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Wanna spend the evening at a dinner party at Cher‘s house in Malibu? “Believe” it or not, it’s a possibility.
Cher has teamed up with CharityBuzz for a charity auction, and the winners will get to attend the intimate event at her Malibu home, where you’ll enjoy in a sunset cocktail hour, photo opportunity and fine dining.
The event will take place April 27, and all the money from the auction will go to Cher’s charity Free the Wild, which works to ease the suffering of, and eventually free, wild animals in captivity.
The auction at CharityBuzz.com runs through February 13, but the bid is already up to $23,000. Expected to sell for $30,000, the prize could end up selling for more.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/heres-how-you-can-hang-out-with-cher-in-malibu/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:54Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.wskg.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:46:54Z
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ISLAMABAD - “Sci-Novation is the constructive confluence of science and ingenious innovation materialized to reap the dividends for humanity from the platform of Forman Christian College” extolled Dr Lubna Amer, Vice Principal of FCC Lahore while in conversation with Irfan Ul Haq, President of Ewing English Society, and a disciple from Department of English, FCCU on Wednesday. The institutional arrangement of this academic dispensation was unimpeachably organised by the worthy Chief Proctor Sir Arooj Justin who accredited the concerned event as “Fecundity of Forman nurturing the crops of competencies for the harvest of collective scientific remunerations en masse.” The spectrum of dignitaries featured Chairperson Lahore Board accompanied by Umer Ghumman -Director - Country Head Samsung Mobile thus accentuating the ubiquitous traction this event wields. The disciples of FC College projected their anachronistic immaculacy through their projects gravitating around sustainable energy exactions and operations. The examples of inexpensive domestic Clinometer, water generation through humidity, radiationmagnetic frames for solar panels, drones for aerial reforestation, AI premised plant automation system, and organic water filtration plants are emblematic of coruscating initiatives resonating with the undertones of impending humanitarian priorities in face of climatic evisceration. Compendiously, the event was replete with resplendent innuendoes signifying the amphibious resilience of Pakistan by intellectual fashion of Formanities against the gusts of global competition and tides of native dogmatism. As the team protocols, Shibal Khurshid and Hasan Javed, pronounced, “Formanities are always famishing for fostering enlightenment thus inevitably orphaning obscurantism in Pakistan forever.”
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/fcc-organises-event-on-harvesting-collective-scientific-remunerations
| 2024-01-31T23:46:56Z
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Today saw the release of the 40th (and final) issue of Vol. II of Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: Doctor Aphra title, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this climactic installment.
Doctor Aphra (2020) #40 begins with the not-terribly-surprising reveal that the title character– namely rogue archaeologist Dr. Chelli Lona Aphra– did not actually die at the conclusion of the previous issue. Instead, Aphra engaged remote access on the hyperdrive belonging to the Tagge flagship the Acquisitor and then managed to make it out alive via escape pod before the ship crashed at lightspeed into the planet Rocedila, eliminating the A.I. Scourge threat aboard. This is all told via a beautifully rendered (by artist Minkyu Jung and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg) four nearly wordless pages of action, which are followed by Chelli waking up on the surface of said planet and wandering toward the ruins of an ancient temple. Then writer Alyssa Wong cuts to Tagge Space, where a trio of Aphra’s ex-lovers (Domina Tagge, Sana Starros, and Magna Tolvan) are all recovering from the events of the Star Wars: Dark Droids crossover.
But once the space-dust settles on that particular misadventure, Sana decides she wants to go after Aphra, even though Domina insists there’s no way Chelli could have survived the devastating impact. But Starros knows better about Aphra’s tenacity, and we cut back to Rocedila, where the archaeologist makes a startling discovery: an ancient Jedi text, printed on actual paper in an honest-to-goodness book, which are pretty rare at this point in the larger Star Wars timeline. Here Chelli talks out loud to herself about what this find might mean for herself and her life going forward, but as readers we start to get the feeling that her character arc may mean she’ll find something more meaningful to do with the text (my guess is give it to Luke Skywalker, with whom Aphra remains acquainted). So some more inner monologue sees Chelli grappling with how she has indeed changed over the course of recent events, as she rushes outside grasping the book, and immediately encounters Sana Starros landing on the planet in her ship the Volt Cobra.
Aphra and Sana have a heart-to-heart about Chelli’s change-of-heart, and then we get an epilogue that sees them reunited with Magna, then stirring up trouble in a Canto Bight nightclub. It’s not quite the climax I was expecting for this series– especially given the kitchen-sink promise of the “A” cover, which includes a number of characters that do not appear within the contents of the final issue– but for once I was happy to be misled by such a thing. I’m always going to prefer more intimate, character-driven stories to knock-down, drag-out action setpieces with too much going on all at once, and the former works especially well here given what we know about the various players involved. Plus, there’s a tease of the bounty hunter Raslin Grace (who first appeared in the 2023 edition of Star Wars: Revelations) going after Chelli, and the promise that “Doctor Aphra will return…” on the final page. Which heavily implies that this comic will be back in some form before too long– news that I welcome with open arms. Ultimately this is a satisfying– and rather emotional– conclusion to the current run and an intriguing setup to whatever might come next for our favorite tomb-raider from A Galaxy Far, Far Away and her merry band of misfits.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #40 is available now wherever comic books are sold.
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https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney-entertainment/star-wars-doctor-aphra-2020-40-comic-review/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:56Z
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Mears Auctions, which specializes in sports, pop culture and Americana memorabilia, has posted an auction titled: 1945 Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field 30” x 40” We Turn Night Into Day! Ladies Admitted Free Painted Wooden Stadium Sign
Here’s what the sign looks like:
Well, this is very interesting. First, there’s no question the sign certainly looks like it’s nearly 80 years old. The auction description includes this:
Heavy wear to sign with numerous areas of wood loss and oxidation to the chain hanging apparatus affixed at the top of the sign.
Further, I have corresponded with Troy Kinunen, president and CEO of Mears Auctions, and he has no doubt this sign is as old as the date indicates. He says it came from a collector who specialized in collecting stadium artifacts, though there’s no provenance on it from more than about 10 years ago.
Second, we know this for a fact: The Cubs did not play any night games at Wrigley Field in 1945, and as we know, not until 1988 did lights “turn night into day” at Wrigley. Many of you know that the Cubs had ordered steel for light towers late in 1941, but when World War II began, team owner P.K. Wrigley donated the steel to the war effort. I wrote about that here back in 2013.
Nevertheless, the Cubs did make some attempts to play night games in 1942 and 1943, as detailed in this article I posted here in 2020. There’s further detail of these and other attempts in this article in Chicagology, which includes this from the Chicago Tribune of May 9, 1944:
The recreation section of the War Production Board today today turned down the Chicago Cubs’ application to install night baseball facilities in Wrigley Field this season, but invited the Cubs to resubmit their request with a view to construction for 1945.
George W. McMurphey, director of recreation for the War Production Board, said there was still a possibility for more night baseball in Chicago if the Cubs used the lighting facilities of the White Sox Park for several games.
The shortage of critical material and “other factors” prompted denial of the Cubs application by McMurphey. McMurphey said:
The release of materials alone was not the deciding factor. While materials may be available, this office also took into consideration that construction could not be completed before August, which would leave only 21 weekday dates available to the Cubs in their home park.
Under such circumstances, the expenditure of material and labor does not seem justified for so few night games.
James T. Gallagher, vice president and general manager of the Cubs, said:
The Cubs will confine their baseball to the daylight; in Chicago this season, at least. Government officials suggested we apply for permission to install lights at Wrigley Field and we did so with the idea that if we could help further the war any by permitting those engaged during the day in war work to see night baseball, we would cooperate.
Since we have been turned down on our application there is nothing left for us to do but continue our usual policy of day time baseball. If we see a need for night baseball next year we may file another application. However, this new application will not be necessary until some time in December. If this application us granted then we will have time to install lights before the opening of the 1945 season.
However, the Cubs have not been, and are not now, sold on night baseball, but this situation may change after the war. If there is a trend toward night baseball after the war, we may take some action then.
I have done an extensive search of newspaper archives from late 1944 through the spring of 1945. There is no evidence that the Cubs made another application to the War Production Board for night games in 1945. Further, the Chicagology article posted this excerpt from the Tribune of October 21, 1945, and it turned out to be prescient:
Wrigley Field probably will be the last outpost of 100 per cent day time baseball. This opinion was ventured yesterday by P. K. Wrigley, owner and president of the National League Champions, when he said there will be no lights in his ball park next season.</p>
The New York Yankees’ announcement yesterday that lights will be installed in their stadium left only Wrigley Field, Fenway Park in Boston, and Briggs Stadium in Detroit without electric lights.
”We believe that baseball is a day time sport,” said Wrigley, “and will continue to play it in the sunshine as long as we can.”
The Cubs last season reported a paid home attendance of 1,037,026.
Then he suggested that perhaps the Cubs would eventually wind up as the only club without a lighting plant. He has intimated on past occasions that lights would be installed only if the fans clamored for night time games.
Here’s the probable answer: There were games played with artificial light in Wrigley Field in 1943 and 1944, but these were not Cubs games — they were games played by players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, one as an All-Star Game (1943), the other to raise money for the Red Cross (1944). Per this Baseball Hall of Fame article, the lighting was “barely adequate.” However, no such game was played at Wrigley in 1945.
For now, the conclusion I can draw about this sign is that it might have been made in anticipation of an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League night game at Wrigley Field in 1945, perhaps even placed on a wall somewhere (thus the rust and wear shown), but the game itself was never played. I have not, unfortunately, been able to locate definitive proof of that in newspaper archives. Newspapers back then gave very little coverage to the AAGPBL.
Also, remember that in 1945 World War II was still raging, at least until spring in Europe, and many travel restrictions were placed on US citizens in that time span. The MLB All-Star Game was cancelled in February, per the Chicago Tribune, and there was some talk about even cancelling the World Series that year if the travel restrictions were still in place in October — but they had been lifted by then, so the Cubs and Tigers did play that year’s WS, though with an unusual travel pattern: The first three games were played in Detroit, with the last four at Wrigley Field.
Thus, this sign was likely made in anticipation of a night game at Wrigley Field that was ultimately cancelled, but not a Cubs game. I’ll continue to look for further definitive evidence, and post an update if I find anything.
|
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2024/1/31/24056182/wrigley-field-night-game-sign-1945-auction
| 2024-01-31T23:46:57Z
|
UPDATE 1/31/24 6 p.m.
CADILLAC — The warmer temperatures have Wexford Jewelers in Cadillac even more concerned about the failing culvert in their parking lot than they were before.
The business has been dealing with the failing culvert since last year, and employees said with the recent weather that the culvert is getting worse and sinking even more.
The recent freezing weather with the heavy snowfall, followed by the warm up that is thawing everything out has made the ground even more unstable.
Administrator Keith Terwilliger said even though the store is not in any danger of sinking, sales have been down ever since the fencing went up last year.
He said he’s hoping the state will be able to help fund the repairs because the culvert is now owned by anyone. Terwilliger said he also concerned about the flooding to other people’s property if the culvert eventually fails.
He said that he can see a visible difference in the parking lot, and it is indeed sinking.
The Wexford County emergency Management is aware of the situation.
“The Wexford County emergency manager has been out here regularly checking out the parking lot and looking at the levels of the water. Granted, the holes haven’t grown much, but the ground in the area is sinking for sure, which means that we’re in more holes and more loss of ground is inevitable,” Terwilliger said.
He said that he has kept in contact with the city about t he problem.
11/16/23 6:20 p.m.
CADILLAC — Local leaders and area businesses in Cadillac are trying to figure out how to fix a culvert that appears to be sinking and could have a major impact on businesses and people who live in the area.
The city of Cadillac and the Local Chamber of Commerce said they are concerned about a total culvert failure and that the culvert could get worse as we head into winter.
The parking lot above the culvert that is just off Mitchell Street and River Street appears to be sinking. The city has fenced off the parking lot to keep people from driving on it until it can be repaired, but the chamber said one issue complicating the repair is that it’s not owned by anyone, leaving the chamber, the city and area businesses looking for funding from the state.
“It could disrupt commerce, certainly not just for the businesses that are immediately adjacent to it, but also across Mitchell Street if it creates a flooding situation with the Clam River. We could look at a potential washout of not just the commercial area, but the adjacent residential areas,” Marcus Peccia, the Cadillac city manager, said.
The city acknowledges that a permanent solution is needed, but money continues to be the issue. Chamber President Caitlyn Stark said the culvert was built before titles were issued, so the person responsible for footing the expensive repair bill is unknown.
“It’s incredibly frustrating because anyone driving by goes, Well, why don’t we just fix that? Why is there still a fence there If this is so dangerous, why hasn’t he done anything yet? And it’s because we don’t have an owner, we don’t have a responsible party,” Stark said.
The chamber, the city and area businesses have been reaching out to state lawmakers for months asking for funding, especially because the culvert could get worse during the winter, but the legislature is out of session and they will have to wait until February.
“I would love this project to be done yesterday, and I think that most of us would,” said Stark. “The clock is ticking in the sense of we don’t want to see anything else happen before we can get this resolved.”
Wexford Jewelers sits at ground zero where you can see the culvert giving away.
“It’s not huge yet, but we have seen changes in foot traffic and we’re doing our best to communicate to people that it is safe to enter the building. There is safe parking established. The building is structurally sound,” Keith Terwilliger from Wexford Jewelers said.
Wexford Jewelers has business concerns, but are more worried about others that could be impacted.
“We’re mostly concerned for all the residents in the area and then any of the residents on Lake Mitchell, only Cadillac because of that water stopped. That’s going to be big trouble,” Terwilliger said.
The city is warning people to stay away from the fenced off area, but stresses that it is safe to go into the businesses nearby.
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https://www.9and10news.com/2024/01/31/wexford-jewelers-in-cadillac-more-concerned-about-failing-culvert-with-warmer-temperatures/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:58Z
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Mall acquisition
New retailers likely after Princes Square acquired
Princes Square shopping centre in Glasgow has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by commercial property and investment collective M Core which is now seeking a number of new entrants to the city’s retail and restaurant offering.
M Core, a property investment and management collective comprising LCP, Sheet Anchor, Evolve Estates and Proudreed, has a £5.3 billion portfolio of assets across Europe.
LCP has been appointed to manage Princes Square which still has an annual footfall of more than 52 million despite the general decline in the number of shoppers in city centres.
The total 118,625 sq ft of floorspace is spread across four self-contained retail units along Buchanan Street and an inner mall on five levels. Tenants include Cos, Everyman Cinema, Levi’s, Michael Kors, Office and Sweaty Betty.
James Buchanan, LCP group managing director, said: “The acquisition of Princes Square is a fitting start to 2024. Situated in the heart of Glasgow, it boasts significant retail, food, and leisure brands. With our proven track record in focused investment and intensive asset management, we are poised to capitalise on market opportunities, enhance value, and provide excellent offerings for our tenants.”
Roddy Proudfoot, LCP director and head of the company’s Scotland office, said: “We are already engaged in discussions with high-profile potential retail and restaurant occupiers, including new entrants to the Glasgow market, and look forward to making announcements in the coming weeks.”
M Core said the acquisition aligns with its stratgegy of securing key properties in shopping parades, shopping centres and retail parks nationwide.”
|
https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2024/01/new-retailers-likely-after-princes-square-acquired/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:58Z
|
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Talking Points preview: Will Minnesota legalize sports betting this year?
Every one of our neighboring states has legalized betting, along with 38 other states. This week's Talking Points explores why it's been so difficult to pass here.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/talking-points-preview-will-minnesota-legalize-sports-betting-this-year/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:58Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.wvtf.org/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:46:58Z
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New reports show a big academic recovery after schools reopened. But not for all students. Stanford professor Sean Reardon tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly how the pandemic worsened education inequality.
Copyright 2024 NPR
New reports show a big academic recovery after schools reopened. But not for all students. Stanford professor Sean Reardon tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly how the pandemic worsened education inequality.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.klcc.org/npr-top-stories/2024-01-31/u-s-students-are-starting-to-catch-up-in-school-unless-theyre-from-a-poor-area
| 2024-01-31T23:46:59Z
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The 2024 WNBA free agency period is now underway, which means the long offseason is about to heat up. As of Jan. 21, teams are allowed to negotiate with players, though no deals can officially be signed until Feb. 1. Between now and then, there figures to be plenty of interesting speculation.
For much of the league's history, free agency didn't matter all that much. Key players rarely became free agents due to the length of contracts and the number of times a franchise could use the core designation. That all changed with the new collective bargaining agreement in 2020. Now, free agency is a key aspect of the calendar, just like any other league.
Already some major deals have been struck. Former MVP Jonquel Jones has agreed to re-sign with the New York Liberty, while reigning Most Improved Player Satou Sabally will be back with the Dallas Wings.
We're still awaiting decisions from four other former MVPs: Breanna Stewart (2018, 2023), Elena Delle Donne (2015, 2019), Nneka Ogwumike (2016) and Candace Parker (2008, 2013). That's in addition to seeing what the likes of Skylar Diggins-Smith and Brittney Griner will do.
One way or another, the league is going to shift this winter. Ahead of all the action and intrigue, here's everything you need to know:
When does free agency start?
Teams can start talking to free agents on Jan. 21, but nothing can officially be signed until Feb. 1. Those rules will always be skirted to some extent, but teams caught breaking them will be punished under the league's tampering rules. The Seattle Storm were fined in 2022 for jumping the gun on Sue Bird's re-signing.
How does WNBA free agency work?
WNBA free agency largely operates just like the NBA. There is a moratorium period where teams can speak to players but not offically sign anything, and free agents are grouped into different classifications that dictate how both they and teams can operate. The two main groups are unrestricted free agents, who can speak to and sign with any team they want, and restricted free agents, who can speak to and sign with any team they want, but can have that offer matched by their prior team.
The WNBA also has a reserved category, which is for players who hit free agency with fewer than three years of service. Often, these are veterans who entered the league later in their career, but they can also be younger players who, for whatever reason, were not on a typical rookie-scale contract. The prior team has exclusive negotiating rights with said players.
Furthermore, in rare instances players' contracts can expire while they are suspended. When this happens, players are technically found to be "withholding service," according to the CBA, and are listed as "suspended -- contract expired." In practice, these players are treated much like reserved players, though the prior team does not have to extend a qualifying offer.
Finally, there is the core designation, which is most analogous to the NFL's franchise tag. If a team uses the core designation on a player, they gain exclusive negotiating rights with them, even if that player was set to be an unrestricted free agent. Teams must use this machination wisely, however, as each player is only allowed to be "cored" two times in their career as of 2024.
2024 WNBA free agents
Cored
Unrestricted
Restricted
Reserved
Suspended -- Contract Expired
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https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/2024-wnba-free-agency-tracker-aerial-powers-joins-atlanta-dream-on-one-year-deal-per-report/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:59Z
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Kennedy Agyapong has vowed to do all it takes to ensure his brother secures the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary ticket for the Bantama Constituency in the Ashanti Region.
He has thus, vowed to contribute financially to the campaign of Ralph Opoku Agyapong to dethrone incumbent Francis Asenso-Boakye in the November 27 primaries.
Speaking to delegates on a campaign stop recently, Agyapong said: "Don’t vote for someone who would become pompous and forget his roots. You have long invested in this party, what benefit have you gotten?"
"I will be like a watchman over him and scrutinize how he interacts with you. Vote for my younger brother and see the amount of development that will reach Bantama," he stressed.
On the issue of giving voters money, he alleged that Asenso-Boakye had planned to give delegates 5,000 Ghana cedis but that he was ready to pay more.
"He says he is going to pay 5,000 cedis, tell him to bring it on; I will show him that I got real money. They come and deceive you…. On November 4, they deployed threats and money, but how much of that money is left today?
"Pompous leaders are humbled by God and time. I am not in Bantama but people urge me to help my brother to run because Asenso is disrespectful. I don’t know and I don’t belong here but such an impression is not good," he added.
Asenso-Boakye and Ralph Agyapong are set for a showdown on January 27, 2023, when the delegates of the party in constituencies with incumbent MPs will go to the polls to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2024 general election.
SARA
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- I’m waiting for the ‘showdown’ Ken Agyapong promised after his brother lost to Asenso-Boakye - Blakk Rasta
- Businessman wins Assin Central primary, set to replace Ken Agyapong as MP
- NPP Primaries: We’re waiting for Ken Agyapong’s ‘bombshells’ about Asenso-Boakye after his victory - Nana Yaa Brefo
- Bantama NPP Primaries: 'You can't threaten anybody' – Asani Tano to Kennedy Agyapong
- Your attacks on Asenso-Boakye are needless! - Kwabena Marfo slams Ken Agyapong
- Read all related articles
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https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/I-ll-show-him-I-m-filthy-rich-Ken-vows-to-outdo-Asenso-s-GH-cent-5K-to-Bantama-delegates-1912088
| 2024-01-31T23:46:59Z
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Top tech CEOs were being grilled in Washington by lawmakers, who said the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
The executives include Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X's Linda Yaccarino and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, among others.
The social media apps have "given predators powerful new tools to exploit children," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. He noted that the powerful apps "have changed the way we live, work and play."
The hearing is one of several over the past year as pressure builds for federal regulators to do more to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety online. Lawmakers have spoken out, have written letters to the CEOs and are pushing five separate bills that cover social media and child safety.
States have also targeted the social media companies. Last year, 13 states passed laws to protect kids on social media, and more states are expected to do the same.
"You have blood on your hands," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells Zuckerberg
Of the companies testifying on Wednesday, Meta has especially come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for children. In October, a group of more than 40 states sued the company for allegedly designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive.
Separately, New Mexico's attorney general filed another suit against Meta, alleging it fails to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and also makes it easy for adults to solicit minors.
That lawsuit came after a Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in November. Based on data he collected while working at Facebook, he said he found that 24% of teens had received unwanted sexual advances. And when harmful posts are reported, he said, only 2% are taken down.
During Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid into Zuckerberg.
"Mr. Zuckerberg," Graham began, "you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people."
The packed audience, which included parents, survivors and child advocates, erupted in applause.
Zuckerberg has testified several times before members of the Senate, and he voluntarily agreed to speak again on Wednesday. In his opening statement, he said, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Internal emails show Zuckerberg declined to hire staff to protect children online
In the lead-up to Wednesday's hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Those include barring children under age 18 from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The company says it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security issues.
But just hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails that showed Meta has refused to fully commit to improving child safety on its platforms. At one point in 2021, the emails show, Zuckerberg declined a proposal to hire 45 new staff members dedicated to children's well-being.
The emails show top executives at Meta discussing budget and head count, as well as the fact that if they didn't address the issue they'd face increased regulatory risk and external criticism.
"This work & narrative has of course become a more critical focal point for policymakers, regulators et al in recent weeks — this is not likely to diminish going forward," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs wrote in a 2021 email to Zuckerberg.
The internal emails were produced in response to a letter that Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent to Meta in November.
Five federal bills introduced
Of the other executives to testify, TikTok's Chew has also appeared before Congresslast year, but this is the first time lawmakers have grilled X's Yaccarino and the two other CEOs: Snap's Evan Spiegel and Discord's Jason Citron. Chew volunteered to speak on Wednesday, but Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron agreed only after being subpoenaed.
Snap has come out as the sole social media company to throw its support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, which is one of the bills that lawmakers are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this year. If passed, it would hold tech companies accountable for feeding teens toxic content.
"Many of the largest and most successful internet companies today were born here in the United States of America, and we must lead not only in technical innovation but also in smart regulation," Snap's Spiegel said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
Throughout the hearing, several of the senators tried to get the tech CEOs to agree to back legislation. All of the executives said more had to be done and they agree with regulation, but besides Spiegel, none said they'd fully back one of the bills.
At one point Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., tried to get the CEOs to support legislation he and several other senators introduced, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.
"Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?" Coons asked the CEOs.
After the question didn't elicit a response, he followed up with: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Child safety groups and parents joined lawmakers for several press conferences on Wednesday. They echoed the senators' demands that more has to be done to protect kids online.
"Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m.," said Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. "These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.ksut.org/2024-01-31/you-have-blood-on-your-hands-senator-tells-mark-zuckerberg-for-failing-kids-online
| 2024-01-31T23:46:59Z
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Laser strikes aimed at aircraft, including airline planes, surged 41% last year to a record high, according to federal officials.
The video above is about a laser pointer being aimed at ABC13's helicopter crew while flying above traffic in Houston, Texas.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it received 13,304 reports from pilots about laser strikes last year, erasing a record set in 2021.
"Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a serious safety hazard that puts everyone on the plane and on the ground at risk," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a video posted by the agency.
The FAA said pilots have reported 313 injuries since the agency started keeping records in 2010.
Each of the last five months of 2023 surpassed the previous high month, November 2021. The full-year rise over 2022 numbers easily topped the 28% increase in reported incidents from 2016 to 2022.
Authorities blame the surge in attacks on factors including the widespread sale of inexpensive lasers in stores and online, stronger devices that can hit planes at higher altitudes, and the increased awareness among pilots to report incidents.
The FAA said it can fine violators $11,000 for each violation, up to $30,800, and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies can file criminal charges.
Laser strikes at aircraft are most common during the first few hours after midnight, according to FAA data.
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https://abc30.com/laser-strikes-against-aircraft-surge-to-new-records-federal-aviation-administration/14376117/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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What to Know
- The spotlight returns to Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania this week, when handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil will announce his verdict on seeing his shadow — six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
- Groundhog Day is part of a tradition rooted in European agricultural life and marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
- By all accounts, Punxsutawney Phil predicts more winter far more often than he predicts an early spring.
The spotlight will be on Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania early on the morning of Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, when handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil will announce whether he saw his own shadow and predicts six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Thousands are expected to attend the annual event that exploded in popularity after the 1993 Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.”
You can watch the festivities live on this page the morning of Feb. 2.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
It's part of a tradition rooted in European agricultural life, marking the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's also a time of year that figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.
And in eastern and central Pennsylvania, where people of German descent have been watching the groundhog's annual emergence from hibernation for centuries, there's a tradition of groundhog clubs and celebrations that are independent of Phil.
Some dismiss the Punxsutawney event as an unworthy rival to their own festivities, which they say forecast more accurate weather predictions. There have been weather-predicting groundhogs in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces, and less formal celebrations far and wide.
One thing it's not: serious business.
“We know this is silly; we know this is fun,” said Marcy Galando, executive director of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. “We want people to come here with a sense of humor.”
What are Groundhog Day's origins?
Celtic people across Europe marked the four days that are midway between the winter solstice, the spring equinox, the summer solstice and the fall equinox. What the Celts called Imbolc is also around when Christians celebrate Candlemas, timed to Joseph and Mary's presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Ancient people would watch the sun, stars and animal behavior to guide farming practices and other decisions, and the practice of watching an animal’s emergence from winter hibernation to forecast weather has roots in a similar German tradition involving badgers or bears. Pennsylvania Germans apparently substituted the groundhog, endemic to the eastern and midwestern United States.
Historians have found a reference in an 1841 diary to groundhog weather forecasts in early February among families of German descent in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, according to the late Don Yoder, a University of Pennsylvania professor whose 2003 book about Groundhog Day explored the Celtic connection.
Yoder concluded the festival has roots in “ancient, undoubtedly prehistoric, weather lore.”
Why is Groundhog Day celebrated in Punxsutawney?
Punxsutawney is an area where Pennsylvania Germans settled — and in the late 1880s started celebrating the holiday by picnicking, hunting and eating groundhogs.
Members of Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, organized in 1899, care for Phil at a customized space beside Punxsutawney Memorial Library — where there's a window with a view into the creature's burrow.
The Punxsutawney groundhog makes predictions but he's not always predictable. The designated groundhog emerged before sunrise in 1929 and didn't come out until late afternoon in 1941.
The Bill Murray movie caused such a resurgence of interest that two years after it came out, event organizers voiced concern about rowdy crowds drinking all night, people climbing trees and others stripping to their underwear. In 1998, a groundhog club leader wearing a $4,000 groundhog suit reported being assaulted by a half-dozen young men.
Alcohol is now prohibited at Gobbler's Knob, Phil's spot some 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
Does Phil have competition in Pa.?
The early festivities in Punxsutawney were followed in 1907 by folks in Quarryville, a farming area in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania's southeastern corner. The roughly 240 members of the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge there report the winter forecast from Octoraro Orphie, or least via his well-preserved remains.
Quarryville Lodge board chair Charlie Hart said the organization has dinners and other social events throughout the year but is largely focused on Groundhog Day.
Hart credits Orphie as a far better forecaster than Phil.
“Octoraro Orphie has never been wrong," Hart said. "This is the 116th year, and in the previous 115 he has been right on the money every year.”
Whistle pigs on the menu?
The groundhog is a member of the squirrel family and related to chipmunks and prairie dogs. It's also known as a woodchuck, a whistle pig — or in the parlance of Pennsylvania Dutch, a language with German roots, a “grundsau.”
Groundhogs are herbivores that are themselves edible to humans, although they are not widely consumed. Their lifespan in the wild is typically two or three years.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission says about 36,000 hunters reported killing more than 200,000 groundhogs last year.
Game Commission spokesperson Travis Lau found groundhogs a bit stinky to clean, with thick skin.
“It was actually really good, no doubt about it — and to my taste, more like beef than venison is,” Lau said. “The whole family ate it and liked it, and everybody had apprehensions."
Some cooks advise groundhogs are best taken when they are young and after clover is in bloom, since a clover diet is thought to improve the meat's taste.
When did groundhog clubs and lodges first spring up?
Starting in the 1930s, groundhog lodges opened in eastern Pennsylvania. They were social clubs with similarities to Freemasonry.
Intended to preserve Pennsylvania's German culture and traditions, clubs would sometimes fine those who were caught speaking anything but their Pennsylvania Dutch language at meetings. They were traditionally all-male groups and 15 such clubs remain active.
They all share the unifying feature of a groundhog's weather prognostication, said William W. Donner, a Kutztown University anthropology professor and author of “Serious Nonsense,” a book about such lodges and other efforts to preserve German heritage.
“I think it's just one of these traditional rituals that people enjoy participating in, that maybe take them away from modern life for 15 minutes,” Donner said.
What's Phil's record for getting his weather prediction right?
Some well-meaning efforts have sought to determine Phil's accuracy, but what “six weeks of winter” means is debatable. Claims that a groundhog has or has not seen its shadow — and that it's able to communicate that to a human — are also fair territory for skeptics and the humor impaired.
By all accounts, Phil predicts more winter far more often than he predicts an early spring.
Groundhogs are mostly solitary creatures who start to emerge in midwinter to find a mate. The science behind whether they can make any accurate weather predictions is problematic at best.
Among the skeptics is the National Centers for Environmental Information, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The government agency last year compared Phil's record with U.S. national temperatures over the prior decade and concluded he was right only 40% of the time.
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https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/groundhog-day-phil-punxsutawney/3150620/
| 2024-01-31T23:46:59Z
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A Bronx man has been charged with production, distribution and possession of child pornography — some of which included his own daughter, according to federal prosecutors.
The complaint against Derick Colon, 24, alleges that around Jan. 19, he shared videos with someone via a social media network that depicted him “engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a minor who appears to be approximately six to eight years old.” Someone who received the videos quickly reported them to the FBI. Officials obtained a search warrant shortly thereafter, and a search of Colon’s phone revealed more explicit content depicting his daughter, who appeared to be approximately 4 years old.
According tot he office of Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Colon told law enforcement officials in sum and substance, that he “messed up” and that he had “sexually abused” the second victim, his daughter.
Colon could face 15 to 30 years in prison for one count of production of child pornography and five to 20 years for distribution. The possession charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
In a statement announcing the charges, FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said Colon’s actions are “depraved and beyond disturbing.”
“The FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force will continue to do whatever it takes to protect the most vulnerable members of society — our children — from predators, no matter who they are,” Smith said.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone who believes they may have relevant information is asked to contact the FBI at 800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.
Reach Emily Swanson at [email protected] or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
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https://www.bxtimes.com/bronx-man-child-pornography/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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Massachusetts turns recreational plex into shelter for homeless families, including migrants
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu toured a recreational complex Wednesday hours ahead of its planned opening as a temporary shelter site for families experiencing homelessness, including migrants.
Healey said about 75 individuals were expected to arrive at the Cass Recreational Complex, located in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood, before the end of the day. The complex can provide temporary shelter for up to 400 people, or about 100-125 families, as the state continues to grapple with an influx of homeless migrants.
“We’re here today because we really don’t have a choice,” she said. “Families continue to come into this country, continue to come to Massachusetts, and we have over the last several months opened up locations throughout the state.”
There are currently three larger state-operated overflow family shelter sites. The location in Roxbury, one of the city’s traditionally Black neighborhoods, will be the fourth.
The others are located in Revere (150 rooms), Quincy (57 rooms) and Cambridge, which can accommodate 200 people or about 57 families.
There are also smaller emergency shelter sites in about 90 communities.
Those using the overflow sites are among 656 families currently on a wait list hoping to get into the state’s emergency family shelter program. Healey last year capped the number of people in the shelter program at 7,500 and created the wait list.
Healey and Wu, both Democrats. have called on the Biden administration for more help in dealing with the influx of migrants.
Boston isn’t alone, Wu said.
“I hear from mayors all around the country on a regular basis. I just had two conversations in the last couple of days around the stresses and the challenges that this crisis of migrant families needing services and shelter and homes are presenting at every level of government,” she said.
“The federal machinery needs a lot of fixing,” she added. ”It needs action and it has needed that for decades.”
Healey said the Roxbury site is temporary and families will be out before June. She said programs that were scheduled to take place at the center will be moved to other nearby locations and that renovations will be made to the complex. She also said the state will rely on local businesses to provide some of the services needed to run the shelter site.
“I am grateful to the community of Roxbury,” Healey said.
People in the neighborhood had mixed reactions to the new shelter.
Clifton A. Braithwaite, 56, a city council candidate and community activist, said he’s concerned about seniors and others who rely on programs at the center as a place to meet and exercise.
“I don’t know if the plan they have is going to work either for the immigrants or Boston citizens,” he said. “But one thing I know, to close a functional building down for three months that services the people of this community is a tragedy, because where are they going to go?”
Audra White, 41, who lives around the corner from the recreational complex, said she was troubled when she returned from a vacation in September and saw homeless migrants and their children sleeping on the floor at Logan International Airport.
“Logan airport is not an appropriate place to have people living in hallways,” she said. “At the Cass, there are showers, there are bathrooms. People can actually wash,” she said, referring to the Cass Recreational Complex.
“If the options are Logan or the Cass, I think the Cass is the better option,” she said.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced the city will again extend its 60-day limit on shelter stays for asylum seekers, just days ahead of a deadline that could have evicted nearly 2,000 migrants.
Johnson said Monday the idea is to give people more time to resettle and find work. The policy change adds 30 to 60 more days for roughly 14,000 migrants already living in the city’s 28 shelters, which include warehouses and park district buildings.
As many as 800 asylum seekers have lived temporarily at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, sleeping on the floor and on cots at a shuttle bus center. Some stay there for weeks at a time while they await beds at one of the city’s 28 shelters or can make other arrangements. Chicago’s daily migrant dashboard showed 128 living at O’Hare as of Wednesday.
______
Associated Press reporter Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/massachusetts-turns-recreational-plex-into-shelter-for-homeless-families-including-migrants/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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This article was originally published on the Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Jonathan Johnson’s exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service here: thedailybriefing.io
PSG like Rafael Leao, but they’re not preparing to replace Kylian Mbappe just yet
Rafael Leao has again been linked as a summer transfer target for PSG, and he’s a name we’ve seen come up on their radar before. Still, for this summer a lot will depend on what PSG need to do regarding Kylian Mbappe and where that situation is by then.
I understand Leao has been of interest to PSG in the past, and there’s the connection there with Luis Campos, who has worked with him before, having signed him at Lille. Still, his form has suffered a little recently, and that’s something that has to be factored in, though I think the fact that Campos knows him well could count in his favour.
We’ll have to see if it’s a deal PSG can make work and it’s definitely one to keep an eye on, but I also wouldn’t be surprised this summer if PSG reassess their attacking options after a first full season with a lot of new signings playing together. We saw Randal Kolo Muani, Goncalo Ramos and Bradley Barcola join in the summer, and there’s already a potential situation with Ramos that might require a solution at the end of the season. Or we could obviously see Mbappe leave and that might create more of an opportunity for Ramos.
I can’t really see a world in which PSG have Mbappe and Leao in the same team, but then again if Mbappe does stay and make a more permanent move into a central role, it could be something that Luis Enrique can make work. Overall, though, I’d say it leaves more questions than answers. A lot can change between now and the end of the season, and the historic link between Campos and Leao could be a factor, but it would be a big-money expense and PSG might decide it’s better to focus that elsewhere.
Midfield, for instance, is an area that will probably be looked at, and we’ve seen PSG linked with Bruno Guimaraes – I don’t see that story going away. It will all be defined by the second half of PSG’s season and how it all plays out, and then of course on what Mbappe decides to do.
I wouldn’t say that PSG are preparing for the worst with Mbappe right now – they’re pretty well stocked in attack anyway, and if anything if Mbappe were to decide to leave it would give them greater clarity on who they would want to continue with and what role they’d give to those players.
We’ve already seen rumours about Marco Asensio, for instance, so there are players like him and Ramos who have issues with game time. Randal Kolo Muani’s form is also a bit of a concern and there’s a question mark over whether he really fits, so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there, and that’s whether Mbappe stays or not. It’s therefore a little hard for PSG to prepare for life without Mbappe now as they very much hope for him to stay, so until all avenues have been exhausted and they know for definite that he’s not going to stay, I don’t think PSG are going to start putting plans in place for a replacement.
There’s also a change of culture going on at the club, which means that they basically already have their next star name coming through anyway in the form of Warren Zaire-Emery, so I’m not sure there’d be a big rush for a marquee signing like Leao to replace Mbappe even if he did decide to move on.
If Luis Enrique is going to be there for the long term, a lot of the focus will be on working out which players fit into his plans. They had a very bloated squad that needed thinning out over the last couple of years and so they’ll be keen to avoid over-spending and ending up in that kind of situation again.
So, overall, I don’t see PSG necessarily looking for a like-for-like replacement for Mbappe, it will be more of a case of continuing this cultural shift that we’ve seen being put into place over the last couple of years.
What next for Karim Benzema after failing to secure return to Europe?
Karim Benzema’s future has been the subject of much discussion this January and it’s been suggested that another solution could be found for him at a different Saudi club. My understanding, however, is that he would have rather gone back to Europe – I don’t think the issues he’s having where he is at this moment in time would be solved by another move, especially a temporary one, within the Saudi Pro League.
For Benzema, it’s more that he wants to be back at a more familiar stage and style of football. There’s a desire to stay at the top level of football for the time he has left in his career, and Lyon held a special attraction as they were his first club and it presented an opportunity to come back to France.
It was a complicated deal for Lyon to work out, however, especially as Lyon had other pieces to put together to try their best to stay in Ligue 1. With Lyon, there was special interest from a special club, and that’s why Benzema was willing to listen, but I think in an ideal world he’d have rather returned to Lyon when they were still competing in Europe. If something like that comes up at the last minute then let’s see what happens, but at the time of writing it seems unlikely that anything is going to surface and that’s why, even though relations are a little tense at Al Ittihad, it seems most likely that this is just going to have to continue until it can be revisited in the summer.
Staying with Lyon, Nemanja Matic looks like an interesting signing from Rennes, and the team should benefit from his experience. It bolsters their options in that position but also gives them perhaps a better mix of characters to help them climb up the Ligue 1 table.
Things went sour surprisingly quickly for Matic at Rennes – he was sold a vision of how things were going to go for the club that didn’t turn into reality. There was also a change of manager, and things haven’t really worked out on the pitch, so he decided to move on and Lyon saw that opportunity to get them the kind of character who could be key for them.
It’s been disappointing for all parties involved that the Rennes move didn’t work out as expected, but it looks a good get for Lyon and I think it’ll help this squad that has been in need of leadership figures.
Bayern Munich steal a march on rivals to sign Sacha Boey
Sacha Boey has completed a move from Galatasaray to Bayern Munich this January and it looks like a good step up for him. Of course we know Bayern looked at other options such as Kieran Trippier and we also know that Boey had admirers in the Premier League and elsewhere. Bayern probably started out intending to make more of a short-term move, but once those became problematic I can see why Boey looked like a tempting option. A number of other clubs will likely be disappointed to see that he’s joined Bayern and is no longer available.
It’s a challenging move for Boey but one that I think can get the best out of him. For the long-term I think it’s a good fit for Bayern as well – they’ve done well to do this now as it means they’ve almost certainly stolen a march on a few other clubs who would have liked to do this deal in the summer.
It’s rare that we see top European clubs making long-term permanent moves like this in January, and it’s certainly been the case this year in comparison to last winter when we saw Chelsea and others spending big. But the circumstances perhaps demanded it at Bayern, and it will be interesting to see now how he responds to the pressure of hitting the ground running and showing himself to be a good acquisition in the long term.
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/transfer-news-rafael-leao-psg-karim-benzema-latest-and-more/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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Highlights
- The Golden State Warriors may need to make trades to salvage their underwhelming season.
- Andrew Wiggins is the most likely player to be moved before the trade deadline.
- Klay Thompson and Wiggins have seen a steep decline in their scoring output this season.
The Golden State Warriors have had a largely underwhelming season, whereby their usually reliable stars have virtually been non-factors on both offense and defense, leading superstar Stephen Curry to shoulder much of the workload on the offensive side of the ball, in particular.
In an effort to overcome these shortcomings, NBA insider Mark Medina proposes that one of the Warriors’ only solutions is to make some trades, though, he argues that their available assets are not at their best value this season due to their poor on-court production.
Possibility of breaking up the band
Wiggins, Thompson, Paul all linked with moves away from the Bay Area
Sitting in a mere 12th place in the Western Conference with a lowly 20-24 record, the Warriors are in uncharted territory, having been used to competing at the top of the standings for much of the last decade.
This came as a particular surprise to them, having made championship-or-bust-type moves during the summer off-season, choosing to add future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul into a rotation which already featured two other NBA All-Star guards, and sacrificing developmental pieces along the way.
Now, they may have to resort to extreme measures to salvage their, so far, beyond disappointing season that could have been much worse had it not been for the offensive prowess of Steph Curry, who has shouldered virtually all of the Warriors' offensive production.
Having one of the highest tax bills in the Association, recorded at $206 million, rumors have recently emerged that Golden State are now considering shaking up the roster entirely, with The Athletic’s Shams Charania reporting that the Warriors are likely open to taking calls on Paul, Andrew Wiggins, and possibly even Klay Thompson.
This comes despite previous reports that the organization were remaining firm on their stance of not entertaining the possibility of trading the other half of the 'Splash Brothers' duo.
Out of those three assets, though, it seems that Wiggins is the most likely to be moved on before the trade deadline, and with him being in the first season of his four-year, $109 million extension, the Warriors would not have to include a draft-pick in a deal to get him off the books.
Warriors are in ‘weird position’
Medina argues that a solution that the Warriors can make to fix their shortcomings so far this season is by making a trade, but he feels as though they’re in a strange position, whereby they have a lot of assets to offer, but they wouldn’t be able to maximize any potential returns as their pieces are not at their best value, alluding to the likes of Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, in particular.
“One solution is to make a trade before the deadline. The Warriors are in such a weird position, that outside of Steph Curry, who isn’t going anywhere, they have a lot of assets to offer, but they're not at their best value.
And so with that, they're in this weird position where, on one hand, they need to be deliberate with what they offer, and at what price, but they might not get the full price that they deserve because their assets of value aren’t as high as they could be.”
The steep decline of Wiggins and Thompson
Combine for 30.1 PPG, 7.6 REB, 4.0 AST
Two of the Warriors’ leading offensive contributors in seasons past, Wiggins and Thompson, have both looked a shell of their former selves this season.
For Thompson, despite still being Golden State’s second-leading scorer, he is still averaging the lowest scoring output since the 2013-14 season, averaging a measly 17.6 points per contest, having surpassed 20-plus points per season for seven straight years.
Known more for his three-point range, having averaged 40-plus percent from deep in nine of his first 10 seasons in the league, the 33-year-old has plateaued and is shooting only 38.5 percent from behind the arc, a career-low that ties him with his output in the 2021-22 season.
Thompson is suffering his biggest drop-off in scoring in catch-and-shoot, where he is converting only 38.5 percent of his shot attempts for an average of 9.0 points per game. Last season, he averaged 10.7 points in catch-and-shoot, with him connecting on 41.3 percent of his attempts.
Instead, he is having to rely more on his ability to shoot from pull-ups, where he is converting an improved 43.7 percent of his shots, up from 2022-23 where he averaged only 39.7 percent, though, his point scoring output is severely down, averaging only 3.8 pull-up points compared to last year’s outing of 6.1 points.
Similarly, Wiggins’ scoring has suffered a steep decline, where he is averaging a career-low 12.5 points per game, down some margin from his career average of 18.1 points.
Like Thompson, the 28-year-old has seen his sharpest decline in catch-and-shoot, whereby he is only averaging 2.6 points on a mere 28.6 percent shooting efficiency, compared to his 7.1 points on a much improved 43.9 percent shooting efficiency last season.
In total, his effective field goal percentage has dropped from 56.0 percent last season, to only 48.8 percent this season.
Overall, it appears that Wiggins is the Warriors’ most likely trade candidate over the likes of Thompson and Paul, as they may have no choice but to mix up the roster as they look to regain some form and momentum that they will be hoping will at least give them an opportunity to make the Play-In tournament and leave their playoff fate in their own hands.
However, with such poor production from their leading trade assets, Golden State may find it difficult to offload such a hefty salary, in Wiggins’ case, when he has demonstrated little return in his production.
For Thompson, teams may not be willing to meet the Warriors’ asking price for a four-time champion who is not only on an expiring contract but is also entering the latter stages of his career and hasn’t looked the same since his back-to-back season-ending injuries.
Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the Warriors will be able to bring in any adjustments at the deadline, or whether they may have to stick with what they’ve got and look ahead to next season and beyond.
All statistics courtesy of Statmuse, ESPN, NBA.com and Basketball Reference.
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https://www.givemesport.com/warriors-potential-trade-assets-are-not-at-best-value/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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Senate Republicans demanded that President Biden's national security funding package for Ukraine be tied to policy changes to address the crisis at the southwest border. But now that negotiators say they are ready to release details of a bipartisan plan to reduce the surge of migrants at the border, Republican divisions could scuttle the plan.
Months of negotiations between the Republicans, Democrats and the Biden administration officials are now threatened by politics. Former President Trump, the GOP's likely 2024 presidential nominee, has been publicly slamming the deal and urging lawmakers to oppose it.
Negotiators started the week promising to release a bill in the coming days. But by Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to signal he's ready to move on, and focus on getting money to two key U.S. allies at war.
"It's time for us to move something, hopefully including the border agreement, but we need to get help to Israel and Ukraine, quickly," McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters.
McConnell has consistently argued that divided government is the moment to extract demands on border policy from Democrats.
Pressed about what voters would think of GOP lawmakers who sink a bill because Trump directed them to, McConnell sidestepped the question. "I still favor trying to make law when you can" and said what the bipartisan group is working on is better than current immigration law, adding, "you're asking me, a question I can't answer right now, which is the fate of it."
Senators already know key details
The top Democratic negotiator working on a border plan, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has signaled for days that the deal is basically done, but getting sign off from the GOP to move ahead is the hold up.
"We have a bipartisan agreement to help address the crisis at the border. Republicans have been desperate for that. Why would they walk away from it?"
Senate Republicans huddled at their weekly lunch on Wednesday to discuss next steps, but the consensus coming out of the meeting was that lawmakers want to see the details.
But after weeks of negotiations, the key provisions have already been explained to lawmakers from both parties.
The bill includes several tools to address the border, including: giving the president the ability to shutdown the border if the numbers of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. climbs above a certain threshold, adjusting the rules for who qualifies for asylum and allowing migrants authorization to work while awaiting adjudication of their asylum claim.
Extended negotiations opened space for critics
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the effort is "an uphill climb" because as the talks have continued, some members have impressions about what the proposal will do and "there are certain people who will never change their mind."
Tillis has said a border plan needs to get the majority of Senate Republicans in order to move ahead. But Trump injecting himself into the process has caused many lawmakers to refrain from backing the framework, making it tougher to meet that test.
Oklahoma GOP Sen. Jim Lankford is crafting the plan along with Murphy and Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Lankford spent time on Sunday talk shows swatting down leaks about the plan that conservative media outlets are painting as a green light for 5,000 additional migrants a day.
Texas Republican Sen, John Cornyn, who was an early advocate of linking money for Ukraine to changes to the Biden administration's policies, said people need time to see an official piece of legislation.
"People are talking about what they think is in it, and what they've heard is in it, what's not in it,' Cornyn told reporters. "I think the first thing we need to do is see where the conference is based on the text rather than just based on rumors and hearsay."
Tillis called Wednesday's meeting "a good discussion." But added, "I would ask those same members who are calling for time to read it, but not judge something they haven't read."
Others who came out against the bill already are already dismissing the proposals.
"I think this is a bad bill," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., told reporters. "And the simplest reason is it doesn't solve the problem."
Cruz blamed Senate Democrats for crafting a bill that "allows Joe Biden to continue the open borders," despite the months of bipartisan negotiations that have taken place. President Biden endorsed the proposal and said last week if Congress passes it he would immediately shutdown the border.
Some optimisim remains
Murphy remained optimistic on Wednesday that the deal would survive and come to the floor for a vote, possibly as soon as this week.
He said a "sizable, important group of Republican senators" are making a good faith effort to get something done on the border, and suggested that others are making disingenuous arguments about needing to see the full text.
"This is not a detailed study of the issue. This is a question as to whether they are going to put Trump before solving the problem," Murphy said.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wskg.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/senate-gop-split-threatens-bipartisan-border-deal-as-trump-looms-large
| 2024-01-31T23:47:01Z
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HBO has traditionally allowed the mercurial Larry David to decide whether or not there would be more seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but to Variety, he now says this is it.
At Tuesday night’s Los Angeles red carpet premiere for the forthcoming 12th and final season, David acknowledged to the trade that he’s said the show was over many times before.
“Yeah, I said it before. But I wasn’t 76 when I said it,” he noted.
The Seinfeld co-creator also expressed of the Emmy-winning show, “It’s time. Twelve years, that’s a lot for a television show — over 24 years. It was time.”
The series, which began in 1999 as a one-off mockumentary about David’s alleged return to stand-up comedy, launched as a series in 2000.
HBO had always given David a wide berth to return for subsequent seasons at his leisure. For instance, there was a six-year gap between seasons eight and nine.
During its run, the show racked up 51 Emmy nominations with two wins, including an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy in 2002.
Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s 12th season kicks off on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max.
New episodes will debut subsequent Sundays at the same time, leading up to the series finale on April 7.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/its-time-larry-david-on-ending-curb-your-enthusiasm-for-good/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:00Z
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LAHORE - FG Polo and DS Polo emerged victorious in the Bank of Punjab (BoP) 95th Punjab Polo Cup matches played here at the Lahore Polo Club on Wednesday. The event was graced by Lahore Polo Club President Malik Azam Hayat Noon, members of the executive committee, and numerous polo enthusiasts who gathered to witness the high-goal season action. In the day’s opening match, FG Polo recorded an impressive 6-3 triumph over BN Polo. FG Polo’s triumph was spearheaded by Argentinian player Raul Laplacette, who scored all six goals for his team. BN Polo’s effort included two goals from Santiago Loza and one from Hamza Mawaz Khan. The second match of the day was a closely fought contest between DS Polo and Olympia/AZB Polo, with DS Polo edging out their opponents 6-5 in a sudden death chukker. DS Polo’s English player Max Charlton was the star of the match, scoring five goals, while teammate Daniyal Shaikh added one.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/fg-ds-polo-record-wins-in-bop-95th-punjab-polo-cup
| 2024-01-31T23:47:03Z
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Celebrating the fourth anniversary of the fan-favorite hit series, a special fan event is set to take over an Anaheim cafe and turn into a celebration of The Owl House.
What’s Happening:
- Dana Terrace, creator of the hit Disney Channel series, The Owl House, has taken to Instagram to share details of a fan event celebrating the series.
- Themed to Grom, the fan event will take over the Requiem Cafe in Anaheim, California, From February 3rd to February 17th, 2024.
- Seen only once in the hit series, Grom is the one night each year that Hexside school commemorates Grometheus’s attempt to break out of the school and terrorize the Boiling Isles, with each year a Grom Monarch being selected to fight the monster and keep it at bay for another year. In the series, Amity is selected as Grom Queen, despite her displeasure. Luz volunteers to take her place, and leads to one of the most memorable moments in the entire series.
- Celebrating the 4 year anniversary of The Owl House, Requiem’s menu will be transformed and the shop will be decorated with Hexside and Grom banners, standees, and backdrops. The location will also be celebrating Dana's art with special art prints including special signed risographs prints.
- Fans can look forward to a Grom emo night dance party on Valentine's day (February 14th) and a special panel event with Dana and voice actors at the end of the event to cap everything off. These two days will be ticketed (on sale soon on Requiem’s official website), but every other day will be open to the public and walk-ins will be allowed.
- Requiem Cafe, located in Anaheim, California, specializes in themed treats celebrating fandoms. It boasts an immersive environment where patrons can escape to a world of fantasy and be themselves authentically.
- Specializing in artesian coffee, tea and fantasy inspired food selections, Requiem hosts a humble and accessible environment for patrons to enjoy a sense of daily escapism. From tabletop games to reading your favorite book; Requiem welcomes everyone to enjoy all they have to offer,
- The Owl House, which aired on Disney Channel from 2020 – 2023, follows Luz, a self-assured teenage human girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to the Boiling Isles. There, she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorably tiny warrior, King. Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.
- Though the series has ended, the show continues to rerun episodes on the Disney networks, and maintains a hugely loyal fan following.
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https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney-entertainment/the-owl-house-requiem-cafe/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:03Z
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Maybe I am a crowded mind
I watch your eyes glaze over
Stared down at the floor
You were amazing to me
I was amazing to you
But here we go again — O.A.R., “Love And Memories”
Indeed, here we go again!
The Cubs are the most likely landing spot for Cody Bellinger, multiple people in the baseball industry told me this week, although there is no indication that Bellinger is close to choosing a team. @MLBNetwork @670TheScore
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 30, 2024
Eventually, we probably have to turn these Morosi and Heyman tweets into a drinking game. Do these writers connect Cody Bellinger to the Cubs today? Drink!
Okay, I’m done being sarcastic, for this article at least. What I’d like to do today is take a look at the remaining Top 50 free agents, as listed by MLB Trade Rumors, and which teams they might sign with.
As of this morning, 15 of MLBTR’s Top 50 remain unsigned. Here’s my best guess as to who each of them will sign with, and a bit of my reasoning behind each.
Cody Bellinger: Cubs
Because reasons.
Seriously, though, the team and the player are just about a perfect fit. The Cubs know it. Bellinger knows it. Everyone knows it. It’s just a matter of waiting out the staring contest between Jed Hoyer and Scott Boras.
Blake Snell: Phillies
The Phillies have not hesitated to spend what they themselves call “stupid money,” and... well, Snell has had exactly two really good years. The rest have been mediocre-to-bad.
Jordan Montgomery: Rangers
Like Bellinger and the Cubs, this one makes perfect sense for both sides.
Matt Chapman: Giants
After the Giants finish second in the Cody Bellinger Derby, this would be a reasonable consolation prize.
Jorge Soler: Pirates
The Pirates did this with Soler’s 2016 Cubs teammate Aroldis Chapman. Why not get some decent games out of Soler as a DH, then flip him mid-season?
J.D. Martinez: Red Sox
He’s popular there and they need a DH with Justin Turner gone. Of course, Boston has shown no indication they want to spend this winter.
Mike Clevinger: Angels
Clevinger’s 2023 season was just okay, as was his 2022 season. He’s 33 and has had off-field issues. Why would any team pay big money for that?
Oh, right, Angels. He and Anthony Rendon will probably become great friends.
Michael Lorenzen: Tigers
Detroit got a decent four months out of him and a good return in trade. Why not try it again?
Gio Urshela: Blue Jays
The consolation prize for losing Matt Chapman.
Amed Rosario: Athletics
He wouldn’t cost much.
Whit Merrifield: Nationals
They’ve been pretty quiet this offseason. Merrifield could play multiple positions and provide veteran leadership for a very young team.
Brandon Belt: Pirates
Another guy the Buccos could flip at the deadline.
Jakob Junis: Padres
The Padres need a closer. Junis has never done it before, but why not? He throws hard, strikes out a lot of guys and doesn’t walk many.
Liam Hendriks: No one
Hendriks is recovering from Tommy John surgery and likely won’t pitch this year. Unless someone wants to give him a small contract for 2024 with an option for 2025, he might remain unsigned until next offseason.
Tim Anderson: Athletics
Anderson had the worst year of his career in 2023, had a memorable fight in Cleveland:
Tom Hamilton's call of the Jose Ramirez-Tim Anderson fight on Cleveland radio is the stuff of legend.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 6, 2023
"DOWN GOES ANDERSON! DOWN GOES ANDERSON!" pic.twitter.com/ZXSUW4eE0V
... and isn’t seen as a great clubhouse guy. The A’s would be a good purgatory for him.
Okay, your turn.
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https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2024/1/31/24056229/cody-bellinger-watch-23-days-cubs-spring-training-opener
| 2024-01-31T23:47:03Z
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https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/westminster-town-hall-forum-explores-truth-seeking/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:04Z
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Big Four boost
Pay rise for KPMG partners despite profits fall
KPMG’s UK partners enjoyed a 4% rise in pay despite profit before tax falling 19% to £364 million from £449m in the previous year and the firm paying out millions of pounds in fines.
The Big Four accountancy group earned fees of £2.96 billion in the year to the end of September, 9% jigher than the £2.72 billion it attracted in the previous 12 months.
With a slowdown in the deals market, the only service line that did not report growth was deal advisory, with fees down 6%.
It attributed the slide to a sharp rise in staff costs, with headcount increasing by 12% year-on-year to 17,200.
Equity partners received an average of £786,000 with an additional £40,000 (gross equivalent) allocated to their capital account.
While this was up on the previous year it was below that of the firm’s Big Four peers. EY rewarded its partners with an average of £761,000 last year, while PwC and Deloitte paid £906,000 and £1.06m, respectively.
During the year KPMG was hit with a number of fines by the Financial Reporting Council for below standard audits. Among them was a record £23m penalty for failures in its auditing of Carillion, the collapsed construction group.
Jon Holt, chief executive and senior partner in the UK, said: “Our people have worked exceptionally hard to deliver strong revenue growth against a challenging economic backdrop.
“I am confident that our long-term strategy is delivering and putting the right foundations in place to transform the business for future, sustainable growth.”
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https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2024/01/pay-rise-for-kpmg-partners-despite-profits-fall/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:04Z
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From the occupied West Bank, an emergency hotline assists rescue efforts in Gaza By Aya Batrawy Published January 31, 2024 at 5:39 PM EST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:17 NPR visits an emergency hotline center in the West Bank assisting first responders in the Gaza Strip. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.wvtf.org/2024-01-31/from-the-occupied-west-bank-an-emergency-hotline-assists-rescue-efforts-in-gaza
| 2024-01-31T23:47:05Z
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Southern Gaza has seen the heaviest fighting over the past few weeks. But bombing has restarted in the north and the humanitarian situation has worsened there.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Southern Gaza has seen the heaviest fighting over the past few weeks. But bombing has restarted in the north and the humanitarian situation has worsened there.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.klcc.org/npr-world-news/2024-01-31/as-israel-resumes-bombing-in-the-north-thousands-of-gazans-face-desperate-conditions
| 2024-01-31T23:47:05Z
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The WNBA offseason jumped to light speed on Wednesday with a series of free agency and trade announcements. The Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks got into the mix with a blockbuster deal that will see the Storm send the No. 4 overall pick and Kia Nurse to the Sparks for their 2026 first-round pick.
"Being able to add a player with Kia's skillset and experience will fill a big role for us this season and I look forward to seeing her impact," Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley stated in a press release. "Adding a second lottery pick also assures another significant addition to our roster in 2024. We're thrilled about both and what they will be able to accomplish here in Los Angeles."
While the Storm announced the deal, key figures for the team did not make any comments.
With the trade now complete, let's grade it for both sides.
Sparks receive
- Kia Nurse
- 2024 No. 4 pick
The Sparks fell apart down the stretch last season, losing five of their final seven games to miss out on the final playoff spot by one game. Though their playoff drought reached a franchise-worst three seasons, a trip to the lottery was for the best long-term. That fact was confirmed during the lottery when the Sparks won the No. 2 overall selection in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Now, they'll have two of the top-four picks in what is widely believed to be one of the best draft classes of all time. That is somewhat dependant on how many of the top prospects end up declaring for the draft, but even in a worst-case scenario, the Sparks will be adding two extremely talented players to the mix for next season.
There are a number of high-ceiling frontcourt players in this class, which is likely why the Sparks decided to add another lottery selection. They'll need to find a replacement for longtime star Nneka Ogwumike, who made a surprise announcement that she's going to leave the club in free agency.
In addition, the Sparks add Kia Nurse a former first-round pick who will add some much-needed wing depth. Nurse made the All-Star Game in her second season, but missed all of 2022 while recovering from a torn ACL and struggled to regain her form with the Storm last season. Now two years removed from the injury, Nurse could be in for a bounce-back campaign and is a smart low-risk bet for Curt Miller and Co.
While the Sparks did give up a first in 2026, there's no guarantee that will be a lottery pick and this is a more talented class.
Grade: A
Storm receive
- 2026 first-round pick via Sparks
As expected, the Storm took a big step back last season without Sue Bird (retirement) and Brenna Stewart (left in free agency). But while they finished in 11th place at 11-29, the WNBA's lottery format, which uses an aggregate record of the past two seasons, left them with poor odds for the top pick.
They didn't have any luck in the lottery and wound up with the No. 4 pick in a draft that, while deep, has a clear top-three in Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink. Even worse, the next best players are mostly bigs and the Storm already have a budding young star in Ezi Magbegor. As such, it's not all that surprising that they decided to trade their pick.
This deal, in a vacuum, is a loss for them. They gave up a lottery pick and a serviceable wing for a future first. However, it is likely the first domino in a series of moves. Trading Nurse frees up a roster spot and gives them more flexibility in free agency. They've been linked to Nneka Ogwumike and could have other moves up their sleeve with $566,424 in cap space. That is more than enough for two max players, and still leaves room for them to fill out the roster.
For now, this trade has to be graded as incomplete. If the extra spending power helps them add multiple stars this winter, then it's a major win. But if they strike out, it could go down as a huge mistake, especially if the Sparks' 2026 first is not in the lottery.
Grade: Incomplete
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https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/wnba-trade-grades-sparks-add-second-lottery-pick-kia-nurse-from-storm-in-blockbuster-deal/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:05Z
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The House looked to accomplish something unusual Wednesday in passing with broad, bipartisan support a roughly $79 billion tax cut package that would enhance the child tax credit and boost three tax breaks for businesses, a combination that gives lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle coveted policy wins.
Prospects for the measure becoming law are uncertain with the Senate still having to take it up, but for a House that has struggled to get bills of consequence over the finish line, the tax legislation could represent a rare breakthrough. Debate and a final vote on the measure are scheduled for the evening.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., threw his support behind the bill on Wednesday morning. He spent part of the previous day meeting with GOP lawmakers who were concerned about features of the bill, namely the expanded child tax credit. Some were also unhappy that it fails to address the $10,000 cap on the total amount of property taxes or state or local taxes that consumers can deduct on their federal returns. Raising the cap is a top priority of lawmakers from members of the New York congressional delegation.
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Johnson committed to moving a bill that addresses the cap, but there is no bill text yet and legislation would have to move through the House Rules Committee, which leaves the timing very much in flux. Athina Lawson, a spokeswoman for Johnson, said the speaker and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., agreed to work with members to “find a path forward."
Johnson called the tax cut bill on the House floor important, bipartisan legislation that would revive “conservative pro-growth tax reform.” He also said that it would bring an early end to a "wasteful COVID-era program" that has been plagued with fraud. Moving up the deadline for claiming the employee retention tax credit is expected to largely offset the cost of the tax cuts in the legislation.
Johnson also emphasized the importance of the bill moving through the House Ways and Means Committee before coming to the full House for a vote, saying it was a good example of how Congress is supposed to work.
U.S. & World
House Republicans were anxious to restore full, immediate deductions that businesses can take for the purchase of new equipment and machinery, and for domestic research and development expenses. They argue such investments grow the economy and incentivize American companies to keep their manufacturing facilities and operations in the United States. The bill also provides businesses more flexibility in determining how much borrowing can be deducted.
“Each of these policies will help American businesses grow, create jobs and sharpen their competitive advantage against China,” Smith said as debate began on the House floor.
What changes are proposed for the new child tax credit?
The tax credit is $2,000 per child, but not all of that is refundable. The bill would incrementally raise the amount of the credit available as a refund, increasing it to $1,800 for 2023 tax returns, $1,900 for the following year and $2,000 for 2025 tax returns. The bill also adjusts the topline credit amount to temporarily grow at the rate of inflation.
Households benefitting as a result of the changes in the child tax credit would see an average tax cut of $680 in the first year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Democrats pushed to restore the more generous tax credit they passed in 2021 in President Joe Biden's first year in office with payments occurring on a monthly basis. The credit was $3,600 annually for children under age 6 and $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. But most lawmakers were willing to take what gains they could get through the compromise bill.
“I'll continue to do what I can to fight for more,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. “...We aren't reaching all the families who really can use the child tax credit the most.”
The bill also would enhance a tax credit for the construction or rehabilitation of rental housing targeted to lower-income households, adding an estimated 200,000 housing units around the country. And it would ensure victims of certain wildfires and the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment don't get hit with a big tax bill for payments they received as compensation for their losses.
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https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/house-votes-on-child-tax-credit-and-business-breaks-expansion/3150665/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:06Z
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Michigan school shooter’s mom was worried he might do ‘something dumb,’ friend says
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Hours before a 2021 mass school shooting in Michigan, the mother of a teenager who killed four students said she was worried that he was “going to do something dumb,” a man who had a close relationship with her testified Wednesday.
Brian Meloche said Jennifer Crumbley explained to him that she had to go to Oxford High School after a teacher discovered a violent drawing on Ethan Crumbley’s math assignment the morning of the tragedy.
“Something with Ethan. (She) was worried he was going to do something dumb,” Meloche said.
Meloche, who was having an extramarital affair with Jennifer Crumbley at the time, said he knew through social media posts that the parents had recently purchased a gun for the boy.
“I asked where the firearm was. … If something was going to occur it would produce immediate irreparable damage,” Meloche testified.
Meloche spoke on the fifth day of trial in the involuntary manslaughter case against Jennifer Crumbley. She and husband James Crumbley are accused of ignoring their son’s mental health needs and making a gun accessible at home. Four students were killed Nov. 30, 2021, and more were wounded.
A meeting between school staff and the Crumbleys before the shooting has been a focal point in the case.
The parents were presented with a disturbing drawing their son had scrawled on an assignment. It depicted a gun and bullet and the lines, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is useless.”
The school recommended that the couple get him help as soon as possible, but they declined to take him home, saying they needed to return to work, a counselor has testified. Their son stayed in school and later pulled a handgun from his backpack to fire at students.
The Crumbleys are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child.
Meloche and Jennifer Crumbley repeatedly exchanged messages until her arrest four days later. Pages of their communications were shared with the jury.
Jennifer Crumbley told Meloche she was angry at the school for not checking her son’s backpack for a gun. She claimed the gun had been properly secured at home. She also said she didn’t know how her son’s “brain snapped.”
Her new priorities, according to a message: “Staying out of jail and not going into a financial hole.”
Long before trial, Judge Cheryl Matthews barred prosecutors from disclosing the affair. Jennifer Crumbley dropped her opposition during a lively exchange among attorneys on both sides of the case.
“Her life is more important than her dignity,” Jennifer Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, said. “She had an affair. Lots of people have affairs. Doesn’t mean you know your kid’s a school shooter. Doesn’t mean you know your child is going to kill people.”
Earlier Wednesday, the jury heard more of the prosecution’s effort to portray Jennifer Crumbley as a cold, thoughtless parent whose gross negligence contributed to the deaths.
Hours after the shooting, she said her son was “going to have to suffer” as a result of what happened, an investigator testified.
“I found that odd,” said Detective Lt. Sam Marzban of the Oakland County sheriff’s office. “She was referring to someone who was her son.”
Marzban was in charge of getting a warrant to search the Crumbley home and collect their phones.
“I told her that there were several dead kids and kids shot in the school. It was on the national news. Even the president had addressed it,” Marzban testified.
Jennifer Crumbley seemed “irritated and frustrated,” he said, especially about giving up her phone.
He said investigators were interested in the phones after seeing text messages from the parents on their son’s phone.
“Ethan don’t do it,” Jennifer Crumbley, 45, wrote about an hour after the shooting started.
Smith said last week that Jennifer Crumbley was referring to her son possibly killing himself.
Seventeen-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, is serving a life sentence. James Crumbley, 47, faces trial on involuntary manslaughter charges in March.
The jury also learned how the parents, possessing more than $6,000, were captured by police. Roughly 13 hours after charges were announced, they were found on a mattress at an acquaintance’s Detroit art studio, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of their home.
A sharp-eyed coffee roaster in the building said he spotted their car in the parking lot and called 911.
Smith insists the parents were not on the run. She has said they couldn’t stay at home because they had received threats and that they had planned to voluntarily appear in court.
___
Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/michigan-school-shooters-mom-was-worried-he-might-do-something-dumb-friend-says/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:06Z
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It was four goals for Liverpool, Luis Diaz sliding home against a static Chelsea defence, but it could’ve been so many more.
Darwin Nunez hit the woodwork on four separate occasions, the most in one game since records began (TNT Sports), and had those shots gone in, Mauricio Pochettino would surely have been looking at his P45 at the conclusion of the match.
Chelsea were second best all night long, and Liverpool were clinical in their finishing, Diaz sending the Kop wild.
?GOAL | Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea | Luis Diazpic.twitter.com/fusJpyaQap
— VAR Tático (@vartatico) January 31, 2024
???????? GOAL | Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea | Luis Diaz
LUIS DIAZ MAKES IT FOUR !!!!!!pic.twitter.com/cK14C4f7Rr
— Tekkers Foot (@tekkersfoot) January 31, 2024
Luis Diaz SCORES!!
? 4-1 Liverpool FC vs Chelsea FC
WATCH EVERY GOAL ? https://t.co/2w98QqADfX#PL #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/i9l2jmXJK2
— FuboCanada ?? (@fuboTVCanada) January 31, 2024
Pictures from beIN Sports, V Sport and fuboTV
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/video-luis-diaz-slides-home-liverpools-fourth-in-front-of-ecstatic-kop/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:06Z
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Updated January 31, 2024 at 5:33 PM ET
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday but signaled that rates could fall in the coming months if inflation continues to cool.
Policy makers have kept their benchmark interest rate between 5.25% and 5.5% — the highest in over two decades — since July.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell told reporters Wednesday that interest rates are unlikely to go any higher, and that he and his colleagues are beginning to contemplate cutting rates.
"If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year," Powell said.
He cautioned, however, that the economy remains unpredictable and said the central bank would proceed cautiously.
"The economic outlook is uncertain and we remain highly attentive to inflation risks," Powell said.
The Fed has been pleasantly surprised by the rapid drop in inflation in recent months. Core prices in December — which exclude food and energy prices — were up just 2.9% from a year ago, according to the Fed's preferred inflation yardstick. That's a smaller increase than the 3.2% core inflation rate that Fed officials had projected in December.
If that positive trend continues, the Fed may be able to start cutting interest rates as early as this spring. First, though, Powell said he and his colleagues will need to see additional evidence that inflation is easing.
And he sounded doubtful about a rate cut at the Fed's next meeting in March as many investors in Wall Street had hoped for.
"Based on the meeting today, I would tell you that I don't think it's likely the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting," Powell said. "But that's to be seen."
The comments disappointed investors, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 317 points.
Investors are still hopeful about a rate cut by the following Fed meeting in May, with markets putting the likelihood of that at better than 90%.
Good omens in the economy
Both the economy and the job market have performed better than expected over the last year, despite the highest interest rates since 2001. The nation's gross domestic product grew 3.1% in 2023, while employers added 2.7 million jobs
Unemployment has been under 4%for nearly two years. And average wages in December were up 4.1% from a year ago.
While that strong economy is welcome news for businesses and workers, it also raises the risk of reigniting inflation. As a result, Fed policymakers say they'll be cautious not to cut interest rates prematurely.
"We have history on this," Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic told the Rotary Club of Atlanta this month. "In the '70s, the Fed started removing accommodation too soon. Inflation spiked back up. Then we had to tighten. Inflation came down. Then we removed it again. Inflation went back up. And by the time we were done with that, all Americans could think about was inflation."
The Fed is determined not to repeat that '70s show. At the same time, waiting too long to cut interest rates risks slowing the economy more than necessary to bring inflation under control.
A report from the Labor Department Wednesday showed employers' cost for labor rose more slowly than expected in the final months of last year. Labor costs increased just 0.9% in the fourth quarter. That's a smaller increase than the previous quarter, suggesting labor costs are putting less upward pressure on prices.
Fed officials promised to keep an eye on upcoming economic data and adjust accordingly.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wskg.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/the-federal-reserve-holds-interest-rates-steady-but-signals-rate-cuts-may-be-coming
| 2024-01-31T23:47:07Z
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Listeners:
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(PONTIAC, Mich.) — Brian Meloche, a longtime friend of Jennifer Crumbley and with whom she was having an affair with at the time of the 2021 Oxford School shooting, took the stand to testify in her manslaughter trial on Wednesday.
In texts sent after the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley told Meloche that the shooting “could have been prevented,” according to evidence. In other texts, she told him the school was “nonchalant” about concerns surrounding Ethan Crumbley and said that the school should have taken the concerns seriously and not allowed him to return to class.
Jennifer Crumbley and James Crumbley are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the school shooting, which was carried out by their then-15-year-old son Ethan Crumbley. James Crumbley is being tried in a separate trial in March.
Ethan Crumbley has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing four students and injuring seven others in November 2021.
After Jennifer Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, questioned Meloche — suggesting that police intimidated and threatened him into providing his testimony — prosecutors sought to allow the judge to include evidence that the two had an affair. In a previous ruling, Judge Cheryl Matthews excluded all evidence regarding their extramarital affair.
The jury was excused from the room and Matthews spoke directly to Jennifer Crumbley, who said she supported her attorney’s decision to admit information about the affair into evidence.
Meloche, a fire department captain, initially appeared to testify that police interviewing him threatened his job and benefits, including his pension, if he helped Jennifer Crumbley by refusing to share information. However, he later clarified that he was pressured by police to share information about the Crumbleys but was always told to tell the truth. Meloche admitted on the stand that he did not want his affair to be revealed and had sought to protect his family and wife by withholding information.
Meloche testified Wednesday that Jennifer Crumbley had told him she was able to leave work to meet up with him even though she allegedly told school officials on the day of the shooting that she could not take her son home or for mental health care that day because she needed to return to work.
Jennifer and James Crumbley decided to send their son back to class despite a meeting the morning of the shooting in which school officials expressed concerns about him.
Andrew Smith, the CEO of the real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley worked at the time of the shooting, testified on Tuesday that she would have been allowed to leave for the day if she needed to take care of her son and could have brought him to work if she needed.
Meloche testified about conversations he had with Jennifer Crumbley in the days leading up to and after the shooting. The two texted regularly leading up to the shooting and in the days after it.
Meloche said he regularly deleted the messages between himself and Jennifer Crumbley. He testified that one of the deleted texts from her — sent on the day of the shooting — said that the gun was gone. He responded, telling her to contact police.
Meloche told Crumbley in texts before she was arrested that she needed to “disappear” when she was allowed to do so.
Prior to the shooting, Meloche said he was aware that the Crumbleys had gotten a handgun for their son and said he was “surprised” that they chose to do so. Meloche also testified that he did not believe Jennifer Crumbley should have been charged, but has since learned more information that makes him believe otherwise.
Meloche testified he didn’t think a shooting would take place, but he thought that Ethan Crumbley might hurt himself.
Evidence shown in court of the text messages also showed an unsent message from Jennifer Crumbley to Meloche in which she told him that the gun was locked with a string lock.
“I’ll never be OK I lost my son. And he’s a murderer and I’ll forever have to live with the guilt of that. I’m not even sure life is worth living anymore,” Crumbley said in another message that was never sent.
Meloche testified that the two normally met in the parking lot of a Costco across the street from her job during the morning hours of work days, when Ethan Crumbley was at school. He testified that he never felt that Jennifer Crumbley did not care about her son.
He stopped communicating with Jennifer Crumbley when he saw on the news that police were trying to apprehend her and her husband, Meloche testified. The last time the two communicated was Dec. 4, 2021, he said.
Lt. Sam Marzban, an Oakland County detective, also testified that Jennifer Crumbley did not want to hand over her phone to police and was concerned about being able to contact people while police were conducting a search.
Marzban testified that he told Crumbley she could get a replacement phone and asked that she share the number with police. Marzban said Jennifer Crumbley seemed “irritated and frustrated” but was not crying while police searched their house, just hours after the shooting.
The prosecution said it expects to call two more witnesses Thursday morning before they rest. The defense is expected to begin presenting its case in the afternoon.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Written by: ABC News
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https://jambroadcasting.com/man-who-had-affair-with-jennifer-crumbley-testifies-about-her-sons-school-shooting/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:07Z
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HYDERABAD - The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) during the ongoing operation against power thieves and defaulters detected 409 more power theft connections in the last 24 hours, including one industrial, five commercial and 403 domestic connections. The HESCO authorities disconnected all these connections and issued detection bills of 199,698 units worth of 5.945 million rupees to the consumers involved in the theft. According to the HESCO spokesperson, letters have been submitted to various police stations for registration of cases against 357 people involved in electricity theft, under which 34 FIRs have been registered. During the ongoing operation spanning 146 days, a total recovery of more than 10,559.8 million rupees has been made.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/hesco-anti-theft-operation-continues-409-more-illegal-connections-detected
| 2024-01-31T23:47:09Z
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Dozens of local students took a trip outside of the classroom today to Broward County’s Port Everglades to meet with Disney Cruise Line crew members and learn about careers in the maritime industry.
- While the Disney Dream was docked at the port, Disney Cruise Line partnered with Junior Achievement of South Florida to host an interactive career panel for students participating in JA Career Bound, a program designed to help students build work-readiness skills and gain knowledge of local industries.
- Students spoke to several Disney Cruise Line crew members and officers who work aboard the ship, in a range of areas, including human resources, guest services, and entertainment.
- Crew Members shared details with students about their roles, life at sea and tips for pursuing a maritime career.
- One of the panelists, Gabe Biser, human resources manager aboard the Disney Dream, is also a former Junior Achievement student. He said he appreciated his mentors in the program who encouraged him to learn about different career paths.
- Following the career panel, students explored Port Everglades, touring unique spaces, and getting a behind-the-scenes look at port and terminal operations.
- This initiative is part of Disney Cruise Line’s commitment to creating lasting, positive impact in its port communities by investing in youth education initiatives that provide awareness, access, and hands-on learning opportunities.
- Most recently, Disney Cruise Line announced new community investments with Junior Achievement South Florida in celebration of its arrival into Broward County and the grand opening of its dedicated cruise terminal this past November.
- Disney’s donation supports the Junior Achievement Career Bound and Pre-Apprenticeship programs, including a special marine service technician track that educates students about the maritime industry, marine basics, and engine fundamentals.
- DCL and Broward County previously announced a 15-year agreement that includes a minimum 10.6 million passenger movements, and three 5-year extension options that could add another 11.25 million passenger movements.
- The agreement provides for one ship to homeport in Port Everglades year-round, joined by a second, seasonal ship in 2025.
- Those interested in growing their career with Disney Cruise Line may visit DCLJobs.com to explore available roles and to learn more about cast and crew benefits.
What they’re saying:
- Tyler Hilaire, a senior student at McArthur High School and a Junior Achievement Career Bound Ambassador: “I joined the Junior Achievement Career Bound program because I want to learn about how to advance in a professional work environment to pursue my dream jobs. I learned today from Disney Cruise Line that there are so many interesting careers in this industry."
- Laurie Sallarulo, president & CEO of Junior Achievement of South Florida: “We’re grateful for Disney Cruise Line’s ongoing support. These initiatives play a pivotal role in shaping the future workforce by offering valuable insights and opportunities, and empowering young minds to navigate their career paths successfully.”
- Panelist Gabe Biser: “Being part of the cruise industry has been an incredible experience, and I am grateful for the mentors who guided me along my career journey. “It's an honor to share my experiences with these students, and I hope to inspire them to explore industries they may not be familiar with.”
- Glenn Wiltshire, Acting Director of Port Everglades: “We appreciated the opportunity to showcase our port’s diverse operations, including cargo, as part of the wealth of maritime careers available to our youth.”
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https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney-parks/disney-cruise-line-hosts-career-panel-for-high-school-students/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:09Z
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Young boy hit, killed by Metro Transit bus in Brooklyn Park
Wednesday evening, Metro Transit Police are investigating after a bus hit and killed a young boy. It happened on County Road 81 in Brooklyn Park just before 6 a.m. WCCO's Adam Duxter shares the few details we have right now.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/young-boy-hit-killed-by-metro-transit-bus-in-brooklyn-park/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:10Z
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Senate Republicans demanded that President Biden's national security funding package for Ukraine be tied to policy changes to address the crisis at the southwest border. But now that negotiators say they are ready to release details of a bipartisan plan to reduce the surge of migrants at the border, Republican divisions could scuttle the plan.
Months of negotiations between the Republicans, Democrats and the Biden administration officials are now threatened by politics. Former President Trump, the GOP's likely 2024 presidential nominee, has been publicly slamming the deal and urging lawmakers to oppose it.
Negotiators started the week promising to release a bill in the coming days. But by Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to signal he's ready to move on, and focus on getting money to two key U.S. allies at war.
"It's time for us to move something, hopefully including the border agreement, but we need to get help to Israel and Ukraine, quickly," McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters.
McConnell has consistently argued that divided government is the moment to extract demands on border policy from Democrats.
Pressed about what voters would think of GOP lawmakers who sink a bill because Trump directed them to, McConnell sidestepped the question. "I still favor trying to make law when you can" and said what the bipartisan group is working on is better than current immigration law, adding, "you're asking me, a question I can't answer right now, which is the fate of it."
Senators already know key details
The top Democratic negotiator working on a border plan, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has signaled for days that the deal is basically done, but getting sign off from the GOP to move ahead is the hold up.
"We have a bipartisan agreement to help address the crisis at the border. Republicans have been desperate for that. Why would they walk away from it?"
Senate Republicans huddled at their weekly lunch on Wednesday to discuss next steps, but the consensus coming out of the meeting was that lawmakers want to see the details.
But after weeks of negotiations, the key provisions have already been explained to lawmakers from both parties.
The bill includes several tools to address the border, including: giving the president the ability to shutdown the border if the numbers of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. climbs above a certain threshold, adjusting the rules for who qualifies for asylum and allowing migrants authorization to work while awaiting adjudication of their asylum claim.
Extended negotiations opened space for critics
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the effort is "an uphill climb" because as the talks have continued, some members have impressions about what the proposal will do and "there are certain people who will never change their mind."
Tillis has said a border plan needs to get the majority of Senate Republicans in order to move ahead. But Trump injecting himself into the process has caused many lawmakers to refrain from backing the framework, making it tougher to meet that test.
Oklahoma GOP Sen. Jim Lankford is crafting the plan along with Murphy and Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Lankford spent time on Sunday talk shows swatting down leaks about the plan that conservative media outlets are painting as a green light for 5,000 additional migrants a day.
Texas Republican Sen, John Cornyn, who was an early advocate of linking money for Ukraine to changes to the Biden administration's policies, said people need time to see an official piece of legislation.
"People are talking about what they think is in it, and what they've heard is in it, what's not in it,' Cornyn told reporters. "I think the first thing we need to do is see where the conference is based on the text rather than just based on rumors and hearsay."
Tillis called Wednesday's meeting "a good discussion." But added, "I would ask those same members who are calling for time to read it, but not judge something they haven't read."
Others who came out against the bill already are already dismissing the proposals.
"I think this is a bad bill," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., told reporters. "And the simplest reason is it doesn't solve the problem."
Cruz blamed Senate Democrats for crafting a bill that "allows Joe Biden to continue the open borders," despite the months of bipartisan negotiations that have taken place. President Biden endorsed the proposal and said last week if Congress passes it he would immediately shutdown the border.
Some optimisim remains
Murphy remained optimistic on Wednesday that the deal would survive and come to the floor for a vote, possibly as soon as this week.
He said a "sizable, important group of Republican senators" are making a good faith effort to get something done on the border, and suggested that others are making disingenuous arguments about needing to see the full text.
"This is not a detailed study of the issue. This is a question as to whether they are going to put Trump before solving the problem," Murphy said.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wvtf.org/2024-01-31/senate-gop-split-threatens-bipartisan-border-deal-as-trump-looms-large
| 2024-01-31T23:47:11Z
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World News From the occupied West Bank, an emergency hotline assists rescue efforts in Gaza By Aya Batrawy Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:17 NPR visits an emergency hotline center in the West Bank assisting first responders in the Gaza Strip. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.klcc.org/npr-world-news/2024-01-31/from-the-occupied-west-bank-an-emergency-hotline-assists-rescue-efforts-in-gaza
| 2024-01-31T23:47:11Z
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Today, on Oregon on the Record, we’re continuing our special four-part series on education by focusing on the role of counselor in schools. In many ways, these professionals are both an invaluable resource to kids trying to determine their future, and also a true confidant that can help them overcome the serious hurdles of depression, anxiety and other issues.
You'll hear from Springfield Public Schools Director of Special Programs, Dr. Brian Megert about the role of counselor and how they are a key member of the team that exists to help kids find their way in the sometimes difficult world of school.
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https://www.klcc.org/podcast/oregon-on-the-record/2024-01-31/the-evolving-role-of-school-counselors-an-oregon-on-the-record-series
| 2024-01-31T23:47:13Z
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Mississippi eyes quicker Medicaid coverage in pregnancy to try to reduce deaths of moms and babies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi could allow Medicaid coverage earlier in pregnancy in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of infant mortality.
With wide bipartisan support, the state House passed a bill Wednesday to allow up to 60 days of “presumptive eligibility” for Medicaid, starting July 1. This means a pregnant woman’s outpatient medical care would be paid by Medicaid as her application for coverage by the government insurance program is being considered.
Processing Medicaid applications can take weeks, and physicians say early prenatal care is important.
House Medicaid Committee Chairwoman Missy McGee of Hattiesburg pointed out that Mississippi has high rates of fetal mortality, infant mortality and maternal mortality.
“I think this will go a long way in helping moms and babies be healthy … and give babies the best shot for a healthy life,” McGee said.
Mississippi ranks worst in the U.S. for infant mortality, with Black infants nearly twice as likely as white ones to die over the past decade, according to a report unveiled Jan. 18 by the state Department of Health.
Presumptive Medicaid eligibility during pregnancy would be based on questions about income, asked by health care providers such as employees of county health departments. If a woman’s Medicaid application is ultimately rejected because her income is too high, Medicaid would still pay health care providers for services they provided during the time of presumptive eligibility.
McGee said presumptive eligibility could cost the Medicaid program just under $600,000 a year.
Medicaid is funded by federal and state governments, with the federal government paying at least 50% of costs in all states and a higher share in poorer states. The federal government pays for nearly 77% of Medicaid expenses in Mississippi.
In Mississippi, Medicaid coverage for pregnant women 19 and older is based on income. A woman who is in that age category and has no dependents can earn up to about $29,000 and qualify for Medicaid during pregnancy. A pregnant woman in that age category who has three dependents can earn up to $59,700 and qualify.
Mississippi Medicaid coverage is available to all income levels for those who are pregnant and younger than 19.
Democratic Rep. John Hines Sr. of Greenville said earlier eligibility for Medicaid coverage during pregnancy could help the state in recruiting OB-GYNs.
“Where we are right now is that we are last in everything,” Hines said. “This is a step toward making Mississippi a better place.”
The bill passed the House 117-5. It moves to the Senate for more work in coming weeks. Republicans control both chambers.
About 41% of births in the U.S. and 57% in Mississippi were financed by Medicaid in 2022, according to the health policy research group KFF. Only Louisiana had a larger share of births covered by Medicaid that year, at 61%.
In 2023, Mississippi extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year, with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves saying the change was part of a “new pro-life agenda” to help mothers in a state where abortion is tightly restricted.
____
Associated Press/Report For America reporter Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/mississippi-eyes-quicker-medicaid-coverage-in-pregnancy-to-try-to-reduce-deaths-of-moms-and-babies/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:12Z
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Though it was nothing more than a consolation for Chelsea, Christopher Nkunku’s goal showed glimpses of the skill that the Blues have missed for most of this season.
No sooner had the striker got back to full fitness this season than he was sidelined again, but his low drive into the corner silenced Anfield and gave Mauricio Pochettino a reason to be cheerful.
The player will surely be hoping that his injury hell is behind him, and that his goals can fire the Blues up the table in the second half of the Premier League campaign.
?GOAL | Liverpool 3-1 Chelsea | Nkunkupic.twitter.com/H7q8D46oUQ
— VAR Tático (@vartatico) January 31, 2024
Christopher Nkunku nice goal!pic.twitter.com/MiFhG0ePMn
— FootColic ?? (@FootColic) January 31, 2024
Christopher Nkunku SCORES!!
? 3-1 Liverpool FC vs Chelsea FC
WATCH EVERY GOAL ? https://t.co/2w98QqADfX#PL #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/S3GLx0s0ZW
— FuboCanada ?? (@fuboTVCanada) January 31, 2024
Pictures from beIN Sports, Viaplay and fuboTV
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/video-nkunku-scores-lovely-consolation-for-chelsea-at-liverpool/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:13Z
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Top tech CEOs were being grilled in Washington by lawmakers, who said the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
The executives include Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X's Linda Yaccarino and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, among others.
The social media apps have "given predators powerful new tools to exploit children," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. He noted that the powerful apps "have changed the way we live, work and play."
The hearing is one of several over the past year as pressure builds for federal regulators to do more to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety online. Lawmakers have spoken out, have written letters to the CEOs and are pushing five separate bills that cover social media and child safety.
States have also targeted the social media companies. Last year, 13 states passed laws to protect kids on social media, and more states are expected to do the same.
"You have blood on your hands," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells Zuckerberg
Of the companies testifying on Wednesday, Meta has especially come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for children. In October, a group of more than 40 states sued the company for allegedly designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive.
Separately, New Mexico's attorney general filed another suit against Meta, alleging it fails to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and also makes it easy for adults to solicit minors.
That lawsuit came after a Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in November. Based on data he collected while working at Facebook, he said he found that 24% of teens had received unwanted sexual advances. And when harmful posts are reported, he said, only 2% are taken down.
During Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid into Zuckerberg.
"Mr. Zuckerberg," Graham began, "you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people."
The packed audience, which included parents, survivors and child advocates, erupted in applause.
Zuckerberg has testified several times before members of the Senate, and he voluntarily agreed to speak again on Wednesday. In his opening statement, he said, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Internal emails show Zuckerberg declined to hire staff to protect children online
In the lead-up to Wednesday's hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Those include barring children under age 18 from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The company says it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security issues.
But just hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails that showed Meta has refused to fully commit to improving child safety on its platforms. At one point in 2021, the emails show, Zuckerberg declined a proposal to hire 45 new staff members dedicated to children's well-being.
The emails show top executives at Meta discussing budget and head count, as well as the fact that if they didn't address the issue they'd face increased regulatory risk and external criticism.
"This work & narrative has of course become a more critical focal point for policymakers, regulators et al in recent weeks — this is not likely to diminish going forward," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs wrote in a 2021 email to Zuckerberg.
The internal emails were produced in response to a letter that Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent to Meta in November.
Five federal bills introduced
Of the other executives to testify, TikTok's Chew has also appeared before Congresslast year, but this is the first time lawmakers have grilled X's Yaccarino and the two other CEOs: Snap's Evan Spiegel and Discord's Jason Citron. Chew volunteered to speak on Wednesday, but Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron agreed only after being subpoenaed.
Snap has come out as the sole social media company to throw its support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, which is one of the bills that lawmakers are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this year. If passed, it would hold tech companies accountable for feeding teens toxic content.
"Many of the largest and most successful internet companies today were born here in the United States of America, and we must lead not only in technical innovation but also in smart regulation," Snap's Spiegel said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
Throughout the hearing, several of the senators tried to get the tech CEOs to agree to back legislation. All of the executives said more had to be done and they agree with regulation, but besides Spiegel, none said they'd fully back one of the bills.
At one point Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., tried to get the CEOs to support legislation he and several other senators introduced, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.
"Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?" Coons asked the CEOs.
After the question didn't elicit a response, he followed up with: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Child safety groups and parents joined lawmakers for several press conferences on Wednesday. They echoed the senators' demands that more has to be done to protect kids online.
"Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m.," said Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. "These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wskg.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/you-have-blood-on-your-hands-senator-tells-mark-zuckerberg-for-failing-kids-online
| 2024-01-31T23:47:13Z
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There’s only one week left until Taylor Swift‘s first Eras Tour show of 2024. “We are all stretching to prep for that tour choreo,” Taylor Nation captioned an Instagram photo of Taylor’s beloved cat Olivia Benson stretching her leg in the air. “One more week until our first #TSTheErasTour show of the year!” Funnily enough, Taylor posted the same photo with a similar caption to her IG during the original Reputation era on February 5, 2018, leaving fans to speculate if the rerecorded version of that album was soon on the way. “THIS IS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE!! TELL US WHAT THIS MEANS??HELLO?? TAYLOR??” a fan commented on the post.
Billy Joel‘s new single “Turn the Lights Back On” arrives on Thursday, but you can hear a short clip from it now on his Instagram. “’Turn the Lights Back On’ will officially be out at 7am ET! Where will you be when it drops for the first time?” Billy captioned the video.
Ed Sheeran sang his heart out at a karaoke bar on Tuesday while on tour in Japan. He posted a video recapping the evening to Instagram, where he serenaded fans with his own hit track “Shape of You.” He captioned the video, “Surprised some Japanese fans at karaoke yesterday with @10969taka, great fun.”
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/music-notes-taylor-swift-billy-joel-and-more/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:14Z
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DOHA - Four-times champions Japan eased into the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup with a clinical 3-1 victory over Bahrain on Wednesday at Al Thumama Stadium with goals from Ritsu Doan, Takefusa Kubo and Ayase Ueda.
Bahrain coach Juan Anotnio Pizzi had been looking to heal old wounds after his Saudi Arabia team lost to Japan at the same stage in 2019 but Hajime Moriyasu’s side put in a commanding performance and rarely looked troubled against the Gulf nation. Japan will face the winner of the final last-16 tie between Iran and Syria later on Wednesday.
“All Asian teams here at the Asian Cup are getting better, the level of football has grown. But even though other teams are growing, we’ve managed to improve as well which is down to our players’ efforts,” Moriyasu told reporters. “But I don’t think today’s performances were 100% and we can still improve.”
Japan took the lead in the 31st minute when Seiya Maikuma unleashed a venomous strike that crashed off the post but midfielder Doan was alert to pounce on the rebound to score from close range. Japan went 2-0 up just after halftime through a stroke of good fortune when an unmarked Kubo received the ball inside the box, turned and fired home, with the goal being awarded after a VAR check for an offside call.
Bahrain halved the deficit from a corner when Japan keeper Zion Suzuki saved Sayed Baqer’s header but as he attempted to catch the ball when it looped up in the air, Ueda tried to head it clear and they collided as the ball went over the line. While Moriyasu was not too concerned about the own goal, Japan have failed to keep a clean sheet in every game at the tournament so far.
However, Ueda made amends for the own goal when he made it 3-1 after quickly evading three Bahrain defenders and as they tried to stop him racing away by pulling his shirt, the striker pulled the trigger from a tight angle to beat the keeper.
The game also saw Kaoru Mitoma make his return from injury and the Brighton & Hove Albion winger sent a buzz around the arena when he made several chances with his agility and speed on the ball, skipping past defenders with sublime ease. But Japan did not capitalise on his forays into the box while Bahrain keeper Ebrahim Lutfalla also stood firm to deny the east Asian side a fourth goal.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/japan-cruise-into-asian-cup-qfs-with-3-1-win-over-bahrain
| 2024-01-31T23:47:16Z
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With the official opening of the new Pixar Place Hotel (transforming the prior Paradise Pier Hotel), comes an often overlooked change – Cast Member Costumes.
Nearly every square inch of the former Paradise Pier Hotel has welcomed a modern and beautiful change into the Pixar Place Hotel, Disneyland’s newest lodging that celebrates the iconic Pixar Animation Studios and their catalog of films, both feature length and animated shorts. From the pool deck and giftshop to a whimsical staircase and the rooms themselves, guests are immersed into their animation process and productions. Cast Member costumes are no different.
According to Disney, it was the concept that “It all starts with a pixel” that drove the creative design process when it came to the costumes worn by Cast Members at the new hotel. That’s why when guests first arrive at the hotel, they may notice simple shapes, similar to a pixel, on the Cast Members working in Valet and Bell Services. Their costumes are covered in squares, you know, like pixels, that make up the entirety of their wardrobe.
This idea continues right into the lobby, where guests will be surrounded by unique art and displays from the various films in the Pixar Animation Studios catalog. At the front desk, guests will be greeted by Cast Members wearing costumes that feature strips of color, with the idea that the color is what helps the film come to life from start to finish, much like how guests rely on the front desk cast to interact throughout their stay, from the first greeting to the final farewell after check-out.
Disney also knows that the true heroes of the resort are their housekeeping and custodial staff. As such, their costumes feature highly stylized patterns that subtly reference some of the main characters in the Pixar films, or a better way of phrasing that – the heroes of the story.
With the Pixar Place Hotel being the first hotel fully themed to Pixar in the country, the cast are proud to wear the costumes that were designed by Walt Disney Imagineering hand in hand with Pixar Animation Studios, and the costuming department at the Disneyland Resort. Susanna Mercado, a room attendant at the Pixar Place Hotel called wearing the costumes a “huge privilege,” saying that “From the start of it all, Toy Story to Elemental – to bring those characters to life, across the property from the lobby to the guest rooms – and even to our costumes, to show the variety of characters from favorite Pixar films is incredible.”
You can see the costumes for yourselves at the Pixar Place Hotel, now officially open at the Disneyland Resort. If you’d like more information about the Pixar Place Hotel or to book a stay there or anywhere else at the Disneyland Resort, you’ve got a friend in our friends at Mouse Fan Travel, who will help with all your booking and travel needs.
no obligation quote from MouseFanTravel.com
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https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney-parks/pixar-place-hotel-cast-costumes/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:16Z
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Donald Trump has yet to officially clinch the Republican presidential nomination, but he's already begun to tease about a running mate. The NPR Politics Podcast dives into who might be on his list.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Donald Trump has yet to officially clinch the Republican presidential nomination, but he's already begun to tease about a running mate. The NPR Politics Podcast dives into who might be on his list.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.wvtf.org/2024-01-31/trump-says-vp-pick-wont-impact-the-race-so-whats-he-looking-for-in-a-running-mate
| 2024-01-31T23:47:17Z
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The former owner of a Central Coast gym has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail, after admitting that he had secretly videotaped some of his clients in a restroom.
Cole Charles Corrigan owned a fitness center in San Luis Obispo. A customer found a recoding device, leading to a police investigation.
The 36-year-old man pled guilty to two counts of illegally recording people, as well as a count of being a felon in possession of a handgun.
While he was formally sentenced this week, he turned himself in late last year to start serving his sentence. In addition to the jail sentence, San Luis Obispo County prosecutors say Corrigan was also placed on two years probation.
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https://www.kclu.org/2024-01-31/former-central-coast-gym-owner-convicted-of-secretly-videotaping-clients-gets-jail-sentence
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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LifestyleLori Harvey makes her Sports Illustrated modelling debutSteve Harvey’s daughter Lori Harvey makes her Sports Illustrated modelling debut.February 1, 2024 — 9.43amSaveLog in, register or subscribe to save articles for later.Save videos for laterAdd videos to your saved list and come back to them any time.Got itLoadingReplayReplay videoPlay videoPlay video
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https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/lori-harvey-makes-her-sports-illustrated-modelling-debut-20240201-p5f1ky.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_lifestyle
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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EST/JASPERS, B.
Published 3:29 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
PUBLIC NOTICE
STATE OF MINNESOTA
COUNTY OF FREEBORN
THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT
DISTRICT COURT
PROBATE DIVISION
Estate of Bradley Jaspers,
Decedent
Court File No. 24-PR-24-147
NOTICE TO CREDITORS:
FOREIGN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE
ACTING IN MINNESOTA
Notice is given that Patricia Muehl, residing at 1104 Evans Road, Evansdale, Iowa, 50707 is the domiciliary foreign Personal Representative (“Personal Representative”) for the Estate of Bradley Jaspers, a resident of the State of Iowa.
On January 23, 2024, the Personal Representative filed with the Court a document stating an intention to exercise, as to assets in Minnesota, all powers of a local Personal Representative and to maintain actions and proceedings in Minnesota in accordance with Minnesota Statutes section 524.4-205.
Notice is also given that any Minnesota creditor who objects to the Personal Representative’s exercise of power over assets in Minnesota must file a written objection within 60 days from the Personal Representative’s filing. If no objections are filed, the representative may, after the expiration of the 60 day period, exercise all powers of a local Personal Representative.
Dated: December 20, 2023
/s/Darla J. Busian
Registrar – Darla J. Busian
Dated: January 24, 2024
Rebecca S. Mittag
Court Administrator
Attorney for Foreign Personal Representative
Daniel L. Kolker
Peterson, Kolker, Haedt & Benda, Ltd.
1811 Broadway Avenue SE
Albert Lea, MN, 56007
Attorney License No: 0310049
Telephone: (507) 373-6491
FAX: (507) 373-7863
Email: dkolker@albertlealaw.com
Albert Lea Tribune:
Jan. 31 Feb. 7, 2024
EST/JASPERS, B.
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https://www.albertleatribune.com/2024/01/est-jaspers-b/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Column: A judge voids Musk’s huge Tesla pay package as dishonest, and hoo boy, is he steamed
Elon Musk may be learning the hard way that his streak of always having things his own way is coming to an end.
The most recent clue was delivered Tuesday by Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who ordered his groundbreaking $56-billion 2018 pay package from Tesla rescinded, dealing a potentially permanent blow to Musk’s reign as the world’s richest man.
If McCormick’s blockbuster 201-page order in the lawsuit brought by a Tesla shareholder survives a likely appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, Musk would have to give up the options on nearly 304 million shares that the Tesla board awarded him in that 2018 pay deal.
Musk wielded the maximum influence that a manager can wield over a company.
— Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick
Of those options, 25.3 million are still unvested because their vesting dates haven’t yet been reached. Musk hasn’t yet exercised any of the options that have vested thus far; in McCormick’s view, that makes reversing the pay package a relatively simple matter.
Musk reacted to McCormick’s ruling with characteristic truculence. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” he tweeted soon after the ruling was released.
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He then tweeted a poll asking users if Tesla should change its state of incorporation to Texas, its headquarters state. By midday Wednesday, more than 87% of the nearly 1 million respondents voted “yes” (though respondents to Musk’s tweeted polls invariably see things his way).
In responding this way, Musk validated one of McCormick’s points — that his personal interests often have outweighed those of other Tesla shareholders in corporate decision-making. The truth is that most major corporations incorporate in Delaware because its laws and courts are extremely business-friendly.
Musk had encountered McCormick before, perhaps to his enduring regret. It was she who presided over the Chancery Court lawsuit brought by the Twitter board in 2022 to force him to complete his purchase of the social media platform after he attempted to back out.
With a trial of the lawsuit drawing near and McCormick signaling, if subtly, that she wasn’t going to be intimidated by Musk’s usual bluster, he completed the deal in October 2022.
Elon Musk has gone full antisemite, raising questions about the future of his companies and their relationships with commercial and government entities.
Since then, he has sold tens of billions of dollars of his Tesla holdings to shore up the finances of Twitter (now X), even as he drives off advertisers and users through his open embrace on the platform of antisemitism and other varieties of hate speech.
That brings us to McCormick’s ruling on the pay deal. There’s a lot to find fascinating, even entertaining, in a text punctuated with quotations from Shakespeare and “Star Trek.”
The inner workings of corporate management can be opaque to laypersons, but McCormick lays out with admirable clarity how the deal came to pass and why it deserves to be reversed.
Along the way, she raises important questions about how a corporate board should deal with a “superstar CEO” like Musk, and how to strike the proper balance between the value a CEO has created for shareholders, and how much of that value should flow back to the CEO. Accomplished CEOs arguably deserve plenty in compensation; the issue is how much plenty is enough, or too much.
A brief outline of the 2018 pay deal is in order.
The Tesla board awarded Musk as much as 12% of Tesla shares over 10 years in 12 blocks, or tranches. Each tranche would vest with each increase in Tesla’s market value of $50 billion and with specified targets of revenue and operating earnings growth. Altogether, the deal was valued at up to $55.8 billion.
The plan’s magnitude was indescribable in conventional executive compensation terms. McCormick called it “the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in public markets by multiple orders of magnitude.” It was 250 times larger than median pay packages in comparable corporations, and more than 33 times larger than the closest comparison — which was the previous pay package Tesla had awarded Musk, in 2012.
Scientists came to see Twitter as an indispensable tool for communicating with each other and the public. As X, it’s turned into a source of scientific misinformation and lies.
McCormick concluded, following a five-day trial in 2022, that Musk’s dominating role at Tesla warranted that the board conduct an especially stringent arms-length process to reach a pay settlement. This it did not do.
“Rather than negotiating against Musk,” she writes, the board’s compensation committee “engaged in a ‘cooperative [and] collaborative’ process antithetical to arm’s-length bargaining.... In the end, Musk dictated the Grant’s terms, and the committee effected those wishes.”
That could not have been a surprise, considering the makeup of the committee and the board as a whole. The chair of the committee, board member Ira Ehrenpreis, had invested tens of millions of dollars in Musk companies. He, Musk and Musk’s brother Kimbal (also a Tesla board member) had known one another for 15 years.
Another committee member, board member Antonio Gracias, had a Tesla stake that had grown from $15 million to about $1 billion during Musk’s tenure. His family and Musk’s regularly spent vacations together and his friendships extended to Kimbal and to Musk’s mother and sister.
Among the other board members were James Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch and a personal friend of Musk’s, and Linda Johnson Rice, a personal friend of Gracias’.
The non-director Tesla executives assigned to help craft the pay package tended to see themselves as Musk acolytes or were otherwise “beholden to Musk,” as McCormick describes the atmosphere. One was Tesla general counsel Todd Maron, who was Musk’s former divorce attorney and whose “admiration for Musk moved him to tears” during a pretrial deposition.
At the board level, this was “as close to ... a controlled mindset as it gets,” McCormick writes. But there’s more, pertaining to the question of whether Musk is truly a “controlling” person at Tesla.
As she observes, at the time of the pay negotiations he owned 21.9% of the company shares, mathematically not enough for voting control. But there are other considerations.
Ron DeSantis announced his presidential candidacy via Elon Musk’s Twitter, and it went about as well as you might have expected.
Musk was then Tesla’s chairman, CEO and effectively its founder. (Although the company had been founded by others, it was Musk who after buying into the company in 2004 imposed a vision and strategy that transformed Tesla from a small startup with a single electric vehicle in its product lineup to the leading EV manufacturer in the world, with 100,000 employees as of the end of 2021 and a market value of more than $1 trillion.)
At the time of the pay negotiations, Musk had personal ties to three of the eight active board members (his brother, Gracias and Murdoch). His public renown and record as chair and CEO encouraged the board to believe that Tesla’s very survival depended on keeping Musk on board and placated.
They granted him extraordinary authority without any significant supervision, allowing him to make hiring and firing decisions, approving all financial plans, and unilaterally reassigning Tesla employees to his other companies, such as when he personally sent about 50 Tesla engineers to Twitter to evaluate the latter’s engineering.
And in 2016, when his solar power company SolarCity was floundering, the Tesla board waved through a merger into Tesla that rescued the solar firm’s shareholders at the expense of Tesla’s. Musk sat on both firms’ boards, two of his cousins and Gracias were on the SolarCity board, and Gracias and Brad Buss, a former SolarCity executive, were on Tesla’s board. The merger appeared to be as far from an arm’s-length transaction as human arms could allow.
“Musk wielded the maximum influence that a manager can wield over a company,” McCormick judged.
The board allowed Musk to dominate the design of his pay package as he dominated all other aspects of Tesla management. The board seemed disinclined to use outside guidance in benchmarking Musk’s pay against that of CEOs at comparable companies.
Tesla argued at trial that the pay plan was so much larger than any other in corporate history that it would be impossible to find comparable executives or pay plans. McCormick isn’t having any of that.
Elon Musk is doing his best to drive reasonable Twitter users away by promoting false accusations against Fauci and anti-LGBTQ conspiracy-mongering.
“As CEO, Musk’s job was the same as every other public company CEO: improve earnings and create value.... The extraordinary nature of the Grant should have made benchmarking more critical, not less.” Without that fundamental data, the Tesla board had no idea just how extraordinary it was.
The death blow to the pay package, as McCormick lays it out, is that the Tesla board misled shareholders about its nature and the process that brought it into being.
In its proxy statement for its 2018 annual meeting at which shareholders would be asked to vote on the package, the company stated that all the members of the compensation committee were “independent directors.” That was obviously untrue, given that Ehrenpreis and Gracias held two of its four seats and Ehrenpreis was its chair.
McCormick also noted that the proxy described the milestones that Musk would have to meet to acquire his shares would be “very difficult to achieve.” In fact, the nearer-term milestones fell within the company’s internal financial projections.
Although the two large institutional proxy advisory firms, Glass Lewis and ISS, advised their clients to vote against the pay deal — ISS described its magnitude as “staggering” — 73% of shareholders approved the package at a special meeting.
Things haven’t gone as well for Musk and Tesla lately as they appeared in 2018. After topping $1 trillion, the company’s market capitalization is now less than $600 billion. Tesla faces headwinds from competition in the EV market from legacy automakers and a consumer shift away from full EVs toward hybrids; these factors have forced Tesla to cut prices sharply, eroding its profit margin. Its shares have lost about 25% so far this year and about 36% since their most recent peak last July.
Musk’s holdings of Tesla have fallen to about 13% from 21.9% in 2008, due largely to his sales of Tesla stock to finance his Twitter deal. If he is able to liquidate his entire 2018 stock grant, that would bring his holdings back to about 22.5%. He recently informed the Tesla board that unless his holdings can be raised to 25%, he would prefer building AI and robotics products, which he has said are in Tesla’s future, “outside of Tesla.”
The fundamental question McCormick poses is why the board thought such an outsized pay grant was necessary to keep Musk at Tesla and focused on its growth. He had repeatedly stated in public that he intended to stay at Tesla to the end of his days.
The board may have been concerned that his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter, would distract him from his duties at Tesla, but they evidently made no effort to write into the pay package any requirement that he devote a given number of hours exclusively to Tesla.
After all, his 21.9% stake in Tesla should have been enough to give him a powerful incentive to stay in place and maximize the company’s fortunes — every $50-billion increase in Tesla’s market capitalization meant $10 billion more in his pocket.
Notwithstanding his recent threat to take his AI and robotics work elsewhere, wouldn’t he have stayed at Tesla in 2018 even if the board offered him less, or even nothing?
“Was the richest person in the world overpaid?” McCormick asks. That, she writes, is “the $55.8 billion question.”
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https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-31/elon-musk-pay-package-tesla-delaware-judge
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Tory minister to step down at election as threats to personal safety ‘too much’
A Government minister has said he will stand down at the next general election after a series of death threats and an arson attack on his constituency office.
Conservative justice minister Mike Freer said that “by the skin of my teeth I avoided being murdered” by Ali Harbi Ali, who went on to kill Southend West MP Sir David Amess.
“There comes a point when the threats to your personal safety become too much,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Mr Freer, who has served as the MP for London’s Finchley and Golders Green seat since 2010, said it was time to “say enough” as he could no longer put his family through the anxiety for his safety.
In a letter to his local Conservative association, Mr Freer wrote that it “will be an enormous wrench to step down”, but that the attacks “have weighed heavily on me and my husband, Angelo”.
The MP and his staff have decided to wear stab vests when attending scheduled public events in his constituency after learning that Ali had watched his Finchley office before going on to knife Sir David to death during a constituency surgery in 2021.
Mr Freer told the newspaper: “I was very lucky that actually on the day I was due to be in Finchley, I happened to change my plans and came into Whitehall.
“Otherwise who knows whether I would have been attacked or survived an attack. He said he came to Finchley to attack me.”
He said MPs tend to try to “make light” of threats, but that it remained at the back of his mind that he could have been killed.
Mr Freer said he had also received threats from the group Muslims Against Crusades “about coming to stab me” and found “mock Molotov cocktails on the office steps”.
The arson attack on his north London constituency office in December was “the final straw,” he said.
Mr Freer, who has pro-Israel views and represents a heavily Jewish constituency, said “I don’t think we can divorce” antisemitism from the intimidation.
He won his seat by around 6,600 votes at the last general election in 2019, seeing off a Liberal Democrat challenger.
Mr Freer joins a series of MPs who have announced their intention not to contest the next election, which is expected later this year.
Labour’s candidate in Finchley and Golders Green Sarah Sackman said she was “shocked” by the news, adding: “We should have been able to face each other in the polls based on our ideas and merits.
“Instead, politics is now so often skewed by violent language, hate and the dangers of social media.”
Tory former minister Sir Conor Burns tweeted: “Totally understandable decision. The drip drip of hate (not exclusively from people on the other side) and remorseless cynicism will drive more people out of politics.”
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https://www.newschainonline.com/news/tory-minister-to-step-down-at-election-as-threats-to-personal-safety-too-much-383085
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.ksfr.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Welcome to the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2023–24 season, where the team is on fire, or they are never losing again, and finding an in-between is pointless. I mainly joke, but January has been an odd month for Milwaukee. They struggled against the Pacers and their time in Texas wasn’t inspiring. Then a four-game homestand saw beatdowns, efficient winning, a game-winning shot, and now maybe it isn’t so bad. Then they barely get by the worst team in the league. Then the team fired its coach, and we wrote many think pieces. So now the other question becomes, how will Doc Rivers right the ship for the Bucks? Let’s wrap up.
The Week That Was
- Bucks 126, Cavaliers 116 (Milwaukee Starts a New Era 1-0)
- Bucks 100, Cavaliers 112 (Cleveland Puts the Brakes on Milwaukee)
- Bucks 141, Pelicans 117 (The Joe Prunty Era Ends 2-1)
- Bucks 107, Nuggets 113 (Doc’s prescription for altitude not quite enough)
Weekly Wonderings
For our midseason edition, I wanted to look at some of the wondering I have had this year and see if those trends continued or were just a phase (Adrian Griffin's voice in the background as he’s still being escorted out of Wisconsin: “it’s not a phase, Kyle. It’s who we are, gosh!!). I will get this out of the way: the defense remains a mixed bag of brilliance sandwiched between lackadaisical frustration. I don’t want to talk about it any more than that, so let’s see the other trends:
Attack, attack, attack
Early in the season, the offense was still finding its way by adding Damian Lillard and learning a new coaching staff scheme. The one thing that looked different for Bucks fans was having another player be able to get to the free-throw line. Lillard's insistence on driving to the rim and getting a favorable whistle—something we were not used to receiving in the Giannis era—saw them rack up free points. Per Cleaning The Glass, not only is Dame still doing a great job of making free throws, but he is still ranking pretty high among point guards in fouls drawn:
To nobody’s surprise, Giannis still gets fouled a lot, and that is just on stuff the referees call!
Verdict: Not a phase.
A win is a win??
I wrote about how the Bucks played well in the clutch in early December, which translated to wins. The Bucks were 10-4 in fourteen games played with clutch time at that point, and 8-3 since. So the Bucks have played fewer games in the clutch, which isn’t as surprising given the quality of opposition they played the last two months. The clutch record has been good, but some stats took a slight dip: the Bucks saw decreased points per game, field goal percentage, offensive rating, and pace in those situations. Milwaukee has kept their defense at the same level, though, so while the team isn’t playing quite as well by the lofty standards they set, they are still a good clutch team.
Verdict: A phase.
Bench giveth, bench taketh
Milwaukee’s bench has been a mixed bag. There are still questions on how helpful the unit is, but it was notable that Doc Rivers mentioned that the second unit was not good in the first half after the Bucks’ loss to the Denver Nuggets Monday night. It was notable that Andre Jackson Jr and MarJon Beauchamp logged DNP-CDs on Monday, given Jackson Jr’s impressive play this season. I hope this will be a short stint as Doc gets familiar with the roster.
Verdict: Play AJJ.
The Week’s Top Play
How did he pull this off?
Pat NO!!!! Sorry, force of habit.
A Khris Middleton dunk?!?!
What’s the vibe?
When you find out you're getting a substitute teacher for the day
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 25, 2024
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https://www.brewhoop.com/2024/1/31/24031981/milwaukee-bucks-weekly-wednesday-wrap-up-midseason
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Irving, Texas-based Christus Health has shared plans to develop a new emergency hospital campus with a freestanding emergency department and inpatient beds.
The campus will be located on the existing Palestine, Texas-based Christus Magnolia Medical Plaza Campus. The plaza joined Christus in 2017 and features six physicians, four nurse practitioners and four physician assistants, according to a Jan. 29 Christus news release.
The emergency campus project features a nearly 20,000-square-foot facility that will have an ED with laboratory and imaging services. Ambulance arrivals will be accepted at the new ED.
"We have had a footprint in Palestine for a number of years now, and this is a great way for us to continue to extend our health care mission to the community," Chris Glenney, senior vice president for group operations at Christus Northeast Texas, said in the release.
An additional 40 full-time jobs including registered nurses, radiology and laboratory technologists, and more positions will be added as a result of the project.
News of the emergency hospital campus comes after the nonprofit Catholic health system shared plans to develop a new Christus HealthPark campus in Mount Pleasant, Texas, which will bring on more than 50 full-time staff.
Christus Trinity Clinic will also open its first primary care clinic in Mount Pleasant as part of the HealthPark project.
The construction for the emergency hospital campus in Palestine is expected to begin in around 120 days and will be complete toward the end of summer in 2025, the release said.
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/capital/christus-health-to-expand-footprint-with-new-emergency-hospital-campus.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:18Z
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Parents arrested in case of social media model charged with killing boyfriend
MIAMI (AP) — The parents of a social media model charged with fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend in South Florida have been arrested in Texas on charges related to the case, jail records show.
Deborah Lyn Clenney, 57, and Kim Dewayne Clenney, 60, were taken into custody Tuesday in Austin, Texas, on an out-of-state warrant, according to the records. A Miami-Dade circuit judge had signed arrest warrants for the couple last week, charging them each with a felony count of unauthorized access to a computer.
Their daughter, 27-year-old Courtney Clenney, faces the same new charge. Jail records show she’s been held without bond on a second-degree murder charge since August 2022.
Clenney, who had used the name Courtney Tailor on such platforms as Instagram and OnlyFans, fatally stabbed Christian Obumseli at the couple’s Miami apartment in April 2022 as the culmination of a “tempestuous and combative relationship” that began in November 2020, prosecutors said previously.
Clenney has acknowledged killing Obumseli but said she was acting in self-defense. Her attorney, Frank Prieto, previously said that Obumseli was regularly abusive.
Clenney previously told investigators that Obumseli had pushed her and thrown her to the floor, which prompted her to grab a knife and throw it at Obumseli from about 10 feet (3 meters) away. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Obumseli said his wound could not have been caused by a knife thrown from that distance.
Clenney was arrested in Hawaii several days after the stabbing, but investigators believe she gave Obumseli’s computer to her parents some time between the killing and her arrest. According to the arrest warrants, detectives recovered text messages where the parents discuss trying to gain access to the computer.
Jail records didn’t list attorneys for Clenney’s parents, and her attorney didn’t respond to new messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/parents-arrested-in-case-of-social-media-model-charged-with-killing-boyfriend/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:19Z
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Gov. Tina Kotek signaled Wednesday she is willing to sign a bill that would once again make possessing small amounts of drugs a criminal offense in Oregon.
But as Kotek looks at any bill the Legislature sends her way, she warned she will be most concerned with what other steps lawmakers take to ensure drug users are being given the option of receiving addiction services.
“I want to see a proposal that answers a set of questions,” Kotek told reporters at an event previewing her priorities for the session that convenes Feb. 5. “One piece will be criminalization, but if we just look at criminalization in isolation, I think it’s missing the point. So my question is going to be … what else are you going to do different to make sure we have better outcomes?”
The remarks are the strongest Kotek has made to date about her stance on rolling back the drug decriminalization policies that were a key piece of 2020′s Ballot Measure 110. Under the law, possessing illicit drugs like fentanyl and heroin became a violation, punishable by a toothless ticket.
As a gubernatorial candidate in 2022, Kotek warned that more time was necessary before Oregon made any major changes to Measure 110, in order to build out a robust network of addiction services. And as recently as December, the governor was noncommittal on the subject of recriminalization, saying she would wait to see what lawmakers sent her way.
Nowthere appears to be little doubt that any bill that passes this year will roll back Measure 110. Democrats unveiled a proposal last week that — among many other provisions — would make it a Class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail.
That proposal has seen pushback from all sides, with advocates for decriminalization warning the state will backslide into a failed drug war, and Republicans, law enforcement groups and others pressing for possession to be a more-serious, Class A misdemeanor.
All sides of the debate say they are most concerned with steering people toward treatment, as the grip of fentanyl has led tosurging overdoses and given rise to public drug use in Portland and other Oregon cities.
The issue is expected to be a central focus of the 35-day legislative session, with advocates gearing up to make their case to lawmakers.
Kotek suggested Wednesday that whatever the Legislature decides on the criminalization question will be secondary to policies that expand treatment options and help convince drug users to seek them.
“I know there’s a lot of focus on the criminalization, but I would hope everybody looks at this as a comprehensive package,” she said. “It is about what you do on the front end as it relates for example to the misdemeanor, but it’s also about connecting people with services, making sure we’re planning better, making sure we’re making investments.”
The remarks came a day after Kotek met with leaders from the city of Portland and Multnomah County to declare a 90-day state of emergency around the city’s fentanyl woes. That effort will look to coordinate services from all three governments to better tackle the crisis.
To that end, the governor says she has been working with the Oregon Health Authority to inventory what treatment resources are available in the state, and what more is needed — a critical question given the urgency many policymakers have for funding new services.
“It’s a complex proposal and I’m watching it evolve and we’ll see where it ends up,” Kotek said.
Copyright 2024 Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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https://www.klcc.org/politics-government/2024-01-31/oregon-gov-tina-kotek-suggests-she-would-sign-a-bill-recriminalizing-drug-possession
| 2024-01-31T23:47:19Z
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Things went from bad to worse for Chelsea in the second half of their match at Liverpool, Dominik Szoboszlai heading home a third for the hosts after a delicious cross from Conor Bradley.
The Reds were already two goals to the good thanks to Bradley and Diogo Jota and had also missed a first-half penalty when Darwin Nunez could only hit the woodwork.
As Jurgen Klopp’s side power ahead at the top of the Premier League, Mauricio Pochettino is still left trying to work out how to get a tune out of his squad.
??| GOAL: Dominik Szoboszlai makes it THREE!!
Liverpool 3-0 Chelsea pic.twitter.com/h2tbuw2vsa
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) January 31, 2024
SZOBOSZLAI GOAL! ?
— Hungarian Football Xtra (@HunFootballXtra) January 31, 2024
Dominik Szoboszlai SCORES!!
? 3-0 Liverpool FC vs Chelsea FC
WATCH EVERY GOAL ? https://t.co/2w98QqADfX#PL #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/vMEKOZ4uZY
— FuboCanada ?? (@fuboTVCanada) January 31, 2024
Pictures from Viaplay, beIN Sports and fuboTV
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/video-szoboszlai-bags-liverpools-third-as-chelsea-continue-to-disappoint/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:20Z
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Hailey Whitters is working on something new for Valentine’s Day. The “I’m In Love” singer shared a clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, of her at a photoshoot while eating heart-shaped chocolates, wearing red-colored shades and more. “valentine’s day mode loading… y’all get ready,” Hailey teased.
Dylan Scott is holding a Valentine’s Day sale in his merch store. Select CDs and vinyl records are available at a discounted price of $5 and $15, respectively, until February 9. You can grab yours now at dylanscottcountry.com.
William Michael Morgan has shared that he’s releasing a new song, “Not Letting Go,” on February 2. You can presave now to hear it as soon as it drops.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/nashville-notes-hailey-whitters-valentines-day-tease-more/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:20Z
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LONDON - Royal family has shared King Charles III’s new meaningful statement amid his abdication rumours as he continues recuperating at home after his prostate surgery. The new post, shared by the royal family to its official social media accounts on Wednesday, appeared to shut down rumours of the King’s abdication. “Last year’s #TheBigHelpOut saw millions of volunteers supporting their communities as part of The King’s Coronation celebrations. On the 7-9 June, there will be another opportunity to take part,” the royal family wrote in caption along with the King’s statement. The statement reads: “I am delighted to support the return of the Big Help Out in 2024.” “This Summer, between June 7th and June 9th, there will be another opportunity to join so many dedicated volunteers in giving time to a wealthy cause of their choosing, whether that is supporting a local food bank, tending a community garden, spending time with a vulnerable person or teaching a skill to young people.” The King’s new message comes amid reports that he will hand the crown over to his eldest son, Prince William, in 10 years. Former royal butler Paul Burrell, who worked for Princess Diana for over 10 years until her sudden death in 1997, said that 75-year-old will be looking to give up the throne early to make way for William and his wife Kate Middleton. King Charles will reportedly give Prince William the reigns within a decade after implementing a ‘plan’. According to former royal butler Paul Burrell while speaking to The New York Post, it was likely that the monarch would give his eldest son and daughter-in-law Kate Middleton the charge for the monarchy. He elaborated that King Charles, who recently underwent prostate surgery, may echo the Denmark royal family’s own major reshuffling. “I think it will happen in this country. I think the king and queen have given this job 10 years, I think this is a 10-year plan,” he said. “I don’t think he will want to continue being king when crowned heads of Europe have found that they can hand over to their heirs and see them become monarch and enjoy it. “The queen would never have done that because she came from a different generation, her entire life was molded around being a monarch. But the king will know exactly what to do and take a page out of Prince Philip’s book and say, ‘I’ve done enough’ and want to do things he wants to do.” He went on to add that King Charles’ abdication to Prince William would likely be a welcomed change. “I think the country will embrace a new, young king and Queen and it will complete the circle that Diana’s son will be king,” Burrell added.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/king-charles-makes-big-decision-amid-abdication-rumours
| 2024-01-31T23:47:22Z
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Let the good times roll with the return of Mardis Gras during SeaWorld Orlando’s Seven Seas Food Festival, featuring live-entertainment and specialty food and beverage offerings.
What’s Happening:
- New Orleans flair arrives in Orlando, as SeaWorld invites guests to celebrate Mardi Gras during the Seven Seas Food Festival with all the sights, sounds and flavors of New Orleans’ favorite time of year.
- The park will be transformed into an incredible festival on select dates between February 8th–18th with a special in-park celebration on Fat Tuesday, February 13th.
- Unforgettable offerings are included with park admission, including:
- Pop-Up Parade: The Wild Arctic Plaza will come to life as entertainers, bead captains, stilt walkers, and musicians bring the Mardi Gras spirit to SeaWorld during this special pop-up parade. (Select times from 12:30 – 6 p.m.)
- Live Music: Immerse yourself in the music of New Orleans as our live band brings Cajun and jazz classics to Orlando. (Select times from 12:30 – 6 p.m.)
- Street Party: The sights and sounds of Bourbon Street will take over Wild Arctic Plaza with a DJ, street performers, and dance party. (Select times from 12:30 – 6 p.m.)
- Family Craft: The whole family can get in the spirit of Mardi Gras with a create-your-own Mardi Gras Mask craft activity.
- Gulf Coast Flavors: Enjoy classic Gulf Coast flavors as part of our Seven Seas Food Festival with added menu items such as Banana Fosters Beignets, Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Jambalaya and Frozen NOLA Hurricanes in an exclusive souvenir glass in addition to all the sips and savors throughout the festival. (12:30 p.m. to park close.)
- This year SeaWorld Orlando introduces a new element of celebration to Mardi Gras where guests are invited to become immersed in the vibrant flair of Brazil’s Carnaval.
- Explore the Brazilian Market, located along the Pipeline Pathway, where an all-new addition to the menu, Galinhada, awaits, along with the eagerly anticipated return of two reimagined fan-favorites: Picanha Steak and Pão de Queijo.
- Bring the party to life with exciting performances by traditional samba dancers and electrifying live music throughout the Brazilian market area.
- Guests will be able to discover endless combinations of food and drink offerings with a Seven Seas Food Festival Tasting Lanyard. Guests can embark on their culinary journey with a 10-sample lanyard at the price of $70 or take it up a notch and with the fan favorite 15-sample lanyard, available for $85, for the best savings.
- SeaWorld Orlando Pass Members get the VIP treatment and can purchase 18 samples for the price of 15!
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https://www.laughingplace.com/w/parks/seaworld-orlando-mardi-gras-2024/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:22Z
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Top tech CEOs were being grilled in Washington by lawmakers, who said the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
The executives include Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X's Linda Yaccarino and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, among others.
The social media apps have "given predators powerful new tools to exploit children," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. He noted that the powerful apps "have changed the way we live, work and play."
The hearing is one of several over the past year as pressure builds for federal regulators to do more to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety online. Lawmakers have spoken out, have written letters to the CEOs and are pushing five separate bills that cover social media and child safety.
States have also targeted the social media companies. Last year, 13 states passed laws to protect kids on social media, and more states are expected to do the same.
"You have blood on your hands," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells Zuckerberg
Of the companies testifying on Wednesday, Meta has especially come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for children. In October, a group of more than 40 states sued the company for allegedly designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive.
Separately, New Mexico's attorney general filed another suit against Meta, alleging it fails to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and also makes it easy for adults to solicit minors.
That lawsuit came after a Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in November. Based on data he collected while working at Facebook, he said he found that 24% of teens had received unwanted sexual advances. And when harmful posts are reported, he said, only 2% are taken down.
During Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid into Zuckerberg.
"Mr. Zuckerberg," Graham began, "you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people."
The packed audience, which included parents, survivors and child advocates, erupted in applause.
Zuckerberg has testified several times before members of the Senate, and he voluntarily agreed to speak again on Wednesday. In his opening statement, he said, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Internal emails show Zuckerberg declined to hire staff to protect children online
In the lead-up to Wednesday's hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Those include barring children under age 18 from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The company says it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security issues.
But just hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails that showed Meta has refused to fully commit to improving child safety on its platforms. At one point in 2021, the emails show, Zuckerberg declined a proposal to hire 45 new staff members dedicated to children's well-being.
The emails show top executives at Meta discussing budget and head count, as well as the fact that if they didn't address the issue they'd face increased regulatory risk and external criticism.
"This work & narrative has of course become a more critical focal point for policymakers, regulators et al in recent weeks — this is not likely to diminish going forward," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs wrote in a 2021 email to Zuckerberg.
The internal emails were produced in response to a letter that Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent to Meta in November.
Five federal bills introduced
Of the other executives to testify, TikTok's Chew has also appeared before Congresslast year, but this is the first time lawmakers have grilled X's Yaccarino and the two other CEOs: Snap's Evan Spiegel and Discord's Jason Citron. Chew volunteered to speak on Wednesday, but Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron agreed only after being subpoenaed.
Snap has come out as the sole social media company to throw its support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, which is one of the bills that lawmakers are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this year. If passed, it would hold tech companies accountable for feeding teens toxic content.
"Many of the largest and most successful internet companies today were born here in the United States of America, and we must lead not only in technical innovation but also in smart regulation," Snap's Spiegel said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
Throughout the hearing, several of the senators tried to get the tech CEOs to agree to back legislation. All of the executives said more had to be done and they agree with regulation, but besides Spiegel, none said they'd fully back one of the bills.
At one point Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., tried to get the CEOs to support legislation he and several other senators introduced, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.
"Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?" Coons asked the CEOs.
After the question didn't elicit a response, he followed up with: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Child safety groups and parents joined lawmakers for several press conferences on Wednesday. They echoed the senators' demands that more has to be done to protect kids online.
"Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m.," said Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. "These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wvtf.org/2024-01-31/you-have-blood-on-your-hands-senator-tells-mark-zuckerberg-for-failing-kids-online
| 2024-01-31T23:47:23Z
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Margot Robbie responds to Barbie Oscars snub: ‘There’s no way to feel sad’
Margot Robbie has spoken out about being snubbed for an Oscar for her role in Barbie, explaining that she can’t feel sad about missing out on the award for Best Actress.
The comedy/fantasy received eight nods for the Academy Awards 2024, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, and Best Supporting Actress for America Ferrera.
But the Academy was subjected to backlash, after Robbie and Gerwig weren’t nominated for Best Actress and Best Director, respectively.
At the time, Gosling addressed the elephant in the room, explaining that he was “disappointed” that they were overlooked in the nominations. Even Whoopi Goldberg, an Oscar award-winner and former Academy board-member, chimed in on the situation.
Now, Robbie has opened up about her thoughts on the situation in a Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) conversation with her co-stars.
She said, as per Variety: “There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed.
“Obviously, I think Greta should be nominated as a director,” she added. “What she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing. What she pulled off, it really is. But it’s been an incredible year for all the films.”
Robbie also added that she was “beyond ecstatic” about the other nominations the film has picked up. “Everyone getting the nods that they’ve had is just incredible, and the best picture nod,” she said.
“We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact. And it’s already done that and some, way more than we ever dreamed it would. And that is truly the biggest reward that could come out of all of this.”
She continued: “People’s reactions to the movie have been the biggest reward of this entire experience. Whether it’s seeing what people are writing online, or even just seeing how much pink I can see in this room right now…I’ve never been a part of something like this. Not like this.
“I’ve done comic book stuff and that gets a big reaction, but this felt very different. It still feels very different. And I can’t think of a time when a movie had this effect on culture. And it’s amazing to be in the eye of the storm.”
How did this story make you feel?
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https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/01/31/margot-robbie-oscar-nominations-barbie/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:23Z
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Wall Street drops to worst loss in months with Big Tech, hope for March rate cut
Big Tech stocks burned by the downside of high expectations triggered a sharp slide Wednesday on Wall Street. The market’s losses worsened after the Federal Reserve indicated that it probably won’t cut interest rates in March, as many traders had hoped.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 1.6% for its worst day since September. It veered between more modest and sharper losses through a shaky afternoon as traders delayed bets for when the Fed would begin easing its main interest rate from its highest level since 2001.
The slide for Big Tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite to a market-leading loss of 2.2%. The Dow Jones industrial average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, fell a more modest 0.8%.
Alphabet was one of the heaviest weights on the market, and it fell 7.5% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Underneath the surface, analysts pointed to some concerning trends in how much Google’s parent company is earning from advertising.
The bigger challenge, though, may have been the high expectations the company faces after how much its stock soared last year. Other Big Tech stocks that also accounted for a disproportionate chunk of the S&P 500’s rally to a record likewise struggled Wednesday in the face of high expectations.
An uptick in nationwide inflation could have bigger consequences for Californians who are already paying higher prices for basic goods and services, including housing and energy.
Microsoft fell 2.7% even though it delivered stronger profit and revenue than expected. One analyst, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, even called its quarterly report “a masterpiece that should be hung in the Louvre.”
Tesla, another member of the group of stocks nicknamed the “Magnificent Seven,” fell 2.2%. A judge in Delaware ruled a day earlier that its chief executive, Elon Musk, is not entitled to the landmark compensation package earlier awarded to him.
The Magnificent Seven were responsible for the majority of the S&P 500’s return last year, and three more members are scheduled to report their latest quarter results Thursday: Amazon, Apple and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Expectations are high for them too.
Besides the Magnificent Seven, stocks have rallied to records because of hopes that a cool-down in inflation will convince the Fed to cut interest rates several times this year. Such cuts would relax the pressure on the economy and encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks.
But the Fed on Wednesday left its main interest rate steady and made clear that it “does not expect it will be appropriate” to cut rates “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward” its goal of 2%.
In a reversal from past decades, more college graduates and professionals are moving out of California than coming into it to escape the higher taxes and cost of living.
“We’re not declaring victory at all,” Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said. He said it’s unlikely the Fed will get to that level of comfort by its next meeting in March.
“It’s probably not the most likely case,” he said, which sent stocks skidding late in trading.
But Powell also said Fed officials already have some confidence that day will arrive. They just need to see more months of data confirming that inflation is heading sustainably lower. “We have confidence,” he said. “It has been increasing, but we want to get greater confidence.”
Powell acknowledged the difficult position the Fed is in, with dangers arising from both acting too quickly and too late, even though “overall it’s a good picture” for the economy at the moment. Cutting rates too soon could ignite inflationary pressures, while acting too late would mean unnecessary pain for the economy and job market.
“Given how strong the economy has been, the Fed probably figures it can err on the side of cutting later and slower than what the market is pricing,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Treasury yields in the bond market swung up and down after the Fed’s announcement. They had been lower earlier after a couple of softer-than-expected reports on the economy.
One report said that growth in pay and benefits for U.S. workers was slower in the final three months of 2023 than economists expected. Although all workers would like bigger raises, the cooler-than-expected data could further calm what was one of the Fed’s big fears: that too-big pay gains would trigger a vicious cycle that ends up keeping inflation high.
A separate report from the ADP Research Institute also suggested that hiring by nongovernment employers was softer in January than economists expected. The Fed and Wall Street are hoping that the job market cools by just the right amount, enough to keep a lid on inflation but not so much that it causes a recession. A more comprehensive jobs report from the U.S. government will arrive Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.92% from 4.04% late Tuesday. In October, it was above 5% and at its highest level since 2007.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 79.32 points to 4,845.65. The Dow dropped 317.07 points to 38,150.30, and the Nasdaq slumped 345.89 points to 15,164.01.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped sharply again in China amid continued worries about a weak economic recovery and troubles for the country’s heavily indebted property developers.
Stocks were mixed elsewhere in Asia and down modestly in Europe.
AP reporter Zimo Zhong contributed to this report.
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https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-31/stock-market-today-wall-street-drops-to-worst-loss-in-months-with-big-tech-hope-for-march-rate-cut
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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Broadway star Hinton Battle, who played the original Scarecrow at the 1978 "The Wiz", has died at 67. He was a three-time Tony Award winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Broadway star Hinton Battle, who played the original Scarecrow at the 1978 "The Wiz", has died at 67. He was a three-time Tony Award winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kclu.org/arts-culture/2024-01-31/broadway-legend-hinton-battle-who-originally-played-scarecrow-in-the-wiz-has-died
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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NationalQueensland family's close encounter with snakeA 12-year-old Eumundi girl took matters into her own hands to save her pet guinea pig from a two-metre python.February 1, 2024 — 10.39amSaveLog in, register or subscribe to save articles for later.Save videos for laterAdd videos to your saved list and come back to them any time.Got itLoadingReplayReplay videoPlay videoPlay video
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https://www.theage.com.au/national/queensland-familys-close-encounter-with-snake-20240201-p5f1lu.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_national
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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Woman and two children in hospital after ‘corrosive substance attack’
A woman and her two young children have been taken to hospital after a man threw a suspected corrosive substance at them in south London.
Police responded to the incident in Lessar Avenue near Clapham Common at around 7.25pm on Wednesday.
Three other members of the public were also taken to hospital after the incident.
Their injuries are thought to have been suffered as they came to the aid of the woman and her children.
The Metropolitan Police said three officers who responded to the incident were also injured.
Detective Superintendent Alexander Castle said the officers’ injuries were “minor”.
“While tests are ongoing to determine what the substance is, at this stage we believe it to be a corrosive substance,” he said.
“A man was seen fleeing the scene. We are drawing on resources from across the Met to apprehend this individual and work is ongoing to determine what has led to this awful incident.”
No arrest has been made and police said they will give an update on the conditions of the injured people as soon as they can.
Marina Ahmad, Labour’s London Assembly member for Lambeth & Southwark, posted on X: “There has been a traffic collision with a man assaulting occupants in a car and throwing acid. Victims include children.”
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https://www.newschainonline.com/news/woman-and-two-children-in-hospital-after-corrosive-substance-attack-383090
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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Prosecutors brought back a familiar face for day 14 of Michelle Troconis’ trial in Stamford. Retired State Police Detective Matthew Reilly was back on the stand for lengthy testimony about the processing of Pawel Gumienny’s Toyota Tacoma.
“It was an older model pickup truck, it was an extended cab, it had a bed liner,” Reilly said, pointing to a photo displayed in the courtroom of the Tacoma during processing.
The truck was seized in early June of 2019 and was processed down to the bolts holding the license plates on. Prosecutors having Reilly note the appearance of the Tacoma.
“It appeared to be very clean for an 18-year-old truck,” Reilly said.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
He noted it appeared the truck was cleaned inside and out before it was seized. He went on showing the contents of the truck, and the processing methods.
“We then took a sample of that area,” Reilly said.
Samples were swabbed from inside the door and other various points along the Tacoma. There was also comprehensive testimony about the seats of the Tacoma. The seats inside the truck when it was seized were Porsche seats that investigators believed came from the wrecked Porsche SUV that came up in testimony earlier.
U.S. & World
In the bed of the truck were two other seats, designated as from the Ford Motor Company that investigators believed to be the seats inside the vehicle at the time Fotis Dulos took the truck to New Canaan on the morning Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
Pavel Gumienny saved the seats from the trip to New Canaan, despite Fotis Dulos telling him to get rid of them and handed those over to investigators as well.
“They cut out the area circled,” Reilly said, pointing to an area of those Ford seats investigators believed there was a blood stain.
Defense Attorney Jon Schoenhorn was quick to point out no blood was later found inside the Tacoma.
The jury was also back to seeing physical evidence in the courtroom. A fingerprint expert with the state forensic lab took the stand.
“This is the tape removed from both bags,” Kevin Parisi, with the state Forensic Laboratory said, showing the jury some of the samples he attempted to pull fingerprints from.
The samples he was testifying about were from evidence pulled from Albany Avenue in Hartford trash cans.
Three of Fotis Dulos’ fingerprints were matched to evidence from Hartford. Other fingerprints identified from evidence were either inconclusive or didn’t have a match.
There was also testimony offered from neighbors of Fotis Dulos in the spring of 2019. They testified about surveillance video they handed over to police, but we have not seen that surveillance video.
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https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/red-tacoma-fingerprints-and-surveillance-video-dominate-day-14-of-troconis-trial/3150669/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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Top tech CEOs were being grilled in Washington by lawmakers, who said the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
The executives include Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X's Linda Yaccarino and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, among others.
The social media apps have "given predators powerful new tools to exploit children," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. He noted that the powerful apps "have changed the way we live, work and play."
The hearing is one of several over the past year as pressure builds for federal regulators to do more to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety online. Lawmakers have spoken out, have written letters to the CEOs and are pushing five separate bills that cover social media and child safety.
States have also targeted the social media companies. Last year, 13 states passed laws to protect kids on social media, and more states are expected to do the same.
"You have blood on your hands," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells Zuckerberg
Of the companies testifying on Wednesday, Meta has especially come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for children. In October, a group of more than 40 states sued the company for allegedly designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive.
Separately, New Mexico's attorney general filed another suit against Meta, alleging it fails to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and also makes it easy for adults to solicit minors.
That lawsuit came after a Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in November. Based on data he collected while working at Facebook, he said he found that 24% of teens had received unwanted sexual advances. And when harmful posts are reported, he said, only 2% are taken down.
During Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid into Zuckerberg.
"Mr. Zuckerberg," Graham began, "you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people."
The packed audience, which included parents, survivors and child advocates, erupted in applause.
Zuckerberg has testified several times before members of the Senate, and he voluntarily agreed to speak again on Wednesday. In his opening statement, he said, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Internal emails show Zuckerberg declined to hire staff to protect children online
In the lead-up to Wednesday's hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Those include barring children under age 18 from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The company says it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security issues.
But just hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails that showed Meta has refused to fully commit to improving child safety on its platforms. At one point in 2021, the emails show, Zuckerberg declined a proposal to hire 45 new staff members dedicated to children's well-being.
The emails show top executives at Meta discussing budget and head count, as well as the fact that if they didn't address the issue they'd face increased regulatory risk and external criticism.
"This work & narrative has of course become a more critical focal point for policymakers, regulators et al in recent weeks — this is not likely to diminish going forward," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs wrote in a 2021 email to Zuckerberg.
The internal emails were produced in response to a letter that Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent to Meta in November.
Five federal bills introduced
Of the other executives to testify, TikTok's Chew has also appeared before Congresslast year, but this is the first time lawmakers have grilled X's Yaccarino and the two other CEOs: Snap's Evan Spiegel and Discord's Jason Citron. Chew volunteered to speak on Wednesday, but Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron agreed only after being subpoenaed.
Snap has come out as the sole social media company to throw its support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, which is one of the bills that lawmakers are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this year. If passed, it would hold tech companies accountable for feeding teens toxic content.
"Many of the largest and most successful internet companies today were born here in the United States of America, and we must lead not only in technical innovation but also in smart regulation," Snap's Spiegel said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
Throughout the hearing, several of the senators tried to get the tech CEOs to agree to back legislation. All of the executives said more had to be done and they agree with regulation, but besides Spiegel, none said they'd fully back one of the bills.
At one point Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., tried to get the CEOs to support legislation he and several other senators introduced, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.
"Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?" Coons asked the CEOs.
After the question didn't elicit a response, he followed up with: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Child safety groups and parents joined lawmakers for several press conferences on Wednesday. They echoed the senators' demands that more has to be done to protect kids online.
"Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m.," said Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. "These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.ksfr.org/npr-news/2024-01-31/you-have-blood-on-your-hands-senator-tells-mark-zuckerberg-for-failing-kids-online
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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Average annual wages for anesthesiologists vary across states, with the national mean estimated at $302,970, according to the most recently available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released April 25.
Here are the mean annual wages for anesthesiologists in 29 states, listed in descending order of pay.
Note: The remaining states and Washington, D.C., did not have sufficient data available.
1. Nebraska: $422,040
2. Washington: $419,950
3. Idaho: $407,820
4. Maryland: $395,320
5. Oregon: $395,060
6. Minnesota: $393,290
7. Connecticut: $384,860
8. Alabama: $383,600
9. Iowa: $379,890
10. Wisconsin: $374,230
11. Vermont: $356,190
12. South Carolina: $355,130
13. Ohio: $350,150
14. Montana: $346,740
15. Kentucky: $329,780
16. Tennessee: $321,690
17. New York: $309,350
18. North Carolina: $305,900
19. Florida: $299,980
20. Texas: $298,710
21. Indiana: $296,380
22. Arizona: $291,700
23. Nevada: $283,070
24. Utah: $262,830
25. Kansas: $257,530
26. Virginia: $254,440
27. West Virginia: $242,060
28. Illinois: $238,620
29. Wyoming: $205,800
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/anesthesiologist-pay-across-states.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:24Z
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PGA Tour strikes $3 billion deal with Fenway-led investment group. Players to get equity ownership
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The PGA Tour is getting a $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group in a deal announced Wednesday that would give players access to more than $1.5 billion as equity owners in the new PGA Tour Enterprises.
The launch of PGA Tour Enterprises, with SSG as a minority partner, comes eight months after the PGA Tour signed a framework agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf for a commercial venture, which ultimately led to private equity groups wanting to join.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is not part of the deal yet, though the tour said negotiations with the PIF are ongoing for it to also become a minority investor.
“The coolest thing about it is the players are now owners,” said Jordan Spieth, one of six players on the PGA Tour board. “So not only do they benefit with the tour, they now are equity owners so they want to push it themselves, they want to make the product better themselves. Not that they didn’t before, but you directly benefit from owning a piece.”
How much of a piece remained unclear. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan held a conference call with players from all its main tours (including the PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour) on Wednesday morning that included Tiger Woods, whom the tour appointed to the board last summer at the players’ request.
“As the tour grows, we grow,” Woods told players, according to Golf.com, which obtained access to the call. “So the more we invest into the tour, the more we get the benefits of it, which has never been — it’s never happened in sports history. So we’re the first. Exciting for me to be able to be part of that.”
Also uncertain is where this leaves the PIF.
The tour said its deal with SSG allows for a co-investment from the PIF, subject to regulatory approval. A Senate subcommittee wrote a letter earlier this week to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, that it is proceeding with its inquiry into framework agreement with the PGA Tour that was announced June 6.
“At this point if the PIF were interested in coming in on terms that our members like and/or the economic terms are at or not beyond SSG’s and they feel it would be a good idea, I think that’s where the discussions will start,” Spieth said. “I understand it could take some time to even come to those kind of terms, and then beyond that the Department of Justice and a regulatory review would be intact.”
LIV Golf starts its third season this week in Mexico and is likely to be around through all of next year depending on the timing of any investment by the PIF in the PGA Tour. How the fractured landscape of golf gets repaired remains as cloudy as how specifically equity ownership is distributed.
The PGA Tour plans several player meetings over the next month to work through details.
“By making PGA Tour members owners of their league, we strengthen the collective investment of our players in the success of the PGA Tour,” Monahan, who will be CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises, said in the formal announcement.
He said a partnership with SSG — a group comprised of American owners and executives of pro sports franchises — will “enhance our organization’s ability to make the sport more rewarding for players, tournaments, fans and partners.”
The PGA Tour Enterprises board would be comprised of seven players, the PGA Tour commissioner, four members of SSG and an independent director who’s also on the tour board.
The unique equity program in golf would give some 200 players access $930,000 in initial grants. Starting next year, PGA Tour Enterprises would use $600,000 for recurring grants for future players.
While specific details of the equity ownership program were not announced, the initial grants would be based on career accomplishments, recent achievements and PGA Tour status. The grants would vest over time.
SSG is led by Fenway Sports Group and includes owners Marc Attanasio (Milwaukee Brewers), Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons), Steven Cohen (New York Mets), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), Tom Werner and John Henry (Boston Red Sox), and Marc Lasry (Milwaukee Bucks). Others in the group include Alec Scheiner, former Cleveland Browns president and co-founder of Otro Capital.
“Our enthusiasm for this new venture stems from a very deep respect for this remarkable game and a firm belief in the expansive growth potential of the PGA Tour,” said Henry, the principal owner of Fenway Sports and manager of SSG.
SSG is investing an initial $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises and will concentrate on maximizing revenue for the benefit of the players and on finding opportunities to enhance golf across the world. Another $1.5 billion would go toward PGA Tour business.
The deal was unanimously approved by the PGA Tour board.
“It was incredibly important for us to create opportunities for the players of today and in the future to be more invested in their organization, both financially and strategically,” the player directors said in a joint statement. “This not only further strengthens the tour from a business perspective, but it also encourages the players to be fully invested in continuing to deliver — and further enhance — the best in golf to our fans.
“We are looking forward to this next chapter and an even brighter future.”
The tour said it was making progress in its negotiations with the Saudi national wealth fund on future investments and an ultimate agreement. Under the original framework agreement, Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor, was to be chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.
Now the commercial arm launches without any deal with the Saudis.
The European tour was part of the framework agreement on June 6, and it has a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour. The tour said only it is discussing how they can work together for a mutual benefit.
Key to the original deal with the Saudis was dismissing the lawsuits involving LIV Golf. Since the rival league was launched in June 2022, LIV has lured several prominent players and major champions such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.
As the tour’s negotiations with the PIF neared its original Dec. 31 deadline, LIV signed Masters champion Jon Rahm in a deal reported to be in the neighborhood of $500 million. It also signed Tyrrell Hatton, currently No. 16 in the world.
Rory McIlroy, who gave up his seat on the tour board in November, said on Tuesday he didn’t think there should be any punishment for a LIV player eligible to return to the tour.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/pga-tour-strikes-3-billion-deal-with-fenway-led-investment-group-players-to-get-equity-ownership/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:25Z
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Although his Tottenham side won a five-goal thriller against Brentford at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night, Ange Postecoglou seemingly wasn’t too impressed at how his players reacted to Neal Maupay’s celebrations.
Maupay had given the Bees an early lead but riled up James Maddison by copying his darts celebration.
Indeed, Maddison was caught on camera grabbing Maupay around the neck, something that clearly irked his Australian manager.
“If you’re that brave about things, my players and their players get into a UFC ring and I’ll see how brave they are,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“We’re out there to play football.”
If you're that brave about things, my players and their players get into a UFC ring and i'll see how brave they are, we're out there to play football!" ?
Ange Postecoglou on whether his players were fired up by Neal Maupay's celebrations ?? pic.twitter.com/gS80uMpo2w
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 31, 2024
Pictures from Sky Sports
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/video-were-out-there-to-play-football-ange-postecoglou-reacts-to-maddison-maupay-spat/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:26Z
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Pink Floyd is releasing yet another version of The Dark Side of the Moon.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just announced a 50th anniversary The Dark Side of the Moon Collector’s Edition, featuring the 2023 remastered version of the iconic album on crystal clear vinyl.
The two-LP, 180 gram set will feature UV artwork printing on the non-groove side of the LP, the first time they’ve used the UV printing process on vinyl. The artwork is of the iconic prism spectrum from the album’s cover, which can be seen through the playable side.
The Dark Side of the Moon Collector’s Edition will be released April 16. It is available for preorder now.
Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon on March 1, 1973. It has gone on to be the band’s most commercially successful album, having been certified 15-times Platinum. In 2012, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.
In 2023, in honor of the album’s 50th anniversary, Pink Floyd released a remastered version of the album along with an extensive box set that featured, among other things, a classic concert, The Dark Side of the Moon — Live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/pink-floyd-releasing-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-collectors-edition-on-clear-vinyl/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:27Z
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LAHORE - Lahore and Karachi were declared joint champions of the National Women’s T20 Tournament 2023-24 after rain forced the final to be abandoned without a ball bowled. The allotted prize money of PKR 1.5 million was divided between the two teams.
Lahore ended the league stage reigning supreme in the points table enjoying a 10-game winning streak. Karachi had secured their place in the final after edging over Rawalpindi with a superior NRR. Rawalpindi captain Aliya Riaz and Multan captain Gull Feroza were jointly declared players of the tournament.
Both players earned five player of the match awards – the most in the tournament. Aliya was the third highest run-getter of the tournament, finishing with 370 runs in 10 games, including three halfcenturies and an unbeaten century. She also picked up 10 wickets in the tournament. Gull, the second highest run-scorer, produced 479 runs on the back of five halfcenturies, and had five dismissals behind the stumps.
Lahore’s Sidra Amin was awarded the best batter of the tournament for amassing 494 runs in 10 matches, including three half-centuries and a century. Lahore leg-spinner Ghulam Fatima was the most successful bowler of the tournament with an impressive tally of 21 wickets in 10 games at an average of 8.24 and economy rate of just 4.44.
Sidra Nawaz, also representing Lahore, was adjudged the best wicketkeeper of the tournament had 15 dismissals behind the stumps, including six catches and nine stumpings.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/lahore-and-karachi-crowned-joint-national-women-s-t20-champions
| 2024-01-31T23:47:29Z
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British phone manufacturer Bullitt Group reportedly shut down on Jan. 26 after reports swirled earlier this month that the company was insolvent.
Ted Warren, a former accounts receivable supervisor at Bullitt, announced on LinkedIn this week that it had been "a difficult couple of months" and that the entire Bullitt Group has gone under. Numerous other Bullitt employees have similarly announced that the Caterpillar and Land Rover phone maker has shut down, Mobile World Live reported.
A quick search for affiliated Bullitt employees on LinkedIn shows that at least 22 accounts that have Bullitt listed as their employer are now "open to work," a LinkedIn label typically used to indicate that the user does not currently have a job. According to the profile of Bullitt's Head of Channel Marketing, Steve Morgan, the company had over 200 employees at one point.
It's possible Bullitt has laid off its customer service teams as well, as multiple attempts to contact Bullitt's US customer service by phone now go straight to voicemail. Its X account has not made a new post or reply since December.
In 2022, Bullitt tried to "pivot away from hardware" toward its satellite offering, a rep previously told The Telegraph. Bullitt also made the Motorola Defy satellite link, a clip-on device that enables satellite messaging for any smartphone.
In early January, The Telegraph reported that Bullitt had planned to transfer its satellite service business and its employees, apparently separate from its heavy-duty mobile hardware business, to a new company. One former Bullitt employee, Tim Shepherd, wrote that he was let go from his product marketing position because Bullitt was unable to move forward with a "critical planned restructuring," suggesting a new company is unlikely at this point.
PCMag previously reviewed Bullitt's early Caterpillar phones, such as the Cat S60 and the Cat S40. The Cat S61 had a few quirky features, like its ability to measure air quality. Bullitt released the first rugged Cat phone back in 2012.
Bullitt has not yet released a statement on the reports of its closure, and PCMag has reached out to the company for comment.
While Bullitt may be no more, there are other rugged smartphone devices out there. From Samsung's XCover7 to the Sonim XP10 and the Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3, buyers looking for something with impact durability and water resistance still have a few different options to choose from.
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https://www.pcmag.com/news/cat-phone-maker-bullitt-goes-out-of-business
| 2024-01-31T23:47:30Z
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Environment A look from Maui six months after devastating wildfires By Debbie Elliott Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:06 As we approach the six-month anniversary of the Maui fires, we look at the biggest issues that people on the island are still facing. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kclu.org/environment/2024-01-31/a-look-from-maui-six-months-after-devastating-wildfires
| 2024-01-31T23:47:30Z
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Conor Bradley inspires Liverpool as Manchester City and Tottenham also win
Youngster Conor Bradley registered his first Liverpool goal and two assists as the Premier League leaders thumped Chelsea 4-1 at Anfield to go five points clear at the top.
The 20-year-old right-back fired into the bottom corner in the 39th minute to double the Reds’ lead having earlier provided the pass that led to Diogo Jota’s opener midway through the first half.
After Darwin Nunez sent a penalty against the post in first-half stoppage-time – one of four times he hit the woodwork – the advantage was extended in the 65th minute when Dominik Szoboszlai headed in from Bradley’s cross.
Christopher Nkunku replied before Luis Diaz wrapped things up for Jurgen Klopp’s men as they made it 15 league matches unbeaten, and four successive wins, in their first top-flight outing since the German’s announcement that he is to step down as boss at the end of the season.
A miserable evening for Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea ended a three-match winning run as they stayed 10th.
Manchester City, who have played a game fewer than Liverpool, returned to second place with their fourth league victory on the bounce, beating struggling Burnley 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
Julian Alvarez netted twice on his 24th birthday and Rodri also got on the scoresheet before top-scorer Erling Haaland make his comeback from injury as a 71st-minute substitute.
Ameen Al-Dakhil netted a stoppage-time consolation for second-bottom Burnley, managed by ex-City captain Vincent Kompany, as Pep Guardiola’s treble-winners went above Arsenal on goal difference.
Tottenham moved into the top four after a flurry of goals early in the second half helped them come from behind to beat Brentford 3-2 at home.
Neal Maupay’s effort for the Bees on the quarter-hour mark was cancelled out three minutes into the second half by Destiny Udogie.
Brennan Johnson then put Spurs ahead a minute later, with Richarlison adding a further goal for the hosts seven minutes on from that.
Ivan Toney subsequently reduced the deficit in the 67th minute but Ange Postecoglou’s team emerged with the three points to leapfrog Aston Villa in the table.
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https://www.newschainonline.com/sport/mens-sport/football/conor-bradley-inspires-liverpool-as-manchester-city-and-tottenham-also-win-383089
| 2024-01-31T23:47:30Z
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SportNRLTeen's brutal try racks up 100m viewsA TikTok video of a Parramatta Junior's brutal length-of-the-field try has racked up over 100 million views, and prompted calls for him to be scouted by NFL teams.February 1, 2024 — 10.38amSaveLog in, register or subscribe to save articles for later.Save videos for laterAdd videos to your saved list and come back to them any time.Got itLoadingReplayReplay videoPlay videoPlay video
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/nrl/teens-brutal-try-racks-up-100m-views-20240201-p5f1lt.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_sport_nrl
| 2024-01-31T23:47:30Z
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Venture capital firm General Catalyst's pending acquisition of Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health adds an "unusual wrinkle" to what Fitch Ratings has called a "make-or-break" year for nonprofit hospitals, the ratings agency said in a Jan. 31 report shared with Becker's.
The deal, expected to be completed by the end of the year, would see Summa Health becoming a fully owned subsidiary of General Catalyst's Health Assurance Transformation Corp., or HATCo. If approved, Summa would be transformed from a nonprofit system to a for-profit.
"How it ultimately fares for Summa, and how it potentially shapes the [nonprofit] hospital sector, remains to be seen," Fitch said in the report. "Day-to-day operations should not look much different for Summa, which remains the market leader in its Northeast Ohio service area. Though leverage is elevated, Summa's balance sheet remains adequate to cushion against operating margins that are expected to be breakeven or better in FY24, which led Fitch to affirm its ['BBB+'] ratings and stable rating outlook for Summa Health last June."
HATCo CEO Marc Harrison, MD, told Becker's switching Summa to a for-profit system is "how we transform the industry holistically."
"It does not appear that traditional models, whether it's conventional non-for-profit medicine or unconventional [private equity], is actually really changing the industry holistically, and I think it has to be both a good investment in doing the right thing and then we can make big change," he said.
Fitch said Summa, like many of its peers, is "struggling with containing higher labor expenses and the need to use expensive agency nurses and other personnel to maintain staffing levels in support of rebounding patient volumes post-pandemic."
"Summa's planned conversion into a for-profit organization sheds more light on the longer-term transformation taking place within healthcare, (i.e., operating as efficiently as possible while improving patient access and patient care, and making more and better use of technology)," Fitch's report said. "Some of these things are being done as vendor/customer relationships and some through alignment/partnerships. This is a move that is likely to draw some regulatory scrutiny. That said, private equity purchasing [nonprofit] hospitals could proliferate over time, if Summa/HATCo proves to be successful."
Dr. Harrison and General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja have pushed back on the idea that the acquisition of Summa is "another private equity deal." They said in a Jan. 17 blog post that the acquisition is not a "quick flip but a long-term commitment to transformation that benefits the community."
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/an-unusual-wrinkle-in-hospitals-make-or-break-year-fitch.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:31Z
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Powell: Federal Reserve is on track to cut rates, though not likely for months
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rate cuts are coming. Just not yet.
The Federal Reserve delivered that message Wednesday, first in a policy statement and then in a news conference at which Chair Jerome Powell reinforced it.
The Fed did signal that it’s nearing a long-awaited shift toward cutting rates, evidence that its officials have grown confident that they’re close to fully taming inflation. No longer does its policy statement say it’s still considering further rate hikes.
Yet the officials made clear that the first rate cut is likely months away. Their statement said they don’t think it would be time to cut rates “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably” to their 2% target.
Investors and some economists had been holding out the possibility that the Fed might cut as early as its next meeting in March. That now appears off the table.
“I don’t think it’s likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting” to start cutting rates, Powell said at his news conference.
The central bank kept its key rate unchanged at about 5.4%, a 22-year high. But the changes to its statement — compared with its last meeting in December — show that it has moved toward considering rate reductions while still maintaining flexibility.
“There is nothing in Powell’s remarks or the statement that leads us to worry about the basic story of ‘good news’ cuts starting soon enough,” Krishna Guha, an economics analyst at investment bank Evercore ISI, said in a note to clients.
In December, the Fed’s policymakers had indicated that they expected to carry out three quarter-point rate cuts in 2024. Yet they have since said little about when those cuts might begin, and some senior officials stressed that the Fed will proceed cautiously.
On Wednesday, Powell said the Fed doesn’t need to see significant changes in the inflation data for it to cut rates. It just needs to see the inflation slowdown continue. Prices have increased at just a 2% annual rate in the past six months, according to the Fed’s preferred measure.
“It’s not that we’re looking for better data — it’s just that we’re looking for a continuation of the good data that we’ve been getting,” he said. “We just need to see more.”
The central bank’s message Wednesday — that it’s edging closer to cutting rates but not planning to do so anytime soon — disappointed traders on Wall Street. Losses in the stock market accelerated after Powell’s news conference began.
The change in the Fed’s stance comes as the economy is showing surprising durability after a series of 11 rate hikes helped drastically slow inflation, which had hit a four-decade high 18 months ago. Growth remains healthy: In the final three months of last year, the economy expanded at a 3.3% annual rate, the government said last week.
The Fed is assessing inflation and the economy at a time when the intensifying presidential campaign is pivoting in no small part on voters’ perceptions of President Joe Biden’s economic stewardship. Republicans in Congress have attacked Biden over the high inflation that gripped the nation beginning in 2021 as the economy emerged from recession. But the latest economic data — ranging from steady consumer spending to solid job growth to the slowdown in inflation — has been bolstering consumer confidence.
At his news conference, Powell said the Fed welcomes signs of economic strength.
“We want to see strong growth and a strong labor market,” the Fed chair said. “We’re looking for inflation to come down, as it has been coming down for the last six months.”
Most economists have said they expect the Fed to start cutting its benchmark rate in May or June. Rate cuts would eventually lead to lower borrowing costs for America’s consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
A year ago, many analysts were predicting that widespread layoffs and sharply higher unemployment would be needed to cool the economy and curb inflation. Yet job growth has been steady. The unemployment rate, at 3.7%, isn’t far above a half-century low.
Labor costs are easing, too. On Wednesday, the government reported that pay and benefits for America’s workers, which accelerated in 2022, grew in the final three months of 2023 at the slowest pace in 2 1/2 years. That slowdown reduces pressure on companies to raise prices to cover higher labor costs.
The Fed appears on the verge of achieving a rare “soft landing,” in which it manages to conquer high inflation without causing a recession. Should the pace of economic growth strengthen, though, it could complicate the challenge for the Fed.
Powell said that faster growth could potentially cause inflation to stall at a rate above 2%, which could complicate the Fed’s timetable for rate cuts. For now, with the economy performing well, he said, the Fed doesn’t need to rush to reduce borrowing costs.
“If we saw an unexpected weakening in the labor market, that would certainly weigh on cutting sooner,” Powell said.
Asked whether he thought the Fed has already achieved a soft landing, Powell suggested it would be premature to say so.
“We have a ways to go,” he said. “Core inflation is still well above target on a 12-month basis. Certainly, I’m encouraged and we’re encouraged by the progress, but we’re not declaring victory at this point. We think we have a ways to go.”
Some cracks in the job market have begun to emerge and, if they worsen, could spur the Fed to cut rates quickly. For several months, most of the nation’s job growth has occurred in just a few sectors — health care, government and hotels, restaurants and entertainment. Any weakening in those areas of the economy could threaten hiring and the overall expansion.
A report Tuesday showed that the number of workers who quit in December reached its lowest level in three years. That suggested that fewer Americans are being recruited for new, higher-paying jobs or are willing to search for and take new positions. Though quits remain at a level consistent with a solid job market, they have fallen about one-third from their peak in mid-2022.
Still, the U.S. economy is outdoing its counterparts overseas. During the October-December quarter, the 20 countries that share the euro currency barely avoided a recession, posting essentially no growth.
Still, as in the United States, unemployment is very low in the euro area, and inflation has slowed to a 2.9% annual rate. Though the European Central Bank could cut rates as soon as April, many economists think that might not happen until June.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/powell-federal-reserve-is-on-track-to-cut-rates-though-not-likely-for-months/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:31Z
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Tottenham Hotspur against Brentford had a bit of everything on Wednesday evening. Five goals were scored, there was a bit of needle and some mind games being played by each team.
The away side took the lead in the 15th minute via Neap Maupay, and the Frenchman’s celebration certainly didn’t go down too well with James Maddison.
Perhaps the Brentford striker purposely stole Maddison’s celebration to get in his head or to provoke a reaction? Either way Maddison took the bait and then some.
In the second half, Spurs scored two goals in two minutes, the first by Destiny Udogie and then Brennan Johnson fired the home side ahead. During the celebrations Maddison and Johnson appeared to mock Maupay as they jokingly recreated the Brentford striker’s celebration from the first half.
Maddison and Johnson hit back at Maupay for doing the darts celebration ?? pic.twitter.com/iIz0Kvo1Lh
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 31, 2024
Tottenham eventually saw out a 3-2 victory at home, and after the game Maddison had words to say about Neal Maupay.
The England international told TNT Sports: “He [Maupay] hasn’t scored enough goals to have his own celebration.”
"He hasn't scored enough goals to have his own celebration!" ?
James Maddison responds to Neal Maupay copying his celebration ??
? @ReshminTV pic.twitter.com/PRlURU0exu
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 31, 2024
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https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/01/31/watch-as-spurs-player-mocks-brentford-striker-and-then-has-fiery-response-post-match/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:33Z
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ZZ Top star Billy F. Gibbons is turning his love of a good cigar into a new business venture.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has teamed with BandKandy to launch his first-ever cigar brand. He’s starting out with two new products: Virtu, an ultra premium cigar line developed in the Dominican Republic by Debonaire, and Twin Turbo, a two-pack rough-cut style cigar brand.
“I always enjoy seeing what a cigar brings to a party, even better when I’ve had my hands in the craftsmanship of my very own brands,” Gibbons shares. “Light up, enjoy, and have mercy, my friends.”
Virtu by Billy Gibbons will be available as a limited edition 5,000 piece collection, coming in a numbered high-end humidor that holds five hand-rolled cigars and a custom-designed Zippo lighter. Twin Turbo comes with two cigars in a foil pouch and will be available in three different aromatic profiles.
Gibbons is a well known cigar fan who enjoys smoking one on stage and lighting one up just before a guitar solo. He is set to make a special appearance to promote his new cigar brand at the Global Tobacco booth at the Total Product Expo in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 1.
As for Gibbons’ music, ZZ Top is set to kick off a new tour in Key West, Florida, on March 2. A complete list of dates can be found at zztop.com.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://jambroadcasting.com/zz-tops-billy-f-gibbons-launching-cigar-brand/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:34Z
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ISLAMABAD - The 30th death anniversary of legendary musician Master Abdullah was observed on Wednesday. Born in 1930 in Lahore, his elder brother Master Inayat Hussain was a film music composer in the early days of Pakistan film industry and was better known in Pakistan than Master Abdullah himself, a private news channel reported. He began his film career in 1962 with an Urdu language film Suraj Mukhi (1962). Major Films of Master Abdullah includes, Malangi (1965), Laado (1966), Badla (1968), Commander (1968), Rangu Jatt (1970), Shehanshah (1974) Sharif Badmash (1975) Sheeshay Ka Ghar (1978), Jatt Mirza (1982) and Qismet (1985). Master Abdullah won a Best Musician Nigar Award for the Punjabi film “Ziddi” in 1973. He died on this day in 1994 in Lahore.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/musician-master-abdullah-s-30th-death-anniversary-observed
| 2024-01-31T23:47:36Z
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Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kclu.org/healthcare/2024-01-31/expected-to-be-a-big-deal-alzheimers-drug-is-pulled-after-disappointing-sales
| 2024-01-31T23:47:36Z
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Conor Bradley stars as Liverpool brush aside Chelsea to restore five-point lead
Premier League leaders Liverpool restored their five-point advantage with a 4-1 win over Chelsea on a memorable night for youngster Conor Bradley and a typically frustrating one for Darwin Nunez.
With Manchester City beating Burnley and Arsenal winning on Tuesday, victory in the first of their major double-header – a trip to the Emirates is up next – was imperative but Jurgen Klopp’s side could not have expected to have had such a comfortable time.
Goals from Diogo Jota, Bradley – his first for the club – and Dominik Szoboszlai put the game beyond a woeful Chelsea inside 65 minutes but it could have been a rout as Nunez hit the woodwork an incredible four times – once from the penalty spot.
Thankfully for Liverpool his input was not needed as there was another star performer in the form of academy graduate Bradley, deputising for Trent Alexander-Arnold who was on the bench as he continued to make his comeback from injury, on only his second league start.
Bradley, man of the match against Norwich on Sunday, has been directly involved in six goals in his last four appearances and he deservedly departed to a standing ovation when Alexander-Arnold eventually took over.
While everything went perfectly for Bradley, Nunez could not catch a break as he was denied three times by Djordje Petrovic, with the goalkeeper tipping two shots onto the crossbar and the post in the first half.
Such was the Liverpool striker’s luck that when he did send Petrovic the wrong way from the spot, having taken the ball off Alexis Mac Allister, that same post was to deny him again.
But while Nunez’s brand of controlled chaos keeps him involved but does not always bring the right results, Klopp has a player who is almost the exact opposite in Jota.
The Portugal international is uncomplicated to the point of almost being unappreciated among bigger stars and characters on the forward line but his proficiency in front of goal is unrivalled.
He demonstrated as much when the again-excellent Bradley won the ball off Ben Chilwell 10 yards inside his own half, exchanged passes with Szoboszlai before driving forward to play in Jota.
The forward spotted a gap between Thiago Silva and Benoit Badiashile and barged through it to score, with VAR confirming the ball had rebounded off Badiashile’s hand and not Jota’s.
Former Chelsea captain John Terry, among the visiting supporters at the end Liverpool were attacking, would no doubt have had a number of questions.
With the visitors pinned back in their own half, Petrovic parried a low shot from Curtis Jones but was powerless to prevent a devastating angled finish from Bradley, who had been released down the right by Luis Diaz.
The 20-year-old allowed himself the luxury of celebrating a second time when VAR confirmed no foul in the build-up and, just when he thought his night could not get any better, the Kop sang his name for the first of numerous occasions.
Even Badiashile’s trip on Jota on the stroke of half-time could not change Nunez’s fortunes from the spot.
Chelsea left the pitch bemoaning the penalty they did not get at 0-0 when Conor Gallagher collided with Virgil van Dijk.
Gallagher did not make it back for the second half and neither did Chilwell, booked for diving, or Noni Madueke in an admission by Mauricio Pochettino the opening 45 minutes had been nowhere near good enough.
New arrival Mykhailo Mudryk blazed over the first chance after the break before Bradley crossed for Szoboszlai to head home the third.
Christopher Nkunku pulled one back but there was still time for Nunez to power a header against the crossbar before Diaz slid in the fourth at the far post from Nunez’s cross.
Victory was Klopp’s 200th league victory in 318 matches, faster than any other Liverpool manager.
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https://www.newschainonline.com/sport/mens-sport/football/conor-bradley-stars-as-liverpool-brush-aside-chelsea-to-restore-five-point-lead-383086
| 2024-01-31T23:47:37Z
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St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Bayfront Health received a $2 million donation to help build a cardiac hybrid operating room, Catalyst reported Jan. 30.
The donation from philanthropist Thomas James and Mary James is the largest one-time gift received by the system in its 114-year history, a hospital spokesperson said. It will be used to help build a cardiac hybrid operating room at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.
In 2006, the couple donated $1 million to help create the James Heart Center.
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/florida-system-gets-2m-to-build-cardiac-or.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:37Z
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Ruling moves University of Idaho closer toward controversial bid to acquire University of Phoenix
The University of Idaho said Wednesday it would move forward with its planned acquisition of the for-profit University of Phoenix for nearly $700 million after a judge dismissed the state attorney general’s lawsuit alleging the deal was done in violation of an open meetings law.
Attorney General Raúl Labrador failed to prove the Board of Regents violated Idaho’s Open Meetings Law when considering the transaction, an Idaho judge ruled Tuesday in dismissing Labrador’s lawsuit.
The university hailed the decision as a victory for both the board’s executive session practices and for access to higher education in Idaho. The lawsuit has been one of the biggest impediments to closing the deal.
“We look forward to completing our affiliation with the University of Phoenix in the coming months and bringing this unique opportunity to the citizens of Idaho,” said a statement from university spokesperson Jodi Walker. “Higher education has never been more important than now as we work to meet the workforce needs of our state.”
The deal is the latest attempt by troubled for-profit schools to cleanse their reputations after investigations into deceptive practices and face less regulation as nonprofits, said David Halperin, a Washington, D.C., attorney and longtime critic of the for-profit college industry.
“Why Idaho wants to buy is a little harder to understand,” he said.
During a meeting open to the public last year, the board unanimously voted to approve the creation of a not-for-profit entity that will acquire the operations of the University of Phoenix. In other, closed-door discussions, the board “reasonably believed” it was in competition with one or more public agencies in other states to acquire the University of Phoenix, which allowed for an executive session, District Judge Jason Scott’s ruling said.
The ruling “will lead to far less government transparency and accountability,” Labrador said in a statement Wednesday. “That is bad for Idaho citizens, and it defies the entire purpose of the law. We are looking closely at all appellate options to ensure Idaho’s Open Meetings Law remains a bulwark for openness and government accountability.”
Labrador complained the board kept details of the deal secret until the last moment and decided to purchase the University of Phoenix despite fines for deceptive and unfair practices.
The University of Phoenix was among the for-profit schools involved in a 2022 settlement to cancel federal student debt for former students who applied for debt cancellation because of alleged misconduct by the schools.
In 2019, the University of Phoenix reached a record $191 million settlement to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that the institution used deceptive advertisements that falsely touted its relationships and job opportunities with companies such as AT&T, Microsoft and the American Red Cross.
The University of Idaho has hailed the deal as expanding educational access to adult learners who seek online programs: “University of Phoenix serves primarily working adults. U of I will remain Idaho’s land-grant, residential university serving primarily traditional learners.”
The two will retain a separate operational structure. Each will have its own president and leadership team, the University of Idaho said.
Representatives for the University of Phoenix didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday.
A deputy attorney general advising the board had approved the executive sessions as compliant with Idaho’s Open Meeting Law, the judge’s ruling noted.
State Board President Linda Clark said they will seek payment of legal fees by the attorney general’s office.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/ruling-moves-university-of-idaho-closer-toward-controversial-bid-to-acquire-university-of-phoenix/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:38Z
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Be prepared for some hard knocks in Mission League baseball and softball
Get ready for lots of searching for missing baseballs after Loyola High senior Augie Lopez comes to the plate this season.
Last season the USC commit hit five home runs. At Wednesday’s Mission League baseball/softball media day, coach Keith Ramsey made it clear that Lopez is even stronger.
“What makes this guy special is his day to day work,” Ramsey said. “Every day he does something to make himself better. He’s got a lot of juice. We’re really impressed when he takes batting practice.”
Gavin Hightower, Jeremiah Hampton, Louis Bond and JJ Harris have been together since they were freshmen.
The top pitchers in the league know all about Lopez. He had a grand slam against Harvard-Westlake and home runs against Alemany, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Chaminade and Cathedral in 2023. He knows pitchers will be throwing to him carefully.
“I’m staying selective,” Lopez said.
All eight coaches in the league said they would be taking advantage of the new rule that allows one-way electronic communication between a coach and catcher. Sierra Canyon coach Tom Meusborn joked that his team’s usual more than three hours required to complete games might be shortened but made no promises because he intends to continue to have lots of meetings.
The league will feature two of the best players in Southern California switching from third base to shortstop. Harvard-Westlake’s Bryce Rainer and Notre Dame’s Levi Sterling will make the transition while also continuing to pitch. Rainer will be used primarily as a closer. Sterling will become a starter on the mound.
There’s high expectations for a number of freshmen to make contributions. They include catcher Drew Rico of Harvard-Westlake, pitcher Sean Parrow of Sierra Canyon, outfielder Rickee Luevano of Bishop Alemany and pitcher Christian Fregoso of Crespi.
Harvard-Westlake pitcher Duncan Marsten is trying to become the first Wolverine since Lucas Giolito to touch 100 mph on the mound. He’s also going to bat for the first time in high school. Coach Jared Halpert said it was his mistake not to let Marsten hit before after seeing what he can do at the plate during the off season. “I’ve apologized to him many times over,” Halpert said.
Crespi has a group of juniors who can compete with anyone in Southern California. Pitcher Diego Velazquez is committed to USC, catcher Landon Hodge is committed to Louisiana State and pitcher Tyler Walton is a UC Santa Barbara commit. There’s also infielder Nate Lopez, committed to San Diego State.
St. Francis has a battle for smartest player. Pitcher Lucas Favretto has received one B in high school (English class) and is committed to Cal-Tech. All-league second baseman Holden Deitch is the school valedictorian with a 4.8 grade-point average. If they’re discussing stem cells or rocket engines in the dugout, coach Shaun Kort might have to intervene.
Notre Dame’s Kai Gonzaga is facing one of the toughest assignments, taking over as the leadoff hitter for Dean West (now at UCLA). So far, so good in winter games.
Chaminade’s Vinny Van der Wel, coming off a huge season at the plate, will also contribute on the mound. He’s a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo commit. He had 40 hits last season and five home runs.
There’s no doubt who ranks as the best returning player in Mission League softball. That would be Duke commit Hailey Shuler of Sierra Canyon. She was 10-4 on the mound and also hit nine home runs.
One of the best matchups should come when Sierra Canyon faces Notre Dame. Former Sierra Canyon star Izzy Mertes transferred to Notre Dame. She hit .566 with eight home runs last season. Now Shuler will get to face a good friend.
Of course, that happened last season when Shuler took on her former club teammate, Ella Parker of Notre Dame, now at Oklahoma.
Teenage basketball coach Jordan Bradford is showing a 17-year-old can handle an adult job by guiding St. Bernard’s junior varsity team.
What will be life like at Notre Dame without Parker? For one, fewer intentional walks.
“You lose arguably the best player in the country, it’s a blow,” Notre Dame coach Justin Siegel said. “More importantly, she’s a plus-human being, teammate and leader.”
Sophomore Sarah Jacobs is back for the Knights to pitch after a productive freshman season.
Louisville has Cal Baptist commit Bella Wellbaum.
Sierra Canyon’s Nina Peyton Johnson announced she has committed to Cal.
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https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2024-01-31/mission-league-baseball-softball
| 2024-01-31T23:47:42Z
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LAHORE - The Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA), led by Chairman Rao Iftikhar Ahmad, has officially endorsed the nominations of Asghar Nawaz, Zia Uddin, and Arif Qureshi for the key positions of President, Secretary, and Treasurer, respectively, in the upcoming PTF elections for the 2024-28 term. The election schedule outlines February 2 as the nomination deadline, with the PTF set to scrutinize candidates by February 5 and announce the final candidate list by February 7. The elections, scheduled for February 10, will determine the leadership for President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the PTF for the forthcoming term. PLTA Secretary Rashid Malik emphasized the association’s objective, saying, “Our primary concern is to support individuals with ambitious goals for the advancement of tennis in Pakistan, particularly at the junior level. There’s an urgent need to organize ITF and ATF junior tennis events in each province, enabling our young players to participate, enhance their international rankings, and gain valuable experience.”
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/plta-backs-nominations-of-asghar-zia-arif-for-ptf-elections
| 2024-01-31T23:47:42Z
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Danny Rohl: Sheffield Wednesday will fight for everything in relegation battle
Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl vowed his team “will fight for everything” to stay in the Championship after their winless run reached three matches with a 0-0 home draw with Watford.
Rohl felt his team deserved to win a game which saw both teams hit the woodwork in the first period and Di’Shon Bernard denied a second-half opener by the impressive Watford goalkeeper Ben Hamer.
The Owls had 19 shots throughout the contest but failed to score against a Watford side who picked up their first clean sheet since November.
Rohl insists his team’s display was not one of a team five points adrift in the relegation zone.
He told a press conference: “We did well as a team but I believe if we do this in the next 17 games we will achieve our goals because this performance is not a performance from a relegation side.
“Of course we need some luck to win some games and the decisions today were not easy to take, but this is football.
“When I arrived the club had no belief, the club in trouble, no positive energy… whereas now my team goes into every game with the conviction we can take something.
“Everyone should be proud of what we have done since I arrived here. As long as I am the manager we will fight for everything.”
The Owls travel to fellow relegation battlers Huddersfield at the weekend and would move within two points of their Yorkshire rivals with victory.
Rohl admits it is an important match but does not think it will decide their fate.
“It’s a big game and we have to be ready for the fight,” he added.
“I also believe this game will not decide whether we stay in the league or not. It’s just another game with three points up for grabs. There is a lot in the game but after we have 16 games to go.”
Watford boss Valerien Ismael blamed the poor conditions as his side missed an opportunity to go within a point of the play-offs and drew for the fourth time in five league outings.
He said: “We will take the point, the pitch was awful and difficult to play football.
“We knew that before and prepared the guys but it was really bad. That’s why it was difficult for us to control the ball as usual and struggled a bit more than usual.
“Nonetheless we had some great chances in the first half to score but we were disciplined, calm and focused on our game.
“It was a tough away game but we finally have a clean sheet after two months and 15 games, but we take what we can get at the minute.”
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https://www.newschainonline.com/sport/mens-sport/football/danny-rohl-sheffield-wednesday-will-fight-for-everything-in-relegation-battle-383092
| 2024-01-31T23:47:43Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.kclu.org/healthcare/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:47:43Z
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Hospital stocks are up after Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare posted a $5.2 billion profit Jan. 30, The Wall Street Journal reported.
HCA — the nation's largest publicly traded hospital company, boasting 184 U.S. hospitals — revealed the billowing profit in its most recent earnings report. In 2023, the system reported $65 billion in revenue, up from $60.2 billion in 2022. The year's net income, $5.2 billion, was a slight decrease from 2022's $5.6 billion.
Shares of HCA were recently up 64%, landing the system a spot among the S&P 500's "top gainers," according to the Journal. Shares of King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services also rose 2%.
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hca-earnings-boost-hospital-stocks.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:43Z
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Stock market today: Wall Street falls as Big Tech slumps and hope for a March rate cut fades
NEW YORK (AP) — Big Tech stocks burned by the downside of high expectations triggered a sharp slide for Wall Street Wednesday. The market’s losses worsened after the Federal Reserve indicated it likely won’t cut interest rates in March, as many traders had hoped.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% for its worst day since September. It veered between more modest and sharper losses through a shaky afternoon as traders delayed bets for when the Fed would begin easing its main interest rate from its highest level since 2001.
The slide for Big Tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite to a market-leading loss of 2.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, fell a more modest 0.8%, or 317 points.
Alphabet was one of the heaviest weights on the market, and it fell 7.5% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Underneath the surface, analysts pointed to some concerning trends in how much Google’s parent company is earning from advertising.
The bigger challenge, though, may have been the high expectations the company faces after how much its stock soared last year. Other Big Tech stocks that also accounted for a disproportionate chunk of the S&P 500’s rally to a record likewise struggled Wednesday in the face of high expectations.
Microsoft fell 2.7% even though it delivered stronger profit and revenue than expected. One analyst, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, even called its quarterly report “a masterpiece that should be hung in the Louvre.”
Tesla, another member of the group of stocks nicknamed the “Magnificent Seven,” fell 2.2%. A judge in Delaware ruled a day earlier that its CEO, Elon Musk, is not entitled to the landmark compensation package earlier awarded to him.
The Magnificent Seven were responsible for the majority of the S&P 500’s return last year, and three more members are scheduled to report their latest quarter results on Thursday: Amazon, Apple and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Expectations are high for them, too.
Besides the Magnificent Seven, stocks have rallied to records because of hopes that a cooldown in inflation will convince the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates several times this year. Such cuts would relax the pressure on the economy and encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks.
But the Fed on Wednesday left its main interest rate steady and made clear it “does not expect it will be appropriate” to cut rates “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward” its goal of 2%.
“We’re not declaring victory at all,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. He said it’s unlikely the Fed will get to that level of comfort by its next meeting in March.
“It’s probably not the most likely case,” he said, which sent stocks skidding late in trading.
But Powell also said Fed officials already have some confidence that day will arrive. They just need to see more months of data confirming that inflation is heading sustainably lower. “We have confidence,” he said. “It has been increasing, but we want to get greater confidence.”
Powell acknowledged the difficult position the Fed is in, with dangers arising from both acting too quickly and too late, even though “overall it’s a good picture” for the economy at the moment. Cutting rates too soon could ignite inflationary pressures, while acting too late would mean unnecessary pain for the economy and job market.
“Given how strong the economy has been, the Fed probably figures it can err on the side of cutting later and slower than what the market is pricing,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Treasury yields in the bond market swung up and down following the Fed’s announcement. They had been lower earlier following a couple softer-than-expected reports on the economy.
One report said that growth in pay and benefits for U.S. workers was slower in the final three months of 2023 than economists expected. While all workers would like bigger raises, the cooler-than-expected data could further calm what was one of the Fed’s big fears: that too-big pay gains would trigger a vicious cycle that ends up keeping inflation high.
A separate report from the ADP Research Institute also suggested hiring by non-government employers was softer in January than economists expected. The Fed and Wall Street are hoping that the job market cools by just the right amount, enough to keep a lid on inflation but not so much that it causes a recession. A more comprehensive jobs report from the U.S. government will arrive Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.92% from 4.04% late Tuesday. In October, it was above 5% and at its highest level since 2007.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 79.32 points to 4,845.65. The Dow dropped 317.07 to 38,150.30, and the Nasdaq slumped 345.89 to 15,164.01.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped sharply again in China amid continued worries about a weak economic recovery and troubles for the country’s heavily indebted property developers.
Stocks were mixed elsewhere in Asia and down modestly in Europe.
___
AP Writer Zimo Zhong contributed.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/stock-market-today-wall-street-falls-as-big-tech-slumps-and-hope-for-a-march-rate-cut-fades/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:44Z
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A day before Jackie Robinson’s 105th birthday, parts of his stolen statue found burning in Kansas
A day after pieces of a stolen Jackie Robinson statue were found burning in a trash can in Kansas, the Rose Bowl will celebrate the sports and civil rights icon’s 105th birthday Wednesday at his statue outside of the historic venue in Pasadena.
Last week, Robinson’s bronze statue at McAdams Park in Wichita, Kan., was cut off at the ankles and stolen. Police said two people were seen on surveillance video dragging the statue to a truck, which was later recovered by investigators.
On Tuesday morning, burned pieces of the statue were found in the remains of a trash can fire seven miles away in another public recreation area, Garvey Park.
The Rose Bowl told The Times in a statement Wednesday that its statue of Robinson playing football remains under close watch following the incident in Wichita.
“The Rose Bowl Stadium was saddened and angered to learn of the inexcusable act of vandalism to the Jackie Robinson statue in Kansas last week,” the venue said in a statement emailed to The Times. “To date, there have been no incidents, suspicious activity or threats related to the Jackie Robinson statue outside of the Rose Bowl Stadium, but we will continue to work closely with campus security and the Pasadena Police Department to ensure the statue remains secure.”
MLB celebrates Jackie Robinson Day on Friday, which is the 75th anniversary of the Dodgers legend breaking baseball’s color barrier. Here’s our coverage.
The Rose Bowl said it will honor Robinson at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by an open house of the stadium.
Robinson grew up in Pasadena and played a number of sports at UCLA. He became the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball history when he signed with the Dodgers in 1947. Numerous monuments and statues honoring Robinson stand in Southern California, including outside Dodger Stadium and on UCLA’s campus.
“We were saddened to learn about this reprehensible act of vandalism,” UCLA said in a statement Wednesday to The Times about the incident in Kansas. “Jackie Robinson is not only one of UCLA’s most notable alumni, but a legend and civil rights icon for the entire nation.”
UCLA added that there have been no incidents or suspicious activity related to any of the school’s monuments to Robinson, and that those spots, like all areas on campus, are continually monitored for safety.
The Dodgers declined to comment for this story.
We continue to count down the 25 greatest Dodgers of all time with the second-greatest in franchise history.
Wichita Police Department spokesperson Andrew Ford described the pieces of the statue honoring Robinson as “not salvageable” during a news conference Tuesday.
The police department is leading the investigation of the fire because of the connection with the stolen statue, which also remains under investigation. Ford said that more than 100 people have been interviewed as part of the probe.
“There will be arrests, but we’re going to make sure that when we do, we will have a solid case,” Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said at the news conference Tuesday.
As for the rest of the statue, the Wichita Fire Department said in a statement that those parts “have not been recovered at this time.”
“Station 22 arrived on-scene and extinguished a small residential style trash can that was on fire,” the department said. “During the overhaul process, crews located the dismantled remains of the stolen Jackie Robinson statue.”
Manhattan Beach police are asking for the public’s help in locating the plaque from Bruce’s Beach that was stolen this week — stripped from its large plinth.
League 42, a nonprofit youth baseball organization in Wichita named after Robinson’s jersey number, had the statue installed outside its McAdams Park baseball complex for a reported $75,000 in 2021. The organization intends to erect a new, identical statue honoring Robinson to go in the same spot, as well as increased security around the area. More than $146,000 has been raised online for the cause, with League 42 saying on its GoFundMe page that any extra donations will go toward the group’s operational needs.
“As law enforcement searches for the culprits of this crime, we remain devoted to our mission of providing low-cost baseball and education opportunities for our 600 kids, ages 5-14,” League 42 executive director Bob Lutz said in a statement on the organization’s website. “They are as heartbroken over this theft as any of us and we are determined to replace the statue.”
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https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2024-01-31/jackie-robinson-statue-found-stolen-kansas
| 2024-01-31T23:47:48Z
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It was an early morning run in Ojai’s foothills that two men will never forget.
Pete Deneen was running with his friend Ross Monroe when a mountain lion attacked Monroe’s dog, forcing them to jump into action.
"We're greeted with him being taken by the back of the neck by this mountain lion, about ready to be dragged into the brush," said Monroe.
Deneen said the early morning run January 10 was unusual from the start.
"Ross and I are running partners. He lives in Santa Paula, and I'm in Upper Ojai," said Deneen. "He comes to my house, and we park and leave from here, about a mile from the Sisar Canyon trailhead. We went for a dawn run. But, as we started to go up into the canyon, there was one eerie thing after another."
He said they first ran into a group of dog walkers. Then, he thought he saw something flash across the trail. As they rain up the mountainside, they kept hearing movement in bushes. Then, near the top they discovered the remains of a skunk which had been torn apart.
Carter, Monroe’s new dog, was part of the run. Monroe had just adopted the dog a few weeks earlier from South Central Los Angeles, and the dog seemed to love being able to run in the open space. Monroe says they made it to the end of the run, more than three and a half miles up the canyon, and turned around to head back home.
"My dog was behind us, running, and we heard a bit of a welp."
Deneen picks up the story. "We turned towards each other, and started running uphill (towards the dog). We had to run around 150 years uphill, and we come around a bend, and then comes into view carter, and he's pinned down underneath something. A lion was not at the front of my mind...but I come withing about 20 years, and see it's a lion."
Deneen says he didn’t think, he just acted, as did Monroe.
"The lion looks up, and makes eye contact, and picks Carter up by the back of his neck. Carter is a 50 pound dog, a Husky/Pit mix. It starts running towards the brush. "I don't know exactly what we were yelling, but I ran straight at the lion."
The mountain lion then dropped the dog. It tried to jump into a tree, but missed, and fell on its back. It then got up and ran away.
Monroe says that was when they were able to really think about what happened.
"It was all a blur," said Monroe. "The first noise I tried to make when we were running (towards the mountain lion) nothing came out. There was vomit in the back of my mouth, I was so scared."
He said there was no formal decision making, but having two people there to charge the lion helped immensely.
As for Carter, the dog was covered with cuts and bite marks, but remarkably escaped without vital organs being damaged. Monroe said even at the vet, the dog was wagging its tail like it wanted to be everyone's best friend.
Pete Deneen thinks instinct, and knowledge about what to do help the three of them survive the incident.
The experience hasn’t soured them about running in Ojai’s foothills, but both men admit they are much more wary, and watchful on their runs.
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https://www.kclu.org/local-news/2024-01-31/facedown-with-a-mountain-lion-two-ventura-county-man-save-a-dog-from-the-jaws-of-a-cougar
| 2024-01-31T23:47:49Z
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Erik ten Hag: Being a top-level footballer demands a certain way of life
Erik ten Hag says top players should not have to be reminded what is acceptable as the Manchester United boss looks to move on from Marcus Rashford’s reported Belfast escapades.
Having scored 30 goals for the Red Devils in 2022-23, things have gone awry this term and the forward’s paltry four-goal haul has been compounded by some off-field matters.
Ten Hag called Rashford’s decision to go to a party after October’s derby defeat to Manchester City “unacceptable” and stories emerged in recent days of more late-night exploits.
The 26-year-old is reported to have gone out in Belfast last Thursday night until 3am and was unable to train the following day through illness, going on to miss Sunday’s FA Cup win at Newport.
United later said in a statement that “Marcus has taken responsibility for his actions” and the “internal disciplinary matter” is closed – something Ten Hag referred to ahead of Thursday’s trip to Wolves.
“So, he has taken responsibility and for the rest it’s an internal matter,” the Red Devils boss said. “Case closed.”
Ten Hag used the phrase “case closed” repeatedly, including when asked outright about Rashford’s reaction and whether the player had apologised for his actions.
Marcus has taken responsibility for his actions. This has been dealt with as an internal disciplinary matter, which is now closed.
But the Dutchman was more forthcoming on the obligations for elite players and the onus being on them to maintain high standards.
“First of all, the players at this level have to manage themselves,” Ten Hag said. “That is what you can demand from the player.
“A player has to know what is good and what is no good. When you want to play top football, it demands a certain way of life. Always.”
Pushed on whether he needs to reinforce that message, he interjected: “No. No, come on. We are talking about top football players.
“I don’t have to educate them anymore. When you are playing for Man United, they should know.”
Ten Hag underlined the need for accountability but says he takes potential matters going on behind the scenes into consideration when dealing with player behaviour.
“Of course, that is part of the job to support your players,” he said. “But also we have people in this club who are helping the players on that.
“But, as I said before, at the end of the day when you are a player at Man United you have to manage yourself and you have to take responsibility for your performance and your performance in a team.
“At Man United it’s winning football games. It’s all about that. It’s not so complicated.”
Rashford is not the first player to face internal disciplinary proceedings, with Jadon Sancho banished from September and Cristiano Ronaldo released by mutual agreement during Ten Hag’s first season.
Ten Hag brushed aside questions about whether the Rashford situation was a distraction or a test of his authority, but did speak about the difference to his handling of Sancho.
The 23-year-old claimed on social media in September he had been made a “scapegoat” after Ten Hag said he left him out of a matchday squad due to his training levels, leading to the exiled player leaving in the transfer window.
Asked to explain the difference in his approach with the pair, Ten Hag said: “We can sort out everything internal, but Jadon chose to go public.”
Sancho trained away from United’s first team before returning to Borussia Dortmund on loan, whereas Rashford is in contention for Thursday’s trip to Wolves.
The England international scored the winner as a substitute on the Old Trafford side’s last trip to Molineux, having been dropped to the bench for poor timekeeping.
Ten Hag disagrees that starting Rashford on Thursday may send out the wrong message and pointed to his absence at Newport, where he rejected the player’s offer to travel down on Sunday after two days off ill.
“I didn’t pick him on Sunday,” the United boss added. “We draw the line and from that point on we move on.”
Uruguay winger Facundo Pellistri has joined Granada on loan for the rest of the season after making 14 appearances this term. He has had two previous loan spells in Spain at Alaves.
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https://www.newschainonline.com/sport/mens-sport/football/erik-ten-hag-being-a-top-level-footballer-demands-a-certain-way-of-life-383088
| 2024-01-31T23:47:49Z
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KARACHI - The police on Wednesday arrested a fake woman lawyer here in the city court premises. “The lawyer’s diary and visiting cards have also been recovered from the accused, who has been 8th class passed,” police officials said. A case has been registered against accused woman at the City Court police station. “The woman had arrived in court wearing lawyers’ black coat to plead a case,” police said. “The lawyers caught the accused in court and handed her over to police,” officials said. Arrested woman has been transferred to the women police station, investigation police officials said.
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https://www.nation.com.pk/01-Feb-2024/police-arrest-fake-lawyer-in-karachi-s-city-court
| 2024-01-31T23:47:49Z
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The challenging economics of providing care in rural communities contribute to gaps in access, according to a Jan. 25 report published by the American Hospital Association. Rural communities, by nature, have fewer people and do not generate the healthcare utilization to finance the full spectrum of healthcare services.
Rural healthcare can also be more costly on a per patient basis as those in rural communities tend to have more complex health needs, are more likely to be uninsured and more likely to rely on public programs when they do have coverage, according to the AHA.
With this in mind, it's unsurprising that many hospitals have struggled to keep their doors open, particularly with the macroeconomic and financial challenges that they were forced to deal with stemming from the pandemic.
Since 2020, 37 rural hospitals across the U.S. have closed, according to data compiled by the University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Many more are at risk of closing or filing bankruptcy this year as expenses continue to outpace revenue for many hospitals.
To address concerns that rural and critical access hospital closures are reducing access to care for people in rural areas, CMS established the rural emergency hospital designation last year. Few have converted to the new Medicare provider type, but hospital leaders are taking the designation more seriously this year as financial challenges drag on and stifle recovery efforts.
"The REH program is still very new, and just as it took time for the hospital community to warm up to the critical access hospital designation, this will be no different," Brooke Kensinger, CEO of MercyOne Elkader (Iowa) Medical Center, told Becker's. "Hospital leaders and community boards are learning more about the pros and cons of this option, and whether it is truly the best path at this time for their community."
Downsizing or discontinuing any service is a difficult decision for hospitals that are committed to providing high-quality care to their communities, but the current economic and workforce climate has forced many facilities to do so. However, much like the CAH designation, hospital leaders are grateful to have a new model in the REH designation from which to work.
"We expect that as healthcare leaders and board members across the country continue to evaluate this program, there will be improvements made — similar to the CAH program — to better ensure access to care," Ms. Kensinger said.
Staffing shortages, rising labor costs and the struggle to recruit and retain talent — particularly in rural communities — have exacerbated hospitals' financial challenges, but, in a 24/7 industry, it is critical to not inadvertently create inpatient deserts when considering facility closures or conversions, according to Ms. Kensinger.
Many critical access hospital challenges relate to the workforce and ensuring they can maintain access to care for patients 24/7. MercyOne Elkader, a 25-bed critical access hospital, has a tough time recruiting nurses; paramedics; radiology, ultrasound and lab technicians; and providers such as physicians, nurse practitioners, general surgeons and anesthesia specialists.
"Finding those that will take on-call and/or work shifts on nights/weekends prove to be the most challenging for us to recruit," Ms. Kensinger. "We have come up with innovative ways to combat these shortages by trying to grow our own team or recruiting new team members through scholarships, grants and partnerships."
A few ways MercyOne Elkader is combatting staff shortages include:
- Supporting employees who want to advance their careers (including CNA to LPN to RN, phlebotomist to lab tech, EMT to paramedic, first responder to EMT, ultrasound tech to echocardiogram tech)
- Hiring nurses and supporting them financially during their last year of school.
- Becoming a National Health Service Corps-certified site, which offers loan repayment options for providers who commit to working in a health professional shortage area.
- Partnering with local colleges to be clinical sites for training nurses and radiology techs and offer classes for the hospital staff to teach first responder and EMT courses.
- Supporting Gov. Kim Reynolds' provision of grant funding for healthcare apprenticeships in Iowa.
In addition to workforce, another key challenge for rural hospital leaders is ensuring long-term financial viability for their facilities while meeting the needs of their community.
"A program that has become very important to the financial viability of critical access hospitals is the 340B program," Ms. Kensinger said. "MercyOne Elkader is newer to this program than most, joining in 2018. It helps to subsidize our 911 ambulance response that is currently carved out of the critical access hospital reimbursement model and operates at a loss. If this program were to go away, it would be financially detrimental to rural hospitals."
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospitals-will-slowly-warm-to-reh-program-mercyone-hospital-president.html
| 2024-01-31T23:47:50Z
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Taylor Swift + Super Bowl = conspiracy theories. The claims are baseless
The budding love story featuring music superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce took an unexpected turn into the world of political conspiracy theories this week after the team advanced to the Super Bowl.
Myriad baseless rumors emerged on social media — everything from claims that Swift has played a part in Pentagon psychological operations to the idea that she and her two-time Super Bowl champion boyfriend are key assets in a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024. Another variant: That the Chiefs’ success was rigged as part of the plan for the game on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.
Political and media figures on the right, including former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, political activist Laura Loomer and One America News Network host Alison Steinberg, have amplified the allegations.
The claims are ludicrous and may well reflect the fear on the right that someone as famous as Swift, whose landmark Eras Tour is the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, could indeed influence the presidential race should she urge her legion of fans in one direction.
Pop culture and politics have long been entwined. The entertainment industry has been a deep well of political contributions. And candidates often try to draft on the celebrity of stars to add to their own allure.
The potency of the impact is less clear. In Swift’s case, there is some proof that she can at minimum generate more voter registration.
In September, Swift posted a short message on her Instagram account encouraging her 272 million followers to register to vote. The post led to more than 35,000 registrations on the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org.
Swift’s massive fan base gives her a powerful voice. An SSRS poll conducted in October 2023 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults called themselves at least casual fans of the singer, with 8% saying they’re big fans. The poll also found that 8 in 10 U.S. adults said they had heard of her relationship with Kelce and the majority of those familiar with it considered it a real relationship, rather than a publicity stunt.
“Pop culture people identify with this stuff, they pay attention to it. And that’s what moves politics now. It’s attention and identity,” Joel Penney, an associate professor at Montclair State University whose research includes the intersection of politics and pop culture, said. Indeed, Donald Trump’s improbable march to the presidency in 2016 was propelled in part from the celebrity he gained as a reality television star.
But the false claims about Swift are of such an extreme nature that they will test the limits of how potent a conspiracy theory can be. Penney sees the recent deluge of posts aimed at Swift as an attempt to preemptively blunt her impact by discrediting her.
Penney said Swift’s influence could prove a difficult force to contend with, especially if she publicly supports Biden, as she did in the 2020 race.
The attacks on Swift could also galvanize young voters who want to rally around her.
“Young people are fighting their political battles through a language drawn from pop culture,” said Henry Jenkins, a professor at the University of Southern California who also studies politics and pop culture. “That’s what connects them. That’s what they’re engaged with.”
Both Swift and Kelce have made public statements about politics and other issues that put them at odds with the far-right.
Swift broke her long-standing refusal to discuss her political views in 2018 when she announced in an Instagram post that she would be voting for Tennessee’s Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen and Democratic House incumbent Rep. Jim Cooper. She also slammed then-U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate, citing Blackburn’s opposition to certain LGBTQ+ rights and her vote against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. Blackburn won election to the Senate.
In 2020, Swift endorsed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview with V Magazine, noting that “under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.”
Kelce faced criticism in September for appearing in an ad promoting the double dose of the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ad was part of a partnership with Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that developed a vaccine in response to the pandemic and has since become a common mark for anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists.
Pop culture figures and the industry that surround them have been enmeshed in political campaigns long before the duo some fans refer to as Swelce. Former President Bill Clinton first appeared on MTV during his 1992 campaign while he was still governor of Arkansas. Major stars including Johnny Cash, Mary Tyler Moore and Willie Nelson endorsed former President Jimmy Carter more than 40 years ago when he made his second run for the White House. Ronald Reagan got his start in politics after a career as an actor.
“That question of, does this stuff work in pop culture? It absolutely can,” Penney said. “And it does. And history has shown that.”
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.whec.com/national-world/taylor-swift-super-bowl-conspiracy-theories-the-claims-are-baseless/
| 2024-01-31T23:47:50Z
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Orange County United Way Celebrates 100 Years of Impact
Orange County United Way is set to embark on a second century of breaking barriers and improving lives by empowering students and families, reducing income disparity, connecting residents to health and human service resources, and ending homelessness in Orange County.
Orange County United Way is guided by the motto, “Taking Care of One Another. That’s the OC Way.” At the core of the organization are its three main initiatives, including United for Student Success, United for Financial Security and United to End Homelessness, as well as its key service, 2-1-1 Orange County, which connects residents to community-based programs and was acquired by Orange County United Way last year.
In 1924, the first Community Chest in Santa Ana was established, paving the way for the first of several United Way Funds and United Ways in Orange County. These organizations would later merge into a single Orange County United Way, dedicated solely to providing services to the Orange County community.
Over the years, the mission to improve lives and strengthen the community has remained the same. As communities evolve and models to effectively address key critical issues also evolve, Orange County United Way continues to mobilize the caring power of Orange County.
“Our unique approach comes from an understanding that our community’s most critical issues are interrelated,” said Susan B. Parks, president and CEO of Orange County United Way. “Over the last two decades, we have created and implemented programs that fill gaps in our community to ensure we are meeting the needs of all people. We also work with a robust ecosystem of community partners, including local school districts, government agencies, nonprofit service providers, corporations, foundations, faith-based organizations and volunteers to rally together to tackle our community’s needs and provide long-term solutions. As we celebrate the 100-year anniversary of this great organization, I am encouraged by the impactful work we’ve already completed and look forward to all we can accomplish in the next 100 years.”
The recent opening of the new Varanasi Equity Workspace on January 10 kicked off Orange County United Way’s meaningful and impactful efforts for the next 100 years. The Varanasi Equity Workspace, developed through a generous donation from the Varanasi family, provides a new resource where organizations can meet, work together and build the future of their organizations in service to the community.
“With dynamic plans to tackle homelessness, financial insecurity and student success, we forge forward. As we embark on this new century of understanding and addressing Orange County’s most critical issues, we invite you to join us. Be the change you want to see in our community. For you, for our community and for our future,” added Parks.
There are several ways the OC community can get involved to celebrate:
- Scorecard Event – In early Spring, hear from Orange County United Way who will provide an update on the collective impact for the year in Orange County.
- Women’s Philanthropy Fund Breakfast – On May 16, 2024, attend the top breakfast in Orange County for an opportunity to make a significant impact and support local programs and services that empower Orange County families.
- Journey to 100 Golf Tournament – Date coming soon.
- Rally for Change – On September 25, 2024, this Corporate Social Responsibility Celebration will recognize outstanding agents of change in Orange County. The event brings together top executives, corporate partners and advocates for social change who share a deep commitment to supporting Orange County United Way’s mission.
- The Corporate 100 Challenge – Orange County companies have a chance to go above and beyond for the community. Add 100 donors, commit to 100 volunteer hours, pledge an additional $100,000 or get creative and come up with a unique ‘100’ goal.
- Journey to 100 Centennial Gala – Join us on November 2, 2024, at ARTIC in Anaheim for the Journey to 100 Centennial Gala.
For more about the Journey to 100 Campaign or to donate, visit www.unitedwayoc.org/events/journey-to-100/.
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https://www.latimes.com/b2bpublishing/business-announcements/story/2024-01-31/orange-county-united-way-celebrates-100-years-of-impact
| 2024-01-31T23:47:54Z
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