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B.C. health officials sharing details on possible 2nd booster shots next week
The B.C. government will be addressing plans for providing second booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine to certain populations next week.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the fourth doses are part of the province's strategy for mitigating the impact of possible sixth wave of COVID-19 cases, as boosted vaccine protection has been credited with reducing hospitalizations and other severe outcomes.
It's unclear who will be eligible for the boosters, but Dix indicated Thursday that people in "clinically vulnerable categories, such as those in long-term care" would be first in line.
"You'll be hearing more about that next Tuesday," the minister said.
Some jurisdictions, including Ontario, are already grappling with another significant surge in COVID-19 cases, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to release guidance on fourth doses in the coming days, according to a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada.
"NACI has been asked for advice on the potential use of second booster doses in elderly populations at higher risk of severe disease. PHAC is expected to publish NACI advice on this in early April," Anna Maddison said in an email.
Asked about the possibility of B.C. bringing back stronger COVID-19 restrictions as cases increase, Dix said officials will tailor their response to the latest data.
"What you need to do is respond to the nature of the wave," he said. "The measures taken with respect to the Delta wave are different than the measures taken with respect to the Omicron variant of concern, so we continue to adapt, and that's true of most jurisdictions."
The latest COVID-19 updates from the Ministry of Health show the number of test-positive patients in hospital hovering between 250 and 290. The total decreased steadily for weeks after reaching an all-time high of 1,054 back in January.
Dix said wastewater monitoring has also shown an "overall either flat or slight increase in the amount of COVID-19 present." That monitoring, along with test positivity rates, are among the only means officials have of tracking transmission now that B.C. no longer conducts PCR testing on most people with coronavirus symptoms.
Earlier this month, the province lifted its indoor mask mandate, prompting criticism from B.C.'s human rights commissioner over the potential impact to the people most vulnerable to severe illness.
The government set out a target date of April 8 – at the end of next week – for removing vaccine passport requirements as well, but said that date would be pushed back if needed.
With files from The Canadian Press
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Russians leave Chornobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
Russian troops handed control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Putin targets enemies at home as his missiles strike Ukraine
Long before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the mass detentions of Russian peace protesters, the Kremlin was already stifling dissent with choking bureaucracy. Throughout 2021, the Kremlin tightened the screws on its opponents – including supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists.
Ontario has 'eliminated all our defences' against COVID subvariant: epidemiologist
An infectious disease expert says 'there's no doubt' a sixth wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across Ontario, and it's being driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant at the same time restrictions have been lifted across the province.
NACI guidance on fourth dose of COVID vaccine expected soon: PHAC
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to release guidance on fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine in early April as public health indicators tick up across Canada.
'Obvious attempt to create chaos,' Charest campaign says of fake donation pledges
Jean Charest's team says it is aware that fake donation pledges were made to the Conservative leadership candidate's campaign, calling the situation 'an obvious attempt to create chaos.'
First Nations say Pope Francis meeting the beginning of a 'new partnership'
Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Chief Gerald Antoine says he believes a meeting held with Pope Francis at the Vatican will be the beginning of a 'new partnership' between Indigenous groups and the Catholic Church in working towards reconciliation.
With federal alcohol tax set to increase, MPs advance bills to rein it in
The Conservative Party and the New Democrats are each focusing new private members' bills on the rising cost of beverages – both alcoholic drinks and low-alcohol beer, specifically.
Dyson headphones' April Fools? Company says they're real
Dyson, the company famous for its bagless vacuum cleaners and pricey hair dryers, has revealed its first set of noise-cancelling headphones that come paired with a unique feature, air purifiers.
Sweet justice: Ringleader of Canada's notorious maple syrup heist must pay more than $9M in fines, top court rules
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a $9 million fine for the thief in a 2012 maple syrup heist. | https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-health-officials-sharing-details-on-possible-2nd-booster-shots-next-week-1.5843604 | 2022-04-01T01:16:43Z |
(ABC4) – If you’re tired of looking at old furniture that you bought last year from IKEA, the retailer has announced that it will now pay customers to bring back old furniture.
The IKEA buyback and resell option has now been made available for 37 of its U.S. stores. As a way to help pave a path toward sustainable living, the company has brought back the initiative that was launched late last year.
How does it work?
You start by filling out a form on IKEA’s website in order to receive an emailed quote of the buyback value for your furniture. Customers are asked to bring a copy of their quote, buyback number, and fully assembled furniture to your participating IKEA store where an employee will assess the furniture’s buyback value.
When you buyback, you will get store credit and your furniture gets a second life in the As-Is department.
What are the buyback requirements?
According to IKEA, the following categories of products are not currently eligible for the furniture buy-back service:
- Non-IKEA products
- Home furnishing accessories including lighting and textiles
- Add-on units and componentry
- Products that have been used outside including outdoor furniture
- Mattresses and bad textiles (such as blankets and mattress toppers)
- Kitchens including bench tops, cabinets, and fronts
- Modular wardrobes and accessories
- Electrical appliances and products
- Chests of drawers
- “Hacked,” modified or painted products
- Non-assembled products
- Market Hall products (including small kitchen goods, art, rugs, and picture frames)
- Upholstered or leather products
- Sofas or armchairs
- Plants
- Items containing glass (including mirrors)
- Children’s and baby products (such as cribs, mattresses, and change tables)
- Beds and bed frames
The retailer said on its website that large quantities and commercially used items are exempt. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/ikea-will-pay-you-to-return-old-furniture-at-select-stores/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:43Z |
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's one of the hottest tickets to snag right now and is the most expensive Final Four ticket on record, according to TickPick. If you want to see the matchup between Duke and UNC in person in the Final Four on Saturday in New Orleans get ready to pay up. With any big event, scammers see an opportunity and they've wasted no time jumping into the final four frenzies of the showdown.
If you still need tickets, Brett Goldberg, with TickPick says, "It's always important to compare apples to apples of the pricing."
Goldberg suggests before you buy, make sure you know the total price. TickPick shows you the overall price, with no service fee. Other websites show you the price per ticket, and you don't see the fees until you click buy.
On Ticketmaster, you'll find nosebleed seats for around $270 each with all the fees, and if you want to be right at the action just a few rows from center court, one ticket, will cost you $22,500, but when you add on the nearly $5,000 in fees, you'll shell out more than $27,000 for just one ticket.
Tickets to the Final Four are now all electronic. If someone just wants to send you a screenshot of a mobile ticket, that's a red flag. Instead, you want the ticket through mobile transfer, which means the tickets are delivered via email or link from the ticket broker.
"When you get that transfer you can feel confident that that ticket is legitimate and you don't have to worry about a paper ticket that may have been copied multiple times," Goldberg adds.
Before you buy also look to see if the ticket broker offers any guarantee with the ticket purchase.
"If there are issues, and you are stuck in the gate for some reason, you can call that marketplace and there's a chance they will get you in last minute if there is a pinch," Goldberg said.
We also found plenty of tickets on Craigslist. When you are buying from anyone on Craigslist, you just never know who you're dealing with as it could indeed be a scammer with fake tickets. If you pay with cash or through a wire transfer or cash app, just know you could lose your money.
Paying with a credit card offers you the most protection when it comes to fraud.
Once you snag your ticket, you'll need lodging in New Orleans. Many hotels in New Orleans already sold out. If you're looking for a last-minute rental, Airbnb has this warning.
"Bad actors who even go as far as to mock up fake Airbnb websites literally, they go to great lengths to try to make people think that they are on Airbnb and exploit that trust that people have with our platform," said Ben Breit of Airbnb.
He also said never to wire money to any host. Before booking, read past reviews, see and understand exactly what your rental will be, and don't be afraid to ask questions. A sure sign it could be a scam is if you're asked to book and pay outside of Airbnb.
"The golden rule is as long as you are making that booking through Airbnb and you're paying through Airbnb we're protecting your money," Breit said.
We also found hotel listings on Craigslist. With these you also need to be very careful, call the hotel first to verify if the booking is legitimate and whether it will accept a party under a different reservation name.
Watch for scammers, as Final Four tickets most expensive in history
ABC11 TROUBLESHOOTER | https://abc11.com/ticket-scams-final-four-tickets-tickpick-ticketmaster/11697111/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:43Z |
1 officer killed, 2 others hurt in Pennsylvania shooting
LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania police officer was killed and two others injured Thursday during a shooting that occurred while responding to a domestic disturbance call, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said.
Police officers went to a home in the city at about 3:30 p.m. for the disturbance call. Nearly an hour later gunfire broke out and officers radioed in they were hit, Capello said at a brief news conference.
All three officers were taken to hospitals. One of them has been pronounced dead. A second was in critical condition, but stable, and a third was in stable condition, Capello said.
“This is an extremely difficult moment for everyone,” Capello said.
The suspect, a 34-year-old man from Lebanon, was killed in the shooting, Lebanon Police Chief Todd Breiner said.
“As one can imagine, it's clearly a traumatic event,” Breiner said. “Our guys are strong, but we're human and we have families.”
The slain officer's name is being withheld pending notification of extended family members.
Police did not release further details. | https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/1-officer-killed-2-others-004836220.html?src=rss | 2022-04-01T01:16:43Z |
Which Sony soundbar is best?
The best Sony soundbar for you depends on many factors, though it’s hard to go wrong with such a trusted brand. Sony offers a range of soundbars, so most buyers can find one to accommodate their budget and needs. Still, some find it daunting to sift through the various speaker options available, especially if they don’t know what they’re looking for.
The Sony HT-A5000 Soundbar offers superior audio, and it works great with voice-command systems like Alexa and Google Assistant.
What to know before you buy a Sony soundbar
Other audio and video devices
Soundbars are commonly used as the primary speaker for television audio or as central speakers for a complete home theater system. Those looking to buy a Sony soundbar will need to consider what other audio and video hardware they plan to use with the soundbar. Even if you aren’t adding your soundbar to a home theater system with other speakers, they’re compatible with nearly all Sony speakers, letting you upgrade later if you want.
Audio formats
Soundbars can vary in what audio formats they support. Support for high-resolution audio formats is a must if you’re hoping to get the best possible sound out of your speakers. The two most common and highest-resolution audio formats to look out for are Dolby Atmos and DTS: X. However, each of the companies also offers lower-quality versions of the formats.
Soundbar bundles with other speakers
Many buying a soundbar prefer to bundle it with other speakers to achieve surround sound. You can purchase soundbars with a full surround sound setup or find bundles with just a soundbar and a subwoofer.
What to look for in a quality Sony soundbar
Connectivity
When buying any soundbar, it’s crucial to make sure the one you choose has the connections you need for your TV or other audio hardware. Different connections on soundbars can vary, with some more common than others.
- HDMI: Many soundbars include HDMI ports with audio capabilities. Soundbars are commonly used with TVs, making HDMI ports the most common connection type.
- RCA component: If you’re using an older TV or device, you may require a soundbar with RCA component cables or analog video cables. These aren’t as common as HDMI outputs, though they’re not impossible to find.
- USB: Some soundbars may include USB ports for playing audio from flash drives, computers or other USB sources.
- Optical digital: Optical digital ports let users connect devices like TVs, Blu-ray players and more and are relatively common on soundbars.
- Bluetooth: The most common type of wireless connection included on soundbars is Bluetooth. Some soundbars feature Bluetooth connectivity, but not all of them — so it’s vital to double-check the product listing before you buy if you hope to listen to audio via Bluetooth.
- Wi-Fi: Some soundbars include Wi-Fi connectivity, making them easy to connect to with a wide range of wireless internet-compatible devices.
If you’ll use your soundbar with a specific device, you’ll need to ensure the soundbar supports the device’s connections.
Size
The size of your media stand may limit which soundbars you can use. Soundbars can vary in size, so it’s essential to measure the width of the surface you plan to put them on.
Modes and other features
Many soundbars include sound modes for optimizing audio quality based on the media you’re using. For example, many have sound modes like voice, game or movie modes, which will equalize audio to bring out the best in the given media. You can also find other audio features on soundbars, often including equalization, automatic room tuning and low-latency settings.
How much you can expect to spend on a Sony soundbar
Cheap Sony soundbars may cost as little as $100. You can expect to spend $130-$1,500 on mid-tier or high-end soundbars.
Sony soundbar FAQ
Are Sony soundbars compatible with Samsung TVs?
A. Sony’s soundbars are compatible with most Samsung TVs. Some buyers have reported issues using the Sony app with their Samsung TVs, though that doesn’t necessarily prevent them from using the two brands together.
Do Sony soundbars offer true surround sound without other speakers?
A. The only way to achieve true surround sound is through a 5.1- or 7.1-channel speaker setup. These speaker setups use several speakers to achieve surround sound, including a soundbar, subwoofer and other mid- and high-frequency speakers.
What’s the best Sony soundbar to buy?
Top Sony soundbar
Sony HT-A5000 5.1.2-Channel Surround Sound Soundbar With Dolby Atmos
What you need to know: This soundbar boasts an impressive simulated surround sound, and it includes support for high-resolution Dolby Atmos and DTS: X formats.
What you’ll love: This soundbar offers immersive sound and deep bass, even without subs or other speakers. It also upscales compressed audio and includes several fine-tuning features. This can also be purchased in bundles with Sony’s other home theater speakers.
What you should consider: Despite the high price, this only includes the soundbar.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Sony soundbar for the money
Sony HTX-8500 2.1-Channel Soundbar With Dolby Atmos
What you need to know: This is an excellent, affordable soundbar for smaller rooms, offering surround sound and support for Dolby Atmos and DTS: X high-resolution formats.
What you’ll love: This includes 4K audio with high dynamic range and impressive bass tones from the dual subwoofers. This soundbar’s easy to upgrade later with Sony’s other speakers, making it perfect for buyers who want to buy one speaker at a time.
What you should consider: Some buyers would have liked a “voice mode” to improve dialogue audio.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Sony HT-G700 3.1-Channel Soundbar And Subwoofer With Dolby Atmos
What you need to know: This bundle includes both a soundbar and a subwoofer, producing incredibly immersive sound quality.
What you’ll love: This soundbar includes Dolby Atmos support and features multiple modes for easily tuning audio to the room and media type. It also supports Bluetooth and HDMI enhanced audio return channel connections and other audio input options.
What you should consider: This soundbar can’t connect to Wi-Fi like some of Sony’s other speakers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cbs42.com/reviews/best-sony-soundbar/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:42Z |
This is branded content.
Australia may just be one of the most campervan-friendly countries under the sun. As many tourists tend to get around Australia by car or by taking advantage of cheap flights, going from destination to destination can be a veritable breeze, especially for avid outdoorsy types travelling in groups or for families who are travelling with young children.
But what about backpackers and other lone international travellers?
If you're looking to explore all that Australia has to offer on a minimal budget, then the tips we've outlined below may just be what you need to ensure that you can tick off each and every item on your Australian bucket list. Read on to unearth the best methods for travelling across Australia on a budget.
Take advantage of holiday deals
A lot of Australia's most popular tourist destinations become increasingly accessible to everyday travellers with the use of holiday deals. Just a quick search online is likely to reveal an abundance of Cairns, Gold Coast, and Port Douglas holiday packages that avid travellers and beachgoers alike can take full advantage of when planning their next trip to the golden coastlines of Queensland.
Holiday deals may also see tourists get some hugely competitive discounts on flights as well as accommodation, alongside potentially even getting the chance to experience mega savings on sightseeing opportunities and experiences like ferry rides or helicopter tours, which will naturally be able to provide you with a hugely dynamic perspective of your selected getaway destination.
It's also important to note that holiday packages don't necessarily need to be limited to any particular location either, and that it is possible to book more expansive tours across particular parts of the country too.
For instance, regions like the Kimberleys in Western Australia span a large number of WA's localities, including the popular beach town, Broome. A holiday package in the Kimberleys will likely have you travelling hundreds of kilometres from township to rugged red canyons and cliffsides, secluded waterfalls and coastal swim spots, before travelling all the way back to civilisation once more.
Travel during off-peak periods
Of course, every getaway destination in Australia comes with its own peak tourist season, and chances are rather high that the costs of flights and accommodation will undoubtedly rise when that season swings round.
You can save a fair amount of money by just scheduling your holiday dates to fall outside of the peak tourist season.
Be sure to double check the peak season for your selected travel destinations online, however, as holiday peaks vary depending on the alternating weather conditions experienced along Australia's east and west coasts.
For instance, you don't want to book a holiday in Cairns in January or February, as the increased rainfall and humid weather won't be much fun at all, especially for travellers who are looking for a little seaside rest and relaxation. The best time to visit Cairns is said to be either before or after these rainier months, or from March to May, or August to October.
Contrastingly, the peak of our Aussie summer may be the most ideal time to explore Tasmania or South Australia, as these regions are more likely to experience clear skies and warm days all throughout summer.
Both Tasmania and South Australia also generally experience less tourist traffic when compared to Australia's other densely populated regions, though more on going against the crowds later.
Stay at hostels over hotels
As Australia is truly just one big outdoor playground for all avid hikers, bikers, and general adventurers, there's really no reason to opt for luxury accommodation at every turn, even if you aren't trying to travel on a budget. In fact, one of the best ways of genuinely experiencing Australia is simply by packing up your swag and camping in the bush.
Of course, setting up a tent isn't possible in more densely populated areas like city centres, but that's where you'll also be most likely to find hostels.
Hostels are a superb alternative to traditional hotels and other accommodation like serviced apartments, as they'll allow you to connect with fellow travellers as well as gain some more great savings on local tourist attractions and experiences like citywide tour buses.
Alongside staying in hostels, you should also feel encouraged to wander your urban surroundings in the hunt for all the favourite cheap eateries and providers of comfort food that the locals may be raving about.
And if you don't feel the need to eat out, simply do a quick shop for ingredients in order to prepare a communal feast to be enjoyed with your fellow travellers.
Having conversations with your fellow hostel guests or perhaps even sharing a table with some of these new friends can prove to be just as enriching an experience as sightseeing can be!
Make full use of public transport options
As an island continent, there's no better way to get around Australia than on its many thousands of kilometres of rural highways.
You can go on the road either by renting your own car or campervan, or by booking yourself some tickets with Greyhound Australia, the country's largest network of buses and coaches. Greyhound coaches will be able to get you to many of Australia's most must-see destinations, including Darwin in the Northern Territory.
If bus life isn't your thing, then you can also book yourself some train tickets using the country's large network of regional express trains that stretch across the length of the eastern coast. You can travel with ease from Melbourne to Sydney, and then from Sydney to Brisbane all by using Australia's expansive railway network.
Go off the beaten track
Finally, as we touched upon earlier, there are some destinations across Australia that will always see greater foot traffic than other regions. This isn't because these destinations are any less valuable, but simply because they're largely underrated and receive far less international exposure than places like Cairns and Sydney's Northern Beaches.
Instead of going to Cairns, you can go to Port Douglas and have a fairly similarly sun-kissed experience. Instead of Sydney's Northern Beaches, you could potentially travel a little further north in order to find yourself in the sunny township of Newcastle, where you can enjoy its crystal clear waters without having to navigate Bondi-level crowds.
Choosing to take the road less travelled won't just save you some serious dollars, but it'll also allow you to experience a more serene and in that sense, a more authentic Australian landscape.
Infinite possibilities
There are quite honestly an infinite amount of experiences to be had across the surface of this great island nation, so chances are fairly strong that even your budget trip will be able to provide you with a lifetime's worth of enrichment.
Be sure to map out your trip itinerary well ahead of time in order to make the most of all the holiday deals that are available to you! | https://www.therural.com.au/story/7654988/the-australian-explorers-guide-to-cash-conscious-travel/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:43Z |
Roblox backs Apple in antitrust case, says App Store offers privacy and security
Online gaming platform Roblox Corp said on Thursday Apple Inc's App Store offers privacy and safety benefits to its users, supporting the iPhone-maker's bid to beat an appeal by Epic Games in a key U.S. antitrust case.
Online gaming platform Roblox Corp said on Thursday Apple Inc's App Store offers privacy and safety benefits to its users, supporting the iPhone-maker's bid to beat an appeal by Epic Games in a key U.S. antitrust case. Epic, known for its "Fortnite" game, largely lost a trial last year over whether Apple's fees and payment rules for app makers were anti-competitive. It appealed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Apple's process for review and approval of apps available on the App Store enhances safety and security, and provides those apps greater legitimacy in the eyes of users," Roblox said in a legal filing on Thursday. Roblox had played a prominent role in the original trial last year. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is probing key revelations from the antitrust trial between Apple and Epic Games, in which the "Fortnite" maker had argued that Apple had given a free pass to Roblox, whose app lets people pick from a selection of games to play.
An Apple senior director described Roblox's offering as "experiences". Soon after, Roblox changed descriptions on its website to "experiences" from "games" and called itself a metaverse company. Apple has said its rules promote several benefits for consumers, including increased security and privacy. Two former Central Intelligence Agency directors and 21 other former U.S. national security officials advanced that argument in Apple's support on Thursday.
The appeal hearing is expected next year.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Honduran judge grants U.S. extradition request for ex-President Hernandez | https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/1985859-roblox-backs-apple-in-antitrust-case-says-app-store-offers-privacy-and-security | 2022-04-01T01:16:44Z |
Updated March 30, 2022 at 2:00 PM ET
STRZYZOW, Poland — After Russia invaded Ukraine, Olena Kudlach said goodbye to her husband, a Ukrainian soldier, and left for neighboring Poland with their two young children.
"I worried that maybe the Polish would not want us," says Kudlach, 32, who's from the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. "But I could not have been more wrong."
She says Polish border guards carried the family's luggage and wrapped her children — Nazar, 10, and Viktoria, 2 — in blankets. Volunteers at a reception center in the village of Korczowa handed them hot soup. And in the crowd there, Kudlach spotted a cheerful woman smiling at them.
"That was Ela," she says. "She had come to take us to her home."
Ela Zamorska, a 28-year-old teacher and hairdresser, embraced them all.
"I first saw Olena's little daughter, all dressed in pink, looking so sweet, and it was love at first sight," she says. "You just saw that they were very good people who had to be helped at all costs."
This scene has replayed again and again in Poland, the country that's taken in the most Ukrainian refugees by far — 2.3 million — since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Polish families, volunteers and nonprofits have largely cared for Ukrainians arriving here. And the Polish government continues to welcome Ukrainians even as housing options dwindle, prompting local authorities to open shelters around the country, and social services are pushed to the limit.
The war feels close by for Poland
Sabina Stankowska-Kobylecka, a 33-year-old lawyer in the Polish city of Rzeszow, says she knows one reason why.
"Here, in Poland, the war feels close, and we have our own history with Russia," she says, referring to the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and its decades behind the Iron Curtain. "I hear people saying, we might be next."
Stankowska-Kobylecka is housing 22 Ukrainians — nine women and 13 children — in her late grandmother's stone-and-brick house in Rzeszow, a city in southeastern Poland that has become a hub for Ukrainian refugees, aid organizations and Western diplomats who left Ukraine after the invasion.
No one had lived in the house for years, so dozens of friends helped Stankowska-Kobylecka and her husband clean and fix up the place in three days.
It's now the place Oksana Horysh and her three children call home. Horysh, a 40-year-old bookkeeper, is from Lviv, a western Ukrainian city very close to the Polish border. Her husband stayed behind to defend Ukraine.
"Here, we have been able to rest because we are tired with worry for my husband, for my country," she says.
She and Stankowska-Kobylecka sit together on a sofa bed, sharing freshly baked coconut cake with their children, who often play together, speaking in a hybrid of Ukrainian and Polish.
Horysh imagines a future reunion in Lviv, in a Ukraine free of war.
"I call Sabina to go to my home and have cake and coffee," she says. "My friend — she helps us in a difficult time."
Previous refugee groups met a backlash in Poland
Poland has taken in over half of the more than 4 million people who have fled Ukraine since the war began in February, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency.
The Polish response to Ukrainian refugees has largely been a grassroots effort, with some assistance from local authorities. That generosity has been lauded by the United States and the European Union, which are promising billions of dollars in aid to Poland.
But on another swath of the Polish border — the one with Belarus, which is run by a close Kremlin ally — it's a very different story.
"It's absolutely night and day. I cannot use a stronger metaphor to describe it," says Monika Matus, an activist with Fundacja Ocalenie, a refugee advocacy organization in Poland.
Since last fall, thousands of refugees fleeing other conflicts have tried to enter the European Union from nonmember Belarus. Belarusian authorities escorted these refugees to the border with Poland and cut the barbed wire fence separating the EU from Belarus. Polish border guards violently pushed back the refugees.
"People crossing from Belarus have been on the road for many years, trying to reach [the] European Union from Syria, from Afghanistan, from Iraq, from Iran, from Yemen," Matus says. "In Poland, they are pushed back to Belarus. They are threatened. There's no hiding that."
Lamis Abdelaaty, a political science professor at Syracuse University, sees the same stark contrast between how Poland and other European countries welcome Ukrainians — and how they wanted to keep out non-European asylum-seekers arriving in 2015. Many were fleeing the war in Syria.
"In 2015, European politicians talked about the arrivals of large numbers of people as a crisis for Europe," says Abdelaaty, whose book Discrimination and Delegation examines state responses to refugees. "Today, with Ukraine, we're hearing politicians frame the exodus of millions of people from Ukraine as a crisis for Ukraine, which is the more correct and more humane use of the term 'crisis.' "
She adds that "this conflict, as terrible and heart-wrenching as it has been, is really evidence that the European Union is more than capable of welcoming large numbers of refugees who are desperate for protection. ... I just wish we could bring this empathy to all refugee groups."
She grew up hearing how her grandma sheltered Polish Jews from Nazis
Ela Zamorska, who's housing a Ukrainian mother and her two children in her apartment, says she would like to believe she would empathize with any refugee in need. She grew up hearing stories about her grandmother, who sheltered Polish Jews fleeing the Nazis.
"My grandmother taught me that you should help people fighting for survival no matter what, even if you put yourself at risk," she says.
But she admits it's easier for Poles to feel comfortable around Ukrainians, who have so much shared history and are next-door neighbors. While Zamorska is at work, Kudlach cooks borscht and dumplings — dishes that are also part of Polish cuisine — that they share for dinner.
"I feel like she could almost be my sister," Zamorska says of Kudlach, who sits next to her at a table in Zamorska's small, tidy kitchen. Kudlach squeezes her hand.
"I can speak with her about my husband, because I'm very worried about him, since he's in Ukraine and also a soldier, and I rarely hear from him," she says. "Ela listens to me, and our languages are similar enough that it's like she understands. It makes me feel better."
Back in Rzeszow, Stankowska-Kobylecka and her family live two streets away from the Ukrainian families they're hosting in her grandmother's house. They spend a lot of time with each other.
"We can see so much of ourselves in Ukraine, in our new friends," she says. "People in Poland are afraid, you know. Sometimes my friends ask me if we are prepared for war. Some even have packed luggage to take if they need to escape quickly."
She hopes the Polish government drafts a long-term plan to care for Ukrainian refugees, especially as more arrive every day. She asks herself: Will there be enough work for everyone? Enough apartments? Enough spaces in schools?
"Sometimes, I worry about keeping up with the bills, because in Poland bills for things like electricity are very expensive," she says.
She's hoping the Polish government offers financial support to the many generous Poles housing Ukrainians in their family homes.
But if this doesn't happen, Stankowska-Kobylecka says she will raise the money herself.
"When the war started, my son was crying and afraid of war coming to Poland," she says. "And when he saw children leaving Ukraine, he cried even more, and said, 'Mom, bring them to us. Show them that they have another home.' "
Szymon Grela contributed reporting from Strzyzow and Rzeszow, Poland.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvpublic.org/2022-03-13/in-poland-residents-quickly-launched-grassroots-efforts-to-take-in-ukrainian-refugees | 2022-04-01T01:16:44Z |
LIMESTONE COUNTY, TX — One year ago today Trooper Chad Walker passed away after being shot 5 days earlier during a traffic stop.
His death has prompted reform efforts within Texas public safety departments and it serves as a reminder of how dangerous the job can be.
March 31 of 2021 is a date the community will never forget.
Sergeant Ryan Howard recalled the events of that day like it just happened. The suspect. DeAurther Pinson Jr. fled the scene. He took his own the life the following day.
Following Trooper Walker's death, an outpouring of support across the country. A runner from Florida dedicated his mile run to Trooper Walker's service.
In Central Texas, candlelight vigils kept his memory close to heart and remembered the impact he made. An initiative was sparked to protect those like Trooper Walker.
In June, the Walker Strong Initiative took root. It focused on raising money to purchase bulletproof windshields for Limestone County officers.
Now months later, the Walker Strong initiative has gained more traction. The group raids more than $140,000. Some law enforcement agencies already received a check. | https://www.kxxv.com/hometown/mclennan-county/one-year-ago-today-community-remembers-death-of-trooper-chad-walker | 2022-04-01T01:16:44Z |
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Canopy Growth Corp: Hong Judy Eun Joo (Chief Financial Officer (Int)) Paid for shares or tax with 589 @ Avg Price: $9.94 (Form4)
Accepted:
Form Type:
4
Accession Number:
0000899243-22-012848 | https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/03/26388615/canopy-growth-corp-hong-judy-eun-joo-chief-financial-officer-int-paid-for-shares-or-tax-with-589-avg | 2022-04-01T01:16:45Z |
TLC reveals if Little People, Big World will return for season 23 after fans fear show is canceled following 22 seasons
FIND out if Little People, Big World is returning and when.
Fans were worried that Little People, Big World would not be returning for season 23, but we have some good news!
It will be returning and quicker than you might think.
Little People, Big World will air season 23 on May 17 at 9pm on TLC.
The series focuses on the Roloff family's, a unique family of dwarves, ups and downs and reaches more than one million viewers per episode.
Little People, Big World, which has over one billion hours of total viewing, debuted in 2006.
Amy Roloff also told Entertainment Tonight they signed up for two more seasons, so get ready for season 24 as well.
ON THE ROCKS?
Little People fans believe that Jeremy and Audrey Roloff's marriage could be on the rocks after they dissed each other on Instagram stories.
This whole arguement started when Audrey posted a photo of their bathroom, which was under construction, with the caption, "Going on four months now."
Her husband was quick to retaliate and clear up a few things.
Jeremy told her to 'chill out' because even though the construction has only taken about nine weeks she claimed it was four months.
Most read in Celebrity
Fans on Reddit did have a lot to say about his post and wondered why he had to prove her wrong.
ANOTHER BABY ON THE WAY
Tori Roloff is expecting her third child with husband, Zach Roloff.
Jackson Kyle is 4 years old and Lilah Ray is 2 years old.
Due any day now, The Little People, Big World star told Instagram she doesn't fit into her clothes anymore.
“I’m at that point in pregnancy where my maternity clothes don’t even fit anymore," she said.
She is more than ready to just give birth already as she is already uncomfortable.
“I just feel giant. I’ll see some other girl online post about how big she is and be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’re the same size,’ and then feel less huge. And then I’ll read the rest of her caption only to find out she’s pregnant with twins."
Read More on The US Sun
Khloe shades Rob's ex Blac as baby mama claims he gives 'no child support'
Tori and Zach announced their third pregnancy in November 2021 after suffering a miscarriage earlier that year.
TLC also announced that The Family Chantel, I Love A Mama's Boy, Seeking Sister Wife, and Welcome to Plathville will all be returning.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS | https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/celebrities/18132297/tlc-reveals-little-people-big-world-return-season-23/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:45Z |
Mayor Michelle Wu said that the citywide changes to the outdoor dining rules that have some restaurants across the city in a stew are the result of turning “two years of experiments” into a long-term program and that the city’s “looking into” what resources to provide.
“I know that people have made different purchases and investments based on previous years and based on these two years of experiments,” Wu said when asked about the criticism from restaurants around Boston. “As we’re starting to really look ahead to codifying what a fully sustainable, safe and healthy program looks like, there have been some changes in neighborhoods across the city.”
Though the ongoing battle between North End restaurateurs over the fee that applies to anyone doing outdoor dining in the old Italian neighborhood has received weeks of headlines, frustration has simmered in other corners of the city over new guidelines around topics including barriers as restaurants get ready to start putting out the patios.
Ginger Brown of JP Centre/South Main Streets wrote in a a letter published in the JP Gazette that “Only the privileged, wealthy, and experienced could navigate this system on a yearly basis. Small business owners do not have the time, money, or resources to apply.”
Brown said that there are too many hoops to jump through, and that in particular there are now more stringent requirements for what barriers have around street seating. That means, she wrote, that “previous barriers that do not meet these requirements are now a lost investment.”
Other media reports chronicled similar complaints from other eateries and watering holes around the city.
Barriers had been fairly ad-hoc up to this point, but now the city says restaurants either need to use concrete Jersey barriers, or the plastic ones that you fill up with water. The city’s 24-page “Interdepartmental Guidance” document about outdoor dining for restaurant owners includes a rundown of these rules, plus some pictures of Jersey barriers to drive the point home.
Asked whether the city will be providing more services for restaurants having trouble, Wu said, “We’re looking into it.”
On the barrier topic, she said there is “the need to have full barriers that are solid and when people are sitting in the street, right up potentially against traffic to know that that extra protection is there. In the last couple years, we’ve been very lucky in some ways that there hasn’t been a major incident.” | https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/michelle-wu-says-boston-looking-into-more-help-for-restaurants-as-citywide-restrictions-cause-blowback/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:46Z |
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UK apologises for hospital scandal over 200 baby deaths
Wednesday, March 30, 2022LONDON,�United Kingdom�(AFP) — More than 200 babies could have survived had they been given better care at birth, a damning report into Britain's biggest maternity scandal said on Wednesday, prompting a government apology.
The report listed a catalogue of repeated failings at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust over a 20-year period from 2000 to 2019.�
Babies were stillborn, died shortly after birth or were left severely brain-damaged, according to the review, which was ordered in 2017 after concern at the high rates of neonatal deaths at the hospital group.
It also disclosed that nine of 12 mothers who died during the period could have had "significantly" better treatment, and others were made to have natural births when they should have been offered Caesarean sections.
But the state-funded group, which operates several hospitals in Shropshire, central England, either failed to investigate sufficiently or learn from the cases.
The report's author, maternity expert Donna Ockenden, said that meant "the true scale of serious incidents... went unknown over a long period of time".
"To all the families that have suffered so gravely, I am sorry," Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament, vindicating years of campaigning by those affected.
"The report clearly shows that you were failed by a service that was there to help you and your loved ones to bring life into this world."
Javid and the hospital trust promised to implement the report's dozens of recommendations, acknowledging that the care and even compassion given was not up to standard.
He vowed that those responsible for "serious and repeated failures" would be held to account. A police investigation is looking at some 600 cases, he added.
The report outlined how some babies suffered skull fractures, broken bones or developed cerebral palsy after traumatic forceps deliveries.
Other newborns were starved of oxygen and experienced life-changing brain injuries, according to the review of cases involving nearly 1,500 families and nearly 1,600 clinical incidents.
Of the 498 stillbirths examined, it found that one in four had "significant or major concerns" over the maternity care given.
Had the care been managed appropriately, they could have had a different outcome, it added. Forty percent of the stillbirths were never investigated by the trust.
Ockenden said midwifery staff were "overly confident" in their abilities, were reluctant to involve senior staff, repeatedly failed to monitor babies' heart rates, and did not use drugs properly in labour.
Caesarean rates were consistently eight to 12 per cent below the English average, and staff were determined to keep rates down, despite the risks involved.
Affected families were kept in the dark about reviews of their cases and often treated without compassion and kindness, the 250-page report outlined.
In some cases, some women who died were blamed for their own deaths, while bereaved parents were ignored when they raised concerns.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of a downtown Los Angeles building where an explosion injured 12 firefighters has been allowed to enter a judicial diversion program that allows him to avoid jail time and potentially have all charges dismissed.
A court commissioner on Wednesday granted the diversion request for Steve Sungho Lee. He and his companies must pay more than $125,000 in investigative fees, make sure the property meets fire and building codes and arranging for Fire Department training.
Lee owned a commercial building on East Boyd Street in the city's Toy District that caught fire on May 16, 2020. Firefighters had to run for their lives when a ball of flames shot out the building and scorched a fire truck across the street.
Firefighters inside the building had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet (9 meters) high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.
Fire officials said the building was a warehouse for Smoke Tokes, a wholesale distributor of supplies for smoking and vaping products including butane hash oil, a concentrated cannabis extract that can be eaten, smoked or vaped. Highly flammable butane is used in the manufacturing process.
Most of the injured firefighters still haven't returned to work and one, Capt. Victor Aguirre, was hospitalized for more than two months and all of his fingers had to be partially amputated, according to a lawsuit he filed against the building and business owners.
Aguirre alleged that the area contained “hundreds of illegally and improperly stored butane canisters and thousands of illegally and improperly stored nitrous oxide cylinders.”
A fire department report concluded that the blaze, which spread to a nearby building, was fueled by an “excessive quantity” of the containers.
Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that the fire started under a storage rack in the building and that a worker with a lit cigarette was seen in the area. The cause of the fire was ruled accidental.
However, city prosecutors filed more than 300 misdemeanor charges of violating fire and safety codes against Lee, his companies and owners of businesses in the building and nearby properties. That included more than 160 counts against Lee and his companies.
If Lee meets all conditions of his judicial diversion program for two years, the charges will be dismissed.
“Mr. Lee will be deemed by law to have never been charged," said his attorney, Blair Berk. “The exhaustive federal investigation of the tragic fire objectively concluded that the cause was accidental, and there was no finding of any wrongdoing by Mr. Lee or his companies.”
City Attorney Mike Feuer opposed diversion for Lee, noting the severity of the fire, the injuries suffered by the firefighters and Lee's alleged failure “to take steps which could have mitigated the extent of the blaze."
The owners of Smoke Tokes and another business, Green Buddha, agreed in November 2020 to pay $139,000 each to cover investigative costs and to move out of the building. Charges against them were later dismissed. | https://www.milfordmirror.com/news/article/No-jail-for-LA-building-owner-over-explosion-that-17049830.php | 2022-04-01T01:16:47Z |
Five ways the Russian invasion of Ukraine could impact the US economy
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the unprecedented sanctions imposed in response by the U.S. and western allies have rattled the global economy and financial markets.
They’ve also upended supply chains for crucial food, energy and industrial products amid a global burst of inflation, derailed global travel and driven volatility into the stock market.
Here are five ways the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacts Americans.
Energy and oil prices rise
Oil prices skyrocketed Monday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day and the U.S. and European Union continued to ratchet up sanctions, with Brent crude topping $100 a barrel.
In 2020 alone, Russia was the third-biggest supplier of foreign petroleum for the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and responsible for 7 percent of imported oil. Russia also exported $13 billion in mineral fuels to the U.S. in 2019, accounting for more than half of all such imports sent to America.
Notably, prices are rising even though sanctions imposed on Russia have so far excluded the energy sector, a decision President Biden said he made in order “to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
But Thierry Bros, a gas analyst and professor at Sciences Po Paris in France, told The Wall Street Journal oil prices will continue to remain “extremely volatile” because “Vladimir Putin could at any time decide to reduce supply.”
On Monday, the national average was $3.62 a gallon and prices “will likely continue to rise as crude prices continue to climb,” according to AAA. The average U.S. gas price was about $2.71 one year ago, though that increase had started before Russia began massing troops at its border with Ukraine.
“Russia’s invasion and the responding escalating series of financial sanctions by the U.S. and its allies have given the global oil market the jitters,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement.
“Like the U.S. stock market, the oil market responds poorly to volatility. It’s an explosive situation, and a grim reminder that events on the far side of the globe can have a ripple effect for American consumers.”
The Journal reported that the U.S. and other major oil-consuming countries were weighing the release of 70 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles in response to the rising crude prices.
Supply chain issues for farmers could drive higher food prices
Farmers in the U.S. are bracing for a hike in the price of fertilizer, which was already at a record-high before the conflict.
Russia — which is a low-cost, high-volume global producer of fertilizers — is the world’s second-largest producer after Canada of potash, a key nutrient used on major commodity crops and produce, according to Bloomberg.
Even before the Russia-Ukraine crisis reached a boiling point, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that farmers in the United States are likely to plant less corn and use less nitrogen fertilizer on their fields for next year’s growing season due to sky-high fertilizer prices and short supplies.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday that his biggest concern about the invasion’s immediate effects on U.S. agriculture is price gouging by fertilizer companies, “and we’re obviously going to keep an eye on that.”
“According to our experts, potash and fertilizer producers do have the ability to ramp production as needed. The real question is how long until incremental volumes would actually flow through the supply chain into retailers and ultimately to farmers,” Patrick Donnelly, a senior analyst at Third Bridge told The Hill.
“The most immediate impacts will be further inflation in agricultural commodities and ultimately food prices. Americans should expect to be paying more for their grocery bills this upcoming year,” he added.
Travel restrictions and rising airfare costs
Ukraine has closed its airspace and an increasing number of airlines canceled flights in an out of Russia. A number of countries, as well as the EU, have closed their airspace to Russian carriers.
“We’ve already seen a tit-for-tat between the U.K. and Russia in terms of closing airspace, and the FAA has restricted commercial aircraft from flying over Ukraine, Belarus and parts of western Russia. These restrictions, if they hold or are expanded, have the potential to drive fares to the Middle East, Africa and Asia higher,” Willis Orlando from Scott’s Cheap Flights told The Hill.
Even those traveling far outside the conflict zone could be affected.
“The crisis is bound to contribute to already high oil prices. Jet fuel is one of an airline’s biggest expenses, so it follows that persistently high fuel costs might be reflected in slightly higher fares,” Orlando said.
However, the effect of higher fuel costs on which fares are available is bound to be “tempered by the extremely competitive fare environment we’re currently in,” Orlando added.
“Airlines are grappling constantly to capture renewed demand for flights, which is resulting in frequent fare sales, even as average fares have crept higher in recent weeks,” he said.
Stock market volatility
Stocks have fallen steadily throughout the year as Russia amassed troops on its border with Ukraine and markets braced for a major conflict. The arrival of war and the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia could continue to cause wild swings as the financial sector heads into uncharted territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen more than 7 percent, the S&P 500 index is down more than 9 percent and the Nasdaq composite has fallen roughly 13 percent since the start of 2022, and investment experts are bracing for more speed bumps after years of torrid gains.
“Managing risk is key to a good investing plan, but geopolitical risk is difficult to plan for,” wrote Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist for Ally,
“The ongoing Russia-Ukraine geopolitical crisis may be pressuring stocks right now, but history suggests these dips could be good buying opportunities for long-term investors. While there is more than just geopolitical risk to consider in this situation, it’s quite possible that before you know it, the Fed will be back at the top of our wall of worry.”
Faster Fed rate hikes
Higher energy and food prices and deeper supply chain bottlenecks could put pressure on inflation and force the Fed to accelerate its pending series of rate hikes.
The Fed was already poised to hike interest rates several times this year, beginning next month, after inflation rose well above levels the bank expected. Prices rose 6.1 percent in the 12 months ending in January, according to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation.
While a drop in economic activity could ease inflation, experts believe the combination of a strong U.S. economy and potentially severe supply disruptions could make the Fed move quicker to tighten rates.
“A very high inflation path in 2022 should make an easy case for steady rate hikes at all seven remaining [Fed] meetings,” wrote Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle in a Friday research note.
Mericle expects annual inflation minus food and energy prices to end 2022 at 3.7 percent, up from a previous estimate of 3.1 percent. The Fed aims for 2 percent annual inflation on average.
The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the conversation. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. | https://thehill.com/policy/finance/596203-five-ways-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-could-impact-americans/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:47Z |
Reality Steve addressed backlash for releasing a false spoiler that Connor Brennan was returning to The Bachelorette.
Connor “the cat” was flooded with hate comments from critics even after denying that he would appear on the show again.
After a brutal tweet from Connor, the hate turned toward Reality Steve with fans accusing him of being responsible for the negativity.
Reality Steve said he isn’t responsible for hate toward Connor Brennan
Reality Steve, whose real name is Steve Carbone, immediately clapped back at claims that his incorrect information started the hate.
“I just said that Connor was going to be on the show and turns out he wasn’t,” Steve wrote to his blog. “I don’t know why that turned into an abundance of hate thrown his way which THEN turned into it being my fault. What?”
He continued on to say that although the information he’d been given was wrong, he hadn’t put any negative slant to it throughout his announcement.
“So if now I’m supposed to control the thoughts and actions of trolls on the internet, I might as well just never write another word again,” Steve wrote.
He doubled down by writing that Connor would have received a negative reaction even if the rumor was true, and that he was not responsible for the wave of hate.
Fans slammed the blogger after Connor wrote a series of tweets reacting to the hate and seemingly connecting it to the “spoiler” by Reality Steve.
Bachelor fans accuse Steve Carbone’s ‘spoiler’ of fueling hate
Connor’s fans rushed to support him in the comment section as well as to pin the blame on Steve.
“reality steve is the worst – always just saying s**t without real evidence and then not taking accountability for the negative reactions he starts,” one popular response read.
“I love how RS always claims he finds ‘toxic bachelor nation’ (as he calls it) deplorable Then he puts out baseless content like this for the same ‘toxic’ humans,” wrote another fan. “And of course now it’s crickets from him, can’t even be bothered to apologize.”
The spoiler blogger did update his claims to say he now believes he was given false information but did not apologize to the contestant.
“Please, don’t put this on me,” Steve wrote in his blog.
It appears clear that Connor will not be making a return to Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia’s Season, but fans still don’t know how the dual Bachelorette format will work.
Reality Steve seemed eager to put the false information behind him as he promised more information about the show in the future.
The Bachelorette returns on Monday, July 11, 2022 on ABC. | https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/reality-tv/reality-steve-slams-claims-hes-responsible-for-backlash-toward-connor-brennan/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:47Z |
EVANSVILLE, Ind., March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Escalade, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESCA, or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of sporting goods and indoor/outdoor recreational equipment, today announced that it will issue first quarter 2022 results before the market opens on Thursday, April 14, 2022.
A conference call will be held Thursday, April 14, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. ET to review the Company's financial results, discuss recent events and conduct a question-and-answer session.
A webcast of the conference call and accompanying presentation materials will be available in the Investor Relations section of Escalade's website at www.escaladeinc.com. To listen to a live broadcast, go to the site at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time in order to register, download, and install any necessary audio software.
ABOUT ESCALADE
Founded in 1922, and headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, Escalade designs, manufactures, and sells sporting goods, fitness, and indoor/outdoor recreation equipment. Our mission is to connect family and friends creating lasting memories. Leaders in our respective categories, Escalade's brands include Bear® Archery; STIGA® table tennis; Accudart®; RAVE Sports®; Victory Tailgate®; Onix® Pickleball; Goalrilla™; Lifeline® fitness products; Woodplay®; Brunswick Billiards®. Escalade's products are available online and at leading retailers nationwide. For more information, visit www.escaladeinc.com
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to present or future trends or factors that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to: specific and overall impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic on Escalade's financial condition and results of operations; the impact of competitive products and pricing; product demand and market acceptance; new product development; Escalade's ability to achieve its business objectives, especially with respect to its Sporting Goods business on which it has chosen to focus; Escalade's ability to successfully achieve the anticipated results of strategic transactions, including the integration of the operations of acquired assets and businesses and of divestitures or discontinuances of certain operations, assets, brands, and products; the continuation and development of key customer, supplier, licensing and other business relationships; Escalade's ability to develop and implement our own direct to consumer e-commerce distribution channel; Escalade's ability to successfully negotiate the shifting retail environment and changes in consumer buying habits; the financial health of our customers; disruptions or delays in our business operations, including without limitation disruptions or delays in our supply chain, arising from political unrest, war, labor strikes, natural disasters, public health crises such as the coronavirus pandemic, and other events and circumstances beyond our control; Escalade's ability to control costs; Escalade's ability to successfully implement actions to lessen the potential impacts of tariffs and other trade restrictions applicable to our products and raw materials, including impacts on the costs of producing our goods, importing products and materials into our markets for sale, and on the pricing of our products; general economic conditions; fluctuation in operating results; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; changes in the securities markets; continued listing of the Company's common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market and/or inclusion in market indices such as the Russell 2000; Escalade's ability to obtain financing and to maintain compliance with the terms of such financing; the availability, integration and effective operation of information systems and other technology, and the potential interruption of such systems or technology; risks related to data security of privacy breaches; and other risks detailed from time to time in Escalade's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Escalade's future financial performance could differ materially from the expectations of management contained herein. Escalade undertakes no obligation to release revisions to these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.
INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT
Patrick Griffin
Vice President - Corporate Development & Investor Relations
812-467-1358
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SOURCE Escalade, Incorporated | https://www.wrdw.com/prnewswire/2022/03/31/escalade-announces-first-quarter-2022-results-conference-call-date/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:48Z |
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Directors of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter may face criminal sanctions from the government under new laws, according to a new report from The Irish Times.
Under proposals discussed between Fianna Fáil Senators and Green Party Minister for Culture and Media Catherine Martin, senior executives at social media companies could face criminal sanctions if they don't do enough to tackle harmful content.
The organisers behind the planned legislation have said that due to the significant profits of social media companies, fines are not a significant punishment or deterrent.
One of the organisers, FF Senator Malcolm Byrne, explained: "If companies can simply write off fines as business costs, as we have arguably seen in the case of some data breaches, then we know that they are not going to take fines for the consequences of online harm seriously."
The online safety and media commission legislation is due to be considered by the Oireachtas in the coming months: it aims to regulate social media giants, enabling a new commission which will have powers to levy them with substantial fines.
However, as the Irish Times also reported, many online safety campaigners want to toughen the proposed legislation, which they say does not go far enough.
As the internet becomes a larger part of our lives, accountability from the heads of social media companies have become a hot-button issue in recent years, and many countries have been considering introducing similar laws.
Earlier this month, the UK government announced that social media heads may face prosecution or jail time within two months of the new Online Safety Bill becoming law, instead of two years, as it was previously drafted.
The government said a range of new offenses had been added to the bill that makes the senior managers at tech firms criminally liable.
These include destroying evidence, failing to attend or providing false information in interviews with its regulator Ofcom, and for obstructing the watchdog when it enters company offices.
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Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm. | https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/national-news/779191/facebook-and-twitter-directors-may-face-criminal-sanctions-in-ireland-under-new-laws.html | 2022-04-01T01:16:48Z |
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The mother of a newborn baby attempted to kill her child after a home birth, police said.
Police said they were called to the emergency room at Mountain View Hospital on Saturday for a report of a new mother who refused to enter the hospital and was “bleeding profusely,” they wrote in an arrest report.
Police said the newborn’s mother, Ashley Hollingsworth, 22, had tried to kill the child with a blanket.
Hollingsworth was located more than two hours later with severe injuries to her head, police said.
Investigators learned that Hollingsworth had given birth in a toilet about an hour before they were called to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital, police said “Ashley had wrapped [a] blanket around the baby’s head and was pushing the blanket against the baby’s face.” Doctors initially believed the newborn may have suffered a brain bleed, but staff later determined the child likely did not suffer any injuries.
While speaking with detectives the next day, a witness told police Hollingsworth reportedly said there was “something evil” in her stomach that was “trying to kill” the baby. Hollingsworth later told police in an interview that she believed the baby was “probably evil.”
“After seeing the baby’s eyes, smelling what she described as an abnormal scent, and the baby grunting at her, Ashley decided to wrap the blanket around the baby’s head,” police wrote in their report.
Hollingsworth was found with self-inflicted injuries to her face, police said.
Police arrested Hollingsworth on Wednesday. She faces charges of attempted murder and child abuse or neglect. She was being held without bail ahead of a court hearing next week. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/las-vegas-police-mother-attempts-to-kill-newborn-says-baby-was-evil/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:49Z |
Contractor files lawsuit against Metro Vancouver over termination of North Shore wastewater contract
The original contractor for the behind-schedule and over-budget North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project is suing Metro Vancouver for the wrongful termination of its contract, as well as millions of dollars in payments it alleges the regional district wrongfully withheld.
The nearly 100-page lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday by Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP alleges that Metro Vancouver - formally the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District - "repeatedly and wrongfully conducted itself" during the project's design phase "in a manner that subverted the achievement of the commercial purposes."
It also alleges that the regional district was responsible for the vast majority of delays to the project's timeline and demanded that the contractor meet a deadline that it knew was "physically impossible to achieve."
The lawsuit seeks a total of more than $250 million from Metro Vancouver in the form of damages and compensation previously withheld.
The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court, and Metro Vancouver has not yet filed a response to the claims.
The regional governance agency has previously said Acciona "abandoned" the project, leaving it with no choice but to cancel the contract.
Metro Vancouver's board approved the selection of a new general contractor for the project earlier this month.
The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant was originally scheduled for completion in December 2020, but Metro Vancouver agreed to revise the project contract in 2019 to give Acciona an extra two-and-a-half years to complete the work.
Among the challenges that necessitated the extension were difficult ground conditions, space requirements, and geotechnical complications, according to Metro Vancouver.
The cost of the project also ballooned from $700 million - some $400 million of which is being funded by the federal and provincial governments - to more than $1 billion.
By the time the contract was cancelled, Metro Vancouver's leadership had grown concerned that the 2023 revised completion date was also in doubt.
Acciona's lawsuit confirms this, saying that the company informed Metro Vancouver that additional time would be needed to complete the project, and alleging that the regional district insisted on the "physically impossible" 2023 completion date anyway.
This is a developing story and will be updated
The full text of Acciona's court submission is embedded below.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Russians leave Chornobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
Russian troops handed control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Putin targets enemies at home as his missiles strike Ukraine
Long before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the mass detentions of Russian peace protesters, the Kremlin was already stifling dissent with choking bureaucracy. Throughout 2021, the Kremlin tightened the screws on its opponents – including supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists.
Ontario has 'eliminated all our defences' against COVID subvariant: epidemiologist
An infectious disease expert says 'there's no doubt' a sixth wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across Ontario, and it's being driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant at the same time restrictions have been lifted across the province.
NACI guidance on fourth dose of COVID vaccine expected soon: PHAC
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to release guidance on fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine in early April as public health indicators tick up across Canada.
'Obvious attempt to create chaos,' Charest campaign says of fake donation pledges
Jean Charest's team says it is aware that fake donation pledges were made to the Conservative leadership candidate's campaign, calling the situation 'an obvious attempt to create chaos.'
First Nations say Pope Francis meeting the beginning of a 'new partnership'
Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Chief Gerald Antoine says he believes a meeting held with Pope Francis at the Vatican will be the beginning of a 'new partnership' between Indigenous groups and the Catholic Church in working towards reconciliation.
With federal alcohol tax set to increase, MPs advance bills to rein it in
The Conservative Party and the New Democrats are each focusing new private members' bills on the rising cost of beverages – both alcoholic drinks and low-alcohol beer, specifically.
Dyson headphones' April Fools? Company says they're real
Dyson, the company famous for its bagless vacuum cleaners and pricey hair dryers, has revealed its first set of noise-cancelling headphones that come paired with a unique feature, air purifiers.
Sweet justice: Ringleader of Canada's notorious maple syrup heist must pay more than $9M in fines, top court rules
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a $9 million fine for the thief in a 2012 maple syrup heist. | https://bc.ctvnews.ca/contractor-files-lawsuit-against-metro-vancouver-over-termination-of-north-shore-wastewater-contract-1.5843340 | 2022-04-01T01:16:49Z |
ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE | TOMORROW ON GMA: #Oscars producer Will Packer speaks out on what happened behind the scenes, moments after actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage. pic.twitter.com/LnFnNImFJ1
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 31, 2022
In an excerpt of an interview with ABC News, aired Thursday on "World News Tonight," producer Will Packer said LAPD officers told Rock, "This is battery" and that he could press charges, and they were prepared to arrest Smith that night.
WATCH: Is Will Smith's Hollywood career in jeopardy? Expert weighs in
"They said, we will go get him. We are prepared. We are prepared to get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him. They were laying out the options," Packer told ABC. "And as they were talking, Chris was ... being very dismissive of those options. He was like, no, I'm fine. He was, like, no, no, no."
The LAPD put out a statement on the night of the Oscars, saying, "The individual involved has declined to file a police report."
WATCH: Will Smith's shocking Oscars stage confrontation with Chris Rock
Rock made a brief reference to the incident Wednesday at a stand-up show in Boston, his first public appearance since the Oscars. He told the audience he was "still processing what happened" and would have more to say at a later date.
RELATED: In 1st remarks since Oscars slap, Chris Rock says he's 'still kind of processing what happened'
The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://abc11.com/will-smith-chris-rock-oscars-slaps-2022-jada-pinkett/11698201/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:49Z |
Privacy Advocates Urge Veto
Police departments across Virginia may soon have the ability to use billions of images scraped from social-media sites like Facebook and Instagram to track down suspects, a development that is concerning to critics who say the technology is invasive and a violation of privacy. The governor is now considering the bill,...
www.connectionnewspapers.com | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2556659762933/privacy-advocates-urge-veto | 2022-04-01T01:16:49Z |
UPDATE 1-Washington governor signs Uber, Lyft driver pay guarantee into law
(Adds Lyft statement)
By Tina Bellon
March 31 (Reuters) - Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Thursday signed into law a minimum pay standard for Uber and Lyft drivers, making Washington the first U.S. state to implement earnings standards for ride-hail companies.
Drivers across the Northwestern state will earn a minimum of $1.17 per mile and 34 cents per minute with a minimum pay of $3.00 per trip.
Under the new law, drivers will also have access to paid sick time, family medical leave and long-term care programs, and be eligible for workers' compensation, a U.S. government-mandated program that provides benefits to workers who become injured or ill on the job. Drivers will also be able to appeal should they be removed from the apps.
In Seattle, which passed its own ride-hail pay standard in September 2020, drivers will continue to earn minimum rates of $1.38 per mile and 59 cents per minute at a minimum of $5.17 per trip.
The law, which has been supported by Uber and Lyft, takes away local regulatory power, banning cities and counties from implementing additional requirements for companies.
The law also states that ride-hail drivers are not employees, a contentious issue between some labor groups and gig economy companies including Uber and Lyft. The gig companies, whose workers operate as independent contractors, oppose any reclassification while some labor groups argue drivers should be employees with access to greater benefits.
"This new law decisively gives drivers what they want - to stay independent while gaining historic new benefits and protections," Uber's head of public policy in the Western U.S., Ramona Prieto, said in a statement. She said Uber hoped the law could be replicated in other cities, states and countries.
"Drivers achieved this win because labor organizations, legislators, and app-based companies listened to them, and then worked together to drive a historic bill that works for them," Lyft's head of government relations, Jen Hensley, said in a statement.
The new Washington law was supported by the Teamsters union Local 117, which was also behind the push for the Seattle pay standard.
Before this law, in the United States only Seattle and New York City had implemented minimum pay standards for ride-hail drivers. (Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Leslie Adler) | https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/1-washington-governor-signs-uber-004943547.html?src=rss | 2022-04-01T01:16:49Z |
A woman in Nevada is accused of trying to kill two schoolgirls by driving her vehicle into them to prevent them from fighting her daughter after an on-campus dispute at a Las Vegas-area high school.
Fatima Maria Mitchell, 36, was arrested by Henderson police after her SUV struck a tree, a concrete sign and the two girls at an off-campus crossroads Monday near Basic High School in Henderson.
Mitchell remained jailed Tuesday without bail after an initial court appearance before a justice of the peace who scheduled a felony hearing for Thursday. Court records did not list an attorney who could comment on Mitchell’s behalf.
Mitchell “went searching for the juveniles that were fighting with her daughter,” Henderson police said in an arrest report submitted to the judge. It alleges that Mitchell “accelerated her Chevrolet Tahoe towards the juveniles in an attempt to run them over and ‘take them out,’ which showed her intend to kill.”
The injured girls were treated at a hospital for broken bones but were expected to recover, police said. Their ages were not made public.
They “were only spared from serious injury or death due to the fact that (Mitchell) stuck a tree and concrete sign prior to hitting (them),” the police report said.
A witness told police the SUV “made a quick left turn toward the juveniles and hit two of them,” backed up, “and it appeared that the driver was going to attempt to strike the juveniles again” when school police arrived.
The afternoon incident followed fights earlier in the day that resulted in citations for four students and the arrest of a parent who entered the campus at the 2,400-student school, said Lt. Bryan Zink, a school police spokesman.
Clark County School District administrators held a news conference Tuesday to address a rise in violent incidents in recent weeks and to announce tighter security measures — including single-door campus entry points and quick discipline including student expulsions for threats and fighting.
“We know that our kids are struggling because of the stress, anxieties and isolation of the (coronavirus) pandemic,” said Jesus Jara, superintendent of the nation’s fifth-largest school district. The Las Vegas-based district has more than 300,000 students and 18,000 teachers at 336 schools.
Since schools began in August, 38 students have been struck by vehicles on the way to and from school, campus police have confiscated 25 guns, and officials have reported 3,000 assaults and fights, district police Chief Henry “Mike” Blackeye said.
“Violence is not, and never will be, the answer,” Jara vowed. “Should students and adults resort to violence on our campus, we will remove them and hold them accountable.”
Following another vehicle incident in December, a 36-year-old mother of a Las Vegas student was arrested and accused of accelerating her minivan backward and forward amid a group of schoolchildren — striking at least four juveniles in a group that had gathered off-campus.
Police said three other children received minor injuries in the incident that escalated after the woman, Jaquitta Madison, confronted a student and his mother, alleging that Madison’s son was bullied at school.
Authorities said injuries included scrapes and bruises.
Madison has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail ahead of a May 24 preliminary hearing in Las Vegas at which a judge will decide if she’ll stand trial on four felony charges of battery with a deadly weapon, the minivan. | https://www.kxxv.com/hometown/texas/nevada-mom-accused-of-trying-to-kill-2-schoolgirls-with-suv | 2022-04-01T01:16:50Z |
Updated March 30, 2022 at 10:32 AM ET
LVIV, Ukraine — The main park in the middle of Chernihiv, north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, was supposed to be safe — or so Olha Lysenko had hoped, after spending weeks in a bomb shelter as her city came under siege by Russian forces.
But when she decided to go and check the park for herself earlier this month, she was horrified to find shrapnel everywhere. There were puddles of blood all around.
"I've never seen so much blood in my life," she says. "The city cannot be restored. It has turned to rubble."
Most of Chernihiv lies in ruins, Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko told reporters on Saturday. In this city of historic 11th and 12th century churches, whose population before the war was 300,000, infrastructure is destroyed: no power, no gas. Water is scarce and food is running low. Russian forces bombed the main escape route out of the city, south to Kyiv, trapping residents and preventing humanitarian aid from getting in.
"Our city is being wiped off the map," Atroshenko said. "It is easier to count the remaining houses that survived attacks."
The family made a lucky escape before a key bridge was destroyed
The Lysenkos don't know if their house survived the shelling; on March 21, Olha, her husband Ihor and their two kids, Yegor and Varya, managed to make it out of Chernihiv, before the bridge leading to Kyiv was destroyed. They are now among an estimated 6.5 million Ukrainians internally displaced by the war.
They joined a caravan of cars, the family and two other adults squeezed into a small sedan. A trip that normally takes a couple of hours from Chernihiv to Kyiv took more than eight on damaged roads. The fields on either side of the roads were shelled, says Ihor Lysenko. "We were lucky to escape."
Their children had a hard time in the car. They didn't eat. They didn't sleep. The loud explosions damaged 6-year-old Varya's hearing. But they had their pets to keep them company: a cat, a dog and two hamsters.
After nearly 18 hours of driving, the family finally made it on March 23 to the western city of Lviv, a refuge for those fleeing harder-hit areas in the east.
The family is trying to make plans while facing an uncertain future
They're staying in a distant relative's apartment, where Varya and her older brother Yegor play together, singing and yelling, while their parents make plans. Varya, holding a half-devoured lollipop, says her pets "were not afraid of anything!" Even the hamsters were brave.
Their mom says usually her kids are happy, full of energy, as they are right now. But she and her husband are not sure what the legacy of the war will be for Varya and Yegor.
On their way to say goodbye to their grandparents, who have stayed in Chernihiv, they encountered shelling and had to run for cover.
"They went into survival mode," their mom says. "They didn't get annoyed. They didn't complain."
Since the Russian invasion, she and Ihor have noticed small changes in their kids' behavior — for instance, when they play now, they play war games. When she asks what they are doing, the children explain they are training to fight back or pretending their toys have lost family members.
Next the family plans to travel to Chervonohrad, a small city north of Lviv, where there are fewer people. They'd like to get back to work, Olha as a psychologist, and Ihor for an IT company.
But they don't know how this experience of trauma will affect them. It's all still shocking, they say. Ihor Lysenko holds up his phone to show a photo of a spot on the ground in Chernihiv where shelling hit. He'd been in that exact spot just a minute before, he says.
Olha shakes her head. It's all still so fresh. But she knows she must move forward.
"I have to put myself in order," she says, "and heal my own traumas."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvpublic.org/2022-03-25/after-escaping-their-besieged-city-one-ukrainian-family-tries-to-plan-for-a-new-life | 2022-04-01T01:16:50Z |
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KOHLS Corp: Chini Marc A. (Sr. EVP/Chief People Officer) (Form4)
Accepted:
Form Type:
4
Accession Number:
0001127602-22-010685 | https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/03/26388620/kohls-corp-chini-marc-a-sr-evpchief-people-officer-form4 | 2022-04-01T01:16:51Z |
EPA upholds Trump-era decision not to regulate contaminant
By SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Upholding a Trump-era environmental policy, the Environmental Protection Agency says it will not regulate a drinking water contaminant that has been linked to brain damage in infants. The agency says the Trump administration’s decision in 2020 not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water was made with the “best available peer reviewed science.” The Trump administration had concluded that the chemical compound was not found widely enough in drinking water or at levels of public health concern to warrant federal regulation. That decision was one of many Trump-era rollbacks or eliminations of existing or pending public health and environmental protection. Environmental groups sharply criticized the Biden administration Thursday for not reversing that decision. | https://kvia.com/news/2022/03/31/epa-upholds-trump-era-decision-not-to-regulate-contaminant/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:51Z |
Which telescope is best?
Staring up at the night sky, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed with the sheer size of the galaxy. There are millions of things to look at, but you need the right equipment. If you’ve already started to peer at objects with binoculars, it might be time to upgrade to a telescope.
The right telescope for you largely depends on what you want to study, but the Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ is an excellent gadget to get you going. It’s easy to use and powerful enough to see every little detail.
What to know before you buy a telescope
Kinds of telescopes
When most people think of a telescope, they imagine a long tube with an eyeglass at one end. These typical models are called refractor telescopes and are only one type of many. The other popular choice is a reflector telescope, which gathers light through a mirror. There are also compound telescopes, which are wider than others. No matter the telescope type, you’re going to need a telescope bag to safely store and carry it.
The aperture determines what you can see
A telescope’s aperture is one of the most important components. Simply put, the aperture is how large the mirror is on the inside, which is directly related to how much light it can gather. The more light it gathers, the better the details and you can see fainter objects. The aperture is measured in millimeters, and you typically need larger mirrors depending on the surrounding light.
More darkness increases your enjoyment
The best conditions for using a telescope are in an area that has very little light pollution. For example, in a suburban neighborhood, you won’t see as many stars and galaxies as you would in an open field far away from the city. The size of the aperture can only help you up to a point, after which you might need to go somewhere else for viewing — or invest in a bigger aperture.
What to look for in a quality telescope
Lens and magnification accessories
Looking through a telescope lens is exciting, but you often want to see things in greater detail. Look for a telescope that has a variety of eyepieces and accessories. The most common eyepiece you’ll find is the Barlow lens for three-times magnification and the Infinity eyepiece. There are also eyepiece adapters that increase the magnification of the Barlow lens to 120x.
Automated Go-To feature
It’s always a good idea to study the night sky where you live. Make sure that you know which galaxies are where and you can identify the brightest stars. Luckily, you don’t have to pore over maps to see planets and formations; a good-quality telescope should have an automated Go-To feature. Through a handheld remote, you tell the telescope what you want to look at, and after a short calibration, it will automatically turn to align itself with the object.
Phone attachment and Bluetooth remote
It’s a great experience to look at distant planets or even our moon, but it’s more fun if you can take pictures of it, and a quality telescope may have a mobile phone attachment. It looks similar to a car holder, where the device is held in place over the eyepiece. By using the device’s default camera (and to reduce shaking), a Bluetooth remote will trigger the camera to snap a photo of the celestial body.
How much you can expect to spend on a telescope
The average price of a telescope can vary wildly depending on its capabilities and functions. An entry-level or kids’ telescope can retail for $40-$50, while an amateur telescope can retail for $100-$200. Much larger professional telescopes retail for $1,000-$2,000.
Telescope FAQ
Do you need to know where the stars are before using a telescope?
A. Not necessarily, but it will certainly be advantageous. If your telescope can track objects or automatically point toward them, the work is done for you, but if your telescope doesn’t have the function, it’s helpful to at least know where the brightest and most popular objects are.
Do telescopes require batteries to operate?
A. For the most part, they don’t. There are no electronic parts inside the telescope tube or eyepiece. If you’re looking at a model that has auto-tracking and a remote, you’ll need to insert rechargeable batteries into the controller.
What’s the best telescope to buy?
Top telescope
What you need to know: This refractor telescope is the perfect gadget for gazing at nearby planets, faraway galaxies and bright stars.
What you’ll love: The AstroMaster 70AZ has a fully coated 2.7-inch glass optic, a height-adjustable tripod and comes with two eyepieces. It’s powerful enough to see Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons and can easily be rotated with the azimuth mount and handle for panning. It has a magnification of 45x and 90x and comes with an erect image star diagonal and Starry Night Basic Edition astronomy software.
What you should consider: It doesn’t have an auto-alignment feature, so you must point it toward an object yourself.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top telescope for the money
What you need to know: This telescope is perfect for beginners and kids, as it’s easy to operate and you can photograph what you see.
What you’ll love: The AZ70400 has a focal length of 15.7 inches and a 2.7-inch aperture, making it perfect for viewing all objects in the sky. It comes with two replaceable eyepieces and one Barlow lens that magnifies any eyepiece up to three times. To find specific objects, it has a 5 x 24 finderscope with crosshairs. The telescope comes with a smartphone adapter for photography.
What you should consider: It’s a basic telescope that won’t be powerful enough for serious astronomers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Celestron NexStar 8SE Telescope
What you need to know: A serious telescope, this model is fully automated and has a powerful lens to look at almost anything.
What you’ll love: The NexStar 8SE is one of the best telescopes for serious stargazers. It has an 8-inch primary mirror, a red dot StarPointer finderscope, 25-millimeter Plossl eyepiece, visual back and mirror star diagonal. It’s fully automated and will automatically point toward one of the 40,000 objects stored in its memory. It has a magnification of 81x, but also a theoretical magnification of 480x.
What you should consider: Some users have indicated that the battery life is short, and it’s not ideal for taking photos.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cbs42.com/reviews/best-telescope/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:50Z |
Nottinghamshire Police have issued an appeal for information regarding the whereabouts of Charley Pearl, who was reported missing from the Newstead area at around 8pm on Thursday (March 31). Officers are becoming increasingly concerned for her welfare.
Charley is described as white, of slim build with black hair and is around 5 feet 5 inches tall. She was last seen wearing a black Nike hoody, blue or black jeans and white Nike trainers.
If you have seen Charley, or if you have any information that could lead to locating her, please contact police on 101 quoting the incident number 0592 of March 31.
When you believe a person in your life has disappeared, it's important to act quickly to set a search in motion. Start by calling the police department to file a missing persons report, then take measures to conduct your own search. If you are extremely concerned for the welfare of the person then dial 999 and ask for the police. | https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/concerns-grow-missing-newstead-area-6890676 | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
Editor
Zodiac
03/31/2022
Friday's tarot card reading for April 1, 2022, is here with predictions for each zodiac sign.
We are in store for an amazing day that is full of great things but a bit of inner emotional drama.
The New Moon is taking place in the sign of Aries. This New Moon holds hands with the Sun in Aries.
The day arrives with the numerology of 11, the Intuitive.
The Intuitive gives us insight into the trials and troubles we face during our highest moments of life.
RELATED: Each Zodiac Sign's Monthly Love Horoscope For April 2022
What should your zodiac sign expect to experience, according to the tarot for today?
Learn what your zodiac sign's daily tarot card reading has in store for you on Friday, April 01, 2022.
Aries (March 21 - April 19)
Tarot card: Ace of Pentacles
Are you open to trying something new?
A small action can reap huge gains and give you an opportunity to expand your financial outlook in a smart and helpful way.
RELATED: 5 Dating Tips For Attracting An Aries Zodiac Sign, Per Love Astrology
Taurus (April 20 - May 20)
Tarot card: Page of Cups
Are you feeling creative?
Now is a great time to try to make something new and artful. Let your imagination flow and see where your creativity takes you.
RELATED: Why You Look Like A Taurus Zodiac Sign
Gemini (May 21 - June 20)
Tarot card: The Emperor, reversed
Fighting can only get you so far, Gemini.
It's time to wave the white flag of surrender and decide to choose peace over being right.
RELATED: 6 Reasons Why Geminis Are So Detached
Cancer (June 21 - July 22)
Tarot card: Page of Swords, reversed
Waiting for someone to give you the all-clear, Cancer? You may have a delay in message delivery.
Playing phone tag or being unable to connect via text or email can be hard to manage, but remain diligent. Eventually things will connect as needed.
RELATED: What To Do When A Cancer Ignores You
Leo (July 23 - August 22)
Tarot card: Ten of Swords, reversed
Are you still holding on to the past? It's so hard to let go of the pain you feel in your heart when you've been betrayed by someone you love, but take it one day at a time, Leo.
Things will look up soon.
RELATED: How To Keep A Leo Madly In Love With You, Per Astrology
Virgo (August 23 - September 22)
Tarot card: Five of Cups, reversed
Your healing is about to begin, Virgo.
The pain of a past memory is now in your rearview mirror, and things are starting to recover in a way that helps you to grow stronger and be at peace with what you can no longer change.
RELATED: How To Keep A Virgo Madly In Love With You, Per Astrology
Libra (September 23 - October 22)
Tarot card: Five of Swords
A conflict with a friend continues, Libra, but you don't have to fan the flames of the problem with your own anger and resentment.
If things are going to cool, you may have to take the higher road and be the one to stop fighting first.
RELATED: How You'll Know When A Libra Is Done With You, According To Astrology
Scorpio (October 23 - November 21)
Tarot card: Ace of Wands, reversed
A project that you've hoped to start may not be set to start on time. Use this time to your advantage and benefit.
This is the time to check that everything is as it ought to be to prevent any errors in the future.
Get your horoscope delivered to your inbox daily!
RELATED: Why Do Scorpios Cheat?
Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21)
Tarot card: Two of Swords
It's hard to know what path to take when both seem reasonable and potentially viable.
A pros and cons list and advice from a friend may help you to explore the options and make a sound decision that you feel good about.
RELATED: Why Are Sagittarius So Independent?
Related Stories From YourTango:
Capricorn (December 22 - January 19)
Tarot card: Seven of Swords
Trust has to be earned when the Seven of Swords Tarot card is in your reading. You may be subject to someone's malicious intent.
So, if it sounds too good to be true, Capricorn, it likely is.
RELATED: Why Is Capricorn So Attractive?
Aquarius (January 20 - February 18)
Tarot card: Two of Cups
A beautiful union of two people in harmony with each is the meaning behind this card.
A relationship that you desire can be entering your life and restoring your faith in love.
RELATED: 6 Zodiac Signs That Are Aquarius Soulmates
Pisces (February 19 - March 20)
Tarot card: Knight of Pentacles
You are more focused and determined than you've ever been in the past.
You see the goal you desire in front of you and aren't going to back down until it's completed.
RELATED: 11 Ways A Pisces Is The Coolest Friend You'll Ever Have
More for You on YourTango:
Aria Gmitter, M.S, M.F.A., is YourTango's Senior Editor of Horoscopes and Spirituality. She studies with the Midwestern School of Astrology and is a member of the South Florida Astrological Association. | https://www.yourtango.com/2022349657/each-zodiac-signs-tarot-card-reading-april-1-2022 | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
Oscars producer claims police were ‘on scene & ready to ARREST’ Will Smith at awards show after actor slapped Chris Rock
An Oscars producer claims cops were "on scene and ready to arrest" Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock at the awards show.
The incident went down after the Grown Ups star cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's shaved head.
Oscars producer Will Packer addressed the recent slapping incident on Good Morning America.
In a preview for the interview, he told T.J. Holmes that the Los Angeles Police Department was on scene at the awards show on Sunday.
He claimed they were ready to arrest the I, Robot actor after he hit the host.
During the interview, he said: "They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment.
"They said, 'We will go get him. We are prepared. We're prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him;"
Packer went on: "They were laying out the options. And as they were talking, Chris – he was being very dismissive of those options.
"He was like, 'No, no, no, I'm fine.'
"And even to the point where I said, 'Rock, let them finish.' The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, 'Would you like us to take any action?' And he said no. He said no."
Most read in Celebrity
In the same clip, Packer said he was not in direct contact with Smith the night of the Oscars.
The LAPD released a statement following the incident, revealing that Chris declined to press charges.
"LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program," the statement began.
"The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report."
The statement continued: "If the involved part desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report."
PUNISHMENT COMING?
Earlier this week, the Academy announced that the slap had been deemed a violation of their code of conduct.
Smith, who was nominated for his role in King Richard, was asked to leave the awards show in the wake of the slap.
He refused, however.
In a statement released to the Hollywood Reporter on March 30, reps for the Oscars confirmed that "disciplinary hearings" had begun as a result of the incident.
The Academy's message read:
"Mr. Smith's actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment.
"We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event."
The statement continued: "Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handles the situation differently."
TMZ reported that a pair of Oscars officials – David Rubin, President of the Academy, and Dawn Hudson, the CEO – were the ones who asked the actor to leave.
Another portion of the statement revealed: "The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy's Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy.
"Mr. Smith is being provided at least 15 days' notice of a vote regarding his violations and sanctions, and the opportunity to be heard beforehand by means of a written response."
In a memo, the Academy said that at the "next board meeting on April 18" they plant to take "any" disciplinary action including "suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions."
ROCK WITH IT
Chris returned to work days after he hosted the prolific awards show.
The actor kicked off a show in Boston this week by saying: "How was your weekend?" with a chuckle.
The audience began cheering and hooting as he went on.
"I don't have, like, a bunch of s**t about what happened, so if you came to hear that...I had, like, a whole show I wrote before this weekend and I'm still kind of processing what happened," he said.
Chris promised: "So, at some point I'll talk about that s**t and it will be serious and funny."
The audience again got loud, as some began chanting: "F**k Will Smith."
The comic didn't feed into the frenzy, instead continuing on with his show.
THE SLAP
During Sunday's Oscars, Smith rushed on stage and hit Chris – serving as host – after the comic made a joke about Jada's buzzed hairstyle, saying: "Jada, I love you, G. I. Jane 2 can't wait to see it."
The actress, who revealed earlier that she suffered from alopecia years earlier – a condition that causes hair loss – rolled her eyes.
After slapping the show's host, Smith walked back to his seat and Chris yelled: "Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me."
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Will shouted from his seat: "Leave my wife's name out of your f**king mouth."
Chris appeared shaken, saying: "Wow, dude, it was a G. I. Jane joke."
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Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS | https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/celebrities/18132400/oscars-police-arrest-will-smith-slapped-chris-rock/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
Washington — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The president said it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” Gas is averaging about $4.23 a gallon, compared with $2.87 a year ago, according to AAA.
“The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.”
The president also wants Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but are not producing. He said he will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The actions show that oil remains a vulnerability for the U.S. Higher prices have hurt Biden’s approval domestically and added billions of oil-export dollars to the Russian government as it wages war on Ukraine.
Tapping the stockpile would create pressures that could reduce oil prices, though Biden has twice ordered releases from the reserves without causing a meaningful shift in oil markets. Biden said Thursday he expects gasoline prices could drop “fairly significantly.”
Part of Biden’s concern is that high prices have not so far coaxed a meaningful jump in oil production. The planned release is a way to increase supplies as a bridge until oil companies ramp up their own production, with administration officials estimating that domestic production will grow by 1 million barrels daily this year and an additional 700,000 barrels daily in 2023.
The markets reacted quickly with crude oil prices dropping about 6% in Thursday trading to roughly $101 a barrel. Still, oil is up from roughly $60 a year ago, with supplies failing to keep up with demand as the world economy has begun to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. That inflationary problem was compounded by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which created new uncertainties about oil and natural gas supplies and led to retaliatory sanctions from the U.S. and its allies.
Stewart Glickman, an oil analyst for CFRA Research, said the release would bring short-term relief on prices and would be akin to “taking some Advil for a headache.” But markets would ultimately look to see whether, after the releases stop, the underlying problems that led to Biden’s decisions remain.
“The root cause of the headache is probably still going to be there after the medicine wears off,” Glickman said.
Biden has been in talks with allies and partners to join in additional releases of oil, such that the world market will get more than the 180 million barrels total being pledged by the U.S.
Americans on average use about 21 million barrels of oil daily, with about 40% of that devoted to gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That total accounts for about one-fifth of total global consumption of oil.
Domestic oil production is equal to more than half of U.S. usage, but high prices have not led companies to return to their pre-pandemic levels of output. The U.S. is producing on average 11.7 million barrels daily, down from 13 million barrels in early 2020.
Republican lawmakers have said the problem results from the administration being hostile to oil permits and the construction of new pipelines such as the Keystone XL. Democrats say the country needs to move to renewable energy such as wind and solar that could reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and Putin’s leverage.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., blasted Biden’s action to tap the reserve without first taking steps to increase American energy production, calling it “a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.″
Daines called Biden’s actions “desperate moves″ that avoid what he called the real solution: “investing in American energy production,″ and getting “oil and gas leases going again.”
The administration says increasing oil output is a gradual process and the release would provide time to ramp up production. It also wants to incentivize greater production by putting fees on unused leases on government lands, something that would require congressional approval.
Oil producers have been more focused on meeting the needs of investors than consumers, according to a survey released last week by the Dallas Federal Reserve. About 59% of the executives surveyed said investor pressure to preserve “capital discipline” amid high prices was the reason they weren’t pumping more, while fewer than 10% blamed government regulation.
In his remarks Thursday, Biden tried to shame oil companies that he said are focused on profits instead of putting out more barrels, saying that adding to the oil supply was a patriotic obligation.
“This is not the time to sit on record profits: It’s time to step up for the good of your country,” the president said.
The steady release from the reserves would be a meaningful sum and come near to closing the domestic production gap relative to February 2020, before the coronavirus caused a steep decline in oil output.
Still, the politics of oil are complicated with industry advocates and environmentalists both criticizing the planned release. Groups such as the American Petroleum Institute want to make drilling easier, while environmental organizations say energy companies should be forced to pay a special tax on windfall profits instead.
The administration in November announced the release of 50 million barrels from the strategic reserve in coordination with other countries. And after the Russia-Ukraine war began, the U.S. and 30 other countries agreed to an additional release of 60 million barrels from reserves, with half of the total coming from the U.S.
According to the Department of Energy, which manages it, more than 568 million barrels of oil were held in the reserve as of March 25. After the release, the government would begin to replenish the reserve once prices have sufficiently fallen.
News of the administration’s planning was first reported by Bloomberg. | https://www.syracuse.com/business/2022/04/biden-to-release-oil-from-strategic-reserve-move-aims-to-cut-gas-prices.html | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
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DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Daily 3" game were:
8-2-1
(eight, two, one)
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Daily 3" game were:
8-2-1
(eight, two, one) | https://www.michigansthumb.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-game-17049786.php | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
SALEM — The longtime presiding judge at Salem District Court has been confirmed for a seat on the state Appeals Court.
Judge Robert Brennan, 57, was confirmed by a vote of 6-0 during a Governor's Council session that was largely dominated by a debate over the discontinuation of live streams.
Brennan's hearing took place a week ago.
Governor's Councilor Eileen Duff, of Gloucester, said she didn't know Brennan prior to his hearing but found him impressive.
"He spoke about his white male privilege and I've never heard anyone admit to that before," Duff said Thursday in an interview. "I was very impressed."
Duff said she and other councilors found Brennan to be "authentic," and someone who understood that judges deal with people at the worst moments of their lives.
She went on to say she and some other councilors were also impressed at Brennan's willingness to make what he knew would be an unpopular decision to suspend use of breath tests for alcohol in drunken driving cases after questions emerged about the reliability of the devices.
Brennan had been tapped by Trial Court administrators to oversee what would turn into more than five years of complex litigation over the Draeger Alcotest 9510, used by police departments statewide, after it was discovered they were not initially calibrated to a stricter Massachusetts standard, and then that they used a new technology that hadn't been fully vetted in a state court proceeding.
He expanded his order suspending use of the tests after learning that the stage agency responsible for the machines had withheld evidence from one of the hearings. The machines are now again being used.
Brennan was first appointed to the bench in 2002, after spending seven years as an assistant district attorney in Essex County, and prior to that, working in Middlesex County.
During his time as a prosecutor, Brennan was one of the two prosecutors who handled the case of Christopher Reardon, a church volunteer and swim instructor who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 29 boys.
Brennan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University Law School.
Though his initial appointment was to a vacancy at Gloucester District Court, he spent most of his time as a district court judge in Salem; he also served as a regional administrative judge for an area that stretched from Cambridge to Newburyport.
He is married to Lawrence District Court Judge Lynn Rooney. His father, Thomas Brennan, was also a judge in Lawrence and Lowell district courts prior to his retirement. | https://www.salemnews.com/news/brennan-moves-up-to-appeals-court/article_90c9bfb6-b12b-11ec-be1b-037a2c08bc87.html | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
By NEBI QENA and YURAS KARMANAU
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops handed control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and left the heavily contaminated site early Friday, more than a month after taking it over, Ukrainian authorities said, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.
The withdrawal took place amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover while regrouping, resupplying its forces and redeploying them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic and that the forces are building up for new powerful attacks in the southeast.
“We know their intentions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.”
“There will be battles ahead,” he added.
Meanwhile, a convoy of 45 buses headed to Mariupol in another bid to evacuate people from the besieged port city after the Russian military agreed to a limited cease-fire in the area. But Russian forces blocked the buses, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars, according to the Ukrainian government.
Twelve Ukrainian trucks were able to deliver humanitarian supplies to Mariupol, but the supplies were seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.
The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. Tens of thousands have managed to get out of Mariupol in the past few weeks by way of humanitarian corridors, reducing its population from a prewar 430,000 to an estimated 100,000 as of last week, but other relief efforts have been thwarted by continued Russian attacks.
A new round of talks was scheduled for Friday, five weeks into the war that has left thousands dead and driven 4 million Ukrainians from the country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster had transferred control of it in writing to the Ukrainians.
The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl plant early Friday, the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone said.
Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the soldiers it said were exposed to radiation and did not say how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the IAEA said it had not been able to confirm the reports of Russian troops receiving high doses. It said it was seeking more information.
Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site in the opening stages of the Feb. 24 invasion, raising fears that they would cause damage or disruption that could spread radiation. The workforce at the site oversees the safe storage of spent fuel rods and the concrete-entombed ruins of the reactor that exploded in 1986.
Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said it “seems unlikely” a large number of troops would develop severe radiation illness, but it was impossible to know for sure without more details.
He said contaminated material was probably buried or covered with new topsoil during the cleanup of Chernobyl, and some soldiers may have been exposed to a “hot spot” of radiation while digging. Others may have assumed they were at risk too, he said.
Early this week, the Russians said they would significantly scale back military operations in areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to increase trust between the two sides and help negotiations along.
But in the Kyiv suburbs, regional governor Oleksandr Palviuk said on social media Thursday that Russian forces shelled Irpin and Makariv and that there were battles around Hostomel. Pavliuk said there were Ukrainian counterattacks and some Russian withdrawals around the suburb of Brovary to the east.
Chernihiv came under attack as well. At least one person was killed and four were wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy of buses sent to Chernihiv to evacuate residents cut off from food, water and other supplies, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova
Ukraine also reported Russian artillery barrages in and around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said intelligence indicates Russia is not scaling back its military operations in Ukraine but is instead trying to regroup, resupply its forces and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas.
“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, he said, pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities, and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”
The Donbas is the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial region where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the past few days, the Kremlin, in a seeming shift in its war aims, said that its “main goal” now is gaining control of the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including Mariupol.
The top rebel leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to set up a rival city government for Mariupol, according to Russian state news agencies, in a sign of Russian intent to hold and administer the city.
With talks set to resume between Ukraine and Russia via video, there seemed little faith that the two sides would resolve the conflict any time soon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that conditions weren’t yet “ripe” for a cease-fire and that he wasn’t ready for a meeting with Zelenskyy until negotiators do more work, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said after a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.
In other developments, Ukraine’s emergency services said the death toll had risen to 20 in a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a government administration building in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
As Western officials search for clues about what Russia’s next move might be, a top British intelligence official said demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine are refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
In a speech in Australia, Jeremy Fleming, head of the GCHQ electronic spy agency, said Putin had apparently “massively misjudged” the invasion.
The Pentagon reported Thursday that an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance from the U.S. have reached Ukraine as part of an $800 million aid package President Joe Biden approved this month.
The shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other materials, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the war is going because they are afraid to tell him the truth.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. is wrong and that “neither the State Department nor the Pentagon possesses the real information about what is happening in the Kremlin.”
___
Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03/31/russians-leave-chernobyl-site-as-fighting-rages-elsewhere/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
UN feeding one million people in Ukraine
Wednesday, March 30, 2022ROME,�Italy�(AFP) — The UN is providing emergency food to one million people in Ukraine, it said Wednesday, though it warned many more were going hungry, with adults skipping meals so children can eat.
One month after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) said it has managed, despite security issues, to "deliver food supplies to the most vulnerable people across the country".
That included getting 330,000 loaves of freshly baked bread to families in the city of Kharkiv, and supplies into the conflict areas of Sumy and Kharkiv through two interagency humanitarian convoys.
More convoys carrying food were expected to arrive in Ukraine in upcoming days, said the UN agency.�
"Just one month ago, we had no presence on the ground, no staff, no network of suppliers or partners.
"To build an operation from the ground up and get food to one million people seemed a monumental challenge," Jakob Kern, WFP's emergency coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.
But he added: "Now that the structures are in place, we need the funding to keep delivering assistance, and to help three million people in need".
More than 6.5 million people are displaced inside Ukraine and food is one of the top three concerns for people, with an estimated 45 per cent of the population worried about finding enough to eat, the UN agency said.
"One person in five now reports having to reduce the size and number of their meals while adults skip meals so their children can eat," it said.
The agency said it needed US$590 million (530 million euros) to assist 3.1 million people in need in Ukraine.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment," Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. "And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night's ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer's interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences met Wednesday to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violations against the group’s standards of conduct. Smith could be suspended, expelled or otherwise sanctioned.
The academy said in a statement that “Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television."
Without giving specifics, the academy said Smith was asked to leave the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre, but refused to do so.
Smith strode from his front row seat on to the stage and slapped Rock after a joke Rock made about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, when he was on stage to present the Oscar for best documentary.
On Monday, Smith issued an apology to Rock, the academy and to viewers, saying “I was out of line and I was wrong.”
The academy said Smith has the opportunity to defend himself in a written response before the board meets again on April 18.
Rock publicly addressed the incident for the first time, but only briefly, at the beginning of a standup show Wednesday night in Boston, where he was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation. He said “I’m still kind of processing what happened.”
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton | https://www.milfordmirror.com/news/article/Oscars-producer-says-police-offered-to-arrest-17049804.php | 2022-04-01T01:16:53Z |
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Lowest pricing is based on our 3rd party pricing supplier and valid as of April 1st, 2022. | https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseto/cruiseitineraries.cfm?startDate=2023-10&lifestyle=1 | 2022-04-01T01:16:52Z |
We’ve been seeing a lot more of Gia Giudice on The Real Housewives of New Jersey this season, but viewers are not exactly happy about that. Teresa Giudice’s daughter is officially an adult and she’s had a lot to say about the way her mom has been treated by her castmates.
However, after an awkward altercation with Margaret Josephs in the latest episode, people are calling for her to stay out of it! That wasn’t the first time that Gia has butted heads with a cast member this season.
A few weeks ago she had an altercation with her uncle, Joe Gorga and that didn’t sit well with some viewers either. While Teresa is happy that she now has someone coming to her defense, the other cast members are not comfortable with Gia’s involvement in their adult drama.
RHONJ cast speak on Gia Giudice getting involved in Teresa Giudice’s drama
Teresa Giudice was in the midst of the drama that kicked off in the last episode. However, this time her daughter Gia got involved as well. The cast gathered to help Dolores Catania raise funds for charity by playing softball.
Things got off to a rocky start after Teresa brought items from her clothing line for the women to wear and Margaret Josephs declined to wear them.
Gia was offended by Margaret’s actions and voiced that her mom has always supported the women.
People on social media felt she was out of line for clapping back at Margaret and during a chat on The Real Housewives of New Jersey After Show the RHONJ cast agreed.
“It’s really hard to argue with someone’s child. It’s very uncomfortable for everybody,” confessed Jackie Goldschneider — who had her confrontation with Gia for an analogy she made about her snorting coke last season.
“I think Margaret in that moment, was super uncomfortable, all of us were” she added.
As for how she felt when Gia chimed in on the conversation Margaret admitted, “I was upset…Gia’s a nice young woman she doesn’t need to be in this drama.”
Joe Gorga thinks his niece should stay out of the drama
Joe Gorga knows all too well what it’s like to be confronted by Gia on camera because he found himself in that predicament not too long ago.
During his chat on The Real Housewives of New Jersey After Show, he expressed that Gia is “too young right now” to involve herself with the women.
“I just want her to just go be happy…and just go enjoy her life,” he added. “She’s been through enough s**t in her life, just don’t get involved in this stuff.”
While everyone felt Gia needs to stay out of the women’s drama, her mom was happy that she intervened.
“I love that, I love that she has my back,” said Teresa.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo. | https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/reality-tv/rhonj-cast-speaks-on-gia-giudice-getting-involved-in-teresa-giudices-drama/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:54Z |
SALT LAKE CITY, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Extra Space Storage Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE: EXR) announced today it will release financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022 on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 after the market closes. The Company will host a conference call at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 to discuss its financial results. Hosting the call will be Extra Space Storage's CEO, Joe Margolis. Joining him will be Scott Stubbs, Executive Vice President and CFO.
During the conference call, company officers will review operating performance, discuss recent events, and conduct a question-and-answer period. The question-and-answer period will be limited to registered financial analysts. All other participants will have listen-only capability.
The playback can be accessed beginning on May 4, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. ET through May 11, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. ET.
The conference call will also be available on the Company's website under Investor Relations at www.extraspace.com. To listen to a live broadcast, go to the site at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time in order to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A replay of the call will also be available for 30 days on the Company's website.
Full Text of the Earnings Report and Supplemental Data
The full text of the earnings report and supplemental data will be available at the Company's website at http://ir.extraspace.com immediately following the earnings release to the wire services after the market close on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
For those without Internet access, the earnings release will be available by mail or fax, on request. To receive a copy, please call Extra Space Storage Investor Relations at (801) 365-1759.
About Extra Space Storage Inc.
Extra Space Storage Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust, and a member of the S&P 500. As of December 31, 2021, the Company owned and/or operated 2,096 self-storage properties, which comprise approximately 1.5 million units and approximately 160.9 million square feet of rentable storage space offering customers conveniently located and secure storage units across the country, including boat storage, RV storage and business storage. The Company is the second largest owner and/or operator of self-storage properties in the United States and is the largest self-storage management company in the United States.
For more information, please visit www.extraspace.com.
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SOURCE Extra Space Storage Inc. | https://www.wrdw.com/prnewswire/2022/03/31/extra-space-storage-inc-announces-date-earnings-release-conference-call-discuss-1st-quarter-2022-results/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:55Z |
(NEXSTAR) – A Texas student who says she was bullied over her refusal to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance has been awarded $90,000, according to the civil rights organization representing her.
In 2017, the student sued her 12th grade sociology teacher at Houston-area Klein Oak High School. The teacher, Benjie Arnold, allegedly singled her out for harassment, at one point forcing her to write out the Pledge against state law, American Atheists stated in a news release Tuesday.
The payment, made through a risk pool funded by Texas school districts, prevented the case from going to trial.
“After discussion with counsel and Mr. Arnold, it was decided that in the interest of limiting continued expensive litigation, a settlement agreement should be reached in the one ongoing case against Mr. Arnold,” the Texas Association of School Boards told Nexstar in a statement. “It’s notable that all the claims filed against the district were dismissed.”
During her four years at Klein Oak High School, the student declined to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance “out of her objection to the words, ‘Under God,’ and her belief that the United States does not adequately guarantee ‘liberty and justice for all,’ especially for people of color,” according to the group.
Arnold allegedly retaliated against her, threatening to giver her failing grades for refusing to write out the Pledge and at one point went on a tirade captured in an audio recording during which he offered to pay students to leave the country if they didn’t like living in America.
It got so bad, according to the release, that the student was homeschooled for a time before returning to Klein Oak, at which point the alleged harassment intensified.
“Nonreligious students often face bullying or harassment for expressing their deeply held convictions,” said Nick Fish, president of American Atheists. “No one should have to endure the years of harassment, disrespect, and bullying our client faced. The fact that this happened in a public school and at the hands of staff who should know better is particularly appalling. After nearly five years of litigation, the defendant finally made the only smart decision and agreed to settle this case.”
In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forcing public school students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance violated First Amendment rights.
Texas law also protects students from having to recite a pledge of allegiance as long as they have a written request from their parent or guardian, which she did.
“The classroom is not a pulpit. It is a place of education, not indoctrination,” said Geoffrey T. Blackwell, Litigation Counsel at American Atheists, who handled the case and settlement negotiations in partnership with Texas civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen. “This settlement serves as a reminder that students do not lose their First Amendment rights when they enter the classroom.”
The school district did not fire Arnold, according to the Courthouse News Service, who is still at Klein Oak High School where he is teaching for his 51st year. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/student-who-says-teacher-bullied-her-over-pledge-of-allegiance-is-awarded-90k/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:55Z |
COVID-19 update: B.C. reports 2 death, increase in hospitalizations
The B.C. government reported two deaths related to COVID-19 on Thursday, and another small increase in the number of test-positive patients in hospital.
The deaths, both of which were reported in the Fraser Health region, put the province's COVID-19 death toll at 2,998.
The number of coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized across the province inched up to 281, an increase of five from Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Health.
That total includes incidental cases, such as patients who were admitted to hospital for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 but tested positive on routine screening.
B.C.'s hospitalization total has stabilized after steadily decreasing for weeks, but the number of patients in intensive care is still shrinking. As of Thursday, there are 42 people with COVID-19 in ICU, which is the fewest the province has seen since Aug. 14.
The ministry also announced 249 new cases, which is above the seven-day average of 229 per day. That number only includes infections confirmed through PCR testing, which is not available to most people with coronavirus symptoms.
Earlier on Thursday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said recent wastewater monitoring – another method of tracking transmission – has shown an "overall either flat or slight increase in the amount of COVID-19 present."
Other jurisdictions, including Ontario, have seen a significant surge in cases recently, fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2.
Dix said B.C. is discussing the possibility of offering second booster doses to vulnerable populations, as part of the province's strategy for mitigating the impact of a possible sixth wave of COVID-19.
More details are expected to be shared at a news conference Tuesday.
So far, 90.8 per cent of eligible B.C. residents have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 87.3 per cent have had two. Among adults, 59.3 have also had a booster.
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Russians leave Chornobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
Russian troops handed control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
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Long before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the mass detentions of Russian peace protesters, the Kremlin was already stifling dissent with choking bureaucracy. Throughout 2021, the Kremlin tightened the screws on its opponents – including supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists.
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Sweet justice: Ringleader of Canada's notorious maple syrup heist must pay more than $9M in fines, top court rules
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a $9 million fine for the thief in a 2012 maple syrup heist. | https://bc.ctvnews.ca/covid-19-update-b-c-reports-2-death-increase-in-hospitalizations-1.5843651 | 2022-04-01T01:16:55Z |
Houses in Ireland are now selling for over 3.5pc more than their asking prices, which are already high, as the property market continues to soar.
The latest house price survey conducted by website Daft.ie shows that the typical transaction price in the first quarter of this year was heading towards 4pc above the listed price.
Over the 12-year period from 2010 a typical property would sell for 0.3pc above its listing price – but the gap has now widened considerably.
By contrast, during the first two years of that period, 2010-2012, properties sold on average for 10pc less than their initial listed price.
"The last three quarters have seen greater market heat - as measured by the premium paid by buyers above the listed price - than at any other time since the start of 2010," Ronan Lyons, Trinity College Economics Professor and author of the property price reports for daft.ie explained.
The report is a follow up study to the property price report published by daft.ie earlier in the week which found that asking prices here increased by almost 8.5% in the year to March with a significant gap in the increases being captured in Dublin - where asking prices were up 4% - and the rest of the country, where average price inflation of 12.3% was recorded.
"Prices have increased quarter-on-quarter nationally for seven consecutive quarters since the second quarter of 2020, when Covid 19 had - initially - a negative effect on prices," Mr Lyons said.
"The Daft.ie Report has been going for 64 quarters, since the start of 2006, and in all that time, there has never been a period where prices increased for seven consecutive
quarters," he added.
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Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm. | https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/national-news/779234/houses-selling-for-more-than-asking-price-as-property-market-continues-to-soar.html | 2022-04-01T01:16:55Z |
10 NHL insights and observations: Skinner's resurgence a much-needed win for Sabres
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Welcome to 10 Insights and Observations. Every Thursday, I’ll use this space to highlight teams, players, storylines, and general musings around the NHL, and perhaps at times, the greater hockey world.
This week we look at no-look passes, the Rocket Richard race, Jeff Skinner rebounding, the Kraken’s tough start as a franchise and much more.
1. In the NFL, no-look passes have been all the rage of late. Patrick Mahomes has a whole highlight reel of them while Matthew Stafford made his biggest pass, in the league’s biggest game, a no-looker.
In the NHL, meanwhile, it has rather quietly become a big thing too. It makes sense as to why: teams are so good at defending and coaches can put systems in place to reduce offence. You need to create misdirection and confusion.
Just this week, Mikko Rantanen no-look passed the game winner right through Erik Gudbranson’s legs for a tap-in game winner.
Here’s Kirill Kaprizov with a no-look pass earlier this season. The goal looks poor at first, and it was a great shot, but just a second of confusion leads to a domino effect of sliding over a hair late and not setting yourself properly.
There are countless examples of no-look passes throughout the league now, and we probably don’t give them enough attention as they appear to be increasing throughout the league. As goalies and defencemen continue to get better, and nets stay the same size, skill players need to find creative ways to produce offence.
This is one way to keep opposing defenders and goaltenders on their toes.
2. Last season was simply an all-around nightmare for the Buffalo Sabres. There was some light at the end of the tunnel when they got to select Owen Power first overall, but they’ve drafted high for a decade. They needed more than simply drafting high.
Enter, the return of Jeff Skinner.
Skinner is at or above his career averages in goals per game, assists per game and points per game. He is three goals away from his fifth-career 30-plus goal season. And he has found something with Tage Thompson, and now Alex Tuch.
Thompson is having a great season as well, something that has been well documented by many at this point. Earlier in the season, he was playing with Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Asplund. It hasn’t been Thompson – Skinner the entire time, which means the current trio still has room to grow – they are giving up as much as they produce at 5v5 (18 goals for and 18 goals against in almost 300 minutes together). They are only slightly above water at controlling play at 5v5, scoring chances and expected goals.
But the combination of Thompson and Tuch’s size, Skinner’s shiftiness and everyone’s skill is tantalizing. Part of that is Skinner’s re-emergence as a top-six-level scorer in the league.
it was only last summer that Skinner was available for the Seattle Kraken to pick for free. The 29-year-old was likely available to anyone in the league at a modest cost. Today, Skinner would lead all Kraken players in goals and points. That’s not to say they should have selected him – that’s a different story altogether – but Skinner finding his form again is a great story for a Buffalo franchise that has had a number of wins this season as they try to climb back to respectability.
3. On that note regarding the Kraken, I started wondering how many players they passed on would in fact be leading their team in scoring.
For the sake of this exercise, we won’t include players that were unrestricted free agents because there were no guarantees they would be able to sign any of them.
Yanni Gourde is currently leading Seattle in scoring with 39 points and the Kraken are fifth-last in the league in goals per game as a team. We’ve already established Skinner as one player that would be leading their team in scoring with his point totals to date. The rest of that list currently includes the following: Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Killorn and Alex Kerfoot.
There are some reasonable circumstances at play here to understand the Kraken's decision to pass up on those athletes – big contracts, older players, one guy having a career season. But it’s a reasonable amount of talent left on the table (plus other players who have been productive such as Nino Neiderreiter) for a team that lacks talent on the whole.
4. One aspect of the Kraken's game that seemed destined for success on paper was goaltending. It hasn't played out that way, though.
They selected Chris Driedger and promptly signed him to a three-year, $10.5 million contract, making him a notable presence on their expansion draft day program. Then, they one-upped themselves by locking in Phillip Grubauer to a six-year, $35.4 million contract. If nothing else, they should have been good in net.
Instead, the Kraken are second-last in the league in 5v5 save percentage. Overall, in all situations, they are dead last. Grubauer is having by far the worst season of his career with an .889 save percentage. He had never been below .916 before this season. Driedger hasn’t been much better at .892, but it’s at least somewhat understandable for a guy that only had 34 starts in the league coming into this season.
And it’s not as if the Kraken are awful defensively, either. In all situations they are 13th in expected goals against according to Natural Stat Trick. They are sixth in scoring chances against, sandwiched between Toronto and Colorado. They are fifth-best in high-danger corsi attempts allowed.
It really has been a tough first year for the Kraken in a number of areas.
5. The Carolina Hurricanes are having another excellent season, led by Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. Frederik Andersen is having a great campaign. Jaccob Slavin is his usual elite self. Rod Brind’Amour, as you’d expect, has the team structured and organized.
They present a ton of challenges for opponents to work through.
One of those is their third line of Nino Neiderreiter – Jodan Staal – Jesper Fast. None of those players are in the Canes' top five in scoring, though Neiderreiter does have 21 goals. They maybe don’t grab the headlines because of that, but the trio has formed a rather effective line, capable of checking top lines and scoring against weaker ones. They have strong underlying numbers in nearly 400 minutes together – above 55 percent in shot share, expected goals and scoring chances.
As a trio, they have 25 goals for at 5v5 to only nine against. And this is a line that generally handles tough matchups while doing that. Staal turns 34 this year, but he remains a horse at 6-4 and uses that strength and reach to end plays cleanly in the defensive zone.
All three players are feisty and they have enough skill that if they get open chances, they can bury. Look how all three hound the puck when it’s their turn to, leading to an easy goal.
6. It wasn’t too long ago that Mats Zuccarello appeared to be on track to a big decline.
After getting traded to the Dallas Stars – where he was having an awesome start – he suffered a broken arm that required surgery. He never played for the Stars again. That summer Zuccarello signed with the Wild and put up a career-low 37 points in 65 games, at the age of 32, outscored by a 35-year-old Zach Parise on a fairly average Minnesota team.
It was fair to wonder how that contract would age. Like a fine wine though, it just keeps getting better.
At the age of 34, he already has a career-high in points with 67 in just 57 games. He is lapping himself many times over here. Zuccarello has always been a good, productive player but he’s never had a point-per-game season and he’s way above that now. His previous career-high in points per game was .83 – which is something he has done twice, including last season.
Playing with Kaprizov sure helps. They have been together for nearly 700 minutes this season and have 45 goals for to just 28 against while on the ice at the same time at 5v5. Zuccarello has played with good players before – Derick Brassard, Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider — but none as good as Kaprizov (given where those players were in their careers at those times compared to Kaprizov now). Teams spend a lot of time and focus on Kaprizov, rightfully so, and thus the game has slowed right down to Zuccarello.
Look at all the attention Kaprizov is getting to start this rush, and how calmly Zuccarello just allows the attack to come as he waits out the defender and beats the goalie cleanly.
7. One of the centrepieces of the trade that saw Erik Karlsson go from Ottawa to San Jose was Josh Norris.
A first-round pick by the Sharks in 2017, Norris played for a Michigan team that also featured Quinn Hughes. From there, he went to the Belleville Bulls where he led the team with 31 goals and 61 points in 56 games (in fairness, Drake Batherson likely would have led the team in points had he not been called up).
He followed that up with a solid rookie season, putting up 17 goals and 35 points in 56 games. This season, he has blown right up with 26 goals in 50 games. Part of that is due to a 20.8 shooting percentage. In fairness, he also shot a high 17.7 percent in his first season.
He’s now at over 100 games in the league shooting nearly 19 percent. It will likely come down at some point in time. Whether or when it does, one thing he has established for himself is a go-to one-timer on the power play. Norris's 13 power-play goals are tied for eighth in the league. Every single player tied with or ahead of him has played a minimum of 11 games more than him.
This is downright Ovechkin-esque, and he’s done it multiple times this season (and even last). Keep Norris there and just feed him one-timers all night.
8- Here is the list of Rocket Richard winners since 2010:
As of this writing, Matthews and Leon Draisaitl are tied with 49 goals apiece. The Leafs have 16 games left in their season, the Oilers have 14 games left in theirs. This should be the highest-scoring Rocket winner since Steven Stamkos won with 60 in 2011-2012. The year that he won, Evgeni Malkin finished second in goals with 50. Stamkos upped him by 10 in an incredible season.
Matthews and Draisaitl are having incredible seasons of their own this time around, except it’s rather unlikely one ups the other by 10. This is a historic race from two elite goal scorers. Watching them go goal for goal down the stretch here is simply awesome.
9. In the NBA, sneakers are a big deal. Michael Jordan and Air Jordans made them a big deal. Now, players are all over grabbing and playing with cool sneakers.
I don’t think hockey will ever get to that level – after all, you can’t exactly show off your uniquely designed skates out in public. It’s for hockey arenas only.
That said, these Bauer skates made special for Pride Night are cool.
@BauerHockey outdid themselves once again. Best skates on the market by far😍! Thank for the new jets. Catch all the gear and the guys April 9th for the @EdmOilKings Pride Night 🏳️🌈 #lookgoodskatebetter pic.twitter.com/RJ1W9T04YB
— luke prokop (@lukeprokop_6) March 30, 2022
It would be nice to see a bit more personality added to equipment like this. Instead, the league bans things like jersey tucking. Maybe we get the odd interesting tape job of note. Even goalie masks are no longer as cool as they once were.
There are opportunities on the table for players to express themselves and for the league to push them toward doing so. Here's hoping they seize the chance.
10. Sorry to hear of the passing of Eugene Melnyk. He has always been a bit of a soft spot for me as he donated $1.8 million to fund and upgrade the athletic field at my high school with new state-of-the-art artificial grass, stadium lights, sound system, and an electronic scoreboard. The field, called The Eugene Melnyk sports field, is used not just by the students of the school, but by other schools and even school boards to host track meets. Many are also remembering Melnyk for the fact that he helped to keep the Senators in Ottawa and hope to see his goal of a new downtown arena. Rest in peace, Eugene.
More from Yahoo Sports | https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/10-nhl-insights-and-observations-jeff-skinner-resurgence-a-much-needed-win-for-sabres-010258451.html?src=rss | 2022-04-01T01:16:56Z |
Walsh University Cavathon Dance Marathon Exceeds Fundraising Goal
The annual Cavathon dance-a-thon held Saturday, March 26, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., at the Cecchini Center, not only surpassed its goal of $20,000 – it raised the second highest amount ever in its eight-year history – with nearly $35,000 in donations for Akron Children’s...
www.walsh.edu | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2556660015950/walsh-university-cavathon-dance-marathon-exceeds-fundraising-goal | 2022-04-01T01:16:56Z |
On The Money — US, EU put Russia in economic chokehold
It’s Monday and welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup.
Today’s Big Deal: Western sanctions are crushing the Russian economy, and they’re already prompting multinational corporations to flee the country. We’ll also look at how the conflict could impact Americans’ finances and Biden’s plan to fight inflation.
But first, President Biden doesn’t want you to worry about nuclear war.
For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Reach us at slane@thehill.com, afolley@thehill.com and kevers@thehill.com.
Let’s get to it.
Sanctions strangling Russian economy
Financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Western allies are strangling the Russian economy.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin wages war against Ukraine, his country’s economy has begun to collapse under the weight of unprecedented penalties from the Biden administration, United Kingdom, European Union and other major economic players.
- The value of the ruble plunged Monday after the U.S and its allies took action to cut the Russian government off from roughly $600 billion in reserves held by the Central Bank of Russia and further cut Russia’s ties to the global financial system.
- The Western bloc banned most transactions with the Russian central bank — along with Russia’s finance ministry and foreign investment fund — blocking Putin from funds he stowed away for years to cushion the blow of sanctions.
- The sanctions also cut off Russian access to the U.S. dollar, the linchpin of the global financial system, as its value climbs amid global tumult.
“Everyone in the economic sphere, the banking sphere, knows we’re in new territory here—a coordinated shutdown of a country’s economy with the strongest arrow being in the heart of the banking sector,” said George Lopez, expert on economic sanctions at University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs.
In a nutshell: Roughly $300 billion of Russia’s reserves are now locked away from Putin in the U.S., Europe and other allied countries. While Russia still holds billions of dollars worth of gold within its borders, experts say Moscow will find few willing buyers with its banks under their own crushing sanctions.
Without access to its reserves, the Russian government has resorted to desperate measures to keep its economy and financial sector afloat.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Sylvan have more here.
MOSC-OUT
Multinationals flee Russia, punishing Moscow
Large multinational companies are fleeing Russia, joining a large swath of the international community in moving to isolate the nation in response to its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Oil and gas giants BP and Shell announced they are leaving Russia after spending decades making investments worth billions of dollars in the country, while several U.S. companies are halting all shipments to Russia.
The exodus is expected to continue as more businesses weigh the reputational and financial risks of doing business with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Experts say that if energy firms are willing to forfeit huge sums by pulling out of Russia, industries with much less to lose will soon follow suit.
- Firms are leaving because of enormous public pressure to disown the Russian government and sweeping sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies that severely complicate companies’ ability to do business with Russian entities.
- Shell said it abandoned Russian projects valued at $3 billion, while BP said it could lose as much as $25 billion by cutting ties with Russia.
- Meanwhile, FedEx and UPS have canceled shipments to Russia and ocean carriers might join them, further isolating the nation from international trade.
Companies that haven’t fled are likely evaluating how to navigate complex sanctions and exploring whether continuing business with Russia is worth the regulatory challenges. The collapse of the Russian ruble could make that decision easier.
Karl has more on the developments here.
INFLATION FOCUS
Biden to focus on lowering costs in SOTU amid rising inflation
The White House says President Biden will discuss inflation during Tuesday’s State of the Union address while outlining efforts to lower costs for America families.
Biden will announce a new four-piece plan to tackle rising prices, which have taken a toll on his approval ratings. Democrats are worried about losing their congressional majorities in this fall’s midterm elections as consumer frustration bites back at the White House.
- Officials said that Biden’s plan includes making more goods in America and strengthening supply chains, reducing the cost of everyday expenses and reducing the deficit, promoting fair competition to lower prices, helping small businesses and protecting consumers, and eliminating barriers to well-paying jobs.
- Biden will ask Congress to send him legislation that reduces the cost of working families with major elements of Build Back Better, including tackling prescription drug costs, health care premiums, child care and pre-K costs, and energy costs.
- Biden is expected to describe what he calls the manufacturing comeback, tout companies that are opening new U.S. factories and call on Congress to send him bipartisan competitiveness legislation.
Alex has more on the plan here.
INTERNATIONAL WAVES
Five ways the Russian invasion of Ukraine could impact the US economy
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the unprecedented sanctions imposed in response by the U.S. and western allies have rattled the global economy and financial markets.
They’ve also upended supply chains for crucial food, energy and industrial products amid a global burst of inflation, derailed global travel and driven volatility into the stock market.
Here are five ways the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacts Americans:
- Energy and oil prices rise: Oil prices skyrocketed Monday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth day and the U.S. and European Union continued to ratchet up sanctions, with Brent crude topping $100 a barrel.
- Supply chain issues for farmers could drive higher food prices: Farmers in the U.S. are bracing for a hike in the price of fertilizer, which was already at a record-high before the conflict. Russia — which is a low-cost, high-volume global producer of fertilizers — is the world’s second-largest producer after Canada of potash, a key nutrient used on major commodity crops and produce, according to Bloomberg.
- Travel restrictions and rising airfare costs:Ukraine has closed its airspace and an increasing number of airlines canceled flights in an out of Russia. A number of countries, as well as the EU, have closed their airspace to Russian carriers.
- Stock market volatility: Stocks have fallen steadily throughout the year as Russia amassed troops on its border with Ukraine and markets braced for a major conflict. The arrival of war and the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia could continue to cause wild swings as the financial sector heads into uncharted territory.
- Faster Fed rate hikes: Higher energy and food prices and deeper supply chain bottlenecks could put pressure on inflation and force the Fed to accelerate its pending series of rate hikes.
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Breaking New Ground: Innovations in Alzheimer’s Research –Wednesday, March 2; 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
Alzheimer’s disease is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. While recent data indicate nearly six million Americans currently live with the disease, some estimates suggest that number could triple by 2060, causing yearly treatment costs in the hundreds of billions of dollars. What innovations show the most promise for early detection and treatment for this disease that takes a crushing toll on patients, their loved ones and caregivers? Former NIH director Elias Zerhouni, Alzheimer’s Association’s Maria Carrillo and more join The Hill’s Steve Clemons. RSVP today.
Good to Know
A majority of women in key swing states are happy with their personal finances despite broad concerns about the national economy, a new poll found, underscoring the opportunities Democrats may still have to sell their agenda in the months before the midterms.
Here’s what else we have our eye on:
- Governors in states across the country have ordered agencies and asked businesses to cut ties with Russia in largely symbolic stands with Ukraine and against Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression.
- The United Nations’s climate science panel issued a report detailing both the impacts of climate change and potential adaptation measures society can take to mitigate the damage.
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the company’s Starlink satellite internet service has been activated in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion into the country.
- U.S. retailer Target announced it will adopt a minimum wage system that will pay company employees up to $24 an hour.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Tuesday.
The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the conversation. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. | https://thehill.com/policy/finance/overnights/596211-on-the-money/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:54Z |
WACO — The U.S. is preparing for up to 100,000 Ukrainians and 12,000 of those could be in Texas according to Refugee Services of Texas.
More than four million have left their homes after the war started.
More than 2.3 million have arrived in Poland but many have traveled onward to other countries or back into Ukraine.
Large fractions of refugees have also fled to Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Several in Central Texas have opened up their homes to house those leaving Ukraine.
UkraineTakeShelter.com is an independent platform helping to connect Ukrainian refugees with potential hosts and housing. Residents from all over the world have offered up a place to stay according to the website.
It's unknown when they might arrive in the U.S. Some families have already made their way to Texas.
Tonya Levchuk made the journey to Poland to rescue family members from her homeland.
Many of her family members are now on the frontlines in Ukraine.
"A lot of my childhood for friends have already been called out and on the frontlines," said Levchuk.
Levchuk was able to get her family visas at the start of the war. Her mother, sister, and niece live with her in Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security shows that nearly 1,000 Ukrainians had shown up at the U.S.-Mexico border in March.
Texas A&M offers Ukrainian students full tuition and room and board.
The university system will cover all tuition and fees, as well as certain living expenses, for the students. At least 14 students from Ukraine have been identified as eligible for the financial support so far, said associate vice chancellor, Tim Eaton. The number is likely to increase as more students are identified, he said.
IN-DEPTH: Thousands of Afghan refugees in Texas concerned about loved ones in Middle East
Some lawmakers are concerned Afghan refugees will be forgotten as the focus turns to Ukrainians.
“Our commitment to resettling Afghans — particularly those who served on behalf of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan — remains steadfast,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Post.
A majority have so far settled in Texas and California. Issues with housing have slowed the process down. | https://www.kxxv.com/news/in-depth/in-depth-texas-could-see-over-12-000-refugees-from-ukraine-central-texans-open-up-their-homes | 2022-04-01T01:16:56Z |
Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, has charged members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State to brace up for the task of building the party, urging them to be committed and united instead of secretly hobnobbing with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Kalu gave the charge when he hosted Abia State students from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria at his Abuja residence.
“Some of our members are not committed to the growth of the party in Abia State. Some of them are PDP members at night and APC in the day. They visit the Government House at night to reaffirm their allegiance to the PDP even as members of the APC. It has to stop! It is not possible to serve two masters at the same time. It is either you are in PDP or APC. It is time to show commitment and stop selling out the APC to others.”
While congratulating the newly elected National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, Kalu urged all members of the NWC to work towards unity and harmony to help the party succeed in the 2023 general election.
He described the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, as competent and well-experienced even as he expressed confidence in the new executive members.
He also urged the executives to swing into action by uniting party members ahead of the 2023 general election.
“I want to charge the national chairman to urgently commence the process of getting all members united and committed ahead of the 2023 general elections. I want to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected members of the NWC, and other members of the party for the success recorded in the national convention. I am appealing to Nigerians to continue to entrust the affairs of the country to the All Progressives Congress (APC). APC is a party for all Nigerians. APC is committed to the growth, unity and development of Nigeria,” Kalu said. | https://www.sunnewsonline.com/stop-being-apc-in-day-pdp-at-night-kalu-tasks-abia-apc-faithful/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:56Z |
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At first glance, Renée DiResta thought the LinkedIn message seemed normal enough.
The sender, Keenan Ramsey, mentioned that they both belonged to a LinkedIn group for entrepreneurs. She punctuated her greeting with a grinning emoji before pivoting to a pitch for software.
"Quick question — have you ever considered or looked into a unified approach to message, video, and phone on any device, anywhere?"
DiResta wasn't interested and would have ignored the message entirely, but then she looked closer at Ramsey's profile picture. Little things seemed off in what should have been a typical corporate headshot. Ramsey was wearing only one earring. Bits of her hair disappeared and then reappeared. Her eyes were aligned right in the middle of the image.
"The face jumped out at me as being fake," said DiResta, a veteran researcher who has studied Russian disinformation campaigns and anti-vaccine conspiracies. To her trained eye, these anomalies were red flags that Ramsey's photo had likely been created by artificial intelligence.
That chance message launched DiResta and her colleague Josh Goldstein at the Stanford Internet Observatory on an investigation that uncovered more than 1,000 LinkedIn profiles using what appear to be faces created by artificial intelligence.
Social media accounts using computer-generated faces have pushed Chinese disinformation; harassed activists; and masqueraded as Americans supporting former President Donald Trump and independent news outlets spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.
NPR found that many of the LinkedIn profiles seem to have a far more mundane purpose: drumming up sales for companies big and small. Accounts like Keenan Ramsey's send messages to potential customers. Anyone who takes the bait gets connected to a real salesperson who tries to close the deal. Think telemarketing for the digital age.
By using fake profiles, companies can cast a wide net online without beefing up their own sales staff or hitting LinkedIn's limits on messages. Demand for online sales leads exploded during the pandemic as it became hard for sales teams to pitch their products in person.
More than 70 businesses were listed as employers on these fake profiles. Several told NPR they had hired outside marketers to help with sales. They said they hadn't authorized any use of computer-generated images, however, and many were surprised to learn about them when NPR asked.
NPR has not independently verified who created the profiles or images, or found anyone who authorized them to be used. Nor has NPR found any illegal activity.
But these computer-generated LinkedIn profile photos illustrate how a technology that has been used to propagate misinformation and harassment online has made its way to the corporate world.
"It looks like somebody we know"
From a business perspective, making social media accounts with computer-generated faces has its advantages: It's cheaper than hiring multiple people to create real accounts, and the images are convincing.
A recent study found faces made by AI have become "indistinguishable" from real faces. People have just a 50% chance of guessing correctly whether a face was created by a computer — no better than flipping a coin.
"If you ask the average person on the internet, 'Is this a real person or synthetically generated?' they are essentially at chance," said Hany Farid, an expert in digital media forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, who co-authored the study with Sophie J. Nightingale of Lancaster University.
Their study also found people consider computer-made faces slightly more trustworthy than real ones. Farid suspects that's because the AI sticks to the most average features when creating a face.
"That face tends to look trustworthy, because it's familiar, right? It looks like somebody we know," he said. He worries that the proliferation of AI-generated content could augur a new era of online deception, using not just still images, but also audio and video "deepfakes."
After the Stanford researchers alerted LinkedIn about the profiles, LinkedIn said it investigated and removed those that broke its policies, including rules against creating fake profiles or falsifying information. LinkedIn did not give details about how it conducted its investigation.
"Our policies make it clear that every LinkedIn profile must represent a real person. We are constantly updating our technical defenses to better identify fake profiles and remove them from our community, as we have in this case," LinkedIn spokesperson Leonna Spilman said in a statement. "At the end of the day it's all about making sure our members can connect with real people, and we're focused on ensuring they have a safe environment to do just that."
Searching for any evidence Keenan Ramsey is who she claims to be
At first glance, Ramsey's profile looks like many others on LinkedIn: the bland headshot with a slightly stiff smile; a boilerplate description of RingCentral, the software company where she says she works; and a brief job history. She claims to have an undergraduate business degree from New York University and gives a generic list of interests: CNN, Unilever, Amazon, philanthropist Melinda French Gates.
But there were oddities in the photo: the single earring and strange hair, the placement of her eyes, the blurry background. Alone, any of these clues might be explained away, but together, they aroused DiResta's suspicions.
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"The positioning of the features in the face is something where if you've seen these enough times, you just become familiar with it," DiResta said.
The technology most likely used to create Ramsey's photo, known as a generative adversarial network, or GAN, has been around only since 2014, but in that time has rapidly become better at creating lifelike faces by training on large datasets of real people's photos. Today, websites allow anyone to download computer-generated faces for free.
"In the course of my work, I look at a lot of these things, mostly in the context of political influence operations," DiResta said. "But all of a sudden, here was a fake person in my inbox reaching out to me."
To confirm whether Ramsey was indeed a "fake person," NPR dug into the background described on her LinkedIn profile. RingCentral doesn't have any record of an employee named Keenan Ramsey. Neither does Language I/O, one of the previous employers she listed. And "NYU's records do not reflect anyone named Keenan Ramsey receiving an undergraduate degree of any type," university spokesperson John Beckman told NPR.
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DiResta initially thought Ramsey's message might be a phishing attempt — trying to trick her into revealing sensitive information. She grew even more suspicious when she received an identical LinkedIn message — including the same emojis — from someone else claiming to be a RingCentral employee and whose profile photo also looked computer-generated.
Then she got an email from a third RingCentral employee, referencing Ramsey's LinkedIn message. But when she looked up this one's name, it appeared to belong to a real person who worked at the company.
Intrigued, DiResta and Goldstein, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, started scouring LinkedIn for profiles like Ramsey's.
"In the span of a few weeks, we found more than a thousand accounts that appear to be fake accounts with GAN-generated images," Goldstein said. "And when we searched for these personas on the internet, we didn't find any evidence of them in other places, which is rare."
The profiles they spotted had other patterns in common too. Many described their jobs with variations on titles like business development manager, sales development executive, growth manager, and demand generation specialist.
They often had a brief list of two or three former employers, sometimes well-known names like Amazon and Salesforce, with no details about those experiences. When NPR reached out to some of the companies listed as former employers, none had records of any of the supposed employees working there.
A lot of the profiles also sported strikingly similar educational credentials. For example, some claimed to have received bachelor's degrees in business administration — including from schools, such as Columbia University, that don't offer an undergraduate business degree.
NPR contacted 28 universities about 57 of the profiles. Of the 21 schools that responded, none had records of any of the supposed graduates.
"This is not how we do business," RingCentral says
Of course, people do pad their resumes, and there's no guarantee that just because someone's LinkedIn profile says they work at a company, they really do. But the emergence of apparently false personas using computer-generated photos takes the deception to new heights on a professional social network like LinkedIn, where people frequently send messages to people they don't know when they're looking for work, recruiting job candidates or just networking.
"The expectation when you're on social media platforms is that you're dealing with other humans," said Bonnie Patten, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog Truth in Advertising. "And that you're not dealing with an AI-generated persona that's being manipulated by someone behind the curtain."
Of the profiles the Stanford researchers identified, 60 claimed to be employees of RingCentral. But the company says none of them has ever worked there. The person who emailed DiResta following up on Ramsey's LinkedIn message was a real RingCentral employee but left the company in February (this person did not respond to NPR's attempts to contact them).
RingCentral said it had hired other companies to reach out to potential customers and set up meetings with RingCentral's in-house salespeople — what's known in the business as "lead generation."
And RingCentral says one of these outside vendors created fake profiles, although it declined to name the vendor. NPR has not been able to confirm the identity of the vendor or who created the profiles.
Heather Hinton, RingCentral's chief information security officer, said she was not aware that anyone was making fictitious LinkedIn profiles on RingCentral's behalf and did not approve of the practice.
"This is not how we do business," she told NPR in an interview. "This was for us a reminder that technology is changing faster than even those of us who are watching it can keep up with. And we just have to be more and more vigilant as to what we do and what our vendors are going to do on our behalf."
RingCentral spokesperson Mariana Leventis said in a statement: "While this may have been an industry accepted practice in the past, going forward we do not think this is an acceptable practice, and is counter to our commitment to our customers. We are taking specific steps to update our approach to lead generation and to educate our people on what is and is not acceptable in terms of how we communicate with customers and partners."
One CEO says, "I thought they were real people"
Several of the other companies listed as current employers on the seemingly fake profiles told NPR the same thing: They used outside vendors to pitch potential customers on LinkedIn.
Bob Balderas, CEO of Bob's Containers in Austin, Texas, told NPR he had hired a firm named airSales to drum up business for his small startup, which repurposes shipping containers for homes and offices.
Balderas says he knew airSales was creating LinkedIn profiles for people who described themselves as business development representatives for Bob's Containers. But, he said, "I thought they were real people who worked for airSales."
Balderas said he was not comfortable with any use of AI-generated photos. "We are consumer focused. This doesn't create trust," he said. He said Bob's Containers stopped working with airSales before NPR inquired about the profiles.
AirSales CEO Jeremy Camilloni confirmed that Bob's Containers was a client. He said airSales hires independent contractors to provide marketing services and has "always been clear" with its clients about that.
Camilloni said these contractors may create LinkedIn profiles "at their own discretion," but the company doesn't require it or get involved.
And he said he points contractors to LinkedIn's terms of service. "To my knowledge, there are no specific rules for profile pictures or the use of avatars," he said, asserting "this is actually common among tech users on LinkedIn."
He added, "If this changes, we'll advise our contractors accordingly."
LinkedIn says any inauthentic profiles, including those using pictures that do not represent a real user, go against its rules. "Do not use an image of someone else, or any other image that is not your likeness, for your profile photo," its Professional Community Policies page states.
Selling LinkedIn "avatars" for $1,300 a month
Fake profiles are not a new phenomenon on LinkedIn. Like other social networks, it has battled against bots and people misrepresenting themselves. But the growing availability and quality of AI-generated photos creates new challenges for online platforms.
LinkedIn removed more than 15 million fake accounts in the first six months of 2021, according to its most recent transparency report. It says the vast majority were detected during signup, and most of the rest were found by its automatic systems, before any LinkedIn member reported them.
Spilman, the LinkedIn spokesperson, says the company is "constantly working to improve our models to ensure we are catching and removing profiles that use computer-generated images."
These days, many more companies are looking for ways to find customers online.
"Traditional business-to-business sales has been meet in person: I meet you at a conference, you wine and dine them, you try to develop a personal relationship," said Hee Gun Eom, co-founder and CEO of Salezilla, a company that specializes in automated email marketing.
But that all changed during the pandemic. "A lot of prospecting and new business development has gone digital — on social media, LinkedIn, email," he said. "We just saw a huge boost in people trying to send emails or wanting to create new businesses through virtual means." (Salezilla does not offer LinkedIn campaigns and says it does not use AI-generated images.)
NPR attempted to contact more than a dozen companies listed as employers on profiles identified by the Stanford researchers that offer LinkedIn marketing services to other businesses.
One of those companies, Renova Digital, advertised on its website a "ProHunter" package that includes two bots, or "fully branded avatar profiles," and unlimited messages for customers willing to pay $1,300 a month. The company removed the description of its services and pricing from its website after NPR asked about them.
Renova Digital founder Philip Foti told NPR in an email that he tested AI-generated photos in the past but has stopped doing so. "We decided that it wasn't coherent with our values and not worth the marketing gains," he wrote.
In addition to taking down most of the profiles identified by the Stanford researchers, LinkedIn also removed the pages of two lead-generation companies listed on many of those profiles: LIA, based in Delhi, India, and San Francisco-based Vendisys.
For $300 a month, LIA customers can pick one "AI-generated avatar" from hundreds that are "ready-to-use," according to LIA's website, which was recently scrubbed of all information except its logo. LIA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Vendisys CEO Erik Paulson declined to comment.
As prosaic as it is to use computer-generated profiles to sell things, the spread of the technology worries digital forensics expert Farid. As artificial intelligence advances, he and other researchers expect it to become harder to detect computer-created images with the naked eye — not to mention fake audio and video, like the heavily manipulated video that circulated on social media recently purporting to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling on his soldiers to surrender.
Computer-generated faces are "the canary in the coal mine," Farid said. "It's the beginning of what is coming next, which is full blown audio-video deepfakes targeted to a specific person."
Editor's note: LinkedIn and its parent company Microsoft are among NPR's financial supporters.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wvpublic.org/2022-03-27/that-smiling-linkedin-profile-face-might-be-a-computer-generated-fake | 2022-04-01T01:16:57Z |
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KOHLS Corp: Gaffney Paul J (Sr. Exec. V.P., Ch. Tech. Off.) (Form4)
Accepted:
Form Type:
4
Accession Number:
0001127602-22-010686 | https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/03/26388629/kohls-corp-gaffney-paul-j-sr-exec-v-p-ch-tech-off-form4 | 2022-04-01T01:16:57Z |
Photo: Getty Images
Author
Self
03/31/2022
I'm often told that I’d make a good mother. Depending on my relationship with the person making this wildly incorrect statement, I have one of two reactions: either a small, insincere smile and a "mmmm" response that does not invite further discussion or a hearty laugh followed by a firm "NO."
Don't get me wrong: I love kids. They’re hilarious, they’re adorable, and I (mostly) enjoy spending time with them.
But without a doubt, I do not want them.
And here's why.
I don’t want to worry about diaper rash and "tummy time" and I don’t want to know what colic is.
RELATED: DON'T Say These 5 Things To Childless-By-Choice Women (Like, Ever)
I don’t want to put a kid on a Kindergarten waiting list and I don’t want to decide between public and private education. I don’t want to coordinate basketball practice drop-off with ballet lessons pick-up, I don’t want to help with trigonometry, and darling, I will not deal with your teenage angst because you best believe I invented that sh*t.
I’d rather have bamboo shoots shoved under my fingernails than try to figure out how to pay for my child's college while I still owe roughly twelve kajillion dollars for my own degree.
I’ve more than once done something “just to tell the grandkids about it,” but I never actually planned on there being any grandkids.
It amuses me to tell people I don't want children because no one ever quite knows how to respond. I’ve gotten “Well, when you meet the right guy, you’ll change your mind,” which is basically suggesting I’m incapable of making decisions regarding my own life without consulting a nameless, faceless FutureMan and is, by the way, astonishingly offensive.
Others immediately ask what I do for a living, as though my employer holds the key to my womb and has locked it up until I retire. I don’t really consider myself a career-minded kind of girl; I’ve always worked to live, not lived to work.
Two mothers have actually said to me, “I didn’t know what love was before having a baby. You should reconsider.” I’m happy they’re happy now but "not knowing love before kids" is one of the most acutely sad things I’ve ever heard. Occasionally, I get a hearty “F*ck yeah!” from like-minded women, some of whom will eventually become mothers and some of whom will not. I appreciate the support.
But at this point, it doesn't matter how much anyone tries to change my mind because the decision's been made — permanently.
Last October, I spent a wonderful morning with my doctor, during which he performed a tubal ligation on me. Yep, I got my tubes tied at 28.
Getting your tubes tied isn't for anyone, and I admit that once my doctor agreed to perform the surgery, I had a moment of panic. It immediately crossed my mind that maybe everyone was right and I was wrong and I would wake up at 30 and want a baby more than anything in the world or that maybe my "hard pass" on kids was a rebellion against expectations simply for the sake of a rebellion.
RELATED: Childless-By-Choice Women Are A Big Part Of Society's Deterioration
Maybe I would love the complete upheaval of my priorities and schedule and life in general. Shortly after these hysterical thoughts raced through my mind, though, I regained my sanity. I picked a date for the surgery. Done. Tubes tied.
Here's the thing: I’ve spent years carefully crafting the most amazing life I can. I'm surrounded by people I love very much, who love me in return. I'm well-educated and well-traveled. I have endless time to learn about things that interest me and see wonderful things and meet the greatest people on earth.
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I leave piles of library books all over my bedroom and plan fabulous trips all over the world. I stay up until 6 AM watching Sons of Anarchy because I know no small person is relying on me to feed them in a few short hours. I occasionally eat chips and salsa for breakfast and drink beer for dinner and feel no guilt that I'm teaching anyone horrific eating habits. I spend my days finding my bliss like all the inspirational posters beg of me.
All this being said, I can’t wait to be an auntie. Whenever my friends start popping out kids, I’ll be there with inappropriately loud and expensive presents. I’ll be the aunt who slips them a vodka martini on their 16th birthday and I’ll rant and rail with the best of them whenever they feel slighted by other kids. And when I’m off for six months teaching SCUBA in Venezuela, I promise to send lovely postcards.
Related Stories From YourTango:
I get the reasons people want kids. I do. I’m not such a heartless, selfish monster that I’m incapable of understanding the appeal of a small person who loves you unconditionally and relies on you to guide them safely through a scary world. Parents are brave and strong and incredible people. But so are astronauts and brain surgeons and I don’t want to be those things, either.
What I want is to be happy.
And I’m doing that. I’m there, I'm living that dream. I’m happiest not being a mom, but hey... call me if you need a babysitter. I'm great in a pinch.
RELATED: I Would Be A Happier Person If I Never Got Married
More for You on YourTango:
Chelsea Hottovy is a contributor to Yourtango.com. | https://www.yourtango.com/self/tubes-tied-dont-want-kids-ever | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
BRUCE Willis secretly struggled with brain issues for nearly 20 years before his family revealed he has been diagnosed with aphasia, sources exclusively told The Sun.
The beloved 67-year-old’s relatives announced on Wednesday that he is retiring from acting because of the aggressive, cognitive disease.
Insiders revealed the “inevitable” moment of saying farewell to his glittering career has been a long time coming.
It meant Bruce’s daughters Rumer and Scout, ex-wife Demi Moore and wife Emma Heming were given plenty of time to steal themselves.
Read More about Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis cuddles daughter Scout as she shares message about his aphasia
A source said: "People who have been close to the family over these last twenty years or so knew this day was coming and see now that the inevitable has finally happened, Bruce is stepping away from acting and publicly acknowledging what's going on with him.
“But for Demi and the kids, this has been an almost eighteen-year journey from first noticing that something was wrong to Bruce
finally accepting that he has to transition into retirement.
“Bruce's grown daughters have known about this situation since 2005 or 2006 and they have been utterly sympathetic every step of the way.
“Bruce has worked with his slowly worsening condition for years, but it stopped being something anybody wanted to hide anymore.
Most read in Celebrity
“Bruce has the full support of Demi Moore, their daughters, and his wife Emma as he makes this next step, and nobody in the family has been caught off guard by it.
“If anything, they're all happy Bruce was able to work and make a living as long as he could, and nobody's ruling out that he could come back for special appearances or events if he's up to it.
“But they're officially in a new phase now where keeping Bruce as comfortable and out of pain as possible is the new priority, instead of keeping his acting jobs going.
“They’ve had years to brace themselves for his retirement, and everybody says they are so proud of Bruce that he was able to work this long after first becoming ill and addressing his symptoms."
This has been an almost eighteen-year journey from first noticing that something was wrong to Bruce finally accepting that he has to transition.
Source
Bruce’s family put out a joint statement on their individual Instagram accounts on Wednesday alongside a picture of the star.
It said that Bruce had recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which means he has to step away from “the career that has meant so much to him.”
The announcement added: “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.
"As Bruce always says, 'Live it up' and together we plan to do just that.”
Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a patient’s ability to express and understand written and spoken language.
It can happen suddenly after a stroke or head injury or develop slowly from a brain tumor or disease.
Bruce’s ex Demi Moore, 59, has been supportive of him and his current wife Emma, 43, while they adapt to living with the condition, The Sun understands.
CLOSE-KNIT FAMILY
Despite separating in 2000 the pair have remained extremely close.
Our source said: “Demi Moore and her small group of friends in Los Angeles have been completely helpful to Bruce and Emma as they make this transition, and it's been very heartwarming to see.
“Demi is, in many ways, still Bruce's closest and maybe only friend, especially since a lot of the men he came up with within the business have moved onto their own retirements.
“But because of the bond they have through their daughters, Demi has been with Bruce on every step of this journey, starting with his first serious symptoms which only showed up years after he and Demi divorced.
“People like to paint Demi as this selfish, type-A personality like one of her old nineties movie characters but what she has done to keep Bruce protected, safe, and able to work during these years should qualify her for sainthood.
“She's an amazing woman and created a support system so that Bruce could keep acting and Emma could keep him comfortable and happy. Emma couldn't have done this without Demi."
What [Demi] has done to keep Bruce protected, safe, and able to work during these years should qualify her for sainthood.
Source
The source added that Bruce’s strong relationship with daughters Rumer, 33, and Scout, 30, has been a source of pride in difficult times.
The insider said: “Even after Bruce and Demi’s divorce they are a loving and special family.
"Even after he knew he was sick, Bruce was spending every weekend he could with his daughters, taking them on shopping trips and going on group vacations during the years Ashton [Kutcher] and Demi were a couple.
“He would just get more generous with his daughters, year after year.
“Even as his condition advanced, he's proud he's still been able to be 'World's Greatest Dad' and his daughters savored all the time they had with him.
Read More About Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis 'misfired loaded gun on set' amid 'heartbreaking' aphasia battle
“They’ve had years to brace themselves for his retirement, and everybody says they are so proud of Bruce that he was able to work this long after first becoming ill and addressing his symptoms."
A rep for Bruce said: “We have no further statement other than the family statement which was issued yesterday.”
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Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS | https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/celebrities/18132455/bruce-willis-aphasia-illness-news/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
The Public Health Agency of Canada has declared an outbreak of norovirus linked to the consumption of raw B.C. oysters.
The outbreak has impacted people in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario — though as of March 30, 262 of the 279 reported cases are in B.C. There have been no deaths associated with the outbreak.
Individuals became sick with norovirus after ingesting raw oysters farmed on B.C.’s west coast. Health Canada recalled certain brands of oysters that were believed to be related to the norovirus outbreak on Feb. 18, March 20, March 23, and March 27, 2022.
READ MORE: Health Canada recalls certain B.C. oysters due to norovirus contamination
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is continuing an investigation into the outbreak which could lead to further recalls. Any recall notices will be shared publicly.
To avoid norovirus infection from oysters, make sure they are cooked thoroughly to an internal temperature of 90 degrees celsius for 90 seconds before eating. Public health agencies do not recommend consuming raw oysters.
If you believe you became sick from consuming the recalled oysters, Health Canada recommends contacting a doctor. Anyone who believes they purchased the product should check to see if they have it in their home or business. Do not consume the recalled oysters — either throw them away or return them to the place of purchase.
When people become sick with norovirus they typically develop symptoms of gastroenteritis within 24 to 48 hours, but symptoms can start within 12 hours after exposure. Even after becoming infected with norovirus, you can become re-infected. The main symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Other symptoms may include a low-grade fever, headaches, chills, muscle aches and fatigue.
Most people start to feel better after a day or two, however in severe cases, some patients require hospitalization. Those most at risk of severe outcomes from norovirus infection include pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, young children and seniors.
@SchislerCole
cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. | https://www.abbynews.com/news/279-people-infected-with-norovirus-from-b-c-oysters-public-health-agency-says/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
Naples, Fla. — Edward Z. Menkin, a longtime defense attorney in Syracuse, died early Thursday morning.
He was with his wife Laurie in Naples, Florida when he died, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick confirmed Thursday night. He was 78.
Menkin and Fitzpatrick famously faced off in the first Robert Neulander murder trial in 2015. Menkin represented Neulander who was eventually convicted twice for his wife’s 2012 murder.
“A true warrior for his clients, rich and poor,” Fitzpatrick said. “A master of the English language. I will miss him dearly.”
Menkin, born and raised in the Bronx, earned his law degree from Syracuse University.
After passing the bar, he was hired by the State University of New York in 1977 as assistant counsel in Albany.
In 1978, Menkin returned to Syracuse to join the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office as an ADA, where he handled criminal appeals, grand juries, justice court matters and felony trials.
Two years later, Menkin left the DA’s office to start his own practice in Syracuse focusing on criminal litigation and personal injury matters. He has also represented several doctors and attorneys in cases involving professional discipline and licensing matters.
He served as a special prosecutor for Onondaga County from 1991 to 1994, and he chaired the 5th Judicial District Attorney Grievance Committee from 1992 to 1998 and since 2004.
Menkin also worked as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University and Cornell University, and as an assistant professor at Upstate Medical Center.
Menkin’s daughter also wrote about his death in a Facebook post Thursday night.
“It is with profound sadness and a broken heart that I share the passing of my Dad Ed Menkin,” she wrote in the post. “Our hearts are heavy today. He touched so many lives and helped so many people and he was fond of saying so and so was the greatest. No Dad, you were the Greatest and I will miss you and think of you every day.”
Staff writer James McClendon covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach him at 914-204-2815 or jmcclendon@syracuse.com. | https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/04/longtime-syracuse-defense-lawyer-ed-menkin-dies-at-78.html | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
Bruce Willis is being showered with love and support after being diagnosed with aphasia. Some of the 67-year-old actor's closest colleagues and friends -- from Haley Joel Osment, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sylvester Stallone to John Travolta, Lucy Liu and Maria Shriver -- posted touching tributes and throwback photos wishing him the best following his long and successful career in Hollywood.
Osment, the former child star who appeared opposite Willis in the 1999 thriller The Sixth Sense, said he struggled to find the right words for someone he's looked up to for so long, before paying homage to the actor on Instagram.
"He's a true legend who has enriched all of our lives with a singular career that spans nearly half a century," Osment wrote in part. "I am so grateful for what I got to witness firsthand, and for the enormous body of work he built for us to enjoy for years and years to come. I just wanted to express the respect and deep admiration I have for Bruce and his family as they move forward with the courage and high spirits that have always defined them."
M. Night Shyamalan, who directed The Sixth Sense, took to Twitter to send Willis "all my love and respect." He added, "I know his wonderful family is surrounding him with support and strength. He will always be that hero on that poster on my wall as [a] kid."
Hopkins on Instagram wrote, "Working with you was a special time in my life. My love and prayers are with you and your family."
Travolta shared, "Bruce and I became good friends when we shared 2 of our biggest hits together, Pulp Fiction and Look Who’s Talking. Years later he said to me, 'John, I just want you to know that when something good happens to you I feel like it’s happening to me.' That’s how generous a soul he is. I love you Bruce."
Sarah Paulson, who starred alongside Willis in Glass, commented on Rumer Willis' Instagram post, saying, "He was such an incredible acting partner to me, and is the loveliest, most gentle and hilarious man. He reigns supreme in my book."
Willis' wife, Emma, ex-wife, Demi Moore, and daughters, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn, shared a joint statement on his recent diagnosis with aphasia.
"As a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities," the statement read. "As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him."
The family added, "This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him."
RELATED CONTENT: | https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/bruce-willis-leaves-acting-amid-health-battle-haley-joel-osment-anthony-hopkins-and-more-show-support/603-1e1b82de-97fc-47b0-8ac6-288546979e54 | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Daily 4" game were:
3-0-6-8
(three, zero, six, eight)
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Daily 4" game were:
3-0-6-8
(three, zero, six, eight) | https://www.michigansthumb.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-4-game-17049788.php | 2022-04-01T01:16:58Z |
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UPDATE: Female student in police custody after stabbing incident at Petersfield High
Wednesday, March 30, 2022WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— A female student who was accused of stabbing a schoolmate on the grounds of the Petersfield High School in Westmoreland is now in police custody.
The accused, who is said to be in grade 10, is currently being questioned by detectives at the Savanna-la-mar Police Station in the presence of her parents.
A female student was stabbed on Wednesday morning during an altercation on the school grounds.
READ:�Female student stabbed at Petersfield High
The student, who is also said to be in grade 10, has been treated and released from the hospital.
The injured student is also at the police station in the company of her parents.
Daina Davy
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Ex-minor leaguer ran major league sports betting operation
By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a former minor league pitcher was the ringleader of an illegal sports betting operation in California that used former pro athletes as bookies and active players as clients. Prosecutors said Thursday that Wayne Nix has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to run an illegal gambling operation. They say he used his sports connections to recruit three former Major League Baseball players and a former pro football player as bookies. Clients included an MLB coach who lost $4,000 at one point and a professional football player who lost $245,000. One client wagered $5 million on the Super Bowl. | https://kvia.com/news/2022/03/31/ex-minor-leaguer-ran-major-league-sports-betting-operation/ | 2022-04-01T01:16:57Z |
Which letterman jacket is best?
Letterman jackets, also known as varsity jackets, are a great addition to any closet and fit a range of styles, from classic American to streetwear. They’re also great protection against the cold, and in some cases can be worn while skiing or during other intense outdoor winter activities.
If you’re in the market for a well-made letterman jacket that promises to keep you warm, stylish and comfortable, check out the Stewart & Strauss Original Varsity Letterman.
What to know before you buy a letterman jacket
Fit and cut
Although letterman jackets feature the same general design, there are numerous fits and cuts. If you want something with a modern streetwear look, consider something with a boxy, oversized fit. If you want it to accentuate the width of your shoulders, opt for a cinched waist and a wider shoulder measurement. Or if you’re chasing the traditional look, consider something from a classic brand such as Ralph Lauren.
Level of warmth
Before you purchase a new letterman jacket, consider how much warmth you want it to provide. Although it’s not traditional, you can find puffer letterman jackets with down insulation, such as the quilted bomber from Tommy Hilfiger. If you want something you can wear during the milder months of fall and spring, consider one made from cotton or lightweight wool.
What to look for in a quality letterman jacket
Materials
Regardless of what type of letterman jacket you choose, premium materials are a hallmark of high-quality ones. If you choose a traditional varsity jacket such as the Pro Standard, keep an eye out for genuine leather sleeves and natural wool blends. If you want a puffer, consider jackets with certified animal-cruelty-free down or recycled synthetic insulation.
Quality buttons
Because letterman jackets tend to have buttons instead of a zipper, the quality of the buttons is important. High-quality letterman jackets have strong buttons that securely snap into place with a distinctive sound. Keep your eye out for bonuses, such as interesting contrasting colors or luxurious polished chrome buttons.
How much you can expect to spend on a letterman jacket
As with most clothing, there is a wide range of prices when it comes to letterman jackets. Expect to spend $50-$100 for high-quality affordable jackets and anywhere between $150-$400 for luxury ones.
Letterman jacket FAQ
Should I hang or fold my letterman jacket?
A. We’re often told to avoid hanging wool or folding leather, the two main materials in most varsity jackets — but avoid folding them at all costs. Because the leather is supple and the wool is thick, folding will create creases difficult to remove. To avoid hanger bumps at the end of the shoulder, where the leather starts, get a wooden hanger with large, smooth curves that won’t press against the leather.
What’s the origin of the letterman jacket?
A. They were first worn by Harvard University baseball players in 1865 and were popular with the athletes who wore them throughout the first half of the 20th century. They became a fashion trend in the 1950s, worn by such stars as James Dean and Elvis Presley, and later by Michael Jackson. Japanese fashion designer Nigo recently made the look trendy again.
What’s the best letterman jacket to buy?
Top letterman jacket
Stewart & Strauss Original Varsity Letterman
What you need to know: Boasting thick wool, genuine leather and a traditional slim-fit cut, this is ideal for anyone who wants a high-quality, versatile letterman jacket.
What you’ll love: There are 33 colorways to choose from, and a zip-out lining, lets you lighten the insulation. The cinched waist, which features the same contrasting cuff as the collar and sleeves, is ideal if you want to accentuate the contrast between the size of your waist and shoulders.
What you should consider: Although this jacket provides an excellent value for your money, some wearers felt it was too plain.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top letterman jacket for the money
Pro Club Fleece Varsity Jacket
What you need to know: If you’re looking for a slim varsity jacket with a regular fit and don’t want to shell out a lot of money, look no further than this.
What you’ll love: It features the classic design but uses a comfortable cotton and wool blend for the sleeves instead of the traditional leather. Nonetheless, it maintains the classic silhouette thanks to the ribbed cuffs and outsized seams in the shoulders.
What you should consider: Although it’s quite affordable, the fabric quality is slightly lacking.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Dress Club International Men’s Varsity Letterman Jacket
What you need to know: This jacket features a classic design with a modern fit and is made from the finest materials.
What you’ll love: With thick, soft wool and real leather, it’s durable and well-made, and the blue-and-white striped patches lend it a luxurious sense of classic design. Stylish contrasting cuffs match the collar and waist, and it’s also available for women and children.
What you should consider: Because it’s classic in design and style, there’s not a lot of differentiation.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Ashley Darby is once more having to speak out against claims that her husband of eight years, Michael Darby, is cheating. Ashley and Michael have faced rumors, and truths, about infidelity in their marriage throughout the seasons of The Real Housewives of Potomac.
Ashley has always stood by Michael’s side through it all, and is doing the same this week, after Michael was spotted with a mystery woman over the weekend in South Carolina.
Many fans responded, saying the photo had no context and didn’t prove if Michael was up to no good, but others weren’t as convinced. Ashley had an explanation for the photo, and came to his defense on social media.
Ashley Darby said claims of Michael Darby’s cheating are ‘bogus’
Michael was photographed with a dark-haired woman at a hotel in Columbia, South Carolina, by a RHOP viewer, who took to Reddit to share their evidence.
“What are you doing here without ASHLEY?!” the Reddit user asked.
Another fan asked, “How could he do this to [Ashley]?” and another noticed, “Someone looks none too pleased you’re taking his picture.”
A viewer also said, “Why is he there without Ashley? They just started filming for the new season too… hmm.”
The photo ended up circulating on the internet, causing Ashley to step in and handle the rumors firsthand. She took to her Instagram story to address the photo before it got out of hand.
She denied any shenanigans, stating, “That article is bogus. Michael was at a wedding this weekend, and the people pictured are his friends of over 30 years,” Ashley told her fans and followers on March 28. “Michael and I will always be transparent about what’s happening between us.”
“Leave the fables to Aesop,” she added. Short, sweet, and to the point.
The trust between Ashley and Michael is a work in progress
During an episode of the RHOP After Show last year, Ashley admitted she still has a hard time trusting Michael after past infidelity
“I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I was completely comfortable and felt safe and trusted Michael 100 percent after having Dylan because that previous experience after having Dean, it was hurtful to me, that rather than talk to me about how he was feeling he decided to try to find affection from someone else,” she revealed.
“So while things are a little bit different I still am a little scarred from that, and I am very on guard and aware and always looking for signs that could be leading us going down that road again.”
The couple has been going strong after welcoming their second son Dylan early last year, but they are still having small issues. During Season 6, Ashley opened up about her life as a mother of two, and Michael was called out after criticizing Ashley’s postpartum look.
It was the second time he’s shown this behavior after the couple admitted to suffering from a lack of intimacy after welcoming their eldest son Dean.
Even if viewers criticize her for it, Ashley tries hard to maintain a strong marriage. Michael’s demeanor has put a target on his back with fans, viewers, and the other Housewives. He managed to stay out of the drama last season, but controversies are always lurking around the corner.
The Real Housewives of Potomac is currently on hiatus on Bravo | https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/reality-tv/rhop-ashley-darby-addresses-new-cheating-rumors-against-michael-darby/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:00Z |
Homicide team called to suspicious death in Port Coquitlam
Homicide investigators have been called to Port Coquitlam to look into what they're calling a "suspicious death."
Coquitlam RCMP were called to a home in the 3100 block of Coast Meridian Road in Port Coquitlam Wednesday afternoon, according to a news release from the Lower Mainland's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
IHIT did not provide many details on the nature of the initial call, saying only that frontline Mounties and paramedics had been called to the home for a sudden death, and found a 41-year-old deceased man.
"Parties involved in this altercation are believed to be known to each other," IHIT said in its release.
Homicide investigators were in the area on Thursday completing "priority tasks" and working closely with Coquitlam RCMP, IHIT said.
“Our investigators are in the evidence collecting stages,” said Det. Cpl. Sukhi Dhesi, spokesperson for IHIT, in the release.
“We are working closely with BC Corners Service to gather evidence to determine what happened.”
There is no indication that the suspicious death is related to the ongoing Lower Mainland gang conflict, IHIT said, adding that anyone with information about the incident should call the IHIT information line at 877-551-4448 or email ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
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Russians leave Chornobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
Russian troops handed control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Putin targets enemies at home as his missiles strike Ukraine
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Ontario has 'eliminated all our defences' against COVID subvariant: epidemiologist
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'Obvious attempt to create chaos,' Charest campaign says of fake donation pledges
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First Nations say Pope Francis meeting the beginning of a 'new partnership'
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With federal alcohol tax set to increase, MPs advance bills to rein it in
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Dyson headphones' April Fools? Company says they're real
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Sweet justice: Ringleader of Canada's notorious maple syrup heist must pay more than $9M in fines, top court rules
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a $9 million fine for the thief in a 2012 maple syrup heist. | https://bc.ctvnews.ca/homicide-team-called-to-suspicious-death-in-port-coquitlam-1.5843717 | 2022-04-01T01:17:01Z |
Brokerages using Turvo will gain access to over 227,000 drivers in the FleetOps network
TORONTO, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FleetOps, North America's fastest-growing capacity aggregation and freight matching platform built exclusively for brokers and third-party logistics, is excited to announce its most recent integration with Turvo, provider of the world's leading collaboration application designed for the supply chain. Turvo connects people, systems and organizations allowing shippers, logistics providers, and carriers to unite their supply chains, deliver outstanding customer experiences, collaborate in real-time, and accelerate growth. Through this partnership, Turvo customers will have access to FleetOps' growing network of more than 227,000 drivers.
For freight brokerages using Turvo, this new integration will allow for easy posting of loads, access to quality capacity, onboarding of carriers, and booking of loads directly within the Turvo platform. Additionally, the partnership will give brokers the ability to reduce the number of external applications required to run their business and maintain their current transportation management system (TMS) processes while allowing access to a new subset of carriers interested in hauling their loads. With trucks driving empty 20% of the time, providing automated load matching is more important than ever.
"Turvo's commitment to providing a comprehensive supply chain management solution to its customers is unmatched, and we are excited about this partnership and opportunity to further their efforts," said Chris Atkinson, CEO of FleetOps. "Without this integration, brokers typically resort to unnecessary and time-consuming manual processes such as outbound calling, email blasts, and negotiations. Through this partnership, FleetOps will proactively bring trucking companies to brokers by aggregating capacity across load boards, then provide easy access to this information through Turvo's TMS platform."
"This partnership will be instrumental in saving brokers' time - from easy posting of loads to on-the-spot booking, all within a platform they already use," said Ron Richardson, Chief Revenue Officer, Turvo. "We are constantly looking for ways to streamline processes and offer efficiencies to our customers, and this integration with FleetOps will further support our efforts.
About FleetOps
Founded in 2017, FleetOps is an on-demand freight marketplace that matches freight from brokers to carriers with available capacity. The system does this by leveraging driver Electronic Logging Device data and Artificial Intelligence to improve on existing systems and increase efficiency in trucking.
Currently boasting more than 227,000 drivers available to haul loads, the company has raised more than $8.5 million to date from investors including Resolute Ventures and Inspired Capital. FleetOps has existing partnerships with Convoy, Edge Logistics, FleetComplete, and Loadsmart.
Visit FleetOps.ai to learn more.
LinkedIn: @FleetOps
Twitter, Facebook: @FleetOpsFreight
About Turvo
Turvo provides the world's leading collaboration application designed specifically for the supply chain. Turvo connects people and organizations allowing shippers, logistics providers, and carriers to unite their supply chains, deliver outstanding customer experiences, collaborate in real-time, and accelerate growth. The technology unifies all systems, internal and external, providing one end-to-end solution to execute all operations and analytics while eliminating redundant manual tasks and automating business processes. Turvo's customers include some of the world's largest, Fortune 500 logistics service providers, shippers, and freight brokers. Turvo is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in Dallas, Texas, and Hyderabad, India. (www.turvo.com)
Visit Turvo.com to learn more.
LinkedIn, Facebook: @TurvoInc
Twitter: @Turvo
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE FleetOps | https://www.wrdw.com/prnewswire/2022/03/31/fleetops-announces-integration-partnership-with-turvo-bringing-new-capacity-turvo-transportation-management-system/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:01Z |
Africa's week in pictures: 25-31 March 2022
A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond:
Images subject to copyright.
The US Coast Guard (USCG) announced on March 31 that its Cutter Kimball ship was offloading seizures of cocaine and marijuana collectively worth $223 million on the black market at a port in San Diego, California.The haul contained about 11,300 pounds (5.65 tons) of cocaine and roughly 4,000 pounds (2 tons) of marijuana, the coast guard said.USCG said the drugs were seized in international waters of the Eastern Pacific by crews aboard several Coast Guard cutters, including the Kimball, Legare, and Spencer, and by the Royal Canadian Navy HMCS Yellowknife. Credit: US Coast Guard via Storyful
Meat, dairy, fruit: Canadian market prices are climbing across the board, pushing up grocery bills and forcing some households to find new ways to make ends meet. Food prices rose 7.4 per cent in February from the same month a year earlier, the biggest jump in more than a decade. Beef increased a staggering 16.8 per cent, chicken was up 10.4 per cent and dairy products and eggs rose nearly seven per cent. Soaring food prices have shone a light on rising food insecurity, prompting social justice
As residents woke up to the news that Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk died on Monday, they remembered a man who saved the team from relocation nearly 20 years ago, but whose relationship with the city became complex. Melnyk bought the Sens and their home arena in 2003 for $130 million US when the previous franchise owner, Rod Bryden, went bankrupt. Melnyk put in the offer and reached a deal with creditors after Bryden's deal to reacquire the team was unsuccessful. The team reached its peak i
Quebec City snowboarder Laurie Blouin made it three medals in as many slopestyle World Cup competitions this season, picking up silver at the final event on Sunday in Silvaplana, Switzerland. She scored 90.20 points on her second attempt, placing second to Austria's Anna Gasser (95.40) and in front of Kokomo Murase (87.20) of Japan. Blouin also finished second in the World Cup standings. Three weeks ago, Blouin won slopestyle in Bakuriani, Georgia, after earning bronze at the Snow Rodeo World Cu
Canadians let loose as they watched the men's national team qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jared Spurgeon scored on a give-and-go 1:24 into overtime and the Minnesota Wild recovered to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 and provide Marc-Andre Fleury with a victory in his Minnesota debut Saturday night. Fleury, the three-time Stanley Cup winner who has the fourth-most playoff wins in NHL history, stopped 23 shots for Minnesota, which won its fifth straight game. Kirill Kaprizov scored twice, including a tying goal with 1:03 left in the third period to put the gam
On the latest episode of Hustle Play, Chris Boucher and Thaddeus Young discuss arguments among teammates and coaches after the very public shouting match between Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra & Jimmy Butler. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts or watch on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube.
The Boston Celtics were missing a flurry of starters vs. the Toronto Raptors but showed why they're one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference with a tough, focused and well-executed game at Scotiabank Arena. Albeit in a loss.
It's a little later than usual and at a different venue than originally planned, but Acadia University is all set to host the University Cup men's hockey nationals in Wolfville, N.S., this week. The 2021-22 university hockey season had a COVID shutdown that lasted two months. It caused teams to halt play., USports, the national governing body, pushed back many national tournaments by two weeks, including the University Cup. The event was slated to be held at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. But the
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard said Wednesday that the Quebec government, the Ottawa Senators and Quebecor are exploring the possibility of Ottawa and Quebec City entering a joint bid to host the 2023 world junior men's hockey championship. The tournament, which is scheduled to begin on Boxing Day in Novosibirsk, Russia, but was left without a host city after the International Ice Hockey Federation announced on Feb. 28 that it was withdrawing Russia's privilege to host international hockey
With a couple more silver wrestling medals in hand, Eekeeluak Avalak is already looking forward to future competitions. The 18-year-old from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, is fresh from competing in the Alberta Amateur Wrestling Association's open tournament on March 19 and 20, where he placed second — twice — against older and more experienced wrestlers. "It felt good to be back on the mat, especially having my other teammates in my corner," Avalak said. "[That] made it a lot more enjoyable and a lot
Alpine Canada has named former American assistant coach Karin Harjo the new head coach of the women's alpine team, making her the first-ever woman to lead a World Cup team. "It's not the first thing that I think about, but it is really important," Harjo told CBC Sports about breaking the gender barrier in coaching. "I'm really excited, and it is an honour to be entrusted with this leadership role and to work with such a talented group of athletes." Harjo comes to Alpine Canada from the U.S. Ski
NEW YORK (AP) — K’Andre Miller scored 2:02 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 Sunday. Frank Vatrano had two goals, Alexis Lafrenière had a goal and an assist and Artemi Panarin also scored to help the Rangers win for the fifth time in their last six at home. New York is 9-2-1 in its last 12 at Madison Square Garden. Andrew Copp had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev had 13 saves to improve to 10-9-2 on the season. Rasmus Asplund, Will Butcher, Kyle Okposo and Jeff
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Michael McCarron scored twice and Juuse Saros made 36 saves to lead the Nashville Predators over the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Tuesday night. Tanner Jeannot and Matt Duchene also scored and Mattias Ekholm had three assists for Nashville, winners of two straight. Brady Tkachuk scored and Anton Forsberg made 28 saves for Ottawa, which has lost four of five. Ottawa struck first at 4:53 of the opening period on the power play. With the Senators on a two-man advantage, Tim Stützl
TORONTO — The Eastern Conference-leading Florida Panthers were enough of a motivating factor for Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs. But having the Canadian men's soccer team clinch its first spot in the World Cup since 1986 with a 4-0 win against Jamaica down the road at BMO Field an hour before puck drop provided a neat sporting backdrop to the Maple Leafs' determined 5-2 victory on Sunday. There was a buzz among the 18,939 at Scotiabank Arena before the game, and the Maple Leafs admitte
The Toronto Raptors are no strangers to unusual game conditions, but a fire at Scotiabank Arena delaying their win over the Indiana Pacers was next level. Nurse spoke about his impressions of the building evacuation and pause in the game. Follow our Raptors coverage all season long on Yahoo Sports Canada.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee would ban transgender athletes from participating in female college sports under legislation gaining traction inside the state's GOP-controlled General Assembly. The measure is one of 17 bills that have been introduced this year in Tennessee targeting LGBTQ people — more than any other state in the country, according to civil rights activists. “Even amid one of the most extreme time periods for anti-LGBTQ politics in our country’s history, lawmakers in Tennessee
UPDATE: The Canadian men won qualification to the 2022 World Cup, hammering an outmatched Jamaican side 4-0 on a frigid day at BMO Field. Here's a look at how fans reacted to the win. Jim Crawford says he remembers how surreal it was to be at the 1986 FIFA World Cup — the last time Canada's men's national team made an appearance in soccer's biggest show. Crawford travelled to Mexico that year to watch the team, which lost all its group stage games and didn't even score a goal. But the overmatche
Ilya Mikheyev's speed has impressed since he signed with the Maple Leafs in 2019 but Toronto fans are finally seeing his full potential when the Russian winger combines his fleet of foot with composure in front of the net.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Evgeni Malkin had his 15th career hat trick and added an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins drilled the reeling Detroit Red Wings 11-2 on Sunday night. Sidney Crosby, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeff Carter, Teddy Blueger, Danton Heinen, Brian Boyle and recently acquired Rickard Rakell also scored for the Penguins, who needed less than 30 minutes to take a 6-0 lead on their way to their first 11-goal game in nearly 30 years. Tristan Jarry made 33 saves to win for the sixth time in his last | https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/africas-week-pictures-25-31-005132371.html?src=rss | 2022-04-01T01:17:02Z |
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – For some people, overdraft fees are a frustrating inconvenience. For others, they pose crippling costs. Some lawmakers now want to change how they’re charged altogether.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced legislation called the “Overdraft Protection Act.” The bill includes provisions to cap the amount and number of fees a bank can charge.
“My bill tries to cut down on these unfair and deceptive practices,” the New York Democrat said.
Advocates like Elyse Crawford-Hicks with Americans for Financial Reform say overdraft fees hit low-income families and people of color the hardest.
“Overdraft fees are paid the most by people who can least afford them,” Crawford-Hicks said.
Others say over-drafting is a useful service because it can function like a short-term loan. Paul Kundert is the CEO of UW Credit Union, which recently reduced their overdraft fees and put more limits on how they charge them.
“When prices are fair, we believe consumers do benefit from access to the credit provided by overdraft fees,” Kundert said.
Recently, major banks like Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America have made changes themselves, by reducing their overdraft fees or eliminating them altogether.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, says that demonstrates the legislation is unnecessary.
“The market is naturally, naturally taking care of the issue without government intervention. And we do not need more rules from Washington,” Williams said.
Because banks make billions of dollars in revenue from overdraft fees, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law Todd Zywicki argues the proposed changes would cost consumers.
“We’ll see higher bank fees, we’ll see higher minimum monthly deposits as basically insurance against over-drafting and we will see a loss of access to free checking,” Zywicki said.
Lawmakers like Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., are promising to continue pushing for the reforms.
“How can we perform such an abusive and predatory practice that punishes people simply for being poor?” Pressley said. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/washington-dc-bureau/bill-seeks-to-put-cap-on-overdraft-fees/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:01Z |
The Government has no plans to reintroduce Covid-19 restrictions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Mrl Martin said the Government is guided by public health advice in relation to Covid-19 and he has been in touch with the Chief Medical Officer.
While the BA2 variant is highly transmissible, Mr Martin said it does not appear to be damaging health in the same way as earlier variants.
However, he did acknowledge that the high number of cases is placing intense pressure on the healthcare systems.
Mr Martin said the country is in a new phase of Covid-19 and the guidance remains to wear a mask.
However, he did not envisage a return to new restrictions.
"Essentially, the current wave because it does not justify the return of economic restrictions, or the restrictions that we had in earlier phases of Covid-19," Mr Martin said. "That's the fundamental advice in public health.'
A new advisory group is being put assembled to guide the Government on Covid-19 going forward, he said.
Earlier today, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation representing nurses in Emergency Departments and overcrowded wards and the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine representing doctors working in Emergency Departments jointly called for Government assistance to curb the spread of COVID-19.
They said higher rates of infection are causing high rates of hospital admission. Hospitals are overwhelmed and staff need real assistance, the organisations outlined.
They noted that over 10,000 patients have been without a bed since the mask mandate was lifted on February 28th and over 1,601 patients are in hospital currently with COVID.
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Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm. | https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/national-news/779262/current-covid-wave-does-not-justify-return-of-public-health-restrictions-taoiseach.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:02Z |
Gov. Spencer J. Cox appoints Judge Diana Hagen to Utah Supreme Court
SALT LAKE CITY — A new judge has been nominated to the Utah Supreme Court. Gov. Spencer Cox named Utah Court of Appeals Judge Diana Hagen as his choice for the highest court in the state. The governor’s Tuesday nomination is subject to confirmation by the Utah...
cachevalleydaily.com | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2556660163623/gov-spencer-j-cox-appoints-judge-diana-hagen-to-utah-supreme-court | 2022-04-01T01:17:02Z |
TEXAS — The extent of the drought in Texas is the worst it's been in almost a decade, and reversing it won't be easy.
With so much parched ground across the state, just about every crop this growing season will feel the effects.
"Drought has huge consequences across all levels of agriculture," said Vanessa Corriher-Olson, extension forage specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife. "Cotton, corn, you know, any of our crops in the state of Texas are going to be negatively impacted by drought."
In early March, data from the US Drought Monitor showed that more than 89 percent of Texas was covered in "Moderate Drought" or worse, the most in nine years.
Shortly afterward, "Exceptional Drought" (the highest on the monitor's scale) was declared in and around Coryell County, which as of March 31 still remains. The lack of rain, which has stretched over several months, can be partially traced to climate patterns.
"A large contributor to that was La Nina," said Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. "When we get a La Nina in the Pacific, it tends to be dry in Texas during the wintertime, but usually not this dry."
With the first three months of 2022 now in the books, much of Central Texas and the Brazos Valley are running five to six inches of rain behind normal levels.
Drought isn't a new challenge for Texas farmers and producers, and most of them have methods for making the most of a bad situation.
"They're very familiar with what to expect or how to anticipate or how to respond within their production systems to drought," said Corriher-Olson.
Still, there's only so much that can be done to ease the dry conditions. Farmers are already having to deal with the high prices of seeds and fertilizer. If the drought causes further losses of crops, you can expect goods at the store to see another price hike.
"More inputs, the greater cost to the farmer, is going to, to come down to a greater cost to the consumer as well," said Corriher-Olson.
Even if farmers have the fertilizer they need, it may not work as effectively as they'd like. Fertilizer functions best when there is a good amount of soil moisture to transport the nutrients.
If there's any good news, we're not too far from the most favorable time for rain on the calendar.
"Hopefully we'll get some rain during the wet periods of May and June," said Nielsen-Gammon. "Those are climatologically the wettest months of the year. And by that time the effect of La Nina tends to wear off."
Until then, we'll take all the rain we can get. | https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/texas-drought-at-nine-year-high-concerns-grow-for-agriculture | 2022-04-01T01:17:03Z |
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Cue Health Inc.: Gallagher John E (Chief Financial Officer) Paid for shares or tax with 12,511 @ Avg Price: $6.99 (Form4)
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0001628945-22-000035 | https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/03/26388632/cue-health-inc-gallagher-john-e-chief-financial-officer-paid-for-shares-or-tax-with-12-511-avg-price | 2022-04-01T01:17:03Z |
Tallahassee, Fla. — A federal judge struck down portions of a Florida election law passed last year, saying in a ruling Thursday that the Republican-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters.
The law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods — changes that made it more difficult for Black voters who, overall, have more socioeconomic disadvantages than white voters, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his ruling.
“For the past 20 years, the majority in the Florida Legislature has attacked the voting rights of its Black constituents,” Walker wrote. Given that history, he said, some future election law changes should be subject to court approval.
Florida’s Republican-led legislature joined several others around the country in passing election reforms after Republican former President Donald Trump made unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Democrats have called such reforms a partisan attempt to keep some voters from the ballot box.
“It was only designed to fuel the narrative around the big lie and that the election was stolen from Trump,” Democratic state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, who is Black, said in a phone interview after the ruling was issued. “What we absolutely can’t have is a system that, I almost feel like, is separate and unequal. Making it harder for Black people to vote is unconstitutional.”
Democratic state Rep. Ramon Alexander said he and others argued before the bill passed that it would disproportionally affect voters of color, and he is glad Walker agreed.
“Florida has a long history of discrimination at the ballot box, and (the bill) was just another roadblock put in front of Black people trying to cast a legal vote,” said Alexander, who is Black.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made the election bill a priority, said the state will appeal Walker’s decision and win.
“In front of certain district judges, we know we will lose no matter what because they are not going to follow the law,” DeSantis said at a news conference in West Palm Beach. He did not say specifically why he believes the ruling is incorrect.
Upon appeal, the case would go to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, which is seen as being more conservative.
Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley, who sponsored the bill, didn’t immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment.
Much of the debate focused on vote-by-mail ballots and how they are collected and returned. Walker overturned a provision of the law limiting when people could use a drop box to submit their ballot, along with a section prohibiting anyone from engaging with people waiting to vote. Walker said the latter provision “discourages groups who give food, water, and other forms of encouragement to voters waiting in long lines from continuing to do so.”
“One way, then, to measure whether this provision will have a disparate impact on Black or Latino voters is to determine whether Black and Latino voters are disproportionately likely to wait in line to vote,” said Walker, citing testimony that showed that to indeed be the case.
Walker, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, also overturned a provision in the law putting new restrictions on groups that register voters, including requiring that people working to register voters submit their names and permanent addresses to the state.
Walker ordered that for the next 10 years, any attempt by the Legislature to write new laws on the issues he overturned will need court approval.
“Floridians have been forced to live under a law that violates their rights on multiple fronts for over a year,” he wrote. “Without preclearance, Florida could continue to enact such laws, replacing them every legislative session if courts view them with skepticism. Such a scheme makes a mockery of the rule of law.” | https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2022/04/judge-strikes-down-parts-of-florida-election-law-cites-race.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:04Z |
Shina Biblow always knew she would have to have open heart surgery one day, she just never thought it would be when she was four months pregnant with her second child.
“He’s here and he’s healthy and growing. It’s a miracle,” said Biblow of the family’s latest addition, a healthy baby boy named Merritt, born Jan. 26.
Unlike her first textbook pregnancy a few years before with their son Morris, Shina developed health problems almost immediately that would require complex, high-risk heart surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital when she was just 15 weeks pregnant.
“There was a 40 per cent risk of losing the baby. It was very hard … (but if ) there’s no me, then there’s no baby so we had to do what we had to do.”
In a sense, Biblow’s story began 32 years ago. She was born with a narrowing of her aortic valve, the main blood vessel leaving the heart. She required surgery for this as an infant.
The condition meant that when she turned 18, she became part of the Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Clinic (PACH) at St. Paul’s Hospital, a multidisciplinary team that follows adults born with heart disease.
Feeling unwell from the pregnancy’s start
Apart from being unable to do certain intense sports, Biblow led a normal life, including an uneventful first pregnancy and birth of their oldest son, Morris.
This second pregnancy was different.
From the get-go, she felt unwell. “I was nauseous and tired, my heart was racing and I got what I call hot flashes,” she says. “I just assumed they were caused by a surge of pregnancy hormones.”
She received care at Cariboo Memorial Hospital’s emergency department.
“That’s when they discovered I was going into heart failure.”
Doctors sent an urgent referral to the highly specialized Cardiac Obstetrics Clinic (COB) at St. Paul’s Hospital. She received tests that revealed episodes of sudden extremely rapid heart rhythms.
Calf cramps followed – also a pregnancy symptom, she figured. When she developed itchy red spots on her body, she became alarmed.
“Things just kept getting worse,” Shina said.
Breathing was so hard she could not even care for her toddler. When she called a PACH Clinic nurse, she exploded into fits of coughing.
Dr. Marla Kiess, St. Paul’s cardiologist and COB founder, followed Biblow by Zoom to monitor the heart palpitations, shortness of breath and other symptoms.
A soaring heart rate
As they persisted, Dr. Kiess directed the local hospital to airlift her for more advanced care to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops on August 12. There, her heart rate soared to 190 beats/minute. A normal rate is 60 to 100.
Tests found growths on her aortic valve, suggesting a bacterial infection: serious in any patient, more so in a pregnant woman.
“The infection in the valve was totally unexpected and unpredictable,” recalls Dr. Kiess.
She and her team arranged for Biblow’s transfer to St. Paul’s, the only centre in British Columbia for complex cardiac-obstetrics cases like this.
Surgery poses big risk to fetus
Shortly after arriving on August 15, St. Paul’s cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Jamil Bashir told Biblow she’d need open-heart surgery to replace the infected aortic valve.
“It was scary,” says Biblow. “But it needed to be done if we wanted to keep the baby and save my life.”
Risks were high. “That point in gestation is a critical time in the baby’s evolution because many organs are developing,” says Dr. Kiess.
A complex case requires a large care team
In surgery, Biblow would be supported by a heart-lung bypass machine, which would reduce blood flow to the fetus and risk organ malformation. Alarmingly, it would bring a 40 per cent risk of the baby dying, says Dr. Kiess.
Because of the case’s complexity, her care team began a huge amount of planning to anticipate potential responses to problems in both mom and baby. It included nurses and doctors from cardiology, anesthesia, surgery, infectious diseases, the ICU, and obstetrics. Zoom proved invaluable.
Her husband Tyson, a millwright at Gibraltar Mine, rushed to Vancouver to be with his wife, narrowly getting over the Coquihalla pass before it was closed due to last summer’s wildfires.
Delicate balance around medication
On August 18, Dr. Bashir and his team successfully implanted a mechanical aortic valve to replace the severely infected one. The good news was, a mechanical valve (unlike a cadaver valve) would never have to be replaced. The bad news was, it increased Biblow’s risk of clotting. She would need blood thinners for the rest of her life.
Those drugs brought risks to the fetus, so Dr. Anna Rahmani and Dr. Tony Wan from the St. Paul’s Thrombosis clinic were also part of her care.
St. Paul’s teams then followed her post-surgery to monitor her with the new valve and pregnancy.
The birth approaches
As the delivery date approached, her team wanted her in Vancouver near the hospital several weeks before, to tend to her cardiac and obstetrical needs. Registered nurse Karen Sandhu, complex care coordinator for maternity, and Amy Graham, COB RN, oversaw the many logistics around that chapter, as did PACH/COB social worker Kassandra Maxwell.
“I coordinated with her St. Paul’s obstetrician, Dr. Nancy Matinko and the virtual visits Shina would have with her,” says Sandhu.
More planning ensued, especially around her anticoagulants. They had to stop in advance because of the risk of a severe bleed giving birth. Yet she couldn’t be off them for more than 24 hours because of clotting risks.
Amid it all, Merritt arrived on January 24 at 38 weeks’ gestation, weighing six pounds, four ounces. “With all the meds I was on, they were expecting a smaller baby,” Biblow says proudly. He is healthy and well.
The family is now home on their ranch, enjoying life at Miocene.
Shina has regular virtual visits with St. Paul’s teams, including COB and the Thrombosis Clinic.
She and her husband Tyson are grateful to St. Paul’s expansive team of doctors, nurses, social workers and many others who helped her and her baby survive risky cardiac surgery and see her through delivery and post-partum care.
“Even though everything happening was very scary and we didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, our faith and prayers from our family and friends, and the care from the team at St. Paul’s is what got us through the experience.”
With files from Providence Health Care
Read More: Chilcotin photographer’s Great Bear Rainforest images featured in National Geographic
Do you have a comment about this story? email:
editor@wltribune.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. | https://www.abbynews.com/news/cariboo-family-settling-into-everyday-life-after-mom-has-open-heart-surgery-during-pregnancy/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:04Z |
Could the Golden Globes be getting an overhaul?
That's the plan proposed by Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who formerly served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who hold the annual Oscars. Isaacs now serves as a partner and senior advisor at Pacific Coast Entertainment, who shared their proposal to the members of the Globes' governing body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, exclusively with ET on Thursday.
The proposal reads in part, "Over the last year, many watched the headlines that have dramatically impacted the reputation and stature of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA or Association), its members, and the Golden Globe Awards. A year into the Association's public commitment to transform, and despite the actions taken toward that goal, the boycotts continue, and the public image of the HFPA and Golden Globe Awards remains tarnished."
"As partners, we would take the additional steps needed to reassure the world that the processes by which nominees are considered and awardees selected adhere to the highest ethical standards," the letter continues. "Further, we would deepen and accelerate the work you began more than a year ago, adding more credibility in establishing a more authentic transformation and a willingness to encompass greater diversity and inclusion. This evolution goes far beyond a single award show on a single night."
Prior to issuing an invitation to all HFPA members to hear more about PCE's proposal at an upcoming dinner, the letter concludes, "At PCE, our goal is to build a robust business partnership with the HFPA that will benefit all members of the HFPA while restoring the brand and reputation of the Golden Globes. Our plan includes: creating an endowment to support the foreign correspondents; consummating strategic relationships for brand and community impact; and, creating a path for key industry partners to re-engage with the HFPA."
Following a year of controversy over the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's membership and nominations process, the 2022 Golden Globes were not televised and were held without an audience or red carpet. The HFPA announced just days ahead of the scheduled ceremony that only "select members and grantees" of the governing body would be in attendance, under strict COVID protocols.
During the ceremony, Senior Vice President of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau Kyle Bowser unveiled the Reimagine Coalition, a joint five-year initiative to increase diversity, equity and inclusion across the global entertainment industry.
According to the initiative, each year, the HFPA and NAACP "will collaborate on, fund, and support a series of trailblazing initiatives, with the overall goals of ensuring visibility of projects from artists of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds; increasing diverse representation in the industry; and building pathways to inclusion for young artists and journalists of color."
RELATED CONTENT: | https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/former-academy-president-cheryl-boone-isaacs-proposes-new-plan-for-golden-globes-exclusive/603-50ecba86-4efb-4b7f-ab21-8027458e85a7 | 2022-04-01T01:17:04Z |
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5 Double Play" game were:
02-06-11-25-32
(two, six, eleven, twenty-five, thirty-two)
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5 Double Play" game were:
02-06-11-25-32
(two, six, eleven, twenty-five, thirty-two) | https://www.michigansthumb.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Fantasy-5-Double-Play-17049787.php | 2022-04-01T01:17:04Z |
US$1m investment to strengthen social protection system
Wednesday, March 30, 2022Three�United Nations(UN) agencies and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security�(MLSS) launched a new effort to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on the most�vulnerable and enhance Jamaica's social protection system to better respond to�future shocks.�
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations�Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the
World Food Programme (WFP) will be implementing the US $1.1 million joint�programme “Modernisation of the Social Protection Systems in Jamaica: Towards�an Adaptive, Shock Responsive, Inclusive System”.
The joint programme will introduce tools to better identify persons who face acute socio-economic challenges due to major shocks, such as pandemics and disasters, and strengthen the mechanisms and systems utilised by the Government to provide support to beneficiaries. A key innovation will be the piloting of electronic payments to enable more efficient and faster payments, with an emphasis on payments for persons with disabilities.�
One of the major benefits of the programme is that it will provide the most vulnerable groups, including children in poor households and persons living with disabilities, with increased access to shock responsive social protection programmes. In so doing, the programme will be more responsive to the needs of men and women, thereby narrowing the inequalities between them.�
“We are confident that this joint programme will help enhance�Jamaica's 'rainy day' protection, especially for female-headed households and�women working in the informal sector, and families with children and people�with disabilities,” said Dr Garry Conille, United Nations Resident Coordinator,
speaking at the launch event.
“We are proud to be a launching a programme that will see�Jamaica developing more robust shock responsive social protection and�increasing its capacity to activate rapid responses targeting the most�vulnerable groups affected by COVID-19 and other shocks,” he continued.�
In 2021, UNICEF supported the provision of cash transfers to�approximately 3,000 households comprising children with disabilities, as well�as pregnant and lactating mothers, as part of the COVID 19 emergency response.�Similarly, between December 2021 and March 2022, the MLSS and WFP provided cash�transfers to households impacted by COVID-19.
This programme piloted the use of digital solutions for�beneficiaries to receive their cash assistance and supported increased�accountability. Lessons learned from this programme are already being used to�scale-up a government programme through the same electronic delivery mechanism
and will inform joint programme activities.
“Undoubtedly, this joint programme will offer no less than positive results for Jamaica, especially at this time, when the country is rebounding and recovering stronger from the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Karl Samuda, Minister of Labour and Social Security. “Today's launch marks another important milestone in accelerating our efforts to become a more inclusive and socially adaptable society.”
The joint programme is funded through the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Grant Funding initiative. It is part of a wide set of interventions under the Joint UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Fund that are designed to support Jamaica's achievement of targets in the national development plan VISION 2030 and several SDGs.
Globally, evidence shows that vulnerable groups are�disproportionately bearing the burden of the health and socio-economic impacts�of the COVID-19 crisis, particularly women and persons living in poverty. A survey conducted recently by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) and UNICEF revealed the difficult realities faced by Jamaican families in coping with the impact of COVID-19.
The findings showed that 80 per cent of households reported a reduction in income during the pandemic, with significantly greater loss for families in the lower socio-economic brackets. The survey also found that only 50 per cent of families had enough to support the household's basic needs for a maximum of two weeks. A February 2022 Caribbean Community (Caricom) and WFP Survey found that 57 per cent of respondents had faced job loss or reduced income as a result of the pandemic
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First human challenge study of Covid-19 yields valuable insights about how we get sick
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
It takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet — about the width of a human blood cell — to infect someone with Covid-19.
That’s just one of the findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine.
Challenge studies can be controversial because they involve intentionally giving someone a virus or other pathogen in order to study its effects on the human body. Even with safeguards in place, there’s an element of risk, particularly when studying a new virus.
But they are also hugely valuable for understanding the course of an infection.
“Really, there’s no other type of study where you can do that, because normally, patients only come to your attention if they have developed symptoms, and so you miss all of those preceding days when the infection is brewing,” said lead study author Dr. Christopher Chiu, an infectious disease physician and immunologist at Imperial College London.
Volunteers were carefully screened
The study began in March 2021. The 36 volunteers were between the ages of 18 and 30. They were allowed to participate only if they didn’t have any risk factors for severe Covid-19, such as being overweight, having reduced kidney or liver function, or having any heart, lung or blood problems. They also signed an extensive informed consent form to participate.
To further minimize the risks, researchers conducted the study in phases. The first 10 infected volunteers got the antiviral drug remdesivir to reduce their chances of progressing to severe disease. Researchers also had monoclonal antibodies at the ready in case anyone took a turn for the worse. Ultimately, the remdesivir proved unnecessary, and researchers never had to give anyone antibodies.
The volunteers got a tiny drop of fluid containing the originally detected strain of the virus through a long, thin tube inserted into their nose.
They were medically monitored 24 hours a day and stayed for two weeks in rooms at London’s Royal Free Hospital that had special air flow to keep the virus from escaping.
Half were infected
A total of 18 participants became infected, two of whom never developed symptoms. Among the people who got sick, their illnesses were mild. They had stuffy noses, congestion, sneezing and sore throats.
Most of the study participants who caught Covid-19 — 83% — lost their sense of smell, at least to a degree. Nine couldn’t smell at all.
This now-well-known symptom got better for most people, but six months after the study ended, there’s one person whose sense of smell isn’t back to normal but is improving.
That’s a concern because another recent study found that this loss of smell was tied to changes in the brain.
Chiu says the researchers gave the participants cognitive tests to check their short-term memory and reaction time. They’re still looking at that data, but he thinks those tests “will really be informative.”
None of the study volunteers developed lung involvement in their infections. Chiu thinks this is because they were young and healthy and inoculated with tiny amounts of virus.
Beyond the loss of smell, no other symptoms persisted.
A closer look at infection as it moves through the body
Under these carefully controlled conditions, researchers were able to learn a lot about the virus and how it moves through the body:
- Tiny amounts of virus, about 10 microns — the amount in a single droplet someone sneezes or coughs — can make someone sick.
- Covid-19 has a very short incubation period. It takes about two days after infection for a person to start shedding virus.
- People shed high amounts of virus before they show symptoms (confirming something epidemiologists had figured out).
- On average, the young, healthy study volunteers shed virus for 6½ days, but some shed virus for 12 days.
- Infected people can shed high levels of virus without any symptoms.
- About 40 hours after the virus was introduced, it could be detected in the back of the throat.
- It took about 58 hours for virus to show up on swabs from the nose, where it eventually grew to much higher levels.
- Lateral flow tests, the rapid at-home kind, work really well for detecting when a person is contagious. The study found that these kinds of tests could diagnose infection before 70% to 80% of viable virus had been generated.
Chiu says his study emphasizes a lot of what we already know about Covid-19 infections, not least of which is why it’s so important to cover both your mouth and nose when sick to help protect others.
More challenge studies planned
This challenge study was so successful that Chiu plans to do it again, this time with vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant to study their immune response.
He says his team also plans to continue studying the people who didn’t get sick.
“That’s what’s really interesting,” he said. About half of the study participants never got sick and never developed antibodies, despite getting exactly the same dose of the virus.
Everyone was screened for antibodies to closely related viruses, like the original SARS virus. So it wasn’t cross-protection that kept them safe; it was something else.
“There are lots of other things that help protect us,” Chiu said. “There are barriers in the nose. There are different kinds of proteins and things which are very ancient, primordial, protective systems, and they are likely to have been contributing to them not being infected, and we’re really interested in trying to understand what those are.”
Understanding what other factors may be at play could help us provide more generalized protection to people in case of a future pandemic.
Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who wrote an editorial published alongside the study, said the research offers important information about infection and contagion with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Blood and tissue samples collected for the study will continue to be analyzed for years to come, she said. “I think those are all in the freezer, so to speak, and are being dissected. So I think that should be very powerful.”
In the end, she thinks the study has put many of the fears about human challenge studies to rest and paved the way for others.
“We won’t be doing challenge studies in babies, and we won’t be doing it in, you know, 75-year-old people with chronic lung disease,” she said. But in young, healthy people, “I think these are studies that will be helpful.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://kvia.com/news/2022/03/31/first-human-challenge-study-of-covid-19-yields-valuable-insights-about-how-we-get-sick/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:05Z |
Nevada governor faces violent threats at Vegas restaurant
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) faced violent threats from at least two men who spewed misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and threatened to hang him at a Las Vegas-area restaurant over the weekend.
In a cellphone video obtained and published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a man could be seen briefly putting his arm around Sisolak and asking if he was the governor.
“This is amazing,” the man said. “I can’t tell you what a piece of f—ing shit you are.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Sisolak replied, stepping away.
Sisolak and his wife began to walk away. The first man repeatedly asked Sisolak where his security was, while another man began to yell about a far-right conspiracy theory regarding a medicine that does not help treat the coronavirus.
“Wait till we find all the money that flowed his way,” the second man said. “Yeah, hiding the hydroxychloroquine.”
At the same time, the first man accused Sisolak of being a part of the New World Order, another far-right conspiracy theory with roots in antisemitism, and of working for China. The two men followed the Sisolaks outside as they left the restaurant.
“We should string you up by a lamppost right now,” the second man screamed. “You know what they do to traitors? They hang traitors.”
The Review-Journal reported that the incident appeared to take place at a Mexican restaurant west of the Las Vegas Strip.
In a statement Monday, Sisolak’s campaign spokesperson denounced the violent rhetoric.
“This behavior is unwarranted, racist, and un-Nevadan,” Sisolak campaign spokesperson Reeves Oyster said. “Words have consequences — and the GOP field should be horrified that their rhetoric is encouraging violence. Anything less than a denunciation is condoning this behavior and encouraging it to continue.”
Elected officials at all levels have faced an increase in violent threats in the years since the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdowns and emergency orders shuttered businesses. U.S. Capitol Police have reported exponentially higher threats against members of Congress, and elections officials reported a surge in threats following the 2020 elections.
Governors also have faced an increase in violent threats. Several men were arrested after plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said in 2020 that she and her daughters had received threatening calls. That same year, a Kentucky man was arrested after making violent threats against Gov. Andy Beshear (D).
The Hill has removed its comment section, as there are many other forums for readers to participate in the conversation. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. | https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/596157-nevada-governor-faces-violent-threats-at-vegas-restaurant/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:02Z |
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Which women’s shapewear is best?
Whether you have a special event coming up or just want to look your best for work, you’ll likely feel even more confident with the right women’s shapewear. Shapewear can help you achieve a perfectly smooth silhouette in dresses, skirts, pants and more.
Women’s shapewear features a snug, stretchy material that streamlines your figure. It’s available in many different styles, with some that slim your entire body, while others target specific areas. If you’re looking for shapewear to smooth your stomach, thighs and hips with light control, the Spanx Lightweight Layer Mid-Thigh Shaping Short is a perfect choice.
What to know before you buy women’s shapewear
Style
Women’s shapewear comes in many types and styles. You should pick one that smooths your silhouette while still feeling comfortable. Depending on the design, they can support your chest and buttock while smoothing your stomach, hips and thighs.
- Shaping bodysuits: These bodysuits are the most widely used shapewear. They resemble a one-piece swimsuit and usually have a closure in the crotch, making it easier to use the bathroom. A bodysuit works well underneath shirts, dresses, skirts, pants and more.
- Shaping slips/dresses: These dresses or slips are like a shaping bodysuit, but they feature a hem that hits around the knees. Shaping slips and dresses are only suitable for use under a dress or skirt.
- Shaping tanks/camisoles: These tops look just like a regular tank top or camisole but support your chest and smooth your stomach. They work well under most tops.
- Shaping underwear: These underwear come in many styles, including briefs. They work under nearly any type of bottom, including tight-fitting pants or skirts.
- Shaping shorts and leggings: These shorts or pants help smooth your stomach, hips and thighs. Some shorts-style shapewear end at the knees, while others go all the way to your calves or ankles.
Sizing
Your shapewear won’t have the right effect you want if you don’t get the right size. Wearing a piece that’s too tight can be uncomfortable and cause an uneven line in your clothing. Consult the shapewear sizing chart to determine your proper size. You’ll likely need to measure key areas of your body to determine your sizing, like your bust, waist and hips.
Material
Shapewear material is usually a combination of nylon and spandex. Pieces with more nylon typically offer the most slimming effect. You can find lightweight pieces with nylon/spandex blends, but you may prefer cotton or microfiber shapewear in hot weather.
What to look for in quality women’s shapewear
Control level
Some women’s shapewear pieces offer more control than others, so their slimming or smoothing effect is more obvious.
The most common control level options are:
- Light control: Light control shapewear doesn’t offer as much compression, so it works well for a general slimming effect. It’s also the most comfortable option if you wear shapewear every day.
- Firm control: Firm control shapewear provides more compression, so it’s ideal for smoothing out specific areas of the body.
- Extra-firm control: Extra-firm control shapewear offers the most compression and has pretty dramatic results. It tends to be more uncomfortable than other shapewear, though, so you may want to save it for special occasions.
Color
Most women’s shapewear comes in white, black and nude options. White and nude shapewear is perfect under light clothing because it won’t show through the material. Nude pieces are usually the most invisible option, though. You can find shapewear in some other colors, too, including pink, blue and red.
How much you can expect to spend on women’s shapewear
Women’s shapewear has a wide price range, costing $6-$100. You can usually find shaping underwear and tanks or camisoles for $6-$20, while shaping bodysuits, slips and dresses can cost $20-$60. For extra-firm control or full-body pieces, you will likely pay $60-$100.
Women’s shapewear FAQ
Is shapewear meant for everyday wear?
A. Some people like to wear light control shapewear every day to help them feel more confident in their clothing. If your shapewear is the correct size, you can wear it every day. However, firm- and extra-firm pieces may not be comfortable enough to wear daily.
What’s the best way to clean shapewear?
A. It depends on your shapewear’s materials, so always consult the care label to determine how to wash it. Most pieces require hand-washing and air-drying, but you may find some machine-washable shapewear.
What’s the best women’s shapewear to buy?
Top women’s shapewear
Spanx Lightweight Layer Mid-Thigh Shaping Short
What you need to know: Made by a respected brand in shapewear, these shorts are incredibly comfortable while providing even control.
What you’ll love: They offer light control that feels comfortable for daily wear. They feature compression in the thighs and hips for noticeable smoothing. The material is stretchy, so it moves easily with the body.
What you should consider: If you want a dramatic smoothing effect, these shorts likely won’t offer enough support.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top women’s shapewear for the money
Maidenform Women’s Shapewear Hi-Waist Brief Firm Control
What you need to know: The attractive price tag and comfortable design make this shapewear brief an excellent option. It’s ideal for those who want concentrated support in the stomach and hips.
What you’ll love: It has a two-ply nylon/mesh liner to help smooth and support. It features soft, flexible microfiber that moves with the body. The crotch is made of cotton, so it’s highly breathable and comfortable.
What you should consider: Some users noticed the waistband rolls down on occasion.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Diane & Geordi Fajas Colombiana Reductora Postparto Postpartum Body Shaper
What you need to know: The braless design of this shapewear makes it highly versatile while still providing plenty of control and support for the lower body.
What you’ll love: It features Powernet, a fabric with a highly durable weave. It lifts the butt, smooths the hips and slims the waist. The seams, zipper and lining are undetectable under clothing. It works well for everyday wear and is ideal for postpartum, post-C-section and post-liposuction use.
What you should consider: The sizes can run somewhat small, so it may be challenging to find the right fit.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jennifer Blair writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cbs42.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/shapewear-br/best-womens-shapewear/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:05Z |
DHHS working to monitor COVID in wastewater across the state
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - In the fight against COVID-19, health leaders across Nebraska have been using different tools to track cases and potential surges.
One of the newest methods involves studying wastewater, something experts say is not only useful now but could be even more helpful in the future.
Nebraska is one of the dozens of states participating in a CDC study of wastewater. The state has 13 participating sites across Nebraska that are collecting samples to be used in this research. Some of the longest-studied ones are in Lancaster County.
Samples are collected from wastewater sites and analyzed in labs across the state to track the virus.
“We learned you could find it in your nose, in your nasal pharynx, in saliva,” said Dr. Matthew Donahue, Nebraska’s State Epidemiologist. “You could also find it in sewage.”
The National Wastewater Surveillance System is used as an early detection tool for viruses. Researchers have found that they can track levels of Sars COV-2, the virus that causes COVID in solid waste. The CDC study has shown that wastewater can have traceable levels of the virus in someone, about a week before a test would be able to detect.
“Over multiple sites, it seems to be somewhere between four days and two weeks where we are finding a change in wastewater earlier than were finding it in people,” Dr. Donahue said. “But it’s in that where its greatest use lies, right, we hope that we’re able to use wastewater surveillance as a good gauge as to what’s next in people.”
Dr. Donahue said it’s not an entirely new practice; similar research has previously been done to track viruses like polio, but the work in this study has the potential to be used on other viruses in the future.
“We’re building this wastewater surveillance for Sars-COV 2, for COVID-19,” Dr. Donahue said. “But in this were making partnerships we’re developing a protocol, we’re figuring out the logistics and operations of doing statewide wastewater surveillance and it has multiple potential futures uses.”
The research can also be used to trace those who might be asymptomatic to get a better picture of what case rates might look like in communities even for those who don’t have a recorded positive test.
“People might be excreting virus when they’re mildly symptomatic before they even think to go get a test when we might not know they’re positive otherwise,” Dr. Donahue said. “So it’s in the potential predictability where wastewater can give us a trend before we can see that trend happening in people.”
Much of that research is also done with the help of those at UNL who work in a research capacity already as well as students.
Dr. Donahue said all the funding for the project is coming through the CDC, through at least 2024.
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/01/dhhs-working-monitor-covid-wastewater-across-state/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:07Z |
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End of Covid regulations: What if I'm still worried?
Added: 30.03.2022 18:27 | 31 views | 0 comments
Source: www.livescience.com
What would ending isolation rules in England mean for people who are worried about getting Covid?
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Contact us | http://usweekly.com/news/12/16010/End-of-Covid-regulations-What-if-Im-still-worried.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:07Z |
Green Hell VR releases next week on April 7 on Meta Quest 2, with the PC VR version slightly delayed until May following recent feedback.
In what’s become a slew of recent announcements, survival game Green Hell is the latest title to announce a very imminent and sudden release date.
We knew that the game was slated to release in the first half of the year, but we weren’t expecting something so soon. More notably, the PC VR version has been delayed and the Quest version will release first.
Alongside the Quest release date, there’s also a new trailer for that version of the game, embedded above, featuring footage exclusively from the Quest 2 port. While we had seen some snippets of Quest footage, this is the best look at that version of the game yet. It’s certainly not as crisp and detailed as the PC VR version, but it also doesn’t seem as bad as it could be. That being said, we’ll reserve our judgement until the full release next week.
Hello Adventurers! 👋
It’s OFFICIAL! 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘝𝘙: 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 is 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐋 𝟕𝐭𝐡 on Meta Quest 2! 🥳🥳🥳
𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐖 👇👇👇https://t.co/L7byKdREaZ#gamedev #survival #crafting #metaquest2 #quest #metaverse #vr pic.twitter.com/nmD4ZkuEyO
— Green Hell VR 🌴🐆 (@GreenHellVR) March 31, 2022
Back in February, Green Hell VR presented a Steam Next Fest demo for PC VR players. While we mostly enjoyed the (limited) gameplay available in the demo, we experienced regular judders, pop-in and performance issues despite running the demo on a 3070 Ti on medium settings. This was a pretty common occurrence, with many other players reporting similar issues.
Because of that, developers Incuvo made the decision to delay the PC VR release to May. “To ensure the best possible experience for all Steam VR users, we decided to push back the PC VR version a little bit to allow us to implement the valuable feedback we got from the demo earlier this year,” said Incuvo CEO Andrzej Wychowaniec in a prepared statement.
Green Hell VR is available to pre-order on Meta Quest 2 now, with a 10% discount until release. Original Quest headsets are not supported, and the PC VR release will follow in May. | https://uploadvr.com/green-hell-vr-quest-release/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:07Z |
Clayton Echard and Susie Evans revealed that she “couldn’t get past” the cameras and struggled to open up while being filmed.
Susie was so uncomfortable during the process that she was hesitant to even kiss Clayton onscreen two months in.
The latest Bachelor couple got real about how the show impacted their relationship and the most difficult part about being filmed.
Susie Evans ‘couldn’t get past’ the cameras on The Bachelor
Clayton and Susie took on another joint interview, and they did not hold back on the weirdest and hardest parts of filming the show.
Despite defending The Bachelor from claims that the show was scripted, the pair did admit that the cameras brought their own challenges.
“I couldn’t get past it,” Susie told Living 757. “I remember he said something to me about ‘Oh I feel like you’re, you know, pulling back or you keep putting distance between us or something,’ and I was like this is so weird, like he just kissed me and there are like three people around.”
“Two months in and she still had issues with kissing me on camera,” Clayton jumped in to add.
Susie continued on to say that it was difficult to open up knowing that both the people in the room and viewers would be able to watch it back. The former contestant also revealed that she never got used to the cameras and continued to express her discomfort to Clayton throughout the season.
Clayton Echard revealed his reaction to being filmed on The Bachelor
Clayton himself also experienced a reaction to the cameras and to being filmed, although he appeared to be more used to the setup from his previous time on Michelle Young’s Season of The Bachelorette.
Clayton recalled seeing a cameraman smiling while filming him and being sent into a thought spiral of wondering if he’d just said, “something stupid.”
It turned out that the star’s concerns weren’t entirely unwarranted as he was hit by backlash from fans and his contestants alike all season long.
The two did move on to lighter topics for the rest of the interview, stating that they are currently just getting used to living together and enjoying their time. Clayton joked that he hadn’t expected how many water bottles Susie would leave around the house.
The pair also gushed about meeting one another’s families and being able to openly be together around their new city.
The Bachelor is currently on hiatus. | https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/reality-tv/susie-evans-had-issues-with-kissing-clayton-echard-on-camera/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:08Z |
Hundreds of norovirus cases now linked to B.C. oysters, PHAC says
The norovirus outbreak involving raw oysters harvested in B.C. has infected almost 300 people, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced Thursday.
The agency says as of Wednesday, there had been 279 cases of norovirus linked to B.C. oysters, with the vast majority of those cases (262) found in B.C. residents.
An additional 15 cases have been confirmed in Ontario, as well as one each in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
According to the PHAC, recalls of affected oysters were issued on Feb. 18, March 20, March 23 and March 27.
Those last three recalls came after Vancouver Coastal Health issued a public warning on March 18, noting a rise in reported gastrointestinal illness linked to B.C. oysters. At that time, the health authority said more than 50 cases had been reported, though not all had been confirmed to be norovirus.
Vancouver Coastal Health also noted that several oyster-harvesting areas had been closed as a result of the surge in norovirus cases.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is continuing its investigation, and more products may be recalled, according to the PHAC.
"Do not eat, use, sell, or serve the recalled oysters," the agency's statement reads.
"Also, avoid eating raw or undercooked oysters to reduce your risk of foodborne illness and follow proper food handling practices. Cook oysters to an internal temperature of 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit) for a minimum of 90 seconds."
Symptoms of norovirus include nausea, cramping, chills, fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and generally emerge between 12 and 48 hours after exposure. The symptoms typically come on quite suddenly and most people feel better within a day or two.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Russians leave Chornobyl as fighting rages elsewhere
Russian troops handed control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant back to the Ukrainians and began leaving the heavily contaminated site more than a month after taking it over, authorities said Thursday, as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Putin targets enemies at home as his missiles strike Ukraine
Long before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the mass detentions of Russian peace protesters, the Kremlin was already stifling dissent with choking bureaucracy. Throughout 2021, the Kremlin tightened the screws on its opponents – including supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists.
Ontario has 'eliminated all our defences' against COVID subvariant: epidemiologist
An infectious disease expert says 'there's no doubt' a sixth wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across Ontario, and it's being driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant at the same time restrictions have been lifted across the province.
NACI guidance on fourth dose of COVID vaccine expected soon: PHAC
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is expected to release guidance on fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine in early April as public health indicators tick up across Canada.
'Obvious attempt to create chaos,' Charest campaign says of fake donation pledges
Jean Charest's team says it is aware that fake donation pledges were made to the Conservative leadership candidate's campaign, calling the situation 'an obvious attempt to create chaos.'
First Nations say Pope Francis meeting the beginning of a 'new partnership'
Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Chief Gerald Antoine says he believes a meeting held with Pope Francis at the Vatican will be the beginning of a 'new partnership' between Indigenous groups and the Catholic Church in working towards reconciliation.
With federal alcohol tax set to increase, MPs advance bills to rein it in
The Conservative Party and the New Democrats are each focusing new private members' bills on the rising cost of beverages – both alcoholic drinks and low-alcohol beer, specifically.
Dyson headphones' April Fools? Company says they're real
Dyson, the company famous for its bagless vacuum cleaners and pricey hair dryers, has revealed its first set of noise-cancelling headphones that come paired with a unique feature, air purifiers.
Sweet justice: Ringleader of Canada's notorious maple syrup heist must pay more than $9M in fines, top court rules
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a $9 million fine for the thief in a 2012 maple syrup heist. | https://bc.ctvnews.ca/hundreds-of-norovirus-cases-now-linked-to-b-c-oysters-phac-says-1.5843555 | 2022-04-01T01:17:08Z |
Tallangatta League netball gains, losses, prospects and predictions for 2022
BARNAWARTHA
Coach: Chloe Butters.
2021: 9th.
Gains: Sharna Thomas, Kirsten Hobart, Grace Clayton, Meg Walton, Kathy Mara, Chloe Carkeek.
Losses: Joanne Withers, Chloe Benson, Ellie Owen, Ashleigh Moore, Jaylah Daunt.
Prospects: There will be plenty of opportunities for the Tigers' young talent.
Coaches comment: "All teams are looking quick and tall, which is a great new look. I strongly believe we will be tough all round this season."
Prediction: 8th.
BEECHWORTH
Coach: Bailey Lang.
2021: 8th.
Gains: Aliza Robinson, Emma Stephens.
Losses: Eadie Pfahlert, Coby Brock.
Prospects: Made big improvements last year and will look to build on that.
Club comment: "We should see A-grade improve in their position from last year with a stronger team going into the new season."
Prediction: 6th.
CHILTERN
Coach: Lee Brookes.
2021: 6th.
Gains: Teagan Halligan, Mel Davies.
Losses: Rosie Hymus, Hannah Thomas.
Prospects: Finding their feet again with a new list. Juniors at the forefront of opportunities.
Coaches comment: "We're a new squad again and we're not trying to over achieve, we just want to get in there and play some netball."
Prediction: 9th.
DEDERANG/MT BEAUTY
Coach: Justine Goonan.
2021: 11th.
Gains: Alysha DeKoeyer, Georgie McCallum, Tessa Walsh, Stacey Browne, Kelli Prime, Jayde Romans.
Losses: Maddison Creamer, Alana Goznik.
Prospects: Off-season recruiting blitz could see the Bombers become the biggest improvers.
Coaches comment: "We're excited by the interest we've had in our pre-season for 2022 and look forward to building on the last couple of years as a club."
Prediction: 7th.
KIEWA SANDY-CREEK
Coach: Kath Evans.
2021: Minor premiers.
Gains: Ava Kennett, Jess Barton, Jorja Johnson, Katie Magee, Nellie Taylor, Perri Baldwin, Holly Bartel, Lisa McInerney, Lara Cassidy, Summer Cassidy, Laura Cook, Lauren Coyle, Teleisha Larkin.
Losses: Ellen Cook, Jess Cook,Alissa Donaldson, Ash Birrell, Deb McDonald, Kristy Heffernan, Megan Adams, Chloe Breewel, Jess Madew, Lou Harrington, Megan Moyle, Molly Breewel.
Prospects: Despite several changes, the Hawks' strong presence will definitely still be felt.
Coaches comment: "There's some pretty strong players running around in the TDNA and we're looking forward to some good competitive netball."
Prediction: 2nd.
MITTA UNITED
Coach: Gabrielle Gray.
2021: 3rd.
Prospects: Have remained consistent since 2019 and will be vying for finals.
Coaches comment: Could not be contacted.
Prediction: 5th.
RUTHERGLEN
Coach: Bridget McAnanly.
2021: 10th.
Gains: Lexie Shannon, Sophie Anderson, Demi Shale, Stella Morrison, Matilda Poupa.
Losses: Brianna Renshaw, Lucy Hughes, Bree Smith, Bindi Haywood, Rebecca Cooper.
Prospects: New coach McAnanly adds experience to an otherwise young side.
Coaches comment: "We've got a lot of young players, so it's going to be quite enjoyable helping them progress. We're all hoping to get through a whole season and remain positive."
Prediction: 11th.
TALLANGATTA
Coach: To be confirmed.
2021: 2nd.
Gains: Lilly McGrath, Heidi Collins, Kate Worsteling, Renee Page, Olivia Lamb.
Losses: Rebekah Ohlin, Tess Grimmond, Maddi Mason, Kylie Fulford, Allie Harding.
Prospects: Were unlucky not to have a shot at finals last season and will remain determined.
Coaches comment: "We'd love to see the season out to see where we really stand."
Prediction: 3rd.
THURGOONA
Coach: Kayla Robertson.
2021: 5th.
Gains: Kimberlee Murphy, Brylee Thompson, Eva Medcraft, Eliza Way.
Losses: Jade McCowan, Annie Bell, Emma Doyle, Jess Strauss, Molly Cleary, Ellie Gunton, Keira Croker.
Prospects: Were the quiet achievers last season and should remain in the mix.
Coaches comment: "I can't wait for the season to commence to build some rivalries on court and friendships off court."
Prediction: 4th.
WAHGUNYAH
Coach: Tania McGill.
2021: 12th.
Gains: 12 new players.
Losses: Lost 22 players.
Prospects: The Lions will use the season to rebuild following a long list of club departures.
Coaches comment: "We're looking forward to our first year of an important rebuild. I'm personally focused on providing a year of development for all of our players and making the season a fun one, with the hope that players get their love for the game back."
Prediction: 12th.
WODONGA SAINTS
Coach: Gina Skinner and Rachel Hansford.
2021: 7th.
Gains: Danielle Jacobson.
Losses: Taylor Morey, Meg Vardy, Keely Heron, Alison Ross.
Prospects: Will be working out new combinations following several key departures.
Coaches comment: "We're looking forward to having a full season. With the new team we're just looking to gel with those girls."
Prediction: 10th.
YACKANDANDAH
Coach: Justine Willis.
2021: 4th.
Gains: Molly Beatty, Caz Frees, Ellie O'Neill, Racquel Stevens, Savannah Methven-Kelley, Justine Willis, several juniors.
Prospects: Roos should pack a punch with former Albury Tiger Willis.
Coaches comment: "We have a great group across the board and everyone has been training really well. Bring on April 2!"
Prediction: 1st.
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- Follow us on Google News | https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/7641907/hawks-are-still-on-the-hunt-but-could-we-see-new-premiers-crowned/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:07Z |
Aphelion Aerospace secures investment from The Mercury Group, Founder Advisors, and Richtr Financial Studio
DENVER, March 31, 2022 /CNW/ -- Aphelion Aerospace, based in Denver, Colorado is establishing itself as a one-stop-shop for low-cost small satellite integration and on-demand launch operations from practically anywhere around the world. Aphelion announced today that it has received significant investment from strategic investors including The Mercury Group, Founder Advisors, and Richtr Financial Studio. These investments are part of Aphelion's Seed round which the company is running in parallel with their equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine.
Aphelion Aerospace announce investment from The Mercury Group of North Carolina and Founder Advisors of Colorado.
Aphelion CEO Miguel Ayala and CTO Matthew Travis indicate that these investments will help them continue pushing forward with the development of their suborbital launch vehicle technology demonstrator. They plan to conduct low-altitude suborbital demonstration launches by the end of the year to prove out their green non-toxic, non-cryogenic propulsion technology in flight.
Based on the caliber and background of their board advisors and investors, it is clear that the Aphelion team is positioning to become a strong player in the space industry. Last year, Aphelion announced that Edward Mango, former Program Manager of the NASA Commercial Crew Transportation Program had joined their board of advisors. Mr. Mango is one of the key NASA leaders behind the success of SpaceX. Aphelion also announced that Kevin Rice, former Director of Business Management at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works had joined their board of advisors. Mr. Rice practically wrote the book on business management for NASA. In addition, Aphelion announced that Geoff Brim, former VP of Product Management at Deutsche Telekom had joined their board of advisors. Mr. Brim evangelized digital transformation, data science, artificial intelligence, and robotics at Deutsche Telekom.
Now come Aphelion's visionary investors. Ben West of The Mercury Group is a US Air Force veteran. Before his years in finance, Ben was an F117A and F16 Crew Chief. He is well aware that military fighter jets use hydrazine in their emergency power units. He knows very well that hydrazine is extremely toxic and thus costly and slow to deal with. He is also aware that other uses of hydrazine include spacecraft propulsion. Hearing that Aphelion had developed a propulsion technology that could essentially replace anything hydrazine powered was music to his ears. Ben feels excited to back Aphelion with investment and plans to continue supporting Aphelion along its journey to bring this new technology to market.
Steven Williams, of Founder Advisors advises Aphelion on market strategy. Along with Steven, the Founder Advisors team provides corporate and business strategy advisory to Aphelion. They are composed of accomplished aerospace and tech entrepreneurs and executives like Steven. Some have spent years in launch vehicle development at companies such as Lockheed Martin. These guys truly understand and value the business model that Aphelion is structuring for bundled small satellite integration and launch services.
James Graham, CEO of Richtr Financial Studio, is an ardent supporter of Aphelion's possibilities. Richtr Financial Studio supports Aphelion with financial and accounting services. They are a powerhouse for startups that are poised for exponential growth.
For more information about Aphelion Aerospace, please visit: https://aphelionaerospace.com
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aphelion-aerospace-secures-investment-from-the-mercury-group-founder-advisors-and-richtr-financial-studio-301515465.html
SOURCE Aphelion Aerospace, Inc.
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2022/31/c3404.html | https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/aphelion-aerospace-secures-investment-mercury-010800025.html?src=rss | 2022-04-01T01:17:08Z |
The House on Thursday passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation.
Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin. Some could save hundreds of dollars annually, and all insured patients would get the benefit of predictable monthly costs for insulin. The bill would not help the uninsured.
But the Affordable Insulin Now Act will serve as a political vehicle to rally Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it into uncomfortable votes ahead of the midterms. For the legislation to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators would have to vote in favor. Democrats acknowledge they don't have an answer for how that's going to happen.
"If 10 Republicans stand between the American people being able to get access to affordable insulin, that's a good question for 10 Republicans to answer," said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a cosponsor of the House bill. "Republicans get diabetes, too. Republicans die from diabetes."
Public opinion polls have consistently shown support across party lines for congressional action to limit drug costs.
But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., complained the legislation is only "a small piece of a larger package around government price controls for prescription drugs." Critics say the bill would raise premiums and fails to target pharmaceutical middlemen seen as contributing to high list prices for insulin.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrats could have a deal on prescription drugs if they drop their bid to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices. "Do Democrats really want to help seniors, or would they rather have the campaign issue?" Grassley said.
The insulin bill, which would take effect in 2023, represents just one provision of a much broader prescription drug package in President Joe Biden's social and climate legislation.
In addition to a similar $35 cap on insulin, the Biden bill would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for a range of drugs, including insulin. It would penalize drugmakers who raise prices faster than inflation and overhaul the Medicare prescription drug benefit to limit out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.
Biden's agenda passed the House only to stall in the Senate because Democrats could not reach consensus. Party leaders haven't abandoned hope of getting the legislation moving again, and preserving its drug pricing curbs largely intact.
The idea of a $35 monthly cost cap for insulin actually has a bipartisan pedigree. The Trump administration had created a voluntary option for Medicare enrollees to get insulin for $35, and the Biden administration continued it.
In the Senate, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are working on a bipartisan insulin bill. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has introduced legislation similar to the House bill, with the support of Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Stung by criticism that Biden's economic policies spur inflation, Democrats are redoubling efforts to show how they'd help people cope with costs. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported a key inflation gauge jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982.
But experts say the House bill would not help uninsured people, who face the highest out-of-pocket costs for insulin. Also, people with diabetes often take other medications as well as insulin. That's done to treat the diabetes itself, along with other serious health conditions often associated with the disease. The House legislation would not help with those costs, either. Collins says she's looking for a way to help uninsured people through her bill.
About 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 6 million to 7 million use insulin to keep their blood sugars under control. It's an old drug, refined and improved over the years, that has seen relentless price increases.
Steep list prices don't reflect the rates insurance plans negotiate with manufacturers. But those list prices are used to calculate cost-sharing amounts that patients owe. Patients who can't afford their insulin reduce or skip doses, a strategy born of desperation, which can lead to serious complications and even death.
Economist Sherry Glied of New York University said the market for insulin is a "total disaster" for many patients, particularly those with skimpy insurance plans or no insurance.
"This will make private insurance for people with diabetes a much more attractive proposition," said Glied. | https://www.kxxv.com/news/national/house-passes-35-a-month-insulin-cap-as-dems-seek-wider-bill | 2022-04-01T01:17:09Z |
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KOHLS Corp: Gass Michelle (Director, Chief Executive Officer) (Form4)
Accepted:
Form Type:
4
Accession Number:
0001127602-22-010687 | https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/03/26388637/kohls-corp-gass-michelle-director-chief-executive-officer-form4 | 2022-04-01T01:17:09Z |
Ukrainian lawmakers visit the U.S. Capitol to ask for help in the war with Russia
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to legislator Anastasia Radina, part of an all-female delegation advocating for more aid and weapons to Ukraine. Because of martial law, the men are serving in the military. Transcript. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:. We got on the line...
www.capradio.org | https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2556661901324/ukrainian-lawmakers-visit-the-u-s-capitol-to-ask-for-help-in-the-war-with-russia | 2022-04-01T01:17:09Z |
New Bill approved by govt will lead to big reforms in judge appointment process - McEntee
A Bill to change the way judges are chosen for appointment in Ireland is due to be published.
The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, today (Thursday March 31) announced the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022 was approved by government earlier this week.
Once enacted, the Bill will lead to the biggest reforms in the way judges are chosen in a quarter of a century.
Speaking about the news, Minister McEntee said, "In the hundred years since the foundation of the state, our judges and our judiciary have served us extremely well. In proposing this legislation, I hope that it will enable the continued appointment of excellence judges which are a cornerstone of a strong, independent judiciary.
“It is vital that we have a very clear process for judicial appointments, one that people understand and have full confidence in."
Proposed new measures will mean all candidates, including serving judges, must undergo new application and interview procedures, and candidates will be required to undergo judicial training or continuous professional development.
The minister continued: "The Bill I am publishing today allows for the establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission of nine members, chaired by the Chief Justice, to replace the current Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.
“All 4 lay members of the Commission will be selected and recommended by the Public Appointments Service.
“This Bill will ensure that anyone who wishes to be considered for appointment to judicial office, including serving judges, will apply to the Commission and undergo the same application and interview processes."
Key changes includes: Only recommended persons are to be appointed, all 4 lay members are to be selected and recommended by the Public Appointments Service, and the publication of a diversity statement on membership reflecting the population.
Speaking about the changes, she said, "In a change from the previously published General Scheme, three persons are to be recommended instead of five, with an additional two recommendations for a second and additional vacancies. This will ensure that we are meeting all of our necessary obligations under EU law.
"I am strongly of the view that a candidate should be recommended only after being interviewed, so I have made this a requirement in the Bill."
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Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm. | https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/national-news/779282/clear-process-on-choosing-judges-is-vital-justice-minister-says-as-new-bill-approved.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:09Z |
N. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. - A Lehigh County man is accused of stealing more than $163,000 from a hardware store while he was employed there.
State Police allege 51-year-old Damian Vansuch stole the money from the True Value on Route 873 in North Whitehall Township between 2015 and 2019.
Police say he was manager when he took the money from store bank deposits.
Investigators say an audit by the owner uncovered a discrepancy in funds.
Vansuch was arrested and charged with theft and receiving stolen property. | https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/police-former-manager-stole-163k-from-store-in-north-whitehall-township/article_1e48b27c-b14d-11ec-b393-f3392769e612.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:10Z |
Albany, N.Y. — Crime, high fuel prices and child care are among the big issues on the negotiating table as the Democrats who control New York state government try to hammer out a state budget deal.
This year’s budget negotiations are the first for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took office over the summer and is trying to solidify her status as the frontrunner in the Democratic primary.
Like other state budget fights in recent years, this one has been an intraparty struggle between centrists and the left, with Republicans largely weighing in from the sidelines.
Hochul has asked legislative leaders to approve a $216 billion spending plan. The budget is due by Friday, April 1, though that deadline can be extended.
The governor said Thursday she was having “productive conversations” with leaders of the state Senate and Assembly.
“I appreciate their collaboration and good faith approach to these negotiations,” Hochul said in a prepared release. “We are getting closer to agreement, with consensus on major policy items.”
The governor threw a curveball with just days to go before that deadline by asking the legislature to help the Buffalo Bills build a new stadium — a deal that would involve at least $1.1 billion in state and county aid to the team. Some lawmakers have pushed back on the proposal.
Here are some of the other top issues in the budget talks:
BAIL
A spate of headline-grabbing crimes and a rise in gun violence during the pandemic have prompted some lawmakers to push for changes to the state’s bail laws — including some that would partly roll back recent reforms intended to make the criminal justice system less unfair to the poor.
New York eliminated bail for many nonviolent felonies in 2020 to address the inequity of poor people being jailed because they couldn’t afford to buy their release, while wealthier people accused of the same crimes went free.
Hochul’s administration circulated a draft plan that would reinstate bail for some crimes, plus give judges latitude to decide whether some people might be dangerous if released.
Those changes have the support of some law enforcement figures who claim the earlier bail reforms have made New Yorkers less safe.
The proposed changes have met with stiff resistance, though, from liberal Democrats, who say there is no evidence they had a real impact on crime.
CHILD CARE
New York looks poised to dramatically increase state support for child care. The question is, by how much?
Currently, families in New York whose household income is up to 200% of federal poverty level qualify for subsidized child care.
Hochul has proposed a $1.5 billion plan increasing it to up to 300% of the federal poverty level over three years, but the Legislature forwarded more expansive plans.
The Assembly’s plan includes over $3 billion in child care investments to expand eligibility to 400% over three years.
The Senate proposed a $4.1 billion plan that would expand access to subsidized care to households earning up to 500% of the federal poverty level by 2024.
PUMP PRICE RELIEF
New York could join other states responding to soaring gasoline prices by either slashing state fuel taxes or offering rebates.
State officials around the nation have been weighing tax breaks and rebates in recent weeks with pandemic-induced inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hiking prices at the pump.
In New York, proponents of the tax break have noted state and local taxes on a gallon of gas are around 50 cents.
CASINOS
The budget could authorize three casino licenses for the New York City area a year sooner than planned.
An amendment to the state Constitution approved by voters in 2013 authorized seven casinos statewide. But state leaders initially agreed to wait until 2023 to move ahead on downstate casinos in order to give four upstate casinos time to establish themselves.
Hochul said the new casinos would provide “substantial” revenue for state education aid through license fees and tax payments.
HOUSING HELP
The Assembly and Senate separately proposed adding at least $1 billion in funding to New York’s tapped-out Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which was created to help people who suffered economic setbacks in the pandemic.
The aid program that helps landlords and tenants struggling with unpaid back rent and utilities had originally received $2.4 billion in federal funding, with more funds coming later.
New York’s eviction moratorium expired in January. Individuals who applied for rental assistance have eviction protection while their applications are reviewed.
HOME CARE WAGES
Lawmakers were looking at boosting pay for home care workers.
One proposal would require that home health and personal care aides be paid at least 50% more than the minimum wage for their region.
Proponents argue that home care workers are desperately needed and should receive fair wages.
UNDOCUMENTED NEW YORKERS
Both chambers had proposed $345 million for a state health coverage option for more than 150,000 low-income New Yorkers whose immigration status bars them from getting health insurance.
New York has exhausted its $2.1 billion pandemic relief fund for workers whose immigration status made them ineligible for federal stimulus checks and other COVID-19 relief. | https://www.syracuse.com/state/2022/04/what-are-the-top-issues-in-ny-state-budget-talks-bail-reform-gas-prices-more.html | 2022-04-01T01:17:10Z |
A driver pulled over in Langley going more than 200 km/h on Highway One lost his car for seven days and may lose his licence altogether.
On March 19, at 2:20 p.m., an officer with the BC Highway Patrol stopped a vehicle near 216th Street, after clocking it at 205 km/h, said Cpl. Mike Halskov, spokesperson for the highway patrol unit.
The driver was given a $483 ticket for excessive speeding on the spot, and officers also impounded the car for seven days, Halskov explained.
The officer then requested that RoadSafetyBC review the driver’s licence status, and recommending a driving ban.
The driver and a passenger found alternate transportation home, Halskov said.
“Given the totality of the circumstances including the traffic volume at the time, the driver would simply not have the time to perceive and react to to a situation,” said the corporal.
“At that speed, the potential for a collision is extremely high and would very likely result in fatalities. It also puts innocent motorists at risk because they are not expecting anyone to be traveling at those speeds.”
High-risk driving, including speeding, causes 114 deaths per year on average in B.C., according to ICBC.
READ ALSO: Six vehicles impounded after excessive speeding in Lower Mainland community
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com | https://www.abbynews.com/news/drivers-car-towed-license-could-be-pulled-over-205-km-h-speeding-ticket/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:10Z |
On Wednesday, fans were shocked to hear that legendary actor Bruce Willis would be stepping away from his acting career after being diagnosed with aphasia.
Willis' family announced on Wednesday that after a decades-spanning career with many blockbuster films and franchises to his name, the 67-year-old actor would be "stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him," due to the condition affecting his "cognitive abilities."
According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia is "a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate. It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written."
Two sources have since told ET that the actor's health has been deteriorating for a while now, so much so that he needed help with his lines on film sets.
"It got to the point where on his last several films, he was fitted with an earpiece, and someone had to read him his lines because he was unable to remember them," one of the sources told ET.
ET spoke with Dr. Nneka Ifejika, a rehab specialist at UT Southwestern, about the condition.
"Aphasia is a condition that results from damage to the speech areas of the brain," Dr. Ifejika shared with ET.
As for what Willis and his family can do to treat his condition moving forward, he has several options to maintain a good quality of life.
"There are treatments for it, though, so it will be very important to get ahold of a speech and language pathologist," Dr. Ifejika noted. "Their quality of life is greatly affected by aphasia, however, with good, adaptive methods and ways to compensate for aphasia, you can still have a good quality of life. There are certain medications and certain conditions that can be used to help facilitate communication."
Willis' last released project was this year's A Day to Die, and he has several completed and announced projects listed on his IMDb page.
Willis is best known for his role as John McClane in the Die Hard films and has many other hit movies to his name including Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, Sin City, Armageddon, The Fifth Element and more.
For more on the condition, watch the clip below:
RELATED CONTENT: | https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/how-bruce-willis-was-able-to-keep-acting-amid-aphasia-battle/603-db71b1c6-e95f-48af-a3d7-44ba15fc60b2 | 2022-04-01T01:17:10Z |
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:
06-09-28-29-30
(six, nine, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty)
Estimated jackpot: $219,000
DETROIT (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Michigan Lottery's "Fantasy 5" game were:
06-09-28-29-30
(six, nine, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty)
Estimated jackpot: $219,000 | https://www.michigansthumb.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Fantasy-5-game-17049785.php | 2022-04-01T01:17:10Z |
December 2021 IPO Provides Capital to Accelerate Growth Strategy
2021 Revenues Increase 681% While Fourth Quarter Revenues Grew 19% Sequentially Compared to the Third Quarter, Reflecting an Acceleration in Momentum and an Inflection Point in the Company's Growth Trajectory – With Most Growth Occurring Prior to IPO Funding
IPO Proceeds Deployed to Grow the Brand, Increase Awareness, and Procure Inventory to Sustain Strong Sequential Momentum in 2022
Over 1,000 New Points of Distribution Added in First Quarter, More Than All of Last Year
Celebrities Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough, Initial and Ongoing Investors, Continue to Enthusiastically Endorse FVW Celebrating Partners and Product Launches Among Their More Than 30 Million Social Media Followers
MINNEAPOLIS, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresh Vine Wine, Inc. (NYSE American: VINE), the premier producer of premium lower carb, lower sugar, and lower calorie wines in the United States, today reported strong financial results for the three months and fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, including year-over-year annual revenue growth of 681% from $217 thousand in 2020 to $1.700 million in 2021.
Janelle Anderson, CEO of Fresh Vine Wine, Inc., said, "I am extremely proud of our team, which grew the business both for the year and sequentially in the fourth quarter by executing on extremely aggressive marketing and go-to-market strategy, while concurrently completing our IPO. This reflects an inflection in the company's growth trajectory and is indicative of the results we expect this year. We have already put the IPO proceeds to work building our brand, investing in our people, and procuring inventory. In the first quarter of 2022, we added over 1,000 new points of distribution (PODs), which is more than twice the 900 PODs we had at time of IPO. We believe that this leading indicator, coupled with our increased inventory levels, suggest accelerating revenue growth and strong first quarter results."
Ms. Anderson continued, "The speed of our expansion is remarkable, which speaks to the quality of our sales and marketing strategy and the pedigree of our organization. Our success reinforces the viability of consumer demand for our category-defining, premium tasting brand of lower carb, lower sugar, lower calorie wines. We plan to continue this positive trajectory in 2022 by introducing new product offerings and expanding our marketing efforts, in part by leveraging the 30 million-plus social media followers of our celebrity spokespeople and co-founders, Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough. It is encouraging and rewarding to begin this year with significant positive momentum."
Recent Business Highlights
- In December 2021, the Company closed its Initial Public Offering, raising net proceeds of $19.2 million
- Added 1,000 Points of Distribution in the first quarter
Retail
- Launched in our first national "C-Store" where we have been authorized at their more than 1,600 California locations
- Securing a top national convenience store chain to carry our wines in the state of California is a true breakthrough for Fresh Vine Wine and further validates the demand for our lower carb, lower calorie, lower sugar premium wines
- Secured placement at the newest resort on the Famous Las Vegas Strip
- FVW wines premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and other varietals will be featured at 22 various venues at the newly launched Resorts World Las Vegas
- Expanded partnership with retail grocer, Hy-Vee, for the distribution of our premium Limited Reserve Napa Cabernet
- To be featured at all Hy-Vee stores in the Upper Midwest
- Announced a partnership with CRAVE American Kitchen & Sushi Bar
- Featured as a premium wine pairing and frequently recommended as the perfect complement to their special lunch and dinner menus
Geographic Expansion
- Expanded into 6 new states in the first quarter of 2022, including Nevada coincident with the Resorts World launch
- FVW now available nationwide, one of the Company's key strategic priorities.
Direct to Consumer
- Experienced record-breaking single day sales on two separate occasions, reflecting the impact of our social media marketing strategy
- Record demand after major shareholders Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough appeared across national media following VINE IPO day and then again after their appearance on The Ellen Show https://bit.ly/36VuRd4. Expect more exciting appearances representing Fresh Vine Wine by these highly influential celebrities
New Product Release
- Released a fifth varietal, a Limited Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
- The introduction of this premium wine represents further progress in our business objectives to leverage our presence at retail to increase distribution and fuel future growth.
- Announced the bottling of our 2021 Vintage Rosé at 21 times the quantity of 2020 Rosé bottled
- After selling out the entire 2020 Rosé Vintage within months of bottling, now bottling the 2021 Vintage Rosé at 21 times the amount of Rosé bottled for the 2020 vintage.
Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Results and Commentary
Net revenue in fiscal 2021 was $1.70 million, up from $217,000 in fiscal 2020. Growth was primarily attributable to our increased presence in the wholesale market, where we significantly expanded our distributor network and geographic presence, and the introduction of our wine club, which drove direct-to-consumer sales. Of total 2021 revenue, $773,000 was from our wholesale distribution channel and $774,000 was from our direct-to-consumer sales channel. As fourth quarter revenues were affected by an inventory drawdown precipitated by very strong demand, the Company used this period to accelerate the timing of the launch of its Strategic Services segment, which netted over $150,000 of revenue in the quarter, and is expected to continue quarterly in fiscal 2022. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $4.79 million for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, compared to $1.33 million for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, largely driven by increases in Selling, Marketing and General & Administrative expenses. The year-over-year increase in Marketing expenses primarily resulted from our sports marketing partnerships while the increase in General & Administrative expenses is the result of increased salaries and wages needed to support the growth in sales. Selling expenses generally follow our sales volume growth. The Company reported a net loss of $9.97 million, or ($1.12) per share, for fiscal 2021, compared to a net loss of $1.29 million, or ($0.21) per share in fiscal 2020.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
- The Company's cash and cash equivalents balance as of December 31, 2021, was $16.1 million. The Company has no material debt.
About Fresh Vine Wine, Inc.
Fresh Vine Wine, Inc. (NYSE American: VINE) is a premier producer of lower carb, lower calorie premium wines in the United States, kicking off a 2022 growth plan following its IPO in mid-December 2021. Fresh Vine Wine's brand vision is to lead the emerging natural and accessible premium wine category, as health trends continue to accelerate in the US marketplace. The 2020 US wine market was a $69 billion category. Fresh Vine Wine plans to accelerate growth in 2022 by amplifying its marketing, expanding product offerings, and expanding its team. Fresh Vine Wine positions its core brand lineup as an affordable luxury, retailing between $14.99-$22.99. Fresh Vine Wine's varietals currently include its Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Rosé.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "could," "may," "will," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "goal," "project," and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various matters including statements regarding the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company's ability to hire additional personnel and to manage the growth of its business; the Company's reliance on its brand name, reputation and product quality; the Company's ability to adequately address increased demands that may be placed on its management, operational and production capabilities; the effectiveness of the Company's advertising and promotional activities and investments; the Company's reliance on celebrities to endorse its wines and market its brand; general competitive conditions; fluctuations in consumer demand for wine; overall decline in the health of the economy and consumer discretionary spending; the occurrence of adverse weather events, natural disasters, public health emergencies, or other unforeseen circumstances that may cause delays to or interruptions in the Company's operations; risks associated with disruptions in the Company's supply chain for grapes and raw and processed materials; the impact of COVID-19 and its variants on the Company's customers, suppliers, business operations and financial results; disrupted or delayed service by the distributors the Company relies on for the distribution of its wines; the Company's ability to successfully execute its growth strategy; the Company's success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, its officers, key employees or directors; the Company's ability to protect its trademarks and other intellectual property rights; the Company's ability to comply with laws and regulations affecting its business, including those relating to the manufacture, sale and distribution of wine; claims, demands and lawsuits to which the Company may be subject and the risk that its insurance or indemnities coverage may not be sufficient; the Company's ability to operate, update or implement its IT systems; the Company's ability to successfully pursue strategic acquisitions and integrate acquired businesses; the Company's potential ability to obtain additional financing when and if needed; the Company's founders' significant influence over the Company; and the risks identified in the Company's other filings with the SEC. The Company cautions investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read the Company's filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. The Company's business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.
Contact: freshvinewine@jonesworks.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Fresh Vine Wine, Inc. | https://www.wrdw.com/prnewswire/2022/03/31/fresh-vine-wine-announces-fourth-quarter-full-year-2021-financial-results/ | 2022-04-01T01:17:08Z |