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DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Davis Riley opened with a 67 at the Memorial to finish atop the leaderboard after the opening round for the second straight year. And that's where the similarities end.
Riley birdied three of his last four holes Thursday afternoon when the turf was firm and the wind was swirling and the bad breaks led to big numbers, as Rory McIlroy found out.
Riley was in a six-way share of the lead last year. On Thursday, he led by one over Matt Wallace. Jordan Spieth was in the group at 69, ending his hopes for a bogey-free day by hitting into two bunkers on the 18th hole and saving bogey from the second one.
It was hot. It was hard. And at times it was tough to watch.
Chad Ramey hit four shots that went into the water on the ninth hole, which featured a front pin and a stream in front of the green. He made a 13, the highest score ever recorded on any of the holes at Muirfield Village.
He posted an 88, still shy of the record high score of 92 that Roger Maltbie shot in 1979 in a second round that featured 30 mph wind and a wind chill index of 13 degrees.
Dry and hot is the weather tournament founder Jack Nicklaus always wanted but rarely gets, and there were plenty of comparisons to a U.S. Open except for the generous fairways.
Defending champion Billy Horschel has been in a slump, and Muirfield Village was no place to try to snap out of that. Horschel had four 6s on his card of 84.
“My confidence is the lowest it’s been in my entire career. I think ever in my entire golf career,” Horschel said. “So it’s funny, as low as it feels, it feels like I’m not that far off at the same time. Which is insane to see when you see me shoot 84 today.”
Wallace, who needs a victory this week to avoid U.S. Open qualifying, posted his 68 in the morning before the wind and the temperatures picked up. Shane Lowry had five straight birdies in the morning in relatively calm conditions, but even he wasn't immune to a fast golf course that could be punishing without notice.
McIlroy was 3 under for his round playing the 18th when his drive went right — not unusual for the shape of that hole — and was tumbling toward the sand until it stopped. That was very unusual. The ball was nearly belt-high and he could barely take a stance. He did his best to chop it out, and it just cleared the bunker into thick grass.
From there, his 9-iron caught a flyer and sailed over the green to the shaggy hill. His flop shot came out clunky and over the green and its front pin. His chip was weak. He missed the putt. And his triple bogey wiped out an otherwise good day.
Spieth almost was in that predicament. At least he was in the sand, but he hit a poor 7-iron that barely got out of the sand, just ahead of McIlroy's ball. That turned out to be a break, because when Spieth saw that happened to McIlroy's shot, he went down to a pitching wedge.
It was a flyer, but it at least took a short hop into the sand in front of the green. He came inches away from holing — as he did for birdie from the bunker on No. 10 — and got away with a bogey.
“It's nice to beat a tough golf course,” Spieth said.
Mark Hubbard also was at 69 and tried to remind himself it was a very good score after his bogey-bogey-bogey finish.
“I guess on paper it wasn’t what I wanted, but I had 5-iron into 16, 7-wood into 17 and 4-iron into 18. Like that’s a little tough coming in there today,” Hubbard said. “So I told my caddie that’s the least mad I’m ever going to be bogeying the last three.”
Jon Rahm and Adam Scott were at 70 playing in the morning. Scottie Scheffler didn't make a putt longer than 6 feet and shot 74. That was his highest opening round since Las Vegas in October 2021.
The course average was 74, the highest for a first round at Muirfield Village since 2000. Eight players failed to break 80 — that doesn't include Dylan Frittelli, who was 15 over through 14 holes when he withdrew with an illness.
Riley's only bogey was nearly a superb par, from the back bunker on the 18th to 4 feet, but then he missed the putt. A very good round turned into a great one when he made a 12-foot birdie on the sixth, hit wedge to 4 feet on the par-5 seventh and finished with a 12-foot birdie on the ninth hole.
His description of the wedge at No. 7 illustrated the difficulty.
“I got 118 yards and I’m landing it 10 yards short of the pin, 30 feet short, and it’s skipping all the way there. And the wind was up,” Riley said. “This is probably one of the more difficult ones all year.”
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Credit: AP | 2023-06-02T00:07:05+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/nation-world/riley-avoids-big-numbers-for-67-on-tough-day-at-memorial/6JU5AVCHXBCPLMXGZ5DFW5DPIE/ |
NEW YORK, April 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues its investigation of potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Credit Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ: CACC) resulting from allegations that Credit Acceptance may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Credit Acceptance securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=10839 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.
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On January 4, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the New York State Attorney General's Office announced the filing of a complaint against Credit Acceptance. The lawsuit alleged that Credit Acceptance, a subprime auto lender, hid the true costs of its borrowings, used aggressive debt-collection tactics, and violated New York usury laws on interest-rate limits and other investor-protection laws.
On this news, the price of Credit Acceptance's shares fell $52.69, or over 11%, to close at $403.49 per share on January 4, 2023, damaging investors.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. 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.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
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www.rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | 2023-04-16T21:33:13+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2023/04/15/rosen-leading-investor-counsel-encourages-credit-acceptance-corporation-investors-with-losses-inquire-about-securities-class-action-investigation-cacc/ |
ATLANTA, GA (FOX 44) — Kramer Robertson once against has a new home, as the New York Mets claimed the former Midway Panther off of waivers on Monday.
This comes after he played in 13 games for the Atlanta Braves AAA team in Gwinnett, hitting .300 during his time there.
The Mets organization is the third different one for Robertson this month, to go along with stints with both the Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, where he made his MLB debut last month. | 2022-06-28T05:40:54+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/mlb/new-york-mets-claim-former-midway-panther-kramer-robertson-off-of-waivers/ |
(KRON) — With an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Napa County, California, and cases also reported in San Jose, the infection joins COVID-19, monkeypox and even polio as a major health concern.
But just what is Legionnaires’ disease and how can you keep yourself safe from it?
What causes Legionnaires’ disease?
Legionnaires’ disease is caused by an infection with the Legionella bacteria. The bacteria is naturally occurring in fresh water but can infest manmade water sources when present.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several water sources can become sources of contagion, including:
- Faucets and shower heads
- Cooling towers
- Hot tubs
- Decorative fountains
- Hot water tanks and heaters
- Plumbing systems
It’s worth noting that home and auto air-conditioning units are not a risk for bacterial infestation because they don’t use water to cool their environments, but windshield wiper units containing water instead of fluid are.
Human infection can happen with the bacteria is breathed in through droplets in the air. If water containing the bacteria “goes down the wrong pipe” into the lungs, this can also cause infection. While it’s possible to spread the bacteria from person to person, this generally doesn’t happen, the CDC reports.
Who’s at greatest risk?
Not everyone who is infected with Legionella bacteria will develop a serious illness, but the CDC says some people can.
The most at risk are:
- People ages 50 and older
- Current and former smokers
- People with a chronic lung disease, such as COPD or emphysema
- People with weak immune systems, or who take drugs that weaken the immune system, such as after chemotherapy or a transplant
- People with cancer
- People with diabetes, kidney or liver failure, or other underlying illnesses
What are the symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease?
The symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease are similar to other pneumonias: shortness of breath, coughing, head and muscle aches, and fever. Diarrhea, nausea and confusion are less common. Symptoms begin between two days and two weeks after exposure.
Infection with the bacteria can also cause Pontiac Fever, which is less serious and includes the above symptoms that are not related to the respiratory system.
How is Legionnaires diagnosed and treated?
A urine test or a phlegm sample can confirm the presence of the Legionella bacteria. It’s treated with antibiotics.
Even healthy people are often hospitalized.
“About one out of every 10 people who gets sick with Legionnaires’ disease will die due to complications from their illness,” the CDC states.
How was Legionnaires discovered and named?
Legionnaires’ disease was discovered in 1976, when 182 people became sick and 29 died after being at or near the American Legion’s annual convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia in commemoration of the U.S. bicentennial.
The following year the CDC isolated the bacterial agent that caused the disease, named legionella after the veterans’ organization.
The bacteria had spread through the hotel’s air conditioning system and the discovery prompted major changes in heating and air systems worldwide. A prior probable outbreak in the same hotel two years earlier was identified.
The number of cases reported to the CDC has been on the rise for the last two decades, with 10,000 in 2018 alone. The real incidence of the disease is believed to be up to 2.7 times higher than reported incidences. | 2022-08-20T18:33:55+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/on-your-side/health-watch/what-is-legionnaires-disease/ |
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution Friday that would formally recognize and celebrate diverse family units across the nation.
The introduction of the resolution, which Garcia’s office said is a “direct response” to comments made during a House hearing last month by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that suggested non-biological mothers are not actual mothers, comes on the eve of Mother’s Day weekend.
Greene repeatedly claimed that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who is a stepmother, is “not a mother” during an April 26 hearing.
“The problem is people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist, not a teacher, not a mother and not a medical doctor,” Greene told Weingarten at the hearing, which had set out to investigate the role AFT played in influencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s school reopening guidance following pandemic closures.
Garcia responded by calling Greene’s comments “unacceptable.”
“It’d be nice if we didn’t attack the witnesses, particularly making a decision about whether or not she’s a mother,” he said during last month’s hearing.
“You are a mother,” he added to Weingarten. “Thank you for being a great parent.”
Garcia’s “Honoring All Families” resolution affirms Congress’s support for all types of families — especially LGBTQ families and families who adopt — as legitimate and deserving of recognition and respect.
“A parent’s ability to contribute to their child’s growth and success is not defined by the circumstances by which they became a parent,” the resolution states, “and families of all backgrounds and circumstances deserve to be recognized, respected, and celebrated.”
Democratic Reps. Raul Ruiz (Calif.), Becca Balint (Vt.), Angie Craig (Minn.) and Mark Pocan (Wis.) are co-leading the resolution, which is also endorsed by the Congressional Equality Caucus, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Voice for Adoption, among other groups.
Garcia, who is openly gay, on Friday noted the significance of “chosen family” and adoptive figures within the LGBTQ community.
“Families come in all shapes and sizes, and they shape who we are in an immeasurable way,” he said in a statement. Greene’s comments, he added, “invalidated the thousands of loving LGBTQ+ and adoptive families across this country.” | 2023-05-12T18:33:26+00:00 | kron4.com | https://www.kron4.com/hill-politics/garcia-introduces-honoring-all-families-resolution-after-marjorie-taylor-greene-comments-on-motherhood/ |
SHENZHEN, China, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BOTINKIT, a kitchen robot brand in Shenzhen, recently announced that Chris Bangle, the former Chief of Design at BMW Group and now Managing Director at Chris Bangle Associates in Italy, will work as a design consultant to support the brand's efforts in design innovation and development.
Chris Bangle graduated from the Art Center College of Design, a global leader in design and art education. He worked at German automobile manufacturer Opel and Italian carmaker Fiat. Since 1992 he led BMW in creating new design styles and concepts. In his nearly 30 year automotive design career, he has had a great and far-reaching impact on automotive design worldwide.
Founded in 2021, BOTINKIT is committed to creating digital cooking experiences through innovative product offerings and algorithms. In line with its mission of transforming traditional cooking methods through advanced technologies, BOTINKIT makes it possible for food lovers and chefs around the world to share their creativity in cooking anytime and anywhere, bringing about a simpler, smarter and healthier cooking experience. It was the several weeks of consultations between the design team and Chris during which the team described in precise detail the processes and the thinking behind the processes that led to the collaboration.
BOTINKIT believes that a good product relies on a good design, and expects to leverage Chris Bangle's deep experience and expertise to jointly create more high-quality products, while encouraging everyone, everywhere to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle.
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SOURCE BOTINKIT | 2022-07-22T15:21:28+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/22/former-bmw-group-chief-design-chris-bangle-starts-collaboration-with-botinkit/ |
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New Haven, Connecticut, has agreed to a $45 million settlement with Randy Cox, who was paralyzed while being transported handcuffed and without a seat belt in the back of a police van following his arrest last year, the city's mayor and attorneys said Saturday.
The agreement was reached Friday evening following a daylong conference with a federal magistrate judge, Mayor Justin Elicker said. It came two days after the city fired two police officers who authorities said treated Cox recklessly and without compassion.
“The city’s mistakes have been well documented,” a statement by attorneys Ben Crump, Louis Rubano and R.J. Weber, who represented Cox, said. “But today is a moment to look to the future, so New Haven residents can have confidence in their city and their police department.”
Cox, 36, was left paralyzed from the chest down June 19, 2022, when the police van he was riding in braked hard, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Cox had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash, according to police video.
Once at the police station, officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet out of the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
Five officers, including those who were fired, face criminal charges in the case. All have pleaded not guilty.
Cox last year sued the officers and the city for $100 million. His attorneys called the settlement the largest ever in a police misconduct case.
Cox did not plan to make any public comments over the weekend, Rubano said.
“He kind of relived what happened to him throughout the day yesterday, so it was a very emotional day,” the attorney said by phone. “He’s unwinding now.”
The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.
New Haven police have since adopted reforms that include making sure all prisoners wear seat belts. The state Senate on June 5 gave final approval to legislation that would require seat belts for all prisoners being transported.
“Randy entered a police transport vehicle being able to walk, and now he’s not able to walk,” Elicker said at a news conference Saturday. He said he had spoken with Cox's mother earlier in the day.
“What I shared with her is that while this settlement cannot bring Randy back to his original state when he entered that police transport vehicle, that my hope is that it provides Randy the future medical support and other support that he will need," Elicker said. "Randy’s 36 years old, and we hope he has a long life ahead of him with the kind of support and care that he deserves.” | 2023-06-10T19:21:13+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/randy-cox-paralyzed-in-police-van-reaches-45-18145855.php |
Wagner leader Prigozhin says his forces have entered Russian city of Rostov facing no resistance
(AP) – The owner of the Wagner private military contractor made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. The security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin and calling for his arrest.
In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat, security was heightened in Moscow and in Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine.
Prigozhin claimed Saturday that his forces had reached Rostov, saying they faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints and adding that his forces “aren’t fighting against children.”
“But we will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he said. “We are moving forward and will go until the end.”
He claimed that the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, scrambled warplanes to strike Wagner’s convoys, which were driving alongside ordinary vehicles.
Prigozhin said Wagner field camps in Ukraine were struck by rockets, helicopter gunships and artillery fire on orders from Gerasimov following a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, at which they decided to destroy Wagner.
Prigozhin said his troops would punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to offer resistance.
“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” Prigozhin declared.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, said he would be investigated on charges of calling for an armed rebellion. The FSB urged Wagner’s contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to follow his “criminal and treacherous orders.” It called his statements a “stab in the back to Russian troops” and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia.
Russia’s chief prosecutor said the criminal investigation was justified and an armed rebellion charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment.
President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the situation and “all the necessary measures were being taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Wagner’s forces have played a crucial role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, succeeding in taking the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place, Bakhmut. Prigozhin has frequently criticized Russia’s military brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of weapons and ammunition, but with his accusations and calls for armed rebellion Friday, he appeared to go a step too far.
The Russian Defense Ministry required all military contractors to sign contracts with it before July 1, but Prigozhin, whose feud with the Defense Ministry dates back years, refused to comply. In a statement issued late Friday, he said he was ready to find a compromise with the Defense Ministry, but “they have treacherously cheated us.”
“Today they carried out a rocket strike on our rear camps, and a huge number of our comrades got killed,” he said. The Defense Ministry denied attacking the Wagner camps.
Prigozhin claimed that Shoigu went to the Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don personally to direct the strike and then “cowardly” fled.
“This scum will be stopped,” he said of Shoigu.
“The evil embodied by the country’s military leadership must be stopped,” he shouted, urging the army not to offer any resistance to Wagner as it moves to “restore justice.”
Security also was heightened in Rostov-on-Don, Tass reported. Its correspondent said military and law enforcement personnel were seen on the streets, with at least one armored personnel carrier and aerial patrols.
Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, urged the Wagner forces to stop any move against the army, saying it would play into the hands of Russia’s enemies, who are “waiting to see the exacerbation of our domestic political situation.”
Another top military officer, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev, denounced Prigozhin’s move as “madness” and threatened to unleash a civil war in Russia.
“It’s a stab in the back to the country and the president,” he said. “It’s impossible to imagine a stronger blow to the image of Russia and its armed forces. Such a provocation could only be staged by enemies of Russia.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Ukrainian military was concentrating troops to launch an attack around Bakhmut to take advantage of “Prigozhin’s provocation.” It said Russian artillery and warplanes were firing on Ukrainian forces as they prepared to start an offensive in the area.
In other developments in the Ukraine, war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on other countries to heed warnings that Russia may be planning to attack an occupied nuclear power plant to cause a radiation disaster.
Members of his government briefed international representatives on the possible threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, whose six reactors have been shut down for months. Zelenskyy said he expected other nations to “give appropriate signals and exert pressure” on Moscow.
The Kremlin’s spokesman has denied the threat to the plant is coming from Russian forces.
The potential for a life-threatening release of radiation has been a concern since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year and seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station. The head of the U.N.’s atomic energy agency spent months trying to negotiate the establishment of a safety perimeter to protect the facility as nearby areas came under repeated shelling, but he has been unsuccessful.
The International Atomic Energy Agency noted Thursday that “the military situation has become increasingly tense” while a Ukrainian counteroffensive that got underway this month unfolds in Zaporizhzhia province, where the namesake plant is located, and in an adjacent part of Donetsk province.
Although the last of the plant’s six reactors was shut down last fall to reduce the risk of a meltdown, experts have warned that a radiation release could still happen if the system that keeps the reactors’ cores and spent nuclear fuel cool loses power or water.
During months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine have traded blame over which side was increasing the threat to the plant. On Friday, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi met with the head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom in the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia to discuss the conditions at the plant. Rosatom director Alexey Likachev and other officials “emphasized that they now expect specific steps” from the U.N. agency to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the plant and its adjacent territory, said a statement from the Russian corporation, whose divisions build and operate nuclear power plants.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of mining the plant’s cooling system, already under threat from a dam collapse earlier this week that drew down water in a reservoir that the power station uses.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Friday that Russia has beefed up its defense forces in southern Ukraine in response to the early counteroffensive and intensified its efforts to take more ground in the east. Asked if the Ukrainian military’s initial attacks set the stage for a larger assault, Maliar told Ukrainian television: “We are yet to see the main events, and the main blow. And indeed, a part of reserves will be used later.”
Ukrainian forces so far have made only incremental gains in Zaporizhzhia province, one of four regions that Putin illegally annexed last year. Putin has pledged to defend the regions as Russian territory.
Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine is fighting to force Russian troops out of those regions, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 and is using as a staging and supply route in the 16-month-old war. If the counteroffensive breaks the Russian defenses in the south, Ukrainian forces could attempt to reach a pair of occupied port cities on the Sea of Azov and break Russia’s land bridge to Crimea.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-24T00:28:41+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/2023/06/23/wagner-leader-calls-rebellion-against-russian-defense-chief-kremlin-orders-his-arrest/ |
How to Watch Auto Racing Streaming Live - Saturday, June 17
Published: Jun. 17, 2023 at 4:47 AM MDT|Updated: 40 minutes ago
Need more auto racing in your life? Well, you're in luck. The race schedule on Saturday, June 17 includes action that can be watched on Fubo. For a complete list, along with info on how to watch or live stream it all, check out the article below.
Watch even more racing coverage with ESPN+!
Auto Racing Streaming Live Today
Watch the Canada Grand Prix - Practice 3
- Series: Formula 1
- Game Time: 12:25 PM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch the Canada Grand Prix - Qualifying
- Series: Formula 1
- Game Time: 3:55 PM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Watch the Berlin
- Series: ARCA Menards Series
- Game Time: 8:00 PM ET
- TV Channel: FOX Sports Networks
- Live Stream: Watch on Fubo!
Make sure you're following along with racing action all year long on Fubo and ESPN+!
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-17T11:28:11+00:00 | kmvt.com | https://www.kmvt.com/sports/betting/2023/06/17/auto-racing-live-stream/ |
Minor Hit With Adult Charges in Lake County Vehicle Incident
May 5, 2023 10:15AM CDT
(Winthrop Harbor, IL) A Winthrop Harbor juvenile is facing adult charges, stemming from an incident earlier this year. Lake County Sheriff’s officials say Liliana Wagner allegedly gunned her vehicle at a 19-year-old Waukegan man back on March 20th…that man jumped onto the hood of the car, and was clinging to it until he fell off and was run over. Wagner was arrested after her vehicle was disabled near Rosemont. After an investigation, charges of leaving the scene of an accident, aggravated DUI and aggravated fleeing to elude were approved, and the 17-year-old surrendered this week. Wagner was being held on a 250-thousand-dollar bond
Tim Vander Tuuk, WLIP News (5-5-23) | 2023-05-05T22:36:45+00:00 | wlip.com | https://www.wlip.com/minor-hit-with-adult-charges-in-lake-county-vehicle-incident/ |
Which teddy bear slippers are best?
A pair of adorable teddy bear slippers make for an excellent way to keep your feet warm as the weather cools down. The best ones are made from soft material with plush footbeds and rubber outsoles that can withstand quick trips to the mailbox.
The Jbciuds Cute Bear Slippers are a top pick because they are durable and feel luxurious. They feature a teddy bear image on the toe box, but they’re not too bulky, so you can stay agile as you move around your home.
What to know before you buy teddy bear slippers
About teddy bear slippers
Some teddy bear slippers are made to look like you’ve wrapped your feet in plush teddy bears. Others sport a more traditional slipper silhouette and have a teddy bear face printed or sewn onto their toe box.
Whatever design you prefer, they should be high-quality and made of warm fabric that feels soft on your skin. They should also be comfortable enough to wear around your home all day, with added safety features such as non-slip bottoms to keep you on your feet.
Types of teddy bear slippers
Even if you already have a slipper type in mind, it’s good to know what silhouettes exist to ensure you get the right ones. There are three primary styles to consider.
- Slip-on: These have a covered toe box with an open back.
- Open toe: These have one or more straps covering the top of your foot with an open toe and open heel.
- Enclosed: These fully encase your feet, from your toes to your heels.
How to make sure your slippers are the right size
Many teddy bear slippers use standard shoe sizing to help you find your size. If you are unsure what your size is, you can check by following five simple steps.
- Draw a line down the center of a blank piece of paper.
- Set the paper on a hard floor and place your foot on the line.
- Mark the line at your heel and the tip of your longest toe.
- Measure the distance between each mark on the line.
- Consult the product’s sizing chart using your measurements as a guide.
What to look for in quality teddy bear slippers
Non-slip bottoms
Even if you never leave the comfort of your home in your teddy bear slippers, it’s still crucial that they have non-slip bottoms to prevent you from slipping and falling.
The best slippers have thick rubber outsoles with textured bottoms to protect your feet and give them traction. However, some quality designs feature soft fabric outsoles with rubber dots. While flexible outsoles are less durable, the beads can keep you on your feet.
Cushioned footbeds
Cushioned footbeds can alleviate stress on your feet, joints and ligaments by distributing the impact of each step throughout your foot. While you might not be walking or standing all day in your slippers, they give you a more comfortable experience when you do.
Easy-care instructions
Teddy bear slippers you can toss in the washing machine or wash by hand are more cost-effective and sustainable than those that can only be dry-cleaned. It’s also quicker, easier and gives you more time to enjoy them.
How much you can expect to spend on teddy bear slippers
Depending on the slippers’ design details and materials, you can get a high-quality pair for about $20 to $40.
Teddy bear slippers FAQ
Can you wash your slippers in a washing machine?
A. Many manufacturers let you wash your slippers in a machine, but check their instructions first. If they are machine-washable, try washing them on a gentle cycle in cold water with a mild detergent. Then let them air dry to keep them in excellent condition.
How should you hand-wash your slippers?
A. Fill your sink with warm water and mix in 1 teaspoon of laundry detergent. Next, place the slippers in the water and let them soak for about 30 minutes. Once ready, gently wash the soiled areas with a clean cloth and rinse them. Finally, squeeze the excess water out and lay them flat to dry.
What are the best teddy bear slippers to buy?
Top teddy bear slippers
What you need to know: These soft, cozy slippers feature an adorable teddy bear on their toe box and maintain a slim design.
What you’ll love: They have a slip-on design with a non-slip outsole made from durable rubber. They also have plush memory foam footbeds to ensure that your feet stay comfortable, and they come in two colors.
What you should consider: Some reviewers said these run a size too small and suggested sizing up.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top teddy bear slippers for the money
What you need to know: These have a plush teddy bear silhouette with a face, arms and legs.
What you’ll love: These cozy slippers are lined with soft fleece and completely cover your feet to keep you warm. They have foam insoles for cushioning and lightweight outsoles with a non-slip surface to keep you comfortable. They’re also machine-washable and come in 17 colors and patterns.
What you should consider: Some reviewers said they aren’t practical to wear while doing chores around the house.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: If you love cute, cuddly teddy bears, but also want the option to show your sense of humor, these are the slippers for you.
What you’ll love: You can transform these sweet slippers into zombie teddy bears or superhero bears by flipping an attached mask over their faces. They’re made with 1-inch dense foam outsoles for added comfort and non-slip bottoms to keep you on your feet.
What you should consider: Some said they run a little small and suggested sizing up.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-18T23:47:40+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/reviews/br/shoes-br/comfort-br/teddy-bear-slippers-keep-feet-cute-and-comfy/ |
LG Exploratorium offers hands-on, immersive education,
inspires new generation to pursue STEAM careers
Elected officials, education leaders, students among those
celebrating LG Exploratorium's grand opening
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Oct. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics USA officially cut the ribbon today on the LG Exploratorium, a new high-tech immersive learning space for area school children that promotes STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) and environmental education while giving students the opportunity to interact with robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies.
"The LG Exploratorium is a fun, interactive, hands-on educational space for elementary and middle school-aged students to visit and learn how innovation can be used to impact people's lives, improve productivity, and protect the environment," said LG Electronics North America CEO Thomas Yoon. "The LG Exploratorium represents an investment in our social and economic future, and when we invest in our communities, we create a stronger society for everyone."
The LG Exploratorium aims to inspire new generations of students to pursue careers in STEAM fields and serve as a destination for class field trips and immersive, enhanced learning experiences for students. Exhibits include an artificially intelligent robot artist, interactive digital seascape, electric vehicle drive simulator and more. LG has partnered with Discovery Education to develop age-appropriate curriculum for grades K-8 that aligns with the state's rigorous standards.
"Our mission at Discovery Education is to prepare learners for tomorrow by creating innovative classrooms connected to today's world. The LG Exploratorium aligns with this mission by allowing students to engage with technology while exploring STEAM-related career paths," said Amy Nakamoto, General Manager of Social Impact at Discovery Education. "Together, we designed engaging resources for K-8 students that enhance enrichment and integrate the hands-on Exploratorium experiences into what they are studying in the classroom. We are excited to what possibilities this opens up for students!"
"The LG Exploratorium will contribute immensely to New Jersey's economic and education landscapes and inspire innovation among young New Jerseyans," said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. "As we respond to a host of formidable challenges both today and in the future, it's crucial that we equip the next generation of New Jersey leaders with the skills they require to build a stronger and more prosperous Garden State."
"Any opportunity for our students to expand their learning opportunities in creative ways is a net positive for our communities. I hope that Englewood Cliffs students and students from around our great state can utilize this new facility to expand their minds and their knowledge horizons well into the future," said U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.
"LG Electronics has been a great corporate neighbor and valuable member of the Englewood Cliffs community," said Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario M. Kranjac. "By opening its doors, LG is providing through the LG Exploratorium a unique opportunity for our students to learn and grow and be inspired by technology and innovation to pursue careers in high-demand STEAM fields."
LG also welcomed its first guests to the LG Exploratorium, a group of fourth graders from nearby Englewood Cliffs' Upper School, which was honored with a 2022 National Blue Ribbon by the U.S. Department of Education for overall academic performance and progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
"For many students, STEAM is their first exposure to fulfilling and rewarding careers in New Jersey's key industries. By engaging students at an early age with hands-on experiences, it gives them a glimpse of what careers in science, technology, engineering, art and math may be like," said Englewood Cliffs Schools Superintendent Jennifer R. Brower, Ed. D.
The LG Exploratorium is located at LG's North American headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. and further solidifies LG's continued commitment to the community and the region. Visitors are welcomed to the LG Exploratorium by compelling, interactive video content shown on advanced commercial displays from LG Business Solutions, including curved open-frame OLED displays and touch-screen digital signage displays.
The 350,000-square-foot, $300 million campus, which had a pandemic opening in 2020, was designed to preserve the scenic views of the New Jersey Palisades and earned the highest-level LEED Platinum certification for its sustainability, efficiency and lower carbon footprint. Commercial Property Executive ranked LG's Englewood Cliffs headquarters as the No. 1 LEED-certified building in New Jersey.
The facility offers significant economic development and other benefits to Englewood Cliffs, Bergen County, and the State of New Jersey, having created more than 2,000 labor jobs during construction and growing local employment to more than 800.
Among the public officials and leaders attending today's grand opening event were Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (N.J.-09); State Senator Gordon Johnson; Assemblymembers Shama Haider, Ellen Park and Chris Tully, chair of the Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee; Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco; Bergen County Commissioners Tracy Zur, president, Mary Amoroso, Germaine Ortiz and Steve Tanelli; Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and members of the township council; Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich; Alpine Mayor Paul Tomasko; Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland; Dr. Jordan Schiff, Acting Assistant Commissioner for Division of Teaching and Learning Services, New Jersey Department of Education; Christopher Cox, Office of Innovation, New Jersey Department of Education; Jorge Santos, Chief Real Estate Development Officer, Economic Development Authority; Englewood Cliffs School District Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Brower and Board President Shanna Jafri; and representatives from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), Teach NJ, and NJ STEM Teachers.
About LG Electronics USA
LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $63 billion global innovator in technology and manufacturing. In the United States, LG sells a wide range of innovative home appliances, home entertainment products, commercial displays, air conditioning systems, energy solutions and vehicle components. LG is 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year-Sustained Excellence. The company's commitment to environmental sustainability and its "Life's Good" marketing theme encompass how LG is dedicated to people's happiness by exceeding expectations today and tomorrow. www.LG.com.
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SOURCE LG Electronics USA | 2022-10-25T21:51:04+00:00 | wbrc.com | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2022/10/25/lg-opens-doors-community-cuts-ribbon-new-interactive-high-tech-learning-space-k-8-students/ |
AMC movie popcorn to be sold in Walmart stores in time for the Oscars
(Gray News) – Fans of movie theater popcorn will soon be able to get their buttery fix at their nearest Walmart.
AMC Entertainment said it’s working with Walmart to launch an exclusive line of microwave and ready-to-eat popcorn products.
AMC’s popcorn line would include six new items, including three different flavors of both microwave popcorn and popped popcorn.
The popcorn will feature classic butter, extra butter, and lightly salted flavors.
According to AMC, its new snacks are scheduled to premiere on March 11 in hundreds of locations nationwide.
The microwave popcorn products are expected to sell for $4.98 plus tax for a six-count. The ready-to-eat products will be available in a 4.2 to 5.2 oz. bag and will sell for $3.98 plus tax.
The release of the popcorn is also timed to match the airing of the Academy Awards on March 12.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-03-01T01:11:02+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/2023/03/01/amc-movie-popcorn-be-sold-walmart-stores-time-oscars/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A Waymo vehicle hit and killed a small dog on the streets of San Francisco last month, the company confirmed to Nexstar’s KRON. The incident occurred on Sunday, May 21, when the dog ran in front of a Waymo vehicle with an “autonomous specialist” in the driver’s seat, according to a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson said an investigation had been launched and that an initial review indicated that the Waymo’s system correctly identified the dog, which ran from behind a parked vehicle. However, the vehicle was unable to avoid hitting the animal.
The dog was hit and subsequently died.
“We send our sincere condolences to the dog’s owner,” the spokesperson said. “The trust and safety of the communities we are in is the most important thing to us and we’re continuing to look into this on our end.”
The dog was off-leash when it was struck by the Waymo vehicle.
KRON reached out to the San Francisco Police Department regarding the incident and was told that officers responded to the incident, but did not locate anything. | 2023-06-11T20:07:29+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/national/self-driving-car-hits-and-kills-small-dog-in-san-francisco/ |
Report: Saints WR Michael Thomas expected to start week 1
The announcement is an emotional lift to the Black & Gold to have their star back
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The Saints have lost a defensive star via trade as C.J. Gardner-Johnson departed for Philadelphia but they are regaining star power on the offensive side of the ball in time for week 1.
READ MORE Saints trade Ceedy Deuce, release Ian Book
Fox 8 Saints analyst Jeff Duncan reports that wide receiver Michael Thomas, who was dealing with a hamstring injury through preseason, is expected to start week 1 on the road in Atlanta on Sunday, Sept. 11.
In the last preseason game, the Saints’ offense got off to a hot start with two back-to-back series resulting in touchdowns. Jameis Winston took the first series under center, often finding wide receiver Jarvis Landry across the field, while Andy Dalton marched the offense downfield to a score on the second series. Adding a star like Thomas to this mix, makes New Orleans that much harder to defend, especially if he looks anything like he did two seasons ago.
Duncan also provided several updates on moves the Saints are making right before week 1 arrives.
According to Duncan, the Saints tried to put in a waiver claim on linebacker Sterling Weatherford, who was cut by the Colts but lost out to Chicago due to the Bears having a higher position in the claiming order. The Saints are in the market for a linebacker, with a need for more depth there.
Defensive back Paulson Adebo suffered an ankle injury in the Chargers game and is currently dealing with it.
READ MORE Saints announce practice squad additions
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Copyright 2022 WVUE. All rights reserved. | 2022-09-01T14:49:46+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/2022/09/01/report-saints-wr-michael-thomas-expected-start-week-1/ |
DALLAS (AP) — The federal government is suing SkyWest Airlines on behalf of a former employee who says co-workers sexually harassed her, including asking her for sex and making explicit comments about rape in her presence.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that SkyWest discriminated against the woman by subjecting her to a hostile work environment and retaliating when she complained. She eventually quit.
SkyWest said it holds employees to high standards.
“While it is our policy to not comment on pending litigation, we have zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind and have established processes in place to follow up on any reported concerns,” the airline said in a statement.
The EEOC sued in federal district court in Dallas and asked that the woman receive back pay and punitive damages to be determined by a trial.
The agency said the woman joined Utah-based SkyWest in 2007, and the harassment started after she transferred to the airline’s parts and maintenance operation at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 2019, including comments by the maintenance supervisor. She told another supervisor that she “felt singled out as … a young woman in a building full of men.”
The harassment caused the woman to take unpaid medical leave for about six weeks, and it continued when she returned. She was placed on administrative leave after filing a complaint with the airline’s human-resources department, according to the lawsuit.
Some of the woman’s co-workers corroborated her claims during an internal investigation, and an employee-relations manager recommended mandatory sexual-harassment training for all employees, the EEOC said. Five months later, in May 2020, after getting no update on the investigation, the woman resigned.
SkyWest is a regional airline that operates flights for bigger carriers including American Airlines. | 2022-08-18T18:03:16+00:00 | pix11.com | https://pix11.com/business/ap-business/us-says-skywest-employee-subjected-to-sexual-harassment/ |
It’s safe to say that Appalachian State has caught the attention of the college football world.
Just a week after nearly beating UNC in a shootout, the Mountaineers went to College Station and toppled the No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies 17-14.
The Mountaineers now face a much less daunting task of facing the 1-1 Troy Trojans at home.
The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 17 on ESPN+, which costs just $9.99 and has no commitments.
More from The AP
App State uses 2 turnovers to stun No. 6 Texas A&M 17-14
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — On paper, there was no reason to believe that Appalachian State would have a chance Saturday against No. 6 Texas A&M.
But Mountaineers coach Shawn Clark, who makes 10 times less than the over $9 million Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher receives each season at the Southeastern Conference school, made it clear to his 18 1/2-point underdog team that the game is not played on paper and mindset would mean everything.
“The key was belief,” an exhausted Clark said. “You have to believe in yourself and believe in this program. I told them take the logo off of the helmet, take the logo off the field and let’s go play football.”
And play football they did, with Chase Brice throwing for 134 yards and a touchdown and a stingy defense taking advantage of two turnovers to stun the Aggies 17-14.
“It didn’t feel real at first,” Brice said. “I’ll be honest, I was just in shock. I just couldn’t believe the way we fought and finished. It was just great.”
Appalachian State won a week after scoring six touchdowns and 40 points in the fourth quarter in a 63-61 opening loss to North Carolina.
“It means something to me to beat the No. 6-ranked program,” Clark said. “It’s two different programs. We don’t recruit at the same level. We don’t have what they have, but we have a lot of heart and we have the right kind of players in our program.”
Clark was thrilled to see Brice lead his team to the win after his school-record six-touchdown performance last week wasn’t enough to complete the comeback.
“He was crushed,” Clark said. “He loves this program and today was his shining moment.”
Along with the victory, the Mountaineers got a fat $1.5 million check to take back with them to Boone, North Carolina, for playing this game.
Appalachian State (1-1) settled for a 29-yard field goal by Michael Hughes to take a 17-14 lead with about eight minutes left after Christian Wells was wide open but dropped a touchdown pass on third down.
The Aggies (1-1) had a chance to tie it with about 3 1/2 minutes to go, but a 47-yard field goal attempt by Caden Davis was short.
Camerun Peoples, who finished with 112 yards rushing, had a 1-yard run on third down on the next possession to keep Appalachian State’s drive going. He then dashed 48 yards to the 12 on the next play and the Mountaineers ran out the clock.
“At the end of the day, that’s my fault as the head football coach,” Fisher said. “We have to have guys ready in all three phases. We had chances to make plays in all three phases.. We had opportunities, but we have to coach it better. That’s on me.”
It’s Appalachian State’s first win over a team in The AP top 10 as a FBS team after losing in overtime to No. 9 Tennessee in 2016 and dropping an OT game to No. 9 Penn State in 2018.
The Mountaineers famously knocked off No. 5 Michigan 34-32 with a last-second blocked field goal in Ann Arbor in 2007 when they were still in the FCS.
“Respect all those guys they were great,” offensive lineman Cooper Hodges said. “But I’m tired of hearing about Michigan. I want our legacy to be Sun Belt champions and I want our legacy to be beating Texas A&M.”
The Mountaineers kept A&M’s offense in check a week after Clark was left looking for ways to fix his defense after the 63-point outburst by North Carolina.
Devon Achane ran for a touchdown in the first half and returned a kickoff for a score in the third, but the Aggies had trouble getting much else going on a mistake-filled day.
The Mountaineers outgained A&M 305-186 and had 22 first downs to just nine by the Aggies. They controlled time of possession, too, holding a 41:29 to 18:31 advantage in that area.
Fisher said he would consider a change at quarterback this week after a sub-par performance by Haynes King. He added that they probably would have made the switch Saturday if the game had gone differently.
“We were but we never had the ball,” he said. “If we had got more possessions maybe so.”
The Aggies were driving in the third quarter when Dexter Lawson Jr. forced a fumble by Evan Stewart after a 13-yard reception and it was recovered by Nick Hampton.
The Mountaineers took a 14-7 lead when Henry Pearson grabbed a 9-yard TD reception from Brice with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the third.
The lead was short-lived as Achane returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown seconds later. Achane, who is a sprinter on Texas A&M’s track team, juked a defender before shedding a would-be tackler and racing downfield for the score to tie it at 14-all.
King was sacked by DeAndre Dingle-Prince and fumbled late in the first quarter. Texas A&M lineman Layden Robinson recovered the ball, but he also fumbled and this time Appalachian State recovered it.
They cashed in on the mistake when Ahmani Marshall scored on a 4-yard touchdown run that made it 7-0 early in the second quarter.
The Aggies tied it up when Achane dashed 26 yards for a touchdown on the next drive.
King finished with 97 yards passing.
THE TAKEAWAY
The loss puts a huge dent on Texas A&M’s preseason goal of finally contending for a national title, leaving the Aggies in an early hole before they even begin the rigors of SEC play.
RECORD TALK
Fisher was hired to take A&M to the next level after coach Kevin Sumlin was fired after his sixth season. But so far Fisher hasn’t done any better than Sumlin did in his time with the Aggies.
Sumlin was 36-14 in his first 50 games and Saturday’s loss dropped Fisher to 35-15 in his first 50.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
The Aggies are certain to plummet in the poll after losing to an unranked opponent. Appalachian State should enter the poll after the big upset.
UP NEXT
Appalachian State: Hosts Troy next Saturday.
Texas A&M: Hosts No. 15 Miami next Saturday night.
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25 | 2022-09-17T17:51:24+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/sports/2022/09/how-to-watch-appalachian-state-football-vs-troy-saturday.html |
AP explains court ruling siding with Amish families who balked at Minnesota septic tank rules
A long-running religious freedom case has come full circle, with court ruling this week that a deeply conservative Amish community in Minnesota cannot be threatened with the loss of homes if its members don’t install septic systems to dispose of their bath, laundry and dish water.
The state Court of Appeals on Monday found that the Swartzentruber Amish community in southeastern Minnesota doesn’t need to install septic systems to dispose of “gray water,” which is dirty water left from dishwashing, laundry, bathing, and other tasks not involving toilet waste. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed court rulings that had required the group to install septic tanks.
Here’s a look at the legal dispute and the traditionalist religious community at the root of it.
Who are the Swartzentruber Amish?
The Amish are a Christian religious group that, based on its religious beliefs, shuns many modern technologies like electric and gas-powered machinery. Members are likely most recognizable by their use of horse-and-buggy transportation. There are more than 360,000 Amish in the U.S., and at least 32 states had an Amish population as of 2022, concentrated in the Midwest and East Coast states.
The Swartzentruber Amish are among the most restrictive concerning the use of technologies and eschew everything from tractors and refrigeration to phones and flushing toilets.
What is the dispute?
It’s essentially about plumbing — specifically, the disposal of gray water. The Swartzentruber Amish do not have modern running water in their homes. Water arrives through a single line and is either pumped by hand or delivered by gravity from an external cistern.
In 2013, Fillmore County adopted an ordinance requiring most homes to have a septic system for the disposal of gray water. The Amish community sought an exemption “in the name of our Lord,” explaining that their religion forbids the use of such technology. They also offered an alternative used in more than a dozen other states that would allow them to funnel gray water from their homes by pipes to earthen basins filled with wood chips to filter solids and grease from the water as it drains, similar to how a septic system would work.
But the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency refused, and filed an administrative enforcement action against 23 Amish families in Fillmore County, threatening criminal penalties, civil fines and even to force them from their homes if they didn’t comply. State officials presented testimony from an expert in court that said the mulch basins would not be as effective and that the mulch would quickly clog with solids and grease, requiring frequent relocating of new mulch pits.
State courts acknowledged that the requirement for septic tanks systems burdened the Amish community’s religious beliefs. But the courts also found that septic systems — not mulch basins — would be the least-restrictive means for the Amish families to meet the government’s interest in protecting public health and the environment.
The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021, which found that Minnesota courts overstepped. It said the burden was on the government to prove that the mulch basins wouldn’t work, not on the Amish to show they would. And it sent the case back to the Minnesota courts for reconsideration. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that if “the government can achieve its interests in a manner that does not burden religion, it must do so.”
Is gray water really a problem?
Gray water is more hazardous to public health than it might sound, wastewater treatment expert Sara Heger testified in the lawsuit over the Fillmore County septic system requirement.
Heger, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, acknowledged that gray water is less dangerous than toilet waste, or “black water.” But gray water carries contaminants such as human fecal material, harmful bacteria and viruses, and a variety of chemicals, commercial soaps and detergents that contain nitrogen and phosphorous that pose environmental problems.
“Whatever might make you sick, that’s also present in the gray water,” she said.
The lower courts also found that while mulch basins may work in other states, the topography of Fillmore County — including fissures, fractures and sinkholes in the area’s limestone bedrock — lends to more rapid travel of wastewater to ground and surface water than in other places.
If dumping gray water is occasional — like washing a car or wastewater by hunters and anglers — it poses very little risk, experts said. But large families produce much more wastewater where they live, testified Brandon Montgomery, with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
An attorney for the families, Brian Lipford, argued that it made little sense for the state to target his clients over gray water disposal when it allows their use of outhouses — where residents essentially relieve themselves in a hole dug into the ground.
But state officials argued there are already regulations in place governing outhouses that require them to be a certain distance from wells and other sources of water. It’s the addition of water in wastewater, they argued, that has the potential to spread contaminants much further.
Is there a next step in the court fight?
Fillmore County Attorney Brett Corson is hoping to decide in the coming days whether to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. He has 30 days from Monday’s ruling to decide.
“We’re just taking the chance to digest the decision and consider what we’re going to do,” he said.
Officials with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they’ll appeal.
Corson said he recognizes the issue is important to both the county and to the Amish.
“In a county like ours, the Amish community is a big part of our community,” he said. “They’re our neighbors and friends. We work together. It’s one of those things we have to make a solid decision on.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2023-07-13T05:02:36+00:00 | kaaltv.com | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/us-world-news/ap-explains-court-ruling-siding-with-amish-families-who-balked-at-minnesota-septic-tank-rules/ |
As Americans continue to feel the cost crunch of inflation, many people are turning to credit card rewards programs to make ends meet.
Research firm Morning Consult found about half of Americans say the rise in inflation and cost of living has made them more interested in earning credit card rewards.
"Among people who have credit card rewards cards, 91% of those people find them useful in everyday purchases," said Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Points Guy, a website that offers resources about rewards cards.
There are various benefits to having a rewards card. They include getting cash back, points and travel miles.
Those benefits can help pay for things like groceries, gas or vacations.
Henderson cautions, though, not everyone should be applying for a rewards credit card right now.
"We always tell people, 'You have got to pay your balance off every month. If you can't do that, then don't bother opening a rewards credit card," he said.
People don't necessarily need a credit card to earn rewards. Some banks offer debit cards that also feature rewards programs. | 2023-02-17T22:00:52+00:00 | abc15.com | https://www.abc15.com/news/national/how-inflation-is-fueling-the-popularity-of-rewards-credit-cards |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the Senate intelligence committee said Wednesday that they should have access to classified documents that were discovered in the homes of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, arguing that Biden’s administration is stonewalling them over the matter.
Senators reacted with swift, bipartisan anger after a classified meeting with National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, insisting they need to see for themselves what documents the three men were holding.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that we, in the role of the intelligence oversight, know if there’s been any intelligence compromised,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat. Warner and the panel’s vice chairman, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, held a joint news conference after they walked out of the meeting.
Members of Congress have sought access to the materials, or at least a risk assessment detailing what was within them, since the discovery of documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last summer. But they say the administration has objected, arguing they can’t provide that access as two special counsels at the Justice Department are investigating Trump and Biden’s mishandlings of the documents.
Senators argued that this doesn’t follow precedent. In the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, for example, committees had access to classified materials that were also part of then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
The administration’s position is “untenable,” Rubio said. “The information we’re asking for has no bearing whatsoever or would interfere in no way with a criminal investigation.”
The senators didn’t say how they might retaliate if the administration isn’t more forthcoming. But Rubio hinted earlier this week that they could withhold dollars from the intelligence community if Congress isn’t given special access to the materials.
“I’m not in the business of threats right now,” Rubio said. “But I’m just saying every year this committee has to authorize how money is spent in (Biden’s) agencies.”
Rubio noted that he and Warner also have responsibilities to authorize and move money around within the intelligence community. “I think there’ll be a keen interest in looking at that if in fact we can’t get the answers that we need,” he said.
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican member of the committee, said he and others may move to block quick consideration of some of Biden’s nominees in the meantime.
“Congress will impose pain on the administration until they provide these documents,” Cotton said after Wednesday’s meeting.
The frustration in Congress comes after months of waiting for a briefing on the documents seized at Trump’s estate. According to the government, those documents seized at Mar-a-Lago and papers the Republican former president had turned over previously included highly sensitive “Special Access Program” designations as well as markings for intelligence derived from secret human sources and electronic signals programs. Those forms of intelligence are often produced by the CIA or the National Security Agency, and the underlying sources can take years to develop.
A review by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was meant to determine the possible damage if the secrets in those documents were exposed. In a letter last year to Congress, Haines said the ODNI would lead a “classification review of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search.”
But lawmakers are still waiting on the details from that assessment, and they say they want access to the documents themselves as well.
Lawyers for Pence said this week that an apparently small number of papers were inadvertently boxed and transported to his Indiana home at the end of the Trump administration. That revelation came after Biden’s lawyers said they had discovered documents from his time as vice president in his Delaware home and his pre-presidential think-tank offices.
Special counsels are investigating the Trump and Biden episodes. In all three matters, the significance of the classified material and whether its mishandling breaches national security are not publicly known.
Warner said the Senate may try to find a way to put more safeguards around presidential transitions and the handling of documents. It’s unclear how they would do that, and those talks have just begun amid the Biden and Pence revelations.
Some members have long talked about putting new parameters about what is classified, reacting to concerns that some documents are kept secret when they don’t need to be.
“We’ve got a broken system,” Warner said. “And we got to fix this for all folks leaving government.” | 2023-01-26T18:10:35+00:00 | wearegreenbay.com | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/top-stories/ap-senators-officials-blocking-access-to-mishandled-documents/ |
(The Hill) — The National Audubon Society announced Wednesday that it would retain the Audubon name despite calls to drop the reference to the 19th-century naturalist and painter who was also a slave owner and vocal opponent of abolition.
The renowned bird conservation organization, which was named for John James Audubon, said it made the decision after “a lengthy process to examine its name in light of the personal history of its namesake.”
“This is an important time for birds and our shared planet, and this decision positions the organization to focus our equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging efforts and our conservation work where it is most urgently needed,” Susan Bell, the chair of the National Audubon Society’s board of directors, said in a statement.
“The name has come to represent so much more than the work of one person, but a broader love of birds and nature, and a non-partisan approach to conservation,” Bell added.
The society also announced a $25 million commitment to fund its diversity, equity and inclusion work over the next five years, and vowed to continue to promote awareness and understanding about Audubon’s “problematic legacy” and the inequalities “inherent in the conservation movement.”
The Bird Union, the National Audubon Society’s staff union, slammed the board of directors’ decision Wednesday as displaying a lack of interest in “following through on their commitments to cultivate a fair and equitable workplace.”
“Their decision to double down on celebrating a white supremacist and to continue to brand our good work with his name actively inflicts harm on marginalized communities, including members of our union who for too long have been excluded from the environmental movement,” the union said in a statement.
The group also largely dismissed the society’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion work, adding that “we have heard many empty promises and declarations from [CEO Elizabeth] Gray, and have rarely seen this commitment carried out at the bargaining table.” | 2023-03-15T17:46:48+00:00 | ourquadcities.com | https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/national-news/national-audubon-society-rejects-calls-to-drop-enslavers-name/ |
Who is she? Michelle Buteau is a seasoned actress, comedian, author, podcaster and host of a reality show.
What's the big deal? For Buteau, centering a story about an unapologetically fat and outspoken woman fulfills a gap she's noticed in the industry for years.
What's she saying? Buteau sat down with NPR's Kira Wakeam to talk about the messages she wanted to send in her series, and how telling her own story empowered her to love herself and others.
On creating the inclusion she never saw in her life:
Growing up, I did love television and film, and I always wish that I could see more representation. But I was like, well, it's just not there. It's sort of just like people who didn't even know they had celiac disease. You're just like, well, I guess I'm just going to be in pain.
I always really loved fashion, but I never really was given a vocabulary of what to do and how to do it because nothing was ever available. And so that's why it was Mavis' mission statement to say, "OK, we're going to make everybody feel special and look good and walk different because you deserve that s***.
Want more about the screens? Listen to Consider This on if we're witnessing the death of movie stars.
On her long career and path to create the show:
Once you have gotten very comfortable with rejection, yet you still love what you do and your craft, and it's only getting better, and you're evolving as a person, and you've gone to therapy, and you've done the work, and you're touching your toes, and drinking that water – honey, by the time it does happen, you're like, "Oh, OK. I am a fully realized human being, and I can make these decisions without trying to make everybody happy."
Because that happens, too, when you're trying to do a show, right? So I am really thankful that I'm at a place in my life where I'm just like: This is just what it is. This is what I see. I want to make sure that it is as authentic to me and my world as it's going to be.
On her hopes with the series:
I mean, obviously, I hope people are entertained and laugh a lot, but I also hope they fall in love. Not necessarily with a character, but perhaps themselves. I hope that person in that stale relationship listens to the little inner voice saying that they could do better.
I hope the person hustling, being like, "I don't know if I jump off the cliff and do this job full time" does it.
I hope that parents that are wondering and struggling how to understand their non-binary child or trans teenager, whatever it is, that they feel OK and better and that they also feel seen and that, okay, culture is changing. You know, my child is wonderful. You know, I hope that big bitches feel sexy as f*** and they want to go and have sex with the lights on.
So, now what?
Learn more:
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-07-15T17:32:42+00:00 | wboi.org | https://www.wboi.org/npr-news/2023-07-14/michelle-buteau-is-creating-the-empowering-tv-series-she-wanted-to-see-growing-up |
Cure53 and F-Secure audited ExpressVPN's macOS, Linux and Windows apps
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS, Nov. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading consumer privacy and security company ExpressVPN has validated the security posture of all its desktop apps through three new independent audits by respected cybersecurity firms, Cure53 and F-Secure. The three new audits come just weeks after KPMG's audit of ExpressVPN's no-logs policy, underlining ExpressVPN's dedication to third-party privacy and security verifications.
Cure53 tested both ExpressVPN's macOS and Linux desktop apps through white-box penetration tests and source code audits. The assessments confirm that the apps are secured against cyber security threats from malicious adversaries. This also validates the extensive work done by ExpressVPN's engineering and security experts in building a safer, more open internet for millions of people worldwide.
F-Secure also reviewed ExpressVPN's Windows v12 app through penetration testing and source code auditing, and found no significant weaknesses. The audit verifies that ExpressVPN's latest Windows desktop app cannot be manipulated to leak information, such as a user's IP address, outside the VPN tunnel. It also confirms that the app is not susceptible to remote code execution attacks.
Having all of ExpressVPN's desktop apps audited means that users can go online with the assurance that their privacy is protected, and do so confidently.
The full audit report by Cure53 for macOS can be found here and Linux here. F-Secure's audit of ExpressVPN's Windows v12 app is available here.
"As part of our continuous trust and transparency efforts, we're proud to announce that all of our desktop apps have now been audited," said Brian Schirmacher, penetration testing manager at ExpressVPN. "These audits are a testament to the efforts we put into improving and securing our product, and we're glad to receive the validation from Cure53 and F-Secure. We're committed to delivering audits on our mobile apps soon, and will continue to ensure privacy and security at every touchpoint of our product."
The full blog article can be read online via: https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/mac-linux-windows-v12-audits/
About ExpressVPN
Since 2009, ExpressVPN has empowered millions of users to take control of their internet experience. The company's award-winning consumer VPN service is backed by its open-source VPN protocol Lightway, delivering user privacy in just a few clicks. ExpressVPN's Keys password manager and Aircove router make digital privacy and security easy and accessible for all. With a commitment to transparency, ExpressVPN products have been audited by PwC, Cure53, and others.
ExpressVPN has been part of Kape Technologies (LSE:KAPE) since 2021. To learn more about ExpressVPN's industry-leading privacy and security solutions, visit www.expressvpn.com.
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SOURCE ExpressVPN | 2022-11-24T14:01:52+00:00 | kmvt.com | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/11/24/expressvpn-confirms-security-its-desktop-apps-with-three-new-independent-audits/ |
Dear Abby: Younger brother wants out of despicable man's will
Dear Abby,
My older brother is toxic. I want to cut ties with him because he has always criticized, antagonized, marginalized and dismissed me. He has no filters and also criticizes and ridicules my grown children. I've had enough.
If I were ghosted, I'd want to know why and not be blindsided. But it's pointless to engage or explain to him. He's a lifelong bachelor with no children or significant other, so he has me in his will if he goes first. I would be physically ill to inherit his estate — home, car, funds and personal effects. I want nothing from him. Should I notify his attorney and copy my brother that I wish to be removed from his will?
— Other Brother in Washington
It would be even more effective if you include in your letter the reasons for your decision.Dear Abby,
I have been divorced from "Mildred" for 10 years. I have been with my girlfriend, "Eleanor," for five years, and we are serious. (She was not the cause of the divorce; Mildred's temper was.) My daughter's boyfriend plans to propose to her at a surprise party. All her friends and family will be there. Mildred is hosting the party, and she's refusing to allow Eleanor to attend. My ex and Eleanor have never seen or spoken to each other. What should I do?
— Excited Dad in New Jersey
What you should NOT do is allow your ex-wife's vindictiveness to dictate your social life. If you would like to bring your girlfriend of five years to the party, make it plain to your ex that you're bringing her, and then do it. Mildred does not have to like Eleanor to behave like a gracious hostess and a lady. (She probably could benefit from counseling, but do not suggest it.)
Actually, counseling might be helpful for you and Eleanor to help you learn how to handle Mildred in the future, because there will probably be more family celebrations. You have my sympathy.Dear Abby,
I am a daughter who has spent 40 years helping out my parents. My father passed away seven years ago, and I miss him every day. My mother, whom I love very much, has become very needy, demanding and vocal in running all of our lives since Dad's death. I'm at my wit's end and don't know what to do. My mother wants to be waited on hand and foot and has become very lazy. She's 85 and has no major health issues. What do I do before she drives us all nuts?
— Frustrated in Iowa
Because your mother is in good health and of sound mind, I presume, it may be time for a family intervention. Explain that you love her, but you all have busy lives, and she is going to have to assume more responsibility for herself.
Encourage her to become active with her church or to seek out volunteer opportunities, and guide her toward the nearest senior center where she can find companionship, commiseration and activities she may enjoy to fill her time. I wish you luck. You are all still in the midst of a transition, and they are rarely easy.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069. | 2023-04-08T12:03:55+00:00 | providencejournal.com | https://www.providencejournal.com/story/lifestyle/advice/2023/04/08/dear-abby-younger-brother-wants-out-of-despicable-mans-will/70040780007/ |
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Feb. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Andesa, a leading provider of policy lifecycle solutions for the life insurance and annuities industry, is celebrating 40 years of dedicated and continuous service in 2023. From humble beginnings, Andesa has grown to represent 9 of the top 17 life insurance and annuities carriers, being recognized for its advanced software and services.
From its earliest days, Andesa was known for pushing the envelope and exploring what was possible in the corporate-owed life insurance industry as a third-party provider. As the industry stabilized and new technology evolved, Andesa stepped up to meet increasingly diverse demands and new client expectations. Building on these early foundations, Andesa continues to leverage the latest technology and adapt to create innovative solutions.
Today, Andesa helps clients manage all areas of the policy lifecycle, from new business, application fulfillment, and enrollment processing to administration, servicing, and termination. As a true partner in long-term success, it provides clients with scalable, cloud-based policy lifecycle software designed to suit the complex nature of insurance and strategic value-added services that guide clients as markets, products, and people change.
"I'm so proud of what has been accomplished over these 40 years. Yet we know that tomorrow's challenges won't be solved by yesterday's solutions," said Ron Scheese, President and CEO of Andesa. "It will demand remaining steadfast to the core values of Respect, Integrity, Courage, Honesty, Initiative, and Responsibility, which have guided Andesa through 40 years of growth, change, and progress. These have driven our success and remain as true today as they did 40 years ago."
Devoted to creating a fulfilling and effective workplace, Andesa introduced an employee stock ownership plan that would allow employees to gain an ownership interest in the company by purchasing stock shares. In 2020, the company reached another major milestone, becoming 100 percent employee owned. This shift allowed the company to retain its flexible operating model and longer-term investment horizons.
About Andesa
Andesa is a leading, employee-owned provider of policy lifecycle solutions for the life insurance and annuities industry that offers modern cloud-based systems for transaction management and recordkeeping. Through flexible end-to-end lifecycle management solutions, a commitment to data security, and decades of market and product expertise, we help carriers, brokers, sponsors, and participants pursue strategic sales opportunities and successfully navigate market change. Visit andesaservices.com.
Contact
Kerianne Geist
Marketing Manager
Andesa Services
Kerianne.geist@andesaservices.com
610-841-9510
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SOURCE Andesa Services, Inc. | 2023-02-22T15:58:10+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/andesa-marks-40-years-serving-clients-insurance-annuities-industry/ |
One year after ending War in Afghanistan, US spy agencies pivot toward China
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a recent closed-door meeting with leaders of the agency’s counterterrorism center, the CIA’s No. 2 official made clear that fighting al-Qaida and other extremist groups would remain a priority — but that the agency’s money and resources would be increasingly shifted to focusing on China.
One year after ending the war in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden and top national security officials speak less about counterterrorism and more about the political, economic and military threats posed by China as well as Russia. There’s been a quiet pivot within intelligence agencies, which are moving hundreds of officers to China-focused positions, including some who were previously working on terrorism.
Intelligence officials stress that the counterterrorism fight is hardly being ignored. Just a week ago, it was revealed that a CIA drone attack killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Kabul. But days later, China staged large-scale military exercises and threatened to cut off contacts with the U.S. over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. It underscored the message CIA deputy director David Cohen had delivered at that meeting weeks ago: The agency’s top priority is trying to understand and counter Beijing.
The U.S. has long been alarmed by China’s growing political and economic ambitions. China has tried to influence foreign elections, mounted campaigns of cyber and corporate espionage, and detained millions of minority Uyghurs in camps. Some experts also think Beijing will in coming years try to seize the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan by force.
Intelligence officials have said they need more insights on China, including after being unable to definitively pinpoint the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing has been accused of withholding information about the origins of the virus.
And the war in Ukraine has underscored Russia’s importance as a target. The U.S. used declassified information to expose Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war plans before the invasion and rally diplomatic support for Kyiv.
Supporters of the Biden administration approach note that the fact the U.S. was able to track and kill al-Zawahri is evidence of its capabilities to target threats in Afghanistan from abroad. Critics say the fact that al-Zawahri was living in Kabul, under the apparent protection of the Taliban, suggests there’s a resurgence of extremist groups that America is ill-equipped to counter.
The shift in priorities is supported by many former intelligence officers and lawmakers from both parties who say it’s overdue. That includes people who served in Afghanistan and other missions against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he believed the U.S. had been overly focused on counterterrorism over the last several years.
“A far greater existential threat is Russia and China,” said Crow, a Colorado Democrat who serves on the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees. Terrorist groups, he said, “will not destroy the American way of life ... the way China can.”
CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp noted that terrorism “remains a very real challenge.”
“Even as crises such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and strategic challenges such as that posed by the People’s Republic of China demand our attention, CIA will continue to aggressively track terrorist threats globally and work with partners to counter them,” Thorp said.
Congress has pushed the CIA and other intelligence agencies to make China a top priority, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. Pushing resources toward China has required cuts elsewhere, including in counterterrorism. Specific figures were unavailable because intelligence budgets are classified.
In particular, lawmakers want more information about China’s development in advanced technologies. Under President Xi Jinping, China has committed trillions of dollars in investment on quantum science, artificial intelligence and other technologies that are likely to disrupt how future wars are fought and economies are structured.
As part of the shift, congressional committees are trying to better track how intelligence agencies spend their funding on China, seeking more detail about how specific programs contribute to that mission, one person familiar with the matter said.
“We are late, but it’s good that we’re finally changing our focus into that region,” said Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. “That means in people, in resources, in military assets, and in diplomacy.”
The CIA last year announced it would create two new “mission centers” — one on China, one on emerging technologies — to centralize and improve intelligence collection on those issues. The CIA is also trying to recruit more Chinese speakers and reduce wait times on security clearances to hire new people faster.
Inside the agency, many officers are learning Chinese and moving into new roles focused on China, though not all of those jobs require language training, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials note that intelligence officers are trained to adapt to new challenges and that many were moved more quickly into counterterrorism roles after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Advances from counterterrorism work — including better use of data and different sources of intelligence to build networks and identify targets — are also useful in countering Russia and China, former officers said.
“It’s the analytics and targeting machine that has become extraordinary,” said Douglas Wise, a former CIA senior officer who was deputy chief of operations at the counterterrorism center.
The CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, renamed the Counterterrorism Mission Center in a 2015 reorganization, remains a point of pride for many people who credit its work for keeping Americans safe from terrorism after Sept. 11. CIA officers landed in Afghanistan on Sept. 26, 2001, and were part of operations to displace the Taliban and find and kill leaders of al-Qaida including Osama bin Laden.
And 13 years after a double agent tricked officers pursuing al-Zawahri and blew himself up, killing seven agency employees, the CIA killed him in a strike with no reported civilian casualties.
The CIA was also involved in some of the darkest moments of the fight against terrorism. It operated secret “black site” jails to hold terrorism suspects, some wrongly, and was found by a Senate investigation to have used interrogation methods that amounted to torture. Elite Afghan special operations units trained by the CIA were also accused of killing civilians and violating international law.
There’s long been a debate over whether counterterrorism pulled intelligence agencies too far away from traditional spying and whether some of the CIA’s work in targeting terrorists should instead be done by special forces under the military.
Marc Polymeropoulos is a retired CIA operations officer and former base chief in Afghanistan. He said he supports a greater focus on China and Russia but added, “There’s no reason to diminish what we had to do.”
“This notion that somehow all the CT work we did, somehow that was wrong, that we took our eye of the ball — just remember on Sept. 12 what everyone was feeling,” he said.
Re-orienting the agencies toward more of a focus on China and Russia will ultimately take years and require both patience and recognition that the agency’s culture will take time to change, Wise said.
“For decades, we have been doing counterterrorism,” Wise said. “We’ve got to have a rational plan to make this adaptation, which doesn’t take so long that our enemies can exploit a glacial process.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2022-08-08T22:09:09+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/2022/08/08/one-year-after-ending-war-afghanistan-us-spy-agencies-pivot-toward-china/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government charged Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes on Tuesday, alleging he intentionally deceived customers and investors to enrich himself and others, while playing a central role in the company’s multibillion-dollar collapse.
Federal prosecutors said Bankman-Fried devised “a scheme and artifice to defraud” FTX’s customers and investors beginning in 2019, the year it was founded. He illegally diverted their money to cover expenses, debts and risky trades at the crypto hedge fund he started in 2017, Alameda Research, and to make lavish real estate purchases and large political donations, prosecutors said in a 13-page indictment.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government, and remains in custody after being denied bail.
He has been charged with eight criminal violations, ranging from wire fraud to money laundering to conspiracy to commit fraud. If convicted of all the charges, Bankman-Fried — referred to by crypto enthusiasts as “SBF” — could face decades in jail.
At a news conference on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in New York called it “one of the biggest frauds in American history,” and said the investigation is ongoing and fast-moving.
Bankman-Fried has fallen hard and fast from the top of the cryptocurrency industry he helped to evangelize. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, he was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as a wunderkind of digital currencies, someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
Sporting shorts and t-shirts to contrast himself with the buttoned-down world of Wall Street, he was the subject of fawning media profiles, a vocal advocate for a type of charitable giving known as “effective altruism,” and garnered millions of Twitter followers.
But since FTX’s implosion, Bankman-Fried and his company have been likened to other disgraced financiers and companies, such as Bernie Madoff and Enron.
The criminal indictment against Bankman-Fried and “others” at FTX is on top of civil charges announced Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The SEC alleges Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX customers by making loans to himself and other FTX executives, and illegally using investors’ money to buy real estate for himself and his family.
No other FTX executives were named in the indictment, nor was the CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison. Also not named in the indictment: Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford University law professor who was considered an adviser to his son.
U.S. authorities said they will try to claw back any of Bankman-Fried’s financial gains from the alleged scheme.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried, Mark S. Cohen, said Tuesday he is “reviewing the charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options.”
At a congressional hearing Tuesday that was scheduled before Bankman-Fried’s arrest, the new CEO brought in to steer FTX through its bankruptcy proceedings leveled harsh criticism. He said there was scant oversight of customers’ money and “very few rules” about how their funds could be used.
John Ray III told members of the House Financial Services Committee that the collapse of FTX, resulting in the loss of more than $7 billion, was the culmination of months, or even years, of bad decisions and poor financial controls.
“This is not something that happened overnight or in a context of a week,” he said.
He added: “This is just plain, old-fashioned embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes.”
Before his arrest, Bankman-Fried had been holed up in his luxury compound in the Bahamas. U.S. authorities are expected to request his extradition to the U.S.
Bankman-Fried was denied bail at a court hearing in the Bahamas on Tuesday after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, according to Our News, a broadcast news company based there. He will remain in custody at the Bahamas department of corrections until Feb. 8, Our News reported.
Bankman-Fried’s was previously one of the world’s wealthiest people on paper; at one point his net worth reached $26.5 billion, according to Forbes. He was a prominent personality in Washington, donating millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans. U.S. Attorney Williams said Tuesday that Bankman-Fried made “tens of millions of dollars” in illegal campaign donations.
His wealth unraveled quickly last month, when reports called into question the strength of FTX’s balance sheet. As customers sought to withdraw billions of dollars, FTX could not satisfy the requests: their money was gone.
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The SEC complaint alleges that Bankman-Fried had raised more than $1.8 billion from investors since May 2019 by promoting FTX as a safe, responsible platform for trading crypto assets.
Instead, the complaint says, Bankman-Fried diverted customers’ funds to Alameda Research without telling them.
“He then used Alameda as his personal piggy bank to buy luxury condominiums, support political campaigns, and make private investments, among other uses,” the complaint reads.
In the weeks after FTX’s collapse, but before his arrest, Bankman-Fried gave interviews to several news organizations in which he grasped for ways to explain what happened.
For example, Bankman-Fried said he did not “knowingly” misuse customers’ funds, and that he believes angry customers will eventually get their money back.
At Tuesday’s congressional hearing, the new FTX CEO bluntly disputed those assertions: “We will never get all these assets back,” Ray said.
Jack Sharman, an attorney at Lightfoot, Franklin & White, said Bankman-Fried’s recent comments to the media could be damaging, admissible evidence in court. “Those statements in that speaking tour were in no way helpful to his cause,” Sharman said.
In its complaint, the SEC challenged Bankman-Fried’s recent statements that FTX and its customers were victims of a sudden market collapse that overwhelmed safeguards that had been in place.
“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “That veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent.”
The collapse of FTX — which followed other cryptocurrency debacles earlier this year — is adding urgency to efforts to regulate the industry.
Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in financial and securities regulation, said U.S. lawmakers and regulators have been too slow to act, but that is likely to change.
“Lawmakers are clearly under pressure to do something, given that so many people have lost their money,” she said.
______
Hussein contributed to this report from Washington. | 2022-12-14T04:14:17+00:00 | wivb.com | https://www.wivb.com/news/ap-sec-charges-former-ftx-ceo-with-defrauding-crypto-investors/ |
CALGARY, AB, May 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Sundial Growers (Nasdaq: SNDL) ("Sundial") announced today that it will release its first quarter financial results ended March 31, 2022 after market close on Monday, May 16, 2022.
Following the release of its first quarter financial results, Sundial will host a conference call and webcast at 10:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. MDT) on May 17, 2021.
To access the live webcast of the call, please visit the following link:
https://services.choruscall.ca/links/sundialgrowers2022q1.html
A telephone replay will be available for one month. To access the replay dial:
Canada/USA Toll Free: 1-800-319-6413 or International Toll: +1-604-638-9010
When prompted, enter Replay Access Code: 8957 #
The webcast archive will be available for three months via the link provided above.
Sundial is a public company whose shares are traded on Nasdaq under the symbol "SNDL." Its business is reported and analyzed under four segments: Cannabis Production and Cultivation, Cannabis Retail, Liquor Retail, and Investments.
As a licensed producer that crafts small-batch cannabis using state-of-the-art indoor facilities, Sundial's 'craft-at-scale' modular growing approach, award-winning genetics, and experienced growers set us apart. Sundial's brand portfolio includes Top Leaf, Sundial Cannabis, Palmetto, and Grasslands. Sundial has acquired Alcanna and is now the largest private sector cannabis and liquor retailer in Canada as the Company retail banners now include Spiritleaf, Value Buds, Ace Liquor, Liquor Depot, and Wine & Beyond.
Sundial's investment portfolio seeks to deploy strategic capital through direct and indirect investments and partnerships throughout the global cannabis industry.
For more information on Sundial, please go to www.sndlgroup.com.
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SOURCE Sundial Growers Inc. | 2022-05-13T20:50:58+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/05/13/sundial-growers-announce-first-quarter-2022-financial-results-may-16-2022/ |
Technical Product Documentation (TPD) - General Requirements of Mechanical Product Digital Manuals developed under the leadership of XCMG celebrates its third anniversary
XUZHOU, China, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The international standard ISO 21600 Technical Product Documentation (TPD) - General Requirements of Mechanical Product Digital Manuals ("the Standard"), developed under the aegis of XCMG (SHE:000425), global top three construction machinery manufacturer, has been serving as a guideline for everything and anything mechanical for over three years, generates over billions of yuan in indirect economic benefits annually. The world's first international standard on digital documentation for mechanical products has seen application in the R&D, operation and maintenance of a variety of equipment now in use throughout the construction machinery, aerospace, high-speed railway and military sectors.
With the Standard, production efficiency of equipment made following the guidelines of related manuals has been improved by over 300% while the quality of such manuals has been significantly improved, creating tens of millions of yuan in direct economic benefits annually. The set of requirements, once released, has been adopted by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and several other countries as a national standard, as well as by the EU as the standard basis for digital document requirements and is expected to be included in the EU Machinery Directive in the near future.
"The Standard, for the first time worldwide, stipulates the process and method of developing digital manuals as well as the expression and transformation methods of three-dimensional information while integrating several data requirements, including data elements and modules, providing a set of systematic solutions for the development of global digital manuals," said Wang Min, Chairman and CEO of XCMG. "The solutions are available for the application and implementation of digital manuals throughout the life cycle of mechanical products."
As part of the development process, the project team coordinated the relationship between the Standard and ISO/IEC 82079 by applying to join the JWG16 working group with the intent of establishing and defining the boundary and reference relation between both standards. Joining GWG 16 facilitated the team's contacting relevant experts and answering their questions one by one through meetings and emails in order to get their support for the Standard.
At the same time, a number of notable international experts in the field of digital research were invited by XCMG to participate in specialized technical discussions on the Standard. Following unanimous recognition by experts from various countries around the world, the Standard was successfully developed and released as planned.
The Standard was derived from three key technologies: the 3D model-based service information expression technology that enables 3D visualization of the content in digital manuals; the heterogeneous system integration technology that allows for unique linking between each product and the corresponding electronic files; the electronic template mapping technology that enables one-time production and repeated use. The Standard has also significantly improved the guidance for the engineering application of digital manuals by providing a standardized method and path for the development, application and management of such manuals.
The project team has obtained three national invention patents, registered 10 software copyrights and published two papers on extended intelligence (EI) through research into the technologies used by the Standard.
As of June 2022, XCMG had formulated and released five national standards as well as 241 national and industry standards thanks to its long-term commitment to building digital and information technology capabilities alongside its competence in digital management control.
For more information, please visit XCMG.
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SOURCE XCMG | 2022-07-14T11:55:09+00:00 | kcbd.com | https://www.kcbd.com/prnewswire/2022/07/14/world-first-international-standard-digital-documentation-mechanical-products-generates-tens-millions-dollars-direct-indirect-economic-benefits-annually/ |
Hurricane Ian is quickly gaining monstrous strength as it moves over oceans partly heated up by climate change, just like 30 other Atlantic tropical storms since 2017 that became much more powerful in less than a day.
This turbocharging of storms is likely to become even more frequent as the world gets warmer, scientists say.
After getting 67% stronger in less than 22 hours from Monday to Tuesday, Ian is bearing down as a likely Category 4 hurricane that threatens to deliver a nightmare storm-surge to the Tampa Bay and southwest Florida regions.
Ian’s rapid intensification occurred after it traveled over Caribbean waters that are about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than normal, largely because of climate change. Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said the warm water creates “a lot more rocket fuel for the storm.”
Climate change has other effects. The build up of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels is making storms slower and wetter. It exacerbates deadly storm surges through sea-level rise, worsens freshwater flooding and increases the proportion of monster Category 4 and 5 storms, like Fiona last week, several studies show.
The current hurricane season had been uncharacteristically mild until about a week ago because of dry air in the Atlantic. Yet while storms aren’t necessarily more frequent, they are getting nastier because of global warming, experts say.
“In terms of impacts and climate change, yes, this season could be a harbinger of sort of what is to come,” said University of Albany hurricane scientist Kristen Corbosiero. “But it’s really hard to say that climate change has an impact on any one storm in terms of its formation or its individual intensity.”
The National Hurricane Center defines rapidly intensifying storms as those that gain at least 35 mph in wind speed in less than 24 hours. Sudden changes can cause major problems for forecasters and emergency planners trying to help residents get out of harm’s way.
In Ian’s case, the meteorological conditions were so obvious that forecasters were warning about it days in advance.
While hurricane seasons fluctuate year-to-year, when looked at over 10-year intervals, there are roughly 25% more rapidly intensifying storms in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific now than 40 years ago, according to an analysis of National Hurricane Center data by The Associated Press. From 2017 to 2021 there have been 30 rapidly intensifying storms in the Atlantic and 32 in the Eastern Pacific.
“That’s a staggering statistic,” said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate and hurricane scientist Jim Kossin, now with the private Climate Service, a risk analysis firm. “What used to be a very, very rare event obviously has not been rare lately.”
A new yet-to-be-published study in a peer-reviewed journal shows that as hurricanes near the coast — a danger point for people — storms are intensifying more quickly than ever before, said Karthik Balaguru, a Pacific Northwest National Lab climate scientist who conducted the study. “It’s more likely because of climate change,” he said.
As water gets warmer at ever deeper levels, the rapid intensification of tropical storms will only accelerate.
“We’re turning up the burner on a stove,” said Kossin.
More powerful hurricanes hold more moisture, which makes them more explosive in the form of torrential rains and storm surges, experts say.
As if that weren’t bad enough, research also shows that storms now tend to move more slowly, allowing them to dump more rain in one place, like 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Louisiana and Texas.
While Ian is expected to slow near the Florida coast and dump huge amounts of rain it is not expected to be near Harvey’s level of more than 50 inches.
As storms intensify more rapidly and more frequently, forecasters and emergency planners are given less time to help communities prepare for the worst.
Jefferson Parish, a region of 430,000 people west of New Orleans, got hit last year by Hurricane Ida. That storm’s winds went from 80 mph (130 kilometers per hour) to nearly 140 mph (220 kilometers per hour) in 24 hours, leaving little time to evacuate residents.
“Time in preparing for a storm is your complete ally,” said Joseph Valiente, the director of emergency management for Jefferson Parish.
Evacuating people ahead of big storms helps relieve the strain on city services, which ultimately helps a city recover faster, Valiente said.
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Data journalist Mary Katherine Wildman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut, and Rebecca Santana contributed from New Orleans.
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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | 2022-09-27T22:51:49+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/ap-hurricane-ian-gets-nasty-quickly-turbocharged-by-warm-water/ |
MERCED, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A 10-year-old boy died after a fight Thursday at a trampoline center in California’s Central Valley.
When reports first came out about the incident, officials said a boy, later identified as Anthony Duran, passed out while he was at the Rockin’ Jump trampoline center in Merced.
First responders performed CPR and Duran was transported to a regional trauma center. Duran was listed in critical condition. The Merced Police Department then announced on Monday that he had died.
An investigation has since revealed there was an altercation leading up to the boy passing out.
According to the police department, Duran was playing basketball inside the trampoline center when he and another child got into a fight. Police said Duran collapsed and the other kid ran away.
Investigators said the incident was captured on the business’s security video and statements were received from 35 people, including staff, parents, and children who were at the scene. They have also identified the other child involved in the fight and have been in contact with the parents.
The community of Merced gathered on Monday night for a prayer vigil in memory of Duran. There was a moment of silence and a balloon release in his memory. The family of Duran said there will be another vigil held sometime this week.
Meanwhile, detectives are working with medical staff and the Merced County Coroner’s Office to determine the cause of death. Police said they are reviewing the incident with the Merced County District Attorney to determine if charges will be filed against the other child involved in the fight. The other child has not been officially identified. | 2023-04-19T20:18:48+00:00 | wjhl.com | https://www.wjhl.com/news/national/10-year-old-dies-after-trampoline-center-fight-in-california/ |
(CNN) — US airlines just had one of the most lucrative quarters in history. Passengers are suffering for it.
The record revenue many airlines reported in April, May and June came via very high airfares and packed airplanes. A series of service disruptions caused by staffing shortages has made flying even worse.
In the second quarter, American Airlines, United, Delta and Southwest, which account for 80% of US air travel, earned a combined $2.8 billion. Sales jumped 10% from the same quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, to $46 billion, as demand for leisure travel surged.
The airlines reported record bookings in June for travel during the rest of the summer. But carriers are flying with fewer seats available than before the pandemic: capacity at the four largest airlines is down about 13% from three years ago.
That combination of very strong demand and limited availability sent fares soaring.
Soaring fares, canceled flights
The amount passengers paid to fly each mile on the big four carriers was up 19.3% in the second quarter compared to 2019. Another measure of fares that compares passenger revenue to capacity rose 22%.
But those increases don’t tell the whole story. Business and international travel hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. Those tickets typically cost much more than domestic airfare. Unlike previous years, when airlines could avoid some fare hikes for leisure travelers by jacking up tickets for business and international passengers, this year the bulk of fare increases are hitting domestic fliers.
“The leisure traveler is taking it on the chin right now and they’re willing to do so,” said Jim Corridore, senior insights manager for research firm Similarweb.
Service has become a massive problem as well.
About 134,000 US flights have been canceled so far this year, according to tracking service Flight Aware, more than twice as many as were canceled in the same period last year. That represents 2.6% of all scheduled flights so far this year.
Staffing shortage also hitting passengers
Airlines don’t have sufficient staff to recover when events like bad weather cause delays or flight crews max out the hours they’re allowed to work under federal safety regulations.
The shortage of pilots has also prompted airlines to stop or slash service to dozens of smaller markets, greatly limiting or even ending air service for many communities.
During the pandemic, carriers offered early retirement and other buyout packages to make voluntary reductions in staffing. All of them are still struggling to get operations back to normal as they scramble to hire and train the staff necessary to restore capacity.
“A lot of pilots retired. It’s not easy to replace them,” said Corridore. “It’s a long process, it’s still going to be a year or so to have the airlines have a full schedule that this level of demand will dictate.”
Complaints also soar
Passenger complaints to the Department of Transportation have soared to more than triple pre-pandemic levels.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Alex Padilla urged Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month to crack down on the airline industry.
The Department of Transportation announced new rules Wednesday that would require refunds if a flight is canceled or disrupted, including three-hour or longer delays on domestic flights, six-hour delays on international flights, a change in aircraft type or an increase in the number of connections on a trip.
But in a deregulated industry, there’s little Buttigieg can do about the fares themselves.
Mergers mean fewer choices
Many blame the consolidation in the industry over the last 20 years for the current state of travel. Today’s four dominant carriers were created from 10 airlines through a series of mergers. And another merger was just announced last week that many fear will once again lead to higher prices.
Spirit, a pioneer in offering very low base fares which are then supplemented by fees for all manner of extras, had put pressure on the bigger airlines to offer similar frill-free seats at a lower price.
But Spirit recently agreed to be purchased by JetBlue Airways for $3.8 billion in cash. The combination will form the country’s fifth largest airline, which JetBlue says will create more competition among its four larger rivals. But other experts say the loss of Spirit, if the merger is approved, can only mean higher fares down the road.
“Fares are likely to rise if a disruptive price competitor is going away,” Corridore said. | 2022-08-04T18:53:08+00:00 | wishtv.com | https://www.wishtv.com/news/national/this-is-a-great-time-to-be-an-airline-its-the-worst-time-to-be-a-passenger/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday convicted a Confederate flag-toting man and his son of charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol together during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden delivered the verdict from the bench after hearing two days of testimony without a jury for the trial of Kevin Seefried and his adult son, Hunter.
McFadden convicted both Delaware men of a felony count: obstruction of an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College that day.
The judge also convicted the Seefrieds of misdemeanor charges that they engaged in disorderly conduct and illegally demonstrated inside the building. But he acquitted Hunter Seefried of other misdemeanor charges for clearing a shard of glass from a broken window at the Capitol.
They will remain free pending separate sentencing hearings in September.
McFadden, whom President Donald Trump nominated for the court in 2017, presided over two previous bench trials for Capitol riot defendants. He acquitted one of all charges and partially acquitted another.
Widely published photographs showed Kevin Seefried carrying a Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol after he and Hunter Seefried, then 22, entered the building through a broken window.
McFadden rejected the defense argument that Kevin Seefried never intended to interfere with the congressional proceedings.
“I find that he knew what he was doing,” McFadden said.
The judge described Kevin Seefreid as the “prime mover” in their decision to go to Washington on Jan. 6. McFadden said Hunter Seefried’s guilt on the obstruction charge was a “closer question,” but the judge ultimately concluded that the son engaged in “aggravated conduct” that supported a conviction.
“Hunter Seefried showed a pattern of deception and minimization of his actions” when an FBI agent interviewed him after the riot, McFadden said.
FBI agents said they did not find any evidence linking Kevin Seefried or his son to any far-right extremist groups. Kevin Seefried told an agent that he did not view the Confederate flag as a symbol of racist hate.
The trial included the first public testimony of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who has been lauded for his bravery during the Jan. 6 attack by a mob of Trump supporters. Goodman led a group of rioters away from the Senate chamber as senators and then-Vice President Mike Pence were being evacuated. He also directed Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to turn around and head away from the mob.
Goodman encountered Kevin Seefried before the mob chased the officer up a set of stairs, a harrowing episode captured on video. The officer said the elder Seefried cursed at him and jabbed at him with the base end of his flagpole three or four times without making contact with him.
Another Capitol police officer who confronted the mob near the Senate chamber recalled that Kevin Seefried asked, “Why are you protecting them?”
“I assumed he was talking about Congress,” Officer Brian Morgan testified.
The Seefrieds were not charged with assaulting any officers.
Neither defendant testified at their trial.
The father and son traveled to Washington from their home in Laurel, Delaware, to hear Trump’s speech at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. They were among the first rioters to approach the building near the Senate Wing Door, according to prosecutors.
After watching other rioters use a police shield and a wooden plank to break a window, Hunter Seefried used a gloved fist to clear a shard of glass in one of the broken windowpanes, prosecutors said. But the judge found that two other rioters had destroyed the window before Seefried cleared the shard.
McFadden convicted the Seefrieds of four misdemeanor charges: entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
The judge acquitted Hunter Seefried of three other misdemeanor counts: destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with physical violence against property, and acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or building.
The Seefrieds, who waived their right to jury trial, were the first Capitol riot defendants to get a bench trial on a felony charge.
In April, McFadden acquitted New Mexico resident Matthew Martin of misdemeanor charges that he illegally entered the Capitol and engaged in disorderly conduct after he walked into the building.
In March, McFadden acquitted a New Mexico elected official, Couy Griffin, of engaging in disorderly conduct but convicted him of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds. McFadden is scheduled to sentence Griffin on Friday.
Also on Wednesday, a bench trial concluded for Jesus Rivera, a Pensacola, Florida, man charged with four riot-related misdemeanors. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she intends to issue a written verdict later this week, according to Guy Womack, an attorney for Rivera.
McFadden has criticized prosecutors’ handling of Capitol riot cases. He suggested that the Justice Department has been unjustly tougher on Capitol riot defendants compared with people arrested at protests against police brutality and racial injustice after George Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer.
More than 800 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Juries have unanimously convicted five Capitol riot defendants of all charges. More than 300 other defendants have pleaded guilty to riot offenses, mostly misdemeanors. Approximately 100 others have trial dates in 2022 or 2023. | 2022-06-16T14:32:37+00:00 | localsyr.com | https://www.localsyr.com/news/politics/confederate-flag-toting-man-son-convicted-in-capitol-riot/ |
IRS considers free tax filing
Published: May. 16, 2023 at 6:56 AM CDT|Updated: 28 minutes ago
(CNN) - The U.S. government is considering its own free tax-filing system.
This week, the Internal Revenue Service is set to release a report on a feasibility study it conducted on the issue.
It looked at whether the IRS could create a service to prepare and submit taxes directly to the government at no cost.
The system would be funded by the $80 billion the agency received from the Inflation Reduction Act.
But it is facing backlash from business groups, who fear this would diminish companies like H&R Block and TurboTax.
Republicans also argue the plan would give even more power to the IRS against ordinary taxpayers.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-16T12:25:02+00:00 | kcbd.com | https://www.kcbd.com/2023/05/16/irs-considers-free-tax-filing/ |
TAMPA, Fla. — "Hey, Hey! Tampa Bay!" — it's almost time for NFL football. Training camp for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is underway, with their season opener slated for Sept. 10 against the Minnesota Vikings.
But Bucs fans don't have to wait even that long to support the team and feel the excitement of the new season thanks to "Creamsicle Day," a brand-new official holiday celebrated in Tampa.
It all kicks off on Aug. 14 when Mayor Jane Castor attends training camp at One Buccaneer Place, helping to launch the day's festivities. That morning, fans will be able to attend the team's final open training camp practice. You'll need to buy a ticket to attend. And, the first 2,500 fans will get a free creamsicle-themed flag.
People can also hang out with the Bucs' beloved former mascot Bucco Bruce, something that hasn't happened since 2012.
Fans who attend practice to cheer on the Bucs will also have early access to buy new creamsicle merchandise.
But don't worry if you can't make it to Bucs practice — at 11 a.m. on Aug. 14, the new merchandise will be released online.
All of this is in advance of the return of the Buccaneers' iconic creamsicle uniforms, which will debut on Oct. 15 during a match-up against the Detroit Lions. The revival of the iconic jerseys isn't just random — it's supposedly part of a larger celebration of the club as a nearly 50-year-old institution in the Tampa Bay area.
The return of the team's distinct colors "has our fans excited and energized, so we are taking this opportunity to partner with Mayor Castor and the City of Tampa to celebrate Creamsicle Day in grand fashion on August 14th," Buccaneers COO Brian Ford said in a statement.
The celebrations for "Creamsicle Day" extend beyond One Buccaneer Place.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., Armature Works will celebrate "everything orange" with appearances from Buccaneers Cheer, Bucco Bruce and the Buc Beat Line. Tailgate-style games and photo opportunities with Buccaneers Legends will be on the docket in addition to themed food and drinks from Armature Works vendors.
Once it gets dark, Tampa's skyline and Raymond James Stadium will light up orange to celebrate the Bucs.
Then at 8:30 p.m., the night concludes with a special Creamsicle Fireworks Show.
“It will be a daylong celebration of everything orange throughout the city starting with our training camp practice in the morning and ending with a great fireworks display against the backdrop of an orange downtown skyline at Armature Works in the evening," Ford continued. "We look forward to joining our great fans and corporate partners to make this the first of many memorable Creamsicle Day celebrations to come.” | 2023-07-31T16:27:50+00:00 | wtsp.com | https://www.wtsp.com/article/sports/nfl/buccaneers/tampa-creamsicle-day-tampa-bay-buccaneers-aug-14/67-3f58a676-41f2-4d47-9126-35a007e42cd5 |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City police are working to quickly prepare evidence for the Clay County prosecutor in the shooting of a Black teenager while trying to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house Thursday.
“I want everyone to know that I am listening,” Police Chief Stacey Graves said Sunday at a news conference at Kansas City police headquarters downtown, “and I understand the concern we are receiving from the community.”
The Kansas City Star reported the 16-year-old boy, who family members have identified online as Ralph Yarl, was hospitalized Thursday night after he was shot while trying to pick up his younger twin brothers. Police said he went to the wrong house and was shot there.
Officials would not confirm the number of times the homeowner shot the victim or where his injuries were.
Police have not identified the shooter or his race. Information that officials have now does not point to the crime being racially motivated, but Graves said that aspect also remains under investigation.
Investigators also will consider whether or not the suspect was protected within the Stand Your Ground laws, Graves said.
Police initially said Yarl was in stable condition but had a life-threatening injury. His current condition has not been released, other than he is stable.
Graves said Sunday that the homeowner who allegedly shot the teen was taken into custody Thursday and placed on a 24-hour hold. While searching the scene for evidence, detectives found the firearm allegedly used. Law enforcement released the suspect pending further investigation after consulting with the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office.
Missouri law allows a person to be held up to 24 hours for a felony investigation. At that point, the person must be released or arrested and formally charged. In order to arrest someone, law enforcement needs a formal victim statement, forensic evidence and other information for a case file to be completed, Graves said.
Because of the teen’s injuries, Graves said police haven’t been able to get a victim statement.
Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended the news conference, said the police department understands the community’s concern that the shooting could be racially motivated. He said some members of the police department attended Sunday’s protest in the neighborhood where the shooting took place to listen to community members’ concerns.
“This is not something that has been dismissed, marginalized or diminished in any way. This is something that is getting the full attention of the Kansas City Police Department,” Lucas said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump told The Star on Sunday that his Florida-based law firm has been retained by the teen’s family.
“You can’t just shoot people without having justification when somebody comes knocking on your door and knocking on your door is not justification. This guy should be charged,” Crump said.
Crump has represented the families in several high-profile cases including Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, as well as Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
He said the homeowner initially shot the teen in the head and then a second time after the boy fell to the ground. The family also has retained Lee Merritt, a Texas-based civil rights attorney who has previously represented the family of Cameron Lamb, who was fatally shot by KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere in 2019.
Crump said based on what he was told by the teen’s family, the shooter is white.
“It is inescapable not to acknowledge the racial dynamics at play,” he said.
Yarl was meant to pick up his brothers from a friend’s house on 115th Terrace. He ended up ringing the doorbell at a home on 115th Street, Faith Spoonmore, the teen’s aunt, wrote online.
A man opened the door, saw Yarl and shot him in the head. When Yarl fell to the ground, the man shot him again. Yarl got up and ran from the property, but he had to ask at three different homes before someone helped him, Spoonmore said.
Kansas City police officers said they responded to the area around 10 p.m.
“Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally,” Spoonmore wrote in a GoFundMe she started to raise money for Yarl’s medical bills and other expenses. | 2023-04-17T11:12:57+00:00 | ktalnews.com | https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/kansas-city-police-probe-of-teens-shooting-moving-quickly/ |
BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AGNC Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: AGNC) ("AGNC" or the "Company") announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.12 per share of common stock for September 2022. The dividend is payable on October 12, 2022 to common stockholders of record as of September 30, 2022.
For further information or questions, please contact Investor Relations at (301) 968-9300 or IR@AGNC.com.
ABOUT AGNC INVESTMENT CORP.
AGNC Investment Corp. is an internally-managed real estate investment trust that invests primarily in residential mortgage-backed securities for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a U.S. Government-sponsored enterprise or a U.S. Government agency. For further information, please refer to www.AGNC.com.
CONTACT:
Investor Relations - (301) 968-9300
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SOURCE AGNC Investment Corp. | 2022-09-14T20:51:57+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/09/14/agnc-investment-corp-declares-monthly-common-stock-dividend-012-per-common-share-september-2022/ |
On Monday morning, White House press secretary Jen Psaki sent out a 42-word tweet.
The Twitter missive was unremarkable — President Biden and his team have long denounced violence at protests — but for the fact that it seemed penned in response to recent abortion rights demonstrations, an attempt to head off what Republicans are trying to weaponize as a political issue.
After a leaked draft opinion one week ago indicated that the Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion rights supporters have organized protests at the homes of some of the conservative Supreme Court justices, and the headquarters of an antiabortion group in Madison, Wis., was vandalized.
Two molotov cocktails were found inside the headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action, which was set on fire Sunday, as well as defaced with graffiti reading, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either.” The same evening, two molotov cocktails were thrown at the Oregon Right to Life office in a suburb of Salem, and last week, two Catholic churches in Colorado, including one known for its antiabortion stance, were vandalized.
Republicans were quick to pounce, with GOP lawmakers sending more than a dozen tweets attacking Biden and Democrats and calling on them to condemn the abortion rights demonstrators.
“Joe Biden should call on his supporters to stand down,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote in a tweet. “Stop burning prolife offices, stop threatening violence against Supreme Court Justices. These are Biden’s people. Do something about it.”
Many Democrats and abortion rights activists say the complaints are a willful distraction from the real issue — that the high court seems poised to roll back rights that have been in place for a half-century. Disruptive abortion rights demonstrations have been minimal, they add, especially in comparison to the hostile demonstrations that targeted abortion clinics for decades.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Tuesday he was comfortable with activists demonstrating outside the justices’ homes, as long as they are not violent. “If protests are peaceful, yes,” Schumer said. “There’s protests three or four times a week outside my house. That’s the American way.”
But Republicans have seized on the issue. Some are even implicitly comparing the demonstrations to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which resulted in numerous injuries, several deaths and significant damage.
“Will the DOJ be issuing arrest warrants for abortion protesters trying to intimidate Justices to change their minds on overturning Roe?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted, referring to the Department of Justice. “Do laws matter anymore or just politics?”
A White House official said that Psaki’s tweet was in line with Biden’s long-held position condemning violence of any sort, including after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by a White Minneapolis police officer.
In the days after Floyd’s death, as violent protests erupted across the nation, Biden repeatedly called for calm. “This is no time for incendiary tweets,” Biden said. “It’s no time to encourage violence.”
While Democrats dismissed the Republican complaints as disingenuous, a person familiar with the White House’s thinking said that there is potential risk if the abortion rights demonstrations do turn violent, or if there is a marked uptick in vandalism targeting antiabortion groups and organizations.
Democrats hope the draft opinion — and the expected final opinion in the coming weeks — will galvanize voters to turn out for the midterms and back their candidates. But if the passion turns violent, it could backfire, this person said.
Already, a fence surrounds the Supreme Court, in anticipation of protests of the court’s decisions before its work is completed sometime this summer, in late June or early July. There was also enhanced security last week at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, a gathering of judges and lawyers where Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas spoke.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the author of the draft opinion, canceled an appearance last week at a different conference, and his planned appearance at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University has been turned into a virtual event.
Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) introduced legislation this week that would expand security protection to Supreme Court justices’ family members, and it quickly passed the Senate. In Maryland, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan announced that he is ordering state law enforcement to help protect the homes of the justices who live in Maryland.
For now, most Democratic strategists and operatives say they are not worried about political blowback from Republicans seizing on what are so far isolated incidents and peaceful, if sometimes raucous, demonstrations at justices’ homes.
“Let’s just be real about what’s important and what’s not,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone.
“If you are a pro-choice suburban woman, or you are a non-college-educated woman, White or Black, if you are distressed about what is about to happen, there is not going to be much of anything that’s going to get in the way of you being distressed,” added Anzalone, who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign. “They’re taking away an incredibly important right that could criminalize your behavior and potentially lead to people’s deaths.”
Sonja Spoo, director of reproductive rights campaigns for UltraViolet, a gender justice advocacy group, argued that Democratic leaders should focus on the threat of abortion rights being taken away — and added that the antiabortion movement has regularly employed threatening and violent tactics.
“I would ask that Democratic leaders focus on the violence that’s already being inflicted on abortion providers and people seeking abortions in Republican-controlled states, and of course the people who ultimately can’t access care as their health and lives are being targeted right now,” Spoo said.
According to the Justice Department’s National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers, 10 people employed by abortion clinics as doctors, staffers or patient or doctor escorts have been killed in antiabortion incidents since 1993, and several others have suffered life-threatening injuries.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign, said that Republicans are playing a “twofer” game. First, by trying to gin up outsize outrage over protests, she said, “they are trying to distract from their really, really out of the mainstream position.”
Second, Lake said, the GOP is bracing for the report of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Republicans “know they’re about to have a major accusation that Trump Republicans were supportive of violence” and are trying to “inoculate” themselves, she said.
Some Democrats said they welcome the demonstrations as a reflection of an impassioned base willing to fight for Democratic candidates who support abortion rights. The leaked draft opinion prompted American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research and rapid response group, to accelerate plans to focus on abortion.
The group rushed to finish a website that details positions taken on abortion by Republican candidates and officeholders in key states. The site, which went live Tuesday, includes detailed dossiers of public positions that candidates have taken over the years, including quotes from news interviews and social media. One aim is to highlight any suggestions by candidates that women might be arrested for getting abortions, or doctors imprisoned for performing them.
“For years, many Republican candidates and officeholders have thrown out these platitudes about their position on abortion, but they’ve really never been held to account for the impact on women and pregnant people,” said Cecile Richards, a co-chair at American Bridge and former president of Planned Parenthood.
Richard said she is not worried that the information will cause activists to improperly target antiabortion figures.
“The rhetoric and the incendiary activity has, to me, been part of the antiabortion movement,” she said. “We are simply trying to hold candidates and elected officials accountable for the positions they take.”
The group will put “six figures” toward promoting the site, according to Tiffany Vaughn, a spokeswoman for American Bridge. The money will be redirected from the $100 million the group unveiled in February to bolster Democrats in the midterm elections and defend Biden’s record more broadly.
Republicans continue to suggest that there is a rash of violent protest across the country.
“Attacking and threatening pro-life people because they value children — just think about that,” tweeted Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla). “The disruption at churches, pregnancy resource centers, and threats of violence against justices cannot continue.”
But Psaki on Tuesday reiterated the administration’s message that protests should remain peaceful, and suggested they generally are. “Just because people are passionate, that does not mean they are violent,” she said.
Over the weekend, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called the police after an abortion rights message was written in sidewalk chalk in front of her house in Bangor, Maine.
Asked for a response to Collins’s decision to call the police, Psaki said, “Even as passions are high, even as people are fearful, even as people are scared and frustrated, which is understandable, we should not — no one should resort to violence, of course, nor threats nor intimidation nor vandalism.”
Pressed on whether she considers sidewalk chalk vandalism, Psaki declined to comment. “I’ll let others define that, but there are lots of ways to peacefully protest,” she said.
Robert Barnes and Alice Crites contributed to this report. | 2022-05-10T22:40:21+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/10/democrats-caution-prochoice-protestors-violence/ |
(AP) — The head of the private military contractor Wagner called Friday for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He has previously bashed the country’s military leadership for failures in the war in Ukraine, and is known for his long-running feud with the Defense Ministry.
A look at the 62-year-old Prigozhin and Wagner’s role in the war:
WHAT DID PRIGOZHIN SAY?
Prigozhin posted a series of angry video and audio recordings in which he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike Friday on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine, where his troops are fighting on behalf of Russia.
Prigozhin said his troops would now punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to offer resistance.
“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” Prigozhin declared.
The Defense Ministry denied carrying out the rocket attack.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, said he would be investigated on charges of calling for an armed rebellion.
The FSB urged Wagner’s contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to follow his “criminal and treacherous orders.” It called his statements a “stab in the back to Russian troops” and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia.
Riot police and the National Guard have been scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, Tass reported.
WHAT’S PRIGOZHIN’S BACKGROUND?
Prigozhin was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Following his release, he opened a restaurant business in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. It was in this capacity that he got to know now-President Vladimir Putin, then the city’s deputy mayor.
Prigozhin used that connection to develop a catering business and won lucrative Russian government contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” He later expanded into other areas, including media and an infamous internet “troll factory” that led to his indictment in the U.S. for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In January, Prigozhin acknowledged founding, leading and financing the shadowy Wagner company.
WHERE HAS WAGNER OPERATED?
Wagner was first seen in action in eastern Ukraine soon after a separatist conflict erupted there in April 2014, in the weeks following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
While backing the separatist insurgency in the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Russia denied sending its own weapons and troops there despite ample evidence to the contrary. Engaging private contractors in the fighting allowed Moscow to maintain a degree of deniability.
Prigozhin’s company was called Wagner after the nickname of its first commander, Dmitry Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian military’s special forces. It soon established a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness.
Wagner personnel also deployed to Syria, where Russia supported President Bashar Assad’s government in a civil war. In Libya, they fought alongside forces of commander Khalifa Hifter. The group has also operated in the Central African Republic and Mali.
Prigozhin has reportedly used Wagner’s deployment to Syria and African countries to secure lucrative mining contracts. U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said in January the company was using its access to gold and other resources in Africa to fund operations in Ukraine.
Some Russian media alleged that Wagner was involved in the 2018 killings of three Russian journalists in Central African Republic who were investigating the group’s activities. The slayings remain unsolved.
WHAT IS WAGNER’S REPUTATION?
Western countries and U.N. experts have accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
In 2021, the European Union accused the group of “serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings,” and of carrying out “destabilizing activities” in Central African Republic, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.
Video has surfaced purporting to show some of the activities that have contributed to Wagner’s fearsome reputation.
A 2017 online video showed a group of armed people, reportedly Wagner contractors, torturing a Syrian and beating him to death with a sledgehammer before mutilating and burning his body. Russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigate.
In 2022, another video showed a former Wagner contractor beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the Ukrainian side and was repatriated. Despite public outrage and demands for an investigation, the Kremlin turned a blind eye.
WHAT’S WAGNER’S ROLE IN UKRAINE?
Wagner took an increasingly visible role in the war as regular Russian troops suffered heavy attrition and lost territory in humiliating setbacks.
Prigozhin toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, promising pardons if they survived a half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner.
In the interview in May, he said he had recruited 50,000 convicts, about 10,000 of whom where killed in Bakhmut; a similar number of his own fighters have died there.
He said he had 50,000 men at his disposal “in the best times,” with about 35,000 on the front lines at all times. He didn’t say whether these numbers included convicts.
The U.S. has estimated Wagner had about 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. A U.S. official says nearly half of the 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since December have been Wagner’s troops in Bakhmut.
The U.S. assesses that Wagner is spending about $100 million a month in the fight. In December, Washington accused North Korea of supplying weapons, including rockets and missiles, to the Russian company in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Both Wagner and North Korea denied the reports.
HOW HAS PRIGOZHIN CRITICIZED RUSSIA’S MILITARY?
If the U.S. accusation is true, Wagner’s reach for North Korean weapons may reflect its long-running dispute with the Russian military leadership, which dates to the company’s creation.
Prigozhin claimed full credit in January for capturing the Donetsk region salt-mining town of Soledar in Ukraine and accused the Russian Defense Ministry of trying to steal Wagner’s glory. He has repeatedly complained the Russian military failed to supply Wagner with sufficient ammunition to capture Bakhmut and threatened to pull out his men.
Troops purported to be Wagner contractors in Ukraine recorded a video in which they showered the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, with curses and accusations of failing to provide ammunition.
Prigozhin also has singled out Shoigu for withering criticism while accusing Russian military leaders of incompetence. His frequent complaints are unprecedented for Russia’s tightly controlled political system, in which only Putin could air such criticism.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said last month that Prigozhin’s remarks critical of the war “could be a sort of morbid way of him … claiming credit for whatever they’ve been able to achieve in Bakhmut, but also trying to publicly embarrass the Ministry of Defense further that the cost was borne in blood and treasure by Wagner, and not by the Russian military.”
Once a shadowy figure, Prigozhin has increasingly raised his public profile, boasting almost daily about Wagner’s purported victories, sardonically mocking his enemies and complaining about the military brass.
Asked recently about a media comparison of him with Grigory Rasputin, a mystic who gained fatal influence over Russia’s last czar by claiming to have the power to cure his son’s hemophilia, Prigozhin snapped, “I don’t stop blood, but I spill blood of the enemies of our Motherland.” | 2023-06-24T00:51:25+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/national/who-is-the-head-of-the-mercenary-group-calling-for-an-armed-rebellion-in-russia/ |
Updated July 6, 2023 at 2:42 PM ET
U.S. officials tell NPR that the Biden administration plans to send cluster bombs, or munitions, to Ukraine to target dug-in Russian forces. An announcement is expected tomorrow.
The controversial weapons drop dozens of bomblets that human rights groups say endanger civilians.
Ukraine and Russia are already using cluster munitions on the battlefield, but Ukraine is running low on ammunition and has pressed the U.S. to send such weapons.
Officials say the cluster bombs will be effective against Russian forces in strong defensive positions as well as command and control headquarters.
More than 100 countries ban such weapons because unexploded bomblets can be picked up by civilians, causing injury or death. Cluster bombs release a larger number of bomblets over a wide area, and they can continue to pose a deadly risk even long after the fighting has ceased.
The U.S. has a large stockpile of cluster munitions and used them in both the Afghan and Iraq wars.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-07-06T19:34:44+00:00 | wyomingpublicmedia.org | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2023-07-06/u-s-is-expected-to-announce-it-will-send-cluster-munitions-to-ukraine |
NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Moore Kuehn, PLLC, a securities and shareholder law firm located on Wall Street, is investigating potential claims against:
- Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY)
***Contact fmoore@moorekuehn.com only if you acquired shares before March 25, 2022
Moore Kuehn is investigating Bed Bath & Beyond insiders after insiders profited at least $110 million from their Insider stock sales from August 16 to August 17, 2022.
On March 6, 2022, through his investment firm RC Ventures LLC, Ryan Cohen sent a letter to Bed Bath & Beyond's board which announced that he owned a 9.8% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond and in which he criticized the Company's management. On March 25, 2022, Bed Bath & Beyond added three new directors appointed by Ryan Cohen's investment firm, RC Ventures LLC.
On August 15, 2022, Ryan Cohen, through RC Ventures LLC, announced in an SEC filing purchases of over one million January 2023 call options with exercise prices at $60, $75, and $80—significantly higher than Bed Bath & Beyond shares were trading. On August 18, 2022, Ryan Cohen, through RC Ventures LLC, announced that he would sell his entire stake in Bed Bath & Beyond.
On this news, Bed Bath & Beyond shares fell $4.53 per share, or 19%, to close at $18.55 per share on August 18, 2022. Bed Bath & Beyond shares continued to drop on August 19, 2022, falling $7.52 per share, or 40%, from its August 18, 2022 close, to close at $11.03 per share. On August 19, 2022, Bed Bath & Beyond stock plunged to a new low of $9.68.
The stock price continued to decline over the next two trading days, falling an additional 16.23% on August 22, 2022, and falling another 4.98% on August 23, 2022, dropping over 70% from August 17's high price in five trading days after the insider stock sales.
If you still own Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. or BBBY please contact Fletcher Moore, Esq. by email at fmoore@moorekuehn.com or telephone at (212) 709-8245.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Moore Kuehn, PLLC
Fletcher Moore, Esq.
30 Wall Street, 8th Floor
New York, New York 10005
fmoore@moorekuehn.com
(212) 709-8245
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SOURCE Moore Kuehn, PLLC | 2022-08-31T09:03:50+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/31/moore-kuehn-encourages-investors-bed-bath-amp-beyond-inc-contact-law-firm/ |
Gareld "Gary" Warner Gunderson — 2-4 p.m. at Terra Sancta Retreat Center in Rapid City
Marie E. Lattimer — 10 a.m. at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Rapid City
Thomas McGlade — 1 p.m. at Black Hills Baptist Church in Whitewood
Mary Mead — 1:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church in Rapid City
Steve Nicholls — 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Newcastle, Wyo.
Naomi A. Rosenkranz — 10 a.m. at Evening Light Tabernacle in Rapid City
Mike Struble — 1:30 p.m. at City Auditorium in Kadoka
John Clarence Ward — 2 p.m. at Kirk Funeral Home in Rapid City | 2023-05-26T21:27:21+00:00 | rapidcityjournal.com | https://rapidcityjournal.com/obits/services-for-may-27/article_3d7bfbc8-fc05-11ed-8922-d32c6d4e620a.html |
It’s never been just about wins for Mikaela Shiffrin.
Not when she didn’t win any of her five individual races at last year’s Beijing Olympics.
And not during her current five-race winning streak.
Even when her next victory will tie her with Lindsey Vonn for the women’s World Cup record at 82 wins apiece.
“She’s a great process-oriented person,” U.S. ski team women’s head coach Paul Kristofic said. “There’s a lot of media attention around records right now but that’s honestly not really the motivating factor every day when she goes to race.
“It’s about trying to execute as well as she possibly can, ski as well as she possibly can and we know that when she’s able to do that the results are there.”
With two giant slaloms scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Shiffrin has a chance to both match and surpass Vonn’s mark this weekend. Then she can take aim at the overall record — between men and women — of 86 wins set by Ingemark Stenmark.
At age 27, Shiffrin might be in the best form of her career, which is saying a lot for a racer with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals (from 2014 and 2018) and six golds at world championships.
Even she acknowledges that she has been displaying her “best skiing” lately.
“I am so happy and proud and thankful for that, because it feels so good,” she said after victory No. 81 on Wednesday in a slalom in Zagreb, Croatia. “And it’s a reminder at this point, after 81 victories, that I can really, really enjoy skiing when I’m skiing like that.”
It’s been quite a contrast from her performance in Beijing last winter, when Shiffrin entered amid huge expectations and came away with three DNFs, a top individual finish of ninth and nary a medal.
“Her coping strategy for when there are difficult days has improved over time, having gone through some tough times,” Kristofic said in a phone interview Friday as he drove to the races in Slovenia. “That’s the luxury of experience and perspective.
“These things happen to pretty much every ski racer where you have one bad moment, and how do you manage that so you can rebound and be focused on the right things to really make positive improvements?” added Kristofic, who also coached Vonn at the end of her career. “Maturity comes with some experience and she’s had plenty of those experiences and she’s learned from all of them.”
With seven wins across three different disciplines in 13 races this season, Shiffrin has been on another level this season even by her lofty standards.
“For my coaches, for the whole team around me, they see it in training. It’s exciting in training but, in the end, everybody is hopeful that I’m going to put it into a race and the last five races it’s been a different kind of level,” Shiffrin said.
“You can’t put a meaning on the number but right now I feel like I’m just riding a wave and I’m going to ride it until it’s over, because the only thing I can really guarantee is that at some point it ends and I’ll have to be the one who takes the defeat.”
___
Andrew Dampf is at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf
___
More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-01-07T05:48:57+00:00 | pahomepage.com | https://www.pahomepage.com/sports/ap-shiffrin-focusing-on-the-process-as-she-nears-vonns-record/ |
Letter: Fall book sale a big success
Published 8:30 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Thank you to everybody who made the Friends of the Albert Lea Public Library Fall Book Sale a big success. We raised $1,700 from sales of books and memberships. The proceeds, along with donations and Fountain Lake Bookstore sales, support extra programs and supplies for adults and children at the Albert Lea Public Library.
Special thanks to Janelle VanEngelenburg from Freeborn County and her Sentence to Serve crew for their help setting up the books for display and removing them from the tables the last day. Thanks to the many Friends volunteers for their work on behalf of this event, conducting sales, keeping books organized, helping with the many tasks required during the sale. A thank you to Ken Bertelson, who puts up our sale posters around town and continues to furnish delicious homemade treats for volunteers helping at the sale. In addition, thank you to the Albert Lea Engineering Department for making the garage available. Posters and bookmarks were made by library staff member Trish Whelan, and we thank her. A big thank you to Annice Sevett, library director, for her management of our promotional materials and placement of our ads and online promotions, helping us bring many shoppers to the sale. We are grateful for continuing generous donations of books in good, clean condition from area residents, which can be placed in the blue bin at the bottom of the City Hall stairway.
Now in its 15th year, the Fountain Lake Bookstore is open year-round in the lower level of City Hall and staffed by volunteers Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. When not staffed, books can be purchased using the payment box near the desk.
We hope to see you at our 2023 spring sale.
Marilyn Rahn
Friends of the Albert Lea Public Library | 2022-11-09T22:45:02+00:00 | albertleatribune.com | https://www.albertleatribune.com/2022/11/letter-fall-book-sale-a-big-success-3/ |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Daily Pick 4" game were:
6-3-5-6
(six, three, five, six)
¶ Maximum prize: $500
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Daily Pick 4" game were:
6-3-5-6
(six, three, five, six)
¶ Maximum prize: $500 | 2022-08-09T07:27:28+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-Pick-4-game-17360685.php |
"Students with Drive" Campaign Launches to Support Mission-Driven College Leaders
BOSTON, Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zipcar, the world's leading car-sharing network and the largest campus car-sharing provider, today announced its signature Students with Drive campaign to support the next generation of mission-driven leaders. Access to Zipcar's car-sharing service on campus has introduced Gen Z - community-minded, conscious consumers – to sustainable transportation. Now, through Students with Drive, Zipcar is empowering young trailblazers to sustainably live their missions and impact their communities.
"Today's college students are immensely passionate about making a meaningful social and environmental difference in the world," said Kate Smith, who oversees Zipcar's University relationships as Head of Business to Business and Partnerships. "At Zipcar, we want to introduce students to the concept of car-sharing and its impact. We know this generation wants to fuel change, especially when it comes to environmentally sustainable choices and community building. Zipcar's Students with Drive helps support the influential efforts of Gen Z across the nation."
Students with Drive Fuel Change
Students with Drive first launched in October 2011 to support student organizations who need access to transportation to move their mission forward. Since then, Zipcar has given more than one million dollars in funding to empower 400 student groups across the country. This year, the Grand Prize will consist of $5,000 to the student organization, $5,000 to the University general scholarship fund and $2,000 for the student organization to access Zipcars, with tiered prizes for second through tenth place.
Interested student organizations who have Zipcars on or around campus should enter by October 31, 2022, by submitting a questionnaire that addresses their mission and how Zipcar can drive it further. A panel of judges will review the submissions, and the top 10 entrants will receive $300 in Zipcar Driving Credit and a $500 gift card to create a video demonstrating how the student organization will address its mission with the help of Zipcar. Videos must be submitted by February 16, 2023 and will be voted on via Zipcar and social media. Winners will be notified and announced in the spring of 2023. For Official Rules and to enter, visit http://www.zipcar.com/swd.
About Zipcar for Universities
Since 2001, Zipcar has brought hundreds of campuses convenient, affordable, and reliable access to cars while also reducing traffic, CO2 emissions, and campus congestion. Recent research highlights the value of on-campus car-sharing, with 73% of university members (students, faculty, and staff) stating Zipcar car-sharing improves their quality of life. 1 When it comes to freedom, financial independence, and control, University members agree, car-sharing:
- Gives them the opportunity to be independent and be themselves (71%)
- Allows them to experience as many things as possible (69%)
- Enables them able to reach important places like work and school affordably (45%)
- Provides them financial freedom and control (43%)
For over twenty years, Zipcar has been a critical component of campus transportation and sustainability initiatives. Zipcar provides students, faculty, and staff, access to Zipcars to pursue off-campus activities and community initiatives, enriching the student life experience and supporting a university's impact on the community. Today, Zipcar enables campus communities across the nation to drive on-demand with gas, insurance options, dedicated parking, maintenance and up to 180 miles a day included in the cost of a reservation. To learn more, visit www.zipcar.com/universities.
About Zipcar
Zipcar is the world's leading car-sharing network, driven by a mission to enable simple and responsible urban living. With its wide variety of self-service vehicles available by the hour, day or week, Zipcar operates in urban areas and university campuses in hundreds of cities, towns, and universities. Zipcar is a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAR), a leading global provider of transportation solutions. More information is available at www.zipcar.com.
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SOURCE Zipcar | 2022-09-21T16:51:53+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/09/21/zipcar-largest-campus-car-sharing-provider-invests-gen-zs-drive-impact-community/ |
SAN ANTONIO – AT&T Inc. has agreed to extend its naming rights deal for the San Antonio Spurs’ home arena just days before the NBA team is set to tip off its 50th season in the Alamo City.
In a move that may come as a surprise to some, the Dallas-based telecom giant will extend the deal to attach its brand to the Bexar County venue through the 2022-2023 season, according to a source familiar with the deal.
Financial terms of the extension were not disclosed.
The original naming-rights deal for the East Side arena was struck in 2002 — before SBC rebranded as AT&T (NYSE: T) and later moved its headquarters from San Antonio to North Texas. That 20-year agreement paid out approximately $41 million.
Ricard Jenson, a professor at UTSA specializing in sports marketing and management, told me prior to confirmation that AT&T was extending its agreement that there could be suitors interested in a shorter-term contract.
“What I could see happening is more of a short-term deal, maybe something for five or 10 years,” he said.
In July 2021, AT&T confirmed that it had sold the company’s ownership stake in the Spurs for an undisclosed amount.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.
Click here to read the full story in the San Antonio Business Journal. | 2022-10-13T17:53:35+00:00 | ksat.com | https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/10/13/att-to-extend-naming-rights-for-spurs-arena/ |
NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wix.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: WIX), today released registration information for Wix's conference call discussing the results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 before the market opens on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. Management will host a conference call and webcast that morning at 8:30 a.m. ET to answer questions about the Company's financial results. Prior to the conference call and webcast, Wix will issue a press release reporting these results along with a shareholder update and additional materials at https://investors.wix.com/.
About Wix.com Ltd.
Wix is a leading platform to create, manage and grow a digital presence. What began as a website builder in 2006 is now a complete platform providing users with enterprise-grade performance, security and a reliable infrastructure. Offering a wide range of commerce and business solutions, advanced SEO and marketing tools, Wix enables users to have full ownership of their brand, their data and their relationships with their customers. With a focus on continuous innovation and delivery of new features and products, anyone can build a powerful digital presence to fulfill their dreams on Wix.
For more about Wix, please visit our Press Room
Investor Relations:
ir@wix.com
Media Relations:
pr@wix.com
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SOURCE Wix.com Ltd. | 2022-07-27T14:36:59+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/wix-announce-second-quarter-2022-results-august-10-2022/ |
Infant dies after tree falls and hits vehicle
Published: Feb. 3, 2023 at 4:16 PM CST|Updated: 33 minutes ago
SOUTHWICK, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM/Gray News) - A tree fell on a car in Southwick, Massachusetts, on Friday and killed an infant inside, officials said.
The Hampden District Attorney’s Office said an infant died after a tree crushed the car she was riding in around noon.
There’s so far no information on the condition of the driver and no official word on the identities of those in the car, which has a Connecticut license plate.
Copyright 2023 WGGB/WSHM via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-02-03T22:50:14+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/02/03/infant-dies-after-tree-falls-hits-vehicle/ |
TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund (the "Fund"), which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DBL, this week declared a distribution of $0.11 per share for the month of August 2022. The distribution is subject to the following ex-dividend, record and payment dates set by the Fund's Board of Trustees.
This news release is not for tax reporting purposes. The release has been issued to announce the amount and timing of the distributions declared by the Board of Trustees. There is a possibility that distributions may include ordinary income, long-term capital gains or return of capital. The amount of distributable income and the tax characteristics of the distributions are determined at the end of the taxable year. In early 2023, the Fund will send shareholders a Form 1099-DIV specifying how the distributions paid by the Fund during the prior calendar year should be characterized for purposes of reporting the distributions on a shareholder's tax return.
The DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund (the "Fund") is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund's investment objective is to seek high total investment return by providing a high level of current income and the potential for capital appreciation. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Investing in the Fund involves the risk of principal loss.
DoubleLine Capital is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. DoubleLine's offices can be reached by telephone at (213) 633-8200 or by e-mail at info@doubleline.com. Media can reach DoubleLine by e-mail at media@doubleline.com. DoubleLine® is a registered trademark of DoubleLine Capital LP.
To read about the DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund, please access the Annual Report at www.doublelinefunds.com or call 877-DLINE11 (877-354-6311) to receive a copy. Investors should consider the Fund's investment objective, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. An investment in the Fund should not constitute a complete investment program.
This document is not an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, nor shall there be any sale or offer of these securities, in any jurisdiction where such sale or offer is not permitted.
Fund investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.
Shares of closed-end investment companies frequently trade at a discount to their net asset value, which may increase investors' risk of loss. This risk may be greater for investors expecting to sell their shares in a relatively short period after the completion of the public offering. There are risks associated with investment in the fund.
Investments in debt securities typically decline in value when interest rates rise. This risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities. Investments in asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities include additional risks that investors should be aware of including credit risk, prepayment risk, possible illiquidity and default, as well as increased susceptibility to adverse economic developments. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The fund may invest in foreign securities which involve greater volatility and political, economic and currency risks and differences in accounting methods. These risks are greater for investments in emerging markets. Investments in lower rated and non-rated securities present a great risk of loss to principal and interest than higher rated securities. Investment strategies may not achieve the desired results due to implementation lag, other timing factors, portfolio management decisions-making, economic or market conditions or other unanticipated factors. In addition, the Fund may invest in other asset classes and investments such as, among others, REITs, credit default swaps, short sales, derivatives and smaller companies which include additional risks. The DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund (the "Fund") is a diversified, closed-end management investment company.
This material may include statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" under the U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, projections, estimates, and information about possible or future results related to the Fund, market or regulatory developments. The views expressed herein are not guarantees of future performance or economic results and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from the views expressed herein. The views expressed herein are subject to change at any time based upon economic, market, or other conditions and DoubleLine undertakes no obligation to update the views expressed herein. While we have gathered this information from sources believed to be reliable, DoubleLine cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided. Any discussions of specific securities should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell those securities. The views expressed herein (including any forward-looking statement) may not be relied upon as investment advice or as an indication of the Fund's trading intent. Information included herein is not an indication of the Fund's future portfolio composition.
Distributions include all distribution payments regardless of source and may include net income, capital gains, and/or return of capital (ROC). ROC should not be confused with yield or income. A Fund's Section 19a-1 Notice, if applicable, contains additional distribution composition information and may be obtained by visiting www.doublelinefunds.com. Final determination of a distribution's tax character will be made on Form 1099 DIV and sent to shareholders. On a tax basis, as of July 29, 2022, the estimated component of the cumulative distribution for the fiscal year to date would include an estimated return of capital of $0.064 (6%) per share. This amount is an estimate and the actual amounts and sources for tax reporting purposes may change upon final determination of tax characteristics and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations.
Any tax or legal information provided is merely a summary of our understanding and interpretation of some of the current income tax regulations and is not exhaustive. Investors must consult their tax advisor or legal counsel for advice and information concerning their particular situation. Neither the Fund nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice.
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©2022 DoubleLine Capital LP.
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SOURCE DoubleLine | 2022-08-01T13:55:31+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/doubleline-opportunistic-credit-fund-declares-august-2022-distribution/ |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Bruce Cassidy is the third coach of the Vegas Golden Knights in the franchise’s sixth year, and he said the decision was a “no-brainer” from a hockey perspective.
After all, Vegas has been one of the NHL’s most successful teams since entering the league in 2017, making the playoffs four times, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season.
The bigger challenge for Cassidy was convincing his wife, Julie, and children Shannon and Cole, about the move to Las Vegas.
“I’m from Canada, she’s from New Jersey, how it would affect the kids?” Cassidy said Thursday during his introductory press conference. “I’m gonna have to convince Cole that he’s gonna have to get on board with the Black and Silver (Raiders) and not the Pats. That’ll be a challenge because, hey, he’s a New England kid, right? I’ll tell him he can have the Red Sox, but you gotta give up the Pats.”
Hockey-wise, though, they’re officially Golden Knights.
Cassidy, 57, coached the Boston Bruins to six straight playoff appearances after replacing Claude Julien in the final months of the 2016-17 campaign. He had a 245-108-46 record with Boston when he was fired on June 6, a month after the Bruins lost a seven-game first-round series to Carolina.
Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said Thursday that Cassidy embodies the traits the franchise has always expected in a coach.
That includes a defensively structured team that can move the puck swiftly in the opposite direction, staying in attack mode while keeping opponents on their heels, high-end offensive defensemen who can push the pace, a goaltender-friendly system, and most importantly, successful special teams.
Boston was a top-five defense in terms of goals allowed this past season. The Bruins boasted both the league’s third-best power play (23.9%) and penalty kill (82.9%) under Cassidy’s watch, since he took over in 2017.
“I think in general I’ve done a good job with certain areas of the game that are important in the National Hockey League,” Cassidy said. “That’s the kind of style of play that I believe I can bring and I’ve tried to get our teams to play. It looks like this group of players will want to play that way and excel in that style.”
The Golden Knights’ 18.4% power-play conversion rate this past season ranked 25th in the league. During former coach Pete DeBoer’s 2 1/2-year tenure, Vegas ranked 21st with its power play (18.6%).
“I know that it’s been a challenge here at different times in the past,” McCrimmon said. “Bruce has done it again and again and again. I guess that’s what to me is impressive. There’s different teams and different coaches that with the right personnel and the right year you have a really good power play or a real good penalty kill. Or, maybe one is better than the other significantly.
“In Bruce’s case, the penalty kill and the power play consistently have been very, very good for a long period of time.”
Cassidy said knowing the team has quickly gone through two coaches — neither of which lasted longer than 2 1/2 seasons — was not an issue.
Cassidy’s first stint as a head coach was in Washington, where he led the Capitals to a playoff appearance in his first season after compiling a record of 39-29-8 during the 2002-03 regular season. He worked under Knights President of Hockey Operations George McPhee, who was the general manager at the time and fired Cassidy just 25 games into his second season as coach.
“Winning in the postseason. I think when you come close to winning the Cup, it’s always in the back of your mind and you want to finish the job and definitely have that mindset,” he said. “I thought I did a good job in Boston — and here I am.
“I want my name on the Stanley Cup … and I believe this team has the ability to do that.”
Vegas also announced that veteran defenseman Shea Weber was acquired in a trade with Montreal for forward Evgenii Dadonov. Weber, 36, did not appear in a game with the Canadiens last season due to multiple lower-body injuries and will remain on injured reserve.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-06-16T23:58:20+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/cassidy-says-taking-golden-knights-job-was-no-brainer/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Dog owner runs off after young boy attacked by husky at park, family says
GILBERT, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) - A family in Arizona says their child was attacked by an out-of-control dog at an area park last week.
Will Richardson spoke to KPHO and showed what he called bite marks on his 9-year-old son Matthew’s neck and back. He said his son’s injuries were caused by an uncontrolled dog at the Crossroads Dog Park.
“He got very lucky,” Richardson said. “He was wearing a large sweater and the teeth went through the sweater and into his skin. If it wasn’t for that sweater, he would probably be a lot worse.”
The boy said he was inside the dog park on Feb. 10 hanging out with a friend, his mom, and their dogs when suddenly a white husky came out of nowhere and attacked him.
“He [the dog] jumped on me and I was trying to push him away,” Matthew said. “He kept hanging on to me and I couldn’t do anything.”
According to the family, several people ran over to help Matthew, who was on the ground bleeding.
The boy’s father said he was nearby and ran over as well. He said he looked around to find the owner of the dog that attacked his son but was told the man ran off and never came back.
“My personal opinion is there are good people and bad people, and this man is a coward,” Richardson said. “He ran away after my son was injured. I don’t understand why any human can let a kid be injured and not even worry if they are OK or not.”
Matthew’s family said he was rushed to a hospital and treated for multiple cuts and puncture wounds.
Richardson said it is now his mission to find the man whose dog attacked his son. He said he has been keeping an eye out at the dog park for the dog involved and the owner, who he described as a man with a white hat and glasses.
According to Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, when someone is bitten, the dog must be quarantined if the owner can’t provide proof of registration and a rabies shot.
The Richardson family said they are worried about the dog biting someone else.
“There are thousands of people in the community looking for this guy. They feel bad for my son. We need to find him,” Richardson said.
Copyright 2023 KPHO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | 2023-02-15T23:07:06+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/2023/02/15/dog-owner-runs-off-after-young-boy-attacked-by-husky-park-family-says/ |
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government is turning up the pressure on ARC Automotive to recall 67 million potentially dangerous air bag inflators by ordering the company to answer questions under oath and threatening fines if it doesn’t respond.
NHTSA argues that the recall is justified because two people have been killed in the United States and Canada and at least seven others injured by ARC inflators, which can explode with too much force and expel shapnel. The explosions, which first occurred in 2009, have continued as recently as this year.
The special order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asks multiple questions about whether ARC expects any of its inflators to blow apart in the future, and whether it has notified customers about the risk.
The agency wants ARC Automotive Inc., based in Knoxville, Tennessee, to recall the inflators, which can blow apart a metal canister. But ARC is refusing, setting up a possible court fight.
ARC maintains that no safety defect exists, that NHTSA’s demand is based on a hypothesis rather than technical conclusions and that the agency has no authority to order a parts manufacturer to carry out recalls.
NHTSA has tentatively concluded that the inflators are defective. The next steps are a final conclusion, public hearing and potential lawsuit asking a judge to order a recall.
Since ARC inflators can be in both driver and passenger front air bags, people who travel in at least 33 million U.S. vehicles could be at risk.
In the order, NHTSA asks ARC to explain if it expects inflators to rupture due to something more than “random ‘one-off’” manufacturing problems. More than 1 million ARC inflators have been recalled already due to what the company describes as isolated trouble with manufacturing.
The order also instructs the company to estimate how many inflators will rupture while in use in the U.S. in the future, and it asks ARC why it changed its inflator manufacturing process in 2018 to install a scope that detects whether welding debris can block inflator vents.
NHTSA contends that byproducts from welding during manufacturing can clog a vent inside the inflator canister that’s designed to let gas escape to fill air bags quickly in a crash. Pressure can build to the point where the canister is blown apart.
Messages were left Thursday seeking comment from ARC. The company has to respond by June 14 or face a maximum fine of $131.6 million and potential criminal penalties.
Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group, said NHTSA is going back and connecting dots to counter what ARC asserted in its response to the recall request.
The agency, he said, seems to be trying to get ARC to say that it’s possible other inflators can rupture in the future. “They are simply looking for an admission from ARC that this can happen again,” Brooks said.
The company, he said, would have a hard time arguing that no more problems will occur. “I don’t know that this is something that they can legitimately assert, that there’s never going to be another inflator rupture,” Brooks said. “There’s a high likelihood of another rupture of this type. There may not be a lot of them.”
NHTSA also wants to know why ARC added the scope to its manufacturing process in 2018, and it’s demanding to know which ARC employee approved the decision. “I think they’re trying to get at what was ARC basing that decision on and does it suggest that there’s a defect in the population of inflators that were produced before that date,” Brooks said.
The agency said in its recall request letter sent to ARC in April that it’s not aware of any inflators rupturing that were manufactured after the scope was installed.
Owners of vehicles made by at least a dozen automakers — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Hyundai and Kia — are left to wonder anxiously whether their vehicles contain driver or front passenger inflators made by ARC.
Because ARC supplies inflators that are included in other manufacturers’ airbags, there’s no easy way for vehicle owners to determine whether their inflators are made by ARC. Neither NHTSA nor ARC nor the automakers have released a full list of affected models.
One of the people who died after an inflator explosion was Marlene Beaudoin, a 40-year-old mother of 10 from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who was struck by metal fragments when her 2015 Chevrolet Traverse SUV was involved in a minor crash in 2021. She and four of her sons had been on their way to get ice cream. The sons were not hurt.
In a response letter to NHTSA earlier this month, ARC said no automaker has found a defect common to all 67 million inflators, and no root cause has been identified in the inflator ruptures.
The standoff with ARC has sent automakers struggling to find out just how many of their vehicles contain the inflators. Many say they’re still gathering information from later model years to determine which vehicles contain the affected inflators.
From 2017 to 2022, the ARC problems triggered seven small recalls from automakers. Earlier this month, General Motors announced the recall of nearly 1 million more. | 2023-06-01T18:40:20+00:00 | wnct.com | https://www.wnct.com/news/business/ap-business/us-turns-up-pressure-on-air-bag-inflator-company-that-refuses-a-recall-despite-deaths-injuries/ |
1 Million Job Seekers Find Out What Former Employers Are Saying About Them
DETROIT, May 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- JobReferences.com powered by Allison & Taylor, The Reference Checking Company recently achieved a major milestone in their 40-year history. Namely, surpassing 1 million job seekers wanting to find out what previous employers will say about them to prospective new employers.
More than a few of these job seekers had initially regarded their references as an afterthought, citing some of the following reasons. Unfortunately, all of these assumptions are frequently wrong.
- Only those references that they list will be contacted for a reference
- If a former supervisor is contacted, they will simply redirect the call to Human Resources per company policy
- Human Resources will only confirm employment dates and title as per company policy.
Here are 4 reasons why every job seeker should have their references checked:
- Your former employer may be violating appropriate reference policy. Reference-checking firm Allison & Taylor relates that 57% of all reference checks they conduct reveal some level of negativity. Such input is particularly characteristic of former bosses and supervisors. Even Human Resources - by stating that you are "not eligible for rehire" or that you left the company for "involuntary reasons" - can be toxic to your employment prospects.
- Your information may not match the HR records. Previous employers may have different employment start and end dates, position title, or a supervisor or manager listed other than what you have presented. This type of discrepancy may suggest to an employer that you are being less than truthful about your former position's title or responsibilities.
- Your record may have been omitted from the HR records entirely. This happens more often than people might think, especially in the case of mergers, where not all records make the transfer into a new system. It is also frequently the case with the self-employed; many companies do not hold records for a contractor in their HR system. It doesn't look favorable when an employer calls and is told that there is no record of your ever having worked there.
- Your reference contact may no longer work for the company. Many job seekers make the mistake of not staying in close contact with the person they intend to use for a reference. You need to be confident that your reference is still there to respond to inquiries. If the reference is no longer there, a reference checker may be shuffled though the system and end up with someone who doesn't know the former employee, or who won't cast them in a positive light.
Clearly, it is critical to ensure that your references don't ultimately become your career-enders, intentionally or unintentionally. Rather than experiencing lost job prospects, consider having a reference check(s) conducted to reveal what your former employer is actually saying about you. It will likely prove to be one of the soundest investments you will make in support of your career.
To find out what a former boss will tell a potential employer, call 1-800-890-5645 (toll-free USA/Canada), +1-248-672-4200 or visit one of these websites: https://www.allisontaylor.com/ or https://www.jobreferences.com/
About Allison & Taylor, The Reference Checking Company
Critical when seeking a job or promotion. Consider checking and validating your former employment references. Don't lose a promotion or job opportunity due to mediocre or bad job references.
JobReferences.com, powered by Allison & Taylor, The Reference Checking Company will call your former employer to obtain your references, document the results and provide a report to you.
Developers of GrowMyPaycheck.com – Ensure That You are the Master of Your Financial Destiny With Job Raises & Promotions.
Our firm is highly acclaimed with employers, employees and the media alike. Compliments and mentions from influential publications and writers at The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, Workplace Bullying Institute, ABC Newswire, Forbes, USA Today, Hcareers, Fortune and MyFox News provide insight into our services. Allison & Taylor, The Reference Checking Company is headquartered in Michigan.
Board Member of Workplace Fairness – Workplace Fairness is a national nonprofit organization that provides information, education and assistance to individual workers and their advocates nationwide and promotes public policies that advance employee rights.
Visit https://www.allisontaylor.com/ or https://www.jobreferences.com/
Allison & Taylor, Inc., The Reference Checking Company – Find us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter Check out our Blog! JobReferences.com – Find us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter, Check out our Blog!
Media Contact: Jeff Shane
Jeff@AllisonTaylor.com
800-890-5645 (toll-free USA/Canada)
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AllisonTaylor.com
JobReferences.com
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SOURCE JobReferences.com, powered by Allison & Taylor, The Reference Checking Company | 2022-05-23T20:51:12+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/05/23/4-reasons-your-career-depends-your-job-references-jobreferencescom-hits-1m-milestone/ |
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD")
NINA SIMONE: (Singing) Please don't let me be misunderstood.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Michel Martin.
The high priestess of soul, Nina Simone, will soon have a new temple. In 2017, four Black artists bought Simone's childhood home in Tryon, N.C., to save it from demolition. Earlier this week, artists inspired by Simone's music, with some support from tennis star Venus Williams, raised close to $6 million to transform it into a cultural center. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | 2023-06-07T06:59:58+00:00 | kclu.org | https://www.kclu.org/2023-05-24/the-high-priestess-of-soul-nina-simone-will-soon-have-a-new-temple |
Percentages: FG .511, FT .583.
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3-Point Goals: 4-8, .500 (Huntley-Hatfield 1-1, Miller 1-1, Ellis 1-2, Lands 1-3, James 0-1).
Team Rebounds: 1. Team Turnovers: 1.
Blocked Shots: 5 (James 2, Ellis, Huntley-Hatfield, Withers).
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Turnovers: 16 (Ellis 4, Huntley-Hatfield 3, James 3, Lands 3, Withers 3).
Steals: 8 (Huntley-Hatfield 2, James 2, Ellis, Lands, Miller, Wheeler).
Technical Fouls: Withers, 12:45 first; Cardinals, 6:34 second.
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Percentages: FG .419, FT .667.
3-Point Goals: 10-26, .385 (Morsell 5-7, Smith 3-6, Joiner 1-3, Clark 1-7, Thomas 0-1, Ross 0-2).
Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: None.
Blocked Shots: 3 (Burns, Dowuona, Morsell).
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Turnovers: 9 (Burns 3, Smith 3, Joiner 2, Thomas).
Steals: 6 (Burns, Clark, Joiner, Morsell, Smith, Thomas).
Technical Fouls: None.
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. | 2022-12-23T02:24:14+00:00 | seattlepi.com | https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/NORTH-CAROLINA-STATE-76-LOUISVILLE-64-17673103.php |
Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with The Ringer’s Lindsay Jones about the NFL draft and the Milwaukee Bucks’ shocking exit from the NBA playoffs last night.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-04-27T18:35:37+00:00 | wbfo.org | https://www.wbfo.org/2023-04-27/the-bucks-are-out-and-the-nfl-draft-is-on-the-latest-in-sports |
NPR's Morning Edition speaks with astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley about the latest findings of the Webb Telescope.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Morning Edition speaks with astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley about the latest findings of the Webb Telescope.
Copyright 2022 NPR | 2022-07-13T09:18:19+00:00 | kunm.org | https://www.kunm.org/2022-07-13/an-astrophysicist-breaks-down-what-nasas-webb-telescope-tells-us-about-our-universe |
As five Memphis police officers attacked Tyre Nichols with their feet, fists and a baton, others milled around at the scene, even as the 29-year-old cried out in pain and then slumped limply against the side of a car.
Just like the attack on George Floyd in Minneapolis nearly three years ago, a simple intervention could have saved a life. Instead, Nichols is dead and the five officers are charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.
More disciplinary action may be coming now that the harrowing video of Nichols’ treatment has been released. Memphis police suspended two other officers Monday and say the department is still investigating what happened. The Memphis Fire Department also fired three emergency response workers who arrived on the scene for failing to assess Nichols’ condition.
The Memphis and Minneapolis police departments are among many U.S. law enforcement agencies with “duty to intervene” policies. The Memphis protocol is clear: “Any member who directly observes another member engaged in dangerous or criminal conduct or abuse of a subject shall take reasonable action to intervene.”
It’s not just a policy, it’s the law. The three Minneapolis officers who failed to step in and stop former Officer Derek Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe were all convicted of federal civil rights violations.
Experts agree peer pressure, and in some cases fear of retribution, is on the minds of officers who fail to stop colleagues from bad actions.
“They’re afraid of being ostracized,” said George Kirkham, a criminology professor emeritus at Florida State University and former police officer. “You’ve got to depend on those guys. It’s the thin blue line. When you get out there and get in a jam, you’ve got nobody else to help you but other cops.”
Nichols was pulled over in a traffic stop the night of Jan. 7. Body camera video shows he was beaten as officers screamed profanities, even as Nichols seemed confused about what he did wrong. Amid the chaos, he ran and was eventually caught at another intersection, a short distance from his mother’s house.
Security camera images from that scene show two officers holding Nichols to the ground as a third appears to kick him in the head. Later, another officer strikes Nichols repeatedly with a baton as another officer holds him.
Officers pull Nichols to his feet, though he’s barely able to stand. An officer punches him in the face, and Nichols stumbles, still held up by two officers. After more punches, he collapses. But the attack continues.
When it ends, Nichols is slumped against a car. It would be more than 20 minutes before medical attention was rendered, though three members of the fire department arrived on the scene with medical equipment within 10 minutes. Those workers, two medics and a lieutenant who was with them, were the personnel fired late Monday.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank, said duty to intervene policies became common after officers attacked and badly injured Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992.
“But having a policy and overcoming what many would argue is the culture in policing are two different things,” Wexler said. “It’s not enough to simply have a policy. You need to practice. You need to talk through it.”
In some cases, concerns by officers about retaliation for intervening have proven true.
In Buffalo, New York, Officer Cariol Horne was a year away from collecting her pension when she faced departmental charges after pulling a fellow officer’s arm from around the neck of a domestic violence suspect in 2006. She was fired. In 2021 a state Supreme Court judge reinstated her pension and overturned her dismissal.
Last year in Sunrise, Florida, Sgt. Christopher Pullease was criminally charged after an incident caught on video in which an unidentified female officer pulled Pullease by the belt away from a handcuffed suspect after Pullease pointed pepper spray at him. Pullease responded by putting a hand on his colleague’s throat and pushing her away, the video showed.
Experts were also perplexed that no police department supervisors were present during the Memphis incident. Had there been, they said, the outcome might have been different.
“I was a supervisor for a long time, and you showing up on the scene even unannounced keeps people from doing, for lack of a better adjective, stupid things,” said former New York City Police Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Memphis Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said the police department has a supervisor shortage and called the lack of a supervisor at the incident “a major problem.” Davis on Saturday disbanded the city’s so-called Scorpion unit, whose officers were involved in the beating.
University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist David Klinger said decisions on whether to intervene in a police colleague’s actions are not always cut and dried. He said one officer may see a weapon that is blocked from the view of another, for example, and stepping in at the wrong time could jeopardize the lives of officers at the scene.
“Training has to be precise about the sorts of circumstances that would warrant an intervention,” Klinger said. | 2023-02-01T08:32:34+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/news/ap-us-news/ap-tyre-nichols-case-shows-officers-still-fail-to-intervene/ |
Biden to deliver prime-time speech on ‘battle’ for democracy
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will deliver a prime-time address “on the continued battle for the soul of the nation” Thursday outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the White House announced Monday.
Billed as a major address just over two months before the midterm elections, Biden, the White House said, will discuss how the nation’s standing in the world and its democracy are at stake.
“He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack,” the White House said. “And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy.”
Biden has increasingly sought to portray the November elections as a choice for voters between “ultra-MAGA Republicans” — a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — and Democrats. He told supporters last week that they had “to vote to literally save democracy once again” — and labeled some Republican ideology as “semi-fascism.”
NBC News was first to report on Biden’s plans for the address.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2022-08-29T22:02:57+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2022/08/29/biden-deliver-prime-time-speech-battle-democracy/ |
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Take 5 Midday" game were:
01-03-11-15-19
(one, three, eleven, fifteen, nineteen)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Take 5 Midday" game were:
01-03-11-15-19
(one, three, eleven, fifteen, nineteen) | 2023-01-24T21:01:51+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Take-5-Midday-game-17739013.php |
INDIANAPOLIS – Think of towns, states, provinces, etc., that are rarely, if ever, linked in the same sentence.
Buffalo and Bombay (unless you like 20 hours of air travel). Albany or Amarillo (unless you’re a kid attending the West Texas A&M university system). Syracuse and Stockholm (unless Jim Boeheim ever recruited a Swede).
And now the kicker: Ontario (and the Town of Guelph) and Oxford (in the state of Mississippi).
Welcome to the NFL scouting combine journey of Ole Miss defensive end/outside linebacker Tavius Robinson, who grew up in Guelph, about a two-hour drive from the Buffalo Bills’ stadium in Orchard Park. That makes him a local angle.
And what a unique journey it has been for the 24-year-old Robinson, who projects as a late-round/priority free agent prospect; NFL Draft Scout ranks him as the 29th defensive end and 297th player.
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An uncle, Junior, played in the Canadian Football League.
Tavius grew up in Guelph and participated in high school football, basketball and track.
He played two seasons at the University of Guelph, totaling 13½ sacks and 65 tackles.
The pandemic changed the course of Robinson’s football career.
In the summer of 2020, Guelph officials decided to cancel the football season and Robinson, with the help of defensive line coach Brian Cluff, put together a personal highlight video and started sending it to college programs in the United States.
“The offers started coming in and I had to make my decision quickly,” Robinson said.
Quickly, and without the benefit of a campus visit due to restrictions. Robinson said he received offers from LSU, Nebraska, San Diego State, Ole Miss and a “bunch of other schools.” He chose to enroll at Ole Miss so it was off to Mississippi four days before fall practice, which was followed by a two-week quarantine.
Before leaving Guelph, Robinson received advice from his uncle, who nearly made the full CFL tour – Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Hamilton, British Columbia, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
“A big influence (for me),” Tavius said. “He said, ‘Don’t treat yourself as lower because you’re Canadian. Go in with the mindset that you’re the same as the American guys.’ That really helped me.”
The easy mindset for Robinson would have been to redshirt and get his bearings academically (new school), off the field (new country), on the field (11 men instead of 12) and against a tougher caliber of competition (the SEC).
But …
“I wanted to come in and compete right away and contribute any way I could,” he said.
Robinson played 10 games (five starts) and made 18 tackles in ’20. In ’21, he was a rotational player (28 tackles and 3½ sacks).
“It was a little bit of a jump at first, but really, it didn’t take as long as I expected,” he said. “It was a different game, but I felt I adjusted quickly.”
Robinson’s fifth year was his finest, seven sacks and 44 tackles in 13 games.
The obvious question: Would he be at the combine if he didn’t transfer to Ole Miss?
“I don’t think so, no,” Robinson said. “There are a lot of great players in Canada, but I think the exposure and competition I got – I think I made the best decision.”
If Robinson was as mature during his team interviews at the Senior Bowl and this week at the combine, he will further improve his cause.
Teams pay attention to how players handle themselves in new environments. Georgia outside linebacker Nolan Smith was a star Wednesday. The same with Army’s Andre Carter, who said he chose field artillery because, “it’s fun blowing stuff up.” The flip side was Florida’s Brentson Cox, who’s had four months to craft an answer as to why he was kicked off the team, but sidestepped the question instead of being transparent or at least taking responsibility.
A team that adds Robinson, who watches Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, will get a versatile player. He attended the Senior Bowl and checked in at 257 pounds, but said he is comfortable playing into the 260s and is confident lining up as a wide end and over the guard if asked to rush inside.
Once Robinson signs a contract, he will join former Atlanta Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff as the most prominent University of Guelph/NFL connections.
Draft or no draft. Robinson just wants a chance and show Canadian college players merit attention.
“It’s great to have Canadians here and it’s a good example for the kids back home,” he said. “Hopefully the number can continue to grow every year.” | 2023-03-01T23:21:33+00:00 | buffalonews.com | https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/ryan-ohalloran-from-ontario-to-oxford-tavius-robinson-brings-unique-journey-to-combine/article_df7fcf6e-b86f-11ed-bc18-2be11093a787.html |
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:
09-17-25-28-32
(nine, seventeen, twenty-five, twenty-eight, thirty-two)
Estimated jackpot: $115,000
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:
09-17-25-28-32
(nine, seventeen, twenty-five, twenty-eight, thirty-two)
Estimated jackpot: $115,000 | 2022-08-16T00:58:31+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Fantasy-5-game-17375570.php |
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos, at 32 and wrapping up his 14th season, is no longer one of the NHL’s most prolific scorers or even the second- or third-best player on his own team.
The six-time All-Star and two-time “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner as the league’s leading goal scorer is the undisputed leader of the Tampa Bay Lightning, though, and one of the reasons the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are four wins away from the first three-peat in 40 years.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is Wednesday night, with the Lightning facing the Colorado Avalanche after defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers to reach hockey’s biggest stage for the fourth time since 2015.
Stamkos has scored a team-leading nine goals in 17 games this postseason, including a pair in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 series-clinching victory over the Rangers in the Eastern Conference final.
“It’s not individuals. It’s great to score a couple goals in a huge game. … But if I didn’t score and we won I would have been just as happy,” the No. 1 overall pick from the 2008 NHL draft said.
“That’s the way the guys are on our team. Each guy plays a part. And (the media) can discuss if it’s a big part or if it’s a little part,” the Lightning captain added. “We know in the room that everyone plays a huge part in our group success. That’s why we have been so successful because the guys in that room are truly like that.”
Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn and Pat Maroon have all played key roles in Tampa Bay winning back-to-back titles and becoming the first team to make three straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final since the Edmonton Oilers from 1983-85.
Stamkos has carried his share of the load, too, although he missed nearly all of the team’s championship run two years ago because of an injury. There have been plenty of times in the subsequent two seasons that his contributions have been overshadowed by the play of some of the team’s younger stars.
Through it all, Stamkos keeps playing — and producing. He’s the Lightning’s career goals leader with 481 and earlier this season moved ahead of Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis to become the franchise’s career points leader with 972 in 14 seasons.
The Lightning are trying to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Islanders won four straight titles from 1980-83.
“Watching Stammer’s growth — going from the 60-goal scorer and the young guy to the leader, the captain and the guy that people are rallying around — he’s got a lot of weight on the shoulders,” coach Jon Cooper said.
“He’s got to score, he’s got to lead, he’s got to be the face of the franchise,” Cooper added. “He’s got to do all these things.”
Missing all but one game of Tampa Bay’s 2020 championship run was one of the toughest stretches of Stamkos’ career. He appeared in just one game, logging 2:42 of ice time — yet still scored a goal — in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against Dallas.
The captain’s next appearance came after the team’s title-clinching win in Game 6, with Stamkos slipping into his uniform and returning to the ice for the trophy presentation and celebration.
Scoring twice to eliminate the Rangers — with the winner delivered a mere 21 seconds after New York tied the game with a power-play goal scored with Stamkos in the penalty box for holding — thrust him into the spotlight.
Cooper, who has the Lightning in the Cup Final for the fourth time, couldn’t be happier for him.
“Our first Cup run, he misses basically the whole thing. So, at some point you want the light to shine on him. And it has in so many different ways,” Cooper said.
“But in an elimination game, to not only score the first goal, but to answer back 21 seconds after they scored, you’re so proud,” Cooper added. “He’ll be the first one to push the accolades to everybody else, but he had a hell of a series.”
That’s indeed what Stamkos tried to do.
“There was a quiet confidence with this group like there usually is in tight moments like that,” the captain said.
“Each guy is just a part of the process. And that’s what makes this team so special and tight and unique,” Stamkos added. “We don’t care how it gets done. You just need to get it done.”
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-06-14T19:40:32+00:00 | ourquadcities.com | https://www.ourquadcities.com/sports/steven-stamkos-thriving-in-different-role-with-lightning/ |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Ty Norris has heard NASCAR fans both cheer and boo Ross Chastain, who seems to make more enemies by the race.
That aggression has crossed a line at times for some. Chastain punched Noah Gragson after the race at Kansas earlier this year. Chastain also spun Chase Elliott, NASCAR's most popular driver the past five years, early in the final stage of last year’s finale — costing Elliott a chance at a second title.
His on-track encounters are plentiful and that kind of driving and emotion from Chastain helps make NASCAR more interesting — even if others get ticked off. Norris made clear Chastain isn’t out there simply to stir the pot; he’s trying to win and compete for the Cup Series championship.
That competitive drive shows up every time Chastain gets behind the wheel.
“It shows up in, I think, in a very positive way,” Norris said.
Trackhouse Racing needs Chastain to start by winning his first race this season, which would lock him into the playoffs for a second straight year. He goes into Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway fourth in the Cup standings as the series resumes after the lone week off in the 38-race season. Only 32 points separate the top seven drivers.
Racing well at Nashville also means a bit more with Music City officially Trackhouse Racing's home base. Trackhouse will even have Taylor Lee, who competed on “The Voice,” performing an acoustic set before the race at the team’s haulers.
Chastain, who ran tire tests at Bristol Motor Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday, doesn’t see any added pressure competing at Nashville, where he finished fifth last year in a weather-delayed race. Winning is what matters most.
“It’s about the end for us,” Chastain said.
Trackhouse owner Justin Marks lives outside of Nashville and had set this year for his team to be operating in Music City. The shop remains in Charlotte, North Carolina, but the team’s headquarters will move from a Nashville suburb to the middle of the downtown entertainment district at the end of this season.
The racing team also has continued a local tie-in to famed honkytonk Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which will be all over Daniel Suarez’s car again for Sunday night’s race.
Only the fifth Cup Series winner born outside the United States, the Mexican driver also has yet to win this season and is three points out of the final playoff position with 10 races remaining as he tries to make the postseason for a second straight year. Suarez finished seventh at the 1.33-mile track in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 2021 when it hosted the first Cup Series race in 37 years.
Norris said Trackhouse employees understand Nashville means a bit more than just the start of the push to the playoffs.
“I feel as if they put in just a few extra hours, a little bit extra care to make sure that everything that they can do positively to affect the outcome of this race,” Norris said.
NBC takes over coverage down the stretch of the NASCAR season, and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. said it’s been a great season with lots of storylines. A year ago, it was the Next Gen car debut creating challenges and problems for teams.
This year, the drama comes from drivers disagreeing on the track.
“It’s been a fascinating year,” Earnhardt said. “I’m sure that that is going to, as it does every year, kind of crescendo and build as we get closer to the playoffs. The pressure will mount. The risk taking will increase. The excitement that that creates for us will be plentiful.”
Norris worked for Dale Earnhardt Inc. and recalled an event with the late Dale Earnhardt noting fans split 50-50 between cheers and boos. Norris isn’t comparing the “Melon Man” to “The Intimidator,” but he noted his former boss told him that even the fans who hated him still loved him as a driver.
Chastain’s challenge is winning more races and an elusive Cup title. So far, his best Cup Series season finish came last year when he finished second to Joey Logano.
Until then, Chastain certainly isn’t boring.
“What I will say is Ross is probably the closest to old school racing that we’ve seen come along,” Norris said.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-06-22T10:35:13+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/2023/06/22/nascar-cup-series-trackhouse-ross-chastain/a9d368ae-10e3-11ee-8d22-5f65b2e2f6ad_story.html |
CHICAGO (AP) — Futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade Thu:
- Most Texans pay more in taxes than Californians, data suggests
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- Alamo Heights football players disciplined after misconduct allegations
- Uvalde school board fires its embattled police chief
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- Homeland Security chief says Abbott’s border moves ‘can wreak...U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his department is dealing with a growing threat from domestic extremists and is also putting unprecedented heat on human smuggling networks.By Guillermo Contreras | 2022-08-25T18:38:56+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/Preclosing-17398086.php |
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, is gaining momentum in the U.S.
“We had 8 different jurisdictions in the last election cycle to adopt ranked choice voting,” said Kelly Sechrist, the development and communications director for the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center.
The voting system has already been implemented at some level in more than 10 states. In 2021, New York City adopted ranked choice voting in primary and special elections for local offices.
In 2023, more lawmakers are pushing bills to adopt it.
But how exactly does it work?
“If I go to the grocery store and they don't have a certain type of ice cream that I like, then that’s my first choice, then I can go to my second choice or third choice,” Sechrist said.
With ranked choice voting, you get to rank your favorite candidates from first to last. For example, in single-winner RCV, if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes, the one with the least amount of votes is eliminated. Whoever voted for that candidate will now have their second choice counted instead.
“It does a couple things. One, it gives your voters more choice,” Sechrist said. “Ranked choice voting has a really great ability to actually eliminate costly and low turnout primaries and runoffs.”
Since 2004, dozens of cities have held ranked choice voting elections with more than 20 million ballots cast, according to FairVote. | 2023-01-17T21:40:37+00:00 | wsfltv.com | https://www.wsfltv.com/news/national/ranked-choice-voting-system-continues-to-grow-in-popularity |
Ecommerce company helping DTC brands succeed expands its services portfolio with powerful AI recommendations application.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pantastic Networks, the ecommerce company that provides powerful products and services to help independent brands thrive, today announced its acquisition of LimeSpot, an industry-leading AI-powered ecommerce personalization application.
LimeSpot is used by thousands of well-known ecommerce brands, including Volcom, Crocs, Under Armour, Beekman 1802, and The Citizenry, with personalization and merchandising solutions that improve discovery, increase conversion and drive additional sales.
LimeSpot offers a suite of products that improves the buying experience throughout the customer journey. These include: Personalizer, a product recommendation offering, which provides highly targeted, AI-driven recommendations on ecommerce websites. Segmented Experiences, a real-time segmentation engine that allows brands to create dynamic website experiences based on rich audience segmentation data; and a Google Shopping performance optimization solution that increases Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) by combining audience data, product attributes and behavioral data. These products help brands deliver highly targeted customer experiences that delight shoppers and drive profitability.
With this addition, Pantastic further strengthens the breadth and impact of its offerings to ecommerce brands of all sizes around acquisition, purchase, and post-purchase.
"We've known LimeSpot for many years and have always been impressed with their AI technology and the value they are able to provide to their customers," said Pantastic Cofounder and CEO Scott Rafer. "LimeSpot's AI-powered personalization application allows brands to be highly efficient so they see consistent, meaningful growth in their business while delighting their customers."
"By joining Pantastic, LimeSpot can expand our reach to new customers, and leverage our industry leading technology for new applications and use cases," said LimeSpot CEO, Sharon Goldstein." "We're excited to have found a company that aligns so closely with us and look forward to finding new opportunities to help brands operate more efficiently while increasing returns."
Pantastic also previously acquired two ecommerce applications that focus on the post-purchase experience: UpOrder (formerly Spently), which increases repeat purchases with customizable transactional emails for Shopify; and CartHook, which increases average order value (AOV) with one-click post-purchase offers.
"Achieving sustainable growth quickly is key for independent brands' longevity and bottom-line," said Rafer. "We're excited for LimeSpot to join Pantastic. Together with CartHook and UpOrder, LimeSpot rounds out our product portfolio and helps us bring value to brands across the entire customer journey."
About Pantastic
Pantastic gives independent brands superpowers to compete in today's competitive ecommerce environment. We provide an enterprise-grade application layer that independent brands use to power their ecommerce operations at any scale. Products include AI-powered products to enhance each step of the customer journey and a smart, scalable merchandising offering. Learn more about us at brands.pantastic.com.
About LimeSpot
LimeSpot is a market leader in ecommerce personalization, trusted by thousands of leading Shopify and BigCommerce brands worldwide. We are democratizing personalization by equipping brands with the same tools and technology used by the largest enterprise brands, to help them create elevated shopping experiences. Our suite of 1:1 AI-driven product recommendations, personalized content journeys, email personalization, and Google Shopping optimization helps brands deliver highly targeted customer experiences that delight shoppers and drive merchant profitability.
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SOURCE Pantastic Networks | 2022-08-12T15:36:26+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/08/12/pantastic-acquires-ai-powered-product-recommendation-application-limespot-solutions-inc/ |
PORT ARTHUR, Texas, April 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States shrimp industry recently made its case to maintain antidumping orders on imported shrimp from India, Thailand, and Vietnam before the International Trade Commission (ITC). On April 11, 2023, the ITC conducted a hearing in connection with its Third Sunset Review on the antidumping orders. The American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) presented five witnesses from shrimp processors in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida who relayed stories about the continuing injury caused by ever- increasing volumes of dumped imported shrimp. After the hearing ASPA Board President Trey Pearson urged the industry to keep fighting. "Despite an all-time low market share of 6.3% and extremely low operating margins, ASPA's members remain united and committed to do whatever it takes to survive. We appreciate the Commission providing our members the opportunity to tell their stories in hopes that we continue to have some discipline on imported shrimp."
Notably, several US Senators and Congressmen weighed in with letters of support to the ITC. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has long supported the domestic shrimp industry in its battle against unfair trade, noting in his letter to the ITC that "[w]e must use every tool at our disposal to help these hardworking Americans remain competitive and endure that the rich tradition of this industry are passed down to future generations." Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), as well as Congressmen Garret Graves (R-LA) and Randy Weber (R-TX) have also supported the industry's efforts either through testimony or otherwise. Trey Pearson thanked the elected officials noting that "the shrimp industry is very fortunate
to have the unwavering support of many elected officials who recognize its cultural and economic significance."
ASPA was joined at the ITC hearing by members of the Southern Shrimp Alliance who also raised their voices in support of the antidumping orders and likewise thanked the elected officials for sending letters.
The ITC will vote on maintaining or revoking the antidumping orders on June 1, 2023.
Media Contact:
Edward T. Hayes 504-585-7500 ehayes@leakeandersson.com
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SOURCE American Shrimp Processors Association | 2023-04-25T16:00:28+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2023/04/25/us-shrimp-industry-congressional-allies-urge-international-trade-commission-maintain-antidumping-orders-imported-shrimp/ |
"Finding the New You" by Dennis Schimpf is released with ForbesBooks
This release is posted on behalf of ForbesBooks (operated by Advantage Media Group under license).
NEW YORK, May 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finding the New You: Think, See, and Feel Beautiful by Dennis Schimpf, plastic surgeon and founder of Sweetgrass Plastic Surgery, is available now. The book is published with ForbesBooks, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes, and is available on Amazon.
Tackling the complicated subject of beauty, Finding the New You invites readers to contemplate their conceptions of beauty. Built on the notion that beauty comes from within, Schimpf's book argues that aligning outer beauty with inner beauty can be truly life changing.
"Surgery alone does not change how you feel about yourself or the feelings others have when they see you," Schimpf explained. "When a patient experiences self-doubt or insecurity as a result of a physical imperfection they see, surgery may have a profound impact on them. It is the combination of the physical change through the surgery and the patient's newfound self-confidence that makes their inner happiness project to those around them. That change is what ultimately makes a patient feel beautiful."
Informed by the belief that plastic surgery is an art and a process, Schimpf equips readers with the knowledge they need to set healthy expectations and understand the limitations of the discipline. This new guidebook details important information about the different plastic surgery procedures available to patients, how to spot myths and misconceptions about plastic surgery, how culture influences plastic surgery decisions, and the importance behind plastic surgery and its role in medicine.
About Dennis Schimpf
Dennis Schimpf, MD, FACS, spent the first five years of his career in academic medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, and subsequently obtained an MBA from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He opened his practice, Sweetgrass Plastic Surgery, in 2013. Since its inception, Sweetgrass Plastic Surgery has evolved into a multifaceted practice focusing almost exclusively on cosmetic plastic surgery of the face and body. In addition to his work as a plastic surgeon, Dr. Schimpf founded Loopit, a new social health and wellness network designed to connect consumers with local businesses through better information. Join Loopit at Loopit.com or download it in the app store @loopit.
About ForbesBooks
Launched in 2016 in partnership with Advantage Media Group, ForbesBooks is the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes. ForbesBooks offers business and thought leaders an innovative, speed-to-market, fee-based publishing model and a suite of services designed to strategically and tactically support authors and promote their expertise. For more information, visit forbesbooks.com.
Media Contacts
Lauren Whittamore, ForbesBooks, lwhittamore@forbesbooks.com
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SOURCE ForbesBooks | 2022-05-10T16:39:36+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/prnewswire/2022/05/10/south-carolina-plastic-surgeon-releases-updated-plastic-surgery-guidebook/ |
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank delivered a large interest rate hike Thursday, signaling a shift toward more conventional economic policies to counter sky-high inflation following criticism that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s approach has made a cost-of-living crisis worse.
The bank raised its key rate by 6.5 percentage points, boosting it to 15%. The increase — a jump from the current 8.5% — is the first since March 2021 but is lower than market expectations.
It came at the bank’s closely watched first interest rate-setting meeting since Erdogan appointed two internationally respected officials to lead the bank and the finance ministry. The rate hike is an indication that the country is moving away from Erdogan’s unorthodox belief that lowering interest rates fights inflation.
Traditional economic theory says just the opposite, and central banks worldwide have rapidly raised rates to combat spikes in consumer prices tied to the rebound from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There were several hikes across Europe on Thursday, ranging from the Bank of England to the Swiss National Bank.
Erdogan — a self-declared “enemy” of high borrowing costs — has said he would “accept” his new finance minister’s policies but also insisted that his views have not changed. That led to questions about whether Turkey’s central bank could act independently.
A statement from the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it had decided to begin “the monetary tightening process in order to establish the disinflation course as soon as possible.”
“Monetary tightening will be further strengthened as much as needed in a timely and gradual manner until a significant improvement in the inflation outlook is achieved,” it said.
Hamish Kinnear, senior analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said increase from 8.5% to 15% “marks a return to more orthodox monetary policymaking.”
But it was lower than market expectations of an increase of 17% to 20%, he said.
“This is a sign that the new governor is looking to tread carefully to avoid a clash with President Erdogan,” Kinnear said in a note.
Under pressure from Erdogan, the central bank had cut its key interest rate from around 19% in 2021 to 8.5% earlier this year, despite soaring inflation that hit an eye-watering 85% last year.
Inflation has eased to 39.5% last month, according to official figures, but independent research group ENAG says the true rate is 109%.
Economists say Erdogan’s unconventional belief has exacerbated economic turmoil, leading to currency and cost-of-living crises that have brought hardship to many households struggling to afford food, housing and other necessities. Erdogan says his economic model prioritizes growth, exports and employment.
Experts also say the central bank has depleted its foreign currency reserves as it tried to prop up the Turkish lira ahead of elections last month. The currency has lost around 21% of its value against the dollar since the start of the year.
On Thursday, the lira weakened by 3% against the dollar due to the lower-than-expected rate hike.
Erdogan, who won a third term in a runoff election May 28, reappointed Mehmet Simsek to the helm of the economy. The former Merrill Lynch banker had previously served as Erdogan’s finance minister and as a deputy prime minister until 2018.
Simsek said soon after his appointment that Turkey had no other option but to return to a “rational ground.”
In another sign of a move toward more pragmatic policies, Erdogan appointed Hafize Gaye Erkan this month as Turkey’s first female central bank governor. A former co-chief executive of the now-failed San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, Erkan replaced Sahap Kavcioglu, who oversaw a series of rate cuts.
“For now, Erdogan is happy to cede economic policymaking power to Governor Erkan and the new finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, so that Turkey can draw in much-needed foreign investment,” said Kinnear, the analyst.
“But if the likely impacts of orthodox policies, such as slowing economic growth from interest rate hikes, appear to threaten the president’s popularity, he could perform a volte-face and fire the new central bank governor,” Kinnear said.
Erdogan had fired three central bank governors who resisted pressure to cut interest rates before appointing Kavcioglu in 2021. Naci Agbal, who proceeded Kavcioglu, was removed from his post days after he raised rates.
Can Selcuki, director of the Turkiye Raporu polling agency and a former World Bank economist for Turkey, also said questions remain about whether the new officials would be able to “stick to their preferred policy” as the country heads to local elections in March.
“What needs to be done right now is some form of tightening, and that is an undesired process for any incumbent before elections,” he said.
On Tuesday, the government increased the minimum wage by 34% — a move that critics say is designed to ease the impact of inflation on households in the runup to next year’s vote.
___
Wieting reported from Istanbul. AP videojournalist Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul. | 2023-06-22T14:10:30+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/turkish-central-bank-faces-key-test-on-economic-turnaround-after-erdogans-reelection/ |
NYU Student Presents Stories Behind First Daughters' Weddings
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The White House Historical Association debuts a new digital exhibit today in partnership with New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Something Old, Something New: Eight First Daughters' Fashionable White House Weddings, examines the wedding fashion and décor choices of eight first daughters.
The exhibit is the result of a semester long internship offered by the Association to support the work of a NYU Costume Studies student. The 2023 internship recipient, Jill Staricka, worked closely with the Association's David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History and its Digital Library team.
Staricka created the exhibit using a mix of archival photography, illustrations, press clippings, and written first accounts, covering more than a hundred years in fashion history, from Maria Monroe to Tricia Nixon.
"Throughout the research process for this exhibit, I learned so much about how these women were involved in the process of designing and producing their wedding ensembles," said Staricka.
The digital exhibit features high resolution images with a zoom function, allowing visitors to engage closely with the wedding gowns, accessories, bouquets, and decor in the images.
"Jillian's incredible work sheds a new and artistic light on White House history and provides us with another tool to teach and tell the rich history of the Executive Mansion through the lens of weddings," said Stewart McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association.
Jillian Staricka is a first-year Costume Studies MA student at New York University in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
About The White House Historical Association
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned a restored White House that conveyed a sense of history through its decorative and fine arts. In 1961, the White House Historical Association was established to support her vision to preserve and share the Executive Mansion's legacy for generations to come. Supported entirely by private resources, the Association's mission is to assist in the preservation of the state and public rooms, fund acquisitions for the White House permanent collection, and educate the public on the history of the White House. Since its founding, the White House Historical Association has contributed more than $100 million in fulfillment of its mission. To learn more about the White House Historical Association, please visit www.whitehousehistory.org.
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SOURCE White House Historical Association | 2023-06-12T23:37:11+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/06/12/new-digital-exhibit-historic-white-house-wedding-fashion-design/ |
One patient's idea to brighten the season 'snowballs' into large-scale effort with Amazon
WALLINGFORD, Conn., Dec. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Christmas season will be much brighter for patients recovering from devastating illnesses and injuries at Connecticut's Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, thanks to the efforts and determination of one young woman whose thoughtfulness spurred a generous donation from Amazon.
Completely robbed of her mobility from a rare metabolic disease, the former athlete came to the nonprofit long-term acute care hospital in November for intensive inpatient rehabilitation in the hopes of restoring her function. She was sad not only because of her condition, but because she also knew that she would be spending part of the holiday season far from family and friends.
After purchasing a small light-up Christmas tree online, the woman quickly realized its presence in her hospital room brought her immense joy and peace.
"That tree really made me feel so much better," she said. "Suddenly, it wasn't scary being in the hospital anymore. It felt like Christmas."
The patient, who asked not to be identified, devised a plan that would allow her to share that "same special feeling" with other Gaylord patients by asking her family and friends to help her buy as many Christmas trees as possible. Their collective donations supported the purchase of more than 40 small trees.
After telling Gaylord employees, "I only wish I could do more," hospital staff reached out to Amazon in the hopes of making their patient's wish come true.
Within hours of the request, Caitlin McLaughlin, Amazon Public Relations New England, informed the hospital that they would donate an additional 85 light-up trees to cover the remainder of the hospital's 127 private rooms.
"It's incredible," said McLaughlin. "We knew that her wish was to be able to get a tree in every room and Amazon was very happy to grant that wish."
Throughout the week, Santa Claus and his elves have been distributing trees to Gaylord Specialty Healthcare patients who are recovering from life-altering illnesses and injuries ranging from traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, complex strokes and more.
In a note attached to each tree, the anonymous patient wrote that Amazon "made my wish of spreading joy to the entire hospital a reality."
"As you continue your own healing journey," she continued, "I sincerely hope that this tree will brighten your spirits this holiday season."
"There is a lot of love in here," said one patient, Shirley, after receiving a tree from Santa Claus. "I think it's wonderful because I think this time of the year should be about love and kindness."
Tara Knapp, Gaylord Vice President of External Affairs, said that she was impressed with Amazon's quick response to a single patient's desire to make a difference for others.
"The tree may be small, but the impact is huge," said Knapp. "Thanks to Amazon's generosity, we are in a position to give a tree and brighten the stay of any patient who wants one. It's about the gesture, the spirit, and ultimately making people's lives better."
About Gaylord Specialty Healthcare: Gaylord Specialty Healthcare is a rehabilitation-focused, nonprofit health system headquartered in Wallingford, Connecticut, that provides inpatient and outpatient care for people at every point in their journey from illness or injury to maximum recovery.
Gaylord Specialty Healthcare is anchored by Gaylord Hospital, a long-term acute care hospital, and includes Gaylord Outpatient Services and Gaylord Physical Therapy for patients who require diagnosis and treatment on an outpatient basis. Gaylord's Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation is a hub for accelerating world-class rehabilitative research, technology development and innovation to improve the quality of life and function of people around the world. Together, these entities deliver a complete continuum of rehabilitative care driven by clinical experience, innovation and human compassion.
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SOURCE Gaylord Specialty Healthcare | 2022-12-16T20:08:15+00:00 | mysuncoast.com | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/12/16/hospitalized-with-debilitating-disease-patients-wish-spread-holiday-joy-connecticut-hospital-comes-true/ |
Survey finds climate change concerns are highest among homeowners age 18 to 34
NEW YORK, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from insurtech leader Policygenius finds widespread concern about climate change-related extreme weather, especially among young homeowners.
The survey found that nearly three quarters (72%) of young insured homeowners (age 18 to 34) expect their homes to be damaged by extreme weather in the next 30 years (describing it as very or somewhat likely), compared to nearly half (45%) of all adult homeowners. Nearly two in three (64%) young homeowners believe it likely they will choose or be forced to move due to climate change-related extreme weather in the next 30 years, compared to 27% of all homeowners.
This disparity increases for young parents: 77% of young homeowners who have children under 18 expect to move in the next 30 years due to climate change-related extreme weather, compared to 25% of total non-parents and 15% of total parents with children older than 18.
"As natural disasters continue to worsen due to climate change, it's understandable if younger homeowners are wary of the future. In 2021, there were 20 climate disasters in the U.S. that each caused over $1 billion in damage. This included the unprecedented cold wave in Texas that left many homes without power, and Colorado's Marshall Fire which destroyed an entire community," Pat Howard, a licensed property and casualty insurance expert at Policygenius, said. "But there are multiple things you can do to protect your family and financial future, including checking to see if you have enough home or flood insurance coverage."
The Policygenius 2022 Climate Change Survey also found that:
- Many homeowners have already experienced damage due to extreme weather. Nearly one-third (31%) of insured homeowners have already sustained home damage from a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, flood, or other extreme weather event, while nearly half (48%) of homeowners know another homeowner who has.
- Many Americans may be underinsured. One-third (33%) of homeowners either don't believe they have enough insurance for a full rebuild of their homes, or aren't sure if they do. Just 21% of homeowners have purchased flood insurance, even though flood damage isn't covered by most home insurance policies.
- Homeowners in the South are most likely to have seen home damage from extreme weather. Around 37% have suffered damage to their home due to extreme weather, versus 31% of all homeowners. And more than half of Southern homeowners (54%) know someone whose home has been damaged by extreme weather, versus 48% of all homeowners.
- However, homeowners in the South aren't more likely to move. Over half (52%) of homeowners in the South think it likely their homes will be damaged by climate change-related extreme weather in the next 30 years. However, under one-third (31%) of Southern homeowners said they're likely to move in the next 30 years due to climate change, comparable with rates in the West (32%) and the Northeast (28%).
Policygenius commissioned YouGov to poll 1,348 insured American homeowners 18 or older. YouGov conducted this survey online from May 13 to May 17, 2022. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all U.S. adults (aged 18+). You can see additional data in the full report here.
Policygenius transforms the insurance journey for today's consumer, providing a one-stop platform where customers can compare options from top insurance carriers, get unbiased expert advice, buy policies, and manage their insurance portfolio, in one seamless, integrated experience. Our proprietary technology platform integrates with the leading life, disability, and home and auto insurance carriers and delivers an exceptional digital experience for both consumers and insurance carriers. Since 2014, our content, digital tools, and experts have served as a resource for millions of people on their insurance journey, and we have sold more than $170 billion in coverage. To receive Policygenius announcements, email press@policygenius.com.
For more information:
Brooke Niemeyer
Associate Director of Media Relations
brooke.niemeyer@policygenius.com
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SOURCE Policygenius | 2022-07-26T14:38:43+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/72-young-homeowners-expect-climate-change-related-extreme-weather-damage-their-homes-next-30-years/ |
PARIS (AP) — Zambia and its government creditors, including China, have reached a deal to restructure $6.3 billion in loans, the French government announced Thursday on the sidelines of a global finance summit in Paris.
The agreement covers loans from countries including France, the UK, South Africa, Israel and India as well as China — Zambia’s biggest creditor at $4.1 billion of the total. The deal, announced by officials who spoke anonymously in accordance with the French government’s customary practices, may provide a roadmap for how China will handle restructuring deals with other nations in debt distress.
The International Monetary Fund approved the deal, meaning it’s going to allow Zambia to receive more financing from the institution, the French said. A representative from the IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Zambia deal came at a summit with more than 50 world leaders, finance officials and activists to discuss ways of reforming a global financial system to better help developing nations struggling with debt, climate change and poverty.
Zambia — the continent’s biggest copper producer— became Africa’s first coronavirus-era sovereign nation to default when it failed to make a $42.5 million bond payment in November 2020. The debt has prevented the democratic nation from developing economically and taking on new projects. Experts have said such prolonged debt crises can send nations deeper into poverty and joblessness and exclude them from the credit they need to rebuild.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who is attending the summit, welcomed news of the Zambia deal. She visited Lusaka in January to meet with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and bring attention to the ramifications of its debt crisis.
“I saw firsthand how the weight of default and a stalled debt restructuring process can bring suffering to ordinary families and hold back economic growth,” Yellen said. She urged both official and private-sector creditors to quickly finalize debt restructuring to “encourage the private investment that is needed to jump-start the economy.”
Full details of the deal weren’t announced. The French officials said Zambia’s debt would be reorganized over 20 years, with a three-year grace period. It also includes a clause aimed at ensuring that Zambia gets similar treatment from private creditors, who hold an additional $6.8 billion in loans to Zambia, but it wasn’t clear that those private creditors could be required to do so.
“Private creditors know they’re going to need to restructure (the debt), they have been warned they’ll need to make a similar effort,” a French official said.
A memorandum of understanding is expected to formalize the deal in the coming weeks.
The deal is the second to be agreed under a mechanism — called the Group of 20 Common Framework — created at the end of year 2020 to associate the Paris Club of government creditors and other major economies from the Group of 20, including China, in debt negotiations.
The first was struck last year with Chad.
Yellen has called for debt overhang in other countries like Sri Lanka to be addressed as well.
___
Associated Press reporter Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
___
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. | 2023-06-23T16:55:55+00:00 | fox44news.com | https://www.fox44news.com/news/business-news/debt-plagued-zambia-reaches-deal-with-china-other-nations-to-rework-6-3b-in-loans-french-say/ |
Philly man gets 15 years in ATM blast during civil unrest
A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in one of dozens of explosions of automated teller machines in Philadelphia during civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago.
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that 26-year-old David Elmakayes of Philadelphia was sentenced for using an explosive device to damage an ATM and for illegal possession of a firearm.
Authorities said the defendant was carrying three additional explosive devices and other weapons when he was arrested shortly after a cash machine in North Philadelphia was damaged on the night of June 3, 2020.
Philadelphia police said at the time that 50 cash machines were hit by explosives in the same week amid civil unrest across the nation after Floyd was murdered by then officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis in May 2020.
U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Tuesday the defendant “took advantage of a volatile situation” and could have injured many people, and she vowed to “aggressively prosecute” similar crimes. Former U.S. Attorney William McSwain said when the charges were filed that blowing up an ATM and illegal weapons possession weren’t “acts of protest against perceived injustice.”
In Floyd’s killing, a former Minneapolis officer was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison on murder and manslaughter convictions and also pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s rights. Three other officers were convicted of federal civil rights violations; one has pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge and two await trial. | 2022-06-14T18:52:22+00:00 | whyy.org | https://whyy.org/articles/philly-atm-explosion-david-elmakayes-prison-sentence/ |
DENVER, June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from its 2022 annual general meeting of shareholders held on June 22, 2022 via live audio webcast (the "Meeting"). Each of the matters voted upon at the Meeting is discussed in detail in the Company's Proxy Statement dated April 28, 2022, a copy of which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.
The total number of votes cast at the Meeting was 47,203,015, representing 32.51% of the total number of votes attached to the outstanding voting shares of the Company. According to the proxies received, the results of the vote for the election of directors were as follows:
Detailed results of the matters considered at the Meeting are reported in the Report of Voting Results as filed on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.
About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.
Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands which includes Charlotte's Web™, CBD Medic™, CBD Clinic™, and Harmony Hemp™. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are 100-percent American farm -grown using organic and regenerative cultivation practices. The Company's hemp extracts have naturally occurring botanical compounds including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial compounds. Charlotte's Web product categories include full-spectrum hemp CBD oil tinctures (liquid products), CBD gummies (sleep, stress, exercise recovery), CBD capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as CBD pet products for dogs. Through its vertically integrated business model, Charlotte's Web maintains stringent control over product quality and consistency with 20+ product lot testing for quality assurance. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 15,000 retail, over 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.CharlottesWeb.com.
Forward-Looking Information
Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking information"). In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information.
Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's current expectations, estimates and projections regarding the future of our business, future plans, strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information include, among others, the factors discussed throughout the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's most recently filed annual information form available on www.SEDAR.com and in the Company's most recently filed Form 10, as amended, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on www.SEC.com. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.
THE WORLD'S MOST TRUSTED HEMP EXTRACT™
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SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. | 2022-06-23T23:56:45+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/23/charlottes-web-announces-shareholder-meeting-voting-results/ |
Teen human trafficking victim, who pleaded guilty to killing rapist, escapes custody in Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa authorities say an 18-year-old sex trafficking victim, who pleaded guilty to killing a man she said raped her, escaped from a women's center where she was serving her probation sentence.
Pieper Lewis was seen walking out of the building at the Fresh Start Women's Center in Des Moines shortly after 6:15 a.m. Friday, and at some point that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a probation violation report.
A warrant was issued for Lewis' arrest and the probation report asked for her deferred judgment to be revoked and have her original sentence imposed, KCCI reported. She could face up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors had called the probation sentence she was given in September merciful for a teen who endured horrible abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for her other needs.
During Lewis' sentencing, Polk County Judge David Porter told the teen that her probation sentence "was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third."
If Lewis had successfully completed five years of closely supervised probation her prison sentence would have been expunged.
Pieper Lewis speaks in court during her sentencing. (Courtesy: WOI)
Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, a married father of two.
The teen was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Officials have said Lewis was a runaway who was seeking to escape an abusive life with her adopted mother and was sleeping in the hallways of a Des Moines apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in before forcibly trafficking her to other men for sex.
Lewis said one of those men was Brooks and that he had raped her multiple times in the weeks before his death. She recounted being forced at knifepoint by the 28-year-old man to go with Brooks to his apartment for sex. She told officials that after Brooks had raped her yet again, she grabbed a knife from a bedside table and stabbed Brooks in a fit of rage.
RELATED: 20 arrested after Indiana child sex sting operation
Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked. But prosecutors have argued that Brooks was asleep at the time he was stabbed and not an immediate danger to Lewis.
Iowa is not among the dozens of states that have a so-called safe harbor law that gives trafficking victims at least some level of criminal immunity.
Prosecutors took issue with Lewis calling herself a victim in the case and said she failed to take responsibility for stabbing Brooks and "leaving his kids without a father."
She said she regretted the stabbing, "but to say there is one victim is absurd."
READ: Powerball jackpot soars to $1.9 billion after no winner Saturday night
Lewis, who earned her GED while being held in juvenile detention, acknowledged in a statement prior to her sentencing that she struggled with the structure of her detention, including "why I was treated like fragile glass" or wasn't allowed to communicate with her friends or family.
"My spirit has been burned, but still glows through the flames," she read from a statement she had prepared. "Hear me roar, see me glow, and watch me grow."
"I am a survivor," she added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 2022-11-07T16:43:23+00:00 | fox29.com | https://www.fox29.com/news/teen-human-trafficking-victim-who-pleaded-guilty-to-killing-rapist-escapes-custody-in-iowa |
Gyro Flat Sandwich brings another unique LTO to the Summertime Lineup
CHICAGO, July 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Potbelly (NASDAQ: PBPB) ("Potbelly" or the "Company") is bringing back the Gyro Flat! This fan favorite, simmering with flavors of traditional Greek street food, made its triumphant return Tuesday, July 5th for a limited time during the summer season.
The flavorful sandwich is filled with lamb and beef gyro meat, topped with tangy tzatziki sauce, crumbled feta, and fresh onion and tomato on flatbread – always served the Potbelly way, toasted at 500 degrees.
"Potbelly is committed to delivering the highest quality, craveable sandwiches that satisfy any consumer palette. We are excited to keep the good vibes going this summer with the return of this fan favorite," said David Daniels, CMO of Potbelly. "This delicious sandwich is a slight twist on the classic Gyro and yet another great addition to our stellar lineup of hot, oven-toasted sandwiches."
The tasty, toasty excitement doesn't stop there, on Tuesday, July 12, Potbelly Perks members who buy one Gyro Flat sandwich, get any Original-sized sandwich free. If you're not a member already, don't fret, it's not too late to sign up and take advantage of this offer.
To make the offer even sweeter, new fans downloading the app, and signing up for a Potbelly Perks reward account, earn another free sandwich after their first purchase.
For more information on Potbelly, visit www.potbelly.com.
Potbelly Corporation is a neighborhood sandwich concept that has been feeding customers' smiles with warm, toasty sandwiches, signature salads, hand-dipped shakes and other fresh menu items, customized just the way customers want them, for more than 40 years. Potbelly promises Fresh, Fast & Friendly service in an environment that reflects the local neighborhood. Since opening its first shop in Chicago in 1977, Potbelly has expanded to neighborhoods across the country, with more than 400 company-owned shops in the United States. Additionally, Potbelly franchisees operate over 40 shops in the United States. For more information, please visit our website at www.potbelly.com.
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SOURCE Potbelly Corporation | 2022-07-11T16:01:45+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/07/11/potbelly-celebrates-summer-with-flavors-mediterranean/ |
The war in Ukraine that began a year ago has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced entire cities to rubble and has fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO.
A look at some of the main events in the conflict.
2022
FEBRUARY
On Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches an invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south. He says the “special military operation” is aimed at “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the country to protect ethnic Russians, prevent Kyiv’s NATO membership and to keep it in Russia’s “sphere of influence.” Ukraine and the West say it’s an illegal act of aggression against a country with a democratically elected government and a Jewish president whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust.
Russian troops quickly reach Kyiv’s outskirts, but their attempts to capture the capital and other cities in the northeast meet stiff resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video outside his headquarters to show he is staying and remains in charge.
MARCH
On March 2, Russia claims control of the southern city of Kherson. In the opening days of March, Russian forces also seize the rest of the Kherson region and occupy a large part of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest.
The Russian army soon gets stuck near Kyiv, and its convoys — stretching along highways leading to the Ukrainian capital — become easy prey for Ukrainian artillery and drones. On March 16, Russia strikes a theater in the strategic port city of Mariupol where civilians had been sheltering, killing hundreds of people in one of the war’s deadliest attacks.
Moscow announces the withdrawal of forces from Kyiv and other areas March 29, saying it will focus on the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014 following the illegal annexation of Crimea.
APRIL
The Russian pullback from Kyiv reveals hundreds of bodies of civilians in mass graves or left in the streets of the town of Bucha, many of them bearing signs of torture in scenes that prompt world leaders to say Russia should be held accountable for possible war crimes.
On April 9, a Russian missile strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk kills 52 civilians and wounds over 100.
Intense battles rage for Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and Russian air strikes and artillery bombardment reduce much of it to ruins.
On April 13, the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, is hit by Ukrainian missiles and sinks the next day, damaging national pride.
MAY
On May 16, Ukrainian defenders of the giant Azovstal steel mill, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, agree to surrender to Russian forces after a nearly three-month siege. Mariupol’s fall cuts Ukraine off from the Azov coast and secures a land corridor from the Russian border to Crimea.
On May 18, Finland and Sweden submit their applications to join NATO in a major blow to Moscow over the expansion of the military alliance.
JUNE
More Western weapons flow into Ukraine, including U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.
On June 30, Russian troops pull back from Snake Island, located off the Black Sea port of Odesa and seized in the opening days of the invasion.
JULY
On July 22, Russia and Ukraine, with mediation by Turkey and the United Nations, agree on a deal to unblock supplies of grain stuck in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, ending a standoff that threatened global food security.
On July 29, a missile strike hits a prison in the Russia-controlled eastern town of Olenivka where Ukrainian soldiers captured in Mariupol were held, killing at least 53. Ukraine and Russia trade blame for the attack.
AUGUST
On Aug. 9, powerful explosions strike an air base in Crimea. More blasts hit a power substation and ammunition depots there a week later. signaling the vulnerability of the Moscow-annexed Black Sea peninsula that Russia has used as a major supply hub for the war. Ukraine’s top military officer later acknowledges that the attacks on Crimea were launched by Kyiv’s forces.
On Aug. 20, Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, dies in a car bomb explosion outside Moscow that the Russian authorities blame on Ukraine.
SEPTEMBER
On Sept. 6, the Ukrainian forces launch a surprise counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, quickly forcing Russia to pull back from broad areas held for months.
On Sept. 21, Putin orders mobilization of 300,000 reservists, an unpopular move that prompts hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee to neighboring countries to avoid recruitment. At the same time, Russia hastily stages illegal “referendums” in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on whether to become part of Russia. The votes are widely dismissed as a sham by Ukraine and the West.
On Sept. 30, Putin signs documents to annex the four regions at a Kremlin ceremony.
OCTOBER
On Oct. 8, a truck laden with explosives blows up on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia’s mainland in an attack that Putin blames on Ukraine. Russia responds with missile strikes on Ukraine’s power plants and other key infrastructure.
After the first wave of attacks on Oct. 10, the barrage continues on a regular basis in the months that follow, resulting in blackouts and power rationing across the country.
NOVEMBER
On Nov. 9, Russia announces a pullback from the city of Kherson under a Ukrainian counteroffensive, abandoning the only regional center Moscow captured, in a humiliating retreat for the Kremlin.
DECEMBER
On Dec. 5, the Russian military says Ukraine used drones to target two bases for long-range bombers deep inside Russian territory. Another strike takes places later in the month, underlining Ukraine’s readiness to up the ante and revealing gaps in Russian defenses.
On Dec. 21, Zelenskyy visits the United States on his first trip abroad since the war began, meeting with President Joe Biden to secure Patriot air defense missile systems and other weapons and addressing Congress.
2023
JANUARY
On Jan. 1, just moments into the New Year, scores of freshly mobilized Russian soldiers are killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on the city of Makiivka. Russia’s Defense Ministry says 89 troops were killed, while Ukrainian officials put the death toll in the hundreds.
After months of ferocious fighting, Russia declares the capture of the salt-mining town of Soledar on Jan. 12, although Kyiv does not acknowledge it until days later. Moscow also presses its offensive to seize the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut.
On Jan. 14, when Russia launches another wave of strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities, a Russian missile hits an apartment building in the city of Dnipro, killing 45. | 2023-02-17T15:48:45+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/international/ap-key-moments-in-a-year-of-war-after-russia-invaded-ukraine/ |
ATOKA, Okla. (KFOR) – Just when you thought she couldn’t fit anything else on her plate, you can now add “restaurant owner” to Reba McEntire’s resume.
“This has been a dream come true,” Reba told visitors during the restaurant’s grand opening on Thursday afternoon. “It has just turned out to be something that was way beyond my imagination.”
Shelley Johnson, an employee at Reba’s Place, said the place was buzzing with excitement on opening day.
“Everybody loves it,” Johnson said. “Everybody loves her.”
The three-story dining, bar, entertainment and retail venue is located in Atoka, about 12 miles south from Reba’s hometown of Chockie.
“I get another excuse to get to come home to our state,” said Reba. “It’s going to help our town, it’s going to help the community, it’s going to bring jobs in.”
The restaurant’s “soft opening” was held earlier this month. So far, Reba’s Place has drawn a crowd from all over the country to eat and check out the memorabilia all throughout the building.
“We’ve had people come from Florida, from Wyoming,” said Johnson. “I sat a couple that was here from Winsconsin the other day. It’s pretty amazing.”
The menu is said to be inspired by the food Reba grew up with in Southeast Oklahoma, as well as choices inspired from cities and regions associated with her career, like Nashville, Tennessee. Items include “slow smoked Choctaw beef brisket,” a Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich, and a “Southern charcuterie board” featuring country ham and boiled peanut hummus, among other apps and entrees.
Fans at Thursday night’s grand opening didn’t have to turn on the radio to hear Reba’s music, as she surprised guests with a performance.
“It’s music that helped build this place,” said Reba.
Directly before Reba took the stage, Janie Dillard, the senior executive officer of the Choctaw Nation’s division of commerce, also made sure to give Reba plenty of credit.
“Her hands are all over this property here tonight,” Dillard told diners at Thursday’s event. “She says, ‘The team did this, the team did that.’ No, she’s a woman very involved. She’s a savvy businesswoman. She’s picked out every dish you’ve got on your table tonight. She’s picked out every color. Draperies, color schemes, color palettes. Everything. She’s been so engaged.
“She’s on every call. We don’t have a call without her being on there,” Dillard said.
Reba’s Place is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the restaurant’s website. | 2023-01-28T19:14:44+00:00 | wate.com | https://www.wate.com/news/nexstar-media-wire/reba-mcentire-opens-3-story-restaurant-entertainment-venue-in-oklahoma-take-a-peek-inside/ |
$1 Billion investment part of long-term decarbonization strategy
HONOLULU, Nov. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Matson, Inc. ("Matson"; NYSE: MATX) today announced that its subsidiary, Matson Navigation Company, Inc., a leading U.S. carrier in the Pacific, has signed contracts with Philly Shipyard Inc. to build three new 3,600 TEU* Aloha Class containerships for an aggregate price of approximately $1 billion. The first vessel is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2026 with subsequent deliveries in 2027.
The new vessels will join two Aloha Class ships previously built for Matson by Philly Shipyard that entered service in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Like their sisterships, the new vessels will be equipped with dual fuel engines that are designed to operate on either conventional marine fuels or liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as other "green ship technology" features, such as a fuel-efficient hull design and environmentally safe double hull fuel tanks and freshwater ballast systems. While the earlier ships require some modification to operate with LNG, the new ships will be delivered LNG-ready.
"Our existing Aloha Class ships are among the fastest, most efficient vessels in the Matson fleet," said Matt Cox, chairman and chief executive officer. "These new Jones Act compliant vessels will be built specifically for our China-Long Beach Express service, and like their sisterships, are expected to help Matson achieve its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal while also providing additional capacity and speed benefitting our Hawaii service as well as the CLX."
The 854-foot Aloha Class vessels are the largest containerships ever built in the U.S. and are designed to operate at speeds in excess of 23 knots in support of Matson's service hallmark – timely delivery of goods.
Philly Shipyard is a leading U.S. commercial shipyard constructing vessels for operation in the domestic Jones Act trade lanes. Prior to Matson's first two Aloha Class ships, the shipyard delivered four newly built Jones Act containerships for Matson between 2003 and 2006.
"It is the ultimate compliment when a former customer returns for another project. We are proud of the six vessels previously delivered to Matson, and are again ready to execute and deliver this important project." said Steinar Nerbovik, Philly Shipyard president and chief executive officer.
The three new Aloha Class ships will replace three vessels currently deployed in Matson's China-Long Beach Express (CLX) service, which will in turn replace three older vessels currently deployed in its Alaska service, redeploying bigger and faster vessels into that trade lane.
Matson expects to finance the new vessels with cash currently in the Capital Construction Fund and through cash flows from operations, borrowings available under the Company's unsecured revolving credit facility and additional debt financings.
Matson has set corporate goals to achieve a 40 percent reduction in Scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) fleet emissions by 2030 and net-zero Scope 1 GHG emissions by 2050.
* TEU = Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, the standard unit of measurement for container capacity
Founded in 1882, Matson (NYSE: MATX) is a leading provider of ocean transportation and logistics services. Matson provides a vital lifeline to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam, and to other island economies in Micronesia. Matson also operates premium, expedited services from China to Long Beach, California, provides service to Okinawa, Japan and various islands in the South Pacific, and operates an international export service from Dutch Harbor to Asia. The Company's fleet of owned and chartered vessels includes containerships, combination container and roll-on/roll-off ships and custom-designed barges. Matson Logistics, established in 1987, extends the geographic reach of Matson's transportation network throughout North America. Its integrated, asset-light logistics services include rail intermodal, highway brokerage, warehousing, freight consolidation, Asia supply chain services, and forwarding to Alaska. Additional information about the Company is available at www.matson.com.
Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including without limitation those statements regarding vessel delivery dates, fleet capacity and efficiency, vessel speeds, fleet deployment, future vessel replacement expectations, financings, decarbonization strategy, and achievement of greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the relevant forward-looking statement, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties relating to the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the vessel construction agreements; the ability of the shipyard to construct and deliver the Aloha Class vessels; repeal, substantial amendment or waiver of the Jones Act or its application, or our failure to maintain our status as a United States citizen under the Jones Act; changes in economic conditions or governmental policies, including from the COVID-19 pandemic; fuel prices, our ability to collect fuel related surcharges and/or the cost or limited availability of required fuels; evolving stakeholder expectations related to environmental, social and governance matters; timely or successful completion of fleet upgrade initiatives; the occurrence of poor weather, natural disasters, maritime accidents, spill events and other physical and operating risks, including those arising from climate change; transitional and other risks arising from climate change; the magnitude and timing of the impact of public health crises, including COVID-19; war, terrorist attacks or other acts of violence; loss of key personnel or failure to adequately manage human capital; changes in our credit profile and our future financial performance; our ability to obtain future debt financings; continuation of the Title XI and CCF programs; costs to comply with and liability related to numerous safety, environmental, and other laws and regulations; and disputes, legal and other proceedings and government inquiries or investigations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. This release should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and our other filings with the SEC through the date of this release, which identify important factors that could affect the forward-looking statements in this release. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE MATSON, INC. - PR | 2022-11-02T21:33:56+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/11/02/matson-add-three-lng-powered-aloha-class-containerships/ |
ANGEL FIRE, N.M. (KRQE) – More people are being forced from their homes tonight as the Calf Canyon Hermit’s Peak Fire continues to move north. High winds today didn’t help as the flames got closer and closer to communities like Taos and Angel Fire. While the community of Black Lake has been put on “go” status, officials in nearby Angel Fire say they’re prepared for the long fight ahead.
Kevin Henson is the Fire Chief for the village of Angel Fire. “Today schools were shut down, everybody’s just anticipating what’s happening. There’s ash falling in town. There’s not hot embers, just ash but that’s really waking people up.
For weeks crews with the Angel Fire Fire Department have been prepping to fight the Calf Canyon Hermit’s Peak Fires. “We’re ready for what we can do. We also know there are a lot of things we can’t do. We’re not going to fight a wind-driven fire. We’re not going to fight a fire that’s crowning in the trees. Those are not safe fires to fight,” Chief Henson said.
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If the fires reach Angel Fire it would have a huge impact on the popular resort town. but for now the ski area is helping with efforts to slow the spread of the fires. Chief Henson explains, “They’ve redirected their snow-making equipment to be able to charge the mountain with water should that be necessary that prep work has already happened.”
Fire Chief Kevin Henson also urges people to evacuate when officials say it’s time to go. “Choosing to not evacuate that not only puts yourself at risk but it puts the firefighters and the police officers at risk because we’re going to keep checking on those people.”
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One evacuee from Encinal Canyon has been staying in Taos for weeks. Jim Werdel shares, “I made that decision at the very start. The fire was down in Hermit’s Peak and I didn’t want to go down to Vegas because that’s driving into the mouth of the dragon.”
He’s staying in a hotel but shares why he frequently stops by the shelter. “For food. For food and for company. 90 percent of why I come here is just to talk with the people.”
Fire crews understand that they’re in this fight for the long haul. “We’re going to be in this for a significant amount of time and that may be until the monsoons come or until we get to places that are really defensible.”
Tonight, Angel Fire Resort is housing firefighters coming in to help with these wildfires. While Angel Fire is still in the “set” status, Black Lake, which is about 6 miles south of Angel Fire, is in the “go” stage. There are two official red cross shelters in Taos County that are taking in Mora County evacuees. One at the Juan I. Gonzalez Center and the other at the high school in Penasco. | 2022-05-12T04:12:53+00:00 | krqe.com | https://www.krqe.com/news/wildfires/more-new-mexicans-evacuate-as-calf-canyon-hermits-peak-fire-grows/ |
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Gregory Allen, University of California, San Francisco
(THE CONVERSATION) Teaching the body’s immune cells to recognize and fight cancer is one of the holy grails in medicine. Over the past two decades, researchers have developed new immunotherapy drugs that stimulate a patient’s immune cells to significantly shrink or even eliminate tumors. These treatments often focus on increasing the cancer-killing ability of cytotoxic T cells. However, these treatments appear to only work for the small group of patients who already have T cells within their tumors. One 2019 study estimated that under 13% of cancer patients responded to immunotherapy.
To bring the benefits of immunotherapy to more patients, scientists have turned to synthetic biology, a new field of study that seeks to redesign nature with new and more useful functions. Researchers have been developing a novel type of therapy that directly gives patients a new set of T cells engineered to attack tumors: chimeric antigen receptor T cells, or CAR-T cells for short.
As an oncology physician and researcher, I believe that CAR-T cell therapy has the potential to transform cancer treatment. It’s already being used to treat lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and has shown remarkable response rates where other treatments have failed.
However, similar success against certain types of tumors such as lung or pancreatic cancer has been slower to develop because of the unique obstacles they put up against T cells. In our newly published research, my colleagues and I have found that adding a synthetic circuit to CAR-T cells could potentially help them bypass the barriers that tumors put up and enhance their ability to eliminate more types of cancer.
How does CAR-T cell therapy work?
CAR-T cell therapy starts with doctors isolating a patient’s T cells from a sample of their blood. These T cells are then taken back to the lab, where they are genetically engineered to produce a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR.
CARs are synthetic receptors specifically designed to redirect T cells from their usual targets have them recognize and hone in on tumor cells. On the outside of a CAR is a binder that allows the T cell to stick to tumor cells. Binding to a tumor cell activates the engineered T cell to kill and produce inflammatory cytokines proteins that support T cell growth and function and boost their cancer-killing abilities.
These CAR-T cells are then stimulated to divide into large numbers over seven to 10 days, then given back to the patient via infusion. The infusion process usually takes place at a hospital where clinicians can monitor for signs of an overactive immune response against tumors, which can be deadly for the patient.
Driving T cells into solid tumors
While CAR-T cell therapy has seen success in blood cancers, it has faced hurdles when fighting what are called solid tumor cancers like pancreatic cancer and melanoma. Unlike cancers that begin in the blood, these types of cancers grow into a solid mass that produces a microenvironment of molecules, cells and structures that prevent T cells from entering into the tumor and triggering an immune response. Here, even CAR-T cells engineered to specifically target a patient’s unique tumor are unable to access it, suppressing their ability to kill tumor cells.
For the synthetic biology community, the failures of the first generation of CAR-T cell therapy was a call to action to develop a new family of synthetic receptors to tackle the unique challenges solid tumors posed. In 2016, my colleagues in the Lim Lab at the University of California, San Francisco developed a new synthetic receptor that could complement the first CAR design. This receptor, called synthetic Notch receptor, or synNotch, is based on the natural form of Notch in the body, which plays an important role in organ development across many species.
Similar to CARs, the outside of synNotch has a binder that allows T cells to stick to tumor cells. Unlike CARs, the inside of synNotch has a protein that is released when a T cell binds to the tumor. This protein, or transcription factor, allows researchers to better control the T cell by inducing it to produce a specific protein.
For example, one of the most useful applications of synNotch thus far has been to use it to ensure that engineered T cells are only activated when bound to a tumor cell and not healthy cells. Because a CAR may bind to both tumor and healthy cells and induce T cells to kill both, my colleagues engineered T cells that are only activated when both synNotch and CAR are bound to the tumor cell. Because T cells now require both CAR and synNotch receptors to recognize tumors, this increases the precision of T cell killing.
We wondered if we could use synNotch to improve CAR-T cell activity against solid tumors by inducing them to produce more of the inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-2, that enable them to kill tumor cells. Researchers have made many attempts to provide extra IL-2 to help CAR-T cells clear tumors. But because these cytokines are highly toxic, there is a limit to how much IL-2 a patient can safely tolerate, limiting their use as a drug.
So we designed CAR-T cells to produce IL-2 using synNotch. Now, when a CAR-T cell encounters a tumor, it produces IL-2 within the tumor instead of outside it, avoiding causing harm to surrounding healthy cells. Because synNotch is able to bypass the barriers tumors put up, it is able to help T cells amp up and maintain the amount of IL-2 they can make, allowing the T cells to keep functioning even in a hostile microenvironment.
We tested our CAR-T cells modified with synNotch on mice with pancreatic cancer and melanoma. We found that CAR-T cells with synNotch-induced IL-2 were able to produce enough extra IL-2 to overcome the tumors’ defensive barriers and fully activate, completely eliminating the tumors. While all of the mice receiving synNotch modified CAR-T cells survived, none of the CAR-T-only mice did.
Furthermore, our synNotch modified CAR-T cells were able to trigger IL-2 production without causing toxicity to healthy cells in the rest of the body. This suggests that our method of engineering T cells to produce this toxic cytokine only where it is needed can help improve the effectiveness of CAR-T cells against cancer while reducing side effects.
Next steps
Fundamental questions remain on how this work in mice will translate to people. Our group is currently conducting more studies on using CAR-T cells with synNotch to produce IL-2, with the goal of entering early stage clinical trials to examine its safety and efficacy in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Our findings are one example of how advances in synthetic biology make it possible to engineer solutions to the most fundamental challenges in medicine.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/anti-cancer-car-t-therapy-reengineers-t-cells-to-kill-tumors-and-researchers-are-expanding-the-limited-types-of-cancer-it-can-target-196471. | 2022-12-15T19:29:11+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Anti-cancer-CAR-T-therapy-reengineers-T-cells-to-17656822.php |
Republicans are blasting President Biden for leaving Washington for Asia on Wednesday without significant progress on debt limit negotiations, as the country inches toward a deadline on defaulting that could prove catastrophic on the financial system.
Biden will be in Japan for this weekend’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit but has canceled the latter portion of his trip, which included stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia, to be back in the nation’s capital and resume talks with congressional leaders.
Even with the shortened trip, lawmakers criticized Biden for taking off at all.
“Here we are on the brink of a Biden default. And I think we saw the helicopters going across here, and I said I think he’s leaving now to go to Japan. I’m like stop, stop,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said during an outdoor press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.
She criticized the president for priding himself on being a good negotiator yet not negotiating with Republicans between the beginning of February until last week, when he brought leaders to the table again.
“Mr. President, cancel your trip to Japan. Stay at the table,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D). “Good grief, Mr. President, when is enough, enough? Shame on anyone, on anyone, who refuses to act. Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy and this entire team have been responsible, reasonable and sensible. Time is short, Mr. President. Let’s get this done.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has gone toe-to-toe with Biden on some key policy issues, said the president “should not leave, and he should worry about the debt limit here at home.”
After his meeting with Biden and other congressional leaders Tuesday, McCarthy was asked if Biden should even be attending the G-7 and responded that the president can make his own decisions about his time.
The White House maintains Biden can be president anywhere, a line they often use when he heads out of Washington.
But on the day of Biden’s departure, McCarthy slightly changed his tune, saying, “I think he can” conduct international business while dealing with the debt ceiling before suggesting that the president should not have taken the trip.
“I think America wants an American president focused on American problems,” the California Republican said.
Biden delivered last-minute, unexpected remarks just before take off where he tried to assure the nation that leaders could come to an agreement before the country could default on its debt on June. 1 He referred to his shortened trip, indicating that would return Sunday after the G-7. His absence disrupted another international event — a planned Quad Leaders’ summit in Sydney was canceled once Biden determined he would not attend.
When questioned about Biden’s indication that he can return to Washington on Sunday, have a press conference and finish the deal, McCarthy poked at the president for not engaging in talks between Feb. 1 and last week.
“It’s doable, but this is for a guy who didn’t want to meet with us for 97 days, and leaves the country and says he wants to come back Sunday to have a press conference? I really want a president that’s engaged and working through it,” the Speaker said.
The White House brushed off Republican criticism over Biden leaving Washington at all, highlighting the significance of the G-7.
“One of the responsibilities that an American president has is our leadership on the global stage, which is incredibly important and critical,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on the way to Japan, by way of Alaska, on Wednesday. “There are critical issues, yes, domestically, but also internationally that the president has to take on.”
McCarthy at the White House on Tuesday outlined that Biden had “changed the scope” of who is involved in talks, appointing White House officials, including his Office of Management and Budget director, to work directly with members of the Speaker’s team as they try to reach an agreement.
Biden on Wednesday said that group met last night and will meet again Wednesday as well as in the days following. Biden added he will be in “constant contact” with his team while at the G-7 and in touch with the Speaker.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan defended the decision to cancel the second leg of the trip when questioned about the White House previously insisting that Biden can do the job of president anywhere — right before they announced the trip would be cut short.
“As we were getting prepared to take off on this trip, he … made the determination that in the balance of his time, he needed to be back in Washington for the closing days before the deadline to ensure the United States does not go over a cliff,” Sullivan said.
“The president is confident that we can avoid default, but the reason he’s going back is to make sure that happens. So what he will tell [allies] is he is going home to do what a president does,” Sullivan said, adding that Biden will express confidence to allies that he can strike a deal.
Vice President Harris is set to provide an update to reporters on preventing default Thursday, alongside the director of the National Economic Council Director, Lael Brainard, indicating that she is also stepping in while the president is away.
That’s still not enough for lawmakers.
“[Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen] said the U.S. could default as early as June 1, which is 16 days away. With this as a backdrop, President Biden is planning to hop on a plane to Japan tomorrow,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Tuesday. “He can’t fly halfway around the globe just as negotiations are gaining momentum.”
Meanwhile, some Democrats defended the president’s decision to leave town.
“I don’t think he’s the one sitting in the room doing the negotiations. I think he’s the one, hopefully, leading the people in the room negotiating, but he can do that via Zoom or via telephone call,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said. “Look, there’s a lot of shit going on in the world he needs to be tending to, too.”
Similarly, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said Biden’s trip to the G-7 is a high priority.
“President Biden has a G-7 meeting, which is an effort to establish global security. It’s a very high priority,” he said. “I hope that Speaker McCarthy doesn’t try to use that [against him].” | 2023-05-17T22:34:16+00:00 | upmatters.com | https://www.upmatters.com/hill-politics/stop-stop-gop-bashes-biden-for-taking-off-during-debt-showdown/ |
This evening in Tulsa: Clear. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable. Thursday, the forecast is showing warm temperatures for the Tulsa community. It should reach a mild 78 degrees. Expect a drastic drop in temperatures though, with a low reaching 47 degrees. It should be a fairly cloudless day. Tomorrow's forecast is calling for clear skies. Winds should be calm tomorrow, with forecast showing winds from southwest, clocking in at 4 mph. This report is created automatically with weather data provided by TownNews.com. Visit tulsaworld.com for more weather updates.
Oct. 19, 2022 evening weather update for Tulsa
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With overnight freezes expected this week, vegetation will turn brown, increasing the chances for wildfires, Tulsa Area Emergency Management Director Joe Kralicek said.
Before we had modern technology and forecasters, we had persimmons, squirrel tails and wooly worms. … And groundhogs.
Tulsa World Meteorologist Kirsten Lang talked to a master gardener and chemist, who said: “The biggest concern this year with fall colors is the lack of moisture."
Changes will come this evening as a cold front is forecast to move across the state. Before it does the temperatures will warm into the upper …
It will be a chilly start, and a colder afternoon. Temperatures today will start near that freezing mark, and only warm to the low-50s. Mostly…
Today will be dry, sunny with temperatures in the mid 80s. Winds will be from the south around 5-10 mph.
Today will be cooler with a north breeze and sunny skies. Highs by the afternoon will only warm to the low 70s.
After last night's cold front we can expect much different conditions today. A few lingering showers are possible early, then we will see clou…
Today we will have more sunshine than Sunday. After clearing skies overnight, sunshine will persist through the afternoon. Cooler air settles …
It will be a very chilly start to the day. Temperatures will be in the 20s. As we move through the afternoon the highs will warm into the low-… | 2022-10-19T22:26:23+00:00 | tulsaworld.com | https://tulsaworld.com/weather/oct-19-2022-evening-weather-update-for-tulsa/article_fff959b5-6b42-5866-8f05-55d79c76d3ea.html |
Asian shares mostly gain after upbeat finish on Wall Street
BANGKOK -- Shares in Asia were mostly higher Monday as gains carried over from a strong finish last week on Wall Street.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul advanced while Shanghai was closed for a holiday. Oil prices nudged higher and U.S. futures were nearly unchanged.
Analysts said a healthy report Friday on the U.S. jobs market eased worries over the recovery from the pandemic, though it also reinforced the likelihood of more interest rate hikes.
Shares in Hong Kong-traded Chinese companies rose after a report that regulators in Beijing have agreed to allow U.S. regulators full access to their audit of those that have shares listed in New York.
The Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported that China proposed revising rules that restrict sharing financial data of offshore-traded companies in a step toward resolving a long-running dispute that could result in more than 200 Chinese stocks being kicked off U.S. exchanges. It would remove a requirement that on-site inspections of overseas-traded Chinese companies mainly be conducted by Chinese regulators, Caixin said.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.2% to 22,313.83 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.2% to 27,713.47. The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.3%, to 2,748.83. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 7,527.20 while India's Sensex jumped 2% to 60,455.88.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 4,545.86. The benchmark index eked out a slight gain for the week, its third straight advance amid lingering concerns about high inflation, higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve and the economic effects of the war in Ukraine.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4 to 34,818.27, while the Nasdaq rose 0.3% to 14,261.50. The Russell 2000 gained 1% to 2,091.11.
The government report showing employers added 431,000 jobs last month was slightly below economists' expectations for 477,500 jobs but it included a revision of earlier months' data to reflect more strength. It showed raises for workers accelerated last month but at a slower pace than overall inflation, while the unemployment rate improved to 3.6% from 3.7%.
A strong jobs market and economy give the Federal Reserve more leeway to raise interest rates sharply in order to beat down price increases sweeping the country. The Fed has already raised its key overnight rate once, the first such increase since 2018. Following Friday's jobs report, traders increased bets that the Fed will raise rates at its next meeting by double the usual amount.
In the bond market, the yield on the two-year Treasury approached its highest level in more than three years, leaping to 2.45% from 2.28% late Thursday.
The two-year yield again surpassed the 10-year yield, which was also climbing, but not as quickly. As of early Monday, the 10-year yield was at 2.41%, up from 2.38% on Friday.
The two-year yield topped the 10-year yield for the first time since 2019 last week. That's considered a potentially ominous sign a recession may be coming.
But it's not a perfect predictor and some economists say markets may be distorted by extraordinary measures taken by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to keep interest rates low.
Oil and gas prices have been rising as demand recovers from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a major oil and gas producer, has raised the risk that sanctions and export restrictions might crimp supplies.
A barrel of U.S. crude oil gained 2 cents to $99.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange early Monday. It dipped 1% on Friday to $99.27. Early last month, when disruptions to crude supplies were at their height, it briefly touched $130.
Brent crude, the international standard for pricing, picked up 13 cents to $104.52 per barrel.
In currency dealings, the dollar bought 122.62 Japanese yen, nearly unchanged from 122.61 late Friday. The euro rose to $1.1047 from $1.1042. | 2022-04-04T14:46:23+00:00 | dailyherald.com | https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20220404/business/304049994/ |
Gwyneth Paltrow won’t recoup attorney fees in ski crash suit
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow will not recoup the attorneys’ fees she paid to successfully defend herself against a lawsuit from a 76-year-old retired optometrist who claimed she was at fault for crashing into him at a posh Utah ski resort in 2016.
In a ruling published on Saturday, a Utah judge said attorneys for Paltrow and Terry Sanderson had agreed to drop the matter of Paltrow’s attorneys’ fees. District Court Judge Kent Holmberg’s final judgment did not detail why the matter of attorneys’ fees that Paltrow sought in her 2019 countersuit was dropped.
The judgment affirmed the jury’s unanimous verdict finding Terry Sanderson — the man who collided with Paltrow — to be “100% at fault,” awarding Paltrow the $1 she sought in a countersuit. It also said Sanderson would not appeal the verdict, effectively ending a protracted legal battle seven years after the two crashed on a beginner run near the base of Deer Valley Resort in Utah.
Representatives for Paltrow were not immediately available to answer questions about the final judgment or the money at stake. Neither side has publicly disclosed how much it cost to sustain a yearslong legal battle with a team of attorneys, expert witnesses from around the United States and, for Paltrow’s side, high-resolution animated recreations of her recollections of the crash.
The “Shakespeare in Love” and “Ironman” star’s eight-day court battle last month emerged as the most closely watched American celebrity trial since actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off last year. Sanderson’s lawsuit accused Paltrow of negligence and crashing into him from behind, and then leaving the scene of the accident without ensuring he was in good physical condition. He sought more than $300,000 in damages — a threshold in Utah civil court that allows parties to introduce the most evidence and depose the longest list of witnesses.
Paltrow subsequently countersued for the symbolic $1 and attorneys’ fees — claiming Sanderson had crashed into her from behind and was suing to exploit her fame and celebrity.
“I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity,” the founder and CEO of the beauty and wellness brand Goop said.
Under the glare of live Court TV cameras and extensive scrutiny from fans and detractors, Paltrow sat intently in the Park City courtroom throughout the proceedings last month, at and testified that at first, when the crash happened, she thought she was being “violated.”
After the verdict, Sanderson’s attorneys said they were weighing whether to appeal the case or to file for a new trial. Paltrow and her attorney said in separate statements that the countersuit more to do with her principles than the dollar amount at stake. They were not immediately available to comment on the final judgment.
___
This story’s headline has been corrected to show that Gwyneth Paltrow won’t recoup attorneys’ fees that she paid to defend herself in a recent lawsuit, not that she denied the attorneys’ fees.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-05-02T00:53:31+00:00 | uppermichiganssource.com | https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2023/05/02/gwyneth-paltrow-wont-recoup-attorney-fees-ski-crash-suit/ |
Posted: Aug 29, 2022 / 10:46 AM EDT Updated: Aug 29, 2022 / 10:46 AM EDT SHARE CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Labor Department data shows that 82,000 employees in South Carolina quit their jobs back in June. | 2022-09-23T03:42:10+00:00 | qcnews.com | https://www.qcnews.com/queen-city-news-now/rise-in-south-carolina-job-openings/ |
Video Of Carthage, TX Softball Player Tricking Catcher Has Gone Viral
She Hit Her With One Of The Oldest Tricks In The Book And It Still Works!
Baseball and softball seasons are underway and here in East Texas, a few of local high school players have gone VIRAL for a play that has received a ton of attention from national sports outlets as well.
The video was captured during Carthage’s Tuesday night game against the Center Roughriders.
In the video shared by The Panola Watchman on Facebook , it shows Carthage High senior player Jada Walton rounding 3rd base on her way to home plate. When she gets there though, she's met by the catcher who tries to tag her out and misses.
Wilson and the catcher have a "stare down" when Wilson creatively turned to one of the oldest tricks ever.
Wilson quickly pointed towards the first base line as the two were staring each other down and the catcher to everyone's surprised, turned and looked to see what Wilson was pointing at and she quickly ducked under the catcher and touched home plate.
The Video Has Since Been Seen On ABC's Good Morning America and ESPN's Sportscenter.
Wilson's head up play helped lead Carthage to a win over Center 7-5 while also putting the team on the map as the viral video has been seen by millions. While the usual "social media peanut gallery" and goofy adults criticized the catcher for falling for such a simple trick, Wilson in an interview with KLTV says that during the stare down both her and the catcher were "smiling" at each other and she added that she thinks she might have fell for it herself. At the end of the day, all that matters is, BOTH players and teams had FUN and the internet has another great sports highlight to share. | 2023-03-24T01:38:25+00:00 | knue.com | https://knue.com/video-of-carthage-tx-softball-player-tricking-catcher-has-gone-viral/ |
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's parliament on Thursday removed the protective immunity of two lawmakers linked to one of the bloc's biggest-ever corruption scandals, paving the way for them to be questioned by Belgian investigators.
In a show of hands, the assembly voted overwhelmingly to lift the parliamentary immunity of Belgian lawmaker Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino. Both men previously said, through their lawyers, that they are willing to cooperate with the Belgian authorities.
Live television images showed that Tarabella voted in favor of having his own immunity lifted.
The two have denied any links to the scandal, in which Qatari and Moroccan officials are suspected of offering bribes to influence decisions at the European Parliament. Qatar and Morocco have also vehemently denied involvement, but the assembly has suspended work on all Qatar-related files.
According to the report prepared to allow Taraballa’s immunity to be lifted, a Belgian investigation shows that he “may have been involved in acts of corruption connected with interference by one or more foreign states aimed at influencing the debates and decisions taken in the European Parliament.”
It said that “testimony against him suggests that such payments were made to him on several occasions, amounting to a total of between" 120,000 and 140,000 euros ($132,00 and $154,000).
The Cozzolino report said that the Italian EU lawmaker “is suspected of having, from 2019 onwards, participated in an agreement with other persons to cooperate in protecting the interests of foreign states in the European Parliament.”
This was apparently done, at least in part, “by impeding the adoption of parliamentary resolutions that might damage the interests of those states, in exchange for sums of money,” the report said.
Tarabella and Cozzolino are from the center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) — the second-biggest political group in the assembly and which has been hardest hit by the corruption allegations.
The scandal came to light in early December after authorities launched a series of raids across Brussels, and in Italy, seizing hundreds of thousands of euros.
Four people were charged with corruption, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization. They are S&D lawmaker Eva Kaili, who was an assembly vice president until the charges came to light; her partner and parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi; former S&D lawmaker Pier Antonio Panzeri, and the head of a charity group, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca.
Panzeri has since reached an agreement with Belgian prosecutors to act as an informant. He has promised to reveal the names of those involved and how money might have been moved around, in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Credit: Thierry Monasse
Credit: Thierry Monasse
Credit: Jean-Francois Badias
Credit: Jean-Francois Badias | 2023-02-02T11:21:35+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/nation-world/eu-assembly-lifts-immunity-of-2-lawmakers-linked-to-scandal/33Y6FW5NHND73DP77FX7I5BDIQ/ |
BOSTON (AP) — The family of a man who was badly hurt when an SUV crashed into an Apple store in Massachusetts, killing one person and injuring 20, sued the company, the driver and the property owners Tuesday in one of the first lawsuits filed over the crash.
Matthew Timberger, of Falmouth, suffered broken bones and other serious injuries when the vehicle drove into the store in Hingham on Nov. 21, the lawsuit said. He and his family accuse the driver of negligently operating the vehicle, and Apple and the property owners of negligently failing to place barriers that might have prevented a car from entering the store.
“The frontage of the Apple Store features tall glass windows and doors, reaching all the way to the ground. These glass windows and doors are not designed or engineered or reinforced in such a way where they would act as an effective barrier against a moving motor vehicle,” the lawsuit said.
Neither Apple nor property owners and managers WS Development immediately responded to messages seeking comment.
Doug Sheff, an attorney for the family, said that while there were no protective barriers in front of the store, the shopping plaza did have them in front of electrical fixtures and trash receptacles behind the building.
Two store employees have also sued over the crash, though they did not name Apple as a defendant.
Driver Bradley Rein has pleaded not guilty to charges that he was reckless when the SUV crashed through the window.
Rein told police he was looking for an eyeglass store at the shopping center when his right foot became stuck on the accelerator, according to court documents. He said he used his left foot to try to brake but couldn’t stop the vehicle.
A phone number could not be located for Rein, who was being represented by a public defender on the criminal charges. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had a lawyer representing him in the lawsuits.
The Timberger family, including Timberger’s wife, Christina, and their two children, are seeking damages that include compensation for his injuries, lost earnings and harm to their family relationships. | 2022-11-30T04:43:05+00:00 | fox59.com | https://fox59.com/business/ap-business/ap-lawsuits-claim-negligence-in-massachusetts-apple-store-crash/ |
WFO EL PASO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, November 26, 2022
_____
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service El Paso Tx/Santa Teresa NM
244 PM MST Fri Nov 25 2022
...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT MST
TONIGHT...
* WHAT...A mix of rain and snow, with snow accumulations of 1 to 2
inches across the lowlands.
* WHERE...Hudspeth county in Far West Texas, primarily over
northern and eastern portions of the county.
* WHEN...Through tonight at midnight.
* IMPACTS...Roads may become slick, snow packed, and hazardous.
This includes interstate 10 and Highway 62/180.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A Winter Weather Advisory for snow means that periods of snow
will cause primarily travel difficulties. Be prepared for snow
covered roads and limited visibilities, and use caution while
driving.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | 2022-11-25T23:23:30+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-EL-PASO-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17611086.php |
State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller said Friday the case against Frank J. Bredt Jr. led to the "most horrendous trial" in his 16 years as a judge. In fact, he had been asked for the first time if he required counseling due to his involvement.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan D. Haggerty said it was the most "depravity and cruelty" he had seen in 12 years as a prosecutor.
Bredt, 34, received Friday the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the 2018 killing of his girlfriend Elisabeth Bell, whom he doused with gasoline and set ablaze after he learned she removed his belongings from her house during a fight over a text message. Bredt had been convicted by an Erie County jury on two charges of second-degree murder – intentional murder and felony murder – on March 29 following a six-day trial.
"It was a ghastly, horrendous crime," Boller said to Bredt on Friday, raising his voice. "You should never see the light of day again as a free man." He then gave Bredt, who was present in a wheelchair, the maximum sentence.
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"Hopefully I can wake up tomorrow and I can think about her in happy memories, instead of now when I think about her and all of a sudden being sad," said Cheri Altemoos, the victim's mother, less than a half hour after court adjourned. She said she was pleased with the judge's decision; she had worried Bredt would face a shorter prison time.
"I loved everything he said," Altemoos said of the judge's final words. "I liked his anger. I really, really was so emotionally touched that somebody came down and offered him counseling."
In his closing statement, Assistant District Attorney Haggerty emphasized what Bredt said to his employer during a phone call earlier on the night of the fire: "If any of my [expletive] is missing, I'm going to burn the whole fat [expletive] family's house down." Prosecutors, who used Bredt's boss as a witness, said earlier in the case that Bell took her longtime boyfriend's power tools and motorbike out to the curb because it was garbage night.
"It was a typical thing when they got in a really big fight, she'd toss his [expletive] out, just over the railing," Altemoos said Friday.
In his closing statement, defense attorney Brian Parker said no witness could tell the jury who started the fire and that he did not believe a maximum sentence would be appropriate for his client.
Bredt, wearing a black facemask and orange prison garb, shook his head side to side a few times during the prosecution's closing statement. He spoke briefly after Parker.
"I loved Elisabeth with all my heart and soul, I still do and always will," said Bredt, whose scalp revealed scars from burns suffered in the fire that hospitalized him in ECMC for more than a year. "Losing her is one of the toughest things I've ever had to go through. To her family, friends and daughter, I offer my most sincere condolences." He said he had been advised by his attorneys to not say anything further as the case had not concluded.
Earlier in the sentencing, Altemoos delivered a victim's statement she said she had thought about each night before bed for the four years since her daughter's death.
"I miss her more than I can even explain," Altemoos said, before later adding, "I will never fill this void of losing my daughter. Never.
"She's dead over a motorbike and tools and because he couldn't walk away from a bad relationship," Altemoos added.
Boller advised Altemoos to look after Bell's daughter, Isabella, who was 7 at the time. Prosecutor Rebecca Schnirel had said earlier in the trial that Isabella had run past her mother's burning body on the night of her death, causing second-degree burns to her own feet in the process. What Isabella, now 11, experienced that night was another point Boller made before announcing the maximum sentence.
After experiencing nightmares in which her daughter would be alive, and then be forced to the realization of her death again when she awoke, Altemoos said she's improving slowly since the March convictions.
Jurors found Frank J. Bredt Jr. guilty of second-degree murder, or intentional murder, and another count of second-degree murder, also known as felony murder, which alleges Elizabeth Bell, 27, was killed in the course of Bredt committing arson.
"I did feel better after the verdict came in," she said. "I could sleep more, I could sleep better, and put all the emotions I had of anger and sadness and shock and disbelief that this could happen from this person I've known for 17 years ... "
Altemoos, who was at Erie County Court with her son and the victim's brother, Nicholas Altemoos, said she'd told Bredt to just "walk away and don't come back" on several occasions before the fire. Bredt's decision to go to his ex-girlfriend's home was a key point made by Boller, too.
"If you would have just stayed home and not called your employer, you would not be here wearing orange and she'd be alive," Boller said to Bredt before delivering the sentence.
Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at btsujimoto@buffnews.com, at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10. | 2022-05-20T21:02:00+00:00 | buffalonews.com | https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/you-should-never-see-the-light-of-day-again-man-who-burned-girlfriend-to-death/article_e54d9aaa-d84d-11ec-921a-87fb27a797de.html |
Boston remembers deadly marathon bombing 10 years later
BOSTON (AP) — With a bagpiper playing “The Bells of Dunblane” and a few runners looking on, families of those killed in the Boston Marathon bombing marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy early Saturday by slowly walking together to the memorial sites near the finish line and laying wreaths.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who was making her first run for City Council when the bombing happened, joined the somber procession along with Gov. Maura Healey. At each memorial site — marked with three stone pillars — they stood with the families in silence.
Thousands, including many marathon runners in their blue and yellow windbreakers and several former Boston Red Sox players, came out to a second ceremony Saturday afternoon near the finish line. Church bells were rung and the Boston City Singers and Boston Pops performed “Amazing Grace” and “America the Beautiful.”
The 127th running of the Boston Marathon takes place Monday.
“The day never leaves me,” said Jennifer Black, 71, a realtor from Loveland, Ohio, who was watching the morning procession and recounted how her race in 2013 was cut short due to the bombing and talked about those who died in the attack. She is back in Boston to run this year.
“So much loss, so much pain all because of hate,” she continued, tears streaming down her face. “We have to stand up for people. We have to look out for each other, and we have to pray for these families every day.”
Standing next to Black, Karen Russell, of Boston, said she felt it was important to witness the procession especially on the 10th anniversary.
“The families are still suffering even though we’ve gone on,” Russel said. “There are a lot of people that got hurt that day and that pain will never go away. … I feel it’s important to be here to let them know we still care.”
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs went off at the marathon finish line. Among the dead were Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family.
During a tense, four-day manhunt that paralyzed the city, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier was shot dead in his car. Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds also died a year after he was wounded in a confrontation with the bombers.
Police captured a bloodied and wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston suburb of Watertown, where he was hiding in a boat parked in a backyard, hours after his brother died. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, had been in a gunfight with police and was run over by his brother as he fled.
“I think we’re all still living with those tragic days 10 years ago,” Bill Evans, the former Boston Police Commissioner, said recently.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death and much of the attention, in recent years, has been around his bid to avoid being executed.
A federal appeals court is considering Tsarnaev’s latest bid to avoid execution. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments in January in the 29-year-old’s case, but has yet to issue a ruling.
The appeals court initially threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence in 2020, saying the trial judge did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. But the U.S. Supreme Court revived it last year.
The 1st Circuit is now weighing whether other issues that weren’t considered by the Supreme Court require the death sentence to be tossed a second time. Among other things, Tsarnaev says the trial judge wrongly denied his challenge of two jurors who defense attorneys say lied during jury selection questioning.
The bombing not only unified Boston — “Boston Strong” became the city’s rallying cry — but inspired many in the running community and prompted scores of those impacted by the terror attack to run the marathon. At the memorial sites Saturday several flower pots with the words “Boston Strong” held what have become known as Marathon daffodils.
“It really galvanized and showed our sport’s and our city’s resiliency, our desire together to continue even better and to enhance the Boston Marathon,” Boston Athletic Association President and CEO Jack Fleming said. “The bombing in 2013 resulted in a new appreciation or a different appreciation for what Boston, what the Boston Marathon, has always stood for, which is that expression of freedom that you receive and get while running.”
On Saturday, the focus was mostly on remembering victims and survivors of the bombing but also, as Wu said, “really making sure this was a moment to focus on where the city and our communities, our families are headed in the future.”
That sentiment will be reflected in what has become known as “One Boston Day,” where acts of kindness and service take place to honor victims, survivors and first responders. This year, nearly two dozen community service projects are happening including a shoe drive and several food drives, blood drives and neighborhood cleanups.
“This time of year evokes a strong emotion for so many of us across the City and the people touched by the tragedy ten years ago. But the most prevailing one is that Boston is indeed strong, and that our communities show up for each other in times of need,” Jacob Robinson, the executive director of West Roxbury Main Streets, one of the groups hosting the shoe drive, said in a statement.
___
AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | 2023-04-15T22:09:45+00:00 | kaaltv.com | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/us-world-news/boston-remembers-deadly-marathon-bombing-10-years-later/ |
Upper Allen Township sent its fall newsletter to residents recently filled with errors about the upcoming election.
Most of the errors have been fixed on the township’s website, but the online newsletter still erroneously tells voters they must re-register to vote if they haven’t voted in the past two calendar years.
That’s false, said Samantha Krepps, a county spokeswoman who told PennLive on Tuesday that registrations remain active for four years regardless of voting history.
A township administrator on Wednesday told PennLive they were still looking to verify the information was wrong.
“We will investigate the 2-year issue further,” said Kelly Palmer, the assistant township manager. “If we find this to be incorrect, we plan to take immediate action to correct it as we did with amending the district numbers.”
Meanwhile the deadline to register to vote was Monday. If voters rely on the wrong information from the printed newsletter, and if the online newsletter is not corrected, they may not figure out that they are indeed eligible to vote.
The printed and online newsletter also tells residents they have to register in-person or by mail but did not mention they could also register online.
The mistakes in the printed newsletters that likely remain on tabletops across the township raise concerns with political leaders who fear voters won’t know to check the website for corrected information or worse, voters who will feel something nefarious is behind the errors if they show up at the wrong place on election day or researched candidates in the wrong districts.
Among the mistakes that remain in the printed newsletter but have been fixed online include the township’s legislative district, and the Congressional district.
The correct legislative district is the 87th and the correct Congressional District is the 10th.
The township’s website also gave two wrong polling locations for precincts #2 and #7 that have since been fixed online. The correct locations are that voters in the #2 precinct will continue voting at the Bowmansdale Church of God, along with another precinct. Voters in the #7 precinct will again be voting at the township building.
The printed newsletter also listed the county’s main phone number instead of the one that goes directly to the county elections bureau. This was corrected online. The updated number to call for questions or to check your registration status is 717-240-6385.
Voting advocates asked the township to issue a robo-call to residents to alert them about the series of errors and tell them not to rely on the printed newsletter, but township officials have not taken that action.
Palmer did not tell PennLive how the errors occurred or what efforts were being made to ensure voters had the correct information they need for election day in less than two weeks as mail-in voting is already underway. The township did post a notice on its homepage correcting the errors for residents who visit the that particular page.
Karen Atwood noticed the mistakes in her printed newsletter earlier this month and reached out to local leaders to try to get it rectified on Oct. 21. The email chain was forwarded to PennLive.
“The ballot they will see in front of them won’t match the names and information that they may have looked up based on their ‘official source’ for identifying which district they live in, which was the township newsletter,” she wrote in an email. “I’ve worked at the polls enough to know that temperatures at the polls can run high. In my humble opinion, we don’t need anything else that could turn up the heat.”
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Fetterman struggles in rapid-fire debate format as he and Oz trade well-worn barbs | 2022-10-26T19:10:47+00:00 | pennlive.com | https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/10/incorrect-voter-information-mailed-to-some-cumberland-county-residents.html |
At the time, the last thing on his mind was the Major League draft in July.
The entire focus of UL reliever pitcher Bo Bonds was getting the Ragin’ Cajuns into the winners bracket of the NCAA College Station regional.
The emotional right-hander had thrown 89 pitches over 4.2 innings and UL was one out away from a 7-6 win over No. 2-seeded TCU.
Then it happened. He felt something in his arm and knew he was in trouble.
“I felt it and I knew exactly what it was,” said Bonds, who was drafted in the 13th round by the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.
Focused on getting that one final out, though, Bonds actually threw four more pitches.
“I was just trying to get to three strikes,” Bonds said. “Then (catcher) Julian (Brock) came out there, which was I was glad for because I couldn’t feel my arm any more. Then (UL coach) Deggs came out there and I kind of told him what happened and he took me out.”
That throw was Bonds' last pitch for the Cajuns. Despite having Tommy John surgery, the Blue Jays selected Bonds and he’s reporting to Toronto’s Dunedin training facility on Thursday to begin his year-long rehabilitation process.
“When it happened then and the days after, it was hard,” Bonds said. “It was hard to have a decent year and then have it end like that. At that moment, I was thinking, ‘I won’t be able to help my team any more. I’ll just have to sit and watch and won’t be a part of it.’
“I was really just worried about those guys and helping them. Everything I did this year was for them and for my coaches. I just wanted to do the best I could for them and to give those seniors the best run that they could have. That was really my main focus.”
Despite being draft eligible, Bonds still insisted professional baseball never entered his mind.
“I never thought about the draft,” he said. “When I’m playing for that team, I’m playing for that team.”
Even last week, Bonds said his mind was on UL’s incoming class and how he could help them during his rehab.
Reality struck Tuesday, though, when the Blue Jays called.
“I had a lot of teams that showed interest,” Bonds said. “Nobody just came out and said, ‘We’re going to take you.’ It was just interest and getting some phone calls. It was in the back of my mind that I could get drafted.
“I was surprised, but I had a thought that it could be coming.”
Then watching the draft on his phone, he gets the call from Toronto and suddenly his future plans got very clear in a hurry.
“Oh yeah,” Bonds said. “As soon as it happened, I got up and hugged my dad and my mom. I said a prayer. Everybody dreams of being a Major League baseball player and getting drafted and very few get the opportunity. This whole journey that I’ve been on, the Lord has been walking me through it. He has a path for me and I trust him.”
Making the opportunity even more enticing for Bonds is he lives in Live Oak, Florida, or about 2.5 hours away from the Blue Jays’ facility in Dunedin.
“That’s one of the reasons I was so eager when they called to sign with them, because it was so close to the house,” Bonds said.
UL coach Matt Deggs certainly understood Bonds’ decision.
“He’s an intense competitor,” Deggs said. “I believe he’s a professional ball player. It works out perfectly for him. He’s going to have access to all of their facilities and it was a very, very, very long shot that he was going to pitch next year. I’m very happy for Bo.”
Don’t expect Bonds to soon forget his one season in Lafayette after transferring from Chipola Junior College.
On the mound, Bonds was quite good, finishing 5-3 with a 3.11 ERA. In 55 innings, he allowed 37 hits, walked 29 and struck out 83.
Off the field, Bonds grew by leaps and bounds.
“I can’t even put into words how much coach Deggs put into my brain, showing me what I can do and what is right and how I can do it right,” Bonds explained. “It’s hard to put into words what we experienced this year and what we all learned and what we all took away from it as a team from the coaches and as a brotherhood from each other.
“We had some great upper classmen who instilled so much wisdom and taught me a lot about how to play the game and how to do it right and how to act right.” | 2022-07-20T22:24:00+00:00 | theadvocate.com | https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/sports/ul_lafayette/article_b06f46f8-0868-11ed-b9d9-23fbe75338f4.html |
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) today announced data demonstrating icIEF fractionation from their soon to be launched Maurice Flex™ instrument was presented at the 2022 CE Pharm conference. Data generated using customer and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) samples have been presented at multiple conferences in the last 20 months and the presentation at CE Pharm is a continuation of this work.
Ion-exchange chromatography (IEX) is typically used for fraction collection, although this method presents several challenges including a laborious and time-consuming workflow that can take days, weeks, or longer. Furthermore, there is a need for orthogonal techniques to compare and confirm the charge isoforms collected. As a case study, icIEF fractionation was performed on the antibody component of an antibody drug conjugate (ADC). In the data presented by ProteinSimple, a Bio-Techne brand, the Maurice FlexTM instrument was used to perform icIEF analysis on the ADC's parent mAb, followed by icIEF fractionation on the same instrument. The charge isoforms were then characterized using LC-MS and ZipChip-MS.
These data illustrated that the Maurice FlexTM instrument can address several limitations posed by current fractionation methods. The charge isoforms collected with the Maurice Fractionation cartridge matched the charge isoform profile of Maurice icIEF. The high purity fractions (80-100%) of single-run fractionation offer a faster pathway to intact mass spectrometry analysis of the charge peaks. Most importantly, this novel fraction collection solution offers scientists a flexible tool with the ability to select method(s) of their choice for downstream characterization of the charge isoforms. Fast and easy fraction collection also allowed for further characterization including peptide mapping, and these results correlated well with those in existing literature. The peptide mapping data presented at CE Pharm was based on a single collection, but multiple fractionation runs can be pooled if required.
The Maurice FlexTM instrument will be available for purchase in early 2023. "Developing the Maurice Flex instrument to streamline routine CE analysis and fraction collection is yet another step towards our goal of simplifying protein analysis," said Will Geist, President of Bio-Techne's Protein Sciences segment. "Instead of spending time and money on laborious technologies, Maurice Flex™ offers our customers an easy-to-use solution for in-depth protein analysis in addition to routine charge, size, and impurity assays. This new capability empowers scientists to perform this analysis early in the protein therapeutic development process, enabling them to make informed decisions faster."
About Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH)
Contact: David Clair, Vice President, Investor Relations
david.clair@bio-techne.com
612-656-4416
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation | 2022-09-21T11:43:25+00:00 | kcbd.com | https://www.kcbd.com/prnewswire/2022/09/21/maurice-flex-icief-analysis-adds-fractionation-enabling-mass-spec-peak-characterization/ |
Red Bull Racing opened talks with Sergio Perez on a contract extension earlier this month as the Formula One team set a timeline to complete a deal sometime this year.
“Checo has done a fantastic job. Time and again he has proved himself to not only be a magnificent team player, but as his level of comfort has grown he has become a real force to be reckoned with at the sharp end of the grid,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.
Perez is the most successful Mexican driver in F1 history. He joined Red Bull last season and finished a career-best fourth in the driver standings. Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, scored four podiums, and was a selfless teammate to Verstappen in Red Bull’s successful championship fight with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
In the December season finale that decided the F1 championship, Perez dutifully held up Hamilton during the race to give Verstappen a chance to win.
It was part of his role as the second driver on the team, and Perez was called on again two weeks ago at the Spanish Grand Prix when Red Bull team orders demanded Perez cede the lead — and the victory — to Verstappen.
A team talk after the race in Spain convinced Perez that Red Bull would allow him to race for wins and the contract extension was completed before his win at Monaco, his first victory of the year.
“This year he has taken another step and the gap to world champion Max has closed significantly,” Horner said. “For us, holding onto his pace, race craft and experience was a no-brainer and we are delighted that Checo will continue to race for the team until 2024. In partnership with Max we believe we have a driver pairing that can bring us the biggest prizes in F1.”
The Monaco victory pushed Perez past Pedro Rodriguez as the most successful driver in Mexican F1 history. Perez was wearing a Rodriguez helmet in Monaco, where he scored his third career F1 victory.
“This has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy,” Perez said. “I feel completely at home here. We are working very well together and my relationship with Max, on and off the track, is definitely helping drive us forward even more.”
___
More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-05-31T14:12:51+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/red-bull-signs-perez-to-contract-extension-through-2024/2022/05/31/043b6d9c-e0e2-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Another Bay Area street food vendor attack has been caught on camera – this time in Oakland. The attack comes on the heels of two other street food vendor attacks in San Jose.
The latest video shows a woman ranting and tossing over tables of food in Oakland. This attack happened back in January, but it was shared with KRON4 News on Thursday to raise awareness about how often food vendors deal with violence. Advocates say these attacks are dehumanizing, and these vendors deserve protection.
In this attack, the woman is seen flipping over tables, throwing spoons at workers, and trashing a grill on the night of January 26.
“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me. Seeing how they were throwing everything was sad,” said the vendor, Humberto Villa.
Villa’s business El Asadero Poblano on International Boulevard has dealt with violence from this woman before.
“This is the second time she has come to assault us and police have not done anything about it,” he said.
Villa is one of at least three Bay Area food vendors who have been attacked this year. The others happened outside of the SAP Center and near a San Jose auto parts business.
“It’s a stigma people have against street vendors. There’s property owners thinking that they own public property. There’s people that think that they do not want to get permits when it’s easy to get, which is not true,” said Edin Alex Enamorado, a street vendor activist.
Enamorado believes the issues boil down to people getting angry that prices at food stands, just like everywhere else, have gotten more expensive.
“I don’t see people knocking over egg stands at the grocery store because the prices are high. I don’t see people damaging or vandalizing gas pumps because the gas prices are high. It’s just a dehumanizing way that people are looking at street vendors,” he said.
Last year, a landmark bill was signed into law to make it easier for vendors to sell food on streets throughout the state. SB972 aimed to make it easier at acquiring a permit while also prohibiting criminal penalties for vendors.
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Enamorado and Villa agree more needs to be done to protect food vendors and their livelihood. Villa says he’s just trying to make a living.
“There should be an extra layer of protection for them because they’re an at-risk demographic, and if that’s not done things are going to get worse,” Enamorado said.
In a show of support for Villa’s business. There will be a food vendor buyout event on International Boulevard in Oakland on Friday night. That starts at 5 p.m. Organizers want food vendors to know they’re loved… and not alone. | 2023-03-03T06:43:24+00:00 | kron4.com | https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/oakland-food-vendor-attack-caught-on-camera/ |
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