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FN Media Group Presents USA News Group News Commentary
VANCOUVER, BC, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A series of unpredictable moves by Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has led to speculation that the world's richest recorded person has opened the door to a hostile takeover of social media monolith Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR). Beyond the potential for Musk to take decisive action, there are multiple other takeover bids and offers in place that represent premium prices for shareholders. These and other deals are driving overall M&A activity in the market back up, after a recent drop to pre-pandemic levels. Among these are a sizeable bid for energy tech developers Petroteq Energy, Inc. (OTCPK:PQEFF) by Viston United Swiss AG, a takeover offer by the billionaire Benetton family with Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) of Italian infrastructure giant Atlantia SpA, and the $6.9-billion takeover of cyber security group SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SAIL) by Thoma Bravo.
Unlike the potential Musk/Twitter deal, a growing number of shareholders of Petroteq Energy, Inc. (OTC:PQEFF) are signalling their openness to a friendly takeover bid from clean technologies investment firm Viston United Swiss AG, which has an April 14th deadline.
At C$0.74 (US$0.59) per common share, Viston's offer gives Petroteq a valuation of 279% over the closing price of C$0.195 on the TSX-V August 6, 2021—the day prior to the Canadian exchange's cease trade order began.
This valuation also delivers a 1,032% premium over the TSX-V volume-weighted average price of $0.065 per common share for the 52-week period preceding April 15, 2021—the last trading day prior to the publication of the voluntary purchase offer in Germany.
From the top down, it appears that Viston's offer has been favorably received by the entire Petroteq team. This includes unanimous intention to tender shares from the Board of Directors, the company's Founder, Former Chairman and CEO Alex Blyumkin, and one of the company's largest shareholders, Cantone Asset Management, LLC.
"After thorough consideration of all aspects of the Viston Offer, the advice provided by Haywood and consulting with its other advisors, the Board has unanimously determined to recommend that Shareholders accept the Viston Offer and tender their Common Shares," said the Board in their official statement.
For many months, shares of Petroteq on the Canadian Exchange have ceased trading. However, in the USA, investors can continue to trade shares under the OTC symbol PQEFF, in a form of merger arbitrage trading.
Now with less than a week to go before the April 14, 2022 deadline, shares of PQEFF continue to trading at ~US$0.39 as of April 11, 2022. This means there's still a near 50% premium left available for those who follow through offering their shares to the buyer through the official takeover offer website PetroTeqoffer.com.
The leveraged buyout market is soaring again, as evidenced by the $6.9-billion takeover of cyber security group SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SAIL) by Thoma Bravo. As per the deal, the US private equity group is buying the cyber security company at a price of $65.25 per share, which is a 31.5% premium to SailPoint's closing share price on the preceding Friday, and a premium of 48% to its 90-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP).
"This transaction delivers significant immediate cash value to our stockholders and maximizes the value of their shares," said Mark McClain, CEO and Founder, SailPoint. "The transaction will also allow us to pursue our long-term growth trajectory with greater flexibility and effectiveness to support our customers, expand our markets, and accelerate innovation in identity security with the backing of a strong financial partner with deep sector expertise."
Shares of the Texas-based SailPoint surged to nearly close the gap, rising to more than $64 from $49.59 upon the first day of trading after the announcement was made official.
The M&A market could further explode, in what could become the year's biggest deal, the Benetton family with Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) are nearing a takeover offer for Italian infrastructure giant Atlantia SpA. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Atlantia has a value of almost 65 billion euros ($71 billion) including debt. This means any takeover would be the biggest of the year so far, and would also rank as one of the biggest infrastructure deals of all time.
The Benettons already currently own approximately one third of Atlantia's shares. Atlantia's minority shareholders, Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte. and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, are expected to invest in a new company that the suitors plan to set up for the deal.
There are still no definitive details on an offer, despite Bloomberg attributing its report to people familiar with the matter. Both the Benettons and Blackstone have so far declined to comment.
After being initially announced to join its Board of Directors, Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) CEO Parag Agrawal made a weekend statement that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk would not be a Twitter Director after all.
"We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance," tweeted Agrawal. "Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input."
The reverse of direction immediately sparked speculation that Musk now has a gateway (and the resources) to increase upon his 9.2% ownership to gain the remaining 90.8%. By refusing the Director post, Musk avoided a maximum ownership cap of 14.9%.
Through what's becoming a trademark coyness, Musk retweeted a list of Twitter's top 10 accounts by follower counts that same morning, adding "Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content. Is Twitter dying?"
"Twitter is more vulnerable than some of its internet peers to outside pressure because its founders don't have special voting control," wrote Justin Post, Director of Equity Research at Bank of America Securities in a note published after Musk revealed his stake in the platform.
In the meantime, Tesla itself announced its plans to transform Kane's Furniture liquidation center in Florida into one of the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the country into a state-of-the-art delivery and repair center.
According to Tesla's application documents the company has plans for the 4.21-acre site that align with the goals of the Community Redevelopment Area in targeting reinvestment as it will also enhance the site with structural improvements and the appearance of the property. Tesla plans to repaint the building, install a new roof and new signage, and eliminate the majority of the truck loading doors from the front of the building.
Whether or not Musk's possible Twitter future involves a hostile takeover or whether it's just a fun distraction from his other ventures is still up in the air.
'The flip side to this is Twitter must deal with a wildcard investor that already owns 9% of the company and has the resources to buy the remaining 91%, said Don Bilson of Gordon Haskett Research Advisors to CNBC. "As volatile as Musk is, we could see a move like that made shortly. Or we could never see it all. I don't think anything is off the menu with this guy."
For more information go to: https://usanewsgroup.com/2022/03/25/this-quick-turnaround-takeover-is-the-kind-of-play-smart-investors-snap-up-in-a-heartbeat/
Article Source:
USA News Group
http://USAnewsgroup.com
info@usanewsgroup.com
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SOURCE USA News Group | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/hostile-friendly-takeovers-rise-again-reinvigorated-mampa-market/ | 2022-04-12T18:31:48 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/hostile-friendly-takeovers-rise-again-reinvigorated-mampa-market/ |
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To support the healthy development of children in the Inland Empire, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), Loma Linda University Health (LLUH), and Help Me Grow Inland Empire (HMGIE) have joined forces to create the IEHP Early Childhood Wellness Program. The program encourages parental understanding of children's (aged 0-5 years) developmental milestones through preventive screenings, interactive classes, helpful resources and more.
Developmental milestones are helpful in gauging children's growth and can provide early warning signs for developmental delays. "A child's growth is more than just physical, and can be observed in how the child plays, learns, speaks and behaves," said Jane Wang, IEHP Director of Health Education.
"Parents and caregivers who know their child the best could be the first to identify any missed milestones and are an important part of the solution," added Wang. "Bringing awareness to developmental milestones through activities and resources gives parents the opportunity to learn more about their child and how they can personally impact their growth."
Reflecting on her time in the program, Jessica Cortez, parent of Jayla (8 months) said, "By doing the activities in the program, I've learned different ways that can help me teach and improve her learning. If I didn't take the classes, I wouldn't be able to come up with the activities we've been doing on my own. The questionnaire gave me an idea of what to look for and what areas we need to improve."
The program utilizes the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) in partnership with HMGIE. The questionnaire's results provide parents with information about the developmental status of their child across five key areas that can be discussed with the child's pediatrician. The five key areas include: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social.
In addition, parents are provided access to developmental screenings, early childhood education and learning material promoting healthy growth and development at home. The program also includes a virtual interactive Circle Time class for parents and their children and refers parents to supportive resources when any developmental concerns are observed.
"Help Me Grow Inland Empire is proud to serve as the developmental screening partner for IEHP's Health Educators," said Dr. Marti Baum, Pediatrician and HMGIE Physician Champion. "HMGIE assists IEHP-referred parents and caregivers to assess their child's development against well-established milestones. When concerns are identified, IEHP's Health Educators immediately start working with the family to provide the child with necessary medical care and social services. Together, IEHP and HMGIE are making a difference in the lives of young children — a successful partnership that helps our young ones be ready to learn when they start school."
The program is offered online weekly and will resume in-person interactive classes this month at IEHP's Victorville Community Resource Center.
"Preventive care and health promotion resonates at the core of our mission within Health Education at IEHP," said Wang. "However, to truly provide wraparound care, we believe that we must continue to strengthen our partnership with our IEHP providers as well – such as leveraging technology solutions for ease of accessing screening tools and results. In the coming years, we hope to help bridge these efforts so that our young children, 0-5 years, are getting the right care at the right time, and are able to realize their full potential."
IEHP parents can participate in the program by submitting a screening request via email to screening@iehp.org or by participating in a Circle Time class with their child. For more information, visit iehp.org or call IEHP Member Service at (800) 440-4347 or (800) 718-4347 (TTY).
About IEHP
With a mission to heal and inspire the human spirit, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is one of the top 10 largest Medicaid health plans and the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid plan in the country. In its 25th year, IEHP is supporting more than 1.5 million residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties who are enrolled in Medicaid or Cal MediConnect Plans and has a growing network of over 7,800 providers and nearly 2,500 Team Members. Through dynamic partnerships with Providers and Community Organizations, paired with award-winning service and a tradition of quality care, IEHP is fully committed to their vision: We will not rest until our communities enjoy optimal care and vibrant health. For more information, visit iehp.org.
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SOURCE Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/iehp-launches-early-childhood-wellness-program/ | 2022-04-12T18:31:55 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/iehp-launches-early-childhood-wellness-program/ |
NEW YORK, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) is thrilled to announce our ninth class of Justice Fellows. Selected for their passion, talent, and commitment to immigrants' rights, the 2022 Fellows will bring their many skills to bear on the acute legal representation crisis in immigration.
The Class of 2022, thirty-one law school graduates, is IJC's largest class yet, demonstrating the growing need for quality counsel in immigration law. The Class of 2022 Justice Fellows come to IJC with already-impressive backgrounds, including education in the nation's most well-regarded immigration law programs and years of cumulative experience as client advocates. Many of these Fellows speak multiple languages and come from the communities that they will serve as advocates.
"This passionate incoming class of Justice Corps Fellows will make all the difference for the thousands of immigrants they will represent, providing much needed counsel of the highest quality," said William Zabel, the Chair of IJC's Board of Directors.
This year, IJC's Justice Fellowship program is expanding to several new geographies, including Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and San Diego, and is infusing many more Fellows into areas where the need for quality immigration counsel is greatest. The Class of 2022 Fellows will be placed in 26 host organizations across 11 states.
The Fellows will serve for two years as staff attorneys at strategically selected immigrant legal services providers and community-based organizations across the country, providing legal assistance to low-income immigrants in complex immigration matters including deportation defense and affirmative applications for those fleeing persecution.
"We are delighted to welcome these immensely talented Justice Fellows who are launching their legal careers at such a critical time for immigrants' rights," said Jojo Annobil, IJC's Executive Director. "There's a tremendous need for quality counsel for immigrants, and these highly accomplished, passionate Fellows will help ensure that every immigrant, regardless of status, is treated with dignity and has access to justice."
About IJC
Conceived by the late Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and incubated by the Robin Hood Foundation in 2014, Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) identifies promising lawyers and advocates passionate about immigration, places them with organizations where they can make the greatest difference and supports them with training and expert insights as they directly assist immigrants in need.
To date, 230 IJC Fellows have supported more than 80,400 low-income immigrants and their families with a success rate of 90% on cases completed.
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SOURCE Immigrant Justice Corps | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/immigrant-justice-corps-welcomes-its-largest-class-justice-fellows/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:01 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/immigrant-justice-corps-welcomes-its-largest-class-justice-fellows/ |
CHADDS FORD, Pa., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arora's service offerings have expanded beyond systems engineering to emphasize the criticality of asset data and the technology and processes that connect systems infrastructure and improve operations for our clients. In an effort to provide asset data solutions more seamlessly for our customers, we are excited to announce the reorganization of our technology divisions— Electronic Data, Inc. (EDI), Arora Technology Group, LLC (ATG), and Arora's Geospatial Practice into one consolidated division, Arora's Enterprise Solutions Group. This reorganization of our existing divisions is a natural progression to break down internal silos and create a cohesive group encompassing all of our asset data experts to help our customers navigate the future of design, construction, and operations.
The group is led by our Vice President, Steve Bisch who has over three decades of experience in the design and implementation of enterprise asset management systems (EAM), GIS, software development and facilities maintenance and manufacturing operations management for large organizations.
The sole mission of Arora's Enterprise Solutions Group is to provide asset data expertise to guide our clients in generating and leveraging the data created during design and construction for more efficient operations and maintenance and prepare them for the implementation of modern automation technologies such as virtual reality or a Digital Twin. Our core services include GIS, enterprise asset management implementation/management, mobile integrations, cloud migration, and work order management services for clients in sectors ranging from aviation to life sciences and everything in between. Our services help clients to increase revenue, maintain safety, and achieve overall operational efficiency, all while complying with local, state or federal regulations.
We understand the challenges organizations face to acquire, assimilate and organize the data required to properly operate and maintain their facilities through accelerated complex design and construction projects, and we have the experience and expertise to help our clients leverage technology to establish world-class operating and maintenance procedures and accelerate their return on investment through our innovative Data Interoperability (DI) process.
Arora's DI services are led by our Subject Matter Expert, Scott Yates, who has decades of experience in facilities maintenance and asset management. Our approach to DI begins with developing a roadmap unique to our each of our clients' organizations to define standards and processes. These standards ensure the data generated throughout the design and construction process is in the correct format to allow our clients to harness the asset data created on large capital projects. This asset data is often lost in the handover from design and construction teams to owners who rely on that data to operate and maintain these expensive facilities.
Our team works closely with project owners and design and construction teams to establish data, GIS, BIM and handover specification standards to help bridge the gap between the capital project acquisition process and facilities management to ensure our clients' facilities are ready to go on day one with all the data needed to run a world-class operation – all while saving millions of dollars over the life of the project and the facility compared to the traditional method.
The result is an owner's dream: a complete, accurate, and structured set of Location and Asset data, plugged into real-time conditions and performance monitoring representing the facility, supported with a navigable 3D model, to be used for managing the operation and maintenance of the facility.
Imagine having a report of a plumbing problem in a specific room and being able to float, on screen, through a 3D model of the piping to isolate, identify and attach the components that need to be added to a work order simply by clicking on them. Also imagine being a technician assigned to address the problem and, instead of having a text-based narrative of where the problem might be, you have a 3D drawing of exactly where the impacted assets are and how they connect/relate to each other. This is just one of the many EAM use cases that is significantly enhanced by harnessing the power of data interoperability.
Visit https://www.edatai.com/services/data-interoperability/ for more information.
Contact: Christine Furey
Phone: (610) 459-7900
E-mail: cfurey@aroraengineers.com
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SOURCE Arora Engineers, Inc. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/introducing-aroras-enterprise-solutions-group-data-interoperability-services/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:10 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/introducing-aroras-enterprise-solutions-group-data-interoperability-services/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there could be an improved access point scanner to detect fevers or other signs of illness of individuals entering a building," said an inventor, from Moreno Valley, Calif., "so I invented the DOORMAN. My design could help to reduce the spread of the corona virus in public places."
The invention provides a discreet way to scan persons entering a premises location. In doing so, it would detect elevated body temperature or other signs of sickness. As a result, it enhances safety and it provides added protection and peace of mind regarding COVID-19. The invention features an automatic design that is easy to operate so it is ideal for commercial buildings.
The original design was submitted to the National sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-MHO-120, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-access-point-scanner-detect-fevers-mho-120/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:16 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-access-point-scanner-detect-fevers-mho-120/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to create a reliable way to ensure that public doorknobs and door pulls are clean and safe to use," said an inventor, from Brooklyn, N.Y., "so I invented the R-WAY. My design would provide added protection and peace of mind, especially during the current pandemic."
The patent-pending invention provides an automatic way to sanitize doorknobs and pulls in public buildings. In doing so, it offers an effective alternative to manually sanitizing doorknobs and pulls. As a result, it enhances sanitation and safety. The invention features a practical design that is easy to operate so it is ideal for public and commercial buildings. Additionally, a prototype model is available upon request.
The original design was submitted to the Manhattan sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-MTN-3676, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-automatic-sanitizer-doorknobspulls-mtn-3676/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:25 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-automatic-sanitizer-doorknobspulls-mtn-3676/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there should be a way to collect pet waste when walking a dog before it hit the ground," said an inventor, from Irvington, N.J., "so I invented the SMART SCOOP. My design eliminates the need to bend down and clean pet waste from the ground."
The invention provides an easier way to pickup and dispose of pet dog waste. In doing so, it eliminates the need to bend over or manipulate the waste. As a result, it enhances comfort and sanitation and it reduces messes. The invention features a portable and lightweight design that is easy to use so it is ideal for pet owners, especially those with physical limitations. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.
The original design was submitted to the New Jersey sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-NJD-2400, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-easier-way-collect-pet-dog-waste-njd-2400/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:31 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-easier-way-collect-pet-dog-waste-njd-2400/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I wanted to create a versatile shelving unit that can be mounted to any railing/banister," said an inventor, from Somerville, N.J., "so I invented the SMART SHELF. My design can be easily applied and removed to facilitate changes in need or personal taste."
The patent-pending invention provides a space-saving shelf option for a railing, fence or banister. In doing so, it offers a convenient place to set a potted plant, decoration, a drink or other item. It also eliminates the need to use traditional porch tables and other similar furniture and it could help to prevent damage from hardware materials. The invention features a simple and durable design that is easy to install and use so it is ideal for households. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.
The original design was submitted to the New Jersey sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-NEJ-111, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-shelving-unit-railings-amp-banisters-nej-111/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:40 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventor-develops-shelving-unit-railings-amp-banisters-nej-111/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "We thought there could be an easier way to access and remove a worm from a container when baiting a fishing hook," said one of two inventors, from Bay Minette, Ala., "so we invented the WIGGLER GITTER. Our design helps to keep the hands clean and it would make baiting the hook less of a chore."
The patent-pending invention provides an effective way to retrieve worms when baiting a hook. In doing so, it eliminates the need to dig around a dirt-filled container. As a result, it saves time and effort and it reduces hassles and messes. The invention features a simple design that is convenient and easy to use so it is ideal for fishing enthusiasts. Additionally, it is producible in design variations and a prototype is available.
The original design was submitted to the Mobile sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-MOT-111, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventors-develop-improved-container-fishing-bait-mot-111/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:48 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-inventors-develop-improved-container-fishing-bait-mot-111/ |
PITTSBURGH, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "A friend of mine races motorcycles and he constantly breaks the transmissions," said the inventor from Naples, Fla. "I thought that there must be a way for a motorcycle to run without a transmission, so I came up with this idea."
He created a prototype for ZERO TOLERANCE that fulfills the need for a lightweight bicycle-like motorcycle for riding enthusiasts. This bike would be low-maintenance and affordable. The design would allow individuals to save on fuel and reduce harmful exhaust emissions. Additionally, this bike prevents the breaking and replacing of transmissions while providing a fun form of transportation. Additionally, this is designed to be used for both on and off road use.
The original design was submitted to the Naples sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 20-NPL-377, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-presents-transmission-free-motorcycle-npl-377/ | 2022-04-12T18:32:56 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/inventhelp-presents-transmission-free-motorcycle-npl-377/ |
ORLANDO, Fla., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, LitPoodle, the proptech startup which aims to take an interesting approach towards demystifying real estate investing publicized the features on its website. For starters, LitPoodle provides an end-to-end hassle-free solution for residential real estate investing. This includes identifying the best investment opportunities, estimating investment metrics, helping with the buying process, assisting with property management, and finally tracking the investment's performance.
Apart from getting a free rent estimate for every property, where the website stands out is its unique portrayal of information. Like for instance, it provides explicit recommendations whether a property is worth investing or not and tells if a property can turn an investor or homeowner's downpayment into a million dollars within 30 years (based on a set of assumptions).
"You get the same details on a home listing as in any other traditional real estate website for the hundreds of thousands of listings - but in addition to that you get a whole lot of user-friendly financial insights some of which you won't get anywhere else. Like you can compare homes with stocks or bonds, and you can find out where a listed property relatively ranks on investment attractiveness among all the properties listed nationwide" explained LitPoodle's CEO, Nikith Rajendran.
"Our goal is to get everyone to build real wealth. We see real estate as one of the primary mechanisms for building real wealth. So as a part of this vision, we want to explain real estate investing in very simple and relatable metrics; help them understand the financial implications of making a purchase. And finally show them the best investment opportunities currently out there" he continued.
So, if you are like the ones in that SNL sketch on Zillow who take guilty pleasure in fantasizing about homes and investment properties, then check out www.litpoodle.com. It's free to sign up and use.
If you like to see a daily dose of recommended properties check out their social media pages.
About LitPoodle: LitPoodle, founded by MIT & Stanford graduate and ex-Tesla employee Nikith Rajendran, is a proptech startup based out of Orlando, FL that aims to democratize real estate investing by making it as intuitive, convenient and hassle-free as possible.
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SOURCE LitPoodle | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/litpoodle-proptech-startup-lets-you-compare-homes-especially-investment-properties-with-stocks-bonds/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:03 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/litpoodle-proptech-startup-lets-you-compare-homes-especially-investment-properties-with-stocks-bonds/ |
Product Innovations and Availability on Microsoft Azure Marketplace Enable Enterprises to Easily Embrace the Cloud for Digital Transformation
SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LucidLink, an innovative SaaS-based company delivering high-performance remote collaboration to the world's largest brands and creative professionals, today announced the availability of LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 as part of its Spring 2022 launch. Building on its success in global file systems, Filespaces 2.0 enables organizations of any size to quickly adopt cloud services, providing more flexible hybrid office strategies for employees no matter the location.
"Our file streaming technology has been re-architected from the ground up to meet the ever-growing demand for active remote collaboration. The new architecture of Filespaces 2.0 allows us to support much larger organizations, with thousands of users, hundreds of millions of files in storage, and a much-improved performance and responsiveness," said George Dochev, co-founder and CTO, LucidLink. "This is a foundational piece of technology that will enable the company to scale and support enterprise customers of any size."
LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 includes:
- New Metadata Streaming - Collaborating over long distances often exceeds hundreds of concurrent users, having access to millions of files. Metadata Streaming introduces advanced algorithms for Internet-based file streaming, increasing teams' overall system responsiveness and productivity on tight deadlines.
- Faster Filespaces - Lightning-fast responsiveness enables team members to browse Filespaces of any size with hundreds of millions of files without downtime seen with traditional cloud storage file synchronization.
- Instantly Accessible Snapshots - Snapshots offer a unique way to restore prior versions of individual files or revert entire Filespaces to earlier points. The new highly scalable architecture of LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 makes instant access to snapshots now possible, accelerating the productivity of creative teams with large projects.
- New and Improved File Locking - State-of-the-art distributed global file locking improves performance with increased resilience in a distributed environment. Windows users receive the file locking experience on par with network-attached storage (NAS).
"Once we found LucidLink, we were able to become a worldwide business and run our production 24/7," said James Wiley, Partner, GoDigital Unlimited. "LucidLink has changed our lives and our clients' lives. We can keep our 5K RED cameras running all day, transferring footage in the evening and receiving the content from our editors the next morning. The speed and capabilities of LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 have increased our business threefold, and we continue to grow rapidly."
Deploy quickly on Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Microsoft Azure customers can now take advantage of LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 with the streamlined deployment, procurement, and application management provided by the company's new availability on Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
LucidLink is an exhibiting sponsor at the National Association of Broadcasters show, April 24-27. The company is demonstrating the new capabilities of LucidLink Filespaces 2.0 and their workflow integration with Adobe, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Telestream, and more.
About LucidLink
LucidLink offers an innovative cloud-native file service designed specifically for extensive data access over distance. LucidLink Filespaces provides best-in-class security and high-performance scalability to run file-based workloads on object storage for maximum efficiency and productivity. The service is compatible with Microsoft Azure Blob and any Amazon S3 compatible object storage provider that utilizes the cloud, on-prem, or hybrid storage. It supports all major operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. Investors include Baseline Ventures, Headline, Adobe, Bright Cap Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, S28 Capital, and Fathom Capital. LucidLink is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company maintains an office in Sofia, Bulgaria, with remote employees across North America, Europe, and Australia.
For more information about LucidLink, please contact info@lucidlink.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and visit us at lucidlink.com.
Contact: Julie O'Grady
LucidLink
julie.ogrady@lucidlink.com
+1 (650) 269-9989
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SOURCE LucidLink | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/lucidlink-accelerates-connected-creativity-with-spring-2022-release/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:10 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/lucidlink-accelerates-connected-creativity-with-spring-2022-release/ |
Task force prioritizes long-term, sustainable model for getting food to military families
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) has today announced the Combat Military Hunger Task Force to identify the most efficient, scalable, and sustainable methods of delivering food directly into the hands of military families who need it most.
"Far too often our service members, veterans, and their families are faced with food and nutrition insecurity because of the unexpected costs and unpredictable circumstances that come along with military life," said Shannon Razsadin, MFAN's president and executive director. "This task force will bring together the world's leading food companies and brands who are committed to our shared mission of ending military hunger."
MFAN continues to lead the way in both understanding and responding to food insecurity among military and veteran families. The convening of this group will be a foundational element of a greater programmatic approach designed to address hunger in the military, which also includes causal factor research, food distribution events, and connecting families to resources.
"Our food distribution events are a rapid response to a growing need, but we also need to prioritize a long-term, sustainable model for getting food on the table for our military families," said Delia Johnson, Director of Programs for MFAN. "In the everchanging landscape of food delivery, which has been exacerbated by inflation and supply chain challenges, we know we cannot do this alone. We're grateful for the industry-leading experience and generosity of these companies who have vowed to help develop impactful, collaborative solutions to food insecurity."
Comprised of food distributors, suppliers, and sales teams, this working group will meet throughout the year with the goal of identifying, designing, and launching a model that will allow for client dignity, elimination of stigma, broader reach, and minimal barriers to access.
Founding participants include Coastal Pacific Food Distributors, Coast Produce Company, Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), Del Monte Foods, EURPAC, Kellogg's, Military Resale Small Business Coalition (MRSBC), Nestlé USA, Robert Irvine Foods, SpartanNash, and Tyson Foods.
To learn more, visit combatmilitaryhunger.org.
About MFAN: The Military Family Advisory Network is the authentic voice of the modern military family and the bridge that connects military families to the resources, people, and information they depend on to successfully navigate military life. Visit mfan.org.
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SOURCE Military Family Advisory Network | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mfan-launches-combat-military-hunger-task-force-with-food-industry-leaders/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:17 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mfan-launches-combat-military-hunger-task-force-with-food-industry-leaders/ |
WINNIPEG, MB, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Pollard Banknote Limited (TSX: PBL) ("Pollard Banknote") is pleased to announce its subsidiary mkodo limited ("mkodo") has been shortlisted for Lottery Supplier of the Year at the 2022 EGR North America Awards. The awards celebrate excellence in the North American online gaming industry and are considered the premier gaming awards for companies operating in the North American market. The Lottery Supplier of the Year award recognizes a supplier which has provided a market-leading lottery solution for operators and has demonstrated evidence of commercial success and positive feedback from clients.
mkodo delivers world-class omnichannel apps and digital products for mobile and online environments in the lottery and gaming sectors, utilizing a mobile-first approach to ensure each product meets players where they are. Beyond app and product development, mkodo supports lotteries with expert consultancy and app management services, empowering them to provide their players with an exceptional user experience across multiple channels.
Entrants in the Lottery Supplier of the Year category have to excel in four critical dimensions to be considered for the award: Product Integration and Delivery; Product Quality, Reliability, and Flexibility; Commercial Success; and Innovation. Proving itself to be a leading supplier in the industry, mkodo recently partnered with a large Canadian lottery to launch a multi-functional lottery app offering players across the province the ability to conveniently purchase and scan lottery tickets, play their favourite casino games, and access a host of other features. The player-centred app has been highly successful in extending the Lottery's reach in the market and boasts an impressive user rating of 4.6 stars out of 5 in Apple's App Store, where it is also in the top 10 apps in the Lifestyle category, and 4.2 stars out of 5 in Google's Play Store.
"mkodo is honoured to be shortlisted in the Lottery Supplier of the Year category at the prestigious EGR North America Awards," said Will Whitehead, Commercial Director, mkodo. "This recognition is a testament to our commitment to connecting our forward-thinking clients with ever-changing mobile technology, and consistently delivering high-quality, engaging products and user experiences to the market."
"We are so proud of the team at mkodo for being named as one of the top lottery suppliers in the industry at this year's EGR North America Awards. This award recognizes how effectively we work with our clients and how we truly help them understand and execute on what it means to provide an exceptional player experience," said Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Pollard Banknote. "Pollard Banknote prides itself on being a full-service supplier to lotteries. This includes offering our clients not only digital innovation that cultivates a more robust and interactive experience, but also outstanding games that excite and engage players and retail excellence through effective in-store strategies and retail network expansion. The ambitious spirit and strategic growth strategy of mkodo has been, and will continue to be, a driving factor in the delivery of innovative product enhancement to our clients."
The winners of the 2022 EGR North America Awards will be announced on April 26, 2022, at an awards event in New York City.
About mkodo
mkodo is a leading provider of digital apps and user interfaces for the lottery and gaming industry worldwide. Founded in 2001, the company has been recognized for its core strength to develop and deliver successful digital experiences to the target audience of their customers' online users. mkodo's clientele comprises several leading lotteries and gaming companies around the world, including the majority of the Canadian lotteries and some of the largest gaming operators in the U.K. mkodo is also an Associate Member of both the World Lottery Association and the European Lottery Association. For more information, please visit www.mkodo.com.
About Pollard Banknote
Pollard Banknote is a leading lottery partner to more than 60 lotteries worldwide, providing high quality instant ticket products, licensed games, in-lane ticket options, and sales-driving merchandising solutions from its Schafer Retail Solutions + portfolio. It also offers a full suite of digital offerings, ranging from world-class game apps to comprehensive player engagement and iLottery solutions, including strategic marketing and management services. The company is a proven innovator and has decades of experience helping lotteries to maximize player engagement, sales, and proceeds for good causes. Pollard Banknote also provides pull-tab tickets, bingo paper, ticket vending machines, and its Diamond Game and Compliant Gaming electronic games and devices to charitable and other gaming markets in North America. Established in 1907, Pollard Banknote is owned approximately 64.3% by the Pollard family and 35.7% by public shareholders, and is publicly traded on the TSX (PBL). For more information, please visit our website at www.pollardbanknote.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking" statements and information, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this document, such statements include such words as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "plan," and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this document. There should not be an expectation that such information will in all circumstances be updated, supplemented, or revised whether as a result of new information, changing circumstances, future events, or otherwise.
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SOURCE Pollard Banknote Limited | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mkodo-a-pollard-banknote-company-shortlisted-lottery-supplier-year-2022-egr-north-america-awards/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:24 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mkodo-a-pollard-banknote-company-shortlisted-lottery-supplier-year-2022-egr-north-america-awards/ |
Now Through Mother's Day, Nominate an Inspiring Mom in Your Life (Or Yourself!) to Be Named a Mrs. T's All-Star Mom and Win Grant Money
SHENANDOAH, Pa., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mrs. T's Pierogies is teaming up with TV Personality and mom Catherine Lowe to celebrate moms everywhere by launching the second year of Mrs. T's All-Star Moms – a salute to moms and all they do for their families each day. A survey conducted by Mrs. T's found that 95%* of moms have some type of hobby, but almost all of them (87%) experience barriers that get in the way of pursuing their hobbies and interests. With the leading barriers being other responsibilities, lack of time and lack of money, Mrs. T's will work to get moms back to their hobbies with All-Star Mom grants leading up to Mother's Day.
From photography classes to writing courses and side-hustles, Mrs. T's wants to recognize moms across the country by giving away up to $30,000 of grant money to fuel their passions and a year's supply of Mrs. T's Pierogies. Beginning today, Mrs. T's will give away $5,000 and a pierogy prize pack to three weekly winners. On May 9, Mrs. T's will select one nominated mom and award her a grand prize of $15,000 and a year's supply of Mrs. T's Pierogies.
Now through Mother's Day, everyone is invited to nominate an inspiring mom in their lives, including themselves, for the opportunity to be spotlighted on social media as a Mrs. T's All-Star Mom and receive fun prize packages. To nominate an All-Star mom in your life, visit http://www.mrstspierogies.com/AllStarMoms.
"Being a mom to three beautiful children is rewarding and so fulfilling, but it's not always easy to make time to pursue things I personally love, like learning to play the piano," said Catherine Lowe, TV Personality and mom. "We all know someone – an aunt, sister, friend, neighbor or our own mom – who has put her own passions on the backburner, and I'm excited to partner with Mrs. T's to help provide moms with the encouragement and support to get out there and explore the things that excite them."
In addition to nominating an inspiring mom in your life to be a Mrs. T's All-Star Mom, show you love and care for her – on Mother's Day and any day of the year – by making her a tasty meal and spending some quality time together around the dinner table. Catherine Lowe created a delicious Air Fried Mini Pierogy Shrimp Tempura Bowls that is easy-to-make and sure to be a crowd pleaser.
"Mrs. T's Pierogies was founded 70 years ago in honor of its own All-Star Mom – Mary Twardzik, the Mrs. T – so we are passionate about highlighting incredible moms," said LeeAnn Smulligan, Director of Marketing, Mrs. T's Pierogies. "As a mom, I know how tough it is to balance my children's needs with my own. It can also be challenging to set aside the resources needed for the many hobbies and interests that intrigue us, so I'm thrilled Mrs. T's is helping to encourage moms to pursue their passions and giving them the funds they need to do so."
Mrs. T's Pierogies adds big smiles and even bigger, bold flavor to everyday meals, apps, sides and snacks. Available in 13 flavors, including Classic Cheddar, Loaded Baked Potato and other favorites in full and mini sizes, Mrs. T's Pierogies can be found in the frozen food aisle. For more information and recipes, visit www.mrstspierogies.com, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.
About Mrs. T's Pierogies
In 1952, Ted Twardzik Sr. dreamed of starting a food company inspired by his mother's pierogy recipe. He remembered how popular the Polish dumplings were at church festivals and thought people would be excited to purchase them from their local grocery stores year-round. Later that year, Ted sold the very first pierogy samples to his local grocery store in Shenandoah, PA, and to honor his mother Mary Twardzik – the Mrs. T – he called his company Mrs. T's Pierogies. Now, 70 years later, Mrs. T's Pierogies is the largest producer of frozen pierogies, producing 600 million pierogies a year.
* A quantitative, proprietary custom survey was fielded online on March 11-14, 2022 using the demographically and geographically-representative national panel and insight platform, SUZY, with the following criteria. Survey Screen for Moms: N=1030; Mom – with at least 1 child <18 years old; Age 18-65
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SOURCE Mrs. T’s Pierogies | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mrs-ts-pierogies-catherine-lowe-team-up-provide-support-moms-invest-their-hobbies-interests/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:31 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/mrs-ts-pierogies-catherine-lowe-team-up-provide-support-moms-invest-their-hobbies-interests/ |
Series A Investment Will Support R&D, Productization, and Sales
SOMERVILLE, Mass., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NODAR Inc., the leading provider of long-range 3D vision technology, announced today that it has secured $12 million in Series A funding led by global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from existing investor Rhapsody Venture Partners. The funds will be used for R&D and further productization of NODAR's core technology, as well as expanded sales and marketing initiatives.
NODAR's long-range, high-resolution, real-time camera-based software is a crucial safety component in the development of driver-assisted and fully autonomous vehicles, bringing advanced performance at a competitive price point to the mainstream vehicle market. NODAR targets SAE L2+ and L3 passenger vehicle advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) as well as L4 trucks and robotaxis. Combined, these markets are projected to reach 250 million vehicles between 2025 and 2030. As an alternative to LiDAR in L2+ and L3 automotive applications, and as the dominant 3D sensor in an L4 sensor fusion environment, NODAR technology has the potential to fundamentally disrupt the industry and save millions of lives.
NODAR's flagship product, Hammerhead™, leverages advances in processing, computer vision algorithms, and camera technology to produce ultra-precise 3D point clouds from two or more cameras. Uniquely, NODAR's patented algorithms maintain alignment between cameras mounted independently on the vehicle, offering OEMs flexibility on where to locate the cameras. This auto-calibration capability not only ensures reliable depth measurements despite road and vehicle vibrations, but also enables the cameras to be mounted far apart, which improves the range and accuracy of the vision system through wide-baseline triangulation. NODAR's Hammerhead utilizes "off-the-shelf" automotive-grade cameras and standard compute platforms to deliver ultra-long-range sensing - beyond 1,000 meters - with exceptional precision. With cameras mounted on the roof of a passenger vehicle, NODAR Hammerhead has demonstrated the ability to detect a 10-cm brick at 150 meters. Being able to detect very small objects at long range is an indispensable requirement for any self-driving vehicle operating safely at highway speeds because of the time and distance needed to stop or avoid the object.
"Every AV needs super reliable 3D information to understand its surroundings and make safe decisions'', said Greg Papadopoulos, PhD.; Venture Partner at NEA. "In the passenger vehicle market, price matters, too. At NEA, we have been following dozens of sensor and perception startups, and were amazed at what NODAR has accomplished in software using off-the-shelf cameras and how it has addressed complex industry requirements. We are thrilled to partner with Leaf and the NODAR team as they redefine 3D sensing and perception."
"At NODAR, we believe Vision Zero is achievable. At the cornerstone of this goal is 3D vision technology, which must serve as the eyes of the vehicle," says NODAR CEO, Leaf Jiang. "Having spent 13 years developing optical ranging systems and seeing the incredible advances in compute, algorithms, and camera technology, I knew a solution was possible. NODAR Hammerhead is the result of this work and has the potential to become a ubiquitous component in every driver-assisted and self-driving vehicle in the world. We could not be more excited to have NEA along to support this journey."
About NODAR
NODAR is the leading provider of camera-based 3D vision technology and is a crucial component in the development of ADAS and autonomous vehicles, bringing safety, advanced performance, and cost-effectiveness to the automotive market. NODAR's award-winning 3D vision platform, called Hammerhead, delivers reliable, ultra-precise, and real-time 3D sensing at a ultra-long-range (up to 1000 meters), providing better-than-LiDAR 3D data at the price point of camera technology. NODAR uniquely provides long-range, high-density, high frame-rate 3D data to AVs and is able to detect any object as small as 10cm to 150m. NODAR Hammerhead is an ideal solution for forward collision warning, path planning, automatic emergency braking, traffic jam assist, VRU detection, and parking valet. NODAR was founded in 2018 and is backed by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Rhapsody Venture Partners. For more information, please visit www.nodarsensor.com
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $24 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's track record of investing includes more than 260 portfolio company IPOs and more than 430 mergers and acquisitions. www.nea.com
DeeDee Rudenstein
President & CEO
Propel Strategic Communications
2 Bala Plaza, Suite 300
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
(o) 610-660-7787
(m) 267-521-9654
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SOURCE NODAR | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/multi-camera-3d-vision-company-nodar-secures-12-million-funding-nea/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:39 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/multi-camera-3d-vision-company-nodar-secures-12-million-funding-nea/ |
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National PTA is pleased to announce that Yum-o!, one of Rachael Ray's non-profit organizations, has become the association's newest Proud National Sponsor. With support from Yum-o!, National PTA will work with district/council/region PTAs to explore and identify community needs and provide nutrition education in their communities. The goal of the program is to help families develop healthier relationships with food and cooking, which is a vital strategy to improving physical health.
"Healthy children learn better and are more productive—both in and out of the classroom. Providing our nation's youth and their families with healthy food options and nutrition education is key to their long-term health and success," said Anna King, president of National PTA. "PTA and Yum-o! share a commitment to empowering children and families with information and resources, and we are excited to team up with Yum-o! to make cooking and healthy food choices easy and fun for families."
As part of the nutrition education project, eight district/council/region PTAs have been selected to each receive a $5,000 grant. With the funding, these PTAs will assess their community's existing health and nutrition needs, develop a plan for activating nutrition and healthy eating education efforts to address those needs, and partner with local PTAs and other local organizations to implement their plans. Their efforts may include nutrition and healthy eating education and advocacy or hosting National PTA's health and nutrition programming, such as family tasting nights or Healthy Hydration programs.
"Eating habits are formed at a young age and if kids and families are given opportunities and knowledge, they will make better food choices," said Rachael Ray. "Through Yum-o!'s three core work areas of Cook, Feed and Fund, Yum-o! educates kids and their families about food and cooking, and we are psyched to team up with PTA in this work."
The nutrition education program is part of National PTA's Healthy Lifestyles initiative, which includes the three pillars of healthy bodies, healthy minds and healthy earth. The initiative offers educational resources and engagement opportunities that empower students and families to make better-informed health decisions.
"Through our Healthy Lifestyles initiative, National PTA is focused on helping families be physically healthy by following a healthy diet and doing regular physical activity; strengthen their mental health and social and emotional well-being by making it an everyday priority; and support our planet and local communities to build the best future," said Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA executive director. "National PTA remains committed to improving the overall health and well-being of families across the country because we know living a healthy lifestyle is a key component to our students' ability to thrive."
About National PTA
National PTA® comprises millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. PTA is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health and welfare of children and youth. For more information, visit PTA.org.
About Yum-o!
Yum-o! is Rachael Ray's nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking. By providing the tools to create easy, affordable and delicious meals, Yum-o! is changing the way America eats. Yum-o!'s three work areas include educating kids and their families about cooking, feeding hungry American kids and funding cooking education and scholarships. For more information about the Yum-o! organization, please visit Yum-o.org.
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SOURCE National PTA | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/national-pta-rachael-rays-yum-o-organization-team-up-provide-nutrition-education-communities/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:46 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/national-pta-rachael-rays-yum-o-organization-team-up-provide-nutrition-education-communities/ |
Acquisition expands Net at Work's Acumatica practice, and provides clients with access to a comprehensive portfolio of transformative, next-gen digital solutions; ProServe's owner Chris Cleary named Net at Work's Acumatica Practice Director
NEW YORK, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Net at Work, a full-service technology and business consultancy, today announced the acquisition of ProServe Solutions (ProServe), a leading Acumatica partner and business solutions provider. The acquisition broadens Net at Work's bench of experienced business technology consultants, offers a deeper level of Acumatica support, and provides clients with access to next-gen digital solutions that unleash the power of business. ProServe's clients will benefit from Net at Work's domain expertise, including Virtual CIO support, Cloud Hosting, Managed IT & Information Security, Employer Solutions, CRM, and eCommerce.
"ProServe is widely recognized as one of the leading Acumatica partners in North America, and significantly bolster our ability to provide comprehensive services for Acumatica prospects and our growing customer base," said Alex Solomon, Net at Work's Co-President.
"The acquisition adds considerable expertise to our team and furthers our overarching purpose: delivering next-gen, transformative digital solutions that allow companies to unleash the power of business. We're also delighted to name Chris Cleary as our Acumatica Practice Leader, as Chris brings unmatched Acumatica expertise and a firm understanding of what SMBs need to be successful in today's business climate."
ProServe supports over 40 businesses in United States and Canada. They have a proven methodology for deploying, managing, and measuring the success of technology utilization. They are a Gold Certified Acumatica Partner, a President's Club Winner, and ProServe's founder, Chris Cleary, has been named an Acumatica MVP (most valuable professional) for four years running (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), which recognizes extraordinary commitment to the Acumatica community and the proven ability to help customers "garner value from their cloud ERP investment." Acumatica has also recognized ProServe as an MVP Developer.
"Net at work has built one of the most trusted and respected business consultancies in North America and gives our clients comprehensive support to meet their most pressing business challenges," said Chris Cleary. "In addition to bringing a wealth of Acumatica and SMB expertise, we have a track record of success in specific industries, including manufacturing, distribution and field service. Our team is excited to be joining forces with Net at Work in providing companies with unmatched Acumatica expertise, and the next-gen tools they need to transform, enhance, and grow their business."
About Net at Work
With experience across virtually every business discipline, the Net at Work team supports over 6,000 organizations in making software, systems and people work together in achieving their core organizational objectives. Their comprehensive range of services and solutions include ERP, CRM, Employer Solutions, eCommerce, to Cloud and IT Managed Services. From the company's founding in 1996, Net at Work has garnered wide industry recognition as problem-solvers and promise-keepers, which are the foundational principles on which all their client relationships are based, and that their clients say they value the most. For more information, visit www.netatwork.com.
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SOURCE Net at Work | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/net-work-acquires-proserve-solutions-leading-acumatica-partner-business-technology-consulting-firm/ | 2022-04-12T18:33:53 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/net-work-acquires-proserve-solutions-leading-acumatica-partner-business-technology-consulting-firm/ |
Fast-Growing Infrared Sauna Franchise Signed 28 Franchise Agreements in Markets Across the Country
COSTA MESA, Calif., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Perspire Sauna Studio, the rapidly growing infrared and red light therapy (RLT) sauna franchise, is not only raising the temperature; it is raising the bar for emerging brands with a record-breaking first quarter in 2022. The wellness company announced today it signed 28 franchise agreements since the beginning of January, the most it has ever signed in one quarter. Notably, these deals will bring the brand to nine new states in the coming years. In February, Perspire also celebrated its debut in Arizona with the opening of the Gilbert studio, bringing the total number of locations open to 22.
The recently signed agreements will bring Perspire Sauna Studio to several new areas of the United States, including Kansas City, MO; Houston, TX; San Antonio, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Orange County, CA; Park City, UT; and Bozeman, MT among other cities. The franchisees behind these deals come from a variety of backgrounds, including multi-unit franchise owners, as they look for fresh career pivots and to diversify their current portfolios.
"We have seen a surge in interest for our brand over the last couple of years as entrepreneurs are recognizing the need for more wellness services in their communities following the pandemic," said Lee Braun, Founder, and CEO of Perspire Sauna Studio. "Perspire is ready to meet that need. We are excited to help our new franchisees achieve their entrepreneurial dreams and help every person that walks into our studios become the healthiest version of themselves with our cutting-edge infrared saunas."
To support the impending growth, Perspire has hired and promoted several key players at its corporate office. Cory Lyons has been promoted to Vice President of Franchise Development; Shery Christopher will join the leadership team full-time as an Executive Vice President, and Rachel Johnson has been brought onto the team as Accounting Manager.
Perspire's impressive first-quarter continues a hot streak for the brand following a banner year of growth in 2021. Last year, the company opened 8 new studios, including firsts in Chicago, Charlotte, and West Des Moines, and awarded 60 new franchise locations. Combined with the 28 deals secured this past quarter, Perspire has signed 80 franchise agreements with 23 studios currently in development.
Founded in 2010 in Southern California, Perspire Sauna Studio is committed to elevating the mind and body wellness of its guests, offering an experience that is personalized to each individual. Its first-of-its-kind infrared lighting systems enhance the user experience and create a high-quality atmosphere where guests can unwind, relax and achieve their wellness goals. The brand's advanced sauna technology, along with its medical-grade and high-intensity red light therapy bar, are what set it apart in the industry. The experience has demonstrated the ability to improve sleep, boost immunity, burn calories, reduce inflammation, and simply offer a space for people to allow their minds and bodies to feel better. Across the 22 open studios, more than 1 million sauna sessions have been hosted since the company's founding, and the franchise is on track to reach 2 million this year.
To learn more about Perspire Sauna Studio and franchising opportunities, visit https://franchise.perspiresaunastudio.com/.
About Perspire Sauna Studio:
Perspire Sauna Studio is the fastest-growing infrared sauna and red light therapy franchise in the U.S. The science-based, technology-driven, and wellness-seeking company provides guests a modern-day experience to a centuries-old practice, allowing their body and mind to feel refreshed after each session. Founded and led by CEO Lee Braun, Perspire's goal is to expand to major markets throughout the U.S. to further instill its vision of making infrared wellness accessible to all.
Founded in 2010 and based in Southern California, Perspire Sauna Studio currently offers franchise opportunities to qualifying entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.perspiresaunastudio.com, and follow the brand on social media @perspiresaunastudio. For franchising information, please contact Cory Lyons, cory@perspiresaunastudios.com.
Media Contact: David Robertson, Fishman Public Relations, drobertson@fishmanpr.com or 847-945-1300
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SOURCE Perspire Sauna Studio | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/perspire-sauna-studio-celebrates-record-breaking-first-quarter-2022/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:00 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/perspire-sauna-studio-celebrates-record-breaking-first-quarter-2022/ |
Once-in-a-generation Opportunity for Media to Tour Temple Interior and Gardens with Global Church Leadership
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
Summary: Global leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be among the key speakers and tour guides during a special press conference and media day at the Washington D.C. Temple on Monday, April 18.
What: This media event will officially launch the Washington D.C. Temple Open House set to take place over the course of the spring and summer. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to visit this iconic location considered a sacred space by millions worldwide. This is the first time that the Temple, following a comprehensive renovation project, has been opened to members of the press corps in nearly 50 years.
Who: Elders David A. Bednar and Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sisters Sharon Eubank and Reyna I. Aburto, first and second counselor respectively of the Church's Relief Society General Presidency, will address the media during a press conference and interview availability.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is the second-highest presiding body in the Church. The Relief Society is one of the largest women's organizations in the world for women ages 18 and over that provides support for the temporal and spiritual needs of all women in the Church, as well as others who are in need.
Church leaders scheduled to address the media on April 18 have responsibilities that include oversight for temples across the globe, worldwide humanitarian assistance and the administration of one of the oldest and largest women's organizations of its kind in the world. These leaders will be among the guides who will lead accredited media guests through the interior of the Temple and adjoining gardens on April 18.
When: Three specialized briefing sessions for media will take place on April 18. Media are invited to choose the session that best meets the needs of their respective outlets and readers. Colleagues are invited to arrive 30 minutes early if they need to set up equipment.
- April 18 9 a.m. ET: Media Briefing and Tour for local and national media (in English and ASL)
- April 18 Noon ET: Media Briefing and Tour for international and global media and foreign correspondents, (Spanish, Portuguese, and French interpreters on-site and select spokespeople available to provide content in Spanish and other global languages upon request)
- April 18 3 p.m. ET: Media Briefing for digital media outlets, thought leaders, cultural and architectural and design publications (construction and design experts also available for comment)
How to Attend: Media are invited to RSVP through the following registration link. Media that have registered for the April 18 media day will receive an invitation to preferred sessions based on availability.
Every effort will be made to accommodate first requests for access. All media attending April 18 activities, including photographers, sound engineers, and other support team members, must register through the registration link, or they cannot be admitted to Media Day activities in accordance with security and safety considerations.
Resources / Links
RSVP Link for April 18 Media Day / Press Conference / Media Tours
Biographical sketches for the spokespersons scheduled for April 18 (please note that additional speakers will be announced closer to the date)
Facts and Resources about the Washington D.C. Temple Open House
Production Note: We welcome camera crews and equipment for the press conference and one-on-one interview opportunities taking place following the tours of the Temple. Every effort will be made to accommodate equipment but placement of cameras will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. As is customary practice for temple open house activities, cameras are not permitted inside the Temple itself but extensive b-roll options will be made available to media outlets upon request.
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SOURCE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/press-conference-media-day-commence-washington-dc-temple-open-house-global-church-leaders-lead-media-tours-temple-interior-april-18/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:11 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/press-conference-media-day-commence-washington-dc-temple-open-house-global-church-leaders-lead-media-tours-temple-interior-april-18/ |
Long-time industry insider, Whitnell appointed to lead sales efforts and drive market expansion in the heavy-duty truck and commercial vehicle industries.
SAN DIEGO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Procede Software, a leading heavy-duty commercial vehicle dealer management system (DMS) and solutions provider, today announced that Bennett Whitnell has been named to the role of Vice President of Sales. Whitnell, who previously served as Procede's Director of Business Intelligence, brings a lifetime of experience, passion for the industry, and a deep understanding of the challenges dealerships face to his new role.
"At Procede, we are deeply committed to driving customer value," said CEO Larry Kettler. "Bennett embodies this commitment and understands that one of the best ways to do that is by ensuring our customers can maximize the use of our best-in-class business system to run their dealerships more efficiently and effectively. We congratulate him on his promotion."
In his new role, Whitnell will partner with potential new and existing dealerships to ensure they fully understand the value of what partnering with Procede Software means. "I am honored to serve the heavy-duty commercial vehicle industry and share the incredible value Procede offers in terms of both our software capabilities and our people," said Whitnell. "Changing a business system is a critical decision that impacts the future success of any dealership. I feel fortunate to be able to play a role in moving the industry forward."
Whitnell is a long-time industry insider who grew up in the dealership world: prior to joining Procede, he held roles with leading commercial vehicle business advisory firms as well as cofounded his own boutique analytics consultancy. Whitnell brings his previous experience as Procede's Director of Business Intelligence to his new role. "Excede is a powerful platform that plays an important role in helping our customers understand what's going on in their business so they can maximize opportunities, take steps to meet challenges, and ultimately get where they want to go," said Whitnell.
Procede recently released Excede v10.2, which delivers significant advancements to parts workflows and automates repetitive tasks across all departments to increase productivity and drive efficiencies. Like all its products, the latest version of the business system was developed with input from customers who participate in the Procede Insider Program. The program is designed to ensure the software is advanced in ways that drive the greatest business impact.
For more information on Procede Software or Excede please contact:
Jennifer York, Director of Marketing Communications
marketing@procedesoftware.com
858-450-4800
About Procede Software
Since 2001, Procede Software has been a leading provider of enterprise-level Dealer Management Solutions (DMS) for the heavy-duty commercial vehicle markets. Serving dealer locations throughout the United States and Canada, the industry's leading dealerships trust Excede to run their business because of its full functionality across all dealership departments, high reliability and strong integration with their OEM providers. Procede Software is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner as Excede, its powerful DMS, leverages the strength of Microsoft® SQL technology to provide advanced Windows® and browser-based applications with real-time information.
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SOURCE Procede Software | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/procede-software-names-bennett-whitnell-vice-president-sales/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:18 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/procede-software-names-bennett-whitnell-vice-president-sales/ |
- Ultrawide 80 centimeter-bore enhances MRI scanning for bariatric and claustrophobic patients
- High-V DryCool (0.55 Tesla) MRI platform expands the range of clinical applications
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and innovative image processing ensure crisp high-quality results for clinical use
MINNEAPOLIS , April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- RAYUS Radiology, a leading national provider of advanced diagnostic and interventional radiology, has amplified its high-end technology imaging solutions with the addition of a new innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner – the MAGNETOM Free.Max from Siemens Healthineers – at its location in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The new MAGNETOM Free.Max combines technological advances in AI digitalization at a 0.55 Tesla (T) field strength, enabling a wider range of clinical applications for imaging the brain, abdomen, spine and joints, lungs, and blood vessels. It offers the largest cylindrical MRI opening to date at 80 centimeters (cm) wide compared to the normal 60 to 70 cm and is quieter than many legacy 1.5T MRI machines, enhancing the experience for a broad range of patient types.
"Radiologists want freedom of choice when selecting the best MRI approach for their patients. The state-of-the-art Free.Max MRI scanner gives clinicians another option for high-quality MRI imaging," said Jonathan Wiener, M.D., board-certified, subspecialized radiologist, and director of MRI for RAYUS Radiology in Southeast Florida. "It is a key step toward ensuring that all patients have access to high-quality MRI services, including larger-sized individuals and those who are claustrophobic."
The MAGNETOM Free.Max was developed and manufactured by Siemens Healthineers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for use in the United States in July 2021. RAYUS Radiology is among the first organizations in the United States to offer this innovative diagnostic radiology solution.
"Siemens Healthineers is thrilled to collaborate with RAYUS Radiology to expand access to MRI," said Jane Kilkenny, vice president of MR at Siemens Healthineers USA. "We believe the MAGNETOM Free.Max will help deliver on this goal and will improve the quality of diagnostic imaging for more patients in Florida."
"The MAGNETOM Free.Max inaugurates a new era of diagnostic imaging services at RAYUS and underscores our company's commitment to acquiring technologies that advance and accelerate patient care," said Kim Tzoumakas, chief executive officer at RAYUS Radiology. "Our goal is to help ensure that all patients have the best possible experience and outcomes when undergoing diagnostic imaging."
About RAYUS Radiology
RAYUS Radiology is the nation's leading subspecialty practice for advanced diagnostic and interventional radiology, with a network of imaging centers, hospital partnerships and short- and long-term hospital solutions. The organization, with more than 3,000 team members nationwide, is committed to delivering clinical excellence in communities across the United States, driven by its affiliated subspecialized radiologist network; compassionate, safe, and cost-efficient care; and superior service to referring providers and patients. For more information, visit www.RAYUSradiology.com.
About Wellspring Capital Management
Wellspring Capital Management is a leading private equity firm headquartered in New York. Since its founding in 1995, Wellspring has raised over $4.5 billion of initial capital commitments through six private equity funds. In total, Wellspring's current portfolio companies employ nearly 60,000 people around the world and generated aggregate revenues in excess of approximately $4.5 billion in the last 12 months.[1] Over the past 25 years, Wellspring has invested in over 45 platform investments across various segments of the U.S. and global economies. Wellspring's objective is to bring partnership, experience, and value creation to each investment. By teaming up with strong management, Wellspring seeks to unlock underlying value and pursue new growth opportunities through strategic initiatives, operating improvements, and add-on acquisitions. The firm functions as a strategic partner, providing management teams with top-line support, M&A experience, financial expertise, and access to resources. For additional information, please visit www.wellspringcapital.com.
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SOURCE Rayus Radiology | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rayus-radiology-adds-new-cutting-edge-wide-bore-mri-scanner-its-imaging-service-line/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:26 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rayus-radiology-adds-new-cutting-edge-wide-bore-mri-scanner-its-imaging-service-line/ |
MILAN, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Australian audio technology manufacturer RØDE has chosen Alcantara for its new NTH-100 headphones.
The brand's first headphone offering, the NTH-100 combines RØDE sound quality with the premium comfort of Alcantara®. Designed for content creators including musicians, sound professionals, podcasters, streamers and location recordists, the headphones offer the ultimate in comfort and convenience.
"Made in Italy" Alcantara dresses the ear cups and headband. Alcantara's softness, breathability and other technical features perfectly blend with the ergonomics of the product. Wear resistant and easy to clean, Alcantara provides durability and longevity with comfort for an unparalleled user experience.
The RØDE headphones are now available through official dealers listed on the RØDE website (https://rode.com/nth-100) for $149 (USD).
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SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rdes-new-headphones-feature-luxury-material-alcantara/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:32 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rdes-new-headphones-feature-luxury-material-alcantara/ |
SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rich Talent Group (RTG), executive recruiting firm known for its track record of building diverse leadership teams and boards, announced the appointment of Nicole Reboe as President, effective immediately.
As President, Reboe will partner closely with Founder and CEO, Jana Rich and team to guide the firm towards further impact around its mission of building diverse leadership teams and boards.
Reboe has spent more than 20 years as a senior executive recruiter. "She brings an impressive depth of experience, having worked in-house in talent acquisition and in global executive search firms. Plus, her passion and expertise around DE&I make her a truly special fit for our team," said Rich, "Every day, our clients entrust us with helping them build some of the most innovative leadership teams and boards in business. With Nicole, we look forward to expanding this important work."
Reboe joins RTG from Brunswick Group, a leading global strategic communications advisory firm, where she led Partner hiring in the US, across Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. She was also appointed the firm's first Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, with oversight for all firmwide actions to advance DE&I. Previously, she held positions at executive search firms, Spencer Stuart and Heidrick & Struggles.
"I am honored to be joining Rich Talent Group, a firm that has been at the forefront of pushing boundaries and building transformational leadership teams," said Reboe, "I'm passionate about how the firm challenges typical exclusionary hiring models, which allows us to unlock greater potential for clients and candidates. I believe executive search can be a force for good. And RTG has the track record of making this belief a reality."
About Rich Talent Group
Rich Talent Group partners with today's visionary companies to build transformative leadership teams and boards that help change the world. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has become a leader in advocating for diversity and creating more diverse and inclusive teams across the country. In 2021, 90% of the candidates RTG recruited into operating roles added diversity as women, People of Color, and/or LGBTQ+. And that was 100% for boards. With offices in San Francisco and New York, RTG works with both early-stage companies and larger established organizations in consumer and technology spaces. In 2021, RTG joined kyu—a global collective of best-in-class creative companies.
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SOURCE Rich Talent Group | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rich-talent-group-appoints-nicole-reboe-president/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:40 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/rich-talent-group-appoints-nicole-reboe-president/ |
- LFN Community publishes white paper highlighting cybersecurity efforts
- Telecom, Cloud and Enterprise align with 5G Super Blue Print across ONAP, Anuket, EMCO, Magma, ORAN-SC and more projects as Enterprise eBFP project, L3AF, is inducted into LF Networking
- ATOS, GenXComm, Keysight Technologies and Telaverge Communications join LFN as Silver members
SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LF Networking, which facilitates collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, today announced continued momentum focused on re-aggregation, with updates to security, 5G blueprints, and the addition of four new Silver members: ATOS, GenXComm, Keysight Technologies, and Telaverge Communications.
"As the LF Networking community rolls into its fourth year as an umbrella project organization, we are pleased to see robust efforts focused on securing 5G across multiple project & foundations as we welcome even more industry-leading organizations to the project," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. "It's the robust and diverse set of member companies that enable LFN's collaborative innovation into the future of 5G and networking."
5G Super Blue Print Ecosystem Expands
The community is making progress with the 5G Super Blueprint, a community-driven integration/illustration of multiple open source initiatives, projects, and vendors coming together to show use cases demonstrating implementation architectures for end users. The 5G Super Blueprint is now integrated across even more projects––including Magma (1.6), EMCO, and Anuket––building open source components applicable to a variety of industry use cases. Preliminary scoping for future integrations with the O-RAN Software Community have begun, setting the stage for end-to-end open source interoperability from the core through the RAN and future compliance activities.
Meanwhile, the L3AF project has been inducted into the LF Networking umbrella, as membership expands further across the ecosystem with new Silver members.
L3AF is an open source project, developed by Walmart, housing cutting-edge solutions in the realm of eBPF (a revolutionary technology that allows us to run sandboxed programs in an operating system kernel) that provides complete life-cycle management of eBPF programs with the help of an advanced control plane that has been written in Golang. The control plane orchestrates and composes independent eBPF programs across the network infrastructure to solve crucial business problems. L3AF's eBPF programs include load-balancing, rate limiting, traffic mirroring, flow exporter, packet manipulation, performance tuning, and many more. L3AF joined the Linux Foundation in fall of 2021 and has now been inducted into the LF Networking project umbrella.
New LFN Silver members include:
- ATOS, a multi-vendor end-to-end system integrator in both IT and telecom network space; specialized in multi-cloud solutions, edge and MEC, 5G-enabled applications with an AI/ML focus, cybersecurity, and decarbonization.
- GenXComm Inc.'s mission is to deliver limitless computing power, fast connectivity, and on-demand intelligence to every location on Earth
- Keysight Technologies, Inc. is a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world
- Telaverge Communications is the leader in complete Network Test Automation Orchestration and Digital Transformation products (Regal for Containers and Cloud) designed for enterprises, operators and OEM's. Telaverge's open source based private LTE and 5G cores are pre-integrated with Regal for zero touch testing and deployment.
A full list of LFN member organizations can be found here:
https://www.lfnetworking.org/membership/members/
LFN Security White Paper
Highlighting its security efforts to help secure open source networking against cybersecurity attacks, the community published a white paper titled "Securing Open Source 5G from End to End" that is now available for download.
"A unique advantage of developing software in the open is more eyes on the code; when it comes to security, that translates to large groups of experts who can propose improvements and enhancements in a faster, more scalable fashion-- and that is true for LFN," said Amy Zwarico, vice chair of the ONAP Security subcommittee. "Community collaboration via security working groups and sub-committees to address secure software development practices, SBOMs, DDoS mitigation and other threats are just some of the steps LFN is taking to create code that can be trusted to run our networks."
At a time when the United States White House has issued multiple Executive Orders to address cybersecurity and supply chain attacks, the LFN community continues to take steps to ensure open source networking is secure. The group is publishing a white paper to outline its security strategies, including the formation of security-focused committees and subcommittees; development and adoption of security Software Bill of Materials (SBOM); OpenSSF badging; and use of the LFX Platform's Security Dashboard to enable developers to identify and resolve vulnerabilities quickly and easily; and more. Download the white paper for more information.
Upcoming Events
The LF Networking developer community will host the LFN Developer & Testing Forum this Spring, taking place June 13-16, in Porto, Portugal. Registration for that event is open, with more details to come.
Open Networking & Edge (ONE) Summit North America will take place November 15-16 in Seattle, Wash. The event will be followed by a two-day LFN Developer & Testing Forum (Nov 17-18) in the same venue. The Open Networking & Edge Summit is the industry's premier open networking and edge computing event focused on end to end solutions powered by open source in the Telco, Cloud, and Enterprise verticals. Attendees will learn how to leverage open source ecosystems and gain new insights for digital transformation. More information will be available soon.
Support from new members
"The mission of Atos is to support our customers throughout a multitude of industry sectors on their edge-to-cloud journey. We help telecom customers leverage cloud synergies between their IT and their network, and introduce new edge computing and 5G MEC services. We are excited about ONAP and other programs of the LFN, as they facilitate exactly these synergies in a growing market."
"Keysight is pleased to join LF Networking as a silver member and contribute to an ecosystem with the common goal of advancing technology and innovation built on open source software and standards," said Kalyan Sundhar, vice president of Edge-to-Core Networks at Keysight Technologies. "Keysight leverages open source standards for end-to-end network harmonization produced by the LF Networking community to enable this ecosystem to cost-effectively accelerate protocol and performance design validation."
About the Linux Foundation
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org.
The Linux Foundation Events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies.
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media Contact
Jill Lovato
The Linux Foundation
jlovato@linuxfoundation.org
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SOURCE LF Networking | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/secure-open-source-5g-gains-momentum-community-focuses-re-aggregation-with-5g-super-blueprints-new-members/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:51 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/secure-open-source-5g-gains-momentum-community-focuses-re-aggregation-with-5g-super-blueprints-new-members/ |
Launches New Anker 757 PowerHouse, The World's Longest-lasting Portable Power Station
BELLEVUE, Wash., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Anker, the world's #1 mobile charging brand1, today launched the Anker 757 PowerHouse, the world's most advanced and longest-lasting portable battery generator.
World's Longest-Lasting Battery
- Over 3,000 full charging cycles without noticeable reduction in capacity - 6 times the industry average
- 50,000-hour rating on all electronic components - 5 times the industry average • 5-year warranty - 3 years longer than the industry average
"When we introduced the first portable power station to the market seven years ago, we never knew how popular this category would become," said Steven Yang, CEO of Anker Innovations. "The Anker 757 PowerHouse represents a new class of portable battery generators far beyond basic wattage metrics. From its high-power output and multiple connections to Anker's proprietary fast charging technology and long-lasting battery materials, this is a product that's been designed from the ground up to deliver consistent power for years and years."
Longer Battery Life Span
The Anker 757 PowerHouse is powered by a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery like those used in modern long-range electric vehicles. LiFePO4 batteries have longer life spans and offer improved discharge and charge efficiency compared to Lithium Ion.
The battery in the Anker 757 PowerHouse is rated to last at 100 percent capacity for up to 3,000 full charging cycles, 6 times the industry average.
Durability to Go the Distance
The Anker 757 PowerHouse was built using an automotive-grade aluminum alloy that is corrosion and temperature resistant, providing unmatched durability.
Anker's new portable power station was also developed using industrial design standards, meaning every electronic component is rated at 50,000 hours of life expectancy. This is 5 times the industry average.
Best-in-class Warranty
The Anker 757 PowerHouse offers an unprecedented 5-year full device warranty, 3 years longer than the industry average.
Fast and Flexible Recharge Options
Unlike other Power Stations in the market that require multiple hours to recharge, the Anker 757 PowerHouse can be charged from zero capacity to over 80 percent in just 1 hour. The rapid recharge is possible through HyperFlash technology, a bi-directional inverter that draws power from the standard AC plug at faster speeds.
The 757 also integrates Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for faster and more efficient solar recharging. According to Anker lab test data, the 757 can recharge from 0% to 80% with maximum input power with as little as 3.6 hours of direct sunlight.
Endless Energy Using the Sun
The Anker 757 will be compatible with the soon-to-be-launched, Anker 625 Solar Panel. These Monocrystalline panels will provide up to 100W of power, but three solar panels can also be connected to deliver up to 300W of power, charging the Anker 757 PowerHouse up to 80 percent in just 3.6 hours.
Safer Alternative to Generators
Portable power stations, like the Anker 757 PowerHouse, are a much safer option than traditional generators as they don't require fuel to run and don't produce carbon monoxide. This means the Anker 757 PowerHouse can be used indoors to power critical items during a power outage or other natural disaster relief efforts.
Anker 757 Product Specifications:
- 6*AC Outlets (Total 1500W output power/1229Wh capacity)
- 1x USB C 100W Port
- 1x USB C 60W Port
- 4x USB A Ports (12W Each)
- 1x Car Port (120W Max)
- AC Input: 1000W
- Can be used as a UPS Power Supply
- Max Solar Power Input: 300W
- Dimensions/Weight: 46.3 x 23.9 x 28.8 cm / 18.2 x 9.4 x 11.3 in -- 19.9 kg / 43.8 lb
Anker 625 Solar Panel Specifications:
- Integrated USB-C port delivers 15W of direct power
- XT-60 Output: 100W (can be combined for up to 300Ws)
- USB-A Output: 1x USB-A 12W
- USB-C Output: 1x USB-C 15W
- Dimensions: 525 x 470 x 85 mm (Folded); 1446 x 525 x 45 mm (Unfolded) • Weight: 5kg / 11lbs
Price & Availability
The Anker 757 will be available for pre-order today in the United States on Anker.com with a special earlybird discount. It will be available for general retail purchase beginning May 9 on Anker.com and Amazon.com for $1,399.
Additional press materials, including product images, can be found at https://bit.ly/Anker757
Anker's launch event for the new Anker 757 PowerHouse begins today at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zesgfeYmF38
About Anker Innovations
Anker Innovations is a global leader in charging technology and a developer of unique, consumer electronic products that support premium audio, mobile entertainment, and the emerging smart home space. This innovation is being led by its six key brands: Anker, AnkerWork, eufy, Nebula, Soundcore and now, AnkerMake. More information on Anker Innovations and its various brands can be found at anker.com.
PR Contact
For More Information
pr@anker.com
1 Data source: Euromonitor International (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., measured in terms of retail sales value in 2020, based on research conducted in 11-2021. Brands are defined as mobile charging brands if more than 75% of their retail sales are contributed by mobile phone charging products. Mobile phone charging products include chargers, wireless chargers, power banks, and charging cables, and these accessories can also be used for other consumer electronics devices.
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SOURCE Anker | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/seven-years-after-creating-category-anker-redefines-portable-power/ | 2022-04-12T18:34:58 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/seven-years-after-creating-category-anker-redefines-portable-power/ |
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- South Atlantic Bancshares, Inc. (the "Company")(OTCQX: SABK), parent of South Atlantic Bank (the "Bank"), is pleased to announce Matthew H. Hobert, CPA has been hired as executive vice president, chief financial officer for the Company.
Hobert previously served as director of investment banking at FIG Partners/Janney Montgomery Scott in Atlanta, Georgia, and has nine years of financial experience. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Georgia and holds his Series 79 securities license.
Richard N. Burch, executive vice president, will continue as chief operating officer and will work closely with the Accounting team during this time of transition. He will continue to lead the Deposit Operations, Loan Operations , Information Technology, and Project Management teams, as well as serve as the Bank's information security officer.
About South Atlantic Bancshares, Inc.
South Atlantic Bancshares, Inc. (OTCQX: SABK) is a registered bank holding company based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with over $1.2 billion in total assets. The Company's banking subsidiary, South Atlantic Bank, is a full-service financial institution spanning the entire coastal area of South Carolina, and is locally owned, controlled and operated. The Bank operates eleven offices in Myrtle Beach, Carolina Forest, North Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, Pawleys Island, Georgetown, Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Bank specializes in providing personalized community banking services to individuals, small businesses and corporations. Services include a full range of consumer and commercial banking products, including mortgage, and treasury management, including South Atlantic Bank goMobile, the Bank's mobile banking app. The Bank also offers internet banking, no-fee ATM access, checking, CD and money market accounts, merchant services, mortgage loans, remote deposit capture, and more. For more information, visit www.SouthAtlantic.bank.
Contacts: K. Wayne Wicker, Chairman & CEO, 843-839-4410
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SOURCE South Atlantic Bank | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/south-atlantic-bancshares-inc-announces-new-chief-financial-officer/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:04 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/south-atlantic-bancshares-inc-announces-new-chief-financial-officer/ |
SHELBURNE, Vt., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- StarAligners™, a leader in clear aligners and oral health and wellness, announced it has appointed John Barry to its Advisory Board. As former CEO of Kantar Consulting, Senior Vice President Keurig Dr. Pepper, and Director at J&J Oral Care, John brings tremendous leadership, brand experience, and commercialization expertise to the company.
"I am deeply honored to be part of the StarAligners and StarAlignersPro team," states Barry. "What Reid Greenberg (StarAligners' CEO), John Nabors (Vice President Sales and Operations) and their team have built to capture the often overlooked mild to moderate tooth movement category is truly incredible. The addressable market is enormous for StarAligners, and we have such an opportunity in front of us; especially as we expand well beyond just clear aligners and into such products as the Illumina™ Oral Therapy System, whitening foam, and Star Essix Retainers."
"John is a well-known and tremendously respected business leader with a deep background in scaling and growing companies," states StarAligners CEO, Reid Greenberg. "John's understanding of digital technologies, consumer insights and journey, as well as his innate ability to inspire others is exactly what we need right now to help us unlock growth. The entire company and board are excited for his partnership."
About StarAligners
StarAligners™ is an oral health and wellness company and creator of StarAlignersPro™, an innovative solution to treat mild to moderate aligner cases, now offered directly via orthodontists' offices across the United States in addition to their direct-to-consumer model. The orthodontic-led aligner care program was created by five renowned and experienced orthodontists to provide a premium and affordable experience for patient and orthodontists alike, supported by the latest imaging technology and quality clear aligner therapy. For more information, please visit www.StarAligners.com and StarAlignersPro.com.
StarAlignersPro will also be exhibiting at the upcoming American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Annual Session taking place in Miami, FL from May 21-24, 2022. If you are interested in becoming a StarAlignersPro preferred provider please visit: https://www.staralignerspro.com/become-a-partner/
Media Contact:
Reid Greenberg
reid@staraligners.com
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SOURCE StarAligners, LLC | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/staraligners-oral-health-amp-wellness-announces-appointment-john-barry-its-advisory-board/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:12 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/staraligners-oral-health-amp-wellness-announces-appointment-john-barry-its-advisory-board/ |
The 50-million-dollar investment will place the Company as world leader in the production and commercialization of chili-based products.
HOUSTON, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrias Tajín®, makers of the popular chili lime seasoning and hot sauces under the Tajin Brand, announced the opening of its Center for Research and Field Experimentation (CICE) and new LEED certified manufacturing plant in Jalisco, Mexico with a 50-million-dollar investment.
The 161, 458 square-foot state-of-the-art facility, located on nearly 20 acres, includes three warehouses and 10 production lines, and will have the capacity to process up to 5.3 million lbs. of product per month, increasing the Company's overall production capability by 80 percent. The increased production capability will place Tajin as the world leader in the production and commercialization of chili-based products.
"The global consumption of chili peppers and chili-based products shows no signs of letting up," said Javier Leyva, Director of Tajín® U.S. "Currently, the U.S. is our biggest market outside of Mexico and represents 50 percent of our global sales. With Tajin's presence in more than 65 countries and expanding, our multi-million-dollar investment will allow us to meet this growing demand and increase our global footprint," added Leyva.
The investment in the CICE in Jalisco, Mexico, is a first of its kind in the sector and aims to transform the local region into a state-of-the-art zone to produce the highest quality chili peppers.
Tajín sees the work being done at its new facilities as having huge ripple effects across the supply chain. With an emphasis in the production of non-genetically modified seeds and sustainability, the CICE will deliver these to local farmers and producers, giving them a path to enter the fast-growing global chili pepper market.
Today, Tajín Clásico Seasoning, is the leading brand for Industrias Tajín® and the number one chili powder in both the U.S. and Mexico. In addition to its chili powder products, Tajin has expanded its offering into the hot sauce category with Tajín Mild Hot Sauce and Tajín Fruity Chamoy Mild Hot Sauce.
About Tajín
Industrias Tajín is a 100% Mexican company, leader in Mexico and United States markets in chili powder, and one of the most important in the production and commercialization of products derived from chili worldwide. It has presence in more than 65 countries around the world. It was founded in 1985, surprising consumers with the perfect blend of lime, chili, and sea salt. In 1993, Tajín exports to the United States for the first time and Tajin International Corporation is established in Houston, TX, from where all the commercial activity of the brand in the U.S. is managed. The brand arrived in the Central American and European markets in 2006.
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SOURCE Tajín International Corporation | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/tajn-announces-opening-world-class-manufacturing-plant-research-facility/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:19 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/tajn-announces-opening-world-class-manufacturing-plant-research-facility/ |
Zenlabs' large format lithium-ion electric aviation battery cells offer a unique combination of high specific energy, high power, and rapid charging for the electric aviation market.
FREMONT, Calif., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenlabs Energy, an advanced lithium-ion battery company, announced today that Energy Assurance, an independent third-party test laboratory, has validated the high specific energy and high power of Zenlabs' new large-format pouch cells for the electric aviation market.
Energy Assurance tested Zenlabs' 32 ampere hour (Ah) capacity pouch cells and confirmed a high specific energy of ~327.5 watt hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) and a high-power rating of greater than 3,000 watts per kilogram (W/kg) using 12C rate (~394 A), 30 sec pulses at 30° Celsius.
Although cycle life testing at Energy Assurance is ongoing, Zenlabs' internal test data has demonstrated greater than 700 cycles for this cell configuration when measured at 1C (one hour) charge/discharge rates. Previously, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) validated over 1,000 dynamic stress test (DST) cycles and rapid charging in Zenlabs' 315 Wh/Kg electric vehicle cells, which were developed in a program with the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC).
"The high specific energy, high power and rapid charging capabilities of Zenlabs' battery cells make them uniquely suited for the electric aviation market, which requires each of these capabilities to extend flight times, power take-offs and landings, and enable different flight use cases. Accordingly, we believe that our proprietary pre-lithiated silicon anode and high-performance battery cells will be a real game changer for the electric aviation market," says Zenlabs founder & CEO, Dr. Sujeet Kumar
Energy Assurance is an independent battery laboratory with certifications from ANAB, Underwriters Laboratories, IECEE, SGS and TÜV SÜD America.
The Energy Assurance test report on Zenlabs' 32 Ah lithium-ion pouch cells is available on our website: www.zenlabsinc.com/news.
Zenlabs Energy, which is headquartered in Fremont, California, is a leading developer of high-energy, high-power, fast-charging lithium-ion cells for electric aviation and electric vehicle applications. To learn more about our technology and obtain the Energy Assurance or INL test reports, please visit www.zenlabsinc.com.
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SOURCE Zenlabs Energy Inc. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/third-party-lab-confirms-high-specific-energy-high-power-zenlabs-new-large-format-electric-aviation-battery-cells/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:26 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/third-party-lab-confirms-high-specific-energy-high-power-zenlabs-new-large-format-electric-aviation-battery-cells/ |
CHICAGO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time in three years, following two-plus years of many virtual engagements, the American Association of Endodontists (AAE), a collection of specialized dentists known as endodontists, are excited to announce that their annual meeting, AAE22, will be held live in Phoenix on April 27-30.
Endodontists are dental specialists who relieve patients tooth pain and save their natural teeth via root canal treatment.
AAE's in-person event is a sign of post-pandemic times and will bring thousands of endodontists, dental industry experts and more to Phoenix to reconnect with their colleagues, partake in unmatched educational seminars and hands-on workshops, and to network and share experiences with their peers and mentors.
The AAE provides its members with the highest quality of continuing dental education programs and chances to hear from industry experts about new technologies, the latest in safety and health measures around COVID-19, pain management without the use of opioids and more. AAE22 will also feature a keynote address from world record setter and best-selling author, Colin O'Brady.
It also includes the Association President's Breakfast, the AAE Coolidge Award ceremony and a variety of hands-on, educational opportunities for dental professionals. To learn more about AAE22 or view all the program offerings, please visit: aae.org/aae22.
If you are seeking treatment from an endodontist near you, please visit findmyendodontist.com.
About the American Association of Endodontists:
The AAE is headquartered in Chicago and represents more than 8,000 members worldwide. Endodontics is one of 12 dental specialties formally recognized by the American Dental Association. The AAE, founded in 1943, is dedicated to excellence in the art and science of endodontics and to the highest standard of patient care. The Association inspires its members to pursue professional advancement and personal fulfillment through education, research, advocacy, leadership, communication and service. For more information about the AAE, visit the Association's website at aae.org. For more patient focused information, visit aae.org/patients
For more information:
Kim FitzSimmons, 800-872-3636
Elisabeth Lisican, 312-872-0460
Michael Dobrow, 312-872-0462
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SOURCE American Association of Endodontists (AAE) | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/thousands-specialized-dentists-descend-upon-phoenix-annual-meeting/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:33 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/thousands-specialized-dentists-descend-upon-phoenix-annual-meeting/ |
President of Americas, Tom Tucker, Joins Panel to Discuss Next Gen Payment Systems and Key Industry Innovations
LAS VEGAS, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global payments fintech disruptor, Till Payments, today marks its official North American debut at this week's TRANSACT conference, powered by ETA. Till Payments' presence comes on the heels of a momentous six months for the company, which includes a successful Series C raise and top-up funding round in late 2021, followed by its first market acquisition of ZIPS, the payment processing business unit of the hospitality technology platform company, Ziosk, this past January.
Following the acquisition of ZIPS, Till now serves over 1000 merchants and 35 partners across North America, supported by an in-country team of 60 that is expected to double in the next quarter.
"After an exciting year of unprecedented growth, we're thrilled to officially debut Till Payments in North America and further expand our global footprint," said Till Payments' President of Americas, Tom Tucker. "We are excited to be at the forefront of the transformational change the payments industry is experiencing and look forward to bringing our powerful payments solutions to a growing customer base so they can truly start to transform and scale their businesses from day one."
At the core of Till Payments' offering in North America is its unique global payments ecosystem. Built around four key pillars - global 24/7 support, unlimited integration opportunities, personalized solutions, and faster time to market - Till Payments' ecosystem provides a seamless payment experience for its customers, regardless of payment method. Till works with each partner individually to assess their individual needs to provide a powerful framework on which to build. It also ensures that all terminals and legacy systems integrate seamlessly into the ecosystem so clients do not experience any lag time in accepting payments. To schedule a meeting with the team at TRANSACT, ask questions, and learn more about the featured technologies and solutions, visit Booth 657 and reserve time with the Till Payments team here.
Tom Tucker is also honored to participate in an innovative industry panel during TRANSACT's PAYFAC Day titled "Embedded Finance is the Future - And It Starts with Embedded Payments." The panel, which will take place on Thursday, April 14th at the PAYFAC Day Stage from 9:55 - 10:30 a.m.. Tucker will be joined by co-founder and CTO of ACME Technologies, Echeyde Cubillo, and Head of Payment Facilitation for Silicon Valley Bank, Jeff Chen, for a robust discussion around the revolutionary changes happening within the financial services industry today and the impact to the consumer experience long-term.
"Showcasing at TRANSACT is just the first step for Till," shares Till Payments CEO, Shadi Haddad. "With teams across North America, and offices in New York, Colorado, Arizona and Canada, Till is set for continued growth throughout 2022 and we're determined to bring about much-needed industry innovation quickly and efficiently so that we can continue to meet - and exceed the needs of our clients on a global scale."
To learn more about Till's robust suite of payment products and solutions, visit TillPayments.com.
About Till Payments
Till is the fast-moving, Aussie-born, global fintech disruptor opening up a world of possibilities for businesses seeking simple, seamless, all-in-one payments. We take the complexity out of getting paid with single-source solutions that ensure merchants can accept any payment wherever and whenever their customers shop, be it online, in-store, or a combination of both.
Organizations across a range of sectors, including FMCG, automotive, parking & transit, retail and hospitality, use our end-to-end smart and seamless payments experiences to support growth and enhance customer experiences.
Founded in 2012, Till's team of 250 staff is rapidly growing and headquartered in Australia, with teams in London, Manila and across the US. Till currently serves merchants across 12 countries and over 500 cities.
Media Contacts:
James Lambert
North 6th Agency
till@n6a.com
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SOURCE Till Payments | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/till-payments-marks-official-north-american-debut-transact-2022/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:39 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/till-payments-marks-official-north-american-debut-transact-2022/ |
AUSTIN, Texas, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trace, the only game film platform that automatically edits and delivers personalized moments for each player, today announced it has closed a $47M Series C round of funding, bringing its total funding to $65.2M. Pelion Venture Partners led the round with Lakestar, Toba Capital, and NextGen VP participation.
The sports technology industry is booming and is projected to grow from $17.9B to $40.2B by 2026. In addition, the youth sports market is projected to reach $77.6B by 2026 as travel teams gain popularity and families begin to enjoy the quality time that weekend sporting events offer.
Parents, players, and coaches want to quickly see their moments from a game without rewatching hours of game footage while fumbling around with editing software. Trace is the only solution that automatically records and delivers personalized moments for each player hours after a game–no more sifting through video footage, marking timestamps, and manually stitching together clips.
Using Trace's wide-angle camera and proprietary GPS sensors, Trace captures the entirety of a game without missing a moment. Once quickly set up, the camera can be left to capture the game all on its own, eliminating the need for anyone to watch the game behind a recording device. Using advanced AI, Trace analyzes all of the footage and performance metrics to edit and assemble a personalized game experience.
"Players want to see themselves, and parents want to safeguard their children's best life moments. We let Sarah, and her parents, watch all of her plays in the game without any additional work or effort. You don't have to record, you don't have to do any editing, Sarah can sit back after the game and watch from her perspective, moment to moment, memory to memory. We're extremely proud to serve more than a million athletes today and eliminate the barriers to capturing and editing game footage. And whether you're looking to play in college or just getting started with a sport, Trace will keep the moments that matter most to you one click away," said David Lokshin, CEO of Trace.
"We created Trace to deliver personalized moments to each player without any additional work from anyone on your team. We're extremely proud to serve over 1.4M athletes today and eliminate the barriers to capturing and editing game footage. And whether you're looking to play in college or just getting started with a sport, Trace will keep the moments that matter most to you one click away," said David Lokshin, CEO of Trace.
For athletes looking to improve their game, coaches looking for more support, or even parents who want to relive their child's game—Trace is short personalized videos you can't wait to watch.
"David and I have built a friendship over the past few years and I was really impressed with the growth of the business from a product, engagement, and revenue standpoint in 2021. The team's vision for what Trace will become is huge. We're thrilled to be leading this round to fuel Trace's impressive growth," said Jeff Kearl, General Partner at Pelion Venture Partners.
Trace plans to use the funds to continue product innovation and plans to expand availability to even more sports in 2022. In addition, Trace will use the funds to add to its world-class team, adding over one hundred positions by year-end.
Trace currently supports Soccer, Baseball, and Softball in the US. To learn more about Trace Soccer, please visit Traceup.com/soccer. To learn more about Baseball and Softball, please visit Traceup.com/baseball.
About Trace
If you're still not sure what Trace does and you're used to seeing an About section, just head over to https://traceup.com.
Media Contact: Kymberlee Bolden, 863-978-8064
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SOURCE Trace | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/trace-announces-652m-funding-following-record-breaking-year-growth/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:48 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/trace-announces-652m-funding-following-record-breaking-year-growth/ |
NEW YORK, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dog bites and other dog-related injuries accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners liability claim dollars paid out in 2021, costing $881 million, according to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) and State Farm, the largest writer of homeowners insurance in the U.S.
An analysis of homeowners insurance data by the Triple-I found the number of dog bite claims nationwide increased to 17,989, compared to 17,567 in 2020 – a 2.2 percent increase. The average cost per claim decreased 1.1 percent from 2020-2021, but the overall 10-year trend was 39 percent. The average cost paid out for dog bite claims was $49,025 in 2021, compared with $50,245 in 2020.
"There was a slight decrease in the 2021 average cost per claim," said Janet Ruiz, CPCU, AIM, Director – Strategic Communication, Triple-I. "However, there was a steep increase in that cost over the past 10 years, no doubt due to increased medical costs, as well as the size of settlements, judgments and jury awards given to plaintiffs." Ruiz noted the value of claims also has risen 44 percent over that same period.
As pet owners return to the workplace or school, pets will be left home alone. Behavioral issues, such as separation anxiety, could result in aggressive and destructive behavior. This could be a problem for dogs adopted during the pandemic, as well as pets now used to their owners being at home.
Number and Cost of Dog Bite Claims (And Other Dog-Related Injuries*), 2012-2021
Source: Insurance Information Institute, State Farm®.
*Claims costs are attributable not only to dog bites but also to dogs knocking down children, cyclists, and the elderly, which can result in costly injuries.
California continued to have the largest number of claims in the U.S., at 2,026 in 2021, a slight decrease from 2,121 in 2020. California also had the highest value of claims in 2021, at $120.7 million, and the highest average cost per claim in 2021, at $59,561. The state with the second-highest number of claims last year was Florida, at 1,478.
Estimated Number and Cost of Dog Bite Claims (And Other Dog-Related Injuries*), 2021 State Results
Source: Insurance Information Institute, State Farm®.
Be A Responsible Dog Owner
National Dog Bite Prevention Week (April 10-16, 2022) is an annual event designed to provide consumers with information on how to be responsible pet owners while increasing awareness of a serious public health issue.
Even dogs that are normally docile may bite when they are frightened or when defending their puppies, owners or food. However, the best way to protect yourself is to prevent your dog from biting anyone in the first place. The most dangerous dogs are those that fall victim to human shortcomings, such as poor training, irresponsible ownership and breeding practices that foster viciousness.
RELATED LINKS
Infographic: National Dog Bite Prevention Week (April 10-16, 2022)
Videos: Dog Bite Prevention
Four Tips to Keep Your Dog from Causing Any Harm
The Triple-I has a full library of educational videos on its YouTube Channel.
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SOURCE Insurance Information Institute | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/triple-i-us-home-insurers-paid-out-nearly-900m-dog-related-claims-2021/ | 2022-04-12T18:35:55 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/triple-i-us-home-insurers-paid-out-nearly-900m-dog-related-claims-2021/ |
Financing led by NEA will fuel growth and development for the open source Flyte platform, allowing users to scale and optimize AI and ML applications
BELLEVUE, Wash. , April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Union.ai, provider of the open source workflow orchestration platform Flyte, today announced they have closed $10 million in seed funding led by NEA with additional participation from a select group of angels to accelerate the growth of Flyte and provide even greater assistance to its user community. The investment will be used to further grow the Flyte open source ecosystem while building out a commercially available Union Cloud platform.
Machine learning (ML) has the potential for explosive impact across all industries. Existing tooling has not caught up to modern ML requirements, including reliability, reproducibility, enforcement of quality and efficiency. This undermines the efficacy of the models and reduces potential ROI.
"The requirements for ML/Data are very different from delivering services to production," said Ketan Umare, CEO at Union.ai. "ML/Data workflows are focused on experimentation and are stateful. Meanwhile, dealing with infrastructure procurement is one of the last things a data scientist wants to do. With Flyte, we are solving common issues for running ML workflows, including separating the concerns of infrastructure management from the end user, providing guaranteed reproducibility (a common requirement for deploying complex ML and data applications) and allowing organization-wide re-use of existing applications. As a software engineer, I do not remember the last time I wrote a sorting algorithm, but in the world of ML and Data, redoing the same thing over and over again is the norm. We want to change that."
With Union.ai, engineers and data scientists can abstract away the complexity behind workflow automation and focus solely on developing models to solve their core business problems. Union.ai offers new services on top of Flyte so that users can integrate with state of the art machine learning tools, develop reproducible and shareable models, and reap the benefits of a thriving open source, serverless platform.
"When we started thinking about how we could further help the community, we realized that offering a hosted solution where users could get up and running in minutes would help improve their velocity," added Ketan. "Many teams expressed they were reluctant to embark on hosting Flyte on their own. We want to reassure them that we're like 'Flyte' attendants, here to help them every step of the way through a cloud offering that allows them to start building production-grade ML pipelines in minutes."
Flyte originated at Lyft, where the founders were trying to solve their own problems to continuously deliver robust machine learning models. Rapid adoption within the company led to Flyte driving most business-critical workloads. Lyft then decided to open source the technology so that they could collaborate with others facing similar challenges. The technology has since been adopted by Spotify and other leading technology companies.
"NEA has deep experience investing in open source platforms, and we get excited when we find something gaining so much traction within the community," said Greg Papadopoulos, PhD, Venture Partner at NEA. "In developing Flyte, the Union.ai team has demonstrated tremendous user-first focus on 'Productionization,' reliability and streamlining the journey to build complex data and ML applications—which has resulted in a hugely enthusiastic community. We are thrilled to partner with Ketan, George and the team to pioneer the future of data and machine learning orchestration."
"We built Flyte with the goal of revolutionizing ML pipelines to help ML and data engineers to easily author robust and reusable pipelines," said Union.ai CTO Haytham Abuelfutuh. "At Union.ai, we are building the Union Cloud platform, which intends to make Flyte accessible to teams across all industries. We offer a low-overhead, secure, enterprise-grade, scalable and performant environment to collaborate on and execute Flyte workflows–all while keeping sensitive data and code within our customers' control."
About Union.ai
Union.ai helps organizations deliver reliable, reproducible and cost-effective machine learning and data orchestration built around open-source Flyte. Flyte is a one of a kind workflow automation platform that simplifies the journey of data scientists and machine learning engineers from ideation to production. Some of the top companies, including Lyft, Spotify, GoJek and more, rely on Flyte to power their Data & ML products. Union.ai was started by founding engineers of Flyte and is the leading contributor to Flyte.
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $24 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's track record of investing includes more than 260 portfolio company IPOs and more than 430 mergers and acquisitions. www.nea.com
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SOURCE Union.ai | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/unionai-raises-10m-seed-funding-ai-ml-orchestration-technology/ | 2022-04-12T18:36:02 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/04/12/unionai-raises-10m-seed-funding-ai-ml-orchestration-technology/ |
Former insurance commissioner will advise on P&C and life insurance
SAN ANTONIO, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- USAA announced today that Julie McPeak has joined USAA as SVP, general counsel for insurance. She will oversee both the P&C and Life Company legal teams for USAA.
Julie is a proud 22-year USAA member and joins USAA from Root, Inc., where she served as senior deputy general counsel since 2020. She has a wealth of knowledge and nearly 30 years of experience that includes serving as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance for eight years. She also served as executive director of the Kentucky Office of Insurance, after rising through the ranks during her 10 years there. She was the first woman to hold the position of chief insurance regulator in more than one state and was president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2018. Julie's experience as an attorney includes serving as a shareholder and founding member of the Nashville office of Greenberg Traurig LLP and as of counsel for Burt & Forman LLP. She earned her law degree from Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville and is a member of the Kentucky and Tennessee bar associations.
"We're excited to have a leader of Julie's caliber join our team," said USAA Chief Legal Officer Bob Johnson. "Her deep legal and industry experience makes her the perfect fit for USAA as we build on our 100-year legacy of serving military families and maintain our strength as one of the largest insurance providers in the nation."
USAA
Founded in 1922 by a group of military officers, USAA is among the leading providers of insurance, banking, and investment and retirement solutions to more than 13 million members of the U.S. military, veterans who have honorably served and their families. Headquartered in San Antonio, USAA has offices in seven U.S. cities and three overseas locations and employs more than 38,000 people worldwide. Each year, the company contributes to national and local nonprofits in support of military families and communities where employees live and work. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com.
Contact: USAA Media Relations
External_communications@usaa.com
210-498-0940
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ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI), ("Vuzix" or, the "Company"), a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and products, today announced a reseller agreement with Opsivity, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of field operations support focused on harnessing knowledge and sharing operational expertise that solves technical issues in real-time.
Opsivity addresses the needs of operations-focused companies and their remote field technicians to help improve issue resolution and dramatically reduce downtime. By utilizing unique Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to power its KnowledgeBase™, Opsivity builds, scales, and shares operational expertise and know-how such as procedures, checklists, articles, and previous solutions. The active KnowledgeBase is combined with advanced and easy-to-use, real-time collaboration features that intelligently locate and connect field technicians via chat or live video call to a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to assist in issue resolution. Opsivity runs on devices that field technicians already use and trust such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables to access operational insights that keep businesses running.
"We had been working already with Opsivity and are now focused on accelerating the digital transformation of our joint customer base that spans numerous industry verticals," said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. "Vuzix M400 smart glasses running Opsivity's Field Support solution will enable customers to boost their productivity and increase First-Time-Fix performance safely and efficiently."
"Our reseller agreement with Vuzix is a huge step forward for our joint customer base," said Brandon Mercer, Head of Regional Sales - Americas at Opsivity. "We believe that our combined vision for on-demand field expertise and easy-to-use remote assistance is key to accompany the rapid digital transformation of our customers, delivering them operational know-how, right now."
Opsivity's AR features provide field technicians the ability to take photos, videos and annotate on-screen to share with SMEs in real-time to help achieve quick issue resolution. Each support interaction is captured and accessible to expand customers' ongoing base of operational knowledge which enhances field productivity and ramps on-the-job-training effectiveness. Companies ranging from utilities, manufacturing, oil and gas, transportation, logistics, and simple service repair can all benefit from empowering their field technicians with Opsivity to help solve issues faster.
About Opsivity
Opsivity is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of field operations support focused on harnessing knowledge and sharing operational expertise that solve technical issues in real-time. Based in Portland, OR, Opsivity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvest Technology Group Ltd., a publicly listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: HTG). Opsivity's cloud-based solution uses AI and AR to provide real-time remote field support to customers in all industries and geographic regions. Opsivity runs on devices that Field Technicians already use and trust such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables to access the operational know-how that keep businesses running. Learn more about Opsivity by visiting www.Opsivity.com
About Vuzix Corporation
Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. The Company's products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 246 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the Video Eyewear field. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2022 and several wireless technology innovation awards, among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company (NASDAQ: VUZI) with offices in Rochester, NY, Oxford, UK, and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, visit the Vuzix website, Twitter and Facebook pages.
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
Certain statements contained in this news release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking statements contained in this release relate to Vuzix Smart Glasses, our business relationship and future opportunities with Opsivity and its customers, and among other things the Company's leadership in the Smart Glasses and AR display industry. They are generally identified by words such as "believes," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "should" and similar expressions. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are based upon the Company's beliefs and assumptions as of the date of this release. The Company's actual results could differ materially due to risk factors and other items described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Reports and MD&A filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and applicable Canadian securities regulators (copies of which may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.
Vuzix Media and Investor Relations Contact:
Ed McGregor, Director of Investor Relations,
Vuzix Corporation
ed_mcgregor@vuzix.com
Tel: (585) 359-5985
Vuzix Corporation, 25 Hendrix Road, West Henrietta, NY 14586 USA,
Investor Information – IR@vuzix.com www.vuzix.com
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-The Three-Day Competition Is The Largest Classic Poetry Slam In The World-
LOS ANGELES, April 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Get Lit – Words Ignite, the Los Angeles-based educational nonprofit whose mission is to increase literacy, empower youth, and energize communities through poetry and visual media will hold its 11th annual Classic Poetry Slam April 21- 23, 2022. The three-day Classic Slam event, which culminates with the Grand Slam Finals, is the largest Classic Poetry Slam in the world and includes hundreds of young poets from schools throughout California. These young poets will come together to perform classic poems and original spoken word response pieces, live, for a panel of judges. The public is invited to watch the live stream of the Grand Slam Finals on April 23rd beginning at 5pm PST on ClassicSlam.org. This year's judges will include world-renowned authors, poets, artists, and cultural luminaries such as Safia Elhillo, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Yesika Salgado, Sam Rush, and Edwin Bodney. The 2022 slam will be hosted by actress, activist and poet Ashley August along with poet Vanessa Tahay and will also feature DJ Franky.
Get Lit - Words Ignite, one of the nation's leading non-profit arts and literacy organizations for spoken word poetry and film. The organization fuses classic and spoken word poetry to increase literacy, empower youth, and inspire communities.
On April 21st and 22nd students will compete in Quarter & Semi-Final rounds in order to earn a spot in the Classic Slam 2022 Finals on April 23rd. Get Lit will award over $10,000 in cash and prizes to both poets and educators. The Classic Slam 2022 will be streaming across and through www.ClassicSlam.org. Online audiences will be able to watch their favorite team compete for the championship title. Some of the Los Angeles High Schools participating include LA School of Global Studies, Hamilton, Larchmont Charter, Animo Inglewood, Venice High School, Cleveland High School, Harvard-Westlake, San Gabriel High School, and more.
Get Lit was founded in 2006 after Diane Luby Lane created a one-woman show about the power of books and toured colleges, high schools, jails, and detention centers with iconic Chicano poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. After the show closed, Lane started teaching classic and spoken word poetry in three high schools: Fairfax, Fremont, and Walt Whitman Continuation. Today, the curriculum has expanded to over 140 schools throughout California, and is sold to schools all over the world. Get Lit's poetic ambassadors, the Get Lit Players, have over 350 million online views.
Get Lit invites students to recite classic poems, and then perform their own spoken word responses. This creates a dialogue between the classic poet and the student. However, at Get Lit a classic isn't a classic because it's old, it's a classic because it's great. Participants in The Classic Slam are just as likely to perform the work of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost as they are to hear poems by Elizabeth Acevedo and Tupac Shakur. "We are so excited to be back in-person after holding the past two Classic Slams virtually," said Diane Luby Lane, Founder of Get Lit. "This year's event will bring together hundreds of students, many of whom will be participating in the competition for the first time."
This year's Classic Slam is sponsored by VANS, We Rise LA, the Rosenthal Family Foundation, LA vs. HATE.
Check a video from original Get Lit Classic Slam, featuring youth poets from Southern California HERE
@GetLitPoet #ClassicSlam
April 23rd at ClassicSlam.org
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ABOUT GET LIT
Get Lit - Words Ignite is a Los Angeles-based education nonprofit founded in 2006 by author and educator Diane Luby Lane, to increase literacy, empower youth, and energize communities through poetry and visual media. The organization aims to transform the lives of young people worldwide through classic and spoken word poetry. Through the use of specialized curriculums, the program engages young people by providing a creative outlet, community, and real-life work experience, transforming students into activists, scholars, and stars.
The only program of its kind in the nation, Get Lit has created a unique call-and-response model where students identify classic poems that resonate with their own stories, and write original responses, inspiring students to discover, develop, and amplify their voices while learning and exploring classic poetry from the past and present. At Get Lit, "a classic isn't a classic because it's old, a classic is a classic because it's great."
Get Lit annually reaches 50,000 youth ages 9 through young adulthood through its In-School and After-School programs. Instruction culminates in the three-day Classic Slam, the largest classic youth poetry competition in the country. Get Lit is also home to the Get Lit Players (GLPs), an award-winning youth poetry troupe who have collaborated with the United Nations, John Legend, the White House, and more, inspiring their peers to read, write, uplift their communities and participate in the arts.
85% of Get Lit's students are from under-resourced areas; 92% are students of color. Get Lit reaches students, whether they are in the front row, in the back of the classroom, or online. Graduating students have gone on to successes including positions as Youth Poet Laureates of the U.S., staff writers on top television shows, United Nations Youth Ambassadors, Grammy-winning artists, and Fulbright Scholars. Get Lit was chosen as a 2020 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Best Practice Honoree, one of only 15 in the world. In addition, Diane Luby Lane's book Get Lit Rising (Simon & Schuster) won the 2016 Nautilus Award for books that "bring hope, healing, wisdom, and joy."
Premiering at the 2022 Santa Barbara film festival, the documentary OUR WORDS COLLIDE features 5 poets from the program and provides a timely view as to how transformative the Get Lit program can be for young people, especially during the past few years. The Anti-Defamation League awarded its ADL Stand Up Award to the film during the 2022 Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival. The ADL Stand Up Award is awarded to one film that exemplifies the impact storytelling can have on fostering mutual understanding and respect consistent with ADL's mission to secure "justice and fair treatment to all."
In January, it was announced that Get Lit now partnered with the Writers Guild Foundation on a youth screenwriting program that will support a new generation of diverse storytellers to have 1:1 mentoring from some of today's top film and tv writers. The two year program will allow participants to create a final script that can be pitched, optioned, produced, or used as a sample piece to acquire representation or employment.
27 Get Lit poets also co-wrote and co-starred in the film "Summertime" directed by Carlos López Estrada. The film premiered opening night at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and opened in theaters across the U.S. in 2021. The film is currently available on Amazon and other platforms, and a PG version is available for classrooms. Get Lit poets have performed at premier venues such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, The White House, and the United Nations.
In early 2022, Get Lit will officially launch Uni(verse), the world's first interactive poetry platform for the classroom, community, and beyond. Get Lit's Uni(verse) will enable students throughout the US and internationally, to take Get Lit's standards-aligned "Words Ignite" course online and to exchange ideas both within and outside of school. It will feature Get Lit's interactive poetry Anthology, searchable by poet, theme, literary device, etc. Uni(verse) will build and strengthen communication, collaboration, empathy, and community throughout the world through the vehicle of poetry.
For more information, please visit: www.getlit.org or www.ClassicSlam.org
Media Requests:
Rachel Falikoff
Let's Make News PR
rfalikoff@lmnpr.com
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Appeals court: Johnson & Johnson must pay $302 million in pelvic mesh case
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Johnson & Johnson must pay penalties to the state for deceptively marketing pelvic mesh implants for women, but reduced the amount by $42 million to $302 million.
Johnson & Johnson had appealed in 2020 after Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon assessed the $344 million in penalties against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.
Sturgeon found after a non-jury trial that the company made misleading and potentially harmful statements in hundreds of thousands of advertisements and instructional brochures for nearly two decades.
California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a ruling Monday that $42 million in penalties assessed for the company’s sales pitches to doctors were unjustified because there was no evidence of what the sales representatives actually said.
But the appeals court said Sturgeon received ample evidence that Ethicon knowingly deceived both physicians and patients about the risks posed by its products, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Ryan Carbain, a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson, told the Chronicle that the company would appeal the appeals court ruling to the state Supreme Court.
The instructions for use in all of the company’s pelvic mesh implant packages “falsified or omitted the full range, severity, duration, and cause of complications associated with Ethicon’s pelvic mesh products, as well as the potential irreversibility and catastrophic consequences,” Presiding Justice Judith McConnell of the appeals court said in a 3-0 ruling upholding the $302 million in penalties.
She rejected the company’s claim that the fine was excessive, saying it amounted to less than 1% of Johnson & Johnson’s net worth of $70.4 billion.
The products, also called transvaginal mesh, are synthetic and surgically implanted through the vagina of women whose pelvic organs have sagged or who suffered from stress urinary incontinence when they cough, sneeze or lift heavy objects.
Many women have sued the New Jersey-based company alleging that the mesh caused severe pain, bleeding, infections, discomfort during intercourse and the need for removal surgery.
The condition is estimated to affect 3% to 17% of women, and it sometimes becomes severe after age 70.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of health care products, is contesting other lawsuits over drug side effects, its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic and allegations its baby powder caused cancer in some users.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/johnson-johnson-ordered-pay-302-million-pelvic-mesh-case/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:13 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/johnson-johnson-ordered-pay-302-million-pelvic-mesh-case/ |
NY lieutenant governor arrested in federal corruption investigation
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was arrested Tuesday in a federal corruption investigation, creating a political crisis for Gov. Kathy Hochul seven months after she selected Benjamin as a partner to make a fresh start in an office already rocked by scandal.
Benjamin, a Democrat, was accused in an indictment of participating in a scheme to obtain campaign contributions from a real estate developer in exchange for Benjamin’s agreement to use his influence as a state senator to get a $50,000 grant of state funds for a nonprofit organization the developer controlled.
Facing charges including bribery, fraud, conspiracy and falsification of records, Benjamin pleaded not guilty Tuesday at an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He was released and bail was set at $250,000.
Two lawyers representing Benjamin did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Hochul in September plucked Benjamin, then a state lawmaker, to serve as second-in-command when she became governor, taking over for Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo resigned amid allegations he sexually harassed 11 women, which he denied.
Hochul, also a Democrat, was Cuomo’s lieutenant governor. She is now running for governor in this year’s election, with Benjamin as a running mate.
Hochul, who appeared at a New York City news conference Tuesday regarding a shooting on the subway, said she would speak about Benjamin later in the day.
“We’ll have a statement out there. I have not had a chance to speak to him. I was doing media interviews this morning. But this is not the place but I will be addressing it very shortly,” Hochul said.
Two months after Benjamin became lieutenant governor, a real estate developer who steered campaign contributions toward Benjamin’s failed bid for New York City comptroller was indicted. Federal authorities accused Gerald Migdol of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in illegally giving donations to Benjamin’s campaign.
The indictment said Benjamin, formerly a state senator from Harlem, and others acting at his direction or on his behalf also engaged in a series of lies and deceptions to cover up the scheme that stretched from 2019 to 2021.
They falsified campaign donor forms, misled municipal regulators and provided false information in vetting forms Benjamin submitted while he was being considered to be appointed as lieutenant governor, the indictment said.
Prosecutors had previously not made any accusations against Benjamin, and his campaign said at the time of Migdol’s arrest that it had forfeited any improper donations as soon as they were discovered.
More recently, reports came out saying subpoenas had been issued to Benjamin regarding the financial issues even before Hochul picked him as lieutenant governor.
Republican chairman Nick Langworthy said in a prepared statement that “Hochul chose a dirty politician to serve as her partner in government and running mate.”
“Brian Benjamin’s shady dealings and corruption were well-documented, but Hochul turned a blind eye and put him a heartbeat away from the governorship,” Langworthy said.
Hochul said Monday at a press conference she didn’t know of the subpoenas when she tapped Benjamin to be her No. 2.
She said last week she had the “utmost confidence” in Benjamin.
“This is an independent investigation related to other people and he’s fully cooperating. He is my running mate,” Hocuhl said Thursday at a press conference.
Republican minority legislative leaders — Senate Leader Rob Ortt and Assembly Leader Will Barclay — called on Benjamin to resign.
“Kathy Hochul and Senate Democrats might tolerate this corruption, but New Yorkers don’t and neither do I,” Ortt said. “I’m calling on Gov. Hochul and Senate Democrats to stop hiding from the truth and join me in demanding Brian Benjamin’s resignation.”
Spokespeople for Hochul, Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie didn’t immediately provide comment Tuesday when asked if Benjamin should resign.
If Benjamin resigns, he would still likely appear on the ballot for the 2022 gubernatorial Democratic primary even if Hochul picks a new lieutenant governor, according to state elections law.
“There are only three ways to get off the ballot: death, declination or disqualification,” State board of elections spokesperson John Conklin said in an email.
Benjamin was the state’s second Black lieutenant governor. During his state Legislature career, he emphasized criminal justice reform and affordable housing. His district included most of central Harlem, where he was born and raised by Caribbean immigrant parents.
He has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and a master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School, and worked as a developer of affordable housing.
The scandal is the latest in a long history of lawmakers and other Albany leaders who’ve been engulfed in allegations of wrongdoing.
Cuomo’s resignation as governor came not only amid allegations of sexual harassment but that his administration misrepresented the number of New Yorkers who died in nursing homes from COVID-19.
In 2008, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution investigation.
Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of the most powerful figures in state government, resigned in 2015 after he was arrested on federal corruption charges. His conviction ended a four-decade career in the Assembly. After his first conviction was thrown out, he was convicted again in 2018. He died in federal custody in January.
Former Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who for a time shared power with Silver, was convicted of extortion, wire fraud and bribery. Skelos’ case moved through the courts around the same time as Silver’s.
___
Hays reported from New York. Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela and Larry Neumeister contributed from New York and Michael Hill contributed from Albany.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/ny-lieutenant-governor-arrested-federal-corruption-investigation/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:13 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/ny-lieutenant-governor-arrested-federal-corruption-investigation/ |
LIVE: President Biden to address gas prices, talk infrastructure in Iowa
(WOWT) - President Biden is at a biofuel plant in Menlo, Iowa, to talk about gas prices and infrastructure.
The president departed Washington, D.C., on Air Force One around 11:15 a.m.
The visit to the small Iowa town, home to POET Bioprocessing, is expected to be the backdrop for an announcement suspending a federal rule preventing the sale of higher ethanol blend gasoline this summer.
The Biden administration hopes the move, supported by Congressional members from both parties, will tamp down gas prices that have spiked during Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Homegrown Iowa biofuels provide a quick and clean solution for lowering prices at the pump and bolstering production would help us become energy independent once again,″ Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said. He was among nine Republican and seven Democratic senators from Midwestern states who sent Biden a letter last month urging him to allow year-round E15 sales.
The president is also expected to talk more about how his Build a Better America plan’s infrastructure investments will benefit rural communities.
—
This is a developing story. Stay with 6 News for updates.
Gray TV’s DC bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/president-biden-address-gas-prices-talk-infrastructure-iowa/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:15 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/president-biden-address-gas-prices-talk-infrastructure-iowa/ |
Sponsored - The following content is created on behalf of Lincoln Commission on Human Rights and does not reflect the opinions of Gray Media or its editorial staff. To learn more about Lincoln Commission on Human Rights, visit www.lincoln.ne.gov.
Have you been discriminated against in employment, housing or public accommodation in Lincoln? If so, the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights (LCHR) is here to help.
LCHR dates back to 1966 when Lincoln voters passed Article 10, an anti-discrimination and human rights amendment to the City Charter. Title 11 was then added to the Lincoln Municipal Code, creating the framework to foster equal opportunity for all Lincoln residents and to prevent and respond to discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.
The commission also works to educate the public about unlawful discriminatory practices and how proper procedures can be enforced. LCHR provides community education and assistance to community groups, businesses, schools, and governmental entities for the purpose of providing education regarding our legal rights and responsibilities, as well as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our community.
LCHR creates city policies for this enforcement and makes recommendations for city government actions.
Today, LCHR continues to strive to prevent, respond to, and eliminate all forms of illegal discrimination, and to assure and foster equal opportunity for all City of Lincoln community members. LCHR receives, settles, investigates, issues findings, conciliates, and holds public hearings on complaints alleging discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, national origin, familial status, age, ancestry, marital status, and retaliation within the City of Lincoln.
There is a designated team to help with any complaints received. That team is:
- Mindy Rush Chipman, Director
- Thuyhong Le, Senior Office Administrator
- Francisca Beltran, Community Outreach Coordinator
- Haefaa Hasan, Community Outreach Coordinator
- Chassidy Jackson-Goodwin, Senior Civil Rights Investigator
- Rob Rowan, Senior Civil Rights Investigator
Learn more about the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights online. | https://www.1011now.com/sponsored/lincoln-commission-human-rights/what-is-lincoln-commission-human-rights/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:16 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/sponsored/lincoln-commission-human-rights/what-is-lincoln-commission-human-rights/ |
Alabama elementary school principal accused of ‘excessive paddling’ of student
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF/Gray News) - An Alabama elementary school principal is on leave for paddling a child too much according to authorities.
In a letter obtained by WAFF from the district’s attorney, the principal of Hazelwood Elementary in Lawrence County, Alabama, is accused of using a wooden paddle on a child ten times in a row.
Corporal punishment is legal in the state of Alabama, meaning using paddling as a form of punishment is allowed. But there is a line, which Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Jon Bret Smith says was crossed.
A letter sent to Hazelwood Principal Dr. Datie Priest accuses her of paddling a third-grade student ten times in a row one time and five times in a row during a separate incident.
According to WAFF’s news partners at the Decatur Daily, Smith has said no more than three licks at a time is allowed.
The letter goes on to say Priest told Lawrence County School board members about the paddling on March 11.
She was then placed on detached duty.
Smith says Priest later told him and another supervisor that the child was given a choice of “two licks by his teacher or ten by me and it’s my personal belief that he would not take a paddling from a white teacher.”
Vice president for the Alabama NAACP Bobby Diggs said the organization recommended Priest for the principal position and stands by her, despite the accusations.
“The NAACP remains perplexed that the accusations against Priest were in her personnel file but accusations against Ron Rikard (principal at East Lawrence High School) were not in his file at the central office,” said Diggs. “It is in our opinion that the superintendent is being bias{ed} and discriminatory in the treatment of the two principals.”
Smith said he cannot comment on personnel issues.
State law also requires a student receive a written slip after a paddling. Smith said the student was not given one. The letter includes a few other accusations including leaving work early and mismanaging funds.
Priest is currently on paid administrative leave. However, the school district may not renew her contract, according to the Decatur Daily.
Copyright 2022 WAFF via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/alabama-elementary-school-principal-accused-excessive-paddling-student/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:22 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/alabama-elementary-school-principal-accused-excessive-paddling-student/ |
NFL’s Washington Commanders may have broken financial laws, House panel says
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission saying it found evidence the NFL’s Washington Commanders engaged in potentially unlawful financial conduct for more than a decade by withholding ticket revenue from visiting teams and refundable deposits from fans.
In the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, the committee outlined through the testimony of former employees and access to emails and documents a pattern of financial impropriety by owner Dan Snyder and team executives. At one point in 2016, the committee said the team retained up to $5 million from 2,000 season-ticket holders while also concealing sharable revenue from the league.
One former employee testified before Congress saying the team had two separate financial books — one with underreported ticket revenue that went to the NFL — and the full, complete picture. According to testimony, Snyder was aware of the numbers shared with the league while also being privy to the actual data.
The business practice was known as “juice” inside Washington’s front office. And, if correct, it could spell significant trouble for Snyder and the Commanders.
Ticket revenue is shared among all 32 NFL teams, with 40% of it deposited in a visiting team fund. Such money is among the pillars of the league’s revenue-sharing commitment.
A team spokeswoman said there was no new comment and referred to the statement from March 31: “The team categorically denies any suggestion of financial impropriety of any kind at any time.”
“We adhere to strict internal processes that are consistent with industry and accounting standards, are audited annually by a globally respected independent auditing firm, and are also subject to regular audits by the NFL. We continue to cooperate fully with the Committee’s work.”
The league did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The committee is sharing documents with the FTC while requesting the commission take any action necessary to make sure the money is returned to its rightful owners.
Congress launched an investigation into the team’s workplace misconduct after the league did not release a report detailing the findings of an independent probe into the matter. After testimony from former employees, that investigation expanded to the organization’s finances.
Lawyers Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former employees, including some who testified, called the letter “damning.”
“It’s clear that the team’s misconduct goes well beyond the sexual harassment and abuse of employees already documented and has also impacted the bottom line of the NFL, other NFL owners, and the team’s fans,” they said in a statement. “We are proud of our many clients who have come forward at great personal risk to reveal the truth and bring us closer to total transparency about the full extent of the dysfunction at the Washington Commanders.”
___
Associated Press reporter Farnoush Amiri contributed.
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/nfls-washington-commanders-may-have-broken-financial-laws-house-panel-says/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:33 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/nfls-washington-commanders-may-have-broken-financial-laws-house-panel-says/ |
VIDEO: Man arrested after child escapes attempted kidnapping, police say
ORLANDO, Fla. (Gray News) – A man in Florida was arrested Tuesday after attempting to kidnap a child, police said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that 37-year-old Vinh Nguyen approached and grabbed a child Monday morning in the Azalea Park neighborhood in Orlando and tried to lure the child into his vehicle.
The sheriff’s office said the child was able to get away and Nguyen took off. Following a tip from the public, detectives arrested Nguyen on Tuesday morning.
Nguyen has been charged with false imprisonment, luring or enticing of a child, and battery.
Detectives are continuing to investigate and want to know if there may be other victims of Nguyen. If you have any information, please call the Central Florida Crime Line at 1-800-423-8477.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/video-man-arrested-after-child-escapes-attempted-kidnapping-police-say/ | 2022-04-12T18:37:41 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/12/video-man-arrested-after-child-escapes-attempted-kidnapping-police-say/ |
NEW YORK — The New York Liberty drafted Oregon's Nyara Sabally with the fifth overall pick in the WNBA draft on Monday night.
Sabally got to practice with New York point guard Sabrina Ionescu when the two were at Oregon and she is excited to have a chance to play with her on the Liberty. Ionescu averaged 11.7 points, 6.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 30 games last season, including 26 starts.
"Sab is such an amazing point guard," Sabally said. "I saw her in practice every day and am excited to share the court with her."
Sabally, a fourth-year sophomore, was the Ducks' leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 15.4 points and 7.8 boards. She also averaged 1.4 blocks per game.
"It was an honor to put on the Ducks jersey and play at Matthew Knight. I will forever cherish my time here, and I hope that I was able to inspire the people in Eugene that have shown me unwavering support the past four years," Nyara Sabally said in announcing her decision last month.
A native of Germany, Sabally is the younger sister of Satou Sabally, who also played at Oregon and is now with the WNBA's Dallas Wings.
The WNBA season tips off on May 6, with training camps opening later this week.
Pac-12 supremacy: For the sixth consecutive year, the Pac-12 had multiple first-round picks. Sabally, Stanford's Lexie Hull and Colorado's Mya Hollingshed all went in the first seven picks. No other conference can match that streak.
More AP women's basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
VIDEO PLAYLIST: More sports coverage from KGW News | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/ncaa/ducks/new-york-liberty-oregon-nyara-sabally-wnba-draft/283-105f2b99-5d41-45e9-add4-1a1459993398 | 2022-04-12T18:41:22 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/ncaa/ducks/new-york-liberty-oregon-nyara-sabally-wnba-draft/283-105f2b99-5d41-45e9-add4-1a1459993398 |
PORTLAND, Ore. — Just in case one round of April snow wasn't weird enough, Portland might be lined up for a second dusting before the week is over.
It's not a sure thing, but according to KGW meteorologist Rod Hill, weather conditions could allow for more low-level snow overnight and into Wednesday morning, when a new weather front moving inland from the northwest will bring increasing moisture.
Temperatures might be warmer than on Monday morning at low elevations, he said, but ground temperatures could still be down in the range of 32 to 35 degrees, which could lead to wet sticking snow.
That could mean a dusting of up to 2 inches of snow at low elevations and 4 inches or more in the high hills with closer to 1,000-feet elevation.
"So the range of possibility for Salem, downtown Portland and Vancouver goes from no sticking snow to snow in the air with temps at 36 or warmer, to near-freezing and the snow amounts mentioned," he said.
Sandy could see as much as 6 inches over 24 hours, and heavy snow will continue over the Cascades and Coast Range.
High-moisture conditions will continue after Wednesday, but a third round of snow isn't in the cards; Thursday's moisture will be all rain in Portland, according to Hill's forecast, and temperatures should start to warm up on Friday.
Rain showers will continue on Saturday, but Sunday should be dry and mostly sunny with temperatures nearing 60 degrees. Rain will resume on Monday when the next weather front arrives. | https://www.kgw.com/article/weather/portland-more-snow/283-fbc7ecf0-d171-48dd-aa6f-23ded6ebaf2e | 2022-04-12T18:41:28 | 0 | https://www.kgw.com/article/weather/portland-more-snow/283-fbc7ecf0-d171-48dd-aa6f-23ded6ebaf2e |
Ready to build the ultimate Easter Basket for your family this year? Do it with the help of Lifestyle Expert Jennifer Bonner with her top candy picks of the season from HARIBO! Shop your favorites and more at major retailers nationwide.
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Posted: Apr 12, 2022 / 01:54 PM EDT Updated: Apr 12, 2022 / 01:54 PM EDT SHARE From Airs Sundays at 9:00 PM ET/PT on EPIX. | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/harold-perinneau-stars-in-from/ | 2022-04-12T18:43:20 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/daytime/harold-perinneau-stars-in-from/ |
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) — Officials with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said a body has been found in a river near Crestview, Fla.
Deputies said around 3 p.m. fishermen out on the Shoal River discovered a partially decomposed human body.
The body was tangled in a tree south of the Shoal River bridge on Monday, April 11.
Deputies traveled on a boat to the scene to investigate. The remains have not been identified yet but an autopsy will be conducted. Investigators with OCSO said there are no obvious indicators of the cause of death, so they cannot determine if it is foul play yet.
Due to the condition of the body, the race, age, and sex of the person haven’t been determined. | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-fishermen-find-decomposing-body-in-river/ | 2022-04-12T18:43:26 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-fishermen-find-decomposing-body-in-river/ |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The latest report from the Tampa-focused Consumer Price Index by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said inflation in the region is 10.2%. Nationally, the rate is only 8.5%. In February, Tampa’s inflation rate was 9.6% compared to the nation’s 7.5%.
Now, as before, while the whole United States sees prices rise, Tampa’s prices are even higher.
In some respects, Tampa has always been ahead of the curve. In recent months, it’s been focused on how many people are moving to its metro area, rental costs and rising inflation.
When it comes to meat, poultry, fish and eggs, Tampa’s prices were up 24.6% compared to last March, while the U.S. had a 13.7% increase.
Still, not everything in the Tampa metro got more expensive faster than the rest of the country. When it comes to fuel costs for gasoline, Tampa’s prices increased 46% compared to the national 48%. For used cars, Tampa was slightly lower than the national increase, at 35.1% compared to the U.S. rate of 35.3%.
Some food costs like cereal were also lower than the nation, with increases at 5.5% for the Tampa Bay area while the U.S. costs increased 9.4%.
The biggest issues, of course, have remained housing costs.
According to the BLS, while rent increases from March to March were 4.4% nationally, in the Tampa area it was 12.4%. For mortgage payers, or those paying the “owners’ equivalent rent,” the numbers were 4.5% nationally and 9.7% in the Tampa Bay area. The ongoing housing crisis, with limited inventory and expensive materials to build, plus limited space to put construction, has exacerbated a shortage of places to live for all of the people moving to the region.
Rent has gone up as a result. At the same time, mortgages have risen across the U.S. The Federal Reserve increased interest rates generally once already in March, with six more planned. While higher fees for home loans, particularly for second homes, have started to cool the housing market slightly, the costs remain high, particularly in Tampa where many are moving.
In very real terms, for what shoppers will see in the store though, everything is more expensive in Tampa compared to the year before. While the U.S. had a 6.5% increase from year-to-year for all items less food and energy, basically everything besides groceries and fuel and electric, Tampa’s prices for the same item set increased 8.8%, according to BLS.
From January to March, the CPI for the Tampa Bay area rose 2.1%, while from January to March, the national rate rose 1%, from 7.5% to 8.5%. The area’s price increases, particularly with housing, are pushing affordability for residents out of reach.
Even as some prices increased more slowly for the Tampa Bay area, the prices were already higher, and have been for months. While the increases themselves aren’t as high, every increase has hurt consumers when it comes to buying necessities.
With real earnings down 0.8% across the U.S., according to BLS, Americans generally and Tampa residents alike are taking less of their wages home, after buying necessities. The bureau reported the decrease comes from an hourly wage level rise of 0.4% while the CPI rose 1.2%. Overall, BLS reported real average weekly earnings decreased 1.1% in the past month. | https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/tampa-inflation-at-10-2-higher-than-national-level/ | 2022-04-12T18:43:32 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/tampa-inflation-at-10-2-higher-than-national-level/ |
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) — Krispy Kreme announced Monday that it will deflate the price of an Original Glazed dozen donuts to the average price of a gallon of regular gas.
“We know everyone could use a little doughnut deflation to sweeten the recent pain at the pump,” the company said on its website. “So for the next four Wednesdays, we are helping you fill your tank with Original Glazed ® Dozens by pricing them at the cost of the national average of 1 gallon of regular gas.”
Krispy Kreme is running the promotion every Wednesday from April 13 through May 5.
The price for April 13 is $4.11, but that will change week to week based on the national average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S.
Krispy Kreme will announce the new price for the dozen donuts every Monday on its Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as on its website.
The company said guests are limited to two Original Glazed dozens at participating shops. Purchases can be made in-store, via drive-thru or online. | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/krispy-kreme-matches-cost-of-dozen-doughnuts-to-us-average-gas-price/ | 2022-04-12T18:43:38 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/national/krispy-kreme-matches-cost-of-dozen-doughnuts-to-us-average-gas-price/ |
LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) — A man was hospitalized in Largo Tuesday morning after someone stabbed him in the neck, according to police.
The Largo Police Department said the stabbing happened on Roosevelt Boulevard.
Detectives said the stabbing was related to a road rage incident. Three people were detained for questioning, according to police.
The LPD said the attack was an isolated incident. The victim is expected to recover from what police said were non-life-threatening injuries. | https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/man-stabbed-in-neck-during-largo-road-rage-incident-police-say/ | 2022-04-12T18:43:44 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/man-stabbed-in-neck-during-largo-road-rage-incident-police-say/ |
With its reputed ability to manage medical issues like chronic pain and mood disorders, cannabidiol (CBD), has become an informal cure-all for life’s curveballs. Yet given its unregulated status by the Food and Drug Administration, there is a lack of research about the safety of CBD, its medicinal benefits, and its side effects.
The problem is even more pronounced for CBD products consumed by children, and for a growing number of parents wondering if those products can help their kids.
A new report by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan set out to study parent attitudes about CBD for children. The report surveyed 2,020 randomly selected parents with at least one child in the household between 1 and 18 years old.
The poll found that, despite parents who never considered offering their child a CBD product were in the majority, three in four surveyed appeared to be receptive to the notion when other medications don’t work.
“I really think parents are pretty open-minded about this,” says Mott poll co-director Sarah Clark. “Societally, we have changing and evolving attitudes, so you would think that the community of parents might be a little more inclined to be open-minded about CBD than the general public. That includes older adults where I think they’re inclined to be more, ‘Oh yeah, that’s marijuana, we can’t have that.’”
CBD is a chemical compound naturally found in marijuana and hemp that may contain up to 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the psychoactive part of marijuana that makes you feel high.
CBD products are most commonly seen in oils, but also are sold as extracts, topical ointments, gummies, edibles, and capsules, and are increasingly found in marijuana-infused beverages.
The Mott report highlighted the lack of consistent information parents have about CBD. For example, the report showed that a third of surveyed parents believe taking CBD is the same as using marijuana, revealing a major gap in parents’ overall knowledge about CBD products.
Clark believes some lack of awareness can stem from previous information that may no longer be true or accurate. “For the one-third that had that misinformation, I think it’s more continued exposure and explanation until they get up to speed,” says Clark.
Despite a third of surveyed parents misunderstanding the difference between CBD and typical marijuana that provides a feeling of euphoria, Clark is optimistic that three-quarters of surveyed parents have some basic knowledge of CBD.
“Parents realize that there isn’t always a medicine that magically works for every condition or for every kid,” explains Clark. “You can’t necessarily go to the doctor and expect that they have a magic pill that they can prescribe, and everything will be better. Sometimes different people need to try out different options.”
Currently, the only FDA-approved prescription medicine containing CBD is Epidiolex, an oral solution that has managed to significantly reduce the frequency of seizures in patients.
The Mott poll showed that 83 percent of parents believe CBD products for kids should be regulated by the FDA, and 74 percent say a doctor's prescription should be necessary.
Clark believes the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule I substance has gotten in the way of scientists doing necessary and legitimate research on marijuana and how it might help kids and adults. With the federal prohibition, investment in the research of CBD is not as robust as it should be, especially given its widely accepted usage.
Felicia Castro, the owner of AZ Hemp Health in Mesa, notes that numerous customers are parents purchasing CBD for their children, many of them inquiring in regard to autism. “I ask a few of my customers, 'What do you see? How is it helping?' And the two main things are their mood and the focus,” Castro says.
With the country entering Year Three of home and school disruptions that began with pandemic, evidence points to a behavioral impact on kids that has been detrimental to their mental health.
“When they’re forced to stay at home due to illness or forced to stay at home due to school shutdowns, it obviously disrupts that social part of growing up,” says Dr. Andrew Carroll, a pediatrician who runs a medical behavioral clinic in Chandler.
“We’re still hesitant to advise or suggest that CBD should be used in children under the age of 18,” says Carroll, who believes cognitive behavioral therapy and counseling have had the most impact on children’s behavioral health, “especially in conditions like ADD or ADHD.”
Still, the questions come and the interest grows.
Castro mentioned a customer who purchases CBD oil for her two older autistic boys. “They’re bigger boys and they can actually get kinda physical, so it can help for the people watching and taking care of them,” she says.
Despite the lack of hard research, it’s hard to deny millions of testimonies from patients who use CBD to treat various ailments including high blood pressure, anxiety, and schizophrenia.
Clark contends the jury is still out on CBD because there’s still so much research to be done. “You want to be able to say, "We looked at this in a rigorous fashion and we have data to support those testimonies,'” she states. “We also can have data to say, 'All right, we looked really hard to see if there are negative effects and what those are and how often do they occur and what are the signs that they are occurring so that people can stop using a product if it looks like it could be harmful.'”
Robin Couch, the owner of Your CBD Store in Prescott, points out that her customers purchase CBD for all kinds of ailments.
“They use it for pain, inflammation, neuropathy, just about anything you can think of,” Couch says.
Regarding CBD usage for children, Couch is also hesitant to advise it. “We do not endorse anyone under 18 using the product,” she says, adding the decision should be made by the parent and guidance from the child’s physician.
Carroll agrees that involving a pediatrician early in the conversation is helpful, to talk through their benefits, side effects, and dosage as a best practice before using them.
“When you knee-jerk and start using any type of substance whether it be homeopathic, naturopathic, CBD, or even prescribed medications, you have to be careful,” he adds. “We understand how natural therapies work, just like red yeast works for cholesterol and St. John's wort works for depression.” He believes natural substances can be beneficial if proper dosage is applied and other studied measures already have been discussed with parents.
In the end, the experts are in unison on one major takeaway: There is too little data to be dolling out CBD as a quick fix for any ailments.
“We should be funding studies so we can better understand how it works, how it can benefit kids and adults, and what the side effects might be, and what are the right doses for people,” says Carroll. “That really needs to be done.”
Clark is hopeful for the future of CBD and eager for more data involving its benefits in children. “I hope it gets done, I hope money gets put towards it because I think in certain situations it could be a really good alternative.” | https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/marijuana/new-poll-show-parents-are-open-to-giving-cbd-to-their-children-13372429 | 2022-04-12T18:52:19 | 0 | https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/marijuana/new-poll-show-parents-are-open-to-giving-cbd-to-their-children-13372429 |
With sunny weather year-round, a dry climate, and slow-paced small towns nestled into iconic Southwestern scenery, there’s a reason Arizona is the third-most desirable retirement destination in the country.
In fact, one in four Arizona residents is over the age of 60.
Those in their golden years tend to have more gold in the bank than younger people.
But that just makes Arizona seniors a plum target for a slew of financial crimes, including extortion and identity theft.
A study released this month by NiceRx, an online pharmacy and medical clearinghouse based in the United Kingdom, ranked Arizona ninth in the U.S. among states where elder fraud is most rampant. The study is based on data from a 2020 FBI report on elder fraud.
“Elder abuse is a serious problem,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement. “Older adults may become vulnerable due to isolation, physical or mental disabilities and dependence on others for assistance.”
Since 2020, more than 3,000 Arizona residents over the age of 60 have been defrauded out of more than $27 million, according to the NiceRx study.
Brnovich suspects that the actual number of victims is as many as 6,900, but that “elderly victims are often reluctant to report abuse because they feel ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, afraid, and may even defend the abuser.”
Three out of four victims of elder abuse in Arizona are white women, like 71-year-old Flora, who was scammed so badly she filed bankruptcy in 2020, and whose full name we are withholding to protect her privacy
It was just four months before the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office published an official warning regarding the scourge of elder fraud in Arizona.
No one showed up from the airport.
Instead, the scammers convinced her to empty her bank account at a Walmart register. She was instructed to buy pre-loaded gift cards and send back photos of the 16-digit number embossed in raised lettering on the front of the card, giving scammers access to the balance.
Scammers favor gift cards “because they are easy for people to find and buy, and they have fewer protections for buyers compared to some other payment options,” the Federal Trade Commission said in a December statement.
Scammers cash out quickly and anonymously, and the transaction is largely irreversible.
Gift cards can even resell above face value on the secondary market, according to Mountain View, California-based NortonLifeLock, a Fortune 500 cybersecurity company.
Flora, who lives near Chicago, was completely broke and stranded in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert after purchasing the gift cards there.
She couldn't even afford one night at a nearby hotel, a police report revealed.
“As soon as you provide the gift card number and any sort of security code that's present on the card, the scammer can access those funds,” Gilbert Police Department spokesperson Brenda Carrasco said. “In addition, it’s important to note that scams can also be cyclical such as during holiday and tax seasons.”
The elderly scam victim spent 24 hours inside a Subway restaurant near Power and Ray roads before Gilbert Police Officer Adam Walicke bought her a plane ticket home and drove her to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The usual protocol for a situation like that one would involve transporting the victim to a homeless shelter.
Romance scams rank seventh among the most prevalent crimes against people over 60, claiming about 6,800 victims in the U.S. last year, according to the NiceRx study.
However, romance scams are the most costly. Those 6,800 victims doled out more than $281 million last year — an average loss of more than $41,000 per victim.
“Playing on the vulnerabilities and even the good nature of the elderly victims, romance scams use personal relationships to secure payments and even fraudulent investments,” the study’s authors wrote. “These relationships may involve the criminal impersonating a loved one or may involve them creating an online persona to win the trust of a victim.”
Flora sent her faux beau money consistently for more than a year before flying to Phoenix, according to a Gilbert Police Department investigation report.
“Scammers will create a sense of urgency and indicate there will be consequences if fees are not paid,” Carrasco said. “Victims can be instructed to make several purchases at different stores. Some scammers may keep their victims on the phone while they complete the task.”
Fraud cases in Gilbert jumped more than 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to police records.
Although local cops never determined if the charlatans in Flora's case were operating their scam in metro Phoenix, the U.S. Department of Justice later nabbed a Phoenix woman in a “nationwide grandparent fraud scam.”
In October 2020, the Justice Department vowed to curb the financial exploitation of elderly Arizonans with a $1.5 million injection into two anti-fraud organizations in Tempe and Whiteriver in Navajo County.
“With lockdowns in place across the country, older adults are especially vulnerable to fraud, neglect, and abuse, and criminals have not hesitated to take full advantage,” then-Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Katharine Sullivan said in Phoenix at the time. “These grants will help to turn the tide of deception and predation and restore victims to fiscal security and physical safety.”
In August 2021, a federal grand jury indicted eight people, including a Phoenix woman, in a $2 million scam that victimized people over 70 by feeding them phony stories that their grandchildren were in trouble and needed quick cash.
“This scheme has left many elderly victims financially and emotionally devastated,” Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “It is unconscionable to target the elderly and exploit their love for their grandchildren. Elder fraud is a serious crime against some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Lyda Harris, from Laveen Village in Phoenix, was arrested last year hiding out in Albania. Federal prosecutors are seeking her extradition back to the United States.
Harris is accused in federal district court in Southern California of posing as a distressed grandchild, using a well-rehearsed script to convince victims that she was in dire legal trouble.
The scam generated as much as $57,000 per day, according to the indictment.
The scammers “took elaborate steps to conceal their true identities from victims and law enforcement,” federal prosecutors said.
They used fake names, rented cars and apartments to receive and pick up cash, which they would then convert to untraceable cryptocurrency within minutes, according to the indictment.
Harris’ co-defendants would play other actorial roles in the scam, including lawyers, bail agents, and medical workers.
“I know some victims may be reluctant to come forward because they feel embarrassed that they fell for this hoax,” Grossman said. “But I want to assure victims that it is not your fault. You are one of many, many people who were deceived by a sophisticated criminal organization whose members concocted a number of plausible storylines and conspired together to trick you. These are unscrupulous manipulators who prey on the elderly. They are to blame, not you.”
Popular YouTube channels churn out videos where pranksters waste the time of potential scammers and lead them on a series of ludicrous diversions. The increasing popularity of such videos could have had a hand in the increased awareness of fraud and scams, especially those targeting elderly people.
In 2021, the term “elder fraud” saw a 32 percent increase in searches, with 6,120 such queries in the U.S. compared to 4,620 in 2020, according to data taken from Google Keywords Planner for the NiceRX study.
Still, elder fraud is up more than 150 percent in Arizona since 2019.
More than half of elder fraud victims in Arizona are duped at the hands of trusted family members, friends, and neighbors, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Authorities agree that educating elderly loved ones is the best way to combat the most pervasive cons — extortion, phishing, and tech support scams.
“We encourage our community members who may have family members at risk of falling for these scams to check in on them routinely,” said Carrasco, the police spokesperson. “Establish a system where they notify a trusted contact immediately should someone ask for their personal and financial information.” | https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-seniors-lost-more-than-27-million-to-scams-last-year-13410393 | 2022-04-12T18:52:20 | 1 | https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-seniors-lost-more-than-27-million-to-scams-last-year-13410393 |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says a wrong turn led to the discovery of a loaded shotgun at the Peace Bridge.
They say it was found on Tuesday. According to CBP, it happened when a 42-year-old driver heading for an address in Buffalo accidentally got onto the Peace Bridge.
A primary inspection turned up the shotgun and a secondary exam determined it was illegally possessed, CBP says.
The driver and the shotgun were turned over to New York State police.
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Evan Anstey is an Associated Press Award and Emmy-nominated digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/cbp-wrong-turn-turns-up-loaded-shotgun-at-peace-bridge/ | 2022-04-12T18:59:01 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/cbp-wrong-turn-turns-up-loaded-shotgun-at-peace-bridge/ |
SHERIDAN, N.Y. (WIVB) — A 66-year-old man is dead after falling over a cliff in Chautauqua County.
Shortly before 10 a.m., the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office responded to an address on Route 5 in Sheridan. There, Gregory Meadows, a town resident, had fallen roughly 50 feet to the Lake Erie shoreline.
Meadows was rescued from the lake and taken to a local hospital, where he was declared deceased due to his injuries.
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Evan Anstey is an Associated Press Award and Emmy-nominated digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/western-new-york/chautauqua-county/man-dies-after-falling-over-cliff-in-chautauqua-county/ | 2022-04-12T18:59:07 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/western-new-york/chautauqua-county/man-dies-after-falling-over-cliff-in-chautauqua-county/ |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz lamented at one point during Bills stadium negotiations, “it does not help when you have all this speculation going on and I read a story … and reading parts of it, I go, ‘I know that’s not true.’ Because I’ve been in the meetings.”
But one part of stadium negotiation lore that was true, he says now, was that the team initially asked for taxpayers to fund the entire cost of the new stadium.
“You never get everything you want in a negotiation,” Poloncarz wrote in a series of tweets about the stadium agreement. “We didn’t. The Pegulas didn’t (their original ask was for NYS and County to build a stadium in OP w/no team contribution). It’s a compromise. The team stays. That’s a win.”
The Buffalo News reported in August that the team initially sought stadium funding to be 100% covered by taxpayers. A spokesperson for Pegula Sports & Entertainment declined to comment for the story, but disputed the dollar figure of the team’s ask after the story was published. The county did not comment on the report but Poloncarz stressed days later there would be “no blank check” handed to the team.
Public reaction to the story was overwhelmingly negative, and the ask was termed a “non-starter” for politicians. A different PSE spokesperson calmed some concerns later in August by saying owners Terry and Kim Pegula “have always known that, like virtually all NFL stadiums, this will ultimately be some form of a public/private partnership.”
Negotiations dragged on throughout the winter before culminating with a deal in late March that includes at least $350 million from the team, although the team portion includes money raised through the sale of personal seat licenses.
The breakdown of the $1.4 billion stadium plan is as follows:
- $600 million from New York (much of it coming from long-awaited Seneca casino payments that had been withheld)
- $350 million from the Bills (includes funds raised by PSLs)
- $250 million from Erie County
- $200 million from the NFL (which requires ownership to put up at least this much)
Poloncarz added in the Twitter thread that he hoped for a stadium in Buffalo but couldn’t justify the additional costs.
“I wasn’t going to cut funding for public health, libraries, etc., to fund a stadium. I don’t in new OP deal. I would [need to] to fund city site,” he wrote, “and probably have to create a new tax, or increase property taxes, to fund a city site. Getting any of that passed wasn’t feasible for many reasons.”
* * *
Nick Veronica is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team as a Digital Executive Producer in 2021. He previously worked at NBC Sports and The Buffalo News. You can follow Nick on Facebook and Twitter and find more of his work here. | https://www.wivb.com/sports/buffalo-bills-stadium-discussions/poloncarz-pegula-pse-bills-initial-stadium-ask-was-no-team-contribution/ | 2022-04-12T18:59:13 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/sports/buffalo-bills-stadium-discussions/poloncarz-pegula-pse-bills-initial-stadium-ask-was-no-team-contribution/ |
CORNVILLE, Ariz. (AP) — A hungry javelina in Arizona ended up going for a drive when it became trapped inside an empty car and bumped it into neutral.
Deputies in Yavapai County responded to a call last week in Cornville, a community 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Sedona, about a javelina stuck in a Subaru station wagon. Javelinas are pig-like animals that are native to desert environments.
After speaking with the car’s owner and other residents, they determined the car’s hatch back had been left open overnight.
The javelina jumped in to get to a bag of Cheetos. The hatch then closed, trapping the animal inside.
Authorities say the javelina ripped off a portion of the dashboard and the inside of a door in an attempt to escape.
The animal then managed to knock the car into neutral, causing it to roll down the driveway and across the street. The Subaru came to a rest, and the javelina was not injured.
A deputy opened the hatch, and the javelina was able to run back into the wilderness. | https://www.cenlanow.com/ap-strange-news/hungry-javelina-gets-stuck-in-car-goes-for-ride-in-arizona/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:09 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/ap-strange-news/hungry-javelina-gets-stuck-in-car-goes-for-ride-in-arizona/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock indexes edged lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading Tuesday, shedding early gains as investors weighed new data showing inflation eased slightly in March, but remained at the highest level in 40 years.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower after having been up 1.3% earlier in the day. The benchmark index is coming off back-to-back losses driven by worries about the economic collateral damage as the Federal Reserve tackles high inflation more aggressively. A report on Tuesday morning showed inflation last monthwas again at its highest level in generations, driven by soaring gasoline prices in particular, but the reading was relatively close to economists’ expectations.
Another faint silver lining was that inflation wasn’t as bad as economists expected, when ignoring the costs of food and fuel. While it’s laughable to ask households to forget soaring prices at the gasoline pump and the grocery store, the Federal Reserve pays more attention to what’s called “core inflation” while setting policy because it’s less volatile. And core inflation on a month-over-month basis moderated to its slowest level since September.
“Hopefully this is as bad as it gets,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments.
“The risk is that a red hot labor market grows cold under the force of those higher food, fuel, and financing costs. This is a time when economic resilience will be tested.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 64 points, or 0.2%, at 34,248, as of 2:18 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Stocks in recent days have been trading in the opposite direction of Treasury yields, which have climbed to their highest levels since well before the pandemic. Yields jumped as investors brace for the Federal Reserve to hike short-term rates at a faster pace than typical and to aggressively pare its trove of bonds, whose buildup helped keep longer-term rates low.
But Treasury yields pulled back on Tuesday following the inflation report. The 10-year yield slid to 2.72% from 2.77% late Monday. It was as high as 2.83% overnight, before the inflation report’s release. The 10-year yield nevertheless remains well above the 1.51% level where it began the year.
A measure of nervousness among stock investors also fell immediately after the inflation report.
Stocks elsewhere around the world were lower or mixed, as unease continues to hang over markets about the war in Ukraine, Chinese efforts to contain COVID outbreaks and where inflation and interest rates are heading.
In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi fell 1%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8% and stocks in Shanghai climbed 1.5%. In Europe, Germany’s DAX lost 0.5%, the French CAC 40 slipped 0.3% and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.5%.
The price of U.S. crude oil climbed 7.1% to $100.97, keeping the pressure on high inflation. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 6.2% to $104.62.
Higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve would slow the economy, which would hopefully knock down high inflation. Consumer prices were 8.5% higher in March than a year earlier, accelerating from February’s 7.9% inflation rate and the highest since 1981. To bring it down, the Fed revealed in the minutes from its latest meeting that it’s prepared to hike short-term rates by half a percentage point, double the usual amount, at some upcoming meetings, something it hasn’t done since 2000.
The worry is the Federal Reserve may be so aggressive about hiking interest rates that it forces the economy into a recession.
Higher interest rates also put downward pressure on all kinds of investments, with those seen as the most expensive hardest hit. That’s because when investors are earning more in interest to own relatively safe bonds, they’re less willing to pay higher prices for riskier stocks. Technology and other high-growth stocks that have been some of the stock market’s biggest recent winners have been in the spotlight in particular.
On Tuesday, technology stocks were among the gainers in the S&P 500. Apple rose 0.9%.
Energy stocks and retailers and other companies that rely on consumer spending also rose. Marathon Oil gained 5.4% and Ross Stores rose 2.6%.
Losses in health care and financial stocks helped keep the market’s gains in check. Pfizer fell 1% and Wells Fargo slid 1.9%.
More swings may be in store for stocks as companies prepare to report their earnings for the first three months of the year. Delta Air Lines, JPMorgan Chase and other big-name companies will kick off the reporting season on Wednesday.
A key focus for investors during the latest round of earnings will be any sign of consumers pulling back on spending and how companies reacted, said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager and lead portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions.
“It all boils down to their margins and how are companies deal with rising costs,” Janasiewicz said.
Earnings were able to stay at record levels through the end of last year as companies raised prices for their products and services enough to protect their profit margins. But the further acceleration of inflation may be straining that formula.
Used car dealership chain CarMax slumped 7.9% after reporting disappointing earnings. The company said high prices for cars were discouraging buyers.
While they can swing sharply for many reasons in the short term, stock prices tend to track the path of corporate profits over the long term.
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AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed. Veiga reported from Los Angeles. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/asian-stocks-mixed-as-investors-await-us-profits-inflation/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:16 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/asian-stocks-mixed-as-investors-await-us-profits-inflation/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suingTransUnion and one of its long-time executives alleging that the credit company completely “disregarded” a previous order from five years ago to stop selling dubious credit-related products and marketing.
TransUnion entered into an agreement with the CFPB in 2017, agreeing to pay $13.9 million in restitution and $3 million in civil penalties, saying it would stop trying to sell customers credit monitoring subscription products and would provide an clear way for a customer to cancel a subscription if they no longer wanted it.
Instead of taking actions to stop these practices, the CFPB alleged Tuesday that TransUnion executive John Danaher looked for ways to keep the subscription revenues flowing. This included keeping a vague “checkbox” on the TransUnion website that signed customers up for products that they may not have wanted. This often happened when a customer used annualcreditreport.com, the Federal Government’s portal that gives every American access to their credit report from each of the bureaus free once a year.
The CFPB says that roughly 18% of TransUnion’s annual revenue came from these services, which means it would have been a substantial hit to the Chicago company’s bottom line if it were to stop the program entirely.
“TransUnion is an out-of-control repeat offender that believes it is above the law,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said. “I am concerned that TransUnion’s leadership is either unwilling or incapable of operating its businesses lawfully.”
In a prepared statement TransUnion called the CFPB’s lawsuit “meritless” and said that the CFPB refused to meet with TransUnion to resolve this matter in the weeks and months leading up to the suit.
“We have been in compliance with our obligations and we remain in compliance with the consent order today,” the company said. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/cfpb-sues-transunion-for-violating-previous-agreement/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:23 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/cfpb-sues-transunion-for-violating-previous-agreement/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Another month, another four-decade high for inflation.
For the 12 months that ended in March, consumer prices rocketed 8.5%. That was the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981, far surpassing February’s mark of 7.9%, itself a 40-year high.
Even if you toss out food and energy prices — which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike — so-called core inflation jumped 6.5% in the past 12 months. That was also the sharpest such jump in four decades.
Consumers have felt the squeeze in everyday routines. Gasoline is up an average of 48% in the past year. Airline tickets are up 24%, men’s suits nearly 15%, bacon 18%.
The Federal Reserve never anticipated inflation this severe or persistent. Back in December 2020, the Fed’s policymakers had forecast that consumer inflation would stay below their 2% annual target and end 2021 at around 1.8%.
Yet after having been merely an afterthought for decades, high inflation reasserted itself last year with brutal speed. In February 2021, the government’s consumer price index was running just 1.7% above its level a year earlier. From there, the year-over-year increases accelerated — 2.6% in March, 4.2% in April, 5% in May, 5.4% in June.
By October, the figure was 6.2%, by November 6.8%, by December 7%.
For months, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and some others characterized higher consumer prices as merely “transitory” — the result, mainly, of shipping delays and temporary shortages of supplies and workers as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession much faster than anyone had anticipated. Now, most economists expect inflation to remain elevated well into next year, with demand outstripping supplies in numerous areas of the economy.
So the Fed has radically changed course. Last month, it raised its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter-point and is expected to keep raising it, probably aggressively, well into 2023. In doing so, the Fed is moving decisively away from the ultra-low rates that helped revive the economy from the recession but also helped fuel surging consumer prices.
The Fed is making a high-risk bet that it can slow the economy enough to rein in inflation without weakening it so much as to trigger a recession. The overall economy is healthy, with a robust job market and extremely low unemployment. But many economists say they worry that the Fed’s steady credit tightening will cause an economic downturn.
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WHAT’S CAUSED THE SPIKE IN INFLATION?
Good news — mostly. When the pandemic paralyzed the economy in the spring of 2020 and lockdowns kicked in, businesses closed or cut hours and consumers stayed home as a health precaution, employers slashed a breathtaking 22 million jobs. Economic output plunged at a record-shattering 31% annual rate in 2020’s April-June quarter.
Everyone braced for more misery. Companies cut investment and postponed restocking. A brutal recession ensued.
But instead of sinking into a prolonged downturn, the economy staged an unexpectedly rousing recovery, fueled by vast infusions of government aid and emergency intervention by the Fed, which slashed rates, among other things. By spring of last year, the rollout of vaccines had emboldened consumers to return to restaurants, bars, shops, airports and entertainment venues.
Suddenly, businesses had to scramble to meet demand. They couldn’t hire fast enough to fill job openings or buy enough supplies to meet customer orders. As business roared back, ports and freight yards couldn’t handle the traffic. Global supply chains seized up.
With demand up and supplies down, costs jumped. And companies found that they could pass along those higher costs in the form of higher prices to consumers, many of whom had managed to pile up savings during the pandemic.
Critics blamed, in part, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with its $1,400 checks to most households, for overheating an economy that was already sizzling on its own. Many others argued that the Fed kept rates near zero far too long, lending fuel to runaway spending and inflated prices in stocks, homes and other assets.
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HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
Elevated consumer price inflation could endure as long as companies struggle to keep up with consumers’ demand for goods and services. A recovering job market — employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year and are adding 560,000 a month so far this year — means that Americans as a whole can continue to splurge on everything from lawn furniture to electronics.
Many economists foresee inflation staying well above the Fed’s 2% annual target this year. But relief from higher prices might be coming. Jammed-up supply chains are beginning to show some signs of improvement, at least in some industries. The Fed’s pivot away from easy-money policies toward an anti-inflationary policy could eventually reduce consumer demand. There will be no repeat of last year’s COVID relief checks from Washington. Inflation itself is eroding purchasing power and might force some consumers to shave spending.
At the same time, new COVID variants could cloud the outlook — either by causing outbreaks that force factories and ports to close and disrupt supply chains even more or by keeping people home and reducing demand for goods.
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HOW ARE HIGHER PRICES AFFECTING CONSUMERS?
The strong job market is boosting workers’ pay, though not enough to offset higher prices. The Labor Department says that after accounting for higher consumer prices, hourly earnings for private-sector employees fell 2.7% last month from a year earlier, the 12th straight such drop.
There are exceptions: After-inflation wages rose 8% for hotel workers and 4% for restaurant and bar employees in March from a year earlier.
Partisan politics, in the meantime, is influencing the way Americans view the inflation threat. With a Democrat in the White House, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say that inflation is having a negative effect on their personal finances, according to surveys of consumer sentiment conducted by the University of Michigan. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/explainer-why-us-inflation-is-so-high-and-when-it-may-ease-5/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:30 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/explainer-why-us-inflation-is-so-high-and-when-it-may-ease-5/ |
BERLIN (AP) — German auto parts and technology company Bosch said Tuesday it is buying Five, a British automated driving startup, for an undisclosed amount.
Bosch said Five, which is based in Cambridge and employs 140 people at six locations in the U.K., currently focuses on a cloud-based development and testing platform for the software used in self-driving cars.
Bosch board member Markus Heyn said the company wants Five “to give an extra boost to our work in software development for safe automated driving, and offer our customers European-made technology.”
Bosch said in a statement that Five ”gave preference to Bosch over other takeover bidders,” which it didn’t identify, and that the agreement was signed at the beginning of April. It said the companies agreed not to disclose financial details, and that the deal is subject to approval by antritrust authorities. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/germanys-bosch-buys-british-automated-driving-startup-five/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:36 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/germanys-bosch-buys-british-automated-driving-startup-five/ |
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece will accelerate plans to exploit offshore natural gas deposits, the country’s prime minister said Tuesday, describing a return to reliance on fossil fuels as a temporary necessity due to the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine.
Surveys in six regions in western and southern Greece should be completed by the end of next year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing international energy crisis have added to the very serious level of uncertainty in all our lives,” he said.
“I would like to emphasize that this new path in no way diverts us from the long-term goals of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”
Low oil and gas prices in recent years were blamed for stalling gas exploration in Greece’s Ionian Sea and off the coast of the island of Crete.
But the government last week announced plans to increase domestic coal production and expand its natural gas infrastructure to boost its liquefied natural gas capacity with additional storage space at an existing facility and plans to build two more.
The expansion will eventually allow Greece to export gas to its northern neighbors Bulgaria and North Macedonia, which are also heavily reliant on Russian gas. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/greece-fossil-fuels-offer-new-path-to-green-transition/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:43 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/greece-fossil-fuels-offer-new-path-to-green-transition/ |
DALLAS (AP) — The federal requirement to wear face masks on airplanes and public transportation is scheduled to expire next week, and airline executives and Republican lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to let the mandate die.
The fate of the rule — and consideration of an alternate “framework” of moves to limit the spread of COVID-19 — was under discussion Monday within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Officials described it as a close call.
“This is a decision that the CDC Director Dr. (Rochelle) Walensky is going to make,” White House coronavirus-policy adviser Dr. Ashish Jha said Monday. “I know the CDC is working on developing a scientific framework for how to answer that. We are going to see that framework come out I think in the next few days.”
Jha said that extending mask mandate again is “on the table.”
The administration gave the rule a one-month reprievein March so that public-health officials would have time to develop alternative methods of limiting the transmission of COVID-19 during travel.
The mask mandate is the most visible vestige of government restrictions to control the pandemic, and possibly the most controversial. A surge of abusive and sometimes violent incidents on airplanes has been attributed mostly to disputes over mask-wearing.
Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.
“The American people have seen through the false logic that COVID-19 only exists on airplanes and public transportation,” Republicans on the House and Senate transportation committees said Friday in a letter to the administration.
However, a recent uptick in cases could provide reason for the CDC to keep the mask rule a bit longer.
After a steep, two-month decline, the seven-day rolling U.S. average of new reported COVID-19 cases has turned slightly higher in recent days, although from relatively low levels.
Several prominent officials have contracted the virus, including the 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who tested positive for the virus last week after appearing – without a mask – at a White House event with President Joe Biden. Also last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo disclosed that they had tested positive after a gathering that was quickly dubbed a super-spreader event.
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, believes that if the mandate is dropped, more air travelers and airline crew members will get sick. He said the CDC made a mistake by linking mask guidance to hospitalization rates because less-severe but highly transmissible variants can still kill large numbers of people.
“In public health we try to prevent crashes. Medicine is basically mechanics who try to fix cars after they have already crashed,” he said. “Do you say, ‘Oh, you don’t need to buckle your seat belt today, hospital beds are not full?’ Who does that?”
Airlines began requiring masks in 2020, months before the government mandate was issued days after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Airlines faced financial ruin because of the pandemic, and the masks and other measures such as blocking middle seats were meant to reassure frightened passengers that flying was safe from the virus.
In December, the CEO of Southwest Airlines was forced to walk back a comment that masks didn’t do much to improve health safety in the cabin because planes have strong air filters.
Travelers have returned — the number of Americans getting on planes surged past 2 million a day in March — and airlines think they can sell plenty of seats without the mask rule.
“My flight attendants are begging us to stop this,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said. “Every day it’s causing all of these incidents on board, and it’s frustrating and it’s dangerous. You’re asking a 24-year-old flight attendant to explain it to someone who is mad” about the rule.
Unions that represent flight attendants once supported the mask rule but are now neutral. Officials say their members are divided, which could explain why the two largest U.S. flight-attendant unions declined to comment on the issue this week.
Executives of 10 airlines including American, Delta, United and Southwest wrote to Biden last month, urging the White House to drop the mask rule and a requirement that international travelers test negative for COVID-19 before flying to the U.S. “Much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context,” the executives said.
Airlines for America, a trade group representing those big airlines, and three other industry organizations made a similar appeal to Dr. Jha on Friday. They pointed to recent CDC guidance which found that the most Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors because hospitalization rates in their communities are relatively low.
Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst for Raymond James & Associates, said there are some people who will feel uncomfortable flying with fellow passengers who aren’t wearing masks, but there could be others who have avoided flying because they’re not comfortable wearing one for a long flight.
“I expect the vast majority of passengers and flight attendants will welcome the change (if the rule is dropped), given that it is consistent with most other areas of everyday life,” Syth said. She said any impact on travel demand will be small, and that airlines would get a much bigger boost from elimination of the testing requirement on inbound international travelers.
Chris Lopinto, co-founder of travel site ExpertFlyer.com, said that because of the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, it might be wise to keep the mask mandate until cases subside again.
“I don’t think there would be a material effect on demand either way, considering airlines can barely keep up with the demand they already have,” he said.
Most congressional Democrats continue to support the mask mandate. A leading liberal, Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, urged the CDC and the Transportation Security Administration to keep the rule in place, saying that the virus and variants remain a threat to seniors and people with weakened immune systems or disabilities.
The political calculus could be shifting, however. Last month, eight Democrats broke with the White House and joined Senate Republicans in a symbolic vote against the mask mandate. Four of those Democrats face difficult re-election races in November, and the party is unlikely to keep control of the Senate if any of them lose.
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Associated Press White House reporter Zeke Miller contributed to this report. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/mask-rule-for-planes-and-trains-still-up-in-the-air/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:50 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/mask-rule-for-planes-and-trains-still-up-in-the-air/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands’ data protection watchdog imposed a record 3.7 million euro ($4 million) fine Tuesday on the country’s tax office for unlawfully processing and storing personal information in a “black list” used to detect fraud.
Data Protection Authority’s Chairman Aleid Wolfsen said the government’s Taxation Service “violated the rights of the 270,000 people on that list in an unprecedented way.”
“For over 6 years, people were often wrongly labeled as fraudsters, with dire consequences,” said Wolfsen.
It was the latest in a string of rebukes for Dutch tax authorities, including a fine of 2.75 million euros last year for what the Data Protection Authority called discriminatory practices in a long-running scandal centered on efforts to stamp out fraud with child welfare payments.
The last Dutch government resigned early last year to take responsibility for the welfare fraud scandal.
In the latest case, the authority said that tax authorities collected personal information without a proper legal foundation, often got personal details wrong, leading to people being incorrectly labeled as fraudsters, and did not adequately protect the list.
An internal investigation also revealed that tax office staff were instructed to use the nationality and appearance of people as criteria for gauging whether they could be considered fraud risks.
“If you had a Turkish, Moroccan or East European nationality, then you were further investigated without good reason,” Wolfsen said. “This discrimination is unacceptable.”
The data protection agency said that the tax authorities stopped using the black list in February 2020.
The government minister in charge of the tax office, Marnix van Rij, said the decision was “hard and undeniable and shows once again that fundamental improvements are necessary at the Taxation Service.”
He called the fine “a painful, but understandable conclusion given the seriousness of the findings” and said he would not appeal. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/record-fine-for-dutch-tax-office-over-personal-data-list/ | 2022-04-12T19:10:57 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/record-fine-for-dutch-tax-office-over-personal-data-list/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka is suspending its repayment of foreign debt, including bonds and government-to-government borrowing, pending the completion of a loan restructuring program with the International Monetary Fund to deal with the island nation’s worst economic crisis in decades, the government announced Tuesday.
Sri Lankans in recent months have endured fuel and food shortages and daily power outages. Most of those items are paid for in hard currency, but Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, saddled with dwindling foreign reserves and $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment over the next five years. Nearly $7 billion is due this year.
“Sri Lanka has had an unblemished record of external debt service since independence in 1948,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. “Recent events, however, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the hostilities in Ukraine, have so eroded Sri Lanka’s fiscal position that continued normal servicing of external public debt obligations has become impossible.”
The ministry said the IMF has assessed Sri Lanka’s foreign debt as unsustainable, and that staying current on foreign debt payments is no longer a realistic policy.
In addition to seeking help from the IMF, the government has turned to India and China for help in dealing with shortages.
“The government intends to pursue its discussions with the IMF as expeditiously as possible with a view to formulating and presenting to the country’s creditors a comprehensive plan for restoring Sri Lanka’s external public debt to a fully sustainable position,” the ministry said.
Central Bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told reporters that the announcement on suspending foreign debt payments was urgent because Sri Lanka is due to repay nearly $200 million next week and if the country can’t raise that money, it would face a “hard default” leading to worse repercussions.
The Central Bank appealed to Sri Lankans living and working abroad to donate foreign currency into four government-run bank accounts set up for government officials to purchase essentials like food, fuel and medicine for distribution to the population urgently because talks with the IMF will take time to generate economic improvement. The Central Bank tweeted that a three-member committee will assure transparency in distribution of the funds and promised to make public quarterly financial statements.
Sri Lankans have been forced to wait in long lines to buy cooking gas, fuel and milk power and doctors have warned there is a catastrophic shortage of essential drugs in government hospitals.
Protesters camped out around the president’s office for a fourth straight day demanded the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, holding him responsible for the economic crisis. Supporters of the protesters who are also calling on the ruling Rajapaksa family to quit supplied drinking water and food to the demonstrators. Muslim protesters broke their Ramadan fasting at the site to share food with people around them.
Much of the anger expressed in weeks of protests has been directed at the Rajapaksa family, which has held power for most of the past two decades. Critics accuse the family of borrowing heavily to finance projects that have earned no money, such as a port facility built with Chinese loans.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a former president who is the current president’s older brother, sought in a speech Monday night to reassure people that the government is working to resolving the country’s financial problems.
“We are embarking on an enormous program to overcome the crisis we face today. Every second spent by the president and this government is used up exhausting avenues to rebuild our country,” he said.
Rajapaksa refused to yield power, saying the governing coalition will continue to rule Sri Lanka because opposition parties rejected its call for a unity government.
The crisis and protests prompted many Cabinet members to resign. Four ministers were sworn in as caretakers, but many of the key government portfolios are vacant.
Parliament has failed to reach a consensus on how to deal with the crisis after nearly 40 governing coalition lawmakers said they would no longer vote according to coalition instructions, significantly weakening the government.
But with opposition parties divided, they have been unable of forming a majority to take control of Parliament. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/sri-lanka-halts-debt-repayment-pending-imf-bailout-plan/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:04 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/sri-lanka-halts-debt-repayment-pending-imf-bailout-plan/ |
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota, the top-selling automaker in the U.S., is rolling out its first fully electric vehicle in eight years.
The company on Tuesday unveiled the battery-powered bZ4X small SUV, which starts at $42,000 and can go up to 252 miles (406 kilometers) per charge.
The bZ4X, which will be sold globally, adds to the 38 electric vehicle models now on sale in the U.S., with more than 120 expected by 2025.
While it doesn’t have ground-breaking range or performance for an electric vehicle, the bZ4X is an important entry because it’s from a trusted brand that will convince some buyers to make the switch from internal combustion engines, said Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst for S&P Global Mobility.
“You’ve got buyers who are interested in checking this out but may not be willing to try a new brand, or leave (Toyota) to go to Chevrolet or Ford,” Brinley said. “As we transition to a market that is more dominated by electric vehicles, the answer is really convincing normally ICE (internal combustion engine) owners to try something new.”
The bZ4X looks similar to and is slightly longer, lower and wider than Toyota’s RAV4, the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. that isn’t a pickup truck. It is Toyota’s first EV since 2014, when it last sold an electric version of the RAV4.
Like most electric vehicles, it’s fast when compared with internal combustion engine vehicles. The all-wheel-drive version can go from zero to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in as little as 6.5 seconds, Toyota says.
Sales will start in states that have zero-emissions vehicle requirements, then spread to the rest of the U.S., Toyota said. The bZ4X will be on display at the New York International Auto Show, where press days start this week. The show opens to the public from April 15-24.
Toyota says it plans to offer 15 electric vehicles by 2025, with seven with the bZ brand, which stands for “Beyond Zero.”
When the bZ4X arrives in U.S. showrooms in May, owners likely will have to hurry to get the $7,500 federal tax credit that would make it more affordable. The automaker expects that sometime before the end of June it will reach a 200,000-vehicle cap on the credits.
After it hits the cap, the credits will be phased out over the next year, reaching zero as Tesla and General Motors already have.
Toyota reached the cap largely by selling plug-in gas-electric hybrid vehicles such as the RAV4 Prime, which can go 42 miles on electricity before switching to a hybrid system that uses an internal combustion engine.
Automakers sold nearly 4.6 million electric vehicles worldwide last year. LMC Automotive, an industry consulting firm, expects that to rise to nearly 7 million this year and to more than 15 million by 2025. Still, that will be only about 15% of global vehicle sales. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/toyota-unveils-first-electric-vehicle-since-rav4-ev-in-2014/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:12 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/toyota-unveils-first-electric-vehicle-since-rav4-ev-in-2014/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yelp will cover the travel expenses of employees who must travel out of state for abortions, joining the ranks of major employers trying to help workers affected by new restrictions in Texas and other states.
The benefit announced Tuesday covers all 4,000 employees at the online review service, but seems most likely to have its biggest immediate impact on its 200 workers in Texas, which has passed a law banning abortions within the state after six weeks of pregnancy.
“We’ve long been a strong advocate for equality in the workplace, and believe that gender equality cannot be achieved if women’s healthcare rights are restricted,” said Miriam Warren, Yelp’s chief diversity officer.
Other states,including Oklahoma, are also are clamping down on abortions prompting Yelp, based in San Francisco, and several other companies to draw up policies aimed at helping their workers get reproductive health care in other states.
Last month Citigroup, based in New York, disclosed plans to cover the travel expenses of any of its more than 220,000 employees, thousands of whom work in Texas, who travel to another state for an abortion.
The two largest U.S. ride-hailing services, Uber and Lyft, last year announced they will pay the legal fees for drivers who could get sued under the new Texas law for transporting a passenger to an appointment for an abortion.
The policies expose companies to potential backlash from those who support abortion restrictions, but they could be an advantage for employers with a footprint in states like Texas in an increasingly competitive job market. | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/yelp-to-cover-travel-expenses-for-workers-seeking-abortions/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:19 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/business/yelp-to-cover-travel-expenses-for-workers-seeking-abortions/ |
BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Bossier City Police say four people suspected in the armed robbery of an elderly man in the parking lot of Margaritaville casino last week are in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after getting involved in a crash hours after the robbery.
Bossier City Police responded to an armed robbery call in the Margaritaville Casino parking lot. Responding officers spoke with the victim, who told them he was followed to his vehicle by two males and two females. The females got into a white Chevy Tahoe with a black hood and a temporary license plate.
The male suspects followed the victim to his car, one of them pulled a gun, and they both robbed the victim of $50 to $75 in cash. The white Tahoe pulled up, and the males joined their female counterparts and drove off.
Bossier police violent crimes investigators learned that the suspect vehicle was involved in a crash in Ruston. EMS brought the four individuals to Ochsner LSU Hospital, where they received treatment for life-threatening injuries.
The investigation is ongoing, and Bossier City Police are not releasing the suspects’ names because they are still in the hospital receiving treatment. | https://www.cenlanow.com/crime/4-suspects-in-margaritaville-armed-robbery-hospitalized/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:26 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/crime/4-suspects-in-margaritaville-armed-robbery-hospitalized/ |
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Symphony Orchestra has canceled its European tour that had been scheduled for next month because of an increase in positive coronavirus cases among orchestra members as well as concerns about the rising number of cases on both sides of the Atlantic.
Despite health and safety protocols that include mandatory vaccinations for all musicians and daily testing for woodwind and brass instrumentalists, as well as members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, there were 31 cases among onstage musicians and chorus members following recent performances, the BSO said in a statement Monday.
The increase in cases in Europe could potentially disrupt travel during the tour, the BSO said.
The decision to cancel was made with “deep regret,” BSO President and CEO Gail Samuel said.
“Given the ongoing presence of COVID, brought home by its unfortunate impact on a significant number of our own artists, we must keep as our first priority the health and safety of everyone involved with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,” she said.
The BSO had been scheduled to visit Vienna, Leipzig, Hamburg and Paris in May during a Strauss-focused tour partnership with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, under Andris Nelsons, who is the music director of both ensembles.
“I was deeply passionate and excited to share this international alliance — a musical and human bond between exceptional orchestras on two continents — with our audiences,” Nelsons said. “I am so very sorry for all presenters and audience members who were looking forward to the BSO’s performances, and to all the wonderful teams who spent so much time and energy on making this dream a reality.”
The Boston Symphony Orchestra hopes to visit Europe when conditions allow, Samuel said. | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/boston-symphony-orchestra-cancels-europe-dates-over-covid/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:32 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/boston-symphony-orchestra-cancels-europe-dates-over-covid/ |
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A trial over libel allegations by Johnny Depp against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, will likely turn into a six-week, mudslinging soap opera, Heard’s lawyers warned a Virginia jury Tuesday.
“You’re going to see who the real Johnny Depp is — behind the fame, behind the pirate costumes,” Heard lawyer J. Benjamin Rottenborn told the jury during opening statements in the civil trial. “Because Johnny Depp brought this case, all of this is going to come out.”
Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Depp says the article indirectly defames him by referring to abuse allegations Heard made back in 2016. Depp denies abusing her.
In Tuesday’s opening statements, Rottenborn said the evidence will show that Depp physically and sexually assaulted Heard on multiple occasions. But he told jurors that they don’t need to make themselves referees of the couple’s turbulent marriage if they focus on the basics of libel law.
He argued that Heard was exercising her First Amendment rights as an advocate when she wrote the article, which focused largely on the broad topic of domestic violence.
He also said the 2018 article did nothing to damage Depp’s reputation. He noted that the abuse accusations had been public for two years already, and he said Depp’s spiraling career was the result of his drinking and drug-using, which made him an unreliable commodity to Hollywood studios.
“This man’s poor choices have brought him to this point,” he said. “Stop blaming other people for your own self-created problems.”
More than anything, though, he pointed out that the article in question never even mentions Depp’s name.
Depp’s lawyer, Benjamin Chew, acknowledged that Depp’s name never appears in the piece.
“It didn’t have to,” Chew told the jury. “Everyone in Hollywood knew exactly what she was talking about.”
Depp’s team argues that the article is an example of “defamation by implication.” In the December 2018 piece, Heard wrote that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”
Chew said that’s a clear reference to a restraining order Heard sought in May 2016 — right after Depp told her he wanted a divorce — in which she claimed she’d been physically abused.
Chew said she showed up at the courthouse on May 27 of that year with a bruise on her face that was photographed by the paparazzi. But he said the evidence will show that Heard gave herself the injury to ruin Depp’s reputation. He said that Depp and Heard hadn’t seen each other since May 21: He’d gone on a European tour with his band, the Hollywood Vampires.
Police and others saw Heard immediately after May 21 and her face wasn’t bruised, Chew said. He said a witness will testify that he saw security footage in which Heard’s sister throws fake punches at her, and the two laugh.
Another of Depp’s lawyers, Camille Vasquez, told the jury that Heard refuses to admit she lied and has now dug in even deeper.
“She can’t back down. She has been living and breathing this lie for years,” Vasquez said. “She’s going to give the performance of a lifetime in this courtroom.”
Both Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
About 80 people, mostly Depp supporters, sat in the courtroom Tuesday. Some people lined up hours early for seats, but several rows were largely vacant.
The courtroom went silent a few minutes before the 10 a.m. start time when Heard entered the room, through a special entrance usually reserved for the judge. But there was an audible intake of breath when Depp came in a minute later, again through a special entrance.
A civil jury of seven members, plus four alternates, was selected Monday to hear the case.
Heard’s lawyers had sought to have the case tried in California, where the actors reside. But a judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case in Virginia because The Washington Post’s computer servers for its online edition are located in the county. Depp’s lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case. | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/jury-to-hear-opening-statements-in-johnny-depp-libel-case/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:39 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/jury-to-hear-opening-statements-in-johnny-depp-libel-case/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — “Hello, Molly! A Memoir” by Molly Shannon (Ecco)
Molly Shannon made a name for herself as a standout performer on “Saturday Night Live,” star of the movie “Superstar” featuring her “SNL” character Mary Katherine Gallagher, and playing an eager-to-please stage mom in the sitcom “The Other Two.”
But before the professional successes, Shannon had to overcome an enormous tragedy, she details in her new memoir, “Hello, Molly!” which she wrote with Sean Wilsey.
When she was just 4, her whole family was involved in a horrendous car accident that killed her mother, younger sister and cousin. Her father, who survived, was driving after drinking earlier in the day.
“My whole life changed in an instant,” she writes.
Though devastated by the loss of her mother at such a young age, Shannon found solace in performing in school plays and community shows while growing up in the Irish-Catholic community in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio. She also found comfort in a close bond with her sister, Mary, who also survived the accident.
She remained close with her father Jim, a charismatic but unstable man who is haunted by the accident. He encourages her adventurous performer side, but he can also be suffocating and fly off the handle into a rage at a moments’ notice. She later says many of her characters are partly based on her larger-than-life father.
Shannon peppers the memoir with inside-showbusiness anecdotes that make the memoir a hard-to-put down page turner. She recounts waiting tables for Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts while she awaits her big break and landing auditions in Hollywood by calling agents and pretending to be David Mamet’s assistant. More disturbingly, she recalls an unscrupulous manager setting her up with an 18-year-old Gary Coleman who harasses her.
After a few years of trying to make it in L.A., she finally gets her big break, an audition with Lorne Michaels for “Saturday Night Live.” She’s passed over her first time, but a second audition lands her the gig. She spends six seasons on the show with fellow cast members including Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer and Tracy Morgan.
She left in 2001, not because she had another job lined up, but because she wanted to finally have time to have a personal life. “I wanted to get coffee with friends and start a family,” she says. She now has two children with her husband, Fritz – successfully becoming the mother she always dreamed of being.
“Hello, Molly!” paints a portrait of a resilient spirit persevering through tragedy and the cutthroat world of fame to build a fulfilling life for herself. | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/molly-shannons-tragedy-and-perseverance-in-hello-molly/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:45 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/molly-shannons-tragedy-and-perseverance-in-hello-molly/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Timekeeping isn’t Rihanna’s strong suit, and that goes for the pregnancy she’s been sharing with the world as well.
“Planning? I wouldn’t say planning,” she told Vogue about her upcoming motherhood. “But certainly not planning against it. I don’t know when I ovulate or any of that type of (expletive). We just had fun. And then it was just there on the test.”
Now in her third trimester, the music star, and fashion and beauty mogul hasn’t exactly been hiding under a maternity tentsince she and boyfriend A$AP Rocky announced they were expecting in late January via a wintry New York street photo shoot. Since, she’s made the fashion week rounds in Milan and Paris wearing a range of belly-bearing couture.
If it’s not something she would have put on pre-pregnancy, Rihanna said, it’s not something on her list now.
“My body is doing incredible things right now, and I’m not going to be ashamed of that,” she said. “This time should feel celebratory. Because why should you be hiding your pregnancy?”
The cover interview, out Tuesday, has 34-year-old Rihanna in a lacy red Alaïa bodysuit and long gloves. It’s just one of the numerous rule-breaking designer looks she’s been wearing in celebration of her bump.
So how is she feeling about the next part, where she actually gives birth and scheduling possibly kicks in?
Rihanna wishes all of her closest loved ones could be in the room, but that seems unlikely under COVID-19 rules. She didn’t disclose where she’ll be headed for labor and delivery — or when she’s due for that matter.
“Maybe I’ll just have a party bus parked outside or something,” she said. And what frightens her the most? “Postpartum depression. Will I feel out of control emotionally? Those are the stories I hear from other women that scare me.” | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/rihanna-talks-fashion-motherhood-as-due-date-approaches/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:51 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/rihanna-talks-fashion-motherhood-as-due-date-approaches/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — 2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.
The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.
The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020’s record-setting total.
Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.
“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.
COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 — to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before — as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.
The coronavirus is not solely to blame. Preliminary CDC data also shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, and rates continued to increase for diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke.
Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021 — up from 93,000 the year before.
New research released Tuesday showed a particularly large jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.
Adolescent overdose death counts were fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. They almost doubled in 2020, to 954, and the researchers estimated that the total hit nearly 1,150 last year.
Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author, called the spike “unprecedented.”
Those teen overdose deaths were only around 1% of the U.S. total. But adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population, even though surveys suggest drug use among teens is down.
Experts attributed the spike to fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs that teens sometimes abuse.
National death trends affect life expectancy — an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live.
With rare exceptions, U.S. life expectancy has reliably inched up year after year. But the CDC’s life expectancy estimate for 2020 was about 77 years — more than a year and a half lower than what it was in 2019.
The CDC has not yet reported its calculation for 2021. But Goldman and some other researchers have been making their own estimates, presented in papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Those researchers think U.S. life expectancy dropped another five or six months in 2021 — putting it back to where it was 20 years ago.
A loss of more than two years of life expectancy over the last two years “is mammoth,” Goldman said.
One study looked at death data in the U.S. and 19 other high-income countries. The U.S. fared the worst.
“What happened in the U.S. is less about the variants than the levels of resistance to vaccination and the public’s rejection of practices, such as masking and mandates, to reduce viral transmission,” one of the study’s authors, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement.
Some experts are skeptical that life expectancy will quickly bounce back. They worry about long-term complications of COVID-19 that may hasten the deaths of people with chronic health problems.
Preliminary — and incomplete — CDC data suggest there were at least 805,000 U.S. deaths in about the first three months of this year. That’s well below the same period last year, but higher than the comparable period in 2020.
“We may end up with a ‘new normal’ that’s a little higher than it was before,” Anderson said.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/covid-19-overdoses-pushed-us-to-highest-death-total-ever/ | 2022-04-12T19:11:58 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/covid-19-overdoses-pushed-us-to-highest-death-total-ever/ |
LONDON (AP) — European health officials investigating an outbreak of salmonella linked to chocolate Easter eggs that has sickened at least 150 children across the continent said Tuesday they suspect it is due to bad buttermilk in a Belgian factory.
In an assessment of the continuing outbreak, experts at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority said they had matched the same salmonella strain currently infecting people to samples taken from a factory in Belgium last December.
Officials said “the processing step involving buttermilk” was identified by the company as the point of contamination for two products, chocolate eggs that normally have a surprise toy inside and bite-sized praline chocolates. National authorities have previously named the involved company as the Italian chocolate firm Ferrero.
Before the Belgian factory was shut down, however, European officials noted it had exported “the implicated chocolate products” across Europe and globally.
As of this week, 150 cases of salmonella have been reported in nine European countries and the U.K. after the first case was identified in Britain last December. The majority of cases have been in children under age 10 and “an exceptionally high number” have been hospitalized, European officials said. Britain has so far reported the most cases – 65 – of whom 43% are hospitalized.
Ferrero began recalling chocolate eggs and other products in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere weeks ago. Last week, the company expanded its recall to the U.S., acknowledging that some of the goods on sale were made in the tainted Belgian factory.
“This outbreak is rapidly evolving, and children have so far been most at risk for severe infection among reported cases,” the European CDC said in its report. It noted that further investigation was needed to determine how the problem happened and evaluating “the possibility of the wider use of contaminated raw material in other processing plants.”
Salmonella typically causes symptoms including diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. Most people who get sick do not need any medicine but severe cases that result in hospitalization may require antibiotics or other treatment.
European officials warned that it was likely cases were being missed in some countries due to a lack of surveillance and genetic sequencing.
Ferrero has previously said it is cooperating with national and European health authorities in the outbreak investigation.
“We are taking this extremely seriously as consumer care is our top priority,” the company said. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/eu-salmonella-outbreak-in-chocolate-eggs-due-to-bad-milk/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:05 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/eu-salmonella-outbreak-in-chocolate-eggs-due-to-bad-milk/ |
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has become the first state to criminalize the use of puberty blockers and hormonesto treat transgender people under age 19. In line with some other Republican-led states, legislators here also passed a law requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex at birth and prohibiting discussion of gender and sexual identity in the lower grades. Critics have derided the limitation on such discussions as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
The two GOP bills were signed into law Friday by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, a day after being passed by the Alabama Legislature. Advocacy groups quickly filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the medication ban.
Republicans argue the bills are needed to protect children and that decisions on gender-affirming medications should wait until adulthood. Critics say the politicians are interfering with medical decisions that belong with families and their doctors. Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, a national advocacy group for the LGBTQ community, called the two pieces of legislation “the single most anti-transgender legislative package in history.”
WHAT DOES THE TREATMENT BAN DO?
Titled the “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” the law makes it a crime to prescribe or administer to anyone under 19 puberty blockers or hormone treatment “for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex.”
Legislators made it a Class C felony to violate the law, meaning doctors who prescribe or administer such medication would be subject to up to 10 years in prison.
The law, which takes effect on May 8 unless blocked by the courts, also bans surgeries for the purpose of altering gender appearance, but doctors say those are generally not performed on minors.
Alabama’s legislation goes further than measures passed in other states. Arkansas was the first state to pass a ban on gender-affirming drugs, but its measure did not include criminal penalties. The Arkansas law was blocked by a federal judgebefore it could go into effect. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate as child abuse reports of youth receiving such care.
WHAT ARE THE CRITICISMS?
Doctors, families and advocacy organizations say politicians are inserting themselves into decisions that belong with families and medical teams. The measures have prompted swift backlash from medical experts, Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the families of trans youth. Doctors say the Alabama law is contrary to peer-reviewed research and applies a criminal label to standard medical care. Health experts also say that minors with gender dysphoria who do not receive appropriate medical care face dramatically increased risk of suicide and serious depression.
DOES THE LAW DO ANYTHING ELSE?
Yes. The law requires counselors, teachers, principals and other administrators — in both public and private schools — to tell parents if a child discloses that they think they may be transgender. It also prohibits school staff from encouraging students to withhold the information from their parents.
WHAT DOES THE BATHROOM/ “DON’T SAY GAY” LAW DO?
The second piece of legislation signed by Ivey involves public school bathroom use and classroom instruction.
The law requires students in grades K-12 to use multi-person bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sex at birth rather than their gender identity. It also prohibits teachers and others who provide lessons to grades K-5 from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Critics have labeled a similar measure passed in Florida that applies to grades K-3 the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Opponents of the medication ban who filed the lawsuit are hoping a judge will grant their request to block it. A legal challenge is also expected to be filed against the bathroom and classroom-instruction measures.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to states warning that efforts to block transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming care may be violating federal law and the constitutional protections. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/explainer-what-do-new-alabama-laws-say-on-transgender-kids/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:12 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/explainer-what-do-new-alabama-laws-say-on-transgender-kids/ |
An influential U.S. group is raising doubts about routine suicide screening for children and teens even as others call for urgent attention to youth mental health.
In draft guidance posted Tuesday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there’s not enough evidence to recommend routinely screening kids who show no obvious signs of being suicidal. The document is open for public comment until May 9, and opposing voices are already weighing in.
Many experts agree with the group’s assessment that more research is urgently needed but argue that there’s no evidence that screening — asking kids if they’ve ever considered or attempted suicide — could cause harm.
“In the meantime, what are you going to do with this mental health crisis? You cannot turn a blind eye,’’ said psychologist Lisa Horowitz of the National Institute of Mental Health.
The task force is an independent group of doctors and other experts that creates guidelines for prevention services in primary care settings, based on an analysis of research. The group’s final recommendations often mirror its draft guidance. Insurance coverage decisions are often based on its advice.
The draft guidance pertains to screening in pediatricians’ offices and similar settings for kids up to age 18.
In 2020, suicide was the second-leading cause of death for ages 10 to 14, and the third leading cause for ages 15 to 19, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abundant reports suggest kids’ mental health has suffered during the pandemic, with troubling numbers of suicide attempts and increases in depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other signs of distress.
“Certainly, we all share the same concern about wanting to minimize this risk for young people and to intervene effectively so that we can prevent these consequences,’’ said task force member Martha Kubik, a professor of nursing at George Mason University. But she said suicide screening in kids who aren’t obviously troubled could lead to stigma and needless anxiety.
The task force’s draft document recommends anxiety screening for ages 8 to 18, and echoes its previous advice for depression screening starting at age 12. Kubik said depression screening may catch some suicidal kids.
Suicide prevention experts say there’s a common misconception that asking kids about suicide will plant the idea in their minds. They argue that open conversations will reduce suicide stigma and let kids know parents and trusted adults care about their wellbeing.
“This report may actually set the field back,’’ said Dr. Christine Moutier of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Just last month, the foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics backed suicide screening for ages 12 and up, and for kids aged 8 to 11 when there are concerns.
Last year, the pediatrics group and two others declared children’s health a national emergency worsened by the pandemic. And in January, the government issued updated Affordable Care Act preventive care guidelines that call for universal screening for suicide risk for ages 12 to 21.
The suicide of a 12-year-old Elkhart, Indiana, girl last month left her close-knit family reeling and wondering if they’d missed any signs. Rio Allred was a witty, bright-eyed seventh grader with a wicked laugh who loved books, sketching and video games.
They knew she was bothered by merciless bullying about her alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. She developed it during the pandemic, shaved her head and only sometimes wore wigs or a hat. The family complained to school authorities and gave Rio a choice of transferring or home-schooling, but she wanted to stay put, said her mom, Nicole Ball.
“She put on such a brave face,” Ball said. “I never thought it would get to this point.”
The family talked openly about tough subjects including suicide, and Ball says Rio had recently gone to a school counselor, worried about one of her friends self-harming.
But Ball says she thinks routine suicide screening by “somebody that’s trained, on the outside looking in,’’ might pick up things kids don’t openly share, or signs that parents overlook.
The family has launched an anti-bullying campaign, and Ball says she’s sure Rio would approve.
“I always said she would change the world,’’ she said. “I hate that it’s this way.”
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Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner: @LindseyTanner
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/influential-panel-raises-doubts-on-youth-suicide-screening/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:19 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/influential-panel-raises-doubts-on-youth-suicide-screening/ |
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that Johnson & Johnson must pay penalties to the state for deceptively marketing pelvic mesh implants for women, but reduced the amount by $42 million to $302 million.
Johnson & Johnson had appealed in 2020 after Superior Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon assessed the $344 million in penalties against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.
Sturgeon found after a non-jury trial that the company made misleading and potentially harmful statements in hundreds of thousands of advertisements and instructional brochures for nearly two decades.
California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a ruling Monday that $42 million in penalties assessed for the company’s sales pitches to doctors were unjustified because there was no evidence of what the sales representatives actually said.
But the appeals court said Sturgeon received ample evidence that Ethicon knowingly deceived both physicians and patients about the risks posed by its products, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Ryan Carbain, a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson, told the Chronicle that the company would appeal the appeals court ruling to the state Supreme Court.
The instructions for use in all of the company’s pelvic mesh implant packages “falsified or omitted the full range, severity, duration, and cause of complications associated with Ethicon’s pelvic mesh products, as well as the potential irreversibility and catastrophic consequences,” Presiding Justice Judith McConnell of the appeals court said in a 3-0 ruling upholding the $302 million in penalties.
She rejected the company’s claim that the fine was excessive, saying it amounted to less than 1% of Johnson & Johnson’s net worth of $70.4 billion.
The products, also called transvaginal mesh, are synthetic and surgically implanted through the vagina of women whose pelvic organs have sagged or who suffered from stress urinary incontinence when they cough, sneeze or lift heavy objects.
Many women have sued the New Jersey-based company alleging that the mesh caused severe pain, bleeding, infections, discomfort during intercourse and the need for removal surgery.
The condition is estimated to affect 3% to 17% of women and it sometimes becomes severe after age 70.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest maker of health care products, is contesting other lawsuits over drug side effects, its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic and allegations its baby powder caused cancer in some users. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-302m-in-pelvic-mesh-case/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:26 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-302m-in-pelvic-mesh-case/ |
ATLANTA (AP) — The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9% of the American pie white people enjoy.
While Black people have made economic and health gains, they’ve slipped further behind white people in education, social justice and civic engagement since this index was launched in 2005. A compendium of average outcomes by race in many aspects of life, it shows just how hard it is for people of color to overcome systemic racism, the civil rights organization says.
“These numbers change so little and so slowly. What it tells me is that this institutional disparity based on race seems to be built into American society,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said in an interview.
The index shows not only that the median household income for Black people, at $43,862, is 37% less than that of white people, at $69,823. Black people also are less likely to benefit from home ownership, the engine of generational wealth in America. Census data shows Black couples are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be denied a mortgage or a home improvement loan, which leads to just 59% of the median home equity white households have, and just 13% of their wealth.
“In that area of wealth, we’ve seen almost no change, none, since the civil rights days,” Morial said. “The wealth disparity has gotten wider.”
Among dozens of health measures, one stands out: Life expectancy has declined slightly for African Americans, so a Black child born today can expect to live to 74.7, four years less than a white baby. And lifelong inequities loom: Black women are 59% more likely to die as a result of bearing a child, and 31% more likely to die of breast cancer. Black men are 52% more likely to die of prostate cancer.
Overdoses afflict the races about equally, while white people are 55% more likely to drink themselves to death through cirrhosis or chronic liver disease. Among people 15-24, white people are more than twice as likely to kill themselves, while Black men are nine times more likely to die by homicide.
Educational gaps abound: Black and white preschoolers are roughly equally prepared, but the classrooms they enter are starkly different. Schools with more minority students are more likely to have inexperienced, less trained and even uncertified teachers. Fewer of these students are enrolled in the STEM classes that can lead to higher-paying jobs. Black students are less likely to graduate from college.
The index uses U.S. Justice Department statistics to chart social justice differences, noting that Black people have been more than twice as likely as white people to experience threats or uses of force during police encounters, and three times more likely to be jailed if arrested. In 2020, they were 93% more likely to be victims of hate crimes.
Measuring civic engagement, the index cites 2020 census data showing that white people are about 5% more likely to be registered and to actually vote than Black people.
Morial chose to release the report in Atlanta, where a concentration of historically Black colleges have long represented high achievement among African Americans, in part because its survey shows a declining faith among young people that voting can make a difference. The Urban League is responding by launching a “Reclaim Your Vote” campaign.
“Georgia is ground zero for voter suppression,” Morial said. The legislature’s actions after Jan. 6 have been sweeping in their aggressiveness to suppress the vote. We’ve got to remain resolute, to push back against this. We cannot give in. We cannot give up.” | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/national-urban-league-finds-state-of-black-america-is-grim/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:33 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/national-urban-league-finds-state-of-black-america-is-grim/ |
BEIJING (AP) — Some residents of Shanghai were allowed out of their homes as the city of 25 million eased a two-week-old shutdown Tuesday after a video posted online showed what was said to be people who ran out of food breaking into a supermarket.
About 6.6 million people can go outdoors, but some must stay in their own neighborhoods, the online news outlet The Paper reported, citing city officials. The government said some markets and pharmacies would reopen.
A health official warned Shanghai doesn’t have the virus under control despite easing restrictions.
“The epidemic is in a period of rapid growth,” said Lei Zhenglong of the National Health Commission at a news conference. “Community transmission has not been effectively contained.”
The abrupt closure of most businesses starting March 28 and orders to stay home left the public fuming about lack of access to food and medicine. People who test positive for the virus are forced into sprawling temporary quarantine facilities criticized by some as crowded and unsanitary.
Meanwhile, the American government announced all “non-emergency U.S. government employees” would be withdrawn from its Shanghai Consulate. A foreign ministry spokesman defended China’s handling of the outbreak and accused Washington of politicizing its evacuation.
Also Tuesday, the government of Guangzhou, a manufacturing and trading center northwest of Hong Kong, announced a new round of virus testing for its 19 million people. Most access to the city was stopped after 27 infections were found Monday.
The unusual severity of Shanghai’s shutdown appeared to be driven as much by politics as by public health concerns.
The struggle in China’s richest city is an embarrassment during a politically sensitive year when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party.
China’s case numbers are relatively low, but the ruling party is enforcing a “zero-tolerance” strategy aimed at isolating every case. Some officials have been fired for failing to act aggressively enough, which gives others an incentive to impose extreme measures.
The government reported 24,659 new cases through midnight Monday, including 23,387 with no symptoms. That included 23,346 in Shanghai, only 998 of whom had symptoms.
In Shanghai, more than 200,000 cases but no deaths have been reported in the latest wave of infections.
The government eased restrictions by announcing residents of areas with no cases for at least two weeks can leave their homes starting Tuesday. It said they could go to other areas that also had no new cases during that time but were urged to stay home when possible.
Such “prevention areas” have about 4.8 million people, The Paper reported, citing city officials. It said all but 500,000 of those were in less crowded suburbs.
An additional 1.8 million people in “control areas” with no new cases in the past week are allowed out but can’t leave their neighborhoods, the report said.
Another 15 million people in “quarantine areas” that have had infections in the past week still are barred from leaving their homes. The report gave no indication of the status of the remaining 3.4 million people in the official population.
The shutdown of Shanghai, home of the world’s busiest port and China’s main stock exchange, has prompted fears manufacturing and global trade might be disrupted.
Automakers in Shanghai, a manufacturing center, have suspended or reduced production due to interruptions in supplies of components. The port’s management says operations are normal, but European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has estimated the volume of cargo it handles every day has fallen 40%.
Residents complained the shutdown left them without access to food or medicine and unable to look after elderly relatives who lived alone.
The government distributed packages of vegetables and other food for a few days at least twice to some households. Others said they received nothing.
A video that circulated online Saturday showed what a caption said were people in the Songjiang district breaking into a supermarket and carrying away cartons of food.
Police denied the event occurred in Shanghai. A police statement Tuesday said the video was posted by a man in Kunshan, west of Shanghai, but not when or where it was shot. It said the man received unspecified “administrative penalties” for “disrupting public order by fabricated facts.”
The Associated Press was unable to find the source of the video or when and where it was shot.
Official plans in late March called for suspending access to districts of Shanghai for four days at a time while residents were tested. After case numbers soared, that changed to an indefinite citywide shutdown with only a few hours’ notice.
Despite a promise by city officials to improve food supplies, residents said online grocers often sold out early in the day or were unable to deliver. Vendors said they added hundreds of employees to speed deliveries.
The State Department last week advised Americans against travel to China due to “arbitrary enforcement” of laws and anti-virus restrictions. It cited a risk of “parents and children being separated.”
On Tuesday, a State Department statement said the U.S. government decided “it is best for our employees and their families to be reduced in number” due to “changing circumstances on the ground.”
The foreign ministry criticized the announcement and said China’s anti-virus work is “scientific and effective.”
“The United States should immediately stop attacking China’s epidemic prevention policy, stop political manipulation with the epidemic issue and stop smearing and discrediting China,” said a ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian.
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AP video producer Liu Zheng and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing and researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed. | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/shanghai-eases-2-week-shutdown-letting-some-residents-out/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:40 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/health/shanghai-eases-2-week-shutdown-letting-some-residents-out/ |
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The top international official in Bosnia on Tuesday suspended a Bosnian Serb property law that is seen as part of a separatist drive by Bosnian Serbs.
Christian Schmidt, who heads the U.N. Office of High Representative in Bosnia, says that the law passed in February in the Bosnian Serb assembly was unconstitutional.
Bosnian Serbs have refused to withdraw the law and top Serb politician Milorad Dodik said Tuesday he does not accept Schmidt’s decision.
The legislation seeks to transfer ownership of public property to the Serb-run entity called Republika Srpska, rather than the Bosnian federal state.
Bosnia’s government consists of two entities — one run by Bosnian Serbs and the other by Bosniaks and Croats — established in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 ethnic war. The two semi-autonomous regions are bound together by joint central institutions.
Dodik, a pro-Russia politician who’s the Serb member of Bosnia’s multi-ethnic presidency, has repeatedly called for the separation of the Serb entity from the rest of Bosnia.
Britain slapped Dodik and Bosnian Serb President Zeljka Cvijanovic with sanctions on Monday for undermining peace in the Balkan nation. Dodik already has faced U.S. sanctions earlier this year.
He remained defiant on Tuesday, saying that “the property of Republika Srpska remains the property of Republika Srpska.”
Schmidt said that his decision “makes it clear that only the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can dispose of state property or regulate property.”
The Dayton peace accord envisages that joint decisions in Bosnia are reached by consensus of its ethnic groups. The U.N. High Representative has the authority to suspend laws and officials viewed as violating the peace deal.
The issue of ownership and division of the state property has remained unsolved for years amid disagreements between Bosnian politicians.
Bosnia’s war killed more than 100,000 people and left millions homeless. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/bosnias-international-official-suspends-serb-property-law/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:47 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/bosnias-international-official-suspends-serb-property-law/ |
BRNO, Czech Republic (AP) — Of the first four shots Olha Dembitska fired from an AK-47 assault rifle in her life, one hit the target.
“It’s pretty difficult the first time,” the 22-year-old Ukrainian woman acknowledged.
On this occasion, the target was the shape of a human body at a shooting range in the Czech Republic. Next time, it might be for real, in Ukraine, and the target could be one of the Russian troops who have invaded her homeland.
Dembitska is one of at least 130 men and women who have so far undergone free-of-charge training for Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic who want to learn how to fight the aggressor.
“I might return to Ukraine if they need me,” she said.
Almost none of the participants had any experience with weapons before war struck their homeland.
Since Russia launched its brutal attack, Ukrainians from all parts of the country and elsewhere have been arriving in the Czech Republic’s second-largest city, Brno, attracted by courses designed to teach them essentials and skills to safely handle lethal rifles while being able to inflict damage on their enemy.
Beside learning to shoot, the courses give them the basics about guns, movement around the battlefield and a lesson in providing first aid, something that can save lives if they‘re mobilized by their embattled country or decide to return home as volunteers to join the Ukrainian army.
They are all motivated.
“It’s horrible,” Dembitska said about the situation in her homeland. She gets her news from social media and from phone calls with a friend based in the southern city of Kherson, seized by Russian troops in the early stages of the invasion.
“She tells me everything. They haven’t received humanitarian aid. It’s a horror what the Russian soldiers are doing, I’m sick of it.”
Michal Ratajsky, the owner of CS Solutions, a security company that offers the training program at its base on the outskirts of Brno, located some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Prague, called it “our contribution to the help for Ukrainians.”
“We view it as a morale boost we’re giving them in this situation, an effort to show we’re supporting them and that we will do for them what we can at the given moment,” Ratajsky said. “That was our motivation and goal.”
A crowdfunding campaign helped secure enough money for the ammunition, while his company provides the rest, including experienced instructors, weapons and the shooting range.
Ratajsky said the brief, three-hour training can’t do miracles but should be enough to introduce the Ukrainians to new, unfamiliar skills.
“We know that we don’t make soldiers of them in those three hours,” he said. “We try to do the maximum for them in the time, with the focus on their safety.”
Some of the participants have returned for repeated lessons. Some have come from as far away as Vienna. in neighboring Austria. Some took the course on their way back to Ukraine from Western Europe, Ratajsky said.
He said the Ukrainians are united by anger about the Russian aggression, and determined to end it.
“They take it seriously and want to do something about it.”
He said that because some 80% percent of troop losses in a war like the one in Ukraine are caused by artillery and missiles, a sense of self-preservation and knowledge of first aid might be more useful for survival than shooting.
“We’re aware of the limits of what we can get them ready for and make no secret of it,” Ratajsky said.
Yehor Nechyporenko, 38, who had traveled some 260 kilometers (160 miles) from the town of Mlada Boleslav to Brno for the second time said he is helping Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the Czech Republic but wants to be ready to go back home to fight.
“It’s very useful for me,” he said of the training. “I really like it. I need to learn those things because I didn’t do military service.”
Nechyporenko said he was sure the Russians have no chance of taking the entire country.
“I think the war will be over in a couple of months,” he said. “And if we see we’re losing, we’ll all travel home.”
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/czechs-provide-free-shooting-training-for-local-ukrainians/ | 2022-04-12T19:12:54 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/czechs-provide-free-shooting-training-for-local-ukrainians/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine said Tuesday it is investigating a claim that a poisonous substance was dropped on the besieged city of Mariupol. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said it was possible that phosphorus munitions — which cause horrendous burns but are not classed as chemical weapons — had been used.
Now the question is how to establish the truth amid the fog of war that has descended over a city still under attack from Russian forces. A clear answer is unlikely to emerge any time soon.
The global chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it is “concerned by the recent unconfirmed report of chemical weapons use in Mariupol” and is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are among the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ 193 member states.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning OPCW says that it “remains ready to assist any State Party upon its request, in case of use or threat of use of chemical weapons.”
WHO COULD INVESTIGATE?
First in line to investigate in Ukraine is the country’s own law enforcement agencies. There also are teams from other nations investigating allegations — particularly around the Ukrainian town of Bucha — of war crimes and the International Criminal Court has launched an investigation in Ukraine. The OPCW has, so far, not announced any investigations in Ukraine, although it says on its website that it “is monitoring the status of relevant chemical industrial facilities and any threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons in the country.”
Marc-Michael Blum, former head of the OPCW’s laboratory and now an independent consultant, said the organization won’t send a team to Mariupol any time soon to investigate.
“We have an active war zone where the OPCW would not send a team in because the security of the team cannot be guaranteed,” Blum told The Associated Press.
HOW ARE SUSPECTED CHEMICAL ATTACKS INVESTIGATED?
If a team of experts were able to investigate what was used and by whom, it would seek to build a dossier of evidence based on laboratory tests of samples collected at the scene and from victims. That means taking soil samples and testing them for traces of possible chemical weapons or other munitions. Samples of blood and urine from victims who were exposed to the munition would also be tested.
Then investigators would seek to interview witnesses and survivors, to build a picture of what they experienced, and the physicians who treated them. In past investigations, experts have studied gas dispersion models and topographic charts and looked at digital images. The OPCW has experience building such investigations in Syria, where its experts have confirmed the use of chemical weapons on multiple occasions.
Damascus denies using chemical weapons.
WHAT HAPPENED IN PREVIOUS CASES OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS USE ELSEWHERE?
Hundreds of people were killed in gas poisoning attacks in Syria during the country’s civil war. The OPCW faced numerous hurdles and Russian vetoes complicating the establishment of investigation mechanisms. To this day, no one has been held accountable.
Two recent cases outside Syria show how a suspected chemical weapon use can be investigated by local authorities — the poisoning in 2020 of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in 2018.
In those cases, authorities in Germany, where Navalny went for treatment, and in the United Kingdom in the case of the Skripals, took and tested biological samples and concluded that they were targeted with a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok. In those cases, the OPCW tested the samples and confirmed the findings by national authorities.
Russia denied involvement in both attacks.
IF PHOSPHORUS WAS USED IN MARIUPOL, IS IT ILLEGAL?
Phosphorus munitions are not considered chemical weapons. Most armies have phosphorus munitions to use for illuminating battlefields or targets or to produce smoke screens. However, if an army deliberately fired a phosphorus munition into an enclosed space in order to expose people to toxic fumes, it could be a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention, said Blum.
“Once you start using the properties of white phosphorus, toxic properties, specifically and deliberately then it becomes banned,” he said.
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF A SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATION IN BESIEGED MARIUPOL?
Blum is not optimistic. “Given the current situation we have Mariupol, almost impossible to really pin down, and so I have no high hopes for any any kind of investigation,” he said.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/explainer-how-to-investigate-alleged-chemical-attacks/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:01 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/explainer-how-to-investigate-alleged-chemical-attacks/ |
Russia is readying a massive, new offensive in eastern Ukraine, hoping to reverse its fortunes on the battlefield after a catastrophic start to seven weeks of war.
A long convoy of combat vehicles has jammed highways across northeastern Ukraine in preparation for an attack that could begin within days, and the Kremlin has named a general known for overseeing Moscow’s campaign in Syria to lead it.
A look at Russia’s military objectives and challenges it faces.
A BOTCHED BLITZ
A failed Russian attempt to storm Kyiv and other big cities took a heavy toll in personnel and equipment, boosted morale in Ukraine and allowed it to rally broad international support.
“The myth about the invincibility of the Russian military as the second-most powerful in the world has been shattered to much surprise of the Ukrainians themselves,” Ukrainian military expert Oleh Zhdanov told The Associated Press.
The flow of Western weapons into Ukraine and a growing popular resistance to Russian aggression will further raise the costs of war for Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin badly needs a quick battlefield victory to find an exit from what increasingly looks like a disastrous quagmire.
Russia’s focus is turning to Ukraine’s industrial heartland, known as the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since the conflict there erupted shortly after the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
“In the first round, Russia has lost face both politically and militarily,” Zhdanov said. “It has done every possible stupid thing in the careless hope for a blitz … but it will make the Russian attack in the next round even more furious.”
REFOCUS AND REDEPLOYMENT
After their retreat from Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, Russian forces pulled back to the territory of Belarus, Moscow’s ally, as well as areas in western Russia to be rearmed and resupplied for the new offensive.
Retired British Gen. Sir Richard Barrons estimated the Russians have “probably lost about 25% of the ground forces they started out with in the sense that those have been units that have become noncombat effective.”
“So they’re amalgamating them, they’re refitting them, they’re reinforcing them and then moving them around,” Barrons told AP.
Russia also was trying to move additional equipment from elsewhere and mobilize reservists in a desperate attempt to build a sufficient attack force, said Barrons, a co-chair of the consulting group Universal Defence & Security Solutions.
“They’ve had a beating, and they will have only a few weeks to get better,” he said.
Recently, Russian troops have been seen rolling into eastern Ukraine to move into attack positions. A convoy stretched for about 13 kilometers (8 miles) on a highway east of Kharkiv, heading south toward Ukrainian lines near Izyum, a strategic road junction.
At the same time, Russian forces rushed to crush remaining pockets of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol after besieging the vital Sea of Azov port for nearly 1 1/2 months.
The offensive is expected to start once Mariupol is fully under Russian control, and the troops pulled from areas near Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy complete their redeployment.
WILL A NEW COMMANDER MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?
Gen. Alexander Dvornikov was appointed the new military commander for the campaign in Ukraine. The 60-year-old soldier is one of Russia’s most experienced officers, credited with leading Moscow’s forces to victory in Syria in a ruthless campaign to shore up President Bashar Assad’s regime in a civil war that saw entire cities flattened and millions displaced.
In 2016, Putin awarded Dvornikov the Hero of Russia medal, one of the country’s highest awards, and named him the chief of the Southern Military District, commanding units in southwestern Russia.
Dvornikov’s appointment is seen as reflecting the Kremlin’s awareness to quickly improve poor coordination among various forces that hampered previous military efforts. Skeptics point out, however, that the Syrian campaign involved a relatively small number of troops, unlike the massive operation in Ukraine.
TRYING NEW BATTLEFIELD TACTICS
Ukrainian and Western experts expect the Russians to try to encircle Ukrainian forces in Donbas with a pincer movement by advancing from Izyum in the north and Mariupol in the south.
Some predict Russia also may try to use its forces north of Crimea to try to capture the industrial hubs of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro on the Dnieper River, effectively cutting Ukraine in half.
Barrons said the Russians are focusing on the east ”instead of trying to do three or four big things at once and spreading the air power and the logistics.”
“The key conundrum is, can the Russians muster enough force … good enough to overwhelm a very good Ukrainian defensive position by sheer weight of brutality” by concentrating firepower and troops in a few key locations, he said.
WILL RUSSIA’S LOGISTICAL PROBLEMS PERSIST?
Despite a new commander, the offensive will likely face the same logistical challenges Russian troops encountered early in the campaign.
During the botched attempt to storm Kyiv, Russian convoys stretched along highways leading to the capital, becoming easy prey for Ukrainian artillery, drones and scouts.
Supporting the operations in the east could be equally hard, with Russian supply lines likely to face hit-and-run raids, helped by the arrival of spring as foliage offers natural cover for Ukrainian scouts and guerrillas.
Control of the skies also has been a problem, with Ukrainian air defense assets continuing to shoot down Russian warplanes, making it more difficult for ground troops to advance. In recent days, Russia has launched strikes on Ukrainian long-range air defense systems in apparent preparation for the offensive.
“If the Russians learned the lessons of their failure so far and could concentrate more force and could connect their air force to the ground forces better and could sort the logistics out, then they might start to overwhelm the Ukrainian positions eventually, although I still think it would be a battle of enormous attrition,” Barrons told AP.
MORE FAVORABLE TERRAIN FOR RUSSIA?
During the eight years of fighting separatists in the east, Ukrainian forces have built multilayered defenses, which Russian troops failed to break despite persistent attacks since the invasion began Feb. 24.
“They’ve been fighting in these current positions in the Donbas for about eight years, so they’re very seasoned and they’re very well prepared,” Barrons said of Ukrainian forces.
He noted, however, that “this will be different because the Russian onslaught will be potentially very much greater” and the east’s flat terrain could give the Russians an edge.
“The sort of ambush tactics the Ukrainians were highly successful with around Kiev may not apply in the Donbas,” Barrons said. “And if the Russians were capable of maneuvering their armor so tanks, armored infantry and armored artillery at speed, they could get behind the Ukrainian position. It is going to be a much harder, bigger fight than we’ve seen so far.”
Ukraine has pleaded with the West for warplanes, long-range air defense systems, heavy artillery and armor to counter a massive Russian edge in firepower.
“There is a battle of time and space between the Russians and Ukrainians for the Russians to muster enough force and the Ukrainians to get the weapons that they need and rehearse themselves for what will be a bigger and slightly different battle, and I think it is finely balanced,” Barrons said.
FOR PUTIN, A RACE AGAINST TIME
After earlier battlefield failures, Putin desperately needs a quick success in the east.
Battered by Western sanctions, Russia lacks financial resources for a protracted conflict. If the fighting drags on, it will inevitably worsen the economy and could bring social tensions, eroding the Kremlin’s support base.
The military already has put its most capable combat units in the campaign, and continued fighting will likely force it to call up more reservists and throw fresh conscripts into combat — moves that could be extremely unpopular.
Putin could be hoping to quickly expand the territory under separatist control in the east, then try to force Ukraine into concessions in negotiations to wrap up the campaign and spin it as victory.
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Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and Danica Kirka in London contributed.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/explainer-new-front-same-challenges-for-russian-offensive/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:08 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/explainer-new-front-same-challenges-for-russian-offensive/ |
“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning.
Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city, turning the sky charcoal gray. Hundreds were lining up outside his synagogue hoping to receive a kilo of matzah each for their Passover dinner tables. The unleavened flatbread, imperative at the ritual meal known as a Seder, is now hard to find in war-torn Ukraine amid the war and a crippling food shortage.
But the rabbi wanted no challenge to get him down — be it the lack of matzah or that he was missing his wife and children who had fled the Black Sea port for Berlin days ago.
“I need to smile for my community,” Wolff said. “We need humor. We need hope.”
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews have fled while about 80% remain in Ukraine, according to estimates from Chabad, one of the largest Hasidic Jewish organizations in the world. Inside and outside Ukraine, a nation steeped in Jewish history and heritage, people are preparing to celebrate Passover, which begins sundown on April 15. It’s been a challenge, to say the least.
The holiday marks the liberation of Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt, and their exodus under the leadership of Moses. The story is taking on special meaning for thousands of Jewish Ukrainian refugees who are living a dramatic story in real time.
Chabad, which has deep roots and a wide network in Ukraine, and other groups such as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Federations of North America, have mobilized to help Ukrainian Jews celebrate Passover wherever they have sought refuge. In Ukraine, Chabad plans 52 public Seders welcoming about 9,000 people.
In Odesa, Wolff is preparing to host two large Seders – one in early evening at the Chabad synagogue for families with young children and a later Seder at a hotel where participants can stay the night, obeying a 9 p.m. curfew.
He’s been waving in trucks loaded with Passover supplies – matzah from Israel, milk from France, meat from Britain.
“We may not all be together, but it’s going to be an unforgettable Passover,” Wolff said. “This year, we celebrate as one big Jewish family around the world.”
JDC, which has evacuated more than 11,600 Jews from Ukraine, has shipped more than 2 tons of matzah, over 400 bottles of grape juice and over 700 pounds of kosher Passover food for refugees in Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Romania, said Chen Tzuk, the organization’s director of operations in Europe, Asia and Africa. In Ukraine, their social service centers and corps of volunteers are distributing nearly 16 tons of matzah to elderly Jews and families in need, she said.
“Passover is something familiar and basic for Jewish people,” Tzuk said. “For refugees who have left everything behind, it’s important to be able celebrate this holiday with honor and dignity.”
JDC is organizing in-person Seders in countries bordering Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, she said, and is facilitating online Seders where it’s too dangerous to gather in person.
The Jewish Federations of North America has set up a volunteer hub in support of refugees fleeing Ukraine; it’s a partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel, the JDC and IsraAID. Russian-speaking volunteers, such as Alina Spaulding, will help organize a Seder for 100 refugees at a hotel in Budapest.
Spaulding, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, fled Kharkiv, Ukraine, as a 5-year-old in the 1970s with her parents. She said the war has rekindled strong connections to Ukraine.
“My mom showed me a photo of me with my grandpa on a street that was recently bombed,” Spaulding said. “We talked about the university in Kharkiv where my mom and dad went, which was also hit. Suddenly, it all felt so personal.”
Spaulding believes spending Passover with refugees will be “an experience to remember.”
“Part of the magic of Passover is finding your own story,” she said. “We’re in the middle of a modern-day exodus. I can’t even imagine the stories I will hear.”
Celebrating a holiday can give people a rush of hope and happiness even in grim situations, said Rabbi Jacob Biderman, who leads Chabad activities throughout Austria, including a center in Vienna that is sheltering about 800 Ukrainian Jews. Days after refugees reached his center, Biderman led a joyous celebration of Purim, a festival commemorating the deliverance of Jews from a planned massacre in ancient Persia.
“The look on their faces changed from sorrow to joy… Their eyes lit up,” Biderman said. “It gave them a sense of normalcy, dignity and the belief that their spiritual life is something no one can take away from them.”
That fueled Biderman’s determination to provide a memorable Passover Seder for the refugees.
Dr. Yaacov Gaissinovitch, his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children – ages 11, 8 and 4 – will be part of that celebration. They fled the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by car on Friday, March 4. Gaissinovitch, a urologist and mohel who performs the Jewish rite of circumcision, said it pained him, as an observant Jew, to drive on Shabbat – a forbidden act on the day of rest and prayer except when lives are at stake.
“I drove nonstop for 12 hours to Moldova to save us all,” he said. “We sang all the Shabbat songs in the car. It was very, very hard.”
In Dnipro, Gaissinovitch had his offices in the sprawling Menorah Center, which serves as a center of Jewish life, housing a synagogue, shops, restaurants, museums and the office of the city’s chief rabbi.
After a month of being severed from everything familiar, the Chabad center in Vienna has been a blessing, Gaissinovitch said.
“We’ve been accepted here very warmly,” he said. “After being disconnected for days, the children have been able to see that our life hasn’t stopped.”
A similar community at the Chabad center in Berlin is housing about 1,000 refugees, including Rabbi Avraham Wolff’s wife and children from Odesa. The center plans to host eight Seders citywide and has distributed matzah and other food to community members. Refugees, including 120 children from an Odesa orphanage who arrived in Berlin along with Wolff’s family, distributed the items to locals, said Yehuda Teichtal, the chief rabbi of Berlin.
“To me, this is extremely touching,” he said. “That people on the receiving end are able to give and not be viewed as victims. It’s empowering and energizing.”
As they prepare for Passover, Teichtal, Biderman and Wolff said they have been inspired by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was among the most influential global leaders in Judaism in modern times. April 5 marked the Rebbe’s 120th birth anniversary, a special number in Jewish tradition.
“The Rebbe built a strong foundation (in Ukraine) so we’re able to do what we’re doing now,” Wolff said.
Schneerson grew up in Ukraine during a challenging time in the former Soviet Union, Teichtal said.
“In spite of all the darkness, his focus was selflessness, dedication, love for all humanity and the unwavering faith that we are going to overcome,” Teichtal said.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/for-jews-fleeing-ukraine-passover-takes-on-new-meaning/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:15 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/for-jews-fleeing-ukraine-passover-takes-on-new-meaning/ |
MULHOUSE, France (AP) — Facing a tougher-than expected fight for reelection, French President Emmanuel Macron has hit the campaign trail at last — and it isn’t always proving welcoming.
But he’s not shying away from angry voters, instead engaging in lively, sometimes confrontational debates. Since he and far-right nationalist rival Marine Le Pen qualified Sunday for France’s April 24 presidential runoff, Macron has seemed eager to go in the field to explain his policies and try to convince people to hand him a second term.
On Tuesday, he was asked hard questions during a visit to the eastern city of Mulhouse.
“Why didn’t you help the poorest?”
“Why do hospitals suffer from shortages of beds and shortages of health workers?”
“How can you propose to push back retirement age from 62 to 65 when so many people are jobless?”
The 44-year-old leader appeared determined to explain his policies at length — but sometimes grew impatient when people kept contradicting him.
Before Sunday’s first round presidential vote which had 12 candidates, Macron skipped most campaign activities, focusing his time at the Elysee Presidential Palace on diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Domestic critics decried the perceived lack of debate in France’s presidential campaign.
Now the role of candidate has taken over. Macron is considered the favorite by the polls, but Le Pen appears to have significantly narrowed the gap from 2017, when he trounced her in the same presidential runoff.
On Monday, Macron went to an economically depressed region in northern France that is considered Le Pen’s stronghold. The next day, he visited the eastern cities of Mulhouse and Strasbourg, where far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third Sunday, got a majority of the first-round vote.
Upon his arrival in Mulhouse, Macron literally ran toward the small crowd waiting for him. He met some supporters, but also angry, discouraged workers from a nearby public hospital who came to challenge him.
“We are exhausted,” some nurses told him. “Improve our working conditions!”
A 61-year-old health care worker said he worked for 30 years and but is earning only 1,885 euros ($2,051) a month.
“I am not thinking about myself. I am thinking of my children, my grandchildren,” he said, explaining his vote.
Macron mentioned changes his government had made amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including a small salary increase for hospital workers.
“Have your earnings been increased?” he asked.
“We don’t feel the impact of it,” the man answered.
Another health care worker asked him about hospitals “losing beds” as the pandemic is still going on.
“I know, that is the challenge we are facing,” Macron acknowledged, explaining that the issue is about a lack of trained hospital staff, a situation amplified in a region where many French seek work in neighboring Germany and Switzerland where wages are higher.
“Two years ago, I made commitments… and the salaries were increased. And 183 euros ($199) per month, you can’t say that’s nothing,” Macron insisted.
Another big obstacle repeatedly came Macron’s way: his planned pension changes. Macron wants to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65, which he argues is needed so France can keep financing the pensions. Le Pen says she would maintain the retirement age at 62. The issue prompted major street protests in late 2019, and Macron then had to postpone his plans amid the COVID-19 crisis.
“We must work longer,” Macron said. “It’s not true we can keep financing our social model if we don’t push back (the retirement age).”
He kept repeating that the retirement changes would be implemented very gradually through 2031 and opened the door to softening the reform, as he seeks to attract voters who chose other candidates in the first round.
Le Pen’s supporters credit her months of campaigning in France’s provinces for her strong first-round showing. But as Macron joined the fray at last, he sought to make a distinction between their campaigns, criticizing those candidates “who never go to meet opponents.”
“I’m not going to meet only people who like me,” he said.
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Follow all AP stories on the 2022 French presidential election at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/frances-macron-faces-angry-voters-as-he-fights-for-2nd-term/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:23 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/frances-macron-faces-angry-voters-as-he-fights-for-2nd-term/ |
BERLIN (AP) — A German woman who allegedly abused a Yazidi slave while in Islamic State-held territory in Syria has been charged with crimes against humanity and other offenses, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The woman, identified only as Jalda A. in keeping with German privacy laws, was arrested upon her arrival back in Germany on Oct. 7. Before her repatriation, she had been held captive by Kurdish forces since late 2017.
She was charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization, crimes against humanity, war crimes and being an accessory to genocide, prosecutors said in a statement.
The suspect traveled in April 2014 via Turkey to Syria, according to prosecutors, where she quickly married an IS fighter and gave birth to a son the following year. When her first husband died, she married two other men in succession.
She lived with the third man in and near the Syrian city of Mayadin from September to October 2017, prosecutors said, adding that the husband kept a Yazidi woman as a slave and regularly raped her with the suspect’s knowledge.
The suspect also physically abused the woman “almost every day,” according to prosecutors. She allegedly punched and kicked the woman, pulled her hair, and slammed her head against the wall, and on one occasion hit the woman in the head with a flashlight.
In addition, prosecutors said, the suspect constantly watched the woman and repeatedly told her to pray according to Islamic custom, an act that “served the stated goal of the IS, to eradicate the Yazidi faith.”
The indictment was filed last month at the state court in Hamburg, which will have to decide whether and when to open a trial. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/german-court-charges-is-returnee-over-alleged-slave-abuse/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:30 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/german-court-charges-is-returnee-over-alleged-slave-abuse/ |
BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — The coffin was made from pieces of a closet. In a darkened basement under a building shaking from the bombardment of war, there were few other options.
Six-year-old Vlad watched as his mother was carried out of the shelter last month and to the yard of a nearby home. The burial was hurried and devastating.
Now Russian forces have withdrawn from Bucha after a monthlong occupation, and Vlad’s father, Ivan Drahun, dropped to his knees at the foot of the grave.
He reached out and touched the dirt near his wife Maryna’s feet. “Hi, how are you?” he said during the visit last week. “I miss you so much. You left so soon. You didn’t even say goodbye.”
The boy also visits the grave, placing on it a juice box and two cans of baked beans. Amid the stress of war, his mother barely ate. The family still doesn’t know what illness caused her death. They, much like their town, barely know how to move on.
Bucha witnessed some of the ghastliest scenes of Russia’s invasion, and almost no children have been seen in its silent streets since then. The many bright playgrounds in the once popular community with good schools on a far edge of the capital, Kyiv, are empty.
The Russians used a children’s camp in Bucha as an execution ground, and bloodstains and bullet holes mark a basement. On a ledge near the camp entrance, Russian soldiers placed a toy tank. It appeared to be connected to fishing wire — a possible booby trap in the most vulnerable of places.
Steps away from Vlad’s home, some of the Russians used a kindergarten as a base, leaving it intact while other nearby buildings suffered. Casings of used artillery shells were left along a fence in the yard. In a nearby playground, white and red tape marked off unexploded ordnance. The booms of de-mining operations were so strong they set off car alarms.
At the apartment block where Vlad, his older brother Vova and sister Sophia live, someone had spray-painted “CHILDREN” in child-high letters on an outside wall. Under it, a wooden box once used for ammunition held a teddy bear and other toys.
It is here that Bucha’s fragile renewal can be seen.
A small group of neighborhood children gathered, finding distraction from the war. Bundled up in winter coats, they kicked a football, wandered around with bags of snacks handed out by visiting volunteers, called out from a glass-less window above.
Their parents, taking in the feeble warmth of spring after weeks in freezing basements, reflected on how they tried to protect the children. “We covered his ears,” said Polina Shymanska of her 7-year-old great-grandson Nikita. “We hugged him, kissed him.” She tried to play chess and the boy let her win.
Upstairs, in a neighbor’s apartment where Vlad’s father for now has merged his family with that of the neighbor to help manage their collection of children, Vlad curled up on a bed with another boy and played cards. The radiator gave off no heat. There was still no gas, no electricity, no running water.
Not everyone in Vlad’s family can stand to return to their own apartment nearby. The memories of Maryna are everywhere, from the perfume bottles on the table by the front door to the quiet kitchen.
In the living room, time has stopped. Limp balloons dangled from the overhead light. A string of colorful flags still hung on the wall, along with a family photo. It showed Ivan and Maryna holding Vlad on the day he was born. They celebrated his birthday on Feb. 19.
Five days later, the war began. And the family’s life shrank to a dank concrete half-room in the basement, lined with blankets and scattered with sweets and toys. It was very, very cold, Ivan remembers. He and Maryna did what they could to muffle the sounds of shelling for Vlad and keep him calm. But they were afraid, too.
Two weeks ago, Ivan took Vlad to the makeshift toilet in the shelter and visited neighbors. Then he came to Maryna to tell her that he was going outside. “I touched her shoulder, and she was cold,” he said. “I realized she was gone.”
At first, he said, Vlad appeared not to understand what had happened. The boy said his mother had moved away. But at the burial, the boy watched Ivan kneel and cry, and now he knows what death is.
Death is inseparable from Bucha. Local authorities told The Associated Press that at least 16 children were among the hundreds of people killed. Those who survived face a long recovery.
“They’ve realized that now it’s calm and quiet,” Ivan said. “But at the same time, older children understand that it’s not the end. The war is not finished. And it’s hard to explain for the smaller ones that war is still going on.”
The children are adapting, he said. They have seen a lot. Some even saw dogs killed.
Now the war has slipped into the games they play.
In a sandbox outside the kindergarten, Vlad and a friend “bombed” each other with fistfuls of sand.
“I’m Ukraine,” one said. “No, I’m Ukraine,” said the other.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/its-not-the-end-the-children-who-survived-buchas-horror/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:37 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/its-not-the-end-the-children-who-survived-buchas-horror/ |
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if chemical weapons were used in the Russian war with Ukraine.
Lawmakers monitoring developments during a trip to Poland said Tuesday that the U.S. is investigating reports that a poisonous substance had been dropped in Mariupol. But they cautioned that determining the nature of the attack in the beleaguered port city could take time.
“We’re taking those reports seriously and I know the United States government and others are trying to determine if that did indeed occur,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.
Crow said the administration “has been very clear that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.”
The Democratic lawmakers, all members of the House Intelligence Committee, are bracing for a potential long war in Ukraine. They said at a press briefing that Congress is looking at next steps in sending additional military and other aid to Ukraine.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the reports coming from Mariupol.
“We’re not in a position to confirm anything, I don’t think Ukrainians are either,” Blinken told reporters. “But let me say that we had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, that would cause stronger symptoms to weaken, incapacitate … Ukrainian fighters and civilians, as part of the aggressive campaign” in Mariupol.
“We share that information with … Ukraine and other partners,” Blinken said. “And we’re in direct conversation with partners to try to determine what what actually is happening.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukraine probes claim poisonous substance dropped in Mariupol
— A look at Russia’s military objectives and challenges it faces
— ‘It’s not the end’: The children who survived Bucha’s horror
— Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies
— Czechs provide free shooting training for local Ukrainians
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog says it is “concerned by the recent unconfirmed report of chemical weapons use in Mariupol” and is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine.
The spokesperson for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says in a statement that the allegations follow “reports in the media over the past few weeks of shelling targeted at chemical plants located in Ukraine, together with accusations levelled by both sides around possible misuse of toxic chemicals.”
The spokesperson said in Tuesday’s statement that the “use of chemical weapons anywhere by anyone under any circumstances is reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community against such use.”
Both Russia and Ukraine are among the organization’s 193 member states.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization says that it “remains ready to assist any State Party upon its request, in case of use or threat of use of chemical weapons.”
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WARSAW, Poland – Germany’s president has called on Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin to pull out his troops from Ukraine and stop the “barbarity” there as he stressed that Germany will not restore its previous ties with Russia as long as Putin is in power.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Warsaw on Tuesday to talk with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda about supporting Ukraine’s fight and aiding millions of refugees fleeing the war.
“This barbarity which we see every day must stop,” Steinmeier said at joint news conference.
“This can only happen by President Putin ordering his army to stop and I believe that only then (armistice) talks can be successful,” Steinmeier said.
“One thing is clear: a return to normal is not possible with Russia under Putin,” Steinmeier said, adding that war crimes in Ukraine must be investigated and “those who committed them and those who are politically responsible must be held accountable.”
Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous high-ranking jobs, when Germany pursued dialogue with Putin and cultivated close energy ties.
Steinmeier served as ex-Chancellors’ Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff and Angela Merkel’s foreign minister. Schroeder is now head of the board of directors of Russia’s state oil giant Rosneft.
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VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pledged continued “political and humanitarian support” for Ukraine in a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, Nehammer said in a statement.
The call came a day after Nehammer became the first European leader to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“It’s important to me to immediately inform all key proponents in this conflict about my talks,” Nehammer said, according to the statement released Tuesday evening by the Austrian chancellery.
Nehammer said he recounted his meeting in Moscow to Zelenskyy, telling the Ukrainian leader about the most important messages he relayed to Putin.
Among those messages are that the war needs to stop, that those responsible for “serious war crimes” like those committed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha will be held to account, and that the European Union is “as united as it’s ever been” on maintaining its sanctions against Russia.
He also told Zelenskyy he believes the continuation of talks in Istanbul are an important step toward bringing an end to the violence, and that Austria will “continue to support all ongoing efforts for peace.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid tribute to Ukrainian troops defending the besieged south-eastern port of Mariupol but acknowledged they are running low on supplies.
Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter that “for more than 1.5 months our defenders protect the city from (Russian) troops, which are 10+ times larger. They’re fighting under the bombs for each meter of the city. They make (Russia) pay an exorbitant price.”
Mariupol was a key target for Russian forces soon after the invasion began in late February. It has symbolic significance as one of the largest cities in eastern Ukraine. It is also strategically valuable as a major harbor and as part of a land corridor between territory held by Russia-backed separatists to the east and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“Our soldiers remain blocked and have issues with supplies,” Podolyak wrote, adding that Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian general staff are working “to find a solution and help our guys.” He did not give details, citing operational reasons.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where corpses of civilians with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head were found after Russian forces pulled out, says 403 bodies have been found so far and that he fears the toll will rise.
“Today, at 10 a.m. we started unearthing the second mass grave, there are 56 bodies there. Plus, there are four private graves. But I’d like to repeat that as of today, we have 403 bodies,” Anatoliy Fedoruk told reporters in Kyiv. “Taking into account that our armed forces, our minesweepers are working in the forests between villages and settlements in our territorial community, we hope that those who are missing are still alive but most probably we will find their bodies somewhere between the villages, in those forests.”
Fedoruk also said 31 multi-story residential buildings had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair during the war, along with 243 private houses.
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BERLIN — Germany’s president says his Polish counterpart suggested that they travel to Ukraine together with other leaders to show solidarity, but that proposed visit “apparently wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.”
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s comments Tuesday, during a visit to Poland, came after German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that he’s not welcome in Kyiv at the moment because he had close relations with Russia in the past.
Steinmeier said Polish President Andrzej Duda had suggested that they travel to the Ukrainian capital with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send “a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine.” He said he had been prepared to do so.
Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous job as foreign minister.
Steinmeier served twice as ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign minister, most recently from 2013 to 2017, and before that as ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff. In that time, Germany pursued dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and cultivated close energy ties.
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KHARKIV, Ukraine — A strike hit a what is believed to be a culinary school near the airport in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Tuesday, destroying the building and damaging others nearby, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.
It wasn’t clear what hit the building in Kharkiv, with witnesses describing a loud whoosh followed by an explosion. There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
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BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis used a speech to his country’s delegation of Invictus Games participants on Tuesday to admonish Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation has been waging war against Ukraine for almost 50 days, and shocking evidence of atrocities and horrors is unimaginable day by day,” Iohannis told the wounded and injured military personnel, who will compete in the 2022 Invictus Games set to begin in the Netherlands on Saturday.
“You know best what destruction and loss of life and the dramas of war mean, how much families and communities are affected forever,” he said.
Iohannis said that Russia’s acts of “horrific, unjustified cruelty” must be punished by the international justice system.
The Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded servicemen and women, was launched in London in 2014.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian prosecutors are expanding their war crimes investigations in northeastern suburbs of Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew.
Reports of killings of civilians have primarily focused so far on the northwestern suburbs such as Bucha, but the Prosecutor-General’s Office said Tuesday it was also looking into events in the Brovary district, which lies to the northeast.
Russian troops advanced into that area last month before retreating to focus on fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office said the bodies of six civilians had been found with gunshot wounds in a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and that Russian forces were believed to be responsible.
Prosecutors are also investigating an incident in which they allege Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to leave by car from the village of Peremoha in the Brovary district, killing four people including a 13-year-old boy. In another incident near Bucha, five people were killed, including two children, when a car was fired upon, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors did not say when they believed the incidents occurred.
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russians’ unity will only grow stronger in the face of Western sanctions and it will be the West that will face instability.
Putin said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East on Tuesday that the West mistakenly expected its sanctions to undermine Russia’s stability. He said that “the Russian people always strengthen their unity in a difficult situation.”
He insisted that it will be the West that will be shaken by growing instability, fueled by public dismay over galloping inflation. The Russian leader also lashed out at European leaders, describing them as Washington’s stooges and saying that they are conducting policies harmful to their nations.
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russia will press on with its military action in Ukraine until its goals are fulfilled.
Putin said Tuesday that the campaign is going according to plan. He said it is not moving faster because Russia wants to minimize losses.
He said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East that the “military operation will continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.”
Putin claimed that Ukraine backtracked on proposals it made during talks with Russian negotiators in Istanbul, resulting in a deadlock in talks and leaving Moscow no other choice but to press on with its offensive.
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian economy has successfully resisted new Western sanctions over Ukraine.
Speaking Tuesday on a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East, Putin said that Russia’s economy and financial system withstood the impact of what he called the Western sanctions “blitz” and the ruble has recovered its losses.
Putin argued that the sanctions will backfire against the West. For example, he said that Western restrictions on fertilizer exports from Russia and ally Belarus will drive up global fertilizer prices, eventually leading to food shortages and increased migration flows.
Putin said that “common sense should prevail” and added that the West should “come back to reason and make well-balanced decisions without losing its face.” He contended that “they won’t be able to shut all the doors and windows.”
He argued that new Western restrictions on high-tech exports will encourage Russia to move faster to develop new technologies, opening a “new window of opportunities.”
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BOSTON — Ukrainian officials say a planned cyberattack by Russian military hackers on the country’s power grid has been foiled.
They say the country’s computer emergency response thwarted an attack planned by hackers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that intended to knock electrical substations offline last Friday.
The State Service of Special Communications said on its website that malware was discovered designed to destroy data on computers.
There was no immediate explanation of how the attack was defeated, though the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine thanked Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm ESET in a separate bulletin. Nor was the scope immediately explained.
GRU hackers twice successfully attacked Ukraine’s power grid, in the winters of 2015 and 2016.
Russia’s use of cyberattacks against Ukrainian infrastructure has been limited compared to experts’ pre-war expectations. In the early hours of the war, however, an attack Ukraine blames on Russia knocked offline an important satellite communications link that also impacted tens of thousands of Europeans from France to Poland.
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s government has approved increasing the number of troops in a multinational NATO battlegroup in the country from 2,100 to 3,000.
The first 800 service members have already arrived in Slovakia. The Czech Republic took charge of the battlegroup, with the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia also contributing.
Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad says the increase in the planned troop numbers is related to Patriot air defense systems that the United States, Germany and the Netherlands are deploying in Slovakia.
The move should boost Slovakia’s defense capabilities after the country donated its Soviet-era S-300 air defense system to Ukraine last week.
The alliance stationed troops in the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and Poland after the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula by Russia. After Russia attacked Ukraine, NATO decided to boost its presence along the entire eastern flank by deploying forces in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
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GENEVA — The World Trade Organization is predicting that trade in goods will grow much less than previously expected this year, saying prospects for the global economy have darkened since the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Geneva-based WTO on Tuesday pointed to multiple uncertainties in its forecast over the next two years because Russian and Ukrainian exports of items like food, oil and fertilizers are under threat from the war. It also cited the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic –- notably from lockdowns in China.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described a “double whammy” from the conflict and the coronavirus. She said the war has caused “immense human suffering” in the region and its effect has rippled around the world, notably in poorer countries.
The WTO said its projections for world trade take into account factors like the impact of the war, sanctions on Russia, and lower demand around the world from lower business and consumer confidence. It said world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow 3% this year, down from a forecast of 4.7% before the war began.
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MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has hit Ukrainian arsenals with long-range cruise missiles.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that the military used air- and sea-launched missiles to destroy an ammunition depot and a reinforced hangar for warplanes at Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region.
Konashenkov said that another strike destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in Havrylivka, near Kyiv.
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NICOSIA, Cyprus — The head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church is “unreservedly” condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying there’s “no justification” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “destroy a country, to raze it to kill.”
Archbishop Chrysostomos II told state broadcaster CyBC Tuesday that the invasion is “an unacceptable situation” and that Putin’s actions have “no logic.” The archbishop said he’s distraught that people are being killed and questioned whether the Russian leader is “in his right mind.”
The archbishop added that he’d be the “first to go and bless a defensive war,” but the “egotism, if not the stupidity” of the Russian leadership “knows no bounds.”
Chrysostomos also questioned Putin’s embrace of Orthodox Christianity, including the sincerity of his travels to the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian police say they have launched a war crimes investigation after a 64-year-old man was killed by a mine left behind in an area from which Russian forces recently retreated.
Police said the unidentified local man was driving Monday near the village of Krasne in northern Ukraine and had pulled over his car to greet acquaintances when he struck an anti-tank mine left at the side of the road.
Ukrainian authorities have issued repeated warnings of mines and explosive traps left in areas where Russian troops have been operating.
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BERLIN — German authorities say that over 330,000 refugees from Ukraine are known to have entered Germany so far.
The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that German federal police have recorded 335,578 people entering since Russia’s invasion started on Feb. 24. Those who have arrived are overwhelmingly women and children.
The true number of refugees in Germany could be higher, however, since there are no strict controls on the country’s eastern border and Ukrainian citizens can stay up to 90 days in the European Union without a visa. Officials say an unknown number also have moved on to other European countries.
The U.N. refugee agency on Tuesday put the total number of people who have fled Ukraine at more than 4.6 million, over 2.6 million of whom fled at least initially to Poland. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:44 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/ |
MULHOUSE, France (AP) — The thought of an extreme-right leader standing at the helm of the European Union would be abhorrent to most in the 27-nation bloc. But if Emmanuel Macron falters in the April 24 French presidential elections, it might be two weeks away.
Experts say a win for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU. Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the 27-nation bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions that have been built in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Macron, the incumbent president with strong pro-European views, and Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, couldn’t have more radically opposed visions of the EU.
“The debate we will have in the next days is crucial to our country and to Europe,” Macron said after the results were announced. On Tuesday, he is heading to Strasbourg, the seat of the EU parliament, to speak about France’s role in Europe. All polls show Macron is the favorite in the vote, but Le Pen has significantly narrowed the gap compared with the last presidential election five years ago.
France has always stood at the heart of the EU — a founding member that has partnered with neighbor and historical rival Germany to turn the bloc into an economic giant and an icon of Western values. To hand that vaunted perch to a far-right politician would be bad enough. But, as coincidence would have it, France also holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency this spring, which also allows it to speak with the power of the 27.
It is a pedestal few want to offer to Le Pen. The National Rally leader wants to establish national border controls on imports and people, reduce the French contribution to the EU budget and cease to recognize that European law has primacy over national law.
She has proposed to remove taxes on hundreds of essential goods and wants to reduce taxes on fuel — which would go against the EU’s free market rules.
Macron told reporters during a stop in the eastern city of Mulhouse that he “believes in Europe,” praising EU action that “changed the lives of our fellow citizens” such as the collective purchase of vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He accused Le Pen of speaking “nonsense.”
“She explains that she won’t pay the bill for the (EU) club, that she will change the rules, but will change the rules alone” Macron said. “It means she wants to get out (of the EU) but doesn’t dare say it anymore.”
Jean-Claude Piris, who served as a legal counsel to the European Council and is an expert of EU institutions, said a victory for Le Pen would have the effect of an “earthquake.” Her measures would equate in practice to a withdrawal from the 27-nation bloc, he said.
“She is in favor of a form of economic patriotism with state aids, which is contrary to the rules of the single market,” Piris said in an interview with The Associated Press. “France would no longer take part in the common free market and commercial policies.”
“She wants to modify the French constitution by giving preference to the French, by suppressing the right of the soil, the right of asylum,” which would be “totally incompatible with the values of the European treaties,” Piris added.
Piris said the arrival of Le Pen would also threaten the unanimity of the 27 on the sanctions they have adopted so far against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. She could prevent further measures being adopted. The bloc is currently mulling the opportunity to add further restrictions on oil imports from Russia.
Le Pen has built close links with the Kremlin over the years. In her previous bid to become the French president in 2017, she called for strong security ties with Moscow to jointly combat radical Islamic groups. She also pledged to recognize Crimea — the peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — as part of Russia.
Le Pen acknowledged Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “partially” changed her views about Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “wrong” and expressing her support toward the Ukrainian people and refugees.
Piris believes that although Le Pen could find allies in a couple of right-wing governments currently in power in eastern Europe, she would be facing hostile reactions from most other EU members.
Louis Alliot, vice-president of Le Pen’s National Rally party, said Monday on France Info news broadcaster that France’s allies would include Hungary and Poland.
A report from the Center for European Reform published Monday highlighted how Le Pen could very well go down the same road as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki in throwing up roadblocks for Brussels wherever she can to further slow the EU’s already cumbersome decision-making.
“The difference is that France … is indispensable to the EU,” the report stressed, saying the consequences would be “political chaos.”
CER experts also believe Le Pen’s policies would clash with the bloc’s climate goals. Le Pen is in favor of expanding nuclear and several non governmental groups have warned that she would slow down the transition toward renewables.
On top of that, the traditional French-German tandem would be undermined, with German Socialist chancellor Olaf Scholz highly unlikely to reach any compromise with Le Pen.
Neighboring Luxembourg’s long-serving foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, called the situation “very, very worrying.”
Le Pen as French president “would be not just an upheaval in Europe as a project of values, a peace project; it would put us on a totally different track in the essence of the European Union,” Asselborn said. “The French must prevent that.”
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Casert and Petrequin reported from Brussels. Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/potential-far-right-victory-in-france-seen-as-threat-to-eu/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:51 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/potential-far-right-victory-in-france-seen-as-threat-to-eu/ |
KIAMBU COUNTY, Kenya (AP) — Monica Kariuki is about ready to give up on farming. What is driving her off her 10 acres of land outside Nairobi isn’t bad weather, pests or blight — the traditional agricultural curses — but fertilizer: It costs too much.
Despite thousands of miles separating her from the battlefields of Ukraine, Kariuki and her cabbage, corn and spinach farm are indirect victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The war has pushed up the price of natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and has led to severe sanctions against Russia, a major exporter of fertilizer.
Kariuki used to spend 20,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $175, to fertilize her entire farm. Now, she would need to spend five times as much. Continuing to work the land, she said, would yield nothing but losses.
“I cannot continue with the farming business. I am quitting farming to try something else,’’ she said.
Higher fertilizer prices are making the world’s food supply more expensive and less abundant, as farmers skimp on nutrients for their crops and get lower yields. While the ripples will be feltby grocery shoppers in wealthy countries, the squeeze on food supplies will land hardest on families in poorer countries. It could hardly come at a worse time: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last week that its world food-price index in March reached the highest level since it started in 1990.
The fertilizer crunch threatens to further limit worldwide food supplies, already constrained by the disruption of crucial grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia. The loss of those affordable supplies of wheat, barley and other grains raises the prospect of food shortages and political instability in Middle Eastern, African and some Asian countries where millions rely on subsidized bread and cheap noodles.
“Food prices will skyrocket because farmers will have to make profit, so what happens to consumers?’’ said Uche Anyanwu, an agricultural expert at the University of Nigeria.
The aid group Action Aid warns that families in the Horn of Africa are already being driven “to the brink of survival.’’
The U.N. says Russia is the world’s No. 1 exporter of nitrogen fertilizer and No. 2 in phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Its ally Belarus, also contending with Western sanctions, is another major fertilizer producer.
Many developing countries — including Mongolia, Honduras, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico and Guatemala — rely on Russia for at least a fifth of their imports.
The conflict also has driven up the already-exorbitant price of natural gas, used to make nitrogen fertilizer. The result: European energy prices so high that some fertilizer companies “have closed their businesses and stopped operating their plants,’’ said David Laborde, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
For corn and cabbage farmer Jackson Koeth, 55, of Eldoret in western Kenya, the conflict in Ukraine was distant and puzzling until he had to decide whether to go ahead with the planting season. Fertilizer prices had doubled from last year.
Koeth said he decided to keep planting but only on half the acreage of years past. Yet he doubts he can make a profit with fertilizer so costly.
Greek farmer Dimitris Filis, who grows olives, oranges and lemons, said “you have to search to find’’ ammonia nitrate and that the cost of fertilizing a 10-hectare (25-acre) olive grove has doubled to 560 euros ($310). While selling his wares at an Athens farm market, he said most farmers plan to skip fertilizing their olive and orange groves this year.
“Many people will not use fertilizers at all, and this as a result, lowers the quality of the production and the production itself, and slowly, slowly at one point, they won’t be able to farm their land because there will be no income,’’ Filis said.
In China, the price of potash — potassium-rich salt used as fertilizer — is up 86% from a year earlier. Nitrogen fertilizer prices have climbed 39% and phosphorus fertilizer is up 10%.
In the eastern Chinese city of Tai’an, the manager of a 35-family cooperative that raises wheat and corn said fertilizer prices have jumped 40% since the start of the year.
“We can hardly make any money,” said the manager, who would give only his surname, Zhao.
Terry Farms, which grows produce on 2,100 acres largely in Ventura, California, has seen prices of some fertilizer formulations double; others are up 20%. Shifting fertilizers is risky, vice president William Terry said, because cheaper versions might not give “the crop what it needs as a food source.”
As the growing season approaches in Maine, potato farmers are grappling with a 70% to 100% increase in fertilizer prices from last year, depending on the blend.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty expensive crop, no matter what you’re putting in the ground, from fertilizer to fuel, labor, electrical and everything else,” said Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board.
In Prudentopolis, a town in Brazil’s Parana state, farmer Edimilson Rickli showed off a warehouse that would normally be packed with fertilizer bags but has only enough to last a few more weeks. He’s worried that, with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of letting up, he’ll have to go without fertilizer when he plants wheat, barley and oats next month.
“The question is: Where Brazil is going to buy more fertilizer from?” he said. “We have to find other markets.”
Other countries are hoping to help fill the gaps. Nigeria, for example, opened Africa’s largest fertilizer factory last month, and the $2.5 billion plant has already shipped fertilizer to the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.
India, meanwhile, is seeking more fertilizer imports from Israel, Oman, Canada and Saudi Arabia to make up for lost shipments from Russia and Belarus.
“If the supply shortage gets worse, we will produce less,” said Kishor Rungta of the nonprofit Fertiliser Association of India. “That’s why we need to look for options to get more fertilizers in the country.”
Agricultural firms are providing support for farmers, especially in Africa where poverty often limits access to vital farm inputs. In Kenya, Apollo Agriculture is helping farmers get fertilizer and access to finance.
“Some farmers are skipping the planting season and others are going into some other ventures such as buying goats to cope,” said Benjamin Njenga, co-founder of the firm. “So these support services go a long way for them.”
Governments are helping, too. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it was issuing $250 million in grants to support U.S. fertilizer production. The Swiss government has released part of its nitrogen fertilizer reserves.
Still, there’s no easy answer to the double whammy of higher fertilizer prices and limited supplies. The next 12 to 18 months, food researcher LaBorde said, “will be difficult.”
The market already was “super, super tight” before the war, said Kathy Mathers of the Fertilizer Institute trade group.
“Unfortunately, in many cases, growers are just happy to get fertilizer at all,’’ she said.
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Asadu reported from Lagos, Nigeria, and Wiseman from Washington. Contributing to this story were: Tatiana Pollastri in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Debora Alvares in Brasilia, Brazil; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Lefteris Pitarakis in Athens; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Joe McDonald and Yu Bing in Beijing; Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont; Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota; Kathia Martínez in Panama City; Christoph Noelting in Frankfurt; Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Tarik El-Barakah in Rabat, Morocco; Tassanee Vejpongsa and Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok; Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem; Edie Lederer at the United Nations; and Aya Batrawy in Dubai. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/russian-war-worsens-fertilizer-crunch-risking-food-supplies/ | 2022-04-12T19:13:58 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/russian-war-worsens-fertilizer-crunch-risking-food-supplies/ |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is destroying a South Korean-owned golf course at a scenic mountain resort in the second confirmed case of South Korean assets being eliminated in an area where the rivals once ran a joint tour program, officials said Tuesday in Seoul.
North Korea’s demolition of South Korean-built facilities at its Diamond Mountain resort comes as ties between the countries remain strained over the North’s recent series of high-profile missile tests.
Responding to queries by The Associated Press, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it has confirmed North Korea is demolishing the golf resort in addition to a South Korean-owned hotel there. Last Friday, the ministry said North Korea was dismantling the Haegumgang Hotel, a floating hotel docked at a coastal area in the resort.
The ministry said it strongly urges North Korea to stop destroying the South Korean facilities. It demanded North Korea return to talks to address the issue.
The two Koreas jointly ran a tour project at the resort for about 10 years during an earlier era of inter-Korean detente. The tours drew an estimated 2 million South Korean visitors and served as a rare source of foreign currency for the impoverished North. But South Korea suspended the project in 2008 after one of its tourists was fatally shot by a North Korean soldier there.
After their relations improved in 2018, the two Koreas pushed to resume stalled cooperation projects including the mountain tours. But Seoul eventually failed to do so without defying U.S.-led sanctions that kept the tours from restarting. In 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered officials to tear down South Korean-owned assets in the resort, but the demolition was delayed due to worries about the spread of the coronavirus.
North Korea has sought sanctions relief and other concessions from the United States and South Korea to revive its moribund economy. Some experts say its recent weapons testing activity was meant to perfect its missile technology and boost its leverage in future negotiations with its rivals.
Besides the golf resort and floating hotel, South Korea owns other facilities in the resort such as spas, a culture center, accommodations, a duty free shop, karaoke rooms and a building used for reunions of Korean families separated by war. The fate of those facilities was unclear.
The North’s state media reported Tuesday that a fire in the Diamond Mountain area over the weekend destroyed unspecified facilities and hundreds of hectares of forests. It said the blaze was put out on Sunday.
It wasn’t immediately known if the fire was related to the demolition of the South Korean facilities at the resort. The South Korean Unification Ministry said it was trying to find out if the fire caused any damage to its facilities in the resort. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/seoul-north-korea-destroying-s-korean-owned-golf-course/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:05 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/seoul-north-korea-destroying-s-korean-owned-golf-course/ |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Prolonged rains and flooding in the Durban area of South Africa have claimed the lives of at least 45 people, damaging the port, major highways and surrounding areas in KwaZulu-Natal province, according to local officials.
South Africa’s military has been deployed to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area on Tuesday to assist with rescue operations as residents flee flooded areas.
Some people have been swept away by surging waters, say officials. Durban port, the largest and busiest shipping terminal in sub-Saharan Africa, has been inundated with floodwaters that carried away shipping containers and left them in a jumbled pile.
Authorities are providing shelter for several hundred people whose homes and possessions were washed away by the floods and technicians are working to restore electricity to areas where power had been knocked out.
Emergency services have for several days been responding to urgent calls for help from people stuck in their houses but the number is beginning to decrease, emergency services spokesman Robert McKenzie told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“There are still cases of collapsed buildings where operations are still continuing,” he said.
“Most of our power stations have been flooded and our teams are working hard to restore power to the affected areas,” Mxolisi Kaunda, mayor of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality, told a press briefing Tuesday.
“Our teams are on the ground to try and return the situation to normalcy,” he said. “We continue to assess the damages, we cannot be sure of the extent of the damages at the moment.”
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This story was corrected to show that the mayor of eThekwini’s name is spelled Mxolisi. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/south-africas-kwazulu-natal-province-hit-by-floods-20-dead/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:11 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/south-africas-kwazulu-natal-province-hit-by-floods-20-dead/ |
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities have detained 46 people, including former local officials from a pro-Kurdish political party, who are suspected of having financial links to Kurdish militants, the state-run news agency reported on Tuesday.
The detained are among 91 suspects sought by a chief prosecutor for allegedly “providing financial resources on behalf” of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Anadolu Agency reported. They are accused of being a part of the PKK’s “economic structure,” of money-laundering and of taking instructions from PKK commander Murat Karayilan, it said.
Anadolu said the suspects include former deputy mayors, former party treasurers and former city council members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP.
There was no immediate comment from the HDP — the second-largest opposition party in Turkey’s parliament — which is fighting legal moves toward its closure at Turkey’s Constitutional Court.
Prosecutors accuse the party of colluding with the PKK and of seeking to “destroy the unity of the state.” They are demanding that the party be dissolved, that it be deprived of treasury funding and that about 450 party members be barred from holding political office for five years. The HDP denies the accusations.
Dozens of elected HDP lawmakers and mayors — including former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag — as well as thousands of party members have been arrested on terror-related accusations as part of a government crackdown on the party. Several HDP mayors who were elected in 2019 have, meanwhile, been replaced by state-appointed trustees.
The PKK is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. The group has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/turkey-detains-former-kurdish-party-officials-for-pkk-links/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:19 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/turkey-detains-former-kurdish-party-officials-for-pkk-links/ |
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday he paid a fine from police for attending a lockdown-breaching birthday party in his official residence, making him the first British leader to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.
The fines for Johnson, his wife, Carrie, and Treasury chief Rishi Sunak brought a simmering crisis for the prime minister back to full boil, with opposition politicians immediately calling for his resignation.
Johnson and his Conservative government have faced growing outrage since allegations surfaced late last year that he and his staff flouted Britain’s pandemic restrictions and held office parties in 2020 and 2021 when millions in the country were barred from meeting with friends and family — or even attending funerals for their loved ones.
“I have paid the fine and want to offer a full apology,” Johnson said. “I understand the anger many will feel that I myself fell short when it came to observing the very rules which the government I lead had introduced to protect the public. I accept in all sincerity that people had the right to expect better.”
Downing Street said Johnson was being sanctioned for attending a “gathering of two or more people indoors in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street” on June 19, 2020. The event was a surprise birthday party for the prime minister.
Johnson said the gathering lasted “less than 10 minutes,” and “at that time, it did not occur to me this might have been a breach of the rules.”
London’s Metropolitan Police force said it had issued at least 50 fines after investigating a dozen events held in 10 Downing St. and and other government buildings. They reportedly included “bring your own booze” office parties and “wine time Fridays” organized by Johnson’s staff.
The force did not identify the recipients or the size of the fines. But Johnson’s office confirmed shortly after that the prime minister and Sunak each received notice Tuesday that they would be issued with fines for an undisclosed amount. If paid promptly, such fines do not result in a criminal record.
Opponents, and some members of the governing Conservative Party, say Johnson should resign.
Thousands of people were fined between 60 pounds ($79) and 10,000 pounds ($13,200) by police for rule-breaking social gatherings during the pandemic.
“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken the law and repeatedly lied to the British public,” said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party. “The Conservatives are totally unfit to govern. Britain deserves better.”
Opposition parties called for lawmakers to be recalled from their Easter break for a vote of no-confidence in Johnson.
The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said “there is simply no way” that Johnson or Sunak can remain in their jobs.
“It’s still unbelievably painful to know that the Prime Minister was partying and breaking his own lockdown rules – while we were unable to be at our loved ones’ sides in their dying moments,” said the group’s spokesman Lobby Akinnola.
A total of 16 parties were investigated by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, with a dozen of them also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
In January, Gray published a report into some of the gatherings, the ones not under criminal investigation. She said “failures of leadership and judgment” in Johnson’s government allowed events to occur that should not have happened.
The report said some of the gatherings showed a “serious failure to observe” standards for government, and some behavior at the parties were “difficult to justify” given how the public were asked to restrict their lives.
Johnson’s grip on power had appeared to be on a knife-edge earlier this year because of the scandal and the departure of several top aides. Allies feared “partygate” could become a tipping point for a leader who has weathered a series of other stormsover his expenses, and his moral judgment.
Some Conservative lawmakers were openly calling for a no-confidence vote in their leader — something that can happen if 15% of Conservative lawmakers demand it.
But Johnson has hung on, partly because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine distracted public and political attention.
Johnson’s international image, battered by Britain’s messy exit from the European Union under his leadership, has been revived by his firm military, political and moral support for Ukraine. Johnson traveled to Kyiv last weekend to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Johnson might also benefit from the woes afflicting Sunak, the 41-year-old Treasury chief who has been seen as a potential rival and successor. The fine for Sunak comes as he also faces a backlash over the spiraling cost of living and questions about his financial arrangements and the tax status of his wealthy wife.
Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government think-tank, said “partygate” had damaged the reputation of both the government and the civil service.
“The line, ‘It’s one rule for them and another law for the rest of us’ really does resonate,” she said.
Rutter said Johnson was probably safe for now, but could face fresh peril if the Conservatives take a hammering in next month’s local elections.
“And with the prime minister, there’s always a possibility that something else comes out,” she said. “So you wouldn’t say that it’s guaranteed plain sailing through to the 2023-2024 election. But I think we definitely premature to write him off now.”
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Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka contributed.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/uk-government-johnson-to-be-fined-over-lockdown-parties/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:26 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/uk-government-johnson-to-be-fined-over-lockdown-parties/ |
GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization predicted Tuesday that trade in goods will grow much less than previously expected this year, saying prospects for the global economy have darkened since the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In the latest grim economic outlook to emerge, the Geneva-based trade body pointed to multiple uncertainties in its forecast over the next two years because Russian and Ukrainian exports of items like food, oil and fertilizers are under threat from the war. It also cited the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic — notably from lockdowns in China.
“It’s now clear that the double whammy of the pandemic and the war has disrupted supply chains, increased inflationary pressures and lowered expectations for output and trade growth,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters.
The WTO said its projections for world trade take into account factors like the impact of the war, sanctions on Russia and shrinking worldwide demand amid lower business and consumer confidence.
It said world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow 3% this year, down from a forecast of 4.7% before the war began. For 2023, it’s expected to increase 3.4%.
The trade body also projects that global gross domestic product at market exchange rates will grow by 2.8% this year, down from the 4.1% previously anticipated.
Okonjo-Iweala said the war has caused “immense human suffering” in Ukraine and its effect has rippled around the world, notably in poorer countries, adding: “A potential food crisis is looming.”
She said high fuel prices and expensive fertilizer pose a threat to future crop yields, and the war has further strained global supply chains already under pressure.
The WTO is part of a steering committee set up by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to look into the possible food crisis. The panel has discussed, among other things, whether countries with “additional buffer stocks” of grain could release some supply into international markets, Okonjo-Iweala said.
She expressed hopes for a “humanitarian cover” to ensure that the harvest of 80% of Ukraine’s winter wheat in July can go forward, and that wheat can be planted in the country in September.
The WTO outlook follows a similarly downbeat forecast from the World Bank.
The Washington-based lender said in a report Sunday that the war in Ukraine is set to inflict twice the amount of economic damage across Europe and Central Asia that the COVID-19 pandemic did.
It also said Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45.1% this year. Besides Ukraine, the report focused on central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics, the Balkan countries and Turkey. | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/wto-war-in-ukraine-to-curb-trade-economic-growth-this-year/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:33 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/wto-war-in-ukraine-to-curb-trade-economic-growth-this-year/ |
WARREN COUNTY, N.Y. (WTEN) — The now-adult survivor of a kidnapping and sexual assault in 1995 is sharing her story for the first time in an effort to keep the man who attacked her behind bars. Only her first name is used in this story to protect her identity.
The attack happened on Aug. 11, 1995, when Laura was 12 years old. She was vacationing with her family in Brant Lake, located in the Adirondacks in Warren County, New York.
“I went on my bike ride thinking absolutely nothing of it,” she said.
She rode to a corner store and called her mother on the store’s pay phone to let her know she would return in a few minutes. Then she started riding back home.
But moments after leaving, a vehicle pull in front of her on the roadway. “Cut me off and jammed on his brakes. I did not know exactly what to think,” she said. But she did know that something was wrong.
The driver, a man she would soon come to know as Patrick May, was a convicted sex offender.
Laura jumped off her bike screaming. She said she did not hear anyone chasing her.
“The next thing I remember is being on the ground and watching it from above, like just sort of disassociated. Watching myself get raped,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘I am going to die. My parents will never find my body. They will not know what happened to me.'”
She did her best to fight off her attacker, including biting him.
At just 12 years old, Laura knew she would have to rely on sheer will and her smarts if she was to survive.
After raping her in the woods, May then drove Laura to another wooded location in Hague, 20 miles away, where he assaulted her again.
With her wrists bound with tape, May had Laura clean herself up behind his vehicle. That’s when she noticed his license plate. “I remember just looking at the back of his license plate and repeating it over and over again.”
Even though he had promised not to kill her, May began to strangle Laura in the woods. She tried to outsmart him by playing dead. “And I just dangled there as he strangled me. And he did not stop, and that is the last memory I have of that evening,” she said.
Sixteen hours after being abducted, she woke up in the woods. Naked and badly injured, she was able to make her way to a nearby home for help.
Her anxious parents rushed to the hospital, finding their daughter bruised and beaten. The whites of Laura’s eyes were all red — a condition called petechiae — due to being strangled.
“When the word ‘raped’ came out my mouth associated with a 12-year-old, it was so bizarre. I mean, I believed it, but I couldn’t believe it. In fact, I still don’t believe it,” said her father.
Her parents said they were just grateful that their daughter was alive.
Investigators located May using the license plate number given to them by Laura. Former Warren County Sheriff Bud York worked on the case in 1995, but he already knew Patrick May from the mid-1980s, arresting him for raping a neighbor after he broke into her home. For that crime, May served less than two years in prison.
According to investigators, after May got out, he tried to abduct a woman outside a grocery store in Baldwinsville, New York. York said other previously unidentified victims have since come forward as well.
“He should have never got out,” said York.
Investigators credit Laura’s courage, along with bite marks she left on May and remembering that license plate number for securing a conviction and prison term of 75 to 150 years.
“I was strong before this happened. We always said he picked the wrong girl. And so, I wanted to be able to help others,” says Laura.
Laura’s strength helped her turn her pain into a mission to help other victims. She graduated from law school and is now a prosecuting attorney, going after the Patrick May’s of the world.
“That’s why I wanted to go to trial. It’s led me on the career path I have today,” she said.
But always looming in the background is the fear that her attacker may one day be released. May became eligible for parole two years ago. While that request was denied, he is now up for another parole hearing this June.
“If Patrick gets out of prison, there will be other victims. And they are going to be dead. Because he does not want to be behind bars,” said York.
To ensure May stays behind bars, every two years, Laura’s parents conduct a letter-writing campaign asking everyone they know — and even those they don’t — to write letters to the parole board asking them to keep him in prison.
“Anybody that can get involved because this isn’t just us. This could be your kid. It could be anybody,” said Laura’s mom.
“Thinking that he murdered me and left me for dead in an area where people dump their garbage because that is the regard that he had for my life, he should never, ever, be free,” added Laura.
May, 58, has a conditional release date of Dec. 17, 2028. If he can find appropriate housing and was not disciplined while in prison, he will be released and the parole board has no choice.
But in the meantime, Laura and her parents are reaching out to anyone who will listen, asking them to help. They say they received an incredible response during their last letter-writing campaign, with more than 1,000 letters written to the parole board.
If you wish to send a letter, address envelopes to:
Cayuga Correctional Facility
Attn: SORC (Parole Board)
2202 State Route 38A
P.O. Box 1150
Moravia, NY 13118-1150 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/1995-kidnapping-sex-assault-survivor-makes-another-plea-to-keep-predator-behind-bars/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:40 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/1995-kidnapping-sex-assault-survivor-makes-another-plea-to-keep-predator-behind-bars/ |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – An Ohio man with four children to feed, and who has seen his rent and food bills increase, decided to get a B1DNSUX license plate to share his thoughts with fellow drivers.
Joseph Haig, of Pickaway County, owns a painting business. Like many small business owners, he’s been hurt by increased costs.
“I got the license plate because I didn’t like the gas prices, I didn’t like that my rent had gone up, I didn’t like that the food and formula and diapers for my baby had gone up and was becoming harder to find, and I blamed the current administration,” he said.
Haig applied for the plate eight months ago.
“I did think it was funny,” Haig said. “I also didn’t think it would get approved. It was kind of like a joke to the teller that was doing the paperwork. And she said, ‘Spell it out.’ So I wrote it on a piece of paper, and she laughed, and she gave me a paper copy.
“For three weeks I didn’t think the hard copy was ever going to come — and then,” Haig said with a grin, “it came.”
Most people like the license plate, Haig said, and it’s a good talking point.
“Very few negative feedbacks compared to the positive feedback,” he said. “It makes my day every time somebody gives me a thumbs up. … I’ve even had somebody get out of a car at a Wendy’s and pound on my window and tell me that he loved it.”
Even though Haig is frustrated with the current administration, he said he followed pandemic rules — “I wore my mask inside people’s houses” — and he’s also pitched in when somebody gets hurt: He pulled a victim of a tubing accident from Alum Creek into his fishing boat in 2020. Haig said the victim died as Haig tried to keep him alive.
Haig is not the only person to have a plate that sounds off about the administration. A BIDN SUX plate was seen in a nearby neighborhood in March.
Although Ohioans have been able to show their frustration with President Joe Biden on license plates, they haven’t been able to disparage Michigan in a similar way. Two references were denied in 2020 related to the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry: “MCHSUX” and “UM SCKS.”
In 2021, the BMV denied 827 vanity plates, including at least 48 plates referencing Biden or making a similar comment, according to an analysis of an internal list received via public records request. | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/b1dnsux-license-plate-owner-why-i-got-it/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:46 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/b1dnsux-license-plate-owner-why-i-got-it/ |
(WGHP) — Cam Newton is raising some eyebrows after an appearance on a podcast.
In the Sunday episode of the Barstool Sports Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, the quarterback talked about what he perceives as the role of women in society.
“I had a perfect, a perfect example of what a man was in my life by my father. My parents have been together for 36, 37 years now and it’s a beautiful thing I grew up in a three-parent household: my mom, my father and my grandmother and I knew what a woman was, not a bad (expletive), a woman,” he said.
He continued by explaining what he interprets the difference between a ‘bad (expletive)’ and a woman is. “A bad (expletive) is a person who is just, you know: ‘Girl, I’m a bad (expletive), I’m doing this, I’m doing that. I look the part but I don’t act that part.’ And there’s a lot of women who are bad (expletives), and I say (expletives) in a way not to degrade a woman, but just to go off the aesthetic of what they deem is a boss chick.”
Newton went on to say that a “woman for me” is someone who “handles (her) own” but knows how to “cater to a man’s needs.”
From there he continues. “And I think a lot of times when you get that aesthetic of: ‘I’m a boss (expletive), Imma this, Imma that.’ No, baby. But you can’t cook. You don’t know when to be quiet. You don’t know how to allow a man to lead.”
While he said he didn’t want to sit behind the mic and criticize women, he wanted “men to start being men.” | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/cam-newton-women-dont-know-when-to-be-quiet/ | 2022-04-12T19:14:52 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/cam-newton-women-dont-know-when-to-be-quiet/ |