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-families-with-transgender-kids-are-increasingly-forced-to-travel-out-of-state-for-the-care-they-need-2/ |
Boeing said Wednesday it lost $663 million in the fourth quarter as higher production costs and supply-chain problems offset rising revenue.
It was another disappointing quarter for the aerospace giant, which has yet to recover from deadly crashes involving two of its 737 Max jets and a pandemic that depressed airline demand for new planes until recently.
The shares were down more than 2% in premarket trading.
The loss amounted to $1.06 per share. Excluding pension adjustments, the “core" loss was $1.75 per share. Revenue increased 35% from a year earlier, to $19.98 billion.
Analysts were expecting the company to earn 20 cents per share on revenue of $20.32 billion, according to a FactSet survey.
The loss, however, was much smaller than the $4.16 billion setback Boeing suffered in the fourth quarter of 2021, when it took a huge write-down for its airliner business. For a change, there were no major new charges or write-downs in the latest quarter.
Cash flow, a measure that excludes many forms of non-cash spending, topped $3 billion, allowing Boeing to report its first full year of positive cash flow since 2018.
Boeing said it is stabilizing production of new 737s at 31 per month and plans to speed that up to about 50 per month by 2025 or 2026, and will also boost production of 787s.
In a note to employees, CEO David Calhoun said the company is “making important strides” to improve performance. He expressed confidence “despite the hurdles in front of us.”
Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, has seen deliveries rise since regulators approved the 737 Max to fly again in late 2021 and after the company satisfied regulators that it fixed production problems on another plane, the larger 787 Dreamliner. Deliveries are an important source of company cash.
Sales have also picked up as airlines grow confident that demand for air travel is recovering from the worst of the pandemic.
Boeing's defense and space business returned to a narrow profit in the fourth quarter after losing $2.85 billion in the previous quarter on huge charges related to several programs including finishing two new Air Force One presidential jets.
Jeff Windau, an analyst for Edward Jones, said in a recent note that deliveries of airline jets should continue rising, and recent defense-contract wins should also bring in revenue. He said, however, that risks include continued concern around safety of the Max and trade tensions that could hurt international orders.
___
This story has been corrected to show that analysts in a FactSet survey expected revenue of $20.32 billion. | 2023-01-25T14:08:54+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/business/article/boeing-loses-663-million-in-4q-despite-higher-17740589.php |
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jan. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DISH Network Corporation announced today it has named Stephen Bye to its Board of Directors, effective January 18, 2023. Since 2019, Stephen has served as the DISH Wireless Chief Commercial Officer supporting the development and commercialization of the company's standalone 5G network.
"Stephen has been an integral part of building our wireless business, helping lead efforts to maximize our wireless efforts and prepare us to monetize our investments," said Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman, DISH Network. "His continued leadership and guidance while serving on the board will be important as we continue to build our wireless network and disrupt the consumer and business wireless markets."
Stephen will step down from his role as Chief Commercial Officer at DISH Wireless on January 17, 2023, and assume the role of President of the Connectivity division at Ziff Davis.
"DISH is well positioned to redefine wireless at the retail, enterprise and wholesale levels with the company's standalone 5G network," said Stephen Bye. "The DISH 5G network will be invaluable for economic development in the U.S. I am honored to be joining the board and continuing to be a part of what will be one of the greatest telecom achievements in the years to come."
DISH Network Corporation is a connectivity company. Since 1980, it has served as a disruptive force, driving innovation and value on behalf of consumers. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides television entertainment and award-winning technology to millions of customers with its satellite DISH TV and streaming SLING TV services. In 2020, the company became a nationwide U.S. wireless carrier through the acquisition of Boost Mobile. DISH continues to innovate in wireless, building the nation's first virtualized, O-RAN 5G broadband network. DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) is a Fortune 200 company.
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SOURCE DISH Network Corporation | 2023-01-10T13:42:39+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2023/01/10/stephen-bye-joins-dish-network-board-directors/ |
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump joked about his legal challenges while campaigning in eastern Iowa on Tuesday night, just hours after announcing he’d received a target letter in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Headlining a Republican county meeting, Trump attacked investigators while trying to make light of what could be his third criminal indictment since March.
“I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries. Now I’m becoming an expert,” he told the audience at an Elks Lodge in Cedar Rapids.
Trump also taped an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in front of a live audience, where he vented his frustrations. “It bothers me,” he said as he continued to cast the cases as politically motivated. “It’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.”
The trip to the leadoff GOP voting state was yet another indication that, when it comes to Trump, none of the rules of politics ever apply. Trump did not cancel the trip to huddle with advisers, and he was not disinvited by organizers. Instead, he carried on as he has for months, incorporating his latest legal woes into his usual stump speech mixture of grievance, lies about the 2020 election, criticism of President Joe Biden and his agenda for a second term. For Trump, indictment news is now routine.
Iowa, with its caucuses just six months away, is a critical state for Trump, his party’s decisive early front-runner, and his rivals.
He set off for his latest trip just hours after announcing on his Truth Social platform that he had received a letter Sunday informing him that is the target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the aftermath of the 2020 election and the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Such letters often precede indictments and are used to inform individuals under investigation that prosecutors have gathered evidence linking them to a crime.
Trump has already been indicted twice — once in New York and once in Florida — and also faces potential charges in a separate election interference investigation nearing its conclusion in Georgia, a stunning and unprecedented legal onslaught as he runs for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
But the indictments have yet to damage Trump’s standing. Instead, early polling shows Trump ahead of his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 20 to 30 points, or more.
The monthly meetings of the Linn County GOP, typically lightly attended affairs, have become somewhat more popular in recent months as representatives from various Republican presidential candidates’ campaigns have paid visits to build goodwill with party regulars.
But Tuesday’s gathering was far from ordinary. More than 150 people — many wearing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” red hats — squeezed into the hall of the Elks Lodge on the city’s southwest side. Press covering the stop were cordoned behind the bar typically used for weddings and anniversaries.
At least as many Trump supporters remained outside the event, unable to get in, and were left on the sidewalk to greet the former president as he arrived and departed.
News of the target letter, said Linn County, Iowa, GOP chair Bernie Hayes, only emboldens the former president’s supporters.
“Does something like that engender sympathy? I think certainly it does,” Hayes said, as the small event room filled beyond the number of chairs set. “The man’s being persecuted, so they are just thinking of another way to persecute him.”
Some Iowa Republicans have said in interviews that the mounting legal battles Trump faces could make it difficult for him to govern if elected and that they have begun looking to alternatives. But Hayes said the developments have only strengthened the resolve of Trump supporters he talks to.
“If anything, people see President Trump is actually hardened by the trials he’s gone through and knows what he’s up against,” Hayes said.
Teresa Horton-Bumgarner from small-town Solon, east of Cedar Rapids, echoed that she and Republicans in her circle believe strongly the Biden administration is “using the judicial system as a political weapon.”
“Nothing that (Trump) did on Jan. 6, that I’ve ever seen that incited violence. He said to peacefully protest, and lawfully,” said Horton-Bumgarner, 56, who described the indictments against Trump as so “egregious” that Republicans “tend to rally behind him.”
Before his speech, Trump was interviewed on local radio, and railed against the investigations while dismissing potential negative fallout.
“The people of our great country, they fully understand what’s going (on). It’s election interference. It’s a weaponization of justice,” he said.
Speaking of his supporters, he said: “They are never leaving us because they want to make America great again. They’re with us. They have a passion like nobody’s ever had.”
The Jan. 6 probe has centered on a broad range of efforts by Trump and allies to keep him in office, including plans for slates of fake electors in multiple battleground states won by Biden to submit false electoral certificates to Congress.
Legal experts have said potential charges could include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding, in this case Congress’ certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
In Washington, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Trump’s supporters would not be turned off by the developments.
“We’ll see what they come up with …. but I tell you, the more they target Donald Trump? I mean, boy, the base, they just eat it up,” she said. “They see two systems of justice, one for Donald Trump and one for everybody else.”
Trump called a top GOP ally in the House, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, to rally Republicans against the investigation and discuss their strategy for going on offense, according to a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it. Trump also spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the person said. McCarthy once criticized Trump over Jan. 6 but on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to “weaponize government to go after their number one opponent.”
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate minority whip, said that, with one indictment after the next, voters eventually “tune it out. It doesn’t have the weight or the meaning that it does when you’ve got this many things coming at you.”
“Now, on the other hand,” he added, “it also creates, I think, kind of a lot of noise and distraction that always seem to surround the former president. At what point does that have some effect on people’s opinions? I don’t know.“
___
Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report from Washington. | 2023-07-19T11:12:31+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/news/politics/ap-trump-downplays-his-legal-challenges-on-the-campaign-trail-in-iowa-after-revealing-new-target-letter/ |
UVALDE, Texas — On a recent evening, family and friends are coming and going from the green apple-colored Uvalde home of Robb Elementary School teacher Arnulfo "Arnie" Reyes.
The fourth-grade teacher, who has undergone about 10 surgeries, is resting in his recliner by his air conditioner on a hot Texas night.
"You need to come in, brother? You can come in," he tells his sibling at the door of the small home.
Moments earlier, a wave of visitors, who are part of a community "food train," brought Reyes and his family lasagna for this evening's meal. They also brought gifts, including a maroon and silver wreath, his school colors.
His mother, Rosemary Reyes, prepared her son's first meal home, his favorite of bean and cheese tacos.
She's part of a long list of people and things Reyes missed during his stay at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He returned from the hospital a month to the day of the shooting.
"I'm home to heal," the 45-year-old said.
In late June, Reyes was welcomed back with a parade of vehicles in front of his house. Volunteers brought meals, mowed his lawn and helped him get to appointments.
"This community has really ... come together and done so much together," he said.
It's far and away from May 24, when a shadowy figure appeared in his classroom after firing shots into Room 112 next door.
Reyes had just instructed his students in Room 111 to hide.
"I told my students, 'Just go under the desk and act like you're asleep,' " Reyes recalls. "I wanted them to close their eyes and not see a thing."
Then as he prepared to move from his kidney-shaped table closer to his students, the gunman shot Reyes in the left arm.
He wasn't sure he would live.
"I pretty much had already given my life ... to God and said, 'You know, please don't let my children die in vain,' " Reyes said. "If it's my time, it's my time."
"Don't wait for a tragedy"
Reyes, a former Robb Elementary student himself, says he remains haunted by the mistakes exposed that day.
He says for at least two years his classroom's doorknob was broken and would not lock, an issue he asked to get fixed multiple times to no avail.
And he remains confused at the law enforcement response delays.
"There's really no excuse for 77 minutes," Reyes says.
He tries to limit his complaints about Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the scene's incident commander. Reyes says Arredondo is his second cousin on his maternal side, and the two have not spoken since the shooting.
But he remains perplexed why Arredondo claims to have been searching for keys when Reyes' door opened without it.
"I wish that he would have said, 'I'm going to go in there because that's my family.' But he didn't," Reyes said, his voice trailing off.
Earlier this month, Arredondo resigned his post as a newly sworn in member of Uvalde City Council. He remains on administrative leave for his police role.
Reyes also wonders about why it took a tragedy for donations to pour into the school. He thinks back to the many school fundraisers selling candy and items out of catalogs only to keep a portion of the funds.
"Why does it take these kinds of situations for people to give out money?" Reyes asks.
Reyes had a class of 18 students this year, but several left early after an awards ceremony on the day of the shooting. The remaining 11 students were watching a movie together.
Reyes argues one of those students killed may have had the cure to cancer or could have been president one day, but now it will never be known.
The school also had a long list of needed fixes, from other doors that didn't lock such as the entrance to the teacher's lounge, lack of insulation in some areas to leaks.
"Don't wait for a tragedy to say, 'OK, well, here's $10 million, now you can have the best school,' " Reyes says, referring to the expected cost of rebuilding Robb Elementary. "Don't wait for the tragedy to happen. Do it now."
The haunting deaths of his students
After he was shot, Reyes fell onto the floor on his stomach, laying on the right side of his face, almost just below his table.
The gunman then shot the 11 students all hiding under a table behind Reyes. None survived.
"Parents lost one child. Families lost one child. But I lost 11 that day," Reyes said.
He played dead for more than an hour, quietly wincing in pain and praying.
During the ordeal, the shooter sat at Reyes' teacher table about a foot away, at one time responding to distant calls from police with cough-like sounds.
"I could hear him so close, with that nervous cough that he had," Reyes said. "I could feel, hear him breathing ... and then I could hear metal objects being placed on top of the desk."
Some items had a heavy and hollow sound, like rifle magazines or bullets. Reyes believes the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was preparing to fire again if someone came in the room.
Reyes says the gunman also splashed water on his back, and blood on the exposed side of his face. Reyes' cellphone also began to ring, and Ramos placed it on Reyes' back.
"I think he was ... trying to make me flinch," Reyes said.
About halfway through, Ramos shot Reyes again, this time striking his back. Reyes' lungs started to fill with fluid, and his breathing became shallow.
"He wanted to make sure everybody was dead," Reyes said.
By the time Reyes heard police come into Room 112 next door, he braced for the end.
"I just closed my eyes and said, 'This is it, after the bullets I'll know," Reyes said. "If I get hit by a stray bullet, then so be it."
A spray of gunfire followed as Ramos was confronted, and then a moment of silence.
In all, 19 students and two teachers were killed that day.
"I'm still alive"
Soon after the gunman was shot, a Border Patrol agent was pulling Reyes by the cuff of his pants, ripping away parts of it, yelling out to other officers that he was heavy.
Reyes' sense of humor breaks through even in the darkest of times.
"I just thought to myself, 'Dude, I'm still alive. Don't be that mean,' " Reyes said.
He still doesn't know the agent's name.
Reyes would like to meet his hero who saved his life and thank him. He also has an update.
"I would tell him I don't weigh that much, and I've lost weight since then," Reyes says laughingly.
Reyes remembers his journey as others carried him from the school to an ambulance with no stretcher. His shallow breathing improved with a chest tube.
He was then flown to San Antonio.
Reyes says he has a lot of heroes to thank and meet from that day.
"I want to make things happen for my students"
Reyes is still trying to cope with the reality that he didn't save his students.
During the parade by his home in his honor, a mother of one of the slain students got out of her car to embrace Reyes.
They held each other for a long time, sobbing.
"She had to come and tell me herself that, no, it was not my fault. I had felt guilty," Reyes says. "I did what I was supposed to do. But I still had that guilty feeling, like, what else could I have done?"
Reyes agrees with plans to raze the current school building. He says it could be replaced perhaps with a memorial, and a future school could be renamed for the victims.
He's also thought about the shooter, and wonders if educational pressures contributed to his troubles. He wonders about changes to lessen educational pressures for Texas students.
But he hasn't gone as far as forgiveness.
"I'm trying to come to those terms of where I can actually say I forgive him," Reyes said. "Maybe I'll come to that conclusion, or when my kids get justice ... I'll say OK, we got something out of this."
He also thinks back to when he joked with his students that a film company was going to make a movie about their preparations to pass statewide testing. Now, he wonders if there's a new inspirational movie to make for his students.
Reyes, who has taught in Uvalde for about seven years, is not sure if he'll return to teaching.
He still does not have use of his left arm, which remains heavily bandaged and layered with a drainage tube. More bandages cover his back injury and there's another on his right leg for a skin graft surgery.
He also carries a portable device that helps his wounds heal. It makes even a short walk to the restroom a trying experience.
"I'm not used to depending on anybody for anything," Reyes said.
So the idea of how his journey ahead works is not fully formed, and it's still a work in progress.
"I'm here. And a lot of it that's getting me forward in all of this is the love that I'm getting from my community, the love that I get from my family and the thought that I want to make things happen for my students," Reyes says, "that they wouldn't die in vain."
He says that support is helping him start to cope with the nightmare of losing all 11 of the students in his classroom that day, students who felt like his own children.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2022-07-10T10:13:08+00:00 | mainepublic.org | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/npr-news/2022-07-01/in-uvalde-he-lost-11-students-and-was-badly-wounded-now-he-looks-for-a-path-forward |
NEW YORK, April 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the common stock of Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS) between February 9, 2021 and February 10, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important May 5, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Fidelity National 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 Fidelity National class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=12773 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 May 5, 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. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the integration of Worldpay with the Fidelity National Merchant Solutions business was not ahead of schedule; (2) the integration of Worldpay with the Fidelity National Merchant Solutions business was not successfully completed during the Class Period; (3) the increases in revenue synergies were not driven by the Worldpay integration; and (4) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Fidelity National class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=12773 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.
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | 2023-04-27T16:34:21+00:00 | wsfa.com | https://www.wsfa.com/prnewswire/2023/04/27/fis-final-deadline-alert-rosen-leading-law-firm-encourages-fidelity-national-information-services-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-may-5-deadline-securities-class-action-fis/ |
A day after revelations that the Titan submersible imploded, officials searched the ocean floor for evidence and grappled Friday with vexing questions about who is responsible for investigating the international disaster.
A formal inquiry has not yet been launched because maritime agencies are still busy searching the area where the vessel fell apart, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday. Debris was located about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater, several hundred feet away from the Titanic wreckage it was on its way to explore. The U.S. Coast Guard led the initial search and rescue mission.
“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District said Thursday.
It was not entirely clear Friday who would have the authority to lead what is sure to be a complex investigation involving several countries. OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the Titan, is based in the U.S. but the submersible was registered in the Bahamas. OceanGate is based in Everett, Washington, but closed when the Titan was found. Meanwhile, the Titan’s mother ship, the Polar Prince, was from Canada, and the people on board the submersible were from England, Pakistan, France, and the U.S.
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The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that the U.S. Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible to be a “major marine casualty” and the Coast Guard will lead the investigation. NTSB spokesperson Peter Knudson said that information was provided to the agency’s senior management by Coast Guard officials, and the NTSB has joined the investigation.
The Coast Guard has not confirmed that it will lead the investigation. Coast Guard headquarters said the Coast Guard First District in Boston will discuss future operations and plans, but did not say when. The First District did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment Friday.
U.S. & World
How the investigation will proceed is also complicated by the fact that the world of deep-sea exploration is not well-regulated. Deep-sea expeditions like those offered by OceanGate are scrutinized less than the companies that launch people into space, noted Salvatore Mercogliano, a history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina who focuses on maritime history and policy.
The Titan was not registered as a U.S. vessel or with international agencies that regulate safety. And it wasn't classified by a maritime industry group that sets standards on matters such as hull construction.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the Titan when it imploded, complained that regulations can stifle progress.
“Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation,” Rush wrote in a blog post on his company’s website.
Bob Ballard, a member of the research team that found the Titanic wreck in 1985, called the lack of certification by outside experts “the smoking gun” in the Titan implosion.
“We’ve made thousands and thousands and thousands of dives ... to these depths and have never had an incident,” Ballard said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“... The smoking gun is that this is the first time by a submarine that wasn’t classed,” he said.
One question that seems at least partially resolved is when the implosion likely happened. After the Titan was reported missing Sunday, the Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an “anomaly” that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost, said a senior U.S. Navy official.
The Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the data was not considered definitive, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.
Condolences for and tributes to those who died flowed in from around the world. Killed in the implosion were Rush, two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The Titan launched at 8 a.m. Sunday, and was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.
Any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive was wiped away early Thursday, when the submersible’s 96-hour supply of air was expected to run out and the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
A flurry of lawsuits is expected, but filing them will be complex and it's unclear how successful they will be. Plaintiffs will run into the problem of establishing jurisdiction, which could be tricky, just as it will be for the investigation, said Steve Flynn, a retired Coast Guard officer and director of Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute.
The implosion happened “basically in a regulatory no man’s land,” Flynn said.
“There was essentially no oversight,” Flynn said. “To some extent, they leveraged the murkiness of jurisdiction to not have oversight.”
James Cameron, who directed the blockbuster movie “Titanic” and has made multiple dives to the iconic ship's wreckage, told the BBC that he knew an “extreme catastrophic event” had happened as soon as he heard the submersible had lost navigation and communications at the same time.
“For me, there was no doubt," Cameron said. "There was no search. When they finally got an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) down there that could make the depth, they found it within hours. Probably within minutes.”
The cost of the search will easily stretch into the millions of dollars for the U.S. Coast Guard alone. The Canadian coast guard, U.S. Navy and other agencies and private entities also rushed to provide resources and expertise.
There’s no other comparable ocean search, especially with so many countries and even commercial enterprises being involved, said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, analyst and author based in Virginia.
Some agencies can seek reimbursements. But the U.S. Coast Guard is generally prohibited by federal law from collecting reimbursement pertaining to any search or rescue service,” said Stephen Koerting, a U.S. attorney in Maine who specializes in maritime law.
At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck.
But questions about the submersible's safety were raised by both by a former company employee and former passengers.
One of the company’s first customers, meanwhile, likened a dive he made to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.
“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”
___
The fourth paragraph has been corrected to note that it was the Coast Guard, not Mauger, who gave the information on Friday.
___
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; David Sharp, in Portland, Maine; Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; Gene Johnson in Seattle; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report. | 2023-06-23T20:17:05+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/what-caused-the-titan-to-implode-right-now-its-not-even-clear-who-will-lead-the-investigation/3168885/ |
WASHINGTON — Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has reintroduced the Coal Council Certainty Act to restore the mission of the National Coal Council (NCC).
The NCC is a federal advisory committee that previously provided advice, recommendations and insights to the Department of Energy (DOE) on issues related to the coal industry. The NCC was originally established in 1984 and was comprised of coal producers and consumers, carbon researchers, academics, environmentalists and policy experts.
The council’s core mission was to advance innovation and technological development, enabling the U.S. to continue utilizing its abundant coal resources while improving environmental stewardship.
However, the Biden administration allowed the NCC’s charter to expire in November 2021 and re-chartered the agency last year, changing its focus away from the responsible development and more innovative uses of coal.
In response, Hoeven’s legislation would permanently extend the NCC’s charter as it existed before its expiration, preserving the council’s core mission.
“Our nation needs reliable and affordable baseload power, which keeps the lights and heat on for families and businesses in all types of weather,” Hoeven said. “The National Coal Council had broad representation that helped to develop new innovations, like we’re doing with carbon capture, utilization and storage in North Dakota, to secure coal’s future in America’s energy mix while reducing emissions. By restoring the NCC’s mission, our legislation would help advance efforts to ensure the stability and reliability of the grid.”
In addition to Hoeven, the Coal Council Certainty Act is cosponsored by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.). | 2023-04-06T20:41:42+00:00 | willistonherald.com | https://www.willistonherald.com/hoeven-reintroduces-bill-to-restore-mission-of-national-coal-council/article_6f6f2e5e-d4a3-11ed-9f6c-6751aa2938d4.html |
Marlin Briscoe, the first Black starting quarterback in the American Football League, died at 76.
Briscoe's daughter, Angela Marriott, told The Associated Press that he died of pneumonia at a hospital in Norwalk, California, on Monday.
He was in the hospital due to circulation issues in his legs.
Briscoe was a star quarterback at Omaha University before the Denver Broncos drafted him as a cornerback in the 14th round in 1968.
He told the team he wanted a tryout at quarterback.
The Omaha, Nebraska, native told the Broncos that he'd return home to be a teacher if he didn't get a tryout.
Denver agreed to an audition, and the 5-foot-10 dynamo nicknamed "The Magician" ended up starting five games that year.
On Sept. 29, he almost rallied the team to win against the Boston Patriots.
A week later, he earned his historic first start.
But by 1969, the Broncos didn't give Briscoe a chance to compete for the quarterback position, so he asked to be released.
The following year, Briscoe changed from quarterback to receiver and signed to play for the Buffalo Bills.
Briscoe became a member of the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016. | 2022-06-28T21:26:44+00:00 | wkbw.com | https://www.wkbw.com/sports/marlin-briscoe-1st-black-starting-qb-in-afl-dies-at-76 |
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — An endangered Florida panther has died after being struck by a vehicle.
It’s the 18th panther death attributed to fatal collisions, out of 20 total deaths this year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The remains of the 2-year-old female panther were found Thursday along Alligator Alley in Collier County, just a few miles east of the toll plaza, wildlife officials said.
Florida panthers once roamed the entire Southeast, but now their habitat mostly is confined to a small region of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. Up to 230 Florida panthers remain in the wild. | 2022-07-21T21:55:17+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Officials-Florida-panther-struck-and-killed-by-17320859.php |
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After waking up from a nice, deep sleep, your body might feel refreshed and ready to take on the day — but your hair might say otherwise. (Bedhead happens to the best of us!) If you often wake up with rough, tangled hair, a silk pillowcase could help.
The perks of silk pillowcases are plentiful, including helping your hair and skin look their best. Because silk doesn’t absorb much moisture, the belief is that by sleeping on silk pillowcases (or wrapping your hair in silk), your hair will retain moisture, leading to less frizz. What’s more, silk pillowcases cause less friction than cotton pillowcases, so they can prevent the tangles and bedhead that we get from sleeping on cotton bedding.
As for skin benefits, sleeping on a smooth surface like a silk pillowcase reduces the chances of waking up with those skin creases you can get from sleeping on more coarse or wrinkled fabric.
While you might associate soft, silky bedding with royal palaces or high-end hotels, the truth is that you can find relatively reasonably-priced options on Amazon. These Fishers Finery 25 mm 100% Mulberry Silk Pillowcases, for example, were given top marks by Good Housekeeping as some of the best silk pillowcases you can buy.
Mulberry silk is a high-quality textile with a luxurious feel, and while the two-pack of Fishers Finery mulberry silk pillowcases varies in price depending on size and color, most sets are priced around $50 on Amazon.
More than 6,700 reviewers rated these pillowcases highly, with an average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5. The positive reviews note the softness, comfort and durability of the pillowcases. One reviewer said they are “worth every penny” while another person felt it was a good investment for anyone dealing with skin issues, as it’s not rough on your skin.
Another individual, who wrote that they often give silk pillowcases as gifts, claimed that these are “by far the best product and somehow also one of the most reasonably priced.”
To care for mulberry silk pillowcases, you can hand-wash or machine wash on the gentle cycle. The company recommends washing in a mesh bag and letting them dry flat. Dry cleaning is also an option.
It’s worth noting there are cheaper “smooth” pillowcases on the market, but check the material before purchasing. Silk is a fiber while satin is a weave. Satin pillowcases are made of polyester, which makes them more cost-effective — but silk and satin fabrics aren’t apples to apples. A set of mulberry silk pillowcases might be worth the cost if they really do help you get your beauty sleep.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories. | 2022-06-08T12:53:51+00:00 | ktvq.com | https://www.ktvq.com/mulberry-silk-pillowcases-amazon |
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RED LODGE, Mont. — The forces of fire and ice shaped Yellowstone National Park over thousands of years. It took decades longer for humans to tame it enough for tourists to visit, often from the comfort of their cars.
In just days, heavy rain and rapid snowmelt caused a dramatic flood that may forever alter the human footprint on the park's terrain and the communities that have grown around it.
The historic floodwaters that raged through Yellowstone this week, tearing out bridges and pouring into nearby homes, pushed a popular fishing river off course — possibly permanently — and may force roadways nearly torn away by torrents of water to be rebuilt in new places.
“The landscape literally and figuratively has changed dramatically in the last 36 hours,” said Bill Berg, a commissioner in nearby Park County. “A little bit ironic that this spectacular landscape was create by violent geologic and hydrologic events, and it’s just not very handy when it happens while we’re all here settled on it.”
The unprecedented flooding drove more than 10,000 visitors out of the nation’s oldest national park and damaged hundreds of homes in nearby communities, though remarkably no was reported hurt or killed. The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry.
The park could remain closed as long as a week, and northern entrances may not reopen this summer, Superintendent Cam Sholly said.
“I’ve heard this is a 1,000-year event, whatever that means these days. They seem to be happening more and more frequently,” he said.
Sholly noted some weather forecasts include the possibility of additional flooding this weekend.
Days of rain and rapid snowmelt wrought havoc across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it washed away cabins, swamped small towns and knocked out power. It hit the park as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up during its 150th anniversary year.
Businesses in hard-hit Gardiner had just started really recovering from the tourism contraction brought by the coronavirus pandemic, and were hoping for a good year, Berg said.
“It’s a Yellowstone town, and it lives and dies by tourism, and this is going to be a pretty big hit,” he said. “They’re looking to try to figure out how to hold things together.”
Some of the worst damage happened in the northern part of the park and Yellowstone’s gateway communities in southern Montana. National Park Service photos of northern Yellowstone showed a mudslide, washed out bridges and roads undercut by churning floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.
In Red Lodge, a town of 2,100 that’s a popular jumping-off point for a scenic route into the Yellowstone high country, a creek running through town jumped its banks and swamped the main thoroughfare, leaving trout swimming in the street a day later under sunny skies.
Residents described a harrowing scene where the water went from a trickle to a torrent over just a few hours.
The water toppled telephone poles, knocked over fences and carved deep fissures in the ground through a neighborhood of hundreds of houses. Electricity was restored by Tuesday, but there was still no running water in the affected neighborhood.
Heidi Hoffman left early Monday to buy a sump pump in Billings, but by the time she returned her basement was full of water.
“We lost all our belongings in the basement,” Hoffman said as the pump removed a steady stream of water into her muddy backyard. “Yearbooks, pictures, clothes, furniture. Were going to be cleaning up for a long time.”
At least 200 homes were flooded in Red Lodge and the town of Fromberg.
The flooding came as the Midwest and East Coast sizzle from a heat wave and other parts of the West burn from an early wildfire season amid a persistent drought that has increased the frequency and intensity of fires. Smoke from a fire in the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona, could be seen in Colorado.
While the flooding hasn't been directly attributed to climate change, Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said a warming environment makes extreme weather events more likely than they would have been "without the warming that human activity has caused.”
“Will Yellowstone have a repeat of this in five or even 50 years? Maybe not, but somewhere will have something equivalent or even more extreme,” he said.
Heavy rain on top of melting mountain snow pushed the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clarks Fork rivers to record levels Monday and triggered rock and mudslides, according to the National Weather Service. The Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs topped a record set in 1918.
Yellowstone's northern roads may remain impassable for a substantial length of time. The flooding affected the rest of the park, too, with park officials warning of yet higher flooding and potential problems with water supplies and wastewater systems at developed areas.
The rains hit just as area hotels filled up in recent weeks with summer tourists. More than 4 million visitors were tallied by the park last year. The wave of tourists doesn’t abate until fall, and June is typically one of Yellowstone’s busiest months.
Mark Taylor, owner and chief pilot of Rocky Mountain Rotors, said his company had airlifted about 40 paying customers over the past two days from Gardiner, including two women who were “very pregnant.”
Taylor spoke as he ferried a family of four adults from Texas, who wanted to do some more sightseeing before heading home.
“I imagine they’re going to rent a car and they’re going to go check out some other parts of Montana — somewhere drier,” he said.
At a cabin in Gardiner, Parker Manning of Terre Haute, Indiana, got an up-close view of the roiling Yellowstone River floodwaters just outside his door. Entire trees and even a lone kayaker streamed by.
In early evening, he shot video as the waters ate away at the opposite bank where a large brown house that had been home to park employees before they were evacuated was precariously perched.
In a large cracking sound heard over the river's roar, the house tipped into the waters and was pulled into the current. Sholly said it floated 5 miles (8 kilometers) before sinking.
The towns of Cooke City and Silvergate, just east of the park, were also isolated by floodwaters, which also made drinking water unsafe. People left a hospital and low-lying areas in Livingston.
In south-central Montana, 68 people at a campground were rescued by raft after flooding on the Stillwater River. Some roads in the area were closed and residents were evacuated.
In the hamlet of Nye, at least four cabins washed into the Stillwater River, said Shelley Blazina, including one she owned.
“It was my sanctuary,” she said Tuesday. “Yesterday I was in shock. Today I’m just in intense sadness.”
___
Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, R.J. Rico in Atlanta, and Brian Melley in Los Angeles contributed to this report. | 2022-06-15T15:13:09+00:00 | 11alive.com | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/nation-world/yellowstone-floods/507-9e2802b6-46df-4e22-9b8a-a2fbe0167f61 |
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BRUSSELS (AP) — The head of the European Union’s executive arm vowed Wednesday to introduce checks on key EU infrastructure, including energy, after the suspected sabotage of natural-gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the damage last week to the Nord Stream pipelines linking Russia and Germany has "shown how vulnerable our energy infrastructure is” and a comprehensive plan is needed to ensure the safety of key EU networks, including for data.
“We need to stress test our infrastructure,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “We need to identify whether we have weak points and where these weak points are.” She also said that satellite surveillance will be used to detect potential threats.
Amid Russia’s seven-month war against Ukraine and western military support for the Ukrainian government, the Nord Stream damage resulted from undersea blasts caused by several hundred pounds of explosives in four locations off southern Sweden and Denmark. The explosions caused big methane leaks in the Baltic Sea.
Because EU countries are responsible for overseeing energy and other basic infrastructure in the bloc, von der Leyen said her safety push would involve national capitals.
“We will work with member states to ensure effective stress tests in the energy sector,” she said. “This then should be followed by other high-risk sectors, such as the offshore digital and electricity infrastructure.”
Also in Strasbourg on Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell predicted that the bloc’s 27 national governments would agree to hit Russia with new sanctions in response to its illegal annexation of four regions in Ukraine that make up around 15% of Ukrainian territory.
The planned new penalties include a price cap on Russian oil, curbs on EU exports of aircraft components to the country and limits on imports of Russian steel. EU member-state diplomats were aiming to approve the new package as soon as Wednesday in Brussels.
The new penalties build on already unprecedented European sanctions against Russia as a result of its war against Ukraine since February.
EU measures to date include restrictions on energy supplies from Russia, bans on financial transactions with Russian entities including the central bank and asset freezes against more than 1,000 people and over 100 entities. | 2022-10-05T09:54:09+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Top-EU-official-vows-to-stress-test-17487993.php |
Jamestown City Council will review at its work session the proposed 2023 Action Plan regarding $1.5 million in funding from HUD.
The City Department of Development held six community input sessions on the action plan over the last two months. The next step is to have Council review the plan before going before the public a final time at a public hearing scheduled for Monday, June 26. The plan then gets submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The City of Jamestown has been allocated $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds as well as $397,507 in HOME program funds for a total of $1,542,257.
Council also will receive a report on the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth grant of $4,310 the city received to install a high-visibility creative crosswalk at West 6th and Cherry Streets connecting the James Prendergast Library to Dow Park.
And a resolution to lift the hiring freeze to hire an engineer appears on the agenda. According to the staff report, this resolution is to replace engineer Mark Roetzer who is now the Acting Director of Public Works and Parks Departments.
The Housing Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full work session takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall.
All meetings are open to the public with the full work session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov. | 2023-06-05T13:43:18+00:00 | wrfalp.com | https://www.wrfalp.com/city-council-to-review-2023-action-plan-west-sixth-street-crosswalk-project/ |
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers placed rookie defensive end DeMarvin Leal on injured reserve Saturday with a knee injury, the latest setback for a banged-up defense that will be extremely shorthanded on Sunday against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Leal, a third-round pick out of Texas A&M, was hurt late in the week. He practiced on Wednesday and Thursday but did not on Friday. Leal made his first career start against the Bills and has 10 tackles in five games.
Pittsburgh will face Tampa Bay (3-2) with a secondary missing four of its top five defensive backs. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (knee) and cornerbacks Cam Sutton (hamstring), Levi Wallace (concussion) and Ahkello Witherspoon (hamstring) are out. Safety Terrell Edmunds will return after missing last week with a concussion.
The Steelers will also be without starting tight end Pat Freiermuth, who spent the week in concussion protocol after taking a shot to the head after making a catch against Buffalo.
Pittsburgh will play its fifth straight game without reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt. The star outside linebacker remains out indefinitely with a left pectoral injury. The Steelers are 0-8 without Watt since he was taken in the first round of the 2017 draft, including an 0-4 mark this year.
Brady has typically had his way with the Steelers throughout his career. He is 12-3 all-time against Pittsburgh, including a 9-3 mark during the regular season, all with New England. Brady has thrown 29 touchdowns against five interceptions when facing the Steelers.
___
More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | 2022-10-15T23:49:31+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/banged-up-steelers-place-rookie-de-leal-on-injured-reserve/2022/10/15/04d24c3a-4cda-11ed-8153-96ee97b218d2_story.html |
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KCF Technologies, a leading provider of machine health optimization technology and services, announced strategic investments through its first growth capital round. The benefit to the capital raised will help KCF scale faster with technology development, sustain rapid growth, and continue to push industry beyond predictive maintenance with a full machine health platform.
Over the last two decades, KCF has organically grown a global portfolio of 128 manufacturing companies. In the first half of 2022, KCF has expanded the full stack offering of hardware, software, and services into 84 new plant and shop locations on the heels of new product and feature releases.
Momentum from this year's release of KCF's all-new SMARTdiagnostics 4.0 machine health platform, coupled with hardware advancements from the release of an all-new Base Station in early 2022, KCF's tech platform continues to accelerate with enhancements and adoption across manufacturers worldwide. New features for 2022 that are advancing adoption of the machine health platform include Sensor AI and MachineIQ. SensorAI consistently monitors data to search for deviations and sudden changes that drive the need for immediate action on plants critical assets. MachineIQ classifies and makes recommendations to solve issues, facilitating work flows to schedule maintenance work through Computer Maintenance Management System integrations.
KCF's proprietary software, SMARTdiagnostics, leverages a library of machine data, analytics, and condition monitoring expertise acquired over two decades. SMARTdiagnostics continues to develop on a foundation of 200,000 collective years of machine health and over 60 billion machine health measurements to further advance offerings powered by advanced analytics, Machine Learning, and AI. The convergence of industry leading machine health technology and a high-touch engineering team that has a deep understanding of asset performance has delivered over $2.7 billion dollars in customer savings to date.
Built on a foundation to permanently solve complex asset problems, KCF's integrated platform serves critical global manufacturers in various industrial verticals, including pharmaceutical, food & beverage, power generation, forest products, oil & gas, and automotive.
"For the last 20 years we have been fortunate for our long-standing relationships with cutting-edge manufacturers around the world. Today, we are thrilled to bring in like-minded partners to accelerate our tech stack and scale the value even faster." – Dr. Jeremy Frank, CEO of KCF Technologies
Two partners in the Series A funding, Graham Partners and RiverBay Capital, benefit KCF with their focused industry knowledge in technology, advanced manufacturing, and engineering resources.
About KCF Technologies:
KCF is on a mission to permanently solve the complex asset problems that have plagued industry. Our team develops technology and services that empower industrial businesses to eliminate unplanned downtime, optimize their operations, and outpace their competition. For more information on SMARTdiagnostics 4.0, visit www.kcftech.com.
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SOURCE KCF Technologies, Inc. | 2022-07-20T12:20:19+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2022/07/20/kcf-technologies-accelerates-machine-health-platform-with-new-investors/ |
The New Monitor Provides Users With a Comfortable and Healthy Home Environment When Paired with Other Govee Smart Home Appliances
HONG KONG, Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Govee, a global innovator in smart home ecosystem technology, launched its first Smart Air Quality Monitor, designed to give users control over their spaces and enhance the overall quality of life within the home environment. With high-accuracy detection, the product tracks temperature, humidity, and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). The smart monitor is complemented by other Govee Smart Home products to optimally manage users' preferences and provide them with utmost control of the overall health of their living space.
For an improved living experience, the Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor can be used in conjunction with the Govee Smart Air Purifier (13.6 inches), Govee Smart Air Purifier (11 inches), Govee Smart Humidifier, and Govee Smart Space Heater, empowering users to control and customize their settings for a healthy and comfortable smart home environment. When the Govee smart appliances work in unison with the monitor, users can set a target temperature and humidity via the Govee Home app. From there, all connected appliances will turn on automatically, allowing the monitor to detect the current indoor temperature and humidity, and adjust it based on the requested settings. In addition, when the smart monitor detects the room has reached the preferred setting, the connected appliances will run at a low power level to stabilize temperature and humidity–ultimately saving energy for users.
The Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor also features high accuracy monitoring. The monitor updates every two seconds to ensure the current state of the air is reported and has the highest accuracy among the home air quality monitors now in the market. This is not only helpful but important when it comes to identifying PM 2.5, which the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) found is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory health. Natural occurrences, such as destructive wildfires, often have ultra-fine PM and pose the greatest health risk, as their size is small enough to access deep parts of human lungs. Having a Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor and Govee Smart Air Purifier ensures users' environment is always safe and healthy.
With poor indoor air quality linked to health ailments such as headaches, itchy eyes, runny nose and dry throat, among others, the Govee Smart Air Quality Monitor offers users peace of mind with its array of features and user-friendly operation, including:
- A display screen combined with the Govee app, to help users understand the most common household air pollutant levels, including humidity, temperature and PM 2.5
- The ability to check real-time data via Wi-Fi
- Real-time notifications in the Govee app
- Automatic historical data backup for users to set room preferences with other Govee smart home appliances
- Hands-free operation via the Govee app and Amazon Alexa integration
- Three levels of brightness offered by its premier display, and can display data in different colors
- Has a clock and show timers on the screen for a more casual display
Looking ahead, Govee will continue to explore more innovative and affordable smart products to create a smart home ecosystem, designed to further improve the living space at home.
The Smart Air Quality Monitor and its complementary smart home products make an excellent gift for the upcoming holiday season. The Govee Air Quality Monitor is available in the United States on Govee.com and Amazon, for $59.99.
Since November 2017, Govee has created cutting-edge lighting and home products for consumers from around the world and is committed to upholding the highest standards in quality for our smart home technology. Our products are consistently rated as Amazon's Choice with highly rated reviews from our consumers. The Govee Home App, our corresponding app for all of our products, has a growing community of over 10 million registered users. We have also received rave reviews from trusted publications. For more information, please visit our website at govee.com.
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SOURCE GOVEE MOMENTS LIMITED | 2022-11-14T15:05:43+00:00 | wsfa.com | https://www.wsfa.com/prnewswire/2022/11/14/govee-launches-smart-air-quality-monitor-designed-improve-consumers-living-space/ |
1 day of sun before windy, wet weather forecast to start week
Winter’s grip might soon be easing on the Las Vegas Valley, but don’t count on it for a few days.
Sunday should be sunny with a high near 58. However, breezy conditions will prevail, with afternoon/evening gusts reaching to 26 mph, says the National Weather Service.
There is a 20 percent chance of rain after 10 p.m. Winds will stay close to 20 mph.
Monday brings a 40 percent chance of showers and a high near 49.
A Tuesday low near 32 in the central valley will mean freezing conditions at higher elevations.
Temperatures are then expected to warm, getting close to the normal low 60s by next weekend.
The upper Colorado River and Virgin River Basins are reporting above normal snowpack.
These charts illustrate the amount of liquid or snow water equivalent within that snowpack. Let’s hope both basins can keep pace with values reached in 2011. #nvwx #azwx pic.twitter.com/KnccvdKhyr— NWS Las Vegas (@NWSVegas) January 27, 2023
The current snowpack conditions show the water equivalents for the Colorado River and Virgin River basins to be on par with the wet year of 2011.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter. | 2023-01-29T16:01:00+00:00 | reviewjournal.com | https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/weather/1-day-of-sun-before-windy-wet-weather-forecast-to-start-week-2720237/ |
Bishop O’Connell was in unfamiliar territory in the bottom of the fifth inning of the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association state softball championship Friday. The undefeated Knights were playing from behind — even with reigning All-Met Player of the Year Katie Kutz on the mound — and had just a handful of outs left to come back against Potomac School in their final game of the season.
With two outs in the inning, sophomore catcher Ari Clark stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and soon faced a full count. She swung at the payoff pitch and sent a drive into center field that dropped to the grass and scored three Knights. It was their first lead of the game.
“I hit the ball, and I just thought, ‘Let this ball drop,’ ” Clark said afterward by phone in Sutherland. “I was just happy that I could produce for my team when they needed me.”
Her hit proved to be the deciding one in the Knights’ 4-2 victory over Potomac School. O’Connell (21-0) took home its 11th straight VISAA title and 27th state championship over the past 29 seasons. It was their fourth straight title game victory over the Panthers (17-2).
Kutz fanned 14 Panthers in her final outing.
Unlike in last year’s comfortable 7-2 victory over Potomac, the Knights’ dominance wasn’t evident early Friday. A double down the third base line by Potomac star Abby Rebhan scored a run in the opening frame, and another double moments later by Alexis Vaughan made the lead 2-0.
O’Connell wasn’t panicking.
“I didn’t feel very nervous; I actually felt relaxed,” Clark said. “Coach Suzy [Willemssen] reminds us we have competitive stamina; this is what we are made for.”
With one swing of the bat in the fifth inning, the Knights were given new life. Clark’s single sent O’Connell’s dugout into a frenzy. A parade of base runners sprinted to home plate as the Knights, who trailed 2-1 before that, celebrated their sudden advantage.
Kutz finished the job in typical Kutz fashion, striking out five of Potomac’s final six batters before a groundout capped another dominant season for the perennial powerhouse.
Each season, VISAA engraves the name of the title winner onto the trophy and hands it off to the winning team to keep until next year’s championship game. For the past year, it has rested in Willemssen’s basement.
She drove the trophy up to the tournament Wednesday and perched it on a seat in her car as she spoke with her team.
“I said ‘Hey, look what’s in the car,’ ” Willemssen said. “ ‘That’s going to be its seat coming back home.’ ”
As has become routine for the Knights for most of three decades, that trophy will be O’Connell’s to keep until next spring. | 2023-05-20T01:07:57+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/05/19/oconnell-visaa-potomacschool/ |
Democrats are facing a tough U.S. Senate map next year. The party will need to hold on to some vulnerable seats in Republican states, as well as potentially flip a seat or two if they lose any of those closely-watched races if they hope to remain in control of the chamber.
One of the seats they are hoping to flip is in deep-red Texas, where Republican Sen. Ted Cruz faces reelection in 2024.
Alex Morgan, the president of the Progressive Turnout Project – a political action committee that mobilizes Democratic voters during elections, says when his group first started preparing for next year, Texas' seat in the U.S. Senate was not on his radar.
"It is a tough state," he says. "It is a big state that requires a lot of investment."
But then Democratic Congressman Colin Allred – an attorney and former NFL linebacker — announced he was jumping into the race to oust Ted Cruz.
Allred flipped a congressional district outside Dallas in 2018, a year that Democrats did particularly well in the midterms. He's kept the seat ever since.
Morgan says Allred's announcement got him excited about the odds of Democrats flipping this seat.
"You know because he's battle-tested, well-known and well-liked in the state," he said. "So, he really makes it now where Texas becomes probably our best pickup opportunity across the country next year."
Democratic state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a key voice in the state pushing for tougher gun laws after the Uvalde school shooting, recently announced he's also running.
There are a couple of reasons why some Democrats are optimistic
For one, the last time Cruz was up for reelection he only won his race against former Congressman Beto O'Rourke by less than three percentage points. It remains one of the closest statewide races in Texas in recent history.
But Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser says he thinks that race was a fluke more than it is a sign that a senate seat from Texas is really within reach for Democrats.
"Without Beto O'Rourke on the ballot, it's going to be harder for Democrats to take the seat," he predicted. "O'Rourke caught lightning in a bottle. He came out of nowhere. He raised $80 million plus. And he made a huge impact on the race and energized a lot of voters."
Steinhauser says he doesn't think Democrats in Texas are going to be as motivated next year as they were in 2018.
But Sawyer Hackett with the Lose Cruz PAC – a group of Democratic strategists working to get Ted Cruz out of office – says there's some other big reasons he might be vulnerable next year.
"Ted Cruz is deeply unpopular both in Texas and nationally," Hackett said. "He consistently ranks as one of the most disliked senators serving in the caucus. But especially in Texas he has had underwater approval ratings since he took office."
Another liability, Hackett says, is the backlash Cruz got in 2021 when he went to Cancun to escape a deadly winter storm in Texas that left large swaths of the state without power and water for several days.
"I think if you ask people to name one thing that they know about Ted Cruz, the first thing that they would say is Cancun," he said..
But Steinhauser says that he thinks Cruz did a good job of handling that scandal.
"I think he saw that as a mistake and kind of admitted as such and worked to repair some of that damage," he said. "That's one weekend, if you will, versus a whole lifetime and a whole career of work that I think he is going to point to and say, 'on the issues that you guys care about the most, I am with you and here is how and here is why.'"
James Henson with the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin says he also doesn't think Cruz is as vulnerable as Democrats hope he is.
He says Democrats have long thought that Cruz's likability problems and baggage would eventually cost him during elections.
"But you know Cruz has proven fairly resilient," he explained. "I think he is going to have challenges this time. You know but I think you still have to figure that the odds are in his favor, albeit perhaps less so than they've been in the past."
While the state has changed demographically very quickly in that time, that hasn't actually manifested into any big changes politically. At least not yet. Henson says statewide elections are slowly getting closer in Texas, but Democrats are still on a long losing streak.
"There has not been a Democrat elected statewide since the 1990s," Henson said. "And Republicans' electoral success in the state could fairly be called uniform. That is, Republicans have controlled all three branches of state government here for the entirety of the 21st century."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-07-18T14:26:19+00:00 | kgou.org | https://www.kgou.org/politics-and-government/politics-and-government/2023-07-18/democrats-eye-sen-ted-cruzs-seat-in-republican-dominated-texas-as-a-possible-flip |
DAVIS COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) – Police have arrested a man accused of going on a stabbing spree in Bountiful, Utah, on Thursday, luring one victim through the dating app Tinder.
The Davis County Sheriff’s Office has arrested Kane Thomas Fairbank, 18. Authorities say Fairbank’s stabbing spree has left two women hospitalized in critical condition.
Authorities say Fairbank met with the first victim, an 18-year-old woman, at Mueller Park after communicating with her on Tinder. Fairbank allegedly lured the woman into his vehicle before stabbing her multiple times in the face, neck and hands. Authorities say the man’s knife was nearly one foot in length, leaving the woman with “significant injuries.”
Deputies say the woman fought back against Fairbank and escaped from the vehicle. As she was running away, Fairbank stabbed her in the back, leaving her with a “life-threatening” injury, according to police.
As the woman continued fleeing, she approached several people at the park for help. Officials say good samaritans “took action and created a barrier” between the woman and Fairbank. When Fairbank noticed, authorities say he ran away, hopped into his car and drove to a gas station in Bountiful.
The good samaritans were two nurses and an EMT who provided first aid to the woman while another eyewitness called 911.
When Fairbank arrived at the gas station, he allegedly threw away both the victim’s cell phone along with his own in an attempt to discard potential evidence. He also ditched his vehicle at the station, police say.
Fairbank then reportedly walked to a nearby neighborhood and spotted a 64-year-old woman. He approached her and stabbed her multiple times, authorities say. During the attack, the woman fell down, but continued fighting. Fairbank told authorities he targeted the woman “because she was elderly, alone, and vulnerable.”
Arrest documents say when other people ran to her aid, Fairbank fled the scene. As he continued fleeing, an eyewitness spotted him and detained him until authorities arrived.
During questioning, Fairbank admitted to stabbing the two women, police say. He had allegedly planned to murder the first woman since their first interaction on Tinder. He told deputies he invited the woman to the park “with the intent of luring her into his car and killing her.” While holding her captive, he admitted to “actively trying to kill her by stabbing and cutting her with a knife.”
Fairbank told authorities he planned to go on a continued murder spree after stabbing the two women, police report. He allegedly spoke at length about his desire of killing his parents and siblings with a pickaxe. He also mentioned planning to live out of his car during this time, packing enough food to “sustain him through this endeavor. “
Fairbank allegedly told officials he would continue killing more people if he was released from custody, using social media apps to find new victims.
Fairbank has been arrested on five charges including murder, obstruction of justice and aggravated kidnapping. He’s currently booked at the Davis County Jail.
“We’re asking the public to come forward with any surveillance video of Fairbank,” authorities say. “If you live or work in the area, please check your security devices between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 pm. If you have information, video, or photos, please call Davis County non-emergency dispatch at (801) 451-4150.” | 2022-05-14T02:47:53+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/news/national/man-arrested-lured-victim-on-tinder-with-intent-to-kill-during-bountiful-stabbing-spree/ |
In the months before the 2020 presidential election, Roy W. Bailey, a Dallas businessperson, received a stream of text messages from Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, asking for money in persistent, almost desperate terms.
“Have you forgotten me?” the messages read, Bailey recalled. “Have you deserted us?”
Bailey was familiar with the Trump campaign: He was the co-chair of its finance committee, helped raise millions for the effort and personally contributed several thousand dollars.
“Think about that,” Bailey said recently about the frequency of the messages and the beseeching tone. “That is how out of control and crazy some of this fund-raising has gotten.”
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He did, ultimately, desert Trump: He is now raising money for Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, whose campaign has pledged to avoid the kinds of online fund-raising tactics that irritated Bailey and that have spread in both parties, particularly the Republican Party, in recent years as candidates have tried to amass small donors.
No phony deadlines, DeSantis has promised donors. No wildly implausible pledges that sizable contributions will be matched by committees affiliated with the campaign. And no tricking donors into recurring donations.
This strategy is one of the subtle ways DeSantis’ team is trying to contrast him with Trump, who has often cajoled, guilt-tripped, and occasionally misled small donors. Although his campaign has not directly called out Trump’s methods, on the day DeSantis declared he would run for president, his website prominently vowed to eschew “smoke and mirrors,” “fake matches,” and “lies” in its fund-raising.
For the DeSantis campaign, the vow of no trickery is risky. Trump, the most successful online Republican fund-raiser ever, has shown that such tactics work. But Generra Peck, DeSantis’ campaign manager, said that approach damaged the long-term financial health of the Republican Party because it risked alienating small donors.
“We’re building a movement,” Peck said last month in an interview at DeSantis campaign headquarters in Tallahassee.
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So far, it’s difficult to tell if DeSantis’ approach is working. His fund-raising slowed after his campaign began in late May, and campaign officials did not provide figures that would have shed light on its success with small donors.
The battle to raise money from average Americans may seem quaint in the era of billionaires and super political action committees, which have taken on outsize roles in US elections. But straight campaign cash is still, in many ways, the lifeblood of a campaign, and a powerful measure of the strength of a candidate. For example, GOP presidential contenders must reach a threshold of individual donors set by the Republican National Committee to qualify for the debate stage, a bar that is already causing some candidates to engage in gimmicky contortions.
“One of the biggest challenges for Republicans, across the board, is building out the small-dollar universe,” said Kristin Davison, the chief operating officer of Never Back Down, the main super PAC supporting DeSantis.
The DeSantis campaign said its strategy was devised to establish long-term relationships with small donors, rather than to suck them dry as quickly as possible.
Trump’s campaign has clearly taken notice.
On Friday, in an apparent round of fund-raising one-upsmanship, the Trump campaign announced a donor initiative, saying it would build a “big, beautiful Donor Wall” at its New Hampshire headquarters.
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“And I don’t mean scribbled on the wall with a crayon, like some other campaigns do,” said the campaign e-mail, which was written in Trump’s voice, “but a heavy, respectable plaque with the names of our great donors finely etched within.”
All for a donation of $75. NEW YORK TIMES
Joint Chiefs of Staff nominee addresses Congress
WASHINGTON — President Biden’s pick to serve as America’s top military officer warned senators Tuesday of the difficulties posed by any potential conflict in Asia and described how he would use lessons learned from the Ukraine war to help the US military prepare.
But Air Force General CQ Brown Jr. may not be able to apply those lessons anytime soon, even after being well-received in a confirmation hearing to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Brown’s nomination is among more than 260 being stalled by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He is blocking the confirmation of all senior military officers in protest over Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.
A history-making fighter pilot, Brown has a deep knowledge of China and a broad understanding of space, cyber, and other technologies. His confirmation would mean that, for the first time, both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian positions would be held by African Americans.
Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a potential conflict in Asia would be challenging, because of its large size. He said the military has been doing exercises and tabletop drills to practice getting needed equipment into the region quickly. “You cannot wait until the crisis occurs,” he said. “You have to pre-position capability and have that in place. You have to work with allies and partners to have access to locations.”
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But discussions about national security were overshadowed by the tensions over Tuberville’s campaign.
Democrats blasted him and Republicans said they are hoping to persuade him to lift the holds — which could affect 650 service members by year’s end.
Tuberville never mentioned the topic when he questioned Brown during the hearing. Instead, he asked about cutting costs in the Joint Chiefs office, and told Brown he’d like an update, “because you’re gonna be the new leader.” He added: “Thank you for taking this on. It’s gonna be a hard job and any way we can help you, we’re here to help.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, offered up a quick retort: “What he could do to help is lift this stay.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iowa lawmakers convene special session over abortion bill
DES MOINES — Tensions flared in the Iowa Capitol as the Legislature convened a special session Tuesday focused exclusively on abortion restrictions, where Republican lawmakers will work to pass a new ban on almost all abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.
The marathon day of committee meetings, floor debates, and votes in both chambers was expected to extend late into the night.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds ordered the rare session after the state Supreme Court declined to reinstate a law she signed in 2018 that is practically identical to the one being proposed Tuesday. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
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The current draft, like the 2018 law, would prohibit abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.
Chants from abortion advocates echoed through the rotunda and could be heard from rooms where state representatives and senators were meeting. Members of the public for and against the bill alternated conveying their viewpoints to lawmakers from both chambers for nearly four hours in total.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bannon, former lawyers battle over attorney fees
With hours left in his presidency, Donald Trump granted pardons to a long roster of people. Prominent among them was his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who had been charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with conspiring to swindle donors of money to build a wall along the Mexican border.
This week, the attorneys who helped secure his freedom in 2021 won a judgment against him for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees.
The New York firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, had sued Bannon in Manhattan state court in February for not paying more than half of what he owed them. Bannon had paid just $375,000 of more than $850,000 in legal fees incurred over two years, the law firm said.
The order against Bannon is just the latest legal woe the right-wing pundit and podcaster has faced in recent years. The firm’s lawyers helped Bannon fight a subpoena from the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and subsequently represented him in criminal contempt proceedings when he defied it.
In Friday’s order, the judge, Arlene P. Bluth, found that he had to pay the firm what he owed, plus 1% interest. She also ordered him to pay “reasonable legal fees” for its suit.
Jeffrey Citron, a managing partner at the firm, said in a statement Tuesday that it was unfortunate that the firm had to sue to get paid for representing Bannon in “his various legal predicaments.”
“The firm intends to pursue every opportunity to collect,” he added.
Bannon’s current lawyer, Harlan Protass, said in an e-mailed statement: “The judge’s decision was clearly wrong and we intend to immediately appeal it.”
NEW YORK TIMES | 2023-07-11T22:42:11+00:00 | bostonglobe.com | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/11/nation/desantis-striking-risky-strategy-try-not-trick-small-donors/ |
Chauvin faces sentencing on federal charges in Floyd killing
Published: Jul. 5, 2022 at 12:39 PM CDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge will this week sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal civil rights violations in the killing of George Floyd.
Judge Paul Magnuson on Tuesday set Chauvin’s sentencing for 2 p.m. Thursday in St. Paul.
Chauvin’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of 20 to 25 years. Federal prosecutors last month asked for 25, saying his actions were cold-blooded and needless.
Chauvin pleaded guilty in December, admitting for the first time that he knelt on Floyd’s neck resulting in his death.
He has already been sentenced to 22 1/2 years on state murder and manslaughter charges.
Copyright 2022 KBJR. All rights reserved. | 2022-07-05T19:45:12+00:00 | kttc.com | https://www.kttc.com/2022/07/05/chauvin-faces-sentencing-federal-charges-floyd-killing/ |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Donovan Mitchell had 46 points in his return to Utah, but the Jazz rallied late behind Jordan Clarkson to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 116-114 on Tuesday night.
Clarkson scored 32 points, including five 3-pointers, and poured in nine straight down the stretch to fuel a decisive 13-0 run.
Lauri Markkanen had 25 points and 16 rebounds against his former team. Malik Beasley, Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 13 apiece as Utah won for just the second time in nine games.
“I thought our guys just really dug in, stayed the course, and stayed focused on the little things,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
Mitchell, who spent his first five seasons with Utah, also had six assists, five rebounds and three steals. The three-time All-Star was traded to Cleveland in September for a blockbuster package that included Markkanen.
Utah honored Mitchell with a video tribute before tipoff and Jazz fans gave him a huge ovation during the video and player introductions.
“I was really comfortable,” Mitchell said. “It wasn’t weird. It was just like playing as I have here for the last five years. The reception was phenomenal and I’m appreciative of it.”
Mitchell eclipsed 40 points for the second time in five games. He set a Cleveland record with 71 points on Jan. 2, most by an NBA player in 17 years, as the Cavaliers rallied to beat Chicago in overtime.
Darius Garland added 21 points and six assists for Cleveland. Evan Mobley and Caris LeVert chipped in with 12 points apiece.
Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen played only seven minutes — all in the first quarter — before exiting with an illness. Cleveland forward Isaac Okoro was limited to 17 minutes for the same reason. Both players felt nauseous during the game.
That put a greater onus on Mitchell to make big plays for 48 minutes.
“He was Donovan,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He was trying to will us through it.”
Cleveland fell behind by 13 in the second half but chipped away at the deficit, finally erasing it midway through the fourth quarter. Mitchell scored three straight baskets to punctuate an 11-0 run and give Cleveland a 101-94 lead. Utah missed 13 of its first 14 shots in the fourth, opening the door for the Cavaliers to go back in front.
But the Jazz surged ahead 115-107 with 23.1 seconds left after Clarkson scored nine consecutive points over three possessions. His outburst helped Utah overcome a quarter in which Cleveland blocked five shots and the Jazz totaled only five baskets.
“I was just being aggressive in those moments,” Clarkson said. “Throughout the game, I saw what they were doing defensively and just started being aggressive in the fourth.”
Mitchell kept the Cavaliers’ offense afloat in the first half while his teammates struggled to find their shot. He scored or assisted on 10 of Cleveland’s 19 baskets before halftime.
When Mitchell cooled off in the third quarter, Utah scored on seven straight possessions to race out to a double-digit lead. Clarkson made three baskets in a row and assisted on another to power a 13-2 spurt that put the Jazz up 78-65.
“He had that look in his eye and I was just like, damn, it’s going to be one of those back-and-forth nights,” Mitchell said.
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: Kevin Love grabbed nine rebounds, passing Anderson Varejao for sixth place on Cleveland’s career list. Love has 4,459 boards with the Cavs. … Mitchell made his 500th career steal.
Jazz: Clarkson scored 15 of Utah’s 28 fourth-quarter points. … The Jazz committed 16 turnovers, leading to 22 points for Cleveland.
UP NEXT
Cavaliers: Visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
Jazz: Host the Orlando Magic on Friday.
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-01-12T00:15:07+00:00 | wboy.com | https://www.wboy.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-mitchell-scores-46-in-utah-return-but-jazz-rally-past-cavs/ |
RICHLAND, Wash., Aug. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Christensen Inc, a leader in fuels, lubricants, and propane distribution across the Pacific Northwest is proud to be a driving force behind The Giving Pump. Christensen has teamed up with more than 30 Shell station owners in the Puget Sound area to support nonprofit organizations serving children and youth, including the Seattle Children's Hospital, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Prosser High School.
"When I was approached about the opportunity through Christensen and Shell's Giving Pump, I can't describe how excited I was," said Kim Pope, the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbia Basin. "Our club kids will directly benefit from this generosity via increased funding for STEM activities, art projects, and the ability to take our teens on field trips to surrounding colleges. These opportunities help young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. We couldn't accomplish our mission without the support we receive."
The Giving Pump initiative kicked off on August 1 and runs through October 31, 2022. You can find specially marked pumps with purple signs, highlighting the various organizations being supported in our region.
"The wonderful thing about The Giving Pump is that it doesn't cost consumers anything extra to support their community," said Justin Christensen, VP of Fuels at Christensen Inc. He added, "When someone fills up at one of our partnering Shell stations, they're supporting local business owners and local students. It's a win, win!"
More than 6,500 Shell stations across the U.S. are participating in the three-month Giving Pump initiative. That's nearly doubled from last year when Shell Wholesalers and retailers donated more than $1.5 million and supported more than 400 children's charities through The Giving Pump. View them all here.
Founded in 1935, Christensen is a family-owned and operated business, headquartered in Richland, Washington. The company employs more than 500 people across the Pacific Northwest and nationwide, serving customers in Retail Fuels, Commercial, Industrial, and Fleet Cards. Built on decades of industry experience and the latest technology, Christensen is revolutionizing the way fuels, lubricants, and propane are ordered, delivered, and managed.
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SOURCE Christensen, Inc. | 2022-08-09T09:56:36+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/09/christensen-inc-local-shell-store-owners-are-teaming-up-support-childrens-programs-our-community-through-giving-pump/ |
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the "Pick Four-Evening" game were:
5-1-6-2, Fireball: 1
(five, one, six, two; Fireball: one)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the "Pick Four-Evening" game were:
5-1-6-2, Fireball: 1
(five, one, six, two; Fireball: one) | 2022-11-18T05:27:28+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-Four-Evening-game-17593931.php |
IUKA, MISSISSIPPI — Dorothy Bacon Farr departed this life on Thursday, July 13, 2023. She was born June 16, 1943, to the late Thomas F. and Blanche Biggs Bacon. Dorothy graduated from Iuka High School with highest honors at the age of 16. She was active in all the school functions, winning special recognition in many areas. Dorothy was a lifelong member of Mt. Evergreen United Methodist Church and actively served in many capacities. For over 55 years she served as church treasurer which included two building projects. She also represented the Iuka North Charge of the United Methodist Church as a delegate to the Mississippi United Methodist Annual Conference in Jackson, MS.
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Error! There was an error processing your request. | 2023-07-18T08:19:42+00:00 | timesdaily.com | https://www.timesdaily.com/obituaries/dorothy-bacon-farr/article_69883574-bb12-531f-81a4-ca51f2154b54.html |
Two years ago, Chelse Herbold was a food service worker with a bachelor's degree in geology that wasn't helping her pay the rent.
Today, Herbold, 28, has an associate's degree in automotive technology that she earned on the job as the first woman auto technician at West Herr Kia.
Herbold is one of the first graduates of a new SUNY Erie Community College program that was created to produce skilled workers for an industry that's badly in need of mechanics.
In fact, it's so hard to hire auto technicians that two of the region's biggest car dealers, West Herr Automotive Group and Northtown Automotive Cos., have partnered with ECC to build a direct pathway to train and hire students.
Northtown even built a classroom, lab space and four dedicated service bays at its new Jaguar/Land Rover dealership in Amherst for its ECC co-op program.
The program produces auto technicians, but it's a model for future "earn while you learn" partnerships that train workers in in-demand skills and pay them to get on-the-job training while earning their credentials.
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Jay Galligan, a vice president at West Herr, said the program has produced 12 current and 12 soon-to-be employees for the company. The program funnels trained workers to West Herr and Northtown at a time when there are more open jobs than people looking for work.
“We employ over 500 technicians, and we retire 5% to 10% a year, so just to replace our retirees we need 30 or 40 new technicians at any given time to add to our team,” Galligan said. “ECC reached out to us about adding co-op experience to their auto tech program and helped build this model. It has now become a permanent program in the college, and we are thrilled to be part of it.”
ECC President David Balkin calls the program an example of the partnerships needed between higher education and industry to serve the needs of today’s students and employers.
It also helps ECC by creating a program that it can market as a pathway to a career for students at a time when enrollment is declining.
“SUNY Erie is working with companies who are in competition, but who recognize that a rising tide will lift all boats,” Balkin said.
The partnerships with West Herr and Northtown predated Balkin taking over as ECC president, but he quickly seized on them as an opportunity to develop other feeder programs for worker-strapped employers.
Balkin said ECC and the dealerships see the program "as the way forward for recruiting, training and retaining qualified technicians.”
West Herr Automotive piloted the program at ECC’s Vehicle Technology Training Center in Orchard Park in 2019 and the first class of 12 students, including Herbold, graduated last May. All 12 were immediately hired as full-time technicians at West Herr dealerships. The second class of 12 will graduate this May and are guaranteed jobs as well.
The auto co-op provides more hands-on experience than classroom time and includes time working in paid positions with the hiring dealership, Balkin said.
Students rotate between spending 7½ weeks working with mentors at a dealership service department and then 7½ weeks of classroom coursework, Balkin said. The dealers provide tuition assistance and retention bonuses to help them buy their own tools once hired.
When West Herr came aboard as a partner, ECC provided space for the co-op at its Vehicle Tech Training Center in Orchard Park. The site, a former Chevrolet dealership, also houses ECC's manufacturer-based programs for Ford and Dodge/Fiat/Chrysler technicians.
West Herr provided an architect and funding to make the necessary changes to the facility, including equipment, tools and structural modifications to accommodate the co-op program, said ECC auto tech instructor Vinnie LaVerdi.
The center has four service bays and downstairs classroom and lab space for the program. LaVerdi and second-year instructor Joe Uhrich devised the curriculum and Uhrich ushered it through state approval process, paving the way for future co-op programs.
Galligan said 20 West Herr technicians are currently serving as mentors – an integral part of the program – where the students work with them as a "second pair of hands" during their paid co-op time.
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“The traditional path for recruiting workers is through career fairs, but then, how do you know who anyone is or if they are a good fit?” said West Herr Director of Recruiting Scott Jacobs. “With this program, by the time they graduate we know who they are, they know who we are, and they are part of our team.”
While the West Herr pilot proved successful, ECC lacked space in its Vehicle Training Center to expand it. Enter Northtown Auto. The company had its 11th store in the works and agreed to provide what ECC needed to teach the class and lab segments at the new dealership, which opened in December and welcomed its first students in February.
Northtown Director of Fixed Operations Bill Holm said finding experienced technicians has always been a challenge, but the situation is more critical lately. While the industry is growing, the number of available workers shrunk due to the pandemic and early retirements by older employees.
At the same time, vehicles are more complex, with computer diagnostics, hybrid and electric technologies requiring more education for technicians servicing newer model vehicles, he said.
Holm said offering a co-op opportunity to auto tech students is unique; a company spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to equip its new dealership for classes even more so. “We are fortunate to have the support and broad thinking from ECC to let this work outside of a traditional campus,” he said.
“Everyone benefits,” Holm added. “Today’s auto techs won’t be successful without an education and understanding of computer systems in today’s automobiles, and we not only need workers, we need educated ones.”
Galligan and Holm said they would expand the auto co-op programs immediately if there was space available. Galligan also chairs the ECC Foundation’s Workforce Committee, which he said is seeking ways to create similar programs for other disciplines.
“The next step is to address, ‘How can we do this with other fields?’ ” he said. “How can we duplicate the success of this program for trades like welding, electrical and plumbing?”
Balkin said the model is not limited to the technical trades. “We are now engaging with the health care and advanced manufacturing industries" to develop new partnerships, he said.
Some of those may replace current programs at ECC’s three campuses. Balkin is working to reorganize the school’s campus operations and recently discontinued several South Campus programs suffering from low enrollment.
He said his goal is to curb declining enrollment at ECC by replacing under-enrolled programs with degrees and credentials for in-demand trades.
He’s also willing to partner with other auto dealerships open to creating classroom and lab space at their stores to expand the vehicle tech co-op program. The auto dealers say they are in great need of technicians for auto body and collision specialists.
Meanwhile, the auto tech co-op has been life-changing for the students.
Herbold was working in food service after graduating from SUNY-Buffalo State with a geology degree and trying to save enough money to get married to her fiancé while living on her own.
She realized she wanted a more lucrative job and her late father “made a good living” as a mechanic. She attended an open house to introduce the ECC program and said, “That’s what I want to do.”
During her first co-op at West Herr, she quickly went from “taking out the garbage and moving tires” to performing oil changes and new car inspections. By the end of her second year, she was rebuilding engines.
She graduated last May into her job as the first female on the West Herr Kia team. She said that felt a little awkward at first, but not for long. “Sometimes I’ll get a bolt free that some of the other techs can’t get,” she said. “It takes leverage.”
Herbold met her goal of saving for a wedding. She's getting married in August.
Second-year student Marcos Perez, 28, a married father of three, was working the overnight shift at a warehouse before applying to the program.
The biggest attraction: “I am not just going to school, I am making money at the same time," he said.
He has found himself texting LaVerdi and second-year instructor Gary Bianchi from the co-op “saying ‘OMG, what you taught me last week, I’m applying it here!’ ”
Perez will graduate into a higher-paying, full-time job at West Herr Toyota in May, and he already plans to pursue further credentials in hybrid and electric vehicles.
“Ideally, I would like to be an instructor 20 years down the road,” Perez said. “I could see myself in a building like this teaching the technicians of the future.” | 2022-04-22T10:48:36+00:00 | buffalonews.com | https://buffalonews.com/business/local/workers-hard-to-find-auto-dealers-build-direct-path-from-college-to-a-job/article_f6b354b4-af95-11ec-a6fc-3322eedcda31.html |
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed abortion only briefly during a lengthy address Saturday night at a gala for the most prominent antiabortion group in his state — the latest instance of the soon-to-be presidential candidate declining to more aggressively promote his recent move to further restrict the procedure in his state.
DeSantis gave a 40-minute keynote speech Saturday night at an annual dinner for the Florida Family Policy Council, a major advocate for Florida’s new ban on almost all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law, which DeSantis signed with little fanfare this spring, was a massive victory for the social conservatives DeSantis is courting heading into 2024 — but some Republicans worry he’s gone too far to the right on an issue that could hurt them in the general election.
“We believe that everybody counts, everybody is special — and our Heartbeat Protection Act shows that we say what we mean and we mean what we say,” DeSantis said at the gala in Orlando, using the official title of the six-week ban. He called it “a landmark piece of legislation for this state” and said “there’s much more to do.”
After spending roughly 20 seconds on abortion restrictions, DeSantis then spent roughly two minutes discussing more general efforts to support fathers and mothers, especially single mothers, before moving on to “family friendly” tax policy and other staples of his political speeches, according to an audio recording of his remarks at the event, which was open to the press.
The comments come as DeSantis and other Republicans are facing pressure from their base to tighten abortion laws while also encountering concerns from some political strategists, donors and others in the party that they will pay a political price for embracing strict bans. Many Democrats found success in the midterms running on a platform of protecting abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion.
DeSantis also declined to tout the 6-week ban in an April speech at Liberty University, a deeply conservative evangelical institution, which came just after he’d approved the bill in a late night closed-door signing.
DeSantis allies believe his strict stance on abortion will help distinguish him from former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination. The governor mentioned Florida’s abortion ban this month at a speech in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation GOP caucus state where some prominent evangelical leaders have rebuked Trump as insufficiently conservative on the issue. And in a news conference on Tuesday, DeSantis pushed back on Trump’s assessment that many in the “pro-life movement” view Florida’s six-week ban as “too harsh.”
“I was proud to do it,” DeSantis said of signing the ban. Trump, he added, “won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
But Saturday’s dinner provided more evidence that DeSantis is still treading cautiously with the issue, even before staunchly supportive audiences.
Representatives for the governor and his political team did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
The governor got a hero’s welcome at the gala, received with live bagpipes and standing ovations. The president of the Florida Family Policy Council, John Stemberger, said more than 700 guests packed the ballroom as DeSantis was presented the “William Wilberforce” award, named for a British politician who worked to abolish the slave trade.
DeSantis plans to officially enter the presidential race this week and begin formal fundraising as donors and “bundlers” — people who raise money from their larger networks — gather at a Four Seasons in Miami. Previewing his presidential pitch in speeches around the country this spring, he has focused heavily on his legislative achievements in Florida — “where woke goes to die,” he likes to say.
He repeated that line at the gala.
“When freedom and our very way of life in so many other jurisdictions in this country withered on the vine, we in Florida held the line,” he said.
DeSantis has yet to take a stance on a national abortion ban as some antiabortion groups nationwide push 2024 candidates to embrace some federal restrictions. Democrats have already made abortion a key focus of their attacks on declared and likely GOP candidates.
At the state level, some GOP legislators have backed off near-total bans and are finding more success with bans allow most abortions to continue, such as the 12-week limits passed last week by Republicans in Nebraska and North Carolina. Democrats still decry those laws as extreme. | 2023-05-22T00:04:15+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/21/desantis-abortion-ffpc-gala/ |
LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — The Dutch were outnumbered in their quarterfinal match at the World Cup.
Argentina had one Lionel Messi and the Netherlands had none.
And still, the Oranje came back and forced extra time in a knockout match for the ages by scoring in the 83rd minute and then on a playground-type restart in the 11th — yes, 11th! — minute of second-half stoppage time.
When Argentina escaped with a 4-3 penalty-kicks win following a 2-2 draw Saturday to reach a semifinal against Croatia, the Dutch crumpled to the field in their glaring orange uniforms, looking like a withered citrus grove. Wout Weghorst, at 6-foot-6, was flat on his back in the center circle as Messi danced with teammates in front of tens of thousands of singing supporters.
“They gave everything, and I’m incredibly proud,” coach Louis van Gaal said. “They did everything they could to prevent this from happening.”
A nation that gave the world Total Football a half-century ago remains with a total of zero World Cup titles, still looking up at Brazil (five), Germany and Italy (four each), Argentina, France and Uruguay (two apiece) and England and Spain.
A renowned innovator with coaches who attract youth prospects from around the world, the Netherlands has lost three World Cup finals. The Dutch took an early lead in 1974 before losing to host West Germany 2-1 and they were back in the championship match four years later only to lose to host Argentina 3-1 in extra time.
Their next generation won a European Championship title in 1988 with Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten leading them over the Soviet Union 2-0. But the big prize still eluded the Dutch.
Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie led them to another final in 2010 but they lost 1-0 in extra time to a superior Spain, then were beaten by Messi and Argentina in the 2014 semifinals on penalty kicks. Back in the World Cup this year after failing to qualify for 2018, they entered the quarterfinal with a 19-game unbeaten streak.
There were just 1,400 Dutch fans who stuck out in their bright jerseys among a crowd of 88,235, about 90% in Argentina’s blue-and-white-striped jerseys with Messi’s No. 10 on the back.
Messi’s sublime no-look pass set up Nahuel Molina’s 35th-minute goal, and Messi doubled the lead when he converted a penalty kick in the 73rd after Denzel Dumfries pushed Marcos Acuña at the edge of the penalty area.
“I think that penalty was awarded rather easily,” Van Gaal said.
Taking aim at a tall task, Van Gaal opted for height. He inserted Weghorst, who headed a Steven Berghuis cross past Emiliano Martínez in the 83rd.
Benches cleared five minutes later on a night of a World Cup record 17 yellow cards plus a postgame red.
And then came the biggest twist of all. After Germán Pezzella fouled Weghorst to give the Dutch a free kick from 22 yards, Teun Koopmeiners started a play seen in training but almost never in games: He sent a low kick along the ground into the wall, where Weghorst took a touch, spun and sent the ball past Martínez.
And that’s where the score remained after extra time, after the drama of Enzo Fernández hitting a post in the second extra period’s stoppage time.
“We thought that we would be able to win when it came to penalties,” Van Gaal said.
Captain Virgil van Dijk took the first and Martínez dived right to push the ball away. After Messi converted, Martínez sprawled left to deny Berghuis.
When Enzo Fernández put his try off a post, the Dutch had an opening, but Lautaro Martínez sent his kick to the right of keeper Andries Noppert, who dived left.
As the celebration extended, Messi and Van Gaal exchanged words.
“This was my very last match,” said Van Gaal, ending his third term in charge of the Oranje. “I look back in a positive way.”
He was asked to assess his performance and mentioned the team’s 20-game unbeaten streak.
“I don’t know how many we won (14), but you check all that. I think it’s Google,” he said. “Dutch team and Louis van Gaal and goal difference.”
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-12-10T17:50:50+00:00 | wboy.com | https://www.wboy.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-outnumbered-dutch-eliminated-in-louis-van-gaals-finale/ |
DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines man has been charged with neglect or abandonment of a dependent person after the death of a woman on the city’s southeast side.
Daniel Bruce Orona II, 51, is being held in the Polk County Jail. The charge against him stems from the January 10th death of a woman, according to Sgt. Paul Parizek with the Des Moines Police Department.
First responders were called to a home in the 4100 block of Indianola Avenue around 9:53 p.m. on the 10th, on a report of a person in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they found a 52-year-old woman was already dead.
The circumstances at the scene prompted police to investigate the situation, which led to the arrest of Orona.
Sgt. Parizek said more criminal charges could be filed in the case, following a complete review of the forensic autopsy findings.
Police have not released the name of the woman who died. | 2023-01-17T14:42:32+00:00 | keloland.com | https://www.keloland.com/news/national-world-news/des-moines-man-charged-with-neglect-of-dependent-person-after-womans-death/ |
NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Wochit, a leader in SaaS video creation, distribution, and automation, announced the launch of a streamlined, self-serve version of their video creation product, designed to be easily embedded and white-labeled by organizations looking to add video editing to their platform for their customers.
"One thing should be clear to every industry, channel, and business owner by now," said Dror Ginzberg, Wochit's Founder and CEO. "Video is non-negotiable for anyone serious about engaging with their audience or end consumer. Any platform or marketplace that can't offer that capability will lose their customers to a platform that does."
A pioneer in the video creation space over the last 10 years, Wochit has until now mostly served enterprise and media clients with custom solutions. The new video editor product is simple to integrate, customizable in functionality, and streamlined in pricing, making it easy and affordable for businesses of all kinds and sizes to take advantage.
According to Ginzberg, "It's a re-creation of the vision we've always had, but this time at a much bigger scale. We now help platforms that couldn't offer video creation before. The result is exponential growth for them and their customers alike."
The new video editor allows for a simple, plug-and-play integration on an existing marketplace, franchisor network, app, or site. "Right out of the gate, we expect this to be a huge hit in industries like real estate, HR, food, and wellness, "said Anat Yaniv, Head of Marketing, "platforms that already serve communities with large end-audiences but no turnkey way to add video without starting over or breaking things."
The key is that Wochit allows for seamless integration with minimal developer lift. The video editor is available to try for free, and it can even be deployed without any commitment or cost for the first 3,000 seconds of professionally produced video. "It's everything we've learned from years of partnering with top enterprise brands–and years of listening to creator needs–boiled down into a simple embed code every app or website can enjoy. It's magic," says Daphna Tsachor, Wochit's Chief Product Officer.
There are effortless, gorgeous templates for every kind of business and use case, and the selection can be narrowed by need. For example, a real estate franchisor would be able to offer branded templates like "meet the agency, agent or trainer," and "welcome to the team." A craft marketplace would likely choose to offer "how to," and "sales and promotion," just to name a few.
"It's great to see how Wochit's video editor is being embraced by companies such as Houzz, Taboola, Kaltura and Shutterstock, who came to realize that there is value in allowing their users to create video directly from their platforms," says Tsachor. "Now it's time to offer that same value to companies and business owners that couldn't benefit until now!"
Wochit brings the power of video creation to businesses of all kinds and sizes. Our versatile, plug-and-play video editor can be easily white-labeled as a seamless part of any platform, app, or website, making it possible for everyone to give their customers the power to create video. Now every business's end user owner, in any industry, with any use case, will be able to tell their stories, market their goods and services, and more, with compelling videos, revolutionary ease, and unprecedented speed. Beyond our self-serve video editor, Wochit is also a trusted enterprise partner for custom solutions specific to a company's complexity, challenges, and scale. Hundreds of the world's leading brands, nonprofits, marketplaces, and media organizations have already transformed their video production with our intuitive user experience, expert support, and limitless pre licensed content from Getty, AFP, Press Association, and more, our cloud-based editing tools make creating, versioning, automating, and publishing across platforms simpler than ever before. We love helping every organization connect with their audience in new ways every day.
To try Wochit's new video editor with no risk, simply go to wochit.com. The first 3,000 seconds are free (one hundred :30 videos, for example) and then just pay as you go ($0.02 per second of video produced).
For media inquiries:
Anat Yaniv, Head of Marketing, anat.yaniv@wochit.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Wochit Inc. | 2022-08-01T18:38:46+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/wochit-launches-plug-and-play-video-editor-that-companies-can-seamlessly-white-label-part-their-platform/ |
ADANA, Turkey (AP) — Rescuers called out, “Slowly, slowly,” as they lifted a man inch by inch from between slabs of collapsed concrete Monday in the Turkish province that was the epicenter of a devastating earthquake.
His neck in a brace, the barefoot man was carried on a stretcher as he emerged. Rescuers in Pazarcik in the province of Kahramanmaras held him aloft and ran off with him.
It was among numerous rescue efforts that unfolded as darkness, rain and cold enveloped the region of Turkey and Syria that was rocked by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude temblor struck more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. At least 3,400 people were killed, and civilians joined rescuers in desperate efforts across Turkey and Syria.
“Can anyone hear me?” rescuers shouted. In some places around southeast Turkey, survivors could be heard screaming from beneath collapsed buildings.
People crouched to look below a massive sheet of concrete propped at an angle by steel bars. They crawled in and out, trying to reach survivors. Excavating equipment dug through the rubble below.
Elsewhere in Kahramanmaras province, rescuers pulled two children alive from the rubble. One lay on a stretcher on the snowy ground. Rescuers quieted the throngs of people trying to help so they could hear survivors and find them.
Some emerged safely then waited to hear any word on relatives.
“My two grandchildren, my daughter-in-law, are all inside. They haven’t come out,” said Hasan Birbalta while waiting near a collapsed building in Pazarcik, adding the granddaughter is 2 and the grandson is 6.
Thousands of search-and-rescue personnel, firefighters and medics were working across 10 provinces, along with some 3,500 soldiers. Residents lifted rubble and unearthed people heard screaming from beneath buildings. Aftershocks made rescue efforts more dangerous.
In Adana, about 20 people, some in emergency rescue jackets, used power saws atop the concrete mountain of a collapsed building to carve out space that would let any survivors climb out or be rescued. Later, excavators joined the efforts as bright spotlights illuminated the wreckage.
Turkish military ambulance planes were transporting the injured to Istanbul and Ankara hospitals, the defense ministry said. Rescuers from across Turkey tried to make it to the provinces amid heavy snow and rain.
At a news conference late Monday, four ministers said that because Hatay’s airport had been severely damaged, they had to fly into Adana nearly three hours away.
In Syria, a man held a dead girl in his arms beside a two-story collapsed concrete building as he walked away from the debris. He and a woman set the girl on the floor under covering to protect her from the rain, wrapping her in a large blanket and looking back to the building, overwhelmed.
An official with Turkey’s disaster management authority said 7,840 people had been rescued across 10 provinces. The official, Orhan Tatar, said 5,606 buildings had collapsed.
Tatar said the total area affected was large and places were hard to reach, but that as of late Monday, teams had been directed to all collapsed buildings.
___
Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Associated Press writer Carley Petesch in Chicago contributed. | 2023-02-07T15:21:40+00:00 | ktalnews.com | https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/ap-survivors-scream-as-desperate-rescuers-work-in-turkey-syria/ |
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was charged Friday with corruption and money laundering, making him Malaysia’s second ex-leader to be indicted after leaving office.
Muhyiddin, 75, pleaded innocent to four charges of abusing his power to obtain 232.5 million ringgit ($51.4 million) bribes for his party and two charges of money laundering involving 195 million ringgit ($43 million). His party said he is expected to face an additional charge on Monday.
Muhyiddin vowed to clear his name, slamming the charges as an “evil slander” to embarrass him and crush his Islamic-dominated opposition ahead of state elections. He denied abusing his power to award contracts to selected ethnic Malay contractors in return for bribes, and to approve an appeal by a business tycoon on the cancellation of his tax exemption.
“It is an organized political persecution,” Muhyiddin told a news conference after he was released on bail. “I accept this charge against me with patience. … I choose to stand upright on the principles that I hold. This is the price that I have to pay.”
Muhyiddin was first arrested Thursday and released later in the day by the anti-graft agency, which questioned him a second time over government stimulus projects for Malay contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outside the court building Friday, some supporters chanted and carried banners that read “malicious intent.”
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim rejected accusations that the charges were politically motivated and noted the investigations were carried out independently by the anti-graft agency. After taking power in November, Anwar ordered a review of government projects approved by past administrations including Muhyiddin, who led Malaysia from March 2020 until August 2021. Anwar has said many of the projects awarded were overpriced and given without tender.
Two senior members from Muhyiddin’s Bersatu party were recently charged with graft. The anti-graft agency has also frozen Bersatu’s party accounts.
Anwar and Muhyiddin had fought for the premiership after the November general elections produced a hung parliament. Muhyiddin’s alliance includes a conservative Islamist party that won stronger-than-expected support from Malays, who account for about two-thirds of Malaysia’s 33 million people. The king later appointed Anwar as premier after he formed a unity government with several smaller parties, but his strength will be tested in six state elections due in the next few months.
Muhyiddin was the second former leader to be charged after ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was hit with multiple charges after he lost in 2018 general elections. Najib began a 12-year prison term in August after losing his final appeal in the first of several graft trials related to the looting of the 1MDB state development fund.
If Muhyiddin is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the corruption charges, 15 years each for money laundering and fines. | 2023-03-11T05:45:34+00:00 | wjhl.com | https://www.wjhl.com/news/international/malaysia-ex-pm-muhyiddin-pleads-innocent-in-corruption-case/ |
This theater is known for being socially relevant. That is the pillar for the Actors Studio 66 Theater Company.
They were founded during the pandemic and they are getting ready to premiere their second production for its 2021-2022 season. ‘Shout!’ is their latest addition and it focuses on the LGBTQ+ community and their treatment during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era. The show will run from May 6 to 8 at the Black Cat Cultural Center. Tickets are $20 each. For more information, visit www.actorsstudio66.org/. | 2022-05-04T19:51:55+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/new-mexico-living/shout-the-play-presented-by-actors-studio-66/ |
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the ninth straight time Thursday in its yearlong campaign to stamp out painfully high inflation and kept the door open to further hikes despite increasing fears of recession.
ECB President Christine Lagarde had all but promised the quarter-percentage point increase and said the bank’s next moves would be determined by what the data — including inflation and job numbers — will show.
“We have an open mind as to what the decisions will be in September and in subsequent meetings,” she told reporters. “So we might hike and we might hold.”
Lagarde said that if the bank pauses, “it would not necessarily be for an extended period of time.” Decisions could vary from one meeting to the next, she said, but insisted that the ECB is “very strongly rooted in our determination to break the back of inflation.”
“Are we satisfied? Are we claiming victory? No. We want go to the end of the game,” she said.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was similarly noncommittal about whether more rate increases might be coming after the Fed on Wednesday raised its key rate for the 11th time in 17 months.
Central banks around the world have been raising borrowing costs to combat inflation unleashed by higher energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine and supply chain backups as the global economy recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.
Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency has fallen from its peak of 10.6% in October to 5.5% in June — still well above the bank’s target of 2% considered best for the economy.
Households and businesses are facing a double hit from price spikes and higher rates, which make it more expensive for people to get loans to buy homes and cars or for companies to get new equipment or build facilities.
Rates are working their way through the economy, weighing on home prices and construction activity, and are designed to work so people spend less and prices come down. But they can also weigh on economic growth, and the eurozone already has seen back-to-back quarters of contraction.
With Thursday’s quarter-point increase, the ECB has raised its benchmark deposit rate from minus 0.5% to 3.75% in one year, the fastest credit tightening since the euro was launched in 1999.
With Lagarde pointing to possible further increases, “the ECB is again running the risk of being behind the curve. This time not by being too benign on inflation but rather by being too optimistic and too benign on the economic impact of its own policy measures,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief eurozone economist at ING Bank.
Lagarde acknowledged that “the economic outlook for the euro area has deteriorated” and will stay weak in the short run. But she said inflation is expected to fall and incomes to rise, helping the economy recover.
The rate hikes are already working: Home prices have started to decline after a yearslong rally, and business loans are at their lowest level since statistics started in 2003. The outlook for construction companies in Germany also hit its lowest level since 2010.
Fears about recession are focusing on Germany, Europe’s industrial powerhouse and largest economy. It is the only developed economy that the International Monetary Fund expects to shrink this year.
Germany already has recorded two straight quarters of falling economic output, meeting one definition of recession. A third is possible, with figures for the April-to-June period coming out Friday.
The German economy is going through a “slowcession” — “stuck in the twilight zone between stagnation and recession,” Brzeski says.
The whole eurozone economy also shrank slightly in the first three months of the year, likewise the second straight quarterly decline. Preliminary figures for the second quarter are due Monday.
The economists on the euro area business cycle dating committee, which declares recessions, use a broader set of data than just two quarters of shrinking output figures in its decisions. The committee said June 30 that talk of a eurozone recession was “premature” given record low unemployment of 6.5%.
ECB officials say getting tough on inflation now avoids even more drastic credit restrictions later if inflation becomes ingrained through expectations for higher wages and prices. | 2023-07-27T15:32:15+00:00 | cbs42.com | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-europes-central-bank-is-set-to-pile-on-another-rate-increase-is-it-the-last-in-a-record-series/ |
The Bexar County medical examiner is trying to determine the cause of death of a county jail inmate. A deputy conducting observation checks found 40-year-old Hector Lopez unresponsive just before noon on Friday.
Jail personnel and EMS performed lifesaving measures on Lopez, who was suffering some sort of medical episode. He was taken to local hospital, where he died about an hour later.
Lopez had been in the jail since January on a bench warrant from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. | 2023-04-03T14:25:48+00:00 | kurv.com | https://www.kurv.com/jail-inmate-dies-after-suffering-medical-episode/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jail-inmate-dies-after-suffering-medical-episode |
Republicans gave President Biden a late Christmas gift with their messy, drawn-out struggle to elect a House Speaker.
Biden called the drama, which finally ended with victory for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in an early Saturday morning 15th ballot, “embarrassing” and a bad look for the country. But Democratic strategists and White House officials see the House GOP’s disarray as an easy opportunity for contrast — and an issue where Biden can make political hay as he prepares a reelection campaign.
“When your foe is lighting themselves on fire, don’t hand them a hose,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way.
“The White House keeping their distance, I think, is smart,” Bennett continued. “Say these people are irresponsible and they do not take the task of governing seriously. It’s very easy to do that with this episode. But it will allow them to do the same when they try to impeach [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas and drag Biden’s son through the mud. So it really provides amplification to the idea that anything they’re doing is irresponsible.”
The House this week saw a Speaker selection go beyond a single ballot for the first time in a century as McCarthy struggled to secure the support of a handful of GOP holdouts who denied him a majority of the chamber while Democrats stayed united behind Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Though McCarthy eventually prevailed, the protracted fight led to days of bad headlines and optics for Republicans, and it leaves the California lawmaker with a tenuous grasp on the gavel.
Biden and other White House officials avoided throwing any lifelines to House Republicans, saying it was McCarthy’s problem to figure out. But the president has rarely missed an opportunity in recent days to remind the public of the consequences of the House GOP’s infighting.
“One, it’s embarrassing for the country. I mean, literally,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s just the reality is that, you know, to … have a Congress that can’t function is just embarrassing. We’re the greatest nation in the world. How can that be?”
“And we’ve had a lot of trouble with … the attacks on our institutions already,” Biden added. “And it’s just, that’s what worries me more than anything else.”
With no members sworn in, there were no committees meeting, giving Biden and his administration a brief reprieve from Republicans’ planned investigations into sensitive issues such as the Afghanistan withdrawal, the southern border or Hunter Biden.
Members on intelligence and military panels have been unable to get classified briefings about important national security matters since they are not technically part of the new Congress yet.
Biden ran for president on a platform of restoring basic competence to the Oval Office after four tumultuous years, and White House officials have spent the last few weeks emphasizing his willingness to reach across the aisle and the lengthy list of legislation he signed during his first two years in office.
The president and his top aides have in recent days projected confidence and assured the public that the White House would be there to ensure the work of government gets done while the House GOP gets its act together.
“Here’s the thing. We hope that the House resolves this soon. It has been a couple of days now. And we have important work to do for the American people,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. “And so, we have to get back to work here. But of course the administration is going to continue to do everything we can to ensure that the House of Reps are kept informed and have what they need.”
John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, downplayed any national security risks that might stem for members being unable to get classified briefings.
Biden, meanwhile, traveled to Kentucky this week to tout how funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 would be used to upgrade a major bridge over the Ohio River. He was joined there by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a not-so-subtle split-screen image as House lawmakers were casting yet another unsuccessful round of votes to elect a Speaker.
Democrats were publicly frustrated that Republicans prevented the House from getting to work, but they also believe it reflects the broader reality that the GOP should not be trusted by voters to govern effectively.
White House allies believe the situation only strengthened Biden’s hand at a time when attention is shifting to the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden is expected to formally announce his plan to run for reelection in the coming months, and strategists believe he can use this week’s squabbling among House Republicans to his advantage when speaking to voters.
“The only upside to all this lunacy is they’re going to show America who they are,” said Bennett, the Third Way co-founder. “When we’re faced with a seminal vote in 2024, that’s going to matter.” | 2023-01-07T19:02:50+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/hill-politics/biden-basks-in-gop-speaker-chaos/ |
Santa Maria Police arrest suspect for Wednesday’s fatal stabbing
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The Santa Maria Police Department has arrested a suspect for reportedly stabbing a 51-year-old man to death early Wednesday morning.
Officers responded to the 700 block of East Betteravia Road in Santa Maria around midnight Wednesday morning for reports of a subject who was bleeding and in distress.
Arriving officers found the 51-year-old man who had been assaulted and sustained major injuries, the department said. He was transported by ambulance to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, where he died from his injuries a short time later. The victim's name has yet to be released.
The police department announced on Thursday that it has identified a 30-year-old man who is believed to have caused the injuries leading to the victim's death.
The man was taken into custody without incident and booked at the Santa Barbara County Jail for homicide.
The investigation remains ongoing and anyone who may have been in the area at the time or witnessed the events is asked to contact Detective Woessner by calling 805-928-3781. | 2022-09-22T23:20:34+00:00 | keyt.com | https://keyt.com/news/santa-maria-north-county/2022/09/22/santa-maria-police-arrest-suspect-for-wednesdays-fatal-stabbing/ |
Woman’s lost purse returned to her 30 years later
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (WXII) - A North Carolina woman has been reunited with her purse after it was missing for 30 years.
Where and how it was found may be hard to believe.
Mick Zulpo, co-owner of Liberty Theatre, said his team found the purse during construction work at the historic theater in downtown North Wilkesboro.
“We were taking out some pieces from the ceiling and it [the purse] actually fell out of the ceiling and literally hit one of our guys on the head,” Zulpo said.
He said he tasked his wife with finding the rightful owner, and it didn’t take long.
Sherry Church, the owner of the purse, said she used to come to the Liberty Theatre all the time with friends in the early 1990s. And one day, she lost it with several important items inside.
She said a birth certificate, an old job application, a class schedule, makeup, pictures and more were all found inside now 30 years later.
But no money was inside.
“I think someone maybe took the money out and hid the evidence upstairs,” Zulpo said.
Church said she kept returning to the theater over the years, never knowing her purse was there all along.
And now the purse is a part of the theater’s long history.
The new owners of the Liberty Theater held their opening night on Friday.
Copyright 2023 WXII via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2023-02-18T21:14:17+00:00 | foxcarolina.com | https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/02/18/womans-lost-purse-returned-her-30-years-later/ |
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Friday that the American military has deployed forces and is developing options to assist in the potential evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan, where the security situation is deteriorating due to fighting between two warring factions.
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The aim is "to ensure that we provide as many options as possible, if we are called on to do something. We haven’t been called on to do anything yet,” Austin said at a news conference in Germany, where he and U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, met with defense leaders from other countries to discuss additional support for Ukraine.
According to an American official, a small number of U.S. troops have begun arriving in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, where the U.S. is pre-positioning forces and equipment to assist in any potential evacuation of embassy staff from Sudan. The official said Army soldiers are being tapped for the task.
The U.S. troops are being moved to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Evacuation planning for Sudan got underway in earnest on Monday after a U.S. Embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
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The conflict between Sudan’s military and a rival paramilitary force is worsening. The military has ruled out negotiations and said it would only accept surrender as a temporary cease-fire ended, raising the likelihood of a renewed surge in the nearly weeklong violence that has killed hundreds.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations, said Milley discussed the situation with defense officials from Germany, Italy and Canada, among others. One topic was ensuring that any potential evacuation efforts did not conflict.
The U.S. State Department said Friday that an American citizen had died in Sudan, but did not have further details.
“We are in touch with the family and offer our deepest condolences to them on their loss. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add,” the department said in a statement.
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Lee and Copp reported from Washington. | 2023-04-21T16:21:29+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/politics/article/austin-us-troops-ready-to-support-possible-sudan-17910881.php |
Recognized for its inclusive and equitable culture GroundTruth continues to be the destination for innovative and driven talent
NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GroundTruth, a leading media platform company powered by real-world behaviors, is once again honored to announce it has been named one of the 2023 Ad Age Best Places to Work. This is the third consecutive year that GroundTruth has earned this highly regarded distinction. The award represents the company's inclusive and equitable culture made up of the most innovative and committed talent in the industry.
Ad Age Best Places to Work 2023 Award honors 50 companies that did a standout job over the past year as the ad business met the challenges of a weakening economy, changing media market, and a continued tight talent pool. The annual survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize, and honor the best employers in the North American marketing industry. The exclusive list is broken into two categories representing the top 25 companies with under 200 employees and the top 25 companies with 201+ employees, in which GroundTruth ranks.
"Congratulations to the team for achieving this remarkable accomplishment," said Stephen McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer of GroundTruth. "Being named to the Ad Age Best Places to Work for the third year in a row is a tribute to the culture driving our business forward every day. I'm so humbled and proud to be part of such an incredible milestone."
Ad Age Best Places to Work identifies and honors the top employers across the marketing and media industry, centered on a written submission from the employer and survey responses directly from their staff. Ad Age's scoring system factors in employee responses on topics including pay and benefits and seven other core focus areas (75% of the score) and a company's policies and practices on areas including pay and benefits, work/life balance, recruitment, training and development (25% of the score).
Since 2009, GroundTruth has grown to hundreds of team members that serve marketers across every industry, including auto, CPG, restaurant, and retail. The company's growth-oriented culture is supported by a flexible, entrepreneurial environment that focuses on allowing every team member to develop and grow their professional careers. GroundTruth's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) programs ensure that everyone on the team has a voice and the opportunity to help shape company culture through dialogue, workshops, and open forums to share their points of view.
"The tight labor market forced every business in the industry to compete for talent, and the 2023 Best Places to Work winners proved the value of understanding what employees want today," said Dan Peres, president and editor-in-chief of Ad Age. "Companies will face challenges this year with the economy and ongoing effects of the pandemic, but winning workplaces understand that taking care of employees is central to business success."
Throughout 2022, GroundTruth's talent base has continued to grow across several disciplines and practice areas. To check out the company's job openings, visit www.groundtruth.com/careers.
For more on GroundTruth's Ad Age Best Place to Work 2023 ranking, visit the official article here.
About GroundTruth
GroundTruth is a leading media platform company powered by real-world behaviors. Brands, agencies, small businesses, and non-profits trust GroundTruth to generate real business results. GroundTruth's suite of geo-contextual display and video advertising products and services are available at scale through their self-serve omnichannel advertising platform, managed services, and industry reseller partnerships. GroundTruth's marketing platform is powered by a unique data set called "visitation data'' accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC).
Learn more: www.groundtruth.com
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SOURCE GroundTruth | 2023-01-23T22:20:25+00:00 | kmvt.com | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2023/01/23/groundtruth-named-ad-ages-best-places-work-3rd-consecutive-year/ |
CADILLAC — Crosswalks in downtown areas are intended to provide a safe way for pedestrians to cross busy streets.
However, they can also be dangerous if a pedestrian or driver doesn’t know the rules for using them. In Cadillac, Community Development Director John Wallace said there have been a couple of times where a pedestrian was nearly hit by a vehicle while using a crosswalk.
In recent years, he said there has been one fatality and one individual severely injured while crossing the street. This is why it’s important for pedestrians and drivers to know the rules when encountering a crosswalk.
“I think when you’re going to cross, the things that I would be concerned about would be No. 1, not jumping right off the curb as soon as you can,” he said. “I would take a quick look in both directions and make sure nobody is trying to cross through the light.
“I think it’s just a question of trying to be alert to your surroundings and knowing that people can be turning to the street that you’re crossing from behind you or in front of you.”
Wallace said awareness is important when using a crosswalk for pedestrians and drivers in downtown Cadillac. For pedestrians, he said they need to look both ways before crossing the street and avoid distractions while walking.
For drivers, he said it’s all about being extra cautious, driving the speed limit and being observant of people who might be using a crosswalk.
Eye contact is one of the most important things for pedestrians. Lake City council member Kathleen Ostrander said when vehicles are coming, pedestrians need to make sure the driver is slowing down before they can cross.
She said when a crosswalk is marked with a yellow sign, they need to yield to pedestrians crossing the street. In Lake City, these signs are up at each crosswalk in the downtown area. Wallace said Cadillac has a few of these signs set up at crosswalks near the lakes.
“The thing that concerns me is that when drivers see those (signs) they need to slow right down, and they don’t realize that they have to stop if there’s a marked crosswalk and the pedestrian’s in there,” she said.
Pedestrians also have to be aware of how much space a vehicle has to stop. Ostrander said drivers aren’t expected to brake suddenly at crosswalks at the risk of an accident.
“If there’s a whole line of cars, you have to make sure that the driver has a manageable space to stop without being rear-ended, so you can’t expect them to slam on their brakes,” she said.
Ostrander also said pedestrians need to be visible to drivers by wearing reflective and light clothing, especially at night.
“Never assume that a driver can see you,” she said. “That’s why you make eye contact with them.”
Buttons are another tool pedestrians can use when crossing certain intersections in Cadillac. Wallace said when they want to cross the street, pedestrians can push the button and wait for the signal to indicate when it’s safe to cross. He also said the button will verbally repeat the word wait until it’s safe to cross.
If someone presses the button too close to when the light is turning green, Wallace said they may have to wait for the next green light before being allowed to cross.
Drivers should also be cautious when turning around corners in case someone is crossing. Children under 10 years old shouldn’t be crossing the street alone, Ostrander said.
Wallace said Cadillac’s Downtown Development Authority is looking to obtain suggestions from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for possible crosswalk design changes.
One change could be adding a stopping area. Wallace said this area could allow pedestrians to cross the street halfway and then wait for traffic to clear before proceeding. He said any changes along Mitchell Street would have to be approved by MDOT.
“It’s something we’re still interested in because merchants in the downtown have expressed that they believe that there are safety concerns for people crossing Mitchell (Street), so it’s something that I think is going to get more attention as we move forward this year,” he said. | 2023-03-14T06:50:30+00:00 | cadillacnews.com | https://www.cadillacnews.com/news/tips-for-how-you-should-approach-a-crosswalk-as-a-pedestrian-or-driver/article_d012c004-bd60-11ed-9dc6-ff8f5a1075f3.html |
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG)– Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson took a trip down memory lane, visiting the trailer park in Walls, Mississippi, where he spent his teenage years.
Bob Turner, the owner of the Lakeview Trailer Park, posted pictures on his Facebook page of Johnson with Walls alderman and former wrestling manager Bruno Lauer, also known as “Downtown Bruno.”
Johnson said Lauer took him in when he was just 15 and helped him start his wrestling career in Memphis.
“They talk a lot, and Bruno’s helping with the show,” Turner said.”The Rock includes him in a lot of things.”
Johnson is in Memphis right now working on his NBC sitcom “Young Rock.’ Recently Johnson introduced his crew to Lauer.
Johnson said when he had no place to go, Lauer let him live with him when he was 15 and again at 24. He said his sitcom is based on some of their crazy antics.
Turner said Johnson spent about 30 minutes at the Lakeview Trailer Park taking pictures of his old digs.
“I would love to meet him,” Turner said. “I was busy that day and couldn’t have gotten there even if I wanted to.”
Other fans have had some encounters with the superstar during the filming of his show.
The third season of ‘Young Rock’ premiers in November. | 2022-09-28T16:39:32+00:00 | fox59.com | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/the-rock-visits-mississippi-trailer-park-where-he-lived-as-a-teen/ |
Editor’s note: We are publishing these 3D animations to show the destructive power of the AR-15. The images may disturb some people.
The wounds show the lethal force of the AR-15.
But they are rarely seen.
The gun is the weapon of choice for many mass killers.
It works with brutal efficiency.
The scenes of chaos and terror are all too familiar in America.
The AR-15 fires bullets at such a high velocity — often in a barrage of 30 or even 100 in rapid succession — that it can eviscerate multiple people in seconds. A single bullet lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.
“It literally can pulverize bones, it can shatter your liver and it can provide this blast effect,” said Joseph Sakran, a gunshot survivor who advocates for gun violence prevention and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
During surgery on people shot with high-velocity rounds, he said, body tissue “literally just crumbled into your hands.”
The carnage is rarely visible to the public. Crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish and often kept confidential. News accounts rely on antiseptic descriptions from law enforcement officials and medical examiners who, in some cases, have said remains were so unrecognizable that they could be identified only through DNA samples.
As Sakran put it: “We often sanitize what is happening.”
The Washington Post sought to illustrate the force of the AR-15 and reveal its catastrophic effects.
The first part of this report is a 3D animation that shows the trajectory of two different hypothetical gunshots to the chest — one from an AR-15 and another from a typical handgun — to explain the greater severity of the damage caused by the AR-15.
The second part depicts the entrance and exit wounds of two actual victims — Noah Pozner, 6, and Peter Wang, 15 — killed in school shootings when they were struck by multiple bullets.
This account is based on a review of nearly 100 autopsy reports from several AR-15 shootings as well as court testimony and interviews with trauma surgeons, ballistics experts and a medical examiner.
The records and interviews show in stark detail the unique mechanics that propel these bullets — and why they unleash such devastation in the body.
This is a .223-caliber-sized round inside an AR-15. What makes the weapon so deadly is the speed of that bullet.
It is small and light. Its cartridge holds enough propellant to send the bullet flying out of the barrel at a speed that would cross six football fields in a second.
This is a 9mm-sized round, a common choice in handguns. Its bullets are larger, inside smaller cartridges. They don’t hold enough gunpowder to match the velocity of the .223.
Any bullet can kill, and instantly, when it hits a vital organ. The higher speed of a bullet from an AR-15 causes far more damage after it hits the body and drastically reduces a person’s chances of survival.
“As that bullet slows down,” said trauma surgeon Babak Sarani, an authority on casualties from mass killings, “that energy is so massive it has to go someplace, and your body will literally tear apart.”
In this hypothetical scenario, the bullet bursts into the chest cavity. It shreds lung tissue, severs nerves and vessels and causes massive bleeding. It also begins to tumble, taking a chaotic path in the body.
The speed at impact creates a blast effect, like the wake that follows a boat, causing internal injuries far outside the bullet’s path. Here, the blast destroys large veins that carry blood back to the heart.
A 9mm bullet from the same distance takes a relatively linear path. Because that bullet doesn’t produce the same blast effect, it causes far less damage.
The bullet from the AR-15 leaves behind a gaping exit wound. The 9mm bullet fired from the handgun has a much smaller exit wound.
In this scenario, with immediate medical care and minimal bleeding, the victim has a chance at surviving the 9mm shot to the chest.
The bullet from the AR-15, however, causes torrential bleeding that is quickly lethal.
Two children, many bullets
When multiple bullets from an AR-15 strike one body, they cause a cascade of catastrophic damage.
This is the trauma witnessed by first responders — but rarely, if ever, seen by the public or the policymakers who write gun laws.
The Post determined that there is a public interest in demonstrating the uniquely destructive power of the AR-15 when used to kill.
What follows is a detailed depiction showing the impact of bullets fired from AR-15s at two young victims. It is based on autopsy reports for Noah Pozner and Peter Wang that The Post obtained through public records.
Due to the unusual visual nature of the presentation, The Post took the added step of seeking — and receiving — the consent of the victims’ families before proceeding with this account. The Post offered the families the opportunity to view the depictions in advance of publication, which they declined to do.
The families also declined to be interviewed for this story, but a spokesperson for the Wang family offered a statement explaining why Peter’s parents, Hui and Kong Wang, provided their consent to The Post.
“Peter’s parents want people to know the truth,” said Lin Chen, their niece and Peter’s cousin. “They want people to know about Peter. They want people to remember him.”
This presentation may be disturbing to some people.
Noah Pozner, 6
Newtown, Conn.
Noah was found dead on the floor of Classroom 8 at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012. He was 6. He was wearing a red Batman sweatshirt, black pants and black sneakers.
He loved Batman. He was full of energy, his family said, curious and imaginative. He wanted to be an astronaut, and he also wanted to manage a taco factory, because he loved tacos. Noah would tease his sisters that when they went to bed, he was going off “to his third shift” at the factory, so convincingly that they would wake up to make sure he was still in bed.
It was cold that morning when his father, Lenny, dropped him off at school, “but he jumped out not wearing his jacket and he had one arm in one sleeve and his backpack in his other arm, and he was kind of juggling both and walking into the school that way,” Lenny Pozner would later testify.
“And that’s the last visual I have of Noah.”
The first visual that Connecticut state police Sgt. William Cario has of Noah is this: 15 children and two educators are piled on top of one another in a small school bathroom on the southwest corner of the classroom. Cario proceeded to pull them out one by one. All were dead.
One of them was Noah.
Noah was shot three times. Adam Lanza took his mother’s AR-15 rifle to the school and fired 80 rounds into the bathroom. Here are the wounds that killed Noah.
The bullet that struck Noah’s left thumb caused the smallest of his wounds. His hand was badly mangled.
The bullet that struck Noah’s back crossed through the center of his chest, filling it with blood. It broke apart into fragments, according to 2019 court testimony from chief state medical examiner Wayne Carver.
The bullet that hit Noah’s face caused an almost “complete destruction” of the lower lip and jaw.
Noah’s wounds were not survivable, Carver testified. “This particular kind of projectile, it’s got so much energy that it just breaks up.” The pattern of metal over a wide area, he said, “would give me a marker of ... what organs were destroyed and how completely.”
Peter Wang, 15
Parkland, Fla.
Peter was found dead in a third-floor hallway of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018. He was 15. He was wearing his Army JROTC uniform.
He kept notes in his bedroom drawer about his plans. He had joined the military training corps, with its mission to “motivate young people to be better citizens,” as an important step toward attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Born in New York to parents from China, he was always helping everyone around him, friends and family said. Once, at Disney World, he held a friend’s child aloft in a crowd for 20 minutes so she could see a fireworks display.
When gunfire broke out at Parkland, Peter was in study hall, playing chess with a friend. He held the door open for other students to escape.
A few of them made it. He did not.
Peter was shot 13 times. Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 he bought legally and fired at least 139 rounds. Here are the wounds that killed Peter.
Peter was running down the hallway when he was shot. He was struck once in the foot, twice in the thigh, once in the torso, five times in his arms and, finally, four times in the head.
One of the bullets that hit his thigh fractured his hipbone and then broke partially apart before exiting through his abdomen.
Two bullets tore Peter’s chest apart. One entered his torso and flew upward, fragmenting and perforating his chest muscle, which bruised his lungs and created a cluster of three large exit wounds. The other struck the back of his upper right arm, pierced the shoulder joint and opened up a gaping hole on the way out.
The four bullets that obliterated Peter’s head were the last four he received, medical examiner Wendolyn Sneed, who performed the autopsy, testified at Cruz’s sentencing trial last year. Surveillance video showed that Peter’s legs were moving as the killer came closer to him and fired rapidly.
The combined energy of those bullets created exit wounds so “gaping” that the autopsy described his head as “deformed.” Blood and brain splatter were found on his upper body and the walls. That degree of destruction, according to medical experts, is possible only with a high-velocity weapon.
Peter was one of 16 Parkland victims who were shot several times. The shooter had equipped his AR-15 with the ability to fire dozens of rounds without pausing to reload, preventing people from escaping.
In many of America’s mass killings, shooters hit multiple victims, multiple times. In seconds. | 2023-03-27T10:14:56+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/ |
Utah woman accused of killing husband after writing book about grief is sued for over $13 million
(AP) – A lawsuit against a Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death and now stands accused of his fatal poisoning was filed Tuesday, seeking over $13 million in damages for alleged financial wrongdoing before and after his death.
The lawsuit was filed against Kouri Richins in state court by Katie Richins, the sister of Kouri Richins’ late husband Eric Richins. It accuses the woman of taking money from the husband’s bank accounts, diverting money intended to pay his taxes and obtaining a fraudulent loan, among other things, before his death in March 2022.
Kouri Richins has been charged with murder in her late husband’s death.
“Kouri committed the foregoing acts in calculated, systematic fashion and for no reason other than to actualize a horrific endgame — to conceal her ruinous debt, misappropriate assets for the benefit of her personal businesses, orchestrate Eric’s demise, and profit from his passing,” the lawsuit said.
An email message sent to Kouri Richins’ attorney, Skye Lazaro, was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 33, poisoned Eric Richins, 39, by slipping five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for him.
The mother of three later self-published a children’s book titled “Are You with Me?” about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons. She promoted it on television and radio, describing the book as a way to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.
The lawsuit also seeks to bar Richins from selling the book and to turn over any money made from it, saying it makes references to events and details from Eric Richins’ life and his relationship with his children.
In the criminal case, the defense has argued that prosecutors “simply accepted” the narrative from Eric Richins’ family that his wife had poisoned him “and worked backward in an effort to support it,” spending about 14 months investigating and not finding sufficient evidence to support their theory. Lazaro has said the prosecution’s case based on Richins’ financial motives proved she was “bad at math,” not that she was guilty of murder.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-29T00:57:31+00:00 | wfsb.com | https://www.wfsb.com/2023/06/28/utah-woman-accused-killing-husband-after-writing-book-about-grief-is-sued-over-13-million/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, according to media reports.
CNN, which first reported on the tape, said Trump suggested on the recording that he wanted to share information from the document with others but that he knew there were limitations about his ability to declassify records after he left office.
The comments on the recording, made in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, would seem to undercut the former president’s repeated claims that he declassified the documents he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving office. The recording could also be a key aid for prosecutors looking to prove Trump knew his ability to possess classified documents was limited.
The recording has been provided to special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of prosecutors have spent months investigating the potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and whether Trump or anyone else sought to criminally obstruct the probe. The investigation shows signs of being in its final stages, with prosecutors having interviewed a broad cross-section of witnesses before the grand jury.
No one has been criminally charged.
The criminal investigation began last year after the National Archives and Records Administration alerted the FBI to the presence of classified documents in 15 boxes of records sent back, belatedly, from Mar-a-Lago by Trump and his representatives. Investigators initially issued a subpoena for remaining classified records, but after they received only about three dozen during a June 2022 visit to Mar-a-Lago, returned with a search warrant two months later and recovered about 100 more documents marked as classified.
Smith, the special counsel, is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election — the subject of a similar, ongoing inquiry by prosecutors in Atlanta. New York prosecutors charged Trump earlier this year with falsifying business records.
According to the CNN report, the recording was made during a gathering at Bedminster with aides to Trump and two people who were working on the autobiography of Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
It said Meadows’ autobiography includes a description of what appears to be the same meeting. A lawyer for Meadows declined to comment Wednesday when reached by The Associated Press.
CNN said witnesses including Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been questioned about the episode. A spokesman for Milley declined to comment on reports that he had been interviewed.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
A Trump spokesman said in a statement that the investigation was “meritless” and amounted to “continued interference in the presidential election.” | 2023-06-01T15:04:48+00:00 | wdtn.com | https://www.wdtn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/reports-prosecutors-have-tape-of-trump-discussing-holding-onto-classified-doc-after-leaving-office/ |
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