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NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GALE has launched an innovation practice to recenter the relationship with technology and platform partners on effective storytelling for clients.
The new practice, Advance Party, will work with technology and platform partners to leverage emerging products, innovative ad formats, and audience data and targeting. Led by recently appointed Chief Innovation Officer Ben James, Advance Party will act as a bridge within GALE to put these innovations at the heart of storytelling for clients.
Advance Party will address the current shortcomings in the industry where the relationship between partners and agencies has been reduced to CPMs. It will accelerate GALE's proven track record of connecting emerging and innovative formats into its storytelling machine to drive growth for clients.
Over the past year, Advance Party has been unofficially activated across the GALE client base with clear results for clients stemming from the change in conversation. In July, GALE launched the first TikTok Hashtag Challenge + Branded Effect + Branded Mission in North America for Bomb Pop, leading to a 30% lift in sales making it their most successful Fourth July sales ever. For MilkPEP, GALE leveraged the latest in Snap's Lens technology with users spending on average 3.5 minutes with the Lens.
"Advance Party marks a shift to effective storytelling, prompting a different discussion and responsibility for all stakeholders that will ultimately drive exponential growth for brands. Our aim is to cut through the noise and provide scalable solutions to existing and prospective clients," James said.
"We have evaluated our work with more than 40 partners, including NBCUniversal, TikTok and Snap, within Advance Party to ultimately move beyond the CPM conversation and RFP process. Through our renewed partnership focus, we have our finger on the pulse of upcoming alphas and betas, which enables the teams at GALE to incorporate new storytelling formats for their clients."
"NBCUniversal has always valued collaborative partnerships that align with our commitment to create meaningful stories," said Donna Kerin, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales, NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships. "Our ongoing partnership with the team at GALE for the launch of Advance Party not only helps bridge the gap between media stakeholders and creative visionaries, but also provides innovative solutions for brands – leading to stronger, more effective storytelling that will be more attractive to consumers while driving growth for marketers."
"As we continue to grow our teams, build out departments, and integrate our services at GALE, we're constantly looking for innovative ways to provide clients with what they need to drive business. Advance Party reflects our commitment to finding modern ways to connect with evolving audiences and stay ahead of the industry," GALE CEO and President Brad Simms said.
The launch of Advance Party is part of a larger commitment within Stagwell on transforming media solutions through impactful technology to be announced throughout CES. Other announcements will come from the Stagwell Media Cloud and global omnichannel media shop Assembly.
For more information contact lindsay.bennett@galepartners.com
GALE is a Business Agency. We bring business insights to brand storytelling and activate across every channel. With expertise in business strategy, CRM, loyalty, brand storytelling, integrated, performance, creative, and content marketing, experience design and media, GALE creates marketing systems and communications that grow businesses. Founded in 2014, the agency currently has offices in New York, Singapore, Toronto, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, London, Austin and Bengaluru. GALE was named Data & Analytics Agency of the year on the Ad Age A-List and one of Fastest Growing Agencies in the US by Adweek. For information on GALE, its customer data platform Alchemy™ and its consumer research capability ASK GALE, visit: https://gale.agency/.
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SOURCE Stagwell Inc. | 2023-01-05T17:49:48+00:00 | kwtx.com | https://www.kwtx.com/prnewswire/2023/01/05/gale-launches-advance-party-new-practice-unlock-innovation-brands/ |
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Mike Clevinger has reported to the Chicago White Sox for spring training, joining his new team amid an ongoing investigation by Major League Baseball into allegations of domestic violence.
Clevinger addressed the team, apologizing for being a distraction on the first day of camp. The pitcher also told reporters he is confident he will be exonerated.
“I trust the process from MLB, I really do,” Clevinger said Wednesday. “I think there’s a reason I’m sitting in front of you today. I’m just asking everyone to wait before they rush to judgment. Wait until the actual facts are out there, wait until there’s actual evidence, and then make your decision on who you think I am.”
The 32-year-old Clevinger finalized a $12 million, one-year contract with Chicago in December. MLB’s probe predates his agreement with the White Sox.
Chicago general manager Rick Hahn told reporters the team’s “only option” was to allow the right-hander to come to camp while awaiting results of MLB’s investigation. He said the team “can get better” in how it vets potential additions.
“The longer answer is, without anyone having violated the confidentiality of the policy, we weren’t going to find this information out,” Hahn said, “and the fact of the matter is is that the confidentiality element of the policy is essential for it to function properly.”
In an Instagram post on Jan. 24, Olivia Finestead said she is the mother of Clevinger’s child and alleged he fathered two other children who were not hers. She posted a photo of marks on her body with accompanying words that alleged the injuries were “from when he threw an iPad at me pregnant” and “finally left when he strangled me.”
“Mike Clevinger,” she added, “you really deserve hell I’ve kept quiet now for almost a year and you continue to covertly abuse your infant.” She said Clevinger ”threw chew spit on our baby.”
The Associated Press typically does not identify victims of domestic violence or sexual assault unless they agree to be named or come forward publicly with their allegations, as Finestead has.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-02-17T01:53:58+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/sports/ap-clevinger-reports-as-mlb-probes-domestic-violence-charges/ |
COURIER STAFF
WATERLOO — St. Paul's United Methodist Church's beef and noodle dinner will be held 4-6:30 p.m. Saturday.
The menu includes all you can eat beef and noodles, potatoes, coleslaw, and beverages. Served as plated meals. Plus, a choice of dessert.
Cost is $10 for adults and children 12 and older. Cost is $5 for kids under 12. The church is located at 207 W. Louise St., one block south of UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital.
PHOTOS: Celebration of Life vigil for Schmidts
Celebration of Life 1
Nita Schmidt, aunt of Tyler Schmidt, reads a statement from Tyler's parents, Timothy and Debra, during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday in Cedar Falls. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 2
Friends, family and neighbors gather during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 8
Friends, family and neighbors gather during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday in Cedar Falls. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 5
A photo of Tyler and Sarah Schmidt sits on the podium during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday. in Cedar Falls. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 3
Teresa and Brian Carr, friends and neighbors of Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt, speak during their Celebration of Life vigil held at Overman Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 4
Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green embraces Teresa and Brian Carr, friends and neighbors of Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt, during their Celebration of Life vigil held at Overman Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Schmidt's were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 6
Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green speaks during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
Celebration of Life 7
Friends, family and neighbors gather during the Celebration of Life vigil for Tyler, Sarah, and Lula Schmidt held at Overman Park on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Schmidts were shot and killed at Maquoketa Caves State Park on July 22.
CHRIS ZOELLER, Courier Staff Photographer
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Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. | 2022-08-07T20:52:51+00:00 | wcfcourier.com | https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/church-beef-and-noodle-dinner-set-for-satruday/article_3a55981b-b631-5f92-aa51-073a5cc6cee3.html |
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Madison Chock and Evan Bates stood atop the podium at Skate America for the first time in seven years on Sunday, and along the way, stepped into the spotlight as the preeminent American ice dancers following the retirement of close friends and longtime training mates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.
Despite a miscue on their character step sequence — they got no points for the free dance element — Chock and Bates still managed to squeak by fellow Americans Kaitlin Hawayak and Jean-Luc Baker by the slimmest of margins.
Chock and Bates scored 202.80 points, while Hawayak and Baker finished with 202.07. The Canadian duo of Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain le Gac was a distant third with 178.30 points.
“Obviously there's work to do,” Bates said, “but we're not a couple to shy away from that. We definitely know what we need to work on. We have a couple of weeks at home before we head off to Japan for NHK Trophy and we know what to do.”
In the women's event, world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan performed brilliantly to hold off 15-year-old American star Isabeau Levito, who made a sublime Grand Prix debut to finish second. Amber Glenn of the U.S. was third.
Chock and Bates, who were third at worlds this year and became engaged in June, acknowledged they didn't perform as well at the Tenley E. Albright Performance Center near Boston as they had been at their training base in Montreal.
They lamented a couple of bobbles during their rhythm dance Saturday, though it was still good enough to leave them in first place. Then came the mistake on their character step sequence during their free dance, when they did not stretch the element from the boards on one side to the boards on the other and received no credit for it.
“It won't happen again,” Chock said with a laugh. “We will fix it.”
“This rink is bigger than our rink at home,” Bates said with another laugh and nod.
Meanwhile, the pairing of Hawayak and Baker — who train with Chock and Bates under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon in Montreal — almost claimed the biggest title of their careers. Their free dance was nearly perfect Sunday, giving them the win on the day if not their first Grand Prix win since the 2018 NHK Trophy.
“Today felt really aligned between Jean-Luc and I. We felt really grounded going into the event,” Hawayak said, “and really performed, because this season, we're really stepping into a place where we're owning what we're doing. And we're believing what we're doing is good enough to be the best in the world. We're just really happy with the response today.”
In the women's event, Levito had ground to make up after her short program, and she spun out of an opening triple lutz-triple toe loop Sunday. But she roared back to hit a triple salchow, a pair of double axels around a triple flip, then fought for the landing on a triple lutz-triple toe loop. She finished with another combination to post a score of 206.66 points.
Sakamoto not only took aim at that mark but shot right past it.
The Olympic bronze medalist never wavered during her free skate to “Elastic Heart” by the Australian singer-songwriter Sia. From her opening double axel, perhaps the best in all of figure skating, to a double axel-triple toe loop that landed near the end of her program, Sakamoto kept the sellout crowd in Norwood, Massachusetts, downright captivated.
Sakamoto finished with 217.61 points to win a Grand Prix event for the third straight year.
“I was pretty upset that I missed the combo, the first element,” Levito said afterward. “You have your most energy in the beginning and I was pretty upset that I missed that, but I was somewhat satisfied by the rest of the program.”
___
More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-10-23T21:40:59+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/sports/article/Chock-and-Bates-of-US-win-ice-dance-gold-at-Skate-17528959.php |
‘I felt tears welling up in my eyes’: Woman unknowingly buys skates she originally sold 40 years earlier
(CBC) – A Canadian woman says she had a Cinderella moment when she went shopping for used roller skates.
As fate would have it, she coincidentally came across the same pair of skates she parted ways with 40 years earlier.
Renée Forrestall hadn’t laced up a pair of roller skates in more than 40 years. She wanted to try it again as a fun way to exercise, so she bought new skates last month.
She practiced for a week, but she said they didn’t fit right, not like the ones she had when she was young.
She searched online classified sites and quickly found a similar pair in questionable condition.
“They said, ‘Well, here it is, if you think that’s going to fit your foot, you’re welcome to try it,’” she said. “And I thought, ‘Ah, that’s a bit dodge.’ So, I kind of kept scrolling, but I said, ‘40 dollars, that’s a good deal.’ And I thought, ‘They do look like the ones I used to have.’”
Forrestall said they were pretty dirty when she first saw them.
Once she got her foot in one of the skates, however, she knew she found a good fit.
“It’s like Cinderella and the slipper moment,” she said. “It was very strange. It was like the perfect fit. I couldn’t believe it. And they felt good. It wasn’t even like the new ones that I had. It was like they were broken into my feet.”
Forrestall said she started asking the seller where he got the skates when things got even stranger.
“As he’s telling me, I flip back the tongue and there’s my name,” she said. “And I was like, ‘What?’ I thought, I couldn’t even believe it. I thought, ‘Who? How?’ I said, ‘This is me! These were mine.’ When I saw my name, the shock kind of absorbed me, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. and I think because … suddenly I was reeled back to my youth. Like, 40 years ago. It was like … life flashed before my eyes.”
Watching this all take place was James Bond, the man selling the skates.
He said the moment filled his heart with joy.
“When she saw her name written on the insides, she just started tearing up and I thought that was so cool,” Bond said. “I feel like they could make a Disney movie out of the whole thing.”
Bond is selling a lot of items online right now because he’s getting ready to move. He had a strict first come first serve policy.
But something was different about this woman asking about the old roller skates.
“She explained a few things, just in probably three or four quick messages before she said she was going to come pick them up,” Bond said. “It was mainly just her tone in the message saying that she wanted to get back into roller skating. and wanted to find a good pair, so, it was just a gut feeling really.”
For Forrestall, it can’t be a coincidence. She felt a desire to roller skate again, she logged online to find the right pair and she was reunited with her 40-plus year old skates.
“The universe works in mysterious ways, you know? And I think things come around for a reason,” she said.
But Bond said this was meant to happen one way or another because he said he doesn’t believe in coincidence.
Copyright 2022 CBC via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2022-05-31T17:40:24+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/05/31/i-felt-tears-welling-up-my-eyes-woman-unknowingly-buys-skates-she-originally-sold-40-years-earlier/ |
Merger talks end between large health care systems in Minnesota, South Dakota
A merger that would have created one of the largest health service companies in the Upper Midwest has been scrapped
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A merger that would have created one of the largest health service companies in the Upper Midwest has been scrapped.
Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Sanford Health announced Thursday that they would not proceed with the merger they had been discussing since late last year. It would have created a system with more than 50 hospitals and about 78,000 employees.
This is the second time in a decade that the two companies considered a merger but failed to complete it, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The latest attempt drew fierce opposition at the University of Minnesota, which has a partnership with Fairview. The university sold its teaching hospital to Fairview in 1997 and opposed the idea of an out-of-state entity owning the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis. The merged system would have been based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota's largest city.
Statements from the two companies' CEOs stated that without support from stakeholders, it was determined that the merger couldn't move forward.
The companies first considered merging in 2013 but met with strong political opposition.
Minnesota lawmakers this spring gave the state attorney general additional power to scrutinize health care mergers, including the Sanford-Fairview proposal.
The affiliation between Fairview and the University of Minnesota includes financial support from Fairview for the school’s academic medicine mission. This agreement continues through 2026, but both parties have an option to signal by the end of this year if they want to end the partnership. Fairview has said the current agreements are not financially sustainable. | 2023-07-28T22:33:52+00:00 | kttc.com | https://www.kttc.com/2023/07/28/merger-talks-end-between-large-health-care-systems-minnesota-south-dakota/ |
FAYETTEVILLE — On Wednesday, Arkansas’ recruiting went as expected until former Pitt defensive end John Morgan III moved up his timeline and signed with the Razorbacks.
Morgan, 6-2, 265, is the fourth recruit, first on defense, from the transfer portal to sign with the Hogs. Sam Pittman admitted it was great, unexpected news they got Morgan when they did.
“I was surprised,” Pittman said. “Deke (Adams) brought the phone in to me today. Now that the phones are so fancy that you’ve got like three faces on there — that’s usually a good thing, by the way. If mom, dad and the kid’s on there, something good’s going to happen.
“What’s bad is when you don’t have a FaceTime, you’ve been FaceTiming the guy all the time and he calls you. That’s not good on signing day. You’re getting ready to get one of those ‘see you laters.’ But this one was a good one and really, really honored that he decided to choose us. He’s a really good kid.”
Morgan had told this reporter he planned to make his decision after the national championship game. He had visited Missouri prior to Arkansas and talked about maybe visiting Tennessee or Colorado. In addition to Adams, the defensive line coach, new defensive coordinator Travis Williams played a role in landing him.
“You’re exactly right,” Pittman said. “Not always are y’all right, by the way, but you’re right on that one. You know I’m teasing. Not really, but kinda.
“We flew over there. Deke had contacted him. Obviously I liked his tape and Deke had set it up and we flew over there and spoke with him. We were trying to get on the back half of another university’s official visit (Missouri) and we did. When he got here, I think he really liked it. When he landed, I had not hired a defensive coordinator yet and I kept telling him in the home on Monday of that week, ‘Hey, I’ll have a guy by the time you get there’ and I hadn’t.
“So we did hire Travis. Travis, once we did, he got on the phone with him and started talking to him. Then we flew Travis in, so he was able to sit and talk to him on Sunday of the visit. So that certainly helped us. Travis had a big part to do with it I think. I think Deke Adams, which he’s been kind of a bulldog in recruiting. He’s been out there and getting some really fine players in that room. But that’s kind of how it happened. Yes, Coach Williams had a lot to do with that, as well. Deke obviously did the grunt work on it and then myself and T-Will tried to close it out.”
At Pitt, Morgan had 72 tackles, 49 solo, 23 for loss, 14.5 sacks, two pass breakups and three forced fumbles in his career. He will have one season of eligibility at Arkansas. He talked about why he chose the Razorbacks over offers from nine other schools including many in the SEC.
“Just because it’s the SEC,” Morgan said. “This is big-boy football. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m a big-time player and I want to play in the biggest stages. This gives me an opportunity to do that. You play against Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The big-time schools 24-7. That’s what I want to do. I want to be that guy.”
Arkansas will face Kansas in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Wednesday with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. and televised on ESPN. | 2022-12-22T14:56:37+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/sports/pig-trail-nation/hogville-hog-recruiting/sam-pittman-talks-john-morgan-iii-decision/ |
Alex Murdaugh's murder trial is now under way in South Carolina, with the scion of a well-connected family facing charges that he shot and killed his wife and son in June of 2021.
Murdaugh, 54, is being tried at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., where the jury selection process began on Monday. Throngs of journalists and true-crime followers have descended on the small town for the trial.
The trial is taking place in what for decades was the Murdaugh family's seat of power, heading the prosecutor's office for the five-county Fourteenth Circuit. After Murdaugh's great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh Sr., was elected to that post in 1920, the family controlled it for 86 years. In addition, the Murdaughs also ran a profitable private practice.
"Murdaugh will not be shackled during the trial, which begins Monday in Colleton County," as South Carolina Public Radio reports. "He faces life behind bars if convicted. Meantime, a portrait of his grandfather that hangs in the courtroom will be taken down."
Judge Clifton Newman is overseeing the trial, which prosecutors expected to end around Feb. 10.
In the early hours of jury selection, at least one potential juror was excused after the judge asked if anyone had been represented by Murdaugh's former law firm, sued by the firm, or had gone to any of the Murdaughs' parties, hunts or other gatherings. A man identified as juror 203 was excused after telling Newman that he couldn't be impartial, as Murdaugh had sued his father.
The investigation into the tragic deaths of Maggie Murdaugh and the couple's son Paul pulled the veil back on a privileged family, exposing dozens of financial crimes Alex is accused of. It also renewed interest in other recent deaths linked to the family that have not been fully explained.
Here's a brief recap of the shocking and sad events that led up to Murdaugh being charged with murder:
Feb. 24, 2019
The powerful Murdaugh family was thrust into headlines when Mallory Beach, 19, died after a late-night boating accident in South Carolina's Low Country with Paul Murdaugh, who was then 19, at its center.
Authorities said Murdaugh was highly intoxicated and steering a boat carrying five friends after an oyster roast when it struck a channel marker and the pilings of the R.C. Berkeley Bridge, running aground in Beaufort County, near Parris Island. No alcohol was served at the party, but the boat held a cooler with drinks, and Paul and a friend briefly visited a waterfront bar after the oyster roast.
After the crash, Paul and others were taken to a local hospital, where witnesses say Alex Murdaugh also appeared. The nurse in charge described the elder Murdaugh attempting to speak with every passenger from the boat, instructing at least one of them not to say anything to the authorities about the incident.
Mallory Beach's body was found a week later, about 5 miles from the bridge.
May 6, 2019
More than 70 days after the boating accident, Paul Murdaugh was arraigned and released on bond after a brief court appearance, pleading not guilty to felony charges that include boating under the influence and causing Beach's death.
A grand jury had indicted Murdaugh more than two weeks earlier, on April 18.
The local community immediately criticized the slow pace, calling it a sign of deference to the Murdaugh family that has raised generations of lawyers in the area, including prosecutors.
June 7, 2021
Alex Murdaugh called 911 a little after 10 p.m., saying he had just discovered the bodies of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22. They died at the family's sprawling hunting property known as Moselle, in Islandton, part of Colleton County.
"My wife and child have been shot badly!" Alex Murdaugh told dispatchers. He reportedly told investigators that he had been visiting his own parents that night.
Two different weapons were used in the killings: an assault-style rifle for Maggie, and a shotgun for Paul. The coroner said they died between 9 and 9:30 p.m.
June 23, 2021
Reports emerged that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division would mount its own investigation into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, 19, whose body was found on a rural road miles from the Murdaughs' hunting estate.
Smith's death from a traumatic head injury was initially ruled an unsolved hit-and-run, but his mother has rejected that explanation. She said her son, who was openly gay, was killed after his car ran out of gas, forcing him to walk along the road and possibly exposing him to an attack.
Smith had attended high school with Alex Murdaugh's older son, Buster.
"The S.C. Highway Patrol case notes from 2015 include Buster Murdaugh's name nine times," according to Hilton Head newspaper The Island Packet.
Sept. 3, 2021
The law firm founded by Alex Murdaugh's family fired him after determining that he illegally siphoned millions of dollars from the firm and its clients.
Sept. 4, 2021
Alex Murdaugh made another call to 911, saying he'd been shot in the head while changing a tire on the side of the road. But state investigators say he orchestrated the incident, even providing a gun to Curtis Edward Smith, 61, to help him carry out an assisted suicide and insurance fraud.
Nine days later, Murdaugh admitted to the scheme, which he said was an attempt to get his son Buster a $10 million insurance payout.
Sept. 6, 2021
Alex Murdaugh resigned from his law firm and traveled to a Florida rehab center for opioid addiction.
Oct. 14, 2021
Alex Murdaugh was arrested on felony charges of obtaining property by false pretenses, accused of diverting millions of dollars away from the estate of Gloria Satterfield, his family's longtime housekeeper who died after falling down steps at the Moselle estate in February of 2018.
Murdaugh was taken into custody in Orlando, Fla., where he had gone to a rehab facility.
Prosecutors say Murdaugh convinced Satterfield's sons that he would help them recover some $2.7 million in an insurance settlement, but that Murdaugh and a longtime friend sent most of the money to themselves instead. The alleged crimes range from money laundering to fraud and breach of trust.
May 4, 2022
Prosecutors said a state grand jury indicted Alex Murdaugh on more charges, including fraud and forgery, bringing the total to 79 state charges on 15 indictments. Attorney General Alan Wilson said Murdaugh ran schemes that defrauded victims of $8,492,888.31.
July 12, 2022
The South Carolina Supreme Court formally disbarred Murdaugh, noting the attorney's "admissions of unethical conduct in the context of his myriad criminal charges." Murdaugh, who had been suspended from practicing law since the previous September, did not contest the decision.
July 14, 2022
A grand jury in Colleton County indicted Murdaugh on two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime
Alex Murdaugh was indicted on murder charges.
"Over the last 13 months, SLED agents and our partners have worked day in and day out to build a case against the person responsible for the murders of Maggie and Paul and to exclude those who were not," said SLED Chief Mark Keel. He added, "Today is one more step in a long process for justice for Maggie and Paul."
July 20, 2022
Murdaugh pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife and son, as his defense team said Murdaugh "believes the killer or killers are still at large."
At the court hearing, prosecutors said the evidence is "substantial." But they didn't provide details about the case they've built, aside from saying that financial documents touch on a motive for the killings. Murdaugh was again denied bond, and the judge said he would consider a motion to limit the amount of evidence that can be publicly revealed.
Jan. 23, 2023
The murder trial for Murdaugh begins.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-01-23T19:15:48+00:00 | knkx.org | https://www.knkx.org/2023-01-23/alex-murdaughs-murder-trial-begins-in-the-shooting-deaths-of-his-wife-and-son |
The Cleveland Division of Police is investigating a shooting that left one person dead and two others injured Sunday evening.
The shooting happened in the 3500 block of Henritze Avenue around 6:30 p.m. in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
Police responded to the scene for a man who had been shot. Upon arrival, officers found a 26-year-old man down in the street in front of a home. They administered first aid until EMS arrived. The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died, authorities said. He had been shot multiple times.
Officers found a 71-year-old man in the house who had been grazed by a bullet on the head. EMS took the man to the hospital for treatment, authorities said. A third victim, a 26-year-old man who had been shot in the foot, later arrived at the hospital by a private car.
Police said a preliminary investigation revealed that the three victims were involved in an argument with another person when shots were fired. The shooter fled the scene and is not in custody.
Authorities didn't provide a description of the shooting or the vehicle.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here. | 2023-05-01T20:01:35+00:00 | news5cleveland.com | https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/1-dead-2-injured-in-old-brooklyn-triple-shooting-no-arrests-have-been-made |
Spies from China breached hundreds of public, private networks, security firm says
(AP) - Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.
“This is the broadest cyber espionage campaign known to be conducted by a China-nexus threat actor since the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange in early 2021,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technical officer, said in a emailed statement. That hack compromised tens of thousands of computers globally.
In a blog post Thursday, Google-owned Mandiant expressed “high confidence” that the group exploiting a software vulnerability in Barracuda Networks’ Email Security Gateway was engaged in “espionage activity in support of the People’s Republic of China.” It said the activivity began as early as October.
The hackers sent emails containing malicious file attachments to gain access to targeted organizations’ devices and data, Mandiant said. Of those organizations, 55% were from the Americas, 22% from Asia Pacific and 24% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and they included foreign ministries in Southeast Asia, foreign trade offices and academic organizations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. the company said.
Mandiant said the majority impact in the Americas may partially reflect the geography of Barracuda’s customer base.
Barracuda announced on June 6 that some of its its email security appliances had been hacked as early as October, giving the intruders a back door into compromised networks. The hack was so severe the California company recommended fully replacing the appliances.
After discovering it in mid-May, Barracuda released containment and remediation patches but the hacking group, which Mandiant identifies as UNC4841, altered their malware to try to maintain access, Mandiant said. The group then “countered with high frequency operations targeting a number of victims located in at least 16 different countries.”
Word of the breach as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for China this weekend as part of the Biden administration’s push to repair deteriorating ties between Washington and Beijing.
His visit had initially been planned for early this year but was postponed indefinitely after the discovery and shootdown of what the U.S. said was a Chinese spy balloon over the United States.
Mandiant said the targeting at both the organizational and individual account levels, focused on issues that are high policy priorities for China, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. It said the hackers searched for email accounts of people working for governments of political or strategic interest to China at the time they were participating in diplomatic meetings with other countries.
In a emailed statement Thursday, Barracuda said about 5% of its active Email Security Gateway appliances worldwide showed evidence of potential compromise. It said it was providing replacement appliances to affected customers at no cost.
The U.S. government has accused Beijing of being its principal cyberespionage threat, with state-backed Chinese hackers stealing data from both the private and public sector.
In terms of raw intelligence affecting the U.S., China’s largest electronic infiltrations have targeted OPM, Anthem, Equifax and Marriott.
Earlier this year, Microsoft said state-backed Chinese hackers have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and could be laying the technical groundwork for the potential disruption of critical communications between the U.S. and Asia during future crises.
China says the U.S. also engages in cyberespionage against it, hacking into computers of its universities and companies.
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AP Business Writer Zen Soo contributed from Hong Kong.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-06-15T18:56:20+00:00 | foxcarolina.com | https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/06/15/spies-china-breached-hundreds-public-private-networks-security-firm-says/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — It seemed like a good idea at the time: Red-state Democrats facing grim reelection prospects would join forces with Republicans to slash bank regulations — demonstrating a willingness to work with President Donald Trump while bucking many in their party.
That unlikely coalition voted in 2018 to roll back portions of a far-reaching 2010 law intended to prevent a future financial crisis. But those changes are now being blamed for contributing to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that prompted a federal rescue and has stoked anxiety about a broader banking contagion.
The rollback was leveraged with a lobbying campaign that cost tens of millions of dollars that drew an army of hundreds of lobbyists and it was seeded with ample campaign contributions.
The episode offers a fresh reminder of the power that bankers wield in Washington, where the industry spends prodigiously to fight regulation and often hires former members of Congress and their staff to make the case that they are not a source of risk to the economy
“The bottom line is that these banks would have faced a tougher supervisory framework under the original … law, but Congress and the Trump regulators took an ax to it,” said Carter Dougherty, a spokesman for Americans for Financial Reform, a left-leaning financial sector watchdog group. “We can draw a direct line between the deregulation of the Trump period, driven by the bank lobby, and the chaos of the last few weeks.”
President Joe Biden has asked Congress for the authority to impose tougher penalties on failed banks. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have started investigations. And congressional Democrats are calling for new restrictions on financial institutions.
But so far there is no indication that another bipartisan coalition will form in Congress to put tougher regulations back in place, underscoring the banking industry’s continued clout.
That influence was on full display when the banking lobby worked for two years to water down aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that had placed weighty regulations on banks designed to reduce consumer risk and force the institutions to adopt safer lending and investing practices.
Republicans had long looked to blunt the impact of Dodd-Frank. But rather than push for sweeping deregulation, Sen. Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican who led the Senate banking committee, hoped a narrowed focus could draw enough support from moderate Democrats to clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Crapo broached the idea with Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — all on the ballot in 2018 — as well as Mark Warner of Virginia. By the fall of that year, the bipartisan group met regularly, according to a copy of Tester’s office schedule posted to his Senate website.
A lobbying strategy also emerged, with companies and trade groups that specifically mention Crapo’s legislation spending more than $400 million in 2017 and 2018, according to an Associated Press analysis of the public lobbying disclosures.
The bill was sold to the public as a form of regulatory relief for overburdened community banks, which serviced farmers and smaller businesses. Community bankers from across the U.S. flew in to Washington to meet repeatedly with lawmakers, including Tester, who had 32 meetings with Montana bank officials. Local bank leaders pushed members of their congressional delegation when they returned home.
But the measure also included provisions sought by midsize banks that drastically curtailed oversight once the Trump Fed finished writing new regulations necessitated by the bill’s passage.
Specifically, the legislation lifted the threshold for banks to be considered “too big to fail” — a designation that carries a strict regimen of oversight, including mandatory financial stress testing.
That component, which effectively carved large midsize banks out of more stringent regulation, has come under new scrutiny in light of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, whose executives lobbied on behalf of the 2018 rollback.
“The lobbyists were everywhere. You couldn’t throw an elbow without running into one,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who vehemently opposed the bill, told reporters last week.
Campaign checks were written. Ads were cut. Mailers went out.
As a reward for their work, Heitkamp ($357,953), Tester ($302,770) and Donnelly ($265,349) became the top Senate recipients of money from the banking industry during the 2018 campaign season, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group tracking money in politics.
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer freed members to vote for the bill, a move intended to bolster the standing of vulnerable moderate incumbents. But the move also bitterly divided the Democratic caucus, with Warren singling out the moderates as doing Wall Street’s bidding.
In the hours before the bill passed the Senate with 17 Democratic votes, Heitkamp took to the chamber floor to inveigh against the “diatribe,” “hyperbole” and “overstatement” from opponents of the bill.
Tester, meanwhile, huddled with executives from Bank of America, Citigroup, Discover and Wells Fargo, who were there on behalf of the American Bankers Association.
The American Bankers Association, which helped lead the push, later paid $125,000 for an ad campaign thanking Tester for his role in the bill’s passage, records show.
Less than a month after the bill was passed out of the Senate, Tester met Greg Becker, the CEO for the now-collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, according to his schedule. Becker specifically lobbied Congress and the Federal Reserve to take a light regulatory approach with banks of his size. Lobbyists with the firm the Franklin Square Group, which had been retained by Silicon Valley Bank, donated $10,800 to Tester’s campaign, record show.
Heitkamp was the only member of the group invited to the bill signing ceremony, beaming alongside Trump. Later, Americans for Prosperity, the grassroots conservative group funded by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, ran an online ad commending Heitkamp for taking a stand against her party.
In an interview, Heitkamp pushed back against suggestions that the legislation was directly responsible for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. She acknowledged, however, that there was an open question about whether new rules put in place by the Fed after the measure was signed into law could have played a role.
“I’m willing to look at the argument that this had something to do with it,” Heitkamp said, adding: “I think you will find that (the Fed) was engaged in some level of some supervision. Why that didn’t work? That’s the question that needs to be resolved.”
In a statement issued last week, Tester did not directly address his role in the legislation, but he pledged to “take on anyone in Washington to ensure that the executives at these banks and regulators are held accountable.”
Cam Fine, who led the Independent Community Bankers of America trade group during the legislative push, said the overall the bill was a good piece of legislation that offered much needed relief to struggling community banks.
But like any major piece of legislation that moves through Congress, final passage hinged on support from a broad coalition of interests — including those of Wall Street and midsize banks.
“Was it a perfect piece of legislation? No. But there’s an old saying in Washington: You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said Fine.
Many of the moderate Democrats who supported the measure did not fare as well.
Of the core group who wrote the bill, only Tester won reelection. Others from red states who supported it, including Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Bill Nelson of Florida, lost.
Tester will be on the ballot again in 2024. Last week he was in Silicon Valley for a fundraiser.
One of the event’s sponsors was a partner at a law firm for Silicon Valley Bank.
___
Sweet reported from New York. Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report. | 2023-03-21T12:48:00+00:00 | ourquadcities.com | https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/politics/ap-politics/army-of-lobbyists-helped-water-down-banking-regulations/ |
Carrie Underwood added to Treasure Island Summer Concert Series
Published: Mar. 14, 2023 at 10:35 AM CDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
WELCH, Minn. (KTTC) – Treasure Island Resort & Casino announced three-time Academy of Country Music (ACM) Entertainer of the Year and 8-time GRAMMY® Award winner Carrie Underwood will come to the Treasure Island Amphitheater stage for the first time on Friday, July 21, 2023.
Tickets will go on sale to the public Friday, March 17 at 10 a.m. and will be available for purchase here.
Reserved seats will be available for $129, $109, $99 and $79. General admission seating will be sold for $59.
Carrie Underwood will join entertainers on Treasure Island’s 2023 Summer Concert Series lineup including Matchbox Twenty on June 10, Jason Aldean on August 19 and Trampled by Turtles and Caamp on September 16.
Copyright 2023 KTTC. All rights reserved. | 2023-03-14T17:28:03+00:00 | kttc.com | https://www.kttc.com/2023/03/14/carrie-underwood-added-treasure-island-summer-concert-series/ |
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal judges that ordered Alabama to draw new congressional lines said the state should have a second district where Black voters are the majority “or something quite close to it” and have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.
What exactly that map should look like is in dispute as lawmakers rush to draw new lines.
Alabama lawmakers convene in special session Monday tasked by the court with adopting a new map by the end of the week. The directive comes after a surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the lower court’s ruling that Alabama’s existing congressional map — with a single Black district — likely violated the Voting Rights Act.
The group of voters who sued the state and won before the Supreme Court have proposed the creation of a second district where Black residents are 50.5% of the population. But Alabama Republicans, who hold a lopsided majority in the Alabama Legislature and will control the redistricting process, have not ceded they must create a second majority-Black district and have pointed to proposals with lower percentages of Black voters. The GOP majority will release their proposed map on Monday.
“Even among the plaintiffs suing the state, the meaning of an equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice is in dispute,” House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, who serves as co-chairman of the state redistricting committee, said during a public hearing Thursday.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month affirmed a lower-court ruling finding Alabama likely violated the Voting Rights Act with a congressional map that had only one majority Black district out of seven in a state where more than one in four residents is Black. The three-judge panel gave Alabama until Friday to adopt a new map and submit it for review.
“The appropriate remedy is a congressional redistricting plan that includes either an additional majority-Black congressional district, or an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice,” the three-judge panel wrote in its 2022 ruling, adding that it will need to include two districts in which “Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”
The Supreme Court decision was cheered by voting rights groups who said it would give Black voters a greater voice in the Deep South state.
“The eyes of the nation are looking at you. I know it’s hard. I know you have people that you answer to,” Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, told lawmakers. “But if you can cut out the noise, look within, you can look to history. You can make a mark in history that will that will set a standard for this country.”
Milligan, a longtime resident of Montgomery, said he is six generations removed from slavery. “My son and daughter are the seventh generation. When I look at them, I want to commit to them inheriting an Alabama that allows them an opportunity to lead, to dream and to make contributions to the community, the same that you want for your children and your grandchildren,” Milligan said.
The Supreme Court decision sets up Alabama’s first significant revamp of its congressional districts since 1992, when Alabama was ordered by the courts to create its first majority-Black district. That led to the state electing its first Black member of Congress since Reconstruction. The district has been represented by a Black Democrat ever since.
Partisan politics underlies the looming redistricting fight. Republicans who dominate elective office in Alabama have been resistant to creating a second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority, or close to one, that could send another Democrat to Congress. Democrats cheered the possibility of gaining a seat or at least a swing district in the GOP-dominated state.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who represents the state in the redistricting lawsuit, wrote in a letter to the committee that plaintiffs had initially argued for a “fair chance” to compete but now want more.
“Now they demand a plan that provides not just a ‘fair chance’ to compete, but instead a guarantee of Democratic victories in at least two districts,” Marshall wrote. Marshall said the plaintiffs’ proposed map divides voters based on “stereotypes about how voters of certain races will vote.”
Joe Reed, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference — the state’s oldest Black political organization — urged lawmakers to compromise with plaintiffs on a plan. He said state lawmakers can either draw a plan that the court will approve or the court will draw it for them.
“We know there will be two majority Black districts,” Reed said. | 2023-07-17T11:08:13+00:00 | wcia.com | https://www.wcia.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-alabama-rushes-to-adopt-new-congressional-map-amid-disagreement-on-what-district-should-look-like/ |
In Ukraine, funeral for activist killed and mourned in war
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Poppies, the blood-red flowers that cover the battlefields of Europe’s two world wars, were lain in mourning Saturday on the coffin of yet another dead soldier, this one killed in yet another European war, in Ukraine.
The hundreds of mourners for Roman Ratushnyi, 24, included friends who had protested with him during months of demonstrations that toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russia leader in 2014 and who, like him, took up arms when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor this February.
The arc of his shortened life symbolized that of Ukraine’s post-independence generations that are sacrificing their best years in the cause of freedom. First, with defiance and dozens of lives against brutal riot police during Ukraine’s Maidan protests of 2013-2014 and now with weapons and even more lives against Russian troops.
“Heroes never die!” friends, family and admirers shouted in Ukrainian as Ratushnyi’s coffin was loaded aboard a hearse on a square in the Ukrainian capital now decorated with destroyed Russian tanks and vehicles. Their charred hulks contrasted with the shiny gold domes of an adjacent cathedral where priests had earlier sung prayers for Ratushnyi, who was well-known in Kyiv for his civic and environmental activism.
From the square, the hundreds of mourners then walked in a silent column behind his coffin to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square. The vast plaza in central Kyiv gave its name to the three months of protests that overthrew then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 and which helped fuel the political and patriotic awakening of Ukrainians born after independence in 1991.
Ratushnyi had “a heart full of love for Ukraine,” said Misha Reva, who traveled in his soldier’s uniform from the war’s front lines by overnight train to say goodbye to the friend he met for the first time on Maidan, in the midst of the protests. Ratushnyi was then just 16; Reva was in his early 20s. It was Ratushnyi who introduced Reva to the woman who is now his wife, also on the square.
During the protests where riot police used batons and eventually bullets with abandon, the two friends sheltered together for one night in St. Michael’s, the cathedral where the memorial service for Ratushnyi was held Saturday morning. Poppies and a traditional loaf of bread were placed on his coffin covered with Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag.
Reva said he and Ratushnyi signed up to fight on the very first day of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. After taking part in the defense of Kyiv in the invasion’s opening weeks, Ratushnyi then joined an army brigade, doing military intelligence work, Reva said. He was killed June 9 around the town of Izyum on the war’s eastern front, according to the environmental campaign group that Ratushnyi led in Kyiv. He fought for the preservation from development of a wooded park where people ski in winter.
“He was such a solid and big personality,” Reva said. “It’s a great loss for Ukraine.”
During the commemorations for Ratushnyi, air raid alarms sounded. They’re daily occurrences in Kyiv, which is now relatively peaceful, but reminders of the war raging to the east and south. Other reminders were the dozens of soldiers, some holding flowers, among the mourners. Some draped yellow and blue flags over their shoulders.
“He was a symbol, a symbol of a new Ukraine, of freedom and a new generation that wants to fight for its rights,” said Serhli Sasyn, 21.
The “best people are dying now,” he added.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2022-06-18T14:43:11+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/2022/06/18/ukraine-funeral-activist-killed-mourned-war/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In one of the combat zones against Russia, the supply chief for a Ukrainian fighting brigade places his online order for war supplies — a long list ranging from drones, trucks and thermal sights to batteries, generators and tape. They are needed, he writes, to equip two new battalions and “combat against armed aggression.”
In a makeshift supply depot in the capital, Kyiv, crowd-funders start busying themselves with his request. Their bustle will get the equipment to the 72nd Brigade within days, all paid for with public donations. In their ramshackle office, a poster with the Vietnam-era peace slogan exhorts: “Drop acid, Not bombs.”
With attritional combat devouring soldiers and resources, Ukraine is waging a people's war, fought away from front lines by self-starting networks of donors and volunteers. Tech-savvy systems they've thrown together convert millions of dollars in donations into swift Amazon-like deliveries of war gear direct to the battlefields. They're helping keep Ukraine in the fight at a critical juncture of the Russian invasion, as its better-supplied aggressor applies tremendous, grinding pressure on battlefields to the east and south.
Civilian volunteering is also boosting morale, providing tangible proof to Ukrainians that they're together in their battle for survival, even if they don't have guns in their hands. From grandmothers cutting old clothes into strips to make camouflage netting to the bereaved girlfriend of a slain soldier who walked into the supply depot after his burial saying she wanted to help, most everyone seems to be doing their bit, big and small or by direct debit.
Civilian assistance for the military effort has been a feature of Ukrainian resistance from Day 1 of the Feb. 24 invasion, as ordinary folk dropped everything to help and raided their bank accounts to equip hastily assembled new units. From modest beginnings, including telephone hotlines for donations that were immediately overwhelmed with calls, crowd-funding initiatives have matured into well-oiled machines. They have online payment systems and slick websites explaining their needs, and volunteers applying their expertise in civilian fields — logistics, technology, purchasing, electronics — to help get supplies into troops' hands.
Five months into the invasion, creative fund-raising is also keeping money flowing in — belying the notion that Ukrainians are losing interest and feeling less imperiled in the uneasy peace that has returned to Kyiv and other cities since badly mauled Russian forces withdrew from the north in April, refocusing on capturing Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
An appeal last week by Ukrainian television personality and politician Serhiy Prytula for $15 million in donations to buy three Turkish-made Bayraktar combat drones went viral. He subsequently announced that he'd surged past the target, raising $20 million — enough for four Bayraktars — in under three days.
His foundation is one of the biggest crowd-funding initiatives. Among other, more unusual ones are women and men who send erotic photos of themselves as a reward to donors who can prove, with a receipt, that they gave to a war-support fund. “Teronlyfans” says its aim “is to incentivize donations for the needs of Ukraine and thereby bring our victory closer.” The volunteers say they've helped raise $750,000 by baring all.
“We make sure that the photos are not pornographic. This is beautiful, aesthetic erotica,” said Nastya Kuchmenko, one of the group's co-founders. “It’s not about objectifying the body, it’s about the freedom to use your body as you want.”
"People want to be useful," she said.
On the opposing side, some Russians, including soldiers' mothers, also are getting supplies to troops. But the Russian effort isn't as organized, massive and spontaneous, in part because the Kremlin is downplaying the scale, reach and cost of its invasion, insisting that it's a mere “military operation.”
The United People’s Front, a Kremlin-created effort to foster public support for the government, launched a crowd-funding campaign in early June, under the slogan “All for Victory!”
“The guys on the front line who are dying for the right to be Russians, who are fighting for our common freedom, will greatly appreciate any help you can offer,” Mikhail Kuznetsov, a United People’s Front executive, said of the drive for front-line gear and medicines. “They will win in any case, but they will win faster and with smaller casualties if we help them.”
On the Ukrainian side, victory is the goal, too.
The foundation run by Prytula, the TV personality, prioritizes its aid for units in combat hot spots. Unit commanders list their needs and locations on an online form.
That's how “Tokha” — the nom de guerre of the quartermaster for the 72nd Brigade — submitted his order. Gear on his wish-list hinted at the ferocity of the fighting around his location in the east, with requests for 100 periscopes for peering from trenches, a dozen tablets pre-loaded with software to correct artillery fire, and even wire — presumably for use as tripwires. Bigger-ticket items included six vans and pick-up trucks.
Convoys of vans, trucks and other vehicles, sourced second-hand from elsewhere in Europe, set off loaded with gear every week from the foundation's depot in Kyiv. Some vehicles are repainted in army green to make them battle-ready. Their front-line lives can be short: Two recently delivered ambulances lasted just two days before Russian bombs destroyed them.
The foundation says it has raised more than $34 million since the invasion began, mostly as donations — ranging from pennies to a businessman's gift in cryptocurrency of $1.3 million. The foundation also auctioned the Eurovision Song Contest trophy won and then donated by Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra and raffled the bright bucket hat worn by its frontman. Together, they fetched $1.25 million.
The foundation says it has fulfilled 2,200 orders from units in just the last two months. On the receiving end, the troops or volunteers who make the deliveries take photos to prove that aid is being used as intended.
“Ukrainians are a nation of volunteers and we can do unimaginable things together,” said Maria Pysarenko, who works with Prytula. “It's also about not just the fundraising but community-building and showing that, ‘Yes, we can.’"
—-
Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | 2022-06-27T13:31:31+00:00 | hjnews.com | https://www.hjnews.com/world/peoples-war-ukraine-russia-crowd-funding-gear-for-troops/article_44909291-b956-5bb6-8178-6195923afa3b.html |
NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Billy Walters, the gambling legend who has been described as "the Michael Jordan of sports betting," will publish his book Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk on August 15, 2023, it was announced today by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Written in collaboration with award-winning journalist Armen Keteyian, Gambler is more than a traditional autobiography. In addition to an against-all-odds American dream story, it reveals in granular detail the secrets of Walters's proprietary sports betting system, which will serve as a master class for tens of millions of recreational gamblers in America and around the world. Walters also breaks his silence about his long and complicated relationship with Hall of Fame professional golfer Phil Mickelson.
William T. Walters is a living legend in Las Vegas and among sports bettors worldwide. With an unmatched winning streak of thirty-six consecutive years betting on sports, Walters has placed hundreds of millions a year in gross wagers, including a $3.5-million bet on one Super Bowl alone. After decades of avoiding the spotlight and fiercely protecting the keys to his success, Walters, seventy-six, has reached the age where he wants to pass along his wisdom to future generations of sports bettors.
Casual betting on professional and college athletics has exploded. In the first eleven months of 2022, Americans wagered $83 billion legally on sports—an increase of 65 percent from 2021, according to the American Gaming Association. Wagering is now legal in sportsbooks and on betting apps in thirty-six states. Sitting atop this massive industry is Walters, the undisputed GOAT of sports wagering. ESPN described Walters as "the greatest and most controversial sports gambler ever." The Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) called Walters "the Michael Jordan of sports betting." Jack Binion, longtime owner of Binion's Horseshoe Casino, says, "If there's a Mount Rushmore of sports gambling, there's only one face on the mountain and that's Billy Walters. No one else is close."
Walters's personal story is nothing less than a modern-day Horatio Alger tale come true. Raised by his grandmother amid extreme poverty in rural Kentucky, Walters became an accomplished pool hustler by the age of nine. As an adult, he set records as a used-car salesman, hustled golf, and dabbled in bookmaking. Walters eventually moved to Las Vegas, where he revolutionized sports betting as a member of the famed Computer Group, the first syndicate to apply sophisticated algorithms and data analysis to sports gambling. He became extraordinarily wealthy while overcoming addictions and outmaneuvering organized crime figures made infamous by Martin Scorsese's film Casino. Walters later applied his data expertise to stock trading and built a business empire that included seven golf courses, twenty-two automobile dealerships, and a string of other investments.
Walters was convicted of insider trading in the Southern District of New York in 2017 and served thirty-one months in federal prison. Although Mickelson was also implicated in the probe, he was never charged—despite agreeing to pay back more than $1 million in trading profits and interest—and he refused to testify at Walters's trial. In Gambler, Walters shares the inside story of his own prosecution and reveals explosive details about his six-year gambling relationship with Mickelson.
Armen Keteyian, a longtime CBS News correspondent and contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes Sports, is the recipient of eleven Emmy Awards. He is also the New York Times bestselling author or coauthor of eleven books, most recently the #1 bestseller Tiger Woods.
Walters is one of the top philanthropists in Las Vegas and a major supporter of Opportunity Village, the most successful home for intellectually challenged people in the state of Nevada. Walters plans to donate all of his net proceeds from Gambler to three charities: Opportunity Village; Cedar Lake Foundation to benefit people with intellectual and development disabilities in the Greater Louisville area; and the Hope for Prisoners Billy Walters Center for Second Chances, which provides long-term support and services to formerly incarcerated prisoners.
Jofie Ferrari-Adler, vice president and publisher of Avid Reader Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, acquired world rights to Gambler from literary agent David Vigliano of Vigliano Associates. The book will be simultaneously published in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions.
Simon & Schuster is a global leader in general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for readers of all ages, and in all printed, digital and audio formats. Its distinguished roster of authors includes many of the world's most popular and widely recognized writers, and winners of the most prestigious literary honors and awards. It is home to numerous well-known imprints and divisions such as Simon & Schuster, Scribner, Atria Books, Avid Reader Press, Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Adams Media, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, and Simon & Schuster Audio and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom, and proudly brings the works of its authors to readers in more than 200 countries and territories. For more information visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.
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SOURCE Billy Walters | 2023-02-08T15:55:21+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2023/02/08/billy-walters-greatest-most-controversial-sports-gambler-ever-release-his-autobiography-august/ |
Motion-capture leader to expand global sales and support and accelerate development of new sensor technology for emerging applications
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Nov. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- StretchSense, a global leader in high-precision motion capture technology for the gaming and animation sectors has completed a US$7.6m (NZ$13.3m) Series A investment led by Scotland-based Par Equity with participation by existing StretchSense investors GD1, the NZ-based venture capital firm, and Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's national economic development agency.
Founded in 2012 by CEO Dr. Ben O'Brien, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Todd Gisby, and bioengineering Professor Iain Anderson, StretchSense is headquartered in Auckland with offices in Seattle and Edinburgh. The company has more than 200 gaming and visual effects (VFX) studios using its technology worldwide.
The investment will further accelerate StretchSense's global expansion. It plans to grow its world-class engineering team to meet strong customer interest in the compatibility of its technology with leading motion capture and VR tools in the market. It will also focus on developing new sensor technology to enable high-precision tracking in emerging applications such as the rapidly-developing corporate virtual training industry which is estimated to be worth more than US$300 billion in 2022 and expected to grow to more than US$550 billion by 2027.
StretchSense will expand its European headquarters in Edinburgh with the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in AI and Spatial Computing. To meet strong global demand for its technology it is expanding both sales and service teams across its three offices, with a strong focus on customer support and building its burgeoning channel and technology partnerships.
"At StretchSense we believe that technology-enabled garments are needed to humanize access to virtual worlds. We have already proven this model by revolutionizing how studios capture highly precise, detailed hand movements in the gaming and VFX industries. With this investment we are expanding into the metaverse, focused on the key partnerships, new technology, and investments in scale needed to build the future of how people will create, learn, work, and play", says O'Brien.
Tom Croy, Senior Investment Manager, Par Equity, said: "StretchSense has developed technology that is transforming the creative industries sector including gaming and virtual effects, the company has hundreds of customers across the globe, and is well positioned to play a role in the evolution of virtual worlds. We look forward to being on the journey with Ben, Todd, and the rest of the team."
StretchSense (Sensor Holdings Limited) is the creator of the MoCap Pro Glove and Hand Engine software. Its industry-leading hand and finger motion capture solution combines bespoke stretch sensors with machine-learning for superior finger tracking and reduced clean up in post-production. Digitizing lifelike movement and expression, StretchSense are leading the race to empower the makers of the future and become the hands of virtual worlds. Visit www.stretchsense.com for more information.
Par Equity is a leading venture capital firm, based in Edinburgh, investing in innovative technology companies with high growth potential in the North of the UK. Since it was founded in 2008, Par Equity has invested more than £130m across 71 companies, leveraging a further £215m of capital from third-party investors. Par Equity is also one of the founding members of ESG_VC, a pan-European initiative to improve the ESG credentials of early tech companies. Past successes include Current Health, DeltaDNA, Symphonic Software, ICS Learn and Dukosi, whilst its existing portfolio is made up of rising stars such as Cyacomb, Speech Graphics, Nova Pangaea Technologies, Miralis Fuuse and Cumulus Neuroscience.
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SOURCE StretchSense | 2022-11-07T15:06:30+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2022/11/07/stretchsense-finalizes-us76m-capital-raise-with-major-investment-par-equity/ |
HERSHEY, Pa., Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) announced today that Marlene Creighton has been named as Global Chief Sales Officer, effective September 5, 2022. After 26 years with Hershey, Phil Stanley, currently serving in this role, will transition out of the company to pursue his next opportunity following a very successful sales career at Hershey.
"In her four years at Hershey, Marlene has led incremental growth with our retail partners and is spearheading our commercial strategy as part of our company's Snacking Powerhouse vision. Her energy and passion for building diverse and inclusive teams, developing people and driving new capabilities are a perfect match for our growth ambition and employee experience," said Michele Buck, The Hershey Company President and CEO. "I want to thank Phil for the legacy he has built here at Hershey to set us up for success in the future. From his earliest days on the retail floor to building our category management capabilities and partnering with our longstanding retail partners, his energy and influence have been felt across the company."
Marlene brings more than 20 years of CPG experience working across sales, category management and brands with P&G, Unilever and now Hershey. Throughout her career, she has a track record of building winning partnerships inside and outside of the company with retail partners and community organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club and Champion for Kids. She is an advocate for mentoring and dedicates time to helping colleagues develop personally and professionally. Most importantly, Marlene is a mom, and she spends as much time as she can volunteering for her children's school and sports activities.
"As Hershey's Chief Global Sales Officer, alongside our extremely talented sales organization, I am committed to continuing to strengthen our relationships across the business and with our retail partners," said Marlene. "I want to thank Phil for all he has done to shape our sales team and lead our category. Building from a position of strength, we have so much potential in front of us, and I can't wait to get started."
About The Hershey Company
The Hershey Company is headquartered in Hershey, Pa., and is an industry-leading snacks company known for bringing goodness to the world through its iconic brands, remarkable people and enduring commitment to help children succeed. Hershey has approximately 19,000 employees around the world who work every day to deliver delicious, quality products. The company has more than 100 brand names in approximately 80 countries around the world that drive more than $8.9 billion in annual revenues, including such iconic brand names as Hershey's, Reese's, Kit Kat®, Jolly Rancher and Ice Breakers, and fast-growing salty snacks including SkinnyPop, Pirate's Booty and Dot's Pretzels.
For more than 125 years, Hershey has been committed to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably. Hershey founder, Milton Hershey, created the Milton Hershey School in 1909 and since then the company has focused on helping children succeed.
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SOURCE The Hershey Company | 2022-08-31T14:43:11+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/08/31/hershey-company-names-marlene-creighton-global-chief-sales-officer/ |
DETROIT - With their playoff hopes on the brink, the Detroit Red Wings begin a three-game homestand on Thursday night, taking on the Buffalo Sabres in an Atlantic Division matchup.
- Watch the Detroit Red Wings on FuboTV (7-day free trial)
The Red Wings earned their second consecutive win on Tuesday night, coming away with a big performance against an Original Six rival, the Montreal Canadiens. David Perron scored twice, while picking up an assist as well, while Ville Husso earned his fourth shutout of the season, a career-high, in Detroit’s 5-0 victory over the Habs.
The win keeps the team’s hopes alive of making it to the postseason, though they need a miracle. Coming into Thursday, they are eight points back of the New York Islanders for the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with five games left.
A team that is a little closer to the Isles is the Sabres. Buffalo sits a couple of spots ahead of the Wings in the Atlantic, only trailing the team from Long Island by six points, with six games left on their calendar, two games in hand on the Islanders. The Sabres have been playing well as of late, winning four of their last six games, despite dropping a 2-1 decision to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
This will be the fourth and final meeting of the season between the two divisional foes, with the Sabres winning each of the first three encounters.
Check out more stories about the Detroit Red Wings here on MLive
NHL Hockey
Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (38-30-10) vs. Detroit Red Wings (35-33-9)
When: Tuesday, April 6
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena (Detroit, Mich.)
Channel: Bally Sports Detroit
Stream: FuboTV (Free Trial), DirecTV Stream
Check out the NHL standings and results on NHL.com
- Buy Red Wings gear: Fanatics, Amazon, Lids
- Buy Red Wings tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster
- Stream Red Wings games live: FuboTV (Free Trial), DirecTV Stream | 2023-04-06T15:22:28+00:00 | mlive.com | https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2023/04/how-to-watch-the-buffalo-sabres-vs-detroit-red-wings-nhl-4623-channel-stream-preview.html |
Red Bull owner and co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz died Saturday at age 78. He helped Red Bull become popular around the world and created a sports, media and real estate empire around the brand.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Red Bull owner and co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz died Saturday at age 78. He helped Red Bull become popular around the world and created a sports, media and real estate empire around the brand.
Copyright 2022 NPR | 2022-10-24T21:50:35+00:00 | kpcc.org | https://www.kpcc.org/2022-10-24/red-bull-owner-and-co-founder-dietrich-mateschitz-dies-at-age-78 |
INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — An Indianapolis man was charged after Indianapolis Metropolitan Police claim he shot at a mouse outside the home where he lives.
Court documents show police were called to a home in the city’s west side just after 3:15 p.m. on June 6. A property owner, Richard Arias, told police that resident Frankie Rosa, 22, was shooting outside the home. Officers say they witnessed Rosa squatting down in the front yard and after giving commands, took him into custody.
Rosa told officers that he’d had a mouse caught in a trap and was trying to kill it, officers say. He added that he brought the trap outside and fired one shot.
Court documents state officers then spoke to property owner Arias who said he and his son were in front of Rosa when he fired one shot at the trap facing toward them. Arias said he grabbed his son and called 911 after shots were fired.
Detectives say Rosa was mad that his house had mice and attempted to tell the landlord about the situation but nothing was done. After finding the mouse stuck in the sticky trap he fired one shot at the mouse while Arias, Arias’ son, and a neighbor were standing nearby.
Arias told officers that after catching two mice on stick traps he told Rosa to “wait and the mice would die.” Rosa then reportedly responded stating, “You don’t have to wait.” He pulled out his firearm and shot the mouse, documents state.
Court documents show after a search warrant was granted officers searched Rosa’s room and found a spent 9mm shell casing on the floor, black 9mm Taurus G2C and a magazine in a crossover bag in the corner of the room. A locked safe was also laying under an entertainment center.
After finding the key to the safe officers located a receipt for the gun, a small scale, and a pill bottle containing several narcotic pills, including Xanax and Clonazepam. Officers say they also located three baggies containing a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana in Rosa’s bedroom.
Rosa was arrested and charged with several felonies, including criminal recklessness and possession of a controlled substance with enhancing circumstances. His initial court hearing is scheduled for June 9. | 2023-06-10T02:48:21+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/national-news/indiana-man-accused-of-shooting-mouse-stuck-to-trap/ |
While House Republicans are clashing with the White House over the nation's debt limit, some paused negotiations this week to focus on something else: Used chapstick.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene paid $100,000 for a tube of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's cherry lip balm as part of a fundraising event for Republican political campaigns. Greene initially remained out of the bidding war — until Speaker McCarthy sweetened the deal by agreeing to attend a donor event with the winner.
"I’m honored to be able to donate $100,000 to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] to help Republicans increase our majority in 2024 and defeat the Democrats. My constituents will be honored to host a visit with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who we all think is doing a great job," Greene said in a statement to Politico.
SEE MORE: Twitter restricts Marjorie Taylor Greene over trans 'Vengeance' tweet
The moment signifies a strange time on Capitol Hill as House Republicans and President Joe Biden still appear to be far apart on a deal to raise the nation's debt limit. The U.S. Treasury Department has given a so-called "x-date" of June 1 for when the U.S. will default on its debts and be unable to pay its bills. A potential default would have concerning consequences for the U.S. economy, resulting in the temporary suspension of government benefit payments that millions of individuals depend on.
Nonetheless, some Republicans appear to be more fixated on the next election cycle, rather than a looming economic collapse. And Democrats are calling them out.
"Spending $100,000 on chapstick while working overtime to gut the programs that working families rely on. GOP priorities," Rep. Nydia Velazquez tweeted.
"They doing this insane chapstick sh*t while the country teeters on default. Wild," Rep. Ilhan Omarechoed on Twitter.
Speaker McCarthy said Thursday that negotiators had worked late into the night and made progress on a deal to raise the debt limit, but added that Republicans and President Biden are "still far apart" on several issues. The White House is requesting a clean debt limit increase. But Republicans say the government has a spending problem and are calling for cuts to things like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and nixing the $70 billion in additional IRS funding that was approved last year.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington are heading home for the Memorial Day weekend recess with just six days until the June 1 deadline. House leadership said they should be ready to return within 24 hours if a deal is reached.
While the U.S. has never defaulted on its debt before, it's tough to predict what would happen. But experts warn that such a scenario could lead to a broad economic collapse, massive drops to American's 401(k)s, and the loss of millions of jobs. The last time the U.S. faced default was in 2011. That year the Treasury Department reported a $800 billion loss in Americans' retirement accounts.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | 2023-05-26T19:57:55+00:00 | abc15.com | https://www.abc15.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-pays-100k-for-house-speaker-s-used-lip-balm |
Wilmington, Del. (AP) — As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, CIA Director William Burns said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being “too confident” in his military’s ability to grind Ukraine into submission.
Burns, in a television interview, said the head of Russia’s intelligence services had displayed in their November meeting “a sense of cockiness and hubris” that reflected Putin’s own beliefs “that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can grind down the Ukrainians that he can wear down our European allies, that political fatigue will eventually set in.”
That conversation, in which Burns warned of the consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, was “pretty dispiriting,” Burns said.
Burns said he judged Putin as “quite determined” to continue prosecuting the war, despite the casualties, tactical shortcomings and economic and reputational damage to Russia.
“I think Putin is, right now, entirely too confident of his ability … to wear down Ukraine,” Burns told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday. Burns said that “at some point, he’s going to have to face up to increasing costs as well, in coffins coming home to some of the poorest parts of Russia,” where he said many of the conscripts “being thrown as cannon fodder” are from.
Burns also said Putin was underestimating U.S. resolve to support Ukraine, saying that it has been his experience that the Russian leader’s view is that Americans have “attention deficit disorder and we’ll move on to some other issue eventually.”
The comments came at a critical juncture for the war as the Biden administration is “confident that the Chinese leadership is considering” whether to provide “lethal” military equipment to Russia.
“It would be a very risky and unwise bet,” Burns said, adding that such a move could only further strain relations between the world’s two largest economics. “That’s why I hope very much that they don’t.”
Burns said China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has closely watched how the war has evolved, and “I think, in many ways, he’s been unsettled and sobered by what he’s seen.” The CIA director spoke of “where Putin’s hubris has now gotten Russia,” and said that in authoritarian systems, when “nobody challenges” a leader, “you can make some huge blunders.”
Meanwhile, the question of military aid and the pace of the war is also a source of uncertainty in the U.S. as Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for not sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. was providing Ukraine with the military aid needed to retake territory seized by Russia. The domestic politics of support for Ukraine are also complicated by some GOP members of Congress who say the administration should pull back and focus more on the needs at home.
Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said planes and long-range artillery could help end the war on a faster timeline. “This whole thing is taking too long,” McCaul said. “And it really didn’t have to happen this way,” said McCaul, R-Texas.
Ukraine won support last month from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to obtain Western fighter jets, but there have been no signs that nations such as the U.S. and Britain will change their stance of refusing to provide warplanes to Kyiv.
Biden said in an ABC News interview on Friday that he’s “ruling it out for now,” saying that they are not the weaponry that Ukrainians need in the near term.
But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the White House has been slow in providing what Ukraine seeks, including jets. “That has been a pattern with this administration from the beginning, where they have slow-rolled critical military weapons systems,” he said.
Jake Sullivan said the U.S. is already providing parts to keep Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet-era jets flying, but supplying F-16s “is really a question for another day, for another phase” of the war.
Jake Sullivan appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week.” McCaul was on ABC and Dan Sullivan was on NBC. | 2023-02-26T22:59:16+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/political-news/ap-gop-lawmaker-assails-biden-for-not-sending-f-16s-to-ukraine/ |
DOVER, Del. - The Firefly music festival is happening in dover from Thursday, September 22nd to Sunday, September 25th.
Headliners include Halsey (Thursday), My Chemical Romance (Friday), Green Day (Saturday), and Dua Lipa (Sunday). Other big names throughout the festival include Willow, Weezer, Big Sean, Avril Lavigne, Isaiah Rashad, Charli XCX, T-Pain, and many more.
Not only that, there's plenty of other non-music activities to do this year, including Drag Bingo, Drag Brunch, The Good Hub (place to learn about various non-profits), the Bazaar Central Market, a Pride Parade, and more. There are also plenty of places to eat or grab a drink.
The hours of the festival are as follows:
- Thursday, 3pm - 12am ET
- Friday, 12pm - 2am ET
- Saturday, 12pm - 2am ET
- Sunday, 12pm - 12am ET
Day Parking is available at Dover International Speedway 2 hours prior to gates opening and 1 hour after the show ends each day.
More information, including the full lineup, a full list of activities, prices and more can be found on the Firefly website.
Firefly says that the festival will happen rain or shine. | 2022-09-23T16:28:42+00:00 | wrde.com | https://www.wrde.com/news/firefly-2022-the-music-festival-returns-to-dover-from-september-22nd-to-25th/article_8d3d1efc-3b40-11ed-b84b-37d9232333fd.html |
Illinois health officials reported a total of 23,334 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, including 82 deaths, since Dec. 9. The metrics are up from the week prior, when officials said the state saw 21,404 new and confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 56 deaths.
As of Thursday evening, 1,712 people in Illinois were reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 211 patients were in the ICU and 63 were on ventilators. The preliminary seven-day statewide case rate is 183 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Illinoisans.
According to CDC data, 86 state counties stand at an elevated community level of the virus. The number of counties are split evenly among elevated statuses, with 43 at "high" and 43 at "medium."
“Illinois continues to see a dramatic rise in communities at elevated risk levels for COVID-19,” Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Sameer Vohra said in a statement released Friday. “As we prepare for holiday gatherings with our loved ones, I want to remind Illinoisians that these elevated COVID-19 community levels, along with rising flu levels, are leading to a surge of respiratory infections, increased hospitalizations and limited hospital beds. I strongly recommend all Illinoisians take preventative steps to protect themselves and their family and friends, especially those most vulnerable including young children and individuals over 65."
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The following 43 counties are now at a "high" COVID-19 community level:
- Adams County
- Brown County
- Calhoun County
- Cass County
- Champaign County
- Christian County
- Clay County
- Coles County
- DeKalb County
- Douglas County
- Edgar County
- Edwards County
- Ford County
- Fulton County
- Gallatin County
- Hardin County
- Jasper County
- Johnson County
- Kankakee County
- Knox County
- Lee County
- Logan County
- Macon County
- Marshall County
- Mason County
- Massac County
- Menard County
- Peoria County
- Piatt County
- Pike County
- Randolph County
- Richland County
- Saline County
- Sangamon County
- Scott County
- Shelby County
- Tazewell County
- Vermilion County
- Wabash County
- Warren County
- Whiteside County
- Williamson County
- Winnebago County
The following 43 counties are now at a "medium" COVID-19 community level:
- Boone County
- Bond County
- Carroll County
- Clark County
- Clinton County
- Cook County
- Cumberland County
- De Witt County
- DuPage County
- Effingham County
- Fayette County
- Franklin County
- Greene County
- Hamilton County
- Henderson County
- Henry County
- Iroquois County
- Jackson County
- Jefferson County
- Jersey County
- Jo Daviess County
- Kane County
- Kendall County
- Lake County
- Lawrence County
- Madison County
- McDonough County
- McHenry County
- McLean County
- Monroe County
- Montgomery County
- Morgan County
- Moultrie County
- Ogle County
- Perry County
- Pope County
- Pulaski County
- Schuyler County
- Schuyler County
- Stephenson County
- Wayne County
- White County
- Woodford County
At a medium community level, anyone at high risk of getting seriously ill should wear a high-quality mask or respirator, such as an N95, when in public indoors. Additionally, if you have contact with someone else at high risk, consider self-testing to detect infection before contact, according to the CDC.
At a high community level, the CDC recommends everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public settings.
A total of 25,597,784 vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois, with a seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily at 15,174 doses.
More than 78% of Illinois' population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, with more than 71% completing their primary series of vaccinations. Over 17% of eligible Illinoisans have received a bivalent booster dose. | 2022-12-16T20:29:43+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/86-illinois-counties-at-elevated-community-level-of-covid-19-as-cdc-metrics-report-rise-in-cases/3024262/ |
Nearly 60 years after “The Sound of Music” first hit cinemas, the legendary Julie Andrews reunited onstage with several of her co-stars from the movie — and even treated everyone to a sing-along!
Along with tributes from her “Mary Poppins” co-star Dick Van Dyke and her “Princess Diaries” co-star Anne Hathaway, Andrews was reunited with members of the fictional Von Trapp family while accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award for her contributions to film.
Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner and Kym Karath not only spoke about Andrews, they also started a “Do Re Mi” sing-along. While playing a clip from the film, the audience, including Andrews, sang the full song from beginning to end.
You can watch the special sing-along below in a YouTube video uploaded by TNT:
While the reunion was an obvious treat for fans, Andrews told “Today” that she still sees her former co-stars every once in a while — just not on a stage or with cameras.
“We do keep in touch, but not on a really regular basis,” she said. “I mean, Christmases, maybe birthdays and certainly get-togethers, but we just bonded so hard that I think we’re family anyway.”
Some “Sound of Music” cast members were missing from the AFI event, including Christopher Plummer, who died in 2021; Charmian Carr, who died in 2016; and Heather Menzies-Urich, who died in 2017.
A three-time Academy Award nominee, Andrews also has a BAFTA and an Oscar for her role in “Mary Poppins,” five Golden Globes, three Grammys and two Emmys. She is also a Kennedy Center honoree, a Disney Legend inductee and the recipient of a SAG Life Achievement Award.
In her acceptance speech for the AFI Life Achievement Award, Andrews shared the spotlight by shining a light on just how many people it takes to truly make movie magic happen.
“Thank you to all the friends tonight that have contributed so much,” she said. “I would also like to thank the vast number of people you don’t get to see, other than when their names are listed in those all-too-fast credits.”
You can watch Andrews’s full acceptance speech in the YouTube video below:
If you’d like to watch the entire AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring Andrews, you can catch an encore presentation on Turner Classic Movies on July 15 at 8 p.m. EST.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories. | 2022-06-27T18:28:42+00:00 | koaa.com | https://www.koaa.com/julie-andrews-reunited-sound-of-music-cast |
ANDOVER, Mass.., June 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, May 12th the Galveston Police Department received several 911 calls reporting that a vehicle had just struck a bicyclist and fled the scene. Witnesses stated that the bicyclist received serious injuries and would need immediate medical attention. A few minutes later another 911 caller stated they were just involved in an accident and the suspect vehicle was also fleeing the scene. Dispatchers quickly ascertained that the second collision was just blocks from the first and the vehicle descriptions matched. The second caller stated that they were following the suspect vehicle and continued to give updated locations until patrol units arrived. A patrol officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop of the suspect vehicle, but the driver began to evade officers, leading them on a chase that wound its way through several residential streets. The suspect finally stopped the vehicle in the middle of the roadway near several apartment complexes. The officers then conducted a "high risk stop" where several patrol cars line up behind the suspect vehicle and verbal commands are given over a loudspeaker to the driver and occupants of the car. During this "high risk stop" several commands were given for the driver to exit the car and walk back to the officers but the driver failed to comply, barricading himself in the vehicle.
After approximately 10 minutes with no resolution, officers on scene called for anyone with a long-range less lethal device. Due to the distance and type of situation, a taser or chemical agent aerosol would have been ineffective. Galveston PD Special Operations Units and select patrol officers had recently been issued Byrna SD less-lethal launchers and shortly after the call, a patrol officer carrying a Byrna SD arrived on scene.
At some point during this "high risk stop", the driver had opened his door and left it ajar. The patrol officer warned the driver that if he did not exit the vehicle, he would be utilizing a chemical agent based less-lethal device. With no reaction from the driver, and from approximately 40 feet away, the patrol officer fired five rounds of Byrna Max into the vehicle. The first three rounds struck the dashboard in front of the driver, and he immediately began reacting to the chemical irritant. The next two rounds struck the driver directly at which point he quickly exited the vehicle and began walking backward to the officers where he surrendered without any further resistance.
The driver of the vehicle was arrested for Felony Accident Involving Injury and Felony Evading in a Vehicle. The bicyclist that he struck had suffered severe spinal injury, breaking several vertebrae, several broken ribs, and a broken leg.
Josh Schirard, Byrna's Director of Law Enforcement Operations, stated "we are extremely pleased that Galveston PD was able to use the Byrna SD to great effect in apprehending a suspect, under dangerous conditions, without having to resort to deadly force. This "high risk stop" is exactly what the Byrna SD was designed for – being able to disarm and disorient a non-compliant subject from a significant standoff distance, without risking serious injury or death. No other less-lethal device could have been effective under the circumstances." Click here to see the apprehension from the vantage point of the officer's bodycam video.
Byrna is a technology company, specializing in the development, manufacture, and sale of innovative non-lethal personal security solutions. For more information on the Company, please visit the corporate website here or the Company's investor relations site here. The Company is the manufacturer of the Byrna® SD personal security device, a state-of-the-art handheld CO2 powered launcher designed to provide a non-lethal alternative to a firearm for the consumer, private security, and law enforcement markets. To purchase Byrna products, visit the Company's e-commerce store.
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the securities laws. All statements contained in this news release, other than statements of current and historical fact, are forward-looking. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans," "expects," "intends," "will," "anticipates," and "believes" and statements that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "should," "might," "occur," or "be achieved," or "will be taken." Forward-looking statements include descriptions of currently occurring matters which may continue in the future. Forward-looking statements are not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Forward-looking statements are based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates, and analyses that, while considered reasonable by the Company at the date the forward-looking information is provided, inherently are subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies, and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied.
Any number of risk factors could affect our actual results and cause them to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this news release, including, but not limited to, prolonged, new, or exacerbated disruption of our supply chain, determinations by third party controlled distribution channels not to carry or reduce inventory of our products, and potential cancellations of existing or future orders including as a result of any fulfillment delays, introduction of competing products, negative publicity, or other factor. The order in which these factors appear should not be construed to indicate their relative importance or priority. We caution that these factors may not be exhaustive; accordingly, any forward-looking statements contained herein should not be relied upon as a prediction of actual results. Investors should carefully consider these and other relevant factors, including those risk factors in Part I, Item 1A, ("Risk Factors") in our most recent Form 10-K, should understand it is impossible to predict or identify all such factors or risks, should not consider the foregoing list, or the risks identified in our SEC filings, to be a complete discussion of all potential risks or uncertainties, and should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.
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SOURCE Byrna Technologies Inc. | 2022-06-17T12:23:16+00:00 | kxii.com | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/06/17/galveston-police-department-deploys-byrna-sd-apprehend-hit-and-run-driver/ |
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday pledged his country's support in resolving long-standing disputes in the Balkans that continue to threaten stability in the troubled region.
Speaking in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Erdogan expressed hope that a recent agreement settling a travel document dispute between Serbia and Kosovo can help further bolster regional stability.
Tensions recently soared between Serbia and Kosovo over a mutual refusal to recognize each other’s travel documents. The dispute was resolved through Western mediation but other problems remain. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 which Belgrade won’t recognize.
“We are ready to extend our support and I hope that there is now a positive acceleration which will be sustained in the Balkans, because the Balkans can no longer tolerate these kind of problems,” Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic.
Erdogan's stop in Belgrade was part of a tour of the Balkans. He visited Bosnia on Tuesday and on Thursday travels to Croatia where he will inaugurate a mosque.
Turkey has in recent years ramped up its presence in the Balkans, both politically and economically. Mainly Muslim Bosniak communities in Bosnia and Serbia have close relations with Ankara, while Turkish companies have increased investment in infrastructure projects throughout the region.
Erdogan also said Turkey would like to help three rival ethnic groups in Bosnia “find reconciliation.” Tensions there also have been simmering following the devastating 1992-95 war.
Erdogan and Vucic oversaw the signing of a string of cooperation agreements, including abolishing passports and simplifying travel between the two countries through the use of identity cards only. Serbia also asked for Turkey’s help to supply electricity from Azerbaijan through the coming winter amid a continent-wide energy crisis, Vucic said. | 2022-09-07T15:30:11+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Turkey-s-Erdogan-pledges-help-to-bolster-17424366.php |
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — An early morning fire damaged a commercial building complex housing an historic airplane factory founded by the Wright Brothers in Ohio on Sunday, authorities said.
Dayton fire crews were sent to the site just before 2:30 a.m. and found heavy fire throughout the complex. Fire crews used hoses to spray water on the flames and used aerial ladders to get water into openings in the roof.
The Dayton Daily News reports that crews were still on the scene nearly 12 hours after the fire was reported. Black smoke continued to stream from a collection of multiple hangar buildings, including historic Wright Brothers airplane factory hangars, and flames could be seen on the backside of the hangars, the paper reported.
Capt. Brad French said in a news release that the structure involved is listed on the National Historic Register as the first aircraft manufacturing facility founded by the Wright Brothers.
Mackensie Wittmer, executive director of the National Aviation Heritage Area, said in a Facebook post that the group was “deeply saddened by the fire that damaged our historic Wright Company airplane factory, the first-purpose built buildings for the aviation industry." Officials were working to assess the damage, Wittmer said.
The Wright Company, formed by the Wright brothers in November 1909, produced about 120 airplanes in 13 different models, according to the National Aviation Heritage Area. The group has worked to preserve and restore the factory as a site of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park “completing the story of the Wright brothers’ invention, development, and commercialization of the airplane in Dayton,” officials said.
A year ago, city commissioners authorized more than $1.4 million to clean up the Wright Factory site as the city works with the National Park Service to create a museum in the hangar space. Two hangars had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation and a damage estimate has not yet been released. | 2023-03-26T21:26:42+00:00 | ourmidland.com | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/fire-damages-complex-housing-wright-brothers-17861116.php |
The NBA has released the order of the non-lottery picks in the June 22 NBA Draft.
The Nets own two picks at Nos. 20 and 21 while neither the Sixers don’t own a first-round pick.
The Knicks will get the Mavericks’ pick if it isn’t in the Top 10.
As for the lottery, Detroit, Houston and San Antonio all share a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick, presumed to 7-foot-5 French superstar Victor Wembenyama, whom one NBA agent said is the “single greatest prospect in NBA history.” Charlotte has a 12.5% chance at No. 1, and Portland has a 10.5% chance.
“I honestly believe that when he does come to the NBA and establishes himself he will play similar to the way that Kevin Durant plays, where he can catch the ball in the short post and post up at the same time, but more so a face-up guy, not trying to worry about trying to back guys down,” former NBA player and current NBA analyst Cory Alexander said in the fall.
“The way he shoots the basketball and handles the basketball makes him a dangerous force.”
The NBA Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 16 and air live on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. The Draft will take place on June 22.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com. | 2023-04-17T22:20:42+00:00 | nj.com | https://www.nj.com/sports/2023/04/nba-releases-non-lottery-draft-order.html |
(WJW) – A California appeals court has ruled that four species of bees are now legally considered fish.
The issue was whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish – a division in the list of endangered species and threatened species in the California Endangered Species Act.
The act identifies the protected species, in separate divisions, as “bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.”
It all started in a 2019 lawsuit between large agricultural groups in the state — such as almond and citrus growers — and the California Fish and Game Commission.
The lawsuit specifically set out to determine whether the commission exceeded its authority when it designated four bumble bee species as endangered species – the Crotch bumble bee, the Franklin bumble bee, the Suckley cuckoo bumble bee and the Western bumble bee – calling them invertebrates, therefore falling under CESA’s definition of fish.
In years past, fish were defined as “wild fish, mollusks or crustaceans, including any part, spawn or ova thereof.” But in 2015, the legislature modified the definition to read “ ‘[f]ish’ means a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”
In the ruling, the courts gave the commission the legal authority to list invertebrate species as endangered, even if they are not aquatic animals.
“We next consider whether the commission’s authority is limited to listing only aquatic invertebrates,” the ruling stated. “We conclude the answer is, “no.” Although the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish in section 45 is not so limited.” | 2022-06-03T21:16:08+00:00 | pahomepage.com | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/california-court-says-bees-are-fish/ |
PARIS (AP) — When Lionel Messi was jeered by Paris Saint-Germain fans during last Sunday’s home defeat to Lyon, their relationship looked like it had reached a breaking point.
Messi joined PSG on a two-year deal after leaving Barcelona against his will in 2021, with an option for an extra year if both parties agreed. But talks have reportedly broken down and Messi’s departure this summer looks increasingly inevitable.
There were high hopes he could lead PSG to an elusive Champions League title, but instead the Qatari-backed club went out in the round of 16 in consecutive seasons.
He was among the players jeered last season after PSG was knocked out by Real Madrid, and although Messi’s form was outstanding in the first half of this campaign, it dipped significantly after he led Argentina to the World Cup title in Qatar.
PSG coach Christophe Galtier defended Messi by saying it was others who should raise their game.
“You can’t expect Leo to do everything,” Galtier said after the Lyon game. “The boos are very harsh. He’s a player who gives a lot, who gave a lot in the first half of the season. But it’s also down to the others to surpass themselves.”
Since its array of stars returned from the World Cup, PSG has lost eight games overall in 2023.
Others have played far worse than Messi. Yet PSG fans seem to primarily blame the Argentina star for the alarming slump — perhaps perceiving that his previous good form was motivated purely by his quest to win the World Cup, which he did as the tournament’s best player.
PSG fans are also unhappy that he rarely comes over to applaud them after games.
Messi has cut a distant figure since PSG was eliminated 3-0 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the Champions League last month.
If the next nine French league games are to be Messi’s final appearances in a PSG shirt, here’s a look at where the 35-year-old superstar could go next.
MESSI VS. RONALDO, AGAIN?
When Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid in 2018, it brought the curtain down on the most fascinating player rivalry in modern soccer history. After years of competing for supremacy with Messi at Barcelona, he moved to Juventus.
Ronaldo now plays in Saudi Arabia for Al Nassr in Riyadh and speculation has been growing that Messi could be heading to the Middle East as well to city rival Al Hilal — which is reportedly prepared to offer a record-breaking salary.
Messi played against Ronaldo in January for PSG in an exhibition game in Riyadh against a combined XI from Al Nassr and Al Hilal.
Ronaldo’s arrival has already boosted Saudi’s soccer profile and having Messi would do so even more as it prepares to stage the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time in December.
BARCA RETURN?
Barcelona coach Xavi played alongside Messi when the Spanish club ruled European soccer under heralded coach Pep Guardiola.
Xavi repeated this week that he would welcome Messi back to the club where he scored 672 goals — including an extraordinary 50-goal season in 2012 and a remarkable 133 overall across 2012 and 2013 — and where he won four Champions League trophies.
“It depends on many factors. We must see what the financial fair play rules allow us to do,” Xavi, the former midfield great, said. “But I think the most important factor will be Leo’s desire to come back here. Leo knows this is his home and that our doors are open, and that we will be delighted if he decides to come back.”
In the 10th minute of Barca’s Copa del Rey match against Madrid on Wednesday, fans at the Camp Nou chanted the name of Messi, who wore the famed No. 10 shirt for Barca.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta is keen on bringing Messi back, but the Spanish league leaders are steeped in debt and facing investigation because of payments of millions of dollars to a company linked to a Spanish refereeing official.
GUARDIOLA REUNION?
When he was forced to leave Barcelona in 2021, Messi was linked with a move to Manchester City to reunite with his former mentor Guardiola.
But Guardiola already has a prolific scorer in Erling Haaland and playmaker Kevin De Bruyne as his chief creator, among a slew of other creative midfielders.
Messi earns 40 million euros ($43.6 million) per season with PSG and Abu-Dhabi backed City could afford to match it, especially for only one season. But Messi would be arriving in the highly-physical Premier League at the advanced age of 36.
MLS EXPERIENCE?
The physical demands would be lower in the MLS, with Inter Miami a potential destination if Messi decides to follow the example of David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and play in the United States.
Beckham’s Inter Miami could not possibly match the Saudi salary offer but, according to British newspaper The Independent, one way around that would be to give Messi an equity stake in the franchise.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-04-06T11:44:26+00:00 | mytwintiers.com | https://www.mytwintiers.com/sports/what-next-for-messi-a-look-at-the-options-if-he-leaves-psg/ |
ATLANTA — There is a maternal health crisis in Georgia. The number of moms dying while pregnant and after childbirth in Georgia is among the country's highest. Black women-led groups like Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA) and Sister Love are working to change that.
Angela Aina, BMMA’s co-founder and Executive Director, is among those working to change Georgia’s maternal mortality issue through service, education and advocacy.
“We know that Georgia is still, unfortunately, facing a maternal health crisis, and it's disproportionately impacting Black women and birthing people,” said Aina. “Even when I say that… that doesn't mean that even for white women, their care is even better because it's not. Maternal health care in the state of Georgia, across the board, is definitely not good.
Historically, Georgia has ranked among the country's highest maternal mortality rates. The state received an “f” grade from March of Dimes for maternal and infant health due to the high mortality rates and factors contributing to them, such as lack of access to obstetric care and adequate health insurance coverage.
Black women in the state are at the highest risk. Data shows they are three times more likely to die during and after pregnancy than non-Hispanic, white women.
“We're pushing for policies at the state level, including at the federal level, but also at the state level that supports the full range of maternal, sexual and reproductive health and health care for Black women and birthing people,” said Aina.
Aina said policies that could help include expanding licenses to midwives, enforcing mandatory postpartum coverage for up to a year, expanding Medicaid benefits and increasing access to care.
“The fact that we don't have expanded medical care or medical Medicaid and health services in the state, the fact that we still don't have enough providers in the first place, much less providers who are skilled enough to cover an array of reproductive health services, create additional challenges for us,” said Dazon Dixon Diallo, the Founder and President of Sister Love
Diallo and her team at Sister Love have over three decades of experience serving Black women and their reproductive needs. She said their work in policy starts at the community level.
“When we go out and do testing events or when we're doing screenings or when we're doing prevention campaigns, we might also be registering people to vote," said Diallo. "We might be making sure that they understand what the policy issues are that are affecting these various service needs that they have because I think that that builds a stronger base of people who are more literate about their own health care."
Both women and their organizations are focused on community advocacy and policy changes to create a solution to the historic problem.
“It is still very important for our policymakers to continue to turn the dial. In terms of investments and investing in our local, local community-based organizations and to see value in our public health system by putting more investments back into public health and not stripping our budget left and right.” said Aina. “Women across economic backgrounds, across racial and ethnic backgrounds have been saying the same thing over and over again, that they do want comprehensive, holistic care that sees them as a full human being and not just a vessel that can birth children."
BMMA will host a Maternal Health Walk on Saturday as part of their Black Maternal Health Week events. You can register for the walk here. | 2023-04-17T02:32:48+00:00 | 11alive.com | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/black-maternaty-rate-sister-love-mamas-matter-alliance/85-f9ae70f9-d70f-47ad-a349-f65c1741c420 |
NEW YORK -- Fan balloting began Wednesday for the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on July 19.
A person can submit up to five votes per 24 hours during the first phase of voting, which runs through 2 p.m. EDT on June 30. The leading vote-getter in each league will get a starting position in the game and will bypass the second round.
The second phase of voting, involving the top two at each position in each league other than outfield and the top six outfielders in each league, runs from noon ET on July 5 through 2 p.m. ET on July 8.
A National League designated hitter also will be voted on following the decision by Major League Baseball and the players' association in March to expand the DH to the NL.
Elected starters will be announced July 8. The 23 pitchers and reserves are announced on July 10, chosen partly by player voting and partly by the commissioner's office.
The two-round voting system began in 2019. That agreement called for the highest vote-getter in both leagues in the first round to receive a $15,000 bonus, a payment to the leading vote-getter at catcher and each infield position plus the top three among outfielders. For all positions other than the outfield, the second-place finishers receive $5,000 apiece and the third-place finishers $2,500 each. | 2022-06-08T19:30:09+00:00 | espn.com | https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34058734/voting-begins-mlb-all-stars-starters-announced-july-8 |
Big Village's insights & strategy group breaks down concepts and technologies about the metaverse
NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest research report, Fact or (Science) Fiction - What's Real in the Metaverse?, released by Cassandra, Big Village's insights and strategy group that studies trendsetting young consumers, unveils emerging attitudes and knowledge about the metaverse and new technologies, and their potential impact. The pandemic has forced new perspectives on connectivity, collaboration, and experience. As new technologies emerge, 61% of Gen Z agree that the development of immersive experiences in the metaverse will create jobs and boost economic activity.
"Gen Z enjoys the aspect of creative freedom, and as the metaverse and new technologies are developed, they're eager for new opportunities to collaborate and connect," said Kathy Sheehan, Senior Vice President, Cassandra. "Gen Z has trust in the digital world and can see great value in what the metaverse has to offer."
Gen Zs believe that the metaverse will have the greatest impact on the world of work, as supply and demand is encouraging people to enter the meta-economy. Gen Z is known for their participation in the digital world as they enjoy being part of the creative process, especially now as cryptocurrencies capture their attention. The report found that 65% of Gen Z strongly rely on technology to help manage their finances - and the rise of cryptocurrencies, NFTs and blockchain technologies has added to their interest and engagement in the space.
Additional key findings include:
- 44% of U.S. trendsetters frequently use cryptocurrency
- 43% of Gen Zs report that they understand cryptocurrencies
- 57% of U.S. trendsetters are excited to use the metaverse in the future
- 59% of youth today report they always try to have more than one stream of revenue, such as crypto
The Fact or (Science) Fiction - What's Real in the Metaverse? Report was crafted through a quantitative survey fielded in both the U.S. and UK. Cassandra interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. youth age 14 to 34 based on age, gender, ethnicity, and region, and 550 UK youth in the same age range, also nationally representative based on age, gender and region. Additionally, we surveyed 500 Trendsetters between the ages of 14 and 34 across the U.S. and UK. For more information, visit https://cassandra.co.
About Cassandra by Big Village
Cassandra is the foremost authority on Millennial, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha research focusing on emerging trends, generational insights, and youth behavior. Cassandra is an insights and cultural strategy group within Big Village, a global advertising, technology, and data company. As the leading experts on young consumers and the cultural forces shaping their lives for nearly 20 years, Cassandra empowers companies to See Tomorrow™. Find out more at https://cassandra.co.
Media Contact:
Big Village
Laura Czaja, Director, Corporate Communications
Laura.czaja@big-village.com
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SOURCE Big Village | 2022-10-20T14:33:25+00:00 | wlbt.com | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/10/20/new-research-cassandra-reveals-7-10-gen-zs-are-interested-metaverse-how-it-will-impact-their-future/ |
Hot, but some rain?
Published: Jul. 12, 2023 at 4:56 AM CDT|Updated: 39 minutes ago
Early morning storms up north continue to push through pre-sunrise for your Wednesday morning. These storms should clear up quickly, leaving mostly sunny skies behind. High heat remains our primary focus in the forecast, with temperatures as hot as 110° in some places. This makes heat exhaustion a very real threat for people and animals. Now, this afternoon, a pop up shower or two in the southwest can’t be counted out, but chances are slim. Temperatures cool tomorrow, and rain chances go up ever so slightly.
Copyright 2023 KFDA. All rights reserved. | 2023-07-12T10:36:08+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/2023/07/12/hot-some-rain/ |
Clorox recalled 37 million bottles of its scented Pine-Sol products on Tuesday due to a possible bacteria contamination.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the eight Pine-Sol products included in the recall are Pine-Sol Scented Multi-Surface Cleaners in Lavender Clean, Sparkling Wave, and Lemon Fresh scents, CloroxPro Pine-Sol All Purpose Cleaners, in Lavender Clean, Sparkling Wave, Lemon Fresh, and Orange Energy scents, and Clorox Professional Pine-Sol Lemon Fresh Cleaners.
The cause of the recall is that the products may contain bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which could potentially hurt those with compromised immune systems or with external medical devices.
The company has not received any reports of anyone getting sick.
Officials said that the original Pine-Sol in pine scent is not a part of the recall.
Officials said that the recalled products were manufactured at their Forest Park, Georgia facility.
The company said the products were produced between January 2021 and September 2022 and have sold date codes beginning with the prefix “A4” and followed by a five-digit number less than 22249.
Consumers who have the products should stop using them, throw them away, and contact Pine-Sol for a full refund. | 2022-10-26T15:13:49+00:00 | wsfltv.com | https://www.wsfltv.com/news/national/37-million-bottles-of-scented-pine-sol-cleaning-products-recalled-due-to-possible-bacteria-contamination |
Baton Rouge, La. – LSU men’s golfers Garrett Barber and Cohen Trolio were named to the 2021-22 PING Southeast All-Region Team on Sunday, a credit to their play this past season.
Barber led LSU this season with a career best scoring average of 71.15 strokes per round. He played in all 12 tournaments for the Tigers this season and 27 of his 33 rounds counted towards LSU’s team scores. He racked up a team leading four top-five finishes on the season, three of which came in the first four tournaments of the season. His best finish of the year was a solo second place showing with a 12-under 204 at the Louisiana Classics in the middle of March. Barber’s 71.15 strokes per round is the second lowest season average in program history since 1982 only trailing Sam Burns’ school record average of 70.05 from the 2016-17 season.
Trolio played exceptionally during his first season in Baton Rouge appearing in all 12 tournaments as well. He finished his freshman campaign off with a stroke average of 71.30, which ranks as the fifth lowest average in program history for a single season. A member of the All-SEC Freshman Team, Trolio had his best finish of the season at the SEC Championship with a tie for third at 4-under 206. A model of consistency, Trolio had 29 of his 33 rounds count towards LSU’s team score. Eight of his 11 stroke play tournaments resulted in top 20 finishes with top 10s coming at the San Diego Classic (T9th) and Louisiana Classics (T9th).
(LSU Athletics Media Release) | 2022-05-31T21:35:16+00:00 | cenlanow.com | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/geaux-nation/lsu-golfers-named-to-ping-southeast-all-region-team/ |
The move enlarges the firm's footprint in Northeast Florida, welcomes over 400 agents to the United network and accelerates national growth
DALLAS, Oct. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- United® Real Estate (United) announced today that a Jacksonville-based brokerage has joined United's national network in a merger. The firm (formerly affiliated with a different national brokerage) will operate as United Real Estate Gallery moving forward and retain all leadership.
The partnership brings together the seventh largest national real estate brokerage operation in the U.S. and a prominent brokerage celebrating fifteen years in business. United Real Estate Gallery is currently a top 10 market share leader with 400 agents and eight locations throughout Northeast Florida.
Through this new alliance, United Real Estate Gallery agents have access to a suite of innovative marketing tools, 100% agent compensation, virtual client services and a proprietary, cloud-based productivity platform – Bullseye™ – at no additional cost to them or their clients. Agents also receive a financial gain in compensation and opportunities to grow their income with other financial incentives with the merger.
"We wanted to grow faster and provide resources for our agents to compete in any market. After an extensive period of due diligence considering many paths forward, we determined United is THE forward-thinking partner who will help us achieve our goals. They are high-energy, quick-moving and sharp. They recognize our team's talent, have the resources required to make the investments in our business to drive agent outcomes and are eager to help," stated United Real Estate Gallery Chief Executive Officer, Raymond Rivera. "Our industry is changing, and United has the solution to allow agents to keep more earnings, gain more control over their expenses and compete more effectively in any market."
United's fifth merger of 2022 is a catalyst for its expansion throughout Florida and the U.S. The global network now includes more than 21,000 agents and 630 offices. United® Real Estate Group is a six-time Inc. 5000 company, among the top 0.01% of America's private companies. It is nationally recognized for its influential leaders, growth and technology innovation.
In the new release of its proprietary cloud-based Agent Productivity Platform - Bullseye™ this year, United gained the ability to deploy its entire suite of agent tools, technology, resources and training to companies merging or affiliating with its national network instantly.
"The entire United team has worked diligently for over a decade to build a program that now attracts top operators like Ray, Sonny, Nanci and their team of professional agents as they look to build on their past successes and capture future opportunities. Being selected as their 'go forward' partner is humbling, especially after we discovered how many options they considered when evaluating potential partners and paths," stated United Real Estate Group Chief Executive Officer, Dan Duffy. "We are super excited and energized about our collective opportunity and are really enjoying working with the Gallery Team."
"Ray, Sonny and Nanci have built a great company, and we are so pleased to be chosen to help their firm reach new heights. The additional brokerage, agent and consumer-facing services, to which they now have access, amplify their value proposition tremendously and create a net financial gain for their 400 agents," stated United Real Estate President, Rick Haase. "Best of all, this leadership team will continue to drive all local decisions and influence our company at a national level. We will learn as much from them as they will from us, and that's essential to our strategy for smart growth."
The alliance complements United's existing offices in Jacksonville, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Orlando, and follows mergers with Pearson Smith Realty, Platinum Realty, Leading Edge Real Estate Group, Texas United Realty, Virtual Properties Realty, Benchmark Realty, Charles Rutenberg Realty Fort Lauderdale and others yet to be announced.
To learn more about United Real Estate, brokerage succession planning, brokerage valuation and sale or franchising opportunities, visit GrowWithUnited.com or call 888-960-0606. Agents interested in learning about career opportunities with United Real Estate can visit JoinUnitedRealEstate.com or call 888-960-0606.
Agents interested in Joining United Real Estate Gallery can visit JoinUnitedGallery.com or email RelationshipCoordinator@UnitedRealEstate.com.
About United Real Estate
United Real Estate (United) – a division of United Real Estate Group – was founded with the purpose of offering solutions to real estate brokers and agents in the rapidly changing real estate brokerage industry. United provides the latest training, marketing and technology tools to agents and brokers under a flat-fee, transaction-based agent commission model. By leveraging the company's proprietary cloud-based Bullseye™ Agent & Broker Productivity Platform, United delivers a more profitable outcome for agents and brokers. United Real Estate operates in 32 states with 140 offices and more than 17,500 agents. The company produced over $21.5 billion in sales volume in 2021.
About United Real Estate | Gallery
United Real Estate Gallery was founded in 2007 by Chief Executive Officer, Raymond Rivera; President, Sonny Downey; and Vice President of Operations, Nanci Soriano. The firm is a full-service brokerage serving Jacksonville and Northeast Florida with 400 agents and eight locations. United Real Estate Gallery provides professional representation for buyers and sellers of residential properties with the goal of achieving excellence in client service and sales results.
About United Real Estate Group
United Real Estate Group (UREG) operates United Real Estate and United Country Real Estate, addressing the unique market needs of suburban, major metropolitan urban and rural markets. Utilizing the cloud-based Bullseye™ Agent & Broker Productivity Platform, UREG offers the latest training, marketing and technology tools producing a significant competitive advantage. The platform realizes a decade-long investment in virtual agent and brokerage technology services and is powered by a 2.1 million listings data warehouse generating over 3 million monthly visitors and 30,000 leads per year. Together, the United Real Estate Group supports more than 630 offices and over 21,000 real estate and auction professionals across four continents. United Real Estate Group produced over $27.1 billion in 2021. Through its in-house advertising agency, UREG offers differentiating marketing support and collateral for specialized lifestyle property websites as well as access to a 650,000+ opt-in buyer database. For more information about United Real Estate or United Country Real Estate, please visit UnitedRealEstate.com or UnitedCountry.com.
For More Information:
April Gonzalez, Media & Investor Relations
agonzalez@unitedrealestate.com
214-277-9830
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SOURCE United Real Estate | 2022-10-03T17:15:20+00:00 | witn.com | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/10/03/united-real-estate-forges-new-florida-alliance-national-expansion/ |
I’m of two minds about “The Whale.” I don’t like it; that’s one mind. Yet I love what it has done for its star, Brendan Fraser, a highly likely Oscar nominee come early 2023 and — as he has been since the early 1990s — a wonderful actor.
He’s best known, still, I suppose, for saving the “Mummy” franchise (alongside Rachel Weisz) from lousiness. That was a long time ago. Fraser, a big, graceful screen presence, did excellent work before the “Mummy” movies and after. Eventually, he fell out of favor and, forcibly, laid low for a lot of reasons. He’d gone public, without fanfare, with his account of being groped in 2003 by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes) president Philip Berk; he dealt with health issues. He went longer between assignments.
But he never went away.
Always, Fraser was a crafty and distinctively pixilated character actor stuck in the not-fake prosthetics of male beauty. He knew how to exploit hunk-dom for laughs, or for the dictates of an action picture. Now in his mid-50s, Fraser has continued his professional reinvention in earnest. In Steven Soderbergh’s Detroit crime story “No Sudden Move” (2021), there he was, squeezed into a too-small hat in the back seat of a ‘50s coupe as an underworld knucklehead, disarmingly witty, a little sad. For that part he answered the working actor’s mob cliché question — how do I make this tough guy a different sort of tough guy? — by bringing out traces of childlike vanity and vulnerability.
That sweetness is all over “The Whale,” in which Fraser takes the leading role. In a 300-pound fat suit, and considerable facial prosthetics, he plays Charlie, a 600-pound man near the end of an anguished personal campaign to eat his way to death.
He lives alone. Each journey from his lounger to the fridge requires a struggle with his walker, and puts more pressure on an already near-failure congestive heart.
Charlie has a rage-addicted teenage daughter (Sadie Sink), who never forgave him for leaving her mother (Samantha Morton) when he came out as gay. Charlie’s apparent only friend Liz (Hong Chau, a considerable asset here, as she is in “The Menu”) is a nurse. She brings fresh rounds of scrutiny, side-eye, tough love and meatball subs on cue.
Charlie is also visited by a dogged young missionary (Ty Simpkins) from something called the “New Life” church. He is eager to convert, but he seems to be hiding something.
Fraser’s character makes his living as an online writing teacher; terrified of showing his face, and body, to his virtual students, he teaches with the camera off. “Moby-Dick” provides the leitmotif for Charlie’s narrow, numbered days. The movie, following the blueprint of the widely produced 2012 play by Samuel D. Hunter, eventually reveals the novel’s personal meanings to Charlie.
I have read the play, though not seen it in production, and while limited knowledge is a dangerous thing, I can see how the right staging of this five-character, one-set parable of suffering, redemption and Christlike goodness could be effective and affecting. The movie, alas, adapted by Hunter, suffers from one of the stranger cases of directorial miscasting in recent years. Darren Aronofsky is faithful to the basic confines of the script; he opens up the action only in dreamlike flashes, so we’re basically at home, in the apartment, in close quarters, the whole way.
The main conflict deals with the prickly, uneasy reunion of Charlie and his daughter; the larger, religious conflict pits the missionary’s desire to “save” Charlie, while atheist Liz smells a rat. The material is often darkly comic, in relatively unsubtle ways, sometimes gently heartbreaking, and just as often ginned up in its interpersonal warfare. Directed with the wrong emphasis, the women in “The Whale” come off as shrill, angry harridans and straw adversaries until they see the light emanating from Charlie’s soul.
Aronofsky mistakes intensity for honesty, and the everyday details of this man’s life are delivered like anvils dropped on your feet. Everything is pitched at 11. Then again: In every scene, every moment, practically, Fraser strives for and often succeeds in finding something more than cheap pathos.
I suppose the extreme prosthetic makeover was unavoidable, or at least inevitable. Fraser makes Charlie a real, or at least real-adjacent, human being in tragically inhospitable circumstances. Vocally and physically, the actor’s breathing (strained, sporadic) and his way of receding into the prosthetic body becomes an exercise in character-building in the performance sense. Better, it doesn’t beg for approval or attention, certainly not the way the movie itself often does. As written and played here, Charlie’s lightness of spirit provides the saving grace.
That lightness of spirit is utterly alien to this director’s work. Aronofsky’s entire resume — good films (“Black Swan,” “Mother!”) and merely punishing ones (“Requiem for a Dream”) — is built on pile-driving melodrama. There’s so much built-in extremity and potential emotional exploitation in “The Whale,” the last thing a director needs to do is push it, or pull it.
Recap: I love what “The Whale” is doing for Fraser’s career. But not since John Wells blanded out the movie version of “August: Osage County” has a well-regarded play looked quite so at sea on screen.
Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_. | 2023-01-19T13:01:32+00:00 | wyomingnews.com | https://www.wyomingnews.com/features/the-whale-review-brendan-fraser-does-his-best-with-a-movie-that-lays-the-pathos/article_fccf6d52-96c5-11ed-ad33-136a323eaa0c.html |
VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) — When Rory McIlroy runs into some of his former Ryder Cup teammates at Wentworth this week, don’t expect them to spend much time reminiscing about fond memories.
European Ryder Cup stalwarts Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are among the contingent of LIV Golf players who are competing at the BMW PGA Championship this week, much to the dismay of McIlroy and the others who have resisted the financial gains of joining the Saudi-backed breakaway series.
During a forgettable Ryder Cup for Europe last year at Whistling Straits, one of the most memorable moments came when McIlroy broke down in tears when talking about how much he loved his teammates. On Wednesday, he merely sighed when asked how what seemed like a tight-knit bond with Garcia, Westwood and Poulter can survive the fallout from LIV.
“I have no idea,” McIlroy said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve got much of a relationship with them at the minute. … But, like, I haven’t done anything different. They are the ones that have made that decision. So I can sit here and keep my head held high and say I haven’t done anything differently.”
Shane Lowry also said there could be some awkward meetings this week with players he used to be “good friends” with.
“Obviously I haven’t seen them in a long time now. Don’t hang out with them anymore,” Lowry said. “Probably won’t be going out for dinner because we haven’t seen each other. But yeah, there are certain lads that I shake hands with and certain hands I wouldn’t.”
So the rift between players created by LIV shows no sign of healing at Wentworth, where Billy Horschel and Jon Rahm both took aim at the LIV contingent on Tuesday.
The LIV golfers who are European Tour members are allowed to play at Wentworth while their suspension for playing in the inaugural event of the breakaway series is under appeal. Their Ryder Cup status is also subject to legal appeals.
U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick said he was “fed up with talking about” the whole situation, but acknowledged that the current tensions could make it difficult to include any LIV players on next year’s Ryder Cup team.
“There’s one person I would have, who I would be fine with playing with and have on the team,” Fitzpatrick said, declining to name the player. “But you know, next year is obviously a long way away, and there’s a lot of stuff to come with the whole situation. So that might change things, change attitudes even more, and then that probably makes it difficult.”
The European Ryder Cup team for next year was already affected by LIV Golf when Henrik Stenson was stripped of the captaincy for joining the breakaway series. When the Swede’s name came up at the end of McIlroy’s news conference as the only person to win both the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup and the European Tour’s Race to Dubai — a feat the Northern Irishman is trying to equal — McIlroy just quipped: “Who?”
McIlroy had said before the event that it would be “hard to stomach” playing alongside the LIV golfers this week, but said he had yet to see most of them at Wentworth.
“My opinion is they shouldn’t be here, but again that’s just my opinion,” McIlroy said, before taking a jab at LIV Golf’s format of only playing three rounds instead of four and starting on different holes. “But we are all going to tee it up on the first tee tomorrow and we are all going to go play 72 holes, which is a novelty for them at this point, and then we’ll go from there.”
McIlroy said he stayed away from a players’ meeting with European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley on Tuesday evening that included golfers from both factions.
“It wasn’t really a situation I wanted to get myself in knowing who was going to be in that room,” McIlroy said. “So I sort of removed myself from it and let them thrash it out.”
Pelley gave no details of what was said at the meeting at his own news conference, saying it was “very short and there were a couple of questions from LIV players that I think we answered.”
Pelley also launched a staunch defense of the financial viability of the European Tour — recently rebranded as the DP World Tour — and its ability to compete commercially.
“It is easy to get dragged down by the LIV propaganda machine, churning out negative news stories and misinformation about the poor state of the traditional golfing world, including our tour,” Pelley said. “It’s just not right.”
McIlroy, Fitzpatrick and Horschel all play in the same group on Thursday so they won’t have to share the course with any LIV players until the weekend at least.
When asked if it would give him added motivation to play in the final pairing on Sunday alongside a player who joined the Saudi-backed series, McIlroy couldn’t resist one more jibe.
“They are going to be pretty tired on Sunday,” he said, “it will be the fourth day.”
___
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-09-08T06:04:13+00:00 | nwahomepage.com | https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/national-sports/ap-mcilroy-says-liv-has-strained-bond-with-ryder-cup-teammates/ |
During MWC Shanghai 2023, Fibocom announces the global launch of the Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) module MA510-GL (NTN) and showcases the live NTN demonstration based on Qualcomm's NB-IoT over NTN technology. The module focuses on enabling satellite and cellular communication for IoT devices at global reach, making it possible to connect reliably and seamlessly anywhere, anytime.
SHANGHAI, July 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Fibocom, a global leading provider of IoT (Internet of Things) wireless solutions and wireless communication modules, unveils the Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) module MA510-GL (NTN) at MWC Shanghai 2023. Compliant with 3GPP Release 17 standard, the Qualcomm® 9205S modem empowered module MA510-GL (NTN) is capable of exploiting the highly resilient GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellite communication and cellular connectivity to IoT scenarios such as maritime transportation, emergency communication, scientific research in rural areas, etc.
It is estimated that there are roughly 15% of the globe covered by cellular connectivity along with the rollout of cellular infrastructure in terrestrial. While the implementation keeps developing, combining reliable and robust satellite communication technology to the use of cellular network is an ideal method of improving the network reliability and coverage on land, on water, and in the air. Driven by the increased market demands from enterprises, airlines, and telecommunication service providers, the integration of cellular and satellite communication is becoming more and more important for IoT industries.
Fibocom MA510-GL (NTN) is a high-performance NTN module, which is tailor-made for the global IoT market. Developed on the Qualcomm® 9205S modem, the module supports GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellite communication as well as LTE Cat M/NB2/EGPRS cellular communication that is perfectly applied for massive IoT applications. Adopting LCC+LGA form factors, MA510-GL (NTN) integrates multiple interfaces such as UART/USB/I2C/I2S for industrial customers. Built-in with GNSS and equipped with eDRX capability, the module is suitable for IoT applications with low power consumption and ultra-small size, such as maritime transportation, emergency communication, and scientific research in remote areas while maintaining long battery life.
"Expanding the network coverage in the non-terrestrial and terrestrial by utilizing the cellular and NTN communication technology is a significant milestone in deploying the IoT applications even to the most unreachable areas on earth," said Jason Zhu, General Manager of MTC Product Management BU, Fibocom. "We are optimistic to offer a reliable, high-resilient NTN solution to customers worldwide by launching the NTN module MA510-GL (NTN)."
About Fibocom
Fibocom is a leading global provider of wireless communication modules and solutions as well as the first wireless communication module provider listed on China A-shares stock market (stock code: 300638). Fibocom offers a one-stop solution for industry customers by integrating wireless communication modules, IoT solutions and cloud service. With over two decades of engagement in M2M and IoT communication technology and extensive expertise, we are capable of bringing reliable, convenient, secure and intelligent connectivity service to every industry, enriching smart life with a perfect wireless experience. Fibocom's product portfolio ranges from cellular modules (5G/4G/3G/2G/LPWA), automotive-grade modules, AI modules, android-smart modules, GNSS modules and antenna service. Together, we aim to empower digital transformation across industries such as ACPC (Always Connected PC), mobile broadband, smart retail, C-V2X, robotics, smart energy, IIoT, smart cities, smart agriculture, smart home, telemedicine, etc.
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SOURCE Fibocom Wireless Inc. | 2023-07-05T15:18:46+00:00 | newschannel10.com | https://www.newschannel10.com/prnewswire/2023/07/05/fibocom-unveils-non-terrestrial-networks-module-ma510-gl-ntn-enabling-satellite-cellular-connectivity-iot-applications/ |
- Clinical proof-of-concept has been achieved for TRL1068 in a planned interim analysis based on completion of the second of three escalating dose groups
- 75% of chronic PJI patients treated with a single dose of TRL1068 and standard antibiotics had a bacterial biofilm burden below 100 CFU/mL sonication fluid after only 7 days of treatment. Although the sample size is small (n=8), this finding compares very favorably to historical data where only 15% of PJI patients are below that mark
- Remarkably, in a quarter of the TRL1068-treated patients, biofilm was removed below the limit of detection after only 7 days of treatment
- TRL1068 is well-tolerated across both dose groups with no drug-related adverse events
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Trellis Bioscience Inc, a clinical stage privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of native human monoclonal antibodies, today announced a clinical proof-of-concept milestone from a planned interim analysis of the company's Phase 1 trial of its lead antibody, TRL1068 (calpurbatug), in patients with prosthetic joint infections (PJI). TRL1068 has the potential to disrupt bacterial biofilm and thereby enable difficult-to-treat bacterial infections to be treated with standard antibiotics.
Six of 8 PJI patients (75%) treated with a single dose of TRL1068 and standard antibiotics had a bacterial biofilm burden below 100 CFU/mL sonication fluid after only 7 days of treatment. This compares very favorably to historical data where only 15% of PJI patients are below 100 CFU/mL sonication fluid. Remarkably, in two of the TRL1068-treated patients, biofilm was removed below the limit of detection. As these are novel findings, Trellis Bioscience is the first company to define the 100 CFU/mL mark to differentiate between high and low bacterial biofilm load on surgically extracted prostheses, and to use historical data of sonication fluid CFU counts as an efficacy measure in PJI.
Positive safety and clear trends of efficacy were demonstrated in the first 11 patients randomized across two of three escalating dose groups.
"Although the number of TRL1068-treated PJI patients to date is small and the study was not intended to achieve statistical significance for efficacy, the total removal of bacterial biofilm burden in two patients and the trend toward lower biofilm burden in other treated patients after only 7 days of treatment as compared to robust historical data, are very encouraging. Long experience has established that antibiotics alone cannot remove the biofilm burden. At study entry we confirmed the presence of an infection for each subject by growing a culture of a needle aspirate of the joint synovial fluid, a very robust test," said Stefan Ryser, Ph.D, Trellis CEO.
These remarkable outcomes provide a foundation for the design of a Phase 2 study aimed at demonstrating that treatment with TRL1068 over a longer time period, in conjunction with standard antibiotic care, can eliminate the infection and thus preserve the original prosthetic joint in patients with PJI. This has the potential to replace the current standard of care, a highly burdensome 2-stage surgical replacement process, with a non-surgical intervention.
TRL1068 was well tolerated across both dose groups (6mg/kg and 15mg/kg). No drug-related adverse events were reported, and no dose-limiting toxicities were identified. Enrollment into the third and last dose cohort (30 mg/kg) is in progress.
"We are excited about these unexpected positive results. As a physician I would have never thought we would observe eradication of biofilm-embedded bacterial pathogens after only 7 days of treatment in a bacterial biofilm that may have grown over a period of years. Based on our currently available preclinical and clinical data we have the expectation of successfully treating, without the need for surgery, chronic prosthetic joint infections and other infections of implanted medical devices and opening a pathway for the treatment of diabetic foot, pulmonary and many other difficult to eradicate biofilm-associated infections," said Anton Leighton, M.D., Trellis CMO.
"I want to thank the patients and their families, the treating physicians and clinical staff, our employees and consultants, and our funders for bringing us to this exciting milestone and for their continued efforts on the study. We are looking forward to completing the ongoing Phase 1 study and continuing clinical development with a novel Phase 2 study design, where we will evaluate the capacity of TRL1068 to spare patients from surgery. Once we can eliminate the biofilm "shield", wherein bacteria are highly resistant to antibiotic treatment, standard antibiotics will become substantially more effective in eliminating this difficult-to-treat disease without the need for surgery," said Trellis CEO, Stefan Ryser, Ph.D.
"A further advantage of TRL1068 is that we expect this native human antibody can be administered multiple times without causing neutralizing antibodies. Due to its phenomenal broad-spectrum activity, we should be able to not only treat staphylococcus infections, but the entire gamut of bacterial infections, including enterobacter, enterococcus, streptococcus, propionibacterium, pseudomonas and others that plague PJI patients," said Trellis CSO and founder Larry Kauvar, Ph.D.
About Prosthetic Joint Infections
The treatment of bacterial infection of implanted medical devices represents a growing unmet need due to the rapidly increasing number of such implants, with over 1 million hip and knee replacements performed each year in the U.S. alone. While these procedures may improve mobility and quality of life, they are associated with complications, including chronic prosthetic joint infections (PJI). Pathogenic bacteria associated with PJI often form biofilms on the prosthesis, thereby shielding the bacteria from eradication by antibiotics, resulting in PJI becoming a difficult-to-treat disease. As biofilm cannot be removed by antibiotics, the current standard treatment of chronic PJI is a two-stage surgical procedure consisting of removal of the infected prosthesis, implant of an antibiotic eluting spacer for several months, and an additional extensive surgical operation to remove the spacer and implant a new prosthesis. This costly and invasive two-stage process substantially and adversely affects quality of life, with increased immobility and morbidity in addition to decreased 5-year survival rates in patients with PJI when compared with noninfected patients that receive a joint replacement.
About Clinical Study TRL1068-101
Trellis' clinical study TRL1068-101 is a first-in-human Phase 1, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled single ascending dose study designed to evaluate safety, pharmacokinetics and activity of TRL1068 in subjects with PJI of the knee or hip (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04763759). Subjects are treated with a single infusion of TRL1068 in conjunction with standard antibiotic care for 7 days, prior to receiving primary two-stage exchange arthroplasty, a surgical procedure which is the current standard of care for the treatment of chronic PJI. The study aims to randomize 18 patients across three dose groups. Although designed primarily as a safety clinical trial, the study in infected patients provides an opportunity to gain insight into efficacy.
About Trellis Bioscience Inc.
Trellis Bioscience is a clinical stage privately held company focused on discovering and developing native human monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prevention of drug-resistant, life-threatening infectious diseases. Antibodies are the immune system's most potent natural weapon against disease. Trellis's innovative proprietary technology CellSpot™ overcomes technical obstacles that have long hindered exploiting the full human antibody repertoire. This ideal source of drugs has reduced likelihood of toxicity arising from off-target reactivity and increased likelihood of efficacy arising from the selection of elite antibodies from donors who have successfully overcome the disease.
Acknowledgement and Disclaimer
Research reported in this press release is supported by CARB-X. CARB-X's funding for this project is provided in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; under agreement number: 75A50122C00028, and by awards from Wellcome (WT224842), and Germany's Federal Ministry of Education. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of CARB-X or any of its funders.
Contact
Stefan Ryser, Ph.D
CEO, Trellis Bioscience Inc.
702 Marshall Street, Suite 301
Redwood City, CA 94063
sryser@trellisbio.com
Phone (650) 838 1400
https://www.trellisbio.com
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SOURCE Trellis Bioscience Inc. | 2023-05-04T11:14:07+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2023/05/04/trellis-bioscience-announces-positive-interim-phase-1-results-trl1068-novel-native-human-monoclonal-antibody-which-reduces-bacterial-biofilm-burden-chronic-prosthetic-joint-infections/ |
- Evocative direct-to-consumer (DTC) campaign has received 12 healthcare and communications industry awards to date and has recently been shortlisted for four more awards.
- The national campaign features Emmy® Award-winning spokeswoman and actress Annie Murphy and was created to generate awareness of Evofem's hormone-free contraceptive, Phexxi, while also highlighting the contraceptive journey of millions of women, like Annie, who are tired of dealing with the side effects of hormones in their birth control.
- To date, the House Rules campaign has grown brand awareness by 45%, garnered 42 million video views and over 33,000 telehealth exits.
SAN DIEGO, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Evofem Biosciences, Inc., (Nasdaq: EVFM) announced today a series of industry awards and recognition for the company's direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising campaign, House Rules. Launched last September, the authentic, edgy and highly successful campaign is aimed at broadening awareness and driving uptake of Evofem's hormone-free contraceptive, Phexxi® (lactic acid, citric acid and potassium bitartrate) vaginal gel.
House Rules features Emmy® Award-winning spokeswoman Annie Murphy, who shares her personal birth control journey and the many reasons why Phexxi is the right contraceptive for her. She also empowers and inspires women to live by their "rules," especially when it comes to choosing a birth control method.
"I'm so proud of what we have been able to accomplish with House Rules," said Annie Murphy, acclaimed actress and Phexxi user and spokeswoman. "This industry recognition reaffirms the importance of our efforts in helping women take control of their birth control choices and better understand the important attributes of Phexxi."
In addition to being shortlisted for four upcoming creative awards, the House Rules digital and broadcast campaign has received the following recognition to date:
- Cannes Lions – Pharma
- Clio Health Awards
- MedAdNews Manny Awards
- PRWeek Healthcare & Pharma Comms Awards
- Shorty Awards
- The One Show
"At Evofem, our mission is to improve the quality of life for women worldwide by providing innovative products that give them with more control over their reproductive and sexual health," said Saundra Pelletier, Chief Executive Officer of Evofem. "The House Rules campaign and our partnership with Annie Murphy has furthered this goal by raising awareness of Phexxi with millions of women. We are pleased to see this campaign recognized by industry leaders."
To date, the House Rules campaign has grown brand awareness by 45%. The campaign garnered 42 million video views and over 33,000 telehealth exits. The campaign was created and executed in collaboration with Real Chemistry, McCann Health New Jersey, McCann Health Engagement, and Mediahub. It can be viewed on demand on YouTube. Join the conversation on social media through Instagram (@Phexxi and @EvofemBiosciences), Facebook (@Phexxi and @Evofem), and Twitter (@Evofem).
Evofem Biosciences, Inc., (Nasdaq: EVFM) is developing and commercializing innovative products to address unmet needs in women's sexual and reproductive health, including hormone-free, woman-controlled contraception and protection from chlamydia and gonorrhea. The Company's first FDA-approved product, Phexxi® (lactic acid, citric acid and potassium bitartrate), is a hormone-free, on-demand prescription contraceptive vaginal gel. It comes in a box of 12 pre-filled applicators and is applied 0-60 minutes before each act of sex. The Company expects to report top-line data this fall from its registrational Phase 3 EVOGUARD clinical trial evaluating Phexxi for two potential new indications – prevention of chlamydia and prevention of gonorrhea in women. Learn more at phexxi.com and evofem.com.
Phexxi® is a registered trademark of Evofem Biosciences, Inc.
Phexxi is an on-demand method of birth control used to prevent pregnancy. Phexxi is not effective when used after sex.
Rare cases (0.36%) of bladder and kidney infections have been reported. If you have a history of urinary tract problems that keep coming back, you should not use Phexxi.
Contact your healthcare provider if you are experiencing genitourinary side effects such as vaginal burning, itching, discharge, genital discomfort (including in male partners), yeast infection, urinary tract infection, or bacterial vaginosis.
Phexxi does not protect against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
For more information about Phexxi, talk to your healthcare provider and see full Product Information at www.phexxi.com.
Please report side effects by contacting Evofem Biosciences toll-free at 1-833-EVFMBIO or contact FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.
Intended for United States residents only.
This press release includes "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided by Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, evaluations and judgments regarding Evofem, its products, its product candidates and their development, demand for Evofem's products and product candidates and The Right to Contraception Act. Various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are current only as of the date of this press release. Each of these forward- looking statements involves risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements, or that could impair the value of Evofem Biosciences' assets and business are disclosed in the Company's SEC filings, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, filed with the SEC on March 10, 2022 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 10, 2022. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by such factors. The Company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law.
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SOURCE Evofem Biosciences, Inc. | 2022-07-26T14:05:45+00:00 | kwch.com | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/evofems-house-rules-campaign-featuring-annie-murphy-receives-significant-industry-recognition/ |
Trump ups competition with DeSantis in planning trip to Iowa
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The competition between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is intensifying as the former president is scheduling a return trip to Iowa on the same day that the Florida governor was already going to be in the state that will kick off the Republican contest for the White House.
A Trump campaign official said Saturday that the former president plans to be in Iowa on May 13 to headline an organizing rally at a sprawling park in downtown Des Moines. That’s when DeSantis was already slated to headline Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra’s annual summer fundraiser in northwest Iowa and speak at a party fundraiser later that evening in Cedar Rapids.
The Trump campaign official, who requested anonymity to discuss the trip before it was announced, said the Des Moines organizing rally has been in the planning stage for weeks and is aimed at identifying caucus supporters and volunteers.
The move is a sign of the escalating competition between the two men who, at least for now, are leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump and his allies have become increasingly emboldened in their efforts to attack and marginalize DeSantis, who is expected to announce his White House bid sometime after the Florida Legislature wraps up its work in the coming week.
But Trump’s trip is also notable for its emphasis on the type of ground-level organizing that is vital in Iowa politics and was often missing during his 2016 campaign, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz overtook him and won the state’s GOP caucuses.
Trump has been almost singularly focused on swinging at DeSantis, whom he has attacked for policy positions on entitlement reform, his loyalty to conservative causes, even his character. While DeSantis has largely ignored Trump’s jabs, a pro-DeSantis super political action committee, Never Back Down, began to respond in paid ads this month.
Meanwhile, the super PAC promoting DeSantis is hiring Iowa staff to begin organizing support for the governor before he enters the race.
The stakes for both men are particularly high in Iowa, where the caucuses in February offer opportunities for them to cement their status atop the GOP. A poor performance, however, would give an opening for other Republicans to mount an upstart campaign.
Trump’s 2016 Iowa campaign was a seat-of-the-pants operation disparately managed by campaign newcomers who, including the candidate, had little idea what the caucuses are. The roughly 1,700 precinct-level Republican political meetings, vestiges of prairie civic life, include a presidential preference question but require in-person participation on a typically frigid winter evening.
Eight years ago, Trump’s Iowa team had left contact information for roughly 10,000 Iowans interested in supporting him unprocessed before the caucuses, where Trump had led in lead-up polls, but fell short against Cruz’s more organized campaign.
Armed with not just refined 2016 caucus data but information collected during two national campaigns, Trump’s advisers says they are building a data and digital engagement strategy they say would put him in position to win the caucuses. It’s an expectation Iowa GOP strategists say is an absolute must for the former president, who carried Iowa comfortably in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
Meantime Never Back Down, run by DeSantis’ 2022 Florida re-election campaign senior strategist, Phil Cox, has named Iowa Republican operatives to its roster as it seeks to tap into interested GOP activists as the Iowa 2024 campaign gets underway. Among them are Ryan Koopmans, the former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The group has been airing TV advertisements in Iowa and other early-voting states, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, for weeks, and plans to launch a new one Monday. | 2023-04-29T19:38:19+00:00 | localnews8.com | https://localnews8.com/news/ap-national/2023/04/29/trump-ups-competition-with-desantis-in-planning-trip-to-iowa/ |
FLINT, Mich. (WJRT) – Flint police are investigating a homicide that happened on the city’s east side.
At around noon on Wednesday, police were called to the 2300 block of Davison Road between Dort Highway and Franklin Avenue in regards to a shooting.
They arrived and found a man with a gunshot wound, he later died from his injuries.
It is not clear if any arrests have been made. More updates to come. | 2023-03-22T23:31:34+00:00 | abc12.com | https://www.abc12.com/news/crime/flint-police-investigating-homicide-that-happened-on-citys-east-side/article_39dc03e4-c8fe-11ed-8559-0bdef5c4831f.html |
(The Hill) – Prosecutors on Wednesday said a federal grand jury indicted a Pennsylvania man for threatening to kill House Jan. 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) in a letter sent to his Capitol office last week.
Maverick Vargo, 25, threatened President Biden, Thompson, Thompson’s family, and U.S. District Court Judge Robert Mariani in the letter, also sending what appeared to be a white powder and alluding to anthrax, prosecutors said.
Vargo, who is from Berwick, Pa., is charged with threatening the president, sending interstate communications with a threat and influencing a federal official by threat, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced.
Prosecutors alleged Vargo sent the letter from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and he could now face up to 25 years in prison for the new charge.
The letter arrived at Thompson’s office in the Rayburn House Office Building days before he and his colleagues on the Jan. 6 panel held what may be their final hearing in the committee’s monthslong series to convince the public of former President Trump’s culpability for the Capitol attack.
Prosecutors said Vargas wrote to Thompson, “I’m going to kill you! I will make you feel the rest of our pain & suffering. There is nowhere or nobody who can keep you from me. I am going to kill you & those you love. I promise you that I will keep my promise until the day of my death.”
The letter also allegedly said, “you & Joe Biden soon will face death for the wrongs you’ve done to US.”
U.S. Capitol Police said last week congressional staff reported a suspicious letter to law enforcement, and the agency cleared the area near Thompson’s office as they screened it.
The agency said at the time powder was not found, despite federal prosecutors now indicating Capitol Police’s Hazardous Materials Response Team did find a white powder in the letter.
The Hill has reached out to Capitol Police for clarification. | 2022-10-20T04:14:22+00:00 | pahomepage.com | https://www.pahomepage.com/uncategorized/man-charged-for-threatening-to-kill-biden-bennie-thompson-prosecutors/ |
BEIJING, Oct. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. ("New Oriental" or the "Company") (NYSE: EDU and SEHK: 9901), a provider of private educational services in China, today announced that it will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders at No. 6 Hai Dian Zhong Street, Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China, on November 18, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. (local time).
No proposal will be submitted for shareholder approval at the annual general meeting. Instead, the annual general meeting will serve as an open forum for shareholders of record and beneficial owners of the Company's American depositary shares ("ADSs") to discuss Company affairs with management.
The board of directors of the Company has fixed the close of business on October 28, 2022 (Beijing time) as the record date (the "Record Date") for determining the shareholders entitled to receive notice of the annual general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof.
Holders of record of the Company's common shares at the close of business on the Record Date are entitled to attend the annual general meeting and any adjournment or postponement thereof in person. Beneficial owners of the Company's ADSs are welcome to attend the annual general meeting in person.
The Company has filed its annual report on Form 20-F, including its audited financial statements, for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Form 20-F can be accessed on the Company's website at http://investor.neworiental.org, as well as on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.
The Company has also published its annual report for Hong Kong purposes pursuant to the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ("HKEX"), which can be accessed on the Company's investor relations website at http://investor.neworiental.org as well as the HKEX's website at http://www.hkexnews.hk.
About New Oriental
New Oriental is a provider of private educational services in China offering a wide range of educational programs, services and products to a varied student population throughout China. New Oriental's program, service and product offerings mainly consist of educational services and test preparation courses, online education and other services, overseas study consulting services, and educational materials and distribution. New Oriental is listed on NYSE (NYSE: EDU) and SEHK (9901.SEHK), respectively. New Oriental's ADSs, each of which represents ten common shares. The Hong Kong-listed shares are fully fungible with the ADSs listed on NYSE.
For more information about New Oriental, please visit http://www.neworiental.org/english/.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Rita Fong
FTI Consulting
Tel: +852 3768 4548
Email: rita.fong@fticonsulting.com
Ms. Sisi Zhao
New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc.
Tel: +86-10-6260-5568
Email: zhaosisi@xdf.cn
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SOURCE New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. | 2022-10-14T10:08:40+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/10/14/new-oriental-hold-annual-general-meeting-november-18-2022/ |
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is among the states most impacted by natural disasters, a new study finds.
The Lone Star State ranked third-most impacted by natural disasters in the WalletHub study, behind only Mississippi and Louisiana. Iowa and Alabama round out the top five.
The website ranked each state by looking at the number of natural disasters causing at least $1 billion in damages since 1980, as well as the damage cost per capita caused by those weather events.
Texas received a score of 83.97 out of 100 in the study and tied for first place — with Alabama, Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina — for the most billion-dollar disasters. Meanwhile, the state ranked eighth for the damage amount per capita.
Maine was ranked as the state least impacted by natural disasters, with a score of 10.4 out of 100. Alaska, New Hampshire and Hawaii also received scores of less than 15.
Since 1980, the National Centers for Environmental Information has reported 338 natural disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damages.
In the past 42 years, 15,689 deaths have been attributed to billion-dollar disasters nationwide, along with more than $2 trillion in estimated damages.
Tropical cyclones are the most destructive nationwide, accounting for about half of all estimated costs and about 44% of all deaths attributed to billion-dollar disasters.
In Texas specifically, tropical cyclones account for about a third of all estimated damage costs since 1980. The bulk of that was caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which alone caused almost $150 billion in damages.
Meanwhile, drought and severe storms, including tornadoes and hail storms, account for a little more than a quarter of all damages each.
When looking at deaths caused by billion-dollar disasters, half of all reported in Texas are attributed to drought and heatwaves, including 1,260 deaths in 1980, 872 in 1995 and 454 in 1988.
Tropical cyclones, which account for 33% of damage costs, caused only 7% of deaths in the state — 465 in total. Hurricane Rita, in 2005, and Hurricane Ike, in 2008, each caused more than 100 deaths in the state.
Winter storms cause disproportionately more deaths in Texas than damage. Since 1980, winter storms account for 7% of costs associated with billion-dollar disasters but 17% of deaths. That includes the deadly cold snap in February 2021, which killed more than 240 Texans, according to the state’s health department.
The number of billion-dollar disasters affecting Texas has been increasing over the past decade or so, particularly severe storms. Last year alone, Texas experienced 12 billion-dollar disasters, from the deadly winter storm to Hurricane Nicholas, which made landfall south of Houston as a Category 1 hurricane.
Nine severe weather outbreaks that caused more than $1 billion in damage were also reported last year, including hail storms in both March and April.
The maps below show the estimated damage costs in each state associated with billion-dollar disasters.
Texas has the highest total costs associated with drought, severe storms and winter storms. California is the most wildfire-affected state and is also heavily impacted by freezing weather, along with Florida.
Florida and Texas also appear in the top three states with the most costs associated with tropical cyclones. Louisiana has the most, with more than $249 billion in damages since 1980.
Hurricane Ian, which devastated parts of Florida last month, was recently named the 15th billion-dollar disaster of 2022. An exact damage estimate is yet to be determined. | 2022-10-25T15:14:45+00:00 | texomashomepage.com | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/texas/texas-is-among-the-states-most-impacted-by-natural-disasters-study-shows/ |
ZEPHYR COVE, Nev., June 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- VirnetX™ Holding Corporation (NYSE: VHC), an Internet security software and technology company, today announced that the International Association of Certified ISAOs (IACI), headquartered at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, has deployed the patented VirnetX Matrix™ Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) and VirnetX War Room™ secure video conferencing to protect sensitive communications for IACI and to support public and private critical infrastructure owners and operators safeguard their applications, services, data, back-ups and recovery, devices and controllers (ICS, IoT), and to prevent unauthorized user access.
IACI, recognized by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the global 'Center-of-Gravity' for advancing security resilience by accelerating access to security actionable intelligence information sharing, analysis, and response coordination within and across public and private critical infrastructure, supported by trusted technologies, best practices, and education.
IACI supports security resilience for global public and private critical infrastructure owners and operators, ISAOs/ISACs, including the Smart Cities ISAO (city, county, regional, urban, suburban, and rural communities) for the secure deployment and efficient use of digital technologies to provide prioritized services and benefits to meet community goals, such as economic vitality, equity, resilience, sustainability, and quality of life.
VirnetX Matrix™ Zero Trust secure communications leverage VirnetX's patented 'Secure Domains,' a separate DNS from the public Internet to ensure secure protection, invisible to threat actors and cyber criminals. VirnetX Matrix™ provides an additional layer of protection designed to prevent unauthorized access, enforce access policy controls, and enable real-time network management to protect cloud or on-premises application from malware, ransomware, and other cybersecurity threats.
VirnetX War Room™, leveraging VirnetX Matrix™, provides safe and secure video conferencing capabilities ensuring protection of sensitive communications and shared data, invisible to those unauthorized to view it. IACI has built its internal communications tool, 'IACI SecureChat' on VirnetX Matrix™.
"In response to the ever-expanding security threat landscape, deploying VirnetX Matrix for public/private critical infrastructure owners and operators is a game-changer in the fight against cyber threats and attacks," said Deborah Kobza, IACI CEO. "VirnetX Matrix ZTNA provides the peace of mind for these organizations offering an umbrella layer of unparalleled protection and security along with ease of deployment and use, without requiring major changes to their existing networks."
"We have observed a troubling uptick in physical, cyber and cyber-physical attacks globally by bad actors," said Kendall Larsen, VirnetX CEO and President. "We congratulate IACI on completing their deployment of VirnetX Matrix and VirnetX War Room so quickly for securing its communications for critical infrastructure management. We believe VirnetX solutions can be instrumental in improving security of these networks and reducing the impact of these attacks."
About IACI
The International Association of Certified ISAOs (IACI), Division of the Global Security Resilience Alliance (GSRA), headquartered at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida is the 'Center-of-Gravity' for global security intel actionable intelligence information sharing, analysis and coordinated response, trusted technologies, and education. IACI supports public sector (federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and international) and private sector critical infrastructure owners and operators, public safety and law enforcement, academia, NGOs, security and technology organizations. For more information or implementation assistance for VirnetX Matrix™ and VirnetX War Room™, please contact IACI Operations, operations@certifiedisao.org.
About VirntX
VirnetX Holding Corporation is an Internet security software and technology company with patented technology for Zero Trust Network Access ("ZTNA") based secure network communications. VirnetX software and technology solutions, including its Secure Domain Name Registry and Technology, VirnetX One™, VirnetX War Room™, VirnetX Matrix™, and Gabriel Connection Technology™, are designed to be device and location independent, and enable a secure real-time communication environment for all types of enterprise applications, services, and critical infrastructures. The Company's patent portfolio includes over 200 U.S. and foreign granted patents, validations, and pending applications. For more information, please visit http://www.virnetx.com/ .
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release should be read in conjunction with our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements herein may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act").
These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, estimates, assumptions, and beliefs concerning future events and conditions and may discuss, among other things, expectations regarding the product and its impact on security solutions. Any statement that is not historical in nature is a forward-looking statement and may be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result in," and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside our control, and could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements and from our historical results and experience. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Readers are cautioned that it is not possible to predict or identify all the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect future results and that the risks described herein should not be considered a complete list. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made.
EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY LAW, WE UNDERTAKE NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE OR REVISE ANY FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT AS A RESULT OF NEW INFORMATION, FUTURE EVENTS OR OTHERWISE.
Investor Relations
VirnetX Holding Corporation
415.505.0456
ir@virnetx.com
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SOURCE VirnetX Holding Corporation | 2023-06-15T14:00:42+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2023/06/15/international-association-certified-isaos-iaci-deploys-virnetx-matrix-virnetx-war-room/ |
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy health industry press releases from PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the healthcare industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.
The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.
- CVS Health reaches agreement in principle for global opioid settlement
CVS Health has agreed it will pay approximately $5 billion ($4.9 billion to states and political subdivisions and approximately $130 million to tribes) over the next ten years beginning in 2023, depending on the number of governmental entities that agree to join the settlement. - Fall Malaise Sets in; Americans' Risk of Depression Up 106% With Summer's End
Further, data shows that a rise in depression coupled with a 40% increase in anxiety and 16% increase in stress since August is impacting U.S. workers' ability to be decisive and meet complex business goals. - J.P. Morgan Launches New Life Sciences Private Capital Team Targeting Investments in Innovative Healthcare Companies
The new team will invest in both early and growth stage healthcare companies across multiple strategies aligned to specific market opportunities, with a focus on novel therapeutics and technologies in several target areas including Genetic Medicine, Oncology, Neurodegenerative Disease, Rare Diseases, Autoimmunity, AI/ML platforms, Metabolic Diseases and Neuropsychology. - Perrigo Announces Strategic Investment to Expand and Strengthen U.S. Manufacturing of Infant Formula
Perrigo will immediately invest $60 million to expand Gateway's 29 million pound per year production capacity by 7 million pounds, or more than 100 million more 8-ounce bottle equivalents per year, within 18 months, adding a total of 36 million pounds of capacity to Perrigo. - Ready, Set, Mo! Movember 2022 is Here.
You've seen them all over the big screen this year and now is the time to grow a Mo to support Movember, the leading global men's health charity, as they kick off their annual campaign to raise awareness for men's mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. - Abbott's FreeStyle Libre® is Named Best Medical Technology in Last 50 Years by the Galien Foundation
"Abbott's FreeStyle Libre portfolio has revolutionized how people live with diabetes, eliminating the need for traditional fingersticks," said Jared Watkin, senior vice president of Abbott's diabetes care business. - World Stroke Organization Tackle Gaps in Access to Quality Stroke Care
The WSO Stroke Certification initiative is a strategic response to the results of a WHO-WSO survey which found that less than half (49%) of countries could provide comprehensive evidence-based acute stroke care. - FDA approves Cochlear's Nucleus 8 Sound Processor, smaller, smarter, better connected cochlear implant technology
The Nucleus 8 Sound Processor is the world's first cochlear implant sound processor ready for Bluetooth LE Audio technology. - Miku Care Launches First-Of-Its-Kind Pediatric Wellness Dashboard
Care+ from Miku helps parents easily view trends and stay updated on unexpected changes in their child's sleep and breathing patterns. - Neurotech Startup Roga Launches Novel Wellness Solution to Combat Stress and Burnout
The unique mental health product is proven to reduce stress, combines electrical brain stimulating wearable with customized meditation and a journaling app.
Read more of the latest health-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNhealth on Twitter.
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SOURCE PR Newswire | 2022-11-04T12:08:46+00:00 | kcrg.com | https://www.kcrg.com/prnewswire/2022/11/04/this-week-health-news-10-stories-you-need-see/ |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "All or Nothing Evening" game were:
05-09-10-12-13-14-15-17-18-21-22
(five, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty-one, twenty-two) | 2022-09-24T03:38:18+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-All-or-Nothing-Evening-17463525.php |
In her New York Times pan of Norman Mailer's 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe, the critic Pauline Kael wrote, "I wish they'd let her die." I had much the same thought after watching Blonde, which focuses so narrowly on Monroe's pain and trauma that it feels less like a biographical drama than a passion play.
The movie turns Monroe into an avatar of suffering, brought low by a miserable childhood, a father she never knew and an industry full of men who abused and exploited her until her death in 1962, at the age of 36. There's truth to that story, of course, but it's hardly the only truth that can be drawn from Monroe's tough life and extraordinary career. It's also an awfully tedious note to keep hitting for nearly three hours.
For all that, I came away from Blonde with great admiration for Ana de Armas and her commitment to the role of Norma Jeane Baker, the woman who would become known all over the world as Marilyn Monroe. I felt even more admiration for Joyce Carol Oates' novel, which freely reshapes and reinvents details from Monroe's life, but offers a much more nuanced and expansive view of its subject than the writer-director Andrew Dominik manages.
The movie feels off from the start as it whisks us through Norma Jeane's difficult upbringing in 1930s Los Angeles. We meet her volatile mother, Gladys — a fierce Julianne Nicholson — who's diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and institutionalized when Norma Jeane is still a child. Blonde skips over a lot of details, including Norma Jeane's time in foster care and her first marriage, and fast-forwards to her experience as a pin-up model, which leads to her start in motion pictures.
De Armas' transformation into Monroe goes well beyond a breathy whisper and a peroxide dye job; she plays up Norma Jeane's kindness and her naive, unassuming nature. That leaves her ill prepared for an industry that degrades her from the get-go, starting with a Hollywood mogul who rapes her in his office at their first meeting.
Everyone she works with is condescending to her, even though she's much harder-working and more intellectually curious about her material than anyone gives her credit for. She also maintains ties with her mother, visiting her in the hospital and asking about the identity of her father, who, she's been led to believe, was a famous Hollywood actor himself.
According to Blonde, Norma Jeane's persistent daddy issues are to blame for her string of bad romances, starting with a bizarre and wholly fictional threesome with two hunky Hollywood descendants, Charlie Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson Jr. And then there are her famously ill-fated marriages to Joe DiMaggio, played by Bobby Cannavale, and Arthur Miller, played by Adrien Brody.
Along the way, she has multiple pregnancies, and there are graphic depictions of Norma Jeane having an abortion and, later, a miscarriage. Blonde suggests that Monroe desperately wanted a child, to become the loving, supportive mother she herself never had. But it depicts this desire in a way that's frankly ridiculous: The movie keeps flashing back to closeups of a fetus in Norma Jeane's womb, shimmering like the Star Child from 2001.
Dominik has always been an artful filmmaker, and Blonde is full of lustrous images, shot in a mix of color and black-and-white, that sometimes beautifully evoke vintage Monroe photographs. And it has brooding music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who also scored the director's great 2007 western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Like that film, Blonde feels like a slow-motion death march: It's The Assassination of Marilyn Monroe by Basically Everyone She Ever Met. There are fleeting moments of joy and lightness along the way, especially when de Armas re-enacts bits of Monroe's famous performances in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot. But even when Dominik recreates these classic Hollywood moments, he's quick to cancel out our pleasure: Even the famous subway-grate sequence from The Seven Year Itch has to be stretched into a crushing lament for how endlessly brutalized this woman was.
Blonde clearly wants us to feel for Norma Jeane, but it dwells on her pain so obsessively — never more so than when she's shown being sexually assaulted by President Kennedy — that the movie's empathy feels like another form of exploitation. Marilyn Monroe may have been a glossy Hollywood construct, one that Norma Jeane herself had a hand in creating. But Blonde is too thuddingly repetitive — and finally, unimaginative — to bring us any closer to understanding the woman behind that construct. It left me feeling that Monroe deserved better, not just from the industry that chewed her up and spat her out, but from any filmmaker hoping to make sense of her legacy.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | 2022-09-23T17:34:21+00:00 | kunm.org | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/2022-09-23/blonde-the-new-marilyn-monroe-biopic-is-an-exercise-in-exploitation-not-empathy |
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne’s endorsement of an artificial intelligence essay-writing product is raising questions about whether college athletic programs should provide clearer ethical guidelines for athletes earning money from name, image and likeness contracts.
“It does seem like something colleges should teach students not to do,” Basl added.
Dunne’s endorsement of a Caktus.AI product appeared recently in the form of a 10-second video post on social media sites including TikTok and YouTube.
Dunne does not speak in the video, but a written quotation representing her thinking states: “Need to get my creativity flowing for an essay due at midnight.”
The video then shows Dunne on her laptop as a program takes a few key words about why gymnastics is “the hardest sport” and almost instantaneously produces numerous paragraphs of text on the subject.
It closes with Dunne delivering an emphatic “thumbs up” gesture.
LSU declined to comment on Dunne’s post, but did provide a written statement urging that students use caution with such technologies — and warning that they can be sanctioned for misusing it.
“Technology, including AI, can foster learning and creativity. At LSU, our professors and students are empowered to use technology for learning and pursuing the highest standards of academic integrity,” the LSU statement read. “However, using AI to produce work that a student then represents as one’s own could result in a charge of academic misconduct.”
While Basl agreed with LSU’s statement, he also said he could foresee colleges increasingly frowning on athletes promoting new technologies in ways which neglect to emphasize the importance of using such products responsibly.
In the case of Dunne’s post, Basl said, “The implicature of the 10 seconds is: Here’s an easy-peasy way to write an essay.”
“It’s almost like if a student said, ‘I get drunk and get home using my Tesla’s autopilot,’ or something like that,” Basl continued. “So, it would be appropriate for LSU to say it would not approve of its athletes endorsing the unethical use of these tools.”
Jake Kasper, assistant director for Michigan State’s office of student support and accountability, said it’s a mistake for educators or schools to look at AI and say, “This is horrific.’ I think there’s things that we need to consider when it comes to artificial intelligence, is how can it be a tool for learning.”
“I would question whether or not artificial intelligence is the best product to endorse, because there is a concern — from institutions of higher education, there’s a concern that artificial intelligence will hinder the ability to learn, to grow, to develop as human beings,” Kasper added. “I’m not saying that student-athletes endorsing it is saying, ‘Don’t learn.’ So there’s obviously a lot more to discuss and uncover there.”
Dunne’s social media following numbers around 7 million on TikTok and more than 3 million on Instagram. The 20-year-old from Hillsdale, New Jersey, is believed to have the largest social media audience of any NCAA athlete. Her NIL endorsement contracts, while not public, are estimated by multiple analysts who track such deals to be worth more than $3 million.
While Dunne was a 2021 WCGA All-American on uneven bars and has highlighted her gymnastics performances on social media, her success and fame as an influencer has begun to eclipse that of her athletic career.
During a meet at Utah earlier this season, a loud, charged-up throng of mostly young men showed up and called constantly for Dunne, who was not competing at the time because of an injury. Video from the scene, which some fellow competitors and other witnesses found unseemly, was widely viewed online. Dunne responded by posting a request on her social media accounts that fans be respectful of the other gymnasts at her meets.
LSU, meanwhile, arranged for additional security for Dunne at subsequent events.
LSU deferred interview requests for Dunne to her marketing agent, Ginger Chan of William Morris-Endeavor (WME). Through Chan, Dunne declined to speak with The Associated Press.
Dunne recently returned to competition at Alabama, scoring 9.825 on an uneven bars routine in which she stuck the landing. The performance helped LSU win the meet.
Dunne was not on the U.S. national squad at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and is not expected to contend for a spot at the 2024 Games in Paris. She is a junior at LSU, meaning she could choose to compete again next season. | 2023-03-08T19:52:27+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/03/08/livvy-dunne-lsu-nil-ai/ed82c500-bde5-11ed-9350-7c5fccd598ad_story.html |
LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — Masco Corp. (MAS) on Wednesday reported first-quarter net income of $205 million.
The Livonia, Michigan-based company said it had profit of 90 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 87 cents per share.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 65 cents per share.
The maker of Behr paint, Delta faucets and other building products posted revenue of $1.98 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.92 billion.
Masco expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.10 to $3.40 per share.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MAS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MAS | 2023-04-26T12:40:26+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/masco-q1-earnings-snapshot-17919348.php |
ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Mayo Clinic Blood Donor Center is putting out another “urgent and immediate” call for O- blood donations.
The Center says “Every 2 seconds in the U.S. someone needs blood, locally every 10 minutes someone needs blood. That is why our need for blood is constant and because O- is the universal blood type it is in high demand.”
Blood donations are being accepted at Mayo Clinic, Hilton Building, First Floor, 210 2nd St. SW and Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus, Joseph Building, Main Floor, Room M-86, 1216 Second St. SW.
To schedule a blood donation appointment, call the Mayo Clinic Blood Donor Center at 507-284-4475 today. As an added incentive, blood donors until 31st can enter to win a local golf experience: a round of golf for 4 from Somerby Golf Club, a round of golf for 4 from Oak Summit Golf Course, or 2 hours on the Chip Shots Golf Simulator. | 2022-08-18T21:00:08+00:00 | kimt.com | https://www.kimt.com/news/urgent-and-immediate-need-for-blood-at-mayo-clinic/article_77ead932-1f29-11ed-8637-3331e666a354.html |
Ingomar was able to get some second half separation from Smithville and grabbed a 70-54 win in the nightcap at the Division 2-1A tournament on Thursday.
Ingomar's win sends them to Friday's championship against county rival West Union at 8:30.
The Falcons found themselves trailing the Seminoles 14-13 after a quarter, but came back to establish at lead of 30-24 at the half.
Jack Denton bore most of the offensive responsibilities as he dropped in 13 points in the opening half.
The trio of Joseph Petty, Cooper Ball and Breyden Tillery combunes for 12 points as they managed four points apiece.
Braylin Hill hit for eight and Lane O'Brian scored six for the Seminoles.
Ingomar built the lead to double digits in the third quarter, but Smithville was able to cut it to nine at the end of the period at 53-44.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Falcons as they outscored the Seminoles 17-10 over the final period for the 70-54 win.
Denton was the game's high scorer with his 19 points.
Petty scored 16 and Olen Faulkner joined in the double figure department with 12 points.
Smithville had three players in double digits as Hill bagged 15, Clay Tucker hit for 12 and O'Brian finished with 10.
Smithville will play Tremont in the boys consolation game on Friday at 5:30. | 2023-02-10T06:39:09+00:00 | djournal.com | https://www.djournal.com/new-albany/sports/ingomar/falcons-take-the-win-over-seminoles-in-2-1a/article_9a20d8e0-a252-5137-a547-e2ff71140050.html |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) – A judge ruled on Thursday that the Club Q mass shooting suspect, accused of killing five people last year, will get a jury trial and is being held without bond.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, the 22-year-old suspect, is facing over 300 charges, including murder and bias-motivated crimes following the November 2022 shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
On Tuesday during a formal filing of charges, District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges could carry the harshest penalty, which is life in prison.
Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they and them pronouns, appeared for the preliminary hearing Wednesday, where prosecutors worked to establish probable cause for the 305 charges filed in the mass shooting.
“It is not a trial,” legal analyst Christopher Decker told Nexstar’s KDVR. “It is more of a screening device to insure that all of the charges that have been brought against the defendant — that there is probable cause to believe that [they] committed those crimes.”
Prosecutors focused on Aldrich’s “aversion to the LGBTQ community” to establish probable cause. The prosecution also made a case for a pre-meditated attack on the club that was inspired by a “neo-Nazi white supremacist” shooting training video found during the investigation.
Aldrich’s lawyers instead presented the picture of a suspect under the influence of drugs and forced by their troubled and sometimes abusive mother to go to LGBTQ clubs. The defense had also brought up Aldrich’s mental health for the first time, showing photographs of pill bottles for drugs that had been prescribed to treat mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD. Defense attorney Joseph Archambault, however, didn’t say if Aldrich had been formally diagnosed with any of those mental illnesses.
Lawyers noted Aldrich had expressed remorse for the November shooting.
An arraignment was set for May 30. Aldrich will undergo a mental health evaluation, the judge decided.
Aldrich was arrested on Nov. 20 after they allegedly entered Club Q with an assault-style rifle and opened fire, killing five and injuring 25 others. Patrons were able to tackle and restrain Aldrich until police arrived.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. | 2023-02-23T22:23:21+00:00 | cbs4indy.com | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/club-q-shooting-suspect-to-be-held-without-bond-ahead-of-jury-trial/ |
Ohio State and Michigan are set to square off on a football field for the 118th time Saturday.
This edition of The Game will pit No. 2 vs. No. 3, but that is just the beginning of the long line of interesting numbers attached to the contest.
2006
Both teams have zero losses entering The Game for the fourth time and first since 2006. Ohio State won 20-9 at home in 1970 and 42-39 in 2006, and the teams tied at 10 in Michigan in ‘73.
2004
Last time Ohio State was coming off a loss in the series and trying to beat a defending Big Ten champion Michigan team was 2004. Unranked Ohio State stunned the seventh-ranked Wolverines 37-21 that season to start a seven-game winning streak in the series.
1995
With a loss last year and the 2020 game being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohio State’s 2020 class is still looking for its first win against Michigan. The last Ohio State class to be on campus for three years without beating Michigan was the 1995 group that included Antoine Winfield, Ahmed Plummer, Matt Keller, Rob Murphy and Joe Germaine. They won their fourth try in ‘98. The 1999 class was the last one to go 0-2 (they won in 2001 and ‘02), and the 1997 class is the last to finish four years with a losing record against Michigan.
48
According to research by the Michigan Sports Information Dept., The Game has had potential for major impact on the Big Ten standings 48 times since it was moved to the end of the regular season in 1935. This will be 49 as the winner will finish alone atop the Big Ten East division.
26
Ohio State is 26-22-1 at Ohio Stadium against Michigan, the winner of the dedication game for the stadium in 1922. Michigan had a winning record at the Horseshoe until 2010.
10
Both teams are ranked in the top 10 for the 25th time. Ohio State has a 12-10-2 advantage in those games despite Michigan winning seven in a row from 1976-2003.
9
Ohio State has won nine in a row against Michigan in Columbus. The last Michigan win at Ohio Stadium came in 2000, John Cooper’s last regular season game as head coach of the Buckeyes. When the streak began, Michigan had a 27-19-2 advantage as the road team. Ohio State’s 2018 win put the Buckeyes over .500 at home against the Wolverines (28-27-2) for the first time.
8
The underdog won eight of 12 meetings from 1993-2004, including four wins for each team. The higher-ranked team won the next 13 games before Ohio State’s 2018 upset. Including that game, two of the last three games have been upsets.
8
One team has gotten its first loss of the season in The Game eight times: Ohio State in 1969, ‘93, ‘95 and ‘96, and Michigan in ‘70, ‘72, ‘74 and ‘06. The teams ruined a perfect season for each other in 1973 with a 10-10 tie.
7
Michigan leads the rivalry, which was first played in 1897, by a mark of 59-52-6. The Wolverines’ seven-game advantage includes the 2010 game Ohio State vacated because of NCAA sanctions, a 37-7 Ohio State victory that the Wolverines recognize but the Buckeyes do not in official records.
5
Both teams are ranked in the top five for the 12th time. Ohio State has a 7-3-1 advantage in such games, including the first in 1942 when Paul Brown’s Buckeyes won 21-7 en route to their first national championship. The last time was 2016 when No. 2 Ohio State beat No. 3 Michigan 30-27 in two overtimes.
4
Both teams are in the top 10 for The Game for the fourth season in a row. That also happened in the mid-70s when both teams were in the top 10 for six straight seasons from 1972-77.
2
Ohio State has not lost two games in a row to Michigan since 2000, a 38-26 decision in Columbus that followed a 24-17 Wolverines win in Ann Arbor in 1999.
1
Ryan Day is 1-1 as head coach of the Buckeyes against Michigan. He is trying avoid being the first Ohio State coach to lose at least two of his first three to the Wolverines since 1989 when Cooper started 0-2 en route to 2-10-1. Urban Meyer won his first three while Jim Tressel (Cooper’s successor) and Earle Bruce (Cooper’s immediate predecessor) both started 2-1. Woody Hayes went 16-11-1 against the Wolverines but lost two of his first three before winning eight of his next 10. (As interim coach, Luke Fickell lost his only chance in 2011.)
About the Author | 2022-11-21T14:46:21+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/ohio-state-michigan-the-rivalry-by-the-numbers/RLEUP2KNRVA75LYHLA4GNTL7AY/ |
Keke Palmer reveals she’s pregnant during ‘SNL’ debut
Nope star Keke Palmer is pregnant, she revealed during her "Saturday Night Live" debut.
The 29-year-old actor and former child star shared the good news in her opening monologue.
"There’s some rumors going around. People have been in my comments, saying Keke’s having a baby, Keke’s pregnant, and I want to set the record straight: I am," she said as she showed the world her baby bump.
Palmer, who starred in the Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP from 2008-2011, said she tried to keep the news "on the down low," but the internet had other plans.
"It is bad when people on the internet spread rumors about you, but it’s even worse when they’re correct!" she said.
RELATED: Jordan Peele's 'Nope' is almost as frustrating as it is entertaining
According to E! News, Palmer has been "Instagram official" with boyfriend Darius Jackson, brother of Insecure actor Sarunas Jackson, since last year.
"Honestly guys this has been an awesome year for me, I was in Jordan Peele’s Nope, and I was nominated for an Academy Award!" she joked. "That part’s not true! But it’s not lying if I’m manifesting!"
Palmer talked about her excitement on becoming a mom and shrugged off fans who "feel a little weird about me having a baby because I was a child actor."
"When I first got into comedy and I dreamed of standing on this stage, I asked myself, Keke, who will you be? Will you be like a Maya Rudolph, Eddie Murphy, a Kristen Wiig type? And now that I’m here I can tell you exactly who I am. Baby, I’m Keke Palmer." | 2022-12-04T22:27:48+00:00 | fox6now.com | https://www.fox6now.com/news/keke-palmer-pregnant-snl-debut-boyfriend-darius-jackson |
Police searching for man who attacked restaurant workers
Published: Oct. 26, 2022 at 9:27 AM CDT|Updated: 32 minutes ago
WAYNESBORO, Ga. (CNN) - Police are looking for a man accused of attacking drive-thru workers in Georgia.
The incident was caught on surveillance video.
The suspect is seen reaching through the window and throwing several objects.
He is also seen picking up three dispensers of tea and dumping them on the floor and the workers.
Police did not identify the fast food restaurant where the incident took place.
Anyone with information about the man was asked to contact the Waynesboro Police Department at 706-554-8030.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | 2022-10-26T14:59:43+00:00 | kswo.com | https://www.kswo.com/2022/10/26/police-searching-man-who-attacked-restaurant-workers/ |
Upon entry to Rain and Rainbow, the bubblegum pink and violet walls immediately transport you to the bedroom of a popular, middle school girl whose miniskirts and mood rings were the envy of many.
The mannequins are dressed in a variety of ‘90s archetypes from Fran Fine to Naomi Campbell, sporting everything from cargo pants to Liz Claiborne beaded blouses. There is a small selection of new items like jewelry, soaps, and handbags, but the majority of the catalog comes secondhand, and seemingly straight out of the closet of a cool aunt.
Rain and Rainbow, located on 5214 University Way NE, is a one-woman show created and operated by Gaby Sanchez. The store derives its name and niche from the owner’s optimism and affinity for the fashion of the ‘90s and early 2000s.
“It just makes me happy to make people happy,” Sanchez said. “Clothing affects your self-esteem, how you feel, and how the world sees you. So, when someone leaves happy, I'm happy.”
After the Ave recently lost the popular vintage retail store Valley of Roses Boutique, Rain and Rainbow is a welcome addition to the collection of secondhand stores in the U-District. A lap around the store quickly reveals that it houses a curated selection of items that fit into the store’s niche of ‘90s-inspired attire.
Although the store is a curated vintage store, its prices are on par with — and often less expensive than — the other stores along the Ave. Sanchez aims to keep the store affordable while honoring the value of specific pieces. Unique and higher-quality items are separated from the bunch and styled on mannequins, while other items are available on standalone racks in the middle of the store.
Sanchez herself was born in the early ‘90s and finds herself taking inspiration from the wardrobes of TV shows like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Moesha,” “The Nanny,” and “Lizzie McGuire.” This inspiration is reflected in the store’s racks, packed with turtlenecks, slip dresses, and babydoll tops. The storefront opened April 19, but customers can also access a portion of the inventory on the store’s website.
Prior to this venture, Sanchez got her start selling clothes at bazaars and flea markets with her mother and younger sister in Venezuela. This allowed her to relocate to the United States where she pivoted to corporate work, but recently returned to her passion for vintage clothing.
After just a year of selling online, she moved into the current storefront and already hopes to expand into selling at local weekend street markets as well as offering sewing and mending classes at the store. Her heritage and experience selling clothing in Venezuela and Panama is present in the store, both in its catalog and trajectory.
“I want people to come in and feel comfortable [to] speak Spanish or listen to Spanish music,” Sanchez said. “I enjoy speaking Spanish, it’s pretty fun getting to know people that are from Argentina or Mexico or El Salvador.”
The store’s location on the upper end of the Ave means less foot traffic, but the shop’s unique and focused inventory speaks for itself and moves the store beyond the label of a hidden gem. Be sure to stop by in-person or online to get your fix of unique and carefully curated ‘90s staples.
Reach writer Caroline Carr at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @CarolineJCarr
Like what you’re reading? Support high-quality student journalism by donating here. | 2023-05-18T06:12:31+00:00 | dailyuw.com | https://www.dailyuw.com/arts_and_culture/recreation/rain-and-rainbow-latina-owned-90s-inspired-thrift-store-opens-up-on-the-ave/article_590890fc-f473-11ed-a3d6-532879dd55fa.html |
LUANDA – Relatively low-key commemorations are taking place in Angola to mark the death of former longtime President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died last week in Spain where his family is taking steps to prevent his body from being returned to the southern African country.
As part of five days of national mourning, declared by President Joao Lourenco, Angolan government officials and ordinary citizens are paying their respects to dos Santos, who ruled the country for 38 years until 2017.
Members of parliament, military officials, judges, religious leaders and ordinary Angolans lined up in the capital city, Luanda, to view candlelit portraits of dos Santos and to sign a condolence book.
Fernando Da Piedade Dias dos Santos, president of the National Assembly and a cousin of the former president, praised him for helping Angola establish peace after a prolonged civil war.
“We worked together until we reached peace in the country. We started national reconciliation. National unity was established and he (dos Santos) began the national reconstruction of our country," he said. "These are remarkable and unforgettable moments.”
In Spain, where dos Santos died in a Barcelona hospital, a court has approved that an autopsy be carried out, after an application by one of his daughters, Tchize dos Santos. The former president's family wants his body to be interred in Spain to prevent his burial in Angola from being used for political campaigning by the current president, according to a statement by lawyers for the daughter.
Dos Santos's children have been accused by the government in some corruption cases. When dos Santos stepped down from power in 2017, he chose Lourenco as his successor. But soon after becoming president, Lourenco started an anti-corruption drive in which dos Santos's children were targeted.
During dos Santos's long rule large amounts of the country's oil and diamond wealth were siphoned off. More than $4 billion in oil revenue vanished from Angolan state coffers between 1997 and 2002 when dos Santos was in power, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a 2004 report, based on an analysis of figures from the International Monetary Fund.
Dos Santos appointed a son, Jose Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos, nicknamed Zenu, to run a sovereign wealth fund worth $5 billion. After dos Santos retired the son was charged with embezzlement and in 2020 was jailed in Angola for five years.
The most prominent of dos Santos's children is daughter Isabel, named “Africa's richest woman” by Forbes magazine which estimated her fortune at more than $3 billion. Her father appointed her to run the state-controlled oil company Sonangol but she was dismissed by Lourenco shortly after he became president.
The daughter leading the effort to have an autopsy and to have dos Santos buried in Spain is Tchize, who once controlled a leading media company in Angola, an advertising agency and a major soccer team.
She has written that she does not want Lourenco to use the burial of dos Santos in Angola to boost his campaign for reelection in Angola's upcoming polls in August.
The subdued reaction in Angola to the death of dos Santos and the efforts of the family to bury him in Spain is not surprising considering the anti-corruption efforts of the current government, according to Maka Angola, an investigative journalism website.
"Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s political heritage is the looting and kidnapping of a country, bent on the interests of an oligarchy created by it," the website wrote. “It will take a long time for Angola to free itself from this heavy legacy of corruption and moral destruction of an entire society, of Angolans in general.”
___
AP journalist Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Spain, contributed. | 2022-07-12T16:19:30+00:00 | wsls.com | https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2022/07/12/angolans-mourn-ex-leader-family-seeks-to-keep-body-in-spain/ |
Stars vs. Wild Prediction & Picks: Line, Spread, Over/Under - NHL Playoffs First Round Game 3
Game 3 of the NHL Playoffs First Round features the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild meeting at 9:30 PM ET on Friday, April 21 on TBS, SN1, TVAS, BSN, BSWIX, and BSSW. The series record is tied at 1-1. Bookmakers give the Stars -115 moneyline odds in this matchup with the Wild (-105).
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Ahead of this matchup, here is who we predict to bring home the win in Friday's NHL Playoffs First Round action.
Stars vs. Wild Predictions for Friday
Our projection model for this matchup expects a final score of Wild 4, Stars 3.
- Moneyline Pick: Wild (-105)
- Computer Predicted Total: 6
- Computer Predicted Spread: Wild (-0)
Check out the latest odds for this game and place your bets with DraftKings.
Stars Splits and Trends
- The Stars have a 47-21-14 record overall, with an 8-15-23 record in matchups that have needed overtime.
- Dallas has 30 points (9-6-12) in the 27 games it has played that were decided by one goal.
- The 13 times this season the Stars finished a game with only one goal, they went 3-8-2 (eight points).
- Dallas has taken 17 points from the 16 games this season when it scored a pair of goals (5-4-7 record).
- The Stars are 40-7-6 in the 53 games when they have scored three or more goals (to register 86 points).
- In the 26 games when Dallas has recorded a lone power-play goal, it went 14-5-7 to record 35 points.
- In the 47 games this season in which it has outshot its opponent, Dallas is 29-11-7 (65 points).
- The Stars' opponents have had more shots in 33 games. The Stars went 15-10-8 in those contests (38 points).
Wild Splits and Trends
- The Wild have earned a record of 13-11-24 in overtime contests as part of an overall mark of 46-25-11.
- Minnesota has earned 31 points (13-7-5) in its 25 games decided by one goal.
- In 13 games this season when the Wild finished a game with just one goal, they earned a total of eight points (3-8-2).
- Minnesota has earned 19 points (9-7-1 record) this season when scoring exactly two goals .
- The Wild have earned 77 points in their 50 games with at least three goals scored.
- This season, Minnesota has capitalized on a lone power-play goal in 37 games has a record of 23-12-2 in those matchups.
- When it outshoots its opponent this season, Minnesota has posted a record of 22-14-5 (49 points).
- The Wild have been outshot by opponents 41 times this season, and earned 54 points in those games.
Put your picks to the test and bet with DraftKings.
Stars vs. Wild Game Time and TV Channel
- When: Friday, April 21, 2023 at 9:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: TBS, SN1, TVAS, BSN, BSWIX, and BSSW
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Where: Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | 2023-04-21T20:57:08+00:00 | wcjb.com | https://www.wcjb.com/sports/betting/2023/04/21/stars-wild-nhl-nhl-playoffs-first-round-game-3-picks-predictions/ |
The House advanced a resolution Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), overcoming a procedural hurdle that blocked a similar measure targeting the Democrat last week and teeing up a final vote later in the day.
A motion to table the measure was rejected 218-208 on party lines, with Republicans rejecting the Democratic-led effort to block the resolution from coming to the floor for a vote.
The chamber is expected to vote on the censure resolution, which will require a simple majority, late Wednesday afternoon. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday that he expects the resolution to pass the House.
Wednesday’s vote marked the second time the House voted on a motion to table a resolution to censure Schiff for his handling of investigations into former President Trump.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forced a vote on a resolution to censure Schiff last week, but the effort was blocked after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to table the measure, effectively killing it.
Some of the GOP defectors raised concerns with a nonbinding “whereas” clause in the resolution that said if the Ethics Committee found that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information,” he should be fined $16 million.
That number was half the amount of money that American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation into potential collusion between Trump and Russia, according to the resolution.
Luna, however, introduced a revised censure resolution last week — which nixed the fine language, among other changes — and brought it to the floor as a privileged measure Tuesday.
A number of last week’s GOP defectors changed their vote and helped advance the bill Wednesday.
Luna’s resolution seeks to censure Schiff “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.” It would also direct the Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation of him.
In addition to removing language about a $16 million fine, the revised Schiff censure resolution just calls for censuring Schiff; last week’s involved censuring and condemning the congressman.
The new version also omitted nonbinding “whereas” clauses that say Schiff “purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people” and that he “exploited” his positions on the House Intelligence Committee “to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes.”
The revamped resolution does, however, add several clauses: It cites a March 2019 letter signed by Republicans on the Intelligence panel calling on Schiff — the committee’s chairman at the time — to resign from the top post, argues that Schiff “hindered the ability of the Intelligence Committee to fulfill its oversight responsibilities over the Intelligence Community” and says he “misled the American people and brought disrepute upon the House of Representatives.” | 2023-06-21T19:15:08+00:00 | cbs4indy.com | https://cbs4indy.com/hill-politics/house-advances-schiff-censure-resolution-teeing-up-final-vote/ |
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Olisa Akonobi finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds to lead Alabama A&M to a 67-59 victory over Prairie View A&M on Monday night.
Akonobi added four blocks for the Bulldogs (7-13, 3-4 Southwestern Athletic Conference). Garrett Hicks added 13 points and five boards. Lorenzo Downey scored nine on 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Panthers (7-14, 3-5) were led by Tekorian Smith with 24 points. Ricky Nelson had nine points and Braden Bell scored seven.
NEXT UP
Both teams next play Saturday. Alabama A&M visits Florida A&M while Prairie View A&M visits Texas Southern.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. | 2023-01-24T06:52:53+00:00 | expressnews.com | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/Akonobi-powers-Alabama-A-M-over-Prairie-View-A-M-17737499.php |
Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation on Thursday in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.
States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California that are also involved in the case had urged the court to decide for them, which the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. Colorado had argued that siding with the Navajo Nation would undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.
The Biden administration had said that if the court were to come down in favor of the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.
Lawyers for the Navajo Nation had characterized the tribe’s request as modest, saying they simply were seeking an assessment of the tribe's water needs and a plan to meet them.
The facts of the case go back to treaties that the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second treaty established the reservation as the tribe’s "permanent home" — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing it had failed to consider or protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.
Writing for a majority made up of conservative justices, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that "the Navajos contend that the treaty requires the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos — for example, by assessing the Tribe's water needs, developing a plan to secure the needed water, and potentially building pipelines, pumps, wells, or other water infrastructure."
But, Kavanaugh said, "In light of the treaty's text and history, we conclude that the treaty does not require the United States to take those affirmative steps."
Kavanaugh acknowledged that water issues are difficult ones.
"Allocating water in the arid regions of the American West is often a zero-sum situation," he wrote. It is important, he said, for courts to leave "to Congress and the President the responsibility to enact appropriations laws and to otherwise update federal law as they see fit in light of the competing contemporary needs for water."
A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward. The Supreme Court's decision reverses that ruling from the appeals court.
In a dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that he would have allowed the case to go forward and he characterized the Navajo's position as a "simple ask."
"Where do the Navajo go from here?" he wrote. "To date, their efforts to find out what water rights the United States holds for them have produced an experience familiar to any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another."
Gorsuch said one "silver lining" of the case may be that his colleagues in the majority recognized that the tribe may still be able to "assert the interests they claim in water rights litigation, including by seeking to intervene in cases that affect their claimed interests."
Gorsuch, a conservative, was joined by the court's three liberals: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
During arguments in the case in March, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.
Today, the Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe’s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river’s tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, one-third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the largest in the country, do not have running water in their homes.
A section of the Colorado River forms the natural boundary that separates The Navajo Indian Reservation(left) and the BLM land(right) in the Arizona Strip which includes the north rim of Grand Canyon, high desert and rivers. (Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/
The government argued that it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River’s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure, including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it said no law or treaty required the government to assess and address the tribe’s general water needs. The states involved in the case argued that the Navajo Nation was attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin. | 2023-06-22T17:09:44+00:00 | fox10phoenix.com | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/supreme-court-rules-against-navajo-nation-in-colorado-river-water-rights-case |
Policymakers urged to address unique challenges faced by outpatient therapy providers under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the American Occupational Therapy Association, American Physical Therapy Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and APTA Private Practice urged policymakers to address the unique challenges faced by therapy providers under the current Medicare Physician Fee Schedule system of payment. The organizations released a joint statement as the U.S. Congress begins to consider ways to reform the fee schedule.
Over the last three years, rehabilitation therapy providers have received some of the largest cuts of any health care providers because of the fee schedule's budget neutrality policies. At the same time, therapy providers are subject to significant legacy reductions to the payment for services that date back to the days of the sustainable growth rate formula, as well as excessive and burdensome administrative costs and barriers to participation in innovative and value-based programs.
These policy principles, as outlined in the newly released Policy Principles for Outpatient Therapy Reform Under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, identify some high-impact reforms that are needed to address administrative burden, value-based payment, and patient choice challenges that limit patient access to providers of occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology services.
Medicare payment reform is a top priority for our organizations as we continue to advocate for improved patient access, payment that reflects the value of therapy services, and sustainable updates to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
"Since the implementation of MACRA, payment for Medicare Part B occupational therapy services has either been frozen or cut. Over this same time research has continued to demonstrate that access to occupational therapy services can provide tremendous savings to the healthcare system through decreasing hospital admissions and readmissions and enabling people to remain living in their homes," said AOTA President Alyson Stover, MOT, JD, OTR/L, BCP. "If enacted into law, these policy principles would expand access for many people over 65 and provide meaningful relief to occupational therapy practitioners who are struggling after seven years of freezes and cuts to outpatient therapy services. AOTA looks forward to working with Congress on therapy-specific proposals as they look to reform the Fee Schedule."
"Reforms to the Medicare fee schedule must address the unique challenges faced by therapy providers," said APTA President Roger Herr, PT, MPA. "The economic value that physical therapist services bring to the health care system and the patients we serve is not reflected under the current fee schedule. Addressing patient access, payment, and administrative burden is critical to providing value-based payment while addressing the increased costs of running a practice. These joint policy principles impacting outpatient therapy services provide a starting point, and APTA is eager to work with our congressional champions and provider allies in seeking meaningful fee schedule reforms."
"Outpatient therapy providers like speech-language pathologists are not properly paid for their services in part because of long-standing reimbursement challenges under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule," said 2023 ASHA President Robert Augustine, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. "The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association supports these policy principles because they are a starting point for discussions with Congress about how to develop a more stable and equitable Medicare payment system that will help ensure beneficiaries have the necessary access to critical speech, language, swallowing, and cognition-related care in the future."
"Physical therapists in private practice provide highly skilled therapy services and as small business owners they play crucial roles in their communities, yet they face constant challenges when interfacing with Medicare," explained Private Practice Section of APTA President Mike Horsfield, PT, MBA. "APTA Private Practice is proud of this coalition effort to present these policy suggestions to lawmakers as they begin to consider ways to reform the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. We look forward to working together on Medicare policy that results in healthy seniors, strong communities, and sustainable small businesses."
The American Physical Therapy Association represents more than 100,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and physical therapy students nationwide. Visit apta.org to learn more.
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SOURCE American Physical Therapy Association | 2023-06-21T19:54:36+00:00 | wsfa.com | https://www.wsfa.com/prnewswire/2023/06/21/joint-statement-reform-medicare-physician-fee-schedule/ |
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – This month, a Baton Rouge family received a much-needed gift from a New York-based nonprofit.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation helps the immediate family members of military personnel and first responders who lost their lives in the line of duty. In honor of Memorial Day 2023, Tunnel to Towers is delivering 30 mortgage-free homes or mortgage payoffs to such families.
The Cheneverts from Baton Rouge are among the recipients.
U.S. National Guard Chief Warrant Officer André Chenevert lost his life on July 19, 2020, after a fatal cardiac event during training. His wife, Koa, was left to raise their six children on her own. But Chenevert’s legacy lives on.
He joined the Junior ROTC program in high school and was motivated to enlist in the Marines upon graduating. He served until 1992, which is when he transferred to the Marine Corps Reserves and eventually forged a new career path with the United States Army Reserve from 1999 to 2009.
This month, Tunnel to Towers helped Koa out by paying off the mortgage on her family’s Greenwell Springs home.
She expressed deep gratitude, saying, “To receive this gift on Memorial Day, or any day, means more to us than words can describe. We are very humbled by this act and it has deepened our appreciation for all military families… This will allow our family to save for our future and allow us to live a stress-free life while making new memories.”
Tunnel to Towers offered assistance to a second Louisiana family in recognition of Memorial Day. The Bates, residents of Hammond, had their mortgage paid off as well.
The support was in honor of U.S. Army Private First Class Brian Bates Jr. who was killed in action on October 27, 2009. Bates was in Loy Kariz, Afghanistan, serving during Operation Enduring Freedom, when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
He was survived by his wife, Enjolie, and their two children.
Frank Siller, chairman and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, said, “To all of the families who know the true meaning of Memorial Day, I thank you for your service and sacrifice. We know that no service member serves alone. It is our honor to support these families who have sacrificed so much so we can all enjoy the freedoms America has to offer.” | 2023-05-24T20:30:55+00:00 | cenlanow.com | https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/louisiana-father-of-six-dies-while-serving-country-nonprofit-steps-in-to-help-family/ |
Nationwide Retirement Institute ® research also finds only about half of U.S. families feel confident they can save enough for retirement
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the majority of U.S. parents (60%) cite inflation or rising living costs among their top financial concerns as they look ahead at the next 12 months, according to a new survey by the Nationwide Retirement Institute. Less than half of parents (45%) have a positive perception of their family's financial situation and nearly four in five say inflation and rising prices will influence their vote in mid-term elections. Nearly one-third (32%) want to see legislation to ease the financial burden on parents and caregivers.
This volatile environment is contributing to a grim outlook on the future, with 88% of parents expecting an economic downturn in the next year. Only about half of U.S. parents feel confident they will be able to save enough for retirement or their children's education, and only 48% say they are on track to meet their financial goals.
While parents overwhelmingly want support with their family's finances, more are turning to family and friends (56%) and prayer (29%) than a professional (27%) for financial advice.
"With the cost of living high and fear of a recession looming, parents' confidence in their family's financial situation is waning," said Kristi Rodriguez, senior vice president of Nationwide Retirement Institute. "It's understandable that families are looking for comfort during this difficult time, whether with friends and family or through their faith, but the most important step they can take is to connect with a financial professional and create a plan."
Parents are making major lifestyle changes to offset inflation
In response to inflation pressures, U.S. parents are pulling back on discretionary spending. The top actions include:
- Dining out less often (48%)
- Reducing how much they drive (41%)
- Purchasing different or cheaper items than they typically would (41%)
They are also relying more on credit to pay for items, with one in four (23%) reporting they have accumulated additional credit card debt and another 16% saying they've used 'buy now, pay later' apps or services in response to inflation.
Gen Z families are faring worse due to inflation
The study also found the inflationary squeeze is hitting Gen Z particularly hard, and they are leaning on safety nets to soften the blow. Twenty one percent received food or household goods from a food bank and 14% have moved in with family members in the past year, compared to the average of parents at 13% and 6%, respectively. Roughly three in four Gen Z parents (74%) report that they live paycheck to paycheck most of the time and nearly a third (29%) rate their family's financial situation as 'poor' — almost double the average for U.S. parents overall.
The study revealed three key areas where Gen Z parents are struggling the most:
- Paying for childcare: Roughly three in 10 (32%) Gen Z parents report they spend 50% or more of their take home pay on childcare, and one in five (21%) say they took on another job in the past year to better meet the needs of their children — nearly 10 percentage points higher than the national average for parents. Another one in 10 (9%) quit their job this year to focus on childcare.
- Finding affordable housing: Despite homeownership being a top goal for 40% of Gen Z parents, half (49%) cite the cost of rent or housing as one of their top financial concerns — 21 points higher than among U.S. parents overall.
- Planning for their family's finances: Two in five (39%) Gen Z parents report they did not do any financial planning before they had children, compared to 28% of the national average. Another 87% of Gen Z parents say they wished they started saving or investing earlier.
Parents are taking their concerns to their employers
Parents are looking to their employers for improved benefits to help balance work and childcare. Nearly half of parents (48%) want to see increased flexibility in work hours, and more than a third (39%) want improved health insurance benefits. Nearly a quarter (23%) of parents want improved parental leave policies.
"While each family's path to financial wellness is unique, our survey clearly demonstrates that there's an immediate opportunity for financial professionals to help build confidence and security through financial literacy, especially for younger families who are struggling in today's economic environment," added Rodriguez. "Financial professionals can help with planning and other financial decisions such as maximizing workplace benefits to help families solve some immediate financial concerns."
Financial professionals can help clients stay on top of changes in the economy and the markets with insights from Nationwide. Sign up at blog.nationwidefinancial.com/markets-economy.
Methodology
Edelman Data and Intelligence (DxI) conducted an online survey on behalf of Nationwide of 1,000 nationally representative adult U.S. parents ages 18 and over with children under the age of 18 and 150 Gen Z parents with children under the age of 7. The survey was fielded from July 11 through July 21, 2022.
About Nationwide
Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the United States. Nationwide is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's. An industry leader in driving customer-focused innovation, Nationwide provides a full range of insurance and financial services products including auto, business, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities, mutual funds and EFTs; excess & surplus, specialty and surety; and pet, motorcycle and boat insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com. Follow the firm on Facebook and Twitter.
This material is not a recommendation to buy or sell a financial product or to adopt an investment strategy. Investors should discuss their specific situation with their financial professional.
This information is general in nature and is not intended to be tax, legal, accounting or other professional advice. The information provided is based on current laws, which are subject to change at any time, and has not been endorsed by any government agency.
Nationwide and Edelman Data and Intelligence are separate and non-affiliated companies.
Nationwide Investment Services Corporation (NISC), member FINRA, Columbus, OH. Nationwide Retirement Institute is a division of NISC.
Nationwide, the Nationwide N and Eagle, Nationwide is on your side and Nationwide Retirement Institute are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company © 2022 Nationwide.
NFM-22292AO (8/22)
Contact:
Charley Gillespie
(614) 249-6349
charley.gillespie@nationwide.com
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SOURCE Nationwide | 2022-08-23T14:04:21+00:00 | waff.com | https://www.waff.com/prnewswire/2022/08/23/more-americans-turning-family-friends-prayer-than-advisors-financial-advice/ |
PARIS (AP) — Two weeks ago, before the start of play at the French Open, the brackets were set for the tournament, and one possible semifinal matchup immediately demanded attention: No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, the Next Big Thing in men’s tennis, against No. 3 Novak Djokovic, the Current Big Thing in men’s tennis.
The heightened anticipation was not merely because it would be fascinating to see the two of them play at Roland Garros. It also would be fascinating to see them play each other, period: They’ve met only once, and it was 13 months ago, with Alcaraz coming out on top.
So get ready: Alcaraz and Djokovic finally will share the stage again on Friday in Court Philippe Chatrier, where they will compete for a spot in the championship match.
“Since the draw came out, everyone was expecting that match — the semifinal against Novak. Myself, as well,” Alcaraz said after completing his half of the bargain by outclassing Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals Tuesday night. “I really want to play that match.”
A moment later, Alcaraz observed: “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”
That echoed, word for word, the phrase Djokovic uttered hours earlier as he looked ahead after beating Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday: “It’s definitely the biggest challenge for me, so far in the tournament. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. He’s definitely a guy to beat here. I’m looking forward to that.”
The other men’s pairing in the final four will include No. 22 Alexander Zverev, who advanced to that round in Paris for the third consecutive time by defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Two years ago, Zverev lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets; last year, Zverev left the stadium in a wheelchair after tearing ligaments in his right ankle late in the second set against Rafael Nadal.
“It was the most difficult year of my life, for sure,” said Zverev, the runner-up at the 2020 U.S. Open. “I’m so happy to be back at this stage.”
He now takes on No. 4 Casper Ruud, a finalist at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows last season. Ruud took advantage of No. 6 Holger Rune’s terrible start to build a big lead and then held on to win 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night.
Rune began about as poorly as possible and accumulated seven double-faults and 30 unforced errors in the hour or so that it took Ruud, a 24-year-old from Norway, to grab the initial two sets.
With the crowd repeatedly breaking into chants of “Hol-ger! Hol-ger!” — likely more out of a desire to see more tennis in return for their ticket cost than any affinity for the 20-year-old Dane — Rune briefly was back to better play. But Ruud broke to go up 3-1 in the fourth set and was on his way in a far less contentious meeting than his victory over Rune in the same round last year in Paris.
The only previous instance of Alcaraz vs. Djokovic came on May 7, 2022, on red clay at the Madrid Masters. Alcaraz had eliminated Nadal in the previous round, and his 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory over Djokovic made the Spaniard the first player to beat those two titans of the sport at the same clay tournament.
The tennis world already knew about Alcaraz, but that truly announced his arrival. He would go on to win his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in September and become the first teenager to finish a season at No. 1 in the rankings.
“He is ready to try to do big things (in) tennis. I don’t know if it’s going to be this tournament but, of course, I think he is ready,” said Alcaraz’s coach, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero. “He dreams very big about what he can do, so I think it’s one of the most important things that he believes in himself and that he believes that he can go to the court and win against everybody.”
So why does everyone care so much about this particular match?
One player, Alcaraz, is seen as a star of the future.
The other, Djokovic, is still very much a star of the present: His championship at the Australian Open in January was his 10th in a span of 19 majors (Nadal collected six of those; three other players took one apiece, including Alcaraz).
Alcaraz is 20; Djokovic is 36.
In sports, it can help to be the one with the younger body.
Djokovic owns 22 Grand Slam titles, tied with Nadal for the most in the history of men’s tennis; Alcaraz owns one. Friday will mark Djokovic’s 45th appearance in a major semifinal and Alcaraz’s second.
In sports, it can help to be the one with the more extensive know-how.
“Well, one has experience; the other one has legs,” was Tsitsipas’ assessment. “One can hit huge, super-big shots, and the other one prefers control over anything else, probably control and precision, to apply pressure and just make the opponent move as much as possible.”
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2023-06-08T05:16:29+00:00 | everythinglubbock.com | https://www.everythinglubbock.com/sports/carlos-alcaraz-and-novak-djokovic-will-meet-in-a-youth-vs-experience-clash-at-the-french-open/ |
Toyota announced last week that it’s collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to provide a new proof point for hydrogen fuel-cell tech—in a megawatt-scale, multitasking power-generation package that might potentially be used for renewable energy storage and smoothing the grid.
The project will include a consideration of how hydrogen might be created with energy from solar and wind sources, then stored, and used to generate electricity when needed.
The three-year, $6.5 million project is being funded by the DOE and is aiming to “build, install, and evaluate” a 1-megawatt proton exchange membrane fuel-cell system at NREL’s Colorado campus.
It’s part of the DOE’s H2@Scale initiative, aiming “to advance affordable hydrogen production, transport, storage, and utilization.” It’s not as controversial as the hydrogen hubs, for trucking and more, that were written into the 2021 infrastructure law.
As Toyota points out, the system for the power plant that will be fully commissioned by the end of the year, generates about 15 times the power of a previous NREL demonstrator. Or that’s nearly 9,000 times the automotive-grade fuel cell stack used in the Toyota Mirai.
In addition to the 1-mw fuel-cell generator, the project includes a 600-kg hydrogen storage system (more than 100 times the storage in the Mirai) and a 1.25-mw PEM electrolyzer. It’s part of a larger NREL project seeking to demonstrate “direct renewable hydrogen production, energy storage, power production and grid integration at the megawatt scale,” according to Toyota.
With the project, researchers also plan to explore new applications for the technology and how it might integrate with other systems—potentially in industrial uses, or to combine in powering heavy-duty equipment.
From this, in the future, such systems might be used to strategically store and release—with hydrogen—renewable energy like solar and wind, in place of large scale battery packs that would require more raw materials to build.
It’s working with systems integrator Telios on the design of the plant, and they plan to “push the operational boundaries of the fuel cell system design” to get an understanding of the limitations and degradation.
Toyota, which hasn’t embraced battery electric vehicles as rapidly as other automakers, but like Hyundai it has continued to expand its hydrogen fuel-cell plans for the U.S.—especially pushing the tech into larger vehicles. It has for years been using fuel-cell semis for Southern California port duty, and in an expansion of plans to use the tech for trucks and industrial uses it announced that it will make fuel-cell modules in the U.S. starting in 2023, in Kentucky. Toyota has even announced that it’s developing hydrogen combustion engines for racing.
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- Toyota and Panasonic lead in solid-state battery patents | 2022-08-30T12:07:36+00:00 | wboy.com | https://www.wboy.com/automotive/internet-brands/toyota-and-doe-look-at-how-hydrogen-fuel-cell-tech-could-help-smooth-the-grid/ |
Rebrand aligns with the company's go-forward infrastructure services strategy
HOUSTON, Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbital Energy Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OEG), a diversified infrastructure services platform, providing engineering, design, construction, and maintenance services to customers in the electric power, telecommunications, and renewable industries, today announced the rebranding of the company to Orbital Infrastructure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OIG) ("OIG" or the "Company"), to align with the Company's infrastructure strategy, and its continued expansion and market diversification. In addition to rebranding the Company, OIG has relocated its corporate domicile from the State of Colorado to Texas. Effective August 1, 2022, the Company will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "OIG."
"Earlier this year, the company discontinued its Orbital Gas Services operation and has completely transformed to be a provider of infrastructure solutions serving electric power, telecommunications, and renewable customers. The Orbital Infrastructure Group brand better represents our infrastructure strategy and the service platform that is now established," said Jim O'Neil, OEG's Vice-Chairman & CEO. "Furthermore, the OIG brand is more congruent with our mission to provide solutions to our customers that contribute to reducing the Nation's carbon footprint.
In conjunction with the name and domicile change, OIG has redesigned and upgraded its website, which will go live on or before August 15, 2022 at http://www.orbitalinfrastructuregroup.com/.
Orbital Infrastructure Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OIG) is a diversified infrastructure services platform, providing engineering, design, construction, and maintenance services to customers in three operating segments; electric power, telecommunications, and renewables.
Beginning in April 2021, Orbital Infrastructure Group transformed its infrastructure strategy with the acquisitions of GTS and Front Line Power Construction, the company's telecommunications and electric power segment platforms, as well as three synergistic "tuck in" acquisitions (IMMCO, Inc, Full Moon Telecom, and Coax Fiber) and the divestiture of its legacy Orbital Gas Systems business. The Company is now positioned to profitably grow its infrastructure services platform for years to come, organically and through synergistic acquisitions to capitalize on strong multi-year end market drivers in the industries we serve.
Orbital Infrastructure Group is dedicated to maximizing shareholder value, by striving to exceed our customers' expectations, building a diverse workforce, and making a positive difference in the lives of our employees and the communities in which we operate, and contributing to reducing the carbon footprint through the services we provide.
For more information please visit: www.orbitalinfrastructuregroup.com
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, as amended, including those relating to the expected use of proceeds. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include the risk factors set forth in the Company's filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, its periodic reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K filed in 2020 and 2021, as well as the risks identified in the shelf registration statement and the prospectus supplement relating to the offering. Prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Orbital undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Foster Marketing
Tiffany Harris, President & CEO
337-278-1097
tharris@fostermarketing.com
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SOURCE Orbital Energy Group, Inc. | 2022-08-01T15:33:24+00:00 | wlox.com | https://www.wlox.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/orbital-energy-group-inc-rebrands-orbital-infrastructure-group-inc/ |
UCF_Plumlee 64 run (Boomer kick), 11:36.
UCF_Harvey 3 run (Boomer kick), 2:51.
UCF_Plumlee 20 run (Boomer kick), 9:58.
UCF_O'Keefe 3 pass from Plumlee (Boomer kick), 7:19.
USF_Atkins 2 pass from B.Brown (Shrader kick), :39.
UCF_FG Boomer 27, 9:15.
USF_B.Brown 4 run (Horn pass from B.Brown), 7:15.
USF_Dukes 5 run (Atkins pass from B.Brown), 5:03.
USF_Battie 14 run (pass failed), 3:31.
UCF_Ko.Hudson 4 pass from Keene (Boomer kick), 12:27.
USF_FG Shrader 34, 9:31.
USF_B.Brown 42 run (Shrader kick), 7:02.
UCF_A.Holler 14 pass from Keene (Bowser pass from Keene), :20.
___
___
RUSHING_UCF, Plumlee 8-133, Harvey 16-74, Bowser 16-54, O'Keefe 3-53, Keene 3-17, Richardson 1-14. South Florida, Battie 19-144, B.Brown 15-106, Horn 1-16, Dukes 5-16, Joiner 2-10, Albritton 1-3.
PASSING_UCF, Keene 15-19-0-129, Plumlee 9-9-0-73, (Team) 0-1-0-0. South Florida, B.Brown 13-20-1-140.
RECEIVING_UCF, O'Keefe 6-43, Ko.Hudson 4-38, A.Holler 4-32, Harvey 4-14, Jav.Baker 3-51, Richardson 2-12, Bowser 1-12. South Florida, Horn 5-50, Willis 2-33, Dollison 2-20, Joiner 1-17, Battie 1-9, Dukes 1-9, Atkins 1-2.
MISSED FIELD GOALS_None. | 2022-11-27T04:20:11+00:00 | sfgate.com | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/No-25-UCF-46-South-Florida-39-17613090.php |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is allowing thousands of Ukrainians who fled their homeland when Russia invaded a year ago to stay in the United States longer, the administration said Monday. The decision provides relief to Ukrainians whose one-year authorization to remain in the U.S. was set to expire soon.
The Homeland Security Department said the extension is for certain Ukrainian nationals and their immediate family members who were let into the U.S. before the Uniting for Ukraine program started.
Ukrainians who came in under the Uniting for Ukraine program generally got two years of humanitarian “parole” in the U.S. whereas those who arrived before them generally got permission to stay only for one year.
Thousands of Ukrainians came to America last year fleeing the war.
The U.S. government used a program called humanitarian parole to admit them into the country. That program is a way to allow people from other countries to enter the United States on an emergency basis due to an urgent humanitarian situation. But it is usually for a finite amount of time, like a year or two years, and must be renewed for people to stay longer.
In recent years, humanitarian parole has been employed as a quick fix to deal with the fallout from the many world crises that have occurred as the U.S. refugee system that was dismantled by the previous administration was being built back up.
Now numerous groups are seeing their permission to remain in the United States expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.
That has led to intense anxiety for thousands of people who fled war in their homeland and don’t know whether they’ll be kicked out of the U.S. when their humanitarian parole status expires. The uncertainty can also be difficult for the businesses that employ them and need to make sure their employees are properly authorized to remain in the country.
Ukraine and immigration have both been hot button topics among Republican politicians who aren’t enthusiastic about continuing aid to the war and have accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to control migration at the southern border. But even in that toxic political environment, there’s been little movement to force Ukrainians to return home, reflecting widespread acceptance that it’s still too dangerous for them there. | 2023-03-13T19:35:19+00:00 | lmtonline.com | https://www.lmtonline.com/news/politics/article/biden-administration-lets-ukrainians-who-fled-war-17836874.php |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)Josh Kunen scored 15 points as San Francisco beat Wichita State 67-63 on Tuesday.
Kunen added seven rebounds for the Dons (6-0). Tyrell Roberts added 13 points while shooting 5 for 12, including 2 for 8 from beyond the arc, and he also had six rebounds and seven assists. Julian Rishwain shot 4 for 9 (3 for 6 from 3-point range) and 2 of 3 from the free throw line to finish with 13 points. The Dons picked up their sixth straight win.
The Shockers (3-2) were led by Jaykwon Walton, who recorded 21 points and 10 rebounds. Craig Porter Jr. added 16 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks for Wichita State. Gus Okafor also had 10 points and seven rebounds.
—
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. | 2022-11-23T04:44:57+00:00 | kxnet.com | https://www.kxnet.com/scoreboard/kunen-scores-15-san-francisco-defeats-wichita-state-67-63/ |
— Expansion to bring an additional 1,200 jobs to the Clarksville, Tenn. area
— State-of-the-art facility, through two expansion projects, will more than double number of locally produced tires to a combined total of 12 million
— Phase 3 will include local production of TBR tires in addition to Phase 2 expansion to increase PC/LT capacity
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global tire maker Hankook Tire today announced that its board of directors approved a $1.6B investment to expand its Tennessee Plant, located in Clarksville, Tenn. The investment includes the previously planned Phase 2 expansion that will double production capacity of Hankook's passenger car and light truck (PC/LT) tires, and adds a Phase 3 expansion with the company's first U.S. production of Truck Bus and Radial (TBR) tires. The addition of the Phase 3 expansion project will bring 400 more jobs to the Clarksville area, for a total of 1,200 new jobs overall.
Hankook will double U.S. PC/LT production to 11 million units and enable production of 1 million TBR tires annually. The expansion also brings Hankook's total investment in the area to $2.2B and will enable the company to further provide tire dealers and consumers with high-quality tires and industry-leading services to meet the demands of the American market, while supporting existing and future Original Equipment (OE) partners.
"The investment in our Tennessee Plant further demonstrates Hankook's growing presence in the U.S. and commitment to serving our customers," said Sooil Lee, CEO of Hankook Tire & Technology and President of Hankook Tire America Corp. "Through a focus on sustainable construction and innovative manufacturing, the new phase of our Tennessee Plant will provide an effective local-to-local supply chain to more effectively fulfill customer demand. Additionally, we are extremely proud to continue to support the local economy by bringing 1,200 new jobs to the Clarksville area."
Since Hankook's state-of-the-art Tennessee Plant opened in October 2017, Hankook has produced 5.5 million tires annually for the North American market and generated 950 jobs. The North American market accounted for more than 28% of total Hankook Tire sales in 2021.
"This production expansion is a vital step to our growth in the Medium Truck market, making Hankook one of only a few manufacturers producing TBR products in the U.S.," said Rob Williams, Senior Vice President, North America Sales, Hankook Tire America Corp. "As a result, we can better meet the needs of both our growing dealer base and the fleets that serve the North American shipping lanes."
Hankook is expected to break ground on the new plant in early 2023, subject to definitive agreements, regulatory approvals and other conditions. Tire production at the new phases of the Plant will begin by Q4 2024, and reach full capacity by early 2026.
"Global brands like Hankook Tire choose to invest in Tennessee because of our strong business climate, skilled workforce and central location," said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. "I thank Hankook for its continued investment in our state and for creating 400 new manufacturing jobs for Tennesseans in Montgomery County."
Hankook's Tennessee Plant is located off International Boulevard, in the southern portion of the Corporate Business Park.
Hankook Tire America Corp. is a growing leader in the U.S. tire market, leveraging investments in technology, manufacturing and marketing to deliver high-quality, reliable products that are safer for consumers and the environment. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Hankook Tire America Corp. markets and distributes a complete line of high-performance and ultra-high-performance passenger tires, light truck and SUV tires as well as medium truck and bus tires in the United States. Hankook Tire America Corp. is a subsidiary of Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd., a Forbes Global 2000 company headquartered in Seoul, Korea.
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SOURCE Hankook Tire America Corp. | 2022-08-29T12:35:46+00:00 | kalb.com | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/29/hankook-tire-invest-16b-tennessee-plant-expansion/ |
(Bloomberg) — A wealthy bidder has splashed out a world-record 55 million dirhams ($15 million) for a rare car license plate in Dubai, smashing a bar set in the United Arab Emirates more than a decade ago.
Emirates Auction sold plate number P 7 — which, at first glance, looks like the number 7 alone, with the P off to the side — on Saturday during a charity auction, according to the company. Proceeds will go to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s global food aid initiative, the 1 Billion Meals Endowment.
The UAE has made a habit of auctioning off vanity plates, used by the ultra-rich to show off their status and wealth, for charity. The latest auction broke a record set in 2008 by local businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri, who paid 52.2 million dirhams for a plate bearing the number 1 in Abu Dhabi.
The identity of this weekend’s auction winner was not disclosed.
Vanity plates have also fetched eye-watering prices outside the Middle East: Someone bought the single-letter “R” plate at auction in Hong Kong earlier this year for HK$25.5 million ($3.2 million).
For years, Dubai has been a safe space for the mega-wealthy to flash their wealth and live a tax-free lifestyle. While other parts of the world worry about an economic downturn, the emirate’s economy remains strong — with high oil prices benefitting its neighbors and most important customers. An influx of wealth has buoyed the real-estate market.
Even moderately-paid expats splash out on cars they can newly afford thanks to lower sales tax rates than back home. But the recent COVID-era boom has driven up rents and squeezed middle-class residents.
Businessman Balvinder Singh Sahni, known as Abu Sabah, purchased plate D 5 in 2016 for 33 million dirhams. “Dubai is a city of gold,” he said in an interview Monday. “It’s a city of big people, secure people, nice people. So everybody wants to show their status.”
Sahni told of how when he first visited the luxury hotel Burj Al Arab in 2006, he was refused entry because his car license plate had too many numbers. He was told he needed either a two-digit number plate — or a reservation. “It was always my dream to have a single-digit number,” he said. “When I got the chance, and they told me this money all goes to charity, I went all in.” A self-described numbers guy, Sahni said the D 5 plate fit because his favorite number is nine, and if you add D (the fourth letter of the alphabet) with five, you get nine.
The Guinness World Records and Emirates Auction did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The plate sold over the weekend can be transferred to any car registered in the emirate, supercar or not. | 2023-04-10T15:40:32+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/worlds-most-expensive-car-license-plate-sells-for-15m-in-dubai/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_world |
Mikaela Shiffrin’s 28th birthday Monday came in the tiny European country of Andorra, tucked into the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It was to feature a quiet dinner with her mother Eileen, her boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde — the Norwegian downhill champion — and her longtime physiotherapist.
“That’s the most liberating feeling,” Shiffrin said Monday by phone.
Oh, one other thing: She will close the season having already secured the crowning achievement of a career full of crowning achievements. Over the weekend, she won a giant slalom in Are, Sweden, for her 86th World Cup victory, tying Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark for the most all time. The next day, she won a slalom to pass Stenmark, No. 87.
“That is also a very liberating feeling,” she said. “But as soon as I crossed the finish line, people started asking about 100. So it’s like, ‘Well, I guess this is how things go.’”
Shiffrin opens herself to unreasonable expectations because she so regularly accomplishes things no one else has. If Lindsey Vonn’s record for most World Cup race wins by a woman was reachable — as it was in January, when Shiffrin won for the eighth time this season and the 82nd of her career — then Stenmark could be caught and passed in that same season. If she could reach 87 victories by racking up 13 wins this season alone, then it’s completely within reason that 100 is in the offing. Shiffrin faces constant questions about what’s next because she keeps forcing recalibration of what’s possible.
“When I went into this season, I really did not think that this was going to be even a consideration,” Shiffrin said. “Somehow, it has been, and now it’s happened. It feels like it’s a blink of an eye, but it’s not. It’s been a full season’s — or 10 seasons’, or 12 seasons’ — worth of work. It’s kind of hard to wrap my mind around it all.”
Join the club. But as Shiffrin gets older, she has an eye not just on 87 or 100 victories, or a sixth overall world title, or whatever statistical outlier she’ll produce next. Her skiing legacy would be secure if she retired before this weekend. So she decided to enhance it in another area: by hiring Karin Harjo to be her head coach, instantly making Harjo one of the most prominent female coaches in a profession still dominated by men.
“Really the decision came down to the fact that if I could choose to have one thing be part of my legacy, it would be to highlight female coaching and make female coaches more visible,” said Shiffrin, whose mother has always been an integral part of her coaching staff. “ … Having a female as my head coach — like, really leading the charge — as soon as I thought it, I was like, ‘This has to happen. This would be the final thing that I want to accomplish the rest of my career.’”
This didn’t come about in the smoothest fashion. Shiffrin had been with her coach, Mike Day, for seven seasons. She said she made the decision to switch to Harjo around the time of last month’s world championships. “I didn’t take it lightly,” she said. She told Day leading into those races. Rather than stay on through the end of the season, Day left immediately.
“It was announced in a little bit of a turbulent fashion,” Shiffrin said. That week, she won a gold and two silvers at worlds.
Harjo, once an assistant with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association who had been working with the Canadian team, will be entrusted with ushering Shiffrin through the end of her career.
“Karin — not just as a female, first and foremost — she’s an incredible coach,” Shiffrin said. “She’s brilliant with technology and logistical planning, video analysis. She’s awesome on the hill. She builds a great team environment. Everything that I know of her is super positive.”
Harjo will begin her new job next month with a training camp in Norway — a training camp, right after the close of the season. Shiffrin has spent her entire adult life traveling the world and competing. She remains a training junkie. The next Olympics — when she will again reappear in the mainstream American sporting consciousness — aren’t for nearly three years, but they are in the comfort of the Italian Alps, Cortina d’Ampezzo, where Shiffrin has raced and won before.
For all the angst surrounding her 0-for-Beijing performance from last year, she does have three Olympic medals, more than any American woman Alpine skier other than Julia Mancuso’s four. Who knows how many World Cup victories she’ll have by then? She’ll be about to turn 31. Might Cortina be a finish line?
“I feel very good about skiing through those Olympics, but I think it’s too early to decide what would happen after,” she said. “So much of it is going to depend on how I actually feel in the basically next season. Is the motivation truly going to be there? I’m not fully sure. But I think so, because even right now when I think about racing, I get a little bit of a nervous heartbeat. And that shows me that the motivation is there.”
The motivation for No. 88, which could come this week. The motivation for 100? More likely the motivation for the next perfect turn, the next perfect race, which is still out there. Mikaela Shiffrin just turned 28, and yet, “My gut instinct is to tell people I’m 19.” Her 19-year-old self couldn’t have imagined 87 World Cup victories — or whatever new standard comes next. | 2023-03-13T21:19:51+00:00 | washingtonpost.com | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2023/03/13/mikaela-shiffrin-world-cup-record-stenmark/ |
For half a decade, friends and colleagues have said the Goodwood Revival in the U.K. is the single greatest automotive event of the year.
They are right, and it pains me to admit when Motor Authority Editorial Director Marty Padgett and Senior Editor Kirk Bell are correct.
Over the weekend I attended the 2022 Goodwood Revival. The best way to sum up Revival would be to call it the best cosplay party and racing crossover event imaginable. It’s where the classics congregate and celebrate—and sometimes, where they even collide.
Nearly canceled
This year, Goodwood’s organizers nearly shut it down at the 11th hour, when, on Thursday, Sept. 8, Queen Elizabeth II died. Her funeral would take place on Monday, Sept. 19; had it taken place on Sunday, Sept. 18, the Revival would have been canceled—as would be proper, as the whole country mourned its sovereign.
Goodwood’s director of sponsorship Mark Featherstone told MA that emergency meetings were held to determine whether it was appropriate to go forward with Revival. It was decided that the event would go forward as the Queen’s viewpoint on life was to maintain normalcy during a time of crisis, and she loved both Goodwood and the racing (both horse and automotive) that took place there.
Each day there was a short speech and then a video montage highlighting the Queen’s involvement at Goodwood, both in terms of motor racing and horse racing. Afterwards a moment of silence began and ended with a cannon firing. All flags were flown at half mast, and most European attendees wore a black arm band as a sign of mourning. One of the military displays also featured a memorial for Her Majesty.
Fit for all ages
From infants and kids to adults and grandparents, Revival is a family event fit for all ages. Extra points for the families with the period-correct strollers.
There were two pedal-car races both Saturday and Sunday morning for kids up to the age of 10. The (shortened) circuit even included a chicane. These kids have their own paddock within the paddock for their cars, mechanics, and crew members.
Witnessing the children obsess over their cars, including one that was insistent on cleaning their car before the race to ensure it shined, much to the chagrin of his mother (I see and understand you, young lad), was heartwarming for this neurotic dad.
Some parents were there dressed to the nines while others were racing later in the day and wore their race suits, but all were there supporting their young racers.
Dress to impress
Period-correct dress is “encouraged,” but it’s nearly a requirement. Those in t-shirts and jeans stood out like a sore thumb.
Nearly everyone wore clothes that would place them in the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s (some pushed into the ‘70s bordering on disco, but we’ll just call them forward thinkers).
From Navy sailor outfits and mechanics’ jumpsuits to three-piece wool suits (hi, it’s me, and yes, it was rather warm in that suit), it’s fun to play dress up and immerse yourself in the moment.
That paddock
Seeing mechanics in grease-covered coveralls wearing a tie or ascot while wrenching on multi-million dollar Ferraris and Maseratis is just a normal thing at the Goodwood Revival.
An ascot or tie are technically required to enter the paddock, though I did see that rule was only loosely enforced.
A lineup of ERAs, classic Maseratis, Ferraris, Lotuses, and Cobras filled the paddock. But there was a sole Bugatti, a 1945 Type 37C, and I was told it refused to start on Saturday.
A 1952 BRM Type 15 Mk1 Chassis IV sat quietly in the paddock, but it was anything but quiet on the track. Powered by a 1.5-liter V-16 engine that put out over 450 hp and spun to over 12,000 rpm, the BRM was a screamer. When it worked. It didn’t complete the Goodwood Trophy race in which it competed on Saturday.
This is all before even addressing the white with a red hardtop 1963 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight, at least that’s what it looked like and claimed to be. Perhaps the most controversial car at Revival this year, impressions from those who saw it up close in the paddock ranged from, “that seems to have an awful lot in common with an AMG GT” to “this might have more in common with an F1 race car than it does an E-Type.” No one seemed to truly know what the entire running gear was, but figures like $20,000 per corner per shock were thrown around in discussion over drinks.
The parking lot
On Saturday people kept asking me, “Have you been to the parking lot?”
As a first timer, it was a confusing question. Why would I go to the parking lot instead of hanging in the paddock or watching the race? On Sunday, I learned why.
The parking lot itself is a car show. From a dirty, water-spot-covered black Mercedes-Benz 300SL and Aston Martin DB2, or Jaguar E-Types, Aston Martin Superleggeras, and Ferrari Dinos, the grass-covered lot you enter via a gravel road was chock full of rare, expensive, and eclectic metal.
People milled about the parking lot as if it were indeed a car show. Two gentlemen sat on the rear of a Bentley while sipping champagne while another group of friends held a picnic out of the rear of a Jaguar E-Type coupe.
Let’s go racing
There are few events that have 1934 ERA A-Type R3As racing around a track at 125 mph one moment and a 1963 Ford Galaxie pushing probably over 600 hp screaming around the track the next. Revival does.
The former was driven to victory by MA friend and Volkswagen of America spokesperson Mark Gilles during the Goodwood Trophy race on Saturday. The latter was driven to victory on Saturday during the St. Mary’s Trophy Part I race with NASCAR super star Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel.
Witnessing the massive, heavy, white Ford–which we believe had a worked-over 427–gap everything else on the track as it thundered down the straight was a sight to see. It was Jimmie’s first time racing at Revival.
But he participated in a number of races, including what might’ve been the most exciting race, the hour-long Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration.
Jenson Button started the hour-long race behind the wheel of the controversial white 1963 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight. From the moment it hit the track it expanded its gap ahead of the pack of AC Cobras, Jaguars, and Corvettes until it started lapping the cars at the back of the pack.
Until about lap 20 when driver changes began it almost appeared like an unfair race and the modified E-Type was going to walk away with the trophy without even trying.
Then disaster struck.
After Harrison Newey swapped into the driver’s seat–yes, son of F1 racing legend Adrian Newey–the white E-Type pulled to the side of the track onto the grass just past pit lane with smoke coming from under its hood. Featherstone told MA Button had gone too hard during the first half of the race, which “ended up cooking the car.” Perhaps that’s better than if it had collided with another car—which happens often at the Revival, and usually ends only in a polite ¯_(ã)_/¯ from the owner as they mull over afternoon-tea options, without a worry about the car’s eventual repair.
Driver’s lounge
The one part of the show that almost no one has access to is the custom-built driver’s lounge. Situated to the side of the airfield and manned by two guards at the gate that ensure no one gets in that shouldn’t be there, it’s built as a getaway oasis for the drivers.
Featherstone noted the drivers get mobbed when they are out and about around the grounds. The crew builds this makeshift building out of balsa wood walls and it all comes down after the event. “It’s like a mirage,” Featherstone said. “Smoke and mirrors.”
Driver’s get access to the lounge and are each given four passes to give to friends and loved ones.
Each year the lounge exterior is given a theme. Featherstone said this year’s theme was Egypt, and specifically, King Tut’s tomb as a not entirely apologetic acknowledgement of Britain’s colonial plundering in Egypt.
Inside there are leather couches, time sheets and standings, food, cots to lay on, and this year the 24 Hours of Le Mans trophy, which Featherstone said was no easy feat to make happen.
Jimmie Johnson spoke with us in the lounge and said friends have been trying to get him to race at Revival for years, but the timing simply never lined up. Having raced in multiple events over the weekend the driver noted Revival is indeed unlike anything else. He’ll be back.
The future
While the entire event is a throwback in time, Featherstone said it’s hard to ignore the future.
There won’t be modern electric cars or supercars racing at Revival (that’s what Festival of Speed is for, right?), but the team found a way to integrate what’s going on in modern times into the event.
Inside the Sky Cinema building adjacent to Earls Court Studios is Earls Court Motor Show.
Featherstone told MA the team’s incorporating the future by relating it to the past.
Automakers set up a handful of booths that pair their original model next to their latest model. BMW had a first-generation 7-Series parked in front of the new i7, Range Rover placed a first-gen SUV adjacent to the latest model, Mini had their original and latest, and Aston Martin had a DBX and Valhalla along with a classic DB model.
There were also new cars that had no past to look back at including the Polestar Precept concept, which previews the Polestar 5. The electric Deus Vayanna was also on display along with an electric Mustang from the startup Charge. Pininfarina and Porsche were displaying their wares as well.
Everything else
From a small carnival complete with a ferris wheel and carousel to vendors, a hair salon, an airfield full of classic airplanes, and live music with a dance floor, there is an activity and entertainment for everyone.
Racing is only part of the fun.
Experiencing is believing
I had been told about Revival, seen the Revival online and on social media, and via TV. I’d written about Revival and talked about Revival.
But nothing can come close to actually experiencing the event itself. From the smell of the classic rubber and methanol to the ground shaking as the engines rumble by, Revival must be attended to fully grasp.
I’d recommend putting it on your bucket list and start planning today. Dress tastefully and just embrace its cosplay. You won’t be judged—well, only if you’re not dressed in something retro.
Subaru paid for travel and lodging for Motor Authority to sweat in a three-piece wool suit to bring you this firsthand report.
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- Duck tales: History of the Porsche ducktail and Carrera RS 2.7 | 2022-09-23T18:29:27+00:00 | wwlp.com | https://www.wwlp.com/automotive/internet-brands/goodwood-revival-where-the-classics-congregate-celebrate-and-sometimes-collide/ |
Bill Belichick is moving on from the Patriots losing two OTAs.
New England received the penalty last week after it violated the NFL’s offseason rules when Joe Judge reportedly held “special teams workshops” that were outside of the league’s allotted time.
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Belichick, who was fined $50,000 for the violation, clearly isn’t dwelling on it despite the offseason program getting a bit shorter for the Patriots. The New England head coach met with the media for the first time this offseason Wednesday morning. Initially, he brushed off questions about the incident and his thoughts on the matter.
“All in the past. Looking forward to getting out there today,” Belichick told reporters at Gillette Stadium.
However, when the 71-year-old was asked about how losing the OTAs affected their offseason schedule, he decided to add a little humor to his press conference.
“We had a good long weekend,” Belichick said.
Belichick wouldn’t elaborate too much about what the NFL found that led to the Patriots getting docked two OTAs, saying only that it’s “resolved.”
We know some of the players took advantage of having a few extra days off. Matthew Slater was spotted at TD Garden for the Boston Celtics’ Game 5 win over the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
- Massachusetts online sports betting is here. Learn more about the top sportsbook operators in MA such as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM.
But now we’re onto the 2023 season as the work begins for the Patriots who have an interesting campaign ahead of them that has a slew of players with a lot of pressure surrounding them. | 2023-05-31T16:42:11+00:00 | masslive.com | https://www.masslive.com/patriots/2023/05/bill-belichick-jokes-about-patriots-losing-otas-had-a-good-long-weekend.html |
Lower public plans adoption was the biggest driver of the overall decline
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Callan, a leading institutional investment consulting firm, announced the results of its 10th annual ESG Survey, revealing that 35% of respondents incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decision-making. This marks a decline from a 49% in 2021, which saw the highest rate of ESG adoption in the survey's history.
Key Findings:
- The survey found 35% of institutional investors incorporated ESG factors into investment decisions, representing a 14 percentage point decrease from 2021.
- 53% of foundations incorporated ESG, the highest adoption rate in 2022. Endowments and foundations typically have had the highest adoption rates since the survey's inception in 2013.
- 50% incorporated ESG to meet their fiduciary responsibility.
- 20% of respondents not yet incorporating ESG were considering doing so.
- 75% of those that incorporated ESG considered ESG factors with every investment/manager selection.
- 47% of respondents that did not incorporate ESG indicated it was because they believed the benefits were unproven or unclear.
- The decline in ESG adoption for public plans from 63% to 24% was the biggest driver of the overall decline in 2022.
"The level of interest and debate about ESG has never been more intense in the U.S.," said Tom Shingler, senior vice president and ESG practice leader at Callan. "While there are a number of asset owners incorporating ESG at increasingly complex levels, there is federal regulatory uncertainty and differing ESG policies across states and their pension systems — which have led to confusion and inaction in some cases. Additionally, there is backlash against ESG from some stakeholders who question its contribution to investment outcomes, while other stakeholders demand increasing levels of ESG incorporation."
The survey was conducted in May and June 2022, and reflects input from 109 unique U.S. institutional investors on their approach to ESG factors when evaluating investments. The survey includes responses from public and corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans, as well as from endowments and foundations. Respondents also represented plans of all sizes, ranging from small (<$500mm) to large (>$20bn). Callan is not able to survey all of the same respondents every year, contributing to variance in results. The survey participants include Callan clients and non-clients.
Find the summary blog post and full survey here.
Callan was founded as an employee-owned investment consulting firm in 1973. Ever since, we have empowered institutional clients with creative, customized investment solutions backed by proprietary research, exclusive data, and ongoing education. Today, Callan advises on more than $3 trillion in total fund sponsor assets, which makes it among the largest independently owned investment consulting firms in the U.S. Callan uses a client-focused consulting model to serve pension and defined contribution plan sponsors, endowments, foundations, independent investment advisers, investment managers, and other asset owners. Callan has six offices throughout the U.S. Learn more at callan.com.
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Anathan
mediarelations@callan.com
415-274-3020
View original content:
SOURCE Callan LLC | 2022-11-29T13:03:33+00:00 | kfyrtv.com | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/11/29/callans-10th-annual-esg-survey-shows-35-respondents-incorporating-esg-into-investment-decisions-down-record-49-2021/ |
It’s been nearly seven months since the Cincinnati Bengals held a late Super Bowl lead then gave up the go-ahead touchdown with 1:25 left in a tough 23-20 loss to the L.A. Rams. But who could have predicted at the start of last season that the Bengals would even end up in the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl?
Before this season starts on Sept. 11 with the Bengals taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Paycor Stadium, we’re reaching out to local die-hard Bengals fans to find out what they’re most excited about and how they think the team will do.
Please take a minute to fill out the form below and let us know. Contact information that you enter on the form will not be published.
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About the Author | 2022-09-02T19:49:05+00:00 | daytondailynews.com | https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/die-hard-bengals-fans-how-excited-are-you-for-the-upcoming-season/5ZY4JS2TOZF2HND2SFLGQUCV5U/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A little more than a month ago, Western New York was digging itself out from a historic blizzard.
A blizzard that claimed the lives of 47 members of the western New York community.
Erie County, and even more granular the city of Buffalo, rested the majority of those deaths on its shoulders. 46 in total across the Erie County.
Since the end of the storm, 2 On Your Side had requested to interview the people the commissioners responsible for some of the decision making at the emergency operations center in Cheektowaga.
Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Dan Neaverth Jr and Public Works Commissioner Bill Geary agreed to an interview.
2 On Your Side met Neaverth and Geary at the Aurora DPW facility in West Falls on January 26th.
The Driving Ban
Erie County announced a driving ban around 8:50 AM on December 23, 2022. By that point there were blizzard conditions across Western New York, but particularly nothern Erie County was getting battered.
The driving ban announced would go into effect at 9:30 AM.
WGRZ asked Commissioner Neaverth about the timing of the driving ban and whether one should have been established before 9:30 AM.
"There was a discussion about when we were going to do travel bans," Neaverth said. "The ultimate decision on that came down to the timing of when the anticipation was for the storm itself."
Neaverth said the storm hit an hour or two earlier than they anticipated.
"A lot of different things that are bounced around throughout the course of the lead up," Neaverth said. "But to but to armchair quarterback that afterwards, that's kind of one of my pet peeves."
The National Weather Service started using language like generational and unprecedented in its forecasting as early as December 20th. WGRZ asked Neaverth if the storm hitting an hour or two early really made a different, if the forecasting for an evening commute home was always consistent, and why not initiate a ban before the storm starts so employers don't mandate employees to report to work.
Specifically, WGRZ asked Neaverth if a driving ban should have gone into effect at 7 AM, before the storm started.
"I think the there's the understanding to that there are people that work overnight shifts that there were people that will be returning home," Neaverth said. "There's a lot of factors that go into not just the everybody works nine to five, so I think that there's a balance there."
Neaverth also said whenever there is a driving ban, there needs to be consideration that the county is essentially shutting down commerce, including international travel on the Peace Bridge.
"There's a lot of thought process that goes into that ultimately, one person is the person that signs off on that and pulls the trigger on that," Neaverth said.
That person to pull the trigger on the driving ban is County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
On December 28th, Poloncarz said he didn't know if initiating a driving ban earlier would have made a different, but took full responsibility for the decision.
Pulling Crews
By Friday afternoon, conditions during the storm worsened to the point it was unsafe for crews to be on the road trying to keep them clear. The winds were so intense, even if a plow made it down a road, snow drifts were quickly rebuilt.
WGRZ asked DPW Commissioner Bill Geary to explain how the decision was made to pull crews, and whether it was a specific metric that has to be met in order for that to happen.
"It's communications all the way from the person sitting behind the wheel and that plow truck," Geary said. "If they get in a position that they're unsafe, we definitely don't need to go rescue the rescuers."
Geary says that conditions in the first-ring suburbs were particularly bad by early afternoon.
"They couldn't even see the windshield wipers on the plows," Geary said. "Then added in there were obstacles during that period of time, whether it be downed power lines, trees, other vehicles."
"It comes down to the operator to how comfortable are they willing to go, we don't want to push the limitations to to the farthest end," Geary said. "Then we're dealing with more recovery than just dealing with the snow."
As the death toll continued to rise after the storm, Geary said there was a lasting impact and trauma for those DPW crews that were in the thick of it.
"Some of the crews still feel like if we would have just pushed a little bit more could we have saved somebody else," Geary said. "But those are the honest things that we have to look at with putting men and women from the department out in harm's way."
Accountability
The 2022 blizzard turned out to be the deadliest weather-related event since the Blizzard of '77, and the deadliest incident in Erie County since the crash of flight 3407.
2 On Your Side asked Neaverth and Geary what accountability there would be at the county level.
"As far as accountability, I think every one in that emergency operation center, people that actually were there in the trenches doing it, I think their accountability is knowing that they did everything that they possibly could for those people under the circumstances, and under the weather," Neaverth said. "I can tell you as a person who was there and saw people that were doing everything that they possibly could, that to me is accountability."
"There's going to be times where people want to go out or don't want to evacuate a certain area," Commissioner Geary said. "We've seen it in Hoover beach time and time again, if you want to stay there, you're taking your life in your hands because we can't risk sending in firemen and police as well as the public works to get into those situations." | 2023-01-31T02:03:25+00:00 | wgrz.com | https://www.wgrz.com/article/weather/severe-weather/county-commissioner-talk-blizzard-response-and-accountability-community-weather/71-0999b02e-4a1b-4184-a3d8-a6820a184aa6 |
Data were from a final four-year analysis (up to Week 216) of the open-label extension trial of a VILTEPSO Phase 2 study
NS Pharma, Inc. (NS Pharma; President, Tsugio Tanaka), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. (Nippon Shinyaku; President, Dr. Toru Nakai)
PARAMUS, N.J., March 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NS Pharma is pleased to announce participation in the Muscular Dystrophy Association's (MDA) Clinical & Scientific Congress 2023 being held in Dallas, Texas.
The company will be presenting previously reported long-term efficacy and safety data (final analysis up to Week 216) from the open-label extension of a Phase 2 study of VILTEPSO® (viltolarsen).
The presentation will be given by Edward Smith, MD, Duke University School of Medicine. For more information, please visit the MDA Congress website to view the abstract:
https://www.mdaconference.org/abstract-library/results-of-a-4-year-viltolarsen-extension-study-of-functional-and-safety-outcomes/
"There have been amazing scientific advances in the treatment of Duchenne, which is why it is important to keep the community informed about existing therapeutic options and the long-term evidence these treatments have generated," said Dr. Smith. "The Muscular Dystrophy Association is one of the premier advocacy groups supporting the Duchenne community and I am pleased to take part in this year's knowledge sharing at the organization's Clinical & Scientific Congress on behalf of NS Pharma."
About VILTEPSO® (viltolarsen) injection
Prior to its approval in the U.S. in August 2020, VILTEPSO was granted Priority Review as well as Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations. In March 2020, VILTEPSO was approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with DMD who are amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Prior to its approval in Japan, VILTEPSO was granted with the SAKIGAKE designation, Orphan Drug designation, and designation of Conditional Early Approval System.
Indication
VILTEPSO is indicated for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients who have a confirmed mutation of the DMD gene that is amenable to exon 53 skipping. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on an increase in dystrophin production in skeletal muscle observed in patients treated with VILTEPSO. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial.
Important Safety Information
Warnings and Precautions: Kidney toxicity was observed in animals who received viltolarsen. Although kidney toxicity was not observed in the clinical studies with VILTEPSO, the clinical experience with VILTEPSO is limited, and kidney toxicity, including potentially fatal glomerulonephritis, has been observed after administration of some antisense oligonucleotides. Kidney function should be monitored in patients taking VILTEPSO. Serum creatinine may not be a reliable measure of kidney function in DMD patients.
Serum cystatin C, urine dipstick, and urine protein-to-creatinine ratio should be measured before starting VILTEPSO. Consider also measuring glomerular filtration rate before starting VILTEPSO. During treatment, monitor urine dipstick every month, and serum cystatin C and urine protein-to-creatinine ratio every three months.
Urine should be free of excreted VILTEPSO for monitoring of urine protein. Obtain urine either prior to VILTEPSO infusion, or at least 48 hours after the most recent infusion. Alternatively, use a laboratory test that does not use the reagent pyrogallol red, which has the potential to generate a false positive result due to cross reaction with any VILTEPSO in the urine. If a persistent increase in serum cystatin C or proteinuria is detected, refer to a pediatric nephrologist for further evaluation.
Adverse Reactions: The most common adverse reactions include upper respiratory tract infection, injection site reaction, cough, and pyrexia.
To report an adverse event, or for general inquiries, please call NS Pharma Medical Information at 1-866-NSPHARM (1-866-677-4276)
For more information about VILTEPSO, see full Prescribing Information.
About NS Pharma, Inc.
NS Pharma, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. For more information, please visit http://www.nspharma.com. NS Pharma is a registered trademark of the Nippon Shinyaku group of companies.
Contact
U.S. Media Contact:
media@nspharma.com
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SOURCE NS Pharma | 2023-03-19T14:04:09+00:00 | wbrc.com | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/03/19/viltepso-viltolarsen-injection-open-label-extension-clinical-trial-data-scheduled-presentation-mda-clinical-amp-scientific-conference-2023/ |
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carolina Handling set the record for creating the world's largest pallet painting on October 10 in Greenville, South Carolina when it completed a 26,235-square-foot portrait of Lady Liberty.
Presented in partnership with pallet provider 48forty Solutions, The Patriotic Pallet Project featured 2,500 wooden pallets painted 16 different colors and placed in a grid like pattern to reveal the iconic likeness of Lady Liberty. Assembly of the painting was recorded for a video to be released on Veterans Day, November 11.
"We realize that what we do every day is probably not that exciting to those outside our industry," said Carolina Handling Director of Marketing Donna Waldrep. "But we believed that if we could come up with something grand enough for those who don't work in material handling to take notice, then we could generate excitement about jobs in material handling and careers at Carolina Handling while honoring the service and sacrifice of our military veterans."
The exclusive Raymond Solutions and Support Center in the Southeast, Carolina Handling thrives in the world of warehouses and distribution centers where products are transported by pallet jacks, lift trucks, conveyors and sortation systems. Carolina Handling associates also are keenly aware that in 1939, George Raymond Sr., founder of The Raymond Corporation, was granted patents for the double-faced wooden pallet and the hydraulic hand pallet truck, which revolutionized the material handling industry.
Additionally, Carolina Handling is a military-minded organization where 13 percent of associates served in the U.S. Armed Forces and where veterans services are a focus area of the company's philanthropic giving.
"Considering our history and our focus on hiring and supporting military veterans, we landed on a project that was patriotic in nature and one that would involve our veterans and honor their service," Waldrep said.
Representatives of 48forty Solutions said they, too, were grateful for the opportunity to showcase their industry in a way that recognizes the service and sacrifice of U.S. veterans.
"We were honored to have representatives of 48forty, many of whom are veterans themselves, on hand for the assembly and unveiling of the massive and impressive image of Lady Liberty," said 48forty Solutions CEO Mike Hachtman. "As the nation's largest pallet company, the project allowed us to take what we do and apply it to a great cause – a showing of gratitude and support for our military."
Veterans were the focus of The Patriotic Pallet Project as five Carolina Handling associates, representing the five branches of the military in which they served, used Raymond lift trucks to deliver and lay down the colorful pallets to form the awe-inspiring image. It took four hours to complete the painting, which measured half the size of a football field.
"When you consider the size and scope of this project, it's amazing that we executed it flawlessly without a practice run," Waldrep said. "It's a testament to our associates who were committed to a quality outcome. It became a passion project for them, and they crushed it."
Go HERE to view the video of The Patriotic Pallet Project released for Veteran's Day 2022.
Go HERE for a behind-the-scenes video of The Patriotic Pallet Project.
Founded in 1966, Carolina Handling employs more than 660 associates at its Charlotte, NC headquarters, offices in Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Greensboro, NC, Raleigh, NC and Greenville, SC, and its Equipment Distribution Center in Piedmont, SC.
One of the Southeast's leading material handling solution providers, Carolina Handling is the exclusive Raymond Solutions and Support Center in the Southeast for North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida's Central time zone territory. The company provides automation and optimization services and virtual reality-based training, along with parts, racking, storage, conveyors, lighting and dock and door equipment. Its proprietary iWAREHOUSE optimization system allows real-time monitoring of fleets and warehouses.
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SOURCE Carolina Handling | 2022-11-09T15:05:26+00:00 | live5news.com | https://www.live5news.com/prnewswire/2022/11/09/carolina-handling-creates-worlds-largest-pallet-painting/ |
Braves add Robinson Cano to roster ahead of series vs. Mets originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Robinson Cano could have a shot at revenge this week.
The Braves added the veteran second baseman to their major league roster ahead of a three-game showdown with the first-place New York Mets, which gets underway Monday night in Atlanta.
Cano, 39, was designated for assignment by New York on May 2 following an ugly start to the season. The Mets moved on from the eight-time All-Star despite being on the hook for $40.5 million of the $48 million he's owed over this year and the next.
The San Diego Padres scooped up Cano days after his release, but a change of scenery didn't solve his struggles at the plate. In a 12-game stint, Cano hit just .091/.118/.091 to bring his combined season batting line to .149/.182/.189.
San Diego granted Cano his release on June 2 after he refused a trip down to the minors. He then, however, returned to the Padres organization on a minor league deal just over a week later. Cano lit it up in 21 games with Triple-A El Paso, hitting .333/.375/.479, before being acquired by Atlanta for cash considerations on Sunday.
Cano, who is the closest active player to 3,000 career hits with 2,635, joins Atlanta in the midst of a tight NL East race with his former club. The reigning World Series champions have trimmed what was a 10.5-game division lead for the Mets on June 1 down to 1.5 games entering this week's series.
Sports
The Braves have been without starting second baseman Ozzie Albies since mid-June due to foot surgery, and he's expected to miss a few more weeks. Orlando Arcia, who has been filling in for Albies, is hitting .252/.329/.366 this season. | 2022-07-11T17:24:23+00:00 | nbcchicago.com | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/braves-add-robinson-cano-to-roster-ahead-of-mets-series/2878449/ |
HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Seadrill Limited ("Seadrill" or "the Company") (XOAS: SDRL) announces today that it has been awarded contract extensions for the AOD I, AOD III and West Callisto for work offshore in the Arabian Gulf.
The firm term of each contract is three years with commencement in direct continuation of the current contracts. AOD I, AOD III and West Callisto are now committed to June 2025, December 2025 and November 2025, respectively. Total contract value for the three contracts is approximately $361m in aggregate.
Simon Johnson, Seadrill Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are pleased to be extending these rigs in the Arabian Gulf, solidifying Seadrill's strong market share and further extending our impressive backlog. These contracts demonstrate the value customers place on Seadrill's operational performance and safety record. The extensions also reflect the commitment and energy of our crews onboard the AOD I, AOD III and West Callisto and the shorebase teams that support them."
About Seadrill
Seadrill is a leading offshore drilling contractor utilizing advanced technology to unlock oil and gas resources for clients across harsh and benign locations around the globe. Seadrill's high-quality, technologically-advanced fleet spans all asset classes allowing its experienced crews to conduct operations from shallow to ultra-deep-water environments. The Company owns and/or operates 30 rigs, which includes drillships, semi-submersibles, and jack-ups.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release includes forward-looking statements. Such statements are generally not historical in nature, and specifically include statements about the Company's plans, strategies, business prospects, changes and trends in its business and the markets in which it operates. These statements are made based upon management's current plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs concerning future events impacting the Company and therefore involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. When considering these forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risks described from time to time in the Company's regulatory filings and periodical reporting. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of these factors. Further, the Company cannot assess the impact of each such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to be materially different from those contained in any forward looking statement.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
CONTACT:
Media questions should be directed to:
Sara Dunne
Director of Communications
communications@seadrill.com
+ 1 281 630 7064
Analyst questions should be directed to:
Hawthorn Advisors
seadrill@hawthornadvisors.com
+44 (0) 203 7454960
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
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SOURCE Seadrill Limited | 2022-06-22T17:04:19+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/06/22/seadrill-limited-announces-contract-extensions-aod-i-aod-iii-west-callisto-totalling-361m/ |
Copyright © 2023 PGA TOUR, Inc. All rights reserved.
PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, and the Swinging Golfer design are registered trademarks.
The Korn Ferry trademark is also a registered trademark, and is used in the Korn Ferry Tour logo with permission. | 2023-06-01T17:29:01+00:00 | pgatour.com | https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour/player/19817/michael-muehr |
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Stephan Jaeger posts bogey-free 5-under 66 l in the first round of the Shriners Children's Open
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October 06, 2022
By PGATOUR.COM
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October 06, 2022
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Highlights
Stephan Jaeger sinks 35-foot birdie putt at Shriners Children's Open
In the second round of the 2022 Shriners Children's Open, Stephan Jaeger makes birdie on the par-4 10th hole.
Stephan Jaeger hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation during his first round at the Shriners Children's Open, and finished the round bogey free. Jaeger finished his day tied for 1st at 8 under with Tom Hoge; Kevin Streelman, Si Woo Kim, and Maverick McNealy are tied for 3rd at 7 under; and Thomas Detry, Sam Ryder, Will Gordon, Keith Mitchell, S.H. Kim, and Tom Kim are tied for 6th at 6 under.
After a 319 yard drive on the 382-yard par-4 seventh, Stephan Jaeger chipped his second shot to 9 feet, which he rolled for one-putt birdie on the hole. This moved Stephan Jaeger to 1 under for the round.
After a 332 yard drive on the 563-yard par-5 ninth, Jaeger chipped his third shot to 6 feet, which he rolled for one-putt birdie on the hole. This moved Jaeger to 2 under for the round.
On the 606-yard par-5 13th hole, Jaeger reached the green in 3 and sunk a 10-foot putt for birdie. This moved Jaeger to 3 under for the round.
On the 560-yard par-5 16th, Jaeger had a birdie after hitting the green in 2 and two putting. This moved Jaeger to 5 under for the round.
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Please enter a valid email address. | 2022-10-08T00:55:50+00:00 | pgatour.com | https://www.pgatour.com/roundrecap/2023/shriners-children-s-open/round-1/stephan-jaeger.html |
WEATHERFORD, Texas, Oct. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brazos Bash, which ran from October 4-17, wrapped up its fourteen-day run at Bosque Ranch. With over 1,600 entries and a payout of $1.5m the event drew an impressive roster of cutting horses and riders from around the World. Sponsors included Big Star Trucking, Community Coffee, Machinery Auctioneers and MD Barnmaster.
The Brazos Bash also for the first time served as a qualifying event for the 2023 Run For A Million, a prestigious event in Western equine sports held at the Southpoint Arena & Equestrian Center in Las Vegas. The eleven riders advancing are Matt Gaines from Weatherford, TX, Tarin Rice from Poolville, TX, Wesley Galyean from Claremore, OK, Adan Banuelos from Granbury, TX, Matt R Miller from Poolville, TX, Austin Shepard from Summerdale, AL, Michael Cooper from Weatherford, TX, Lloyd Dennis Cox from Marietta, OK, Kenny Platt from Fort Lupton, CO, Monty Buntin from Lincoln, CA and Clay Johnson from Weatherford, TX.
Amanda Brumley, producer of The Run For A Million, says "It was the intent from the creation of TRFAM to incorporate multiple western disciplines. The difficulty was figuring out how to manage the footing needs with little to no time in between competitions. We are very excited to have come up with a solution to accommodate cutting next year into a performance which will take place Thursday, August 17, adding the best of the best in now three disciplines Reining, Cow Horse and Cutting. TRFAM is joining forces with the NRHA, NRCHA and NCHA in an epic event that has never been seen in the history of western equine sports.
Bosque Ranch is the premiere equine facility in North Texas, home of the NCHA Brazos Bash, the training center of 2018 NRCHA World's Greatest Horseman rider Kelby Phillips, NRHA Million Dollar Rider Matt Mills and official filming location for Yellowstone, 1883, and more.
Stone Management is a leading entertainment marketing and consulting firm offering expertise in the areas of product placement, brand integration, promotions, social media and corporate sponsorships for entertainment-related events and initiatives.
Social Media
Instagram: @bosqueranchheadquarters
YouTube: Bosque Ranch Headquarters
For more information:
Megan Soliah
Stone Management
(323) 847-2411
megan@stonemanagement.net
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SOURCE Bosque Ranch | 2022-10-26T19:02:43+00:00 | wbrc.com | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2022/10/26/bosque-ranch-hosts-annual-brazos-bash/ |
Angels sellers again at trade deadline despite star power
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — While the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers were making moves during Tuesday’s trade deadline to bolster their rosters for a postseason run, Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian was left answering questions after his team went into sell mode.
Despite having two of the top players in the game in AL MVPs Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the Angels are hurtling toward their seventh straight losing season.
“I still think there’s talent here. We have to find a way to stay healthy,” Minsasian said. “We’ve got to find more depth. I’ve got to build a better roster and that’s something that we’re going to attack this offseason.”
The Halos went into Tuesday night’s game against the Oakland Athletics a season-high 16 games under .500 at 43-59. They are in fourth place in the AL West after being tied for the lead with Houston in the middle of May.
While some wondered if Ohtani would be on his way out of Orange County, the Angels did trade pitchers Noah Syndergaard, Raisel Iglesias and Brandon Marsh.
Syndergaard and Marsh were dealt to the Phillies in separate deals. Iglesias is headed to Atlanta.
“Looking at where we’re currently at and big picture, I felt like this was the best way to go for the organization,” said Minasian, who is in his second season as general manager.
The Angels received right-hander Jesse Chavez and lefty Tucker Davidson from the Braves, which should help a taxed pitching staff the remaining two months. Los Angeles also got outfielders Mickey Moniak and Jadiel Sanchez for Syndergaard and catcher Logan O’Hoppe in exchange for Marsh.
Moniak, the top overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft, will get plenty of opportunities the next two months, while O’Hoppe and Sanchez are a minor league prospects.
Minasian has had to answer plenty of questions about a roster lacking depth. But now he is fielding concerns about Trout and Ohtani’s futures.
Trout is tied for fifth in the AL with 24 home runs but has been plagued by injuries the past two seasons. He is on the injured list with back issues after being limited to 36 games last season due to a calf injury.
Besides Trout, Anthony Rendon has struggled with injuries. The 32-year old third baseman has played in 155 of the Angels’ 384 games during the first three seasons of the $245 million, seven-year deal he signed before the 2020 season.
Ohtani is under contract through the end of next season before he is slated to hit free agency. The two-way Japanese phenom hasn’t discussed an extension as he looks to see if the Angels can build a club that can eventually contend for a playoff spot.
When asked if he could do enough this offseason to convince Ohtani to stay beyond next season, Minasian tried his best sales pitch.
“I always feel a sense of urgency. You want to win here,” he said. “There’s obviously established players, superstar players. We’ve got to build a better supporting cast around him. I think this is a great place to play. I think this is a great organization.”
How much that will help the Angels this season remains to be seen. They are 16-30 since firing Joe Maddon on June 7. That is the worst record in the AL over that span and third worst in the majors.
Los Angeles was 6-18 in July and batted just .199. Both of those were franchise lows for July in a full season.
Phil Nevin replaced Maddon as the interim manager, but the organization could be looking for its fifth skipper since 2018 during the offseason.
“We still have two months to go,” Minasian said. “Nobody likes where we are in the standings, but it’s two months of major-league games with opportunities for a lot of guys that might not have necessarily had opportunities before.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | 2022-08-03T05:33:42+00:00 | kyma.com | https://kyma.com/sports/ap-sports/2022/08/02/angels-sellers-again-at-trade-deadline-despite-star-power/ |
(NEXSTAR) — What do you think of when you think of shrimp scampi? Depending who you ask, that term can mean many different things — or even sound like complete gibberish.
While the dish is seemingly a staple of Italian-American cuisine, you’re unlikely to see “shrimp scampi” listed on dinner menus in Italy. And one of the main reasons is because of its name.
It’s widely believed the “scampi” refers to the style of cooking the shrimp — and this usage is typically accepted — though it’s not totally technically accurate. The word “scampi” is Italian for a type of small crustacean akin to a mini lobster. They’re similar to shrimp, but scampi — also known as Dublin Bay Prawn, langoustines, or Norway Lobster — aren’t typically found in oceans near the U.S.
“If you consider the name ‘shrimp scampi’ literally, it doesn’t make much sense; it’s like saying “shrimp lobster,” Faye Levy wrote in the Los Angeles Times back in 1997.
So how did “shrimp” get into the equation?
Levy further explained: “Its usage probably began when Italian chefs in the United States substituted shrimp in a recipe that normally called for scampi and probably referred to it as shrimp prepared scampi-style.”
All in all, a scampi-style dish is pretty simple, using ingredients such as butter, garlic, white wine, and lemon juice.
Per some Italian traditions, scampi may not even be served with pasta.
Back in 2007, New York Times food reporter Melissa Clark demonstrated her classic shrimp scampi recipe, which she noted “can” be served with pasta. Clark said she prefers to pair the dish with crusted bread, which is used to dab up the sauce. Clark further explained in NYT that an Italian recipe for scampi dating back to the 1970s made no mention of pasta, and called for only three ingredients: prawns, olive oil and garlic.
Markys, a gourmet grocer specializing in caviar and seafood, explained in a blog post last summer that while the origins of shrimp scampi may remain unknown, the dish is much older than most might think. A preparation dating back to 1770, from British cookbook writer Hannah Glasse’s world-famous “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy,” may be the very first in published writing, according to Markys. Glasse’s recipe called for only butter and lemon.
In France and the United Kingdom, where scampi are mostly called langoustines, a popular preparation is in a pasta-free bouillabaisse.
Over the years, people have taken to social media to post their surprise about being served shrimp scampi sans pasta.
“Y’all ever order shrimp scampi and it came without pasta??????” one Twitter user asked last February. Meanwhile, this February, another Tweeter wondered bluntly: “Why the **** did my shrimp scampi come without pasta?”
Confusion aside, shrimp scampi remains a crowd-pleaser across the U.S. — NYT’s Clark posited that scampi’s versatility may in fact be part of its charm, explaining that cooks can interpret the dish as they like.
“What could be more authentic than that?” she asked. | 2023-03-09T00:17:43+00:00 | wric.com | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/shrimp-scampi-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means/ |
NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The demand for a diverse and inclusive workplace culture is growing, and companies must keep up with that momentum to continue to thrive in the market for top talent today.
RippleMatch, the recruitment automation platform changing how Gen Z finds work, has released new research on how diverse members of Gen Z are approaching the labor market this season — including which Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) efforts matter most to candidates today as they decide where to work.
RippleMatch helps employers build diverse, high-performing teams. With more than 2 million candidate profiles from more than 1,500 colleges — including more than 175 HBCUs — RippleMatch is uniquely positioned to collect data on what Gen Z values in the workplace.
Surveying more than 2,600 college juniors and seniors, these are the top themes that emerged from RippleMatch's data:
Men are more optimistic than women about finding a good internship or job amidst economic uncertainty this fall
- 46% of male candidates are confident that they will find a role that meets their standards this year, compared to just 36% of female candidates
Gen Z candidates today are evaluating employers' efforts to diversify the workforce when deciding whether to apply
- 75% of all candidates say they would reconsider applying to work at a company if they were unsatisfied with it's D&I efforts
Female candidates from underrepresented backgrounds are the most concerned about securing an internship or job with competitive compensation this year
- 44% of Black women expect their greatest challenge this season to be finding a role that meets their salary expectations
- 74% of Black women and 68% of Hispanic women say they would rescind an offer for another with more competitive compensation
Early career candidates from underrepresented backgrounds have a stronger preference for remote work than White and Asian candidates
- While hybrid work is the most preferred work setting across all candidates, a larger share of Black and Hispanic candidates prefer fully remote work than White and Asian candidates
Download the report in its entirety here.
RippleMatch helps employers recruit their future. Our recruitment automation platform replaces job boards as the main way Gen Z finds careers and automates the time-intensive work that goes into building diverse, high performing teams. Learn more by visiting RippleMatch.com/employers.
CONTACT: Kate Beckman, kate@ripplematch.com
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SOURCE RippleMatch | 2022-09-19T13:48:25+00:00 | wymt.com | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/09/19/new-data-ripplematch-helps-employers-understand-how-traditionally-underrepresented-candidates-experience-job-search/ |
Push in states for $20 minimum wage as inflation persists
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Just years after labor activists persuaded a handful of states to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour, workers initially thrilled with the pay bump are finding their hard-won gains erased by inflation.
New York City resident Anthony Rivera, 20, who sorts packages at a United Parcel Service facility in Brooklyn, said he had to take a second job at a grocery store after his food costs soared.
“I was sitting at $15 an hour at UPS, and when it came to paying bills and buying groceries, it was starting to become not enough,” he said. “That led me to no other option than to pick up another job.”
New York, California and Massachusetts are among states where pro-labor forces are now pushing proposals that, if approved, would boost minimum wages to $20 or more in the coming years.
Inflation has meant that something that cost $15 in 2012 — when labor activists adopted the “Fight for $15″ slogan in a push for wage hikes — would probably cost almost $20 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But opponents to the wage hikes say they can be detrimental to small businesses, which already took a major hit during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cindy Lee, the owner of a bowling alley in Endicott, New York, said she’s struggling to pay off loans taken out during the pandemic that kept her business afloat.
“All this cost all at once is just going to kill us. I definitely will have to cut corners somewhere with employees if wages are raised,” said Lee, adding that she’d also have to increase prices on bowling, food and liquor.
The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states have chosen to do so.
Over the past decade, labor groups held out $15 as the target that would let low-paid workers sustain themselves within the 40-hour workweek. A growing number of states across the political spectrum have passed legislation that will take their minimum wage above that amount in the next few years, including Florida, Nebraska and Illinois. Eleven states have phased in wage increases of $5 or more within the past decade.
Yet those gains were almost immediately tempered. Inflation in the United States hit a new 40-year high last summer after prices for basic necessities like gas and food soared. Supply chain issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, combined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have disrupted gas and food supplies, sending those prices skyward.
Labor activists are pressing for a new round of wage increases even as the old ones are still being phased in.
A bill in New York would raise the state’s minimum wage to $21.25 by 2026, and then adjust it each year going forward for inflation. Right now, minimum wage workers in New York City get paid $15, while the rest of the state is at $14.20.
In Massachusetts, one bill proposes to raise the wage every year until it hits $20 in 2027, up from $15 now.
And in California, where the minimum wage is currently $15.50 for all workers, legislation signed in September would have set the state on a path to raise wages for fast-food workers to $22 per hour. The law was met with heavy opposition from restaurant industry groups who led a successful effort to force it into a referendum vote in 2024.
Backers of a proposed wage increase in New York say they hope it will pass as part of the state budget, which is expected to be finalized in early April.
“You can’t tell us that after the pandemic, that $15 is going to still be enough for us to keep food on our tables,” said state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens, said at a rally in Albany. “That’s why we want $21.25, nothing less. The price of everything is going up except for wages.”
In her executive budget proposal, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, proposed tying minimum wage increases to inflation, but with a cap on how much wages could rise in any one year.
Barry Nicholson, the owner of four retail businesses in Corning, a city by the Finger Lakes in New York, said a wage increase to $21.25 would be “a smack in the face to small businesses.”
“There is just no way I could handle that,” said Nicholson, who owns two UPS stores, and women’s accessories and modern home furnishings stores. “When you look at retail hospitality, we live and die by a couple of points at the end of the day. We’re not the big corporations everyone talks about.”
___
Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | 2023-03-28T12:14:33+00:00 | ksla.com | https://www.ksla.com/2023/03/28/push-states-20-minimum-wage-inflation-persists/ |
Proctor/Hermantown’s Anika Burke and Nya Sieger scored in quick succession in the second period to lift the Mirage to a 2-1 home girls hockey win over Superior Monday.
The Spartans' Kenlyn Thimm scored early in the second period, but Burke’s score at the 11:27 mark tied it and Sieger struck again 3 minutes later with what proved to be the game-winner.
Suri Langley finished with 27 saves for Proctor/Hermantown and Kaylie Nault had 29 for the Spartans.
Duluth 3, Grand Rapids/Greenway 1
The Northern Stars scored three unanswered goals to win on home ice at Essentia Duluth Heritage Center.
Jenna Horvat evened it up midway late in the first period, while Bailey Coole bagged the go-ahead goal just past the halfway point and Mae McCall scored a late-empty netter.
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Hibbing/Chisholm 7, International Falls 0
Abigail Sullivan opened the game at Hibbing Memorial Arena with a natural hat trick as the Bluejackets earned their seventh win of the season.
Hibbing/Chisholm controlled play to the tune of a 55-7 advantage in shots on goal. Aune Boben, Kendal Gustavsson and Heidi Rasch all finished with a goal and assist, while Grace McDowell notched the shutout on seven saves.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Solon Springs 61, Washburn 17
Solon Springs’ Claire Holmstrom scored 28 points in a 61-17 win over Washburn Monday.
The Eagles’ defense was stifling throughout the game, allowing just five field goals in the game and none in the second half.
After a five-point win over the Castleguards earlier in the season, Solon Springs knew it needed to play better in the rematch, according to coach Sarah Smith.
“The girls were given an offensive and defensive plan and they executed it perfectly,” Smith said in an email. “We are starting to hit our stride heading into the end of the season and if the girls can keep this up, they will be a force in the playoffs.”
Esko 51, Cromwell-Wright 43
Esko’s Hannah Swanson led all scorers with 15 points in the Eskomos’ 51-43 win over Cromwell-Wright Monday.
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Sierra Anderson led the Cardinals with 12 points.
Floodwood 56, Fond du Lac Ojibwe 24
Kenzie Kiminski scored 21 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers to lead Floodwood to a 56-24 win over Fond du Lac Ojibwe Monday in Cloquet.
The Polar Bears scored 37 first half points and cruised to the 32-point victory. Aussie Arro finished with nine points for Floodwood and Kalli Fjeld scored eight.
Sadie Brockanaga led Fond du Lac Ojibwe with nine points.
Mille Lacs 70, Wrenshall 30
Wrenshall’s Janae Sjodin scored 17 points, but the Wrens couldn’t keep pace with Milaca in a 70-30 loss Monday.
Wrenshall was down 32-22 at halftime, but managed only eight points in the final 18 minutes of the loss.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Moose Lake/Willow River 92, Cook County 43
Moose Lake/Willow River’s Adam Neuman scored 22 points in the Rebels' 92-43 blowout of Cook County Monday.
The Rebels jumped out to a 53-12 lead at halftime and cruised to the 49-point win.
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Cook County’s Denali Blackwell led all scorers with 24 points.
Cloquet 98, Duluth Marshall 69
Cloquet’s Seth Rothamel and Jack Battaglia each hit five 3-pointers to lead the Lumberjacks to a 98-69 win over Duluth Marshall.
Rothamel led all scorers with 23 and Battaglia had 21 for Cloquet. Marco Mayorga and Reese Sheldon joined them in double figures with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Brooks Johnson led Marshall with 20 points.
Hibbing 57, Proctor 44
The Bluejackets claimed their first win of the season after starting 0-12. | 2023-01-31T06:08:46+00:00 | duluthnewstribune.com | https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/prep/prep-report-mirage-rallies-past-superior-with-goals-from-burke-sieger |
SANTA ROSA, Calif., Aug. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kentucky Derby-winning racehorse Rich Strike will be dressed with a purpose in a custom blanket this Saturday. The chestnut Thoroughbred and team Red TR-Racing support the breast cancer awareness and fundraising campaign Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ (TETWP).
Rich Strike is running in the Travers Stakes, an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Racecourse in Saratoga Springs, New York. Nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" it is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds like Rich Strike according to international classifications, behind only the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
"I've supported the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign charity events in Crested Butte, Colorado for many years. I had an idea for raising more awareness for this important cause, so I reached out," noted Rick Dawson, Owner, and Manager of Rich Strike.
Dawson got in touch with Lacey Wheatley, the Executive Director of Touch Enough to Wear Pink™. Together they created a custom TETWP quarter sheet for Rich Strike, who has worn the blanket over the course of Travers Stakes week. Team members Rick Dawson, trainer Eric Reed and jockey Sonny Leon will also be Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ on game day.
Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ (TETWP) is a western community campaign to help families facing breast cancer. It was founded by Ms. Terry Wheatley, President of Vintage Wine Estates (Nasdaq: VWE), a major California wine company. A breast cancer survivor whose husband and son were Wrangler National Final Rodeo competitors in Team Roping, Ms. Wheatley created the campaign to help other families during detection, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Since 2004, Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ has raised over 37 million dollars for breast cancer research and support in the form of early detection, transportation, and family assistance. Most of the funds stay local in the communities where they are raised.
"We are humbled and thrilled that Rich Strike will help us raise awareness for the importance of early detection and treatment for breast cancer." commented Terry Wheatley. "As someone with a background in rodeo, I am no stranger to celebrity horses! Although rodeo and racing are not quite alike, we share is our love for competition and community. Our worlds are coming together to raise awareness for a great cause."
Ms. Wheatley has also created a wine for the cause, Purple Cowboy, which donates 100% of its profits to Tough Enough to Wear Pink™. Purple Cowboy wines are from Paso Robles, California, a region sometimes called "Cowboy Wine Country" for its strong western and ranching heritage. Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red (blend) and Trail Boss Cabernet Sauvignon are available nationally or on-line.
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SOURCE Tough Enough To Wear Pink | 2022-08-26T23:04:39+00:00 | wagmtv.com | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/26/kentucky-derby-winning-racehorse-rich-strike-wears-pink-trimmed-blanket-cause/ |
When it came to the treatment of diseases, the ancient Romans had no shortage of magical remedies, several of which involved iron nails. To cure epilepsy, first-century historian Pliny the Elder advised driving a nail into the ground at the spot where the afflicted person’s head lay at the start of the seizure. The Romans hammered nails into doors to avert plagues and pounded coffin nails into thresholds to keep nightmares at bay. Nails from tombs and crucifixions were sometimes even worn around the neck as talismans against fevers, malaria and evil spells.
Recently, archaeologists excavated an unusual set of talismanic nails from a mountaintop necropolis on the outskirts of Sagalassos in southwestern Turkey. In an early Roman imperial tomb, 41 broken nails were found scattered among the cremated remains of an adult male who had lived in the second century A.D. and was buried in situ. Twenty-five of the nails were headless and deliberately bent at right angles; the others were complete roundheaded nails with the shanks twisted multiple times. The unusual funerary practice is the subject of a new study published in the journal Antiquity.
“The nails were not used in the construction of the pyre, and had no practical purpose,” said Johan Claeys, an archaeologist at Catholic University Leuven and the lead author of the paper. “They would have been valuable enough to be recovered if still serviceable. But they were dead nails, and the way they were distributed around the perimeter of the tomb suggests that the placement was purposeful.” By “dead nails,” he meant that they had been believed to possess occult power.
At the time, the ashes and unburned remnants of cremated bodies were commonly put in an urn and buried in a grave or placed in a mausoleum. In this case, the pyre was carefully sealed beneath a raft of two dozen bricks, arranged in four rows. The undersides of the bricks were discolored, indicating that they had been set atop the still-smoldering embers. The bricks were then slathered with slaked lime.
“This wasn’t the thin, temporary layer normally used to cover the skeletal remains before they were recovered for burial,” Claeys said. “This lime was thick and secured the remains as much as a solid coffin would have.” Lime, he said, was seldom applied during Roman-era interments. Indeed, of the 180 or so tombs that his team examined at the cemetery, this was the only one that had been limed.
Each of these three features — the nails, the bricks and the lime — has been found in other graves in the ancient Mediterranean, but this was the first time they had been seen together, Claeys said. This strongly implied the use of protective charms to keep the “restless dead” from interfering with the living, he said.
“Whether or not the cause of the man’s death was traumatic, mysterious or the result of a contagious illness or punishment, it appears to have left the mourners fearful of his return,” he said. “We are witnessing here at least three deviant interventions that each in and of themselves can be understood as means to pin the deceased to his final resting position. The combination swings the pendulum firmly toward safeguarding the living from the dead.”
The new study provided significant evidence that “protective magic” was used in Imperial Rome necropoli, said Silvia Alfayé, a professor of ancient history at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, who was not involved in the project. “The Sagalassos cremation tells us a personal but also social story of care, hope, contempt, respect, grief and fear facing loss,” she said. “It reveals the choice of magic as the most suitable ritual technology to manage death anxiety and phantom menaces.”
Yo, Hadrian
Sagalassos was built on the slopes of the Taurus mountain range, about 5,000 feet above sea level, in the late fifth century B.C., when the region was part of the Achaemenid Empire. Captured in 333 B.C. by Alexander the Great on his march through coastal Anatolia, Sagalassos was loosely governed from afar, if at all, by members of his ruling clique and their descendants: Antigonus the One-Eyed, possibly Lysimachus of Thrace, and the Seleucids of Syria, who are credited with urbanizing the area.
By the second century B.C., Sagalassos had become a city-state of the Hellenistic Attalid Kingdom. With the death of King Attalus III in 133 B.C., the settlement was bestowed on the Roman Republic and, a century later, incorporated into the Empire. The bustling metropolis was later favored by the emperor Hadrian (117 A.D. to 138 A.D.), who named it the regional center of the imperial cult.
In late antiquity, Sagalassos, though still dynamic and resilient, faded in importance. From the sixth century A.D. on, it suffered an earthquake, a recession, epidemics and an invasion until it was abandoned in the 13th century. Largely protected from looting and vandalism by its extreme isolation, Sagalassos today remains remarkably well-preserved, with a library, an odeon and outdoor theater, two large bath complexes, a 60-room mansion, a monumental fountain and colossal statues of Hadrian, fellow emperor Septimius Severus and empress Faustina the Elder.
Archaeologists from Catholic University have been systematically excavating the area around Sagalassos since 1990. In 2011, they began a fresh exploration of the city’s northeastern edge, a kind of premature suburban sprawl originally dedicated to agricultural terracing that had been converted for funerary and artisanal purposes. The dig uncovered relics, intact burials and traces of cremation pyres spanning six centuries.
“As Sagalassos belonged to the Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire, many of their funerary practices are more Greek in nature than Roman,” said Sam Cleymans, an anthropologist at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Belgium who also worked on the new paper.
The so-called dead nails turned up in 2012. Cleymans, then a student doing fieldwork at the site, remembered reading a short description of nails that had been strewn around burials in the Roman necropolis of Blicquy in Belgium. “The account mentioned that some were bent and did not seem to have had a use as coffin nails,” he said. “The author interpreted these nails as a way to bind the spirits of the dead to the grave to keep them from wandering around.”
According to Alfayé, the idea behind bent and broken nails was to erect a two-way barrier that would shield both the dead and the living.
“These rituals were aimed at hermetically locking the grave and securing it against invasive threats such as robbery, vandalism and witchcraft, as well as blocking the possible escape of a runaway revenant,” she wrote in an email. “In the ancient Roman mind-set, nails, whether bent or twisted or decapitated, were invested with magical potency. The ones from graveyards were considered best for neutralizing supernatural harm by transferring their dead provenance to the evil and killing it.”
A Coin for Charon
Nails aside, Claeys said, the Sagalassos cremation was performed with at least some of the traditional funerary rites that might be expected from ancient sources and archaeological parallels.
Although whoever buried the man may have feared him, they clearly put care into the process. The tomb was respectfully furnished with worldly goods such as baskets, perfume bottles, clothing, ceramic urns, vessels containing grains and nuts, and Charon’s obol, a coin placed in the mouth or near the body of the dead to ensure safe passage to the Underworld.
The researchers could not ascertain whether relatives of the departed were buried nearby. Kinship typically can be established only through inscriptions or DNA analysis. None of the Sagalassos graves bore epitaphs, and genetic material is often destroyed by high temperatures in ancient cremations. “Teeth, especially molars, are arguably the best source for the extraction of DNA,” Claeys said. “We did not recover any molars.”
On the other hand, he added, the cremation took place close to the eastern edge of the team’s excavation trench. “Who knows what lies just a few meters more to the east?” Claeys said. He is concerned that while extending the trench might provide answers, it could just as easily open up a whole set of new questions.
“At some point you have to make choices, ideally based on research questions, but time and financial constraints will also play their part,” he said. “The basic principle is that it is better to leave the archaeological record untouched as long as it is not threatened, which explains the often limited interventions we undertake in Sagalassos.”
Alfayé is fond of the Spanish expression “dar en el clavo” — to hit the nail on the head. “The meaning is to find the clue, discover something,” she said. In the ancient cemeteries of Sagalassos, something is always waiting to be discovered. | 2023-03-27T20:18:39+00:00 | seattletimes.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-a-roman-tomb-dead-nails-reveal-an-occult-practice/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump turned his attention to the general election on Thursday, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own reelection bid to boast of his poll numbers and suggest that he has no need to debate his Republican rivals.
Trump’s appearance in New Hampshire marked his first return to an early voting state since his legal troubles increased with an indictment in New York. He spoke on the same day that his former vice president, Mike Pence, testified before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Meanwhile, writer E. Jean Carroll testified for a second day Thursday in a civil rape case against Trump over an encounter in the 1990s, an allegation he denies.
“We are a nation in serious decline, a nation that has lost its way,” Trump said at a downtown Manchester hotel, a smaller venue than his typical, large-scale rallies. “We are led by a hopeless person, but we will win in 2024 and make America great again. We can do it. It’s not too late.”
In a nod toward his 2016 race, Trump said he’s retiring the “crooked” nickname he used to define Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and will now instead apply it to Biden. He pledged to take back the White House and “settle our unfinished business” in a potential 2024 rematch with the current president.
A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, Ammar Moussa, pointed in response to persistent allegations that Trump’s family profited off his presidency.
“Donald Trump may come up with a lot of nicknames for President Biden but we have a better one: winner,” Moussa said.
Trump’s New Hampshire appearance came two days after Biden kicked off his own long-expected reelection campaign, presenting himself as he did in 2020 as a buttress against Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement. Biden’s campaign launch video included snapshots of Trump and warned of “MAGA extremists” working to erode freedoms including voting rights and abortion rights.
Trump is considered a front-runner for the GOP nomination, though more Republicans are expected to jump into the race soon, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump’s campaign this week started airing its first television ad, which assails DeSantis. In the ad, Trump takes credit for DeSantis’ political rise and shows the governor yoking himself to the former president, including clips from a 2018 gubernatorial campaign ad in which he uses some of Trump’s catchphrases like “Build the wall” and “You’re fired.”
Trump, who has mused about skipping primary debates, pointed Thursday to his sizable polling lead and questioned why he should bother participating in the debates. “Why would you do that?” he asked the crowd.
Two weeks ago, Trump appeared with several other announced and potential presidential candidates at the National Rifle Association convention in Indianapolis. Last weekend, he spoke by video to a gathering of evangelicals in Iowa that marked the unofficial start of the state’s 2024 caucus campaign.
“It doesn’t feel good to have Republicans that are so conservative and great fighting each other,” said Kathy Holmes, a 69-year-old retired teacher from Chichester who attended Trump’s event Thursday. Holmes, who said she plans to vote for Trump in the state’s leadoff primary, wore homemade buttons of Trump’s face with fuzzy blond hair glued onto it.
Holmes said she’d like to see DeSantis wait and run for president in 2028 instead.
Maureen Anderson, a 43-year-old from the Boston area who said she follows the QAnon conspiracy theory, said Thursday’s event was the first time she would be seeing Trump in person. The longtime Trump supporter wore a red “MAGA” hat and said she would be supporting Trump in the primary, regardless of his legal troubles.
“I feel like they’ve got nothing on him, and they just keep trying to find some other avenue to get him,” she said of the legal cases. “But they’re not gonna get him.
Trump stopped at a downtown diner after his event, where he posed for photographs and signed autographs. Someone in the crowd tried to draw Trump’s attention to one woman, shouting, “She’s a J-6er,” referring to people who were at the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Where is she?” Trump asked, turning his head and beckoning her to come through the packed crowd. He leaned in between members of his security detail to say, “You just hang in,” and something else inaudible and then repeated, “You just hang in.”
The woman passed up a backpack from the crowd to have him sign, shouting, “I took it with me Jan. 6.” He signed it.
New Hampshire is a political swing state, though voters in the state rejected Trump in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. It was, however, the first state Trump won in the 2016 Republican presidential primary contest, propelling him into GOP dominance that he maintains to this day.
The former president made one other visit to New Hampshire earlier this year, stopping in Salem as part of his first appearances on his latest White House campaign.
___
Cooper reported from Phoenix. | 2023-04-28T00:33:22+00:00 | wate.com | https://www.wate.com/news/politics/ap-politics/trump-assails-biden-in-new-hampshire-a-2024-rematch/ |
Farmers of color across the country, who'd been promised debt cancelation as part of a special program to address racial disparity in lending, rejoiced when they received letters in 2021 in the mail that said their loans with the Agriculture Department would be canceled.
And then, for over a year, there was nothing.
Multiple lawsuits led by white farmers, who said the program discriminated against them for being white, stymied the race-targeted program.
The debt forgiveness was a congressional effort to help USDA make up for a history of discrimination. For decades, farmers of color have filed individual lawsuits, class action lawsuits and congressional testimony against the department. And for decades, rulings and reports have repeatedly concluded that USDA's lending practices have been discriminatory.
Now, USDA is in the process of rolling out a second, newer, program passed by Congress as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act. But the $3.1 billion now appropriated as payments toward loans don't just go to racial and ethnic minorities. They also go to some white farmers under a new category: "economically distressed."
Economically distressed means farmers of any race who are behind on loan payments or on the brink of foreclosure.
And since this new program is now race-neutral, those who are particularly concerned about the disparate impact of lending practices on Black and other farmers of color say the move could hide the scope of the problem and lead to further disenfranchisement.
Farmers of color wonder if relief is being received as intended
In October, USDA began making automatic payments to the accounts of farmers who were 60 days or more delinquent. In some cases, payments were made without notifying the borrower: a pleasant surprise in some cases and procedural confusion in others.
However, advocates and producers complain there is a lack of clarity and transparency about who is getting the money.
"You lose a lot of the trust when there was very little trust in the beginning," said Brandon Smith, a cattle rancher in Texas who received a payment and is an outreach coordinator for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. "No one's trying to be ungrateful, but it's just the trust and what was promised to them."
As of Jan. 30, the USDA paid out more than $823 million for the Inflation Reduction Act program to farmers who were either delinquent on payments or on the verge of foreclosure.
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"The steps we've taken so far are really for lack of a better analogy, to stop the bleeding," said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of the Farm Service Agency, the lending arm of the department.
He said the next step is to deal with 15,600 "complex cases," including borrowers on the brink of foreclosure and those near delinquency.
"As far as I know, we haven't had any foreclosures in our guaranteed loans since we started providing this assistance. That's an ongoing process to clean up those complex cases," Ducheneaux said. "And, of course, having a bankruptcy judge and other creditors make those even more complex."
This case-by-case funding will include some $500 million in payments.
USDA has not outlined what it will do with the remaining over $1 billion allocated by Congress.
States with "Economically distressed borrowers" net high dollars
Data obtained by NPR show that Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Puerto Rico are receiving the largest amounts of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act towards economically distressed borrowers.
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas also happen to be the largest states for FSA lending for what USDA labels "socially disadvantaged" producers – which are people of color and white women. Oklahoma leads the way in lending to those types of borrowers.
These were also the states that were expected to benefit the most from the original race-targeted program.
It is unclear, however, how many of these "socially disadvantaged" borrowers are people of color.
In the state of Oklahoma, out of 129,619 total producers in Oklahoma, 9.2% are American Indian/Alaska Native and 1.4% are Black or African American, and .4% Asian compared to 84.9% white, according to the self-reported 2017 Agriculture Census.
Puerto Rico, which has not recovered from the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, also has a large percentage of socially disadvantaged borrowers.
It has a farming population of 8,230 of which 7% identify as Black, 90% identify as white, .8% as other and 1% as more than one race, according to the self-reported 2017 Census of Agriculture. About 99%, regardless of race, identify as Hispanic or Latino ethnic origin, making them socially disadvantaged.
"Economically, they are (also) disadvantaged. That's not surprising to me," said Iris Jannett Rodriguez, president of the coffee sector of the Puerto Rican Farm Bureau. "Many farms might have a lot of land but the land that is producing crops is really small."
Almost any way you slice the numbers: looking at raw totals of borrowers and dollars, or average payments per borrower or loan, Puerto Rico – which is not among the nation's top agriculture producers – consistently lands among the top recipients. With 820 direct loan borrowers receiving $72.3 million and two guaranteed loan borrowers receiving $1.3 million in payments, Puerto Rico ranks fourth in the nation for highest borrowers and IRA payments.
"Both Oklahoma and Puerto Rico have a large share of farm loans. Therefore, it is not surprising that they also have more distressed borrowers relative to other states," said Marissa Perry, press secretary for USDA regarding the rates of payments made toward both states. "In the case of Puerto Rico, in recent years, a number of natural disasters have contributed to delinquencies."
But advocates say they fear the money may now not be reaching all of the producers who benefited from the first program.
USDA officials say that since Congress did not make race a consideration for payments, it does not track that data. Nonetheless, some patterns stick out because some of the states with the highest number of USDA loan borrowers who are socially disadvantaged are getting the most of the IRA payments.
As a part of the American Rescue Plan, the early 2020 pandemic relief bill, lawmakers approved $5 billion toward debt relief and cancellation for minority farmers. The legislation was specifically targeting what was labeled "socially disadvantaged" farmers, or African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders.
But the program was swiftly blocked by about 12 lawsuits, including one out of Texas led by former President Donald Trump's adviser Stephen Miller and current state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. They argued the program was discriminating against white farmers for being white.
Lawmakers then repealed the program and passed a second one through the Inflation Reduction Act.
"The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was absolutely a tough pill to swallow with regard to the overturning of American Rescue Plan [program]," said Dãnia Davy, director of Land Retention and Advocacy at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, however adding that some results have benefited her membership. "I have to say that a lot of our farmers ultimately have been very positive as they've received benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act that some folks didn't even anticipate receiving. So it's actually been a surprisingly positive response."
The first program was specifically supposed to provide redress to farmers of color, many of who had been a part of class action lawsuits against USDA. Plaintiffs under Pigford v. Glickman, the lawsuit brought by Black farmers settled in 1999. However, tens of thousands missed out due to confusing paperwork and filing deadlines and near attorney malpractice, advocates say.
In 2010, Congress appropriated an additional $1.2 billion in a second round of payouts. But still, many did not receive them due to more denials of claims and deadline and processing issues. Plaintiffs fell even further behind on payments and legal fees — hurting their credit and bottom line for decades to follow.
"There are people who are still living from the first round of Pigford and they've never been made whole," Davy said. "And a lot of times when people talk about Pigford, they think that Pigford addressed all of the racial discrimination that Black farmers faced, but it was really for a finite period of time."
Smith says producers are happy about payments but upset there isn't full loan forgiveness and confused about the rollout.
"They feel robbed about that part," Smith said. "The law was passed almost six months ago and it seems like they [USDA] are a little sluggish."
Much of the money remains to be doled out.
Smith said farmers who received notice in 2021 that their debt would be forgiven sat in limbo for a year, leading to many of them feeling like the department slow-walked the rollout of the original program, giving time for lawsuits to stall it.
"They were promised something by the government and then put on hold for over a year and a half," Smith said. "They were told money was allocated to them during the pandemic. They were not able to use those funds. Now the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, they added more money to that pool but they aren't doing debt forgiveness. They just had a couple of payments."
In response to the concerns, USDA said they worked quickly to dole out the funds to farmers most at risk of losing their farms. The department is now in a more complicated phase, it said.
"This work requires diligence and time to make sure we are doing right by producers and fundamentally changing our approach to be better and in a long-lasting way," said Dewayne Goldmon, senior advisor for racial equity to the Secretary of Agriculture. "I'm in this job to advance racial justice and opportunity – and we will keep mending and improving our approach at USDA to ensure Black farmers and any other farmers who have been left behind in the past are no longer left behind."
Black farmers' concerns over equity remain
Still, some farmers of color argue that they have still not benefited from a program originally designed to help them.
Eddie Lewis, a farmer in Louisiana, said he falls into that "complex case" category — he is delinquent $600,000. While he was poised to receive cancellation under the first program, the delay to get any payment under the new program is affecting his ability to get the capital he needs, he said.
"I would be the perfect candidate for a case-by-case basis. I'm a good farmer. I got good yields, I got good character. I got good credit," he said. Lewis is in limbo, unable to secure other loans he needs because of the outstanding delinquency.
Advocates are also concerned that Black farmers who led the movement to get a debt-relief program will be left out of it.
In June 2022, Rep. Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democratic member of the House Agriculture Committee, sent a letter to USDA asking them to use money appropriated in another section of the COVID-19 relief package, also aimed at tackling inequity, to cover the costs of debt to Black farmers while litigation on the debt relief program continued.
Adams argued that according to USDA data, only 3,100 Black farmers would be eligible for the relief totaling less than $300 million. The most recent FSA report released in September shows the cost of 5,970 loans taken out by "socially disadvantaged farmers," including white women, was $1.2 billion.
Advocates say the amount needed to cover the debt of farmers of color, and especially Black farmers, is so small that the funding should be appropriated — especially out of a multibillion-dollar program.
"Unfortunately, our folks have been so shortchanged that I think the numbers will probably bear out that there's still a significant number of white farmers who not only benefited from the subsidies and the COVID benefits but now even IRA," Davy said. "I think that program can't truly be called a success for civil rights because you have to really intentionally address racial discrimination if you want to call it a success for civil rights."
However, other farmers argue that the new, race-neutral program may be better at providing aid to those immediately struggling without triggering lawsuits. And many of them happen to be farmers of color.
In defense of the original race-targeted program, the government argued in court that white farmers were far less likely to be delinquent on their loans. The ratio of white borrowers who are delinquent on FSA loans in 2021 was 11%, compared to 38% of Black borrowers, 15% of Asian borrowers, 17% of American Indian and Alaskan Natives, and 68% of Hispanic borrowers.
Rod Simmons, a farmer in North Carolina, at first struggled with the department. He cited familiar problems, like a confusing application process and deadlines, as barriers he faced getting involved with the department's programs.
When the pandemic hit, he lost 22% of his inventory. He was on the verge of liquidating his assets in order to get money to make the loan payments And then the Inflation Reduction Act loan payment came through, it amounted to two years worth of money he owed.
"My granddad had never seen any type of program in his time that made an impact for farmers like this one did," Simmons said. "Now, the programs can be designed in a manner that will cater to those that need it versus those that want it. And there's a big difference."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | 2023-02-26T13:21:47+00:00 | mainepublic.org | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/2023-02-26/black-farmers-worry-new-approach-on-race-neutral-lending-leaves-them-in-the-shadows |
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